The paper presents a research project by the author on the evolution of plenary debates about European integration within the parliaments of four EU Member States (Austria, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom). Addressing the previously under-explored communicative function of parliaments in the context of EU governance, the project investigates the links between different types of argumentative justification, and patterns of polarization between parliamentary speakers and parties. In theoretical terms, a discourse theoretical approach that distinguishes pragmatic, ethical, and moral types of justification is combined with a theoretical model of differential Europeanization. Building on this model, the approach taken here relates discourse-, actor-related and institutional elements to theorize generalizable links between different types of argumentative justification and political polarization across different cases. Moreover, the model is used to explain comparative variation in the intensity of different kinds of contention on European governance between different topics and countries. In its empirical part, the paper presents some insights from the empirical data gained through the computer-based manual coding of plenary debates between 2005 and 2012. Citing examples from debates about the revision of the EU Treaties and the resolution of the European debt crisis, the paper concludes that the communicative function of national parliaments in relation to the EU is generally a more informative source on political contention about European integration than previously recognized in existing research. Moreover, the findings confirm the existence of links between the argumentative and contestation dimensions, as demonstrated through a distinction between problem-solving, directional and legitimacy debates that each evolve through characteristic patterns of party political polarization.


Since World War II, refugee organizations have faced a recurrent challenge: the manipulation of refugees by warring parties to further their own aims. Some armies in civil wars, facing military defeat, use refugees as assets to establish the international legitimacy of their cause, treat refugee camps as sanctuaries and recruitment pools, and limit access to refugees to ensure that they will not repatriate. Focusing on the geopolitical security environment surrounding militarized camps and the response of humanitarian agencies, the contributors to this volume examine the ways armed groups manipulate refugees and how and why international actors assist their manipulation. They then offer suggestions for reducing the ability of such groups to use the suffering of refugees to their own advantage. The contributors examine three cases: Cambodian refugees along the Thai border in the 1970s and 1980s, Afghan refugees in Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s, and Rwandan refugees in Eastern Zaire from 1994-96. They argue that refugee manipulation occurs because warring parties gain resources in their fight for power and other actors, often the host government and regional and major powers encourage and support it. Manipulation is allowed to occur because the international refugee regime and major states have not identified a consistent approach to stopping it. In the post-Cold War era the United Nations and its members have chosen to treat the issue as a humanitarian problem instead of a security problem. As the contributors make clear, however, manipulation of refugees has important ramifications for international security, turning some civil wars into larger protracted regional wars. They argue that the geopolitics of refugee manipulation leads to sanguine conclusions about stopping it. Solutions must change the moral, political, and strategic calculations of states that are implicated in the manipulation. As long as the problem is not deemed a security threat, refugee organizations must choose between assistance that prolongs war or walking away from millions who deserve help. Contributors include Howard Adelman (York University), Frederic Grare (Centre des Sciences Humaines, New Delhi), Margaret McGuinness (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison), Stephen John Stedman (Stanford University), Fred Tanner (Geneva Centre for Security Policy), and Daniel Unger (Northern Illinois University).


The active mound of the Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse (TAG) hydrothermal system at the Mid-Atlantic ridge at 26°N was drilled during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 158. One of the most important findings of the drilling is the discovery of an anhydrite-rich zone beneath the active mound. Stable isotope ratios of anhydrite and sulfide minerals are measured to investigate the formation conditions and mechanisms of the active mound and the anhydrite-rich zone. δ 34 S values of sulfide minerals are heavier than those of other sediment-starved ridge hydrothermal systems. The heavy sulfide sulfur may be derived from the anhydrite in the reaction zone, which was precipitated in the waning stage of the former high-temperature activity of this system. Anhydrite δ 18 O and δ 34 S are out of equilibrium with the hydrothermal fluid. Disequilibrium of the oxygen-isotope exchange reaction suggests a very short residence time of aqueous sulfate in a high-temperature environment. Anhydrite precipitation seems to have occurred instantaneously at the mixing interface where Ca 2+ was supplied from the hydrothermal solution and SO 2- 4 from the seawater. Anhydrite 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values suggest the preheating of seawater sulfate before it enters the anhydrite formation zone. The chemical behavior of seawater upon heating and interaction with basalt indicate that the preheating of seawater takes place at the environment where basalt is absent. Seawater must invade from the surface of the mound into the anhydrite-rich zone.


We report the first observation of interference effects in the light scattered from two trapped atoms. The visibility of the fringes can be explained in the framework of Bragg scattering by a harmonic crystal and simple ``which path'' considerations of the scattered photons. If the light scattered by the atoms is detected in a polarization-sensitive way, then it is possible to selectively demonstrate either the particle nature or the wave nature of the scattered light.


Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ("fMRI") technology produces a fourdimensional map of brain activity, such as perception, memory, emotion, and movement. fMRI scans track the flow of blood to the various regions of the brain in real time and reveal the subject's response to particular stimulus. For example, an fMRI scan might reveal blood flow to a subject's memory center in response to a picture of the house in which she was raised. On the one hand, this technology seems to produce a model of a physical attribute and offer insight into the workings of the human brain. On the other, fMRI scans seem to read our minds and disclose our thoughts. The full range of applications of fMRI technology is just emerging, but proponents have already sought its admission in court as a type of lie detector or credibility builder. If fMRI scans are incorporated into the government's investigatory process, constitutional safeguards should be in place to protect the fundamental right of privacy and an individual's freedom to decide whether to assist the state. This Note proposes that the results of fMRI scans are testimonial evidence: first, because the scans reveal the subject's knowledge or beliefs, and second, because this classification ensures that fMRI scan results are afforded the protection of the Fifth Amendment. If fMRI scans are privileged under the Fifth Amendment, the government cannot compel an individual to submit to the scan and reveal the contents of her mind.


This book is the "Hello, World" tutorial for building products, technologies, and teams in a startup environment. It's based on the experiences of the author, Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman, as well as interviews with programmers from some of the most successful startups of the last decade, including Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, Stripe, Instagram, AdMob, Pinterest, and many others. Hello, Startup is a practical, how-to guide that consists of three parts: Products, Technologies, and Teams. Although at its core, this is a book for programmers, by programmers, only Part II (Technologies) is significantly technical, while the rest should be accessible to technical and non-technical audiences alike. If you're at all interested in startups-whether you're a programmer at the beginning of your career, a seasoned developer bored with large company politics, or a manager looking to motivate your engineers-this book is for you.


Perovskite solar cells have attained incredible power conversion efficiencies but it is still unclear whether photogenerated carriers are free or excitonic in nature. Originally, it is believed that they are exciton‐based devices, similar to organic or dye‐sensitized solar cells. However, the emergence of efficient planar devices as well as measurements of exciton binding energy in the range of 10–100 meV suggest that they may be free carrier‐based. In this work, the free carrier model is confirmed by building graphene/perovskite Schottky barrier solar cells, analogous to conventional metal/semiconductor Schottky barrier solar cells. To address the challenges of building such devices, solution‐processing techniques are extensively investigated for depositing perovskite films directly onto graphene in order to obtain an intimate contact between the graphene and perovskite. Interestingly, these graphene/perovskite Schottky barrier devices have reasonably good efficiency—up to 10.6%—and short circuit current densities only slightly lower than control devices. Furthermore, devices with neither a hole transport layer nor an electron transport layers have power conversion efficiencies of up to 6%. These results provide convincing evidence supporting the free carrier model for methylammonium lead iodide perovskites and offer insights on potential alternative designs for perovskite solar cells.


Cost and schedule deviation from the estimated baseline are common in construction projects and have a negative effect on construction activity, which is a substantial portion of the GDP in most countries. Previous research studies examined the causes of deviation in several countries including some Gulf Council Countries (GCC) like Kuwait and the UAE, but none were done on the considerable Qatari market, that is set to boom further with the upcoming preparations for hosting Qatar FIFA 2020 World Cup. Therefore, this study identified and ranked, using the relative importance index (RII) method, the significant factors influencing cost and schedule deviation in Qatari residential compound projects. A detailed questionnaire was developed on a Likert scale addressing these factors and was used to solicit the viewpoints of Grade A contractors. The collected project sample had a total capital investment of approximately $1.25 billion and the projects were executed within a five year period (2000-2005). The study indicated that over 85% of the projects experienced cost and/or schedule deviation. Most importantly, the study revealed that most contractors viewed material delays as the most prominent issue influencing construction projects predictability in Qatar. Other top ten factors included design changes, labour shortages, deficient estimates and cash flow planning.


We propose an estimation method that circumvents the path dependence problem existing in Change-Point (CP) and Markov Switching (MS) ARMA models. Our model embeds a sticky infinite hidden Markov-switching structure (sticky IHMM), which makes possible a self-determination of the number of regimes as well as of the specification : CP or MS. Furthermore, CP and MS frameworks usually assume that all the model parameters vary from one regime to another. We relax this restrictive assumption. As illustrated by simulations on moderate samples (300 observations), the sticky IHMM-ARMA algorithm detects which model parameters change over time. Applications to the U.S. GDP growth and the DJIA realized volatility highlight the relevance of estimating different structural breaks for the mean and variance parameters.


Improved jet energy scale corrections, based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse-femtobarns collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, are presented. The corrections as a function of pseudorapidity eta and transverse momentum pT are extracted from data and simulated events combining several channels and methods. They account successively for the effects of pileup, uniformity of the detector response, and residual data-simulation jet energy scale differences. Further corrections, depending on the jet flavor and distance parameter (jet size) R, are also presented. The jet energy resolution is measured in data and simulated events and is studied as a function of pileup, jet size, and jet flavor. Typical jet energy resolutions at the central rapidities are 15-20% at 30 GeV, about 10% at 100 GeV, and 5% at 1 TeV. The studies exploit events with dijet topology, as well as photon+jet, Z+jet and multijet events. Several new techniques are used to account for the various sources of jet energy scale corrections, and a full set of uncertainties, and their correlations, are provided. The final uncertainties on the jet energy scale are below 3% across the phase space considered by most analyses (pT>30 GeV and abs(eta)<5.0). In the barrel region (abs(eta)<1.3) an uncertainty below 1% for pT>30 GeV is reached, when excluding the jet flavor uncertainties, which are provided separately for different jet flavors. A new benchmark for jet energy scale determination at hadron colliders is achieved with 0.32% uncertainty for jets with pT of the order of 165-330 GeV, and abs(eta)<0.8.


Authoritative and lavishly illustrated, this book is a valuable compendium of surgical techniques for the most complex oncologic problems in the head and neck patient. It distills the author's decades of experience in the surgical management of cases in which the excision of complex lesions is difficult and reconstruction is problematic. In the first half of the book, each chapter addresses cancer in a different region of the head and neck. Each chapter provides discussion of etiology, pathology, pathophysiology, and surgical anatomy, providing the necessary background for diagnostic evaluation, surgical treatment as well as nonsurgical treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation. Additional chapters cover such important topics as care for the pediatric patient, radiotherapy, restoration secondary to tumor ablation, and speech, voice, and swallowing implications following ablative procedures. Features: * Detailed descriptions that guide the clinician through each surgical procedure * Comprehensive discussion of management strategies that provides clinicians with a solid understanding of the available treatments and the possibilities and limitations of each * Nearly 1,000 high-quality illustrations, photographs, and radiographic images that demonstrate pathologic and surgical concepts in precise detail * Coverage of the latest techniques in skull base surgery and laryngeal surgery * Valuable discussion of nursing care, nutrition, and speech therapy An essential resource for optimizing the care of patients with advanced cancer, this book is ideal for clinicians and residents in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oncology, and general surgery.


Online learning systems that provide actionable and personalized guidance can help learners make better decisions during learning. Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) extensions and deep learning based approaches have demonstrated improved mastery prediction accuracy compared to the basic BKT model; however, neither set of models provides actionable guidance on learning activities beyond mastery prediction. We propose a novel framework for personalized knowledge tracing with attention mechanism. Our proposed framework incorporates auxiliary learner attributes into knowledge tracing and interprets mastery prediction with the learning attributes. The proposed approach can also provide personalized next best learning activity recommendations. We demonstrate that the accuracy of the proposed approach in mastery prediction is slightly higher compared to deep learning based approaches and that the proposed approach can provide personalized next best learning activity recommendation.


Integrated beach management is an application of the integrated coastal management framework in a local scale. However, not all beaches must be managed in the same way. Thus, the classification of beaches becomes a key tool for management. On the other hand, integrated tools for beach management are few, most of them being technical and focused on one discipline; a holistic approach is needed. Technical literature shows few classification proposals, focusing on two or three kinds of beaches. This study seeks to propose a new classification of tourist beaches based on an epistemological framework. A review of fourteen references was done and five criteria to classify beaches were assessed. Special focus was put on Latin-American classifications due to the scope of the study. As a result, four tourist beach sorts were determined: intensive, shared, ethnic and conservative beaches. Moreover, a set of stages was designed to choose each sort and was applied on five Colombian beaches. The application shows a great flexibility of the set of stages, classifying the beaches into the four types aforementioned. If beaches are well classified before starting their management, the latter will be better and more accurate. This new tool developed in this paper can be used as a strong advice to beach managers. The first stage to manage any tourist beach will be to classify them in the correct sorts to later move onto the conventional stages, such as description and planning.


We develop a two-phased survey design—based on the uses and gratifications approach and the theory of planned behavior—to analyze competitive relations between search engines and traditional information sources. We apply the survey design in a large-scale empirical study with 14-to 66-year-old Internet users (mean age 32) to find out whether complementary or substitutional dependencies predominate between search engines and three traditional information sources—paper-based encyclopedias and yellow pages and telephone-based directory assistance. We find that search engines, compared to the traditional alternatives, are gratifying a wider spread of users' needs. Although yellow pages and directory assistance are potentially substitutable, encyclopedias serve those needs that search engines cannot (yet) fulfill. The traditional media companies face increased competition, but do not necessarily have to be in an inferior competitive position.


In this dissertation, we empirically investigate the relationship between trade openness and economic growth across countries over the period 1960-2000. The main contribution of this dissertation is that we handle the model un-certainty problem by employing model averaging techniques, instead of estimating and reporting a number of cross-country growth regressions. Differently from many previous cross-country growth studies, our findings do not support the proposition that openness has a direct robust relationship with long run economic growth. However, we conclude that economic institutions and macroeconomic uncertainties relating to inflation and government consumption are key factors in explaining economic growth in the long run.


A controlled dengue human challenge model may determine whether to evaluate candidate dengue vaccines in large efficacy trials. Dengue model rises to the challenge Human efficacy testing remains a major hurdle in bringing new vaccine candidates to the clinic. In the absence of accepted correlates of protection, rounds of safety trials must be performed before efficacy can be tested in a large population in an endemic area. Kirkpatrick et al. have developed a controlled dengue human challenge model to assess the protective efficacy of the most clinically advanced dengue vaccine candidate. They found that TV003, a live attenuated dengue vaccine that induces antibodies to all four dengue virus serotypes, protected against infection of an attenuated virus in 21 recipients when compared with 20 nonvaccinated controls. This model may serve as an early check for dengue vaccine candidates, limiting the risk of conducting large unsuccessful trials. A dengue human challenge model can be an important tool to identify candidate dengue vaccines that should be further evaluated in large efficacy trials in endemic areas. Dengue is responsible for about 390 million infections annually. Protective efficacy results for the most advanced dengue vaccine candidate (CYD) were disappointing despite its ability to induce neutralizing antibodies against all four dengue virus (DENV) serotypes. TV003 is a live attenuated tetravalent DENV vaccine currently in phase 2 evaluation. To better assess the protective efficacy of TV003, a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which recipients of TV003 or placebo were challenged 6 months later with a DENV-2 strain, rDEN2Δ30, was conducted. The primary endpoint of the trial was protection against dengue infection, defined as rDEN2Δ30 viremia. Secondary endpoints were protection against rash and neutropenia. All 21 recipients of TV003 who were challenged with rDEN2Δ30 were protected from infection with rDEN2Δ30. None developed viremia, rash, or neutropenia after challenge. In contrast, 100% of the 20 placebo recipients who were challenged with rDEN2Δ30 developed viremia, 80% developed rash, and 20% developed neutropenia. TV003 induced complete protection against challenge with rDEN2Δ30 administered 6 months after vaccination. TV003 will be further evaluated in dengue-endemic areas. The controlled dengue human challenge model can accelerate vaccine development by evaluating the protection afforded by the vaccine, thereby eliminating poor candidates from further consideration before the initiation of large efficacy trials.


One of the problems pervading the study of medieval Islamic technology is the lack of surviving technical treatises. Tradition tended to be handed down by example and by word of mouth, and apprenticeships could last for decades. Fortunately, however, occasional treatises do exist. The treatise 'On swords and their kinds' was written by the 9th century Muslim philosopher Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi. This work was commissioned by a powerful patron of scholarship, the Abbasid caliph Mu'tasim, and the content of the treatise presumably reflects the ruler's general interest in his army and its equipment, and his specific interest in the technical aspects of sword production. In this work, Kindi discusses the difference between iron and steel, distinguishes different qualities of sword blade, and different centers of sword smithing. He refers to the Indian Ocean trade in steel ingots and to the distinctive character of European swords of the period. He includes technical terms used by the makers, and distinguishes swords by their physical features - form, measurements, weight, watered pattern, sculptured details, or inlaid ornaments. This publication includes the text and a translation of Kindi's treatise, and a detailed commentary on the work. The volume also includes a translation of Friedrich Schwarzlose's work on swords, which is based on the hundreds of references to swords in early Arabic poetry. Written in German, this extraordinary compendium of information was first published some 120 years ago; this volume makes it available again, and for the first time in English.


Data from current medium-spatial-resolution imaging spectroradiometers are used for land-cover mapping and land-cover change detection at regional to global scales. However, few landscapes are homogeneous at these scales, and this creates the so-called mixed-pixel problem. In this context, this study explores the use of the linear spectral mixture model to extract subpixel land-cover composition from medium-spatial-resolution data. In particular, a time series of MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) full-resolution (FR; pixel size of 300 m) images acquired over The Netherlands is used to illustrate this study. The Netherlands was selected because of the following: 1) the fragmentation of its landscapes and 2) the availability of a high-spatial-resolution land-cover data set (LGN5) which can be used as a reference. The question then is to what extent a multitemporal unmixing of MERIS FR data delivers land-cover information comparable with the one provided by the LGN5. To this end, fully constrained linear spectral unmixing is applied to each individual MERIS image and to the multitemporal composite. The unmixing results are validated at both subpixel and per-pixel scales and at two thematic aggregation levels (12 and 4 land-cover classes). The obtained results indicate that the described unmixing approach yields moderate results for the 12-class case and good results for the 4-class case. These results might be explained by MERIS preprocessing steps, gridding effects, vegetation phenophases, and spectral class separability.


This study measured the effect of student-designed inquiry on students' attitudes and their critical thinking skills. Surveys preand post-treatment were used to determine student attitudes. Students' inquiry reports were used to evaluate their written conclusions for a claim statement, data used as evidence and a logical connection to science models. Students made improvements in designing and interpreting their research and increased their positive attitudes toward learning science.


Background/Aims: Both brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and volume overload are reported to be powerful predictors of survival for peritoneal dialysis patients. The usefulness of single BNP determinations in helping determine volume status in peritoneal dialysis patients remains controversial, so we reviewed serial BNP and multifrequency bioimpedance measurements to determine whether changes in BNP reflected changes in volume status. Methods: Prospective measurements of fluid volume by multifrequency bioimpedance and serum N-terminal pro-BNP (NTproBNP) were conducted in stable adult peritoneal dialysis outpatients attending for routine assessments of peritoneal dialysis adequacy and transport status. Results: A total of 189 serial measurements were made in 92 patients, and NTproBNP increased from a median of 162.5 pmol/l (interquartile range 82–385.4) to 195 pmol/l (interquartile range 101.9–348.6; p < 0.05). Changes in NTproBNP correlated with changes in extracellular water (ECW), total body water (TBW) and ECW/TBW (r = 0.38, 0.31 and 0.45, respectively; all p < 0.0001). Patients were divided into quartiles depending upon NTproBNP changes; those with the greatest fall in NTproBNP had significant falls in ECW (p < 0.001), TBW (p = 0.001) and ECW/TBW (p < 0.001) compared to the quartile with the greatest increase in NTproBNP, who also had an increase in systolic blood pressure from 133.5 ± 22.7 to 142.7 ± 28.8 mm Hg (p = 0.0078), whereas it fell in the quartile with the greatest fall in NTproBNP (143.8 ± 24.6 vs. 136.5 ± 18.7 mm Hg). Conclusions: Serial measurements of NTproBNP correlated with changes in volume assessments made by multifrequency bioimpedance in peritoneal dialysis outpatients. As multifrequency bioimpedance measures total ECW, rather than effective plasma volume, serial NTproBNP determinations may prove an adjunct to the clinical assessment of volume status in peritoneal dialysis patients.


Research on and with digital technologies is everywhere today. This timely, authoritative Handbook explores the issues of rapid technological development, social change, and the ubiquity of computing technologies which have become an integrated part of people's everyday lives. This is a comprehensive, up-to-date resource for thetwenty-first century. It addresses the key aspects of research within the digital technology field and provides a clear framework for readers wanting to navigate the changeable currents of digital innovation. Main themes include: - Introduction to the field of contemporary digital technology research - New digital technologies: key characteristics and considerations - Research perspectives for digital technologies: theory and analysis - Environments and tools for digital research - Research challenges Aimed at a social science audience, it will be of particular value for postgraduate students, researchers and academics interested in research on digital technology, or using digital technology to undertake research.


Bible translation needs to communicate the original message in a form that is accessible and acceptable to the local community. This requires utilizing the communication media and forms the people use in everyday life. In the case of translating psalms into isiZulu, this involves using oral media and forms of Zulu poetry and music, to produce a translation that communicates effectively. Oral communication is still the preferred form of transmitting a message in Zulu society. A Bible translation that is to be heard must be prepared with particular attention to aural features, and this has not yet been done in isiZulu. Moreover, when translating biblical psalms, attention must be given to poetic features to ensure that the functions achieved by them in the Hebrew text are achieved in the isiZulu text. Within oral communication, performance, is a key element; performing the isiZulu translation allows the verbal text to be complemented by paralinguistic and extra-linguistic features, thereby more fully communicating the richness of the original. Moreover it allows the audience to be a vital element in the creation of the text and its acceptance as biblical orature. Another problem which this study seeks to address is the difficulty many young isiZulu speakers have with understanding, or relating to, the current Bible translation. As it is based on formal-equivalence, it is not easy to read. Also, many young people have little ownership of the text, and view the current translation as a "black box", unknown and irrelevant. Thus this research includes an empirical study facilitating experimental translations of some praise psalms by Zulu poets and musicians, using current thinking in orality and performance studies applied to Bible translation. The result is translations which draw on the izibongo cultural form in striking and beautiful isiZulu, with all the aesthetic and rhetorical force of the original. Also, by giving attention to the rhythm, the poems could be easily transformed into songs, adding to their aesthetic value and making them more memorable. Moreover, it is clear that young isiZulu speakers revel in the opportunity to explore the process of Bible translation and to own the translated text. The results of this research suggest that the process could be replicated in the translation of texts in other poetic sub-genres and in other languages, and could greatly enrich future Bible translations and complement more fully the ministry of the church.


The vibrational populations of the YO A2II-X2Σ system of YO were measured in the plasmas generated after the excimer laser ablation of Y2O3 in oxygen when both continuous and pulsed electric fields were applied. When an electric field is applied antiparallel to the direction of propagation of the ejected electrons, two luminous plumes appear, separated by several microseconds. The measured vibrational populations of the YO A2II-X2Σ system are different for each plume. The YO A2II populations were nonthermal in the first plume, representing emission from chemiluminescent reactive collisions in the plume after ablation. The second emission pulse, initiated by the discharge of a high-voltage capacitor, probes the ground-state YO in the plume via electron collisions. This pulsed electric field holds promise as a diagnostic probe of the ground-state species emitted in laser ablative processes.


Juvenile justice systems on the one hand, has a ""treatment"" oriented caring perspective on juvenile crime, which emphasises the necessity for setting up reformatories and other training establishments for young offenders, geared towards making them useful citizens rather than punishing them for their past offences. On the other hand, the implementation of such a caring philosophy is largely through impersonal and brutal bureaucracies or guarded sanctuaries such as approved schools and borstal institutions, which combine guidance with firmness and restraint.


This thesis focuses on the handling and detecting of improvised explosives, specifically erythritol tetranitrate (ETN). ETN is a nitrate ester with the unusual property of melting at a temperature significantly below its decomposition temperature. For this reason the first two manuscripts probe the potential usefulness of ETN as a military explosive and the long-term stability of this material. The third manuscript examines x-ray detection, a technique that readily reveals covert military explosives. Discussed are ways to evaluate detection capability without actually employing the explosive. With the recent availability of erythritol as an artificial sweetener, the synthesis of ETN has become economically feasible. This dissertation examines eutectics of ETN, to establish if it can be a useful component in melt-casted explosive formulations. To this end we report three novel ETN-energetic eutectics with trinitroazetidine (TNAZ), dinitroanisole (DNAN), and 2,3-hydroxymethyl-2,3-dinitro1,4-butanediol tetranitrate (SMX). We also report adjusted ratios and melttemperatures for two previously reported ETN eutectics with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and with pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), and examine a new eutectic composed of insensitive explosives, DNAN-TNAZ. Finally, we examined the eutectic of TNT-PETN as a reference to confirm the validity of our other results. Melting was examined on a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and eutectic properties were determined by constructing phase diagrams and Tamman plots. Theoretical eutectic properties were calculated using the van't Hoff equation and a more recently published equation for predicting eutectics specifically of energetic compounds. Experimental results are consistent across analysis metrics but did not correspond with the theoretical results. With the increased ease of synthesizing ETN, and because we have been examining the usefulness of ETN, its complete characterization, especially its stability, is of great interest. This work examines the thermal decomposition of ETN and compares it to the well-studied nitrate ester PETN, both through experimental methods and computational theory. ETN was aged isothermally at temperatures of 60, 80, 110, 120, and 140 °C for multiple time points. At each point, the amount of ETN remaining was quantified using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). Kinetic parameters of decomposition were found by fitting this data to the integrated first order rate law equation, the obtained rate constants were then fit the Arrhenius equation to calculate the activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A). It was found that ETN is less thermally stable than PETN, however ETN is more thermally stable than results from our previous DSC kinetics study would indicate. In addition to these kinetic parameters, decomposition products were examined to elucidate the decomposition pathway of ETN. These products were also studied using LCMS and consisted primarily of erythritol trinitrate, along with minor quantities of the dinitrate and mononitrate, presumably generated by the loss of NO2 from ETN. In addition to our work with ETN, a new approach to develop non-hazardous materials that simulate explosives, and other related threats, on x-ray detection equipment is presented in this work. Simulants for x-ray detection are needed to confirm proper working order of detection instruments in areas where actual threats cannot be examined (airports, vendors' facilities, etc.). Rather than trying to make universal simulants, which often do not provide adequate matches across multiple instruments, this method focuses on making accurate simulants specific to the instruments on which they are designed. This is accomplished by matching the end signal output of these instruments rather than trying to match the properties inherent to x-ray interactions with materials. Our original methodology was developed on a liquid bottle screener on which we created simulants for five concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, four concentrations of nitric acid, and nitrobenzene. The methodology was applied to a computed tomography baggage scanner to make three hydrogen peroxide simulants and prove the applicability of the simulant development method. The method was tested for its applicability to solid threats and was found to require significant additional tweaks before moving on from liquid threats.


Synaptic vesicles store neurotransmitters that are released during calcium-regulated exocytosis. The specificity of neurotransmitter release requires the localization of both synaptic vesicles and calcium channels to the presynaptic active zone. Two 35-kilodalton proteins (p35 or syntaxins) were identified that interact with the synaptic vesicle protein p65 (synaptotagmin). The p35 proteins are expressed only in the nervous system, are 84 percent identical, include carboxyl-terminal membrane anchors, and are concentrated on the plasma membrane at synaptic sites. An antibody to p35 immunoprecipitated solubilized N-type calcium channels. The p35 proteins may function in docking synaptic vesicles near calcium channels at presynaptic active zones.


This paper presents a full-duplex device-to-device (D2D)-aided cooperative nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme to improve the outage performance of the NOMA-weak user in a NOMA user pair, where the NOMA-weak user is helped by the NOMA-strong user with the capability of full-duplex D2D communications. The expressions for the outage probability are derived to characterize the performance of the proposed scheme. The results show that the proposed cooperative NOMA scheme can achieve superior outage performance compared to the conventional NOMA and orthogonal multiple access (OMA). In order to further improve the outage performance, an adaptive multiple access (AMA) scheme is also studied, which dynamically switches between the proposed cooperative NOMA, conventional NOMA, and OMA schemes, according to the level of residual self-interference and the quality of links. The results show that the AMA scheme outperforms the above multiple access schemes in terms of outage performance.


For those interested in reading or studying post-colonial and African American women's writing, this book will provide a unique introduction to the enormous range and breadth of the work of women writers across the world in the twentieth century. There have been collections of post-colonial and African American women's writing, as well as collections of critical essays, but no other book concentrates on the range and richness of writing by women, informed by critical and contextual introductions.

This book provides a valuable gender and and culture inflected critical introduction to well-established women writers such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, Bessie Head and many others from the USA, the Caribbean, India, Africa, Britain, Australia, Canada and South Africa, including both black and white writers. There is also discussion of the work of British performance poet Jean 'Binta' Breeze, of Nigerian writer Buchi Emecheta, of Aboriginal writers Sally Morgan and Kath Walker, and New Zealanders Janet Frame and Keri Hulme. Uniquely, the post-colonial is further explored to discuss 'emergent' writing by women from Cyprus, South-East Asia and Oceania. The book engages with and clarifies contested critical areas of feminism and the post-colonial; explores historical background and cultural context, economic, political and psychoanalytical influences on gendered experience; and recognises the broad influence of African American women's creative and critical writing. The book provides a cohesive discussion of key issues such as cultural and gendered identity, motherhood, mothertongue, language, relationships, women's economic constraints, sexual politics and women's lives as expressed in a rich variety of women's writing.


Magnesium exhibits a high potential for a variety of applications in areas such as transport, energy and medicine. However, untreated magnesium alloys are prone to corrosion, restricting their practical application. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new approaches that can prevent or control corrosion and degradation processes in order to adapt to the specific needs of the application. One potential solution is using corrosion inhibitors which are capable of drastically reducing the degradation rate as a result of interactions with the metal surface or components of the corrosive medium. As the sheer number of potential dissolution modulators makes it impossible to obtain a detailed atomistic understanding of the inhibition mechanisms for each additive, other measures for inhibition prediction are required. For this purpose, a concept is presented that combines corrosion experiments, machine learning, data mining, density functional theory calculations and molecular dynamics to estimate corrosion inhibition properties of still untested molecules. Concomitantly, this approach will provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms behind the prevention of corrosion events in magnesium-based materials and enables more accurate continuum corrosion simulations. The presented concept facilitates the search for molecules with a positive or negative effect on the inhibition efficiency and could thus significantly contribute to the better control of magnesium / electrolyte interface properties.


In this research AHP is used to improve result of SWOT and as a part of SWOT analysis, therefore the method is called A'WOT or AHP-SWOT. Research on the application of AHP-SWOT method in formulating strategic planning was carried out at a constituent based non-profit organization that requires appropriate strategies to face the current dynamics. This organization has had a vision, mission and outline work program but has yet to have an appropriate strategy agreed by its constituentto implement the outline work program. The selection of SWOT method as a basis strategy formulation is a consequence of the form of a constituency based non-profit organization. The board wants the strategic planning organization created involving constituentand agreed by members of the organization. Besides, the constituents of the organization also want to know the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats affecting the continuity of the organization. For that purpose the SWOT method is used in conjunction with AHP method to facilitate the management of organizational decisions on formulated strategies. The research object in this study is a constituency-based non-profit organization that develops forest management certification system in Indonesia is namely the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI).

Keywords: Strategic planning, non-profit, SWOT, AHP, LEI


Accurate estimates of daily crop evapotranspiration (ET) are needed for efficient irrigation management in regions where crop water demand exceeds rainfall. Daily grass or alfalfa reference ET values and crop coefficients are widely used to estimate crop water demand. Inaccurate reference ET estimates can hence have a tremendous impact on irrigation costs and the demands on freshwater resources. ET networks calculate reference ET using precise measurements of meteorological data. These networks are typically characterized by gaps in spatial coverage and lack of sufficient funding, creating an immediate need for alternative sources that can fill data gaps without high costs. Although non-agricultural weather stations provide publicly accessible meteorological data, there are concerns that the data may be unsuitable for estimating reference ET due to factors such as weather station siting, data formats and quality control issues. The objective of our research is to enable the use of alternative data sources, adapting sophisticated machine learning algorithms such as Gaussian process models and neural networks to discover and model the nonlinear relationships between non-ET weather station data and the reference ET computed by ET networks. Using data from the Texas High Plains region in the U.S., we demonstrate significant improvement in estimation accuracy in comparison with baseline regression models typically used for irrigation management applications.


The traditional system of education is no longer fulfilling the need for knowledge for the generations that experience the actual leap of information and technology. To go exponentially beyond the actual way of thinking elicits a dynamic, adaptable and customized system of education, approachable by connecting fields and notions. Inter-disciplines become a solution and a necessity - "The strongest argument for interdisciplinarity is the very fact that life is not divided into disciplines." (J. Moffett). Learning beyond meaning is not an issue - youngsters need a visual, interdisciplinary, hands-on approach that may be accomplished by our method: DigiMathArt is an interdisciplinary field that covers the need to cross the bridge towards the education of the future. The proposed method emphasizes the simplicity and elegance of mathematic modeling combined naturally with graphical programming, alien concepts for most of those who need them the most - scientists, architects, game developers, artists. It provides an interactive, highly visual and holistic road to access essential information and skills. The course is structured in three modules: mathematic modeling based on function operations and composition, fractal generation, and light-effects rendering. Similar in approach to more sophisticated resources, such as Grasshopper and WolframAlpha, our method is, however, gradual and palatable for anyone who lacks this basic training in the field but craves for it. The presented method is already implemented and used as a holistic tool in centers for informal education. Evaluations of method's results, acceptance and effects are underway, based on structured feedback questionnaires as well as EEG recordings and analysis.


There are >12 million patients with peripheral artery disease in the United States. The most severe form of peripheral artery disease is critical limb ischemia (CLI). The diagnosis and management of CLI is often challenging. Ethnic differences in comorbidities and presentation of CLI exist. Compared with white patients, black and Hispanic patients have higher prevalence rates of diabetes mellitus and chronic renal disease and are more likely to present with gangrene, whereas white patients are more likely to present with ulcers and rest pain. A thorough evaluation of limb perfusion is important in the diagnosis of CLI because it can not only enable timely diagnosis but also reduce unnecessary invasive procedures in patients with adequate blood flow or among those with other causes for ulcers, including venous, neuropathic, or pressure changes. This scientific statement discusses the current tests and technologies for noninvasive assessment of limb perfusion, including the ankle-brachial index, toe-brachial index, and other perfusion technologies. In addition, limitations of the current technologies along with opportunities for improvement, research, and reducing disparities in health care for patients with CLI are discussed.


There have been many improvements to QuickBooks over the years, but the program's documentation is not one of them. Luckily, QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual picks up where QuickBook's help resources leave off. With this book, you don't just learn how to use the software, you learn why and when to use specific features. And you get basic accounting advice so that it all makes sense to you along the way. With its Simple Start, Basic, Pro, Premier, and industry-specific Enterprise editions, QuickBooks can handle many of the financial tasks companies face, but the price you pay is an overabundance of features. With this book, you get advice on which features you need to use to get your work done efficiently, along with step-by-step instructions on how to use them. QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual helps you: Get more out of QuickBooks whether you're a beginner or an old pro. Learn how QuickBooks can help you boost sales, control spending, and save on taxes. Set up and manage your files to fit your company's specific needs.Use QuickBooks reports to evaluate every aspect of your enterprise.Follow the money all the way from customer invoices to year-end tasks.Discover new tips and tricks on the best timesaving options for your business.Build budgets and plan for the future to make your business more successful. And a lot more. This book is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. If you're a first-time QuickBooks user, special boxes with the title "Up To Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. For advanced users, there are similar boxes called "Power Users' Clinic" that offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the experienced QuickBooks fan. For a topic as complicated as accounting software, why trust anything else?


Risk assessment is one of the most critical tools used in the safety engineering system in oil and gas construction projects due to it providing the required protection for the construction activities such as pilling, materials fabrication, and structure installation. The main purpose of risk assessment tool is to provide full protection to the four main elements that are crucial to the oil industry: People, Environment, Assets and Reputation (PEAR). The failure or defect in the risk assessment implementation in the construction stage can potentially lead to catastrophes in the advanced stages such as operation and productions. In oil and gas construction projects many historical oil spill and blow outs occurred due to a lack of efficient risk assessment in the construction phase, resulting in financial and human life losses. There are various factors that contribute to the implementation problem in the construction phase, thus, different aspects should be analyzed in the risk assessment structures to determine how the system is very closely linked. Through data analysis, it is evident that the weakness in the implementation can be related to inadequate policy and framework of the risk assessment. Organizational culture affecting employee safety behavior is another contributing reason for faulty implementation. Many scholars try to analyze the implementation problem in the oil and gas sector, along with other heavy industries, through risk regulations, risk planning and human error. This research exposes the defects and challenges in the risk assessment tool in oil and gas construction projects in UAE through a questionnaire survey. The research shows a gap in the understanding and practice of the risk assessment tool between management and operation, especially in the behavioral effects.


Traditional practices (such as female circumcision, various birthing methods and early pregnancy) expected of, and maintained by, women in sub-Saharan African continue relatively unabated. So, too, does the harm these pose to women, including increased risks of maternal mortality, reproductive ill health and transmission of HIV/AIDS. Human rights standards and discourses have been used as a means towards their end. This study seeks to establish the strengths and weaknesses of the human rights approach within the specific context of sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on women as a group and their reproductive health. In so doing, the real potential and ideal application of the human rights approach are considered. This study begins by establishing a theoretical framework by defining and analysing the harmful traditional practices and human rights in question and the means by which the human rights approach may be expected to effect change. It then identifies and resolves problems in the use of human rights instruments (particularly the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights), discourses (especially in relation to feminism) or strategies (such as that of human rights education and its impact on women's empowerment). In the final chapters, lessons are drawn from historical campaigns to end the harmful traditional practices of foot binding and widow burning in Asia, as well as initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa to end female circumcision. These are applied using the framework of human rights, particularly with regard to the role of the African State and its obligations under international human rights law. This book gives an inter-disciplinary and well-founded study on the human rights violations still occurring. The author gives many descriptions and examples, with statistical proof, of violations against women that take place without interference at either the national or regional level.


Phase separation of thermo-responsive polymers in solution is a complex process, whose understanding is essential to screen and design materials with diverse technological applications. Here we report on a method based on dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments to investigate the phase separation of thermo-responsive polymer solutions and precisely define the transition temperature (TPS). Our results are applied on hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) solutions as an important biosourced green water-soluble polymer. As determined by DLS, the amplitudes of the fast and slow modes of relaxation dynamics evolve as temperature gets closer to the phase transition point eventually leading to phase separation. The evolution of relaxation modes with temperature is markedly different for concentrations below the overlap concentration (c*) (dilute regime), above c* (semi-dilute regime) and above the entanglement concentration (ce). In the three cases though, the fast and slow mode amplitudes undergo a sharp transition in a narrow temperature range, defining accurately the phase separation locus. The results agree with turbidimetric analysis for the phase transition determination but with a better precision. Our results also show that the one-phase dynamics and phase separation dynamics in the two-phase region are only in continuity for c > ce, revealing mechanistic details about the HPC phase separation process. Above TPS we identify a temperature range where the intensity autocorrelation function has a single-exponential shape. In the latter regime, we monitor the growth kinetics of polymer domains and provide clues to rationalize the stabilizing effects of the interfaces leading to the arrested-like phase separation behavior observed for HPC.


Formative feedback plays an important role in assisting students in their learning process. However, giving information about student weaknesses and strengths is one of the challenges teachers face when they try to implement  formative assessment . This study aims to develop a web-based formative feedback system that is able to provide a specific one. This is a development research with steps including needs analysis, model design, model development, and limited model testing. The research has succeeded in developing a web-based formative feedback system through utilizing isomorphic items. The results of the initial test showed that the model can provide timely and effective formative feedback both individually and in groups of students. The use of this model also allows the teachers to discuss student's learning difficulties in real time responses. The results of this study need to be followed up with the implementation of this model in more extensive trial.


Denmark is one of the only European countries that can speak of its involvement in the Holocaust with some sense of pride. In October of 1943, the Danes pulled off a substantial rescue mission during which they led the majority of the Danish Jews to safety in Sweden. Traditional representations of this event attribute its success to the outstanding moral character of the Danes. This paper challenges this popular view and explores a variety of factors which together facilitated the rescue of the Danish Jews.


The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is a landmark environmental policy, representing the world's first large-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program. The coexistence of state actors and top-down processes with stakeholders participation and flexible abatement strategies make the EU ETS a powerful instrument of cross sectoral integration of environmental concerns, which benefits from a high level of interaction among the actors involved and a significant degree of information exchange. However, the same peculiarities of the system make it difficult to identify a correspondence with a single mode of governance. The EU ETS shows characteristics of the decision making processes and institutions engaged, the tools and instruments used as well as the actors involved, which change according to the different levels of governance, and belong both to the old and to the new modes of governance. The emission trading scheme represents a clear example of Multi-Level governance, where the different modes of governance interact among them and affect each other.


The inside story of the campaign that rocked the United Kingdom to its foundations, and the implications of the Scottish independence movement for the future of British politics. Alex Salmond has been a passionate supporter of Scottish independence his whole life. In September 2014, he came close to realising that dream. In a riveting daily diary, written with his trademark wit and charm, Salmond takes us into the heart of the YES campaign, revealing what was said and done behind the scenes as the referendum reached its dramatic climax. He explains how the YES campaign energised the entire Scottish nation and rewrote the rulebook for grassroots political campaigning, not just in the UK but throughout the world. He also looks ahead to the critical role of the 'national question' in the future of British politics, making clear that the referendum was not the end of a process, but the beginning of one. The dream of Scottish independence is very much alive.


In The Bell Curve Herrnstein and Murray argue that a youth's intelligence (IQ) is a more important determinant of social and economic success in adulthood than is the socioeconomic status (SES) of his or her parents. Herrnstein and Murray base this conclusion on comparison of effects of IQ score (measured at ages 15 and 23) and the effects of an index of parents' SES from models of economic status, marriage, welfare use, involvement in crime, as well as several outcomes for young children. Reviewers of The Bell Curve have questioned whether Herrnstein and Murray's estimates of the effects of IQ are overstated by their use of a rather crude measure of parents' SES. Comparisons of siblings in the Herrnstein and Murray sample, a more complete and accurate way to control for family background, reveal little evidence that Herrnstein and Murray's estimates of the effects of IQ score are biased by omitted family background characteristics (with the possible exception of outcomes for young children). However, there is evidence of substantial bias due to measurement error in their estimates of the effects of parents' socioeconomic status. In addition, Herrnstein and Murray's measure of parental SES fails to capture the effects of important elements of family background (such as single-parent family structure at age 14). As a result, their analysis gives an exaggerated impression of the importance of IQ relative to parents' SES, and relative to family background more generally. Estimates based on a variety of methods, including analyses of siblings, suggest that parental family background is at least as important, and may be more important than IQ in determining socioeconomic success in adulthood.


ABSTRACT ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE TRANSACTIONAL MEMORY: DYNAMIC CONTENTION MANAGEMENT by Joel Cameron Frank This thesis addresses the problem of contention management in Software Transactional Memory (STM), which is a scheme for managing shared memory in a concurrent programming environment. STM views shared memory in a way similar to that of a database; read and write operations are handled through transactions, with changes to the shared memory becoming permanent through commit operations. Research on this subject reveals that there are currently varying methods for collision detection, data validation, and contention management, each of which has different situations in which they become the preferred method. This thesis introduces a dynamic contention manager that monitors current performance and chooses the proper contention manager accordingly. Performance calculations, and subsequent polling of the underlying library, are minimized. As a result, this adaptive contention manager yields a higher average performance level over time when compared with existing static implementations.


Three populations of the copepod Acartia tonsa, two from the Baltic Sea and one from the U.S. East Coast, were compared for resting egg production at conditions of saturating and limiting food availability. All three populations produced eggs that hatched within 72 h when incubated at 17°C (subitaneous eggs), but the two Baltic populations in addition produced eggs that hatched at a much slower rate, in the course of a month (delayed hatching eggs [DHE]). Such eggs were not produced by the U.S. population. The fraction of DHE increased when food was limiting. Females from a Baltic population that were incubated individually all produced subitaneous eggs, but about half the females consistently also produced DHE. Cold storage that mimicked boreal winter conditions synchronized the hatching of DHE after extended storage, indicating that spring hatching of DHE might seed the water column with nauplii as an adaptation to match the timing of the spring bloom in boreal marine ecosystems. Low food availability promotes the production of resting eggs in marine copepods.


An Ebola virus protein selectively inhibits nuclear import of STAT1 to block interferon-induced antiviral responses. Interferons are the main effectors of the antiviral immune response and are released from virus-infected cells to stimulate the transcription of antiviral genes by triggering phosphorylation, dimerization, and nuclear import of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and STAT2. Because Ebola virus blocks the interferon-mediated antiviral response, the virus replicates extremely rapidly and interferon treatment is ineffective. Most proteins imported into the nucleus contain a classical nuclear localization signal (cNLS) sequence that is recognized by members of the karyopherin-α (also known as KPNA or importin-α) family and mediates their nuclear import. However, STATs do not contain a cNLS. Instead, they rely on a largely uncharacterized nonclassical NLS (ncNLS) that is formed through the dimerization of phosphorylated STATs and recognized by KPNA1, KPNA5, and KPNA6, a subset of the KPNA family of nuclear cargo receptors. The VP24 protein of Ebola virus (eVP24) binds to KPNA1, KPNA5, and KPNA6 to block the nuclear import of phosphorylated STAT1 (pSTAT1). Xu et al. solved the crystal structure of eVP24 bound to the C-terminal portion of KPNA5, shedding light not only on how the virus blocks the host antiviral response but also on how KPNAs recognize ncNLS-containing proteins. The structure showed that eVP24 bound to domains of KPNA5 distinct from the domains through which KPNA5 binds to cNLS-containing proteins. The residues of KPNA5 that mediated binding to eVP24 were conserved in KPNA1 and KPNA6 but not conserved in KPNAs that bind only cNLS-containing proteins. These eVP24-binding residues also mediated pSTAT1 binding to KPNA5 in vitro. Mutating residues of eVP24 that contacted KPNA5 reduced nuclear accumulation of pSTAT1 and compromised the ability of eVP24 to inhibit expression of an interferon-inducible reporter gene. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicated that eVP24 competed with pSTAT1 for binding to KPNA5 in cells, but eVP24 did not compete with a cNLS peptide for binding to KPNA5, implying that eVP24 does not interfere with the nuclear trafficking of viral or host proteins that rely on a cNLS for nuclear import. Marburg virus, another filovirus closely related to Ebola virus, does not antagonize interferon signaling. Structural and sequence comparisons showed that Marburg virus VP24 (mVP24) differed from eVP24 in regions that mediated binding of eVP24 to KPNA5. Commentary by Daugherty and Malik notes that ncNLS-mediated nuclear import of STATs may have evolved to ensure that during viral infection STAT1 nuclear import and cNLS-dependent nuclear import mechanisms do not compete. W. Xu, M. R. Edwards, D. M. Borek, A. R. Feagins, A. Mittal, J. B. Alinger, K. N. Berry, B. Yen, J. Hamilton, T. J. Brett, R. V. Pappu, D. W. Leung, C. F. Basler, G. K. Amarasinghe, Ebola virus VP24 targets a unique NLS binding site on karyopherin alpha 5 to selectively compete with nuclear import of phosphorylated STAT1. Cell Host Microbe 16, 187–200 (2014). [PubMed] M. D. Daugherty, H. S. Malik, How a virus blocks a cellular emergency access lane to the nucleus, STAT! Cell Host Microbe 16, 150–152 (2014). [PubMed]


The Dynamic Workload Generator accurately replays measured workloads in the presence of competing foreground tasks. We have used this workload-generation tool to predict the relative speedups of different sites for an incoming task in our prototype system, using only the resource-utilization patterns observed before the task arrives. Our results show that the load-balancing policies learned by our system effectively exploit idle resources of a distributed computer system.Dynamic Workload Generator is a facility for generating realistic and reproducible synthetic workloads for use in load-balancing experiments. For such experiments, the generated workload must not only mimic the highly dynamic resource-utilization patterns found on today's distributed systems but also behave as a real workload does when test jobs run concurrently with it. The latter requirement is important in testing alternative load-balancing strategies, a process that requires running the same job multiple times, each time at a different site but under an identical network-wide workload.Parts of DWG are implemented inside the operating-system kernel and have complete control over the utilization levels of four key resources: CPU, memory, disk, and network. Besides accurately replaying network-wide load patterns recorded earlier, DWG gives up a fraction of its resources each time a new job arrives and reclaims these resources upon job completion. Pattern-doctoring rules implemented in DWG control the latter operation. This article presents DWG's architecture, its doctoring rules, systematic methods for adjusting and evaluating doctoring rules, and experimental results on a network of Sun workstations.


HCS12 Microcontroller and Embedded Systems: Using Assembly and C with CodeWarrior, 1e features a systematic, step-by-step approach to covering various aspects of HCS12 C and Assembly language programming and interfacing. The text features several examples and sample programs that provide students with opportunities to learn by doing. Review questions are provided at the end of each section to reinforce the main points of the section. Students not only develop a strong foundation of Assembly language programming, they develop a comprehensive understanding of HCS12 interfacing. In doing so, they develop the knowledge background they need to understand the design and interfacing of microcontroller-based embedded systems. This book can also be used by practicing technicians, hardware engineers, computer scientists, and hobbyists. It is an ideal source for those wanting to move away from 68HC11 to a more powerful chip.


In Italy, in the last two decades, new methods of intervention in planning and land policies have been used, which focused more and more on territorial government, governance, development, cohesion and environmental sustainability. One of the main factors that has contributed to the dissatisfaction of the residents is the lack of quality in the towns, which has been more and more characterized by urban decay and by lack of services and gathering places. Giving back environmental, economic and social quality to degraded areas or recovering abandoned public spaces responds definitely to the concept of sustainable city limiting urban sprawl and reducing environmental impacts inherent in the built environment. Moreover, soil consumption in also related to the economics involved, in other words what we commonly call cost to the environment, which cannot be underestimated if the perspective with which we work is that of improving sustainability. In this overview, new forms of cooperation between citizens and public authorities for the care and regeneration of the commons goods is essential. Citi-zen participation is certainly an important element to develop and to support sustainable policies. The contribution of a multidisciplinary approach, highlights interventions of urban regeneration and models of participated urban planning realized in some Sicilian towns in recent years. Through a participated management, a socio-economic integration of technology and culture has been undertaken thanks to the aesthetic functional and technological restoration of the places.


This paper presents a summary of the key findings of the TTF TPACK Survey developed and administered for the Teaching the Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project implemented in 2011. The TTF Project, funded by an Australian Government ICT Innovation Fund grant, involved all 39 Australian Higher Education Institutions which provide initial teacher education. TTF data collections were undertaken at the end of Semester 1 (T1) and at the end of Semester 2 (T2) in 2011. A total of 12881 participants completed the first survey (T1) and 5809 participants completed the second survey (T2). Groups of like-named items from the T1 survey were subject to a battery of complementary data analysis techniques. The psychometric properties of the four scales: Confidence - teacher items; Usefulness - teacher items; Confidence - student items; Usefulness- student items, were confirmed both at T1 and T2. Among the key findings summarised, at the national level, the scale: Confidence to use ICT as a teacher showed measurable growth across the whole scale from T1 to T2, and the scale: Confidence to facilitate student use of ICT also showed measurable growth across the whole scale from T1 to T2. Additional key TTF TPACK Survey findings are summarised.


In the updated APOGEE-Kepler catalog, we have asteroseismic and spectroscopic data for over 3000 first ascent red giants. Given the size and accuracy of this sample, these data offer an unprecedented test of the accuracy of stellar models on the post-main-sequence. When we compare these data to theoretical predictions, we find a metallicity dependent temperature offset with a slope of around 100 K per dex in metallicity. We find that this effect is present in all model grids tested, and that theoretical uncertainties in the models, correlated spectroscopic errors, and shifts in the asteroseismic mass scale are insufficient to explain this effect. Stellar models can be brought into agreement with the data if a metallicity-dependent convective mixing length is used, with ΔαML,YREC ∼ 0.2 per dex in metallicity, a trend inconsistent with the predictions of three-dimensional stellar convection simulations. If this effect is not taken into account, isochrone ages for red giants from the Gaia data will be off by as much as a factor of two even at modest deviations from solar metallicity ([Fe/H] = −0.5).


TTI depth imaging technology is routinely applied to image structures that lie beneath dipping, anisotropic overburden in the Canadian Foothills (Vestrum and Vermeulen, 2004), the North Sea (Hawkins et al., 2002), and offshore West Africa (Ball, 1995). Until now, ray-based migration algorithms served as the only choice for TTI imaging because upgrading ray-based imaging algorithms for TTI is straightforward and incurs minor additional computational cost. Unlike ray-based algorithms, TTI wave-based algorithms are difficult to formulate, and their implementations are often unstable and computationally intensive. Unfortunately, ray-based algorithms perform poorly in comparison to wave-based algorithms in imaging structures beneath a complex overburden such as the salt canopy in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the use of TTI imaging in this area is impeded by the lack of appropriate check shots and offset VSPs that can constrain anisotropic parameters.


Why is it that soon after being exposed to an infectious agent we suffer from fatigue as well as fever? Part of the innate immune response to microbial infections is the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Previous studies have implicated TNF-α as a causative agent of fatigue in humans and mice; however, the mechanism is not known. Sleep is regulated by circadian mechanisms that include a negative feedback system involving the Per transcriptional repressors, the abundance of which is controlled by the transcription factors BMAL1 and CLOCK, whose expression is in turn controlled by the Per repressors. Cavadini et al. treated synchronized NIH 3T3 fibroblasts with TNF-α and observed a dose-dependent decrease in the expression of the transcriptional repressor genes Per1, Per2, and Per3 compared with untreated cells, as assessed by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses. The effect of TNF-α on Per gene expression was shared by IL-1β but not by interferon-α (IFN-α) or IL-6, two other proinflammatory cytokines that are produced upon microbial infection. Clock gene expression was unaffected by TNF-α treatment. Using fibroblasts transfected with luciferase reporter genes, the authors demonstrated that TNF-α treatment inhibited expression of circadian genes under the control of promoters that contained an E-box motif--a helix-loop-helix transcription factor-binding site. Per genes, which were inhibited by TNF-α, contain E-box motifs, whereas Bmal1 and Clock genes, which were not affected by TNF-α, do not. Mice were treated with TNF-α every day for 7 days, and RT-PCR analysis of the liver showed decreased expression of Per3 and other genes regulated by circadian processes, such as Dbp, which encodes the transcription factor Dbp that contributes to circadian control of locomotor activity. TNF-α treatment of mice also decreased Dbp expression in the hypothalamus. By monitoring running-wheel activity, Cavadini et al. showed that administration of TNF-α to mice reduced their movements and increased the amount of time that the mice spent resting. Together, these data suggest that TNF-α, produced during the initial stages of microbial infections and associated with autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, alters circadian signaling and induces fatigue. Clinical intervention to prevent this may help patients overcome the disruptive effects of TNF-α on their sleep patterns. G. Cavadini, S. Petrzilka, P. Kohler, C. Jud, I. Tobler, T. Birchler, A. Fontana, TNF-α suppresses the expression of clock genes by interfering with E-box-mediated transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 12843-12848 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


wnloaded veratrol has been shown to exhibit cancer-preventive activities in preclinical studies. We cona clinical study to determine the effect of pharmacologic doses of resveratrol on drugand ogen-metabolizing enzymes. Forty-two healthy volunteers underwent baseline assessment of rome P450 (CYP) and phase II detoxification enzymes. CYP1A2, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP3A4 e activities were measured by the metabolism of caffeine, dextromethorphan, losartan, and bus, respectively. Blood lymphocyte glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and GST-π level and total and direct bilirubin, a surrogate for UDP-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) 1A1 activity, were red to assess phase II enzymes. After the baseline evaluation, study participants took 1 g of atrol once daily for 4 weeks. Enzyme assessment was repeated upon intervention completion. atrol intervention was found to inhibit the phenotypic indices of CYP3A4, CYP2D6, and CYP2C9 induce the phenotypic index of 1A2. Overall, GST and UGT1A1 activities were minimally affectthe intervention, although an induction of GST-π level and UGT1A1 activity was observed in duals with low baseline enzyme level/activity. We conclude that resveratrol can modulate enzyme s involved in carcinogen activation and detoxification, which may be one mechanism by which atrol inhibits carcinogenesis. However, pharmacologic doses of resveratrol could potentially lead reased adverse drug reactions or altered drug efficacy due to inhibition or induction of certain CYPs. to inc Further clinical development of resveratrol for cancer prevention should consider evaluation of lower doses of resveratrol to minimize adverse metabolic drug interactions. Cancer Prev Res; 3(9); OF1–8. ©2010 AACR.


Bile formation by the liver is initiated by canalicular transport at the hepatocyte membrane, leading to an increase in ductular bile flow. Thus, bile duct epithelial cells (cholangiocytes), which contribute to the volume and dilution of bile through regulated Cl(-) transport, are exposed to changes in flow and shear force at the apical membrane. The aim of the present study was to determine if fluid flow, or shear stress, is a signal regulating cholangiocyte transport. The results demonstrate that, in human and mouse biliary cells, fluid flow, or shear, increases Cl(-) currents and identify TMEM16A, a Ca(2+)-activated Cl(-) channel, as the operative channel. Furthermore, activation of TMEM16A by flow is dependent on PKCα through a process involving extracellular ATP, binding purinergic P2 receptors, and increases in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration. These studies represent the initial characterization of mechanosensitive Cl(-) currents mediated by TMEM16A. Identification of this novel mechanosensitive secretory pathway provides new insight into bile formation and suggests new therapeutic targets to enhance bile formation in the treatment of cholestatic liver disorders.


A simple continuum model for traffic flow, based on the law of mass conservation, is discussed. A finite difference formulation for the model is obtained and real traffic data are used for further numerical investigations. The numerical scheme is implemented and solved using the spreadsheet features and Visual Basic capabilities (VBA) of Microsoft Excel. Results from the numerical tests show that predictions about traffic behaviour and conditions agree well with collected data provided initial and boundary conditions are carefully treated. The modelling exercise discussed in this paper provides an excellent example of applying relevant mathematics to a relatively complex real life problem. In addition, by using a simple computer tool (namely, a spreadsheet) in the numerical solution of the model, this paper has demonstrated the value of technology in making mathematical investigations more accessible.


The United States is currently in a heated debate over the extent to which public-sector workers should be permitted to band together for mutual aid or protection, to form, join or assist unions, and to bargain collectively. This debate was sparked when, shortly after the 2010 midterm elections, politicians in states with large public deficits blamed public-sector unions for budget shortfalls. Public unions are not, however, the cause of the states' ills. After all, public unions are not the source of wages and benefits — governments are. Furthermore, the evidence shows that, in general, public-sector-union pay is lower than the pay of their private sector counterparts even when benefits are taken into account; tenure is typically not collectively negotiated but grounded in civil-servant statutes; and arbitration is not a union benefit but the cost that unions pay for a no-strike promise. Given the evidence, it is instructive to ask the following two questions. First, why are public workers, especially public-union employees, the subject of such vitriolic attack? Second, are public-sector unions worth defending?


This substantial book features one hundred of the most spectacular interiors across the world, spanning the entire 20th century to the present day. It includes interiors assembled by artists and fashion designers, architects, interior and set-designers, bringing together diverse design talents from Piero Fornasetti and Coco Chanel to Alvar Aalto, Marc Newson and Matthew Williamson. Twenty short profiles are presented in the introduction, with a single iconic photograph and a concise, informative text; eighty are profiled at length, in chronological order, with superb colour photography and texts recounting the stories of these remarkable designs. Representing every style from minimalism, "Art Nouveau" and Neo-traditional to Gesamtkunstwerk creations that defy definition, these iconic interiors are elegant compositions that endure as lasting creations.


Natural wetlands are the world's largest source of methane to the atmosphere. Boreal wetlands, dominated by peatlands, account for about 50% of global wetland area and ~35% of wetland methane emissions; about half the world's lakes are in boreal regions, often closely associated with peatlands and other wetlands. These environments are currently undergoing substantial warming which is predicted to continue, together with more uncertain changes in precipitation and hydrological dynamics. Understanding climate sensitive processes prevailing in the world's natural wetlands is crucial to understanding and predicting their biogeochemical responses to interannual and longer-term climate variations. Modeling the distribution and dynamics of methane-producing wetlands/peatlands remains a fundamental challenge in this research. For example climate, which has been employed in attempts to model where wetlands occur, is not the major determinant of wetland distribution. Consequently wetland-methane models must be applied to an externally-defined wetland data sets that may or may not provide methane-relevant information about vegetation and environmental characteristics. Several hundred published papers report methane fluxes for a broad array of methane-producing ecosystems, most with environmental information about field conditions, vegetation, soils, hydrology etc. However, these flux data are minimally employed in analyzing and modeling interrelationships among methane flux, climate and environmental characteristics because 1) the observations are dispersed throughout printed papers which has discouraged researchers from making the effort to mine them and 2) no framework exists to connect methane and environmental observations with wetland data sets or model representations of wetlands and methane-related processes. To bridge this disconnect, we initiated a project to develop a single system to classify 1) wetland ecosystems in a digital data base and 2) wetland ecosystems and their methane fluxes published in the literature. We present initial work on the methane-centric classification system and apply the classification to boreal ecosystems/flux observations to investigate variability and patterns in ecosystem methane fluxes.


In this paper, a model-based current control (MBCC) approach with a compensating of dc-side inductor current ripple, active damping, and virtual time constant is proposed for single-phase grid-tied quasi-Z-source inverters with an LCL filter. The idea behind the ripple compensation is based on the inherent relationship between the ripple components of the dc-side inductor and capacitor voltages. It is shown that dc-side inductor current ripple can be compensated if the conventional simple boost control involving proportional-integral (PI) controllers is modified by subtracting the measured dc-side inductor voltage from the error signal of the first PI controller. Also, it is shown that the proposed MBCC causes the ac-side inverter current to track its reference in all circumstances. In addition, a virtual time constant is added to the control variable so that the dynamics of the ac-side inverter current can be adjusted as desired. Finally, in order to damp the LCL resonance, an active damping method is employed in the closed-loop system by modifying the ac-side reference inverter current. Experimental results are presented to show the validity and performance of the proposed control approach.


Current work focuses on the development and performance evaluation of advanced
flamelet models for turbulent non-premixed and partially premixed combustion in
RANS and large eddy simulation (LES) based modelling. A RANS-based combustion
modelling strategy which has the ability to capture the detailed structure of turbulent
non-premixed flames, including the pollutant NO, and account for the effects of
radiation heat loss and transient evolution of NO, has been developed and
incorporated into the in-house RANS code. The strategy employs an 'enthalpy defect'-based non-adiabatic flamelet model in conjunction with steady or unsteady nonadiabatic
flamelets based NO submodels. [Continues.]


The purpose of this report is to explore whether listening comprehension difficulties are due to receptive language impairment or attention deficits in school-age children. This evidence-based practice brief analyzes research within this population and gives suggestions on clinical implications for practicing speech-language pathologists related to intervention. Results show that listening comprehension is impaired in children whether or not they have co-occurring language impairment. However, ADHD does not further impair a child with a language disorder. Intervention for this population should focus on increasing the child's understanding of causal connections, making inferences, and effective ways to study.


Abstract. The quantification of sea-ice production in the Laptev Sea polynyas is important for the Arctic sea-ice budget and the heat loss to the atmosphere. We estimated the ice production for the winter season 2007/2008 (November–April) based on simulations with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM at a horizontal resolution of 5 km and compared it to remote sensing estimates. A reference and five sensitivity simulations were performed with different assumptions on grid-scale and subgrid-scale ice thickness considered within polynyas, using a tile approach for fractional sea ice. In addition, the impact of heat loss on the atmospheric boundary layer was investigated. About 29.1 km3 of total winter ice production was estimated for the reference simulation, which varies by up to +124 % depending on the thin-ice assumptions. For the most realistic assumptions based on remote sensing of ice thickness the ice production increases by +39 %. The use of the tile approach enlarges the area and enhances the magnitude of the heat loss from polynyas up to +110 % if subgrid-scale open water is assumed and by +20 % for realistic assumptions. This enhanced heat loss causes in turn higher ice production rates and stronger impact on the atmospheric boundary layer structure over the polynyas. The study shows that ice production is highly sensitive to the thin-ice parameterizations for fractional sea-ice cover. In summary, realistic ice production estimates could be retrieved from our simulations. Neglecting subgrid-scale energy fluxes might considerably underestimate the ice production in coastal polynyas, such as in the Laptev Sea, with possible consequences on the Arctic sea-ice budget.


What determines the size and form of redistributive programs, the extent and type of public goods provision, the burden of taxation across alternative tax bases, the size of government deficits, and the stance of monetary policy during the course of business and electoral cycles? A large and rapidly growing literature in political economics attempts to answer these questions. But so far there is little consensus on the answers and disagreement on the appropriate mode of analysis. Combining the best of three separate traditions--the theory of macroeconomic policy, public choice, and rational choice in political science--Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini suggest a unified approach to the field. As in modern macroeconomics, individual citizens behave rationally, their preferences over economic outcomes inducing preferences over policy. As in public choice, the delegation of policy decisions to elected representatives may give rise to agency problems between voters and politicians. And, as in rational choice, political institutions shape the procedures for setting policy and electing politicians. The authors outline a common method of analysis, establish several new results, and identify the main outstanding problems.


Background: Cardiac risk assessment with myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is a common practice for some elderly breast cancer patients who are candidates for operation. In rare cases the tumor may become visible in the images.Case presentation: This is the report of a case with a huge slow-growing breast tumor suspicious for malignancy and presenting with methoxy-isobutyl-isonitrile (MIBI) uptake in the tumor. The patient was referred to the nuclear medicine department for preoperative cardiac risk assessment with MPI.Conclusion: There was high uptake in the tumor was note worthy in two different aspects: 1)high MIBI uptake in the tumor is more suggestive of malignant rather than benign tumors and thus, underscores the importance of extra-cardiac uptake sites in pre-operation MPI; and 2)high uptake in the left breast tumor may obscure the MPI image and hinder proper interpretation.


3D printing based on additive manufacturing is an advanced manufacturing technique that allows the fabrication of arbitrary macroscopic and microscopic objects. Many 3D printing systems require large optical elements or nozzles in proximity to the built structure. This prevents their use in applications in which there is no direct access to the area where the objects have to be printed. Here, we demonstrate three-dimensional microfabrication based on two-photon polymerization (TPP) through an ultra-thin printing nozzle of 560 µm in diameter. Using wavefront shaping, femtosecond infrared pulses are focused and scanned through a multimode optical fiber (MMF) inside a photoresist that polymerizes via two-photon absorption. We show the construction of arbitrary 3D structures built with voxels of diameters down to 400 nm on the other side of the fiber. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of microfabrication through a multimode optical fiber. The proposed printing nozzle can reach and manufacture micro-structures in otherwise inaccessible areas through small apertures. Our work represents a new area which we refer to as endofabrication.


The step growth polyaddition of a variety of dicarboxylic acids and 2,2′-bis(2-oxazoline) enabled access to a library of polyesteramides (PEA) with different linker lengths or bulkiness. PEA with alkylene spacers represented semicrystalline materials due to hydrogen bond formation between the oxamide moieties, as is evident from dynamic scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray scattering (145 °C < Tm < 225 °C). In contrast, PEAs comprising substituted spacers resulted in amorphous materials suitable for the preparation of nanoparticle dispersions by means of direct nanoprecipitation from hexafluoroisopropanol into water. Strong intermolecular interactions that were evident from Hildebrand solubility parameters δ resulted in the formation of aggregates for the semi-crystalline materials. Although Hildebrand parameters alone provided less accurate solubility predictions of the PEAs in acetone and THF, the Flory–Huggins parameters χPS revealed pronounced changes of intermolecular interactions with variation of the polymer structure, clearly demonstrating a tunable hydrophobicity of the synthesized PEAs.


While the factors affecting the initiation of war have been extensively studied, the factors that determine the outcome of war have been neglected. Using quantitative data and historical illustrations from the early 1800s to the late 1980s, Allan Stam investigates the relative effect on war outcomes of both the choices leaders must make during war and the resources they have at their disposal. Strategy choices, along with decisions about troop levels and defense spending, are not made in a vacuum, according to Stam, but are made in the crucible of domestic politics. Because of domestic political constraints, states must frequently choose less than optimal strategies in the international arena. Stam shows how we must go beyond simply counting resources and look at the process or strategy by which they are employed as the key factor determining who will win.Challenging the assumptions of many realist and neorealist thinkers on war and interstate conflict, Stam shows how domestic political factors affect the outcome of war. Using a rational choice analysis, Stam looks at the factors that affect the decisionmakers' preferences for different outcomes of military conflict, as well as how the payoffs of those outcomes are affected by both domestic and structural factors. Structural factors, such as the state's population, define a state's power relative to that of other states and will affect the probability of a policy succeeding. Domestic factors, such as the positions taken by domestic political groups, will affect the preferences of the leaders for particular outcomes and their willingness to bear the costs associated with the payoffs and probabilities of the various outcomes.This book will be of interest to political scientists studying war and conflict in the international system as well as to historians and military strategists interested in understanding the factors that predict the outcome of war.Allan Stam is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University.


Sewage epidemiology is increasingly becoming an alternative method of estimating drug usage and consumption patterns for a given population. With the constant emergence of new psychoactive substances such as cathinones and piperazines, versatile, reliable, specific and sensitive analytical methods are needed for their detection in complex matrices such as waste water. This thesis reports the development of an analytical method based on solid phase extraction, derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride and analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for the simultaneous analysis of 29 illicit and therapeutic drugs of abuse.
All 29 drugs could be reliably identified in spiked waste water samples using selected ion monitoring and splitless injection. Recoveries for the majority of the drugs were above 70 %. Linearity varied based on the analyte but was assessed in the range 2.0 x 10-4 to 1.4 μg/mL. Intra-assay and intermediate precision of the instrument was determined at 0.005, 0.1 and 1.0 μg/mL, with the majority of relative standard deviations less than 10 %. Limits of detection and quantification for drugs such as amphetamine and methamphetamine were better than reported values for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, a more commonly used technique.
Untreated 72 h composite waste water samples from Cambridge, UK, were analysed using a six-point standard addition curve. Eleven drugs of abuse were detected, including amphetamine, methamphetamine, butylone and 4-fluoromethamphetamine. The latter two having been detected for the very first time in waste water. Using the validated method, the consumption of heroin, ketamine, cocaine, methamphetamine and amphetamine, in Cambridge, UK, was estimated to be 399.4 ± 90.8, 2463.5 ± 182.5, 195.5 ± 95.4, 84.3 ± 59.1 and 38.9 ± 24.8 mg/day per 1000 inhabitants.
This is the first reported validated method for the detection of both classic drugs of abuse and new psychoactive substances in waste water using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride.


Abstract. The extrapolation of the precipitation to the ground from radar reflectivities measured at the beam altitude is one of the most delicate phases of radar data processing for producing quantitative precipitation estimations (QPEs) and remains a major scientific issue. In many operational meteorological services such as Météo-France, a vertical profile of reflectivity (VPR) correction is uniformly applied over a large part or the entire radar domain. This method is computationally efficient, and the overall bias induced by the bright band is most of the time well corrected. However, this way of proceeding is questionable in situations with high spatial and vertical variability of precipitation (during the passage of a cold front or in a complex terrain, for example). This study initiates from two statements: first, radars provide information on precipitation with a high spatio-temporal resolution but still require VPR corrections to extrapolate rain rates at the ground level. Second, the horizontal resolution of some numerical weather prediction (NWP) models is now comparable with the radar one, and their dynamical core and microphysics schemes allow the production of realistic
simulations of VPRs. The present paper proposes a new approach to assess surface rainfall from radar reflectivity aloft by exploiting simulated VPRs and rainfall forecasts from the high-resolution NWP model AROME-NWC. To our knowledge, this is the first time that simulated precipitation profiles from an NWP model are used to derive radar QPEs. The implementation of the new method on two stratiform situations provided significant improvements on the hourly and 6 h accumulations compared to the operational QPEs, showing the relevance of this new approach.