In this dissertation I describe how coupled internal cycling and external forcing from the atmosphere and climate can regulate the dynamics of nitrogen (N) loss from forest watersheds. I address three major gaps in our understanding of the global N cycle: 1) the role of dissolved organic N (DON) in internal N cycling in low-N ecosystems; 2) The influence of atmospheric pollution on DON production and loss from forests; and 3) the inherent climate sensitivity of forest N cycling and loss. In chapter 2, I present the results of a study of DON spiraling that showed enormous capacity for stream microorganisms to immobilize and transform organic nutrients. Although most DON in surface waters is highly refractory products of SOM dissolution, this study revealed very tight internal cycling of DON at the sediment interface and suggested significant production of DON in the hyporheic zone. Most remarkably, this DON was not expressed in stream waters, supporting the idea that watershed DON losses would have been higher in the absence of pronounced benthic demand. The experiments also suggested that coupled dynamics between DOC and DON spiraling may be altered under conditions of elevated N supply. Chapter 3 challenges the idea that soil organic matter (SOM) and its dissolved products are stoichiometrically static as N pools accumulate. Using a broad geographic survey of forest streams, I show that DON losses increase as a consequence of N pollution and that this occurs through a disproportionate enrichment of N on dissolved organic matter rather than alteration of soil and dissolved carbon dynamics. These results have implications for N limitation in forests and aquatic systems. In particular, DOC: DON ratios of DOM draining N-saturated forests were strikingly low suggesting possible increases in DOM bioavailability with increasing N supply. Chapter 4 provides insight into how local forest nutrient cycles may be organized by synchronous global-scale climate-atmosphere dynamics. This study of long term (30 yr) hydrochemistry from reference forest watersheds provides an integrated example of the overall climate sensitivity of N cycling and underscores the importance of complex synergies between simultaneous vectors of global change. Results from this study argue that the combined influence of N pollution and warming are likely to have pronounced long-term effects on ecosystems globally.


Due to political, economical and social conditions dominating the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT; consisting of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), the Palestinian people and government in the OPT face a multitude of challenges, in relation to governance, development, sustainability, and natural disasters. In this paper, several interventions that form the basis of some present and future Palestinian developmental and planning dilemmas are tackled. Among the challenges the Palestinian people facing are natural disasters. Such disasters have caused enormous losses and have set back economic progress in developed and undeveloped countries alike. On the Palestinian arena, the water shortages, the environmental degradation, and the land and natural resources' depletion, which all go hand in hand with the political conflict in the Middle East, are perceived to be the most significant anthropogenic disasters currently affecting the Palestinian people in the OPT. In addition, natural disasters are significantly considered a potential threat to the OPT's population. Earthquakes in the region are considered a major hazard, with low probability but high adverse impacts. Adding to this, the proposed Red Sea‐Dead Sea Conveyance that will bring about two billion cubic meter of saline water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea will be potentially, if constructed, a huge source of induced earthquakes. Moreover, the future looks not so promising; due to the rapid population growth and the way the cities are developing in the OPT, as more than 50% of the Palestinian population lives in what is defined as "hazard‐prone" areas. These areas are particularly vulnerable, because of their dependence on complex infrastructures. Moreover, the lack of knowledgeable professionals and technical capabilities in the OPT, in regard to disaster‐sound management, is another reason for the current chaotic situation.


CD14 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored pattern recognition receptor that is involved in activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) at the cell surface (see Finberg and Kurt-Jones). For example, it binds to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and viruses to present these foreign agents to TLR4 and TLR2, respectively. Lee et al. now report that CD14 is also involved in presentation of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to the endosomal-localized TLR3 and that CD14 amplifies the cellular response to dsRNA. Lee et al. noted that bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) from CD14-deficient mice showed lower activation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and interleukin production in response to the dsRNA mimic polyinosine-polycytidylic acid (pIpC) than did wild-type BMDMs. In human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells transfected with TLR3 and CD14 along with TLR3 reporter genes, the response to pIpC was enhanced in a dose-dependent manner by CD14. Transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells expressing CD14 with and without TLR3 showed internalization of pIpC when short fragments of pIpC (pIpCsf) were applied to the cells. Ligand-binding assays showed that the CD14 directly bound pIpCsf and that this binding was inhibited by related RNAs but not by the DNA derivative pdIpdC. Confocal microscopy showed that CD14 and TLR3 colocalized in the absence of pIpC in endosomes and, upon internalization of pIpCsf, all three were localized in lysosomes. Thus, CD14 appears to deliver dsRNA to TLR3. Whether the interaction of CD14 with lipid rafts or signaling components--such as Src and G proteins, which are believed to be important for the interaction between CD14 and cell surface TLRs--is involved in the amplification of the TLR3 signal remains to be determined. R. W. Finberg, E. A. Kurt-Jones, CD14: Chaperone or matchmaker? Immunity 24, 127-129 (2006). [PubMed] H.-K. Lee, S. Dunzendorfer, K. Soldau, P. S. Tobias, Double-stranded RNA-mediated TLR3 activation is enhanced by CD14. Immunity 24, 153-163 (2006). [PubMed]


Background Individuals in contact with patients who have leprosy have an increased risk of disease exposure, which reinforces the need for chemoprophylactic measures, such as the use of rifampicin. Objectives The objective of the review was to synthesize the best available evidence regarding the effectiveness of rifampicin chemoprophylaxis for contacts with patients with leprosy, and to synthesize the best available evidence on the experience and acceptability of rifampicin chemoprophylaxis as reported by the contacts and health professionals involved in the treatment of leprosy or Hansen's disease. Inclusion criteria Types of participants In the quantitative component, individuals in contact with leprosy patients were included. In the qualitative component, in addition to contacts, health professionals who were in the practice of treating leprosy were included. Types of intervention(s)/phenomena of interest The quantitative component considered as an intervention rifampicin at any dose, frequency and mode of administration, and rifampicin combination regimens. The qualitative component considered as phenomena of interest the experience and acceptability of rifampicin chemoprophylaxis. Types of studies The quantitative component considered experimental and observational studies whereas the qualitative component considered studies that focused on qualitative data, including but not limited to, designs such as phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and action-research. Outcomes The quantitative component considered studies that reported on outcomes such as the development of clinical leprosy in the contacts of patients who had leprosy, incidence rates, adverse effects and safety/harmful effects of the intervention. Search strategy A three-step strategy for published and unpublished literature was used. The search for published studies included: PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature; and Google Scholar and EVIPnet for unpublished studies. Studies published from the time of the respective database inception to January 2016 in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese were considered. Methodological quality Two reviewers independently assessed the studies for methodological quality using standardized critical appraisal instruments from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data extraction Standardized data extraction tools developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute were used to extract quantitative and qualitative data from papers included in the review. Data synthesis Due to clinical and methodological heterogeneity in the interventions of the included studies, no statistical meta-analysis was possible. Quantitative and qualitative research findings are presented in narrative form. Results Following critical appraisal, eight studies were included in this review, seven quantitative and one qualitative. The reduction in incidence of leprosy, using one dose of rifampicin in the first two years, was 56.5%; in the follow up period of one to four years, the reduction was 34.9%. The combination of rifampicin and the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine showed a preventative effect of 80% against the disease. The only controlled clinical trial using two doses of rifampicin was community-based and did not indicate effectiveness of the intervention. The qualitative findings showed social acceptability of rifampicin. Conclusions Chemoprophylaxis with one dose of rifampicin is found to be effective in preventing contacts of leprosy patients from contracting the disease. Also, there is indication that this strategy is socially accepted.


Chilean flounder (Paralichthys adspersus) are endemic to the Chilean coast and have been the subject of several studies on the possible diversification of marine aquaculture. This paper reviews the diverse results obtained from studies of this speciesbiology and cultivation techniques. The biological and technical knowledge available is sufficient for developing the entire life cycle of this species, producing commercial- sized individuals, in captivity. However, this knowledge is disperse and the results, as compared with those for other harvested species, still show moderately reproducible results, impliying the need to continue efforts to optimize some aspects of Chilean flounder cultivation, thereby promoting the speciesdevelopment definitely.


In the article the opportunity of the application of fire-arms for the forced stopping of vehicles has been investigated. The research was carried out in some stages. In the first stage the probability of hitting the wheel of the car being forcedly stopped while the shot was firing from the pursued car using different fire-arms was established. In the second stage the necessity to use smoothbores loaded with shots was studied. In order to stop a vehicle forcedly, police officers usually shoot from the chasing car. The speed difference between the chasing car and the car the driver of which disobeys the legitimate demands of the police officers to stop is from 10 km/h to 30 km/h. The distance between the shooter and the wheel of the car that is being shot at varies from 2 to 10 meters. During the experiment the shots were fired from the car that was going at a speed of 20 km/h and they were aimed at the targets which were in parallel with the direction of the car movement. The shots were fired through the open window in the front door next to the passenger's seat. Having performed experimental investigations, the probability of hitting the wheel of the car being forcedly stopped using different guns has been established. The dependence on the gun model and the distance until the target has also been ascertained. The research shows that the worst aiming results were achieved with the pistol "Makarov PM". Using this pistol the average hitting the target center was 1.36 times better than using the pistol "CZ-75" and 1.26 times better than shooting with the pistol "Winchester 1300 Defender". Since using fighting guns it is possible to damage the tyre and injure or kill the driver a possibility of using smoothbores for the forced stopping of the vehicles is being discussed. Investigation of using cartridges loaded with shots of different decimeter has been carried out. The probability of hitting the target has also been defined. Experimental investigations were made by which possible damage of parts of the car has been established. The research shows that using cartridges loaded with shots of 5.5 diameter the parts of the car can be damaged and using cartridges loaded with shots of 4.5 mm diameter this possibility greatly lessens, and shooting at the angle of 300 between the shooting trajectory and the car door the door is only damaged but not shot through.


Industrial control systems have traditionally been built around dedicated wired solutions. The requirements of flexibility, mobility, and cost have created a strong push toward wireless solutions, preferably solutions requiring low power. Simultaneously, the increased need for interoperability and integration with the wider Internet made a transition to IP-based communication unavoidable. Following these trends, we survey 6TiSCH, the emerging family of standards for IP-based industrial communication over low-power and lossy networks. We describe the state of the standardization work, the major issues being discussed, and open questions recently identified. Based on extensive first-hand experience, we discuss challenges in implementation of this new wave of standards. Lessons learned are highlighted from four popular open-source implementations of these standards: OpenWSN, Contiki, RIOT, and TinyOS. We outline major requirements, present insights from early interoperability testing and performance evaluations, and provide guidelines for chip manufacturers and implementers.


We present a method of two level modeling for model-based testing of robotics applications. The goal is to perform model-based hardware-in-the-loop testing of a system of robots. The main idea is to use models in two different roles: as control models of individual robots, and as a coordination model on the global level for modeling the behavior of the system. This way it is possible to reduce the total state space visible to the system level model since the local abstractors discard details that are not important from the global perspective. We demonstrate the approach with model programs of the toolkit NModel in the context of LEGO NXT based mobile robots. The system consists of robots sharing a critical resource — an intersection where they must not collide. The local control model distinguishes whether the robot is in the critical section and has the means to pause the robot in an appropriate zone. The coordination model provides the system view and enables to detect system level errors, for example whether it is possible that two robots enter the critical section at the same time. We present the local control models and the coordination models and the full toolchain for model-based testing of the system.


When the call of religious conscience and the demand of public expectations meet at the crossroad of the public square, the enduring myth is that members of minority religious groups face a decidedly uphill battle in securing accommodation for or even tolerance of unconventional religious practices, expression, or values from the courts. By contrast, so the conventional wisdom has it, traditional Christian believers may anticipate a more hospitable welcome from the judiciary when asserting claims of conscience or religious liberty. Based upon a recent empirical study of religious liberty decisions in the federal courts, the proposition that minority religions experience a significantly lower success rate was found to be without empirical support, at least in the modern era and in the lower federal courts. Just as importantly, the myth that members of outsider faiths fail at a disproportionate rate proves to be only half of the story. In fact, counter to the popular narrative, adherents to traditionalist Christian faiths, notably Roman Catholics and Baptists, proved to be the ones who enter the courthouse doors at a distinct disadvantage. The thesis of this essay is as follows: when compared with other religious claimants, when examined within the particular venue of the federal courts, when evaluated in the context of other potentially influential variables, and when evaluated through data drawn from recent litigation controversies, the hypothesis that minority religious adherents are more likely to lose and that the Christian faithful are more likely to win religious liberty claims is of doubtful continuing validity. Accordingly, as the new century unfolds, the more interesting inquiry may be why those whose religious practices and values fit most comfortably within the mainstream Christian tradition find themselves with a higher hill to climb than people of unconventional beliefs when seeking judicial exemption from secular regulation or judicial recognition of expression and equality rights. Is our nation's concept of religious liberty sufficient robust to encompass those whose claims of conscience may directly challenge the cherished orthodoxies of modern secular liberalism?


Understanding the mechanisms by which climate change will affect animal populations is vital for adaptive management. Many studies have described changes in the timing of biological events, which can produce phenological mismatch. Direct effects on prey abundance might also be important, but have rarely been studied. We examine the likely importance of variation in prey abundance in driving the demographics of a European golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) population at its southern range margin. Previous studies have correlated plover productivity with the abundance of their adult cranefly (Tipulidae) prey, and modelled the phenology of both plover breeding and cranefly emergence in relation to temperature. Our analyses demonstrate that abundance of adult craneflies is correlated with August temperature in the previous year. Correspondingly, changes in the golden plover population are negatively correlated with August temperature 2 years earlier. Predictions of annual productivity, based on temperature‐mediated reductions in prey abundance, closely match observed trends. Modelled variation in annual productivity for a future scenario of increasing August temperatures predicts a significant risk of extinction of the golden plover population over the next 100 years, depending upon the magnitude of warming. Direct effects of climate warming upon cranefly populations may therefore cause northward range contractions of golden plovers, as predicted by climate envelope modelling. Craneflies are an important food source for many northern and upland birds, and our results are likely to have wide relevance to these other species. Research into the potential for habitat management to improve the resilience of cranefly populations to high temperature should be an urgent priority.


An analytical method is presented to determine the optimum received power values for multiple cochannel multilevel phase-shift-keying (M-PSK) modulated signals. The aim is to achieve equal symbol error probability (SEP) for each of the signals when applying a narrowband multiuser detector based on successive cancellations. Power relations based on two approximations are derived and used to compute the average SEP for the different cochannel signals. The derived power relations are also compared against optimum power relations obtained through computer simulations.


This is the first analysis of determinants of the return to work of injured workers in an institutional setting where workers earnings are fully compensated during the disability spell. Employers carry the costs associated to the time off work; hence they could face an incentive to put pressure on workers to shorten their leave. We use a matched employer-employees panel data merged with Italian workers compensation records. We find that even when we control for measures of commitment and job security, workers with high wages and high relative wages (who are more costly for the employer) return to work sooner.


Glucose is the main source of energy for the brain, and blood glucose levels have been shown to have a significant impact on cognitive performance. This thesis research examined the effects of kiwifruit and guar gum (a soluble fiber) on the postprandial blood glucose response, and to what extent glucose manipulation can influence cognitive performance. Twenty healthy participants took part in a within subjects trial, with each individual consuming one of four breakfast diets per week (Weet-Bix, Weet-Bix + Kiwifruit, Weet-Bix + Guar Gum, and WeetBix + Kiwifruit + Guar gum). Each breakfast was separated by at least a 1-week washout period. It has been shown that kiwifruit and its interaction with guar gum decreases blood glucose peaks during the postprandial phase, and maintains a glucose level above fasting baseline measures over a 3-hour time period. In the present study there were no main effects of Breakfast Type across the cognitive tasks, or for interactions between Breakfast Type and Testing Time. However, there was a significant effect for time for each task, collapsed across each breakfast. (Time refers to the three points the cognitive tests were administered, one pre-breakfast, and two post-breakfast at 90 and 180 mins). Trends in the blood glucose response data indicated that when blood glucose levels were controlled and maintained (by the kiwifruit and guar gum), performance on some cognitive tasks improved and was largely sustained across the 3-hour time period, although the effects of practice could not be ruled out.


In this thesis we study the BBM equation ut + ux + 3 2 uux − 1 6 uxxt = 0 which describes approximately the two-dimensional propagation of surface waves in a uniform horizontal channel containing an incompressible and inviscid fluid which in its undisturbed state has depth h. Here u(x, t) represents the deviation of the water surface from its undisturbed position, and the flow is assumed to be irrotational. The BBM equation features a bounded dispersion relation (Benjamin, Bona and Mahony [3]). We utilize this boundedness to prove existence, uniqueness and regularity results for solutions of the BBM equation supplemented with an initial condition and various types of boundary conditions. We also treat the water-wave problem over an uneven bottom. In particular, we consider two different models for the propagation of long waves in channels of decreasing depth and we provide both analytical and numerical results for these models. For the numerical simulation we use a spectral discretization coupled with a four-stage Runge-Kutta time integration scheme. After verifying numerically that the algorithm is fourth-order accurate in time, we run the solitary wave with uneven bottom and examine how solitary waves respond to this non-uniform depth. Our numerical simulations are compared with previous numerical and experimental results of Madsen and Mei [16] and Peregrine [19].


Among the multifunctional molecules that participate in processes of plant tolerance/ resistance to stresses, inositol (Ins) and its derivatives (phosphorylated, methylated, oxy‐ genated, and Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides) have attracted the attention of research‐ ers. These compounds represent versatile and dynamic signaling molecules and osmolytes in all eukaryotes. Due to the impacts related to Ins and its derivatives in a plant cell, assays have been conducted to understand how these biomolecules affect plant physiology. Thus, overexpression or knockout of Ins-related genes has been shown as in‐ teresting strategies for generating more efficient plants capable of growing under stress conditions. In this chapter, studies using molecular tools are presented, and the impacts of their results are discussed based on the plant stress tolerance/resistance. Furthermore, an informative panel is provided with transcriptional modulation of genes related to Ins and its derivatives expressed in plants under stress. There is a gap involving about two dozen enzymes associated with the synthesis of Ins-related compounds that have not been adequately studied, and they represent an area of high biotechnological potential.


Purpose: The research objective of the article is to propose a model that indicates external factors affecting the introduction of marketing and organizational innovations by Polish small and medium-sized enterprises. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical research was conducted in 2015 using the CAPI method on a representative sample of 250 small and medium-sized enterprises. We determined the external environment based on seven potential factors. We also included contextual factors. We based the analysis and the assessment on the results of the ordered logit regression model estimation. We prepared our interpretation based on the odds ratios. Findings: The results obtained indicate the significance of four variables, two from the external environment, namely support for small and medium-sized enterprises and the amount of tax reliefs and two contextual factors - the size of employment and conducting export activity. Their impact turned out to be only positive. Practical Implications: The results obtained in the scope of the identified external factors affecting the marketing and organizational innovativeness of small and medium-sized enterprises may be a recommendation for entities providing support to subjects operating in this sector. Originality/value: Determination of external environment factors and contextual factors influencing organizational and marketing innovation of Polish small and medium-sized enterprises. The results can be compared with those obtained for other countries.


A study on the technique of lipid extraction from microalgae for the biodiesel
production is performed, in which the author has narrowed down the research to the
microalgae cultivation method, harvesting technique, lipid extraction of microalgae
and also transesterification. At the early stage of the research, the author has batchcultivated
the Nannochloropsis sp and Chlorella sp to conduct the growth evaluation
by using the cell count method. The microalgae are then harvested by centrifugal
separation. The project work continued with the sample collection of the mixedculture
of microalgae from the pond for the extraction of lipid. For this project, the
author has selected the solvent extraction method continued with the rotary
evaporator to extract the lipid from microalgae. The solvent systems used for the
extraction are n-hexane, methanol and the mixture of chloroform/methanol. The
result from the extraction has shown that methanol is the best solvent to extract lipid
from the mixed-culture of microalgae. The selection of this technique is made based
on the ease of application and low cost consumption. Transesterification is also
performed in order to convert the oil which is in the form of lipid to methyl ester.
The alkali catalyzed process is applied in transeterification which is by using sodium
hydroxide. Lastly, the pH measurement of the esterified product is conducted and
analysis by using Thin Layer Chromatography is performed.


The year 2019 is another milestone for International Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation (JPHI) as it is entering to 9th year. It is known as one of the peer-reviewed pharmaceutical journal and I am pleased to present you this issue being published by EManuscript, Bangalore, India. JPHI is publishing scholarly reviews and research articles in the field of pharmacy and bioallied Sciences. Over the years the journal is indexed with Emerging Sources Citation Index, Web of Science and Index Copernicus. The past and current issue content is available in http://jpionline.phcog.interactivedns.com/index.php/ijpi/issue/archive.
Editorial policy
JPHI Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement are based, in large part, on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Manuscripts being submitted to JPHI will be preferred in IMRAD style and its mandatory to provide contributors details and author have to declare the conflict of interest. The clinical and pre-clinical experiment should be prepared accordance to "CONSORT" and "ARIVE" guidelines respectively. The manuscripts which are describing clinical findings have to provide "CONSORT" flow chart.
The manuscript published by JPHI is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution: Noncommercial- Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Read more. . .


: Heavy metals are the cause of major abiotic stresses in plants and a principal contributor to environmental pollution in recent decades. This study investigated the effects of exogenous hydrogen sulfide on the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in the leaves of coriander seedlings under copper stress. Results showed that copper stress not only reduced APX and GR activities but also decreased leaf AsA, DHA, and GSH contents. Pretreatment with sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS), a hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) donor, was observed to enhance both GR activity and AsA, GSH, and DHA contents under copper stress. Moreover, the pretreatment decreased the malondialdehyde content and electrolyte leakage induced by copper stress in plants. Based on the results obtained, it was hypothesized that exogenous hydrogen sulfide alleviates oxidative damage under copper stress by regulating the ascorbate-glutathione cycle and, further, that H 2 S plays an important role in the acquisition of copper stress tolerance in coriander seedlings. Exogenous hydrogen sulfide is, therefore, identified as an agent with the potential to be used as a regulator to improve crop tolerance under copper stress.


Boards of public corporations in the United States are becoming increasingly independent, due to an effort to ensure that shareholders' interests in the company are protected. Yet, little attention has been given to the way that board members obtain and digest the information necessary for their independent decision-making. In this Article, we highlight how "independent" boards remain extremely dependent on management for the information they need to accomplish their role -- we classify as the "informational capture" of the board. We further describe how activist hedge funds identified this capture and are using what is commonly termed as "super directors" to mitigate it. Contrary to many who cast the rise of activist super directors in a negative light, we assert that super directors are not a new phenomenon, that they are not limited to activist nominees, and that they perform an important role in mitigating the board's informational capture. We further show that this positive role carries several important doctrinal implications for the way Delaware law treats these nominees. However, while activist super directors serve an important role in mitigating this capture, they are far from a perfect solution. Therefore, we propose a more systematic approach to mitigating the board's capture. Specifically, we call for the creation of a "Board Suite" -- a dedicated office within the board that would be in charge of independent data collection and dissemination -- therefore minimizing the dependence of the board on management for its information.


Fluoride films (made from barium, calcium, strontium, and lead fluorides) tend to crystallize when they are sputtered. For an optical thickness more than 3-5 µm, their transparency in the visible region decreases because of losses to scattering. This paper discusses the optical characteristics of doped films of barium, calcium, strontium, and lead fluorides and shows that it is possible to obtain films that are simultaneously transparent in the visible and IR regions. Doped barium fluoride films were used as a basis for synthesizing, fabricating, and studying interference coatings that operate in the mid-IR and the visible regions. We give as an example coatings simultaneously used in laser systems with wavelengths of 10.6 and 0.63 µm. © 2004 Optical Society of America


This thesis contributes a novel, cross-‐disciplinary framework to the field of sound studies. It examines how our inherent capacities as listeners are manifested in transitional urban environments, and the primary role of voice as a vehicle for perception in field recording and soundwalking practices. Using the conceptual triad of 'node, counter-atmosphere and meshwork' as its analytical device, this research considers the polyphonic physical, personal and social ecologies at play in our encounters within transitional spaces. By doing so, it highlights the importance of sound for countering their functionality and opening them up to a more engaged perception.

In its theoretical scope, this conceptual triad draws on and re-contextualises existing terminologies from a variety of disciplines: urban planning and Kevin Lynch's notion of the node; philosophy and Gernot Boehme's theory on the atmosphere as well as Gaston Bachelard's concept of seeping through; anthropology and Tim Ingold's idea of the meshwork. Coined as a sonic perceptual ecology, this triad is a new analytical tool that is the immediate result of the practice developed as part of this research. Involving three consecutive stages, the work spans across intensive fieldwork, workshops, hybrid telematic soundwalks, radioart pieces, public events and performances engaging with different sites in London and elsewhere.

This thesis presents a constellation of original outputs, essential to creating and understanding the novel conceptual framework of the sonic perceptual ecology. This is achieved by testing new methodologies, by analysing, in new terms and through the 'Sensing Cities' interviews series, existing creative work and by developing a portfolio of practice that has been presented as part of commissions, conferences and curated events. Key to these activities is the proposition that we perceive not as authoritative presences but as organisms whose voice is, as Mikhail Bakhtin would suggest, a chain of human and non-‐human utterances.


In this study, I analyze empirically the ways in which adolescent depression depresses earnings in young adulthood. I test the prominent assertions that adolescent depression is predictive of young adult depression and of lower educational attainment, both of which are, in turn, predictive of lower earnings. I then expand upon the current literature by testing the assumption that those depressed in adolescence would benefit from staying in school. To that end, I first estimate the relationship between adolescent depression and returns to education. Since one relevant alternative to educational attainment is work experience, I then estimate the relationship between adolescent depression and returns to work experience. Finally, I compare the returns to educational attainment with the returns to work experience for individuals depressed in adolescence relative to the returns for their non-depressed peers; I make this comparison first using the full sample, and then using subsamples distinguished by gender, race, and socio-economic status (SES). This article is available in Undergraduate Economic Review: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/uer/vol4/iss1/10 0 Linking Depressed Earnings to Adolescent Depression A Junior Independent Work Paper


Many of the contemporary political conflicts in Muslim-majority countries are said to pit modern secularists against the "backward" Islamists. However an important stream of contemporary Muslim thought—critical-progressive Muslim thought—refuses to accept either a hegemony of Western secularism or a hegemony of Islamist fundamentalism. Critical-progressive Muslim scholar-activists are reinterpreting the normative teachings of the Muslim worldview and developing a distinctive third-way approach. There are several key political and policy ramifications of this stream of thought, including a robust commitment to religious freedom, but within Islamic terms, not terms dictated by non-Muslim Westerners preoccupied with their own security interests.


There is strong evidence that people exploit their bargaining power in competitive markets but not in bilateral bargaining situations. There is also strong evidence that people exploit free-riding opportunities in voluntary cooperation games. Yet, when they are given the opportunity to punish free-riders, stable cooperation is maintained although punishment is costly for those who punish. This paper asks whether there is a simple common principle that can explain this puzzling evidence. We show that if some people care about equity the puzzles can be resolved. It turns out that the economic environment determines whether the fair types or the selfish types dominate equilibrium behavior.


Lianas and other climbing plants are known for their extraordinarily wide vessels. Wide vessels are thought to contribute to the extreme hydraulic efficiency of lianas and to play a part in their ability to dominate many tropical habitats, and even their globally increasing abundance with anthropic disturbance. However, recent hydraulic optimality models suggest that the average vessel diameter of plants generally is the result of tip-to-base vessel widening reflecting the effects of selection buffering conductive path length-imposed hydraulic resistance. These models state that mean vessel diameter should be predicted by stem length, by implication even in lianas. We explore vessel–stem relations with 1409 samples from 424 species in 159 families of both selfand non-self-supporting plants. We show that, far from being exceptional in their vessel diameter, lianas have average natural (not hydraulically weighted) vessel diameters that are indistinguishable for a given stem length from those in self-supporting plants. Lianas do, however, have wider variance in vessel diameter. They have a small number of vessels that are wider than those in self-supporting plants of similar stem lengths, and also narrower vessels. This slightly greater variance is sufficient to make hydraulically weighted vessel diameters in lianas higher than those of self-supporting counterparts of similar stem lengths. Moreover, lianas have significantly more vessels per unit of wood transection than self-supporting plants do. This subtle combination of slightly higher vessel diameter variance and higher vessel density for a given stem length is likely what makes lianas hydraulically distinctive, rather than their having vessels that are truly exceptionally wide. © 2014 Geobotanisches Institut ETH, Stiftung Ruebel. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.


Solvents play a very important role in organic chemistry. Most reactions must be carried out in solvents, thus for chemists, they have to deal with huge volumes of solvents everyday. Solvents can be highly damaging chemicals for two simple reasons: (1 ) they are used on a large scale, (2 ) they are often volatile which makes them difficult to contain. For the reason of environmental protection and reduction of damage to human being, clean technologies have become a major concern throughout both industry and academia. Therefore, search for the replacement of the damaging solvents has became a high priority.

Based on such ideas, we have investigated some catalytic reactions in room temperature ionic liquids 1,3-dialkylimidazolium, which are potentially a new type of variety of solvent system to replace the conventional solvents. We have also studied the applications of ionic liquids in several different fields.

In this respect, the ambient temperature ionic liquid 1,3-dialkylimidazolium systems [BMIM]PF6 or [BMIM] BF4 were employed for coupling reactions with nickel (0) complexes as catalyst (Chapter 2); to support the bioreduction with immobilised baker's yeast in the presence of water (Chapter 3); for the studies of diaryl etherfomiation reaction catalysed by palladium with ligand in ionic liquid (Chapter 4); and for the indium-catalysed Sakurai reaction in ionic liquid (Chapter 5).


Studies on the effects of research and innovation in agriculture have been largely characterised by efforts to make a connection between expenditure and productivity. A number of issues have challenged the ability of productivity to measure the effects of research, namely, in recent years, increasing efforts towards improving the environmental performance of the farming sector. Besides environmental concerns, however, a number of recent concepts have emerged that are shaping the current research and policy agenda and which could result in a revision of the productivity concepts used to evaluate research impacts. The objective of this paper is to discuss these issues and their implications for studies on the impact of research and innovation. We address, in particular, the following issues: a) the development of the of bioeconomy and related concepts such as the circular economy, resource efficiency and bio-refinery; b) the connection with entrepreneurship and eco-innovation; c) changing tools in research assessment, in particular the widespread use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); and d) the evolving concepts of sustainability and ecosystem services. We argue that while the traditional notion of productivity, intended as output/input ratio, maintains (and may be strengthens) its role on the aggregate, a more analytical interpretation of the pathways towards research impacts is needed, as well as a broadened view of productivity and its determinants.


The purpose of this paper is substantiating of efficiency during application of borehole underground coal gasification technology based on target coal seam geology. Comprehensive methodology that included analytical calculation is implemented in the work. To determine the efficiency of coal seam gasification in faulting areas, an economic calculation method was developed. The obtained conditions of coal seam allow to provide rational order of mine workings. Conclusions regarding the implementation of the offered method are made on the basis of undertaken investigations. The obtained results with sufficient accuracy in practical application will allow consume coal reserves in the faulting zones using environmentally friendly conversion technology to obtain power and chemical generator gas, chemicals and heat.


We report on our initial efforts to build robot feedback controllers that develop increased capability from simpler constituent controllers. Previous work with our three degree of freedom robot has resulted in a machine that exhibits various dynamically dexterous skills of superlative ability but very narrow behavioral scope. We focus here on the development of both a formalism and practice for the composition of constituent controllers. The composite should yield automatically purposive combinations of these skills that reach goals no one of the defining controllers could have achieved in isolation. The specific task we initially target, the "dynamical pick and place", requires the robot to acquire balls that have been "randomly" thrown into its work space and set them safely at rest in a specified location. We present a brief overview of the constituent behaviors and a mechanism for their combination along with documentation of our preliminary empirical successes.


Despite worldwide efforts, the incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to increase. To address this ongoing public health emergency, most countries implemented strict social containment measures and reorganized health care systems. Although these were necessary changes to contain the spread of disease and to deal with a rapidly rising number of severe cases that overwhelmed medical systems, the care of patients with other time-sensitive emergencies, such as stroke, has been impacted. Globally, physicians have noted reduced admissions for stroke.1,2 However, high-quality clinical registry data confirming this trend and exploring possible reasons has been lacking.


Few observers doubt that oil and gas serve as the economic foundation for the political regime built by Vladimir Putin in Russia. The global rush for energy and rising prices on fossil fuels have underpinned Russia's revival on the international arena and padded the popularity of Russia's president domestically. The "fat" 2000s brought a semblance of economic stability, increases in salaries and pensions, and Russia's association with the BRICS—a group of high-growth emerging economies hoping to join the ranks of the world's most influential countries in the twenty-first century. The Russian economy's dependence on energy resources is well-established. According to various estimates, between 50-80 percent of Russia's federal budget depends on commodities revenues. Although the contribution of oil and gas rents to Russia's GDP is not very high—around 4 percent for gas and 14 percent for oil in 2010— the dependence of the federal budget on oil revenues has been increasing over the last few years. The 2012 budget, for example, needed an oil price of around $120 a barrel to balance; the 2013 budget needs prices of $125 or more to break even. Economists at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow have warned that if oil prices hit $80 per barrel, the government will quickly deplete its reserve funds. To meet Putin's domestic spending campaign promises, estimated to cost $309 billion (Financial Times, June 20, 2012), oil prices need to grow by $10-15 annually. Recent global developments in the energy sector appear to threaten the Russian oil and gas dependent economic model. The technological changes associated with shale energy production that have been developing over the last few years have already reconfigured the global energy industry and will likely impact the broader geopolitical landscape as well as domestic politics in states highly dependent on energy trade. Is Putin's luck undermined by what came to be known in the United States as the shale gas revolution and the potential shale oil revolution? This policy memo will first review the impact of these recent developments in the United States and globally and discuss how these changes have already impacted Gazprom, Russia's leading energy company. The first section will also examine the existing estimates for the shale oil revolution. The


The harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian, when augmented by a non-Hermitian -symmetric part, can be transformed into a Hermitian Hamiltonian. This is achieved by introducing a metric which, in general, renders other observables such as the usual momentum or position as non-Hermitian operators. The metric depends on one real parameter, the full range of which is investigated. The explicit functional dependence of the metric and each associated Hamiltonian is given. A specific choice of this parameter determines a specific combination of position and momentum as being an observable; this can be in particular either standard position or momentum, but not both simultaneously. Singularities of the metric are explored and their removability is investigated. The physical significance of these findings is discussed.


but Walter Plowright did, and he was ultimately rewarded with the 1999 World Food Prize for the vaccine he developed that has almost made possible the elimination of the centuries-old problem of the cattle disease, rinderpest. At the award ceremony in London, England, in October 1999, the organisers paid tribute to Plowright s 'more than 20 years of research and development (in Kenya) to develop a safe and effective rinderpest vaccine.'

Plowright s achievement shows the impact a dedicated researcher can have. A former colleague, Frank Dobson, told the tale vividly to the King of Belgium some years ago: 'Rinderpest wasn t introduced into Africa until 1890. It swept from the Horn of Africa to the Cape in twelve years and killed 80% to 90% of the game. The plains were littered with carcasses. The vultures couldn t fly, they were so full The British government argued for clearing the Serengeti plain of wildebeest because they were perceived to be a reservoir for rinderpest. So Walter develops a vaccine. Surely nobody is going to go out there and wrestle with wild buffaloes, jab a quarter of a million wildebeest? So each year, they would go out, they still do, and vaccinate all the cattle in the area by just vaccinating cattle, rinderpest disappears from all the other species in the ecosystem.'

A few pockets of rinderpest remain in the world, because of problems of access arising from political circumstances. As these are overcome rinderpest, like smallpox, may be eliminated. One of science s finest achievements, a great credit to Dr. Plowright and, hopefully, an inspiration to today s young scientists.

More details:

World Food Prize Foundation,

610 Locust Street, Suite 1000,

Des Moines, Iowa 50309, USA

Fax: + 1 515 245 3783

Email: email@example.com

Website: www.wfpf.org


Background: The pediatric diabetes team aims to support health, quality of life, and normal growth and development among adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Adolescents with an immigrant background have been found less successful in self-care. Previous research indicated that adolescents who had integrated the disease as a part of their self-image reasoned differently about their self-care to those who had not. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify elements in the patient–pediatrician consultations that might influence such integration of the disease among adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Methods: A total of 12 pediatrician–adolescent consultations were video-recorded and analyzed. The adolescents all had an immigrant background. Results: Integration of the disease appeared enabled when responsibility was shared; when hope, autonomy, and emotions were confirmed; and when the pediatrician asked probing questions. Letting objective data dominate the adolescent's experiences, using risk as a motivator, neutralizing emotions in relation to having diabetes, and confirming forgetfulness, may instead inhibit disease integration. Conclusion: An extended person-centered approach with focus on the adolescent's experiences of everyday life with a chronic disease and less attention on physical parameters in the pediatrician–adolescent consultations may increase integration of the disease.


Although a huge range of definitions has accumulated in the philosophy, biology and psychology literatures, no consensus has been reached on exactly what innateness amounts to. This has helped fuel an increasing skepticism, one that views the concept as anachronistic and actually harmful to science. Yet it remains central to many life sciences, and to several public policy issues too. So it is correspondingly urgent that its philosophical underpinnings be properly cleaned up. In this paper, I present a new approach that endorses a role in science for innateness while also accommodating many of the skeptical concerns. The key to squaring the circle is to import influential recent work on causal explanation. My thesis is that ascriptions of innateness are best seen as explanatory claims. The account that results has three main original features: 1) Innateness is a pragmatic, relational concept. Every trait may be either innate or non-innate, depending on explanatory context. 2) There is an important distinction between innate traits and innate dispositions. 3) Innateness is useful to science as a higher-level predicate that licenses interventions. It is thereby also clarified what ascriptions of innateness do not tell us.


This paper provides the first empirical study of the Roberts Court's use of substantive canons in its statutory interpretation cases. Based on data from 295 statutory interpretation cases decided by the Roberts Court during its first six-and-a-half terms, the paper argues that much of the conventional wisdom about substantive canons of statutory construction is wrong, or at least overstated with respect to the modern Supreme Court. Substantive canons — such as the rule of lenity, the avoidance canon, or the presumption against extraterritorial application of domestic laws — have long been criticized as undemocratic judge-made rules that defeat congressional intent, afford willful judges a convenient vehicle for massaging different meanings out of the same text, and make statutory interpretation unpredictable, because judges invent new canons and reject old ones to suit their changing tastes. Scholars have bemoaned the amount of work that substantive canons perform in statutory interpretation cases and several have charged that textualist judges, in particular, overuse such canons.Whereas most previous studies have focused on the Rehnquist Court, this paper reconsiders the substantive canons in light of new data collected from the Roberts Court. The data show that contrary to the conventional wisdom, substantive canons are infrequently invoked on the modern Court — and that, even when invoked, they rarely play an outcome-determinative role in the Court's statutory constructions. Indeed substantive canons often are referenced as an afterthought, or add-on argument supplying minimal additional support to an interpretation reached primarily through other interpretive tools. Perhaps most surprisingly, textualist Justices rarely invoke substantive canons in the opinions they author; indeed, intentionalist Justice Stevens leads the Roberts Court in references to such canons.The paper also challenges scholars' gloomy warnings that Justices in the modern, New-Textualism-influenced era have replaced legislative history with substantive canons as the go-to resource for deciphering ambiguous statutory text. Rather, the data from the Roberts Court show that most of the Justices referenced legislative history at slightly, or even substantially, higher rates than they referenced substantive canons. Moreover, the Court's own precedents, followed by practical-consequences-based reasoning — rather than substantive canons or legislative history — seem to be the unsung gap-filling mechanisms that the Justices turn to when confronted with unclear statutory text. The paper first reports the findings from my study of 295 Roberts Court cases and then explores the theoretical implications of these findings for several leading statutory interpretation theories and debates.


In this paper, we study the statistical properties of the moneyness scaling transformation by Leung and Sircar (2015). This transformation adjusts the moneyness coordinate of the implied volatility smile in an attempt to remove the discrepancy between the IV smiles for levered and unlevered ETF options. We construct bootstrap uniform confidence bands which indicate that in a statistical sense there remains a possibility that the implied volatility smiles are still not the same, even after moneyness scaling has been performed. This presents possible arbitrage opportunities on the (L)ETF market which can be exploited by traders. We build possible arbitrage strategies by constructing portfolios with LETF shares and options which possibly have a positive value at the point of creation and non-negative value at the expiration time. An empirical data application shows that there are indeed such opportunities in the market which result in risk-free gains for the investor. A dynamic "trade-with-the-smile" strategy based on a dynamic semiparametric factor model is presented. This strategy utilizes the dynamic structure of implied volatility surface allowing out-of-sample forecasting and information on unleveraged ETF options to construct theoretical one-step-ahead implied volatility surfaces. The codes used to obtain the results in this paper, are available on www.quantlet.de.


Advancements in neural machinery have led to a wide range of algorithmic solutions for molecular property prediction. Two classes of models in particular have yielded promising results: neural networks applied to computed molecular fingerprints or expert-crafted descriptors, and graph convolutional neural networks that construct a learned molecular representation by operating on the graph structure of the molecule. However, recent literature has yet to clearly determine which of these two methods is superior when generalizing to new chemical space. Furthermore, prior research has rarely examined these new models in industry research settings in comparison to existing employed models. In this paper, we benchmark models extensively on 19 public and 16 proprietary industrial datasets spanning a wide variety of chemical endpoints. In addition, we introduce a graph convolutional model that consistently matches or outperforms models using fixed molecular descriptors as well as previous graph neural architectures on both public and proprietary datasets. Our empirical findings indicate that while approaches based on these representations have yet to reach the level of experimental reproducibility, our proposed model nevertheless offers significant improvements over models currently used in industrial workflows.


The southwestern half of a ∼500 km long seismic gap in the central Kuril Island arc subduction zone experienced two great earthquakes with extensive preshock and aftershock sequences in late 2006 to early 2007. The nature of seismic coupling in the gap had been uncertain due to the limited historical record of prior large events and the presence of distinctive upper plate, trench and outer rise structures relative to adjacent regions along the arc that have experienced repeated great interplate earthquakes in the last few centuries. The intraplate region seaward of the seismic gap had several shallow compressional events during the preceding decades (notably an M_S 7.2 event on 16 March 1963), leading to speculation that the interplate fault was seismically coupled. This issue was partly resolved by failure of the shallow portion of the interplate megathrust in an M_W = 8.3 thrust event on 15 November 2006. This event ruptured ∼250 km along the seismic gap, just northeast of the great 1963 Kuril Island (M_w = 8.5) earthquake rupture zone. Within minutes of the thrust event, intense earthquake activity commenced beneath the outer wall of the trench seaward of the interplate rupture, with the larger events having normal-faulting mechanisms. An unusual double band of interplate and intraplate aftershocks developed. On 13 January 2007, an M_W = 8.1 extensional earthquake ruptured within the Pacific plate beneath the seaward edge of the Kuril trench. This event is the third largest normal-faulting earthquake seaward of a subduction zone on record, and its rupture zone extended to at least 33 km depth and paralleled most of the length of the 2006 rupture. The 13 January 2007 event produced stronger shaking in Japan than the larger thrust event, as a consequence of higher short-period energy radiation from the source. The great event aftershock sequences were dominated by the expected faulting geometries; thrust faulting for the 2006 rupture zone, and normal faulting for the 2007 rupture zone. A large intraplate compressional event occurred on 15 January 2009 (M_w = 7.4) near 45 km depth, below the rupture zone of the 2007 event and in the vicinity of the 16 March 1963 compressional event. The fault geometry, rupture process and slip distributions of the two great events are estimated using very broadband teleseismic body and surface wave observations. The occurrence of the thrust event in the shallowest portion of the interplate fault in a region with a paucity of large thrust events at greater depths suggests that the event removed most of the slip deficit on this portion of the interplate fault. This great earthquake doublet demonstrates the heightened seismic hazard posed by induced intraplate faulting following large interplate thrust events. Future seismic failure of the remainder of the seismic gap appears viable, with the northeastern region that has also experienced compressional activity seaward of the megathrust warranting particular attention.


Language problems have impact on school succes (Beichtman et al., 1996, Nelson et al., 2006), behavior (Coster et al., 1999), and quality of life (Van Agt, 2011). Also the comorbidity with other developmental disorders like dyslexia, ADHD and ASS is high (Gerrits, 2011). Psychological wellbeing depends on the interaction with others (Steenbeek & Geert, 2007), in which speech and language are important tools. Identification of children at risk for speech and language delays and related problems may lead to appropriate follow-up and interventions at a young age, when chances for improvement are best (Nelson, 2006). Therefore, it is of great importance to monitor the speech and language development and its consequences during early childhood. In the Netherlands, several protocols exist to detect children with speech and language delay and to guide them to appropriate care. Though, the balance between health benefits, costs, scope and adverse results of these protocols are not evaluated. In 2009, the RIVM and the NCJ formulated a practice based guideline for the screening of children with speech and language delays in Child Health Care (CHC). This position statement is based on consensus in the field. The goal of this study is to collect evidence for the scientific underpinnings of the current practice-based guidelines of the NCJ. We want to evaluate the improvements of speech and language outcomes as well as non speech and language outcomes a year after CHC-screening 2-year-old children.


Abstract Aims: Bilateral pelvic neurectomy (BPN) interferes with delivery in rats. This work measures the effect of BPN on uterine and abdominal electromyography (EMG) and pressure during gestation and delivery. Methods: Uterine EMG and intra-uterine pressure (IUP), as well as abdominal muscle EMG and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP), were recorded on days 19–24 in rats. Mean values were determined for the peak frequency of the power density spectrum (PDS) of the uterine and abdominal EMG "bursts," the integral of the abdominal EMG power spectrum (IPS), and the area under the IUP and IAP curves (AUIUP and AUIAP). Results: Uterine EMG power density spectrum peak frequency and AUIUP were low during days 19–21 in all rats, and on days 22–23 increased sharply and significantly in both groups. Before delivery, sham rat recordings showed sudden sharp increases in AUIAP, AUIUP and IPS as "pushing" was observed. Pushing was not observed or recorded in laboring BPN rats and they did not deliver normally. Conclusions: A functional pelvic nerve is required for normal labor and delivery in rats. BPN inhibits abdominal EMG and contractions necessary to expel the fetus.


The last two years have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for English Premier League (EPL) team Leicester City. In the 2015/16 season, against all odds and logic, they won the league to much fan-fare. Fast-forward nine months later, and they are battling relegation. What could describe this fluctuating form? As soccer is a very complex and strategic game, common statistics (e.g., passes, shots, possession) do not really tell the full story on how a team succeeds and fails. However, using machine learning tools and a plethora of data, it is now possible to obtain some insights into how a team performs. To showcase the utility of these new tools (i.e., expected goal value, expected save value, strategy-plots and passing quality measures), we first analyze the EPL 2015/16 season which a specific emphasis on the champions Leicester City, and then compare it to the current one. Finally, we show how these features can be used to predict future performance.


The word numeraire refers to the unit of measurement used to value a portfolio of assets. The change of numeraire technique involves converting from one measurement to another. The foreign exchange markets are natural settings for interpreting this technique (but are by no means the only examples). This dissertation includes elementary facts about the change of numeraire technique. It also discusses the mathematical soundness of the technique in the abstract setting of Delbaen and Schachermayer's Mathematics of Arbitrage. The technique is then applied to financial pricing problems. The right choice of numeraire could be an elegant approach to solving a pricing problem or could simplify computation and modelling.


BACKGROUND
No study has investigated factors associated with non-participation or partial participation in the different combination patterns of screening programmes for all three cancers, that is, breast, colorectal and cervical cancer.

METHODS
In a retrospective cohort study, we sought to describe combinations of cancer screening participation rates among women in the Val-de-Marne area of France and to identify individual and contextual factors associated with non-participation or partial participation.

RESULTS
Women aged between 50 and 65 and who were eligible for all three screening programmes (n = 102 219) were analysed in multilevel logistic models, with the individual as the Level 1 variable and the place of residence as the Level 2 variable. The women who did not participate in any of the screening programmes were 34.4%, whereas 30.1%, 24% and 11.5% participated in one, two or all three screening programmes, respectively. Age below 55, a previous false-positive mammography, prior opportunistic mammography only, no previous mammography, membership of certain health insurance schemes (all P < 0.05) and residence in a deprived area (P < 0.001) were independently associated with non-participation or partial participation. We observed a stronger effect of deprivation on non-participation in all three cancers than in combinations of screening programmes.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that the health authorities should focus on improving cancer screenings in general rather than screenings for specific types of cancer, especially among younger women and those living in the most socially deprived areas.


The performance of urban drainage systems is typically examined using hydrological and hydrodynamic models where rainfall input is uniformly distributed, i.e., derived from a single or very few rain gauges. When models are fed with a single uniformly distributed rainfall realization, the response of the urban drainage system to the rainfall variability remains unexplored. The goal of this study was to understand how climate variability and spatial rainfall variability, jointly or individually considered, affect the response of a calibrated hydrodynamic urban drainage model. A stochastic spatially distributed rainfall generator (STREAP – SpaceTime Realizations of Areal Precipitation) was used to simulate many realizations of rainfall for a 30-year period, accounting for both climate variability and spatial rainfall variability. The generated rainfall ensemble was used as input into a calibrated hydrodynamic model (EPA SWMM – the US EPA's Storm Water Management Model) to simulate surface runoff and channel flow in a small urban catchment in the city of Lucerne, Switzerland. The variability of peak flows in response to rainfall of different return periods was evaluated at three different locations in the urban drainage network and partitioned among its sources. The main contribution to the total flow variability was found to originate from the natural climate variability (on average over 74 %). In addition, the relative contribution of the spatial rainfall variability to the total flow variability was found to increase with longer return periods. This suggests that while the use of spatially distributed rainfall data can supply valuable information for sewer network design (typically based on rainfall with return periods from 5 to 15 years), there is a more pronounced relevance when conducting flood risk assessments for larger return periods. The results show the importance of using multiple distributed rainfall realizations in urban hydrology studies to capture the total flow variability in the response of the urban drainage systems to heavy rainfall events.


Paired with the Chaoyue: Advancing in Chinese language text, this workbook completes one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive language instruction tools currently available. The workbook cements students' interpersonal communication skills and their ability to present and interpret Chinese as it is spoken and written. Filled with authentic uses of the language from everyday life, the workbook, just like the textbook, paints a vivid portrait of the Chinese-speaking world for a variety of students to grasp. Also in line with the text, the workbook emphasizes communication, cultures, comparisons, connections, and communities, and includes relatable topics, such as the self, schooling, and social customs, altogether engendering an appreciation of Chinese within a solidly global context.


Thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) roofing membranes have been used in the US low-slope roofing industry as single-ply membranes for over 15 years, and have seen widespread acceptance. TPO membranes have been defined by ASTM Standard D6878-08, "Standard Specification for Thermoplastic Polyolefin Based Sheet Roofing," Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.04, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2008, www.astm.org, which sets a minimum threshold for accelerated weathering performance. To be ASTM D6878 compliant, a TPO membrane shall not show any visual micro-cracking under 7X magnification after being exposed in a xenon arc light apparatus to a minimum irradiance of 10 080 kJ/m2 at 340 nm. While the ongoing development of TPO membranes uses D6878 as the basic standard, it is necessary for individual membrane manufacturers to develop an advanced understanding of TPO long-term weathering durability to further improve confidence in the expected service life. In this paper, a novel ultra accelerated outdoor weathering technique, atlas ultra accelerated weathering system (UAWS), is used to predict long-term weathering durability performance of TPO. The comparison and correlation of this novel technique with other artificial accelerated weathering methods, such as xenon arc light [ASTM G155-05a, "Standard Practice for Operating Xenon Arc Light Apparatus for Exposure of Non-Metallic Materials," Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol.14.04, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2005, www.astm.org] and fluorescent UV light [ASTM G154-06, "Standard Practice for Operating Fluorescent Light Apparatus for UV Exposure of Nonmetallic Materials," Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 14.04, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2006, www.astm.org] are shown and reviewed. The surface temperatures of TPO membranes exposed in the UAWS device as well as in the field are shown to further understand the heat impact on TPO durability. In addition, accelerated heat aging at temperatures up to 138 °C are shown to give very good correlation to other aging tests.


Previous reports have suggested that the sparsely distributed hairs found on the entire postcranial body of sirenians are all sinus type tactile hairs. This would represent a unique arrangement because no other mammal has been reported to possess tactile hairs except on restricted regions of the body, primarily the face. In order to investigate this issue further, hair counts were made systematically in three Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris), and hair follicle microanatomy was studied in 110 specimens gathered from 9 animals. We found that the postcranial body possesses approximately 1500 hairs per side, and hair density decreases from dorsal to ventral. External hair length ranged from 2–9 mm, and most hairs were separated from their nearest neighbor by 20–40 mm, resulting in an independent domain of movement for each hair. All hairs exhibited the anatomical characteristics of follicle-sinus complexes typical of tactile hairs, including a dense connective tissue capsule containing an elongated circumferential blood sinus and innervation by 20–50 axons which ascend the mesenchymal sheath. We conclude that this represents a unique distributed underwater tactile system capable of conveying detailed and significant external information concerning approaching animals, water currents and possibly the presence of large stationary features of the environment. Such a system would be analogous to the lateral line in fish, and would be particularly useful in the turbid habitat frequented by Florida manatees.


In recent years there has been much progress in the use of operationally based methods for reasoning about programs. Notions such as contextual equivalence and bisimilarity, which are historically more usually associated with functional programming and concurrency respectively, have been shown to be very closely connected, and such connections can be seen throughout the functional, concurrent and indeed imperative paradigms. In this paper we show that operational techniques from these three settings also apply in a linear functional setting, by proving that in a simple linear type theory involving function types and tensor types, one can establish linear contextual equivalences by coinductive techniques. A version of this paper is due to appear in the Proceedings of Theory and Formal Methods of Computing '96.


We introduce \emph{LL-RNNs} (Log-Linear RNNs), an extension of Recurrent Neural Networks that replaces the softmax output layer by a log-linear output layer, of which the softmax is a special case. This conceptually simple move has two main advantages. First, it allows the learner to combat training data sparsity by allowing it to model words (or more generally, output symbols) as complex combinations of attributes without requiring that each combination is directly observed in the training data (as the softmax does). Second, it permits the inclusion of flexible prior knowledge in the form of \emph{a priori} specified modular features, where the neural network component learns to dynamically control the weights of a log-linear distribution exploiting these features. We provide some motivating illustrations, and argue that the log-linear and the neural-network components contribute complementary strengths to the LL-RNN: the LL aspect allows the model to incorporate rich prior knowledge, while the NN aspect, according to the "representation learning" paradigm, allows the model to discover novel combination of characteristics.


The presentation will discuss practices employed in current and recent relevant research projects in order to address two interrelated criticisms of corpus approaches to critical discourse studies, namely that a) they do not (sufficiently) take account of the relevant context; b) they only/mainly examine lists of words (keywords, collocates), or, at best, concordances of a few words around the node. The examples come from the completed project Discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press, 1996-2006, and the ongoing project The representation of Islam and Muslims in the UK press, 1998-2008, which used corpora comprising all British national newspapers (both projects were funded by the ESRC; principal investigator: Paul Baker). The central aim is to demonstrate that these criticisms stem from restricted conceptions of corpus research. That is, irrespective of whether they may be justified in individual cases, these criticisms do not concern the potential of corpus-based approaches. More specifically, the following points will be illustrated: • Corpus researchers have no less access to sources of relevant contextual information than (critical) discourse analysts. • A preliminary quantitative analysis of a corpus reveals patterns which not only pinpoint areas that can be usefully examined in detail, but can also uncover helpful contextual elements. • Corpus analysis need not stop at the examination of short concordance lines, but can involve the close analysis of longer stretches of text, or whole texts if necessary – while at the same time retaining the ability to quantify the results.


The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) gene has been described in several studies as a candidate gene for growth traits in farm animals. The present preliminary study attempts to establish associations between growth traits and genetic polymorphisms at the 5' flanking region s IGF-I in the Baluchi sheep. The DNA of 102 sheep of the indigenous Iranian Baluchi breed was evaluated. Polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis of the 5' flanking region (Exon1) of the ovine IGF-I gene revealed three banding patterns (genotypes) named as A/A, A/B and B/B. The evaluation of an association effect between these SSCP patterns with birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), and average daily gain from birth to weaning (GBW), weaning to six month (GWS) and from six month to yearling age (GSY) suggest a positive effect of pattern (Genotype) A/B with GBW and weaning weight (WW). Pattern (Genotype) B/B had a superior birth weight when compared to those of individuals with other patterns. Moreover, the A/A pattern (Genotype) appeared favourable for live weight at yearling age. These results confirmed the potential usefulness of this gene in marker-assisted selection programmes for sheep breeding.


This book is Lash′s most comprehensive statement in social and cultural theory. It is a book addressed to sociologists and philosophers, to students of urban life, modern languages, cultural studies and the visual arts. Alongside the Enlightenment has emerged another modernity. This second modernity has – in opposition to the Enlightenment rationality of progress, order, homogeneity and cognition – initiated a different rationality of uncertainty, transience, experiment, and the unknowable. This second, this other modernity, is present in notions of ′difference′ and ′reflexivity′ so central to the contemporary world–view. The logic, however, of such notions can, itself, lead to the same unhappy abstraction of the first modernity. What is forgotten, Scott Lash argues, is the dimension of the ground. This book consists of explorations into this ground: as place, community, belonging, sociality, tradition, life–world; as symbol, sensation, in the tactile character of the sign. The book addresses the other modernity′s forgotten ground. The first and second modernities co–existed in a state of irresolvable tension along the history of western industrial capitalism. This is thrown into crisis, Lash argues, with the turn of the twenty–first century emergence of the global information culture. What are the implications of this explosion of first and second modernities into today′s technological culture? When the previously existing third space of difference is exploded into the general indifference of information and communication flows? How might we lead our lives in an age in which difference – and indeed the ground itself – become primarily a matter for memory, for mourning?


4-Aryl-3(5)-2-(hydroxyphenyl)pyrazoles have been prepared by the reaction of isoflavones and their 4-thio analogues with hydrazine hydrate and phenylhydrazine in hot pyridine. The reaction mechanism for the formation of these pyrazoles is discussed. All the new compounds have been fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy. In [D6]DMSO, a 1H NMR study allows observation of the presence of both pyrazole annular tautomers, due to the presence of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in each tautomer (OH···N and NH···O). Theoretical calculations have been carried out on tautomers and conformers of compounds 20 (3(5)-(2-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-5(3)-methyl-4-phenylpyrazole) and 21 (3(5)-(2-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-5(3)-methylpyrazole), including the absolute shieldings (GIAO/B3 LYP/6–311++G**) of 21.


Tsunamis are natural hazards that have caused massive destruction and loss of life in coastal areas worldwide for centuries. Major programs promoting tsunami safety, however, date from the early 20th century and have received far greater emphasis following two major events in the opening decade of the 21st century: the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004, and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011. In the aftermath of these catastrophic disasters, warning systems and the technologies associated with them have expanded from a concentration in the Pacific Ocean to other regions with significant tsunami vulnerability. Preparedness and hazard mitigation programs, once the province of wealthier nations, are now being shared with developing countries. While warning systems and tsunami mapping and modeling are basic tools in promoting tsunami safety, there are a number of strategies that are essential in protecting lives and property in major tsunami events. Preparedness strategies consist of tsunami awareness and education and actions that promote response readiness. These strategies should provide an understanding of how tsunamis occur, where they occur, how to respond to warnings or natural signs that a tsunami may occur, and what locations are safe for evacuation. Hazard mitigation strategies are designed to reduce the likelihood that coastal populations will be impacted by a tsunami, typically through engineered structures or removing communities from known tsunami inundation zones. They include natural or constructed high ground for evacuation, structures for vertical evacuation (either single purpose structures specifically for tsunami evacuation or existing buildings that are resistant to tsunami forces), seawalls, breakwaters, forest barriers, and tsunami river gates. Coastal jurisdictions may also use land-use planning ordinances or coastal zoning to restrict development in areas of significant risk of tsunami inundation. The relative efficacy of these strategies and locations where they have been implemented will be addressed, as will the issues and challenges regarding their implementation.


Stable flies are one of the most important arthropod pests of livestock that reduce cattle weight gain and milk production leading to annual economic losses in excess of $2 billion to the US cattle industry. The host‐seeking behavior is primarily mediated by associated odors from stable fly larval development environments and host animals. The present paper reports the development and evaluation of attractant‐impregnated adhesive tapes to reduce stable fly attacks on cattle. Laboratory bioassays showed that only m‐cresol impregnated adhesive tapes caught significantly more stable flies (16 ± 1) than the control tape without attractant added (7 ± 1), with a 77% fly recapture rate. Attractant‐impregnated adhesive tapes deployed in cattle feedlots showed significant impacts in reducing fly population, with a total of one million stable flies captured over a period of three weeks (mean catches from 57 596 to 102 088 stable flies per trap per week). It further relieved cattle stress with a significant reduction of biting fly avoidance behavior, (6 ± 0.4 cows observed with tail wagging in control vs. 3 ± 0.4 from the trap‐deployed). The efficacy of the developed tapes lasted up to 1‐week longevity, although 70% of m‐cresol was released starting from the second day. The m‐cresol impregnated adhesive tape provided an 80% reduction in cattle stress due to stable fly attack. This is the first report of a technology developed by integrating an attractant compound into an adhesive material on a plastic film with demonstrated effectiveness in trapping biting flies that attack livestock animals.


Within the civil engineering and construction industries fibre composites are now being adopted in certain applications in place of more traditional building materials such as timber and steel. Although, fibre composites possess certain advantages over traditional building materials they are predominately produced from non-renewable resources. Of particular concern is the petro-chemical based polymer resins commonly used such as epoxy, vinylester and polyester. It is due to this dependence on finite petro-chemicals and the negative environmental impact associated with their production and uses that alternative, competitive options are sought. Plant oil based bioresins are one such option. Although in its infancy, research suggests that biocomposites produced with plant oil based bioresins and plant based fibres offer the potential to be used as a sustainable replacement option to traditional fibre composites.
The research work presented within this dissertation is to the best of the author's knowledge a world-first overall investigation pertaining to the concept of synthesising hemp oil based bioresins and applying them to biocomposites. In this work hemp oil based bioresins, specifically epoxidized hemp oil (EHO) and acrylated epoxidized hemp oil (AEHO) were synthesised and characterised and proposed as a potential replacement to their equivalent synthetic polymer resins (epoxy and acrylated resins) and also as an alternative to other commercially available bioresins. The synthesised bioresins were also applied as matrices in the production of suitable biocomposites. Hemp oil was epoxidized in a solvent free process using peracetic acid and an acid ion exchange resin (AIER) catalyst via in situ epoxidation. From 1H-NMR spectroscopy analysis, oxirane oxygen content was calculated as approximately 8.6% and a relative conversion to oxirane of 92% with approximately 5.1 epoxy groups per triglyceride. AEHO was synthesised from EHO via in situ acrylation. According to the 1H-NMR analysis of AEHO, acrylate peaks were apparent and were of the magnitude of approximately 4.1 acrylates per triglyceride. Some epoxide homopolymerisation was observed limiting conversion to AEHO to approximately 81%. Curing analysis and cure kinetic modelling were also performed for both EHO and AEHO. The kinetics of curing of both bioresin systems were able to be accurately modelled using a modified expression of Kamal's autocatalytic model.
The synthesised bioresins were applied to biocomposites and characterised in terms of mechanical, dynamic mechanical and moisture absorption properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also performed to investigate the fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion. EHO based bioresins and jute fibre reinforced biocomposites were manufactured and compared with commercially produced epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and synthetic epoxy based samples. It was found that EHO based bioresins when applied to jute fibre reinforced biocomposites can compete with commercially produced ESO in terms of mechanical performance, dynamic mechanical properties and water absorption characteristics. Although it was shown that EHO can be used in higher concentrations than ESO when blended with synthetic epoxy thereby resulting in more sustainable biocomposites.
AEHO based bioresins and jute fibre reinforced biocomposites were manufactured and compared with commercially produced vinylester (VE) based samples. AEHO based samples exhibited higher fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion compared with the VE based samples.
Finally the mechanical performance, dynamic mechanical properties and moisture absorption properties of 100% hemp based biocomposite panels were investigated and compared to those of a VE hybrid composite. Results showed that, except for the flexural modulus that was 23% higher in the case of the hybrid composite, no significant differences exist in the mechanical performance of both tested materials. The higher fibre-matrix compatibility of the biocomposites led to stronger fibre-matrix interfaces compensating the lower mechanical performance of the neat bioresin with respect to the synthetic VE resin. All of the biocomposite sample types displayed lower dynamic mechanical properties compared with their synthetic counterparts. As, expected moisture absorption was also found to be higher in the biobased specimens although fibre transport was the dominate mechanism rather than resin type.
Overall from this research work it can be concluded that hemp oil based bioresins can effectively compete with commercially available bioresins and their equivalent synthetics in biocomposite applications. An enhanced understanding of the synthesis, characterisation and performance of hemp oil based bioresin and biocomposites for use in engineering applications is a key outcome of this investigation.


Vapor-fed solar hydrogen generators can convert water vapor from the air into hydrogen using sunlight as the energy source. Hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions are performed in the gas phase in cathode and anode compartments separated by a membrane. Anion exchange membranes show great promise for this type of solar hydrogen generator. They provide an alkaline environment enabling the use of earth abundant materials as electrocatalysts. In this work, a vapor-fed solar hydrogen generator with KOH-doped poly(vinyl alcohol) anion exchange membrane flanked with NiFe and NiMo catalysts is demonstrated. The device reached an average 15.1% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency at room temperature and 95% relative humidity. This first demonstration of gas phase water splitting with earth abundant catalysts and anion exchange membrane opens a pathway to low cost, autonomous, efficient and safe solar hydrogen generators.


Bettencourt-Dias et al. transfected double-stranded RNA for each of the 228 predicted Drosophila kinase genes into cultured S2 cells and found that depletion of 80 of them (in other words, about a third of the Drosophila kinome) led to defects in cell cycle progression or mitosis (or both). The authors used flow cytometry screening to identify cells with delayed progression through specific phases of the cell cycle, as well as blind quantification of 20 parameters (such as centrosomal or spindle defects or mitotic index) to identify abnormalities of mitotic phenotype. In addition to kinases already known to be involved in regulation of the cell cycle or in mitosis and kinases predicted to regulate cytoskeletal elements, the authors identified various cell-signaling kinases involved in cellular responses to growth factors or stress or in responses to nutrients and the regulation of cell growth. These included kinases in the following pathways: nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT), p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), target of rapamycin (TOR)-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1)-S6K signaling pathways. In addition, the AMP-activated kinase SNF1A was identified. The authors noted that their screen highlights elements of cellular physiology that are closely involved in the regulation of the cell cycle. M. Bettencourt-Dias, R. Giet, R. Sinka, A. Mazumdar, W. G. Lock, F. Balloux, P. J. Zafiropoulos, S. Yamaguchi, S. Winter, R. W. Carthew, M. Cooper, D. Jones, L. Frenz, D. M. Glover, Genome-wide survey of protein kinases required for cell cycle progression. Nature 432, 980-987 (2004). [PubMed]


Advances in image synthesis techniques allow us to simulate the distribution of light energy in a scene with great precision. Unfortunately, this does not ensure that the displayed image will have a high fidelity visual appearance. Reasons for this include the limited dynamic range of displays, any residual shortcomings of the rendering process, and the extent to which human vision encodes such departures from perfect physical realism. Image quality metrics are paramount to provide quantitative data on the fidelity of rendered images. This course addresses techniques to compare real and synthetic images, identify important visual system characteristics and help reduce rendering times significantly. Case studies involving both static and dynamic images are considered. Their different image quality metric requirements are compared and contrasted.


This paper studies a novel encirclement guaranteed cooperative pursuit problem involving N pursuers and a single evader in an unbounded two-dimensional game domain. Throughout the game, the pursuers are required to maintain encirclement of the evader, i.e., the evader should always stay inside the convex hull generated by all the pursuers, in addition to achieving the classical capture condition. To tackle this challenging cooperative pursuit problem, a robust model predictive control (RMPC) based formulation framework is first introduced, which simultaneously accounts for the encirclement and capture requirements under the assumption that the evader's action is unavailable to all pursuers. Despite the reformulation, the resulting RMPC problem involves a bilinear constraint due to the encirclement requirement. To further handle such a bilinear constraint, a novel encirclement guaranteed partitioning scheme is devised that simplifies the original bilinear RMPC problem to a number of linear tube MPC (TMPC) problems solvable in a decentralized manner. Simulation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution framework. Furthermore, comparisons with existing approaches show that the explicit consideration of the encirclement condition significantly improves the chance of successful capture of the evader in various scenarios.


Singapore-China relations have deteriorated since 2010, due to Singapore's position over the disputed South China Sea and its support for the United States' strategy of 'rebalancing'. Singapore has been concerned with China's use of coercion instead of international law and arbitration to settle interstate disputes, as this undermines the very international system upon which small states depend on for survival. However, despite pressure from China to take its side, Singapore does still have room to manoeuvre as there are a number of larger countries which are concerned with China's attempts to dominate the region.


In Amazon, hydroelectric power production excludes ungauged small catchments. Thus, the main objective of this paper is the implementation of a non-linear rainfall-runoff model on small catchments in the Amazon region to simulate flow duration curves for the hydropower production. Because the rainfall-runoff process is non-linear, modification is applied to a simple linear model based on the residuals relationship between the simulated and observed discharges. For calibration and sensitivity analysis of the model, seven years to one year of rainfall and flow data were used; and for validation, seven-year data from a small source catchment were used. The sensitivity analysis determined that the minimum length of data is 18 months. Thus, the model was applied in an experimental catchment with 1.5 year of data. The good results of the model application showed that it could be applied in other small catchments with limited data in the Amazon region to simulate flow duration curves.


This paper measures the attitude of banking customers towards complaining and their likelihood to complain when a service failure is experienced at their current and another bank. Insight is also provided into the service recovery responses customers consider appropriate when a service failure is experienced. The target population included individuals in the Gauteng Province of South Africa who hold a bank account in their personal capacity. An interviewer-administered survey was used to collect data using non-probability quota sampling based upon population group and gender. A demographic profile of respondents, as well as the findings in terms of the aforementioned constructs and related hypotheses is provided. The study found that respondents have a positive attitude towards complaining, and that they are significantly more likely to voice a complaint when experiencing a service failure at their current bank than at another bank. Significant differences also exist with regard to the individual responses respondents consider appropriate when confronted with a hypothetical service failure experienced at their current bank and another bank.


A new generation of cyber-physical systems has emerged with a large number of devices that continuously generate and consume massive amounts of data in a distributed and mobile manner. Accurate and near real-time decisions based on such streaming data are in high demand in many areas of optimization for such systems. Edge data analytics bring processing power in the proximity of data sources, reduce the network delay for data transmission, allow large-scale distributed training, and consequently help meeting real-time requirements. Nevertheless, the multiplicity of data sources leads to multiple distributed machine learning models that may suffer from sub-optimal performance due to the inconsistency in their states. In this work, we tackle the insularity, concept drift, and connectivity issues in edge data analytics to minimize its accuracy handicap without losing its timeliness benefits. Thus, we propose an efficient model synchronization mechanism for distributed and stateful data analytics. Staleness Control for Edge Data Analytics (SCEDA) ensures the high adaptability of synchronization frequency in the face of an unpredictable environment by addressing the trade-off between the generality and timeliness of the model.