The observed lifetimes of gaseous protoplanetary discs place strong constraints on gas and ice giant formation in the core accretion scenario. The approximately 10-Earth-mass solid core responsible for the attraction of the gaseous envelope has to form before gas dissipation in the protoplanetary disc is completed within 1–10 million years. Building up the core by collisions between km-sized planetesimals fails to meet this timescale constraint, especially at wide stellar separations. Nonetheless, gas-giant planets are detected by direct imaging at wide orbital distances. In this paper, we numerically study the growth of cores by the accretion of cm-sized pebbles loosely coupled to the gas. We measure the accretion rate onto seed masses ranging from a large planetesimal to a fully grown 10-Earth-mass core and test different particle sizes. The numerical results are in good agreement with our analytic expressions, indicating the existence of two accretion regimes, one set by the azimuthal and radial particle drift for the lower seed masses and the other, for higher masses, by the velocity at the edge of the Hill sphere. In the former, the optimally accreted particle size increases with core mass, while in the latter the optimal size is centimeters, independent of core mass. We discuss the implications for rapid core growth of gas-giant and ice-giant cores. We conclude that pebble accretion can resolve the long-standing core accretion timescale conflict. This requires a near-unity dust-to-gas ratio in the midplane, particle growth to mm and cm and the formation of massive planetesimals or low radial pressure support. The core growth timescale is shortened by a factor 30–1000 at 5 AU and by a factor 100–10 000 at 50 AU, compared to the gravitationally focused accretion of, respectively, low-scale-height planetesimal fragments or standard km-sized planetesimals.


Active compounds of Cymbopogon winterianius, Cymbopogoncitratus, Rosmarinus officinalis, Cedrus, and Eugenol, have been reported to have different insect repellant compounds. Control and development of natural insect repellent additive based decorative coating has driven this work to incorporate the essential oils with long chain fatty acids in water-based lab developed conventional paint. In this work, the Additive based Paint was formulated and its ability to repel different insects was determined. The optimum composition of developed additive based paint was determined by three standard paint analyses which were adhesion, elasticity and insect repellency. As per challenge of Pigment powder and Polymer use for such paint is achieved by testing on Latest instruments. The best composition of additive in paint was found to be 15%. Where it able to repel Pavement Ants, non-biting Flies, Mosquitoes and Black field ant with 80% efficiency. It is envisioned that the formulated paint is effectively function as insect repellent thus as an alternative way to reduce the insect-borne diseases.


The main objective of this work was to formulate novel amphiphilic PLGA nanoparticles with improved physicochemical properties for the delivery of the novel peptide (CK-10) to be used for targeting of the cancerous/tumour tissue. This was achieved by blending of various amphiphilic polymers with PLGA, especially by using a novel microfluidic technique which can overcome several problems of the conventional techniques like the double emulsion technique e.g. low peptide loading efficiencies, large sizes, and high PDI. Loading efficiency was measured by modified Lowry assay; size and zeta potential were characterized by dynamic light scattering and tuneable pore resistive sensing techniques; images were scanned by scanning and transmission electron microscopes; stability and interaction were confirmed by HPLC-MS, FTIR, DSC and CZE. PLGA/Poloxamer nanoparticles exhibited higher peptide loading than the other types of PLGA nanoparticles [56.13 %m/m for the novel microfluidic technique]. PLGA/Poloxamer prepared by the microfluidics technique had the smallest size with the lowest PDI (208.90 nm, 0.11) which is a vital parameter for targeting. The successful development of better physicochemical properties for the CK-10 loaded PLGA nanoparticles can improve the RAN blocking by CK-10.


Making full use of significant new sources in Chinese-language materials, U.S. Naval Academy professor Maochun Yu provides Western readers with the first detailed account of military and intelligence operations conducted inside China by foreign powers between 1937 and 1945. He also addresses the profound impact of these operations upon China's nationalism, wartime politics, and overall military campaigns. Arguing that operations by the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France, in particular, challenged the authority and legitimacy of the Chinese nationalist government, he illustrates how the failure of the Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-shek to control these operations contributed to its demise following World War II. This provocative work unveils like never before the extraordinary intrigue, command and operational manipulations, international espionage, and politics surrounding military and intelligence operations in wartime China among the allies. It covers such topics as foreign military aid programs to China; the Chinese secret police's massive joint intelligence organization with the U.S. Navy; special intelligence initiatives conducted by the British, Free French, and Americans; secret British and American dealings with the Chinese Communists; America's first covert overseas military operation (the Flying Tigers); and Soviet and American military personnel in the China theater. The author points to the remarkable political and military ramifications that these operations had in China, including the inadvertent creation of conditions that allowed the rise of Communist China. With its implications on the world scene today, such an important new perspective of China during its war against Japan will appeal to a general audience as well as to students of World War II and specialists in the military and intelligence communities.


Manga and anime (illustrated serial novels and animated films) are highly influential Japanese entertainment media that boast tremendous domestic consumption as well as worldwide distribution and an international audience. Drawing on Tradition examines religious aspects of the culture of manga and anime production and consumption through a methodological synthesis of narrative and visual analysis, history, and ethnography. Rather than merely describing the incidence of religions such as Buddhism or Shinto in these media, Jolyon BarakaThomas shows that authors and audiences create and re-create "religious frames of mind" through their imaginative and ritualised interactions with illustrated worlds. Manga and anime therefore not only contribute to familiarity with traditional religious doctrines and imagery, but also allow authors, directors, and audiences to modify and elaborate upon such traditional tropes, sometimes creating hitherto unforeseen religious ideas and practices. The book takes play seriously by highlighting these recursive relationships between recreation and religion, emphasising throughout the double sense of play as entertainment and play as adulteration (i.e., the whimsical or parodic representation of religious figures, doctrines, and imagery). Building on recent developments in academic studies of manga and anime--as well as on recent advances in the study of religion as related to art and film--Thomas demonstrates that the specific aesthetic qualities and industrial dispositions of manga and anime invite practices of rendition and reception that can and do influence the ways that religious institutions and lay authors have attempted to captivate new audiences. Drawing on Tradition will appeal to both the dilettante and the specialist: Fans and self-professed otaku will find an engaging academic perspective on often overlooked facets of the media and culture of manga and anime, while scholars and students of religion will discover a fresh approach to the complicated relationships between religion and visual media, religion and quotidian practice, and the putative differences between "traditional" and "new" religions.


Background Emergency and urgent care in Ireland is changing under the Health Service Executive (HSE) transformation programme which aims to implement a 'systems-based' approach for discrete geographical regions. The SIREN (Study of the Impact of Reconfiguration on Emergency and Urgent Care Networks) project aims to describe and evaluate the development and performance of different emergency and urgent care systems (EUCS) in Ireland. As part of that study, the aim of this analysis is to identify variation in EUCS quality indicators over time and across geographical regions having adjusted for differences in population demographics. Methods The quality indicator used for this analysis was in-hospital case fatality, with respect to the patient's area of residence. Four serious emergency conditions (SECs) were selected – Stroke/CVA (ICD 10 codes: I61; I63; I64; I629), Myocardial Infarction (I21; I22; I23), Ruptured Aortic Aneurysm (I710; I711; I713; I715; I718) and Acute Heart Failure (I50). The number of patients resident in each county (including a division of North/South Dublin and North/South Tipperary) with an emergency admission to any hospital for these principal diagnoses between 2007 and 2012 was identified using Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE). Indirectly standardised in-hospital case fatality ratios (SCFRs) were constructed. Standardised results for each of the four SECs were combined to adjust for differences in case mix between regions. Annual fatalities were modelled using an age-adjusted Poisson regression. Stability between case fatalities for the two time periods, 2007–2009 and 2010–2012 was measured using the Spearman rank correlation. A high correlation would suggest that between county differences reflected systematic rather than random variation. Findings were then compared with deprivation rates using the Pobal HP Relative Deprivation Index. Results Deaths following emergency admissions (11,016) accounted for 40% of all deaths for these 4 conditions (27,788) between 2007–2012. A significant decline in annual fatality rates were observed; rates fell from 13% in 2007–2009 to 11.7% in 2010–2012, and the number of emergency admissions increased slightly from 44,506 to 44,848. Over this period the county level SCFRs varied from 81 to 121. However, ratios were not stable (Spearman rank correlation = 0.28, p = 0.14). From our preliminary findings, there was also no significant association between in-hospital case fatality and deprivation. Conclusion Overall case fatality between the two periods has fallen slightly from 13% to 11.7%, however the ratios were not stable and we found no association with deprivation. Further multilevel analysis will model the variation in patterns, and change points, between regions from 2000 to 2012.


Anecdotal evidence and some developmental theory suggest that lower respiratory tract pathologies may be associated with thoracic spine pain and dysfunction. This hypothetical association may be better described either as respiratory conditions occurring as a result of musculoskeletal dysfunction of the thoracic spine, or as respiratory conditions causing thoracic musculoskeletal dysfunction. Optimal function of the lungs and the process of ventilation is dependant on the normal function of the thoracic spine and the rib cage. Disturbances of the musculoskeletal components of the thoracic spine may lead to increased respiratory efforts, decreased lung function and in turn affect bronchopulmonary function. Obstructive respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema place an increased demand on the musculoskeletal components involved in expiration, as air has to be forcefully expired. The purpose of this quantitative, non experimental, demographic retrospective clinical survey was to retrospectively describe lower respiratory tract disorders and thoracic spine pain and dysfunction in subjects presenting to the Durban Institute of Technology Chiropractic Day Clinic, in terms of the prevalence of lower respiratory tract disorders as well as any association between the presenting respiratory conditions and their vertebral distribution in the thoracic spine.


Difficult tracheal intubation assessment is an important research topic in anesthesia as failed intubations are important causes of mortality in anesthetic practice. The modified Mallampati score is widely used, alone or in conjunction with other criteria, to predict the difficulty of intubation. This work presents an automatic method to assess the modified Mallampati score from an image of a patient with the mouth wide open. For this purpose we propose an active appearance models (AAM) based method and use linear support vector machines (SVM) to select a subset of relevant features obtained using the AAM. This feature selection step proves to be essential as it improves drastically the performance of classification, which is obtained using SVM with RBF kernel and majority voting. We test our method on images of 100 patients undergoing elective surgery and achieve 97.9% accuracy in the leave-one-out crossvalidation test and provide a key element to an automatic difficult intubation assessment system.


Organocatalysis has become an invaluable tool for polymer synthesis, and its utility has been demonstrated in ring-opening, anionic, zwitterionic, and group-transfer polymerizations. Despite this, the use of organocatalysis in other polymerization reactions such as step-growth polymerizations remains underexplored, relative to more traditional metal-based polymerizations. Recently, the use of organic bases such as guanidines, amidines, N-heterocyclic carbenes, and organic "strong or super-strong" Bronsted acids to catalyze the synthesis of metal-free polyurethanes has shown to be competitive to commercially widely used dibutyltin dilaurate and dibutyltin diacetate catalysts. This Perspective article highlights recent advances in organocatalyst design for isocyanate-based polyurethane synthesis with the aim of comparing the activity and selectivity of each of the new catalytic reactions to each other and the traditional metal-based catalysts. The article also draws attention to new trends in isocyanate-fre...


A study was conducted to understand adaptive capacity profiles of male and female farmers, about the climate change vulnerability. Survey/questionnaire approaches were employed to gather data on livelihood activities, asset holdings, social networks and supports and climate-related threats. Following this, vulnerability analysis (adaptive capacity approach) was employed to capture the vulnerability differential between female and male headed farm households. Using a multi-stage random sample of 120 farm households, gender-based vulnerability levels of male and female farm households in the study area were estimated. In addition to this, Participatory Rural Appraisal was conducted in the form of focus group discussions to understand the underlying drivers of gender-induced adaptation differential among smallholder farmers. Using information gathered from the focused groups, in-depth interviews were conducted with agricultural policymakers to link farmers' perceptions about gender and climate change adaptation in the area with that of the policy makers. The result of the study showed that female headed households in Enugu state, Nigeria, are more vulnerable to climate change impact than male headed farm households. Cultural systems, policies and practices, and unwarranted assumptions about women are top among the gender relations issues that undermine efforts in building climate change resilience among female headed farm households. Therefore, shelving of the identified beliefs systems that breed gender inequality in the area should be encouraged to enhance the adaptive capacities of female farmers, which would, in turn, reduce their level of climate change vulnerability.


Eukaryotic plasma membrane transporters are subjected to a tightly regulated intracellular trafficking. The yeast siderophore iron transporter1 (Sit1) displays substrate‐regulated trafficking. It is targeted to the plasma membrane or to a vacuolar degradative pathway when synthesized in the presence or absence of external substrate, respectively. Sorting of Sit1 to the vacuolar pathway is dependent on the clathrin adaptor Gga2, and more specifically on its C‐GAT subdomain. Plasma membrane undergoes substrate‐induced ubiquitylation dependent on the Rsp5 ubiquitin protein ligase. Sit1 is also ubiquitylated in an Rsp5‐dependent manner in internal compartments when expressed in the absence of substrate. In several rsp5 mutants including cells deleted for RSP5, Sit1 expressed in the absence of substrate is correctly targeted to the endosomal pathway but its sorting to multivesicular bodies (MVBs) is impaired. Consequently, it displays endosome to plasma membrane targeting, with kinetics similar to those observed in vps mutants defective for MVB sorting. Plasma membrane Sit1 is modified by Lys63‐linked ubiquitin chains. We also show for the first time in yeast that modification by this latter type of ubiquitin chains is required directly or indirectly for efficient MVB sorting, as it is for efficient internalization at the plasma membrane.


Recent literature suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms can interact with personality factors to predict externalizing behaviors. Engagement in externalizing behaviors such as substance abuse and aggressive behavior may, in turn, increase risk for further trauma exposure and a more chronic course of PTSD. In order to better understand how to intervene on this cycle, the current study aimed to identify factors that could explain risk for externalizing behaviors among trauma-exposed veterans. Moreover, we aimed to identify whether psychological flexibility, a skill drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), may mitigate risk for engagement in externalizing behavior. Results indicated that PTSD symptoms indirectly predicted externalizing behavior via negative urgency, or the propensity to act rashly in the context of distress. Moreover, psychological flexibility moderated this relationship such that negative urgency was less strongly associated with aggressive behavior at high levels of psychological flexibility. These results highlight moments of intense distress as important targets for therapeutic intervention, and psychological flexibility as a potentially important therapeutic skill for reducing externalizing behavior among trauma-exposed individuals.


Objective To compare the diagnostic accuracy and radiation doses of two low-dose protocols for coronary artery imaging with second-generation, dual-source CT in comparison with catheter angiography (CA). Design, setting and patients Prospective, single-centre study conducted in a referral centre enrolling 100 patients with low-to-intermediate risk and suspicion of coronary artery disease. All patients underwent contrast-enhanced, 128-slice, dual-source CT coronary angiography and CA. Patients were randomly assigned to two different low-dose CT protocols (each 100 kV/320 mA): in group A (n=50), CT was performed using the prospectively electrocardiography (ECG)-gated step-and-shoot (SAS) mode; in group B (n=50), CT was performed using the prospectively ECG-gated high-pitch mode (pitch 3.4). The image quality and presence or absence of significant coronary stenosis in all coronary segments were evaluated by two blinded and independent observers. CA served as the standard of reference. Results Sixty-one significant stenoses were found in group A, and 69 in group B. There was no significant difference in age (group A, 62±8yrs; group B, 63±8yrs; p=0.72), body mass index (group A, 26.4±3.1kg/m2; group B, 25.9±2.8kg/m2; p=0.41) and heart rate (HR) (group A, 58±8bpm; group B, 56±10bpm; p=0.66) between the groups. Diagnostic image quality was obtained in 98.6% (651/660) of segments in group A and in 98.9% (642/649) in group B, with no significant differences between groups. Sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values were 94%, 91%, 85% and 97% per-patient in group A, and 93%, 94%, 89% and 97% per-patient in group B (no significant differences). The effective radiation dose in group B (0.9±0.1 mSv) was significantly (p<0.01) lower than that in group A (1.4±0.4 mSv). Conclusions Both the high-pitch and the SAS mode for low-dose CT coronary angiography provide high accuracy for the assessment of significant coronary stenoses, while the high-pitch mode further significantly lowers the radiation dose.


Cosmogenic 10 Be exposure ages from moraines in the Wallowa Mountains, Oregon, identify two maximal late Pleistocene glaciations at 21.1 6 0.4 ka and 17.0 6 0.3 ka and a minor glacial event at 10.2 6 0.6 ka. Our new high-resolution chronology, integrated with other well-dated glacial records from the western United States, demonstrates sub- stantial differences in the synoptic responses of western U.S. glaciers to climate forcing associated with the global Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent millennial-scale events originating in the North Atlantic region. These variable synoptic glacier responses identify large changes in the relative contributions of regional to global controls on the climate of the western United States that accompanied the deglaciation.


Abstract. On 12 February 2008, a landslide occurred along a 50 m high bank of the Danube river near Dunaszekcso, Hungary. The initial state is only incompletely documented and the geodetic data acquired after the mass movement are sparse. A generalized 3-D topographic model of the landslide and its surrounding area was assembled and a representative longitudinal profile extracted. The reconstruction of the original surface is based on an orthophoto as well as on morphological considerations. Recorded observations include the locations of the outcrops of basal sliding surfaces, displacements at the main scarp and in the lower part of the slide, and a value to describe the total mass transport. Such sparse and inhomogeneous data were insufficient to derive a comprehensive documentation of the landslide or obtain adequate constraints for an accurate numerical analysis. Therefore, slider block models were fitted to the field data, which have only a small number of free parameters. A general view on the morphology of the mass movement justifies its classification as a rotational slide. A double slider block model fits all observational parameters within their error margin and supplies valuable information on the geometry of the slide. Estimates of the residual friction angles were derived and the question of reactivation was addressed. Finite Difference (FD) modelling and the application of conventional stability analysis support the geometry of the slider blocks and the computed average residual friction angles. Generally, the results are assumed to represent preliminary information, which could only be attained by the combination of the thinly distributed geodetic data with qualitative morphological observations and the implementation of a model. This type of information can be gained quickly and may be valuable for preliminary hazard mitigation measures or the planning of a comprehensive exploration and monitoring program.


Currently, model risk related to risk models is subject of intense discussions between regulators and the banking industry. With regard to increasing requirements on the one hand and yet no standardized approach by banks to handle model risk on the other hand, this article draws the area of conflict by providing a comprehensive definition and delimitation of model risks and the related regulatory requirements. The main focus lies in the systematic treatment of model risk in the context of internal governance and internal capital adequacy, its appropriate assessment or quantification as well as an adequate procedural handling of model risk. The article shows the main different approaches of how to incorporate model risk in the internal risk management and discusses the respective pros and cons. JEL classification numbers: C02, G21, G24Keywords: Model uncertainty, parameter uncertainty, estimation errors, model risk, internal governance, internal capital adequacy, risk capital


Qoliqoli roughly translates from Fijian as "customary fishing grounds". This article unpacks the complex, dialogic, and interdependent relationship between the formal state laws and the informal social norms that determine the contours of qoliqoli rights and form the de facto institutional environment in which collective ownership functions in practice in Fiji. At the same time, examination of qoliqoli governance on Yanuca island – on its face a quintessential instance of collective ownership of a common pool resource – provides empirical insights regarding the structure and functioning of institutions for collective ownership that are governed internally by informal social norms but simultaneously embedded in a larger formal legal system, and whose degree of property security is an endogenous function of the choices made by members of the collective ownership unit. The Yanuca case study demonstrates how and in what circumstances collective ownership can generate a cooperative equilibrium, but also reveals why a community of resource owners may provide an apparently sub-optimal level of property rights protection against outside encroachers. Research on the two distinct and rarely connected topics of collective common pool resource ownership and the relationship between formal law and informal, non-state normative mechanisms in protecting property rights security are the building blocks for the analysis.


The present paper provides a new approach to investigate the impact of recent immigrants on the real wages of native Australians. The method involves cross-section analysis of 48 labour markets using data from six consecutive Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) income distribution surveys for the years 1982 through 1996. Recent immigrants are not found to significantly affect the real wages of native Australians. This conclusion remains unchanged when the specific impact of immigration on less educated or young Australian workers is investigated.


Get the focused, scenario-based guidance you need to plan and deploy Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) as your network perimeter firewall. The evolution of Microsoft ISA Server, Forefront TMG provides multiple layers of continuously updated protections against the latest Web-based threats, including URL filtering, antimalware inspection, and intrusion prevention. Led by two members of the Microsoft Forefront team, you'll get pragmatic, inside insights into system components and capabilities; identify software, hardware, and business requirements; and step through essential planning and design considerations, including network topology, remote access, publishing rules, performance, administration, and more.


This article draws together two linked studies on formal teaching spaces within one university. The first consisted of a multi‐method analysis, including observations of four teaching events, interviews with academics and estates staff, analysis of architectural plans, and a talking campus tour. The second study surveyed 166 students about their perceptions of existing teaching spaces and dreams of ideal spaces, eliciting qualitative comments. Researchers used a comparative analysis of the data to generate themes. Academics and students held differing conceptions of space. For students, a functional view prevailed with teacher‐centred and dominant approaches (lectures, seminars, tutorials) constraining their imagination of fresh possibilities. Academics reflected on the limits and potential of spaces, surfacing more abstract concepts about familiarity, invisibility, space–time dimensions, territoriality and collegiality. The article explores the boundaries that space may place over imagined and alternative pedagogies, and concludes that familiar, computer‐networked and conventional spaces may re‐inscribe hierarchical, teacher‐centred approaches.


Comprehension is generally considered to be an essential skill required in all learning areas. The Australian Curriculum argues that much of the explicit teaching of literacy occurs in the English learning area, and is strengthened, made specific and extended in other learning areas as students engage in a range of learning activities with significant literacy demands (ACARA, 2012, p. 9). This has important ramifications for all teachers because they are charged with the responsibility of ensuring their students acquire the literacy skills necessary for success in the discipline areas. Despite this, comprehension means different things to different people. This paper reports on an action research project investigating teacher and student understandings of comprehension in the middle school years Specifically it asks the question: What counts as comprehension in teacher practice? After considering teacher and student perceptions of what comprehension is in different subject areas in Years 5, 7 and 9, strategic professional development seminars have been developed and implemented. These seminars are aimed at introducing teachers to current ideas about comprehension and providing them with practical, achievable strategies to use in the classroom.


Background Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting are two sports that expose the body to great forces. Injury characteristics have not been systematically reviewed for these two growing sports. Objective The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature regarding various definitions of injuries used, injury localisation, the prevalence and incidence of injuries and the associated risk factors for injuries in weightlifting and powerlifting. Design Systematic review. Data sources Five databases, PubMed, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Scopus and Web of Science, were searched between 9 March and 6 April 2015. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Studies assessing injury incidence and prevalence in Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting were included. The Quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies was used to assess methodological quality. Results 9 studies were included in the review. Injury was defined fairly consistently across studies. Most studies were of low methodological quality. The spine, shoulder and the knee were the most common injury localisations in both sports. The injury incidence in weightlifting was 2.4–3.3 injuries/1000 hours of training and 1.0–4.4 injuries/1000 hours of training in powerlifting. Only one retrospective study had analysed possible risk factors. Summary/conclusions The risk of injury in both sports were similar to other non-contact sports also requiring strength/power, but low compared to contact sports. The severity of injuries differed in the included studies. Since little has been studied regarding possible risk factors to injuries, further research is therefore warranted to explain why athletes get injured and how to prevent injuries. Trial registration number PROSPERO CRD42015014805.


In this lively and pathbreaking book, William Monter sketches Europe's increasing acceptance of autonomous female rulers between the late Middle Ages and the French Revolution. Monter surveys the governmental records of Europe's thirty women monarchs-the famous (Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great) as well as the obscure (Charlotte of Cyprus, Isabel Clara Eugenia of the Netherlands)-describing how each of them achieved sovereign authority, wielded it, and (more often than men) abandoned it. Monter argues that Europe's female kings, who ruled by divine right, experienced no significant political opposition despite their gender.


Background The present study investigated histories of prior psychiatric treatment in cases of sudden death reported to the coroner. Methods A matching survey linked the register of deaths reported to the coroner with a comprehensive statewide psychiatric case register covering both inpatient and community-based services. Results Sudden death was five times higher in people with histories of psychiatric contact. Suicide accounted for part of this excess mortality but deaths from natural causes and accidents were also elevated. Schizophrenic and affective disorders had similar suicide rates. Comorbid substance misuse doubled the risk of sudden death in affective and schizophrenic disorders. Conclusions The rates of sudden death are sufficiently elevated to raise questions about current priorities in mental health care. There is a need both for greater attention to suicide risk, most notably among young people with schizophrenia, to the early detection of cardiovascular disorders and to the vigorous management of comorbid substance misuse.


Modulation and demodulation hold dominant positions in communication. Communication quality heavily relies on the performance of the detector. A simple and efficient detector can improve the communication quality and reduce the cost. This thesis reveals the pros and cons of five demodulation methods for Amplitude Modulated (AM) signal and four demodulation methods for Frequency Modulated (FM) signal. Two experimental systems are designed and implemented to finish this task. This thesis provides the researchers an easier reference of demodulation methods with tables listing their pros and cons.


Though immutability has been long-proposed as a way to prevent bugs in software, little is known about how to make immutability support in programming languages effective for software engineers. We designed a new formalism that extends Java to support transitive class immutability, the form of immutability for which there is the strongest empirical support, and implemented that formalism in a tool called Glacier. We applied Glacier successfully to two real-world systems. We also compared Glacier to Java's final in a user study of twenty participants. We found that even after being given instructions on how to express immutability with final, participants who used final were unable to express immutability correctly, whereas almost all participants who used Glacier succeeded. We also asked participants to make specific changes to immutable classes and found that participants who used final all incorrectly mutated immutable state, whereas almost all of the participants who used Glacier succeeded. Glacier represents a promising approach to enforcing immutability in Java and provides a model for enforcement in other languages.


Many surgeons are faced with inoperable or only partially operable brain lesions, such as tumors. Even when surgery is feasible, patient outcome is greatly affected by blood loss or infection. This has led many physicians toward non- or minimally-invasive surgery, which demands specialized toolkits. Focused ultrasound has great potential for assisting in such procedures due to its ability to focus a few cm away from the surface of the transducer. In a prior study, we developed a focused ultrasound prototype that could fit within a BrainPath trocar, specifically made for minimally invasive brain surgery. Here, we present the design and fabrication of a second prototype that reduces size, is MR-compatible, and has electronic steering capabilities.


Native American communities historically indigenous to the Columbia Plateau in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho use the internet in acts of historical representation. The internet provides to tribal people a medium through which to accurately represent issues of place, time, and performance. The internet, however, is changing, challenging some tribal representational practices. Participation with the internet is divided into two historical, technical, and cultural phases: Web 1.0 (1994–2004) and Web 2.0 (2005–today). The Web 1.0 sites discussed in this article include the Lifelong Learning modules of the Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Alene), the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation (CTUIR), and the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce Tribe). Explored are ways Web 1.0 features gave tribal people control over their official historiography, while new forms of collective or Web 2.0 internet authorship may be endangering officially sanctioned tribal histories. An example of Web 2.0, the Colville tribal social media site One Heart for the People is briefly mobilized to illustrate how Web 1.0 tribal historiography opposes theories of culture.


Research exploring the relationship between mental health difficulties and insomnia amongst students in the UK remains limited. This study further examined the extent of potential relationships between insomnia, anxiety and depression symptoms amongst university students in the UK. A sample of 487 students from four northern universities completed The Insomnia Severity Index, SLEEP-50, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales. Approximately one fifth of students experienced mild to severe levels of depressive symptoms, and two thirds reported anxious symptoms. One quarter of students indicated insomnia symptoms in the clinical range, however the prevalence of sleep-disorders other than insomnia remained low ( < 5%). Finally, symptoms of insomnia and apnoea were significantly related to depression, after controlling for co-morbid anxiety. The current outcomes highlight the high prevalence of depressive and insomnia symptoms amongst university students in the UK. Considering the relationship between insomnia and depression, student- focused mental health services should explore the possibility of treating insomnia to circumvent depression.


Abstract Social, ecological, and climatic factors interact creating a heterogeneous matrix that determines the spatiotemporal distribution of mosquitoes and human risks of exposure to the diseases they transmit. We explore linkages between the social and institutional processes behind residential abandonment, urban ecology, and the interactions of socio-ecological processes with abiotic drivers of mosquito production. Specifically, we test the relative roles of infrastructure degradation and vegetation for explaining the presence of Aedes albopictus Skuse 1894 to better predict spatial heterogeneity in mosquito exposure risk within urban environments. We further examine how precipitation interacts with these socially underpinned biophysical variables. We use a hierarchical statistical modeling approach to assess how environmental and climatic conditions over 3 years influence mosquito ecology across a socioeconomic gradient in Baltimore, MD. We show that decaying infrastructure and vegetation are important determinants of Ae. albopictus infestation. We demonstrate that both precipitation and vegetation influence mosquito production in ways that are mediated by the level of infrastructural decay on a given block. Mosquitoes were more common on blocks with greater abandonment, but when precipitation was low, mosquitoes were more likely to be found in higher-income neighborhoods with managed container habitat. Likewise, although increased vegetation was a negative predictor of mosquito infestation, more vegetation on blocks with high abandonment was associated with the largest mosquito populations. These findings indicate that fine spatial scale modeling of mosquito habitat within urban areas is needed to more accurately target vector control.


Interest in the development of aquaculture of the tropical spiny lobster, Panulirus ornatus, has increased markedly over the past 10 yr because of strong market demand and high prices. In Australia, economic conditions will necessitate that a semi-intensive approach be taken, possibly involving managed environmental conditions. Identification of optimal temperature and salinity levels will be necessary, and therefore two experiments were performed to examine these two parameters. Juvenile lobsters were grown in tanks at five temperatures (19, 22, 25, 28 and 31 C). Growth was significantly affected by temperature (P < 0.01), and maximal growth occurred at 25-31 C. Examination of the temperature effect on molt increment and intermolt period indicated that 27 C was the optimal temperature, at which molt increment was greatest and intermolt period the least. Temperature also had a significant (P < 0.01) positive effect on apparent feed intake (AFI). Juvenile lobsters were also exposed to four different salinities (20, 25, 30 and 35 ppt) over a period of 91 d. Significant differences (P < 0.01) were apparent for both survival and growth. Lowest survival occurred at 35 ppt which may be attributable to higher cannibalism at that salinity. Growth was highest at 35 ppt and progressively less at lower salinities. Although full marine salinity (35 ppt) will generate best performance of P. ornatus, its capacity to tolerate reduced salinity will provide greater opportunity to develop commercial aquaculture.


Network planning of bus services requires addressing the trade off between frequency and coverage. Planning for good coverage of bus services using the rule of thumb that people will walk four hundred meters to access bus based public transport services means sharing the available budget between many services. For the same budget, the alternative approach of concentrating frequency on core corridors implies lower coverage and that some travellers would need to walk further to access bus based services. An understanding of to which extent people are willing to walk to a bus stop with higher frequency would provide empirical information for bus network planning. The research question addressed by this paper is whether travellers are willing to walk further to a more frequent bus service in the context of Australian cities. A stated choice experiment approach is used to elicit the trade off between walking further to access more frequent bus services. In doing so the paper investigates the potential success of reorientating a coverage approach to network planning, prevalent in many Australian cities to one predicated on concentrating frequency in corridors. The results show travellers in Australian capital cities are willing to walk around 206m to 327m further for a ten-minute reduction in bus headways. These research outcomes provide valuable Australian evidence confirming travellers are prepared to walk further to a more frequent bus service.


Durkheim and his followers alerted us to the role of collective representations such as funerals, processions and parades in pre-literate societies. These classic studies, elegant and detailed, have stood the test of time. Goffman has asked whether these events, along with memory and tradition, produce social solidarity in the twenty-first century. Perhaps social solidarity is enacted by such events, rather than reflecting norms, values, and beliefs. If so, how is this new kind of solidarity accomplished over the course of these events? We have few close studies of these modern public events, other than Warner's classic, the Living and the Dead (1959), and Bellah's ideas, via Rousseau, of the role of "civic religion." These ideas are inadequately articulated, given an ethnographic warrant to link structure and function. This paper begins with a description of a funeral of a police officer in 1974 (Manning, 1977), compares this with a police funeral in 2011, and addresses two questions: how are they different? And what do these collective representations tell us about modernity? Are police funerals different from others in the public sphere (not those honored who served in the fire service or the military)? The paper uses a semiotic analysis of funerals, police and public, as a window into the features of modern celebrations and processions. Given the relevant codes used to analyze the processions, the differences are salient. The contrast between these processions and their role in social integration in modernity raises the need for future research.


In this paper we analyze changes in the export mix of Chilean firms, looking particularly at differences between large firms and SMEs. To do that, we use detailed information of exported products by firms during the period 1995-2005. Our econometric results, which look at the impact of export product churning on firm performance, are heterogeneous by type of change in export mix and by firm size. In general, export mix changes are associated with improvements on productivity, although our results suggest that this positive effect is only for SMEs. In terms of employment and sales, we find that export product churning has positive effect on large firms and lower - and in some case negative - on SMEs. It seems that changes in export mix are more important for firm growth in large firms, but not in terms of productivity. In contrast, SMEs can have a higher potential for productivity improvement through export product churning but this does not translate necessarily in significant increase in sales and employment.


Member States of the United Nations (U.N.) are responsible for taking appropriate measures to prevent, investigate, punish, and provide effective remedies for relevant misconduct of private military and security companies (PMSCs) and their personnel; their responsibilities fully remain, even if States have chosen to contract out certain security functions. The widespread outsourcing of military and security functions to private companies in situations of low-intensity conflicts, international relief, and contingency operations has been a major phenomenon in the past twenty years. The grave human rights violations in which they have been involved in Iraq and Afghanistan have been the focus of international attention and have generated debate about the roles of PMSCs, the norms under which they should operate, and how to monitor their activities. The U.N. Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries (Working Group) has found that there is a regulatory legal vacuum covering the activities of PMSCs and a lack of common standards for the registration and licensing of these companies, for the vetting and training of their staff, and for the safekeeping of weapons. Although there are norms of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) that could apply in some situations, in practice, they have not been implemented. PMSCs have succeeded in creating a situation of diffused responsibility and lack of accountability through a labyrinth of contractual and insurance layers and shells. The Working Group has arrived at the logical conclusion that a new binding international legal instrument is necessary to regulate and monitor the * Independent expert, Chairperson-Rapporteur, U.N. Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. 2 NOTRE DAME JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL, COMPARATIVE, & HUMAN RIGHTS LAW 2011 2 activities of PMSCs, and in 2010 it recommended to the U.N. the creation of an open-ended working group entrusted with the elaboration of a regulatory framework monitoring the activities of PMSCs. The international instrument would stipulate, among other things, the development of a national regime of licensing, regulation, and oversight of the activities of PMSCs and their subcontractors; increased responsibility of home States (where PMSCs are registered) for the export of military and security services of PMSCs registered and licensed in their country; and that States on whose territory PMSCs operate ensure effective control over the activities of these companies.


The authors document the extent of the dividend decline in the major indexes and consider its significance in the context of historical stock returns. The dividend component of total returns has been a major part of the average total return of approximately 11% on the S&P 500 index that investors have enjoyed in the past. With dividend yields now averaging slightly above 1%, investors need to reexamine their expectations about the level of future market return consistent with that. The authors demonstrate that the probability of achieving average historical rates or return is low, given the entire history of S&P returns since 1971. The role of dividends in returns from value versus growth strategies is also considered, and it is suggested that investors may need to revise their expectations in this regard also.


We experimentally investigate and characterize the improvement in thresholding capability of a compact highly Ge-doped nonlinear interferometer-based all-optical thresholder using optical offset spectral filtering. The thresholder we study has an in-loop nonlinearity requirement lower than that of a classical nonlinear loop mirror scheme. Therefore, only 15 m of nonholey silica-based fiber is used as a nonlinear element. Although the nonlinear interferometer-based thresholder has been useful for signal regeneration and thresholding, it has several limitations, including severe pulse distortion due to pulse bifurcation at high input powers and a fixed power transfer function. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate the use of offset spectral filtering at the output of this Ge-doped low nonlinearity interferometer-based thresholder to adjust the power transfer function and thresholding slope, as well as reducing pulse distortion due to pulse bifurcation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of power transfer function tailoring, which makes the thresholder more flexible and allows customization of thresholding parameters in meeting requirements in various systems.


Recent years have witnessed the emergence of microprocessors that are embedded within a plethora of devices used in everyday life. Embedded architectures are customized through a meticulous and time consuming design process to satisfy stringent constraints with respect to performance, area, power, and cost. In embedded systems, the cost of the memory hierarchy limits its ability to play as central a role. This is due to stringent constraints that fundamentally limit the physical size and complexity of the memory system. Ultimately, application developers and system engineers are charged with the heavy burden of reducing the memory requirements of an application.
This thesis offers the intriguing possibility that compilers can play a significant role in the automatic design space exploration and optimization of embedded memory systems. This insight is founded upon a new analytical model and novel compiler optimizations that are specifically designed to increase the synergy between the processor and the memory system. The analytical models serve to characterize intrinsic program properties, quantify the impact of compiler optimizations on the memory systems, and provide deep insight into the trade-offs that affect memory system design.


This study analyzes the conception of gharar , which is generally translated as either risk or uncertainty, in post-formative Islamic commercial law. According to Muslim jurists, gharar arises from uncertainty in commercial transactions. However, unlike other areas of the Islamic intellectual tradition in which uncertainty engenders errors, the uncertainty associated with gharar enables jurists and counterparties to make informed legal and financial decisions. Nevertheless, gharar is not structurally a form of certainty. In order to understand this interesting paradox and reach a better understanding of representation in general, this study employs discourse analysis to trace the concepts, reasoning methods, and descriptive techniques that Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), Baji (d. 1081), Shirazi (d. 1083), Sarakhsi (d. 1090), Ibn Qudama (d.1223), and Ibn Rushd (d. 1261) use in order to represent gharar . First, this study details how jurists conceptualize the types of uncertainty that engender gharar in commercial transactions. Second, it examines the ways that jurists employ these forms of uncertainty to analyze commercial transactions. This study demonstrates that gharar arises from a privation of thought. This privation mimics the relationship between the identity of thought and referent that produces certainty. Gharar thus indicates how knowledge creates and subsumes uncertainty. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Joseph E. Lowry


Prediction of weld bead geometry is critical for any welding process, since several mechanical properties of the weldment depend on this. Researchers have used artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the bead geometry based on the input parameters for a welding process; however, the number of hidden layers used in these ANNs are limited to one due to the small amount of data usually available through experiments. This results in a reduction in the accuracy of prediction. Such ANNs are also incapable of capturing sudden changes in the input–output trends; for example, where a wide range of heat inputs results in flat crown (zero crown height), but any further reduction in the current sharply increases the crown height. In this study, it was found that above mentioned issues can be resolved on using a two-stage algorithm consisting of support vector machine (SVM) and an ANN. The two-stage SVM–ANN algorithm significantly improved the accuracy of prediction and could be used as a replacement for the multiple hidden layer ANN, without requiring additional data for training. The improvement in prediction was evident near regions of sudden changes in the input–output correlation and can lead to a better prediction of mechanical properties.


Herbal oils have been used for centuries as a traditional medicine. In this study, herbal massage oil was prepared by using crocodile oil (CO) or virgin coconut oil (VCO) as carrier oil. This experiment was conducted to find out the suitable method for preparation of herbal massage oils from CO or VCO. The satisfactory appearance and viscosity of herbal massage oil was received when using 44.9% by weight of crocodile oil as carrier oil. Searching appropriate for herbal massage oil, that exhibited the good characteristic, viscosity, fragrance and hot, was done with various systems. The carrier oils heated with Zingiber montanum (Plai, ZM) (22.45 % w/w) and Curcuma sp. (Wan ma leung, CS) (22.45 % w/w) and then the mixture was mixed with butylated hydroxyl toluene (BHT), menthol, methyl salicylate and camphor were likely to be the appropriate method. The surface tension of the mixture between different herbal oils and carrier oil in the ratio of 1:1 was no significantly difference. The highest viscosity was obtained from the mixture of carrier oil and Curcuma aromatic (Wan nang kum, CA). Oil extracted from herbal with heat treatment could mask the unpleasant odor of CO and VCO but not significantly affected the surface tension and viscosity of carrier oils.


Abstract Purpose: The aim of this in vitro study was to compare the accuracy of Root ZX mini and Raypex 6 electronic apex locators (EAL) in low versus full battery/charge conditions. Material and methods: Twenty-seven extracted human mandibular incisor teeth with mature apices were used in this study. Access cavities were prepared and all specimens were numbered. #10 K file was introduced into the root canal until its tip was visualized at the apical foramen and the actual working length (AWL) was determined..The EALs; battery-powered Root ZX mini (J. Morita Corp, Tokyo, Japan) and rechargeble Raypex 6 (VDW, Munich, Germany) are used in accordance with the manufacturers' instructions. The electronic working length (EWL) measurement differences with Root ZX mini and Raypex 6  in low  and full battery/charge conditions were compared among the groups. Statistical analyses were performed by the Kruskal–Wallis test . Results: No significant difference was observed between low and full charge condition of Raypex 6 groups. Although there  was no significant difference between Root ZX with full battery and Raypex 6 with full charge conditions, contrary root ZX mini with low battery showed significant differences in comparison with the other groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: Although the low battery condition of the EAL may cause deviations in measurements, the accuracy of the both battery powered and charged EALs presents acceptable results in low and full battery/charge conditions within the ±1 mm tolerance range. Nevertheless the low battery condition of the EAL may cause deviations in measurements.  Key words: electronic apex locator, Raypex 6, root ZX mini, working length


Dispatch of steel products by railways from the mills of an integrated steel plant, producing variety of products is a complex process with a constraint of strictly adhering to the permissible Wagon Turnaround Times (WTT). This operation faces further challenges when the WTT is proposed to be brought down by 75% while additional mills are being added for capacity expansion. This paper presents how reengineering of the dispatch operations using simulation helped in reducing the WTT to the desired level. Our approach was to use a flexible push-pull based dispatch scheduling instead of the current pull and wait model. Our recommendations included decoupling railways operations from the internal mills thereby avoiding wagon set breaks and reassembly, investing in optimum number of captive locomotives and wagon sets, scheduling mechanism for captive locomotives, creation of an intermediate storage to stack products according to dispatch schedules and ensuring just-in-time material availability for dispatch.


Background Little epidemiological evidence exists regarding the chronic respiratory effects of inhaled powdered toner exposure in humans, although several case reports have suggested the existence of lung disorders that might be related to exposure to toner dust. Objective We aimed to estimate the chronic health risk to humans associated with routine toner dust exposure in copier industry workers under current actual work conditions. Design A prospective observational cohort study of occupational population. Methods Changes in chest radiogram, spirometry measurements and serum and urine biomarkers of biomedical responses to extrinsic stress, as well as subjective symptoms were longitudinally observed for up to 10 years in Japanese copier industry workers responsible for the manufacturing, maintenance or recycling of powdered toner or toner-using machines. A total of 694 subjects who did not change their work category during the follow-up and were free from chronic respiratory diseases at the baseline survey provided reliable results on at least three survey occasions during 3 years or more of follow-up. Results Typical fibrosis findings associated with pneumoconiosis was not observed on chest radiograms. No significant differences associated with toner exposure were noted in the frequency of new incidence of either non-specific findings on chest radiogram or serum fibrosis biomarkers (sialylated carbohydrate antigen KL-6 and surfactant protein D). However, the exposed subjects tended to show increases in the frequency of respiratory symptoms and reduced spirometry results during the follow-up compared with the control group, although significant differences were only seen in chronic cough. Conclusions Under the current reasonably controlled work environmental conditions, lung fibrotic changes caused by inhaled dust exposure, including powdered toner, appear to be relatively uncommon; however, non-specific temporal irritation causing subjective symptoms and inflammatory responses might exist.


ABSTRACT Telomeres are associated with the nuclear matrix and are thought to be heterochromatic. We show here that in human cells the overexpression of green fluorescent protein-tagged heterochromatin protein 1 (GFP-HP1) or nontagged HP1 isoforms HP1Hsα or HP1Hsβ, but not HP1Hsγ, results in decreased association of a catalytic unit of telomerase (hTERT) with telomeres. However, reduction of the G overhangs and overall telomere sizes was found in cells overexpressing any of these three proteins. Cells overexpressing HP1Hsα or HP1Hsβ also display a higher frequency of chromosome end-to-end associations and spontaneous chromosomal damage than the parental cells. None of these effects were observed in cells expressing mutants of GFP-ΔHP1Hsα, GFP-ΔHP1Hsβ, or GFP-ΔHP1Hsγ that had their chromodomains deleted. An increase in the cell population doubling time and higher sensitivity to cell killing by ionizing radiation (IR) treatment was also observed for cells overexpressing HP1Hsα or HP1Hsβ. In contrast, cells expressing mutant GFP-ΔHP1Hsα or GFP-ΔHP1Hsβ showed a decrease in population doubling time and decreased sensitivity to IR compared to the parental cells. The effects on cell doubling times were paralleled by effects on tumorigenicity in mice: overexpression of HP1Hsα or HP1Hsβ suppressed tumorigenicity, whereas expression of mutant HP1Hsα or HP1Hsβ did not. Collectively, the results show that human cells are exquisitely sensitive to the amount of HP1Hsα or HP1Hsβ present, as their overexpression influences telomere stability, population doubling time, radioresistance, and tumorigenicity in a mouse xenograft model. In addition, the isoform-specific effects on telomeres reinforce the notion that telomeres are in a heterochromatinized state.


This The goal of nudge policy is generally presented as assisting people in finding their "true" preferences. Supporters argue that nudge policies meet a libertarian paternalism criterion. This claim has provoked complaints that nudge policies are unacceptably paternalistic. This paper suggests that by changing the explicit goal of nudge policy to a goal of making the choice of choice mechanism an explicit decision variable of the subgroup being affected by the nudge one can have a non-paternalistic nudge policy that better fits with the values inherent in Classical liberalism. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is not to achieve a better result as seen by government or by behavioral economists. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is to achieve a better result as seen by the agents being nudged as revealed through their choices of choice mechanisms. Examples are given of how nonpaternalistic nudge policy will and will not differ from paternalistic nudge policy.


The automated analysis of flow cytometry measurements is an active research field. We introduce a new algorithm, referred to as CytOpT, using regularized optimal transport to directly estimate the different cell population proportions from a biological sample characterized with flow cytometry measurements. We rely on the regularized Wasserstein metric to compare cytometry measurements from different samples, thus accounting for possible mis-alignment of a given cell population across sample (due to technical variability from the technology of measurements). In this work, we rely on a supervised learning technique based on the Wasserstein metric that is used to estimate an optimal re-weighting of class proportions in a mixture model from a source distribution (with known segmentation into cell sub-populations) to fit a target distribution with unknown segmentation. Due to the high-dimensionality of flow cytometry data, we use stochastic algorithms to approximate the regularized Wasserstein metric to solve the optimization problem involved in the estimation of optimal weights representing the cell population proportions in the target distribution. Several flow cytometry data sets are used to illustrate the performances of CytOpT that are also compared to those of existing algorithms for automatic gating based on supervised learning.


At this stage of Asia's development there is a need, and an opportunity, to establish a validation methodology that better gauges ESG implementation and sustainability aspirations in Asian private equity. Private equity, like major public market and debt investors such as Blackrock, has adopted language that suggests a proactive approach to ESG management. However, process-oriented ESG compliance presently far outstrips evidence of tangible contributions to ESG objectives and outcomes. This article describes a taxonomy of common approaches to ESG investment practices in Asian private equity and discusses their shortcomings. It then presents 'Deep ESG' as an alternative approach that operationalises ESG and sustainability metrics more holistically than existing frameworks. The Deep ESG framework enables a higher level of market-led intentionality that better informs institutional investors, regulators, communities, and employees as they evaluate private equity's 'balance sheet' of ESG outcomes. By investing in tools for goal setting, measurement and evaluation and applying them consistently across all target and portfolio companies, private equity managers can pivot away from a defensive approach by working with stakeholders to shape constructive solutions to urgent sustainability goals.


This work examines one section of southern Karnak from the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Excavations at the site uncovered extensive remains from the late New Kingdom (12th-11th c. BCE), Third Intermediate Period (11th-7th c. BCE), and Late Period occupation of the area (7th-4th c. BCE). The research questions focused on determining the function of this section of the city and the nature of its relationship to the neighbouring Mut temple. A close study of the architectural and ceramic evidence traces the changing roles of the area through time, with special emphasis on a large-scale mud-brick building discovered at the site.


The use of satellite measurements in climate studies promises many new scientific insights if those data can be efficiently exploited. Due to sparseness of daily data sets, there is a need to fill spatial gaps and to borrow strength from adjacent days. Nonetheless, these satellites are typically capable of conducting on the order of 100,000 retrievals per day, which makes it impossible to apply traditional spatio‐temporal statistical methods, even in supercomputing environments. To overcome these challenges, we make use of a spatio‐temporal mixed‐effects model. For each massive daily data set, dimension reduction is achieved by essentially modelling the underlying process as a linear combination of spatial basis functions on the globe. The application of a dynamical autoregressive model in time, over the reduced space, allows rapid sequential computation of optimal smoothing predictions via the Kalman smoother; this is known as Fixed Rank Smoothing (FRS). The dimension‐reduced mixed‐effects model contains a number of unknown parameters, including covariance and propagator matrices, which describe the spatial and temporal dependence structure in the reduced‐dimensional process. We take an empirical‐Bayes approach to inference, which involves estimating the parameters and substituting them into the optimal predictors. Method‐of‐moments (MM) parameter estimation (currently used in FRS) is typically inefficient compared to maximum likelihood (ML) estimation and can result in large sampling variability. Here, we develop ML estimation via an expectation‐maximization (EM) algorithm, which offers stable computation of valid estimators and makes efficient use of spatial and temporal dependence in the data. The two parameter‐estimation approaches, MM and ML, are compared in a simulation study. We also apply our methodology to global satellite CO2 measurements: We optimally smooth the sparse daily CO2 maps obtained by the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the Aqua satellite; then, using FRS with EM‐estimated parameters, a complete sequence of the daily global CO2 fields can be obtained, together with their associated prediction uncertainties.


The Joint Information and Systems Committee (JISC) have commissioned the Library and
Information Statistics Unit (LISU) to conduct a case study of the implementation of the
library-oriented portal known as MetaLib at the University Library at Loughborough. This case
study complements another joint JISC/LISU project which is conducting a national survey of all
Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) establishments to determine the level of
development of library portals. The findings of this survey will inform JISC and the community
on the current situation in the use of library portals.


Bayesian networks are now being used in a variety of artificial intelligence applications. These networks are high-level representations of probability distributions over a set of variables that are used for building a model of the problem domain. Bayesian Network Technologies: Applications and Graphical Models provides an excellent and well-balanced collection of areas where Bayesian networks have been successfully applied. This book describes the underlying concepts of Bayesian Networks in an interesting manner with the help of diverse applications, and theories that prove Bayesian networks valid. Bayesian Network Technologies: Applications and Graphical Models provides specific examples of how Bayesian networks are powerful machine learning tools critical in solving real-life problems.


This study examined new media literacy skills of university students based on Jenkins and his colleagues' classification. Toward this purpose, an online Likert scale was administered to a sample (n=170). This scale included a multi-component understanding of media literacy such as tackling the consumption of media messages and the original creation of multimedia material. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was 0,93. The instrument was structured around three main sections; demographics, media use characteristics, and new media literacies (NMLs). The third section aimed to assess participants' new media literacy skills by presenting them 60 items about their social and cultural modes of engagement, online interaction, and media consumption and creation patterns. The statements were conceptually built around the 12 NMLs skills identified by Jenkins and his colleagues. These skills are: Play, appropriation, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, negotiation, and visualization. The results of the study showed that individuals who spent more time on Internet, social media, and blogging had the highest NMLs levels. Furthermore, young participants' NMLs levels were higher than those over the age of 32.


In 1961, Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") Chairman Newton Minow expressed a lack of confidence in the services provided by broadcasters. (1) He challenged people to sit in front of their television for a day to see if they would observe, as he had, a vast wasteland. The Federal Communications Law Journal has asked us to take up Minow's challenge today. Yet, as a current FCC Commissioner, I find that it is not my place to make value judgments on the content of broadcasts. Newton Minow's speech goes to the heart of the most basic constitutional right, the right of free speech as protected by the Constitution. I believe that FCC Commissioners must tread carefully in regulating, or even passing judgments, on the quality of programming content. In exercising our regulatory duties, we should be mindful of the need to protect and preserve free speech. In this regard, I am guided by two principles. First, Congress has legislated standards for the Commission to apply, and to the extent that courts hold these standards to be constitutionally permissible, we should enforce Congress's laws and courts' decisions regardless of our own personal predilections. Second, the Commission must refrain from making personal judgments about the messages that the media delivers. The Commission's area of responsibility is to enforce Congress's laws. Broadcasters, in contrast, are the proper parties to make judgments regarding overall media content. It is important to recognize that broadcasters do not act alone. The American public places an important check on the role of the media. With respect to congressional guidance, legislation gives the FCC direction on how to balance the right of free speech against other public interests. For example, Congress directed the Commission to enforce restrictions on indecency (2) and, at renewal time, to consider the extent to which a licensee has served the educational and informational needs of children. (3) As a result of this guidance, the FCC adopted clear and explicit regulations on when indecent programming may be aired (4) and how broadcasters must comply with their duty to serve the educational and informational needs of children. (5) Congress also gave the Commission authority to prescribe guidelines for the identification and rating of programming that contains sexual or violent material, and to require distributors of such video programming to transmit such ratings in the event that voluntary guidelines for doing so had not been established by the industry. (6) In these areas, Congress crafted a careful balance between protecting First Amendment rights, on one hand, and on the other, protecting our children from objectionable material and providing for their educational growth. Thus, where Congress has, in a constitutionally permissible way, balanced other important governmental interests against free speech interests, the Commission is bound to follow the congressional directives. In other areas, however, Congress has not legislated. In these circumstances, the Commission is often pressured to act on its own by regulating, or even passing judgment, on what are deemed to be "good" or "bad" messages, or on what is "good" or "bad" television. Those who encourage the Commission to act are often motivated by what they truly believe would be a desirable result. On these issues, however, the Commission cannot begin to stray across the line and start regulating messages based on content. We should not be making personal judgments that reflect our own tastes or desires. Indeed, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently held that the FCC cannot use its general powers under Section 1 of the Communications Act of 1934 for authority to regulate program content: To avoid potential First Amendment issues, the very general provisions of [section] 1 have not been construed to go so far as to authorize the FCC to regulate program content. …


Image-based virtual try-on is one of the most promising applications of human-centric image generation due to its tremendous real-world potential. Yet, as most try-on approaches fit in-shop garments onto a target person, they require the laborious and restrictive construction of a paired training dataset, severely limiting their scalability. While a few recent works attempt to transfer garments directly from one person to another, alleviating the need to collect paired datasets, their performance is impacted by the lack of paired (supervised) information. In particular, disentangling style and spatial information of the garment becomes a challenge, which existing methods either address by requiring auxiliary data or extensive online optimization procedures, thereby still inhibiting their scalability. To achieve a \emph{scalable} virtual try-on system that can transfer arbitrary garments between a source and a target person in an unsupervised manner, we thus propose a texture-preserving end-to-end network, the PAtch-routed SpaTially-Adaptive GAN (PASTA-GAN), that facilitates real-world unpaired virtual try-on. Specifically, to disentangle the style and spatial information of each garment, PASTA-GAN consists of an innovative patch-routed disentanglement module for successfully retaining garment texture and shape characteristics. Guided by the source person keypoints, the patch-routed disentanglement module first decouples garments into normalized patches, thus eliminating the inherent spatial information of the garment, and then reconstructs the normalized patches to the warped garment complying with the target person pose. Given the warped garment, PASTA-GAN further introduces novel spatially-adaptive residual blocks that guide the generator to synthesize more realistic garment details.


The Balearic Islands (Mallorca and Menorca) were conquered by Rome in 123 B.C. through a campaign lead by the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus . Written sources inform of the foundation of two cities in Mallorca, Palma (nowadays capital of the island) and Pollentia (Alcudia). With the Roman occupation, a progressive new organisation and exploitation of the countryside was also witnessed. However, evidence of ancient Roman villas is still very scarce, and the first examples are dated from the Augustan era (27 BC-14 AD). The villa of Sa Mesquida, on the western coast of Mallorca, is one of the few examples documented and partially excavated in the 80s and 90s of the 20 th century. The remains preserved belong to a structure, beginning in the Augustan era, composed of a series of rooms organised around a courtyard, a pottery kiln for coarse ceramics and a cistern that was used later as a rubbish dump in Late Antiquity. A recent project developed in 2010 provided new data concerning stratigraphy, architectural evolution and the activities that were developed during its history. This new set of data allowed us to create a preliminary hypothesis on the architectural form, distribution and evolution of the building. This hypothesis will be represented in a Virtual Reality model of the building, which is part of the interpretative process. New questions emerged during the construction of the model, and fresh hypotheses have been addressed as a result of this process. Furthermore, the environment of the archaeological site has been changed through history. The first main alteration has been a draining work that affected the wetland beside the coast. Touristic development provoked an extensive urbanisation of the area that destroyed part of the site, and the preserved structures remained surrounded by modern buildings. The ancient landscape was very different than what we can see today, and it is important to take into account the visibility that could be witnessed from the site towards the wetlands, the sea and other archaeological sites of the area. To achieve a realistic approach, the villa virtual reality model was incorporated to a terrain model of the surrounding geography. In future research we will explore the possible impact of the location of the villa on the landscape.


The present work investigates the possibility of selective electrochemical metal deposition on ion implanted p-Si. The idea is that defects introduced into the substrate by ion implantation make it more susceptible to electrochemical reactions compared to intact Si; this increased sensitivity is to be used for selective reactions at the defect sites. It is believed that the increased reactivity is due to a lowering of the Schottky barrier breakdown potential, Ubd, of the semiconductor-electrolyte interface due to the introduction of additional energy states in the semiconductor's bandgap. These additional states may be used for facilitated charge transfer by direct tunnelling enabling spatially well defined electrochemical reactions at the implant sites. In a first step the damage created by ion implantation (Ga+ and Au2+ by focused ion beam, FIB; Ga+ by broadband ion implantation, BII) was analyzed and compared to numerical simulations. Optical microscopy, REM, AFM, and Raman spectroscopy were for characterisation. It was found that the damage created was in good agreement with the theoretical models: more damage was created for heavier ions and higher ion doses. AFM proofed to be a valuable tool to assess surface sputtering for high implant doses, while optical microscopy was more sensitive for low doses. Raman spectroscopy was used to determine the degree of amorphization of the substrate. We found that amorphization doses varied considerably depending on the implantation mode used. For BII the dose needed for amorphization was similar to values reported in the literature, while FIB implantation needed doses roughly 50 times higher. We assume that this is due to the very high current fluences in the FIB combined with short pixel dwell times during the implantation process; both these factors promote self healing of the substrate, hence a higher dose is needed for amorphization to take place. Deposition experiments at different potentials and in different electrolytes on samples implanted with varying doses lead to the following findings. Selective electrodeposition on ion implanted p-Si is possible, however, deposition conditions have to be chosen carefully. Low and high (close to or above the amorphization limit) implant doses lead to unsatisfactory deposits (sample not fully covered). We assume that in the first case, not enough defect sites are present for sufficient formation of initial nuclei, while in the second case the amorphous substrate seems to behave as an insulator making any deposition virtually impossible. Also, for the successful deposition of Cu from an acidic electrolyte, benzotriazole, a brightening agent, was added to improve deposit quality. The result were finely grained, even, and well delimited deposits with a resolution matching that of the implant process (  200 nm). Deposition time and potential are crucial too, as long times and more cathodic potentials promote outgrowth, while short deposition times and potentials close to the open cell potential, ocp, may not suffice to cover the implant site completely. Microcapillary measurements were used to measure on either intact or implanted sites only, thereby minimizing other, undesirable influences. It was found that on intact Si, the Schottky diode stays intact down to potentials as low as several V, whereas on implanted Si reactions began to take place typically below -500mV indicating that the Schottky barrier has broken down. Also, amorphous samples showed a different behaviour from all the others without any distinct Ubd and an ocp shifted by several hundred mV towards more cathodic potentials. Finally, samples implanted by ion projection direct structuring, IPDS, were used to test the suitability for possible industrial applications. It was found that, even though implant conditions were quite different from before (noble gas ions at 75 keV vs. Ga+ at 30keV) selective electrochemistry was still possible. Patterns as small as 150 nm were resolved over a surface of several mm2.


For many years, the docket books kept by a number of the justices of the Hughes Court have been held by the Office of the Curator of the Supreme Court. Yet the existence of these docket books was not widely known, and access to them was highly restricted. Recently, however, the Court adopted new guidelines designed to increase access to the docket books for researchers. This article offers the first-ever examination of the available docket book entries relevant to what scholars commonly regard as the major decisions of rendered during the late years of the Hughes Court, from the 1937 through the 1940 Terms. The decisions examined concern the Commerce Clause, the dormant Commerce Clause, substantive due process, equal protection, the general law, antitrust, labor relations, intergovernmental tax immunities, criminal procedure, civil rights, and civil liberties. The information in the docket books sheds new light on decisions such as Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, South Carolina State Highway Department v. Barnwell Bros., Inc., Lane v. Wilson, Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman, and United States v. Darby Lumber Co., and helps to explain how a nine-justice Court divided evenly on one of the issues in Coleman v. Miller. The docket books often reveal the justices' remarks at their conference deliberations over major cases, and illuminate many previously unknown changes in justices' positions between the conference votes and their final votes on the merits. Analysis of the voting data contained in the docket books yields some surprising results, and offers a contribution to two bodies of political science scholarship on judicial behavior: the literature on vote fluidity and unanimity norms in the Supreme Court, and the literature on the so-called "freshman effect" that some scholars have found exhibited by the Court's newest members. In particular, the analysis documents the prominent contribution that new justices, who disdained the Court's longstanding norm of acquiescence in the judgments of conference majorities, made to the substantial increase in the percentage of its cases that the Court decided by a divided vote. The analysis further reveals the significant part played by the last remnants of the Old Court in retarding what would become a precipitous decline in unanimity rates under Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone.


: The paper´s objective is to define significant technological factors in the areas of human capital availability and research and development affecting the quality of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their business environment, and to quantify differences between the Czech Republic (CR) and the Slovak Republic (SR). Based on the objective, empirical research was conducted including data from 312 SMEs in the CR and 329 SMEs in the SR processed with the use of Chi-squared tests and Z-scores. The research showed differences in assessing defined technological factors between the CR and the SR, and also confirmed a low level of the assessed factors in both countries. Furthermore, overall satisfaction with the quality of secondary schools and universities is relatively low despite the fact that the research showed a higher level of satisfaction with the quality of university education in both countries. In the Czech Republic, entrepreneurs largely experience a shortage of skilled workforce, with this factor achieving the highest negative rating. The Slovak entrepreneurs most negatively assessed the level of state support of research and development. Moreover, the entrepreneurs´ overall level of satisfaction with the research and development infrastructure is relatively low, since only 23.08% of the Czech and 13.68% of the Slovak entrepreneurs agreed that the infrastructure is well built in their respective country. Similar results were also obtained in assessing state support of research and development. At the same time, it was found that research and development results help the entrepreneurs only to a limited extent, and the entrepreneurs in both countries are not very optimistic about future development of their business activities.


This paper develops a new hidden pilots based algorithm for the carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation of multicarrier DS-CDMA (MC-DS-CDMA) systems. Multiple CFO of different users in the uplink of MC-DS-CDMA systems may violate the orthogonality among subcarriers and induce both inter-carrier interference (ICI) and inter-user interference (IUI). This algorithm utilizes mutually orthogonal hidden pilots for each user and implements fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the received signal matrix after the average operation on its column vectors, so the interference including the IUI caused by users¿ data symbols are greatly depressed and CFOs can be estimated with the performance close to the conventional pilot-based CFO estimator without the requirement of extra transmission bandwidth. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach with CFOs in the fine tracking phase and the slowly time-varying flat-fading channels.


Imaging through scattering is an important yet challenging problem. Tremendous progress has been made by exploiting the deterministic input–output "transmission matrix" for a fixed medium. However, this "one-to-one" mapping is highly susceptible to speckle decorrelations – small perturbations to the scattering medium lead to model errors and severe degradation of the imaging performance. Our goal here is to develop a new framework that is highly scalable to both medium perturbations and measurement requirement. To do so, we propose a statistical "one-to-all" deep learning (DL) technique that encapsulates a wide range of statistical variations for the model to be resilient to speckle decorrelations. Specifically, we develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) that is able to learn the statistical information contained in the speckle intensity patterns captured on a set of diffusers having the same macroscopic parameter. We then show for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that the trained CNN is able to generalize and make high-quality object predictions through an entirely different set of diffusers of the same class. Our work paves the way to a highly scalable DL approach for imaging through scattering media.


BACKGROUND:In this study, we examined the relationship between postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) and intraoperative regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) in elderly patients undergoing spinal surgery. METHODS:We enrolled 87 patients older than 65 years. All patients were tested using a battery of cognitive function tests (Korean Mini-Mental State Examination and visuomotor test of Dynamic Lowenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment–Geriatric Version) the day before their surgical operation and on the seventh postoperative day. Our threshold for defining POCD for a given patient was a Reliable Change Index score of <−1.96 occurring on 2 tests. RESULTS:POCD was detected in 20 patients (23%) at the seventh postoperative day. Between-patient baseline characteristics, surgical data, and baseline cognitive function were similar for both those who developed POCD and those who did not. A univariate analysis that included age, female sex, education level, presence of diabetes, and duration of intraoperative decline in rSO2 to a level of <60% of baseline revealed that only diabetes and duration of rSO2 <60% (odds ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.005–1.010) were found to be risk factors for POCD. After multivariate logistic regression analysis of these 2 variables, only the duration of rSO2 <60% (odds ratio, 1.006; 95% CI, 1.00–1.01, P = 0.014) remained as an independent risk factor for POCD. The area under the receiver operation characteristic of the duration of rSO2 <60% was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.57–0.82; P = 0.008). The optimal cutoff value was 157 minutes with a sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 72%. CONCLUSIONS:This study showed that the duration of decline in rSO2 <60% during lumbar spinal surgery was correlated with the development of POCD at the seventh postoperative day in elderly patients.


Continuous stepwise liquid-phase epitaxial (LPE) growth is one of the most effective procedures for structuring metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as two-dimensional superstructures, such as thin-films. Alternation of the building block precursors between the individual LPE growth cycles (i.e. from one linker to the other) allows heterostructured MOF films consisting of two different MOFs with different structural or chemical properties to be synthesized with a precise control of the growth sequence. Here, we employ the LPE growth strategy for the preparation of highly functional, hierarchically structured core–shell architectures consisting of [Zn4O(3,5-dialkylcarboxypyrazolate)3]n-based frameworks. Specifically, the small-pore [Zn4O(3-methyl-5-isopropyl-4-carboxypyrazolate)3]n (Zn-MI) and [Zn4O(3,5-diethyl-4-carboxypyrazolate)3]n (Zn-DE) frameworks are respectively deposited as a size selective layer upon larger-pore [Zn4O(3,5-dimethyl-4-carboxypyrazolate)3]n (Zn-DM) and [Zn4O(3-methyl-5-ethyl-4-carboxypyrazolate)3]n (Zn-ME) layers. Direct growth of the MOF layers on the Au surfaces of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors allowed the adsorption properties of the heterostructures to be probed in real-time. Multiple-component adsorption experiments in an environment-controlled QCM apparatus revealed size selectivity with respect to the adsorption of alcohols, as well as the molecular recognition of methanol over water. These properties stem from the positioning of the small-pore Zn-MI (or Zn-DE) layer on the larger-pore Zn-DM (or Zn-ME) layer, facilitating attractive synergistic properties for adsorptive selectivity and providing a possibility for further development in MOF-based sensing applications.


This paper deals with the problem of tackling the adverse effect of output growth on environmental quality. For this purpose we use an intermediate sector that builds putty-practically-clay capital consisting of an amalgam of energy and raw capital used for final goods production. The putty-practically-clay model is a strongly simplified version of a full putty-clay model, that mimics all the relevant behaviour of a full putty-clay model, but that does not entail the administrative complications of a full putty-clay model. In addition, we introduce an R&D sector that develops renewable and conventional energy-related technologies. The allocation of R&D activities over these two uses of R&D gives rise to an induced bias in technical change in line with Kennedy (1964). In the context of our model, this implies that technological progress is primarily driven by the desire to counteract the upward pressure on production cost implied by a continuing price increase of conventional energy resources. By means of illustrative model simulations we study the effects of energy policy on the dynamics of the model for alternative policy options aimed at achieving Greenhouse Gas emission reductions. We identify the conditions under which energy policy might partly backfire and present some non-standard policy implications.


In this thesis, I investigate a hybrid knowledge representation approach that combines classic knowledge representations, such as rules and ontologies, with other cognitively plausible representations, such as prototypes and exemplars. The resulting framework can combine the strengths of each approach of knowledge representation, avoiding their weaknesses. It can be used for developing knowledge-based systems that combine logic-based reasoning and similarity-based reasoning in problem-solving processes.


In addition to the transferable skills necessary for success in any professional discipline, the study of advertising requires students to develop both Left hemisphere logical/critical skills as well as Right hemisphere spatial/visual skills. This research project exposed students with a wide range of different learning tasks in an effort to determine which tasks (or which combination and sequence of tasks) helped first-year advertising students to understand core material and to fulfil defined Learning Objectives. It was found that the two most significant factors in students" ability to succeed were i) attendance is scheduled sessions and ii), the number of UCAS points with which they were admitted to the programme. These findings are consistent with those reported by Schwartz (2004) that "Prior educational attainment data remains the best single indicator of success at undergraduate level". The implications of the clear link established between students" UCAS points and the ability to fulfil the defined Learning Objectives remains a source of concern for the programme team because, in the past three years (2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11) the proportion of students admitted to the programme with the minimum number of UCAS points required for entry has steadily decreased.


We present a characteristic-free algorithm for computing minimal generating sets of invariant rings of permutation groups. We circumvent the main weaknesses of the usual approaches (using classical Grobner basis inside the full polynomial ring, or pure linear algebra inside the invariant ring) by relying on the theory of SAGBI- Grobner basis. This theory takes, in this special case, a strongly combinatorial flavor, which makes it particularly effective. Our algorithm does not require the computation of a Hironaka decomposition, nor even the computation of a system of parameters, and could be parallelized. Our implementation, as part of the library $permuvar$ for $mupad$, is in many cases much more efficient than the other existing software.


Addressing the methodological and topical challenges facing demographers working in remote regions, this book compares and contrasts the research, methods and models, and policy applications from peripheral regions in developed nations. With the emphasis on human populations as dynamic, adaptive, evolving systems, it explores how populations respond in different ways to changing environmental, cultural and economic conditions and how effectively they manage these change processes. Theoretical understandings and policy issues arising from demographic modelling are tackled including: competition for skilled workers; urbanisation and ruralisation; population ageing; the impacts of climate change; the life outcomes of Indigenous peoples; globalisation and international migration. Based on a strong theoretical framework around issues of heterogeneity, generational change, temporariness and the relative strength of internal and external ties, Demography at the Edge provides a common set of approaches and issues that benefit both researchers and practitioners.


In dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), ultrafast electron injection from a photoexcited molecular sensitizer into the conduction band of a wide- bandgap semiconductor is key to efficient charge separation. According to the current understanding of DSCs functioning, charges are separated directly during this primary electron transfer process, yielding mobile hot conduction band electrons in the solid and holes localized on oxidized dye molecules at the surface. Basing on combined femtosecond transient absorption and time-resolved THz experimental data, we show here that intermediate interfacial charge transfer states (CTS) are rather formed upon ultrafast injection from photoexcited Ru(II)-polypyridyl sensitizers into mesoporous TiO2 films. Formation and dissociation of these CTS were found to strongly depend on their environment. This finding founds a new mechanism for charge separation in DSCs. It also provides a rationale for the effect of the electrolyte composition in liquid-based devices and of ion doping in solid-state solar cells under working conditions.