Abstract X2CrNi189 austenitic stainless steel material with web and flange thicknesses of 10 mm was welded by the conventional GMAW and double channel shielding gas method to form double fillet T-joints. The difference between these two methods were characterized by measurements of mean welding parameters, Vickers hardness profiles, molten and HAZ areas of the joints as well as by thermal camera temperature measurements. According to the results, higher mean current intensity but lower mean arc voltage along with higher heat input was obtained using the double channel shielding gas method. There was no significant difference observed in Vickers hardness between the two methods. Moreover, mean filler metal molten area values were higher with double channel shielding gas method, which depicted that this method increased productivity.


SARS-CoV-2 infection begins with the interaction of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (Spike) and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). To explore whether population variants in ACE2 might influence Spike binding and hence infection, we selected 10 ACE2 variants based on affinity predictions and prevalence in gnomAD and measured their affinities for Spike receptor binding domain through surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We discovered variants that enhance and reduce binding, including two variants with distinct population distributions that enhanced affinity for Spike. ACE2 p.Ser19Pro (ΔΔG = ± 0.59 0.08 kcal mol−1) is often seen in the gnomAD African cohort (AF = 0.003) whilst p.Lys26Arg (ΔΔG = 0.26 0.09 kcal mol−1) is predominant in the Ashkenazi Jewish (AF = 0.01) and European non-Finnish (AF = 0.006) cohorts. Carriers of these alleles may be more susceptible to infection or severe disease and these variants may influence the global epidemiology of Covid-19. We also identified three rare ACE2 variants that strongly inhibited (p.Glu37Lys, ΔΔG = −1.33 ± 0.15 kcal mol−1 and p.Gly352Val, predicted ΔΔG = −1.17 kcal mol−1) or abolished (p.Asp355Asn) Spike binding. These variants may confer resistance to infection. Finally, we calibrated the mCSM-PPI2 ΔΔG prediction algorithm against our SPR data, give new predictions for all possible ACE2 missense variants at the Spike interface and estimate the overall burden of ACE2 variants on Covid-19 phenotypes.


This paper shows that banks that rely heavily on short-term funding engage less in maturity transformation in an attempt to decrease their exposure to rollover risk. These banks shorten both the maturity of their portfolio of loans as well as the maturity of newly issued loans. We find that the loan yield curve becomes steeper with banks' increasing use of short-term funding. The loan maturity shortening is driven by banks and affects borrowers' financing choices - they turn to the bond market for long-term funding. To the extent that borrowers do not manage to compensate for the undesirable shortening of loan maturities by going to the bond market, they may become more exposed to rollover risk due to banks. This potential synchronization of banks' and borrowers' rollover risk can be a source of financial instability once short-term funding suddenly disappears.


"This making and unmaking of ideas doth very properly denominate the mind active...." Bishop Berkeley's challenge to the creative imagination, written in the eighteenth century, is appended to Brian W. Aldiss's most recent collection of essays, The Detached Retina: Aspects of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1995). For Aldiss, as well as for Berkeley, it constitutes a credo of the speculative mind. Cineastes know Aldiss from several films that have been adapted from his work, including Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound (1990) and Steven Spielberg's A.I. (2001). The latter film derives from extensive notes and script drafts that Aldiss and Stanley Kubrick worked on during the years of their collaboration, from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Moreover, science fiction readers and fans know that Aldiss holds a distinguished place in the ranks of science fiction litterateurs. (I hasten to add that he always refers to himself as more of a surrealist than a maker of what he describes as "that tired old oxymoron, science fiction.") Now approaching his eightieth birthday, Aldiss has garnered every conceivable honor and award in the field, including the prestigious Hugo and Nebula Awards, the British Science Fiction Award, and the first James Blish Award. In addition to his prolific output of speculative fiction, he is a noted novelist, critic, anthologist, and essayist. His trilogy of novels derived from and expanding upon Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and H. G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau-respectively, Frankenstein Unbound (1973), Dracula Unbound (1991), and An Island Called Moreau (1980)-are classics in the postmodern interrogation of the Gothic Tradition. Hothouse (1962) and Report on Probability (1967) launched the "New Wave" of British experimental speculative fiction. His Helliconia Trilogy (1982-1985) is ranked among the modern classics of apocalyptic fables. His autobiographical works include A Soldier Erect (1971), a chronicle of his years in Burma during the Second World War. No more thoughtful and sharply intelligent examinations of the history of science fiction exist than his two volumes, The Billion Year Spree (1973) and its sequel, The Trillion Year Spree (1986). He writes and speaks with equal authority on the works of Sophocles, the aforementioned Bishop Berkeley, William Godwin, G. K. Chesterton, Aldous Huxley, and Philip K. Dick. And threading through most of his works is the scarlet thread of an irrepressible, picaresque humor, placing him in a tradition extending from Rabelais to his late friend, Kingsley Amis. Film enthusiasts perhaps know him best for his short story, "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," which inspired the Spielberg-Kubrick film, A.I. In short, Brian Aldiss is an outstanding example of that vanishing breed, the Man of Letters. Aldiss came to the University of Kansas in July 2004, where he was being inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Under the guidance of author and educator James Gunn, the University has for many years been the site of the Institute of Science Fiction Studies and its annual summer writers' seminars. The Institute founded the Hall of Fame several years ago. Next year the Hall of Fame will be relocated to the newly built Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, Washington. Surrounded by his many colleagues, including' his longtime friend, writer Harry Harrison (also an inductee), and writers James Gunn, Greg Bear, and Gregory Benford, Aldiss was in top form during the installation. He clearly enjoyed himself, discoursing to the packed hall at length about his life and work. "It seems that when you get fossilized, it's time to start a museum," Aldiss said at the time, wryly. "I remember twelve years back when the Conference of the Fantastic was negotiating for a Hall of Fame. It was to be near Clearwater. We were pretty sold on that, but it never came off. And then it almost went to Cleveland. Rock 'n roll claimed it instead. …


Abstract The paper deals with the iconic and indexical relations of lexical signs in German Sign Language (DGS). It is argued that the theory of signs as established by Charles S. Peirce is particular fruitful with respect to the description and classification of signs in the visual-gestural modality, but also needs some additional discussion on the nature of the relation between sign and reference object. As will be demonstrated, motivated signs in German Sign Language are more complex with respect to indexicality and iconicity as is recognized in contemporary research. Accordingly, the paper discusses the necessity to modify the typology of linguistic signs with respect to sign languages. It will be demonstrated that there has to be established a class of schematic signs within the group of hypoicons. Secondly, it is argued that DGS has a class of motivated but non-iconic signs, which show a designative-indexical relation which relates to the spoken or written form of a word of the oral contact language German. In sum, a modified typology of lexical signs is established which not only includes the sign types symbol, index and (image)icon but also the new types schematic icon and indicator ('Hinweis').


Purpose - This paper investigates the impact of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and non-GAAP voluntary disclosures on equity returns for im-portant financial reporting dates. Design/methodology - Using hand-coded archival data, we developed 2,329 matched pairs consisting of non-GAAP (control) and GAAP (treatment) quarterly observations and compared the equity returns for each group around the earnings release and SEC filing dates. Findings - Our findings suggest that the valuation relevance of GAAP disclos-ing firms significantly exceeds that of non-GAAP firms in the case of earnings and cash flow surprises. These results support the notion that investors perceive GAAP-compliant disclosures as necessary, complementary information about a firm's performance and equity value. We also reveal that the market revaluation of equi-ty on the earnings release date significantly exceeded that on the SEC filing date. This finding confirms that the more comprehensive disclosure provided by GAAP firms on the earlier date preempted at least some of the information subsequently disclosed on the SEC filing date. Value - Extends the voluntary disclosure literature, in particular the valuation relevance of GAAP versus non-GAAP disclosures. The findings discussed in this paper are of special interest to policymakers and regulators, financial analysts, corporate managers, firm stakeholders, and academics interested in financial re-porting as they continue to study voluntary disclosure rules and practices.


Improving interethnic relations in conflict-affected societies is a difficult task, as a complex repertoire of mutual views and reactions is developed. Furthermore, the experiences of the children in such situations have rarely been taken into perspective. Therefore, this study tries to address this research gap by using data from the Republic of North Macedonia, where interethnic tensions are still present between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, although the violent outburst of the conflict ended in 2001. The paper is focused on perceptions of contact and conflict among primary aged children, and their relations with the outgroup attitudes such as liking, trusting, and wanting to play with children from the outgroup. A total of 194 children aged 6 to 11 (M = 8.4) participated in the research, filling play-like items using Qualtrics. The sample was taken from two schools with a mixed language of instruction and was balanced for ethnicity (45.9% Macedonian, 54.1% Albanian) as well as gender (57.7% female, 42.3% male). The results of the series of regression analyses show that the contact quality and a number of outgroup friends are significantly correlated with outgroup liking, willingness to play, and outgroup trust, while the perception of conflict is negatively correlated with outgroup trust. The interaction between age and the contact quantity is a significant predictor of willingness to play with the outgroup, while the interaction between majority status and contact quantity is a significant predictor of outgroup trust. The study highlights the need for a meaningful contact between children from both ethnic groups for improvement of interethnic relations.


Introduction The publication of Pushkin's Boris Godunov gave rise to a heated polemic in the criticism of the time. In May 1831 one of the first negative responses to the tragedy--and an especially severe one--appeared in the form of an anonymous pamphlet, On Alexander Pushkin's Boris Godunov, subtitled A Conversation between a Landowner Passing from Moscow through a Provincial Town and a Private Teacher of Russian Literature, Practicing in the Same. (1) Contrary to literary custom at the time, A Conversation did not appear in the pages of a journal, but came out in a separate edition from the printing house of Moscow University and was cleared for publication by the Moscow Censorship Committee. The characters in the pamphlet--a landowner, Petr Ivanovich, and a teacher of Russian literature, Ermil Sergeevich--engage in a discussion of the merits and demerits of Pushkin's latest literary production. The provincial teacher gives a critical reading of Boris Godunov to the Moscow landowner, who agrees, for the most part, with the teacher's vitriolic remarks. The general stylistic mode of A Conversation is one of parody or pastiche. The teacher, who does most of the talking, is a bit of a caricature; his turns of phrase are often grotesquely pedantic and he is not averse to parading his Latin on occasion. The laconic and straightforward landowner is running late and is therefore obliged to rush along his grandiloquent interlocutor. Although the characters are presented in a somewhat ironic vein, their criticisms are apparently meant to be taken at face value. The critical part of the pamphlet consists of what afterwards became the stock repertoire of judgments on the imperfections of Pushkin's tragedy. The play is disparaged for its lack of believable characters, for its vagueness of genre and lack of a coherent structure, for historical inaccuracies, and for various stylistic flaws. But along with these literary observations, A Conversation also contains some elements of political denunciation, namely, hints at Pushkin's political disloyalty and allegations of his lack of respect for monarchic ideals. Curiously, A Conversation appears to have been the first book (i.e., a separate edition rather than an article) ever published on Pushkin. It was also the subject of the first article (a short review) ever published by the young Vissarion Belinsky. But these two circumstances, as I will try to show, do not yet exhaust its significance for Russian literary history. The fact that the pamphlet was among the earliest critical responses to Boris Godunov, its unusual format, and, most importantly, the bluntness of its accusations, made A Conversation something of a reference point for subsequent criticism of the play. Reviewing the critical reception of Pushkin's tragedy, B. P. Gorodetskii notes: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (2) Indeed, the anti-Pushkin party greeted the pamphlet with approval and praised its author for his wittiness. "G. Z--ia," in the journal Garland (Girlanda), mentions the pamphlet favorably, with only a slight caveat: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (3) And Bestuzhev-Riumin in The Northern Mercury (Severnyi Merkurii) notes: "V ikh [Uchitelia i Pomeshchika] suzhdeniiakh my sperva ozhidali naiti mnogo provintsializma, no vmesto togo nashli mnogo stolichnogo ostroumiia." (4) At the other end of the literary spectrum, among Pushkin's partisans, A Conversation aroused righteous indignation. The young Belinsky, in his reviewing debut in The Leaflet (Listok), equates the anonymous author with the notorious graphomaniac Aleksandr Orlov and calls the pamphlet "idle schoolboy talk": [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (5) Thus, many people noted and reacted to A Conversation, but almost no one, either in the polemics at the time or in subsequent literary scholarship, has suggested who its author might have been. (6) There seems to be a clue, however, in the passage from Belinsky. …


We present a method that exploits an information theoretic framework to extract optimized audio features using the video information. A simple measure of mutual information (MI) between the resulting audio features and the video ones allows to detect the active speaker among different candidates. Our method involves the optimization of an MI-based objective function. No approximation is introduced to solve this optimization problem, neither concerning the estimation of the probability density functions (pdf) of the features, nor the cost function itself. The pdf are estimated from the samples using a non-parametric approach. As far as concern the optimization process itself, three different optimization methods (one local and two globals) are compared in this paper. The Differential Evolution algorithm is shown to be outstanding performant for our problem and is threrefore eventually retains. Two information theoretic optimization criteria are compared and their ability to extract audio features specific to speeh is discussed. As a result, our method achieves a speaker detection rate of 100% on our test sequences, and of 95% on a state-of-the-art sequence.


Background Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are common in narcolepsy. However, the prevalence of these phenomena in the general population is uncertain. Method A representative community sample of 4972 people in the UK, aged 15–100, was interviewed by telephone (79.6% of those contacted). Interviews were performed by lay interviewers using a computerised system that guided the interviewer through the interview process. Results Thirty-seven per cent of the sample reported experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations and 12.5% reported hypnopompic hallucinations. Both types of hallucinations were significantly more common among subjects with symptoms of insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness or mental disorders. According to this study, the prevalence of narcolepsy in the UK is 0.04%. Conclusions Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations were much more common than expected, with a prevalence that far exceeds that which can be explained by the association with narcolepsy. Hypnopompic hallucinations may be a better indicator of narcolepsy than hypnagogic hallucinations in subjects reporting excessive daytime sleepiness.


Spatio-temporally variable information on total vegetation cover is highly relevant to water quality and land management in river catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. A time series of the global Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR; 2000-2006) and its underlying biome classification (MOD12Q1) were compared to national land cover and regional, remotely sensed products in the dry-tropical Burdekin River. The MOD12Q1 showed reasonable agreement with a classification of major vegetation groups for 94% of the study area. We then compared dry-seasonal, quality controlled MODIS FPAR observations to (i) Landsat-based woody foliage projective cover (wFPC) (2004) and (ii) MODIS bare ground index (BGI) observations (2001-2003). Statistical analysis of the MODIS FPAR revealed a significant sensitivity to Landsat wFPC-based Vegetation Structural Categories (VSC) and VSC-specific temporal variability over the 2004 dry season. The MODIS FPAR relation to 20 coinciding MODIS BGI dry-seasonal observations was significant (ρ < 0.001) for homogeneous areas of low wFPC. Our results show that the global MODIS FPAR can be used to identify VSC, represent VSC-specific variability of PAR absorption, and indicate that the amount, structure, and optical properties of green and non-green vegetation components contribute to the MODIS FPAR signal.


This paper presents findings from domestic and international case studies of developments around high-speed rail stations and derives from these findings some lessons for station area development for California's high-speed rail system. The paper reviews the case for high-speed rail as a complement to air and highway systems in addressing congestion and providing needed additional services as the population of the State continues to grow. Review of domestic and international experiences reveals that well-planned station-area developments can result in desirable impacts on the communities served including: a) good intermodal connections – convenient access and ease of transferring between local and regional transport systems and modes, facilitated by the creation of multi-modal stations; b) physical improvements – increased and/or upgraded development of residential, retail, work and cultural land uses within walking distance of station areas; c) economic improvement – generation of economic activity and benefit as agglomeration economies take place; and d) social improvement – creation of vibrant activity centers or hubs for social interaction and recreation. Together these changes would result in significant reduction in negative environmental impacts, locally and beyond. These desirable impacts may be harnessed in planning for high-speed rail stations in California through the creation of activity hubs with coordinated transportation and land use, urban design, and multimodal access and circulation. Designs would be similar to transit-oriented development but also accommodate travelers arriving or departing stations by auto (including rental cars). This synthesis of lessons for California should also be widely applicable for more sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation systems.


This paper focuses on the grammaticality of 'by'-phrases in the Icelandic New Impersonal Passive (NIP), a construction that exhibits both passive morphology and properties that are characteristic of the active. The analysis of the NIP is debated, including whether or not 'by'-phrases are grammatical, which is one of the most important questions for the syntactic analysis of the NIP. In the paper, we focus on this particular question and compare the NIP to the Low Canonical Passive (LCP). We review two judgment tasks in which the NIP was extensively studied, one conducted by Joan Maling and Sigriður Sigurjonsdottir and another conducted in the Variation in Syntax project at the University of Iceland. As Jonsson (2009) argues, the results indicate that 'by'-phrases are indeed grammatical in the NIP but the results are not clear-cut. To gain a better understanding of the problem, we conducted a different kind of a study among 12-16-year-olds (n=309) and adults (n=38). We used fragment answers to the question 'What language is spoken in Norway?' to categorize NIP speakers (the construction is ungrammatical for many speakers) and Other speakers. The wh-phrase is syncretic for nominative and accusative and here a Canonical Passive participle is identical to a NIP participle. The answer (Norwegian) is not syncretic for both cases and therefore reveals the speaker's analysis of the question. We compared these results to how speakers answered a similar question that contained a 'by'-phrase, 'What language is spoken by Finns?' If the NIP were an active construction, we would not expect any speakers to produce accusative when answering the latter question. Still, a few speakers did, indicating that 'by'-phrases are grammatical in the NIP. Accusative was, however, produced significantly more often when speakers answered the first question. We also tested a) how NIP speakers understood a NIP sentence with a PP that should be ambiguous between meaning 'by' and 'from', and b) how LCP speakers understand an identical LCP sentence. Our results suggest that 'by'-phrases are grammatical in the NIP but the possibility remains that they are only grammatical for some NIP speakers but ungrammatical for other NIP speakers. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol20/iss1/33 'By'-Phrases in the Icelandic New Impersonal Passive Einar Freyr Sigurðsson and Brynhildur Stefansdottir∗


Abstract. The South-eastern Atlantic Ocean (SEA) is semi-permanently covered by one of the most extensive stratocumulus cloud decks on the planet and experiences about one-third of the global biomass burning emissions from the southern Africa savannah region during the fire season. To get a better understanding of the impact of these biomass burning aerosols on clouds and radiation balance over the SEA, the latest generation of the UK Earth System Model (UKESM1) is employed. Measurements from the CLARIFY and ORACLES flight campaigns are used to evaluate the model, demonstrating that the model has good skill in reproducing the biomass burning plume. To investigate the underlying mechanisms in detail, the effects of biomass burning aerosols on the clouds are decomposed into radiative effects (via absorption and scattering) and microphysical effects (via perturbation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and cloud microphysical processes). The July–August means are used to characterise aerosols, clouds and the radiation balance during the fire season. Results show around 68 % of CCN at 0.2 % supersaturation in the SEA domain can be attributed to biomass burning. The absorption effect of biomass burning aerosols is the most significant in affecting clouds and radiation. Near the continent it increases the maximum supersaturation diagnosed by the activation scheme, while further from the continent it reduces the altitude of the maximum supersaturation. As a result, the cloud droplet number concentration shows a similar pattern. The microphysical effect of biomass burning aerosols decreases the maximum supersaturation and increases the cloud droplets concentration over the ocean; however, this change is relatively small. The liquid water path is also significantly increased over the SEA (mainly caused by the absorption effect of biomass burning aerosols) when biomass burning aerosols are above the stratocumulus cloud deck. The microphysical pathways lead to a slight increase in the liquid water path over the ocean. These changes in cloud properties indicate the significant role of biomass burning aerosols on clouds in this region. Among the effects of biomass burning aerosols on radiation balance, the semi-direct radiative effects (rapid adjustments induced by biomass burning aerosols radiative effects) have a dominant cooling impact over the SEA, which offset the warming direct radiative effect (radiative forcing from biomass burning aerosol–radiation interactions). However, the magnitude and the sign of the semi-direct effects are dependent on the relative location of biomass burning aerosols and clouds. The net biomass burning aerosols radiative effect shows a negative cooling effect in the SEA, indicating the significant role of biomass burning aerosols in affecting the regional radiation balance and climate.


In this paper we develop the foundations for microlocal analysis on supermanifolds. Making use of pseudodifferential operators on supermanifolds as introduced by Rempel and Schmitt, we define a suitable notion of super wavefront set for superdistributions which generalizes Dencker's polarization sets for vector-valued distributions to supergeometry. In particular, our super wavefront sets detect polarization information of the singularities of superdistributions. We prove a refined pullback theorem for superdistributions along supermanifold morphisms, which as a special case establishes criteria when two superdistributions may be multiplied. As an application of our framework, we study the singularities of distributional solutions of a supersymmetric field theory.


Spatial synchrony, defined as correlated temporal fluctuations among populations, is a fundamental feature of population dynamics, but many aspects of synchrony remain poorly understood. Few studies have examined detailed geographical patterns of synchrony; instead most focus on how synchrony declines with increasing linear distance between locations, making the simplifying assumption that distance decay is isotropic. By synthesising and extending prior work, we show how geography of synchrony, a term which we use to refer to detailed spatial variation in patterns of synchrony, can be leveraged to understand ecological processes including identification of drivers of synchrony, a long-standing challenge. We focus on three main objectives: (1) showing conceptually and theoretically four mechanisms that can generate geographies of synchrony; (2) documenting complex and pronounced geographies of synchrony in two important study systems; and (3) demonstrating a variety of methods capable of revealing the geography of synchrony and, through it, underlying organism ecology. For example, we introduce a new type of network, the synchrony network, the structure of which provides ecological insight. By documenting the importance of geographies of synchrony, advancing conceptual frameworks, and demonstrating powerful methods, we aim to help elevate the geography of synchrony into a mainstream area of study and application.


The determination of the effective or macroscopic properties of composite materials from the corresponding local properties of the constituent phases and the underlying sub-structure constitutes the fundamental problem in Mechanics of Composites. This problem is motivated from the remarkable physical observation that the constitutive properties of these materials appear to be homogeneous or uniform at the length scale of practical applications, despite the sharp variation of their local properties at the length scale of the heterogeneity and the fairly complex spatial distribution of their phases. This dissertation is concerned with the macroscopic mechanical properties of "multi-scale" viscoplastic composites, i.e., composite systems with viscoplastic constituents exhibiting heterogeneity at more than one, well-separated length-scales. Semicrystalline polymers, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, Nylon-6, etc., are prominent examples of two-scale systems, and constitute the largest class of polymers used in technological applications. At the larger lengthscale, a semi-crystalline polymer is an aggregate of a large number of randomly distributed grains that, at the smaller length scale, are made up of alternating layers of an amorphous and a crystalline phase, both of which exhibit nonlinear material behavior. During processing, these materials are often subjected to large deformations that may lead to highly anisotropic mechanical properties as a result of the evolution of the underlying sub-structure. Primarily motivated by applications to semi-crystalline polymers, this work develops general variational methods for the estimation of the effective behavior of multi-scale viscoplastic composites. This general theory is applied to several two-scale material systems with increasing degree of complexity and sophistication. The predictions and some important features of these methods are first investigated in the context of two-dimensional model problems. Then, the general variational methods are used to develop homogenization-based constitutive models for the macroscopic response and texture evolution of semicrystalline polymers under arbitrary finite-strain loading histories. Finally, the theory is specialized to twoscale polycrystals with granular structures at the meso-scale level and lamellar structures at the micro-scale level. In this context, we model the macroscopic instantaneous plastic anisotropy of -TiAl-based polysynthetically twinned crystals and the rolling textures of ( alpha+beta ) Ti alloys. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics First Advisor Pedro Ponte Castaneda This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/193


Abstract In the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North Dakota, USA, American mink (Mustela vison) are a major predator of ducklings. Mink populations plummet during severe droughts, but some mink survive where permanent fresh water is available. In 1992–1993, we evaluated whether development of a permanent water body, the 125-km McClusky Canal (MC), had affected survival of gadwall (Anas strepera) and mallard (A. platyrhynchos) broods and ducklings in surrounding wetland complexes. Twelve of 25 radiomarked gadwall and mallard hens experienced total brood loss, and 148 of 199 radiomarked ducklings from 58 broods died by day 30. Gadwall broods (n = 18 radiomarked hens) survived to 30 days at a lower rate (0.52) than predicted for similar areas in the region with limited permanent fresh water (0.85; P = 0.009). Observed (n = 162 radiomarked ducklings from 48 broods) survival rates also were lower than predicted for gadwall ducklings 0–7 days old (0.42 vs. 0.60; P < 0.001) and 8–30 days old (0.41 vs. 0.80; P < 0.001). We attempted to include mallards in models constructed to predict brood and duckling survival rates in the Koenig Study Area (KSA), but data were too sparse. Rates of survival to 30 days for gadwall and mallard ducklings declined from an estimated 0.83 and 0.68 in 1976–1981 (Lokemoen et al. 1990), when the MC was first filling with water, to 0.36 and 0.31 (adjusted for radiotransmitter effects) in 1992–1993 after the MC had become a permanent freshwater body. Estimated gadwall recruitment rate (females fledged per hen) during 1992–1993 was 0.5, <50% of the estimated recruitment rate in 1976–1981. Of 130 radiomarked ducklings (both species) for which we determined cause of death, 114 mortalities were attributed to predation; at least 65% of 62 deaths in which the predator type could be discerned were caused by mink. Environmental planners and waterfowl managers should be aware of potential risks to waterfowl production from development of permanent freshwater bodies in prairie pothole landscapes and may wish to refine duck productivity models to consider negative effects of permanent water on duckling survival.


The authors demonstrate a technique allowing sensitive nanomechanical motion detection based on the evanescent light wave coupling between two photonic nanowires. Any relative motion between the nanowires results in a change in light coupling, providing a means of registering motion. The in-plane vibrations of a 220nm×400nm×10μm nanomechanical resonator were recorded using this method. An analysis of the sensitivity reveals the potential of this integrated technique to provide fast and sensitive motion detection.


Myotragus palomboi n.sp. (Artiodactyla, Caprinae) is described from the Early Pliocene of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean). This species is the earliest representative of the Myotragus lineage known to date in the Balearic Islands. A metatarsal, and several teeth and postcranial remains were found in a karstic deposit located on the east coast of the island, near Cal´ o den Rafelino (Manacor), together with remains of Hypolagus, two rodent species, an insectivore and several reptiles. The metatarsal and phalanges of the new bovid are short and robust and display a combination of characters only observed in Myotragus. The presence of a larger p2, a metatarsal robustness index lower than in M. pepgonellae (the earliest known species to date), together with the morphology of the incisors, all suggest that M. palomboi should be considered as the ancestor of M. pepgonellae. Short metapodials and the reduction of p2 displayed by M. palomboi could be linked to a first stage of evolution in insular conditions. The arrival of this bovid to the island of Mallorca probably took place during the Mediterranean Messinian Salinity Crisis (Late Miocene, 5.6- 5.32 Ma ago). Although the relationship of the new taxon to other fossil caprines cannot be definitively established, it could be phylogenetically close to the Late Miocene European species Aragoral mudejar and Norbertia hellenica.


Reliance on rainfall for agriculture and increased climate change and variability pose growing production risks in developing countries. Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by smallholder farmers who depend mainly on rain-fed agriculture, putting food security at both household and national levels at risk, especially in the event of drought. Investment in smallholder irrigation becomes a priority in developing countries if food security and national development goals are to be met, as their economies are agro-based. This study evaluates the impact of investment in smallholder irrigation schemes in Malawi on improving crop production and productivity in comparison with rain-fed agriculture. The area under smallholder irrigation schemes increased from 15 988 ha in 2003 to about 42 986 ha in 2011, contributing immensely to national food production. Irrigated maize production increased from 78 159 tons in 2000 to 544 378 tons in 2013.


BACKGROUND
The significant morbidity and mortality associated with severe depression and its psychotic or melancholic subtypes necessitate effective and well-tolerated therapy. This review evaluates antidepressant treatments for patients with severe depression.

DATA SOURCES
Comparative clinical trials conducted on patients with severe depression were found by an English-language MEDLINE search (1985 to present). Additional studies were identified in article bibliographies. Search terms included depressive disorders, depression and severe, hospitalized, melancholic or melancholia, psychotic, and endogenous.

STUDY FINDINGS
Evidence for efficacy of SSRIs in severe or melancholic depression comes from a small but growing number of controlled studies with adequate samples, as well as meta-analyses and retrospective subgroup analysis of premarketing trials. In studies that defined response as a 50% or greater reduction in Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) scores, response rates ranged from 53% to 64% for SSRIs and 43% to 70% for TCAs. In separate trials on severe depression, venlafaxine and mirtazapine were both more effective than placebo and an active comparator. Nefazodone and bupropion were each found to be more effective than placebo in studies of severe depression. Venlafaxine and mirtazapine have been found to be more effective than fluoxetine.

CONCLUSION
SSRIs and TCAs are comparably effective for the treatment of severe or melancholic depression. SSRIs and other newer agents appear to be better tolerated than TCAs, specifically lacking adverse anticholinergic and cardiovascular effects that may limit the use of TCAs. Emerging data with venlafaxine and mirtazapine in severely depressed patients with or without melancholia support the efficacy of these treatments. Nefazodone and bupropion were found to be effective in hospitalized depressed patients. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or combined antidepressant therapy may be useful in some patients with severe depression. Patients with severe psychotic depression may respond better to an antipsychotic-antidepressant combination.


The τ subunit of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III holoenzyme interacts with the α subunit through its C-terminal Domain V, τC16. We show that the extreme C-terminal region of τC16 constitutes the site of interaction with α. The τC16 domain, but not a derivative of it with a C-terminal deletion of seven residues (τC16Δ7), forms an isolable complex with α. Surface plasmon resonance measurements were used to determine the dissociation constant (KD) of the α−τC16 complex to be ∼260 pM. Competition with immobilized τC16 by τC16 derivatives for binding to α gave values of KD of 7 μM for the α−τC16Δ7 complex. Low-level expression of the genes encoding τC16 and τC16▵7, but not τC16Δ11, is lethal to E. coli. Suppression of this lethal phenotype enabled selection of mutations in the 3′ end of the τC16 gene, that led to defects in α binding. The data suggest that the unstructured C-terminus of τ becomes folded into a helix–loop–helix in its complex with α. An N-terminally extended construct, τC24, was found to bind DNA in a salt-sensitive manner while no binding was observed for τC16, suggesting that the processivity switch of the replisome functionally involves Domain IV of τ.


The purpose of this document is to provide an analysis of Charles Koechlin's works which feature the oboe, oboe d'amore, and English horn. These works represent a variety of genres: one sonata with piano, two sonatines with chamber orchestra, a chant for English horn and piano, one reed trio, a wind septet, a suite for unaccompanied English horn, and four monodies for all three instruments. Often treating the oboe like a purely pastoral instrument, many of these works appear to have the same characteristics; however, after a closer look, each of these works provide the performer and listener with different aspects of the instrument's capabilities, all while exploiting the instrument's ability to play extremely long phrases and flowing melodies. Some of Koechlin's works showcasing the oboe have been briefly discussed and analyzed in other dissertations and articles yet no previous research has focused solely on these compositions. In this document, all of these pieces are examined in chronological order based on their date of composition. Not only does this show an evolution of Koechlin's compositional style, but it also allows one to observe how the composer treated these instruments differently as his research into each instruments' capabilities was concluded. These analyses focus mainly on each work's formal and stylistic aspects as well as some of the compositional methods used by Koechlin. Even though these musical works present a variety of genres, a diversity of instrumentation, and several extra-musical associations, each of these pieces feature Koechlin's unique compositional style and character.


The FLP semantics presented by (Faber, Leone, and Pfeifer 2004) has been widely used to define answer sets, called FLP answer sets, for different types of logic programs such as logic programs with aggregates, description logic programs (dl-programs), Hex programs, and logic programs with first-order formulas (general logic programs). However, it was recently observed that the FLP semantics may produce unintuitive answer sets with circular justifications caused by self-supporting loops. In this paper, we address the circular justification problem for general logic programs by enhancing the FLP semantics with a level mapping formalism. In particular, we extend the Gelfond-Lifschitz three step definition of the standard answer set semantics from normal logic programs to general logic programs and define for general logic programs the first FLP semantics that is free of circular justifications. We call this FLP semantics the well-justified FLP semantics. This method naturally extends to general logic programs with additional constraints like aggregates, thus providing a unifying framework for defining the well-justified FLP semantics for various types of logic programs. When this method is applied to normal logic programs with aggregates, the well-justified FLP semantics agrees with the conditional satisfaction based semantics defined by (Son, Pontelli, and Tu 2007); and when applied to dl-programs, the semantics agrees with the strongly well-supported semantics defined by (Shen 2011).


Records from antiquity mention crippling diseases compatible with poliomyelitis. Michael Underwood first described a debility of the lower extremities in children that was recognizable as poliomyelitis in England in 1789. The first outbreaks in Europe were reported in the early 19th century, and outbreaks were first reported in the United States in 1843. For the next hundred years, epidemics of polio were reported from developed countries in the Northern Hemisphere each summer and fall. These epidemics became increasingly severe, and the average age of persons affected rose. The increasingly older age of persons with primary infection increased both the disease severity and number of deaths from polio. Polio reached a peak in the United States in 1952, with more than 21,000 paralytic cases. However, following introduction of effective vaccines, polio incidence declined rapidly. The last case of wild-virus polio acquired in the United States was in 1979, and global polio eradication may be achieved within the next decade.


Long-term, integrated records of limnology are rare in the central United States.  Mozingo Lake is a reservoir in northwestern Missouri that was sampled regularly since its creation in 1994.  Physical data were collected during 121 visits and compared to meteorological observations. July hypolimnetic temperatures have risen rapidly (2.4°C / decade: P=0.037), suggesting weakened summer stratification in the future.  Winter conditions were rarely correlated with lake conditions in the following July; the exception is July epilimnion temperature, which correlated with ice-over date, January hypolimnion temperature, and ice duration (P=0.006, 0.010, and 0.024).  In contrast, winter ice-over date was best correlated with air temperature in the preceding July (P=0.006); other factors were not significantly correlated, including fall air temperatures, July epilimnion temperatures, and October water column temperatures. Analysis of air temperatures preceding ice-over revealed that the strongest correlation was with a 68-day average air temperature of 4.8°C. July air temperatures, along with ice-over date, correlated with January ice thickness and ice duration (P=0.014 and 0.001, respectively). This suggests that a warm July is associated with a mild winter, a relationship confirmed by a significant correlation (P=0.011). Ice thickness, ice duration, and ice-out date also correlated with winter air temperature (P≤0.003 for each). It therefore appears that summer conditions influence winter conditions which, in turn, influence certain lake conditions in the following summer; this observation indicates that winter conditions may not reset physical parameters in lakes.  Legacies thus may span various intervals, ranging from a week to a year or more.  Although the Mozingo Lake record is brief (20 years), it suggests directions for longer-term studies.  Multi-year legacy effects have rarely been documented, but in Mozingo Lake they suggest that a single strong climatic anomaly may affect the lake for several years.


There is a problem in classifying McKean. McKean is known as a variable material culture grouping that sparis the Plains. It existed from about 5700 to 3300 years ago (or 5000 to 3000 radiocarbon years B.P.). Variation ·within McKean is assessed. This is based on the analysis of the Redtail site and systematic comparisons with the Cactus Flower and Crown sites. These, and other general comparisons, indicate that McKean can be considered a tradition, as defined by Willey and Phillips (1958: 37). Syms's (1977: 70-72) taxonomic framework is recommended to distinguish an earlier McKean configuration from a later Hanna configuration. Also, based on varying emphasis of use of plant resources, northern and southern regional composites should be recognized within both configurations. The focus of this study is the Redtail Site (FbNp-10). It is a multicomponent habitation located in a small basin of the South Saskatchewan River in Wanuskewin Heritage Park. This is about three kilometers north of the city of Saskatoon, in south central Saskatchewan. Preliminary tests by Dr. E. G. Walker in 1982 started an ongoing research project. A 44 m2 block area was excavated at the Redtail site during 1988 and 1989. This fieldwork provides most of the data for this thesis. The Redtail site's natural strata are complex accumulations of slopewash, colluvial and fluvial sediments. Cultural stratigraphic interpretations are based on the field excavation done in natural layers, point provenience measurements, and backplotting to detailed profiles. Paleosurface maps of the block area and taphonomic data are used to assess the post-depositional modifications. Features and spatial distribution patterns indicate probable habitation structures in some of the layers. This work provides new information for evaluating variation within McKean.


In The Dura Language: Grammar & Phylogeny Nicolas Schorer provides the definite descriptive account of this poorly documented language of Nepal and investigates the phonology, nominal and verbal morphology, lexical and syntactic properties as well as the phylogeny of Dura.


Abstract Factorial experiments are widely used to assess the marginal, joint, and interactive effects of multiple concurrent factors. While a robust literature covers the design and analysis of these experiments, there is less work on how to handle treatment noncompliance in this setting. To fill this gap, we introduce a new methodology that uses the potential outcomes framework for analyzing factorial experiments with noncompliance on any number of factors. This framework builds on and extends the literature on both instrumental variables and factorial experiments in several ways. First, we define novel, complier-specific quantities of interest for this setting and show how to generalize key instrumental variables assumptions. Second, we show how partial compliance across factors gives researchers a choice over different types of compliers to target in estimation. Third, we show how to conduct inference for these new estimands from both the finite-population and superpopulation asymptotic perspectives. Finally, we illustrate these techniques by applying them to a field experiment on the effectiveness of different forms of get-out-the-vote canvassing. New easy-to-use, open-source software implements the methodology. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Structured representations such as keypoints are widely used in pose transfer, conditional image generation, animation, and 3D reconstruction. However, their supervised learning requires expensive annotation for each target domain. We propose a self-supervised method that learns to disentangle object structure from the appearance with a graph of 2D keypoints linked by straight edges. Both the keypoint location and their pairwise edge weights are learned, given only a collection of images depicting the same object class. The resulting graph is interpretable, for example, AutoLink recovers the human skeleton topology when applied to images showing people. Our key ingredients are i) an encoder that predicts keypoint locations in an input image, ii) a shared graph as a latent variable that links the same pairs of keypoints in every image, iii) an intermediate edge map that combines the latent graph edge weights and keypoint locations in a soft, differentiable manner, and iv) an inpainting objective on randomly masked images. Although simpler, AutoLink outperforms existing self-supervised methods on the established keypoint and pose estimation benchmarks and paves the way for structure-conditioned generative models on more diverse datasets. Project website: https://xingzhehe.github.io/autolink/.


This study examined whether beetroot juice (BTJ) would attenuate inflammation and muscle damage following a marathon. Using a double blind, independent group design, 34 runners (each having completed ca. ∼16 previous marathons) consumed either BTJ or an isocaloric placebo (PLA) for 3 days following a marathon. Maximal isometric voluntary contractions (MIVC), countermovement jumps (CMJ), muscle soreness, serum cytokines, leucocytosis, creatine kinase (CK), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were measured pre, post, and 2 days after the marathon. CMJ and MIVC were reduced after the marathon (P < 0.05), but no group differences were observed (P > 0.05). Muscle soreness was increased in the day after the marathon (BTJ; 45 ± 48 vs. PLA; 46 ± 39 mm) and had returned to baseline by day 2, irrespective of supplementation (P = 0.694). Cytokines (interleukin-6; IL-6, interleukin-8, tumour necrosis factor-α) were increased immediately post-marathon but apart from IL-6 had returned to baseline values by day 1 post. No interaction effects were evident for IL-6 (P = 0.213). Leucocytes increased 1.7-fold after the race and remained elevated 2 days post, irrespective of supplement (P < 0.0001). CK peaked at 1 day post marathon (BTJ: 965 ± 967, and PLA: 1141 ± 979 IU·L-1) and like AST and hs-CRP, was still elevated 2 days after the marathon (P < 0.05); however, no group differences were present for these variables. Beetroot juice did not attenuate inflammation or reduce muscle damage following a marathon, possibly because most of these indices were not markedly different from baseline values in the days after the marathon.


For the past 700 years, processing payment transactions has largely relied on correspondent banking arrangements. Yet, this critical banking business has been unduly neglected by researchers. Much of the meagre literature on it has failed to provide a consistent definition of correspondent banking that clearly identifies protagonists, possible structures and differences to other forms of representation. Often the invention of correspondent banking is linked to the banking practice of Renaissance Italy. However, correspondent relations are much older. Thus a more comprehensive history of correspondent banking is needed. In addition, there has been a dearth of analytical work on the precise – and multi-faceted – market micro-structure of correspondent banking mechanisms to achieve international fund transfers. In this thesis, first, the scale of the correspondent banking model, its advantages and risks are laid out within the context of the current regulatory environment. Then the analytical framework, including new classifications and criteria, is developed to examine the nature, scope and significance of correspondent relationships. Based on this, an early history of correspondent banking is offered, which includes ancient and Arabic precedents that are often overlooked. Adopting a historical methodology and making use of important case studies, we contribute to filling the gap in the literature on market microstructure, offering a hitherto missing analysis of the various transaction and interaction modes in correspondent arrangements. This covers the role of agents, bills and other financial instruments used in correspondent transactions. One case study from the late 17th century, based on original archival work, involves the newly founded Bank of England. Established to raise money to fund a war and pay the troops abroad, we show it used international fund remittance methods that had been in operation well before the Bank of England was established – and on several occasions did not act as the principal source of the funds; instead, in key cases foreign correspondents were used. We conclude that a new classification of remittance payments is required that allows for transaction cycles, mainly involving bills of exchange and letters of credit.


The general objective of the SEI project (reference call: MANUNET III 2018) is to experiment spectral sensor fusion techniques of data acquired by UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) during aircraft preflight inspection. In Gen-eral Aviation, an important safety issue regards the presence of ice on the air-craft's fuselage and wings. Ice on the wings can cause loss of lift and stalling, which in most cases would result, during take-off phase, in airplane's fatal crash. Another important aspect to consider is the high amount of de-icing liquid usually involved in the process incurring in high costs and considerable damage to the environment. This is not a typical industrial scenario, but the project addresses important aspects related to the manufacturing sector: it has to accomplish spe-cific tasks following a design process; it involves human operators (labour) col-laborating with machines and tools; it includes the usage of semi-raw materials (glycol fluids) to accomplish a service; it sees serialization of the process that could be invoked at any needed time. Moreover, it targets safety issues both for operators and machines regarding reliability of results at the end of the process, it is order-based and comparable to a discrete manufacturing process.


Incorporaton  of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) into red palm oil was investigated by using acidolysis process. Rice bran and Carica papaya latex (CPL) were used as biocatalyst. Acidolysis between red palm  oil and n-3 PUFA concentrate in free  fatty acid form was conducted without solvent, with weight ratio of n-3 PUFA concentrate to palm oil being 1:1. The n-3 PUFA concentrate was prepared from tuna oil by crystallization method. The study has demonstrated  that rice bran lipase showed higher activity to incorporate n-3 PUFA into red palm oil than CPL. The extent of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid, C20:5) and DHA (docosahexaeboic acid, C22:6) incorporation were 3.4% and 12.7% with the rice bran lipase, and 1.7% and 3.2%  with the CPL. Furthermore, rice bran from several varities of paddy (Mamberamo, IR-64, Merah Munte , and Cirata) produced equal  incorporation of EPA and DHA into red palm oil. Rice bran from germinated seed of paddy  did not increase the n-3 PUFA incorporation into red palm oil. It means that rice bran in its natural form could be used and act as immobilized lipase. It is easier to remove the rice bran from reaction mixture and reuse the bran for 14 times without decreasing its enzyme activity.


One of the primary reasons for the occurrence of double taxation on cross-border transactions is the fact that all countries do not tax income in the same manner. Double taxation has led to a proliferation of agreements between States to prevent or reduce juridical double tax as an inhibiting factor to economic activity.
The ever-increasing importance of intangible assets, and the creation of value through their development and use, was highlighted by an OECD report in 2007. Uncertainty often exists regarding what constitutes a royalty payment.
The objective of the article is to elucidate the use of the term "royalty" and analyse its origin and development throughout the various versions of the OECD Model Tax Conventions ("MTC"s) and earlier versions prior to the establishment of the OECD. South African and international case law is briefly considered, while the contents of the various OECD MTCs are thoroughly scrutinised to determine whether there has been significant changes in the definition and treatment of royalty income by MTCs. It has been established that the modern definition of royalties originated from the 1928 League of Nations Draft Models ("Geneva Model") and evolved throughout successive MTCs, with the first issued by the OECD in 1961 and the latest in 2010.
The article concludes that there has been no significant change to the definition of royalties and that the Commentaries to the OECD MTCs have been greatly expanded upon, in order to provide more certainty regarding the use of the term.


A road map for service-learning partnerships between information science and nonprofit organizationsWhile service-learning is a well-known educational method for integrating learning experiences with community service, it is only now beginning to emerge in computer and information sciences (CIS). Offering a truly global perspective, this book introduces for the first time an essential framework for service learning in CIS, addressing both the challenges and opportunities of this approach for all stakeholders involvedfaculty, students, and community nonprofit organizations (NPOs), both domestic and abroad.Service-Learning in the Computer and Information Sciences outlines numerous examples of successful programs from around the world, presenting practical working models for implementing joint projects between NPOs and academia. It provides faculty members with vital insight into how to coordinate projects with a community partner, arms students with real-world problem-solving skills specific to issues faced by NPOs, and gives NPOs the expertise to leverage information technology to improve the overall value of their services. This book:Shows academics how to interact with local and global NPOs for mutually beneficial project partnershipsHelps IS students enhance their classroom experience through community service, preparing them for the workforceExamines the range of available options for service learning in CIS, especially project-based or capstone coursesIncludes case studies from technologically challenged regionsHelps NPOs become better users of technology in such areas as marketing, fundraising, and communications


A predicate is opaque for a given system, if an adversary will never be able to establish truth or falsehood of the predicate for any observed computation. This notion has been essentially introduced and studied in the context of transition systems whether describing the semantics of programs, security protocols or other systems. In this paper, we are interested in studying opacity in the probabilistic computational world. Indeed, in other settings, as in the Dolev-Yao model for instance, even if an adversary is 99% sure of the truth of the predicate, it remains opaque as the adversary cannot conclude for sure. In this paper, we introduce a computational version of opacity in the case of passive adversaries called cryptographic opacity. Our main result is a composition theorem: if a system is secure in an abstract formalism and the cryptographic primitives used to implement it are secure, then this system is secure in a computational formalism. Security of the abstract system is the usual opacity and security of the cryptographic primitives is IND-CPA security. To illustrate our result, we give two applications: a short and elegant proof of the classical Abadi-Rogaway result and the first computational proof of Chaum's visual electronic voting scheme.


Understanding urban dynamics is crucial for a number of domains, but it can be expensive and time consuming to gather necessary data. The rapid rise of social media has given us a new and massive source of geotagged data that can be transformative in terms of how we understand our cities. In this position paper, we describe three opportunities in using geotagged social media data: to help city planners, to help small businesses, and to help individuals adapt to their city better. We also sketch some possible research projects to help map out the design space, as well as discuss some limitations and challenges in using this kind of data.


Assessments of the magnitude of performance loss caused by injury or disease necessarily involve a comparison of a person's performance before and after the onset of impairment. Well-established procedures are available for measuring current performance on a variety of evaluation instruments. However, few actuarial methods have been developed for estimating the person's performance prior to injury. This study demonstrated how regression equations can be used to estimate preinjury hand strength. Although the equations generated in this investigation are specific to hand strength, the methodology can be extended to estimate the preinjury performances of persons with a variety of physical and intellectual impairments.


Introduction: Hyperprolactinemia is a common serious side effect of antipsychotic medications that are currently used in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Pharmacogenetic approaches offer the possibility of identifying patient-specific biomarkers for predicting the risk of this side effect. We investigated a possible relationship between variants (SNPs) in genes for cytochrome 2D6 (CYP2D6), dopamine-2 receptor (DRD2) and serotonin-2C receptor (HTR2C) and antipsychotic drug-induced hyperprolactinemia in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: Overall, 128 Russian patients with paranoid schizophrenia (61F/67M, aged 18-65 y) were included. Serum prolactin concentration was measured with ELISA. DNA analysis and genotyping of CYP2D6 (rs3892097), DRD2 (rs6275) and HTR2C (rs6318) genes was done with StepOnePlus Real-Time PCR System using TaqMan® SNP Genotyping Assays (Applied Biosystems, USA). Results: Our study showed an association of the CYP2D6 (rs3892097) and HTR2C (rs6318) gene polymorphism with hyperprolactinemia in patients with schizophrenia on the background of therapy. No associations were identified between the DRD2 (rs6275) gene polymorphism and the risk of antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia in patients with schizophrenia. Conclusion: Our study confirms a contribution of genetic factors to the antipsychoticinduced hyperprolactinemia in patients with schizophrenia. Further studies are required to unravel the genetic predictors of antipsychotic-induced side effects and to develop the personalized treatment strategies for patients with schizophrenia.


In order to generate advanced multilayer thermal and environmental protection systems, a new deposition process is needed to bridge the gap between conventional plasma spray, which produces relatively thick coatings on the order of 125-250 microns, and conventional vapor phase processes such as electon beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) which are limited by relatively slow deposition rates, high investment costs, and coating material vapor pressure requirements. The use of Plasma Spray – Physical Vapor Deposition (PS-PVD) processing fills this gap and allows thin (< 10 m) single layers to be deposited and multilayer coatings of less than 100 m to be generated with the flexibility to tailor microstructures by changing processing conditions. Coatings of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) were applied to NiCrAlY bond coated superalloy substrates using the PS-PVD coater at NASA Glenn Research Center. A design-of-experiments was used to examine the effects of process variables (Ar/He plasma gas ratio, the total plasma gas flow, and the torch current) on chamber pressure and torch power. Coating thickness, phase and microstructure were evaluated for each set of deposition conditions. Low chamber pressures and high power were shown to increase coating thickness and create columnar-like structures. Likewise, high chamber pressures and low power had lower growth rates, but resulted in flatter, more homogeneous layers. INTRODUCTION Thermal and environmental barrier coatings (TBCs, EBCs) are necessary for the protection of metal and ceramic components in high temperature turbine engine environments. To meet everincreasing temperature demands for improving efficiency, these coatings have become increasingly complex in composition and architecture. Thermal spray technology has been a longstanding processing method for depositing TBCs and EBCs. In traditional air plasma spray (APS), coatings are formed by the buildup of molten ceramic material as a torch traverses the substrate. Electron beamphysical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) has been used to create smooth and more strain tolerant TBCs by growth of columnar grains. In this process, vaporized ceramic material condenses onto the hot substrate surface under high vacuum conditions (<10 torr). The resultant coating has a microstructure that is well suited for turbine airfoil components. However, these processes both exhibit limitations, as APS methods produce rough coatings on the order of 125-250 microns thick (a single pass is 50-80 microns), and conventional EB-PVD processing is limited by slower growth rates, high equipment investment costs, and coating material vapor pressure requirements. A new processing technology, known as Plasma Spray – Physical Vapor Deposition (PS-PVD) has been developed in order to bridge the gap between conventional APS and PVD techniques to create unique microstructures. The PS-PVD system at the NASA Glenn Research Center is one of only four systems currently available at this time. Conventional low pressure plasma spray (LPPS) is a variation of traditional plasma spray by which deposition is done in a controlled environment at a reduced pressure, typically 50-200 torr. PS-PVD (also known as Very Low Pressure Plasma Spray (VLPPS) or Low Pressure Plasma Spray–Thin Film (LPPS-TF)) is a unique type of LPPS where pressures are considerably lower, ranging from 0.5-10 torr. The low operating pressure results in a plasma that can extend over 7 feet in length and 3 feet in diameter. The process produces supersonic gas streams (~2000 m/s) with temperatures in excess of 6000K. Although the plasma is significantly larger than standard vacuum plasma spray techniques, there is a more uniform distribution of temperature and particle velocity. The high power levels (>100kW) at pressures below 10 torr result https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20110008752 2019-12-27T10:40:01+00:00Z


The (re)presentation of biographic narrative research benefits greatly from embracing the art of its craft. This requires a renewed interest in an aesthetic of storytelling. Where do we find an aesthetic in which to base our new "performative" social science? The 20th Century was not kind to 18th Century notions of what truth and beauty mean. The terms need to be re-examined from a local, quotidian vantage point, with concepts such as 'aesthetic judgment' located within community. Social Constructionism asks us to participate in alterior systems of belief and value. The principles of Nicolas Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics offer one possible set of convictions for further exploration. Relational Art is located in human interactions and their social contexts. Central to it are inter-subjectivity, being-together, the encounter and the collective elaboration of meaning, based in models of sociability, meetings, events, collaborations, games, festivals and places of conviviality. Bourriaud believes that Art is made of the same material as social exchanges. If social exchanges are the same as Art, how can we portray them? One place to start is in our (re)presentations of narrative stories, through publications, presentations and performances. Arts-based (re)presentation in knowledge diffusion in the post-modern era is explored as one theoretical grounding for thinking across epistemologies and supporting inter-disciplinary efforts. An example from my own published narrative biography work is described, adding credence to the concept of the research report/presentation as a 'dynamic vehicle', pointing to ways in which biographic sociology can benefit from work outside sociology and, in turn, identifying areas of possible collaboration with the narrator in producing 'performances' within published texts themselves.


The purpose of the experiment was to test the effect of different sizings on aging in paper. Most paper made from the middle of the 19th century deteriorates within decades. This creates a severe problem as information stored in books and documents is lost. It is important to know what causes the deterioration so that it can be prevented.The hypothesis was that deterioration in paper is related to acidity, that acidity is related to type of sizing used, and that paper with high acidity will deteriorate faster. Seven sets of paper were made using different sizings. Half of each set was aged about 25 years by heating in an oven at 100° C for 72 hours. The cold extraction method was used to measure acidity before and after heat aging. Discoloration and tear resistance were used to estimate deterioration. Effectiveness of sizing was tested by degree of feathering when written upon and by resistance to water. The paper samples with alum rosin sizing had the highest acidity, greatest increase in acidity with aging, and showed the greatest deterioration. The difference in rate of deterioration between it and the other samples was slighter than expected, showing that the fiber used is significant in permanence even when the sizing produces acidity. The alkyl ketene dimer was superior in low acidity and in resistance to water, followed by the gelatin size. The performance of the alkyl ketene dimer was constant with aging; all other samples improved in sizing with aging.


The precise relationship between a primary protein sequence, its three-dimensional structure and its function in a complex cellular environment is one of the most fundamental unanswered questions in biology. Unprecedented amounts of genomic and proteomic data create an opportunity for attacking the sequence-structure-function mapping problem with data-driven methods. The mapping of biological sequences to form and function of proteins is conceptually similar to the mapping of words to meaning. This analogy is being studied by a growing body of research ([1] and pointers thereof). Thus, n-gram analysis (statistical analysis of co-occurrence of words in a text) has found applications to biological sequences, using various types of "vocabulary", for example nucleotides and amino acids. Here, we investigate n-gram statistics in whole-genome sequences to address the following questions: How characteristic is the amino acid n-gram distribution for specific organisms? Do different organisms tend to use different "phrases"? What is the "meaning" of a rare sequence in a protein? The long-term goal is to provide a useful starting point to derive language models with defined vocabulary and phrase preferences and grammatical rules for protein sequences of different organisms.


This article aims to compare the effect of celebrity advertisements, unknown model advertisements and product advertisements on affective, cognitive and behavioural responses. The dependent variables are attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand, self-congruity and intention to purchase. A quasi experiment was carried out with 2134 female consumers. The results show the importance of celebrity characteristics (credibility and brand congruity): the celebrity ads are more effective than the two others kind of ads only when the celebrity is perceived as credible and brand congruent.


The Variable Air Volume (VAV) system is considered to be a promising air conditioning scheme in most of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) applications. It is designed to deliver variable airflow rate for varying thermal load conditions prevailing inside the conditioned space. This paper reports the application of artificial neural network to optimize the fan speed in a variable air volume system. Based on the polynomial model, for various supply voltage and airflow rate the fan performance curves were obtained. These curves show a deviation from the real curves. Experimental results were utilized for training the artificial neural network (ANN) model. The optimized ANN model curves show less deviation with that of the real curves. This optimization technique can be used to predict the thermal comfort to be maintained in the conditioned space.


The recalcitrance of Theobroma cacao L. to somatic embryogenesis, due to non-adapted physiological and metabolical responses to environmental stress, limits its propagation. The present work aims to ameliorate somatic embryogenesis in T. cacao throughout a physiological approach. For this purpose, the influence of the position of flowers buds used as explants was evaluated. Flowers buds were collected from different parts of the tree: orthotropic main stem (OS), primary plagiotropic fan branch (FI) and secondary plagiotropic fan branch (FII). Evolution of some biochemical parameters such as phenolic compounds, soluble sugars, proteins contents and peroxidase activity was followed at different steps of somatic embryogenesis, considering the origin of the explants used. Results obtained show that callogenesis is induced on all explants independently of their origin, with an 80% average frequency. Embryogenesis frequencies were ca 2 fold higher in staminodes-derived calluses from FII and FI than OS. Meanwhile petals of FII do not differentiate embryos. Biochemical analysis shows that the content of phenol is low in calluses during somatic embryo establishment. Explants from FII present the lowest values (after 49th days of culture). Sugars content decrease during callogenesis. When embryos are established the sugars content decrease in explants from OS. During the same period, proteins' and phenols contents increased in staminodes-derived calluses from all origin; while there was decrease in petals from FI and FII. Buds from fan branch are suitable for somatic embryogenesis process and this capacity correlate with peroxidase activity which decrease during embryos dedifferentiation phase.

 Key words: Theobroma cacao L., somatic embryogenesis, proteins, phenols compounds, soluble sugars, peroxidase activity, microclimate.


MOOCs have shaped the discussion on learning with digital media for the last few years. One claim of MOOCs in the tradition of Open Educational Resources is to expand access to education, mainly in the field of higher education. But do MOOCs meet this claim? The empirical data in this article confirm the suspicion that, despite all the heterogeneity of the participants, MOOCs are mostly used by people with a higher level of education. Data of participants from two MOOCs from Germany, as well as, empirical data from large providers and universities are used. But due to the different forms of MOOCs there is no comprehensive proof possible. With respect to the Knowledge Gap Theory and the Digital Divide, a theoretical framework is provided to explain possible causes of a different usage. The aim of the article is to point out the risks of an increase of inequalities as a consequence of hyping MOOCs and to stimulate a discussion about possible answers to make MOOCs an instrument of education for all.


This article discusses a possible revision of the interpretative schema that was proposed in the book Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics , published in 2004 before the dramatic development of digital communication. In particular, the article focuses on the idea of the media system and its possible use in the digital age. Digitalization seems to foster a process of deinstitutionalization that undermines the role of institutions such as the state, political parties, and news outlet organizations that, in the era of legacy media, were affecting the feature of the media system and therefore represented important subjects of investigation and comparison as to the schema proposed in the book. Digitalization transfers, both in the field of news media and in politics, a number of functions that were played by these institutions to single, dispersed actors; today, the observation of these actors and their actions appears more complex also because of their volatility.


Tennis's gladiatorial beauty, its stylish duelling and fashionable court-wear make it a romantic's dream. Ever since young men and women first came together to play on vicarage lawns, this most Victorian of games has always had a peculiarly passionate undercurrent - love even makes it into the scoring system. And passion in other forms - the rivalry of Federer and Nadal, and John McEnroe's legendary angry outbursts. Beyond the romance, tennis has always been a barometer of the times. French star Suzanne Lenglen was a celebrity trailblazer, Jimmy Connors channelled punk, and Henman Hill is unrecognisable from the days when the All England Club ostracised working-class Fred Perry - and the great English tennis champion who is now more famous as a leisure clothing brand than a sportsman. Love Game is the must-have companion for tennis fans during Wimbledon 2014. It tells the story of tennis' journey from upper-middle-class hobby to global TV spectacle, taking in the innovators and trendsetters, the great players, heroes and iconoclasts, and the politics, class wars and culture clashes of what could rightfully be called the 'beautiful game'.


Extracted from text ... REVIEW
The South African Gastroenterology Review - November 2003 8
Indications for liver biopsy in patients
with asymptomatic elevated
transaminases
the duration of the intrahepatic phase of the biopsy to a
fraction of a second.3 Since then percutaneous liver biopsy
has been the standard method of obtaining liver tissue.
The technique is done blindly using either a standard
thin bore (1.4 to 1.8 mm diameter) aspiration
Menghini -type needle or a Tru-Cut needle (2.05 mm
diameter) where tissue is obtained by cutting.
Outpatient percutaneous liver biopsy can be performed
safely in most patients although complications requiring
hospitalisation may occur ..


Objective: Evaluate the test-retest reliability of measures that comprise the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems follow-up data set. Participants: A total of 224 persons with a moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) enrolled in the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Database. Design: Following standard administration of the follow-up interview, a second interview was administered 14 to 28 days later using the same interviewer and the same mode of administration. Main Measures: Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems follow-up interview that includes 66 variables comprised (a) single item measures of demographics; employment; general health as well as specific health conditions; rehospitalization; tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; transportation; and mental health and (b) multi-item instruments: FIM; Participation Assessment With Recombined Tools-Objective; Disability Rating Scale; Glasgow Outcome Scale—Extended; Supervision Rating Scale; Satisfaction With Life Scale; TBI Quality of Life Anxiety and Depression items; and The Ohio State University TBI Identification Method. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient values ranged from 0.65 to 0.99, weighted kappa values ranged from 0.54 to 0.99, and kappa values ranged from 0.43 to 1.00. Four kappa/weighted kappa estimates fell below 0.60: arrested, psychiatric hospitalization, number of days not in good physical health, and rating of general emotional health. Conclusions: With few exceptions, good to excellent test-retest reliability estimates were obtained. The findings support the use of these measures in prior and future studies and indicate that persons with moderate-severe TBI can provide reliable self-report.


The 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake (M s 7.2) was one of the largest historical events in the Walker Lane region of western Nevada, and it produced a complicated strike-slip rupture pattern on multiple Quaternary faults distributed through three valleys. Primary, right-lateral surface ruptures occurred on north-striking faults in Monte Cristo Valley; small-scale lateral and normal offsets occurred in Stewart Valley; and secondary, normal faulting occurred on north-northeast–striking faults in the Gabbs Valley epicentral region. A reexamination of the surface ruptures provides new displacement and fault-zone data: maximum cumulative offset is estimated to be 2.7 m, and newly recognized faults extend the maximum width and end-to-end length of the rupture zone to 17 and 75 km, respectively. A detailed Quaternary allostratigraphic chronology based on regional alluvial-geomorphic relationships, tephrochronology, and radiocarbon dating provides a framework for interpreting the paleoseismic history of the fault zone. A late Wisconsinan alluvial-fan and piedmont unit containing a 32–36 ka tephra layer is a key stratigraphic datum for paleoseismic measurements. Exploratory trenching and radiocarbon dating of tectonic stratigraphy provide the first estimates for timing of late Quaternary faulting along the Cedar Mountain fault zone. Three trenches display evidence for six faulting events, including that in 1932, during the past 32–36 ka. Radiocarbon dating of organic soils interstratified with tectonically ponded silts establishes best-fit ages of the pre-1932 events at 4, 5, 12, 15, and 18 ka, each with ±2 ka uncertainties. On the basis of an estimated cumulative net slip of 6–12 m for the six faulting events, minimum and maximum late Quaternary slip rates are 0.2 and 0.7 mm/yr, respectively, and the preferred rate is 0.4–0.5 mm/yr. The average recurrence (interseismic) interval is 3600 yr. The relatively uniform thickness of the ponded deposits suggests that similar-size, characteristic rupture events may characterize late Quaternary slip on the zone. A comparison of event timing with the average late Quaternary recurrence interval indicates that slip has been largely regular (periodic) rather than temporally clustered. To account for the spatial separation of the primary surface faulting in Monte Cristo Valley from the epicenter and for a factor-of-two-to-three disparity between the instrumentally and geologically determined seismic moments associated with the earthquake, we hypothesize two alternative tectonic models containing undetected subevents. Either model would adequately account for the observed faulting on the basis of wrench-fault kinematics that may be associated with the Walker Lane. The 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake is considered an important modern analogue for seismotectonic modeling and estimating seismic hazard in the Walker Lane region. In contrast to most other historical events in the Basin and Range province, the 1932 event did not occur along a major range-bounding fault, and no single, throughgoing basement structure can account for the observed rupture pattern. The 1932 faulting supports the concept that major earthquakes in the Basin and Range province can exhibit complicated distributive rupture patterns and that slip rate may not be a reliable criterion for modeling seismic hazard.


In this paper, we explore the issue of (dis)continuity between gestures and signs and gestures and words by comparing three longitudinal follow-ups of a hearing monolingual French speaking child, a deaf signing child (LSF), and a hearing bilingual (French-LSF) child. Our study indicates that the development of the same manual form (the index finger point) is influenced by the input children receive in the modalities they have at their disposal. Interestingly, the bilingual (French-LSF) child presents an intermediate profile as far as the number of points she uses is concerned. Our analyses do not enable us to differentiate pointing "gestures" from pointing used as a linguistic sign since we could observe no systematic formal distinction. But our study suggests that pointing facilitates the three children's entry into syntax: pointing gestures or/and signs are more and more combined to words and/or signs, facial expressions, gaze, in complex linguistic productions and with more and more deictic and anaphoric values.


Abstract Using new detailed tariff data, wages disaggregated by skill level and firm level information, this paper ascertains the relationships between trade, technology and labour demand and investigates the effects of tariff changes on factor prices in South African manufacturing. We find evidence that trade liberalization and technological change have affected the skill structure of employment. Export orientation, raw materials imports, training, investment in computers and firm age are positively associated with the skill intensity of production. We also find that tariff liberalisation raised the return to capital relative to labour, but that the negative impact on labour is concentrated on semiskilled workers. Tariff liberalisation mandated a rise in real returns to unskilled workers.


Background Antiretroviral prophylaxis may be a critical strategy to reduce periconception HIV transmission. Maximizing the benefit of periconception pharmacologic HIV risk-reduction requires an understanding of the links between pregnancy and adherence to this prevention strategy. Methods We assessed study gel adherence among women with pregnancies compared to women without pregnancies enrolled in the CAPRISA 004 phase IIB trial of 1% vaginal tenofovir gel. Pregnancy was assessed with monthly urine tests. Adherence was measured monthly and defined as proportion of sex acts covered by two returned, used applicators based on pre- and post-coital dosing. High adherence was defined as a median adherence score of >80%, that is, more than 80% of sex acts were covered by two applications of study gel. A multivariate generalized estimating equations (GEE) model with a binomial distribution was used to assess covariates associated with high adherence (>80%) over time. Median adherence before and after pregnancy was compared using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results Among 868 women, 53 had at least 1 pregnancy (4.06 per 100 woman years, 95% CI: 3.04, 5.31). Women with pregnancies had lower median adherence compared to women without pregnancies (50% [IQR: 45–83] vs. 60% [IQR: 50–100], p = 0.02). Women with pregnancies also had a 48% lower odds of high adherence compared to women without pregnancies when adjusting for confounders (aOR 0.52, 95%CI: 0.41–0.66, p<0.0001). Among women with pregnancies, adherence before and after pregnancy was not different (50% [IQR: 46–83] vs. 55% [IQR: 20–100], p = 0.68). Conclusions Women with pregnancies were less likely to have high adherence to study gel compared to women without pregnancies. Understanding these differences may inform findings from HIV prevention trials and future implementation of antiretroviral prophylaxis for at-risk women who choose to conceive. The protocol for the parent trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00441298, http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00441298.


"Material support" has become the watchword of the post-9/11 era. Material support to groups that have been designated as "terrorist" has been the U.S. government's favorite charge in post-9/11 "terrorism" prosecutions. Under immigration law, material support is a basis for deportation and exclusion - even where individuals have been coerced into providing support by the terrorist group itself. And under the Military Commissions Act, it is now a "war crime." This essay argues that the criminalization of "material support" to designated "terrorist organizations" is guilt by association in twenty-first-century garb, and presents all of the same problems that criminalizing membership and association with the Communist Party did during the Cold War. I first outline the ways in which guilt by association has been revived through the concept of penalizing "material support" for organizations labeled terrorist. I then discuss the constitutional questions that these laws present, and sketch how the courts have thus far resolved those questions. In short, the courts have sought to trim the worst excesses of the laws, but have been largely unwilling to confront head on their fundamental infirmity - the imposition of guilt by association without any proof of intent to further any terrorist acts. The essay concludes by explaining how the material support laws fit into the United States' broader "paradigm of prevention" in confronting the threat of terrorism. That term, coined by former Attorney General John Ashcroft, describes an amalgam of tactics in which the government employs highly coercive and intrusive measures against groups and individuals based not on proof of past wrongdoing, but on necessarily speculative fears about what they might do in the future. The material support laws further this goal by expanding the definition of what constitutes a past crime, just as the Smith Act membership provision of the Cold War era did. These laws are not purely preventive, in that they do require proof of some past "wrongdoing." But their expansive definitions of wrongdoing stretch that concept beyond its limits in the name of preventing future harm.


The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 15 April 2013 198 7 67-67 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2013 www.mja.com.au Editors Choice estern medicine is very good at identifying single factors contributing to disease, with undoubted health benefits for individuals and communities. It is easy to cite from the extensive list of individual factors associated either positively or negatively with disease — cholesterol, smoking, asbestos, micronutrients, antibiotics. But to what extent can this approach improve overall health, prevent disease, and help us manage complex conditions? Articles in this issue of the MJA illustrate emphatically that no single factor affecting our health should be seen in isolation. Stanton (page 350) welcomes the revised National Health and Medical Research Council dietary guidelines that refocus on foods rather than isolated nutrients, and on patterns of eating as well as total intake. She argues that focusing on single nutrients leads to distorted food choices, and taking nutrients as supplements does not allow for the complex interaction between nutrients in whole food, which may lead to adverse consequences. These issues are reflected in Brimblecombe and colleagues' survey of diets in remote Northern Territory Indigenous communities (page 380). They note high intakes of sugary drinks and processed foods fortified with nutrients, alongside low fruit and vegetable intakes. How does this relate to the high burden of chronic disease in these communities? We need to look further than body mass index and total kilojoule and nutrient intake to fully explain the connections between diet and health. An overly reductionist approach to disease assumes that tinkering with single environmental factors or isolated physiological and biochemical processes will substantially affect wellness or illness. A large section of the food industry and the entire pharmaceutical industry are built on this assumption, which is often justified. But according to complex-systems science, altering one factor can change a system in unpredictable ways. In health terms, this can manifest as either increased risk of other diseases or adverse events. Studying single factors makes for clearly defined research but neglects the complexity of the human body in its environment. Such complexity has been recognised in other areas. Our understanding of communicable illness has moved well beyond "microbe A causes disease X"; earlier, the "father of pathology" Rudolf Virchow was, unsurprisingly, inexorably led to investigate connections between causative agents, illness and the social environment (Am J Pub Health 2006; 96: 2104-2105). Larney and colleagues' cross-sectional study of susceptibility to vaccine-preventable diseases in prison inmates (page 376) exemplifies the complexity of communicable diseases: the socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds and the lifestyles of inmates, modes of disease transmission in correctional facilities, and opportunities for intervention all need to be considered when devising health strategies for this vulnerable population who are "racked, stacked and packed" in the wider community's mindset. Kirby (page 355) highlights the complex social and administrative issues in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that have led to doctors in Australia having to confront extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is difficult to manage, requiring prolonged treatment and expensive resources. A PNG national died in Queensland this year after lengthy treatment for this disease. Even assessing the therapeutic benefit and safety profile of pharmacological agents — the archetypal single-agent intervention — is often complex and controversial. Attia and Pearce (page 356) and Eikelboom and Hankey (page 358) dissect the results of the RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulation Therapy) clinical trial of the anticoagulant dabigatran and come to somewhat different conclusions. The interaction of selection bias and confounding effects from co-interventions and comorbidities are prominent, as they often are when considering drugs used for chronic diseases. In future, to promote wellness and devise lasting solutions to disease, we will need to better understand the complexity underpinning both. The challenge is for medicine and medical research to put aside single-factor thinking and regard humans as the complex systems we are, recognising that we are not merely a collection of parts that can be targets for silver bullets. W


Abstract A major change in paradigm is taking place in the operation of wastewater treatment plants as automatic process control is becoming feasible. This change is due to a number of different reasons, not least the development of online nutrient sensors, which measure the key parameters in the biological nutrient removal processes, i.e. ammonium, nitrate and phosphate. The thesis is about realising full-scale control in wastewater treatment systems using in situ nutrient sensors. The main conclusion of the work is that it is possible to significantly improve the operational performance in full-scale plants by means of relatively simple control structures and controllers based on in situ nutrient sensors. The in situ location should be emphasised as this results in short dead time, hence making simple feedback loops based on proportional and integral actions effective means to control the processes. This conclusion has been reached based on full-scale experiments, where various controllers and control structures for the biological removal of nitrogen and the chemical removal of phosphorous have been tested. The full-scale experiments have shown that it is possible to provide significant savings in energy consumption and precipitation chemicals consumption, reduction in sludge production and improvement of the effluent water quality. The conclusions are supported by model simulations using the COST benchmark simulation platform. The simulations are used for investigating issues regarding the interactions between the main control handles working in the medium time frame (relative gain array analysis). The simulations have also been used for testing various control structures and controllers. Controllers for the following types of control are suggested and tested: "h Control of aeration to obtain a certain effluent ammonium concentration; "h Control of internal recirculation flow rate to obtain maximum inorganic nitrogen removal; "h Control of external carbon dosage together with internal recirculation flow rate to obtain a certain effluent total inorganic nitrogen concentration; "h Optimisation of the choice of sludge age. Additionally, a procedure for implementing new control structures based on nutrient sensor has been proposed. The procedure involves an initial analysis phase, a monitoring phase, an experimenting phase and an automatic process control phase. An international survey with the aim to investigate the correspondence between ICA (instrumentation, control and automation) utilisation and plant performance has been carried out. The survey also gives insight into the current state of ICA applications at wastewater treatment plants. (Less)