This thesis provides detailed studies of the five stropheodontid species which occur commonly in the Ludlow rocks of the Welsh Borderland. These are Shaleria ornatella (Davidson), Leptostrophia filosa (J. de C. Sowerby), Pholidostrophia (Mesopholidostrophia) lepisma (J. de C. Sowerby), Amphistrophia funiculata (McCoy), and Strophonella euglypha (Dalman). About 2250 specimens have been collected from well-spaced geographical localities in the shelf facies of the Welsh Borderland (i.e. Ludlow, Abberley Hills, Woolhope inlier and Usk inlier) and, where possible, from different levels in the Ludlow succession. In addition, a large collection of Shaleria aff. ornatella Bassett & Cocks from Gotland, Sweden plus museum and other specimens of the Wenlock forms of S. euglypha and A. funiculata were studied statistically for comparison with the Welsh Borderland Ludlovian forms. After preparation, accurate measurements were made of: shell length and width, pedicle muscle field length and width, angle of divergence of the pedicle valve muscle field, width of denticulation, the number of ribs per mm at 5 or 10mm from the dorsal umbo, and some other special morphological features. All five species are fully described and illustrated: some previously undescribed morphological features have been recognised, discussed and figured. For each species, also, statistical analyses of the range of variation of the most significant morphological features have been carried out. In the case of P. (M.) lepisma, the emphasis is on the full description of the species and its variation as it has not previously been adequately described and figured. The study of L. filosa also concentrates on the description and the range of variation, together with a comparison with Wenlock forms of the same species. Shaleria ornatella is fully described and its range of variation is such that there seems little doubt that the Gotland form Shaleria aff. ornatella should be included in this species. The small but consistent difference in the Gotland form can be related to environmental rather than genetic controls. The intraspecific variation in a present-day species of Brachiopoda; Kraussina rubra (Pallas) from one locality was also studied; the range of variation is comparable to that in S. ornatella, thereby supporting the palaeontological interpretation of this (& other) species. In both S. euglypha and A. funiculata, particular interest lies in the morphological differences between the Wenlock and Ludlow forms of these species. These changes have been analysed in detail and attention directed to the containing sediments in order to determine whether changes of substrate or other environmental factors might explain the vertical changes. The accumulated evidence, however, seems to favour gradual evolutionary changes from the Wenlock to the Ludlow although there are too many gaps in the record to be certain. Finally, the functional morphology and palaeoecology of stropheodontid brachiopods in general, and of these five Ludlow specimens in particular, are discussed.


Interactive gaming requires automatic processing on large volume of random data produced by players on spot, such as shooting, football kicking, boxing etc. In this paper, we describe an artificial intelligence approach in processing such random data for interactive gaming by using a one-class support vector machine (OC-SVM). In comparison with existing techniques, our OC-SVM based interactive gaming design has the features of: (i): high speed processing, providing instant response to the players: (i) winner selection and control by one parameter, which can be pre-designed and adjusted according to the game design needs, i.e. level of difficulties: Experiments on numerical simulation support that the proposed design is robust to random noise, accurate in picking up winning data, and convenient for all interactive gaming design.


At the construction lot SBT 2.1 "Tunnel Fröschnitzgraben" of the Semmering Base Tunnel (SBT) in Austria caverns with a cross section up to 300 m2 are excavated in a depth of approximately 400 m, which are the central part of the emergency station. The site arrangement results in a complex situation of large cross sections within a small area. Additionally, complex ground conditions exist, because the degree of fracturing of the rock mass differs frequently and the rock mass strength is occasionally very low. Especially at the intersection of the caverns displacements increase over a long period of time. The observed system behavior is described and analyzed based on the geotechnical design taking the encountered ground conditions into account. Sequences of rock mass sections with different stiffness and strength are of high geomechanical significance due to stress concentrations in the competent areas. This had particular impact on the observed system behavior. With regard to the stability of the overall system influences of various drives and the excavation of large cross sections in several steps must be considered. Moreover, an influence of the excavation size on the extension of the area with displacement increases or stress redistributions must be taken into account.


In most modern economies scientific and technological research activities are conducted in two distinct organizational modes commercially oriented RD based upon proprietary information, and noncommercial open science. When taken together and kept in proper balance, these form a complementary pair of institutionally differentiated sub-systems. Each can work to amplify and augment the productivity of the other, thereby spurring long-term economic growth and improvements of social welfare in knowledge-driven societies. This paper considers the difference between historical origins of open science and its modern, critically important role in the allocation of research resources. The institutional structure of The Republic of Open Science generally is less well understood and has less robust self-sustaining foundations than the familiar non-cooperative market mechanisms associated with proprietary RD. Although they are better suited for the conduct of exploratory science, they also remain more vulnerable to damages from collateral effects of shifts in government policies, particularly those that impact their fiscal support and regulatory environments. After reviewing the several challenges that such policy actions during the 20th centurys closing decades had posed for continued effective collective explorations at the frontiers of scientific knowledge, the discussion examines the responses that those developments elicited from academic research communities. Those reactions to the threatened curtailment of timely access to data and technical information about new research methods and findings took the form of technical and organizational innovations designed to expand and enhance infrastructural protections for sustained open access in scientific and scholarly communications. They were practical, bottom-up initiatives to provide concrete, domain relevant tools and organizational routines whose adoption subsequently could be, and in the event were reinforced by top-down policy guidelines and regulatory steps by public funding agencies and international bodies. The non-politicized nature of that process, as well as its largely effective outcomes should be read cautiously as positive portents of the future vitality of the Republic of Open Science and of those societies that recognize, protect and adequately support this remarkable social innovation.


In Tourist Distractions Youngmin Choe uses hallyu (Korean-wave) cinema as a lens to examine the relationships among tourism and travel, economics, politics, and history in contemporary East Asia. Focusing on films born of transnational collaboration and its networks, Choe shows how the integration of the tourist imaginary into hallyu cinema points to the region's evolving transnational politics and the ways Korea negotiates its colonial and Cold War past with East Asia's neoliberal present. Hallyu cinema's popularity has inspired scores of international tourists to visit hallyu movie sets, filming sites, and theme parks. This tourism helps ease regional political differences; reimagine South Korea's relationships with North Korea, China, and Japan; and blur the lines between history, memory, affect, and consumerism. It also provides distractions from state-sponsored narratives and forges new emotional and economic bonds that foster community and cooperation throughout East Asia. By attending to the tourist imaginary at work in hallyu cinema, Choe helps us to better understand the complexities, anxieties, and tensions of East Asia's new affective economy as well as Korea's shifting culture industry, its relation to its past, and its role in a rapidly changing region.


Recent views of the hermeneutical process, including philosophical speech-act theories, challenge Scripture's authority and emphasize the author's intention rather than a historical-grammatical view. Relating theological issues to philosophical views is legitimate, provided that the results do not contradict the spiritual authority of Scripture. The following hermeneutical principles of the Reformation can help maintain this adherence: 1) Scripture is the first principle and ultimate norm for all theology; 2) Scripture is the living and powerful Word of God; 3) the sovereign Spirit binds himself to the Word; and 4) the Spirit-breathed Word begs for a spiritual and clear explanation. In the (post)modern context, we need to approach hermeneutics from pneumatology and test it by God's Word.


The detective quantum efficiency for foveal vision is computed from the flash perception data of Blackwell and McCready. The detective quantum efficiency is identical with the concept of quantum efficiency introduced by Rose in 1946, and is defined as the square of the ratio of the smallest possible threshold to the observed threshold, where the smallest possible threshold is set by the statistical fluctuations in the number of the background photons entering the eye. The computed values of the detective quantum efficiency Q are tabulated in Table V, and depend on the target diameter α, on the light pulse duration T, and on the background luminance B. The maximum values of Q (with the respect to variation of α and T) range from about 0.25% to about 1.0 %over the range from 0.1 to 100 ft-L, with the maximum value occurring at about 1.0 ft-L. The computed values of Q are free of the questionable assumptions previously used by Rose and by Jones regarding integration time and threshold signal-to-noise ratio.


In this paper we present a tabu search heuristic which can be used for scheduling the production at an oil refinery. The scheduling problem is to decide which production modes to use at the different processing units at each point in time. The problem is a type of lot-sizing problem where costs of changeovers, inventories and production are considered. In the suggested tabu search heuristic we explore the use of variable neighbourhood, dynamic penalty and different tabu lists. Computational results are presented for different versions of the heuristic and the results are compared to the best-known lower bound for a set of scheduling scenarios.


This study investigates the effects of the neuropeptides, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) and galanin, the islet hormones insulin, glucagon and somatostatin, the neurotransmitter acetyicholine (ACh), the gut hormone cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8), sodium nitroprusside (SNIP), 8-Bromo guanosine 3'5' cyclic monophosphate (8-Br cOMP) and nerve stimulation on amylase secretion and intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca 2 ]) in the isolated pancreas of normal and diabetic rats. The pattern of distribution of the islet hormones and neuropeptides in normal and diabetic rats. The results show that stimulation of isolated pancreatic segments and acinar cells with different concentrations of either glucagon, somatostatin, VIP, galanin, ACh or CCK-8 resulted in different effects on amylase secretion and [Ca 2']i Combining the islet
hormones with either ACh or CCK-8 resulted in marked potentiation in amylase output and enhanced the [C2] in acinar cells. Genistein, had markedly inhibited the potentiation of the islet hormones with either ACh or CCK-8. Similarly, when rats were rendered diabetic either insulin, glucagon or somatostatin failed to potentiate the secretory response of ACh or CCK-8. The results indicate that both tyrosine kinase and cellular C2 seem to be the intracellular mediators involved with the enhanced
secretory responses obtained with a combination of the islet hormones with either ACh or CCK-8. Immunohistochemiocal techniques confirm the presence of the islet hormones and neuropeptides in the endocrine and the neural elements of the pancreas.
Moreover, the presence of viable pancreatic islets of Langerhans seems to be associated with the potentiation of the islet hormones with either ACh or CCK-8. The results also suggest that NO may modulate the release of the endogenous neurotransmitter(s) in response to EFS in the exocrine rat pancreas.


The dielectric relaxation spectra of penatnenitrile(PN) with 1,2 Dichloroethane(DCE) mixture at temperature 250C in the frequency range of 10 MHz to 20 GHz using time domain reflectometry (TDR) for 11 different concentrations of the system have been studied. The dielectric parameters such as static permittivity and relaxation time for the mixture have been reported. The excess dielectric constant and excess inverse relaxation time have also studied. The investigation shows that the effective dipoles increases and the dipoles rotates slowly due to the hindering field between the constituent molecules of the PN and DCE mixture.


Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease (APE; EC 184.108.40.206) plays a central role in repair of DNA damage due to reactive oxygen species (ROS) because its DNA 3'-phosphoesterase activity removes 3' blocking groups in DNA that are generated by DNA glycosylase/AP-lyases during removal of oxidized bases and by direct ROS reaction with DNA. The major human APE (APE-1) gene is activated selectively by sublethal levels of a variety of ROS and ROS generators, including ionizing radiation, but not by other genotoxicants-e.g., UV light and alkylating agents. Increased expression of APE mRNA and protein was observed both in the HeLa S3 tumor line and in WI 38 primary fibroblasts, and it was accompanied by translocation of the endonuclease to the nucleus. ROS-treated cells showed a significant increase in resistance to the cytotoxicity of such ROS generators as H2O2 and bleomycin, but not to UV light. This "adaptive response" appears to result from enhanced repair of cytotoxic DNA lesions due to an increased activity of APE-1, which may be limiting in the base excision repair process for ROS-induced toxic lesions.


This paper discusses the gradual negotiation process involved in the resolution of the initiative dilemma of IS action research. This dilemma occurs when the researcher faces the decision to either take the initiative to define an opportunity for generating knowledge , and then try to find possible client organisations, or to leave this initiative to client organisations and tackle problems proposed by them. The first option may lead to the definition of a research project that does not meet the interests of client organisations, while the second may lead to a research topic beyond the researcher's area of interest or area of expertise. The dilemma is resolved through a process of negotiation. The paper proposes two models to explain this negotiation process and to resolve this dilemma: a model of the overall negotiation process, and a model of the cyclical information exchange that supports this process. These models are supported by analysis of an on-going action research study of the effects of groupware technology on business process improvement groups in organisations. The paper highlights that the researcher and target organisation may initially hold different and potentially conflicting views, but that through an effective negotiation process these can change over time, and eventually converge into an agreed research project


This essay analyzes the development of Canada's animal welfare movement during the nineteenth century. Situating Canada's experience alongside that of England and the United States, it identifies an enthusiastic but conservative response to animal welfare, which the author argues reflects the high level of dependence among the movement's upper- and middle-class supporters on animals as resources, sources of labour, and objects of sport. In particular, it focusses on the participation of sportsmen, cattle ranchers, industrialists, foxhunters, veterinarians, and others who recognized in the movement both the material and the ethical benefits that might accrue from the improved treatment of animals. As such, the essay brings to the literature on animal welfare and animal rights a sense of the movement's economic dimensions, or the ways in which material concerns regarding property and productivity converged with but also limited the animal welfare movement's ethical parameters. In doing so, it accounts for the near absence in Canada of the more radical agendas that informed the movement's civil society parameters elsewhere, and in turn the ways in which the moderate vision that informed the nation's animal welfare non-governmental organizations contributed to an equally moderate response on the part of the state.


Albeit overtly secular, Zionist ideology was inspired by religious thought. While traditional religions often supported the nationalist cause, the relationship of Judaism and Zionism is vastly different. Adepts of traditional Judaism immediately rejected Zionism, and this rejectionist attitude has not vanished to this day. On the other hand, Christian, mainly Protestant theologians had developed the idea of the ingathering of the Jews in the Holy Land several centuries prior to the first Zionist congress in 1897. This explains why the initially socialist oriented secular project of social transformation has undergone sacralization, becoming a focal point of Evangelical Christian Zionists. These Evangelical contributions to Zionism and the Zionist state must be taken into account in analyses of the State of Israel, its position in the modern Middle East and the policy-making of those countries where such Evangelical circles wield significant influence.


Film cooling was measured on the endwall of a five-vane annular cascade in a blowdown wind tunnel at an exit Mach number of 0.9. The adiabatic film cooling effectiveness was calculated from the partial pressure of oxygen measured with binary pressure sensitive paint (BPSP). Cylindrical film cooling holes were located in the upstream and passage regions with the coolant-to-mainstream mass flow ratio (MFR) independently varied for each region. One row was located upstream of the vanes and supplied by an upstream plenum. Two rows were located in the passage between two vanes and supplied by a downstream plenum. Three total MFRs were investigated: 1%, 1.5%, and 2%. For a given total MFR, four combinations of upstream and downstream MFRs were compared to an even split of coolant. Coolant-to-mainstream density ratios (DRs) of 1.0 and 2.0 were investigated. The most efficient use of coolant hinged on balancing the downstream MFR for the second row due to the endwall pressure gradient preventing coolant from exiting the holes or a high jet velocity causing liftoff. For this row, selecting the optimum MFR increased the area-averaged film cooling effectiveness by up to 200% with a reduction in row 1 of less than 25%. At high downstream MFRs, increasing the density ratio delayed liftoff and increased film cooling effectiveness in row 2 by 65%. However, at low MFRs, increasing the density ratio reduced film cooling effectiveness in row 2 by 60%.


Coyote (Canis latrans) depredation rates on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns are variable across the southeastern United States, perhaps due to varying dispersion of coyotes as related to social behavior and habitat preferences. To evaluate fawn predation risk related to coyote distribution, we studied home range patterns and habitat use of 15 female coyotes during the 2012–2013 fawning periods. Seasonal home range sizes varied but followed two general patterns. Small home range coyotes (SHR; likely breeding females) had a mean home range area of 7.4 km2 (CL = 5.4–9.5 km2), whereas large home range coyotes (LHR; transients) had a mean home range area of 47.1 km2 (CL = 27.5–66.8 km2). We measured consistency of space use as a gauge for predation risk by examining revisitation rates of core areas and quantified movements by calculating residence time along paths. Coyotes avoided pine habitats within core areas, avoided developed areas during the day, and selected open areas at night. SHR coyotes had greater core area revisitation rates than LHR coyotes. Residence time estimates suggested considerable variation in patterns of patch residence. Because of greater revisitation of fewer core areas, SHR females may have disproportionate impacts on fawn survival within their respective home ranges. Future research addressing interactions between coyotes and fawns should focus on improving understanding of how coyote spatial ecology affects fawn predation within an area.


Transformers provide a class of expressive architectures that are extremely effective for sequence modeling. However, the key limitation of transformers is their quadratic memory and time complexity $\mathcal{O}(L^2)$ with respect to the sequence length in attention layers, which restricts application in extremely long sequences. Most existing approaches leverage sparsity or low-rank assumptions in the attention matrix to reduce cost, but sacrifice expressiveness. Instead, we propose Combiner, which provides full attention capability in each attention head while maintaining low computation and memory complexity. The key idea is to treat the self-attention mechanism as a conditional expectation over embeddings at each location, and approximate the conditional distribution with a structured factorization. Each location can attend to all other locations, either via direct attention, or through indirect attention to abstractions, which are again conditional expectations of embeddings from corresponding local regions. We show that most sparse attention patterns used in existing sparse transformers are able to inspire the design of such factorization for full attention, resulting in the same sub-quadratic cost ($\mathcal{O}(L\log(L))$ or $\mathcal{O}(L\sqrt{L})$). Combiner is a drop-in replacement for attention layers in existing transformers and can be easily implemented in common frameworks. An experimental evaluation on both autoregressive and bidirectional sequence tasks demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach, yielding state-of-the-art results on several image and text modeling tasks.


In this paper we define recursive rules in the double pushout approach (DPO) to graph transformation. Classical DPO rules are extended with a base case condition and a recursion condition. Mechanisms are provided to pass the match from both conditions to the rule's left hand side, and also between two consecutive steps in the recursion. The approach is useful when recursive structures (such as inheritance hierarchies, nested component hierarchies, networks of functional blocks, etc.) have to be processed. Although we present the recursion for DPO, it can also be adapted to other approaches to graph and model transformation. We present examples for model transformation, model simulation and model optimization in different application domains.


Written constitutions are susceptible to informal changes that do not manifest themselves in alterations to the text, for instance as a result of judicial interpretation, legislative enactment or executive action. This phenomenon is well developed in the scholarly literature on constitutional change and informal constitutional amendment. But what remains understudied and undertheorized in Canada and the United States is how written constitutions change informally as a result of the development of an unwritten constitutional norm, otherwise known as a constitutional convention. In this Article, I hypothesize with reference to the Canadian and United States Constitutions that there exist two major categories of informal constitutional change by constitutional convention: incorporation and repudiation. I suggest also that incorporation and repudiation may each occur in two ways: incorporation may occur by filling an existing void in the constitutional text or by refining one of its existing provisions, and repudiation may result from creating a void in the constitutional text or from substituting one of its existing provisions. I then evaluate whether these four forms informal constitutional change by constitutional convention entail costs to the rule of law where constitutional meaning is rooted in the present public meaning of the constitutional text. My larger purpose in this Article is to invite a dialogue with comparative public law scholars on how unwritten constitutional norms change written constitutions so that we may ultimately better understand the forms and implications of unwritten constitutional change.


The thesis explores the manner in which the R&D-based pharmaceutical industry in Europe organised and operated between 1995 and 1999 in order to secure its interests with regard to the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The TRIPs agreement represents a major increase in the global protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs). In fact, the agreement contradicts the general direction of the WTO, i.e. trade liberalisation, since it increases the monopolistic features of international trade in knowledge products. The research was motivated by one basic and fundamental question: why and how is such a strong international intellectual-property agenda in place. A pure economic approach does not provide a sufficient and satisfactory explanation for the creation of IPRs. For example, economists cannot conclude whether patents confer a net benefit or entail a net loss to society. This is due mainly to the structural trade-off built into the patent system: that by aiming to increase the amount of available knowledge in the future, the system represses the free and widespread use of available knowledge in the present. The international IP system, as exemplified by TRIPs, is even more difficult to explain in purely economic terms, particularly with respect to the uneven distribution of IPRs between "northern" and "southern" countries. The importance of IPRs to future economic growth, foreign direct investment and technology transfer is also in dispute. As an alternative to an explanation based on global welfare, the thesis suggests that a dynamic approach, based on the international political economy of interest groups and systemic outcomes, provides a better starting point for explaining how the international intellectual property agenda (TRIPs) was determined. This approach is tested here by focusing on the strategies, organisation, and actions of the R&D-based pharmaceutical industry in Europe and its IP allies, which aimed at preserving and exploiting the TRIPs agreement. Using their highly sophisticated and well-coordinated organisational build-up, the advanced pharmaceutical industry in Europe and its IP allies were able to mobilise regional authorities, such as the European Commission, in order to protect their current international IP achievements. This was despite opposition to the TRIPs agreement from developing and least-developed countries, which became particularly fierce in 1999.


Effective mental illness prevention programs are important for the safety of youth and adolescents. Research suggests that programs should facilitate appropriate help seeking by lowering help-seeking barriers. This study used focus groups to obtain high school student opinions about actual help-seeking behaviors, reducing adolescent help-seeking barriers, raising sensitive issues with adolescents, and increasing appropriate help-source engagement. Transcript analysis revealed several themes. Relationship and trust were key approach factors for current help seeking. Memories of successful prior helping episodes were also important. Education about appropriate help seeking, presented in ways consistent with those currently used by adolescents (e.g., through peer networks), might reduce help-seeking barriers. Education should include key adults who act as gatekeepers within adolescent networks (e.g., parents and teachers). Assertive outreach and follow-up might be important factors for continued help-source engagement. Themes provide a basis for suggestions about ways to facilitate adolescent help seeking and maintain appropriate help-source engagement.


In the western highlands of Guatemala, the indigenous population is one of the most marginalized communities. The food security of subsistence and infrasubsistence smallholders within this population still relies on domestic agricultural production as the principal livelihood activity and the main source of food. Smallholder production systems in the region are complex, with multiple interacting subsystems functioning at different integration levels and with different temporal dynamics. Previous results, based on a data set of nearly 5,000 farm households using a robust food availability indicator (that quantifies agricultural production, consumption, transformation, and commercialization of produce), have shown large differences in food security between farmers in the western highlands of Guatemala. Another important finding was that more than half of the farm households do not have the means to produce enough energy for home consumption from their agricultural activities. Identifying the constraints, patterns, and underlying processes driving food security could give rise to a set of easy-to-measure variables that quickly and reliably assess household food security status; such a tool would be helpful for decision and policy makers trying to focus on actions more likely to succeed in improving food security in the region. In this study, we developed a predictive model of food security, through the application of machine learning techniques, to identify the most important factors, and their interactions, which account for variability in food security. The resulting "artificial neural network" model performed well, explaining nearly 85% of the variance in food security status. By applying different sensitivity analysis methods, we were able to detect highly non-linear interactions between the different factors driving food security. Land availability per person is detected as the main constraint for attaining food security. The median value of land availability per person in the region is 0.085 ha, explaining why 52% of the farm household population does not produce enough food energy from agriculture. Many other interactions were found between crop land allocation, diversity, yields, and food security, which can help to target interventions to improve the food security status in the region.


The value of long-term biological studies of single spills, repeated small spills and chronic sources of pollution has long been recognized, but relatively few examples are to be found in the scientific literature. A small number of case histories of long-term studies are described here that illustrate a range of biological effects resulting from chronic inputs in the form of repeated small spillages, refinery effluents and discharges from offshore platforms. These studies have taken place around refinery effluents and spill sites in Milford Haven between 1960 and the present, around a refinery effluent in Southampton Water from 1969 to the present and in two oilfields in the North Sea since 1973 and 1975 respectively. Observed effects of chronic discharges in coastal waters range from localized and subtle to severe and long-lasting. In the producing offshore oilfields investigated so far, widespread severe effects have not yet been observed and such fields may present relatively few long-term biological problems. An important gap in knowledge that deserves attention is the biological effect in those fields where oil-based drilling muds have been used extensively, as preliminary evidence suggests that substantial quantities of oil can reach the seabed from this source. While it is recognized that the total impact of any pollutant on marine systems may be impossible to measure, the factors that determine the form and size of biological effects may be induced from the above examples and other examples from the scientific literature. A summary of these factors is presented. It is concluded that the severity of effects depends largely on the type, nature and duration of the pollutant, the physical nature of the receiving environment, and its biological nature and sensitivity. Where pollutant loads are reduced or removed (naturally or by pollution control measures), biological damage is usually followed by recovery of the system to an apparently healthy condition. Subtle effects may, however, persist for considerable periods of time.


How is hydrogen distributed among minerals and how is it bonded in their crystal structures? These are important questions, because the amount of hydrogen and the bonding configuration of hydrogen in crystalline materials governs many of that material's properties: its thermal and compressional behavior, P–T phase stability, rheology, and electrical conductivity. A reliable reconstruction of the Earth's interior, or the prediction of mineral transformations in complex industrial processes, must account for these parameters. Neutron diffraction can locate hydrogen sites in mineral structures, reveal any static or dynamic hydrogen disorder, help define the libration regime of hydrogen, and elucidate hydrogen-bonding configurations. Thus, that most elusive element for X-ray probes is perfectly detectable using neutrons.


Insects in free flight were filmed at 5000 frames per second to determine the motion of their wings and bodies. General comments are offered on flight behaviour and manoeuvrability. Changes in the tilt of the stroke plane with respect to the horizontal provides kinematic control of manoeuvres, analogous to the type of control used for helicopters. A projection analysis technique is described that solves for the orientation of the animal with respect to a cam era-based coordinate system, giving full kinematic details for the longitudinal wing and body axes from single-view films. The technique can be applied to all types of flight where the wing motions are bilaterally symmetrical: forward, backward and hovering flight, as well as properly banked turns. An analysis of the errors of the technique is presented, and shows that the reconstructed angles for wing position should be accurate to within 1-2° in general. Although measurement of the angles of attack was not possible, visual estimations are given. Only 11 film sequences show flight velocities and accelerations that are small enough for the flight to be considered as 'hovering'. Two sequences are presented for a hover-fly using an inclined stroke plane, and nine sequences of hovering with a horizontal stroke plane by another hover-fly, two crane-flies, a drone-fly, a ladybird beetle, a honey bee, and two bumble bees. In general, oscillations in the body position from its mean motion are within measurement error, about 1-2 % of the wing length. The amplitudes of oscillation for the body angle are only a few degrees, but the phase relation of this oscillation to the wingbeat cycle could be determined for a few sequences. The phase indicates that the pitching moments governing the oscillations result from the wing lift at the ends of the wingbeat, and not from the wing drag or inertial forces. The mean pitching moment of the wings, which determines the mean body angle, is controlled by shifting the centre of lift over the cycle by changing the mean positional angle of the flapping wings. Deviations of the wing tip path from the stroke plane are never large, and no consistent pattern could be found for the wing paths of different insects; indeed, variations in the path were even observed for individual insects. The wing motion is not greatly different from simple harmonic motion, but does show a general trend towards higher accelerations and decelerations at either end of the wingbeat, with constant velocities during the middle of half-strokes. Root mean square and cube root mean cube angular velocities are on average about 4 and 9% lower than simple harmonic motion. Angles of attack are nearly constant during the middle of half-strokes, typically 35° at a position 70 % along the wing length. The wing is twisted along its length, with angles of attack at the wing base some 10-20° greater than at the tip. The wings rotate through about 110° at either end of the wingbeat during 10-20 % of the cycle period. The mean velocity of the wing edges during rotation is similar to the mean flapping velocity of the wing tip and greater than the flapping velocity for more proximal wing regions, which indicates that vortex shedding during rotation is com parable with that during flapping. The wings tend to rotate as a flat plate during the first half of rotation, which ends just before, or at, the end of the half-stroke. The hover-fly using an inclined stroke plane provides a notable exception to this general pattern : pronation is delayed and overlaps the beginning of the downstroke. The wing profile flexes along a more or less localized longitudinal axis during the second half of rotation, generating the 'flip' profile postulated by Weis-Fogh for the hover-flies. This profile occurs to some extent for all of the insects, and is not exceptionally pronounced for the hover-fly. By the end of rotation the wings are nearly flat again, although a slight camber can sometimes be seen. Weis-Fogh showed that beneficial aerodynamic interference can result when the left and right wings come into contact during rotation at the end of the wingbeat. His 'fling' mechanism creates the circulation required for wing lift on the subsequent half-stroke, and can be seen on my films of the Large Cabbage White butterfly, a plum e moth, and the Mediterranean flour moth. However, their wings 'peel' apart like two pieces of paper being separated, rather than fling open rigidly about the trailing edges. A 'partial fling' was found for some insects, with the wings touching only along posterior wing areas. A ' near fling ' with the wings separated by a fraction of the chord was also observed for m any insects. There is a continuous spectrum for the separation distance between the wings, in fact, and the separation can vary for a given insect during different manoeuvres. It is suggested that these variants on Weis-Fogh's fling mechanism also generate circulation for wing lift, although less effectively than a complete fling, and that changes in the separation distance may provide a fine control over the amount of lift produced.


From the implementation of the New Order government's first five-year development plan (Repelita I) in 1969 until the mid-189s, the overriding objective of Indonesian food policy was to increase rice production so as to make the country self-sufficient, at a relatively high level of consumption, in its basic staple food. The goal of rice self-sufficiency was pursued through a centrally directed program of production and area targets, subsidized distribution of inputs with extension services, investment in irrigation and marketing infrastructure, and aremunerative floor price to farmers. With the achievement of rice self-sufficiency in 1985, the focus of Indonesia's food policy was broadened to include the promotion of secondary food-crop production. But the basic mechanism of centrally directed supply targets and input distribution remained the means of encouraging diversification of the food-crop sector.


Still a large amount of pesticides and spary applications are used in environmentally friendly fruit production systems; therefore, the aim of our study was first to test the in vitro effeicacy of some fungicides against a key apple disease (apple scab), and secondly to evaulate the effectiveness of reduced spray programmes against apple scab, powdery mildew and coding moth in integrated and organic apple orchards. In vitro efficacy of 7 fungicides (Champion 50 WP, Kocide 2000, Nordox 75 WG, Olajos rézkén, Kumulus S, Rézkén, Rézoxiklorid) and another 6 fungicides (Score 25 EC, Efuzin 500 SC, Systane, Folicur Solo, Zato Plusz, Rovral) approved in organic and integrated production systems, respectively, were tested against apple scab. Altogether four spray programmes were performed i) standard integrated: sprays followed by forecasting systems during the season, ii) reduced integrated: sprays followed by forecasting systems but only 75% of the spray numbers used during the season-long spray programme, iii) standard oragnic: sprays applied every 7–14 days during the season and iv) reduced organic: 60% of the spray numbers used during the season-long spray programme. In vitro results showed that fungicides (with active ingredients of copper and sulphur) applied in organic production showed relatively high percent growth capacity of the apple scab fungus. Rézkén showed the highest and Kumilus S the lowest efficacy against apple scab. Fungicides applied in integrated production showed relatively low percent growth capacity of the apple scab fungus. Score 25 EC showed the highest and Rovral the lowest efficacy against apple scab. Field study showed that reduced spray programmes did not increase significantly scab incidence in the integrated field. However, scab incidence increased significanly (above 30%) in the reduced spray programme for the organic orchard. Mildew incidence was low (below 5%) in both integrated and organic spray programmes. Mildew incidence on both shoots and fruits increased significanly in the reduced spray programme for the organic orchard. Incidence of codling moth damage was affected the most by standard vs. reduced spray programmes. Though incidence remained below 10% in the integrated plots, the incidence was significantly higher in the reduced spray programme compared to the standard programme. Similar results were obtained for organic spary programmes, but the incidence was 10 times higher and the differences among the two programmes were larger. International Journal of Horticultural Science 2009, 15 (4): 75–78. Agroinform Publishing House, Budapest, Printed in Hungary ISSN 1585-0404


Organizational transformation is a topic of increased interest for academics and practitioners alike, especially in light of the various socio-technical developments associated with digitalization. Largescale transformation initiatives often do not lead to the desired outcomes and fall short of their full potential primarily due to their inherent complexity. Intending to provide guidance for transformation projects, we set out to extend the work system theory – an established theory for representing and analyzing the design and evolution of organizational systems. In the framework of elaborated action design research, we performed a literature search before leveraging an extensive project database and conducting a series of interviews to develop and iteratively improve the research artifact. The resulting work system transformation method builds on the work system theory as well as the work system method and provides guidance in structuring and conducting work system transformation initiatives. Our results include a set of work system transformation principles backed by exemplary good practices and tools. Our work extends the existing literature on work systems and provides a holistic method to structure and perform large-scale transformation initiatives.


The paper characterizes the mixed-strategy equilibria in all-pay auctions with endogenous prizes that depend positively on own effort and negatively on the effort of competitors. Such auctions arise naturally in the context of investment games, lobbying games, and promotion tournaments. We also provide an experimental analysis of a special case which captures the strategic situation of a two-stage game with investment preceding homogenous Bertrand competition. We obtain overinvestment both relative to the mixed-strategy equilibrium and the social optimum.


Abstract Number of suppliers, approximation of equal-shares market condition and market share held by in-state sources were calculated to determine diversity of sources for 10 fresh fruits and vegetables in eight U.S. wholesale markets. Specificity of growing conditions is associated with few supply sources, unequal market shares and limited purchases from in-state suppliers. For crops with few sources, lower perishability and greater transportability are correlated with greater balance in market shares. For crops with many supply sources, greater perishability and greater transportability are consistent with large market share from imports. Diversity across all commodities can increase market share for local producers.


The relationship between human and animal is a complex and strange one, and many have written and theorized on the matter over the centuries. Animal theory has become ensconced in a debate that has evolved with public discourse and now exists in a realm that has become clouded with misperceptions. In this thesis, I explore ideas about human-animal relationships through the example of the hippopotamus and provide historical and cultural context for a reading of my accompanying film, The Pursuit of Hippo-ness. Through both the film and the paper, I aim to raise questions about how we see and interact with the hippopotamus, drawing mainly from individual stories to reflect a multiplicity of an animal that is often seen in a negative light. By raising these questions about how we perceive animals, we should begin to recognize the impacts that it can have on conservation when some animals are seen as inferior in terms of their "value." Being cognizant of these prejudices or highly misconstrued understandings of animals, particularly those with negative connotations attached, we should begin to recognize the intrinsic value of the animals and the way in which our lives are intertwined with theirs.


British colonial rule and its impact on the environment of the Indian sub-continent has made for a fascinating historical research subject over the last three decades. While exploitation of forests and the socio-economic impact of the process on tribal and other forest-dependent communities are well documented, the role of scientific discourse in facilitating the hegemonic control of the colonial state over forests had not been adequately treated in the existing literature. This article looks at the history of colonial forest policies in South India to argue that initially British destroyed most the accessible forests by logging them for ship-building, railways and the requirements of the military and public works departments. When the sustainability of the wood supply emerged as a problem, desiccationist ideas began to be systematically propagated. The desiccationist discourse branded forest utilisation by the natives as the main culprit for deforestation and the consequent reduction of the water flow of some rivers in South India. This alarmist discourse facilitated the control of the colonial state over most of the forests in South India by establishing a rhetoric of the preservation of forests as a means to save the environment and irrigation as prerequisites for the well-being of the agrarian economy. This article illustrates how desiccationist fears were used to justify the colonial state's monopolistic control over the forests of South India.


This paper focuses on key ways in which donors can improve the quality of foreign assistance and make it more effective in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The paper makes three central arguments. First, donors should be much more goal and results oriented in their assistance programs, and should work with low-income countries to ensure that poverty reduction strategies (PRSs) have specific, well-defined goals both in the short-run and long-run. PRSs should be expected to specifically refer to the MDGs, even if governments choose to adopt goals that do not exactly coincide with the MDGs. PRSs should provide both a "baseline scenario" with targets consistent with the most likely policy changes and levels of financing and a "high achievement" scenario with much more ambitious targets which lays out the additional policy, institutional, and financing changes needed to reach these goals. Second, donors must go beyond the rhetoric of "country selectivity" and actually begin to allocate aid more seriously to poorer countries with strong and moderate governance. Although there has been some improvement in aid allocation in recent years, much more can be done. Donors should establish basic rules for allocating aid based on the extent of poverty and the quality of governance, not to be dogmatic and rigid, but to provide some defenses against other forces that push aid allocations towards political and commercial considerations. Third, country selectivity should be conceived as much more than simply allocating more money to countries with stronger governance: it should change the way donors deliver aid to different countries. Well-governed countries should have a much greater say in designing aid programs, should receive more of their aid as program funding, and should receive longer-term commitments from the donor community. In these countries, foreign assistance should finance a broader set of activities, with most (but not all) of the funding channeled through the recipient government. Poorly governed countries should not only receive less money, they should receive more of it as project aid, it should come with a shorter time commitment, should be focused on a narrower set of activities, and much of it should be distributed through NGOs.


In this study, we examine the extent of dividend heaping in Australian firms between 1976 and 2015. Our findings show that 27.39% of dividends greater than or equal to 2.5-cents are heaped in 2.5-cent intervals, while 70.90% of dividends less than 2.5-cents are heaped in 0.25-cent intervals. We find that the heaping phenomenon decreases over time and average dividend size increases. We also show that when establishing the likelihood of dividend heaping, stock return volatility and firm size are consistent with the information uncertainty hypothesis. Dividend heaping also appears to be influenced by firm-level characteristics that are inconsistent with the hypothesis. For instance, the likelihood of heaping increases with dividend size and firm age.


Through initiatives such as Design Against Crime (DAC), European designers, manufacturers and developers are being encouraged to address crime and related social issues within design and development projects. But how can their efforts be evaluated, when design operates within different national contexts and covers a broad range of disciplines—from product and graphic design, to landscape design, architecture and planning? This paper presents the Design Against Crime (DAC) Evaluation Framework created to support the implementation and evaluation of crime prevention within design development (Wootton & Davey, 2005). The Framework draws on research undertaken since the 1960s on success factors in new product development (NPD). The DAC Evaluation Framework provides designers, manufacturers and developers with detailed guidance on how to integrate crime prevention within activities undertaken during the development cycle. It covers the entire product lifecycle, including maintenance, monitoring and business learning when the development is in use. The Framework focuses on key NPD success factors—the attributes and activities identified as increasing the chances of a development being successful. These are the activities that design and development organisations should be seeking to implement for commercial reasons. The Framework also aims to enable researchers and crime prevention experts to conduct rigorous evaluations of design solutions, providing assessment questions and a Pro-Forma for this purpose. The process approach to embedding crime prevention within products, services and environments is transferable between different contexts and design disciplines. Project partners validated the Framework against ten design development projects in the UK, Netherlands, Austria, Greece and Poland.


textabstractThe 1990s saw the breakdown of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which, since World War II, had developed a distinct economic system that included specific market and socialist self-management principles in production, distribution and decision-making processes. At the same time, the European Union opened up the possibility of full membership if these countries – now politically referred to as the Western Balkans – met the accession criteria claimed as essential to bring about fully-functioning and competitive market economies. The transition and accession processes were supported financially, politically and militarily by Western powers as a shift away from authoritarianism and poverty, while promoting democracy, human rights and individual freedom. This article argues that, contrary to this optimistic discourse, transition in the Western Balkans reflected and incorporated violence at different levels. The article shows that tensions between reforms and rights began in the 1970s, spurred by indebtedness and inequalities, pervading the transition process and deteriorating in the wake of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Social policy increasingly became framed along market- efficiency principles, challenging existing entitlements and rights, particularly with regard to education, social security and health. Vulnerable groups, such as the unemployed and the aged, experienced serious shortfalls in support and care. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, social protests against the deterioration in the levels of livelihood and the retrogression of social rights had erupted in several places. Violence was expressed not only in the form of direct bodily harm, but also in control exerted through indebtedness, the destruction of livelihoods, the denial of basic human rights, and the struggle for social justice.


This paper presents the results of a pilot scale study consisting of pre-treatment with a granular activated carbon (GAC) filter followed by membrane filtration. Detailed characterisation of rainwater tanks has highlighted that turbidity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and heavy metals, in particular lead, were not compliant with the 2004 Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). Further, organic matter present in the water causes membrane fouling and leads to carcinogenic compounds upon chlorination. A GAC filter was used as a first step to remove dissolved organic matter (measured in terms of DOC) in particular and also to reduce the concentration, of turbidity and lead. Membrane filtration can remove any remaining solids reducing the concentrations of turbidity and microorganisms. In this study a pilot scale rainwater treatment system consisting of a gravity fed GAC filter and membrane filter (Ultra Flo) was operated for a period of 120 days. The performance of this system was assessed in terms of membrane flux and improvement in water quality measured against the 2004 Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Determination of the flux especially in the later stages of membrane operation was important to be able to size the filters in a manner that meets the expected demand. The treatment system of GAC filter and membrane filter was effective in reducing the turbidity, DOC and heavy metals. The system reduced the turbidity to levels of 0.3–0.4 NTU, below the ADWG limit of 1 NTU. The concentration of DOC was reduced to below the 2004 Australian Drinking Water Guidelines limit of 0.2 mg/L. The concentration of lead was reduced to less than 0.005 mg/L, and below the ADWD limit of 0.01 mg/L. The concentrations of all other heavy metals were well within the ADWG limits. Further, the GAC filter removed a majority of the organic substances from raw rainwater collected from the roof. After the initial flux decline, the stable flux achieved was 0.47 L/m 2 /h consistently over the final 60 days of the experiment.


Recent state-of-the-art methods for neural architecture search (NAS) exploit gradient-based optimization by relaxing the problem into continuous optimization over architectures and shared-weights, a noisy process that remains poorly understood. We argue for the study of single-level empirical risk minimization to understand NAS with weight-sharing, reducing the design of NAS methods to devising optimizers and regularizers that can quickly obtain high-quality solutions to this problem. Invoking the theory of mirror descent, we present a geometry-aware framework that exploits the underlying structure of this optimization to return sparse architectural parameters, leading to simple yet novel algorithms that enjoy fast convergence guarantees and achieve state-of-the-art accuracy on the latest NAS benchmarks in computer vision. Notably, we exceed the best published results for both CIFAR and ImageNet on both the DARTS search space and NAS-Bench-201; on the latter we achieve near-oracle-optimal performance on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. Together, our theory and experiments demonstrate a principled way to co-design optimizers and continuous relaxations of discrete NAS search spaces.


Local government and the NHS have important roles in building confident and connected communities as part of efforts to improve health and reduce inequalities. The project 'Working with communities: empowerment evidence and learning' was initiated jointly by PHE and NHS England to draw together and disseminate research and learning on community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing. This report presents the work undertaken in phase 1 of the project and provides a guide to the case for change, the concepts, the varieties of approach that have been tried and tested and sources of evidence.


This study examined the effect of imagery content and participant skill level on the interpretation (i.e. image meaning) of a negative image (i.e. a golf putt missing the hole), while also investigating the effect of imagery content and skill level on performance, anxiety, and confidence in a golf putting task. Seventy-nine participants (40 novices, 39 expert golfers; M age = 19.54 years, SD = 1.39) completed a golf putting task in which putting anxiety, confidence, and performance were assessed. Participants were then randomly allocated to one of two imagery scripts; imaging missing the target by 20 cm or imaging missing the target by 40 cm before completing the putting block for a second time. Irrespective of imagery condition, experts perceived the imagery as significantly more unhelpful compared to novices (p < .01). At Block 2, the far miss group had significantly higher cognitive (p < .001) and somatic (p = .013) anxiety intensity than at Block 1 and performed significantly worse (p = .003) than the near miss group. However, there were no differences in the perceived helpfulness of the imagery across the imagery groups. Therefore, imagery perception does not always reflect the outcomes experienced. Image meaning is associated with individual characteristics (e.g. skill level).


The Digital Design Studio and NHS Education Scotland have developed ultra-high definition real-time interactive 3D anatomy of the head and neck for dental teaching, training and simulation purposes. In this paper we present an established workflow using state-of-the-art 3D laser scanning technology and software for design and construction of medical data and describe the workflow practices and protocols in the head and neck anatomy project. Anatomical data was acquired through topographical laser scanning of a destructively dissected cadaver. Each stage of model development was clinically validated to produce a normalised human dataset which was transformed into a real-time environment capable of large-scale 3D stereoscopic display in medical teaching labs across Scotland, whilst also supporting single users with laptops and PC. Specific functionality supported within the 3D Head and Neck viewer includes anatomical labelling, guillotine tools and selection tools to expand specific local regions of anatomy. The software environment allows thorough and meaningful investigation to take place of all major and minor anatomical structures and systems whilst providing the user with the means to record sessions and individual scenes for learning and training purposes. The model and software have also been adapted to permit interactive haptic simulation of the injection of a local anaesthetic.


AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and δ-opioid receptors (DORs) are both involved in controlling cell survival, energy metabolism, and food intake, but little is known on the interaction between these two signaling molecules. Here we show that activation of human DORs stably expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells increased AMPK activity and AMPK phosphorylation on Thr172. DOR-induced AMPK phosphorylation was prevented by pertussis toxin, reduced by protein kinase A (PKA) activators, and unaffected by PKA, transforming growth factor-β-activated kinase 1, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and protein kinase C inhibitors. Conversely, the DOR effect was reduced by Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase (CaMKK) inhibition, apyrase treatment, Gq/11 antagonism, and blockade of P2 purinergic receptors. Apyrase treatment also depressed DOR stimulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration, whereas P2 receptor antagonism blocked DOR stimulation of inositol phosphate accumulation. In SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells and primary olfactory bulb neurons, DOR activation failed to affect AMPK phosphorylation per se but potentiated the stimulation by either muscarinic agonists or 2-methyl-thio-ADP. Sequestration of G protein βγ subunits (Gβγ) blocked the DOR potentiation of AMPK phosphorylation induced by oxotremorine-M. In CHO cells, the AMPK activator 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide1-β-d-ribonucleoside stimulated AMPK phosphorylation and glucose uptake, whereas pharmacological inhibition of AMPK, expression of a dominant-negative mutant of AMPKα1, and P2Y receptor blockade reduced DOR-stimulated glucose uptake. The data indicate that in different cell systems, DOR activation up-regulates AMPK through a Gβγ-dependent synergistic interaction with Gq/11-coupled receptors, potentiating Ca2+ release and CaMKKβ-dependent AMPK phosphorylation. In CHO cells, this coincident signaling mechanism is involved in DOR-induced glucose uptake.


Abstract. The Australian Geographic Reference Image (AGRI) is a national satellite image mosaic that covers the vast Australian continent. Formed from 9560 ALOS PRISM images, AGRI provides a spatially correct reference image at 2.5 m resolution, with 1-pixel accuracy. The production of AGRI was made feasible by the development and implementation of a long-strip adjustment technique that facilitated a refinement in the georeferencing process of orbit and attitude parameters for orbital segments comprising 50 or more images. The strip of images is effectively treated as a single image. The ground control requirements for such full-pass georeferencing, which does not require the measurement of tie or pass points, amount to only 4–8 GCPs for the complete strip rather than 4 or more per image within the strip. Once the adjusted orbit parameters are obtained, the georeferencing and orthorectification process can revert to a fully automatic image-by-image computation. This paper first overviews AGRI and then describes the longstrip adjustment technique that made its production possible. Testing and validation are then discussed via the example of the georeferencing of a 1527 km single strip of 55 PRISM images. The testing phase verified that 1-pixel accuracy georeferencing could be achieved with the long-strip adjustment approach, and in the production of AGRI accuracy checks against 2460 checkpoints yielded an RMS discrepancy of close to 2.5 m and a 90% Circular Error (CEP90) of 5.5 m.


The occurrence of kidney diseases associated with a monoclonal gammopathy in the absence of symptomatic multiple myeloma is increasingly recognized. When the kidney is involved, the monoclonal etiology of these diseases results in clinical and laboratory features distinct from those of other disease, necessitating the nomenclature monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS). The detection of these monoclonal diseases involving the kidney is important since they are poorly responsive to conventional immunosuppression and instead require clone-directed therapy. The new International Kidney and Monoclonal research group consensus definition of MGRS includes all proliferative conditions of B cells and/or plasma cells. Renal lesions due to monoclonal immunoglobulins are quite capable of progression with resulting end-stage renal disease development. Hence, these lesions require therapeutic intervention even if they do not satisfy myeloma criteria or the presence of any myeloma defining event. The spectrum of renal lesions that can be observed in a case of MGRS is wide and mirrors the list that may be seen in a case of any plasma cell neoplasm. This includes Ig light chain, heavy chain, and heavy and light chain amyloidosis; immunotactoid glomerulonephritis (GN); monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition disease including light chain, heavy chain, or heavy and light chain disease; light chain proximal tubulopathy; crystal-storing histiocytosis; proliferative GN with monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits; C3 glomerulopathy with monoclonal gammopathy and cast nephropathy. The initial approach after histological assessment is based on presence or absence of monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits. If monoclonality is evident, it is important to distinguish between conditions with deposition of intact immunoglobulin molecule or light chains only. The treatment of MGRS is directed at the underlying neoplastic B-cell or plasma cell clones.


P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is well known to cause multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer cells. This MDR leads to cancer recurrence which is a major obstacle in cancer treatment. High P-gp expression has been observed in the population of cancer stem cells (CSCs) having self-renewal potential. Early detection and inhibition of these CSCs is directly beneficial to cancer treatment. In this study coumarin derivatives are used to inhibit efflux process and thereby enhance bioavailability of various drugs like paclitaxel (PTX). This drug is most commonly used for the treatment of cancers of breast, ovary, head and neck. Coumarin derivatives can be used to reduce the growth of breast cancer stem cells through P-gp mediated efflux inhibition and paclitaxel bioavailability enhancement. With the use of computational approaches including molecular docking simulation and pharmacophore study, few coumarin derivatives have been found to be more potential inhibitors of P-gp mediated efflux. Based on high affinity inhibitors, new coumarin derivatives have been designed and docked at active site cavity of P-gps. Some newly designed coumarin derivatives were found to be more potent due to their higher binding affinity towards target protein. The finding that newly designed coumarins can be exploited for inhibition of P-gp mediated efflux in order to enhance paclitaxel bioavailability and can inhibit breast cancer stem cell growth is significant for designing potent anticancer drugs.


Using glucose oxidase (GOx) as a target protein, we studied the adsorption of protein on the phenothiazine-modified electrodes and assessed the potential of using the electrodes in biochemical applications. Experiment results showed that thionine chloride (TC) and its structural analogues, such as toluidine blue and methylene blue, fluoresced under photochemical excitation after being immobilized on indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) electrodes fabricated using either diazotization-reduction or oxidative polymerization. The surface-bound phenothiazines exhibited substantial binding affinities to the protein. At a pH > 5, the adsorbate showed no sign of desorption even the electrodes were electrically biased with voltages between ±0.3 V vs SCE. Thus, emission decay occurred while GOx was injected over the electrodes, which was consistent with the observations made using conductive-mode atomic force microscopy (CM-AFM). Under a quiescent condition, the protein interacted with the immobilized TC via a pseudo-first-order kinetic mechanism. The reaction reached a maximum rate at a pH > 5, at which the rate constant was approximately 7 × 10(-8) L/(U s). Under this condition, the adsorption rate increased as the level of the protein increased, regardless of pH, revealing application potential for GOx quantitation. The adsorption rate, however, decreased with a decrease in pH if the pH < 5. We concluded that static interactions played a crucial role. By monitoring Fe(CN)6(3-/4-) taking place at the TC-modified electrodes in pH 7 solutions, we observed that the adsorption of GOx imposed impedance on Fe(CN)6(3-/4-). The resulting charge-transfer resistance (RCT) increased as the amount of the protein increased, leading to a conclusion that the protein could reach the maximum surface coverage when its concentrations were greater than 100 U/mL. The protein molecules were likely repel each other as approaching the TC sites. Despite this, they maintained the native bioactivity after being adsorbed, enabling the TC-modified electrodes to function as glucose sensors. Glucose concentrations between 1 and 60 mM could be detected. Long-term analysis, in addition, showed that the electrode responses to the analyte were consistent and reproducible. Phenothiazine-modified electrodes are evident as a useful tool for understanding the adsorption of protein on solid surfaces and quantifying proteins.


Abstract Prospermatogonia, or gonocytes, are the cells that differentiate from primordial germ cells to the first mature type of spermatogonia in the developing testis. Although prospermatogonia play a central role in this stage (i.e., prespermatogenesis), the details regarding their characterization have not been fully elucidated. Recently, we identified a novel mouse testicular germ cell-specific antigen, TES101 reactive protein (TES101RP), in the adult mouse testis. The protein TES101RP is also designated as protein TEX101. In the present study, we investigated the expression of TEX101 on germ cells in developing mouse gonads using histochemical techniques (i.e., immunohistochemistry, BrdU labeling, and TUNEL staining) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. TEX101 appeared on germ cells in both male and female gonads after the pregonadal period. In the testis, TEX101 was expressed constitutively on surviving prospermatogonia during prespermatogenesis. After the initiation of spermatogenesis, the prospermatogonia differentiated into spermatogonia. TEX101 expression disappeared from the spermatogonia, but reappeared on spermatocytes and spermatids. In the ovary, TEX101 was expressed on germ cells until the start of folliculogenesis; TEX101 was not detected on oocytes that were surrounded by follicular cells. These findings indicate that TEX101 is a specific marker for both male and female germ cells during gonadal development. Because the on and off switching of TEX101 expression in germ cells almost parallels the kinetics of gametogenesis, TEX101 may play an important physiological role in germ cell development.


Introduction The use of hybrid maize varieties is on the increase in northern Ghana. Compared to the open-pollinated maize varieties, data on the performance of the hybrids in association with grain legumes such as cowpea, soybean and groundnut is limited. Productivity of hybrid and openpollinated maize grown in association with erect and spreading cowpea types was evaluated on-farm in Africa RISING intervention communities in northern Ghana.


Why can Japan sustain debts above 200 percent of GDP, while Ukraine defaulted on its debt when it was 30 percent of GDP? Answering that question is challenging. First, debt sustainability does not easily translate into operational concepts and indicators. Second, servicing the debt is a strategic decision, the result of a cost-benefit analysis. Thus markets can always, for good or bad reasons, question governments' commitment to face their financial obligations. Third, uncertainty around public debt developments is large and difficult to model. Fourth, not all debts are born equal, as the currency composition, maturity structure, type of creditor and ownership of the debt affect exposure to rollover and liquidity risks. The paper surveys the knowns and unknowns of debt sustainability, including the tools helping us to understand vulnerabilities and to inform our judgment. Instead of embarking on the impossible mission to build a holistic, consistent and broadly-accepted debt-sustainability framework for practitioners, we take the more modest approach to review some of the key economic principles and statistical methods that form today's leading practice in debt sustainability assessments.


Manganese oxide is being recently used as electrode material for rechargeable batteries. In this study, Al incorporated Mn2O3 compositions were synthesized to study the effect of Al doping on electrochemical performance of host material. Structural studies were carried out using X-ray diffraction analysis to confirm the phase stability and explore the lattice parameters, crystallite size, lattice strain, density and cell volume. Morphology and composition were analyzed using field emission scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, respectively. Dynamic light scattering analysis was performed to observe the average particle size of the compositions. FTIR measurements exhibit the O-Al-O and OMn-O and Al-O bonding and with increasing the concentration of Al, the vibrational peaks of Mn-O become sharper. An enhanced electrochemical performance was observed in compositions with higher Al content. Keywords—Mn2O3, electrode materials, energy storage and conversion, electrochemical performance.


The conventional cattle slaughtering process includes some critical stages where a dissemination of Specified Risk Material (SRM: brain, spinal cord) within or onto the carcass and within the slaughterhouse environment can occur. These processes are captive bolt stunning, removal of the head and first of all carcass splitting (sawing the spine lengthways). Captive bolt (CB) stunning results in massive brain tissue damage with bleeding, and in some cases brain tissue also emerges from the CB hole. As the heart is still functioning, there is a risk of brain tissue particles being transferred v i a the blood flow to heart and lungs or even in the whole carcass. This contamination risk is actually assessed to be low, but a continuing leakage of Central Nervous System (CNS) material from the captive bolt aperture in the further slaughter process may lead to direct and indirect contamination of carcass, meat and equipment. Therefore alternative stunning methods like electrical stunning or concussion stunning are discussed. A further critical point is the treatment of the head. When the head is removed, the spinal cord is cut with a knife. There is a danger of cross contamination due to spinal protein that may adhere to the knife and because of liquid cerebralis, which leaks from the foramen occipitale magnum. Further head cleaning with hand-held hoses following skinning also includes the danger of cross contamination from cleaning water or aerosol. Therefore measures regarding the safe handling of head and harvesting of head meat are proposed. The most critical point in terms of contamination of the meat surface with SRM is the currently common practise of sawing the spine vertically in the middle with hand-guided belt-type saws. A m i x t u r e of sawing residues and rinsing water ("sawing sludge") collects in the housing of the saw, and if it contains infectious material this leads to contamination of the subsequent carcasses. The most promising methods available at present for minimising this risk appear to be in manual cattle slaughtering boning the entire (not split) carcass, either still warm or refrigerated and in industrial beef cattle slaughtering extraction of the spinal cord by vacuum from the whole carcass followed by conventional sawing or completely sawing out the spine including spinal ganglia.


The eradication of poverty has been a central aim of international development for several decades, and the importance of reducing inequality is also increasingly accepted. This paper presents the protocols for two systematic reviews on the government policies and interventions that affect in-country income inequality and the translation of economic growth into reductions in income poverty. The paper describes the background to the reviews and the links between them, their aims and scope, the inclusion criteria, search strategy and synthesis options.


Background: To analyze the expression of Metadherin (MTDH), Carcinoembryonic Antigen related Cell adhesion Molecule 1 (CEACAM1) and Hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) in HBV-associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) tissues and clinical significance.
Methods: Total of 65 specimens of HBV-associated HCC tissues (the observation group) and 65 specimens of para-carcinoma tissues (the control group), which derived from 65 HBV-associated HCC patients in the pathologic department of our hospital from Jan 2015 to Dec 2016. The differences of expression levels of MTDH, CEACAM1 and HBx in tissues and its associations with the clinical pathological characteristics of HBV-associated HCC were analysed.
Results: The positive expression rates of MTDH and HBx in HBV-associated HCC tissues were significantly higher than those in the para-carcinoma tissues (60.00% vs. 32.31%, P<0.05; 43.08% vs. 64.62%, P<0.05). The positive expression rates of CEACAM1 in the HBV-associated HCC tissues was significantly lower than those in the para-carcinoma tissues (43.08% vs. 64.62%, P<0.05). The expressions of MTDH, CEACAM1 and HBx in the HBV-associated HCC tissues were significantly correlated with the TNM stage, portal vein invasion, lymph node metastasis and tissue differentiation (P<0.05). CEACAM1 and HBx were closely associated with the tumor diameter and size (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The high expression of MTDH and HBx, the low expression of CEACAM1 was closely associated with TNM stage, portal vein invasion, lymph node metastasis and tissue differentiation degree in HBV-associated HCC tissues, MTDH and HBx might promote the development and occurrence of HBV-associated HCC by inhibiting the expression of CEACAM1.


This paper provides a framework to compare linked and unlinked CCP configurations in terms of total netting achieved by market participants and the total system default exposures that exist between participants and CCPs. A total system perspective, taking both market participant and CCP exposures into account, is required to answer an important policy question faced by some smaller jurisdictions: whether or not to consider linking a domestic CCP with one or more offshore CCPs. Generally, a single global CCP results in the lowest total system exposure as it allows for multilateral netting across all participants while avoiding the creation of inter-CCP exposures via links. However, global clearing may not be appropriate for all markets. Using a two country model, with a global CCP serving both markets and a local CCP clearing only domestic country participants' transactions, we show that establishing links between two CCPs leads to higher exposures for the domestic CCP and can result in a decrease in overall netting efficiency and higher total system exposures when the number of participants at the local CCP is small relative to the number of participants at the global CCP. As the relative weight applied by decision makers to CCP exposures as compared to market participants' exposures increases, so does the number of domestic participants required to make the linked case preferred from a total system perspective. Our results imply that the establishment of a link between a small domestic CCP and a larger global CCP is unlikely to be desirable from a total system perspective in the majority of cases.


A novel temperature insensitive all-fiber compact polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PMPCF) based interferometer was presented. The coupling between the PMPCF and single mode fiber (SMF) was investigated experimentally and analytically. With an all-fiber compact SMF-PMPCF-SMF structure, the cladding modes propagating in the PMPCF can be effectively excited by finely core-offsetting one splice between the PMPCF and SMF. With the increase of the core-offset, the interference depth of the interference pattern enlarges accordingly. Under a suitable core-offset, the PMPCF based interferometer with high interference depth can be obtained. Moreover, it is temperature insensitive due to its ultra-low thermal characteristics. We also demonstrated its applications in strain and refractive index measurement. The sensors have the advantages of small size, simple and compact all fiber structure, high sensitivity, and temperature insensitiveness.


Mobile browsers suffer from unnecessary cache misses. The same binary object is often named by multiple URLs which correspond to different cache keys. Furthermore, servers frequently mark objects as uncacheable, even though the objects' content is stable over time. In this paper, we quantify the excess network traffic that mobile devices generate due to inefficient caching logic. We demonstrate that mobile page loads suffer from more redundant transfers than reported by prior studies which focused on desktop page loads. We then propose a new scheme, called Remote-Control Caching (RC2), in which web proxies (owned by mobile carriers or device manufacturers) track the aliasing relationships between the objects that a client has fetched, and the URLs that were used to fetch those objects. Leveraging knowledge of those aliases, a proxy dynamically rewrites the URLs inside of pages, allowing the client's local browser cache to satisfy a larger fraction of requests. Using a concrete implementation of RC2, we show that, for two loads of a page separated by 8 hours, RC2 reduces bandwidth consumption by a median of 52%. As a result, mobile browsers can save a median of 469 KB per warm-cache page load.


I develop a model of a randomized experiment with a binary intervention and a binary outcome. Potential outcomes in the intervention and control groups give rise to four types of participants. Fixing ideas such that the outcome is mortality, some participants would live regardless, others would be saved, others would be killed, and others would die regardless. These potential outcome types are not observable. However, I use the model to develop estimators of the number of participants of each type. The model relies on the randomization within the experiment and on deductive reasoning. I apply the model to an important clinical trial, the PROWESS trial, and I perform a Monte Carlo simulation calibrated to estimates from the trial. The reduced form from the trial shows a reduction in mortality, which provided a rationale for FDA approval. However, I find that the intervention killed two participants for every three it saved.


For the various sizes of random tasks, the possible cost is constrained in the process of cloud resources scheduling. The electricity price of the worldwide dynamic time zones is proposed based on the different electricity price of the world time zone characteristics, the network bandwidth and load levels. The optimization model of energy consumption of such system with execution cost as constraint condition is proposed, which optimizes the energy consumption of cloud system through the load level, electricity price and other factors in the resource scheduling process. In this model, the task hierarchical strategy is designed to realize the hierarchical task energy consumption. Thus, the scheduling algorithm of energy optimization with cost constraint is proposed. The results of experiments show that the algorithm can both optimize the energy consumption and reduce the service cost.


In this article, we investigate two different algorithms for the integration of GPS with redundant MEMS-IMUs. Firstly, the inertial measurements are combined in the observation space to generate a synthetic set of data which is then integrated with GPS by the standard algorithms. In the second approach, the method of strapdown navigation needs to be adapted in order to account for the redundant measurements. Both methods are evaluated in experiments where redundant MEMS-IMUs are fixed in different geometries: orthogonally-redundant and skew-redundant IMUs. For the latter configuration, the performance improvement using a synthetic IMU is shown to be 30% on the average. The extended mechanization approach provides slightly better results (about 45% improvement) as the systematic errors of the individual sensors are considered separately rather than their fusion when forming compound measurements. The maximum errors are shown to be reduced even by a factor of 2.


International research has established that stalking is a prevalent problem with serious and often life-threatening consequences for victims. Stalking is also a unique form of violence due to its nature and diversity, making it difficult for criminal justice and health professionals to establish which perpetrators and victims have the greatest need for services and protection. Risk assessment is one way to address these problems but few tools exist. This article describes the development of the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management (SAM), the first risk assessment instrument designed specifically for the stalking situation. Preliminary data are presented, indicating that the SAM has promise for use by professionals working with stalkers and their victims. Results indicated that interrater reliabilities for the SAM risk factors and total scores range from fair to good, and the structural reliability of the SAM is sound. Moreover, the SAM showed good concurrent validity when compared with two other measures of violence propensity: the Psychopathy Checklist Screening Version (PCL:SV) and the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG). Limitations of the study are discussed, especially those related to the difficulties inherent in file-based research, and suggestions for future research are offered.


We present data which, to the best of our knowledge, includes all known nontrivial values and bounds for specific graph, hypergraph and multicolor Ramsey numbers, where the avoided graphs are complete or complete without one edge. Many results pertaining to other more studied cases are also presented. We give references to all cited bounds and values, as well as to previous similar compilations. We do not attempt complete coverage of asymptotic behavior of Ramsey numbers, but concentrate on their specific values.


To enhance missing nonverbal cues in computer-mediated communication using text, those who can see often use emojis or emoticons. Although emojis for the sighted have transformed throughout the years to animated forms and added sound effects, emojis for visually impaired people remain underdeveloped. This study tested how tactile emojis based on visual imagery combined with the Braille system can enhance clarity in the computer-mediated communication environment for those with visual impairments. Results of this study confirmed three things: Visually impaired subjects were able to connect emotional emojis to the emotion they represented without any prior guidance, image-based (picture-based) and non-image-based (abstraction-based) tactile emoji were equally learnable, and the clarity of intended meaning was improved when an emoji was used with text (Braille). Thirty visually impaired subjects were able to match an average of 67% of emotions without prior guidance, and three of the four subjects who matched perfectly both before and after guidance were congenitally blind. The subjects had the most trouble discriminating the facial feature of "fear" between "sadness" or "surprised" for they shared similar traits. After guidance, the image-based tactile design elicited an average of 81% correct answers, whereas the non-image-based tactile design elicited an average of 37%, showing that the image-based tactile design was more effective for learning the meaning of emojis. The clarity of the sentence was also improved. This study shows that image-based tactile emojis can improve the texting experience of visually impaired individuals to a level where they can communicate subtle emotional cues through tactile imagery. This advance could minimize the service gap between sighted and visually impaired people and offer a much more abundant computer-mediated communication environment for visually impaired individuals.


A research project was commissioned by the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) to improve the understanding of tailgate strata mechanics and to provide a more rigorous engineering basis for tailgate support design. A deformation mechanism termed 'skew roof' was defined which relates the regional influence of differential horizontal strata movement (shear) about longwall extraction to gateroads. Confirmation of the mechanism was achieved by field investigations which included measurement of the shear displacement along weak interfaces. Under geological and mining conditions where the skew roof mechanism operated, strata units were found to move progressively further towards the goaf with height into the roof. 3D numerical modelling was used to assess the major geotechnical factors controlling the mechanism and to determine appropriate support strategies within a 'skew roof' environment including the role of cables versus standing supports. The skew mechanism is considered relevant to; all roadways in the vicinity of longwall extraction including the faceline itself, chain pillar design, and support design.


Objective: We compare the repeatability and accuracy of ultrasound shear wave elastography (USE) and transient optical coherence elastography (OCE). Methods: Elastic wave speed in gelatin phantoms and chicken breast was measured with USE and OCE and compared with uniaxial mechanical compression testing. Intra- and Inter-repeatability were analyzed using Bland-Altman plots and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results: OCE and USE differed from uniaxial testing by a mean absolute percent error of 8.92% and 16.9%, respectively, across eight phantoms of varying stiffness. Upper and lower limits of agreement for intrasample repeatability for USE and OCE were ±0.075 m/s and −0.14 m/s and 0.13 m/s, respectively. OCE and USE both had ICCs of 0.9991. In chicken breast, ICC for USE was 0.9385 and for OCE was 0.9924. Conclusion: OCE and USE can detect small speed changes and give comparable measurements. These measurements correspond well with uniaxial testing.


Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) signal a greater focus on inter-sectoral, collaborative approaches to ensuring that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality. This is reflected in the current global concern with promotion of holistic, community-based programmes to support early childhood development and wellbeing – widely referred to as 'early childhood development' (ECD). Within this context, the study reported here sought to achieve consensus among 14 global experts on training needs for three groups of personnel ('cadres') involved in delivery of early childhood development (ECD) programmes. The three cadre groups, identified via a
comprehensive review of literature on current issues in the provision of ECD, comprise delivery of education, health and community-based early childhood interventions across a diverse range of low resource settings.
The study responds to a gap in knowledge on training needs for ECD cadres, associated with a serious dearth of human resources to support provision of ECD services. Key challenges reported here, based on comprehensive review of available literature, include:
1. A long-running, severe global shortage in availability of cadres to support delivery of ECD programmes.
2. To date, delivery of key health and education interventions principally in siloes, with limited
integration and practitioners/professionals/para-professionals widely employed in vertical programmes.
3. Low professional and social status of many ECD cadres, due to a lack of systematic recognition and support. This has resulted in large numbers of cadres with undefined career paths, and high rates of turnover / attrition2.
In response, expert consensus points to the following potential strategies for enhancing provision of
ECD cadres training and professional development:
1. Development of coherent systems to support ECD training and professional development.
a. Findings indicate consensus around commonalities among and distinctions between essential skills and knowledge required for education professionals, health
professionals and non-certified para-professional groups. These insights could provide a basis for establishing coherent, joined-up professional pathways and support systems for development of ECD cadres.
b. Consensus around the respective roles of these three cadres is reflected in the distinct training needs outlined for each group. There is consensus that, while noncertified
para-professionals require programme-specific training to facilitate delivery of particular tasks, certified education and health professionals require training in
more advanced skills such as problem-solving and flexibility. Exposure to a range of different programmes and approaches is required for certified professionals, to
facilitate informed decision making around programme development and adapting / responding to local contextual needs. These distinctions could provide a basis for establishing clarity in respective roles for ECD cadres with regard to programme delivery.
c. Consensus around training needs across cadre groups is indicated, in particular the need for on-going mentoring and supervision. While there is acknowledgment
among experts about complexities associated with provision of on-going support, consensus around this component of training was strongest among all aspects surveyed. This reflects widespread concern among participating experts, as well as within the literature, that short-term training for ECD cadres must be followed up with opportunities for continuing professional development and systematic support,
to facilitate sustained effective practice.
2. Within systems for ECD cadres training, a strong focus on the importance of contextually grounded programmes, materials / resources and strategies for implementation.
a. There is strong consensus that ECD cadres training should be contextually-grounded to ensure responsive, effective provision. Training should be based on and promote
careful consideration of a range of factors that shape provision of ECD, including but not restricted to, policy, budgets, available resources, local values, beliefs and
practices.
3. Adoption of the concept of nurturing care as an underpinning principle for provision of ECD
cadres training.
a. Delphi findings indicate consensus around essential dispositions, or attitudes, required to support caring, respectful, responsive and trustful interactions with
children, caregivers and communities. They also indicate that all cadres require knowledge and skills in promoting early stimulation; child-centred learning and development; effective communication and collaboration; problem solving, and reflective practice. These strategies are outlined in the proposed framework provided below, which identifies unique roles / training needs for different cadre groups, as well as opportunities for enhancing integration
across ECD cadres training systems.
3 Experts suggest that these 'dispositions', which are essential for effective provision, should be viewed as
malleable. Training should work / be designed to promote, model and strengthen these characteristics.


This article argues for the need to understand gendered dimensions of space in a contextualized way. It investigates residential space in three different types of housing settings of the poor, namely, a peripheral squatter neighborhood coded by rurality, a central slum neighborhood coded by criminality, and the housing estates in squatter/slum renewal projects coded by middle–class urbanity. Based on two field studies conducted in Ankara, Turkey's capital, it challenges the feminine–private versus masculine–public dichotomy: With women's presence inside the neighborhood, the squatter area was a "feminine space," whereas, with the violent control of neighborhood spaces by local men, the slum area was a "masculine space." Through its association with urban modernity, the public/private divide was enforced in the housing estates. While in the first housing estate, women's informal practices in its public spaces "feminized" and "ruralized" the estate, in the second housing estate, it made women feel safe inside apartments.