n aircraft navigation the demands on reliability and safety are very high. The importance of accurate position and velocity inI formation becomes crucial when flying an aircraft at low altitudes, and especially during the landing phase. Not only should the navigation system have a consistent description of the position of the aircraft, but also a description of the surrounding terrain, buildings, and other objects that are close to the aircraft. Terrain navigation is a scheme that uses variations in the terrain height along the aircraft flight path. Integrated with an Inertial Navigation System (INS), it yields high performance position estimates in an autonomous manner, i.e., without any support information sent to the aircraft. In order to obtain these position estimates, a nonlinear recursive estimation problem must be solved on-line. Traditionally, this filtering problem has been solved by local linearization of the terrain at one or several assumed aircraft positions. Due to changing terrain characteristics, these linearizations will, in some cases, result in diverging position estimates. In this work, we show how the Bayesian approach gives a comprehensive framework for solving the recursive estimation problem in terrain navigation. Instead of approximating the model of the estimation problem, the analytical solution is approximately implemented. The proposed navigation filter computes a probability mass distribution of the aircraft position and updates this description recursively with each new measurement. The navigation filter is evaluated over a commercial terrain database, yielding accurate position estimates over several types of terrain characteristics. Moreover, in a Monte Carlo analysis, it shows optimal performance as it reaches the CramCr-Rao lower bound.


Seasonal adjustment methods transform observed time series data into estimated data, where these estimated data are constructed such that they show no or almost no seasonal variation. An advantage of model-based methods is that these can provide confidence intervals around the seasonally adjusted data. One particularly useful time series model for seasonal adjustment is the basic structural time series [BSM] model. The usual premise of the BSM is that the variance of each of the components is constant. In this paper we address the possibility that the variance of the trend component in a macro-economic time series in some way depends on the business cycle. One reason for doing so is that one can expect that there is more uncertainty in recession periods. We extend the BSM by allowing for a business-cycle dependent variance in the level equation. Next we show how this affects the confidence intervals of seasonally adjusted data. We apply our extended BSM to monthly US unemployment and we show that the estimated confidence intervals for seasonally adjusted unemployment change with past changes in the oil price.


The manufacturing industry remains a critical force in the quest for global sustainability. An increasing number of companies are modifying their operations in favor of more sustainable practices. It is hugely important that manufacturers, irrespective of the subsector they belong to, or their organizational size, implement practices that reduce or eliminate negative environmental, social and economic impacts generated by their manufacturing operations. Consequently, scholars have called for additional studies concerning sustainable manufacturing practices, not only to address the paucity of related literature, but also to contribute to practitioners' understanding of how to incorporate sustainability into their operations. However, apart from expanding the knowledge of sustainable manufacturing practices, it is first key to understand the ground set of values, or principles, behind sustainable manufacturing operations. For that reason, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge regarding sustainable manufacturing principles and practices. The results presented in this thesis are based on three studies: a systematic literature review exploring sustainability principles applicable to manufacturing settings, and two empirical studies addressing sustainable manufacturing practices. In general, it is concluded from the literature that there is a little knowledge about sustainability principles from a manufacturing perspective. In relation to the most common sustainable manufacturing practices, it is concluded that these practices mainly refer to energy and material management, and waste management. Similarly, the study of the adherence of sustainable manufacturing practices to sustainable production principles concluded that the principles concerning energy and materials conservation, and waste management were found to create the highest number of practices. Although most manufacturers still engage in reactive sustainable manufacturing practices driven by regulatory and market pressures, some industrial sectors were found to be more prone to develop proactive sustainable manufacturing strategies than others. Furthermore, SMEs were found to lag behind large organizations regarding adherence to sustainable manufacturing principles.


Its easy to get started in digital photography and take great photos with Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies! This fourth edition helps you choose the right camera, compose and capture great photos, load them onto your computer, enhance them with Photoshop, and share them online or as prints. Heres how to compare digital camera features, choose accessories, and explore digital SLRs; get great close-ups, sports and action shots, and portraits; and use image editors including Paint Shop Pro, Corel PhotoPaint, PhotoImpact, and Adobes popular Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Youll also discover how to: Compose pictures that communicate Make the most of macro photography Get great candid photos Create the right lighting and use cool lighting gadgets Take advantage of six cool improvements in digital SLRs Follow great ideas for getting your photos published Take great shots in a wide range of situations Learn to repair and restore treasured heirloom photos Turn your images into greeting cards, T-shirts, online albums, or prints Youll quickly find what you need in one of the seven minibooks: Your Digital Studio Using Digital SLRs Taking Great Pictures Basics of Image Editing Editing with Photoshop/Photoshop Elements Restoring Old Photos Printing and Sharing Digital Images Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, 4th Edition gets you up to speed on digital cameras and all the tricks, so you can truly enjoy your digital photography experience.


Passive behavior is ubiquitous - even when facing various alternatives to choose from, people commonly fail to take decisions. This paper provides evidence on the cognitive foundations of such "passive choices" and studies implications for policies that encourage active decision-making. In an experiment designed to study passive behavior, we document three main results. First, we demonstrate that scarcity of cognitive resources leads to passive behavior. Second, policies that encourage active choice succeed in reducing passivity and improve decisions in the targeted domain. Third, however, these benefits of choice-promoting policies come at the cost of negative cognitive spillovers to other domains.


Sea ice maps are required by a diverse range of users for scientific research and operational activities. Satellite remote sensing provides opportunities for monitoring and producing sea ice maps at a range of scales, in near real time. During March 1994 ESYS Limited and the University College London Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) operated a sea ice demonstration project to supply near real time sea ice maps in the southern ocean. The sea ice information was derived from a number of data sources: DMSP SSM/I data; ERS-1 SAR and Radar Altimeter fast delivery data; NOAA AVHRR data; and PoSAT-1 imagery. The maps were supplied to three users, two involved in yacht races in the southern ocean and a ship on an oceanographic research cruise in the waters of the Princess Elizabeth Trough region of Antarctica. The demonstration was successful, supplying the users with sea ice information which they had previously not received and combining data from various sources to produce sea ice maps. The demonstration also developed operational skills within ESYS and enabled the transfer of knowledge from MSSL to ESYS.


In Industry 4.0 environments highly dynamic and flexible access control strategies are needed. State of the art strategies are often not included in the modelling process but must be considered afterwards. This makes it very difficult to analyse the security properties of a system. In the framework of the Trust 4.0 project the confidentiality analysis tries to solve this problem using a context-based approach. Thus, there is a security model named context metamodel. Another important problem is that the transformation of an instance of a security model to a wide-spread access control standard is often not possible. This is also the case for the context metamodel. Moreover, another transformation which is very interesting to consider is one to an ensemble based component system which is also presented in the Trust 4.0 project. This thesis introduces an extension to the beforementioned context metamodel in order to add more extensibility to it. Furthermore, the thesis deals with the creation of a concept and an implementation of the transformations mentioned above. For that purpose, at first, the transformation to the attribute-based access control standard XACML is considered. Thereafter, the transformation from XACML to an ensemble based component system is covered. The evaluation indicated that the model can be used for use cases in Industry 4.0 scenarios. Moreover, it also indicated the transformations produce adequately accurate access policies. Furthermore, the scalability evaluation indicated linear runtime behaviour of the implementations of both transformations for respectively higher number of input contexts or XACML rules.


OBJECTIVES To delineate the epidemiology of Charcot foot in Hong Kong Chinese diabetic patients, and to provide baseline data for benchmarking the clinic service for this special group of patients. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Regional hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS Diabetic patients with Charcot foot and age- and sex-matched diabetic foot clinic attendees between 1995 and 2007. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Clinical presentations were compared in patients with Charcot foot and the controls. RESULTS Twenty-five patients were diagnosed with Charcot foot over 12 years; 60% were male. At the time of diagnosis, the mean age was 59 (standard deviation, 14; range, 38-85) years, with diabetes being diagnosed for a mean of 11 (standard deviation, 8; range, 0-30) years. Retinopathy was noted in 36% (n=9) and nephropathy in 20% (n=5) of the Charcot foot patients. No patient had peripheral vascular disease. This finding was statistically significant. Delayed presentation occurred in 11 patients. Presentation was usually unilateral. In the minority (n=3, 12%) with bilateral involvement, presentation was sequential. Charcot arthropathy affected the mid-foot in 64% of the patients. Superimposed infection was common (61%). Recurrent ulceration occurred in 11%, all of whom presented late. Only one patient underwent major amputation, but the 5-year mortality of Charcot foot patients could be up to 33%. CONCLUSION Charcot foot was uncommon in this population. Late presentation was common and might be related to superimposed infection; such patients were prone to recurrent ulcers.


The annual Gastro Highlights training event, held at the university Hospital Zurich last autumn, also celebrated the 60th birthday of prof.Dr.med. Michael Fried, who initiated this widely recognized event 17 years ago. Featured at the symposium was a round up of the most important new discoveries in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology to be published during the course of the previous year or represented at the Digestive Disease Week (DDW). To mark the birthday of Prf. Dr. med. Michael Fried, two international experts made a special report on the key developments in the gastroenterology to emerge over the past decades.


The use of thrombolytic agents to treat peripheral arterial occlusions is a new method. Despite its advantages, information about complications caused by the use of rt-PA and about its place in treatment is still incomplete. The aim of this study was to establish a dose range for rt-PA and to follow the patients with a protocol during and after thrombolysis. Between May 1999 to January 2000, 14 patients with symptoms of peripheral arterial occlusion came to Istanbul Medical Faculty Emergency Surgery Unit. The duration of ischaemia before their hospitalization took an average of 44 hours. (Range 3 hours-7 days). A pulse-spray catheter was directed to the thrombus under angiographic control. Bolus injection of 5 mg of rt-PA was followed by 15 minutes of interval. The extent of thrombolysis was checked by angiography and then bolus injection of 5 mg of rt- PA was repeated. After angiographic control, patients having insufficient thrombolysis, received 0.05 mg/kg/hour of infusion for 12 hours. At the end of 12 hours, thrombolytic treatment ended with a control angiography. A thromboembolectomy operation was made to patients still having an occlusion after thrombolysis. To avoid re-occlusions, all of the patients received 1.5 mg/kg/day low molecular weight heparin (enoxaparin) for 1 week. At the end of thrombolysis, 9 patients had complete lysis. A patient, having an occlusion in superior mesenteric artery had 60% recanalisation. 2 patients (14%) having 90% stenosis, needed a balloon angioplasty besides thrombolysis, and both of them had complete reperfusion. 2 patients (14%) needed a thromboembolectomy operation due to insufficient thrombolysis. 2 patients (14%) had a minor bleeding after thrombolytic treatment. After thrombolysis, 2 patients (14%) had a stroke. There were no amputations. 1 of the patients having a stroke, died 2 days after thrombolytic treatment 1 patient died due to myocardial infarction during thrombolysis. 1 patient (7%) died due to diabetic coma on the 20th day. Acute myocardial infarction was the cause of death in 1 patient on the 25th day. In conclusion pulse spray thrombolysis with rt-PA is safe and efficient. Moreover there is a reduction in complications and need for surgical procedure. The recent problem is to find the optimum dosages for the best thrombolysis and for least complications.


Abstract : In recent years, rapid evolutions have occurred in technology and its application in the electric power industry, leading to the introduction of many new systems, business processes, markets, and enterprise integration approaches. How do you manage the interactions of systems and processes that are continually evolving? Just as important, how can you tell if you are doing a good job of managing these changes, as well as monitoring your progress on an ongoing basis? And how do poor processes impact interoperability, safety, reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness? Maturity models can help you answer those questions by providing a benchmark to use when assessing how a set of characteristics has evolved. This paper provides a primer that explains the history of, evolution of, and applications for maturity models.


We report the first measurement of the near oxygen K-edge auger spectrum of the glycine molecule. Our work employed an x-ray free electron laser as the photon source operated with input photon energies tunable between 527 and 547 eV. Complete electron spectra were recorded at each photon energy in the tuning range, revealing resonant and non-resonant auger structures. Finally ab initio theoretical predictions are compared with the measured above the edge auger spectrum and an assignment of auger decay channels is performed.


Independent artists are faced with a challenging and transforming landscape that requires adaptive resilience in order to thrive creatively, today and in the future. How do we, as tertiary educators, empower and enable artists to build strong and flexible, professional contemporary art practices? To address this issue, my current research draws models of praxis from artist-run initiatives (ARI) in the Visual Arts industry, specifically from my experience as director of Boxcopy Contemporary Art Space.


At least twenty silicified volcanic ash beds have been identified in the Kuibis and Schwarzrand subgroups of the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group of Namibia. Nineteen of the Nama ash beds are in the Schwarzrand Subgroup in the Witputs subbasin. Two of these are in the siliciclastic-dominated lower part of the subgroup, which consists of the Nudaus Formation and Nasep Member of the Urusis Formation and comprises two depositional sequences. Identification and correlation of these ash beds are very well known based on stratigraphic position. Sixteen ash beds are contained within the carbonate-dominated strata of the Huns, Feldschuhhorn and Spitskop members of the Urusis Formation. These strata comprise four large-scale sequences and eighteen medium-scale sequences. Ash beds have been found in three of the large-scale sequences and seven of the medium-scale sequences. Correlations are proposed for these ash beds that extend over large changes in facies and stratal thickness and across transitions between the seaward margin, depocentre and landward margin of the Huns-Spitskop carbonate shelf. A study of whole rock and in situ phenocryst compositions was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of independently testing sequence stratigraphic correlations by geochemically identifying individual ash beds. Whole rock abundances of Al, Fe, Mg, K and Ti vary inversely with Si, reflecting variations in phenocryst concentration due to air fall and hydrodynamic sorting. These sorting processes did not substantially fractionate whole rock rare earth element abundances (REE), which vary more widely with Si. REE abundances are higher in samples of the Nudaus ash bed than in samples of the Nasep ash bed, independent of position in bed, phenocryst abundance, or grainsize, providing a geochemical means for discriminating between the two beds. Variations in the position of chondrite-normalized whole rock REE plots similarly support suspected correlations of ash beds between widely separated sections of the Spitskop Member. Abundances of Fe, Mg and Mn in apatite plot in distinct clusters for Spitskop ash beds that are known to be different and in clusters that overlap for ash beds suspected of correlating between sections. Abundances of REE in monazites differ for the Nudaus, Nasep and Spitskop ash beds in which these phenocrysts were identified. Multivariate statistical analysis provided a quantitative analysis of the discriminating power of different elements and found that whole rock abundances of Ge, Nb, Cs, Ba and La discriminate among the whole rock compositions of the Nudaus and Nasep ash beds and the Spitskop ash beds that are thought to correlate between sections. Each of the above geochemical signatures, by itself, is not definitive because the differences between beds are comparable to the variability within beds and because some signatures are shared by beds known to be different. Taken together, however, weight-of-evidence arguments based on multiple components and phases can successfully discriminate among Nama ash beds. Results from this study support sequence stratigraphic correlations of Spitskop ash beds that document stratal truncations and gaps in the record related to onlap and erosion.


ABSTRACT In fish, social interactions are commonly accompanied by acoustic signalling. Males have been found to produce sounds in a large range of species, but female sounds have received considerably less attention. But even in males, there remain significant taxonomical gaps, e.g. in one of the largest fish families, the wrasses. Here, we investigate sound production in territorial males and females of the corkwing wrasse in a field study in Norway. We complemented an in-depth analysis of the visual and acoustic behavioural repertoire of territorial males by descriptions of female behaviours. Males as well as females produced sounds in courtship and agonistic contexts. We recorded four types of sounds and found significant differences between male and female sound properties. We hereby provide one of the first descriptions of sound production in wrasses and, to our knowledge, the first one to also investigate female sound production. Our study shows that wrasses are an underappreciated family when it comes to sound production. With a repertoire of four different calls, corkwing wrasses are remarkably versatile among fishes. Our results highlight the potential and importance of future research about sound communication in neglected taxa, and in both sexes.


Matrix approximation (MA) is one of the most popular techniques in today's recommender systems. In most MA-based recommender systems, the problem of risk minimization should be defined, and how to achieve minimum expected risk in model learning is one of the most critical problems to recommendation accuracy. This paper addresses the expected risk minimization problem, in which expected risk can be bounded by the sum of optimization error and generalization error. Based on the uniform stability theory, we propose an expected risk minimized matrix approximation method (ERMMA), which is designed to achieve better tradeoff between optimization error and generalization error in order to reduce the expected risk of the learned MA models. Theoretical analysis shows that ERMMA can achieve lower expected risk bound than existing MA methods. Experimental results on the MovieLens and Netflix datasets demonstrate that ERMMA outperforms six state-of-the-art MA-based recommendation methods in both rating prediction problem and item ranking problem.


This paper studies the robust estimation and inference of threshold models with integrated regressors. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the profiled least squares (LS) estimator under the diminishing threshold effect assumption that the size of the threshold effect converges to zero. Depending on how rapidly this sequence converges, the model may be identified or only weakly identified and asymptotic theorems are developed for both cases. As the convergence rate is unknown in practice, a model-selection procedure is applied to determine the model identification strength and to construct robust confidence intervals, which have the correct asymptotic size irrespective of the magnitude of the threshold effect. The model is then generalized to incorporate endogeneity and serial correlation in error terms, under which, we design a Cochrane–Orcutt feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimator which enjoys efficiency gains and robustness against different error specifications, including both I(0) and I(1) errors. Based on this FGLS estimator, we further develop a sup-Wald statistic to test for the existence of the threshold effect. Monte Carlo simulations show that our estimators and test statistics perform well.


As a new technology for communication enriches, users are often overwhelmed not only by the technology itself but also by the information that comes with it. Especially, message receivers become more vulnerable to interruption of their normal workflow than the past, as there has been such an increase in the number and volume of messages received. People need to keep their attention focused on their mainline task by minimizing interruptions from unnecessary messages. One possible solution to tackle this problem is to give users a personalized control of messages according to their current contexts. The purpose of this study is to develop an agent-based architecture based on the blackboard communication model that captures a user's contexts to enhance a user's control over the incoming messages. Some of the strengths of using the blackboard communication model are the ability to separate the concerns among the agents and to allow for the replacement of one agent with another agent that might be more effective in doing the intended functionality. In the proposed system architecture, the core parts are: characterizing and representing the user's context, allowing the user to set rules of preference dynamically, and managing the delivery of incoming messages. As a result, this system enables users to receive messages according to the paradigm, 'where you are', 'what you are doing', 'when a message arrives', 'who is calling', and what you want to do with the incoming message in the current context


ABSTRACT Immune-mediated central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating diseases impact various areas of the brain, optic nerves, and/or spinal cord and can result in a wide range of neurologic symptoms including adverse cognitive outcomes. Neuropsychological outcomes in adult multiple sclerosis (MS) are well documented, while literature on such outcomes in pediatric cohorts is more limited. Furthermore, literature on neuropsychological outcomes in pediatric acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), neuromyelitis optica (NMO), and transverse myelitis (TM) is even more limited. This paper is the first to review what is known about neuropsychological outcomes associated with immune-mediated CNS demyelinating diseases, with a focus on pediatric MS, ADEM, NMO, and TM. Additionally, this review illuminates the need to clarify differences in neuropsychological sequelae between conditions, characterize longitudinal cognitive outcomes, and investigate neuropsychological outcomes in relation to clinical variables (e.g., age of onset, disease duration, number of relapses) and psychosocial variables (e.g., fatigue, emotional problems, behavioral functioning) to better understand neuropsychological outcomes associated with these conditions.


Far-field optical microscopy using focused light is an important tool in a number of scientific disciplines including chemical, (bio)physical and biomedical research, particularly with respect to the study of living cells and organisms. Unfortunately, the applicability of the optical microscope is limited, since the diffraction of light imposes limitations on the spatial resolution of the image. Consequently the details of, for example, cellular protein distributions, can be visualized only to a certain extent. Fortunately, recent years have witnessed the development of 'super-resolution' far-field optical microscopy (nanoscopy) techniques such as stimulated emission depletion (STED), ground state depletion (GSD), reversible saturated optical (fluorescence) transitions (RESOLFT), photoactivation localization microscopy (PALM), stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), structured illumination microscopy (SIM) or saturated structured illumination microscopy (SSIM), all in one way or another addressing the problem of the limited spatial resolution of far-field optical microscopy. While SIM achieves a two-fold improvement in spatial resolution compared to conventional optical microscopy, STED, RESOLFT, PALM/STORM, or SSIM have all gone beyond, pushing the limits of optical image resolution to the nanometer scale. Consequently, all super-resolution techniques open new avenues of biomedical research. Because the field is so young, the potential capabilities of different super-resolution microscopy approaches have yet to be fully explored, and uncertainties remain when considering the best choice of methodology. Thus, even for experts, the road to the future is sometimes shrouded in mist. The super-resolution optical microscopy roadmap of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics addresses this need for clarity. It provides guidance to the outstanding questions through a collection of short review articles from experts in the field, giving a thorough discussion on the concepts underlying super-resolution optical microscopy, the potential of different approaches, the importance of label optimization (such as reversible photoswitchable proteins) and applications in which these methods will have a significant impact. Mark Bates, Christian Eggeling


This paper presents a novel source-biased approach to automatically discover and rank relevant data intensive web services. It supports a service-centric view of the Web through source-biased probing and source-biased relevance detection and ranking metrics. Concretely, our approach is capable of answering source-centric queries by focusing on the nature and degree of the topical relevance of one service to others. This source-biased probing allows us to determine in very few interactions whether a target service is relevant to the source by probing the target with very precise probes and then ranking the relevant services discovered based on a set of metrics we define. Our metrics allow us to determine the nature and degree of the relevance of one service to another. We also introduce a performance enhancement to our basic approach called source-biased probing with focal terms. We also extend the basic probing framework to a more generalized service neighborhood graph model. We discuss the semantics of the neighborhood graph, how we may reason about the relationships among multiple services, and how we rank services based on the service neighborhood graph model. We also report initial experiments to show the effectiveness of our approach.


Motivation. As the human genome project progresses and some microbial and eukaryotic genomes are recognized, numerous biotechnological processes have attracted increasing number of biologists, bioengineers and computer scientists recently. Biotechnological processes profoundly involve production and analysis of high-throughput experimental data. Numerous sequence libraries of DNA and protein structures of a large number of micro-organisms and a variety of other databases related to biology and chemistry are available. For example, microarray technology, a novel biotechnology, promises to monitor the whole genome at once, so that researchers can study the whole genome on the global level and have a better picture of the expressions among millions of genes simultaneously. Today, it is widely used in many fields---disease diagnosis, gene classification, gene regulatory network, and drug discovery. For example, designing organism specific microarray and analysis of experimental data require combining heterogeneous computational tools that usually differ in the data format; such as, GeneMark for ORF extraction, Promide for DNA probe selection, Chip for probe placement on microarray chip, BLAST to compare sequences, MEGA for phylogenetic analysis, and ClustalX for multiple alignments.
Solution. Surprisingly enough, despite huge research efforts invested in DNA array applications, very few works are devoted to computer-aided optimization of DNA array design and manufacturing. Current design practices are dominated by ad-hoc heuristics incorporated in proprietary tools with unknown suboptimality. This will soon become a bottleneck for the new generation of high-density arrays, such as the ones currently being designed at Perlegen [109].
The goal of the already accomplished research was to develop highly scalable tools, with predictable runtime and quality, for cost-effective, computer-aided design and manufacturing of DNA probe arrays. We illustrate the utility of our approach by taking a concrete example of combining the design tools of microarray technology for Harpes B virus DNA data.


We investigated the interaction of nitrogen (N) supply and CO2 enrichment on the growth and photosynthesis of Panicum laxum (C3), P. coloratum (C4) and P. antidotale (C4). Plants were grown at ambient CO2 partial pressures (pa) of either 36 (low) or 71 (high) Pa, in potted soil supplied with 0 (low) or 60 (high) mg N kg-1 soil week-1. Elevated CO2 enhanced total plant dry mass of all three species by approximately 28% under high N supply, but had no effect on biomass accumulation under N deficiency. CO2 enrichment resulted in reductions of CO2 assimilation rates (A; measured at comparable pa) of P. laxum, indicating acclimation of photosynthesis. This acclimation, which was more pronounced under N stress, was unrelated to changes in leaf N or non-structural carbohydrate concentrations, because neither were affected by CO2 enrichment. In the C4 grasses grown at low N, A were fully saturated at the current ambient pa, whereas at high N, A increased slightly when CO2 was raised to 71 Pa. N deficiency reduced the initial slope of the CO2 response curve of A in P. antidotale, and this effect was more pronounced at high CO2. In conclusion, the preclusion of a growth response to CO2 enrichment by N deficiency was correlated with a strong inhibition of A in the C3 species, and the saturation of A at below current atmospheric pa in C4 species.


"Let me put it quite succinctly: even as a youth I had the vague desire and intention to develop myself fully, myself as I am."--Wilhelm Meister from Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship "It is another life. All of you ... are also side by side. Suddenly people have become kin--I understand all-the words I don't understand; but everything else I understand, everything!"--Pelagueya Nilovna from Mother The quotes above taken from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1796) and Gorky's Mother (1906) reflect pregnant moments in the respective processes of self-formation depicted in these works. In their statements, both Wilhelm Meister and Pelagueya Nilovna articulate an instant of awakening, an epiphany along their paths of becoming complete, harmonious individuals. It is these processes of self-cultivation that are the focus of the current investigation. At first sight, it may seem counterintuitive to pursue this comparison. Indeed, there are intrinsic differences in the social, political, and philosophical climates in which these texts were produced. These differences notwithstanding, the novels in question delineate comparable courses of development that express each respective period's desire to form new, more perfect human beings. The process of nurturing fully-realized individuals follows similar patterns in both situations. In the German tradition, the project of self-formation is termed Bildung, while the Russian version is vospitanie. Both projects claim humanist objectives and unfold according to a symbiotic relationship between intellectual and social activity. These processes do not restrict themselves to the formation of the individual. Indeed, they involve socially-oriented goals, according to which personal fulfillment engenders social felicity and vice versa. Finally, despite these lofty intentions, both programs reveal underlying hegemony that belies the grand humanistic goals they set for themselves. I. Bildung--Germany's neo-humanistic pedagogical project In the last third of the 18th century, there was a rebirth of interest in and valorization of Greek antiquity among the German-speaking intelligentsia. This rebirth, or neo-humanism, revolves around the belief that each individual possesses the capacity to cultivate those noble and lofty qualifies common to all human beings via art. The blueprint for the properly-formed individual was sought in the art works of antiquity, particularly in the forms and images of Hellenic sculpture. These statues constitute the physical manifestation of intellectual and spiritual ideals: power, balance, harmony, and beauty. These notions are echoed in the texts of numerous thinkers of the age, including Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1786), Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) and Karl Philip Moritz (1756-1793). (1) The term Bildung is notoriously difficult to render adequately in English. (2) Its root, Bild, connotes a variety of meanings, including "image", "form", and "shape". Also, adding the suffix -ung implies both a state and a process. From these terms, there are a number of possible translations of Bildung, including "physical appearance", "form", "formation", "shape", and "education" to name a few. Bildung's etymological ambiguity and its complex genesis account for an intrinsic malleability of the term. (3) The framers of Bildung delineated this theory as a means of self-betterment and social improvement concurrent with and complementary to the program of neo-humanism. David Sorkin recognizes the interdependence of Bildung's pedagogical aims and its humanistic principles in his article on Wilhelm von Humboldt. Sorkin states that: Bildung was created by philosophers and belletrists who aestheticized religious and philosophical notions under the aegis of the Hellenic revival. It emerged with neohumanism in the 1790's and became Protestant Germany's secular social ideal. …


The research study provided a cultural description and interpretation of how Teachers Network Learning Circle's participants related, worked and learned with each other, and how they developed and changed within a predominantly symmetrical or consensual power relationship. The participants, consisting of six Singapore primary teachers at grade 4, were engaged in group discussions that were spread over a period of one year to complete an action research project which is integrated in day-to-day work. Teachers Network Learning Circle, a formal professional development platform, employs distinctive tools for dialogue and inquiry based on the principles of voluntary participation, reflection, change and trust. The fundamental reason for choosing this site is its potential to empower and emancipate teachers evident from not only the principles and practices it espouses, but also its vision and mission that is consistent with its motto "For Teachers, By Teachers". The literature on education change and reforms has point towards teacher empowerment for successful education change. In this regard, investing in teacher professional development and professionalism is important. The literature also point towards embracing a sociological perspective evident in the notions of community and socio-cultural theory, and bringing to bear emotions, values and identity in teacher learning – and thus investing in the 'whole person' (Day, 1997). As power underlies all social relations and activities including teachers' learning, the research study took into consideration the perspectives of critical theory of Habermas, Brookfield and Mezirow. The findings of the study found that symmetrical power relation contributed to teacher development and change. First, it had contributed to a collegial collaborative relationship that took into account of emotions, moral, identity development and group solidarity. Second, it had contributed to the consciousness, critique and co-construction of professional knowledge. Third, it had empowered participants insofar as it built participants' capacities to act successfully within an existing system and structures of power. The symmetrical power relation was undergirded by rules and principles of democratic participation as outlined by Habermas' discourse ethics. The findings also revealed the importance of support given by the school principal and Teachers Network personnel in protecting democratic spaces, or Habermas' concept of the lifeworld, from the system imperatives of power and money.


It is desirable for a restorative dental material to have bioactive and adequate mechanical properties at the interface between the material and the tissue to prevent micro-leakage and ingress of bacteria. Current dental restorative composites, which consist of mainly polymer matrix, filler particles, and coupling agent, do not exhibit these properties. The presence of discrete zones at the interface between these three components could cause water absorption and the osmotic effect would result in swelling and residual pressure on tooth structure. In this study, a material recently introduced by 3M ESPE with the commercial name of FILTEK Silorane was modified by incorporating nano-hydroxyapatite (HA) and fluoroapatite (FA) crystals and then evaluated for specific properties. Apatite powders have high surface area to volume, tendency to show osteoconductivity, superior chemical homogeneity and micro structural uniformity. Hence, it would be advantageous to combine these two materials to form a new dental material that would possess the above desirable properties. The requirement of a specific material differs according to the nature of the application and there are different techniques in modifying and fabricating different compositions to achieve exact requirements for clinical use HA and FA were prepared in the laboratory by sol gel technique which involved the use of dried oven for ageing and heat treatment in furnace while silorane was dissolved in a Tetrahydrofuran (THF). Once the Silorane got completely dissolved in the solvent, n-HA and n-FA was added in different weight percentages. The mixture was left to mix for 24 hours. After the mixing films were cast from the suspension and dried. The prepared samples were tested for characterization, bioactivity and few mechanical properties. Object of this study was to invent a bioactive restorative material with good mechanical, physical and chemical properties. Result of the study shows that addition of HA and FA by 40 to 60% weight results in the modification of chemical structure because of increase in filler size. In comparison the spectra of 5 and 10% show the presence of fluoroapatite and hydroxyapatite without modifying the chemical structure of the Silorane Moreover fluoride ions are already present in the filler matrix of Silorane and by adding fluoroapatite it may increase the concentration of fluoride in the matrix. Bioactivity and mechanical properties were improved in modified silorane as more the fillers content in any material the more would be the strength and bioactivity of the material. It is also important that a proper balance of the matrix and filler is maintained so that the material does not become too brittle. Table of


Background: Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a common and severe mental disorder. The involvement of genetic factors in the pathophysiology of BPD is well known. In the present study, we tested the association of several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within 3 strong candidate genes (CACNA1C, CHRNA7, and MAPK1) with BPD. These genes are involved in monoamine-related pathways, as well as in dendrite development, neuronal survival, synaptic plasticity, and memory/learning. Methods: One hundred and thirty-two subjects diagnosed with BPD and 326 healthy controls of Korean ancestry were genotyped for 40 SNPs within CACNA1C, CHRNA17, and MAPK1. Distribution of alleles and block of haplotypes within each gene were compared in cases and controls. Interactions between variants in different loci were also tested. Results: Significant differences in the distribution of alleles between the cases and controls were detected for rs1016388 within CACNA1C, rs1514250, rs2337980, rs6494223, rs3826029 and rs4779565 within CHRNA7, and rs8136867 within MAPK1. Haplotype analyses also confirmed an involvement of variations within these genes in BPD. Finally, exploratory epistatic analyses demonstrated potential interactive effects, especially regarding variations in CACNA1C and CHRNA7. Limitations: Limited sample size and risk of false-positive findings. Discussion: Our data suggest a possible role of these 3 genes in BPD. Alterations of 1 or more common brain pathways (e.g., neurodevelopment and neuroplasticity, calcium signaling) may explain the obtained results.


End-users conduct various on-line activities. Quite often, they re-visit websites and use services to perform re-occurring activities, such as on-line shopping. The end-users are required to enter the same information into various web services to accomplish such re-occurring tasks. It can negatively impact user experience when a user needs to type the re-occurring information repetitively into such web services. In this paper, we propose an approach to prevent end-users from performing such repetitive tasks. Our approach propagates user inputs across services by linking similar input and output parameters. Our approach per-fills values to the input parameters for an end-user using his or her previous inputs. To increase the chance of identifying a proper value for an input parameter performed by one end-user, our approach also leverages the inputs from other end-users. We identify and link similar end-users to enable the propagation of user inputs among end-users. We have designed and developed a prototype. We also conduct an empirical study to evaluate our approach using the real world services. The empirical results show that our approach using an end-users previous inputs can reduce on average 41previous inputs from the similar end-users can improve our approach in reducing the repetitive typing for an end-user.


A myriad of agricultural and livestock production systems co-exist in the developing countries. Agricultural research for development should therefore aim at delivering strategies that are well targeted to the heterogeneous landscapes and diverse biophysical and socioeconomic contexts the agricultural production system is operating in. To that end, in the recent past several approaches to spatially delineate landscapes with broadly similar production strategies, constraints and investment opportunities, have been applied. The mapped Seré and Steinfeld livestock production classification, for example, has been widely used for the targeting of pro-poor livestock intervention within ILRI. In this paper we describe potential methodologies for the inclusion of crop-specificity and intensification in the existing Seré and Steinfeld livestock systems classification. We also present some first broad-brush future projections of these detailed crop-livestock production systems. A number of example applications are discussed and recommendations for future improvement and use are made. While the production system classifications are especially useful for bio-physical applications such as livestock-environment interactions and feed assessments, the links with socioeconomic factors still need to be explored further. Also, it is only one of the necessary building blocks for better targeting of research and development efforts. We, however, believe that the proposed system classifications will be of use to a variety of agricultural and livestock scientists and development agents alike. In addition, they serve as practical examples making the case for the use of spatial stratification when targeting agricultural research and development.


The Ireland-Claisen rearrangement is a powerful synthetic tool which allows predictable diasterocontrol and chirality transfer in the synthesis of γ,δ-unsaturated carboxylic acids. Previous work within the Carbery group has developed a novel protocol for the synthesis of β-alkoxy- and aryloxy-α-amino acids. Chapter 2 covers the initial volume of work on developing this methodology further to allow the synthesis of sterically congested α-quaternary carbon centres in β-alkyoxy- and aryloxy-α-amino acids. Individual substrate optimisation allowed improvement of both the yields and diastereoselectivity of this rearrangement, along with the isolation of a key degradation product. A series of heteroproline-based rearrangements laid the groundwork for remote chirality transfer within this Ireland-Claisen rearrangement. The principle of self-regeneration of stereocentres is applied in an Ireland-Claisen context in Chapter 3. Showing exceptional levels of remote stereocontrol the rearrangement is shown to be general, offering almost exclusively diastereoselectivities of >99:1. Allylic enol ether amino esters saw yields of 47 – 83% and provided functional handles allowing for further synthetic manipulations. Carbon substituted allyl amino esters allowed facile access into β-hydroxy-α-amino acid derivatives of proteinogenic amino acids leucine and isoleucine (amongst others) with excellent selectivity. The synthesis of both enantiomers of mycestericin G in Chapter 4 highlights the synthetic utility of this methodology, in addition to allowing a revision of absolute configuration of this natural product. The synthesis of a mycestericin G analogue, derived from threonine, is also presented. Finally, Chapter 5 exploits these rearrangement products as chiral diene ligands in rhodium-catalysed conjugate addition reactions. Both ligand and reaction condition optimisation led to a range of aryl boronic acids used in the 1,4-addition to 2-cyclohexenone with yields of 24 – 100% and enantioselectivities of 74 – 93% observed.


Habitat availability ultimately limits the distribution and abundance of wildlife species. Consequently, it is paramount to identify where wildlife habitat is and understand how it changes over time in order to implement large-scale wildlife conservation plans. Yet, no work has quantified the degree of change in range-wide breeding habitat for the Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia), despite the species being listed as endangered by the U.S. Federal Government. Thus, using available GIS data and Landsat imagery we quantified range-wide warbler breeding habitat change from 1999-2001 to 2010-2011. We detected a 29% reduction in total warbler breeding habitat and found that warbler breeding habitat was removed and became more fragmented at uneven rates across the warbler's breeding range during this time period. This information will assist researchers and managers in prioritizing breeding habitat conservation efforts for the species and provides a foundation for more realistic carrying capacity scenarios when modeling Golden-cheeked Warbler populations over time. Additionally, this study highlights the need for future work centered on quantifying Golden-cheeked Warbler movement rates and distances in order to assess the degree of connectivity between increasingly fragmented habitat patches.


This essay proposes that the "affective turn" in performance scholarship, which has elevated the status of PaR in some respects, requires a corresponding re-examination of existing models of reflective practice, which compartmentalize reflection temporally and orient the writer towards reflection as a form of "problem-solving," implicitly encouraging narratives of amelioration. I am seeking to stretch time, or, rather, to lay down a fabric of writing that stretches over my experience of the pastness of then, while also accommodating my experience of the presentness of then, or, how "then" is "now." This is to say that, because my experience of re-membering or re-animating this training gives rise to a non-linear experience of time, I have come to find a need to create a kind of writing that is also productive of a non-linear experience of time (even as it seeps back into the conventional categorical confines of how I imagine time). MARY ELIZABETH ANDERSON is an Assistant Professor in the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Mary's research and creative activity engages questions about the human relationship to place. Her essays about performer training and community performance have appeared in: About Performance; African Theatre; Australasian Drama Studies; Body, Space & Technology; Brolga: An Australian Journal About Dance; Journal of Dance Education and Research in Drama Education (RiDE) . Co-authored works with Doug Risner have appeared in Arts Education Policy Review and Teaching Artist Journal . She is currently at work on a manuscript about site-specific performance, memory, and Australia.


A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT CAPACITY IN MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA John Franklin Christmas Jr., Ph.D. George Mason University Dissertation Director: Dr. Peter J. Balint The objective of this exploratory case study was to comparatively assess State Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Management Capacity in Maryland and Virginia. That is, to measure the perceived ability of each of these states to effectively manage AIS. To collect data for the assessment I conducted semistructured interviews as scripted telephone surveys, which included both openended and closed-ended questions. The interviews generated data in the form of categorical responses to a series of perceptual questions relating to the various components of State AIS Management Capacity, including: situational, political, institutional, state, organizational, and evaluation capacities. The respondents surveyed represented a wide spectrum of AIS experts in Maryland (n=20) and Virginia (n=10) ranging from field biologists to senior managers in both the governmental and nongovernmental sectors. Overall, considering all responses to each of the questions relating to the various components of capacity, the majority of responses in both states were "moderately-developed," (i.e., AIS program needs some improvement) with this response selected for 52.3% of the responses in Maryland and 58.2% of the responses in Virginia. However, there was a greater frequency of "welldeveloped" (i.e., sufficient AIS program) responses in Maryland (30.3%) than in Virginia (10.9%) and conversely a lower frequency of "poorly-developed" (i.e., AIS program needs considerable improvement) responses in Maryland (17.4%) than in Virginia (31.0%). Categorical data relating to the perceptual responses of the various components of AIS capacity was coded based on a traditional Likert-like scale ranging from 1-5 (poorly-developed=1, moderately-developed=3, welldeveloped=5). Group means were calculated for each component of capacity assessed by respondents in each state. The group means for the various components of capacity assessed ranged from 2.4–4.2 in Maryland and from 2.03.3 in Virginia, on a scale of 1 (poorly-developed)–5 (well-developed). The greatest differences were apparent in the respondent's perceptions of situational and state capacity, which were both higher in Maryland than in Virginia. An integrative metric—the index of State AIS Management Capacity (IAIS)—was calculated for each state, as a composite measurement incorporating coded values for all responses for all components of capacity evaluated. The overall IAIS for Maryland was 3.3 while the IAIS for Virginia was 2.6. On a relative scale of 1-5, a higher IAIS value indicates an overall perception by respondents of a better-developed State AIS Management Capacity. Permutation analysis was conducted to determine whether the perceptions of the individual components of State AIS Management Capacity differed significantly in Maryland and Virginia. These analyses confirmed the empirical findings, with statistically significant differences found between states in relation to perceptions of situational (p<0.05) and state capacity (p<0.05), with Maryland receiving higher scores. No statistically significant differences were observed between states as far as perceptions of political capacity, institutional capacity, organizational capacity, or evaluation capacity. Seemingly, the AIS programs in Maryland and Virginia are both reasonably effective, with adequate regulations in place to address most AIS concerns. A basic framework for state AIS management has been developed in both Maryland and Virginia. However, the framework for addressing AIS concerns is not codified or formally established in Maryland, unlike Virginia where such an AIS framework is both codified and formally established. Considerable differences were observed in the governance of the executive branch natural resource agencies tasked with AIS program implementation in these states. While both states have an AIS organization, neither has a discrete AIS program. Staff are generally assigned in a collateral fashion on an ad hoc basis to particular AIS issues, while having other primary responsibilities. Both states have a long-standing regional involvement in AIS issues, and both states have had successes in AIS eradication, although AIS issues remain generally a low priority issue in these states.


Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) requires an organisation to be responsible for "the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, through transparent and ethical behaviour that contributes to sustainable development" (ISO Central Secretariat, 2011, p. 26). Companies are voluntarily starting to implement CSR due to understanding the social need or wanting to improve their corporate image. The Internet facilitates the availability and accessibility of information for consumers, hence it is perceived as the most transparent communication channel of modern times. Due to this transparency, consumers are exposed to an unsolicited amount of information and have access to information regarding CSR scandals. As a consequence, consumers turn to social media, which gives them the opportunity to voice and exchange opinions. However, this transparency can have an impact on trust issues for the consumer, which then can affect trustworthiness within CSR-related campaigns, especially towards companies in the food industry, where scandals are particularly high. The aim of this research is to explore these trust issues within CSR communication in social media. The implications of this study are aimed to help marketing managers, who want to take an honest approach to CSR. Through this approach, marketing manages are able to find a way to gain consumer trust. To gain an understanding of this problem, an inductive approach was chosen comprising of a qualitative analysis based on 14 semi-structured interviews with German consumers. The main findings imply that consumers do not trust CSR projects when there is no relation between the company and its CSR project and there is a lack of proof that the project exists. When communicating CSR in social media, companies need to educate the consumer about CSR, pursue honest communication, and react to criticism.


Factors Driving Demography and Temporal Variability in pH of the Acid Weed, Desmarestia herbacea By Angela T. Zepp Masters of Science in Marine Science California State University Monterey Bay, 2017 Demographic studies allow for a better understanding of how populations change over time and establish a baseline to examine how biotic and abiotic factors influence populations. The annual alga Desmarestia herbacea, or the acid weed, accumulates sulfuric acid within cell vacuoles, likely as a chemical defense mechanism. Whether intracellular pH varies among different life history stages is poorly understood. A D. herbacea population in the Stillwater Cove, California kelp bed was assessed for two years in order to measure how internal pH varies relative to demographics, season, grazing pressure and oceanography. The timing of both spring recruitment and fall senescence varied interannually. Sporophyte recruitment occurred during the upwelling season in mid-March, two weeks earlier than previously reported, and thalli reached maximum length during the Oceanic season, then senesced during the Davidson Current season. Maximum mean thallus length varied inversely as a function of density, with smaller plants present in 2015 when densities were higher. In contrast in 2016, individuals were significantly larger, their densities were lower, and the population senescence period extended much longer into January 2017. The ontogenetic shift in intracellular pH of D. herbacea varied with life history stage and was strongly seasonal in both years and may be driven by ocean temperature. Specifically, in 2016, the pH was highest during the recruitment season (1.38 ± 0.14), followed by a decline in pH during the growth period (0.60 ± 0.01), followed by an elevation during the senescence period (0.65 ± 0.02). Benthic invertebrate grazers had a strong, significant and negative effect on the early recruitment of D. herbacea both in permanent plots and an herbivore exclusion experiment. Plots with higher herbivore grazing pressure had significantly lower recruitment. Higher densities, and smaller individuals in 2015 may have been correlated with higher temperatures in 2015 associated with ENSO events. These findings suggest that despite inter-annual variability in demographic patterns, strong, seasonal shifts in intracellular pH may reflect ontogenetic shifts in chemical defense to protect vulnerable growth phases of life history.


SUMMARY. Phenobarbital and carbamazepine are antiepileptic drugs that act at the nervous central system by different mechanisms of action. In this work we investigated the pharmacological effects of these drugs on mouse phrenic nerve-diaphragm preparations through the myographic technique. Carbamazepine (0.105, 1.05, 2.1 and 4.2 mM, n = 8, 6, 6 and 6, respectively), induced a dose-dependent neuromuscular blockade, under indirect or direct muscle stimulation and the neurotransmission was reestablished after washing. Conversely, phenobarbital caused an unexpected facilitatory effect, under several formulations, such as the acid-extracted commercial tablets (1.05, 2.1 and 4.2 mM, n = 7, 6 and 7, respectively), commercial phenobarbital solution (4.2 mM, n = 7) or its correspondent pure active ingredient (4.2 and 2.1 mM, n = 6 each). Only at a higher concentration the acid-extracted phenobarbital performed a neuromuscular blockade (8.4 mM, n = 10). The different responses between carbamazepine (paralysis) and phenobarbital (facilitatory effect) evidentiated a new effect for phenobarbital until now concealed at the neuromuscular junction and may involve the glutamatergic regulation, since its role as an acetylcholine co-transmitter in motoneurons was already established.


Hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2 are important targets for the host immune response. The genes encoding these proteins exhibit a high degree of variability that gives rise to differing phenotypic traits, including alterations in receptor-binding affinity and immune recognition and escape. In order to elucidate patterns of adaptive evolution during chronic infection, a panel of full-length E1E2 clones was generated from sequential serum samples obtained from four chronically infected individuals. By using likelihood-based methods for phylogenetic inference, the evolutionary dynamics of circulating HCV quasispecies populations were assessed and a site-by-site analysis of the d(N)/d(S) ratio was performed, to identify specific codons undergoing diversifying positive selection. HCV phylogenies, coupled with the number and distribution of selected sites, differed markedly between patients, highlighting that HCV evolution during chronic infection is a patient-specific phenomenon. This analysis shows that purifying selection is the major force acting on HCV populations in chronic infection. Whilst no significant evidence for positive selection was observed in E1, a number of sites under positive selection were identified within the ectodomain of the E2 protein. All of these sites were located in regions hypothesized to be exposed to the selective environment of the host, including a number of functionally defined domains that have been reported to be involved in immune evasion and receptor binding. Dated-tip methods for estimation of underlying HCV mutation rates were also applied to the data, enabling prediction of the most recent common ancestor for each patient's quasispecies.


Gold nanoparticles with a diameter of approximately 20 nm have been observed at the polarized water/2-octanone interface by the nonlinear optical technique of second harmonic generation. Electric field induced adsorption of the gold particles at this liquid/liquid interface is clearly observed and confirms that these are negatively charged. The process is quasi-reversible at high potential sweep rates, but aggregation at the interface is observed at slower sweep rates through the loss of the nonlinear optical signal. The time evolution of the second harmonic signal is also reported during potential step experiments. After a rapid increase due to adsorption, a continuous decrease in the nonlinear optical signal intensity is observed due to aggregation of the particles into large islands at the interface. Diffusion of these large islands at the interface was observed for a longer timescale through large signal fluctuations.


Beaded molecule imprinted polymer (MIP) was made by suspension polymerization. Particles with the size of 50-70 microns in diameter were collected and evaluated in HPLC mode to separate stereo isomers. Stereo isomers cinchonine and cinchonidine were successfully discriminated with selectivity factor of 2.89 and resolution factor of 0.76. Stereo selectivity of the MIP was found to come from both the interaction between the analyte and carboxyl group on the MIP and the similarity between the stereo structure of imprinted molecule and the MIP. The thermal analysis results showed that the MIP had high thermal stability with initial thermal decomposition temperature of 320 degrees C. The pore volume of the MIP was 0.1849 mL/g, the specific surface area was 126.84 sqm/g and the average pore diameter was 5.8 nanometer. Scanning electron microscopy showed that MIP had perfect spherical morphology.


The highly acclaimed first edition of this major work convincingly established Gerald Holton's analysis of the ways scientific ideas evolve. His concept of themata, induced from case studies with special attention to the work of Einstein, has become one of the chief tools for understanding scientific progress. It is now one of the main approaches in the study of the initiation and acceptance of individual scientific insights.Three principal consequences of this perspective extend beyond the study of the history of science itself. It provides philosophers of science with the kind of raw material on which some of the best work in their field is based. It helps intellectual historians to redefine the place of modern science in contemporary culture by identifying influences on the scientific imagination. And it prompts educators to reexamine the conventional concepts of education in science.In this new edition, Holton has masterfully reshaped the contents and widened the coverage. Significant new material has been added, including a penetrating account of the advent of quantum physics in the United States, and a broad consideration of the integrity of science, as exemplified in the work of Niels Bohr. In addition, a revised introduction and a new postscript provide an updated perspective on the role of themata. The result of this thoroughgoing revision is an indispensable volume for scholars and students of scientific thought and intellectual history."


1. The aim of this study was to assess the economics and constraints associated with home finishing lambs on a range of organic hill and upland farms in England and Wales, and to evaluate the potential for further finishing on registered farms in the lowlands.

2. The current state of the organic sheep sector is briefly reviewed. This identifies problems of scale, limited premia and uneveness of supply as limiting factors to more rapid development of the market and associated production systems.

3. To quanitfy the effect of organic management on financial performance, hill and upland farms were classified under four typical systems, depending on the degree of intensification.

4. Without a sizeable area of improved ground, to which fertiliser and other inputs could have been applied conventionally, flocks based on high hill or marginal hill systems were least affected by switching to organic management. Flock Gross Margin on the marginal hill declined by approximately 7%.

5. On more intensive farms, typified by Welsh hill or upland farming systems, there is greater potential to finish lambs at higher stocking rates under conventional management, and the consequences of changing to organic management are greatly increased. Assuming a 10% premium for fnished organic lambs, deviating from convetional practice to produce store lambs or finish lambs at higher production cost, reduced flock Gross Margin by approximately 12-15%. Without a premium, this deficit increased to 15-20%.

6. The Organic Aid Scheme can make good the likely income loss during the first two years after conversion, when the highest rates are payable. However, in the long-term organic flocks must compete solely on the basis os a premium paid for finished, and ideally, for store lambs.

7. Physical and financial constraints were identified as t wy systems had not developed linking potential production of store lambs in the hills/uplands with finishing on organic farms in the lowlands. These were mainly scale and infrastructure, availability of suitable feeds and the likely level of return to the lowland farmer from a store lamb finishing enterprise. Potential sources of feed for finishing organic lambs were assessed. These include permanent pasture, short-term leys, catch crops, grazed set-aside land and conserved fodder.

8. Integration with existing organic systems of all types was estimated to have the potential to finish an extra 10-15,000 lambs per annum, equivalent to the number of lambs currently receiving an organic premium.

9. Further opportunities to expand finishing capacity on lowland farms were examined. Mixed organic farms are likely to have little or no capacity to finish bought in store lambs, except where overall stocking rates are constrained by insufficient ewe/suckler cow quota, or where catch crops are added to the rotation.

10. The addition of a store lamb enterprise to lowland systems was calculated to increase farm Gross MArgin by 2-3%, depending on the type of farm (dairy, stockless arable, or mixed). This represented a marginal return on capital invested in a store lamb finishing enterprise of 9-24%.

1. The financial risks involved, the availability of suitable labour and fixed equipment, and reluctance to vary arable rotations, make store lamb finishing enterprises less attractive to the lowland farmer.

12. Beyond the capacity to increase the number of certified lambs currently offered by up to 50%, greater opportunities are only likely to develop, when there is a significant increase in land (particularly on arable farms) entering conversion.


In this article I will discuss the distributional properties of focalizers in different Italian dialects, providing evidence for Kayne (1998)'s analysis of focalizing particles and for his overt movement approach to scope relations, and highlighting the necessity of widening narrow syntactic operations in order to develop an empirically adequate account. I will propose that focalizers can be first merged in two structural positions, that is, as heads of Focus projections located at the left periphery of each phase, the higher one within the CP phase, the lower one at the left edge of vP. I will argue that these elements overtly attract the focalized constituent into their specifier, and that the considerable crosslinguistic variation attested depends on the activation of a higher functional projection that can attract the focalizer to its head and, eventually, remnant material to its specifier; the raising of remnant constituents to the relevant landing site turns out to be parasitic on the adjunction of the focalizer to the relevant head, which makes the corresponding specifier position visible and accessible.


American constitutional law in general, and fourteenth amendment jurisprudence in particular, is in a state of profound transformation. The "liberal-legalist" and purportedly politically neutral understanding of constitutional guarantees that dominated constitutional law and theory during the fifties, sixties, and seventies, is waning, both in the courts and in the academy. What is beginning to replace liberal legalism in the academy, and what has clearly replaced it on the Supreme Court, is a very different conception - a new paradigm - of the role of constitutionalism, constitutional adjudication, and constitutional guarantees in a democratic state. Unlike the liberal-legal paradigm it is replacing, the new paradigm is overtly political - and overtly conservative - in its orientation and aspiration. Over the last few years, a substantial and growing number of Supreme Court Justices, federal judges, and some theorists, including Raoul Berger, Robert Bork, Frank Easterbrook, Michael McConnell, Sandra Day O'Connor, Richard Posner, and Antonin Scalia, have begun to articulate a profoundly conservative interpretation of the constitutional tradition. There are obviously many differences between the conservative views of each of these theorists. But there is also significant commonality: the conservatives share enough ground and sufficient themes that we can discern, without too much difficulty, an emerging conservative paradigm of constitutional interpretation - what this article calls "conservative constitutionalism." Conservative constitutionalism now dominates the Supreme Court, may soon dominate the federal judiciary, and has already profoundly shaped the constitutional law of the foreseeable future.


For a comprehensive comparison with theoretical models and advanced numerical turbulence simulations, a large spectrum of fluctuation parameters was measured on the devices ASDEX Upgrade, TCV, and Tore-Supra. Radial profiles of scale-resolved turbulence levels in H-mode discharges are measured and compared with GENE simulations in the transition range from ion-temperature-gradient to trapped-electron-mode turbulence. Correlation reflectometry is used to study the microscopic structure of turbulence and GAMs in discharges where poloidal flow damping was varied by means of variations of the shape of the poloidal plasma cross-section and collisionality. Full-wave codes and synthetic diagnostics are applied for the interpretation of the data.


The site in calcineurin, the Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein phosphatase, which is phosphorylated by Ca2+/CaM-dependent protein kinase II (CaM-kinase II) has been identified. Analyses of 32P release from tryptic and cyanogen bromide peptides derived from [32P]calcineurin plus direct sequence determination established the site as -Arg-Val-Phe-Ser(PO4)-Val-Leu-Arg-, which conformed to the consensus phosphorylation sequence for CaM-kinase II (Arg-X-X-Ser/Thr-). This phosphorylation site is located at the C-terminal boundary of the putative CaM-binding domain in calcinerin (Kincaid, R. L., Nightingale, M. S., and Martin, B. M. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 85, 8983-8987), thereby accounting for the observed inhibition of this phosphorylation when Ca2+/CaM is bound to calcineurin. Since the phosphorylation site sequence also contains elements of the specificity determinants for Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase C) (basic residues both N-terminal and C-terminal to Ser/Thr), we tested calcineurin as a substrate for protein kinase C. Protein kinase C catalyzed rapid stoichiometric phosphorylation, and the characteristics of the reaction were the same as with CaM-kinase II: 1) the phosphorylation was blocked by binding of Ca2+/CaM to calcineurin; 2) phosphorylation partially inactivated calcineurin by increasing the Km (from 9.9 +/- 1.1 to 17.5 +/- 1.1 microM 32P-labeled myosin light chain); and 3) [32P]calcineurin exhibited very slow autodephosphorylation but was rapidly dephosphorylated by protein phosphatase IIA. Tryptic and thermolytic 32P-peptide mapping and sequential phosphoamino acid sequence analysis confirmed that protein kinase C and CaM-kinase II phosphorylated the same site.


The characteristics of length-apodized phase- shifted fibre optic long period gratings with full and partial nanostructured coatings have been explored theoretically and experimentally. The twin rejection bands that are characteristic of the length-apodized phase-shifted long period gratings are studied for a long period grating (LPG) operating at the phase matching turning point. When one half of the length of the LPG is coated, complex bandgap like structure appears within the transmission spectrum, which may be of benefit to spectral filter design.


The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of teachers' attitudes, effectiveness of various teaching methods employed as well as teachers' perceptions of the teaching experience on effectiveness of teaching-learning processes in computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing and computer numerical control (CAD/CAM/CNC) module used in vocational education department in Bahrain. Previous studies suggested that a part of the problem in CAD/CAM/CNC subject area is the use of inappropriate teaching methods which affect students' achievements negatively. It has been suggested that negative teaching practices for example, teaching without visual effects, lack of interaction in the class and lack of motivational tool may affect students' achievement. A questionnaire has been developed to understand teacher's experience of the teaching learning process. The questions have been designed under the five categories. These categories are organisation, presentation, class room management, assessment process and teachers' perception of teaching methods used. These categories have been designed to help make the interpretation and explanation of the responses easier.


Policy problems in the health and public sectors are quickly assuming a new level of complexity. Thus, the health/public sector analyst is being confronted with the task of identifying, formulating, evaluating, and making choices among larger and more complicated sets of decision alternatives. Given the context of such decisions, less-than-effective choices could adversely affect the health and social well-being of whole sections of a population. What seems to be needed, therefore, is an approach that would provide system and objectivity to the policy-making process. The use of quantitative techniques, so long applied to problems in the private and industrial sectors, would be the mainstay of such an approach. It is the goal of this article, therefore, to identify, classify, and briefly describe elements of the emerging set of materials (texts, edited readings, and monographs) which offer discussions of these techniques as they apply to problems in the health and public sectors. It is hoped that such a presentation will hasten the application of available analytic decision tools to the policy/decision problems of the public sector.


The iPod is one of the most popular digital music devices in today's marketplace. The newest versions of the iPod have become more PDA/storage like than ever before. With this new functionality the iPod has recently found its way into the criminal world. With the continued growth of the digital music device market, the iPod's use in criminal activity will only continue to increase. This paper discusses some of the features of the iPod and how a criminal could use them. A literature review found little or no documentation or discussion on the forensic analysis of the iPod or similar devices. Therefore, this research outlines what should be considered when an iPod is found at the crime scene, and offers a critical analysis of some common forensic tools and their ability to collect and analyze data from an iPod. Suggestions for future research are also provided.


Background Felines are obligate carnivores and use their teeth for prehending as well as tearing and dissecting their food. Mastication is the first step of digestion, aiding in the lubrication of the food and the formation of a bolus. Mastication also increases the surface area of the food to be initially digested by salivary enzymes before being more easily swallowed. The teeth are specialized structures which play an important role in mastication, grooming, supporting the lips and the tongue, as well as being used as weapons for hunting and for self-defense. Although some mammals can still survive with few or no teeth at all, cats included, losing teeth can influence the types of foods that can be eaten, and will affect the ability to masticate and processing of the food prior to swallowing. Dental implants have become an option for replacement of lost canines in these animals. Although cats appear to manage well after a canine extraction, complications such as lip entrapment can occur, especially after maxillary canine tooth extraction.
Even cats with a complicated crown fracture of the maxillary canine tooth that have had root canal therapy to preserve the tooth, can still suffer from lip entrapment. This can lead to painful lip ulcers and the need for further dental treatment. Today, canine tooth replacement with a dental implant/crown is a predictable option that can be offered to clients who would like to replace a lost canine tooth.
Case report  Two long term cases and follow up of lost maxillary canines caused by alveolar osteitis and replacement by dental implants, to restore normal function in feline subjects are reported.
Conclusion Dental implants proved to be a viable long-term treatment option in the 2 cats described.Immediate implant placement at the time of extraction helps to maintain the surrounding bone structures and prevent collapse of the labial buccal plate. So far, the authors have placed 30 implants in 15 feline subjects up to a 3-year follow-up and no integration failures have been observed to date.


Abstract. The project is part of the wider application and subsequent spread of innovative digital technologies involving robotic systems. Modern society needs knowledge and investigation of the environment and of the related built landscape; therefore it increasingly requires new types of information. The goal can be achieved through the innovative integration of methods to set new analysis strategies for the knowledge of the built heritage and cultural landscape. The experimental cooperation between different disciplines and the related tools and techniques, which this work suggests for the analysis of the architectural heritage and the historical territory, are the following: – 3D metric survey techniques with active and passive sensors – the latter operating in both terrestrial mode and by aerial pointof view. In some circumstances, beyond the use of terrestrial LiDAR, even the newest mobile mapping system using SLAMtechnology (simultaneous localization and mapping) has been tested. – Techniques of non-destructive investigation, such as geophysical analysis of the subsoil and built structures, in particularGPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) techniques. – Historic and stratigraphic surveys carried out primarily through the study and interpretation of documentary sources,cartography and historical iconography, closely related to the existing data or latent material. The experience through the application of these techniques of investigation connected to the built spaces and to the manmade environments has been achieved with the aim of improving the ability to analyse the occurred transformations/layers over time and no longer directly readable or interpretable on manufactured evidence.


The major advancements in molecular technology over the past decades led to the discovery of DNAmarkers, sequencing and genome mapping of farm animal species. New avenues were created for identifying major genes, genetic defects, quantitative trait loci (QTL) and ultimately applying genomic selection (GS) in livestock. The identification of specific regions of interest that affect quantitative traits aimed to incorporate markers linked to QTL into breeding programs by using marker assisted selection (MAS). Most QTL explained only a small proportion of the genetic variation for a trait with limited impact on genetic improvement. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers created the possibility to genotype cattle in a single assay with hundreds of thousands of SNPs, providing sufficient genomic information to incorporate into breeding value estimation. Genomic selection is based on the principle of associating many genetic markers with phenotypic performance. A large database of genotyped animals with relevant phenotypes pertinent to a production system is therefore required. South Africa has a long history of animal recording for dairy and beef cattle. The challenge for implementation of GS would be the establishment of breed-specific training populations. Training populations should be genotyped using a high density SNP panel, and the most appropriate genomic prediction algorithm determined. The suitability of commercially available genotyping platforms to South African populations should be established. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the developments that occurred over the past two decades to lay the foundation for genomic selection with special reference to application in the South African beef and dairy cattle industry.


Knowledge of compaction behaviour underpins basin modelling and pore-pressure estimation for drilling wells. Mudstones of the Cretaceous Lange and Kvitnos formations at Haltenbanken are diagenetically mature and overpressured with a pressure–depth profile that shows little lateral variation. From density logs, we made the unexpected discovery that porosities vary by a factor of two at depths of around 2700 m below seafloor, with greater porosities in the west, so we investigated possible causes for the variation. Exhumation cannot be the cause because the Cretaceous mudstones are presently at their maximum burial depths across most of the area. Nor are lateral variations in geothermal gradient high enough for diagenesis to be responsible for the lateral porosity differences. X-ray diffraction and grain-size analyses were conducted on cuttings but no significant lithological variations were found. We infer that the lateral differences in compaction trends developed because porewater escape was more inhibited in the west during recent rapid burial by glaciogenic sediments. Associated lateral variations in overpressure may subsequently have decayed. The novel finding in this study is that diagenetically mature mudstones at Haltenbanken display large lateral variations in porosity that cannot be attributed to lateral differences in overpressure, exhumation, temperature or lithology.


Ovarian maturation in Notothenia coriiceps is known to include a period during which yolk deposition begins to take place. This 'adolescent' phase was thought originally to last for about 1 year. The results from a 2–year study at Signy Island indicate that this adolescent phase lasts for about 4 years. There is also some evidence to indicate that not all sexually mature fish spawn each season. Two reproductive strategies are considered, one where adverse conditions are accompanied by a failure to spawn and an alternative where fecundity is controlled by the number of small oocytes which ripen.


Pharmaceutical nanosuspensions are formed when drug crystals are suspended in aqueous media in the presence of stabilizers. This technology offers a convenient way to enhance the dissolution of poorly water-soluble drug compounds. The stabilizers exert their action through electrostatic or steric interactions, however, the molecular requirements of stabilizing agents have not been studied extensively. Here, four structurally related amphiphilic Janus-dendrimers were synthesized and screened to determine the roles of different macromolecular domains on the stabilization of drug crystals. Physical interaction and nanomilling experiments have substantiated that Janus-dendrimers with fourth generation hydrophilic dendrons were superior to third generation analogues and Poloxamer 188 in stabilizing indomethacin suspensions. Contact angle and surface plasmon resonance measurements support the hypothesis that Janus-dendrimers bind to indomethacin surfaces via hydrophobic interactions and that the number of hydrophobic alkyl tails determines the adsorption kinetics of the Janus-dendrimers. The results showed that amphiphilic Janus-dendrimers adsorb onto drug particles and thus can be used to provide steric stabilization against aggregation and recrystallization. The modular synthetic route for new amphiphilic Janus-dendrimers offers, thus, for the first time a versatile platform for stable general-use stabilizing agents of drug suspensions.


Partnerships play an increasingly vital role in the federal income tax. Yet partnership taxation is deeply flawed, with enormously complicated provisions that strain the voluntary compliance mechanism on which the federal income tax relies. This article takes some early steps toward reform, proposing a holistic approach to partnership taxation. The story of partnership taxation is a story of four values – flexibility, efficiency, equity, and simplicity. Their discord has compromised the functionality of partnership taxation, thwarting the achievement of any of its underlying values, eroding public legitimacy, and impairing its ability to achieve systemic ends at great public cost. The history of partnership taxation suggests a solution: improving the system's functionality through the unification and harmonization of its values. To that end, this article looks to Ronald Dworkin's principle of integrity to develop a coherent vision of partnership taxation. It uses the principle of integrity as a compass for the reorientation and recalibration of partnership values, creating a more principled system of partnership taxation where unified and harmonious values work together in service of systemic ends. This article offers a novel formulation of the problem of partnership taxation, which, in turn, may lead to a novel way of thinking about the solution. The goal is to take partnership taxation apart and put its pieces back together, setting the system on a path to greater functionality. This article does not offer specific statutory or regulatory reforms, but instead seeks a broader vantage point, outlining an intellectual framework by which future reforms can be formulated or evaluated.


Background: Circular external fixation is a well-known treatment modality in reconstructive orthopaedic surgery and is frequently used for deformity correction, limb lengthening, limb salvage, and complex diaphyseal and periarticular fractures. The current use of this treatment modality in the South African context remains largely unknown. This retrospective review aims to describe the indications, outcomes and complications of the use of circular external fixation in a tertiary hospital in South Africa.
Materials and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 480 patients treated with circular external fixation in a specialist limb reconstruction unit. We report on patient demographics, comorbidities, indications and outcomes.
Results: The final cohort consisted of 346 men and 134 women with a mean age of 35.5 years (SD 14.9, range: 5–73). Comorbidities were identified in 163 (34.0%) patients. These included diabetes in 14 (2.9%) patients and smoking in 102 (21%) patients. HIV infection was diagnosed in 120 patients (25%) with a mean CD4 count of 425 cells/mm3 (SD: 223, range: 82–1056). The mean time in external fixator was 24.6% weeks (SD: 15.3, range 4–159). The treatment objective was achieved in 441 patients (92%). The overall complication rate excluding pin-site infection was 26%. Pin-site infection occurred in 88 patients (18.3%) but had no impact on the outcome of treatment.
Conclusion: Circular external fixation treatment objectives can be achieved in a high percentage of patients in the context of a South African specialist reconstruction unit. This study shows favourable outcomes in deformity correction, limb lengthening, limb salvage, and complex diaphyseal and periarticular fractures. Comorbid factors, including HIV, diabetes and smoking had no effect on achieving the planned outcomes, but smoking did increase the overall time in external fixator.
Level of evidence: Level 4


The space of design alternatives for a business process is typically very large, with technology, location, and other factors combining to generate seemingly endless possibilities. This paper introduces a set of artifacts that support process designers in their efforts to manage this critical business problem: (1) a grammar-based method to generate and manage business process design alternatives and (2) a software prototype that provides support for the use of this method. The method and prototype software are demonstrated with a grammar for a sales process. The method improves on existing approaches by offering the generative power of grammar-based methods while addressing the principal challenge to using such approaches in the design of business processes: the limitations on automated evaluation of alternatives and thus the need to provide designers with tools to manage the potentially overwhelming array of choices generated by design grammars.


PURPOSE: Three genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of elite Jamaican, African-American and Japanese sprint athletes and their matched controls were performed to identify common genetic variants associated with elite athlete status.  METHODS: 95 Jamaican sprint athletes and 102 Jamaican controls, 108 African-American sprint athletes and 397 African-American controls, and 54 Japanese sprint athletes and 118 Japanese controls were genotyped using the Illumina®Human OmniExpress/Omni1-Quad BeadChips. Standard GWAS quality control (QC) and population stratification correction were applied to the genotype data. Genetic associations were evaluated by logistic regression/standard allelic association analysis. Meta-analyses were subsequently performed for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with a predetermined threshold of 5 × 10-5for the three sprint GWAS sample sets using a fixed-effects model.
RESULTS: After QC, 609,801 autosomal SNPs in 88 Jamaican sprint athletes and 87 Jamaican controls, 637,991 autosomal SNPs in 79 African-American sprint athletes and 391 African-American controls, and 541,179 autosomal SNPs in 54 Japanese sprint athletes and 116 Japanese controls were available for analysis. The genomic inflation factor values were 1.075, 1.070 and 1.031 for Jamaican, African-American and Japanese GWAS sample sets, respectively. No SNPs exceeded the conventional GWAS significance threshold of 5x10-8 in respective cohorts. Two SNPs within the GALNT13(Pcombined= 4.66 × 10-7 for rs10196189) and theCREMgenes (Pcombined= 1.88 × 10-6 for rs1531550) attained P< 2 × 10-6 after meta-analysis.  CONCLUSIONS: Two putative loci for elite sprint performance across Jamaicans, African-Americans and Japanese sprinters have been discovered using a GWAS approach followed by meta-analysis. These signals require further replication before functional dissection can be carried out.


It may seem faintly absurd to claim or imply that a Vergilian cento has suffered unjustified neglect from scholars. These works—of which there are sixteen, covering a period of over three centuries within Late Antiquity—are usually treated at best with amused tolerance, and at worst (as in the new Anthologia Latino) with angry disdain. Though always ingenious, sometimes funny, and occasionally informative about the reception of Vergil, they are seldom admired. Even among Italian scholars, some of whom have paid much attention to centos, a recession has set in since the annus mirabilis of 1981, which saw two editions of the Medea of Hosidius Geta. Proba has, deservedly, attracted more attention than most; her aims and methods as a Christian poetess were carefully and illuminatingly studied twenty years ago by Reinhard Herzog, and her interest as a female Roman aristocrat has brought her further attention, especially in recent years. The main aim of the present article is to suggest a particular context and a serious purpose for her cento. A postscript will show that it went on to enjoy considerable popularity until the end of the century, and an introductory section will discuss its date, but very briefly, since Matthews has convincingly said most of what needs to be said about a recent attempt to redate it. Proba's preface, much of it not in cento form, calls for detailed treatment from various angles—textual, literary, historical—and will be explored in a separate article.


Significant alignment and signed-intensity anomalies of local features of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are detected on the three-year WMAP data, through a decomposition of the signal with steerable wavelets on the sphere. In addition to identifying local features of a signal at specific scales, steerable wavelets allow one to determine their local orientation and signed-intensity. Firstly, an alignment analysis identifies two mean preferred planes in the sky, both with normal axes close to the CMB dipole axis. The first plane is defined by the directions toward which local CMB features are anomalously aligned. A mean preferred axis is also identified in this plane, located very close to the ecliptic poles axis. The second plane is defined by the directions anomalously avoided by local CMB features. This alignment anomaly provides further insight on recent results (Wiaux et al. 2006a). Secondly, a signed-intensity analysis identifies three mean preferred directions in the southern galactic hemisphere with anomalously high or low temperature of local CMB features: a cold spot essentially identified with a known cold spot (Vielva et al. 2004), a second cold spot lying very close to the southern end of the CMB dipole axis, and a hot spot lying close to the southern end of the ecliptic poles axis. In both analyses, the anomalies are observed at wavelet scales corresponding to angular sizes around 10° on the celestial sphere, with global significance levels around 1%. Further investigation reveals that the alignment and signed-intensity anomalies are only very partially related. Instrumental noise, foreground emissions, as well as some form of other systematics, are strongly rejected as possible origins of the detections. An explanation might still be envisaged in terms of a global violation of the isotropy of the Universe, inducing an intrinsic statistical anisotropy of the CMB.


The urban rail system in Istanbul carries in total more than 700.000 passengers per a day on different types of lines which require well organized risk governance. This paper evaluates the urban rail systems in Istanbul under different risk factors using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to uncover the critical risk criteria of these systems and to make a multi-criteria evaluation of existing rail systems for the assignment of the scarce resources. Linguistic variables are used in the pairwise comparisons of criteria and alternatives. The risk factors considered are regional criticality, line characteristics, line safety and station structure. The evaluation results imply that the most risky critical urban rail system in Istanbul is the subway line from Sishane to Darussafaka.