This thesis examines the effect of vehicle dynamics on lateral deterioration of the track alignment. As rail traffic runs along a route, the forces imposed upon the track cause the ballast to settle, and hence the track geometry deteriorates. At a specified value of deterioration the track geometry needs to be restored by tamping or other methods. As the deterioration is mainly in the vertical direction, this aspect has been more widely studied and models have been developed to predict vertical track geometry deterioration. On the other hand, lateral track deterioration is not as well understood, and this thesis aims to fill the gap in this knowledge. However, the understanding of the lateral deterioration mechanisms becomes more important as speed and capacity increase. This thesis describes statistical studies of track lateral deterioration, as well as the development and validation of a vehicle-track lateral dynamic interaction model. This work is undertaken to contribute to the fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of track lateral deterioration, therefore making the effective control and reduction of the lateral deterioration achievable.

The statistical analysis provides a better understanding of three aspects of track lateral irregularities, namely: the relationship between vertical and lateral irregularities, the relationship between track curvature and track lateral irregularity and the change in track lateral deterioration over time. The vertical and lateral track irregularity magnitudes are clearly correlated. The track quality in the vertical direction is generally worse than in the lateral direction, however the number of track sections with lateral quality significantly worse than the vertical is non-negligible. The lateral irregularities tend to be larger on curves. It is notable that less than ten percent of the track studied has a constant lateral deterioration due to frequent maintenance activities and bidirectional lateral dynamic forces. Unlike vertical settlement, lateral deterioration develops exponentially in both magnitude and wavelength, and the major influences are found from the irregularities with wavelength longer than 10 m. The change in track lateral irregularity with different curve radii and the lateral deterioration rate are described in separate exponential power functions due to the limitation of the available track data. The parameters for these empirical equations do not remain constant due to the change in track conditions.

Current track lateral models mainly focus on lateral failures such as buckling and lateral sliding. The development of lateral track irregularities tends to be studied using representative values of net lateral forces and net L/V (Lateral/Vertical) load ratios. Unlike other track lateral deterioration models, the model developed in this thesis focuses on the development of lateral irregularities based on the dynamic interactions between the vehicles and the track system. This model makes it possible to carry out more integrations and analysis of the track lateral deterioration in a realistic dynamic simulation, using vehicle models, contact conditions, track initial irregularities, and traffic mix more close to the reality. The vehicle-track lateral dynamic interaction model was validated against track geometry data measured on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) in England. It has been found that the model gives a reasonably accurate prediction of the development of lateral track irregularities. However, it also tends to predict a short wavelength deterioration that is not seen in the actual track deterioration. Improvements to the model are suggested by either adding more factors or simplifying the model depending on specific target application. Enhancing the model by including more details, such as longitudinal forces, temperature effect, more layered track systems, uneven track bed conditions and more representative wheel-rail contact conditions etc., may help understand the reason of the additional short wavelength.

A sensitivity analysis was performed in order to identify the critical factors that influence lateral track deterioration. The track damage caused by specific vehicles can be controlled by understanding different vehicle dynamics behaviour on a particular track section or route. Vehicles with simple suspension design and heavy axle loads tend to cause more lateral track damage. Within a certain speed range, there will be a critical speed that generates the largest lateral deterioration. Vehicles with different dynamic behaviours can generate a potential offset of the lateral deterioration, so it is possible to design the traffic mix to cancel out the peak deterioration. However, it may not be very practical to redesign the traffic mix due to different traffic requirements. Subsequently, actions can be taken to effectively reduce track lateral deterioration, such as optimise the suspension design, vehicle weight, the selection of an optimal operation speed, and enhance the traffic mix design.

As the most important interface between vehicle and track, the wheel-rail contact condition has an extremely large influence on lateral deterioration. Wheel and rail profiles with different wear conditions can cause altered vehicle-track lateral dynamic interaction. It is found that increasingly worn wheel/rail profiles within an acceptable tolerance can effectively reduce the lateral deterioration.

Lateral deterioration can also be reduced by increasing all the track stiffness values, damping values and the mass of rails and sleepers, or alternatively, by decreasing the sleeper spacing. The sleeper-ballast interface is found to play the most important role in lateral deterioration. The interfaces between the sleeper and ballast shoulder, crib and base determines the non-linear characteristic such as hysteresis and sliding features. Improving the strength of the sleeper-ballast interface can improve the elastic limits and hysteresis characteristics, hence reducing the lateral deterioration.

The findings of the investigation indicate that the model provides in-depth knowledge of the mechanisms influencing lateral deterioration and provides effective solutions with consideration of vehicles, wheel-rail contact and the track system.

Further work would include track data with sufficient information in order to develop a more comprehensive empirical model that describes the lateral deterioration, inclusion of more potentially influential factors such as: temperature, ground condition, traffic etc. The model can be improved by taking into account additional factors such as the influence of longitudinal forces from the wheels to the rails, different weather and temperatures, subgrade and ground conditions, etc. The reason for the high frequency noise in the deterioration prediction is not understood yet and it should be discussed in terms of more accurate vehicle simulation results and more comprehensive rail and wheel worn profiles measured on the target track and vehicles. Furthermore, the sleeper-ballast lateral characteristics are not well understood and the previous research in this area is quite limited. To improve on the present work it would be useful to carry out laboratory tests in order to capture more accurately track lateral stiffness and damping values as well as the comprehensive non-linear characteristic of track lateral residual resistance behaviour.


Social norms, myths, and misconceptions negatively impact girls' self-esteem, self-confidence and self-efficacy. These harmful traditions and social norms often cause feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness. With limited opportunities provided to girls, in general, and rural girls, in particular, including limitation of mobility and exclusion from education and employment, girls often lack self-esteem. This study focuses on rural marginalized girls in Upper Egypt, which is a conservative setting characterized with harmful social norms and practices; such as, early marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). This thesis examines rural girls' empowerment through sports and physical activities and argues that sports and play are rights through which other rights can be addressed. Sports and physical activities are innovative approaches that can bring about self-reliance, self-esteem, and self-efficacy, which ultimately promote girls' empowerment. In this respect, the study provides an analysis of UNICEF Egypt's Sports for Development Project (S4D) namely Sports and Physical Activities with Life Skills. The project was implemented in Assiut governorate in collaboration with Assiut Childhood and Development Association (ACDA), and the Ministry of Education (MoE) Directorate in Assiut governorate. The S4D project was piloted in 50 community schools in three rural districts; namely, Abnoub, El Fath, and Dayrout during the academic year 2013-2014. The analysis was undertaken in light of the three main components of the empowerment theory, which are: the intrapersonal, the interactional and the behavioral. The results of the analysis revealed that sports and physical activities with life skills can promote girls' empowerment and enhance their school attendance and hence retain them in education. The analysis also revealed that even though sports and physical activities are effective innovative approaches, their deployment in development interventions has been overlooked by the development organizations. Most of the development interventions tend to adopt complex approaches, thus pay less attention to simple and entertaining approaches such as sports and physical activities. Consequently, there is a need to promote the use of sports as a right and as a crosscutting strategy to address other rights.


Early detection of rail defects is necessary for preventing derailments and costly damage to the train and railway infrastructure. A rail surface flaw can quickly propagate from a small fracture to a broken rail after only a few train cars have passed over it. Rail defect detection is typically performed by using an instrumented car or a separate railway monitoring vehicle. Rail surface irregularities can be measured using accelerometers mounted to the bogie side frames or wheel axles. Typical signal processing algorithms for detecting defects within a vertical acceleration signal use a simple thresholding routine that considers only the amplitude of the signal. As a result, rail surface defects that produce low amplitude acceleration signatures may not be detected, and special track components that produce high amplitude acceleration signatures may be flagged as defects. The focus of this research is to develop an intelligent signal processing algorithm capable of detecting and classifying various rail surface irregularities, including defects and special track components. Three algorithms are proposed and validated using data collected from an instrumented freight car. For the first two algorithms, one uses a windowed Fourier Transform while the other uses the Wavelet Transform for feature extraction. Both of these algorithms use an artificial neural network for feature classification. The third algorithm uses the Wavelet Transform to perform a regularity analysis on the signal. The algorithms are validated with the collected data and shown to out-perform the threshold-based algorithm for the same data set. Proper training of the defect detection algorithm requires a large data set consisting of operating conditions and physical parameters. To generate this training data, a dynamic wheelrail interaction model was developed that relates defect geometry to the side frame vertical acceleration signature. The model was generated by using combined systems dynamic modeling, and the system was solved with a developed combined lumped and distributed parameter system numerical approximation. The broken rail model was validated with real data collected from an instrumented freight car. The model was then used to train and validate the defect detection methodologies for various train and rail physical parameters and operating


Like most years in the 50-year history of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), 2008 saw events that could have significant consequences for international relations and global balances of power. These included the election of Barack Obama as US president; the brief war in Georgia, which caused the West to look at Russia with more watchful eyes; and a cataclysmic crisis in the world's financial markets that seemed to threaten globalisation and even capitalism, and to herald a period of greater economic austerity. Even as these events occurred, the security issues and risks that have been the core focus of the work of the IISS during the past half-century continued to loom large, among them nuclear proliferation and the relations between the major powers. In addition to these perennial themes was another set of issues that has in recent times risen higher on the international security agenda, including the security ramifications of natural disasters and environmental dangers such as climate change. In its anniversary year, the IISS held several high-level conferences around the world. Speeches given at these events addressed all of these issues, and this Adelphi Paper offers a selection of them. The speakers were statesmen, senior military officers, high officials and international security experts. All were concerned first and foremost with the pressing issues of the moment, as their duties required them to be. But the fact that they also addressed recurrent themes testifies to the enduring nature of the strategic challenges faced by policymakers


No team in Philadelphia pulls on the hearts and minds of its fans more than the Eagles. From Bert Bell to Earle 'Greasy' Neale to Andy Reid, from Sonny Jurgensen to Norm Van Brocklin, to Ron Jaworski, to Randall Cunningham to Donovan McNabb, the fans of the Philadelphia Eagles now have the complete history of the team in their hands. In these pages, we read about the greatest moments in Eagles history, and of the men who helped found the team and create modern football. The book brings to life Bert Bell, who bought the franchise of the defunct Frankford Yellow jackets and renamed the team after the symbol of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and who later became the NFL's commissioner and invented the college draft.We follow the season-by-season play of the team, whose first winning record was the season when the Eagles and Steelers merged due to manpower shortages during WWII. And more than anything, we revel in the years of triumph: the Duffel Bag Dynasty, when the Eagles went to three consecutive NFL championship games, and won two back to back; the 1960 title victory against the Green Bay Packers; the first Superbowl appearance in 1980; and the magical opening of the 21st century, which has seen four consecutive NFC championship games and the team's return to the Superbowl. Written by "Football Hall of Fame" writer Ray Didinger and acclaimed local sports history Robery S. Lyons, "The Eagles Enyclopedia" is an indispensible year by year guidebook for every fan of one of football's most storied franchises.


This article considers how certain ideas underlying the tort of appropriation may enable use more effectively to deal with the problems presented by a case such Moore v. Regents of the University of California which dealt with property rights of Moore's spleen cells. First, the author explores how the tort of appropriation of identity opens up new approaches to inform and perhaps supplement principles of property law as a guide to managing genetic information or other materials that seem intimately bound up with a particular human subject. Secondly, the author analyzes how the various opinions produced by the Supreme Court implicitly elaborate a powerful and problematic relation between the spheres of private life, science and the market, such that the science is granted special status and power relative to the other two – or rather, how the Supreme Court effectively exploits the social status of science to expand the reach of the market into the private sphere of control over the body. Finally, the author considers how the Appellate Court's discussion of appropriation of identity suggests possible new avenues to pursue regarding the legal recognition and management of both individual and group identity.


The main aim of the study is to know the use of e-journals among the faculty members and students in engineering college libraries. The results of the study show that the students and faculty members who participated in this survey are aware of e-journals and majority of the respondents used ejournals for study and project dissertation work. Most of the faculty members and students used ejournals in libraries. The survey respondents opined that the e-journals are easy to access and use as compared to print journals. Thus the study recommends that the Engineering college libraries should focus more in the subscription of e-journals rather than print journals.


In recent years, the U.S. has threatened air strikes against Syria and insisted on the possibility of air strikes against Iran, in both cases to deter development of weapons of mass destruction. Such threats represent a return to the idea that international law allows states to impose punitive measures by force. Most academic specialists claim that the UN Charter only authorizes force in immediate self-defense. Many commentators embrace the related doctrine that lawful force can only be exercised against the opposing military force. But there remains more logic in the older view, that international law authorizes force for a wider variety of challenges and against a wider range of legitimate targets. Since there is no global protective service, nations must use force more broadly in self-defense and greater powers must sometimes use force to resist the spread of weapons of mass destruction, to disrupt terror networks, to stop aggressive designs before they provoke all out war. There are good reasons to insist on restraints that limit loss of life among civilians, but civilian property does not have the same claims. But with today's technologies, cyber attacks or drone strikes can focus on carefully chosen civilian targets. That approach can help resolve disputes between nations with less overall destruction -- the ultimate purpose of the laws of war.


The authors present a series of suspended light devices discovered in Early Byzantine settlements from the province of Scythia. The finds were discovered in Halmyris/Murighiol, Beroe/Piatra Frecăței, (L)Ibida/Slava Rusă, Tomis/Constanța, Capidava, Ulmetum/Pantelimonul de Sus, and Tropaeum Traiani/Adamclisi. The archaeological contexts of these finds are mostly unclear, but we believe that were used for illuminating civilian houses, military barracks, warehouses and religious places.


In February 2003, the Herero People's Reparations Corporation filed a complaint against Germany in the District Court of the District of Columbia alleging violations of international law, crimes against humanity, genocide, slavery, and forced labor before, during, and after the German-Herero War (1904-07). The German government, modern scholars, and other commentators have long taken the position that genocides committed by colonial governments in the nineteenth century did not violate international law at that time. Arguments for this position rely, inter alia, on the belief that all forms of genocide were first criminalized and made punishable by the 1948 U.N. Convention on Genocide. However, an analysis of contemporaneous international customary and treaty law shows this position to be wrong and supports the position that colonial acts of annihilation in Africa were illegal by the end of the nineteenth century. This article further argues that this law was directly applicable to the German-Herero War. It concludes that the Hereros' case for legal redress is stronger than heretofore assumed and examine the implications for the claims of other similarly situated victims of genocide.


Abstract The Zebiak–Cane (ZC) model for simulation of the El Nino–Southern Oscillation is shown to be capable of producing sequences of variability that exhibit shifts in the time-mean state of the eastern equatorial Pacific that resemble observations of tropical Pacific decadal variability. The model's performance in predicting these shifts is compared to two naive forecasting strategies. It is found that the ZC model consistently outperforms the two naive forecasts that serve as a null hypothesis in assessing the significance of results. Forecasts initialized during anomalously warm and anomalously cold decades are shown to have the highest predictability. These modeling results suggest that, to a moderate extent, the state of the tropical Pacific in one decade can predetermine its time-mean state in the following decade. However, even in this idealized context decadal forecasting skill is modest. Results are discussed in the context of their implications for the ongoing debate over the origin of decada...


Packed beds of gas-solid systems are extensively used as reactors, separators, dryers, filters, heat exchangers and combustors. The design of packed beds requires a detailed knowledge of local dynamics of flow, composition and temperature. Unfortunately, investigations for the development of 3D modelling codes by computational fluid dynamics are still not sufficiently mature compared with those relying on 2D modelling or simplified pseudo-homogenous models. This project investigates non-uniform catalyst deactivation in packed bed reactors of low aspect ratios under steady-state and dynamic operations. Low aspect ratio packed beds were selected as they are known to generate non-uniform distribution of local flow. Detailed knowledge of flow dynamics in terms of local structure of the packed bed, pressure drops, interstitial flow, heat and mass rate distributions was examined. The discrete element method was used to generate various packing configurations and the results of profiles of porosity were in a good agreement with the semi-analytical models, especially, in the vicinity of the wall. Similar oscillation trends with damping profiles towards the centre of the packed beds were observed. Flow heterogeneity was assessed by tests of mass transfer dispersion through a Lagrangian approach. Interactions of fluid flow, mass and heat transfers, and local deactivation of alumina catalyst Al2O3 of CO oxidation were investigated under design and operating conditions. An increase in the activation energy of deactivation promoted the deactivation by accelerating the reaction rate and releasing additional thermal energy, which in turn accelerated the deactivation. The 3D modelling allowed observation of local catalyst deactivation at packing pore level which is typically not accessible by the 2D modelling or pseudo-homogeneous models. In addition, the deactivation was quite asymmetrical along axial and radial directions, leading to uneven rates of thermal expansion and contraction and causing local deactivation associated with temperature runaways.


Whatever I create and however much I love it- soon I must oppose it and my love; thus my will wills it. And you too, lover of knowledge, are only a path and footprint of my will; verily my will to power walks also on the heels of your will to truth.1 Nietzsche's assessment of modernity is ambivalent. On the one hand, he describes it as the age of the last man, the age of stifling mediocrity where the values of the herd have become universally triumphant; on the other, he describes it as a promising dawn, a re-awakening of humanity's full potentialities. He characterizes this new beginning as the liberation of the creative human will, which suggests that the power of creation had hitherto rested outside the human sphere, or at least that we had believed this to be the case, which for Nietzsche amounts to the same thing. Thus Nietzsche's narrative of the history of morality can be read as the slow but progressive unfolding of the self-consciousness of the human will. However, since the history of morality is for Nietzsche the history of nihilism, the story of creation must also be told against this latter, more fundamental backdrop. That at any rate is the approach taken in this essay. My argument is that although Nietzsche himself speaks of nihilism as a merely "pathological transitional stage" in human history, to see the phenomenon of nihilism in this manner is to misconstrue its significance for Nietzsche's own thinking on the concept of creation and its function in human willing. I will show that truly authentic creation, as Nietzsche himself at his most challenging understands it, is solely the product of the valuative will to power of the "complete nihilist"; so that in dispensing fully with nihilism, taken in its most robust sense, one would also be eliminating the possibility for the creative human will to reach full maturity. To begin, we need to get clear on the concept of nihilism in Nietzsche's thinking. A Typology of Nihilism The problem of nihilism occupied Nietzsche throughout his career and might arguably be called his central philosophical concern. In the posthumously patched-together work The Will to Power, we find Nietzsche's most concentrated collection of reflections on the concept of nihilism. There he defines (one kind of) nihilism as "the radical repudiation of value, meaning, and desirability."3 He adds that nihilism, thus understood, is rooted in the Christian moral interpretation of the world. Thus he approaches the phenomenon as an "evolutionary" process, an historically determined continuum of types. For Nietzsche, recounting the history of morality is equivalent to showing how one kind of nihilism is replaced by another. The first, pre-modern type is what I will call "transcendental nihilism." All efforts to posit a beyond, a suprasensory realm opposed to "this" world, result in transcendental nihilism, the nihilism of absolute values or "absolute spheres."4 Platonism, Christianity-- that "platonism for the people"'-and Kantianism are the most significant forms of this type of nihilism. In his succinct summary of Western morality in The Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche argues that the move to the transcendent is the first step in "the history of an error." Platonism, positing the existence of a realm of pure Ideas, allows access to this rarefied world, but only for the assiduously schooled "knowers" Christianity also posits the existence of an otherworldly realm and holds it to be unattainable in this life, although the repentant sinner may attain it in the next. Kantianism for its part locates the beyond in the Ding an Sich and the a priori structure of consciousness. The true world here becomes epistemologically unreachable, though the thought of it is held to be an "imperative of morality. "6 As these examples illustrate, transcendental nihilism operates by moving life's center of gravity out of life itself. This is its most general characteristic, which is why Nietzsche can conflate its metaphysical and religious manifestations. …


In this report, the truncated Newton (TN) method and its application to anacoustic FWI is investigated. Larger problems are shown to be efficiently solvable when using TN FWI instead of full Newton FWI. It is also found that stricter forcing terms are required in anacoustic FWI to achieve results comparable to acoustic TN FWI, due mostly to cross-talk effects. This additional cost can partly mitigated by using effective preconditioning and a CG inner solver, or better mitigated using a BFGS inner solver. Even with these strategies, significant cost is incurred to accurately recover Q. If only velocity is desired, it can be effectively recovered for a lower cost.


The promise of fundamental advances in diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease has never been greater. The mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is science in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and to reduce the burdens of illness and disability. The power of the molecular approach to health and disease has steadily gained momentum over the past several decades and is now poised to catalyze a revolution in medicine. The foundation of success in biomedical research has always been, and no doubt will continue to be, the creative insights of individual investigators. But increasingly those investigators are working in teams, accelerated by interdisciplinary approaches and empowered by open access to tools, databases, and technologies, so a careful balance is needed between investigator-initiated projects and large-scale community resource programs. For both individual and large-scale efforts, it is appropriate to identify areas of particular promise. Here are five such areas that are ripe for major advances that could reap substantial downstream benefits.


Worldwide demand for crops is increasing rapidly due to global population growth, increased biofuel production, and changing dietary preferences. Meeting these growing demands will be a substantial challenge that will tax the capability of our food system and prompt calls to dramatically boost global crop production. However, to increase food availability, we may also consider how the world's crops are allocated to different uses and whether it is possible to feed more people with current levels of crop production. Of particular interest are the uses of crops as animal feed and as biofuel feedstocks. Currently, 36% of the calories produced by the world's crops are being used for animal feed, and only 12% of those feed calories ultimately contribute to the human diet (as meat and other animal products). Additionally, human-edible calories used for biofuel production increased fourfold between the years 2000 and 2010, from 1% to 4%, representing a net reduction of available food globally. In this study, we re-examine agricultural productivity, going from using the standard definition of yield (in tonnes per hectare, or similar units) to using the number of people actually fed per hectare of cropland. We find that, given the current mix of crop uses, growing food exclusively for direct human consumption could, in principle, increase available food calories by as much as 70%, which could feed an additional 4 billion people (more than the projected 2–3 billion people arriving through population growth). Even small shifts in our allocation of crops to animal feed and biofuels could significantly increase global food availability, and could be an instrumental tool in meeting the challenges of ensuring global food security.


A revealed-preference-based method is proposed for assessment of the environmental and human health impact of genetically engineered (GE) crops. This method employs the relative pesticide toxicity information from farmers' pesticide choices combined with volume of pesticides as an alternative to previous methods which are based on volume only, on number of pesticide applications, or on stated preferences. The method is applied to estimate the changes in the impact of herbicides after environmental and health perspective. The results indicate that, on average, a reduction in herbicide human heath and environmental impacts occurs when farmers adopt RR soybean varieties.


We report humidity assisted thermal exposure (HTE) as a post-treatment method for carbon based printed perovskite solar cells (CPSCs). The method does not only improve the interfaces of different layers of the printed stack, but also provides a pathway to fabricate high performance CPSCs with low hysteresis along with high stability. The HTE treatment directly influences over the associated components in the stack and remarkably improves each photovoltaic parameter of the CPSCs as seen by several characterization schemes presented in this study. The average initial efficiency (9.0% ± 0.2%) of the CPSCs of a batch was significantly improved to 13.1% ± 0.2% i.e. as high as 45% when subjected to HTE treatment for a period of 200 hours. Furthermore, the highest average efficiency obtained from the same batch from reverse scanning was 13.8% ± 0.4% with a CPSC attaining as high as 14.3% when exposed to the same thermo-humid environment for a period of 115 hours. Above all, the stability of the HTE treated CPSCs was also not compromised for over 350 hours under full-sun illumination stress testing at 40 °C. The results presented in this work provide an opportunity to adopt HTE treatment as a complementary step for the fabrication of high-performance carbon-based perovskite solar cells with low hysteresis accompanied by high durability and performance reproducibility.


Purpose: To understand whether chest computed tomographies (CTs) have utility in a medical intensive care unit (MICU) population as previously noted in nonmedical critically ill patients. Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients receiving chest CTs in the MICU at an urban, academic institution. Indications for, findings on, and care changes made after chest CT were obtained. We identified patient characteristics associated with having a care change clearly related to the CT using multivariate regression. Results: We evaluated 134 patients; 64 (47.8%) had a chest CT with intravenous contrast. Common findings included pulmonary consolidation (46.3%), nonconsolidative pulmonary parenchymal disease (29.1%), and pleural effusion (35.1%). Of the chest CTs, 23.9% were followed by changes in management clearly related to the study. Use of intravenous contrast was associated with increased odds of having a care change (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval [CI] versus noncontrast study: 3.14 [1.18-8.37], P = .022) and having the CT performed 1 or 2 days after ICU admission versus on the day of ICU admission was associated with lower odds of a care change (odds ratio [95% CI]: 0.29 [0.09-0.99], P = .048). Conclusion: Less than one-quarter of chest CTs in the MICU result in management. Intravenous contrast-enhanced CTs and CTs done on the day of ICU admission have increased odds of utility.


HVAC systems that are designed without properly accounting for equipment load variation across laboratory spaces in a facility can significantly increase simultaneous heating and cooling, particularly for systems that use zone reheat for temperature control. This best practice guide describes the problem of simultaneous heating and cooling resulting from load variations, and presents several technological and design process strategies to minimize it. This guide is one in a series created by the Laboratories for the 21st century ('Labs21') program, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy. Geared towards architects, engineers, and facilities managers, these guides provide information about technologies and practices to use in designing, constructing, and operating safe, sustainable, high-performance laboratories.


Spatio-temporal fire regimes are likely to shift with changes in land use and climate. Such a shift in the disturbance regime has been proposed from recent reconstructions of the regional fire history in the Mediterranean-type woodlands and shrublands of Western Australia which suggest that fire was much more frequent before 1930 (local fire intervals of 3–5 years) than it is today (local fire intervals of 8–15 years). To investigate the potential biodiversity consequences of such changes in fire regime for fire-killed woody species, we developed a spatial model for the serotinous shrub Banksia hookeriana that grows on sand dunes of the Eneabba Plain, Western Australia. We sought to identify the envelope of fire regimes under which the spatially separated populations in this species are able to persist, and whether this encompasses the fire regimes proposed by recent fire-history reconstructions. We tested two fire frequency-size distribution scenarios: (1) a scenario where fire size depends on the spatial patch configuration; and (2) a scenario depending also on available fuel (time since last fire), which reduces fire size at short inter-fire intervals. In scenario 1, metapopulation persistence was only likely for mean ignition intervals at the landscape scale of 6 years. In scenario 2, persistence was likely for the whole range of fire interval distributions at the landscape scale suggested by the empirical data. However, persistence was almost impossible if the mean return fire interval at the local scale (i.e. for individual dunes) is < 8 years. Synthesis and applications. We have demonstrated that this plant metapopulation can potentially persist over a wide range of temporal fire regimes at the landscape scale, so long as there are buffering mechanisms at work (e.g. feedback between fire spread and vegetation age) which reduces the probability of large fires at short intervals. Our findings demonstrate that at least some parts of the landscape must burn substantially less frequently on average than suggested by the empirical fire reconstructions for the early and pre-European period if populations of fire-killed woody species such as B. hookeriana are to be conserved.


Recently, deep spectral kernel networks (DSKNs) have attracted wide attention. They consist of periodic computational elements that can be activated across the whole feature spaces. In theory, DSKNs have the potential to reveal input-dependent and long-range characteristics, and thus are expected to perform more competitive than prevailing networks. But in practice, they are still unable to achieve the desired effects. The structural superiority of DSKNs comes at the cost of the difficult optimization. The periodicity of computational elements leads to many poor and dense local minima in loss landscapes. DSKNs are more likely stuck in these local minima, and perform worse than expected. Hence, in this paper, we propose the novel Bayesian random Kernel mapping Networks (BaKer-Nets) with preferable learning processes by escaping randomly from most local minima. Specifically, BaKer-Nets consist of two core components: 1) a prior-posterior bridge is derived to enable the uncertainty of computational elements reasonably; 2) a Bayesian learning paradigm is presented to optimize the prior-posterior bridge efficiently. With the well-tuned uncertainty, BaKer-Nets can not only explore more potential solutions to avoid local minima, but also exploit these ensemble solutions to strengthen their robustness. Systematical experiments demonstrate the significance of BaKer-Nets in improving learning processes on the premise of preserving the structural superiority.


The exponential growth of Christianity on the African continent is, to a large extent, due to African Initiated Church (AIC) discourse's hybridity. Probably the most potent weapon in the strategy of African Apostolic Church of Zimbabwe archbishop, Paul Mwazha, is a founding text entitled "Kutumwa Kwa Paul Mwazha weAfrica" (English version: "The Divine Commissioning of Paul Mwazha of Africa") Parts One and Two. This paper examines Part Two of Mwazha's text from a perspective of interdiscursivity in order to characterise its persuasive force. The study concludes that Mwazha's founding text incorporates a variety of voices, including the biography, the diary, the Bible and Bantu worldview. These discourses are skilfully used to contextualise Mwazha's voice. The choice of voices lends credibility to the author's voice through a judicious mix of styles related to Western, Biblical and Bantu discourses or worldviews. African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sport Facilitation Vol. 10 2008: pp. 126-135


The study of dwarf galaxies is important in order to better understand the physics of the young universe and how larger galaxies form and evolve. In this work we focus on Blue Compact Galaxies (BCGs) which havemuch enhanced star formation (starbursts), causing blue colours and strong emission line spectra.Investigating of the inner motions of BCGs provides a means for determining masses and understanding what triggered the current starburst. We have used the Very Large Telescope to perform challenging observations of the stellar motions in several BCGs, as seen in the near-infrared Ca-triplet absorption lines. By comparing these to the kinematics of the ionized interstellar medium, we were able to look into the role of feeback from stellar winds and supernova explosions, as well as further strengthen the notion that the merging of galaxies plays an important role.Spatially resolved spectroscopy can yield information about the 3D-structure of galaxies. We have used a Fabry-Perot interferometer to study the kinematics of the interstellar medium in two samples of galaxies, each containing about twenty objects. We find strong indications for ongoing galaxy mergers that correlate well with the strength of the star-formation activity. Furthermore, by estimating dynamical masses, BCGs are shown to be on average not dynamically supported by rotation.In addition, we have used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to study the frequency of starbursts in the local universe and the connection to their descendants. We selected starbursts by the strength of emission in H-alpha, the first Balmer recombination line, and post-starbursts by the strength of absorption in H-delta. These are indicators of currently ongoing and recent, on the order of 100 Myr, star-formation, respectively. By modelling the stellar populations we derive ages and masses and can establish a link between starbursts and postbursts in a time sequence. We find that starbursts are active on a 100 Myr timescale but are rare objects in the local universe.


Although intravenous therapy (IV) is one of the most frequently utilized approaches for fluid delivery in modern healthcare, it is associated with some form of complication up to 40% of the time. While many complications are minor, occlusion and extravasation can prevent the delivery of a needed fluid-based intervention or cause delivery into the subdermal space, which can lead to distributed tissue damage and necrosis. To address this need, this group developed the IV patency monitoring device (IVP) to generate and analyze a small pulse wave within the IV fluid. The study hypothesis was that changes in the IV's communication with the blood stream could be detected as an alteration in this signal. This study investigated wave characteristics generated by the IVP in a benchtop tissue phantom. Results demonstrated that wave characteristics change detectably between simulated patent communication with a simulated blood stream and states of extravasation or occlusion. Future work will focus on improved detection methods and integrating a real-time alert system, which will better prepare the IVP for clinical translation and impact.


Abstract: The violence lying at the core of Flannery O'Connor's fiction does not constitute, as it seems, a gross divine invasion of human autonomy. On the contrary, her work has a deep congruence with the theology of Benedict XVI and its claim that the natural order is never autonomous but always and already graced. Divine love is not only agape, therefore, but also eros: God is not only the self-giving Beloved but also the other-pursuing Lover. Thus do O'Connor's characters find their graciously implanted (but sinfully suppressed) longings erupting within them, as their holy Lover seeks and finds his own beloved. ********** It would seem that Flannery O'Connor's devotion to the theology of Thomas Aquinas was largely confined to matters of artistic form rather than religious substance. On the one hand, she hailed Thomas's definition of art as "reason in making"--"a very cold and very beautiful definition" as she called it (Mystery and Manners 82). John Sykes, Susan Srigley, and Christina Bieber Lake have all shown that O'Connor derived her understanding of artistic form from St. Thomas, as his theological aesthetic was mediated to her by Jacques Maritain. The single virtue of the practical intellect required of a fiction writer, Aquinas taught her, is mastery of the craft of fiction: plot and character and point of view, scene and setting and atmosphere. When these are properly apportioned and integrated--with no hectoring message or sentimental sympathy--the result is an artistic whole that redounds to the good of both God and man. (1) On the other hand, O'Connor confessed that her deepest theological loyalties did not lie with the serene Christian humanism of St. Thomas, with its profound conviction that the realms of nature and grace are almost seamlessly joined. On the contrary, her fiction appears to be concerned primarily with violent divine invasions of the natural and the human, so as to confront her characters with the drastic requirements of grace. Hence O'Connor's confession of theological sympathy not with Thomistic humanism but with the contrarian tradition of Pascal: [A]ll my own experience has been that of the writer who believes, ... in Pascal's words, in the "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not of the philosophers and scholars" This is an unlimited God and one who has revealed himself specifically. It is one who became man and who rose from the dead. It is one who confounds the senses and sensibilities, one known early on as a stumbling block. There is no way to gloss over this specification or to make it more acceptable to modern thought. (Mystery 160) The aim of this article is to argue that the apparent divide between O'Connor's artistic principles and her theological convictions is exaggerated at best, wrong at worst. To make this case, I will have recourse to the work of Pope Benedict XVI and what I will be calling his theology of the divine eros. The former Cardinal Ratzinger has long been loyal to the Thomistic watchword: gratia non destruit naturam, sed elevat et perficit (grace does not destroy but completes and perfects nature). His Holiness construes this relation in a drastically modified manner, however--in a scandalous manner that echoes the fiction of Flannery O'Connor. In both Benedict and O'Connor, the realms of nature and grace do indeed penetrate and interlock so as to form a perfected whole, but they do so in a radically surprising way. Both the pope and the writer retain the real offense of the Gospel by envisioning the love of God as eros no less than agape. The divine love not only gives itself in oblation for the world's sin, it also burns and pierces the myriad hosts of its beloved, erupting into their lives so as to prevent, if possible, their being lost to false lovers and false loves. The essay is divided into five parts: (1) a brief description of the alleged Jansenist and Gnostic quality of Flannery O'Connor's fiction, where her characters often appear to be virtually obliterated by divine grace, their freedom seemingly coerced into obedience and submission; (2) a longer account of the theological movement that is formative for the work of Benedict XVI--namely, la nouvelle theologie; (3) an examination of the present pope's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, and its treatment of the divine eros as having special relevance to the fiction of Flannery O'Connor; (4) a treatment of particular characters and scenes in her work that, far from being Jansenist and freedom-denying, deeply cohere with the teaching of Benedict XVI concerning the divine eros; and (5) a "Benedictine" reading of the closing scenes of O'Connor's allegedly most God-dominated and will-crushing work, The Violent Bear It Away. …


Background and objectives: Pellagra was vanished from most parts of the world where it was formerly present due to its dietary modification. However, it is still encountered among the jowar eating populations of India. The information about the role of oxidative stress in pellagra was not established. Therefore, in this study we assessed the oxidative stress status by using malondialdehyde (MDA), total anti oxidant status (TAOS) and redox ratio (RER) in clinically diagnosed pellagra patients. Materials and methods: Clinically diagnosed pellagra patients aged between 18 to 40 years, both male and females were recruited (n=78) from department of Dermatology. Age and gender matched controls (n=78) were recruited from the student and residents of the hospital. Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a marker of lipid peroxidation, Total Anti Oxidant Status (TAOS) and Redox Ratio (RER) markers were assessed by using commercially available kits. Results: There were no significant differences in the anthropometric parameters. However, the oxidative stress markers MDA (p<0.05), RER (p<0.001) were significantly high and TAOS was low (P<0.001) in pellagra patients in comparison with age and gender matched controls. Conclusion: The results of this study showed the increased MDA, RER levels and decreased TAOS levels. Estimation of these markers at early stage will help to take measures to prevent the progression of disease and develop antioxidant strategies.


This thesis examines the relationship between trainee teachers' social class backgrounds
and their early professional identity development in placement schools. Reasons why they
seek to train in specific schools and how trainees' social class backgrounds affect their
choice of placement schools is explored.
The concepts of dispositional understanding and habitus are used to develop an
understanding of the social class values trainee teachers bring to an initial teacher training
course and consequently, how these concepts are made manifest during training
placements.
My epistemological position as a qualitative researcher defines the framework for how I
gather and interpret my data. Using interviews that explore social backgrounds and details
of placement experiences provides data that is rich in personal detail, as well as giving
insight into how trainees perceive their training placements and early career professional
identity development.
The findings indicate that trainees research their school-based placements in order to
ensure that they have an increased chance of successfully completing their training. This
leads to trainees preferring placements in what they perceive to be successful schools.
Making such choices reduces the potential for failure through coming into contact with
school students who may, through the trainees' perceptions of such students, disrupt
trainees' progress. In doing so, they seek to detach themselves from students whom they
perceive may damage their chances of successfully completing placements and ultimately,
their entry into teaching. Analysis of trainees' recall of taught elements of their training
reveals that they privilege information relating to ethnicity, race, gender or religion over
students' socio-economic status. Finally, analysis of policy shows that with future changes
to initial teacher training there are implications for courses due to elimination and
recruitment to schools in areas of social deprivation.


A "concept-oriented" analysis of past time reference in the English of two French learners provides insight into the communicative strategies employed by advanced language learners. Although these learners have a limited command of past tense morphology, they nevertheless manage to establish past time reference in conversational discourse, utilising alternatives to morphological marking such as the use of adverbial phrases, implicit framing established by prior discourse, or "nil" framing, relying on assumed shared knowledge or the interlocutor's interpretive skills. The two varieties of "learner English" differ significantly: one features a substantially higher number of morphologically marked verbs, with increasing explicitness in temporal framing; the other makes much greater use of implicit framing, with a substantial and unexpected increase in reliance on discourse-based frames. Neither learner shows evidence of linear or stage-wise development which would correspond to "rule-governed" acquisition of new knowledge.


In a recent study, we reported that certain anti-spike antibodies of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV viruses can have a pathogenic effect through binding to sick lung epithelium cells and misleading immune responses to attack self-cells. We termed this new pathogenic mechanism "Antibody Dependent Auto-Attack" (ADAA). This study explores a drug candidate for prevention and treatment of such ADAA-based diseases. The drug candidate is a formulation comprising N-acetylneuraminic acid methyl ester (NANA-Me), an analog of N-acetylneuraminic acid. NANA-Me acts through a unique mechanism of action (MOA) which is repairment of the missing sialic acid on sick lung epithelium cells. This MOA can block the antibodies' binding to sick cells, which are vulnerable to pathogenic antibodies. Our in vivo data showed that the formulation significantly reduced the sickness and deaths caused by pathogenic anti-spike antibodies. Therefore, the formulation has the potential to prevent and treat the serious conditions caused by pathogenic antibodies during a COVID-19 infection. In addition, the formulation has potential to prevent and treat the adverse reactions of COVID-19 vaccines because the vaccines can induce similar antibodies, including pathogenic antibodies. The formulation will be helpful in increasing the safety of the vaccines without reducing the vaccine's efficacy. Compared to existing antiviral drugs, the formulation has a unique MOA of targeting receptors, broad spectrum of indications, excellent safety profile, resistance to mutations, and can be easily produced.


Mobile Satellite Communication Systems are the best, and probably the only solution to a full 'global communication coverage'. Despite the intense scrutiny and inherent difficulties in gaining acceptance by the telecommunications market and the recent switch back towards GEO satellites, mobile satellite systems in non-geostationary LEO (500-2000km) and MEO (10000-12000km) constellations still remain an attractive solution in an integrated satellite/terrestrial scenario as they offer lower delays and lower power requirements than GEO satellites (35800km). Since Quality of Service (QoS) and service availability are major subscriber concerns, the investigation of factors which influence them are of central importance to the design of such systems. In non-GEO mobile satellite systems both the QoS and the service availability are very much dependant on the changing dynamics of the constellation and on the time varying nature of the propagation environment. Motivated by the above issues, we present, analyse and evaluate the coverage and availability of first generation constellation proposals in terms of LOS and bit-error-rate (QoS) requirements. Handover management is also identified as an important issue affecting the QoS and therefore handover strategies and mechanisms for various satellite constellations are presented and analysed. Based on the statistical but predefined nature of the constellation dynamics as well as the influence of the propagation channel and its dependence on the constellation design we propose two new channel adaptive handover algorithms in an effort to reduce the handover signalling whilst maximising at the same time the QoS as perceived by the user in terms of reduced call dropping rate for a typical circuit mode telephone call. Finally, as the current trend of the telecommunication services is towards the provision of packet oriented services, we focus the final part of this study on the performance investigation, in terms of throughput versus delay characteristics, on the provision of GPRS-like services over mobile satellite systems and compare GEO and non-GEO delivery. It is concluded, based on the MAC protocol proposed in the last chapter, that depending on the type of traffic and on the network load, the LEO approach doesn't always give superior performance in terms of delay characteristics to that of a MEO. The results and findings presented in this thesis can be used as a reference for optimising and designing future mobile satellite systems. Key words: Availability, QoS, handover, MAC protocols, satellite channel.


Strawberry anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum acutatum J.H. Simmonds, has been reported from most areas of the world where strawberries are grown. The use of chemical phytosanitary products to control fungal diseases has been drastically reduced by EU legislation. For that reason, the development of non-chemical alternatives respectful with the environment and human health is urgent. This study tries to evaluate the effect of two natural products which previously showed a potential as plant defense inductors and in vitro biofungicide activity in the control of C. acutatum. Strawberry plants grown under temperature and humidity controlled conditions were treated with a biofungicide product containing seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum sp.) extracts (0.5%); a plant defense inductor based on quitosan (0.25%); a chemical fungicide (0.3% Chlorthalonil) as positive control, and water as negative control. 24 h after application of these products, plants were inoculated with a conidial suspension of C. acutatum. Non-treated and non-inoculated plants were used as control of natural occurring infection. The progress of C. acutatum infection was monitored by quantifying the amount of fungi at 24 h, 72 h, 7 days and 15 days after inoculation. A reliable, sensitive and fast TaqMan real-time PCR using dilutions of plant crude extracts, without the need of DNA extraction, was used to detect and quantify C. acutatum in the treated and then inoculated plants. Results demonstrated the efficiency of the assayed natural products in controlling the development of the fungus in the plant up to 15 days after treatment. This real-time PCR method based in the use of plant crude extract allows a rapid and sensitive detection and quantification of low amounts of fungus in the plant, even before the appearance of symptoms.


The Hasanbag igneous complex is situated near Sidekan, 100 km northeast of Erbil city, Kurdistan Region, within the Iraqi Zagros suture zone. It forms part of an ophiolite-bearing terrane referred to as the "Upper Allochthon" or Gemo-Qandil Group. The Hasanbag igneous complex consists predominantly of calc-alkaline basaltic andesites to andesites cut by microgabbro and diorite dikes, which previously were interpreted as a part of the Eocene Walash volcanic group. However, 40 Ar- 39 Ar dates on Hasanbag igneous complex kaersutite (magmatic hornblende) indicate an Albian–Cenomanian age (106–92 Ma). This reveals a previously unrecognized portion of the Late Cretaceous, Neotethyan ophiolite-arc complexes in the Iraqi Zagros suture zone that may well represent lateral equivalents of the ophiolite-arc sequences in Oman-Neyriz and Cyprus. Plagioclase in all rock types has been strongly albitized, such that vestiges of more calcic igneous plagioclase are rare. Other relict igneous silicates are kaersutite, augite (Wo 44.46 -En 46.43 -Fs 9.1 ), and rarely anorthoclase. The whole-rock geochemical variation can be explained by fractionation of plagioclase, clinopyroxene, hornblende, magnetite, and apatite but with superimposed alteration. Nb/Yb-Th/Yb relationships show that all the samples fall within the compositional field of arc-related rocks and above the field of the mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB)–ocean island basalt (OIB) mantle array. Hasanbag igneous complex samples show enrichment relative to normal (N)-MORB in the large ion lithophile elements and depletion in the high field strength elements, with characteristic Nb-Ta troughs. Hence, they were generated from the mantle wedge within a suprasubduction-zone setting influenced by volatile components from the downgoing slab. The Hasanbag igneous complex shows similar geochemical trends to arc rocks from Neyriz in southwestern Iran. We interpret the Hasanbag igneous complex as a remnant of the Late Cretaceous ophiolite-arc system (named here the Hasanbag arc complex) that developed within the Neotethys Ocean and was subsequently accreted to the Arabian plate during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene. This represents the first time in Iraq that Late Cretaceous ophiolite-arc complexes have been identified in the Iraqi Zagros collision zone. The Hasanbag arc complex is unequivocally separated from the lithologically similar but younger Eocene–Oligocene Walash-Naopurdan arc-backarc complex, in the same general area but in a structurally lower thrust slice.


Political advertising plays a key role in modern electioneering and has formed part of political campaigns since the earliest federal elections were held in the United States. As modes of mass communication have evolved, so have the venues for campaign advertising --from newspapers to radio and television, and today, the Internet. Not only have the outlets for political advertising expanded over the past twenty years, so have the number of groups using it to convey information and advance their points of view. Because political advertising has become such a pervasive medium for candidates, political parties, and special interest groups, understanding its role in election campaigns becomes all the more important. Crowded Airwaves gathers some of the most significant new work in American political advertising and communication. The contributors provide an objective and balanced analysis of political advertising: its causes, its growth, and its consequences on elections in the United States. The chapters in this volume tackle three of the most interesting and most complicated issues in political advertising today: the characterization of ads and the need to measure their impact; the agenda-setting and priming effects of ads; and the role and implications of issue advertising for the electorate. The contributors focus in particular on the effects and consequences of negative advertising. Crowded Airwaves will appeal to readers who are interested in political campaigns and communication. It will be of special importance to those concerned with the tone and content of electoral campaigns and political discourse.


Abstract. Primary marine aerosols (PMAs) are an important source of cloud condensation nuclei, and one of the key elements of the remote marine radiative budget. Changes occurring in the rapidly warming Arctic, most importantly the decreasing sea ice extent, will alter PMA production and hence the Arctic climate through a set of feedback processes. In light of this, laboratory experiments with Arctic Ocean water during both Arctic winter and summer were conducted and focused on PMA emissions as a function of season and water properties. Total particle number concentrations and particle number size distributions were used to characterize the PMA population. A comprehensive data set from the Arctic summer and winter showed a decrease in PMA concentrations for the covered water temperature (Tw) range between −1°C and 15°C. A sharp decrease in PMA emissions for a Tw increase from −1°C to 4°C was followed by a lower rate of change in PMA emissions for Tw up to about 6°C. Near constant number concentrations for water temperatures between 6°C to 10°C and higher were recorded. Even though the total particle number concentration changes for overlapping Tw ranges were consistent between the summer and winter measurements, the distribution of particle number concentrations among the different sizes varied between the seasons. Median particle number concentrations for a dry diameter (Dp 0.125μm, the particle number concentrations during winter were mostly higher than in summer (up to 50%). The normalized particle number size distribution as a function of water temperature was examined for both winter and summer measurements. An increase in Tw from −1°C to 10°C during winter measurements showed a decrease in the peak of relative particle number concentration at about a Dp of 0.180μm, while an increase was observed for particles with Dp > 1μm. Summer measurements exhibited a relative shift to smaller particle sizes for an increase of Tw in the range 7–11°C. The differences in the shape of the number size distributions between winter and summer may be caused by different production of organic material in water, different local processes modifying the water masses within the fjord (for example sea ice production in winter and increased glacial meltwater inflow during summer) and different origin of the dominant sea water mass. Further research is needed regarding the contribution of these factors to the PMA production.


of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Ralf Landgraf. No. of pages in text. (102) Death from breast cancer began a decline in the 1990's.1 One widely accepted reason for this reduction was the discovery that breast cancer can be uniquely defined at the molecular level by oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes including, but not limited to, EGFR, AKT, ErbB2, PI3K, TP53, BRCA1/2, and PTEN. These genes and potential mutations within, can drive constitutive activation of aberrant signaling that can induce and sustain tumorigenesis. More importantly, these genes represent new avenues for possible markers and therapies. In the wake of this molecular biology discovery, there was an influx of new breast cancer treatments to the marketplace, most notably the launch of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in 1996. Subsequently, the incidence of death continued to decrease peaking from 2002 to 2003 when it dropped by 7% 2 in that one year alone. However, the current challenge in oncology is how to translate the wealth of information contained in the molecular biology of cancer and translate it into patient care. While progress has been made in developing treatments, less progress has been made identifying new markers for breast cancer to get that treatment to the right patients or selecting them for treatment trials. Currently, the majority of providers and healthcare systems do not utilize molecular biology to determine risk of breast cancer recurrence and treatment decision making for breast cancer. Rather, they determine which patients require what adjuvant treatment based on some form of the breast cancer tumor–node–metastases (TNM) staging system and clinical-pathological criteria, such as lymphovascular invasion (LVI), nodal status, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu) status and more. As a result, potential differences exist worldwide in the selection of patients who require adjuvant chemotherapy based on their risk of breast cancer recurrence. All of these tests and criteria are based on the anatomical extent of the tumor, with little if any insight into the patient's breast cancer biology. A significant percentage (30 to 50%) of all early stage breast cancer patients (50,000 to 75,000 patients annually in the US alone) have clinically ambiguous or confounding clinical-pathological characteristics,3 making it difficult for physicians to formulate clinical risk and supports the argument for development and utilization of molecular diagnostic testing. By looking at the molecular biology of cancer, companies, such as Agendia, seek to create technologies beyond clinical screening, imaging or cell surface staining. Technologies like MammaPrint and BluePrint, reveal who is truly at risk by differentiating responders from nonresponders based on genetics. By interrogating single genes or overall patterns of gene expression, it is possible to better understand the various sequences of biological events that give rise to breast cancer and in turn, better develop and guide treatments.


The first personal computer modeling software for sound system design began to appear about 10 years ago. These early programs primarily were intended as aids for optimizing the aiming of loudspeaker horns. Very little attention was given to the acoustical characteristics of the room, except for plugging‐in the midband reverberation time. As the speed and power of personal computers grew, the sound system engineering programs became more ambitious and began to address acoustical characteristics. Room models, which initially were only floor plans, now had walls, ceilings, and surface finishes. Ray tracing and image modeling capabilities were included and simulations of STI intelligibility measures using the room model are offered by a number of programs. The use of image modeling can derive an approximation of the impulse response of the room. This impulse can be exported and convoluted with external signal processing programs and computer‐based DSP hardware to allow auralizing. An overview and history of ...


Southwest literary humor and Yiddish humor collided in the ever-popular comic strip "Li'l Abner," From 1936 to 1977, when it ceased publication, this comic strip entertained, annoyed, riled, and amused legions of readers. Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, Mammy and Pappy Yokum, Moonbeam McSwine, Marryin' Sam, and Sadie Hawkins became pillars in American popular culture, and Dogpatch became a symbol, an emblem, and a community in mainstream U.S.A. The denizens of Dogpatch were destined for their place outside the frames of comic strips. They were popular subjects on stage and screen and eventually made their way into scholarly studies. Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire, the first such assessment, is made available again in this edition which includes a new afterword by the author. Originally published in 1969, it was the first full-length book devoted to a single American comic strip. It has remained a model of how the comics, sometimes snubbed as "culture for the common man," can be given earnest and well deserved analytical attention. Here in great detail are discussions of the place of "Li'l Abner" in American satire, of Capp's narrative technique, his use of dialogue and grotesquerie, his use of self-caricature, and of the significance of social criticism and the pictorial image.


The rapid expansion of railway network in Thailand imposes the need for the effective maintenance to ensure system reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM). In modern railway track work, different components, e.g. ballast, track plinth, fastening system, rail and etc. form a complex system. Each component is designed and customized for specific functions. Failure to fulfill their function will cause the system unable to perform expected task or even system break down. One critical component in the railway track work is the clip whose function is to properly maintain the rail in lateral and longitudinal position and at the same time allows some degrees of the deformation of the rail to accommodate daily thermal expansion. One typical criterion to ensure proper function of the fastening system is specified toe load values of the clips after track work installation. In the service, the clips are potentially subjected to both normal fluctuating load and high dynamic load, e.g. impact load due to track irregularities, welded joint and etc. which can cause fatigue failure. If the damage cannot be observed and corrected in time, the clip could break and yield serious consequences. Even though the track work is properly installed, toe load of clip could differ by more than 50% resulting in large difference in initial stress condition. Clips with high initial stress could be anticipated of fatigue failure in the service. This present work is intended to study the influence of toe load on fatigue resistance of clips. Based on measurement data performed on site in a MRT construction project in Thailand, both fatigue experiment and simulation were performed to evaluate the life time of clip. The finding from this experiment can be used as a guideline to schedule proper maintenance plane to ensure the structural integrity of railway track components.


This deceptively simple tale relates the activities of seven English children played by adults on a summer afternoon during World War II. In a woods, a field and a barn, they play, fight, fantasize and swagger. Their aggressions, fears, hostilities and rivalries are a microcosm of adult interaction. Easy going Willie tags along as burly Peter bullies Raymond and is challenged by fair minded Paul. Plain Audrey is overshadowed by Angela's prettiness and wreaks her anger on the boys. All of them gang up on the terrified "Donald Duck" who, abused by his mother and ridiculed by his peers, plays a dangerous game of pyromania with tragic results.


Plain language summary
We investigate whether listed state-owned enterprises (SOEs) benefit more from internationalization than listed private enterprises. We argue that SOEs have a greater scope for benefitting from internationalization because of their previous domestic focus and because of government-related firm-specific advantages they can utilize for their internationalization. In listed SOEs, these factors may matter more than noneconomic objectives and corporate governance deficiencies that could reduce SOEs' economic benefits from internationalization. Empirical analysis on a sample of listed Norwegian firms provides modest support for the hypotheses. There is no indication that state ownership reduces the benefits of internationalization.

Technical summary
We consider state ownership as a moderator of the relationship between internationalization and performance in listed firms, developing theoretical arguments on the scope for benefits from internationalization, corporate governance, and government-related firm-specific advantages. We propose hypotheses on a positive moderation effect from state ownership overall and on more positive effects in majority state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than in minority SOEs, on more positive effects in SOEs previously part of the government administration, and on more positive effects from market-seeking internationalization than from efficiency or resource-seeking internationalization. Panel data analyses considering listed Norwegian firms (2000 to 2010) provide modest support for the hypotheses. Copyright © 2016 Strategic Management Society.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to establish a rapid and sensitive diagnostic method for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia in postoperative patients.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
As a result of diffusion and abuse of third-generation cephalosporin antibiotics in the 1980s in Japan, an outbreak of MRSA infection has been posed. In the field of surgery, severe postoperative infections with MRSA such as MRSA bacteremia, which may lead to multiple organ failure, have emerged with a high mortality.

METHODS
Thirty-five patients with high fever (above 38.5 C) or watery diarrhea or both within 2 weeks after gastrointestinal major surgery and 6 healthy volunteers were examined. Nested polymerase chain reaction was used to detect mecA and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) genes in blood specimens.

RESULTS
The mecA and TSST-1 genes were not detected in the blood samples of any of the six healthy volunteers. In all 12 samples from which MRSA colonies were isolated by blood culture, mecA and TSST-1 genes were detected. Although it took at least 48 hours to identify MRSA by the blood culture method, the presence of mecA and TSST-1 genes was determined by nested polymerase chain reaction method within only 3 to 4 hours after blood sampling.

CONCLUSIONS
This method, as a sensitive and rapid monitoring system for MRS bacteremia, would be clinically beneficial for prevention of cross infection and for early determination of appropriate treatment for infected patients.


Purpose We examined whether sedentary lifestyle habits and physical activity level are associated with abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT), and liver attenuation, independently of one another and potential confounders. Methods This study analyzed 3010 African American and Caucasian men and women, 42–59 yr old, from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, who completed multiple-slice abdominal computed tomography in 2010–2011. Participants reported average hours per day sitting (television, computing, paperwork, music, telephone, and car). Physical activity was assessed with the CARDIA physical activity history. VAT, SAT, IMAT, and liver attenuation were estimated from computed tomography. Multivariable general linear regression models regressed means of fat depots on total sedentary time, task-specific sedentary time, and total physical activity. Results Television viewing was positively, and physical activity inversely, associated with fat depots. For each 1 SD increment in television viewing (1.5 h·d−1), VAT, SAT, and IMAT were greater by 3.5, 3.4, and 3.9 cm3, respectively (P < 0.03 for all). For each 1 SD increment in physical activity (275 exercise units), VAT, SAT, and IMAT were lower by 7.6, 6.7, and 8.1 cm3, respectively, and liver attenuation was greater (indicating more liver fat) by 0.5 Hounsfield units (P < 0.01 for all). Total sedentary time was associated with VAT, IMAT, and liver attenuation in White men only after controlling for physical activity, SAT, and other potential confounders (P ⩽ 0.01 for all). No other task-specific sedentary behaviors were associated with fat depots. Conclusions Sedentary behaviors, particularly television viewing, and physical activity levels have distinct, independent associations with fat deposition.


While unspoiled natural landscapes remain a clear attraction for the guests of rural tourism, the motivation behind travel is shifting from seeking pleasure towards acquiring new experiences and knowledge. In the market of rural accommodation services this shift in demand improves the market position of those unique hosts who can provide high quality services. It also implies that accommodation providers can only improve their chances of success via continuous innovation. Based on the review of the academic literature, we constructed a model that describes the innovation capability maturity of rural accommodation service providers. We first adapted Essmann's (2009) innovation capability maturity model to identify five main capability areas relevant to tourism services and classified the indicators into these capability areas. We then applied these indicators to compile a survey questionnaire for rural accommodation service providers in one of Hungary's outstanding rural tourism destinations, Veszprem County, and used the findings of the survey to refine our model through principal component analysis. Finally, we identified the indicators that drive the five relevant innovation capability areas and explain the innovation capability maturity of rural accommodation service providers in Veszprem County, Hungary. Based on the above we make the following statement: The innovation capability maturity of rural accommodation service providers in Veszprem county, Hungary, can be described by the following capability areas: market knowledge, training, managing possibilities, guest orientation and rationality. The result of our analysis helps rural accommodation providers understand more about innovation and be able to better satisfy the needs of their customers.


This research focused on whether the efficiency with which bilinguals inhibit representations of irrelevant or facilitate representations of relevant information is a factor contributing to second language fluency. Participants were tested in their first (L1) (English) and second languages (L2) (French). The tasks implemented were negative and positive priming size selection tasks where participants viewed two stimulus words that named units of time (e.g., minute, day) and were asked to press a button corresponding to the position of the stimulus word expressing the longer unit of time. In Experiment l, participants were tested in separate blocks on positive and negative priming trial-pairs. On a negative priming trial-pair, participants had to respond to a target on a probe trial that appeared as a distractor on the prime trial immediately preceding. On a positive priming trial-pair, participants had to respond to a target on a probe trial that had been presented as a target on the preceding prime trial. It was found that in L1 but not L2 participants were significantly slower to respond on negative priming trials than on neutral trials, indicating evidence of inhibition in L1 but not in L2. It was also found that in both L1 and L2, bilinguals exhibited significant positive priming, indicating efficient facilitation of relevant information in both languages. The second and third experiments investigated the time course of negative and positive priming respectively in relation to L1 and L2 reading. Participants were tested at four different RSIs (response-to-stimulus intervals). In L1, negative priming was found to persist even at the longest RSI whereas in L2 it was found to have dissipated by that time, indicating that bilinguals were able maintain inhibition of irrelevant information for longer periods of time in L1 than in L2. Overall, the research implicates both inhibitory and facilitatory processes in L2 reading fluency.


This paper uses new data to illustrate the position of the foreign-born on the Swedishlabour market. Foreign-born Africans and Asians have a lower employment and ahigher unemployment rate than other groups. They are overrepresented in fixed-timeemployment and underrepresented in managerial positions. Employment is particularlylow among family and refugee immigrants. Educated people from these regions aremore likely than others to have jobs requiring lower competencies than their educationallevel. Lack of human capital acquired in Sweden and lack of access to networks as wellas prevalence of discrimination are put forward as explanations for this.


This article describes how the journal site of the School of Humanities and Education Sciences at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata was implemented and developed, so that our experience may be useful for anyone embarking on a similar undertaking. We first review the experience of the School in terms of scientific journal publication and the tasks performed by the Library to help its visualization. Secondly, we mention the work of the Under-Secretariat of Publication Management and Dissemination (PGEyD; its acronym in Spanish) of the School to make launching the site a reality. Special reference is made to software customization, massive information upload to the system (users and previous issues), and the procedures that enable the semi-automatic inclusion of the site content in the institutional repository and in the Web catalogue. Then, we discuss the work that is being carried out in connection with editors' training and support, and the results obtained after one year of labour: the creation of 10 journals, the migration of the entire works of four titles and the inclusion of 25% of the contributions published in the journals edited by FaHCE. Finally, we point out a series of challenges that the Under-Secretariat has set itself to improve the site and to optimize intra- and inter-institutional workflow.


A large number of elementary school students have a condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This phenomenon creates problems for the ADHD student. other students in the classroom, and the teacher. The purpose of this article is to identify the characteristics of children with ADHD and to examine the medical and behavioral means of remediating and controlling the condition. Furthermore, this article will focus on ways that elementary teachers can cope with these students. ADHD is a relatively new term used to describe a condition that has been around for hundreds of years, yet the disorder has been the focus of research and study only during the last fifty or sixty years. In the 1930s and 1940s, children who experienced what is now called ADHD were considered to be brain injured or brain damaged. In the 1950s the condition was frequently referred to as "minimal" brain damage or brain dysfunction. During the decade of the 1960s, educators commonly used the term "hyperactive." Throughout these years ADHD studies focused on excessive motor activity or hyperactivity; however, in the 1970s educators realized that hyperactivity was not always involved. Consequently in 1980 the American Psychological Association adopted the term "attention deficit disorder" (ADD), which encompassed individuals with and without hyperactivity. Several years later the association changed the term to "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder," noting that ADHD included attention problems, impassivity, and hyperactivity in differing proportions (Burnley, 1993). ADHD is a behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, an inability to concentrate, difficulties in social relationships, and a lack of self-control. Hyperactivity is defined as excessively or abnormally active. This disease has been defined as deficits in sustained attention, impulse control, and the regulation of activity level to situational demands (Barkley, 1991). That ADHD is a condition affecting many children is well know, but just bow many is not. Researchers in the United States seem to be in fairly close agreement that the condition affects from 3 to 5 percent of the population, with some estimates as high as 10 percent. Although the condition has not been closely studied in many countries, apparently ADHD call be found in the student populations of most countries and among all ethnic groups (Barkley, 1991). Unfortunately, many beginning teachers are ill-equipped to deal with the ADHD students they encounter. In truth, some teachers may not even know what ADHD means or how to identify the condition (Buchoff, 1990). To identify ADHD children, teachers must be familiar with the symptoms. The most common traits of children experiencing ADHD include hyperactivity, excessive movement, unexpected action, short attention span, lack of social skills, insubordinate and disruptive behavior, easy frustration, learning difficulties, variability in behavior, and coordination difficulties (Beugin, 1990). More concrete examples of classroom behavior of ADHD students include an inability to remain in one's seat, to reply at appropriate times, to cease inappropriate talking, and to keep from interrupting others. Furthermore, these students are easily distracted and have difficulty concentrating. Yet they will frequently alternate such inattentiveness with a focus on a particular task that becomes so intense they cannot switch their attention when directed to do so by the teacher. Frequently, these students have learning disabilities that range from mild to severe (Buchoff, 1990, McCall, 1989). Each fall, tens of thousands of beginning elementary teachers start their careers as classroom teachers. More than likely in the early weeks of teaching most of these teachers will encounter students suffering from ADHD. In layman's terms, children suffering from this malady tend to be extremely active and to have problems focusing their attention, thereby being unable to concentrate on a task sufficiently. …


In 2006, Smith et al. published a new table of constant weight codes, updating existing tables originally created by Brouwer et al. This paper improves upon these results by filling in 9 missing constant weight codes, all of which are optimal by the second Johnson bound. This completes the tables for $A(n,16,9)$ and $A(n,18,10)$ up to $n=63$ and corrects some $A(n,14,8)$.


This report describes work undertaken and planned, the goal of which is to better understand how people comprehend and use complex ontologies, in particular those employing Description Logics (DLs). Two research questions are posed: 1. In what way can the difficulties experienced in using Description Logics be understood in terms of an underlying theory, e.g. theories of reasoning already developed within the cognitive psychology community? 2. In what way could such a theory contribute to improving the usability of Description Logics? An initial survey of 118 ontology users has confirmed the importance of DLs, specifically the variants of OWL. The survey also looked at two particular techniques for mitigating complexity: visualization and the use of patterns. Opinions on the value of visualization were varied, with over a third of respondents finding visualization 'not at all useful' or 'useful to a small extent'. Whilst many of the respondents used patterns, the majority of the users did not import patterns from a library but merely used them as examples. Responses to a question about the purposes for using ontologies suggest that a categorisation of users into a few groups is possible. Such a categorisation could help in understanding user behaviour and requirements. A laboratory investigation into the comprehension of commonly used DL statements revealed some common difficulties. Many users experienced difficulties with the negated conjunction; there was a common misconception concerning the inheritance of property characteristics by subproperties; and to a lesser extent there were difficulties with the functional characteristic and the existential quantifier. The mental model theory of reasoning was used to explain the difficulties experienced with negated conjunction, whilst the rule-based approach helped explain how complexity influenced accuracy and response time. A programme of further work is proposed. The most immediate step will be to build on the existing study into DL comprehension with more controlled experiments on the effect of varying the complexity of commonly occurring DL statement structures. Subsequent work will look at the effect of alternative linguistic structures and diagrammatic representations. It is also intended to conduct interviews and focus groups with ontology users, both to gain a deeper insight into their problems and to obtain feedback to the ideas developed regarding alternative linguistic and diagrammatic representations.


The perceptual performance of architecture can be greatly altered by the ephemeral quality of daylight. Unlike artificial light sources, which can be adjusted to meet performance criteria regardless of geographic location and time of day, daylight is a variable source of illumination. When used to illuminate the static environment of a building, sunlight can dramatically alter our perception of interior architecture. Despite a wide range of daylight design strategies, neither high nor low levels of contrast and variability are synonymous with performance: it is the specific conditions that must be engaged appropriately within the context of each architectural work. While there have been several attempts at quantifying brightness and luminance diversity in daylit architecture (through the use of digital images), we have yet to see a method that can measure the spatial and temporal diversity of light within the visual field. In order to establish the importance of luminous composition within interior architecture, this paper presents a survey of contemporary architecture from around the world to develop a more effective vocabulary about contrast and temporal variability under daylight conditions. This survey allows us to grasp the broad range of design strategies employed within contemporary architecture and develop a matrix of contrast typologies against which each space could be compared on a relative scale from high to low. This matrix allows us to develop a precise language about the composition of perceptual luminosity within each space and helps architects to contextualize and compare the perceptual impacts of daylight within space.


Forest ecosystems play crucial role in global carbon cycling, therefore, increasing afforestation of agricultural land in Europe has been recognized as important contribution of carbon sequestration. In carbon reporting systems, root carbon content (CC) default value has been set to 50%. The study aimed to estimate CC in below-ground biomass and in relation to tree age in young Scots pine stands on forest and former agricultural land. The below–ground CC of young (8 to 40 years) managed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands growing on nutrient poor mineral soils in Latvia was carried out. In total 62 sample trees (43 in forest land, 19 in former agricultural land) were randomly selected for destructive sampling to estimate the CC within below-ground biomass. Below–ground biomass weighted mean CC was 49.7 ± 0.4%, being slightly lower than the default CC value used to calculate carbon budgets. Root fractions stump, small roots (diameter 2–20 mm), coarse roots (diameter > 20 mm)) differed (p < 0.001) in their CC. Stumps (50.6 ± 0.6%) had highest (p < 0.001) CC in the below–ground biomass, followed by coarse (49.5 ± 0.4%) and small (49.1 ± 0.4%) roots, which did not differ from each other in their CC. Results demonstrated age–dependent increase of CC (p < 0.001) from 48.2 ± 0.3% to 51.7 ± 0.5%, indicating overestimation of the default value during the first two decades, but underestimation for older trees (24 to 40 years).


Airborne pollutants contribute to ocean acidification and hence to the associated chlorophyll content level. Previous work showed that falling aerosols causing ocean acidification would in turn result in bleaching and productivity loss in coral reef builders. Chlorophyll content has been used as a measure of the concentration of the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll a (the most common "green" chlorophyll) in the ocean. In our work we have monitored the change in chlorophyll content obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on board Terra/Aqua satellites from 2000-2009 over selected pilot areas. Moreover, we have used the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) NASA chemical model to simulate sulfate, dust, black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), and sea-salt aerosols content over the urban centers close to the areas where chlorophyll content is showing a significant decline. These parameters would reflect the natural versus anthropogenic origin of the aerosols falling over ocean waters. We expect to observe an overall decrease in chlorophyll content on the surface of the ocean. Hence, our findings may suggest that the effects of falling air pollutants in the ocean will be so detrimental as to gradually cause a decrease in photosynthetic producing material over several years.


Abstract Training social workers for leadership roles in electoral campaigns and political offices increases the profession's effectiveness in promoting public policy that reflects our professional values and commitment to social justice. This research describes and evaluates an educational experience in the US that prepares social work practitioners and students to run for elected office; to work in leadership positions at the local, state, and federal levels; and serve as effective advocates for social change. Participants' plans for future political engagement before and after the training were compared. Following the training, participants are more likely to plan to be politically active in general. Their intentions to work on campaigns, run for office, and engage with elected officials increased. These results can inform education in other social work settings.


The late Miocene to early Pliocene carbonate-rich sediments recovered at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1338 during the Expedition 320/321 Pacific Equatorial Age Transect (PEAT) program contain abundant calcareous nanno- and microfossils. Geochemical proxies from benthic and planktonic foraminiferal and coccolithophore calcite could be very useful at this location; however, good preservation of the calcite is crucial for the proxies to be robust. Here, we evaluate the preservation of specific benthic and planktonic foraminifer species and coccolithophores in fine fraction sediment at Site U1338 using backscattered electron (topography mode) scanning electron microscopy (BSE-TOPO SEM). Both investigated foraminiferal species, Cibicidoides mundulus and Globigerinoides sacculifer, have undergone some alteration. The C. mundulus show minor evidence for dissolution, and only some specimens show evidence of overgrowth. The Gs. sacculifer show definite signs of alteration and exhibit variable preservation, ranging from fair to poor; some specimens show minor overgrowth and internal recrystallization but retain original features such as pores, spine pits, and internal testwall growth structure, whereas in other specimens the recrystallization and overgrowth disguise many of the original features. Secondary electron and BSE-TOPO SEM images show that coccolith calcite preservation is moderate or moderate to poor. Slight to moderate etching has removed central heterococcolith features, and a small amount of secondary overgrowth is also visible. Energy dispersive spectroscopy analyses indicate that the main sedimentary components of the fine fraction sediment are biogenic CaCO3 and SiO2, with some marine barite. Based on the investigations in this data report, geochemical analyses on benthic foraminifers are unlikely to be affected by preservation, although geochemical analyses on the planktonic foraminifers should be treated cautiously because of the fair to poor and highly variable preservation.


Expressing program correctness often requires relating program data throughout (different branches of) an execution. Such properties can be represented using CTL+FO, a logic that allows mixing temporal and first-order quantification. Verifying that a program satisfies a CTL+FO property is a challenging problem that requires both temporal and data reasoning. Temporal quantifiers require discovery of invariants and ranking functions, while first-order quantifiers demand instantiation techniques. In this paper, we present a constraint-based method for proving CTL+FO properties automatically. Our method makes the interplay between the temporal and first-order quantification explicit in a constraint encoding that combines recursion and existential quantification. By integrating this constraint encoding with an off-the-shelf solver we obtain an automatic verifier for CTL+FO.