Accurate and reliable registration of shapes and multi-dimensional point sets describing the morphology/physiology of anatomical structures is a pre-requisite for constructing statistical shape models (SSMs) and atlases. Such statistical descriptions of variability across populations (regarding shape or other morphological/physiological quantities) are based on homologous correspondences across the multiple samples that comprise the training data. The notion of exact correspondence can be ambiguous when these data contain noise and outliers, missing data, or significant and abnormal variations due to pathology. But, these phenomena are common in medical image-derived data, due, for example, to inconsistencies in image quality and acquisition protocols, presence of motion artefacts, differences in pre-processing steps, and inherent variability across patient populations and demographics. This thesis therefore focuses on formulating a unified probabilistic framework for the registration of shapes and so-called \textit{generalised point sets}, which is robust to the anomalies and variations described.

Statistical analysis of shapes across large cohorts demands automatic generation of training sets (image segmentations delineating the structure of interest), as manual and semi-supervised approaches can be prohibitively time consuming. However, automated segmentation and landmarking of images often result in shapes with high levels of outliers and missing data. Consequently, a robust method for registration and correspondence estimation is required. A probabilistic group-wise registration framework for point-based representations of shapes, based on Student's t-mixture model (TMM) and a multi-resolution extension to the same (mrTMM), are formulated to this end. The frameworks exploit the inherent robustness of Student's t-distributions to outliers, which is lacking in existing Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based approaches. The registration accuracy of the proposed approaches was quantitatively evaluated and shown to outperform the state-of-the-art, using synthetic and clinical data. A corresponding improvement in the quality of SSMs generated subsequently was also shown, particularly for data sets containing high levels of noise. In general, the proposed approach requires fewer user specified parameters than existing methods, whilst affording much improved robustness to outliers.

Registration of generalised point sets, which combine disparate features such as spatial positions, directional/axial data, and scalar-valued quantities, was studied next. A hybrid mixture model (HMM), combining different types of probability distributions, was formulated to facilitate the joint registration and clustering of multi-dimensional point sets of this nature. Two variants of the HMM were developed for modelling: (1) axial data; and (2) directional data. The former, based on a combination of Student's t, Watson and Gaussian distributions, was used to register hybrid point sets comprising magnetic resonance diffusion tensor image (DTI)-derived quantities, such as voxel spatial positions (defining a region/structure of interest), associated fibre orientations, and scalar measures reflecting tissue anisotropy. The latter meanwhile, formulated using a combination of Student's t and Von-Mises-Fisher distributions, is used for the registration of shapes represented as hybrid point sets comprising spatial positions and associated surface normal vectors. The Watson-variant of the HMM facilitates statistical analysis and group-wise comparisons of DTI data across patient populations, presented as an exemplar application of the proposed approach. The Fisher-variant of the HMM on the other hand, was used to register hybrid representations of shapes, providing substantial improvements over point-based registration approaches in terms of anatomical validity in the estimated correspondences.


Production and use of double haploids is important for attainment of systematic genetic gains, and indeed several plant breeding programmes have benefited from it.  Gynogenesis, the in vitro culture of unfertilized ovules and/or embryos has specifically been exploited in several economically important crops but not cassava. In this study, we examined possibilities of generating doubled haploids (DH) in cassava through gynogenesis, by bagging female flowers of selected varieties to prevent pollination. A total of 2,466 flowers across 32 elite cassava varieties were bagged for a period of one-to-three days. Early embryo rescue and ovule culture were done at 7 to 42 days after anthesis. Consequently, 517 fruits (21%) were harvested and dissected to obtain 97 seeds from which 47 unique embryos and 18 callus lines were obtained in vitro. Only six of the rescued embryos (12.8%) regenerated into plantlets. Upon undertaking ploidy analysis and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, it was established that all samples analyzed (regenerated plants and calli) were diploid. SNP genotyping revealed increased homozygosity (up to 85.7%), but no doubled haploids were noticed. The knowledge generated is a significant contribution towards understanding cassava flowering biology and thus a foundation to on-going efforts towards developing protocols for generation of cassava DH.

 Key words: Anthesis, embryo rescue, gynogenesis, homozygosity, ploidy.


This paper introduces a new methodology to design modular industrial ultra-high precision robots; it aims at significantly reducing both the complexity of their design and their development time. This modular concept can be considered as a robotic Lego®, where a finite number of building bricks is used to quickly design the robot and to easily change its mobility. The core of the concept is the thorough conceptual solution catalogue, which is independent from any mechanical design. This paper will first present the methodology and the techniques to establish this solution catalogue. Then, its application to high precision will include the formulation of hypotheses and a practical example of a 5-degree of freedom ultra-high precision robot design.


CBT for pain management has three basic components. The first is a treatment rationale that helps patients understand that cognitions and behavior can affect the pain experience and emphasizes the role that patients can play in controlling their own pain. The second component of CBT is coping skills training. Training is provided in wide variety of cognitive and behavioral pain coping strategies. Progressive relaxation and cue-controlled brief relaxation exercises are used to decrease muscle tension, reduce emotional distress, and divert attention trom pain. Activity pacing and pleasant activity scheduling are used to help patients increase the level and range of their activities. Training in distraction techniques such as pleasant imagery, counting methods, and use of a focal point helps patients learn to divert attention away from severe pain episodes. Cognitive restructuring is used to help patients identify and challenge overly negative pain-related thoughts and to replace these thoughts with more adaptive, coping thoughts. The third component of CBT involves the application and maintenance of learned coping skills. During this phase of treatment, patients are encouraged to apply their coping skills to a progressively wider range of daily situations. Patients are taught problem solving methods that enable them to analyze and develop plans for dealing with pain flares and other challenging situations. Self-monitoring and behavioral contracting methods also are used to prompt and reinforce frequent coping skills practice.


The Japanese economy, after decades of seemingly unsurpassable competitiveness, experienced a major crisis in the 1990s. Observers of Japan are faced with a challenging question: How can one explain Japan's reversal from stunning prosperity to dismal stagnation? Bai Gao, in this illuminating, comprehensive analysis of Japan's economic story goes beyond other analyses to demonstrate how the same economic institutions could produce both stunning economic success and the slump of the 1990s. By comparing the factors that sustained miracle growth in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s with the factors that led to the bubble economy of the late 1980s, Gao sheds new light on internal tensions in the Japanese economic system and how, finally, they 'burst the bubble' in the 1990s. Those who have been following the lively debate over 'What Became of the Japanese Miracle?' will be rewarded by Gao's richly detailed, historically informed, and multilayered contribution.


This work introduces six novel naphthalene diimide (NDI) molecular acceptors for evaluation in organic solar cells based on two different chemical architectures: a star-shaped structure with a triarylamine core flanked by three NDI moieties and a linear molecule composed of a bithiophene bridge between two NDI moieties. For each molecular structure, three different side chains are examined, with alkyl chains linked to the NDI core either through oxygen, sulfur, or nitrogen substituents. Both the chemical structure and the side-chain heteroatom substitution were found to influence the optoelectronic and photovoltaic properties of these molecular acceptors. Organic solar cells were fabricated with each acceptor, utilizing PBDTTT-EFT (also known as PTB7-Th) as the donor material in inverted bulk-heterojunction devices. Nitrogen was observed to lower the solar cell performance for these acceptors by significantly decreasing the short circuit current density (JSC), while sulfur increased the JSC and, in the star configuration, led to the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.8% – which is amongst the highest for any molecular NDI-based acceptor to date. Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) measurements of the star-shaped materials showed the side-chain substitutional atom significantly alters the material's packing configuration in neat films, with films blended with PBDTTT-EFT showing features characteristic of the neat donor and acceptor materials, indicating that the small molecules do not disrupt the packing of PBDTTT-EFT (and vice versa). Resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS) measurements indicate the PBDTTT-EFT:star-shaped acceptor blends are not subject to coarse phase-separation, with the average domain size for all three star-shaped acceptor blends typically being less than 100 nm. This is confirmed by similar topography for blended films in AFM images amongst the three acceptors. Photoluminescence (PL) quenching measurements, however, found large differences in PL quenching efficiency which were attributed to differences in the driving force for charge transfer, with the nitrogen substituted compound showing the lowest PL quenching and the sulfur replacement showing the highest.


RNase MRP is a site-specific ribonucleoprotein endoribonuclease that cleaves RNA from the mitochondrial origin of replication in a manner consistent with a role in priming leading-strand DNA synthesis. Despite the fact that the only known RNA substrate for this enzyme is complementary to mitochondrial DNA, the majority of the RNase MRP activity in a cell is found in the nucleus. The recent characterization of this activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and subsequent cloning of the gene coding for the RNA subunit of the yeast enzyme have enabled a genetic approach to the identification of a nuclear role for this ribonuclease. Since the gene for the RNA component of RNase MRP, NME1, is essential in yeast cells and RNase MRP in mammalian cells appears to be localized to nucleoli within the nucleus, we utilized both regulated expression and temperature-conditional mutations of NME1 to assay for a possible effect on rRNA processing. Depletion of the RNA component of the enzyme was accomplished by using the glucose-repressed GAL1 promoter. Shortly after the shift to glucose, the RNA component of the enzyme was found to be depleted severely, and rRNA processing was found to be normal at all sites except the B1 processing site. The B1 site, at the 5' end of the mature 5.8S rRNA, is actually composed of two cleavage sites 7 nucleotides apart. This cleavage normally generates two species of 5.8S rRNA at a ratio of 10:1 (small to large) in most eukaryotes. After RNase MRP depletion, yeast cells were found to have almost exclusively the larger species of 5.8S rRNA. In addition, an aberrant 309-nucleotide precursor that stretched from the A2 to E processing sites of rRNA accumulated in these cells. Temperature-conditional mutations in the RNase MRP RNA gene gave an identical phenotype.Translation in yeast cells depleted of the smaller 5.8S rRNA was found to remain robust, suggesting a possible function for two 5.8S rRNAs in the regulated translation of select messages. These results are consistent with RNase MRP playing a role in a late step of rRNA processing. The data also indicate a requirement for having the smaller form of 5.8S rRNA, and they argue for processing at the B1 position being composed of two separate cleavage events catalyzed by two different activities.


Can a bank lawfully freeze a client's bank account without an express term in the facility agreement? This was the issue in the recent case of South African Petroleum Energy Guild (NPC) v RMB Private Bank (2014/27890) [2014] ZAGPJHC 368 (5 December 2014). The court considered whether the responsibilities of the bank in respect of money laundering under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (38 of 2001) (FICA) and the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (121 of 1998) (POCA) impose obligations that may be imputed as a tacit or implied term which, inter alia, entitles banks to freeze clients' accounts when there is a reasonable suspicion that the funds in the accounts were the proceeds of illegal activities.


THE mystery plays put the Passion at the heart of their drama and their concept of dramaturgy. They did not flinch from staging pain and death, and showed the persecutors of Christ reveling in violence and performing tortures as elaborate games. This article will explore the influence of this attitude to dramatic violence on King Lear through the coincidence of another Passion play that was published in the same year as Shakespeare's play. Hugo Grotius's Christus Patiens is written in a classical style, and it is fundamentally classical in its approach to the violence at its center. Grotius does not stage any part of the torture or Crucifixion of Christ. The scourging is not mentioned and the Crucifixion is only related through messengers. In King Lear however, the blinding of Gloucester is not mediated but presented to the audience in its full horror. Shakespeare's source, Sidney's New Arcadia, relates the blinding as a story-within-a-story, so that even in this nondramatic context, the reader is shielded from the atrocity by means of enfolded narratives. (1) Shakespeare, however, chooses that his audience shall see it. In Grotius's Christus Patiens, as in the Arcadia, the audience are not direct witnesses--the violence takes place offstage--and their response is conditioned by the pity of those who respond to it onstage. In King Lear by contrast, the onstage reaction to Gloucester's pain ranges from the excitable satisfaction of Regan to the silent complicity of the servants who hold him, with only one character daring openly to voice his opposition. Grotius, because he cannot rely on the sympathy roused by visible agony, does not dare to leave open such a multiplicity of response. However, earlier performers of Christ's Passion had dared to do so. In the mystery plays, as Jesus is beaten and humiliated in the halls of the high priests, the ordinary men--the citizens and the soldiers--are drawn into casual abuse of him through the premeditated vindictiveness of the Sanhedrin. As in King Lear, only the occasional character, such as the beadle who lays his coat under Jesus's feet in the York cycle, has the bravery to exhibit the proper response to the suffering victim. The connection between the ludic portrayal of violence in the mystery plays and King Lear, which this article will explore, is not, I hope to show, a purely coincidental one. There are a sufficient number of small correlations between the punishments inflicted on Christ and the blinding of Gloucester to make it likely that Shakespeare's staging of this scene is influenced by the drama of his youth. (2) But there is a wider inference to draw from this case study, that despite the importance of classical texts--such as Ovid and Plutarch, on Shakespeare--his mature dramaturgy is inspired primarily not by Sophocles, Seneca, or Plautus, but by his native English tradition. In both classical and medieval drama, physical suffering is suffused with authority, but in Shakespeare, as in the mysteries, this authority is communicated through the spectacle of the broken body of the victim. Few Greek tragedies have onstage deaths, whereas in the mystery plays the Crucifixion was the climactic stage spectacle of the whole cycle. Like death, violence against the body (such as Oedipus's self-blinding) is generally committed offstage in classical drama, but the scourging and beating of Christ's body, and his agonized death on the cross, were vividly enacted in the mystery plays. In Shakespeare the violent power of medieval theater, rather than the decorum of classical, is revived in drama, which forces the sight of Lear's death, Gloucester's blinding, Desdemona's suffocation, Antony's mangled suicide, and the gang murders of Hector, Caesar, and Cinna upon its audience. In Shakespeare, as in the mystery plays, in direct contrast to the verbosity of Senecan (and Grotian) drama, "The terribleness of what is happening is conveyed by the inadequacy of the language." (3) As the death of Christ was the climax of the action in mystery cycles, medieval drama centered on strategies for staging bodily pain and controlling the audience response so that empathy was elicited for the sufferer. …


The employment status of workers for "platform economy" firms such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit and Handy has become a significant legal and political issue. Lawsuits against several such companies allege that they have misclassified workers as independent contractors to evade employment law obligations. Various lawmakers and commentators, pointing to the complexity of existing tests for employment and the costs of employment duties, have responded with proposals to limit platform companies' liability. This article steps into such debates, using the status of Uber drivers as a test case. It argues that Uber drivers may not fall neatly into either the "employee" or the "independent contractor" category under existing tests. Nevertheless, an important principle underlying those tests — the anti-domination principle — strongly indicates that the drivers are employees. That principle also indicates that proposals to limit platform economy firms' liabilities are premature at best and misguided at worst.


Context. The flight calibration of the spectral response of charge-coupled device (CCD) instruments below 1.5 keV is difficult in general because of the lack of strong lines in the on-board calibration sources typically available. This calibration is also a function of time due to the effects of radiation damage on the CCDs and/or the accumulation of a contamination layer on the filters or CCDs. Aims. We desire a simple comparison of the absolute effective areas of the current generation of CCD instruments onboard the following observatories: Chandra ACIS-S3, XMM-Newton (EPIC-MOS and EPIC-pn), Suzaku XIS, and Swift XRT and a straightforward comparison of the time-dependent response of these instruments across their respective mission lifetimes. Methods. We have been using 1E 0102.2-7219, the brightest supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, to evaluate and modify the response models of these instruments. 1E 0102.2-7219 has strong lines of O, Ne, and Mg below 1.5 keV and little or no Fe emission to complicate the spectrum. The spectrum of 1E 0102.2-7219 has been well-characterized using the RGS gratings instrument on XMM-Newton and the HETG gratings instrument on Chandra . As part of the activities of the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration (IACHEC), we have developed a standard spectral model for 1E 0102.2-7219 and fit this model to the spectra extracted from the CCD instruments. The model is empirical in that it includes Gaussians for the identified lines, an absorption component in the Galaxy, another absorption component in the SMC, and two thermal continuum components with different temperatures. In our fits, the model is highly constrained in that only the normalizations of the four brightest lines/line complexes (the O vii He α triplet, O viii Ly α line, the Ne ix He α triplet, and the Ne x Ly α line) and an overall normalization are allowed to vary, while all other components are fixed. We adopted this approach to provide a straightforward comparison of the measured line fluxes at these four energies. We have examined these measured line fluxes as a function of time for each instrument after applying the most recent calibrations that account for the time-dependent response of each instrument. Results. We performed our effective area comparison with representative, early mission data when the radiation damage and contamination layers were at a minimum, except for the XMM-Newton EPIC-pn instrument which is stable in time. We found that the measured fluxes of the O vii He α r line, the O viii Ly α line, the Ne ix He α r line, and the Ne x Ly α line generally agree to within ±10% for all instruments, with 38 of our 48 fitted normalizations within ± 10% of the IACHEC model value. We then fit all available observations of 1E 0102.2-7219 for the CCD instruments close to the on-axis position to characterize the time dependence in the 0.5−1.0 keV band. We present the measured line normalizations as a function of time for each CCD instrument so that the users may estimate the uncertainty in their measured line fluxes for the epoch of their observations.


The importance of clouds to the radiation balance of the terrestrial climate is well known. Accordingly, state-of-the-art climate models include sophisticated parameterisations of the cloud variables.

The aim of the GRAPE project is to produce a global cloud and aerosol dataset using a state-of-the-art physical retrieval of the entire duration of the Along Track Scanning Radiometer 2 (ATSR-2) mission (aboard ERS-2). This dataset will be compared and contrasted with existing climatologies (based on different instruments and very different retrieval algorithms).

GRAPE will deliver the following products: Cloud Optical Depth, Aerosol Optical Depth (cloud free), Cloud Phase, Cloud Particle Size, Cloud Top Pressure, Cloud Fraction and Cloud Ice/Water Path along with associated error measurements.

The cloud parameters produced will allow a direct comparison with model simulations from the ECMWF and the Met Office Unified Model. In conjunction with water vapour estimates from the MLS instrument aboard UARS, observational estimates of the total water vapour budget will be possible.


Global markets are continuously developing and becoming extremely competitive. The manufacturing organisations are improving their capabilities and responsiveness to satisfy their customer demands. Due to this dynamic change, most of the developed countries, particularly the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States have witnessed a sharp increase in outsourcing.

A literature search revealed weakness in outsourcing, due to the lack of suitable decision models and frameworks. However, limited research has been carried out in the area of outsourcing of manufacturing in small and medium sized companies.

The main aims of this research are formulating appropriate decision models for small and medium sized companies; in particular, those that have been outsourcing, or planning to outsource, their manufacturing activities.

The outsourcer's criteria for outsourcee selection for small and medium sized manufacturing companies are chosen after analysing the data obtained through the literature survey, questionnaire survey and personal interviews. Next, a model is formulated for numerical evaluation of outsourcer's criteria for outsourcee selection. Then, a second model for outsourcee (supplier) selection is formulated. The model comprises analytical hierarchy process, cluster analysis and criteria scoring of outsourcee. In the selection process of the most appropriate outsourcee, three elements has to be considered; the previously defined i) vector of important criteria resulted from the information analysis of literature survey, questionnaire and interviews, ii) the specific criteria ranking scoring identified by a particular outsourcer company and iii) the fulfilment of both general criteria (business / market) and specific criteria (outsourcer company) by the potential outsourcees. The outsourcee that achieves the highest total score based on the priority weights of each criterionand sub-criterion in the model may be considered the most suitable.
The numerical results of the second model are compared against the empirical outcome of a test case is satisfactory. The developed method is consistent, faster and objective.

A further model for drawing up and implementing a manufacturing level agreement was formulated, based on the information collected through the literature survey, questionnaire survey and interviews. The above models were presented to the managers of the companies and are found to be useful according to the feedback provided by them. They will be using the models in stages, subject to the resource availability.


This article selects four first-level indicators, the number of foreign trade growth, the quality of foreign trade growth, foreign trade growth benefits, the potential of foreign trade growth, and sixteen affiliated second-level indicators, selects 1995-2011year Korea's foreign trade data of IMD, uses SPSS statistical analysis software to conduct a factor analysis on trade competitiveness of Korean. Finally, we get the four main factors influencing the Korea's foreign trade exports, the growth of exports, export business services, the growth of business services. It is visible that the export of goods and services can ultimately reflect the trade competitiveness of a country. Only to advance the export capacity preferentially, can we enhance the international trade competitiveness.


The doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is one of the most popular technologies used in wind power systems. With the growing use of DFIGs and increasing power system dependence on them in recent years, protecting of these generators against internal faults is more considered. Loss of excitation (LOE) event is among the most frequent failures in electric generators. However, LOE detection studies heretofore were usually confined to synchronous generators. Common LOE detection methods are based on impedance trajectory which makes the system slow and also prone to interpret a stable power swing (SPS) as a LOE fault. This paper suggests a new method to detect the LOE based on the measured variables from the DFIG terminal. In this combined method for LOE detection, the rate of change of both the terminal voltage and the output reactive power are utilized and for SPS detection, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis of the output instantaneous active power has been used. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated using Matlab/Simulink interface for various power capacities and operating conditions. The results proved the method's quickness, simplicity and security.


Political communications scholars, members of the press, and political elites have traditionally distinguished between entertainment and non-entertainment media. It is in public affairs media in general and news media in particular that politics is assumed to reside, and it is to this part of the media that the public is assumed to turn when engaging the political world. Politics, in this view, is a distinct and self-contained part of public life, and citizen is one role among many played by individuals. As a former network television executive put it, in the civic education of the American public, entertainment programming is recess. But people, politics, and the media are far more complex than this. Individuals are simultaneously citizens, consumers, audiences, family members, workers, and so forth. Politics is built on deep-seated cultural values and beliefs that are imbedded in the seemingly nonpolitical aspects of public and private life. Entertainment media often provide factual information, stimulate social and political debate, and critique government, while public affairs media are all too often diversionary, contextless, and politically irrelevant. In this chapter we build upon the premises contained in the opening quote from Edelman: that politics is largely a mediated experience; that political attitudes and actions result from the interpretation of new information through the lenses of previously held assumptions and beliefs; and that these lenses are socially constructed from a range of shared cultural sources. We also agree with Edelman that this has always been the case, and so to the extent that researchers have ignored or downplayed entertainment media, popular culture, art, and so forth, in the construction of both news and public opinion, we have missed a critical component of this process. Disciplines Social Influence and Political Communication Comments NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Michael X. Delli Carpini was affiliated with Columbia University. Currently January 2008, he is a faculty member of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. This book chapter is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/14


In this paper, the dynamic model of the Thomas-K biped robot, which was built at Ohnishi laboratory in Keio University, is derived, and a new efficient dynamic simulator is proposed. Although the dynamic model of bipedal locomotion is considered in this paper, the proposed model can be easily implemented any kind of floating point base robotic systems, such as mobile robots, space robots and so on. The Thomas-K biped robot has totally 16-degrees of freedom, in which 10 degrees of freedom can be controlled directly. Therefore, it is not an easy task to derive the conventional closed form dynamic model of the Thomas-K. Firstly, it is derived by using a Newton-Euler algorithm which is conventionally used to derive the dynamic models of biped robots. However, it does not give deep insight into the dynamics of bipedal locomotion. Besides, the Newton-Euler algorithm provides only inverse dynamics; therefore, it should be run recursively, which increases computational load, to derive the conventional closed form dynamic model, i.e., forward dynamics. Secondly, the inertia matrix and gravity vector are derived analytically. It simplifies the model and gives better insight into the dynamics of bipedal locomotion. However, the Coriolis and centrifugal forces are derived by using the Newton-Euler algorithm. A simple virtual spring-damper collision model is used to simulate the contact between the robot's soles and floor. The virtual spring-damper model makes the contact model easier than the plastic collision one and improves the performance of the simulation, significantly. Center of mass (CoM) of the robot is controlled in the single support phase in order to show the validity of the models.


Can we use what leaders of terrorist organizations say to help us understand what they are like, their leadership styles, and when they are likely to use violence to gain what they want? In this study, we examine the words of the leaders of al Qa'ida Central (AQ-C) and al Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) using Leadership Trait Analysis, an assessment-at-a-distance technique developed to provide answers to this type of question. Comparing the scores of the AQ-C and AQAP leaders to those of 23 leaders of other terrorist groups, we determine what the al Qa'ida leaders are like. We also ascertain how the rhetoric of these leaders changes as they decide to engage in violence as well as in the frames they choose to use toward different audiences.


This paper treats the problem of estimating the Mahalanobis distance for the purpose of detecting outliers in high-dimensional data. Three ridge-type estimators are proposed and risk functions for deciding an appropriate value of the ridge coefficient are developed. It is argued that one of the ridge estimator has particularly tractable properties, which is demonstrated through outlier analysis of real and simulated data.


An approach to the design of a database system, the multilingual database system (MLDS), has been proposed and implemented. MLDS is a single database system that can execute may transactions written respectively in different data languages and support many databases structured correspondingly in various data models, i.e. DL/I transactions on hierarchical databases, CODASYL-DML transactions on network databases, SQL transactions on relational databases, and Daplex transactions on functional databases. The authors describe MLDS, focusing on its motivation and structure. It is shown how MLDS, by providing an integrated environment for experimenting with data models and data languages, also serves as a testbed that provides insight to data models and data-model semantics, using qualitative and quantitative techniques. Related work on data-language comparison and analysis is indicated. >


U–Pb and Lu–Hf signatures of detrital zircon from conglomerates and sandstones of the Ordovician Natal Group, South Africa were determined using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The basal conglomerates are dominated by Palaeo- to Mesoarchaean detrital zircon with εHf values from +3 to −4 with minor Mesoproterozoic input, indicating a proximal source in the Kaapvaal Craton and minor input from rocks of the Natal Sector of the Mesoproterozoic Namaqua–Natal Province. The sandstones are all dominated by a combination of juvenile Mesoproterozoic zircon and Neoproterozoic zircon derived from Mesoproterozoic rocks that were reworked during the Pan-African Orogeny. Several sedimentary sequences from former Gondwana with Neoproterozoic to Permian depositional ages show similar detrital zircon signatures. Sedimentary sequences of such vast temporal and geographical distribution are unlikely to have been fed by a single source, making it more likely that these sequences were fed by several different (Pan-Gondwana) source terranes with closely similar U–Pb and Lu–Hf zircon signatures. The results show that source terrane non-uniqueness can make ascertaining sedimentary provenance from detrital zircon impossible, and should be taken as a reminder when using detrital zircon as evidence for far-reaching conclusions in basin evolution studies and palaeogeography. Supplementary materials: U–Pb and Lu–Hf data are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18880.


The collections of the South American Nematognathi in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden, referred to in this publication as "Museum Leiden", and of those in the Zoologisch Museum at Amsterdam, referred to as "Museum Amsterdam", consist of valuable material, which for a very important part has not been studied yet. I feel very much obliged to Prof. Dr. H. Boschma who allowed me to start with the study of the Leiden collections and whom I offer here my sincere thanks. At the same time I want to express my gratitude towards Prof. Dr. L. F. de Beaufort, who has been so kind to place the collection of the Zoological Museum at Amsterdam at my disposal. Furthermore I am greatly indebted to Dr. F. P. Koumans at Leiden for his assistance and advice to solve the various problems which I met during my study. The material dealt with here comes from a large number of collections of different collectors, from various areas of South America, it consists of 125 species, belonging to 14 families of the order Nematognathi. Contrary to the original expectations no adequate number of specimens from Surinam could be obtained to get a sufficient opinion about the occurrence of the various species, and, if possible, also about their distribution in this tropical American part of the Netherlands. On the whole the collections from Surinam were limited to the generally known species only. Pygidium gracilior Eigenm., hitherto not known from Surinam, forms an exception in this respect. Out of the 125 species described in the present paper only 41 originate from Surinam. At the beginning of Bleeker's (1864) investigations of the Nematognathi in the collections of the Museum Leiden and the Museum Amsterdam, there were 23 species from Surinam. During


Mobile smartphones, open-source set tools, and mobile applications have provided vast opportunities for timely, accurate, and seamless data collection, aggregation, storage, and analysis of agricultural data in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this paper, we advanced and demonstrated the practical use and application of a mobile smartphone-based tool, i.e., the Open Data Kit (ODK), to assemble and keep track of real-time maize (Zea mays L.) phenological data in three SSA countries. Farmers, extension agents, researchers, and other stakeholders were enlisted to participate in an initiative to demonstrate the applicability of mobile smartphone-based apps and open-source servers for rapid data collection and management. A pre-installed maize phenology data application based on the ODK architecture was provided to the participants (n = 75) for maize data collection and management over the maize growing season period in 2015–2017. The application structure was custom designed based on maize developmental stages such as planting date, date of emergence, date of first flowering, anthesis, grain filling, and maturity. Results showed that in Ethiopia, early maturing varieties took 105 days from sowing to maturity in low altitudes, whereas late-maturing varieties took up to 190 days to complete developmental stages in high altitude areas. In Tanzania, a similar trend was observed, whereas in Nigeria, most existing varieties took an average of 100 days to complete their developmental stages. Furthermore, the data showed that the durations from sowing to emergence, emergence to flowering, flowering to maturity were mainly dependent on temperature. The values of growing degree for each phase of development obtained from different planting dates were almost constant for each maize variety, which showed that temperature and planting time are the main elements affecting the rate of maize development. The data aggregation approach using the ODK and on-farm personnel improved efficiency and convenience in data collection and visualization. Our study demonstrates that this system can be used in crop management and research on many spatial scales, i.e., local, regional, and continental, with relatively high data collation accuracy.


Broadcast is an important operation in wireless ad hoc networks where control information is usually propagated as broadcasts for the realization of most networking protocols. In traditional ad hoc networks, since the spectrum availability is uniform, broadcasts are delivered via a common channel which can be heard by all users in a network. However, in cognitive radio (CR) ad hoc networks, different unlicensed users may acquire different available channel sets. This non-uniform spectrum availability imposes special design challenges for broadcasting in CR ad hoc networks. In this paper, a fully-distributed Broadcast protocol in multi-hop Cognitive Radio ad hoc networks with collision avoidance, BRACER, is proposed. In our design, we consider practical scenarios that each unlicensed user is not assumed to be aware of the global network topology, the spectrum availability information of other users, and time synchronization information. By intelligently downsizing the original available channel set and designing the broadcasting sequences and scheduling schemes, our proposed broadcast protocol can provide very high successful broadcast ratio while achieving very short average broadcast delay. It can also avoid broadcast collisions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that addresses the unique broadcasting challenges in multi-hop CR ad hoc networks with collision avoidance.


An experimental investigation of stress corrosion cracking in metals is reproted for several alloy-corrodent systems. Internal damping measurements are made on the metals in the as-received condition and after they have been exposed to a corrosive environment. Data curves are reported for different grain sizes of 2024-T4 aluminum in a mercury-corrodent environment and for 304 stainless steel in boiling MgCl2. Considerable changes in the diffusion peaks of these alloys are observed following their exposure in a stressed state to the environment in which they are known to be susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. Corroborative tests on electrolytic copper stressed in a corroding environment of air-saturated synthetic seawater indicate no changes in its internal damping characteristics. This material is immune to stress corrosion cracking in the seawater environment. This study is developed from the idea that metals which are susceptible to stress corrosion cracking exhibit changes in their damping properties after environmental exposure. From the experimental evidence obtained, susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking is associated with decreases in the peak amplitudes of the internal damping curves. The decrease occurs across either the thermal diffusion peak associated with the specimen thickness or with the grain size of the metal. Moreover, for alloys immune to stress corrosion cracking, it is shown that the peak amplitudes remain unchanged after environmental exposure and when compared to the same data curve for the as-received material. From these studies it is concluded that the decreased amplitudes of the internal friction peaks indicate the susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking. This decrease results from the thermal diffusion effects associated either with the specimen thickness or with the grain size. For nonsusceptible systems, the peak amplitudes remain unchanged after environmental exposure. The specific aluminum alloy and stainless steel are used in order to demonstrate a basic phenomenon. It should not be construed that neither aluminum alloys nor stainless steels are useful marine alloys.


BACKGROUND
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various sports disciplines on basic elements of the acquired and natural defense systems and to compare their results with that of non-sporting controls.

MATERIALS/METHODS
The study included 15 sedentary (Group 1), 15 volleyball players (Group 2) and 15 long distance running athletes (Group 3). The VO2 Max for the groups was determined by subjecting the individuals to a 20 meter Shuttle run test. Immunoglobin and complement levels were measured by the turbidometric method. Leukocyte counts were made through peripheral blood smear examination.

RESULTS
The IgA levels in sedentary living individuals was found to be lower than that in volleyball and athlete groups while that in athletes was in turn lower than that in volleyball players (p<0.05). In volleyball players the IgG level was significantly higher than both the sedentary living individuals and the athletes (p<0.05). IgM however, showed a significantly higher level in the sedentary group than in both athletes and volleyball players. The C3 levels in athletes was significantly lower than that of volleyball players and sedentary individuals (p<0.05), while the C4 levels were higher in the volleyball group (p<0.05). The leukocyte, eosinophil, and monocyte counts in the athletes were also significantly lower than those in the volleyball and sedentary groups (p<0.05). The values for the sedentary group on the other hand however, was found to be lower than those of the volleyball players (p<0.05). The neutrophil counts was lower in the sedentary group than in the volleyball group (p<0.05). The levels in the athlete group was lower than that in the volleyball group, however (p<0.05). The lymphocyte counts in volleyball players was higher than that in the sedentary group (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, changes in the immune parameters were found to be dependent on the type of physical exercise performed on regular basis. Considering the protective antibody response in those performing regular sports, moderate exercise carried out on regular basis can be said to affect positively mononuclear and polymorphonuclear phagocytic cells--the basic elements of the natural immune system.


The case of Australia's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is unusual in many respects. It
is privately owned and funded by millionaire David Walsh. It is located in Hobart, the capital of
the island state of Tasmania, Australia, a long way from the art capitals of the world. More
significantly MONA is the umbrella brand for a range of products that are aimed at the luxury
brand consumer, the consumer that will think little of travelling half way around the world for
an unusual and memorable experience. Moreover, the MONA product range-wine, beer, art,
accommodation, and music-is clearly aimed at those consumers seeking a hedonistic
experience. This paper provides an overview of how MONA is developing, given that the art
museum at the core of the umbrella brand has yet to open, and that some of the other
products are a legacy from a former organisation. It also discussed the role and philosophy of
David Walsh as the vision behind the brand. The research for this case is drawn from a
longitudinal project that is tracking MONA from its early stages, through to its opening, and on
to a review once it has been operating for a year.


First paragraph: Introduction to Urban Agriculture The special topic focus of JAFSCD volume 1, issue 2, is urban and peri-urban agriculture. While urban and peri-urban agriculture are common and often traditional aspects of food systems in the Global South, they are now on the rise in industrial countries as well, especially among ethnic immigrant groups in North America and Europe. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines urban agriculture as "an industry that produces, processes and markets food and fuel, largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a town, city, or metropolis, on land and water dispersed throughout the urban and peri-urban area, applying intensive production methods, using and reusing natural resources and urban wastes to yield a diversity of crops and livestock." [1] The findings of national censuses, household surveys, and research projects suggest that up to two-thirds of urban and peri-urban households around the world are involved in agriculture. Much of the food produced is for their own consumption, with occasional surpluses sold to local markets. [2]


Forecasting space weather is an essential activity for increasing the resilience of modern technological infrastructure to hazards from the Sun. To provide an accurate forecast, space weather monitors positioned at L5 are proposed that carry in situ plasma detectors. Here we use data from the STEREO and ACE missions to investigate how well it is possible to predict the solar wind when there are two spacecraft located with the same longitudinal separation as from L5 to Earth. There are four intervals when this is the case: STEREO‐to‐STEREO both on the Earth's side and the far side of the Sun, STEREO‐B to ACE and ACE to STEREO‐A. We forecast the solar wind by mapping the observed solar wind at the first spacecraft to the second using a time delay calculated using the spacecraft's heliographic longitudinal separation and the difference in radial distance from the Sun, allowing for the solar wind speed. Using forecasting skill scores, we find that the predicted and observed solar wind data are, in general, in very good agreement with each of the four periods, including observed corotating interaction regions. However, there are some notable exceptions when corotating interaction regions have been missed by the forecast. The skill improves further for all time periods when removing coronal mass ejections, which cannot be predicted in this method. We suggest that an L5 monitor should be located at the same heliographic latitude as the Earth to optimize the forecasting ability of the monitor and to reduce the chance of missing important events.


Disney Stories: Getting to Digital explores how Disney, the man and the company, used technological innovation to create characters and stories that engage audiences in many different media, in particular in Video Games and on the Internet. Drawing on Disney films from the twenties and thirties, as well as the writings of historians, screenwriters and producers, Disney Stories: Getting to Digital explains how new film and animation techniques, many developed by Disney, worked together to evolve character and content development and produce entertaining stories that riveted audiences. Through an insiders perspective of Disneys legendary creation process, the book closely examines how the Disney Company moved its stories into the digital world in the 1990s and the virtual, online communities of the 2000s. By embracing the digital era, Disney led storytelling and technological innovation by granting their audience the unique opportunity to take part in their creation process through their online games, including The Lion King Animated Story Book, Disney Blast and Toontown. Disney Stories: Getting to Digital is intended for Disney fans and current practitioners looking to study the creation process of one of the most famous animation studios in existence. Professors teaching courses in new media, animation and interactive storytelling will also find this book a valuable asset.


Today's markets for technology products — from smartphones to home appliances to automobiles — are inherently global. This is especially true of products that embody technical standards — protocols like 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB that are covered by hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of patents (so-called "standards-essential patents" or "SEPs"). Given the global scope and size of these markets, it is not surprising that patent litigation over standardized products is often conducted on a global scale. This article looks at an increasingly important aspect of these global standards wars: the ability of a court in one jurisdiction to prevent a party from pursuing litigation in another jurisdiction using a procedural mechanism called the anti-suit injunction (ASI). To complicate matters further, a litigant may also petition a court in one jurisdiction to prevent a party from seeking an ASI in another jurisdiction — the so-called anti-anti-suit injunction (AASI). And, curiouser still, litigants have recently re-invigorated the anti-anti-anti-suit injunction (AAASI), a procedural move that seeks to prevent a litigant from obtaining an AASI to block another litigant from requesting an ASI. If there is no theoretical limit to the procedural machinations to which parties can go in such disputes, it may, indeed, be injunctions "all the way down".


There is relatively little known about the m-banking use by the rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bangladesh. This research fills the gap by presenting the key advantages of using mbanking by the rural SMEs that a bank can offer in Bangladesh. The research also reports on the critical country-level factors, organizational success factors and obstacles in m-banking adoption for rural SMEs. A focus group was interviewed and the data were analysed using NVivo9.The findings indicate that improved banking facility, an opportunity to create employment in rural area, easy settlement of trade between SMEs, better cash management are some important advantages of mbanking for the rural SMEs. Technology and human resource capabilities of the banks together with the development of mobile infrastructure are some influential factors in m-banking development in Bangladesh. This paper also identifies engagement with the SMEs as an important organizational factor in m-banking diffusion for rural SME that have been rarely identified in prior literature. However, the major constraints are the operational constraints such as cash management, policy and regulation and administrative obstacles. Recommendation for a business version m-banking, joint advertisement by the banks and mobile telecom organisations and a regional m-banking platform are also new knowledge in m-banking research. This is one of the few papers from the perspective of a bank, since most of the literature approaches the matter from the consumer standpoint. The outcomes and results of this research will be of potential value to the government, banks and mobile telecommunications in accelerating the development of m-banking in Bangladesh and in other developing countries.


Real-time simulators have been utilized to perform hardware-in-loop testing of protection relays and power system controllers for some years. However, hardware-in-loop testing of generator protection relays has until recently been limited by a lack of suitable dynamic models of synchronous generators in the real-time simulation environment. Historically, the Park transformation has been chosen as the mathematical approach for dynamic modelling of electrical machines in simulation programs, since it greatly simplifies the dynamic equations. However, generator internal winding faults could not be represented faithfully with the aforementioned modelling approach due to its mathematical limitations. Recently, a new real-time phase-domain, synchronous machine model has become available that allows representation of internal winding faults in the stator circuits of a synchronous machine as well as faults in the excitation systems feeding the field circuits of these machines. The development of this phase-domain synchronous machine model for real-time simulators opens up the scope for hardware-in-loop testing of generator protection relays since the performance of various generator protection elements can now be examined using the advanced features provided by the new machine model. This thesis presents a thorough, research-based analysis of the new phase-domain synchronous generator model in order to assess its suitability for testing modern generator protection schemes. The thesis reviews the theory of operation and settings calculations of the various elements present in a particular representative modern numerical generator protection relay and describes the development of a detailed, real-time digital simulation model of a multi-generator system suitable for studying the performance of the protection functions provided within this relay. As part of the development of this real-time model, the thesis presents a custom-developed real-time modelling approach for representing the load-dependent third-harmonic voltages present in the windings of a large synchronous generator which are needed in order to test certain types of stator-winding protection schemes. The thesis presents the results of detailed, closed-loop testing of the representative generator protection relay hardware and its settings using the developed models on a real-time digital simulator. The results demonstrate the correctness of the modelling and testing approach and show that using the phase-domain synchronous machine model, together with the supplementary models presented in the thesis, it is possible to evaluate the performance of various generator protective functions that could not otherwise have been analysed using conventional machine models and testing techniques.


This study focuses on 'multilatinas', a group of emerging multinationals headquartered in Latin American countries, and analyses the flows of knowledge between multilatinas' European subsidiaries and their headquarters. The research tracts both the occurrence of conventional flows of knowledge from headquarters to their European subsidiaries, as well those flows going in the reverse direction. The paper's main findings can be summarised as follows. First, multilatinas presence in Europe is the result of the combination of market and strategic-asset seeking drivers; with Europe being both an important market for multilatinas, as well as a key location for their R&D activities. Second, multilatinas' European subsidiaries exchange knowledge with their headquarters in Latin America, implying the concurrency of both conventional and reverse knowledge flows. Third, multilatinas are not only tapping into European knowledge base (strategic-asset seeking), they are also bringing knowledge into their European operations, suggesting the occurrence of spillovers into the host environments. Forth, intra-firm trade is a key mechanism for knowledge transfers, particularly from Europe to Latin America.


Ensuring reliable communication is an important concern in short-range wireless communication systems with stringent quality of service requirements. Key characteristics of these systems, including data rate, communication range, channel profiles, network topologies and power efficiency, are very different from those in long-range systems. This comprehensive book classifies short-range wireless technologies as high and low data rate systems. It addresses major factors affecting reliability at different layers of the protocol stack, detailing the best ways to enhance the capacity and performance of short-range wireless systems. Particular emphasis is placed on reliable channel estimation, state-of-the-art interference mitigation techniques and cooperative communications for improved reliability. The book also provides detailed coverage of related international standards including UWB, ZigBee, and 60 GHz communications. With a balanced treatment of theoretical and practical aspects of short-range wireless communications and with a focus on reliability, this is an ideal resource for practitioners and researchers in wireless communications.


Summary The Extracellular Matrix Metalloproteinase Inducer (EMMPRIN, CD147, basigin) is an immunoglobulin-like receptor expressed in various cell types. During cellular interactions homotypic EMMPRIN-EMMPRIN interactions are known to induce the synthesis of matrix metalloproteinases. Recently, we have identified EMMPRIN as a novel receptor on platelets. To our knowledge EMMPRIN has not been shown to serve as adhesion receptor, yet. Here we characterise platelet glycoprotein VI (GPVI) as a novel adhesion receptor for EMMPRIN. Human platelets were prestimulated with ADP and perfused over immobilised recombinant EMMPRIN-Fc or Fc-fragments under arterial shear conditions. ADP-stimulated platelets showed significantly enhanced rolling (but not enhanced firm adhesion) on immobilised EMMPRIN-Fc compared to Fc. Pretreatment of platelets with blocking mAbs anti-EMMPRIN or anti-GPVI leads to a significant reduction of rolling platelets on immobilised EMMPRIN-Fc, whereas pretreatment with blocking mAbs anti-p-selectin, anti-α4-integrin or anti-GPIIb/IIIa complex (20 μg/ml each) had no effect. Consistently, chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells stably transfected with GPVI showed enhanced rolling (but not adhesion) on immobilised EMMPRIN-Fc in comparison to nontransfected CHO cells. Similarly, CHO cells stably transfected with EMMPRIN showed enhanced rolling on immobilised GPVIFc (or EMMPRIN-Fc) compared to non transfected CHO-cells. Finally, specific binding of EMMPRIN to GPVI was demonstrated by a modified ELISA and surface plasmon resonance technology with a dissociation constant of 88 nM. Platelet GPVI is a novel receptor for EMMPRIN and can mediate platelet rolling via GPVIEMMPRIN interaction.


Adhesive bond-line read-through is the terminology used in the automotive industry that describes a visible distortion of an adherent over the adhesive bond-line. Usually, this is a result of the difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion of the substrates and the adhesive. First of all, previous work is presented, as well as some information about the terms that are used throughout the project. A linear thermal simulation is carried out in order to analyse the bond-line read-through curvature defects produced by the adhesive properties in a typical bonding from the automotive industry. The analysed models belong to a carbon fibre and epoxy composite material plate bonded with a metal plate that can be made of steel, aluminium and magnesium. The use of carbon fibre composites is one of the main focuses in the automotive industry due to the decrease of environmental and therefore economic impact. The adhesives used for the analysis are liquid or paste adhesive and adhesive tapes from the 3MTM VHBTM series. Several equations are obtained from the results, which can be used to calculate the curvature produced by a specific adhesive for these combinations. The use of these equations is limited to certain material properties and thicknesses that are presented through the work. The outcome of this project provides an opportunity to make the adhesive selection easier, based on the maximum required substrate curvature.


Aim: To address the cellular components and the contractile mechanisms of the idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM). Methods: Ten surgically removed ERMs were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde and analysed by whole-mount immunohistochemistry with anti-glial fibrillar acidic protein (GFAP) and alpha smooth-muscle actin (αSMA) antibodies. Type I collagen gel contraction assay, an established wound-healing assay in vitro, was performed using cultured bovine hyalocytes or normal human astrocytes (NHA) to evaluate the contractile property of the cells in the presence of tissue growth factor (TGF)-β2. The expression of αSMA was also analysed by western blot analysis to examine myofibroblastic transdifferentiation of the cells. Vitreous-induced collagen gel contraction was also evaluated. Results: All membranes were composed of αSMA immunopositive cells in contracted foci and GFAP immunopositive cells in the periphery. No apparent double positive cells were observed in any membranes examined. Cultured hyalocytes showed overexpression of αSMA and hypercontraction of collagen gels in response to TGF-β2, while glial cells showed marginal change. The vitreous from ERM patients also caused overexpression of αSMA and hypercontraction of the gels embedding hyalocytes, which were almost completely inhibited in the presence of anti-TGF-β2 neutralising antibody. Conclusions: Hyalocytes might be one of the critical components of ERM mediating its contractile property through the effect of TGF-β2 in the vitreous fluid.


A Grid environment typically comes into existence when several collaborating institutions contribute resources for researchers to solve problems of mutual interest. Such collaboration of personnel and resources are commonly referred to as a Virtual Organization (VO). The process to establish and manage a VO can be a time consuming and laborious process with installation and configuration of VO specific software and data needed across sites. Configuration management technologies can facilitate this process, however to support the establishment of Grid based VOs, it is necessary to align and integrate Grids and configuration management technologies. This alignment should recognize that sites may have their own flavors of configuration management tools and Grid technologies, and allow VO administrators to seamlessly deploy and configure Grid resources across multiple sites. This paper presents the experiences in developing and testing such an integrated Grid and configuration management framework.


Sample medications represented 4% (3.8 million Australian dollars) of the Australian general practice promotional budget of pharmaceutical companies in the second quarter of 2005. In the United States, general practitioners have been shown to use sample medication in up to 20% of encounters both for commencing and for full treatment. Given the USA does not have a universal subsidy for medications like Australia, sample use may be higher than Australian GPs operating with the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Australian GPs perceive benefits for samples as a trial run: to test patient tolerability, enhance patient satisfaction, and for those who cannot afford multiple trials of drugs. Acceptance of samples by GPs is associated with preference for and rapid prescription of new drugs and positive attitudes toward pharmaceutical representatives. Concerns with sample medications include prescribing medication that is not the GP's preferred choice owing to the limited range of samples available. Other concerns include dispensing expired medication and wastage of medications.


Abstract Sandwich panels are widely used in the aerospace industry instead of solid plates due to their high flexural stiffness-to-weight and flexural strength-to-weight ratios. However due to the mismatch of properties between the face sheets and the core, stress concentrations can occur at the face sheet/core interfaces, often leading to delamination. One possible solution to this problem is the introduction of a graded core — a core in which the properties vary gradually from the face sheets to the core centre, eliminating any abrupt changes in properties. In this paper a 3D finite element method, fully validated through comparison with results from the literature and a 3D elasticity solution, is applied to modelling of sandwich panels with graded core. The approach makes use of graded elements to study the effect of varying the boundary conditions on the elastic deformation of the panel subject to uniformly distributed loading. Comparative analysis of stress and displacement fields in sandwich panels with homogeneous and graded cores is carried out under various combinations of simply supported, clamped and free edges.


Action! Excitement! Transmedia! Step inside Comic-Con to discover the cultural trends that will shape our world. "I've been in comics so long I sometimes think I invented 'em! But I just read Rob Salkowitz's terrific new book and, y'know what? Even I learned new stuff! If you're a comic book nut like me, miss it at your own risk!" (Stan Lee, Legendary Comic Creator and Publisher). "Salkowitz tells it pretty much like it is: the good, the bad, and the ugly of the commercialization of one of America's greatest art forms, as well as the indefatigable artistry of its creators. He is at once informative, insightful, sobering, and inspiring". (Douglas Rushkoff, pop culture analyst and author of "Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age"). "If you care at all about comics, this is an essential read (and if you don't, Salkowitz just might win you over). But it's also grab-worthy for anyone interested in the fascinating, conflicted, unfolding future of digital publishing and transmedia entertainment". (Booklist (Starred Review)). "What began more than four decades ago as an intimate gathering of comic book creators, fans and legends has become a packed entertainment event. Although it doesn't have the same ring to it, Comic-Con could more appropriately be called the Transmedia Pop Culture Con where buzz for a year's worth of projects is created, prolonged or squelched. Yet, despite the awareness that the con is a giant marketplace where producers sell directly to customers, there has been shockingly little analysis of the business of the event before Rob Salkowitz's new book, "Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture". (CNN Geekout). "The true gift in Rob's book is how very hard it becomes for you to decide, whether you're a business reader reading a pop culture book, or a comics fan reading a business book". (PopMatters). "The book explores the business aspects of the show and how it is a microcosm of the growing transmedia aspects of both comic books and their connection to things such as film, TV, and video games. All the while, acting as a travelogue by a long-time fan of comics and Comic-Con". (Technorati). "Salkowitz's first hand observation makes us feel like we are walking the convention floor with him. In some chapters you sense his thrill as he meets a few of his fan favorites. "Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture" should be a great book for comic book fans, moviegoers, pop culture followers, and marketing gurus". (Trashwire). Welcome to Comic-Con: where the future of pop culture comes to life. Every summer, more than 130,000 comic fans, gamers, cosplay enthusiasts, and nerds of all stripes descend on San Diego to mingle with the top entertainment celebrities and creative industry professionals in an unprecedented celebration of popular culture in all its forms. From humble beginnings, Comic-Con has mutated into an electrifying, exhausting galaxy of movies, TV, video games, art, fashion, toys, merchandise, and buzz. It's where the future of entertainment unspools in real time, and everyone wants to be there. In "Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture", author Rob Salkowitz, a recognized expert in digital media and the global digital generation (and unabashed comics enthusiast), explores how the humble art form of comics ended up at the center of the 21st-century media universe. From Comic-Con's massive exhibit hall and panels to its exclusive parties and business suites, Salkowitz peels back the layers to show how comics culture is influencing communications, entertainment, digital technology, marketing, education, and storytelling. What can the world's most approachable and adaptable art form tell us about the importance of individual talent and personal engagement in the era of the new global audience, the iPad, and the quarter-billion-dollar summer blockbuster? Here are some of the issues Salkowitz explores: How do you succeed in the transmedia maelstrom? Comics have hopscotched across the media landscape for decades. What can we learn from their successes and failures as we careen toward a converged digital future? Have comics cracked the digital code? Everyone is scrambling to deal with the business disruptions of digital distribution. Does the recent success of comics on tablets demonstrate a new model for other industries, or do dangers lie ahead? What's next for "peak geek"? Will the ascendant nerd culture of the early 2010s keep its new audience engaged or burn out from overexposure? "Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture" combines the insights business leaders need with the details fans crave about the future ofthe world's most dynamic industry. Even if you can't be in San Diego in July, this book brings the excitement into focus ...no costumes required!


Background: It is essential to assess the knowledge and awareness about COVID-19 infection among people utilizing the emergency health-care services. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and awareness about COVID-19 infection and the practices followed by the patients and their caregivers with respect to prevention of spread of COVID-19. Methodology: A cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted in the emergency outpatient services of a tertiary care center using a brief self-designed questionnaire. Results: More than half of the participants considered that touch and coming in contact with a person with cough/cold were the most common mode of spread of the infection, but many others had several misinformations regarding the exact mode of transmission. Three-fourth of the participants thought that wearing a mask is required to protect oneself from getting infected, while handwashing and social distancing as important precautionary measures were reported by only half and one-fourth of the participants respectively. Only half of the participants used masks during traveling to the hospital and one-third reported of sanitizing hands during travel and only half of the participants reported of having knowledge about using surgical masks and sanitizers in emergency premises, and only two-fifths thought social distancing to be a precautionary measure to follow in the emergency setting. Conclusions: The study findings highlight the need to improve awareness programs so as to improve the knowledge and practices of medically ill patients and their caregivers attending the emergency services.


This report details the findings of a project jointly funded by the British Geological Survey (BGS)and Defra through the Environment Agency. The overall aim of the work was to investigate the use of new models to inform decision-making on nitrate pollution in groundwater and the potential
for incorporating unsaturated zone processes into the model currently used by the Environment Agency to delineate Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs). The potential application as supporting evidence for the Water Framework Directive has also been considered as nitrate pollution of groundwater remains the most significant reason for failure of WFD environmental objectives across England. The background to the nitrate legacy in groundwater and to the approaches to NVZ designation is described in Stuart et al. (2016).
A series of developments to the BGS Nitrate Time Bomb (NTB) model have been made to improve a number of areas and approaches used in the first version of the model. The improvements included a spatially and temporally distributed nitrate input function, improved unsaturated zone thickness estimation, travel time attribution using a 1:250,000 geological map, estimating nitrate velocity in the unsaturated zone using groundwater recharge and aquifer properties, and introducing nitrate transport processes in low permeability superficial deposits and the saturated
zones. These now allow the model to be applied at sub national scale. Using the improved model we have also made the first estimate of the mass of nitrate stored within the unsaturated zone and how this will change over time to improve UK nitrate budget estimates.
The new version of the BGS NTB approach was applied in three case studies at different scales which compared its outcomes to the results from other modelling to demonstrate that the model can be benchmarked against the other nitrate modelling approaches:
• For a basin-scale model of the Thames Chalk (Howden et al., 2010 & 2011). The NTB model gave comparable results to the original study back to 1925 provided that the same
nitrate input function was used. Both models failed to predict nitrate concentrations in the Thames after the mid-1980s.
• At the multi-borehole scale in the Permo-Triassic. A similar approach was used to the BGS model in the Eden Valley. This replicated the existing model for the area used by the Environment Agency both in terms of trend assessment and in the lack of dilution available within the aquifer block for blending purposes.
• At the single borehole scale in the Chalk of the South Downs. The existing Environment and National Park model constructed by AMEC treated the unsaturated zone very similarly to the NTB model. This model provided a good fit to observed concentrations and confirmed the importance of estimating unsaturated zone delays. The assessment of
modelled travel time from different areas of the catchment clearly illustrated the arable areas that would give a relatively rapid respond to changes in nitrate management.
To illustrate the potential application of the BGS NTB model to support the Environment Agency's NVZ designation methodology, areas of England were identified where unsaturated zone lags may be significant and where there is uncertainty in the NVZ designation. A major advantage of the
BGS NTB model is that it covers the whole of England (and Wales) in a consistent way. A national overview of areas of designation uncertainty identified large areas of England, in particular the chalk outcrop of southern and eastern England. These were compared to areas with significant
unsaturated zone travel time indicating where travel time may be contributing to designation uncertainty. The results suggest that the model may be useful both for identifying currently impacted groundwater which reflects legacy fertilizer application and also where additional designation could be needed as impacts have not yet emerged.
Application of the model to support implementation of the WFD has also been considered and whilst no quantitative analysis has yet been carried out there are a number of ways that the model could be of significant benefit. For example, the model could be used to estimate when trend
reversal would be expected to occur as a result of measures (at a specific location or across a groundwater body) and the time required to achieve good chemical status (alternative objective setting). A further application could be for scenario testing such as evaluating the effects of different land use/management measures as part of cost benefit analysis or considering the long term impacts of climate change through changing fertiliser use and/or recharge.


In the wake of Vatican II and the social revolutions in modern America, Catholic colleges and universities are now groping for a sense of identity and mission. In the past, these institutions provided a haven and anchor for the sons and daughters of an immigrant church. But what is the function of Catholic colleges today? Do they exist primarily to confer degrees and promote professional training, like other colleges, or do they participate in a special way in the work of the church? O'Brien proposes that the primary work of Catholic colleges and universities is to foster a tradition that translates meaning and moral values into public practice. From the Heart of the American Church provides a historical and ecclesial context for the current debates about what makes a Catholic institution Catholic, the decline in the teaching orders and increasing secularization, and the issues of academic freedom versus Catholic identity. It is must-reading for academics and administrators, students and alumni of Catholic colleges, and everyone concerned with the future of Catholic higher education in America and its contribution to American culture.


This paper examines the application of a proven geophysical technology that is highly effective in assessing seepage flow conditions through, beneath and around earthen embankments. The technology works rapidly with minimal disruptions to dam operations—it requires no drilling or draining of the reservoir. It has become a competitive solution to many of the complex challenges faced with dam safety diagnostics and monitoring and the technology has consistently and repeatedly providing intelligence to dam operators in identifying problems with their dams and pointing to appropriate costeffective methods for resolving them. At the 2009 SAGEEP conference in Austin, TX, a seepage related case study of the Method was presented. It showed that the Method found a two-meter sinkhole at the bottom of a reservoir, which was later independently verified. Now, three years later, the method has improved and results are significantly more detailed, accurate and descriptive in defining seepage problems. For instance, data reduction now involves predicting the magnetic field generated from electric current flow in a homogenous space and comparing that to the measured magnetic field. This comparison enhances detection of subtle flow paths in a more electrically homogeneous environment. In addition, a sophisticated inversion algorithm has been developed to quantify the distribution of electric current flow beneath the study area. With these upgrades, the Method is proving to be even more accurate at finding the zones of highest transport porosity related to seepage flow through dams. Although electrical and hydraulic conduction are governed by very different principles, the distribution of electric current flow can qualitatively infer a general distribution of hydraulic conductance, thus helping to appraise the integrity of a dam's embankment, abutments and foundation. To illustrate how the Method in its current form works, an actual case study and physical modeling experiments will be presented that demonstrate the Method's application and accuracy with regard to characterizing preferential seepage flow through earthen embankments.


This short piece seeks to offer a sober yet optimistic speculation on the renewal of community and civic solidarity in the face of the rapidly unfolding coronavirus pandemic. Over the last forty years, social and civic solidarity have been systematically undermined by the neoliberal project. Yet over a decade ago, a global crisis of neoliberal finance capitalism presented us with an unprecedented opportunity to break away from its orthodoxies and rebuild the solidarity necessary for democratic citizenship. Instead, we lived through an astonishing period during which the 'alchemy of austerity' reworked the crisis as one of a bloated and inefficient welfare state (Clarke and Newman, 2012). 'Zombie' neoliberalism staggered on and inequality grew, as communities across the UK organised to resist austerity and ameliorate the worst effects of brutal cuts and punitive welfare reform. Perversely, a solidaristic rhetoric of 'sharing the pain' was invoked to justify the very policies that undermined solidarity: the reduction or closure of essential public services, youth and community centres, public libraries, as well as welfare reforms that the UN Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights compared to Victorian Poor Laws (Alston, 2018).


In this paper we compare the use of research and other evidence in the policy formation practices of two groups of education policy elites, situated in different contexts – provincial education ministries and school districts. Data are derived from two pan-Canadian studies: Galway (2006) and Sheppard, Galway, Brown & Wiens (2013) . The findings show that policy decisions at the ministry level are informed primarily by political and pragmatic factors, personal and professional beliefs and staff advice. The role of external research is shown to be relatively marginal and confined to quantitative studies and performance assessments. Decision makers at the school district level are less attendant to political and pragmatic influences relying more on personal beliefs, values and experiential factors supplemented by the advice of professional staff and in-house research/indicators.  Results from both studies demonstrate limited reliance on external data and university-based research – the latter ranking 15th of 20 influencing factors. Consistent with Beck's (1994; 1997) risk theory, we theorize that education policy making in both contexts is influenced by both macro- and micro-level factors, where choice of policy evidence is mediated by personal considerations and political risk factors. This suggests a weak policy development paradigm that is, to a large extent, resistant to independent research-informed evidence.


Microfinance institutions (MFI) continue to look for reliable, relevant and practical ways to assess impact, in part because of increased pressure to show results and the need to be more responsive to clients. The Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) has built a monitoring, evaluation and learning framework to better understand and serve their clients. A core part of this framework is a mixed-methods approach to assessing impact, one which combines the regular and periodic collection of client-level data. AKAM learned that combining different sources of information leads to more robust organisational learning and the ability to understand better the impact of its products on clients' quality of life. This experience can illustrate to other MFIs the value of looking beyond purely quantitative measures in order to assess impact and improve practice. This paper presents the results of the qualitative research component of this framework that AKAM piloted in four countries.


Objectives: Medical treatments may be inadequate for the management of allergic rhinitis. Therefore, it requires different treatment options. We aimed to evaluate the effects of nasal steroid and hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatments on the nasal mucosa of an allergic rhinitis of a (AR) rat model. Methods: Group 1 (control group); Group 2 toluene diisocyanate (TDI) group; Group 3 was exposed to TDI and treated with HBO; Group 4 was exposed to TDI and treated with intranasalmometasone furoate. After the sacrification, the sections were then evaluated semi-quantitatively and parameters of histopathological inflammation, fibrosis and eosinophilia were assessed.
Results: The level of inflammation in the control group was significantly less severe than Group 2. There were statistically significant differences between Groups 2, 3 and 4. Evaluation of thefibrosis scores showed that the scores of Group 4 were significantly higher. Group 1 has significantly lower eosinophil counts than the other groups. Group 2 has significantly higher eosinophil counts than group 4.
Conclusion: Anti-inflammatory effects of both nasal steroid and HBO treatments were found to be similar in our study. Nasal steroid therapy combined with HBO therapy may be used on treatmentresistant patients with persistent AR.


Recent scholarship has thoughtfully considered the negative effect of the diversity rationale on minority identity when that identity is traded-on by white institutions seeking to maximize the social and economic benefits that diversity brings. In contrast, not much has been said about the impact of the diversity rationale on white identity. While it may be true that majority-white institutions of higher education benefit from diversity more than people of color, by, for example, using token images of minorities to market themselves as progressive places, the impact of diversity on white identity formation remains under-theorized. Consideration of the impact of diversity on white identity formation is particularly timely, given the Supreme Court's forthcoming opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas. Unlike landmark cases like Brown v. Board, which broke with old narratives about the legitimacy of subordinating Blacks, diversity, as upheld in Grutter v. Bollinger, failed to advance the new narrative. Rather, it returned to the old story, a story about using black and brown bodies for white purposes on white terms, a story about the expendability of those bodies once they were no longer needed, as illustrated by Abigail Fisher's Supreme Court challenge to the diversity rationale. Moreover, by reinforcing the transparency of white racial identity, as well as emphasizing innocent white racial identity and hyper-individualism, the diversity rationale stunts the development of anti-racist white identity. Ultimately, the diversity rationale reaffirms notions of racial superiority among Whites. The rationale also cultivates white identities grounded in entitlement and victimhood relative to people of color. This identity formation not only perpetuates racial subordination of people of color when it leads to the elimination of affirmative action programs, but also distracts Whites from addressing the ways in which their own presence at elite institutions of higher education is genuinely undermined, especially in the case of working-class Whites who are consistently underrepresented at the institutions. Given this reality, institutions of higher education committed to the diversity rationale must account for this phenomenon through a more honest and substantive deployment of the rationale pre- and post-admissions.


Droughts are common in virtually all U.S. forests, but their frequency and intensity vary widely both between and within forest ecosystems (Hanson and Weltzin 2000). Forests in the Western United States generally exhibit a pattern of annual seasonal droughts. Forests in the Eastern United States tend to exhibit one of two prevailing patterns: random occasional droughts, typical of the Appalachian Mountains and of the Northeast, or frequent late-summer droughts, typical of the Southeastern Coastal Plain and the eastern edge of the Great Plains (Hanson and Weltzin 2000). For plants, a reduction in basic growth processes (i.e., cell division and enlargement) is the most immediate response to drought; photosynthesis, which is less sensitive than these basic processes, decreases slowly at low levels of drought stress, but begins to decrease more sharply when the stress becomes moderate to severe (Kareiva and others 1993, Mattson and Haack 1987). Drought makes some forests more susceptible to infestations of tree-damaging insects and diseases (Clinton and others 1993, Mattson and Haack 1987). Furthermore, drought may increase wildland fire risk by impeding decomposition of organic matter and reducing the moisture content of downed woody materials and other potential fire fuels (Clark 1989, Keetch and Byram 1968, Schoennagel and others 2004).


Despite its sociopolitical basis, Academic Literacy (AL) is recently referred to as a set of complex skills such as writing, which lays undeniable foundations for success in academic communities (Hyland& Lyons, 2002). This study is aimed at improving students' AL in general and their writing skill in particular at Khaje Nasiredin Toosi (KNT) University of Science and Technology. Based on the domain of EAP (Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001; Jordan, 1997), and among various academic assignments (Braine, 1995; Canseco & Byrd, 1989), students' summary writings at KNT University were selected to be investigated. Besides the summaries, 20 students were interviewed to delve more into the problematic areas. Data analysis of 1270 written errors indicated that sequence of tense, article use, and appropriate selection of words are the most prevalent error types. Further analysis of the data revealed that students had failed to develop their ideas properly in unified paragraphs. Moreover, students were unsuccessful to put their ideas in the simple format of introduction, body, and conclusion. The paragraphs also lacked cohesive ties. The article, accordingly, ends with some practical recommendations addressing the present issues.


Mineralization of molybdenite were discovered in the Kleivan granite, Lyngdal and document that the ore-forming potential of this rare example of a differentiated, A-type, granite. The cryptic zonation up through the igneous stratigraphy was confirmed and is the result of fractional crystallization. A decrease in compatible elements (Sc, Zr, Ba, Ti, Sr, Fe, Zn and Cu) and an increase in incompatible elements (mostly Rb) towards the most evolved parts of the intrusion are advantageous for the genesis of an H2O phase enriched in Mo. Field observations of molybdenite in aplite and pegmatite in the cupola of the Kleivan granite, together with veins and veinlets of quartz imply that magmatic-hydrothermal ore forming processes were active. A high abundance of primary fluid inclusions in magmatic quartz in the upper part of the intrusion show that igneous aqueous fluids in deed were present during solidification of this part of the intrusion. However, regular hydrothermal stockwork mineralizations are not exposed. They may be present somewhere in the roof section of the hostrock that is covered by quarternary sediments or, simply they never formed. Mineralization of molybdenite in aplites and pegmatite`s formed during terminal of the Kleivan intrusion supports that the conditions for molybdenite formation were present (fO2, S and decreasing T). Calculations of the size of a possible Mo deposit with different initial Mo (1, 15, 29 ppm) in the parent melt at different thicknesses (1.5, 3, 6, 12 km) of the intrusion gives reasonable sizes of a deposit. Mo will apparently not be a limiting factor in the ore forming process. The amount of exsolved H2O in the Kleivan granite is unknown and is crucial in the control of the ore forming process. The discovery of spinel ([Zn, Fe]Al2O4) and chrysoberyll (BeAl2O4) in the apex of the intrusion, together with the occurrence of sillimanite and garnet makes a complex petrography and the Al rich conditions here.The contents of Mo in rocks from the early crystallization of the intrusion are surprisingly low (<1 ppm). In aplite and pegmatite in the upper part of the intrusion, the content of Mo is considerably higher (from 10 to 600 ppm). The theory of a hydrothermal fluid scavenging the melt for Mo is supported by these findings. Finding a magmatic hydrothermal mineralization of molybdenite associated with the Kleivangranite is highly possible. The potential for further exploration in the Kleivan granite in the search for an interesting molybdenite deposit is present.


Heart failure (HF) is a syndrome of shortness of breath and fatigue. It occurs when forward flow of blood out of the heart is impeded. This is the only cardiovascular condition that continues to increase in prevalence and incidence. It is a major healthcare problem, not only for the patient, but also for significant others and the community at large. The condition accounts for approximately 12–15 million office visits and 6.5 million hospital days annually in the United States. One third of those discharged from the hospital are readmitted within 90 days because of recurrence of symptoms. The cost of HF patient care is approximately $38.1 billion annually, draining limited resources of patients, treatment facilities, and society.


For reasons not well understood, the color of a surface can appear quite different when placed in different chromatic surrounds. Here we explore the possibility that these color contrast effects are generated according to what the same or similar stimuli have turned out to signify in the past about the physical relationships between reflectance, illumination, and the spectral returns they produce. This hypothesis was evaluated by (i) comparing the physical relationships of reflectances, illuminants, and spectral returns with the perceptual phenomenology of color contrast and (ii) testing whether perceptions of color contrast are predictably changed by altering the probabilities of the possible sources of the stimulus. The results we describe are consistent with a wholly empirical explanation of color contrast effects.


Increasingly, local governments compete by offering substantial subsidies to industrial plants to locate within their jurisdictions. This paper uses a novel research design to examine the consequences of successfully bidding for a plant on county-level labor earnings, property values, and public finances. Each issue of the corporate real estate journal Site Selection includes an article titled The Million Dollar Plant that describes how a large plant decided where to locate. These articles report the county where the plant chose to locate (i.e., the 'winner'), as well as the one or two runner-up counties (i.e., the 'losers'). The losers are counties that have survived a long selection process, but narrowly lost the competition. We use these revealed rankings of profit-maximizing firms to form a counterfactual for what would have happened in the winner counties in the absence of the plant opening. We find that a plant opening is associated with a 1.5% trend break in labor earnings in the new plant's industry in winning counties (relative to losing ones) after the opening of the plant (relative to the period before the opening). Property values may provide a summary measure of the net change in welfare, because the costs and benefits of attracting a plant should be capitalized into the price of land. We find a positive, relative trend break of 1.1% in property values. Further, we fail to find any deterioration in local governments' financial position. Overall, the results undermine the popular view that the provision of local subsidies to attract large industrial plants reduces local residents' welfare.


This paper shows how a general purpose data flow visual programming environment can be effectively used to find, collect and manipulate information available on the web. The discussion highlights the elementary functions that are needed to implement such applications, as well as the language control structures that can make program development easier. Starting from the analysis of a simple application, some advice is given about the potential of this approach. We also explain how we intend to make a suitable portion of the programming environment available through a common web browser.


In this study, we discuss the underlying mechanism of the current–voltage hysteresis in a hybrid lead-halide perovskite solar cell. We have developed a method based on Kelvin probe force microscopy that enables mapping charge redistribution in an operating device upon a voltage- or light pulse with sub-millisecond resolution. We observed the formation of a localized interfacial charge at the anode interface, which screened most of the electric field in the cell. The formation of this charge happened within 10 ms after applying a forward voltage to the device. After switching off the forward voltage, however, these interfacial charges were stable for over 500 ms and created a reverse electric field in the cell. This reverse electric field directly explains higher photocurrents during reverse bias scans by electric field-assisted charge carrier extraction. Although we found evidence for the presence of mobile ions in the perovskite layer during the voltage pulse, the corresponding ionic field contributed only less than 10% to the screening. Our observation of a time-dependent ion concentration in the perovskite layer suggests that iodide ions adsorbed and became neutralized at the hole-selective spiro-OMeTAD electrode. We thereby show that instead of the slow migration of mobile ions, the formation and the release of interfacial charges is the dominating factor for current–voltage hysteresis.