Recently proposed legislation in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia aims to reduce spending on pharmaceuticals by importing them from Canada. To examine the cost effectiveness of importation, this study analyzes 24 drugs from an online Canadian supplier, accounting for the cost savings, the cost of testing, the medical consequences of treatment failure, and the cost of treating an adverse medical event. For a "Representative State", given an adverse medical event, the presumed savings from an online Canadian supplier are exhausted in the treatment of only one patient in the case of Nexium, to 24,318 adverse events for patients in the case of Advair. The analysis shows the cost of testing (99.999% confidence level with 99.999% reliability) exceeds the presumed cost savings in all cases. Pharmaceutical importation plans are politically attractive, but the numbers demonstrate that they fail to deliver cost savings.


We propose a novel definition of binders using matching logic, where the binding behavior of object-level binders is directly inherited from the built-in exists binder of matching logic. We show that the behavior of binders in various logical systems such as lambda-calculus, System F, pi-calculus, pure type systems, can be axiomatically defined in matching logic as notations and logical theories. We show the correctness of our definitions by proving conservative extension theorems, which state that a sequent/judgment is provable in the original system if and only if it is provable in matching logic, in the corresponding theory. Our matching logic definition of binders also yields models to all binders, which are deductively complete with respect to formal reasoning in the original systems. For lambda-calculus, we further show that the yielded models are representationally complete, a desired property that is not enjoyed by many existing lambda-calculus semantics. This work is part of a larger effort to develop a logical foundation for the programming language semantics framework K (http://kframework.org).


Old- style Keynesian models relied on sticky prices or wages to explain unemployment and to argue for demand-side macroeconomic policies. This approach relied increasingly on a Phillips-curve view of the world, and therefore lost considerable prestige with the events of the 1970s. The new classical macroeconomics began at about that time, and focused initially on the apparent real effects of monetary disturbances. Despite initial successes, this analysis ultimately was unsatisfactory as an explanation for an important role of money in business fluctuations. Nevertheless, the approach achieved important methodological advances, such as rational expectations and new methods of policy evaluation. Subsequent research by new classicals has deemphasized monetary shocks, and focused instead on real business cycle models and theories of endogenous economic growth. These areas appear promising at this time. Another development is the so-called new Keynesian economics, which includes long-term contracts, menu costs, efficiency wages and insider-outsider theories, and macroeconomic models with imperfect competition. Although some of these ideas may prove helpful as elements in real business cycle models, my main conclusion is that the new Keynesian economics has not been successful in rehabilitating the Keynesian approach.


Abstract. The Sequential Spot Sampler (S3), a newly developed instrument to collect aerosols for time-resolved chemical composition measurements, was evaluated in the laboratory and field for the measurement of particulate sulfate and nitrate. The S3 uses a multi-temperature condensation growth tube to grow individual aerosols to droplets which are then deposited as a ∼ 1 mm diameter dry spot at the end of the growth tube in a 100 µL well of a multi-well plate. The well plate advances automatically to provide a sequence of time-resolved samples. The collected aerosols are subsequently analyzed in the laboratory. The sample is concentrated during the collection process, and the laboratory extraction and analysis steps can be automated. The well plate, as received from the field, is placed onto a needle-based autosampler that adds liquid for sample extraction and injects sample extract from each well onto an ion chromatograph for analysis. Laboratory evaluation for sulfate and nitrate ions showed that poly ether ether ketone (PEEK) used as well plate material does not contribute any artifacts; a 60 min extraction procedure leads to the recovery of sulfate and nitrate from the dry spots at above 95 % extraction efficiency; and samples stored frozen and analyzed up to 23 months later show less than a 10 % change in sulfate and nitrate concentrations. The limit of detection was 0.5 µg m−3 for sulfate and 0.2 µg m−3 for nitrate for a 1 h sampling period. In a month-long field study conducted in southern California, two S3s were deployed alongside a URG denuder–filter-pack and a Particle-Into-Liquid Sampler combined with an Ion Chromatograph (PILS-IC). Collocated S3 sampler concentrations compared by linear regression show good agreement, with r2 =  0.99 and slope = 0.99 (±0.004) µg m−3 for sulfate and r2 = 0.99 and slope = 1.0 (±0.006) µg m−3 for nitrate. When compared to the URG denuder–filter-pack and the PILS-IC, the S3 sulfate and nitrate concentrations yielded correlations above 0.84 for the square of the correlation coefficient and regression slopes close to 1.


These authors examine the nature and extent of fluidity in defining the typology of female sex work based on the place of solicitation or place of sex or both places together, and whether sex workers belonging to a particular typology are at increased risk of HIV in southern India. Data are drawn from a cross-sectional survey conducted during 2007–2008 among mobile female sex workers (N = 5301) in four Indian states. Findings from this study address an important policy issue: Should programmatic prevention interventions be spread to cover all places of sex work or be focused on a few places that cover a large majority of sex workers? Results indicate that most female sex workers, including those who are usually hard to reach such as those who are mobile or who use homes for soliciting clients or sex, can be reached programmatically multiple times by concentrating on a smaller number of categories, such as street-, lodge-, and brothel-based sex workers.


Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion syndromes (MDDSs) are a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous group of mitochondrial disorders characterised by severely reduced mtDNA copy number in affected tissues. Phenotypically, MDDSs manifest as Alpers-Huttenlocher disease (AHD), mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE), infantile-onset spinocerebellar ataxia (IOSCA), hepatocerebral MDDS, encephalomyopathic MDDS or myopathic MDDS. Genotypically, MDDSs are due to mutations in nine genes (POLG1, C10orf2/PEO1, DGUOK, MPV17, TK2, RRM2B, SUCLA2, SUCLG1, TYMP). Except for AHD and IOSCA, MDDSs are genetically heterogeneous. The diagnosis is established upon clinical and instrumental investigations and demonstration of depleted mtDNA in affected tissues, such as muscle, liver, brain or intestines. Treatment is symptomatic in the vast majority of the cases and can substantially relief clinical manifestations. A causal therapeutic approach with allogeneic, hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation is available for MNGIE. MDDSs have a poor prognosis in the majority of the cases. The outcome is usually better the later the onset of the MDDSs.

Key Concepts

Paediatric and adult neurologist must be aware of multisystem mitochondrial depletion syndromes (MDDSs).
MDDSs predominantly manifest in the brain, muscle, liver, kidneys and intestines.
In addition to mutations in one of the nine classical genes associated with MDDS, it may be caused by mutations in other genes as well.
MDDSs are diagnosed by demonstration of mtDNA depletion upon biopsy of the most affected tissues.
mtDNA copy number may be normal in tissues hardly phenotypically affected.
Clinical severity of MDDS depends on the amount of the residual mtDNA copy number.
MDDSs may rarely also occur in adults due to mutations in nuclear genes other than the nine classical ones.

Keywords:

mitochondrial DNA;
depletion;
copy number;
mitochondrial syndromes;
mitochondrial disorders


Despite significant improvements in the last thirty years, the sporting world remains a masculine domain. Women athletes continue to face inequalities and criticism for crossing traditional gender lines. This study, which was grounded in Foucauldian, postmodern and social constructionist theories and a third wave feminist perspective, examines how women athletes understand gender and how gender, athleticism and body image intersect for them. Eleven women in various stages of their athletic careers participated in in-depth interviews. Women and girls are influenced to participate in sport by family and friends, have local role models, and value the social aspect of sport. They perceive a mismatch between gender norms and their own gender identities, however this mismatch did not create conflict. The women were satisfied with their body image, and their instrumental athletic goals and their physical accomplishments helped them to build positive body image. Finally, sport empowers these athletes, who use sport as a site for resisting and transforming gender norms.


The specificity in the mixed lymphocyte kidney culture (MLKC) of T cell lines and clones derived from human end-stage renal disease (ESRD) kidneys was studied using collagenase dispersed kidney cells compared with lymphocytes as stimulating cells. These experiments were performed because of previous studies in which infiltrating lymphocytes freshly isolated from ESRD kidney tissue at nephrectomy (as well as autologous splenic T cells) were seen to directly generate this lymphoproliferative MLKC response when stimulated with autologous renal cortical cells. In the current studies, histopathologic staining of tissues and suspensions of infiltrating kidney lymphocytes showed predominance of OKT4 labeled phenotypes, and the stimulation indices in MLKC in general showed a direct relationship with the percentage of helper cells seen in the infiltrates. When T cell lines and clones derived from lymphocytes infiltrating the ESRD kidneys were tested in MLKC, there was evidence of kidney-associated, as opposed to lymphocyte-associated (MLC) reactivity using (3H) thymidine uptake as a reflection of a lymphoproliferative response. Several cell lines and clones derived from these T lymphocytes exhibited a dual reactivity. They served as responding cells in the MLKC reaction and completely suppressed a non-specific allogeneic MLC when added as third-party cells. Quantitatively, some clones suppressed when third-party x-irradiated cells were only 5% of the responding cell number in coculture. In addition to the dual reactivity, phenotypic analysis of these same cell lines and clones employing monoclonal antibodies revealed that individual cells expressed both OKT4 and OKT8 determinants. However, ~90% of the cells in the MLC enhancing line were labeled with OKT4. These results indicate that there is a complexity in the autologous MLKC response in that cells with both helper/inducer and suppressor/cytotoxic function take part in the reaction. Although delayed-type hypersensitivity to kidney-associated antigens is inferred as a result of these in vitro assays, nonspecific suppression of other Ia-dependent reactions can simultaneously occur.


The findings of medical examinations performed in two groups of persons occupationally exposed to microwaves and radiofrequency radiation are presented in comparison with control findings. A group of 49 radar operators from the Zagreb Air Traffic Control was examined twice within a period of 18 months. The other group comprised 46 workers employed in radio relay stations. The control group were 46 workers from the Zagreb Airport. A follow-up study showed significant changes in haematological and biochemical parameters, in electrical brain activity and in capillaroscopic and ophthalmological findings in the group of radar operators within the followed period. For that group a cross-sectional study of the differences in general health status also showed the highest rate of changes. The results indicate that long-term occupational exposure to microwaves and radiofrequencies may damage sensitive organic systems.


Biofuels are type of sustainable energy produced from organic waste that play an useful role in reduction of emissions of CO2.The production of biodiesel fuel from renewable resource is a sustainable substitute for petroleum based fuels as economic and environmental sustainability. Algae is one of the most important source of biomass as it absorbs a large amount of carbon from the atmosphere and industries, and uses nutrients extracted from the industrial and municipal wastewater. Microalgae are more efficient and can produce about 10 times more amount of oil as compared to the plants which are rich in oil and they can be grown in open pounds or photo bioreactors. Algae-based biofuel has a great potential in revolutionizing the energy industry and fight against the greenhouse gas emissions


In Australia, 14% of children and adolescents have a significant mental health problem, which is similar to global prevalence estimates of 12%. Teaching children techniques in mindfulness meditation has been recommended to improve their mental health. However, the recommendations are based mainly on efficacy in adult clinical trials, and insufficiently on trials with children and adolescents in a classroom setting. This mindfulness meditation pilot project involved training teachers at two primary schools in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia to deliver a ten-week mindfulness curriculum and optional daily mindfulness exercises to students in grades 5 and 6 (ages 10 to 12). Pre- and post-program, students completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and a modified version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). On both scales there was a significant decrease in overall average score and the number of children in the diagnostic categories, 25.6% scoring in the borderline or diagnostic category for the SDQ pre-program and 16.3% post-program. For the CDI this was 25.8% pre- and 21.6% post-. The study is limited by its use of a pre-post design without comparison group. However, qualitative findings from teachers assist in discerning key themes, and this pilot study suggests the potential of more formal experimental testing of mindfulness training as an element of a whole-school mental health promotion program.


The signature of scaling in human systems is the well-known power law whose key characteristic is that the size distributions of the elements or objects that comprise such systems, display self-similarity in space and time. In fact, in many of the systems such as cities, firms, and high buildings which we use as examples, power laws represent an approximation to the fat or heavy tails of their rank-size distributions, appearing to be stable in time showing little sign of changes in their scaling over tens or even hundreds of years. However when we examine the detailed dynamics of how their ranks shift in time, there is considerable volatility with the objects in such distributions not often persisting for longer than about 50-100 years. To explore this kind of micro-volatility, we introduce a number of measures of rank shift over space and time and visualise size distributions using the idea of the 'rank clock'. We use the example of changes in the populations of Italian towns between 1300 and 1861 to introduce these ideas and then compare this analysis with city-size distributions for the World from 430BCE, the US from 1790, the UK from 1901, and Israel from 1950. The morphologies of growth and change displayed by these clocks are all quite different. When we compare these to the distribution of US firms from 1955 in the Fortune 500 and to the distribution of high buildings in New York City and the World from 1909, we generate a panoply of different visual morphologies and statistics. This provides us with a rich portfolio of space-time dynamics that adds to our understanding of how different systems can display stability and regularity at the macro level with a very different dynamics at the micro.


Abstract Background: An important aspect of research regarding the implementation of evidence-based practice is the sustainability and long-term stability of a programme. There is a need to measure these critical components for establishing successful programmes. Aim: The aim was to develop and pilot test the sustainable implementation scale (SIS) for measuring the critical components in the sustainable implementation of community mental health services. Method: The scale was based on implementation research and consisted of three subscales regarding (1) the organisational level, (2) the team level and (3) continuous support. Data from interviews and documents were collected from 14 programmes implementing the Individual Placement and Support model of supported employment. Results: Internal consistency was acceptable for all subscales and for the scale as a whole. Regarding the scale, an analysis of the differences between fully established programmes and the programmes that were not established or were or only partially established after three years showed statistically significant differences, indicating that a greater number of implementation components were present in the fully established programmes. Conclusions: SIS showed both good reliability and acceptable internal consistency as well as the ability to predict programme survival.


Among the members of the European Union (EU), Germany has the largest biogas produc-tion from agricultural sources. However, many other EU member states are creating the necessary conditions for rapid growth in this area. The German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which sets payments over a long time period for electricity supplied from renewa-ble sources, often serves as a benchmark. However, the continuing biogas boom has also led to criticism of the EEG in Germany. Opponents of biogas production point to the rising cost of leasing land, changes in the agricultural structure due to maize monoculture, increased competition with other agricultural branches (e.g., livestock husbandry) and the crowding out of classical food production. This paper examines the validity of these points of criticism. To this end, a written survey (n = 246) of farmers in six selected rural districts in the German state of Lower Saxony was carried out in 2010 and 2011. OLS regressions conducted on the data from these farmers showed that biogas production has led to a substantial increase in land lease prices for cropland. Furthermore, approximately 20% of the respondents report complete crowding out of established agricultural production forms, resulting in a decrease in the resource basis for downstream animal and plant processing industries. The results also indicate that, in extreme cases, such crowding out might even reduce the availability of em-ployment in rural areas. In closing, the paper highlights further research needs in order to provide comprehensive information (for every German state, the entire country of Germany and other EU member states) regarding the effects of biogas production on net employment, infrastructure and added value.


Compressive rendering refers to the process of reconstructing a full image from a small subset of the rendered pixels, thereby expediting the rendering task. In this paper, we empirically investigate three image order techniques for compressive rendering that are suitable for direct volume rendering. The first technique is based on the theory of compressed sensing and leverages the sparsity of the image gradient in the Fourier domain. The latter techniques exploit smoothness properties of the rendered image; the second technique recovers the missing pixels via a total variation minimization procedure while the third technique incorporates a smoothness prior in a variational reconstruction framework employing interpolating cubic B‐splines. We compare and contrast the three techniques in terms of quality, efficiency and sensitivity to the distribution of pixels. Our results show that smoothness‐based techniques significantly outperform techniques that are based on compressed sensing and are also robust in the presence of highly incomplete information. We achieve high quality recovery with as little as 20% of the pixels distributed uniformly in screen space.


This article examines the rationale of the continuing Finnish transgender sterilization requirement against the background of reproductive justice. I examine how and why the Finnish public debate on removing the sterilization clause from the Trans Act does not include an equal demand to 1) include a parental law reform and 2) a legislation on accessible, affordable and just reproductive health care for transgender persons and (cis)women alike. I will argue that since the citizens' initiative of the marriage equality legislation in Finland was followed by another citizens' initiative to reform the Maternity Act to include lesbian couples, transgender reproductive justice became a secondary issue. Another influence in the debates is the ongoing Finnish discussion on the declining birth rate and the heterosexual responsibility to reproduce for the sake of the nation.


Abstract. The formation of Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) was simulated with the Secondary ORGanic Aerosol Model (SORGAM) by a classical gas-particle partitioning concept, using the two-product model approach, which is widely used in chemical transport models. In this study, we extensively updated SORGAM including three major modifications: firstly, we derived temperature dependence functions of the SOA yields for aromatics and biogenic VOCs (volatile organic compounds), based on recent chamber studies within a sophisticated mathematic optimization framework; secondly, we implemented the SOA formation pathways from photo oxidation (OH initiated) of isoprene; thirdly, we implemented the SOA formation channel from NO 3 -initiated oxidation of reactive biogenic hydrocarbons (isoprene and monoterpenes). The temperature dependence functions of the SOA yields were validated against available chamber experiments, and the updated SORGAM with temperature dependence functions was evaluated with the chamber data. Good performance was found with the normalized mean error of less than 30%. Moreover, the whole updated SORGAM module was validated against ambient SOA observations represented by the summed oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA) concentrations abstracted from aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements at a rural site near Rotterdam, the Netherlands, performed during the IMPACT campaign in May 2008. In this case, we embedded both the original and the updated SORGAM module into the EURopean Air pollution and Dispersion-Inverse Model (EURAD-IM), which showed general good agreements with the observed meteorological parameters and several secondary products such as O 3 , sulfate and nitrate. With the updated SORGAM module, the EURAD-IM model also captured the observed SOA concentrations reasonably well especially those during nighttime. In contrast, the EURAD-IM model before update underestimated the observations by a factor of up to 5. The large improvements of the modeled SOA concentrations by updated SORGAM were attributed to the mentioned three modifications. Embedding the temperature dependence functions of the SOA yields, including the new pathways from isoprene photo oxidations, and switching on the SOA formation from NO 3 initiated biogenic VOC oxidations, contributed to this enhancement by 10, 22 and 47%, respectively. However, the EURAD-IM model with updated SORGAM still clearly underestimated the afternoon SOA observations up to a factor of two.


Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering signals may be strongly enhanced when the active molecules are located near the surface of a small silver particle. The theoretical analysis is similar to the electrodynamic mechanism for surface-enhanced Raman scattering, except that there are four instead of two electric fields that stimulate collective electron oscillations within the particle. The general analysis is presented for a sphere of arbitrary size, for arbitrary angle between pump and probe beams, and for arbitrary polarization between pump and probe beams. This is then specialized to the small-particle limit for numerical computation. The peak enhancement for a monolayer of benzene on a silver particle (excitation wavelength 404 nm, Raman shift 992 cm−1) is 1012 when both incident beams are polarized perpendicular to the incident plane and 1021 when these beams are cross polarized. These values are averaged over scattering angle. While the coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy amplitudes depend on scattering angle, only the enhancement factor for one of the cross-polarized components depends on scattering angle. Enhanced signals from a silver organosol (silver dispersed in neat benzene) should be measurable.


The elderly people tend to be prone to stress. It actually relates to life problem, decrease of physical and psychological functions, and loneliness. Laughter and SEFT(Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique) therapies are effective to decrease stress level. The aim of this research is to compare the influence between laughter and SEFT therapies on stress for the elderly people. This research applies quasi-experimental design. Furthermore, the subjects involved in this research are the elderly people aged 60 and over. They are classified into three groups, laughter therapy, SEFT, and control groups which respectively consisting of 5 elderly people. The subjects are selected by using purposive sampling technique. The data are collected by using Perceived Stress Scale. Then, the data are analyzed by using one-way anava test. The results of the research showed that there is difference alternative in decreasing stress on laughter therapy, SEFT, and control groups (F = 6.825, p < 0.05). Control group is slightly different with laughter therapy and SEFT groups. Otherwise, laughter therapy group is not significantly different with SEFT group. As a consequence, SEFT therapy is more effective than laughter therapy in decreasing stress.


Efforts to prioritize conservation planning are undermined by several recognized knowledge shortfalls. Here we highlight a further shortfall, which we term the 'movement shortfall', in our knowledge of species movements, with particular reference to dispersive, irruptive and nomadic birds. Despite 100 years of ringing effort, the movement characteristics of these species are still poorly known, as the irregularity of their movements and low human population densities in parts of their range impede traditional methods. A lack of understanding of their movements, combined with an inappropriate conservation approach that relies on protected areas and international frameworks, means that the conservation status of these species continues to deteriorate. We call for the application of new tracking technology and outreach initiatives to help formulate innovative conservation approaches that are better suited to species with irregular movement behaviours.


The built environment has the potential to have a major impact on biodiversity, not least with the increasingly demanding requirements to design more energy efficient and airtight buildings, leaving less space for species to inhabit. Up until the publication of this book, there was no one place where architects, developers, consultant ecologists, and all those involved in low and zero carbon buildings could find out about how to incorporate provision for biodiversity within their developments. In this groundbreaking book, author Dr Carol Williams has specially commissioned architects to produce some much needed model designs and practical guidance for the industry. The book also provides a useful summary of all the legislation. Authored by Dr Carol Williams of the Bat Conservation Trust and Chair of the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) Biodiversity Group, the book is also supported by Natural England and the UK-GBC. This is an essential read for architects, developers, contractors, asset managers, landlords, consultant ecologists, planning officers and building control officers.


The scale and intensity of dairy farming can place pressure on our freshwater resources. These pressures (e.g. excessive soil nutrient concentrations and nitrogen excretion) can lead to changes in the levels of contaminants in waterways, altering the state and potentially affecting the uses and values society ascribes to water. Resource management involves putting in place appropriate responses to address water-quality issues. In the present paper, we highlight trends in the scale and extent of dairying in Australia and New Zealand and describe water-quality pressures, state, impacts and responses that characterise the two countries. In Australia and New Zealand, dairy farming has become increasingly intensive over the past three decades, although the size of Australia's dairy herd has remained fairly static, while New Zealand's herd and associated excreted nitrogen loads have nearly doubled. In contrast, effluent management has been improved, and farm waterways fenced, in part to reduce pressure on freshwater. However, both countries show a range of indicators of degraded water-quality state. Phosphorus and nitrogen are the most common water-quality indicators to exceed levels beyond the expected natural range, although New Zealand also has a significant percentage of waterways with faecal contaminants beyond acceptable levels for contact recreation. In New Zealand, nitrate concentrations in waterways have increased, while phosphorus and suspended sediment concentrations have generally decreased over the past decade. Water quality in some coastal estuaries and embayments is of particular concern in Australia, whereas attention in New Zealand is on maintaining quality of high-value lakes, rivers and groundwater resources, as well as rehabilitating waterbodies where key values have been degraded. In both Australia and New Zealand, water-quality data are increasingly being collated and reported but in Australia long-term trends across waterbodies, and spatially comprehensive groundwater-quality data have not yet been reported at national levels. In New Zealand, coastal marine systems, and particularly harbours and estuaries, are poorly monitored, but there are long-term monitoring systems in place for rivers, groundwater and lakes. To minimise pressures on water quality, there is a high reliance on voluntary and incentivised practice change in Australia. In New Zealand, industry-led practice change has been important over the past decade, but regulated environmental limits for dairy farmers are increasing. Dairy industries in both countries have set targets for reducing pressures through sustainability frameworks and accords. To address future drivers such as climate change and increasing domestic and international market demand for sustainability credentials, definitions of values and appropriate targets for waterbodies draining agricultural landscapes will be required. Environmental limits (both natural and societal) will constrain future growth opportunities for dairying and research into continued growth within limits remains a priority in both countries.


Bayesian optimization (BO) is a popular method to optimize expensive black-box functions. It efficiently tunes machine learning algorithms under the implicit assumption that hyperparameter evaluations cost approximately the same. In reality, the cost of evaluating different hyperparameters, be it in terms of time, dollars or energy, can span several orders of magnitude of difference. While a number of heuristics have been proposed to make BO cost-aware, none of these have been proven to work robustly. In this work, we reformulate cost-aware BO in terms of Pareto efficiency and introduce the cost Pareto Front, a mathematical object allowing us to highlight the shortcomings of commonly used acquisition functions. Based on this, we propose a novel Pareto-efficient adaptation of the expected improvement. On 144 real-world black-box function optimization problems we show that our Pareto-efficient acquisition functions significantly outperform previous solutions, bringing up to 50% speed-ups while providing finer control over the cost-accuracy trade-off. We also revisit the common choice of Gaussian process cost models, showing that simple, low-variance cost models predict training times effectively.


Newly organized to focus exclusively on material tested in the Society of Actuaries' Exam C and the Casualty Actuarial Society's Exam 4, Loss Models: From Data to Decisions, Fourth Edition continues to supply actuaries with a practical approach to the key concepts and techniques needed on the job. With updated material and extensive examples, the book successfully provides the essential methods for using available data to construct models for the frequency and severity of future adverse outcomes.

 The book continues to equip readers with the tools needed for the construction and analysis of mathematical models that describe the process by which funds flow into and out of an insurance system. Focusing on the loss process, the authors explore key quantitative techniques including random variables, basic distributional quantities, and the recursive method, and discuss techniques for classifying and creating distributions. Parametric, non-parametric, and Bayesian estimation methods are thoroughly covered along with advice for choosing an appropriate model.

 New features of this Fourth Edition include:

 Expanded discussion of working with large data sets, now including more practical elements of constructing decrement tablesAdded coverage of methods for simulating several special situationsAn updated presentation of Bayesian estimation, outlining conjugate prior distributions and the linear exponential family as well as related computational issues

 Throughout the book, numerous examples showcase the real-world applications of the presented concepts, with an emphasis on calculations and spreadsheet implementation. A wealth of new exercises taken from previous Exam C/4 exams allows readers to test their comprehension of the material, and a related FTP site features the book's data sets.

 Loss Models, Fourth Edition is an indispensable resource for students and aspiring actuaries who are preparing to take the SOA and CAS examinations. The book is also a valuable reference for professional actuaries, actuarial students, and anyone who works with loss and risk models.

 To explore our additional offerings in actuarial exam preparation visit www.wiley.com/go/c4actuarial .


Petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical analyses have been performed on thirteen samples coming from marly layers intercalated in upper Turonian chalks from the Boulonnais and Aube (Paris Basin, France). Two samples characterized by abundant illite and kaolinite correspond to terrigenous horizons, while the other samples, characterized by the occurrence of volcanic glass shards, zircon and apatite, are of volcanogenic origin. The clay fraction is dominantly composed of smectite formed by submarine weathering of volcanic glass; therefore, the marly layers correspond to bentonites. The initial mineralogical and geochemical composition of the marly layers is disturbed by common burrowing. Consequently, it is unfortunately impossible to characterize and distinguish one bentonite layer from another using mineralogical and geochemical data only. However, correlations based on lithological and paleontological data are proposed between the sections exposed in the Boulonnais and Aube. The bentonites allow to refine these correlations and show that the upper Turonian in the Aube region is about three times thicker than in the Boulonnais which was probably less subsident. The bentonites layers also occur in England and Germany. They reflect instantaneous events and are therefore very useful for long distance correlations and much more precise than palaeontological zones.


Abstract Geochemical (δ13C, δ18O and Mn) compositions of Lower Jurassic shallow-water carbonates cropping out in Croatia were analyzed to elucidate the impact of the early Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (T-OAE) on the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP). The bulk-rock carbon-isotope records through the studied sections (Velebit-A, Velebit-B and Gornje Jelenje) are characterized by two significant excursions: (i) an initial positive trend interrupted by a pronounced negative shift (c. 2.5‰) that is followed by (ii) an increasing trend of positive values (up to 4.5‰). A comparison with δ13C trends obtained from well-calibrated sections from other localities in Europe shows that the overall character of the early Toarcian negative excursion is clearly reproduced in the curves derived from Croatian shallow-water deposits, which helps to date the sequences and reinforces the global character of the carbon-cycle perturbation. Lower Jurassic sedimentary successions in the studied area show a gradual deepening trend corresponding to deposition of the Toarcian spotted limestones. Assuming that the distinctive negative excursion in the carbon-isotope curves is synchronous across the AdCP, the contact between the spotted limestones and the underlying beds rich in lithiotid bivalves appears to be diachronous within the study area. The Mn record through the Croatian Velebit-A section and, in particular, the rise in concentration (up to 100 ppm) coinciding with the beginning of the δ13Ccarb positive shift, reflects a change in the redox conditions in seawater that allowed diagenetic incorporation of reduced manganese into the calcite structure of the carbonate sediment during the onset of the T-OAE.


Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) play a key immunosuppressive role in various types of cancer, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In this study, we characterized CD14+HLA-DR(-/lo) cells sorted from the tumors, draining lymph nodes, and peripheral blood of HNSCC patients. CD14+HLA-DR(-/lo) cells were phenotyped as CD11b+, CD33+, CD34+, arginase-I+, and ROS+. In all 3 compartments, they suppressed autologous, antigen-independent T cell proliferation in a differential manner. The abundance of MDSC correlated with stage, but did not correlate with previous treatment with radiation or subsites of HNSCC. Interestingly, MDSC from all 3 compartments showed high phosphorylated STAT3 levels that correlated with arginase-I expression levels and activity. Stattic, a STAT3-specific inhibitor, and STAT3-targeted siRNA abrogated MDSC's suppressive function. Inhibition of STAT3 signaling also resulted in decreased arginase-I activity. Analysis of the human arginase-I promoter region showed multiple STAT3-binding elements, and ChIP demonstrated that phosphorylated STAT3 binds to multiple sites in the arginase-I promoter. Finally, rescue of arginase-I activity after STAT3 blockade restored MDSC's suppressive function. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the suppressive function of arginase-I in both infiltrating and circulating MDSC is a downstream target of activated STAT3.


Putting both heart and brain at risk For reasons that are unclear, newborns with congenital heart disease (CHD) have a high risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities. Homsy et al. performed exome sequence analysis of 1200 CHD patients and their parents to identify spontaneously arising (de novo) mutations. Patients with both CHD and neurodevelopmental disorders had a much higher burden of damaging de novo mutations, particularly in genes with likely roles in both heart and brain development. Thus, clinical genotyping of patients with CHD may help to identify those at greatest risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities, allowing surveillance and early intervention. Science, this issue p. 1262 Genotyping of children with congenital heart disease may identify those at high risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. Congenital heart disease (CHD) patients have an increased prevalence of extracardiac congenital anomalies (CAs) and risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs). Exome sequencing of 1213 CHD parent-offspring trios identified an excess of protein-damaging de novo mutations, especially in genes highly expressed in the developing heart and brain. These mutations accounted for 20% of patients with CHD, NDD, and CA but only 2% of patients with isolated CHD. Mutations altered genes involved in morphogenesis, chromatin modification, and transcriptional regulation, including multiple mutations in RBFOX2, a regulator of mRNA splicing. Genes mutated in other cohorts examined for NDD were enriched in CHD cases, particularly those with coexisting NDD. These findings reveal shared genetic contributions to CHD, NDD, and CA and provide opportunities for improved prognostic assessment and early therapeutic intervention in CHD patients.


In this paper we present a component model for development of distributed real-time systems.The model is developed to support development of embedded control systems for ground vehicles. The model aims at supporting three important activities in real-time development, (i) design, (ii) analysis and (iii) synthesis. These activities emphasise different and sometimes conflicting requirements that need to be balanced. For example, developers desire freedom in designing to solve complex tasks, analysis tools require the design to be formal enough for analysis and synthesis need to be efficient for low run-time footprint. We have considered industrial requirements for these activities and developed the RubusCMv3 component model. The model has been developed in close cooperation with industrial partners and it is currently being evaluated on real systems.


Programming a computer is a complex, cognitively rich process. This paper examines ways in which human cognition is reflected in the text of com- puter programs. We concentrate on naming: the assignment of identifying labels to programmatic constructs. Naming is arbitrary, yet programmers do not select names arbitrarily. Rather, programmers choose and use names in regular, system- atic ways that reflect deep cognitive and linguistic influences. This, in turn, allows names to carry semantic cues that aid in program understanding and support the larger software development process.


This dissertation explores the way in which English-speaking children acquire the meaning of sentences containing negation and quantified noun phrases (QNPs). This investigation is based on a series of psycholinguistic experiments designed to assess children's comprehension of sentences like 'Every horse didn't jump over the fence' or 'Cookie Monster didn't eat two slices of pizza' among others. The major finding is that children around the age of 5 do not interpret these sentences the way adult speakers of English do. This finding raises the following questions (a) How and why do children's interpretations of sentences containing negation and quantified noun phrases differ from those of adults? (b) How do children manage to converge onto the adult system of interpretation? Regarding the first question, it appears that children's non-adult interpretations are nevertheless systematic, i.e. governed by principle. Specifically, children (unlike adults) are found to map overt syntactic relations between QNPs and negation and their relative semantic interpretation isomorphically. This, however, is just a descriptive generalization. The observation of isomorphism is treated as an epiphenomenon, derived from the interplay between a universally encoded dichotomy splitting the class of QNPs and learnability considerations. Regarding the second question, I show that children can move from their system of interpretation to the adult system solely on the basis of positive evidence and thus, that the observed difference does not create a learnability problem. In summary, this dissertation uncovers a new area where the linguistic behavior of children and adults diverge: the comprehension of sentences containing negation and quantified noun phrases. The rest of the dissertation is a methodological statement, namely that it is not only desirable but also possible to account for the observed difference between children and adults without invoking any differences between the two groups beyond minimal conceptual necessity. To the extent that this goal is achieved, the present investigation emphasizes the role played by the theory of Universal Grammar and language learnability in helping us understand language development and its biological basis. Comments University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-99-01. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/40 UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR AND THE ACQUISITION OF SEMANTIC KNOWLEDGE: An Experimental Investigation into the Acquisition of QuantifierNegation Interaction in English.


We present a viscometric affinity biosensor that can potentially allow continuous multi-analyte monitoring in biological fluids like blood or plasma. The sensing principle is based on the detection of viscosity changes of a polymeric solution which has a selective affinity for the analyte of interest. The chemico-mechanical sensor incorporates an actuating piezoelectric diaphragm, a sensing piezoelectric diaphragm and a flow-resisting microchannel for viscosity detection. A free-standing Anodic Alumina Oxide (AAO) porous nano-membrane is used as selective interface. A glucose-sensitive sensor was fabricated and extensively assessed in buffer solution. The sensor reversibility, stability and sensitivity were excellent during at least 65 hours. Results showed also a good degree of stability for a long term measurement (25 days). The sensor behaviour was furthermore tested in fetal bovine serum (FBS). The obtained results for glucose sensing are very promising, indicating that the developed sensor is a candidate for continuous monitoring in biological fluids. Sensitive solutions for ionized calcium and pH are currently under development and should allow multi-analyte sensing in the near future.


Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction is a disease with high prevalence among elite athletes and it can be up to 70%. Diagnosing this condition is essential to accurately manage the condition preserving excellent lung function among athletes. In this article is presented a review of studies on exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, methods of diagnosis


In educational psychology, previous research has shown a positive association between confusion and cognitive performance, which has been attributed to "deeper learning" processes triggered by the experience of confusion. In the present study we explore the nature of this association by testing whether there is a causal impact of confusion on cognitive performance. We experimentally induced confusion in two different types of tasks – a memory task and an attention task – by incongruent information and discrepancies. Using affective computing software, we measured the facial reaction to the experimental manipulation in form of Action Unit 4 (AU4) as main indicator for confusion. Subsequently, we analyzed the impact of confusion on contextual performance, that is, performance in the same task following the experimental manipulation, as well as on general cognitive performance, that is, performance in the Cognitive Reflection Test (Frederick, 2005). The results indicate that confusion leads to activation of AU4, and that confusion positively impacts performance in the memory task as well as general cognitive performance, but not performance in the attention task. The findings suggest that confusion may lead to deeper and more reflective information processing, which can inform the design of trainings in education settings, or even decision support tools in work settings aimed at disrupting mental routines and thus activating analytic thinking. Keywords— Confusion; Cognitive Performance; Affective Computing; Facial Expressions; Decision Making


Scenario: Using adaptive dynamic theory, expose a monomorphic prey population to two habitat types and a visual predator. Questions: What circumstances can lead to the evolution of polymorphic crypsis? How is the outcome affected by the dispersal pattern of the prey and predator, by the amount of predation, and by the trade-off strength between the habitats? Mathematical method: I modelled three different dispersal modes: passive dispersal for the prey and a stationary predator; passive dispersal for the prey and habitat choice for the predator; and habitat choice for the prey and no dispersal for the predator. Conclusions: The different dispersal models produce only minor differences in outcomes. Dispersal rate also seems to have relatively little influence on the evolutionary outcome, with low dispersal rate slightly favouring evolutionary divergence. Other factors (such as the amount of predation and strength of trade-off between the habitats) appear to be more crucial. (Less)


Objectives: A phase II study was conducted to investigate the safety and efficacy of a regimen of cisplatin (DDP) plus paclitaxel (PTX) concurrent with radiotherapy (RT) in patients with locally advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma (LACSC).
Patients and Methods: 34 patients with newly diagnosed LACSC confirmed by histopathology, with a Karnofsky performance status ≥ 60, no prior cervical cancer treatment, and no chemotherapy contraindications were enrolled. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) was delivered to all cases. The chemotherapy consisted of two 3-week cycles of DDP (30 mg/m2/d) for 3 d plus PTX (135 mg/m2) for 1 d. Concurrent radiation (pelvic irradiation of 45 Gy/25 Fx (PTV); lesion boost of 5-10 Gy (GTV); total dose 70-80 Gy) was administered by 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT; N=14) or intensitymodulated radiation therapy (IMRT; N=20). Short-term efficacy and 1, 2 and 3 y, overall survival (OS) rates, and adverse reactions were analyzed.
Results: The cohort of 34 patients (median age, 60 y; range, 35-74) included 4 stage Ib2 cases, 16 stage II cases, 10 stage III cases, and 4 stage IV cases. With a median follow-up period of 38 months, the overall response rate (ORR) was 28/34 (82.4%), including a 12 (35.3%) with a complete response (CR) rate and 16 (47.1%) with a partial response (PR). The 1, 2 and 3 y OS rates were 100%, 94.1%, and 88.2%, respectively. Grade III occurred in 12 patients (35.3%), but no patients suffered from grade IV myelosuppression. Gastrointestinal tract reactions, vaginitis, proctitis, and cystitis were common by mild in all cases.
Conclusion: CCRT with DDP plus PTX produced an encouraging and OS rates and ORR with relatively tolerable hematological toxicity.


The following document details an environmental flows analysis conducted for the
proposed Headquarters Road dam in the upper Great Forester River catchment. The
location of the dam and key sites is shown in Figure 1. The construction and operation of
the proposed dam, coupled with the delivery of irrigation demand via the river channel,
will affect the flow regime in the lower reaches of a tributary adjacent to Headquarters
Road ('Headquarters Rd Creek') and the upper Great Forester River downstream of
Springfield.

The environmental flows (EFlows) analysis presented here was conducted using the
approach developed by Freshwater Systems and DPIWE over the last 10 years, with both
a set of monthly minimum flows and a minimum set of high/flood flow events (e.g. see
Davies and Warfe 2002, Davies et al. 2002). This EFlow regime was developed in a
manner consistent with the newly proposed framework in the draft Water Management
Amendment Bill (2004) for assessment of environmental water requirements (EWR's),
such that:
1. Environmental values are identified for the upper Great Forester;
2. Environmental objectives can be identified;
3. An EFlow regime is identified which can maintain the relevant values.


International Journal of Exercise Science 9(2): 187-204, 2016. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of physical educators toward state-mandated use of FITNESSGRAM®. Two validated instruments were employed to collect data regarding teacher (n=174) perceptions and use. Mean (M) and standard deviations (SD) were calculated for all scale scores with t-tests and ANOVAs testing for differences by selected demographics. Overall attitudes toward FITNESSGRAM® were slightly positive (M = 4.52, SD = 1.06) on a 7-point Likert scale. The demographic variable gender (p = 0.017) was found to be statistically significant. In regards to the application of FITNESSGRAM® results, teachers more than frequently used the results (M = 5.51, SD = 1.12) on a 7-point Likert Scale. Class size (p = 0.015) was found to influence their use. Teachers reported a positive attitude toward FITNESSGRAM® and indicated that the test administration was enjoyable. Most recommendations for use of results were adhered to except parental reporting.


Supervised learning under label noise has seen numerous advances recently, while existing theoretical findings and empirical results broadly build up on the class-conditional noise (CCN) assumption that the noise is independent of input features given the true label. In this work, we present a theoretical hypothesis testing and prove that noise in real-world dataset is unlikely to be CCN, which confirms that label noise should depend on the instance and justifies the urgent need to go beyond the CCN assumption.The theoretical results motivate us to study the more general and practical-relevant instance-dependent noise (IDN). To stimulate the development of theory and methodology on IDN, we formalize an algorithm to generate controllable IDN and present both theoretical and empirical evidence to show that IDN is semantically meaningful and challenging. As a primary attempt to combat IDN, we present a tiny algorithm termed self-evolution average label (SEAL), which not only stands out under IDN with various noise fractions, but also improves the generalization on real-world noise benchmark Clothing1M. Our code is released. Notably, our theoretical analysis in Section 2 provides rigorous motivations for studying IDN, which is an important topic that deserves more research attention in future.


ADAPTATION OF A SINGLE-STAGE CHEMOSTAT SYSTEM TO MODEL FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF THE HUMAN DISTAL GUT MICROBIOTA Kathleen F.B. Schroeter Advisors: University of Guelph, 2014 Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe and Dr. Cezar Khursigara The human gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota plays an important role in health and disease; in particular, commensal colonic biofilms have become a key focus of modern research efforts. However, in vitro models of the distal gut that also investigate colonic biofilm formation are still in their infancy. In this study we modified an in vitro single-stage chemostat model to successfully capture and sample the early colonizer biofilm communities associated with the healthy human distal gut. Mucin and sIgA, host-derived macromolecules used by the gut microbiota as binding sites for biofilm formation, were used to condition biofilm sampling sections. Fecal communities and defined microbial populations were used to validate the biofilm capture model and were analyzed with 16S-DGGE (a molecular fingerprinting technique) and community 16S rRNA gene sequencing. More diverse biofilm growth was captured on biologically relevant substrata compared to controls for all tested communities. We also identified members of the Enterobacteriaceae, Gammaproteobacteria incertae sedis, and to a lesser extent, the Streptococcaceae, Bifidobacteriaceae and Lactobacillaceae families as contributing to early biofilm formation. In addition, defined microbial communities were able to successfully simplify the fecal community from which they were isolated while still retaining considerable complexity in the planktonic (steady state) and biofilm forms. We were also able to create reproducible, defined microbial communities derived from feces that achieved the same ecological and functional steady state as one another in the chemostat model, despite the inclusion of isolate inocula with different starting biomass proportions. Overall, the research presented in this thesis has helped to advance our current understanding of the structure of healthy biofilm communities in the distal colon. This information may help to guide researchers and clinicians who aim to modulate the microbiota of patients with acute or chronic GI diseases, including the use of, for example, microbial ecosystem therapeutics to treat and cure Clostridium difficile infections. In the future, our experimental approach could also be applied to the investigation of different types of distal gut communities in a state of health and disease, in addition to other niches of the human microbiome, including vaginal, oral, skin and nasopharyngeal microbiotas.


Restriction endonucleases recognize short DNA sequences and cleave double-stranded DNA at specific sites within or adjacent to the recognition sequences. Restriction endonuclease cleavage of DNA into discrete fragments is one of the most basic procedures in molecular biology. This appendix describes restriction endonucleases and their properties.


This paper examines Canadian and other foreign firms that have been involuntarily delisted from major U.S. exchanges. I find that, for most countries, less than 10% of firms get delisted from a U.S. exchange during my sample period. For Canada, more than 25% of firms listed in the United States get involuntarily delisted. This effect is more pronounced in Nasdaq-listed firms, where more than 40% of Canadian firms eventually get delisted, compared to about 15% of other foreign firms. After controlling for firm characteristics that have an impact on involuntary delistings, such as size, exchange listing, previous year's return, volatility, and leverage, Canadian firms still have a higher propensity to get delisted than other foreign cross-listed firms. However, in a comparison to a U.S. matched sample, there is no statistically significant difference in the likelihood of Canadian firms being delisted, relative to these U.S. firms. These results suggest that Canadian firms may have been treated more similarly to U.S. firms under the U.S. exchanges' rules and enforcement of their continued listing criteria, and that the bonding provided by U.S. exchanges may be stronger for Canadian and U.S. firms. Also, Canadian firms may have fewer impediments to listing in the United States such that small, high-growth Canadian firms have been more able to access U.S. markets compared to foreign firms.


For the first time, we studied frontal polymerization with ionic liquid monomers. We synthesized a series of compounds from the neutralization reaction between trialkylamines (tributylamine, trihexylamine, trioctylamine, and (2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) and acrylic or methacrylic acid. For the ionic liquids prepared from the unreactive amines, frontal polymerization could not be achieved without the addition of a diacrylate. With the addition of a diacrylate, the front velocities were slower than for dodecyl acrylate (with the diacrylate), a compound of comparable molecular weight. Monomers prepared from the (2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate could support frontal polymerization alone but the front velocities were lower than dodecyl (meth)acrylate. These results are contrasted with recent results of Jimenez et al. for room temperature kinetics. Finally, the polymers prepared were comparable to those prepared by batch curing at 75 °C except for the monomethacrylate ionic liquid, which lost some tertiary amine by dissociation and evaporation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2745–2754, 2007


The legacies of World War I in British culture are often explained by terms such as disillusionment and futility or by the understanding that the war shattered nineteenth century ideas of progress. These were not, however, the images of the war offered by the nation's public and state sponsored secondary schools during the interwar years. By examining the categories of commemoration and curriculum, this study explores how British educational institutions mobilized the memory of the war in order to avoid cynicism and promote traditional forms of national, class, and gender identity. The first two chapters focus on how school memorials grew out of wartime communication within extended school communities in a way that privileged a heroic and traditional language of "high diction," a concept developed by Paul Fussell. The following two chapters explore the ways in which discussions of how and why to teach history created a rhetoric of non-revolutionary citizenship and shaped portrayals of the war itself in a variety of British textbooks. Both processes elevated ideas including national and imperial patriotism, sportsmanship, self-sacrifice, personal and international leadership, and a continued faith in progress. This was initially accomplished by the exclusion of other possible narratives of the war, but the success of this interwar educational narrative was, in turn, undermined by subsequent economic and political events.


PurposeThis invited article explores current developments in supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices by revisiting the classical case of Ericsson (Norrman and Jansson, 2004) after 15 years, and updating its case description and analysis of its organizational structure, processes and tools for SCRM.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study is conducted with a longitudinal focus, aiming to understand both proactive and reactive SCRM practices using a holistic perspective of a real-life example.FindingsThe study demonstrates how Ericsson's SCRM practices have developed, indicating that improved functional capabilities are increasingly combined across silos and leveraged by formalized learning processes. Important enablers are IT capabilities, a fine-grained and cross-functional organization, and a focus on monitoring and compliance. Major developments in SCRM are often triggered by incidents, but also by requirements from external stakeholders and new corporate leaders actively focusing on SCRM and related activities.Research limitations/implicationsRelevant areas for future research are proposed, thereby increasing the knowledge of how companies can develop SCRM practices and capabilities further.Practical implicationsBeing one of few in-depth holistic case studies of SCRM, decision-makers can learn about many practices and tools. Of special interest is the detailed description of how Ericsson reactively responded to the Fukushima incident (2011), and how it proactively engaged in monitoring and assessment activities. It is also exemplified how SCRM practices could continuously be developed to make them "stick" to the organization, even in stable times.Originality/valueThis is one of the first case studies to delve deeper into the development of SCRM practices through taking a longitudinal approach.


In 1930, the great Spanish philosopher JosE Ortega y Gasset set forth a program for reforming the modern Spanish university. Aware that the missions of the university are many and often competing, Ortega built his program around a conception of a "general culture" that knows no national boundaries or time limits and could fit into any national system of higher education. His ideas are especially pertinent to contemporary debate in America over curriculum development and the purpose of education. In this volume Ortega sought to answer two essential questions: what is the knowledge most worth knowing by all students and what is the function of the university in a modern democracy? Basing his answers on his own deep personal culture and an extensive knowledge of the various European university systems, Ortega defined four primary missions: the teaching of the learned professions, the fostering of scientific research, training for political leadership, and finally the creation of cultured persons with the ability to make intellectual interpretations of the world. Ortega's understanding of "general culture" is set out in great detail here. He meant an active engagement in ideas and issues that were both historical and contemporary. His concern is with the classical problems of justice, the good society, who should rule, and the responsibilities of citizenship. In his informative and brilliant introduction to this new edition, Clark Kerr, a lifetime student of Ortega's work, analyzes Ortega's ideas in their historical context and speculates on how the great issues he dealt with here can be made contemporary for modern students facing the challenges and uncertainties of the twenty-first century. Mission of the University and its new opening essay will be of interest to educationists, social scientists, and above all the students of this era.


The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) plans to build a 300-mile pipeline to transfer groundwater from five rural basins in north-eastern Nevada south to the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. Relying on the path dependence literature, we trace the policy choices and legal battles that have led to southern Nevada's proposed Groundwater Development Project. We find that policy decisions over time, often initiated by powerful water policy entrepreneurs, have fuelled southern Nevada's rapid growth and development. After emphasising water demand management for more than two decades, SNWA has revived its controversial plans to increase water supplies by importing water from rural areas. Using semi-structured key-informant interviews and document analysis of water right hearing transcripts, public comments, and hearing rulings, we examine the risks and uncertainties involved in SNWA's Groundwater Development Project. SNWA and the protestors of the project experience different aspects of risk and uncertainty. SNWA believes the Groundwater Development Project is an essential addition to its current water strategy to reduce the political and economic risks from Colorado River shortages that could endanger southern Nevada's longer-term economic survival. Protestors believe the uncertainty of SNWA's mitigation and management plans are inadequate to protect rural basins from the longterm ecological and hydrological risks and uncertainties associated with SNWA's pumping and export of groundwater from their areas. Our analysis reveals a much deeper and longer path dependence trajectory in the USA West of overpopulating an arid region, subsidising decades of infrastructure development to promote economic development, and creating dependencies on increasingly scarce water supplies. A paradigm shift much larger than water demand management is required to reverse this trajectory and deal with the dilemmas of unabated growth in desert metropolitan areas dependent on distant water sources.


Migrant and refugee women are at risk of perinatal depression due to stressors experienced before, during and after migration. This study assesses the associations between social support and perinatal depression among migrant and refugee women on the Thai–Myanmar border. We conducted a cohort study of pregnant and post-partum women. Depression status was assessed using a structured clinical interview. Received support, perceived support and partner support were measured in the third trimester. Logistic regression was used to calculate associations between social support measures and perinatal depression controlling for demographic, socio-economic, migration, obstetric and psychosocial factors. Four hundred and fifty-one women (233 migrants; 218 refugees) were included. The prevalence of perinatal depression was 38.6% in migrants and 47.3% in refugees. Migrants had higher levels of received, perceived and partner support than refugees. After controlling for all other variables, higher levels of received support remained significantly associated with a lower likelihood of perinatal depression in migrants (adjusted odds ratio 0.82; 95% CI 0.68–0.99). In both groups, depression history and trauma were strongly associated with perinatal depression. Our study highlights the importance of received social support to perinatal depression in migrant women on the Thailand–Myanmar border. The perinatal period offers a valuable opportunity to ask women about their support and offer community-level or public policy interventions to nurture support networks in current locations and resettlement destinations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health'.


The slipper lobster, Scyllarides latus (Latreille, 1803), is the only representative species of the genus Scyllarides in the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we examined some biological aspects of this species sampled in the Straits of Messina. The specimens were sexed, measured and weighed. The relationships between body measurements (length and width of the carapace, antennal length) and length-weight relationship were calculated. Furthermore, the correlation matrix (Pearson's coefficient) was calculated. Two hundred specimens were collected, ranging in size from 81 to 305 mm in total length, and between 21 and 1490 g in weight. A rare juvenile of 39 mm CL was recorded. A sex ratio of 1:1 was found. The carapace length – weight relationship was almost isometric. The wide size range sampled and the presence of a juvenile, indicate an interesting habitat for studying the presence and growth of Scyllarides latus in the Straits of Messina.


The advent of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has permitted the recognition of many angiographically occult vascular malformations before the development of complications and subsequent surgical removal. This study reviews all patients at one institution who had radiographically identifiable vascular malformations believed to represent cavernous angiomas in order to obtain information on the natural history of this particular lesion. All 8131 craniospinal MR images performed at our medical center from January 1, 1986, to November 30, 1989, were reviewed, and 32 patients were identified with 76 lesions meeting the MR imaging criteria for cavernous angioma. Medical histories, physical examination records, and other data from these patients were then reviewed to determine the frequency of complications. Their mean age at latest follow-up examination (or at surgical removal of the lesion) was 37.6 years (range 16 to 72 years). Sixteen patients (50%) had a history of seizures, seven (22%) had focal neurological deficits, and three (9%) had clinically significant hemorrhage attributable to the cavernous angioma; six patients (19%) were asymptomatic. The estimated risk of hemorrhage for this population is 0.25%/person-year of exposure; the estimated risk of seizure development is 1.51%/person-year. Eight patients underwent surgical procedures, resulting in improved seizure control and/or lessened neurological deficit. Although these lesions are often excised with relative ease and minimal morbidity, the potential risks and benefits of surgery must be weighed carefully before removal of these relatively benign malformations.


Abstract. The composition of fine particulate matter (PM) in two major Greek cities (Athens and Patras) was measured during two wintertime campaigns, one conducted in 2013 and the other in 2012. A major goal of this study is to quantify the sources of organic aerosol (OA) and especially residential wood burning, which has dramatically increased due to the Greek financial crisis. A high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) was deployed at both sites. PM with diameter less than 1 µm (PM1) consisted mainly of organics (60–75 %), black carbon (5–20 %), and inorganic salts (around 20 %) in both Patras and Athens. In Patras, during evening hours, PM1 concentrations were as high as 100 µg m−3, of which 85 % was OA. In Athens, the maximum hourly value observed during nighttime was 140 µg m−3, of which 120 µg m−3 was OA. Forty to 60 % of the average OA was due to biomass burning for both cities, while the remaining mass originated from traffic (12–17 %), cooking (12–16 %), and long-range transport (18–24 %). The contribution of residential wood burning was even higher (80–90 %) during the nighttime peak concentration periods, and less than 10 % during daytime. Cooking OA contributed up to 75 % during mealtime hours in Patras, while traffic-related OA was responsible for 60–70 % of the OA during the morning rush hour.


Until now 99 sites could be selected as important bryophyte areas on the basis of 125 populations of 26 European red-listed species and an additional three species protected by law in Hungary. Most of the species with confirmed recent occurrences have few existing populations. The most important habitats from the point of view of the conservation of European red-listed bryophytes are places with shaded rocks or rocks in streams in forest-covered mountainous areas, which maintain 30% of the existing Hungarian populations of European red-listed species. Saline-alkali and dry rocky grasslands and loess cliffs are also very important habitats in the preservation of submediterranean, continental, and subcontinental elements. Wet grasslands nowadays are of minor importance in the preservation of rarities as they are in very bad conditions mainly due to dry climatic periods of the last decades. Similarly, the number of populations of species living on decaying wood and tree bark is not high either.


The recent boom in drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation, hidden deep below the surface in parts of northern and western Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland, will undoubtedly have immediate and lasting consequences for countless acres preserved through Pennsylvania's Farmland Preservation Program, private land trusts, and tax incentive programs such as the Clean and Green Act. Many Pennsylvania farms preserved through these programs are likely to encounter pressure to permit drilling on preserved farms if such tracts are located in areas with high concentrations of natural gas. The Farmland Preservation Program, as it was originally enacted, does not prohibit drilling for natural gas on preserved land. Consequently, farmers have had the option to allow drilling on their preserved farms, which some have allowed. However, the recent increase in drilling activity has raised concerns with the Farmland Preservation Program, farmers, and those concerned with conservation that such drilling may inhibit the goals of the preservation program. On the other hand, the added source of income may be a way for farming families to pay off outstanding debt associated with their agricultural operations and to pass the farm on to the next generation without having to sell or subdivide land to residential or commercial developers. This paper will discuss the intersection of these two topics, drilling and farmland preservation, specifically addressing a handful of Pennsylvania preservation programs and laws and the ways that each program seeks to deal with drilling on preserved land. Additional questions such as whether the current preservation programs and laws are consistent with the policy objectives underlying the programs, whether the programs are consistent with one another in furthering preservation, and whether the current programs could benefit from the recent increase in drilling, will also be incorporated. Also, the approach of neighboring states will be addressed as a way to suggest some possible ways for Pennsylvania to clarify its position on drilling for natural gas on preserved farmland in order to create a consistent approach from a policy perspective.


Background and purpose: Nulliparous women with unplanned pregnancy experience high levels of anxiety during pregnancy. Maternal anxiety endangers the mother-infant interaction and maternal role attainment. Current study aimed at determining the effect of a maternal role training program on postpartum maternal role competence in nulliparous women with unplanned pregnancy. Materials and methods: This clinical trial was conducted in 67 nulliparous women at 33 gestational age attending the Health centers in Mashhad, 2014-2015. They were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Data was collected using a demographic questionnaire, London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, and General Impressions on Infant Temperament Questionnaire. The intervention group undergone training programs in groups of 4-7 during 4 sessions at gestational weeks 34, 35, and 36 and before discharge, while the control group received usual care. Maternal role competence was evaluated before the intervention and four weeks after delivery. Results: The mean scores for maternal role competence after the intervention were 39.26 ±4.598 and 35.91±5.526 in intervention group and control group, respectively, indicating a significant difference between the two groups ( P= 0.009). Conclusion: Training the nulliparous women about maternal role during pregnancy and postpartum period could increase the maternal role competence in those with unplanned pregnancy. (Clinical Trials Registry Number: IRCT2014060117948N1)


We focus our attention on the effects of introducing the fractional-in-space operator into a Lotka-Volterra competitive model describing population superdiffusion. First, we are interested in how cross superdiffusion influences the formation of spatial patterns: a linear stability analysis has been carried out, showing that cross superdiffusion triggers Turing instabilities, whereas classical self superdiffusion cannot generate Turing instability. In addition we have performed a weakly nonlinear analysis yielding a system of amplitude equations, whose study shows the stability of Turing steady states. A second goal of this contribution is to propose a fully adaptive multiresolution finite volume (MRFV) method that employs shifted Grunwald gradient approximations, and which is tailored for a larger class of systems involving fractional diffusion operators, and aimed at efficient dynamic mesh adaptation and substantial savings in computational burden. A numerical simulation of the model was performed near the instability boundaries, confirming the behavior predicted by our analysis.


Using the border effect approach, our paper examines the influence of the legal framework quality of the Central and Eastern European countries on international trade. This approach offers an evaluation of the borders' impact on trade. A market is fragmented when actual trade differs from the trade that would be expected in an economy without border-related barriers. Recent findings have emphasized informal trade barriers as obstacles to trade flows (Anderson and Marcouiller, 2002; Anderson and Young, 2000; Rauch, 2001). We introduce different measures of the legal framework quality, which appears as a significant informal trade barrier. Actually, in case of conflict between two trade partners, it proves to be difficult for a given partner to get damages. Therefore, incentives to trade could be reduced. We adopt and refine the theoretical monopolistic competition model of trade developed by Head and Mayer (2000) and estimate it focusing on imports of Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia from European Union (EU) and Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) countries. We find that legal framework quality appears as a strong determinant of export decisions of EU producers. In the opposite, the CEFTA producers seem to be less or not affected by this quality in their decisions of trade.


This paper presents fabrication and RF characterization results of spiral inductors fabricated using a developed damascene-like thick-copper/polyimide process module. This module has low thermal budget and is compatible with current IC interconnect architectures, making it suitable for CMOS above IC integration of high quality factor passive devices. Thick, high-conductive copper layers associated with low K polymers and high resistivity substrates can provide RF performances that cannot be achieved using conventional thin aluminum films on low-resistivity substrates. Peak quality factors of about 20 and exceeding 10 over a wide frequency range (1-6 GHz) are demonstrated, with a self-resonant frequency of about 10 GHz. Measurements and equivalent circuit extraction results are also presented and discussed.


Sustainable forest management (SFM) is a concept that guides forest management and policy globally. Over the past decades, two prominent regimes have emerged at the global level that can strengthen SFM: The European Union's Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) and the United Nations' mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+). However, the understanding of how FLEGT and REDD+ can interlink with SFM to strengthen forest policy coherence is limited. Enhancing knowledge about interlinkages and synergies is important in view of recent global commitments to strengthen policy coherence. This study employed content analysis of the main global policy documents related to FLEGT and REDD+ to identify (i) the potential contributions of the two regimes to SFM, and (ii) strategies to manage the interlinkages among SFM, FLEGT, and REDD+. The results revealed several potential interlinkages, such as monitoring, reporting, and verification systems, establishing the enabling conditions of SFM, and addressing drivers of forest degradation. However, the interlinkages must be managed if their potential is to be realized. For this, the study proposes three approaches to managing the interlinkages and catalyzing progress toward SFM.


Transgenic cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plants that express truncated versions of insect control protein genes cryIA (c) and cryIIA of Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner var. kurstaki (Bt) have been developed for managing lepidopteran pests. However, agronomic traits and pest resistance can vary among transformation events. We examined selected agronomic traits and resistance, in laboratory and field, against tobacco budworm [Heliothis virescens (F.)] and bollworm [Helicoverpa zea (Boddie)] for various transformation events of the crylA(c) and cryIIA genes. Monsanto events with cryIIA were as resistant to tobacco budworm and bollworm as the M531 Bt event of cryIA(c), but showed some yield loss. Calgene events ST 807, ST 808, and ST 317 expressing cryIA(c) were similar to the M531 Bt event of cryIA(c) in control of tobacco budworm and bollworm. Backcrossed cultivars NuCOTN 33ᴮ and NuCOTN 35ᴮ from Delta & Pine Land Co. with event M531 Bt of cryIA(c) were highly resistant to tobacco budworm, producing more than 1400 kg ha−¹ (vs. 0 on nontransgenic recurrent parents) under high levels of tobacco budworm infestation. These NuCOTN cultivars also yielded 450 to 550 kg ha−¹ more lint than the recurrent parents under high levels of natural infestation of tobacco budworm in the insecticide control treatment; in the absence of tobacco budworm, NuCOTN yields were equal to or greater than for recurrent parents. The Paymaster Technologies lines with event M757 Bt of cryIA(c) were not pure for the gene, but showed excellent field resistance to tobacco budworm. Lines HX2 BG and HX3 BG showed resistance equal to the donor event M757 and yields equal to H1244. Reduced performance of event M757 in HX6 BG relative to other Paymaster lines with this event indicates a significant genotype × event interaction. Laboratory survival of bollworrn after 7 d on transgenic leaves and squares was greater than survival of tobacco budworm; however, weight of surviving larvae of each species was only 10 to 15% of that on nontransgenic controls. Survival of fall armyworm [Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith)] at 7 d was only slightly lower than on nontransgenics, and weights were slightly lower. Careful evaluation of transgenic events and cultivars is necessary to ensure that the final cultivar is both resistant to target pests and has acceptable yield. Research supported in part through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements no. 58-3K95-4-267 with Monsanto, no. 58-3K95-4-260 with Delta & Pine Land Co., no. 58-K-4-275 with Calgene, Inc., and no. 58-K-5-373 with Jacob Hartz Seed Co. (now Paymaster Technologies). Conducted in cooperation with Miss. Agric. & Forestry Exp. Stn.


Most research in quality control in crowdsourced workflows has focused on microtasks, wherein quality can be improved by assigning tasks to multiple workers and interpreting the output as a function of workers' agreement. Not all work fits into microtask frameworks, however, especially work that requires significant training or time per task. In such a context-heavy crowd work system with limited budget for task redundancy, we propose three novel techniques for reducing task error: (1) A self-policing crowd hierarchy in which trusted workers review, correct, and improve entry-level workers' output (2) predictive modeling of task error that improves data quality through targeted redundancy, and (3) holistic modeling of worker performance that supports crowd management strategies designed to improve average crowd worker quality and allocate training to the workers that need the most assistance.


Obesity has been a great interest of public
health. Studies simultaneously examining various factors associated with
obesity among adolescents have been limited. Therefore, this study aimed to
examine how various factors (socio-economic status, sex, age, diet, and
physical activity) were simultaneously associated with obesity among Korean
adolescents. This study analyzed two nationally representative datasets: 2008
Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination and Survey (KNHANES) and 2008
Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS). A total of 900 adolescents
(12-18 year-old) in KNHANES and 74,451 adolescents in KYRBWS were included in
statistical analyses with SPSS 19.0. Overweight (5.7%) and obesity (13.9%)
rates were determined in KNHANES, and KYRBWS showed somewhat lower rates. No
significant associations between the various factors and obesity were found
in KNHANES. However, the analysis of KYRBWS confirmed higher obesity risk for
boys, lower economic status, inferquent
high-energy/low-nutrient type food consumption, practicing
moderate-intensity physical activity less than five days per week, spending more than 2 hours sitting per day, and having tried exercise or diet for weight control (p ciations were mostly not significant in
KNHANES. It seemed that obese adolescents tried to practice good dietary
behaviors, but not necessarily physical activity, known to reduce obesity risk.
Obesity policies should continue to help adolescents achieve an active
lifestyle and healthy eating behaviors.


In the following theoretical and numerically oriented work, a number of findings have been assembled. The newly devised VENUS-LEVIS code, designed to accurately solve the motion of energetic particles in the presence of 3D magnetic fields, relies on a non-canonical general coordinate Lagrangian formulation of the guiding-centre and full-orbit equations of motion. VENUS-LEVIS can switch between guiding-centre and full-orbit equations with minimal discrepancy at first order in Larmor radius by verifying the perpendicular variation of magnetic vector field, not only including gradients and curvature terms but also parallel currents and the shearing of field-lines. By virtue of a Fourier representation of the fields in poloidal and toroidal coordinates and a cubic spline in the radial variable, the order of the Runge-Kutta integrating scheme is preserved and convergence of Hamiltonian properties is obtained. This interpolation scheme is crucial to compute orbits over slowing-down times, as well as to mitigate the singularity of the magnetic axis in toroidal flux coordinate systems. Three-dimensional saturated MHD states are associated with many tokamak phenomena including snakes and LLMs in spherical or more conventional tokamaks, and are inherent to stellarator devices. The VMEC equilibrium code conveniently reproduces such 3D magnetic configurations. Slowing-down simulations of energetic ions from NBI predict off-axis deposition of particles during LLM MHD activity in hybrid-like plasmas of the MAST. Co-passing particles helically align in the opposite side of the plasma deformation, whereas counter-passing and trapped particles are less affected by the presence of a helical core. Qualitative agreement is found against experimental measurements of the neutron emission. Two opposing approaches to include RMPs in fast ion simulations are compared, one where the vacuum field caused by the RMP current coils is added to the axisymmetric MHD equilibrium, the other where the MHD equilibrium includes the plasma response within the 3D deformation of its flux-surfaces. The first model admits large regions of stochastic field-lines that penetrate the plasma without alteration. The second assumes nested flux-surfaces with a single magnetic axis, embedding the RMPs in a 3D saturated ideal MHD state but excluding stochastic field-lines within the last closed flux-surface. Simulations of fast ion populations from NBI are applied to MAST n=3 RMP coil configuration with 4 different activation patterns. At low beam energies, particle losses are dominated by parallel transport due to the stochasticity of the field-lines, whereas at higher energies, losses are accredited to the 3D structure of the perturbed plasma as well as drift resonances.


Technology Focus
 My great-grandfather was killed on a well in Oklahoma many years ago. He and his assistant had just dropped a torpedo down the well, as was common practice in those days. It went off prematurely, killing them both. Thankfully, we have advanced our technology to the point where we do not have to use nitroglycerine to complete wells. We use hydraulic fracturing, which was commercialized around 1950. We have made many advancements in our use of technology over the years. This year's Technology Focus will highlight just a few of them.
 Earlier this year, SPE published the technical report "Getting to Zero and Beyond: The Path Forward," representing the collective work of hundreds of oil and gas professionals around the world and their thoughts on how we can achieve an injury- and incident-free workplace. The first paper presented in this section summarizes the findings from that report. It was presented at the 2018 SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility in April in Abu Dhabi. More details are in the paper, but I want to highlight one: We define a vision for safety where "zero harm" is an expectation today. This should be built into our performance plans and strategies where we adopt new technologies and techniques and reinforce lifesaving rules that we know have made a difference in performance. As an industry, and as individual companies, we must also look at achieving a balance of leading and lagging indicators. Many companies have already internalized this combination of metrics; however, as an industry, we tend to default to lagging indicators as the measurement of, and means of assessing, our performance. As long as that is the principal metric, we will continue to drive focus on a measurement that can create pressure on reporting and fail to recognize work being done to prevent incidents from occurring. The paper on building better performance measures provides ideas built around this concept.
 It is not all about technology, though; we must consider the human element. In the "Getting to Zero" report, another conclusion is that we must learn from other industries that exhibit mature integration of human factors. This includes incorporating those concepts in our risk assessments and incident investigations. Included in this section is a paper (in the list of suggested additional reading) on adding human factors to our engineering curriculum.
 Finally, we need to be able to share enough details about incidents across the industry so that we can truly learn from them and gather precursor incident information so we can identify the potential of major incidents occurring. Efforts continue along those lines, with data being captured and disseminated by multiple groups. This information has helped share lessons learned from incidents. However, gaps remain in collection and analysis of precursor conditions or events, a fact that was discussed during the development of an SPE technical report published in 2016 titled "Assessing the Processes, Tools, and Value of Sharing and Learning From Offshore E&P Safety Related Data."
 A cooperative and joint effort is being made between some offshore companies in the US Gulf of Mexico, the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to pilot the concepts of collecting precursor data, analyzing it, and looking for hidden trends that can provide the industry with unprecedented insight into our performance. During the benchmarking exercise, we have seen knowledge and learnings being freely shared in other industries. Learning from those lessons, as well as all of the other efforts mentioned, will enable our industry to realize the expectation of zero harm.
 Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
 SPE 187340 Improving Malaria Prevention With Innovative Biotechnology Integration by S. Ngunjiri, Fircroft, et al.
 SPE 287241 Integrating Human Factors Into Petroleum Engineering's Curriculum: Essential Training for Students by Y. Dadmohammadi, University of Oklahoma, et al.
 SPE 190508 Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems Reduces HSE Risks by Rob Hoffmann, Chevron, et al.


Experiment was conducted with the aim to screen out okra genotypes for heat stress tolerance potential at different sowing dates in field conditions. Experiment was conducted at vegetable research area, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan in summer season of 2014. For this purpose 25 okra genotypes screened out from 100 genotypes (imported from AVRDC, Taiwan, China.) against heat stress under controlled environmental conditions were sown in field conditions at different sowing dates to check the effect of heat stress under field environment. Three sowing dates were 02 April, 12 April, and 22 April. Data for morphological parameters (number of plant survived, number of leaves per plant, plant height (cm), pod length (cm), number of pods per plant, pod diameter (cm) and leaf area (cm 2 )) and physiological parameters (photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, sub-stomatal CO 2 , leaf temperature, water use efficiency, sub-stomatal conductance to water, electrolyte leakage and chlorophyll contents) was recorded. All cultural practices were kept same for all sowing dates and for all genotypes. Experiment was replicated four times and there were five plants per replication. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factor factorial arrangements was   applied to experiment. Collected data was analyzed statistically by employing the Fisher's analysis of variance technique and significance of treatments was tested by using HSD (Tukey Test). Results for morphological, physiological and yield attributes showed that VI051062 and VI060131were found most heat tolerant, while VI046554 and VI048594 were found most heat sensitive genotypes for heat tolerance under field conditions.


For the seismic design of pier and wharf structures, there are multiple methodologies permitted for determining displacement demands. The current edition of MOTEMS and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 61-14 permits use of an iterative substitute structure approach for nonlinear static demand analysis. The proposed 2016 revisions to MOTEMS will also permit a simplified, non-iterative coefficient method to estimate nonlinear displacement demands. This paper compares displacement demands computed from the two methods for three selected structures. The presented results indicate that the substitute structure approaches generally provide larger displacement demands compared to the coefficient method. A detailed examination of the background for these two methods indicates that the coefficient method was extensively evaluated recently in a FEMA 440 study, but the substitute structure approaches were subject to only a very limited evaluation more than 40 years ago against results from "exact" nonlinear dynamic analysis. Therefore, there is an urgent need to comprehensively evaluate the "accuracy" of the substitute structure approaches before arriving at more definitive conclusions about relative "accuracy" of these two approximate procedures.


ABSTRACT Children from low-income families are at risk of learning outcome difficulties, particularly in literacy. Various studies link poor literacy results with performance later in primary and secondary school, and suggest that poverty, literacy skills and weak instructional methods combine to drastically limit the educational opportunities for many poor children. The Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative was designed to support the learning gains of Class 1 and 2 pupils in seven counties across Kenya. PRIMR uses a randomised controlled trial design to establish the effect of its intervention and employs basic literacy measures to estimate causal effects. This study shows that PRIMR has been effective for children from low-income families and that early literacy interventions can mitigate socio-economic effects. The findings suggest that efforts to improve literacy outcomes for the poor should begin early in primary school. Strategies for ensuring that instruction is equitable across socio-economic status are advocated.