An accurate computational method for the classical simulation of the two-dimensional vibrational spectra is presented. The method refines our previous computational method for the third order vibrational response function in the classical limit, and it enables capturing the diagonal elongation and its waiting time (T) dependence widely observed in experimental two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectra of intramolecular modes. The improvement is achieved by a series of new developments including (i) a block algorithm for the stability matrix computation, (ii) new equations of motion for the position-perturbed molecular dynamics (MD) trajectory, and (iii) enhanced sampling efficiency by exploiting the time-reversal invariance of MD trajectories. The method is applied to the simulation of 2D IR spectra of the OD stretch mode in a hydrated HOD molecule, employing a hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical force field. The simulated spectra exhibit diagonal elongation of the 2D IR signal at small T, reflecting the correlation of individual transitions among the inhomogeneously broadened ensemble. The slopes of the nodal lines of the elongated signals are found to decay with a time scale of 1.6 ps as T increases, in reasonable agreement with the frequency correlation decay time of 1.2 ps. The amplitudes of the positive and negative peaks also decay as T increases, due to vibrational population relaxation and molecular rotation. The peak positions tend to blue shift with increasing T, reflecting the different relaxation rates of the strongly and weakly solvated HOD species. These results indicate that the present method can reliably predict the waiting-time-dependent changes of 2D IR spectra of a single vibrational chromophore in solution.


Chronic electrical stimulation and extracellular recording combined with morphological examination of nerves in this study provided a detailed description of the time course and extent of fiber atrophy when the trophic influence of the target was removed by ligation of axotomized nerves and neural activity was replaced by chronic stimulation. The major findings are that decline in amplitude of compound action potentials (CAPs) and fiber diameters is rapid after axotomy and is not reversed or prevented by chronic electrical stimulation, as would be predicted if neural activity played an essential role in maintaining normal fiber caliber. Chronic stimulation had a small short-term sparing effect in the first month after axotomy but was counterproductive over long periods. Comparison of the time course of the decline in CAP amplitude and reduction of fiber diameters with described alterations in mRNA expression of neurofilament protein indicates that the early atrophy is too rapid to be accounted for by reduced synthesis and transport of neurofilaments. It is more likely to result from modification of axonal proteins after axotomy. Replacement of neural activity with stimulation may reduce the initial atrophy but, over longer periods, exacerbates the atrophy, possibly by affecting the synthesis and transport of cytoskeletal proteins. These studies show that the trophic control of nerve fiber size is mediated primarily by functional contacts with peripheral targets and that neural activity plays a relatively small role. Without functional contacts, nerve fibers decline in diameter to stable but lower values. The atrophy was exacerbated by imposing neural activity on the relatively quiescent axotomized neurons.


The response of the commercial HC-1550-02 hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber (HC-PBF) to gas pressure applied internally to the hollow-core was experimentally investigated. The transmission spectrum of the HC-PBF was hardly affected by the pressure, while the accumulated phase of the fundamental optical mode showed a normalized pressure sensitivity of 1.044 × 10(-2) rad/(Pa∙m), which is over two orders of magnitude higher than that to the external pressure. Numerical simulation showed that the observed high sensitivity to pressure is due to the pressure-induced refractive index change of air inside the hollow-core. This research could find potential applications in high sensitivity static and dynamic pressure measurement and optical phase manipulation.


We live in the age of complexity. Yet, complexity is rarely studied in MIS. The paper studies cognitive complexity in an important IS domain – data modeling. The focus is on novice data modelers. Four major sources of complexity principles are identified: problem solving principles, design principles, information overload, and systems theory. Based on prior literature, the factors that lead to complexity are listed in each category. Each factor is then applied to the context of data modeling to gauge the extent to which it affects data modeling complexity. Redundant factors from different sources are ignored, and closely linked factors are identified. The factors are then integrated to come up with a comprehensive list of factors, which are divided into two categories – those that are intrinsic to data modeling and are difficult to control, and those than can be addressed to minimize data modeling complexity.


We test the key implication of the buffer stock model, namely that any revision in permanent income leads to a proportionate revision in target wealth. We use panel data on the amount of wealth held for precautionary purposes available in the 2002-2016 SHIW. Using an instrumental variable approach to overcome measurement error issues and direct estimates of the permanent component of income, we find that households indeed revise approximately one-for-one their target wealth in response to permanent income shocks. We explore heterogeneity of the response across the cash-on-hand distribution, for positive and negative shocks, and for shocks of different size. We also find that the change in the ratio of cash-on-hand to permanent income is negatively correlated with the "wealth gap", particularly for individuals whose wealth is substantially above target.


The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. By Robert Alter. New York: WW. Norton, 2007. xl + 518 pp. $35.00 (cloth). Praise Seeking Understanding: Reading the Psalms with Augustine. By Jason Byassee. Foreword by Robert W Jenson. Radical Traditions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007. xiv + 290 pp. $32.00 (paper). This review should begin with an admission that it is not written from the perspective of a scholar of the Hebrew Bible but from that of a person who says the daily offices and hoped to be enabled to read the Psalms more profoundly with the help of these two books, a hope that was fulfilled in large measure. Robert Alter is one of the leading theorists of the literary interpretation of the Bible. He teaches Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California and is the author of many books of criticism of both sacred and secular literature. Alters introduction to his translation prepares readers well for what is ahead. After supplying historical-critical information about the poems collected in the Psalter, he tells how the poetry of the Psalms differs from that in other biblical books. Noting the parallelism that is the most familiar trait of the Psalms, he adds that it is seldom synonymous; rather, there tends to be an intensification of meaning that concentrates emphasis in the second verset of a line. To me the most helpful section of the introduction was "The Challenge of Translating Psalms" (pp. xxviii-xxxv). The way that Hebrew treats pronouns, not bothering to have separate words for many and including subjects and objects in the verb, means that English translations are bound to have more syllables. They tend to be less compact and certainly less rhythmic - a serious defect in rendering poetry. Another difference between the Psalms in Hebrew and their English translations has been that concrete words have been translated as abstract ones, a trend that Alter tries to reverse in his version. Instead of "iniquity" or "transgression," he says "crime"; and "offense" usually appears in place of "sin." Nefesh, traditionally translated as "soul," has a range of meanings, from "life breath" to "I," "life," "my being," and even "neck" or "throat." And "salvation" becomes "rescue." Something else that has always caused problems is that the Hebrew text of the Psalms is in sad shape, often showing signs of efforts over the ages to fix it. In the face of all these challenges, Alters aim in his translation has been to represent the Psalms in a kind of English verse that is readable as poetry yet sounds something like the Hebrew - emulating its rhythms wherever feasible, reproducing many of the effects of its expressive poetic syntax, seeking equivalents for the combination of homespun directness and archaizing in the original, hewing to the lexical concreteness of the Hebrew, and making more palpable the force of parallelism that is at the heart of biblical poetry (p. xxxi). All this sounds so admirable that I was surprised by my reaction to what he achieved. Although I have been greatly taken with such similar efforts as Everett Fox's translation of the Pentateuch, Alters did not appeal. While I recognize his great superiority to me as both a Hebraicist and as a connoisseur of literary aesthetics, his translations hardly strike me as poetry. I am aware that this may say more about my taste than Alters translation, but I will return to using the Prayer Book translation when I read the offices. An additional factor is that my reading builds on two thousand years of Christian devotional use of the Psalter. While that does not add to the meaning intended by the authors of the psalms, it is inevitable for one with my associations. On the other hand is the equally surprising fact that his commentary has become my favorite, for he supplies me with exactly the information I need to read the Psalms with more attention and understanding. …


To the Editor: Cholera outbreaks caused by toxigenic Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1 frequently occur in many sub-Saharan African countries. The serogroup O1 is classified into two biotypes, classical and El Tor. The seventh and current pandemic of cholera is caused by the El Tor biotype; the classical biotype is believed to be extinct. The classical and El Tor biotypes of V. cholerae O1 are closely related in their O-antigen biosynthetic genes but differ in other regions of the genome. The genomic structure of the CTXΦ filamentous phage (1), in which the cholera toxin genes are contained, differs between the classical and El Tor biotypes. CTXclassΦ is found in classical strains, CTXETΦ is present in El Tor and O139 strains, and CTXcalcΦ is found in resurgent O139 strains. The diversity of CTXΦ among biotypes is mainly due to the variations in the repeat sequence elements, particularly in the rstR gene region (2).

While conducting surveillance in the cholera treatment center in Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique, we examined 175 rectal swabs or stool samples from January 7 to March 8, 2004, using standard published procedures. During this period, we isolated 58 strains of V. cholerae O1. The isolates were transported to the Enteric Microbiology Unit of the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh (ICDDRD,B), for further phenotypic and genotypic characterization to determine serotype, biotype, and presence of important virulence genes. All 58 strains were identified as V. cholerae O1 of the Ogawa serotype. Forty strains selected for detailed characterization were resistant to polymyxin B, agglutinated chicken cells, yielded a positive Voges-Proskauer reaction, were positive for the El Tor hemolysin by the tube agglutination method, and were sensitive to group IV El Tor phage but resistant to the classical group V phage and were therefore classified as the El Tor biotype. The antimicrobial susceptibility of 15 of the 40 isolates examined showed that the strains were sensitive to tetracycline, ampicillin, furazolidone, erythromycin, and ciprofloxacin but resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and also to the vibriostatic compound 0/129.

By using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we established that all 40 strains carried the ctxA gene (constituent gene of the CTX prophage) and the tcpA gene (the El Tor type), a constituent gene of the vibrio pathogenicity island. We then focused on the rstR gene because of its diversity between the two biotypes. All of the 40 El Tor strains produced a 500-bp PCR product of the rstR gene of the classical type (rstRclass), despite belonging to the El Tor biotype. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the rstR gene of two representative Mozambique strains showed 100% homology to the classical rstR gene of classical reference strain O395. The amino acid sequence of the B-subunit of classical and El Tor biotypes have distinct signature sequences (3). We amplified the ctxB gene using specific primers and found that the deduced amino acid sequence of the CT-B subunit of the Mozambique strains varied from the El Tor CT-B subunit at positions 39 (histidine replaces tyrosine in El Tor) and 68 (threonine replaces isoleucine in El Tor), and the amino acid residues at these positions are identical to those of the classical CT-B subunit (Figure). The nucleotide sequences obtained for ctxB of the two Mozambique strains B33 and B65 were deposited in GenBank under accession no. {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"AY648939","term_id":"55668281","term_text":"AY648939"}}AY648939 and AY6448940, respectively. Therefore, the Mozambique strains of V. cholerae O1 displayed typical traits of the El Tor biotype overall but carried the classical CTX prophage.

Figure

Amino acid sequence alignment of CT-B subunit of Vibrio cholerae O1 classical, El Tor, and Mozambique (B33 and B65) strains. Identical amino acid residues are indicated by a period. Amino acid sequences of CtxB of V. cholerae classical ({"type":"entrez-protein","attrs":{"text":"AAL60524.1","term_id":"18141147","term_text":"AAL60524.1"}} ...

Our findings that El Tor strains of V. cholerae O1 from Mozambique are carrying the classical prophage shows the presence of genetic materials associated with the classical biotype in Mozambique. Further, these findings provide the first circumstantial evidence of transmission of the classical CTX prophage. The CTX prophages in El Tor strains give rise to infectious phage particles (1), but neither of the two CTX prophages integrated at two different sites of the classical genome give rise to phage particles (4). Subsequent studies have shown that, although the genes of the classical prophages encode functional forms of all of the proteins needed for production of CTXΦ, the CTX prophage does not yield virions because of the atypical arrangement of its prophage arrays (4).

Genetic hybrids between El Tor and classical biotypes of O1 V. cholerae were reported among sporadic isolates earlier in Bangladesh (5) and were named the Matlab variants after the place where they were first isolated. The Mozambique strains of V. cholerae likely evolved from an El Tor strain, which shed its CTX phage and acquired the classical prophage. Alternatively, strains like the Matlab variant may have spread to the African subcontinent. Whether introducing the CTX prophage in the El Tor genome background will increase pathogenicity, affect genomic stability, or enhance the epidemic-causing potential is uncertain. This subtle genetic change might also alter the effectiveness of current cholera vaccines which stimulate antitoxic as well as antibacterial immunity.


We demonstrate a phase shifter based on a silicon slot waveguide infiltrated with liquid crystal. We achieve a phase shift of 73 π for a 5V drive voltage, with a voltage-length product of 0.022V·mm around 1V. We can drive the phase shifter directly with a 1V, duobinary pulse-width-modulated signal, allowing direct digital CMOS control of an analog optical phase shifter.


The power plant and aerospace industries have been facing a huge loss, due to structural failure. The structural failure occurs due to the presence of the crack in it. Hence, it becomes necessary to monitor the structural health under operating condition. Most of the techniques, for structural health monitoring are used for a specific purpose. Some of these techniques require structure dismantling, which is very much expensive and time consuming. So the vibration based structural health monitoring is advantageous, compared to other techniques. Most of the vibration based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) approaches, use linear vibration theory. But, these linear vibration based procedures, have inherently low sensitivity to crack. Since crack introduces nonlinearities in the system, their merits in damage detection need to be investigated for SHM. In this thesis, the problem is focused on studying nonlinear dynamics of cracked structures for Structural Health Monitoring. For this, simulations and experiments are performed. The new procedure for the simulation is developed using Matlab-Simulink. It uses the numerical approximation for dynamic compliance operators and a nonlinear model of cracks contact faces interaction to study the dynamic behaviour of the cracked bar. Furthermore, the finite element model of the cracked cantilever bar with crack- tip plasticity is developed and the dynamic behaviour of the elasto-plastic bar is studied. Additionally, numerous experiments are performed to study the dynamics of cantilever bar with the fatigue crack in it. The results from Matlab-Simulink simulation shows the distribution of higher harmonics generated along the bar length, as a function of distance from the crack. In finite element simulation, comparison is made between the resonance frequency of cracked cantilever bar with and without crack-tip plasticity. It is found that, there is decrease in resonance frequency of the cracked bar with cracked tip plasticity, when compared with the resonance frequency of cracked bar without crack-tip plasticity. This reduction in resonance frequency is due to the crack-induced plasticity near the crack tip which affects the overall stiffness of bar. In experiments, the response is measured at four different points on the cracked cantilever bar at a given resonant frequency of excitation at lower and higher vibration amplitude. For lower vibration amplitude, it is found that the response obtained near the vicinity of the crack shows the presence of higher harmonics of resonant frequency, which disappears in the response obtained far away from the crack. For higher vibration amplitude, it is found that the response obtained near the vicinity of the crack shows the presence of higher harmonics along with the low frequency component. This low frequency component causes modulation, which leads to the generation of side band frequencies near the resonant frequency. The occurrence of low frequency component and side band frequencies is due to the vibro-impact behaviour of crack. The amplitude of these side band frequencies and higher harmonics are reduced in the response obtained far away from the crack. This indicates that crack-induced nonlinearity has a localized effect on the dynamics of bar. It is also observed that the magnitude of low frequency component is proportional to the magnitude of resonant frequency of excitation. This indicates that crack behaves like a signal modulator, detector of low frequency component and amplifier as the magnitude of low frequency component is proportional to the magnitude of resonant frequency excitation. From the Matlab-Simulink simulation and experimental results, it is concluded that crackinduced nonlinearity affects the dynamic behaviour of the cracked bar significantly, which will be effective in structural health monitoring. Keywords: vibro-impact, crack, dynamic compliance, harmonics, modulator, detector, amplifier, crack-tip plasticity, resonance frequency, structural health monitoring.


The systems/products and their design processes have become more and more complicated due to the fact that their requirements in terms of function, durability, reliability and energy efficiency have been increased significantly and that their leading time has to be short and their materials cost has to be low. To meet these requirements, individual parts and subsystems have to offer increased functionality and efficiency themselves. It has been found that smart materials, such as piezo ceramics or various shape memory alloys as well as less known dielectric elastomers or magnetic shape memory alloys, offer ideal preconditions to fulfil such requirements. Among the various shape memory alloys, the Magnetic Shape Memory (MSM) alloy is a kind of smart material that can elongate and contract in a magnetic field. Based on the MSM alloy a new type of smart electromagnetic actuators have been designed and developed. This kind of actuator exhibits the features above. Typically, the MSM material is a monocrystalline Ni-Mn-Ga alloy, which has the ability to change its size or shape very fast and many million times repeatedly. State-of-the-art alloys are able to achieve a magnetic field induced strain of up to 12%. The magneto-mechanical characteristic of MSM alloys is being constantly improved. However, as far as the author is aware, there are no efficient and commercially available tools for engineers to design MSM-based actuators. To achieve this, simulation tools for design are indispensable. This thesis is dedicated to this task.

In this PhD thesis, new design and simulation techniques for MSM-based actuators have been studied. In particular, three simulation methods have been proposed. These three methods extend standard magneto-static FEM simulation techniques by taking into account the magneto-mechanical coupling and the magnetic anisotropy of the MSM materials. They differ in terms of the necessary a priori alloy characterisation (i.e., measurement effort), computational complexity and consequent computing time. The magneto-mechanical characteristics of the MSM material are a necessary and fundamental ingredient for this type of simulation. However, the characterisation of the MSM materials is a very challenging task and requires specific modifications to standard measurement approaches. So, in this thesis, some specific measurement methods of the magneto-mechanical characteristics of the MSM materials have been proposed, designed and developed. It is described how existing measurement instruments can be modified to measure the unique magneto-mechanical characteristics of MSM, so they are applicable and with practical values. Various tests have been carried out to validate the new methods and the necessary characterisations of the properties of MSM materials have been performed, such as the measurement of the permeability of MSM under a defined stress during elongation. The new measurement results have been analysed and the findings have been used to design and develop the simulation methods. The three simulation methods can be used to predict and optimise the current-elongation behaviour of an MSM element under the load of a mechanical stress while excited by a magnetic field. Extensive experiments have been carried out to validate these three simulation methods. The results show that the three methods are relatively simple but, at the same time, very effective means to model, predict and optimise the properties of an MSM actuator using finite element tools. In addition, the experiment results have also shown that the simulation methods can be used to gain some deep insights into the magneto-mechanical interaction between the MSM element and the electromagnetic actuator. In this thesis an evolutionary algorithm which works together with the simulation methods has been developed to achieve individual optimised solutions in very short times.

In summary, from the experiment results, it has been found that the measurements and simulation methods proposed and developed in this thesis; enable designers to perform simulations for a high-quality actuator design based on the magneto-mechanical properties of MSM alloys. This is the first time that a MSM can be characterised for simulation purposes in a fast and precise way to predict MSM and electromagnetic actuator interactions and identify and optimise the design parameters of such actuators.
However, these simulation methods are strongly dependent on the measurement of the magneto-mechanical characteristics of magnetic shape memory alloys, whose precision can be further improved. To reach commercial success as well higher precision in the simulation prediction, further achievements in the field of material science (e.g. smoothness of mechanical curves) are also necessary.


Is racial passing passe? Not according to contemporary book sales. The theme remains central to at least three recent best sellers: Danzy Senna's Caucasia , Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist , and Philip Roth's The Human Stain . Roth's novel made it to the big screen this fall, just as Devil in a Blues Dress , the adaptation of Walter Mosley's novel starring Denzel Washington, did in 1995. Renewed academic attention is being paid, of late, to "classic" passing narratives; once-ignored ones, including Charles Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars , are being revived; and still others being reread in the context of passing.


The main problem for the characterization of marine atmospheric boundary layer is the lack of available offshore measurements in relevant altitude range up to 200 m. Remote sensing meteorological instruments such as LIDARs or SODARS are applied in the field to provide the essential wind profile and turbulence data. The master thesis presents an analysis of 4 years of lidar wind profile measurements at the small island of Storholmen off the Norwegian coast. This site is expected to represent offshore conditions for most of the time. A statistical analysis of different parameters which are related to wind power meteorology, i.e. horizontal and vertical wind speed, turbulence parameters (horizontal and vertical turbulence intensity, and turbulence kinetic energy) and wind shear, is presented. The results show a clear relation between horizontal turbulence intensity distribution and the wind speed. A high correlation between TKE and horizontal turbulence intensity is also observed for high wind speeds. Furthermore, for offshore conditions, the occurrence of high TKE increases. Offshore wind profiles are investigated with respect to turbulence parameters, atmospheric stability and wind shear. The analysis shows a strong relation between turbulence parameters and average wind profiles and wind shear. The results indicate that these turbulence parameters can potential be used as a proxy of the classification of atmospheric stability for offshore conditions in cases of missing temperature profile data. Finally, case studies of different mesoscale phenomena are investigated using a combination of SAR, lidar and met mast data. The results show that this potential combination of instruments can be applied for an improved knowledge of these phenomena and their potential effects on offshore applications.


Researchers have estimated the total economic value of global ecosystem goods and services showing that a significant portion of humanity's economic well being is unaccounted for in conventional GNP accounting (Constanza et al., 1997). To demonstrate this point, authors have conventionally used highly aggregated landscape units for analysis (e.g., biomes), and average, not marginal values, of each ecosystem good or service are estimated for each unit using value transfer methodologies (Wilson et al., 2004). For example, Patterson and Cole (1999a, b) replicated the Constanza et al., (1997) approach by estimating economic values for Waikato and New Zealand ecosystem goods and services associated with standard land cover classes including horticulture, agriculture and cropping. As a result, Patterson and Cole (1999b) argue that only five ecosystem services associated with cropping have non-zero value. One of the reasons for this low number of non-zero values assorted with arable lands is that the original economic studies used by Patterson and Cole, are heavily weighted towards natural and undisturbed ecosystems rather than disturbed systems like agricultural or urban landscapes. To address this issue, more recently researchers have noted that many landscapes are actively modified by humans who seek to realise economic gain and this topic is thus an important one because in the 21st century, many of our homes, workplaces and recreational spaces are embedded within, or adjacent to, landscape mosaics that are to a greater or lesser degree affected by the conscious efforts of people to harness goods and services provided by ecological systems (Palmer et al., 2004). An engineered or designed ecosystem is one that has been extensively modified by humans to explicitly provide a set of ecosystem goods and services including more fresh water, trees, and food products and fewer floods and pollutants. These modified landscapes provide a range of ecosystem goods and services, particularly food production as farmers seek to maximize commercial gain from land use. The current paper examines issues in valuation of ecosystem goods and services derived from land used for arable farming in New Zealand and proposes ways to provide more detailed estimates of the flow and value of the flow of ecosystem services provided.


A timeline of cave dwellers in sediment Two archaic lineages overlapped with modern humans outside of Africa: the well-studied Neanderthals and their more mysterious cousins, the Denisovans. Denisovan remains are rare, being limited to Denisovan Cave in Siberia and a putative, undated jaw from Tibet. However, there is evidence for multiple introgressions from Denisovans into modern-day humans, especially in Australasian populations. By examining the sediment of Baishiya Karst Cave located on a high plateau in Tibet, Zhang et al. identified ancient mitochondrial DNA from Denisovans indicating their presence at about 100 thousand, 60 thousand, and possibly 45 thousand years ago. This finding provides insight into the timing and distribution of Denisovans in Asia and extends the time of occupation of the Tibetan plateau by hominins. Science, this issue p. 584 A Tibetan cave provides evidence of Denisovan occupation 100,000, 60,000, and 45,000 years ago. A late Middle Pleistocene mandible from Baishiya Karst Cave (BKC) on the Tibetan Plateau has been inferred to be from a Denisovan, an Asian hominin related to Neanderthals, on the basis of an amino acid substitution in its collagen. Here we describe the stratigraphy, chronology, and mitochondrial DNA extracted from the sediments in BKC. We recover Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from sediments deposited ~100 thousand and ~60 thousand years ago (ka) and possibly as recently as ~45 ka. The long-term occupation of BKC by Denisovans suggests that they may have adapted to life at high altitudes and may have contributed such adaptations to modern humans on the Tibetan Plateau.


The first election of women into the Fellowship of the Royal Society took place on 22 March 1945, on which occasion Mrs Kathleen Lonsdale and Miss Marjory Stephenson were elected into the Fellowship. In the not very distant past, such an action on the part of the Royal Society would have seemed to present a marked departure from tradition, and would doubtless have aroused keen opposition. The admission of women to Fellowship of learned societies in Great Britain is, however, no innovation, for the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Entomological Society admitted women from the date of their incorporation in 1829 and 1833 respectively. The Linnean Society of London and the Royal Microscopical Society admitted women to Full Fellowship in 1905 and 1909. In 1944, two certificates in favour of women as candidates for election into the Fellowship of the Royal Society were presented to the Assistant Secretary for Registration. The Council consulted the Society's legal advisers, who at once made it clear that the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919, removed any legal bar to the acceptance of certificates in favour of women or to their election into the Fellowship. The Council decided that it would be proper to make this legal position clear to the Fellows, and to recommend an appropriate verbal amendment of the Statutes. Since difficulties of travel consequent upon war/time conditions made it impossible for a large number of Fellows to attend a Special General Meeting for the discussion of this matter, the Council took the view that in order to offer to all Fellows an opportunity of considering the proposals it would be proper to use the discretionary powers afforded by the war emergency legislation to substitute consultation of the Fellows by a postal vote for the statutory Special General Meeting.


Ankylosaurs have spike-, plate-, and club-shaped osteoderms probably used as defensive and/or offensive weapons. Previous studies have proposed the evolution and function of small ankylosaur osteoderms, but histological variations in their defensive weapons are little known. Here, we provide comparisons of the internal structures in defensive weapons of ankylosaurs, which shed light on understanding their evolutionary history and function. Histological features of spikes, plates, and clubs are similar to those of small osteoderms in having thin compact bone, thick cancellous bone with large vascular canals, and abundant collagen fibers. A previous study demonstrated that each of the three groups of ankylosaurs (the Polacanthidae, Nodosauridae, and Ankylosauridae) have distinct arrangements of collagen fibers in small osteoderms. This study shows that spikes and clubs of ankylosaurs maintain the same characteristic features for each group despite the differences in shapes and sizes. These histological similarities suggest that various types of osteoderms in ankylosaurs retained the thin compact bone and abundant fiber structures of the small osteoderms during their evolution. Polacanthid spikes show thin compact bone, with less collagen fibers than in spikes of nodosaurids and spikes and clubs of ankylosaurids. Also, ankylosaurid plates with hollow bases are very thin in morphology and show thin compact bone. These results imply that the bone strengths of polacanthid spikes and ankylosaurid plates are lower than spikes and clubs of other ankylosaurs, indicating that they may be used more probably as display and/or thermoregulation rather than as weapons. It is thus probable that ankylosaur armor in general played more than just a defensive role.


A wide variety of enclosed structures either require or cannot entirely prevent leakage from their interior space to the outside. Existing methods for measuring such leakage have important disadvantages. We have developed a device and technique that permits leakage areas to be measured from within or without the enclosure without causing unacceptable disturbance. The apparatus uses low‐frequency (1 Hz) acoustic monopoles to generate an internal pressure signal which is then analyzed synchronously to provide a measurement of leakage area. We have successfully applied this technique to measuring air tightness in residential houses, and believe it can be easily adapted for use in field, laboratory, or classroom applications. We are currently evaluating why the values we obtained were, on average, 14% lower than those obtained through conventional methods and we are investigating the apparent inability of the device, as presently designed, to measure large leaks.


An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.


Two exo-beta-1,3-glucanases (herein designated exoG-I and exoG-II) were isolated from the cell wall autolysate of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and purified by ion-exchange, hydrophobic-interaction, and gel filtration chromatographies. Molecular masses estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and gel filtration chromatography were 82 kDa for the monomeric exoG-I and 230 kDa for the dimeric exoG-II. exoG-I and exoG-II were glycosylated, and N glycans accounted, respectively, for 2 and 44 kDa. Their pH optimum is 5.0. Their optimum temperatures are 55 degrees C for exoG-I and 65 degrees C for exoG-II. By a sensitive colorimetric method and high-performance anion-exchange chromatography for product analysis, two patterns of exo-beta-1,3-glucanase activities were found. The 230-kDa exoG-II enzyme acts on p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-glucoside, beta-1,6-glucan, and beta-1,3-glucan. This activity, which retains the anomeric configuration of glucose released, presented a multichain pattern of attack of the glucan chains and a decrease in the maximum initial velocity (Vm) with the increasing size of the substrate. In contrast, the 82-kDa exoG-I, which inverts the anomeric configuration of the glucose released, hydrolyzed exclusively the beta-1,3-glucan chain with a minimal substrate size of 4 glucose residues. This enzyme presented a repetitive-attack pattern, characterized by an increase in Vm with an increase in substrate size and by a degradation of the glucan chain until it reached laminaritetraose, the limit substrate size. The 82-kDa exoG-I and 230-kDa exoG-II enzymes correspond to a beta-1,3-glucan-glucohydrolase (EC 126.96.36.199) and to a beta-D-glucoside-glucohydrolase (EC 126.96.36.199), respectively. The occurrence and functions of these two classes of exo-beta-1,3-glucanases in other fungal species are discussed.


The exchange of information during times of crisis/disaster has traditionally been the purview of public safety, the National Guard and other local, state or federal authorities. However, this model is undergoing a change with the availability of new mobile communications capabilities and the rise of social networking sites. The general public can now create and share information about crises as they unfold, and researchers have documented the timeliness and surprising accuracy of this information. As part of a large National Science Foundation funded project, researchers at the University of Colorado are developing tools to extract, organize and assess the flow of crisis related information as posted on social networking sites. With the promise of improved warning and coordination, such tools should help reduce the impacts of large-scale disruptions, including political crises, natural disasters, pandemics and terrorist threats. In this model, members of the public can obtain (and produce) information about an emergency that is specialized to their needs — as well as meta-information specialized for crisis situations — that helps them make judgments about the ever-growing amount of information. Such meta-information includes features of its source; judgments about the authoritativeness of the source; its concurrence (or not) with official sources; its timeliness (as the information may be better than official sources); other spatio-temporal features of the information's life; and anticipation of who would be looking for this information and why. Data mining and information extraction techniques have a critical place here, as does the creation of trust models and security techniques to offer privacy or possibly anonymity.However, if mechanisms are provided to enhance the users' privacy and even offer the capability for anonymous information contributions, it is possible that malicious entities may exploit this anonymity and inject false and misleading information into information streams. It is worth noting that false information could be introduced into the system without these features; it is just that an anonymizing system removes the consequence of being identified. Fundamentally, establishing identity within a networked environment is a challenging problem. For instance, a classic problem within the field of reputation systems is the Sybil attack, which occurs when a single entity establishes a large number of identities, for instance, by adding a large number of nodes to a peer-to-peer network. This has implications on designing reputation systems to detect the injection of bad information by malicious parties, since it is always possible for them to simply add a new identity to the system to counteract any previous misbehavior. Given this fact, we take an alternate approach to determining reputable users and information during an event. We will look at two possible implicit reputation indicators, one using client location services and another using analysis methods based on network graphs and activity within networks. Using network analysis methods, it may be possible to infer location, influence and other attributes based on communication, context and association with others in the network. Data for these methods is available via public application programming interfaces (APIs) from some online social networks. Monitoring these public APIs during crisis situations, we are able to use these analysis methods to infer information about users as the crisis is evolving.With the development of these tools, we must consider public policy issues that arise from this research. First, we ask what public policy issues emerge as a result of this vision of empirical research and development activities, and how they can be framed using a crisis informatics lens? Investigations of this kind require consideration about how crisis-related data is collected, analyzed and disseminated within the context of current federal and state laws, policies and regulations. Because information aggregation efforts may cross national borders, we will also take into account similar (and often more stringent) laws and policies in other countries. Important questions in this area center on issues of legal precedent, communications-related laws and policies, regulations and authorities regarding information dissemination during disasters and privacy and security issues. Other questions include how the policy context will affect our own information capture and aggregation methods. As an over-arching concern, we question whether it will be possible to design methods for capturing and processing diverse content ethically and in adherence of law, while also not creating new, insurmountable policy issues around information aggregation. Next, we ask what is the risk of legal liabilities that might arise. Who is responsible if the information is wrong? What if the system suppresses the dissemination of vital information? Does this constitute some type of negligence or a failure to adhere to required duty?


In the immediate aftermath of yesterday's European Council's decision to effectively transform the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) into a European Monetary Fund, this CEPS Commentary explores whether the EFSF has enough resources to become a credible deterrent against a recurrence of the recent turbulences in the euro area sovereign debt markets. The authors argue that an increase in lending capacity of the EFSF, which has been agreed politically but has not yet been fully ratified, is urgently needed. Moreover, they warn that even the 'full' EFSF of €440 billion would quickly reach its limits should Portugal and Ireland not be able to regain market access soon.


This paper presents a compilation and synthesis of calibrated radiocarbon dates for the Rancho La Brea tar pits, Los Angeles, California. A literature survey yielded 188 dates, and 21 additional dates are presented here for the first time. These range in age from 185 to 50,000 radiocarbon years. Dating of Rancho La Brea fossils has been uneven; only from Pits 91 and 2051 have more than 30 dates been obtained. The depositional history of well-sampled pits was complex, with one or more episodes of major accumulation interspersed with lower background levels of entrapment. The most significant quantifiable source of error of Rancho La Brea C dates is calibration error. Dates younger than 21,381 radiocarbon years can be calibrated using the IntCal04 calibration curve and yield an accurate estimate of age. Most older dates cannot be accurately calibrated at this time. Calibration of radiocarbon dates is important because raw radiocarbon dates consistently underestimate calendar dates, usually by several thousand years.


The present study examined whether background music improves aerobic and anaerobic performance in overweight children. Eleven participants (14.6±1.5 yrs, BMI%: 94.3±6.5) performed aerobic (20m Shuttle Run) and anaerobic (repeated sprint test – RST) field tests. Ten participants (12.0±2.1 yrs, BMI%:97.4±1.6) performed aerobic (treadmill running) and anaerobic (Wingate Anaerobic Test – WAnT) laboratory tests. Treadmill running time was significantly longer with, compared to without, music (11.9±1.5 versus 10.6±2.2 min, respectively; p<0.007). There was no significant difference in the 20m shuttle run distance with or without music. Total sprint time was significantly faster during RST with, compared to without, music (47.7±4.7 versus 48.5±5.5 s, respectively; p<0.04), with no significant difference in ideal sprint time and performance decrement. There was no significant difference in peak and mean anaerobic power and fatigue index during the WAnT with and without music. Motivational music may be used to improve aerobic and anaerobic performance among overweight children.


The paper presents research findings on the return intentions of Turkish professionals residing abroad. The study uses a descriptive framework to establish the validity of several proposed models of non-return. The results are based on an internet survey of Turkish professionals abroad. Correspondence analysis is used to examine the relationship between return intentions and various factors that may affect this intention. The results emphasize the importance of student non-return versus traditional brain and appear to complement the various theories of student non-return. The respondents appear to come from relatively wellto-do families with highly educated parents. Many have earned their degrees from universities that have foreign language instruction. The recent economic crises in Turkey have negatively affected return intentions. We verify that return intentions are indeed linked closely with initial return plans, and that this relationship weakens with stay duration. Specialized study and work experience in the host country also all appear to contribute to explaining the incidence of non-return. Return intentions are weaker for those working in an academic environment. These results lead to important policy implications, some of which include the training of individuals for academic positions at domestic institutions, supporting study abroad for shorter periods and improving academic facilities in Turkey's newly established universities. The government may support public and private R&D centers to increase the employability of returnees, but also to improve the quality of the higher education system in order to both reduce the need for education abroad and to increase the attractiveness of universities as prospective employment places for those acquiring education and experience abroad.


Traveltime data from the 1993 Southern Sierra Nevada Continental Dynamics seismic refraction experiment reveal low crustal velocities in the southern Sierra Nevada and Basin and Range province of California (6.0 to 6.6 km/s), as well as low upper mantle velocities (7.6 to 7.8 km/s). The crust thickens from southeast to northwest along the axis of the Sierra Nevada from 27 km in the Mojave Desert to 43 km near Fresno, California. A crustal welt is present beneath the Sierra Nevada, but the deepest Moho is found under the western slopes, not beneath the highest topography. A density model directly derived from the crustal velocity model but with constant mantle density satisfies the pronounced negative Bouguer anomaly associated with the Sierra Nevada, but shows large discrepancies of >50 mgal in the Great Valley and in the Basin and Range province. Matching the observed gravity with anomalies in the crust alone is not possible with geologically reasonable densities; we require a contribution from the upper mantle, either by lateral density variations or by a thinning of the lithosphere under the Sierra Nevada and the Basin and Range province. Such a model is consistent with the interpretation that the uplift of the present Sierra Nevada is caused and dynamically supported by asthenospheric upwelling or lithospheric thinning under the Basin and Range province and eastern Sierra Nevada.


The ideal poetry is speech that capitalizes on indirection, avers the literary critic Yang Tsai (1271–1323): "Sorrow and grief are held in reserve and no pain is expressed; praise and attack are indirect and not obvious." To spell out this vision of the Confucian poetics, a reformulation of the IND-COL (Individualism-Collectivism) hypothesis is proposed to anchor cross-cultural differences in terms of Novelty-focus versus Authenticity-focus, with the former being privileged in individualistic cultures, and the latter, collectivistic cultures. The Authenticity-focus hypothesis sheds light on two major functions of indirect expression of emotions: (a) As anti-exploitation device, with the sender's skills consisting primarily of suppression of emotions; and the receiver's skills, mind-reading and attunement. (b) As means to achieve inter- and intra-personal harmony, with poetry in particular functioning as a "ritual dance with words" to shape and mold emotions. Data that support the "Authenticity-focus" hypothesis challenge the conventional dichotomy of expression versus inhibition in emotion research, by showing that indirect expression of emotion functions like a veil that reveals and conceals at once the truth of the emoter.


The research pursued in this work concentrates on modelling two protein solution
properties: activity coefficients and solubility. While modelling protein solubility
was the prime objective activity coefficients were considered first as deviation from
ideal solution behaviour was expected to occur for protein containing systems.
Activity coefficients of protein related compounds, amino acids and peptides, were
studied first hypothesising that these compounds represent proteins and because
activity coefficient data is documented for those compounds but not for proteins. The
predictive UNIFAC model was studied but failed, which led to examination of the
related UNIQUAC model. The objective of the work was the creation of a model
base, which was achieved. This model base was then utilised for protein containing
systems.
Protein activity coefficient data was made available and could be successfully
modelled using the established framework. Furthermore, the activity coefficient data
was examined over different pH and temperature ranges, salt types and
concentrations. A qualitative comparison of the data to protein solubility results of
other researchers was pursued and used to confirm the model approach.
Having demonstrated that protein solubility was qualitatively represented through
protein activity coefficients a quantitative solubility approach was addressed next.
For two protein systems the solubility behaviour was modelled successfully as a
function of salt concentration and temperature. Findings of other researchers were
integrated into the discussion of the model results while also the calculated protein
activity coefficients were examined and a qualitative confirmation of the model was
achieved.
The models used in this study for the description of two protein solution properties,
when applied to six different proteins over various pH and temperature ranges, salt
types and concentrations showed qualitative and quantitative success. They should
find application to many other protein systems.


The SafetyNet project is an Integrated Project (IP) which was developed as part of
the European Commission's 6th Framework programme. SafetyNet has built the
foundations of a European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO) which can be used by
the European Commission for the purposes of policy review and development. The
SafetyNet project is divided into seven main Work Packages each of which deal with
specific aspects of road safety research (see www.erso.eu).
The objective of the SafetyNet Work Package 5, Task 2 was to develop an in-depth
European accident causation database to identify risk factors that contribute to road
accidents. To assist in the analysis of the accident causation a method, known as
SNACS, was further developed, tested and revised throughout the project. The
accident investigations were performed by existing multidisciplinary teams within the
partnership which have many years of experience.
The accident causation database was developed in two parts; a set of general
variables about the accident, vehicle, road environment and road users and a part
which was dedicated to the accident causation analysis performed with the SafetyNet
Accident Causation System (SNACS). The definitions for the general variables and
values as well as the SNACS method were piloted and revised several times before
data collection commenced to ensure high quality in the gathered data.
In total, 1006 accident cases were investigated which include 1833 vehicles and
pedestrians. In the aggregated analysis these vehicles were grouped according to
their trajectory prior to the accident and the groups were; Vehicles leaving their lane
(n = 354), Vehicles encountering something in their lane (n = 537), Vehicles
encountering another vehicle on crossing paths (n = 528) and Accidents involving
slower moving vulnerable road users (n = 92 pedestrians; 95 Pedal Cyclists, 177
opponents)
The aim of the analyses conducted was not to explore and evaluate the effectiveness
of new technologies, but rather to demonstrate the potential uses for the accident
causation database and identify common accident scenarios. The SNACS charts in
the groups were aggregated to allow the most commonly occurring accident
contributing factors to be identified. In the SNACS charts the information is rich and
detailed and it is by nature complex as it reflects the complex interactions between
the road users, vehicles and environment that occur in an accident. The SNACS
method assists in the process of identifying patterns that will allow the most common
accident contributing factors to be focused on when designing countermeasures.


Corporate innovation management geared to long-term success calls for a strategy to grow innovations into a substantial competitive advantage. This, however, coincides with an enormous failure-rate at the market, especially in the field of breakthrough innovations. Hence, in recent times, companies are trying to alleviate the risk of lacking user-acceptance through opening their innovation processes to external actors, particularly customers. The method of integrating lead users is determined by the effective and systematic identification of leading-edge customers, which is considered to be a critical phase within this approach. With the arrival of Web 2.0 applications, there is a huge potential to improve these selection processes. Our research into online communities and weblogs scrutinised the search criteria in an online environment and revealed the following characteristics as crucial factors for the online identification of lead users: being ahead of a market trend, high expected benefits, user expertise and motivation, extreme user needs as well as opinion leadership and an online commitment.


Personality is a psychological construct aimed at explaining the wide variety of human behaviors in terms of a few, stable and measurable individual characteristics. In this respect, any technology involving understanding, prediction and synthesis of human behavior is likely to benefit from Personality Computing approaches, i.e. from technologies capable of dealing with human personality. This paper is a survey of such technologies and it aims at providing not only a solid knowledge base about the state-of-the-art, but also a conceptual model underlying the three main problems addressed in the literature, namely Automatic Personality Recognition (inference of the true personality of an individual from behavioral evidence), Automatic Personality Perception (inference of personality others attribute to an individual based on her observable behavior) and Automatic Personality Synthesis (generation of artificial personalities via embodied agents). Furthermore, the article highlights the issues still open in the field and identifies potential application areas.


The goal of this project is to study the performance of Machine Learning (ML) techniques used in Human Activity Recognition (HAR). Specifically, we aim to 1) evaluate and benchmark the performance of various ML techniques used for HAR against established ML performance metrics using multiple datasets, and 2) map the characteristics of various HAR datasets to appropriate ML techniques. From a theoretical perspective, the research will shed light into the strengths and weaknesses of various ML techniques that can provide insights into future research aimed at improving these techniques for HAR. From a practical perspective, the research provides guidance into the applicability of various ML techniques to HAR datasets. Overall, studies into improving HAR performance could lead to a significant improvement in the self-care and selfmanagement interventions. These improvements would open doors for creative innovations in healthcare and other commercial applications that require the detection of human activity.


Abstract : The relative efficiency of three computer search algorithms was compared for searching large bibliographic files with Boolean search strategies. The sequential and inverted files represent the two most common file structures used today for bibliographic searching. Superimposed coding is an alternative that is becoming more attractive as the speed of computers improves. The superimposed search has a key associated with each record in the data base to act as a screen to eliminate the majority of records from further consideration. The keys are based on the bigrams and trigrams contained in the record, and are arranged in a linear file. The sequential search is a character by character scan of the entire file. This search is facilitated by constructing a finite state machine at the beginning of the search to match the search terms. The inverted file is fairly standard, except for the use of bit vectors to hold the postings of very common entries. A data base of 100,000 INSPEC records, from nine months of 1974, was used for testing the algorithms with 339 real-life search questions.


An injectable polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel was successfully prepared via borate–catechol complexation using dopamine functionalized 4-armed PEG (4-arm-PEG-DA) and phenylboronic acid modified 4-armed PEG (4-arm-PEG-PBA). The hydrogel was formed within 10 s by mixing 15 wt% 4-arm-PEG-DA with 15 wt% 4-arm-PEG-PBA buffer solutions at pH 9.0. The hydrogel was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, rheological measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and lap shear strength tests. Furthermore, pH, glucose and dopamine responsiveness of the hydrogel based on phenylborate–catechol complexation was demonstrated by degradation experiments and drug release tests. The lap shear strength tests indicated that the hydrogel possessed the ability of self-healing which was bestowed by the phenylborate–catechol dynamic covalent bond. Moreover, the hydrogel could serve as a decent bio-adhesive due to its adhesion properties on different substrates especially the porcine skin. In vitro cytotoxicity tests demonstrated the excellent cytocompatibility of the hydrogel. The results of all the experiments indicate that our newly developed multi-functionalized hydrogel can have potential applications in biomedical fields such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and bio-adhesives.


Sensory systems rely on statistical regularities in the experienced inputs to either group disparate stimuli, or parse them into separate categories1,2. While considerable progress has been made in understanding invariant object recognition in the visual system3–5, how this is implemented by olfactory neural circuits remains an open question6–10. The current leading model states that odor identity is primarily computed in the piriform cortex, drawing from mitral cell (MC) input6–9,11. Surprisingly, the role of tufted cells (TC)12–16, the other principal cell-type of the olfactory bulb (OB) in decoding odor identity, and their dependence on cortical feedback, has been overlooked. Tufted cells preferentially project to the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON) and olfactory striatum, while mitral cells strongly innervate the piriform cortex (PC). Here we show that classifiers based on the population activity of tufted cells successfully decode both odor identity and intensity across a large concentration range. In these computations, tufted cells substantially outperform mitral cells, and are largely unaffected by silencing of cortical feedback. Further, cortical feedback from AON controls preferentially the gain of tufted cell odor representations, while PC feedback specifically restructures mitral cell responses, matching biases in feedforward connectivity. Leveraging cell-type specific analyses, we identify a non-canonical feedforward pathway for odor recognition and discrimination mediated by the tufted cells, and propose that OB target areas, other than the piriform cortex, such as AON and olfactory striatum, are well-positioned to compute odor identity.


The Speculum spiritualium is a compilation entirely in Latin except for a couple of pages in English from Richard Rolle's Form of Living and two English poems ("Ihesu that art heven kyng" and "Mary thou were greet with loveli cheere"). (1) In print the work occupies 208 leaves of large quarto format in double columns of small textura type measuring 70 millimeters for twenty lines, with many abbreviations; that is, at least 315,000 words divided into seven parts, the first six each subdivided into a varying number of chapters, the seventh divided only by subheadings or two-line initial lombard letters, besides larger running titles of the subject matter throughout on each page. (2) In its manuscript and printed forms its contents have had quite a lot of attention from several scholars over the last half century, to whom I am indebted for much of my information: in particular, Miss Joy Russell-Smith, Dr. Benedict Hackett, Dr. John Clark, Dr. Malcolm Moyes, Dr. Neil Beckett and Dr. Eddie Jones, who has published the fullest account of the work; (3) yet it may be said fairly that their explorations have not exhausted discovery of its sources or adaptations, so I am starting with a summary of findings by this virtual network. The index of the catalogue of the brethren's library of Syon Abbey made by Thomas Betson about 1504, but based on an earlier one, attributes the Speculum spiritualium to "Adam monachus Cartusiensis," and the table of contents in one of the library's manuscripts attributes it to Henry, monk of the Charterhouse of Sheen, which, like Syon, was founded by Henry V in 1415. (4) Adam cannot have been the twelfth-century Carthusian of Witham Priory, previously a Premonstratensian of Dryburgh, but the fact that he is cited by name in the text and marginal notes could have been misinterpreted. (5) Several other authors and works quoted or cited in the text of the Speculum date from the fourteenth century, and in particular, Walter Hilton is titled "venerabilis" repeatedly in all copies, which must date from after his death in 1396. There were three English Carthusians named Adam in the period: a prior of Hinton who died in 1400 or 1401; another monk of Hinton, Adam Cantwell, who died in 1419 or 1420; and Adam Horsley, monk of Beauvale, who died in 1424 or 1425 and was the former Royal Exchequer officer to whom Hilton had addressed his Epistola aurea on the contemplative vocation, which is in fact quoted in the Speculum. (6) The compiler of the contents list may have been Henry Rickmansworth, monk of Sheen, who died in 1430 or 1431. (7) Scholars are aware of the movements of men and books within the Carthusian order, nationally and internationally, and also of communications between Sheen and Syon across the Thames. What I have to say at first is already published, but I want to go on to consider the evidence of distribution of the work over a century or more since its composition. In the prologue of the Speculum, the compiler says he conceals his name for various reasons, which are unstated. The text, he says, was extracted from many volumes, treatises, and letters with great labor and much study, not only for his own use and solace but also for others plain and simple like himself, following a contemplative life, who on account of poverty lack sufficient books. But it also contains many useful things for people given to an active life, especially in the first, second, third, and seventh parts. And if the book seems too long to copy in full, at least selected chapters and parts may be transcribed to readers' good. Part I, in forty-two chapters, is on pride and the other deadly sins; part II, in sixteen chapters, is on temptations, of which the last is on discretion in food, drink, and sleep, from Richard Hampole in English, because, as is said in the manuscripts but not the printed edition, his teaching sounds better in its original language than translated into Latin. (8) Part III, in twenty-seven chapters, is on penitence and its modes of performance; part IV, in thirty-six chapters, is on formal religious life; part V, in twenty-five chapters, is on the art of dying, mortification, reading, prayer, and meditation; part VI, in twenty-eight chapters, is on stages from active to contemplative life. …


Our limited knowledge of the expected life spans of granulocytes and T cells during health and disease hampers our understanding of the functioning of the immune system. Using stable isotope labeling we estimated the average life spans of human circulating granulocytes to be 6 days. This estimate was 10-fold higher than suggested in previous reports, supporting the emerging concept that neutrophils participate in complex long-term processes, such as immune regulation and recirculation. Since life span estimates of kinetically heterogeneous cell populations is labeling-time dependent, a new modeling strategy was introduced to fit average life spans independent of the labeling period. Deuterium labeling in human adults revealed a low daily production of naive T cells. Whereas naive T cells lived on average 6.0 (naive CD4+) and 9.4 years (naive CD8+), the few naive T cells that were recently produced had an even longer life expectancy. These data are incompatible with the existence of a substantial short-lived population of recent thymic emigrants in human adults. In contrast, a considerable thymic output was observed in mice. In addition, thymic emigrants lived as long as the average murine naive T cell in the periphery (48 and 83 days for naive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, respectively), suggesting that the murine naive T-cell pool is kinetically homogeneous, which is incompatible with the co-existence of short-lived thymic emigrants and long-lived truly naive T cells. The different life expectancy of recently produced naive T cells in adult mice and men suggests different homeostatic mechanisms of naive T cells in the two species. Indeed, thymectomy experiments and TREC analyses in ageing mice revealed that almost all murine naive T cells represent thymic emigrants, whereas TREC analysis in ageing humans strongly suggests that the majority of newly produced human naive T cells is derived from peripheral proliferation. Since the mechanism of naive T-cell maintenance is fundamentally different in mice and men, this will influence the diversity of the TCR repertoire of the species. The difference in naive T-cell dynamics suggests that laboratory mice, which are worldwide used as a model to study T-cell dynamics in men, are not a good model to study naive T-cell homeostasis in humans. Chronic immune activation in HIV-1 infection plays an important role in CD4+ T-cell depletion. Using CD70Tg mice, we showed that even in the context of substantial thymic output, like in young children, chronic immune activation can lead to severe naive T-cell depletion. In human adults with a much lower thymic output, even moderately enhanced priming rates may lead to severe T-cell depletion. Collectively, these data shed a new light on the dynamics of granulocytes and T cells and point to a serious limitation regarding extrapolation of insights from mouse to man and vice versa.


Negative Correlation Learning (NCL) [CHECK END OF SENTENCE], [CHECK END OF SENTENCE] is a neural network ensemble learning algorithm which introduces a correlation penalty term to the cost function of each individual network so that each neural network minimizes its mean-square-error (MSE) together with the correlation. This paper describes NCL in detail and observes that the NCL corresponds to training the entire ensemble as a single learning machine that only minimizes the MSE without regularization. This insight explains that NCL is prone to overfitting the noise in the training set. The paper analyzes this problem and proposes the multiobjective regularized negative correlation learning (MRNCL) algorithm which incorporates an additional regularization term for the ensemble and uses the evolutionary multiobjective algorithm to design ensembles. In MRNCL, we define the crossover and mutation operators and adopt nondominated sorting algorithm with fitness sharing and rank-based fitness assignment. The experiments on synthetic data as well as real-world data sets demonstrate that MRNCL achieves better performance than NCL, especially when the noise level is nontrivial in the data set. In the experimental discussion, we give three reasons why our algorithm outperforms others.


Abstract How transnational are European Parliament (EP) campaigns? Building on research on the European public sphere and the politicisation of the EU, this study investigates to what extent the 2019 EP campaign was transnational and which factors were associated with 'going transnational'. It conceptualises Twitter linkages of EP candidates as constitutive elements of a transnational campaign arena distinguishing interactions with EP candidates from other countries (horizontal transnationalisation) and interactions with the supranational European party families and lead candidates (vertical transnationalisation). The analysis of tweets sent by EP candidates from all 28 member states reveals that most linkages remain national. Despite this evidence for the second-order logic, there are still relevant variations contingent on EU positions of parties, the adoption of the Spitzenkandidaten system and socialisation in the EP. The findings have implications for debates on the European public sphere and institutional reform proposals such as transnational party lists that might mitigate the EU's democratic deficit.


Abstract The present article analyses the mediatization of the brand and celebrity Zlatan Ibrahimović using the reception and marketing of the footballer's life story and autobiography as its main case. It is shown that the construction of a myth such as Ibrahimović transcends the materiality of the book as well as geographical, vernacular and media boundaries, as it is constituted as content in a digital network that produces signification. This 'Zlatan content' is framed by national Swedish values and a traditional Western myth of individual masculine excellence. It is also marked by emotions, class and race, telling a tale about the marginalized emotive immigrant becoming both a national icon and part of an imaginary Western ghetto experience and global literary canon formation. It is argued that the performance of excitable speech acts is crucial in the mediatization and branding of mass market literature and celebrities such as Ibrahimović.


WHILE SCIENTISTS may debate the appropriate use of hallucinogens, history records our unceasing urge to cope with dreary reality or dread with the aid of magic, drugs, drama, festival rites, and (with biological regularity) through dreams. The need to transcend limits also finds a voice in utopian ideologies-be they of the inner world, of this, or the next; the promise of omnipotent mastery is always either implicit or readily inferred. Thus whether it is the proletarian masses, or youth mesmerized by mellow yellow banana, or the princes of the land of genital primacy, or the meek-each is promised the inheritance of what probably will be a rather crowded earth. Given the prevalence of these motives it is not surprising that drugs play a role not only in the behavior of individuals but also in social and ideological processes. With the appropriate motives and occasion


lithological distribution and magnetic susceptibility of the clasts. The results show clear difference in the till samples from the different sites. This thesis presents a novel three dimensional (3D) image-analysis method for characterizing the physical characteristics of coarse particles in the field, and introduces new methodology for the total analysis of glacial till samples. The novel image analysis method, called the GID method, is capable of determining the size, shape and surface texture of each individual clast analysed. Images of particles are taken in the field and analysis is done in the laboratory. Therefore the GID method makes it feasible to analyse statistically representative large sample in short period; for poorly sorted sediments, such as till, one-tonne is required if the analysis includes cobble size. The capability of the GID method was demonstrated by studying coarse clasts (20-200 mm) from till. There is excellent agreement in the results of the size distribution obtained from the GID method and sieve analysis. The GID method results for size and shape parameters show high and very high repeatability. The particle angularity in the GID method has not been measured to acceptable level; the repeatability test shows some variability. The new methodology for total analysis of till applied the GID method at four different locations in Sweden. The total analysis included 3D size and shape distribution of coarse particles coupled to electrical resistivity, lithological distribution and magnetic susceptibility of the clasts. The results show clear difference in the till samples from the different sites.


This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the behavior of plain reinforced concrete and Normal strength steel fiber reinforced concrete panels (SFRC) subjected to explosive loading. The experiment were performed by the Blast Research Unit Faculty of Engineering, University Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia A total of 8 reinforced concrete panels of 600mm x 600mm x 100mm were tested. The steel fiber reinforced concrete panels incorporated three different volume fraction, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% of hooked end steel fibers. The panels were subjected to explosive loading generated by the detonation of 1kg of explosive charge located at a 0.6m standoff. This investigation indicates that the steel fiber reinforced concrete panel containing of 1.5% volume fraction gave the best performance under explosive loading.


Although diabetes and schizophrenia are common companions, it is unclear how this association should influence our practice. What do we need to know about diabetes, and what are the key intervention points for psychiatrists? This article is informed by my experience monitoring >1,000 patients with schizophrenia in a large urban mental health facility using an electronic metabolic monitoring system and consulting on hundreds of individuals with comorbid schizophrenia and diabetes in a mental health metabolic clinic. A significant link The association between schizophrenia and diabetes has been recognized for more than a century. (1) The prevalence of diabetes is increased 2- to 3-fold in patients with schizophrenia. (2) (3) This relationship is specific to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); type 1 diabetes mellitus, an autoimmune disease, is less common in patients with schizophrenia. (4) Factors that contribute to comorbidity between schizophrenia and T2DM include: * illness susceptibility: the mechanisms remain unclear but include the thrifty phenotype hypothesis, (5) autonomic hyperactivity, (6) and potential cellular and genetic links (7), (8) * lifestyle: diet, physical inactivity, and cigarette smoking (9-12) * antipsychotic use (13) * social health determinants, such as income, housing, and food insecurity. (14) The relative contribution of factors underlying this association is unknown; it is likely that they all contribute. Nevertheless, based on information from our facility's metabolic monitoring database, depending on demographic variables, such as ethnicity and cigarette smoking, 20% to 30% of patients with schizophrenia will develop diabetes or prediabetes during the course of psychiatric treatment. When evaluating a patient's risk for a cardiac event, we consider having a diabetes diagnosis equivalent to having had a myocardial infarction. (15) Likely, the high prevalence of T2DM among schizophrenia patients and challenges in managing diabetes and prediabetes underlies these patients' reduced life expectancy. (16) Self-care, a cornerstone of diabetes management, is challenging for patients with schizophrenia because of deficits in executive functioning, working memory, and motivation, coupled with negative symptoms and social and economic disadvantages that often accompany schizophrenia. How diabetes impacts practice What psychiatrists need to know. Insulin resistance--reduced biologic effectiveness of insulin--is the precursor of T2DM. Insulin is required to move glucose from the blood into cells. Weight gain, particularly abdominal adiposity, is the principal driver of insulin resistance. The body responds by producing more insulin (hyperinsuanemia) to maintain glucose homeostasis. Hyperinsulinemia underlies metabolic syndrome, an important risk marker for developing T2DM. Diabetes usually develops after many years when the pancreas fails to compensate for insulin resistance. In most cases the development of diabetes in patients with schizophrenia follows this course. Weight gain, a consequence of lifestyle factors as well as antipsychotics and other psychotropics that promote obesity, leads to progressive insulin resistance. Consequently, metabolic syndrome is twice as prevalent among patients with schizophrenia compared with matched controls. (17), (18) Occasionally patients develop T2DM within a few weeks or months of starting antipsychotic treatment--usually with clozapine or olanzapine--before they gain weight, which suggests a second mechanism may be involved. Animal studies have documented rapid development of insulin resistance after a single subcutaneous injection of antipsychotics that have high metabolic liability, possibly through a direct effect on insulin signaling.19 This phenomenon has been difficult to demonstrate in humans. (20) Psychiatrists need to know how to diagnose diabetes (Table 1) (21-23) and the signs and symptoms of diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis (Table 2). …


ABSTRACT The identifiable victim effect refers to people's greater willingness to share resources with identified targets (about whom they have some identifying information) than to share with unidentified or statistical targets. Previous research examining adults' behavior suggests that identifiable targets arouse in the perceiver an intense emotional reaction that, in turn, increases sharing especially when the target is perceived as needy. In the current research, we examine whether the spontaneous reaction toward an identifiable, needy target and the increase in sharing with such a target appears in young children's sharing behavior and when in early childhood it develops. The results suggest that adding identifying information about a needy recipient increases sharing only in older children (above the age of 5.5) and in children who have acquired higher levels of theory of mind (independent of age). Mediation-moderation analysis suggests that theory of mind mediates the relation between age and sharing mainly when a specific, needy recipient is presented. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


In 1982, the ailment 'pinkeye'. an infectious bovine keratonconjunctivitis (IBK), was a major economic problem in raising cattle. Those cattle afflicted were reported to be 36 to 40 lbs lighter than not afflicted at weaning time. Treatment of this disease was expensive and labor intensive. The bactera, Moraxella bovis, is the culprit most often. Vaccines up to this time had proven ineffective. Recovery from this did produce a good level of immunity, which suggested that other organism or confounding variables were at work in the immune process(es). When various organisms or factors involved in the causing this disease are identified, prospects for the likelihood of a creation of an effective immune response against IBK would be increased.Various research at the North Dakota State University in 1980, 1981 and 1983 conducted on this are presented. The article concludes that then current IBK research was ineffectual in the procurement of a cure for this condition. More research was needed to isolate the factors for naturally occurring immunity in once infected cattle in order to find a cure.


Fine roots and rhizomorphs have important implications for the global carbon balance, but the processes underlying these carbon sinks are not well understood. In this study, we coupled continuous minirhizotron observations with an array of solid‐state CO2 sensors. We calculated soil respiration using a gradient flux method. Using a Kaplan‐Maier survival analysis, we determined a median longevity of 347 d for fine roots and of 400 d for rhizomorphs. Radiocarbon (14C) analysis suggested an age of 7 yr for fine roots <1 mm and 17 yr for roots of 1 mm in diameter. We found rapid changes in root length (maximum of 38.1 cm m−2 d−1) and rhizomorph length (maximum of 105.4 cm m−2 d−1) during sampling of four consecutive days. Changes in rhizomorph length were more variable than root length, and rhizomorphs were negatively correlated with daily changes in soil moisture. The variation in root length may be associated to prior environmental conditions. Fine root length was correlated with daily CO2 production, and variation in daily fine root length could contribute up to 4680 g C ha−1 d−1 We observed a clockwise diurnal hysteresis effect in soil respiration with soil temperature that changed in amplitude and shape along the year. Our results show the importance of shorter intervals of minirhizotron measurements to understand rapid fine roots and rhizomorphs variation. Furthermore, continuous minirhizotron measurements should be couple with continuous measurements of multiple sensor arrays to explain biophysical factors that regulate belowground carbon dynamics.


Character-level Neural Machine Translation (NMT) models have recently achieved impressive results on many language pairs. They mainly do well for Indo-European language pairs, where the languages share the same writing system. However, for translating between Chinese and English, the gap between the two different writing systems poses a major challenge because of a lack of systematic correspondence between the individual linguistic units. In this paper, we enable character-level NMT for Chinese, by breaking down Chinese characters into linguistic units similar to that of Indo-European languages. We use the Wubi encoding scheme, which preserves the original shape and semantic information of the characters, while also being reversible. We show promising results from training Wubi-based models on the character- and subword-level with recurrent as well as convolutional models.


How is Saddam Hussein like Tony Blair? Or Kenneth Lay like Lou Gerstner? Answer: They are, or were, leaders. Many would argue that tyrants, corrupt CEOs, and other abusers of power and authority are not leaders at all--at least not as the word is currently used. But, according to Barbara Kellerman, this assumption is dangerously naive. A provocative departure from conventional thinking, Bad Leadership compels us to see leadership in its entirety. Kellerman argues that the dark side of leadership--from rigidity and callousness to corruption and cruelty--is not an aberration. Rather, bad leadership is as ubiquitous as it is insidious--and so must be more carefully examined and better understood. Drawing on high-profile, contemporary examples--from Mary Meeker to David Koresh, Bill Clinton to Radovan Karadzic, Al Dunlap to Leona Helmsley--Kellerman explores seven primary types of bad leadership and dissects why and how leaders cross the line from good to bad. The book also illuminates the critical role of followers, revealing how they collaborate with, and sometimes even cause, bad leadership. Daring and counterintuitive, Bad Leadership makes clear that we need to face the dark side to become better leaders and followers ourselves. Barbara Kellerman is research director of the Center for Public Leadership and a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.


The emergence of complex patterns of organization close to the Cambrian boundary is known to have happened over a (geologically) short period of time. It involved the rapid diversification of body plans and stands as one of the major transitions in evolution. How it took place is a controversial issue. Here we explore this problem by considering a simple model of pattern formation in multicellular organisms. By modeling gene network-based morphogenesis and its evolution through adaptive walks, we explore the question of how combinatorial explosions might have been actually involved in the Cambrian event. Here we show that a small amount of genetic complexity including both gene regulation and cell-cell signaling allows one to generate an extraordinary repertoire of stable spatial patterns of gene expression compatible with observed anteroposterior patterns in early development of metazoans. The consequences for the understanding of the tempo and mode of the Cambrian event are outlined.


Computational audition has always been a subject of multiple theories. Unfortunately very few place audition in the grander scheme of perception, and even fewer facilitate formal and robust definitions as well as efficient implementations. In our work we set forth to address these issues.
We present mathematical principles that unify the objectives of lower level listening functions, in an attempt to formulate a global and plausible theory of computational audition. Using tools to perform redundancy reduction, and adhering to theories of its incorporation in a perceptual framework, we pursue results that support our approach. Our experiments focus on three major auditory functions, preprocessing, grouping and scene analysis. For auditory preprocessing, we prove that it is possible to evolve cochlear-like filters by adaptation to natural sounds. Following that and using the same principles as in preprocessing, we present a treatment that collapses the heuristic set of the gestalt auditory grouping rules, down to one efficient and formal rule. We successfully apply the same elements once again to form an auditory scene analysis foundation, capable of detection, autonomous feature extraction, and separation of sources in real-world complex scenes.
Our treatment was designed in such a manner so as to be independent of parameter estimations and data representations specific to the auditory domain. Some of our experiments have been replicated in other domains of perception, providing equally satisfying results, and a potential for defining global ground rules for computational perception, even outside the realm of our five senses. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)


Cancer Survival in Australia 1992-1997 is the first national analysis of how cancer survival varies by socioeconomic status and geographic region. It presents an analysis of five-year relative survival proportions by geographic category and socioeconomic status for persons diagnosed with cancer during the years 1992-1997.This analysis is presented by age and sex for all cancers (Excluding non-melanocytic skin cancers) combined and for the following National Health Priority Area cancers - colorectal cancer, cancer of the lung, melanoma, cancer of the breast (females only), cancer of the cervix, cancer of the prostate, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.This report is the third in a series of three reports on relative survival after being diagnosed with cancer. It is an important reference for all those interested in the health of Australians.


The main aim of
this paper is to demonstrate how social constructionism can be used make
 sense of studies in the Q methodological tradition. In order to
maximize the effectiveness of this demonstration, the paper seeks to
clarify the term 'social constructionism' and to correct some avoidable
misunderstandings. Social constructionism is presented as a realist
ontology, the difference between constructionism and constructivism is
discussed, and the new term 'human selectionism' is introduced. In the
final section, a physical analogy is then employed to demonstrate the
principles of human selection at work and in order to illustrate one
possible interpretation of the Q methodological procedure. The tendency
for distinct 'groupings-of-individuals' (and hence distinct factors) to
be discernible in multi-participant Q methodological data is also
discussed.


For the past two decades, executives have struggled to develop effective ways of sharing what their organizations know. Organizational leaders are now seeking ways to share knowledge with both internal and external stakeholders driven by concerns such as downsizing, the impending retirement of baby boomers, terrorism, and a host of other organizational challenges. Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks, latest empirical research findings, and practitioners best practices in the area. The book is multidisciplinary in nature and considers a wide range of topics, each of which is related to social knowledge. It is written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of the strategic role of social knowledge in business, government, or non-profit sectors.


The circadian clock anticipates daily environmental changes and optimizes timing of physiological events. Circadian systems are present in most living organisms. In Arabidopsis, circadian components are arranged in positive/negative regulatory feed-back loops. The core loop is arranged by the morning transcription factors LHY and CCA1, and the evening pseudo-response regulator TOC1. The morning loop reciprocally connects LHY and CCA1 to the TOC1-sequence-related components PRR9 and PRR7. Other genes, when mutated, display a clock phenotype, but not all of such genes have been placed into the clock model. For instance, three evening genes, ELF3, ELF4, and LUX, have been found to be essential for circadian function. Clock- and light-signaling networks are tightly interconnected. Light input to the clock is mediated by photoreceptors, such as the phytochromes. ELF3 and ELF4 play a pivotal role in the generation of circadian rhythms and in the integration of light signal to the clock mechanism. Both encoded proteins are reported to be located in the nucleus, and both the elf3 and the elf4 mutants display a similarly arrested clock.
In this thesis, ELF3 was found to be genetically downstream of ELF4 within the same clock signaling pathway required to sustain circadian rhythms. Moreover, I found that ELF3 and ELF4 proteins physically interact. This interaction correlated with an increase of ELF3 nuclear localization. These observations are consistent with a role of ELF4 as an effector that promotes ELF3 activity to lengthen circadian periodicity. A functional complementation approach identified three functional modules in the ELF3 encoded protein. The N-terminus and middle domains mediate interaction with phyB and ELF4, respectively. The C-terminus domain was found to be required for ELF3 nuclear localization. Thus, ELF3 is a multifunctional protein that interacts with both light-signaling and clock components.
The molecular function of ELF3 had previously remained elusive. PRR9 expression was found to be down-regulated in ELF3 and ELF4 over-expressors. Interestingly, I found that ELF3 physically associated with the same conserved region in the PRR9 promoter as the transcription factor LUX. I found that LUX was genetically downstream of ELF4, and that LUX required ELF3. Taken together, I proposed that ELF3, ELF4, and LUX are part of an evening-clock complex required to repress PRR9 expression, and to sustain circadian oscillations.
ELF3 has been reported to be crucial to buffer light input to the oscillator. Photoreceptors and ELF3 play an opposite role in light-mediated acceleration of circadian periodicity, where photoreceptors shortens, and ELF3 lengthens, circadian period under constant light. Interestingly, I found that the N-terminus of ELF3 was not essential for ELF3 circadian function, but that mediated the physical interaction of ELF3 to phyB. An elf3 complementation line deleted for its N-terminus displayed hyposensitivity to the period-shortening effect induced by constant-red light. Therefore, I hypothesized that phyB interaction to the N-terminus of ELF3 mediates light-repression of ELF3 action in circadian-periodicity.
In chapter 4, further characterization of the weak allele elf3-12 supported the role of ELF3 as a decelerator of circadian periodicity. The elf3-12 mutation encodes an amino-acid replacement in a conserved box within the ELF4-binding domain. The elf3 12 coding region led to robust expression of ELF3-12 protein, and ELF3-12 retained the capacity to bind both ELF4 and phyB. elf3-12 displayed light-dependent short-period phenotype that was enhanced by phytochrome over-expression. Moreover, elf3-12 displayed hypersensitive to red-light-resetting pulses. Thus, I found that elf3-12 is attenuated in its function to repress light input to the clock and/or and increased phy-mediated repression of ELF3 function. elf3-12 was the first described elf3 weak allele. My characterization of a collection of elf3 TILLING alleles led to the identification of novel short- and long-period alleles that I predict will expand current understanding of the role of ELF3 as an integrator of light signals and as a core-clock component.
Taken together, my thesis has placed ELF3 within the circadian mechanism. ELF3, ELF4, and LUX are part of an evening-repressor complex required to sustain circadian function. The genetic interaction of these three genes is consistent with a hierarchy of complex assembly. In this, I propose that ELF4 works as an effector protein that activates ELF3, possibly by increasing the ELF3 nuclear pool. Then, the association of both ELF3 and LUX to the PRR9 promoter is required for transcriptional repression of PRR9. Additionally, I propose that ELF3 function in circadian periodicity is modulated by its interaction partners by a competition between a positive effect of ELF4 and a light-mediated-negative effect of phyB. This is consistent with ELF3 being a multifunctional protein that integrates light signals as a core-oscillator component.


The tree stem volume models of Norway spruce, Scots pine and silver and downy birch currently used in Finland are based on data collected during 1968–1972. These models include four different formulations of a volume model, with three different combinations of independent variables: 1) diameter at height of 1.3 m above ground (dbh), 2) dbh and tree height (h) and 3) dbh, h and upper diameter at height of 6 m (d6). In recent National Forest Inventories of Finland, a difference in the mean volume prediction between the models with and without the upper diameter as predictor has been observed. To analyze the causes of this difference, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) was used to acquire a large dataset in Finland during 2017–2018. Field-measured predictors and volumes predicted using spline functions fitted to the TLS data were used to re-calibrate the current volume models. The trunk form is different in these two datasets. The form height is larger in the new data for all diameter classes, which indicates that the tree trunks are more slender than they used to be. One probable reason for this change is the increase in stand densities, which is at least partly due to changed forest management. In models with both dbh and h as predictors, the volume is smaller a given h class in the data new data than in the old data, and vice versa for the diameter classes. The differences between the old and new models were largest with pine and smallest with birch.