MIL STD 461 is the Department of Defense standard that states the requirements for the control of electromagnetic interference (EMI) in subsystems and equipment used by the armed forces. The standard requires users to measure the unintentional radiated emissions from equipment by placing a measuring antenna at one meter distance from the equipment under test (EUT). The performance of the antenna at 1m distance must be known for the antenna to measure objects located at this close proximity. MIL STD 461 requires the antennas to be calibrated at 1 m distance using the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) 958. This SAE ARP 958 document describes a standard calibration method where two identical antennas are used at 1m distance to obtain the gain at 1m for each antenna. In this paper the authors show using simulations that the SAE ARP 958 approach introduces errors as high at 2 dB to the measured gain and AF. To eliminate this problem the authors introduce a new method for calibrating EMC antennas for MIL STD 461. The Method is based on the well-known extrapolation range technique. The process is to obtain the polynomial curve that is used to get the far field gain in the extrapolation gain procedure, and to perform an interpolation to get the gain at 1 m. The results show that some data in the far field must be collected during the extrapolation scan. When the polynomial is calculated the antenna performance values at shorter distances will be free of near field coupling. Measured results for a typical antenna required for emissions testing per the MIL STD 461 match well with the numerical results for the computed gain at 1 m distance. Future work is required to study the use of this technique for other short test distances used in other electromagnetic compatibility standards, such as the 3 m test distance used by the


In response to the 2007–09 "Great Recession," the maximum duration of U.S. unemployment benefits was increased from the normal level of 26 weeks to an unprecedented 99 weeks. I estimate the impact of these extensions on job search, comparing them with the more limited extensions associated with the milder 2001 recession. The analyses rely on monthly matched microdata from the Current Population Survey. I find that a 10-week extension of UI benefits raises unemployment duration by about 1.5 weeks, with little variation across the two episodes. This estimate lies in the middle-to-upper end of the range of past estimates.JEL codesJ64; J65


An important challenge in constraint programming is to rewrite constraint models into executable programs calculating the solutions. This phase of constraint processing may require translations between constraint programming languages, transformations of constraint representations, model optimizations, and tuning of solving strategies. In this paper, we introduce a pivot metamodel describing the common features of constraint models including different kinds of constraints, statements like conditionals and loops, and other first-class elements like object classes and predicates. This metamodel is general enough to cope with the constructions of many languages, from object-oriented modeling languages to logic languages, but it is independent from them. The rewriting operations manipulate metamodel instances apart from languages. As a consequence, the rewriting operations apply whatever languages are selected and they are able to manage model semantic information. A bridge is created between the metamodel space and languages using parsing techniques. Tools from the software engineering world can be useful to implement this framework.


Abstract Scale framing is a powerful mechanism in shaping the meaning of policy issues, with far-reaching consequences for governance processes in terms of responsibilities and inclusion or exclusion of actors and ideas. However scale framing has not received much attention in public administration and policy sciences. In this paper, we study scale framing in governance processes. We question how some actors ensure that their scale frames prevail, whereas other scale frames disappear. We analyse the interplay between scale framing and power dynamics in a debate about the future of Dutch intensive agriculture. We distinguish between the power dynamics: in the interaction, of the interaction and over the interaction. Our study shows that at first sight, the 'power-over' in this process appeared very strong and dominated the 'power-in' and the 'power-of', but in the end, surprisingly, the power-of appeared even stronger. Furthermore, we show that scale frames are powerful discursive devices in the different episodes (power-in), but the analysis of the process shows that the variety in (scale) frames largely disappears. Thus, although there are many good arguments in favour of organizing policy processes deliberatively, the process design in this case strengthened central government's power-over, rather than the other actors' power-of.


We study the effects of time pressure on risky decisions for pure gain prospects, pure loss prospects, and mixed prospects involving both gains and losses. In two experiments we find that time pressure has no effect on risk attitudes for gains, but increases risk aversion for losses. For mixed prospects, subjects become simultaneously more loss averse and more gain seeking under time pressure, depending on the framing of the prospects. The results suggest the importance of aspiration levels, and thus the overall probability to break even, under time pressure. We discuss the implications of our findings for decision-making situations that involve time pressure.


Infections caused by carbapenemase-producing enterobacteria (CPE) are a major concern in clinical settings worldwide. Two fundamentally different processes shape the epidemiology of CPE in hospitals: the dissemination of CPE clones from patient to patient (between-patient transfer), and the transfer of carbapenemase-encoding plasmids between enterobacteria in the gut microbiota of individual patients (within-patient transfer). The relative contribution of each process to the overall dissemination of carbapenem resistance in hospitals remains poorly understood. Here, we used mechanistic models combining epidemiological data from more than 9,000 patients with whole genome sequence information from 250 enterobacteria clones to characterise the dissemination routes of the carbapenemase-encoding plasmid pOXA-48 in a hospital setting over a two-year period. Our results revealed frequent between-patient transmission of high-risk pOXA-48-carrying clones, mostly of Klebsiella pneumoniae and sporadically Escherichia coli. The results also identified pOXA-48 dissemination hotspots within the hospital, such as specific wards and individual rooms within wards. Using high-resolution plasmid sequence analysis, we uncovered the pervasive within-patient transfer of pOXA-48, suggesting that horizontal plasmid transfer occurs in the gut of virtually every colonised patient. The complex and multifaceted epidemiological scenario exposed by this study provides new insights for the development of intervention strategies to control the in-hospital spread of CPE.


Abstract In the US farmers often market pastured poultry eggs for a premium price, claiming animal and human health benefits. We examined how moving pastured hens to forage legumes or mixed grasses influenced hen (Gallus gallus L.) egg omega-3 fatty acids and concentrations of vitamins A and E. We also compared the eggs of the pastured hens to those of hens fed a commercial diet in cages. We used a cross-over design to compare pasture species: 75 sister hens were assigned to one of three pasture treatment groups: (1) alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), (2) red and white clover (Trifolium pretense L. and Trifolium repens L.) or (3) mixed cool season grasses. Groups were rotated to all three pasture treatments, each for 2 weeks and supplemented with 70 g commercial hen mash bird−1 day−1. Pasture botanical composition, forage mass, leaf to total ratio and plant fatty acid composition were compared among pasture treatments. Eggs of the pastured hens were compared to eggs of 50 sister hens that were fed only commercial hen mash in cages for the entire 6 weeks. Forage parameters varied somewhat, but did not explain plant linolenic acid variation. Seventeen of the 18 quantified egg fatty acids, and vitamin A concentrations did not (P<0.05) differ among the three pasture treatment groups. Eggs of the hens that foraged grasses had 23% more (P<0.0001) vitamin E than eggs of hens that foraged clover. Compared to eggs of the caged hens, pastured hens' eggs had twice as much vitamin E and long-chain omega-3 fats, 2.5-fold more total omega-3 fatty acids, and less than half the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids (P<0.0001). Vitamin A concentration was 38% higher (P<0.05) in the pastured hens' eggs than in the caged hens' eggs, but total vitamin A per egg did not differ. At the end of the experiment, pastured hens weighed 14% less and averaged 15% lower hen-day egg production than caged birds (P<0.0001). Results suggest that grass pastures may enhance vitamin E in eggs of pastured hens more than clover, and pastured hens supplemented with commercial mash will produce eggs with significantly more vitamin E and total omega-3 fatty acids compared to eggs from caged hens fed only commercial hen mash. Pastured hens may have lower body weight and egg production than caged hens, unless they are supplemented adequately to meet their dietary energy and crude protein needs.


Drawing on Marion Fourcade's notion of ordinalization, we develop a conceptual grammar of comparison to explain a shift in the nature and outcomes of the governing capacity of the OECD over time. We argue that comparison as a mode of governance has been bound into the DNA of the OECD as a lever for advancing political liberalism since the inception of the organization. Moreover, we show that around 1990 the organization injected competitiveness into comparison by embracing ordinal modes of comparison revolving around the vertical ordering of things and people according to their relative positions on ranking scales. Yet, by analyzing the case of OECD statistics on teachers and in particular the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) program, we argue that the outcomes of the mechanism of ordinalization in the context of TALIS have thus far remained muted due to methodological constraints as well as the pluri-scalar politics involved.


We propose a unified framework in which to treat semantic underspecification and parallelism phenomena in discourse. The framework employs a constraint language that can express equality and subtree relations between finite trees. In addition, our constraint language can express the equality up-to relation over trees which captures parallelism between them. The constraints are solved by context unification. We demonstrate the use of our framework at the examples of quantifier scope, ellipsis, and their interaction.


Abstract We focused on describing low nutritional status in an increasing moose (Alces alces gigas) population with reduced predation in Game Management Unit (GMU) 20A near Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. A skeptical public disallowed liberal antlerless harvests of this moose population until we provided convincing data on low nutritional status. We ranked nutritional status in 15 Alaska moose populations (in boreal forests and coastal tundra) based on multiyear twinning rates. Data on age-of-first-reproduction and parturition rates provided a ranking consistent with twinning rates in the 6 areas where comparative data were available. Also, short-yearling mass provided a ranking consistent with twinning rates in 5 of the 6 areas where data were available. Data from 5 areas implied an inverse relationship between twinning rate and browse removal rate. Only in GMU 20A did nutritional indices reach low levels where justification for halting population growth was apparent, which supports prior findings that nutrition is a minor factor limiting most Alaska moose populations compared to predation. With predator reductions, the GMU 20A moose population increased from 1976 until liberal antlerless harvests in 2004. During 1997–2005, GMU 20A moose exhibited the lowest nutritional status reported to date for wild, noninsular, North American populations, including 1) delayed reproduction until moose reached 36 months of age and the lowest parturition rate among 36-month-old moose (29%, n = 147); 2) the lowest average multiyear twinning rates from late-May aerial surveys (x̄ = 7%, SE = 0.9%, n = 9 yr, range = 3–10%) and delayed twinning until moose reached 60 months of age; 3) the lowest average mass of female short-yearlings in Alaska (x̄ = 155 ± 1.6 [SE] kg in the Tanana Flats subpopulation, up to 58 kg below average masses found elsewhere); and 4) high removal (42%) of current annual browse biomass compared to 9–26% elsewhere in boreal forests. When average multiyear twinning rates in GMU 20A (sampled during 1960–2005) declined to <10% in the mid- to late 1990s, we began encouraging liberal antlerless harvests, but only conservative annual harvests of 61–76 antlerless moose were achieved during 1996–2001. Using data in the context of our broader ranking system, we convinced skeptical citizen advisory committees to allow liberal antlerless harvests of 600–690 moose in 2004 and 2005, with the objective of halting population growth of the 16,000–17,000 moose; total harvests were 7–8% of total prehunt numbers. The resulting liberal antlerless harvests served to protect the moose population's health and habitat and to fulfill a mandate for elevated yield. Liberal antlerless harvests appear justified to halt population growth when multiyear twinning rates average ≤10% and ≥1 of the following signals substantiate low nutritional status: <50% of 36-month-old moose are parturient, average multiyear short-yearling mass is <175 kg, or >35% of annual browse biomass is removed by moose.


The objective of this experiment was to compare ruminal fluid samples collected through rumen cannula (RC) or using an oral stomach tube (ST) for measurement of ruminal fermentation and microbiota variables. Six ruminally cannulated lactating Holstein cows fed a standard diet were used in the study. Rumen samples were collected at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 h after the morning feeding on two consecutive days using both RC and ST techniques. Samples were filtered through two layers of cheesecloth and the filtered ruminal fluid was used for further analysis. Compared with RC, ST samples had 7% greater pH; however, the pattern in pH change after feeding was similar between sampling methods. Total volatile fatty acids (VFA), acetate and propionate concentrations in ruminal fluid were on average 23% lower for ST compared with RC. There were no differences between RC and ST in VFA molar proportions (except for isobutyrate), ammonia and dissolved hydrogen (dH2) concentrations, or total protozoa counts, and there were no interactions between sampling technique and time of sampling. Bacterial ASV richness was higher in ST compared with RC samples; however, no differences were observed for Shannon diversity. Based on Permanova analysis, bacterial community composition was influenced by sampling method and there was an interaction between sampling method and time of sampling. A core microbiota comprised of Prevotella, S24-7, unclassified Bacteroidales and unclassified Clostridiales, Butyrivibrio, unclassified Lachnospiraceae, unclassified Ruminococcaceae, Ruminococcus, and Sharpea was present in both ST and RC samples, although their relative abundance varied and was influenced by an interaction between sampling time and sampling method. Overall, our results suggest that ruminal fluid samples collected using ST (at 180 to 200 cm depth) are not representative of rumen pH, absolute values of VFA concentrations, or bacterial communities >2 h post-feeding when compared to samples of ruminal fluid collected using RC. However, ST can be a feasible sampling technique if the purpose is to study molar proportions of VFA, protozoa counts, dH2, and ammonia concentrations.


Research on soft-biometrics showed that privacy-sensitive information can be deduced from biometric data. Utilizing biometric templates only, information about a persons gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and health state can be deduced. For many applications, these templates are expected to be used for recognition purposes only. Thus, extracting this information raises major privacy issues. Previous work proposed two kinds of learning-based solutions for this problem. The first ones provide strong privacy-enhancements, but limited to pre-defined attributes. The second ones achieve more comprehensive but weaker privacy-improvements. In this work, we propose a Privacy-Enhancing face recognition approach based on Minimum Information Units (PE-MIU). PE-MIU, as we demonstrate in this work, is a privacy-enhancement approach for face recognition templates that achieves strong privacy-improvements and is not limited to pre-defined attributes. We exploit the structural differences between face recognition and facial attribute estimation by creating templates in a mixed representation of minimal information units. These representations contain pattern of privacy-sensitive attributes in a highly randomized form. Therefore, the estimation of these attributes becomes hard for function creep attacks. During verification, these units of a probe template are assigned to the units of a reference template by solving an optimal best-matching problem. This allows our approach to maintain a high recognition ability. The experiments are conducted on three publicly available datasets and with five state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, we conduct the experiments simulating an attacker that knows and adapts to the systems privacy mechanism. The experiments demonstrate that PE-MIU is able to suppress privacy-sensitive information to a significantly higher degree than previous work in all investigated scenarios. At the same time, our solution is able to achieve a verification performance close to that of the unmodified recognition system. Unlike previous works, our approach offers a strong and comprehensive privacy-enhancement without the need of training.


When natural disasters occur, governments are often considered as "insurers of last resort" and are expected to help with losses not covered by traditional insurance and to coordinate and fund reconstruction efforts. As the frequency and severity of natural disasters (storms, floods, wildfires) increase, this becomes financially unsustainable for budget-constrained governments. Catastrophe bonds are one mechanism designed to transfer these types of risks to the capital market. They work as an insurance policy in which the holder of the policy receives a pay-out when a disaster reaches a predetermined threshold. re:focus partners came up with the idea of Resilience Bonds to complement catastrophe bonds. Resilience Bonds create incentives for cities to invest in resilience so as to reduce the human and financial cost of catastrophes when they strike. Resilience Bonds are designed to fund risk reduction projects via a resilience rebate that turns avoided losses in to a revenue stream.


Within and outside educational settings the heterosexual/homosexual binary continues to be sustained by those who identify as straight and those who identify as non-heterosexual. This binary tends to reinscribe the familiar "knowledge" that there are "straight" people and there are "gay" people, and that these two groups are inherently different. For Butler (1997b) sexual subjects are interpellated through this essentialising binary, which is simultaneously injurious and the condition of existence. This paper makes some suggestions regarding how an Australian public art project entitled "Hey, hetero!"[c] has been utilized as a pedagogical device to both unsettle and, potentially, reinscribe this binary. In addition, the paper seeks to explain the persistence of this binary, in research and pedagogy, through a reading of Judith Butler's theorization of "passionate attachments to subjection" (Butler 1997b). Introduction I can no longer remember exactly when I first saw the "Hey, hetero" pictures but I quickly became passionately attached. I thought they could be a fabulous addition to the introduction to Gender Studies course that I was then teaching. These pictures had the elements of a useful pedagogical device: they were engaging, as well as being provocative, fun, and ironic. Moreover, they suggested an effective pathway to introducing the often-discomforting topic of queer theory to my students. Later, I endeavoured to theorize the types of resistance I encountered when I sought to introduce these images into the classroom. Why didn't students seem to share my enthusiasm for the broader project of unpacking the heterosexual/homosexual binary? How could such a fabulous device fail to involve students in a sophisticated discussion of sexual subjectivity? In this paper I contemplate the questions posed above through a consideration of Judith Butler's controversial explanation of "the desire for subjection," or what she terms "gender melancholy" (Butler 1997b, 140). I consider how this theorization of the subject might be instructive in understanding some of the processes that underpin pedagogy related to, and necessarily involving, sexual subjects. (2) Following on from this I consider how this theorization of subjection has influenced the production of educational research related to sexualities and schooling. I commence with a detailed discussion of the "Hey, hetero" images. These images prompted this study of some of the prohibitions that appear to be associated with pedagogy and sexuality, and together they constitute an imaginative public pedagogy and a valuable attempt to denaturalise heterosexuality. Hey, Hetero! Devised for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) in 2001, the "Hey, hetero!" project involved six photos with text. These pieces appeared in 30 illuminated public advertising spaces in Sydney streets, a city station billboard, magazines, 40,000 Avant postcards [which are distributed freely through cafes and restaurants], two formal exhibition spaces, and online in February-March 2001 (Kelly and Fiveash 2001). (3) The interpellation "Hey, hetero!" introduces each piece, specifically hailing people, who as Kelly notes in a webcast interview, "don't usually think of themselves as a group with their own particular attributes, culture and rituals" (Kelly 2001). In developing the "Hey, hetero!" project Kelly and Fiveash (2001) state that they deliberately mimicked genres of advertising in an attempt to access: the public attention accorded to commercial messages and denied to 'Art' ... The project uses production values which replicate the standards of advertising: gleaming, stylised photography; sophisticated typography, copy writing and design. In this way the familiar, ubiquitous cultural artefact of advertising is invested with new agency: to participate in and broaden the discourses around sexuality which currently preoccupy urban centres around the world. …


Violence at an aesthetic remove from the spectator or reader has been a key element of narrative and visual arts since Greek antiquity. Here Robert Appelbaum explores the nature of mimesis, aggression, the affects of antagonism and victimization and the political uses of art throughout history. He examines how violence in art is formed, contextualised and used by its audiences and readers. Bringing traditional German aesthetic and social theory to bear on the modern problem of violence in art, Appelbaum engages theorists including Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Adorno and Gadamer. The book takes the reader from Homer and Shakespeare to slasher films and performance art, showing how violence becomes at once a language, a motive, and an idea in the experience of art. It addresses the controversies head on, taking a nuanced view of the subject, understanding that art can damage as well as redeem. But it concludes by showing that violence (in the real world) is a necessary condition of art (in the world of mimetic play).


Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a rapidly growing Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology that allows for low cost and intricate three-dimensional parts to be created. FDM parts are created in layers by extruding a bead of polymer melt from a filament fed nozzle onto a platform. Several recent developments aimed at improving the mechanical properties of FDM components have focused on adding structural chopped fibers to the FDM filament feedstock. It is understood that the discrete fibers will orient in response to the melt flow within the nozzle. In addition the fluid expansion effects of extrudate swell at the nozzle exit impacts the melt velocity gradients and therefore the underlying fiber orientation. The local varying fiber orientation directly impacts the mechanical properties of the part, making the fiber orientation prediction during processing a necessary portion of FDM composite part design. A computational approach is presented for determining fiber orientation in the nozzle flow domain taking into consideration the effects of the convergence zone in the FDM extrusion nozzle, the fluid expansion caused by extrudate swell, and nozzle shape on the fiber orientation in the extruded polymer. The polymer melt is modeled as a Newtonian fluid in Creeping flow and includes extrudate swell expansion. Fiber orientation is calculated using the Advani-Tucker (1987) orientation tensors with the Fast Exact Closure from Montgomery-Smith, et. al. (2009) assuming the Folgar- Tucker (1984) isotropic rotary diffusion model for fiber-fiber interactions. The results show that the shear flow prior to the nozzle section causes high alignment in the direction of the flow as is expected. This alignment state is further increased within the nozzle convergence zone. The expansion flow in the die swell region causes a noticeable decrease in fiber alignment in the direction of the flow and an increase in fiber alignment transverse to the flow direction.


A central question in strategic management is why some firms perform better than others. One approach to addressing this question empirically is to decompose the variance in firm-level profitability into firm, industry, location, and year components. Although it is well established that data sparseness in variance decomposition studies can lead to overestimating particular variance components, little attention has been paid to sample size requirements in strategic management studies that have examined the nature of differences in firm profitability. We conduct a meta-regression and variance decomposition study and conclude that the variation in the results from previous studies is driven—to a considerable extent—by the number of observations per group within a component. Based on these findings, we draw conclusions regarding the validity and reliability of previous variance decomposition studies and provide implications for current debates in the strategic management literature.


Plate structures are widely used as important structural components in many engineering applications, hence structural condition assessment of in-service plate structures plays an important aspect of global structural health monitoring. Recently, vibration-based structural damage detection techniques that perform damage diagnosis of a structure based on its structural dynamic characteristic parameters attracted great attention in the research community. Hsu et al. (2014) developed the Pseudo Local Flexibility Method (PLFM) which successfully detected damage of hyperstatic beam structures using fewer modes. The PLFM releases the restriction that the virtual forces can only induce stresses in a local part of the structure for the LFM. In this way, the non-local virtual forces that cause concentrated stresses in a local part and relatively small stresses in the other parts of a structure can be employed. Most important, the release of the restriction of the virtual forces makes the virtual forces possible to be found for the plate structures. In this paper, the theoretical basis of the PLFM that uses non-local virtual forces for the plate structures is derived. The effects of the number of modes, the effects of the location of damage, the effects of multiple damage locations, and the effects of noise in modal parameters on the damage detection results of numerical plates are studied. The results show that the proposed PLFM has demonstrated the ability for damage detection, localization and quantification of the plate structures. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/68


Using non-destructive sensors, quality changes of individual products can be monitored over time. This elucidates the biological variability within a batch. Repeated measures require proper statistical analysis as standard techniques from literature used with destructive sensors are no longer applicable. Therefore, the concept of mixed models is introduced. The mixed model concept allows quantitative analysis of different sources of variability, even as a function of storage time. An alternative model approach was developed by combining kinetic models with the concept of biological age as a random variable. The quantification of biological variability is of great importance but was never accounted for before. Data obtained with non-destructive sensors can be used to calibrate mathematical models that describe quality change under variable storage and handling conditions. These models allow shelf life prediction based on the preferences of different consumer groups which will be the basis for future supply chain management.


Perforation of the floor of the maxillary sinus or nasal cavity during implant placement in the residual bone located below is not an infrequent situation. It's been strongly reported that slight membrane puncture while preparing implant bed does not play a significant role in clinical outcome, as it heals spontaneously, but it is an essential requirement that the implant remains intraoperatory stable. We present the case of a 54 yr. old woman that consulted in our office referring permanent cacosmia and halitosis associated to sporadic episodes of pain and purulent rhinorrhea, that didn't ease to the administration of several different antibiotics. Radiological findings show three dental implants in the first quadrant replacing teeth 1.2, 1.3 and 1.6: first one piercing the nostril and the third one with its apical end completely into the right maxillary sinus with a delimitated radiopaque mass associated. Once confirmed the existency of an oroantral fistula and its involvement in the two-year evolution chronic sinusitis diagnosed, the treatment established included the extraction of the three implants and the simultaneous osseous reconstruction with an autologous bone chin graft. After the removal of implant 1.6, a composite resin-like material is found stuck to its surface with supposedly retentive purposes, contributing in this way in a very strong way to increase irritation. Remanent defect is so important that makes impossible bone grafting in this area, so we proceed to curette harmed sinusal mucosa, sending a sample for histological evaluation, and close with a Bichat fat pad pedicled flap. Postoperatory follow-up and evolution was favourable, achieving total remission of sympthomatology and complete recovery.


One increasingly popular area of research in the workplace is the concept of the recognition of prior learning (RPL). RPL can be defined as the recognition of learning that has taken place, but has not necessarily been assessed or measured and which may have been acquired through formal, non-formal and informal routes. In this paper I will attempt to use the European concept of Valorisation as a means to examine four RPL projects that were undertaken in Ireland in recent years between higher education institutes and workforce sectors. This analysis was done by way of desk research and interviews with key stakeholders within each project. It was discovered that despite primarily positive participant reviews of the RPL process, the aspects of value, sustainability, visibility and policy are still lacking. The most promising added value of RPL was in the potential of its impact and transferability, which are areas that should be researched further when focusing on education and training between the workplace and higher education institutes.


The theory of compressed sensing suggests that successful inversion of an image of the physical world (broadly defined to include speech signals, radar/sonar returns, vibration records, sensor array snapshot vectors, 2-D images, and so on) for its source modes and amplitudes can be achieved at measurement dimensions far lower than what might be expected from the classical theories of spectrum or modal analysis, provided that the image is sparse in an apriori known basis. For imaging problems in spectrum analysis, and passive and active radar/sonar, this basis is usually taken to be a DFT basis. However, in reality no physical field is sparse in the DFT basis or in any apriori known basis. No matter how finely we grid the parameter space the sources may not lie in the center of the grid cells and consequently there is mismatch between the assumed and the actual bases for sparsity. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of compressed sensing to mismatch between the assumed and the actual sparsity bases. We start by analyzing the effect of basis mismatch on the best k-term approximation error, which is central to providing exact sparse recovery guarantees. We establish achievable bounds for the l1 error of the best k -term approximation and show that these bounds grow linearly with the image (or grid) dimension and the mismatch level between the assumed and actual bases for sparsity. We then derive bounds, with similar growth behavior, for the basis pursuit l1 recovery error, indicating that the sparse recovery may suffer large errors in the presence of basis mismatch. Although, we present our results in the context of basis pursuit, our analysis applies to any sparse recovery principle that relies on the accuracy of best k-term approximations for its performance guarantees. We particularly highlight the problematic nature of basis mismatch in Fourier imaging, where spillage from off-grid DFT components turns a sparse representation into an incompressible one. We substantiate our mathematical analysis by numerical examples that demonstrate a considerable performance degradation for image inversion from compressed sensing measurements in the presence of basis mismatch, for problem sizes common to radar and sonar.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Early detection of CKD is important for slowing progression to renal failure and preventing cardiovascular events. Automated laboratory reporting of estimated GFR (eGFR) has been introduced in many health systems to improve CKD recognition, but its effect in large, United States-based health systems remains unclear.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Using Veterans Affairs (VA) laboratory and administrative data, two nonoverlapping national cohorts of patients receiving care in VA medical centers before (n=66,323) and after (n=16,670) implementation of automated eGFR reporting between 2004 and 2010 were identified. Recognition was assessed by the presence of new CKD diagnostic codes, use of additional diagnostic testing, outpatient nephrology visits, or overall CKD recognition (receipt of at least one of these outcomes) for each patient during the 12-month period after their first eligible creatinine or eGFR laboratory result. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess change before and after automated eGFR reporting.

RESULTS
Overall CKD recognition increased from 22.1% of veterans before eGFR reporting to 27.5% in the post-eGFR reporting period (odds ratio [OR], 1.19; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.27; P<0.001). Higher overall CKD recognition was driven largely by increased documentation of CKD diagnosis codes in medical records (OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.21 to 1.41; P<0.001) and diagnostic testing for CKD (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.24; P<0.01) rather than outpatient nephrology consultation. Automated eGFR reporting was not associated with greater CKD recognition among black or older patients (P=0.07).

CONCLUSIONS
Automated eGFR laboratory reporting improved documentation of CKD diagnoses but had no effect on nephrology consultation. These findings suggest that to advance CKD care, further strategies are needed to ensure appropriate follow-up evaluation to confirm and effectively evaluate CKD.


Spectroscopic current-voltage (I-V) curves taken with a scanning tunneling microscope on a synthetic, boron-doped diamond single crystal indicate that the diamond, boiled in acid and baked to 500 °C in vacuum, does not exhibit ideal Schottky characteristics. These I-V curves taken in ultrahigh vacuum do not fit the traditional theory of thermionic emission; however, the deviation from ideal can be accounted for by charge screening at the diamond surface. At ambient pressure, the I-V curves have a sharp threshold voltage at 1.7 eV above the valence band edge indicating pinning of the Fermi energy. This measurement is in excellent agreement with the 1/3 band gap rule of Mead and Spitzer [Phys. Rev. 134, A713 (1964)].


This study investigates the interrelations between accounting research and the IASB activity. Prior research shows a significant gap between academia, the standard setters and the accounting profession and underlines the failure of academic papers to contribute to accounting practice. Although we find some evidence of the intention of the IASB to fill the gap between accounting theory and practice, our analysis confirms the existence of a significant distance between financial accounting research and the IFRSs. The IASB 'due process' definitely influences the academic activity, but the accounting literature does not seem to represent a cornerstone for the IFRSs. Particularly, during the 'due process' steps that precede the P.I.R. phase, the IASB only quotes few papers. With the P.I.R. process, the number of research papers analysed by the IASB significantly increases, but it is not yet clear how this ex-post activity might really influence the IFRSs statements. Finally, we find that the traditional academic ranking systems are not a key factor driving the IASB selection of the articles to analyse during the P.I.R. process. This evidence sheds light on the risk of an unfruitful self-referentiality of the accounting academic literature and on the self-feeding nature of the academic world.


A simple and efficient synthetic protocol for the syntheses of spiro pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole and spiro 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives via a one pot four-component reaction catalyzed by Dabco-based ionic liquids has been successfully developed. Under the same reaction conditions, when hydrazines were used as amine components to react with isatins, active methylenes and dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylates, the reactions afforded spiro pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazoles in good to excellent yields (78–96%). While aromatic amines were used as amine components in the same reaction, a completely different product scaffold of spiro 1,4-dihydropyridines was obtained in moderate to good yields (52–93%). This synthetic protocol could be applicable to a wide range of substrates. The desired products are easily separated and purified by simple crystallization. The catalyst could be recycled five times. Plausible reaction mechanisms were proposed according to the experimental results.


To better understand the process and outcomes of family involvement for long-term care residents with varying stages of dementia, we analyzed family and staff data for 467 residents of 24 residential care/assisted living and nursing-home settings. Adjusted analyses found that although the amount of family visitation did not significantly vary by resident cognitive status (15 versus 20 visits/month to persons with and without dementia, respectively), the nature of the visit did. Families of cognitively intact residents spent more time in activities related to social and community engagement, such as taking residents on trips and calling and writing letters (p < .001), while families of more impaired residents spent more time on care-related activities, including tasks related to nutrition (p < .027), mobility (p = .001), and discussing care with staff (p = .007), the latter of which was associated with greater burden (p < .001). Staff identified similar patterns but perceived less family involvement.


We consider here the opportunities and challenges for South Africa in long-termecological research (LTER) to detect the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on biota (as one of several competing objectives of long-term monitoring). The LTER approach has high potential for this purpose in South Africa because of a wealth of historical climate data relative to much of the African continent, and good representation of many African ecosystem types. However, there are substantial challenges to the identification and attribution of climate change impacts on African ecosystems. These are posed by climate variability at a range of time scales, the importance of rainfall rather than temperature as an ecological driver, and the significance of fire as a stochastic disturbance. An awareness of environmental and climate history will be crucial to interpreting data on trends, and sites with established historical data should be preferred for this reason. The placement of LTER sites to provide representivity of ecosystem types may unintentionally limit the detectability of climate change impacts, because change might best be detected in ecotonal or azonal environments. This could be overcome by additional experimental manipulations at LTER sites to 'force' anticipated changes and characterize species and ecosystem responses. A focus on the detection of climate change would sharpen an LTER programme's emphasis over time and provide policy advice, and science training rationales for the long term. It should especially interpret key information to decision-makers as a priority.


Background: Measuring arterial stiffness (augmentation index (AI), aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV)) in hemodialysis (HD) patients has prognostic significance. To assess its validity, the new oscillometric Arteriograph device (AIA, PWVA) was compared to the validated PulsePen tonometer (AIP, PWVP). Methods: AI and PWV were measured in 98 patients with both devices before HD. Validity was evaluated by Pearson's correlation, Bland-Altman analysis, and by assessing the prognostic value of AI and PWV to predict cardiovascular (CV) mortality over 29 months. Results: Correlation between AIP and AIA was significant (R = 0.527, p < 0.001). The mean difference of AI values obtained by the two devices was –20.6%, and 30% of the paired AI differences fall outside the ±1 SD boundary of the mean between-device difference. There was no significant correlation between the PWVP and PWVA readings (R = 0.173, p = 0.097). The average difference of PWV values by the two devices was –1.2 m/s, and 20.6% of the paired PWV differences fall outside the ±1 SD boundary. In survival analyses, only PWVP but not PWVA was significantly related to CV mortality. Conclusion: Lack of correlation between PWVP and PWVA and lack of prognostic significance of PWVA suggest limited validity of Arteriograph to determine PWV in patients on HD.


This project aims to develop an application for PC that allows to connect, analyze and show
data present on the OBD (On Board Diagnostic) CAN bus based system of any vehicle built
since 2008. The final goal is to run this application connected with a real vehicle, equipped
with a concrete OBD-II system.
It has been used an emulator from OZEN ELEKTRONIK to simulate the OBD system,
combined with an adapter cable from KVASER and a USB – CAN converter from the same
brand. The programming language chosen to develop the application was Visual Basic .NET.
In this thesis there is an initial introduction, with the objective and the goal of the project.
After that, the history of the OBD and the state of art are explained; this chapter in particular
wants to show the actual market supply, listing some examples of products already existent
with a short description for each one. The text continues with the characterization of the
instrumentation utilized and the specifications followed. Furthermore, there is an illustration
about the structure of the application and the forms that constitute the latter. The results
capitol speaks about the CAN messages exchanged between the device and the PC, with the
explanation of the meaning of each byte of these messages. Finally, there is a discussion about
economic costs and the environmental impact of the project. In the conclusions, a set of noconformity
of the device is listed, with the solutions adopted to solve each problem.


Our economy is shaped by trade and investment, first in local markets then in neighboring markets and now our economy is seen as international in scope. Individual governments have developed several approaches to address the realities of international markets. One model has been the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), which uses a multinational approach to influence and regulate domestic trade policies and practices. A second approach is the binational approach undertaken by countries to solve particular problems and conflicts with one another. Finally, regional economies have recently developed trade agreements among themselves. In the past the United States has been reluctant to utilize international treaties to resolve international conflict. Recently however, the U.S. has entered into agreements with Israel in 1984-85, and Canada in 1987-88. These agreements were the forerunners to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed December 17, 1992. This commentary on John S. Evans Proceedings discusses the Objectives of NAFTA, the concepts and principles of NAFTA and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, as well as, questions and concerns that arise from their legitimacy.


Two years ago, we published within this journal a scoping article (Turpin et al, 2006) concerning the urgent need to review and enhance the workforce responsible for delivering psychological therapies to people seeking help for common mental health problems in primary care (London School of Economics, 2006). We estimated that the demand for such interventions, the service models that might deliver increased capacity for psychological treatments, the implications for workforce numbers and the impact that this would have on education and training. Much of the thinking that was adopted within the review was based on current development work around the mental health workforce led by the National Workforce Programme sponsored by the National Institute for Mental Health England (NIMHE) on New Ways of Working (NWW).The current paper reflects on the process and the added value that NWW has contributed to what is a radical new venture, which has been described by the lead evaluator of the pilot Improving Access for Psychological Therapies (IAPT) phase, Professor Glenys Parry, as 'the industrialisation of psychological therapies'. More specifically, it reviews the implementation of a national programme designated as IAPT, which was commissioned on the basis of the NWW work, and the evidence accrued from the IAPT national demonstration sites at Doncaster and Newham, together with the efforts of Lord Layard and the New Savoy Partnership.The first year implementation of IAPT is described, together with the lessons learned from the roll out. As the programme has developed, it has become important to ensure that clients also have a choice of evidence‐based interventions. NWW has provided a means to help practitioners come together from a range of therapeutic orientations and professions to contribute to this more diverse workforce. Finally, it is argued that NWW has been instrumental in helping managers and professions alike think more flexibly about service models and provision, and how to develop a new workforce competent to deliver such an innovative service.


Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the "gold-standard" for estimating causal impacts of educational programs. Students subject to lotteries, however, often are not representative of the broader population of students experiencing the educational treatment. With few exceptions, researchers are not able to determine how much selection bias exists when various quasi-experimental approaches are used in place of experimental ones within a school choice context. We are left wondering about the magnitude of the internal-for-external validity tradeoff that education researchers often face. This study assesses the extent to which methods such as propensity score matching or observational models with control variables can replicate the "benchmark" experimental results of the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship (DC OSP) school voucher evaluation. The federal private school voucher program is an exemplar subject for study because self-selection is assumed to be a major influence on whether or not a low-income urban student attends a private school. We treat Instrumental Variables Analysis (IV) estimates of the impact of private schooling on student outcomes, some of which are being presented for the first time in this study, as the causal "benchmark" estimate. While our data are fairly limited, and the results relatively imprecise, we find preliminary evidence that covariate choice matters, and that method choice matters, but perhaps only when comparing to a broader sample that includes students who did not apply to the program. Interestingly, we find that the direction of the estimation bias that we detect from some of the quasi-experimental approaches is positive when the sample is limited to program applicants, but negative when it is expanded to include non-applicants. This finding suggests that the applicants to means-tested school voucher programs are negatively selected, but the subgroup of applicants who actually use a voucher if offered tend to be positively selected.


An impressive number of local and international NGOs are in operation in the Philippines and amongst these are some whose purpose is to support the democratic transition of the country. Based in Manila for approximately forty years now, the German Political Foundations are especially involved in the decentralising of the state, monitoring elections, backing municipalities and supporting the independence of the media. The KAS (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung), on which this article focuses, has also been involved in the peace negotiations of the Mindanao conflict. This crisis, stemming from the opposition of the Moro Muslim minority to a Christian-led government, represented an opportunity to try to export a German federal model in order to solve a regional problem. The proposal put forward did not, however, rally many people, instead being used by a tiny minority to confirm its opposition to a centralised form of government.


Plant phenology regulates ecosystem services at local and global scales and is a sensitive indicator of global change. Estimates of phenophase transition dates, such as the start of spring or end of fall, can be derived from sensor- based time series, but must be interpreted in terms of bio- logically relevant events. We use the PhenoCam archive of digital repeat photography to implement a consistent proto- col for visual assessment of canopy phenology at 13 temper- ate deciduous forest sites throughout eastern North America, and to perform digital image analysis for time-series-based estimation of phenophase transition dates. We then compare these results to remote sensing metrics of phenophase tran- sition dates derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Very High Reso- lution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensors. We present a new type of curve fit that uses a generalized sigmoid function to es- timate phenology dates, and we quantify the statistical un- certainty of phenophase transition dates estimated using this method. Results show that the generalized sigmoid provides estimates of dates with less statistical uncertainty than other curve-fitting methods. Additionally, we find that dates de- rived from analysis of high-frequency PhenoCam imagery have smaller uncertainties than satellite remote sensing met- rics of phenology, and that dates derived from the remotely sensed enhanced vegetation index (EVI) have smaller uncer- tainty than those derived from the normalized difference veg- etation index (NDVI). Near-surface time-series estimates for the start of spring are found to closely match estimates de- rived from visual assessment of leaf-out, as well as satel- lite remote-sensing-derived estimates of the start of spring. However late spring and fall phenology metrics exhibit larger differences between near-surface and remote scales. Differ- ences in late spring phenology between near-surface and re- mote scales are found to correlate with a landscape metric of deciduous forest cover. These results quantify the effect of landscape heterogeneity when aggregating to the coarser spatial scales of remote sensing, and demonstrate the impor- tance of accurate curve fitting and vegetation index selection when analyzing and interpreting phenology time series.


Fatty acid biomarkers were used to examine the diet of deep-sea holothurians. We collected 3 species from the Porcupine Seabight and Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE Atlantic, between 800 and 4850 m in August 2001 (summer), March 2002 (pre-spring bloom), and October 2002 (autumn). Of these, 2 species, the abyssal Amperima rosea and the bathyal Bathyplotes natans, showed significant variations in fatty acid compositions. These are likely to be seasonal. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were dominant within muscle tissue of both species during August 2001 and October 2002, in particular 20:4 (n-6), 20:5 (n-3) and 22:6 (n-3). During March 2002, prior to the spring bloom, there were substantially lower proportions of PUFAs in both species, and increased amounts of mono-unsaturated fatty acids (monoenes), particularly the bacterially-derived biomarkers 18:1 (n-7) and non-methyl uninterrupted dienes (NMIDs). In contrast, the fatty acid composition of the third species, the abyssal Deima validum, remained relatively stable, with muscle tissue containing a high proportion of PUFAs during pre- and post-spring-bloom periods. A further 6 species were sampled in March 2002 and October 2002. Across all these species, 3 patterns of fatty composition were evident: (1) Laetmogone violacea had higher proportions of PUFAs in October than in March; (2) Psychropotes longicauda and Benthogone rosea had lower proportions of PUFAs in October than in March; (3) Deima validum, Oneirophanta mutabilis, Paroriza pallens and P. prouhoi had unchanged fatty acid compositions during these contrasting periods. These differences may be related to the varying reproductive strategies of the species. The implications of changes in fatty acids for reproductive processes, and how these could be factors determining allocation of lipid resources in gonads, is discussed.


The Winsor & NewtonTM (W&N) nineteenth century archive database includes digitised images of hand-written instructions and workshop notes for the manufacture of their artists' materials. For the first time, all 183 production records for yellow lead chromate pigments were studied and evaluated. They revealed that W&N produced essentially three pigment types: lemon/pale based on mixed crystals of lead chromate and lead sulphate [Pb(Cr,S)O4]; middle on pure monoclinic lead chromate [PbCrO4]; and deep that contains the latter admixed with basic lead chromate [Pb2CrO5]; accounting for 53, 22, and 21% of the production, respectively. Production records for primrose (4%) were also included since the formulation results in mixed crystals with a high percentage of lead sulphate, which, according to the literature, leaves it more prone to degradation. Each pigment type is characterised by only one or two main synthetic pathways; process variations reveal a systematic and thorough search for a high-quality durable product. A comparison of the chemical composition of pigment reconstructions with early W&N oil paint tubes showed that their records entitled 'pale' and 'lemon' correlated with the pigment in their tube labelled chrome yellow and, 'middle' and 'deep' with the label chrome deep. Lemon and middle pigment formulations were made into oil paints to assess their relative photo-stability. The degradation process was followed by colorimetry and was studied by synchrotron radiation-based techniques. Based on the X-ray absorption spectroscopy data, the possibility for creating a stability index for chrome yellows is discussed.


Americans have long been bound by a shared sense of constitutional commonality, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly condemned the notion that federal constitutional rights should be allowed to depend on distinct state and local legal norms. In reality, however, federal rights do indeed vary, and they do so as a result of their contingent relationship to the diversity of state and local laws on which they rely. Focusing on criminal procedure rights in particular, this Article examines the benefits and detriments of constitutional contingency, and casts in new light many enduring understandings of American constitutionalism, including the effects of incorporation doctrine and the nation's mythic sense of shared constitutional commitment.


Environmental infrasound is usually accompanied by low-frequency (LF) sounds. Considering that inner hair cell transduction equals half-wave rectification, activity of low-frequency auditory nerve fibres may be indistinguishable whether elicited by LF sound that is amplitude-modulated at an infrasonic rate, or LF sound that is superimposed onto infrasound that "biases" the basilar membrane position. We tested whether listeners are able to distinguish a 63-Hz carrier tone, amplitude modulated at 8 Hz, from a 63-Hz pure tone that was perceptually loudness-modulated by an 8-Hz biasing tone. Using a maximum-likelihood procedure, 12 participants first adjusted the intensity of the 8-Hz tone so that the perceived modulation of the pure tone matched a reference amplitude-modulated tone. Both stimuli types were then presented in random order, and participants had to identify presentations which contained the infrasound tone. About half the participants performed close to chance. The best had 81% correct. Experiments with a 125-Hz carrier tone gave similar results. Although performance may improve in a 2-interval discrimination task, this would not be representative of real listening conditions. Results suggest that slowly amplitude-modulated LF sounds may underlie complaints about environmental infrasound, where measured infrasound levels are well below sensation threshold.


Lucia Graves, daughter of the poet Robert Graves and his wife Beryl, grew up in the beautiful village of Deia on the island of Majorca. Neither Spanish nor Catholic by birth, she nevertheless absorbed the different traditions of Spain and felt the full impact of Franco's dictatorship through the experience of her education. Lucia found herself continually bridging the gaps between Catalan, Spanish and English, as she picked up the patterns and nuances that contain the essence of each culture. Portraying her life as a child watching the hills lit up by bonfires on Good Friday, or, years later, walking through the haunting backstreets of the Jewish quarter of Girona, this is a personal memoir which provides a first-hand account of Catalonia, where Lucia lived and raised a family. It is also a perceptive appraisal of a country burdened by tradition yet coming to terms with political change as the decades moved on.


Water reclamation implementation and management practices at municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the world are reviewed and some implementation and operational issues are defined. The information is based on a conventional literature survey, on an in depth survey study of European, Israeli and Australian medium and large-scale water reclamation utilities and on the findings of a dedicated international workshop. The review identified over 3,300 water reclamation projects and designed the map of the main process technologies and their fields of product water application. The main conclusion of the enquiry is that the technological risks no longer represent a major concern for the development of water reclamation projects, rather issues such as the financing, failure management and social acceptance have become more critical.


Developing countries have received foreign aid and other forms of capital flows for a long time, although they have been subject to some fluctuations. The key question is whether these flows have helped them in achieving their objectives? Aid has been evaluated at two levels: micro and macro. While micro evaluations have found that in most cases aid 'works' (for example Cassen et al., 1986), those at the macro-level are ambiguous. This thesis is predominantly concerned with the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. There have been considerable efforts to improve both the theoretical and empirical literature on aid effectiveness, both suffer from serious weaknesses and shortcomings. At the theoretical level, there are not many models which capture the full potential of foreign aid within a consistent, fully specified, growth framework, while existing empirical studies are flawed by model mispecification, questionable sample composition and size, and inappropriate econometric techniques. This has led to inconclusive and often misleading results in assessing the effectiveness of foreign aid.

This thesis attempts to address some of these deficiencies. The impact of aid is mainly assessed on growth and savings in developing countries. Before testing its impact, aid is introduced into some growth models. Cases are analysed where an economy, after initial aid flows, can become independent of aid and experience sustained growth through its ability to raise labour efficiency. On the empirical front, two techniques are used: a preliminary statistical analysis is performed, followed by an econometric analysis. The former allows a better understanding of the geographical distribution of aid, the link and any correlation between the macro variables: aid, growth, savings and investment. Since aid flows have been influenced by major international shocks (e. g. oil price shocks, debt crises, etc.), a simple taxonomy is used to indicate how these events have influenced the effectiveness of aid. Using a macroeconometric model from Fischer-Easterly to control for the recipients' macroeconomic environment (previously overlooked in the literature), a positive and significant impact of foreign aid on growth is found. This result is confirmed using both cross-section and panel data for the period of 1970-1993. We make use of Hall's (1978) life cycle/permanent income hypothesis, but do not find evidence that current aid flows leak into consumption, hence rejecting the fungibility hypothesis. Although much further work concerning the developmental effectiveness of aid remains to be carried out, it is hoped that this study will stimulate improved techniques and methods used in testing the effectiveness of aid in future work.


Matching networks are widely used to enhance active power transfer when radio frequency generators drive complex loads. The tuning of the network for varying loads typically involves searching for optimum matching conditions. However, improving the matching condition of the network does not necessarily indicate an increase in active power transfer. As an example, a 71 network with three adjustable elements may achieve comparable matches for a variety of elements' settings, each matching triple exhibiting a different transferred active power. Furthermore, the influence of the transmission lines used to connect the matching network to its source and load is rarely taken into account. The purpose of the work is to optimise the power gain of a narrowband matching sys-tem in the frequency range of 1.8 — 30 MHz. The system consists of a source, a match-ing network, a load and two interconnecting lines whose characteristic impedance is complex. The optimisation process involves optimum choice of the transmission lines' lengths and development of a matching strategy. Its objective is to ensure automatic and continuous adjustment of the matching network for optimum ac¬tive power transfer to its load while matching the network's input impedance to a resistive source. The network topologies employed are limited to the most common 71 and T networks consisting of two variable capacitors and one central inductor. Losses are assumed to be mainly caused by the inductor. An appropriate simple and synthetic model of the losses is proposed which is suitable for active power transfer optimisation. The model is validated against losses of inductors derived by different works. After choosing a proper network parametrisation and exact inclusion of the losses during network design, the losses of a network terminated by a resistance and de¬signed to match (exactly) a source resistance at its input are derived. Then its power gain is optimised by a proper choice of the network's parameter and the impact of changing the purely resistive termination to impedances exhibiting capacitive or in¬ductive imaginary parts is considered. An explicit solution is calculated for networks with a constant Q factor central inductor, its differences from the approximate solu¬tion (network elements designed as if the network would be lossless) are considered. Example diagrams are given illustrating those differences and power gain contour Smith charts are drawn for typical ranges of the L, iv, and T networks' elements. Combining the results of the different approaches yields an optimum matching strat¬egy. The losses of transmission lines connecting source and network of load and network are determined, where the lines' complex characteristic impedance is taken into account. Those losses are included in a power gain optimisation of the complete matching system. Finally, an experimental setup is designed under which the matching strategy of the network is tested and validated.


The past few years have seen many advances in personal information technology. People are busy, and technology that is intended to help facilitate our tasks often times only seems to increase our busyness, rather than alleviate it. Our lives move at Google speed, and we have become a society that wants and even needs to be entertained almost continuously. It is not unusual, particularly in computer classrooms, to glance in and see students surreptitiously texting on their cell phones, chatting with Facebook friends, and sometimes even boldly playing games while the professor is teaching the class. Many faculty bemoan these actions, and try to limit or prevent their use in the classroom. My observations at conferences and other faculty gatherings would suggest faculty do not behave differently. Understanding the dynamics involved will enable faculty to more effectively manage student technology use in the classroom, and prepare students for the workplace.


OBJECTIVE
To compare navicular bone marrow lesion (BML) conspicuity in the feet of horses as determined via 2 fat-suppressed MRI techniques, including standard short tau inversion recovery (STIR) and inversion recovery gradient echo (IRGE).

SAMPLE
Feet (n = 150) of horses with lameness referable to the distal portion of the digit.

PROCEDURES
STIR and IRGE sequences were obtained prospectively in all feet with a standing low-field equine MRI system. Presence of a BML was ascertained by identification of a characteristic combination of marrow alterations in T1-weighted, T2*-weighted, T2-weighted, and STIR images. Signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios were calculated on STIR and IRGE sequences in 56 feet with a navicular BML.

RESULTS
Signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios of both sequences correlated linearly (r = 0.87 and r = 0.92, respectively) but were significantly higher for STIR images (mean ± SD, 22.6 ± 12.7 and 12.4 ± 11.4, respectively), compared with IRGE images (13.7 ± 8.0 and 5.9 ± 7.2, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that the IRGE sequence revealed BMLs significantly less conspicuously, compared with the standard STIR sequence. The 2 techniques cannot be used interchangeably, and IRGE is therefore not recommended as the sole fat-suppressed sequence for routine equine standing MRI protocols.


As the 1990's gave way to the next millennium, the current social, economic, and political environments were constantly being affected by the actions of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ventures. The current literature in entrepreneurship devotes considerable discussion to the role entrepreneurs play within their businesses and as opinion leaders in their markets and the general economy. Often described as innovators, paradigm pioneers, and visionaries, entrepreneurs are confronted with the issue of developing leadership qualities in order to grow their businesses and to transform them to a level of professionalism.Since the 1980's, an increased level of entrepreneurial activity has spawned, not only because of the electronic age but due to a plethora of new materials, products, financial networks, joint venture possibilities, and paradigmatic changes in politics, economics, and societies. It appears a whole new remodeling of the ways in which business, communication, and government are conducted has emerged. Thus, it is imperative for anyone involved in entrepreneurial ventures, especially the entrepreneur, to fully comprehend the impor-tance of sound leadership practices.This article attempts to reveal those characteristics common to both successful leaders and entrepreneurs who operate in dynamic, changing environments. It also attempts to show the characteristics entrepreneurs use to cope with their need to excel and explore new vistas. In essence, it seeks to demonstrate a new style of evolving leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, which offers a break from the past and movement into the future.Literature ReviewEntrepreneur ship is a relatively new, sometimes controversial, and burgeoning field of management research. Leadership has been studied since around 500 BC. New to the field is the subject of entrepreneurial leadership. Both entrepreneurship and leadership will be briefly discussed in turn.EntrepreneurshipSelection of the appropriate basis for defining and understanding entrepreneurs created a challenging problem for entrepreneurial research. More than ten years ago, the field of research -was described as young, i.e., in its formative stage (Paulin, Coffey, & Spaulding, 1982; Perryman, 1982; Peterson & Horvath, 1982; Sexton, 1982). Even now, no generally accepted definition of an entrepreneur exists, and the literature is replete with criteria ranging from creativity and innovation to personal traits such as appearance and style. Models of the entrepreneur are almost as plentiful as the number of researchers studying entrepreneurs (Churchill & Lewis, 1986; Cunningham & Lischeron, 1991).Krackhardt (1995) stated that research on entrepreneurship has defined entrepreneurship in two ways, the entrepreneurial firm and entrepreneurial people. Entrepreneurial firms are small (Aldrich & Austen, 1986), fast-growing (Drucker, 1985), organic, and network-based rather than mechanistic and bureaucratic (Birley, 1986). In studying work flow leadership, a form of firm-level entrepreneurship, Sayles and Stewart (1995) defined entrepreneurship as having three components:(1) it is activity that seizes profit opportunities without regard to resources currently controlled (Stevenson & Jarillo, 1990);(2) it expands existing resources through enhanced learning, synergies, or bootstrapping (Burgelman, 1983; Leibstein, 1968; Stewart, 1989; Venkataraman, McMillan & McGrath, 1992); and(3) it promotes change and innovation leading to new combinations of resources and new ways of doing business (Burgelman, 1983; Schumpeter, 1943).Entrepreneurial people take advantage of opportunities to acquire added value. This definition sees entrepreneurship as a behavioral characteristic of employees and managers in a firm, not as a characteristic of the firm itself.Stevenson, Roberts, and Grousbeck (1989) argued that entrepreneurship is an approach to management. …


Although pentavalent uranium can exist in aqueous solution, its presence in the solid state is uncommon. Metal monouranates, MgUO4, CrUO4 and FeUO4 were synthesized for detailed structural and energetic investigations. Structural characteristics of these uranates used powder X-ray diffraction, synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and (57)Fe-Mössbauer spectroscopy. Enthalpies of formation were measured by high temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations provided both structural and energetic information. The measured structural and thermodynamic properties show good consistency with those predicted from DFT. The presence of U(5+) has been solidly confirmed in CrUO4 and FeUO4, which are thermodynamically stable compounds, and the origin and stability of U(5+) in the system was elaborated by DFT. The structural and thermodynamic behaviour of U(5+) elucidated in this work is relevant to fundamental actinide redox chemistry and to applications in the nuclear industry and radioactive waste disposal.


Latent factor models are increasingly popular for modeling multi-relational knowledge graphs. By their vectorial nature, it is not only hard to interpret why this class of models works so well, but also to understand where they fail and how they might be improved. We conduct an experimental survey of state-of-the-art models, not towards a purely comparative end, but as a means to get insight about their inductive abilities. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of each model, we create simple tasks that exhibit first, atomic properties of binary relations, and then, common inter-relational inference through synthetic genealogies. Based on these experimental results, we propose new research directions to improve on existing models.


U.S. initiatives geared at trade liberalization such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs have spawned a host of research studies on the impact of trade policies on various groups in the domestic economy. However, the effect of international trade on the self-employed has been largely ignored, even though self-employment accounts for a significant proportion of the labor force - 13 percent in 1990. Following the halt in the decline in self-employment in the early 1970s, self-employment has exhibited remarkable growth. It increased almost twice as fast as wage and salary employment (12.1 percent versus 6.5 percent) during the 1972-76 period (Aronson 1991) and sustained a growth rate of 11 percent between 1983 and 1990. However, in comparison to large firms, the role of small firms on the international market has generally been limited in spite of their export potential. It is estimated that small- to medium-sized firms could potentially sell 51 percent of U.S. exports instead of their current share of 16 percent (Edmunds and Khoury 1986). Using an input-output framework, this study explores the total effect of international trade on the employment trends of self-employed and wage and salary workers. Employment trends are measured by the percentage shift in trade-related employment between 1987 and 1990. Specifically, the study estimates the direct and indirect effects of hypothetical changes in sectoral export and import levels on self-employment and wage and salary employment in the 1987-1990 period. The percentage shift in net trade-related employment (between 1987 and 1990) is then estimated for both groups of workers. The study focuses on percentage shifts since wage and salary employment levels far exceed self-employment levels. In addition to aggregate estimates for both wage and salary and self-employed workers, trade-related employment estimates are computed for the following categories of manufacturing industries: (1) industries that experienced an increase in positive net trade-related employment between 1987 and 1990; (2) industries that suffered a decline in positive net trade-related employment between 1987 and 1990; (3) industries that experienced an increase in negative net trade-related employment between 1987 and 1990; and (4) industries that experienced a decline in negative net trade-related employment between 1987 and 1990. PROFITABILITY, EMPLOYMENT GROWTH, AND FIRM SIZE The view that market share is the key to profitability is shared by several business strategists, including Buzzell, Gale, Sultan (1975). Indeed, the findings of several empirical studies (Shepherd 1972, Gale 1972, Ravenscraft 1983, Mueller 1986) are consistent with this view. Shepherd attributes the observed positive relationship between market share and profitability to market power. Gale (1972) and Gale and Branch (1982), on the other hand, base their explanations on the cost and price advantages of large firms. A common feature of these explanations is the assumption that both small and large firms engage in similar types of activities within their respective industries. However, Porter (1979 and 1980) and Caves and Porter (1977) argue that this need not be the case given the potential for systematic differences in the strategies of large and small businesses with respect to such aspects as capital intensity, product promotion, and research and development. In effect, smaller firms following specialist strategies and protected by mobility barriers can diminish or reverse the profit advantage of larger firms especially where both are engaged in different activities within industries. To the extent that profits and employment growth are positively correlated, these specialist strategies and mobility advantages should translate into relatively greater employment growth among small firms. In fact, in recent empirical research based on Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Line of Business (LB) data,(1) Schmalensee (1985) and Scott and Pascoe (1986) find that market share explains relatively little of the variance in profitability. …


We present an analysis of the binary and physical parameters of a unique pulsating white dwarf with a main-sequence companion, SDSS J1136+0409, observed for more than 77 d during the first pointing of the extended Kepler mission: K2 Campaign 1. Using new groundbased spectroscopy, we show that this post-common-envelope binary has an orbital period of 6.89760103(60) h, which is also seen in the photometry as a result of Doppler beaming and ellipsoidal variations of the secondary. We spectroscopically refine the temperature of the white dwarf to 12 330 ± 260 K and its mass to 0.601 ± 0.036 M. We detect seven independent pulsation modes in the K2 light curve. A preliminary asteroseismic solution is in reasonable agreement with the spectroscopic atmospheric parameters. Three of the pulsation modes are clearly rotationally split multiplets, which we use to demonstrate that the white dwarf is not synchronously rotating with the orbital period but has a rotation period of 2.49 ± 0.53 h. This is faster than any known isolated white dwarf, but slower than almost all white dwarfs measured in non-magnetic cataclysmic variables, the likely future state of this binary.


Laboratory Animal Welfare provides a comprehensive, up-to-date look into the new science of animal welfare within laboratory research. Animals specifically considered include rodents, cats and dogs, nonhuman primates, agricultural animals, avian animals and aquatic animals. The book examines the impact of experiment design and environment on animal welfare, as well as emergency situations and euthanasia practices. Readers will benefit from a review of regulations and policy guidelines concerning lab animal use, as well as information on assessing animal welfare. With discussions of the history and ethics of animals in research, and a debate on contemporary and international issues, this book is a go-to resource for laboratory animal welfare.


Amber (fossil resin) is not common throughout the fossil record, and previously the only globally significant deposits were thought to occur during the Cretaceous, Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene periods. Recent finds of Late Triassic (Carnian) ambers highlight a significantly older set of deposits. Here we review these ambers that appear coincident with the Carnian Pluvial Episode, a time interval of major climate change and biotic turnover. Much of the amber is found in a palaeolatitudinal belt between 5° and 30° N, and covers Italian, Austrian, Swiss, Hungarian, Spanish and Arizona (USA) deposits, with one exception from Lesotho, Southern Africa (c. 40° S). Most deposits are small and allochthonous, with the major exception of the autochthonous–parautochthonous amber deposit found as droplets in a palaeosol from the Dolomites (Italy). In some of these deposits there is even direct evidence of the source plants that produced the preserved resin. The oldest confirmed organisms found preserved in amber are from Carnian droplets from the Dolomites in Italy and include arthropods and microorganisms. The occurrence of amber in different localities and within the same time interval suggests a widespread stressed flora, and major biological turnover in the terrestrial ecosystems during the Carnian Pluvial Episode.


Understanding development viability is an important issue for property market participants and urban policy makers. In the UK, an extensive debate has arisen surrounding how much developers should contribute towards local infrastructure and the role that viability should play in setting such amounts. This debate is hampered by a lack of good quality empirical data on either land values or development viability in different areas. We attempt to address this problem by applying a residual method for calculating site value in different areas using data on values and construction costs stretching from the mid-1980s through to 2010. Each estimate represents the price that would be paid to commence development of a particular commercial property type at that time. Sometimes, the figures are negative, indicating that development is not viable at that point. Hence, they do not necessarily equal land value, as land values can reflect the option to develop a site more profitably in the future. Nonetheless, they capture the viability of development at different times and so are capable of informing policy makers in regard to stimulating or taxing private sector development activity. The estimates are undertaken for major towns and cities and then averaged across the locations within each region. The resulting regional measure is then compared to data on economic activity and construction output in order to evaluate the robustness of the figures and understand the relationship between potential viability and subsequent development activity in different areas.


We describe the outcome of a single-blinded randomized comparison of 3 different interventions in sub-acute right hemisphere lesioned stroke patients, suffering from hemispatial neglect. We compared 2 established intervention techniques (Visual Scanning Training (VST) and Optokinetic Stimulation (OKS)) to Visuomotor Feedback Training (VFT). VFT is a relatively unexplored cognitive rehabilitation technique that involves a simple procedure of grasping-to-lift rods at the centre. We evaluated the effectiveness of the 3 approaches in terms of decreased visual neglect symptoms, and possible improvements in activities of daily living, awareness and depression/anxiety, immediately after the training and at a 3 month follow up. Sixty patients were randomised into the 3 groups (VST, N=22; OKS, N=18; VFT, N=22) and each intervention consisted of 10 training sessions conducted over 10 consecutive days, lasting an average of 30 minutes. We found that patients in all 3 groups demonstrated a significant reduction of their neglect symptoms accompanied by transfer effects showing significant increases in activities of daily living and awareness as well as reduction in anxiety extending to the 3 months follow up. Although we failed to find significant differences between the 3 interventions, we demonstrate for the first time, that the relatively unexplored intervention of VFT is as effective as the more established rehabilitation approaches of VST and OKS. Moreover, we found further subtle (non-significant) differences between the techniques: For VFT improvements occurred immediately after testing and remained constant at follow up, for OKS greatest improvements seemed to occur between the end of training and follow up, whereas for VST the biggest effects were found straight after training. These are most promising results that can guide future large scale interventions.


CMOS based RF circuits have demonstrated efficient performance over the decades. However, one bottle neck with this technology is its lossy nature for passive components such as inductors, antennas etc. Due to this drawback, passives are either implemented off chip or the designers work with the inefficient passives. This problem can be alleviated by using inkjet printing as a post process on CMOS chip. In this work, we demonstrate inkjet printing of a patterned polymer (SU8) layer on a 24 GHz oscillator chip to isolate the lossy Si substrate from the passives which are inkjet printed on top of the SU8 layer. As a proof of concept, a monopole antenna is printed on top of the SU8 layer integrating it with the oscillator through the exposed RF pads to realize an oscillator transmitter. The proposed hybrid fabrication technique can be extended to multiple dielectric and conductive printed layers to demonstrate complete RF systems on CMOS chips which are efficient, cost-effective and above all small in size.


Narrow self-interest is often used as a simplifying assumption when studying people making decisions in social contexts. Nonetheless, people exhibit a wide range of different motivations when choosing unilaterally among interdependent outcomes. Measuring the magnitude of the concern people have for others, sometimes called Social Value Orientation (SVO), has been an interest of many social scientists for decades and several different measurement methods have been developed so far. Here we introduce a new measure of SVO that has several advantages over existent methods. A detailed description of the new measurement method is presented, along with norming data that provide evidence of its solid psychometric properties. We conclude with a brief discussion of the research streams that would benefit from a more sensitive and higher resolution measure of SVO, and extend an invitation to others to use this new measure which is freely available.


We describe a physical and logical layout analysis algorithm, which is applied to segment and label online medical journal articles (regular HTML and PDF-Converted-HTML files). For these articles, the geometric layout of the Web page is the most important cue for physical layout analysis. The key to physical layout analysis is then to render the HTML file in a Web browser, so that the visual information in zones (composed of one or a set of HTML DOM nodes), especially their relative position, can be utilized. The recursive X-Y cut algorithm is adopted to construct a hierarchical zone tree structure. In logical layout analysis, both geometric and linguistic features are used. The HTML documents are modeled by a Hidden Markov Model with 16 states, and the Viterbi algorithm is then used to find the optimal label sequence, concluding the logical layout analysis.


Inhibition of COX2 may prevent the memory impairment caused by the active ingredient in marijuana. Marijuana (cannabis) is used by many cultures for its medicinal properties; however, chronic use can lead to impaired cognition and memory. The active ingredient in marijuana Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) binds to the cannabinoid receptors CB1R and CB2R to activate G protein–coupled signaling. Activation of CBRs by the endogenous cannabinoid 2-AG inhibits the proinflammatory enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which normally promotes production of prostanoids, including prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2). Chen et al. found that, unlike 2-AG, acute administration of THC increased the abundance of COX-2 and PGE2 in the hippocampus of mice. The ability of THC to increase COX-2 required CB1R, and the ability of THC to increase PGE2 required COX-2 activity. The G protein inhibitor, pertussis toxin, a peptide inhibitor of the G protein subunits Gβ and Gγ, or short-hairpin RNAs targeting Gβ1 and Gγ2, suppressed the ability of THC to increase COX-2 and promote activation of several other downstream targets. Short-hairpin RNAs targeting Gαi1 inhibited the ability of 2-AG to reduce COX-2 activity induced by inflammation, but those targeting Gαi1, Gαi2, or Gαi3 had no effect on THC-mediated increases in COX-2 abundance. Pharmacologic or genetic inhibition of COX-2 abrogated defects in hippocampal long-term potentiation, dendritic spine and synapse formation, and glutamate homeostasis, as well as deficits in spatial memory, fear-conditioned responses, and locomotion in mice repeatedly dosed with THC. In a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, repeated THC treatment reduced amyloidosis and neuronal degeneration, an effect that was unchanged by the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib, suggesting that therapies combining THC and COX-2 inhibitors may have improved clinical utility over marijuana use alone. R. Chen, J. Zhang, N. Fan, Z.-Q. Teng, Y. Wu, H. Yang, Y.-P. Tang, H. Sun, Y. Song, C. Chen, Δ9-THC-caused synaptic and memory impairments are mediated through COX-2 signaling. Cell 155, 1154–1165 (2013). [PubMed]


Recording and maintaining traces about the history of a (software) product is a prerequisite for managing its evolution. Establishing traceability from requirements down to implementation and vice versa has thus long ago been recognized as an essential development activity. A fundamental problem faced with relating requirements and architectural artefacts is the large conceptual distance and the so-called structural gap between requirements and architectural components. In this paper we argue that the consideration of scenarios at the requirements and at the architectural level empowers a tighter integration of both types of software development artefacts. Briefly, user scenarios are assigned to use cases which in turn are assigned to functional and non-functional requirements. Similarly, architectural scenarios are assigned to architectural configurations which themselves define the allowed interaction between components and connectors defined by the architecture. By interrelating user scenarios and architectural scenarios, use cases and architectural configuration, as well as requirements and architectural definitions both types of artefacts are tightly interrelated. The resulting trace structure facilitates consistent and effective change integration.


In general Spanish, references to nonspecific third-person plurals are usually made by means of a verb occurring with the null form of the subject pronoun, as in llamaron del banco, rather than by means of a verb occurring with the overt form of the subject pronoun. In contrast to the position in this discussion, the literature presents null pronouns in these nonspecific 3pl contexts as resulting from a categorical syntactic rule, when in fact we consider that they are the result of a strong pragmatic constraint: overt ellos for nonspecific references are rare, not ungrammatical. That is, one occasionally does find in the Spanish of Latin America nonspecific 3pl NPs with overt subject pronouns, as in the disfavored but grammatical ellos llamaron del banco. This study, based on a large corpus of sociolinguistic interviews from the CUNY Project on the Spanish of New York, reveals that, among bilinguals in New York City whose exposure to English is intensive, such nonspecific ellos are even more frequent. Three degrees of nonspecificity are recognized in the literature on 3pl nonspecific NPs. Among both contact and non-contact speakers, the use of overt nonspecific ellos increases as nonspecificity decreases, though the absolute numbers are much larger in New York. In this way, the contact dialect is a quantitatively enhanced copy of the qualitatively identical pre-contact variety. Since, as the evidence presented here shows, examples of overt nonspecific ellos are found in Spanish in Latin America, their appearance in Spanish in New York does not represent a radical change in the syntax of contact Spanish; instead, these usages are an example of the familiar situation where contact varieties expand usages that were already incipient in the pre-contact community. Thus, the study would appear to indicate that the use of overt nonspecific ellos in New York represents a quantitative change in the strength of a pragmatic constraint that guides the use of subject pronouns, not a qualitative change in a syntactic rule that governs their use.


Determining the riverine carbon fluxes to oceans is critical for an improved understanding of C budgets and biogeochemical cycles (C, O) over a broad range of spatial and time scales. Among the particulate organic carbon (POC) involved in these fluxes, those yielded by sedimentary rocks (petrogenic POC: pPOC) remain somewhat uncertain as to their source on continental surfaces. Based on time series from long‐term observatories, we refine the POC and sediments flux of the Rhône River, one of the major tributaries to the Mediterranean Sea. Radiocarbon measurements on a set of riverine samples and forward modelling were used to (i) determine a modelled pPOC content and pPOC/POC ratio for each sample set, (ii) assess pPOC flux delivered to the NW Mediterranean Sea, and (iii) estimate the badlands contribution from the Durance catchment to both the pPOC and to sediment discharges. The weighted pPOC flux contributes up to 26% of the POC flux (145 Gg yr‐1) discharged into the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the weighted pPOC content reaches 0.31 wt%. Despite their low contributive surface area (0.2%), badlands provide, respectively, 12, 3.5 and 14% of the pPOC, POC and sediment fluxes to the Rhône River. Consequently, such rocks can be considered as a major source of pPOC and sediments for the NW Mediterranean Sea and potentially for oceans. We suggest that river‐dominated ocean margins, such as the Rhône River, with badlands in their catchment could export a significant amount of pPOC to the oceans. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


For any polynomial representation of the special linear group, the nodes of the corresponding crystal may be indexed by semi-standard Young tableaux. Under certain conditions, the standard Young tableaux occur, and do so with weight 0. Standard Young tableaux also parametrize the vertices of dual equivalence graphs. Motivated by the underlying representation theory, in this paper, we explainthis connection by giving a combinatorial manifestation of Schur-Weyl duality. In particular, we put a dual equivalence graph structure on the 0-weight space of certain crystal graphs, producing edges combinatorially from the crystal edges. The construction can be expressed in terms of the local characterizations given by Stembridge for crystal graphs and the author for dual equivalence graphs.


Accumulating evidence shows that hyperthermia improves head-and-neck cancer treatment. Over the last decade, we introduced a radiofrequency applicator, named HYPERcollar, which enables local heating also of deep locations in this region. Based on clinical experience, we redesigned the HYPERcollar for improved comfort, reproducibility and operator handling. In the current study, we analyze the redesign from an electromagnetic point of view. We show that a higher number of antennas and their repositioning allow for a substantially improved treatment quality. Combined with the much better reproducibility of the water bolus, this will substantially minimize the risk of underexposure. All improvements combined enable a reduction of hot-spot prominence (hot-spot to target SAR quotient) by 32% at an average of 981 W, which drastically reduces the probability for system power to become a treatment limiting source. Moreover, the power deposited in the target selectively can be increased by more than twofold. Hence, we expect that the HYPERcollar redesign currently under construction allows us to double the clinically applied power to the target while reducing the hot-spots, resulting in higher temperatures and, consequently, better clinical outcome.


This paper documents the initial prototyping of a new digital musical instrument. Specifically, it focuses on design of the interface, and contextualizes the project through some of the existing research in the field of gestural control of new musical instruments. The project began with a concept for a standalone hand-held polyphonic synthesizer called the Noisebox (Figure 1). Several key concepts and strategies were explored and implemented during its development, including: analysis and application of gesture in musical performance, choice of sensors and sensor conditioning, appropriate mapping strategies, and evaluation of user experience. The outcome yielded a functional prototype that fulfilled the initial goal of the project to design and build a working instrument from start to finish. The stage documented here represents the first phase of a longer project. Future phases will conduct user tests to measure the success of the instrument based on performer feedback and refine the design through multiple iterations, leading to a finished instrument.