To further characterize mechanisms of glucose counterregulation in man, the effects of pharmacologically inducd deficiencies of glucagon, growth hormone, and catecholamines (alone and in combination) on recovery of plasma glucose from insulin-induced hypoglycemia and attendant changes in isotopically ([3-(3)H]glucose) determined glucose fluxes were studied in 13 normal subjects. In control studies, recovery of plasma glucose from hypoglycemia was primarily due to a compensatory increase in glucose production; the temporal relationship of glucagon, epinephrine, cortisol, and growth hormone responses with the compensatory increase in glucose appearance was compatible with potential participation of all these hormones in acute glucose counterregulation. Infusion of somatostatin (combined deficiency of glucagon and growth hormone) accentuated insulin-induced hypoglycemia (plasma glucose nadir: 36+/-2 ng/dl during infusion of somatostatin vs. 47+/-2 mg/dl in control studies, P < 0.01) and impaired restoration of normoglycemia (plasma glucose at min 90: 73+/-3 mg/dl at end of somatostatin infusion vs. 92+/-3 mg/dl in control studies, P<0.01). This impaired recovery of plasma glucose was due to blunting of the compensatory increase in glucose appearance since glucose disappearance was not augmented, and was attributable to suppression of glucagon secretion rather than growth hormone secretion since these effects of somatostatin were not observed during simultaneous infusion of somatostatin and glucagon whereas infusion of growth hormone along with somatostatin did not prevent the effect of somatostatin. The attenuated recovery of plasma glucose from hypoglycemia observed during somatostatin-induced glucagon deficiency was associated with plasma epinephrine levels twice those observed in control studies. Infusion of phentolamine plus propranolol (combined alpha-and beta-adrenergic blockade) had no effect on plasma glucose or glucose fluxes after insulin administration. However, infusion of somatostatin along with both phentolamine and propranolol further impaired recovery of plasma glucose from hypoglycemia compared to that observed with somatostatin alone (plasma glucose at end of infusions: 52+/-6 mg/dl for somatostatin-phentolamine-propranolol vs. 72+/-5 mg/dl for somatostatin alone, P < 0.01); this was due to further suppression of the compensatory increase in glucose appearance (maximal values: 1.93+/-0.41 mg/kg per min for somatostatin-phentolamine-propranolol vs. 2.86+/-0.32 mg/kg per min for somatostatin alone, P < 0.05). These results indicate that in man (a) restoration of normoglycemia after insulin-induced hypoglycemia is primarily due to a compensatory increase in glucose production; (b) intact glucagon secretion, but not growth hormone secretion, is necessary for normal glucose counterregulation, and (c) adrenergic mechanisms do not normally play an essential role in this process but become critical to recovery from hypoglycemia when glucagon secretion is impaired.


The effects of several family and embryonic factors on the abortion pattern in a rural Mediterranean population (La Alta Alpujarra Oriental, Southeast Spain) were analyzed from interview data on 3163 pregnancies from the first half of the twentieth century. No significant differences in spontaneous abortion rates were detected between endogamous and exogamous couples. The abortion pattern of this population is characterized mainly by family and embryonic factors. High rates of early abortions were significantly associated with maternal age and pregnancy order, and parental consanguinity was linked with a notable decrease of abortion frequency during the earlier stages of pregnancy. A tendency toward a higher risk for abortion was also confirmed for twinship of the fetus. The interactions identified between abortion risk and maternal age, pregnancy order, and inbreeding emphasize the important contribution of sociodemographic factors to prereproductive mortality in human populations.


For many systems that produce physically based animations, plausibility rather than accuracy is acceptable. We consider the problem of evaluating the visual quality of animations in which physical parameters have been distorted or degraded, either unavoidably due to real-time frame-rate requirements, or intentionally for aesthetic reasons. To date, no generic means of evaluating or predicting the fidelity, either physical or visual, of the dynamic events occurring in an animation exists. As a first step towards providing such a metric, we present a set of psychophysical experiments that established some thresholds for human sensitivity to dynamic anomalies, including angular, momentum and spatio-temporal distortions applied to simple animations depicting the elastic collision of two rigid objects. In addition to finding significant acceptance thresholds for these distortions under varying conditions, we identified some interesting biases that indicate non-symmetric responses to these distortions (e.g., expansion of the angle between post-collision trajectories was preferred to contraction and increases in velocity were preferred to decreases). Based on these results, we derived a set of probability functions that can be used to evaluate the visual fidelity of a physically based simulation. To illustrate how our results could be used, two simple case studies of simulation levels of detail and constrained dynamics are presented.


Recent development of two technologies allows application of a generalized formulation of travel time inversion to very large data sets, such as the surface reflection surveys collected for oil exploration. This generalized formulation uses very small cell sizes, effectively eliminating discretization effects. Inversion of an effective continuum that has no built-in a priori constraints is what places this technique in the category of tomography. In reflection surveys, the generalized formulation investigated here treats the continuous velocity field independently from the reflector locations. The a priori assumption, common with travel time inversions in seismic exploration data, is thus not made: that the velocity field is defined as a series of layers with constant or smoothly varying velocity. This assumption restricts significant velocity variations to occur only at reflector locations. Velocity parameterized as layers is merely one of many geologic constraints that can be added optionally in tomographic inversion. The technologies that enable this generalized approach to travel time inversion are: 1) a computer program capable of tracing rays through a 2-dimensional grid of points and off reflectors with structure, and 2) iterative schemes that efficiently perform damped, constrained generalized matrix inversions over a user-specified wide eigenvalue range for very large model and data sizes. An argument is presented that a variation of Richardson's iteration is preferred to the Conjugate Gradient Iterative Method for performing the matrix inversion. With this generalized formulation, Ray Trace Tomography is a first approach to tomographic transmission analysis. Travel times and ray paths are a valid approximation to the wave equation for broad velocity variations. The method efficiently addresses the characteristics of more general but much more expensive transmission techniques. For example, Ray Trace Tomography demonstrates that an iterative application of a transmission velocity analysis technique, tomography, and a scattering reflector location technique, migration, do not necessarily converge to the optimal solution. To resolve the ambiguity between velocity-reflector depth, velocity and reflector locations must be coupled in one inversion technique. Ray Trace Tomography is able to couple the two. Using it to indicate the absolute resolution between velocity and reflector depth, we find that for certain geometries, reflector depths cannot be resolved where most recorded energy travels within 45° of vertical. Poor resolution of the velocity-reflector depth ambiguity and other problems are inherent to reflection surveys. These problems also exist for other transmission techniques and can be solved only through use of inversion constraints. Ray Trace Tomography can test constraints for possible use in other transmission techniques efficiently. Ray Trace Tomography has difficulty with non-linearities caused by some types of starting model errors, such as small-scale reflector structure. Improved performance with non-linearities is an objective we should seek in other transmission techniques. Not only is Ray Trace Tomography a useful intellectual exercise as a preliminary analysis of transmission inversion, but in many cases it is a viable technique for addressing serious problems with surface seismic reflection data. It can determine an accurate two-dimensional velocity field for migration, such as in the case of gas pockets or fault blocks. In addition, it can resolve between certain velocity and reflector ambiguities such as those occuring in the permafrost region of Alaska. As a comparatively efficient technique, Ray Trace Tomography can serve as a tool for interactive interpretation. The geologist can use the ray tracing to compare various geologic models with the data and then use the inversion to fine-tune the models. The inversion enables the geologist to formulate his geologic knowledge as constraints in the inversion. By analyzing the inversion results, the interpreter will develop an understanding of the validity of the various models and the resolution amoung them.


Abstract Dietary fish oil (FO) modulates muscle O2 consumption and contractile function, predictive of effects on muscle fatigue. High doses unattainable through human diet and muscle stimulation parameters used engender uncertainty in their physiological relevance. We tested the hypothesis that nutritionally relevant FO doses can modulate membrane fatty acid composition and muscle fatigue. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomised to control (10 % olive oil (OO) by weight) or low or moderate FO diet (LowFO and ModFO) (HiDHA tuna fish oil) for 15 weeks (LowFO: 0·3 % FO, 9·7 % OO, 0·25 % energy as EPA+DHA; ModFO: 1·25 % FO, 8·75 % OO, 1·0 % energy as EPA+DHA). Hindlimb muscle function was assessed under anaesthesia in vivo using repetitive 5 s burst sciatic nerve stimulation (0·05 ms, 7–12 V, 5 Hz, 10 s duty cycle, 300 s). There were no dietary differences in maximum developed muscle force. Repetitive peak developed force fell to 50 % within 62 (sem 10) s in controls and took longer to decline in FO-fed rats (LowFO 110 (sem 15) s; ModFO 117 (sem 14) s) (P<0·05). Force within bursts was better sustained with FO and maximum rates of force development and relaxation declined more slowly. The FO-fed rats incorporated higher muscle phospholipid DHA-relative percentages than controls (P<0·001). Incorporation of DHA was greater in the fast-twitch gastrocnemius (Control 9·3 (sem 0·8) %, LowFO 19·9 (sem 0·4), ModFO 24·3 (sem 1·0)) than in the slow-twitch soleus muscle (Control 5·1 (sem 0·2), LowFO 14·3 (sem 0·7), ModFO 18·0 (sem 1·4)) (P<0·001), which was comparable with the myocardium, in line with muscle fibre characteristics. The LowFO and ModFO diets, emulating human dietary and therapeutic supplement intake, respectively, both elicited muscle membrane DHA enrichment and fatigue resistance, providing a foundation for translating these physiological effects to humans.


Common risk metrics reported in academia include volatility, skewness, and factor exposures. The maximum drawdown statistic is rarely calculated, perhaps because it is path dependent and estimated with greater uncertainty. In practice, however, asset managers and fiduciaries routinely use the drawdown statistic for fund allocation and redemption decisions. To help such decisions, the authors begin by quantifying the probability of hitting a certain drawdown level, given various return distribution properties. Next, they show that drawdown-based rules can be particularly useful for improving investment performance over time by detecting managers that lose their ability to outperform. This can happen as a result of structural market changes, increased competition for the type of strategy employed, staff turnover, or a fund accumulating too many assets. Finally, they show that drawdown-based rules can be used as a risk reduction technique, but this affects both expected returns and risk. TOPICS: Portfolio theory, portfolio construction, manager selection, wealth management Key Findings • Drawdowns are particularly useful for detecting managers who have lost their ability to outperform. It is important to look at both drawdowns and overall performance measures such as Sharpe ratios. • Drawdown limits need to be dynamically adjusted to control for the length of time the assets have been managed. There is a greater chance for bad luck when the duration is longer. • When interpreting realized drawdowns, it is crucial to take the relative costs of Type I errors (firing good managers) and Type II errors (keeping bad managers) into account. Type I errors are particularly expensive if it is costly to find a new manager.


This study analyses the current role of police-suspect interview discourse in the England & Wales criminal justice system, with a focus on its use as evidence. A central premise is that the interview should be viewed not as an isolated and self-contained discursive event, but as one link in a chain of events which together constitute the criminal justice process. It examines: (1) the format changes undergone by interview data after the interview has taken place, and (2) how the other links in the chain – both before and after the interview – affect the interview-room interaction itself. It thus examines the police interview as a multi-format, multi-purpose and multi-audience mode of discourse. An interdisciplinary and multi-method discourse-analytic approach is taken, combining elements of conversation analysis, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis. Data from a new corpus of recent police-suspect interviews, collected for this study, are used to illustrate previously unaddressed problems with the current process, mainly in the form of two detailed case studies. Additional data are taken from the case of Dr. Harold Shipman. The analysis reveals several causes for concern, both in aspects of the interaction in the interview room, and in the subsequent treatment of interview material as evidence, especially in the light of s.34 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The implications of the findings for criminal justice are considered, along with some practical recommendations for improvements. Overall, this study demonstrates the need for increased awareness within the criminal justice system of the many linguistic factors affecting interview evidence.


Orientation: Socio-demographics play a role in sense of coherence (SOC), indicating the strength of resistance resources available to employees from different socio-demographic groupings. Research purpose: To explore whether and how socio-demographic variables and their interactive effect determine a distinctively high or low SOC. Motivation for the study: Various studies include an exploration of the role of socio-demographic attributes on SOC, yet do not investigate the interactive effect of these socio-demographics on high or low SOC. Research design, approach and method: Quantitative, cross-sectional survey design. The chi-square interaction detection method (CHAID) was applied to a large-scale employee sample ( n = 7185). Confirmatory analysis was done by exploring predictor effects on two possible permutations of high or low SOC classifications. Main findings: Results indicated a statistically significant four-factor interactive effect of demographic variables on SOC. Level of income most strongly partitioned high to low SOC ratio groups. Marital status and number of dependants, with level of income, further distinguished statistically distinct high to low SOC ratio groups. Race indicated distinct high to low SOC ratio groups in the higher income group. No statistically significant effects were found for age and gender. Practical/managerial implications: Companies should provide lower income employees with financial counselling and special support for single or divorced employees and employees who are married but the sole household earner. In the middle to high income category employee assistance should cater for employees with dependants and especially for the sole household earners. Contribution/value-add: Establishing whether and how demographic variables predict high to low SOC ratios broadens the theoretical knowledge base of SOC. The study contributes methodologically in its application of CHAID analysis.


A fabrication process for realising two-dimensional cantilever arrays for parallel force spectroscopy of biological samples is presented. The parallel optical atomic force microscopy readout system has been developed and presented elsewhere. The arrays are designed either for (i) force-indentation onto living cells to obtain stiffness mapping or (ii) cell adhesion experiments. Both experiments require very different spring constants and tip radii of curvature. The arrays are based on silicon nitride cantilevers with molded tips. The fabrication process includes an advanced molding process and a thermocompression bonding of two silicon wafers. V-groove structures along the cantilevers, which increase the area moment of inertia, were introduced in the cantilever design. This feature enables the fabrication of cantilevers with different spring constants but same footprint from one wafer. An analytical model and experimental results confirmed that the spring constant of the cantilever (200 x 50 x 0.45 mu m) could be increased up to two decades (0.03-5 N/m) by changing the depth of the V-grooves. To realise the large tip radius required for cell adhesion experiments, an enlarging/rounding procedure has been applied to a truncated pyramidal tip mold. With this process, the authors obtained tips with a radius up to 4 mu m.


This article explores the phenomenon of empathy and examines its manifestation in the context of encounters between victims/survivors of gross human rights violations and perpetrators who are perceived by victims/survivors as showing signs of remorse. The article considers the factors that mediate the development of empathy through, on the one hand, the examination of the external dynamics of victim-perpetrator encounters, and on the other, the analysis of the intrapsychic dynamics of these encounters. The article argues that the defining elements of empathic experience emerge within the relational, intersubjective realm of the victim-perpetrator encounter. The article engages an interdisciplinary dialogue between Emmanuel Levinas' ethics of responsibility for `the Other' and a psychoanalytic conceptualization of the capacity for empathy. It asserts that the emotional state of empathy shared by victims and perpetrators is a result of a pivotal turn to perspective taking and gaining an integrated view of the other. The article concludes that `empathic repair' is a useful concept for understanding the process of forgiveness in the context of gross human rights violations.


Protoplanetary discs, composed of gas and dust, usually surround young stellar objects and serve two main purposes: they determine the accretion of matter onto the central object and also represent sites of planet formation. The accretion proceeds through the transport of angular momentum outwards allowing the disc matter to fall towards the centre. A mechanism responsible for the transport can be turbulence, waves or other coherent structures originating from various instabilities in discs that could, in addition, play a role in the planet formation process. For an understanding of these instabilities, it is necessary to study perturbation dynamics in differentially rotating, or sheared media. Thus, this thesis focuses on new aspects in the perturbation dynamics in non-magnetised protoplanetary discs that arise due to their self-gravity and velocity shear associated with the disc's differential rotation. The analysis is carried out in the framework of the widely employed local shearing box approximation. We start with 2D discs and then move on to 3D ones. In 2D discs, there are two basic perturbation types/modes – spiral density waves and vortices – that are responsible for angular momentum transport and that can also contribute to accelerating planet formation. First, in the linear regime, we demonstrate that the vortical mode undergoes large growth due to self-gravity and in this process generates density waves via shear-induced linear mode coupling phenomenon. This is noteworthy, because commonly only density waves are considered in self-gravitating discs. Then we investigate vortex dynamics in the non-linear regime under the influence of self-gravity by means of numerical simulations. It is shown that vortices are no longer well-organised and long-lived structures, unlike those occurring in non-self-gravitating discs. They undergo recurring phases (lasting for a few disc rotation periods) of formation, growth and eventual destruction. We also discuss the dust trapping capability of such transient vortices. Perturbation dynamics in 3D vertically stratified discs is richer, as there are more mode types. We first consider non-axisymmetric modes in non-self-gravitating discs and then only axisymmetric modes in the more complicated case when self-gravity is present. Specifically, in non-self-gravitating discs with superadiabatic vertical stratification, motivated by the recent results on the transport properties of incompressible convection, we show that when compressibility is taken into account, the non-axisymmetric convective mode excites density waves via the same shear-induced linear mode coupling mechanism mentioned above. These generated density waves transport angular momentum outwards in the trailing phase, and we suggest that they may aid and enhance the transport due solely to convection in the non-linear regime, where the latter becomes outward. In the final part of the thesis, we carry out a linear analysis of axisymmetric vertical normal modes in stratified self-gravitating discs. Although axisymmetric modes do not display shear-induced couplings, their analysis provides insight into how gravitational instabilities develop in the 3D case and their onset criterion. We examine how the structure of dispersion curves and eigenfunctions of 3D modes are influenced by self-gravity, which mode first becomes gravitationally unstable and thus determines the onset criterion and nature of the gravitational instability in stratified discs. We also contrast the more exact instability criterion obtained with our 3D model with that of density waves in 2D discs. Based on these findings, we discuss the origin of 3D behaviour of perturbations involving noticeable disc surface distortions, as seen in some numerical simulations of self-gravitating discs.


We present an algorithm for extracting object descriptions from free-hand sketches of remembered scenes, drawn as video retrieval queries. Our sketches depict scene content, as well as indicators of motion. We report an exploratory study investigating how people sketch to depict recalled events. We incorporate several observations from this study into the design of a novel sketch parsing algorithm. We draw upon a temporal HMM classifier to recognise common pictograms, and graph-cut to identify more general objects.


Background: Cervical screening consumes substantial resources, but little is known about utilization in the United States or compliance with guideline recommendations. Methods: To describe population screening coverage, utilization, and outcomes and examine time trends from 2008 to 2011, cervical cytology reports from women residing in New Mexico (981,063 tests from 511,381 women) were evaluated. Results: From 2008 to 2011 cervical screening utilization decreased at all ages, but especially in younger women, with a two-third reduction at ages 15 to 20 years. Ninety-four percent of women ages 25 to 29 years were screened within 48 months but coverage decreased at older ages to 69% at 45 to 49 years and 55% at 60 to 64 years. Intervals between screening tests were significantly longer in 2011 compared with 2008 [HR = 1.23; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.22–1.24], although the commonest rescreening interval was 13 months. In 2011, 91.9% of screening tests for women ages 21 to 65 years were negative, 6.6% showed minor abnormalities, and 1.0% high-grade abnormalities. High-grade abnormality rates were relatively constant over time, but minor abnormalities and atypical cells cannot rule out high-grade (ASC-H) were increasing. Conclusions: This population-based evaluation of cervical screening shows high coverage under the age of 40 years, but lower levels in older women. Screening under age 21 years is becoming less common and screening intervals are lengthening, reflecting updates in national screening guidelines. Impact: Assessment of cervical screening intervals and population outcomes is essential for accurately estimating the impact and effectiveness of changing recommendations and vaccination against human papilloma virus infections. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(5); 765–73. ©2013 AACR.


Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) is one of three crops, along with rice and wheat, responsible for more than 1/2 of all calories consumed around the world. Increasing the yield and stress tolerance of these crops is essential to meet the growing need for food. The cost and speed of plant phenotyping is currently the largest constraint on plant breeding efforts. Datasets linking new types of high throughput phenotyping data collected from plants to the performance of the same genotypes under agronomic conditions across a wide range of environments are essential for developing new statistical approaches and computer vision based tools. A set of maize inbreds – primarily recently off patent lines – were phenotyped using a high throughput platform at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These lines have been previously subjected to high density genotyping, and scored for a core set of 13 phenotypes in field trials across 13 North American states in two years by the Genomes to Fields consortium. A total of 485 GB of image data including RGB, hyperspectral, fluorescence and thermal infrared photos has been released. Correlations between image-based measurements and manual measurements demonstrated the feasibility of quantifying variation in plant architecture using image data. However, naive approaches to measuring traits such as biomass can introduce nonrandom measurement errors confounded with genotype variation. Analysis of hyperspectral image data demonstrated unique signatures from stem tissue. Integrating heritable phenotypes from high-throughput phenotyping data with field data from different environments can reveal previously unknown factors influencing yield plasticity.


This study examines what stimulates and sustains commitment of nurses to their profession in the Volta Region of Ghana and whether commitment is shaped by similar variables. A quantitative approach was adopted using a validated questionnaire developed by Blau (1989) and modified by Reilly & Orsak (1991) to fit the nursing profession. A Kruska Wallis test was used to analyse the data with SPSS as an interface. The findings revealed a high commitment rate to the nursing profession in Ghana due to love of the profession and monetary considerations. However, a significant number of nurses are not committed to the profession at all which poses managerial and theoretical implications.


An on-demand route discovery method in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) uses simple flooding method, whereas a mobile node blindly rebroadcasts received route request (RREQ) packets until a route to a particular destination is established. Thus, this leads to broadcast storm problem. This paper presents a novel algorithm for broadcasting scheme in wireless ad hoc networks using a fuzzy logic system at each node to determine its capability to broadcast route request packets, based on the node location. Our simulation analysis shows a significant improvement in performance in terms of routing overhead, MAC collisions and end-to-end delay while still achieving a good throughput compared to the traditional AODV.


A human-computer interaction (HCI) agent was designed and built to support users in their ability to recover from negative emotional states, particularly frustration. The agent uses social-affective feedback strategies delivered to the user with text-only interaction. The agent's effectiveness was evaluated against two control conditions: (1) user's emotions were ignored, and (2) users were able to report problems and "vent" their feelings and thoughts to the computer. Behavioral results showed that the agent was significantly more effective than the control conditions in helping relieve frustration levels.


Abstract The last twenty years has seen an apparent consensus that the immediate origins of Polynesian language, culture and biology lie solely with the Lapita peoples and cultures that settled Samoa and Tonga by 2700 years ago. We suggest that there is increasing evidence that does not sit well with this generally accepted view of Polynesian origins and thus we put forward an alternative model for consideration. Building on Green's suggestion of over 20 years ago, we propose that some of the ideas in his Triple-I model (Green 1991a) might also be usefully applied to conceptualizing the processes involved in Polynesian origins. Specifically, we suggest that in addition to Lapita origins, there were significant later elements introduced to Polynesia that were fundamental to the development of Polynesian culture and biology prior to the settlement of East Polynesia. Current data suggest that some of these elements are shared with Micronesia and may be ultimately derived from post-Lapita population movements, perhaps from Island Southeast Asia through the low islands of the Carolines, Kiribati and Tuvalu to West Polynesia. Keywords: Lapita, biology, archaeology, migrations, commensal, Polynesians ********** Any discussion of Polynesian origins is complicated--even the very framing of the question is fraught with problems. Polynesia is roughly defined geographically as the islands encompassed within the triangle formed by Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island, linguistically by the islands where Polynesian languages are spoken (or were spoken at European contact), and culturally and biologically by an ever-changing list of characteristics. Despite these difficulties, Green (1987; 1991b) suggested that Polynesia was the one region in the Pacific that did constitute a valid biological, linguistic and cultural group. The linkage of linguistic, biological and archaeological evidence in understanding the Pacific past has been questioned on theoretical grounds (Donohue and Denham 2010; Smith 2002; Terrell 1989; Terrell, et al. 1997), a fundamental challenge to the "phylogenetic model" (Kirch and Green 1987, 2001). It is not our intention to enter that debate. Our thoughts are predicated on the idea that biology, archaeology, language, and other aspects of culture are not necessarily transported and maintained through time as bundled units. As a corollary to this, we accept the notion that the relationships between these various domains do not change in predictable or uniform ways. An expectation of these ideas is that the human past on each island is likely to be complex (and necessarily difficult to interpret). Within this context we review some aspects of the archaeology and human/commensal biology of the region and suggest the possibility that models incorporating more than one population movement into Polynesia may offer a better fit for some of these data. We postulate post-Lapita population movements out of the western Pacific, possibly originating in Island Southeast Asia, adding complex influences into the development of Polynesian culture and biology. Early ideas on Polynesian origins When European explorers first came to Oceania they quickly noted similarities and differences in the human languages, cultures and phenotypes they observed in the region. In 1832, the French explorer and scientist Dumontd'Urville dealt with this diversity by using the existing terms Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, in an explicitly socio-evolutionary framework in which "races" were seen as forming a unilineal and progressive sequence with northern Europeans as the most "evolved" (see discussions in Clark 2003; Tcherkezoff 2009). This biological and social-evolutionary perspective, while modified regularly, was the framework within which anthropology developed as a science. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, substantial scholarly research was devoted to understanding the origins and relationships of Oceanic populations, particularly the question of "Polynesian origins" (Howard 1967). …


Electronic commerce has grown rapidly in recent years. However, surveys of online customers continue to indicate that many remain unsatisfied with their online purchase experiences. Clearly, more research is needed to better understand what affects customers' evaluations of their online experiences. Through a large dataset gathered from two online websites, this study investigates the importance of product uncertainty and retailer visibility in customers' online purchase decisions, as well as the mitigating effects of retailer characteristics. We find that high product uncertainty and low retailer visibility have a negative impact on customer satisfaction. However, a retailer's service quality, website design, and pricing play important roles in mitigating the negative impact of high product uncertainty and low retailer visibility. Specifically, service quality can mitigate the negative impacts of low retailer visibility and high product uncertainty in online markets. Website design, on the other hand, helps to reduce the impact of product uncertainty when experience goods are involved.


Sulphadoxine pyrimethamine resistance (SPR) emerged soon after SP was introduced as
first line therapy for malaria in Africa during the 1990s. This thesis presents the first
attempt to describe the spatio-temporal distribution of SPR in sub-Saharan Africa.
Molecular and in vivo SPR data were gathered from primarily published sources onto a
handwritten and digital template, recording the precise geo-location of every data point.
The most commonly used methods were the World Health Organisation 1973 and 1996
protocols to measure in vivo efficacy and PCR-RFLP for molecular studies. Consistent
data gaps with both SPR measures were found in Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde,
Eritrea, Somalia, Togo and Mauritius (chapter two). Three broad categories of molecular
resistance emerged, reflecting the distribution patterns of dhfr and dhps point mutation
prevalence: (1) scarce partially resistant mutations namely dhps 436A and 613S which are
not increasing significantly over time, (2) emerging resistance mutations such as dhfr 164L
and dhps 581G which are rare but increasing within distinct geographical foci and (3)
major resistance mutations namely dhps 437G and 540E, which are widespread with
significantly increased prevalence over time and regional differences (chapter three).
Statistical analysis showed that the sensitive dhfr allelic haplotype frequencies decreased
over time in all regions whilst the triple mutant increased. The models developed for dhps
haplotypes showed a clear East-West divide with the double mutant dominating East
Africa and the single mutant occurring mainly in West Africa (chapter four). Standardised
in vivo efficacy data were matched with dhfr and dhps haplotypes using the nearest
geographic location and study year and then modelled. These analyses showed for the
first time, a clear effect of the frequency of dhps allelic haplotypes on SP efficacy (chapter
five). These findings are important in the context of continued use of SP in sub-Saharan
Africa for intermittent preventive treatment and support the use of molecular surveillance to
inform policy on SP use.


Nowadays digital cameras are equipped with a single sensor (CCD/CMOS), to reduce the size and cost of the camera. The color filter array (CFA) is used to cover the sensor and it consist of three primary colors such as red, green and blue and it samples only one color component at each pixel location. The process of estimating the other two missing color components at each pixel location is known as demosaicing. The proposed algorithm uses the directional color difference and multiscale gradient method for green plane interpolation, this type of interpolation method is used to reduce the artifacts and improve the image quality. The red and blue plane are interpolated using the estimated green plane, the bayer pattern is used for the interpolation technique. The performance of the image is


Variable bandwidth kernel density estimators increase the window width at low densities and decrease it where data concentrate. This represents an improvement over the fixed bandwidth kernel density estimators. In this article, we explore the use of one implementation of a variable kernel estimator in conjunction with several rules and procedures for bandwidth selection applied to several real datasets. The considered examples permit us to state that when working with tens or a few hundreds of data observations, least-squares cross-validation bandwidth rarely produces useful estimates; with thousands of observations, this problem can be surpassed. Optimal bandwidth and biased cross-validation (BCV), in general, oversmooth multimodal densities. The Sheather–Jones plug-in rule pro-duced bandwidths that behave slightly better in this respect. The Silverman test is considered as a very sophisticated and safe procedure to estimate the number of modes in univariate distributions; however, similar results could be obtained with the Sheather–Jones rule, but at a much lower computational cost. As expected, the variable bandwidth kernel density estimates showed fewer modes than those chosen by the Silverman test, especially those distributions in which multimodality was caused by several noisy minor modes. More research on the subject is needed.


Twenty years after the BPOA, the third International Conference on the SustainableDevelopment of SIDS will once again bring to fore the vulnerabilities anddevelopment needs of SIDS, with a view to identifying solutions and committingresources for the implementation of these solutions. Preparations for this Conferenceinclude national stakeholder consultations, which will feed into regional meetings followed by an inter?regional preparatory meeting scheduled for late August, andthen into the global decisions. The regional preparatory meeting for the Caribbeansubregion will be held in Jamaica, July 2?3, 2013. In preparation for the Regional Meeting in Jamaica, the government of Grenada incollaboration with the United Nations System hosted a national consultation on June21 2013. The consultation, suitably themed The Future We Want, attractedrepresentation from government, private sector and civil society, and encourageddiscussions aligned with the principles of sustainable development. Mostimportantly it offered an opportunity for the voice of Grenadians to be heard onthese issues.This report presents an analysis of the findings from this consultative process. Therest of the document seeks to address the following four objectives of the UnitedNations General Assembly, specifically: Assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation;Affirm a renewed political commitment


This article identifies and critiques presumptions about gender and violence that continue to frame and inform the processes of policy formation and implementation on domestic violence. It also deconstructs the agendered nature of policy as gendered, multilevel individual and collective action. Drawing on comparative illustrative material from Finland and Scotland, we discuss how national policies and discourses emphasize physical forms of violence, place the onus on the agency of women, and encourage a narrow conceptualization of violence in relationships. The two countries do this in somewhat comparable, though different ways operating within distinct national gender contexts.The complex interweaving of masculinities, violence, and cultures, although recognized in many debates, is seemingly marginalized from dominant discourses, policy, and legal processes. Despite growth in critical studies on men, there is little attempt made to problematize the gendered nature of violence. Rather, policy and service outcomes reflect processes through which individualized and masculine discourses frame ideas, discourses, and policy work. Women experiencing violence are constructed as victims and potential survivors of violence, although the social and gendered hierarchies evident in policies and services result in longer-term inequities and suffering for women and their dependents.


Biochar is one of the most affordable negative emission technologies (NET) at hand for future large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), which is typically found essential to stabilizing global temperature rise at relatively low levels. Biochar has also attracted attention as a soil amendment capable of improving yield and soil quality and of reducing soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this work, we review the literature on biochar production potential and its effects on climate, food security, ecosystems, and toxicity. We identify three key factors that are largely affecting the environmental performance of biochar application to agricultural soils: (1) production condition during pyrolysis, (2) soil conditions and background climate, and (3) field management of biochar. Biochar production using only forest or crop residues can achieve up to 10% of the required CDR for 1.5 ° C pathways and about 25% for 2 ° C pathways; the consideration of dedicated crops as biochar feedstocks increases the CDR potential up to 15–35% and 35–50%, respectively. A quantitative review of life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies of biochar systems shows that the total climate change assessment of biochar ranges between a net emission of 0.04 tCO 2 eq and a net reduction of 1.67 tCO 2 eq per tonnes feedstock. The wide range of values is due to different assumptions in the LCA studies, such as type of feedstock, biochar stability in soils, soil emissions, substitution effects, and methodological issues. Potential trade-offs between climate mitigation and other environmental impact categories include particulate matter, acidification, and eutrophication and mostly depend on the background energy system considered and on whether residues or dedicated feedstocks are used for biochar production. Overall, our review finds that biochar in soils presents relatively low risks in terms of negative environmental impacts and can improve soil quality and that decisions regarding feedstock mix and pyrolysis conditions can be optimized to maximize climate benefits and to reduce trade-offs under different soil conditions. However, more knowledge on the fate of biochar in freshwater systems and as black carbon emissions is required, as they represent potential negative consequences for climate and toxicity. Biochar systems also interact with the climate through many complex mechanisms (i.e., surface albedo, black carbon emissions from soils, etc.) or with water bodies through leaching of nutrients. These effects are complex and the lack of simplified metrics and approaches prevents their routine inclusion in environmental assessment studies. Specific emission factors produced from more sophisticated climate and ecosystem models are instrumental to increasing the resolution and accuracy of environmental sustainability analysis of biochar systems and can ultimately improve the characterization of the heterogeneities of varying local conditions and combinations of type feedstock, conversion process, soil conditions, and application practice.


It is important to characterize and quantify the imaging performance of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and especially optical coherence microscopy (OCM) systems for validation and calibration of the setup. We suggest using a simple rubber surface, presented to the setup at different focal positions, to measure the system's lateral resolution and depth of field. Rubber is a nearly perfect scatterer and produces a fully developed speckle pattern. The speckle size and shape are directly defined by the optical system and its illumination and detection apertures. Analysis of the speckle pattern reveals the system's coherent transfer function (CTF) and hence the point spread function (PSF) in a straightforward computation.


The increasing availability of the high spatial resolution satellite images has provided a new data source for building extraction. This paper proves the concept of object oriented classification using high-resolution satellite data (Cartosat-1 satellite data fused with IRS-1C, LISS IV data) for automatic building extraction using eCognition software. In this study, the overall accuracy of classified image is 0.94 and Kappa accuracy is 0.92. The producer accuracy for building, vegetation and shadow are 0.9745, 1.0 and 0.8999, respectively, whereas user accuracy for building, vegetation and shadow are 1.0, 0.9475 and 1.0 respectively. The classification overall accuracy is based on TTA mask (training and test area mask) and it is 0.98 and Kappa accuracy is 0.96. The producer accuracy for building, forest and shadow are 1.0, 1.0 and 0.7344, respectively and user accuracy for building, vegetation and shadow are 1.0, 0.9475 and 1.0, respectively.


Music Walk is a research project based on a multiplatform music and performance commission for the BBC, to be hosted by a prominent international music festival over the summer of 2012. The producers have requested an embargo on details until official launch in April, when this research summary will be revised. My role is Creative Director. As with other works since 2007, this professional activity runs concurrently with my part-time Research Fellowship at Sussex. In this case as others, it complements research in a number of ways.

The project itself entails 10 new short performance pieces (4 mins or less,) each a response by a different contemporary composer to specific locations, made available free to the public online. The music is designed to be heard on headphones, downloaded from the web, at home or at the locations themselves, where other creative material will be available by via QR codes pasted on street furniture. The online resources include content relating to the composers, and an upload context for musical contributions from the public to form extra compositions, via algorithms and authorial interventions. In addition to the continuously accessible web resources, there will be real-world 'promenade performance' cycle of all the works, culminating in a large cluster (2000 people) at a climactic location (to be announced in April.) Live presences – musical or visual - will be introduced for this event. Composers come from the contemporary classical / experimental music world, inc. prominent and less well-established figures from the UK, Asia, Japan, and the US. Creative direction involves devising the concept, selecting locations and composers, curating the work, devising the web presence and directing any staged content.

Research. This project reconfigures core concerns of my AHRC Fellowship programme, unforeseen at its outset, by conceiving particular digital media technologies at the centre of a real-world lyric theatre experience beyond an operatic stage. It sets up cycles of exchange between composer, location and audience, traversing inter-medial relationships (eg real world inspiration, physical composition and performance, online access, Mp3 download, real-world engagement, further online access at location, Mp3 upload of musical content, further real-world engagement and so on) as a dramaturgical principle, identifying audience members as mobile navigators, contributors to and animateurs of the creative canvas, as opposed to its spectators. This facilitates an imagining of a key area of public space as an idealised landscape, with arts, science and technology as mutually creative endeavours (e.g. the V and A, Geographical Society, Imperial College, The Royal College of Music, the RCA, encapsulated by a particular London landmark.) Music heard in the context of the locations is imagined as channeling and connecting different energies and oppositions - e.g. the unnoticed qualities of laconic space, vs the self-announcement of the officially cultural; beauty in the discarded, beauty in the found; the elements, ambient mechanical soundscapes; architectural presence, aesthetics, historic activity; sensations of social connection and disconnection. Composers are responding to this in a range of ways: orchestral instrumentation, radio-phonic adaptation of location sounds, electronic sound worlds, logarithmic interventions, indeterminate compositions.

Although a simple set of conditions to achieve – listening to work on location through headphones – the sensation for the audience is ambivalent / complex. For example, on one hand, it embodies a version of the behavioural 'contemporary' in its use of digital media – self-selective clustering for social/cultural engagement. On the other, it takes place in real space, where the common headphone experience is a sign of connection and separation. It alights on a grounded historic theme (buildings as bi-products of an historic idea of creativity) in the features of a particular location, but entails a degree of subversion of architectural rhetoric, by apparently valuing the usually-overlooked as much as the highly-visible.

Sussex students (eg those studying uses of Locative Media in MFM, and Music students) will be invited to participate in the realisation of the performance, and assist in its documentation.


Neutral hydrogen atoms that travel into the heliosphere from the local interstellar medium (LISM) experience strong effects due to charge exchange and radiation pressure from resonant absorption and re-emission of Lyα. The radiation pressure roughly compensates for the solar gravity. As a result, interstellar hydrogen atoms move along trajectories that are quite different than those of heavier interstellar species such as helium and oxygen, which experience relatively weak radiation pressure. Charge exchange leads to the loss of primary neutrals from the LISM and the addition of new secondary neutrals from the heliosheath. IBEX observations show clear effects of radiation pressure in a large longitudinal shift in the peak of interstellar hydrogen compared with that of interstellar helium. Here, we compare results from the Lee et al. interstellar neutral model with IBEX-Lo hydrogen observations to describe the distribution of hydrogen near 1 AU and provide new estimates of the solar radiation pressure. We find over the period analyzed from 2009 to 2011 that radiation pressure divided by the gravitational force (μ) has increased slightly from μ = 0.94 ± 0.04 in 2009 to μ = 1.01 ± 0.05 in 2011. We have also derived the speed, temperature, source longitude, and latitude of the neutral H atoms and find that these parameters are roughly consistent with those of interstellar He, particularly when considering the filtration effects that act on H in the outer heliosheath. Thus, our analysis shows that over the period from 2009 to 2011, we observe signatures of neutral H consistent with the primary distribution of atoms from the LISM and a radiation pressure that increases in the early rise of solar activity.


Cardiogenic shock, a state of systemic hypoperfusion resulting from cardiovascular dysfunction, is the leading cause of death in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).1 In spite of tremendous advances in cardiovascular care over the past two decades, mortality rates for patients with cardiogenic shock remain quite high, with some estimates as high as 50%.2 Given the underlying pathophysiology of cardiogenic shock, most commonly attributed to left ventricular failure resulting from STEMI, prompt institution of mechanical circulatory support seems intuitively important. The intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) counterpulsation device was first introduced in the 1960s and has gained widespread acceptance as the device of choice for most patients with cardiogenic shock. Registry data suggest that cardiogenic shock is one of the most common conditions for which IABPs are used, accounting for 20% of all insertions.3 In fact, the ESC and ACC/AHA guidelines on STEMI strongly endorse the placement of an IABP in patients with cardiogenic shock refractory to pharmacological therapy.4,5 However, the evidence base from which these recommendations emanate is limited. There are no large randomized controlled trials which have rigorously evaluated the impact of IABPs in cardiogenic shock. Observational data from the Should We Emergently Revascularize Occluded Coronary Arteries in Shock (SHOCK) trial registry as well as the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI)-2 suggest that patients treated with an IABP in addition to thrombolytics had lower in-hospital mortality than those receiving thrombolytics alone.6,7 Notably, patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in NRMI-2 did not benefit from IABP placement. A recent systematic review of >10 000 patients with cardiogenic shock in the setting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) published in the European Heart Journal presented similar findings and concluded by challenging contemporary clinical guidelines.8

One of the theoretical shortcomings of …

*Corresponding author. Tel: +1 857 203 6840/6841, Fax: +1 857 203 5550, Email: dlbhattmd{at}alum.mit.edu


The relationship between the growth of the stall cell and variation in the surge behavior was experimentally investigated. The aim of this study was to reveal the effect of the stall cell on the surge behavior from the viewpoint of the inner flow structure. In the experiment, the unsteady compressor characteristics during the surge and rotating stall were obtained by using a precision pressure transducer and a one-dimensional single hotwire anemometer. Under the coexisting states of surge and rotating stall, various surge behaviors were observed by throttling the mass flow rate. When the flow rate was set such that the surge behavior switched, an irregular surge was observed. During the irregular cycle, two different cycles were selected randomly corresponding to the stall behavior. When the amplitude of the plenum pressure is relatively large among the measurement results, the absolute value of the time-change rate in the flow coefficient and the static pressure-rise coefficient tend to be high. This shows that the flow field during stable operation near the peak point of the unsteady characteristics changes rapidly. In this case, an auto-correlation function of the wall-pressure fluctuation data showed that the stall inception of the compressor was induced earlier in the large cycle compared with the case of the top cycle. When studying the growth of the stall cell during the stalling process of the large cycle, the wall-pressure fluctuation data showed that the stall cell rapidly grew by gathering more than one spike-type disturbance into one stall cell. In this case, the stall cell fully expanded along the circumferential direction and developed into a deep stall. Therefore, the key factors that determine the surge behavior are the sudden change in the flow field near the peak point of the unsteady characteristics and the rapid growth in the stall cell during the stalling process.


Swarm Intelligence (SI) is the property of a system whereby the collective behaviors of (unsophisticated) entities interacting locally with their environment cause coherent functional global patterns to emerge. SI provides a basis with which it is possible to explore collective (or distributed) problem solving without centralized control or the provision of a global model. To tackle the formation of a coherent social collective intelligence from individual behaviors, we discuss several concepts related to self-organization, stigmergy and social foraging in animals. Then, in a more abstract level we suggest and stress the role played not only by the environmental media as a driving force for societal learning, as well as by positive and negative feedbacks produced by the many interactions among agents. Finally, presenting a simple model based on the above features, we will address the collective adaptation of a social community to a cultural (environmental, contextual) or media informational dynamical landscape, represented here - for the purpose of different experiments - by several three-dimensional mathematical functions that suddenly change over time. Results indicate that the collective intelligence is able to cope and quickly adapt to unforeseen situations even when over the same cooperative foraging period, the community is requested to deal with two different and contradictory purposes. KEYWORDS: Swarm Intelligence and Perception, Social Cognitive Maps, Social Foraging, Self-Organization, Distributed Search and Optimization


Self-tracking technologies (STTs) in the form of smart devices and mobile applications enable consumers to monitor, analyze, and interpret personal performance data on health and physical or financial well-being. As a result of self-tracking, consumers are not only expected to check their personal performance more actively but also to implement service professionals' advice to improve their well-being more accurately. Despite the growing popularity of STTs, empirical evidence on the extent to which STT use enhances advice compliance remains scant. A field experiment with 538 participants in a health-care setting suggests that STT use does not increase advice compliance per se. Rather, the effectiveness of STTs depends on consumers' self-efficacy. For consumers low in self-efficacy, STT use can even undermine advice compliance. A lab experiment with 831 participants replicates and generalizes the findings to a nonmedical professional service (i.e., fitness training). As assessments of self-efficacy might be difficult in practice, service providers in health care can use consumers' body mass index as an easy-to-measure proxy to predict STT effectiveness. Finally, the lab experiment also identifies perceived empowerment and personalization as psychological mechanisms mediating the influence of STT use on advice compliance.


The ten countries with the fastest shrinking population are all located in Eastern Europe, with low fertility as one of the leading causes. In this article, we analyze the privatization of companies as a potential but so far neglected factor behind the postsocialist fertility decline. We argue that privatization is linked to lower fertility by catalyzing uncertainty, shifting the cost of care work onto families, and reducing the resources available to support social reproduction. We test this hypothesis using a novel database comprising information on the demographic and enterprise trajectories of 52 Hungarian towns between 1989-2006 and a cross-country dataset of 28 countries in Eastern Europe. We fit fixed and random-effects models adjusting for potential confounding factors and control for time-variant factors and common trends. We find that company privatization is significantly associated with the postsocialist fertility decline. The observed level of privatization among Hungarian towns corresponds to 0.37 fewer childbirths per woman on average, i.e., approximately 54.3% of the overall fertility decline. Cross-country fixed effects models covering 28 former socialist-bloc countries for the 1989-2012 period confirm the town-level findings. The observed level of privatization among postsocialist countries might explain approximately 49.75% of the overall fertility decline.


First published in 1923, A Lost Lady is one of Willa Cather's classic novels about life on the Great Plains. It harks back to Nebraska's early history and contrasts those days with an unsentimental portrait of the materialistic world that supplanted the frontier. In her subtle portrait of Marian Forrester, whose life unfolds in the midst of this disquieting transition, Cather created one of her most memorable and finely drawn characters. This Willa Cather Scholarly Edition of A Lost Lady is edited according to standards set by the Committee for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association. The historical essay describes the origin, writing, and reception of the novel as well as motion pictures that were later based on it; and a selection of archival photographs illuminates the connection between the novel and the people and places from Cather's formative years in Nebraska. Explanatory notes identify locations, literary references, persons, events, and specialized terminology. The textual essays describe the production and subsequent revisions of the text.


JIPITEC 9 (2019) 3 - In 2009, C.S. Gibson was suggesting that: "With this early coverage of intellectual property in BITs, it is perhaps surprising that there has yet to be a publicly reported decision concerning an IPR-centered investment dispute. Given the trajectory of the modern economy, however, in which foreign investments reflect an increasing concentration of intellectual capital invested in knowledge goods protected by IPRs, this could soon change" (Gibson, 'A Look at the Compulsory License in Investment Arbitration', 2009). A couple of years later, the first investment cases dealing with IP issues were made public. In this context, this paper first addresses the conditions that have to be fulfilled in order to bring intellectual property claims in investment arbitration, by touching upon the question of the definition of an investment in theory and in practice. It also tries to shed light on some of the implications of recent arbitral awards touching upon this interaction between intellectual property and investment protection, from a legal and regulatory perspective. On the other hand, the specific situation of the European Union is scrutinized, and in particular the project put forward by the European Commission to adapt the dispute settlement system for the protection of investments.


This paper documents the rise and fall of a micro-learning region in Philadelphia. The central actors in this region are undocumented Mexican immigrants who until recently were able to draw on the intensity of their workplace interactions and their heterodox knowledge to produce new and innovative building techniques in the city's residential construction. The new knowledge they developed was primarily tacit. More significantly, the learning practices through which immigrant workers developed skills and innovated new techniques were also heavily tacit. Because these practices were never made formal and were never made explicit, they remained invisible and difficult to defend. With the housing-market collapse and subsequent decline in housing renovation in the south-center region of Philadelphia, this tacit knowledge, and the practices that gave it shape and significance, are no longer easily accessible. We draw on this case to demonstrate the importance of access to the political and economic resources to turn learning practices into visible structured institutions that protect knowledge and skill. Whether or not the practices that support knowledge development are themselves made explicit can determine whether the knowledge they produce becomes an innovation that is recognized and adopted or whether it remains confined to a set of ephemeral practices that exist only so long as they are being enacted.


Exploring taxonomic, functional, and structural diversity can provide additional insights into our understanding of diversity responses to environment. Using altitude, slope, and relative radiation index as well as floristic and functional data from a South Africa Afromontane forest, we examined how taxonomic, structural, and functional diversity varied with local environmental variation. Taxonomic and structural diversity were quantified through species richness- and diameter class-based Shannon index and evenness, respectively. Skewness and coefficient of variation of diameter distribution were additionally computed for structural diversity. As for functional diversity, we used functional richness, evenness, divergence, and dispersion based on functional traits. Data were analyzed using multimodel inference and subset regression. We found little evidence of environmental effects on local-scale taxonomic diversity patterns. In contrast, structural and functional diversity metrics varied significantly along environmental gradients. Accordingly, diameter class-based Shannon evenness declined with increasing slope while skewness and coefficient of variation of diameter distribution increased with increasing slope. Functional evenness and divergence decreased with increasing altitude and radiation, respectively, while functional richness and dispersion increased with increasing slope. The results showed that taxonomic diversity patterns were less responsive to local-scale topographical variation than structural and functional diversity. Lower functional diversity on lower slope sites suggests weak environmental filtering effect promoting competitive exclusion and dominance of species with acquisitive traits. On higher slope sites, environmental filtering associated with slope gradient seems to favor coexistence of species with conservative traits and adapted to harsh conditions.


To meet the terms of the Montreal Protocol, CFCs and HCFCs have been gradually phased out and they have been replaced by refrigerants that have zero ozone depletion potential. However, some of these fluids, such as R410A, have global warming potential (GWP) that might still be of concern from an environmental perspective in case of leakage or improper charge management. Few studies of refrigerants that have zero ozone depletion potential and GWP less than 500 are available in the literature. Preliminary findings from these studies suggested that new development refrigerants were viable options. System COP and capacity were promising but there is not much information on the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of these low GWP refrigerants. This paper contributes to address this gap and provides new data for the two phase flow boiling heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and pressure drop of two new low GWP developmental refrigerant alternatives for R-410A. Heat transfer measurements were conducted for a copper tube commonly used in direct expansion evaporators of air conditioning systems with a 9.5 mm (0.375 in.) outside diameter and internally enhanced micro-finned surface. Data of local two phase flow HTC and pressure drop are presented for refrigerants R-410A, R-32, R-1234yf and the two new developmental refrigerants referred to as DR-5 and DR-5A. The experimental findings from this work indicated that the refrigerant R-32 had similar and slightly higher heat transfer coefficient than that of R-410A at same refrigerant mass flux and similar heat flux conditions on the outer surface of the tube. Refrigerant R-1234yf had about 15 to 20% lower heat transfer coefficient than R410-A at 4C saturation temperature. For this saturation temperature the developmental refrigerants DR-5 and DR-5A had heat transfer coefficients between R-32 and R-1234yf when the vapor quality ranged from 0.2 to 0.7. An increase of the saturation temperature from 4°C to 9°C decreased the heat transfer coefficients for all of the refrigerants tested. The two phase flow boiling pressure drops increased monotonically if the vapor quality of the refrigerant increased. The pressure drops of refrigerant R-410A were the lowest while the pressure drop for refrigerant R-1234yf were the highest measured among the fluids investigated. The developmental refrigerants DR-5 and DR-5A showed identical characteristics in terms of pressure drop at both saturation temperatures of 4°C and 9°C.


This is a mixed methods data collection.

This study combined focus group and individual teachers' interviews with a postal survey questionnaire sent to Secondary School Teachers and NUT members in North London, Hertfordhsire and Essex.

Teachers' experience of workplace violence has received relatively little attention both in the workplace violence literature and other research related to school violence most of which focuses on pupil to pupil violence. Quantitative data suggests that levels of violence against teachers are on the increase but little is known about the effect that this violence is having on the daily work life of teachers.

The aim of the study was not only to establish the extent of violence occurring among teachers but also to examine what types of 'violent' incidents they experience including verbal and physical attacks. It identified the concerns that teachers have about the risks they face in their day to day role and how it affects them and examined how schools are dealing with these issues, by looking at what polices and strategies are in place to help teachers who experience violence. The study also examined teachers' views on the 2008 attempts by the government to change discipline policies within education.

Further information on the project can be found on the ESRC's Secondary School Teachers' Experiences and Perceptions of Violence in the Workplace award webpage.


Gallbladder cancer is a rare disease with only about 20% of cases diagnosed in early stages. According to the American College of Surgeons/American Cancer Society National Cancer Database in the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual [2010], 5-year survival rate is only 28% for patients with stage II gallbladder cancer and single digit in stage III/IV gallbladder cancers (http://www.cancer.org/cancer/gallbladdercancer/detailedguide/gallbladder-survival-rates). It is managed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy for patients with unresectable disease in late stages and no targeted therapy are available. Thus, novel treatment approaches are needed in gallbladder cancer.


We consider the problem of optimizing an expensive objective function when a finite budget of total evaluations is prescribed. In that context, the optimal solution strategy for Bayesian optimization can be formulated as a dynamic programming instance. This results in a complex problem with uncountable, dimension-increasing state space and an uncountable control space. We show how to approximate the solution of this dynamic programming problem using rollout, and propose rollout heuristics specifically designed for the Bayesian optimization setting. We present numerical experiments showing that the resulting algorithm for optimization with a finite budget outperforms several popular Bayesian optimization algorithms.


Integrating theories about discourse (Discourse Studies; DS) with social science theories allows to grasp the dynamic and fluid co-construction of European identities, both top-down and bottom-up. Such interdisciplinary approaches systematically deconstruct the everyday workings of European institutions and support our understanding of the impact of traditional and social media in their production and reproduction of pro-European or Eurosceptic sentiments and attitudes. In this chapter, I first present some important characteristics of Discourse Studies and Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), specifically of the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA). I then, secondly, summarize the most relevant discursive research based on a range of theories and methodological approaches on European integration. Thirdly, I illustrate the interdisciplinary nexus of discourse-oriented European studies with a case study on the mediatization and politicization of the refugee crisis in Austria, from 2015-2016. I specifically focus on legitimation strategies and argumentation schemes which accompany the implementation of ever more restrictive policy decisions.


We present an analytic model and a methodology to determine the optimal packet scheduling policy in a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) system. The optimal policy is the one that maximizes cell throughput while maintaining a level of fairness between the users in the cell. A discrete stochastic dynamic programming model for the HSDPA downlink scheduler is presented. Value iteration is then used to solve for the optimal scheduling policy. We use a FSMC (Finite State Markov Channel) to model the HSDPA downlink channel. A near-optimal heuristic scheduling policy is developed. Simulation is used to study the performance of the resulting heuristic policy and compare it to the computed optimal policy. The results show that the performance of the heuristic policy is very close to that of the optimal policy. The heuristic policy has much less computational complexity, which makes it easy to deploy, with only slight reduction in performance compared to the optimal policy.


We present a generalization of dynamic Bayesian networks to concisely describe complex probability distributions such as in problems with multiple interacting variable-length streams of random variables. Our framework incorporates recent graphical model constructs to account for existence uncertainty, value-specific independence, aggregation relationships, and local and global constraints, while still retaining a Bayesian network interpretation and efficient inference and learning techniques. We introduce one such general technique, which is an extension of Value Elimination, a backtracking search inference algorithm. Multi-dynamic Bayesian networks are motivated by our work on Statistical Machine Translation (MT). We present results on MT word alignment in support of our claim that MDBNs are a promising framework for the rapid prototyping of new MT systems.


Computational imaging methods that can exploit multiple modalities have the potential to enhance the capabilities of traditional sensing systems. In this paper, we propose a new method that reconstructs multimodal images from their linear measurements by exploiting redundancies across different modalities. Our method combines a convolutional group-sparse representation of images with total variation (TV) regularization for high-quality multimodal imaging. We develop an online algorithm that enables the unsupervised learning of convolutional dictionaries on large-scale datasets that are typical in such applications. We illustrate the benefit of our approach in the context of joint intensity-depth imaging.


This paper presents Tcoffee@igs, a new server provided to the community by Hewlet Packard computers and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. This server is a web-based tool dedicated to the computation, the evaluation and the combination of multiple sequence alignments. It uses the latest version of the T-Coffee package. Given a set of unaligned sequences, the server returns an evaluated multiple sequence alignment and the associated phylogenetic tree. This server also makes it possible to evaluate the local reliability of an existing alignment and to combine several alternative multiple alignments into a single new one. Tcoffee@igs can be used for aligning protein, RNA or DNA sequences. Datasets of up to 100 sequences (2000 residues long) can be processed. The server and its documentation are available from: http://igs-server.cnrs-mrs.fr/Tcoffee/.


Utility companies have been seeking methods to operate electricity distribution infrastructures efficiently. Smart grid applications provide opportunities to network operators to collect data from consumers. Therefore operators could track power consumption based on historical and immediate data. Thanks to remotely collecting data, operators take necessary action to manage changes in consumption rate and types. Although smart grid application make grid operators manage their network reliably and effectively, these new applications pose new vulnerabilities and security threats because of insecure designs and products. Most of the vulnerabilities result from commercial off shelf products, operating systems, access technology and communication protocols. In this paper, security considerations on smart grid application, particularly data network securities are discussed. In addition, some applicable measures to mitigate currently available vulnerabilities are proposed.


Abstract Stroke significantly impacts the quality of life. However, the long-term cognitive evolution in stroke is poorly predictable at the individual level. There is an urgent need to better predict long-term symptoms based on acute clinical neuroimaging data. Previous works have demonstrated a strong relationship between the location of white matter disconnections and clinical symptoms. However, rendering the entire space of possible disconnection-deficit associations optimally surveyable will allow for a systematic association between brain disconnections and cognitive-behavioural measures at the individual level. Here we present the most comprehensive framework, a composite morphospace of white matter disconnections (disconnectome) to predict neuropsychological scores 1 year after stroke. Linking the latent disconnectome morphospace to neuropsychological outcomes yields biological insights that are available as the first comprehensive atlas of disconnectome-deficit relations across 86 scores—a Neuropsychological White Matter Atlas. Our novel predictive framework, the Disconnectome Symptoms Discoverer, achieved better predictivity performances than six other models, including functional disconnection, lesion topology and volume modelling. Out-of-sample prediction derived from this atlas presented a mean absolute error below 20% and allowed personalize neuropsychological predictions. Prediction on an external cohort achieved an R2 = 0.201 for semantic fluency. In addition, training and testing were replicated on two external cohorts achieving an R2 = 0.18 for visuospatial performance. This framework is available as an interactive web application (http://disconnectomestudio.bcblab.com) to provide the foundations for a new and practical approach to modelling cognition in stroke. We hope our atlas and web application will help to reduce the burden of cognitive deficits on patients, their families and wider society while also helping to tailor future personalized treatment programmes and discover new targets for treatments. We expect our framework's range of assessments and predictive power to increase even further through future crowdsourcing.


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is considering promulgating a rule to increase rearview visibility in vehicles—a rule intended to reduce backover crashes, which occur when a vehicle moving in reverse strikes a pedestrian or a cyclist, and which kill hundreds and injure thousands of people a year. In performing a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed rule, NHTSA has refused to monetize many of the most emotional impacts of the rule, including the fact that many of the victims of backover crashes are small children. Without including these impacts, the monetized costs of the rule far exceed the monetized benefits. This Article argues that treating these effects of the rearview rule as nonmonetizable assumes that people are willing to pay no money to secure those effects, and that it is therefore likely to lead to significant undervaluation of the amount of money people are actually willing to pay for the regulation. Regulators are often averse to attempting to monetize the nonmonetary effects of regulations, particularly when those effects are deeply emotional, as they are whenever regulation touches upon the death of small children. Insofar as this hesitation to monetize stems from concern about the incommensurability of money and other goods, it should cease immediately. Incommensurability does not necessarily preclude partial valuation, or the partial expression of a good's value in terms of another good. Even something as horrific and emotionally laden as the death of a child can therefore be partially valued in monetary terms—so long as people are willing to pay money to prevent the event from occurring. Emotional goods like these are difficult to think about, and even more difficult to monetize, but refusing to monetize them at all is not a reasonable solution.


The desire to comply with the European Water Framework Directive, which seeks to promote Integrated Water Management, has led to a large number of proposed projects that in turn make huge demands on the financial and administrative capacity of water managers, who need to combine multiple fields of interest and participation such as agricultural interests, regional economic development, natural values, water safety and water quality issues to complete each project. To achieve these goals, water managers will often need to negotiate and strike alliances with actors in other policy areas such as spatial planning and local and regional economic development. The article first introduces 'boundary spanning' in a water management context. The concept builds on the concept of 'boundary work' as a strategy to arrive at organisational goals -�� to reduce uncertainty and deal with complexity in the organisational environment. The contribution then discusses briefly two recent innovative regional water projects, both located in the East Netherlands: a retention basin project on the river Vecht and the planning of a new channel, the Breakthrough. It further analyses strategies pursued by 'boundary spanners' and integrates the analysis with that of a focus group workshop and interviews held with Dutch boundary spanners working for Dutch regional Water Management Boards. The cases show that it is preferable to apply boundary spanning strategies earlier rather than later, and that opponents are also aware of this option.


We present a general framework for the modular development of families of programs or specifications through the use of labels. Families, consisting of components or versions, appear naturally in software development. The concept of implementation, as an interpretation into a conservative extension, is generalized to labeled families of specifications and formulated in categorical terms. We also show that the category of such families has pushouts and that this construction preserves conservative extensions, as required for composing implementations.


Otitis media (OM) is an inflammation of the middle ear. Clinically, OM presents as acute otitis media (AOM) and if it persists for more than 3 months it is called chronic otitis media (COM). So, the present study was performed to identify the aerobic bacterial pathogens and determine the antibiotics sensitivity in children with OM in Ibb city, Yemen. Ear swabs were collected from 100 children (Male: 53, Female: 47) that suffered to OM, clinically diagnosed by Ear Nose Throat (ENT) specialist doctors. All patients samples were inoculated into different bacteriological media to isolate the bacterial pathogens using standard bacteriologic techniques and the antibiotics sensitivity against pathogenic bacteria were done using standard disc diffusion technique. According physician and clinical diagnosis, our results showed that OM children were COM (70%) more than AOM (30%). Also, our findings indicated that the growth of aerobic gram positive bacteria was 50 (50%) more than gram negative bacteria 47 (47%) and children with non-growth of bacteria was 3 (3%). The most common type of gram positive bacteria was Streptococcus pneumoniae (27%), whereas the most common type of gram negative bacteria was Pseudomonas aeroginosa (21%). The broad spectrum antibiotic sensitivity against gram positive and gram negative bacteria showed that the most effective and suitable antibiotics were Kanamycin and Amikacin (92%, 91%, respectively), while an effective antibiotic against S. pneumoniae was Vancomycin (80%) and an effective antibiotic against P.aeroginosa was Carbencillin (89%). In addition, our results showed that breastfeeding prevented OM in (63.3%) of infected children; whereas, passive smoking enhanced OM infection in (58%) ones. It can be concluded that the routine culture and sensitivity test remains the most important way for treating Otitis media and to prevent the risk of empirical therapy and antibiotic resistance to them.


A major revision of the geological timescale was published in 2012. We re-examine our past finding of a 27 Myr periodicity in marine extinction rates by re-assigning dates to the extinction data used previously. We find that the spectral power in this period is somewhat increased, and persists at a narrow bandwidth, which supports our previous contention that the Nemesis hypothesis is untenable as an explanation for the periodicity that was first noted by Raup & Sepkoski in the 1980s. We enumerate a number of problems in a recent study comparing extinction rates with time series models.


Analysts who base valuations on expected free cash flows are vulnerable to making biased assessments of terminal value because they fail to take into account the implications of disappearing growth opportunities during the terminal period. This leaves their valuations subject to "growth opportunities bias" (GOB). There are two sets of issues addressed in this paper, one narrow and the other broad. The narrow issues pertain to the basis for GOB, a technique for addressing it, and examples to illustrate the debiasing technique. The broader issues pertain to group psychology in respect to the manifestation of GOB in the analyst community, including the CFA Institute which certifies analysts.


This paper aims at analyzing the size-dependent nonlinear dynamical behavior of a geometrically imperfect microbeam made of a functionally graded (FG) material, taking into account the longitudinal, transverse, and rotational motions. The size-dependent property is modeled by means of the modified couple stress theory, the shear deformation and rotary inertia are modeled using the Timoshenko beam theory, and the graded material property in the beam thickness direction is modeled via the Mori - Tanaka homogenization technique. The kinetic and size-dependent potential energies of the system are developed as functions of the longitudinal, transverse, and rotational motions. On the basis of an energy method, the continuous models of the system motion are obtained. Upon application of a weighted-residual method, the reduced-order model is obtained. A continuation method along with an eigenvalue extraction technique is utilized for the nonlinear and linear analyses, respectively. A special attention is paid on the effects of the material gradient index, the imperfection amplitude, and the length-scale parameter on the system dynamical response.


Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is endemic in the semi-arid region of north-eastern
Brazil. The causative agent is Leishmania chagasi (infantum). The domestic,
peri-domestic and anthropophilic sandfly vector is Lutzomyia longipalpis. The
domestic dog may be the principal reservoir of infection in endemic urban
regions. The primary aim of this project was to study comparative diagnosis
and transmissibility of natural and experimental canine VL in the city of
T eresina, Piaui state, Brazil.
Most (67 %) of human cases of VL in Teresina occurred in children
under 5 years of age, adult VL predominated in males, and there was a seasonal
increase in incidence of cases. No phenotypic diversity was found between L.
chagasi isolates from dogs and humans, although limited comparisons were
performed.
Clinical diagnosis, parasitological diagnosis and serology were
compared in a cohort of 209 dogs, comprised of both symptomatic and
asymptomatic animals. Presence of clinical symptoms was not sufficiently
sensitive to diagnose canine VL: only 42 % of dogs positive by reference
standard criteria (RS positive) were symptomatic. Parasitology was less
sensitive than serology for the diagnosis of canine VL and no parasitological
test sho~ed more than 60 % sensitivity in comparison with RS criteria. The
indirect fluorescent antibody test (IF A T) and DOT -enzyme linked
imrnunosorbent assay (DOT -ELISA) were the most sensitive of the serological
assays tested. The direct agglutination test (OAT) was highly specific but
lacked sensitivity. Serum samples were more sensitive than filter paper blood spot samples. The Lmet2 DNA probe was generally less sensitive than
traditional parasitological and serological methods for diagnosis of canine VL,
although the probe was useful for screening sandflies for L. chagasi infections
(below). The chance of demonstrating parasites in canine VL increased with
the serological titre. Nevertheless, parasitoIogicalIy positive dogs could be
found among those that were serologically negative.
Large numbers of Lu. longipalpis were found in pigsties and chicken
houses in the city of Teresina. The Lmet2 probe was shown to be effective for
determining prevalence rates of L. chagasi infection in wild caught sandflies.
Prevalence of natural infection in sandflies was particularly high when flies
were caught in kennels where there were dogs with disseminated cutaneous
infections. Experimental studies demonstrated that Lu. longipaJpis could be
very readily infected with L. chagasi by feeding on dogs with canine VL and
that transmissibility was associated with amastigote infection of the skin.
Altered skin of symptomatic dogs was more infective than normal skin of
symptomatic animals. Although symptomatic animals were more infective than
asymptomatic animals, asymptomatic dogs with normal skin were still infective
to large numbers of sandflies and asymptomatic dogs cannot, therefore, be
excluded as a significant reservoir of infection.
Transmission of experimental canine VL was demonstrated by a single
infective sandfly bite. In a cohort of 25 experimental animals many dogs
developed discrete, self-curing, cutaneous lesions, typical of cutaneous
leishmaniasis. Seroconversion was the most sensitive test for canine VL, but
seronegativity was not a reliable indicator of the absence of infection. Bone marrow positivity was only seen in dogs that were serologically positive.
Apparent recovery from L. chagasi infection was seen, with serological
reversIOn.
Aminosidine, dependent on dose, duration of treatment and clinical
status of the infected animal, was shown to be capable of producing clinical
recovery and clinical cure in a small proportion of infected dogs, but could not
be recommended as a systematic method of control.
Single applications of ultra-low volume pyrethroid insecticide to
individual animal pens was not effective for controlling Lu. iongipaipis.
Nevertheless, pyrethroid insecticides had a high residual activity against Lu.
iongipalpis when sprayed on to the walls of animal enclosures. Lambda
cyhalothrine (ICON) was the most effective of three pyrethroid insecticides
tested in the laboratory against Lu. iongipalpis.
Overall, this project has produced unique observations on canine VL,
supports the fundamental role of the dog as a reservoir host, and explains why
culling of seropositive dogs is likely to have limited impact as a disease control
strategy.


An abnormality associated with all forms of cardiovascular diseases is cardiac hypertrophy, which is an overall increase in heart mass without improved contractile function. Prolonged cardiac hypertrophy eventually leads to heart failure, in which the heart can no longer supply adequate amounts of blood to meet the body's hemodynamic demands, resulting in cardiac dilatation, thinning of the myocardial walls, decrease in contractile effectiveness, organ failure and death.

The Ca2+- dependent phosphatase, calcineurin (Cn) and its downstream target, nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT), are major intracellular modulators of cardiac hypertrophy. In young 1-2 month old mice, the NFATc2 transcription factor has been identified as the major NFAT isoform responsible for Cn-mediated cardiac hypertrophy. We observed that adult 6-9 month old NFATc2-/- mice were more prone to sudden death, suggesting that the loss of NFATc2 was detrimental at later stages of life. Using histology, we showed that adult NFATc2-/- mice display left ventricular dilatation and thinning of the ventricular walls, characteristic of failure. Western blot and immunofluorescene results showed that NFATc2-/- mice displayed alterations in the signaling of growth pathways, which predisposed these mice to heart failure. Furthermore, angiotensin II-induced cardiac growth revealed that the hearts of NFATc2-/- mice displayed changes in contractile protein gene expression and an inactivation of both transcriptional and translational mechanisms. Our collective findings propose an uncharacterized role of NFATc2 for normal heart function and biochemical signaling in adult mice, providing further evidence that normal Cn-signaling is crucial in the heart.


Background The term "bioethics" emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century to refer to ethical reflection in the life sciences and in biomedical research. In general, it is used to denote three main areas of scholarship: medical ethics in health care and medical research; ethical issues at the interface of the life sciences and biomedical technology; and in its broadest sense, biological aspects of environmental ethics including animal research ethics and vegetarianism. Modern breathtaking advances in scientific research and biomedical technology have raised serious ethical concerns on the nature, limits, and boundaries of human and non-human life and stirred global debate on the wider implications of these advances. These ethical concerns touch on important questions such as: beginning and end of human life; organ donation, transplantation and trafficking; genetics and reproductive methods; and environmental implications of modern technology and lifestyles. Since its inception, bioethics developed as an interdisciplinary field that draws on insights from the wide spectrum of natural and applied sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Global interest in bioethics stems from the fact that it investigates universal issues that concern mankind and the very essence of life on this universe. Experts emphasize the need for cross-cultural dialogue with a view to create worldwide awareness on the importance of bioethics and to facilitate shared understanding and collective action towards bioethical issues. In light of the comprehensive scope of the Islamic normative tradition, bioethical deliberations in the Muslim context require thorough investigation of the foundations of this tradition and the extent to which they can be reconstructed to address modern bioethical questions. Empirical research in the Muslim world shows that as far as bioethical issues are concerned, Islamic ethical reasoning constitutes the primary form of legitimacy for the majority of Muslim populations. Therefore, efforts that overlook this important observation would risk alienating significant segments of the Muslim population and would in turn limit the outcome of these efforts. Bearing in mind the importance of Islamic ethical reasoning for bioethical deliberations, the Islamic Medical and Scientific Ethics (IMSE) project was launched in 2009 with funding from Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF)'s National Priorities Research Program (NPRP). This three-year project (2009–2012- NPRP No. 08-783-6-017) was established in order to undertake the necessary preliminary step of identifying and exploring available literature in the Muslim world in this area. In collaboration with the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington D.C. and building on its recognized expertise of more than 30 years in developing reference services and research databases in this field, the project developed both a comprehensive physical collection and dedicated database on the topic. Prior to its successful completion, the project team sought to maximize the use and potential of this project by developing the idea of creating the world's first encyclopedia of Islamic bioethics. The proposal of this project was awarded another three-year grant from QNRF's NPRP competition (2012–2015 - NPRP No. 5-1390-6-043). Following these two pioneering projects, the team sought to build on the expertise and the resources that have been developed by investigating a focused research question addressing genetic and reproductive methods. Consequently, a third proposal for a three-year grant was submitted to the 8th cycle of the NPRP competition to investigate the impact of genetic and reproductive technologies on the nuclear family within the Islamic context, which was successfully awarded (2015–2018 -NPRP No.: 8-1478-6-053). Objectives This presentation aims to illustrate and highlight the main achievements of these three research projects. It seeks to trace the cumulative development of these efforts and the gradual emergence of a viable research program out of these three related yet distinct research projects. Most importantly, it seeks to demonstrate the difference between a research proposal at the theoretical level on the one hand and a real executed research project on the other. The journey from an abstract research proposal to an actual research project involves important lessons of practical experience that can only be gained through the process of trial and error. Methods The presentation will examine the methodology underlying each of these three successful projects and will provide research impact assessment in light of these six main pillars: - Understanding the context of these projects - Identifying their purposes - Defining employed methodologies and success indicators - Communicating findings and results - Managing the assessment of these results - Overall evaluation and quality assurance. Results and Conclusion The presentation will showcase the results of these individual research projects and will reflect on the creation of an ambitious research program as a result. It will highlight main outcomes in terms of: academic achievements (different types of publications); scholarly communication and collaboration (organization of scholarly meetings, conferences, and events); team formation and capacity building (recruitment of local and international experts); and community outreach and service (education, consultation, and advocacy).