The continuous progress in micro- and nano-system technologies has allowed the successful development of many innovative products in process control, environmental monitoring, healthcare, automotive and aerospace as well as information processing systems. In this paper on overview will be given of current progress in micro- and nanofabrication process technologies, such as deep reactive ion etching, micro-electro discharge machining, thick photoresistant processing and plating. The availibility of these micro- and nanofabrication processes will be illustrated with examples of new generations of silicon-based sensors, actuators and Microsystems with a particular emphasis on real applications of these components and systems.


The analysis of data streams is important in many security-related domains to gain situational awareness. To provide monitoring and visual analysis of such data streams, we propose a system, called NStreamAware, that uses modern distributed processing technologies to analyze streams using stream slices, which are presented to analysts in a web-based visual analytics application, called NVisAware. Furthermore, we visually guide the user in the feature selection process to summarize the slices to focus on the most interesting parts of the stream based on introduced expert knowledge of the analyst. We show through case studies, how the system can be used to gain situational awareness and eventually enhance network security. Furthermore, we apply the system to a social media data stream to compete in an international challenge to evaluate the applicability of our approach to other domains.


During visual word processing readers identify chunks of co-occurring letters and code for their typical position within words. Using an artificial script, we examined whether these phenomena can be explained by the ability to extract visual regularities from the environment. Participants were first familiarized with a lexicon of pseudoletter strings, each comprising an affix-like chunk that either followed (Experiment 1) or preceded (Experiment 2) a random character sequence. In the absence of any linguistic information, chunks could be defined only by their statistical properties - similarly to affixes in the real language, chunks occurred frequently and assumed a specific position within strings. In a later testing phase, we found that participants were more likely to attribute a previously unseen string to the familiarization lexicon if it contained an affix, and if the affix appeared in its typical position. Importantly, these findings suggest that readers may chunk words using a general, language-agnostic cognitive mechanism that captures statistical regularities in the learning materials. [NOTE: Please cite this paper as: Lelonkiewicz, J. R., Ktori, M., & Crepaldi, D. (2020). Morphemes as letter chunks: Discovering affixes through visual regularities. Journal of Memory and language, 115, 104152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2020.104152 ]


As more women begin to enter the upper management ranks of the business world, researchers have recognized several patterns in terms of common factors which influence career paths and choices. Based on this, I conducted a study with the purpose of identifying those influences and traits which women in the field most attributed to their individual success. This information could thereafter be used as a guide for young women such as myself who are about to begin their own career paths within this field. Through the use of survey and individual interview, my findings indicated that individual background, family support, education, and activities were shown to be the most influential aspects of professional development, while key personality traits necessary to success as noted by the participants included a mixture of both individual (self-motivation, perseverance, etc.) and interpersonal (communication, compassion, etc.) abilities. Advice offered by respondents again emphasized the need for individual motivation combined with the strong interpersonal skills which facilitate professional relationships.


Abstract
The scope of this project is the investigation of the possible occurrence of force-like effects of potentized preparations. Based on earlier work [1, 2] we have chosen two preclinical models: a droplet evaporation method applied on wheat seeds and a bioassay with cress stressed with colchicine. In both methods we investigate if potentized and not potentized substances exhibit force-like effects.
We study two types of potentization procedures. First we study classical homeopathic potentization (Natrium muriaticum 30cH) and compare it with unpotentized NaCl 0.9%. Second, we study anthroposophic potentization (Iscador, mistletoe (Viscum album L.) extracts treated with a special mechanized pharmaceutical process) and compare it with unpotentized mistletoe extract (not mechanically treated).
Droplet evaporation method is performed as described in detail elsewhere [1]. In short: wheat seeds were placed in the inner space of bilayer recipients, whereas, in the outer space (i) the unpotentized substance, (ii) the potentized substance, or (iii) a water control is placed. After one week wheat seeds are removed from the recipients and placed in water for 1h. Droplets of the obtained leakage were evaporated on glass-slides in controlled conditions. The droplet residues are photographed in magnification 100x and analyzed for fractal dimension.
Cress growth test is performed as described in detail elsewhere [2]. For the study of force-like effects, ampoules of the above mentioned substances and ampoules of water for injection are placed for 2 days in recipients filled with purified water. Subsequently 20 µg/ml colchicine were added. The so prepared water is used to grow selected cress seeds in bags for 4 days. The plants grow in darkness under controlled conditions and show a morphological malformation due to the colchicine. The length of the root and shoot at each plant is measured and the root/shoot ratio is calculated, to determine if there is any difference between the treatments.

1. Kokornaczyk, M.O., S. Baumgartner, and L. Betti, Preliminary study on force-like effects between As45x, water, and wheat seeds performed by means of the droplet evaporation method. International Journal of High Dilution Research, 2015. 14(2): p. 17-19.

2. Baumgartner S, Flückiger H, Kunz M, Scherr C, Urech K. Evaluation of Preclinical Assays to Investigate an Anthroposophic Pharmaceutical Process Applied to Mistletoe (Viscum album L.) Extracts. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014: Article ID 620974.


Constructing a biomimetic hierarchical structure is of great benefit to achieve materials with expected high performance. In this work, a new Fmoc-diphenylalanine (Fmoc-FF) based peptide extender (PPE) is synthesized for preparing a series of waterborne polyurethanes (WPUs) to construct a hydrophilic surface and a hydrophobic subsurface. A pre-assembly structure of the WPU emulsion particle is achieved by the introduction of PPE. It possesses a compact core consisting of hydrophobic segments of Fmoc-FF with π-π stacking and a loose shell consisting of hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) segments. The self-assembled Fmoc-FF could also enhance the phase separation between soft segments and hard segments. During film formation by demulsification, the outer PEG segments easily migrate onto the surface and the hydrophobic compact cores aggregate into the subsurface. Such an architecture endows WPU films with simultaneous biocompatibility, antifouling ability, and water resistance under wet conditions. This work provides a new insight into the design of a polymer emulsion with a pre-assembled phase to construct the expected hierarchical structure of films or coatings for biomaterials and antifouling materials.


Facial recognition is changing the way we live in and interact with our society. Here we discuss the two sides of facial recognition, summarizing potential risks and current concerns. We introduce current policies and regulations in different countries. Very importantly, we point out that the risks and concerns are not only from facial recognition, but also realistically very similar to other biometric recognition technology, including but not limited to gait recognition, iris recognition, fingerprint recognition, voice recognition, etc. To create a responsible future, we discuss possible technological moves and efforts that should be made to keep facial recognition (and biometric recognition in general) developing for social good.


This paper describes a theory of reasoning about uncertainly, based on a representation of state'i of certainly called endorsements (see Cohen and Grinberg, 1983, for a more detailed discussion of the theory.) The theory of endorsements is an alternative to numerical methods for reasoning about uncertainty, such as subjective Bayesian methods (Shortliffe and Buchanan, 1975; Duda, Hart, and Nilsson, 1976) and the Shafer-Dempster theory (Shafer, 1976). The fundamental concern with numerical representations of certainty is that they hide the reasoning that produces them and thus limit one's reasoning about uncertainty. While numbers are easy to propagate over inferences, what the numbers mean is unclear. The theory of endorsements represents the factors that affect certainty and supports multiple strategies for dealing with uncertainty.


We investigated a cost-effective method using 10-Gb/s LiNbO3  Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) for transmitting 40-Gb/s duobinary nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and duobinary carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (DCS-RZ) signals. The transmission performance of the signals was investigated. The optimum bandwidths of low-pass filters in transmitters using 10- and 40-Gb/s LiNbO3 MZMs were also investigated. The calculated transmission performance of the transmitter using 10-Gb/s LiNbO3 MZMs was compared to that using 40-Gb/s LiNbO3  MZMs. The effect of the bias offset in the transmitters was investigated. Compared to duobinary-NRZ and DCS-RZ signals generated by a transmitter using 40-Gb/s LiNbO3 MZMs, those generated by using 10-Gb/s LiNbO3 MZMs can be transmitted with 1-dB power penalty over 480-km transmission


Maize is an important economic crop grown in Nigeria. Its production is dramatically affect by the pink stem borer—Sesamia calamistis (Hampson, Noctuidae) and sugarcane borer—Eldana saccharina (Walker, Pyralidae) that are endemic in Southeastern Nigeria. In areas of stress, existing genotypes may marginally do well due to their inherent capabilities. Therefore, it is possible to find useful genes in such areas of stress, since such genes have been responsible for the survival of host crops over the years. Evaluation study was conducted for a range of agronomic characteristics and resistance attributes for 209 local maize collections from Southeastern Nigeria along with three improved check varieties. Field trials were conducted at three locations in a total of four environments in 2001. Highly significant genotypic variances as were noted in all the traits, are indicative of the magnitude of variation that exists among the genotypes, thus providing the opportunity of selection for desirable traits. Furthermore, four traits, namely, leaf feeding, ear damage, stalk lodging and yield were used from across the environments to construct a rank summation index (RSI), which was used to rank the entries for resistance to stem borers. This RSI led to the identification of 11 genotypes which represents the best 5% of the 212 genotypes in resistance ability. Genotype AMA TZBR-WC1 (from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan) had the best overall resistance levels, followed by genotypes SE NG-77 and SE NG-67 (from Umuahia North), SE NG-62 (from Ikwuano), SE NG-148 (from Ukwa West), SE NG-106 (from Bende), SE NG-119 (from Isiala Ngwa), SE NG-33 (from Ikwuano) and SE NG-65 (from Umuahia North).


Antitrust is rightfully concerned about the structure of markets as well as the bargaining that occurs in them. As a result, the absolute cost of redeploying resources can be just as important as the transaction costs of arranging for their movement. This paper examines several broad themes in antitrust, considering the role of various assumptions about the costs of getting resources moved toward superior positions and the ability of the antitrust system to facilitate this movement. Part II very briefly examines structuralism as a theory underlying antitrust enforcement, particularly its assumptions about the difficulty and costs of moving resources. Harvard School structuralism assumed that the costs of moving resources from lower value to higher value uses was high and often precluded competition from emerging. At the other extreme, the Chicago School assumed that resource movement was nearly cost free and that long-term monopoly was rarely sustainable as a result. Transaction cost economics then emerged as a welcome and unifying compromise. Part III turns to barriers to entry or rival expansion, looking particularly at the differing definitions provided by Harvard and Chicago School economists and showing why the Harvard definition is superior for antitrust purposes today. That may not have been true in the 1960s when proposals for various forms of "no fault" monopolization were under serious consideration. Part IV discusses antitrust's two principal tests for welfare, total welfare and consumer welfare, and shows how they are related to our assumptions about the costs of movement. Consumer welfare tests generally reflect significant doubt that surpluses that accrue to producers from economies or otherwise will be passed on to consumers. Part V turns to practices, arguing first that we need to rethink current antitrust doctrine about refusal to deal in dominated networks, which are networks that both dominate the markets in which they operate and are themselves dominated by a single firm. Although their advantages are many, one important effect of networks is to magnify the costs of resource movement. Next this paper examines some problems of vertical integration and product complementarity, as well as the contributions that transaction cost analysis can provide in cases involving asset specificity and the possibility of double marginalization. We also examine some specific problems of pricing and vertical control, looking in particular at the wide range of theoretical attacks on and defenses of so-called loyalty discounts and bundled discounts. In particular, it faults policy making based on models with restrictive and sometimes idiosyncratic assumptions and untested conclusions.


This report describes an electrocardiograph (ECG) processor for use with a wearable healthcare system. It comprises an analog front end, a 12-bit ADC, a robust Instantaneous Heart Rate (IHR) monitor, a 32-bit Cortex-M0 core, and 64 Kbyte Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FeRAM). The IHR monitor uses a short-term autocorrelation (STAC) algorithm to improve the heart-rate detection accuracy despite its use in noisy conditions. The ECG processor chip consumes 13.7 μA for heart rate logging application.


In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and use of facts and the construction of legal arguments in response to indeterminate legal issues. Through actual legal work, they say, LRW teachers can achieve important secondary educational goals as well, including introducing students to a client-centered, problem-solving form of representation, professional responsibility issues (especially access-to-justice and pro bono issues), and critical analysis of law and justice systems. Engaging first-year students in actual legal work can bring real clients into the classroom, demonstrate to students that they can help others (and that they like doing so), and thereby reinforce their idealism. The authors say these are good refinements in the culture of traditional first-year legal education. Their proposal also would help individuals and community organizations obtain legal assistance they need to prevent and resolve legal problems. A LRW professor and students can provide representation that otherwise would not be provided. In the longer term, they argue that engaging students in law school in legal work on behalf of poor and underrepresented people and groups will encourage a number of them to provide legal services to similar clients in the future.


For the near future mobile network management is expected to be an intractable task. This is due to the coexistence of different radio access technologies, slice-specific Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, the combination of multiple conflicting goals in network functions, etc. In order to reduce the human interaction in that duty, Self-Organized Networks Functions (SF) are proposed to provide self-adaptation capabilities to mobile networks on different fronts: configuration, optimization and healing. Conventional design of these SFs was based on single objective optimization approaches where SFs were considered as standalone agents aiming at one very specific local objective. Therefore, inter-dependencies between SFs were somehow neglected, so when more than one function is acting on the network, conflicts are inevitable. A well-studied conflict happens when Mobility Load Balancing (MLB) and Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) functions are simultaneously set up: without coordination, performance degradation will happen because of the inter-dependencies between both SFs which rule the standard handover procedure. To cope with these underlying conflicts, we propose a new methodology to automatically derive the system's model, considering the dynamic of the selected SFs, to assist the network optimization task and to equip the network with self-management faculties.


In plants, long distance transport of sugars from photosynthetic source leaves to sink organs comprises
different crucial steps depending on the species and organ types. Sucrose, the main carbohydrate for long
distance transport is synthesized in the mesophyll and then loaded into the phloem. After long distance
transport through the phloem vessels, sucrose is finally unloaded towards sink organs. Alternatively, sugar
can also be transferred to non-plant sinks and plant colonization by heterotrophic organisms increases the
sink strength and creates an additional sugar demand for the host plant. These sugar fluxes are coordinated
by transport systems. Main sugar transporters in plants comprise sucrose (SUTs) and monosaccharide
(MSTs) transporters which constitute key components for carbon partitioning at the whole plant level and
in interactions with fungi. Although complete SUTs and MSTs gene families have been identified from the
reference Dicot Arabidopsis thaliana and Monocot rice (Oriza sativa), sugar transporter families of the
leguminous plant Medicago truncatula, which represents a widely used model for studying plant-fungal
interactions in arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), have not yet been investigated.
With the recent completion of the M. truncatula genome sequencing as well as the release of
transcriptomic databases, monosaccharide and sucrose transporter families of M. truncatula were identified
and now comprise 62 MtMSTs and 6 MtSUTs. I focused on the study of the newly identified MtSUTs at a
full family scale; phylogenetic analyses showed that the 6 members of the MtSUT family distributed in all
three Dicotyledonous SUT clades; they were named upon phylogenetic grouping into particular clades:
MtSUT1-1, MtSUT1-2, MtSUT1-3, MtSUT2, MtSUT4-1 and MtSUT4-2. Functional analyses by yeast
complementation and expression profiles obtained by quantitative RT-PCR revealed that MtSUT1-1 and
MtSUT4-1 are H+/sucrose symporters and represent key members of the MtSUT family. Conservation of
transport capacity between orthologous leguminous proteins, expression profiles and subcellular
localization compared to previously characterized plant SUTs indicate that MtSUT1-1 is the main protein
involved in phloem loading in source leaves whilst MtSUT4-1 mediates vacuolar sucrose export for
remobilization of intracellular reserve.
The AM symbiosis between plants and fungi from the phylum Glomeromycota is characterized by trophic
exchanges between the two partners. The fungus supplies the autotrophic host with nutrients and thereby
promotes plant growth. In return, the host plant provides photosynthate (sugars) to the heterotrophic
symbiont. Here, sugar fluxes from plant source leaves towards colonized sink roots in the association
between the model leguminous plant M. truncatula and the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) Glomus
intraradices were investigated. Sugar transporter candidates from both the plant and fungal partners
presenting differential expression profiles using available transcriptomic tools were pinpointed. Gene
expression profiles of MtSUTs and sugar quantification analyses upon high and low phosphorus nutrient
supply and inoculation by the AMF suggest a mycorrhiza-driven stronger sink in AM roots with a finetuning
regulation of MtSUT gene expression. Conserved regulation patterns were observed for orthologous
SUTs in response to colonization by glomeromycotan fungi.
In parallel, a non-targeted strategy consisting in the development of a M. truncatula - G. intraradices
expression library suitable for yeast functional complementation and screening of symbiotic marker genes,
similar to the approach that led to the identification of the first glomeromycotan hexose transporter
(GpMST1), has been developed in this study.
Taken together, with the identification, functional characterization and gene expression pattern of sugar
transporter families, a more complete picture of sugar fluxes in the AM symbiosis has begun to emerge.
This study opens new perspectives by identifying interesting candidate genes involved in sugar partitioning
at both the plant and fungal levels and at the symbiotic interface in the widely used AM symbiosis model
between M. truncatula and G. intraradices.


Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) is an acidic phospholipid that acts as a messenger to regulate the actin cytoskeleton. Rearrangements in the actin cytoskeleton are involved in cell motility and extension of cellular processes, such as filopodia, lamellapodia, and neurites. Three structurally unrelated proteins, GAP43, CAP23, and MARCKS, share several characteristics that suggest overlapping roles for these proteins in regulating actin dynamics through interactions with PIP2; thus, the name of pipmodulins has been proposed for this group of proteins. Laux et al. show that pipmodulins colocalize with PIP2 in lipid microdomains with characteristics of lipid rafts and control the size of the PIP2 microdomains. Through overexpression studies, the authors found that pipmodulins regulated the formation of neurites and filopodia in a process that depended on the presence of the basic effector domain that allows these proteins to bind PIP2. Laux et al. propose that pipmodulins regulate the accessibility of PIP2, thereby controlling the location and occurrence of cellular processes formed by interactions of the actin cytoskeleton with PIP2. Laux et al. and Frey et al. investigated the role of pipmodulins in vivo using transgenic mice during nerve regeneration. Dominant negative forms of GAP43 disrupted normal neuromuscular junction nerve regeneration. Frey et al. found that GAP43 could functionally substitute for CAP23 in knock in mice, further confirming that these structurally divergent proteins belong to the same functional family. Laux, T., Fukami, K., Thelen, M., Golub, T., Frey, D., and Caroni, P. (2000) GAP43, MARCKS, and CAP23 modulate PI(4,5)P2 at plasmalemmal rafts, and regulate cell cortex actin dynamics through a common mechanism. J. Cell Biol. 149: 1455-1471. [Abstract] [Full Text] Frey, D., Laux, T., Schneider, C., and Caroni, P. (2000) Shared and unique roles of CAP23 and GAP43 in actin regulation, neurite outgrowth, and anatomical plasticity. J. Cell Biol. 149: 1443-1453. [Abstract] [Full Text]


This paper uses a gravity model approach in order to analyse the geographical patterns of Irish exports. The gravity model in international trade has been demonstrated to be an extremely robust empirical method. The gravity model is first applied to aggregate Irish exports from 1980 to 2007. Distance is found to have a strong negative effect on exports. On the other hand, exports are positively related to sharing a common language and when communications infrastructure is well developed. The gravity model is shown to fit the data extremely well. We then use firm-level data on indigenous Irish exporters to divide the effects of trade costs into how they influence the number of firms exporting to each market and the average exports per firm. Finally the firm data is divided into four broad sectors to examine if there is any sectoral variation in the standard results.


The essay studies the contribution of Moriscos to Arabic studies. It concludes that the contributions of Moriscos in the Iberian peninsula remained modest. Some contributed actively to the knowledge of Arabic through their Arabic-Islamic learning. I show that the Mudejar convert known as Juan Andres, who wrote one of the most influential treatises against Islam, was indeed a canon of the cathedral of Granada. I briefly discuss the contribution of Moriscos to the translations and interpretations of the Lead Books and studied their post-expulsion contribution to Arabic and Islamic studies. The last part focuses on the Dutch Republic, where, as a result of historical circumstances and contingent factors such as personal relations, Moriscos played an important role. Here, in addition to the study of the Arabic language itself, the physical sciences played a noteworthy role. This, I suggest, can be connected to the broad scope of the emergence of Arabic studies in Europe, which incorporated both the physical sciences and religion and philosophy, and an interest in North Africa itself because of developments in the physical sciences, including their application in daily life.


Objective: This update is concerned on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that is affecting the globe. The aim of this update is to summarize the up-to-date knowledge about the virus, its way of transmission, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment.
Result: The COVID-19 is a public health threat affecting humankind currently after the emergence and spread of the novel coronavirus or the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus is believed to have originated from bats and transmitted to humans. Around 1.5 million peoples are confirmed to have the COVID-19 and more than 83000 individuals have died of it by April 8, 2020, all over the world. It is transmitted by inhaling or having contact with droplets. The incubation period ranges from 2-14 days. It manifests mainly with fever, non-productive cough, and dyspnea. The polymerase chain reaction from various samples like throat swabs, nasal swabs, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid is used to confirm the diagnosis. High-resolution chest computerized tomography is abnormal in most patients, and typical findings are ground glass patchy opacities on both lungs and sub-segmental consolidation. Treatment is largely supportive. However, trials are ongoing, and chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have got a lot of attention in the battle against COVID-19.


In this study, we investigated the equatorially antisymmetric features in the initiation processes of the Madden– Julian oscillation (MJO) event in late October during the cooperative Indian Ocean experiment on intraseasonal variability in the year 2011. This MJO event developed when the thermal equator was drastically shifted from the Northern Hemisphere to the equator from September to October as the Mascarene High over the southern Indian Ocean decayed and shifted southward. The large-scale fields of sea level pressure, temperature, and moisture around the MJO exhibited equatorially antisymmetric features. According to their different features in terms of surface convergence, temperature, and moisture, MJO convection over the Indian Ocean after its onset consisted of four distinct convective components: the southern intertropical convergence zone between 10°S and 0° along the meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients (s-ITCZ), the northern-ITCZ at the southern edge of the high SST above 29°C over the Bay of Bengal, the vortex disturbance over the Arabian Sea (VDAS) in association with the zonal SST gradients, and the westward-propagating diurnal convection originating from Sumatra. In particular, the double-ITCZ and VDAS were characterized by a steady, low-level convergence zone along the surface potential temperature gradients forced by the SST. Before the onset of the MJO convection, the double-ITCZ was characterized by cross-equatorial vertical circulation that was baroclinically tilted northward, and s-ITCZ convection was inhibited owing to the strong Mascarene High. After the onset, single, larger-scale upward motion was barotropically formed over the equator because of the equatorward shift of the double-ITCZ. Such changes in the equatorially antisymmetric meridional circulation are relevant for the organization of the MJO convection.


The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the effects of product recalls on shareholder wealth of manufacturing firms in different supply chains. Previous research examining this phenomenon is largely uni-sectorial and/or does not consider the interplay of hazard, recall strategy and sector. By utilizing the event study method, this study examines investors' reactions to key product recall characteristics: industry, recall strategy and hazard level, on a cross-industry sample of 296 product recall announcements. The results show a significant negative reaction of share values to product recalls and significant differences between industry type and hazard levels. More regulated and stringent supply chains, such as the automotive and pharmaceutical, showed statistically significant losses in share price. The results show that industry sector and level of hazard associated with defective products are significant factors impacting the shareholder wealth of manufacturing firms. Contrary to some studies, the impact of recall strategy was not confirmed, although proactive recall strategies led, in some cases, to an increase in share price. Further research would benefit from more detailed investigation of recall strategies on the value of companies in specific sectors, particularly ones which are susceptible to frequent and costly product recalls.


The first systematic test for a predictive relationship between organic carbon content and stratigraphic hierarchy in a deep-water slope to basin-floor deposit was performed. The studied section includes the Pipeline Shale, the Brushy Canyon Formation, and the lower part of the Cherry Canyon Formation of the Delaware Mountain Group, West Texas. This interval represents one large-scale, 3rd-order genetic sequence within which 4th- and 5th-order stratigraphic cycles are recognized. Samples of fine-grained facies throughout the section were collected from outcrop and analyzed for organic carbon content and hydrogen index. Degree of pyritization was also determined for a subset of the samples. The results indicate that organic enrichment is closely correlated to the stratigraphic hierarchy at the 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-order levels. The data suggest that quantity and quality of preserved organic matter are controlled by changes in bulk sedimentation rate (dilution vs. condensation), which affect organic matter inputs to the sediment, as well as the balance between (1) burial and preservation of organic matter and (2) its degradation on the sea floor during times of sediment starvation.


We present the transmission spectrum of HAT-P-12b through a joint analysis of data obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and Wide Field Camera 3 and Spitzer, covering the wavelength range 0.3–5.0 μm. We detect a muted water vapor absorption feature at 1.4 μm attenuated by clouds, as well as a Rayleigh scattering slope in the optical indicative of small particles. We interpret the transmission spectrum using both the state-of-the-art atmospheric retrieval code SCARLET and the aerosol microphysics model CARMA. These models indicate that the atmosphere of HAT-P-12b is consistent with a broad range of metallicities between several tens to a few hundred times solar, a roughly solar C/O ratio, and moderately efficient vertical mixing. Cloud models that include condensate clouds do not readily generate the submicron particles necessary to reproduce the observed Rayleigh scattering slope, while models that incorporate photochemical hazes composed of soot or tholins are able to match the full transmission spectrum. From a complementary analysis of secondary eclipses by Spitzer, we obtain measured depths of 0.042% ± 0.013% and 0.045% ± 0.018% at 3.6 and 4.5 μm, respectively, which are consistent with a blackbody temperature of 890+60 −70 K and indicate efficient day–night heat recirculation. HAT-P-12b joins the growing number of well-characterized warm planets that underscore the importance of clouds and hazes in our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres.


Producing enough food, fiber, and fuel, in this case, the second most important global crop called rice, remains a continuing challenge as global population increases and various production constraints ensue. Plant breeding scientists prefer using elite rice lines but also infuse new genetic resources into the parental genepool for desirable traits, such as resistance to pests and diseases, good flavor, and high nutritional quality on top of high-yielding potential. Prior research studies reveal the importance of germplasm resources including wild rice relatives as excellent sources of desirable traits in new crop breeds. Advances in molecular and genomics approaches (QTLs, GWAS, OMICs technologies) have identified and transferred genes, genomes, loci among other important genetic materials that are sought for. As knowledge builds up with these biotechniques, more rice genetic resources can be characterized at the molecular and systems levels for further utility in breeding better cultivars. Information generated from innovative approaches must be documented and processed as germplasm characterization data and must remain accessible at genebanks that exist centrally to conserve biodiversity. Development of germplasm information should be a collaborative effort of scientists who share similar interests in exploiting the valuable and novel genes within germplasm resources that are essential for crop improvement.


Firms' labor demand responses to wage changes are of key interest in empirical research and policy analysis. However, despite extensive research, estimates of labor demand elasticities remain subject to considerable heterogeneity. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive meta-regression analysis to re-assess the empirical literature on labor demand elasticities. Building on 942 elasticity estimates from 105 different studies, we identify sources of variation in the absolute value of this elasticity. Heterogeneity due to the theoretical and empirical specification of the labor demand model, different datasets used or sectors and countries considered explains more than 80% of the variation in the estimates. We further find substantial evidence for the presence of publication selection bias, as estimates of the own-wage elasticity of labor demand are upwardly inflated.


Online social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have experienced exponential growth in recent years. These OSNs offer attractive means of online social interactions and communications, but also raise privacy and security concerns. In this article we discuss the design issues for the security and privacy of OSNs. We find there are inherent design conflicts between these and the traditional design goals of OSNs such as usability and sociability. We present the unique security and privacy design challenges brought by the core functionalities of OSNs and highlight some opportunities of utilizing social network theory to mitigate these design conflicts.


The inter-organizational learning approach has shown considerable growth in recent years. The concepts of trust and cooperation between individuals present in the New Economic Sociology (NES) approach of social relations emerge with great emphasis and are gaining prominence as a facilitator and propellant mechanism in transferring knowledge inside networks. This study aims to analyze the learning networks formed by fish-farmers organized into a cooperative to identify the characteristics of the network through structural analysis and identification of its critical actors. The study was performed with thirteen fish-farmers of a cooperative headquartered inMundo Novocounty, which is located inMato Grosso do Sulstate in the Midwest region of Brazil. Questionnaires and interviews with closed and open questions were used to collect the data. Measures of centrality (for individuals), density and reciprocity (in relations between individuals) were obtained from ORA software. The findings revealed that experience exchanges between fish-farmers, events participation, meetings attendance, speech audience and technical advice are the main forms of inter-organizational learning. Results suggest that the network has low levels of cohesion and that it is not taking advantage of its full potential. It was also found that there is a subgroup within the network that presents a high level of cohesion and shared learning based on cooperative informal relationships. Grounded in findings, suggestions for future research are presented.


Femtosecond (fs) laser pulse ablation (pulse duration of 150 fs, wavelength of 775 nm, repetition rate of 1 kHz) of single-crystalline TeO2 surfaces was performed in air using the direct focusing technique. The lateral and vertical dimensions of laser ablated craters as well as the laser damage thresholds were evaluated for different pulse numbers applied to the same spot. The joint observation using optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy revealed the surface morphology of the ablated craters and also showed that the ablation threshold depends significantly on the number of laser pulses applied to the same spot due to incubation effects. The incubation effects change the absorption processes involved in fs-laser ablation of the transparent material from multiphoton absorption to a single-photon absorption. These results are discussed on the basis of recent models of the interaction of fs-laser pulses with dielectrics.


Obesity and overweight in children, issues becoming more common in recent decades, are some of the biggest health challenges in the paediatric population. The action for a long time, in childhood, of the various risk factors can cause the development of childhood obesity. Recent advances in scientific research have revealed factors mediators between diet, energy metabolism of the host and obese phenotype - namely to suggest that indigenous gut microbiota (microbial flora of the gut) is not only influenced by diet, but plays a causative role in the development of obesity. Obese people have significant differences in the composition of the intestinal microbial flora compared to normal weight subjects, namely it has been observed that obesity is associated with an increase of bacteria in the Firmicutes phylum of bacteria and a decrease of the Bacteroidetes. In the last decade, risk factors of obesity less common as the use of antibiotics and infections in infancy, but also the inflammatory nature of obesity are widely studied and known issues. One of the unexpected effects of antibiotics has been their ability to favourably influence the growth potential. This phenomenon was observed for the first time in animals (1950), when subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics have been widely used as growth factors for farmed animals. Experimental models in animals were performed and an increase of the fatty tissue mass was observed, associated with the use of antibiotics; the assumption was that this is due to changes in the composition of the intestinal microbial flora. Epidemiological studies have provided evidence indicating that early (even prenatal) or repeated later in childhood exposure to antibiotics is associated with an increased risk of excess weight. The results of some studies have shown that antibiotics at the age of six months or repeatedly during childhood has a greater effect on increasing the body weight and height in healthy children aged 24 months and usually more pronounced in boys. In the last decades it has been reported a number of adipogenic pathogens, including human and non-human viruses, bacteria and micro-organisms of the intestinal flora. Studies are needed still to clarify whether the antibiotics or the infections for which antibiotics were prescribed, or these factors together play a causative role in the development of obesity in children. Childhood obesity can have serious health consequences for the child and the future adult (ex.: type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer etc.), which is why it is necessary in the public health policies establishing a strategy to prevent and control infections and the proper use of antibiotics during childhood.


"The focus of this book is to provide the reader with detailed information on the various aspects of SAP Process Integration (formerly known as SAP Exchange Infrastructure). The chapters are organized into different sections covering specifics around Adapters, ABAP and Java Developments, Business Process Management, Security and other aspects of SAP XI/PI. The book takes the reader through all major releases of XI/PI (XI 3.0. PI 7.0, PI 7.1) and also includes articles on the latest Enhancement Package (EHP1) for PI 7.1. You will find this covered in comprehensive detail, from basic development steps to XI/PI Server administration, addressing both performance enhancement and offering permanent fixes to common issues. We have compiled a collection of some of our best articles here that can be used as quick references or how to guides, as well as tips and tricks for dealing with common issues and solutions in real time Integration projects using SAP XI/PI." This book is the definitive resource in SAP Process Integration that no SAP professional should be without.


Making appropriate evaluations of rule-breakers requires not only knowledge of the rule in question, but also an understanding of the intent behind the given rule. In many cases, it can be acceptable to break a rule (the strict "letter of a rule") if this does not violate the reason the rule was created (the "spirit of the rule"). Making these distinctions is critical for a developed normative understanding of rules, yet there has been little work that has examined when children develop this ability. While there has been a wealth of research on children's understanding of rules and the intentions of rule-beakers, no one has examined their understanding of the intentions behind rules—the spirit of the rule. Here, we investigate if and when children begin to believe that it is less wrong to violate the letter of a rule if one does not violate the rule's spirit. Participants (N = 240, 4- to 10-year-olds) were asked to evaluate a rule-breaker either who violated the letter of a rule, but not the spirit or who violated the letter and spirit of a rule. We find that, all children recognized the rule had technically been broken in both cases, but they were much less likely to make negative evaluations of someone for violating a rule if they only broke the letter of the rule, without violating the spirit of the rule. We also find that children increasingly differentiate between violations of the letter of a rule and violations of the spirit of a rule as they mature. We discuss how these studies provide insight into children's early normative understanding.


In the current economic uncertainty ethnographic consultants are asked to intensify their client focus and to demonstrate and improve the relevancy and impact of their work. This paper reports on a case of close collaboration between client and consultant during an ethnographic consulting project. It discusses three crucial challenges: the challenge of aligning expectations and clarifying roles, the challenge of cultural differences and confusion over ethnographic methods, and the challenge of finding the right rhythm between close interaction and useful separation. Written from both the consultant and the client perspective we describe how similar situations were experienced differently by both parties, analyse what underlies some of these tensions, and suggest some lessons for ethnographers and clients alike for future close encounters. The paper suggests that the central challenge lies in finding the right balance between client-emic and client-etic positions and in inviting clients into the process of doing consulting 'magic'.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies in the Western world. It is a heterogeneous disease that begins from a benign polyp and progresses to invasive carcinoma via at least three distinct pathways. Prognosis of newly diagnosed cases mainly relies on the Dukes' classification system, yet the 5-year survival rate of patients with CRC varies from 90% to 10% with tumour progression. The pursuit of biomarkers that can accurately predict patient prognosis has intensified in recent years. In our laboratory, we have previously shown that positive lamin A/C expression is a potential risk biomarker in CRC. Subsequent downstream investigations revealed that CRC cells overexpressing lamin A were significantly more motile compared to their GFP-only counterparts. This increase in motility was, in part, due to upregulation of the actin-bundling protein T-plastin (encoded by the PLS3 gene). The main aims of this thesis were to investigate PLS3 promoter methylation and plastin expression in CRC, using a combination of both epigenetic and immunohistochemical approaches. PLS3 promoter methylation was studied in CRC cell lines and a large cohort of CRC patients from the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer (NLCS) tissue archive. T-plastin expression was supressed because of promoter methylation and its expression was restored upon treatment with the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2'deoxycitidine (p = 0.01; p = 0.05). Furthermore, T-plastin was methylated in ~50% of CRC patients but methylation status did not provide any prognostic value. However, there was an association between both methylation status and sex (p = 0.01) and methylation status and tumour location (p = 0.05). The expression of plastin proteins in CRC was studied by raising polyclonal antibodies against two plastin isoforms and determining their specificity using immunoblotting and peptide inhibition assays. The most promising antibody, Dann1a, was used to analyse the expression of plastin by immunohistochemistry, using patient sections obtained from the NLCS archive. Strikingly, plastin was absent from normal colonic mucosa but was aberrantly expressed in 80% of CRC patients and was frequently observed at the invasive front of the tumour. Finally, we identified and validated a candidate gene network using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, based on the over expression of GFP-lamin A in CRC cells. This data suggests that lamin A is a master regulator of a pathway linked to cancer and cell motility. These studies will stimulate further studies into the role of specific plastins in epithelial cancers and provide a framework for the development of novel drugable targets for treatment of CRC.


OBJECTIVE--To determine the prevalence and severity of acne among schoolchildren in Glasgow. DESIGN--Secondary schools in Glasgow were divided by postcode into five socioeconomic cluster groups. Different numbers of schools were selected at random from the five groups to ensure proportional representation. One class from each registration year of the chosen schools was selected at random and the whole class recruited into the study. SETTING--15 Secondary schools in Glasgow. SUBJECTS--2014 Randomly selected schoolchildren aged 12-17 (5% of total secondary school roll). INTERVENTIONS--None. END POINT--Assessment of facial acne by two independent examiners by a recognised acne scoring system. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS--The prevalence of acne in boys increased from 40% (75/189) at age 12 to 95% (108/114) at age 16, and in girls it increased from 61% (114/187) at age 12 to 83% (136/164) at age 16. On a scale of 0 to 10 only 18 boys (1.8%) and three girls (0.3%) had grades of acne of 1.0 or greater; most of the pupils had grade 0.05-0.375 (minimal) acne. Nine per cent of boys (88/973) and 14% of girls (145/1041) had visited their general practitioner specifically for advice on and treatment for acne; only five pupils (0.3%) had been referred to a dermatologist. CONCLUSIONS--Both the prevalence and severity of acne have decreased over the past 20 years. This has probably been due to improvement of treatment for acne by primary care doctors and the greater availability and use of over the counter preparations for acne.


The purpose of this study was to explore the use of a cognitive computer tool by undergraduate calculus students as they worked cooperatively on mathematical tasks. Specific attention was given to levels of cognitive demand in which the students were engaged as they completed in-class labs with the assistance of MathCAD. Participants were assigned to eight heterogeneous working groups consisting of four students each. One group was chosen as the focus of the case study. Data included student questionnaires, individual interviews, assignments, audio transcriptions of student discussions, and video recordings. Open and axial coding was used to analyze the data. Participants believed that the use of MathCAD allowed them to explore mathematics, spend more time on interpreting results, and focus on understanding. The cognitive computer tool reduced the reliance on low-level thinking skills and allowed for creativity in problem solving, permitting students to move toward high levels of thinking.


SUMMARY: The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which client‐prepared internal control documentation and business process flowcharts affect auditors' ability to detect missing internal controls. A total of 395 experienced auditors participated in a two (internal control matrix: blank or client‐prepared) by two (business process flowchart: absent or present) between‐participants experiment. The research findings indicate that auditors who were supplied with a blank internal control matrix and a business process flowchart identified significantly more missing controls relative to the three other treatment conditions, among which there were no differences in the number of identified missing controls. The results indicate that when auditors are evaluating the effectiveness of a client's internal control system for a significant business process, they should be provided with a flowchart of the business process under examination and complete their internal control design evaluation before reading...


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More than 40 million of California's 100 million acres are rangelands. The forest, grassland, and rangeland environments comprise about two-thirds of the land area of the state, and more than 50 million acres are grazed. The desert saltbush, an abundant, shrubby inhabitant of some of California's driest, saltiest rangelands, is one of many salt-tolerant shrubs, trees, and grasses that have become increasingly valuable as resources for arid and saline lands. These salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) provide forage for livestock and wildlife in range-lands throughout the West. Furthermore, many have been shown to be adaptable to genetic manipulation by selection or breeding.


Patent laws are different in many countries, and inventors are sometimes at a loss to understand which basic requirements should be satisfied if an invention is to be granted a patent. This is particularly true for inventions implemented on a computer. While roughly a third of all applications (and granted patents) relate, in one way or another, to a computer, applications where the innovation mainly resides in software or in a business method are treated differently by the major patent offices in the US (USPTO), Japan (JPO), and Europe (EPO). The authors start with a thorough introduction into patent laws and practices, as well as in related intellectual property rights, which also explains the procedures at the USPTO, JPO and EPO and, in particular, the peculiarities in the treatment of applications centering on software or computers. Based on this theoretical description, next they present in a very structured way a huge set of case studies from different areas like business methods, databases, graphical user interfaces, digital rights management, and many more. Each set starts with a rather short description and claim of the "invention", then explains the arguments a legal examiner will probably have, and eventually refines the description step by step, until all the reservations are resolved. All of these case studies are based on real-world examples, and will thus give an inexperienced developer an idea about the required level of detail and description he will have to provide. Together, Closa, Gardiner, Giemsa and Machek have more than 70 years experience in the patent business. With their academic background in physics, electronic engineering, and computer science, they know about both the legal and the subject-based subtleties of computer-based inventions. With this book, they provide a guide to a patent examiners way of thinking in a clear and systematic manner, helping to prepare the first steps towards a successful patent application.


Birds that nest in cavities may regulate nest microclimate by orienting their nest entrance relative to the sun or prevailing winds. Alternatively, birds may orient their nest entrance relative to conspecific individuals around them, especially if the acoustic properties of cavities permit nesting birds to better hear individuals in front of their nest. We measured the cavity entrance orientation of 132 nests and 234 excavations in a colour-banded population of black-capped chickadees Poecile atricapillus for which the reproductive behaviour of nesting females was known. Most chickadees excavated cavities in rotten birch Betula papyrifera, aspen Populus tremuloides and maple Acer saccharum. Nest cavities showed random compass orientation around 360° demonstrating that chickadees do not orient their cavities relative to the sun or prevailing winds. We also presented chickadees with nest boxes arranged in groups of four, oriented at 90° intervals around the same tree. Nests constructed in these nest box quartets also showed random compass orientation. To test the acoustic properties of nest cavities, we conducted a sound transmission experiment using a microphone mounted inside a chickadee nest. Re-recorded songs demonstrate that chickadee nest cavities have directional acoustic properties; songs recorded with the cavity entrance oriented towards the loudspeaker were louder than songs recorded with the cavity entrance oriented away from the loudspeaker. Thus, female chickadees, who roost inside their nest cavity in the early morning during their fertile period, should be better able to hear males singing the dawn chorus in front of their nest cavity. Using GIS analyses we tested for angular-angular correlation between actual nest cavity orientation and the azimuth from the nest tree to the territories and nest cavities of nearby males. In general, nest cavity entrances showed no angular-angular correlation with neighbourhood territory features. However, among birds who followed a mixed reproductive strategy and nested in the soft wood of birch and aspen trees, nest cavity entrances were oriented towards their extra-pair partners. We conclude that nest cavity orientation in birds may be influenced by both ecological and social factors.


This study was carried out to reveal the present status of goat farms in Nigde, to detect basic priority problems and to offer some solutions to these problems. For this purpose, a survey was conducted to the goat breeders face to face in randomly selected total 38 goat farms.The survey questions; goat farms and growing core business activities of enterprises that reveals the overall structure, and also the level of satisfaction with the priority issues of breeders are designed to measure. Analyze the results was shown that a large portion of goat breeders (85.0%) were primary school graduates, 5.3%secondery school and also 5.3% high school graduates, goat farms have whole hair goat breed. Goat enterprises have rate of 44.7%, more than 500 goat, 92.1% of goat enterprises go out to highlands, also provided 73.7% of the shepherd's family. In addition, operating revenues were determined come from 50% of goat's milk. Goat breeders were evaluated only 39.5% the form of cheese production, as 60.5% of the cheese, butter, yogurt, and the sale of raw milk of the total milk yield. All business was assessed that owners a profitable goat farming as an occupation and the first five main problems were member alliance, ownership sufficient technical knowledge, serving the technical staff, buck mating and breeding presses, goat shelter, respectively. In addition, it was seen that according to Likert scale, at least the first five issues were satisfied that such as feed, labor, and electricity inputs, product marketing price, sold animals the price, market opportunities related to the sale of manufactured products and finacial supply, respectively. As a result, it could be said that the most important problem for goat enterprises in Nigde province is high production costs and low product prices.


The nature of the bending elasticity of monolayer membranes was studied by the use of the free energy model, in which the energy of the surface dilations of head, chain, and intermediate surface of the molecule was assumed. The intermediate surface was introduced to reproduce the frustrated internal stresses within individual molecules. Under given curvatures, the area of the neutral surface and its position were determined so as to minimize the free energy. We have shown that there exists a neutral surface where the saddle bending modulus becomes zero when the intermediate part does not exist. This result is due to the fact that the free energy does not possess any term that is resistant to shear and it represents the liquid phase of membranes. For frustrated membranes with the intermediate surface, saddle bending moduli of finite values, but much smaller than the cylindrical modulus in magnitude, were obtained, the sign of which is either positive or negative depending on the spontaneous area and the position of the intermediate surface.


As solar photovoltaic power generation becomes more commonplace, the inherent intermittency of the solar resource poses one of the great challenges to those who would design and implement the next generation smart grid. Specifically, grid-tied solar power generation is a distributed resource whose output can change extremely rapidly, resulting in many issues for the distribution system operator with a large quantity of installed photovoltaic devices. Battery energy storage systems are increasingly being used to help integrate solar power into the grid. These systems are capable of absorbing and delivering both real and reactive power with sub-second response times. With these capabilities, battery energy storage systems can mitigate such issues with solar power generation as ramp rate, frequency, and voltage issues. Beyond these applications focusing on system stability, energy storage control systems can also be integrated with energy markets to make the solar resource more economical. Providing a high-level introduction to this application area, this paper presents an overview of the challenges of integrating solar power to the electricity distribution system, a technical overview of battery energy storage systems, and illustrates a variety of modes of operation for battery energy storage systems in grid-tied solar applications. The real-time control modes discussed include ramp rate control, frequency droop response, power factor correction, solar time-shifting, and output leveling.


One of the challenges for historical biographers is to decide how far it is appropriate or legitimate to try to psychoanalyse their subject. On the face of it, such analysis might seem an obvious part of the biographical enterprise in a twentieth-century context. We are all heirs to the revolution in thought brought about by Freud's discovery of the unconscious in the nineteenth century, since when it has become commonplace that beneath people's conscious thoughts and statements lie deeper, more fundamental drives and motives, of which they are not aware and which are not under their conscious control. Indeed, speculation about such subconscious desires and impulses is normal in day-to-day conversation: this reflects and is reflected by the fact that words that originated as technical, psychoanalytical terms have become part of the general language, such as 'neurotic', 'paranoid', or even 'death wish' and 'Oedipus complex'.


Youngia japonica, a weed species distributed worldwide, has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is an ideal plant for studying the evolution of Asteraceae plants because of its short life history and abundant source. However, little is known about its evolution and genetic diversity. In this study, de novo transcriptome sequencing was conducted for the first time for the comprehensive analysis of the genetic diversity of Y. japonica. The Y. japonica transcriptome was sequenced using Illumina paired-end sequencing technology. We produced 21,847,909 high-quality reads for Y. japonica and assembled them into contigs. A total of 51,850 unigenes were identified, among which 46,087 were annotated in the NCBI non-redundant protein database and 41,752 were annotated in the Swiss-Prot database. We mapped 9,125 unigenes onto 163 pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway database. In addition, 3,648 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were detected. Our data provide the most comprehensive transcriptome resource currently available for Y. japonica. C4 photosynthesis unigenes were found in the biological process of Y. japonica. There were 5596 unigenes related to defense response and 1344 ungienes related to signal transduction mechanisms (10.95%). These data provide insights into the genetic diversity of Y. japonica. Numerous SSRs contributed to the development of novel markers. These data may serve as a new valuable resource for genomic studies on Youngia and, more generally, Cichoraceae.


In this paper, we discuss preverbal vocalic segments in interrogative and declarative sentences. Their distribution depends on the type of subject (1sg, 1pl, 2pl vs 2sg, 3sg, 3pl), the presence of other preverbal clitics, and the verb tense (present vs present perfect). We show that two different types of preverbal vocalic segments should be differentiated: an 'interrogative vowel' (in main wh-questions) and a 'subject field vowel' (in embedded whquestions and in declarative sentences). The two vowels realize different heads of the clausal skeleton (in the CP and the IP layer, respectively), can be found in one and the same dialect, and can co-occur in one and the same clause. Both types of vowels appear to be incompatible with other preverbal clitics in some contexts, and the presence/absence of the preverbal vowel in sentences with auxiliaries is predictable based on the quality of the auxiliary-initial segment (consonant vs vowel).


It is with deep sadness that we share the news that Vincent Newey, our colleague, friend and a co-founder of the British Association for Romantic Studies has passed away. Born and raised in the West Midlands town of Dudley, at the heart of what is still known as the Black Country, Professor Vincent Newey attended Dudley Grammar School before going up to New College, Oxford, to study English in 1962. Graduating with a First-Class Honours degree in English Language and Literature in 1965, he accepted a Junior Lectureship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and won a postgraduate scholarship at New College, before taking the post of Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Liverpool in 1967. Vince remained at Liverpool for 22 years, being promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1982, and serving as Head of Department from 1985 to 1989. It was at Liverpool that he completed his BLitt 'A Critical Examination of the Poetry of William Cowper' (Oxon, 1971) and, later, his PhD, 'A Critical Examination of the Literature of Selfhood and Subjective Experience' (1985), based on the work he had by then published. An effective administrator as well as highly respected teacher and scholar, in 1989 Vince was appointed Professor of English at the University of Leicester, leading the Department as Head from 1991 to 2000. At Leicester Vince garnered the respect of colleagues across the University. During his time as Head of English Vince oversaw a sizeable expansion of the Department and took a leading role in two successful Research Assessment Exercises (1992 and 1996). A keen advocate for the study of English, Vince threw himself into a range of professional activities: he was instrumental in the formation of BARS and worked tirelessly as a Fellow of the English Association. Despite his considerable administrative duties Vince continued to teach undergraduates and postgraduates, many of whom would be inspired to pursue careers of their own as teachers of English in UK and international universities. Former students remember Vince as 'warm and approachable', 'an absolute gent', 'good at opening minds', 'a generous supervisor and mentor', and 'a lovely, warm and inclusive tutor'. The word 'kind' comes up frequently in the recollections of colleagues as well as students. Vince was an outstanding literary critic whose specialisms encompassed the poetry of the pre-Romantic and Romantic periods (Cowper, Gray, and Goldsmith, as well as Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, and Byron) alongside the novels of several nineteenth-century writers (Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, and 'Mark Rutherford'). Together with two monographs – Cowper's Poetry: A Critical Study and Reassessment (Liverpool University Press, 1982), and The Scriptures of Charles Dickens: Novels of Ideology, Novels of the Self (Ashgate, 2004) – he also published Centring the Self: Subjectivity, Society and Reading from Thomas Gray to Thomas Hardy (Scolar Press, 1995). He edited numerous collections of essays, including the ground-breaking volume The Pilgrim's Progress: Critical and Historical Views (Liverpool University Press, 1980), Bunyan being another writer on whom Vince contributed some exceptional work.  Although he took early retirement in 2006, due to ill health, Vince continued to work alongside Joanne Shattock as a General Editor of the prestigious Ashgate/Routledge 'The Nineteenth Century' series (1994 to present), and as editor-in-chief for The Cowper and Newton Journal . He also continued to write, publishing some remarkable articles and essays over the last few years (on Cowper and Bunyan, among other subjects).  Every piece Vince published presents a master-class in the art of literary criticism, and displays the hallmarks of his enviable style: one that combines acute insight and sensitivity to language and form with an ambitious intellectual vision, all shaped by a delicate yet robust prose crafted to convey something profoundly engaging and formidably perceptive. Bringing all of his gifts as a critic to his lectures and his teaching, he both inspired and supported his students, encouraging them always to take 'the calculated intellectual risk': in that way, we 'further the subject', as he put it.  A collection of essays, Literature and Authenticity, 1780–1900 , was published in Vince's honour in 2011, with contributions from many of his former colleagues in English at Liverpool and Leicester. The 'Afterword' of this volume pays full tribute to Vince's career, and to his strengths as a reader, teacher, critic, colleague, and friend.  Vince passed away on Saturday 16 May, aged 76.  He is survived by his wife Sue, and their two sons, Matthew and Nathan. He will be missed.


A search is presented for the production of both first- and second-generation scalar leptoquarks with a final state of either two electrons and one jet or two muons and one jet. The search is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energy s√=8  TeV recorded with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6  fb^−1. Upper limits are set on both the first- and second-generation leptoquark production cross sections as functions of the leptoquark mass and the leptoquark couplings to a lepton and a quark. Results are compared with theoretical predictions to obtain lower limits on the leptoquark mass. At 95% confidence level, single production of first-generation leptoquarks with a coupling and branching fraction of 1.0 is excluded for masses below 1730 GeV, and second-generation leptoquarks with a coupling and branching fraction of 1.0 is excluded for masses below 530 GeV. These are the best overall limits on the production of first-generation leptoquarks to date.


In this dissertation, we focus on two research topics related to mixture models. The first topic is "Adaptive Rejection Metropolis Simulated Annealing for Detecting Global Maximum Regions", and the second topic is "Bayesian Model Selection for Nonlinear Mixed Effects Model". In the first topic, we consider a finite mixture model, which is used to fit the data from heterogeneous populations for many applications. An Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) are two popular methods to estimate parameters in a finite mixture model. However, both of the methods may converge to local maximum regions rather than the global maximum when multiple local maxima exist. In this dissertation, we propose a new approach, Adaptive Rejection Metropolis Simulated Annealing (ARMS annealing), to improve the EM algorithm and MCMC methods. Combining simulated annealing (SA) and adaptive rejection metropolis sampling (ARMS), ARMS annealing generate a set of proper starting points which help to reach all possible modes. ARMS uses a piecewise linear envelope function for a proposal distribution. Under the SA framework, we start with a set of proposal distributions, which are constructed by ARMS. This method finds a set of proper starting points, which help to detect separate modes. We refer to this approach as ARMS annealing. By combining together ARMS annealing with the EM algorithm and with the Bayesian approach, respectively, we have proposed two approaches: an EM ARMS annealing algorithm and a Bayesian ARMS annealing approach. EM ARMS annealing implement the EM algorithm by using a set of starting points proposed by ARMS annealing. ARMS annealing also helps MCMC approaches determine starting points. Both approaches capture the global maximum region and estimate the parameters accurately. An illustrative example uses a survey data on the number of charitable donations. The second topic is related to the nonlinear mixed effects model (NLME). Typically a parametric NLME model requires strong assumptions which make the model less flexible and often are not satisfied in real applications. To allow the NLME model to have more flexible assumptions, we present three semiparametric Bayesian NLME models, constructed with Dirichlet process (DP) priors. Dirichlet process models often refer to an infinite mixture model. We propose a unified approach, the penalized posterior Bayes factor, for the purpose of model comparison. Using simulation studies, we compare the performance of two of the three semiparametric hierarchical Bayesian approaches with that of the parametric Bayesian approach. Simulation results suggest that our penalized posterior Bayes factor is a robust method for comparing hierarchical parametric and semiparametric models. An application to gastric emptying studies is used to demonstrate the advantage of our estimation and evaluation approaches.


Abstract. Mean sea level (MSL) is a prominent indicator of climatic change (Ablain et al., 2015; Cazenave et al., 2014; Leuliette and Willis, 2011), and is therefore of great scientific and societal interest. Since the beginning of the altimeter mission TOPEX/Poseidon, followed by Jason-1 and Jason-2 on similar orbits, and many other missions on different orbits (ERS, EnviSat, etc.), MSL products became essential to the comprehension of Global ocean circulation. Since early in the TOPEX/Poseidon mission (Nerem, 1995) a suspicious signal, having period near 59 days and amplitude of roughly 5 mm, was apparent in the GMSL record. Compared with the 4–5 mm amplitude of the annual signal (Minster et al., 1999), the suspicious 59-day signal has understandably attracted attention. Moreover, the same signal has been subsequently detected in Jason-1 and later Jason-2 MSLs. In 2010, it was the subject of a dedicated session at the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST) meeting in Lisbon. The conclusions were this signal is the aliasing of a higher frequency error inherited from the tide model correction: the semi-diurnal wave S2. The source of this error was mainly attributed to TOPEX measurements which are assimilated in ocean tide models. When these models are used in the computation of TOPEX/Poseidon MSL, most of the error cancels. However, this error is communicated to Jason-1 and Jason-2 MSLs. Since 2010, considerable efforts have been undertaken within the ocean tide community in order to correct ocean tide S2-waves from this error, particularly in the Goddard Ocean Tide (GOT) and Finite Element Solution (FES) latest versions. The present paper aims at assessing, quantifying and characterizing the reduction of the 58.77-day error thanks to the latest releases.


Mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB is a paediatric lysosomal storage disease caused by deficiency of the enzyme α-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU), involved in the degradation of the glycosaminoglycan heparan sulphate. Absence of NAGLU leads to accumulation of partially degraded heparan sulphate within lysosomes and the extracellular matrix, giving rise to severe CNS degeneration with progressive cognitive impairment and behavioural problems. There are no therapies. Haematopoietic stem cell transplant shows great efficacy in the related disease mucopolysaccharidosis I, where donor-derived monocytes can transmigrate into the brain following bone marrow engraftment, secrete the missing enzyme and cross-correct neighbouring cells. However, little neurological correction is achieved in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB. We have therefore developed an ex vivo haematopoietic stem cell gene therapy approach in a mouse model of mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB, using a high-titre lentiviral vector and the myeloid-specific CD11b promoter, driving the expression of NAGLU (LV.NAGLU). To understand the mechanism of correction we also compared this with a poorly secreted version of NAGLU containing a C-terminal fusion to IGFII (LV.NAGLU-IGFII). Mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB haematopoietic stem cells were transduced with vector, transplanted into myeloablated mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB mice and compared at 8 months of age with mice receiving a wild-type transplant. As the disease is characterized by increased inflammation, we also tested the anti-inflammatory steroidal agent prednisolone alone, or in combination with LV.NAGLU, to understand the importance of inflammation on behaviour. NAGLU enzyme was substantially increased in the brain of LV.NAGLU and LV.NAGLU-IGFII-treated mice, with little expression in wild-type bone marrow transplanted mice. LV.NAGLU treatment led to behavioural correction, normalization of heparan sulphate and sulphation patterning, reduced inflammatory cytokine expression and correction of astrocytosis, microgliosis and lysosomal compartment size throughout the brain. The addition of prednisolone improved inflammatory aspects further. Substantial correction of lysosomal storage in neurons and astrocytes was also achieved in LV.NAGLU-IGFII-treated mice, despite limited enzyme secretion from engrafted macrophages in the brain. Interestingly both wild-type bone marrow transplant and prednisolone treatment alone corrected behaviour, despite having little effect on brain neuropathology. This was attributed to a decrease in peripheral inflammatory cytokines. Here we show significant neurological disease correction is achieved using haematopoietic stem cell gene therapy, suggesting this therapy alone or in combination with anti-inflammatories may improve neurological function in patients.


Raspberry is a berry crop of great economic importance, and its cultivation has expanded worldwide. Information on the genetic parameters of raspberry for use in breeding programs is currently limited. We used Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) and Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) to estimate variance components and predict genetic parameters for morphological, phytochemical, and mineral components in primocane-fruiting raspberries in southern Brazil. The experimental design was randomized blocks in a factorial scheme, with two production cycles (fall and spring) x three cultivars ('Alemãzinha', 'Heritage' and, 'Fallgold'), with eight replicates. A total of 27 traits were evaluated, out of which only the traits beginning of fruit harvest, plant height, dry mass of pruning, average fruit weight, total phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, antioxidant activity, Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, and titratable acidity showed significant differences. The anthocyanins presented 87% of broad sense heritability, and this high value indicates that this trait can be improved through selection. Plant height, fruit weight, total phenolic compounds, Mg and Fe had moderate broad sense heritability (46, 58, 58, 51, and 66%, respectively); and the traits beginning of fruit harvest, dry mass of


An algorithm for a wearable prototype digital hearing aid processor will be described. The algorithm enables the hearing aid wearer to better utilize their binaural directional hearing ability. Fitting of the algorithm is accomplished in two steps: Hearing aid equalization (HAE) and hearing loss compensation (HLC). HAE equalizes the amplitude and phase insertion effects of the aids and maintains the binaural cues with the aids in place. The HAE digital filters for each ear are obtained from in situ probe tube measurements of aided and unaided test signals. HLC for each ear is also achieved with digital filters and associated gain. The target response for each HLC filter is determined from auditory thresholds and sound field reference signals, and is based on an adaptation of articulation theory. The response of the HLC filter can be modified to prevent acoustic feedback. The HAE and HLC filters are combined to produce a single digital filter. A description of the processor, fitting algorithm, and the hard...


From the original juvenile court founded in Cook County, Illinois, to current juvenile court systems across the United States, the philosophy of juvenile justice has reflected society's predominant views on youth and adolescence. The first juvenile courts developed during the industrial revolution when social reformers were concerned about the dangers children faced in the workplace. In the early 1900s, compulsory education was promoted as a mechanism to improve the status of poor and immigrant children as well as a tool of social control (Steinberg, 2002). G. Stanley Hall had defined the boundaries of adolescence and described the ensuing "storm and stress" as a universal experience of all youth. Under the doctrine of parens patriae, juvenile court systems were developed with the primary goal of rehabilitating wayward youth.


Field-of-study mismatch occurs when workers educated in a particular field work in another. It is conceptually distinct from qualifications or skills mismatch, although a part of qualifications and skills mismatch results from graduates from a particular field having to downgrade to find work in another field. Some studies have identified labour market dynamics related to field-of-study mismatch, but few (if any) have sought to directly understand the interplay between labour supply factors (the types of skills brought to the workplace) and the labour demand factors (the types of skills demanded by employers) in field-of-study mismatch. Using data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies' Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), this paper shows that although students may choose to specialise in a particular field, it is not solely up to them to actually work in that field. In accordance with assignment theories, both the degree of saturation of a particular field in the labour market and the level of generic skills of a particular field predict the occurrence of field-of-study mismatch, highlighting that mismatch is the result of both labour supply- and demand-side factors. The paper then evaluates the costs to individuals – in terms of wages, risk of being out of work and job satisfaction. Findings suggest that the costs of field-of-study mismatch may only be high in terms of individual earnings when it is associated to qualification mismatch. For economies, field-of-study mismatch, when associated with qualifications mismatch, can amount to important costs, meriting the attention of policy makers to better aligning course places to skill needs or by encouraging skill transferability across fields.


Background: Infant mortality rate (IMR) in Indonesia is still quite high. The cause of infant mortality is the lack of giving breast milk to infant. One of the efforts to increase the breast milk production with SPEOS method. Objectives: To know the effect of SPEOS method on breast milk production on the post-cesarean mother at RSUD Kota Magelang in the year of 2017. Method: The research design used was Quasi Experiment with one group pre-post test control group. The sampling technique was consecutive sampling with 38 respondents of the post-cesarean mother. The SPEOS method was done 30 minutes/day for 3 days. Result: analysis result for breast milk production before and after treatment got p value: 0,000. It means that there was a difference between before and after treatment while the result of measurement of intervention group and control group got p value: 0,004 meaning there was a significant difference between intervention group and control group. Conclusion: There was an influence of SPEOS method to breast milk production on post-cesarean mother at RSUD Tidar Kota Magelang


1460 www.ijarcet.org AbstractWorld Wide Web is the most useful source of information. In order to achieve high productivity of publishing, the web pages in many websites are automatically populated by using the common templates with contents. The templates provide readers easy access to the contents guided by consistent structures. However, for machines, the templates are considered harmful since they degrade the accuracy and performance of web applications due to irrelevant terms in templates. Thus, template detection techniques have received a lot of attention recently to improve the performance of search engines, clustering, and classification of web documents. In this paper, we present novel algorithms for extracting templates from a large number of web documents which are generated from heterogeneous templates. We cluster the web documents based on the similarity of underlying template structures in the documents so that the template for each cluster is extracted simultaneously. We develop a novel goodness measure with its fast approximation for clustering and provide comprehensive analysis of our algorithm. Our experimental results with real-life data sets confirm the effectiveness and robustness of our algorithm compared to the state of the art for template detection algorithms.


The variation in the power radiated by electrons in a circular orbit through an aperture was investigated numerically as a function of the distance along a tangent to the orbital ring. For electron energies above 0.1 GeV, the power radiated into a rectangular aperture, placed at a distance greater than the radius of curvature of the orbit, does not differ by more than 4 parts in 106 from the power radiated into a similarly sized rectangular aperture (subtending the same solid angle) placed at a large distance from the orbital ring. Our conclusion is that, within the limits considered, synchrotron radiation can be calculated accurately for practical radiometric calibrations.


Introduction: Designing a tool for measuring of residents'competency with attention to their main role in education and practice of university. This study aims to assess the residents' promotion tests of clinical departments at Arak University of Medicals Sciences. Methods: This cross- sectional study that was undertook in 2010 at Arak University of Medical Sciences. Seven hundred and fifty multiple choice questions related to resident promotion tests in surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and anesthesiology was compared. Questionnaire of each department contained 150 questions. These questions were evaluated in the following domains: structure, Blum taxonomy, discrimination and difficulty index of questions and compliance to the core curriculums. Data gathering tool were: Millmen standard check list for evaluating questions' structure and check list for evaluating Blum taxonomy and core curriculum and OMR system for evaluating discrimination and difficulty index. The validity and reliability of tools was confirmed and data were analyzed using by ANOVA and X2 tests. Results: Results showed gynecology department had structural problem (4.5±4.2) compared with other departments. Internal medicine department had the highest Blum domain (40% application and 47% comprehension), surgery department had the highest learning aims (90.7%) and was assessed as the most suitable questions from difficulty index (67.3%) and discrimination index (73.5%). There was significant difference between structural problem, core curriculum and rate of standard questions in various clinical departments (P=0.001). Conclusion: This study confirmed the necessity of test assessment in universities, to form effective educational workshops, control of questions before exams and incentives for clinical departments to design standard questions. Development of electronic question analysis system is recommended.


We present a new methodology for a balanced yield-optimization and a new DFM framework which implements it. Our approach allows designers to dynamically balance multiple factors contributing to yield loss and select optimal combination of DFM enhancements based on the current information about the IC layout, the manufacturing process, and known causes of failures. We bring together the information gained from layout analysis, layout-aware circuit analysis, resolution enhancement and optical proximity correction tools, parasitics extraction, timing estimates, and other tools, to suggest the DFM solution which is optimized within the existing constraints on design time and available data. The framework allows us to integrate all available sources of yield information, characterize and compare proposed DFM solutions, quickly adjust them when new data or new analysis tools become available, fine-tune DFM optimization for a particular design and process and provide the IC designer with a customized solution which characterizes the manufacturability of the design, identifies and classifies areas with the most opportunities for improvement, and suggests DFM improvements. The proposed methodology replaces the ad-hoc approach to DFM which targets one yield loss cause at the expense of other factors with a comprehensive analysis of competing DFM techniques and trade-offs between them.


A test of the adding up condition in demand systems is crucial for determining whether a share format is admissible when the number of sample goods is smaller than the number of commodity choices available to consumers. This test requires the estimation of a demand system in a quantity format. The share specification of any demand system is like a straight jacket: once worn, it forces the error covariance matrix to be singular and the adding up condition to hold whether or not the data generating process warrants it. The empirical verification of the adding up hypothesis uses a five-commodity sample selected from the Canadian Family Expenditure Survey with 4847 observations. Three specifications are considered: AIDS, QUAIDS and EASI. The hypothesis is rejected in all three cases with a high level of confidence.


ABSTRACT Implementation of reform curricula requires teachers to adopt new approaches to teaching. Research has provided promising results about the influence of educative curriculum on teachers' learning and instruction. However, this approach generally focuses on teachers as isolated learners. Using a design-based research approach, the authors developed a web-based tool, iPlan, which provides access to educative curriculum materials in an online interactive learning platform. iPlan encourages social interaction among teachers, in particular their modifications and reflections on teaching with the curriculum materials. The authors describe design principles, assessing successful and unsuccessful aspects of the resulting platform through semi-structured interviews with teachers within the context of implementation of a high school biology curriculum. Analysis of the interviews revealed which structures of this online platform were used by the teachers, as well as why and how they were used. The study provides implications for designing educative and online systems for teacher learning.


For more than a decade, China has been the world's leading supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Today, it has become not only the world's second largest pharmaceutical market, behind only the United States, but it also produces about four percent of the world's new pharmaceutical products. Despite these impressive accomplishments, China does not have internationally recognized pharmaceutical brands that are comparable to those found in Europe or the United States, such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, and Sanofi. Nor does China rival India in its status as the "pharmacy of the world," providing generic drugs to needy countries from around the world, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since the mid-2000s, China has taken an innovative turn that has serious ramifications for the global pharmaceutical landscape and future issues lying at the intersection of intellectual property and public health. To be sure, many policymakers and commentators still focus unduly on the problems in the Chinese intellectual property system. Notable recent examples include the Trump administration's Section 301 reports and the United States' second complaint against China for violating the WTO TRIPS Agreement. Nevertheless, it is time that policymakers and commentators paid greater attention to the changing Chinese pharmaceutical landscape and its many ramifications.

Written for the "Changing Regulation of Pharmaceuticals: Pricing, Intellectual Property, Trade and Ethics" Symposium, this article begins by recounting China's innovative turn, tracing the developments back to the mid-2000s when Chinese leaders began to make a major policy push toward the development of independent innovation. It then discusses the changing pharmaceutical landscape in China, drawing illustrations from the recently proposed amendments to Chinese patent law and pharmaceutical regulations. The article concludes by highlighting three sets of ramifications that have been precipitated by China's increasing assertiveness in the pharmaceutical arena and the fast-evolving landscapes at both the domestic and global levels. Specifically, the discussion focuses on the changing discourse on intellectual property developments in China, the internal challenges that confront the country at this time of policy transition, and the global complications that will affect the future development of the international trading and intellectual property systems.


Abstract An efficient Eulerian method for poly-dispersed particles in turbulent flows is implemented, verified and validated for a channel flow. The approach couples a mixture model with a quadrature-based moment method for the particle size distribution in a LES framework, augmented by an approximate deconvolution method to reconstructs the unfiltered velocity. The particle velocity conditioned on particle size is calculated with an equilibrium model, valid for low Stokes numbers. A population balance equation is solved with the direct quadrature method of moments, that efficiently represents the continuous particle size distribution. In this first study particulate processes are not considered and the capability of the model to properly describe particle transport is investigated for a turbulent channel flow. First, single-phase LES are validated through comparison with DNS. Then predictions for the two-phase system, with particles characterised by Stokes numbers ranging from 0.2 to 5, are compared with Lagrangian DNS in terms of particle velocity and accumulation at the walls. Since this phenomenon (turbophoresis) is driven by turbulent fluctuations and depends strongly on the particle Stokes number, the approximation of the particle size distribution, the choice of the sub-grid scale model and the use of an approximate deconvolution method are important to obtain good results. Our method can be considered as a fast and efficient alternative to classical Lagrangian methods or Eulerian multi-fluid models in which poly-dispersity is usually neglected.


Changes in low flow indices under future climates are estimated for eight catchments in Poland. A simulation approach is used to derive daily flows under changing climatic conditions, following RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emission scenarios. The HBV rainfall–runoff model is used to simulate low flows. The model is calibrated and validated using streamflow observations from periods 1971–2000 and 2001–2010. Two objective functions are used for calibration: Nash–Sutcliffe and log transformed Nash–Sutcliffe. Finally, the models are run using the bias-corrected precipitation and temperature data simulated by GCM/RCM models for the periods 2021–2050 and 2071–2100. We estimate low flow indices for the simulated time series, including annual minima of 7-day mean river flows and number, severity and duration of low flow events. We quantify the biases of low flow indices by N-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis and Tukey test. Results indicate a large effect of climate models, as well as objective functions, on the low flow indices obtained. A comparison of indices from the two future periods with the reference period 1971–2000 confirms the trends obtained in previous studies, in the form of a projected decrease in the frequency and intensity of low flow events.


P resident Barack Obama's decision to reinstate diplomatic relations with Cuba was met with mixed reactions politically but launched a frenzy in the private sector for US companies seeking to stake a claim on a potentially lucrative new market. For those in the food and agricultural sectors, however, Cuba has long been within reach. Cuba is one of five countries—including Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea— against which the US has levied the most comprehensive economic sanctions. These embargoes include bans on almost all financial transactions and means of trade, with obvious precautionary targets such as arms, chemicals, and nuclear materials. Humanitarian exemptions for the donation of food and agricultural products have been written into these policies. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancment Act, passed by President Bill Clinton in 2000, created similar exceptions for these goods. Even with these economic restraints, millions of dollars of exports have been sent from US companies to embargoed nations. Obtaining a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control is the only prerequisite. Predictably, demand for these exceptions has spurred its own sub-industry of consulting and law firms that assist companies in obtaining these licenses. Here we explore some of the more significant agricultural and food exports to embargoed countries. —Alice Donaldson Food Diplomacy TOP TEN US EXPORTS TO EMBARGOED NATIONS IN 2014 in millions of US dollars


We study the problem of inferring causal graphs from observational data. We are particularly interested in discovering graphs where all edges are oriented, as opposed to the partially directed graph that the state of the art discover. To this end, we base our approach on the algorithmic Markov condition. Unlike the statistical Markov condition, it uniquely identifies the true causal network as the one that provides the simplest— as measured in Kolmogorov complexity—factorization of the joint distribution. Although Kolmogorov complexity is not computable, we can approximate it from above via the Minimum Description Length principle, which allows us to define a consistent and computable score based on non-parametric multivariate regression. To efficiently discover causal networks in practice, we introduce the GLOBE algorithm, which greedily adds, removes, and orients edges such that it minimizes the overall cost. Through an extensive set of experiments, we show GLOBE performs very well in practice, beating the state of the art by a margin.