Canopy level flux measurements of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO) were made over a 7 year old ponderosa pine plantation in the Sierra Nevada range of California using the relaxed eddy accumulation method. Fluxes peaked in late afternoon (1600 LT), at an average rate of 1.11 mg C m-2 h-1. This corresponds to the time of peak temperatures. MBO fluxes were strongly correlated with both temperature and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Model calculations of MBO flux from this site using a model developed for isoprene provide an accurate simulation of the diurnal emissions pattern but overestimate the measured flux by a factor of 2. Discrepancies between the measurements and the model predictions are likely due to the uncertainties in choosing model inputs. These results indicate a significant flux of reactive carbon in the western United States where MBO-emitting pines are the dominant forest vegetation. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.


At least since plato and Aristotle, thinkers have pondered the relationship between philosophical arguments and the "sophistical" arguments offered by the Sophists -- who were the first professional lawyers. Judges wield substantial political power, and the justifications they offer for their decisions are a vital means by which citizens can assess the legitimacy of how that power is exercised. However, to evaluate judicial justifications requires close attention to the method of reasoning behind decisions. This new collection illuminates and explains the political and moral importance in justifying the exercise of judicial power.


Abstract This paper uses data from a nationwide survey administered during late 2009 and early 2010 to estimate a random utility model of household preferences for broadband Internet service. Reliability and speed are important service characteristics: the representative household is willing to pay $20 per month for more reliable service; $45 for an improvement in speed from slow to fast; and $48 for an improvement in speed from slow to very fast. A representative household would be willing to pay $79 per month for a fast, reliable Internet service. Internet valuations increase with experience, and there has been an estimated two- to three-fold increase in consumer surplus per household between 2003 and 2010. If experience causes increased valuation, targeted programs that educate households about the benefits from broadband, expose households to the broadband experience and/or directly support the initial take-up of broadband have potential to increase overall penetration in the United States.


The processes leading to successful versus failed coalescence of similar magma batches upon their emplacement are investigated at Elba Island (Tuscany), where several magma bodies were generated at a single magmatic center over a time span of ∼1 Ma during the Late Miocene. Three nested Christmas-tree laccoliths made up of separated, shallow-level felsic sheets were emplaced at 2–3 km depth with associated roof uplift. Then, at a deeper level, a granite pluton was constructed over a short time span by three magma pulses stacked downward as subhorizontal intrusive sheets, with space for magma generated mostly by roof uplift and tectonic-gravitational displacement of the overburden. Length-to-thickness relationships for individual laccolith layers, as well as for pluton sheets, show a power-law correlation interpreted as the frozen evidence for the occurrence of a vertical inflation stage during intrusion growth. We infer that laccolith sheets failed to coalesce and form a larger pluton because their magma driving pressure exceeded the lithostatic load in a crustal section rich in subhorizontal magma traps (a thrust stack of bedded rocks). However, the driving pressure of the first magma batch of the Monte Capanne pluton was presumably enhanced by an increased magma supply rate, so that the driving pressure exceeded the load at the level of a deeper magma trap represented by a major thrust fault. The following magma batches arrived in rapid succession and were not able to penetrate the still mushy tabular mass. Thus the laccolith sheets and the sheeted pluton represent different outcomes of similar processes occurring under slightly different conditions.


The collective management of technological platforms is one of the key-issue of life sciences policy in France. Technological platforms have been given two missions by public policies: contributing to knowledge production and realize technological transfer to the industry. The historical and empirical analysis of six different platforms reveals heterogeneous operations and performances, including a rapid obsolescence of equipments for some of them. How to explain this empirical heterogeneity? Why performances and operations are far behind initial expectations? To answer these questions, we have assumed that research and innovation dynamics are due, not so much to the economic properties of research, to the goods exchanged on platforms or to public incentives, rather than to largely unknown organizational and governance mechanisms. Based on the characterization of three models of organization and governance of platforms, we stress two key factors for success: the development of engineering capabilities within platforms enabling to absorb rapidly changing technologies; the building of new multi-level governance rules to address the co-evolution of platform activities and research programs.


Two electromyography (EMG) experiments related to double bass playing are described. By means of surface electrodes and synchronous recordings of finger movements on the string, it is shown in the first experiment that the production of vibrato is associated with pulsating contractions of two back muscles, the teres minor and the teres major. A failure in the coordination of the activity of these muscles was observed in a student having problems in producing a proper vibrato. The second experiment demonstrates clear effects of a small change in the holding of the instrument on muscular stress in the left and right trapezius muscles. These changes were revealed by the occurrence of different degrees of muscular force developed during playing. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.


In computer vision applications, analysis of shading information requires a proper model of light reflection from object surfaces. To overcome the shortcoming of the most often used model and to extend the reflection model for computer color vision, an examination is made of the light reflection problem using the bidirectional spectral-reflectance distribution function (BSRDF) to specify both incident- and reflected-beam geometries. It is shown that the product form can still be retained for a polychromatic light source under two lighting conditions: the light source is collimated; or the spectral factor and the geometric factor can be separated for both the light source and the BSRDF of the surface. The reflection model is then applied to the formulation of a neutral-interface-reflection model, which is tested experimentally. The results show the adequacy of this type of model for surfaces of some material compositions, e.g. plastics, plant leaves, painted surfaces, orange peels, and some glossy cloth, but not for others, e.g. colored paper and some ceramics. >


ABSTRACTThe performance of a modeling system consisting of WRF model v3.4.1 and CMAQ model v4.7.1 for forecasting fine particle concentrations were evaluated using measurement data at the surface. Twenty-four hour averages of PM2.5 and its major components at Bulgwang (located in the northwest of Seoul) during the period February 2012 through January 2013 were compared with predicted concentrations as well as hourly averages of inorganic ions measured at Yongin (located to the southeast of Seoul) in spring 2012. The mean fractional bias (MFB) of –0.37 for PM2.5 at Bulgwang fell just outside the goal of –0.3, the level of accuracy that the best model can be achieved. Negative values of MFB, especially in winter, along with the correlation coefficient of 0.61 between measured and predicted concentrations showed that the model performance at Bulgwang was closer to that for Europe than that for North America. However, underestimation of SO42– and overestimation of NO3– were similarly observed at Bulgwang as in the United States. Although diurnal variations in the measured values showed distinctive features at Yongin according to the classified patterns, most variations in the predicted values typically showed a peak early in the morning followed by an increase at night.


Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant intracranial tumor. Due to its high morbidity, high mortality, high recurrence rate, and low cure rate, it has brought great difficulty for treatment. Although the current treatment is multimodal, including surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, it does not significantly improve survival time. The dismal prognosis and inevitable recurrence as well as resistance to chemoradiotherapy may be related to its highly cellular heterogeneity and multiple subclonal populations. Traditional Chinese medicine has its own unique advantages in the prevention and treatment of it. A comprehensive literature search of anti-glioblastoma active ingredients and derivatives from traditional Chinese medicine was carried out in literature published in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science Cochrane library, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP database. Hence, this article systematically reviews experimental research progress of some traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of glioblastoma from two aspects: strengthening vital qi and eliminating pathogenic qi. Among, strengthening vital qi medicine includes panax ginseng, licorice, lycium barbarum, angelica sinensis; eliminating pathogenic medicine includes salvia miltiorrhiza bunge, scutellaria baicalensis, coptis rhizoma, thunder god vine, and sophora flavescens. We found that the same active ingredient can act on different signaling pathways, such as ginsenoside Rg3 inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis via the AKT, MEK signal pathway. Hence, this multi-target, multi-level pathway may bring on a new dawn for the treatment of glioblastoma.


"Body is our first environment," writes Andrea Olsen. "It is the medium through which we know the earth." In a remarkable integration of environmental science, biology, meditation, and creative expression, Olsen, a dancer who teaches in the environmental studies program at Middlebury College, offers a guide to a holistic understanding of person and place. Part workbook, part exploration, Body and Earth considers the question of how we can best, most responsibly inhabit both our bodies and our planet. Olsen displays an easy command of fields as diverse as geology, biochemistry, ecology, and anatomy as she explores the ways in which our bodies are derived from and connected to the natural world. But Body and Earth is not just a lesson, it is also an investigation. Arranged as a 31-day program, the book offers not only a wealth of scientific information, but also exercises for both exploring the body and connecting with place; illustrations and works of art that illuminate each chapter's themes; and Olsen's own meditations and reflections, connecting the topics to her personal history and experience. Olsen insists that neither body nor landscape are separate from our fundamental selves, but in a culture which views the body as a mechanism to be trained and the landscape as a resource to be exploited, we need to learn to see again their fundamental wholeness and interconnection. Through hard data, reflection, exercises, and inspiration, Body and Earth offers a guide to responsible stewardship of both our planet and our persons.


Three studies suggest that individuals see the existence and operation of cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves. Study 1 provides evidence from three surveys that people rate themselves as less subject to various biases than the "average American," classmates in a seminar, and fellow airport travelers. Data from the third survey further suggest that such claims arise from the interplay among availability biases and self-enhancement motives. Participants in one follow-up study who showed the better-than-average bias insisted that their self-assessments were accurate and objective even after reading a description of how they could have been affected by the relevant bias. Participants in a final study reported their peer's self-serving attributions regarding test performance to be biased but their own similarly self-serving attributions to be free of bias. The relevance of these phenomena to naïve realism and to conflict, misunderstanding, and dispute resolution is discussed.


Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools are essential in modern industry. The students can actually use the skills and knowledge learned in "Computer Aided Engineering Graphics" course through their education and professional life. This paper describes and demonstrates how "ME-105 Computer Aided Engineering Graphics" course was offered to non-mechanical engineering students at Middle East Technical University (METU) using Web-based materials. Using the offered Web-based course model it is possible to give the course to 900 non-mechanical engineering students (450 students and 9 sections each semester) by teaching assistants. The model provides the same quality of teaching that we have in the engineering drawing course offered to 210 mechanical engineering students using the traditional classroom methods with full-time instructors.


Abstract Semidefinite programming has been an interesting and active area of research for several years. In semidefinite programming one optimizes a convex (often linear) objective function subject to a system of linear matrix inequality constraints. Despite its numerous applications, algorithms for solving semidefinite programming problems are restricted to problems of moderate size because the computation time grows faster than linear as the size increases. There are also storage requirements. So, it is of interest to consider how to identify redundant constraints from a semidefinite programming problem. However, it is known that the problem of determining whether or not a linear matrix inequality constraint is redundant or not is NP complete, in general. In this paper, we develop deterministic methods for identifying all redundant linear constraints in semidefinite programming. We use a characterization of the normal cone at a boundary point and semidefinite programming duality. Our methods extend certain redundancy techniques from linear programming to semidefinite programming.


An extensive analysis of user traffic on Gnutella shows a significant amount of free riding in the system. By sampling messages on the Gnutella network over a 24-hour period, we established that almost 70% of Gnutella users share no files, and nearly 50% of all responses are returned by the top 1% of sharing hosts. Furthermore, we found out that free riding is distributed evenly between domains, so that no one group contributes significantly more than others, and that peers that volunteer to share files are not necessarily those who have desirable ones. We argue that free riding leads to degradation of the system performance and adds vulnerability to the system. If this trend continues copyright issues might become moot compared to the possible collapse of such systems.


Over the last decade, researchers have developed a range of decision support systems (DSS) which seek to improve the evidence-base for decision-making in the forestry sector in Great Britain. Many are now integral to the systems of forest management and planning used. However, in some cases, levels of adoption have been lower than expected. This problem is neither unique to Great Britain nor to forestry, and increasingly it is being explained in terms of the quality of stakeholder engagement during DSS development and implementation. Thus, social research was undertaken to understand the factors affecting DSS uptake. The methods included an online survey completed by 81 members of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and Forestry Commission staff and 30 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Four sets of factors were seen to influence uptake: professional judgement and cultural resistance; communication and access; training, support and consolidation; and meeting user requirements. More generally, our conclusions highlight the need for a shift in the quality of interactions at the science–policy–practice interface: from knowledge-transfer (a unidirectional "bridging of gaps") to knowledge-exchange (dialogue between collaborating partners) and knowledge-interaction (shared cultures and institutions).


John Fund explores the real divide the country faces with the looming election. Through wary thoughts on voting integrity, he shows how eletions can be decided by the votes of dead people, illegal felon voters, and absentee voters that simply don't exist. If nothing is done to address the growing cynicism about vote counting, rest assured that another close presidential election that descends into bitter partisan wrangling is just around the corner.


In an era in which the EU's influence in criminal law matters has expanded rapidly, attention has recently turned to the possible creation of a European Public Prosecutor's Office. This two volume work presents the results of a study carried out by a group of European criminal law experts in 2010-2012, with the financial support of the EU Commission, whose aims were to examine in detail current public prosecution systems in the Member States and to scrutinise proposals for a new European office.
Volume 1 begins with thorough descriptions of 20 different national legal systems of investigation and prosecution, addressing a range of evidential and procedural safeguards. These will serve as a point of reference for all future research on public prosecutors. Volume 1 also contains a series of cross-cutting studies of the key issues that will inform debates about the creation of a European Public Prosecutor's Office, including studies of vertical cooperation in administrative investigations in subsidy and competition cases, the accession of the EU to the ECHR, judicial control in cooperation in criminal matters, mutual recognition and decentralised enforcement of European competition law.
Volume 2 (which will be published in 2013) presents a draft set of model rules for the procedure of the European Public Prosecutor's Office and continues with a set of comparative studies of the national legal systems that cover the gathering of evidence, seizure of assets, arrests, tracking and tracing, prosecution measures, procedural safeguards, the presumption of innocence and the right to silence, access to the file and victim reconciliation. Volume 2 concludes with the final report, written by Professor Ligeti, summarising the findings of the group and reporting on the prospects for the proposed reform.


The main objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate the long-term functional outcome in patients treated for Volkmann's ischemic contracture. In this study, functional outcome (measured as mobility, grip strength, and sensibility) and arm length difference after treatment of Volkmann's ischemic contracture were analyzed and discussed. Twenty-five patients treated between 1969 and 2001 were evaluated. The method of treatment was related to the severity of the infarction, ranging from conservative to free vascularized muscle transplantation. Although the study population was small, we could observe a wide range of functional outcome. Substantial improvement of function was obtained in patients who had free vascularized muscle transplantation. Unfortunately in one patient with an occlusion of the distal brachial artery and an insufficient flow through the collateral circulation of the radial artery, the gracilis muscle was lost. Tendon lengthening had unsatisfactory results because of recurrence of the contracture. Excision of fibrotic muscle tissue, neurolysis and tenolysis sometimes combined with a tendon transfer gave good hand function results in patients with sufficient remaining muscle tissue. In most of the patients in whom the contracture developed during childhood, a difference in forearm length was observed.


Shergottites, the most abundant martian meteorites, represent the best source of information about Mars' mantle and its dissolved water. If the mantle was wet, magmatic degassing could have supplied substantial water to the martian surface early in its history. Researchers have attempted to reconstruct the volatile contents of shergottite parental magmas, with recent analyses confirming that the shergottites contained significant water. However, water is not a passive tracer; it directly affects magma chemistry and physical properties. Deciphering the history of water on Mars requires understanding how that water affected the chemistry of the shergottites and how they fit within Mars' geologic history. Both topics present difficulties, as no shergottite-like rock has been found in stratigraphic context and there is debate over the timing of eruptions of shergottite-like magmas. Partial melting experiments on terrestrial basalts and new data from orbiters and rovers on Mars provide the information needed to overcome these difficulties and explain the role of water in shergottite magmas. Here we show that shergottite compositions and their martian geologic context can be explained by melting of an originally wet mantle that degassed over time. We also demonstrate that models for the evolution of the martian mantle that do not consider water fail to account for the shergottite compositions, surface distributions, and ages. Finally, we suggest that dehydration of the martian mantle has led to changes in magmatic chemistry over time, with shergottites representing melts of water-bearing mantle and rocks similar to nakhlites representing melts of other mantle sources.


The present research was initiated based on the need to understand the nature and diversity of the Internet Business Reporting (IBR) practices among the companies in the developed (i.e., USA, UK and Singapore) and developing countries (i.e., Thailand and Malaysia). The primary research objectives were: 1) to develop a measurement of the quality of the IBR practices; 2) to analyse and compare the quality of the IBR practices; 3) to analyse the trends of the quality of the IBR practices; 4) to investigate and analyse the stages of the IBR practices; and 5) to examine the relationship between the various predictors of the IBR practices and the quality of the practices. Detailed steps and approaches were undertaken in designing the research. Although the primary data collection was through the assessment of the individual corporate website, other data collection approaches such as the use of a questionnaire survey was also conducted aimed to substantiate the primary data collection process. The present study also applied a multi-theoretical approach to provide better explanation on the hypothesised relationships between each variable. The present study employed the agency, signaling and proprietary cost theories. The results justify the appropriateness of using these theories. Furthermore, an index was developed to measure the quality of the IBR practices known as the Internet Business Reporting Quality (IBRQ). Statistical analysis was performed using the Stepwise Multiple Regression and Hierarchical Multiple Regression. The results supported most of the hypotheses and substantiated the existing studies on the variation in the IBR practices among the companies in five countries. The quality of the IBR practices was found to differ significantly among the companies in the developed and developing countries. The companies in the developed countries were found to be in Stage 2 while their counterparts in the developing countries were mostly in Stage 1 in the IBR practices. Furthermore, the results also supported that the industry classification was the significant predictor towards the IBR practices. Nonetheless, it indicated less moderating effect to improve the predictive ability between the predictors and the quality of the IBR practices.


This article discusses food as a political object through an analysis of the practices of two non-governmental organizations that work with food production and the associated production of knowledge. Donna Haraway's notions of situated knowledge, companion species, and the politics of respect are employed to build the methodological framework for the analysis. The analysis employs a qualitative empirical study of a large Finnish women's organization working in the field of home economics, and a complementary study of an East London based feminist environmental organization. Both organizations work through local groups. Firstly, the article examines how these groups work with practices of food production, using the case of composting as an example. Composting food leftovers utilizes networks of companion species and their bio-socio-technical apparatuses across the globe, including—but not limited to—soil, worms, and waste management companies. Secondly, it shows how situated knowledge is produced by connecting research based knowledge and the experience based knowledge generated through material practices of food production and use. Finally, it discusses the ways in which communally produced situated knowledge facilitates the politics of respect in everyday practices of food production via networks of companion species for modest recuperation.


The objective of this research is to demonstrate high-quality nanocomposites enabling convenient imprinting of nanopatterned optical devices. The nanocomposite developed contains homogeneously dispersed silicon (Si) nanoparticles in a UV-curable prepolymer host medium. Using an optical adhesive NOA73 as host eliminates surface treatment of the silicone mold due to minimal adhesion between the polymer and mold. Moreover, the chosen materials exhibit low shrinkage, enabling faithful replication of the master templates. Tunable refractive index is realized by mixtures of the host polymer with a refractive index of ~1.56 and nanoparticles with a refractive index of ~3.45. For example, using a ~28% Si fraction, an imprintable material with a refractive index of ~2.1 results. Surface functionalization of nanoparticles with polyvinylpyrolidone is shown to reduce agglomeration. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy are employed to investigate the stability of nanocomposites and the efficacy of the surface treatment of nanoparticles, respectively. The quality and physical parameters of the fabricated devices are evaluated by the atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thickness of a homogeneous sublayer underneath a periodic layer in the fabricated optical devices is controlled by employing a channel with precisely managed depth. The example resonant filters show acceptable response as measured in the 1600-1800 nm spectral band and reasonable agreement with theoretical predictions.


The general justification defense, also known as the choice-of-evils doctrine, permits a criminal defendant to seek acquittal on the grounds that his crimes were necessary to prevent greater harm from occurring. In this Note, Adav Noti examines the moral theories that have been advanced to support this defense and argues that only one such theory, which he labels the "uplifted knife," is truly congruent with the justification defense itself The uplifted knife theory stands for the proposition that it is immoral for the state to punish a defendant whose actions during an emergency situation could not have been impacted by the threat of legal sanctions. The Note shows that applying the uplifted knife theory to otherwise difficult justification cases would improve the courts' ability to determine which defendants were actually deserving of acquittal. Thus, the Note proposes amendments to the justification statutes that would bring the statutory text more in line with its moral underpinnings.


The aim of this project was to use the budding yeast model, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in order to investigate the mode of action of the antimalarial drug artesunate. Using a range of techniques and resources available for S. cerevisiae, the research has identified two potential genes of interest, CDC73 and ADH1. The absence of either one of the genes causes increased sensitivity to artesunate in S. cerevisiae grown in the rich broth medium, YEPD. Such sensitivity of both deletion strains was only apparent on fermentable medium. Overexpressing both CDC73 and ADH1 in wild type backgrounds had no effect on the sensitivity of yeast to artesunate, suggesting that neither are direct targets of the drug. The increased sensitivity of the adh1Δ mutant relative to the wild type was dependent on the presence of oxygen whereas that of cdc73Δ cells appeared not to be. It was not possible within the timeframe of the project to discern why cdc73Δ yeast cells experience heightened sensitivity to artesunate, but it was established that they are able to produce ethanol and that they show higher intracellular superoxide than wild type cells. The cause of the adh1Δ mutant's increased sensitivity to artesunate was hypothesised to be a shift in metabolism towards aerobic respiration, resulting in activation of the drug. The dependence of adh1Δ cells' increased sensitivity to artesunate on the presence of oxygen is consistent with existing models of artemisinin damage to yeast cells that are characterised by reactive oxygen species production. Because the cdc73Δ mutant potentially remains hypersensitive to artesunate in anaerobic conditions it suggests that artesunate damage may not be mediated via reactive oxygen species, which suggests that the two genes most likely confer artesunate resistance in wild type cells by different mechanisms. This could be consistent with the possibility of at least two mechanisms by which artesunate causes growth inhibition in yeast.


Postings are often used by bureaucracies, especially in emerging economies, in an attempt to reward or punish their staff. Yet we know little about whether, and how, this type of mechanism can help incentivize performance. Using postings to induce performance is challenging, as heterogeneity in preferences over which postings are desirable non-trivially impacts the effectiveness of such schemes. We propose and examine the properties of a mechanism, which we term a performance-ranked serial dictatorship, in which individuals sequentially choose their desired location, with their rank in the sequence based on their performance. We then evaluate the effectiveness of this mechanism using a two-year field experiment with over 500 property tax inspectors in Punjab, Pakistan. We first show that the mechanism is effective: being randomized into the performance-ranked serial dictatorship leads inspectors to increase the growth rate of tax revenue by between 44 and 80 percent. We then use our model, combined with preferences collected at baseline from all tax inspectors, to characterize which inspectors face the highest marginal incentives under the scheme. We find empirically that these inspectors do in fact increase performance more under this mechanism. We estimate the cost from disruption caused by transfers to be small, but show that applying the scheme too frequently can reduce performance. On net the results suggest that bureaucracies have tremendous potential to improve performance by periodically using postings as an incentive, particularly when preferences over locations have a substantial common component.


WORDS MAX) Resilient societies need technology with high recycling possibilities, as well as possibilities to treat wastewater with local ecosystem services as dominating driving forces. Modern wastewater treatment often suffers from the problem of being a linear system, rather than a recycling system. From a recycling point of view the nutrients in the wastewater is of highest interest. The use of microalgae has been proposed as collection systems for the nutrients, with several potential advantages: 1) they treat the wastewater further from a pathogenic point of view, 2) they produce a sludge of interesting biochemical quality depending on the species present in the treatment ponds, 3) they use the naturally occurring ecosystem services available at the wastewater treatment site in the form of sunlight, wind, and regional biodiversity of phytoplankton. The academic focus regarding microalgae use for wastewater treatment has to a large extent been on the "sunbelt", between latitudes 35 North and South, respectively. However, a few investigations have been performed on northern and southern latitudes. This paper summarizes experiences from using microalgae for waste water treatment at northern latitudes in Sweden and present suggestions for further research.


The structural and magnetic properties of the compounds NdMn2-xVxSi2 have been studied by x-ray and high resolution neutron powder diffraction, specific heat, dc magnetization, and differential scanning calorimetry measurements over the temperature range 3-450 K. The Curie temperature and Néel temperature of layered NdMn1.9V0.1Si2 are been indicate at TC ~ 24 K and TN ~ 376 K respectively. The giant magnetocaloric effect (GMCE) around TC is found in layered NdMn1.9V0.1Si2 associated with first order magnetic transition from antiferromagnetic [AFil-type] to ferromagnetic [F(Nd)+Fmc]. This behaviorhas been confirmed as contribution of the magnetostructural coupling by using neutron powder diffraction. The magnetic entropy change −ΔSM ~ 25.4J kg-1 K-1 and adiabatic temperature change ΔTad~ 6.7 K have been determined using magnetization and specific heat measurement under 0-8 T field applied. This compound belongs with the small thermal ~ 0.8 K and magnetic ~ 0.1 T hysteresis characteristic providing high potential material for magnetic refrigerator.


IL-12p40 partners with the p35 and p19 polypeptides to generate the heterodimeric cytokines IL-12 and IL-23, respectively. These cytokines play critical and distinct roles in host defense. The assembly of these heterodimers is thought to take place within the cell, resulting in the secretion of fully functional cytokines. Although the p40 subunit alone can also be rapidly secreted in response to inflammatory signals, its biological significance remains unclear. In this article, we show that the secreted p40 monomer can generate de novo IL-12–like activities by combining extracellularly with p35 released from other cells. Surprisingly, an unbiased proteomic analysis reveals multiple such extracellular binding partners for p40 in the serum of mice after an endotoxin challenge. We biochemically validate the binding of one of these novel partners, the CD5 Ag-like glycoprotein, to the p40 monomer. Nevertheless, the assembled p40-CD5L heterodimer does not recapitulate the biological activity of IL-12. These findings underscore the plasticity of secreted free p40 monomer, suggesting that p40 functions as an adaptor that is able to generate multiple de novo composites in combination with other locally available polypeptide partners after secretion.


Purpose: To compare the visual field index (VFI) in primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) eyes, and to study the correlation with disc variables on optical coherence tomography (OCT) in all stages of severity. Materials and Methods: Thirty POAG and PACG underwent Humphrey visual field 24-2 along with detailed examination. They also underwent stratus OCT imaging of the optic nerve and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). The correlation of VFI with RNFL thickness was compared in POAG and PACG. Results: The VFI significantly differed between POAG and PACG, with POAG eyes apparently having a better VFI at all severities of glaucoma. There were statistically significant differences in the superior max (Smax) and inferior max (Imax) in early and moderate POAG and PACG eyes. In early and moderate glaucoma, multivariate regression showed that maximum correlation of the VFI was seen with the mean deviation (b = 1.7, P < 0.001), average and superior RNFL thickness (b = 2.1, P < 0.001 and b = 1.8, P = 0.03, respectively), and age (b = 0.7, P = 0.04); while no correlation was seen with intraocular pressure (IOP), axial length, sex, or other clinical variables. VFI did not correlate well with RNFL thickness or other disc variables on OCT in severe glaucoma. Conclusion: VFI may not serve as a useful indicator of visual function in severe glaucoma. More useful indicators are required to monitor glaucoma patients with severe damage.


Ernest Armstrong McCulloch was half of the brilliant partnership that discovered haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and changed how we think about human tissue generation and regeneration. Based at the Ontario Cancer Institute (now the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) in Toronto, the haematologist 'Bun' McCulloch, together with James E. Till, a physicist with a steel-trap mind, exercised their penchant for adventurous 'big picture' thinking in devising experiments to identify stem cells. This exceptional team was the first to demonstrate that HSCs have the dual capacity to self-renew and to differentiate into a vast array of mature haematopoietic cells. Their trainees, as well as investigators elsewhere, built on McCulloch and Till's findings not only to isolate and characterize HSCs and progenitors derived from them, but also to devise therapies for certain blood disorders. Later in his career, Ernest focused on characterizing the malignant cells of human leukaemias and determining the effects of various drugs on leukaemic cell growth. The implications of Till and McCulloch's work continue to be profound and underpin many significant breakthroughs in our knowledge of normal cellular physiology, pathophysiology, tumorigenesis and tissue transplantation. Indeed, regenerative medicine owes its very existence to the stem cell discoveries of McCulloch, Till and others. At times eccentric and demanding, but always well spoken, incisive and erudite, Ernest personified the outstanding research scientist cloaked in Canadian modesty. His legacy lives on in the bright therapeutic future emerging from the rigorous stem cell research being conducted in Canada and around the world.


We describe a discrete-time auction procedure called PAUSE (Progressive Adaptive User Selection Environment) for use in assigning COLR (Carrier of Last Resort) responsibility for universal service. The auction incorporates synergies by permitting all combinatorial bids, is transparent to the bidders, allows for multiple winners, and minimizes the possibility of bidder collusion. The procedure is computationally tractable for the auctioneer and thus very efficient to run. The inherent computational complexity of combinatorial bidding cannot be eliminated. However, in this auction the computational burden of evaluating synergies rests with the bidders claiming those synergies, while the auctioneer simply checks that a bid is valid.


Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are widely used to partially replace portland clinker in blended cements. Reducing clinker contents further without compromising the development of early strength necessitates a better assessment and enhancement of the reactivity of the available SCMs. To this purpose, the reactivity of synthesized calcium aluminosilicate glasses covering a compositional range from blast-furnace slags (BFS) over fly ashes to silica fume was analyzed by dissolution experiments. Initial glass dissolution rates were measured at 20 degrees C and pH 13, and with varying initial concentrations of aqueous Al, Ca, and Si. At pH 13, glass dissolution rates were observed to scale linearly with the glass Ca/(Al+Si) molar ratio. Ca-rich blast-furnace type glass dissolution was shown to be up to one order of magnitude faster than tectosilicate fly ash and silica fume type glass dissolution, supporting different pathways to dissolution. In solutions that are strongly undersaturated with respect to hydrous glass and hydration products, glass dissolution rates are independent of changes in solution undersaturation and aqueous Si activity. In contrast, dissolution rates decrease with aqueous Ca concentration for all glasses and with aqueous Al concentration for tectosilicate-type glasses. The insights gained are instrumental in finding ways to enhance SCM reactivity.


We present an inference method for Gaussian graphical models when only pair-wise distances of n objects are observed. Formally, this is a problem of estimating an n x n covariance matrix from the Mahalanobis distances dMH(xi, xj), where object xi lives in a latent feature space. We solve the problem in fully Bayesian fashion by integrating over the Matrix-Normal likelihood and a Matrix-Gamma prior; the resulting Matrix-T posterior enables network recovery even under strongly correlated features. Hereby, we generalize TiWnet [19], which assumes Euclidean distances with strict feature independence. In spite of the greatly increased flexibility, our model neither loses statistical power nor entails more computational cost. We argue that the extension is highly relevant as it yields significantly better results in both synthetic and real-world experiments, which is successfully demonstrated for a network of biological pathways in cancer patients.


We analyze a Bayesian merger game under two-sided asymmetric information about firm types. We show that the standard prediction of the lemons market modeli?½if any, only low-type firms are tradedi?½is likely to be misleading: Merger returns, i.e. the difference between pre- and post-merger profits, are not necessarily higher for low-type firms. This has two implications. First, under very general conditions, equilibria exist where mergers take place, and there is no presumption that there is ineffciently low trade. Second, in these equilibria it is typically not the case that only low-type firms enter an agreement.


We consider the problem of estimating a $d$-dimensional discrete distribution from its samples observed under a $b$-bit communication constraint. In contrast to most previous results that largely focus on the global minimax error, we study the local behavior of the estimation error and provide \emph{pointwise} bounds that depend on the target distribution $p$. In particular, we show that the $\ell_2$ error decays with $O\left(\frac{\lVert p\rVert_{1/2}}{n2^b}\vee \frac{1}{n}\right)$ (In this paper, we use $a\vee b$ and $a \wedge b$ to denote $\max(a, b)$ and $\min(a,b)$ respectively.) when $n$ is sufficiently large, hence it is governed by the \emph{half-norm} of $p$ instead of the ambient dimension $d$. For the achievability result, we propose a two-round sequentially interactive estimation scheme that achieves this error rate uniformly over all $p$. Our scheme is based on a novel local refinement idea, where we first use a standard global minimax scheme to localize $p$ and then use the remaining samples to locally refine our estimate. We also develop a new local minimax lower bound with (almost) matching $\ell_2$ error, showing that any interactive scheme must admit a $\Omega\left( \frac{\lVert p \rVert_{{(1+\delta)}/{2}}}{n2^b}\right)$ $\ell_2$ error for any $\delta>0$. The lower bound is derived by first finding the best parametric sub-model containing $p$, and then upper bounding the quantized Fisher information under this model. Our upper and lower bounds together indicate that the $\mathcal{H}_{1/2}(p) = \log(\lVert p \rVert_{{1}/{2}})$ bits of communication is both sufficient and necessary to achieve the optimal (centralized) performance, where $\mathcal{H}_{{1}/{2}}(p)$ is the R\'enyi entropy of order $2$. Therefore, under the $\ell_2$ loss, the correct measure of the local communication complexity at $p$ is its R\'enyi entropy.


Many chemotherapeutic drugs are differentially effective from one patient to the next. Understanding the causes of this variability is a critical step towards the development of personalized treatments and improvements to existing medications. Here, we investigate sensitivity to a group of anti-neoplastic drugs that target topoisomerase II using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. We show that wild strains of C. elegans vary in their sensitivity to these drugs, and we use an unbiased genetic approach to demonstrate that this natural variation is explained by a methionine-to-glutamine substitution in topoisomerase II (TOP-2). The presence of a non-polar methionine at this residue increases hydrophobic interactions between TOP-2 and its poison etoposide, as compared to a polar glutamine. We hypothesize that this stabilizing interaction results in increased genomic instability in strains that contain a methionine residue. The residue affected by this substitution is conserved from yeast to humans and is one of the few differences between the two human topoisomerase II isoforms (methionine in hTOPIIα and glutamine in hTOPIIβ). We go on to show that this amino acid difference between the two human topoisomerase isoforms influences cytotoxicity of topoisomerase II poisons in human cell lines. These results explain why hTOPIIα and hTOPIIβ are differentially affected by various poisons and demonstrate the utility of C. elegans in understanding the genetics of drug responses.


Recent literatures explore aspects of political organisation at the local level. These
include studies of social capital where such issues as the effects of diversity, the
relevance of political opportunity structures and government facilitation all figure. A
complementary literature explores new patterns of citizen engagement. Finally there are a
number of earlier studies of local community organisations in Australia. This paper
reports the preliminary findings of a survey of community organisation in six diverse
state electorates in Sydney. Our methodology involved a three month time frame that
utilised local newspapers, newsletters and websites of local organisations, local council
information and websites, and interviews with prominent political actors, including
candidates in state election. The three month period purposefully covered the following
events: NSW state election March 24, Harmony Day March 21, Youth Week April 14-22,
and Anzac Day April 25, that may have led to one-off examples of community
organising. Contrary to expectations the study found broadly similar numbers of
organisations were active in these communities. However, the types of organisations, the
populations they represented and their strategies of advocacy and mobilisation differed.
Issues to be explored in future work are also foreshadowed.


Budget pressures and challenges to federalism spotlight electronic commerce. Banks, if they're ready, could be natural providers In the past, the states have asked for the help of the federal government--and in some cases rightly so," Governor Ben Nelson (D-Nebr.) told a gathering of state government chief financial officers recently. "But we have been delegating up for so long, we've developed an inability to control our own resources." Gov. Nelson was speaking at the 80th Annual Conference of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers (NASACT '95), held in Des Moines from Aug. 12 through 17. The federal government has for years not only been telling states what to do, said Gov. Nelson, but also how to do it. This has taken away much of state government's discretion in legislative and executive action. Even worse, when the federal deficit grew, these mandates began arriving at state houses without enough money to help the agency heads with compliance. Now, though unfunded mandates are supposed to end in 1996, Gov. Nelson warned state CFOs that restrictive block grants, telling states what they can't do with federal funds, can have the same net result: "We don't want the feds to balance their budget by busting yours!" The regulation of power among federal, state, and local governments was announced by Gov. Nelson as the conference theme of a bipartisan Federalism Summit, planned for Cincinnati on Oct. 22 through 24. To be co-chaired by Governor Mike Leavitt (R-Utah), the summit will initiate a formal discussion of the effects of "federal devolution" among top officials of seven major governing organizations. An important national issue, to be sure, but what does all this have to do with banking? Potentially a great deal. Anxious for help, CFOs at NASACT '95 agreed, raising a chorus of fears about heavier administrative and financial burdens that seem to be falling on their regional government agencies. Alert bankers, especially those sleuthing for new customers and services, found their opportunities multiplying rapidly at this and other fiscal officer meetings as the CFOs started evaluating programs once run by federal bureaus. States latch onto electronic commerce Another conference, which was held earlier in the summer, made even clearer the potential for banks to work more closely with states. At the 89th Annual Conference of the Government Finance Officers' Association (GFOA '95), held in Baltimore from June 11 through 14, the main topic for discussion among the 6,000 representatives, mainly from smaller jurisdictions, was their almost insatiable appetite for hi-tech financial services. Indeed, the announced GFOA '95 conference theme, "Performance," could easily have been subtitled, "Using Banks for Electronic Commerce." Sessions at GFOA '95 which discussed the outsourcing of accounting and on-line treasury services or, best of all, electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic benefits transfer (EBT), were the most heavily-attended. In particular, panels that focused on the Internet and privatization met in rooms which held about 500, with crowds spilling out into the hallway and attendees inside having to crane their necks to see around and through those forced to stand. And there was action as well as talk; staff of the Government Finance Officers' Association announced the opening of a GFOA home page on the Internet, with hypertext to FinanceNet, the web server created for government finance officers by the National Science Foundation in response to Vice-President Gore's Reinventing Government initiative. "The Internet is achieving critical mass, so it's beginning to look like a worthwhile medium," said Preston Rich, executive director of FinanceNet. In less than a year of operation, FinanceNet has had three million "hits" on the Internet and has become the central clearinghouse for all federal assets being sold to the public. …


Evangelos Milios received a diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical
 University of Athens, Greece, in 1980 and Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
 Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
 Massachusetts, from where he graduated in 1986. While at M.I.T., he was a member of
 Digital Signal Processing group and he worked on acoustic signal interpretation problems
 at the M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory. After spending 5 years doing research on shape analysis
 and sensor-based mobile robotics in the Department of Computer Science, University
 of Toronto, he joined York University in 1991 as an Associate Professor. Since July
 of 1998 he has been with the Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax,
 Nova Scotia, where he is Professor and Killam Chair of Computer Science. He served
 as Director of the Graduate Program (1999-2002) and he is currently Associate Dean,
 Research. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He was a member of the ACM Dissertation
 Award committee (1990-1992), a member of the AAAI/SIGART Doctoral Consortium Committee
 (1997-2001) and he is co-editor-in-chief of the journal Computational Intelligence.
 He has published on the processing, interpretation and use of visual and range signals
 for landmark-based navigation and map construction in single- and multiagent robotics.
 His current research activity is centered on modelling and mining of content and link
 structure of Networked Information Spaces.


This study aims to build an understanding of beneficiary accountability, including defining the term, the operational mechanisms through which it is discharged, the processes that enable such practice and the consequences that result from those processes. To achieve the aim, a qualitative case study design is adopted and a rich fieldwork carried out in an Indonesian NGO to gather empirical evidences via 46 interviews, five focus groups and field observations. Framed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998)'s three dimensions of social capital (cognitive, structural and relational), this study shows that social capital acts as both an antecedent factor facilitating the discharge of beneficiary accountability, and also as its consequence. The study thus makes a theoretical contribution to social capital literature while also addressing Inkpen and Tsang (2005)'s call for research to examine interaction effects among the three dimensions of social capital, particularly within NGO accountability context. Moreover, the discharge of beneficiary accountability, as understood by participants in this study, can be viewed as the non-procedural practice of positioning beneficiaries as the central focus of an NGO's activities, whether in delivering provisions and assistance, disclosing financial information or strategically empowering beneficiaries to become self-reliant. This investigation into what constitutes beneficiary accountability serves as a critical path to shedding light on the operationalisation of beneficiary accountability. It also enables this study to respond to recent calls (e.g. by Banks, Hulme, & Edwards, 2015; Boomsma & O'Dwyer, 2014; Schmitz, Raggo, & Vijfeijken, 2012) for a more comprehensive understanding of beneficiary accountability practices. Additionally, practitioners working in NGOs may also derive benefits from this study as it provides empirical evidence for them to reflect on their commitment to beneficiaries as the very reason for their work, allowing them to be inspired by a comprehensive discussion of the mechanisms through which accountability is discharged to beneficiaries.


Education and the organisation thereof is the most important factor influencing the competitiveness of an economy, the wealth of a society and quality of life, as is evidenced by those developed countries with higher numbers of educated people. One of the key factors in determining the quality of an education system is the remuneration of the individuals working in it. A sectoral analysis was therefore conducted on the basis of research into the systems of remuneration in the education sectors of three countries, namely the Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany. The purpose was to compare the results and indicate a space for further research.


In general, we lack objective foundations for our normative assertions. Some legal scholars - Kaplow and Shavell, for example - argue that aggregate preference satisfaction utilitarianism provides such foundations. Outside the law and economics movement, however, the utilitarian model has largely failed to persuade. The present paper offers a new approach to anchoring normative analysis in objective foundations. It begins with a relatively noncontroversial observation - that our normative world consists of our internalized learned behaviors and their associated memes. Using evolutionary theory, it then explores why our normative world exists at all. The function of internalization, it concludes, is to permit the evolution of learned behaviors whose adaptivity may not be obvious. Sharing, for example, is not self-evidently "rational." Over time, however, individuals motivated to share have tended to survive and reproduce more successfully than those not so motivated. As a result, the population has come to be dominated by individuals motivated to share. Similar stories can be told about goodness, commitment to the rule of law, respect for equality, regard for the liberties of others, and, to some extent, democracy. Whether and why behaviors are adaptive are objective questions to which there exist - at least in theory - objective answers. Thus, if I am right, when someone asserts that we "ought" to do this or that, we should be able to explore her assertion productively by asking whether the proposed behavior is adaptive, and if so, why. Stated another way, an understanding of why we value, for example, equality, should permit us to define better what equality means. Of more immediate concern to legal scholars, if I am right then much of the U.S. Constitution can also be justified in terms of adaptivity: a society that protects adaptive rules from short-term popular challenge is more likely, in the long run, to survive and reproduce. Although this portion of my paper is still a work-in-progress, my theory appears to offer a relatively straightforward justification of judicial review in the protection of constitutional values and, in the process, allows a more objective delineation of those values themselves.


© 2016 World Obesity Summary Intervention studies have been undertaken to reduce sedentary behaviour (SB) and thereby potentially ameliorate unhealthy weight gain in children and adolescents. We synthesised evidence and quantified the effects of SB interventions (single or multiple components) on body mass index (BMI) or BMI z-score in this population. Publications up to March 2015 were located through electronic searches. Inclusion criteria were interventions targeting SB in children that had a control group and objective measures of weight and height. Mean change in BMI or BMI z-score from baseline to post-intervention were quantified for intervention and control groups and meta-analyzed using a random effects model. The pooled mean reduction in BMI and BMI z-score was significant but very small (standardized mean difference = 0.060, 95% confidence interval: 0.098 to 0.022). However, the pooled estimate was substantially greater for an overweight or obese population (standardized mean difference = 0.255, 95% confidence interval: 0.400 to 0.109). Multicomponent interventions (SB and other behaviours) delivered to children from 5 to 12 years old in a non-educational setting appear to favour BMI reduction. In summary, SB interventions are associated with very small improvement in BMI in mixed-weight populations. However, SB interventions should be part of multicomponent interventions for treating obese children. © 2016 World Obesity


Plasma Focus Device (PFD) has been investigated by many researchers because of its capability as a source of radiation including ions in many applications. However, the investigation and characterization of plasma, ions and radiation are difficult and challenging due to the short pulse duration and harsh electrical environment during the operation of the device. Many researchers used electric probe to measure ions generated by the device and found that high energy ions can be generated by PFD. This work investigates the sensitivity of electric probe to variation of strong electric field produced by 2.3 kJ PFD. The results obtained by simulation are compared with actual experimental results. The results show that, the electric field generated in the PFD can severely affect signal of the electric probe that is operated without proper grounding around the probe as it induces sufficient current within the probe. This can lead to misinterpretation of ion signal or photoelectric signal detected from PFD especially during the focusing phase.


This chapter explores delexicalisation, which has been referred to as the 'necessary correlate of co-selection' (Sinclair 1992: 16). As words crystallise into collocations and those collocations attract stable cotextual patternings, the meaning potential of each of the component words is severely restricted. Just as 'a word in a usual collocation stares you in the face just as it is' (Firth 1957: 182), so too the established meaning of the combination overrides the other possible meanings that could be intended, but are not. Because they are highly salient and have an unambiguous "basic" meaning-referent, colour words are ideal for testing the strength of the "meanings have words" approach. The case studies and discussion in this chapter should be of particular interest to translators and foreign language teachers. It is demonstrated not only that the meaning of a phrase is fixed by its conventional lexical realisation, but also – and counter-intuitively – that the salient meanings of its components are largely dormant.


Abstract This submission for PhD brings together five publications that illustrate how my work has had an impact on legal education at Liverpool John Moores University, and further impact on the external higher education landscape. It demonstrates how extrinsic evidence and action research methods were used to develop aspects of the curriculum and overall academic experience of law students. The impact of these innovations was analysed with qualitative and quantitative education research methods, which are rarely used in legal education. The development of this research is traced from 2001 and details how it grew from a desire to improve the law student experience, into a body of education research that has had impact both in law and other higher education disciplines. The articles in this submission are published in high quality higher education journals, an achievement which is still relatively unusual in legal education. Four of the five are published in journals ranked in the top twenty for higher education research by Googlescholar and academics (Tight, 2017). They form a coherent body of education research with demonstrable results for legal education and beyond. The first indication of impact is that, together, these publications have been cited 180 times. The original findings in these publications are discussed such as the discovery that self-awareness literature and diary-keeping can help students in their transition to university. Other discoveries include findings that: reflective practice has intrinsic value in higher education regardless of whether students become 'good' reflectors; the importance of a long transition process rather than a traditional induction process and; the benefits of student voice and participatory action research for legal and other higher education disciplines. This submission discusses how this body of research has impacted on students, law staff at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), colleagues in other disciplines and outside LJMU. The impact of these innovations in bringing reflective practice, self-awareness literature, and the use of diaries to legal education for the purposes of helping to improve retention rates and student performance is demonstrated (Publications 1 and 2). Analysis was undertaken using qualitative education research techniques, particularly the use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), which is uncommon in legal education. Publication 3 highlights the value of a longer transition process and the value of quantitative education research techniques in legal education. Publications 4 and 5 take legal education development into the emerging area of student voice by employing participatory action research with students. This type of research is also rare in legal education. The potential of this approach to gathering data, analysis and publication, which might influence on-going conversations about the development of legal education, including testing learning environments that prepare students for the Solicitor's Qualifying Examination is discussed. The methodological reasoning for using the chosen methods of research is also discussed, as is the general need to test innovations in law curricula. In summary, these publications illustrate the use of education research methodology and methods that are seldom employed in legal education. The sustainability of this approach, the value of communicating with students and potential further research that could be informed by these publications is deliberated. A final conclusion drawn is that there should be more engagement from legal scholars with the external education research community.


Purpose: To report the success of a minimally invasive treatment for phlegmasia cerulea dolens without gangrene caused by compression from an internal iliac artery aneurysm. Methods and Results: An 81-year-old male with a 1-month history of paralysis owing to a hemorrhagic stroke presented with massive edema and skin mottling of the right lower extremity. Imaging confirmed right iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis caused by compression from a 4-cm internal iliac artery aneurysm. With thrombolysis ruled out, a minimally invasive treatment plan was undertaken, featuring percutaneous coil embolization of the aneurysm and surgical venous thrombectomy with proximal arteriovenous fistula creation and iliac vein stent placement. Failure of the coils to embolize the iliac aneurysm prompted the use of an endovascular graft to exclude the aneurysm. The patient's symptoms subsided, and he has a patent right iliofemoral venous system and internal iliac artery at his latest (16-month) follow-up. Conclusions: This case demonstrates that minimally invasive endovascular and open techniques can be combined to achieve an optimum outcome in patients at high risk for standard surgical approaches.


Tropical coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse and economically important ecosystems on earth. Nevertheless, we found dramatic changes in coral communities on the reef slopes of Curacao and Bonaire since 1973. Cover and abundance declined for virtually all coral species. The data show a shift from communities dominated by framework building species (e.g. Orbicella spp.) to communities consisting of small opportunistic, phenotypically plastic, species, including few remaining structural colonies. Madracis mirabilis, Porites astreoides, Diploria strigosa and Agaricia lamarcki are at present modest winners in the coral assemblage, although overall cover declined also for these species. Increased frequency and intensity of events inducing coral mortality and ongoing reduction in suitable hard substratum, provided by the remnants of large colony building species, could reduce the chance of these species to remain winners in the longer run. The observed loss in coral cover and the shift from larger structural to smaller opportunistic species reduced reef carbonate production by 67% and therewith, in combination with a trend towards smaller coral colonies, reef complexity. Alarmingly, reefs at mesophotic depths (30 - 40 m) did not escape the general degradation of the coral community. The negative effects are larger around densely populated areas where local stressors are adding to degradation caused, for instance, by region wide mass bleaching. Without proper conservation and management this already dramatic degradation will continue and turn more and more coral species into losers.


Flexoelectricity is a size-dependent electromechanical mechanism coupling polarization and strain gradient. It exists in a wide variety of materials, and is most noticeable for nanoscale objects, where strain gradients are higher. Simulations are important to understand flexoelectricity because experiments at very small scales are difficult, and analytical solutions are scarce. Here, we computationally evaluate the role of flexoelectricity in the electromechanical response of linear dielectric solids in two-dimensions. We deal with the higher-order coupled partial differential equations using smooth meshfree basis functions in a Galerkin method, which allows us to consider general geometries and boundary conditions. We focus on the most common setups to quantify the flexoelectric response, namely, bending of cantilever beams and compression of truncated pyramids, which are generally interpreted through approximate solutions. While these approximations capture the size-dependent flexoelectric electromechanical coupling, we show that they only provide order-of-magnitude estimates as compared with a solution fully accounting for the multidimensional nature of the problem. We discuss the flexoelectric mechanism behind the enhanced size-dependent elasticity in beam configurations. We show that this mechanism is also responsible for the actuation of beams under purely electrical loading, supporting the idea that a mechanical flexoelectric sensor also behaves as an actuator. The predicted actuation-induced curvature is in a good agreement with experimental results. The truncated pyramid configuration highlights the critical role of geometry and boundary conditions on the effective electromechanical response. Our results suggest that computer simulations can help understanding and quantifying the physical properties of flexoelectric devices.


Introduced ungulate game animals are managed as pests on New Zealand public lands. Open access recreational hunting and commercial harvests have resulted in negative externalities as individuals and groups with competing interests have sought to maximise their own benefits. The revocation of pest status for these species in the Game Animal Council Act 2013 and the possibility of managing herds of special interest have brought into focus the lack of information on recreational hunter motivations, resource use, harvests and satisfactions. Recreational hunters were surveyed each month for a year about these matters, and participated in a choice experiment to identify characteristics of preferred hunts for Sika deer. The choice experiment used travel distance as the numeraire of value to overcome resistance to the commodification of recreational hunting, using an adaptive pivot design to address the wide variance in distances travelled. The study identified significant non-market benefits of recreational hunting. Hunters were highly heterogeneous, both in their hunting behaviours and preferences, which has important implications for management. Spatial and temporal separation of different types of hunters, as well as management of harvest and activity levels provide opportunities for significantly enhancing the value of recreational hunting.


Background—Previous work has suggested that platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor blockade may confer benefit in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. The TIGER-PA pilot trial was a single-center randomized study to evaluate the safety, feasibility, and utility of early tirofiban administration before planned primary angioplasty in patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction. Methods and Results—A total of 100 patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction were randomized to either early administration of tirofiban in the emergency room or later administration in the catheterization laboratory. The primary outcome measures were initial TIMI grade flow, corrected TIMI frame counts, and TIMI grade myocardial perfusion ("blush"). Thirty-day major adverse cardiac events were also assessed. Angiographic outcomes demonstrate a significant improvement in initial TIMI grade flow, corrected TIMI frame counts, and TIMI grade myocardial perfusion when patients are given tirofiban in the emergency room before primary angioplasty. The rate of 30-day major adverse cardiac events suggests that early administration may be beneficial. Conclusions—This pilot study suggests that early administration of tirofiban improves angiographic outcomes and is safe and feasible in patients undergoing primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction.


Dear Editor, Multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS) is a unilateral inf lammatory chorioretinopathy characterized by multiple small white dots scattered at the posterior pole. It is a benign and self-limiting condition that usually occurs in healthy young women [1]. There is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Herein we report a case of MEWDS as an ocular adverse effect after BNT162b2 messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer Inc., Philadelphia, PA, USA). The patient provided written informed consent for the publication of the research details and clinical images. A 33-year-old healthy female patient visited a local clinic with a 1-day history of a steadily enlarging dark spot over her right central vision and metamorphopsia in the right eye. Notably, she had received her second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine 6 days before symptom onset. In the right eye, fundus examination revealed multiple gray-white lesions at the posterior pole and nasal and temporal periphery, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) revealed a dome-shaped macula (DSM) with subretinal fluid and interruption of the ellipsoid zone (Fig. 1A, 1B). Two weeks later, the patient was referred to Severance Hospital. She revealed that the dark spot become slightly lighter 4 to 5 days after onset, but the metamorphopsia remained. The best-corrected visual acuity was 20 / 40 with spherical equivalents -10.12 diopter in the right eye. Fundus examination revealed regression of the small gray-white hyperautofluorescent lesions at the posterior pole and nasal and temporal periphery (Fig. 1C, 1D). OCT revealed a few vitreous cells, hyperreflective subfoveal material without fluid, and ellipsoid zone disruption (Fig. 1E). Early-phase f luorescein angiography revealed multiple hyperf luorescent dots in a wreath-like pattern, while late-phase indocyanine green angiography revealed hypofluorescent dots in areas corresponding to the autofluorescent fundus lesions (Fig. 1F, 1G). The 30-2 Humphrey visual field test (Humphrey, San Leandro, CA, USA) showed enlargement of the blind spot (Fig. 1H). Choroidal neovascularization was not evident on OCT angiography (Fig. 1I). With the diagnosis of MEWDS, she was prescribed 15 mg of oral prednisone per day, which was tapered over 2 weeks. Additionally, she was administered intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin, 1.25 mg/0.05 mL; Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA) in hopes of hastening her recovery. Ten weeks later, her symptoms improved with increased visual acuity to 20 / 50. The fundus lesions resolved further, but subfoveal hyperreflective material was still observed on OCT (Fig. 1J, 1K). Recent case studies have shown that MEWDS can occur or recur within a month of COVID-19 vaccination [1,2]. The cause of MEWDS is unknown; both infectious and immune-mediated origins have been proposed. The presence of antecedent f lu-like symptoms in approximately half of all affected patients supports an infectious origin [3]. However, the presence of increased levels of circulating immunoglobulins in the acute phase [4] and the occurrence of MEWDS af ter vaccination support an immune-mediated origin. Vaccine-associated inf lammation has been thought to occur via molecular mimicry, direct antigen-mediated cellular and/or humoral immune response, adjuvant-mediated immune response, or activation of common and/or specific loci in genetically predisposed individuals [1]. The COVID-19 vaccine generates the viral spike protein. Therefore, the spike proteins themselves or immune reactions elicited by their presence could trigger inflammatory reactions that could lead to MEWDS. Administration of mRNA vaccines such as the BNT162b2 vaccine can lead to upregulation of type 1 interferon secretion, resulting in an autoimmune response in susceptible Korean J Ophthalmol 2022;36(5):471-473 https://doi.org/10.3341/kjo.2022.0077


Modelling the distribution of rare and invasive species often occurs in situations where reliable absences for evaluating model performance are unavailable. However, predictions at randomly located sites, or 'background' sites, can stand in for true absences. The maximum value of the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, AUC, calculated with background sites is believed to be 1 − a/2, where a is the typically unknown prevalence of the species on the landscape. Using a simple example of a species' range, I show how AUC can achieve values > 1 − a/2 when test presences do not represent each inhabited region of a species__ range in proportion to its area. Values of AUC that surpass 1 − a/2 are associated with higher model predictions in areas overrepresented in the test data set, even if they are less environmentally suitable than other regions the species occupies. Pursuit of high AUC values can encourage inclusion of spurious predictors in the final model if they help to differentiate areas with disproportionate representation in the test data. Choices made during modelling to increase AUC calculated with background sites on the assumption that higher scores connote more accurate models can decrease actual accuracy when test presences disproportionately represent inhabited areas.


The study examined the role of residents' associations in urban service delivery in the City of Nairobi, Kenya. Urban service delivery has been on decline while local authorities have been overwhelmed by challenges in providing public basic services. One of the reasons cited for declining urban basic service delivery has been rapid expansion of Nairobi and population increase. In response to failure by the local authority and deteriorating basic services, city residents have formed associations. Urban residents' association refers to a group of neighbours coming together so as to share ideas and work together to make their neighbourhood a better place to live. Four residents associations drawn from low, middle and high income zones were sampled and comparative analysis was done. The objectives of this study were; to identify reasons for the formation of residents' associations in urban service delivery across different income groups, to establish the relationships between residents' associations and other stakeholders responsible for urban service delivery and find out challenges encountered by residents' associations in urban service delivery. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to 120 households, in-depth interviews with key informants and officials of associations. Descriptive statistics that included frequencies, percentages and means were used to analyze data. Chi-Square (χ 2 ) was used to test relationship between associations and stakeholders in urban services delivery as well as participation of residents in the activities of association at significance level of 0.05. Findings indicated that external forces were behind formation of associations in low and high income areas. Internal factors were behind the formation of associations in middle income areas. Associations were formed to address insecurity, garbage disposal, fight land grabbing, lobby for better services from city planners and represent neighbourhood in planning. Associations also address water shortage, streets and access paths, environmental degradation, mutual support during time of adversity, and promote friendship. The associations differed in original purpose of formation. The original purpose of associations in low end neighbourhood was welfare; however, associations were being used as bargaining chip for undelivered services. The core objective of middle income associations was to lobby for the undelivered service; managing neighbourhood has become secondary venture. The associations in high income areas were formed to provide services like security and environmental degradation. They have formed committees and hired professional staffs to meet their purpose. Associations in all the three income groups have initiated partnership with city agencies although at different levels. Associations in middle and high income areas have more elaborate ties with city agencies compared to low end associations. In implementing neighbourhood agenda, associations experience challenges that include low residents' participation and finances. The study recommends need to sensitize residents and associations on opportunities available for their participation in community development, and initiation of pro-active engagement between association and city planners as one way of addressing challenges of public services delivery.


In this paper, we make an attempt to enquire into the politics of the government and business relation and how it affected the industrial development in general and expansion of manufacturing sector in particular in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In AP State Business Relations (SBR) have evolved gradually under different political regimes - from 'indifferent' SBR's during initial decades, passing through critical junctures in the form of 'active' and 'pro-active' phases and finally SBRs reaching its zenith during Chandrababu Naidu regime and there after continuing in the Congress regime. The SBRs in AP seen evolving through different political regimes and their impact on the performance of manufacturing sector is captured through both qualitative and quantitative sources. Examination of the secondary data reveals the dominance of registered manufacturing in the total manufacturing output of the state. Firm level perceptions reveal that the business associations play a major role in dissemination of information rather than lobbying the government. The small firms are at a disadvantage compared to large and medium firms.


The American Geophysical Union, a scientific society of some 60,000 members worldwide, established in 2011 a set of scientific integrity and professional ethics guidelines to address the actions of its members, the governance of the union in its internal activities, and the operations and participation in its publications, scientific meetings, including its honors and awards programs. However, these guidelines, like those for other societies, did not explicitly address harassment, related workplace issues, or implicit bias in the practice of science. The recent exposure of several issues related to the sciences caused AGU to reexamine its role and obligations. In a twelve-month period starting October 2015, more than six high profile cases of harassment in the sciences were publicly disclosed in the U.S., including one case that was brought to the attention of the U.S. Congress. A growing body of literature on harassment and other biases in the sciences, including data extracted and reported by AGU, has shed new light on this topic. As a result of this assessment, AGU now actively helps educate its members on Ethics issues in various ways, both broadly as well as specifically around items related to gender bias, harassment and other equity and inclusion topics. New and renewed members are specifically made aware of AGU's ethics policies, and additional efforts are increasingly embedded across publications, awards, meetings, talent pool and other AGU member-focused programs. In addition, AGU is starting a program focused on addressing harassment and related work-climate matters in the Earth and Space Science community, with an emphasis on the growing need and proposed active roles for scientific societies.


Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that patients acquire during the course of receiving treatment for other conditions within a healthcare setting. HAI is the most common complication or comorbidity of hospitalized patients, and is becoming major worldwide causes of death and disability. Also, there are associated financial costs substantial to both patients and healthcare systems. HAIs are critical patient safety and healthcare quality issues. Prevention and reduction of such infection has become one of the top priorities for health care. We focused on healthcare-associated urinary tract infection (HAUTI), which is the most common type of HAI. We proposed an approach to build a detection model for HAI surveillance based on the variables extracted from the electronic medical records (EMRs). Moreover, we developed an integrated HAI surveillance information system (called iHAUTISIS) based on existing EMR systems of the hospital for improving the work efficiency of infection control professionals (ICPs). Therefore, the system can further facilitate the HAI surveillance and reduce ICPs' surveillance workload.


High-precision isotopic analysis of Fe in blood is currently assessed as a complementary approach to achieve a better understanding of human Fe metabolism and for diagnosis of diseases. Volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) is a recently introduced technique that allows the straightforward collection of a well-defined volume of blood by dipping an absorbent polymeric tip into it. In this work, the use of VAMS was evaluated for high-precision isotopic analysis of whole blood Fe by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Fe concentrations in whole blood sampled using VAMS were determined by single-collector sector-field ICP-MS. A variety of solvents were evaluated for extraction of Fe from the VAMS-device (Mitra™). Fe was quantitatively extracted from the absorbent using 1 mL of Milli-Q water. The extracted material was subsequently subjected to acid digestion and to a miniaturized chromatographic procedure for isolation of Fe from the blood matrix. The Fe isotopic compositions and concentrations of paired finger-prick and venous blood samples collected at the same time from six individuals were compared. No significant differences were found between the two blood types. The proposed methodology significantly increases the sample throughput and facilitates sample acquisition for Fe isotopic analysis in clinical applications.


The aerodynamic drag characteristics of a passenger car have, typically, been defined by a single parameter: the drag coefficient at a yaw angle of 0°. Although this has been acceptable in the past, it does not provide an accurate measure of the effect of aerodynamic drag on fuel consumption because the important influence of the wind has been excluded. The result of using drag coefficients at a yaw angle of 0° produces an underprediction of the aerodynamic component of fuel consumption that does not reflect the on-road conditions. An alternative measure of the aerodynamic drag should take into account the effect of non-zero yaw angles, and a variant of wind-averaged drag is suggested as the best option. A wind-averaged drag coefficient is usually derived for a particular vehicle speed using a representative wind speed distribution. In the particular case where the road speed distribution is specified, such as for a driving cycle to determine fuel economy, a relevant drag coefficient can be derived by using a weighted road speed. An effective drag coefficient is determined with this approach for a range of cars using the proposed test cycle for the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure, WLTP. The wind input acting on the car has been updated for this paper using recent meteorological data and an understanding of the effect of a shear flow on the drag loading obtained from a computational fluid dynamics study. In order to determine the different mean wind velocities acting on the car, a terrain-related wind profile has also been applied to the various phases of the driving cycle. An overall drag coefficient is derived from the work done over the full cycle. This cycle-averaged drag coefficient is shown to be significantly higher than the nominal drag coefficient at a yaw angle of 0°.


The lattice thermal expansion and conductivity in bulk Mo and W-based transition metal dichalcogenides are investigated by means of density functional and Boltzmann transport theory calculations. To this end, a recent van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF-CX) is employed, which is shown to yield excellent agreement with reference data for the structural parameters. The calculated in-plane thermal conductivity compares well with experimental room-temperature values, when phonon-phonon and isotopic scattering are included. To explain the behavior over the entire available temperature range one must, however, include additional (temperature independent) scattering mechanisms that limit the mean free path. Generally, the primary heat carrying modes have mean free paths of 1 mu m or more, which makes these materials very susceptible to structural defects. The conductivity of Mo- and W-based transition metal dichalcogenides is primarily determined by the chalcogenide species and increases in the order Te-Se-S. While for the tellurides and selenides the transition metal element has a negligible effect, the conductivity of WS2 is notably higher than for MoS2, which may be traced to the much larger phonon band gap of the former. Overall, the present study provides a consistent set of thermal conductivities that reveal chemical trends and constitute the basis for future investigations of van der Waals solids.


Five Chardonnay vineyards in the Niagara Peninsula were delineated according to soil texture using global positioning systems and geographic information systems (GPS/GIS). For three vintages, sentinel vines were classified based on weight of cane prunings (vine size) and the soil texture in which they were grown. Wines were made from vine size × soil texture combinations for the five sites and three vintages. Musts were analyzed for soluble solids, titratable acidity (TA), and pH, and wines analyzed for ethanol, TA, pH, and total phenols. Several within-site differences between vine size or soil texture were observed for must and wine composition, but there were few consistent trends. Wines were analyzed sensorially by descriptive analysis. Soil texture effects were evident at three sites (1999), four sites (2000), and three sites (2001). Three sites in 1999 and two sites in 2000 and 2001 demonstrated vine size effects. No consistent soil texture or vine size effects were observed within any site. Principal component analysis was used to discern trends in sensory data. No clear trends with respect to soil texture or vine size were obvious in 1999, but 2000 wines separated on the basis of site (Lakeshore versus Lake Plain/Escarpment) and 2001 wines separated based on soil textures, whereby wines from Lakeshore sites (2000) or clay textures (2001) were associated with citrus, vegetal, earthy, and astringency descriptors. Vintage and site effects were evident when comparing the 2000 and 2001 vintages; 2000 wines were characterized by citrus, vegetal, and earthy descriptors, while 2001 wines were associated with floral and melon descriptors. Results suggest that although soil texture and vine size impact wine sensory attributes, site and vintage appear to play the major roles.


Among the institutions adopted from Roman law whose historical evolution within ius commune is particularly interesting, it is worth pointing out the issues con nected with the distribution of damage incurred as a result of throwing a part of the cargo overboard from a ship due to the risk of its sinking because of overload. Deliberations of Roman lawyers, gathered under the title De lege Rhodia de iactu, were object of medieval jurists' creative interpretation. The role of the glossators' school representatives seems to be particularly significant here as an important contribution to the development of the European legal doctrine in subsequent centuries. In the modern era, the innovations introduced by representatives of this school were considered communis opinio doctorum and it was applied in legal practice of the Imperial Chamber Court of the Reich. Its purpose was compensation for any damage incurred in joint interest or in other people's interest, which was reflected in the content of ABGB, the Polish Civil Code and Roman-Dutch Law.


In Australia, quicker and more cost effective commuter and freight transports are essential to cater for the needs of travel demand and supply chains in the mining and agriculture sectors. Such development in coastal areas would necessitate the use of ground improvement techniques in response to environmental legislation and requirements for improved performance and sustainability. In coastal Australia the high cost of track maintenance is the main issue due to poor drainage of soft coastal soils, ballast degradation, fouling (e.g. coal and subgrade soil), differential settlement of track, pumping of subgrade soils and track misalignment due to excessive lateral movements. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on the construction and maintenance of rail tracks and the existing technical specifications, standards and design are often unable to address these problems. With increased train speeds, the capacity of the track is often inadequate unless more resilient tracks are designed to withstand the substantially increased vibration and cyclic and impact loads. The optimum use of maintenance funds is a challenging task due to the absence of comprehensive methods to predict track longevity even on terrain where the properties of the soils are well established. Until today, the vast majority of Australian track designs have considered ballast and structural fill as elastic granular media, and thus the designers have adopted predominantly empirical methods where true cyclic loading patterns and the onset of plasticity and degradation of track materials are ignored. In many European countries and some parts of Southeast Asia, especially among high speed rail networks, track vibrations are serious concerns. The mechanisms of ballast degradation and deformation, the need for effective track confinement, understanding the interface behaviour and the imperative need for flood protection, time dependent drainage and filtration properties of track materials requires further research to improve the existing design guidelines and Australian Standards for future high speed commuter and heavier freight trains. Field studies on instrumented tracks at Bulli (near Wollongong) and Singleton (near Newcastle) supported by RailCorp and ARTC, were carried out to measure the in situ stresses and deformation of ballast embankments. The application of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) to stabilise soft subgrade soils was introduced for the first time in Australia to improve the overall track stability in Sandgate (near Newcastle). The effectiveness of using PVDs was observed through field measurements and finite element analyses. In this keynote paper, the current state-ofthe-art knowledge of rail track geotechnology in Australia and around the world is discussed. The paper focuses on primary research and development of new design and construction concepts for enhanced track performance, highlighting examples of innovations from theory to practice. Through case studies, the paper also introduces predictive and design tools for practitioners via user-friendly approaches.


Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) is one of the most commonly employed surface analysis techniques. It uses the energy of emitted electrons to identify the elements present in a sample, similar to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The main difference is that XPS uses an X-ray beam to eject an electron while AES uses an electron beam to eject an electron. In AES, the sample depth is dependent on the escape energy of the electrons. It is not a function of the excitation source as in XPS. In AES, the collection depth is limited to 1-5 nm due to the small escape depth of electrons, which permits analysis of the first 2 10 atomic layers. In addition, a typical analysis spot size is roughly 10 nm. A representative AES spectrum illustrating the number of emitted electrons, N, as a function of kinetic energy, E, in direct form (red) and in differentiated form (black) is shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\).


1. Motion-activated cameras ("camera traps") are increasingly used in ecological and management studies for remotely observing wildlife and have been regarded as among the most powerful tools for wildlife research. However, studies involving camera traps result in millions of images that need to be analyzed, typically by visually observing each image, in order to extract data that can be used in ecological analyses. 2. We trained machine learning models using convolutional neural networks with the ResNet-18 architecture and 3,367,383 images to automatically classify wildlife species from camera trap images obtained from five states across the United States. We tested our model on an independent subset of images not seen during training from the United States and on an out-of-sample (or "out-of-distribution" in the machine learning literature) dataset of ungulate images from Canada. We also tested the ability of our model to distinguish empty images from those with animals in another out-of-sample dataset from Tanzania, containing a faunal community that was novel to the model. 3. The trained model classified approximately 2,000 images per minute on a laptop computer with 16 gigabytes of RAM. The trained model achieved 98% accuracy at identifying species in the United States, the highest accuracy of such a model to date. Out-of-sample validation from Canada achieved 82% accuracy, and correctly identified 94% of images containing an animal in the dataset from Tanzania. We provide an R package (Machine Learning for Wildlife Image Classification; MLWIC) that allows the users to A) implement the trained model presented here and B) train their own model using classified images of wildlife from their studies. 4. The use of machine learning to rapidly and accurately classify wildlife in camera trap images can facilitate non-invasive sampling designs in ecological studies by reducing the burden of manually analyzing images. We present an R package making these methods accessible to ecologists. We discuss the implications of this technology for ecology and considerations that should be addressed in future implementations of these methods.