We have developed a numerical diffraction tool for cases in which the incident field is a focused spot and the diffracting structure is a single structure or an aperiodic surface. Our approach uses the integral formulation to solve Maxwell's equations and is different from previously published methods in its choice of basis function. We compared numerical results with experimental measurements of the far-field intensity for a focused spot incident on an aluminum grating, and the comparison was favorable. Finally, we predict the diffraction behavior of the proposed digital video disk format for the next generation of optical disk. Our analysis shows that the reflected signal for this format has a strong dependence on the polarization of the incident light.


Abstract Forty-three trait-descriptive adjectives with representative items from the human Big-Five model were used to assess the factor structure of personality in 100 zoo chimpanzees. Interrater reliabilities were acceptably high, with an overall η of .75 and those of individual adjectives ranging from .55 to .81. Analysis of variance showed no significant interaction between zoos and individual trait descriptors or between zoos and factors based on those adjectives. There were therefore no between-zoo differences in patterns of intercorrelation among trait descriptors or among factors. Factor analysis showed that the chimpanzee ratings were accurately described by six factors, five of which resembled the human Big Five. The sixth factor was dominance related and was consistent with the central role of dominance in chimpanzee personality. Convergent and discriminant validity of the factor structure was excellent. These results are the first quantitative evidence of profound similarities in the personality structure of humans and chimpanzees.


Rangatiratanga is a nodal discourse that subsumes a number of smaller discourses. This paper utilises critical discourse analysis to examine the emergent discourses of rangatiratanga within the context of Mäori fi sheries management. Three Tiriti o Waitangi translation texts and six Waitangi Tribunal texts relevant to fi sheries were selected as the texts. The main conclusions are that there are multiple understandings of the discourses of rangatiratanga that allows for certain meanings and not others, and while the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi retain the spirit of the Treaty, the principles in fact limit and restrict the full authority of rangatiratanga that is guaranteed under the Treaty. It remains to be seen whether rangatiratanga that is provided in a Mäori fi sheries context allows for the myriad of understandings discussed in this paper.


Since their discovery, DNA triplexes have received a large amount of interest because of their potential as viable strategy for control of gene expression and their formation with some specific drugs. For that reason, we have studied, by means of ab initio calculations, the structure of the bases of these DNA triplexes in terms of their interaction energies and electron densities for the different hydrogen bonds, which is one of the interactions that determine the structure and dynamics of nucleic acid molecules. A good agreement has been found with experimental results and previous calculations. In general, when a third base is added to a dimer, the strength of the hydrogen bonds of the dimer becomes modified provoking changes in their structures by increasing the distance in the major groove and decreasing the space in the minor groove.


A spatial statistical methodology is proposed to design benzene air concentration measurement surveys at the urban scale. In a first step, an a priori modeling is based on an analysis of data coming from previous campaigns on two different agglomerations. This analysis suggests a modeling that consists of a drift plus a spatially correlated residual. The statistical analysis performed leads us to choose the most relevant auxiliary variables and to determine an a priori variogram model for the residual. Moreover, as the fitted values of the variogram parameters vary from a campaign to another, an a priori distribution is defined to account for those variations. In a second step, we optimize the positioning of the measuring devices on a third agglomeration according to a Bayesian criterion. Practically, we aim at finding the design that minimizes the mean over the urban domain of the universal kriging variance, whose parameters are based on the a priori modeling, while accounting for the prior distribution over the variogram parameters. Heuristic global optimization methods are applied and compared. We also show how this methodology can be useful to determine the number of sensors needed in the survey.


Location based social networking (LBSN) applications are part of a new suite of social networking tools. LBSN is the convergence between location based services (LBS) and online social networking (OSN). LBSN applications offer users the ability to look up the location of another "friend" remotely using a smart phone, desktop or other device, anytime and anywhere. Users invite their friends to participate in LBSN and there is a process of consent that follows. This paper explores the potential impact of LBSN upon trust in society. It looks at the willingness of individuals to share their location data with family, friends, co-workers, the government, commercial entities and even strangers. The study used focus groups to collect data, and a qualitative approach towards analysis. The findings of the paper indicate that while most people are willing to share their real-time physical location with persons that they trust (e.g. family and close friends), they are generally reluctant to share such data with co-workers, government agencies and commercial entities. Even within the family context, people set limits to transparency depending on their personal circumstances (e.g. the parent-child relationship is quite different to the sibling relationship).


During nesting periods, seabirds are known to exhibit considerable inter-annual vari- ability in diets, yet little is known about the diets of pelagic seabirds during non-breeding periods. Over 5 yr (2005 to 2009), we studied dietary partitioning between sympatric greater and sooty shear- waters, Puffinus gravis and P. griseus, during migratory staging periods in the Northwest Atlantic. Stable-isotope (SI; n = 253) and fatty-acid (FA; n = 127) signatures from blood samples were used to assess inter-annual patterns in diet and quantify prey choices. In addition to significant effects of year, capture site, and body condition, SI signatures revealed subtle, but consistent, dietary partition- ing between species. In all years, greater shearwaters fed at slightly higher trophic levels (overall mean δ 15 N = 13.6‰) and lower δ 13 C (-19.1‰) than sooty shearwaters (δ 15 N = 13.3‰, δ 13 C = -18.9‰). SI mixing models revealed that sooty shearwaters relied more heavily on euphausiids Meganyc- tiphanes norvegica, while greater shearwaters consumed more herring Clupea harengus, squid Illex illecebrosus, and, in some years, mackerel Scomber scombrus. In 2005/2006, bird diets consisted pri- marily of herring and krill, but demonstrated a shift towards krill and squid during 2007-2009. FA from bird plasma showed little inter-specific partitioning but a strong signal of annual variation for both species. We used a subset of prey FA and a modified multivariate approach to model bird diets and obtained dietary preferences broadly in agreement with SI results. The present study revealed inter-annual variability and dietary partitioning in sympatric species of pelagic seabirds, and high- lights potential shifts in prey availability to predators in the Bay of Fundy.


The first ever underwater welding was carried out by British AdmiraltyDockyard for sealing leaking ship rivets below the water line. Underwater welding is an important tool for underwater fabrication work. In 1946, special waterproof electrodes were developed in Holland by 'Vander Willingen'In the past half century a great deal of research effort has been directed towards the development of underwater shielded metal arc wet welding process. Different investigators have reported results of their findings using different types of coated electrodes. The present work reports a systematic study of ten different varieties of commercially available electrodes regarding their response to underwater welding. These electrodes have been evaluated in stages on the basis of (1) arc stability (2) electrodes running characteristics through beadonplate and bead-ingroove trials and (3) controlled thermal severity tests. The electrodes successful in the final screening have been further tested for the mechanical properties of the joints they produced. Among the electrodes tested oxidizing iron-oxide electrodes showed better arc stability, produced smooth and regular beads, free from undercuts , no cracks in weld metal and heat affected zone (HAZ) were observed even in CTS tests, metal transfer was free from short circuits and mechanical properties were superior to the commonly used rutile iron-powder electrodes.


This paper is about the economics of financial power and regime change. It revisits important aspects of the'end of globalization'i?½-i?½ as the shutting down of global capital markets after 1931 is generally referred to. It articulates a novel perspective on the fundamental regime change that occurred at that point by putting the collapse of foreign government bonds that occurred in New York in the early 1930s in the perspective of London's earlier experience as a centre of global capital exports. It argues that the London industrial set-up for managing foreign government debts had been essentially transplanted from London to New York in the 1920s. This set-up rested on the role of prestigious intermediaries who were involved in originating, distributing and monitoring high quality securities, as well as dealing with crises. It then argues that several critical aspects of the New Deal financial reforms adopted during the 1930s interfered directly with this set-up and prevented the industry from dealing with the crisis in the usual way. It concludes that the global bond market was a casualty of domestic policies associated with the New Deal, and that the New Deal opened a new era in international finance.


The nature of political complexity in the Caucasus has emerged as a significant research question in Near Eastern archaeology. Until recently, archaeological developments in Azerbaijan have been left out of this discussion. Two seasons of survey and excavation undertaken by the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania at the Iron Age site of Oğlanqala in the Naxçıvan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan have begun to clarify the local origins of an Iron Age polity and its relationship to major Near Eastern empires, including Urartu, Achaemenid Persia, and Parthia. Situated in the northern half of the fertile Şərur Plain, Oğlanqala was in a position to control a pass through the Dərələyəz Mountains as well as the agricultural land of the plain. Indeed, in the Iron Age, the Şərur Plain was a complex landscape dominated by Oğlanqala but including at least six other fortresses and many cemeteries. The 2008 survey revealed that Oğlanqala was founded in the Early Iron Age and has extensive Middle and Late Iron Age material. Excavations in 2008 and 2009 in the citadel and domestic buildings uncovered architectural and ceramic differences from contemporaneous Urartian, Achaemenid, and classical sites, while also revealing evidence for interaction among them.


The paper aim is to analyse the influence of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in the implementation of the Spanish labour market policies. The first part of the paper describes the evolution and content of the EES. In the second one, the definition of activation is also explained. In addition to that, the ways how the EES develops and promotes active labour market policies are examined. The evolution of labour market policies in Spain and the current configuration of both active and passive policies are studied in the next three chapters. In these parts, the paper investigates to which extent the provisions of the EES have been implemented in Spain. The paper shows that: i) activation has been rising in the European countries since the implementation of the EES; ii) this fact has also happened in relative terms (comparing the evolution of active to passive policies); iii) Spain has been one of the countries which has led these processes; iv) the EES seems to have been influencing the configuration of some parts of the Spanish labour market policies.


The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) enables and permits endpoints in
an INVITE transaction to send media packets before an SDP offer/
answer exchange has completed; we refer to such media packets as early
media. The use of early media is common in current SIP
implementations, and causes several problems, which have been
documented elsewhere. This document puts forward the goal of modifying
SIP so that compliant implementations will complete an SDP exchange
before sending media, and lays out high-level requirements for such a
solution. The set of possible solutions is then laid out, and each
possibility examined in light of these requirements.


Some commentators believe that smart growth and property rights are at loggerheads - and to be sure, these theories do lead to differing positions on a few issues (most notably urban growth boundaries and similar anti-sprawl regulations). But as to a wide variety of issues, smart growth advocates and property rights theorists can find common ground. Both groups can support eliminating zoning regulations that mandate automobile-dependent, sprawling development, such as single-use zoning, minimum parking requirements and minimum lot size requirements.


Although many signalling molecules appear relevant to the production of complex behaviours, those that are important to the physiological regulation of behaviour, and so those that characterise individual styles of behaviour, are unknown. Vasopressin is the strongest candidate regulator of social behaviour. Experiments were carried out in consideration that vasopressin may directly regulate aggressive behaviour in lactating rats. Patterns of immediate early gene expression during/subsequent to aggressive behaviour suggested specific neural circuits may have significant direct regulatory influence over particular behaviours, and that activation of the V1b vasopressin receptor, in these circuits, may contribute to this putative regulatory signalling. In situ hybridisation studies indicated that patterns of vasopressin release, rather than receptor expression, might be important for any peripartum changes in behaviour driven by vasopressin. Although their relative importance is unknown, central actions of vasopressin may exert a strong regulatory influence over a range of behaviours, across a range of species.


Thin, Pd-capped metallic films containing magnesium and first row transition metals (Mn, Fe, Co) switch reversibly from their initial reflecting state to visually transparent states when exposed to gaseous hydrogen or following cathodic polarization in an alkaline electrolyte. Reversion to the reflecting state is achieved by exposure to air or by anodic polarization. The films were prepared by co-sputtering from one magnesium target and one manganese, iron, or cobalt target. Both the dynamic optical switching range and the speed of the transition depend on the magnesium-transition metal ratio. Infrared spectra of films in the transparent, hydrided (deuterided) states support the presence of the intermetallic hydride phases Mg3MnH7, Mg2FeH6, and Mg2CoH5.


Although personality disorders (PDs) have been defined categorically throughout the history of psychiatric nomenclatures, the DSM-5 Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group proposed a substantial shift to a dimensional conceptualization and diagnosis of personality pathology. This proposal included the adoption of a trait model with 37 specific traits that fell within six higher-order domains. In addition, they specified that half of the current diagnoses be recast as types defined by narrative description, with the other half deleted. Instead, the deleted categories would be diagnosed through ratings on specifically assigned traits. The Work Group also specified a number of traits that are relevant to each of the five DSM-5 types. However, these assignments for the types and deleted DSM-IV PDs lack empirical justification. The current study examined the relations between the DSM-5 traits and PDs slated for inclusion and exclusion using an expert consensus approach. Researchers with expertise on specific PDs provided descriptions of either the DSM-5 type narratives or a prototypic case of DSM-IV PDs in terms of the trait model. The ratings by experts in the current study demonstrated moderate agreement with the Work Group's assignments, but also identified notable discrepancies between how these types were described by the Work Group and how they were perceived by other PD researchers. These results hold promise for improving the currently proposed system and will help inform researchers and clinicians who will ultimately use the DSM-5 model.


Instance discriminative self-supervised representation learning has been attracted attention thanks to its unsupervised nature and informative feature representation for downstream tasks. In practice, it commonly uses a larger number of negative samples than the number of supervised classes. However, there is an inconsistency in the existing analysis; theoretically, a large number of negative samples degrade classification performance on a downstream supervised task, while empirically, they improve the performance. We provide a novel framework to analyze this empirical result regarding negative samples using the coupon collector's problem. Our bound can implicitly incorporate the supervised loss of the downstream task in the self-supervised loss by increasing the number of negative samples. We confirm that our proposed analysis holds on real-world benchmark datasets.


Cities are complex systems connected to economic, ecological, and demographic conditions and change. They are also characterized by diverging perceptions and interests of citizens and stakeholders. Thus, in the arena of urban planning, we are in need of approaches that are able to cope not only with urban complexity but also allow for participatory and collaborative processes to empower citizens. This to create democratic cities. Connected to the field of smart cities and citizens, we present in this paper, the prototype of an urban digital twin for the 30,000-people town of Herrenberg in Germany. Urban digital twins are sophisticated data models allowing for collaborative processes. The herein presented prototype comprises (1) a 3D model of the built environment, (2) a street network model using the theory and method of space syntax, (3) an urban mobility simulation, (4) a wind flow simulation, and (5) a number of empirical quantitative and qualitative data using volunteered geographic information (VGI). In addition, the urban digital twin was implemented in a visualization platform for virtual reality and was presented to the general public during diverse public participatory processes, as well as in the framework of the "Morgenstadt Werkstatt" (Tomorrow's Cities Workshop). The results of a survey indicated that this method and technology could significantly aid in participatory and collaborative processes. Further understanding of how urban digital twins support urban planners, urban designers, and the general public as a collaboration and communication tool and for decision support allows us to be more intentional when creating smart cities and sustainable cities with the help of digital twins. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the presented results and further research directions.


Amyloidosis is a group of disorders that share a common pathobiology: in each case, a protein that exhibits misfolding is deposited in one or multiple organs leading to disruption in organ function. These amyloid proteins are recognized as amorphous pink material in Hematoxylin and Eosin staining, with confirmation by staining with Congo red and yellow or green birefringence under polarized light microscope. To date at least 36 different types of amyloid proteins have been identified. Worldwide, AA amyloidosis is the most common type, and this occurs secondary to chronic inflammatory disease states—such as chronic infections and rheumatological disorders. In western countries, the incidence of AA amyloidosis is decreasing, and AL is the most common type of amyloidosis, characterized by amyloid due to light chain deposition. ATTR amyloidosis, which can be either hereditary or acquired, is a unique variant of systemic amyloidosis that results from mutations in the transthyretin (TTR) gene. Our review will focus on clinical features of the most common systemic amyloidosis, with a detailed review on evaluation and management of AA, AL and ATTR amyloidosis. dysfunction.


As the massive amounts of both structured and unstructured data produced daily continues to grow, it is evident that keeping abreast of current events, ideas, and trends is becoming increasingly difficult. Many press officers, journalists and media professionals resort to the old method of combing through websites, print media, and other content streams in order to get an idea of what is currently happening. However, this scattershot approach is far from optimal as key stories and information can often slip past the person's attention. Complicating matters is non-stop, 24-hour nature of the global news cycle, whereby stories appear and disappear in quick succession. All of these factors make it close to impossible for any one person to stay aware of each breaking news story.

However, as artificial intelligence technologies continue to mature, new techniques are appearing which allow computers to track, extract, and analyse the vast array of information that is produced each day. One of these technologies makes use of a set of algorithms known as Natural Language Processing, which allows computers to analyse the content of natural human language and derive new information from it.

The application of these Natural Language Processing algorithms to online articles, news, and other media content is the central concern of the Martello.io software system. Martello will actively scrape content from the websites and newsfeeds of the top media outlets and process this information using a number of algorithms. The results of this NLP processing will allow the output of summaries and categorisation, the identification of named people, places and organisations, and the detection of the sentiment of the articles themselves in order to see if it is a positive or negative opinion.

Customers using Martello will be able to make use of a full-featured application that allows them to quickly extract information pertinent to their organisations and narrow the vast quantity of news articles down by location, category, date, or by specific people, companies and industries. Additionally, customers will be able to view the positive or negative sentiment of relevant news articles, or collections of articles, in order to quickly ascertain the prevailing sentiment about specific subjects and topics.


Direct writing by laser techniques in the micro and nanostructuring scale is very important for the fabrication of new materials and multifunctional devices. They have proven to be very successful tools for precision machining and microfabrication with applications in optical devices, microelectronics, medical device, biomedical, defense applications, and MEMS. Focused nanosecond (ns) laser pulses can produce periodic structures and arrays pattern structures in semiconductors and thin metallic film on shaped surfaces. The achievable structure size is restricted by the wavelength and diffraction limit as well as it is determined by material properties and laser pulse stability.

This thesis proposes a nanosecond laser nanostructuring technique in common optical path configuration to examine the limitations of the currently used fabrication methods and type of setups used; the competitive edge is using nanosecond lasers as a tool. Prospectively, this technology can be applied for femtosecond laser fabrication, because this is an easy, simple and common optical path configuration. For this experimental setup, the use of a common optical path configuration for automatic interference offers equals path lengths. It is not required for complicated optical setups while in femtosecond laser setups, it is extremely important to use path compensation in order to offer time delay for one laser beam due to a long path and more optical components. A low repetition rate, low power nanosecond laser system is investigated to preventing the (HAZ) conditions. The influence of the laser repetition rate and pulse energy on the size and quality of submicron features which fabricated on silicon wafers and thin gold film is investigated. In terms of nanomachining below the ablation threshold (surface patterning), the influence of laser fluence, repetition rate and pulse energy on the spacing as well as diameter of dots created on silicon wafer surface is examined. These studies show the capability of the proposed system of nanosecond laser in common optical path configuration in meeting the industry requirements.


The effects of plants on soil vary greatly between plant species and in mixed plant communities this can lead to spatial variation in plant-soil feedback (PSF) effects. Such spatial effects are thought to influence plant species coexistence, but the empirical evidence for this hypothesis is limited. Here, we investigate how spatial heterogeneity in PSFs influences plant growth and competition. The experiment was carried out with high and low nutrient soils to examine how these effects depend on soil fertility. We collected soil from field plots planted for three years with monocultures of Anthoxanthum odoratum and Centaurea jacea and tested the performance of the two species in a greenhouse experiment in heterogeneous soils consisting of patches of "own" and "foreign" soils and in soils where the "own" and "foreign" soils were mixed homogeneously. In the test phase, plants were grown in monocultures and in 1:1 mixtures in live or sterilized soils. Overall, A. odoratum in monocultures produced less aboveground biomass in heterogeneous soils than in homogeneous soils. Centaurea jacea produced less belowground biomass in live heterogeneous soils than in live homogeneous soils, but there was no difference between sterile heterogeneous and homogeneous soils. The belowground biomass per patch varied more in pots with live heterogeneous soils than in pots with live homogeneous soils for both plant species, but there was no difference between pots with sterile heterogeneous and homogeneous soils. In pots with plant mixtures, the difference in aboveground biomass between the two competing species tended to be smaller in heterogeneous than in homogeneous soils. In pots with heterogeneous soils, both plant species grown in mixtures produced more aboveground biomass in "foreign" soil patches than in "own" soil patches. The responses of plants to heterogeneous PSFs were not different between low and high nutrient soils. Our results show that spatially heterogeneous PSFs can influence plant performance and competition via reducing the growth inequality between the two competing species by allowing selective growth in foreign soil patches, independent of initial soil nutrient availability. Such effect may slow down exclusion processes and thus promote the coexistence of competing species at the local scale in mixed plant communities. A plain language summary is available for this article.


Using wireline logs to estimate pore pressure in mudstones at the chemical compaction stage is not straightforward because clay diagenesis proceeds independently of effective stress, and neither density nor velocity is uniquely related to the maximum effective stress experienced by the mudstones. We propose the Budge–Fudge method, in which we assume there is a unique trend on the sonic–density cross-plot for mudstones at the chemical compaction stage that have not been unloaded. In addition to the sonic–density chemical compaction trend, an initial guestimate of maximum effective stress previously experienced by the mudstones is required. Additional overpressure from unloading processes is then estimated from the sonic log, referenced to the density response. The initial guestimate of maximum effective stress may be adjusted to fit any available measured pressures or pressures estimated from geological knowledge. We have applied the Budge–Fudge method to Cretaceous mudstones at Haltenbanken, and find that estimated pressures match measured pressures and expected pressure–depth profiles. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that the lateral variations in mudstone porosity, previously reported, result from lateral variations in overpressure build-up immediately following rapid burial by glaciogenic sediments; subsequently, overpressures have increased through clay diagenesis and equilibrated laterally across the area.


Active worm's major security threats to the Internet. This is due to the ability of active worms to propagate in an automated fashion as they continuously compromise computers on the Internet. Active worms evolve during their propagation, and thus, pose great challenges to defend against them. In this paper, we investigate a new class of active worms, referred to as Camouflaging Worm (C-Worm in short). The C-Worm is different from traditional worms because of its ability to intelligently manipulate its scan traffic volume over time.Thereby, the C-Worm camouflages its propagation from existing worm detection systems based on analyzing the propagation traffic generated by worms. We analyze characteristics of the C-Worm and conduct a comprehensive comparison between its traffic and nonworm traffic (background traffic). We observe that these two types of traffic are barely distinguishable in the time domain. However, their distinction is clear in the frequency domain, due to the recurring manipulative nature of the C-Worm. Motivated by our observations, the design a novel spectrum-based scheme to detect the C-Worm. Our scheme uses the Power Spectral Density (PSD) distribution of the scan traffic volume and its corresponding Spectral Flatness Measure (SFM) to distinguish the C-Worm traffic from background traffic. Using a comprehensive set of detection metrics and real-world traces as background traffic, we conduct extensive performance evaluations on our proposed spectrum-based detection scheme. The performance data clearly demonstrates that our scheme can effectively detect the C-Worm propagation. Furthermore, we show the generality of our spectrum-based scheme in effectively detecting not only the C-Worm, but traditional worms as well. In the existing system, traditional worms are more threats to the internet and also would produce lot of overall network traffic. It is very easy to identify the worm using traditional worm detection as the overall network traffic is increased. In the proposed model, camouflage worm is modeled and detection using spectrum based approach. Worm targets only vulnerable node so that overall traffic level is not increased. Spectrum based approach which is used to kill the C-worm. Modifications are mode in designing a worm which is used to increase the CPU load in the system, and also compared with traffic level of a application initiation and the C-worm. This process makes very clear process of execution.


Many machine learning and signal processing problems can be formulated as linearly constrained convex programs, which could be efficiently solved by the alternating direction method (ADM). However, usually the subproblems in ADM are easily solvable only when the linear mappings in the constraints are identities. To address this issue, we propose a linearized ADM (LADM) method by linearizing the quadratic penalty term and adding a proximal term when solving the sub-problems. For fast convergence, we also allow the penalty to change adaptively according a novel update rule. We prove the global convergence of LADM with adaptive penalty (LADMAP). As an example, we apply LADMAP to solve low-rank representation (LRR), which is an important subspace clustering technique yet suffers from high computation cost. By combining LADMAP with a skinny SVD representation technique, we are able to reduce the complexity O(n3) of the original ADM based method to O(rn2), where r and n are the rank and size of the representation matrix, respectively, hence making LRR possible for large scale applications. Numerical experiments verify that for LRR our LADMAP based methods are much faster than state-of-the-art algorithms.


Objectives: To ascertain whether a nucleotide containing nutritional supplement Nucell® attenuates self-reported symptoms of the common cold.
Design: A randomised controlled trial.
Setting: A University.
Participants: Participants with self-reported symptoms of the common cold but otherwise healthy individuals.
Intervention: Nucell® capsules containing a yeast-based nucleotide preparation or placebo were provided over a 28 day period.
Outcome Measures: Subjective ratings of symptoms were recorded by self-administered questionnaires using a nine-point scale. Salivary IgA concentrations were analysed from samples collected during the first 7 days and then at days 14,21 and 28 of supplementation. Total and white blood cell counts were also measured throughout the intervention.
Results: Thirty-six participants completed the study. Nineteen received Nucell® and 17 received the placebo. The mean age of participants was similar (29.8 + 2.5 in Nucell group v 30.7 + 2.7 in control group) and the time participants had been suffering from cold-related symptoms was not significantly different in each treatment group (2.5 + 0.40 days in Nucell® v 2.9 + 0.47 days in control group). Severity of self-reported symptoms was significantly attenuated in the Nucell® treated group in the first week of supplementation for questions asked with respect to taste, painful sinuses and earache (p< 0.05). Supplementation with Nucell® did not adversely affect total or differential white blood counts.
Conclusion: These results suggest that Nucell® supplementation administered as a treatment for cold-related symptoms may reduce the severity of specific symptoms particularly in the early infective phase. In conclusion, Nucell® supplementation may provide subjective relief of some cold-related symptoms and may be of significant benefit administered as a treatment in participants where sinus pain, earache and diminished taste are common symptoms.


With a growing population and economic development, it is expected that water demands will increase significantly in the future, especially in developing regions. At the same time, climate change is expected to alter spatial patterns of hydrological cycle and will have global, regional and local impacts on water availability. Thus, it is important to assess water supply, water demand and environmental needs over time to identify the populations and locations that will be most affected by these changes linked to water scarcity, droughts and floods. The Community Water Model (CWATM) will be designed for this purpose in that it includes an accounting of how future water demands will evolve in response to socioeconomic change and how water availability will change in response to climate. CWATM represents one of the new key elements of IIASA's Water program. It has been developed to work flexibly at both global and regional level at different spatial resolutions. The model is open source and community-driven to promote our work amongst the wider water community worldwide and is flexible enough linking to further planned developments such as water quality and hydro-economic modules.
CWATM will be a basis to develop a next-generation global hydro-economic modeling framework that represents the economic trade-offs among different water management options over a basin looking at water supply infrastructure and demand managements. The integrated modeling framework will consider water demand from agriculture, domestic, energy, industry and environment, investment needs to alleviate future water scarcity, and will provide a portfolio of economically optimal solutions for achieving future water management options under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for example. In addition, it will be able to track the energy requirements associated with the water supply system e.g., pumping, desalination and interbasin transfer to realize the linkage with the water-energy economy.
In a bigger framework of nexus – water, energy, food, ecosystem - CWATM will be coupled to the existing IIASA models including the Integrated Assessment Model MESSAGE and the global land and ecosystem model GLOBIOM in order to realize an improved assessments of water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus and associated feedback.
Our vision for the short to medium term work is to introduce water quality (e.g., salinization in deltas and eutrophication associated with mega cities) into CWATM and to consider qualitative and quantitative measures of transboundary river and groundwater governance into an integrated modelling framework.


Very little detailed data on the development and germination of the
sugar palm seed (Arenga pinnata Merr.) is available. Therefore studies on
the two features were conducted.
Changes in the physical and physiological characteristics of the fruit
and seed during their development from anthesis until 38 months thereafter
were elucidated in the first part of the study. The sugar palm fruit and seed
were found to develop very slowly, requiring three years to ripen, and
physiological maturity of the seeds was attained at 36 months after anthesis.
Progressive embryo growth was not observed until 16 months after anthesis
and maximum embryo weight was achieved at 30 months.
Towards maturity, thickening of endosperm cell walls occurred
progressively until it filled almost the entire cell cavity at 36 months after
anthesis, resulting in a hard and bony structure of the endosperm, characteristic
for many palm species. Biochemical studies on the composition of food reserves in the mature seed revealed that carbohydrate comprises more
than 50% of the reserves present, which mainly consists of mannan.
The second part of the study was on germination and seedl ing
development. It was found that the mature seeds were dormant because no
germination was observed during four months at ambient temperature,
although Tetrazolium tests showed them to be viable. However, in vitro
germination of excised embryos revealed that immature embryos were
capable to germinate since they were fully developed at 16 months after
anthesis. And after deoperculation, the seeds germinated readily in two
weeks. This shows that like many other palm species, the sugar palm seed
also has a coat-imposed dormancy, exerted by the tissues which cover the
germination pore. Approximately 700 gram force was needed to rupture
this structure. The optimum temperature for germination was 35°C, but for
continued seedling growth 30°C was optimum. eedling development was of the remote non-li gular type. The
radicle and plumule emerged after five and six weeks' germination. Three
different structures were observed in the germinating seed, namely the
residual endosperm, degraded endosperm and the haustorium which
developed from the cotyledon. The haustorium digests the endosperm and
translocated hydrolysed reserves to the developing seedling.
The activities of two mannan hydrolising enzymes, B-mannosidase
and 6-galactosidase were assayed during germination and early seedling
development. The highest enzyme activities were observed in the degraded
endosperm. The simple sugars detected were sucrose in the residual
endosperm, sucrose and mannose in the degraded endosperm, and sucrose,
glucose and fructose in the haustorium.


Objective of this study is to prepare the binder jetting feedstock powder by spray freeze drying and study the effects of its parameters on the powder properties. Binder jetting additive manufacturing is a promising technology for fabricating ceramic parts with complex or customized geometries. However, this process is limited by the relatively low density of the fabricated parts even after sintering. The main cause comes from the contradicting requirements of the particle size of the feedstock powder: a large particle size (> 5 μm) is required for a high flowability while a small particle size (< 1 μm) for a high sinterability. For the first time, a novel technology for the feedstock material preparation, called spray freeze drying, is investigated to address this contradiction. Using raw alumina nanopowder (100 nm), a full factorial design at two levels for two factors (spraying pressure and slurry feed rate) was formed to study their effects on the properties (i.e., granule size, flowability, and sinterability) of the obtained granulated powder. Results show that high pressure and small feed rate lead to small granule size. Compared with the raw powder, the flowability of the granulated powders was significantly increased, and the high sinterability was also maintained. This study proves that spray freeze granulation is a promising technology for the feedstock powder preparation of binder jetting additive manufacturing.


Presently, there is no single, coherent theory on the causality between cities and economic growth, only a fragmented set of theories. Current patterns and trends for the relationship between cities and economic growth, however, suggest that a full understanding of contemporary processes will not be achieved by relying on the tools of one discipline alone, or by focusing on a single level of analysis. The aim of this literature review is to examine the leading contemporary theories on the relationship between cities and economic growth. The relationship can work in several ways by focusing on: the impact of economic growth on cities, the impact of cities on economic growth, and cities as an intermediate link to economic growth. Most theories however focus on the impact cities have on economic growth. One conclusion is that economic activities and economic diversification occur before cities are formed; without them, cities are not needed and hence cannot promote economic growth. The paper also discusses the various policies and policy designs used to promote cities as well as economic growth.


Objectives. To evaluate a representative group of South Africans for their views about healthcare worker strikes and related matters. Methods. A descriptive, cross-sectional, self-administered  questionnaire-based study of 600 participants over the age of 18 years and able to read English, from two representative shopping malls (300 from each mall) in Greater Johannesburg. Data were analysed using SAS software version 9.1.3 for Windows. Tests for significant relationships were carried out using Pearson's χ2 test at the 0.05 confidence level. The strength of the associations was determined by Cramer's V. Results. Results revealed strong opinions among the population regarding strikes, numerous misapprehensions when it comes to striking and rights, a poor awareness of other healthcare-related rights and the perception of poor treatment at public hospitals. Conclusions. A majority of South Africans are aware of the healthcare worker strikes and are dissatisfied with the manner in which these take place, with strong objections to the perceived neglect of the critically ill during strikes, compounded by poor treatment at public hospitals. Many South Africans lack awareness of human rights issues, a situation which requires urgent remedy.


This study tests the supposition that different types of restaurants appeal to or attract substantially divergent market segments. Instead of targeting specific markets, the analysis suggests that restaurant brand managers should take a mass marketing approach. The study examines the "Consumer Picks" survey data collected by WD Partners and the National Restaurant Association to determine the extent to which a particular restaurant brand shares its customers with other restaurant brands. The analysis finds that the extent of sharing is almost completely explained by the restaurants' market share, rather than by market targeting. Five sets of restaurants were tested: (1) hamburger quick-service restaurants (QSRs); (2) chicken, Mexican, and pizza QSRs; (3) fast casual concepts; (4) full-service casual restaurants; and (5) table-service restaurants. Each restaurant brand shared its customers with the other brands in proportion to the other brands' shares of customers and in inverse proportion to its own share of customers. While some restaurant brands shared customers substantially more or less than expected given the sizes of their customer bases, these cases did not occur more frequently than one would expect from chance. This pattern of data suggests that the different restaurant brands do not attract substantially different types of consumers, which in turn suggests that restaurant brands should aim most of their marketing efforts at increasing their appeal to all restaurant customers. That is, most of restaurant marketers' time, energy and money should be devoted to mass marketing and not targeting subsets of consumers.


In order to increase the applicability of photocatalysis in treating offshore produced water (OPW), an immobilized catalyst was introduced into the UV irradiation system and its performance on the degradation of organic compounds in OPW was evaluated. Naphthalene was selected as the target pollutant owing to its abundance in produced water and its chemical property as a typical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Aeroxide ® P25 nano-scale TiO 2 powder was immobilized on glass slides by a heat attachment method and its photocatalytic capacity was compared to that of the original powder in terms of naphthalene removal efficiency. The results of adsorption showed that the reduction of catalysts' surface area by immobilization was similar to that by agglomeration. The photocatalytic reaction rate constants in the homogeneous and immobilized systems were 0.00219 min −1 and 0.00305 min −1 , respectively, indicating that the immobilized catalyst had a better performance in photo-oxidation. The fouling of catalyst surface during the irradiation process came from the deposition of insoluble particles, organic matters, and the scaling of calcium. In summary, the immobilization of catalysts was more resistant to the substrate effects of OPW, indicating a more promising alternative in treating OPW.


The current global economic crisis has highlighted the problems that result from governments' archaic and erroneous accounting practices. The Financial Report of the United States Government is scrutinised with the same pedantry that an auditor or long-term investor uses when studying the financial statements of a listed company. What emerges is an all too clear picture of the extent and the root of America's economic crisis. USA Inc. is found to have a net worth of minus $44 trillion, a symptom of unfunded liabilities that have grown as entitlement expenditure has rocketed. As well as changes in policy, it is the external auditing of government accounts that is suggested as a potential panacea for this global epidemic.


In March and April 2014 Oxford Archaeology East undertook a desk based assessment and Heritage Impact Assessment to examine the available historical and archaeological resources relating to Beechwood Park School, Markyate, Hertfordshire (centred at TL 0449 1454). The work was commissioned by Beechwood Park School as part of a pre-planning application for proposed new buildings associated with the school. The aim of this assessment is to determine the archaeological potential of the site and the possible impact any future work could have on both any archaeological remains and the Historic Landscape and Heritage Assets.
Beechwood Park has a rich and varied history. It is built on the site of a former Benedictine Nunnery, St Giles In The Wood, which dates from the Late Saxon period. After the dissolution of the nunnery in 1537 it eventually passed to Sir Richard Page who built an H-shaped Tudor manor house at Beechwood. This plan still exists, later becoming incorporated into the Queen Anne additions to the house. Subsequently it was acquired by Thomas Saunders, in 1628, whose family undertook building works including the alterations to the facade as seen on a plan of 1670. When the house passed, by marriage, to the Sebright family, a major building programme was instigated to double the size of the house. This included the creation of the striking north-east facade, in 1702 and also landscaping of the grounds in the 1750s by Capability Brown
In 1961 ownership of the buildings and grounds was transferred to the Stewart family. It was Group Captain Peter Stewart who oversaw the restoration of Beechwood Park. He is regarded by many to be the founder of Beechwood Park School, which opened in 1964.
This piece of work has demonstrated that there is a low probability of pre-Saxon remains surviving in either of the Proposed Development Sites. There is a moderate possibility of encountering Late Saxon and medieval remains. The proximity of the site to the putative Late Saxon nunnery of St Giles In The Wood make the Potential Development Sites of some interest to considerations of our understanding of the development of the site during this period.
The numerous cartographic sources available for the site demonstrate that during the post-medieval and modern periods Beechwood House and to a lesser extent the park and gardens, have been subject to numerous phases of construction and re-modelling. Overall it is felt that the preservation of any below ground remains will be good, for all periods.
It is suggested that the impact of any development on the Heritage Assets and the Historic Landscape will be far greater in Proposed Development Site 2 than in Proposed Development Site 1.


This work is centered on the study of self-organisation and pattern formation in a prototypical nanostructured system, namely colloidal nanoparticle assemblies. The particular system chosen for investigation, Au nanocrystals spin cast onto silicon substrates from a solvent, despite being chemically rather simple exhibits a rich variety of complex patterns. In the majority of experiments discussed in this thesis, far-from-equilibrium conditions are attained by a spin-casting process which drives rapid solvent evaporation.
A systematic study was carried out to determine the various factors affecting the morphology of nanoparticle assemblies produced in this manner. These factors include the concentration of the nanoparticle solution, the particular solvent used, and the chemical/ physical nature of the substrate. Changing these variables can affect both the strength of interactions between individual nanoparticles and between nanoparticles and the substrate. The various morphologies of the nanoparticle structures produced were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM).
Particular attention is paid to the role of the substrate's surface chemistry in pattern selection. A range of different substrates are used to gauge the influence of differing surface chemistries. In addition, scanning probe lithography was employed to microscopically pattern surfaces. This facilitated the observation of effects caused by the presence of two radically different surface chemistries in the micron size range. This patterning process provides the experimenter some measure of control over the morphology of the nanoparticle assembly, allowing the enforcement of predefined length scales onto the network. Simulations of drying nanocrystal films produced using code written by Martin et al [1] have been shown to accurately reproduce the experimental results. These simulations are used to develop theoretical explanations of the experimental data in terms of the varying solvent evaporation rate on the substrate and the manner by which the solvent dewets on chemically and topologically differing areas of a surface.
A remarkable probe-induced coarsening of nanoparticle assemblies by repetitive scanning with an AFM probe has been studied. Repeated scanning of colloidal nanoparticle systems causes the irreversible growth of nanoparticle assemblies. The size distribution of structures produced by this growth is shown to be self-similar. With the size of the domains growing with a power law dependence on scan time. From a combination of these results the growth of structures is explained using a model of coarsening based on cluster diffusion and coalescence. This model is subtly different from coalescence in a thermally driven system due to the novel nature of the mechanical coarsening process.
Electrical transport through different array morphologies produced via the spin-coating process was studied using D. C. electrical measurements and electrostatic force microscopy (EFM). Measurements over temperatures ranging from 4.5K to room temperature were made. Variations in the manner that power law scaling of the conduction behaviour alters for different arrays is linked to the topological characteristics of the arrays.


SUMMARY
By 2005, users of third-party logistics services may be spending an average of nearly one-third of their total logistics budgets (compared to 20 percent today) to support 3PL services (Gooley 2000). Yet, very little research has examined managerial activities that might influence the performance of these logistics outsourcing relationships. Over the past several years, the management approach that views relationships as key assets of the organization has gained increased prominence in the priorities and practices of many companies (Gruen, Summers and Acito 2000). The current study utilizes this relationship marketing perspective as the basis for evaluating the perceived performance of third-party logistics arrangements. In particular, the current study examines the influence of six key relationship marketing dimensions on a customer's perceptions of their 3PL provider's performance. In so doing, the article builds on research (e.g., Goldsby and Stank 2000) that focuses on potential linkages between logistical performance metrics and managerial activities. The results suggest linkages between relationship marketing activities and the perceived performance of the 3PL arrangement.


The purpose of the thesis was to study the feasibility of using geneticalgorithm (GA) to do the integrated software pipelining (ISP). Different from phasedcode generation, ISP is a technique which integrates instruction selection, instructionscheduling, and register allocation together when doing code generation. ISP is able toprovide a lager solution space than phased way does, which means that ISP haspotential to generate more optimized code than phased code generation. However,integrated compiling costs more than phased compiling. GA is stochastic beam searchalgorithm which can accelerate the solution searching and find an optimized result.An experiment was designed for verifying feasibility of implementing GA for ISP(GASP). The implemented algorithm analyzed data dependency graphs of loop bodies,created genes for the graphs and evolved, generated schedules, calculated andevaluated fitness, and obtained optimized codes. The fitness calculation wasimplemented by calculating the maximum value between the smallest possibleresource initiation interval and the smallest possible recurrence initiation interval. Theexperiment was conducted by generating codes from data dependency graphsprovided in FFMPEG and comparing the performance between GASP and integerlinear programming (ILP). The results showed that out of eleven cases that ILP hadgenerated code, GASP performed close to ILP in seven cases. In all twelve cases thatILP did not have result, GASP did generate optimized code. To conclude, the studyindicated that GA was feasible of being implemented for ISP. The generated codesfrom GASP performed similar with the codes from ILP. And for the dependencygraphs that ILP could not solve in a limited time, GASP could also generate optimizedresults.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of remnant uptake on postoperative radioiodine scans as an oncologic indicator after thyroidectomy for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective review of patients undergoing total thyroidectomy for DTC and subsequent radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment. Of the eight surgeons included, three were considered high volume, performing at least 20 thyroidectomies per year. Patients with distant metastases at diagnosis or poorly differentiated variants were excluded. To control for the effect of varying RAI doses, the remnant uptake was analyzed as a ratio of the percentage uptake to the dose received (uptake to dose ratio [UDR]). Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the influence of UDR on recurrence.

RESULTS
Of the 223 patients who met inclusion criteria, 21 patients (9.42%) experienced a recurrence. Those with a recurrence had a 10-fold higher UDR compared with those who did not (0.030 vs. 0.003, p=0.001). Similarly, patients with increasing postoperative thyroglobulin measurements (0.339 vs. 0.003, p<0.001) also had significantly greater UDRs compared with those with stable thyroglobulin. The UDRs of high-volume surgeons were significantly smaller than low-volume surgeons (0.003 vs. 0.025, p=0.002). When combined with other known predictors for recurrence, UDR (OR 3.71 [95%CI 1.05-13.10], p=0.041) was significantly associated with recurrence. High-volume surgeons maintained a low level of permanent complications across all UDRs, whereas low-volume surgeons had greater permanent complications associated with higher uptake.

CONCLUSIONS
Remnant uptake is a useful postoperative oncologic quality indicator that can predict a patient's risk of disease recurrence and indicate the completeness of resection.


In this study, we propose a novel plate-like sensor which utilizes curvature-based stiffening effects for enhanced nanometrology. In the proposed concept, the stiffness and natural frequencies of the sensor can be arbitrarily adjusted by applying a transverse curvature via piezoelectric actuators, thereby enabling resonance amplification over a broad range of frequencies. The concept is validated using a macroscale experiment. Then, a microscale finite element analysis is used to study the effect of applied curvature on the microplate static stiffness and natural frequencies. We show that imposed transverse curvature is an effective way to tune the in-situ static stiffness and natural frequencies of the plate sensor system. These findings will form the basis of future curvature-based stiffening microscale studies for novel scenarios in atomic force microscopy.


Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed ledger technology (DLT) currently lead to lively debates in academia and practice. AI processes data to perform tasks that were previously thought possible only for humans. DLT has the potential to create consensus over data among a group of participants in untrustworthy environments. In recent research, both technologies are used in similar and even the same systems. This can lead to a convergence of AI and DLT, which in the past, has paved the way for major innovations of other information technologies. Previous work highlights several potential benefits of a convergence of AI and DLT but only provides a limited theoretical framework to describe upcoming real-world integration cases of both technologies. In this research, we review and synthesize extant research on integrating AI with DLT and vice versa to rigorously develop a future research agenda on the convergence of both technologies. In terms of integrating AI with DLT, we identified research opportunities in the areas of secure DLT, automated referee and governance, and privacy-preserving personalization. With regard to integrating DLT with AI, we identified future research opportunities in the areas of decentralized computing for AI, secure data sharing and marketplaces, explainable AI, and coordinating devices. In doing so, this research provides a four-fold contribution. First, it is not constrained to blockchain but instead investigates the broader phenomenon of DLT. Second, it considers the reciprocal nature of a convergence of AI and DLT. Third, it bridges the gap between theory and practice by helping researchers active in AI or DLT to overcome current limitations in their field, and practitioners to develop systems along with the convergence of both technologies. Fourth, it demonstrates the feasibility of applying the convergence concept to research on AI and DLT.


A novel platform based on evanescent wave sensing in the 6.5 to 7.5 µm wavelength range is presented with the example of toluene detection in an aqueous solution. The overall sensing platform consists of a germanium-on-silicon waveguide with a functionalized mesoporous silica cladding and integrated microlenses for alignment-tolerant back-side optical interfacing with a tunable laser spectrometer. Hydrophobic functionalization of the mesoporous cladding allows enrichment of apolar analyte molecules and prevents strong interaction of water with the evanescent wave. The sensing performance was evaluated for aqueous toluene standards resulting in a limit of detection of 7 ppm. Recorded adsorption/desorption profiles followed Freundlich adsorption isotherms with rapid equilibration and resulting sensor response times of a few seconds. This indicates that continuous monitoring of contaminants in water is possible. A significant increase in LOD can be expected by likely improvements to the spectrometer noise floor which, expressed as a relative standard deviation of 100% lines, is currently in the range of 10-2A.U.


Laboratory tests showed leukocytosis with neutrophilia and the chest radiograph showed a cavitated lesion in the left parahilar region (Fig. 3). Chest computed tomography showed a well-circumscribed tumor measuring 5 cm in diameter in the anterior segment of the left upper lobe, of heterogeneous density and with an air-fluid level. Fineneedle aspiration was performed but insufficient material was obtained for diagnosis. Blood cultures were negative.


In the first months after a decision of the Delaware Supreme Court upholding a fee-shifting bylaw under which the unsuccessful plaintiff shareholder was required to reimburse all defendants for their legal and other expenses in the litigation, some 24 public companies adopted a similar provision — either by means of a board-adopted bylaw or by placing such a provision in their certificate of incorporation (in the case of companies undergoing an IPO). In effect, private ordering is introducing a one-sided version of the "loser pays" rules. Indeed, as drafted, these provisions typically require a plaintiff who is not completely successful to reimburse the other side's legal expenses, and they apply not only to legal actions but to complaints to agencies by whistleblowers and others.In this testimony before the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee, Professor Coffee evaluates the actions the SEC could take to slow this trend, the potential for interjurisdictional competition, and the case for federal preemption of such provisions in the case of securities class actions.


It is widely expected that the growth of technologically-mediated care will directly reduce medical error and have positive indirect effects such as improving the data sets that underlie peer review, state disciplinary oversight and medical malpractice litigation. A technologically-mediated health care delivery system also should deliver substantial reductions in information costs for consumers, improving choice as to both quality and safety. What seems less clear is the extent to which process re-engineering and conversion to technology-centered error reduction systems will itself will create a new set of quality of care externalities. This article explores some of the liability questions posed by increasing the technology component in health care delivery. First, I take the position that the process and technology reforms triggered by To Err Is Human inevitably will confirm institutional liability as the default position for modern malpractice claims. Second, I argue that the likely adverse event scenarios that will result from technologically-mediated diagnosis, treatment and care will severely test our current torts operational rules, particularly those that lie at the intersection of malpractice and products liability.


Perhaps the most questionable attribute given to Gigantopithecus is its taxonomic and phylogenetic placement in the superfamily Hominoidea. In 1935 von Koenigswald made the first discovery ofa lower molar at an apothecary in Hong Kong. In a mess of "dragon teeth" von Koenigswald saw a tooth that looked remarkably primate-like and purchased it; this tooth would later be one of four looked at by a skeptical friend, Franz Weidenreich. It was this tooth that von Koenigswald originally used to name the species Gigantopithecus blacki. Researchers have only four mandibles and thousands of teeth which they use to reconstruct not only the existence of this primate, but its size and phylogeny as well. Many objections have been raised to the past phylogenetic relationship proposed by Weidenreich, Woo, and von Koenigswald that Gigantopithecus was a forerunner to the hominid line. Some suggest that researchers might be jumping the gun on the size attributed to Gigantopithecus (estimated between 10 and 12 feet tall); this size has perpetuated the idea that somehow Gigantopithecus is still roaming the Himalayas today as Bigfoot. Many researchers have shunned the Bigfoot theory and focused on the causes of the animals extinction. It is my intention to explain the theories of the past and why many researchers currently disagree with them. It will be necessary to explain how the researchers conducted their experiments and came to their conclusions as well.


The aim of this study is to examine the factors affecting negative attitudes (vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination) towards vaccines. Data of 4004 people were collected online. Although vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes are two different concepts, there is a strong positive relationship between them. In this study, explanatory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used for vaccine questions. Then, quantile regression models at 10p, 50p and 90p values were calculated separately for these two variables (vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination). As a result of the estimation, age, gender, education, household income, belief in conspiracy theories, political views, religious involvement are significant predictors. In addition, trust in science, doctors, the government, vaccine companies, COVID-19 vaccines and herbal treatments are other predictive variables. Negative attitudes towards vaccines are relatively higher among the poor, unemployed and socio-economically disadvantaged groups. To reduce negative attitudes towards vaccines, it is important to inform society based on the results of reliable scientific research, to follow transparent policies that will reduce the doubts in people's minds, and to maintain effective communication policies.


Stigmatic exudate, a secretion product recovered from the upper surface of Lilium longiflorum pistils, has been examined. Over 99% of the exudate is accounted for as water, carbohydrate, and protein. Exclusive of water, 95% is a high molecular weight, protein-containing polysaccharide composed of galactose, arabinose, rhamnose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid.Detached pistils supplied with myo-inositol-U-(14)C, myo-inositol-2-(3)H, d-glucose-1-(14)C, or l-proline-U-(14)C produce labeled stigmatic exudate. When myo-inositol is supplied, the exudate is rich in labeled arabinose and uronic acids, but some label also recycles through the hexose phosphate pool of secreting cells, causing label to appear in galactose and rhamnose residues. When glucose is provided, galactose is the major constituent labeled but all of the other carbohydrate constituents are also labeled. Proline produces a pattern very similar to that obtained with glucose.Stigmatic exudate also contains a small amount of low molecular weight carbohydrate. If myo-inositol is used to label exudate, free labeled myo-inositol cannot be detected in the low molecular weight fraction until it has been subjected to acid hydrolysis. Similarly, if d-glucose is the source of label, free labeled glucose is found in the low molecular weight fraction only after acid hydrolysis.


The 26th of February 2009 the Swedish government gave a referral to the council of law
regarding the removal of a law concerning mandatory membership at a student union and
student nation while studying at a university or college in Sweden. This has led to a
discussion amongst the student nations in Uppsala as to how this proposed change will affect
the nations' future operations. Some, including the chairwoman for Kuratorskonventet,
Therez Olsson, and the 1Q for Norrland's student nation, Jon Stridh, have expressed their
worries that this could lead to a decrease in members. This in turn would have big
consequences for the nations as the members fee represents a great source of income and the
members themselves are the work force that enable the activities at the nations.

Customer focus is a successful strategy that many companies use today to generate loyalty
amongst their customers. The aim of this paper has therefore been to study if student nations
are characterized by such conditions that enable them to use customer focus as a means to
secure operations in the future. The study has been carried out as a case study at Norrland's
nation in Uppsala and is divided into two parts. The first part is a review of the theories
concerning customer focus that explains how it can, through customer satisfaction, result in
loyal customers that inflict positive effects on the organization they are loyal to. The
conditions that must prevail for this to happen are summarized. The lack of change barriers
and the possibility to find a sense of belonging together within the organization are two of
these conditions. This theoretical review has then been used as a base for the second part of
the study which is a qualitative interview study. Three focus group interviews focused on the
members' usage of the nation as well as how they see their relationship with the it and how
satisfied they are with it. The results of these interviews have shown that the members'
relationship with the nations is indeed to a great extent characterized by the conditions that
must prevail for an organization to be able to benefit from customer focus. The conclusion is
therefore that Norrland's nation, according to the theoretical framework used, has the
conditions to use customer focus as a means to secure future operations. Some measures are
though required for this to be possible in practice of which an improved dissemination of
information and an increased involvement from members are two of them.


Surface finish plays a major role on perceived product quality, and is the first thing a potential buyer sees. Today end-of-line repairs of the body of cars and trucks are inevitably to secure required surface quality. Defects that occur in the paint shop, like dust particles, are eliminated by manual sanding/polishing which lead to other types of defects when the last polishing step is not performed correctly or not fully completed. One of those defects is known as 'polishing roses' or holograms, which are incredibly hard to detect in artificial light but are clearly visible in sunlight. This paper will present the first tests with a measurement set-up newly developed to measure and analyse polishing roses. The results showed good correlations to human visual evaluations where repaired panels were estimated based on the defects' intensity, severity and viewing angle.


Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane, and let $\mathcal{D}$ be an arbitrary set of disks, each having a pair of points of $S$ as a diameter. We show that the combinatorial complexity of the union of $\mathcal{D}$ is $O(n^{3/2})$, and provide a lower bound construction with $\Omega(n^{4/3})$ complexity. If the points of $S$ are in convex position, the upper bound drops to $O(n\log n)$.


This paper explains the complexity in marine tanker loading of highly waxy RJ Crude via Single Point Mooring System at Bhogat Terminal. It mainly presents the key challenges in temperature sustenance of Rajasthan Crude in the marine pipelines during the tanker loading operation. It also presents how the pump logic and valve closure timings are configured to prevent high pressure surge in the system.
 Due to the waxy crude characteristics of Mangala Crude, it is required to always maintain the Crude temperature above its Wax Appearance Temperature of 65 Deg C. As the marine system partly consists of non-heated section like the under buoy and the floating hoses, it was required to simulate the temperature losses in the system and provide a pipeline flushing sequence at the end of the operation. Various flow and operational scenarios are modelled in OLGA and recommendations are implemented for the system. Similarly, Surge analysis was performed in PIPENET to determine acceptable valve closure timing for the tanker valves, breakaway couplings (BAC), SPM and PLEM valves to prevent overpressure in the marine system.
 Based on the transient simulations, temperature loss during RJ crude export (at 4,636m3/hr) from terminal to the tanker in 24 hours is negligible (less than 10 Deg C). This indicates that the insulations in the pipelines are adequately designed for preventing heat loss. Whereas, the temperature in the hoses falls below 42 Deg C within 12 hours of shutdown which may lead to wax formation and may block the hoses. Therefore, RJ crude is to be flushed out of the system using flushing oil before it can cool to below its wax appearance temperature of 65 Deg C. It is recommended to insulate the bare pipe-works such as the PLEM, SPM and tanker if possible to facilitate a reasonable response time for setting up flushing oil displacement. It is also recommended that the pipelines are heated to 50 Deg C prior in advance of commencing flushing oil displacement operations to terminal and in preparation for RJ crude export.
 Based on the hydraulic surge analysis, a closure time of 30 seconds is acceptable for PLEM valve closure. It is recommended to trip the export pumps at loading arm pressure High High of 7 bara. However, closure of both the breakaway couplings (BAC) cause pressure surges which exceed the MASP of the hoses for BAC closure times of 10 to 60 seconds.


INTRODUCTION: The intensive glucose control significantly reduces the risk of microvascular complications, including nephropaty. OBJECTIVES: We assess the impact of glycemic control through calculation of weekly mean glycemia (WMG) and glycemic variability (GV) on 24 hours ambulatory blood pressure (ABPM), urinary albumin excretion (UAE) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR). METHODS: 53 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) were randomly divided into two groups to receive conventional or intensive treatment, which included weekly visits for medication adjustments and implementation of an educational plan for six weeks. RESULTS: We observed glycemic control (WMG  120 mmHg which was reduced from 138.4 ± 10.1 to 127.8 ± 11.6 mmHg (p = 0.023) at the end of week six. Reductions in SBP and diastolic BP (DBP) during wakefulness and sleep did not occur in the group (n = 17) without glycemic control and with SBP > 120 mmHg. Initially, 15 patients had GFR > 120 mL/min, and after six weeks, only the subgroup that achieved glycemic control (n = 7) showed a reduction of 137.2 ± 16 to 122.2 ± 25.2 mL/min (p = 0.02). At the beginning of the study, another fifteen patients presented with microalbuminuria. After six weeks, regardless of whether they achieved glycemic control or not, there was reduction in UAE, from 63.0 ± 43.1 to 24.8 ± 19.5 mg/g creatinine (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Thus short term glycemic control resulted in reductions of BP, GFR and the UAE in patients with DM2, which are beneficial for renal protection.


One of the major goals in the process of designing structural components is to achieve the highest possible buckling load of the structural component while keeping the cost and weight at a minimum. This paper illustrates the application of the harmony search algorithm to the buckling load maximisation of dispersed laminated composite plates with rectangular geometry. The ply thicknesses and fiber orientation angles of the plies were chosen as the design variables. Besides the commonly used carbon fiber reinforced composites, boron/epoxy and glass/epoxy composite plates were also optimised using the harmony search algorithm. Furthermore, the optimisation algorithm was applied to plates with three different aspect ratios (ratio of the longer side length to the shorter side length of the plate). The buckling loads of the plates with optimised dispersed stacking sequences were compared to the buckling loads of plates with the commonly applied 0°, ±45°, and 90° fiber angle sequence and identical ply thicknesses. For all three aspect ratios and materials in this study, the dispersed stacking sequences performed better than the plates with regular stacking sequences.


Background: This current study is perhaps the first study of its type in any rural area of Pakistan. It was carried out on healthy population resident of different villages of Tehsil Kahutta, District Rawalpindi. Although Dengue Viral Infection was believed to be only present in urban and semi urban areas. Hypothesis: Dengue viral infection is prevalent in rural areas of District Rawalpindi. Aims and Objectives: 1. To find out the prevalence of Dengue viral infection (IgG) in rural areas. 2. To highlight subclinical cases of Dengue Viral Infection. Study Settings: Pathology (Microbiology) Department, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi. Study Design: Descriptive Cross Sectional Study. Study Duration: 7 Months. Sample Size: 96 Samples. Inclusion Criterion: 1. Individuals who have never suffered from Dengue infection. 2. Both male and female population of any age group. 3. Must be the resident of rural area. Exclusion Criterion: 1. Individuals who have a strong history of Dengue infection. 2. Individuals who have a strong history of immunization for Japanese encephalitis, Yellow fever, and Tick borne encephalitis. Thus to prevent erroneous results because of cross reacting antibody formation. Methodology: A Systematic Random Sampling procedure was adopted. A written informed consent form and bio data proforma filling were the pre requisites of study. Than 3ml of venous blood sample was drawn from every participant. Finally ELISA test was done to detect the presence of IgG Anti Dengue Antibodies. Results: Out of 96 participants, 13 (13.5%) were found to be positive for IgG Anti Dengue Antibodies presence. Conclusion: Dengue viral infection is prevalent in rural areas of District Rawalpindi.


This book focuses on an important yet overlooked dimension of globalization: the steady rise in the legitimacy and prevalence of dual citizenship. Demand for dual citizenship is particularly high in Latin America and Eastern Europe, where more than three million people have obtained a second citizenship from EU countries or the United States. Most citizenship seekers acquire EU citizenship by drawing on their ancestry or ethnic origin; others secure U.S. citizenship for their children by strategically planning their place of birth. Their aim is to gain a second, compensatory citizenship that would provide superior travel freedom, broader opportunities, an insurance policy, and even a status symbol. The book analyzes three cases: Israelis who acquire citizenship from European-origin countries such as Germany or Poland; Hungarian-speaking citizens of Serbia who obtain a second citizenship from Hungary (and, through it, EU citizenship); and Mexicans who give birth in the United States to secure American citizenship for their children. The book reveals the growth of instrumental attitudes toward citizenship: individuals worldwide increasingly view nationality as rank within a global hierarchy rather than as a sanctified symbol of a unique national identity.


Integrated microstructural observations, X-ray powder diffractometric (XRPD) modal composition, illite Kubler index and chlorite "crystallinity" determinations and vitrinite reflectance measurements were carried out on marly slates from selected profiles of the Helvetic zone of the Central Alps, Switzerland. The studied profiles were: Upper Jurassic from the Wildhorn nappe, Brienz, Upper Jurassic from the Parautochthonous of the Aar massif, Glarus Alps, Eocene from the Griesstock nappe of the Glarus Alps and Upper Jurassic from the Axen nappe, Rhine Valley. In some of the localities studied, illite Kubler index ("crystallinity") values were anomalously high, yielding only diagenetic conditions, while chlorite "crystallinity" and vitrinite reflectance showed anchi- and epizonal metamorphic conditions. Detailed XRPD observations carried out on Ca-saturated and glycolated mounts indicated subordinate amounts of swelling (smectitic) interstratifications in white mica. In addition to the dominant K-white mica, traces of discrete paragonite and paragonitic phases and tobelitic impurities in the form of either regular interstratifications or micas with mixed (K≫Na>NH4) interlayer compositions could be detected from the XRPD (00,10) basal reflections. On the basis of the organic maturity assumed from vitrinite reflectance, probable partitioning of N and H between organic and inorganic phases, and the results of elemental (C, H, N, S) analyses carried out on the <2 μm fraction decarbonated and oxidized samples, the amount of NH4+ fixed in inorganic phases could be estimated. Small, but systematically appearing, absorption bands between 1400 and 1440 cm−1 in the FTIR spectra unequivocally proved the presence of ammonium in the rocks studied. Small amounts of N within the mica flakes were detected by electron energy loss spectrometry (EELS), confirming that NH4+ is indeed fixed in the interlayer site position. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) revealed heterogeneities in the interlayer cation occupancies. Although K is always dominant, irregular, local, domain-like enrichments in Na could be seen. The most accurate model to describe the disequilibrium state of the incipient metamorphic white micas studied is that of a dioctahedral mica structure with irregularly varying interlayer occupancies combined with subordinate amounts of swelling mixed-layers. The present work shows that, if these white micas are to be used for metamorphic petrogenetic purposes, special attention should be paid to their detailed characterization, especially in organic matter rich lithologies often characterized by high Al/Si bulk chemical ratios. Seemingly, white micas with mixed interlayer occupancies may be more widespread than has generally been anticipated so far.


Reliability has become a major concern for large-scale software developers. This concern has resulted in the development of a large number of models intended to describe the failure process of software. The use of these models during development has been restricted to the later stages of integration testing. A decision support system is described here which allows for the use of existing software reliability models throughout development. The system uses information from the developer in the form of constraints on the probability distributions which describe the uncertainty associated with the parameters of the various models. Model management is data driven to allow for maximum flexibility in probability assessments which can be provided by either the user or the system.


In this paper, we analyze the geography of knowledge spillovers in biotech by investigating the way in which knowledge ties are organized. Following a relational account on knowledge spillovers, we depict knowledge networks as complex evolving structures that build on pre-existing knowledge and previously formed ties. In economic geography, there is still little understanding of how structural network forces (like preferential attachment and closure) shape the structure and formation of knowledge spillover networks in space. Our study investigates the knowledge spillover networks of biotech firms by means of inter-organizational citation patterns based on USPTO biotech patents in the years 2008-2010. Using a Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model (SAOM), we explain the driving forces behind the decision of actors to cite patents produced by other actors. Doing so, we address directly the endogenous forces of knowledge dynamics.


This Policy Brief elaborates on the impact of the EU's Constitutional Treaty on the preparation, formulation and adoption of the EU's position in international climate change negotiations. The analysis focuses on how changes envisaged will affect the policy-making process and particularly on whether shortcomings identified in the current situation will be addressed. These shortcomings include the inherent potential for discontinuity in the common position and external representation due to the rotating Presidency system, the intensity and length of EU internal coordination, the technical and environmental focus of the policy-making process and finally questions on democratic legitimacy. The authors conclude that the long-term strategic perspective and coherence of the EU position in the climate change negotiations would benefit from a larger involvement of the Foreign Minister and European External Action Service envisaged in the Constitutional Treaty. If both were to obtain a role in preparing and negotiating the EU position in climate change, this could benefit the integration of climate change with other external policies of the EU. On the other hand, the new foreign policy machinery of the EU presumably would not have the high level of environmental knowledge of climate change policy and its implementation that is available in the environment ministries. The degree of democratic legitimacy could benefit from the expected switch from consultation to consent required from the European Parliament for the conclusion (ratification) of international climate agreements by the European Union. Finally, the inclusion of the principle of 'participatory democracy' in the Constitutional Treaty, which could lead to more involvement of relevant stakeholders, might add to a higher legitimacy of the EU position in the international climate change negotiations.


Electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction based on first row transition metal ions have attracted attention as abundant and affordable candidates for energy conversion applications. We hypothesized that a successful strategy in ruthenium electrocatalyst design, featuring two chelating ligands that can be individually tuned to adjust the overpotential and catalytic activity, could be equally applicable in the analogous iron complexes. New iron complexes supported by a redox-active 2,2':6',2''-terpyridine (tpy) ligand and strong trans effect pyridyl- N-heterocyclic carbene ligand (1-methyl-benzimidazol-2-ylidene-3-(2-pyridine)) were synthesized, and these isostructural analogues to leading ruthenium catalysts were also found to be active CO2 reduction electrocatalysts. Electrochemical and computational studies reveal completely distinct mechanisms for the iron and ruthenium complexes, with hemilability in the iron system enabling electrocatalysis at overpotentials as low as 150 mV (ca. 500 mV lower than the ruthenium analogue). Cyclic voltammetry studies elucidated the mechanism of the net 4e–/2H+ process that occurs within the single reductive feature, with an iron solvento complex undergoing reduction, CO2 activation, and further reduction to an iron carbonyl. The mechanistic insight guided development of photoelectrocatalytic conditions under a continuous flow of CO2 that exhibited improved performance, with Faradaic efficiency up to 99%.


This thesis extends the utility of probabilistic methods in two diverse domains: multimodal biometrics and machine inspection. The attraction for this approach is that it is easily understood by those using such a system; however the advantages extend beyond the ease of human utility. Probabilistic measures are ideal for combination since they are guaranteed to be within a fixed range and are generally well scaled. We describe the background to probabilistic techniques and critique common implementations used by practitioners. We then set out our novel probabilistic framework for classification and verification, discussing the various optimisations and placing this framework within a data fusion context. Our work on biometrics describes the complex system we have developed for collection of multimodal biometrics, including collection strategies, system components and the modalities employed. We further examine the performance of multimodal biometrics; particularly examining performance prediction, modality correlation and the use of imbalanced classifiers. We show the benefits from score fused multimodal biometrics, even in the imbalanced case and how the decidability index may be used for optimal weighting and performance prediction. In examining machine inspection we describe in detail the development of a complex system for the automated examination of ophthalmic contact lenses. We demonstrate the performance of this system and describe the benefits that complex image processing techniques and probabilistic methods can bring to this field. We conclude by drawing these two areas together, critically evaluating the work and describing further work that we feel is necessary in the field.


Spout fluidized beds are frequently used for the production of granules or
particles through granulation. The products find application in a large variety of
applications, for example detergents, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and food. Spout fluidized
beds have a number of advantageous properties, such as a high mobility of the particles,
which prevents undesired agglomeration and yields excellent heat transfer properties. The
particle growth mechanism in a spout fluidized bed as function of particle-droplet
interaction has a profound influence on the particle morphology and thus on the product
quality. Nevertheless, little is known about the details of the granulation process. This is
mainly due to the fact that the granulation process is not visually accessible. In this work
we use fundamental, deterministic models to enable the detailed investigation of
granulation behaviour in a spout fluidized bed. A discrete element model is used
describing the dynamics of the continuous gas-phase and the discrete droplets and
particles. For each element momentum balances are solved. The momentum transfer
among each of the three phases is described in detail at the level of individual elements.
The results from the discrete element model simulations are compared with local
measurements of particle volume fractions as well as particle velocities by using a novel
fibre optical probe in a fluidized bed of 400 mm I.D. Simulations and experiments were
carried out for two different cases using Geldart B type aluminium oxide particles: a
freely bubbling fluidized bed and a spout fluidized bed with the presence of droplets. It is
demonstrated how the discrete element model can be used to obtain information about the
interaction of the discrete phases, i.e. the growth zone in a spout fluidized bed. Eventually
this kind of information can be used to obtain closure information required in more coarse
grained models


The term X‐nuclei summarises all nuclei (except protons) that occur in biological systems carrying a non‐zero nuclear spin. Significant involvement in physiological processes such as maintaining the transmembrane potential of living cells and energy metabolism make these nuclei highly interesting for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. In this chapter, a discussion of the basic physics of nuclei with a nuclear spin >1/2 is presented. On this basis, pulse sequences for the detection of multi quantum coherences (MQCs) are presented and explained. Information contained in the obtained MQC signal is linked to biophysical processes. Applications to study energy metabo‐ lism, oxygen consumption, and to track brain metabolites by means of X‐nuclei NMR are discussed as well as the use of functional phantoms, which can bridge the gap between basic biological research and NMR data interpretation.


Stressors have a major influence upon mood, our sense of well-being, behavior, and health. Acute stress responses in young, healthy individuals may be adaptive and typically do not impose a health burden. However, if the threat is unremitting, particularly in older or unhealthy individuals, the long-term effects of stressors can damage health. The relationship between psychosocial stressors and disease is affected by the nature, number, and persistence of the stressors as well as by the individual's biological vulnerability (i.e., genetics, constitutional factors), psychosocial resources, and learned patterns of coping. Psychosocial interventions have proven useful for treating stress-related disorders and may influence the course of chronic diseases.


Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic under-nutrition for children under five in the world. One region particularly impacted is the Copanch'orti' area of eastern Guatemala where chronic under-nutrition affected 61% of the population in 2008. Although efforts to solve the malnutrition problem have been underway for several decades, there is a persistent need for greater and better coordination and integration of food security programming, within and across sectors (agriculture, education, environment, health, etc.), as well as across local, regional, and national platforms. In this dissertation I addressed the question of how the actions of development practitioners can be better coordinated to result in cumulative successes in regional food security. I addressed this question through a joint application of the community capitals framework and the agency theory of incentives to empirical data collected from a diverse group of development organizations working to enhance food security for rural, farming households in the Copanch'orti' region of eastern Guatemala. Findings reveal that systemic barriers to change exist in the form of a lack of incentives for investments in long-term improvements that would challenge existing power structures that allow inequalities to persist among the poorest groups. Future research should seek to gather in-depth information from a wider range of actors including citizens' groups and funding agencies to better identify mechanisms that will advance the region's food security goals.


ABSTRACT The mechanisms involved in fluoroquinolone resistance in Salmonella enterica include target alterations and overexpression of efflux pumps. The present study evaluated the role of known and putative multidrug resistance efflux pumps and mutations in topoisomerase genes among laboratory-selected and naturally occurring fluoroquinolone-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strains. Strains with ciprofloxacin MICs of 0.25, 4, 32, and 256 μg/ml were derived in vitro using serovar Typhimurium S21. These mutants also showed decreased susceptibility or resistance to many nonfluoroquinolone antimicrobials, including tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and several β-lactams. The expression of efflux pump genes acrA, acrB, acrE, acrF, emrB, emrD, and mdlB were substantially increased (≥2-fold) among the fluoroquinolone-resistant mutants. Increased expression was also observed, but to a lesser extent, with three other putative efflux pumps: mdtB (yegN), mdtC (yegO), and emrA among mutants with ciprofloxacin MICs of ≥32 μg/ml. Deletion of acrAB or tolC in S21 and its fluoroquinolone-resistant mutants resulted in increased susceptibility to fluoroquinolones and other tested antimicrobials. In naturally occurring fluoroquinolone-resistant serovar Typhimurium strains, deletion of acrAB or tolC increased fluoroquinolone susceptibility 4-fold, whereas replacement of gyrA double mutations (S83F D87N) with wild-type gyrA increased susceptibility >500-fold. These results indicate that a combination of topoisomerase gene mutations, as well as enhanced antimicrobial efflux, plays a critical role in the development of fluoroquinolone resistance in both laboratory-derived and naturally occurring quinolone-resistant serovar Typhimurium strains.


Hitters in fast ball-sports do not align their gaze with the ball throughout ball-flight; rather, they use predictive eye movement strategies that contribute towards their level of interceptive skill. Existing studies claim that (i) baseball and cricket batters cannot track the ball because it moves too quickly to be tracked by the eyes, and that consequently (ii) batters do not – and possibly cannot – watch the ball at the moment they hit it. However, to date no studies have examined the gaze of truly elite batters. We examined the eye and head movements of two of the world's best cricket batters and found both claims do not apply to these batters. Remarkably, the batters coupled the rotation of their head to the movement of the ball, ensuring the ball remained in a consistent direction relative to their head. To this end, the ball could be followed if the batters simply moved their head and kept their eyes still. Instead of doing so, we show the elite batters used distinctive eye movement strategies, usually relying on two predictive saccades to anticipate (i) the location of ball-bounce, and (ii) the location of bat-ball contact, ensuring they could direct their gaze towards the ball as they hit it. These specific head and eye movement strategies play important functional roles in contributing towards interceptive expertise.