It is well-known that exploiting label correlations is crucially important to multi-label learning. Most of the existing approaches take label correlations as prior knowledge, which may not correctly characterize the real relationships among labels. Besides, label correlations are normally used to regularize the hypothesis space, while the final predictions are not explicitly correlated. In this paper, we suggest that for each individual label, the final prediction involves the collaboration between its own prediction and the predictions of other labels. Based on this assumption, we first propose a novel method to learn the label correlations via sparse reconstruction in the label space. Then, by seamlessly integrating the learned label correlations into model training, we propose a novel multi-label learning approach that aims to explicitly account for the correlated predictions of labels while training the desired model simultaneously. Extensive experimental results show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art counterparts.


Abstract Community assembly theory provides a useful framework to assess the response of weed communities to agricultural management systems and to improve the predictive power of weed science. Under this framework, weed community assembly is constrained by abiotic and biotic "filters" that act on species traits to determine community composition. We used an assembly approach to investigate the response of weed seed banks to 25 yr of management-related filtering in three different row-crop management systems in southeastern Pennsylvania: organic manure-based, organic legume-based, and conventional. Weed seed banks were sampled in April of 2005 and 2006 and quantified by direct germination in a greenhouse. We also assessed the filtering effects of weed management practices and relationships between assembled seed bank and emergent weed communities by allowing or excluding weed control practices within each management system and measuring emergent weed community response. Germinable weed seed bank densities and species richness in the final year of the study were over 40% and 15% higher, respectively, in the organic systems relative to the conventional system. Seed bank community structure in the organic systems was different from the conventional system, and the relationships between assembled seed banks and the emergent flora varied. Primary tillage, weed control, timing of planting, and fertility management appeared to be the main filters that differentiated weed seed banks in the three systems. Weed life history, emergence periodicity, seed size, and responsiveness to soil fertility and hydrology appeared to be the most important functional traits determining how weed species responded to management-related filters. Our results suggest that management systems can exert strong filtering effects that can persist over relatively long (greater than one growing season) time scales. Legacy effects of community-level filtering might be more important than previously assumed, and should be incorporated into predictive models of weed community assembly.


To a first order, the oxygen content of the ocean interior is determined by the influx of the gas across the air-sea surface (i.e., ventilation) and consumption due primarily to microbial respiration. As these two competing processes vary in space and time, so does the concentration of oxygen in the ocean interior. Although oxygen concentrations on continental margins are declining in many regions due to increased anthropogenic nutrient loadings [e.g., Rabalais et al., 2002], oxygen also appears to be declining in both the central North Pacific Ocean and the tropical oceans worldwide [Emerson et al., 2004; Whitney et al., 2007; Keeling et al., 2010] (see Figure 1). It is unclear whether the loss throughout the basins in the open ocean is a long-term, nonperiodic (secular) trend related to climate change, the result of natural cyclical processes, or a combination of both (Figure 2). If related to climate change, a number of important factors may be involved, including decreased solubility of oxygen as waters warm, decreased ventilation at high latitudes associated with increased ocean stratification, and changes in respiration in the ocean interior.


1. Predation-exclusion experiments have highlighted that top-down control is pervasive in terrestrial communities, but most of these experiments are simplistic in that they only excluded a single group of predators and the effect of removal was evaluated on a few species from the community. The main goal of our study was to experimentally establish the relative effects of ants and birds on the same arthropod assemblage of canopy trees. 2. We conducted 1-year long manipulative experiments in an organic citrus grove intended to quantify the independent effects of bird and ant predators on the abundance of arthropods. Birds were excluded with plastic nets whereas ants were excluded with sticky barriers on the trunks. The sticky barrier also excluded other ground dwelling insects, like the European earwig Forficula auricularia L. 3. Both the exclusion of ants and birds affected the arthropod community of the citrus canopies, but the exclusion of ants was far more important than the exclusion of birds. Indeed, almost all groups of arthropods had higher abundance in ant-excluded than in control trees, whereas only dermapterans were more abundant in bird-excluded than in control trees. A more detailed analysis conducted on spiders also showed that the effect of ant exclusion was limited to a few families rather than being widespread over the entire diverse spectrum of spiders. 4. Our results suggest that the relative importance of vertebrate and invertebrate predators in regulating arthropod populations largely depends on the nature of the predator–prey system.


Mating Intelligence (MI) is a hypothesized constellation of mental adaptations that generate adaptive strategies in human mating (Geher & Miller, 2008). Although past research has theoretically explored and empirically evaluated the construct, using a MI scale that was borne of the ideas from Geher and Miller's work, this study seeks further understanding of this construct by demonstrating incremental validity. Two studies, each with large samples, demonstrate that MI predicts important outcomes beyond traditional conceptions of personality and intelligence. Exploratory factor analyses revealed that the factor structure suggested in previous work was generally congruent with predictions. Further, MI accounted for a significant portion of variance in mating success after controlling for age, the five-factor model of personality and general intelligence.


"Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field." With those words in Genesis, God condemns the serpent for tempting Adam and Eve, and the serpent has shouldered the blame ever since. But how would the study of religion change if we looked at the Fall from the snake's point of view? Would he appear as a bringer of wisdom, more generous than the God who wishes to keep his creation ignorant? Inspired by the early Gnostics who took that startling view, Jeffrey J. Kripal uses the serpent as a starting point for a groundbreaking reconsideration of religious studies and its methods. In a series of related essays, he moves beyond both rational and faith-based approaches to religion, exploring the erotics of the gospels and the sexualities of Jesus, John, and Mary Magdalene. He considers Feuerbach's Gnosticism, the untapped mystical potential of comparative religion, and even the modern mythology of the X-Men. Ultimately, "The Serpent's Gift" is a provocative call for a complete reorientation of religious studies, aimed at a larger understanding of the world, the self, and the divine.


Mass media campaigns can play an important role in promoting road safety issues to a large proportion of the population. In order to understand what elements make a road safety mass media campaign effective and how we might enhance future campaigns, a review of the literature published during the last decade was conducted. Any general principles concerning effective mass media campaign design and development were identified within the literature. Following this, recent evaluations of road safety mass media campaigns were examined to determine whether campaigns were adopting these best practice principles and the quality of these evaluations was reviewed. A number of broad principles that can enhance the effectiveness of road safety mass media campaigns were identified. While campaign designers appear to be increasingly adhering to these principles, there is still much room for improvement. Closer examination of the road safety campaigns revealed that few were subject to thorough scientific evaluation. It is suggested that evaluations may need to be based on 'before and after' comparison of behaviours or variables that can be objectively observed and are closely linked to safety.


Background: In lupus nephritis (LN), deposition of pathogenic autoantibodies in the glomeruli is mediated via cross-reactivity with alpha-actinin. Association of serum alpha-actinin antibody (AαA) with LN has been shown in a few studies but the results are controversial. Methods: Eighty patients into entered the study. The diagnosis of SLE was confirmed according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria and LN was diagnosed by proteinuria ≥ 500 mg/24 hour and kidney biopsy. Serum AαA was measured with ELISA method. Receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) analysis was applied to determine an optimal cutoff value for AαA to discriminate patients with and without LN at the highest sensitivity and specificity. The association of AαA with LN was determined by logistic regression analysis with calculation of odds ratio (OR). Results: Serum AαA was significantly lower in LN as compared with SLE patients without LN (P=0.001). Serum AαA at cutoff levels ≤ 59.5 pg/ml discriminated the two groups with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values of 60%. 90% and 85.7%, respectively. Serum AαA level ≤ 59.5 pg/ml was significantly associated with LN (OR=13.5, P=0.001) and the OR increased to 25.2 (P=0.003) after adjustment for age, sex, C3, C4, anti-ds-DNA, SLEDAI. Conclusion: This study indicates that serum AαA decreases in LN and serum level ≤ 59.5 pg/ml is SLE and is predictive of nephritis


Drawing together the estrangement theories of Viktor Shklovsky and Bertolt Brecht with Leo Tolstoy's theory of infection, Douglas Robinson studies the ways in which shared evaluative affect regulates both literary familiarity-convention and tradition-and modern strategies of alienation, depersonalization, and malaise. This book begins with two assumptions, both taken from Tolstoy's late aesthetic treatise What Is Art? (1898): that there is a malaise in culture, and that literature's power to "infect" readers with the moral values of the author is a possible cure for this malaise. Exploring these ideas of estrangement within the contexts of earlier, contemporary, and later critical theory, Robinson argues that Shklovsky and Brecht follow Tolstoy in their efforts to fight depersonalization by imbuing readers with the transformative guidance of collectivized feeling. Robinson's somatic approach to literature offers a powerful alternative to depersonalizing structuralist and poststructuralist theorization without simply retreating into conservative rejection and reaction. Both a comparative study of Russian and German literary-theoretical history and an insightful examination of the somatics of literature, this groundbreaking work provides a deeper understanding of how literature affects the reader and offers a new perspective on present-day problems in poststructuralist approaches to the human condition.


Flood basalt provinces host significant hydrocarbon reserves. The provinces are produced during fissure eruptions which construct volcanic edifices atop an erupting dyke. The edifices are important components of volcanic-affected hydrocarbon basins; they provide insights into the underlying structural and magmatic plumbing systems, as well as acting as fluid migration pathways after burial. Furthermore, the edifices host a wealth of volcanological evidence that can be used to derive information relating to eruption dynamics such as eruption column height, mass flux and duration; as well as providing insights into the effects of eruptions on the environment. However, the location of the fissures in many hydrocarbon basins is poorly constrained. Furthermore, few studies have characterised the internal architecture of the edifices produced during fissure eruptions. This thesis uses field, seismic and well data to characterise the architecture of monogenetic basaltic edifices and understand their temporal and spatial evolution.
Field studies along a dissected Holocene fissure, Northeast Iceland, reveal that a scoria-agglutinate cone, spatter ramparts and a scoria rampart were constructed during Hawaiian-style lava fountaining. These edifices are analogous to those formed in the 1783 Laki eruption. Data gathered in this study can be used to recognise fissure-derived edifices in other volcanic provinces. I then contrast these dyke-fed edifices with rootless cones; a morphologically similar volcanic edifice produced during explosive interaction between inflating pāhoehoe lava and unconsolidated sediment. This thesis reveals that rootless cones can be distinguished from dyke-fed edifices on the basis of their juvenile clast morphology and clast density. This allows us to better recognise dyke-proximal locations. Lastly, I use exceptional quality 3D seismic and well data to show how a series of submarine monogenetic volcanoes evolved; progressing from a maar-forming stage, to a pillow volcano and tuff-cone-building stage as the confining pressure decreased above the growing edifices. These insights allow us to distinguish volcanic edifices from similar non-volcanic edifices in other seismic data sets, and also indicates that our understanding of submarine volcanism has previously been biased towards recognition of constructional features.


Throughout their lifecycle, learning resources undergo a multitude of processes by being created, used, provided or re-used. However, in order to be reusable, a learning resource often has to be adapted for a new context of use. This in turn implies multiple re-authoring processes being performed on a learning resource. During each of these processes different types of information emerge. When retained, this information can be helpful for the retrieval, authoring, use or re-use of learning resources thereafter. In this paper, the lifecycle of learning resources along with the information generated herein is analyzed and a distributed architecture proposed that allows for the capture, processing, management and utilization of the information mentioned in a generic way. Three steps have been conducted to implement the proposed framework. First evaluation results are promising.


Zinc is an essential and the second most abundant trace element in humans. It is critical for the growth, development and differentiation of cells, as well as for RNA transcription, DNA synthesis, cell division and cell activation. Zinc deficiency affects mainly functions of the immune system, but other consequences include inferior sperm activity, skin lesions, growth retardation, impaired wound healing, anemia and gastrointestinal disorders. Zinc supplementation protects against the hepatotoxic effects of alcohol, enhances the transport of water and electrolytes across the intestinal mucosa and improves immune and anti-inflammatory responses. Zinc is also known as an essential mineral for normal mobilization of vitamin A from the liver to the plasma. Besides, it increases the promoter response to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in osteoblasts. On the other hand, excessive amounts of free zinc in tissues are toxic and accelerated zinc accumulation of zinc is a potent killer of neurons and glial cells. Over 300 signaling molecules and transcription factors contain zinc as a cofactor. Free zinc in immune and tumor cells is regulated by 14 distinct zinc importers (ZIP) and transporters. An elevated amount of zinc transporters LIV-1, a subfamily of ZIP zinc transporters, appears in estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer and has been used as a reliable breast cancer marker. However, the fact that malignant cells are unable to accumulate zinc is an important factor in the development and progression of malignancy of prostate cancer.


Changes in the competitive landscape have made reporting of timely and accurate
cost information very critical for organizations to sustain and improve their
performance. This is particularly relevant for companies competing based on cost
effkiency and the oil palm industry is one such industry. Since external market
forces determine the price of palm oil, oil palm enterprises have to continuously
lower their production costs to sustain and increase profitability. Greater cost
management leads to greater efficiency which subsequently leads to better
performance. This study investigates the effects of cost-system hnctionality on the
performance of oil palm enterprises in Malaysia. The moderating effect of manager's
perception of the usefulness of costing information is investigated, since the
effectiveness of cost information is also dependent on the perceived usefulness of
cost data.
A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from oil palm business enterprises
located in Sarawak. Data collection was confined to Sarawak in order to avoid the confounding effects of soil and climatic conditions on the performance of oil palm
enterprises. The results of this study generally indicate that managers of oil palm
enterprises value the cost information provided by highly functional cost system. All
the three dimensions of cost functionality are found to be positively associated with
the performance of the oil palm enterprises. These findings support the premise that
high functional cost systems supply managers with more relevant data, which are
used to make performance-enhancing decisions. The positive relationship between
cost functionality and performance suggests that is appropriate for the oil palm
industry because it is performance-enhancing. The rigid requirements to comply
routine estate operating and reporting procedures may have contributed to the
insignificant moderating effect of a manager's perceived usefulness on the costfunctionality
- performance relationship. The results of this study suggest that when
activities are highly routine and operational in nature, high cost system functionality
could aid performance, irrespective of the perceived usefulness of cost information.
Perceived usefulness of cost information may influence organizational performance
in, perhaps, a less structured environment.


Text categorization is continuing to be one of the most researched NLP problems due to the ever-increasing amounts of electronic documents and digital libraries. In this paper, we present a new text categorization method that combines the distributional clustering of words and a learning logic technique, called Lsquare, for constructing text classifiers. The high dimensionality of text in a document has not been fruitful for the task of categorization, for which reason, feature clustering has been proven to be an ideal alternative to feature selection for reducing the dimensionality. We, therefore, use distributional clustering method (IB) to generate an efficient representation of documents and apply Lsquare for training text classifiers. The method was extensively tested and evaluated. The proposed method achieves higher or comparable classification accuracy and F1 results compared with SVM on exact experimental settings with a small number of training documents on three benchmark data sets WebKB, 20Newsgroup, and Reuters-21578. The results prove that the method is a good choice for applications with a limited amount of labeled training data. We also demonstrate the effect of changing training size on the classification performance of the learners


Over the past five years, banks experienced a change in the composition of bank income earning more in service fees compared to interest income. The effect of this change on the efficiency of bank regions is investigated. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the TFP (Total Factor Productivity) index decomposition methodology were used to estimate efficiency and to decompose productivity change into its different components. Two models were specified one for the traditional function of a bank and one for the non-traditional function of a bank. It appears that some bank regions experienced improvement in efficiency under the non-traditional model, meaning that the change in the composition of bank income can result in improved efficiency.


Traditional sweet pepper cultivars showing susceptibility to the Potato virus Y (PVY) are being replaced by resistant hybrids with higher commercial value. Despite of much information about resistance source reaction and their inheritance, there is no knowledge about the genetic background of commercial resistant hybrids. Reaction of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) hybrids to the Potato virus Y (PVYm) such as Acuario, Magali R, Nathalie and their respective generations F2 and F3 as well as hybrids Amanda, Corteso W208, CPC-6272, Dagmar, Elisa, Magali, Margarita, Monteiro, Quantum, Vivo W205 was evaluated. Reaction to PVYm was evaluated as resistant or susceptible. Magali R and Nathalie hybrid did not show any mosaic symptoms. Magali R and Nathalie hybrids resistance is due to a single dominant gene indicating resistant versus susceptible parental lines crossing pedigree. Amanda, Acuario, Corteso W208, Dagmar, Elisa, Margarita, Monteiro, Quantum and Vivo W205, considered resistant to PVY, were highly susceptibility to PVY strain m. Hybrids, claimed as resistant to the Pepper mottle virus (PepMoV), were also resistant to PVYm.


I. INTRODUCTION The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005)1 introduced sweeping changes to nearly every sector of the energy industry, including the electricity sector. One of the more significant provisions of EPAct 2005 is the amendment of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA or the Act).2 Enacted during the Carter administration as one of five major energy bills consolidated into "the National Energy Act," PURPA sought to promote energy efficiency and encourage the use of alternative fuels to lessen the nation's dependence on foreign oil.3 This article addresses one of the main aspects of PURPA, codified at section 210 of the Act, which, together with the implementing regulations promulgated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the FERC or the Commission), established a class of generators known as "qualifying facilities" (QFs) and provided them certain benefits and exemptions in order to encourage their development. Although each of the other components of the National Energy Act has been repealed, and PURPA section 210 has been the subject of repeal efforts,4 PURPA continues in effect as amended by EPAct 2005. This article describes the statutory and regulatory framework established under section 210 of PURPA and the FERC's implementing regulations, as well as the changes to that framework effected by the provisions of EPAct 2005 and regulations recently issued by the Commission implementing some of those provisions. This article also examines potential implications of PURPA reforms initiated by EPAct 2005. II. BACKGROUND AND HISTORY A. The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 The National Energy Act, including PURPA, embodied the Carter administration's response to the energy crises of the 1970s, most notably the Middle East oil embargo of 1973-74 and a second oil "shock" in 1977.5 Following those events, the administration and Congress sought to create a statutory framework to facilitate the diversification of America's energy supplies and to reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil, among other objectives. Congress intended PURPA to foster energy efficiency in an environmentally friendly manner by establishing incentives for the development of cogeneration facilities and small-scale renewable power projects.6 PURPA's incentives included the creation of markets for the power produced by these facilities and the exemption of the facilities from most state and federal utility regulation. 1. Qualifying Facilities PURPA and the Commission's implementing regulations established the standards for the certification of a cogeneration facility or small power production facility as a "qualifying facility" entitled to the incentives and exemptions under the Act. The standards for QF certification cover the types and performance of facilities eligible for certification, as well as limitations on their ownership by electric utilities and electric utility holding companies. Although EPAct 2005 substantially modifies or eliminates the original standards developed by the FERC for QF status, many of the original standards will continue to apply to existing QFs, and are therefore described in this section and in the following section.7 Facility-Related Conditions. PURPA delegated to the FERC responsibility to develop rules for the eligibility for QF status of small power production facilities and cogeneration facilities.8 Under the FERC's regulations in effect on August 8, 2005, when EPAct 2005 became law (the FERC's original QF regulations), a small power production facility was "qualifying" if it satisfied the QF ownership requirements, described in the next section, and if (1) its primary energy source (i.e., at least 75% of its energy input) was from biomass, waste, renewable resources, geothermal resources, or any combination of the foregoing;9 and (2) its total net power production capacity, together with any other facilities at the same site, was not greater than 80 megawatts10 or it was an "eligible solar, wind, waste or geothermal facility" of any size. …


To emphasise the importance of data, it has been described as the new oil, the new water, even the new light. But what is not so well understood is the vital role that metadata plays in unlocking the value of data. It is metadata that allows datasets to be discovered, accessed, understood, assessed, and ultimately reused in new studies. It is key to demonstrating the integrity of research, instrumental in increasing its impact, and a cornerstone of interoperability. If the full potential of data is to be realised, giving it global and long-standing significance, researchers must collect appropriate metadata and data archives must curate and syndicate it according to established standards. This means research institutions need to participate in wider research data infrastructures; encourage the use of standards and profiles wherever possible; and above all support their researchers with training, tools and guidance.


Here we present a new security notion called as pseudo random involution or PRI which are associated with tweakable involution enciphering schemes or TIES (i.e., the encryption and decryption are same algorithm). This new security notion is important in two reasons. Firstly, it is the natural security notion for TIES which are having practical importance. Secondly, we show that there is a generic method to obtain a sprp-secure tweakable enciphering scheme (TES) from pri-secure construction. The generic method costs an extra xor with an extra key. In this paper, we also propose an efficient pri-secure construction Hash-Counter Involution or HCI and based on it we obtain a sprp-secure construction which is real improvement over XCB. We call the new construction as MXCB or Modified-XCB. HCH, XCB and HCTR are some of the popular counter based enciphering schemes, where HCTR is more efficient among them and HCH, XCB guarantee more security compare to HCTR. The new proposal MXCB has efficiency similar to HCTR and guarantees more security similar to HCH and XCB. We consider this new construction to be an important in light of the current activities of the IEEE working group on storage security which is working towards a standard for a wide block TES.


Blamed for the bloody disasters of the 20th century: Auschwitz, the Gulags, globalisation, Islamic terrorism; heralded as the harbinger of reason, equality, and the end of arbitrary rule, the Enlightenment has been nothing if not divisive. To this day historians disagree over when it was, where it was, and what it was (and sometimes, still is). Kieron O'Hara deftly traverses these conflicts, presenting the history, politics, science, religion, arts, and social life of the Enlightenment not as a simple set of easily enumerated ideas, but an evolving conglomerate that spawned a very diverse set of thinkers, from the radical Rousseau to the conservative Burke.


We describe for the first time the presence of high-pressure metapelites in the northern Chuacus Complex of Central Guatemala. Garnet–chloritoid–paragonite-bearing pelitic schist occurs in a predominantly metasedimentary sequence consisting of intercalated garnet paragneisses, pelitic schists, impure marbles, granitic orthogneisses and minor garnet amphibolites, an association that denotes a passive continental margin origin. The metapelite we have studied is mainly composed of almandine-rich garnet porphyroblasts in a schistose matrix consisting of phengite, paragonite, quartz, chloritoid and rutile, with minor amounts of chlorite, epidote, Fe–Ti oxides and sporadic kyanite. The metapelite also includes fine-grained paragonite + quartz and paragonite + epidote aggregates, which resemble jadeite and lawsonite pseudomorphs, respectively. A late staurolite-bearing assemblage overprints the high-pressure paragenesis. We have used a phase-equilibria modeling approach to constrain the P–T conditions of metamorphism. Equilibrium phase diagrams were calculated in the system MnNCKFMASHTO (MnO–Na 2 O–CaO–K 2 O–FeO–MgO–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 –H 2 O–TiO 2 –Fe 2 O 3 ) for three hypothetical effective bulk-compositions. The compositions of garnet, chloritoid and phengite cores indicate they crystallized during an early stage of prograde high-pressure metamorphism at 20–21 kbar and 500–540 °C. The composition of garnet rims constrains the P–T peak conditions to ~19.5–20 kbar and 580–600 °C. Both the zoning pattern of the garnet and the calculated P–T path indicate that the studied metapelite could be formed during a single progressive metamorphic event along a subduction geothermal gradient of 7–9 °C/km. The retrograde path is less well constrained, although decreasing pressure coupled with a slight drop of temperature are indicated by the absence of biotite and the growth of post-peak chlorite and epidote. Moreover, a late-stage heating event is required, in order for the metapelite to reach the stability field of staurolite at 7–8 kbar and 590–620 °C. The occurrence of this high-pressure metapelite implies that high-pressure metamorphism in the Chuacus Complex must have extended at least 10 km further to the north than previously thought. We propose that both Chuacus Complex and Rabinal Granite show a succession of decreasing P–T peak conditions towards the north, which may preserve in part the original thermal structure of the subduction zone in the southern margin of North America during the Cretaceous.


Purpose: To perform systematic measurements of photon beam characteristics under conditions of electronic disequilibrium for the purpose of benchmarking dose algorithms. Method and Materials: Slab phantoms consisted of styrofoam (ρ=0.03g/cm3), lung‐equivalent (ρ=0.21g/cm3), and bone‐equivalent (ρ=1.7g/cm3) materials, embedded within solid water. Ion chambers with active volumes of 0.125cm3 and 0.015cm3 and EDR2 film were used to measure depth dose and off‐axis photon beam characteristics within several phantom geometries. Experiments were conducted for field sizes from 2×2 to 25×25cm, for 6 and 23MV photon beams produced from a Siemens accelerator. Results: In the styrofoam phantom, the average agreement between the two ion chambers was within 2% for both energies with maximum differences of 9% observed in the sharp dose falloff region for small field sizes due to chamber volume effects. The 0.125cm3 chamber over‐estimated dose in the sharp falloff regions within the low density heterogeneities at the smallest field sizes, due to increased volume averaging. Relative dose film measurements demonstrated sharper penumbral gradients than ion chambers. Dose reduction in the lower density phantoms was enhanced with reduced material density and field size, and increased beam energy. Depth dose calculations differed by up to 20% and 10% versus measurements in the lung phantom for the 6 and 23MV beams, respectively. These discrepancies were partly attributed to a poorer fitting beam model for 23MV photons. Calculations were on average within 4% of measurements in the bone phantom for the 6MV beam, but larger differences (∼ 12%) were found for 23MV photons, likely due to increased pair production at this energy. Point dose calculations differed from measurements in a lung/tumor phantom by 6% for 3×3cm, 6MV photons.Conclusion: Measurements under conditions of electronic disequilibrium are confounded by many factors and must be performed with utmost care for algorithmic verification at the ±2% level. Acknowledgement: NIH/NCI‐R01CA106770.


In the labouring uterus, millions of myocytes forming the complex geometrical structure of myometrium contract in synchrony to increase intrauterine pressure, dilate the cervix and eventually expel the foetus through the birth canal. The mechanisms underlying the precise coordination of contractions in human myometrium are not completely understood. In the present study, we have characterized the spatio‐temporal properties of tissue‐level [Ca2+]i transients in thin slices of intact human myometrium. We found that the waveform of [Ca2+]i transients and isotonic contractions recorded from thin slices was similar to the waveform of isometric contractions recorded from the larger strips in traditional organ bath experiments, suggesting that the spatio‐temporal information obtained from thin slices is representative of the whole tissue. By comparing the time course of [Ca2+]i transients in individual cells to that recorded from the bundles of myocytes we found that the majority of myocytes produce rapidly propagating long‐lasting [Ca2+]i transients accompanied by contractions. We also found a small number of cells showing desynchronized [Ca2+]i oscillations that did not trigger contractions. The [Ca2+]i oscillations in these cells were insensitive to nifedipine, but readily inhibited by the T‐type Ca2+ channel inhibitor NNC55‐0396. In conclusion, our data suggest that the spread of [Ca2+]i signals in human myometrium is achieved via propagation of long‐lasting action potentials. The propagation was fast when action potentials propagated along bundles of myocytes and slower when propagating between the bundles of uterine myocytes.


This paper explores the analysis of low-frequency components of continuous speech signals from people with Parkinson's disease, in order to detect changes in the spectrum that could be associated to the presence of tremor in the speech. Different time-frequency (TF) techniques are used for the characterization of the low frequency content of the speech signals, by paying special attention on the ability to work in non-stationary frameworks, due to the need for the analysis of long enough time segments, where the assumptions of stationary can not be met. The set of variables extracted from the TF representations includes centroids and the energy content of different frequency bands, along with entropy measures and nonlinear energy operators, which are used as features for the automatic detection of people with Parkinson's disease vs healthy controls. The discrimination capability of the estimated features is evaluated using three different classification strategies: GMM, GMM-UBM, and SVM. Furthermore, the information provided by different TF techniques is combined using a second classification stage. The results show that the changes in the low frequency components are able to discriminate between people with Parkinson's and healthy speakers with an accuracy of 77%, using one single sentence.


The expression and distribution of two cell adhesion molecules, N-cadherin and N-CAM, at the surface of cultured leg muscle cells from 11-day-old chicken embryos were studied and compared. N-cadherin, which was expressed by fusing myoblasts, was down-regulated on old myotubes while N-CAM was still present. Both molecules, as viewed by confocal microscopy, appeared to have coaccumulated at the areas of contact between fusing myoblasts. However, immunogold electron microscopy did not reveal significant colocalization of N-cadherin and N-CAM, and their segregation after antibody-induced patching suggested the absence of direct interactions between N-cadherin and N-CAM. The role of the Ca2+ dependent cell adhesion molecule N-cadherin in myogenesis was investigated. Myoblast fusion was inhibited (1) with a synthetic peptide containing the H-A-V sequence and (2) with a monoclonal anti-N-cadherin antibody, demonstrating that N-cadherin-mediated cell adhesion is required for myoblast fusion. Under the same conditions no effect of anti-N-CAM antibodies was observed. Taken together these observations suggest that N-cadherin, acting independently from N-CAM, is a major cell adhesion molecule involved in embryonic myoblast fusion in vitro.


This contribution presents findings from the ongoing project MAREMEX-Mantaro risk reduction and adaptation to climate change in the Peruvian Central Andes in which the physical and socio economical aspects of extreme meteorological phenomena, such as drought, intense rainfall and frosts, and their impacts are studied at the sub basin level, with emphasis on the most vulnerable population (i.e. those with less access to economic, social and information resources). The main objectives of the project are to strengthen the capabilities for risk management associated with these meteorological events by: researching the physical aspects; developing an integrated risk management and adaptation strategy in collaboration with the local and regional authorities, population, and other institutions; disseminating the results of the study in the population and involving local researchers, students, and research institutes in the development of the study. Research in the physical aspects is aimed at increasing the knowledge of atmospheric mechanisms associated with the extreme events to improve the capability of prediction and mitigation of these events. Also, the general analysis includes the identification of the key players and stakeholders, and the identification and analysis of past events and their impacts on the population.


The contemporary context of Australia cannot be understood in isolation from its colonial past. As a powerful force of modernity seeking to defy geographical boundaries and advocate for the progress of man from all empires and local landscapes, colonialism has had a profound impact on even the most organic and timeless modes of thought. The tradition and culture of Indigenous Australian's have been deeply challenged in regards to their relevance for the modern nation state, predicated on an alternate worldview privileging human populations as objects of examination and control, rather than as the producers of authentic cultural knowledge. Subsequently, this article will critique the construction and relevance of Indigenous tradition and knowledge within Australia's contemporary postcolonial context. In order to do so, the article will examine the political and cultural paradigms resulting in representations of the colonial subject as primitive and 'other,' ultimately enabling British colonial powers to assume hegemony over the local inhabitants and their ideological worldview founded in local tradition. The divide established between traditional knowledge and the modern notion of scientific thought will be addressed in order to expose the marginalisation and silencing of contemporary Indigenous populations due to their intrinsic, spiritual connection to the past. This modern attempt to deny Aborigines contemporaneity will be examined through the physical and contextual setting of Brenda Croft's Indigenous artwork titled Wuganmagulya, located in Farm Cove in Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden. The article will conclude contemporary discourses of urban modernity have resulted in the emergence of commodified forms of Aboriginal tradition that attempt to conceal the cultural waste produced during the context of colonisation.


Thermal records from boreholes in young oceanic crust, in which water is flowing up or down, are used to assess formation and borehole flow properties using three analytic equations that describe the transient thermal and barometric influence of downhole or uphole flow. We link these calculations with an iterative model and apply Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis to quantify ranges of possible values. The model is applied to two data sets interpreted in previous studies, from Deep Sea Drilling Project Hole 504B on the southern flank of the Costa Rica Rift and Ocean Drilling Program Hole 1026B on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and to two new records collected in Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Holes U1301A and U1301B, also on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Our calculations indicate that fluid flow rates when thermal logs were collected were ∼2 L/s in Holes 504B, 1026B, and U1301A, and >20 L/s in Hole U1301B. The median bulk permeabilities determined with MCMC analyses are 4 to 7 × 10−12 m2 around the uppermost parts of Holes 504B, 1026B, and U1301A, and 1.5 × 10−11 m2 around a deeper section of Hole U1301B, with a standard deviation of 0.2 to 0.3 log cycles at each borehole. The consistency of permeability values inferred from these four holes is surprising, given the range of values determined globally and the tendency for permeability to be highly variable in fractured crystalline rock formations such as the upper oceanic crust.


Different weight percentage (2, 3, 4, and 5 wt %) of polyaniline (PANI) were incorporated into electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) composite membranes (esCPMs). The regular morphology, molecular structure, crystallinity, porosity, electrolyte uptake, and leakage of the composite membranes were examined. The esCPMs were activated in liquid electrolyte containing 0.5 M LiI, 0.05 M I-2, and 0.5 M 4-tert-butylpyridine and 0.5 M 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliun iodide in acetonitrile to afford electrospun PVdF-HFP/PANI composite membrane electrolytes (esCPMEs). The influence of different wt % of PANI on the esCPMEs was studied by electrochemical impedance measurements and Tafel polarization studies. The photovoltaic performance of a dye-sensitized solar cell assembled using 3 wt % PANI incorporated esCPME exhibits a higher power conversion efficiency of 7.20% than that assembled using esPME (=6.42%).


Existing studies have focused on the negative impact of inefficient resource allocation on energy performance in China's factor market, but neglected to further explore the underlying reason for this phenomenon from the perspective of market segmentation. In this paper, the epsilon-based measure model, which combines the merits of radial and non-radial Data Envelopment Analysis, is employed to measure the energy efficiency, and price index method derived from Iceberg Transport Cost model is used to examine the degrees of market segmentation. On the basis, we use the Tobit model to empirically investigate the impact of market segmentation on China's energy efficiency. The results show that although energy efficiency in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions, the energy efficiency gap is narrowing significantly between the eastern and central, but insignificantly between the western and eastern. Although efforts have been made towards a unified national market, the western provinces still have more segmented markets than the eastern still. Econometric analysis indicates that market segmentation is negative to China's energy efficiency significantly. This finding remains robust even if the endogeneity is excluded and the dependent variable is re-measured by the slack-based measure model, but is of a regional heterogeneity. We also find that factor market distortion, enterprises' R&D investment, and industrial agglomeration are three mediation mechanisms through which market segmentation affects energy efficiency. In-depth analysis indicates that there is a Race to the Top competition centering on market segmentation among Chinese local officials in geospatial and economic space, which triggers a long-term inhibition to energy efficiency.


In this document one will find the play, Lists in a Lighthouse, and a description of the process it took to write it. It's significance lie in the eyes of the reader. It could range from: the greatest play written in the English speaking world to simply words on a page. Like this Abstract so are the contents in this manuscript, abstract. One cannot quantify or qualify its importance. That is impossible. It is merely a dialogue. A dialogue between the play and its reader, the play and its actors, and the play and its audience. It is a process, forever changing. This manuscript is simply a comma in a longer sentence.


In the last years the consumption of mobile data services has greatly increased, as more users consume everyday through their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices to access internet. In addition the significant increase of video represents a challenge, as increased usage strains the capacity of the airwaves. Many experts agree that, despite the continuous investment in networks and advances in wireless efficiency, the increment demand for mobile broadband service is likely to surpass the available spectrum capacity in the short term. This has led to the mobile operators to compete in order to gain access to a share of the available spectrum commonly referred as "TV White Spaces" (TWS), which can be defined as the VHF/UHF frequencies left in idle by the Television broadcasting. These bands have excellent characteristics as: propagation, low level of noise, large macro-cell sizes and low density of subscribers. These idle frequencies also offer an exceptional opportunity to connect sparse communities found on the extensive rural areas to bridge digital gaps, especially because there are no plans to extend fiber to these communities and they provide a really cost-effective solution compared to fiber. Starting in 2012, several pilots and experiences around the globe were launched. Most of them were endorsed by non-telco organizations such as Microsoft and Google from slightly different purposes, angles and perspectives. Uruguay, Colombia, Jamaica as well as Ghana, Kenya and many other countries including US and Europe participated in proofs of concept, pilots or initial developments to benchmark TVWS as a cost-effective mobile broadband solution for a sundry of scenarios. The main purpose of this analysis is to query for those TVWS pilots and infer which is the current status of them worldwide. The first TWS pilots will surely provide suitable experience to define the roadmap and future applications in the development and uptake of the mobile broadband market. The analysis does an exhaustive review and a compilation of the general data from the studies that report the status of TVWS pilots such as its main purpose, status of the trial, stakeholders involved, timeline, regulations, viability and political will to follow up with this technology. The analysis of data provided by those projects and pilots have been approved to check the reliability this technology may do have in each area. The focus is multidisciplinary, where technology plays a key role but regulations and the market has to be also included in the final equation to have a complete picture of the whole TVWS solution.
The results will allow us to summarize a set of case studies and to wrap up the lessons learned from the initial TVWS deployments. Good and best practices and the role played by TVWS in the national digital agendas whether this technology is still a solution to deploy mobile broadband solutions in certain markets.


The colour formers used in carbonless copying paper consist of admixtures of primary and secondary dyes. Work was carried out in this programme both on retarding the photofading of the primary dyes and on improving the reactivity of the clay minerals towards the development of the secondary dye.
The photolytic fading behaviour of S primary dyes were examined both in solution and on solid clay surfaces, and the intermediacy of singlet oxygen in the fading processes of the dyes examined by the DPBF trapping method. The retardation of dye fading was accomplished using bis(dithiocarbamato)nickel(II) complexes and it was found that some hydroxy-possessing species conferred improved photo-stability upon the developed dyes, especially towards fluorans, and to a lesser degree towards phthalides.
The dark development of carbazolyl blue was examined on a series of cation exchanged and acid activated clays. There appeared to be two main mechanisms governing S-RB development in the dark; the first was catalysis by co-ordination to the Lewis acid sites on the clay edges, whilst the second was a redox process probably associated with the Fe 3 cations present in the clays.
Several treatments were applied to modify common commercial days. It was found that introducing Fe 3 and Cu2 into the clay profoundly improved the reactivity of the day to the secondary leuco dye. Cation exchange of clay with some transition metal ions such as CO 2 and Ni2 also showed a beneficial effect on the colour formation.
The Langmuir isotherm type plots were used to examine cation adsorption behaviour for 9 types of montmorillonite clays. It was found that cation exchange of clay occurs at at least two different sites; the tetrahedral silica layer sites and the intact montmorillonite interlayer cation exchange sites. It was also found that the silica layer sites are the predominant ones responsible for S-RB development, with interlayer sites providing a much lesser contribution. Adsorption of aquated metal salts makes virtually no further contributions to the leuco dye reaction.


It cannot be gainsaid that the extant provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria on this issue is Section 285 (5), (6) and (7) of the 1999 Constitution. Prior to the enactment of the above provisions, which became effective or operational from the 16 th day of July 2010, pursuant to or in consonance with the Constitution (First Alteration) Act 2010, otherwise called Act No. 1. The problem was that for the office of the Governor, President, National Assembly or State House of Assembly, which was all for a term or tenure of four (4) years, the observance of the requirement in Section 36 (1) that fair hearing be accorded parties in election petition matters was obeyed more in the breach. This led to grave injustices or travesty of justice as many electoral matters lapsed due to the time-wasting antics of some legal practitioners. As a result, "election petitions continued to be heard for many years and in some cases, the appeals in the Court of Appeal will be pending when the next election is held, thereby rendering the petition or appeal… otiose and academic". After about six (6) years of practice, there are still noticeable lapses or lacuna inherent in the application of these constitutional limitations that require immediate iconoclastic legislative action bordering on further constitutional amendment. This study highlights them and shall review the decision of our apex court (the Supreme Court) on this issue with a view to making reform projections that will foster the proper respect for Nigeria's constitutional development and make room for the upliftment of the rights to access to court/justice and elevate the right to be heard to a higher palladium or pedestal. If implemented, the recommendations will edify our current judicial practice, reform our extant procedural methodology and launch Nigeria further into the midst of working democratic models worthy of emulation at the global stage. That is the thrust of this study.


Title of dissertation: Optimal Variance Swaps Portfolios and Estimating Greeks for Variance-Gamma Lingyan Cao, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Michael C. Fu Department of Decision, Operations, and Information Technologies R. H. Smith School of Business Dr. Dilip B. Madan Department of Finance R. H. Smith School of Business In this dissertation, we investigate two problems: constructing optimal variance swaps portfolios and estimating Greeks for options with underlying assets following a Variance Gamma process. By modeling the dependent non-Gaussian residual in a linear regression model through a Lévy Mixture (LM) model and a Variance Gamma Correlated (VGC) model, and running some optimizations, we construct an optimal variance swap portfolio. By implementing gradient estimation techniques, we estimate the Greeks for a series of basket options called Mountain Range options. Constructing an optimal variance swap portfolio consists of two steps: evaluations and optimization. Each variance swap has two legs: a fixed leg (also called the variance strike) and a floating leg (also called the realized variance). The value of a variance swap is the discounted difference between the realized variance and the variance strike. For the latter, one can use an option surface calibration to evaluate. For the former, the procedure is complicated due to the non-negligible residuals from a linear regression model. Through LM and VGC, we can estimate the realized variance on different sample paths and obtain the payoff of a variance swap numerically. Based on these numerical results, we can apply the optimization method to construct an optimal portfolio. In the second part of this dissertation, we consider gradient estimation for Mountain Range options including Everest options, Atlas options, Altiplano/Annapurna options and Himalayan options. Assuming the underlying assets follow a VarianceGamma (VG) process, we derive estimators for sensitivities such as Greeks through Monte Carlo simulation. We implement and compare using numerical experiments several gradient estimation approaches: finite difference methods (forward difference), infinitesimal perturbation analysis (IPA), and likelihood ratio (LR) method using either the density function or the characteristic function. Optimal Variance Swaps Portfolios and Estimating Greeks for Variance-Gamma


It is shown that seismic prospecting as regards endogenous microseismic waves gives much promise, which is confirmed by graviprospecting practice. It was found that the spring gravimeter has some properties of a high-quality resonant microseismometer not taken into account earlier. These properties are used non-deliberately in highly effective empirical gravimethod called "GONG". The emphasis is made on the importance of creating special resonant prospecting microseismometers, and a method for applying them to the seismic prospecting of oil and gas deposits is proposed.


The study of Congress has largely focused on the legislative and oversight mechanisms of its members, committees, and leaders. And the study of federal agencies tends to focus on the executive branch. But there are agencies and institutions that exist to support Congress, the internal operations of which have mostly been overlooked in administrative law and political science. Far more than ministerial, some of these agencies have the ability to shape policy in very meaningful ways. They also have their own institutional interests distinct from the legislators that they serve. As instruments of Congress, though, they are generally exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act and a host of other "good government" statutes that govern agency conduct. This does not mean that they operate in a lawless fashion, quite the contrary. They are bounded by statutes and have internal norms that guide their conduct. This article suggests what we might learn from closer study of these unusual agencies.

One example of such an agency is the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Known mostly for its role as an auditor, the GAO's activities have expanded over time. As part of this expansion, the GAO became a referee in an increasingly important part of the administrative state: determining which actions are "rules" under the Congressional Review Act. The significance of these opinions, which are not binding as a matter of law, has grown as legislators use them strategically in regulatory politics.

Part I places the GAO into context along with other Congressional agencies, to shed light on the wide array of functions that they exist to serve. Part II explains the Congressional Review Act, the statute that allows Congress to disapprove rules using fast-track procedures. Part III describes the CRA legal opinions that the GAO issues and why they matter. Part IV sketches a surprisingly wide variety of policy implications of this phenomenon and suggests areas for future study.


This empirical paper focuses on the relationship between changes in GDP and CO2 emissions as a country�s economy moves through periods of growth and decline. Using a comprehensive panel, I document substantial heterogeneity in the relationship across countries. Specifically, countries can be classi?ed into one of the following three groups. Group D (for decline) includes countries where the emissions growth rate is more strongly associated with the GDP growth rate in periods of GDP decline than in periods of GDP growth. Group G (for growth) includes countries where the degree of association is stronger in periods of GDPgrowth. Finally, in group S (for symmetrical) it is not possible to reject the hypothesis that the relationship is the same for growth and decline. According to a simple count criterion, approximately a third of the countries in the sample fall into each group. Notably, China and the US, currently the world�s largest emitters by a substantial margin, are in group D. These results have potentially important consequences for long-term emissions projections. They also suggest that macroeconomic stabilization policies may have adverse emissions consequences by limiting the cleansing e?ect of periods in which GDP declines.


Open-ended survey data constitute an important basis in research as well as
for making business decisions. Collecting and manually analysing free-text
survey data is generally more costly than collecting and analysing survey data
consisting of answers to multiple-choice questions. Yet free-text data allow
for new content to be expressed beyond predefined categories and are a very
valuable source of new insights into people's opinions. At the same time,
surveys always make ontological assumptions about the nature of the entities
that are researched, and this has vital ethical consequences. Human
interpretations and opinions can only be properly ascertained in their richness
using textual data sources; if these sources are analyzed appropriately, the
essential linguistic nature of humans and social entities is safeguarded.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) offers possibilities for meeting this ethical
business challenge by automating the analysis of natural language and thus
allowing for insightful investigations of human judgements. We present a
computational pipeline for analysing large amounts of responses to open-ended
questions in surveys and extract keywords that appropriately represent people's
opinions. This pipeline addresses the need to perform such tasks outside the
scope of both commercial software and bespoke analysis, exceeds the performance
to state-of-the-art systems, and performs this task in a transparent way that
allows for scrutinising and exposing potential biases in the analysis.
Following the principle of Open Data Science, our code is open-source and
generalizable to other datasets.

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ABSTRACT.
 Despite augmentation stocking efforts, wild populations of razorback suckers (Xyrauchen texanus) continue to decline. Endangered razorback suckers are commonly raised in off-channel ponds until maturity (approximately 300 mm TL) and then stocked into the Colorado River or its tributaries. After fish are stocked, they commonly move large distances downstream. We conducted an experiment to determine if downstream dispersal could be reduced through exercise conditioning. Two groups of razorback suckers, exercised and nonexercised, were released into Fossil Creek, Arizona. Prior to release, a subsample from each treatment group was tested in a laboratory flow chamber. Razorback suckers that had been exercise conditioned were able to maintain a position in the flow chamber 2 times longer and at velocities 25 cm · s-1 higher than nonexercised fish. Although the intended method of field data collection via passive-integrated-transponder (PIT) antennas and a remote communication station failed because river otters (Lontra canadensis) preyed upon the released razorback suckers, implanted PIT tags were retained in otter scat. Recovered PIT tags enabled distributional analysis, which indicated that exercised razorback suckers did not move as far downstream from the point of release as nonexercised razorbacks. Exercise conditioning may increase overall fitness of pond-reared razorback suckers, and, consequently, increase the effectiveness of augmentation stocking.


Movement and leaching of residual nitrogen in soil has been studied in some details in a lysimeter experiment. Profile measurements of soil water and of nitrogen concentration in addition to measurements of amount and composition of the drainage water were carried out. The leaching process could be described by an equation of Day. For a flow rate of approximately 1 cm/day, a dispersion coefficient of 11.5 cm 2 /day was obtained independent of the concentration level. Using this value, the equation satisfactorily predicted concentration of nitrogen and leached amount of nitrogen in the drainage water. The equation, although the assumptions inherent in the theory are not completely fulfilled, may therefore be used for predictive purposes under field conditions. An excess of precipitation, approximately equal to field capacity, is predicted necessary for leaching 50 per cent of an amount of dissolved nitrogen initially localized at the surface of the soil. Consequently, under many soil/climate conditions, the composition of drainage water is influenced by agricultural practices from previous years, which makes difficult interpretation of the results. This has been illustrated by relating some available data on drainage water quality from field experiments to the concentration of nitrogen in the soil water, as predicted by the theory.


Defoliation is a commonly used viticultural technique to balance the ratio between grapevine vegetation and fruit. Defoliation is conducted around the fruit zone to reduce the leaf photosynthetic area, and to increase sunlight exposure of grape bunches. Apical leaf removal is not commonly practiced, and therefore its influence on canopy structure and resultant wine aroma is not well-studied. This study quantified the influences of apical and basal defoliation on canopy structure parameters using canopy cover photography and computer vision algorithms. The influence of canopy structure changes on the chemical compositions of grapes and wines was investigated over two vintages (2010–2011 and 2015–2016) in Yarra Valley, Australia. The Shiraz grapevines were subjected to five different treatments: no leaf removal (Ctrl); basal (TB) and apical (TD) leaf removal at veraison and intermediate ripeness, respectively. Basal leaf removal significantly reduced the leaf area index and foliage cover and increased canopy porosity, while apical leaf removal had limited influences on canopy parameters. However, the latter tended to result in lower alcohol level in the finished wine. Statistically significant increases in pH and decreases in TA was observed in shaded grapes, while no significant changes in the color profile and volatile compounds of the resultant wine were found. These results suggest that apical leaf removal is an effective method to reduce wine alcohol concentration with minimal influences on wine composition.


Germline mutations in succinate dehydrogenase subunit B and D (SDHB and SDHD) are predisposed to hereditary paraganglioma (PGL) and pheochromocytoma (PHEO). The phenotype of pathogenic variants varies according to the causative gene. In this retrospective study, we estimate the mortality of a nationwide cohort of SDHB variant carriers and that of a large cohort of SDHD variant carriers and compare it to the mortality of a matched cohort of the general Dutch population. A total of 192 SDHB variant carriers and 232 SDHD variant carriers were included in this study. The Standard Mortality Ratio (SMR) for SDHB mutation carriers was 1.89, increasing to 2.88 in carriers affected by PGL. For SDHD variant carriers the SMR was 0.93 and 1.06 in affected carriers. Compared to the general population, mortality seems to be increased in SDHB variant carriers, especially in those affected by PGL. In SDHD variant carriers, the mortality is comparable to that of the general Dutch population, even if they are affected by PGL. This insight emphasizes the significance of DNA-testing in all PGL and PHEO patients, since different clinical risks may warrant gene-specific management strategies.


A sizable literature on quantitative research evaluation procedures has developed, but little attent10n has been focussed on procedures for reviewing or monitoring agricultural research m an external review process. Despite their relative neglect m the literature, external reviews are increasingly relied on by governments and by international donor and lending agencies to assess the performance of research systems. Tlus paper suggests guidelines for external reviews, focussing on their content and procedures, while highlighting key issues Wlth respect to research organizations; discusses the importance of obtaining early agreement among review team members on evaluation criteria and of considenng research system goals, objectives, priorities, organization capacity, management, vertical and horizontal linkages, programme content, impacts, and future needs; examines the issues of ltnkages between national research systems and the international agricultural research centres and the extent to which national systems should adopt a farming systems research approach; and stresses the need for the research system, operatmg in an uncertain world, continually to reassess the long-run demand for particular technologies.


Large genome sequencing projects generate huge number of protein sequences in their primary structures that is difficult for conventional biological techniques to determine their corresponding 3D structures and then their functions. Protein secondary structure prediction is a prerequisite step in determining the 3D structure of a protein. In this research a method for prediction of protein secondary structure has been proposed and implemented together with other known accurate methods in this domain. The method has been discussed and presented in a comparative analysis progression to allow easy comparison and clear conclusions. A benchmark data set is exploited in training and testing the methods under the same hardware, platforms, and environments. The newly developed method utilizes the knowledge of the GORV information theory and the power of the neural network to classify a novel protein sequence in one of its three secondary structures classes. NN-GORV-I is developed and implemented to predict proteins secondary structure using the biological information conserved in neighboring residues and related sequences. The method is further improved by a filtering mechanism for the searched sequences to its advanced version NN-GORV-II. The newly developed method is rigorously tested together with the other methods and observed reaches the above 80% level of accuracy. The accuracy and quality of prediction of the newly developed method is superior to all the six methods developed or examined in this research work or that reported in this domain. The Mathews Correlation Coefficients (MCC) proved that NN-GORV-II secondary structure predicted states are highly related to the observed secondary structure states. The NN-GORV-II method is further tested using five DSSP reduction schemes and found stable and reliable in its prediction ability. An additional blind test of sequences that have not been used in the training and testing procedures is conducted and the experimental results show that the NN-GORV-II prediction is of high accuracy, quality, and stability. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under curve (AUC) are applied as novel procedures to assess a multi-class classifier with approximately 0.5 probability of one and only one class. The results of ROC and AUC prove that the NN-GOR-V-II successfully discriminates between two classes; coils and not-coils.


This paper develops a panel unobserved components model of the monetary transmission mechanism in the world economy, disaggregated into twenty national economies along the lines of the Group of Twenty. This structural macroeconometric model features extensive linkages between the real and financial sectors, both within and across economies. A variety of monetary policy analysis and forecasting applications of the estimated model are demonstrated, based on a Bayesian framework for conditioning on judgment.


Adopting socioethical and anthropological perspectives, this article addresses the impact of state intervention in the reproductive life of couples who consult for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in France. Our main objective is to identify and analyze the socioethical problems flowing from French legislation as related to PGD and from its implementation. Methods included review and analysis of the relevant literature, ethnographic research in the three centers accredited to perform PGD, and participant observation (990 hours), with 79 semistructured interviews. Ethical problems identified were: (1) discrimination based on sexual orientation and the requirement for adherence to a traditional model of the couple and the family; (2) inequities in access to PGD; (3) restrictions on couples' autonomy; and (4) breaches of respect for private life. We conclude that the state could improve the ethical conditions in which PGD is practiced by: (1) establishing educational programs in ethics to support members of multidisciplinary centers for prenatal diagnosis; (2) conducting empirical studies on the social acceptability of PGD; and (3) conducting empirical studies on the extent of state intervention in the reproductive life of couples likely to have recourse to reprogenetic services.


In much of his research on intergenerational value change, Inglehart uses a four-item index to calculate levels of postmaterial and material value orientations. Latter waves of the World Values Surveys administer a 12-item values index in which the original four-item index is embedded. In some of his research, Inglehart compares values estimated from stand-alone and embedded indices. Using a split sample design, we administered two versions of the longer values index to national probability samples of Australian adults and detected question-ordering effects. Proportions of postmaterialists relative to materialists were inflated when the four-item index was embedded in the longer values index. Comparing estimates of postmaterial values from stand-alone indices with indices embedded in the longer values measure is an unreliable method of assessing change in value orientations, as it overestimates the magnitude of value change over time.


This part is issued under the authority of and in order to implement the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as amended (5 U.S.C. 552); the CIA Information Act of 1984 (50 U.S.C. 431); sec. 102 of the National Security Act of 1947, as amended (50 U.S.C. 403); and sec. 6 of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, as amended (50 U.S.C. 403g). It prescribes procedures for: (a) Requesting information on available CIA records, or the CIA administration of the FOIA, or estimates of fees that may become due as a result of a request; (b) Requesting records pursuant to the FOIA; and (c) Filing an administrative appeal of an initial adverse decision under the FOIA.


Many functionals have been proposed for validation of partitions of object data produced by the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm. We examine the role a subtle but important parameter-the weighting exponent m of the FCM model-plays in determining the validity of FCM partitions. The functionals considered are the partition coefficient and entropy indexes of Bezdek, the Xie-Beni (1991), and extended Xie-Beni indexes, and the Fukuyama-Sugeno index (1989). Limit analysis indicates, and numerical experiments confirm, that the Fukuyama-Sugeno index is sensitive to both high and low values of m and may be unreliable because of this. Of the indexes tested, the Xie-Beni index provided the best response over a wide range of choices for the number of clusters, (2-10), and for m from 1.01-7. Finally, our calculations suggest that the best choice for m is probably in the interval [1.5, 2.5], whose mean and midpoint, m=2, have often been the preferred choice for many users of FCM. >


There is increasing recognition that relational processes are closely linked to, and may even provide the basis for many higher-order cognitive processes (e.g., Gentner, 2003b; Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche 2001). The primary aim of the current doctoral research was to explore the relationship between relational processes and human intelligence, focusing particularly on relational flexibility. The current research employed a relatively new methodology, called the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP; Barnes-Holmes et al, 2006) The IRAP is a computerised task, which requires participants to respond quickly and accurately in ways that are either consistent or inconsistent with previously learned relations. Response latencies are recorded on both consistent and inconsistent trials. A difference-score is also calculated by subtracting latencies on consistent trials from those on inconsistent trials. The difference-score therefore, provides a relatively "pure" measure of relational flexibility.
The current work comprises of four correlational studies. In Study 1 participants completed before/after and similar/different relational tasks, presented on the IRAP. They then completed the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1990). Study 2 was a replication and extension of Study 1, in which, participants completed the same relational tasks, but were subsequently exposed to extensive and comprehensive cognitive abilities measures, including the WAIS-IIIUK (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Third UK Edition: Wechsler, 1997). Study 3 involved the presentation of more complex relational tasks, including verbal and perceptual analogies and arithmetic. Study 4 returned once again to more basic relational frames. Specifically, in this study hierarchical and
iv
comparative relations were targeted, and subsequently the AH4 (Alice Heim 4; Heim, 1970) and the WAIS-IIIUK were administered.
In general the results of the studies demonstrated that participants with higher scores on the intelligence test were not only faster at responding relationally, but also demonstrated a greater degree of relational flexibility than those with lower IQ scores. Interesting however, the more complex relational tasks presented in Study 3, produced fewer significant correlations with the intelligence measures than the relatively basic relational tasks. The results also indicated that particular types of relational frames predict performances on certain types of cognitive tasks.
Overall, the data obtained from the current research facilitate a greater understanding and greater specification of the processes underlying human intelligence. They also highlight the utility and sensitivity of the IRAP for investigating relational responding. Furthermore, the results suggest that targeting the fluid and flexible development of relational repertoires, may be crucially important in terms of promoting intelligent and creative behaviours in educational settings.


Summary Objectives: To investigate proximal tibial anatomy and its influence on anisometry of extracapsular stabilizing sutures in small dog breeds. Materials and methods: Mediolateral radiographs of the femora, stifles, and tibiae of 12 small breed dogs were acquired with the stifles positioned at various angles. Measurements taken included tibial plateau angle (TPA), diaphyseal: proximal tibial angle (DPA), patellar tendon angle (PTA), Z-angle, relative tibial tuberosity width (rTTW), and the distance between six combinations of two femoral and three tibial extra-capsular stabilizing suture (ECS) attachment sites. Theoretical strain through stifle range-of- motion was recorded. Results: The TPA (32° ± 5.8°), DPA (10.2° ± 7.3°), PTA (103.7° ± 6.2°), and Z-angle (70.4° ± 9.0°) were positively correlated with one another (R >0.7), but none were correlated with rTTW (0.93 ± 0.10). The F2-T1 combination of ECS attachment sites had lowest strain for nine stifles. The shortest attachment site separation was at a stifle flexion of 50° for nine stifles. Proximal tibial anatomy measurements could not predict optimal attachment site combination, optimal stifle angle for suture placement, or ECS strain. Clinical significance: There is individual variation in the optimal attachment site combination and stifle angle for suture placement, which may influence consistency of outcomes with ECS.


Variable Valve Actuation (WA) technology provides high potential in achieving high performance, low fuel consumption and pollutant reduction. However, more degrees of freedom impose a big challenge for engine characterization and calibration. In this study, a simulation based approach and optimization framework is proposed to optimize the setpoints of multiple independent control variables. Since solving an optimization problem typically requires hundreds of function evaluations, a direct use of the high-fidelity simulation tool leads to the unbearably long computational time. Hence, the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are trained with high-fidelity simulation results and used as surrogate models, representing engine's response to different control variable combinations with greatly reduced computational time. To demonstrate the proposed methodology, the cam-phasing strategy at Wide Open Throttle (WOT) is optimized for a dual-independent Variable Valve Timing (WT) engine. The optimality of the cam-phasing strategy is validated with engine dynamometer tests.


The legal status of "guts" — the ephemeral streams of the U.S. Virgin Islands that typically flow only after rainfall — is uncertain. Furthermore, it is unclear what, if any, property interest the Government of the Virgin Islands, and the public, have in these watercourses. This uncertainty stems from the non-navigable nature of guts, and is compounded by the Virgin Islands' unique legal system, a legal system that recognizes at least some Danish law from its colonial past, and has seemingly inconsistent provisions purporting to confer legal and regulatory interests in these guts to the Government of the Virgin Islands. The uncertain legal status of guts, coupled with the Territory's lack of a cohesive watercourse management regime, has caused guts to remain largely unmanaged and environmentally threatened. Land use changes, poorly sited development, pollution, illegal clearing, and other practices threaten the health of these guts. This Article first examines the legal status of guts in the Virgin Islands within the Territory's existing laws and legal precedents. Next, it looks to other jurisdictions for guidance regarding best practices for regulating intermittent and ephemeral waterways, and methods of ensuring government access to these waterways for better management and protection. Finally, it proposes certain proprietary, regulatory, and management policy measures that could be implemented within this legal framework to better manage and protect guts for the entire Territory.


We introduce a new way of learning to encode position information for non-recurrent models, such as Transformer models. Unlike RNN and LSTM, which contain inductive bias by loading the input tokens sequentially, non-recurrent models are less sensitive to position. The main reason is that position information among input units is not inherently encoded, i.e., the models are permutation equivalent; this problem justifies why all of the existing models are accompanied by a sinusoidal encoding/embedding layer at the input. However, this solution has clear limitations: the sinusoidal encoding is not flexible enough as it is manually designed and does not contain any learnable parameters, whereas the position embedding restricts the maximum length of input sequences. It is thus desirable to design a new position layer that contains learnable parameters to adjust to different datasets and different architectures. At the same time, we would also like the encodings to extrapolate in accordance with the variable length of inputs. In our proposed solution, we borrow from the recent Neural ODE approach, which may be viewed as a versatile continuous version of a ResNet. This model is capable of modeling many kinds of dynamical systems. We model the evolution of encoded results along position index by such a dynamical system, thereby overcoming the above limitations of existing methods. We evaluate our new position layers on a variety of neural machine translation and language understanding tasks, the experimental results show consistent improvements over the baselines.


Liquid-liquid microfluidic systems rely on the intricate control over the fluid properties of either miscible or immiscible mixtures. Herein, we report on the use of partially miscible binary liquid mixtures that lend their microfluidic properties from a highly temperature-sensitive mixing and phase separation behaviour. For a blend composed of the thermotropic liquid crystal 4-Cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and methanol, mixing at temperatures above the upper critical solution temperature (UCST; 24.4°C) leads to a uniform single phase while partial mixing can be achieved at temperatures below the UCST. Thermally-driven phase separation inside the microfluidic channels results in the spontaneous formation of very regular phase arrangements, namely in droplets, plug, slug and annular flow. We map different flow regimes and relate findings to the role of interfacial tension and viscosity and their temperature dependence. Importantly, different flow regimes can be achieved at constant channel architecture and flow rate by varying the temperature of the blend. A consistent behaviour is observed for a binary liquid mixture with lower critical solution temperature, namely 2,6-lutidine and water. This temperature-responsive approach to microfluidics is an interesting candidate for multi-stage processes, selective extraction and sensing applications.


The current study examined how form-focused instruction (FFI) with and without corrective feedback (CF) as output enhancement can facilitate L2 perception of Mandarin tones at both the phonetic and phonological levels in 41 Cantonese learners of Mandarin. Two experimental groups, FFI-only and FFI-CF, received a 90-minute FFI treatment designed to encourage them to notice and practice the categorical distinctions of Mandarin tones through a range of communicative input and output activities. During these activities, the instructors provided CF only to students in the FFI-CF group by recasting and pushing them to repair their mispronunciations of the target features (i.e., output enhancement). The control group received comparable meaning-oriented instruction without any FFI. The effectiveness of FFI was assessed via a forced-choice identification task with both trained and untrained items for a variety of tonal contrasts in Mandarin (high level Tone 1 vs. mid-rising Tone 2 vs. high falling Tone 4). According to statistical comparisons, the FFI-only group attained significant improvement in all lexical and tonal contexts, and such effectiveness was evident particularly in the acquisition of Tone 1 and Tone 4—supposedly the most difficult instances due to their identical phonological status in the learners' L1, Cantonese. The FFI-CF group, however, demonstrated marginally significant gains only under the trained lexical conditions. The results in turn suggest that FFI promotes learners' attentional shift from vocabulary to sound learning (generalizable gains in trained and untrained items) and facilitates their access to new phonetic and phonological categories. Yet, the relative advantage of adding CF to FFI as output enhancement remains unclear, especially with respect to the less experienced L2 learners in the current study.


During the coverage of breaking news and broadcasts on social media, journalists and audiences alike share links, comments, and opinions in response to new developments. On Twitter, such content can gain increased visibility by receiving retweets from other users, through automated functions, or by manually republishing and modifying comments. This article studies tweeted coverage of the doping scandal involving Lance Armstrong in 2012 and 2013. Humorous framing is found to be popular in this discussion, and such comments experience different longevity to breaking news tweets. With these patterns come new opportunities for users to modify and appropriate punch lines in attempts to receive increased attention—and for the serendipitous creation of similar jokes—which raise questions of authorship and attribution.


An efficient solvent free synthesis of coumarins has been developed via sold phase Pechmann condensation reaction by making use of grindstone chemistry at room temperature. When different substituted phenols were ground with ethylacetoacetate in presence of P2O5 at room temperature in china pestle mortar under solvent free conditions, coumarins were obtained in good yield in a very small period of time.


The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship orientation on entrepreneurs compensation. A total of 270 questionnaires were administered but 255 questionnaires were found usable and data was analysed through regression and Pearson correlation. Three hypotheses were tested and the result shows that there is no positive association between risk-taking and financial compensation of an entrepreneur but a weak association exists between innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness and non-financial compensation of an entrepreneur. The study recommended that entrepreneurship education should be introduced in Nigeria's educational system and trainings, seminars and conferences should also be organized for prospective entrepreneurs.


Abstract : Without access to data acquired by autonomous marine vehicles, surface operators cannot fully understand the state of a mission. Communicating imagery and high-resolution sensor readings to surface observers remains a challenge -- as a result, telemetry from free-roaming autonomous marine vehicles remains limited to 'heartbeat' status messages with minimal data available until recovery. Long-distance communication may require relaying data across multiple acoustic hops between vehicles, yet fixed infrastructure is not always appropriate. I propose mechanisms for interactive, progressive communication of data across multiple acoustic hops. These mechanisms include wavelet-based embedded coding methods, and a novel image compression scheme based on texture classification and synthesis. I then present CAPTURE, a telemetry architecture that employs advances in delay tolerant networking to enable progressive transmission of data, including imagery, across multiple acoustic hops. Specific design considerations include highcost vehicle nodes with persistent storage and significant computation, and human surface operators . CAPTURE provides an end-to-end software solution for communicating science data from AUVs. Automatically selected imagery and time-series data are progressively transmitted across multiple hops . Human feedback is incorporated by allowing operators to request arbitrarily higher resolution versions of data. These components are demonstrated through field trials.


Background Developing injury prevention programs for community sport is challenging. The injury issues and interventions must be grounded in science and be both meaningful to, and implementable by, those involved in community sport. Objective This presentation will detail the multi-stage iterative process used to develop FootyFirst, a community-Australian Football (AF) specific lower limb injury prevention program. Design The scientific literature, clinical experience, expert and end-user consultations, community trials, theory-informed discussion, and graphic design and editorial expertise, were combined to develop FootyFirst. Setting Community-AF. Results Lower limb injuries were identified as the major injury concern and it was established that a combination of balance and control, eccentric hamstring, plyometric and strength exercises could be efficacious in preventing such injuries. The multi-disciplinary research team used evidence from the scientific literature, clinical experience and knowledge of the community-AF context in an iterative process to create and trial the exercises and progressions that were included in the first draft of FootyFirst. This draft was further refined through a Delphi process in which AF-specific lower limb injury prevention experts agreed on the appropriateness of including the proposed exercises in FootyFirst. Potential end-user groups (community-AF players, coaches, fitness coaches, sports trainers and administrators) provided feedback about the fit between FootyFirst and the implementation context including potential barriers and facilitators to widespread program adoption and implementation. Trials of FootyFirst were conducted to ensure it could be understood and delivered by community-AF coaches and completed by players. The research team then reviewed the entire program during discussions focused around the Diffusion of Innovations principles of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability before expert graphic designers and editors were engaged to develop FootyFirst resources. Conclusions The content-to-context process detailed in this presentation was successfully used to develop FootyFirst, an evidence-informed, expert-endorsed, context-specific community-AF lower limb injury prevention program.


This paper examines Indian Muslims in post-apartheid South Africa, with particular respect to the inclination by non-Muslims to view Muslims as a homogeneous monolith, and the divisions among Muslims over traditions, beliefs, and practices, which run contrary to this wide-held perception. Muslims are divided by race, class, gender, and ethnicity; theologically they run the gamut from orthodox to progressive; and among themselves they are boxed into categories like Tablighi, Deobandi, Modernist, Salafi, and so on; and their cultural identities are cumulative rather than singular. They are also reacting in different ways to changes ushered by the demise of apartheid, globalisation, challenges posed by modernity, and the "War on Terror". At the extremes are those seeking to withdraw into parochial (re)-imagined Islamic identities and those who have wholeheartedly embraced the new, democratic South Africa. In-between are a multiplicity of identities and attitudes. Traditional Ulema (religious clergy) wield power among Muslims and their views are usually hegemonic. They have the support of the majority of Muslims and seek to sideline recalcitrant voices by declaring their beliefs as "untruths". Dissenting voices are, however, emerging among Muslim intelligentsia, professionals, and gender activists outside the control of the Ulema, who are challenging the dominant status quo. Muslim identities will continue to shift and transform n response to changing circumstances in a particularly unstable global and national political context.


The restoration process for distribution system grid needs the operation of line switching to restore as many loads as possible for the faulted area. In this paper a multi objective, multi constraint combinatorial optimization problem is formulated to solve the self-healing restoration problem. A hybrid Fuzzy Control (FC)-Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm (ACOA) is proposed using values for P, Q from a SCADA system. Two case studies without/with distributed generation are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness and speed of the proposed algorithm. The obtained results are compared with the conventional ACO to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed hybrid algorithm. Finally, conclusions are discussed.


In this paper, we propose an ordered time series classification framework that is robust against missing classes in the training data, i.e., during testing we can prescribe classes that are missing during training. This framework relies on two main components: (1) our newly proposed ordinal-quadruplet loss, which forces the model to learn latent representation while preserving the ordinal relation among labels, (2) testing procedure, which utilizes the property of latent representation (order preservation). We conduct experiments based on real world multivariate time series data and show the significant improvement in the prediction of missing labels even with 40% of the classes are missing from training. Compared with the well-known triplet loss optimization augmented with interpolation for missing information, in some cases, we nearly double the accuracy.


Introduction: Physical activity and exercise due to increased cellular oxidative process lead to increased free-radical production and reactive oxygen species. "Oxidative stress" is defined as the disturbed balance between oxidative and antioxidative indicators in favor of oxidative species. Methods: In this semi-experimental study, 23 sedentary boys volunteered to participate. They were randomly assigned to 2 groups of training (n = 13) and control (n = 10). The combined trainings included endurance running with 60% to 80% of maximum heart rate and resistance weight training with 40% to 50% and one repetition maximum intensity. Blood samples were taken from the subjects' forearm vein, 24 hours before and 48 hours after the last training session in a fasting state. Paired and independent t tests were used to locate the inner-group and inter-group changes respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. A P <0.01 was considered significant. Results: Malondialdehyde (MDA) level as a marker of oxidative stress in the exercise group decreased significantly after 24 sessions of exercise (P = 0.015), while the index of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) significantly increased in the exercise group (P = 0.021). There was no significant difference in the 2 indexes in the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The present study suggests that combined training provides a good balance between indicators of oxidative stress and antioxidant defense among sedentary boys and this would prevent the overproduction of free radicals.


Deep etching of n-type 6H-SiC using a two-step etching process has been studied. First, anodization of 6H-SiC in an HF electrolyte (2 wt.%) without ultraviolet light is applied to form a deep porous layer with the desired dimensions. Then, a thermal oxidation process is used to oxidize this porous layer. The oxidized layer is then removed in a concentrated HF solution. In the experiments, the etching parameters electrolyte concentration and current density are optimized in order to obtain a uniform pore size and hence, a smooth etched surface. After adjusting these parameters, the porous layer formation experiments are carried out at 20/spl deg/C in a 2 wt.% HF electrolyte using a current density of 50 mA/cm/sup 2/. The corresponding porous layer formation rate is about 1.1 /spl mu/m/min. To demonstrate the capabilities of this SiC bulk micromachining process, deep circular cavities are fabricated in n-type 6H-SiC substrates.