BACKGROUND
Trauma is a leading cause of death in the developing world. Blunt thoracic trauma represents a major burden of disease in both adults and children. Few studies have investigated the differences between these two patient groups.

OBJECTIVE
To compare mechanism of injury, presentation, management and outcome in children and adults with blunt thoracic trauma.

METHODS
Patients were identified from the database of the trauma intensive care unit at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, Durban, South Africa. Demographics and relevant data were extracted from a pre-existing database.

RESULTS
Of 415 patients admitted to the unit, 331 (79.7%) were adults and 84 (20.2%) children aged < 18 years. The median injury severity score (ISS) was similar for both age groups (32 v. 34; p = 0.812). Adults had a higher lactate level at presentation (3.94 v. 2.60 mmol/L; p = 0.001). Of the children, 96.4% were injured in motor vehicle collisions, 75.0% as pedestrians. Compared with adults, children had significantly fewer rib fractures (20.2% v. 42.0%; p < 0.001), flail chests (2.4% v. 26.3%; p<0.001) and.blunt cardiac injuries (BCIs) (9.5% v. 23.6%; p = 0.004), but sustained more lung contusions (79.8% v. 65.6%; p = 0.013). Mortality in children was significantly lower than in adults (16.7% v. 27.8%; p = 0.037).

CONCLUSION
Thoracic injuries in children are the result of pedestrian collisions more often than in adults. They suffer fewer rib fractures and BCIs, but more lung contusions. Despite similar ISSs, children have significantly lower mortality than adults. More effort needs to be concentrated on child safety and preventing pedestrian injury.


In the current "Syntactic Web", uninterpreted syntactic constructs are given meaning only by private off-line agreements that are inaccessible to computers. In the Semantic Web vision, this is replaced by a web where both data and its semantic definition are accessible and manipulable by computer software. DAML+OIL is an ontology language specifically designed for this use in the Web; it exploits existing Web standards (XML and RDF), adding the familiar ontological primitives of object oriented and frame based systems, and the formal rigor of a very expressive description logic. The definition of DAML+OIL is now over a year old, and the language has been in fairly widespread use. In this paper, we review DAML+OIL's relation with its key ingredients (XML, RDF, OIL, DAML-ONT, Description Logics), we discuss the design decisions and trade-offs that were the basis for the language definition, and identify a number of implementation challenges posed by the current language. These issues are important for designers of other representation languages for the Semantic Web, be they competitors or successors of DAML+OIL, such as the language currently under definition by W3C.


The dynamics of cloud cavitation about rigid and flexible 3D hydrofoils is investigated in a cavitation tunnel. The two hydrofoils have identical undeformed geometry of tapered planform, NACA-0009 section and cantilevered setup at the hydrofoil root. The rigid model is made of stainless steel and the flexible model of carbon and glass-fibre reinforced epoxy resin with an effectively quasi-isotropic lay-up without material bend-twist coupling. Tests were conducted at a fixed incidence of 6°, a chord-based Reynolds number of 0.7×106 and a cavitation number ranging from 1.0 to 0.2. Unsteady force measurements were made simultaneously with high-speed imaging to enable correlation of forces and with cavity dynamics. High-resolution force spectra at discrete cavitation numbers and separate pressure sweeps were taken to acquire spectrograms of frequency response as a function of cavitation number. Three shedding modes, designated as types 1, 2 and 3, are apparent for both rigid and flexible hydrofoils although significant differences in peak amplitudes were observed. Types 2 and 3 shedding occur at high cavitation numbers where frequency varied with cavitation number and high-speed imaging showed the dominant shedding mechanism to be due to re-entrant jet formation. The type 1 shedding that developed with reduction in cavitation number, once cavity lengths grew to about full-chord, occurred at a nominally constant frequency. In this case, the imaging showed the dominant mechanism to be shockwave formation. This behaviour has been reported upon extensively in literature although there are some new features apparent from the data. The flexibility of the composite hydrofoil was found to increase the magnitude of the force fluctuations for the low frequency type 1 mode compared to the rigid hydrofoil. However, hydrofoil flexibility was seen to dampen the fluctuating magnitude of the high-frequency type 2 and 3 modes, despite being close to the hydrofoil's natural frequency.


Abstract In this study, three patients presenting with early or late postoperative Fontan complications were identified to suffer from restriction of the native atrial septum. This caused significant obstruction to pulmonary venous return and elevated systemic venous pressure. Dobutamine stress testing was used in one patient to identify this lesion. Transcatheter stenting was performed in the other two patients. Patients improved after relief of the obstruction.


We present a resource-management model for ML-style programming languages, designed to be compatible with the OCaml philosophy and runtime model. This is a proposal to extend the OCaml language with destructors, move semantics, and resource polymorphism, to improve its safety, efficiency, interoperability, and expressiveness. It builds on the ownership-and-borrowing models of systems programming languages (Cyclone, C++11, Rust) and on linear types in functional programming (Linear Lisp, Clean, Alms). It continues a synthesis of resources from systems programming and resources in linear logic initiated by Baker. It is a combination of many known and some new ideas. On the novel side, it highlights the good mathematical structure of Stroustrup's "Resource acquisition is initialisation" (RAII) idiom for resource management based on destructors, a notion sometimes confused with finalizers, and builds on it a notion of resource polymorphism, inspired by polarisation in proof theory, that mixes C++'s RAII and a tracing garbage collector (GC). The proposal targets a new spot in the design space, with an automatic and predictable resource-management model, at the same time based on lightweight and expressive language abstractions. It is backwards-compatible: current code is expected to run with the same performance, the new abstractions fully combine with the current ones, and it supports a resource-polymorphic extension of libraries. It does so with only a few additions to the runtime, and it integrates with the current GC implementation. It is also compatible with the upcoming multicore extension, and suggests that the Rust model for eliminating data-races applies. Interesting questions arise for a safe and practical type system, many of which have already been thoroughly investigated in the languages and prototypes Cyclone, Rust, and Alms.


The proximate composition, market prices and production cost per unit kilogram of four common meat types were investigated in the south-western area of Nigeria. The meat types were beef, broiler, Claria lazera and Tilapia macrocephala and the parameters were crude protein (%),ether extract (%),ash(%),crude fibre (%) and nitrogen-free extract (%) and average market prices of the meat types. One hundred grammes of each of the meat sample were obtained from freshly slaughtered cow, broiler chicken and fishes. Each sample was subdivided into four replicates which were later subjected proximate analyses in a completely randomized design (CRD) while current market prices of each of the meat samples were investigated. Beef had the highest crude protein and fat content, while broiler meat and Clarias lazera had higher mineral content than others. However, none of the samples had crude fibre. Meanwhile, Tilapia macrocephala (N42.00 per 100g fresh weight) was the cheapest while broiler meat was the most expensive (N57.00 per 100g fresh weight). Beef had the highest level of crude protein than other meat types while Tilapia macrocephala was the cheapest meat type in south-western Nigeria as at the time of this study.


UN peacekeepers today do far more than patrol a ceasefire line. In most cases, there is no frontline, no truce, numerous parties and among them some armed groups seeking to undermine a settlement. In short, the UN is attempting to conduct peacekeeping in places where there is no peace to keep. Unfortunately the UN has failed to adequately develop the instruments to identify armed groups, and then deal with the challenge they pose. This book is a policy guide for UN missions. It analyses the nature of non-permissive UN mission environments and argues that the UN should think afresh about its approach to missions in these settings. By embracing and developing three concepts – robust peacekeeping, political processes, and the protection of civilians – the UN can arrive at a stabilisation doctrine.


Aim: Vitamin D deficiency is a clinical condition prevalent world over and frequency studies estimate the same to be around 40% to 90%. Though diet and lifestyle have a major contribution towards blood levels of vitamin D, studying the deficiency prevalence demography-wise is important to chart specific remedial recommendations. Materials and Methods: Our study is aimed at presenting vitamin D status in a large cohort of over 10,000 Asian Indians. The study cohort consisted of a total of 10,379 Indians, inclusive of 4470 males and 5909 females. Serum vitamin D estimation was done using the analytical platform of Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). Levels of < 20 ng/mL was considered deficient while levels between 21 – 30 ng/mL was reported to be insufficient. Result: The frequency of vitamin D deficiency was detected to be 54.5%. The prevalence was detected to be higher in males at 56.7% as compared to females at 52.8% and the difference was found to be statistically significant. Agewise analysis detected maximum frequency of deficiency in the 10 25 years group at 69.7%. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is a public health concern in India and routine screening of this micronutrient is crucial among Indians wherein the prevalence has been detected to be high.


Introduction (2) Advertisements or ads arc certainly not short of definitions, although the language of advertising seems to have received little attention from linguists in the past. Many descriptions take a utilitarian view of advertising and as Bell's (1991) does, as functioning 'to persuade, challenge, seize audience's attention, tell an anecdote ...' or what shows distinctiveness in products (Harris -- Seldon 1962: 236). There are, of course, definitions of ads that have examined their effects on people and the society in general, i.e. definitions that are psycho-sociological in perspective. For example, Hogarth (1965) simply dismisses ads as forms of emotional blackmail and exploitation while O'Donell and Todd (1980: 104) assert that they appeal to our greed and fear. Vestergaard and Schroder (1985) see ads as society's mirror, or the psychological temperature of a society. Such is the impact of ads that Collum (1939: 32) describes ads as "the strongest, most concentrated, and most conscious form of meaning-making to which Americans are exposed". It is not surprising, therefore, that Lund (1947: 83) rightly points out that an adman's tasks are many: attracting attention, arousing interest, stimulating desire, creating conviction, and getting action. These utilitarian definitions should, however, not be seen as relegating linguistic or pseudo-linguistic descriptions to the background, for as Leech (1966: 66) has argued, adver tising is a "sub-literary" genre. Besides, he adds (1966: 25) that its functional scope is very wide and, perhaps, vague, shading into 'neighboring areas as public announcements, public relations and public polemics'. The identification of the various types of advertising is also an indirect way of defining ads. For example, a criterion based on technique may be used to classify ads into hard sell (based on direct approach) and soft sell (based on indirect exhortation), or to distinguish informative from competitive/persuasive advertising. Besides, Bell (1991) observes that in press advertising we may distinguish display advertising from classifieds. A definition based on the profit-motif or the nature of income may encourage the distinction between commercial and non-commercial advertising as Vestergaard and Schroder (1985) have pointed out. Indeed, the existence of non-commercial ads is thrown into greater relief by Cook's (1992: 5) observation that some discourses perceived as ads do not sell anything but merely "plead or warn or seek support" as in the case of ads urging citizens to support a particular government policy. Cook's categorisation of ads by medium, product (service), technique and consumer is, in this resp ect, very instructive. 1. Previous research The fact that until recently, (about the last fifteen years) advertising language had received little research attention compelled Garfinkel to complain about the paucity of such research in 1978. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that he could review only two major previous works -- Leech (1966) and Langendoen (1970) -- in the introductory chapter of his study of the problem of truth and the internal structure of advertising as discourse from a sociolinguistic point of view. Besides, Leech's early study confined itself to an examination of the type of language advertisers of consumer products use in Britain, thus leaving out an equally important description of ads as discourse. Some other studies include those of O'Barr (1979) and Bolinger (1980) both of which examine the persuasive import in advertising language, and Geis (1982) which goes beyond a mere linguistic characterisation of the features of the language of ads and examines how some frequently-used linguistic devices, e.g. "strong sounding but logically weak or empirically indeterminate language" used in interesting and problematic ways, contribute to the consumers' understanding of the language of television advertising in the US. …


mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) is a serine/threonine protein kinase which belongs to the family of phosphoinositide 3-kinase related kinases (PIKK), which also includes ATR, ATM, DNA-PK, SMG1 and TRRAP. mTOR contains several conserved protein-protein interaction modules at the N-terminus and a protein kinase domain at the C-terminus. The regulatory interactions of mTOR are mainly mediated by HEAT (Huntingtin, Elongation factor 3, protein phosphatase 2A, and TOR1) repeats and FAT (FRAP, ATM and TRRAP) domains. In contrast to other PIKK family members, mTOR possesses a unique FRB (FKBP12/Rapamycin Binding) domain which mediates the interaction with the FKBP12/rapamycin inhibitory complex. mTOR is a key component of two distinct multi-protein complexes in mammalian cells, termed mTOR complex 1 (TORC1) and mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2). A diverse range of extracellular and intracellular signals stimulate both mTOR complexes to regulate cell growth, survival and proliferation. Dysregulation of mTOR signalling has been implicated in various human pathologies, including cancer, inflammation, neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders. Therefore, mTOR is an attractive target for drug discovery. In cancer research, mTOR inhibitors have shown a potent anti-proliferative activity in pre-clinical studies and several of these are currently being evaluated in clinical trials. There is only one mTOR gene in higher vertebrates, which is known to encode two splicing isoforms: mTORα and mTORβ. In contrast to the full length mTORα protein, mTORβ lacks most of its protein-protein interaction modules, HEAT and FAT, but retains domains responsible for FKBP12/rapamycin binding, protein kinase activity and regulation. Importantly, mTORβ was shown to shorten considerably the G1 phase of the cell cycle, to stimulate cell proliferation and to possess oncogenic potential in cell-based and xenograft studies. Like other PIKK family members, there is increasing evidence of the presence of mTOR splicing isoforms. The main aim of this study was to identify new mTOR splicing isoforms and to determine their molecular characterization. In addition we aim to explore the ability of these isoforms to phosphorylate known mTOR targets such as 4E-BP1. Furthermore, we aim to study the role of the new isoforms in the mTOR–mediated cellular processes, such as cell proliferation, and the contribution of the identified isoforms in the oncogenic characteristics of cells. In this study, we have employed bioinformatics, biochemical, cell and molecular techniques to identify and characterize two novel mTOR splicing isoforms, denoted mTORδ and mTORγ. When compared to mTORα, the mTORδ splice variant contains only the N-terminal HEAT repeats and a unique C-terminal region, while the mTORγ isoform possesses a 12 amino acid deletion in the kinase domain. The existence of the mTORδ isoform was confirmed at mRNA and protein levels by identifying corresponding EST clones and detecting the splice variant with specific anti–mTORδ antibodies. Furthermore, we have found several EST clones corresponding to the mTORγ splicing variant. In contrast to mTORα and the mTOR activated mutant S2215Y, the stably expressed mTORδ and mTORγ lack the kinase activity in vitro. It was also found that stable overexpression of mTORδ and mTORγ splice variants in HEK293T cells inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation in soft agar. These findings suggest that identified novel isoforms have the potential to regulate the mTOR signalling pathway in a dominant–negative manner.


Predicting the impacts of ocean acidification on coastal ecosystems requires an understanding of the effects on macroalgae and their grazers, as these underpin the ecology of rocky shores. Whilst calcified coralline algae (Rhodophyta) appear to be especially vulnerable to ocean acidification, there is a lack of information concerning calcified brown algae (Phaeophyta), which are not obligate calcifiers but are still important producers of calcium carbonate and organic matter in shallow coastal waters. Here, we compare ecological shifts in subtidal rocky shore systems along CO2 gradients created by volcanic seeps in the Mediterranean and Papua New Guinea, focussing on abundant macroalgae and grazing sea urchins. In both the temperate and tropical systems the abundances of grazing sea urchins declined dramatically along CO2 gradients. Temperate and tropical species of the calcifying macroalgal genus Padina (Dictyoaceae, Phaeophyta) showed reductions in CaCO3 content with CO2 enrichment. In contrast to other studies of calcified macroalgae, however, we observed an increase in the abundance of Padina spp. in acidified conditions. Reduced sea urchin grazing pressure and significant increases in photosynthetic rates may explain the unexpected success of decalcified Padina spp. at elevated levels of CO2. This is the first study to provide a comparison of ecological changes along CO2 gradients between temperate and tropical rocky shores. The similarities we found in the responses of Padina spp. and sea urchin abundance at several vent systems increases confidence in predictions of the ecological impacts of ocean acidification over a large geographical range.


Lysimeters were used to estimate seasonal water use of wet meadows and phreatophytes in northern Utah, southeast Idaho and southwest Wyoming (1983-1990). Twelve water table lysimeters (approx. 1 m square) were placed in high elevation irrigated meadows while others were used to estimate evapotranspiration (E t ) of cattails, rushes, willows, grass and alfalfa (2 lysimeters in each) in a comparative study at Utah State University's (USU) drainage farm. The lysimeters in wet meadows were visited once each week during the growing season. Water levels inside and outside the lysimeters were measured, neutron probe readings taken and water was added or removed as needed. The weekly visits led to occasional significant fluctuations in water levels. The ten lysimeters at the USU drainage farm were visited daily. The water level in cattails and rushes was maintained at on above the soil surface allowing daily E t estimates. The water level in willows, grass and alfalfa was kept within desired limits by timely irrigations. Data analysis was confounded for the wet meadow lysimeters by calculated negative E t values occurring, on occasion, the week after heavy irrigations and by apparent disagreement between E t determined solely from neutron probe readings and E t from water level observations and estimated saturated soil water specific yield. Computation procedures were devised to account for these differences. A procedure was also developed to adjust lysimeter E t to better match meadow E t after harvest when the lysimeters continued to be irrigated, whereas, the meadows were dry.


ABSTRACT This paper aims to investigate the impact of designing service operations using the systems thinking approach on the sustainable performance of service organisations. Data were collected from a survey conducted with 183 service organisations that have implemented the systems thinking approach. Using Structural Equation Modelling, the results confirmed that using the systems thinking approach has a significant impact upon the environmental and social performances but has no direct effect on the economic performance of such organisations. The analysis also indicated a statistically positive relationship between environmental and economic performances and between social and economic performances, but not between environmental and social performances, thus suggesting that the dimensions of sustainable performance should not be viewed as being equally weighted. This study shows that the systems thinking approach ensures that the service system design is directly linked with enhanced environmental and social benefits while indirectly contributing to economic benefits.


We present group equivariant capsule networks, a framework to introduce guaranteed equivariance and invariance properties to the capsule network idea. Our work can be divided into two contributions. First, we present a generic routing by agreement algorithm defined on elements of a group and prove that equivariance of output pose vectors, as well as invariance of output activations, hold under certain conditions. Second, we connect the resulting equivariant capsule networks with work from the field of group convolutional networks. Through this connection, we provide intuitions of how both methods relate and are able to combine the strengths of both approaches in one deep neural network architecture. The resulting framework allows sparse evaluation of the group convolution operator, provides control over specific equivariance and invariance properties, and can use routing by agreement instead of pooling operations. In addition, it is able to provide interpretable and equivariant representation vectors as output capsules, which disentangle evidence of object existence from its pose.


Quasars may have played a key role in limiting the stellar mass of massive galaxies. Identifying those quasars in the process of removing star formation fuel from their hosts is an exciting ongoing challenge in extragalactic astronomy. In this paper, we present X-ray observations of 11 extremely red quasars (ERQs) with Lbol ∼ 1047 erg s−1 at z = 1.5–3.2 with evidence for high-velocity (v 1000 km s−1) [O iii] λ5007 outflows. X-rays allow us to directly probe circumnuclear obscuration and to measure the instantaneous accretion luminosity. We detect 10 out of 11 ERQs available in targeted and archival data. Using a combination of X-ray spectral fitting and hardness ratios, we find that all of the ERQs show signs of absorption in the X-rays with inferred column densities of NH ≈ 1023 cm−2, including four Compton-thick candidates (NH 1024 cm−2). We stack the X-ray emission of the seven weakly detected sources, measuring an average column density of NH ∼ 8 × 1023 cm−2. The absorption-corrected (intrinsic) 2–10 keV X-ray luminosity of the stack is 2.7 × 1045 erg s−1, consistent with X-ray luminosities of type 1 quasars of the same infrared luminosity. Thus, we find that ERQs are a highly obscured, borderline Compton-thick population, and based on optical and infrared data we suggest that these objects are partially hidden by their own equatorial outflows. However, unlike some quasars with known outflows, ERQs do not appear to be intrinsically underluminous in X-rays for their bolometric luminosity. Our observations indicate that low X-rays are not necessary to enable some types of radiatively driven winds.


Preface Introduction The story in a nutshell Part I. Basics: 1. Continuous paths of bounded variation 2. Riemann-Stieltjes integration 3. Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) 4. ODEs: smoothness 5. Variation and Holder spaces 6. Young integration Part II. Abstract Theory of Rough Paths: 7. Free nilpotent groups 8. Variation and Holder spaces on free groups 9. Geometric rough path spaces 10. Rough differential equations (RDEs) 11. RDEs: smoothness 12. RDEs with drift and other topics Part III. Stochastic Processes Lifted to Rough Paths: 13. Brownian motion 14. Continuous (semi)martingales 15. Gaussian processes 16. Markov processes Part IV. Applications to Stochastic Analysis: 17. Stochastic differential equations and stochastic flows 18. Stochastic Taylor expansions 19. Support theorem and large deviations 20. Malliavin calculus for RDEs Part V. Appendix: A. Sample path regularity and related topics B. Banach calculus C. Large deviations D. Gaussian analysis E. Analysis on local Dirichlet spaces Frequently used notation References Index.


In recent years, many activatable fluorescent probes have been developed for hNQO1 detection. However, most of the reported fluorescent probes are susceptible to the interferences of endogenous fluorescence and have the drawback of inadequate penetration depth. Very recently, researchers have reported a two-photon excitation (TPE) fluorescent probe for hNQO1 detection. Nevertheless, this probe only exhibits a compromised signal-to-background ratio, and has not been applied to image hNQO1 in living tissues. Herein, a novel TPE fluorescent probe, trimethyl locked quinone caged Acedan (Q3CA-P), has been developed for hNQO1 detection and imaging in living cells and tissues. Q3CA-P displays over 25-fold enhancement in fluorescence intensity toward hNQO1 with a Stokes shift over 100 nm in one-photon excitation and exhibits a very low detection limit of 5.6 ng mL-1. The imaging experiments performed in tumour cells and tissue slices using Q3CA-P demonstrate that Q3CA-P could image the endogenous hNQO1 with high selectivity and sensitivity with a TPE probing depth of 120 μm. Thus, our probe may have great potential for use in cancer diagnosis and image-guided surgery.


SUMMARY We have compared the surface radio-iodinated proteins of uninfected and Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes from natural infections of human patients. Cryopreserved infected blood from Gambian children with falciparum malaria was thawed, cultured to the middle trophozoite stage, and surface radio-iodinated. Trophozoite-infected cells were enriched about 10-fold on a Percoll gradient newly designed to separate cells based on their differential permeability to sorbitol. Infected blood was radio-iodinated and erythrocyes from the fraction enriched in parasitized cells and uninfected erythrocytes from the same sample obtained from the gradient and compared by SDS–PAGE and autoradiography. In each sample, parasitized erythrocytes contained one or more polypeptides of very high molecular weight (Mr 250000–300000) that were not found on uninfected erythrocytes from the same patient. These proteins were isolate-specific in size and number, suggesting that natural isolates contain a variable number of different P. falciparum phenotypes for this surface protein. In addition, these radio-iodinated surface proteins could not be extracted from the host cell membrane by the non-ionic detergent Triton X-100, but were extracted by SDS. The properties of these proteins suggest they are the equivalent for natural infections of the strain-dependent antigen previously described (Leech, Barnwell, Miller & Howard, 1984) on the surface of P. falciparum-infected Aotus erythrocytes. In addition, we observed a second parasite-dependent modification of labelled proteins on infected erythrocytes with the appearance of a new band of Mr 30000. There were also variations in the pattern of radio-isotope labelled proteins on uninfected erythrocytes from different patients.


Deep reinforcement learning has emerged as a powerful tool for a variety of learning tasks, however deep nets typically exhibit forgetting when learning multiple tasks in sequence. To mitigate forgetting, we propose an experience replay process that augments the standard FIFO buffer and selectively stores experiences in a long-term memory. We explore four strategies for selecting which experiences will be stored: favoring surprise, favoring reward, matching the global training distribution, and maximizing coverage of the state space. We show that distribution matching successfully prevents catastrophic forgetting, and is consistently the best approach on all domains tested. While distribution matching has better and more consistent performance, we identify one case in which coverage maximization is beneficial---when tasks that receive less trained are more important. Overall, our results show that selective experience replay, when suitable selection algorithms are employed, can prevent catastrophic forgetting.


Biogas plants gain worldwide increasing importance due to several advantages. However, concerning the equipment most of the existing biogas plants are low-tech plants. E.g., from the point of view of instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) most plants are black-box systems. Consequently, practice shows that many biogas plants are operated sub-optimally and/or in critical (load) ranges. To solve these problems, some new biogas plants have been equipped with modern machines and ICA equipment. In this paper, the authors will show details and discuss operational results of a modern agricultural biogas plant and the resultant opportunities for the implementation of a plant-wide automation.


The study examined the extent of availability and utilization of web-based tools in Nigerian Universities. A descriptive cross section survey research design was used for the study. Nine research questions were posed and six hypotheses formulated to guide the study. The population of the study consists of 35,680 lecturers and students in federal, state, and private universities in the study area. The sample is 395 lecturers and students, a proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to group the respondents into departments after which simple random sampling was used to draw the sample from the strata. The instruments for data collection were a checklist and questionnaires which were validated and internal consistency reliability coefficients determined using cronbach alpha technique; Data were analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 2.0. Percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that Web-based tools are more available for effective delivery of instruction in State and Private Universities than Federal Universities in Nigerian; resources such as internet services, web-based learning software, personal laptops, scanners, smart boards, on-line library are available to a high extent. There was a significant difference in the mean ratings of lecturers and students in federal, state, and private universities on the extent of availability of resources that aid web-based tools for effective delivery of instruction. There is a high extent of utilization of web-based tools for effective delivery of instruction by lecturers and students in State and Private Universities in Nigerian. Female lecturers utilize web-based tools more than their counterparts in Nigerian Universities, both male and students utilize web-based tools to a less extent in content accessibility. Major implications of the findings are; there is a less extent in the use of web-based tools in e-assessment of students by lecturers in Nigerian Universities, that there is a less extent to which students utilize web-based tools in content accessibility. Based on these findings and implications, it was recommended that universities should include web-based learning in their teaching programmes and source grants to promote the use of web instruction at all levels, all university lecturers must as a matter of compulsion be made to acquire ICT skills, Courses on application of web-based tools for teaching and learning should be mounted in all faculties and departments to produce specialists that will man the units established for providing web-based support services in our universities.


In view of the IceCube's 6-year high-energy starting events (HESE) sample, we revisit the possibility that the updated data may be better explained by a combination of neutrino fluxes from dark matter decay and an isotropic astrophysical power-law than purely by the latter. We find that the combined two-component flux qualitatively improves the fit to the observed data over a purely astrophysical one, and discuss how these updated fits compare against a similar analysis done with the 4-year HESE data. We also update fits involving dark matter decay via multiple channels, without any contribution from the astrophysical flux. We find that a DM-only explanation is not excluded by neutrino data alone. Finally, we also consider the possibility of a signal from dark matter annihilations and perform analogous analyses to the case of decays, commenting on its implications.


BACKGROUND
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory condition that typically causes a symmetrical chronic arthritis. Timely use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is an essential aspect of disease management, but many patients may not respond even when conventional agents are used optimally.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of adalimumab (ADA), etanercept (ETN), infliximab (IFX), rituximab (RTX) and abatacept (ABT) when used in patients with RA who have tried conventional agents and have failed to improve after trying a first tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor.

DATA SOURCES
A systematic review of primary studies was undertaken. Databases searched included the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (Ovid) and EMBASE up to July 2009.

STUDY SELECTION
Two reviewers assessed titles and abstracts of studies identified by the search strategy, obtained the full text of relevant papers and screened them against inclusion criteria.

STUDY APPRAISAL
Data from included studies were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second. The quality of included studies was assessed independently by two reviewers, with any disagreements resolved by discussion and consultation with a third reviewer if necessary.

RESULTS
Thirty-five studies were included in the systematic review: five randomised controlled trials (RCTs), one comparative study, one controlled study and 28 uncontrolled studies. One RCT (REFLEX) demonstrated the effectiveness of RTX. At 6 months significantly more patients treated with RTX achieved American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20 [relative risk (RR) = 2.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.08 to 3.91] and ACR70 (RR = 12.14, 95% CI 2.96 to 49.86) compared with those treated with the placebo. Differences between groups in favour of RTX were observed at 6 months for mean change from baseline in Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28) (mean difference -1.50, 95% CI -1.74 to -1.26) and mean change from baseline in Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score (mean difference -0.30, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.20). One RCT (ATTAIN) demonstrated the effectiveness of ABT. At 6 months significantly more patients treated with ABT achieved ACR20 (RR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.77 to 3.69) and ACR70 (RR = 6.70, 95% CI 1.62 to 27.80) compared with those treated with placebo. Significant differences between groups in favour of ABT were observed at 6 months for mean change from baseline in DAS28 score (mean difference -1.27, 95% CI -1.62 to -0.93) and mean change from baseline in HAQ score (mean difference -0.34). Twenty-eight uncontrolled studies observed improvement of effectiveness compared with before switching, in patients who switched to ADA, ETN or IFX after discontinued previous TNF inhibitor(s). Four studies were included in the systematic review of cost-effectiveness. Independent economic evaluation undertaken by the assessment group showed that compared with DMARDs, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were £34,300 [per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY)] for ADA, £38,800 for ETN, £36,200 for IFX, £21,200 for RTX and £38,600 for ABT. RTX dominates the TNF inhibitors and the ICER for ABT compared with RTX is over £100,000 (per QALY).

LIMITATIONS
Paucity of evidence from RCTs for assessing the clinical effectiveness of TNF inhibitors and an absence of head-to-head trials comparing the five technologies.

CONCLUSIONS
Evidence from RCTs suggests that RTX and ABT are more effective than supportive care. Data from observational studies suggest that the use of an alternative TNF inhibitor in patients who exhibit an inadequate response to a first TNF inhibitor may offer some benefit, but there remain uncertainties with regard to the magnitude of treatment effects and their cost-effectiveness. Future research should include head-to-head trials comparing the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the technologies against each other and emerging biologics.

FUNDING
This study was funded by the Health Technology Assessment programme of the National Institute for Health Research.


Men's participation in cancer screening may be influenced by their thinking style. Men's need for cognition (NFC) and faith in intuition were measured to explore whether they varied by demographic variables or predicted screening behavior. Australian males (n = 585, aged 50-74 years) completed surveys about past screening and were subsequently offered mailed fecal occult blood tests (FOBTs). Demographic predictors included age, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and language spoken at home. The screening behaviors were self-reported prostate cancer screening (prostate-specific antigen testing and digital rectal examinations [DREs]), and colorectal cancer screening (self-reported FOBT participation and recorded uptake of the FOBT offer). Analysis comprised principal component analysis and structural equation modelling. NFC was positively related to demographic variables education, socioeconomic status, and speaking English at home. Faith in intuition was negatively related to educational attainment. NFC predicted variance in self-reported DRE participation (r = .11, p = .016). No other relationships with thinking style were statistically significant. The relationship of NFC to DRE participation may reflect the way certain attributes of this screening method are processed, or alternatively, it may reflect willingness to report participation. The relationship of thinking style to a range of healthy behaviors should be further explored.


Soil organic carbon plays an important role in a long-term agroecosystem productivity, in the global C cycle, maintaining a soil nutrient pool and improving its availability. The objective of this study is the assess the impacts of long–term cropping practices on SOC dynamics in Slovakia and Serbia. Soil C sequestration is a complex process that is influenced by many factors, such as agricultural practice, climatic and soil conditions. For the both location the initial SOC decline was followed with the C stabilization and possible increase where proper practices were used. More intensive crop management systems that maintained residue cover provided the greatest benefit towards increasing the quantity of mineralizable nutrients within the active fraction of soil organic carbon (SOC), as well as increasing C sequestration as SOC. Long–term field experiments have contributed significantly to our current knowledge of soil quality and have been used to study the influence of crop management, fertilizer application and tillage practices on SOC content.


Abstract Anxiety disorders represent some of the most common mental disorders. The lifetime prevalence rates for the different disorders are between 1% and 13%. Most anxiety disorders have a chronic, waxing and waning course. The impairment patients suffer due to the anxiety disorders ranges from mild to incapacitating. It is important that general practitioners understand the diagnostic and treatment concepts of the anxiety disorders to ensure early diagnosis and intervention in order to prevent undue suffering and impairment.


Increasing concerns related to fossil fuels have led to the introducing the concept of emission-free ships (EF-Ships) in marine industry. One of the well-known combinations of green energy resources in EF-Ships is the hybridization of fuel cells (FCs) with energy storage systems (ESSs) and cold-ironing (CI). Due to the high investment cost of FCs and ESSs, the aging factors of these resources should be considered in the energy management of EF-Ships. This article proposes a nonlinear model for optimal energy management of EF-Ships with hybrid FC/ESS/CI as energy resources considering the aging factors of the FCs and ESSs. Total operation costs and aging factors of FCs and ESSs are chosen as problem objectives. Moreover, a stochastic model predictive control method is adapted to the model to consider the uncertainties during the optimization horizon. The proposed model is applied to an actual case test system and the results are discussed.


Abstract The Betting Act 1926 legalised cash betting in Ireland and led to the appearance, for the first time, of the legally regulated and licensed betting office. The introduction of this legislation was a pragmatic step, designed to eradicate the undesirable practice of street bookmaking. This article seeks to examine the operation of the legislation over the entire period of its enactment before it was superseded by the Betting Act 1931. What follows focuses on the bookmaker, their social background, geographical distribution, clientele and business practices. The industry, as it made its transition from its illegal to regulated forms, was characterised by both continuity and change. How bookmakers were perceived in the context of the puritanical atmosphere of the Free State is also considered. Attitudes to bookmakers depended on the scale of their involvement in the business, where they conducted their business, and who they conducted it with. Debates featuring these issues were spliced with contemporary concerns about class, gender and youth.


In the present study, water soluble 5, 17-bis[(N-methylglucamine)methyl]-25,26,27,28-tetrahydroxycalix[4]arene (3, as a highly efficient excipient material) was synthesized to immobilize α-amylase first time using the N-methylglucamine functionalities for excipient-enzyme complex formation at its para-positions. The excipient-α-amylase complex (4)was used for the starch degradation. The optimum apparent activity of 4 was determined at variable conditions such as the effect of pH (7.0), temperature (25°C) and initial concentration of enzyme (15 µL). Under such optimized parameters, the maximum 71% yield of enzyme was immobilized onto the functionalized calix[4]arene material (3). The catalytic properties of 4 were determined by comparing with free α-amylase. The complex 4 revealed high stability under sever conditions, i.e. high temperature and offers multiple reuses with little loss in enzyme activity due to higher α-amylase concentration has been protected by complex. In addition, the enzyme activity and the excipient-α-amylase complex were found to have extra characteristics as compared to the free α-amylase for starch hydrolysis with respect to its stability and reusability. These advantageous characteristics and low cost of material from which calixarene derivative was prepared, making it economically viable for starch degradation on industrial scale.


The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the clean wool colour and the fatty acid composition of semi fine wool. The investigation was performed on 93 individual samples (from the shoulder, the back and the thigh) of 31 fleeces obtained from industrial batches of semi fine wool originating from Bulgaria, The Republic of Macedonia and The Netherlands. For shoulder, back and leg samples, the greasy wool colour, the staple length and the dirt percentage were determined. For shoulder samples, the clean wool colour, the total lipids in wool grease and its fatty acid composition were additionally determined. The lowest colour index, measured on full-length staple, was that of Dutch wool (34.86). Similar colour index was obtained for Bulgarian (50.43) and Macedonian (51.57) wool batches. After removal of the dirty area, Dutch wool exhibited the lowest colour index again (29.86), followed by Macedonian (38.54) and Bulgarian (42.51) samples. The greasy wool colour (except for yellow-coloured wool) could not be used as a reliable criterion for prediction of clean wool colour.


This paper presents formal results derived from the COUVERTURE project, whose goal was to develop tools to support structural coverage analysis of uninstrumented safety-critical software. After briefly introducing the project context and explaining the need for formal foundations, we focus on the relationships between machine branch coverage and the DO-178B Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MCDC) criterion. A thorough understanding of those relationships is important, since it provides the foundation for knowing where efficient execution trace techniques can be used to demonstrate compliance with the MCDC criterion. We first present several conjectures that were tested using Alloy models, then provide a formally verified characterization of the situations when coverage of object control-flow edges implies MCDC compliance.


The goal of this work is to implement a real-time system using wearable technology for translating American Sign Language (ASL) gestures into audible form. This system could be used to facilitate conversations between individuals who do and do not communicate using ASL. We use as our source of input the Myo armband, an affordable commercially-available wearable technology equipped with on-board accelerometer, gyroscope, and electromyography sensors. We investigate the performance of two different classification algorithms in this context: linear discriminant analysis and k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) using various distance metrics. Using the k-NN classifier and windowed dynamic time warping as the distance metric, our working prototype is able to obtain accuracies between 94% − 98% when classifying up to 20 different ASL gestures.


During election campaigns, politicians regularly feature on entertainment talk shows in which they are typically approached in uncritical and positive manners. To test how such appearances affect trust in politicians, we conducted an online experiment with a Dutch adult sample in which participants were randomly allocated to see an entertainment talk show interview, a current affairs program interview with the same politician, or a control condition without exposure. Findings demonstrate that exposure to the talk show interview affected participants' trust in politicians. Moreover, this effect was strongly moderated by political knowledge. Trust in politicians was positively affected by talk show exposure among individuals with low political knowledge, but negatively for those with the most political knowledge.


The domestic cat (Felis catus) is one of the most popular companion animals in the world. Comprehensive genomic resources will aid the development and application of veterinary medicine including to improve feline health, in particular, to enable precision medicine which is promising in human application. However, currently available cat genome assemblies were mostly built based on the Abyssinian cat breed which is highly inbred and has limited power in representing the vast diversity of the cat population. Moreover, the current reference assembly remains fragmented with sequences contained in thousands of scaffolds. We constructed a reference-grade chromosome-scale genome assembly of a domestic cat, Felis catus genome of American Shorthair breed, Anicom American shorthair 1.0 (AnAms1.0) with high contiguity (scaffold N50 > 120 Mb), by combining multiple advanced genomic technologies, including PacBio long-read sequencing as well as sequence scaffolding by long-range genomic information obtained from Hi-C and optical mapping data. Homology-based and ab initio gene annotation was performed with the Iso-Seq data. Analyzed data is be publicly accessible on Cats genome informatics (Cats-I, https://cat.annotation.jp/), a cat genome database established as a platform to facilitate the accumulation and sharing of genomic resources to improve veterinary care.


In statistical theory, the Huber function yields robust estimations reducing the effect of outliers. In this paper, we employ the Huber function as regularization in a challenging inverse problem: quantitative microwave imaging. Quantitative microwave tomography aims at estimating the permittivity profile of a scattering object based on measured scattered fields, which is a nonlinear, ill-posed inverse problem. The results on 3D data sets are encouraging: the reconstruction error is reduced and the permittivity profile can be estimated from fewer measurements compared to state-of-the art inversion procedures.


If we are to be successful in our goal of generating legal systems that genuinely serve to protect the integrity of Earth's ecosystems, it will be necessary to confront directly the growth model of progress that is currently driving the global economy toward ecological catastrophe. Since the global economy already exceeds the sustainable carrying capacity of the planet, and since the poorest nations must still expand their economic capacities merely to provide for their basic needs, it follows that the richest nations should at once enter a phase of planned economic contraction (i.e. degrowth). Needless to say, there are no signs that the richest nations are prepared to adopt or even consider such a policy. In this paper I will explore the significance of 'peak oil' and argue that the looming stagnation in the supply of cheap energy (of liquid fuels in particular) suggests that we are entering the twilight of global economic growth, whether we like it or not. Some of the implications of this will be explored.


In response to climate change, governments are developing policies to move toward ultra-low-energy or 'zero-energy' buildings (ZEBs). Policies, codes, and governance structures vary among regions, and there is no universally accepted definition of a ZEB. These variables make it difficult, for countries such as China that wish to set similar goals, to determine an optimum approach. This paper reviews ZEBs policies, programmes, and governance approaches in two jurisdictions that are leading ZEBs development: Denmark and the state of California in the United States. Different modes of governance (hierarchy: principal–agent relations, market: self organizing and network: independent actors) are examined specifically in relation to policy instruments (prescriptive, performance or outcome-based). The analysis highlights differences in institutional conditions and examines available data on energy performance resulting from a building policy framework. The purpose is to identify ZEBs governance and implementation deficits in China and analyse alternative governance approaches that could be employed in China, which is currently developing ZEBs targets and policies. Conclusions suggest that the ZEBs governance structure in China could benefit from widened participation by all societal actors involved in achieving ZEBs targets. China's ZEBs policies would benefit from employing a more balanced hybrid governance approach.


This thesis, set against the background of accounts of globalisation, aims to figure out the consumer orientation of the middle class in contemporary China, in particular how the new elements in consumer orientation operate in the Chinese context. It focuses on the contemporary middle class, including professionals, managers, business-owners and civil servants, and on the metropolitan cities, because these are the two most important factors in the rise of consumer culture in China. Data come from the China General Social Survey of 2003 and 30 interviews with middle class people in Beijing carried out in 2008. The quantitative analysis is concerned with characteristics of the middle class in the metropolitan cities and their participation in consumption practices. Qualitative analysis provides a comprehensive analysis of the consumption patterns and the consumer orientations of 30 adults and considers subjective interpretations in specific contexts. The focus is the consumption patterns from everyday consumption, taste and material culture, and the findings are interpreted in relation to major theories in the sociology of consumption. In order to understand consumption patterns, this dissertation seeks accounts of consumer orientations: the distinct or particular reasons for purchasing and using certain material goods and services. Consumption patterns are also explained against the background of globalization, and in relation to the essential features of Chinese culture, social changes and social conventions. The analysis draws attention particularly to the justifications of tastes by the Chinese middle class and exposes their concomitant anxieties and ambivalence. It is shown that pursuit of pleasure, tempered with pursuit of comfort, is a significant form of aesthetic justification; and living within one?s means, i.e. keeping a balance between expenditure and income, is the main moral justification. The orientation to personal pleasure and comfort is shaped by social conventions, traditional values and the metropolitan context. Consumer sovereignty, as opposed to social discipline and authority, becomes a force. Despite anxieties and ambivalence, the interviewees generally show satisfaction and confidence with their consumption. The findings challenge the stereotype of the Chinese ?new rich? and the one-dimensional pictures of tendencies towards either conspicuous display or frugality.


Since the encyclical Populorum Progressio of Pope Paul VI (1967) the social teaching of the Catholic Church has been treating the problem of development of the Third World. John Paul II in Sollicitudo Rei Sociales (1987) and Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate (2009) have underlined, as did Paul VI, that development is only true development when it is the development of the whole man and of all men. Development of the whole man requires not only the overcoming of poverty but also a social and cultural development, as well as an opening to the transcendent dimension of human life. Benedict XVI speaks from an anthropological and a theological point of view about the duty of man to develop both himself and the world. Development of all men requires besides economic growth, which must be profitable for all, the development of social and political structures that include good governance and the respect of human life from conception until natural death. Manfred Spieker, "Development of the Whole Man and of All Men: Guidelines of the Catholic Church for Societal Development," Journal of Markets & Morality 13, no. 2 (Fall 2010): 263-278


In this paper we reflect on 15 years of experience in eHealth research and evaluation in the UK. An integrated, interroperable eHealth programme has yet to materialise. The initial promise that eHealth interventions can facilitate the shaping of the 21st century healthcare systems Stead et al. [1], has not been empirically demonstrated in the past decade. Although isolated cases of successful initiatives exist, the potential of eHealth remains largely unrealised Muuraiskangas et al. [2-4]. Investment in large programmes which aim to develop an integrated and interoperable platform across settings and levels of care, such as the NPfIT in the UK, may not have provided good value for money. Worse still, patient's safety may have also been compromised Han et al. [5]. Similarly, to eCommerce, eGovernment and eLearning, eHealth (Table 1) was the result of both a demand by consumers and an initiative by government. It was therefore initially considered a paradox that it failed to deliver the much anticipated benefits. a paradox that it failed to deliver the muchanticipated benefits. A closer study of the various implementation programmes reveals the reasons for the relative failure of the UK to have a homogeneous and interoperable eHealth platform.


The physical nature and principal observational properties of novae are reviewed. Suggested improvments to optical photometry and discovery strategies are discussed. Nova eruptions occur in close binary systems, in which a white dwarf (WD) steadily accretes material on its surface from a lower mass cool companion. The accreted envelope is in electron degenerate conditions and grows steadily in mass with time, until a critical amount is accreted (which is inversely related to the WD mass). At that point, a fast evolving thermo-nuclear runaway starts burning hydrogen, in a short flash lasting about a hundred seconds, which is terminated by the violent ejection into the surrounding space (at a speed in excess of the escape velocity) of the whole accreted envelope (or a sizeable fraction of it). The nova is discovered only when, several hours or a few days later, the expansion and cooling of the fireball ejecta make them emit profusely at optical wavelengths; the later decline in brightness is regulated by interplay between dilution of the ejecta into surrounding space, gas and dust opacities, and temperature/luminosity of the central WD when the ejecta eventually become optically thin. The time interval between consecutive outbursts from the same nova is usually (far) longer than recorded history, but for a small number of objects (named recurrent novae) it is short enough that more than one outburst has been observed for them.


Central venous catheters (CVCs) are used with increasing frequency in the intensive care unit and in general medical wards. Catheter infection, the most frequent complication of CVC use, is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and duration of hospital stay. Risk factors in the development of catheter colonisation and bloodstream infection include patient factors (increased risk associated with malignancy, neutropenia, and shock) and treatment-related factors (increased risk associated with total parenteral nutrition, ICU admission for any reason, and endotracheal intubation). Other risk factors are prolonged catheter indwelling time, lack of asepsis during CVC insertion, and frequent manipulation of the catheter. The most important factor is catheter care after placement. Effects of CVC tunnelling on infection rates depend to a large extent on indwelling time and the quality of catheter care. Use of polyurethane dressings can increase the risk of colonisation compared to regular gauze dressing. Thrombus formation around the CVC tip increases the risk of infection; low-dose anticoagulants may decrease this risk. New developments such as CVC impregnation with antibiotics may reduce the risk of infection. Reducing catheter infection rates requires a multiple-strategy approach. Therefore, ICUs and other locations where CVCs are used should implement strict guidelines and protocols for catheter insertion, care, and maintenance.


The purpose of this study was to measure kinetic and kinematic variables as well as muscular activity in young international race walkers to observe any possible leg asymmetry. Five men and three women race walked on an instrumented treadmill for 3km and kinetic and kinematic data were collected at the halfway distance.

The activity of four muscles on each leg was simultaneously measured using electromyography. Similar to previous findings of elite junior race walkers in competition, half of the athletes had stride length differences, but imbalances in other variables were less common. In particular, vertical ground reaction force peaks were very similar between legs. However, the electromyography findings showed that some of the athletes had substantial differences between leg muscles with regard to activation levels, and that compensation occurred between synergist muscles (gluteus maximus and biceps femoris) within the same leg.

Coaches are advised to closely monitor the technical and strength development of their young athletes to ensure that both sides of the body are balanced. This is especially important with regard to preventing injury, maximising efficiency, and reducing the risk of disqualification.


One of the important issues in the field of strategic management is to know the factors that explain why companies operating within the same sector have different performances. The evolutionary theory affirms that innovation could justify why certain firms remain in a prominent position in the market ensuring high yields. A scenario that explains the evolution of innovation among rivals is known as the Red Queen effect. In this scenario, an action carried out by a firm influences its performance and promote innovation among rival firms, affecting negatively the performance of the first. This paper is aimed to construct a system dynamic model capable of explaining the survival of two firms affected by the effect. To contrast the hypothesis on which the model is constructed, the innovation paths of two rival firms in a specific industry are examined. A simulation exercise tests the capacity of the model to replicate the creation of new products.


We prove various formulas which express exponential generating functions counting permutations by the peak number, valley number, double ascent number, and double descent number statistics in terms of the exponential generating function for Chebyshev polynomials, as well as cyclic analogues of these formulas for derangements. We give several applications of these results, including formulas for the (-1)-evaluation of some of these distributions. Our proofs are combinatorial and involve the use of monomino-domino tilings, the modified Foata-Strehl action (a.k.a. valley-hopping), and a cyclic analogue of this action due to Sun and Wang.


Essentials of Biology is an introductory biology text for non-major students that combines Dr. Sylvia Mader's superb and accessible writing style with clear visuals, a comprehensive learning system, and abundant applications and relevancy. Essentials of Biology explains the principles of biology clearly and illustrates them in a captivating, easy-to-understand manner. It emphasizes the relevance of biology to students' lives within a framework of biodiversity and is organized around the major concepts of biology--cells theory, gene theory, evolution, the theory of homeostasis, and ecosystems. The integration of text and the digital world are now complete with the addition of Dr. Michael's Windelspecht's expertise in the development of digital learning assets. Dr Windelspecht has acted is the leading architect in the design of the Mader media content for McGraw-Hill's ConnectPlus and LearnSmart. ConnectPlus suite of learning tools. These assets will allow you to easily design interactive tutorial materials, enhance presentations in both the online and traditional environments, and assess the learning objectives and outcomes of your course. Users who purchase Connect Plus receive access to the full online ebook version of the textbook.


Available data on catalytic applications of the iron-containing nanomaterials are reviewed. Main synthesis methods of nZVI, nano-sized iron oxides and hydroxides, core-shell and alloy structures, ferrites, iron-containing supported forms, and composites are described. Supported structures include those coated and on the basis of polymers or inert inorganic materials (i.e., carbon, titania or silica). Description of catalytic processes includes the decomposition reactions (in particular photocatalytic processes), reactions of dehydrogenation, oxidation, alkylation, C–C coupling, among a series of other processes. Certain attention is paid to magnetic recovery of catalysts from reaction systems and their reuse up to several runs almost without loss of


Several studies have found a correlation between the onset time of muscle relaxants, cardiac index, and muscle blood flow. Ephedrine increases these hemodynamic variables and shortens onset time of rocuronium in humans. Our aim in this animal study was to determine the effect of ephedrine on the onset time of rocuronium, cardiac index, and muscle blood flow after administration of thiopental. At predefined measuring points, mean arterial blood pressure and cardiac index were measured invasively and onset time was determined mechanomyographically. Twenty-four pigs were randomly assigned to three groups. Group I received etomidate and subsequently rocuronium (2 × 95% effective dose). Instead of etomidate, Group II received thiopental. In Group III, ephedrine 100 &mgr;g/kg was given before thiopental; additionally, muscle blood flow was measured (fluorescent microspheres). Although there were differences in hemodynamics between Groups I and II, this was not reflected in different onset times of rocuronium. In Group III, ephedrine compensated the thiopental-induced decrease of mean arterial blood pressure, cardiac index, and muscle blood flow, but no significant shortening of onset time (Group I: 74 ± 21 s; Group II: 71 ± 24; Group III: 69 ± 22 s) was found. Our results demonstrated that ephedrine-related increases in cardiac index and blood flow did not shorten onset time of rocuronium in healthy pigs.


This paper describes the development of a new tool that allows designers to simulate and evaluate the daylight potential of urban master plan proposals. The tool is a plug-in for the Rhinoceros3D CAD modeler and follows a two-step workflow. During the initial step, hourly solar radiation levels on all facades within an urban scene are simulated based on Radiance/Daysim. During the second step, exterior radiation levels are converted into hourly interior illuminance distributions using a generalized impulse response. Climate based daylighting metrics, such as daylight autonomy, are also computed. The results yielded by the new method are carefully compared to regular and substantially more time-consuming Daysim simulations. This comparison shows that the overall daylit area in the investigated master plan matches Daysim predictions within 10%. Given its implementation into the Rhinoceros3D environment, as well as the almost instant simulation feedback, the tool may serve as a generative method for designers.


Various studies have been performed to analyze and asses the baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) in different settings. Our study aims at analyzing the BRS at rest and during different exercise stages and altitudes. Twenty-one young, healthy subjects underwent experimental trials near sea level, and two times at high altitude. BRS was calculated using the sequence method (spontaneous trends of three or more inter-beat interval and systolic blood pressure) in order to analyze the baroreflex response at rest and during incremental exercise. Results show that BRS exponentially decreases during exercise at all altitudes. Moreover, BRS decays much faster with acute hypoxia (ALT1), indicating that the baroreceptors respond with a quick loss of sensitivity when exercising. After 16 days at high altitude (ALT16), BRS at rest resets to smaller values but the evolution of BRS during exercise has the same behavior as at SL, indicating BRS acclimation to altitude.


A deep seismic common midpoint (CMP) profile, shot across the southern margin of the Tethyan Himalaya as the first stage of Project International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya (Indepth), imaged the top (Main Himalayan Thrust or MHT) and bottom (Moho) of the Indian continental crust underthrusting the Himalaya. We used portable seismographs to record the CMP-profile shots at a wide range of offsets, up to 155 km. Our short-offset data corroborate the CMP-profile data, while our large-offset data are dominated by a band of reflectivity. We interpret the bright onset of this reflective band as the basal detachment of the South Tibetan Detachment system and a phase at the end of the reflective band as the MHT. We used the CMP-profile first-break data to model the uppermost 2 km in detail. The depth of young extensional basins of the Yadong rift system along the CMP profile was constrained to a maximum of 2 km, yielding a throw of 4.6 km across the eastern flank of the rift and a rough estimate of approximately 1.5% east-west extension by normal faulting in the Tethyan Himalaya. The wide-angle data were used to construct a crustal seismic-velocity model down to the MHT. The South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) basal detachment reflector is observed dipping 12.5°NNE from a depth of about 6 km beneath the surface under the south end of the CMP profile to a depth of 22 km, then flattening to a dip of only 2.5°NNE. Thus our observations suggest that the STDS basal detachment is a deep-rooted basement fault. For the MHT we observe a dip of 7.5°NNE from 20 km depth below sea level at the crest of the High Himalaya crystalline sheet to 36 km below sea level (40 km beneath the surface) at a distance of about 70 km south of the Indus-Yarlung Suture (IYS). From geometrical arguments we suggest that Indian crust underthrusts the surface expression of the IYS within the crust but does not form the lower crust of central and northern Tibet.


The aphorism lentius, profundius, suavius of Alexander Langer overturns the most famous citius, altius, fortius. It is both a program and a vision to face the most urgent challenges of our time.
Outdoor is the priority action context to design possible ways of reconciliation with the environment, the only way to rediscover the balanced integration with nature that Adriano Olivetti indicated as an antidote to the harmfulness of the urban environment.
Nature plays a decisive role in our society. According to the German philosopher Gernot Böhme, this general reference to nature on the one hand is indicative of a desire to compensate for a lifestyle that is increasingly distant from its rhythms and its essence, on the other it represents a profound and radical removal.
The pandemic has definitively undermined some of the dominant paradigms, leading to the establishment of a new phenomenology of nature based on perception. The health issue has quickly, and perhaps irreversibly, changed our lifestyles and our relationships with nature.
In high-altitude contexts, the archetypes of architecture become the concepts through which architecture redefines its dialogue with the landscape by innovating its grammar and semantic relationships. A complex dialogue that triggers new genealogies and belonging in which design solutions become an opportunity for experimenting and innovating processes, forms and technologies.
The following projects address these issues with respect to two founding themes of architecture: the refuge and the threshold.


The major drawback of chemotherapy regimens for treating cancer is that the cancerous cells acquire drug resistance and become impervious to further dose escalation. Keeping in mind the studied success of herbal formulations with regard to alternative treatments for cancer, we hypothesized that the use of a chemotherapeutic drug and proprietary herbal formulation, HF1 (under patent by Sri Raghavendra Biotechnologies Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India) would combat this phenomenon. 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) is a commonly administered chemotherapeutic drug that is used to treat many cancers but also has the problem of inducing drug resistance during its regimen. We undertook the present in vitro study to test the efficacy of HF1 (which is mainly composed of green tea and turmeric) in reversing drug resistance in a 5FU-resistant cell line. To do so, we conducted a cell viability assay known as the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, a tetrazole (MTT) assay. The MTT assay uses a reagent that produces a color proportionally to the percentage of living cells present in the culture. Firstly, a resistant cell line of HeLa cells (HeLa-R) was cultured by slowly exposing it to gradually increasing doses of 5FU. This resistant cell line was then subjected to three treatments: i) only 5FU, ii) only HF1, and iii) both 5FU and HF1. These results were then compared to determine the relative effects of each treatment on cell survival. Results demonstrated a cooperative effect between HF1 and 5FU on the drug resistant cell line, implying that administration of HF1 with 5FU results in cell death as measured by MTT assay.


Pharmaceutical approval today suffers from a serious ethical flaw: newly FDA-approved drugs are de facto "tested" on an unknowing general public in the months and years immediately following drug approval, without either the informed consent of the consuming public or an understanding by the public of the risks that remain. This post-approval human "testing" occurs due to the inherent inability of even the largest clinical trials to detect rare adverse events, as became famously evident following the high profile withdrawal of Vioxx® (rofecoxib) almost a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from successful user-driven rating systems such as those of eBay and Amazon, this Article explores the feasibility of using a consumer-friendly online crowdsourcing platform to allow patients to evaluate the drugs they consume. Using crowdsourcing as a supplement to existing clinical trial practice holds the potential to generate large amounts of data quickly by harnessing the self-interested desire of patients to better understand the risks and benefits of the drugs they are consuming, thereby helping to remove dangerous or useless drugs from the market more quickly. In addition, public participation in drug evaluation will itself serve as an unmistakable signal to patients that drug information remains incomplete despite FDA-approval, helping to address the deficit of informed consent that is at the root of the ethical problem just mentioned. Finally, crowdsourcing has the potential to dramatically reduce costs currently expended for post-approval market surveillance, which currently takes place through cumbersome programs such as Sentinel, MedWatch, and REMS.


In cyber-physical systems (CPS), sensors and embedded systems are networked together to monitor and manage a range of physical processes through a continuous feedback system. This allows distributed computing using wireless devices. Cyber-Physical SystemsA Computational Perspective examines various developments of CPS that are impacting our daily lives and sets the stage for future directions in this domain. The book is divided into six sections. The first section covers the physical infrastructure required for CPS, including sensor networks and embedded systems. The second section addresses energy issues in CPS with the use of supercapacitors and reliability assessment. In the third section, the contributors describe the modeling of CPS as a network of robots and explore issues regarding the design of CPS. The fourth section focuses on the impact of ubiquitous computing and cloud computing in CPS and the fifth section discusses security and privacy issues in CPS. The final section covers the role of CPS in big data analytics, social network analysis, and healthcare. As CPS are becoming more complex, pervasive, personalized, and dependable, they are moving beyond niche laboratories to real-life application areas, such as robotics, smart grids, green computing, and healthcare. This book provides you with a guide to current CPS research and development that will contribute to a "smarter" planet.


To control the exponential growth of malware files, security analysts pursue dynamic approaches that automatically identify and analyze malicious software samples. Obfuscation and polymorphism employed by malwares make it difficult for signature-based systems to detect sophisticated malware files. The dynamic analysis or run-time behavior provides a better technique to identify the threat. In this paper, a dynamic approach is proposed in order to extract features from binaries. The run-time behavior of the binary files were found and recorded using a homemade tool that provides a controlled environment. The approach based on DyVSoR assumes that the run-time behavior of each binary can be represented by the values of registers. A method to compute the similarity between two binaries based on the value sets of the registers is presented. Hence, the values are traced before and after invoked API calls in each binary and mapped to some vectors. To detect an unknown file, it is enough to compare it with dataset binaries by computing the distance between registers, content of this file and all binaries. This method could detect malicious samples with 96.1% accuracy and 4% false positive rate. The list of execution traces and the dataset are reachable at: http://home.shirazu.ac.ir/˷ sami/malware


"Global Bioethics: The Collapse of Consensus" explores the persistent failure to produce a universal set of standards for bioethics. The predicament of contemporary morality, the post-modern condition, is such that we find ourselves in the position of numerous competing moralities that not only reach conflicting judgments about particular issues, but also reflect radically divergent world-views. Consensus, therefore, is impossible to achieve. These essays analyze and diagnose the causes and results of the diversity of moral world-views in both philosophy and everyday life. Some of the essays in this volume argue that the post-modern condition is actually the direct result of the philosophical-theological synthesis of the Western Christian Middle Ages. The essays in this volume explore the difficulties, both procedural and contentful, that have arisen from the failure of various attempts to arrive at a global secular bioethics by means of rational-discursive reflection.


Anna Winger can know people better than they know themselves with only a glance --at their handwriting. Hired out by companies wanting to land trustworthy employees and by the lovelorn hoping to find happiness, Anna likes to keep the real-life mess of other people at arm's length and on paper. But when she is called to use her expertise on a note left behind at a murder scene in the small town she and her son have recently moved to, the crime gets under Anna's skin and rips open her narrow life for all to see. To save her son --and herself --once and for all, Anna will face her every fear, her every mistake, and the past she thought she'd rewritten.


Background Demographic differences in health outcomes have been reported for chronic diseases, but few data exist on these differences in trauma (defined as acute, life-threatening injuries). Objective To investigate the relationship between the systemic inflammatory response syndrome score after trauma and race/ethnicity and socio economic status. Methods A retrospective chart review of 600 patients from a level I trauma center (1997-2007) was conducted. Inclusion criteria were age 18 to 44 years, Injury Severity Score 15 or greater, and admission to an intensive care unit. Exclusion criteria were use of transfusions, spinal cord injuries, comorbid conditions affecting the inflammatory response, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, and missing data (final sample, 246 charts/patients). Systemic inflammatory response syndrome was measured by using the systemic inflammatory response syndrome score. Race was selfreported. Socioeconomic status was defined by insurance and employment. Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon rank sum, Kruskal-Wallis, and c2 tests were used for analysis. Results Compared with whites, African Americans (n = 94) had fewer occurrences of the syndrome (P= .04) and a 14% lower white blood cell count on admission to the intensive care unit (mean, 15 200/μL; 95% CI, 14 400/μL to 16 000/μL vs mean 17 700/μL; 95% CI, 16 700/μL to 18 700/μL; P< .001). Conclusions Demographic differences exist in the systemic inflammatory response syndrome score after trauma. Additional studies in larger populations of patients are needed as well as basic science and translational research to determine potential mechanisms that may explain the differences. (American Journal of Critical Care. 2012;21:35-42) DEMOgRAphIC DIFFERENCES IN SySTEMIC INFLAMMATORy RESpONSE SyNDROME SCORE AFTER TRAUMA


G Protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute an abundant family of membrane proteins which play a central role in cellular signaling and are important targets for modern medicine. Despite intensive research, central questions of the molecular mechanism of GPCR mediated signal transduction remain unresolved. This thesis concerns α1b-adrenergic receptor (α1b-AR) as a prototypic GPCR. The question whether ARs form homo- or hetero-oligomers was investigated using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). An important finding was that both α1a and α1b-AR subtypes form homo-oligomers. Also hetero-oligomers have been observed between the α1b- and the α1a-AR subtypes, but not with less related receptors. Another interesting finding concerns α1-AR co-internalization which correlates with the ability of the receptor to hetero-oligomerize. Investigating particular processes in living cells is often complicated by the complex cellular environment. Here we have developed a rather simple approach to study transmembrane signaling by using supported cell membrane sheets. They were prepared by pressing a glass coverslip on the apical part of cultured cells, ripping off large regions of the native plasma membrane. For the α1b-AR we still could observe ligand binding to such sheets, indicating that GPCR functionality was at least partly conserved. Due to the absence of cytosolic autofluorescence of the cells, supported membrane sheets were also found to be suited for single-molecule microscopy. Because both leaflets of the supported membranes remained fluid, it was possible to follow the diffusion of certain membrane proteins. For example using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and single-molecule microscopy, we investigated how G proteins diffused along the membrane and compartmentalized. The predominant role of lipid anchors in G protein localization was highlighted by measuring the diffusion of two Gαq proteins fused with citrine at two different positions and citrine based constructs designed to mimic the monomeric and the trimeric form of a G protein. Finally, first results were obtained showing the feasibility to form supported cell membrane sheets on microstructured devices consisting of a planar silicon support perforated with arrays of holes. This geometry provides a full accessibility to both intra- and extracellular sides of the bilayer. This concept could potentially be applied for the development of chip-based screening assays.


Resurgent Asia analyses the phenomenal transformation of Asia, which would have been difficult to imagine, let alone predict, fifty years ago, when Gunnar Myrdal published Asian Drama. In doing so, it provides an analytical narrative of this remarkable story of economic development, situated in its wider context of historical, political, and social factors, and an economic analysis of the underlying factors, with a focus on critical issues in the process of, and outcomes in, development. In 1970, Asia was the poorest continent in the world, marginal except for its large population. By 2016, it accounted for three-tenths of world income, two-fifths of world manufacturing, and one-third of world trade, while its income per capita converged towards the world average. However, this transformation was associated with unequal outcomes across countries and between people. The analysis disaggregates Asia into its four constituent sub-regions—East, Southeast, South, and West—and further into fourteen economies—China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka—which account for more than four-fifths of its population and income. This book enhances our understanding of development processes and outcomes in Asia over the past fifty years, draws out the analytical conclusions that contribute to contemporary debates on development, and highlights some lessons from the Asian experience for countries elsewhere. It is the first to examine the phenomenal changes that are transforming economies in Asia and shifting the balance of economic power in the world, while reflecting on the future prospects in Asia over the next twenty-five years. A rich, engaging, and fascinating read.


Abstract The image of the city as a stressful place is an evergreen topic. In this article we review the imagination of urban stress, starting from Simmel's classic thesis that the modern city is an unavoidably psychic-stimulating environment potentially leading to stimuli overload. City dwellers are then supposed to counter stimuli overload with a series of adaptation strategies. However, the ways in which these phenomena can be conceptualised are varied. Historically, a shift of emphasis seems to have occurred from the classic conceptualisation of hyperaesthesia to the contemporary preoccupations with the design of comfortable atmospheres. Such atmospheres are, in fact, comfort bubbles. In the article, we tackle the aspirations and predicaments of such engineered atmospheres. In particular, we build on Sloterdijk's argument that, ultimately, bubbles fail to do away with stress, whereas for Simmel stress anaesthetised urbanites, Sloterdijk has pointed out that, rather, comfort itself stresses them. To better tackle the magmatic stratum of dissatisfaction that seems so coessential to urban life, in the final part of the article we focus on the notion of animosity. We suggest to conceptualise it as a type of disquiet that cannot be reduced to established recognisable interaction formats.


By introducing a new parameter as a second associated index for special functions, we construct the three-dimensional differential generators of gl(2,c) Lie algebra together with the corresponding contracted form h4. Non-Casimir quadratic as well as the Casimir of gl(2,c) (and h4) generators can be considered as quantum solvable models on group manifold SL(2,c). Then, by appropriate parametrization of group manifold SL(2,c) and eliminating one of the coordinates, we obtain quantum solvable Hamiltonians on homogeneous manifold SL(2,c)/GL(1,c) with the metric described by master function. We show that two-dimensional Hamiltonian on SL(2,c)/GL(1,c) derived from the reduction of Casimir operator so(4,c) Lie algebra as a three-dimensional Hamiltonian on group manifold SL(2,c), possesses the degeneracy SL(2,c) group and, also, the shape invariance property, where both have para-supersymmetry representations of arbitrary order.


Soil provides multiple important functions, such as provision of food and raw materials, a platform for urban development and human wellbeing and a filtering and transforming media for water, nutrients, and carbon. All these characteristics work together to ensure that the system functions efficiently as a living system. This functionality translates to a clear definition of soil health. The use of traditional explosives in various training areas has led to the contamination of soil with recalcitrant and persistent hazardous chemicals which can render the sites unusable and no longer accessible due to accumulation of these harmful energetic residues over time, having a great effect on soil health. New insensitive munitions, which have been designed to detonate on command and not accidentally, have been developed and are currently use in military operations and in training areas. These munitions are filled with insensitive high explosive (IHE) formulations which comprise of more stable explosive compounds, such as 2,4-dinitroanisle (DNAN), 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) and 1,3,5-hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitrotriazine (RDX), whose behaviour and consequences in the environment in not yet fully understood. Therefore, a 155mm projectile filled with IHE has been detonated to investigate the spatial distribution and concentrations of explosive residues after a full-order detonation in a training area. The explosive concentrations found on site will be then replicated in a self-contained outdoor area to evaluate the consequences that the IHE has specifically on Soil Health. Leachate and plants will be analysed, plant growth monitored by comparison to several control beds and soil characteristics (e.g. pH, nutrients, oxygen), regularly tested. This will provide better understanding of the environmental consequences that IHE may have on soil health. In addition, results from this project will support future research in developing proactive risk assessment strategies for soil health.


Objective. In the United States, growth regulations aimed at environmental protection and better-quality urban areas have become very popular since the 1960s. Although many studies have examined the housing-price effects of local and regional growth management regulations, none has examined the effects of a state law. Past research has also tended to be cross-sectional, rather than longitudinal, and has frequently ignored alternate hypotheses that could explain housing-price trends. The research presented in this article examines the housing-price effects of Florida's Growth Management Act of 1985. Methods. Using secondary source data from all 67 counties of the state for the period 1980–1995 and employing pooled time-series analysis techniques I test the hypothesis that the Act had an inflationary effect on single-family house prices. Results. After controlling for alternate hypotheses such as population, income, and size of house, I find a statistically significant increase in the price of single-family houses attributable to statewide growth management. Also, the demand-side and supply-side price inflationary effects of growth management are similar in magnitude. Conclusions. Since higher housing prices could become the Achilles heel of growth management programs and thwart their implementation, I suggest a few ways some of the price inflationary effects may be reduced.


Purpose To classify blinks in dry eye and normal subjects into six subtypes, and to define the blink rate and duration within each type of blink, as well as the total lid-contact time/minute. Materials and methods This was a single-centered, prospective, double-blind study of eleven dry-eye and ten normal subjects. Predefined subjects watched a video while blinks were recorded for 10 minutes. Partial blinks were classified by percentage closure of maximal palpebral fissure opening: 25%, 50%, 75%. Complete blinks were characterized as full (>0 seconds), extended (>0.1 seconds), or superextended (>0.5 seconds). The mean duration of each type of blink was determined and standardized per minute as total lid-contact time. Results Total blinks observed were 4,990 (1,414 normal, 3,756 dry eye): 1,809 (50.59%) partial and 1,767 (49.41%) complete blinks among dry-eye subjects versus 741 (52.90%) partial and 673 (47.60%) complete blinks among normal subjects. Only superextended blinks of ≥0.5-second duration were significantly more frequent in dry-eye subjects than normals (2.3% versus 0.2%, respectively; P=0.023). Total contact time was seven times higher in dry-eye subjects than normals (0.565 versus 0.080 seconds, respectively; P<0.001). Isolating only extended blinks (>0.1 second), the average contact time (seconds) was four times longer in dry-eye versus normal subjects (2.459 in dry eye, 0.575 in normals; P=0.003). Isolating only superextended blinks (>0.5 seconds), average contact time was also significantly different (7.134 in dry eye, 1.589 in normals; P<0.001). The contact rate for all full closures was 6.4 times longer in dry-eye (0.045 versus 0.007, P<0.001) than normal subjects. Conclusion Dry-eye subjects spent 4.5% of a minute with their eyes closed, while normal subjects spent 0.7% of a minute with their eyes closed. Contact time might play a role in the visual function decay associated with increased blink rates.


William MacNeil's book is that rarest of rarae aves - a serious legal study that is fun to read. As its name implies, the book examines 'people's law' or, more loosely, 'pop law' - law as reflected by contemporary popular culture. More precisely, MacNeil shows how popular culture can give us insights into both lay (mis)understandings of law as well as lofty jurisprudential theory. What distinguishes this work from many law-and-literature studies is not just his choice of texts. MacNeil avoids literature and cinema in favor of mass market entertainment and cult favorites. MacNeil's point is that the scope of law cannot be confined to the legal. Following the European tradition of speculative theory, he sees law not as an autonomous field, but as an inherent and essential part of the symbolic - the social or intersubjective order that also includes language and sexuality. Law is not that which goes on in courts, but that which structures both social relationships and subjectivity. As such, the symbolic order, which includes law, does not merely rule our trials and behavior, it inhabits our fantasies and haunts our nightmares. To know ourselves we must understand law, and vice versa. One way we can glimpse both is in the vulgar, everyday entertainments that occupy so much of our imagination and waste so much of our time.


Two-phase liquid cooling of computer chips via microchannels etched directly on silicon dies is a potential long-term solution to enable continued integration of high-performance multiprocessors. Two-phase cooling refers to the heat removal via evaporation of a refrigerant flowing inside a heat sink. While possessing superior cooling properties, large-scale use of this technology in the industry is limited by the lack of thermal modeling tools that can accurately predict temperatures in a two-phase cooled IC. In this paper, we propose STEAM, a new compact thermal model for 2D/3D ICs with two-phase cooling via silicon microchannels. The accuracy of the STEAM model is validated against measurements from a real two-phase cooled IC test stack reported previously in literature. Temperatures were predicted with an average error as low as 10.2% for uniform heat fluxes and 6.9% for hotspots. Finally, the STEAM model is applied to a realistic 3D multiprocessor system-on-chip (3D MP-SoC) with two-phase cooling to simulate IC temperatures and the refrigerant pumping power, demonstrating the applicability of STEAM in the early-stage design of near-future high-performance computers with two-phase cooling.


What is the relationship between access to information and access to justice? Private parties obviously have many publicly available points of access to the information they seek in order to file a lawsuit. Lawyers can talk to their clients and other willing witnesses. Documents can be gathered. Specific statutes may sometimes permit information to be obtained before a formal lawsuit is brought. On other occasions, however, information needed or desired will lie solely within the exclusive knowledge and control of another. The ability of private parties to compel the production of information, documents or testimony before litigation rarely has been seriously considered as a factor bearing on access to court. Beyond the lack of treatment of the doctrinal sources of authority, no attempt has been made by academic commentators or those most closely involved in civil procedural reform to gather empirical evidence to try to fix how important to the institution and maintenance of civil suits is the right to take presuit investigatory discovery. This Article seeks to fill these vital gaps that exist in the literature and in the public debates, more generally, over access to justice. After examining the available authority in the federal and state courts, the author gathers and reports on original empirical research conducted on the use of presuit investigatory discovery by private parties. That data comes from Texas, where the state rule provides the broadest grant of authority to prospective litigants to invoke judicial process for investigatory purposes. The empirical evidence from Texas may reasonably be read as indicating widespread use of the state's presuit discovery rule, most likely on the order of approximately one out of two lawyer and judge respondents reporting at least one experience in which a presuit deposition was taken. Relatedly, it appears that approximately 60% of the time the deposition was taken to investigate a potential claim before suit was filed; the remaining 40% of depositions were secured for the purpose of perpetuating testimony. Examining the available data, the author argues that there are good reasons to believe that the perceived need to satisfy formal legal requirements to bringing suit, as well as the pull of practical considerations, may plausibly explain the incidence of use of the state's presuit discovery rule. Read in this manner, the empirical evidence suggests an important relationship exists between access to information and access to justice.