Providing a comprehensive insight, 'water footprint (WF)' is widely used to analyze and address water-use issues. In this study, a hybrid of bottom-up and top-down methods is applied to calculate, from production and consumption perspectives, the WF for Xiamen City from 2001 to 2012. Results show that the average production WF of Xiamen was 881.75 Mm 3 /year and remained relatively stable during the study period, while the consumption WF of Xiamen increased from 979.56 Mm 3 /year to 1,664.97 Mm 3 /year over the study period. Xiamen thus became a net importer of virtual water since 2001. Livestock was the largest contributor to the total WF from both production and consumption perspectives; it was followed by crops, industry, household use, and commerce. The efficiency of the production WF has increased in Xiamen, and its per capita consumption WF was relatively low. The city faces continuing growth in its consumption WF, so more attention should be paid to improving local irrigation, reducing food waste, and importing water-intensive agricultural products.


The value anomaly arises naturally in the neoclassical framework with rational expectations. Costly reversibility and countercyclical price of risk cause assets in place to be harder to reduce, and hence are riskier than growth options especially in bad times when the price of risk is high. By linking risk and expected returns to economic primitives, such as tastes and technology, my model generates many empirical regularities in the cross-section of returns; it also yields an array of new refutable hypotheses providing fresh directions for future empirical research.


This paper gives an overview of micro cantilever beam of various shapes and materials for vapour detection. The design of micro cantilever beam, analysis and simulation is done for each shape. The simulation is done using COMSOL Multi physics software using structural mechanics and chemical module. The simulation results of applied force and resulting Eigen frequencies will be analyzed for different beam structures. The vapour analysis is done using flow cell that consists of chemical pillars in surface reactions and deposition process which consists of active layer for adsorbing the reacting species in the laminar flow through the flow cell. Keyword- Structural mechanics module, chemical module, chemical pillar, COMSOL Multi physics, Cantilever


In certain strains of mice, subtoxic doses of HgCl2 (mercuric chloride; mercury) induce a complex autoimmune condition characterized by the production of antinucleolar IgG Abs, lymphoproliferation, increased serum levels of IgG1/IgE Abs, and deposition of renal immune complexes. 4-1BB is an important T cell costimulatory molecule that has been implicated in T cell proliferation and cytokine production, especially production of IFN-γ. To elucidate T cell control mediated by the 4-1BB signaling pathway in this syndrome, we assessed the effect of administering agonistic anti-4-1BB mAb on mercury-induced autoimmunity. Groups of A.SW mice (H-2s) received mercury/control Ig or mercury/anti-4-1BB or PBS alone. Anti-4-1BB mAb treatment resulted in a dramatic reduction of mercury-induced antinucleolar Ab titers, serum IgG1/IgE induction, and renal Ig deposition. These effects may be related to the present finding that anti-4-1BB mAb decreases B cell numbers and function. The anti-4-1BB mAb-treated mercury group also showed a marked reduction in Th2-type cytokines but an increase in Th1-type cytokines and chemokines. Increased IFN-γ production due to anti-4-1BB mAb treatment appears to be responsible for the observed B cell defects because neutralization of IFN-γ in vivo substantially restored B cell numbers and partly restored IgG1/IgE. Collectively, our results indicate that 4-1BB mAb can down-regulate mercury-induced autoimmunity by affecting B cell function in an IFN-γ-dependent manner and thus, preventing the development of autoantibody production and tissue Ig deposition.


This paper analyzes Internet diffusion among organizations, based on daily observation of the registration of second level domain names under the ".it" ccTLD. In particular, we analyzed domains registered in the non-profit sector. The penetration rate in the relevant population of potential users is computed at highly separated geographical levels (regions). A concentration analyisis was carried out in order to determine whether the geographical distribution of Internet use is less concentrated than population and income distribution, suggesting a diffusive effect. Regression analysis was performed using demographic, social, economic and infrastructure indicators. Finally, we briefly describe further developments in our research. At present we have built a database containing domains registered by foundations, associations, committees and other organizations. The idea was to verify whether a "social digital divide" exists both in terms of geographical distribution (i.e., in macro-areas - Northern, Central, and Southern Italy - and at the regional level) and in terms of legal status of the organizations.


Test blanket modules (TBMs) will be installed in the ITER with the aim to investigate the nuclear performance of different breeding blanket designs for fusion power reactors. Here, we present an overview of our ongoing work on three types of neutron flux monitors under development at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) for the TBMs. A foil activation system with pneumatic sample transport was constructed by KIT utilizing the intense DT neutron generator of Technical University of Dresden. It is used as a test bench for the development of a neutron activation system for the TBMs. Self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs) are widely applied in fission reactor monitoring, and the commercially available SPNDs are sensitive to thermal neutrons. We are investigating novel materials for SPND which would be sensitive also to the fast neutron flux expected in the TBMs. Within the I_SMART project, funded by KIC InnoEnergy, KIT is developing an online detector based on silicon carbide electronics for the TBMs.


We examined how HLA types A1-B8-DR3 and B27 were related to progression of clinical disease and rate of loss of CD4 lymphocytes in the Edinburgh City Hospital cohort of HIV-positive patients, mainly injection drug users. Patients (n = 692) were prospectively followed from 1985 through March 1994. Accurately estimated seroconversion times were determined retrospectively for a subgroup of 313 (45%). Of 262 patients (39%) who were fully or partially HLA typed, 155 (50%) had known seroconversions. Of 34 patients typed positive for A1-B8-DR3, 29 progressed to CDC stage IV, 22 to AIDS and 20 died. Twelve patients were typed positive for B27; six of these progressed to CDC stage IV, one to AIDS and none died. In a proportional hazards analysis of the 313 patients with known seroconversions, A1-B8-DR3 was significantly associated with covariate-adjusted relative risks of 3.7 (95% CI 1.9-7.2), 3.1 (1.6-6.0) and 1.9 (1.1-3.2) for progression from seroconversion to death, AIDS and CDC stage IV, respectively. Events for B27 were too rare to include B27 in analyses to death and AIDS, but B27 was significantly associated with slower progression to CDC stage IV (0.3, CI 0.1-0.9). Random effects growth curve models were used to estimate individual rates of loss of square root CD4 count and loss of CD4 percentage, for 603 and 617 patients, respectively. A1-B8-DR3 was associated with rapid loss of both markers (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01, respectively); B27 was associated with slow loss of both markers (p = 0.04 and p < 0.005).


Context. Polarimetric observations taken with ground- or space-based telescopes usually need to be corrected for changes of the polarization state in the optical path.
Aims. We present a technique to determine the polarization properties of a telescope through observations of spectral lines that have no or negligible intrinsic linear polarization signals. For such spectral lines, any observed linear polarization must be induced by the telescope optics. We apply the technique to observations taken with the Spectropolarimeter for Infrared and Optical Regions (SPINOR) at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) and demonstrate that we can retrieve the characteristic polarization properties of the DST at three wavelengths of 459, 526, and 615 nm.
Methods. We determine the amount of crosstalk between the intensity Stokes I and the linear and circular polarization states Stokes Q, U, and V, and between Stokes V and Stokes Q and U in spectropolarimetric observations of active regions. We fit a set of parameters that describe the polarization properties of the DST to the observed crosstalk values. We compare our results to parameters that were derived using a conventional telescope calibration unit (TCU).
Results. The values for the ratio of reflectivities X = rs∕rp and the retardance τ of the DST turret mirrors from the analysis of the crosstalk match those derived with the TCU within the error bars. We find a negligible contribution of retardance from the entrance and exit windows of the evacuated part of the DST. Residual crosstalk after applying a correction for the telescope polarization stays at a level of 3–10% regardless of which parameter set is used, but with an rms fluctuation in the input data of already a few percent. The accuracy in the determination of the telescope properties is thus more limited by the quality of the input data than the method itself.
Conclusions. It is possible to derive the parameters that describe the polarization properties of a telescope from observations of spectral lines without intrinsic linear polarization signal. Such spectral lines have a dense coverage (about 50 nm separation) in the visible part of the spectrum (400–615 nm), but none were found at longer wavelengths. Using spectral lines without intrinsic linear polarization is a promising tool for the polarimetric calibration of current or future solar telescopes such as the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST).


Causal trees represented by Darondeau and Degano are one of the truly concurrent model for distributed systems and processes. The model is more basic than other truly concurrent models because it defines concurrency and causality with respect to a branch, but on the other hand it is more expressive than the latter because its possible runs can be freely specified in terms of a tree. The intention of the paper is to connect two distinct approaches to which the category theory has been applied in order to investigate causal trees and their timed extensions. In particular, we establish that in the case of causal trees, the approaches are equivalent, but it is not true in the case of timed causal trees.


The Burning Question reveals climate change to be the most fascinating scientific, political and social puzzle in history. It shows that carbon emissions are still accelerating upwards, following an exponential curve that goes back centuries. One reason is that saving energy is like squeezing a balloon: reductions in one place lead to increases elsewhere. Another reason is that clean energy sources don't in themselves slow the rate of fossil fuel extraction. Tackling global warming will mean persuading the world to abandon oil, coal and gas reserves worth many trillions of dollars - at least until we have the means to put carbon back in the ground. The burning question is whether that can be done. What mix of politics, psychology, economics and technology might be required? Are the energy companies massively overvalued, and how will carbon-cuts affect the global economy? Will we wake up to the threat in time? And who can do what to make it all happen?


Three dimensional computer animation has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Computer animation now has an important role in entertainment, education, and simulation. For computer animation of characters, the role of the animator has unfortunately stayed similar to that of a stop motion animator, rather than like a film director. Research in computer animation has tried to address this by giving higher levels of control to the animator, but these methods often result in lack of fine control over the animated characters. This is inadequate because fine control is essential to both aesthetics and the ability of the animator to direct a meaningful narrative.
This dissertation presents methods of articulated figure motion control which attempt to bridge the gap between high level direction and low level control of subtle motion. These methods define motion in terms of goals and ratings. The agents are dynamically-controlled robots whose behavior is determined by robotic controller programs. The controller programs for the robots are evaluated at each time step to yield torque values which drive the dynamic simulation of the motion. We use the AI technique of Genetic Programming (GP) to automatically derive control programs for the agents which achieve the goals. This type of motion specification is an alternative to key framing which allows a highly automated, learning-based approach to generation of motion. This method of motion control is very general (it can be applied to any type of motion), yet it allows for specifications of the types of specific motion which are desired for a high quality animation. We show that complex, specific, physically plausible, and aesthetically appealing motion can be generated using these methods. Both skill-based and action-based motion can be specified in this manner. We also introduce the new paradigm of key marks, a generalization of key framing which is not subject to many of the limitations of key framing.


In The Roberts Court at Age Three, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky offers a preliminary assessment of the Roberts Court. Among other things, Dean Chemerinsky reviews the effect of the Court's shrunken docket and the role of Justice Anthony Kennedy as the Court's median justice. Reviewing the Court's decisions over the past three years, Dean Chemerinsky concludes that the Roberts Court is the the most conservative Court since the mid-1930s. This is a substantial overstatement. The Roberts Court appears moderately more conservative than its predecessors in some contexts, but is also quite liberal in others. Its decisions on enemy combatants, capital punishment, and standing, among other issues, could hardly be characterized as conservative, however this term is defined. Furthermore, any assessment of the Roberts Court at this point is necessarily tentative. The current roster of justices have sat together for less than three full terms, and the small size of the docket means any single term provides an unrepresentative picture of the Court's jurisprudence. While the Roberts Court may eventually show itself to be a conservative court, there is no basis at present to claim the Court is the most conservative in over seventy years.


Although emission of dust from the Patagonia desert is shown by global aerosol models, there is conflicting observational evidence of dust activity in the region. Because dust from Patagonia into the Southern Ocean (SO) may play a role in regulating phytoplankton activity, it is necessary to confirm whether there is dust activity and if so, how far the dust travels into the SO. We used a combination of surface visibility, satellite measurements (MODIS and OMI) and transport model (HYSPLIT) to track and report for the first time a dust event originating in Patagonia. We show that the dust reached the free troposphere in the Sub‐Antarctic Atlantic Ocean. Although the dust emission was significant, cloudiness and dilution of the plume resulted in difficult conditions to track dust in the SW Atlantic. We show that the use of any single tool (i.e., MODIS or OMI) is not enough to track the dust and only an integrated approach of satellite and modeling tools can achieve a consistent description. As a result, current platforms used for dust detection are probably underestimating aerosol loading in the area


Cervical spine injuries in rugby union have received growing worldwide attention owing to their often catastrophic nature.1,–,3 Kuster et al 4 considered recent changes in the epidemiology as well as the ex vivo biomechanics literature on cervical spine injury during head-first impacts. Kuster postulated that the majority of catastrophic cervical spine injuries before year 2000 occurred through a hyperflexion mechanism in the scrum and since the year 2000, these injuries have occurred during tackles via an axial compression mechanism and related 'buckling' of the cervical spine.

Regulators and other stakeholders in the game continually seek to improve understanding of the scope, true incidence and mechanism of these catastrophic injuries. Ideally, a full comprehension of cervical injury mechanisms occurring during rugby would lead to changes in the game, through rule changes or changes in enforcement and/or player coaching or education, which in turn would reduce the incidence of these injuries.2 Achieving such a full comprehension, however, has been elusive.1,–,3 ,5,–,9 For example, recent changes to the rules have led to reduced time spent in scrum and have altered scrum engagement, which subsequently have been associated with a reduction in incidence of scrum-related cervical spine injury (an injury primarily involving forward positions and accounting for 37%–51% of cervical spine injuries).5 ,7 ,8 ,10 ,11 These changes have therefore affected the distribution of players who get injured, with increased percentage of these injuries now being sustained by back positions than prior to these rule changes, and up to 57% of cervical injuries are now occurring …


Rape Crisis centres have provided the most effective and valued source of support for survivors of rape in Britain ever since the centres were developed as part of the women's movement of the 1970s. Yet now, at the same time as Britain is failing survivors of rape in the courts, there is also a threat to the work delivered through the centres.

For anyone who wants to understand how we reached this point of crisis, or who wants to be able to respond, this book helpfully provides:

# an understanding of the strengths that these centres can add to how we respond to rape in our society

# an explanation of the knowledge, ideas and skills that comprise the centres' unique model of support

# an account of the rape crisis movement s struggles in starting and sustaining the centres.

# a permanent record of the philosophies and ideas that underpinned the founding of the original centres, and a history of how they have changed and evolved over 30 years.

Too few people know about the centres or how they are run. This book documents the work and story of Rape Crisis in England and Wales, drawing comparisons with similar centres and networks in Scotland and Ireland. It provides the reader, whether an interested individual, a student or academic, a professional or voluntary worker, with a flavour of the original Rape Crisis work, and assesses its actual and potential value, here and now.

Practical ideas for ways forward, which often mean learning the tools of survival during the current times of change, are presented, and can help ensure that there will be Rape Crisis centres for as long as there are women who need the specialist support that they offer.


Abstract Aircraft surveys have been conducted to assess the mesoscale pattern of wind and weather over Cape Saint Francis, South Africa, on the southern tip of the African continent. Ten surveys were flown at a level of 100 m above ground during November 1991, and wind velocity, turbulence, and temperature were monitored. Results were stratified into composites according to the mean direction and speed of the wind. Under the prevailing westerly wind, three areas of high speed were found that may constitute optimal sites for wind energy turbines. These areas of high velocities lie along the tops of low rolling hills in the vicinity of the Krom River at Cape Saint Francis. The usefulness of aircraft surveys in developing an understanding of the mesoscale pattern of winds and associated meteorological fields is emphasized.


The intention of this study was to investigate the patterns and frequency of misconceptions that hearing high school students have towards the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) community. These misconceptions about the Deaf community commonly involve false beliefs about Deaf intelligence, social norms, and political practices. In this study, a new survey scale was created specifically asking younger students for their opinions on the Deaf and HoH community. The results from the students suggest that misconceptions surrounding American Sign Language (ASL) and cochlear implant surgery are the most frequently occurring, while misconceptions about home ownership and literacy were the least common. Also, the frequency of misconceptions was mediated by the amount of prior exposure the participant had with the Deaf and HoH community. Age did not appear to play a role in mediating the amount of misconceptions participants displayed.


The purpose of my research is to determine if the substitution of selenium for sulfur will cause rate acceleration of the thiol-disulfide exchange reaction in the C-terminal redox center of Plasmodium falciparum thioredoxin reductase (PfTR) in a position specific manner. P. falciparum is the protist that causes most serious form of malaria and is responsible for the majority of malaria related deaths. While mammalian thioredoxin reductase (mTR) contains selenium in its C-terminal redox center, which accelerates the rate of reaction, PfTR functions in the absence of selenium. The results of my studies show that the introduction of selenium via selenocysteine to the C-terminal redox center of PfTR impacts the rate of this reaction positively when substituted at Cys and negatively at Cys. This data can be explained mechanistically by the use of a disulfide electrophilic activation mechanism by PfTR. Specifically, the disulfide bond between Cys and Cys in the C-terminal redox center of PfTR is primed for attack by the thiolate of Cys of the N-terminal redox center because of a hydrogen bonding interaction between Cys and an adjacent histidine residue. This interaction polarizes the Cys–Cys disulfide, making the sulfur atom of Cys highly electrophilic. The differential effects on rate caused by selenium substitution of each of the two sulfur atoms of the C-terminal disulfide represents a "seleno effect", similar to the observed "thio effect" in phosphodiesterases when sulfur substitutes for oxygen in non-bridging oxygen atoms of phosphodiesters. Thioredoxin reductase is essential in all organisms and its loss of function is deadly for the host. Due to the differences in structure between PfTR and mTR, the mechanism proposed represents a potential drug target in the fight against malaria.


The tau hypothesis predicts that observers initiate collision avoidance actions based on an integration of speed and distance. We constructed an experiment to test whether human subjects are sensitive to the critical boundary of imminent collision, even when this boundary is not defined by an integration of speed and distance. Subjects were asked to perform a simulated flight towards a barrier surface and initiate an evasive ballistic ascent response at the last possible moment before collision. The between-subjects manipulation was the flight ascent dynamics. In one flight dynamic condition, the boundary of collision was defined by an invariant distance to arrival across the different forward speed conditions. In the other flight dynamics condition, the boundary was defined by an invariant time to arrival across forward speeds. Subject performance in the two groups indicated a sensitivity to the appropriate information defining the critical boundaries, although there was also a conservative distance bias and response variability that increased with forward speed. This bias is explained as a functional scaling of the response with the response variability present.


Ecological patterns and processes often take place within linear‐feature networks, and this has implications when analysing the spatial configuration of such patterns or processes across a landscape. One such pattern is the use of landscapes by human recreationists: an important variable in animal habitat selection and behaviour. Due to the difficulty in obtaining data, ecologists tend to use coarse metrics such as linear‐feature density, while the extent and timing of human activity are often ignored. Remote detector equipment and its increasing use in ecological studies allow for large volumes of data on human activity to be collected. However, the analysis of these data still can be challenging. Using a combination of generalised linear mixed‐effects models and network‐based ordinary kriging, we developed a method for estimating spatial and temporal variations in motorised and non‐motorised activities across a complex linear‐feature network. Trail cameras were set up between 2012 and 2014 and monitored motorised and non‐motorised activities at 238 different trail sites across a 2824 km2 region of the eastern slopes and foothills of central Alberta's Rocky Mountains. We evaluate the predictive capacity of this approach, demonstrate its application and discuss its merits and limitations. This method offers a straightforward analysis that can be applied to remotely acquired data to give a useful metric for assessing wildlife responses to human activity, and has potential application beyond the highlighted example.


The Barra Fan, located at the continental margin of NW Scotland, offers a unique possibility to retrieve records of exceptional high resolution to obtain climate records on a century–millennial timescale. We used a sedimentological–geochemical approach to examine the sediment variations that reflect the palaeoceanography and climate history of the area. Inorganic chemistry combined with micropalaeontology reveals trends and changes in NE Atlantic palaeoceanography and northwest European climate at the sub‐Milankovitch frequency. This study builds on results from two British Geological Survey cores and one giant piston core (Core 57/‐11/59, Core 56/‐10/36 and Images Core MD95‐2006) that were obtained during the NEAPACC (NE Atlantic Palaeoceanography, Special Topic NERC) phase. Geochemical records of lithogenic input fluctuate rapidly and their patterns parallel sea surface temperature and particle size records. The cold periods are characterized by increased clay input compared to the warm periods. The Younger Dryas period and other prominent periods such as the equivalent of Heinrich Event 1, show extremely expanded sections up to several metres in thickness. Enhancement of accumulation rates in the glacial section is due to the influence of downslope sedimentation, meltwater deposition; and large‐scale currents redistributing the sediment along the upper slope. The radiochemical tracer (excess 230Th) shows that major shifts in terrigenous sediment supply were extremely rapid over the last 15 ka. The shifts in terrigenous supply occurred over time‐spans of less than a century. Century‐scale events of lithogenic input can be visually correlated to other North Atlantic climate records such as the GISP2 Greenland ice core δ18O record for the last 15 ka, although the resolution of radiocarbon dating of these events in the sediments is not sufficiently precise to verify that the visual correlations are correct. The particle flux and biogenic records show sawtooth‐shaped cycles opposite to the Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles.


We describe a pseudo‐spectral numerical method to solve the systems of one‐dimensional evolution equations for free surface waves in a homogeneous layer of an ideal fluid. We use the method to solve a system of one‐dimensional integro‐differential equations, first proposed by Ovsjannikov and later derived by Dyachenko, Zakharov, and Kuznetsov, to simulate the exact evolution of nonlinear free surface waves governed by the two‐dimensional Euler equations. These equations are written in the transformed plane where the free surface is mapped onto a flat surface and do not require the common assumption that the waves have small amplitude used in deriving the weakly nonlinear Korteweg–de Vries and Boussinesq long‐wave equations. We compare the solution of the exact reduced equations with these weakly nonlinear long‐wave models and with the nonlinear long‐wave equations of Su and Gardner that do not assume the waves have small amplitude. The Su and Gardner solutions are in remarkably close agreement with the exact Euler solutions for large amplitude solitary wave interactions while the interactions of low‐amplitude solitary waves of all four models agree. The simulations demonstrate that our method is an efficient and accurate approach to integrate all of these equations and conserves the mass, momentum, and energy of the Euler equations over very long simulations.


This paper tries to shed light on the ceremonial adoption of ISO 9000, one of the most prominent tools used within the Quality Management paradigm and one which has been linked to innovations of an organizational type in academic literature. For that purpose, extensive fieldwork based on both in-depth interviews of general managers, middle managers and employees, as well as on participant observation, was carried out in eight Basque organizations that have adopted the standard for a long period of time. The results show that companies tend to adopt ISO 9000 ceremonially influenced more by a number of internal organizational contingencies, than by pressures from the institutional environment.


This meta-analysis reviewed 126 published empirical articles over the past 50 years describing associations between marital relationship quality and physical health in more than 72,000 individuals. Health outcomes included clinical endpoints (objective assessments of function, disease severity, and mortality; subjective health assessments) and surrogate endpoints (biological markers that substitute for clinical endpoints, such as blood pressure). Biological mediators included cardiovascular reactivity and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Greater marital quality was related to better health, with mean effect sizes from r = .07 to .21, including lower risk of mortality (r = .11) and lower cardiovascular reactivity during marital conflict (r = -.13), but not daily cortisol slopes or cortisol reactivity during conflict. The small effect sizes were similar in magnitude to previously found associations between health behaviors (e.g., diet) and health outcomes. Effect sizes for a small subset of clinical outcomes were susceptible to publication bias. In some studies, effect sizes remained significant after accounting for confounds such as age and socioeconomic status. Studies with a higher proportion of women in the sample demonstrated larger effect sizes, but we found little evidence for gender differences in studies that explicitly tested gender moderation, with the exception of surrogate endpoint studies. Our conclusions are limited by small numbers of studies for specific health outcomes, unexplained heterogeneity, and designs that limit causal inferences. These findings highlight the need to explicitly test affective, health behavior, and biological mechanisms in future research, and focus on moderating factors that may alter the relationship between marital quality and health.


ABSTRACT The incidence of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) has increased dramatically over the past decade, resulting in significant morbidity in millions of otherwise healthy individuals worldwide. Certain groups, like military personnel, are at increased risk for SSTI development. Although nasal colonization with Staphylococcus aureus is an important risk factor for the development of SSTIs, it is not clear why some colonized individuals develop disease while others do not. Recent studies have revealed the importance of microbial diversity in human health. Therefore, we hypothesized that the nasal microbiome may provide valuable insight into SSTI development. To examine this hypothesis, we obtained anterior-naris samples from military trainees with cutaneous abscesses and from asymptomatic (non-SSTI) participants. We also obtained samples from within abscess cavities. Specimens were analyzed by culture, and the microbial community within each sample was characterized using a 16S sequencing-based approach. We collected specimens from 46 non-SSTI participants and from 40 participants with abscesses. We observed a significantly higher abundance of Proteobacteria in the anterior nares in non-SSTI participants (P < 0.0001) than in participants with abscesses. Additionally, we noted a significant inverse correlation between Corynebacterium spp. and S. aureus (P = 0.0001). The sensitivity of standard microbiological culture for abscesses was 71.4%. These data expand our knowledge of the complexity of the nasal and abscess microbiomes and potentially pave the way for novel therapeutic and prophylactic countermeasures against SSTI.


Having chosen at different moments of his career to rewrite Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Romeo and Juliet, Beauty and the Beast, the legend of Tristan and Isolde, and the myth of Orpheus, Jean Cocteau placed himself among those conventionbreakers who believe the best-known stories are the ones worth repeating. In his name, I begin with a familiar tale. It concerns that most ingenuously avant-garde of aristocratic Parisian couples, the Vicomte Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, who in 1929 began to dabble in film production. From Man Ray, they commissioned les Mysteres du château de De, a fine, half-hour example of the absurdist house-party movie in which everyone plays dress-up. (That included the Noailles. It was, after all, their house.) Soon afterward they became more ambitious in their patronage, putting up a million francs, with no conditions, so that an artist with very little technical experience of the cinema and no great chance of appealing to a mass authence could make a feature-length sound film. Although the man was already celebrated for his ability to summon up arresting images, any movie of his that might be labeled a succes was also likely to be trailed by scandale. So it was, when the film had its premiere in November 1930 amid right-wing riots, police censorship, a threat of excommunication for the Noailles, and (most serious of all) the loss of the vicomte's membership in the Jockey Club. Yet for all the trouble the Noailles had caused themselves - quite innocently, according to the artist, who later described them as having been baffled by the uproar - they had given world cinema one of its greatest achievements: a work that continues to floor authences today with its incomparable brashness, defiance, invention, and humor. That film, of course, is l'Age d'or by Luis Bunuel. The other film the Noailles commissioned in 1930, for an additional million francs - Le Sang d'un poete, by Jean Cocteau - got a much more polite reception upon its premiere in January 1932 (a decent interval having been allowed for after Buftuel's film was sprung on the world), then went on to attract an authence that was too large and too persistent to be dismissed as a cult following. In New York City, the film's run at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse lasted for almost two decades. In more recent years, though, Le Sang d'un poete has not held up well against its Noailles twin. Like many of Cocteau's films (the most notable exception being La Belle et h bete), it is today more studied than enjoyed: a work largely of antiquarian interest, to be dropped as a passing illustration into syllabi on the evolution of queer identity or last century's French avant-garde. A first-rate critic who was sympathetic to both of those subjects, Stephen Harvey of The Museum of Modern Art, sounded a valedictory note a mere twenty years after Cocteau's deadi. Writing for a commemorative anthology assembled on diat anniversary, Harvey began by asking how much of a contribution Cocteau really had made to the history of film and then politely avoided giving an answer. He did find space to deride the avant-garde snobs who adore Le Sang d'un poete but would never bother to watch Cocteau's popular entertainments. And what would these people get, if they broke down and saw L'Aigh a deux tetesi "Enjoyable kitsch," according to Harvey. That was in 1982. Since then, only the Disney animators have boosted Cocteau's reputation as a filmmaker. And yet if the cloud of artsiness around Cocteau's films can now seem cloying, the extent of his influence cannot be doubted. Begin with Francois Truffaut, who gave Cocteau pride of place in his epoch-making essay of 1956, "A Certain Tendency of French Film," in which Cocteau's portrait photograph came first in the gallery of filmmakers who deserved to be called Les auteurs. "Since 1945," Truffaut wrote, "he has given French cinematography five of its greatest films: La Belle et h bete, L'Aigle a deux tetes, Les Parents terribles, Les Enfants terribles, and Orphee. …


The perception of a visual contour depends on the spatial and temporal context in which it is viewed. Interactions between visual contours are believed to underlie a wide range of perceptual phenomena, including geometric illusions and aftereffects, contrast adaptation, and visual masking. The physiological mechanisms that might underlie such interactions were studied in the visual cortex of the cat by recording responses of single neurons to pairs of brief stationary stimuli that were separated in time. The results revealed a long-lasting, orientation-selective suppression, termed "paired-pulse suppression," which was strongest at the cell's preferred orientation, but which was more broadly tuned for orientation than the excitatory response of the cell. Although the strength and duration of the suppression varied widely, some degree of response reduction was present in most cells studied. The function of this suppression may be to regulate the gain with which visual inputs are transmitted to cortical neurons, thus preventing response saturation and positive feedback.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 12 months of dietary weight loss and/or aerobic exercise on leukocyte telomere length in overweight and obese postmenopausal women. Four hundred and thirty nine women (50-75 y) were randomized to one of four groups: i) dietary weight loss (N=118); ii) moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise (N=117), iii) diet + exercise (N=117), or iv) control (N=87). The diet intervention was a group-based reduced-calorie program with a 10% weight loss goal. The exercise intervention was 45 mins/day, 5 days/week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic activity. Fasting blood samples were taken at baseline and 12 months. DNA was extracted from isolated leukocytes and telomere length was measured by quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Telomere length was calculated as the ratio of telomeric DNA divided by a single-copy control gene. Mean changes were compared between groups (intent-to-treat) using generalized estimating equations. At baseline, leukocyte telomere length was not significantly correlated with body mass index (r=0.02, p=0.68) or % body fat (r=-0.003, p=0.95), but was inversely associated with age (r=-0.12 p<0.01) and positively associated with VO2max (r=0.11, p=0.03). Mean telomere length (SD) was not significantly different between overweight and obese women [1.045 (0.184) vs. 1.057 (0.201); p=0.63]. After 12 months, mean weight changes were -2.4% (p=0.03) in the exercise group, -8.5% (p<0.001) in the diet group, and -10.8% (p<0.001) in the diet + exercise group, compared to -0.8% among controls. No significant changes in leukocyte telomere length were detected in any of the intervention groups compared to controls, nor was the magnitude of weight loss associated with telomere length changes after 12 months. Over 12-months there was a net increase (mean T/S ratio: 0.124, range: 0.002-0.736) in telomere length among 48% (n=190) of women. The proportion of women who experienced a net 12-month increase was not significantly different between groups (χ2 p=0.90). Although telomere shortening represents a compelling link between genetics, accumulated lifestyle exposures and cancer, leukocyte telomere length is not significantly changed by 12 months of dietary weight loss and/or aerobic exercise intervention in postmenopausal women. Citation Format: Caitlin Mason, Rosa-Ana Risques, Liren Xiao, Catherine R. Duggan, Ikuyo Imayama, Kristin L. Campbell, Angela Kong, Karen E. Foster-Schubert, Ching-Yun Wang, Catherine M. Alfano, George L. Blackburn, Peter S. Rabinovitch, Anne McTiernan. Independent and combined effects of dietary weight loss and aerobic exercise on leukocyte telomere length in overweight and obese postmenopausal women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A01.


Developers typically rely on the information submitted by end-users to resolve bugs. We conducted a survey on information needs and commonly faced problems with bug reporting among several hundred developers and users of the APACHE, ECLIPSE and MOZILLA projects. In this paper, we present the results of a card sort on the 175 comments sent back to us by the responders of the survey. The card sort revealed several hurdles involved in reporting and resolving bugs, which we present in a collection of recommendations for the design of new bug tracking systems. Such systems could provide contextual assistance, reminders to add information, and most important, assistance to collect and report crucial information to developers.


Ex-post economic impact evaluations are standard requirements for loans and grants from multilateral international development institutions. In many cases, however, lack of sufficient baseline or historical data, or the very nature of the investment itself renders orthodox economic impact evaluation approaches unviable. Nonetheless, evaluations are required to provide an indication of the benefits generated by the investment and insights for future program design. Addressing this challenge, this paper develops an ecosystem service, retrospective stated preferences approach to assess the benefits of a coastal infrastructure investment in Barbados. Results show that the investment generated cultural and aesthetic ecosystem service benefits for tourists and residents, and that local businesses derived value and avoided some damage costs from the enhancement of regulatory ecosystem services. The approach is versatile facing data constraints and generates policy-relevant information to support decisions to scale up interventions, catalyze additional investment, and provide data on user preferences that can be incorporated in the design of future interventions.


We estimate a dynamic model of mortgage default for a cohort of Colombian debtors between 1997 and 2004. We use the estimated model to study the efects on default of a class of policies that afected the evolution of mortgage balances in Colombia during the 1990's. We propose a framework for estimating dynamic behavioral models accounting for the presence of unobserved state variables that are correlated across individuals and across time periods. We extend the standard literature on the structural estimation of dynamic models by incorporating an unobserved common correlated shock that afects all individuals' static payofs and the dynamic continuation payofs associated with diferent decisions. Given a standard parametric specification the dynamic problem, we show that the aggregate shocks are identifed from the variation in the observed aggregate behavior. The shocks and their transition are separately identifed, provided there is enough cross-sectional variation of the observed states


From a procedural perspective, an economic process is fair or unfair depending on the rules of the game and the shape of the income distribution is irrelevant. As a component of the Rule of Law, equality before the law is a necessary condition for fairness. Recognizing a higher level of equality before the law as a normative criterion, I examine to which extent the observed income and wealth inequality in a sample of 87 countries can be traced back to inequality before the law and be therefore qualified as unfair from a procedural justice perspective. Using data from the World Justice Project and the Standardized World Income Inequality Database, I find that the relationship between equality before the law and income inequality before redistribution is conditional on the level of development. Additionally, an increase in equality before the law is found to be related to less redistribution and more strongly so in poorer countries. The model largely predicts lower levels of income inequality after redistribution in a scenario of complete fairness compared to the de facto level of income inequality. ∗Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, Leipzig University. Grimmaische Str. 12; 04109 Leipzig; Germany; Email: email@example.com, and Institute for Research in Economic and Fiscal Issues, France.


Roger Scruton is Britain's best known intellectual dissident, who has defended English traditions and English identity against an official culture of denigration. Although his writings on philosophical aesthetics have shown him to be a leading authority in the field, his defence of political conservatism has marked him out in academic circles as public enemy number one. Whether it is Scruton's opinions that get up the nose of his critics, or the wit and erudition with which he expresses them, there is no doubt that their noses are vastly distended by his presence, and constantly on the verge of a collective sneeze. Contrary to orthodox opinion, however, Roger Scruton is a human being, and Gentle Regrets contains the proof of it - a quiet, witty but also serious and moving account of the ways in which life brought him to think what he thinks, and to be what he is. His moving vignettes of his childhood and later influences illuminate this book. Love him or hate him, he will engage you in an argument that is both intellectually stimulating and informed by humour.


Abstract Multispectral imaging of ore minerals under the microscope is a logical extension of quantitative colour analysis and microspectrophotometric analysis of minerals. This paper describes, step by step, how the proper calibration of a scientific video camera can be performed in order to obtain precise reflectance measurements at each pixel within the field of view. After having reviewed the different sources of noise and aberration, practical formulae are presented that allow for the acquisition of a set of images at different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. The advantage of using a multispectral image acquisition system based on narrow bandwidth (10 nm) interference filters is discussed and quantitatively compared to colour imaging using tristimulus (red, green, blue) filters. Images taken from major sulphide parageneses are shown as examples of well contrasted multispectral images. Finally, the potential for automatic identification of ore minerals is discussed with reference to supervised multivariate image classification algorithms similar to those used in remote sensing. Additional comments on extending the principles for handling optical anisotropy and developing a multiradial imaging system are made.


The T2K experiment has reported the first observation of the appearance of electron neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam. The main and irreducible background to the appearance signal comes from the presence in the neutrino beam of a small intrinsic component of electron neutrinos originating from muon and kaon decays. In T2K, this component is expected to represent 1.2% of the total neutrino flux. A measurement of this component using the near detector (ND280), located 280 m from the target, is presented. The charged current interactions of electron neutrinos are selected by combining the particle identification capabilities of both the time projection chambers and electromagnetic calorimeters of ND280. The measured ratio between the observed electron neutrino beam component and the prediction is 1.01 +/- 0.10 providing a direct confirmation of the neutrino fluxes and neutrino cross section modeling used for T2K neutrino oscillation analyses. Electron neutrinos coming from muons and kaons decay are also separately measured, resulting in a ratio with respect to the prediction of 0.68 +/- 0.30 and 1.10 +/- 0.14, respectively.


We present ΔA14C and 39Ar data collected in the Nansen, Amundsen and Makarov basins during two expeditions to the central Arctic Ocean (RV Polarstern cruises ARK IV/3, 1987 and ARK VIII/3, 1991). The data are used, together with published Δ14C values, to describe the distribution of Δ14C in all major basins of the Arctic Ocean (Nansen, Amundsen, Makarov and Canada Basins), as well as the 39Ar distribution in the Nansen Basin and the deep waters of the Amundsen and Makarov Basins. From the combined Δ14C and 39Ar distributions, we derive information on the mean "isolation ages" of the deep and bottom waters of the Arctic Ocean. The data point toward mean ages of the bottom waters in the Eurasian Basin (Nansen and Amundsen Basins) of ca. 250-300 yr. The deep waters of the Amundsen Basin show slightly higher 3H concentrations than those in the Nansen Basin, indicating the addition of a higher fraction of water that has been at the sea surface during the past few decades. Correction for the bomb 14C added to the deep waters along with bomb 3H yields isolation ages for the bulk of the deep and bottom waters of the Amundsen Basin similar to those estimated for the Nansen Basin. This finding agrees well with the 39Ar data. Deep and bottom waters in the Canadian Basin (Makarov and Canada Basins) are very homogeneous, with an isolation age of ca. 450 yr. Δ14C and 39Ar data and a simple inverse model treating the Canadian Basin Deep Water (CBDW) as one well-mixed reservoir renewed by a mixture of Atlantic Water (29%), Eurasian Basin Deep Water (69%) and brine-enriched shelf water (2%) yield a mean residence time of CBDW of ca. 300 yr.


This paper presents a new method for incorporating imperfect FC (fault coverage) into a combinatorial model. Imperfect FC, the probability that a single malicious fault can thwart automatic recovery mechanisms, is important to accurate reliability assessment of fault-tolerant computer systems. Until recently, it was thought that the consideration of this probability necessitated a Markov model rather than the simpler (and usually faster) combinatorial model. SEA, the new approach, separates the modeling of FC failures into two terms that are multiplied to compute the system reliability. The first term, a simple product, represents the probability that no uncovered fault occurs. The second term comes from a combinatorial model which includes the covered faults that can lead to system failure. This second term can be computed from any common approach (e.g. fault tree, block diagram, digraph) which ignores the FC concept by slightly altering the component-failure probabilities. The result of this work is that reliability engineers can use their favorite software package (which ignores the FC concept) for computing reliability, and then adjust the input and output of that program slightly to produce a result which includes FC. This method applies to any system for which: the FC probabilities are constant and state-independent; the hazard rates are state-independent; and an FC failure leads to immediate system failure.


This paper uses the substantial increase in prescription drug insurance coverage from the adoption of Part D to generate new estimates the impact of coverage on drug utilization and cost-related non-adherence. The analysis uses detailed panel data on the elderly before and after the implementation of Part D drawn from the 2005 and 2007 Prescription Drug Study (PDS), administered as a supplement to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a large nationally representative survey of Americans aged 50 and older. Fixed-effect estimates suggest that gaining coverage results in a 15 percent increase in utilization. These results are consistent with the lower end of estimates in the literature. Gaining coverage also is associated with a 20-50 percent reduction in the incidence of cost-related non-adherence. However, even among the uninsured, only a relatively small proportion of drugs (12 percent) are associated with episodes of cost-related non-adherence. So, these large reductions apply to a small slice of all drugs.


Work zones and lane closures on urban arterials can cause significant disruptions to the traveling public, and methods are increasingly needed to estimate the reductions to saturation flow rates that result from work zones at signalized intersections. A set of statistical models that estimate saturation headways as a function of the presence and configuration of the work zone on signalized arterial streets is presented. More than 10,000 individual vehicular headway observations were collected from video observations in and after work zones at six study sites in North Carolina. Conventional multiple-regression and path-based-regression models (structural equation model) were used to develop the saturation headway models. Three models are provided at different aggregation levels of the collected data with identical work zone configurations. The models developed at cycle-length, 15-min, and full aggregation produced adjusted R-squared values of .3259, .7209, and .895, respectively. The proposed model incorporates the effects of lane configuration, pavement condition, turning percentage from shared lanes, work intensity, and number of closed exclusive turning lanes. Based on path analysis, the structural equation model satisfies all the rule-of-thumb criteria for goodness-of-fit indices. The model uses Highway Capacity Manual default values for turning-vehicle headway effect as its intercept coefficient value.


This book brings all of the elements of database design together in a single volume, saving the reader the time and expense of making multiple purchases. It consolidates both introductory and advanced topics, thereby covering the gamut of database design methodology ? from ER and UML techniques, to conceptual data modeling and table transformation, to storing XML and querying moving objects databases. The proposed book expertly combines the finest database design material from the Morgan Kaufmann portfolio. Individual chapters are derived from a select group of MK books authored by the best and brightest in the field. These chapters are combined into one comprehensive volume in a way that allows it to be used as a reference work for those interested in new and developing aspects of database design. This book represents a quick and efficient way to unite valuable content from leading database design experts, thereby creating a definitive, one-stop-shopping opportunity for customers to receive the information they would otherwise need to round up from separate sources. * Chapters contributed by various recognized experts in the field let the reader remain up to date and fully informed from multiple viewpoints.* Details multiple relational models and modeling languages, enhancing the reader's technical expertise and familiarity with design-related requirements specification. * Coverage of both theory and practice brings all of the elements of database design together in a single volume, saving the reader the time and expense of making multiple purchases.


Hierarchical representations of large data sets, such as binary cluster trees, are a crucial component in many scalable algorithms used in various fields. Two major approaches for building these trees are agglomerative, or bottom-up, clustering and divisive, or top-down, clustering. The agglomerative approach offers some real advantages such as more flexible clustering and often produces higher quality trees, but has been little used in graphics because it is frequently assumed to be prohibitively expensive (O(N2) or worse). In this paper we show that agglomerative clustering can be done efficiently even for very large data sets. We introduce a novel locally-ordered algorithm that is faster than traditional heap-based agglomerative clustering and show that the complexity of the tree build time is much closer to linear than quadratic. We also evaluate the quality of the agglomerative clustering trees compared to the best known divisive clustering strategies in two sample applications: bounding volume hierarchies for ray tracing and light trees in the Lightcuts rendering algorithm. Tree quality is highly application, data set, and dissimilarity function specific. In our experiments the agglomerative-built tree quality is consistently higher by margins ranging from slight to significant, with up to 35% reduction in tree query times.


With the growing popularity of the world-wide-web and the increasing accessibility of smart devices, data is being generated at a faster rate than ever before. This presents scalability challenges to web-scale search systems -- how can we efficiently index, store and retrieve such a vast amount of data? A large amount of prior research has attempted to address many facets of this question, with the invention of a range of efficient index storage and retrieval frameworks that are able to efficiently answer most queries. However, the current literature generally focuses on improving the mean or median query processing time in a given system. In the proposed PhD project, we focus on improving the efficiency of high percentile tail latencies in large scale IR systems while minimising end-to-end effectiveness loss. Although there is a wealth of prior research involving improving the efficiency of large scale IR systems, the most relevant prior work involves predicting long-running queries and processing them in various ways to avoid large query processing times. Prediction is often done through pre-trained models based on both static and dynamic features from queries and documents. Many different approaches to reducing the processing time of long running queries have been proposed, including parallelising queries that are predicted to run slowly, scheduling queries based on their predicted run time, and selecting or modifying the query processing algorithm depending on the load of the system. Considering the specific focus on tail latencies in large-scale IR systems, the proposed research aims to: (i) study what causes large tail latencies to occur in large-scale web search systems, (ii) propose a framework to mitigate tail latencies in multi-stage retrieval through the prediction of a vast range of query-specific efficiency parameters, (iii) experiment with mixed-mode query semantics to provide efficient and effective querying to reduce tail latencies, and (iv) propose a time-bounded solution for Document-at-a-Time (DaaT) query processing which is suitable for current web search systems. As a preliminary study, Crane et al. compared some state-of-the-art query processing strategies across many modern collections. They found that although modern DaaT dynamic pruning strategies are very efficient for ranked disjunctive processing, they have a much larger variance in processing times than Score-at-a-Time (SaaT) strategies which have a similar efficiency profile regardless of query length or the size of the required result set. Furthermore, Mackenzie et al. explored the efficiency trade-offs for paragraph retrieval in a multi-stage question answering system. They found that DaaT dynamic pruning strategies could efficiently retrieve the top-1,000 candidate paragraphs for very long queries. Extending on prior work, Mackenzie et al. showed how a range of per-query efficiency settings can be accurately predicted such that 99.99 percent of queries are serviced in less than 200 ms without noticeable effectiveness loss. In addition, a reference list framework was used for training models such that no relevance judgements or annotations were required. Future work will focus on improving the candidate generation stage in large-scale multi-stage retrieval systems. This will include further exploration of index layouts, traversal strategies, and query rewriting, with the aim of improving early stage efficiency to reduce the system tail latency, while potentially improving end-to-end effectiveness.


The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on August 23 calling for the urgent dispatch of an independent commission to Syria to investigate possible violations of human rights. The clear aim is to identify those responsible, with a view to ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable. Simultaneously, the US and several European nations called upon the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling circle. With a certain synchronicity, the European Union widened its sanctions against Syria. Days later, Libyan rebels opposing Gaddafi's rule had "taken" Tripoli and had surrounded his hometown of Sirte, heating up the debates as to who might eventually lead Libya. Indeed, as August turned into September, an international conference was convened in Paris to determine Libya's future. Events, and the reporting of events, have moved with both the speed and clarity of strobe lighting.


Corporate restructurings involving a redeployment of assets into other activities provide an important way in which rms alleviate nancial distress. This paper examines the degree to which loan sales and credit derivatives markets assist or hinder restructurings. We show that loan sales lead to a postponement of restructuring. Furthermore, they may be ine cient in the sense that the initial value of the rm is greater if loan sales are precluded. Credit derivative transactions which permit lenders to adjust their credit exposure without giving up their rights to negotiate in out-of-bankruptcy restructurings accelerate restructurings. JEL Nos: C25, G21, G33.


The main purpose of this study was to apply calcium phosphate nanoparticles as carriers for nucleic acids into different cell systems to test their transfection properties and influence on cells.
First, we performed an easy and straightforward synthesis of calcium phosphate nanoparticles partially or completely substituted by magnesium or aluminum. However, although these nanoparticles were much smaller than the pure calcium phosphate nanoparticles, they did not prove to be very efficient for the delivery of nucleic acids.
In order to test the toxicity of the system we monitored the intracellular calcium level by using of radioactive 45Ca-marked nanoparticles and the calcium dye Fura-2. Our nanoparticulate delivery system proved to be nontoxic to the cells compared to other delivery systems (the commercial agent Polyfect® and the standard calcium-based method). Nanoparticles also did not lead to the disturbances of the intracellular calcium level which, otherwise, could be lethal for cells.
In the next steps we functionalized the calcium phosphate nanoparticles with different oligonucleotides and tested them on cell culture for the gene silencing activity. The nanoparticles functionalized with siRNA were far more effective than Polyfect® and still nontoxic. The nanoparticles functionalized with shRNA effectively inhibited the synthesis of osteopontin and osteocalcin when also embedded into polyelectrolyte multilayers. This also allows the localized application of gene silencing.
We functionalized the nanoparticles with the oligonucleotides which are able to mimic the microbial antigens, thus activating the immune system and breaking the innate tolerance of the organism. We used CpG oligonucleotides for the activation of the dendritic cells which leads to the synthesis of IL-12 and presumably other signaling molecules.
We performed localized transfection experiments via deposition of the nanoparticles on metal substrates. In this case we could achieve high transfection efficiency and a local direct application.
Thus, we showed that the synthesis of calcium phosphate nanoprecipitates and their subsequent functionalization is possible. Such system was effectively used as a carrier for DNA and RNAs into the different cell cultures and proved to be effective and nontoxic for cells.


The target of security protection of the power distribution automation system (the distribution system for short) is to ensure the security of communication between the distribution terminal (terminal for short) and the distribution master station (master system for short). The encryption and authentication gateway (VPN gateway for short) for distribution system enhances the network layer communication security between the terminal and the VPN gateway. The distribution application layer encryption authentication device (master cipher machine for short) ensures the confidentiality and integrity of data transmission in application layer, and realizes the identity authentication between the master station and the terminal. All these measures are used to prevent malicious damage and attack to the master system by forging terminal identity, replay attack and other illegal operations, in order to prevent the resulting distribution network system accidents. Based on the security protection scheme of the power distribution automation system, this paper carries out the development of multi-chip encapsulation, develops IPSec Protocols software within the security chip, and realizes dual encryption and authentication function in IP layer and application layer supporting the national cryptographic algorithm.


Historical development of nonlinear stochastic modeling of streamflows is discussed. Physical considerations and graphical investigations of daily streamflows revealed that air temperature and state of basin storage are the most important sources of nonlinearity in catchments with seasonal snow accumulation. The average temperature for the preceding three days, and the flow one or two days earlier were adequate proxies for the temperature and storage conditions of a catchment. The Nested Threshold Autoregressive (NeTAR) model, which considers these sources of nonlinearity simultaneously, was applied to two years of daily flows of the Oldman River near Brocket in Alberta, Canada. A third year of daily data was used for validating the model. The final NeTAR model provided useful insights into the dynamics of this streamflow system.


A four-channel multilayer Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) microscope is developed for the 8-keV X-ray imaging of experiments on laser inertial confinement fusion (ICF). A periodic multilayer that works at 8 keV and with a grazing incidence angle of 1.0o is coated on reflective surfaces to achieve a spatial resolution higher than 5 \mu m and an effective solid angle higher than ~10-7 sr. A precise assembly is realized by a conical reference cone to couple with an X-ray framing camera. This study provides detailed information on an optical and multilayer design, assembly method, and experimental results with a Cu X-ray tube. The instrument provides a high-resolution and high-throughput X-ray image for backlit or self-emission imaging of laser plasma at Cu K\alpha line radiation in Shenguang series laser facilities.


Adversarial training, a special case of multi-objective optimization, is an increasingly prevalent machine learning technique: some of its most notable applications include GAN-based generative modeling and self-play techniques in reinforcement learning which have been applied to complex games such as Go or Poker. In practice, a \emph{single} pair of networks is typically trained in order to find an approximate equilibrium of a highly nonconcave-nonconvex adversarial problem. However, while a classic result in game theory states such an equilibrium exists in concave-convex games, there is no analogous guarantee if the payoff is nonconcave-nonconvex. Our main contribution is to provide an approximate minimax theorem for a large class of games where the players pick neural networks including WGAN, StarCraft II, and Blotto Game. Our findings rely on the fact that despite being nonconcave-nonconvex with respect to the neural networks parameters, these games are concave-convex with respect to the actual models (e.g., functions or distributions) represented by these neural networks.


Background:
 Stroke is associated with contralateral focal motor, visual, and sensory deficits. It remains unclear whether there is laterality to muscle deficits involved in upper airway and respiration. We hypothesized that there is laterality in motor deficits and coordination of muscles involved in upper airway and respiration in acute stroke resulting in greater vulnerability to contralateral pneumonia in supratentorial stroke patients.

 Methods:
 We reviewed medical records, chest radiographs, and laboratory testing to identify patients with pneumonia among a study population of 1033 adults (239 with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and 794 with ischemic stroke) admitted to two University affiliated hospitals from 2008-2010. Hospital-acquired pneumonia was defined by new or progressive radiographic infiltrate and at least two clinical features (fever, leukocytosis, or purulent tracheal secretions) based on definitions used in previous studies.

 Results:
 Overall, 76 patients (7.36%) were diagnosed with pneumonia during their hospitalization; 24 patients with bilateral pneumonia at the time of diagnosis were excluded. In all stroke patients with a unilateral stroke, a higher number of unilateral pneumonias were found in the contralateral lung (40) as compared to the ipsilateral lung (12) (OR 3.33, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43-7.75) after correction for endotrachial and nasogastric tube placement. The relationship was more prominent in patients with ischemic stroke patients (OR 5.20, 95% CI 1.57-17.18) as compared with patients with ICH ( OR 2.00, 95% 0.57-7.06).

 Conclusions:
 Unilateral vulnerability to pneumonia in patients with hemispheric stroke supports targeted chest percussions and postural drainage therapies to reduce the rate of such events and associated morbidity.


HYPOTHESIS / AIMS OF STUDY: eHealth is emerging and potentially has advantages for the treatment of UI in women. Especially, the use of mobile health applications (apps) may increase adherence to treatment advices and therewith reduce costs for UI management (1). Although various apps aimed at supporting the treatment of UI are currently available, little is known about the expectations and preferences of users of these apps and whether their expectations correspond with their actual experiences. This lack of knowledge may result in poor implementation of a possibly effective application. The aim of this study is to explore experiences and preferences regarding usability of an app-based treatment for UI in women. STUDY DESIGN, MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a qualitative usability study as part of an extensive process evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating an app-based treatment for stress, urgency and mixed UI in women. We invited women applying the following inclusion criteria: age > 18 years, suffering from self-reported stress, urgency or mixed UI at least twice a week according to the 3 Incontinence Questions (3IQ), a wish for treatment and access to a smartphone or tablet. Exclusion criteria were: indwelling urinary catheter, urogenital malignancy, previous surgery for UI, treatment for UI in the previous year (pharmacologically or non-pharmacologically), terminal or serious illness, cognitive impairment or psychiatric disorders, urinary tract infection, overflow or continuous UI, pregnancy or recent childbirth (<6 months ago) or the inability to complete a questionnaire in Dutch. We recruited women who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, but who did not participate in the RCT to avoid the chance of influencing the RCT. For this, we invited women who had contacted their GP for UI in the past 10 years through an information letter. After checking for in- and exclusion criteria by the researcher and written informed consent, participants filled in a short questionnaire on patient characteristics, UI severity, comorbidity, drug use and previous experience with the internet. Participants used the App during 6 weeks, after which semi-structured interviews were held to explore preferences and experiences regarding the usability of the App. Questions included in the interview guide were based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). TAM is a validated instrument to use in a healthcare setting and is good at predicting the use of eHealth. Additionally, questions on experiences with specific app functions were asked. Automatically logged data on app-usage were collected and used to further guide the interviews. Interviews were conducted at the patients GP practice and recorded using a digital voice recorder after which they were transcribed verbatim. Transcriptions were coded in duplicate by two researchers, using nVivo and checked for consensus. Recruitment of participants continued until saturation was reached (i.e. no new themes emerged during the interviews). Data analysis was driven by an inductive approach, which allowed themes to emerge from the data by constant comparison. RESULTS: Nine women, age 32 to 68 years, participated (saturation was reached after 9 interviews). The duration of UI complaints ranged from 1.5 to 26 years. Participants had urgency UI (3), stress UI (1), mixed UI (2), urgency-predominant mixed UI (2), and stress-predominant mixed UI (1). Four women indicated that they used incontinence pads on a daily basis. The ICIQ-SF score ranged from 2 to 13, indicating a low to moderate self-perceived severity of UI. Data analysis generated the following four main themes: Accessibility: this covers ease of use and how this relates to privacy. Most participants experienced the app as convenient; it made UI care and treatment easily accessible. Some participants stated that the app made it easier to receive treatment while keeping their UI symptoms private. These participants mentioned that they disliked discussing their symptoms with others and that fear of internal examination kept them from seeking help. In contrast, some participants also mentioned that they found it easier to talk about their symptoms after they started using app. Awareness: participants mentioned that the use of the app enhanced their awareness of their symptoms. Some participants realized that their symptoms were worse than they had previously thought. For some this was an unpleasant and confronting experience. Several participants also expressed that they became more aware of the treatment possibilities for UI and that the app made them more aware of their coping strategies and ways how these could be improved. Usefulness: this covers the perceived usefulness of the app, describing ways in which the app is serving a purpose for the user. Seven participants stated that overall they were positive about the usefulness of the app and would recommend the app to other women with(UI) Furthermore, the majority of the participants stated that they would probably use the app in the future. Adherence: this covers the time it takes to be engaged with the app, to adhere to the treatment and factors that promote adherence. The majority of participants mentioned that they found it difficult to do the exercises on a regular basis, because they felt they were too busy with work or private life to invest time in the app treatment. In contrast, one participant mentioned that the app is especially suitable for people with busy schedules. Participants stated that the reminder function of the app promoted adherence to the treatment. Also, some women noted that symptom improvement was motivated them to continue doing the exercises. Another participant stated that the display of her progress in the graphs was motivational. INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS: The results of this study provide insight into whether an app based treatment for UI fits the needs of its users. In general, women appreciated the increased accessibility of UI healthcare and possibility of 24/7 support. It enabled them to do the exercises at their own time and pace. These findings are in line with a previous study, which reported that a smart-phone-based therapy for depression felt more accessible and present in patients' everyday lives. In our study, some women were specifically attracted by the sense of privacy with the app-based treatment. Women were able to receive healthcare and treat their symptoms without having to consult a healthcare provider. On the other hand, some women experienced usage of the app had lowered barriers to talk about their UI complaints. Similar findings were reported in a study evaluating a treatment program for SUI without face-to-face contact, which described it breaking down some of the shame barriers. An important challenge in long-term adherence to UI treatment is fitting the exercises into patients' daily lives. Women in this study stated that they regularly forgot to do the exercises and mentioned that the reminder function of the app was an important feature; it supported them in reminding to do the exercises. This is in line with existing literature, which confirms the importance of reminder functions in eHealth tools. Other motivators to continued use of the app were symptom improvement and progress in exercise program. The greatest barrier to adherence mentioned by participants was being too busy. And even though women appreciated the fact that UI health care was accessible without health care provider consultation, several participants also mentioned the possible additional value of health care support. This is in line with studies on eHealth which show that adherence was low in the absence of face-to-face contact with a healthcare provider, possibly due to the lack reduced feelings of obligation (2). The results of this study indicate similar issues. CONCLUDING MESSAGE: This is the first study exploring experiences and preferences of women regarding an app-based treatment for all three types of urinary incontinence(UI), i.e. stress, urgency and mixed, with the use of in-person interviews Research has shown that patients may experience many barriers in the use self-care applications resulting in poor implementation of the application. Therefore, it is strongly advised to take into account the experiences and expectations of important stakeholders, like patients (3). In this study barriers and facilitators were explored, providing insight not only for treatment effects of a mobile application in the treatment of UI but potentially also for other future eHealth applications. By combining these results with experiences and expectation of other stakeholders like healthcare providers and with data on the (cost) effective-ness from the RCT ('mixed methods') we will be able to provide a complete picture of the introduction of an e-Health app for treatment of UI in women.


There is a paucity of data on aortic and heart dimensions of children and adolescents in Afri-cans. The aim of our study was to establish normal values of aortic, cardiac and thoracic diame-ters, and the cardiothoraic ratio in children and adolescents in a Nigerian population. The car-diothoracic ratio of 110 males and females aged between 5 and 19 were calculated from the car-diac and thoracic diameters in posteroanterior chest radiographs in a cross sectional study at a tertiary hospital. Prediction formulae were established for aortic and cardiac diameters. The means and standard deviations of aortic, cardiac and thoracic diameters and cardiothoraic ra-tio were established. The mean values of cardiothoracic ratio for males in the 5-9, 10-14 and 15-19 age groups were 47.7%, 45.7% and 44.1% respectively. The corresponding values for fe-males were 49.7%, 45.0% and 45.1%. The ratio decreased with age in both sexes. These values were larger than those reported for the Caucasians. Our study highlights the need for the use of standards based on local values for the evaluation of cardiovascular diseases in our population


B lymphocyte development is a complex biological process critically dependent on the transcription factor early B cell factor (EBF). To deepen understanding of the roles for EBF in this process, we have used Pearson correlation analysis to evaluate microarray data from a set of mouse B lymphoid cell lines representing different stages of development. Comparing the expression pattern of EBF to that of the other genes in the data set revealed that VpreB1, mb-1, and λ5, all known target genes, presented high correlation values to EBF. High correlations were also seen for the VpreB3 and CD19 genes and biochemical as well as functional data supported that they are target genes for EBF even though the expression of CD19 was critically dependent of Pax-5. We also obtained evidence for extensive collaborative actions of EBF and E47 even though microarray analysis of hematopoetic progenitor cells ectopically expressing these proteins suggested that they activated only a subset of pre-B cell restricted genes.


Nepal is one of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots with varied climate, geography and ecosystems. The majority of people in Nepal's hills and mountains still depend heavily on forest resources for their livelihood and wellbeing. However, since the breakdown of the traditional system of forest management and the nationalization of forests in the mid 1950s, Nepal's forests had undergone severe degradation and deforestation. In addition, political instability, illegal clearing, expansion of agricultural land and resettlement policy were also responsible for degradation. The deforestation was so rapid that between the period of 1964 and 1975, 2.3 million hectares of forests were lost and the livelihoods of people in the hills and mountains of Nepal were on the verge of collapse. Since the popularization of the theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation and realization on the part of government of the urgency of restoring and improving the condition of Nepal's forests, a number of conservation projects were launched.

In 1978, the government of Nepal initiated the community forestry program through the enactment of the Panchayat Forest and Panchayat Protected Forest Rules. These were further strengthened by the endorsement of the 1989 Master Plan for the Forestry Sector (MPFS) and enactment of the1993 Forest Act and 1995 Forest Regulation. The community-based forest co-management initiatives in Nepal transferred forest management authority to local community user groups. However, since the onset of the Maoist insurgency in 1996 and subsequent armed conflicts over the next decade, the community forestry program in Nepal was under threat. It was not known what happened to the community-based forest co-management arrangements during the period of insurgency due to restricted access to the countryside.

Through a comparative case studies of three Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) with three different conflict settings (the first controlled by neither of the contending parties, the second under the control of security forces and the third under the control of the Maoists) in Kavrepalanchok district in the Middle Hills region of Nepal, this research investigates the effectiveness of CBFCM in strengthening local forest governance processes and outcomes. It focuses particularly on equity in access and benefit sharing, the participation of different socio-economic strata in forest governance, and the provision of environmental services within these communities during pre/early and late conflict periods.

This research shows that the community forestry program has provided a significant space to local communities for collective action that enabled them to reverse the trend of forest degradation, improving the environmental condition of the forests and the supply of forest products. Over time, the community forest program has been successful in gradually building the capacity of CFUG institutions and has increased the involvement of women and other marginalized sections of the community. Through the expanded networks among CFUGs and with the assistance of outside organizations, these communities have now attained considerable influence in national forest policy formulation. This study confirms that although the governing mechanisms of state agencies, including the Department of Forests (DoF), became dysfunctional during the period of armed insurgency, governance structures of the local CFUGs in the case study villages were largely stable and most forest management activities were carried out during the period of armed conflict. The CFUGs have survived as vibrant self-governing institutions and have maintained reasonable access to forest resources to satisfy the subsistence needs of local people within the community. These findings suggest that community-based forest governing institutions had the bargaining capacity and ability to overcome the pressures arising from the armed conflict because of the resilience and adaptive capacities of the CFUGs.

Key words: Co-management (CM), community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), Community-based forest co-management (CBFCM), governance, and community forest user groups (CFUGs).


Quantum parallel processing techniques are capable of solving certain complex problems at a substantially lower complexity than their classical counterparts. From the perspective of telecommunications, this quantum-domain parallel processing provides a plausible solution for achieving full-search based multi-stream detection, which is vital for future gigabit-wireless systems. The peculiar laws of quantum mechanics have also spurred interest in the absolutely secure quantum-based communication systems. Unfortunately, quantum decoherence imposes a hitherto insurmountable impairment on the practical implementation of quantum computation as well as on quantum communication systems, which may be overcome with the aid of efficient error correction codes. In this thesis, we design error correction codes for the quantum domain, which is an intricate journey from the realm of classical channel coding theory to that of the Quantum Error Correction Codes (QECCs). Since quantum-based communication systems are capable of supporting the transmission of both classical and quantum information, we initially focus our attention on the code design for entanglementassisted classical communication over the quantum depolarizing channel. We conceive an Extrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart aided near-capacity classical-quantum code design, which invokes a classical Irregular Convolutional Code (IRCC) and a Unity Rate Code (URC) in conjunction with our proposed soft-decision aided SuperDense Code (SD). Hence, it is referred to as an 'IRCC-URCSD' arrangement. The proposed scheme is intrinsically amalgamated both with 2-qubit as well as 3-qubit SD coding protocols and it is benchmarked against the corresponding entanglement-assisted classical capacity. Since the IRCC-URC-SD scheme is a bit-based design, it incurs a capacity loss. As a further advance, we design a symbol based concatenated code design, referred to as a symbol-based 'CC-URC-SD', which relies on a single-component classical Convolutional Code (CC). Additionally, for the sake of reducing the associated decoding complexity, we also investigate the impact of the constraint length of the convolutional code on the achievable performance. Our initial designs, namely IRCC-URC-SD and CC-URC-SD, exploit redundancy in the classical domain. By contrast, QECCs relying on the quantum-domain redundancy are indispensable for conceiving a quantum communication system supporting the transmission of quantum information and also for quantum computing. Therefore, we next provide insights into the transformation from the family of classical codes to the class of quantum codes known as 'Quantum Stabilizer Codes' (QSC), which invoke the classical syndrome decoding. Particularly, we detail the underlying quantum-to classical isomorphism, which facilitates the design of meritorious families of QECCs from the known classical codes. We further study the syndrome decoding techniques operating over classical channels, which may be exploited for decoding QSCs. In this context, we conceive a syndrome-based block decoding approach for the classical Turbo Trellis Coded Modulation (TTCM), whose performance is investigated for transmission over an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel as well as over an uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channel. Pursuing our objective of designing efficient QECCs, we next consider the construction of Hashingbound-approaching concatenated quantum codes. In this quest, we appropriately adapt the conventional non-binary EXIT charts for Quantum Turbo Codes (QTCs) by exploiting the intrinsic quantumto- classical isomorphism. We further demonstrate the explicit benefit of our EXIT-chart technique for achieving a Hashing-bound-approaching code design. We also propose a generically applicable structure for Quantum Irregular Convolutional Codes (QIRCCs), which can be dynamically adapted to a specific application scenario with the aid of the EXIT charts. More explicitly, we provide a detailed design example by constructing a 10-subcode QIRCC and use it as an outer code in a concatenated quantum code structure for evaluating its performance. Working further in the direction of iterative code structures, we survey Quantum Low Density Parity Check (QLPDC) codes from the perspective of code design as well as in terms of their decoding algorithms. Furthermore, we propose a radically new class of high-rate row-circulant Quasi-Cyclic QLDPC (QC-QLDPC) codes, which can be constructed from arbitrary row-circulant classical QC LDPC matrices. We also conceive a modified non-binary decoding algorithm for homogeneous Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS)-type QLDPC codes, which is capable of alleviating the problems imposed by the unavoidable length-4 cycles. Our modified decoder outperforms the state-of-the-art decoders in terms of their Word Error Rate (WER) performance, despite imposing a reduced decoding complexity. Finally, we intricately amalgamate our modified decoder with the classic Uniformly-ReWeighted Belief Propagation (URW-BP) for the sake of achieving further performance improvement.


Word sense disambiguation is necessary in translation because different word senses often have different translations. Neural machine translation models learn different senses of words as part of an end-to-end translation task, and their capability to perform word sense disambiguation has so far not been quantified. We exploit the fact that neural translation models can score arbitrary translations to design a novel cross-lingual word sense disambiguation task that is tailored towards evaluating neural machine translation models. We present a test set of 7,200 lexical ambiguities for German → English, and 6,700 for German → French, and report baseline results. With 70% of lexical ambiguities correctly disambiguated, we find that word sense disambiguation remains a challenging problem for neural machine translation, especially for rare word senses. To improve word sense disambiguation in neural machine translation, we experiment with two methods to integrate sense embeddings. In a first approach we pass sense embeddings as additional input to the neural machine translation system. For the second experiment, we extract lexical chains based on sense embeddings from the document and integrate this information into the NMT model. While a baseline NMT system disambiguates frequent word senses quite reliably, the annotation with both sense labels and lexical chains improves the neural models' performance on rare word senses.


Pandemics can cause immense disruption and damage to communities and societies. Thus far, modeling of pandemics has focused on either large-scale difference-equation models like the SIR and the SEIR models, or detailed micro-level simulations, which are harder to apply at a global scale. This thesis introduces a hybrid model for the spread of pandemics considering both global infections and local infections. We hypothesize that the spread of an infectious disease between regions is significantly influenced by global traffic patterns and the spread within a region is influenced by local conditions. Thus we model the spread of pandemics considering the connections between regions for the spread of global infections and population and population density based on the SEIR model for the spread of local infections.
We validate our hybrid model by carrying out a number of simulation studies using available data on population, population density, and traffic networks between different regions. We show the power of our approach in both modern and historical contexts. In the modern era, we model the SARS pandemic of 2002-03 and the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009- using data on international travel, and demonstrate the close relationship between modern travel networks and the spread of disease. In the historical context, it is difficult to find high-quality travel data. However, we can use data on trade and on troop movements during wars as a proxy for the connectedness of different regions. We use this to model the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 considering the effect of the First World War and the influenza pandemic of 1957-58 considering the effect of the Cold War. We compare our simulation results with the historical record, and find influential factors for the spread of a pandemic. In addition to demonstrating the benefits of our modeling approach for understanding and perhaps in the future mitigating the spread of disease, this methodology also allows us to simulate counterfactual situations. We simulate another historical scenario and find the influence of a historical event upon the spread of a pandemic by comparing the simulation results. Our simulation studies show that international relationships and global traffic patterns significantly influence the spread of pandemics.


In evaluating a stock of recent-past buildings, it is important to stay alert to the ways in which recent-past heritage is more difficult to assess, and what we might be prone to do to make it easier to assess. It is not enough to involve numerous people in the process and to articulate our method of analysis. We as preservation professionals must also consciously strive to avoid cognitive shortcuts. We must set evaluative standards and choose priorities, without simply dismissing a great portion of the built environment as "crap" or accepting self-evidence as a measure of significance. Complexity should not be a cause for despair. We must lead the public in a more self-reflexive view of built heritage, without getting stuck in never-ending philosophizing and debating. The field would benefit from a more systematic, methodical approach to championing pluralism in heritage and recognizing the polysemy in cultural objects, which nonetheless helps to uncover priorities of highest significance. In sum, prior to, and in addition to, preservation advocacy efforts to publicize and popularize buildings of the recent-past, preservation planning efforts must establish better methods for identifying resources and assessing their significance. In light of the issues and caveats just introduced, this study asks: what is an optimal inventory method for a municipal/county-level commission or nonprofit organization to identify priorities for preservation planning for the recent-past? Disciplines Historic Preservation and Conservation Comments Suggested Citation: Hagar, Kristin M. (2011). Toward a New Approach to Evaluating Significance in Recent-Past Preservation Planning with a Case Study of 1960s Properties in Philadelphia County. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/171 TOWARD A NEW APPROACH TO EVALUATING SIGNIFICANCE IN RECENT-PAST PRESERVATION PLANNING WITH A CASE STUDY OF 1960s PROPERTIES IN PHILADELPHIA COUNTY KRISTIN MARGARET HAGAR A THESIS in Historic Preservation Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION


This Essay considers the tension between the autonomous theory of international commercial arbitration and the more interactive theory advanced by Gary Born during his keynote address at the recent "Border Skirmishes" symposium at the University of Missouri School of Law. In his presentation, Born considered the relationship between litigation and international commercial arbitration and distinguished between permissible "border crossings" and impermissible "border incursions." This Essay considers how these concepts play out both in routine interactions between courts and tribunals and more in difficult scenarios, such as those involving anti-suit injunctions. The discussion also presents statistics concerning the amount of ancillary litigation that arises in both the United States and the United Kingdom and offers several explanations for recent trends in this regard.