The effect of gating a wideband masker on the detectability of tones having unexpected frequencies was assessed using a probe-signal method. This method leads the listener to expect a target frequency by presenting the signal most often at that frequency, and measures sensitivity to other unexpected frequencies via occasionally presented probe tones. For 295-ms signals, the probe-signal contours (percent correct as a function of probe frequency) of two of four subjects were considerably broader for a 295-ms masker than for a continuous masker. For 5-ms signals, the probe-signal contours of four of five subjects were quite broad and similar for both gated and continuous maskers. When the probe-signal contours were expressed as the attenuation in decibels of the probes, the resulting "probe-signal filters" were frequently broader than auditory filters measured using notched noise in the same subjects. This suggests that subjects may monitor multiple auditory filters under some conditions in the probe-signal task. Signal threshold tended to be higher for conditions showing wider probe-signal filters, indicating a potential link between changes in signal threshold due to masker gating and the number of frequency channels that are monitored.


The increasing global concern about wildfires, mostly caused by people, has triggered the development of human-caused fire occurrence models in many countries. The premise is that better knowledge of the underlying factors is critical for many fire management purposes, such as operational decision-making in suppression and strategic prevention planning, or guidance on forest and land-use policies. However, the explanatory and predictive capacity of fire occurrence models is not yet widely applied to the management of forests, fires or emergencies. In this article, we analyse the developments in the field of human-caused fire occurrence modelling with the aim of identifying the most appropriate variables and methods for applications in forest and fire management and civil protection. We stratify our worldwide analysis by temporal dimension (short-term and long-term) and by model output (numeric or binary), and discuss management applications. An attempt to perform a meta-analysis based on published models proved limited because of non-equivalence of the metrics and units of the estimators and outcomes across studies, the diversity of models and the lack of information in published works.


OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate the progression of electroretinographic (ERG) findings in mucolipidosis IV.

METHODS
Two patients with mucolipidosis IV were examined clinically and their condition was followed up for ophthalmic manifestations of the disease. Electroretinograms were performed on both patients, and conjunctival biopsy specimens were analyzed for characteristic ultrastructural inclusion bodies using light and electron microscopy. Genomic DNA isolated from peripheral blood was screened for 2 major founder mutations in the ML4 gene using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses. Haplotypes were confirmed by automated sequencing of polymerase chain reaction products.

RESULTS
In patient 1, an ERG obtained at 12 months of age showed mildly subnormal amplitude of rod-mediated and cone-mediated responses and significantly prolonged rod and cone b-wave implicit times. An ERG obtained when the patient was 6.6 years old disclosed marked progression with greater loss of b-wave than a-wave responses to rod-and-cone-mediated activity. Scotopic ERG at the highest intensity was electronegative in configuration. In patient 2, ERG showed minimal rod-mediated responses, severely subnormal cone-mediated responses, and prolonged cone b-wave implicit times. Again, electronegative configuration of the scotopic bright flash response indicated greater disturbance of b-wave generators.

CONCLUSIONS
Novel ERG findings in 2 cases of mucolipidosis IV are reported with associated clinical courses, histopathologic abnormality, and genetic studies. In both cases ERGs demonstrate an electronegative configuration, suggesting that the primary retinal disturbance in mucolipidosis IV may occur at or proximal to the photoreceptor terminals.


The dynamic nature of the construction industry and the increasing sophistication and complexity of construction projects mandate extensive coordination between different parties and produces massive amounts of documents in diverse formats. Therefore, in an attempt to provide a robust document classification methodology for the construction industry, the current research develops an automated classifier model through Latent semantic Analysis (LSA). The analyses and models developed in this paper focused on two groups of construction documents. The first constitutes of documents with high variation in words like transmittals, correspondences, and meeting minutes. The second relates to documents of low word variations like construction claims and legal documents. The adopted research methodology (1) investigated Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) algorithms; (2) developed reduced feature spaces; (3) developed two C++ algorithms which process unstructured construction documents into a readable format by the LSA algorithms; (4) developed LSA automated classification models; and (5) tested and validated the developed models. The developed models under the current research attained higher classification accuracy, and better precision and recall than previous researches illustrated in the literature. An overall accuracy of 89% and 92% were attained in the first and second groups of documents addressed respectively. The main finding of this paper represent a step in a line of research that targets developing a coherent and integrated methodology for Knowledge Management (KM) and construction decision support through Machine Learning (ML) techniques. It is conjectured that this research stream would help in relieving the negative consequences associated with lengthy tasks related to analyzing textual documents in the construction industry.


Consideration of the geosphere for isolation of nuclear waste has generated substantial interest in the origin, age, and movement of fl uids and gases in low-permeability rock formations. Here, we present profi les of isotopes, solutes, and helium in porewaters recovered from 860 m of Cambrian to Devonian strata on the eastern fl ank of the Michigan Basin. Of particular interest is a 240-m-thick, halite-mineralized, Ordovician shale and carbonate aquiclude, which hosts Br–-enriched, post-dolomitic brine (5.8 molal Cl) originating as evaporated Silurian seawater. Authigenic helium that has been accumulating in the aquiclude for more than 260 m.y. is found to be isolated from underlying allochthonous, 3He-enriched helium that originated from the rifted base of the Michigan Basin and the Canadian Shield. The Paleozoic age and immobility of the pore fl uids in this Ordovician aquiclude considerably strengthen the safety case for deep geological repositories, but also provide new insights into the origin of deep crustal brines and opportunities for research on other components of a preserved Paleozoic porewater system.


Background. Recent research in the United States has demonstrated striking health disparities across ethnic groups. Despite a longstanding interest in ethnic disadvantage in psychiatric epidemiology, patterns of psychiatric morbidity across ethnic groups have never been examined in a nationally representative sample. Method. Ethnic differences in psychiatric morbidity are analyzed using data from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). The three largest ethnic groups in the United States – Hispanics, Non-Hispanic Blacks and Non-Hispanic Whites – were compared with respect to lifetime risk and persistence of three categories of psychiatric disorder: mood disorder, anxiety disorder, and substance use disorder. Results. Where differences across ethnic groups were found in lifetime risk, socially disadvantaged groups had lower risk. Relative to Non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics had lower lifetime risk of substance use disorder and Non-Hispanic Blacks had lower lifetime risk of mood, anxiety and substance use disorders. Where differences were found in persistence of disorders, disadvantaged groups had higher risk. Hispanics with mood disorders were more likely to be persistently ill as were Non-Hispanic Blacks with respect to both mood disorders and anxiety disorders. Closer examination found these differences to be generally consistent across population subgroups. Conclusions. Members of disadvantaged ethnic groups in the United States do not have an increased risk for psychiatric disorders. Members of these groups, however, do tend to have more persistent disorders. Future research should focus on explanations for these findings, including the possibility that these comparisons are biased, and on potential means of reducing the disparity in persistence of disorders across ethnic groups.


Unglazed solar collectors have often been used a means of providing low cost heating to swimming pools. However, these systems are typically polymer style "mats" that are laid on top of a roof, often leading to poor aesthetics due to their lack of integration with the building itself. This study charts the development of a novel large area unglazed building integrated solar pool heating system (BIT), based on long run sheet metal roofing, from its initial conceptualisation through to its implementation. It discusses the design of the building integrated solar collector modules, the assessment of their performance through theoretical modelling and experimental validation. Subsequently, it shows the scaling of laboratory scale testing to a large area array through modelling and discusses the performance of the system in the "as-built" configuration. In doing this, it provides a succinct illustration of the design process for the development of the University of Waikato's building integrated pool heating system.


This cutting-edge text not only increases our understanding of African American literature and film; it also enlarges the accessibility and the possibilities of the field of ecocriticism. Yvonne Atkinson, Mt. San Jacinto College and president of the Toni Morrison SocietyWhile there is no lack of scholarship on the trans-Atlantic voyage and the Middle Passage as tropes in African diasporic writing, to date there has not been a comprehensive analysis of bodies of water in African American literature and culture. In"Water and African American Memory," Anissa Wardi offers the first sustained treatise on watercourses in the African American expressive tradition. Her holistic approach especially highlights the ways that water acts not only as a metaphorical site of trauma, memory, and healing but also as a material site. Using the trans-Atlantic voyage as a starting point and ending with a discussion of Hurricane Katrina, this pioneering ecocritical study delves deeply into the environmental dimension of African American writing. Beyond proposing a new theoretical map for conceptualizing the African Diaspora, Wardi offers a series of engaging and original close readings of major literary, filmic, and blues texts, including the works of Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, Julie Dash, Henry Dumas, and Kasi Lemmon."


Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disorder characterized by continuous colonic mucosal inflammation that extends proximally from the rectum. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying UC remain unknown. Free-radical-elicited oxidative damage to macromolecules has been established as a contributory factor in UC. It is well known that the mitochondrial genome is more susceptible to increased oxidative damage than nuclear DNA. One of the best-described mtDNA mutations is the ΔmtDNA4977 (mtDNA 4977 bp) or common deletion. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between ΔmtDNA4977 and UC. We studied the ΔmtDNA4977 150 patients with UC (64 men, 86 women; mean age, 36.7 ± 11.6 years) and 250 disease-free controls (137 men, 113 women; mean age, 35 ± 12.1 years) in northern Iran. After DNA extraction from colon biopsies, gap polymerase chain reaction (Gap-PCR) was performed. The frequency of ΔmtDNA4977 was significantly different between the UC patients and the control group (78.7% vs. 16.8%, P<0.001). We found that ΔmtDNA4977 was more likely to be present in the patients of younger age (≤ 50 years, P=0.021). The mtDNA deletion was also significantly associated with the increased risk of an extensive form of colitis. Our study indicates that the ΔmtDNA4977 may play a role in the pathogenesis of UC. However, the findings need to be verified in large population-based prospective studies for more rigorous analyses of subgroups.


Aggressive fibromatosis comprises connective tissue tumours that represent 0.03% of all bodily neoplasms, occurring more often in the abdominal wall, mesentery, and extremities; its location in the breast constitutes a very infrequent type of lesion. Its pathogenesis is diverse and its relationship with augmentation mastoplasty is still unclear. Four cases of aggressive breast fibromatosis following augmentation mastoplasty are reported in this article.


Polymer gels behave as soft viscoelastic solids and exhibit a generic nonlinear mechanical response characterized by pronounced stiffening prior to irreversible failure, most often through macroscopic fractures. Here, we describe this scenario for a model protein gel using an integral constitutive equation built upon the linear and the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of the gel. We show that this formalism predicts quantitatively the gel mechanical response in shear start-up experiments, up to the onset of macroscopic failure. Moreover, we couple the computed stress response with Bailey's durability criterion for brittle solids in order to predict the critical values of the stress σc and strain γc at failure. The excellent agreement between theory and experiments suggests that failure in this soft viscoelastic gel is a Markovian process and that Bailey's failure criterion extends beyond hard materials such as metals, glasses, or minerals.


Once again we have succeeded in putting together a set of interesting articles which are relevant and topical for the family practitioner. The article on community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) by AD Black emphasizes the importance of CAP as an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the general population especially in the very young and elderly. It is interesting to note that no obvious predisposing cause is apparent in the majority of cases and even with extensive investigations; a causative agent is not identified in 98% of outpatients and 40–50% of inpatients. In those who a causative agent is found, Streptococcus pneumonia is still the predominant organism. The clinical scores proposed to differentiate between viral and bacterial CAP are neither sensitive nor specific for clinical practice, although the Bartlett score is still used for identifying specimens from lower respiratory tracts. The algorithm produced with permission from S Afr Med J summarizes the South African Thoracic Society's guideline for the management of CAP. The article covers the wide range of antibiotic regimen with the combination of amoxicillin-clavulanate still favoured as first line treatment in most cases of CAP.


Giardia intestinalis is an important protozoan parasite that infects humans and animals. It has been suggested that cattle may be a major source of human Giardia infection so a dairy farming region of New Zealand was investigated. This thesis uses three molecular methods to genotype G. intestinalis isolates obtained from human and animal faecal specimens collected in the Waikato region of New Zealand, to determine if giardiasis is a zoonotic disease. Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting techniques were initially assessed for their ability to genotype G. intestinal is isolates. "Clear cut" evidence of zoonosis could not be established by either method, due to a low sample number. To determine the stability of the G. intestinalis genome an axemc culture of G. intestinalis trophozoites was stressed with toxic levels of metronidazole and the survivors, following a number of passages, were examined using AFLP and RAPD analysis. The DNA fingerprints were compared to those of the original wild-type with the results being indicative of an unstable G. intestinal is genome. A third molecular method was employed, which amplifies a portion of the tandemly repeated ribosomal DNA (rDNA). Each cyst contains 512 head to tail tandem repeat copies of the rRNA gene made up of both conserved and variable regions . The use of nested primers increased the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR reaction allowing the amplification of a 505bp rDNA fragment. DNA sequence analysis and alignment of the amplified products facilitated the comparison of G. intestinalis isolates. The relationship of the sequence data was generated and displayed using Splitstree software indicating that zoonosis did occur.


Pesticides are widely used in agricultural production to prevent or control pests, diseases, weeds, and other plant pathogens in an effort to reduce or eliminate yield losses and maintain high product quality. Although pesticides are developed through very strict regulation processes to function with reasonable certainty and minimal impact on human health and the environment, serious concerns have been raised about health risks resulting from occupational exposure and from residues in food and drinking water. Occupational exposure to pesticides often occurs in the case of agricultural workers in open fields and greenhouses, workers in the pesticide industry, and exterminators of house pests. Exposure of the general population to pesticides occurs primarily through eating food and drinking water contaminated with pesticide residues, whereas substantial exposure can also occur in or around the home. Regarding the adverse effects on the environment (water, soil and air contamination from leaching, runoff, and spray drift, as well as the detrimental effects on wildlife, fish, plants, and other non-target organisms), many of these effects depend on the toxicity of the pesticide, the measures taken during its application, the dosage applied, the adsorption on soil colloids, the weather conditions prevailing after application, and how long the pesticide persists in the environment. Therefore, the risk assessment of the impact of pesticides either on human health or on the environment is not an easy and particularly accurate process because of differences in the periods and levels of exposure, the types of pesticides used (regarding toxicity and persistence), and the environmental characteristics of the areas where pesticides are usually applied. Also, the number of the criteria used and the method of their implementation to assess the adverse effects of pesticides on human health could affect risk assessment and would possibly affect the characterization of the already approved pesticides and the approval of the new compounds in the near future. Thus, new tools or techniques with greater reliability than those already existing are needed to predict the potential hazards of pesticides and thus contribute to reduction of the adverse effects on human health and the environment. On the other hand, the implementation of alternative cropping systems that are less dependent on pesticides, the development of new pesticides with novel modes of action and improved safety profiles, and the improvement of the already used pesticide formulations towards safer formulations (e.g., microcapsule suspensions) could reduce the adverse effects of farming and particularly the toxic effects of pesticides. In addition, the use of appropriate and well-maintained spraying equipment along with taking all precautions that are required in all stages of pesticide handling could minimize human exposure to pesticides and their potential adverse effects on the environment.


Problem Statement: Drafting course is essential for students in the design disciplines for becoming more organized and for complying with standards in the educational system. Drafting knowledge is crucial, both for comprehension of the issues and for the implementation phase. In any design project, drafting performance and success are as important as the design process, especially in the educational environments aimed at professional life. However, there have been relatively any studies undertaken in the area of the success and time saving of the conventional drafting and computer-aided drafting (CAD) techniques, besides the design process, especially for furniture and interior design educations. In this direction, some questions emerge in the study. Is there really a difference on quality, success and drafting time between conventional drafting and CAD techniques in interior drafting field? If there is a difference, at which time or process does the drafting technique gain speed? Purpose of study: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of conventional and computer-aided drafting (CAD) techniques on drafting performances of design students. Furthermore, it was explored which technique was more time, speed and quality-efficient. Methods: To verify this study, students were asked to draw a sample of a two-dimensional technical drawing with an interior plan by using the conventional and CAD techniques at different times within a 60-minute  period. The task was designed to ensure that the students understood the principles of technical drawing and could edit sufficiently to draft the plan. Findings and Results: According to the results, it can be stated that there was no meaningful difference between the decision-making process for choosing the drawing method and perceiving the drawing was made by the students with both methods in the first 5 minutes. The difference in quality may be due to the advantages of the CAD technique at the 30th minute. At the end of the 60th minute, a huge difference was observed between the conventional and CAD and the CAD was more successful than the conventional drafting. Consequently, the CAD technique has a better outcome from the aspect of time and quality compared to the conventional technique. Conclusions and Recommendations: It can be stated that CAD has a significant impact on the drafting performances of design students from the aspect of time spent. The furniture and interior design departments should place emphasis on the educational process for the drafting technique in order to increase quality and save time. The drafting course hours should be increased for the design students, so that drafting success can become more efficient for those entering in the professional area. Keywords: Architectural drafting; Conventional drafting; Computer-aided drafting; Drafting tools; Drafting quality


This paper introduces the intra-daily implied volatility (IDIV), a new volatility measure to price currency option accurately. The IDIV is developed based on the implied volatility estimated on equally spaced intradaily intervals. This model captures the intra-daily level aggregate information related to foreign exchange (FX) behavior, which changes every five minutes. The implied volatility (IV) and realized volatility (RV) are widely accepted as good estimates of daily and intra-daily price volatility, respectively. Therefore, using the options pricing framework, we assess the capability of IDIV against IV and RV in pricing foreign currency options. A comparison of out-of-sample forecasts under both the F-test and Diebold-Mariano test reveals that the IDIV outperforms both the IV and the RV in estimating one-day-ahead option prices. In other words, the IDIV estimation framework provides a more accurate and efficient volatility estimate for pricing currency options. The findings of this study indicate that the forward looking intra-daily information of IDIV is appropriate to price options correctly rather than forward looking daily and historical intra-daily information is obtained by the IV and RV, respectively.


Escherichia coli , one of the favorite model organisms, was initially annotated in 1997 and re-annotated in 2007. Although years of intensive research is being carried out on E. coli genome, still complete and accurate functional information of this organism is not available. In E. coli , about 40% of the protein sequences have been annotated as hypothetical proteins, because of lack of information. Hence, such sequences require advanced computational strategies and derive clues on their biological role. Herein, we have carried out re-annotation of the complete genome of E. coli K-12 using "Dynamic biological data fusion method". It is a computational strategy we typically applied for combining the heterogeneous biological data sources to maximize knowledge sharing and generating the intersection of data sets. Functional re-annotation results reported in this paper help us to present high quality data on complete proteome of E. coli K-12. We have updated all the protein coding genes from previous annotation work and tried to assign new or more precise functions, wherever possible. About 29% of the protein sequences of E. coli which have been previously annotated as unclear / unknown (hypothetical; without functions) have now been assigned with clear / known functions.  Further, the analysis also resulted in the revision of the protein sequences that have been found to be false positive or poorly annotated. Information from this work is made available as a database, "REC-DB", which will remain a useful repository with accurate and updated functional information. Availability: REC-DB is publicly available at http://192.168.2.168/recdb/index.html


Abstract Solid deuterium-tritium (the symbol DT is used here to represent the equilibrium mixture of 50% deuterium and 50% tritium, having the molecular composition: 25% D2, 50% deuterium tritide molecules, and 25% T2) (DT) is nucleated from DT-wetted foam and subsequently forms a uniform layer by the beta-layering phenomenon. Compared to DT frozen on smooth metal surfaces, the surface roughness of the inner-lying pure DT solid-vapor interface is substantially lower at all modal values higher than ~10, possibly due to the small-grain-size polycrystalline nature of the solid. For thick layers, deleterious effects are observed, notably the formation of DT-rich vapor voids in the foam matrix and the subsequent propagation of these voids into the pure solid DT layer.


Abstract The effect of the rotation of a drill string on the response of a drilling riser has been studied. A governing equation for the flexural response that incorporates the effect of the drill string rotation is developed from first principles, and the resulting differential equation is found to have a variable coefficient, which is a function of the drill string rotational speed. Results simulated for the free vibration response show that the drill string rotation reduces the natural frequency and increases the amplitude of vibration of the drilling riser. The implication of these findings is that neglecting the effect of rotation of the drill string leads to under-estimation of the deflection and over-estimation of the natural frequency. Further analysis reveals that for a drilling riser of given dimensions, a drill string rotational speed exists at which the natural frequency of the drilling riser is theoretical equal to zero, and this rotational speed is the threshold rotational speed.


Terahertz (THz) frequency range (wavelength of 300− 30μm, frequency of 1− 10 THz and photon energy of ∼ 4 − 40 meV ), the gap between infrared and microwave electromagnetic waves, have remained relatively unexplored for a long time, due to lack of a high power, coherent, and compact source, as well as the lack of an appropriate detector and the transmission devices. THz wave has recently received considerable attention for potential applications in non-invasive medical imaging, detecting trace of gases in the environment, sensing of organic and biological molecules, security controls, local oscillators for heterodyne receiver systems, free space communication, etc. THz quantum cascade laser (QCL), as the relatively high power and coherent THz radiation source, was demonstrated in 2002. After near a decade of intense research, THz QCLs operate only up to 186 K in pulse mode with maximum power of 250 mW at 10 K. This thesis discusses many aspects of theoretical and experimental design considerations for THz QCLs. The objective is to obtain a laser device that emits high powers and works towards the temperatures achievable by thermoelectric coolers. This work includes designing the active gain medium, and the engineering of the waveguide and heat removal structures. A density matrix based model is developed to explain the charge transport and gain mechanism in the intersubband devices, particularly for three well resonant phonon based THz QCLs. The model allows for designing of the optimum and novel active gain mediums that work at higher temperatures. The designed active gain mediums are fabricated using discussed low loss waveguide and efficient heat removal structures. The maximum operating temperatures as high as ∼ 176 K is achieved. Finally a promising lasing scheme based on phonon-photon-phonon emissions is proposed that improves the population inversion and offers high gain peak.


In length based fish stock assessment using von Bertalanffy growth model, the estimates of growth parameters Lm and K play a key role. A widely used estimation method is the one given by Pauly and David, using lengthfrequency data. It is not known whether the estimates of L_ and K are robust to the class interval used for grouping length samples. Here, an attempt is made to study this feature through simulation by using length samples simulated for 12 months with input parameters of Sardinella longiceps. Simulated data were used to estimate growth parameters by grouping and estimating for different class intervals ranging from 5 to 25 mm and the results then compared with the actual inputs. Results indicated that 5 mm class interval is optimum for this species.


Lynn's (2010) attribution of decreasing north-to-south PISA scores and GDP in Italy to inherited intelligence caused debate, but cognitive-capitalism's tenet that regional/national intelligence, inherited or not, determines provincial/country wealth remains unchallenged. We introduce a new theory into the debate and test a UV radiation → intelligence → socioeconomic latent variable (SELV) model vis-a-vis a radiation → SELV → intelligence one. Only the latter is found well-adjusted in Italy, more so when intelligence is assessed in adolescents than children. Since hair and eye color vary with latitude in Italy and UV radiation could be a proxy for ancestry, the models are retested among White students in the USA. Similar results observed suggest that, in both countries, increased UV radiation impairs socio-economic development, perhaps by reducing industriousness through oxidative stress. The ensuing less-developed social environments exert negative influences on individuals' cognition. Yet, ancestry appears to add latitudinal socioeconomic variance in Italy. A third study in Brazil, in turn, shows that cognitive effects of UV radiation through SELV are clearly distinguishable from the cognitive effects of race. The results suggest that the postulate that intelligence causes wealth needs revision.


N-Nitroso push–pull dyes are unique NO donors, whose NO release is triggered by light and accompanied by a concomitant fluorescence turn-on. Their synthesis involves nitrosation of the corresponding secondary amines, which, however, are not readily available. In this manuscript, we developed a mild, convenient and high-yielding preparation of N-nitroso aryl amines via dealkylative N-nitrosation of tertiary amines. This method is readily employed for the preparation of N-nitrosated rhodamine and coumarin dyes, whose potential as novel NO donors were showcased in cultured cell lines.


"Cooder writes with Chandler-esque pepper and an eye for character." -- Rolling Stone Los Angeles Stories is a collection of loosely linked, noir-ish tales that evoke a bygone era in one of America's most iconic cities. In post-World War II Los Angeles, as power was concentrating and fortunes were being made, a do-it-yourself culture of cool cats, outsiders, and oddballs populated the old downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill and Chavez Ravine. Ordinary working folks rubbed elbows with petty criminals, grifters, and all sorts of women at foggy end-of-the-line outposts in Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Rich with the essence and character of the times, suffused with the patois of the city's underclass, these are stories about the common people of Los Angeles, "a sunny place for shady people," and the strange things that happen to them. Musicians, gun shop owners, streetwalkers, tailors, door-to-door salesmen, drifters, housewives, dentists, pornographers, new arrivals, and hard-bitten denizens all intersect in cleverly plotted stories that center around some kind of shadowy activity. This quirky love letter to a lost way of life will appeal to fans of hard-boiled fiction and anyone interested in the city itself. Ry Cooder is a world-famous guitarist, singer, and composer known for his slide guitar work, interest in roots music, and more recently for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries, including The Buena Vista Social Club. He has composed soundtracks for more than twenty films, including Paris, Texas. Two recent albums were accompanied by stories Cooder wrote to accompany the music. This is his first published collection of stories.


In the film Wanted, a secretive organisation of assassins perform amazing feats of marksmanship. Capable of altering the path of their shots from a straight trajectory to a curve in any direction they choose, hitting targets behind obstacles or even around corners. This paper analyses the possibility of these shots, finding them to be impossible, and also calculates the wind speed necessary to produce similar eects to bullet trajectories. The gyroscopic spin drift was calculated to be 0.00227m during the flight, which would not be enough for the bullet to curve as it did in the film. The velocity of wind required to replicate the path of the bullet, was found to be 4801.2ms^-1.


In heavy oil reservoirs, the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is largely governed by the mobility of fluids. These EOR methods generally attempt to increase mobility by lowering the fluid viscosity. Hence, it is important to have knowledge of viscosity throughout the reservoir. While viscometers and geochemistry can be used to estimate viscosity from borehole samples, we attempt to estimate viscosity between boreholes. Recent research by Vasheghani and Lines (2009) shows the relationship between heavy oil viscosity and seismic Q. The estimation of Q (inverse attenuation) is attempted using a crossborehole tomography method of Quan and Harris (1997). The combination of Q tomograms and rock physics models is subsequently used to produce estimates of viscosity between boreholes. The details of this research are to be published in the upcoming PhD thesis of Vasheghani (under preparation).


This article explores the emotions behind the retributive urge as it applies to the death penalty in the United States. It is argued that the retributive urge is so strong because it engages the most primitive of our emotions, and that these emotions served adaptive purposes over the course of human evolution. Many scholars offended by the retributive instinct insist that we must put emotions aside when discussing the death penalty, even as jurors in death penalty cases, and rely on our rationality. To ask this is to ask what almost all normal people find impossible because the emotions evoked in capital cases (disgust, anger, sympathy for the victim, desire for justice) evolved for the purpose of maintaining group stability and survival by punishing freeloaders. Modern neuroscience has destroyed the traditional notion that rationality and emotion are antagonists. Brain imaging techniques show that they are fully integrated in our brain wiring, and both are engaged in decision making, but when reason and emotion yield conflicting judgments, the latter almost always triumphs. The evolutionary rationales for why emotions conducive to punitive responses for wrongdoers exist are examined.


While there has been growing analysis of Pan-Africa agency on the international stage, there has been less consideration given to the interactions between states on the continent and how these engagements have been central in the development of Africa's governance architecture, and are key to their ongoing implementation. In this article, which adopts a source-based, textual and analytical approach,the analysis assesses the role of inter-continental agency and the development of a "new" Afro-continentalism,a modernistic Pan-Africanism, which has increasingly come to the fore. This "new" Afro-continentalism is marked by a governance policy revolution negotiated in Africa, articulating new norms, principles, values, mechanisms and structures, which are fundamentally different from the ones that prevailed during the era of liberation. It is different, because continental leaders are breaking with the paradigm of "non-interference" in each other's affairs, and are embracing new values and norms, which had started by the end of the Cold War and accelerated in 1999 with the OAU's summit in Sirte, Libya. This approach places issues of development, governance, democratisation, economic growth and peace and security firmly on the continental agenda. The analysis concludes that, while there has been some progress in inter-African diplomacy in negotiating the new post-Cold War governance frameworks, there remain challenges in their implementation and operationalization, with questions on whether African states show enough inter-continental agency and ownership to appropriate the new agenda.


The assessment of greenhouse gases emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on the internatonal political and scientific agendas. Growing international concern and cooperation regarding the climate change problem have increased the need for policy-oriented solutions to the issue of uncertainty in, and related to, invetories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed here reflect attempts to improve national inventories, not only for their own sake but also from a wider, systems analytical perspective - a perspective that seeks to strengthen the usefulness of national inventories under a compliance and/or global monitoring and reporting framework. These approaches demonstrate the benefits of including inventory uncertainty in policy analyses. The authors of the contributed papers show that considering uncertainty helps avoid situations that can, for example, create a false sense of certainty or lead to invalid views of subsystems. This may eventually prevent related errors from showing up in analyses. However, considering uncertainty does not come for free. Proper treatment of uncertainty is costly and demanding because it forces us to make the step from "simple to complex" and only then to discuss potential simplifications. Finally, comprehensive treatment of uncertainty does not offer policymakers quick and easy solutions.


The failure of many savings and loan institutions in the 1980s bankrupted the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), forcing the FSLIC to rely on massive federal subsidies. A similar crisis subsequently struck the banking system, and it now appears that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will also go bankrupt and require taxpayer subsidies. The vast expense of these bailouts has focused the attention of policymakers and the public on reducing the risk exposure of the federal deposit insurance system. In response to this crisis, the U.S. Treasury issued a report in 1991 in which it made specific proposals for reforming deposit insurance. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 (FDICIA) incorporated some of the Treasury Department's proposals. One controversial element of the FDICIA is a plan for reforming the deposit insurance system by shifting some of the risk of bank failures from the federal insurance fund to depositors themselves. This proposal rests on the premise that depositors who bear some of the risk of bank failure are likely to discipline weak institutions by threatening to withdraw their deposits. In this Article, Professor Mantripragada discusses the costs and benefits of depositor discipline and assesses the Treasury proposals and FDICIA provisions that are designed to promote depositor discipline. The author suggests that a maturity-based coverage limit would be preferable to the dollar-based limit retained by the Act.


Twenty-five years ago, Michael Green, John Schwarz, and Edward Witten wrote two volumes on string theory. Published during a period of rapid progress in this subject, these volumes were highly influential for a generation of students and researchers. Despite the immense progress that has been made in the field since then, the systematic exposition of the foundations of superstring theory presented in these volumes is just as relevant today as when first published. A self-contained introduction to superstrings, Volume 1 begins with an elementary treatment of the bosonic string, before describing the incorporation of additional degrees of freedom: fermionic degrees of freedom leading to supersymmetry and internal quantum numbers leading to gauge interactions. A detailed discussion of the evaluation of tree-approximation scattering amplitudes is also given. Featuring a new preface setting the work in context in light of recent advances, this book is invaluable for graduate students and researchers in general relativity and elementary particle theory.


BACKGROUND
Iron deficiency is common in obese subjects. This may be due to an increase in serum hepcidin and a decrease in iron absorption from adiposity-related inflammation.

OBJECTIVE
We evaluated whether weight and fat loss in obese subjects would decrease inflammation and serum hepcidin and thereby improve iron absorption.

DESIGN
We performed a 6-mo prospective study in obese [body mass index (in kg/m2) ≥35 and <45] adults who had recently undergone laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. At 2 and 8 mo postsurgery, subjects consumed a test drink with 6 mg 57Fe as ferrous sulfate and were intravenously infused with 100 μg 58Fe as iron citrate. We then compared erythrocyte incorporation of iron isotopic labels, changes in body composition, iron status, hepcidin, and inflammation at each time point.

RESULTS
Forty-three subjects were studied at baseline, and 38 completed the protocol (32 women and 6 men). After 6 mo, total body fat, interleukin IL-6, and hepcidin were significantly lower (all P < 0.005). In iron-deficient subjects (n = 17), geometric mean (95% CI) iron absorption increased by 28% [from 9.7% (6.5%, 14.6%) to 12.4% (7.7%, 20.1%); P = 0.03], whereas in iron-sufficient subjects (n = 21), absorption did not change [5.9% (4.0%, 8.6%) and 5.6% (3.9%, 8.2%); P = 0.81].

CONCLUSION
Adiposity-related inflammation is associated with a reduction in the normal upregulation of iron absorption in iron-deficient obese subjects, and this adverse effect may be ameliorated by fat loss. This protocol was approved by the ethics committees of Wageningen University, ETH Zurich, the University of Monterrey, and the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks, and registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01347905.


The Report was prepared as part of the National Preparatory Process for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and catalogues the countries efforts to achieve the targets for sustainable development set out under the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) and the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation (MSI). The Report examines the level of political commitment by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to address specific risks and vulnerabilities, through the undertaking of practical actions and implementation of effective policies. Also, it summarizes the challenges, opportunities and priorities for advancement of the countrys sustainable development agenda. Several key national documents have been reviewed as part of the stocktaking exercise.


More and more communities and cities are moving toward low-carbon and sustainable development using smart grid concepts. In China, the development of numerous newly planned communities presents an opportunity to incorporate sustainable energy systems. What the opportunity requires are the scientific tools necessary to deploy the energy technologies that are most suited to a particular site. This paper focuses on optimizing the planning and operation of low-carbon district energy systems that incorporate solar photovoltaics (PV), thermal energy storage, and combined heat and power plants. We developed an optimization tool that is modeled as a multi-objective, mixed integer linear programming problem regarding meeting a community's heating, cooling, and electricity needs. One objective in solving the problem is to minimize the installation and operating costs for low-carbon energy technologies, which in turn will minimize the cost attributed to carbon emissions associated with the community's energy production. We also consider the potential for profit from selling surplus electricity and heating energy outside of the community. The distribution network is modeled to account for losses through the pipelines that deliver thermal energy. The model determines the optimal capacity and operation of each low-carbon option within the optimization time horizon. The model is being tested on an eco-city project in China. This model developed for this study could be used as a district energy system planning tool for developers, urban planners, practitioners, or energy mangers seeking to meet a community's energy needs. Alternatively, the optimization tool could be used to identify the optimal operation of established thermal energy systems.


Abstract : Small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) are critical to the defense industry of the United States. SMEs account for an average of 20% of the prime contracts and 40% of the subcontracts awarded by, or on behalf of, the Department of Defense. Suppliers, especially small businesses, also generate 80% or more of the manufacturing value-added of some weapon systems. Nevertheless, data from the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACEAM) and other organizations indicate that many SMEs are unable to support the defense industry because they lack the required technologies. This report summarizes technology demonstrations, workforce development activities, and technology development efforts of the Technology Insertion Demonstration and Evaluation program. The knowledge gained from these activities can help SMEs to overcome technology adoption barriers and acquire the capabilities that the defense industry requires.


Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) predicts psychosocial development in offspring. It has been hypothesized that during PNMS, glucocorticoids pass the placenta, reaching the fetus, leading to a longterm reprogramming and dysregulation of the fetal hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. However, results are inconsistent across PNMS studies. One problem may be the confounding of objective degrees of hardship due to the stressor and subjective degrees of distress in the mother. The present study investigated the association between objective and subjective PNMS due to a natural disaster, the June 2008 Iowa floods, and stress reactivity in the offspring at 21⁄2 years of age. Women who were pregnant during the floods were recruited, on average, within three months of the floods and their stress levels assessed. Mothers and their toddlers (n = 94 dyads) participated in a brief mother-toddler separation to induce physiological stress responses in the offspring. Salivary cortisol samples were collected four times during the procedure. We computed absolute change in cortisol (baseline to 20-minutes post-stressor; baseline to 45-minutes post-stressor) and Area Under the Curve with respect to increase and ground (AUCi; AUCg). Objective and subjective PNMS were positively correlated with AUCi, as was timing in gestation: the later in pregnancy the exposure occurred, the greater the cortisol increase. Controlling for objective hardship and other covariates, sex-by-subjective PNMS interactions showed a significant and positive association between subjective PNMS and Absolute Increase (45 min) and AUCi in females only, with little effect in males. These results suggest that PNMS leads to long-term alterations in the functioning of the HPA axis, evident as early as 30-months of age.


We are developing an Internet platform called MediaTeam that provides a marketplace connecting media content consumers to communities of media content creators. The platform is enabled by our method for automated assembly of virtual project teams. Media creators use the automated team assembler to quickly identify and team with collaborators. The team assembly platform factors in how the skills, work, and communication styles of team members complement each other into its team recommendation process. We are now testing the teaming and collaboration platforms with video creators and seek to launch by the summer.


Our objective is to monitor the changes in a proportion with correlated binary observations. All of the published work on this subject used the first-order Markov chain model for the data. Increasing the order of dependence above one by extending a standard Markov chain model entails an exponential increase of both the number of parameters and the dimension of the transition probability matrix. In this dissertation, we develop a particular Markov chain structure, the Multilevel Model (MLM), to model the correlation between binary data. The basic idea is to assign a lower probability to observing a 1 when all previous correlated observations are 0's, and a higher probability to observing a 1 as the last observed 1 gets closer to the current observation. We refer to each of the distinct situations of observing a 1 as a "level". For a given order of dependence, t , at most 1 t + different values of conditional probabilities of observing a 1 can be assigned. So the number of levels is always less than or equal to 1 t + . Compared to a direct extension of the first-order Markov model to higher orders, our model is considerably parsimonious. The number of parameters for the MLM is only one plus the number of levels, and the transition probability matrix is ( ) 1 t + . We construct a CUSUM control chart for monitoring a proportion with correlated binary observations. First, we use the probability structure of a first-order Markov chain to derive a log-likelihood ratio based CUSUM control statistic. Then, we model this CUSUM statistic itself as a Markov chain, which in turn allows for designing a control chart with specified statistical properties: the Markov Binary CUSUM (MBCUSUM) chart. We generalize the MBCUSUM to account for any order of dependence between binary observations through implying MLM to the data and to our CUSUM control statistic. We verify that the MBCUSUM has a better performance than a curtailed Shewhart p − chart. Also, we show that except for extremely large changes in the proportion (of interest) the MBCUSUM control chart detects the changes faster than the Bernoulli CUSUM control chart, which is designed for independent observations.


Shape memory alloys (SMA) have been known for over five decades and modeling of their response has attracted much attention over the last two decades. Recent increase in the range of applications of these materials has lead to an increased focus on modeling their thermomechanical response. Various approaches ranging from macroscopic phenomenology to microscopic lattice based methods are being pursued to model SMA behavior. Models ranging from simple tools as design aids to complex thermodynamic based models to understand the characteristic martensitic transformation responsible for the shape memory and superelastic response exist. In this report, following a brief introduction to the SMA behavior and the underlying martensitic transformation, an overview of models for SMAs is provided. This is aimed at providing an understanding of the state of the art and also to identify possible future directions. In this review, models are classified both on the basis of the approach and the level (scale) of continuum they address. General methodology of each type of approach is presented briefly followed by a review of the models that fall under that category. Certain liberties are taken in classifying these models to facilitate understanding and thus the present classification is by no means either unique or completely rigorous. Also, while an attempt is made to cover most of the approaches, review of all the models that exist in literature is practically impossible. Finally, summarizing the literature on models for SMAs, several interesting and relevant problems are identified for possible future developments.


The issues of distributed working are many, with problems relating to information access and information acquisition the most common (Crabtree et al., 1997). Keeping track of project and team information is becoming more complex as design is increasingly being carried out collaboratively by geographically dispersed design teams across different time zones. The literature notes that little prescription or guidance exists on information management for designers (Culley et al., 1999) and Hicks (2007) highlights a relative lack of overall principles for improving information management. Additionally, evidence from earlier studies by the author into 'How information is stored in distributed design project work' reinforces the need for guidance, particularly in a distributed context (Grierson, 2008). Distributed information collections were found to be unorganised, contained unclear information and lacked context. Storing and sharing of distributed information was often time consuming and the tools awkward to use. This can lead to poor project progress and can impact directly on the quality and success of project outcomes (Grierson et al., 2004, 2006). This paper seeks to address these issues by presenting the development, implementation and evaluation of a set of Principles and a Framework to support distributed design information storing in the context of a Global Design class. Through both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods the Principles were found to help in a number of ways – with the easy access of information; the structuring and organising of information; the creation of an information strategy; the making of information clear and concise; the supporting of documentation during project work; and the strengthening of team work; all helping teams to work towards project outcomes.


This work is a critique of orthodox conceptions of social exclusion in the global political economy. Following Foucault's methodology, our argument is that orthodox political-economic discourses, from 18th and 19th century classical political economy to late 20th century neoliberalism, provide only partial and limited accounts of social exclusion, and as such obscure its production and reproduction within the global political economy. We uncover this problem by first examining the contemporary period of globalization, which reveals a discrepancy between orthodox discourse taken at face value and the actuality of social exclusion. Marx's critique of classical political economy exposes the fundamental basis of this discrepancy as the way in which the false assumptions of orthodox discourse make the market appear 'natural' to human social relations. Exclusion is thus conceived as the state of being on the outside of the market and associated structures and institutions. This obscures how both the historical construction and political governance of the market produce patterns of social exclusion. To move beyond this failing we employ Marx's historical materialism as an alternative perspective which brings to light the production of exclusion within and as a product of social structures and institutions. We combine this with Foucault's notion of power to establish a framework to investigate the production of social exclusion in terms of land, labour, capital, rights, gender and truth. Initially we develop this as a general mode of inquiry, leading to brief studies of feudal Europe, classical Islam and T'ang China. Then we apply this framework to the historical construction and political governance of the market within the capitalist global political economy, drawing upon the work of Marx along with Stephen Gill, Antonio Gramsci and David Harvey. We study three historical periods to show the production of social exclusion at work. First, agrarian capitalism and the Industrial Revolution in England and their impact upon world trade. Second, the post-1945 'Golden Age' of capitalism. And third, the post-1970s era of globalization. This work makes a contribution to knowledge by being the first attempt to understand the global political economy as a whole in terms of inclusion / exclusion, and the first systematic application of the concept of social exclusion on a global scale


Geography, retailing, and power are institutionally bound up together. Within these, the authors situate their research in Clegg's work on power. Online shopping offers a growing challenge to the apparent hegemony of traditional physical retail stores' format. While novel e-formats appear regularly, blogshops in Singapore are enjoying astonishing success that has taken the large retailers by surprise. Even though there are well-developed theoretical frameworks for understanding the role of institutional entrepreneurs and other major stakeholders in bringing about change and innovation, much less attention has been paid to the role of unorganized, nonstrategic actors-such as blogshops-in catalyzing retail change. The authors explore how blogshops are perceived by consumers and how they challenge the power of other shopping formats. They use Principal Components Analysis to analyze results from a survey of 349 blogshops users. While the results show that blogshops stay true to traditional online shopping attributes, deviations occur on the concept of value. Furthermore, consumer power is counter intuitively found to be strongly present in the areas related to cultural ties, excitement, and search for individualist novelty (as opposed to mass-production), thereby encouraging researchers to think critically about emerging power behavior in media practices.


Research in strategic management has burgeoned in the last few decades. This growth and specialization not only reflects impressive progress but also raises questions about the boundaries and future direction of the field. In an effort to promote the accumulation and integration of insights regarding strategic management we trace research in the field through a series of four generations of scholarship. In so doing, we highlight some of the most important challenges and contributions of each of these generations and note the tensions and opportunities presented by the field's focus on fundamental issues and frontier research topics. We also note the various integration mechanisms that have been called for and discuss their merits and demerits. We conclude by discussing the role of the Strategic Management Review as a complement to existing strategy journals.


Existing search services rely heavily on citation-based authority (e.g. PageRank) to assess the quality of publications. The quality and relevance of results is particularly important in persistent search, but the current rank computations are strongly biased against new pages. We propose SiteRank, a new ranking mechanism that handles new publications well and also dramatically reduces the communication and computation costs. This performance improvement is especially valuable when authority is computed in a persistent search service. Current systems, whether small-scale notifiers (e.g. CNN Alerts) or persistent queries on traditional search engines (e.g. Google Alerts), suffer from limited coverage and/or low refresh rates. We propose Distributed Persistent Search, a new architecture based on a publish-subscribe framework that achieves linear improvement in publication processing and notification routing, as a function of the number of servers used.


Pathogenic bacteria excreted in human feces are found in low counts in wastewater and are known to be more sensitive to environmental conditions than Escherichia coli. The latter, excreted both by humans and warm-blooded animals, are used as an indicator of fecal wastes which may contain the pathogen, but the validity of this practice is often questioned. In wells recharged with chlorinated lake water, regrowth of coliform bacteria reached 10 5 /100 ml when the water was repumped 7 to 28 days later. Very often, the more sensitive E. coli die away and are replaced by other coliforms, so that counts do not in themselves indicate a change in water quality. Recently, low numbers of Samonella have been detected with the aid of large sampling procedures. On the other hand, there has been little additional data on the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants. Survival varied from 0.003 up to 29 percent in a recent study. S. typhimurium survived in a sand column up to 44 days, while S. typhi did not last more than seven days. Shigella flexneri, introduced into an experimental oxidation pond, were recovered from the effluent but were killed by application of 8 mg/l chlorine after a short contact time. The possibility of using coliphage as a means for identifying E. coli has been considered in an additional investigation. Coliphage are found in wastewater effluents in counts ranging from 10 4 to 10 5 /100 ml. They are quite durable under adverse conditions and have been found to be highly resistant to chlorination. Enterovirus densities in wastewater vary between 100 and 2000/100 ml. Comparative studies have indicated that coliphage are found whenever enteroviruses are, and their ratio may vary from 1000 to one to as low as ten to one. It is believed that this recent technique employing indicator microorganisms will permit more rapid and precise evaluations of water quality and potential health hazards.


Abstract. Documentation and analysis of historic maps enhance understanding of temporal and spatial interactions between events and the evolution of physical canals upon which they occurred. And the challenge of this work lies on carefully sifting of information through the maps drawn with relative accuracy by traditional cartographical principles before the emergence of scientific survey. This research project focuses on sorting out the evolution of historic city Suzhou in a spatio-temporal view. The investigation was conducted through an in-depth analysis of historic maps. Re-projection of the geographical elements of the city to one single georeference, that is to say a standard map BASE, help acquiring an actual sense of the scale and facilitate the recognition of the city's evolution in clear details. It is an important contribution of this thesis in coordination of variously distorted geographical information contained in nineteen periods span from 1229 to 2013 into a single research resource. Through the work both quantitative and qualitative, a clear vision of the evolution and characteristics of the urban structure of ancient Suzhou is achieved. Meanwhile, in the process of projecting the historical geometrical information onto the topographic map, historical bibliographic and cartographic records is key to the data coordination and readjustment, this inspire as well on the cautious utilization of historical materials from ancient time in the recording, documentation work.


Part crusader, part comedian, Jim Murray was a once-in-a-generation literary talent who just happened to ply his trade on newsprint, right near the box scores and race results. During his lifetime, Murray rose through the ranks of journalism, from hard-bitten 1940s crime reporter, to national Hollywood correspondent, to the top sports columnist in the United States. In "Last King of the Sports Page: The Life and Career of Jim Murray," Ted Geltner chronicles Jim Murray s experiences with twentieth-century American sports, culture, and journalism.At the peak of his influence, Murray was published in more than 200 newspapers. From 1961 to 1998, Murray penned more than 10,000 columns from his home base at the "Los Angeles Times." His offbeat humor and unique insight made his column a must-read for millions of sports fans. He was named Sportswriter of the Year an astounding fourteen times, and his legacy was cemented when he became one of only four writers to receive the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for coverage of sports. Geltner now gives readers a first look at Murray s personal archives and dozens of fresh interviews with sports and journalism personalities, including Arnold Palmer, Mario Andretti, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Yogi Berra, Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, Dan Jenkins, Roy Firestone, and many more.Throughout his life, Murray chronicled seminal events and figures in American culture and history, and this biography details his encounters with major figures such as William Randolph Hearst, Henry Luce, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, John Wayne, Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, and Tiger Woods. Charming and affecting moments in Murray s career illustrate the sportswriter s knack for being in on the big story. Richard Nixon, running for vice president on the Eisenhower ticket in 1952, revealed to Murray the contents of the Checkers speech so it could make the "Time" magazine press deadline. Media mogul Henry Luce handpicked Murray to lead a team that would develop "Sports Illustrated" for Time/Life in 1953, and when terrorists stormed the Olympic village at the 1972 Munich games, Murray was one of the first journalists to report from the scene. The words of sports journalist Roy Firestone emphasize the influence and importance of Jim Murray on journalism today: I ll say without question, I think Jim Murray was every bit as important of a sports writer forget sport writer every bit as important a writer to newspapers, as Mark Twain was to literature. Readers will be entertained and awed by the stories, interviews, and papers of Jim Murray in "Last King of the Sports Page.""


Characterizing a polymer composite material's response to loading beyond the elastic region is less well defined than it is for other structural materials such as metals. The Naval Research Laboratory has developed a method that uses dissipated energy as a metric to facilitate this characterization. The method relies on empirical data from material strength tests as well as finite element analysis data to make the prediction. A substantial amount of empirical data from different loading conditions is needed to characterize a material. This warrants a testing machine that can apply several loading conditions simultaneously to a sample. Montana State University has built an In-Plane Loader capable of applying all three in-plane displacements to a sample of material: two translations and a rotation. Montana State University's In-Plane Loader requires validation testing to clearly define its precision, accuracy, and current usefulness. This study has found that the Montana State University's In-Plane Loader works well for test samples that are below a certain stiffness and that some test materials work better than others. The bounds of the current In-Plane Loader are established in this thesis and modifications are suggested.


As the nature of violent extremism continues to evolve—both locally and globally—research is essential in our efforts to craft better policy and programming aimed at preventing and addressing it. Research provides information that can help answer some of our most pressing questions about the phenomenon so that we can craft informed and contextually appropriate solutions and avoid potentially negative outcomes. However, while the body of knowledge from research on violent extremism has notably increased and expanded, there is still more to know, learn, and understand, especially given the pace at which global and local dynamics evolve. Using and understanding research on violent extremism goes beyond just reading a research report or journal article. Instead, one must also understand the processes, data, and decisions behind the research and how they may have impacted the findings. This edited volume includes chapters providing unique insight and honest, collective reflection on experiences with conducting research on violent extremism, including the challenges of data collection, choosing research and analysis methods, and managing and building research relationships. These reflections are helpful for those conducting research, those using research to make policy and programmatic decisions, and those seeking to better understand research findings. The chapters not only walk readers through some of the perspectives, insights, methods, and thought processes behind research in this field, they also provide important food for thought for those seeking to undertake or improve their own research on violent extremism and for those using research findings to inform their own policy or programmatic decisions.


OBJECTIVE
To discuss a case history wherein microvascular spasm of the optic nerve was treated by spinal manipulation.

CLINICAL FEATURES
A 62-yr-old man developed a scotoma in the vision of the right eye during chiropractic treatment.

INTERVENTION AND OUTCOME
Spinal manipulation treatment was continued with total resolution of the scotoma. The rate of recovery of the scotoma was mapped using computerized static perimetry. These measurements showed that significant recovery occurred at each spinal manipulation treatment, producing a stepped graph.

CONCLUSION
The use of computerized static perimetry to measure the cerebral effects of spinal manipulation has increased knowledge of how chiropractic works. The further recovery of vision with each spinal adjustment suggests that more treatment may be better than less treatment in the chiropractic management of such cases.


This paper focuses on the intellectual and scholarly basis of the struggle for social integration of African-American women into American society. Feminism is viewed as the broad context within which this struggle must be conceived, understood, and sustained. Because the struggle is conceptualized as intellectually driven, the paper begins by critically examining feminist scholarship and the contention that feminist scholarship provides the basis for social integration of African-American women into male-dominated American society. A distinct contribution of this paper to the current scholarship is a proposed framework for a process of social integration of African-American women, one which draws on the works and experiences of African-American women in general, and those in academe in particular. The proposed framework requires a true, meaningful, intellectual revolution at the level of: 1) all African-American women, irrespective of social class; 2) all white and African-American scholars; and 3) all American women and men.


The SAC-D/Aquarius satellite was launched in June 10, 2011. It's a joint mission between Argentina (through CONAE) and US (NASA). This satellite is a true Observatory with a suite of sensors for Earth Observation, its weight is 1400 kg, sun-synchronous orbit at 657 km (6 pm ascendant node), revisit of seven days. Other space agencies have contributed with instruments and support (facilities and ground segment), as CNES, CSI, ASI and AEB/INPE. The primary objective is to monitor global variations in ocean surface salinity (SSS) in order to improve the knowledge about ocean circulation, water cycle and climate. The SSS is performed with Aquarius instrument (NASA). Other oceanic and atmospheric parameters are measured with a MWR, from CONAE, in K and Ka band, as wind speed, rain rate, sea ice, water vapour and liquid water in clouds. The thermal camera (NIRST) estimates sea surface temperature and detect high temperature events (fires and volcanic eruptions). The High Sensitivity Camera (HSC) generates night images (very useful for fishery activity monitoring in the sea, studying of electrical storms, polar auroras and urban application). The DCS (Data Collection System, from CONAE) can receive meteorological and environmental data from ground platforms and distribute among users. The TDP (Technological Demonstration Package, from CONAE) measures different parameters of satellite position and velocity. Other two important instruments are ROSA (from Italy) and CARMEN 1 (from France). The first is an atmospheric sounder, it allows elaborating atmospheric profiles of temperature, pressure and humidity, and the second has detectors for studies of space debris and the effects of radiation on electronic devices. This work provides a review of the first year of data, including the status of calibration and validation, other finding and at the same time we want to present the progress in the active educational and outreach program including the information of SAC-D Aquarius Mission.


A defect may be considered as shortcoming or failing towards function, performance, statutory or user requirements of a building. It might manifests itself within the structure, fabrics, services or other facilities of the affected building. The objectives and goals that to be achieved from this study to identify and analyze types of defect in school building, to make comparison of defect pattern between building age more than 25 years and less than 25years and to study the causes of the structure defects and analyze the defect pattern. The principle of diagnosis before analyzing the result should takes a few steps where the first step need to be take into account is the information that need to be obtain are about the site, geology, drainage, and former uses. Then, inspecting the defect and take measurement while carry out in-situ testing .Finally, carry out labotary test and employ clear analytical methods. The information of data collection is gathered from condition survey works on six respective schools and the result obtain will be interpreted in graphical method a a comparison between six schools. As an overall conclusion, it can be conclude that in comparing between schools buildings aged less than 10 years with school building more than 25 years, the defect pattern shows that most of the major-base defect occurred in school building aged more than 25 years


Abstract. Understanding carbon dioxide (CO2) biospheric processes is of great importance because the terrestrial exchange drives the seasonal and interannual variability of CO2 in the atmosphere. Atmospheric inversions based on CO2 concentration measurements alone can only determine net biosphere fluxes, but not differentiate between photosynthesis (uptake) and respiration (production). Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) could provide an important additional constraint: it is also taken up by plants during photosynthesis but not emitted during respiration, and therefore is a potential means to differentiate between these processes. Solar absorption Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectrometry allows for the retrievals of the atmospheric concentrations of both CO2 and OCS from measured solar absorption spectra. Here, we investigate co-located and quasi-simultaneous FTIR measurements of OCS and CO2 performed at five selected sites located in the Northern Hemisphere. These measurements are compared to simulations of OCS and CO2 using a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). The coupled biospheric fluxes of OCS and CO2 from the simple biosphere model (SiB) are used in the study. The CO2 simulation with SiB fluxes agrees with the measurements well, while the OCS simulation reproduced a weaker drawdown than FTIR measurements at selected sites, and a smaller latitudinal gradient in the Northern Hemisphere during growing season when comparing with HIPPO (HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations) data spanning both hemispheres. An offset in the timing of the seasonal cycle minimum between SiB simulation and measurements is also seen. Using OCS as a photosynthesis proxy can help to understand how the biospheric processes are reproduced in models and to further understand the carbon cycle in the real world.


The psychological study of Whiteness provides one avenue for researchers to help combat racial injustice in the United States. This article is a call to action for counseling psychologists to engage in much needed scholarship and critical examinations of Whiteness. In this systematic review and content analysis, we provide an overview of 18 quantitative measures focusing on various aspects of Whiteness published between 1967 and 2017. We summarize the constructs and psychometric properties of these measures. Our content analysis indicated that constructs assessed by Whiteness measures have shifted in focus over time across four themes: (a) Attitudes Toward Black People/Integration, (b) Modern Racism, (c) White Racial Identity, and (d) White Privilege and Antiracism. We conclude with suggestions on how advancement, development, and use of Whiteness measures could further our knowledge through research examining present-day racial justice issues. The issues highlighted include police brutality, xenophobia, immigration, White supremacy, activism, and training in the field.


PROBABILISTIC APPROACHES TO THE DESIGN OF WIRELESS AD HOC AND SENSOR NETWORKS by Zhen Guo The emerging wireless technologies has made ubiquitous wireless access a reality and enabled wireless systems to support a large variety of applications. Since the wireless self-configuring networks do not require infrastructure and promise greater flexibility and better coverage, wireless ad hoc and sensor networks have been under intensive research. It is believed that wireless ad hoc and sensor networks can become as important as the Internet. Just as the Internet allows access to digital information anywhere, ad hoc and sensor networks will provide remote interaction with the physical world. Dynamics of the object distribution is one of the most important features of the wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. This dissertation deals with several interesting estimation and optimization problems on the dynamical features of ad hoc and sensor networks. Many demands in application, such as reliability, power efficiency and sensor deployment, of wireless ad hoc and sensor network can be improved by mobility estimation and/or prediction. In this dissertation, we study several random mobility models, present a mobility prediction methodology, which relies on the analysis of the moving patterns of the mobile objects. Through estimating the future movement of objects and analyzing the tradeoff between the estimation cost and the quality of reliability, the optimization of tracking interval for sensor networks is presented. Based on the observation on the location and movement of objects, an optimal sensor placement algorithm is proposed by adaptively learn the dynamical object distribution. Moreover, dynamical boundary of mass objects monitored in a sensor network can be estimated based on the unsupervised learning of the distribution density of objects. In order to provide an accurate estimation of mobile objects, we first study several popular mobility models. Based on these models, we present some mobility prediction algorithms accordingly, which are capable of predicting the moving trajectory of objects in the future. In wireless self-configuring networks, an accurate estimation algorithm allows for improving the link reliability, power efficiency, reducing the traffic delay and optimizing the sensor deployment. The effects of estimation accuracy on the reliability and the power consumption have been studied and analyzed. A new methodology is proposed to optimize the reliability and power efficiency by balancing the trade-off between the quality of performance and estimation cost. By estimating and predicting the mass objects' location and movement, the proposed sensor placement algorithm demonstrates a significant improvement on the detection of mass objects with nearmaximal detection accuracy. Quantitative analysis on the effects of mobility estimation and prediction on the accuracy of detection by sensor networks can be conducted with recursive EM algorithms. The future work includes the deployment of the proposed concepts and algorithms into real-world ad hoc and sensor networks. PROBABILISTIC APPROACHES TO THE DESIGN OF WIRELESS AD HOC AND SENSOR NETWORKS


This work is a contribution towards documenting the fossil distribution of the pygmy possums Cercartetus lepidus and C. nanus (Marsupialia:
Burramyidae) in Tasmania. We provide locality data and bibliographic sources for 15 Quaternary fossil sites important for these
species (i.e., Beeton Rockshelter on Badger Island, Cave Bay Cave on Hunter Island, Bone Cave, Derwent River Shelter 7, Kutikina Cave,
Mackintosh Cave, Main Drain, March Fly Pot, Newdegate Cave, Nunamira, Ouse River Shelter 7, Peramerpar Meethaner, Pseudocheirus
Cave, Warhol, and Warreen Caves on mainland Tasmania). Dates available for these sites span the period 3960 ± 60 to 34,790 ± 510 years
ago. We also draw attention to a Late Oligocene fossil locality at Geilston Bay which produced an undescribed Cercartetus-like species.
The recorded palaeodistribution of pygmy-possums in Tasmania is widespread, with sites on two offshore islands, and also in the southern,
south western, and western areas of mainland Tasmania.


A robust scientific conclusion is the result of a rigorous scientific process. In observational ecology, this process involves making inferences about a population from a sample. The sample is crucial, and is the result of implementing a survey design. A good survey design ensures that the data from the survey are capable of answering the research question. Better designs, such as spatially balanced designs, will also be as precise as possible given the constraints of the budget. Many study areas will have previously sampled 'legacy sites' that already have accumulated a time series of observations. For estimating trent, it is often beneficial to include these sites within a new survey. In this paper, we propose a method to incorporate the locations of legacy sites into new spatially balanced survey designs to ensure spatial balance among all sample locations. Simulation experiments indicate that incorporating the spatial location of legacy sites increases spatial balance and decreases uncertainty in inferences (smaller standard errors in mean estimates) when compared to designs that ignore legacy site locations. We illustrate the process of incorporating legacy sites using a proposed survey of a large marine reserve in South‐Eastern Australia, although the method is applicable to all environments. Our approach allows for integration of legacy sites into a new spatially balanced design, increasing efficiency. Scientists, managers and funders alike will benefit from this methodology – it provides a tool to provide efficient survey designs around established ones, including in‐the‐field adjustments. In this way, it can aid integrated monitoring programmes. An R‐package that implements these methods, called MBHdesign, is available from CRAN.


Background: Data on patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who return to hospital after discharge are scarce. Characterization of these patients may inform post-hospitalization care. Methods and Findings: Retrospective cohort study of patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 discharged alive from five hospitals in New York City with index hospitalization between February 27th-April 12th, 2020, with follow-up of [≥]14 days. Significance was defined as P<0.05 after multiplying P by 125 study-wide comparisons. Of 2,864 discharged patients, 103 (3.6%) returned for emergency care after a median of 4.5 days, with 56 requiring inpatient readmission. The most common reason for return was respiratory distress (50%). Compared to patients who did not return, among those who returned there was a higher proportion of COPD (6.8% vs 2.9%) and hypertension (36% vs 22.1%). Patients who returned also had a shorter median length of stay (LOS) during index hospitalization (4.5 [2.9,9.1] vs. 6.7 [3.5, 11.5] days; Padjusted=0.006), and were less likely to have required intensive care on index hospitalization (5.8% vs 19%; Padjusted=0.001). A trend towards association between absence of in-hospital anticoagulation on index admission and return to hospital was also observed (20.9% vs 30.9%, Padjusted=0.064). On readmission, rates of intensive care and death were 5.8% and 3.6%, respectively. Conclusions: Return to hospital after admission for COVID-19 was infrequent within 14 days of discharge. The most common cause for return was respiratory distress. Patients who returned had higher proportion of COPD and hypertension with shorter LOS on index hospitalization, and a trend towards lower rates of in-hospital treatment-dose anticoagulation. Future studies should focus on whether these comorbid conditions, longer LOS and anticoagulation are associated with reduced readmissions.


The cover of the 2014 Distributed Wind Market Report.According to the 2014 Distributed Wind Market Report, distributed wind reached a cumulative capacity of almost 1 GW (906 MW) in the United States in 2014, reflecting nearly 74,000 wind turbines deployed across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In total, 63.6 MW of new distributed wind capacity was added in 2014, representing nearly 1,700 units and $170 million in investment across 24 states. In 2014, America's distributed wind energy industry supported a growing domestic industrial base as exports from United States-based small wind turbine manufacturers accounted for nearly 80% of United States-based manufacturers' sales.


ABSTRACT During the 1970s, American gerontologist M. Powell Lawton and colleagues saw the person–environment system as fundamental to defining the quality of later life. They proposed the environmental docility hypothesis that weighed whether the more competent the person, the less dependent they are on environmental circumstances. This work was later advanced to show that environmental pro-activity, including adaptation, could reinforce control and autonomy. While that theoretical development focused on the micro-environment of accommodation, it can be applied to the macro-environment of community living. This paper, which utilises data from an empirical study 'Environment and Identity in Later Life', examines both the micro and macro scales, develops the theoretical content of the person-competence model, considers the complexity of person–environment interaction, and argues that over time some people find that their attachments to particular environments are compromised by declining competence or changes in the environment, or both. The point at which change impacts on an individual's independence and wellbeing is reached when adaptive behaviour cannot rebalance the macro- and micro-environmental press. This point, termed 'option recognition', leads to a range of strategic responses including: modification of behaviour or environment; structural support using formal and informal services; and relocation; all of which impact on self-identity.


The ability to carry out repairs is a key skill in spoken discourse for non-native speakers of English and has been widely studied. However, VAN HEST et al. (1997) have suggested that investigations into repair in L2 need to be more theoretically driven and less concerned with individual differences. Drawing on information from a pilot study of twenty-three conversations, lasting 185 minutes between six native and six non-native speakers, this paper argues that there is no conflict between a concern with individual differences and theory building. What is needed is a contextualised theory which is grounded in particular situations and individual differences. The paper identifies three possible areas of difficulty that may arise if a theory is not contextualised. Firstly, the paper argues that theory driven research encourages methods of data collection that we characterise as experimental and suggest that these need to be supplemented by more naturalistic forms of data collection. Secondly, the paper criticises the view that there are general preferences as to who initiates and who completes repairs and argues that a contextualised theory of repair would capture initiation/completion patterns more adequately. Finally, the paper argues that the distinction between native and non-native speakers needs to be re-examined. This is supported by the finding in the pilot study that there was little variation between native and non-native speakers in terms of these analyses.


Offloading is gaining momentum as a technique to overcome the cellular capacity crunch due to the surge of mobile data traffic demand. Multiple offloading techniques are currently under investigation, from modifications inside the cellular network architecture, to integration of multiple wireless broadband infrastructures, to exploiting direct communications between mobile devices. In this paper we focus on the latter type of offloading, and specifically on offloading through opportunistic networks. As opposed to most of the literature looking at this type of offloading, in this paper we consider the case where requests for content are non-synchronised, i.e. users request content at random points in time. We support this scenario through a very simple offloading scheme, whereby no epidemic dissemination occurs in the opportunistic network. Thus our scheme is minimally invasive for users' mobile devices, as it uses only minimally their resources. Then, we provide an analysis on the efficiency of our offloading mechanism (in terms of percentage of offloaded traffic) in representative vehicular settings, where content needs to be delivered to (subsets of the) users in specific geographical areas. Depending on various parameters, we show that a simple and resource-savvy offloading scheme can nevertheless offload a very large fraction of the traffic (up to more than 90%, and always more than 20%). We also highlight configurations where such a technique is less effective, and therefore a more aggressive use of mobile nodes resources would be needed.


Although liberal and communitarian interpretations of citizenship differ profoundly, they nevertheless offer essentially similar prescriptions in support of empowered localities. The authors argue, instead, that the rejected alternative of consolidated government better promotes both interpretations of effective citizenship. They develop this argument by more fully specifying the behavioral implications of the two views of citizenship and theoretically linking those behaviors to fragmented and consolidated urban institutions using the Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect model introduced by Lyons and Lowery in 1986. They then test the central proposition derived from that analysis using a comparison group design.


Abstract Urea cycle disorders (UCDs) are inborn errors of liver metabolism that often result in hyperammonemia and failure of arginine synthesis due to the deficiencies of one of the six enzymes or two mitochondrial transporters involved. Despite current treatment options, including dietary therapy, stimulation of alternative routes of nitrogen disposal and cell therapies (hepatocyte and orthotopic liver transplantation), significant morbidity and mortality still remain. Gene therapy has emerged as an attractive alternative strategy for providing a definitive cure for patients with metabolic diseases. Successful phenotype correction in pre-clinical animal models is encouraging and research effort is increasingly being focused on translation from the laboratory bench to proof-of-concept human therapy. Gene therapy for UCDs must target the periportal hepatocytes, as these are the only liver cells that express all six enzymes required for full ammonia detoxification. This review explores current efforts to develop and translate liver-directed gene therapy approaches to UCDs caused by each of the defects of the six enzymes. The prominent issues that will need to be addressed and overcome for the future development of clinical trials, including alternatives to mouse mutants and to vectors that are not necessarily conditioned to rodents are also discussed.


Summary The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of tail-docking on the LH pulse frequency in female Tuj lambs. Twelve female lambs were assigned into two equal groups. A rubber ring was applied to the base of the tail for shedding off. Blood samples were collected for 8 h in the 4th and 8th months of age to determine pulsatile secretion of LH. Starting from the age of 6 months, blood samples were taken thrice weekly for progesterone analyses. There was no LH pulse in the first LH analysis but the pulses were observed in both groups in the second LH analysis. However, number of pulses was not different between groups. The plasma progesterone level was less than 1 ng/ml throughout the breeding season. In conclusion, there was no effect of the tail-docking on pulsatility of LH in fat-tailed female lambs.


Wind resources tend to be significantly stronger and more consistent with increasing altitude. This effect creates a potential for power generation that can be reaped by an Airborne Wind Energy system positioned at elevations exceeding the height of conventional wind turbines. A frequent design for such a system includes a flying airfoil tethered to a ground station. The station can be equipped with a power generator or for the application considered here mounted to a sea vessel. We demonstrate a data based method that can maximize the towing force of such a system by optimizing a low level tracking controller at the presence of constraints. We utilise Gaussian Processes to learn the mapping from the set points of the controller to both the objective and the constraint function. We then formulate a chance - constrained optimization problem that takes into consideration uncertainty in the learned functions. The probabilistic objective function is transformed into a deterministic acquisition function which indicates set points with high probability of improving the current optimum and the constraint function is penalized in regions of high uncertainty to ensure feasibility. Simulation studies show that we can find optimal set points for the controller without the use of significant assumptions on model dynamics while respecting the unknown constraint function.


Bangladesh, which has been a country of chronic food deficits, now appears to be nearing self-sufficiency in rice. Production of rice, the major food staple of the country, grew at a rate of 2.7 percent in the 1980s, while population grew at a rate of 2.0 percent. The gap between production and the foodgrain requirements of the population is clearly narrowing, although the need to import wheat will continue for the rest of this decade. The sustained and increasingly stable growth of rice production during the 1970s and 1980s is closely related to the introduction of high-yielding varieties, mainly the winter boro rice crop, which rose from 21 percent of total rice production in 1972/73 to 35 percent in 1989/90. The two main rice crops, aman and boro, tend to have contrary patterns of production increase and decrease within a given year. Now that boro rice has a larger share in total production, this intrayear compensation affords a more regular flow of production and a changed pattern of seasonality characterized by smoother price fluctuations.


A type system is a syntactic method for automatically checking the absence of certain erroneous behaviors by classifying program phrases according to the kinds of values they compute. The study of type systems--and of programming languages from a type-theoretic perspective -- -has important applications in software engineering, language design, high-performance compilers, and security.This text provides a comprehensive introduction both to type systems in computer science and to the basic theory of programming languages. The approach is pragmatic and operational; each new concept is motivated by programming examples and the more theoretical sections are driven by the needs of implementations. Each chapter is accompanied by numerous exercises and solutions, as well as a running implementation, available via the Web. Dependencies between chapters are explicitly identified, allowing readers to choose a variety of paths through the material.The core topics include the untyped lambda-calculus, simple type systems, type reconstruction, universal and existential polymorphism, subtyping, bounded quantification, recursive types, kinds, and type operators. Extended case studies develop a variety of approaches to modeling the features of object-oriented languages.