This work formulates a novel song recommender system as a matrix completion problem that benefits from collaborative filtering through Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) and content-based filtering via total variation (TV) on graphs. The graphs encode both playlist proximity information and song similarity, using a rich combination of audio, meta-data and social features. As we demonstrate, our hybrid recommendation system is very versatile and incorporates several well-known methods while outperforming them. Particularly, we show on real-world data that our model overcomes w.r.t. two evaluation metrics the recommendation of models solely based on low-rank information, graph-based information or a combination of both.


The work of Jules Regnault, Francis Galton, John Rae and Vilfredo Pareto covered Duration, Behavior, and Value. Regnault talked about stock market science, statistical nature of Value, duration importance and price behavior. Galton laid the foundation for the robust behavior of Reversion in natural phenomenon. Rae introduced the idea of intertemporal choices which showcased time inconsistency in human behavior and Pareto talked about another robust behavior now known to be ubiquitous in natural systems as a power law. Duration, Behavior, and Value are inseparable. Statistical behavior of natural systems (e.g. stock markets) expresses themselves durationally. And because stock market systems exhibit uncertainty and order, this creates inconsistencies (anomalies). Instead of acknowledging the statistical behavior of stock market systems, a few generations of researchers have focused on explaining these inconsistencies through behavioral biases, leading to a polarized debate around efficiency and inefficiency of markets. This debate has many casualties, one of the key being the global investor and how he(she) understands Value. If stock market systems function statistically, value creation and its transformation into growth are statistical phenomena rather than driven by fundamental, psychological or economic factors. Value is misunderstood by the global investor. Despite the fact that Value stocks move from an inexpensive state to expensive state while Growth under performs and drags in performance over the longer durations moving from an expensive state to a less expensive state, Value and Growth are interpreted as disconnected ideas which are assumed to be only defined fundamentally. This narrow definition of Value has added to the academic confusion around inconsistencies and created an investing style bias. Investing styles are at the heart of the investment business, which brings along with it new factors like 'Size'. These various factors overlap with each other. On occasions, it has been even seen that the factors are a proxy for each other. This raises the question regarding the theoretical foundation driving the respective factors. If Value can be explained statistically, it will also explain factors like Growth, Size, Momentum and other factors and hence bring in a needed clarity of how markets function and whether there is a universal factor that drives stock market systems.


This article focuses on the heroines of two recent Russian films: Natalia in Vera Storozheva'ʹs Traveling with Pets ( Путешествие с домашними животными ) (2007) and the title character of Andrei Zviagintsev'ʹs Elena ( Елена ) (2011). Both characters bear striking resemblances to figures from Dostoevsky's works, among them "A Gentle Creature" ("Кроткая") and The Brothers Karamazov . By analyzing the echoes of Dostoevskian imagery, character development, and themes in these two films, I investigate how contemporary Russian filmmakers respond to and diverge from significant cultural references and tropes. One particularly fruitful line of inquiry involves the shared imagery of religious icons. Holy images abound in Dostoevsky's fictional universe, especially the icon of the Mother of God. For instance, the title character of "A Gentle Creature" holds an icon in her hands while committing suicide, an ambiguous act encompassing both despair and spiritual liberation. While Natalia in Traveling with Pets is a true innocent, she experiences guilt for the "sin" of not loving her husband. The priest she consults gives her an icon of the Mother of God. Unlike Dostoevsky's character, however, Natalia does not succumb to despair. Instead, she experiments with various forms of liberation from her oppressive past, settling finally on modeling herself after the image of the Mother of God. Natalia adopts a boy from the orphanage she herself was raised in, and we last see her dressed in blue (the color associated with the virgin Mary), gazing at her new son with adoration. Elena also seeks guidance from the church after her husband has a heart attack, and she is told to place candles at the icons of the Mother of God and St. Nikolai. However, her attempts to find solace in the church fail. Although she seems to possess genuine affection for her husband, Elena's strongest emotional attachment remains to her son and grandchildren. Indeed, her dedication to motherhood leads her to commit murder. Natalia may be seen as an alternative version of the gentle creature who survives and thrives, achieving personal independence and emotional transformation, but Elena represents an entirely different and darker path. While the gentle creature comes close to murdering her husband, in the "duel" scene, Elena shows us another variation of the storyline: she does murder her wealthy husband in order to save her son from poverty and her grandson from the army. While Natalia represents a triumphant version of the gentle creature whose maternal instinct saves and transforms her, Elena becomes an even more tragic figure than Dostoevsky's heroine.


In this paper, we introduce the concept, design equation, and realization of a broadband electromagnetic vibrational energy harvester. The spatial vibrating system in the proposed harvester is arranged to have three out-of-plane vibration modes. We devise the design method for its three natural frequencies and accompanying modes and apply it to the broadband energy harvesting by locating three frequencies close to each other. The numerical simulation and the experimental results show that it satisfies the designated frequencies as well as the enhanced bandwidth for power generation.


This article proposes a novel methodology for robust analog/mixed-signal IC design by introducing a notion of budget of uncertainty. This method employs a new conic uncertainty model to capture process variability and describes variability-affected circuit design as a set-based robust optimization problem. For a prespecified yield requirement, the proposed method conducts uncertainty budgeting by associating performance yield with the size of uncertainty set for process variations. Hence the uncertainty budgeting problem can be further translated into a tractable robust optimization problem. Compared with the existing robust design flow based on ellipsoid model, this method is able to produce more reliable design solutions by allowing varying size of conic uncertainty set at different design points. In addition, the proposed method addresses the limitation that the size of the ellipsoid model is calculated solely relying on the distribution of process parameters, while neglecting the dependence of circuit performance upon these design parameters. The proposed robust design framework has been verified on various analog/mixed-signal circuits to demonstrate its efficiency against the ellipsoid model. Up to 24% reduction of design cost has been achieved by using the uncertainty budgeting-based method.


This paper addresses the implications of the Theory of the Second Best for law and economics scholarship. The theory of the second best is at once fascinating and paralyzing. Fascinating because it so powerfully assaults much of modern economic theory; paralyzing in that it does not offer a clear replacement for what is purports to destroy. Dick Markovits, who has done so much to keep this important theory in the minds of law and economics scholars, gives an example that suggests the difficulty: a tort doctrine is implemented which compels manufacturers to pay the cost imposed by their discharge of pollutants into any body of water. At first blush, the policy change seems unambiguously good. Prior to the doctrinal change, manufacturers who dumped noxious chemicals and metals into bodies of water created "externalities", social costs that they imposed with impunity. As a result, a manufacturer would maximize profits by discharging pollutants whenever there was even the slightest benefit in so doing. In other words, instead of providing an incentive to promote the public good, the presence of large external costs in a market system encourages undeniably harmful activity. It would seem that eliminating this perverse incentive could only be beneficial, and, at least in the absence of the theory of the second best, this logic would be unassailable. But once the disruptive theory of the second best is introduced, all bets are off unless there happens to be no other distortion in the economy, a most unlikely event. The paper examines a variety of applications of the theory, including a paper by Fullerton and Metcalf that demonstrates that many scholars have been unduly optimistic in asserting that pollution taxes will yield the double dividend of a better environment and more tax revenues with less deadweight loss. In so doing, Fullerton and Metcalf have certainly diminished the prospect, advocated by some, that excess pollution taxes will be imposed to reduce the deadweight loss from distortionate labor taxes. Their paper also shows, however, that, as between the competing policies of the pollution tax or the pollution quota, the former is clearly preferable. Since Fullerton and Metcalf also demonstrate why business strongly prefers the quota to the tax, we may have our own ironic version of the second best in operation here. Three states of the world are plausible: 1) the overtaxation state that Fullerton and Metcalf attack; 2) the precise Pigovian tax rate that they presumably endorse; and 3) the command and control regulation (the undertaxation state) that business so strongly prefers. Since the pressures of special interests have clearly biased policy towards state (3), arguments in favor of position (1) might have corrected the political imbalance, thereby making position (2) more likely. Now that Fullerton and Metcalf have strongly denounced position (1), the counterbalance to the special interest bias towards state (3) is removed, making (3), the admittedly worst of the three outcomes, more likely than (2). This is clearly a frustrating aspect of the theory of the second best, because if the analysis of imperfections extends to political failures, then making truthful claims about the undesirability of certain policies may cause more harm than good. It is not hard to see why most academics shy away from this broad conception of the theory.


In recent years, interest in studying evolutionary algorithms (EAs) for dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) has grown due to its importance in real-world applications. Several approaches, such as the memory and multiple population schemes, have been developed for EAs to address dynamic problems. This paper investigates the application of the memory scheme for population-based incremental learning (PBIL) algorithms, a class of EAs, for DOPs. A PBIL-specific associative memory scheme, which stores best solutions as well as corresponding environmental information in the memory, is investigated to improve its adaptability in dynamic environments. In this paper, the interactions between the memory scheme and random immigrants, multipopulation, and restart schemes for PBILs in dynamic environments are investigated. In order to better test the performance of memory schemes for PBILs and other EAs in dynamic environments, this paper also proposes a dynamic environment generator that can systematically generate dynamic environments of different difficulty with respect to memory schemes. Using this generator, a series of dynamic environments are generated and experiments are carried out to compare the performance of investigated algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed memory scheme is efficient for PBILs in dynamic environments and also indicate that different interactions exist between the memory scheme and random immigrants, multipopulation schemes for PBILs in different dynamic environments.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the impact of comorbid attention deficit disorder (ADD) on the direct medical costs of treating adults with depression in a mixed-model health maintenance organization.

METHOD
Annual mean and marginal health care costs were calculated for adults who were continuously enrolled at Group Health Cooperative during 2001 and who were diagnosed with depression, ADD, or both ADD and depression according to ICD-9-CM criteria during 2001.

RESULTS
Of 249,874 adults continuously enrolled during 2001, 17,792 (7.1%) were diagnosed with depression, 1023 (0.4%) were diagnosed with ADD, and 454 (0.2%) were diagnosed with both depression and ADD. The mean total annual cost for an adult with a diagnosis of depression in 2001 exceeded that for the average adult enrolled in Group Health by 109% ($6029 vs. $2880). Of the $6029 mean total annual cost for treating an adult with a diagnosis of depression, $1872 (31%) was specifically attributable to depression. The presence of comorbid ADD resulted in ADD- and depression-attributed marginal costs approximately 29% higher than the costs specifically attributed to depression alone ($2418 vs. $1872). In fact, among patients with a diagnosis of ADD and depression, ADD- and depression-attributed costs approached the mean total cost of health care in the sample as a whole ($2880).

CONCLUSION
Depression is associated with high direct medical costs. The marginal costs of treating comorbid depression and ADD substantially exceed those of treating depression alone. These results underline the importance of considering the costs of comorbidities in estimating the economic burden of depression and developing cost-effective disease-management strategies.


The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of conservation practices actually implemented in reducing sediment and nutrient loads at field and watershed scales. To contribute to the USDA Agency Priority Goal for Water Pilot Projects, we obtained information on conservation practices implemented in the St. Joseph River watershed. Considering expected water quality impacts and simulation ability of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, 5,583 of them were selected and incorporated into modeling at a hydrologic response unit (HRU) level by adjusting associated parameters. A calibrated SWAT model was used to estimate load reduction effectiveness of the selected practices. Model results indicated that many of the practices reduced pollutant loads between 10% and 50% at the field scale, with high variability among the practices. Most conservation practices reduced less than 1% of the loads when calculated for the entire watershed, but the load reduction was still large and thus their cumulative long-term effects were expected to be significant. Conservation crop rotation and no-till, which were the most widely applied conservation practices in the study watershed, provided the greatest sediment load reduction, while conservation crop rotation and cover crop reduced the greatest amount of nutrients. Conservation crop rotation, cover crop, no-till, and mulch-till sometimes increased loads of soluble nutrients, resulting in the overall decrease in their effectiveness. Comparison of the spatial distributions of the selected conservation practices and simulated pollutant loads showed existing conservation practices were not targeted for areas producing relatively greater loads. The findings of this study demonstrated different effectiveness of conservation practices at the different spatial scales, suggesting application area, field-scale effectiveness, and placement of the practices are equally critical in achieving watershed-scale water quality improvement.


This article analyzes how the selection process for the executive affects the risk of rebellion and insurgencies in sub-Saharan Africa between 1971 and 1995. Four executive recruitment processes are distinguished, which are characteristic for the African context: (1) a process without elections, (2) single candidate elections, (3) single party, multiple candidate elections, and (4) multiparty executive elections. The results suggest that single candidate elections and multiparty elections substantially reduce the risk of insurgencies compared to systems without any kind of executive elections. They further show that during times of political instability the risk of large-scale violent dissent increases substantially. The article supports findings of the civil war literature that higher levels of income are associated with a lower risk of intrastate violence, while oil-exporting countries are at a higher risk of rebellion. In short, this article further strengthens the need to use more specific measures of elements of political regimes, which also take into account regional particularities, in order to paint a more informative picture of how political structures influence the risk of internal violence.


Importance Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs), a leading cause of poor surgical outcomes, are heterogeneous in their pathophysiology, severity, and reporting accuracy. Objective To prospectively study clinical and radiological PPCs and respiratory insufficiency therapies in a high-risk surgical population. Design, Setting, and Participants We performed a multicenter prospective observational study in 7 US academic institutions. American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 3 patients who presented for noncardiothoracic surgery requiring 2 hours or more of general anesthesia with mechanical ventilation from May to November 2014 were included in the study. We hypothesized that PPCs, even mild, would be associated with early postoperative mortality and use of hospital resources. We analyzed their association with modifiable perioperative variables. Exposure Noncardiothoracic surgery. Main Outcomes and Measures Predefined PPCs occurring within the first 7 postoperative days were prospectively identified. We used bivariable and logistic regression analyses to study the association of PPCs with ventilatory and other perioperative variables. Results This study included 1202 patients who underwent predominantly abdominal, orthopedic, and neurological procedures. The mean (SD) age of patients was 62.1 (13.8) years, and 636 (52.9%) were men. At least 1 PPC occurred in 401 patients (33.4%), mainly the need for prolonged oxygen therapy by nasal cannula (n = 235; 19.6%) and atelectasis (n = 206; 17.1%). Patients with 1 or more PPCs, even mild, had significantly increased early postoperative mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and ICU/hospital length of stay. Significant PPC risk factors included nonmodifiable (emergency [yes vs no]: odds ratio [OR], 4.47, 95% CI, 1.59-12.56; surgical site [abdominal/pelvic vs nonabdominal/pelvic]: OR, 2.54, 95% CI, 1.67-3.89; and age [in years]: OR, 1.03, 95% CI, 1.02-1.05) and potentially modifiable (colloid administration [yes vs no]: OR, 1.75, 95% CI, 1.03-2.97; preoperative oxygenation: OR, 0.86, 95% CI, 0.80-0.93; blood loss [in milliliters]: OR, 1.17, 95% CI, 1.05-1.30; anesthesia duration [in minutes]: OR, 1.14, 95% CI, 1.05-1.24; and tidal volume [in milliliters per kilogram of predicted body weight]: OR, 1.12, 95% CI, 1.01-1.24) factors. Conclusions and Relevance Postoperative pulmonary complications are common in patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 3, despite current protective ventilation practices. Even mild PPCs are associated with increased early postoperative mortality, ICU admission, and length of stay (ICU and hospital). Mild frequent PPCs (eg, atelectasis and prolonged oxygen therapy need) deserve increased attention and intervention for improving perioperative outcomes.


The different lymphocyte populations of the immune system are maintained at fairly constant numbers throughout life. The importance of this lifelong maintenance is illustrated by clinical conditions of lymphopenia, such as human immunodeficiency virus infection, severe combined immune deficiency, or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, when opportunistic infections can cause considerable morbidity and mortality. Maintenance of lymphocyte populations is a dynamic process in which cell production and loss are balanced. Immunologists have adopted a variety of approaches to address questions related to these lymphocyte dynamics. Yet distilling the desired information from experimental data has remained a challenge, even with the aid of mathematical models. This thesis integrates experimental approaches and mathematical modeling to gain insights into the biology of human lymphocyte populations. The key aims of this research were 1) to improve the interpretation of experimental data in order to provide the most reliable information about lymphocyte dynamics, which should help explain discrepancies in the literature and reach consensus in the field); and 2) to gain insights into the lifelong maintenance of the peripheral lymphocyte pools in healthy humans. We found that by using a multi-exponential model – instead of a commonly used single-exponential model – for the interpretation of stable isotope-labeling data we can obtain reliable estimates of the average turnover rate of kinetically heterogeneous cell populations, i.e., populations that consist of multiple subpopulations with distinct turnover rates, such as the memory T-cell pool. These and other methodological insights reported in this thesis provide a major step toward consensus about lymphocyte turnover. Moreover, by a combination of methods, primarily stable isotope-labeling techniques and T-cell receptor excision circle analyses, we gained important biological insights. First, in humans the major source of new naive T cells is fundamentally different from that in mice: the majority of new T cells are produced by peripheral division, while thymic output has a very limited role throughout adulthood. Thymic output in humans declines from an estimated 16 million to 1 million cells per day, thereby contributing to the total production of naive T cells for only 10% in young adults and for as little as 1% in the elderly. Second, maintenance of several T-cell and B-cell populations during healthy aging did not require substantial alterations in the turnover rates, and we found no signs of homeostatic compensation (by increased cell division or survival) in response to declining thymic output and naive T-cell numbers. The results described in this thesis directly bear upon our knowledge of immune function in healthy individuals, and, together with the methodological insights form the basis for future research into aging and conditions in which lymphocyte dynamics are disturbed.


Gay men and heterosexual women may share some common interests in critiquing hetero-patriarchy. However feminism and gay liberationist politics do not always coincide and the role of individual subjectivities in recognising oppressive discourses of normativity remains debated. Interviews were conducted with seven friendship dyads of heterosexual women and gay men. Transcripts were subjected to discourse analysis, which suggested extensive management of heterosexist norms in the friends' accounts of friendship. The analysis highlighted ambiguity over the 'male' status of gay men, a concern with constructing the friendships as legitimately asexual, and the use of parody in the face of homophobia to disrupt normative assumptions. Although we primarily considered the role of heterosexist discourses, there is also evidence that other dimensions of non-normativity (for example, gender and ethnicity) are implicated in friendships constructed around shared otherness and mutual non-normativity.


This paper introduces a new quinquennial data set of educational inequality disaggregated by age group for 146 countries, from 1950 to 2010, by using the Gini index of education as a measure of the distribution of years of schooling. Based on recent estimates of average years of schooling from Barro and Lee (2010) our calculations take into consideration, for the first time, the changes over time in the duration of educational stages, in each country and for each age group. The downward trends in educational inequality observed during the last decades depend on age group, gender and development level. JEL Classification: D63, I21, J24, O15


Prior to the establishment of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), 'gender was seldom explicitly invoked as a lens into human rights abuse or an organizing principle for the commission's work' (Nesiah et al., 2006, p. 3). In this respect the TRC is a trailblazer, as subsequent truth commissions in other countries have been inspired to incorporate the gender component. The study of the TRC, however, is relatively under‐theorized from the feminist perspective. This article argues that the feminist perspective offers a nuanced scrutiny of narrative and truth, two major themes of the TRC. The feminist inquiry helps resurrect 'listening', as a crucial component of narratives. In addition, the value of the feminist perspective lies in its ability to throw light on the experience of both women and men and to create an argument and language for the articulation of the needs of the powerless and dispossessed in society. A feminist critique of truth and reconciliation commissions has the potential to make the transitional justice mechanism more inclusive and democratic.


Planktonic copepods were collected from 18 stations during JICA/MASDEC Malacca
Straits Scientific Expedition, in November 1998 (Northeast monsoon) and April 1999
(Presouthwest monsoon). A total of 88 species of copepods, comprised 4 orders, 17
families and 24 genera were recorded in the Straits o f Malacca. Amongst them eleven
species were new records to Malaysian waters. They were Eucalanus subtenuis,
Delius nudus, Scolecithricella minor, Clausocalanus farrani, Euchaeta wolfendeni,
Centropages sp., Pseudocalanus sp., Lucicutia flavicornis, Candacia tuberculata,
Corycaeus longisytis, and Copilia lata. The abundance of the copepod fauna was
higher during the presouthwest monsoon (35,429 ind/m3) as compared to the
northeast monsoon (20,023 ind/m3). In both monsoon periods, the abundance of


Abstract Purpose: There is scarcity of data regarding clinical presentation and outcome of retinoblastoma patients in India. Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the clinical profile of retinoblastoma patients in a tertiary care hospital in India from 1983 to 2013. Subjects and Methods: A retrospective analysis of clinical records of 141 patients with retinoblastoma registered from 1983 to 2013 at Government Medical College, Nagpur, India, was conducted. Demographics, clinical features, modes of treatment, and outcome of the patients were assessed. Results: Majority of patients (81 [57.45%]) presented in the age group of 1–3 years and were males. One hundred and fourteen patients (80.85%) had unilateral disease, while rare presentations of trilateral/quadrilateral retinoblastoma were also noted. Proptosis was seen in 81 (57.45%) patients as presenting symptom. Eighty-nine patients (63.12%) had locally invasive disease-involving sites. Forty-four patients (31.19%) developed distant metastasis. Surgical management and external beam radiotherapy were followed in majority of patients. Trend of increased usage of chemotherapy was seen from the mid-1990s. One hundred and twelve patients (79.43%) died with the disease. Conclusions: Data from this study show late diagnosis, leading to poor outcome for patients with advanced retinoblastoma, which is in accordance with data from other developing countries. Even though management of patients changed in accordance with changing standard of care over the decade, mortality remained high.


This paper presents the LiGA (a German acronym for lithographie, galvanoformung, abformung) process based microactuator to be used for microbiopsy in capsular endoscopes. This microactuator is designed to be integrated into a capsular endoscope and to extract tissue samples inside small gastrointestine which a conventional endoscope cannot reach. The proposed microactuator was fabricated as a cylindrical shape of diameter 10 mm and length 1.8 mm. This actuator consists of 3 parts: microbiopsy part with microspike, actuating part with torsion spring, and triggering part with shape memory alloy (SMA) heating wire and polymer string. In order to extract sample tissue, a micro-spike in the developed actuator moves forward and backward using slider-crank mechanism. For the low power consumption triggering, polymer-melting scheme was applied. The SMA heating wire consumed approximately 1.5 V times 160 mA times 1 sec (66.67 muWH) for triggering. The precise components of the microactuator were fabricated using the LiGA process in order to overcome the limitations in accuracy of conventional precision machining. The developed microactuator was evaluated by extracting tissue samples from small intestine of a pig ex vivo, and examining the tissue with the Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining protocol. The experimental tests demonstrated that developed microactuator with microspike successfully extracted tissue samples from the pig's small intestines.


OBJECTIVE
Soluble gp130 is the naturally occurring antagonist of the interleukin-6 (IL-6)/soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) complex and selectively inhibits IL-6 trans-signaling. Several isoforms of soluble gp130 have been identified, including an autoantigenic form termed gp130-RAPS (for gp130 of the rheumatoid arthritis antigenic peptide-bearing soluble form) that is present in the serum and synovial fluid of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional properties of gp130-RAPS.

METHODS
To define a role for gp130-RAPS in arthritis, a recombinant version was generated using a baculovirus expression system, and its activities were tested in vitro and in vivo.

RESULTS
Gp130-RAPS was shown to bind with high affinity to the stable IL-6/sIL-6R complex, hyper-IL-6, and to effectively modulate leukocyte migration in murine acute peritonitis. A single intraarticular injection of gp130-RAPS suppressed chronic antigen-induced arthritis in association with a reduction in local activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3. Although gp130-RAPS contains the previously identified autoantigenic sequence Asn-Ile-Ala-Ser-Phe (NIASF), no increase in the prevalence of anti- gp130-RAPS antibodies was observed in serum or synovial fluid obtained from patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

CONCLUSION
The use of inhibitory antibodies to block IL-6 responses has shown considerable clinical promise. However, the results presented herein suggest that selective targeting of IL-6 trans-signaling may represent a viable alternative to this strategy. In this respect, our present results suggest that the soluble gp130 isoform gp130-RAPS may be useful in the treatment of chronic inflammatory arthritis.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an accentuated eccentric load on subsequent concentric kinetic factors and block jumping performance in elite male volleyball players. Eleven male volleyball high-performance players (18.9 ± 2.6 years, 203.6 ± 5.6 cm, 91.4 ± 8.2 kg), who were training full time with the national team development squad, participated in this within-subject, counter-balanced study. One half of the subjects performed the block jumps (BJ), followed by a 20 kg accentuated eccentric load block jump (AEBJ) condition, whilst the other half of the subject pool performed the testing in the reverse sequence. Superior jump heights (4.3%) and kinetic and kinematic enhancements (9.4, 3.9, 3.1% for peak power, peak force, and peak velocity respectively) were observed in the AEBJ condition compared to the BJ condition, with no order effect observed. The differences between conditions were statistically significant (p < 0.05), with moderate magnitudes (ES = 0.1–0.4). The results of this study demonstrate that an accentuated eccentric load evokes acute increases in vertical jump height, as well as in the kinetic and kinematic variables that are considered important to vertical jumping ability (force, velocity and power)


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Apologizing is an important component in addressing medical errors; yet, offering apologies continues to challenge physicians. To address limitations of prior educational interventions, a multi-faceted, apologies intervention was developed to provide medical students with increasingly applied learning opportunities.

METHODS
First-year medical students taking a professionalism course at the authors' Southeastern medical school in 2008 or 2009 were eligible for the study. Data from their assigned activities and a post-intervention survey were analyzed.

RESULTS
A total of 384 students contributed study data; 57.8% were male, 58.6% white, 10.9% Asian-Indian, 10.9% Asian-Other, and 7.6% African-American. Seventy-four percent of students considered tasks as useful or extremely useful. Student confidence in providing effective apologies increased as well as their comfort in disclosing errors to a faculty member or patient. Perceived importance of apology skills similarly increased. Apologies written by female authors were rated higher in effectiveness by peers than apologies written by male authors. Apology evaluators adopting patient perspective were more critical than evaluators adopting peer perspective. No race differences were found.

CONCLUSIONS
This intervention was perceived useful by students and demonstrated medium to large effect size changes in importance, confidence, and comfort around apology errors. The higher evaluations of apologies written by female authors as well as the lower evaluations by evaluators adopting patient perspective warrant further consideration. Additional research is also warranted on streamlining and implementing the intervention for other institutions and ultimately how actual student apology behaviors are later affected.


Mineral compositions and major and trace element whole-rock analyses for eight spinel peridotite nodules and their host basalt from Quaternary volcanoes in Vestspitsbergen are presented. Modally the nodules range from harzburgite, lherzolite (dominant) and olivine websterite, and they are consid ered to represent mantle material. The olivines range in composition from Fo 88.1 to 92.0, the ortho pyroxenes have 100 Mg /(Mg + Fe') ratios between 88.9 to 92.3. The clinopyroxenes are chrome diopside and the oxide phase is Alor Cr-spinel. The compatible trace elements of the nodules correlate with their modal composition. Thus Se corre late positively with clinopyroxene, whereas Ni and Co correlate positively with olivine. La, Ta, Th, U and K show highest concentrations in some of the most refractory nodules, and their REE patterns are very variable. The refractory nature of some of the nodules is thought to relate to an earlier basalt extraction from the mantle. This 'refractory' mantle was subsequently enriched in the highly incompatible elements, probably by the veining or the metasomatism by alkali basalt. The host basalt can be modelled, in terms of RE elements, to represent a partial melt (around 3% batch melting) of a composite source, represented by the spinel peridotites nodules.


Nowadays, EU is supporting various projects to motivate and support citizen's behavioral to achieve greater energy efficiency in district heating systems by taking advantage of ICT while ensuring energy savings from this new ICT-enabled solutions are greater than the cost for the provision of the services. Modern heating networks requires tools for constant monitoring and control of the network to ensure high effectiveness and reliability. Therefore, a flexible and efficient distributed data collection and storage, that operates with diverse sensors and via different types of networks is required. Moreover, such a system needs to be highly dependable, and separate parts of the system should operate even if the communication is lost. Cloud computing has an answer for this enormous network of computing resources and storage needs, since it has several good properties such as being energy saving, cost saving, agile, scalable, and flexible. In this paper, we propose a cloud computing based framework that integrates all the required advanced communication technologies to create an intelligent district heating network.


Smart assistants are tasked to answer various questions regarding world knowledge. These questions range from retrieval of simple facts to retrieval of complex, multi-hops question followed by various operators (i.e., filter, argmax). Semantic parsing has emerged as the state-of-the-art for answering these kinds of questions by forming queries to extract information from knowledge bases (KBs). Specially, neural semantic parsers (NSPs) effectively translate natural questions to logical forms, which execute on KB and give desirable answers. Yet, NSPs suffer from non-executable logical forms for some instances in the generated logical forms might be missing due to the incompleteness of KBs. Intuitively, knowing the KB structure informs NSP with changes of the global logical forms structures with respect to changes in KB instances. In this work, we propose a novel knowledge-informed decoder variant of NSP. We consider the conversational question answering settings, where a natural language query, its context and its final answers are available at training. Experimental results show that our method outperformed strong baselines by 1.8 F1 points overall across 10 types of questions of the CSQA dataset. Especially for the "Logical Reasoning" category, our model improves by 7 F1 points. Furthermore, our results are achieved with 90.3% fewer parameters, allowing faster training for large-scale datasets.


Substantial advances in the measurement of water content and bulk soil electrical conductivity (EC) using time domain reflectometry (TDR) have been made in the last two decades. The key to TDR's success is its ability to accurately measure the permittivity of a material and the fact that there is a good relationship between the permittivity of a material and its water content. A further advantage is the ability to estimate water content and measure bulk soil EC simultaneously using TDR. The aim of this review is to summarize and examine advances that have been made in terms of measuring permittivity and bulk EC. The review examines issues such as the effective frequency of the TDR measurement and waveform analysis in dispersive dielectrics. The growing importance of both waveform simulation and inverse analysis of waveforms is highlighted. Such methods hold great potential for obtaining far more information from TDR waveform analysis. Probe design is considered in some detail and practical guidance is given for probe construction. The importance of TDR measurement sampling volume is considered and the relative energy storage density is modeled for a range of probe designs. Tables are provided that compare some of the different aspects of commercial TDR equipment, and the units are discussed in terms of their performance and their advantages and disadvantages. It is hoped that the review will provide an informative guide to the more technical aspects of permittivity and EC measurement using TDR for the novice and expert alike.


The tongue plays a key role in various volitional and automatic functions such as swallowing, maintenance of airway patency, and speech. Precisely how hypoglossal motor neurons, which control the tongue, receive and process their often concurrent input drives is a subject of ongoing research. We investigated common synaptic input to the hypoglossal motor nucleus by measuring the coordination of spike timing, firing rate, and oscillatory activity across motor units recorded from unilateral (i.e., within a belly) or bilateral (i.e., across both bellies) locations within the genioglossus (GG), the primary protruder muscle of the tongue. Simultaneously recorded pairs of motor units were obtained from 14 healthy adult volunteers using tungsten microelectrodes inserted percutaneously into the GG while the subjects were engaged in volitional tongue protrusion or rest breathing. Bilateral motor unit pairs showed concurrent low frequency alterations in firing rate (common drive) with no significant difference between tasks. Unilateral motor unit pairs showed significantly stronger common drive in the protrusion task compared with rest breathing, as well as higher indices of synchronous spiking (short-term synchrony). Common oscillatory input was assessed using coherence analysis and was observed in all conditions for frequencies up to ∼ 5 Hz. Coherence at frequencies up to ∼ 10 Hz was strongest in motor unit pairs recorded from the same GG belly in tongue protrusion. Taken together, our results suggest that cortical drive increases motor unit coordination within but not across GG bellies, while input drive during rest breathing is distributed uniformly to both bellies of the muscle.


The aim of this literature synthesis is to summarize the evidence to provide meaningful clinical guidance for airway practitioners, trigger studies on tracheal intubation to answer open questions, and stimulate departmental intubation standard operating procedures during pediatric intubation to increase patients' safety.


David Brading is one of the foremost historians of Latin America in the United Kingdom. The essays in this volume convey the enduring nature of many of the questions raised by his work. They reflect the wide range of his interests: from Mexican Baroque and post-Tridentine Catholicism to studies of the dynamics of state building in nineteenth- century Mexico and of the problem of Mexican national identity. The contributions represent a wide chronological spread from the late seventeenth century to the twentieth century, as well as geographical diversity (Mexico City, Queretaro, and Puebla). Part I comprises an autobiographical essay by David Brading, an appreciation of him by Enrique Florescano, and an historiographical assessment of Brading's work by Eric Van Young. Part II gathers together six essays by former students (Susan Deans-Smith and Ellen Gunnarsdottir) and colleagues (Brian Hamnett, Marta Garcia Urgarte, Guy Thomson, and Alan Knight). David A. Brading recently retired from a chair in history at the University of Cambridge, UK where he directed the Latin American Centre. He is the author of dozens of articles and a number of widely praised volumes, including The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492-1867 (Cambridge University Press, 1991).


This is the story of forty years of MIT campus planning, told by the man who served as chief planning officer during that time. The goal of Robert Simha and his colleagues in the MIT Planning Office was to preserve the qualities that defined MIT while managing resources for the future; this effort, MIT President Charles Vest writes in the foreword, "constitutes an important part of MIT's institutional memory." The Planning Office was created in 1958 to provide long-range planning and to maintain a campus master plan. Its responsibilities included coordinating academic and administrative planning, developing capital budgeting techniques, implementing campus design criteria, and establishing a space inventory and management system -- as well as a more rational procedure for allocating space. Simha chronicles the work of the Planning Office in a series of short essays describing individual projects and overall campus development, including an account of the central role played by the Planning Office in the defeat of a proposed eight-lane, double-decked interstate highway that would have passed through the campus. Simha's department was also the catalyst for the development of Kendall Square from a defunct industrial district into a center for high-tech business and research. The Planning Office oversaw the growth of the campus from four million to nine million square feet; because of its thoughtful planning, the MIT community today enjoys green spaces and buildings of architectural distinction where there were once parking lots and factories. Previous edition published by MIT's Office of the Executive Vice President (paper, 2000).


Hypertension is among the most important risk factors for the occurrence of stroke. Acute stroke patients commonly have an elevated blood pressure (BP), and maintaining an appropriate level of BP is a crucial step in the successful management of acute stroke. In this article, we review various trial and published guidelines for the management of hypertension during intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and acute ischemic stroke. Patients with ICH were found to have systolic BP (SBP) in the range of 150 to 220 mm Hg and need acute lowering of SBP to less than 140 mm Hg. It is safe to do so if there are no contraindications. If a patient with ICH presents with an SBP of more than 220 mm Hg, then the BP should be lowered aggressively using intravenous infusion along with frequent monitoring. Patients of acute ischemic stroke, who have BP >185/110 mm Hg, should have their BP rapidly controlled, if they are being considered for thrombolytic therapy. Injectable labetalol, nicardipine, hydralinzine, and enalaprilat are considered appropriate for acute management of elevated BP in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Patients of acute ischemic stroke with SBP > 180 to 230 mm Hg or diastolic BP (DBP) > 105 to 120 mm Hg should receive intravenous labetalol 10 mg; this can be followed by a continuous infusion at the rate of 2 to 8 mg/min, if required. Nicardipine infusion is another alternative that can be uptitrated according to the desired BP levels. For secondary prevention of ischemic stroke, BP lowering can be done after first several days. The SBP > 140 mm Hg and DBP >90 mm Hg should be treated.


This is a concise survey of the economy of the Byzantine Empire from the fourth century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Organised chronologically, the book addresses key themes such as demography, agriculture, manufacturing and the urban economy, trade, monetary developments, and the role of the state and ideology. It provides a comprehensive overview of the economy with an emphasis on the economic actions of the state and the productive role of the city and non-economic actors, such as landlords, artisans and money-changers. The final chapter compares the Byzantine economy with the economies of western Europe and concludes that the Byzantine economy was one of the most successful examples of a mixed economy in the pre-industrial world. This is the only concise general history of the Byzantine economy and will be essential reading for students of economic history, Byzantine history and medieval history more generally.


Background: Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) holds poor prognosis, mainly due to its delayed detection. Computer aided image analysis can serve as a useful adjunct to routine histological diagnosis for early diagnosis and efficient treatment planning. Aim: To quantitate the nuclear and cellular morphological features in advancing grades OSCC to establish a reliable adjunct for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Material and Methods: 105 OSCC tissue sections, graded according to WHO grading system as well differentiated OSCCs (n=35), moderately differentiated OSCCs (n=35), poorly differentiated OSCCs (n=35) selected. 6 morph metrical parameters assessed using "image J 1.34 software", Namely the Nuclear Area (NA), Cell Area (CA), Nuclear to Cell Area Ratio (NA/CA), nuclear perimeter (NP), Cell Perimeter (CP) and nuclear to cell perimeter ratio (NP/CP). The data was statistically analysed. Results: Nuclear area, cell area, nuclear perimeter and cell perimeter showed statistically significant alterations. Follow up analysis revealed nuclear area and cell area to be higher in the recurrent cases than the non recurrent ones Conclusion: Nuclear and cellular features show significant alterations in tumor cells during the advancement of OSCC which hold diagnostic and prognostic importance.


Abstract This study assessed the decay resistance of Pinus leucodermis wood to the brown-rot fungus Coniophora puteana. Based upon the median weight losses of 30.65% for heartwood and of 34.68% for sapwood obtained in the biological tests, both the heartwood and sapwood material examined was classified as not durable (durability class 5) according to the CEN/TS 15083-1 classification. Total extractives were low, 3.93% in heartwood and 1.00% in sapwood, while lignin content was 22.60% and 25.41% in heartwood and sapwood, respectively. It is highly recommended to use protective treatments before using P. leucodermis wood in outdoor conditions.


Fingerprinting codes were introduced by Boneh and Shaw in 1998 as a method of copyright control. The desired properties of a good fingerprinting code has been found to have deep connections to combinatorial structures such as error-correcting codes and coverfree families. The particular property that motivated our research is called "frameproof". This has been studied extensively when the alphabet size q is at least as large as the colluder size w. Much less is known about the case q < w, and we prove several interesting properties about the binary case q = 2 in this thesis. When the length of the code N is relatively small, we have shown that the number of codewords n cannot exceedN , which is a tight bound since the n = N case can be satisfied a trivial construction using permutation matrices. Furthermore, the only possible candidates are equivalent to this trivial construction. Generalization to a restricted parameter set of separating hash families is also given. As a consequence, the above result motivates the question of when a non-trivial construction can be found, and we give some definitive answers by considering combinatorial designs. In particular, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a symmetric design to be a binary 3-frameproof code, and provide example classes of symmetric designs that satisfy or fail this condition. Finally, we apply our results to a problem of constructing short binary frameproof codes.


The purpose of this research is to address the degree of association among intellectual capital dimensions (human capital, structural capital and relational capital) . For this reason, a quantitative methodology and a non-experimental design were used. Using Pearson correlation, structural equation modeling and linear regression we tested the study hypotheses. Through a sample of 103 companies from Cajeme, Mexico, a positive and significant association was found among intellectual capital dimensions, whose results provided empirical evidence that human capital can explain to structural capital and relational capital in organizations.


Extracts of the dried leaves of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale G.H. Weber ex Wiggers. (Asteraceae) are used in traditional medicine for gastrointestinal and hepatic diseases. The plant is valued as laxative and diuretic. Lately, several research and review papers have highlighted hepatoprotective property of specific herbals like Kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata Nees.) and Kutki (Picrorhiza kurroa Benth.) from Traditional Indian Medicine (TIM) and milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) from Western Botanical Medicine. Market studies show dandelion to be ingredient of liver and gall bladder preparations. Little data is available on pre-clinical and clinical studies done on the plant. Since concept of reverse pharmacology is rapidly catching up for discovering 'leads' from plants, it is worthwhile to conduct scientific studies on dandelion to support the traditional use. The studies may provide evidence in support of additional indications, both traditional and novel.


In the field of ophthalmology, many diagnostic instruments based on optical technology have been developed, such as refractometer, keratometer, corneal mapper, tonometer, fundus camera, slit lamp, laser scan ophthalmoscope and optical coherence tomography. Among them, the refractometer that is used for measuring the refractive power of the human eye has the long research history and various types have been developed. However the efforts to realize more accurate and precise measurement are still in progress. The wavefront analyzer commercialized in recent years is an excellent outcome of such efforts. In this paper, a brief account of the developmental history of various refractometers including the wavefront analyzer is summarized, and the underlying measurement principle is introduced in the view of optics. Finally, the technical issues that should be solved for getting better performance are discussed.


This self-contained and formal exposition of the theory and applications of pseudo-differential operators is addressed not only to specialists and graduate students but to advanced undergraduates as well. The only prerequisite is a solid background in calculus, with all further preparation for the study of the subject provided by the book's first chapter. This chapter introduces the fundamental concepts of spaces of functions and Fourier transforms, and covers such topics as linear operators, linear functionals, dual spaces, Hilbert spaces, distributions, and oscillatory integrals.The second chapter develops the theory of pseudo-differential operators themselves on the basis of elementary calculus and concepts presented in the opening chapter, while the third chapter extends the theory of Sobolev spaces.The major applications of the theory, most of them the result of work done since 1965, are in the study and solution of linear partial differential equations, which are found in many branches of pure and applied mathematics and are ubiquitous throughout the sciences and technology. The final seven chapters of "Pseudo-Differential Operators" take up a range of applications, and deal with such problems as hypoellipticity, local solvability, local uniqueness, index theory, elliptic boundary values, complex powers, initial values, well-posedness, the fixed point theorem of Atiyah-Bott-Lefschetz, Fourier integral operators, and propagation of singularities.For this English edition, the last chapter has been greatly extended and appendixes added in order to present the latest developments of the subject. Multiphase Fourier integral operators are applied to initial-value problems, the micro-local theory is developed from the notion of the "wave front set," and the Nirenberg-Treves existence theorem for the solutions of partial differential equations is discussed. The systematic use of the "multiple symbols" introduced by K. O. Friedrichs provides elegant proofs of otherwise lengthy developments. Hitoshi Kumano-Go teaches in the Mathematics Department at Osaka University.


In the present work a quantitative analysis of γ' and γ" phase nanoparticles in Inconel 718 was performed using two methods of electron tomography, namely EFTEM and FIB tomography. 3D visualisation showed that γ' particles are spherical, while γ" precipitates are disc-shaped. The values of mean size of γ' and γ" phase particles, determined by both electron tomography methods applied, are in good agreement.


Australian community pharmacies frequently supply dose administration aids (DAAs) to residential aged care facilities (RACFs) to assist with medicine administration. These medicine organisers are packed manually or via automation, either onsite at the pharmacy or offsite by a DAA packing company. In all cases, medicines are removed from their original containers and packed into the DAA according to the medicine record of the RACF resident. Limited available literature indicates that the process of packing medicines into DAAs can be inaccurate or unsuitable, leading to DAA incidents. Targeted evidence-based interventions have not been developed, introduced and assessed to address these incidents. To improve the overall quality of medicine supply from community pharmacies to RACFs and specifically address these DAA incidents, a large-scale Australian study was needed to identify how widespread this problem is and propose strategies to address it. The overall aim of the study presented in this thesis was to evaluate how accurately and suitably medicines were packed into DAAs supplied by Victorian community pharmacies for RACF medicine administration. This study also aimed to develop, introduce and evaluate an evidence-based intervention, designed to reduce the occurrence of DAA incidents and improve the overall DAA medicine supply service. The study was conducted over four phases. Phase 1 of this study identified the types of DAA incidents and how frequently they occurred in Victorian DAAs. Cross-sectional DAA audits were conducted at 49 RACFs that were supplied DAAs from 40 community pharmacies in Victoria. A DAA incident included discrepancies between DAAs and medicine records, unsuitable medicine packing according to pharmaceutical guidelines, and medicines that were damaged, inappropriately altered or incorrectly divided. Of the 3,959 DAAs audited for 1,757 residents, 684 incidents involving 457 DAAs were identified (11.5% incident rate). The top five DAA incident types were unsuitable packing according to pharmaceutical guidelines (50.1% of all incidents identified), added medicine (9.8%), incorrect medicine quantity packed (5.4%), omitted medicine (5.3%) and damaged medicine (5.1%). This study phase confirmed the occurrence of DAA incidents, at a higher rate than previous research, and highlighted the need for an intervention to improve RACF standard of care. Phase 2 of this study identified health professionals' perceptions regarding the types and frequencies of DAA incidents in their workplaces, as well as factors contributing to these incidents and strategies to reduce their occurrence. A questionnaire was sent by email or facsimile to one contact from all 49 RACFs and 14 of their affiliated community pharmacies (recruited pharmacies). Three focus groups were also conducted with six pharmacists, five nurses, a personal care assistant and a pharmacy technician, who were employees of the workplaces involved in Phase 1. Questionnaires were returned from 25 RACFs (51.0% response rate) and 12 pharmacies (85.7%). On average, RACF respondents perceived DAA incidents to occur more frequently (daily or weekly) than pharmacy respondents, who mostly perceived DAA incidents to occur monthly. The DAA incident types noted by respondents were similar to those identified in Phase 1. Four themes contributing to DAA incidents emerged from the focus groups, with strategies to reduce their occurrence aligned to these themes: medicine handling, communication, knowledge and awareness, and attitude. Constructive feedback was generated regarding researcher-suggested intervention strategies, including educational strategies, DAA guidelines and protocols, a pharmacist conducting additional DAA checks at the RACF, a stamp or bookmark to be used with medicine records, a communication logbook and sticker, and a medicine identification sheet. Of these, focus group participants did not universally identify one strategy that would improve the DAA medicine supply service and both advantages and disadvantages were outlined for each. It was also highlighted that the development and implementation of a multifactorial intervention would be more favourable than a single strategy, as it may increase the chance that at least one component may be useful for a specific workplace. A stakeholder-derived intervention was then developed, introduced and initially evaluated in Phase 3. The researcher-suggested intervention strategies from the second phase were refined using input from the research team and feedback from pharmacy and nursing organisations and focus group participants. The final intervention included a 30 minute education session and a 12 component toolkit, titled 'Be alert and work together for medicine safety - DAA incident awareness toolkit.' The toolkit included a guideline outlining what medicines should not be packed into DAAs, a research article concerning sodium valproate instability within DAAs, posters, bookmarks and stickers for the medicine record, a compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM) with a presentation, a handout with the CD-ROM presentation slides, a question, answer and reflection handout, template certificates, a medicine identification sheet, a DAA incident policy and procedure, and DAA guidelines for the RACF or pharmacy workplace. The intervention was piloted in one RACF and one community pharmacy. It was later introduced to staff from 45 RACFs and 29 pharmacies that were involved in Phase 1. A questionnaire identified initial perceptions of the potential usefulness and effectiveness of the intervention. Four-hundred and thirty-five questionnaires were returned (85.0% response rate). Respondents believed the toolkit had the potential to reduce the occurrence of DAA incidents 'very' (49.6% of those who responded to this question) or 'extremely' well (20.5%), and felt that the education session was 'very' (46.6%) or 'extremely' (38.0%) useful. The intervention was evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively in Phase 4. At least three months after the intervention was introduced at participating workplaces, the DAA audits were repeated at the 45 RACFs that were introduced to the intervention, to quantitatively assess whether the DAA incident rate identified in Phase 1 had decreased. Field notes also recorded which toolkit components were implemented. A questionnaire was sent by email or facsimile to one contact at each of the 45 RACFs and the 14 recruited community pharmacies to evaluate the perceived usefulness and effectiveness of the toolkit after it was implemented. Lastly, all of the DAA incidents identified in the Phase 1 and 4 DAA audits were classified according to their risk of causing an adverse event if they were transferred to the RACF resident. Of 2,389 DAAs audited from 39 pharmacies for 983 residents, 770 incidents involving 502 DAAs were identified (21.0% incident rate) in Phase 4. There was a significant increase in the DAA incident rate post-intervention compared to pre-intervention (p<0.001). Statistically significant increases occurred in the proportion of DAAs experiencing specific DAA incident types post-intervention, including added medicine, inaccurate medicine division, incorrect time interval and 'other' incidents (p<0.001). However, statistically significant decreases were seen in the frequency of specific incident types when compared to the total number of incidents identified, including unsuitable medicine packing according to pharmaceutical guidelines (p<0.001), incorrect medicine quantity (p<0.001), omitted medicine (p<0.001), incorrect medicine strength (p<0.05), incorrect tablet division (p<0.05) and incorrect medicine form (p<0.05). The poster was the most commonly implemented toolkit component and the survey identified generally positive feedback from health professionals regarding the toolkit. The majority of incidents identified post-intervention were also of a lower risk category, compared to those identified pre-intervention. This final phase identified that an intervention more specifically designed for the RACF or community pharmacy workplace and targeting specific DAA incident types, may be more successful at reducing the occurrence of DAA incidents and improving the DAA medicine supply service.


With the growing development of multimodality, image fusion is currently a very important process in medical science. This post-processing step corresponds to the spatial matching of images acquired by different imaging techniques. It involves several steps: image registration, image association and data visualization targeting efficient exploitation of the informational contents. The registration step aligns the images from the different imaging systems. The association step creates an expandable N-D data-structure. The visualization step consists in finding an appropriate space and visualization mode to analyze this N-D data-structure. In this work, we focus on the latter two steps. To address the related issues, we have developed, MultiMod, an ImageJ macro that selects from a directory N images from different imaging techniques, associates them and represents them in a 3-D, RGB-like, colorimetric space. The image association can be performed according to two different strategies. If N=3, the association is performed using a simple RGB encoding. If N>3 association is performed using the three first components of a principal component analysis to constitute a RGB image. In addition, we then consider a release of a variant of the imageJ plugin Color Inspector 3-D [1] that displays RGB images using 3-dimensional histograms and performs a multiscale colorimetric analysis [2,3]. We illustrate the interest of performing the visualization of multicomponent data-structures with a 3-D histogram, to capture, in a single glance, the dependance between modalities. We also demonstrate the existence of scale invariant, fractal-like organization through scales with biomedical images. We will illustrate the use of our original ImageJ macro and plugin as in Fig. 1 with various cerebral imaging examples in the extended version of the report. [1] http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/plugins/color-inspector.html [2] J. Chauveau, D. Rousseau, F. Chapeau-Blondeau; "Fractal capacity dimension of three-dimensional histogram from color images"; Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing 21, 197-211 (2010) [3] http://www.signal-image.net/


The Latin psalms figured prominently in the lives of the Anglo-Saxons, whether sung in the Divine Office by clerics, studied as a textbook for language learning by students, or recited in private devotion by lay people. They were also translated into Old English, first in prose and later in verse. Sometime in the middle of the eleventh century, the prose and verse translations were brought together and organized in a complementary sequence in a manuscript now known as the Paris Psalter. The prose version, traditionally attributed to King Alfred (d. 899), combines literal translation with interpretative clarification. In contrast, the anonymous Old English verse translation composed during the tenth century approaches the psalms in a spirit of prayer and devotion. Despite their differences, both reflect earnest attempts to capture the literal meaning of the psalms.The complete text of all 150 prose and verse psalms is available here in contemporary English for the first time. With this translation readers encounter the beginnings and the continuation of a long tradition of psalm renderings in English.


Background: Effective training depends on knowledge of a sport's requirements. Small-sided games (SSG) are a spontaneous form of specific training, where exercise intensity can be manipulated mainly by modifying external factors. In SSG the players develop technical and tactical skills in the similar situations, such as during a match and can also develop their physical skills. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the distance covered and physiological response of altering the number of youth male players during small-sided team handball games with modified rules. Methods: The subjects consisted of 12 male youth team handball players (age 16.6 ± 0.5 years) playing the first league for youth male players in the Czech Republic. The study was conducted during six weeks (one training session per week). Only three SSG were played in each training session. The SSG were played, first with five players on each side (5 vs. 5), then four (4 vs. 4), then three (3 vs. 3). Each game was four minutes long, followed by three minutes of passive rest. Results: The players covered the greatest distance (520.6 ± 61.4 m) in the SSG 3 vs. 3. There was a difference in the distance covered between players in the 3 vs. 3 SSG and the other SSG (4 vs. 4 and 5 vs. 5) (p = .041 and p = .043, respectively). In individual speed zones a difference occurred only in the first and third speed zone and always among the 3 vs. 3 and 5 vs. 5 SSG (p = .034 and p = .044), respectively. The highest average intensity (87.9 ± 4.8% HRmax) was in 3 vs. 3 SSG. Loading of the players in 5 vs. 5 was lower compared to 4 vs. 4 (p = .035) and 3 vs. 3 (p   90% HRmax) between 3 vs. 3 and 5 vs. 5 SSG (p = .041). Conclusions: These results indicate that changing the number of players during SSG with modified rules in youth team handball may be used to manipulate the physiological response during youth team handball training.


Understanding how microscopic molecules give rise to complex cognitive processes is a major goal of the biological sciences. The countless hypothetical molecule-cognition relationships necessitate discovery-based techniques to guide scientists toward the most productive lines of investigation. To this end, we present a novel discovery tool that uses spatial patterns of neural gene expression from the Allen Brain Institute (ABI) and large-scale functional neuroimaging meta-analyses from the Neurosynth framework to bridge neurogenetic and neuroimaging data. We quantified the spatial similarity between over 20,000 genes from the ABI and 48 psychological topics derived from lexical analysis of neuroimaging articles, producing a comprehensive set of gene/cognition mappings that we term the Neurosynth-gene atlas. We demonstrate the ability to independently replicate known gene/cognition associations (e.g., between dopamine and reward), and subsequently use it to identify a range of novel associations between individual molecules or genes and complex psychological phenomena such as reward, memory and emotion. Our results complement existing discovery-based methods such as GWAS, and provide a novel means of generating hypotheses about the neurogenetic substrates of complex cognitive functions.


Despite the widespread use of privatisation and corporatisation to reform public sector enterprises, there are very few models which formally analyse these policy tools from a contract-theoretic perspective. This paper develops such a model. Following Schmidt (1990) we argue that if contracts are complete, then the choice between public and private ownership of assets should be a matter of indifference to a benevolent policy-maker. Further, for a trade-off to exist between private and public ownership, we argue that incompleteness is required over some aspects of both profits and non-profit social surplus. If contracts are complete over social and not private surplus, then privatisation with regulation is optimal. If contracts are complete over private surplus and not social surplus, then we are indifferent between ownership structures. Issues of partial privatisation and corporatisation are also discussed. In particular, it is demonstrated that corporatisation can lead to outcomes which are worse than partial privatisation, and should be questioned as a policy tool, when partial privatization is feasible.


Shareholders' updated valuation of internal slack reveals their revised assessment of potential agency conflicts. We study how the value of internal cash changes following state antitakeover regulation events. After carefully addressing the critiques of such experiments, we find that the value of cash increases following antitakeover law implementation, but there is considerable heterogeneity in how the value changes. Firms more susceptible to quiet-life agency problems show no increases in the market-assessed value of internal slack. Conversely, cash appreciates in companies where takeover protection helps bond important commitments with major counterparties. These findings hold across different measures of antitakeover protection events.


We analyze a multi-level MIMO relaying system where a multiple-antenna transmitter sends data to a multiple-antenna receiver through several relay levels, also equipped with multiple antennas. Assuming correlated fading in each hop, each relay receives a faded version of the signal transmitted by the previous level, performs precoding on the received signal and retransmits it to the next level. Using free probability theory and assuming that the noise power at the relay levels - but not at the receiver - is negligible, a closed-form expression of the end-to-end asymptotic instantaneous mutual information is derived as the number of antennas in all levels grow large with the same rate. This asymptotic expression is shown to be independent from the channel realizations, to only depend on the channel statistics and to also serve as the asymptotic value of the end-to-end average mutual information. We also provide the optimal singular vectors of the precoding matrices that maximize the asymptotic mutual information : the optimal transmit directions represented by the singular vectors of the precoding matrices are aligned on the eigenvectors of the channel correlation matrices, therefore they can be determined only using the known statistics of the channel matrices and do not depend on a particular channel realization.


The United States' Terrorism Surveillance Program represents just one of many expansions in surveillance since 9/11, as legal controls previously introduced to protect citizens' privacy and to prevent the misuse of surveillance powers have been relaxed. What makes the situation qualitatively different now is not just the lowering of the bar: digitization and the rapid advancement of technology mean that the type and volume of information currently available eclipse that of previous generations. The issue is not confined to the United States. Despite the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into British law, the United Kingdom also appears to be losing privacy in its battle against terrorism. Part I of this article looks at the American institution of legal controls on the executive branch and their subsequent erosion post-9/11. It explores three changes incorporated in the USA PATRIOT Act: alterations to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; the introduction of Delayed Notice Search Warrants; and the expansion of National Security Letters. Outside of this legislation, the weakening of the Attorney General guidelines increased the FBI's ability to collect information. The article highlights the Department of Defense's ("DOD") movement into the domestic surveillance realm. It discusses a number of operations both inside and outside the DOD, such as TALON, Echelon, Carnivore, Magic Lantern, TIPS, and the use of watch lists. Part I concludes with a discussion of the data mining efforts underway. The article argues that Total Information Awareness, ADVISE, and other projects catapult surveillance into another realm. Moreover, while any one program, such as the NSA initiative, may be considered on narrow grounds, the sheer breadth of current powers raises important concerns. Part II notes that, until recently, no laws governed police and intelligence service information-gathering authorities in the UK. Extraordinary stop and search powers for terrorist-related offences, and warrants for police interference with property provided exceptions. But physical searches of property conducted by the intelligence services, the interception of communications by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the use of covert surveillance or "electronic bugs," and the running of covert human intelligence sources operated under the legislative and judicial radars. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the European Court began to raise objections to the lack of safeguards and statutory framework. But each time the Court handed down a significant finding against the United Kingdom, the state responded not just by, at least on the surface, meeting the demands of the European Convention of Human Rights, but, it appears, by expanding executive surveillance authorities. Moreover, the warrant system introduced retained control within the executive branch. Not subject to judicial review, the standard applied is reasonable suspicion — considerably less robust than probable cause. Like the United States, Britain draws on new technologies; the country leads the world in its use of public surveillance systems. Having laid out legal developments on both sides of the Atlantic, Part III moves to policy concerns: it begins by briefly exploring the substantive, political, legal, social, and economic risks posed by such measures. It then considers six approaches that would help to mitigate the risks. First is the possibility of creating a property right in personal information. The second centers on the regulation of access, transfer, use, and retention of data. Such efforts would satisfy demands for accountability and transparency in both the public and private sector. A third possibility centers on scaling back the existing powers of the state. Fourth, both countries may contemplate placing limits on what constitutes national security. Fifth, alternative safeguards and oversight structures deserve attention — such as reporting requirements, random audits, the creation of ombudspersons, the insertion of the judiciary, and (in the UK) allowing intercepted communications to be used as evidence. Sixth, preventing countries from introducing ever greater powers of surveillance under the claim that they are only temporary in nature would force legislatures to consider the long-term impact of provisions beyond the immediate terrorist threat.


Group litigation has been recognised by political scientists in the States as a useful method of gaining ground and attracting publicity for pressure groups since the turn of the century. In Britain however, recognition that the courts fill such a role has come more slowly. Despite this lack of recognition, pressure through law is far from a modern phenomenon. As the authors show, such cases can be identified in Britain as early as 1749 when abolitionists used the court to test conflicting views of slavery in common law. This book looks at the extent to which pressure groups in Britain use litigation, presenting a view of the courts as a target for campaigners and a vehicle for campaigning. It begins with a description of the tradition of pressure through law in Britain, tracing the development of a parallel tradition in the United States, which has been influential in shaping current British attitudes. The authors analyse the significance of the political environment in Britain in test-case strategy. In contrast with America, Britain has no written constitution and no Bill of Rights and its lack of Freedom of Information legislation makes both litigation and the monitoring of its effects very difficult. However, the centralised character of the British government means that the effects of lobbying are rather more visible in the corridors of power. The authors examine a large number of case studies in order to analyse current practice, and they look at the rapidly changing European and international scene, discussing transnational law, the European community and the Council of Europe. They also look at the campaign tactics of global organisations such as Amnesty and Greenpeace. Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings are experienced in public law and familiar with political science literature. They are therefore able to relate legal systems to the political process, in a book designed to be accessible and important to lawyers, to political scientists and to lobby group activists.


Abstract. This paper details a new method of regression for sparsely sampled data sets for use with time-series analysis, in particular the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II ozone data set. Non-uniform spatial, temporal, and diurnal sampling present in the data set result in biased values for the long-term trend if not accounted for. This new method is performed close to the native resolution of measurements and is a simultaneous temporal and spatial analysis that accounts for potential diurnal ozone variation. Results show biases, introduced by the way data are prepared for use with traditional methods, can be as high as 10%. Derived long-term changes show declines in ozone similar to other studies but very different trends in the presumed recovery period, with differences up to 2% per decade. The regression model allows for a variable turnaround time and reveals a hemispheric asymmetry in derived trends in the middle to upper stratosphere. Similar methodology is also applied to SAGE II aerosol optical depth data to create a new volcanic proxy that covers the SAGE II mission period. Ultimately this technique may be extensible towards the inclusion of multiple data sets without the need for homogenization.


Summary form only given. Recent advances in microtechnology and the development of new electronics and micro/nanosystem devices in automotive industry, communication sector and life science have led to a strong need in material characterization on the micro and nano scale. Defects occurring due to thermal or mechanical material mismatches have to be analyzed by suitable methods. If they cannot be avoided completely, e.g. microcracks in materials or at interfaces, evaluation of their effect on reliabilty of the component is inevitable. In addition, the development and evaluation of interface concepts of biological structures to microelectronic materials such as polymers, metals, ceramics and semi-conducting materials will be a fundamental challenge. To fulfil these needs new strategies for reliability assessment on the submicron scale are essential. Under this prerequisite Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) serves as the basis for the development of the nanoDAC method (nano Deformation Analysis by Correlation), which allows the determination and evaluation of 2D displacement fields based on SPM data. In- situ SPM scans of the analyzed object are carried out at different thermo-mechanical load states. It is also possible to use other SPM image sources such as Phase Detection Microscopy or Ultrasonic Force Microscopy. The obtained images are compared utilizing digital image correlation (DIC) based on grayscale cross correlation algorithms. This allows the tracking of local image patterns of the analyzed surface structure. The measurement results of the nanoDAC technique are full-field displacement fields. The nanoDAC method is suited for measurement of mechanical properties such as fracture properties, Young's modulus, Coefficient of Thermal Expansion, Poisson's ratio. Furthermore the technique should be used for tracking of structures or particles driven by diffusion processes or nanomanipulators. Future generations of SPM equipment will provide modes for observation of dynamic processes. The nanoDAC method will be a useful tool for evaluation of time-dependent processes observed by in-situ SPM techniques. In addition to the nanoDAC method the fibDAC method will be presented. With the fibDAC (focused ion beam based deformation analysis by correlation) method the classical hole drilling method for stress release measurement has been downscaled to the nanoscale. The ion beam of the FIB station is used as a milling tool which causes the stress release at silicon microstructures of MEMS devices. The analysis of the stress release is achieved by DIC applied to load state SEM images captured in cross beam equipment (combination of SEM and FIB). The results of the DIC analysis are deformation fields which are transferred to stress solution by application of finite element analysis. In another step the resolution of the method has been improved by the application of trench milling instead of milling of holes. Thereby deformation measurements in the nm range are established.With the presented methods the basis is provided for an experimental reliability analysis of MEMS/NEMS and nanodevices. In combination with numerical methods new strategies for life time evaluation and fatigue can be addressed.


It was a fittingly ironic end to an election full of grotesque twists: When George W. Bush was narrowly reelected president of the United States, it was the electoral votes of the state he had harmed most that gave him the final nudge across the finish line. Ohio went for the second election in a row to the Republican clown prince. But if the first Bush victory was tragedy, the one in 2004 was surely farce: has world history ever turned before on the artful elevation of gay bashing to an electoral tactic? This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


The classical Athenian 'state' had almost no formal coercive apparatus to ensure order or compliance with law: there was no professional police force or public prosecutor, and nearly every step in the legal process depended on private initiative. And yet Athens was a remarkably peaceful and well-ordered society by both ancient and contemporary standards. Why? Law and Order in Ancient Athens draws on contemporary legal scholarship to explore how order was maintained in Athens. Lanni argues that law and formal legal institutions played a greater role in maintaining order than is generally acknowledged. The legal system did encourage compliance with law, but not through the familiar deterrence mechanism of imposing sanctions for violating statutes. Lanni shows how formal institutions facilitated the operation of informal social control in a society that was too large and diverse to be characterized as a 'face-to-face community' or 'close-knit group'. on this title


The Mozambican General Peace Accord became possible as the Cold War came to a close. Followed by a two years implementation process leading to multiparty free elections in 1994, it is considered internationally a success story for the resolution of civil conflicts. It was one of the first cases in which a robust agreement increased the complementarities between simple peacekeeping and peacebuilding priorities such as confidence building, demilitarization, electoral assistance, development aid, institutional support, and security sector reform. Third party mediation coupling power diplomacy with confidencebuilding facilitation proved to be the winning solution. Elements that have contributed to the success of the peace process were timing, credibility, impartiality, and the skill of the mediation team. Power diplomacy supported confidence building, ensuring that the political arrangements in the Accord were not left hanging through adequate political and economic incentives and coordinated institutional and financial support by a vast array of international and state donors.


In recent years, certain events made me question the lack of training and preparation that many young adults have as they unsteadily exit high school (and even college) unable, and sometimes unwilling, to make real life/real world decisions. This paper explores my journey through a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts - Boston in Critical and Creative Thinking, ending with a fully realized template for a brand new college 100/200 level course, tentatively titled: Philosophy: Making Better Decisions. I start with the specific impetus that set me on my path: a "rotten decision" made by three co-workers that collided into my life, and how that event set me on the course of wanting to explore possible solutions towards better decision-making. My two-year journey came to include using each of my thirteen master's classes as a framework from which I could better understand how we humans make decisions, critically, creatively, mentally, philosophically, in counseling and teaching, and as a student -- always looking and learning with a fresh approach. This post-graduate work of investigations, readings, and coursework brought me from insulted to inspired. My goal towards understanding decision-making soon became a quest to design an entirely new thirty-two class, one-semester college course, putting a modern and entirely fresh practical twist on teaching a decision making class. Decision-making is not exclusive to any one religion, nor to any one section of the commercial world. Yet the halls of academia endlessly couples decision-making with either a strict spiritual foundation or the corporate business world, along with a smattering of classes specifically for the likes of the medical profession, war strategists, foreign policy makers, public health officials, lawyers, and mathematicians. Under the heading of the "Philosophy," most colleges hold steady with their tried-and-true introductory classes on classical logic, values, reality, religion, and knowledge. In their goal to combine any of these basic curriculums with critical thinking skills, institutions usually teach via long lectures behind a lectern. These traditional courses allow little-to-no time to explore and integrate everyday skills into philosophy. This leaves students open to questions like: How do emotions help and/or hinder my ability to choose? What roles do critical and creative thinking play? What are options for generating possibility? How does self-awareness help? What is "The Big Picture?" What communication skills do I need? Do I have a cognitive bias? How do I know what questions to ask? Is reflection important? What does it mean to avoid distortions? How do I use evaluation skills? How does stress factor into decisions? Who sets the ground rules? What is individual vs. groupthink? What's a paradox? How do I decide between right and right? How do I start to handle delicate subjects in the broader methodology of practical life decision-making? My project combines my belief in the necessity for a real-world philosophical base from which young adults of any background can define their principles and understand how their thinking and actions can affect their world. I make a case that this can be done better with ideals such as non-maleficence, beneficence, veracity, and fidelity to that which is truthful, logical, debated, kind, and just. This paper reflects all aspects of my journey thus far on discovering the various elements that go into making better decisions.


This paper presents a conceptual discussion on structural response to ground shocks. Numerical parametric analyses are performed on a simplified linear structural model to investigate the special features of structural response brought by short duration, large amplitude and high frequency excitations, which are the basic characteristics of ground shocks induced by blasting. Nonlinear FEM analyses on a 2-storey RC frame subjected to ground shocks are carried out to qualitatively understand building response to blasting. This study shows that maximum structural response to blasting depends primarily on the amount of impulse, and it generally occurs after the major ground shock has ceased. To capture the maximum response, it is hence necessary to consider additional time duration beyond ground shock period in blasting analysis. It is found that the response in the forced-vibration phase includes high frequency vibration modes with small displacement but large acceleration, thus inducing high inertial shear force. However, the free-vibration response is dominated by lower frequency modes with larger displacement but smaller acceleration. Hence, buildings subjected to strong ground shocks might experience sudden shear failure of its components. Nevertheless, if a building strength is enough to avoid shear failure during the major shock, it may be damaged after the ground shock, and the extent of damage depends on the ground shock magnitude.


My thesis is divided into six chapters which include a general overview of the socio-political and economic background of the Malay Muslim society, a definition of the term Malay and Muslim and the various interpretations that arise from these definitions, the changes experienced by the Muslim society before and after Malaysia's Independence, the importance of Islam in the everyday life of the Muslims, the subsequent developments of the Malay textual tradition starting from the coming of Islam to Malaysia until the present day. Chapter two deals (briefly) with 'Sastra Kitab' and discuss the efforts to re-interprete the meaning of the term 'Islamic literature' as a result of the Islamic resurgence in Malaysia that began in the early 1970's. The textual analysis in Chapter Three is the main part of my study. It focuses only on Islamic books written in Malay from 1975 to the present day (1992) and includes discussion of works on Theology, 'Akida', Islamic law, 'Fikh', Islamic Jurisprudence, devotion services, 'ibadat', 'mu'amalat', marriage, 'munakahat', criminal 'jinayah' and moral, 'akhlak'. Controversial issues such as al-Arqam, anti Hadith, the position of women, marriage, Islamic rule and administration (Islamic democracy, Islamic politics, Syura system, Islamic state) and Sufism are discussed in detail in chapter four. Chapter five analyse critically the Islamic books in Malay, as mirrors of society particularly their approach, nature and academic standards within the terms of Islamic teaching generally. In conclusion, I present general view on the future role of Islamic writing in the context of the development of Muslims society in Malaysia.


When pressure to perform is increased, individuals commonly perform worse than if there were no pressure ("choking under pressure'). Two mechanisms have been proposed to account for this effect-distraction (cognitive load), wherein pressure distracts attention from the task, and self focus, wherein attention shifts inward interfering with performance. To distinguish between these two competing explanations, the current experiment manipulated pressure by offering performance-contingent rewards. For half the participants, cognitive load was increased by requiring participants to count backward from 100. Additionally, adaptation to self awareness was manipulated by videotaping half the participants during practice trials. Results show that pressure caused choking when participants were not distracted and had not been adapted to self awareness. This effect was attenuated when cognitive load was increased or when self-awareness adaptation had occurred. These results support self focus mediated misregulation as the mechanism for choking and disconfirm the distraction hypothesis.


Abstract. The Los Angeles megacity, which is home to more than 40% of the population in California, is the second largest megacity in the United States and an intense source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs). Quantifying GHG emissions from the megacity and monitoring their spatiotemporal trends are essential to be able to understand the effectiveness of emission control policies. Here we measure carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) across the Los Angeles megacity using a novel approach – ground-based remote sensing from a mountaintop site. A Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) with agile pointing optics, located on Mount Wilson at 1.67 km above sea level, measures reflected near-infrared sunlight from 29 different surface targets on Mount Wilson and in the Los Angeles megacity to retrieve the slant column abundances of CO2, CH4 and other trace gases above and below Mount Wilson. This technique provides persistent space- and time-resolved observations of path-averaged dry-air GHG concentrations, XGHG, in the Los Angeles megacity and simulates observations from a geostationary satellite. In this study, we combined high-sensitivity measurements from the FTS and the panorama from Mount Wilson to characterize anthropogenic CH4 emissions in the megacity using tracer–tracer correlations. During the period between September 2011 and October 2013, the observed XCH4 : XCO2 excess ratio, assigned to anthropogenic activities, varied from 5.4 to 7.3 ppb CH4 (ppm CO2)−1, with an average of 6.4 ± 0.5 ppb CH4 (ppm CO2)−1 compared to the value of 4.6 ± 0.9 ppb CH4 (ppm CO2)−1 expected from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) bottom-up emission inventory. Persistent elevated XCH4 : XCO2 excess ratios were observed in Pasadena and in the eastern Los Angeles megacity. Using the FTS observations on Mount Wilson and the bottom-up CO2 emission inventory, we derived a top-down CH4 emission of 0.39 ± 0.06 Tg CH4 year−1 in the Los Angeles megacity. This is 18–61% larger than the state government's bottom-up CH4 emission inventory and consistent with previous studies.


The effect of coagulation time, the number of coagulation bath and ingredients on the properties of continuous graphene oxide fibre has been analyzed. It is observed that the number of coagulation baths and coagulation time affect the fibre morphology, electrical conductivity, and tenacity of fibre. Also, addition of the ingredient (ethylenediamine) results in lower strength and highest fibre count together with darker, curly, and rough fibre structure. It can be suggested that among all the samples, the sample with 1 coagulation bath and 2 min coagulation time can be preferred if electrical conductivity is more important than fibre tenacity. However, if fibre tenacity is the issue, preference of the sample with 3 coagulation baths and 2 min coagulation time will be more convenient.