Gut microbial acquisition during the early stage of life is an extremely important event since it
affects the health status of the host. In this contest the healthy properties of the genus
Bifidobacterium have a central function in newborns.
The aim of this thesis was to explore the dynamics of the gut microbial colonization in newborns
and to suggest possible strategies to maintain or restore a correct balance of gut bacterial
population in infants. The first step of this work was to review the most recent studies on the use
of probiotics and prebiotics in infants. Secondly, in order to prevent or treat intestinal disorders
that may affect newborns, the capability of selected Bifidobacterium strains to reduce the amount
of Enterobacteriaceae and against the infant pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae was evaluated in
vitro. Furthermore, the ability of several commercial fibers to stimulate selectively the growth of
bifidobacterial strains was checked. Finally, the gut microbial composition in the early stage of
life in response to the intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) against group B Streptococcus
was studied using q-PCR, DGGE and next generation sequencing.
The results globally showed that Bifidobacterium breve B632 strain is the best candidate for the
use in a synbiotic product coupled to a mixture of two selected prebiotic fibers
(galactooligosaccharides and fructooligosaccharides) for gastrointestinal disorders in infants.
Moreover, the early gut microbial composition was affected by IAP treatment with infants
showing lower counts of Bifidobacterium spp. and Bacteroides spp. coupled to a decrement of
biodiversity of bacteria, compared to control infants. These studies have shown that IAP could
affect the early intestinal balance in infants and they have paved the way to the definition of new
strategies alternative to antibiotic treatment to control GBS infection in pregnant women.


Introduction: Chlamydia trachomatis is sexually transmitted and causes infection of the genital tract that leads to many long term complications. Invasive procedures in infected infertile females increase the risk of ascending infection and long term consequences. Though infertile individuals are considered a high risk population prevalence data for our population is not available. Furthermore, the use of risk factor identification in diagnosis is not well established. This study was planned to determine the prevalence of Chlamydia infection and to describe the socio-economic clinical characteristics that are associated with the presence of infection among a patient population who sought treatment for infertility at a tertiary care facility. Method: A cross sectional study was carried out among patients who sought infertility treatment at the infertility clinic of Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama. Two hundred married couples were included in the study. The socio-economic data and any symptoms suggestive of genital infections were collected and Chlamydia trachomatis infection was diagnosed with a rapid antigen test using a commercial test kit. Intracervical swabs of the female and first void urine samples of the male were used. Data analysis was done to describe the prevalence of Chlamydia infection in each partner as well as to identify the number of couples where either partner was affected. Associations with recognized risk factors were identified. Results: Presence of symptoms was low in the males while one third of female subjects had one or more symptoms. The Chlamydia test revealed 12(6%) female and 6(3%) male study participants to be positive for current disease. These study participants were from 15 couples giving a prevalence rate of either partner being positive in 7.5% of couples. Of the risk factors identified the duration of marriage or infertility, education level, household income, alcohol use and smoking by the male, and presence of symptoms did not demonstrate a significant association with the presence of the disease. Partners staying away from each other were significantly associated with a positive result. Conclusion: There is 7.5% disease prevalence among infertile couples seeking treatment. Risk assessment and clinical symptoms have a limited value in identification of affected couples. Couples living separately have a high risk of Chlamydia infection. The high disease prevalence warrants either screening or empirical treatment of all infertile female patients undergoing invasive procedures. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljog.v32i4.3989 SLJOG 2010; 32(4): 85-88


This research aimed to explore the energy savings through the use of smart control as well as ceiling fan in intelligent building. As the energy consumption of air-conditioning (AC) accounts for about 40% of total residential energy, therefore, applying smart control system to the use of AC to achieve the effects of comfy and energy savings should be able to generate positive effect for the energy consumption of overall residential. This study used the smart control system in the intelligent building lab to transmit message to AC for its implementation of next operating step through the indoor temperature sensor in order to achieve energy saving effect


DCCP communication is currently restricted to a single path per
connection, yet multiple paths often exist between peers. The
simultaneous use of these multiple paths for a DCCP session could
improve resource usage within the network and, thus, improve user
experience through higher throughput and improved resilience to
network failure. Multipath DCCP provides the ability to
simultaneously use multiple paths between peers. This document
presents a set of extensions to traditional DCCP to support multipath
operation. The protocol offers the same type of service to
applications as DCCP and it provides the components necessary to
establish and use multiple DCCP flows across potentially disjoint
paths.


Explaining environmental sex determination (when offspring sex is determined by a property of the embryonic environment) in reptiles remains one of the greatest problems in the field of sex allocation. We test Charnov and Bull's differential fitness hypothesis in a natural population of loggerhead sea turtles in the field. This hypothesis states that the embryonic environment affects a trait that has different fitness consequences for males and females. We experimentally manipulated the incubation environment experienced by each sex and measured the phenotypic variation observed in hatchlings from experimental clutches and additional natural nests. Sand temperature had a negative correlation and percent water content had a positive correlation on the size of hatchlings from natural nests, and there was a significant interaction between sex and sand temperature on mass. This suggests that females, who develop in warm temperatures, are larger than males at hatching. The Charnov and Bull hypothesis would explain this pattern of environmental sex determination if larger size at hatching leads to a greater increase in lifetime fitness for females than males.


Microservices is an architectural style increasing in popularity. However, there is still a lack of understanding how to adopt a microservice-based architectural style. We aim at characterizing different microservice architectural style patterns and the principles that guide their definition. We conducted a systematic mapping study in order to identify reported usage of microservices and based on these use cases extract common patterns and principles. We present two key contributions. Firstly, we identified several agreed microservice architecture patterns that seem widely adopted and reported in the case studies identified. Secondly, we presented these as a catalogue in a common template format including a summary of the advantages, disadvantages, and lessons learned for each pattern from the case studies. We can conclude that different architecture patterns emerge for different migration, orchestration, storage and deployment settings for a set of agreed principles.


BACKGROUND
The epidemiological study of basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) is difficult because BCCs lack distinct disease codes and are excluded from most cancer registries.

OBJECTIVE
To develop and validate a large BCC registry based on electronically assigned Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) codes and text-string searches of electronic pathology reports from Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

METHODS AND MATERIALS
Potential BCCs were identified from electronic pathology reports (n=39,026) in 2005 and were reviewed by a dermatologist who assigned case/non-case status (gold-standard). A subset of the records (n=9,428) was independently reviewed by a second dermatologist to ascertain reliability of case assignment. In addition, a subset of excluded electronic pathology reports from 2005 (n=2,700) was reviewed to determine whether inclusion criteria had missed potential BCCs. We calculated the positive predictive value (PPV) of 3 different algorithms for identifying BCCs from electronic pathology data.

RESULTS
BCC-specific SNOMED codes had the highest PPV for identifying BCCs, 0.992 (95 percent CI: 0.991-0.993). Inter-rater reliability for case assignment was high (kappa=0.92, 95 percent CI: 0.91-0.93). Standardized incidence rates were consistent with previously published rates in the United States.

CONCLUSIONS
We created and validated a large BCC registry to serve as a unique resource for studying BCCs.


This paper analyzes whether and to what extent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) outperform official donors by allocating aid in a way that renders effective poverty alleviation more likely. We employ Probit and Tobit models and make use of an exceptionally detailed database that allows an assessment of the allocation of Swedish NGO aid in comparison to the allocation of Swedish official aid. Our results show that NGOs are more selective when deciding about which countries to enter at all. Moreover, in contrast to NGO aid, there is some evidence that political and commercial motives matter for the selection of ODA recipients. However, the Swedish case also supports the skeptical view according to which NGOs are unlikely to outperform official donors by providing better targeted aid when it comes to the allocation across recipients having passed the eligibility test.


American exceptionalism - a belief that the United States has a unique mission to lead the world, but ought logically to be exempt from the rules it promotes - is at the root of much of the American academy's effort to rationalize the US government's increasing rejection of multilateralism as the cornerstone of modern public international law. Even American scholars who disagree fundamentally on the problems with multilateralism (Kenneth Anderson arguing that it favours anti-democratic intervention by unelected NGOs, Michael Reisman asserting that it privileges elitist state-based lawmaking in the face of more democratic non-state 'lawmaking' processes) can agree on the solution: more unilateralism by powerful states, particularly by the United States. In this critique, James Hathaway contends that the amorphous law-as-policy depictions of the problems with multilateralism disguise a determination to equate valid international law with the priorities of powerful states, and that the presumed solution of American unilateralism reflects a mistaken belief that the United States can be assumed always to operate on the basis of principle-derived autopilot.


Melville's long poem "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land" (1876) was the last full-length book he published. Until the mid-twentieth century even the most partisan of Melville's advocates hesitated to endure a four-part poem of 150 cantos of almost 18,000 lines, about a naive American named Clarel, on pilgrimage through the Palestinian ruins with a provocative cluster of companions. But modern critics have found "Clarel" a much better poem than was ever realized. Robert Penn Warren called it a precursor of "The Waste Land. "It abounds with revelations of Melville's inner life. Most strikingly, it is argued that the character Vine is a portrait of Melville's friend Hawthorne. Based on the only edition published during Melville's lifetime, this scholarly edition adopts thirty-nine corrections from a copy marked by Melville and incorporates 154 emendations by the present editors, an also includes a section of related documents and extensive discussions. This scholarly edition is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America)."


Synaesthesia is a cognitive trait in which stimuli of one sensory modality are automatically and consistently experienced in conjunction with perceptions in a separate modality or processing stream. Investigations of synaesthesia may help determine the neural processing required in the generation of a conscious experience. In order to gain the most complete understanding of synaesthesia, we have applied an integrated neurophenomenological approach.
In Chapter 2 we present an extended case study of spatial-form synaesthesia (SFS) phenomenology. This investigation goes significantly beyond the rudimentary accounts of provided elsewhere, and provides novel observations on inducer-concurrent relationships,
suggesting that guided introspection techniques can provide neurobehaviourally relevant information.
In Chapters 3-5 we investigate neural activity in grapheme-colour synaesthesia (GCS). In Chapter 3 we demonstrate that activation in colour selective areas during synaesthetic
colour processing is dependent on individual differences in phenomenology, thereby reconciling previous attempts to replicate this key finding in the GCS literature. In Chapter
4 we find no evidence for trait level differences in context specific functional connectivity in GCS, however, we demonstrate that localisation of the synaesthetic concurrents modulate connectivity between colour and low-level visual areas. In 5 we replicate findings of
trait level differences in resting state fronto-parietal networks, suggesting that the RFPN may be a significant network in aspects of the synaesthetic experience common to all participants. We demonstrate that localisation of concurrents also modulates resting state visual networks, whilst automaticity of concurrents modulates parietal networks. Both Chapters 4 and 5 support a model of synaesthesia in which localisation of concurrents is
modulated by bottom-up connectivity, between colour and early visual areas.
This thesis demonstrates that individual differences in synaesthetic phenomenology significantly impact neural activity. We propose that future investigations place emphasis on the phenomenological experience of the participant in the interpretation of neural effects.


This case study follows the progress of a cohort of Year 10 students as they engage in a collaborative project over five days inspired by the designer Roger Dean. It exemplifies the way in which different faculties - Design and Technology , Mathematics and Science - can work as one o n a project where students need to combine skills from all three disciplines to solve real problems.


Public pressure to reduce or eliminate antimicrobials as ingredients of feed for poultry and other agricultural animals is mounting, primarily due to the fear of multidrug-resistant bacteria in clinical infections in both animals and humans. Exploration of the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in the gut flora of wildlife avian flocks that presumptively do not receive antimicrobials will determine the rate of resistance in a naı̈ve population. Fecal samples collected from a healthy population of the yellow-headed blackbirds (YHB) (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) in North Dakota were cultured to determine what genera and species of gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacteria these wild birds carry in their intestinal flora and to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. Isolates of Escherichia coli were further characterized for the presence of putative virulence factors and for pathogenic potential using the chicken embryo lethality assay (ELA). The ELA was performed in chicken embryos with challenges at both 12 days and 16 days of incubation to determine whether the 16-day-old embryos were better able to fight the infection and subsequent disease and also to determine whether the ELA could distinguish between primary and secondary avian E coli pathogens. After screening 33 isolates from the 21 fecal samples, only two E coli isolates were identified. The predominant genus and species of bacterium identified was Pantoea agglomerans. Collectively, 12 of the 33 isolates (36%) exhibited no resistance to any antimicrobial tested. However, several multidrug-resistant isolates of varying genera were identified. Among the antimicrobial resistances observed, the most common was to ampicillin (60%), followed by cephalothin (33%). Neither E coli isolate belonged to serogroups that are notorious for causing major outbreaks of colibacillosis in poultry, and only one E coli isolate retained resistance to any antibiotics; nevertheless, the ELA results indicate that at least one of these E coli may be a primary pathogen of chickens. This study demonstrates that antibiotic resistance occurs in the gut flora of natural populations of YHB despite the absence of antibiotic pressure. In addition, these results indicate that YHB will harbor E coli isolates that are potentially pathogenic in poultry. However, these E coli isolates are not a significant reservoir for multiple antibiotic resistances, nor are they widespread in the population of YHB surveyed in North Dakota.


This thesis investigates the role of volatiles produced by oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in interactions with insects. It includes studies on release of volatiles by these two crops, as well as behavioural and electrophysiological responses to these odours by two pest insects and insect natural enemies. The pollen beetle, Meligethes aeneus is an important pest of Brassica oilseed crops. The larvae feed only on buds and flowers of these plants. The behavioural responses of adult beetles to odours of oilseed rape in bud and flowering stage, as well as to the colours green and yellow, were shown to assist the beetles in finding host plants. Olfactory and visual stimuli were found to interact and the responses of over-wintered and summer generation beetles differed in that the summer generation had a higher preference for flower odours and for flower odours in combination with the colour yellow. We found that oilseed rape infested by pollen beetles released a volatile blend different from that released by non-infested plants. Three of the most important parasitoids attacking pollen beetles are Phradis interstitialis, P. morionellus and Tersilochus heterocerus. Studies on the responses of these species to odours of bud and flowering stage oilseed rape and to colours showed that odours were used to discriminate between the plant stages, but colour was also important. Differences in host and plant stage preferences were observed in the field and such differences in behaviour are probably important for niche segregation and co-existence of the three parasitoid species. Electrophysiological responses to volatiles characteristic of damaged oilseed rape were also observed and all three species discriminated between infested and non-infested rape by odour. The moth Spodoptera littoralis is a polyphagous herbivore and an important pest of cotton. Responses of female antennae to odours were investigated using two different techniques. High sensitivity to different types of cotton odours were observed, among these several compounds known to be specifically induced by larval feeding. The effects of volatiles of plants infested by conspecific larvae were tested in two types of bioassay. The results indicated that odours from infested plants deterred oviposition, but females needed to perceive other plant stimuli for this discrimination. These studies of two crop plant systems show that plant volatiles affect insects on several trophic levels and confirm that odours often interact with other plant stimuli in shaping insect behaviour.


Utilities require detailed end-use energy consumption for power system planning, load forecasting, marketing and demand side management. End-use consumption refers to the consumption of space heating, space cooling, water heating, lighting and other specifi c uses as opposed to total consumption. Th is report presents the methodology and results of a residential end-use study for British Columbia, Canada. Th e study used Conditional Demand Analysis (CDA) to estimate Unit Energy Consumption (UEC) values for several residential end-uses and for several energy conservation measures. Conditional demand analysis is a multivariate regression technique which combines utility billing data with weather information and customer survey data to produce robust end-use energy consumption estimates.


This paper examines marriage in multicultural and multi-faith Australia. It considers the history of, and reasons for, State recognition of marriage in Australia between one man and one woman entered into voluntarily for life. It argues that the tradition in Australia since European settlement has been for the State to only recognize this traditional form of marriage as marriage. The paper considers the meaning of equality and discrimination and argues that for those concepts to have meaning in the context of marriage it is first necessary to have a clear understanding of why the State does and should continue to have any role in marriage. The paper argues that tradition and empirical evidence support the continuation of State recognition of traditional marriage. The paper also examines the absence of State recognition in Australia of other conceptions of marriage including certain forms of marriage within the Islamic tradition, all cultural marriages celebrated within the traditions of Australia's Aboriginal peoples and marriages between two persons of the same sex. It argues that tradition and empirical evidence do not presently support the redefinition of marriage to include State recognition of these forms of marriage. The paper concludes that there are powerful grounds for preserving the current definition of marriage in Australia and that it should be preserved.


Foreword by Gilberto Silva. The Brazilian game has become synonymous with excellence, success and beautiful, irresistible football. Supporters from every part of the globe are able to recount joyful tales about Brazil's unmatched achievements, especially ones of World Cup glory - not for them the almost fifty years of hurt endured by England fans. But few realise that the most crucial transformations undergone by Brazilian football came as a direct result of the Selecao's failures. Shocking Brazil looks at six crucial World Cup campaigns that radically altered the face of Brazilian football and which had repercussions far beyond the sport. Behind the ignominy lurk narratives of racism, corruption, authoritarianism, corporate power and greed. This tour de force through the history of Brazilian football, told through the prism of these six famous defeats, is by turns fascinating, enlightening, shocking and utterly compelling.


Brunei English is changing in ways that seem to reflect global trends in World Englishes, including the occurrence of spelling pronunciation, avoidance of vowel reduction, and use of plurals such as equipments. However, some developments in Brunei English may not be so widely shared, including the increasing occurrence of rhoticity and the meaning of words such as send. Finally, some features are idiosyncratic, such as the adoption of Malay terms. We can therefore see that Brunei English is participating in the worldwide evolution of English while simultaneously establishing its own identity as a distinct variety. This article describes the ways that Brunei English is changing and discusses how it fits into the model of change proposed by Schneider (2007).


Demographics is a vital field of study for understanding social and economic change and it has attracted attention in recent years as concerns have grown over the aging populations of developed nations. Demographic studies help make sense of key aspects of the economy, offering insight into trends in fertility, mortality, immigration, and labor force participation, as well as age, gender, and race specific trends in health and disability. Demography and the Economy explores the connections between demography and economics, paying special attention to what demographic trends can reveal about the sustainability of traditional social security programs and the larger implications for economic growth. The volume brings together some of the leading scholars working at the border between the two disciplines, and it provides an eclectic overview of both fields. Contributors also offer deeper analysis of a variety of issues such as the impact of greater wealth on choices about marriage and childbearing and the effects of aging populations on housing prices, Social Security, and Medicare.


During the planet formation process, billions of comets are created and ejected into interstellar space. The detection and characterization of such interstellar comets (ICs) (also known as extra-solar planetesimals or extra-solar comets) would give us in situ information about the efficiency and properties of planet formation throughout the galaxy. However, no ICs have ever been detected, despite the fact that their hyperbolic orbits would make them readily identifiable as unrelated to the solar system. Moro-Martín et al. have made a detailed and reasonable estimate of the properties of the IC population. We extend their estimates of detectability with a numerical model that allows us to consider "close" ICs, e.g., those that come within the orbit of Jupiter. We include several constraints on a "detectable" object that allow for realistic estimates of the frequency of detections expected from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and other surveys. The influence of several of the assumed model parameters on the frequency of detections is explored in detail. Based on the expectation from Moro-Martín et al., we expect that LSST will detect 0.001–10 ICs during its nominal 10 year lifetime, with most of the uncertainty from the unknown number density of small (nuclei of ∼0.1–1 km) ICs. Both asteroid and comet cases are considered, where the latter includes various empirical prescriptions of brightening. Using simulated LSST-like astrometric data, we study the problem of orbit determination for these bodies, finding that LSST could identify their orbits as hyperbolic and determine an ephemeris sufficiently accurate for follow-up in about 4–7 days. We give the hyperbolic orbital parameters of the most detectable ICs. Taking the results into consideration, we give recommendations to future searches for ICs.


Background: In the UK there is a policy initiative to encourage volunteering to promote community participation and engagement in society. 'Volunteers in Child Protection' is a scheme promoting volunteers to work alongside statutory child care workers in complex child protection cases. Trained volunteers offer practical and emotional support to families. This project evaluated the experience of the scheme from the perspective of the families, the statutory workers and the mental health outcomes for the family.Methods: This is a small scale mixed methods study of families subject to child protection procedures, who are very hard to engage in research. The study examines the impact of volunteers using standardized, repeat measures of mental wellbeing, plus semi-structured interviews with parents, volunteers and stakeholders.Results: Family experience – families value their volunteers involvement and report increased confidence in their parenting capacity. Volunteer experience – volunteers feel they are performing a worthwhile service and report improvement in the families. Mental wellbeing outcomes - on referral two thirds of the families are dysfunctional, children have emotional and behavioral disturbance and some mothers have clinical levels of depression. Repeat measures indicate improvements during the volunteer intervention.Conclusions: Volunteers can work effectively with complex families, working alongside statutory professional involvement. The volunteers are highly valued by the service users who report improved confidence in their parenting skills and improvements in their own mental wellbeing. Repeat measures support the service user's reports of improvement in children's emotional and behavioral wellbeing, family functioning and mother's mental wellbeing.


Orientation: The construct equivalence of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32n) for black and white groups was investigated. Research purpose: The objective was to investigate the structural invariance of the OPQ32n for two South African population groups. Motivation for the study: The OPQ32n is often used for making a variety of personnel decisions in South Africa. Evidence regarding the suitability of personality questionnaires for use across South Africa's various population groups is required by practitioners for selecting appropriate psychometric instruments. Research design, approach and method: Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and the results were analysed using quantitative statistical methods. The sample consisted of 248 Black and 476 White people from the SHL (South Africa) database. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the structural equivalence of the OPQ32n scale scores for these two groups. Main findings: A good fit regarding factor correlations and covariances on the 32 scales was obtained, partially supporting the structural equivalence of the questionnaire for the two groups. The analyses furthermore indicated that there was structural invariance, with the effect of the Social Desirability scale partialled out. Practical/managerial implications: The present study focused on aspects of structural equivalence only. The OPQ32n therefore passed the first hurdle in this particular context, but further investigation is necessary to provide evidence that the questionnaire is suitable for use in personnel decisions comparing the population groups. Contribution: Despite the positive findings with regard to structural equivalence and social desirability response style, it should be borne in mind that no assumptions regarding full scale equivalence can be made on the basis of the present findings.


This paper presents the solution to the liquid bridge profile formed between three equally sized spherical primary particles. The particles are equally separated, with sphere centres located on the vertices of an equilateral triangle. Equations for the problem are derived and solved numerically for given constant mean curvature H0, contact angle alpha, and inter-particle separation distance S. The binding force between particles is calculated and plotted as a function of liquid bridge volume for a particular example. Agreement with experiment is provided.


The Stock Exchanges of Ireland traces the evolution of the markets which have operated in Ireland from their emergence (Dublin at the end of the eighteenth century, and later Belfast and Cork in the nineteenth) to the mid-1980s when this book was published. It starts with the historical circumstances - the beginnings of the Irish National Debt in the mid-eighteenth century and the problems of government borrowing in time of peace and war - which preceded the formation, in 1799, of the Dublin Stock Exchange. Later chapters examine many aspects of the market's development during the nineteenth century: changes in its practices and customs; the origins of some of the oldest surviving broking firms; the important trade in government securities between London and Dublin; the Irish railways; and the formation of joint stock companies in Ireland. Finally, the role of the Stock Exchange in the finance of government and industry since Irish independence is fully covered. Throughout, The Stock Exchanges of Ireland is soundly based on the surviving records (to which the author was granted full access) of the three Irish markets - Dublin, Cork and Belfast. Important new material was also obtained from the Irish Record Office, the National Library of Ireland, the archives of the Bank of Ireland and the Record Office of the Bank of England. The book makes a comprehensive and significant contribution to Irish and financial history, and will prove an essential work of reference. It is also a lively, readable account of growth, change and development in the Irish markets, which should interest all concerned with banking, finance, investment and stockbroking. Among W. A. Thomas's other publications on the history of financial institutions are The Stock Exchange: Its History and Functions (with E. Victor Morgan) (1962), The Provincial Stock Exchanges (1973) and The Finance of British Industry 1918-1966 (1980) .


Previous research has focused on the accuracy of smartphone pedometer apps in laboratory settings, however less information is available in outdoor (free living) environments. PURPOSE: Determine the accuracy of 5 smartphone apps at recording steps at a walking speed in a laboratory versus an outdoor setting. METHODS: Twenty-three healthy college students consented (Mean±SD; 22±3.8yrs; BMI 24.9±4.13kg/m2) to participate in 2 separate visits. During the first visit participants walked 500 steps at 3mph on a treadmill while wearing a pedometer and a smartphone placed in the pocket using 5 pedometer apps concurrently (Moves, Google Fit (G-Fit), Runtastic, Accupedo, S-Health). During the second visit, participants walked 400 meters at 3mph on a sidewalk outside. Actual steps for each visit were recorded using a hand tally counter device. Zero and negative values were replaced with the mean value for that trial. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS 23.0. Mean bias scores were calculated between the step count for each app and the respective tally count for each trial. Mean bias scores were correlated between trials for each app using Pearson correlations and significance was set at p<0.05. Mean Absolute Percent Error (MAPE) values were also calculated for each app for both trials. RESULTS: G-Fit recorded 2 zero values and 2 negative values and Moves recorded 1 zero value. Mean bias scores were significantly correlated between the indoor and outdoor protocols for the pedometer (r=0.67, p<0.01) and S-Health (r=0.46, p<0.5). The remaining apps were not correlated between protocols. The outdoor protocol producing a greater mean bias for the outdoor protocol for G-Fit, Runtastic, and Accupedo (mean bias ± SD indoor, outdoor; -4.3±53.1, -19.3±120.0; -10.7±63.3, -33.4±118.7; 16.0±143.6, 79.0±75.0; respectively) and a greater mean bias for the indoor protocol for the pedometer, Moves, and SHealth (mean bias indoor, outdoor; -1.4±41.5, 0.0±34.1; -117.4±196.7, -42.2±209.6; 11.3±28.4, 0.0±58.7; respectively). MAPE was below 5% for the pedometer and S-Health for both trials. CONCLUSION: Apps with the lowest error in a controlled setting may be less affected when used in other settings, while apps with greater variation in a controlled setting may be affected when used in a different environment.


The equivalence of translation has become a concern for many Lithuanian researchers. The term equivalence is described in the monograph "Contrastive Semantics" (2007) by AloyzasGudavičius. LionginasPažūsis (2014) discusses problems that arise from the lack of equivalence at word level. There are many articles on approaches or strategies of equivalence (D. Masaitienė 1996; A. Leonavičienė 2010; L. Černiuvienė 2013). Some scholars choose to examine the strategies applied in the translation of some linguistic items in novels (V. Končius& A. Nausėda 2006; C. Caro Dugo 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016; A. Cerri; I. Janavičienė 2016). However, there is a lack of research that analyses the Spanish translation of the poem "Metai" or a particular linguistic aspect of this Spanish text. Recent years saw several attempts to fill this gap(C. Caro Dugo 2014, 2015, 2016; A. Cerri 2015). The current research aims to examine the equivalents of the verbs of activity (VAs) in the Spanish translation of the poem. The paper focuses only on those VAs that express actions performed by persons. The VAs which denote actions performed by other living beings or forces of nature were excluded. The research covers 52 verses with verbs of activity, selected from the poem, and their equivalents in the translation into Spanish, which are subjected to qualitative content analysis and means ofcomparative methodology. 52 constructions that express the concepts of Work, Damaging, Speakon topic, Motion, Ingestion and Entertainment were selected applying the qualitative content analysis. The Spanish equivalents of these constructions are examined through the comparative methodology. The obtained results indicated that the translator is faithful to the original text. In order to preserve the expressiveness of the poem, the Spanish translation uses an abundance of verbal lexemes. It was noticed that the equivalents of the same meaning or verbs with a more general meaning specified by an additional lexeme or construction were the main strategies adopted in VA translation into Spanish. In one case only was a Lithuanian verb changed into a Spanish noun. Idioms and figurative words were also chosen as a VA translation strategy in several instances. Nonetheless, all of these lexemes, as derivative of verbs or verbal forms, preserve the verbal nature.This workshould be useful tothe semanticists and translators.


The tourism image is an element that conditions the competitiveness of tourism destinations by making them stand out in the minds of tourists. In this context, marketers of tourism destinations endeavour to create an induced image based on their identity and distinctive characteristics.A number of authors have also recognized the complexity of tourism destinations and the need for coordination and cooperation among all tourism agents, in order to supply a satisfactory tourist product and be competitive in the tourism market. Therefore, tourism agents at the destination need to develop and integrate strategic marketing plans.The aim of this paper is to determine how cities of similar cultures use their resources with the purpose of developing a distinctive induced tourism image to attract tourists and the extent of coordination and cooperation among the various tourism agents of a destination in the process of induced image creation.In order to accomplish these aims, a comparative analysis of the induced image of two cultural cities is presented, Girona (Spain) and Perpignan (France). The induced image is assessed through the content analysis of promotional brochures and the extent of cooperation with in-depth interviews of the main tourism agents of these destinations.Despite the similarities of both cities in terms of tourism resources, results show the use of different attributes to configure the induced image of each destination, as well as a different configuration of the network of tourism agents that participate in the process of induced image creation


A layer of a saturated binary mixture of soil and water, both of which are true density preserving, is considered. This layer is subjected from above to normal and shear tractions and an inflow of water, and from below to drainage of water and abrasion of till from the rock bed. Sliding processes along the top and bottom interfaces, as well as deformational creep of the sediment and water constituents within the layer generate heat, but here the purely mechanical problem is analysed. We study the steady–state plane flow with vanishing abrasion and balanced inflow and drainage of water. The differential equations governing the horizontal creep flows of the sediment and water decouple from the equations describing the vertical profiles of the vertical water velocity and the solid volume fraction. A stiff second–order ordinary differential equation is shown to describe the distribution of the latter; it genuinely depends on the inflow of water, the fluid viscosity and the thermodynamic pressure, a variable not present in classical formulations and introduced by Svendsen and Hutter in 1995. The singular nature of this equation is resolved by methods of matched asymptotic expansions. It is shown that in conformity with thermodynamics in the sediment layer, two regions of more dense and less dense solid fraction arise, one of which is a boundary layer. This boundary layer is formed where the fluid enters the sediment layer. Moreover, by using the thickness of this boundary layer as the internal length parameter, we find several constitutive equations for the thermodynamic pressure which adequately describe this creeping flow problem. Viewed as a model for the saturated till layer below ice sheets, the analysis shows that the question of whether soft basal sliding may develop catastrophically is a question of thermodynamics rather than dynamics.


CONTEXT
Current international consensus endorses a multimodal approach to concussion assessment. However, the psychometric evaluation of clinical measures used to identify postconcussion performance deficits once an athlete is asymptomatic remains limited, particularly in the pediatric population.

OBJECTIVE
To describe and compare the sensitivity and specificity of a multimodal assessment battery (balance, cognition, and upper and lower body strength) versus individual clinical measures at discriminating between concussed youth athletes and noninjured controls when asymptomatic.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

SETTING
Hospital laboratory setting.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 32 youth athletes with a concussion and 32 matched (age and sex) noninjured control participants aged 10-18 years.

INTERVENTION(S)
Participants were administered preinjury (baseline) assessments of cognition (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing [ImPACT]), balance (BioSway), and upper and lower body strength (grip strength and standing long jump). Assessments were readministered when concussed participants reported symptom resolution (asymptomatic time point). Noninjured control participants were reassessed using the same time interval as their concussion matched pair. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated using standardized regression-based methods and receiver operating characteristic curves.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Outcome measures included baseline and postinjury ImPACT, BioSway, grip strength, and standing long jump scores.

RESULTS
When asymptomatic, declines in performance on each individual clinical measure were seen in 3% to 22% of the concussion group (sensitivity = 3%-22%) compared with 3% to 13% of the noninjured control group (specificity = 87%-97%) (90% confidence interval). The multimodal battery of all combined clinical measures yielded a sensitivity of 41% and a specificity of 77% (90% confidence interval). Based on discriminative analyses, the multimodal approach was statistically superior compared with an individual measures approach for balance and upper and lower body strength, but not for cognition.

CONCLUSIONS
Results provide a foundation for understanding which domains of assessment (cognition, balance, and strength) may be sensitive and specific to deficits once symptoms resolve in youth athletes. More work is needed prior to clinical implementation of a preinjury (baseline) to postinjury multimodal approach to assessment following concussion in youth athletes.


The recent financial crisis has reanimated the old dispute between economic efficiency and social solidarity upholders. On the one hand, the contraction of economic activity has reduced government revenues. On the other hand, the redundant population has increased, emphasizing the vulnerability of population and putting additional pressure on social policies expenditure. If the spending on labour market policies was showing a downward trend during the pre-crisis period, it has suddenly increased during the crisis, focusing mainly on passive policies consisting in financial assistance. These kind of policies do not have the strength to solve the problems the Romanian labour market is facing for many years now and that have currently been enlarged by the recent crisis, but only to keep them latent and preventing them to feed up social pressure. Therefore, this paper aims to outline a broader view on Romanian labour market, on the problems it's facing, on the effects induced by the recent crisis, in order to offer some recommendations for the policies addressing these problems.


Spiny lobster (Panulirus homarus and Panulirus ornatus) are important commodities for Indonesia. The aquaculture of lobster is susceptible for several diseases like parasite, fungi, bacteria, and virus. Among those diseases, milky haemolymph disease (MHD) is often seen as a symptom to mass mortality occurred at lobster farms in Gerupuk Bay of Lombok. The purpose of this study was to determine the lobster diseases on cage culture in Gerupuk Bay of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. The study was undertaken from January to March 2015. Diseases status was determined by application of molecular plat-form, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with designation of specific primer for MHD (254F/R), 254F: 5'-CGA-GGA-CCA-GAG-ATG-GAC-CTT-3' and 254R: 5'-GCT-CAT-TGT-CAC-CGC-CAT-TGT-3' with PCR size product of 254 bp. and for cloned the pathogen was used TA-cloning Invitrogen for the DNA plasmid as positive control for other analysis. Several tissue samples i.e hepatopancreas, haemolymph, part of muscle hepatopancreas P. homarus and P. ornatus were taken from cage culture farms at Gerupuk Bay then preserved on 90% ethanol for further analysis by PCR and then the amplificated DNA were cloned into pCR®2.1 plasmid and transformed into competent E. coli. The result showed that almost all lobster samples from Gerupuk Bay were positive infected by MHD, as the results of PCR amplification whereas the band appeared at 254bp. Also MHD plasmid has been successfully cloned and will be used for further examination. Histopathologically in hepatopancreas infection have seen necrosis that contain numerous of rickettsia-like bacteria.


This research document investigates the correlation that exists between change management strategies and an organisation's strategy,while also considering the extent to which they are related and the influence they have on each other. This is set to the pretext of an organisation that is going through change in the form of a restructuring programme which has been influenced to some extent by the economic global recession.

A literary review into change management and managing an organisation through a recession has been conducted to gain a better theoretical foundation on the topic in question. This review has shown that organisations need to concentrate on growing and developing its enablers of change, such as flexibility, focus and collaboration, before it considers implementing change initiatives.

Research has been conducted on an organisation that has implemented change initiatives, and which has revised its organisational strategy during the period January 2007 to December 2009. This time period was chosen because it means the organisation is looked at from the pre-recession perspective (2007), and then considered from the viewpoint of an organisation that is making changes which have been influenced by external environmental pressures of change imposed by the global downturn.

The research document finds that the correlation between an organisation's strategy and its change management strategies is a strong interdependent one,and recommends that organisations should not forget that the ultimate success of the organisation depends on how integrated its organisational strategy, its enablers of change and change initiatives are.

The research document also recommends that further in-depth academic research needs to be conducted into the area of organisational change during a recession. More assistance should also be made available to organisations who are facing difficulties, such as the giving of advice and guidance on what strategies could be implemented that would help them navigate their way through tough times.


Aerosols are an important component of the climate system affecting visibility, clouds, and climate. They are also transported over short and long distances with consequences for continental‐scale nutrient availability. Processes that remove aerosols from the atmosphere are difficult to evaluate with observations in isolation from aerosol sources. As a result, a quantitative assessment of uncertainties in our understanding of aerosols is limited and narrowing of those uncertainties is difficult to demonstrate. In this study, we use satellite observations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and aerosols downwind of the Kīlauea volcano during May–September 2008. We derive the SO2 emission rate, the loss rate of SO2 that is indicative of the production rate of sulfate aerosols, and the subsequent removal rate of the formed sulfate. The result is the first determination of volcanic sulfate aerosol lifetime, 40–64 h, directly from satellite observations. The derived sulfate lifetime is significantly lower than the global average (3–5.5 days) and reflects the rapid wet scavenging of this plume.


Several decades ago the first ultrasonic inspections were introduced to assure component integrity. Those were, in the beginning, manual, straight beam, contact probe inspections with simple, non-descript reporting requirements. The development of ultrasonic inspection capabilities, the change in design engineer requirements, improvements of fracture mechanics calculations, experience with operation, experience with the inspection technology, and probability of detection (PoD) drove the changes that have resulted in the current day inspections. This process is described on the example of heavy rotor forgings for land-based power generation turbines and generators and shows how sizing technologies were implemented, detection limits lowered, angle and pitch/catch (dual crystal) probes introduced, and automated systems required for the inspection. Due to all these changes, model based sizing techniques and modern ultrasonic techniques, like phased array, are being introduced globally. This paper describes the evolution of the ultrasonic inspection over the last decades and presents an outlook for tomorrow.


Abstract Hospitality is a self-contradictory concept. Both inclusionary and exclusionary forces are present at the very threshold of hospitality. This article shows how this contradiction works in the practice of migration law. The author takes a Dutch case, the case of Abdirizaq Salah Sheekh, to reveal the force of this contradiction from the moment the asylum seeker arrives on the territory, all the way through to the end of his story at the European Court of Human Rights. The case is, in fact, a symptomatic indictment of how aliens are treated in the Netherlands and, in a more general sense, in Europe as a whole. This article not only demonstrates how the question of hospitality commences with language − the moment we start communicating with the alien − the author also argues that in the violent collision produced by the the two contradictory demands of hospitality, a new subject is created. Not only is the migration procedure questioned, but also the subject of migration law.


There is growing interest and evidence in the New Zealand education sector of the application of marketing principles and techniques. This has been brought about, in part, by a declining birth rate and a more market-driven economy. Faced by such changes educational institutions have increased their efforts to attract external funding and students. Advertising is one obvious way they have been doing this. This phenomenon, also reported in the UK, USA and Australia (Hayes, 1991; Pelletier, 1985; Stewart, 1991) in the past decade, is the focus of this paper. An initial investigation of New Zealand educational advertising research revealed little evidence of prior work in this field although overseas, institutional advertising appears to have attracted more research interest (McNamara,1985; Abernathy and Butler, 1992; Chamblee and Sandler, 1992). Given the limited budgets of many local educators, and their lack of marketing expertise, how are these managers promoting their services and how well are they doing this? The researchers examined these questions using educational advertisements collected over a five month period. Copy was then analysed using content analysis. Results indicated a heavy use of informative advertising, and a now 'buy' format. A high percent also list course components or subjects being offered, and provide contact names and numbers. These advertisements are, therefore, primarily akin to sales promotions. This summer research project has been funded by the Department of Economics and Marketing, Lincoln University. The authors are in debt to them.


Liquid ammonia is a useful solvent for many organic reactions including aliphatic and aromatic nucleophilic substitution and metal-ion catalysed reactions. The acidity of acids is modified in liquid ammonia giving rise to differences from conventional solvents. The ionisation constants of phenols and carbon acids are the product of those for ion-pair formation and dissociation to the free ions. There is a linear relationship between the pK(a) of phenols and carbon acids in liquid ammonia and those in water of slope 1.68 and 0.7, respectively. Aminium ions exist in their unprotonated free base form in liquid ammonia. The rates of solvolysis and aminolysis by neutral amines of substituted benzyl chlorides in liquid ammonia show little or no dependence upon ring substituents, in stark contrast with the hydrolysis rates of substituted benzyl halides in water which vary 10(7) fold. However, the rates of the reaction of phenoxide ions and amine anions with 4-substituted benzyl chlorides gives a Hammett ρ = 1.1 and 0.93, respectively. The second order rate constants for the substitution of benzyl chlorides by neutral and anionic amines show a single Brønsted β(nuc) = 0.21 whereas those for substituted phenoxide ions generate a Brønsted β(nuc) = 0.40. The rates of aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions in liquid ammonia are much faster than those in protic solvents indicating that liquid ammonia behaves like a typical dipolar aprotic solvent in its solvent effects on organic reactions. Nitrofluorobenzenes (NFB) readily undergo solvolysis in liquid ammonia but oxygen nucleophiles, such as alkoxide and phenoxide ions, displace the fluorine of 4-NFB in liquid ammonia to give the corresponding substitution product with little or no competing solvolysis product. The Brønsted β(nuc) for the reaction of 4-NFB with para-substituted phenoxides is 0.91, indicative that the decomposition of the Meisenheimer σ-intermediate is rate limiting. The aminolysis of 4-NFB occurs without general base catalysis by the amine and the second order rate constants generate a Brønsted β(nuc) of 0.36, which is also interpreted in terms of rate limiting breakdown of the Meisenheimer σ-intermediate.


This article examines the way Cyril of Alexandria interprets the Passion narrative in his commentary on the Gospel of John. It argues that besides the doctrinal, christological focus of his exegesis Cyril is concerned with a second issue: the contested masculinity of Jesus and his followers during the events of the Passion. This concern becomes clear when Cyril designates the cross-bearing Jesus as "the type of manly courage" (typos andreias). Following a survey of the current historical masculinity studies, the article examines Cyril's interpretation of such scenes of the Johannine Passion account where Jesus is depicted as being arrested, beaten and flogged, humiliated and finally crucified – i.e., depicted in a way that might seem to contradict antique ideals of manliness. It finally analyzes Cyril's explanations as to various "unmanly" or "manly" traits of Jesus' adversaries, especially of the Jews, and of his followers: Peter, his beloved disciple and his Mother.


What value do adolescents place on art education? What role do parents and teachers play in their decision-making process? Personal, practical, and intellectual goals are the basis to investigating and answering such questions. This study investigated the individual and cultural implications of adolescents participating in extracurricular art lessons in private art organizations in Hong Kong. Data collection included online surveys, personal interviews, and in-class observations in order to gain further understanding of the values and perceptions adolescents and their parents place on art education. The researcher used a constructivist approach to analyze the findings, which developed existing studies on the changing perspectives of art education in Hong Kong. Student responses suggested the value placed on art education is often driven by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation along with the need for (or lack of) self-expression. The decision to attend extracurricular art lessons reflects such opinions. Additionally, the researcher found that relationships between students, teachers, and parents were pivotal for cultural values placed on art; however, these values were not concrete nor one sided. The significance of the study intends to contribute to the development of future art appreciation in schools and private art organizations in Hong Kong–informing policy-making, curriculum development (in secondary and tertiary education), and alternate perspectives to action research in art education. The research highlights and evaluates the reasons why adolescents attend extracurricular art lessons with the proposition to implement a better framework of support for adolescents' decision-making processes in art.


to the equator and the autumnal equinox, then below the equator to the winter solstice of December 21, when the length of the day in the Northern Hemisphere is the shortest of the year. Thus solstices and equinoxes, and thus the origins of the seasons. Over the course of millennia, Earth travels in a precession, the wobble of the gyroscope altering its position relative to the stars so that, over a nearly 26,000year cycle, Earth's north pole points to different places in the sky, which yields minor variations in just when those seasons begin. When the Egyptians built the pyramids, which may have served in part as astronomical observatories, the north star was Thuban, in the constellation Draco, about halfway between the bend of the Big Dipper's handle and the Little Dipper's bowl. Today the north star is bright Polaris, in Ursa Minor. Earth spun its closest path ever to Polaris just a couple of years ago; now we're bound for another north star, Gamma Cephei, which will take over the job from Polaris in about 2,000 years. The laws of astronomy hold constant, then, while the objects of astrology— the prescientific study of the night sky, full of fond hopes and dark premonitions— are always unfixed. To name just one example, owing to the workings of the precession, thirteen constellations, not twelve, now pass overhead. That jumbles the traditional astrological calendar so much that even a true believer will want to consider the horoscope a suggestion rather than a mandate, a pastime and not a prophecy. W it comes to the workings of the universe, Albert Einstein famously said, "God does not play dice." Einstein said nothing about the dreidel, however, which may explain why Earth and the other planets in our solar system spin like tops, a touch wobbly but more or less selfcorrecting, whirling about in space toward whatever bang or whimper the future has in store. Draw a line through our planet from pole to pole and tilt Earth at an angle of 23.4°, and you have what scientists call the "obliquity of the ecliptic." Earth spins along, maintaining that angle relative to the sun, so that, for roughly half the year, the Northern Hemisphere is bathed in the light of Sol, while for the other half, it tilts away from the sun. From our point of view, the sun appears to move in the sky from north to south relative to the equator. On or around March 20, it ascends north until, on or around June 21, it reaches its apex at the Tropic of Cancer. The first date is the "vernal equinox," when, the sun being at the equator, day and night— nox, in Latin— are roughly equal in duration. The second is the "summer solstice," the latter word coming from the Latin sol, "sun," and sistere, "to stand still": Thus the sun appears to hang in the sky around the clock, the source of the endless daylight of summer high up in the northern latitudes, the fuel for Erik Skjoldbjærg's coldsweatinducing film Insomnia. Come the end of summer— on or around September 23— the sun clambers down the sky


The effort to develop methods for assessing animal welfare at farm level has grown dramatically since the end of the 1990s, culminating in the protocols developed by the European-wide project Welfare Quality® (WQ). However, these protocols are time consuming and lack transparency in how scores are aggregated into welfare outcomes. The current study investigates the potential of Qualitative Behavior Assessment (QBA), a much less time-consuming approach, to be used as a stand-alone integrative screening tool for identifying farms with compromised welfare before applying the full WQ protocol. QBA is a 'whole-animal' approach asking human observers to summarize animals' expressive demeanor and its context into descriptors such as relaxed, anxious, content or frustrated –terms which given their emotional connotation appear to have direct relevance to animal welfare. Two trained QBA-assessors, and one trained Welfare Quality® assessor visited 43 Danish dairy cattle farms at different times, the former focusing on QBA and the latter making a full WQ protocol assessment. The QBA scores were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (correlation matrix, no rotation), and WQ protocol data were analyzed and integrated according to the WQ protocol. The resulting QBA and WQ protocol outcomes were correlated using non-parametric methods (Spearman Rank and Kendall W). Highly significant inter-observer agreement was found between the two QBA-assessors (P < 0.0001). QBA scores showed some weak correlations to WQ measures but no meaningful pattern of relationship between these measures emerged. The present study does not support the application of QBA as a stand-alone welfare assessment tool capable of predicting the outcome of the larger WQ protocol.


Memories today expose an all-or-nothing correctness model that incurs significant costs in performance, energy, area, and design complexity. But not all applications need high-precision storage for all of their data structures all of the time. This article proposes mechanisms that enable applications to store data approximately and shows that doing so can improve the performance, lifetime, or density of solid-state memories. We propose two mechanisms. The first allows errors in multilevel cells by reducing the number of programming pulses used to write them. The second mechanism mitigates wear-out failures and extends memory endurance by mapping approximate data onto blocks that have exhausted their hardware error correction resources. Simulations show that reduced-precision writes in multilevel phase-change memory cells can be 1.7 × faster on average and using failed blocks can improve array lifetime by 23% on average with quality loss under 10%.


The UN Declaration on Peasants' Rights (UNDROP) underscores the need for a coherent interpretation and application of existing international human rights to the specific context of small-scale fisheries (SSF), including small-scale marine and continental capture fishing, small-scale aquaculture, related preparatory works and cultural practices. It complements the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication (SSF Guidelines), which were the first international instrument entirely dedicated to SSF. The two instruments originate from forums that frame issues and respective responses differently, involving individuals and specialised international bodies with distinct interests and areas of expertise (human rights and fisheries, respectively), and having garnered differing levels of intergovernmental support. The two instruments thus offer their own particular perspectives on how international law currently relates to the challenges and contributions of SSF. Against this backdrop, this Chapter will analyse and compare the contributions of the UNDROP and the SSF Guidelines to the recognition, protection, respect and full realisation of the human rights of peasants involved in SSF and to the sustainable use of natural resources in SSF, with a view to supporting the relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


Numerous studies have been conducted to present new attacks using the time difference between the processor access to main memory and cache memory. Access-driven attacks are a series of cache-based attacks using fewer measurement samples to extract sensitive key values due to the ability of the attacker to evict or access cache lines compared to the other attacks based on this feature. In the access-driven attacks, the attacker frequently needs to evict or reload data from the cache memory before or after performing the targeted cryptosystem which requires the knowledge about the virtual or physical addresses. Knowledge of address offset for the corresponding data blocks in cryptographic libraries is a prerequisite for an adversary to reload or evict cache lines in Intel processors. Preventing the access of attackers to the address offsets can potentially be a countermeasure to mitigate access-driven attacks. In this paper, we demonstrate how to perform the Evict+Time attack on Intel x86 CPUs without any privilege of knowing address offsets.


Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide with collateral damage and therefore might affect the behavior of stroke patients with mild symptoms seeking medical attention. Methods: Patients with ischemic stroke who were admitted to hospitals within 7 days of onset were retrospectively registered. The clinical characteristics, including onset-to-door time (ODT), of patients with a transient ischemic attack (TIA)/mild stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS] score of ≤ 3 on admission) or moderate/severe stroke were compared between those admitted from April 2019 to March 2020 (pre-COVID-19 period) and from April to September 2020 (COVID-19 period). Multivariable regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with the ODT. Results: Of 1,100 patients (732 men, median age, 73 years), 754 were admitted during the pre-COVID-19 period, and 346 were admitted during the COVID-19 period. The number and proportion of patients with TIA/minor stroke were 464 (61.5%) in the pre-COVID-19 period and 216 (62.4%) during the COVID-19 period. Among patients with TIA/mild stroke, the ODT was longer in patients admitted during the COVID-19 period compared with that of the pre-COVID-19 period (median 864 min vs. 508 min, p = 0.003). Multivariable analysis revealed the COVID-19 period of admission was associated with longer ODT (standardized partial regression coefficient 0.09, p = 0.003) after adjustment for age, sex, route of arrival, NIHSS score on admission, and the presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and wake-up stroke. No significant change in the ODT was seen in patients with moderate/severe stroke. Conclusions: The COVID-19 epidemic might increase the ODT of patients with TIA/mild stroke.


The nutrient accumulation curves of apple trees are good indicators of plant nutrient demand for each developmental stage. They are also a useful tool to evaluate orchard nutritional status and to estimate the amount of soil nutrient removal. This research aimed at evaluating the seasonality of nutrients in commercial apple orchards during the agricultural years of 1999, 2000, and 2001. Therefore, apple tree leaves and fruits of three cultivars 'Gala', 'Golden Delicious' and 'Fuji' were weekly collected and evaluated for fresh and dry matter, fruit diameter and macronutrient (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and micronutrient (B, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn) concentrations. Leaf and fruit sampling started one or two weeks after full bloom, depending on the cultivar, and ended at fruit harvest or four weeks later (in the case of leaf sampling). In general, leaf concentrations of N, P, K, Cu, and B decreased; Ca increased; and Mg, Fe, Mn, and Zn did vary significantly along the plant vegetative cycle. In fruits, the initial nutrient concentrations decreased quickly, undergoing slow and continuous decreases and then remaining almost constant until the end of fruit maturation, indicating nutrient dilution, once the total nutrient accumulation increased gradually with fruit growth. Potassium was the nutrient present in highest quantities in apple tree fruits and thus, the most removed from the soil.


Lamb-wave tomography (LWT) offers a powerful nondestructive technique for the health assessment of large structures as their propagation properties depend on the thickness and the mechanical properties of the material. Development of a fast and accurate algorithm for defect detection is of paramount importance in any structural-health-monitoring (SHM) system. The present study explores the prospects of LWT as a SHM technique with an accent on developing a suitable algorithm for real-time inspection. Projection data is collected by electronically scanning an array of ultrasonic sensors arranged in a modified cross-hole geometry. The data thus collected is investigated to extract energy profile of the traveling waves. Multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (MART) algorithms are used as a tool for tomographic reconstruction from a set of multiple independent measurements. The performance of algorithms is evaluated from the point of view of the cost of algorithm, achievable resolution, and accuracy of results. Experimental results show that MART is capable of characterizing defects in thin isotropic and composite plates within a reasonable error band (±26% normalized, ±2.6 RMS) and is suitable for application to LWT of large structures such as aircraft skins.


It has been argued that part of the reason Australia was able to contribute to and respond so successfully in the 1990s to the growth in demand for commercial bottled wine was because of its freedom (relative to European producers) to blend wines across the full range of varieties and geographic regions, so as to be able to reproduce year after year a consistent style for each label. Over time, however, that has led some buyers in the 'Old World' to believe Australian and other 'New World' winemakers do not respect or exploit regional differences in terroir or, worse still, that the 'New World' is incapable of making high-quality, regionally distinct wines. This paper examines the changing extent to which Australian wine regions do in fact vary in their choice of winegrape varieties and in the average quality of those winegrapes. In doing so the study provides some new quantitative indexes that may be helpful for other purposes too, such as providing a base for simulating the potential impacts on different regions of climate change and of adaptive responses to it. The study focuses on 30 of Australia's winegrape regions and on the top 12 red and 10 white winegrape varieties that together accounted in 2006 for all but 7 percent of Australia's wine. It compares 2006 with 2001, the first year for which price and quantity data were compiled nationally by grape variety for the country's newly defined Geographical Indication regions.


This is the age of biomechatronics, a time where mechanics and electronics can interact with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or replace limbs, senses, and even organs damaged by trauma, birth defects, or disease. Introduction to Biomechatronics provides biomedical engineering students and professionals with the fundamental mechatronic (mechanics, electronics, robotics) engineering knowledge they need to analyze and design devices that improve lives. The first half of the book provides the engineering background to understand all the components of a biomechatronic system: the human subject, stimulus or actuation, transducers and sensors, signal conditioning elements, recording and display, and feedback elements. It also includes the major functional systems of the body to which biomechatronics can be applied including: biochemical, nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal. The second half discusses five broadly based inventions from a historical perspective and supported by the relevant technical detail and engineering analysis. It begins with the development of hearing prostheses including middle-ear implantable hearing devices and the amazingly successful cochlear implant. This is followed by sensory substitution and visual prostheses that researchers hope will do the same for the blind as the cochlear implant has done for the deaf. The last three chapters are more mechatronic in focus, examining artificial hearts, respiratory aids from the iron lung to the latest CPAP devices, and finally artificial limbs from the first hooks and peg legs to limbs that move and have a sense of touch. Introduction to Biomechatronics provides readers with the engineering background to analyze and design biomechatronic devices, and inspires them to greater designs by discussing successful inventions that have done the most to improve our lives.


This is a brief outline of the history of interpreting in China. It describes and analyses the status, roles, and identities of interpreters in the diplomatic history of China up to the early 20th century. The article aims to give a general introduction of the subject and to highlight points of interest for further enquiry, in a Chinese as well as other national contexts in which conditions may be different. Interpreting is far more intangible than translation, which can always refer to written records. Its history is therefore obscure. This is ironic: at important cross-roads in history, internationally and cross-culturally, there have always been interpreters. They have usually been anonymous, but their presence is sometimes mentioned in the records of a given nation and they have participated in making and, at the same time, have been witnesses to history. Since the earliest Chinese records, when junior interpreters had the title of 'Tongue Men', the status and acknowledgement of interpreters have developed tremendously. Some of the earliest historical records of meetings between Chinese and foreigners are dialogues, which, under scrutiny, suggests not only that interpreters were present for diplomatic exchanges, but also that they might have been used for recording history.


Network packet traces can be used to derive traffic models suitable for simulation or emulation of networks. These traces are shaped by the conditions on the original network the trace was taken from such as latency, loss, congestion and path MTU. Using a trace to derive a model can give plausible results, but the model will strongly reflect where the trace was collected. A different approach is to extract application objects and use them to derive traffic models free of network artefacts for simulation and emulation tasks. We propose a new algorithm for extracting application objects from a TCP packet trace by using non-MSS sized packets to demarcate the boundaries of objects. Unlike other object extraction methods, our approach does not require full packet capture; the TCP/IP headers are sufficient. We discuss the implementation of this algorithm and validate our algorithm against an existing object extractor that requires full payload capture.


In today's business environment, multiple organizations must routinely work together in software supply chains when acquiring, developing, operating, and maintaining software products. The programmatic and product complexity inherent in software supply chains increases the risk that defects, vulnerabilities, and malicious code will be inserted into a delivered software product. As a result, effective risk management is essential for establishing and maintaining software supply-chain assurance over time. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is developing a systemic approach for assessing and managing software supply-chain risks. This paper highlights the basic approach being implemented by SEI researchers and provides a summary of the status of this work.


Cajanus cajan is an important legume crop in the human diet in many parts of the world. Due to its pharmacological properties, C. cajan is, moreover, used in traditional medicine for treating skin diseases, diabetes, inflammatory disorders and various other dysfunctions. In this study, we focused on the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) as a potential therapeutic target of Cajanus cajan and its main compounds for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and inflammation-related disorders. The anti-inflammatory potential of C. cajan and its bioactive compounds and their cytotoxicity on the human cervical adenocarcinoma cell line HeLa, the human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line CaCo-2 and the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7 were elucidated. C. cajan and its compounds exerted significant anti-inflammatory activity on lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages, showed good cytotoxic effects on the 3 different cancer cell lines and proved PPARγ activity in vitro. The main active compounds were orientin, pinostrobin and vitexin. Cajaninstilbene acid and pinosylvin monomethylether were identified as novel PPARγ activators. Based on these data, C. cajan provides excellent beneficial medicinal attributes and may be used as a potential food or a pharmaceutical supplement.


Blacks are purported to have a higher venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk than whites. We hypothesized that this might be due, in part, to the greater presence of sickle cell trait (SCT) among blacks. We investigated whether the presence of SCT resulted in a higher VTE incidence in a population predisposed to VTE, the pregnant/postpartum women. Methods: Using a mirrored clinical database that prospectively gathered in- and out-patient information for the years 1998–2008, we collected demographic data, including hemoglobin electrophoreses, on all pregnant/postpartum non-Hispanic women who delivered at a large, diverse, urban hospital. We identified those women who developed VTE either while pregnant or postpartum during those 11 years. Charts initially identified as potential VTE cases were subjected to review to ensure accuracy of VTE coding. Results: Of 12,429 women, 679 non-Hispanic SCT black women, 5,465 non-Hispanic Hemoglobin AA (women with HbA as the only hemoglobin present on electrophoresis, with normal amounts of the minor hemoglobins) black women and 1,162 non-Hispanic HbAA white women were included in the analysis. SCT prevalence was high (11.1%) within this black population as compared to 8.3% in the general non-white population. Proportions with VTE were similar for black SCT and black HbAA groups: 0.44% for the SCT group, 0.49% for non-Hispanic black HbAA women. Black HbAA women had a non-significantly higher proportion of VTE than white HbAA women 0.49% vs 0.26% (RR 1.9, 95%CI:0.6,6.3, p = 0.28). Women with VTE were older than those without VTE (32.2 vs. 27.6 years, p = 0.0002) and the majority of VTE occurred postpartum in all groups, and significantly in the HbAA groups. There was no increase in the incidence of pulmonary emboli in the SCT group. Conclusion: In the largest analysis to date, we could not detect a meaningful difference in peripartum VTE incidence between women with and without sickle cell trait.


In a Swedish brass band a program for change was pursued which aimed to improve the artistic level of playing of the ensemble without replacing less competent members. At the time for the study the band comprised 34 members, four of whom were female. The research question was: How does community and group coherence interact with the goal to improve the musical standard in an amateur brass band? The music-making of the band is approached from two perspectives, one of social psychology and education, and the other of aesthetics. The band is seen as an organization, where the activities and the roles of the musicians as well as the relations between them are described. The activities are either oriented towards the musical results, the social relations, or both. The unit of analysis is the social practice. Attention is focussed on what happens in the daily work during rehearsals and concerts The musical standard of the band is discussed according to two different perspectives on aesthetics, one traditional, based on technical criteria of quality, the other also concerned with musical expression and extra-musical factors such as the composition of the program and on-stage deportment, the so called "passepartout of music". Data-collection include participant observations, interviews and audio- and videotapes of rehearsals and performances during a period of one and a half years with a follow-up about two years later. Major conclusions include: The band can be described as a social community with a balanced group coherence, which is neither too strong nor too weak. The aesthetical code of the band is characterized by a striving for artistic perfection which is restricted by time, by the leadership-style and the competence of the conductor, and by the goal-acceptance of the individuals who comprise the band. With a simultaneous emphasis on the "passepartout of music", shortcomings in artistic perfection can be compensated by a desire to work for and cooperate with the audience. Thus the likelihood increases that there will be goal-acceptance and goal-fulfillment among the individuals who comprise the band, when the goal is: Play well and have fun. (Less)


A new assay could improve identification of tumors that are likely to respond to therapies that inhibit epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling. Abstract This Podcast features an interview with Eric Haura and Matthew Smith, authors of a Research Article that appears in the 13 January 2015 issue of Science Signaling, about an assay that may expand the identification of tumors that are likely to respond to therapies that inhibit epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling. EGFR is a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase that induces intracellular signaling in response to binding to extracellular ligands, such as growth factors and cytokines. EGFR signaling is abnormally highly active and drives tumor cell proliferation in diverse types of cancer. Drugs that target EGFR are used to treat some of these cancers. Aberrant EGFR signaling may result from activating mutations, which can be detected by genetic analysis of the tumor cells. However, there may be other causes for increased EGFR signaling in cancer cells in addition to those that can be detected by gene sequencing. Smith et al. have developed an assay that can detect increased EGFR signaling in cancer cells by measuring the interaction of EGFR with the adaptor protein GRB2, which is required for EGFR signaling. The assay detects aberrant EGFR signaling even in tumors with no activating mutations in EGFR. This assay could be used to improve identification and treatment of EGFR-driven cancers.


A comprehensive clinical laboratory service is indispensable to proper patient care. It plays a part in making a diagnosis and influencing treatment decisions in patient care and has public health value. Public health sector laboratory services are very fragmented and range widely in quality. There have been attempts over the years to rationalise and restructure these services and to upgrade the quality where it is poor but there have always been reasons why this has not occurred. The fragmentation of the services has resulted in a loss of economies of scale, especially where highly specialised equipment, expensive reagents and unique skills are concerned. In this chapter, the history of the many players in the provision of the services that is relevant to the developments and the failure to rationalise the services in the past is briefly discussed. For many years all roleplayers have recognised the need to improve the whole laboratory system. Immediately after the 1994 elections the Minister of Health established a commission to investigate the rationalisation and reorganisation of the laboratories. One issue was the joint ownership of the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR) by the Chamber of Mines (CoM). In October 1998 the CoM unconditionally donated their interests in the SAIMR to the government. A Transformation Task Team (TTT) was appointed to make new recommendations for the restructuring of the public health laboratory services. The TTT recommended the establishment of a new parastatal (public entity) and for all public health laboratory services to become a part of that entity. Since May 1999 a Project Implementation Team has been designing the new entity in earnest. The vision is for a single entity that is large enough to derive benefit from economies of scale and therefore to ensure that services can be provided even where they are not independently viable. The control over purchasing services will remain with the clinicians that request laboratory tests. The new entity will employ about 4 500 employees and will have an annual turnover that is expected to be close to R1bn within the next two years. The National Health Laboratory Service Bill has been adopted by Parliament.


Abstract Despite a well-integrated Muslim population, and an environment where there is no tangible discrimination or lack of opportunity, the Jihadist ideology has succeeded in taking root in Trinidad. Links with organized crime have helped fuel the movement and strong links have been forged with ISIS and Al-Qaeda with the result that at least 89 Trinidadians are now in Syria. It is also argued that some Trinidadian Muslims have succumbed to the messages broadcast by ISIS and that the lure of fighting for an Islamic Caliphate has found resonance. The conclusion will show that a lack of political consensus and will has hampered the country's ability to effectively neutralize the challenge thus posed.


Poly(2-chloro-1,3-butadiene) (PCB, polychloroprene) has wide-ranging applications as neoprene rubber. Favourable chemical and physical properties in the material are attributed to a three-dimensional network of polymer chains, which is realised through cross-linking. Ethylene thiourea (ETU) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are the standard reagents which facilitate this in industrial processes. However, ETU is a suspected carcinogen and its usage is due tobecome severely restricted, so much so that the future production of neoprene rubber is at risk. Hence, an alternative, non-toxic cross-linking agent is required which can cross-linkPCB in the same fashion. The way in which the ETU/ZnO system functions must first beunderstood before a replacement can be proposed. Thus, mechanistic studies were initially undertaken with PCB oligomers in order to elucidate the reaction. To this end, a synthetic protocol was established for 2-chloro-1,3-butadiene (CB) and the monomer was subsequently adopted in numerous polymerisation reactions. Investigations into the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation of CBproceeded to predefine low molecular weight PCB. A successful procedure was realised, employing 2-cyano-2-propylbenzodithioate (CPD) CTA and conditions which were able to furnish <1000 g/mol to 50,000 g/mol, low dispersity PCB in a controlled manner. This invention was novel in that PCB has historically been synthesised via conventional(uncontrolled) free radical techniques. PCB oligomers were adopted in cross-linking reactions with ETU and various model compounds, alone, and with ZnO, to aid the interpretation of the ETU/ZnO mechanism. Spectroscopic analyses and the observation of by-products revealed that three disparate reactions occur; ETU and ZnO were found to act both synergistically and independently of each other. A newly-proposed mechanism describes activation of the polymer chain by ZnOand subsequent reaction through sulfur. As a result of this discovery, alternative compounds have been tested and found capable of cross-linking PCB. In a second industrial study, the eradication of allergy-causing cross-linking additives for PCBlatex (gloves) was investigated. PCB latex films were generated under various conditions and the materials physically tested. A novel amine-dithiocarbamate complex, combined with a xanthogen polysulfide, afforded comparable properties in PCB latex and as such is apotential replacement system.


Judicial power is central to democratic consolidation and the rule of law. Public support is critical for establishing and protecting it. Conventional wisdom holds that this support is rooted in apolitical factors and not dependent on who is in political power. By contrast, we argue that support may be driven by instrumental partisan motivations and therefore linked to partisan alignment with the executive. We test the argument with survey evidence from 34 African countries. To provide causal evidence, we conduct difference-in-differences analyses leveraging Ghana's three presidential transitions since 2000. Across Africa, support for judicial power is high, while trust in courts is lower. However, presidential co-partisans are less supportive of horizontal judicial power over the president and more supportive of vertical power over the people. The article demonstrates the importance of partisan alignment with the executive in shaping support for judicial power, with implications for judicial behavior and legitimacy.


The article examines the distribution and formal realization of Subject and Object agreement markers in different word order types on the basis of a sample of 237 languages. Special attention is paid to the genetic and areal stratification of agreement markers and the impact of these two parameters on the relationship between agreement and word order type emerging from this investigation as opposed to those of previous studies, especially that of Hawkins & Gilligan (1988) and Nichols (1992). The relationship between agreement and word order type is considered in the light of the currently entertained functional explanations for the presence of agreement which are put into question by the high incidence of agreement in V3 languages.The formal realization of the agreement markers (their morphological form and also order relative to each other) in different word order types is investigated relative to the Universal Suffixing Preference, the Head Ordering Principle and the Diachronic Syntax Hypothesis. It is argued that though due to genetic and areal differences in the formal realization of agreement markers, none of the above three hypotheses concerning the relationship between the formal realization of affixal morphemes and word order type provide an adequate account of the cross-linguistic data, the Diachronic Syntax Hypothesis fares better than the other two, particularly in regard to the formal reflexes of object agreement markers.By comparing the results stemming from our sample with those of other samples we seek to draw attention to how areal biases in samples may affect cross-linguistic generalizations. In doing so we hope to highlight the need for developing a sound sampling methodology.


What makes an image appear realistic? In this work, we are answering this question from a data-driven perspective by learning the perception of visual realism directly from large amounts of data. In particular, we train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model that distinguishes natural photographs from automatically generated composite images. The model learns to predict visual realism of a scene in terms of color, lighting and texture compatibility, without any human annotations pertaining to it. Our model outperforms previous works that rely on hand-crafted heuristics, for the task of classifying realistic vs. unrealistic photos. Furthermore, we apply our learned model to compute optimal parameters of a compositing method, to maximize the visual realism score predicted by our CNN model. We demonstrate its advantage against existing methods via a human perception study.


Biologists and ecologists often monitor the spread of disease among deer in the wild by using tracking systems that record their movement patterns, locations, and interaction behavior. The existing commercial systems for monitoring wild deer utilize collars with GPS sensors, deployed on captured and rereleased deer. The GPS sensors record location data every few hours, enabling researchers to approximate the interaction behavior of tracked deer with their GPS locations. However, the coarse granularity of periodically recorded GPS location data provides only limited precision for determining deer interaction behavior. We have designed a novel system to monitor wild deer interaction behavior more precisely in harsh wilderness environments. Our system combines the functionalities of both GPS and RF-radio sensors with low-cost and minimal-resource motes. We designed and built our system to be able to operate robustly for a period of up to several months for continual tracking and monitoring of the locations and interaction behaviors of wild deer in harsh environments. We successfully deployed six deer collars on six wild deer that were captured and rereleased in the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area of northern Colorado over a one-month period. In this paper, we describe how we designed and built this system and evaluate its successful operation in a wilderness area.


Background Health benefits of postpartum antiretroviral therapy (ART) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive women with high CD4+ T-counts have not been assessed in randomized trials. Methods Asymptomatic, HIV-positive, non-breastfeeding women with pre-ART CD4+ T-cell counts ≥ 400 cells/mm3 started on ART during pregnancy were randomized up to 42 days after delivery to continue or discontinue ART. Lopinavir/ritonavir plus tenofovir/emtricitabine was the preferred ART regimen. The sample size was selected to provide 88% power to detect a 50% reduction from an annualized primary event rate of 2.07%. A post-hoc analysis evaluated HIV/AIDS-related and World Health Organization (WHO) Stage 2 and 3 events. All analyses were intent to treat. Results 1652 women from 52 sites in Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, China, Haiti, Peru, Thailand and the US were enrolled (1/2010-11/2014). Median age was 28 years and major racial categories were Black African (28%), Asian (25%) White (15%). Median entry CD4 count was 696 cells/mm3 (IQR 575–869), median ART exposure prior to delivery was 19 weeks (IQR 13–24) and 94% had entry HIV-1 RNA < 1000 copies/ml. After a median follow-up of 2.3 years, the primary composite endpoint rate was significantly lower than expected, and not significantly different between arms (continue arm 0.21 /100 person years(py); discontinue 0.31/100 py, Hazard ratio (HR) 0.68, 95% CI: 0.19, 2.40). WHO Stage 2 and 3 events were significantly reduced with continued ART (2.08/100 py vs. 4.36/100 py in the discontinue arm; HR 0.48, 95%CI: 0.33, 0.70). Toxicity rates did not differ significantly between arms. Among women randomized to continue ART, 189/827 (23%) had virologic failure; of the 155 with resistance testing, 103 (66%) failed without resistance to their current regimen, suggesting non-adherence. Conclusions Overall, serious clinical events were rare among young HIV-positive post-partum women with high CD4 cell counts. Continued ART was safe and was associated with a halving of the rate of WHO 2/3 conditions. Virologic failure rates were high, underscoring the urgent need to improve adherence in this population. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00955968


This study proposes an assessment procedure to compare two gridded (Cubic Spline, CS, and ANUSPLIN) datasets and one regional climate model simulation series (CRCM 4.1.1) of seasonal maximum precipitation (SMP) over southern Quebec (Canada). This study consists of: (1) identifying the appropriate models that could provide the most accurate SMP estimates at a particular grid point; (2) delineating the climatic homogeneous regions; and (3) providing sub-regional intensity– duration–frequency (IDF) estimates. More specifically, five popular probability distributions (Generalized Extreme Value, Generalized Logistic, Weibull, Gamma, Log-Normal) are compared; cluster analysis was employed to delineate a set of homogeneous sub-regions and one empirical model (Montana) was used to represent IDF relationships. From the results, it was found that: (1) CS product is more compatible with mean and maximum observed SMP time series than that of ANUSPLIN and CRCM 4.1.1 datasets, especially in summer; (2) Generalized Extreme Value represents the primary distribution pattern for the study area; (3) southern Quebec can be delineated into two distinct homogeneous sub-regions, especially in winter; and (4) Montana equation provides an accurate IDF model. This study can be viewed as an initial step towards the development of IDF curves under non-stationary conditions within the context of seasonal features in the regional precipitation regime.


The Healthy People 2020 initiative contains over 1,200 objectives that serve as a roadmap for tracking the nation's health (1). Oral health is 1 of 42 Healthy People topic areas comprising 33 objectives ranging from dental caries and periodontal disease, to access to preventive dental services and program infrastructure. One important activity of Healthy People is to monitor health disparities. Influential sociodemographic indicators for oral health disparities in the United States include poverty status and race and ethnicity (2). This report focuses on key Healthy People objectives covering select age groups by race and ethnicity and poverty status from 2009 to 2010.