EN-42 offers a variety of advantages over its counterparts such as better stability after hardening, compressive strength, non-deforming properties, and good wear resistance. Due to these properties it is gaining application in manufacturing of laminated spring for railway vehicle, spring washer for used in auto industries, leaf and coil springs. In this study, an attempt has been made to machine EN-42 using wire electric discharge machining. The objective is to investigate the influence of process parameters namely pulse on time; pulse off time, peak current and wire feed on cutting rate and surface roughness. Wire breakage is a problem that constraint the productivity achieved during WEDM process. Wire breakage is directly governed by the discharge energy subjected on the work piece. Discharge energy is influenced by levels of process parameters. Moreover, the influence of process parameters on productivity and accuracy aspects is material dependent. Therefore, preliminary study is carried out to sort out the significant process parameters affecting the cutting rate as well as to identify the operating levels of process parameters. The operating range identified through preliminary study for pulse on time is from 105 μs to 120 μs, pulse off time from 30 μs to 45 μs, peak current from 70A to 130A and wire feed from 6 m/min to 9 m/min respectively. To investigate parametric influence on response parameters, a Taguchi methodology is used to plan and analyze the experiments. The mathematical relationships between WEDM input process parameters and response parameters are established to determine optimal values of cutting rate and surface roughness mathematically


In this study we have applied spectral techniques to analyze geomagnetic field time-series provided by observatories, and compared the results with those obtained from analogous analyses of synthetic data estimated from models. Then, an algorithm is here proposed to detect the geomagnetic jerks in time-series, mainly occurring in the eastern component of the geomagnetic field. Applying such analysis to time-series generated from global models has allowed us to depict the most important space-time features of the geomagnetic jerks all over the globe, since the beginning of XXth century. Finally, the spherical harmonic power spectrum of the third derivative of the main geomagnetic field has been computed from 1960 to 2002.5, bringing new insights to understand the spatial evolution of these rapid changes of the geomagnetic field.


An anticorrelated interaction between the dorsal attention and the default-mode networks has been observed, although how these 2 networks establish such relationship remains elusive. Behavioral studies have reported the emergence of attention and default network--related functions and a preliminary competing relationship between them at early infancy. This study attempted to test the hypothesis—resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging will demonstrate not only improved network synchronization of the dorsal attention and the default networks, respectively, during the first 2 years of life but also an anticorrelated network interaction pattern between the 2 networks at 1 year which will be further enhanced at 2 years old. Our results demonstrate that both networks start from an isolated region in neonates but evolve to highly synchronized networks at 1 year old. Paralleling the individual network maturation process, the anticorrelated behaviors are absent at birth but become apparent at 1 year and are further enhanced during the second year of life. Our studies elucidate not only the individual maturation process of the dorsal attention and default networks but also offer evidence that the maturation of the individual networks may be needed prior exhibiting the adult-like interaction patterns between the 2 networks.


Social media is connecting individuals all over the world, where the power of interaction and information sharing has shifted from companies to consumers. Since companies now have a harder time reaching out to consumers, social media influencers have been used as a solution to influence the purchase decisions of consumers and thereby drive purchases. However, while social media influencers are said to have an impact on the purchase decisions of consumers, less is actually known about the influence on all stages of the purchase decision process. As the purchase decision is not solely based on its own but rather follows from a series of steps, also called the purchase decision process, more research based on this area is of importance. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore how consumers perceive the influence of social media influencers during the different stages of the purchase decision process. In order to gather consumers' perceptions about the influence of social media influencers, a qualitative study has been conducted where thoughts and experiences of participants have been studied. The findings of this study show that social media influencers ability to provide content, expertise, attractiveness, social identity and trust shows evidence of how the influence of social media influencers play an important role in each and every stage of the purchase decision process of consumers. The implications of this thesis is that the study could be of use to companies who seek to engage in influencer marketing and want to better understand how social media influencers affect consumers. The original value of the study is that it acknowledges how the influence of social media influencers affects all stages of the purchase decision process, as no previous study has explored this context.


Title of Dissertation: THE ROLE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN SECTOR AND SEA SURFACE SALINITY FOR PREDICTION OF THE COUPLED INDO-PACIFIC SYSTEM Eric C. Hackert, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor Antonio J. Busalacchi Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the potential downstream influence of the Indian Ocean (IO) on El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecasts through the oceanic pathway of the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), atmospheric teleconnections between the IO and Pacific, and assimilation of IO observations. Also the impact of sea surface salinity (SSS) in the Indo-Pacific region is assessed to try to address known problems with operational coupled model precipitation forecasts. The ITF normally drains warm fresh water from the Pacific reducing the mixed layer depths (MLD). A shallower MLD amplifies large-scale oceanic Kelvin/Rossby waves thus giving ~10% larger response and more realistic ENSO sea surface temperature (SST) variability compared to observed when the ITF is open. In order to isolate the impact of the IO sector atmospheric teleconnections to ENSO, experiments are contrasted that selectively couple/decouple the interannual forcing in the IO. The interannual variability of IO SST forcing is responsible for 3 month lagged widespread downwelling in the Pacific, assisted by off-equatorial curl, leading to warmer NINO3 SST anomaly and improved ENSO validation (significant from 3-9 months). Isolating the impact of observations in the IO sector using regional assimilation identifies large-scale warming in the IO that acts to intensify the easterlies of the Walker circulation and increases pervasive upwelling across the Pacific, cooling the eastern Pacific, and improving ENSO validation (r ~ 0.05, RMS~0.08C). Lastly, the positive impact of more accurate fresh water forcing is demonstrated to address inadequate precipitation forecasts in operational coupled models. Aquarius SSS assimilation improves the mixed layer density and enhances mixing, setting off upwelling that eventually cools the eastern Pacific after 6 months, counteracting the pervasive warming of most coupled models and significantly improving ENSO validation from 5-11 months. In summary, the ITF oceanic pathway, the atmospheric teleconnection, the impact of observations in the IO, and improved IndoPacific SSS are all responsible for ENSO forecast improvements, and so each aspect of this study contributes to a better overall understanding of ENSO. Therefore, the upstream influence of the IO should be thought of as integral to the functioning of ENSO


In Venezuela, pedigree analyses indicate that the rice varieties currently under cultivation are closely related. Effective breeding programs, based on knowledge of the genetic diversity of cultivars, are needed to broaden the genetic bases of rice germplasm in the country. In this study, we used a set of 48 simple-sequence-repeat (SSR) markers to assess the genetic diversity of 11 Venezuelan rice cultivars, released by the National Rice Breeding Program between 1978 and 2007. A total of 203 alleles were detected, the number of alleles ( NA ) per marker ranged from 2 to 9, with an average of 4.23. The average genic diversity ( H ) over all SSR loci for the 18 genotypes was 0.524, ranging from 0.105 to 0.815. Positive correlations were found between H at each locus, NA , the allele size range and the maximum number of repeats. Venezuelan cultivars showed lower H (mean = 0.37) and NA (total = 124, mean = 2.58) than the whole sample. UPGMA-cluster-analysis based on genetic distance coefficients clearly separated all the genotypes , and showed that the Venezuelan rice varieties are closely related. Molecular identification of 7 Venezuelan cultivars could be done with 9 primers pairs which produced 10 genotype-specific-alleles. Although the genetic diversity was low, SSRs proved to be an efficient tool in assessing the genetic diversity of rice genotypes. Implications of the low genetic diversity detected and relatedness of Venezuelan cultivars are discussed.


Deep cortical lacerations with or without urinary extravasations have traditionally been managed by exploration and surgical repair. With improved and readily available radiologic imaging modalities like computed tomography and intravenous pyelography, we propose that the majority of these injuries can be followed expectantly with delayed intervention if needed. 30 patients with blunt abdominal trauma with significant renal injuries were reviewed. 9 patients had Gr II, 16 patients had Gr III, 2 had Gr IV renal injuries. 26 (86.7%) patients responded to conservative management. 4 patients required operative intervention. 6 patients had associated injuries. There was loss of I renal unit in 2 cases. With the aid of computed tomography, conservative therapy for severely injured kidneys can yield favourable results and save patients from unnecessary exploration and possible renal loss.


Standards for vibration exposure promulgate different limits for hand–arm vibration (HAV) and for whole‐body vibration (WBV). The discrepancy between the two should be explainable on some rational basis [Griffin, Handbook of Human Vibration (1990)], but there is no obvious difference in the mechanism of pathogenesis to the skin at each of the sites. The difference may arise because the endpoints chosen as the basis of each of the standards are different. One approach to estimating dose response [Jarabek, Toxicol. Lett. 79, 171–184 (1995)], characterizes the steps in developing a model as proceeding from a protective to a predictive paradigm as data progress from qualitative to quantitative. To develop vibration standards along this continuum, certain data must be developed: Among these are identification of performance effects of HAV, identification of long‐term effects of WBV, and clarification of the impedance of the affected biological structures. Some of these areas have been addressed in recent revis...


Nearest‐neighbor resampling is introduced as a means for homogenizing temperature records on a daily to sub‐daily level. Homogenization refers here to the problem of calculating daily mean and sub‐daily temperatures from a time series subject to irregular observation frequencies and changing observation schedules. The method resamples diurnal temperature cycles from an observed hourly temperature subrecord at the station. Unlike other methods, the technique maintains the variance in a natural way. This property is especially important for the analysis of trends and variability of extremes. For a given day, the resampling technique does not generate a single‐valued solution but this peculiarity is of no effect in the applications considered here. The skills of the nearest‐neighbor resampling technique, in terms of bias, RMSE, and variability, are compared with those of four other methods: a sine‐exponential model, a model that uses the climatological mean daily cycle, a regression model for calculating daily values, and a deterministic version of the nearest‐neighbor technique. The series used in the tests is the 1951–2000 meteorological record of De Bilt (The Netherlands). The emphasis in the comparisons is on the reconstruction of daily mean temperatures. The analysis shows important differences in performance between the models. The regression‐based method performs best with respect to the calculation of the individual daily mean temperatures; the day‐to‐day variability is best reproduced with the nearest‐neighbor resampling technique. The performance of the models improves when cloudiness is used as an extra predictor. The improvement is, however, small compared to the intermodel differences. The type of model that should be used depends on the desired application. For trend and variability studies, the nearest‐neighbor resampling technique performs best. Nearest‐neighbor resampling can successfully be performed even in situations where the length of the hourly subrecord is an order of magnitude less than the length of the series to be homogenized. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society.


In this paper we develop a framework for understanding how justice-related claims play a role in the dynamics of controversy in energy projects. We do so by distinguishing two interacting trajectories of assessment: a formal trajectory that is embedded in the legal system and an informal trajectory that is mainly embedded in public discourse. The emergence of an informal assessment trajectory can be seen as a response to a (perceived) lack of attention to particular concerns or values in the formal trajectory, i.e. 'overflowing'. The emerging informal assessment may subsequently lead to adaptations in the formal trajectory, which we refer to as 'backflowing'. Based on insights from case studies on Dutch energy projects and literature on energy justice we identify three justice-related attributes that facilitate understanding of the emergence of controversies. These attributes are based on differences between the two trajectories in terms of 1) the way in which values are expressed, 2) the dimension of energy justice that is taken as a starting point, and 3) the democratic legitimization of assessment trajectories. In order to allow for legitimate and effective energy policy, overflowing and backflowing need to be addressed as interrelated rather than as separate processes.


Poor modelling of the surface regions of solar-like stars causes a systematic discrepancy between the observed and model pulsation frequencies. We aim to characterise this frequency discrepancy for main sequence solar-like oscillators for a wide range of initial masses and metallicities. We fit stellar models to the observed mode frequencies of the 67 stars, including the Sun, in the $Kepler$ LEGACY sample, using three different empirical surface corrections. The three surface corrections we analyse are a frequency power-law, a cubic frequency term divided by the mode inertia, and a linear combination of an inverse and cubic frequency term divided by the mode inertia. We construct a grid of stellar evolution models using the stellar evolution code MESA and calculate mode frequencies using GYRE. We scale the frequencies of each stellar model by an empirical calculated homology coefficient, which greatly improves the robustness of our grid. We calculate stellar parameters and surface corrections for each star using the average of the best-fitting models from each evolutionary track, weighted by the likelihood of each model. The resulting model stellar parameters agree well with an independent reference, the $\texttt{BASTA}$ pipeline. However, we find that the adopted physics of the stellar models has a greater impact on the fitted stellar parameters than the choice of correction method. We find that scaling the frequencies by the mode inertia improves the fit between the models and observations. The inclusion of the inverse frequency term produces substantially better model fits to lower surface gravity stars.


A novel adsorber with a structured fixed-bed made of sintered metal fibres (SMF) plates has been developed for purification of low-content VOCs gas-streams. The surface of the metal fibres was coated by a thin, homogeneous MFI-type (ZSM-5, Silicalite-1) zeolite film. The zeolite/SMF composite has been shown as an efficient adsorbent, in which VOCs in low content streams are first concentrated and desorbed in a second step with higher concentrations suitable for oxidation. The advantages of this structured zeolite/SMF composite are a low resistance to internal mass transfer, a relatively low pressure drop and compactness compared to conventional powders or extrudates. Propane was used as a model VOC compound. The isotherms and dynamics of adsorption (breakthrough points) were measured to characterize the properties of the adsorbent. A mathematical model was developed to simulate the experimental data.


Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is complicated by hepatic fibrosis. Hypothesizing that early fibrogenic signals may originate in cells susceptible to HCV infection, hepatocyte gene expression was analyzed from persons with chronic HCV at different stages of liver fibrosis. Four HCV‐infected subjects with precirrhosis liver fibrosis (Ishak fibrosis 3‐5) were matched for age, race, and gender to five HCV‐infected subjects with no evidence of fibrosis (Ishak fibrosis 0). Hepatocytes from each subject were isolated from liver biopsies using laser capture microdissection. Transcriptome profiling was performed on hepatocyte RNA using hybridization arrays. We found that hepatocytes in precirrhosis fibrosis were depleted for genes involved in small molecule and drug metabolism, especially butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE), a gene involved in the metabolism of drugs of abuse. Differential expression of BCHE was validated in the same tissues and cross‐sectionally in an expanded cohort of 143 HCV‐infected individuals. In a longitudinal study, serum BCHE activity was already decreased at study inception in 19 fibrosis progressors compared with 20 fibrosis nonprogressors (P < 0.05). Nonprogressors also had decreased BCHE activity over time compared with initial values, but these evolved a median (range) 8.6 (7.8‐11.4) years after the study period inception (P < 0.05). Laser captured portal tracts were enriched for immune related genes when compared with hepatocytes but precirrhosis livers lost this enrichment. Conclusion: Chronic HCV is associated with hepatocyte BCHE loss years before hepatic synthetic function is impaired. These results indicate that BCHE may be involved in the pathogenesis of HCV‐related fibrosis among injection drug users. (HEPATOLOGY 2012)


In 2000, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) mandated all 24 specialty affiliates to limit board certification (BC) duration to 10 years. This occurred against initial opposition of several of the affiliates, as the utility, financial, and time impositions, as well as the basic need for such imposition, were openly questioned. Given the threat of losing the 'franchise' if not adhering to ABMS corporate mandates, all 24 board affiliates submitted to the '10 year policy' of the ABMS. Subsequently, ABMS recertification programs to renew and maintain BC, now required all physicians to subscribe to increasingly expensive and time-consuming corporate programs, marketed under the name of Maintenance of Certification (MOC). MOC entails yearly and interval consumption of programs, so called 'licensed products' of the ABMS affiliates. While MOC continues to be marketed by the ABMS as a 'voluntary measure', ABMS has continued pressing strongly for insurance corporations, hospital medical staff, and federal programs to require BC for physician participation and payments, as a 'Measure of Quality'. As the ABMS itself does not produce educational components, only testing, the MOC educational products have been licensed typically to specialty societies. These national medical societies are eager to earn the significant revenues from these programs - establishing an overwhelmingly powerful academic core industry to propagate the myth of 'Higher Standards, Better Care' registered trademark of the ABMS logo and copyrighted 'Board Certified' status. (Published: 17 April 2013) Citation: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 2013, 3 : 20326 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/jchimp.v3i1.20326


As organisms age, cells accumulate genetic and epigenetic changes that eventually lead to impaired organ function or catastrophic transformation such as cancer. Since aging appears to be a stochastic process of increasing disorder1 cells in an organ will be individually affected in different ways - thus rendering bulk analyses of postmitotic adult tissues difficult to characterize. Here we directly measure the effects of aging in primary human tissue by performing single-cell transcriptome analysis of 2544 human pancreas cells from eight donors spanning six decades of life. We find that islet cells from older donors have increased levels of molecular disorder as measured both by noise in the transcriptome and by the number of cells which display inappropriate hormone expression, revealing a transcriptional instability associated with aging. By further analyzing the spectrum of somatic mutations in single cells, we found a specific age-dependent mutational signature characterized by C to A and C to G transversions. These mutations are indicators of oxidative stress and the signature is absent in single cells from human brain tissue or in a tumor cell line. We have used the single cell measurements of transcriptional noise and mutation level to identify molecular pathways correlated with these changes that could influence human disease. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using single-cell RNA-seq data from primary cells to derive meaningful insights into the genetic processes that operate on aging human tissue and to determine molecular mechanisms coordinated with these processes.


As the complexity in construction projects increased, simply managing the obtained float values and critical path(s) by the CPM method usually results in more difficult schedule control and, consequently, in incorrect decision making due to non-realistic float values. This study thoroughly reviewed various float types in the literature and professional project management systems, and discussed five managerial essentials and three proactive strategies on mitigating challenging float-related problems based on the perspective of managing schedules by controlling floats. With some comments and suggestions, the outcomes of this study not only improve the knowledge level on schedule management but also provide a better understanding of float management to improve the quality of schedule management.


1. This paper is based on one presented at the 29th annual conference of the Atlantic Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 13-16, 1994. Abstract: A longitudinal study follows first-year university students' values and attitudes from 1983 to 1994. Liberalism and puritanism scales are negatively correlated every year. Their crosstabulation produces a four-fold typology. Political correctness represents a unique blend of a liberalism which supports disadvantaged minorities and a puritanism which supports institutional moral controls. Over twelve years, the dominant ideology shifts from a religiously oriented fundamentalism to a secularly oriented political correctness. Traditionalism all but disappears and new leftism, the most secular ideology, remains constant. Political correctness, as a secular liberal-puritan hybrid, is placed in the larger social context. Resume. Une etude longitudinale suit l'evolution des valeurs et attitudes des etudiants de premiere annee universitaire de 1983 a 1994. Chaque annee, on etablit une correlation negative entre le puritanisme et le liberalisme. Cette etude a produit une typologie de quatres categories. Ce qui est politiquement correct represente un melange unique de liberalisme et de puritanisme; ce dernier veille a la moralite des institutions alors que le liberalisme valorise les minorites desavantagees. Pendant douze ans, l'ideologie dominante va d'un fondamentalisme d'orientation religieuse a ce qui est politiquement correct, une ideologie d'orientation seculiere. Le traditionalisme disparait presque et un leftisme nouveau, l'ideologie la plus seculiere, reste constant. Ce qui est politiquement correct, un hybride seculier liberal-puritain, est place dans un plus grand contexte social. Introduction The youth of the 1990s have been variously labelled in the mass media as the "MTV Generation," the "twentysomething generation," "slackers," "busters," or "Generation X" (Coupland, 1991). In Boom, Bust & Echo, Foot (1996: 18-22) divides youth into two groups: "Generation X," born between 1960 and 1966, and the "Bust Generation," born between 1967 and 1979. Some authors maintain that this new generational culture is a myth--"an imaginary resolution of real contradictions" (Star, 1993). Today's youth, for example, is said to be both "politically disengaged and politically correct" or disenchanted with traditional religion yet desirous of spiritual direction. There is too much fragmentation not only for a shared collective identity but also for a cohesive personal identity. In Mosaic Madness (1990) and Fragmented Gods (1987), Bibby attributes this to the prevalence of individualism, relativism, and pluralism in Canadian society. The collective good is sacrificed in favour of disparate single-interest groups pursuing individual and group rights in the context of increasing secularization and selective consumption. Over a twelve-year span, this study examines ideological fragmentation and contradiction among University of Prince Edward Island students' views on two specific aspects of the relatively broad liberalism-conservatism dimension. In particular, the focus is on (a) personal views toward minority or subordinate groups and (b) views on the role of the state, the mass media, and religion regarding moral issues. Classical liberalism, among other matters, is concerned with equality of opportunity for minorities; the government is there to "ensure that the rules are fair and equitable." The state is there "to regulate the marketplace" in a neutral fashion while society represents a collection of individuals striving for individualistic goals (Marchak, 1988: 10). The state should not compromise individual rights and liberties by legislating morality. The individual should also be free to reinterpret or even reject traditional religious ideas. A social democratic version of liberalism places a more collectivistic emphasis on compassion for and on equality of condition for disadvantaged minorities (Marchak, 1988: 10-11). …


After 1990 a gradual privatisation of the water and sewerage sector began in the Czech Republic as well as in other Central and Eastern European countries. State assets of public water pipelines and sewerage were transferred to towns and municipalities and joint stock companies were established. Two types of companies appeared Ð operational and ownership companies.

The first type is the operational company that operates the infrastructure assets of public water pipelines and sewerage. These assets stay in the ownership of municipalities. A long term operational contract is agreed that solves the relationship between the owners and operators.

The second type is the ownership company that directly owns the infrastructure assets of public water pipelines. Towns and municipalities in this case became shareholders of those companies. At the end of nineties, big international companies bought shares of both operational and ownership companies. Municipalities have to, by law, ensure the operation of public water pipelines. However, by the sale of shares they have lost a possibility to participate in decision making.

A question about future co-operation between towns and municipalities and ownership companies appears. An example of the North Moravian Water and Sewerage Works Company was used to describe a possible way of co-operation between a private company and the municipalities on whose territory the company operates. Contracts between the ownership company and particular municipalities were agreed. This solution turned out to be complicated, so the municipalities affiliated and established Water Management Association. The objective of the Association is to promote common interests of the municipalities in relation to the water company. A contract was agreed between the Water Management Association and the company about co-operation in the area of water tariff setting and public waterworks' development.


Objective: The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of source and age verification status on the sale price of beef calf lots sold via summer video auctions from 2010 through 2017 while adjusting for all other factors that significantly influenced sale price. Study Description: Information describing factors about lots sold through a livestock video auction service (Superior Livestock Auction, Fort Worth, TX) was obtained from the auction service in an electronic format. These data were collected for 36,570 lots of beef calves that were sold via 61 summer sales from 2010 through 2017. A model was developed for each year to quantify the effects of all factors describing beef calf lots that significantly affected sale price. The Bottom Line: Though the percent of lots qualified for source and age verification decreased from 2011 to 2016, premiums were garnered from verified lots. The percentage of lots enrolled may continue to increase with new export markets.


The world contains objects with various properties rigid, granular, liquid, elastic or plastic. As humans, while interacting with the objects, we plan our manipulation by considering their properties. For instance, while holding a rigid object such as a brick, we adapt our grasp based on its centre of mass not to drop it. On the other hand while manipulating a deformable object, we may consider additional properties to the centre of mass such elasticity, brittleness etc. for grasp stability. Therefore, knowing object properties is an integral part of skilled manipulation of objects. For manipulating objects skillfully, robots should be able to predict the object properties as humans do. To predict the properties, interactions with objects are essential. These interactions give rise distinct sensory signals that contains information about the object properties. The signals coming from a single sensory modality may give ambiguous information or noisy measurements. Hence, by integrating multi-sensory modalities (vision, touch, audio or proprioceptive), a manipulated object can be observed from different aspects and this can decrease the uncertainty in the observed properties. By analyzing the perceived sensory signals, a robot reasons about the object properties and adjusts its manipulation based on this information. During this adjustment, the robot can make use of a simulation model to predict the object behavior to plan the next action. For instance, if an object is assumed to be rigid before interaction and exhibit deformable behavior after interaction, an internal simulation model can be used to predict the load force exerted on the object, so that appropriate manipulation can be planned in the next action. Thus, learning about object properties can be defined as an active procedure. The robot explores the object properties actively and purposefully by interacting with the object, and adjusting its manipulation based on the sensory information and predicted object behavior through an internal simulation model. This thesis investigates the necessary mechanisms that we mentioned above to learn object properties: (i) multi-sensory information, (ii) simulation and (iii) active exploration. In particular, we investigate these three mechanisms that represent different and complementary ways of extracting a certain object property, the deformability of objects. Firstly, we investigate the feasibility of using visual and/or tactile data to classify the content of a container based on the deformation observed when a robotic hand squeezes and deforms the container. According to our result, both visual and tactile sensory data individually give high accuracy rates while classifying the content type based on the deformation. Next, we investigate the usage of a simulation model to estimate the object deformability that is revealed through a manipulation. The proposed method identify accurately the deformability of the test objects in synthetic and real-world data. Finally, we investigate the integration of the deformation simulation in a robotic active perception framework to extract the heterogenous deformability properties of an environment through physical interactions. In the experiments that we apply on real-world objects, we illustrate that the active perception framework can map the heterogeneous deformability properties of a surface.


Experiments on developing a frequency-stabilized 555.8-nm laser are presented. The 555.8-nm laser
is obtained by frequency doubling of a 1111.6-nm diode laser through single-passing a periodically poled
lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide. The 555.8-nm laser is then locked to a stable high-finesse Fabry-Perot (FP)
cavity by the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique. The finesse of the cavity is measured by the heterodyne
cavity ring-down spectroscopy technique. The linewidth of the 555.8-nm laser is investigated. After the laser
is locked, the laser line width is reduced to about 3 kHz. This frequency-stabilized 555.8-nm laser is used in
experiments on the laser cooling and trapping of ytterbium atoms to develop an ytterbium optical clock.


Lyb 5 is a B-cell alloantigen which is expressed on 50-60% of B cells. It was defined originally on the basis of cytotoxicity. We have described a new reactivity within the anti-Lyb 5 serum on the basis of selective inhibition of antibody responses in vitro by this antiserum in the absence of complement. This inhibitory activity of anti-Lyb 5.1 serum appears to be due to recognition of antigenic determinants different from the prototype antigens detected in the cytotoxicity assay. Anti-Lyb 5 serum incorporated into spleen cell cultures selectively inhibits antibody responses to a class of thymus- independent antigens (TI-2) previously characterized by their failure to elicit antibody formation in immature mice or in the defective CBA/N strain. Responses to optimal concentrations of TI-1 antigens, which can induce antibody synthesis in these mice, are unaffected by the addition of anti-Lyb 5.1 serum. The B-cell alloantigen defined by this functional assay is designated tentatively Lyb 7 and it is shown to be distinct from cell surface immunoglobulins. Lyb 7 appears to have a role in the activation of B lymphocytes by the TI-2 class of thymus- independent antigens.


This new research project will highlight the degree to which and in what ways New Zealanders are living beyond their 'fair earth share' of global resources. The Ecological Footprint (EF) has been proven as an effective indicator providing the means to communicate complex environmental data in a simplified form to diverse groups (Collins et al., 2005) and for high level long-term community planning and strategy formation (Aall and Norland, 2005; Wilson and Grant, 2009). Methodology development and data gathering will use a new four-part approach to produce a New Zealand EF template which can calculate community footprints using locally collected data and which can create 'fair earth share' community scenarios. The outcome will be a set of footprinting tools to help guide future development decisions (Vale and Vale, 2009a). This paper will cover the project design, EF methodology, the community engagement process and the initial results of investigations.


Les Kurbas - director, actor, playwright, filmmaker, and translator - was the first artist to introduce Shakespeare to the Ukrainian stage. Creating the foundations of Soviet Ukrainian theatre and cinema, he was also responsible for its avant-garde direction. Shakespeare in the Undiscovered Bourn is the first book-length study in English of Kurbas's modernist productions of Shakespeare and the first book on Soviet Shakespeare productions in Ukraine in any language. Situating Shakespeare within the ideological and cultural debates and conflicts of the early Soviet period, Irena Makaryk traces the trajectory of Shakespeare's and Kurbas's fortunes while also investigating the challenges that modernism posed to early Soviet ideology. Ukraine's cultural history - still an undiscovered bourn - has frequently been submerged within a homogenized Soviet experience. The fall of the Soviet Union and the consequent opening up of many hitherto inaccessible archives has allowed a new probing of the master narratives created during that regime. Invoking contemporary debates about the cultural uses of Shakespeare (especially issues of canon, classic, and authority), Shakespeare in the Undiscovered Bourn examines the complexities of the Soviet encounter with Shakespeare. It thus makes an important contribution to the studies of theatre, cross-culturalism, modernism, and postcolonialism.


A cross-jurisdictional pan-Canadian environmental scan was conducted to identify provincial, territorial, and federal financial supports available to families with children living with neurodisabilities. In partnership with the organization Childhood Disability LINK, flowchart-styled pathway documents were developed for each financial support identified, mapping out the processes required to access each support. A critical analysis was completed as it relates to structural barriers, accessibility of program information, and geographic discrepancies. The results revealed that, despite almost universal availability of programs to support families of children living with neurodisabilities, significant barriers and inequity remain. This included considerable variation in access to financial support based on geographic and jurisdictional discrepancies, absence of adequate and accurate information about programs, and minimal support provided to families in the application process. We argue that the barriers and discrepancies identified were an inherent result of the Canadian federalist fragmentation of the delivery of social care and financial support programs for children living with neurodisabilities. A more unified response by Canadian provincial, territorial, and federal governments is clearly needed to take positive steps to address the consequences of federalist fragmentation and respond to the structural barriers and geographic discrepancies identified by this study.


Intersystem crossing involving photogenerated strongly spin exchange-coupled radical ion pairs in a series of donor-bridge-acceptor molecules was examined. These molecules have a 3,5-dimethyl-4-(9-anthracenyl)-julolidine (DMJ-An) donor either connected directly or connected by a phenyl bridge (Ph), to pyromellitimide (PI), 1 and 2, respectively, or naphthalene-1,8:4,5-bis(dicarboximide) (NI) acceptors, 3 and 4, respectively. Femtosecond transient optical absorption spectroscopy shows that photodriven charge separation produces DMJ(+•)-PI(-•) or DMJ(+•)-NI(-•) quantitatively in 1-4 (τ(CS) ≤ 10 ps), and that charge recombination occurs with τ(CR) = 268 and 158 ps for 1 and 3, respectively, and with τ(CR) = 2.6 and 10 ns for 2 and 4, respectively. Magnetic field effects (MFEs) on the neutral triplet state yield produced by charge recombination were used to measure the exchange coupling (2J) between DMJ(+•) and PI(-•) or NI(-•), giving 2J > 600 mT for 1-3 and 2J = 170 mT for 4. Time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectroscopy revealed that the formation of (3)*An upon charge recombination occurs by spin-orbit charge transfer intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC) and/or radical-pair intersystem crossing (RP-ISC) mechanisms with the magnitude of 2J determining which triplet formation mechanism dominates. SOCT-ISC is the exclusive triplet formation mechanism in 1-3, whereas both RP-ISC and SOCT-ISC are active for 4. The triplet sublevels populated by SOCT-ISC in 1-4 depend on the donor-acceptor geometry in the charge separated state. This is consistent with the fact that the SOCT-ISC mechanism requires the relevant donor and acceptor orbitals to be nearly perpendicular, so that electron transfer results in a large orbital angular momentum change that must be compensated by a fast spin flip to conserve overall system angular momentum.


Invasive alien plants have a negative impact on ecosystem goods and services derived from ecosystems. Consequently, the aggressive spread of invasive alien plants (IAPs) in the river catchments of South Africa is a major threat to, inter alia, water security. The Olifants River catchment is one such a catchment that is under pressure because of the high demand for water from mainly industrial sources and unsustainable land-use, which includes IAPs. This study considered the cost-effectiveness of clearing IAPs and compared these with the cost of a recently constructed dam. The methods used for data collection were semistructured interviews, site observation, desktop data analysis, and a literature review to assess the impact of IAPs on the catchment's water supply. The outcomes of this study indicate that clearing invasive alien plants is a cost-effective intervention with a Unit Reference Value (URV) of R1.44/m3, which compares very favourably with that of the De Hoop dam, the URV for which is R2.93/m3. These results suggest that clearing invasive alien plants is a cost-effective way of catchment management, as the opportunity cost of not doing so (forfeiting water to the value of R2.93/m3) is higher than that of protecting the investment in the dam.


In his obituary for Carpenter, Douglas A. Anderson reviews Carpenter's "long and complex" involvement with the subject of his 1977 authorized biography, indicating that "with [Carpenter's] passing it is time to begin to assess his changing perspectives on Tolkien and on his own Tolkien-related work." Since its publication, Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, which Anderson calls "an excellent book. . . unusually accurate more than a quarter of a century after it was written, despite many advances in Tolkien scholarship" remains a largely unquestioned authority, its influence so entrenched as to be virtually invisible. As a result, scholarship on Tolkien, from biography to criticism, remains overwhelmingly influenced by Carpenter's perspectives and methods, which, by Carpenter's admission, are not always strictly fact-based. This influence is particularly pronounced in discussions of Tolkien and gender, which rely heavily on Carpenter's depiction of Tolkien's relationships with his mother, and with his wife Edith. In spite of scholarly reluctance to engage in the "biographical criticism" that Tolkien opposed, phrasing from Carpenter's biography—or very close paraphrase—functions as evidence of dysfunction or sentimentalism, repeated as fact, sometimes without citation. An example is Carpenter's assertion that "after [his mother] died, his religion took the place in his affections that she previously occupied." Carpenter's interpretations of Tolkien and Edith's relationship dynamic are often used to pass judgement on the author without considering that Carpenter, as the member of a younger generation, was already influenced by the drastic changes in relationships and gender roles of the 1960s and 70s. This paper will review Carpenter's vexed relationship with the subject of his biography, offer evidence of the pervasive and often hidden scholarly use of the biography, and review Carpenter's own negative and misleading depiction of Edith before offering some alternate interpretations of Edith's character and situation before and during her marriage. Additional


Generational generalisations regarding how students interact with technology have been used in recent times to prompt calls for radical changes to the delivery of teaching in higher education. This article reports on a study aimed to investigate first‐year students' technology access and usage in two contexts of use: everyday life and academic study. A survey was delivered to first‐year students across seven faculties of an Australian university during the second semester of the 2008 academic year. A total of 470 respondents met the criteria for this study. The findings suggest a wide diversity of usage of technologies with the usage rates of technology in academic study being generally lower than those in everyday life. These findings indicated that generational generalisations are not useful in informing the design of learning and teaching in higher education. However, there are questions regarding reliability of current survey‐based methods to examine students' technology use and the level of diversity discovered across both contexts of use. This suggests that further in‐depth research into how students shape technology to suit their lives is required to gain a greater understanding of how technology can effectively support teaching and learning.


Offering tailorable optical properties not achievable with symmetric or periodic optical materials, chiral, weakly disordered, deterministic aperiodic, quasiperiodic and random structures make up a new wave of asymmetric optical systems demonstrating unprecedented control of light compared to their periodic counterparts in areas such as random lasing, imaging, and bio-sensing. The governing physics of asymmetric systems is, however, not as analytically intuitive and computationally straightforward as periodic or highly symmetric systems, and thus the availability of simple analytic and computational design tools has made periodic systems an attractive option for many optical applications. For example, plasmonic systems consisting of periodic arrays of achiral metallic sub-wavelength scatterers, referred to as metasurfaces, can manipulate the phase front of light waves over nanometer scale distances. This is possible due to the plasmonic confinement of light to sub-wavelength dimensions. In Part I of this work, a novel class of plasmonic aperiodic metasurfaces is introduced exhibiting novel functionalities not possible in their periodic counterparts. Freeing the design process from time costly FDTD simulations, the development of an analytically intuitive model describing interference at a slit-aperture between directly incident light and surface plasmon polaritons arriving from nearby illuminated grooves has enabled the speedy design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of aperiodic slit-grooved plasmonic devices with easily tunable angle-dependent multi-spectral responses. These devices, constituting part of a new and novel class of aperiodic systems referred to as aperiodic-by-design, have lateral dimensions ≤ 10 μm and consist of a sub-wavelength slit (circular) aperture surrounded by grooves (semi-annular rings) on an opaque metal film. Each groove is individually optimized for position, width, and depth in order to achieve a specific desired multi-spectral response. Part II of this work explores the chiroptical (CO) response of optical media. The potential several-orders of magnitude plasmonic enhancement of the weak circular dichroism (CD) response of natural molecules has generated a plethora of research interest and publications describing the so-called CD response of plasmonic systems. However, this work demonstrates, through the development of a generalized coupled-oscillator (GCO) model, the presence of other CO responses not related to CD. Closed-form analytic expressions for various CO response types are developed within the GCO model, and characteristics of each type are highlighted. This work both demonstrates the necessity of careful interpretation of CO measurements and provides tools for distinguishing between the response types. The GCO model unifies, for the first time, many of the separately observed chiral-optical phenomena into a single theoretical framework. The results presented in this dissertation testify to the novel and seemingly exotic behaviors of asymmetric plasmonic systems. The in-depth analysis of the systems provided in this work emphasizes the fundamental origins of these behaviors, providing a clear roadmap towards the development of a new generation of optical devices with functionalities extending beyond the existing state-of-the-art technologies. Breaking Symmetry: A Study of Novel Phenomena in Asymmetric Nanoplasmonic Systems by Matthew S. Davis B.S., Illinois State University, 2006


The construction of layered mafic-ultramafic intrusions has traditionally been attributed to gravitydriven accumulation, involving the mechanical settling of crystals onto the magma chamber floor, at the interface between the crystal mush at the base and overlying replenishing magma, such that the layered sequence of cumulates (i.e., the crystal mush) at the floor aggrades upwards. The Rum Western Layered Intrusion (WLI) is a ~250 m sequence of layered peridotite cumulates comprising the structurally lowest portion of the Rum Layered Suite (RLS). As such, it is taken to represent the oldest sequence in the RLS and has been assumed to young upwards. The WLI hosts the largest proportion of harrisite, a cumulate composed of skeletal olivine that formed by in situ crystallisation, in the Rum layered intrusion. Harrisite layers in the WLI ubiquitously exhibit extremely irregular upward-oriented apophyses, up to several metres high and metres across, alongside laterally extensive dome-like structures; features consistent with intrusive, sill-like emplacement of harrisite. The distribution and abundance of harrisite therefore points to chaotic sill-like emplacement of the magmas that produced at least half of the WLI cumulate. This probably occurred various ambient crystal mush temperatures and punctuated intervals during cumulate formation. The harrisite layers are associated with numerous Cr-spinel seams occurring along the tops, bases, and interiors of these layers, suggesting they formed in situ alongside harrisite sills within the crystal mush. Detailed quantitative textural and mineral chemical analysis of Cr-spinel seams support a simple in situ crystallisation process for their formation. It is suggested the Cr-spinel seams form within melt channels that develop along the same hot tears that allowed the harrisite parental melts to enter the crystal mush. The chemistry and texture of Cr-spinel is controlled by the volume of through-flow of melt through the melt channel. Where melt flux through channels was high, sulphide and platinumgroup minerals are more abundant, highlighting the key economic implications of this model for the platinum-group element enrichment of chromitite horizons in layered intrusions. We also highlight the role of infiltration metasomatism at multiple levels of the WLI, where porous percolation of interstitial melt and reactive liquid flow played a key role in cumulate formation, supporting the notion of layered intrusion growth by incremental sill emplacement.


Staphylococcus aureus is a human pathogen capable of causing infections that range from mild skin and soft tissue infections to severe infections of the bone, muscle, heart, and lung. To survive and thrive in such diverse host environments, S. aureus must maintain sufficient levels of metabolites and cofactors to support virulence determinant production and replication. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs; Ile, Leu, Val) represent an important group of nutrients for S. aureus metabolism, as they are required for protein synthesis and synthesis of membrane branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs), which are important for S. aureus environmental adaptation. Moreover, the BCAAs are co-repressors for the global transcriptional regulator CodY, which coordinates expression of nutrient scavenging and synthesis systems, as well as virulence genes, upon depletion of both BCAAs and GTP. The requirement of BCAAs for both S. aureus replication and niche adaptation necessitates that it either synthesize these nutrients or acquire them from the environment. Although S. aureus possesses the genes required for BCAA biosynthesis, it was previously reported as auxotrophic for Leu and Val. Further, BCAAs are presumed to be limited at host infection sites. In this study, we used a genetic approach to examine the mechanisms of BCAA acquisition in S. aureus and determine the conditions where BCAA synthesis is turned on. We found that S. aureus necessitates two BCAA transporters, BrnQ1 and BcaP, for growth and BCFA synthesis, with the requirement for BCAA transport in vivo depending on the infection site. We further determined that S. aureus does indeed engage in BCAA biosynthesis, but it represses synthesis in the presence of an exogenous BCAA source. This source preference is regulated by at least two mechanisms that sense exogenous levels of BCAAs, resolving the conundrum of why S. aureus appeared auxotrophic for Leu and Val. Altogether, this research defines the major pathways of BCAA acquisition in S. aureus and reveals the niche-specific requirement of nutrient acquisition pathways for S. aureus virulence, highlighting the impressive adaptability of S. aureus to nutrient deprivation and its sophistication at exploiting host nutrient sources.


Many physical, chemical and biological systems have an inherent discrete spatial structure that strongly influences their dynamical behaviour. Similar remarks apply to internal or external noise, as well as to nonlocal coupling. In this paper we study the combined effect of nonlocal spatial discretization and stochastic perturbations on travelling waves in the Nagumo equation, which is a prototypical model for bistable reaction-diffusion partial differential equations (PDEs). We prove that under suitable parameter conditions, various discrete-stochastic variants of the Nagumo equation have solutions, which stay close on long time scales to the classical monotone Nagumo front with high probability if the noise level and spatial discretization are sufficiently small.


Enter the enthralling world of Tom Daley in "My Story" - medallist in the 2012 London Olympic Games. Tom had the whole country behind him when he won bronze at the Olympics this year. A double Commonwealth gold medal winner, he is one of the sport's most exciting athletes. But there is also a heartbreaking and inspiring story of a young man coping with the death of his father whilst under the glare of the world's media spotlight. In this, Tom's first official memoir, he offers unprecedented access to the pressures, challenges and fascinating experiences of a world-class Olympian. From his day-to-day schedule, to his hobbies and family life, to sharing his hopes and dreams in the build up to the London Olympics, this book offers a unique chance to get close to Tom. The face of the Olympics, and host of ITV show splash, Tom is loved by the nation. "My Story" features exclusive photography of Tom Daley, both personal and newly commissioned, in the ultimate book for the 2012 Olympics. Tom Daley starting diving at the age of seven. He was the youngest competitor in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and won two gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. In 2012, he was a bronze medallist at the Olympics in London.


The current paper deals with a new use of fuzzy logic in the domain of seismic zonation methodologies with a case study in Meybod, Iran. Determining the risk function of an earthquake is an important issue and for the complete solution, the seismic specialist shall necessarily find the soil response and present an appropriate zonation output to the civil engineer. For tackling this problem, a fuzzy clustering method has been applied in acquiring microtremor data more specifically in the city of Meybod. Dataset is divided into four subsets based on its intrinsic complexity by GK fuzzy clustering. Features in this classification practice are including the coordinates, the output dominant frequency of H/V method and the related amplitudes. Euclidian distance matrix norm is constructed to detect hyper ellipsoidal clusters with different orientations (shape and size) in the dataset. The cluster means are then refreshed in an iterative manner so as to identify the uniform seismic answer into the isolated gatherings. We used this method to determine the four divided seismicity regions with different range of frequencies. In addition, various type of soil structures in Meybod city with high and weak risky area have been cleared and can be applied in hazard and earthquake engineering projects. This approach was significantly well matched with clay and silt dominant on soil observed in the boreholes.  Finally zonation maps based on this new method is provided.


First published in 1989 "Philip Larkin, the Marvell Press, and Me" is the story of how this small publishing company became a chapter in literary history when, in 1955, the then novice publishers, of which Jean Hartley was one, were entrusted with the manuscript of Larkin's "The Less Deceived". "The Less Deceived", Larkin's second collection, contained the mature Philip Larkin style - that of a detached observer of what Jean Hartley referred to as 'ordinary people doing ordinary things' - the virtues of which came to be associated with The Movement, the post-war generation of poets that used plain language and traditional forms to address everyday life in Britain. The themes of "The Less Deceived" resonated with readers and it became one of the most outstanding collections of 1955. "Philip Larkin, the Marvell Press, and Me" charts that progress and introduces the reader to the real Philip Larkin. 'Jean Hartley's story is a vital piece of evidence for anyone curious about Larkin's life' - Andrew Motion, "Observer".


Symposium session at NoFa5 Helsinki University, 27-29/5, 2015Diversities in School and Education- and what role does/can religious education play in "changing times"?Religious education forms part of the curriculum in state-maintained schools of most European countries, although regulations and educational practice differ. In some nation states, the relation between state-maintained schools and private/independent schools influences the status of religious education, while in others religion and religious education have no place at all, or are subsumed in subjects which have ostensibly no connection to religion. There are thus different 'layers' in the way religious education is organized in different national contexts, with each approach shaped by its specific composition. This also applies to religious education in the Nordic countries, which construct religious education in surprisingly different ways.Given this background, we welcome in this panel papers that relate and discuss the fundamental and central educational/subject matter didactical questions: For whom is religious education aimed, and what is the subjects' overall purpose and central perspectives in todays' Nordic societies? Also, research in relation to curriculum changes and/or subject matter didactics in religious education on all levels in education are welcomed.Organizers:Kerstin von Bromssen Geir SkeieKarlstad University Stockholm UniversityFaculty of Arts and Social Sciences Centre for Teaching and Learning in theKarlstad University HumanitiesSE 106 91 firstname.lastname@example.com email@example.com+46(0)54 7001302 (work) +46(0)08 12076686 (work)+46(0)707 367036 (cell-phone) Abstract NOFA 5Abstract Kerstin von BromssenLived religion - religion embedded in the body and materialityIn the commentary to the Swedish syllabus for Religious Education (2011) it is argued that lived religion is highlighted to a greater extent than previously. One of the basic questions in education relates to which subject content teachers and students together choose to study. What is the meaning and interpretation then of the concept of lived religion that should be made visible in the curriculum? Is the description in the commentary a relevant description? And if so, what is the difference between lived religion and other perspectives in the study of religion? In this paper I will discuss two researchers in the field of religious studies (sociology) who claim the relevance of studying lived religion, namely Meredith McGuire (2008) and Nancy T. Ammerman (2007). What then does the concept of lived religion imply for these two researchers and how does their work relate to the interpretation of the concept in the Swedish commentary? In "changing times" in education, is the concept of lived religion part of a change in Religious Education?Keywords: subject content, lived religion, "the long revolution", body, materiality.


The epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has drastically changed since the emergence of the epidemic strain BI/NAP1/027, also known as ribotype 027 (R027). However, the relationship between the infecting C. difficile strain and clinical outcomes is still debated. ABSTRACT The epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has drastically changed since the emergence of the epidemic strain BI/NAP1/027, also known as ribotype 027 (R027). However, the relationship between the infecting C. difficile strain and clinical outcomes is still debated. We hypothesized that certain subpopulations of R027 isolates could be associated with unfavorable outcomes. We applied high-resolution multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) to characterize C. difficile R027 isolates collected from confirmed CDI patients recruited across 10 Canadian hospitals from 2005 to 2008. PCR ribotyping was performed first to select R027 isolates that were then analyzed by MLVA (n = 450). Complicated CDI (cCDI) was defined by the occurrence of any of admission to an intensive care unit, colonic perforation, toxic megacolon, colectomy, and if CDI was the cause or contributed to death within 30 days after enrollment. Three major MLVA clusters were identified, MC-1, MC-3, and MC-10. MC-1 and MC-3 were exclusive to Quebec centers, while MC-10 was found only in Ontario. Fewer cases infected with MC-1 developed cCDI (4%) than those infected with MC-3 and MC-10 (15% and 16%, respectively), but a statistically significant difference was not reached. Our data did not identify a clear association between subpopulations of R027 and different clinical outcomes; however, the data confirmed the utility of MLVA's higher discrimination potential to better characterize CDI populations in an epidemiological analysis. For a patient with CDI, the progression toward an unfavorable outcome is a complex process that probably includes several interrelated strain and host characteristics.


People, animals, and places, from ancient times to the present, spring to life from these imaginative and entertaining pop-up books. Multitiered illustrations will delight young readers as well as adults. These highly involving books have from five to seven pop-up spreads and, in most cases, one or two action devices on every page.


Learning foreign language, specifically English langauge as the international language, may make some students feel bored. The feelings emerge because of some factors experienced by the students. The factors are lack of interest to learn it, lack of basic knowledge of it, or lack of motivation to learn it. All of the factors reasoning may be caused by the late to build and have motivation to learn the langauge. For students of higher education institutions, the students have to have enough basic knowledge of the language learned because actually the students have learned the language since they were in high schools. Even, some students might have learnt English language since when they were in junior high schools. The basic knowledge can actualy give very dominant influence on their learning continuity. Many students taking English-2, in Faculty of Business, Buddhi Dharma University, seem to feel the significance of having basic knowledge in order that they could improve their English mastery. Therefore, those who don't have enough basic knowledge got some problem to improve their English. Meanwhile those who have got enough basic knowledge could continue improve their skills in the use of the English language. Relating to the learning activities, Edgar Dale (1962) stated that there are two kinds of learning; they are passive learning and active learning. The best way to improve the learning must be about activating the both, active and passive learning. However, to activate the both is not a simple thing. There are some factors that the general students face like the students of Semester-2, Business Faculty have faced. The factors that make problems are the motivation to learn, the opportunity to practice, the lack of basic knowledge, etc. Some students may have good enough basic knowledge, while some other students may have not enough basic knowledge to improve their skills. Indeed, problems can disrupt the students to improve their capability to learn English as a foreign language. This condition creates another problem for the teachers to improve the class activity as it should be.


DTP Notes

1. When there is a greek extract followed by the english translation remove the space below the greek extract.


In frogs, part of the important immune defence system of their skin is the secretion of antimicrobial peptides from granular glands. This study investigated the immune function of skin peptides in protection against bacterial pathogens associated with infectious bacterial dermatosepticemia under a number of environmental conditions and at certain stages of the life cycle of frogs. The natural peptide mixture of skin peptides was collected from skin secretions of three semi-aquatic Litoria frog species L. aurea, L. raniformis and L. ewingii and aquatic Xenopus laevis and assayed for activity against the bacterial pathogens: Aeromonas hydrophila, Chryseobacterium meningosepticum, Citrobacter freundii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia liquefaciens. The peptide mixtures of three frog species Xenopus laevis, Litoria aurea and Litoria raniformis showed activity against C. freundii, C. meningosepticum, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa in vitro indicating a likely protective function. One Litoria species, L. ewingii, had a peptide mixture that did not have activity against any pathogen. Subsequently, in experimental exposure of animals to the pathogen K. pneumoniae, this species was found to be susceptible to disease while the other sympatric species L. raniformis was found to be resistant. A strong correlation was shown between composition of skin peptides and resistance to disease. A comparison of the production and activity of skin peptides from four frog species showed the aquatic X. laevis to have more effective immune defence against bacterial pathogens than three tested Litoria species. X. laevis produced significantly greater amount of bioactive peptide mixture than three tested Litoria species. Three pathogens A. hydrophila, P. mirabilis and S. liquefaciens are abundant components of the skin microbiota of healthy frogs and were found to be resistant to the peptide mixtures of all four frog species tested. It was shown that one pathogen, A. hydrophila, had the ability to secrete proteases which could inactivate skin peptides. Thus while skin peptides could function against several pathogens, some pathogens might have co-evolved to resist skin peptides. A comparison of the peptide mixtures from skin secretions of adults, metamorphs and larvae of L. ewingii using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses showed that peptide mixtures of post metamorphic animals, adults and metamorphs, had a species-specific profile that included the antimicrobial peptide uperin 7.1, while the larval peptide mixture did not contain uperin 7.1 or any other known species-specific peptide. This finding indicates the absence of a secretory mechanism that could compensate for the absence of granular glands in larvae. Analyses of the production and activity of skin peptides of L. raniformis after exposure to two different environmental stressors, low environmental temperature and pesticide carbaryl, showed that the total amount of bioactive peptide was significantly reduced which could…


This paper discusses the mediumto long-term perspectives for the Irish banking system. Consistent with the finance-growth literature, financial deepening had a limited impact on growth in Ireland before the crisis and cannot be expected to contribute significantly over the short to medium term. The paper documents that, compared to its benchmark, the Irish banking system is still very unbalanced, with a heavy reliance on international funding, and limited competition. Given its membership in the Eurozone and the EU, Ireland depends very much on global and European regulatory reform trends, some of which are more important for Ireland than other European economies. Critically, the shape and resilience of Irish banking will depend on the shape the Eurozone banking union will take.


This paper introduces WaveNet, a deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms. The model is fully probabilistic and autoregressive, with the predictive distribution for each audio sample conditioned on all previous ones; nonetheless we show that it can be efficiently trained on data with tens of thousands of samples per second of audio. When applied to text-to-speech, it yields state-of-the-art performance, with human listeners rating it as significantly more natural sounding than the best parametric and concatenative systems for both English and Mandarin. A single WaveNet can capture the characteristics of many different speakers with equal fidelity, and can switch between them by conditioning on the speaker identity. When trained to model music, we find that it generates novel and often highly realistic musical fragments. We also show that it can be employed as a discriminative model, returning promising results for phoneme recognition.


This article proposes a historical, multispecies, and ontological approach to human–wildlife conflict (HWC) in the Colombian páramos. Focusing on the páramos surrounding the capital city of Bogotá, we reconstruct the historically changing relationship between cattle-farming campesino communities and the Andean bear, Tremarctos ornatus. Using ethnographic and historical research methods, we conceptualise this relationship as embedded in localised landscapes and multispecies assemblages, in which scientists, conservation practitioners, water infrastructures, public environmental agencies, and cows participate as well. This article demonstrates that insufficient attention to the practices and relationships of historically marginalised humans and non-humans in the management of HWCs contributes to new dynamics of exclusion and friction, and can reduce the effectiveness of conservation programmes. We conclude that opening up conservation to the interests and knowledges of local communities is imperative in moving towards more historically informed, pluralistic and effective conservation strategies.


Vision-based road detection is important for different applications in transportation, such as autonomous driving, vehicle collision warning, and pedestrian crossing detection. Common approaches to road detection are based on low-level road appearance (e.g., color or texture) and neglect of the scene geometry and context. Hence, using only low-level features makes these algorithms highly depend on structured roads, road homogeneity, and lighting conditions. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to classify road geometries for road detection through the analysis of scene composition and temporal coherence. Road geometry classification is proposed by building corresponding models from training images containing prototypical road geometries. We propose adaptive shape models where spatial pyramids are steered by the inherent spatial structure of road images. To reduce the influence of lighting variations, invariant features are used. Large-scale experiments show that the proposed road geometry classifier yields a high recognition rate of 73.57% ± 13.1, clearly outperforming other state-of-the-art methods. Including road shape information improves road detection results over existing appearance-based methods. Finally, it is shown that invariant features and temporal information provide robustness against disturbing imaging conditions.


Two new methods have been established based on extraction and determination of drug metochlopramide hydrochloride (MCP.HCl) in different samples, by using surfactant as extracting medium and visible spectrophotometer as a detection system. The methods are depended on the reaction of diazonium MCP.HCl with (A) 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) and (B) phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) in alkaline media to form azo dyes products which can be extracted into micelles of triton x-114 and drug MCP.HCl determined in the visible region at λmax of 530 and 490 nm respectively. All parameters that influence on diazotization coupling reaction between the drug and reagents as well as for extraction efficiency of the colored products are examined by using the conventional optimization. The results have shown that the enrichment factors of 217.7 and 26.98 fold, achieving the detection limit of 0.019 and 0.24 μgmL, with linear range of 0.1-0.7 μgmL (r = 0.9996) and 0.5-11.0 μgmL (r=0.9998) for the drug MCP.HCl in method A and B respectively. The mean percent recovery was 98.20±2.71% in drug vial sample and 99.37±2.41 % in tap water and the precision (RSD%) ranged between 3.53-1.21% and 0.97-0.11% for MCP.HCl in method A and B, respectively. The developed methods were compared with reported methods published in chemical literature and used for the determination of MCP.HCl in different samples.


This archive IDS Bulletin reflects on 50 years of research on pastoralism at IDS. Much has changed, but there are also important continuities. The 'end of pastoralism' was proclaimed widely in the 1970s, yet, as a successful, resilient livelihood adapted to some of the harshest environments on the planet, pastoralism has survived, and remains an important livelihood for many. Over the last 50 years, both pastoralism and development have changed massively. IDS work has attempted to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and to insert new understanding of pastoralism into development planning. This has involved building a coherent analysis of policies and institutions for pastoral development, and then helping to see the results of that analysis put into practice. The issue brings together 13 articles on pastoralism published in the IDS Bulletin between 1986 and 2017. The articles address six overlapping themes: pastoral livelihoods; institutions and common property resource management; climate change and ecological dynamics; food security, early warning, and livelihood vulnerability; pastoral marketing; and conflict and governance. Across these themes, IDS research has challenged mainstream development thinking and practice, highlighting the importance of mobility and living with uncertainty. Research has also challenged the standard models derived from settled systems, and emphasised flexibility, opportunism, and improvisation as responses to uncertainty. Although massively changed over 50 years, and despite repeated proclamations of crisis and collapse, pastoralism remains, we argue, an important, resilient source of livelihood in marginal rangeland areas across the world, from which others can learn.


This is the heart-rending story of a woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after a violent, abusive marriage and a worsening drink problem. Paula Spencer recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her powerless. Capturing both her vulnerability and her strength, Doyle gives Paula a voice that is real and unforgettable.


This chapter describes some of the building blocks to ensure a higher level of confidence in the predictability and reliability (PAR) of numerical simulation of multiscale complex nonlinear problems. The focus is on relating PAR of numerical simulations with complex nonlinear phenomena of numerics. To isolate sources of numerical uncertainties, the possible discrepancy between the chosen partial differential equation (PDE) model and the real physics and/or experimental data is set aside. The discussion is restricted to how well numerical schemes can mimic the solution behavior of the underlying PDE model for finite time steps and grid spacings. The situation is complicated by the fact that the available theory for the understanding of nonlinear behavior of numerics is not at a stage to fully analyze the nonlinear Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The discussion is based on the knowledge gained for nonlinear model problems with known analytical solutions to identify and explain the possible sources and remedies of numerical uncertainties in practical computations. Examples relevant to turbulent flow computations are included.


Correspondence: Seungwon Jeong Center for Well-being and Society, 5–22–35, Chiyoda, Nakaku, Nagoya 460–0012, Japan Tel +81 52 242 3075 Fax +81 52 242 3076 Email email@example.com Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of pay-for-performance (P4P) in hospitals in Japan, and to determine if any improvement occurred in the Functional Independence Measure (FIMTM) score at the time of discharge from hospital, the return home rate, and whether there was any intentional selection by hospitals of patients expected to have greater recovery. Methods: We used the data produced by the Rehabilitation Patients DataBank of Japan (February 2011, for 903 patients and 26 hospitals), and identified patient characteristics and processes (by t-test and Chi-square test), change in FIM score on discharge from hospital (by regression analysis), and change in return home rate (by logistic regression analysis) before and after the implementation of P4P. Results: Given the high FIM scores at admission and discharge after P4P was introduced, as well as the high return home rate, the possibility of an intentional increase in the number of patients whose conditions would be easily improved could not be excluded, although this could not be construed as the definite result of a patient screening practice. In addition, following the implementation of P4P, there was improvement in the process by which health care delivery was provided, but neither the FIM gain nor the return home rate was significantly higher after P4P was introduced. A similar result was obtained when the data were analyzed only by hospital cases for the entire period before and after P4P implementation. Conclusion: No effect of P4P implementation on FIM at discharge or the return home rate was observed in this study. In the future, continuous monitoring of changes after implementation of P4P and detailed analysis of the possibility of deliberate patient screening will be needed. A more indepth examination of the indicators and incentive criteria currently in use is recommended.


After many years of relatively slow growth, Tanzania.s national accounts data report accelerated aggregate growth since around 2000. Our analysis shows that there has been somewhat slower growth in private consumption and in sectors such as agriculture in which most of the poor work and live. The household survey data documents a limited reduction in consumption poverty over the period, and what poverty reduction there has been has mostly occurred in Dar es Salaam. Indicators of non-monetary poverty have gradually improved over the past 20 years but significant differences across the country remain.


We present a measurement of the intensity around the focus of a N.A.-0.95 lens using a tapered optical fiber probe. An asymmetry introduced by the vector nature of the incident polarized light is evident, although it is inconsistent with that predicted theoretically by considering the magnitude squared of the electric field. The sensitivity of the probe to different components of the electromagnetic field is considered, and it is shown that the measurement is consistent with vector diffraction theory when the probe properties are taken into account.


Quantum information and quantum computation are linked by a common mathematical and physical framework of quantum mechanics. The manipulation of the predicted dynamics and its optimization is known as quantum control. Many techniques, originating in the study of nuclear magnetic resonance, have found common usage in methods for processing quantum information and steering physical systems into desired states. This thesis expands on these techniques, with careful attention to the regime where competing effects in the dynamics are present, and no semi-classical picture exists where one effect dominates over the others. That is, the transition between the diabatic and adiabatic error regimes is examined, with the use of such techniques as time-dependent diagonalization, interaction frames, averageHamiltonian expansion, and numerical optimization with multiple time-dependences. The results are applied specifically to superconducting systems, but are general and improve on existing methods with regard to selectivity and crosstalk problems, filtering of modulation of resonance between qubits, leakage to non-compuational states, multi-photon virtual transitions, and the strong driving limit.


Rice is a dominant staple food in Asia, including Malaysia. In this study, microarray analysis has been undertaken to identify the genes that were expressed at different stages of rice grain filling in MR219 and MR84 as it is a vital factor that affects the yield of rice directly. Two microarrays were used in this present study: cDNA microarray developed from 3840 PCR-amplified cDNAs from flag leaves and panicles; and commercial NSF 20 K rice oligonucleotide array. cDNA microarray analysis of panicles at 1, 5, 10 and 15 days after heading (DAH) of MR219 compared to heading revealed that a high proportion of storage proteins (glutelin and prolamin) were differentially expressed at 5, 10 and 15 DAH compared to heading in MR219. To compare the expressed genes in MR219 and MR84 at early grain filling period (5 and 10 DAH), microarray data generated from NSF 20K rice oligonucleotide array was analyzed using limmaGUI. Differentially expressed genes at 5-10 DAH from both MR219 and MR84 exhibited diversified functions, suggesting that rice grain filling is a complex biological process involving many different biochemical pathways. Genes encoding transcripts related to transcriptional regulation and signal transduction were differentially expressed at 5 and 10 DAH. In MR84, transcriptional factor EREBP, ethylene receptor, ERF-like protein and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase 1 were up-regulated at 10 DAH while other transcription factors such as RING finger, zinc finger, GRAS family transcription factor were up-regulated in MR219. The up-regulation of genes related to sugar signaling and sensing may correlate to the assimilate partitioning and transport which occurred during 5-10 DAH in both varieties. Changes in gene expression caused by "varieties" and "developmental stage" effects involved transcripts related to stress and defense response, signal transduction and assimilate transportation in MR84 only. The expression patterns of 2 out of 3 selected genes examined were consistent when analyzed with microarray and RT-PCR. Southern analyses showed that putative ethylene responsive transcriptional coactivator and putative ABI3 interacting protein 2 may exist in more than one copy in the genome of both MR84 and MR219 whereas putative BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1-associated receptor kinase 1 precursor may be a single copy gene in both varieties. Real time RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that putative BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1-associated receptor kinase 1 precursor and putative ethylene responsive transcriptional coactivator were differentially expressed at heading, fertilized and 9-12 DAH compared to booting in MR84 and MR219.


How should we split data among the nodes of a distributed data warehouse in order to boost performance for a forecasted workload? In this paper, we study the effect of different data partitioning schemes on the overall network cost of pairwise joins. We describe a generally-applicable data distribution framework initially designed for Amazon Redshift, a fully-managed petabyte-scale data warehouse in the cloud. To formalize the problem, we first introduce the Join Multi-Graph, a concise graph-theoretic representation of the workload history of a cluster. We then formulate the "Distribution-Key Recommendation" problem - a novel combinatorial problem on the Join Multi-Graph - and relate it to problems studied in other subfields of computer science. Our theoretical analysis proves that "Distribution-Key Recommendation" is NP-complete and is hard to approximate efficiently. Thus, we propose BaW, a hybrid approach that combines heuristic and exact algorithms to find a good data distribution scheme. Our extensive experimental evaluation on real and synthetic data showcases the efficacy of our method into recommending optimal (or close to optimal) distribution keys, which improve the cluster performance by reducing network cost up to 32x in some real workloads.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the efficacy of a simple, short-term and low-cost eradication treatment for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) using omeprazole, tetracycline, and furazolidone in a Brazilian peptic ulcer population, divided into 2 subgroups: untreated and previously treated for the infection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients with peptic ulcer disease diagnosed by endoscopic examination and infected by H. pylori diagnosed by the rapid urease test (RUT) and histological examination, untreated and previously unsuccessfully treated by macrolides and nitroimidazole, were medicated with omeprazole 20 mg daily dose and tetracycline 500 mg and furazolidone 200 mg given 3 times a day for 7 days. Another endoscopy or a breath test was performed 12 weeks after the end of treatment. Patients were considered cured of the infection if a RUT and histologic examination proved negative or a breath test was negative for the bacterium.

RESULTS
Sixty-four patients were included in the study. The women were the predominant sex (58%); the mean age was 46 years. Thirty-three percent of the patients were tobacco users, and duodenal ulcer was identified in 80% of patients. For the 59 patients that underwent follow-up examinations, eradication was verified in 44 (75%). The eradication rate for the intention-to-treat group was 69%. The incidence of severe adverse effects was 15%.

CONCLUSION
The treatment provides good efficacy for H. pylori eradication in patients who were previously treated without success, but it causes severe adverse effects that prevented adequate use of the medications in 15% of the patients.


Organic mulches (leaves, pine nuggets, pine straw, grass clippings, and chipped limbs) were applied at depths of 10, 20, or 30 cm in a 3 x 3-m area around young pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] trees. These treatments were compared to an unmulched herbicide treatment and a common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] sod. Trunk cross-sectional areas (TCSAs) of the mulched trees were larger than those of trees in the sod or unmulched plots and increased linearly as mulch depth increased. All mulches influenced TCSA similarly. Mean TCSA for mulched trees increased 14-fold compared to an increase of 8-fold for the unmulched trees and the sod in this 3-year study. Thus, common yard-waste mulches can be used effectively to increase growth of young pecan trees.


Although the use of herbicides and prescribed fire have been shown to increase density of cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) populations, the impact of such brush management practices on their condition has not been explored. We used discriminant analysis to investigate responses of overall physical condition of cottontail rabbits (n = 422 adults) to brush management and succession on replicated disturbed and undisturbed upland hardwood forest-tallgrass prairie over a 6-year period. Five different disturbed habitat types were experimentally created using herbicides (tebuthiuron or triclopyr), fire, or a combination of both. Parameters that were important discriminators of rabbit physical condition among habitat types and post-disturbance successional changes included indices of kidney fat and parasitism, and relative masses of spleen, liver, and dried stomach digesta. Brush management practices using herbicides influenced overall condition of rabbits, but the type of habitat disturbance was not important. Effects on overall body condition of cottontail rabbits from burning disturbed habitats were not apparent until later seral stages when production of herbaceous dicots declined and vegetative composition more closely resembled that of undisturbed areas.


[213] Arctic Ocean is a useful sentinel for understanding the impact of climate change. Dramatic changes are occurring in this region, calling for monitoring of biogeochemical processes. The study site, Konsfjorden is a unique marine coastal system located at the north-western coast of Spitsbergen island in Svalbard (78o55'N, 11o56'E, Norway). Since 90 per cent of the sea floor has temperatures less than 4oC, low environmental temperatures characterise the habitat of many bacteria living in the marine sediments. Sulfate reduction rates (SRR) in sediments of 4 sites in the Kongsfjorden area have been measured as a function of temperature using the 35S radiotracer method. Experiments conducted with homogenised sediments amended with acetate and/or lactate at two different temperatures (0oC and 4oC) included suitable controls without amendments. SRR increased by almost 45 per cent with a 4oC rise in temperature. This increase in sulfate respiration could imply an increase in the CO2 flux and subsequently global warming. The rate of carbon mineralised (CM) is proportional to the SRR, which in turn is influenced by salinity variations due to mixing of sea water with the fresh water from melting glaciers. Consequently, with a rise in temperature, the SRR actually tends to decrease with lowered salinities due to ice melting, thus offsetting the increase in CO2 flux that could have occurred due to the warming effect. This work is a part of the 3rd Indian Arctic Expedition to Svalbard from 14 June to 18 July 2009.


Glucagon injected into rats caused an increase in liver N-acetylglutamate content, and coincidentally the glutamate content decreased. The liver glutamine content decreased only after 10 min, consistent with an activation of glutaminase after a lag. These observations indicate that the increased N-acetylglutamate content was not due to an increase in glutamate content caused by an activation of glutaminase (EC 18.104.22.168).


The metabolites of phenylalanine, phenylacetate, phenyllactate, phenylpyruvate and phenylethylamine, were measured in the urine of PKU patients. In general correlation was found between serum phenylalanine excretion of these metabolites. However, there were individual variations in the quantities and type of metabolites excreted that could not be explained by blood phenylalanine levels. In a PKU pregnancy large quantities of phenylalanine metabolites were found in urine despite a modest elevation of serum phenylalanine. Increase in the excretion of phenylalanine metabolites was found in patients who were considered to have good blood phenylalanine control. These preliminary studies indicate that the current practice of allowing a wide range of blood phenylalanine in the treatment of PKU may have to be reexamined. Since these metabolites are neurotoxic, they may afford a new parameter for the study of PKU not only regarding the prevention of mental retardation but also with regards to behavior and learning disabilities.


A Lagrangian float with bottom-imaging cameras is used for benthic surveys as it drifts a nominally constant altitude over the bottom. To maintain constant spatial sampling, the camera capture rate must be adjusted in real time based on vehicle speed. This speed is difficult to measure with conventional sensors, but can be found from the survey images using visual odometry. A featureless technique is used due to its increased robustness to noise and focus errors over feature-matching, along with a faster and more consistent computation time. A stereo pair of images taken at each vehicle location is used to find altitude. Then, the image from one camera is registered to the same camera's previous image with phase correlation, correcting for rotation and scale differences using a log-polar transformation. This registration is combined with known camera geometry to find vehicle motion and speed between imaging positions. Registration is validated with float images having known offsets, and visual odometry is compared with ground-truthed ROV surveys. Odometry is performed successfully using data from float surveys. Low image overlap and high bottom roughness decrease the probability of successful matches, but these are overcome by slightly higher capture rates. Further, incorrect matches are easily identified and rejected, with minimal impact on the vehicle velocity estimate. Image scheduling is simulated using a high framerate dataset and allowing the algorithm to select images taken at times separated approximately by its desired image period. Computation time is sufficiently short and consistent enough to keep up with image acquisition in real time. Average power and data storage requirements are decreased, allowing for longer and more frequent surveys.


In 1949, Godel postulated a theorem that stated: "In any universe described by the theory of relativity, time cannot exist". Godel idea was that forth coordinate of space-time is not time. Fourth coordinate is spatial too. In this article will be shown that on the base of elementary perception and experimental data Godel theorem is right. With eyes one observes universe is in a continuous change. A change n gets transformed into a change n+1, the change n+1 into a change n+2 and so on. Clocks measure a frequency, velocity and numerical order of change. Experimental date confirms that changes and clocks do not run time; they run in space only. Time is not a part of space. Fourth coordinate of space-time is spatial too. Space itself is timeless. Physical time that is clocks run is man created physical reality. Fundamental arena of the universe is timeless space. In the timeless space into which massive bodies and elementary particles move there is no past and no future. Past and future belong to the inner neuronal space-time that is a result of neuronal activity of the brain.