When Captain William Moorsom wrote a series of letters from Nova Scotia in the early nineteenth century he presented a picture of a wilderness settlement lacking most of the cultural attributes of English society. The following statement sums up his and many other visitors' views of the cultural life of this area of Canada: The exquisite powers of musical concert, and of all that has been so emphatically comprised . . . under the term "Conversation" are here almost unknown, and, except in two or three solitary instances, hardly attempted (1830: 97). The opinions of Moorsom and others to the contrary, the Canadian Maritime settlements did know about the "exquisite powers" of music and had produced in a very short time a musical life that formed an integral part of their social pastimes.1 When the British established Halifax in 1749 a new era in Maritime history began. The first year was spent in creating adequate fortifications to defend against Indian attacks which never materialized and in establishing a town outside the garrison walls. In a letter from Nova Scotia that appeared in the London Gentlemen's Magazine, the anonymous writer recorded this first year at Halifax: When I look back upon the 21st June, the day of our arrival, I am astonished to see the progress made; there are already about 400 habitable houses within the fortifications and not less than 200 without. So surprising is the growth of this colony . . . .2 By 1755 a population of over 1,700 souls was recorded in a census. Throughout the 1750s and 1760s the town proper grew sporadically as large troop movements and migrations to inland settlements tended to cause fluctuations in the population. However, by 1769 five thousand people were settled in Halifax and a large commercial area on the waterfront and adjoining streets had been established. These businesses relied on supplies from Boston and several other southerly ports as well as regular shipments from England. The society that emerged during this period catered to the needs of frontier defences by providing goods to the troops and by growing some crops that could feed the town and garrison. A limited class structure was in evidence, with commanding officers of troops and their chosen civilian authorities controlling the town's legal and military affairs. Nevertheless, middle-class merchants, farmers, and laborers had no choice but to mingle in such a small settlement. Public social events were open to most townspeople for the price of admission. It was a harsh system that imposed social order on this disparate group of settlers. Liquor offenders were punished with the lash and public stockade, housebreakers with execution, and counterfeiters, judging from the case of one Christopher Moore, sentenced to stand on the pillory for "one hour his ears to be nailed to the pillory and to be whipped . . . ."3 What role did music play during these formative years in struggling settlements established for defence and territorial occupation? From evidence in newspapers, letters, and other original documents, one can observe the gradual growth in the popularity of music in these volatile times. After survival was assured and the main elements of social order were in place housing, legal authority, and adequate food supply - inhabitants sought forms of relaxation and entertainment to make the long winters more tolerable. Settlers undoubtedly brought small instruments and some music with them from their original homes. Dancing, singing in homes, taverns, and coffeehouses, and worship in churches constituted early musical activities in which all townspeople could participate. Opportunistic merchants, seeing a potential market for music, were soon importing supplies for these aspiring musicians along with seeds, clothing, and farm implements. Within the first five years of the new settlement, the Halifax papers began to advertise music and instruments. Auctioneer William Craft, in August of 1754, offered a songbook entitled Cupid, opera glasses, and two German flutes, plus fishing rods, gunpowder, muskets and a tobacco engine. …


The aim of this work was to develop a quantitative description of the ion exchange equilibria of arsenic on a strong anionic resin, in the presence of nitrates and sulphates. First, the ion exchange equilibrium data of As(V) and NO - 3 on a strong anionic resin in chloride form were obtained and described with a model based on the mass action law. Namely, assuming ideal behaviour for both solution and resin phase, the thermodynamic constant of the As(V)/Cl - and NO - 3 /Cl - ion exchange equilibria were estimated by fitting of experimental data. Then, these equilibrium constants were used to predict the ion exchange behaviour of the ternary system As(V)/NO3 - /Cl - , providing a rather good agreement with experimental results. The ion exchange equilibria involving sulphate ions were also studied, showing a very high affinity to the resin phase. This behaviour did not allow a quantitative robust modelling of the equilibrium pattern. The results discussed in this paper represent a first step toward the development of a comprehensive modelling of the ion exchange process for the removal of As(V) from surface and groundwater in the presence of competitive, naturally occurring anions.


This research locates a series of risks or hazards within a framework characterised by the level of control respondents believe they have over the risks, and the level of worry the risks prompt. It does this for a set of both food and non-food risks. The means by which this is done is novel, and differs from past risk perception analyses in that it questions people directly regarding their relative assessments of the levels of control and worry over the risks presented. The cognitive burden associated with people ranking and scaling items in large sets is notoriously heavy, so this study uses an elicitation method designed to make the process intuitive and cognitively manageable for respondents. The substantive analysis of the risk perceptions has four main foci concerning the relative assessment of (i) novel as opposed to more familiar risks (e.g. swine flu vs. heart attack), (ii) food risks as opposed to non-food risks, (iii) perceived levels of control over the risks versus how worrying the risks are considered to be, (iv) differences in the risk perceptions across social groups, as in this paper we analyse the relative assessments of farmers and consumers with a particular orientation on E. coli.


A gene involved in morphogenesis and ciliogenesis is mutated in patients with Bardet-Biedl syndrome. The planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling pathway governs cell movements that drive axis elongation and neural tube closure in vertebrate embryos, and certain vertebrate PCP proteins have also been implicated in ciliogenesis. Likewise, the septin cytoskeleton controls diverse cell behaviors, such as cytokinesis and cell migration, but little is known about how septin functions are regulated in vivo. Kim et al. (see the Perspective by Barral) found that control of septins by the PCP effector protein, Fritz, was a crucial control point for morphogenesis and ciliogenesis. During neural tube closure, Fritz-mediated septin localization maintained cell shape but not cell polarity. In ciliated epithelial cells, Fritz was required for assembly of the septin rings at the base of cilia, which are needed for normal ciliogenesis and signaling. S. K. Kim, A. Shindo, T. J. Park, E. C. Oh, S. Ghosh, R. S. Gray, R. A. Lewis, C. A. Johnson, T. Attie-Bittach, N. Katsanis, J. B. Wallingford, Planar cell polarity acts through septins to control collective cell movement and ciliogenesis. Science 329, 1337–1340 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] Y. Barral, Septins at the nexus. Science 329, 1289–1290 (2010).[Abstract] [Full Text]


Understanding why a model makes a certain prediction can be as crucial as the prediction's accuracy in many applications. However, the highest accuracy for large modern datasets is often achieved by complex models that even experts struggle to interpret, such as ensemble or deep learning models, creating a tension between accuracy and interpretability. In response, various methods have recently been proposed to help users interpret the predictions of complex models, but it is often unclear how these methods are related and when one method is preferable over another. To address this problem, we present a unified framework for interpreting predictions, SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations). SHAP assigns each feature an importance value for a particular prediction. Its novel components include: (1) the identification of a new class of additive feature importance measures, and (2) theoretical results showing there is a unique solution in this class with a set of desirable properties. The new class unifies six existing methods, notable because several recent methods in the class lack the proposed desirable properties. Based on insights from this unification, we present new methods that show improved computational performance and/or better consistency with human intuition than previous approaches.


This paper explores the possibility of realising Coasean bargains to remove the presence of externalities in a libertarian system of exclusive spectrum rights through the creation of various economically motivated easements. We advocate that dynamic spectrum access (DSA) techniques can be used to enable rights holders reduce or eliminate the effects of externalities through local bargaining. Many of the objections to the promotion of market-based exclusive-rights assignment systems concern the ability of rights holders to enforce their spectrum rights, so as to extract maximal value. In an increasingly fragmented and less-regulated spectrum landscape, there will be an inevitable chafing of rights at the boundaries between the users of neighbouring blocks of spectrum; the spectral activities of one network may impinge on the ability of a neighbouring network to extract maximum value from its exclusively assigned spectrum. Nonetheless, it is argued that it is possible to reduce, or eliminate, the existence of such externalities through the adjustment and exchange of rights through value- extraction-focussed bargaining. In essence, this represents a shift from a mindset of unilaterally enforcing rights to one of mutual remediation of any encroachment. Such an approach may offer a non-Pigouvian remedy to both the under-utilisation and over-utilisation of packages of exclusive rights to spectrum, allowing neighbours to find a tolerable level (a balance) of interference. This paper posits that DSA techniques will have a key role to play in the development of new DSA-based Coasean bargains which will be necessary to address a variety of coexistence issues that will arise between systems operating in neighbouring blocks of exclusively assigned spectrum.


This thesis is comprised of a collection of work on urban, brownfield and heavy metal contaminated soils carried out within the North West of England from March 2007 to December 2009. Field and laboratory based experiments were used to determine the amount of carbon stored in urban soils and fluxes of dissolved organic carbon and soil respiration. The effects of added organic amendments on carbon storage and mobility as well as the onward implications to heavy metals and arsenic mobility and the impact of earthworms on these processes were also investigated. A city-wide topsoil survey of parkland and road verges in Liverpool showed that carbon storage ranged from 10 kg total organic carbon m-2 whilst physico-chemical characteristics and heavy metal and arsenic concentrations also varied considerably. The abundance oftechnogenic material restricted organic carbon storage and flux to the upper 30 cm of an inner city lawn soil studied in greater detail. Brownfield soil carbon storage and fluxes were enhanced by adding a small amount of green waste compost to these soils but large applications did not greatly increase carbon storage further. Enhanced losses of carbon by dissolved organic carbon leaching and increased soil respiration rates were consequences of greenwaste compost additions, although these effects were highly seasonal, occurring in greatest magnitude at the warmest periods of the year. Proportionately, the annual losses of carbon to soil respiration were far greater than those to dissolved organic carbon. An amendment consisting predominantly of woody material and a biochar amendment had a lower impact than composted greenwaste on dissolved organic carbon mobility, and the co-mobilisation of heavy metals and arsenic in a soil from a previously heavily industrialised centre of population. Earthworms reduced dissolved organic carbon when inoculated with compost and biochar amended soil, but increased this soluble fraction of carbon in woody amended soils, with attendant consequence to trace metal and arsenic mobility. Zinc and cadmium mobility were largely independent of changes in soluble carbon, but arsenic, copper and lead were heavily influenced by added carbon. Biochar amendment proved very effective in reducing concentrations of soluble cadmium and zinc in a heavy metal contaminated soil by adsorption, as well as having the added benefit of reducing total and bioavailable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations. It is concluded that carbon storage in urban soils can potentially be increased by applying organic amendments, although longer-term carbon storage may only be substantially enhanced with repeated applications of amendments. However, in urban soils with significant residual pollution, it can be questioned whether this practice is environmentally sound, regarding mobilisation of potentially harmful trace elements. Biochar and larger woody fraction amendments to soils may be more efficacious.


This paper describes a model to predict the flow of an initially stationary mass of cohesionless granular material down a rough curved bed, and checks it against laboratory experiments that were conducted with several cohesionless granular materials that are released from rest and travel in an exponentially curved chute. We use the depth-averaged field equations of balance of mass and linear momentum as presented by Savage & Hutter (1990). These equations are evolution equations for the transversely averaged stream wise velocity and the distribution of avalanche depths and involve two phenomenological parameters, the internal angle of friction, ϕ, and a bed friction angle, δ, both as constitutive properties of Coulomb-type behaviour. We present the model but do not derive its equations, which are presented in two variants that incorporate weak and strong curvature effects. For granular avalanches which start as parabolic piles, the governing equations (incorporating weak curvature effects) permit similarity solutions. These solutions preserve the parabolic shape and have simple velocity distributions. We present the equations again without detailed explanations. Experiments were performed with seven different granular materials (two classes of glass beads, Vestolen plastic particles, two samples of quartz granules and two types of crunched marmor particles). Piles of finite masses of such granular materials with various initial geometries were released from rest in a 100 mm wide chute having an exponentially curved bed that was lined with Makrolon (a plexiglass), drawing-paper and sandpaper. The granular masses under motion were photographed and video filmed and thus the geometry of the avalanche was recorded as a function of position and time. With all materials and for all the bed linings, the angle of repose and the bed friction angle were determined. The former was identified with the static internal angle of friction. Using a second measuring technique, the effects of the chute walls on the bed friction angle was experimentally determined and incorporated in an effective bed friction angle which thus showed a linear dependence on the pile depth. Coefficients of restitution were also estimated for the particles on the different bed linings. The numerical integration scheme for the general model that was proposed earlier by Savage & Hutter (1989) is a lagrangian finite difference scheme which incorporates numerical diffusion. We present this scheme and analyse its reliability when the numerical diffusion is varied. We also discuss the integration procedure for the similarity solutions. Comparison of the theoretical results with experiments pertain to the similarity model (SM) and the general equation model (GM). Crucial in such comparisons is the identification of initial condition which is not unique from the observational data. For SM it is shown that no initial condition can be found, in general, that would yield computational predictions of the evolution of the position of the leading and trailing edges of the granular avalanche in sufficient agreement with observations. When depth-to-length ratios of the initial pile geometry and the curvature of the bed are sufficiently small, however, then the SM solutions may be used for diagnostic purposes. We finally compare experimental results with computational findings of the GM equations for many combinations of masses of the granular materials and bed linings. It is found that experimental results and theoretical predictions agree satisfactorily if the internal angle of friction, ϕ, exceeds the total bed friction angle, δ, or is not close to it. Limited variations of the bed friction angle along the bed do not seem to have a sizeable effect on the computational results, but it is important that dynamic values rather than static values for ϕ and δ are used in the computations. When δ is very close to ϕ and δ < ϕ , the computational travel time of the granular avalanche exceeds the travel time of experiments considerably. Furthermore, when avalanche masses are reasonably small and coefficients of restitution of the granules on the bed relatively high, again the predictions of the theory overestimate travel times and underestimate avalanche lengths. Thus the theory does seem to be reasonable when the bed friction angle is definitely smaller than the internal angle of friction.


The time-dependent modulation of galactic cosmic rays in the heliosphere is studied over different polarity cycles by computing 2.5 GV proton intensities using a two-dimensional, time-dependent modulation model. By incorporating recent theoretical advances in the relevant transport parameters in the model, we showed in previous work that this approach gave realistic computed intensities over a solar cycle. New in this work is that a time dependence of the solar wind termination shock (TS) position is implemented in our model to study the effect of a dynamic inner heliosheath thickness (the region between the TS and heliopause) on the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays. The study reveals that changes in the inner heliosheath thickness, arising from a time-dependent shock position, does affect cosmic-ray intensities everywhere in the heliosphere over a solar cycle, with the smallest effect in the innermost heliosphere. A time-dependent TS position causes a phase difference between the solar activity periods and the corresponding intensity periods. The maximum intensities in response to a solar minimum activity period are found to be dependent on the time-dependent TS profile. It is found that changing the width of the inner heliosheath with time over a solar cycle can shift the time of when the maximum or minimum cosmic-ray intensities occur at various distances throughout the heliosphere, but more significantly in the outer heliosphere. The time-dependent extent of the inner heliosheath, as affected by solar activity conditions, is thus an additional time-dependent factor to be considered in the long-term modulation of cosmic rays.


Educators recognize that students dropping out of school is one of the most difficult challenges facing our public school system. The highest rate of growth population in the future will be among the very groups who have been served least by our public school system. This paper outlines what school officials con do to decrease the dropout rate. The suggestions for dropout prevention include modifying the instructional environment, strengthening school membership, developing school board policies, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and mentoring. In the past 25 years, there has been growing interest in the quality of American public schools, especially as it relates to the issue of school dropouts (Bonilla, 1993; Kelly & Gaskel, 1996; Waggoner, 1991). But despite the best efforts to stem the flow of students leaving high school prior to graduation, students continue to drop out (Education Department, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Research Statistics, 1997; Gordon Press Publishers, 1998, Kaufman, 1998). One important aspect of effective dropout prevention is identification of students who are most likely to drop out (Kronick & Hargis, 1998; Morton, 1998; Skromme, VanAllen, & Bensen, 1998). Clearly, we want to know that our dropout prevention programs are targeting the students who are most at risk (Bonilla & Goss, 1997; Brusca-Vega, Yawkey, & Gonzalez, 1996; McWhirter, 1997; Peterson, 1998; Sprick, Sprick, & Garrison, 1998). Growing Cultural Diversity The 21st century will see greater ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States than in any other period in American history (Naylor, 1997; Sitarem & Prosser, 1998). The highest rate of growth population in the future will be among the groups who have been served least well by our public schools (Lunenburg & Irby, 1999; Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2000). Although the majority of today's American schoolchildren are white, the past ten years have seen a rapid increase in the number of immigrant and minority students. For example, in 1980 one out of every five students belonged to a minority group. Today, that number has increased to more than one in four. And according to estimates, nearly one in three American schoolchildren will fall within the Census Bureau's designation of "minority" by the year 2010 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991). The increase in cultural diversity over the past decade is the result of immigration from non-European countries, resulting from the Immigration Act of 1965 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, Economics and Statistics Administration, 1991). According to the Population Reference Bureau (1999), the number of school-age immigrant children in America has risen to between 2.5 and 2.9 million, with the largest numbers of immigrants coming from Mexico, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. The United States will continue to grow, and immigration will continue to be a major source of that growth. Furthermore, growth will be concentrated in nonwhite populations in the suburbs of the 50 largest metropolitan areas. "Peripheral Cities" (self-contained suburbs outside the metropolitan centers) will become common. This phenomenon will lead to further destruction of the inner cities as financial resources, talent, and industry continue to move to the suburbs and Peripheral Cities. The problem of retaining and attracting middle classes of whatever racial and ethic group back to the inner cities will become difficult if not impossible to achieve (Hodgkinson, 1998a). Moreover, since most voters will live in the suburbs contiguous to the 50 largest metropolitan areas, it will be easier for most political leaders to ignore inner city schools -- the schools that most need assistance from the state and federal government. A Demographic Look at Tomorrow The nation increased by 22.1 million persons in 1990, reaching a total of 248. …


This dissertation deals with extragalactic detections of the 21-cm line of the neutral hydrogen atom (H1)
obtained from both array and single dish radio telescopes. Among the wide range of topics that can be
explored from extragalactic l-ll observations, which are one of the mainstays of our understanding of galaxy
evolution and large-scale structure of the Universe, the work presented here is mostly framed within the scope
of environmental studies. In particular, we present the results of two projects focused on galaxies lying in
opposite environments.
The first project consists on the study of the H1 distribution and distance estimates of
a handful of gas-poor spirals in the Virgo Cluster region from observations carried out with the
Very Large Array (VLA). On the other hand, the second part of this thesis is devoted to analyze the optical
properties and H1 content of a sample of field galaxies detected by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA
(ALFALFA) survey. The aims of our research regarding these two projects are complementary; while the
first part is focused on gaining insight on the effects that high density environments have on galaxies, the
second part seeks to set up new standards of normalcy for the H1 and optical properties of galaxies for future
environmental studies.
The aperture synthesis observations in the 21 cm line of pointings centered on the Virgo Cluster region spirals
NGC 4307, NGC 4356, NGC 441113, and NGC 4492 using the VLA in its CS
configuration are presented. These galaxies were identified in a previous study of the three dimensional
distribution of H1 emission in the Virgo region as objects with a substantial
dearth of atomic gas and Tully--Fisher (TF) distance estimates that located them well outside the main body
of the cluster. We have detected two other galaxies located in two of our fields and
observed bands, the spiral NGC 4411A and the dwarf spiral VCC 740. For all these galaxies, we provide
detailed information of the gas morphology and kinematics. Our new data confirm the
strong HI deficiency of all the main targets but NGC 441 1B, which is found to have a fairly normal neutral
gas content. Besides, the VLA observations have also been used to discuss the applicability of TF techniques
to the five largest spirals we have observed. This analysis
leads us to conclude that none of them is actually suitable for a TF distance evaluation,
whether due to the radical trimming of their neutral hydrogen disks, which is the case of the targets NGC
4307, NGC 4356, and NGC 4492, or to their nearly face-on orientation (NGC 4411A and B).
The statistical analysis of H1 and optical properties of field galaxies constitutes the second
project of this thesis. First, we report the results from the study of the HI content and stellar properties of
nearby galaxies based on the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) blind 21-cm line survey observations
on two strips covering a total area of 9 hr $\times$ 16 deg in the Virgo cluster direction, From these data, we
have assembled a large homogeneous sample of 5496 galaxies with healthy amounts of neutral gas located in
environments of low local galactic density. These are
all galaxies with a counterpart in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which has also granted us access to a
vast number of their optical attributes. In this chapter, we focus exclusively on the distributions of
morphology indicators such as structural parameters and colors, as well as their relationship with HI emission
in an effort to shed more light on the nature of extragalactic H1 sources in the local universe. Our analysis
confirms the extended view that red, passive objects of early type in the field tend to have less neutral
hydrogen than bluer, star-forming late-type alaxies, a trend that ets emphasized with increasin distance in

flux-limited datasets due to the positive correlation between global color and intrinsic luminosity. We find,
however, that this latter
relationship involves exclusively galaxies undetected in HI, whereas the color distribution for gas-healthy
galaxies is Luminosity-independent. Moreover, our study demonstrates that the best way to discriminate
between early and late-type galaxies is through the presence of significant I-ll emission, since sources With a _
true early-type morphology and substantial reserves of cold gas are rare exceptions to the norm.
Two smaller homogeneous samples containing several hundreds of isolated \alf\ galaxies each have also been
extracted by applying different systematic identification criteria. These two subsets, which show neutral gas
content distributions indistinguishable from Those found in our larger dataset of galaxies in low density
environments, are nonetheless characterized by a higher relative
abundance of objects with optical early-type attributes. This last trait, also observed in other catalogs of
isolated galaxies existing ln the literature, highlights the selection bias arising from the
aforementioned connection between color and luminosity and the application of methods for identifying
isolated galaxy candidates partial to the brightest and, hence, the reddest members of a
dataset.
Nextj we deal with a homogeneous subset of about three thousand objects extracted from the sample of Hl-
healthy galaxies in environments of low local galactic density obeying the condition $\Fhi\ge l$~Jy \kms, for
which we know that \alf\ is complete. We apply strategies of multivariate data analysis to these gas-rich
galaxies in order to i) investigate the correlation structure of their main extensive 21cm and optical properties
and reveal the true dimension of the space generated by them, ii) identify the intrinsic parameters that best
define their HI content, and iii) explore the
constraints that the joint distributions of our observables put on the scaling relations among fundamental
variables. Our analysis conhrms previous claims that gaseous galaxies form essentially a one-parameter set,
as well as that the most precise predictors of their HI mass are the stellar diameter, followed by the total
luminosity (both in the $r$-band), and the maximum rotation speed. The most interesting findings regarding
the associated scaling laws are that we get $90\%$ confidence intervals of $-7.54A{+l.l}_{-O.86}$ for the
slope of the relation between magnitude and log rotation speed when the analysis is restricted to the galaxies
with the highest inclinations ($i\geq 60\degr$), in good agreement with Tully-Fisher studies, and of
$1.68{+0.09}_{-0.08}$ for the log slope ofthe HI mass-galaxy size relation. Given the completeness,
homogeneity, and broad morphological coverage of our galaxy database, the latter result suggests that the
constancy of the global (hybrid) HI surface density that some authors advocate for the entire spiral population
is just a crude approximation of reality.
Finally, some ancillary results are presented. we investigate the main statistical properties of the observations
and the completeness of the survey, display examples of rare, non-conventional, gas-rich early-type galaxies
lying in low density regimes.


A simple 1-D model is developed for the fluid dynamics and chemical kinetics in the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL). Two different I/sub 2/ dissociation mechanisms are tested against the performance of a COIL device in our laboratory. The two dissociation mechanisms chosen are the celebrated mechanism of Heidner (1983) and the newly suggested mechanism of Heaven (2001). The gain calculated using Heaven's dissociation mechanism is much lower than the measured one. Employing Heidner's mechanism, a surprisingly good agreement is obtained between the measured and calculated gain and temperature over a wide range of the flow parameters. Other predictions of the model (larger mixing efficiency and higher temperature with a leak opened downstream of the resonator and gain decrease along the flow) are also in agreement with the experimental observations.


The rise of nanotechnology has introduced a large number of nano-enabled consumer products into the market. Stakeholders either interested in or concerned about the applications of nanoparticles (NPs) have questions on their exposure pathways, behavior and fate in the environment. Currently, detection and analysis of NPs in complex environmental samples are difficult and challenging. This review summarizes the emerging attempts to use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as a valuable tool for NP analysis. The critical factors influencing the feasibility of SERS for NP analysis are the material type, individual size, primary shape, surface chemistry and spatial arrangement of NPs. Current SERS methods for the identification, characterization and potential quantification of NPs are summarized and compared, with key limitations and issues recognized. Further, SERS applications in investigating the environmental behavior and fate of NPs are discussed. Probing and monitoring NPs using SERS yields important insights into the roles that NPs play in the environment. By studying the potential of SERS to detect NPs and track their environmental behavior and fate, environmental scientists are able to achieve an in-depth understanding of the benefits and risks of NPs. Also, knowledge from SERS can guide the nanotechnology research community to develop and apply NPs in a safe and effective manner. With an outlook on the key challenges and potential solutions in the end, this review is expected to appeal to a broad audience in the fields of nanotechnology, interfacial chemistry, analytical chemistry, soil science, environmental science, food science, and nanotoxicology.


This cross-national study examines factors that impact eHealth infrastructure and usage growth. The independent variables in the study are: confidence in heath care system, perception of one' s state of health, per capita national expenditure in health, % of people belonging to voluntary organizations concerned with health, human development index, cost of health care per capital, and cost of health care per GDP (data gathered from World Value Survey (WVS), World Bank, United Nations, and World Health Organization (WHO) survey results). Data from a set of more than 40 nations involving nearly 8000 sites were gathered to allow analysis of factors encouraging the eHealth growth. The set of nations includes both developed and developing nations. Preliminary results suggest that confidence in health care system, voluntary health groups, GDP, human development, cost of health care per capita are significant in eHealth infrastructure -- explaining 32-54% of the variability of the eHealth infrastructure. Preliminary results also suggest that human development, infrastructure and perception of health are significant in eHealth usage -- explaining 45-52% of the variability of the eHealth usage.


Natural wetlands are known to play an important role in pollutant remediation, such as remediating acid mine drainage (AMD) from abandoned mine sites. However, many aspects of the microbiological mechanisms underlying AMD remediation within wetlands are poorly understood, including the role and composition of associated microbial communities. We have utilized an AMD-polluted river-wetland system to perform rRNA sequence analysis of microbial communities that play a role in biogeochemical activities that are linked to water quality improvement. Next-generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons from river and wetland sediment samples identified variation in bacterial community structure and diversity on the basis of dissolved and particulate metal concentrations, sediment metal concentrations and other water chemistry parameters (pH and conductivity), and wetland plant presence. Metabolic reconstruction analysis allowed prediction of relative abundance of microbial metabolic pathways and revealed differences between samples that cluster on the basis of the severity of AMD pollution. Global metabolic activity was predicted to be significantly higher in unpolluted and wetland sediments in contrast to polluted river sediments, indicating a metabolic stress response to AMD pollution. This is one of the first studies to explore microbial community structure dynamics within a natural wetland exposed to AMD and our findings indicate that wetland ecosystems play critical roles in maintaining diversity and metabolic structure of sediment microbial communities subject to high levels of acidity and metal pollution. Moreover, these microbial communities are predicted to be important for the remediation action of the wetland.


Eugene England, ed., Converted to Christ through the Book of Mormon. Salt .Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989. vi+ 201 pp., with index of names. $10.95. Reviewed by Susan Easton Black The Book of Mormon has inspired and changed thousands of lives from 1830 to the present. Knowing the conversion impact of this holy scripture, President Ezra Taft Benson stated, "I challenge our Church writers, teachers, and leaders to tell us more Book of Mormon conversion stories that will strengthen our faith and prepare great missionaries. "1 Brigham Young University English professor Eugene England accepted this challenge. England contacted Deseret Book to ascertain their interest in publishing a volume on conversion stories. Receiving encouragement, he wrote to mission presidents, colleagues, friends, and associates asking for accounts of Book of Mormon conversion stories. The response was favorable and England received a variety of testimonies from a broad spectrum of people. These testimonies have been compiled in Converted to Christ through the Book of Mormon. England divided the testimonies into three categories: ( 1) a history of the Family-to-Family Book of Mormon Program; (2) conversion testimonies of those whose lives were changed by their contact with the Book of Mormon, and (3) reconversion testimonies of those whose faith was rekindled by their reading of the Book of Mormon. The Family-to-Family category traces the history of sending "The Book of Mormon on a Mission" from its earliest individualist beginnings in 1969 to the present Churchwide, accelerated pace. England's insights into this innovative Church program are enriched by his personal contacts with most of the program originators. Within this section are testimonies that were inserted into copies of the Book of Mormon and sent throughout the world. The variety of responses to the inserted testimonies illustrates gratitude as lives improve through prayerful study of the Book of Mormon. The conversion category includes thirty-one testimonies from converts who witnessed a noticeable change in their lives 1 ' Ezra Taft Benson, "Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon," Ensign 18 (November 1988): 5. ENGLAND. CONVF.RTFD TO CHRIST (Bl.ACK) 75 as a result of the Book of Mormon. England purports in his introductory comments that these "testimonies span 160 years." I counted only 147 years, but I am more concerned with the implication of the statement that leads readers to expect a broad range of testimonies from all historical eras. Such is not the case. Only three contributors are not contemporary: Parley P. Pratt (1830), Margaret Schutt (1885), and Karl Ivar Sandberg (1932). Twenty-seven note that their experience with the Book of Mormon occurred between 1966 and 1977. A careful reading of the conversion stories reveals a twostep conversion pattern. Typically, converts were first impressed with the wholesome decency and example of a missionary, a friend, or acquaintance of the convert. Second, converts read the Book of Mormon and were prompted or inspired to alter their lifestyles. Dustin H. Heuston illustrates this representative pattern. He first noted, "Chuck was Mormon and so intrigued me through his kindness, intelligence, and remarkable character that I was determined to learn about his church" (p. 107). After acquiring a Book of Mormon and reading a portion of its contents, Heuston observed: "More than half a year later we had only read one hundred twenty pages, but our lives had been changed forever" (p. 108). The reconversion category includes thirteen testimonies of contemporary, lifetime members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each contributor continues to rediscover the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. For example, Robert . A. Rees stated, "My experience with it over the years has been the same as with the other standard works: the more I read them, the more riches they yield" (p. 192). Converted to Christ through the Book of Mormon is an important compilation of testimonies from a variety of contributors. However, the title lacks clarity in defining the book's contents. This is especially true with respect to the words "Converted to Christ." Although all the testimonies cited refer to the Book of Mormon, very few refer to being converted to Christ through the Book of Mormon. With the exception of Moroni 10:4, there appears little evidence of specific passages from this scripture influencing the convert. On the whole, England's editing of the volume was both professional and helpful. I did note a few deficiencies, however. The inclusion of an explanation regarding place names listed next to each contributor would have been useful. Only after careful reading of the testimony does the place 76 REVIEW OF BOOKS ONTIIE BOOK OF MORMON mentioned take ~n meaning. Most of the places listed describe the location in which the contributor first heard of the Book of Mormon, not the primary residence of the witness. However, this is not consistent. England's strategic use of place names may cause the reader to assume that the compilation is representative of a worldwide Church. This is not the case, however, as the majority of the contributors are currently residing in the Provo/Salt Lake City area. The inclusion of a brief biographical sketch highlighting commitment to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the part of each contributor would help the reader better understand and respond to the expressed testimony. Likewise, a careful index including all of the individuals mentioned would enhance this text. For example, the names of Roman Andrus and his wife lrva, Elder Claypool, Elder McMurtury, and Kurt Vonnegut do not appear in the index. An expanded index that included thematic information other than names would have been appreciated by many readers. The most noticeable editing weakness is the lack of a conclusion. A summary note combining the continued impact of the Family-to-Family Program, conversion stories, and reconversion stories of the Book of Monnon would have strengthened the book. Despite these weaknesses, Converted to Christ through the Book of Mormon provides a contribution of lay member witnesses that has not previously been gathered. England has made a commendable effort to gather and compile testimonies. His book is a significant initial response to President Benson's challenge.


Livelihood systems that depend on mobile resources must constantly adapt to change. For people living in permanent settlements, environmental changes that affect the distribution of a migratory species may reduce the availability of a primary food source, with the potential to destabilize the regional social-ecological system. Food security for Arctic indigenous peoples harvesting barren ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) depends on movement patterns of migratory herds. Quantitative assessments of physical, ecological, and social effects on caribou distribution have proven difficult because of the significant interannual variability in seasonal caribou movement patterns. We developed and evaluated a modeling approach for simulating the distribution of a migratory herd throughout its annual cycle over a multiyear period. Beginning with spatial and temporal scales developed in previous studies of the Porcupine Caribou Herd of Canada and Alaska, we used satellite collar locations to compute and analyze season-by-season probabilities of movement of animals between habitat zones under two alternative weather conditions for each season. We then built a set of transition matrices from these movement probabilities, and simulated the sequence of movements across the landscape as a Markov process driven by externally imposed seasonal weather states. Statistical tests showed that the predicted distributions of caribou were consistent with observed distributions, and significantly correlated with subsistence harvest levels for three user communities. Our approach could be applied to other caribou herds and could be adapted for simulating the distribution of other ungulates and species with similarly large interannual variability in the use of their range.


Computer vision systems used in autonomous mobile vehicles are typically linked to higher-level deliberation processes. One important aspect of this link is how to connect, or anchor, the symbols used at the higher level to the objects in the vision system that these symbols refer to. Anchoring is complicated by the fact that the vision data are inherently affected by uncertainty. We propose an anchoring technique that uses fuzzy sets to represent the uncertainty in the perceptual data. We show examples where this technique allows a deliberative system to reason about the objects (cars) detected by a vision system embarked in an unmanned helicopter, in the framework of the Witas project.


What impact will recently arrived refugees have on the labour markets of receiving European countries? As a contribution to the debate, this paper looks at the composition of recent refugee inflows and reviews the relevant characteristics of EU labour markets.
Even in the most affected member states, the number of refugees recognised between 2014 and 2017 is small relative to the total population. The potential impact on aggregate wages or on the unemployment rate is therefore not expected to be economically significant. However, many of the recent refugee cohorts in these member states were young low-skilled men. The 2014-17 inflow is thus sizeable relative to the population of this specific group.
The authors of this paper highlight two potential challenges associated with such a concentrated inflow. First, since young low-skilled men are already an economically vulnerable group, higher competition for jobs can further increase this vulnerability and fuel negative (antiimmigrant) sentiment. Second, the labour market sectors relevant for many refugees already face uncertain labour demand due to import competition and continuing technological change.
The authors find that this challenges the medium- and long-term prospects for the integration of refugees. It also calls for attention to be paid to training and upgrading their skills. At the same time, efforts to integrate newcomers should go hand in hand with the better economic inclusion of other vulnerable population groups.


The 'Windrush' generation of Caribbean migrants are among almost 600,000 Commonwealth migrants who arrived in the United Kingdom before 1971. Having lived and worked in Britain for most of their lives and having a legal right to British citizenship but sometimes lacking documentation to prove this, there is continued public outrage in 2018 in response to stories of detention, deportation, denial of services and loss of jobs which had occurred as a result of new immigration rules. Many argued that these hardships were a foreseeable result of Britain's 'hostile environment'. The scandal resulted in the resignation of the Home Secretary, but it remains to be seen what, if any, changes will be made to the laws and policies responsible. The experiences of the Windrush generation are worthy of analysis because of their position both as British citizens and visible minorities. Moreover, as the British Government makes plans for EU citizens who are present in the UK to apply for 'settled status' after Brexit, the construction of citizenship and belonging are particularly salient. This dissertation examines the role of 'hostile environment' policies in perpetuating Britain's racialized law enforcement. In doing so, it contributes to the crimmigration field whilst providing a contemporary application of it's analytical power.


The following is a tribute to esteemed Law Professor, Brainerd Currie. Currie was a renowned scholar in the field of Conflict of Laws and sought to use his knowledge and passion for the Law to shape the Lives of his students, including Herma Hill Kay. Professor Kay highlights her relationship with Currie during her time at the University of Chicago Law School, and how Currie inspired her decision to go into legal academia herself


Designers often create physical works-like prototypes early in the product development cycle to explore possible mechanical architectures for a design. Yet, creating functional prototypes requires time and expertise, which discourages rapid design iterations. Designers must carefully specify part and joint parameters to ensure that parts move and fit and together in the intended manner. We present an interactive system that streamlines the process by allowing users to annotate rough 3D models with high-level functional relationships (e.g., part A fits inside part B). Based on these relationships, our system optimizes the model geometry to produce a working design. We demonstrate the versatility of our system by using it to design a variety of works-like prototypes. CR Categories: I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling—Geometric algorithms.


Abstract Most South African farmers employ standard insurance to protect crops from natural disasters such as hail or strong winds, but no insurance contracts exist to compensate for rain damage (although floods are covered), or for temperature damage to relevant crops. Weather derivatives do exist, but are mostly available in foreign markets and used chiefly by energy companies. Some South African over-the-counter weather derivatives are available, but trading is rare. This paper establishes a pricing equation for weather derivatives specifically for use in the South African market. The methodology employed borrows heavily from the techniques used to price credit default swaps.


Abstract. Hyperspectral imaging is relatively new method developed primarily for army applications with respect to detection of possible chemical weapon existence and as an efficient assistant for a geological survey. The method is based on recording spectral profile for many hundreds of narrow spectral band. The technique gives full spectral curve of explored pixel which is an unparalleled signature of pixels material. Spectral signatures can then be compared with pre-defined spectral libraries or they can be created with respect to application. A new project named "New Modern Methods of Non-invasive Survey of Historical Site Objects" started at CTU in Prague with the New Year. The project is designed for 4 years and is funded by the Ministry of Culture in the Czech Republic. It is focused on material and chemical composition, damage diagnostics, condition description of paintings, images, construction components and whole structure object analysis in cultural heritage domain. This paper shows first results of the project on painting documentation field as well as used instrument. Hyperspec VNIR by Headwall Photonics was used for this analysis. It operates in the spectral range between 400 and 1000 nm. Comparison with infrared photography is discussed. The goal of this contribution is a non-destructive deep exploration of specific paintings. Two original 17th century paintings by Flemish authors Thomas van Apshoven ("On the Road") and David Teniers the Younger ("The Interior of a Mill") were chosen for the first analysis with a kind permission of academic painter Mr. M. Martan. Both paintings oil painted on wooden panel. This combination was chosen because of the possibility of underdrawing visualization which is supposed to be the most uncomplicated painting combination for this type of analysis.


Contemporary work increasingly involves interacting with strangers in technology-mediated environments. In this context, we come to rely on digital artifacts to infer characteristics of other people. This paper reports the results of a study conducted in a global company that used expertise search as a vehicle for exploring how people interpret a range of information available in online profiles in evaluating whom to interact with for expertise. Using signaling theory as a conceptual framework, we describe how certain 'signals' in various social software are hard to fake, and are thus more reliable indicators of expertise. Multi-level regression analysis revealed that participation in social software, social connection information, and self-described expertise in the corporate directory were significantly helpful in the decision to contact someone for expertise. Qualitative analysis provided further insights regarding the interpretations people form of others' expertise from digital artifacts. We conclude with suggestions on differentiating various types of information available within online profiles and implications for the design of expertise locator/recommender systems.


Payments of life insurance products depend on the uncertain future evolution of survival probabilities. This uncertainty is referred to as longevity risk. Existing literature shows that the effect of longevity risk on single life annuities can be substantial, and that there exists a (natural) hedge potential from combining single life annuities with death benefits or from investing in survivor swaps. The effect of financial risk on these hedge effects is typically ignored. The aim of this paper is to quantify longevity risk in portfolios of mortality-linked assets and liabilities, taking into account the effect of financial risk. We find that investment risk significantly affects the impact of longevity risk in life insurance products. It also significantly affects the hedge potential that arises from combining life insurance products, or from investing in longevity-linked assets. For example, our results suggest that ignoring the effect of financial risk can lead to severe overestimation of the natural hedge potential from death benefits, and underestimation of the hedge effects of survivor swaps.


This article shows how to use some of Mathematica's built-in financial functions and define new functions useful for the practical analysis of real-world financial data. The main topics covered are linear programming and its application in bond portfolio management, conditional value-at-risk minimization, introductory time-series analysis, simulation, bootstrapping, robust equity portfolio optimization and artificial intelligence.


The ongoing fast pace research in hardware and software technology has resulted in memory devices efficient and faster than ever before. However, the issue of security of the contained data is rarely discussed. There is an evident capability of these devices to retain data even when it is erased. In this thesis, a study is conducted to qualitatively analyze the extent to which data deletion is important and why secure deletion should be applied. Afterwards, following the sequential exploratory procedure, this paper presents an analysis of methods used to recover the data after being deleted in addition to the techniques used to securely delete this data. Based on this study, some recommendations are made to ensure the safety of data.


For several centuries, Bibliotheca Alexandrina was the cultural center of the Western world. It was built by the heirs of Alexander the Great some 2,400 years ago and burned, some say by Julius Caesar. With an aim to revive the world's most famous ancient library and to preserve 8 million books, the New Bibliotheca Alexandrina has been constructed in Alexandria, Egypt. The library is 10 stories high and is contained in a 160 m diameter cylindrical envelope with an ovular shape. Four of the 10 stories are underground and below the water table. The geometry of the building is generated by the functional arrangement of book shelves and reading desks into identical structural bays measuring 14.4 by 9.6 m (see figure 2). The 16-degree slope of the roof enables these bays to rise in a series of nearly 4.2 m high stories. The inspiration for this unusual, tilting shape comes from the architectural firm Snohetta in Oslo, Norway. The library building is supported on piled raft (pile-supported?), which is a reinforced concrete plate. Its location near the Mediterranean Sea meant that the groundwater level is 11 m above the basement slab level, so a diaphragm wall, believed to be the largest ever attempted, was constructed with a total depth of up to 35 m. Adjacent to the library building, a planetarium and a science museum were constructed and supported on a plain raft without the need for piles. Construction of the piles started in May 1995 and the library was occupied in December 2000.


Central venous catether for peripheral insertion in pediatrics Introduction: Central venous catheter of peripheral insertion (PICC) can stay installed from several days up to months without removal. It allows the administration of extreme pH and osmolarity solutions, irritating and/or vesicant drugs, parenteral nutrition and other medications for prolonged periods in patients with com- plicated peripheral venous access. Objective: To describe the experience with PICCs in hospitalized pediatric. Patients and Methods: Observational and descriptive study on 337 patients hospitalized in the Pediatrics Service of the Clinical Hospital of Catholic University of Chile between 2001 and 2011, who fulfi lled the inclusion criteria and had a PICCs installed by trained nurses. Results: The patients' average age was of 36 months. Main indication for installing PICC was prolonged antibiotic therapy, in 67.1% of cases. The most widely used venous route was the upper limb, in 52.2%. The mean average time in which the PICC remained in the body was of 9 days, ranging between 1 and 90 days. The main cause for PICC withdrawal was the end of therapy in 75.3%. The observed complications were: occlusion and catheter associated infection in 8.9% and 2.9% respectively. Conclusion: PICC is an excellent alternative for prolonged intravenous therapy; but, it is very important to keep on a team of well-trained nurses, both in the insertion as well in the maintenance of the PICC during the time it remains in the body. (Key words: Central catheter of peripheral insertion, PICC, percutaneous catheter, pediatrics). Rev Chil Pediatr 2012; 83 (4): 352-357


A theory of the double-edge technique for lidar measurement of wind speed Doppler shifts was recently presented by Flesia and Korb [Appl. Opt. 38, 432 (1999)]. It is shown here that the technique proposed by Flesia and Korb to achieve equal responsivity to aerosol and Rayleigh backscatter signals was previously conceived and demonstrated by another group.


Biofouling is the accumulation of sessile marine organisms, such as algae, tube worms and barnacles on man-made substrata and has negative economic and ecological implications. Ship hulls are readily fouled, which significantly increases drag while decreasing ship fuel efficiency when moving through water. Fouled hulls have also become important vectors of invasive species. These problems are minimized when hulls are painted with a toxic anti-fouling or non-toxic foul-release coating. Due to recent restrictions of anti-fouling paint use, research and development of non-toxic alternatives has increased. Novel hull coating efficiency is often quantified by the critical removal stress value of barnacles from the coating. Barnacle adhesive cement protein content is thought to be responsible for barnacles' incredible ability to adhere underwater. The expression level and type of adhesive proteins has eluded scientists due to their extreme insolubility within cured barnacle cement. Identification of these proteins may provide insight to the adhesion of fouling species and aid coating development. Barnacles are a cosmopolitan organism, able to withstand a wide range of environmental conditions, yet foul-release coating research had not previously incorporated environmental factors as variables in determining coating performance. Temperature is known to affect protein structure and function and is also a formative v factor of barnacle larvae survival and development. Even so, the interaction between temperature and barnacle adhesion to has not previously been explored. We examined the effect of temperature on barnacle adhesion to foul-release coatings. After observing differences in critical removal stress due to temperature, we attempted to attribute these differences to specific proteins within the adhesive using 2D SDS PAGE. Gel image analysis determined that there were significant differences in cement protein expression between barnacles raised within different temperatures. Preliminary protein identification with Mass Spectronomy (MALDI TOF/TOF) was performed, however further research and a larger barnacle genomic database is needed to elucidate barnacle cement protein sequences. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


Spectral inversion of Lg from earthquake sources is subject to significant errors, due to random and systematic deviation of the Lg spectra from idealized theoretical models. I present an analysis of these errors and demonstrate that their effects tend to increase with decreasing frequency and recording distance. I propose modifications to the inverse method of Xie (1993) to reduce these errors. The modifications include a more robust Q estimator and the added capability of incorporating a priori knowledge into the inversion. The modified method is applied to Lg spectra from the 1995, western Texas earthquake (MW = 5.7). I measured average two-station Q values for selected station pairs, as well as the source rise time of the mainshock, with an empirical Green's function approach. These served as a priori knowledge for the simultaneous inversion for Lg seismic moment (M0), corner frequency (fc), and path Q. The result of the inversion indicates that Lg source radiation is nearly isotropic. The M0 and fc values estimated using Lg from the mainshock and two aftershocks are typical for Lg from central and eastern North American earthquakes, with M0 scaling with fc−4, and M0 and fc being 3.3 × 1016 N-m and 0.3 Hz, respectively, for the mainshock. The 1-Hz Lg Q correlates with tectonic environments, increasing from about 200 for westerly paths to above 700 for easterly paths. Two-station Q measurements suggest that, as previously discovered for Eurasia, the frequency dependence of Lg Q may be variable with distance if the distance spans a wide range (103 km).


Polarized and unpolarized neutron-diffraction measurements have been taken to determine the magnetic structure of the Cu spins in the RBa2Cu306+"system as a function of temperature. Most of the results have been obtained on two (semiconducting) oxygen-deficient single crystals of composition NdBa2Cu306& and NdBa2Cu30635 On cooling from the paramagnetic state, the Cu-0 "plane" layers first order at a Neel temperature T» in a simple antiferromagnetic arrangement of spins, with T» =430 K for x=0. 1 and T& =230 K for x=0. 35, and with a saturated moment of -0. 65@&. At a lower temperature T» the Cu "chain" layer also orders, with TN2=80 and 10 K for x=0. 1 and 0. 35, respectively. Hence both transition temperatures decrease with increasing oxygen concentration in this range of x, and the qualitative behavior for these two samples is found to be identical. We have not, however, observed this low-T structure in polycrystalline samples of either YBa2Cu306+"or NdBa2Cu306+", and some possible explanations for this difference in behavior are discussed. For the single crystals in the low-T phase the Cu spins in all three copper-oxygen layers are ordered in a simple antiferromagnetic arrangement, with the magnetic unit cell double the chemical unit cell along all three crystallographic directions. On the basis of the measured integrated intensities of over 40 magnetic reflections in both ordered phases, the results can be accounted for quantitatively with the assumption of a 3d magnetic form factor on the Cu ions, with no need for a significant moment on any of the oxygen ions. At low T, site-averaged moments of -0. 35@& and -0. 8p& are obtained in the "chain" and the "plane" layers, respectively. The fact that the ordered moment on the plane layers increases in the low-T phase is direct evidence that two-dimensional quantum fluctuations play an important role in the plane layers in the high-T ordered phase. The evolution of the low-T spin structure into the high-T structure involves a noncollinear configuration in which the spins rotate as a function of temperature in the "plane" layers, while the "chain" layer becomes thermally disordered. The temperature dependence of the structure indicates that competing interactions between the layers are important, and this is discussed in detail. Finally, exploratory measurements as a function of applied magnetic field indicate that the magnetic anisotropy in the tetragonal plane is much smaller than the exchange energies.


Abstract Data on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in zoonotic and indicator bacteria from humans, animals and food are collected annually by the EU Member States (MSs), jointly analysed by EFSA and ECDC and reported in a yearly EU Summary Report. The annual monitoring of AMR in animals and food within the EU is targeted at selected animal species corresponding to the reporting year. The 2017 monitoring specifically focussed on pigs and calves under 1 year of age, as well as their derived carcases/meat, while the monitoring performed in 2018 specifically focussed on poultry and their derived carcases/meat. Monitoring and reporting of AMR in 2017/2018 included data regarding Salmonella, Campylobacter and indicator Escherichia coli isolates, as well as data obtained from the specific monitoring of ESBL‐/AmpC‐/carbapenemase‐producing E. coli isolates. Additionally, some MSs reported voluntary data on the occurrence of meticillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus in animals and food, with some countries also providing data on antimicrobial susceptibility. This report provides, for the first time, an overview of the main findings of the 2017/2018 harmonised AMR monitoring in the main food‐producing animal populations monitored, in related carcase/meat samples and in humans. Where available, data monitoring obtained from pigs, calves/cattle, broilers, laying hens and turkeys, as well as from carcase/meat samples and humans were combined and compared at the EU level, with particular emphasis on multiple drug resistance, complete susceptibility and combined resistance patterns to critically important antimicrobials, as well as Salmonella and E. coli isolates exhibiting presumptive ESBL‐/AmpC‐/carbapenemase‐producing phenotypes. The outcome indicators for AMR in food‐producing animals, such as complete susceptibility to the harmonised panel of antimicrobials in E. coli and the prevalence of ESBL‐/AmpC‐producing E. coli have been also specifically analysed over the period 2014–2018.


The Supreme Court has recently hinted that courts should use proximate cause in Title VII cases. This Article anticipates future judicial forays into this area and argues that proximate cause principles should not be imported into federal discrimination law. This inquiry dovetails into a broader conversation about the proper role of proximate cause in federal statutes, a subject which has produced a fractured jurisprudence. Courts and commentators have often indicated that employment discrimination law is a tort. While this statement may be true, it is too general to provide guidance on whether to apply proximate cause. It ignores that both proximate cause and employment discrimination law change, depending on the particular context in which they are invoked. Proximate cause analysis is highly dependent on the underlying tort to which it is attached. None of the types of employment discrimination claims fit within any traditional tort and therefore do not align well with traditional articulations of proximate cause. This Article will accomplish three tasks. First, it develops an architecture for determining when courts have the appropriate authority to import proximate cause into federal statutes. Second, it argues that Title VII already contains liability limiting principles that make the use of proximate cause both unnecessary and inappropriate. Finally, it demonstrates theoretical and practical problems with applying proximate cause in discrimination cases.


The Clyde Tunnel in Glasgow, Scotland, is currently undergoing refurbishment. This refurbishment includes the installation of a new tunnel lining / fire protection system in both tunnel tubes. This lining system has already been shown to protect the tunnel structure from high temperatures However, there is a gap at the lower edge of the lining to allow any water accumulated behind the lining to run into a drainage channel within the main tunnel void. There were concerns that this small gap might lead to the exposure of the structural members to very high temperatures in the event of a fire in the tunnel. A heat transfer analysis was carried out. This analysis consisted of the evaluation of the thermal field inside the tunnel using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computations. This identified the locations in the tunnel which were most likely to be at risk, and predicted the conditions at those locations in the event of a 'worst case' fire scenario. On the basis of this information a bounding heat transfer analysis was carried out that allowed the establishment of the temperature evolution of the structural elements. CFD tools were not used for the heat transfer analysis because the complexity of the geometry made the uncertainty too large to justify a detailed CFD study. Instead, this bounding analysis allowed the establishment of the maximum possible temperatures of the structural elements. It was found that, even in a 'worst case' scenario fire, the temperature of the structural elements would not exceed critical levels for several hours of maximum fire exposure. The design of the lining / channel is held to be more than satisfactory in this case.


ABSTRACT Unlike anoxia-intolerant mammals, painted turtles can survive extended periods without oxygen. This is partly accomplished by an anoxia-mediated increase in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) release, which activates GABA receptors and mediates spike arrest in turtle neurons via shunting inhibition. Extracellular taurine levels also increase during anoxia; why this occurs is unknown but it is speculated that glycine and/or GABAA/B receptors are involved. Given the general importance of inhibitory neurotransmission in the anoxia-tolerant painted turtle brain, we investigated the function of taurine as an inhibitory neuromodulator in turtle pyramidal neurons. Using whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiological methods to record from neurons within a cortical brain sheet, we found that taurine depolarized membrane potential by ∼8 mV, increased whole-cell conductance ∼2-fold, and induced an inward current that possessed characteristics similar to GABA- and glycine-evoked currents. These effects were mitigated following glycine receptor antagonism with strychnine and GABAA receptor antagonism with gabazine, bicuculine or picrotoxin, but were unchanged following GABAB or glutamatergic receptor inhibition. These data indicate that a high concentration of taurine in vitro mediates its effects through both glycine and GABAA receptors, and suggests that taurine, in addition to GABA, inhibits neuronal activity during anoxia in the turtle cortex. Summary: Taurine increases naturally in anoxic painted turtle brain and can activate both GABA and glycine receptors, which probably contributes to the mechanism of anoxia tolerance.


Limited partners investing in private equity funds often negotiate partnership terms and conditions without a clear understanding of the relative value of each individual decision. Possessing such knowledge would allow the limited partner to decide which terms may be used as bargaining chips and which are most worth fighting for. In this article the author quantifies the effect on net returns of some of the most common terms used in the private equity industry. His analysis has revealed some interesting and counterintuitive results. Under typical industry terms and conditions, we find that the expected fees and carried interest paid to general partners totals $71 million over the life of a $100 million fund, generous compensation compared to that of managers of more efficient asset classes. However, we find that over the years partnership terms have evolved significantly in favor of limited partners compared to their starting point.


This paper argues that inclusive growth appears to be the only suitable strategy for realising the right to decent work (RDW) in the digital economy. This reasoning is in blunt opposition to the current mood of giving up this right in favour of an unconditional basic income (UBI). The study starts by briefly expanding the basic argument and by defining the principles of inclusive versus exclusive growth (1); a comprehensive overview of German labour market policy and labour law reforms since the beginning of this millennium assesses to what extent Germany is pursuing these principles, accompanied by selective evidence of their consequences for the German labour market performance (2); a stylised and descriptive overview of the inclusive impact of these reforms in quantitative and qualitative terms follows, with an essay reflecting the concept of the inclusive labour contract (3).


This paper reconstructs the political history of the Syrian Arab Republic from the time of the country's emergence as an independent state in 1946 to the merger with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic in 1958. Two main sources of documentary evidence are brought to add to this analysis: firstly, declassified British government sources are utilized; secondly, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database on arms exports to the Middle East is used to back up the descriptive analysis of Western strategic interests in the Middle East during the early Cold War period with some relevant quantitative data. From the beginning, Syria faced geopolitical challenges, which worked to undermine the country's political stability. Apart from intra-Arab conflicts and the issue of Zionist colonization in Palestine, Syria quickly developed into a focal point of the Cold War between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. This was due to the refusal of the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) governments to support Syria's statehood in economic and military terms. The Western rejection of substantial assistance to Syria, largely motivated by efforts to back up Israel and fully unrelated to the question of whether or not Syria was governed by democratic or authoritarian rulers, explains the country's shift toward the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s. Next, UK and US attempts to unseat Syrian governments through covert action (especially in 1949 and 1956-1957) are examined. It is shown that these events pushed Syria's leaders to opt for merger with Nasser's Egypt and military assistance from the Soviet Union in order to avoid further destabilization. The paper concludes that Western failure to welcome Syria as an independent actor in the Middle East, which was due to the existence of previous strategic alignment with competing states in the region, opened the door for the Soviet Union to emerge as the long-term patron of the Syrian state.International Relations


Abstract Attributions of laziness, reflected in teacher comments such as 'Just try harder and you will shine', may mask specific cognitive, learning, attentional or emotional problems that could explain low motivation in some children. This paper reports findings from an investigation of 20 children, aged 7 to 10 years, who were regarded as lazy by their parents and teachers. Questionnaire measures provided evidence of low levels of motivation and classroom engagement. Psychometric assessments revealed the presence of a range of difficulties including phonologically based learning disabilities and significant problems with attention in 17 of the 20 children. The paper concludes that the special needs of an unknown number of children may be overlooked because they are simply presumed to be lazy.


Shifting cultivation by slash and burn system is an agricultural activity which is generally done farmers in dry land. Slash-and-burn is practiced by the farmers because it is easy and inexpensive, with aims to improve the content of nutrients in the soil, eradicate weeds, reduce costs, reduce the incidence of pests and diseases and to increase crop production. Land clearing by slash and burn system in a short period of time have a positive impact as the availability of N, P, K, Ca, Mg. However, long periods of slash and burn have negative impact there will be changes in physical and chemical components of soil and change the dominant vegetationin the fields and fallow land. These changes will affect the l evel of productivity of the soil, especially in the land which was done. To reduce the negative impacts, farm management system with slash and burn practices, should be considered with conservation activities, especially from the aspect of land management techniques. Those negative effect might be minimized by arious treatments such as time of burning tehnique, chosen of burned biomass, and time of digged biomass. All those should be supported by a basic information affect of burning to change of physical and chemical soil characteristic at various land cultivation and length of cultivation. Result of study that had been conducted at Pruda village, sub-district of Waiblama, district of Sikka, Propince of Nusa Tenggara Timur showed that total Nitrogen and C organic increased gradually when land has been 3 years fallow. Result of single factor showed that soil aggregation was a ffected significantly by fallow than cultivated land .


Location based services should communicate information that
is relevant to the user and personalized to his/her interests and needs. Existing LBS exploit ancillary information such as the user's position, user profile, or time of day to personalize information delivery. However,
there are a variety of information sources that remain largely untapped in current LBS. These include data from other applications on the mobile device, Web 2.0 sources, or special sensors. They have the inherent ability to define relevant places, events, activities for the particular user; they also allow to derive spatio-temporal behavior patterns that adapt to context. Using appropriate filters, user-specific information can be mined from these additional ancillary data sources, hence allowing to
minimize user interaction, better personalize content, and generate more meaningful real-time map displays. This extended abstract hence proposes the use of different filters to further enable adaptation of mobile map applications to the user and his/her context.


This essay approaches possible relationships between the fields of politological thought and logic. First, I claim that the logical problem of impredicativity (of self-referencing definitions, or of concepts that apply to themselves) offers a thought provoking site for unfolding a series of practical demands placed on students of politics (e.g. not presupposing your conclusions). Engaging this site in political and politological terms prompts a complex account of what goes on in logic, an alleged stronghold of coherence. This is significant insofar as self-described critical students of politics tend to hold fast to a simplified account of what logic is about, and quickly dismiss it as incoherent and violent. Second, trying to further texture what it can mean to take logic into account, I claim that the propositions formulated by Alfred North Whitehead on the interweaving of logical and aesthetic problems are relevant for apprehending the stakes of in/coherence at the time of writing. As two fields of "fundamental research," I think that logic and politological thought face similar challenges, especially in the form of the market-driven imperatives of productivity and usefulness. I propose that scholars working in those fields (and others) seriously consider possibilities of alliances.


Polyak momentum (PM), also known as the heavy-ball method, is a widely used optimization method that enjoys an asymptotic optimal worst-case complexity on quadratic objectives. However, its remarkable empirical success is not fully explained by this optimality, as the worst-case analysis --contrary to the average-case-- is not representative of the expected complexity of an algorithm. In this work we establish a novel link between PM and the average-case analysis. Our main contribution is to prove that any optimal average-case method converges in the number of iterations to PM, under mild assumptions. This brings a new perspective on this classical method, showing that PM is asymptotically both worst-case and average-case optimal.


Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between visitor spending patterns, and previous and planned return visits as well as demographic and trip characteristics of supporters to the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon held annually in Cape Town. Problem investigated: Spectator sport is a significant segment of the tourism industry which also has a considerable economic impact on host communities. For this reason, communities and destinations have recognised and attempt to capitalise on hosting large sporting events. In this regard visitor spending is crucial since information concerning the latter can provide sport event organisers to focus their marketing efforts to attract optimal economic benefits. In addition, the relationship of previous visits to a sport event and intended re-visits to visitor spending has received increasing attention since it is believed that repeat visitation is associated with higher levels of expenditure. However limited attention is currently being paid to the relationship between spectator spending patterns and previous and planned return visits in a South African sport spectator context even though the latter has a direct impact on the future sustainability of an event. Methodology: A supporter survey was done for the first time in 2010 (30 March - 2 April 2010) at the event and 430 questionnaires were completed. Factor analysis and regression analysis are used to analyse the data and to identify the relationship between repeat visits and visitor spending patterns. Findings: Results from this study shows that it is predominantly socio-demographic variables that influence travel behaviour. The significant socio-demographic determinants that influence spending per person are gender, language and province of origin while the only behavioural determinant was group size. The results also revealed that there is no significant relationship between spectator spending, repeat attendance and intention to re-visit. However, repeat attendance does have a significant influence on spectators' intention to re-visit and spectators who have attended the race more times have a higher intention to revisit in the future. Originality and conclusion: Results from his innovative study showed that although no statistically significant relationship was established, a strong relationship between repeat visits and intention to revisit was found. A significant contribution to the literature is evident since the focus is on spectators at a sports event as opposed to participants. It was the first study of its kind in South Africa and the importance of the role and function of spectators at an event is highlighted. As a further contribution, prominent differences regarding the participants were evident when compared to previous studies on participants at other South African sports events. Event organisers can use this information to effectively promote the event in order to attract supporters and to generate revenue for Cape Town during the event but especially months after the race. The latter will also greatly contribute to the long-term sustainability of the marathon.


In 1996, the U.S. Congress initiated a change to the Department of Defense (DOD) military family housing program. Applying organizational learning and change theories, this study of the Department of the Air Force (AF) reveals how the AF used $617 million of federal funds and $8.3 billion of matching private investment to significantly upgrade or construct and manage 53,323 AF family housing units. Using an outcome-oriented process tracing methodology, I examine the process changes, organizational structure modifications, and strategy adjustments the AF instituted to implement this latest attempt at providing military family housing. To understand how those adjustments occurred, this research uses organizational routine theory to help explain how organizations generate change by performing their day-to-day activities. This singlecase historical study of AF family housing privatization, used process tracing to identify five primary organizational routines that determine when there is a minimally sufficient explanation of how the AF learned and changed while privatizing the existing military family housing stock. These organizational routines help to clarify the organizational strategy, implementation process, and structure changes that emerged during privatization to address the quality, quantity, affordability, and timeliness of AF military family housing. The AF approach to transforming military family housing might be applicable to other publicly funded housing programs.


ABSTRACT The neglect and marginalisation of smallholders in economic and development policy contributes to increasing vulnerability of rural communities. Underinvestment in agriculture, climate change impacts and growing competition for land and water places further pressure on smallholders. In this context, this paper examines the current focus in the South Pacific on strengthening the linkages between tourism and agriculture through agritourism. The paper seeks to merge multiple discourses, by firstly reviewing the development model that is driving tourism and linkages to agriculture in the South Pacific. Secondly, agritourism as it is conceptualised in the tourism literature and thirdly sustainable tourism discourse, to identify economic activities within agritourism that contribute to enhancing smallholders' livelihoods in the South Pacific. An ecologically and socially inclusive model of agritourism is put forward based on principles of sustainable tourism and agroecology – referred to as agroecological tourism. Agroecological tourism strengthens the linkages between tourism and agriculture while fostering sustainability principles.


The increasing cost of effluent treatment in the wool scouring industry is rapidly becoming a determining factor in the viability of existing scouring operations and new installations alike. This thesis details the development of an integrated effluent treatment process capable of treating the worst polluted effluent from a wool scour "heavy flow-down", to the point where it can either be economically discharged to local trade waste sewer, or directly discharged to river or ocean outfall with minimal environmental impact. The existing proprietary chemical flocculation process, Sirolan CFTM, was improved by the addition of a bio-flocculation stage and turbidity monitoring and control, and the product from this process fed to an aerobic biological treatment system based upon the traditional activated sludge process. The biological treatment process was found to remove up to 98% of the BOD5 loading from the pre-treated liquor with a hydraulic residence time of at least 50 hours being required in the aerobic digestion vessels. A residual biorefractory COD of approximately 3,600mg/L was identified which could not be removed by biological treatment. When operating continuously, the biological process was observed to metabolically neutralise the pH 3.0 – 4.5 feed from the chemical flocculation system to pH > 7.0 without the need for supplemental addition of neutralising agents such as sodium hydroxide. This in itself provides a significant economic incentive for implementation of the process. Kinetic analysis of the biological process carried out under controlled laboratory conditions using a Bioflo 3000 continuous fermentor showed that the bio-chemical process followed substrate inhibition kinetics. An appropriate kinetic model was identified to represent the behaviour of the substrate degradation system, and modified by inclusion of a pseudo toxic concentration to account for the effect of pH inhibition upon the biological growth rate. The process was verified both at pilot plant scale and at demonstration plant scale at an operational wool scour. The demonstration plant was of sufficient size to handle the full heavy effluent flow-down from a small wool scour. At the time of publishing three full-scale effluent treatment systems based on this research had been sold to both domestic and international clients of ADM Group Ltd. who funded the research. Integrated Treatment Processes For Primary Wool Scouring Effluent iii " . . . more hearts and bank balances have been broken on effluent treatment and wool grease recovery than on any other problem connected with the wool industry." Industrial Chemist (Truter 1956) Integrated Treatment Processes For Primary Wool Scouring Effluent v


In this paper, a novel 128-Point FFT/IFFT processor for OFDM-based UWB system has been proposed. In proposed MRMDF (Mixed Radix Multipath Delayed Feedback) architecture, high throughput rate can be achieved by using four data paths. Furthermore, the hardware costs of memory and complex multiplier can be saved by adopting delay feedback and data scheduling approaches. In addition, the number of complex multiplications is reduced effectively by using a higher radix algorithm. The measurement results show that the throughput rate of this test chip is up to 1Gsample/s while it dissipates 175mW. When the throughput rate of our processor meets UWB standard, it only consumes 77.6 mW and multiplexers. The features of the proposed MRMDF architecture are the following:• Higher throughput rate can be provided by using four parallel data paths;• The minimum memory is required by using the delay feedback approach to reorder the input data and the intermediate results of each module.• The 128-point mixed-radix FFT/IFFT algorithm is implemented to power consumption.• The number of complex multiplier is minimized by using the scheduling scheme and the specified constant multipliers.


A variety of commercial analogs and a newer series of Sulindac derivatives were screened for inhibition of M. tuberculosis (Mtb) in vitro and specifically as inhibitors of the essential mycobacterial tubulin homolog, FtsZ. Due to the ease of preparing diverse analogs and a favorable in vivo pharmacokinetic and toxicity profile of a representative analog, the Sulindac scaffold may be useful for further development against Mtb with respect to in vitro bacterial growth inhibition and selective activity for Mtb FtsZ versus mammalian tubulin. Further discovery efforts will require separating reported mammalian cell activity from both antibacterial activity and inhibition of Mtb FtsZ. Modeling studies suggest that these analogs bind in a specific region of the Mtb FtsZ polymer that differs from human tubulin and, in combination with a pharmacophore model presented herein, future hybrid analogs of the reported active molecules that more efficiently bind in this pocket may improve antibacterial activity while improving other drug characteristics.


The kinetics of the reactions of bis-acceptor-substituted benzyl anions (PhCXY-, X, Y = CN, CO2Et, COPh, SO2Ph) with benzhydrylium ions and quinone methides (reference electrophiles) have been determined in dimethyl sulfoxide solution at 20 degrees C. The reactions follow second-order kinetics, first order with respect to the electrophile and first order with respect to the carbanion. The addition of 18-crown-6 ether, which efficiently coordinates to the anions' counter ions K+, did not affect the kinetics, which indicates that the measured rate constants refer to the reactivities of the nonpaired carbanions. Comparison with the reactivities of the structurally analogous secondary carbanions HCXY- shows that replacement of H at the carbanionic center by Ph reduces the nucleophilic reactivities towards a reference benzhydrylium ion by factors in the range of only 1.2 (X, Y = SO2Ph) to 6 (X, Y = CO2 Et). The plots of lg k(2) versus the electrophilicity parameters E of the reference electrophiles are linear, thereby indicating that the correlation lg k(2)(20 degrees C) = s(N)(E + N), which characterizes nucleophiles by the two solvent-dependent parameters sN and N and electrophiles by the parameter E, is applicable. In this way, it becomes possible to integrate these carbanions into our comprehensive nucleophilicity scale, which provides a direct comparison of the nucleophilic reactivities of different families of compounds.


Fifty years of econometric work on trade assumes that trade elasticities are invariant to changes in spending patterns, that prices can be taken as given, and that expenditures on domestic and foreign goods can be studied independently of each other. To relax these assumptions, this paper assembles a simultaneous model explaining trade among Canada, Japan, and the United States. Spending behaves according to the Rotterdam model which, by design, embodies all of the properties of utility maximization and does not treat trade elasticities as autonomous parameters. Pricing behaves according to the pricing-to-market hypothesis which recognizes exporters' incentives to discriminate across export markets. Parameter estimation relies on the Full Information Maximum Likelihood approach and uses bilateral price data for 1965-1987. According to the evidence, treating trade elasticities as autonomous parameters and ignoring the statistical implications of simultaneity and optimization undermines our effectiveness in addressing questions relevant to economic interactions among nations. Specifically, the estimates from the Rotterdam model predict that asymmetries in income elasticities, which were important once, have vanished.


We investigate the transfer and exchange information between a single qubit system excited by a rectangular pulse. The dynamics of the system is treated within and outside rotating wave approximation (RWA). The initial state of the qubit plays an important role for sending information with high fidelity. Within RWA, and as the fidelity of the transformed information increases the exchange information with the environment increases. For increasing values of atomic detuning, the fidelity decreases faster and the exchange information has an upper limit. Outside RWA,the fidelity of the transformed information increases as one increases the perturbation parameter. However the exchange information is very high compared with that within RWA. The orthogonality speed of the travelling qubit is investigated for different classes of initial atomic state settings and field parameters.


We developed a Nonlinear Level-set Learning (NLL) method for dimensionality reduction in high-dimensional function approximation with small data. This work is motivated by a variety of design tasks in real-world engineering applications, where practitioners would replace their computationally intensive physical models (e.g., high-resolution fluid simulators) with fast-to-evaluate predictive machine learning models, so as to accelerate the engineering design processes. There are two major challenges in constructing such predictive models: (a) high-dimensional inputs (e.g., many independent design parameters) and (b) small training data, generated by running extremely time-consuming simulations. Thus, reducing the input dimension is critical to alleviate the over-fitting issue caused by data insufficiency. Existing methods, including sliced inverse regression and active subspace approaches, reduce the input dimension by learning a linear coordinate transformation; our main contribution is to extend the transformation approach to a nonlinear regime. Specifically, we exploit reversible networks (RevNets) to learn nonlinear level sets of a high-dimensional function and parameterize its level sets in low-dimensional spaces. A new loss function was designed to utilize samples of the target functions' gradient to encourage the transformed function to be sensitive to only a few transformed coordinates. The NLL approach is demonstrated by applying it to three 2D functions and two 20D functions for showing the improved approximation accuracy with the use of nonlinear transformation, as well as to an 8D composite material design problem for optimizing the buckling-resistance performance of composite shells of rocket inter-stages.


Current reports of literacy rates in Australia indicate an ongoing gap in literacy skills between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian adults, at a time when the literacy demands of work and life are increasing. There are many perspectives on what are the literacy needs of Indigenous adults, from the perspectives of community members themselves to the relatively under-researched perspective of literacy practitioners. This paper provides the insights, experiences and recommendations from adult literacy practitioners who work with adult Indigenous learners in communities across Australia. Focus group interviews, using an online synchronous platform, were used to elicit views about the literacy needs of Indigenous adults in communities and the successes in and barriers to meeting those needs. The practitioners also shared their views on the use of technology in literacy learning. Together, these views can inform future directions in curriculum design and teaching approaches for community-based Indigenous adult literacy education.