Social investing is the pursuit of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals through investment decisions. Public pension funds have been active in this arena since the 1970s, when many divested from apartheid South Africa. They have also aimed to achieve domestic goals, such as promoting union workers, economic development, and homeownership. In the mid-2000s, the focus shifted to preventing terrorism and gun violence. This effort included "terror-free" investing in response to the Darfur genocide and to weapons proliferation in Iran. And, after mass shootings in Aurora, CO, and Newtown, CT, some public funds shed their holdings in gun manufacturers. Most recently, states have renewed the call to divest from Iran and have increasingly targeted fossil fuels to combat climate change. This brief provides an update of social investing developments and assesses whether, in this changing environment, public funds should engage in this practice. This assessment addresses two questions: 1) can ESG-screened portfolios meet the same return/ risk objectives as non-screened portfolios; and 2) are public plans the right vehicle for advancing ESG goals? The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section explores trends in social investing and the U.S. Department of Labor's guidance on this activity. The second section examines recent state divestment efforts. The third section analyzes the economics of social investing. The fourth section outlines the economic, political, and legal complications. The final section concludes that although social investing may be worthwhile for private investors, lower returns and fiduciary concerns make public pension funds unsuited for advancing ESG goals.


Background Irisin is an exercise induced myokine that is shown to promote browning of adipose tissue and hence, increase energy expenditure. Furthermore, our unpublished results indicate that Irisin improves myogenic differentiation and induces skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Since exercise induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy improves muscle strength, we wanted to investigate if ectopic injection of Irisin peptide improves skeletal muscle function in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy. This utility of Irisin peptide is yet to be studied in animal models. Methods In order to test this hypothesis, we expressed and purified recombinant murine Irisin peptide from E. coli. Three- to six-week-old male mdx mice were injected IP with either vehicle (dialysis buffer) or Irisin recombinant peptide for two or four weeks, three times-a-week. Results Irisin injection increased muscle weights and enhanced grip strength in mdx mice. Improved muscle strength can be attributed to the significant hypertrophy observed in the Irisin injected mdx mice. Moreover, Irisin treatment resulted in reduced accumulation of fibrotic tissue and myofiber necrosis in mdx mice. In addition, Irisin improved sarcolemmal stability, which is severely compromised in mdx mice. Conclusion Irisin injection induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy, improved muscle strength and reduced necrosis and fibrotic tissue in a murine dystrophy model. These results demonstrate the potential therapeutic value of Irisin in muscular dystrophy.


Abstract. Satellite-derived chlorophyll a data using the standard NASA-OC3 (ocean colour) algorithm are strongly biased by coloured dissolved organic matter and suspended sediment of river discharges, which is a particular problem for the western Tasmanian shelf. This work reconstructs phytoplankton blooms in the study region using a quadratic regression between OC3 data and chlorophyll fluorescence based on the fluorescence line height (FLH) data. This regression is derived from satellite data of the nearby Bonney upwelling region, which is devoid of river influences. To this end, analyses of 10 years of MODIS-aqua satellite data reveal the existence of a highly productive ecosystem on the western Tasmanian shelf. The region normally experiences two phytoplankton blooms per annum. The first bloom occurs during late austral summer months as a consequence of upwelling-favourable coastal winds. Hence, the western Tasmanian shelf forms a previously unknown upwelling centre of the regional upwelling system, known as Great South Australian Coastal Upwelling System. The second phytoplankton bloom is a classical spring bloom also developing in the adjacent Tasman Sea. The author postulates that this region forms another important biological hot spot for the regional marine ecosystem.


Wildlife population declines in Africa are widespread. However, species-specific population trends and dynamics in mammal community composition have rarely been described over long time periods. To describe population trends of 13 large herbivore species in Lake Manyara National Park (Tanzania) from 1959 to 2016 and to discover whether the herbivore community structure changed, we used general additive models and additional statistical methods to detect structural changes in the time series. Population dynamics were non-linear and population growth rates were not correlated with precipitation anomalies. Relatively steep population declines of three megaherbivores occurred during the 1980s and early 1990s, resulting in severe reductions in African elephant and buffalo populations and the local extinction of black rhinoceros. These declines coincided with reported peaks of illegal hunting of these species and expansion of agriculture at the periphery of the park. Population densities of elephant and buffalo seem to have stabilized in recent times, yet have not recovered to previous densities. In contrast, eight species (giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, wildebeest, warthog, impala, bushbuck, and baboon) have apparently fared well (similar or higher densities in most recent compared to first decade), despite having undergone substantial fluctuations over the past 58 yr. Population fluctuations in these species were likely caused by disease outbreaks, heavy bush encroachment, and reduced competition with buffalo. Possibly, declines in megaherbivore densities (mainly elephants) facilitated bush encroachment. Albeit grazers are still dominating in the herbivore community, the proportion of browsers is currently increasing, likely encouraged by dense vegetation in the shrub layer in large parts of the park. Overall, herbivore biomass density has declined by ~40% compared to the baseline estimate in the first decade of the time series. Our analyses and ancillary information provide evidence that this overall decline in the herbivore assemblage was triggered by human-induced reductions in megaherbivore population densities during the 1980s, either through excessive poaching, insularization of the park, or both. Likely, this had cascading and interacting effects on the vegetation structure and the herbivore assemblage. Thus, legacy effects of ineffective megaherbivore conservation efforts 30 yr ago are likely still affecting the ecology of this national park.


Abusive supervision (AS) costs U.S. businesses billions of dollars per year in lost productivity, increased absenteeism, and health care costs. To reduce these costs and to enhance the probability of a successful exist, independent venture capitalists (IVCs) need to be aware of the issue of AS among the management team during the due-diligence process. This study addresses a gap in literature related to IVCs being able to detect AS during duediligence process of the management team. The research question was this: What tools, processes, and methods can IVCs use to detect AS during the due-diligence process of the management team? Four tools, processes, and methods were presented to help reduce the frequency of employee abuse and associated costs.


Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader. Edited by John Morthland. New York: Anchor Books, 2003. [xviii, 400 p. ISBN 0-375-71367-0. $15).] Lester Bangs, who wrote for Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and above all else, Creem magazine from the late 1960s until the early 1980s, exemplified and largely created the notion of rock critic as rock star, right down to his untimely death at age 33, in 1982. And like many a young deceased rock star, Bangs's legend-and beyond-the-grave product-has grown unabated. Within a few years Greil Marcus, Bangs's first editor at Rollong Stone and something of a rock star-critic himself, compiled and edited Psychotic Reactions and Dung (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), a collection of Bangs's articles and record reviews in which Marcus proclaimed Hangs "the best writer in America" (p. x). The year 2000 saw both a full-length biography of Bangs (Jim DeRogalis, Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic [New York: Broadway Books, 2000]) and a fictionalized portrayal by Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of the most memorable scenes of Cameron Crowe's film almost Famous. Bangs's celebrity is one of the driving forces behind the recent resurrection of the defunct Creem, which has a presence on the web (www.creemmagazine.com, accessed 3 March 2004) complete with selected archives from the Bangs era, and, by the summer of 2004, plans to reappear on newsstands. John Morthland, one of the literary executors of Bangs's estate and the person responsible for much of the legwork on Marcus's collection, has now edited a new Lester Bangs reader, Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste, which serves its a companion piece to, and constructs a bit of a dialogue with, the well-known Psychotic Reactions. While the Marcus anthology is largely organized chronologically, and concludes with fragments that might have pointed to future work, Morthland approaches Mainlines more thematically, and instead uses unpublished autobiographical material from the teenage Bangs to open the book, chosen because it's "pure Lester" and serves to "set up the rest" of the anthology (p. xviii). Here, in "Drug Punk," Bangs gropes palpably for an original voice, though the improvisatory style and tales of alienation, sexual depravity, and altered states of consciousness more often than not echo the Beal poets and Hunter S. Thompson. The next section, "Hypes and Heroics," consists of often striking individual pieces and record reviews, while "Pantheon" mostly groups articles that contemplate major figures seemingly past their prime (the Rolling Stones in the 1970s, the electric Miles Davis, post-Velvet Underground Lou Reed, etc.). Morthland lakes a bit of liberty with the next heading, "Travelogues," as he includes an imaginary interview from heaven with Jimi Hendrix along with more down-to-earth reporting on such things as a trip to Jamaica to interview Bob Marley, and some previously unpublished musings on the California-New York dialectic and the state of fraternity parties in Austin, Texas. The collection concludes with "Raving, Raging, and Robops": odds and ends from Bangs's freelance work, unpublished passages, and even an occasional commissioned liner note. The main imago one gets of Bangs from reading these selections is not so much a coherent perspective as a sense that above all else Bangs fell the need to be a "contrarian," to make it clear to his readers that he had something different-and important-to say. Thus he doesn't hesitate to blow up legends like the Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Doors, and quite famously he makes grand pronouncements about less familiar names like Don Van Vliet, also known as Captain Beefheart ("one of the giants of 20th-ceutury music" [p. 178]). He asserts the sexual appeal of Anne Murray aud Helen Reddy, and finds a humanistic impulse in the much-maligned machinations of disco. Meanwhile, punk, a style Bangs's willing helped to define and promote, comes in for a fair amount of harsh criticism. …


Background: Liquid-based cytology (LBC) has been developed as an alternative for conventional cytology (CC) in cervical smears. It is now increasingly being used all over the world for cervical cancer screening. However, its role and diagnostic accuracy in bronchial wash (BW)/bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens remains undetermined. Aims: To assess and compare the diagnostic performance and accuracy of LBC with CC for detecting malignancy in bronchial specimens. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective analytical hospital-based study. Materials and Methods: Bronchial specimens (BW/BAL) received over a period of 4.5 years were reviewed. The samples were processed by CC from June 2010 to September 2012 (2.25 years) and by LBC from October 2012 to December 2014 (2.25 years). Data were retrieved from the records of cytology laboratory and compared among both the groups. Detection rate for histologically or cytologically verified samples was calculated. Results: A total of 559 cases verified by histological and cytological follow-up were evaluated. These included 247 CC cases and 312 LBC cases. The positive diagnostic rate for malignancy in CC was 28.6% whereas that for LBC was 32.9%. The negative diagnostic rates were 66.5% and 66.3% for CC and LBC, respectively. However, unsatisfactory rates had shown a good reduction from 4.4% in CC to 0.6% after LBC introduction. The smears showed more homogeneous distribution of cells with elimination of obscuring factors such as blood, inflammation, and mucus. Conclusions: The diagnostic accuracy of LBC was slightly better than CC. The unsatisfactory rates showed reduction in LBC preparation. Thus, LBC is a viable alternative to CC and has the advantages of standardization of preparation with decrease in unsatisfactory rates.


Polarized epithelial cells play fundamental roles in the ontogeny and function of a variety of tissues and organs in mammals. The morphogenesis of a sheet of polarized epithelial cells (the trophectoderm) is the first overt sign of cellular differentiation in early embryonic development. In the adult, polarized epithelial cells line all body cavities and occur in tissues that carry out specialized vectorial transport functions of absorption and secretion. The generation of this phenotype is a multistage process requiring extracellular cues and the reorganization of proteins in the cytoplasm and on the plasma membrane; once established, the phenotype is maintained by the segregation and retention of specific proteins and lipids in distinct apical and basal-lateral plasma membrane domains.


Optical coherence elastography based on the measurements of elastic wave speeds can quantify elastic moduli in the wave propagation directions and provide high-resolution elasticity maps for tissue. Here, we simultaneously visualized a longitudinal shear wave propagating along the depth and a Rayleigh wave propagating in the lateral direction, and analyzed the propagation characteristics of the elastic waves, including group speeds, frequency spectra, and frequency-dependent wave speeds. The analysis of the propagation characteristics demonstrates the reliability of the elasticity quantification by measuring different types of speeds of the elastic waves.


Ancient Egyptians held a rich and complex vision of the afterlife and codified their beliefs in books that were to be discovered more than two millennia later in royal tombs. Erik Hornung, the world's leading authority on these religious texts, surveys what is known about them today.The contents of the texts range from the collection of spells in the Book of the Dead, which was intended to offer practical assistance on the journey to the afterlife, to the detailed accounts of the hereafter provided in the Books of the Netherworld. Hornung looks closely at these latter works, while summarizing the contents of the Book of the Dead and other widely studied examples of the genre. For each composition, he discusses the history of its ancient transmission and its decipherment in modern times, supplying bibliographic information for any text editions. He also seeks to determine whether this literature as a whole presents a monolithic conception of the afterlife. The volume features many drawings from the books themselves-drawings that illustrate the nocturnal course of the sun god through the realm of the dead.Originally published in German and now available in a fluid English translation, this volume offers an accessible and enlightening introduction to a central element of ancient Egyptian religion.


Abstract. In this study, we investigate the potential of sea ice segmentation by C- and X-band multi-polarisation synthetic aperture radar (SAR) features during late summer. Five high-resolution satellite SAR scenes were recorded in the Fram Strait covering iceberg-fast first-year and old sea ice during a week with air temperatures varying around 0 °C. Sea ice thickness, surface roughness and aerial photographs were collected during a helicopter flight at the site. Six polarimetric SAR features were extracted for each of the scenes. The ability of the individual SAR features to discriminate between sea ice types and their temporal consistency were examined. All SAR features were found to add value to sea ice type discrimination. Relative kurtosis, geometric brightness, cross-polarisation ratio and co-polarisation correlation angle were found to be temporally consistent in the investigated period, while co-polarisation ratio and co-polarisation correlation magnitude were found to be temporally inconsistent. An automatic feature-based segmentation algorithm was tested both for a full SAR feature set and for a reduced SAR feature set limited to temporally consistent features. In C band, the algorithm produced a good late-summer sea ice segmentation, separating the scenes into segments that could be associated with different sea ice types in the next step. The X-band performance was slightly poorer. Excluding temporally inconsistent SAR features improved the segmentation in one of the X-band scenes.


A novel phosphine-catalyzed [3 + 2] annulation of γ-substituted allenoates with succinimides was developed, which was successfully applied to the synthesis of 2-azaspiro[4.4]nonene-1,3-dione derivatives. The reaction afforded the desired products in moderate to high yields (up to 96%) with excellent regioselectivities and diastereoselectivities (up to >99 : 1 dr). A plausible reaction mechanism has also been proposed based on previous literature.


The Swe1/Wee1 kinase phosphorylates and inhibits Cdk1-Clb2 and is a major mitotic switch. Swe1 levels are controlled by ubiquitin mediated degradation, which is regulated by interactions with various mitotic kinases. We have recently reported that Swe1 levels are capable of sensing the progress of the cell cycle by measuring the levels of Cdk1-Clb2, Cdc5 and Hsl1. We report here a novel mechanism that regulates the levels of Swe1. We show that S.cerevisiae Swe1 is modified by Smt3/SUMO on residue K594 in a Cdk1 dependant manner. A degradation of the swe1K594R mutant that cannot be modified by Smt3 is considerably delayed in comparison to wild type Swe1. Swe1K594R cells express elevated levels of Swe1 protein and demonstrate higher levels of Swe1 activity as manifested by Cdk1-Y19 phosphorylation. Interestingly this mutant is not targeted, like wild type Swe1, to the bud neck where Swe1 degradation takes place. We show that Swe1 is SUMOylated by the Siz1 SUMO ligase, and consequently siz1Δ cells express elevated levels of Swe1 protein and activity. Finally we show that swe1K594R cells are sensitive to osmotic stress, which is in line with their compromised regulation of Swe1 degradation.


Although chronic cocaine-induced changes in dendritic spines on nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons have been correlated with behavioral sensitization, the molecular pathways governing these structural changes, and their resulting behavioral effects, are poorly understood. The transcription factor, nuclear factor κ B (NFκB), is rapidly activated by diverse stimuli and regulates expression of many genes known to maintain cell structure. Therefore, we evaluated the role of NFκB in regulating cocaine-induced dendritic spine changes on medium spiny neurons of the NAc and the rewarding effects of cocaine. We show that chronic cocaine induces NFκB-dependent transcription in the NAc of NFκB-Lac transgenic mice. This induction of NFκB activity is accompanied by increased expression of several NFκB genes, the promoters of which show chromatin modifications after chronic cocaine exposure consistent with their transcriptional activation. To study the functional significance of this induction, we used viral-mediated gene transfer to express either a constitutively active or dominant-negative mutant of Inhibitor of κ B kinase (IKKca or IKKdn), which normally activates NFκB signaling, in the NAc. We found that activation of NFκB by IKKca increases the number of dendritic spines on NAc neurons, whereas inhibition of NFκB by IKKdn decreases basal dendritic spine number and blocks the increase in dendritic spines after chronic cocaine. Moreover, inhibition of NFκB blocks the rewarding effects of cocaine and the ability of previous cocaine exposure to increase an animal's preference for cocaine. Together, these studies establish a direct role for NFκB pathways in the NAc to regulate structural and behavioral plasticity to cocaine.


Experimental results on the influence of temporal unmixedness on NOx emissions are presented for both non-catalytic and catalytically stabilized, lean premixed combustion. The test rig used for the experiments consists of a fuel/air mixing section which allows variation of the degree of temporal unmixedness while maintaining a uniform "average over time" concentration profile over the cross section at the inlet to the combustion chamber. The unmixedness is measured as "rms fluctuations in fuel concentration" by an optical probe using laser absorption at 3.39μm over a 9mm gap. "Average over time" measurements are taken with "conventional" suction probe analyzers. The combustion chamber is an insulated, tubular reactor (i.d. 26.4mm). At the inlet to the combustion chamber a honeycomb monolith section is inserted. This monolith is either catalytically active or inactive for catalytically stabilized or non-catalytic combustion respectively. For both modes, the exact same inlet conditions are applied. In catalytically stabilized combustion a fraction of the fuel is consumed within the catalyst and the remaining fuel is burnt in the subsequent homogeneous combustion zone.It is shown that catalytically stabilized combustion yields lower NOx emissions and, more important, that the effect of temporal fuel/air unmixedness on NOx emissions is much smaller than with non-catalytic combustion under identical inlet conditions. Experimental evidence leads to the conclusion, that the catalyst is capable of reducing temporal fluctuations in fuel concentration and/or temperature in the combustion process, thereby preventing excess NOx formation. As a result, the requirements on mixing quality are less stringent when using catalytically stabilized combustion instead of conventional, non-catalytic combustion.Copyright © 1997 by ASME


We describe the application of assumption-based argumentation (ABA) to a domain of medical knowledge derived from clinical trials of drugs for breast cancer. We adapt an algorithm for calculating the admissible semantics for ABA frameworks to take account of preferences and describe a prototype implementation which uses variant-based parallel computation to improve the efficiency of query answering.


The origins of metazoan bodyplans and the extent to which they are coincident with the Cambrian "explosion" are both areas of continuing debate. The fossil record has a unique advantage in terms of historical perspective, but remains highly contentious on account of the often controversial interpretations of particular groups (e.g. halkieriids, vetulicolians) and the heavy reliance on "windows" of exceptional preservation (e.g. Chengjiang, Burgess Shale). Molecular and developmental biology offer other unique insights, but may be problematic in terms of conflicting phylogenetic signals and questions revolving around gene co-option, evolution of developmental systems and even convergence. Such topics, far from frustrating the enterprise, actually widen our understanding of the nature of the evolutionary process with the exciting promise of the discovery of more general principles.


Correct prediction of natural consumption is crucial for both gas distributors and consumers. By means of an accurate prediction, potential issues regarding natural gas distribution systems may be reduced, distribution limits may be planned properly. In th is paper, an ampiric relation has been developed dependent on basic consumption indicators and meteorological data by making use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) which is used broadly in various disciplines and providing good prediction results in nonli near multivariable models. With the proposed system, monthly natural gas consumption prediction study is implemented for Siirt which is one of the first - time users of natural gas in dwelling houses (share in total consumption 1.8 %, 2.5 % in terms of custo mer number). R 2 =1 statistical error value is found for analytical expression of provided prediction model.


Messianic Judaism is usually equated with Jews for Jesus, an overtly missionizing form of ethnically Jewish Evangelical Christianity that was born in the American counter-culture revolution of the 1970s. The ensuing and evolving hybrid blend of Judaism and Christianity that it birthed has evoked strong objections from both the American Jewish and mainline Christian communities. What begs an explanation, though, is how a Gentile Protestant missionary project to convert the Jews has become an ethnically Jewish movement to create community, continuity, and perhaps a new form of Judaism. This paper explores the way in which Messianic Jews have progressively exploited the space between two historically competitive socio-religious cultures in order to create an identity of their own in the American religious landscape. It also introduces Messianic Israelites, non-Jewish but sympathetic believers who are struggling with the implications of an ethnically divided church where Jews are the categorically privileged members.


Modern blockchains, such as Ethereum, enable the execution of so-called smart contracts - programs that are executed across a decentralised network of nodes. As smart contracts become more popular and carry more value, they become more of an interesting target for attackers. In the past few years, several smart contracts have been exploited by attackers. However, a new trend towards a more proactive approach seems to be on the rise, where attackers do not search for vulnerable contracts anymore. Instead, they try to lure their victims into traps by deploying seemingly vulnerable contracts that contain hidden traps. This new type of contracts is commonly referred to as honeypots. In this paper, we present the first systematic analysis of honeypot smart contracts, by investigating their prevalence, behaviour and impact on the Ethereum blockchain. We develop a taxonomy of honeypot techniques and use this to build HoneyBadger - a tool that employs symbolic execution and well defined heuristics to expose honeypots. We perform a large-scale analysis on more than 2 million smart contracts and show that our tool not only achieves high precision, but is also highly efficient. We identify 690 honeypot smart contracts as well as 240 victims in the wild, with an accumulated profit of more than $90,000 for the honeypot creators. Our manual validation shows that 87% of the reported contracts are indeed honeypots.


This article discusses the curatorial strategy of open storage and its assumed potential to decolonize knowledge production in ethnographic museums. Showing masses of stored objects supposedly free from any institutional interpretation is thought to allow for shifting the authority over meaning-making from the museum to the public. Findings from public storeroom visits that were conducted in connection with a participatory exhibition project in an ethnographic museum call these assumptions into question.


of Oration: Dr. Boutelle believes that the human body is capable of curing itself of many diseases. However, physicians must regulate these bodily functions with drugs to prevent the body from overcompensating which may result in harmful effects. The author presents cases to illustrate his point. His first case involves a young woman who suffered a prolonged mental "derangement," which the doctor considered to have been caused by "the character of the contents of the stomach." He presents another strange case which he attributes to a problem in the functioning of the liver. Boutelle then presents a few cases of successful cures based on his presumption that the patients' ailments stemmed from their digestive organs.


Developmental theories of crime offer criminologists an opportunity to understand how early attachment processes and later attachment processes are linked to the development of empathy and desistance. Sampson and Laub's classic work illustrated that among non-substance-abusing men, attachments to partners or to work lead toward desistance (Sampson and Laub 1993). Similarly, Hagan and McCarthy's research further develops an integrated social capital theory of crime based upon numerous theoretical perspectives including revised strain theory, control theory, the sociology of emotions literature, and Braithwaite's reintegrative shaming (Hagan and McCarthy 1997; Braithwaite 1989; Hay 2001). However, Hagan and McCarthy omit the work of developmental psychology positing that early insecure attachment in conjunction with child abuse leads to a variety of negative developmental outcomes including mistrust, shame, doubt, and survival delinquency. This shame, as evidenced by Hagan and McCarthy's work, is reinforced by punitive criminal justice responses to youth crime leading to more criminal behavior. This paper re-examines Hagan and McCarthy's tenets using the National Educational Longitudinal Study. Findings illustrate that proactive rather than reactive responses to youth crime act to decrease shame and transform the effects of early insecure attachments indirectly leading towards desistance from some types of crime.


There is great enthusiasm over the use of emerging interactive health information technologies-often referred to as eHealth-and the potential these technologies have to improve the quality, capacity, and efficiency of the health care system. However, many doctors, advocacy groups, policy makers and consumers are concerned that electronic health systems might help individuals and communities with greater resources while leaving behind those with limited access to technology. In order to address this problem, the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Health Literacy held a workshop to explore the current status of communication technology, the challenges for its use in populations with low health literacy, and the strategies for increasing the benefit of these technologies for populations with low health literacy. The summary of the workshop, "Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First," includes participants' comments on these issues.


Wonder, Horror, Mystery is a dialogue between two friends, both notable arts critics, that takes the form of a series of letters about movies and religion. One of the friends, J.M. Tyree, is a film critic, creative writer, and agnostic, while the other, Morgan Meis, is a philosophy PhD, art critic, and practicing Catholic. The question of cinema is raised here in a spirit of friendly friction that binds the personal with the critical and the spiritual. What is film? What's it for? What does it do? Why do we so intensely love or hate films that dare to broach the subjects of the divine and the diabolical? These questions stimulate further thoughts about life, meaning, philosophy, absurdity, friendship, tragedy, humor, death, and God. The letters focus on three filmmakers who challenged secular assumptions in the late 20th century and early 21st century through various modes of cinematic re-enchantment: Terrence Malick, Lars von Trier, and Krzysztof Kieślowski. The book works backwards in time, giving intensive analysis to Malick's To The Wonder (2012), Von Trier's Antichrist (2009), and Kieślowski's Dekalog (1988), respectively, in each of the book's three sections. Meis and Tyree discuss the filmmakers and films as well as related ideas about philosophy, theology, and film theory in an accessible but illuminating way. The discussion ranges from the shamelessly intellectual to the embarrassingly personal. Spoiler alert: No conclusions are reached either about God or the movies. Nonetheless, it is a fun ride.


This chapter demonstrates how compression algorithms can be used to address morphological and syntactic complexity in detail by analysing the contribution of specific linguistic features to English texts. The point of departure is the ongoing complexity debate and quest for complexity metrics. After decades of adhering to the equal complexity axiom, recent research seeks to define and measure linguistic complexity (Dahl 2004; Kortmann and Szmrecsanyi 2012; Miestamo et al. 2008). Against this backdrop, I present a new flavour of the Juola-style compression technique (Juola 1998), targeted manipulation. Essentially, compression algorithms are used to measure linguistic complexity via the relative informativeness in text samples. Thus, I assess the contribution of morphs such as –ing or –ed, and functional constructions such as progressive (be + verb-ing) or perfect (have + verb past participle) to the syntactic and morphological complexity in a mixedgenre corpus of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Gospel of Mark and newspaper texts. I find that a higher number of marker types leads to higher amounts of morphological complexity in the corpus. Syntactic complexity is reduced because the presence of morphological markers enhances the algorithmic prediction of linguistic patterns. To conclude, I show that information-theoretic methods yield linguistically meaningful results and can be used to measure the complexity of specific linguistic features in naturalistic copora.


Abstract. Climate change will have adverse impacts on many different sectors of society, with manifold consequences for human livelihoods and well-being. However, a systematic method to quantify human well-being and livelihoods across sectors is so far unavailable, making it difficult to determine the extent of such impacts. Climate impact analyses are often limited to individual sectors (e.g. food or water) and employ sector-specific target measures, while systematic linkages to general livelihood conditions remain unexplored. Further, recent multi-model assessments have shown that uncertainties in projections of climate impacts deriving from climate and impact models, as well as greenhouse gas scenarios, are substantial, posing an additional challenge in linking climate impacts with livelihood conditions. This article first presents a methodology to consistently measure what is referred to here as AHEAD (Adequate Human livelihood conditions for wEll-being And Development). Based on a trans-disciplinary sample of concepts addressing human well-being and livelihoods, the approach measures the adequacy of conditions of 16 elements. We implement the method at global scale, using results from the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP) to show how changes in water availability affect the fulfilment of AHEAD at national resolution. In addition, AHEAD allows for the uncertainty of climate and impact model projections to be identified and differentiated. We show how the approach can help to put the substantial inter-model spread into the context of country-specific livelihood conditions by differentiating where the uncertainty about water scarcity is relevant with regard to livelihood conditions – and where it is not. The results indicate that livelihood conditions are compromised by water scarcity in 34 countries. However, more often, AHEAD fulfilment is limited through other elements. The analysis shows that the water-specific uncertainty ranges of the model output are outside relevant thresholds for AHEAD for 65 out of 111 countries, and therefore do not contribute to the overall uncertainty about climate change impacts on livelihoods. In 46 of the countries in the analysis, water-specific uncertainty is relevant to AHEAD. The AHEAD method presented here, together with first results, forms an important step towards making scientific results more applicable for policy decisions.


Almost everyone likes to play video games, especially young students. The reason is that video games are interesting, attractive, and promote brainstorming. May they be used as a teaching tool to attract students' attention and to make teaching tools for presenting visualizations? This idea promoted an investigation of game programming. 3D video game programs are a combination of computer graphics, mathematics, and physics. The first step is a design and implementation of a 3D game engine. Applying component-based technology for the design and implementation ends up with a component library. Then, the game programming becomes an assembly of the components. This tutorial is trying to present these ideas and demonstrate the effectiveness of these ideas.


A question is posed on how a particular subassembly sequence is generated in randomized assembly. An extended design of mechanical conformational switches [16] is proposed that can encode several subassembly sequences. A particular subassembly sequence is generated due to conformational changes of parts during one-dimensional randomized assembly. The optimal subassembly sequence that maximizes the yield of a desired assembly can be found via genetic search over a space of parameterized conformational switch designs, rather than a space of subassembly sequences. The resulting switch design encodes the optimal subassembly sequence so that the desired assemblies are put together only in the optimal sequence. The results of genetic search and rate equation analyses reveal that the optimal subassembly sequence depends on the initial concentration of parts and the defect probabilities during randomized assembly. The results indicate that abundant parts and parts with high defect probabilities should be assembled earlier rather than later.


Background: Disparities in the incidence, prevalence, severity, care, and outcomes for rheumatic diseases exist among racial and ethnic groups compared with White Americans. Objective: This paper describes a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach engaging researchers, community leaders, and patients in purposeful dialogues related to the implementation of health behavior research in an urban rheumatic disease clinic. Methods: Seven focused discussions were led in either English or Spanish. Discussions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Results: Six community leaders and nine patients participated in the seven scheduled focused discussions. Transcripts uncovered five major themes that assisted with study design: trust, patient–provider relationship, study implementation suggestions, decreased functional capacity, and access to healthcare. Conclusions: Engaging community partners and patients in informal and formal discussions from early phases of research design through implementation, followed by systematic application of these insights, may serve to accelerate the potential for translation from findings into improved clinical practice and optimal outcomes.


After defining the terms commonly used in reporting volcanic eruptions and noting previous approaches to assessment of their magnitudes, this study proceeds to examine aspects of importance, or possible importance, to meteorology―principally the dust veils created in the atmosphere, particle sizes and distribution, heights, fall speeds and atmospheric residence times. Later sections deal with spread of the dust by the atmospheric circulation and the direct effects apparent upon radiation, surface temperature and extent of ice in the polar regions. These effects, as well as various crude measures of the total quantity of solid matter thrown up, are used to arrive at numerical assessments of volcanic eruptions in terms of a dust veil index (d. v. i.). The latitude of origin of the dust (latitude of the volcano) receives some attention, and apparently affects the course of development of the atmospheric circulation over the three or four years following, at least in the case of great eruptions (d. v. i. > 100 over one hemisphere). Effects upon the extent of ice on the polar seas may be of somewhat longer duration, and thereby influence the atmospheric circulation over a longer period of years, since there seems to be some association with the cumulative d.v.i. values when successive great eruptions occur with only few years between. The time distribution of volcanic dust since the last Ice Age, and since a. d. 1500, are indicated in as much detail as the evidence permits. Some associations with changes of climate are suggested, but it is clear that volcanic dust is not the only, and probably not the main, influence in this. The appendices give a chronology of eruptions (including those which it seems possible to dismiss as regards any effect on world weather or climate) and a chronology of d. v. i. values. A third appendix displays by means of graphs the variation of some circulation parameters in January and July in the region of northwest Europe over the years immediately following forty of the greatest eruptions since 1680.


Inflation expectations play a central role in models of the Phillips curve. At long time horizons inflation expectations may reflect the credibility of a monetary authority's commitment to price stability. These observations highlight the importance of inflation expectations for monetary policy. These comments touch on three issues regarding inflation expectations: The evolving treatment of inflation expectations in empirical Phillips curve models; three recent models of information imperfections and inflation expectations; and potential policy implications of different models.


Introduction 1 Part I: Wrestling 101: Understanding the Ins and Outs of the Sport 7 Chapter 1: Getting Familiar with Wrestling Before You Sign Up for the Sport 9 Chapter 2: Identifying What Wrestling Is 21 Chapter 3: Being Equipped to Wrestle 33 Part II: Creating a Solid Wrestling Foundation before Your First Match 43 Chapter 4: Knowing What Happens during a Wrestling Match 45 Chapter 5: Staying Healthy, Safe, and in Shape 67 Chapter 6: The Mental Aspect: Wrestling in the Right Mindset 93 Chapter 7: Grappling with the Fundamentals and Basic Movements 109 Part III: Hitting the Mat and Using Your Moves 135 Chapter 8: On Your Mark, Get Set: Starting Positions 137 Chapter 9: Breaking Down Breakdowns and Escapes 147 Chapter 10: Reversing Your Fortune: Reversals 167 Chapter 11: Taking Down Your Opponent: Attacks and Counterattacks 187 Chapter 12: Putting It All Together: Pinning Combinations 221 Part IV: The Adults behind You: Coaches and Parents 241 Chapter 13: Coaching 101: Being the Best Coach You Can Be 243 Chapter 14: Running a Productive Practice with Key Drills 265 Chapter 15: Knowing How to Be a Supportive Parent 307 Part V: The Part of Tens 323 Chapter 16: Ten Tips For Wrestling Success 325 Chapter 17: Ten (Plus One) Wrestling Camps You Should Consider Attending 333 Index 343


Interleukin-1 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SoJIA), and the use of anti-interleukin-1 therapy has been increasing. We report a case of a 14-year-old male patient with SoJIA. He was in remission with anakinra treatment for almost 2 years. When we extended the therapeutic range and decreased the dose (1 mg/kg twice a week), he developed symptoms mimicking pulmonary embolism and cardiac ischemia. Increased cardiac enzyme levels and echocardiographic findings were interpreted as myopericarditis. Pulmonary computed tomography angiography revealed no thrombus. An SoJIA attack was considered because of high level of acute-phase reactants and clinical findings. Intensive immunosuppressive therapy with 2 mg/kg/day anakinra was reinitiated. Clinical and laboratory parameters began to improve on the fifth day of treatment. Thus, anti-interleukin-1 therapy is very important in patients with SoJIA. Although the treatment dose was gradually reduced and the therapeutic range was extended, it is noteworthy that the case progressed to a severe clinical condition. Broad prospective studies regarding whether, how long, and for what reasons the dosages of these drugs should be reduced in patients with SoJIA with no genetic disorders are required.


In this article we present a new version of the Ocean Atmosphere Sea Ice Soil coupling software (OASIS4). With this new fully parallel OASIS4 coupler we target the needs of Earth system modelling in its full complexity. The primary focus of this article is to describe the design of the OASIS4 software and how the coupling software drives the whole coupled model system ensuring the synchronization of the different component models. The application programmer interface (API) manages the coupling exchanges between arbitrary climate component models, as well as the input and output from and to files of each individual component. The OASIS4 Transformer instance performs the parallel interpolation and transfer of the coupling data between source and target model components. As a new core technology for the software, the fully parallel search algorithm of OASIS4 is described in detail. First benchmark results are discussed with simple test configurations to demonstrate the efficiency and scalability of the software when applied to Earth system model components. Typically the compute time needed to perform the search is in the order of a few seconds and is only weakly dependant on the grid size.


This case report follows a previously asymptomatic man who presented with common, non-specifi c symptoms and was diagnosed with a rare complication of non-typhi Salmonella infection. Further investigations revealed the presence of advanced HIV infection and with subsequent follow up a number of co-existing pathologies were diagnosed with fatal consequences. This case serves as an example of the complexity of patients diagnosed with late HIV disease. It serves as a clear reminder to all clinicians to have a low threshold for testing for HIV and highlights the need to introduce an opt-out system for HIV testing in all acute healthcare settings with a high prevalence of HIV infection.


Do firms under relative payoff s maximizing (RPM) behavior always choose a strategy profile that results in tougher competition compared to firms under absolute payoffs maximizing (APM) behavior? In this paper we will address this issue through a simple model of symmetric oligopoly where firms select a two dimensional strategy set of price and a non-price variable known as quality simultaneously. In conclusion, our results show that equilibrium solutions of RPM and APM are distinct. We further characterize the comparison between these two equilibrium concepts. In particular, RPM does not always lead to stricter competition compared to the Nash equilbrium (APM). In fact, the comparison between two equilibrium concepts is influenced by the parameters of demand curve and cost function. The conditions, derived in this paper, determine under which circumstances RPM induces more competition or less competition w.r.t the price or non-price dimension.


We present a set of algorithms and a search strategy for the robust content-based retrieval of multispectral satellite images. Since the property of interest in these images is usually the physical characteristics of ground cover, we use representations and methods that are invariant to illumination and atmospheric conditions. The representations and algorithms are derived for this application from a physical model for the formation of multispectral satellite images. The use of several representations and algorithms is necessary to interpret the diversity of physical and geometric structure in these images. Algorithms are used that exploit multispectral distributions, multispectral spatial structure, and labeled classes. The performance of the system is demonstrated on a large set of multispectral satellite images taken over different areas of the United States under different illumination and atmospheric conditions.


OBJECTIVE
Renal ischemia (RI) is a clinical condition that occurs due to marked decrease in renal blood flow. The pathophysiology of RI is interlinked with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis, infarction, organ transplantation and sepsis. The mechanism of RI injury depends on various factors such as inflammatory response, oxidative stress and apoptosis. In this review, we evaluate the role of cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase in modulating the process of ischemic renal injury.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a literature review of articles published on PubMed and Web of Science in English.

RESULTS
RI is characterized by an inflammatory response and oxidative stress, which are further worsened by the metabolites of the arachidonic acid pathway.

CONCLUSIONS
RI results from a vigorous process involving inflammation and some mediators in a multifaceted interaction. Indulgence of oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation seems to be major factors which promote the inflammation process during RI.


This paper describes practical implications and learning from a multi-method study of feedback from patient safety incident reporting systems. The study was performed using the Safety Action and Information Feedback from Incident Reporting model, a model of the requirements of the feedback element of a patient safety incident reporting and learning system, derived from a scoping review of research and expert advice from world leaders in safety in high-risk industries. We present the key findings of the studies conducted in the National Health Services (NHS) trusts in England and Wales in 2006. These were a survey completed by risk managers for 351 trusts in England and Wales, three case studies including interviews with staff concerning an example of good practice feedback and an audit of 90 trusts clinical risk staff newsletters. We draw on an Expert Workshop that included 71 experts from the NHS, from regulatory bodies in health care, Royal Colleges, Health and Safety Executive and safety agencies in health care and high-risk industries (commercial aviation, rail and maritime industries). We draw recommendations of enduring relevance to the UK NHS that can be used by trust staff to improve their systems. The recommendations will be of relevance in general terms to health services worldwide.


For those wishing to see the UK exit from the EU, Switzerland has become a poster child, an example of how a country outside the EU can retain access to the EU's internal market, thereby flourishing economically, and yet retaining its sovereignty and independence. But can a similar arrangement to that of Switzerland really provide a suitable alternative – a "Plan B" – for the UK's relationship with the EU? With the referendum providing potential exit for the UK from the EU rapidly approaching, a Swiss-type plan B deserves some serious consideration. This paper examines the central claims made by those who see Switzerland as a model for the UK's future relationship with the EU and argues that the Swiss model is no Holy Grail for the UK.


High-altitude balloons and rockets are regularly launched at the Esrange Space Center (ESC) in Kiruna, Sweden, with the aim of retrieving atmospheric data for meteorological and space studies in the Arctic region. Meteorological conditions, particularly wind direction and speed, play a critical role in the decision of whether to go ahead with or postpone a planned launch. Given the lack of high-resolution wind forecasts for this remote region, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is used to downscale short-term forecasts given by the Global Forecast System (GFS) for the ESC for six 5-day periods in the warm, cold, and transition seasons. Three planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes are considered: the local Mellor–Yamada–Janjić (MYJ), the nonlocal Yonsei University (YSU), and the hybrid local–nonlocal Asymmetric Convective Model 2 (ACM2). The ACM2 scheme is found to provide the most skillful forecasts. An analysis of the WRF Model output against the launch criteria for two of the most commonly launched vehicles, the sounding rockets Veículo de Sondagem Booster-30 (VSB-30) and Improved Orion, reveals probability of detection (POD) values that always exceeds 60% with the false alarm rate (FAR) generally below 50%. It is concluded that the WRF Model, in its present configuration, can be used to generate useful 5-day wind forecasts for the launches of these two rockets. The conclusions reached here are applicable to similar sites in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.


Poor interprofessional communication has been linked to decreased quality of patient care and increased numbers of medical errors. Increased occupational stress due to lack of effective interprofessional communication can lead to poor job satisfaction and burnout. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers to interprofessional communication as perceived by radiologic technologists. In particular, how did demographic data influence these perceptions? The research was conducted during June of 2009. The population for this survey consisted of registered radiologic technologists employed at hospitals in Northeast Tennessee. A locally developed survey questionnaire covering the subject of interprofessional communication was distributed to a cluster sample directly involved in patient care. Participants indicated that interprofessional communication effects their occupational stress and job satisfaction in addition to the quality of patient care. This analysis revealed that radiographers experienced the most difficulty communicating with nurses.


To promote and support tendon healing, one viable strategy is the use or administration of growth factors at the wound/rupture site. Platelet derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB), together with other growth factors, is secreted by platelets after injury. PDGF-BB promotes mitogenesis and angiogenesis, which could accelerate tendon healing. Therefore, in vitro studies with PDGF-BB have been performed to determine its effect on tenocytes and tenoblasts. Moreover, accurate and sophisticated drug delivery devices, aiming for a sustained release of PDGF-BB, have been developed, either by using heparin-binding and fibrin-based matrices or different electrospinning techniques. In this review, the structure and composition, as well as the healing process of tendons, are described. Part A deals with in vitro studies. They focus on the multiple effects evoked by PDGF-BB on the cellular level. Moreover, they address strategies for the sustained delivery of PDGF-BB. Part B focuses on animal models used to test different delivery strategies for PDGF-BB, in the context of tendon reconstruction. These studies showed that dosage and timing of PDGF-BB application are the most important factors for deciding which delivery device should be applied for a specific tendon laceration.


This thesis consists of two distinct projects, one on the metastasis-associated laminin binding protein and the other on the putative copper chaperone NosL, both related by the common aim of investigation of the relationship between protein structure and function using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. In the first part of this dissertation, the role that the metastasis-associated laminin binding protein or LBP plays in the spread and development of cancer was investigated. Functional domains of LBP were delineated by limited proteolysis, overexpressed, and then assayed for their ability to bind to the previously identified in vivo binding partner laminin. These assays demonstrated that, at least under the conditions used in this assay, binding to laminin was localized to domain 137-230, a region that encompasses a previously identified binding site known as Peptide G. This protein, like the full-length recombinant laminin binding protein, aggregated under conditions used for nuclear magnetic resonance experiments and therefore could not be analyzed with this technique. Contrary to previous findings on a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 205-229, this sequence within the context of the 200-295 construct demonstrated no laminin binding activity. Furthermore, the peptide lacked the predicted α-helical content and tertiary structure as ascertained by nuclear magnetic resonance and by circular dichroism spectroscopy. A potential role for the disorder exhibited by this region of LBP is proposed, and suggests possible new functions for the laminin binding protein in angiogenesis. NosL, the subject of the second part of this thesis, is a highly conserved copper(I) binding lipoprotein encoded by the nitrous oxide reductase (nos) gene cluster of denitrifying bacteria. To identify functional features and structural homologues of this protein, the structure of apo NosL was solved using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The high-resolution structure of NosL consists of one four-strand antiparallel beta sheet, one three strand antiparallel beta sheet and two α-helices organized in a twisted butterfly-like fold that is structurally homologous to MerB, an alkyl mercury lyase. Chemical perturbation mapping performed on the copper(I)-protein defined regions of NosL potentially involved in copper binding, and thus allowed preliminary identification of the copper-binding ligand Met109.


The determinants of support for European integration and the European Union have been analysed by previous research from a comparative perspective: factors that help to explain the differences between the levels of support of the EU member states are considered to be the factors that drive EU support in general. This article takes a different approach using a cross-time perspective to identify the sources of EU support and to investigate the causal structure of the effects. We analyse German support for European integration which is very volatile over time and test potential explanations for these fluctuations. Three bundles of factors are considered: the economy, the increasing scope of EU policies, and the domestic political process. It appears that all three are associated with fluctuations of German support for European integration. However, domestic politics seems to be mightier than often understood. The empirical evidence that is presented in support of these claims is taken from the Mannheim Eurobarometer Trendfile and recent Eurobarometer surveys, from the Comparative Political Data Set, and from the official handbook of the Bundestag.


This paper proposes a preliminary framework for digital 'translation' attempting to, (while cognisant of conceptual limitations embedded in this model) localise aspects of Inuit knowledge, culture and IQ (in the sense of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit) into digital artifacts for new generations of Inuit and non-Inuit learners. In addition to delineating challenges and opportunities based on theoretical models and actual projects currently underway in Nunavut and Nunavik, it proposes developing Arctic digital industries through convergent cultural media. Finally, it encourages US and Canadian governments during this four-year North American governance cycle of the Arctic Council (two years each for Canada (2013-2015) and the United States (2015-2017) to invest in digital infrastructure, from both a humanistic (via training) and technological perspective. Conceptually, the article argues that culturally focused circumpolar digital development is fundamental to fulfilling the language of the Canadian and US Arctic Strategies, indicating the importance of validating the cultures and voices of the 'People of the North'. It warns against potential post-colonial dangers inherent in digital training, and concludes by arguing that based on current increased global focus on the resources and geo-strategic possibilities inherent in the Arctic (accelerated by global warming and augmented militarisation of the North), that the time is pivotal to ensure that digitally localised and disseminated voices of the Inuit and circumpolar indigenous voices are available electronically in the widest possible variety of media forms.


By using mathematical software Matlab, the random research objects are descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis, in order to further the quantitative data analysis English integrated course teaching, and from the perspective of the cognitive process and improve the English teaching. Finally based on the main result of this paper, we give the constructive Suggestions of teaching. Integration teaching closely around the implementation of the new curriculum of "knowledge and skills, process and methods, emotional attitude and values" goal design, from stimulating the enthusiasm of students' autonomous learning, from the Angle of students learning process, to give inspiration, guide the student to carry on the reflection and evaluation, feedback on the learning process. It broke the traditional mode, establish the multidirectional communication mode, form the three-dimensional network of communication; Reflects the students are the main body of learning, pay attention to the students' self-study, promote students to learn, to learn again, so learning to learn, learn to explore; Implementation to the teacher as the center to take the student as the center, in the process of teaching to fully demonstrate the student thought processes, can fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of student learning, create conditions for students' learning, improve the quality of learning and the students' science literacy. Can develop students' individual character and can make its comprehensive development, causes the student to learn easily, the teacher teach well, make the teaching to the benefit of both parties. Reduced integration teaching classroom recessive waste, greatly improving the efficiency of classroom teaching, improve class yield rate.


The work presented in this thesis focuses on an issue that
very commonly arise when studying a network: missing information. There are many phenomena that can cause such
a lack of knowledge, but prior to any attempt at studying
the data, it is desirable to have a knowledge of the network
at hand that is as complete as possible. Here I will address
specifically two types of missing information problems, namely
network reconstruction and link prediction. In the former case,
the network structure is hidden, the only information we have
access to is the size of the network and some aggregate nodespecific quantity. In the context of link prediction we face a
different issue: there is a real underlying network that represents the phenomenon we want to study, of which we can
only observe an incomplete version where some links are not
present. Our goal will be to identify the most likely candidates to be the missing links and, for weighted networks,
their intensity. Both problem will be tackled using entropybased methods, that guarantee the results to be unbiased. The
thesis presents advancements on three major fronts. It generalizes the formalism for network reconstruction, proposing a flexible methodology that allows to include any prior
topological knowledge and to derive a compatible, unbiased
weighted distribution. It proposes a new approach to link
prediction, whose key idea is to tune reconstruction models
on the accessible portion of network to infer the partiallyobserved portion, i.e. the most likely missing links. Finally,
in the case of weighted prediction, unlike the vast majority of
alternative methods, it provides an explicit recipe to estimate
the links weights, together with their confidence intervals.


IntroductionThe Family Nurse Partnership(FNP) is an intensive home-visiting service for teenage first-time mothers (and children), developed/trialled in the US and adapted/trialled across Europe.The Scottish Government(SG) aims to build on and supplement the existing national/international evidence base for FNP, to assess effectiveness and opportunities for optimisation of the programme, for future decision making in Scotland.
Objectives and ApproachThe evaluation commissioned is a natural experiment of FNP, taking advantage of the existing information infrastructure in Scotland. This natural experiment represents an important opportunity to determine programme impact upon many key programme outcomes using routinely collected data at a lower cost than a comparably sized effectiveness trial. Key objectives are: to identify clients in receipt of FNP-support and a control sample of matched families who would meet criteria for FNP but did not receive support, to obtain approval and through anonymised data linkage link to health and other data, and to determine the effect of FNP across a range of maternal and child outcomes.
ResultsThe succes of the natural experiment design in trying to replicate the gold standard design of the RCT will be presented and will cover the following topics: (how cases and a comparable group of first-time teenage women have been identified across 10 Health Boards (HBs) between 2009 and 2016 using data made available by the electronic Data Research and Innovation Service (eDRIS) from FNP, NHS Scotland and SG; the matching process of the cases and controls using propensity score methods to ensure an unbiased comparison; the linkage to health, social care and educational datasets and the approval processes involved, and the strengths and limitations of using routine data to evaluate relevant study outcomes that map to a logic model.
Conclusion/ImplicationsThe impact of this evaluation into the effectiveness of FNP in Scotland will establish a robustly matched study cohort, a more strealmined linkage and approval process, and identification of outcomes not only for a short-term follow-up but also for a longer-term follow-up of the teenage mothers and their children.


Finalist for the Man Booker International Prize 2015 Alain Mabanckou left Congo in 1989, at the age of twenty-two, not to return until a quarter of a century later. When at last he comes home to Pointe-Noire, a bustling port town on Congo's south-eastern coast, he finds a country that in some ways has changed beyond recognition: the cinema where, as a child, Mabanckou gorged on glamorous American culture has become a Pentecostal temple, and his secondary school has been re-named in honour of a previously despised colonial ruler. But many things remain unchanged, not least the swirling mythology of Congolese culture which still informs everyday life in Pointe-Noire. Mabanckou though, now a decorated French-Congolese writer and esteemed professor at UCLA, finds he can only look on as an outsider at the place where he grew up. As he delves into his childhood, into the life of his departed mother and into the strange mix of belonging and absence that informs his return to Congo, Mabanckou slowly builds a stirring exploration of the way home never leaves us, however long ago we left home.


Goal-driven autonomy is a framework for intelligent agents that automatically formulate and manage goals in dynamic environments, where goal formulation is the task of identifying goals that the agent should attempt to achieve. We argue that goal formulation is central to high-level autonomy, and explain why identifying domain-independent heuristics for this task is an important research topic in highlevel control. We describe two novel domain-independent heuristics for goal formulation (motivators) that evaluate the utility of goals based on the projected consequences of achieving them. We then describe their integration in MARTUE, an agent that balances the satisfaction of internal needs with the achievement of goals introduced externally. We assess its performance in a series of experiments in the Rovers With Compass domain. Our results show that using domain-independent heuristics yields performance comparable to using domain-specific knowledge for goal formulation. Finally, in ablation studies we demonstrate that each motivator contributes significantly to M-ARTUE's performance.


The current research study examined the
way one's relationship with self affects their relational intimacy with others,
while accounting for the role of social media has in influencing this effect.
This study uses self-compassion to examine one's relationship with self and
expands on the current knowledge that self-compassion influences one's
relationships. It was hypothesized that self-compassion would be positively
associated with relational intimacy and negatively associated with social media
use. A total of 173 participants contributed to this study. No significant
relationship was found between self-compassion and social media use, as
measured by social media use integration in to social routines and emotional
connection, and integration into social routines. There was a significant
positive relationship between self-compassion and relational intimacy but no
support for social media use was a significant mediating variable.


Optomechanically Entangled Quantum entanglement allows engineered quantum systems to exceed classical information processing bounds. Palomaki et al. (p. 710, published online 3 October; see the Perspective by Hammerer) extend this quantum resource into the domain of micromechanical oscillators by demonstrating entanglement between a microwave field and a mechanical oscillator. The mechanical part of the entangled state could then be transferred to a second microwave field. Quantum entanglement is demonstrated between a macroscopic mechanical oscillator and a microwave field. [Also see Perspective by Hammerer] When two physical systems share the quantum property of entanglement, measurements of one system appear to determine the state of the other. This peculiar property is used in optical, atomic, and electrical systems in an effort to exceed classical bounds when processing information. We extended the domain of this quantum resource by entangling the motion of a macroscopic mechanical oscillator with a propagating electrical signal and by storing one half of the entangled state in the mechanical oscillator. This result demonstrates an essential requirement for using compact and low-loss micromechanical oscillators in a quantum processor, can be extended to sense forces beyond the standard quantum limit, and may enable tests of quantum theory.


The similarity between two groups of displaying methods is demonstrated in two ways, analytically and experimentally. A variety of layouts of the integral photography and display devices based on the point light source model is classified and analyzed in terms of projections and common/separate image planes. In particularly, the transformation matrix is found. Simulation experiments based on the image processing were performed. The layouts, analytical formulas, and experimental results show the similarity of both groups for several layouts.


microRNAs (miRNAs) are evolutionary conserved, small endogenous non-coding, RNA molecules. Although their mode of action has been extensively studied, little is known about their biogenesis. As their altered expression has been implicated in many diseases, small molecules that would modulate their expression are sought after. They are generated through the concerted action of several complexes which promote their transcription, maturation, export, trafficking, and loading of mature miRNA into silencing complexes. An increasing number of studies have suggested that each of these steps serves as a regulatory junction in the process, and therefore provides an intervention point. For this purpose, we have developed a simple image-based assay strategy to screen for such modulators. Here, we describe its successful implementation which combines the use of a microRNA 21 (miR-21) synthetic mimic together with an EGFP based reporter cell line, where its expression is under the control of miR-21, to monitor EGFP expression in a format suitable for HTS. The strategy was further validated using a small panel of known gene modulators of the miRNA pathway. A screen was performed in duplicate against a library of 6,912 compounds and identified 48 initial positives exhibiting enhanced EGFP fluorescence intensity. 42 compounds were found to be inherently fluorescent in the green channel leaving the remaining 6 as potential inhibitors and with a positive rate of 0.09%. Taken together, this validated strategy offers the opportunity to discover novel and specific inhibitors of the pathway through the screening of diverse chemical libraries.


Create engaging apps with fragments to provide a rich user interface that dynamically adapts to the individual characteristics of your customers' tablets and smartphonesAbout This BookFrom an eminent author comes a book that will help you create engaging apps that dynamically adapt to individual device characteristicsThe only book that includes the latest fragment-oriented features and their role in Material designThis book provides code-intensive discussions and detailed examples that help you understand better and learn faster.Who This Book Is ForThis book is for developers with a basic understanding of Android programming who would like to improve the appearance and usability of their applications by creating a more interactive user experience and dynamically adaptive UIs; providing better support for tablets and smartphones in a single app; and reducing the complexity of managing app UIs.What You Will LearnLearn the role and capabilities of fragmentsUse Android Studio's fragment-oriented featuresCreate an app UI that works effectively on smartphones and tabletsManage the creation and life cycle of fragmentsDynamically manage fragments using the FragmentTransaction classLearn the application design for communicating between fragmentsLeverage fragments when implementing applications that take advantage of the latest features of Material DesignIn DetailToday's users expect mobile apps to be dynamic and highly interactive, with rich navigation features. These same apps must look fantastic whether running on a medium-resolution smartphone or high-resolution tablet. Fragments provide the toolset we need to meet these user expectations by enabling us to build our applications out of adaptable components that take advantage of the rich capabilities of each individual device and automatically adapt to their differences.This book looks at the impact fragments have on Android UI design and their role in both simplifying many common UI challenges and in providing best practices for incorporating rich UI behaviors. We look closely at the roll of fragment transactions and how to work with the Android back stack. Leveraging this understanding, we explore several specialized fragment-related classes such as ListFragment and DialogFragment. We then go on to discuss how to implement rich navigation features such as swipe-based screen browsing, and the role of fragments when developing applications that take advantage of the latest aspects of Material Design.You will learn everything you need to provide dynamic, multi-screen UIs within a single activity, and the rich UI features demanded by today's mobile users.Style and approachA fast-paced learning guide that gives a hands-on, code-intensive approach with a focus on real-world applications.


This thesis explores transport phenomena in nanochannels on a chip. Fundamental nanofluidic ionic studies form the basis for novel separation and preconcentration applications for proteomic purposes. The measurements were performed with 50-nm-high 1D nanochannels, which are easily accessible from both sides by two microchannels. Nanometer characteristic apertures were manufactured in the bonded structure of Pyrex-amorphous silicon – Pyrex, in which the thickness of the amorphous silicon layer serves as a spacer to define the height of the nanochannels. The geometry of the nanometer-sized apertures is well defined, which simplifies the modeling of the transport across them. Compared to biological pores, the present nanochannels in Pyrex offer increased stability. Fundamental characteristics of nanometer-sized apertures were obtained by impedance spectroscopy measurements of the nanochannel at different ionic strengths and pH values. A conductance plateau (on a log-log scale) was modeled and measured, establishing due to the dominance of the surface charge density in the nanochannels, which induces an excess of mobile counterions to maintain electroneutrality. The nanochannel conductance can be regulated at low ionic strengths by pH adjustment, and by an external voltage applied on the chip to change the zeta potential. This field-effect allows the regulation of ionic flow which can be exploited for the fabrication of nanofluidic devices. Fluorescence measurements confirm that 50-nm-high nanochannels show an exclusion of co-ions and an enrichment of counterions at low ionic strengths. This permselectivity is related to the increasing thickness of the electrical double layer (EDL) with decreasing salt concentrations, which results in an EDL overlap in an aperture if the height of the nanochannel and the thickness of the EDL are comparable in size. The diffusive transport of charged species and therefore the exclusion-enrichment effect was described with a simple model based on the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. The negatively charged Pyrex surface of the nanometer characteristic apertures can be inversed with chemical surface pretreatments, resulting in an exclusion of cations and an enrichment of anions. When a pressure gradient is applied across the nanochannels, charged molecules are electrostatically rejected at the entrance of the nanometer-sized apertures, which can be used for separation processes. Proteomic applications are presented such as the separation and preconcentration of proteins. The diffusion of Lectin proteins with different isoelectric points and very similar compositions were controlled by regulating the pH value of the buffer. When the proteins are neutral at their pI value, the diffusion coefficient is maximal because the biomolecules does not interact electrostatically with the charged surfaces of the nanochannel. This led to a fast separation of three Lectin proteins across the nanochannel. The pI values measured in this experiment are slightly shifted compared to the values obtained with isoelectric focusing because of reversible adsorption of proteins on the walls which affects the pH value in the nanochannel. An important application in the proteomic field is the preconcentration of biomolecules. By applying an electric field across the nanochannel, anionic and cationic analytes were preconcentrated on the cathodic side of the nanometer-sized aperture whereas on the anodic side depletion of ions was observed. This is due to concentration polarization, a complex of effects related to the formation of ionic concentration gradients in the electrolyte solution adjacent to an ion-selective interface. It was measured that the preconcentration factor increased with the net charge of the molecule, leading to a preconcentration factor of > 600 for rGFP proteins in 9 minutes. Such preconcentrations are important in micro total analysis systems to achieve increased detection signals of analytes contained in dilute solutions. Compared to cylindrical pores, our fabrication process allows the realization of nanochannels on a chip in which the exclusion-enrichment effect and a big flux across the nanometer-sized aperture can be achieved, showing the interest for possible micro total analysis system applications. The described exclusion-enrichment effect as well as concentration polarization play an important role in transport phenomena in nanofluidics. The appendix includes preliminary investigations in DNA molecule separation and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy measurements, which allows investigating the behavior of molecules in the nanochannel itself.


Abstract The Antarctic environment has undergone significant local environmental damage and degradation, with nations rebuilding, expanding, or developing stations and bases. The Australian Antarctic Division's ten-year (1985–95) A$76.704 million programme of rebuilding and expanding stations in Australian Antarctic Territory is representative of a continent-wide increase in station numbers and impact, increasing station size, human numbers, lengths of roads, buildings, waste material production, and energy requirements. Environmental planning and impact assessment have not been incorporated in official decision-making; human activities at Australian Antarctic Territory stations had serious impacts on the limited ice-free land and local flora and fauna. Casey, are-developed station, is examined with reference to environmental planning and management under Antarctic Treaty obligations and recent Australian environmental legislation. Recommendations include the setting up of an Australian Antarctic Resources Committee responsible inter alia for environmental planning and management, including regional and station management plans and cumulative and environmental impact assessment for all Antarctic operations.


Data Mining with R: Learning with Case Studies, Second Edition uses practical examples to illustrate the power of R and data mining. Providing an extensive update to the best-selling first edition, this new edition is divided into two parts. The first part will feature introductory material, including a new chapter that provides an introduction to data mining, to complement the already existing introduction to R. The second part includes case studies, and the new edition strongly revises the R code of the case studies making it more up-to-date with recent packages that have emerged in R. The book does not assume any prior knowledge about R. Readers who are new to R and data mining should be able to follow the case studies, and they are designed to be self-contained so the reader can start anywhere in the document. The book is accompanied by a set of freely available R source files that can be obtained at the books web site. These files include all the code used in the case studies, and they facilitate the "do-it-yourself" approach followed in the book. Designed for users of data analysis tools, as well as researchers and developers, the book should be useful for anyone interested in entering the "world" of R and data mining. About the Author Lus Torgo is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Porto in Portugal. He teaches Data Mining in R in the NYU Stern School of Business MS in Business Analytics program. An active researcher in machine learning and data mining for more than 20 years, Dr. Torgo is also a researcher in the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis (LIAAD) of INESC Porto LA.


For more than five decades, Paul R. Ehrlich has been alerting people to the importance of ecological threats, including overpopulation, natural resource depletion, loss of biodiversity, climate change, and nuclear winter. His frequent appearances in the news media, along with his many popular books, have made him a household name among environmentally minded Americans—and a lightning rod for attacks by conservatives who do not share his views on the environment or politics. Although he began his career as an entomologist, much of Ehrlich's work now focuses on the interactions between one species—Homo sapiens—and the rest of the natural world. His latest project is an interdisciplinary proposal that marries the natural sciences with the social sciences in an attempt to understand human behavior—and how to change it for the better. In this interview, Ehrlich explains the vision for the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere and why he believes that the social sciences can make an essential contribution to addressing problems such as climate change. He argues that a vast "culture gap" prevents modern humans from grasping scientific concepts essential to our survival. He points out that even the news media has failed to understand the non-linearity of population impacts, in which each new increment of population growth does more environmental damage than the same increment added in an earlier time. And he warns that the risk of nuclear winter, even from a "small" nuclear war, is as real as ever.


The Bowland Basin is a NE–SW-trending sedimentary basin, lying between the Askrigg–Bowland High to the N and NW and the Central Pennine High to the SE. The basin was initiated in ? late Devonian–Tournaisian times. Sediment thickness and facies variations within the Dinantian succession show marked asymmetry on both a basin-wide and intra-basin scale, as a result of approximate NW–SE to N–S extension across normal faults. Thickening of the sedimentary sequence from NE to SW over much of the basin resulted from fault-controlled extension along the SE margin of the basin with downthrow to the NW, giving the basin a half-graben character. Extension occurred in two distinct episodes, marked by basin-wide debris flow and sedimentary slide/slump deposits. During the late Chadian/early Arundian the simple half-graben became modified by a series of NE–SW-trending antithetic and NW–SE-trending transfer faults associated with local unconformities and marked lateral thickness and facies variations. This interval marks the transition from carbonate ramp to slope sedimentation and a temporary halt in carbonate supply to the basin. The second episode of extension, the late Asbian/early Brigantian, marks the break up of the northern basin margin, ending major carbonate deposition within the basin. Reactivation of these structures at the end of the Carboniferous created the Ribblesdale Fold Belt as a result of NW–SE to N–S compression/transpression. Application of this research to areas surrounding the Bowland Basin has led to the recognition of additional shelf basins, the orientation of which suggests control by normal and transfer fault systems. Discussion and


The present report is based on three specimens of Prosobranchs from the southeast Asian waters. Two appear to represent each a species new to science, while the third specimen is assigned here with some doubt to a previously known species. One sample was collected by the Naval officer Land, and two samples were procured by Dr. J. Verwey during his participation in the "Java-South Africa Expedition 1929-30" organized by Dr. Th. Mortensen, Copenhagen. The material is kept in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, the Netherlands. I am greatly indebted to Dr. C. O. van Regteren Altena for entrusting the material to me for study and for useful information on the origin of the samples. The photographs were taken by Mr. G. Brovad and the English text was revised by Miss Susan Thorpe. TROCHIDAE Calliostoma Swainson Dell (1956: 46) established the genus Alertalex to contain a new species of Trochid. He remarked that "it is obviously related to Calliostoma (s.str.), but is too different from the type species, C. zizyphinum (L.) to be usefully retained in that genus". Alertalex is distinguished from the latter genus by its silken, subnacreous surface and the strong spiral sculpture. Clench & Turner (1960: 78) believed that Alertalex belongs to Calliostoma, their assumption being based on the great similarity of radula characters. The species described below would seem to be intermediate between Alertalex and Calliostoma as far as the two separating characters used by Dell are concerned ("silken, subnacreous" and "strong spiral sculpture").


The generation of hollow beams by a multimode light guiding device is analyzed. The light propagation through the light guide is simulated by ray tracing. It is shown that hollow beams are generated by light rays that propagate along a spiral path through the light guide. The properties of the hollow beam depend on the tilt angle and location of the input beam on the front surface of the light guide. The properties of the output beam are investigated experimentally.


Background: There is no doubt that acute calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) nephrotoxicity exists; however, chronic CNI nephrotoxicity is questionable at best. Methods: We reviewed the literature to identify original articles related to the use of CNIs in renal and nonrenal solid organ transplantation in order to examine the available evidence about their chronic nephrotoxicity and contribution to graft failure. Results: Early clinical experience and animal studies support the evidence of CNI nephrotoxicity. These findings evolved into the dogma that CNI nephrotoxicity is the major cause of late renal allograft failure. However, in transplanted kidneys the specific role of chronic CNI nephrotoxicity has been questioned. The emerging literature clearly highlights the lack of solid evidence for the role of CNIs as the sole and major injurious agents that cause chronic renal dysfunction and subsequent graft failure. Most of the evidence available to date is against complete CNI avoidance, and minimization appears to be a more viable strategy. It is becoming increasingly clear that the typical pathological lesions linked to chronic CNI use are highly nonspecific, and most of the chronic changes that have been attributed to chronic CNI nephrotoxicity are the consequences of previously unrecognized immunologic injuries. One needs to keep in mind that the potential risk of side effects of CNI use should be balanced against the risk of rejection. Conclusions: More research should focus on addressing the true causes of chronic graft dysfunction rather than focusing on the overexaggerated contribution of CNIs to late graft loss.


Events occurring within the first 10 million years of the Solar System's approximately 4.5 billion-year history, such as formation of the first solids, accretion, and differentiation of protoplanetary bodies, have determined the evolutionary course of our Solar System and the planetary bodies within it. The application of high-resolution chronometers based on short-lived radionuclides is critical to our understanding of the temporal sequence of these critical events. However, to map the relative ages from such chronometers onto the absolute time scale, they must be "anchored" to absolute ages of appropriate meteoritic materials using the high-precision lead–lead (Pb–Pb) chronometer. Previously reported Pb–Pb dates of the basaltic angrite meteorites, some of which have been used extensively as time anchors, assumed a constant 238U/235U ratio (= 137.88). In this work, we report measurements of 238U/235U ratios in several angrites that are distinct from the previously assumed value, resulting in corrections to the Pb–Pb ages of ≥1 million years. There is no resolvable variation in the 238U/235U ratio among the angrite bulk samples or mineral separates, suggesting homogeneity in the U isotopic composition of the angrite parent body. Based on these measurements, we recalculated the Pb–Pb age for the commonly used anchor, the D'Orbigny angrite, to be 4563.37 ± 0.25 Ma. An adjustment to the Pb–Pb age of a time anchor (such as D'Orbigny) requires a corresponding correction to the "model ages" of all materials dated using that anchor and a short-lived chronometer. This, in turn, has consequences for accurately defining the absolute timeline of early Solar System events.


Modern multivariate machine learning and statistical methodologies estimate parameters of interest while leveraging prior knowledge of the association between outcome variables. The methods that do allow for estimation of relationships do so typically through an error covariance matrix in multivariate regression which does not scale to other types of models. In this article we proposed the MinPEN framework to simultaneously estimate regression coefficients associated with the multivariate regression model and the relationships between outcome variables using mild assumptions. The MinPen framework utilizes a novel penalty based on the minimum function to exploit detected relationships between responses. An iterative algorithm that generalizes current state of the art methods is proposed as a solution to the non-convex optimization that is required to obtain estimates. Theoretical results such as high dimensional convergence rates, model selection consistency, and a framework for post selection inference are provided. We extend the proposed MinPen framework to other exponential family loss functions, with a specific focus on multiple binomial responses. Tuning parameter selection is also addressed. Finally, simulations and two data examples are presented to show the finite sample properties of this framework.


Introduction: Nowadays, the use of a variety of relaxation methods has been relatively common in reducing patients' anxiety. However, there are conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of these methods on patients' pain. Objectives: This study aimed at examining the effect of the Benson's relaxation technique on the pain severity after laminectomy surgery in AJA hospitals. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 62 patients undergoing lumbar laminectomy surgery in AJA hospitals were selected in 2016 and randomly divided into two groups: intervention (n=31) and control (n=31). The pain visual scale was used to assess the patients' pain severity. After measuring the severity of pain in all subjects before the surgery and teaching the Benson's relaxation technique in the intervention group, the pain intensity of the patients at 2, 12 and 24 hours after the operation and after relaxation technique (in the intervention group), and without using the technique (in the control group) was evaluated. Data were analyzed using the Fisher and independent t tests by the SPSS 21 software. Results: The results of the study showed that the mean pain intensity after the first stage of the intervention was 37.5±76.1 in the experimental group and 77.6±17.1 in the control group, after the second stage of the intervention 80.4 ± 25.1 in the experimental group and 5.77±1.47 in the control group and after the third stage of the intervention was 67.3±14.1 in the experimental group and 06.5±92.0 in the control group. The Benson's relaxation technique had a positive and significant effect on pain severity in this group of patients after all three intervention stages. Discussion and Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the use of the Benson's relaxation technique is identified and introduced as an effective factor in reducing the pain of patients with laminectomy. The use of this technique is recommended as a complementary method for reducing the pain of these patients.


The hypocretin receptor (HcrtR) antagonist almorexant (ALM) has potent hypnotic actions but little is known about neurocognitive performance in the presence of ALM. HcrtR antagonists are hypothesized to induce sleep by disfacilitation of wake-promoting systems whereas GABAA receptor modulators such as zolpidem (ZOL) induce sleep through general inhibition of neural activity. To test the hypothesis that less functional impairment results from HcrtR antagonist-induced sleep, we evaluated the performance of rats in the Morris Water Maze in the presence of ALM vs. ZOL. Performance in spatial reference memory (SRM) and spatial working memory (SWM) tasks were assessed during the dark period after equipotent sleep-promoting doses (100 mg/kg, po) following undisturbed and sleep deprivation (SD) conditions. ALM-treated rats were indistinguishable from vehicle (VEH)-treated rats for all SRM performance measures (distance traveled, latency to enter, time within, and number of entries into, the target quadrant) after both the undisturbed and 6 h SD conditions. In contrast, rats administered ZOL showed impairments in all parameters measured compared to VEH or ALM in the undisturbed conditions. Following SD, ZOL-treated rats also showed impairments in all measures. ALM-treated rats were similar to VEH-treated rats for all SWM measures (velocity, time to locate the platform and success rate at finding the platform within 60 s) after both the undisturbed and SD conditions. In contrast, ZOL-treated rats showed impairments in velocity and in the time to locate the platform. Importantly, ZOL rats only completed the task 23–50% of the time while ALM and VEH rats completed the task 79–100% of the time. Thus, following equipotent sleep-promoting doses, ZOL impaired rats in both memory tasks while ALM rats performed at levels comparable to VEH rats. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that less impairment results from HcrtR antagonism than from GABAA-induced inhibition.


We consider the problem of performing a random walk in a distributed network. Given bandwidth constraints, the goal of the problem is to minimize the number of rounds required to obtain a random walk sample. Das Sarma et al. [PODC'10] show that a random walk of length $\ell$ on a network of diameter $D$ can be performed in $\tilde O(\sqrt{\ell D}+D)$ time. A major question left open is whether there exists a faster algorithm, especially whether the multiplication of $\sqrt{\ell}$ and $\sqrt{D}$ is necessary.
In this paper, we show a tight unconditional lower bound on the time complexity of distributed random walk computation. Specifically, we show that for any $n$, $D$, and $D\leq \ell \leq (n/(D^3\log n))^{1/4}$, performing a random walk of length $\Theta(\ell)$ on an $n$-node network of diameter $D$ requires $\Omega(\sqrt{\ell D}+D)$ time. This bound is {\em unconditional}, i.e., it holds for any (possibly randomized) algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first lower bound that the diameter plays a role of multiplicative factor. Our bound shows that the algorithm of Das Sarma et al. is time optimal.
Our proof technique introduces a new connection between {\em bounded-round} communication complexity and distributed algorithm lower bounds with $D$ as a trade-off parameter, strengthening the previous study by Das Sarma et al. [STOC'11]. In particular, we make use of the bounded-round communication complexity of the pointer chasing problem. Our technique can be of independent interest and may be useful in showing non-trivial lower bounds on the complexity of other fundamental distributed computing problems.