In 2006 and 2007 Oxford Archaeology undertook a
programme of archaeological investigations in advance
of construction of the urban village of Jennett's Park in
an area of former farmland belonging to Peacock Farm,
Bracknell, Berkshire. These investigations revealed that
the site had been witness to a series of contrasting
episodes of occupation and activity over a period of
several thousand years.
The earliest occupation comprised the small, temporary
camp of a band of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers at
the top of the southern slope of Jennett's Hill, most likely
taking advantage of the elevated position of this knoll
overlooking an area of wetland to the south-west. The
remains of the camp consisted of a concentration of
worked flint recovered from a buried topsoil, and the
range of tools present indicated that a variety of activities
were carried out here including the processing of
hides. The view may have been enhanced by deliberate
clearance of trees, the resulting erosion of soil leading to
the formation of a colluvial deposit that buried the
ancient soil.
After a hiatus of activity during the Neolithic period,
when the site appears to have been little visited, activity
recommenced in the middle Bronze Age. Features of
this date comprised three burnt mounds, two waterholes,
two trough-like pits and a possible cremation burial
or deliberately-placed pot, as well as a number of small
pits or postholes buried beneath two of the burnt
mounds. Calibrated radiocarbon dates of 1630–1490 BC/
1480–1450 BC and 1420–1260 BC were obtained for two
of the burnt mounds.
Jennett's Park was first used for permanent settlement
during the middle Iron Age, when a small
farmstead was established. The settlement was occupied
into the late Iron Age but was abandoned before the start
of the Roman period. An agricultural landscape defined
by a complex of field boundary ditches was established
towards the end of the late Iron Age, but it is not certain
whether this was associated with the final phase of the
settlement or replaced it. The field system continued in
use into the Roman period, when the boundaries were reorganised and new ditches dug before being abandoned,
apparently during the early 2nd century.
Evidence was found at the northern end of the investigations
for two definite and one possible curvilinear
stock enclosures dating from the late 11th-late 12th
centuries, which were superseded by a system of fields
and enclosures that were in use until the mid 14th
century. These features may be associated with a
posited settlement beyond the limits of the excavation,
and their abandonment may have been associated with
the enclosure of part of the area during the creation of
Easthampstead Park. A post-medieval kiln, probably
for limeburning, was excavated. This may have
supplied lime for the construction during the 17th
century of the first Easthampstead Park House, which
has since been demolished and replaced at a different
location.


A comparative study of floral ontogeny in single- and double-flowered Alcea rosea L. was conducted using epi-illumination light microscopy. In both floral types, floral differentiation starts with the appearance of three epicalyx lobes, which subsequently subdivide to produce a 7–10-parted epicalyx. Five sepals appear then in a unidirectional or possibly spiral sequence. In single flowers, a corolla-androecium common primordium is formed and subsequently differentiated into five androecial sectors (= primary androecial primordia). Petals are developed at the base of the androecial sectors and secondary androecial primordia are initiated centrifugally in two rows on each sector. Later, tertiary androecial primordia are formed by the subdivision of secondary androecial primordia, which then differentiate into androecial units. Three types of double flowers were identified regarding androecial development. The first type of double flowers shows a more or less disorganised nature. However, 10 proliferation zones can be indentified in the proximal and distal tips of the androecial sectors. In the second and third types of double flowers, androecial development follows similar developmental pathways to that of single flowers. However, in second-type double flowers, the secondary androecial primordia differentiate into petals and the stamens then develop from the free space between the two rows of secondary androecial primordia. In third-type double flowers, after complete primordial partitioning, some primordia on the marginal parts of each androecial sector develop into petaloids or intermediate appendages. The gynoecium appears similarly in both floral types as numerous congenitally united carpel primordia. The double-flowered phenotypes of Alcea appear to fit the criteria for homoheterotopy with complete or partial replacement of stamens with petals, as well as for neoheterotopy, with the formation of stamens in a new position. Based on mutant phenotypes, it is suggested that different functions possibly contribute to the proliferation and differentiation of common primordia.


Effective nitrogen (N) management promotes consistent and abundant pecan (Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) C. Koch) production while minimizing waste. Recovery and partitioning characteristics of N potentially affects N management decisions; for this reason, we report certain N characteristics exhibited by trees in a bearing 'Pawnee' orchard. Nitrogen was applied prebudbreak (PBB) as a single 10 Mar. application at 1.689 gcm -2 cross- sectional trunk area or a split application in Mar. (70%) followed by a midsummer application during rapid fruit development (RFD) on 28 July (30%) (i.e., PBB + RFD) using 15 N-enriched fertilizer. Recovery of N by trees the first year was 7.2% from the PBB application and 11% from the RFD portion of the split application. Nitrogen application was 210% larger at PBB (Mar.) than at RFD (July), resulting in 118% more N absorbed. At harvest in November, fruit contained 41% and 36% of total N recovered during the first year from the PBB and RFD treatments, respectively. About 3% of the total fruit N was derived from fertilizer (NDF) absorption during the current year. Recovery was 12% for the PBB treatment and 19% for the RFD treatment by the end of the second growing season, with 93% more N absorbed from the PBB application. Nitrogen recovered from the PBB application increased '50% while trees were dormant, but there was little change in N recovery when applied during RFD. During the year of application, NDF was similar in shuck, shell, and kernel tissue when 15 N-enriched fertilizer was applied PBB. When applied at RFD, more NDF was in the kernel than the shuck and shell, indicating rapid absorption and transport to the fruit, especially to the developing kernel. In both treatments, most fruit N was derived from tree storage reserves. In the second year, NDF was highest in shucks and lowest in kernels for the PBB application; thus, N enrichment from the previous year was being depleted. In contrast, NDF was higher in kernels than shucks and shells when 15 N- enriched fertilizer was applied during RFD the previous year, indicating that N applied during RFD the previous July was being absorbed in the latter part of the subsequent growing season. This study demonstrates that pecan trees maintained with adequate N nutrition derived the majority of N used for annual parts from stored N pools, although applied N was also rapidly absorbed and transported to N sinks. Dependence on endogenous N pools explains why pecans usually require at least 2 years to respond when N is withheld from well-managed trees. These results emphasize the importance of maintaining an annual N fertility program for current and future production.


Motor imagery is currently one of the main applications of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) which aims at providing the disabled with means to execute motor commands. One of the major stages of motor imagery systems is reducing the dimensions of the input data and enhancing the features prior to applying a classification stage to recognize the intended movement. In this paper, we utilize autoencoders as a powerful tool to enhance the input features of the band power filtered electroencephalography (EEG) data. We compare the performance of the autoencoder-based approach to using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Our results demonstrate that using autoencoders with non-linear activation function achieves better performance compared to using PCA. We demonstrate the effects of varying the number of hidden nodes of the autoencoder as well as the activation function on the performance. We finally examine the characteristics of the trained autoencoders to identify the features that are most relevant for the motor imagery classification task.


Dopamine is a major neurotransmitter in neural systems innervating the striatum, and dopamine receptors are expressed during early pattern formation in the developing striatum. To test for the functional responsiveness of developing striatal neurons to dopaminergic stimulation, we established an organotypic slice culture of newborn rat striatum. We analyzed the effects of dopamine receptor agonists and of adenylate cyclase and protein kinase activation on striatal neurons by measuring the induction of Fos-like and Fra-like proteins in the cultured striatum. Fos-like and Fra-like proteins were induced in striatal neurons by activation of D1-like dopamine receptors but not by activation of D2-like receptors. The induction of Fos-like protein was mainly in striosomes and a medial compartment next to the ventricular zone, whereas Fra-like protein was induced in the striatal matrix as well. cAMP analogs and forskolin induced widespread expression of both Fos-like and Fra-like proteins. Our findings thus suggest that neurons of developing striosome and matrix compartments not only have different functional coupling of D1-like receptors to adenylate cyclase, but also have distinct maturational programs for dopaminergic regulation of individual transcription factors. Finally, despite evidence that protein kinase was involved in the induction of Fos-like protein, experiments with kinase inhibitors suggested that the induction of Fos- like protein had unusual pharmacological characteristics and raised the possibility that a novel protein kinase A-like molecule may have been involved in the induction. The cultured striatal slice preparation should provide a valuable tool for analyzing the molecular determinants of striatal development and function.


Abstract The no-votes in the French and Dutch referendums on the Constitutional Treaty have highlighted the importance of understanding the mechanisms of direct democracy. Despite the increasing use and significance of referendums in the process of European integration, comparative studies of referendums in Europe are still few and many questions concerning direct democracy thus remain unanswered. This article reviews recent advances in the literature on direct democracy and European integration and suggests future avenues for research. To understand the ways in which referendums may influence the European integration process, this article approaches the study of direct democracy from the perspective of voters (how do they decide?) and political élites (which strategies do they adopt?), as well as examining the impact on policy outcomes.


The widespread availability of automated fabrication tools is rising dramatically. Entry-level CNC routers, robotics and 3D printers can be a cost effective machinery for small to medium sized enterprises to implement. The demand to reduce housing costs and to increase resilience and quality within the construction industry will lead to a dramatic change in how we build in the years to come. Today, one extreme of housing design remains defined by prefabrication, mass-produced 'off the shelf' materials and processes. At the other extreme, bespoke housing still requires designers to hire specialist consultants and tradespeople to calculate, engineer and manufacture custom made building elements, resulting in outcomes that are not always cost effective. In this paper we outline EDFAB: eco – digital fabrication research project, with the aim to challenge conventional processes and relationships and propose a radically new but viable design and building alternative. To achieve these aims, the project is developing a system that introduces process and product innovation. It combines enhanced construction technologies, new attitudes towards materials and digital fabrication methods to produce distinctive, high quality, healthier and cost effective residential buildings that conform to the international housing standard. The paper discusses the specific contribution to the project from the different involved research areas – building technology, architecture and digital fabrication technologies and presents the early results towards a 'do it yourself' (DIY) 10m prototype domestic scale 'sleep out', designed and built using CNC routers and novel plywood construction methods that produce a kit-of-parts that are very easy to handle.


Proper design of the air ventilation system is critical to maintaining a healthy environment for the ISS crew. In this study, a computational fluid dynamic model was used to model the air circulation in Node 1 to identify the locations where there are low air velocities under nominal operating conditions and several reduced ventilation flow conditions. The reduced ventilation flow conditions analyzed were loss of cabin air fan, loss of inter-module ventilation from Node 1 to the US Lab, and loss of inter-module ventilation from the airlock to Node 1. For nominal operation of the ventilation system, about 5% of the node had air velocity of between 1 and 5 ft/min and 14% of the node had air velocity of between 5 and 10 ft/min. Loss of the cabin air fan and loss of Lab inter-module ventilation did not have a significant impact on the percentage of the node that would have low air circulation. However, the locations where the air was relatively stagnant were shifted depending on the case considered. The failure mode that had the most significant impact was loss of inter-module ventilation from the airlock. This case increased the percentage of the node with air velocity between 1 ft/min and 5 ft/min to 9.5%, and the percentage of the node with air velocity between 5 ft/min and 10 ft/min to 26%.


This book is a practical guide to solving the everyday problems encountered when building apps for Windows 10 devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones, using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.Each recipe includes a concise statement of the problem and the approach you should take in order to solve it. A full code solution is also given, along with an in-depth explanation, so you can build on your development knowledge while you work on your application. The majority of recipes can be used with the Universal Windows app template, designed to help you build one consistent user experience across devices. These are supplemented with recipes for adapting your app to different devices, screen sizes and sensor availability. You'll also find out how to deploy and publish your apps in the Windows Store.Learn how to:Make use of the latest Universal Windows app features, alongside customizations for specific platforms and screen sizes.Bring your apps to life with live tiles, notifications, and sharing.Prepare your app to adapt to your users' different cultural and business environments using globalization and localization APIs and best practices.Understand the certification process and publish your app to the Windows Store, with the option to pay once, install anywhere.This book is suitable for anyone developing for Windows and Windows Mobile. Readers should be comfortable working with HTML and JavaScript. No previous experience with Microsoft technologies or languages is needed in order to use this book.


This article attempts to identify the best features the short term interest rates stochastic process. We studied nine different linear models of short term interest rates. The choice of these models was the aim of analyzing the relevance of certain specifications of the short term interest rate stochastic process, the effect of mean reversion and the sensitivity of the volatility to the level of interest rate. We studied also the relevance of the Ait-Sahalia (1996b) nonlinear interest rate model. To further study the accurate parametric specification of the interest rate stochastic process we used a nonparametric estimation of the drift and the diffusion functions.The yield on three months treasury bills is used as a proxy for the short term interest rates. The parameters of the different linear stochastic process are estimated using the generalized method of moments. A semi parametric approach is used to estimate the non linear Ait Sahalia model (1996b). The kernel regression is used as a nonparametric approach to estimate the interest rate process. The results show that the effect of mean reversion is not statistically significant and that volatility is highly sensitive to the level of interest rates. The results prove also that both the drift and the diffusion functions should be nonlinear and that the nonlinear specification proposed by Ait Sahalia (1996b) model is not accurate.


This paper examines the effect of foreign ownership on gender-related employment outcomes and work practices in Japan. The data indicate that the proportion of females among workers, managers, directors, and board members is higher, and the gender wage gap is smaller, in foreign affiliates than in domestic firms of comparable size operating in the same industry. Foreign affiliates are also more likely to offer flexible working arrangements, telecommuting, and child care subsidies. These effects are mostly visible in older affiliates and are more pronounced in affiliates with a larger foreign ownership share. These patterns are in line with the view that it takes time to transplant corporate culture to an overseas affiliate and that a higher ownership stake may facilitate this process.


A common technique to increase the thermal efficiency and the power output of gas turbines is to inject water upstream of the compressor section. Through the evaporation of the water throughout the compressor, an isothermal process is approached. A recently developed technology for this enhanced process is interstage injection in which water is injected directly between the stages. One advantage of this over wet compression is the avoidance of icing, since the local temperatures at the injection positions are already above melting point. Moreover, stage characteristics and load distribution can be rearranged within the compressor by individually adjusting the injection amount in different stages. However, there is little practical understanding of this process, and suitable injection methods have still to be found. This paper therefore demonstrates the implementation of a novel technology of interstage injection in an axial compressor test rig whereby twin jet nozzles are integrated directly into the trailing edge of the first stator row to deliver a homogenous spray over the entire radial span. Due to the resultant blade complexity, blades are manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) and subsequently installed in an enhanced four-stage axial compressor. The installed control and measurement principles of the test rig are presented and results demonstrate the functionality of the innovative design.


To explain the low-frequency variation in US equity and debt returns in the 20th century, we solve an equilibrium model in which households face housing collateral constraints. An increase in the ratio of housing to human wealth loosens these borrowing constraintsthus allowing for more risk sharing. The rate of return that households require for holding equity decreases as a result. Feeding the historical time series of US housing collateral into the model replicates four features of long-run asset returns. (1) It produces a fifteen percent equity premium during the 1930s and a slow decline of the equity premium from eleven percent in the 1960s to four percent in 2003. (2) It generates large unexpected capital gains for equity holders, especially in the 1990s. (3) The risk-free rate and the housing collateral ratio are strongly positively correlated at low frequencies. (4) The model mimics the slow decline in the volatility of stock returns and the riskless interest rate.


This paper describes twenty-five new species and three new genera of marine ostracodes from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) deposits of Jamaica. The new species include Amphicytherura grandicribra, Amphicytherura occulta, Asciocythere cabbagehillensis, Aysegulina chapeltonensis, Aysegulina riominhoensis, Aysegulina sagitta, Aysegulina ventrocurva, rachycythere jamaicaensis, Buntonia nana, Buntonia vulgaris, Cytherelloidea guineacornensis, Eocytheropteron hazeli, Eocytheropteron jamaicaensis, Eucytherura mitchelli, Floricythereis exquisita (new genus and species), Hemiparacytheridea exquisita, Leiocythereis polita (new genus and species), Loxoconcha pindarsensis, Ovocytheridea rotunda, Phrixocythere unionensis (new genus and species), Pterygocythereis babinoti, Schizoptocythere pinna, Schizoptocythere nana, Schuleridea exiguus, and Spinicytheridea compta (new genus and species). One of the new genera, Floricythereis, together with Schizoptocythere, is considered to include previously-described species from North America, indicating a faunal link during the Late Cretaceous. The description of the Late Cretaceous faunas of Jamaica is a step in understanding the relationship between biological evolution and plate tectonics in the Caribbean region during the Late Cretaceous.


Over the past century forest regrowth in Europe and North America expanded forest carbon (C) sinks and offset C emissions but future C accumulation is uncertain due to the effects of land use changes, management, disturbance, and climate change. Policy makers need insights into forest C dynamics as they anticipate emissions futures and goals. Using a completely remeasured land use and forest inventory we show that forests in the southeastern United States yielded a net sink of C over a 5 year period (2007-2012) because of net land use change (+6.48 TgC yr-1) and net forest accumulation (+75.4 TgC yr-1). Forests disturbed by weather, insect/disease, and fire show positive forest C changes (+1.56, +1.4, +5.48 TgC yr-1, respectively). Forest cutting was the only disturbance causing net decreases in C (-76.7 TgC yr-1) but was offset by forest accumulation (+143.77 TgC yr-1). Projected C stock changes indicate a gradual slowing of carbon accumulation with forest aging (a reduction of 9.5% over the next five years) but was highly sensitive to land use.


Scholarly study of the biblical book of Ezra-Nehemiah has mainly focused on historical questions. Indeed, the book is one of the most important sources available for shedding light on the history of Persian-period Judea. It has been widely held that Ezra-Nehemiah in its final form reflects a pro-Persian attitude, based on its treatment of the Persian kings within the narrative. The present study seeks to provide a step toward greater precision in this assessment by employing a recognition of the techniques of characterisation used in narrative texts to evaluate the portrayal of the Persian kings in Ezra-Nehemiah. After a review of the techniques of characterisation and their resulting effects, as identified by narrative critics, a close reading of each of the passages in EzraNehemiah contributing to the characterisation of Persian kings is undertaken in order to discover the picture of the kings that emerges. The book is treated as a literary unity, and the influence of earlier passages on the interpretation of later ones (and in some cases, vice versa) is noted. It becomes apparent that it is not the implied author's purpose in the narrative to communicate a particular perspective on the Persian kings. Rather, they function as secondary characters, enhancing the perspective the implied author intends to communicate about YHWH. Nevertheless, it is possible to draw further specific conclusions about their characterisation. The Persian kings in Ezra-Nehemiah merge together into a single character, or a single role played by virtually indistinguishable characters. The implied author constructs them as, in significant ways, both similar to and yet distinct from the Assyrian and Babylonian rulers who preceded them. They are assumed to have motivations similar to those of any non-Judean ruler of their general period. They appear to be regularly unhelpful to the Judean exiles, apart from instances of intervention by YHWH on the Judeans' behalf. These characteristics appear to be reflected consistently in all parts of the narrative, not only in isolated sections. Insofar as the narrative of Ezra-Nehemiah may reflect the views of one or more historical individuals, it is questionable whether it reflects a pro-Persian attitude.


ABSTRACTThe ascendancy of the United States as a global empire produced a crisis in the meaning of American nationhood, prompting imperial statesmen to recalibrate the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. The annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines in 1898 gave rise to a complex and often volatile system of border-making. Overseas expansion changed the territorial nature of the state, as both the Philippines and Puerto Rico were declared "unincorporated territories" defined as neither fully domestic nor completely foreign. Territorial statecrafttreated the Philippines and Puerto Rico similarly. However, statecrafttowards individuals (as opposed to territories) differentiated the two populations as Puerto Ricans were declared U.S. citizens in 1917 but Filipinos were not. This essay explores how U.S. policies toward these territories and populations became increasingly complex and contradictory as the state tried to manage the national polity in the age of imperial expansion. [Key words: colonialism, citizenship, borders, Puerto Rico, Philippines, empire]the united states' bid for a transoceanic empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had a profound impact on the character of american statecraft. The extension of U.S. sovereignty beyond the nation's continental borders gave rise to contentious debates about the costs and consequences of America's imperial ascent. In the aftermath of the Spanish American War in 1898, the U.S. claimed title to most of Spain's insular colonies, including Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Cuba, and Guam.1 Cuba was granted nominal independence in 1902, allowing American policymakers to focus their attention on the other colonial properties. Although the U.S. had a long history of domestic territorial conquest, the seizure of overseas possessions raised a new set of questions about the boundary lines of the American polity. Precedent established with regard to previous episodes of territorial acquisition (Adams-Onis Treaty [obtaining Florida], Louisiana Purchase Treaty, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) had always included provisions granting U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants of annexed lands.2 In addition, federal law as codified in the Revised Statutes of the United States established that all of the rights and protections guaranteed by the U.S. constitution were applicable to territories acquired by the U.S.3The prospect of collectively naturalizing the native residents of the Philippines and Puerto Rico, however, gave many U.S. lawmakers pause, insofar as the people who inhabited these territories were of suspect racial fitness. Expansion towards the new trans-oceanic territories also meant a transition from the hitherto dominant model of settler colonialism, in which territories became states after Anglo settlers became a majority and acquired property and power. This is not to say that "race" did not play a role in continental expansion. The pattern of incorporation could vary considerably depending on the speed of colonization and the size of the resident, non-Anglo population, the evident contrasting examples being California, which became a state in 1849 after the Anglo population that arrived with the Gold Rush overwhelmed the local population, and New Mexico, which had a much larger Mexican population and only became a state in 1912, after a protracted struggles over land titles and political power.4 Settlers would play a very marginal role in insular colonization after 1898.American lawmakers were forced to reconcile two seemingly countervailing political impulses that prevailed in the U.S. in the aftermath of the War of 1898. The first was the urge to enlarge the territorial jurisdiction of U.S. in an effort to bolster America's geopolitical position vis-a-vis rival imperial rivals, especially in the Caribbean Basin and Asia. By doing so, expansionists hoped to secure transoceanic trade routes and access to international markets for American commercial interests. …


Lecture handouts are widely used as instructional tools, useful for the student preparation, comprehension and revision. They have become an integral component of the lecture in undergraduate medical education. This study was conducted to analyze the perceptions of first year medical students about the effectiveness of using complete and incomplete lecture handouts in Biochemistry course. This cross-sectional study was conducted at RAK College of Medical Sciences (RAKCOMS). About (n=98) first year medical students were administer with 10 item questionnaire to determine their perceptions and expectations about the lecture handouts. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics for each questionnaire. To analyze the multiple comparisons between the groups, one sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied. A p value <0.05 was considered as significant. As per our study majority of the students reported that they use and read the lecture handouts as a reference. They also expressed their satisfaction as it stimulated their desire to learn biochemistry. They use complete handouts as a means of substituting their learning rather than supplementing. Overall, experience of the students was positive towards the use of lecture handouts, specifically for complete handouts as means of preparation, comprehension, revision and performance. K e y w o r d s Complete lecture handout, Incomplete Lecture Handout, biochemistry.


Abstract. Urban heat risk management is an urgent issue in Japan. Although it is difficult to evaluate heat risk at spatially fine scale due to measurement data restrictions, heat risk varies depending on the location of the people. As a first step of developing smart navigation system for managing heat risk, we try to evaluate personal heat risk by combining ground surface temperature observed from an aircraft and people location acquired from mobile phones at the same time. G star statistic is used to detect high risk areas considering instantaneous co-occurrence of high temperature distribution and walking people density.


Title of Dissertation: THE INTERACTION OF PEER INFLUENCE AND SELF-PRESENTATION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS' ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION Raamses Paul Rider, Ph.D., 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Harold Sigall, Department of Psychology This research examined alcohol use among college students from a socialpsychological perspective. I investigated two factors, not yet paired together in prior research, that interact to influence college students' attitudes toward alcohol as well as their decision to consume alcohol and the amount of alcohol they consume. These two factors are the amount of alcohol consumed by an individual's peers and the individual's motivation to engage in self-presentation. I present a theoretical model of college students' alcohol consumption that incorporates these variables, among others, and I present results of two studies investigating the relationships among these variables. I investigated whether individuals consume alcohol, in part, for self-presentational purposes. More specifically, I hypothesized that individuals high in the ability and motivation to present desirable images to others (high self-monitors) will be more likely than individuals low in such ability and motivation (low self-monitors) to match the alcohol consumption behaviors displayed by their peers. Results supported this hypothesis as well as other, secondary, hypotheses. THE INTERACTION OF PEER INFLUENCE AND SELF-PRESENTATION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS' ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION


Geomorphic indices are extremely useful for the study of drainage basins. Nonetheless, it is not always possible to carry out a complete and integrated analysis of all the available indices because of their different way of representation. A case study of the Conca river basin in central Italy it is describes here, where the need to understand the relationships between the intensity of erosive processes and basin asymmetry made it necessary to analyse and to compare two geomorphic indices: the asymmetry factor (AF) and the energy of relief (Er). This basin has the characteristic of displaying strong left asymmetries in the upper and lower part that, for some authors, are caused by the different intensity of erosional processes on the opposite sides of the basin due to the their orientation. To study in great detail the asymmetry factor (AF) and the relief energy (Er) and their relationship along the entire basin a new method of calculating and representing these two geomorphic indices was created. Using this method these parameters were comparable and provided useful information to explain whether a correlation between asymmetry and erosion due to the orientation exists, that would otherwise be difficult to obtain with traditional methods. The data obtained highlight that in the upper and lower part of the Conca basin there is not any direct relationship between the asymmetries and the intensity of erosive processes on the sides of the basin. The results of this analysis, supported by other investigations such as satellite imagery observations and field evidences, show that the asymmetries seem to be due to different causes instead to orientation which may have had a marginal role only. This study also showed that, by applying methods of calculation and representation of the complementary geomorphic indices AF and Er, it is possible to increase the quantity and the quality of data. This can widen the scope and applications of geomorphologic and geomorphometric studies, and particularly applies to AF. The use of the AF index has previously been limited in drainage basins where the asymmetry alters; however, if the methods described in the present study are used, the parameter AF can successfully be applied to all types of drainage basins.


This paper investigates memory management for real-time multimedia applications running on resource-constrained electronic devices. The target applications are comprised of a data-driven task chain with a time-driven head and tail and a bounded end-to-end latency. The necessary buffer capacities along the task chain are derived. Subsequently it is shown how a shared memory pool can reduce the total memory requirements of the whole application. The impact of a shared memory pool is also evaluated in the context of scalable applications. The general technique targeted at memory-constrained streaming systems is demonstrated with a video encoding example, showing memory savings of about 19%.


Intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention programming in the Global South initially focused on working with women. Yet, over the last few years this has expanded to engaging both women and men both in small group work and at the community level. More recently, some violence prevention programs have begun specifically targeting couples. This practice brief explores the emerging area of working with couples on violence prevention, highlighting three programs using this approach in Africa: Indashyikirwa in Rwanda, Becoming One in Uganda, and Unite for a Better Life in Ethiopia. Although impact evaluations of these programs are not yet available, this practice brief is informed by qualitative research findings, reflections from program staff on the value of working with couples and issues that need to be considered during program design. It contains lessons that may be useful for practitioners looking to enter this field and for organizations planning to expand into couples programming. OVERVIEW ii PRACTICE


During the break-up of Gondwana and the development of smaller crustal blocks several isolated basins were formed repeatedly. This led to a restricted exchange of water masses between the Tethys and these basins as well as the evolving South Atlantic and Weddell Sea. Anoxic conditions resulted in the deposition of black shales as observed in the Transkei Basin and the northern Mozambique Basin. Later tectonic movements allowed the formation of traps and pathways for fluids, which have been formed in conjunction with the black shales and high sedimentation rates proximal to the continent. The release of these fluids has been related to earthquakes as the initiator and slumps (e.g. the Agulhas Slump) and slides as an effect.
The Transkei Basin, located between two Large Igneous Provinces (LIP, Agulhas Plateau and Mozambique Ridge) was formed during the Cretaceous magnetic quiet zone so the exact formation age is unclear.
I propose to drill the Transkei Basin to recover complete sedimentary and basement volcanic rock sequences. The sediments preserved in this basin record an at least 100 m.y. history of the most extreme climates of the past 200 Ma, global anoxia, perturbation of geochemical cycles and major changes in marine biota. The overall goal is a quantitative characterisation and understanding of biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosystem reactions to environmental and climate changes at the onset, during and after major greenhouse episodes. I suggest to determine the age of the basin formation, it's relation to the neighboured LIPs, the nature and age of the bright spots interpreted as black shales, and determine the spatial and temporal variability of the lysocline-CCD and OMZ.


The South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal award was an overwhelming legal and moral victory for the Philippines. The arbitral tribunal categorically declared that China's nine-dash line claim is incompatible with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, China's defiance of the ruling and refusal to honor and implement the award pose a serious challenge to Manila's victory. In addition, the astonishing shift in Philippine foreign policy direction, alongside the change in government, flouts the arbitral award and undermines previous State policies assertive of Philippine maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea. The current direction of Philippine-China relations under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has demonstrated positive signs of improvement compared with acrimonious bilateral relations pursued by the previous Aquino administration. The arbitral award has largely been set aside in the government's effort to restore amicable economic and diplomatic relations with China. This paper examines the South China Sea arbitral award amidst shifting Philippine foreign policy under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.


Refrigerant maldistribution in the microchannel heat exchanger (MCHX), though mainly due to phase separation in the header in two-phase flow, is also affected by the pressure drop in the header. This paper investigates the singlephase flow pressure drop of nitrogen, R134a vapor, and R134a liquid in the vertical header of a multi-pass microchannel heat exchanger. The objective is to develop a model for the single-phase pressure drop in the header and provide the basis for two-phase flow pressure drop model. The fluid enters into the vertical header through five microchannel tubes in the bottom pass and exits through five microchannel tubes in the top pass representing the flow in the outdoor MCHX of a reversible system under heat pump mode. The local pressure drop across each exit microchannel tube in the header is measured at various inlet mass flow rates. For nitrogen and R134a vapor, the local pressure drop usually reduces along the upward flow in the header. For R134a liquid, the local pressure drop is highest across the second exit tube, and then it decreases along the upward flow. The measured overall local pressure drop includes the acceleration, gravitation, friction, and minor pressure drop due to the protruded microchannel tube. The minor pressure drop coefficient based on the experimental results is compared with the empirical correlation. It is found that the empirical correlation works well for nitrogen and R134a vapor but not for R134a liquid. A new correlation for R134a liquid is proposed with the same format, but the coefficients are derived based on the experimental results of this study using the least square curve-fit method.


Tests were conducted to determine thickness of smooth, nonreinforced geomembranes using three methods: mechanical (according to ASTM and European standards), ultrasonic, and magnetic methods. The mechanical method is the standard procedure used for determining thickness of geomembranes. The ultrasonic and magnetic methods are not commonly used for geomembranes; however, they are used for testing other materials such as metals. Tests were conducted on 15 geomembranes representing five types of polymers (HDPE, LLDPE, PVC, PP, and EPDM). The results of the testing program indicated that the level of pressures applied affected the thickness measurements in mechanical tests. While the low pressures were not sufficient to flatten particularly the rigid geomembranes, the high pressures tended to compress the geomembranes excessively. Both high and low pressures prevented obtaining representative measurements. The measurements obtained using the ASTM method were more reliable than the measurements obtained with the European method, although it is believed that the most reliable measurements can be obtained by the nondestructive methods (ultrasonic and magnetic). These techniques are sensitive only to the thickness of the materials due to the inherent properties of the test procedures, and they work equally well for rigid and flexible geomembranes. Of the two nondestructive methods, ultrasonic testing is better due to several advantages: it allows for testing from the top surface of geoembranes in the laboratory or in the field, and it can be used on coupons of geomembranes as well as on whole sheets without the need for removing test samples. Both nondestructive methods can be improved for application to geomembranes.


The determination of the correct integer number of carrier cycles (integer ambiguity) is the key to high accuracy positioning with carrier phase measurements from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). There are a number of current methods for resolving ambiguities including the Least-squares AMBiguity Decorrelation Adjustment (LAMBDA) method, which is a combination of least-squares and a transformation to reduce the search space. The current techniques to determine the level of confidence (integrity) of the resolved ambiguities (i.e. ambiguity validation), usually involve the construction of test statistics, characterisation of their distribution and definition of thresholds. Example tests applied include ratio, F-distribution, t-distribution and Chi-square distribution. However, the assumptions that underpin these tests have weaknesses. These include the application of a fixed threshold for all scenarios, and therefore, not always able to provide an acceptable integrity level in the computed ambiguities. A relatively recent technique referred to as Integer Aperture (IA) based on the ratio test with a large number of simulated samples of float ambiguities requires significant computational resources. This precludes the application of IA in real time. This paper proposes and demonstrates the power of an integrity monitoring technique that is applied at the ambiguity resolution and positioning stages. The technique has the important benefit of facilitating early detection of any potential threat to the position solution, originating in the ambiguity space, while at the same time giving overall protection in the position domain based on the required navigation performance. The proposed method uses the conventional test statistic for ratio testing together with a doubly non-central F distribution to compute the level of confidence (integrity) of the ambiguities. Specifically, this is determined as a function of geometry and the ambiguity residuals from least squares based ambiguity resolution algorithms including LAMBDA. A numerical method is implemented to compute the level of confidence in real time. The results for Precise Point Positioning (PPP) with simulated and real data demonstrate the power and efficiency of the proposed method in monitoring both the integrity of the ambiguity computation and position solution processes. Furthermore, due to the fact that the method only requires information from least squares based ambiguity resolution algorithms, it is easily transferable to conventional Real Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning.


Cotton lint is the first natural fiber used in the world. Cotton provides income to more than 10 million persons in West and Central Africa. In Cameroon, it is produced under rainfed conditions and water shortage is the major abiotic factor limiting yield and lint quality. In this context, a breeding program was initiated in 1950 by IRCT (Institut de Recherches du Coton et des Textiles Exotiques) to increase lint yield, fiber quality and disease resistance. After 60 years, this program has released more than 20 cultivars. However, seed cotton yield has been levelling off for more than thirty years. This study analyzed growth and development of main cultivars released from 1950 to 2009 to evaluate genetic gain including drought adaptation traits indirectly bred for. It also analyzed genotype by environment by crop management interactions (GEI) under water limited conditions in order to use a cotton simulation model in Cameroonian conditions. Then, crop simulation model was used to design cotton ideotypes under Cameroonian cropping conditions. An application of this work was in identifying the measurements of key drought adaptation traits to breed for in order to create cultivars that better withstand water stress. Firstly, phenotype evolution over breeding time and its interaction with cropping conditions in Cameroon was evaluated on cotton development, growth (including roots), yield, and fiber quality. Ten major cultivars were studied under rainfed conditions (field) and controlled conditions (greenhouse and phytotron). Classical GEI analysis of variance of cultivars and regression over their respective year of release were done. The results showed that the breeding program succeeded in improving cotton lint yield and the potential of fiber quality when the crop reached physiological maturity before the end of the rainy season. In late season drought, breeding reduced the fiber quality (fiber length, uniformity and strength). Most of the development and growth variables did not change with time, except the number of leaves which reduced. Breeding created cultivars with better potential fiber production and quality, but with reduced plasticity to sub-optimal environments and access to soil water. Secondly, an analysis of GEI for ecophysiological traits conferring a good response to drought was done in good and water limited conditions for a subset of four cultivars. The results indicated that water deficit had a negative impact on almost all plant functions, both under field and controlled environments. The recent cultivar L484 bred for the driest production area had the fastest development, thickest leaves with most chlorophyll and thus maintained the highest level of photosynthesis and transpiration per unit of leaf area in water-limited conditions. In these conditions, L484 had the highest radiation use efficiency and water use efficiency maintenances. Despite these traits this cultivar did not show any improvement in terms of biomass, harvest index and cotton yield across water conditions. Cotton breeding program in Cameroon succeeded in providing a cultivar (L484) better adapted to local conditions, with a higher stability and faster development coupled with a strategy of growth maintenance, without any improvement in yield. Thirdly, the crop simulation model DSSAT CROPGRO-Cotton was used in order to design ideotypes with higher yield than existing cultivars. Field experiments in Cameroon were used to constitute the minimum dataset for the crop model calibration. Forty-two virtual cultivars were generated by increasing or decreasing by 20% from genetic parameters values of cultivar L484 on phenology, photosynthesis, and leaf morphology. Then, cultivars AC, L484 and these virtual cultivars were compared across 99 years of generated weather from WGEN model in two locations. Compared to L484, the cotton ideotypes in Cameroonian rainfed conditions had reduced emergence to anthesis duration, longer reproductive duration, higher level of photosynthesis maximum with thicker leaves, and smaller leaves for Far North region or bigger ones for North region.


Objective: Post-secondary institutions provide a unique opportunity to implement and evaluate leading edge tobacco policies, while influencing a key group of young adults. To date, however, we know little about the tobacco control environment at post-secondary institutions outside the USA. Design: Telephone surveys were conducted with campus informants from 35 post-secondary institutions in Canada to evaluate tobacco control policies and the presence of tobacco marketing on campus. Main outcome measures: Tobacco marketing on campus, tobacco control policies, and attitudes towards tobacco control. Results: The findings indicate that tobacco marketing is prevalent among post-secondary institutions in Canada. Every university and half of all colleges surveyed had participated in some form of tobacco marketing in the past year. Among universities, 80% had run a tobacco advertisement in their paper and 18% had hosted a tobacco sponsored nightclub event. Tobacco control policies varied considerably between institutions. Although several campuses had introduced leading edge policies, such as campus wide outdoor smoking restrictions and tobacco sales bans, there is a general lack of awareness of tobacco issues among campus decision makers and fundamental public health measures, such as indoor smoke-free policies, have yet to be introduced in many cases. Conclusions: Post-secondary institutions in Canada remain tobacco friendly environments. Without increased direction and support from the public health community, post-secondary institutions will continue to lag behind, rather than lead current policy standards.


The separation of organelles by capillary electrophoresis (CE) produces large numbers of narrow peaks, which commonly are assumed to originate from single particles. In this paper, we show this is not always true. Here, we use established methods to partition simulated and real organelle CEs into regions of constant peak density and then use statistical-overlap theory to calculate the number of peaks (single particles) in each region. The only required measurements are the number of observed peaks (maxima) and peak standard deviation in the regions and the durations of the regions. Theory is developed for the precision of the estimated peak number and the threshold saturation above which the calculation is not advisable due to fluctuation of peak numbers. Theory shows that the relative precision is good when the saturation lies between 0.2 and 1.0 and is optimal when the saturation is slightly greater than 0.5. It also shows the threshold saturation depends on the peak standard deviation divided by the region's duration. The accuracy and precision of peak numbers estimated in different regions of organelle CEs are verified by computer simulations having both constant and nonuniform peak densities. The estimates are accurate to 6%. The estimated peak numbers in different regions are used to calculate migration-time and electrophoretic-mobility distributions. These distributions are less biased by peak overlap than ones determined by counting maxima and provide more correct measures of the organelle properties. The procedure is applied to a mitochondrial CE, in which over 20% of peaks are hidden by peak overlap.


This research is concerned with issues of episteme, epistemology, and community. It asks how and why an epistemic community emerges? It looks at the study of the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process as covered in the British and Irish political science academy in order to answer this question. This research is thus ultimately about knowledge, knowledge creators, and the circumstances and conditions in which they develop. It is also a case study of what happens when academics engage with political events. Do they act as innovators or simply as scholar who react to changing political environments? This research explains the emergence of the Northern Ireland epistemic community using the boundary object concept. It asserts that knowledge communities do not develop de novo but instead emerge through academics struggles and frustrations with existing knowledge paradigms. A boundary object is the means by scholars can come together and challenge such paradigms and build new knowledge infrastructures. Through the emergence of the Northern Ireland peace process and scholar's (re)engagement with and application of consociational theory and comparative methods this epistemic community was made possible. This research looks at the barriers that prevented the emergence of this community during the Troubles, its emergence following the outbreak of the Northern Ireland peace process, and its evolution following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Additionally, we look at the conflicts that developed between members of this community and how these academics define themselves both professionally and in relation to a community they are a part of yet see themselves as a part from.


The marine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii (Grun.) Fryxell et Hasle was grown over a wide range of irradiances and temperatures in both NO3 - and NH4 + -amended seawater containing high Fe. Maximum growth rates were not affected by N source, but the initial slope of the growth irradiance curve was significantly greater for the NH4 + -grown cells. Light-limited phytoplankton con- tained 4 times more Fe (µmol Fe mol -1 C) than light-sufficient cells, and at intermediate irradiances had the highest chlorophyll a concentrations (g C g -1 chl a). Iron quotas increased as irradiance was reduced because growth rates declined by 20-fold, whereas steady-state Fe transport rates declined by only a factor of 6. Accumulation of Fe was apparently regulated by a light-induced physiological requirement. Similar reductions in growth rate with declining temperature elicited only minor changes in Fe quota, and the increase in Fe quota, was observed only at the 2 lowest temperatures. At irradiance levels between 37 and 150 µmol photons m -2 s -1 , the relative increase in Fe quota exactly matched the relative increase predicted from the change in abundance of PSI and PSII reported to occur during photoacclimation of T. weissflogii. Subsequent increases in Fe quota at low light may represent additional changes to the photosynthetic apparatus or accumulation of Fe in a non-metabolic pool. The results demonstrate that the Fe content of phytoplankton is influenced by ambient light and imply that the extent of photoacclimation of natural populations may be con- strained by the availability of Fe.


This study evaluated the use of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology in a Swedish county council improvement program, comparing measurements at the beginning and after 6 months. A questionnaire was used, and improvement processes and outcomes were analyzed. The results showed an overall large engagement in improvements, although the methodology and facilitators were seen as only moderately supportive.


Increasing amounts of structured data are exposed on the Web using graph-based representation models and protocols such as RDF and SPARQL. Nevertheless, while the overall volume of such open, or easily accessible, data sources reaches critical mass, the ability of potential consumers to use them in novel applications and services is predicated on the availability of purposeful means to query and manage the data, while taking into account and mastering its essential features in terms of decentralization, heterogeneity of schema, varying quality, and scale. Many aspects of these challenges are necessarily tackled through a combination of algorithmic techniques and manual effort. In the literature on traditional data management the theoretical and technical groundwork to realize and manage such combinations is being established. In this paper we build upon these ideas and propose a semantically enabled architecture for crowdsourced data management systems which uses formal representations of tasks and data to automatically design and optimize the operation and outcomes of human computation projects. The architecture is applied to the context of Linked Data management to address specific challenges of LinkedData query processing such as identity resolution and ontological classification. Starting from a motivational scenario we explain how query-processing tasks can be decomposed and translated into MTurk projects using our semantic approach, and roadmap the extensions to graph-based data management technology that are required to achieve this vision.


The Medicine Bow Mountains, Sierra Madre, and intervening Saratoga Valley have been interpreted as structural features formed chiefly during the Laramide orogeny, but this concept needs revision. In this article, it is argued that Laramide regional contraction created a single Precambrian-cored range which was subsequently disrupted by Neogene normal faulting forming the present-day Saratoga Valley, Sierra Madre, and Medicine Bow Mountains. The originally broad Laramide range was bordered on the east by a thrust fault system directed toward the Laramie Basin and on the west by downwarped Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata which descend into the Washakie Basin. Erosion of the Laramide range during uplift exposed Precambrian basement rocks whose clastic debris were deposited in adjacent Paleocene basins. Following an episode of late Paleocene to early Eocene erosion, airborne pyroclastic ash from remote sources progressively filled the broad Laramide basins during the middle Eocene, Oligocene, and early Miocene. Ensuing Neogene epeirogenic uplift was accompanied by Miocene deposition, as the west flank of the Medicine Bow Mountains subsided along a normal fault thus creating the northeast-facing front of the Sierra Madre and associated half graben of Saratoga Valley. During this extensional event the North Platte River established its northward course from the floor of North Park Basin in Colorado through Saratoga Valley. The valley is interpreted as a northern manifestation of the Rio Grande rift which disrupted a broad Neogene uplift extending from New Mexico into southern Wyoming.


Common fragile sites are regions of the genome prone to gaps and breakage under replication stress. Repair of breaks at CFS can occur through homologous recombination. yet may lead to loss of heterozygosity (LOH) events that manifest themselves as gene conversions. Gene conversions associated with LOH have the potential to deactivate tumor suppressor genes, driving tumor progression. Using the yeast model, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, evidence of two types of gene conversions has emerged: short-tract and long-tract gene conversions. Gene conversion maps show a high frequency of short-tract gene conversions ending near or at the SUP4-o tRNA, in yeast strain Y657 that contains SUP4-o. We hypothesized that termination of these tracts is due to replication fork pause sites created by SUP4-o. We find the 2% difference in frequency of terminations between Y657, and our experimental yeast strain that contains SUP4-o, AMC355, does not provide statistical support for our hypothesis of SUP4-o causing termination of gene conversion tracts. We see that gene conversions near SUP4-o vary in their tract length. These gene conversions have implications for possible LOH after repair at fragile sites and may contribute to cancer progression. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis


Code smells are the fragments in the source code that indicates deeper problems in the underlying software design. These code smells can hinder software evolution and maintenance. Out of different code smell types, the God Class (GC) code smell is one of the many important code smells that directly affects the software evolution and maintenance. The GC is commonly defined as a much larger class in systems that either know too much or do too much as compared to other classes in the system. God Classes are generally accidentally created overtime during software evolution because of the incremental addition of functionalities to it. Generally, a GC indicates a bad design choice and it must be detected and mitigated in order to enhance the quality of the underlying software. However, sometimes the presence of a GC is also considered a good design choice, especially in compiler design, interpreter design and parser implementation. This makes the developer's feedback important for the correct classification of a class as a GC or a normal class. Therefore, this paper proposes a new approach that detects and proposes refactoring opportunities for GC code smell. The proposed approach makes use of different code metrics in combination along with utilizing user feedback as an important aspect while correctly identifying the GC code smell. The proposed approach that considers combined use of code metrics, is based on two newly proposed code metrics in this paper. The first newly proposed metric is a new approach of measuring the connectivity of a given class with other classes in the system (also termed as coupling). The second newly proposed code metric is proposed to measure the extent to which a given classes make use of foreign member variables. Finally, the proposed approach is also empirically evaluated on two standard open-source commonly used software systems. The obtained result indicates that the proposed approach is capable of correctly identifying the GC code smell.


B ackground & Objective: Sodium metabisulfite which is used as a food preservative in the food industry, has adverse effects on body organs such as kidney and body grouth rate. In this research we have studied the protective effect of Vitamin C and E as antioxidants, on the kidney tissue damage after the consumption of Sodium metabisulfite. Materials & methods: Forty-eight Adult male Wistar rats of 150-200 grams were divided into 6 groups of 8 each. Rats in the experimental groups received Sodium metabisulfite (520 mg / kg body weight) by gavage feeding for 30 consecutive days. Also during this period, the experimental groups 2 and 3 received a daily dose of 100 mg / kg vitamins C and E, Respectively. The experimental group 4 received 50 mg / kg vitamin C plus 50 mg / kg of vitamin E by the same root. Control group received only normal diet and water. The placebo received vehicle (drug solvent) as well as normal diet and water. At the end of the exprimental period the body growth rate was measured between the groups. The histhopatological examination was performed on the kidney tissue sections. by light microscope kidney tissue damage could lead to the The results showed sodium metabisulfite in daily dietary Results: reduce the kidney tissue mins C and E can and reduced body weight in rats (p <0.05). However, vita damage and allow a normal growth weight (p <0.05). Conclusion: With this study we could conclude that the antioxidant effect of that vitamins C and E have a protective effect on renal damage induced by sodium metabisulfite consumption .


Background Decision-analytic cost-effectiveness (CE) models combine many parameters, often obtained after meta-analysis. Aim We compared different methods of mixed-treatment comparison (MTC) to combine transition and event probabilities derived from several trials, especially with respect to health-economic (HE) outcomes like (quality adjusted) life years and costs. Methods Trials were drawn from a simulated reference population, comparing two of four fictitious interventions. The goal was to estimate the CE between two of these. The amount of heterogeneity between trials was varied in scenarios. Parameter estimates were combined using direct comparison, MTC methods proposed by Song and Puhan, and Bayesian generalized linear fixed effects (GLMFE) and random effects models (GLMRE). Parameters were entered into a Markov model. Parameters and HE outcomes were compared with the reference population using coverage, statistical power, bias and mean absolute deviation (MAD) as performance indicators. Each analytical step was repeated 1,000 times. Results The direct comparison was outperformed by the MTC methods on all indicators, Song's method yielded low bias and MAD, but uncertainty was overestimated. Puhan's method had low bias and MAD and did not overestimate uncertainty. GLMFE generally had the lowest bias and MAD, regardless of the amount of heterogeneity, but uncertainty was overestimated. GLMRE showed large bias and MAD and overestimated uncertainty. Song's and Puhan's methods lead to the least amount of uncertainty, reflected in the shape of the CE acceptability curve. GLMFE showed slightly more uncertainty. Conclusions Combining direct and indirect evidence is superior to using only direct evidence. Puhan's method and GLMFE are preferred.


Introduction: According to the statistics, hemodialysis is a widely used medical practice for patients with kidney problems. This method involves frequent intravenous cannulation, which is associated with an intense pain insofar, as it is expressed intolerable by one fifth of patients undergoing hemodialysis. Objective: This study aimed to investigating the effect of shiatsu massage as a non-pharmacological and nonaggressive method on venipuncture pain in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted with participation of 72 patients undergoing hemodialysis, visiting the hemodialysis wards of AJA hospitals in Tehran in 2015. Patients were first divided into intervention and control groups using random number table. On the first visit, demographic information of both groups were collected using demographic inventory and their pain was measured with pain assessment scale. On the second visit, 20-minute shiatsu massage of the point LI-4 was given to the intervention group before intravenous cannulation, and the amount of pain at the insertion site was measured again with the same scale. The collected data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential tests using SPSS 19. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups in background variables using chi-squared, Fisher's exact and independent t-tests. The mean pain scores at the insertion site were 5.91 ± 0.8 versus 5.75 ± 0.64 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. This between-group difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.87). The mean post-intervention pain score was significantly lower in the intervention group than the control group (3.69 ± 1.16 versus 5.61 ± 0.76) (P = 0.001). Discussion and Conclusion: The research findings suggested that the use of shiatsu massage of the point LI-4 (between the thumb and the index finger of patient with arteriovenous fistula) can decrease the pain at the site of insertion. Therefore, nurses are recommended to use this technique to ease the pain at the insertion site in patients undergoing hemodialysis.


Why are the old politically successful? We build a simple interest group model in which political pressure is time-intensive, showing that in the political competitive equilibrium each group lobbies for government policies that lower their own value of time but the old do so to a greater extent and as a result are net gainers from the political process. What distinguishes the elderly from other political groups (and what makes them more succesful) is that they have lower labor productivity and/or that we are all likely to become elderly at some point, while we are relatively unlikely to change gender, race, sexual orientation, or even ocupation, The model has a variety of implications for the design of social security programs, which we test using data from the Social Security Administration. For example, the model predicts that social security programs with retirement incentives are larger and that the old are more "single-minded" in their politics, implications which we verify using cross-country government finance data and cross- country political participation surveys. Finally, we show that the forced savings programs intended to "reform" the social security system may increase the amount of intergenerational redistribution. As a model for evaluating policy reforms, ours has the attractive feature that reforms must be time time consistent from a political point of view rather than a public interest point of view.


As the usage of intracranial stents continue to expand for wide-neck intracranial aneurysms, symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease and other pathologies, an enigmatic problem that remains is in-stent stenosis (ISS). Most commonly, this phenomenon seems to take place as a result of neointimal proliferation. However, it has been postulated that the constituents of the metal alloys used in intracranial stents may also induce an inflammatory reaction that results in ISS. Thus, nickel ions, which are present in many of the metal alloys in intracranial stents, may cause a delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction leading to ISS. Studies examining the rate of ISS secondary to hypersensitivity reactions induced by nickel ion release in coronary stents have been equivocal. Based on the available data, we cannot conclude that prescreening for nickel sensitivity before the intracranial stent deployment is indicated, but further studies may be indicated, since the amount of nickel in coronary stents is far less than in the nitinol stents used in the cerebral circulation.

The use of intracranial stents has expanded significantly over the past few years, especially with the advent of more flexible nitinol stents.1 Intracranial stents have been shown to be an effective and safe method of revascularization in intracranial vessel disease secondary to atherosclerotic lesions and dissections.2–6 Many studies have shown greater efficacy in revascularization of intracranial stenoses than just angioplasty alone, as well as a decrease in rate of complications such as distal embolization and dissection.7

Additionally, the use of intracranial stents in the treatment of aneurysms has grown dramatically. Studies as early as 1994 demonstrated the use of stents in the cerebrovascular circulation for dissecting aneurysms.5 In 1997, Higashida et al demonstrated the use of an intracranial stent as a scaffold through which coils were placed into an aneurysm in order to treat a …


Abstract Sodalites and sulfatic sodalites in holocrystalline K-feldspar-rich ejecta from the Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex, Italy, have been characterized by combined chemical, structural and spectroscopic analyses. Sodalite has a relatively homogeneous chemical composition, with the ubiquitous presence of CO2-3 and H2O/OH-. The sulfatic sodalites are isomorphous and have cage structures which can contain a wide variety of anions, molecular species and cations. Molecular CO2 and H2O/OH- are present in sulfatic sodalites, instead of the CO2-3 anions that are present in sodalite sensu stricto. The cell dimensions of the all of the studied sodalite samples are very similar, the sulfatic sodalite cell dimensions are more variable. Structure refinement of a distinctly green sample confirms the P4̅3n space group. Metasomatic magma-derived fluids that are rich in H2O, CO2, Cl and S are believed to be responsible for the genesis of the relatively late-stage phases which form the ejecta containing the sodalite-group minerals.


Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity and total phenol and flavonoid content of different parts (peel, pulp and aerial parts) of Lagenaria siceraria. Method: Successive extraction was done by cold percolation method using solvents of different polarity viz. petroleum ether, toluene, ethyl acetate, acetone, water. Total phenol content was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu's reagent method and flavonoid was determined by aluminium chloride colorimetric method. The antioxidant assays evaluated were 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, 2, 2'-Azino-bis-(3-ethyl) benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) radical cation scavenging activity and Ferric reducing antioxidant power. Results: L. siceraria peel possessed maximum phenol and flavonoid content in acetone and toluene extracts respectively. FRAP was maximum in acetone extract of peel. The peel extract demonstrated stronger DPPH activity with IC 50 value of 111 µg/ml followed by pulp extract. The same extract was effective in scavenging ABTS radical with an IC 50 value of 39 µg/ml while other parts were ineffective. Conclusion: This work demonstrated good antioxidant activity of L. siceraria vegetable cultivated in India and recommends that the peel of this vegetable may be of interest from a functional point of view as a major source of natural antioxidant.


Heller explains the underperformance and informality of retail in transition Russia as the consequence of botched privatization. He calls this outcome anticommons: too many people hold a veto, leading to underuse. Heller argues that the existence of too many overlapping property rights prevents entrepreneurs from opening brick-and-mortar shops in Russia. The ubiquity of kiosks, however, is better explained by other factors. Kiosks are smaller investments than storefronts, hence their ubiquity in a credit-constrained environment. In addition, taxes, corruption, organized crime, and favor-exchange networks all discourage scale. Retail is informal in Russia for the same reasons it is informal in other poor countries.


Motivation: At the heart of many important bioinformatics problems, such as gene finding and function prediction, is the classification of biological sequences. Frequently the most accurate classifiers are obtained by training support vector machines (SVMs) with complex sequence kernels. However, a cumbersome shortcoming of SVMs is that their learned decision rules are very hard to understand for humans and cannot easily be related to biological facts. Results: To make SVM-based sequence classifiers more accessible and profitable, we introduce the concept of positional oligomer importance matrices (POIMs) and propose an efficient algorithm for their computation. In contrast to the raw SVM feature weighting, POIMs take the underlying correlation structure of k-mer features induced by overlaps of related k-mers into account. POIMs can be seen as a powerful generalization of sequence logos: they allow to capture and visualize sequence patterns that are relevant for the investigated biological phenomena. Availability: All source code, datasets, tables and figures are available at http://www.fml.tuebingen.mpg.de/raetsch/projects/POIM. Contact: email@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


The goal of this thesis was to improve the surface quality of highly reinforced polymer
composites in order to make these materials applicable to the painted exterior of passenger
cars.
For the evaluation of the application sector of automotive exterior components, a catalogue of
requirements was drawn up from technical specifications, internal standards, and legal
requirements. Components in the horizontal decorative section of the outer skin, like front hood,
boot lid, and roof, have to fulfil the highest optical and structural requirements. A survey of the
automobile market concerning applications of fibre reinforced plastics in the exterior of cars
showed the state of the art and certain tendencies. So far, only non-reinforced, short-fiber- or
random-fiber-reinforced plastics have been able to fulfil the high suriace requirements. Up to
now, high material prices, the lack of mass production concepts, and insufficient suriace quality
have prohibited serial applications of CFRP in the outer skin of passenger cars. Therefore,
different manufacturing technologies for exterior components in composites were examined and
compared in an overview of processes. The process of resin transfer moulding (RTM) was
identified to have great potential for serial production:because of its achievable suriace quality
together with high specific mechanical properties of 1he composites.
The goal of the current research was to find optimized combinations of materials, processes,
and coatings, in order to realize a Class-A suriace quality for CFRP parts in the RTM process.
The main problem with the suriace quality is the print-through of the reinforcement caused by
the inhomogeneous distribution of the reinforcing fibres and the chemical and thermal shrinkage
of the matrix material during processing. In order to periom a systematic investigation of the
composite materials, the process parameters, and surtace treatments, an experimental RTM
tool with a plate cavity was designed and produced in the suriace quality standard of a serial
tool.
Within the material optimization the comparison of five epoxy resins showed that the system 82
was the most promising for further investigations with regard to surface quality and cycle time.
Within the comparison of the fibre reinforcements, the woven fabrics displayed a minor surface
quality compared to the non-woven and non-crimp fabrics. lt was found out that multiaxial
stitched fabrics with optimized placement technique, texturized, multifilament stitching yarns,
and trikot-franse stitching pattern currently provide the best combination of surface quality and
processability, Even better surface results were achieved with non-crimp fabrics that are fixed
by an adhesive to a polyester mesh. However, the difficult processing and infiltration with matrix
material still provide a hurdle to a possible serial application. As a result of the investigation, one
type of randomly oriented cut glass mat with minimal fibre diameter and even fibre distribution
was preferred as a core material to the commonly used continuous strand mats. Within the
great variety of different surface veils, a few types could be identified to offer an effective
reduction of long term waviness (from LW>20 to LW 35 to SW<15). These selected surface veil types are mechanically or binder fixed and made of
glass or PAN fibres with an areal weight of 50 to so g/m2
.
Statistical methods for the design of experiments and the analysis of the results were used in
the process optimization with the epoxy system 82. After the identification of the main predictors
and responses a D-optimal experimental plan was designed and perfomed. The method of
multiple regression was used to create a process modell which describes the observed system
behaviour and deviation to a very high degree.
It was discovered that high pressures on the liquid matrix system right after injection contribute
to a high surface quality by compensating a great part of the reaction shrinkage. fn order to
achieve high pressures in the cavity exceeding 100 bar, the processing af)d tooling equipment
was modified beyond conventional RTM process capabilites. Optimal settings for vacuum and
temperature difference depend on tool temperature and post pressure levels. The simultaneous
analysis of curing temperature and demoulding time showed that the best surface quality can be
achieved if the part is demoulded from the tool as soon as the saturation T9, depending on the
current tool temperature, is reached. Longer curing times neither increase the T9 of the part nor
do they improve surface quality. From these results a first strategy for high suriace quality can
be derived with a high tool temperature and a short demoulding time. The second strategy with
a !ow tool temperature and a long demoulding time, however, is easier and safer to periom in
terms of process stability.
In order to compare highly reactive thermoset matrix materials and to measure the volume
shrinkage throughout the whole reaction, a novel shrinkage measurement cell, or dilatometer,
was designed. This created the new opportunity to determine the processing shrinkage in its
chemically and thermally induced proportions depending on matrix material, curing temperature,
and time. Because of the good correlation of the laboratory results with the previous RTM
experiments, a high experimental effort for hardware investigations to characterize new epoxy
systems can be saved in the future. Matrix system 82 displayed the lowest shrinkage values in
combination with a high reactivity. It could also be observed that a great proportion of the
reaction shrinkage takes place very quickly after the start of reaction. Therefore, the post
pressure on the matrix system must be applied as early as possible in order to compensate this
shrinkage. Curing at lower temperatures always leads to lower chemical and thermal shrinkage.
In comparison to literature the newly developed method presented in this thesis provides
plausible results with high accuracy, and for the first time also for highly reactive thermoset
systems.
Suriace coatings offer the opportunity to reduce or cover surface structures and defects in order
to achieve a high quality of the painted part surface. The exploration of in-process coatings lead
to thermoplastic films and gel-coats as technologies with a high potential for the improvement of
surface quality. In comparison, epoxy surfacing films and inmould-powder-coatings result in
more effort to adapt the materials and application methods0to the current RTM process. It was
shown that the post-process coating with a plastic paint system contributes to an improvement of the surface quality. In this study different priming coat materials and thicknesses were
identified that cover part of the surface texture with an acceptable structure of the coat itself. In
addition, two surface finishing methods with manual sanding were found to raise the surface
quality of the painted part up to the required standard if required.
The results of the different subsystems materials, RTM-process, and surface coatings can be
combined in different combinations of various emphasis to the overall system of the painted
ATM-part, complying with the requirements of the specific outer skin region.
Short-term solutions for outer skin parts with vertical surfaces {as A-, B-, C-pillars, sills, or rear
side wings) were found and proven with sample plates for the first time. In order to achieve the
high quality required for horizontal exterior components (as front hood, roof, and trunk lid) at the
current state of development, a higher performance of the subsystems is necessary. But even
for this Class-A suriace quality, sample parts could be produced for the first time with high effort
in the ATM-process. At the beginning of this investigation, sample plates produced in RTM
displayed surtace waviness values of LW>35 and strong fibre marking over the whole surtace.
With the combination of optimization results, sample plates with LW<5 could be produced. A
visual evaluation could not determine any regular, oriented surface texture.
The presented work showed solutions in material-process-coating-combinations and
development potential to reach the required Class-A surface quality of automobile exterior parts
with advanced composites. This provides the necessary foundation for further developments
with the aim of a serial application.


Hyperspectral image has a large amount of data and complex structure. The distributed storage of massive remote sensing data is a hot topic today; however, the current research mostly separates the image pixels and metadata, resulting in poor system cohesion and poor data access performance. At the same time, the needs of various upper-level remote sensing algorithms are not fully considered, which makes the system less available. In view of the above problems, this paper presents a distributed image storage model based on HDFS, which stores the entire image data model in a structure to improve the system cohesion, and provides a flexible data blocking strategy for upper-level applications to meet a variety of data access needs. The comparison experiments show that the storage model has better access performance than the existing schemes.


The paper explores the rationale and potential for practitoners in both complementary currencies and platform cooperatives, and their associated researchers, to consider the role of open protocols to grow the digital commons and avoid a digital dystopia of platform monopolies. The authors contend that there have been two parallel worlds of practice that have hitherto had little interaction. One the one hand, the largely capitalist-backed fields of cryptographic currency innovation and blockchain development, and on the hand the more community-oriented initiatives with older, less technological complementary currencies. Through a literature review, the same rift is shown to extend to academic literature. The authors suggest this division reflects a more philosophical divide between capitalist interests and those seeking to generate and maintain shared wealth. Based on that analysis the relevance of the concept of "the commons" is discussed, as well as the "digital commons" as a way of framing different approaches. The importance of developing open protocols in order to create conditions for new entrants to thrive, including "protocol cooperatives" is explained. The argument that a free market in privatelyissued currencies would naturally avoid monopoly, without conscious effort to do so from innovators and regulators is rejected. Instead, the concept of the commons is applied to currencies and credit, with implications for the development of open protocols for complementary currencies. The vision, strategy and roadmap of the new Credit Commons Collective is presented. The methodology for the research is an adaptation of "reflective practice" through a structured use of "thinking partnership" over the years of engagement with the subject matter, complemented with periods of academic literature review, including for this paper.


Snow is an extremely complex material due to the structure of snow crystals and how snow behaves when it is settled within snow layers. These factors makes it hard to accurately simulate how snow layers are affected by external factors like temperature, sun radiation, and several others. And the type of snow layers, and the bonding strength between them are crucial when calculating the danger of avalanches. In this thesis we apply fracture mechanics in order to calculate where fractures are propagating in the snow layers, and by these calculations, we can try to predict where it is high danger of avalanches. This is accomplished by using the Finite Element Method which is used to model deformation in the snow layers based on the self weight of the snow, strain and stresses is then further derived which is used to calculate the so called Energy Release Rate. The energy release rate is then compared to the Critical Energy Release Rate to determine out any fracture propagation. The Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) is utilized to speed up the calculations due to the vast amount of data which is required to accurately simulate fracture propagation in the snow layers. And due to time limitations, optimizations has been left out. However, it was found out that even though optimization was left out, the GPU is performing about 5x faster than a parallelized CPU version. In the simulations, data found by Christian Sigrist has been used. Sigrist performed fracture testing on different kind of snow specimen within a laboratory and in the field, and he found crucial parameters for both homogeneous (stable) and heterogeneous (unstable) snow, and our simulation shows that homogeneous snow does not show any fracture propagation, and the heterogeneous snow shows a lot of uncontrolled fractures. The results in this thesis has been obtained by different kind of visualization methods that have been implemented in this project, where we can in real-time change the visualization method and also have the possibility of pausing/resuming the simulation to obtain more detailed analysis. The types of parameters that is possible to visualize is; snow density, normal stress, shear stress, a so called energy ratio, and the lengths of the fractures.


OBJECTIVE
The relationship between rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis has been recognized for >20 years. This study aimed to elucidate the roles of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL; one of the main pathogenic factors of atherosclerosis) and its endothelial receptor, lectin-like ox-LDL receptor 1 (LOX-1), in arthritic joints using a rat zymosan-induced arthritis (ZIA) model.

METHODS
LOX-1 expression and ox-LDL accumulation in arthritic joints were detected by immunohistochemistry using specific mouse anti-LOX-1 and anti-ox-LDL monoclonal antibodies, respectively. To elucidate the effects of the expressed LOX-1 on arthritis, ZIA rats were treated with anti-LOX-1 antibody or normal mouse IgG. The severity of arthritis was analyzed by joint swelling. Cell infiltration, synovial hyperplasia, and proteoglycan losses were also determined by histologic scoring. Proinflammatory cytokine and nitrite levels in serum and joint fluid were also measured.

RESULTS
Immunohistochemical study of ZIA demonstrated LOX-1 expression on synovial endothelium and postcapillary venules at 6 hours after the induction of inflammation, with maximum expression detected at 24 hours. LOX-1 was also expressed weakly on both joint cartilage and synovium. Ox-LDL, a ligand of LOX-1, was also detected in articular chondrocytes. Administration of anti-LOX-1 antibody, which blocks LOX-1 activity, suppressed joint swelling (by 33.5%), leukocyte infiltration, and joint nitrite accumulation at 24 hours, as well as cartilage destruction at 7 days, compared with control rats.

CONCLUSION
LOX-1 induction in arthritic joints might play a role in promoting joint inflammation and cartilage destruction by mediating leukocyte infiltration into the arthritic joints of ZIA rats.


Problem statement: Artemisia Persia (AP) used for its therapeutic effects in folk medicine whiles some species of Artemisia shown a hypotensive effect. To determine the cardiovascular effect of AP, we tested the pharmacological responses of aqueous and methanolic extracts of AP on blood pressure (BP) and Heart Rate (HR) of normotensive and ephedrine induced hypertensive rats using a tail-cuff computerized registering device. Approach: Hypertension was produced by single dose of ephedrine (40 mg kg-1 IM-1) to raise BP 20-30 mmHg. Animals were fed with different concentrations of each extracts (300, 400 and 500 mg kg-1) by gavage method. BP and HR were recorded before and during 40 min following aqueous and methanolic extracts administrations in 5 min intervals. Results: The most effective concentration of both extracts to reduced systolic BP of normotensive rats was 400 mg kg-1 after 20 min consumption (p<0.005), while none of administrated doses affected diastolic BP or HR. The efficacy of extracts was tested in hypertensive rats and the results were compared with the effect of enalapril (30 mg kg-1). Conclusions/Recommendations: Oral consumption of AP extracts after 20 min reduced systolic BP in normotensive and hypertensive rats,while the aqueous extract of AP reduced the BP of hypertensive rats more effectively than enalapril. Hence precaution should be taken when this herb is consumed as a remedy.


Identification and interpretation of pathologies in the fossil record allows for unique insights into the life histories of extinct organisms. However, the rarity of such finds limits not only the sample size for palaeopathologic studies, but also the types of analyses that may be performed. In this study, we present the first occurrence of a palaeopathology in a vertebrate from the Mesozoic of the East Coast of North America (Appalachia), a pathologic ulna and radius of an indeterminate hadrosaur from the Navesink Formation (New Jersey). X-ray microtomography allowed for both detailed and more accurate diagnosis of the pathologic condition as well as virtual conservation of the specimen. Based on extant archosaurian comparisons, the hadrosaur was diagnosed with severe septic arthritis affecting the proximal ulna and radius. Diagnosis was based on erosion of the joint and highly reactive periosteal bone growth and fusion of the elements. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first recorded account of septic arthritis in dinosaurs. The severity of the pathology suggests the animal suffered with this condition for some time before death. Unfortunately, only the ulna and radius were found. Thus, the extent to which the condition spread to other parts of the body is unknown.


Title of Dissertation: ANALYSIS AND MITIGATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC NOISE IN RESONANT CAVITIES AND APERTURES Lin Li, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Associate Professor Omar Ramahi, Mechanical Engineering The trend of low voltage in electronics circuits and boards makes them vulnerable to electromagnetic interference (EMI). Furthermore, higher speed (clock rate) leads to faster switching which increases the potential for higher radiation from circuits and boards. These inevitable trends collectively compromise the electromagnetic compatibility of electronic systems by increasing their electromagnetic susceptibility. In this work, radiation from enclosures and apertures is studies and characterized and radiation mitigation techniques are proposed. High-speed circuit radiation within an enclosure leads to cavity resonance that can have critical impact on other electronic components housed within the same enclosure. The amplified electric field in the enclosure can couple to critical circuits leading to either hard or soft failures. One measure to gauge the resonance of an enclosure is through the determination of S-parameters between certain ports connected to the enclosure. In this work, different numerical methods for efficient prediction of Sparameters are proposed and evaluated for their effectiveness and accuracy. Once an efficient procedure is established for calculating S-parameters, novel topological variations within the enclosure can be tested before manufacturing using accurate numerical prototyping. The proposed numerical S-parameters calculation algorithms are validated by comparison to laboratory measurements. Radiation from resonant apertures present in the walls of enclosures represents a second major source for radiation. In this work, a novel analysis of aperture radiation is presented based on the interpretation of the aperture as a transmission line. Once the transmission line analogy is established, a novel aperture resonance mitigation technique is proposed based on the use of material coating that mimics the behavior of matching loads that typically terminate transmission lines. The technique consists of adding resistive sheets in selected places in, or around the aperture. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by first using numerical simulation of an aperture present in an infinite perfectly conducting sheet, and then by designing an experiment where the novel technique proposed here is tested on resonant apertures present in a metallic box. Both radiation measurements in an anechoic chamber and S-parameters measurements were conducted to test the validity of the proposed mitigation techniques. ANALYSIS AND MITIGATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC NOISE IN RESONANT CAVITIES AND APERTURES


As many academics and some judges have openly admitted, no technique of statutory interpretation can settle every question of statutory ambiguity. Sometimes Congress enacts legislation containing gaps or inconsistencies that cannot be resolved through the application of a canon of construction or other interpretive rule. This article proposes an alternative approach for these hard cases. When a federal court is faced with a statute that leaves important issues about its application unclear - particularly issues that implicate the statute's constitutionality - the court could stay the case and refer the question to Congress, much in the same way that courts now use abstention and certification to obtain answers about the meaning of state law from state courts. If Congress chooses to resolve the ambiguity by amending the law in accordance with Article I's bicameralism and presidential presentment requirements, then the court can apply the new law to the current case. If Congress chooses not to act, the court is no worse off than before. Indeed, congressional silence frees judges to be more creative in their responses to statutory ambiguity because they arguably have greater leeway to fill gaps or reconcile inconsistencies in an unclear statutory text that Congress has chosen not to fix. At the very least, judges insulate themselves from charges of judicial activism if they seek congressional input before attempting to interpret unclear statutes. The article begins by considering whether certifying questions to Congress would be constitutional, and then examines whether adoption of such a practice would be wise. The discussion of both issues is informed by the fact that Congress regularly takes notice of judicial confusion and then acts to amend problem legislation, often explicitly stating an intention to affect the results in pending cases. Considering that Congress is already assisting courts by amending the statutory language at issue in pending cases - albeit in an informal and ad hoc way, this article concludes that it is worthwhile to formalize the process and encourage Congress to play an even greater role in resolving statutory ambiguity before an appellate court issues a definitive ruling.