Deep within the abyss of archaeological consulting reports in Western Australia numerous archaeological sites lurk. Often comprehensively described with artefacts systematically measured and occasional radiocarbon dates, these sites should contribute much to our current understanding of the archaeology of Western Australia. But these sites have been recorded as part of consulting projects. Archaeological consulting is not research and is rarely carried out with research questions in mind. Sites are recorded because of their location in relation to a proposed mineral development project, road realignment, or town expansion. The consultant's job is to get there promptly, and, working with Traditional Owners, record what is there and, more often than not, provide the 'heritage clearance' that will enable a proposed development project to proceed apace. Roads and drilling programs can after all be realigned to avoid archaeological sites. Where this is not possible, sites may be recorded in detail, their archaeological significance assessed and recommendations made for their management. Assessing archaeological significance is often problematic and often able to be achieved in only a very limited way, since the only other comparative local data that may be available will be in other consulting reports written by the same consultant. Questions that might allow significance assessments some consequence are not researched or tested in any meaningful way (cf. Brown 2008). Sometimes, albeit rarely, sites may be comprehensively recorded, salvaged or excavated. It is at this point that the opportunity for research may step in, although what exactly constitutes detailed recording or salvage is not clearly specified under current Western Australian heritage legislation and has been open to tragic interpretation. Moreover, Aboriginal communities, perhaps unaware of the stories that can be retrieved from sites where a comprehensive analysis of archaeological material has been undertaken, may prefer that collected material is not researched but simply bagged and stored for future redistribution on the land. Whatever happens, it is rare for the results of these projects to see the light of day. So what does this mean for archaeology? Consulting reports are not published or readily available. Peer review is not sought. Data collected are not easily accessible to archaeologists interested in research. And then there is the question of time. Time for research or review is a dream or perhaps a nightmare for many consultants. For at least the last decade, mining in Western Australia has been booming. Archaeologists have been in high demand, yet the interpretation of Pilbara sites and landscapes, and the archaeological context used to assign a significance to sites is based on models and a radiocarbon context largely established over 20 years ago (Brown 1987). This volume of papers has evolved from the "North West CRM Workshop" run by the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc. (WA Chapter) in April 2004. In response to a call for some publications detailing the archaeology of the Pilbara in the 21st century, consultants, mining company archaeologists and other workshop attendees made numerous and enthusiastic suggestions for papers. Everyone it seemed knew what should be included as part of an Archaeology of the Pilbara and what issues should be addressed. Getting the words down on paper has been, of course, a different matter. While the bibliographies of consulting reports are long and heavy with references to reports of archaeological surveys and site recording done by the authors, turning site recording into archaeology is challenging, time consuming and unpaid. The Pilbara is a substantial area of north Western Australia, ecologically, geographically, topographically, and hydrologically diverse. Stretching from the flatlands of the coastal Abydos Plain, the remarkable rocky promontory of the Burrup Peninsula and the mangrove flats at Port Hedland, the Pilbara extends inland through a plateau and escarpment geography of steep ironstone ranges with their extensive seasonally flooding river systems, across the broad dry dune landscape of the Great Sandy Desert to the Northern Territory border (Figure 1). …


A sourceand finished-water-quality assessment of groundwater was conducted in the Piedmont Physiographic Province of Maryland and Virginia in the Potomac River Basin during 2003–04 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. This assessment used a two-phased approach to sampling that allowed investigators to evaluate the occurrence of more than 280 anthropogenic organic compounds (volatile organic compounds, pesticides and pesticide degradates, and other anthropogenic organic compounds). Analysis of waters from 15 of the largest community water systems in the study area were included in the assessment. Source-water samples (raw-water samples collected prior to treatment) were collected at the well head. Finished-water samples (raw water that had been treated and disinfected) were collected after treatment and prior to distribution. Phase one samples, collected in August and September 2003, focused on source water. Phase two analyzed both source and finished water, and samples were collected in August and October of 2004. The results from phase one showed that samples collected from the source water for 15 community water systems contained 92 anthropogenic organic compounds (41 volatile organic compounds, 37 pesticides and pesticide degradates, and 14 other anthropogenic organic compounds). The 5 most frequently occurring anthropogenic organic compounds were detected in 11 of the 15 source-water samples. Deethylatrazine, a degradate of atrazine, was present in all 15 samples and metolachlor ethanesulfonic acid, a degradate of metolachlor, and chloroform were present in 13 samples. Atrazine and metolachlor were present in 12 and 11 samples, respectively. All samples contained a mixture of compounds with an average of about 14 compounds per sample. Phase two sampling focused on 10 of the 15 community water systems that were selected for resampling on the basis of occurrence of anthropogenic organic compounds detected most frequently during the first phase. A total of 48 different anthropogenic organic compounds were detected in samples collected from source and finished water. There were a similar number of compounds detected in finished water (41) and in source water (39). The most commonly detected group of anthropogenic organic compounds in finished water was trihalomethanes — compounds associated with the disinfection of drinking water. This group of compounds accounted for 30 percent of the detections in source water and 44 percent of the detections in finished water, and were generally found in higher concentrations in finished water. Excluding trihalomethanes, the number of total detections was about the same in source-water samples (33) as it was in finished-water samples (35). During both phases of the study, two measurements for human-health assessment were used. The first, the Maximum Contaminant Level for drinking water, is set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and represents a legally enforceable maximum concentration of a contaminant permitted in drinking water. The second, the Health-Based Screening Level, was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, is not legally enforceable, and represents a limit for more chronic exposures. Maximum concentrations for each detected compound were compared with either the Maximum Contaminant Level or the Health-Based Screening Level when available. More than half of the compounds detected had either a Maximum Contaminant Level or a Health-Based Screening Level. A benchmark quotient was set at 10 percent (greater than or equal to 0.1) of the ratio of the detected concentration of a particular compound to its Maximum Contaminant Level, or Health-Based Screening Level. This was considered a threshold for further monitoring. During phase one, when only source water was sampled, seven compounds (chloroform, benzene, acrylonitrile, methylene chloride, atrazine, alachlor, and dieldrin) met or exceeded a benchmark quotient. No detected compounds in source or finished water exceeded a benchmark quotient during phase two. 2 Anthropogenic Organic Compounds in Groundwater, Piedmont Physiographic Province, Potomac River Basin, MD and VA, 2003–04


The early flame kernel initiation and development are essential to a successful combustion process, especially under lean burn/EGR diluted conditions. Multiple ignition sites strategy has shown promise to secure the flame kernel initiation under extreme engine operating conditions. Two factors are considered to contribute to the enhanced ignition capability, i.e. the higher ignition energy and the multiple initial flame kernels. However, the mechanism why the multiple ignition sites help combustion is less understood. In this work, the impacts of the ignition energy distribution strategy on the flame inception process are investigated in a constant volume combustion chamber. A multi-coil ignition system, along with a sparkplug with three high-voltage electrodes, is used to adjust the discharge energy from 10 mJ to 240 mJ, as well as the energy deposition strategies. Experimental results have shown that the distributed energy strategy with sufficient discharge energy can establish a bigger initial flame kernel, leading to faster flame growth rates, as compared to the concentrated energy strategy.


The aim of this paper is to explore the variability between voiced and voiceless affricates and fricatives in initial and post-consonantal position in a western dialect of Catalan: Lleidata. The eastern Catalan dialects are more prestigious than the western dialects, and the former have less affricates than the latter. The data obtained can be summed up in the following way: (1) there is a loss of alveolopalatal affricates only in words containing voiceless affricates and when they are pronounced by readers (in news programs); (2) the voiceless fricatives and affricates in initial and post-consonantal position are better discriminated than the voiced ones, and the fricatives are starting to be considered the "correct" pronunciation by some speakers who have a secondary level of education.


Henodus chelyops Huene is considered to be a highly autapomorphic cyamodontoid placodont with specialized trophic adaptations relative to all the other members of Placodontia. It has been exclusively found in the Carnian (Upper Triassic) of Tübingen (Germany). Here we present a partial skull identified as a new cyamodontoid placodont from the Upper Triassic of El Atance (Guadalajara Province, Spain), Parahenodus atancensis gen. et sp. nov. It is recognized as the sister taxon of H. chelyops, both taxa composing the clade Henodontidae. An emended diagnosis for H. chelyops and Henodontidae is given here. Parahenodus atancensis shares with H. chelyops several cranial characters considered until now to be autapomorphic for the latter, but it also retains some states common in most cyamodontoids. Thus, the discovery of P. atancensis provides new information on the acquisition process of the highly specialized skull of the Henodontidae.


This study presents a large-scale investigation of sociolinguistic variation in the phonetic realisation and phonemic status of FOOT and STRUT in Manchester English. As a Northern dialect of English, Manchester speakers typically lack the distinction between the FOOT and STRUT vowels, such that 'stud' and 'stood' are homophones. The data in the present study reveal that, despite the vast majority of speakers having no difference in production and perception, there is variation both in the phonemic status and the phonetic realisation of the two vowel classes within the speech community. The study is based on the acoustic analysis of a sample of 123 speakers stratified by age, gender, socio-economic status, and ethnicity, recorded in sociolinguistic interviews, supplemented with wordlist reading and minimal-pair tests. Our approach to the analysis considers the vowel classes both as one phoneme, and as the two split lexical sets. The acoustic measurements reveal that tokens in the STRUT category show a monotonic pattern of social class stratification, with higher social classes showing higher F1 values, i.e., having a lower tongue position. The minimal-pair tests of the FOOT-STRUT distinction reveal that although for most speakers there is no phonemic distinction, for 8 speakers in the two highest socio-economic levels in the sample, the two vowels do form separate categories. This is confirmed by the acoustic measurements of their vowel tokens: there is clear phonetic separation between the two vocalic categories in phonetic space. Interestingly, even when these 8 speakers are removed from the sample, regression analysis shows that for the sample as a whole, vowel category (i.e., STRUT vs. FOOT) continues to have a significant effect, with STRUT tokens having a higher F1 mean (lower tongue position). This holds in cases where there is complete overlap between the two vowels in phonetic space. We explore the possibility that this may be due to the different phonological environment in which the two vowel classes tend to be found and that it may shed light on the underlying mechanisms of the historical split between the two vowel classes in the south of England.


Summary

1. In recent years, river restoration science has been searching for biological indicators of improvement in the physical habitats of streams. To date, research has mainly focused on the use of fish and macroinvertebrates as indicators. Despite their importance in aquatic ecosystems, the response of macrophytes to habitat restoration has been rarely studied.

2. We investigated the macrophyte communities of 40 restored river reaches in the lowland and lower mountainous areas of Germany. Each restored reach was compared to an upstream, unrestored reach using a space-for-time-substitution approach. At each reach, a 100 m stretch was surveyed for submerged and emergent macrophytes, recording the quantity, abundance and growth form of each species. Additionally, microhabitat patterns (substrate, depth, current velocity) and channel parameters (mean and bankfull width, number of channel elements) were recorded.

3. Restored reaches had a significantly higher macrophyte cover, richness, diversity and number of growth forms. Macrophyte diversity and richness were both positively correlated with depth, current and substrate.

4. The analysis of growth forms showed that Lemnids, Helodids, Parvopotamids, Elodids, Peplids and Juncids are all significant indicators of restoration. These species all responded directly to the restoration measures either by highly increasing in abundance or by being present in the restored reaches and absent in the unrestored reaches. While the restored reaches of the lowland rivers were characterized by a high abundance of Peplids and Parvopotamids, the restored reaches of the mountain rivers showed a significantly higher presence and abundance of Lemnids and Helodids.

5. Three macrophyte species (Lemna minor, Persicaria hydropiper, Potamogeton crispus) were regarded as significant indicators of restoration. No species were found to be indicators of unrestored reaches.

6.Synthesis and applications. Macrophyte communities benefit from river restoration by showing increased cover, abundance and diversity. The main drivers of this enhancement are more natural and diverse substrates and an increased floodplain area in the restored reaches, as well as a greater variability of current and depth patterns. Monitoring of macrophytes could thus be an easy and cost-effective means to gauge the success of river restoration measures.


Livestock makes an important contribution to the livelihood of Sahelian farmers and herders and is a source of self-insurance against income shocks. By allocating livestock efficiently over space, spatial market integration should foster a sustainable use of pasture resources. It is also expected to favour the sharing of risk across regions by smoothing idiosyncratic price variations. Using monthly livestock price data from Niger, we show that livestock markets are poorly integrated. Prices are seldom cointegrated, suggesting that large price differentials occasionally persist between adjacent areas for long periods of time. A parity bounds approach indicates that one has to assume high transportation costs and large quality variations to reconcile the data with efficient spatial arbitrage. These results confirm descriptive studies that have emphasised regional segmentation in West African livestock trade. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.


Our aim was to determine the direction of interhemispheric communication in a phonological task in regions involved in different levels of processing. Effective connectivity analysis was conducted on functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 39 children (ages 9–15 years) performing rhyming judgment on spoken words. The results show interaction between hemispheres at multiple levels. First, there is unidirectional transfer of information from right to left at the sensory level of primary auditory cortex. Second, bidirectional connections between superior temporal gyri (STGs) suggest a reciprocal cooperation between hemispheres at the level of phonological and prosodic processing. Third, a direct connection from right STG to left inferior frontal gyrus suggest that information processed in the right STG is integrated into the final stages of phonological segmentation required for the rhyming decision. Intrahemispheric connectivity from primary auditory cortex to STG was stronger in the left compared to the right hemisphere. These results support a model of cooperation between hemispheres, with asymmetric interhemispheric and intrahemispheric connectivity consistent with the left hemisphere specialization for phonological processing. Finally, we found greater interhemispheric connectivity in girls compared to boys, consistent with the hypothesis of a more bilateral representation of language in females than males. However, interhemispheric communication was associated with slow performance and low verbal intelligent quotient within girls. We suggest that females may have the potential for greater interhemispheric cooperation, which may be an advantage in certain tasks. However, in other tasks too much communication between hemispheres may interfere with task performance.


In cities in the emerging world, public transport networks are governed by a large number of agents, each with their own agendas, priorities, incentives and resources, interacting nonlinearly through complex feedback loops. The transport system in these cities have developed into a semi-chaotic self-organizing structure with seemingly unpredictable behaviour to an outside observer. This is due to user agent actions by passengers, independent determination of operating plans and practices by transport operators, and a managing authority exhibiting a lack of will (both political and institutional), to implement adequate control measures to provide regulation and management of these systems. Based on the problems that face transport systems in developing cities and public transport in particular, this paper reports on an attempt to understand the supply of public transport in the Kampala area in a novel manner. We describe a mapping approach using a custom-developed smartphone application which was used to quickly and accurately capture informal transport systems for analysis and study of urban mobility where no dependable data was currently available. Secondly, based on the data created by the study project, to provide insights into the routes, operations and characteristics of the minibus taxi network which convey the majority of Kampala's travelers. Our hypothesis is that by understanding the network in geospatial terms, we will be able to create benefits for all role-players and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply of public transport to more closely match the demand for public transport in an emerging world city.


Abstract Studies establishing key phenomena and developing diagnostics for energetic particle physics, which are essential for the next step burning plasma experiments such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), have been performed at the Joint European Torus (JET). Experiments have demonstrated clear self-heating of deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasma by alpha particles as a maximum in electron temperature at an optimum mixture of 60 ± 20% tritium. The change in electron temperature produced by alpha heating, ΔTe(0) = 1.3 ± 0.23 keV, was as expected from classical heating, whereas the heating of thermal ions was higher than expected from reference deuterium discharges. Alfvén eigenmodes were stable in the highest fusion performance D-T plasmas, in agreement with the modeling. Systematic studies on the existence and properties of Alfvén eigenmodes with external antenna driving and detecting Alfvén eigenmodes are presented. The formation of fuel ion tails due to alpha-particle knock-on effects is described as derived from neutral particle analyzer and neutron emission spectrometry in D-T experiments. The gamma-ray diagnostics are shown to measure profiles and energy distribution functions of high-energy ions and alpha particles. Time- and space-resolved gamma-ray images demonstrated for the first time the possibility of measuring several types of energetic ions simultaneously. The novel technique of detecting unstable Alfvén eigenmodes with interferometry is found to be superior in detecting core-localized Alfvén eigenmodes.


The use of solvent extraction to recover metals and water from industrial residues is highlighted in this work. The method was applied (1) to selectively concentrate Zn from effluents generated by the zinc industry, (2) to separate Zn and Fe from spent pickling effluents produced by the hot-dip galvanizing industry, and (3) to recover Co and Ni from spent batteries. Batch and pilot scale data was used to point out solvent extraction as a feasible method to reuse both metals and water thus resulting in energy savings with reducing environmental impacts, minimizing costs required to transport hazardous materials to waste sites, to replace the discharged wastewater and to produce the raw material that would be previously discharged as wastes.


The interest for microorganisms inhabiting the hypolimnion and for their role in biogeochemical cycles of lakes is considerable, but knowledge is far from complete. The presence of chemolithoautotrophic Bacteria and mesophilic Archaea (e.g., Thaumarchaeota) assimilating inorganic carbon in the deep hypolimnion of lakes has been ascertained. We measured, for the first time at 350 m in Lake Maggiore (Northern Italy), the prokaryotic in situ dark [14C]HCO3 incorporation with a new custom-made apparatus, which takes samples and adds tracers in situ. Thereby stress factors affecting prokaryotes during sample recovery from the depth were avoided. We tested the new instrument at different depths and conditions, performing parallel conventional on board incubations. We found that dark [14C]HCO3 incorporations had lower standard deviation in in situ incubations with respect to the on board ones, but their means were not statistically different. At 350 m we estimated an uptake of 187.7±15 μg C m–3 d–1, which is in line with the published uptake rates in aquatic systems. By inhibiting the bacterial metabolism, we found that Archaea were responsible for 28% of the total CO2 uptake. At the same depth, Thaumarchaeota, on average, constituted 11% of total DAPI counts. Dark [14C]HCO3 incorporation integrated along the aphotic water column was 65.8±5.2 mg C m–2 d–1 which corresponds to 87% of picophytoplanktonic autotrophic fixation in the euphotic layer. This study provides the first evidence of Bacteria and Archaea dark CO2 fixation in the deep hypolimnion of a subalpine lake and indicates a potentially significant prokaryotic CO2 sink.


Learning to Lead in Higher Education, by Paul Ramsden. New York: Routledge, 1998. 288 pp. $75.00 (24.99) Is academic leadership an oxymoron or a serious field of study? Until 20 years ago the major works on academic leadership focused on the roles of presidents and chief academic officers. The literature on academic department chairs was silent, with most of the information and attention coming from anecdotal speeches, professional papers, popular journal articles, a couple of text-type books, and a few data-based studies. Two decades ago the main reference for department chairs was Allen Tucker's Chairing the Academic Department (1981). Through the 1980s the academic department chair remained the least studied and most misunderstood position in the academy. Although many education scholars wrote about the organization and governance of higher education, relatively little was known about those who led and supported academic units. In addition, the management role of the department chair has no parallel in business and industry, or education for that matter. Typical faculty manuals at most colleges and universiti es provide a list of chairs' duties and responsibilities but do not provide insight into department leadership. The 1990s brought an onslaught of new publications shedding light on the overshadowed role of department chair. In 1990 John Creswell and his colleagues introduced The Academic Chairperson's Handbook, followed by Gmelch and Miskin's Leadership Skills for Department Chairs (1993), Ann Lucas's Strengthening Leadership: A Team-Building Guide for Chairs in Colleges and Universities (1994), Mary Lou Higgerson's Communication Skills for Department Chairs (1996), and Irene Hecht and her colleagues' recently released The Department Chair as Academic Leader (1999). Australian scholars extrapolated the role of the department head from English and American writings and studies until the release of Moses and Roe's (1990) ground-breaking work on Australian department heads and Sarros and Gmelch's replication of American department chair research in Australia (1996). Within this context Paul Ramsden's book Learning to Lead in Higher Education represents the second major work written for academic department leaders based on the Australian experience. Whereas Moses and Roe illuminated the world of the chair/head within the department, Ramsden looks at the role as part of a larger institutional nexus. In the introductory chapter Ramsden posits a simple three-stage systems model of presage-process-product to understand the challenges faced by academic leaders. Chapter 2 empirically addresses the presage or environmental factors of changing external forces on higher education (knowledge differentiation, mass higher education, and reduced public funding) and internal characteristics of universities (academic values and culture). Chapter 3 explores aspects of the academic outcomes or products constituting the third part of the model, underscoring the leader's job to increase productivity. He follows up in Chapters 4 and 5 with evidence suggesting that departmental leadership and intellectual climate can influence the output of research productivity and effective teaching. Chapter 6 concludes Part I with an inconclusive exploration of whether there are any useful leadership principles common to both university and other organizations. Ramsden postulates a series of principles characterizing competent academic leadership: a dynamic process, an outcomes-focused agenda, a phenomenon of both personal and organizational development, a relationship between leaders and followers, and a personal transformation process through reflection and learning. The second and third parts of the book attempt to demonstrate ways to manage in order to improve the context of academic work. Ramsden argues (unconvincingly in the opinion of this reviewer) that the framework for improving university teaching is similar to the practice of academic leadership. …


The objective of this research was to study the effect that contextual factors have on the development of students' metacognitive strategies in the open approach-based mathematics classroom: the framework for learning and teaching activities in the class, the teacher's role, and students' role. The methodology was based on ethnographic research and Begle's conceptual framework (1969), which focused on observation and study on the nature of occurrences. In the context, the researcher conducted participatory classroom observation. The target groups were a mathematics teacher, who is a student as a math teaching practitioner, and four elementary school students at Grade 1 ranging from 6 to 7 years of age from Koo Kham Pittayasan School. Data were collected from 3 learning units totaling 6 study periods. Qualitative data analysis procedures were based on analyzing videos, protocols, students' written work, and time units for dealing with activities and narrative description. The concept of 4 open approach-based teaching steps (Inprasitha, 2010) was considered for the analysis of the teacher's teaching behavior and students' problem solving behavior. The study findings suggest that contextual factors in the open approach-based mathematics classroom affect the development of students' metacognitive strategies in which the teacher has planned learning management related to learning unit structures and focused on instructional activities allowing students "to create knowledge from learning how to solve problems by themselves". In addition, the study demonstrates that the teacher and students have different roles in each teaching step.


Euryhaline fishes are capable of adapting to a wide range of salinities such as freshwater, brackish water or seawater. Through the combined effort of the gill, kidney and intestine, they are able to osmoregulate to maintain a constant internal hydromineral balance. As the gill is in direct contact with the external environment, it is continuously working to maintain ion and acid/base balance, gas exchange and eliminate nitrogenous waste. Fish in freshwater are subjected to osmotic water gain and diffusional ion loss across the gill and experience the opposite in seawater. Therefore, the gill exhibits extreme plasticity when experiencing a change in external salinity. Osmoregulation in fishes is controlled mainly by the endocrine system. Prolactin is a freshwater-adapting hormone as it decreases epithelial permeability and increases ion-retention in osmoregulatory tissues. This dissertation examines the osmoregulatory function of the gill in two euryhaline teleosts, the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) and rainbow trout (Oncorhychus mykiss). Gill of medaka exposed to seawater and freshwater were used to observe the effect of salinity on the expression of key ion transporters. Hormone in vitro studies were performed to understand the mechanism of prolactin-induced expression of the Na + , Cl cotransporter in medaka gill. Finally, rainbow trout were subjected to ion poor water to expand our understanding of ion retention and ionocyte re-uptake function in a salmonid species. Furthermore, several human diseases are related to (dys)function of osmoregulatory proteins including cancers, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic kidney disease. Because of the adaptability of the gill epithelia, euryhaline teleosts represent a unique model that may help us understand pathologies in human diseases related to epithelial dysfunction. The endocrine system of teleosts is also analogous to the human endocrine system and is therefore valuable to better understand hormone-linked diseases in human such as breast cancer, diabetes and atherosclerosis. The experiments performed in this dissertation demonstrate the ability of euryhaline teleosts to provide an alternative model to study human diseases.


Regional and global myocardial ischemia and reperfusion have been demonstrated to induce expression of the stress response protein heat shock 70 (HSP70) and of immediate early genes, c‐jun, c‐fos, and c‐myc. Because of the models that have been utilized, it has not been possible to discriminate whether this response is the consequence of ischemia, reperfusion, or abnormal hemodynamic stress superimposed on stunned myocardium. In a nonworking isolated and blood‐perfused rat heart model, we evaluated the mRNAs for c‐fos, c‐myc, and hsp70. The heart was subjected to varying periods of ischemia and reperfusion. Significant increases in hsp70 and c‐fos were observed, which increased with longer periods of ischemia. No significant increase In c‐myc was measured. In addition, mRNA encoding the Ca2+/glucose responsive stress protein GRP78 was evaluated. No increase In this early response gene was noted despite the use of a model associated with cellular calcium loading. Based on these observations, we suggest that the induction of hsp70 and c‐fos is the consequence of ischemia and reperfusion and not dependent upon an early hypertrophy response such as would be observed in afterload mismatching or on calcium loading. Further investigations are necessary to isolate the effects of ischemia from those of reperfusion.


Numerical models for the simulation of tidal waves in estuaries have "become a standard tool of coastal engineers. Before they can he applied to practical problems, they have to be calibrated against nature. The basis for calibration is normally a representative set of tidal curves (natural field data), which has to be reproduced by the numerical model. Generally, the calibration is performed by empirically tuning certain parameters, until a fairly good agreement between measured and calculated quantities is obtained. In most cases, this is a "trial-and error" process which may become very time-consuming, and which strongly depends on the intuition and experience of the user. In order to make the process of calibration more effective, and to ensure that the best possible agreement between nature and numerical model is achieved, a calibration method has been developed to determine the parameters of the numerical model automatically by means of a mathematical method of optimization. The method is applied to a one-dimensional numerical model of the Elbe River.


We report the synthesis, crystal structure, and physical properties of two new polar intermetallic compounds, EuIr2In8 and SrIr2In8. Both were synthesized in good yield using In metal as a reactive flux medium, enabling the growth of large crystals for physical property measurements. They crystallize in the orthorhombic space group Pbam with the CeFe2Al8 structure type, which is sometimes also referred to as the CaCo2Al8 structure type. The two analogues have unit cell parameters of a = 13.847(3) Å, b = 16.118(3) Å, and c = 4.3885(9) Å for M = Eu and a = 13.847(3) Å, b = 16.113(3) Å, and c = 4.3962(9) Å for M = Sr at room temperature. SrIr2In8 is a diamagnetic metal with no local magnetic moments on either the Sr or Ir sites, and the diamagnetic contribution from core electrons overwhelms the expected Pauli paramagnetism normally seen in intermetallic compounds. Magnetism in EuIr2In8 is dominated by the local Eu moments, which order antiferromagnetically at 5 K in low applied fields. Increasing the field strength depresses the magnetic ordering temperature and also induces a spin reorientation at lower temperature, indicating complex competing magnetic interactions. Low-temperature heat capacity measurements show a significant enhancement of the Sommerfeld coefficient in EuIr2In8 relative to that in SrIr2In8, with estimated values of γ = 118(3) and 18.0(2) mJ mol(-1) K(-2), respectively.


INTRODUCTION AND AIMS
Smoking cessation advice from doctors helps improve quit rates but the opportunity to provide this advice is often missed. Postgraduate education is one strategy to improve the amount and quality of cessation support provided. This paper describes a sample of postgraduate education programs for doctors in smoking cessation and suggests future directions to improve reach and quality.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Survey of key informants identified through tobacco control listserves supplemented by a review of the published literature on education programs since 2000. Programs and publications from Europe were not included as these are covered in another paper in this Special Issue.

RESULTS
Responses were received from only 21 key informants from eight countries. Two further training programs were identified from the literature review. The following components were present in the majority of programs: 5 As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange) approach (72%), stage of change (64%), motivational interviewing (72%), pharmacotherapies (84%). Reference to clinical practice guidelines was very common (84%). The most common model of delivery of training was face to face. Lack of interest from doctors and lack of funding were identified as the main barriers to uptake and sustainability of training programs.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Identifying programs proved difficult and only a limited number were identified by the methods used. There was a high level of consistency in program content and a strong link to clinical practice guidelines. Key informants identified limited reach into the medical profession as an important issue. New approaches are needed to expand the availability and uptake of postgraduate education in smoking cessation


Operating cash flow in 2000 and 2001 for the S&P 100 was adjusted to remove items that may provide misleading signals of operating performance. Nine adjustments were made, separated into three categories (1) where flexibility in GAAP for cash flow reporting was used to alter cash flow, (2) where the requirements of GAAP result in misleading operating cash flow amounts, and (3) where nonrecurring operating cash receipts and payments lead to operating cash flow that is non-sustainable. Adjustments resulted in an average reduction in operating cash flow in 2000 of 4% and an average increase in operating cash flow in 2001 of 9%. Certain individual company adjustments were quite significant, resulting in some cases in much more operating cash flow than actually reported, and in other cases, much less.


Framed by the decline of the Heian aristocracy in the late 1100s and the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 1600s, Japan's medieval era was a chaotic period of diffuse political power and frequent military strife. This instability prevented central authorities from regulating trade, issuing currency, enforcing contracts, or guaranteeing property rights. But the lack of a strong central government did not inhibit economic growth. Rather, it created opportunities for a wider spectrum of society to participate in trade, markets, and monetization. Peripheral elites--including merchants, warriors, rural estate managers, and religious leaders--devised new ways to circumvent older forms of exchange by importing Chinese currency, trading in local markets, and building an effective system of long-distance money remittance. Over time, the central government recognized the futility of trying to stifle these developments, and by the sixteenth century it asserted greater control over monetary matters throughout the realm. Drawing upon diaries, tax ledgers, temple records, and government decrees, Ethan Isaac Segal chronicles how the circulation of copper currency and the expansion of trade led to the start of a market-centered economy and laid the groundwork for Japan's transformation into an early modern society.


We designed "Shelly", a robot interacting with children while restraining children»s robot abusing behaviors. Shelly has a tortoise-like friendly appearance and touch based simple and versatile interface, which encourages children to interact with the robot spontaneously in environments such as amusement park or kindergarten. We have developed two prototypes and proved validity of Shelly»s social concepts - one-to-many interaction and restraining robot abusing - through field tests. Ultimately, Shelly»s novel interface and interaction model targeted for multiple-children interaction would effectively attribute to various social goods.


In many vertebrates, males are apparently more affected by adverse environmental conditions, particularly during early stages of development, than are females. Three explanations have been proposed for this pattern. First, sexual size dimorphism (SSD) may result in sexes having different nutritional requirements to achieve the same viability, and males are more commonly the larger sex. Second, reduced performance of males could result from possession of an unguarded sex chromosome combined with environmental dependence in expression of deleterious recessives. Third, the obsesrved difference may be a consequence of possession of a male phenotype, for example, due to higher circulating levels of androgens associated with development of male reproductive organs acting antagonistically on other systems. We used experimental manipulations of rearing conditions, coupled with a molecular genetic technique for gender identification, to test these hypotheses in a population of Collared Flycatchers, Ficedula albicollis, a migrant, hole-nesting passerine bird. Nestlings of that species exhibit sexual size monomorphism, and as with other birds, females are heterogametic. As a consequence, the three hypotheses make different predictions about the way in which gender and the environment will interact. Comparisons of brothers and sisters in a split-brood, partial cross-fostering design revealed no evidence of gender × environment interaction on body size, wing length, body mass, or recruitment to the breeding population in this size monomorphic species. Our results therefore support the first hypothesis, namely, that sex differences in performance in sexually dimorphic species are most likely to be caused by different nutritional requirements. Our experiments allow us to investigate the existence of sex-specific fitness differences across an environmental gradient; such data are important for generating and testing hypotheses relating to adaptive sex allocation. The absence of gender × environment interactions demonstrated here supports recent studies of this species indicating a lack of sex ratio adjustment in response to a related, natural, environmental gradient. The possibility of gender × environment interactions along environmental gradients other than those investigated here should be addressed experimentally.


Causal, cellular, and inflammatory links between choriodecidual infection with group B streptococcus (GBS) and preterm labor were assessed in a nonhuman primate model. Rhesus monkeys received varying doses of a clinical isolate of GBS, type III or saline, via an indwelling catheter placed between the chorion/decidua and myometrium in the lower pole of the uterus. Choriodecidual inoculation of GBS was followed by a graded response in amniotic fluid (AF) leukocytes, proinflammatory cytokines, prostaglandin E2 and F2α, and uterine activity (P < .05). The magnitude of the inflammatory response in AF was related, in part, to the initial inoculum size and whether AF cultures remained negative or became positive for GBS. Microbial invasion of AF was associated with advanced inflammation and preterm labor. We provide experimental evidence that choriodeciduitis is a transitional stage of intrauterine infection, which may be self-limited, remain dormant, or progress to intraamniotic infection. These data, coupled with clinical observations, suggest that choriodecidual inflammation is an antecedent event in the pathogenesis of premature cervical ripening (functional cervical insufficiency), premature rupture of the fetal membranes, or preterm labor.


Rapid urbanization in low-resource countries has led to a growing sanitation crisis, with widespread fecal contamination and risk of adverse health outcomes. Understanding how to change sanitation behaviors and reduce exposure to fecal contamination is central to Sustainable Development Goal 6. This study examines behavioral influences on fecal contamination in six low-resource neighborhoods of Accra, Ghana. Qualitative data comprised 12 key informant interviews with community leaders and 16 focus group discussions with residents. Results identify behaviors that increase feces presence in urban neighborhoods and risk of exposure to fecal contamination. Significant barriers to access and use of public and private latrines led to a range of defecation and excreta management practices. These methods of fecal disposal, together with poor sanitation services (i.e. refuse collection, public drainage, public latrines), environmental conditions (i.e. wind, rain), and employment activities (i.e. fishing, hawking), exacerbate the spread of feces and risk of exposure to fecal contamination. The transfer of fecal contamination between public and private domains creates repeated risk of exposure to fecal contamination for residents during daily activities. This pervasiveness of fecal contamination in the environment, suggests the need for multi-sectoral approaches to reduce fecal contamination that go beyond provision of public or private latrines.


As game designers shift focus from graphical realism to immersive stories, the number of game-object interactions grows exponentially. Games use manually written scripts to control interactions. ScriptEase provides game designers with generative patterns that generate scripting code to control common interactions. This paper describes a new kind of generative pattern, quest patterns, that generate scripting code to control story plot. We present our quest pattern architecture and study results that show quest patterns are easy-to-use and reduce plot scripting errors.


It is clear that Americans are getting fatter, both adults and children. This development has led some to call for a ban on food advertising directed at children. There are numerous practical and constitutional difficulties with such a policy. This article poses a more fundamental question - even if feasible, would restricting food advertising do anything to reduce obesity or even slow its trends? The article also considers whether the social costs of banning advertising could outweigh the social benefits of such an action. This article provides a review of the literature on the fundamental causes of the American obesity problem as well as the purported contribution of children's advertising to the problem. The final conclusion is inescapable - the available evidence does not support the theory that children's exposure to food advertising has significantly contributed to increased children's obesity. Although children's obesity rates have skyrocketed during the past two decades, the available evidence indicates that children's exposure to food advertising has remained constant or has even declined during that same period. This article first describes the existing theories and empirical evidence regarding the causal factors in the American obesity problem. Second, the article examines in detail the claim that the rise in children's obesity has been caused in whole or in part by food advertising directed at children. Available evidence and observations regarding the exposure of children to food advertising fail to support the hypothesis that increased food advertising directed at children has significantly contributed to the rise in childhood obesity. As a result, there is also little reason to believe that greater restrictions on advertising directed at children will do much at all to staunch the increase in children's obesity. Third, the article reviews the existing literature on the positive effects that advertising can have on increasing consumer knowledge and choice. Thus, even though there is little evidence that advertising is the cause of the obesity problem, it is likely that advertising can play a positive role in being part of the solution to obesity by providing more information to consumers and by providing incentives to create and market healthier food alternatives.


Introduction Presently, there is little or no work available regarding the possible relationship between higher educational leadership and what has become known as the second half of life phenomena. This is a troubling void given the fact that so many administrators and would-be administrators are in the second half portion of life, roughly forty years of age or older, and, as a result, are undergoing great physical and psychological changes appropriate to this stage which can and will affect their work. Consequently, an examination of what is known about this stage of life and a discussion of how it might impact an executive in higher education may be insightful in helping to develop more effective leadership models for the field. The Second Half of Life The initial groundwork regarding the notion of a second half of life was first laid by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Jung (1977) proposed that the first half of life, roughly until one's forties, involved the development of the personality and the adapting to life in the outer world. This stage of life typically concerns itself with education, relationships, work, family, and children. The tasks of the first half of life are external, having largely to do with establishing a family and a career. During what Jung labeled the second half of life, one turns inward to focus on the life of the spirit. Jung believed the tasks of the second half of life are essentially internal, having largely to do with finding meaning in one's life and in one's death. The Swiss thinker also lamented that society prepares its youth for the first half of life in terms of a proper education but provides little for the middle-aged to prepare them for the second half of life. It must be noted here that Jung, and often even scholars today who examine issues and ideas first raised by Jung, frequently addressed the mid life/transformation stage from a male perspective. But as Wilder (2005) observed, women too experience profound changes at mid-life and have similar needs to transform attitudes about work as men do. Wilder also called for more research in this area, since she believed, "no road map" existed "for mid-life and beyond [for] women to follow for this next exciting and vital phrase of our lives" (p. 3). Levine (2004) agreed with many aspects of Wilder's notions. Drawing on the latest research on hormonal change and based on a number of detailed interviews with women in the second half of life, Levine found mid-life women facing similar problems as men in the workplace. Both Wilder's and Levine's findings strongly suggest that what is true of one gender at mid-fife in the work place is also true for the other. Consequently, while much of the research used in this work centered on men in the second half of life, much of what is noted here will most often relate to women as well. Recent scholarship suggests the features of the second half of life are grounded in physical changes (Valiant, 2002). Powell (2003) asserted "the changes that happen to your body in midlife may have indicated that you crossed over into the second half. Anybody who says he can still do at fifty what he was doing at twenty wasn't doing much at twenty. Aging brings limitations in what you can still do" (p. 4). Diamond (1998) believed that similarly to a woman's transition, a man's transition into the mid-life drama is driven by profound physical transformation. For the male, these changes are wrought by a drop in male hormone production. With this drop comes a loss of drives and ambitions, a scary thing in our competitive/success driven work world. The passions that first half of life men and women wielded like battering rams to defeat adversaries and be successful in the work arena suddenly wane, often leaving the mid-life person in crisis mode. But just as distressing as the deep physical changes at this portion of life are the psychological changes. This aspect is one that can have profound impact on administrators in higher education. …


The challenges faced by blind people in their everyday lives are not well understood. In this paper, we report on the findings of a large-scale study of the visual questions that blind people would like to have answered. As part of this year-long study, 5,329 blind users asked 40,748 questions about photographs that they took from their iPhones using an application called VizWiz Social. We present a taxonomy of the types of questions asked, report on a number of features of the questions and accompanying photographs, and discuss how individuals changed how they used VizWiz Social over time. These results improve our understanding of the problems blind people face, and may help motivate new projects more accurately targeted to help blind people live more independently in their everyday lives.


Background The major role of an ethics committee is to protect participants from harm through participating in a health research study. This includes investigating participant complaints to ensure that their wellbeing is being upheld and queries resolved satisfactorily. In this case, one clinical trial participant passed away and a report implying that her death was caused by trial medication received during participation was published by WEMOS foundation. This necessitated the National Ethics Committee (NEC) in Zimbabwe to investigate the case to understand and come up with resolutions. Methods A case study design was used to investigate the case. Interviews with 5 conveniently selected study staff based on their involvement and roles in the study were conducted. Review of participant study records, the protocol, the WEMOS report, Serious Adverse Event reports and Data Safety and Monitoring Board reports were conducted. The investigation was used to determine which ethical principles applied and whether they were adhered to or not in the handling of the participant by the research staff. Results Results indicated that the research team adhered to the necessary ethical principles enshrined in the major ethical codes and local Zimbabwean research ethics regulations for the conduct of clinical trials. Investigation showed that the report was mainly based on incomplete information and contradicted the actual events at the study site. There was also no record of the participant's complaint with NEC in the complaint register. Appropriate standard of care was given to the participant. Conclusions The NEC continues to protect the rights of clinical trial participants by investigating complaints against study teams as their wellbeing is of primary importance. Researchers are being encouraged to adhere to best practises in conducting human participant researches. The media should also be engaged actively so that reporting is accurate to prevent incorrect information being relayed to the public.


In most professional cinema productions, the color palette of the movie is painstakingly adjusted by a team of skilled colorists -- through a process referred to as color grading -- to achieve a certain visual look. The time and expertise required to grade a video makes it difficult for amateurs to manipulate the colors of their own video clips. In this work, we present a method that allows a user to transfer the color palette of a model video clip to their own video sequence. We estimate a per-frame color transform that maps the color distributions in the input video sequence to that of the model video clip. Applying this transformation naively leads to artifacts such as bleeding and flickering. Instead, we propose a novel differential-geometry-based scheme that interpolates these transformations in a manner that minimizes their curvature, similarly to curvature flows. In addition, we automatically determine a set of keyframes that best represent this interpolated transformation curve, and can be used subsequently, to manually refine the color grade. We show how our method can successfully transfer color palettes between videos for a range of visual styles and a number of input video clips.


During the last decade one of the authors has worked on numerous industrial design projects. During this time eco-design strategies were not implemented or were only used if they complimented what were perceived as traditional design activities. Recently, due to a number of internal and external stimuli, eco-design strategies are becoming core drivers in industrial design activities. This paper examines some of the drivers and barriers behind a number of British companies and why they are changing to encompass good eco-design strategies. To aid this change, companies and design consultancies are looking for industrial design graduates who have a sound knowledge of sustainable design strategies. Recently, an eco-design education initiative for industrial design and technology undergraduates at Loughborough University was undertaken to try to address this issue. This paper includes extracts from an undergraduate dissertation that reviewed this initiative. Some conclusions of the initiative from both a student's and from a professional designer's point of view are suggested and the current and future developments of the module are outlined.


Although the McGurk Effect is a well researched illusory phenomenon arising from discrepant auditory and visual speech information little is known about the influence of lexical processes on this phenomenon. Thus, we investigated the McGurk Effect using three letter consonant-vowel-consonant real word and pseudoword pairs with an audiovisual discrepancy positioned at either stimulus onset or offset. The results demonstrated that the frequency of illusions was similar for real words and pseudowords when the discrepancy was at stimulus onset but was significantly lower for real words when the audiovisual discrepancy was positioned at stimulus offset. Positioning of audiovisual discrepancy was not important for accurate auditory perception of pseudowords. These results suggest that the McGurk illusion is the result of audiovisual integration that occurs early in perception prior to word identification and that these early audiovisual integrative processes are modulated by lexical knowledge.


For this Bank study (RE-261) a set of projects in five countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru were chosen. This document presents a summary of the 10 evaluation findings of these projects and is organized around a number of issues that should be resolved if Bank projects are to improve. Chapter 2 includes discussions of targeting, budgeting, and decentralization issues in projects. Chapter 3 discusses the issues of service inequality, priorities, community participation, and gender. Finally, Chapter 4 contains conclusions and recommendations.


Objective: Patients with bipolar mood disorder constitute a relatively large number of individuals hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals. This disorder is highly co-morbid with other psychiatric disorders and may effect their clinical course. The goal of this study was to determine the co-occurrence rate of anxiety disorders and substance abuse with bipolar mood disorders and their impact on clinical course. Methods: 153 bipolar patients (type I) were selected among the hospitalized patients at Razi Psychiatric Hospital in Tabriz, Iran, from September 2007 to October 2008 through convenience sampling method. The participants were evaluated by a structured clinical interview based on DSM-IV criteria (SCID), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). Results: Co-morbidity of anxiety disorders was 43%. Occurrence of anxiety disorders was 26% for obsessive-compulsive disorder, 24.8% for generalized anxiety disorder, 3.9% for phobia and 2% for panic disorder. Co-morbidity of substance abuse was 7.2% and the highest occurrence of substance abuse was 5.2% for alcoholism and 3.9% for opium. No significant difference was observed between the severity of disease and duration of hospitalization in bipolar patients with or without anxiety disorder. The severity of disease and duration of hospitalization in bipolar patients with substance abuse was higher compared to bipolar patients without substance abuse (P Conclusions: This study suggests that there is a high co-morbidity between anxiety disorders and substance abuse with bipolar disorder. Further, this study suggests that co-occurrence of substance abuse disorder with bipolar disorder increases the severity of the disease and duration of hospitalization. Key Words: Anxiety Disorders, Substance Abuse, Bipolar Disorder, Co-morbidity, Severity of Disease Iran J Psychiatry 2009; 4:120-125 Bipolar disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders which usually become recrudescent and chronic (1). As bipolar disorders may lead to major consequences, psychiatrists attempt to use effective therapies while facing different therapeutic problems. Bipolar mood disorder is influenced by different problems such as psychological stresses (2), co-occurrent diseases (3, 4) and substance abuse (5). Co-occurrence of anxiety disorders and substance abuse are of diagnostic and therapeutic importance because they may complicate the clinical symptoms, decrease treatment response (6, 7),and provide for the establishment of another psychological disorder (8). According to several studies, co- existence of an anxiety disorder with bipolar disorder intensifies the severity of the diseases (9- 11). It is also determined that co-occurrence of substance abuse with bipolar disorder increases the duration of hospitalization (12). However, Henri C et al (13) obtained converse results which indicate that cooccurrence of anxiety disorders are not related to the severity of bipolar disease and duration of hospitalization. Overall, concurrent substance abuse disorder and anxiety disorders increase the chronicity, disability, and mortality of bipolar disorders. Co-morbidity of anxiety and substance abuse disorders has many adverse effects on patients with bipolar disorders. The co-occurrence of anxiety disorders with bipolar disorder was 10.6-62.5% for panic disorder, 7.8-42.5% for social phobia, 3.2-35% for obsessivecompulsive disorder, 7-37.8% for post-traumatic stress disorder and 32.7% for generalized anxiety disorder (14). In addition, co-occurrence of anxiety disorders with bipolar disorder was reported 55.8% , and generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder had the highest rate of co-occurrence with bipolar disorder. Another study also reported higher rate of this occurrence (15, 10). Life-looking study about co-occurrence of substance abuse with bipolar disorder also shows that 57% of patients with type I bipolar disorder were abusing or dependent to one substance, 28. …


I focus on the role of learners in the governance of secondary schools. I seek to promote a voice for learner expression as guaranteed in the national Department of Education's guidelines for Representative Council of Learners as part of promoting democratic governance. The potential, limitations, constraints, consequences, and challenges facing learners in the school governance structure need to be revealed and debated. The views of school principals were solicited by means of unstructured open-ended questionnaires. Six problem areas emerged from the data. The irony is that although the democratisation of school governance has given all stakeholders a powerful voice in school affairs, learners' voices are, seemingly, being silenced. In attempting to resolve the problem, a new model of democratic school governance to be known as 'deliberative democratic school governance ' (DDSG) is suggested. There are several DDSG approaches that can be employed in creating elements for stakeholder empowerment and in driving deliberative democratic school governance forward. These include inclusion, motivational communication, consensus, deliberation/ dialogue, collaboration, and conflict resolution. Some school governance stakeholders and schools may use only one or a few of these strategies to create spaces for learner voices in their respective schools.


The incidence of cyberattacks on healthcare institutions has seen a steady increase over the years, with a massive increase of 42% in 2020. More specifically, INTERPOL reported a substantial increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare institutions at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. This increase can be attributed to the rise in the adoption of digital technologies, such as the Medical Internet of Things (MIoT), to support healthcare services. The sensitive nature of healthcare data and the volume of data handled by healthcare institutions make them attractive to cybercriminals. When compared to financial data, healthcare data has more value on the dark web. Because a cyberattack on healthcare data could have far-reaching consequences, healthcare institutions should have effective strategies to safeguard unauthorized access. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) that investigated the strategies that can be used to mitigate cybersecurity threats to healthcare data. Forty-one research papers retrieved from three databases were analyzed based on specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. Synthesis of the sources yielded three main themes, namely, (i) emerging technology trends that contribute to cybersecurity vulnerability in the healthcare sector, (ii) current cybersecurity challenges in the healthcare sector, and (iii) cybersecurity countermeasures and mitigation strategies. The research results showed that a holistic approach that incorporates people, technology and adherence to regulations is required to mitigate cybersecurity threats in the healthcare sector. The study has implications for policymakers, vendors/designers of healthcare technologies, and healthcare institution managers.


Social robots need non-verbal behavior to make an interaction pleasant and efficient. Most of the models for generating non-verbal behavior are rule-based and hence can produce a limited set of motions and are tuned to a particular scenario. In contrast, data-driven systems are flexible and easily adjustable. Hence we aim to learn a data-driven model for generating non-verbal behavior (in a form of a 3D motion sequence) for humanoid robots. Our approach is based on a popular and powerful deep generative model: Variation Autoencoder (VAE). Input for our model will be multi-modal and we will iteratively increase its complexity: first, it will only use the speech signal, then also the text transcription and finally - the non-verbal behavior of the conversation partner. We will evaluate our system on the virtual avatars as well as on two humanoid robots with different embodiments: NAO and Furhat. Our model will be easily adapted to a novel domain: this can be done by providing application specific training data.


Public funding of higher education is an important topic within European governmental agenda, especially in times of budgetary austerity. Thus, given the challenges higher education industry faced in the last decades, the present paper aims at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a few national funding patterns of higher education institutions (HEIs) within the European Union. Using the method of content analysis, the study conducted in Finland, Greece and Romania also reveals the effects the national funding patterns might have on the competition and competitiveness of national HEIs in the European higher education market. The issue of performance funding of HEIs is also addressed. Moreover, the authors argue for the necessity of integrating institutional performance indicators as an important criterion for allocating public resource to HEIs, in order to raise quality, competition and competitiveness of national HEIs on the European market of higher education.


Abstract Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants' reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.


Super-resolution imaging techniques reconstruct a high resolution image from a set of low resolution images that are taken from almost the same point of view. The problem can be subdivided into two main parts: an image registration part where the different input images are aligned with each other, and a reconstruction part, where the high resolution image is reconstructed from the aligned images. In this paper, we mainly consider the first step: image registration. We present three frequency domain methods to accurately align a set of undersampled images. First, we describe a registration method for images that have an aliasing-free part in their spectrum. The images are then registered using that aliasing-free part. Next, we present two subspace methods to register completely aliased images. Arbitrary undersampling factors are possible with these methods, but they have an increased computational complexity. In all three methods, we only consider planar shifts. We also show the results of these three algorithms in simulations and practical experiments.


Gyrovirus 3 (GyV3) has been identified in faeces from children with acute gastroenteritis. However, whether GyV3 is prevalent in poultry has not been determined to date. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to isolate GyV3 from commercial broiler chickens with transmissible viral proventriculitis (TVP) in China. The complete genome of the virus shares 98.4% sequence identity with the FecGy strain that causes acute gastroenteritis in children. Epidemiological investigation from 2013 to 2017 revealed that the infection rate of GyV3 reached 12.5% (42/336) in commercial broiler chickens with TVP, indicating that the infection of GyV3 was ubiquitous in chickens. The emergence of GyV3 in commercial broiler chickens should be highly concerning for public health.


Previous measurements of the rotation rate of the supergranule Doppler pattern have revealed three interesting characteristics. 1) The supergranule pattern rotates faster than the plasma at the surface and, at each latitude, it rotates faster than the plasma at any level below the surface. 2) Larger cells rotate more rapidly than smaller cells. 3) Faster rotation rates are found when using larger time lags between Doppler images. These last two characteristics are consistent with the idea that large cells live longer and extend deeper into the Sun where the rotation rate is faster. A re-examination of the rotation rates and lifetimes of the Doppler patterns seen with the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) confirms these characteristics. However, a simulation of the data using a spectrum for the cellular flows that matches the observed spectrum shows that these characteristics can be largely reproduced by cellular patterns that rotate at the same rate without any dependence upon cell size, The rotation rate , and its dependence on latitude, is nonetheless still faster than the surface or internal rotation rate. The difference in rotation rates as functions of cell size and time lag between observations is attributed to projection effects on the line-of-sight Doppler signal. This data simulation is also used to determine characteristic lifetimes for the cellular patterns as a function of cell size. These lifetime determinations are also affected by projection effects on the line-of-sight Doppler signal.


Prostate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in western countries. Due to the difficulty for early detection, there are an estimated 10000 deaths a year in the UK from prostate cancer alone; whereby the only curative option is interventional treatment that aims to excise all diseased cells while preserving the neurovascular bundle. To date, several studies have shown that the mechanical properties of cancer cells and tissues i.e. adhesion, stiffness, roughness and viscoelasticity are significantly different from benign cells and regions of tissue that are healthy. Building upon these results, we believe novel methods of imaging the mechanical properties of prostate cancer samples can provide new surgical intervention opportunities beyond what is possible through vision alone. In this paper, we used an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to measure the stiffness and topography variations correlating to regions of prostate cancer at the surface of an excised sample at a cellular level. Preliminary results show that by using an AFM we can detect structural differences in non-homogeneous tissue samples, confirming previous results that cancerous tissues appear stiffer than benign areas. Through these results, we aim to develop a stiffness imaging protocol to aid the early detection of prostate cancer, in addition to force sensing surgical tools.


This doctoral dissertation centers on robust adaptive networks. Robust adaptation strategies are devised to solve typical network inference tasks such as estimation and detection in a decentralized manner in the presence of impulsive contamination. Typical in wireless communication environments, an impulsive noise process can be described as one whose realizations contain sparse, random samples of amplitude much higher than nominally accounted for. An attractive feature that these robust adaptive strategies enjoy is that neither their development nor operation hinges on the availability of exact knowledge of the noise distribution: The robust adaptive strategies are capable of learning it on-the-fly and adapting their parameters accordingly. Forgoing data fusion centers, the network agents employing these strategies rely solely on local interactions and in-network processing to perform inference tasks, which renders networks more reliable, resilient to node and link failure, scalable, and resource efficient. Distributed cooperative processing finds applications in many areas including wireless sensor networks in smart-home, environmental, and industrial monitoring; healthcare; and military surveillance.

Since adaptive systems based on the mean-square-error criterion see their performance degrade in the presence of non-Gaussian noise, the robust adaptive strategies developed in this dissertation harness nonlinear data processing and robust statistics instead to mitigate the detrimental effects of impulsive noise. To this end, a robust adaptive filtering algorithm is developed that employs an adaptive error nonlinearity. The error nonlinearity is chosen to be a convex combination of preselected basis functions where the combination coefficients are adapted jointly with the estimate of the parameter of interest such that the mean-square-error relative to the optimal error nonlinearity is minimized in each iteration.

Then, a robust diffusion adaptation algorithm of the adapt-then-combine variety is developed as an extension of its stand-alone counterpart for distributed estimation over networks where the measurements may be corrupted by impulsive noise. Each node in the network runs a combination of its neighbors' estimates through one iteration of a local robust adaptive filter update to ameliorate the effects of contamination, leading to better overall network performance matching that of a centralized strategy at steady-state.

Finally, the robust diffusion adaptation algorithm is extended further to solve the problem of distributed detection over adaptive networks where the measurements may be corrupted by impulsive noise. The estimates generated by the robust algorithm are used as basis for the design of robust local detectors, where the form of the test- statistics and the rule for the computation of the detection thresholds are motivated by the analysis of the algorithm dynamics. Each node in the network cooperates with its neighbors, utilizing their estimates, to update its local detector. Effectively, information pertaining to the event of interest percolates across the network, leading to enhanced detection performance.

The transient and steady-state behavior of the developed algorithms are analyzed in the mean and mean-square sense using the energy conservation framework. The performance of the algorithm is also examined in the context of distributed detection. Performance is validated extensively through numerical simulations in an impulsive noise scenario, revealing the robustness of the proposed strategies in comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms as well as good agreement between theory and practice.


Thymus cells of murine fetuses at day 12 of gestation are exclusively of the CD3-CD4-CD8-CD44+CD25- phenotype, which is known as a hallmark of the most immature subset of thymus cells. In the present study, we show that day 12 fetal thymus (FT) cells express Fc gamma RII/ III (FcR) at a broad range of levels on their surface. The FcR+ FT cells seem to represent T lineage cells, because a large majority of them express the T lineage specific transcription factors TCF-1 and GATA-3 as well as CD3 epsilon in the cytoplasm. Also shown is that the FcR- population contains progenitors capable of developing into not only T cells but also B and myeloid cells, whereas FcR+ progenitors are mostly committed to the T lineage. These findings indicate that thymic T lineage cells express FcR on their surface at the earliest stage of differentiation, and thus FcR is a useful marker in isolating the most immature population of murine FT cells.


Unlike face-to-face classes where physical presence is a given, the lack of "real" interpersonal connections to establish a strong social presence in online teaching and learning experience affects student learning. Students tend to feel isolated and disengaged. This paper explores how I sought to create a supportive environment for my students reading a critical thinking and communication module for community leadership during an Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) experience amid the pandemic last year in 2020. Using the Community of Inquiry framework as a lens to reflect on how well I established social presence in the online environment, I thematically analysed student qualitative feedback on their learning experiences. This investigation also serves as an inquiry into the effectiveness of the dialogic scaffolding pedagogical framework I adopted for the module. Moreover, this study compliments a reflection on the impact of my teaching philosophy that students are social learners before they become independent learners. I believe that students learn not as isolated beings, but as active members of a community; what they learn and how they make sense of knowledge depends on the social context in which they learn. The findings revealed the effectiveness of the application of dialogic scaffolding principles, which focuses on the orchestration of talk to scaffold student learning and co-construct understanding. With a socio-constructivist view of teaching, many tutors could consider their classes of students as communities of participants in learning. The paper concludes with recommendations for strategies that tutors can adopt to establish a supportive environment for physically separated communities of learners.


More than 40 years after the Vienna conference on the law of treaties codified principles of interpretation in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, their practical operation remains contested and in flux. Neither the ratification of the VCLT by many (though not all) states, nor the general recognition that Articles 31-33 represent customary international law, has resolved the debate over the 'correct' approach to interpreting treaties, and international law in general. Debates in international law over the 'correct' interpretative approach mirror similar debates in domestic legal systems.Even though the VCLT's role in treaty interpretation has been studied extensively, its use in how national courts interpret international law has received far less attention. This chapter examines whether the drafters of the VCLT drafted Articles 31-33 partly with national courts in mind, and how national courts in fact interpret treaties. In considering the practical application of the VCLT's interpretive principles, the chapter largely leaves aside the normative question whether it is desirable for national courts to interpret treaties based on the VCLT, to the exclusion of domestic canons of interpretation.Section II sets the scene for treaty interpretation by national courts. It looks at the development of interpretive principles, and asks whether national courts are among their intended users. Section III considers national judges as members of diverse epistemic communities that influence treaty interpretation and explores the value of the VCLT's minimum harmonisation of interpretive methods, particularly for uniform, private law-making treaties. Section IV considers the doctrinal question of whether national courts are formally bound by the VCLT's interpretive principles and the empirical question of whether they routinely apply the VCLT even in the absence of a formal legal obligation to interpret treaties in accordance with the VCLT. Section V examines the persistent tendency for national courts to deploy non-VCLT methodologies such as contract and statutory imagery in interpreting treaties.


To establish empirical verification of a stabilizing controller for nonholonomic systems, the authors implement a hybrid control concept on a 2-DOF mobile robot. Practical issues of velocity control are also addressed through a velocity controller which transforms the mobile robot to a new system with linear and angular velocity inputs. Experiments in the physical meaning of different controller components provide insights which result in significant improvements in controller performance. >


Researchers often lack the necessary data to credibly estimate racial discrimination in policing. In particular, police administrative records lack information on civilians police observe but do not investigate. In this article, we show that if police racially discriminate when choosing whom to investigate, analyses using administrative records to estimate racial discrimination in police behavior are statistically biased, and many quantities of interest are unidentified—even among investigated individuals—absent strong and untestable assumptions. Using principal stratification in a causal mediation framework, we derive the exact form of the statistical bias that results from traditional estimation. We develop a bias-correction procedure and nonparametric sharp bounds for race effects, replicate published findings, and show the traditional estimator can severely underestimate levels of racially biased policing or mask discrimination entirely. We conclude by outlining a general and feasible design for future studies that is robust to this inferential snare.


Among the many musical influences that inform my compositional style, the most significant is contemporary jazz, alongside a generous serving of harmonic and textural classical music influences. The resulting music aims to fuse together the sophisticated rhythmic elements of jazz, with its emphasis on syncopation and groove, with tonal harmonies that avoid the traditional circle of fifths in favour of a more linear approach. This approach to harmony aims to balance Western classical harmony with extended seventh chords, derived from jazz and blues. The composition has been conceived and scored as piano pieces, which are then expanded in rehearsal for performance by my jazz trio.
The starting point for this funky piece was the aim to make more use of the electric bass as a melodic instrument, doubled by the left hand of the piano. The active opening bass 'melody' is then accompanied in its second statement by a simpler melody in the piano's right hand. The funk groove is articulated in the highly syncopated character of these two blues-influenced lines, whose rhythmic character is expanded and supported by the drums. The juxtaposition of complexity and simplicity, so often part of the essence of jazz, is also reflected in the changes of metre in the main theme: a bar each of 3/8, 4/4 and 5/4. A feature of the first announcement of the theme is the development of the opening 3/8 bar in each subsequent phrase, to 6/8 and then 9/8. One of the challenges of the composition process was consideration of how far to develop this extension, as well as whether or not to further develop the idea in the final rendition of the head. After the initial presentation of the main thematic material, a more harmonically static section appears, and this is later opened up for the drum solo. Piano and bass solos, which precede the drum solo, are in 4/4 and make use of all of the harmonic material of the head. The piece favours rhythm and groove over melody, rather like Crocodile Perambulator Disco, composed eighteen months earlier. As with many recent compositions, the metric structure came first, followed by rhythmic material, with melodic detail fleshed out as the performance deadline approached. The title nods in the direction of Herbie Hancock's 1974 funk classic, Actual Proof .


The Family Practice Nurse Education Program of Memorial University of Newfoundland was established to prepare experienced, diploma- and degree-holding nurses to assume an expanded nursing role in primary health care settings. The topic of this thesis is the evaluation of the impact of six graduates of this program on private medical practices in St, John's and Corner Brook, Newfoundland. The evaluation component of the family practice nurse project began in 1973 with the development of instruments to measure the family practice nurse's impact on the effectiveness of patient care, patient and health professional satisfaction, quality of care, practice service output and organization, and financial aspects of the practices. -- Effectiveness of Patient Care: In order to assess the effectiveness and safety of the primary care provided by a family practice nurse, a randomized clinical trial was conducted in one of the St. John's practices between June 1975 and May 1976. Before and after the trial, standardized measurements of physical, social, and emotional function were administered by lay interviewers to 572 patients who received conventional care by the family physician and to 296 patients who received care mainly from the family practice nurse. At the start of the study, statistical analyses revealed the comparability of the two groups of patients with respect to all three health outcome measurements. At the end of the study, the health outcomes of the two groups of patients were found comparable. These results corroborate the evidence derived from other controlled trials that family practice nurses/nurse practitioners provide effective care. -- Satisfaction: Satisfaction and acceptance of family practice nurses was found high for patients, physicians and allied health professionals. -- Quality of Patient Care: Quality of patient care standards were maintained after the introduction of family practice nurses. Before and after evaluations were achieved by using the indicator condition method. Minimal explicit process criteria for the management of patients with 12 indicator conditions and the use of 14 drugs were approved by an ad hoc peer group of community physicians. These criteria were applied to the practices using a single blind design and abstracting unaltered medical records. A standardized score for each practice was used to compare management of indicator condition scores and clinical use of drug scores before and after attachment of the family practice nurses. For each of the indicator conditions and the drugs assessed similar levels of adequacy were observed between study periods. These explicit (objective) audit results agreed with the implicit (subjective) assessments of the family practice nurses by their physician colleagues. -- Practice Service Output and Organization: The addition of a family practice nurse to an urban medical practice increased service output in four out of six cases. Physician/family practice nurse teams were studied using daily logs of family practice nurse activity, physician claims to the provincial Medical Care Plan, time study sheets, and function delegation questionnaires. Practices using family practice nurses had a mean increase of 14% in the number of patient services during the first year of family practice nurse attachment; the mean increase for all physicians in the province was 9%. The number of patients in the six study practices changed only slightly while services per patient increased by 15%. Family practice nurses provided total care in 4% of office services, and participated with physicians in a further 26%. -- No consistent changes were noted in the age and sex of patients seen or in the amount of time the physician spent in the office. -- Financial Aspects: Estimated losses were experienced by four of six fee-for-service family physicians in a study of revenues generated and expenses incurred by the six family practice nurses who had held salaried positions for one year in private medical practices. Daily service diaries were used to make annual estimates of family practice nurse generated revenues. Data from these diaries were linked by computer to yearly physician service data maintained by the provincial Medical Care Plan. -- During the year of family practice nurse attachment, the six physicians experienced a mean increase in gross Medical Care Plan revenue of $11,350 with an additional extimated mean increase of $2,690 when solo family practice nurse services were included. Physicians' subjective appraisals and actual financial statements from the practices were used to estimate annual expenses related to the employment of the family practice nurses. The first procedure indicated average costs of employment were $14,700 and the other $19,770. -- The estimated physician losses in net income, though real, were not substantial given (1) this was the first year of the family practice nurse attachment, (2) the purposes of the family practice nurse attachment were exploratory to determine the family practice nurse's role in the practice and not primarily to demonstrate the profitability of employing family practice nurses, (3) the fee-for- service method of payment on the whole discourages delegation of tasks and allocation of time for teaching, factors not present with physicians on salary.


An iterative finite difference beam propagation method based on the Crank-Nicholson scheme is presented to simulate continuous wave (CW) second-order nonlinear effects in optical waveguides with the depletion of the pump wave taken into account. This method is an extension of the linear finite difference beam propagation method and preserves the same order of accuracy. Comparisons with the previously published explicit finite difference beam propagation method and the rectangular approximation method are presented. Quasi-phase matched difference frequency generation in AlGaAs and quasi-phase-matched second harmonic generation in LiNbO/sub 3/ are considered in the evaluation, showing that one iteration for the IFD-BPM is sufficient for the simulation with good accuracy and without increasing much computation time.


Food and beverage production plants are major wastewater contributors and often have food waste. Particularly plants with wastewaters with a significant total suspended solids and/or fats, oils and greases like in the dairy, redmeat and chicken industry needs to pre-treat their wastewater before high rate anaerobic reactors can be applied. This pre-treatment generally includes undesirable chemical treatment and generates a concentrated side stream which needs to be dealt with. The Aecomix reactor is an anaerobic reactor with solids retention, particularly suited to treat such effluents, together with available organic wastes. In this manner two waste streams are dealt with in one system and a high level of conversion to biogas is achieved. The solids retention is achieved by Dissolved Biogas Flotation. A full scale Aecomix reactor treated the effluent of a chocolate/candy factory with a COD concentration varying between 10,000 – 60,000 mg/l at an average of 37,000 mg/l. The removal for COD and TSS was more than 95% on average. To meet with local discharge regulations a post aerobic biological treatment may be required. The excess sludge from this aerobic system can be returned to the Aecomix reactor, which is another advantage over high rate (UASB or EGSB type) reactors. The Aecomix is approximately 50% lower in yearly costs compared to a chemical treatment plant based on flocculation flotation followed by an EGSB reactor.


As globalisation of investments increases, global real estate investors might have to consider other emerging markets apart from those of East Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. There is, therefore, the need to start developing a better understanding of other markets like those of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Middle Eastern region. The aim of this paper is two-fold: (a) to provide an overview of the GCC economies; and (b) to explore the key cross-border barriers and the attractiveness of such real estate markets to global real estate investors. The paper is part of an ongoing research project investigating investment decision-making and strategies adopted by global real estate investors when venturing into emerging markets, particularly, the GCC region. Primary data collected through interviews with practitioners in the real estate industry in Europe, specifically the UK and Luxemburg, as part of a pilot study and secondary data are presented and discussed. The analysis shows that global real estate investors are determined to invest in different attractive parts of the region particularly, Saudi Arabia. However, the decision to invest in the region is affected by various factors like lack of transparency, difficulties associated with finding appropriate local partners and lack of knowledge about the potential of GCC markets.


Purpose and design – This research explores the interconnectedness between tourism infrastructure, recreational facilities and tourism development. It analyses their importance in, and compliance with the current phase of tourism development in the destination (TALC). Attention has been given to the tourist board managers' perception of infrastructural management and key limitation for their involvement in the management process. Finally, the role of the private sector in the development of infrastructure and facilities in destination has been explored. Methodology and approach – The semi-structured questioner has been repeatedly sent to 312 tourist board managers in Croatia, leading Southern Mediterranean destination. The research applies qualitative and quantitative analysis. Findings – There is a significant correlation between TALC and number of arrivals, overnights, the current state of the infrastructure and facilities. Findings suggest growing demand and expectations regarding infrastructure and facilities in the examined destination can be related to a destination position in TALC. The compliance level between the stage of the tourism development and state of the infrastructure and facilities varies especially between destinations in initial and maturing phases of tourism development. The destinations position in TALC is correlated with the importance of specific types of infrastructure and facilities for a specific destination. Due to mostly financial limitations, managers are not willing to take responsibility for the development of tourism infrastructure. Their expectations regarding private sector involvement vary, considering the type of infrastructure, facilities and destinations position in TALC. The originality of the research – Research provides supply-side perspective and new insights into the infrastructural development – TALC relation, and delivers tourist board managers attitudes toward the private sector involvement.


Calcium (Ca(2+)) is used as a signaling molecule to regulate many cellular processes. Calcium signaling generally involves transient elevations of the concentration of free Ca(2+) in the cytosol. More pronounced and sustained elevations of intracellular Ca(2+) concentrations are observed during apoptosis (programmed cell death). These Ca(2+) elevations have been shown to lead to the activation of proteases (calpains) and to changes in protein phosphorylation. Recent evidence, using chemical biology, has raised the possibility that calcium signaling is involved in sustained JNK activation during late phases of apoptosis. For at least some stimuli, calcium release leads to activation of calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII), apoptosis signaling kinase 1 (ASK1) and JNK. Calcium signaling may help to orchestrate the apoptotic response during the execution phase.