During mechanical ventilation, patients are connected to the ventilator by an endotracheal tube. The tube needs to be cleaned from mucus by suction, which can cause negative effects such as lung collapse, hypoxemia and desaturation. These can be avoided by preoxygenation, change of ventilator settings, use of closed suction systems and recruitment manoeuvres. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of endotracheal suction during different ventilator settings and by different suction methods. A method to reverse side effects was investigated.In anaesthetized pigs, the effect of suction during volume and pressure-controlled ventilation was investigated, and the effect of different suction systems and catheter sizes were compared. Suction efficacy was investigated in a bench study. The effect of recruitment manoeuvre added after suction, i.e. post-suction recruitment manoeuvre was evaluated.Endotracheal suction causes lung volume loss leading to impaired gas exchange, an effect that is more severe in pressure-controlled ventilation than in volume-controlled ventilation. When 14 French suction catheters were used more side effects were found compared to 12 French catheters, but no difference was found between open and closed suction system in pressure-controlled ventilation. Open suction system was more effective to remove mucus compared to closed system. Post-suction recruitment manoeuvre restored the side effects after the first recruitment when it was applied directly after suction.In conclusion, open endotracheal suction causes impairment in gas exchange and lung mechanics, and more so in pressure-controlled than in volume-controlled mode. These changes can be minimized if smaller suction catheters are used. A post-suction recruitment manoeuvre applied directly after suction restores lung function. It is obvious that the recruitment manoeuvre should be added directly after suction, because if the manoeuvre is delayed and the lung is collapsed and left collapsed, it will be more difficult to recruit the lung.


The Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine can provide decades of protection against tuberculosis (TB) disease, and although imperfect, BCG is proof that vaccine mediated protection against TB is a possibility. A new TB vaccine is, therefore, an inevitability; the question is how long will it take us to get there? We have made substantial progress in the development of vaccine platforms, in the identification of antigens and of immune correlates of risk of TB disease. We have also standardized animal models to enable head-to-head comparison and selection of candidate TB vaccines for further development. To extend our understanding of the safety and immunogenicity of TB vaccines we have performed experimental medicine studies to explore route of administration and have begun to develop controlled human infection models. Driven by a desire to reduce the length and cost of human efficacy trials we have applied novel approaches to later stage clinical development, exploring alternative clinical endpoints to prevention of disease outcomes. Here, global leaders in TB vaccine development discuss the progress made and the challenges that remain. What emerges is that, despite scientific progress, few vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials in the last 5 years and few vaccines in clinical trials have progressed to efficacy trials. Crucially, we have undervalued the knowledge gained from our "failed" trials and fostered a culture of risk aversion that has limited new funding for clinical TB vaccine development. The unintended consequence of this abundance of caution is lack of diversity of new TB vaccine candidates and stagnation of the clinical pipeline. We have a variety of new vaccine platform technologies, mycobacterial antigens and animal and human models. However, we will not encourage progression of vaccine candidates into clinical trials unless we evaluate and embrace risk in pursuit of vaccine development.


In Sarawak, about 13% of the total land area is covered with recent peat deposits. A complex mechanism of plant growth and peat accumulation with time has led to formation of flat topped peat domes. Dome centre consists of highly fibrous ombrogeneous peat. Topogeneous peat found in the fringes of peat domes and in interior floodplains, consists of a mixture of decomposed plant matter and fine clastic sediments. Mechanical behaviour of fibrous peat is influenced by the arrangement of fibre. The present study shows that fibrous peat as well as temperate peat conforms to a unique dry density - moisture content relationship. A preliminary study has been carried out in developing a cellular model of fibrous peat. The finite element analysis of time dependent stress strain behaviour performed using this model shows interesting results and promise of application in understanding the behaviour of fibrous peat.


Abstract. Volcanic and geothermal aspects both exist in many geologically young areas. In these areas the heat transfer process is of fundamental importance, so that the thermal and fluid-dynamic processes characterizing a viscous fluid in a porous medium are very important to understand the complex dynamics of the these areas. The Campi Flegrei caldera, located west of the city of Naples, within the central-southern sector of the large graben of Campanian plain, is a region where both volcanic and geothermal phenomena are present. The upper part of the geothermal system can be considered roughly as a succession of volcanic porous material (tuff) saturated by a mixture formed mainly by water and carbon dioxide. We have implemented a finite elements approach in transient conditions to simulate water flow in a 2-D porous medium to model the changes of temperature in the geothermal system due to magmatic fluid inflow, accounting for a transient phase, not considered in the analytical solutions and fluid compressibility. The thermal model is described by means of conductive/convective equations, in which we propose a thermal source represented by a parabolic shape function to better simulate an increase of temperature in the central part (magma chamber) of a box, simulating the Campi Flegrei caldera and using more recent evaluations, from literature, for the medium's parameters (specific heat capacity, density, thermal conductivity, permeability). A best-fit velocity for the permeant is evaluated by comparing the simulated temperatures with those measured in wells drilled by Agip (Italian Oil Agency) in the 1980s in the framework of geothermal exploration. A few tens of days are enough to reach the thermal steady state, showing the quick response of the system to heat injection. The increase in the pressure due to the heat transport is then used to compute ground deformation, in particular the vertical displacements characteristics of the Campi Flegrei caldera behaviour. The vertical displacements range from 1 cm to 10 cm in accordance with the mini uplift, characterizing the recent behaviour of the caldera. The time needed to move fluid particles from the bottom to the upper layer (years) is compatible with the timing of the mini uplift.


Higher education has been called upon to demonstrate its commitment, capacity, and effectiveness in preparing "quality" teachers in the 21st century. As part of the assessment/audit process, institutions will be expected to provide accrediting agencies with evidence of their effectiveness to prepare competent teacher candidates. This article presents action research studies collaboratively engaged in by a college and a partnering school district to assess the college's teacher education students. Videotaped performances of the students are analyzed to assess their teaching performances as indicators of learning and to establish baseline data for instituting change and improvement. In this article a summary of the action research video studies is presented as well as selected data/findings. Introduction and Background Information In the next decade the nation will need over 2.2 million teachers (Riley, 1999). In general, colleges and universities around the nation have been called upon, now more so than in the past, to demonstrate their commitment and ability to meet the changing needs of American society (Goodlad, 1999; Schmidt, 2000). With regard to the need for teachers, higher-education institutions have been asked not only to meet this need, but also to solve the problem of preparing "quality" teachers for America in the 21st century (Riley, 1999). Thus, teacher preparation has become a priority item on the agendas of many colleges and universities, and it is an important presidential campaign issue. At present, the U.S. Department of Education, through the 1998 Congressional Higher Education Act, Title II, Section 207, is requiring states and higher-education institutions to assess and publicize the effectiveness of their teacher education programs to prepare quality teachers. Section 207 of the law includes new accountability measures that require states and their colleges and universities to announce annually the percentage of students who have passed state teacher-certification exams, and to report on other quality indicators and licensure requirements as well. In essence, for higher education there will be a national and state report card (see U.S. Department of Education, 2000a, 2000b). Subsequently, if a college or university does not achieve a designated passage-rate set by the state in which the college or university resides, then the state's education department or its board of regents may close that institution's teacher education program or subject it to deregistration. For example, the New York State Board of Regents has set an 80% student passage-rate for its higher-education institutions. That is, if less than 80 percent of the institution's teacher education students pass one or more teacher certification examinations, the institution's teacher education program is subject to deregistration. And if a program, found deficient, does not demonstrate significant annual improvement toward the 80% standard, it, too, is subject to deregistration (see New York State Regents Task Force On Teaching, 1998, pp. 24-25). For small colleges and universities this could be financially devastating; and for larger institutions it may mean that they will no longer be able to use their teacher education programs as the institution's "cash cow." Further, the U.S. Department of Education and state education departments around the nation are requiring colleges and universities to demonstrate their "institutional" commitment to prepare quality teachers and their capacity to do so by mandating that the institution engage in a comprehensive assessment and/or audit conducted by a designated accrediting association or agency. What we are currently witnessing is not only an assessment of programs in teacher education and the unit of the college that sponsors the program (i.e., schools and departments of education), but also an assessment of the entire institution in terms of its capacity to prepare "quality" teachers. …


Managing privacy and understanding handling of personal data has turned into a fundamental right, at least within the European Union, with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being enforced since May 25 2018. This has led to tools and services that promise compliance to GDPR in terms of consent management and keeping track of personal data being processed. The information recorded within such tools, as well as that for compliance itself, needs to be interoperable to provide sufficient transparency in its usage. Additionally, interoperability is also necessary towards addressing the right to data portability under GDPR as well as creation of user-configurable and manageable privacy policies. We argue that such interoperability can be enabled through agreement over vocabularies using linked data principles. The W3C Data Privacy Vocabulary and Controls Community Group (DPVCG) was set up to jointly develop such vocabularies towards interoperability in the context of data privacy. This paper presents the resulting Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV), along with a discussion on its potential uses, and an invitation for feedback and participation.


There are myriad occasions where human inclusions in a situation can be replaced by a robot which does the same task with ease and in a shorter duration of time. Earlier efforts in the field of vision based robotics have been primarily manual and static in nature: process being monitored at a single fixed point. Recent evolutions have led us to gesture controlled robotics which may be fascinating but manual in nature. Systems are being developed which have on-board vision: Autonomous systems that can act on the same situations at different locations. To facilitate one possible feasible solution, we have implemented a system through which an area is scanned for a particular object by a surveillance robot. Through this method autonomous monitoring of hazardous elements is made possible with a wireless camera on-board and robot monitoring various locations in a given region. The command signals are generated from the scanning through Image Processing. These signals are then passed to the robot to navigate it to the required position pick the object and place it to the required position using an electro-pneumatic gripping mechanism. KeywordsImage Processing, Wireless Processing, Arduino, L293D, Electro-Pneumatics, Pixel Calculation, Depth Analysis.


Energy harvesting directly from sunlight has attracted tremendous attention owing to its great potential for low-cost and clean hydrogen production. However, the current photoconversion efficiency from nanostructured metal oxides remains low due to a number of factors, such as low surface area, limited light absorption, poor electron mobility and high electron-hole recombination. In this research, a number of approaches have been carried out to overcome these difficulties.

Firstly, changing the morphology of nanomaterials will help to increase the effective surface area of the photoanodes. ZnO nanotubes were prepared and the photoelectrochemical measurements revealed an efficiency of 3 times higher than their nanorod counterparts. In addition, the combination of ZnO nanorods with a 3D metal substrate, stainless steel mesh, showed a further enhancement in the water splitting efficiency by two-fold when compared with that on a planar substrate.

Secondly, the hybridisation of two different metal oxides was studied by creating a heterojunction to improve the charge separation, extending the light absorption and increasing the total surface area of the electrode. In this work, both urchin-like ZnO nanorod arrays on TiO2 hollow hemispheres and 1D BiVO4/ZnO nanorod films displayed synergistic enhancement in photoelectrochemical water splitting efficiency.

Thirdly, doped ZnO nanostructures with different optical and/or electrical properties were tailored for photoelectrochemical water splitting and gas ionisation sensing applications. The photoelectrochemical water splitting performances of the doped ZnO nanostructures was improved by at least 27% due to increased light absorption. Conductive Y-doped ZnO nanorods were prepared and applied in gas ionisation sensor application. The measurements revealed that both the selectivity and sensitivity of Y-doped ZnO nanorods were enhanced with respect to undoped ZnO nanorods. Furthermore, the effect of UV illumination on gas sensitivity was also investigated.

In summary, different approaches and namomaterials have been adapted and demonstrated in this thesis, for the design of specific photoanodes/electrodes for specific applications.


Learning to play optimally against any mixture over a diverse set of strategies is of important practical interests in competitive games. In this paper, we propose simplex-NeuPL that satisfies two desiderata simultaneously: i) learning a population of strategically diverse basis policies, represented by a single conditional network; ii) using the same network, learn best-responses to any mixture over the simplex of basis policies. We show that the resulting conditional policies incorporate prior information about their opponents effectively, enabling near optimal returns against arbitrary mixture policies in a game with tractable best-responses. We verify that such policies behave Bayes-optimally under uncertainty and offer insights in using this flexibility at test time. Finally, we offer evidence that learning best-responses to any mixture policies is an effective auxiliary task for strategic exploration, which, by itself, can lead to more performant populations.


Climate has a primary influence on the occurrence and rate of combustion in ecosystems with carbon-based fuels such as forests and grasslands. Society will be confronted with the effects of climate change on fire in future forests. There are, however, few quantitative appraisals of how climate will affect wildland fire in the United States. We demonstrated a method for estimating changes in fire probability based on future climate simulations of temperature and precipitation. The probability of a fire occurring in a particular climate was extracted from the Physical Chemistry Fire Frequency Model (PC2FM) and represented the rate of change in fire due to climate. Climate output data from two global climate models (GCMs) were applied to the PC2FM to estimate changes in fire probability. We calculated change in fire frequency and probabilities from the difference between current and future climates and mapped climate-forced percentage change in fire probability under each GCM for the nation at a 1.2 km scale. Future fire probability estimates increased in cooler northern and high elevation regions but decreased slightly in some hotter and drier regions of the southwestern United States. Our approach's greatest strength may be reliance on only climate data and the simple principles of physical chemistry; many other nonclimatic factors that affect fire are often difficult to predict in the distant future.


Making sense of large volumes of biological imaging data without human annotation often relies on unsupervised representation learning. Although efforts have been made to representing cropped-out microscopy images of single cells and single molecules, a more robust and general model that effectively maps every voxel in a whole cell volume onto a latent space is still lacking. Here, we use variational auto-encoder and metric learning to obtain a voxel-level representation, and explore using it for unsupervised segmentation. To our knowledge we are the first to present self-supervised voxel-level representation and sub-sequent unsupervised segmentation results for a complete cell. We improve upon earlier work by proposing an innovative approach to separate latent space into a semantic subspace and a transformational subspace, and only use the semantic representation for segmentation. We show that in the learned semantic representation the major subcellular components are visually distinguishable and the semantic subspace is more transformation-invariant than another sample latent subspace of equal dimension. For unsupervised segmentation we found that our model manages to automatically rediscover and separate the major classes with errors demonstrating spatial patterns, and further dissect the class not specified by reference segmentation into areas with consistent textures. Our segmentation outperforms a baseline by a large margin.


This paper presents a comparison of online to traditional face-to-face delivery of undergraduate digital systems material. Two specific components of digital content were compared and evaluated: a sophomore logic circuits course with no laboratory, and a microprocessor laboratory component of a junior-level computer systems course. For each of these, a baseline level of student understanding was evaluated when they were being taught using traditional, face-to-face delivery. The course and lab component were then converted to being fully online, and the level of student understanding was again measured. In both cases, the same purpose-developed assessment tools were used to carry out the measurement of understanding. This paper presents the details of how the course components were converted to online delivery, including a discussion of the technology used to accomplish remote access of the electronic test equipment used in the laboratory. A comparison is then presented between the control and the experimental groups, including a statistical analysis of whether the delivery approach impacted student learning. Finally, student satisfaction is discussed, and instructor observations are given for the successful remote delivery of this type of class and laboratory.


Background: Salivary gland tumors bear uncanny characteristics of being different based on their morphological aspects rather than the presence of clear demarcation. This ambiguity in the spectrum from benign to malignant salivary gland neoplasms while categorizing the neoplasm is having inherent pitfalls. The present study was, therefore, designed to characterize benign and malignant salivary gland tumors based on their proliferative indices. Materials and Method: Study samples comprised of 97 cases of histopathologically confirmed benign and malignant salivary gland tumors. The cases were immunohistochemically assessed for MCM3 and Ki-67 expressions and the molecular characterization was performed based on the findings. Results: The majority of benign and malignant salivary gland tumors were from the parotid gland, (51.2%) and (42.4%), respectively. Overall mean labeling index of MCM3 was higher i.e., (5.60 ± 3.99) in comparison to Ki-67 i.e., (2.82 ± 3.14) with P = 0.05 using paired t-test. Besides, malignant salivary gland neoplasms represented a higher mean score of MCM3 and Ki-67 than benign neoplasms. Conclusion: The requirement of a novel marker has led to the use of MCM3 which has a characteristic role in the entire spectrum of the cell cycle. The present study highlighted the extrapolation of MCM3 over Ki-67 for diagnosis and for true characterization of biologic behavior of salivary gland pathologies which may, in turn, influence the treatment modality employed for such lesions.


Unlike the poverty in the developing world which is more likely associated with undevelopment or underdevelopment of industrial capitalism, the new poverty in advanced cities is induced by the development of a new phase of capitalism that goes beyond industrial capitalism and emphasises the role of knowledge, information, global networks and global finance for capital accumulation and profit generation. This new phase of capitalism represents a transformation from country-based economic systems to city-based ones. Hong Kong as a global city is no exception to this trend. Most of the big advanced cities around the globe are witnessing increasing inequalities of income, job opportunities and job securities, and are turning into 'divided' or 'dual' cities. In these divided global cities, a new group of marginalised urban poor or 'underclass' emerges, and new regimes of urban marginality are established. This article is about the poor and the low-income earning marginalised workers in Hong Kong. Following the social polarisation thesis advanced by Sassen, this article will review the current literature and official statistics to portray and examine the trends of poverty and inequalities in Hong Kong. Then we will attempt to explain how low-skilled and less-educated workers are marginalised and trapped in a vicious cycle of low income and poverty. Specifically, we will draw insights from Esping-Andersen's discussion of a post-industrial stratification order, which combines both the Fordist industrial and post-industrial hierarchies in advanced Western countries to analyse the Hong Kong situation. Our article shows that social polarisation, in its narrowest definition of absolute income polarisation and the disappearing middle, does not happen in Hong Kong. However, there are serious problems on income inequality: a low-income-poverty trap against the lower class, and the spatial and economic segregation towards migrant groups.


Recent years have witnessed globalisation of business with astonishing speed. The US multinational corporations, in particular, have ventured rapidly to enter markets all over the world. This kind of trend poses great challenges for managers as they have to interact with different cultures. The management styles that prove effective in the western world may not produce the desired results in other cultures. This paper highlights the differences between the American and Arabian cultures and examines how the American management philosophy and styles are adapted to suit the cultural context of the United Arab Emirates 1. Introduction A formidable body of research has been built up in recent years focusing on the dynamics of globalization of business ( McLuhan and Powers 1983; Ritzer 1993; Ger, Belk and Lascu 1993; Sklair 1993, among others).Interestingly, the natural benchmark for thinking about globalization of business is to consider how Corporate America has shaped the world in which markets for goods, services, and factors of production are getting integrated. There is compelling evidence to suggest that US multinational corporations ( MNCs ) operating in areas such as transportation, mass media, tourism, publishing, sports, consumer durables and non-durables, and information technology, among others, have been contributing immensely to make the world a "global village" (McLuhan and Powers, 1989). With Ronald McDonald leading the way by proliferating restaurants with astonishing speed in various parts of the world, US MNCs are now breaking down all sorts of barriers far and wide. In view of the proliferation of Corporate America in various parts of the world, Ronald McDonald, Mickey Mouse, Colonel Sanders, Big Bird, and the Michelin Man, among others, have come to be popularly perceived as world ambassadors of Corporate America (Kottak, 1981). In fact, stylised American shopping malls, retail outlets, hotels, educational institutions, banks, Internet cafes, and cultural organisations have come to exist all over the world (Home, 1992) . A greater number of Americans are now managing overseas operations . These expatriates obviously bring with them the American cultural styles to manage the foreign operations. However, these styles need to be used with flexibility and adaptation. Otherwise, they may not prove effective in different cultural contexts ( Harrison, 1994). While the interaction of US management styles with different cultural contexts has been given serious consideration in contemporary literature (Thanopoulos and Leonard, 1996)., the use of these styles in the context of an Arabian culture has not been subjected to a rigorous analysis. This neglect may be attributed mainly to the non-availability of empirical evidence. Therefore, an attempt is made in this study modestly to fill the gap in existing literature with the help of some empirical evidence from United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study addresses the following questions. 1. Is there a link between national culture and corporate culture? 2. What are the main differences between the Arabian and American cultures and management styles? 3. To what extent are the American management styles adapted to suit the cultural context in the UAE? 4. How do the Arabian and the US management styles affect employees in terms of job satisfaction? The paper progresses logically as follows. Section 2 examines the link between national culture and corporate culture. Section 3 explains the Arabian and American cultures and management styles. The penultimate section reports the findings of the survey. The final section discusses the implications of this study for decision making. 2. National Culture and its Relationship to Corporate Culture Since this study is concerned with the interaction of cultures, it is important to understand the linkages between national culture and corporate culture. Figure 1 shows the influence of US national culture on organisational culture and management styles. …


In this paper, we demonstrate that university students who cheat on a simple task in a laboratory setting are more likely to state a preference for entering public service. Importantly, we also show that cheating on this task is predictive of corrupt behavior by real government workers, implying that this measure captures a meaningful propensity towards corruption. Students who demonstrate lower levels of prosocial preferences in the laboratory games are also more likely to prefer to enter the government, while outcomes on explicit, two-player games to measure cheating and attitudinal measures of corruption do not systematically predict job preferences. We find that a screening process that chooses the highest ability applicants would not alter the average propensity for corruption among the applicant pool. Our findings imply that differential selection into government may contribute, in part, to corruption. They also emphasize that screening characteristics other than ability may be useful in reducing corruption, but caution that more explicit measures may offer little predictive power. Rema Hanna Kennedy School of Government Harvard University 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA 02138 and BREAD and also NBER firstname.lastname@example.com Shing-Yi Wang The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania 3620 Locust Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com


This comprehensive look at the law of evidence has been extensively updated and made current since the previous edition. One of the most significant changes in the Eighth Edition deals with the revolution in Confrontation Clause jurisprudence occasioned by the Supreme Court's decision in Crawford v. Washington (2004). Since the last edition, the Supreme Court has decided half a dozen cases involving Crawford's approach. Substantial additions to the detailed notes regarding confrontation reflect those new developments. Also, new material concerning scientific evidence has been added because of the dynamic nature of that particular area of evidence law-for example, the National Academy of Science's 2009 landmark report on forensic science. Finally, a number of cases and notes on new technologies, such as e-mail, computer simulations, social networking websites, and other the internet issues have been added.


A challenge for obstetrician is to better define normal and abnormal fetal neurological function in utero, in order to detect antenatally which fetuses are at risk for adverse neurological outcome. Cerebral palsy diagnosis remains one of the most difficult clinical conditions in obstetrics. A large number of cerebral damage occur antenatally and early interventions bring better results, in combination with the progression of ultrasound technology that allows a better real-time fetal evaluation, the researchers exploring the possibility of detecting the neurological damage in utero. Systematic estimation of fetal behavioral parameters such as the quality of spontaneous movements, cranial sutures, grimaces and blinking, were introduced into a fetal neurobehavioral evaluation system called KANET test (Kurjak's antenatal neurodevelopmental test). This systematic assessment can distinguish between normal and abnormal behavioral patterns, which may lead to early recognition of fetal neurological impairment.


Gut microbiota coevolve with humans to achieve a symbiotic relationship, which ultimately leads to physiological homeostasis. A variety of diseases can occur once this balance is disrupted. Helicobacter bilis (H. bilis) is an opportunistic pathogen in humans, triggering multiple diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is a chronic immunologically mediated inflammation of the human gastrointestinal tract, and its occurrence is closely related to the gut microbiota. Several studies have demonstrated that H. bilis colonization is associated with IBD, and its mechanism is related to host immunity. However, few studies have investigated these mechanisms of action. Therefore, this article is aimed at reviewing these studies and summarizing the mechanisms of H. bilis-induced IBD from two perspectives: adaptive immunity and innate immunity. Furthermore, this study provides a preliminary discussion on treating H. bilis-related IBD. In addition, we also demonstrated that H. bilis played an important role in promoting the carcinogenesis of IBD and discussed its mechanism.


In this study, we investigate the multi-mode multi-project resource constrained project scheduling problem under uncertainty. We assume a multi-objective setting with 2 objectives : minimizing multi-project makespan and minimizing total sum of absolute deviations of scheduled starting times of activities from their earliest starting times found through simulation. We develop two multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) solution approaches. The first one, called decomposition MOGA, decomposes the problem into two-stages and the other one, called holistic MOGA, combines all activities of each project into one big network and does not require that activities of a project are scheduled consecutively as a benchmark. Decomposition MOGA starts with an initial step of a 2-stage decomposition where each project is reduced to a single macro-activity by systematicaly using artificial budget values and expected project durations. Generated macro-activities may have one or more processing modes called macro-modes. Deterministic macromodes are transformed into random variables by generating disruption cases via simulation. For fitness computation of each MOGA two similar 2-stage heuristics are developed. In both heuristics, a minimum target makespan of overall projects is determined. In the second stage minimum total sum of absolute deviations model is solved in order to find solution robust starting times of activities for each project. The objective value of this model is taken as the second objective of the MOGA's. Computational studies measuring performance of the two proposed solution approaches are performed for different datasets in different parameter settings. When non-dominated solutions of each approach are combined to a final population, overall results show that a larger ratio of these solutions are genetared by decomposition MOGA. Additionally, required computational effort for decompositon MOGA is much less than holistic approach as expected.


Mung beans are grown widely for use as a human food (as dry beans or fresh sprouts), but can be used as a green manure crop and as forage for livestock. This study assessed the marketing practice and challenges of Mung bean in the Amhara Region, North Shewa Zone. Descriptive analysis techniques were used for conducting this research. From the nine selected districts, 1,350 producers, 115 traders and 10 experts/professionals were taken as a sample using convenience sampling techniques. The interviewer administered questionaire and field observations were employed for the fruit of this study. The finding showed that, although the North Shewa Zone has prospected potential in producing Mung bean and supplied to Ethiopia commodity exchange market, currently its production amount is low due to production and marketing challenges. The unpredictable rainfall, prevalence of pests and diseases, lack of input supply and development, and lack of proper storage and handling were among the identified production challenges. On the other hand, it is identified that low level of local consumption, inappropriate market chain, lack of market information, price impulsiveness, lack of stakeholder's commitment, limited market promotion and lack of finance were major marketing problems for Mung bean products. In line with this, season and quality were the main determining factors of the price of the product. Lower bargaining power of producers relative to traders makes them to earn less out of it.

 Key words: Commodity market, Ethiopia commodity exchange, Mung Bean.


Erosional surfaces within the late Ediacaran upper Kuibis and lower Schwarzrand Subgroups of the Nama Group, that extend from the Klein Karas Mountains in Namibia eastward to the Namibian-South African border and from southern Namibia to Nigramoep (near Springbok) in South Africa, are interpreted to form one discontinuous regional unconformity termed the Vingerbreek Unconformity (VGU). This unconformity formed by glacial, proglacial and fluvial erosion. The palaeochannels (palaeovalleys) associated with this unconformity in southern Namibia and northwestern South Africa are interpreted to have formed distant from major glaciers as a result of predominantly glacio-eustatic sea level fall. Our findings are consistent with a late Ediacaran (ca 547 Ma) glaciation, that is also recorded in South America and Eurasia. The evolutionary implications of a glacial event just before the Ediacaran/Cambrian are considerable, because climate deterioration could have acted as an evolutionary bottleneck and thus promoted the Cambrian explosion in its aftermath.


The proof of existence of Vlasov-Maxwell equilibria which do not exhibit a functional dependence in terms of the single-particle energy is established. The theory deals with the kinetic treatment of multispecies axisymmetric magnetized plasmas, with particular reference to plasma systems which are slowly time varying. Aside from collisionless laboratory plasmas, the theory concerns important aspects of astrophysical scenarios, such as accretion-disk and coronal plasmas arising in the gravitational field of compact objects. Qualitative properties of the solution are investigated by making use of a perturbative kinetic theory. These concern the realization of the equilibrium kinetic distribution functions in terms of generalized Gaussian distributions and the constraints imposed by the Maxwell equations. These equilibria are shown to be generally non-neutral and characterized by the absence of the Debye screening effect. As a further application, the stability properties of these equilibria with respect to axisymmetric electromagnetic perturbations are addressed. This permits us to establish absolute stability criteria holding in such a case.


The justice cascade refers to a new global trend of holding political leaders criminally accountable for past human rights violations through domestic and international prosecutions. In just three decades, state leaders have gone from being immune to accountability for their human rights violations to becoming the subjects of highly publicized trials in many countries of the world. New research suggests that such trials continue to expand and often result in convictions, including some of high-level state officials. This article summarizes research on the origins of the justice cascade and its effects on human rights practices around the world. It presents evidence that such prosecutions are affecting the behavior of political leaders worldwide and have the potential to help diminish human rights violations in the future.


As a part of the Geological Survey's program of releasing water data to the public, two large-scale computerized systems are maintained. The National Water Data Storage and Retrieval System was developed to provide more effective and efficient management of data-releasing activities and provides for the processing, storage, and retrieval of surface-water, ground-water and water-quality data. Another service available is providing assistance to users of water data to identify, locate, and acquire needed data. This service is provided by the National Water Data Exchange, which has the mission to identify sources of water data and to provide the connection between those who acquire and those who use water data.


Since the 2000 Presidential election the voting rights vocabulary has expanded to include terms such as, "voting irregularities" and "election protection" and created a new debate regarding voter access versus voter integrity. Despite the debates and new legislation in the form of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the continued enforcement of other voting statutes such as the Voting Rights Act, and the National Voter Registration Act, (NVRA), problems persist in the operation of our participatory democracy. What we have witnessed since 2000, particularly during the 2004 election, gave us some reason to hope but also reason for concern. Although outdated voting machines were not the primary problem in 2004, the use of electronic voting machines birthed new concerns about accuracy and reliability, along with questions regarding poll workers' ability to master the technology. This election enjoyed its share of election administration problems such as the misuse of provisional ballots, overzealous poll watchers, and ill-advised voter purges. Many of the calls received or infractions observed on Election Day do not rise to a legally actionable level. After any election, however, no immediate remedy exists for the mistakenly purged voter or an uncounted provisional ballot. Disenfranchisement, however, occurs one voter at a time and can create a pattern for a jurisdiction or a political party that should be addressed and thwarted well before Election Day. In light of the problems and issues with the last two Presidential elections, it is vitally important that the Department use the full breadth of its statutory authority to act proactively to ensure that our democratic process provides every eligible citizen the opportunity to access the ballot and ensure that the ballot will be counted. After the 2000 election and certainly by 2002, the Civil Rights Division, Voting Section shifted its focus from enforcing the voting rights of minorities under Section 2 of the VRA, as evidenced in the lack of cases brought on behalf of African-Americans, to enforcement of Section 203 for language minorities, the protection of overseas and military voters under UOCAVA, HAVA compliance and voter integrity (fraud) issues. In fact, this administration brought the first case pursuant to Section 2 on behalf of white voters in Noxubee, MS. This lack of enforcement of the Voting Rights Act would indicate a well documented shift away from enforcement of statutes that require free and full access to a new emphasis on restricting the ballot in the name of integrity. This must be corrected.


The central problem confronting climate change scholars and policymakers is how to create incentives for China and the United States to make prompt, large emissions reductions. China recently surpassed the United States as the largest greenhouse gas emitter, and its projected future emissions far outstrip those of any other nation. Although the United States has been the largest emitter for years, China's emissions have enabled critics in the United States to argue that domestic reductions will be ineffective and will transfer jobs to China. These two aspects of the China Problem, Chinese emissions and their influence on the political process in the United States, result in a mutually supportive but ultimately destructive dance between the two countries. This article argues that a post-Kyoto international agreement and other measures are necessary but will not create sufficient incentives to induce China, and ultimately the United States, to act. Instead, the article draws on the fact that the United States and Europe account for 41% of Chinese exports to propose a novel means of changing both countries' incentives. The article suggests that private or public schemes in the United States and Europe to disclose product carbon emissions and corporate carbon footprints can create consumer and other pressure that will induce firms to impose supply chain requirements on Chinese and other suppliers. This form of global private governance can create market-based incentives for China and the United States to reduce emissions directly and to make credible emissions reduction commitments in the post-Kyoto era.


Many real phenomena may be modelled as random closed sets in Rd, of different Hausdorff dimensions. The authors have recently revisited the concept of mean geometric densities of random closed sets Θn with Hausdorff dimension n ≤ d with respect to the standard Lebesgue measure on Rd, in terms of expected values of a suitable class of linear functionals (Delta functions à la Dirac). In many real applications such as fiber processes, n-facets of random tessellations of dimension n ≤ d in spaces of dimension d ≥ 1, several problems are related to the estimation of such mean densities; in order to face such problems in the general setting of spatially inhomogeneous processes, we suggest and analyze here an approximation of mean densities for sufficiently regular random closed sets. We will show how some known results in literature follow as particular cases. A series of examples throughout the paper are provided to exemplify various relevant situations.


Few-shot classification aims to recognize novel categories with only few labeled images in each class. Existing metric-based few-shot classification algorithms predict categories by comparing the feature embeddings of query images with those from a few labeled images (support examples) using a learned metric function. While promising performance has been demonstrated, these methods often fail to generalize to unseen domains due to large discrepancy of the feature distribution across domains. In this work, we address the problem of few-shot classification under domain shifts for metric-based methods. Our core idea is to use feature-wise transformation layers for augmenting the image features using affine transforms to simulate various feature distributions under different domains in the training stage. To capture variations of the feature distributions under different domains, we further apply a learning-to-learn approach to search for the hyper-parameters of the feature-wise transformation layers. We conduct extensive experiments and ablation studies under the domain generalization setting using five few-shot classification datasets: mini-ImageNet, CUB, Cars, Places, and Plantae. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed feature-wise transformation layer is applicable to various metric-based models, and provides consistent improvements on the few-shot classification performance under domain shift.


Gilbert Harman has argued that it does not make sense to ascribe character traits to people. The notion of morally virtuous character becomes particularly suspect. How plausible this is depends on how broad character traits would have to be. Views of character as entirely invariant behavioural tendencies offer a soft target. This paper explores a view that is a less easy target: character traits as specific to kinds of situation, and as involving probabilities or real possibilities. Such ascriptions are not undermined by Harman's arguments, and it remains plausible that the agent's character often is indispensable in explanation of behaviour. Character is indispensable also as processes of control that impose reliability where it really matters.


Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia shows the vital part maritime Southeast Asians played in struggles against domination of the seventeenth-century spice trade by local and European rivals. Looking beyond the narrative of competing mercantile empires, it draws on European and Southeast Asian sources to illustrate Sama sea people's alliances and intermarriage with the sultanate of Makassar and the Bugis realm of Bone. Contrasting with later portrayals of the Sama as stateless pirates and sea gypsies, this history of shifting political and interethnic ties among the people of Sulawesi's littorals and its land-based realms, along with their shared interests on distant coasts, exemplifies how regional maritime dynamics interacted with social and political worlds above the high-water mark.


Chronic ulcers are a common problem in long‐term care. Residents with ongoing ulcers are often frail and at risk for mortality. This study evaluated the relationship between wound characteristics and other health predictors with 6‐month mortality in nursing home residents. The subjects included were nursing home residents seen by the wound consult service from 1998 to 2007 with an ongoing chronic ulcer. This was a retrospective cohort study. Data were manually and electronically abstracted for each resident. Six‐month mortality was collected as the primary outcome. Statistical comparisons were made using logistic regression with a final multivariant model. Four hundred and forty residents were seen with 411 records reviewed. Ulcer area was not associated with mortality; however, chronic ulcer number was associated with 6‐month mortality with an odds ratio of 1·32 (95% CI 1·07–1·63). Other significant risk factors included heart failure, dementia, cancer, depression and blindness with all factors having an odds ratio greater than 1·75. Higher haemoglobin and venous insufficiency were protective of 6‐month mortality. Ulcer number is an important predictor for 6‐month mortality. The presence of multiple ulcers and comorbid health concerns may influence discussion of prognosis for healing and for potential end of life discussions.


An interactive colouring book for fashionistas of all ages, "My Wonderful World of Fashion" is packed with beautiful and sophisticated illustrations specially created by the leading fashion-illustrator Nina Chakrabarti. The book encourages creativity, with illustrations to colour in and designs to finish off, as well as simple ideas for making and doing (how to make a sari, turn a napkin into a headscarf, dye a t-shirt, etc.). Covering clothing, shoes, bags, jewellery and other accessories, the illustrations span both vintage fashions, drawing on beautiful and interesting objects from past ages, and contemporary designs from the illustrator's own imagination. 'Did you know...?' features giving brief historical notes encourage children to be inspired by history and by the fashions of other cultures. A wonderful celebration of fashion, the book will appeal to addicts from 8 years plus.


The present study examined the language and literacy practices of one ethnolinguistically diverse family literacy English classroom for women who recently migrated to the United States as refugees, and whose access to formal, school-based learning was interrupted prior to migration. More specifically, this study investigated how institutionally-valued practices socially positioned the women in class, and how the women discursively negotiated and claimed new or different positionings for themselves. Overall, this study draws on social positioning theories (Davies & Harré, 1990; Harré & van Langenhove, 1999), to attempt to address the relationship between English language education for women and notions of social inclusion (Allman, 2013). Designed as a linguistic ethnography (Copland & Creese, 2015), data were collected over the course of two years and included eight months of thrice-weekly classroom-based participant observation; classroom audio (105) and video recordings (39); photographs (1038); audio and video-recorded semi-structured interviews with the focal teacher (4), three focal students (2 each), and the main administrator (1); and document collection. Data were transcribed and analyzed utilizing thematic (Saldaña, 2012) and micro-ethnographic discourse analysis (Bloome et al., 2006). Findings show a range of institutionally-valued language and literacy practices and diverse accompanying positionings. Some practices served to socialize learners into specific "storylines" (Harré & Moghaddam, 2003) related to socially-preferred ways of "doing" language and literacy both inside and outside the classroom, particularly in relationship to the learners' positions as mothers. Other practices served to position learners as legitimate co-authors and community members, affording them ways to use English to "write (and speak) themselves into" the times and places of their surrounding communities (Trend, 1994, p. 226). The findings further illustrate that learners used language and other multimodal means (i.e., photographs, video, social media) to make inter(con)textual, intercultural, and transnational connections for both academic and personal purposes—and to draw others into those connections with them. These connections positioned learners as academically, technologically, and relationally resourceful transnational women. Implications for pedagogy, programming, policy, theory, and recommendations for future research are discussed. INDEX WORDS: women, refugee, family literacy, L2 education, adult education, social positioning, linguistic ethnography, microethnographic discourse analysis SOCIAL POSITIONING IN REFUGEE WOMEN'S EDUCATION: A LINGUISTIC ETHNOGRAPHY OF AN ENGLISH CLASS


Large-amplitude meanders may form in low-energy rivers despite generally limited mobility in theses systems. Exceptionally large meanders which even extend beyond the valley sides have developed in the Overijsselse Vecht river (the Netherlands) between ca. 1400 CE (Common Era) and the early 1900s, when channelization occurred. Previous studies have attributed the enhanced lateral dynamics of this river to changes in river regime due to increased discharges, reflecting climate and/or land-use alterations in the catchment. This paper focuses on local aspects that may explain why exceptionally large meanders developed at specific sites. Through an integrated analysis based on archaeological, historical, and geomorphological data along with optically stimulated luminescence dating, we investigated the relative impact of three direct and indirect anthropogenic causes for the local morphological change and enhanced lateral migration rates: (1) lack of strategies to manage fluvial erosion; (2) a strong increase in the number of farmsteads and related intensified local land use from the High Middle Ages onwards; and (3) (human-induced) drift-sand activity directly adjacent to the river bends, causing a change in bank stability. Combined, these factors led locally to meander amplitudes well beyond the valley sides. Lessons learned at this site are relevant for management and restoration of meandering rivers in similar settings elsewhere, particularly in meeting the need to estimate spatial demands of (restored) low-energy fluvial systems and manage bank erosion.


A simple technique is described to create nanoscale near-infrared luminescent Egyptian Blue pigment particles with lipophilic surfaces for latent fingermark detection. An exfoliated Egyptian blue powder coated with cetrimonium bromide was prepared using a simple, one-pot process. Particle size and surface coatings were characterized using scanning electron and atomic force microscopies, dynamic light scattering, and infrared and luminescence spectroscopies. This new fingermark dusting powder presented more contrast compared to uncoated Egyptian blue of comparable particle size as well as commercial visible light fluorescent (Blitz Red) and near infrared luminescent (fpNatural1) powders in the detection of aged fingermarks on model surfaces. The coated Egyptian blue pigment presents a cost-effective fingermark dusting powder that reveals high contrast latent fingermarks with simple, inexpensive photography equipment.


The recycling of scrap is one of the common approaches aiming at reduction of mining-based production of critical metals and mitigation of their supply risk as well as processing-related environmental impact. The number of currently available end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) indicates—significant potential for critical metals recycling, especially niobium (Nb). Therefore, the quantification of environmental impact of niobium recovery starts to be an important issue in assessment of sustainability of large-scale recycling processes. In this paper, we assess energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in individual stages of niobium supply chain in the automotive industry over the period 2010–2050. The different stages including mining, production and recycling are analyzed using dynamic simulation. The results show the majority of the consumed energy (45% of energy demand in niobium supply chain) is used in the primary production stage. This stage also contributes to 72% of total gas emissions of supply chain over the period 2010–2050. Mining of niobium consumes up to 36% of energy and generates ca. 21% of GHG emissions. While, in recycling stage, the secondary production of niobium requires 19% of supply chain energy and generates 7% of gas emissions. The detailed calculations show that recycling of niobium could save around 133–161 m GJ energy between 2010 and 2050. The recycling would also contribute to the reduction of 44–53 mt CO2-eq in the same period. It shows around 18% reduction of annual emissions between 2010 and 2050 thanks to reuse of niobium in secondary production rather than primary production.


Background: Evidence on effective strategies to ensure sustainability of research capacity strengthening interventions in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) institutions is lacking. This systematic review identified publications describing research capacity building programs and noted their effect, their contexts, and the mechanisms, processes and social actors employed in them. Methods: We searched online databases for the period 2011-2018. Inclusion criteria were that the publications 1) described the intervention; 2) were implemented in LMICs; 3) were based in, or relevant to, university staff or post docs; 4) aimed to improve research capacity; 5) aimed to effect change at the institutional level. Two reviewers screened titles, abstracts and full text in consecutive rounds, a third resolved disagreements. Two people extracted the data of each full text using a data extraction tool covering data relevant to our question. Results: In total 4052 citations were identified and 19 papers were included, which referred to 14 interventions. Only three interventions mentioned using a conceptual framework to develop their approach and none described using a theory of change to assess outcomes. The most frequent inputs described were some method of formal training, promotion of a research-conducive environment and establishment of research support systems. A range of outcomes were reported, most frequently an increased number of publications and proportion of staff with PhDs. When factors of success were discussed, this was attributed to a rigorous approach to implementation, adequate funding, and local buy-in. Those who mentioned sustainability linked it to availability of funds and local buy-in. The lack of a common lexicon and a framework against which to report outcomes made comparison between initiatives difficult. Conclusions: The reduced number of interventions that met the inclusion criteria suggests that programs should be well-described, evaluated systematically, and findings published so that the research capacity strengthening community can extract important lessons.


During the last few months, People and Communities Technical Committee in Water Efficiency network has been interested in and selected specific case studies to be proposed for further analysis and discussion by members of this committee. Most members decided to bring to the attention of the committee one case study for further development. Some case studies, such as, for example, 'Water and its use by people at a music festival' appeared to be triggering further investigation from members of the committee with the potential to become new and original research projects; this particular case study is going to be analysed through videos to be produced on the occasion of next Reading Festival. Organised by Festival Republic (FR), this annual event is held over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Thus, this paper intends to discuss some large performance venues and sites' planning and organisation on methods and solutions having an immediate impact to people's behaviours in relation to the uses of water and the impact to the environment through water management. The researchers and members of this technical group wish to understand how organisers can plan water uses, how they may be contributing to specific guidance of the public by introducing specific guides on water management at outdoor events and by also creating plans to overcome some unexpected outcomes of overflows or failure of provision at times. The team working on this project hopes to get some detailed overview on water and its use by people during these events; they hope to be able to do some recommendations and draw some important conclusions at the end. Amongst other relevant outcomes the research team is hoping to help organisers to develop useful guides for the public and enhance the people's awareness on the water uses and management. The organisers and the audience should be able to build confidence and joint support also in extreme cases when something could happen unexpectedly, such as failure to drainage or supply systems. They should be able to be putting on place a relevant plan of emergency and this could be feasible by contributing to important reports in progress, such as, for example, 'The show must go on' report. By documenting this coming event via filming the team hopes to create a freely available resource that demonstrates globally how people interact with water, a precious and essential source. Whenever possible the team aims to show how water can be used carefully, mindfully and efficiently during large size events, such as music festivals through their chosen case study in the UK. A short video will be shown during the Conference as well.


Azeotropic fluids are considered to be a beneficial discovery used in various operations involving mechanical performance of machines. It is the thermodynamic property of the fluids to absorb heat and dissipate it. For instance, the addition of alcohols in water may increase the performance of these fluids. The objective of this work was to conduct a comparative study on heat pipe performance with different working fluids. The working fluids chosen for the study were water and pure ethanol. The concentrations of ethanol in water differed between 25% and 95%. The material of heat pipes was copper with a sintered wicks structure. The experimental results revealed that, the evaporator temperature for water was lower than that of the ethanol and its mixture at high heating input. However, the heat transported by the heat pipes of water was considerably greater than that of the heat pipes of ethanol and binary fluids as working fluids.


The determination of the redox properties of nucleobases is of paramount importance to get insight into the charge-transfer processes in which they are involved, such as those occurring in DNA-inspired biosensors. Although many theoretical and experimental studies have been conducted, the value of the one-electron oxidation potentials of nucleobases is not well-defined. Moreover, the most appropriate theoretical protocol to model the redox properties has not been established yet. In this work, we have implemented and evaluated different static and dynamic approaches to compute the one-electron oxidation potentials of solvated nucleobases. In the static framework, two thermodynamic cycles have been tested to assess their accuracy against the direct determination of oxidation potentials from the adiabatic ionization energies. Then, the introduction of vibrational sampling, the effect of implicit and explicit solvation models, and the application of the Marcus theory have been analyzed through dynamic methods. The results revealed that the static direct determination provides more accurate results than thermodynamic cycles. Moreover, the effect of sampling has not shown to be relevant, and the results are improved within the dynamic framework when the Marcus theory is applied, especially in explicit solvent, with respect to the direct approach. Finally, the presence of different tautomers in water does not affect significantly the one-electron oxidation potentials.


The debate and controversy of extraction and nonextraction has nearly been 100 years old. Some researchers claim extraction to constrict arch and subsequently create unaesthetic black triangles at the corner of the mouth, however recent studies show that instead extraction treatment causes increase of archwidth in canine reason due to distal movement of canine in extraction space. The aim of the study is to assess the archwidth change in extraction and non extraction treatments separately, with the objective to compare thus obtained change of pre/treatment and post/treatment archwidth between extraction and nonextraction treatment. The study consisted of two groups; the extraction group with sample size of 24 patients, patients whose first premolar were extracted as treatment plan, male/14, female/10, other group was nonextraction group in which teeth was not extracted with sample size 14 patients, male/6, female/8. The archwidth measured at canine, second premolar and first molar. Pretreatment and post treatment values for each group compared using paired t/test, and difference between pre and post treatment values for each group compared using independent t/test. The SPSS 18.0 software used for the statistical purpose and 0.05 significance level for all calculations. Statistically significant increase in archwidth in lower canine region, and decrease in archwidth in upper as well as lower second premolar and molar region was noted in extraction cases (α<0.05). Whereas increase in archwidth in upper canine region of extraction


Results of investigations into the stability of coal mine spoil consisting of thick clay, saturated sand, and shale overburden in an areal strip mine are presented. Atterberg limits, particle size distributions, and compaction tests were performed to provide index characteristics of the materials. Unconsolidated undrained and consolidated undrained triaxial compression test results on 10·2 cm diameter samples of compacted shale and shale-soil mixtures were used to investigate the short-term and the long-term conditions respectively of the spoil slope.

There is evidence that the failure envelope of mine spoil made up of shale or shale-soil mixture is curved. However, stability analyses reveal that the use of strength parameters defined by a linear Mohr-Coulomb envelope yields results that are comparable with those obtained when the non-linear failure envelope is used, provided that such strength parameters are defined at the operating normal stress level on the failure surface.

The study illustrates a very good case of spoil instability resulting from very thick overburden soils of low strength and high water content. Results show that the key to achieving stability in such areas lies in an almost total segregation of the soils from the rocks.


From 2000 to 2004, 53 wild birds (16 pigeons, 16 quails, 10 pheasants, 4 partridges, 3 stock doves, and 1 ibis, peacock, owl chick and falcon) were examined grossly and microscopically at the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Akdeniz. Thirty-seven of these birds were dead. Blood samples were taken from the 16 live birds before euthanasia. Tissue samples were also taken for histopathological examination during the necropsies. Leucocytozoon marchouxi was diagnosed in 5 pigeons during the microscopic examinations of blood samples and tissue sections, whereas 1 owl chick died from acute severe L. ziemanni infection.


This article presents an analysis of three dining-related assemblages of pottery from Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltavorum) and compares them to the patterns already established for pottery supply and vessel use derived from other rubbish deposits across the town and its suburbs. Spatial correspondence analysis is then used to map the varying character of these other assemblages, and the emerging pattern is interpreted.

Large-scale excavations in Leicester over three decades have provided a substantial dataset for broader analysis of vessel supply and usage but only rarely do tightly dated groups, relating to specific buildings and food remains, occur. Two of these groups present evidence for 'dining out' during the second century. The first is from the backfill of a cellar, perhaps from below a tavern on Little Lane, containing tablewares, drinking vessels, amphorae, and flagons, alongside animal bones and oysters. The second is the fill of a cess pit (latrine pit) from Castle Street containing amphorae, flagons, tableware bowls and dishes, but no drinking vessels, alongside exotic plant foods, fish and smoked shoulders of beef, which is considered to relate to a 'delicatessen'-style 'take-away'. The third group represents 'eating in' at the later third-century courtyard house on Vine Street and comprises a wide range of animal and plant foods alongside cooking pots, bowls and dishes, and large colour-coated ware beakers, excavated from the kitchen drain and two cess pits.

The mapping of data gathered from 26 other assemblages, dating between the mid-first and late second centuries, highlights two spatial trends in vessel deposition across the town. The first is a north-south opposition, with more vessels associated with drinking in the central and northern parts of the town, while the second shows a contrast between the centre, around the forum, where there is a greater proportion of finewares, and the suburbs, where there are larger numbers of jars. Together, these trends suggest that we can identify zonation within Leicester that can be related back to different depositional practices and ultimately patterns of use and consumption.


Today's healthcare facilities are moving toward the implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs). As you move forwardwith your EMR checklist to make sure your electronic documentation meets your clinical and operational needs, define your checklist for documentation success: & efficient scheduling module & secure patient and physician portals & secure e-mail exchanges & intelligent EMR to meet the needs of all practicing clinicians and physicians in your department, as well as patients, who may access their defined information & enhanced clinical decision and practice management tools to alert users to medication errors and adverse drug interactions and to track test results and patient follow-up & flexible integration options with existing technology, providing interoperability within the organization, interfaces to pull data in and out of your system, and clinical and operational compliance and audit mechanisms to ensure success & clinical and operational compliance with Meaningful Use and Accreditation and Certification Standards & audit trail to identify who performed the documentation and what actions were taken & robust reporting for outcomes and benchmarking. Now imagine that your EMR is approved by your administration, your launch date is determined, and you have customized your software solution. The key to your successful implementation will be training the staff through knowledge transfer of the EMR. Planning for training is crucial. It is critical that all department personnelVfrom administrative staff, to clinicians, to physiciansVbe trained efficiently, effectively, and in a timely manner on the new system. Lack of appropriate and effective training can cause your EMR to fail. So consider the following checklist as your plan for your EMR go-live experience: & partner with an EMR vendor that listens and understands your clinical and operational needs & define your pretraining, go-live training, and posttraining goals & customize your EMR and allow your staff to review the software to become familiar with the menus and workflow & customize the templates and working documents (eg, patient education tools) used within the EMR &map your clinical and payment rules into your templates to ensure your documentation meets your facility requirements & identify your department's superusers; pretrain for speed and efficiency & recognize that your staff's learning needs are unique, and your implementation program should be tailored to your staff's needs & define your vision for your software training & determine each staff member's role-specific documentation process (eg, office administrator, program director, clinician, physician, and technician) & define ''successful training'' for each staff member's role (eg, scheduling a patient, uploading a photo, amending a record) &work with the EMR provider to determine the best strategies for training your staff & create a training plan with the EMR vendor and identify the space for training & carve out classroom time for the training process & identify the training strategy for your department including presentation methods, classroom schedules/location, and staffing & allow your staff to utilize a pretraining system/EMR playground prior to the EMR go-live & plan the training for a success learning experience (eg, adjust patient visits and workflow) & review the training products and tools used to implement your EMR & determine what training products can be revisited in consideration of any new leadership and resources available post go-live & encourage staff feedback of the EMR process during training time and adjust workflow accordingly & define theprocesses and timelines for adjustmentsof thestaff's workflow as the EMR is integrated within the department & refine the training program based on the staff's feedback during the training period & ensure vendor support is available following your go-live training & schedule your posttraining objectives early in the process.&


Abstraction has been widely studied as a way to improve the efficiency and generalization of reinforcement learning algorithms. In this paper, we study abstraction in the continuous-control setting. We extend the definition of MDP homomorphisms to encompass continuous actions in continuous state spaces. We derive a policy gradient theorem on the abstract MDP, which allows us to leverage approximate symmetries of the environment for policy optimization. Based on this theorem, we propose an actor-critic algorithm that is able to learn the policy and the MDP homomorphism map simultaneously, using the lax bisimulation metric. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on benchmark tasks in the DeepMind Control Suite. Our method's ability to utilize MDP homomorphisms for representation learning leads to improved performance when learning from pixel observations.


This qualitative paper adopts a historical approach and reports on desk research conducted by the author using a mixture of internet based research backed up by a critical reading of published writings on the travelling people of Scotland. This blend of the old and the new allows the author to take a critical look back through time at a proud entrepreneurial people. Another innovative data source used is that of Traditional Scottish Ballads and songs. The gist of the paper is that travelling people can (and deserve) to be viewed as an entrepreneurial people because epistemologically and ontologically there is congruence between the entrepreneurial traits and entrepreneurial narratives of Travellers and the settled people of their native Scotland.


Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterial pathogen with the capacity to invade non-phagocytic cells. This dynamic process involves coordinated membrane remodelling and actin cytoskeleton rearrangements. Although some of the molecular factors promoting these events have been identified, the driving force allowing internalization is unknown. One of the receptors for L. monocytogenes on epithelial cells is E-cadherin, a transmembrane protein normally involved in homophilic interactions that allow cell-cell contacts at the adherens junctions. E-cadherin has to be connected to the actin cytoskeleton to mediate strong cell-cell adhesion and to trigger Listeria entry; α- and β-catenins play key roles in these processes. We have recently identified an unconventional myosin, myosin VIIa and its ligand vezatin, at the adherens junctions of polarized epithelial cells. Here, we demonstrate by pharmacological and genetic approaches that both myosin VIIa and vezatin are crucial for Listeria internalization. These results provide the first evidence for the role of an unconventional myosin in bacterial internalization and a novel example of the exploitation of mammalian proteins, by a pathogen, to establish a successful infection.


Abstract. There is a complex relation between roads and fires. Several major wildfires were ignited near to roads (Morrison 2007) and how they progressed is an important role to understand the importance to forest management in this environment. Nowadays, a sustainable forest management is necessary both for environment and politics. One of the reasons of road management is that these infrastructures provide an effective firewall in case of forest fires and an escape route for the population. Forest management optimization in road surroundings would improve wildfires prevention and mitigate their effects. One of the main indicators of road safety is the distance between road and vegetation.The aim of this work is to develop a methodology to determine what areas do not obey current laws about safety distances between forest and roads. The acquisition of LiDAR data is done by Lynx Mobile Mapper System from University of Vigo. The methodology is automated using LiDAR data processing. The developed algorithms are based in height and length segmentation of the road. The objective is classifying vegetation groups by height and calculate the distance to the edges of road. The vegetation is divided in groups of height of 5, 10, 15 and 30 m. The minimum distance calculation is 2 m, for the vegetation of 5 m height and a maximum of 60 m for vegetation 30 m height. The height of vegetation has a directly relation with the distance separation with the road.


The upcoming Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a critical element of regional integration in East Asia and the Pacific. While tariffs are already low in this region, non-tariff measures (NTMs) remain a key issue in trade in goods. NTMs may bring consequences on sourcing and enforcement costs and may affect the structure of an industry. ASEAN countries have similar patterns of NTM imposition at the product level. International experience shows that regional trade agreements could reduce regulatory distance by 41 percent. The RCEP could bring East Asian countries to improve transparency of their NTMs and encourage mutual recognition.


We studied the spatio-temporal dynamics and community composition of the free-living and particle-associated bacterial community in the salinity gradient of the Weser estuary, Germany, between March and December 1999 and in May 2000. Bacterial numbers covaried with temperature and those of the particle-associated fraction with the turbidity, exhibiting highest proportions in the turbidity maximum between July and December. The analysis of the composition of the particle-asso- ciated bacterial community by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with group-specific oligonu- cleotide probes showed that Cytophaga/Flavobacteria (CF) comprised the highest proportions in the freshwater section (mean: 28 ± 8.9% of DAPI cell counts) and decreased towards the marine section to 14.0 ± 3.7%. α -, β- and γ-Proteobacteria constituted around 10% without pronounced variations among the various sections. The community analysis based on PCR-amplified fragments of the 16S rRNA gene, along with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and a cluster analysis of the banding patterns, exhibited pronounced differences along the salinity gradient and well-separated communities within the freshwater, brackish and marine sections. Seasonal differences within the separate communities and between the particle-associated and free-living bacterial communities were less pronounced. The sequence analysis of prominent bands revealed that the communities consisted of bacteria affiliated to Proteobacteria, CF and Actinobacteria. Clones of the CF cluster were rather distantly related to phylotypes from other aquatic environments, whereas clones related to Actinobacteria clustered closely together with phylotypes from other aquatic systems. Clones belonging to α - and β-Proteobacteria also affiliated closely to phylotypes from other aquatic systems but more closely to isolated strains than the CF and Actinobacteria clones.


In the field of Cultural Heritage, the use of automated photogrammetric systems, based on Structure from Motion techniques (SfM), is widely used, in particular for the study and for the documentation of the ancient ruins. This work has been carried out during the PhD cycle that was produced the "Carta Archeologica del territorio intorno al monte Massico". The study suggests the archeological documentation of the mausoleum "Torre del Ballerino" placed in the south-west area of Falciano del Massico, along the Via Appia. The graphic documentation has been achieved by using photogrammetric system (Image Based Modeling) and by the classical survey with total station, Nikon Nivo C. The data acquisition was carried out through digital camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17–40 mm f/4L USM @ 20 mm with images snapped in RAW and corrected in Adobe Lightroom . During the data processing, the camera calibration and orientation was carried out by the software Agisoft Photoscans and the final result has allowed to achieve a scaled 3D model of the monument, imported in software MeshLab for the different view. Three orthophotos in jpg format were extracted by the model, and then were imported in AutoCAD obtaining facade's surveys.


Abstract Introduction: Food is a carrier of many pollutants nowadays. For cadmium and dioxins, it is the main source of these compounds in the general population. Hence, the aim of this work was to collect data on the health effects associated with exposure to cadmium and dioxins which get into the human body through food. Materials and methods: A literature review was conducted by searching the scientific Medline database (PubMed) and Google Scholar. Results: Health effects associated with a long-term exposure to low doses of cadmium and dioxins may be nonspecific and are rarely attributed to food sources. These may cause disorders affecting hormonal balance, kidney function, lipid metabolism, fertility, cognitive function, bone mineralization, and susceptibility to diseases and allergies. These compounds may also lead to cancer development. Conclusions: The general population faces the problem of long-term exposure to small doses of these substances due to their accumulation in the body, even if their amounts do not exceed the relevant standards. The health effects of this type of exposure may be significantly delayed and are not likely to be attributed to the consumption of contaminated food. Consumers wishing to reduce the amounts of these compounds delivered to the body should limit the consumption of grilled and smoked products, and should also opt for organic food.


The purpose of this research is to explore principal coaching through the lives of principal coaches as they provide support to novice and experienced principals. Principals are dealing with more complex problems than merely being the manager of schools. As we begin to transition our schools with higher demands, the framework that was in place is no longer viable. Student achievement and student growth are the two areas schools must focus on and succeed. The need to support school leaders is more relevant now than ever before. As a result, some type of support is needed to guide principals who need additional assistance and resources. The lived experiences in which the participants shared will give the reader a better understanding of how the principal coaches embrace this concept that has taken its features and objectives from executive coaching that is used in the business sector. The research tradition that I selected is the qualitative study. Understanding that a particular group of individuals are involved in a specific type of program leads my topic to a phenomenological approach. This approach is what was needed to examine the problem statement identified: How effective is principal coaching in education through the perception of principal coaches? The research that is presented does begin with assumptions and uses a theoretical lens to explore the phenomena of effective principal coaches. I was able to identify common themes from the stories and experiences that were relevant throughout the interviews as the data was coded. The principal coach has a responsibility to all stakeholders when working with the coachee. This role is full of opportunities to enhance the school community and improve student achievement. The time a principal coach spends with a coachee is important as they work collaboratively together in a trusting relationship. The three most important characteristics of the principal coaching experience are confidentiality, coaching preparation, and building relationships.


High reliability against noise, high performance, and low energy consumption are key objectives in the design of on-chip networks. Recently some researchers have considered the impact of various error-control schemes on these objectives and on the tradeoff between them. In all these works performance and reliability are measured separately. However, we will argue in this paper that the use of error-control schemes in on-chip networks results in degradable systems, hence, performance and reliability must be measured jointly using a unified measure, i.e., performability. Based on the traditional concept of performability, we provide a definition for the ¿Interconnect Performability¿. Analytical models are developed for interconnect performability and expected energy consumption. A detailed comparative analysis of the error-control schemes using the performability analytical models and SPICE simulations is provided taking into consideration voltage swing variations (used to reduce interconnect energy consumption) and variations in wire length. Furthermore, the impact of noise power and time constraint on the effectiveness of error-control schemes are analyzed.


In the two years since the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action report, the national momentum to transform undergraduate biology education has driven the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (JMBE)'s growth in readership and authorship. Since January 2010, the Journal has more than doubled its registered users and overall submissions have increased by nearly 40%. International presence on the Journal's Editorial Board is currently at 13%, thanks to Research Editor Kathy M. Takayama's work to incorporate biology educators on a global scale. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM)'s faculty training programs—such as the ASM/JGI Genomic Sciences Programs and the ASM/ NSF Biology Scholars Program—connect scholars with the Editorial Board and expose them to JMBE's open access content. After they train and/or present at the annual ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE), our readers are poised to submit their work to JMBE. In 2012, 37% of published JMBE authors are alumni of these ASM programs.


Zone sampling for site-specific N application has been shown to be effective in North Dakota and other areas of the Great Plains. Printed and sometimes digitized soil surveys are presently available for most agricultural counties in the USA. Order 2 soil surveys generally have scales that range from 1:12 000 to 1:31680. These surveys were developed for general planning purposes. There is interest in using Order 2 soil surveys as a basis for delineating N management zone patterns, especially where the soil-mapping units have been digitized. This study was conducted to evaluate soil survey scales at the Order 1 (scale >1:15 840) and Order 2 level against grid- and topography-based zone sampling to determine whether soil surveys at these scales could be used to delineate N management zones for site-specific fertilizer application. Fields mapped at a finer scale (Order 1 survey) showed some similarity between mapping units and N management zones defined by topography. Order 2 soil-mapping units, which are the present mapping scale of most agricultural soil surveys, were often not similar to N management zones. Published Order 2 soil surveys should not be used to develop N management zones for site-specific agriculture unless the soil patterns are verified with other zone development tools of site-specific management. Alternatively, a major benefit of Order 1 soil surveys would be to reinforce or redefine apparent N management zones.


Background Intravenous (IV) fluid treatment is a routine but essential part of care for a significant proportion of hospitalised patients. However one in five hospitalised patients suffer from fluid-related complications with associated morbidity and mortality. In 2013, a NICE clinical guideline was published with the aim of improving IV fluid management. A lack of knowledge was identified as a key factor contributing to poor fluid management. Purpose To assess the knowledge among nurses, junior doctors and pharmacists of IV fluid treatment in adults. Knowledge was assessed of the daily fluid and electrolyte requirements and composition of commonly-used IV fluids. Material and methods The study was conducted as a self-administered questionnaire survey. An anonymous questionnaire in multiple-choice format was designed based on the NICE guideline and existing questionnaires. Data collection was carried out over a four-week period in June 2014. Responses were marked as correct, incorrect or unsure. Results 193 healthcare professionals including 96 nurses, 45 junior doctors and 52 pharmacists completed the questionnaire. 17%, 33% and 54% of nurses, junior doctors and pharmacists correctly identified the daily water requirements. Respectively 8%, 33% and 68% of nurses, junior doctors and pharmacists accurately estimated the daily sodium requirements. Only 16% of nurses, whereas 71% of junior doctors and 94% of pharmacists correctly identified the daily potassium requirements. The knowledge of the composition of commonly used IV fluids was poor, which is of particular concern as this guides fluid prescription. The inadequate knowledge of junior doctors confirms the findings of previously published studies, whereas to current knowledge no studies have been published with regards to nurses and pharmacists. Conclusion Despite the development of a new guideline, knowledge of IV fluid treatment remains poor. Measures are needed to increase awareness and reduce the high number of fluid-related complications. References and/or Acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


Recent neural models have shown significant progress on the problem of generating short descriptive texts conditioned on a small number of database records. In this work, we suggest a slightly more difficult data-to-text generation task, and investigate how effective current approaches are on this task. In particular, we introduce a new, large-scale corpus of data records paired with descriptive documents, propose a series of extractive evaluation methods for analyzing performance, and obtain baseline results using current neural generation methods. Experiments show that these models produce fluent text, but fail to convincingly approximate human-generated documents. Moreover, even templated baselines exceed the performance of these neural models on some metrics, though copy- and reconstruction-based extensions lead to noticeable improvements.


Dietary polyphenols may have a protective role against the development of CVD. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of green coffee (GC), rich in chlorogenic acid, and black coffee (BC) on cardiovascular markers. A randomised pilot crossover study was performed on healthy subjects who consumed both coffees for 2 weeks. We measured anthropometry, blood pressure, and arterial elasticity after each intervention and collected urine samples to monitor antioxidant capacity. Free cortisol and cortisone levels were obtained from urine and analysed by specific ELISA methods. Systolic blood pressure (P = 0.018) and arterial elasticity (P = 0.001) were significantly reduced after GC. BMI (P = 0.04 for BC; P = 0.01 for GC) and abdominal fat (P = 0.01 for BC; P = 0.009 for GC) were also significantly reduced with no changes in energy intake. Urinary free cortisol was significantly reduced from 125.6 ± 85.9 nmol/day to 76.0 ± 54.9 nmol/day following GC and increased to 132.1 ± 89.1 nmol/day after BC. Urinary free cortisone increased by 18% following BC and 9% following GC (nonsignificant). Cortisol/cortisone ratio (indicating 11β-HSD1 activity) was reduced after GC (from 3.5 ± 1.9 to 1.7 ± 1.04, P = 0.002). This suggests that GC can play a role in reducing cardiovascular risk factors. Further research including hypertensive and overweight individuals will now be justified to clarify whether GC could have a therapeutic role in CVD.


Students will know some of the benefits and costs of an undergraduate degree. They will be told of the degree 'premium' and that, over a lifetime, they can expect to be better off. A university education will open doors to professions that will seem distant when completing school education. They will anecdotally hear stories about employers expecting a first or upper second. They will also know that some students will never pay back their loans. The reality is that an undergraduate degree can lead to a good job but this is not the case for all students as finding graduate level employment will be very challenging for some. We argue that courses should continually look at ways to enhance the employability of their students. It is understandable that students will see good grades from assessment as the route to a good degree and ultimately to a good job. If assessment can also develop and evidence the skills valued by others, particularly employers, then further benefits are added. There are a number of ways that student employability can be supported, including: careers advice; jobs fairs; visiting speakers and possibly a placement opportunity. We argue that, additionally, assessment can make a difference and with thoughtful design can make an even bigger difference. It is the author's experience that if students are asked what they learnt on their course, they are likely to talk about the outcomes of assessment. If these outcomes also evidence the skills valued by the employer, then this will present a more persuasive response. Assessment is critical for all courses. If assessment can leave the student with outcomes, experience or artefacts that evidence a 'can-do' ability then we argue this must positively impact on employability.


Background: Diagnosis of bipolar disorder is often missed clinically in cases presenting in depression, and temperament is an important clue to correct it. We, therefore, studied cases diagnosed as depression to see the evidence of undiagnosed bipolar disorder as well as temperament. Materials and Methods: Patients of a depressive episode (ICD-10, F32), between 18 and 60 years of age and within mild or normal range on Hamilton Depression Rating Scale at the time of interview were included in this study. The patients were diagnosed retrospectively using mini-international neuropsychiatric interview (MINI) mania hypomania scale to look for missed diagnoses of mania or hypomania episodes. Bipolar spectrum diagnostic scale (BSDS) was used to evaluate bipolar spectrum, and temperament assessment scale and Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Auto questionnaire (TEMPS-A) was used to assess affective temperament of participants. Chi-square test was used to compare the cases. Results: Out of 100 patients, 35 cases were diagnosed with hypomania and two cases with mania. BSDS was positive in 16% cases whereas it was positive in 9% cases with past episodes of hypomania and 1% case of mania. On TEMPS-A, 12% of cases had depressive or dysthymic temperament, 37% of cases had cyclothymic temperament, 21% of cases had hyperthymic temperament, and 5% of cases had irritable temperament. Cases with irritable or dysthymic temperament had no evidence of bipolar disorder on MINI and were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Limitations: Consecutive sampling, cross-sectional design, retrospective diagnosis. Conclusion: The misdiagnosis of Bipolar II disorder and bipolar spectrum disorder can happen as depression. Temperament can help assert evidence for bipolar disorder in cases presenting as depression and using standardized tools like MINI can help correct diagnosis and management.