This work characterizes the effect of depth on the optimization landscape of linear regression, showing that, despite their nonconvexity, deeper models have more desirable optimization landscape. We consider a robust and over-parameterized setting, where a subset of measurements are grossly corrupted with noise and the true linear model is captured via an $N$-layer linear neural network. On the negative side, we show that this problem \textit{does not} have a benign landscape: given any $N\geq 1$, with constant probability, there exists a solution corresponding to the ground truth that is neither local nor global minimum. However, on the positive side, we prove that, for any $N$-layer model with $N\geq 2$, a simple sub-gradient method becomes oblivious to such ``problematic'' solutions; instead, it converges to a balanced solution that is not only close to the ground truth but also enjoys a flat local landscape, thereby eschewing the need for"early stopping". Lastly, we empirically verify that the desirable optimization landscape of deeper models extends to other robust learning tasks, including deep matrix recovery and deep ReLU networks with $\ell_1$-loss.


The perception of complex auditory information such as complete speech sequences develops during human ontogeny. In order to explore age differences in the auditory perception of predictable speech sequences we compared event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded in 5- to 6-year-old children (N = 15) and adults (N = 15) in response to anticipated speech sequences as successive and reverse digital series with randomly omitted digits. The ERPs obtained from the omitted digits significantly differed in the amplitude and latency of the N200 and P300 components between adults and children, the N400 and LPC components were more pronounced in children in the right frontal area for the digits presentation. These findings indicate that the perception of a successive speech structure is less automated in children and requires a detailed analysis of the successive structure and error detection. These differences in auditory ERPs reflect developmental changes in the auditory perception of speech sequences and can serve as indicators of the maturity of cognitive functions in children.


Objective- Acipenser persicus is one of the most important caviar producing fishes in the Caspian Sea and one of the endangered species of the sturgeon fishes. For breeding of sturgeons, large numbers of animals have to be captured and examined to obtain sufficient numbers of mature fishes that will spawn within a few months in captivity. Design- Original study Animals- A total of 66 adult Acipenser persicus (40 female and 26 male) Procedures- In the present study the gonads of adult Acipenser persicus have been assessed by ultrasonography during artificial propagation to detect the features and changes of the ovary and testis. A total of 66 adult Acipenser persicus (40 fofemale and 26 male), during artificial propagation program, were used in this practice. They underwent ultrasonographic study using a Pie Medical 200 VET ultrasonic machine. A right and left lateral parasagittal of the fish between the pectoral and anal fins and a transverse view was taken. Results- Ultrasonographic view of ovary and testis in adult Acipenser persicus during artificial propagation (stage V of maturity) were detected. Conclusion and Clinical Relevance- Ultrasonography prepares useful data about gonad structure, echotexture, and echogenicity during the artificial breeding period. Ultrasonography can be an accurate, non-invasive, and fast technique to assess the gonads of sturgeons in propagation centers.


Abstract Antibiotic therapy of staphylococcal mastitis is characterized by significantly lower cure rates compared to infections caused by other microorganisms. Thus, it is necessary to search for new, alternative, non-antibiotic agents that are effective in the eradication of these bacteria. The aim of our research was to investigate the antimicrobial, especially anti-staphylococcal potential of a large collection (n=36) of essential oils (EOs). Investigation of the antimicrobial activity of tested oils was determined by using a serial, twofold dilution method in 96-wells microtiter plates under conditions recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The preliminary analysis revealed that six oils, namely: Manuka, Thyme, Geranium, Cedar, Cinnamon (from bark) and Patchouli exhibited the highest activity against reference strains of bacteria. Significant anti-staphylococcal potential of these oils has been also confirmed for a group of 18 Staphylococcus aureus, 8 Staphylococcus epidermidis and 5 Staphylococcus xylosus strains isolated from cases of bovine mastitis. Especially high activity was observed for Cedar, Patchouli, Thyme and Manuka oils. The MIC (Minimal Inhibitory Concentration) values for Patchouli oil were in the concentrations range of 0.01 to 0.313% (v/v). The three other oils inhibited the growth of staphylococci isolated from mastitis in the concentrations range of 0.01 to 0.625% (v/v). Oils isolated from Cinnamomum cassia and Pelargonium graveolens revealed a bit lower, but still satisfactory activity (MIC values in the concentrations range of 0.02 to 1.25% (v/v) and from 0.078 to 1.25% (v/v), respectively). In many cases a slightly higher concentration of oils was required to obtain the bactericidal effect in comparison to growth inhibition. The time – kill kinetic assay revealed that the bactericidal effect was achieved after two hours incubation of the reference strain S. aureus PCM 2051 cells with Thyme oil at concentration equal to 2xMIC (1.25% (v/v)) or MIC (0.625% (v/v)). A slightly lower activity was observed in the case of Cinnamon oil, the bactericidal effect was achieved after 8 hours of incubation. The results of our research clearly indicate that some essential oils exhibit a promising antimicrobial activity and can be considered as alternative antistaphylococcal agents.


The political contention that considers forests to be mere economic assets to achieve state welfare has slowly changed into a more conservative view since the Ninth World Forestry Congress in Mexico in 1985 rightly acknowledged that there has been severe tropical forest destruction and environmental deterioration around the globe. Several international agreements to address specific forestry issues have been established and new forms of forest governance have been formed, and an alliance of domestic and international actors have to implement these, mostly in forest-rich countries.. These attempts have sometimes met with difficulty, due to the domestic forest-related bureaucracies' own programmes and goals. Here, various interests in domestic politics compete for international support, resulting in the acceptance, rejection of, or changes to, those forest governances. Consequently, international forest governance may be adopted in a country in a form that is different from its original concept. To gain more insight into forest politics as carried out by bureaucracies, and its consequences for forest policy processes and forest resources, this dissertation examines the question of how forest-relevant bureaucracies respond to new international forest governance.
This framework contributes to a description of the bureaucratic processes involved in the implementation of selected international forest governances. For this purpose this framework will be structured as follows:
1. Theoretical framework on bureaucratic politics, domestic politics in response to international forest regimes, theory of power, and the concept of absolute and relative power gains;
2. Methodological framework for data collection and analysis of international forest issues relevant in Indonesia, the role of influential actors in specific cases, bureaucracies respond to forest policy introduced by other actors, and power dynamics of actors involved; and
3. Results, highlighting the selection of international forest governance forms by domestic bureaucracies, the effort bureaucracies make to restore their authority over forests, the international influence on forest politics, the forming of super bureaucracy and its suspension, and symbolic forest policy.
The origin of this framework consists of five articles, each of which addresses specific questions in selected study cases. The publications are listed below, together with a brief description.
Article 1: Wibowo, A., & Giessen, L. (2015). Actor positions on primary and secondary international forest-related issues relevant in Indonesia. Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(3):10-27. This article identifies timber legality, climate change (including the REDD initiative) oil palm plantation and its environmental aspects, harmonisation of wood and forest certification schemes, land use change, forest and species conservation, and deforestation and decentralized forest governance as the seven most relevant forest issues in Indonesia.
Article 2: Wibowo, A., & Giessen, L. (2015). Absolute and relative power gains among state agencies in forest-related land use politics: The Ministry of Forestry and its competitors in the REDD+ Programme and the One Map Policy in Indonesia. Land Use Policy, 49, 131-141. It describes how the two forest-related policies involving many state agencies do not work well since there is no strong leading agency responsible for them.
Article 3: Wibowo, A., Sahide, M.A.K, & Giessen, L. (2015). From voluntary private to mandatory state governance in Indonesian forest certification: Reclaiming authority and legitimacy by bureaucracies. Article submitted to Global Environmental Change. This describes the strategy of the Ministry of Forestry of increasing its influence over stakeholders along the value chain of domestic timber business, by utilising its authority in Indonesia-EU FLEGT-VPA negotiation.
Article 4: Pratiwi, S., Wibowo, A., & Giessen, L. (2015). Third-party certification of forest management in Indonesia: Analysing stakeholders' recognition and preferences. Journal Manajemen Hutan Tropika [Journal of Tropical Forest Management], 21(2), 65–75. This unveils certification schemes preferred by industries and the criteria they use in selecting such schemes.
Article 5: Wibowo, A., Pratiwi, S., & Giessen, L. (2015). Comparing forest certification and timber legality systems in Indonesia: Complementary or competitive? Environmental, Development and Sustainability, under revision. This compares two international and one national forest certification scheme with the timber legality verification system in Indonesia that uses the Forest Certification Assessment Guide (FCAG), and concludes that those schemes are in competition and that each of them tries to delegitimise the others.
These five publications answer the central question of how forest-relevant bureaucracies respond to new international forest governance. To address this central question, four questions that are more specific are formulated, namely:
(i) What policy instruments are international forest governances trying to apply to domestic forest policy?;
(ii) Who are the important domestic and non-domestic actors involved in the policy processes concerning specific forest issues?;
(iii) How do the main forest-related bureaucracies respond to forest policy introduced by other bureaucracies?; and
(iv) What are political factors influence the acceptance of new forest-related policies?.
We used non-participant observations, expert interviews, and content analyses of policy documents in most of our works. Specifically, online survey was used to identify stakeholders' perception on forest certification schemes working in Indonesia and Forest Certification Assessment Guide (FCAG) to compare the standard of forest sustainability certification and timber legality verification. We applied theory of actor-centred power, theory of power, concept of absolute and relative power gains, and domestic response to foreign agenda in all publications.
The results show that, first, forest-related bureaucracies are more responsive to issues with high economic benefit, and pay less attention to those with low economic benefit. They are also more involved with topics that become issues of international concern, such as timber legality, climate change and REDD+, and oil palm plantation and its environmental aspects. Second, domestic bureaucracies in charge of economic tasks are more involved in the forestry business than those in charge of environmental tasks. In addition to the Ministry of Forestry, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Industry are the two ministries most involved in domestic forest governance. Other state agencies that influence domestic forest policy are UKP4 (Presidential Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight, Unit Kerja Presiden Bidang Pengawasan dan Pengendalian Pembangunan), REDD+ Agency, BAPPENAS (National Development Planning Agency, Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional), DNPI (National Council on Climate Change, Dewan Nasional Perubahan Iklim). Third, domestic bureaucracies form alliances with central power in the states (the president) to be involved in or/and to shape domestic forest policies, and to cooperate with international actors to gain public legitimacy for the way in which they run their programmes. Fourth, the three main cases examined in this dissertation, namely REDD+, one map policy and forest certification, are likely to be symbolic only. Symbolic policy is defined as sense of a non-policy, which formulates goals and instruments but is not assigned with clear responsibilities in terms of implementing agencies, sufficient staff, budget resources and necessary information. This conclusion is based on the fact that REDD+ policy, as well as timber legality verification, are based on weak legal constructions, have no single and strong leading agency responsible for ensuring continuity, and have only weak long-term agendas with no stand-alone budgets or discrete staff. Weak legal construction means that the policy can be changed, postponed or discontinued by other powerful actors, and having no leading agency means that there is an absence of an actor with the power to direct and implement the policy or of an authority that would penalize anyone acting against it.


Monohydric alcohols have been used as promising phase change materials (PCMs) for low-temperature latent heat storage. However, the heat storage/retrieval rates are limited due to the low thermal conductivity of such alcohols. In this work, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations were performed to study the microscopic heat conduction in example monohydric alcohols, i.e., 1-dodecanol (C12H26O), 1-tetradecanol (C14H30O), and 1-hexadecanol (C16H34O). A simplified ideal crystal model was proposed to exploit the potential for improving the thermal conductivity of monohydric alcohols. The effect of ideal crystalline structures, especially the contribution of the hydroxyl group, on the microscopic heat conduction process was analyzed. The thermal conductivity of the ideal crystals of the various monohydric alcohols was predicted to be more than twice as compared to that of their respective solids. The major thermal resistance in the ideal crystals was found around the molecular interfaces, as a result of the excellent heat conduction performance along the linear molecular chains. The calculated vibrational density of states (VDOS) and interfacial heat transfer were then investigated. When the interfaces are surrounded by hydroxyl groups as walls, strong hydrogen bond (HB) interactions were observed. The interfacial heat transfer coefficient of the ideal crystalline structures of 1-tetradecanol was found to reach up to ∼735.6 MW/m2 W. It was elucidated that the high interfacial heat transfer rate is clearly related to the stronger intermolecular interactions.


Functional-trait analysis at a global scale has found evidence for evolutionary specialisation of species into those designed to acquire resources rapidly and those designed to conserve resources. The present study aimed to determine whether such a trade-off exists in sclerophyllous vegetation in Australia. We measured 10 traits for 167 plant species. The first axis of a principal components analysis represented a trade-off between resource acquisition and resource conservation, consistent with global trends. Common traits shared by resource-conservative species included low specific leaf area (SLA), resprouting, ant-dispersal, and ericoid mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal associations. These attributes were typical of 3 of 13 functional groups produced by cluster analysis (eucalypts, ant-dispersed shrubs, ericoid heaths) that had the lowest SLA, and were almost exclusively native shrubs and trees. Resource-acquisitive species had high SLA, a small stature, annual life cycle, arbuscular mycorrhizal or non-mycorrhizal associations, and small, wind-dispersed seeds. These attributes are similar to those identified for species with a ruderal strategy and were typical of the functional groups representing wind-dispersed composites, AM annuals and non-mycorrhizal annuals that had the highest SLA and were dominated by introduced species. Comparable trait associations have been found in other studies, suggesting that similar processes drive plant design at a global scale. However, there were some patterns specific to the flora studied that were attributable to adaptations to suit the nutrient-poor soils and arid conditions typical of the Australian environment.


Novel drug delivery system aims to deliver the drug at a rate directed by the needs of the body during the period of treatment, and channel the active entity to the site of action. The article focuses on various advantages of vesicular systems (niosomes) to develop the effective delivery system to achieve maximum effective concentration. Niosomes, nonionic surfactant vesicles with lamellar structure which may be unilamellar and multilamellar serve to be efficient in providing these required advantages. The bilayer structure of niosomes being amphiphillic in nature can be used to deliver hydrophilic drugs in its aqueous core and lipophilic drugs in the bilayer made up of surfactants. Niosomes are vesicles composed of non-ionic surfactants, which are biodegradable, relatively nontoxic, more stable and inexpensive, an alternative to liposomes. They present a structure similar to liposome and hence they can represent alternative vesicular systems with respect to liposomes, due to the niosome ability to encapsulate different type of drugs within their multi environmental structure. Niosomes are thoughts to be better candidate's drug delivery as compared to liposomes due to various factors like cost, stability etc. Various types of drug deliveries can be possible using niosomes for example ophthalmic, topical, parenteral etc. drug deliveries. On the basis of above information, the niosomes have been thoroughly exploited for the drug delivery system and still offer scope for research on various drugs for their maximum therapeutic utilization in management and treatment of various dreadful diseases.


Leprosy is of interest to immunologists because the varied clinical manifestations of the disease correlate closely with the immunological spectrum. Resistance to infection is dependent on appropriate cell-mediated immunity, but patients with the lepromatous form fail to respond to antigens of M. leprae. In vitro studies have revealed the existence of T-suppressor cells of the phenotype CD8+, CD3+, HLA-DR+, FcR+, 9.3-, which are restricted by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II antigens. Several new candidate vaccines against leprosy have been effective in breaking immunological unresponsiveness and engendering cell-mediated immunity in lepromatous leprosy patients, including the combination of BCG+ killed M. leprae. Because BCG has unique adjuvant properties, we have begun to use molecular genetic approaches to develop BCG into a multivaccine vehicle capable of immunizing simultaneously against several pathogens. Both phage-based and plasmid-based strategies have been successfully developed for introducing selectable markers into BCG for the first time.


Composability and deadlock-freedom are important properties that are stated for transactional memory (TM). Commonly, the Semantics of TM requires linearization of transactions. It turns out that linearization of transactions that have cyclic communication brings incomposability and deadlock. Inspired from TM and Actors, this work proposes Transactors that provide facilities of isolation from TM and communication from Actors. We define the semantics of Transactors including support for cyclic transactional communication. An algorithm implementing this semantics is offered. The soundness of the algorithm is proved.


1 ABSTRACT Surface-water impairment by fecal coliform bacteria is a water-quality issue of national scope and importance. In Virginia, more than 175 stream segments are on the Commonwealth's 1998 303(d) list of impaired waters because of elevated concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria. These fecal coliform-impaired stream segments require the development of total maximum daily load (TMDL) and associated implementation plans, but accurate information on the sources contributing these bacteria usually is lacking. The development of defendable fecal coliform TMDLs and management plans can benefit from reliable information on the bacteria sources that are responsible for the impairment. Bacterial source tracking (BST) recently has emerged as a powerful tool for identifying the sources of fecal coliform bacteria that impair surface waters. In a demonstration of BST technology, three watersheds on Virginia's 1998 303(d) list with diverse land-use practices (and potentially diverse bacteria sources) were studied. Accotink Creek is dominated by urban land uses, Christians Creek by agricultural land uses, and Blacks Run is affected by both urban and agricultural land uses. During the 20-month field study (March 1999–October 2000), water samples were collected from each stream during a range of flow conditions and seasons. For each sample, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, turbidity, flow, and water temperature were measured. Fecal coliform concentrations of each water sample were determined using the membrane filtration technique. Next, Escherichia coli (E. coli) were isolated from the fecal coliform bacteria and their sources were identified using ribotyping (a method of "genetic fingerprinting"). Study results provide enhanced understanding of the concentrations and sources of fecal coliform bacteria in these three watersheds. Continuum sampling (sampling along the length of the streams) indicated that elevated concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria (maximum observed concentration of 290,000 colonies/100 milliliters (col/100mL) could occur along the entire length of each stream, and that the samples collected at the downstream monitoring station of each stream were generally representative of the entire upstream reach. Seasonal patterns were observed in the base-flow fecal coliform concentrations of all streams; concentrations were typically highest in the summer and lowest in the winter. Fecal coliform concentrations were lowest during periods of base flow (typically 200–2,000 col/100mL) and increased by 3–4 orders of magnitude during storm events (as high as 700,000 col/100mL). Multiple linear regression models were developed to predict fecal coliform concentrations as a function of streamflow and other water-quality parameters. The source tracking technique provided identification of bacteria contributions from diverse sources that included (but were not limited to) humans, cattle, poultry, horses, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, raccoons, and deer. Seasonal patterns were observed in the contributions of cattle and poultry sources. There were relations between the identified sources of fecal coliform bacteria and the land-use practices within each watershed. There were only minor differences in the distribution of bacteria sources between low-flow periods and high-flow periods. A coupled approach that utilized both a large available source library and a smaller, location-specific source library provided the most success in identifying the unknown E. coli isolates. BST data should provide valuable support and guidance for producing more defendPatterns and Sources of Fecal Coliform Bacteria in Three Streams in Virginia, 1999-2000 By Kenneth E. Hyer and Douglas L. Moyer


Responsive public spaces use interactive technologies to adapt to users and situations. This enhances the quality of the space as a public realm. However, the application of responsive technologies in spatial design is still to be explored. What exactly are the options for incorporating responsive technologies in spatial designs to improve the quality of public spaces? The book Responsive Public Spaces explores and disentangles this new assignment for designers, and presents inspiring examples. A consortium of spatial designers, interaction designers and local stakeholders, headed by the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, carried out a two-year practice-based study of responsive public spaces. This book draws on those insights to provide a practical approach and a roadmap for the new design process for responsive public spaces. The study results are of signi¬icance for various professional fields. The book is intended for clients and stakeholders involved in planning and design of public spaces, spatial designers, interaction designers and students.


Abstract This article examines the different types of mechanisms which can contribute to addressing the issue of the missing, including providing answers on the fate and whereabouts of missing persons. It looks in detail at one approach that the authors have observed in the field. It argues that an approach based on humanitarian objectives which does not look into who is responsible for the disappearance, with proper management of confidential information, could be a powerful instrument for searching for and collecting relevant information on the missing in certain contexts. The article also proposes avenues for further research, with a view to enhancing the global capacity to provide meaningful answers for the missing and their families.


The Texas Folklore Society has been publishing a regular volume of folklore research (our PTFS series) for the past several decades. Most of these books are what we call miscellanies, compilations of the works of multiple folklorists, and they feature articles on many types of lore. We've also published over twenty "Extra Books," which are single-author manuscripts that examine a more focused topic.

Short Call: Snippets from the Smallest Places in Texas, 1935-2000 by Joyce Gibson Roach, is TFS Extra Book #24. Joyce Gibson Roach has collected "snippets" of stories, recipes, and traditions of life in Turtle, Texas, which represents many small towns—and the people who inhabit them. Many of the younger generations leave such towns, finding both place and society crumbling. Those who've stayed are finding new and interesting ways to put themselves and their places back together. Both the short and long pieces herein are about the folks who've elected to stay generation after generation, knowing that for them wherever they've stayed is still the Home Place. The characters' viewpoints are personal, sometimes agreeing with facts found in history books and sometimes not.


In everyday life, people get lost even when they have the map: they simply may not know where they are in the map. However, when moving forward they may have new observations which can help to locate themselves by reasoning. In this paper, we propose and develop a semantic-driven dynamic epistemic framework to handle epistemic reasoning in such navigation scenarios. Our framework can be viewed as a careful blend of dynamic epistemic logic and epistemic temporal logic, thus enjoying features from both frameworks. We made an in-depth study on many model theoretical aspects of the proposed framework and provide a complete axiomatization.


Since the advent of federally-sponsored urban development, the federal government has sought to facilitate decentralized decision-making by local governments. These federal programs have also strongly encouraged local governments to include community participation in the development decision-making process. Participation evokes notions of democracy, egalitarianism, and inclusion and it is easy to support in principle. But participation is often less easy to support in practice because of its structural disconnect with urban development. This disconnect between principle and practice has been reflected in an ebb and flow of contrastingly strong and weak mandates for participation. This ebb and flow of federally-mandated participation is particularly striking because neither strong nor weak provisions have resulted in participation that has been uniformly satisfactory to individual citizens, communities, or local governments. This Article argues that the problem is not implementational but rather rhetorical, normative, and structural and considers three types of justifications for participation: instrumental, democratic, and empowerment. The familiar instrumental or efficiency-based justifications for participation, as well as democratic or process-based justifications, are inadequate, standing alone, to justify or explain the importance of community participation in development. Instead, empowerment theories that explicitly connect participation to a redistribution of decision-making power are an important yet overlooked aspect of the basis for community participation in development. The Article suggests ways to reconcile the three theories to provide the best justification for participation as well as the substantive choices that must be made to make participatory mandates meaningful.


Macrophage infiltration is a prominent feature of the innate immune response to kidney injury. The persistence of macrophages is associated with tubulointerstitial fibrosis and progression of chronic kidney disease. Macrophages are known to be major producers of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), especially in the setting of phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. TGF-β1 has long been implicated as a central mediator of tissue scarring and fibrosis in many organ disease models, including kidney disease. In this study, we show that homozygous deletion of Tgfb1 in myeloid lineage cells in mice heterozygous for Tgfb1 significantly reduces kidney Tgfb1 mRNA expression and Smad activation at late time points after renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, this reduction in kidney Tgfb1 expression and signaling results in only a modest reduction of isolated fibrosis markers and does not lead to decreased interstitial fibrosis in either ischemic or obstructive injury models. Thus, targeting macrophage-derived TGF-β1 does not appear to be an effective therapy for attenuating progressive renal fibrosis after kidney injury.


We present a simple model for performing high-density all-optical magnetic recording using a solid immersion lens. The magnetization distribution in the magneto-optic film placed in the vicinity of the solid immersion lens is studied using the vector diffraction theory and the inverse Faraday effect. Simulation results show that although the transverse components of magnetization are nonzero, the axial component dominates. The magnetization direction of the axial component can be reversed by changing the helicity of the incident circularly polarized laser pulses. For a lower-numerical-aperture (NA) system, a larger and circular magnetization zone is obtained and the deviation angle of magnetization direction departing from the optical axis is smaller in the effective magnetization zone, which is useful to vertical magnetic recording. For a higher-NA system, a smaller magnetization zone is generated, but the three-dimensional magnetization distribution has to be considered.


Diabetes mellitus is considered as one of the five leading causes of death in the world. The global prevalence of diabetes was 3-4% in 2000, and expected to increase to 4.5-5.5% by 2030, and WHO has predicted that the major burden will go to developing countries. Nearly 60-80% of the world's population uses traditional medicines derived from medicinal plants for various diseases including diabetes. Since time immemorial traditional plants have played a very crucial role in treatment, prevention, mitigation and cure of the different diseases. There are huge numbers of plants that are having anti-diabetic properties. Some plants like O sanctum possess antidiabetic, anti-cancer, anti-fertility, analgesic properties. Many pre-clinical studies have been documented that shows anti-diabetic and hypoglycemic effects of O sanctum through various postulated mechanisms. A huge number of medicinal plants with potential antidiabetic activity have been listed which may include: Azadirachta indica its leaves, stem bark and seeds possess hypoglycemic activity via increasing insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells similarly, Grewia asiatica has antioxidant and radical scavenging activity. But in spite of having huge number of medicinal plants worldwide, there are not many biologically active antidiabetic molecules/drugs in our hand. There should be some general mechanism of searching among hundreds of active ingredients like important classes of terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolic compounds as plant metabolic products presents in herbs.


Context: A common question from most patients or laboratories is whether blood sample for thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free T4 (fT4) needs to be collected in a fasting state and whether time of the day when sample is collected matters. Aims: The aim of the study was to study the impact of the time of day and food intake on levels of TSH and fT4. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional prospective data collection. Subjects and Methods: We prospectively collected data from 52 volunteers who were not known to have any thyroid disorder and were not on any thyroid-related medication. Blood samples for TSH and fT4 were collected on day 1 at 8 am and 10 am with the patient remaining in the fasting state till the collection of the second sample at 10 am. On day 2, samples were collected at 8 am (fasting state) and at 10 am (2 h postprandial state). In 22 volunteers from the group, the tests were performed in three common assay techniques including chemiluminescent assays (chemiluminescent immunoassay [CLIA] and chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay [CMIA]) and enzyme-linked fluorescence assay. Results: The mean (standard deviation) and median (interquartile range) TSH during the extended fast on day 1 were 2.26 ± 1.23 and 2.19 (1.21–3.18), which was significantly lower than the fasting TSH performed on day 1 (P < 0.001). Similarly, the values of TSH 2 h postmeal on day 2 of the testing (mean 1.93 ± 1.12; median 1.64 [1.06–2.86]) were significantly lower than TSH performed in the fasting state on day 2 (P < 0.001). The mean fT4 value was 1.01 ± 0.15 with median of 0.99 (0.91–1.11) in the fasting state and there was no significant difference between the fT4 values performed during fasting, extended fasting, and postmeal state. Among the volunteers in whom the test was performed in the three different assay techniques, the TSH was not statistically different either in the fasting (P = 0.801), extended fasting (P = 0.955), and postprandial samples (P = 0.989). The fT4 values did not vary significantly when done by the same assay method. However, the fT4 levels varied significantly (P < 0.001) when done by another assay method. Conclusions: We conclude stating that the timing of the test affects TSH values and this should be factored in making decisions in diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism.


This report provides methodological details on the estimates presented in Adding It Up: Investing in Contraception and Maternal and Newborn Health, 2017 and related publications, and includes detailed national and regional data. Adding It Up is an ongoing Guttmacher Institute project in which researchers estimate the need for and the use, costs and impacts of various sexual and reproductive health services for developing countries. Estimates have thus far been produced for 2003, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2017; 2016 estimates focusing on adolescents are also available. While the basic Adding It Up methodology remains unchanged, this report details recent revisions to some of the estimation approaches.


The topic we are discussing is Chile, the consolidation of the dictatorship, and social conditions as they exist today in Chile. First, we will outline what the Chilean military rulers claimed they were going to do: the so-called models set up with the advice and consent of Secretary of the Treasury Simon and the CIA, which openly boasted of its participation in designing this plan; the international financiers who are bankrolling this economic plan; and, of course, University of Chicago economists Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger who are, so to speak, the Godfathers of this Mafia which is now literally running and ruining Chile, no matter which way you view it.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Abstract : Trust is a key factor in the effectiveness of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service. Alert originators must trust WEA to deliver alerts to the public in an accurate and timely manner. Members of the public must also trust the WEA service before they will act on the alerts that they receive. This research aimed to develop a trust model to enable the Federal Emergency Management Agency to maximize the effectiveness of WEA and provide guidance for alert originators that would support them in using WEA in a manner that maximizes public safety. This report overviews the public trust model and the alert originator trust model. The research method included Bayesian belief networks (BBNs) to model trust in WEA because they enable reasoning about and modeling of uncertainty. The report details the procedures used to run simulations on the trust models. For each trust model, single-factor, multifactor, random-input, and special-case simulations were run on each factor and group of factors investigated. The analysis of the simulations had two goals: to identify those simulations that predicted the highest levels of trust and those simulations that predicted the lowest levels of trust. This report includes the results for each trust model.


The Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla is a small gull that is widely distributed in the North Atlantic and Pacific. During the breeding season it feeds mainly on fish and, in the North Sea, the Lesser Sandeel Ammodytes marinus typically forms the main species in the diet. We compared the diet and breeding performance of Kittiwakes at four colonies in east Britain with potentially overlapping foraging ranges where both Lesser Sandeels and alternative prey (clupeids: Sprat Sprattus sprattus and Herring Clupea harengus) were potentially available. During the four years of the study Kittiwakes at all four colonies showed similar within-season shifts in the age class of sandeel taken with older (1 + group) fish being replaced by young of the year (0 group). However, in every year the predominant prey differed between the two marine colonies, where birds fed mainly on sandeels, and the two estuarine colonies, where clupeids were the most important prey. We suggest that these dietary differences reflect differences in foraging areas such that Kittiwakes from marine colonies feed offshore in areas with a sandy seabed, habitat favoured by sandeels, and birds from estuarine colonies feed closer inshore in areas with a more rocky seabed, habitat favoured by clupeids. Breeding success of Kittiwakes at the four colonies followed a similar trend over the first three years but the marked increase recorded at the marine colonies in 2000 was not apparent at the estuarine colonies.


Scientific breeding programs are founded on the screening and recruitment of genetically diverse broodstock, with the ultimate aim of developing heterogeneous breeding populations that host a collection of desirable traits. Single locus DNA markers can be applied to facilitate the process of selection as they are species specific, reliable, reproducible and easy to use. This study set forth to develop a library of single locus DNA markers for two commercially cultured species of groupers, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus and E. corallicola. DNA was isolated from one representative specimen of each species and utilized to construct shotgun genomic libraries. DNA sequences derived from the library were selected for the development of 42 and 41 single locus DNA markers for E. fuscoguttatus and E. corallicola respectively. The markers were then tested against randomly selected specimens obtained from the wild. Genotyping results revealed that the species specific primers demonstrated the ability to distinguish between individuals from the same species into distinct operational taxonomic units (OTUs) on the basis of their differential DNA profiles, thus establishing a basis for selection based on genetic heterogeneity. The findings of this study present a strong case for the application of single locus DNA markers as molecular tools for the selection of broodstock on the basis of genotyping.


The Release of Tacrolimus from a Cotton Biomaterial to Dermis
Abstract
Objective: The paper describes the creation of a delivery system for a drug with high dimensions, as tacrolimus.
Methods: The achievement of a biomaterial manufactured of alternative layers of chitosan (CS) and sodium alginate (Alg) with the inclusion of tacrolimus (Ta) between layers. By the gradual dissolution of layers, Ta is released.
Results: On a cotton fabric, it has been performed a biomaterial consists of 10 layers of CS and Alg. The biomaterial can sustain and then release Ta according with a specific relase kinetics and by avoiding "burst effect". The following have been evaluated: coated fabric loading degree, the number of charges on the specific surface, the dyeing tests, the Ta kinetic release and the elemental analysis (EDAX). The method proposed describes the advantages of releasing the drug as well as the limits imposed by using other systems for controlled drug release, such as cyclodextrins or hydrogels.
Conclusion: In paper, the proposed biomaterial is a viable alternative for regular treatments of cutaneous diseases with a Ta formulation supported from a textile fabric for psoriasis.


The endogenous opioid enkephalin neuropeptides are mediators of pain perception and have been implicated in human addictions. The preproenkephalin gene and its mRNA have also provided many examples of tissue- and species-specific variations in mRNA structure produced through a variety of transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Resultant differences in mRNA structure, in several cases, have impact on translation of enkephalin prepropeptide. The reports and discussion presented herein describe studies of the preproenkephalin gene and mRNA structure in the guinea pig, an animal that may have specific advantages for modeling the human endogenous opioid system. A guinea pig brain cDNA library was constructed and screened for clones of preproenkephalin and preprodynorphin, which were then sequenced. These studies confirmed the predicted mRNA structure that had been previously proposed based on homology with gene sequences and other methods. Multiple transcription initiation sites for each of these prepropeptide genes were also identified. Studies were conducted in the guinea pig to evaluate the effects of the administration of cocaine in a "binge" paradigm for two and seven days on preproenkephalin mRNA levels in several brain regions. "Binge" cocaine administration for seven (but not two) days resulted in differential changes in mRNA levels in different brain regions. Decreases were observed in the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus, and increases in the frontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus. These findings differ from those of previous rodent studies and suggest that this species may provide a useful alternative model for the study of the effects of cocaine on preproenkephalin gene expression in the human brain. Human genetic studies were also conducted in opioid-dependent (formerly heroin-addicted) and control subjects to test the hypothesis that the preproenkephalin gene is associated with heroin addiction. In two separate studies, we obtained evidence that this gene may be associated with the development of human heroin addiction.


OBJECTIVE To evaluate and compare surface and cross-sectional structure as well as localized electrochemical corrosion and ion release for cast stainless steel (SS) tibia plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) plates retrieved from dogs with and without osteosarcoma (OSA) and to compare these findings with similar variables for forged SS TPLO plates retrieved from dogs. SAMPLE 47 TPLO plates explanted from 45 client-owned dogs (22 cast plates from dogs with OSA, 22 cast plates from dogs without OSA, and 3 forged plates from dogs without OSA). PROCEDURES Histologic evaluations of tissue samples collected from implant sites at the time of plate retrieval were performed to confirm implant site tumor status of each dog. Surfaces and metallographic cross sections of retrieved plates were examined, and the microcell technique was used to obtain local electrochemical corrosion and ion release measurements. RESULTS Findings indicated that all cast SS plates demonstrated high spatial variability of their electrochemical surface properties and inhomogeneous superficial and cross-sectional composition, compared with forged plates. Greater metal ion release was observed in cast plates than in forged plates and in cast plates from dogs with OSA than in cast or forged from dogs without OSA. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results suggested that accumulation of metal ions from implants could be a trigger for neoplastic transformation in neighboring cells. Metal ion release caused by corrosion of implants that do not comply with recommended standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials International or the International Organization for Standardization could potentially place patients at increased risk of tumor development.


Mobile Phone "Hot Spots" An obstacle to developing effective national malaria control programs is a lack of understanding of human movements, which are an important component of disease transmission. As mobile phones have become increasingly ubiquitous, it is now possible to collect individual-level, longitudinal data on human movements on a massive scale. Wesolowski et al. (p. 267) analyzed mobile phone call data records representing the travel patterns of 15 million mobile phone owners in Kenya over the course of a year. This was combined with a detailed malaria risk map, to estimate malaria parasite movements across the country that could be caused by human movement. This information enabled detailed analysis of parasite sources and sinks between hundreds of local settlements. Estimates were compared with hospital data from Nairobi to show that local pockets of transmission likely occur around the periphery of Nairobi, accounting for locally acquired cases, contrary to the accepted idea that there is no transmission in the capital. Geographical information in mobile phone records for 15 million Kenyans is linked to malaria prevalence estimates. Human movements contribute to the transmission of malaria on spatial scales that exceed the limits of mosquito dispersal. Identifying the sources and sinks of imported infections due to human travel and locating high-risk sites of parasite importation could greatly improve malaria control programs. Here, we use spatially explicit mobile phone data and malaria prevalence information from Kenya to identify the dynamics of human carriers that drive parasite importation between regions. Our analysis identifies importation routes that contribute to malaria epidemiology on regional spatial scales.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if women receiving intrauterine devices (IUCDs) outside of menses have an acceptable rate of insertion problems and subsequent IUCD-related complications.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional and prospective cohort study of insertions at times other than during menses.

SETTING
The study was carried out in two government family planning (FP) clinics in Nairobi, Kenya.

SUBJECTS
After appropriate pre-test and post-test HIV counselling, 1686 women requesting IUCDs at two FP clinics between 1994 and 1995 in Nairobi were enrolled at baseline into a study examining the effect of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) infection on IUCD-related complications. Six hundred and forty nine women (156 HIV-infected and 493 HIV-uninfected) were selected for the four month follow up study. They were classified according to their menstrual cycle status at time of IUCD insertion.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Problems at the time of insertion (pain, bleeding, immediate expulsion) and IUCD-related complications through four months.

RESULTS
Rates of immediate insertion problems were low in the women who had insertions during menses (7.0%), outside of menses (4.0%) or had oligomenorrhea/amenorrhea (2.6%). The adjusted odds ratios for IUCD insertion problems outside of menses and in oligomenorrhea/amenorrhea (versus women with insertion during menses) were 0.54 (95 % CI 0.18-1.59) and 0.39 (95% CI 0.12-1.29) respectively. IUCD-related complications were higher in the oligomenorrhea/amenorrhea (11.5%) or insertion outside of menses (6.9%), than the within menses (4.3%) groups. However, the differences were not statistically significant. Adjusted odds ratios for IUCD outside of menses and oligomenorrhoea/amenorrhea groups were 1.65 (95% CI 0.21-12.91) and 2.72 (95% CI 0.34-21.71) respectively.

CONCLUSION
The results confirm that the IUCD can be safely inserted outside of menses with minimal insertion difficulties and subsequent complications. Availability of IUCDs outside of menses may enhance IUCD acceptance in Kenya and create better opportunity for visual screening of the cervix for sexually transmitted infections.


This article offers an overview of the development of dairy cow breeding in China, and analyzes the problems in the development of dairy cow breeding in China as follows: the breeding scale is small; the pasture grass production cannot meet demand; the proportion of fine breed is not high and the dairy cow yield per unit is low; it lacks epidemic prevention and quarantine mechanism; economic benefits of large-scale breeding are not high. These problems have become bottleneck in the development of the dairy cow breeding. Finally countermeasures are put forward for the development of dairy cow breeding in China as follows: developing large-scale breeding, and increasing subsidies; supporting the development of grass industry, and ensuring the supply of good feed; strengthening cultivation and promotion of fine breed, and promoting the quality of fresh milk; improving the accountability system of dairy products, and giving play to supervisory role of the news media.


The thesis discusses and explores aesthetics within the field of interaction design. The most important contributions are: a) design experiments, as examples of work exploring aesthetics of interaction, b) a framework and concepts to support reflection on, and the understanding of forms and expressions of interactive computational devices, c) methods and exercises that exemplify how to develop a better sensibility to aesthetics of interaction.

The concepts and methods presented aim to contribute to a language that can be used in the design process, in personal reflections, in discussions with colleagues and as a basis for decision making. The background is the need and wish for a richer language in the interaction design process – to be able to put words to, and communicate matters of interaction in a precise way.

The thesis presents an alternative approach to the recent trends within the field of interaction design that focus on user experience and aesthetic experience. The framework and concepts introduced are intended to be of use when talking about interaction before there is any, i.e., before any design exists that people can interact with. Therefore, the framework and the concepts do not refer to actual use or people's experiences. Instead they refer to the device itself, to how the device relates possible interaction to its functions, and how this relation can be expressed in certain context of use. Aesthetics is seen as the whole of how a design relates interaction and function to each other and how that relation is being expressed by and through the design.


We present a data structure and several operations it supports for recursively lowrank compressed matrices; that is, the diagonal blocks of the matrix are recursively partitioned, and the off-diagonal blocks in each partition level admit a low-rank approximation. Such a compression is embraced in many linearor near-linear-time methods for kernel matrices, including the fast multipole method, the framework of hierarchical matrices, and several other variants. For this compressed representation, we develop a principled data structure that enables the design of matrix algorithms by using tree traversals and that facilitates computer implementation, especially in the parallel setting. We present three basic operations supported by the data structure—matrix-vector multiplication, matrix inversion, and determinant calculation—all of which have a strictly linear cost. These operations consequently enable the solution of other matrix problems with practical significance, such as the solution of a linear system and the computation of the diagonal of a matrix inverse. We show comprehensive experiments with various matrices and kernels to demonstrate the favorable numerical behavior and computational scaling of the algorithms.


Soils vary spatially in texture, structure, depth of horizons, and macropores, which can lead to a large variation in soil physical properties. In particular, saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) and drainable porosity are critical properties required to model field hydrology in poorly drained lands. These soil-property values can be measured by several methods; however, larger scale, "field-effective" values may be needed in developing, calibrating, and validating models, such as DRAINMOD. In this investigation, field-effective soil-property values were estimated from water table and outflow measurements from a 3-year field experiment on poorly drained loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantation watersheds in eastern North Carolina and tested against two additional estimation methods. Field estimates for Ksat were compared to estimates determined using the auger-hole method and estimates determined from soil cores by the constant-head method. The fieldeffective Ksat of the surface layer was estimated at 140 and 90 cm/hour for the unthinned and thinned condition, respectively. These values are greater than values obtained from soil cores and not different from values obtained from the auger-hole method which had mean conductivities of 100 and 80 cm/hour for unthinned condition, respectively. The thinned condition had Ksat values of 32 and 17 cm/hour based on soil cores and the auger-hole method, respectively. The differences between the field-based values and the constant-head method and auger-hole method may be a result of heterogeneity of soils or overestimations in the field-effective results.


This is a comparative legal study of compliance with UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by Ghana and the United Kingdom. The 30 articles of the CEDAW cover many aspects of discrimination against women and the need for State Parties to take concrete steps to eliminate the menace of all forms of discrimination against women. This research is about the conceptual understanding of the law of discrimination (article 1) and states' responsibilities to take appropriate measures to comply with the law and ensure practical realisation of the enjoyments of human rights by women (article 2).

Our literature review brings together some of the salient debates on the conceptual understanding of discrimination as expressed in the language of CEDAW and other UN Conventions on Human Rights, and what is to be considered as appropriate responses to combat discrimination against women. It is argued that since we seek to examine legal and practical responses by two historically linked jurisdictions, but separated at the same time by a considerable gap of legislative and practical experiences on the issue of discrimination, the preferred overarching methodology to explore the many interrelated issues is a comparative, functional and qualitative legal research approach. Our data source is documentary evidence in the form of national legislation, constitutional provisions, UN, EU and Africa Union Treaties on human rights as well as scholarship on the law of discrimination. To analysis the data, we developed nine indicators of compliance to test the level of qualitative compliance. For evidence of practical and progressive improvement in the fortunes of women, we rely on materials on representation of women in a variety of institutions, and the level of continued violence and human rights abuses from the records on national human rights institutions and NGOs.

Whilst the level of legislative and constitutional compliance with the nine indicators on article 1 and 2 is commendable, there is significant level of continued violation of human rights of women in both jurisdictions. Institutional representation of women in both countries remains at an unacceptable level. In the UK the driving force on the level of improvement experience is the combined influence of EU law, robust judicial interpretation of EU law by ECJ and ECtHR, internal academic scholarship, civil society and political engagement with the issue of discrimination against women for a considerable length of time, and not the CEDAW. In Ghana, the drive to comply with CEDAW and the African Charter on People's and Human Rights has played a significant role in influencing change. In both jurisdictions, the most retarding factors have been and remain harmful cultural practices and prejudices against women. We offer some practical steps towards the elimination of such practices.


In this paper, we present a study of broad band FET model parameter extraction problems. A novel modeling method, providing reliable FET small-signal model parameters, is presented and compared with well-known extraction methods. The named extrinsic elements are optimized to yield a broad band coherent model and the optimization approach is based on "simulated annealing" method which overcomes the multi-minimum optimization problems. Bias dependence of some of the named extrinsic elements are reported and discussed. In particular, physical explanations of the negative resistance values, based on quasi 2D physical simulations , are discussed and the novel extraction method is evaluated by MMIC FETS and HEMTS broad band measurements.


There is a large amount of heat energy available in the exhaust of a gas turbine, and this can be recovered in a heat recovery steam generator to produce additional power to the propulsion system or to electrical power. This concept is known as COGAS; that is, combined gas turbine and steam turbine. When used in a propulsion system, a COGAS plant has to satisfy the requirements of ship propulsion under all possible operating conditions. The performance of a COGAS system, particularly the gas turbine cycle, varies with the atmospheric conditions such as temperature, pressure and relative humidity. A dynamic analysis of COGAS propulsion plants is useful for predicting system performance and providing guidance for system design. The codes for the simulation performed in this study are developed with MATLAB/Simulink. This paper presents a dynamic simulation of a COGAS propulsion system with MATLAB/Simulink. Results of the simulation are discussed and presented in the paper.


Starting from the elementary fact that a soil is a discontinuous particulate medium, it is attempted to describe the mechanical response of such a system to induced boundary energy, independently of the classical soil mechanics concepts which were derived from continuum mechanics. The dissertation deals specifically with dry (or fully drained) loose non-cohesive soils and proposes a new procedure for the prediction of expected settlements under static vertical surface loads. The thesis can be summarized by the following basic propositions : Soil is made of a very large number of discrete and randomly arranged grains, and of pores. The application of loads results in local changes of porosity and the propagation of these structural modifications produces apparent macroscopic settlements. These phenomena can be quantified using a probabilistic approach. As a first step in the theoretical development, a new definition is given for the internal tensions. It is shown that the classical effective stress concept represents only a first-moment approximation of the local demand in a granular assembly. The scatter of this random quantity increases with the porosity of the medium. This theoretical prediction is in agreement with experimental results published by Marsal. Two boundary-value problems are investigated : transient uniform compression of a granular layer with finite thickness, steady state plane strain deformation of a granular medium including stratifications under flexible or rigid foundation. In both cases, a simple random walk model is formulated, based on the concept of migration of voids in excess exchanging their position with solid particles. The generalization of this discrete model leads to Fokker-Planck type one-dimensional diffusion equations which are solved by a finite differences method. In case b), a complete solution is provided by the combination of the proposed model for the displacement computations with Harr's stress diffusion theory. From a comparison to X-rays measurements of the displacement fields in laboratory models, it is concluded that the theory is capable to predict the behaviour of loose particulate materials. The small number of parameters needed and their clear physical signification should allow further developments oriented to practical applications.


Efficient investment of personal savings depends on clear risk disclosures. We study the propensity of individuals to violate some implications of expected utility under alternative "mass-market" descriptions of investment risk, using a discrete choice experiment. We found violations in around 25% of choices, and substantial variation in rates of violation, depending on the mode of risk disclosure and participants' characteristics. When risk is described as the frequency of returns below or above a threshold we observe more violations than for range and probability-based descriptions. Innumerate individuals are more likely to violate expected utility than those with high numeracy. Apart from the very elderly, older individuals are less likely to violate the restrictions. The results highlight the challenges of disclosure regulation.


ABSTRACT  Sewanee: The University of the South, located in Franklin County, Tennessee, is a 5,263 ha site that encompasses a variety of plateau and cove habitats on the southern Cumberland Plateau in southeastern Tennessee. The vascular flora of the University of the South was documented from 1948–2015 and comprises 1,118 species and lesser taxa in 553 genera and 150 families. We documented 229 exotic taxa, 20.5% of the flora. This flora contains six state records, 74 Franklin County records, and two potential new species. Eighteen taxa are listed as protected either at the state or federal level, including the federally listed endangered Clematis morefieldii and state listed endangered Diamorpha smallii, Silphium brachiatum, and Symphyotrichum pratense. When compared to the five other published floras for the southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, the University of the South flora is the most diverse, capturing 69% of the total taxa at the species level for the region. The high diversity of plant species in the University of the South flora reflects the broad range of habitats that can be found within the campus and contiguous natural areas. This flora demonstrates that herbaria at small liberal arts colleges can play an important role in the documentation and promotion of plant biodiversity within their region.


Dihydrogen reactions are mainly reaction-center-mediated. In a systematic approach, these reactions are divided into the steps of splitting of H(2) and H-atom transfers with homolytic and heterolytic splitting at mono- and dinuclear reaction centers, and further homopolar H transfers in Wilkinson-type hydrogenations (insertion and reductive elimination) and heteropolar transfers in ionic hydrogenations (hydride before proton, proton before hydride, simultaneous hydride/proton transfers). Based on these categories, transfer hydrogenations are also surveyed. A separate class of reactions is one-electron reactions of dihydrogen.


Objective This study aimed to examine the association between work-unit level leadership quality and individual-level long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in the hospital sector and effect modification by chronic disorders. Methods This longitudinal analysis included 33 025 Danish public hospital employees who were followed-up for one year after baseline in March 2014. Leadership quality was assessed by questionnaire with mean responses aggregated by work-unit and characterized in tertiles. LTSA during follow-up was determined from employer records. Chronic disorders at baseline was assessed from the Danish hospital and prescription registers. We performed multilevel logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusting for potential confounders. We evaluated interaction between chronic illness and low leadership quality on multiplicative and additive scales. Results We identified employees as healthy (60.8%) or with somatic (31.6%), mental (3.3%), or both somatic and mental (4.3%) disorders. During follow-up, 6% of employees registered a LTSA. Medium and high leadership quality were associated with lower risk of LTSA with OR of 0.84 (95% CI 0.76–0.94) and 0.73 (95% CI 0.65–0.82) respectively, compared to low leadership quality. Associations were similar for healthy employees and employees with only somatic disorders, whereas no association was observed for employees with mental disorders (in presence or absence of somatic disorders). No statistically significant (α=0.05) interactions between leadership quality and chronic disorders on LTSA were observed. Conclusion The findings suggest that the quality of leadership in work units is associated with risk of long-term sick leave in the Danish public hospital sector and that strong leadership protects employees against LTSA.


The Archives and Music Documentation Centres Branch held two sessions during the IAML conference in Dublin. On 26 July 2011 a session entitled Access to Archival Collections opened with "Finding the Right Tune: Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Access to Archival Music Collections," a paper by Ramona Riedzewski of Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Riedzewski noted that legislation covering Data Protection (DP) and Freedom of Information (FOI) is, in some form or another, enacted in over 100 countries worldwide. Legislation in the UK from 1998 intends to encourage openness of publically funded institutions while protecting personal and sensitive data identifying a living individual. DP generally does not feature very highly on most researchers' minds when they are wishing to access archival collections and thus presents major challenges for many archivists. Using the example of the Arts Council of Great Britain (ACGB) Archive (1928-1997), a large 1.6 linear km mass of material held by the Victoria and Albert Museum and acquired before DP and FOI legislation, Riedzewski delineated the impact of such legislation on archive repositories. Requests for music department materials in the ACGB Archive that are less than 30 years old are forwarded to the Arts Council of England with restrictions applied to reviews and internal documentation. Applications are often complex and time-consuming to navigate and requirements result in a long process in which staff is worried about granting access to the wrong information and the public is confused with the unfamiliar requirements. The right balance between granting researchers access to archival material and legislative requirements is difficult to maintain. Sandra Tuppen of the British Library, London followed with a presentation entitled "Unlocking the Wandering Minstrels Archive: A Case Study in Creating a Database of Performances." The Wandering Minstrels was an orchestra of noblemen and gentlemen that gave hundreds of private concerts in London and charity concerts across England between 1860 and 1898. Tuppen observed that surviving scrapbooks of photographs, press cuttings, concert programmes, letters and drawings relating to the Minstrels, including three encased volumes and other materials now preserved at the British Library, allow the orchestra's concert-giving history to be reconstructed in great detail, much of it from financial and travel documents. The collection is remarkable for the large number of concert programmes associated with one society. After presenting the description of the collection, accompanied by a selection of projected images, Tuppen delineated some of the challenges faced in creating a database of the orchestra's performances. She focused on issues of authority control of the indexed terms, and showed slides of the FRBR model and its usefulness in documenting musical performances (e.g., work, expression, manifestation), and at the potential offered by external linked data. Following the presentation and visit to the website currently under development, http://wanderingminstrels.org/, questions focused on whether authority control was used for the six document types in the sample data displayed. The first session closed with Adele Commins of Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland presenting an introduction to a major collection of material available for the study of composer Charles Villiers Stanford (18521924), a paper entitled "In Stanford's Hand: The Manuscript Collection of Charles Villiers Stanford at the Robinson Library, Newcastle University." Born in Ireland, Stanford was one of the most prolific composers of his generation and one of the leading figures in the English Musical Renaissance. Noted for his commitment to the teaching of composition through his positions as Professor of Music at both Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music London, Stanford remained active as a composer throughout his lifetime with an output of nearly two hundred works. …


This paper examines the different definitions of the term wild card. Most often the wild card is defined as a surprising event that has significant consequences. In the literature the examples labelled as wild cards do not always meet this definition. I have divided changes into two categories according to the rapidity of the change taking place: wild cards and gradual changes. By looking at the examples of wild cards in the literature, I found that a large number of them are actually gradual changes. This paper also clarifies the difference between wild cards and weak signals, which are sometimes considered synonymous. Weak signals are a means of avoiding blindness to gradual changes and wild cards in advance.


In tracking and geometrical vision, there are usually priors available on the image locations of features of interest. In this paper, we use these priors dynamically to guide a feature by feature matching search. Much less image processing and lower overall computational cost can be expected for getting global matchings. First, the concept of dynamic sequential search (DSS) is presented. Then, the problem of determining an optimal search order for DSS is investigated, when the probabilistic distribution of the features can be described by a multivariate Gaussian model. Based upon the general formulas for sequentially updating the predicted positions of the features as well as their innovation covariance, the theoretic lower bound for the sum of the areas of the features' search-regions is derived, and the necessary and sufficient condition for the optimal search order to approach this lower bound is presented. After that, an algorithm for dynamically determining a suboptimal search order is presented, with a computational complexity of O(n3), which is two magnitudes lower than those of the state-of-the-art algorithms. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by both statistical simulation and real-world experiments with a monocular visual SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) system. The results verify that the performance of the proposed method is better than the state-of-the-art algorithms, with both fewer image processing operations and lower overall computational cost.


In this article I argue that violent experiences were a crucial factor in bell hooks' decision to write her first book Ain't I A Woman?: Black Women and Feminism. Analysing the role of violence in hooks' childhood in conjunction with the right to speech and silence forms the crux of my argument. I analyse hooks' autobiographical works, Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood and Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life emphasising the role of paternal violence and how it contributed to her developing self-harming tendencies. Existing studies have already charted hooks' development as a writer through her childhood memoir, Bone Black but have overlooked the role of violence, especially the self-harming tendencies. I consequently build on these existing studies by marrying violence, the right to speak, and silence to hooks' development as a writer. In doing so, this article makes an original contribution to the existing critical literature on this feminist writer.


Mid to low southern latitude hydrophone stations within the Indian Ocean have recorded two distinct types of low‐frequency (<100 Hz) tremor that can be correlated with drifting icebergs and glacial features along the Wilkes Land coast of eastern Antarctica. The most common of these signals is a variable harmonic tremor (VHT), with spectral peaks that exhibit frequency fluctuations through time. These signals typically display a 4 to 10 Hz fundamental frequency and may have as many as ten harmonic bands. Individual VHT signal packets have durations of up to ∼30 min and occur throughout the year in clusters that continue for hours to days. A second, less commonly observed signal is characterized by shorter duration (25 to 90 s) pulses with a convex‐upward spectrogram appearance. These cusped pulse tremors (CPT) often exhibit a near‐uniform pulse spacing, with episodes continuing for minutes to hours. Tremor received levels at hydrophones near 32°S, 114°E and 7°S, 72°E reach as high as 142 and 133 dB re 1 μPa (peak to peak), respectively. Propagation likely occurs as a sea surface–reflected phase at high latitudes and a sound channel phase north of the convergence zone, with low‐frequency transmission loss estimates suggesting maximum acoustic source levels of ∼245 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m. Source locations for a subset of the loudest VHT signals correlate with the satellite‐derived locations of a large iceberg (B‐15D) that migrated westward along the Wilkes Land shelf region during 2002 and early 2003. Most VHT sources, however, cannot be correlated with known iceberg locations, suggesting that these signals also may be sourced from smaller unnamed icebergs and/or associated with outlet glaciers distributed along the Wilkes Land coast. CPT signals have a more limited spatial distribution, originating from five specific regions where ice streams are observed. The harmonic nature of both signal types is consistent with the resonance of an ice layer or fluid‐filled cavity within an ice mass.


ABSTRACTManure additives are widely used to mitigate gas and odor emissions from manure or improve manure properties. However, the reported effectiveness of some manure additive products has been mixed and most of the studies on poultry manure have been on chemical additives. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate an enzyme-based commercial manure additive for its potential reductions of ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and odor releases from layer hen manure. Eight 122-cm tall and 38-cm diameter reactors, four treated with the additive and four control, were studied for 38 days with manure from commercial layer hen houses. The reactors were initially filled with 66-cm height manure followed by weekly additions of 5 cm each. Ventilation air was supplied to the reactor headspace to simulate winter ventilation rates in layer hen houses. Concentrations of NH3, CO2, and H2S in the reactor exhaust air were measured with gas analyzers for 10 minutes, six times daily. Odor intensity was assessed by a trained odor panel. Open-headspace tests were also conducted to corroborate the observations in the reactor study. Study results showed that the average 4-reactor group mean release rates ± standard deviations of NH3 were 17.5 ± 14.3 and 20.1 ± 12.6 µg s–1 from the control and treated groups, respectively. Those of CO2 were 1091 ± 149 µg s–1 from the control and 1143 ± 217 µg s–1 from the treated groups. Release of H2S from the reactors could not be detected. The odor intensities were 3.5 ± 0.3 and 3.4 ± 0.3 before and after the additive spray, respectively. Application of the additive onto the manure did not demonstrate an effect on the releases of NH3 (P = 0.41), CO2 (P > 0.23), and odor (P > 0.71).


As former communist countries have proceeded with market reforms, they have become more enmeshed in the international economy and their involvement in economic globalisation continues to grow. While economic theory suggests that this should bring several economic advantages to transitional economies (such as greater diversity of choice of commodities, lower costs as a result of greater economic specialisation, enhanced economic growth as a result of liberalization of capital and technology transfers), the social and environmental consequences of globalisation have in many cases not been favourable so far. Unemployment is emerging as a major problem in some transitional economies, social safety nets (especially for women, children and the elderly) have been breached, and basic needs are no longer being met across the board as in communist days. In most cases, inequality of income has increased and a bimodal distribution may be emerging in many other economies. Those on the low welfare- (income-) side of the bimodal distribution are casual workers, those in the informal sector, the unemployed and the handicapped, including the elderly. Those on the right-hand bulge of the income distribution curve seem to be the permanently employed (a declining proportion of population) and rich entrepreneurs and capitalists The paper suggests that structural adjustment policies may be altering the shape of the Kuznets curve of income distribution form an inverted-U to a bimodal form in both capitalist and former communist-counties. Transitional processes have failed to overcome many of the environmental problems experienced by former communist countries. This is particularly so in transitional economies which have experienced negative economic growth, such as Russia. It is partly a consequence of lack of investment in capital stock. Lack of economic growth makes it difficult to implement environmental reforms and maintain social services. It is also noted that economic globalisation in terms of trade and capital inflows (including aid) makes transitional economies more dependent on the rest of the world. They can therefore be more easily subjected to external strategic economic bargaining or threats.


We re-investigated the occurrence and distribution of Fishers (Pekania pennanti) released in the Elk Island National Park – Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area – Ministik Lake Bird Sanctuary complex in the early 1990s. From March to November 2013, we set remote cameras in deciduous forests in areas where Fishers were originally released, and in surrounding natural reserves up to 60 km from the original release sites. We confirmed the presence of Fisher in 95 videos which corresponded to at least 6 different individuals. Fishers are still present in the original release areas and have expanded northward 20 km. The success of the translocation program is likely the result of releasing numerous (65%) females and large adult males from different populations in several locations. Choosing a large, contiguous "forested island" within this otherwise agricultural landscape also contributed to the release success. This study shows that it is possible to re-establish Fishers in ecosystems that have been affected by agricultural and urban developments, as long as large, contiguous areas of forested habitats are maintained and protected.


In this paper we consider a triangular inter-dependence between
 hyperinflation, financial repression, and the financial crisis in FRY in the
 1990s. When all three vertices of the triangle are present, the crisis
 propagates and is amplified along its edges. We focus, especially, on the
 less studied link between the financial crisis and financial repression in
 FRY. Setting administrative limits on interest rates under conditions of
 hyperinflation leads to deeply negative real interest rates. The situation
 in FRY was further aggravated by credit allocation to privileged
 participants. Under such circumstances, all dinar components of bank balance
 sheets quickly became worthless, credit activities of banks died down and
 real quantities of dinars in circulation became negligible. The situation
 improved only after the removal of the outside repression (i.e. removal of
 sanctions), reorganization of the entire financial sector and the entrance
 of foreign banks into the Serbian market at the beginning of 2000s.


The place, Sydney, and the year, 1922, mark a curious conjunction in the writing careers of D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) and Henry Lawson (18671922). This conjunction points at a number of parallels, previously unremarked, but well worth drawing out. After their deaths and especially in the post-World War II era of the professional literary critic, a more significant parallel emerges, that of the ongoing reception of their works. This parallel, once pursued, throws new light on Lawrence criticism and serves as a provocation or challenge to reconfigure our understanding of that activity by bringing a more book-historical perspective to bear on it. Sydney, 1922: Lawrence and Lawson Today, Writers Walk stretches around Circular Quay at Sydney Harbor. Medallions set into the footpath commem orate the visits of various overseas writers to Sydney, as well as Australian counterparts. Both Lawrence and Lawson are commemorated there. The medallions constitute, one may say, a material act of reception of their works in Australia, a refusal to let go of the connection to the actual authors themselves to only the level of printed text. Again, in a little park in Thirroul, south of Sydney and just up the road from Wyewurk, a plaque set into a large rock commemorates Lawrence and Frieda's few months' stay in that wryly named house. As a local author, Lawson is, understandably, more thoroughly memorialized in New South Wales than Lawrence. In the Domain parkland, not far from where Lawrence and Frieda spent their first night in Sydney, an elaborate statue of Lawson the Bushman was erected in 1931. It was at the time an act of homage to the writer whom many in Australia were by then coming to believe had created in his prose and verse the very habitus of the Australian character, the bush. The memorial was sculpted by G. W. Lambert and partly paid for by the schoolchildren of New South Wales, who contributed their pennies weekly after the Teachers Federation answered the call of a committee set up to memorialize Lawson. This committee got to work following Lawson's state funeral, granted by Prime Minister Billie Hughes who happened to arrive in Sydney by train from Melbourne on the day Lawson died. Lawson gradually became the focus of a popular groundswell that peaked in the 1960s; he would finally be honored with his image on the ten-dollar note in 1966, when the Australian currency changed from pounds, shillings and pence. The iconic image was not replaced until 1993. Lawson died in Sydney on September 2, 1922, nearly three weeks after Lawrence and Frieda had sailed for San Francisco on August 14. But some of Lawson's writings had been appearing in the Sydney Bulletin during 1922, and so, if Lawrence was keeping up with recent issues (Frieda many years later recalled that he read it regularly [120]), he would have come across the seventh item in Lawson's Elder Man's Lane Series, "His Burden of Sorrow," published in the Bulletin on June 29, 1922. The series consisted of vignettes of social life on the streets of North Sydney before the Harbour Bridge was built, connecting it to Sydney. The sketch concerns a West Indian man called Jacky Harrison, who makes a living from scouring the local tip for rags, bundling them up, and then taking them on his horse-drawn wagon on the punt across the Harbour to the city and selling them. He has in succession lost his wife, elder son and his younger son from, as Lawson's narrator puts it, "Consumption or something of that sort, I suppose" (1922, 48), leaving him finally with the question of what there is left to live for. The narrator comes across the man on the punt after both of the first two deaths, but when a friend, Benno the bottle-o, tells the narrator of the third death while gesturing towards Harrison, who is standing at the front of the punt waiting for it to depart, the narrator cannot bring himself to come on board and decides instead to wait for the next one. …


In recent years one of the most significant changes in UK Universities has been the increased use of virtual learning environments (VLE) as a method of supporting learning and teaching. This has in part been influenced by research which suggests that student learning experiences can be enhanced by the judicious use of new technologies, and partly by the possibilities that the technologies help academics and students operate effectively within a system of mass higher education such has developed in the UK. Despite the fact that Politics is a discipline that has traditionally been slow to embrace new technologies (in comparison with the physical sciences), there has nevertheless been considerable interest as to the manner in which Politics is taught, including the use of VLEs. Significantly, however, this interest has been based on case studies of developments within a particular university (Lee, 2003 and Lightfoot, 2004) and there is therefore an absence of a national picture. The present paper aims to remedy this situation by reporting on the results of a questionnaire that was undertaken in September 2004 on the use of VLEs in the teaching of Politics across the UK higher education sector.


This unique textbook is structured as a step-by-step course of study along the lines of a VLSI IC design project. In a nominal schedule of 12 weeks, two days and about 10 hours per week, the entire verilog language is presented, from the basics to everything necessary for synthesis of an entire 70,000 transistor, full-duplex serializer - deserializer, including synthesizable PLLs. Digital VLSI Design With Verilog is all an engineer needs for in-depth understanding of the verilog language: Syntax, synthesis semantics, simulation, and test. Complete solutions for the 27 labs are provided on the accompanying CD-ROM. For a reader with access to appropriate electronic design tools, all solutions can be developed, simulated, and synthesized as described in the book. A partial list of design topics includes design partitioning, hierarchy decomposition, safe coding styles, back-annotation, wrapper modules, concurrency, race conditions, assertion-based verification, clock synchronization, and design for test. Coverage of specific devices includes basic discussion and exercises on flip-flops, latches, combinational logic, muxes, counters, shift-registers, decoders, state machines, memories (including parityand ECC), FIFOs, and PLLs. Verilog specify blocks, with their path delays and timing checks, also are covered.


A quantitative derivation is presented for the production of the photodisplacement signal of a sample that is periodically heated by the absorption of modulated light. Numerical estimates are presented for the surface displacement of typical solids; they show us that one may get signals well above the thermal noise.


Miracle Life is a firm with a unique setup and organizational structure. Specifically, it is a network marketing firm (also known as multi-level marketing (MLM) firm), which utilizes a large distributor base, and depends on this individual distributor base to sell its products, giving explicit incentives for these individual distributors to both sell its products and sign up other distributors. The case gives students the opportunity to take the basic framework of Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis, and apply it to two unique perspectives of an identical problem. The students will then use this DCF approach to rationalize observed stock prices, connecting the two, and further reconciling how a company's future plan for growth, and the plausibility of this plan, has implications jointly for DCF and stock prices.


With Higher Education undergoing increasing changes academic life is more pressurised, less autonomous and less secure. Against this backdrop mental health issues and illness within Higher Education are on the increase. In this paper, I present an exploration of academic identity under the influence of fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a complex, gendered, contested syndrome characterised by widespread pain, chronic fatigue, sleep problems, psychological disorders and cognitive dysfunctions. Through an embodied, phenomenological approach with metaphors and representations I seek to understand the life of academics with fibromyalgia. Data drawn from timelines, interviews and identity boxes describes the life for academics with an illness on the cusp of the physiological, psychological and somatic. The analysis provides an insight into the conscious identity work and body work required to reconcile the experience of illness with the academic's public face and life. I conclude with a discussion of participatory and inclusive research within Higher Education.


The focus of this paper is on the impact of managerialism and the new public management on the professions within the NHS in recent years. Potentially, this is a large task. It has been suggested that the NHS is the largest employer in Europe - and with total employees of upwards of three quarters of a million in recent decades - this seems entirely plausible. But this sort of measure of scale is misleading. The health service is far from a unitary entity, being split into a number of areas of activity and semi-autonomous services. General practitioner services, for example, have always been administered separately from hospitals, and the local authorities have always provided some personal services for the NHS. Even within the hospitals themselves, there have been traditional differences between the district hospitals, specialist hospitals and teaching hospitals. In addition, each individual institution within the NHS 'system' has, more often than not, enjoyed both considerable operating autonomy and developed an individual culture. Thus, although, as we shall see, there have been distinct elements of centralisation and bureaucracy within the NHS, it would be wrong to think of it as being, at any time, an organisational monolith. This is true despite concerted attempts at rationalising and unifying a host of diverse activities in recent years. In the following discussion, attention will be mainly focused what has been happening in hospitals in recent decades and, within this, attention will be mainly on hospitals providing acute services. What is said here does relate to some extent to specialist hospitals as well to some extent, and there will be some asides and comments on other areas of the NHS; but, in order to simplify the discussion and make the analysis clear, the impact of management change is considered in the context of acute hospitals. This still makes the total population to which this analysis relates, considerable, potentially including more than two hundred thousand nurses and some tens of t


Author(s): Bauman, Fred; Faulkner, D.; Arens, Edward A; Fisk, W.; Johnston, L.; McNeel, P.; Pih, D.; Zhang, H. | Abstract: Results are presented from a research project to investigate the effects of office partition design on air movement, worker comfort, and ventilation in workstations. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the comfort and ventilation conditions produced by a conventional ceiling supply-and-return air distribution system in workstations separated by (1) solid partitions of different height (75 in. [1.9 m], 65 in. [1.65 m], 42 in. [1.1 m], and 0 in. [partitions removed]) and (2) partitions containing a gap positioned at the bottom of the partition. The project consisted primarily of experiments performed in a full-scale controlled environment chamber (CEC) which a typical modular office environment was set up. The range of partition configurations and environmental parameters investigated included (1) partition height, (2) solid vs. airflow partitions, (3) airflow gap size, (4) supply air volume, (5) supply~room temperature difference, (6) supply diffuser location, (7) heat loud density, (8) workstation size, and (9) cooling vs. heating mode. Under steady-state conditions, multipoint measurements were made of air velocities, air temperatures, and radiant (globe) temperatures to characterize the key environmental variables affecting thermal comfort, and tracer gas methods using multipoint sampling locations were employed to determine the ventilation performance within the test chamber.The results indicated that variations in solid partition height produce only small differences in overall thermal and ventilation performance. Results also showed that while the existence of an airflow opening at the bottom of office partitions can, in some cases, produce slight increases in air velocities near the floor, there are no significant improvements in comfort conditions or ventilation efficiency within the workstations compared to results obtained for solid partitions. Test parameters that were found to have a more substantial impact on air movement and comfort included heat load density and distribution, supply air temperature, and supply diffuser location.


Blockchains are attracting the attention of many technical, financial, and industrial parties, as a promising infrastructure for achieving secure peer-to-peer (P2P) transactional systems. At the heart of blockchains is proof-of-work (PoW), a trustless leader election mechanism based on demonstration of computational power. PoW provides blockchain security in trusless P2P environments, but comes at the expense of wasting huge amounts of energy. In this research work, we question this energy expenditure of PoW under blockchain use cases where some form of trust exists between the peers. We propose a Proof-of-Trust (PoT) blockchain where peer trust is valuated in the network based on a trust graph that emerges in a decentralized fashion and that is encoded in and managed by the blockchain itself. This trust is then used as a waiver for the difficulty of PoW; that is, the more trust you prove in the network, the less work you do.


A suite of borehole and surface geophysical methods was used to characterize the lithology and salinity of the subsurface of Assateague Island, a barrier island on the Atlantic Coast of Maryland and Virginia. The U.S. Geological Survey, as part of its Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program, is conducting a multi-year investigation to assess potential impacts to the natural resources of Assateague Island National Seashore that may result from changes in the hydrologic system in response to projected sea-level rise. The geophysical data collected as part of the characterization phase of this investigation will serve as the foundation for development of numerical groundwater-flow models to assess the potential effects of climate change on the coastal groundwater system of Assateague Island. Geophysical data were collected along five transects across the island. Methods used included borehole electromagnetic induction and gamma, and surface time-domain electromagnetics, frequency-domain electromagnetics, ground-penetrating radar, and coupled-capacitance resistivity. Two of the transects were in areas subjected to frequent and periodic overland wash and two of the transects were in the oldest, most stable part of the island where there is no overland wash. Based on an integrated interpretation of the geophysical data, it was concluded that the geophysical methods used are effective for determining the following: approximate location of the freshwater/salt-water interface, the distribution of fresh and brackish water in the shallow aquifer, the geometry of the fresh groundwater lens beneath the island, and the distribution and thickness of fine-grained lagoonal and peat deposits in the subsurface throughout the Island.