This paper reports the synthesis of silica capped surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide; CTAB) and dye (Rose Bengal; RB) containing mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). Capping the pores of the surfactant containing MSNs with a thin silica layer decreased the immediate surfactant originated cytotoxicity of these particles without affecting their long term (3 days) cytotoxicity. Also, the silica capping process almost completely prevented the hemolytic activity of the surfactant containing MSNs. In addition, improved uptake of silica capped MSNs compared to the uncapped particles by cancer cells was demonstrated. The delayed cytotoxicity, low hemolytic activity, and better cellular uptake of the silica capped MSNs make them promising for the development of safe (i.e. with fewer side effects) yet efficient theranostic agents. These nanocarriers may release the loaded cytotoxic molecules (CTAB) mostly after being accumulated in the tumor site and cause so minimal damage to the normal tissues and blood components. In addition, the nanoscale confinement of RB molecules inside the pores of MSNs makes the particles brightly fluorescent. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that due to the singlet oxygen generation capability of the RB dye the silica capped MSNs can be also used for photodynamic therapy of cancer.


This thesis studies the impact of shale gas on the integration of natural gas markets in Europe and North America. In our practical part we examine with hard data to what extent integration of natural gas markets exists in Continental Europe and North America. We suppose that the recent changes in natural gas markets have significantly influenced the international integration between North American and European continents towards less integrated natural gas markets, but have strengthened the inner integration in these areas. Our results proved integration of natural gas market in each of the intra regional levels, what is consistent with the literature done on this topic. On the other hand our methods did not prove mutual integration between these trans-Atlantic natural gas markets, just as we expected in the hypothesis of this thesis. In our modelling we apply several approaches such as the Engle-Granger cointegration test, Johansen cointegration test and Vector error correction model to formally test for cointegration, from which we can state conclusions about mutual or inner integration. We use monthly data for a period of 1997-2011. Our research is unique becuase there are only a few existing studies on this topic to date. Our empirical tests are introduced by a solid overview of shale gas, its development in North America and in Europe and by a broad literature review. JEL Classification C32, F15, L95


Many antennas, such as the 100-m Green Bank Telescope, use a wheel-on-track systems in which the track segments consist of wear plates mounted on base plates. The wear plates are typically 2 to 3 inches thick and are case hardened or through hardened. The base plates are usually 3 to 4 times thicker than the wear plates and are not hardened. The wear plates are typically connected to the base plates using bolts. The base plates are supported on grout and anchored to the underlying concrete foundation. For some antennas, slip has been observed between the wear plate and base plate, and between the base plate and the grout, with the migration in the wheel rolling direction. In addition, there has been wear at the wear plate/base plate interface. This paper is an update on the evaluation of GBT track retrofit. The paper describes the use of three-dimensional non-linear finite element analyses to understand and evaluate the behavior of (1) the existing GBT wheel-on-track system with mitered joints, and (2) the various proposed modifications. The modifications include welding of the base plate joints, staggering of the wear plate joints from the base plate joints, changing thickness of the wear plate, and increasing bolt diameter and length. Parameters included in the evaluation were contact pressure, relative slip, wear at the wear plate/base plate interface, and bolt shears and moments.


Damage to the CNS causes reactive gliosis and the formation of a glial scar, one of the principal impediments to neuronal repair. Astrocytes are key cells in the formation of the glial scar and they respond to damage stimuli by up-regulating specific proteins, releasing cytokines, becoming hypertrophic and ramified and forming a dense meshwork of processes. The glial scar has been well characterised in animal models but there is a need for effective cell culture models in which reactive gliosis can be continuously monitored in a controlled environment. The aim of this study was to develop a cell culture system in which the progression of reactive gliosis in astrocytes could be monitored with a view to using the model to inform the development of therapeutic strategies for improving repair of spinal cord injuries.
Primary rat astrocytes maintained in 3-dimensional (3D) type-1 collagen gels showed a significantly lower level of reactivity than 2D cultures as determined by immunofluorescence detection of GFAP, vimentin, aquaporin-4, CSPGs and S100β. The 3D cells were therefore reminiscent of astrocytes in the undamaged CNS, and could be used as a baseline for investigating induction and progression of reactive gliosis. In order to verify this system as a useful model, 3D astrocyte cultures were either stimulated continually with TGFβ1 or maintained in control media for 15 days. Immunofluorescence detection and image analysis were used to quantify changes in GFAP, vimentin, aquaporin-4 and CSPG in response to TGFβ1-stimulation. There was a clear increase in detection of this panel of reactivity markers with time in culture in the astrocytes exposed to TGFβ1 whilst control cultures showed little change. For further validation of this system as a useful model that permits detailed analyses, protein and RNA were extracted and used for Western blotting and RT-PCR respectively, and levels of IL-6, a cytokine released by reactive astrocytes, were monitored using ELISA.
The results from this study indicate that astrocytes in 3D collagen gels remain in a relatively non-reactive state compared to those in 2D cultures, but when stimulated with TGFβ1 they become reactive. Therefore this 3D cell culture system provides a useful model in which astrocytes can be maintained with a non-reactive phenotype and then can be stimulated to undergo reactive gliosis in a manner that closely resembles the behaviour of astrocytes in vivo. Because a wide range of biochemical, molecular and microscopic techniques can be used to monitor these cellular responses in real-time, this model will provide a powerful test-bed for the rational design of improved therapeutic interventions to treat CNS damage.


A large number of biological pathways have been assembled in later years, and are being stored in databases. Hence, the need for methods to analyse these pathways has emerged. One class of methods compares pathways, in order to discover parts that are evolutionary conserved between species or to discover intra-species similarites. Most previous work has been focused on methods targeted at metabolic pathways utilising the EC enzyme hierarchy. Here, we propose a Gene On-tology (GO) based approach for finding semantic local alignments when comparing paths in biological pathways where the nodes are gene products. The method takes advantage of all three sub-ontologies, and uses a measure of semantic similarity to calculate a match score between gene products. Our proposed method is applicable to all types of biological pathways, where nodes are gene products, e.g. regulatory pathways, signalling pathways and metabolic enzyme-to-enzyme pathways. It would also be possible to extend the method to work with other types of nodes, as long as there is an ontology or abstraction hierarchy available for cate-gorising the nodes. We demonstrate that the method is useful for studying protein regulatory pathways in S. cerevisiae, as well as metabolic pathways for the same organism.


An old friend once sent me a card which read: "Don't let them destroy the hypocrisy of Christmas-it's the only part I really enjoy." Ever since, I have found myself unable to throw away the idea cased in that cynical little comment. It identifies a feeling I have whenever carols are sung of a "religious" kind, in contrast to the jolly, folksy "Good King Wenceslas" variety. Christmas has conventions, which we honour and enjoy, one of them being the homely familiarity of the traditional carols and the folk stories within them. But, as John Bell points out in his introduction to "Innkeepers and Light Sleepers": To say there is nothing wrong with traditional Christmas carols is to be less than discerning. . . . there are some which tell patent lies about the nativity or about Jesus himself.1 He goes on to speak of: the temptation (in carols) to depict the characters in the nativity story as less than full-blooded. . . . And in the midst of all diis, the wonder, the confusion, the conundrum of the incarnation is hid behind the verbal equivalent of Victorian stained glass.2 This is to make Jesus, the most full-blooded human we know, become a washed-out version of a bad print. In part, I blame it on "theology by rhyme.* You will recognise this syndrome in hymns ("save/grave," "crown/down," "love/above") and in carols, ("holy/lowly"), making Jesus the "mild /child" not to mention "reconciled" in predictable rhyming. The choice of words we sing often paints with sentimental pastels instead of robust primary colours. It also skews the picture, and keeps new theology from being born. Convention, in carols, it seems to me, has the same role as gift wrap: it is not the actual gift, but rather it is the protective covering for the gift, sometimes imprisoning the contents, which are the meaning, or revelation. Convention requires the stable scenes, the shepherd rustics, and the choral angels. And carols will continue to be written and sung which touch the yearning in all of us for a fairytale scenario. It is the Church itself that perpetuates the "hypocrisy" of Christmas, celebrating it as convention requires. We sing carols that keep the shock of the birth story safely swaddled, without the unwrapping of the Jesus child so that the earthiness and marvel of the Incarnation becomes more and more real. We have the package without the insight to know what the gift might mean. Jesus grows up. We must, too. In 1995, composer friend, Jillian Bray, sent me a tune. It had a name, Elizabeth, but no theme was indicated. As is her style, Jillian asked politely what theme it made me think of, and because Elizabeth is part of the Christmas narrative, I suggested a carol. That was before I listened attentively to the tune, with its happy lilt until the last line, when it has a wistful and falling tone. So this was not likely to be a totally merry carol, even if I might have written one. Without putting the Cross into the cradle, it seemed important to honour the solemn prophecies, such as the one given to Elizabeth. As I scribbled ideas, I reflected on how many different stages in life we all have sung carols, from a childhood form of faith onward. While we are still children singing "Away in a manger," we are at that stage of understanding exemplified by "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."3 This is not to diminish the glorious simplicity of the statement. Even Karl Barth used those very lines as the summation of all his theology.4 But when we are grown-ups, and the gospel of peace has been disregarded, misunderstood, riddled with conflict, what then? Surely this Christ will ask for accountability in our work for peace, justice, and the care of our world? …


Previous research suggests Type A personality, workload, stress, and procrastination are related. The more Type A a person is the more workload they take on (Sato et al., 1998). The higher a person's perceived workload the more stress they report (Kausar, 2010). The higher their perceived stress the more likely they were to procrastinate (Veresova, 2013). I propose the more Type A a person is the more likely they are to procrastinate because of their increased perceived workload and stress. Survey results show the more Type A a person is the more likely they were to report high levels of perceived workload, perceived stress, and passive procrastination. Two mediation analyses show that workload mediates the relationship between personality and stress, and stress mediates the relationship between workload and passive procrastination. These relationships help support the claim that Type A personality leads to increased procrastination through increased perceived workload and stress.


Reactivity insertion accidents have been analyzed for the 20-MW D2O-moderated research reactor (NBSR) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The analysis has been carried out for the present core, which contains highly enriched uranium fuel, and for a proposed equilibrium core with low-enriched uranium fuel. The time-dependent analysis of the primary system is performed with a RELAP5 model that includes the reactor vessel, primary coolant pump, heat exchanger, fuel element geometry, and flow channels for both the 6 inner and 24 outer fuel elements. Postprocessing of the simulation results has been conducted to evaluate minimum critical heat flux (CHF) ratio and minimum onset of flow instability (OFI) ratio using the Sudo-Kaminaga correlations and Saha-Zuber criteria, respectively. Evaluations are carried out for the control rod withdrawal start-up accident and the maximum reactivity insertion accident. In both cases the RELAP5 results indicate that no damage to the fuel will occur and there is adequate margin to CHF and OFI because of sufficient coolant flow through the fuel channels and the negative reactivity insertion due to scram.


Objective: (a) To examine the potential benefits and effect on pilot flying behavior from the use of portable weather presentations and (b) to assess pilot sensitivity to weather symbology changes. Method: Seventy-three General Aviation (GA) pilots volunteered to participate in the study. During simulated flights, participants were randomly assigned either to an experimental group or to a control group and flew a simulated single-engine GA aircraft under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) while avoiding hazardous weather. The experimental group was equipped with a portable "weather application" during flight. We recorded flight profile parameters, Weather Situation Awareness (WSA), decision-making, cognitive engagement, weather-application interaction, and aircraft distance-to-weather. Using a change-detection experiment, we assessed participants' sensitivity to symbology changes in portable weather presentations. Results: We found positive effects from the use of the portable weather application with an increased WSA for the experimental group. This resulted in credibly larger route deviations and credibly greater distances to hazardous weather (≥ 30 dBZ cells) in the experimental group than in the control group. Nevertheless, both groups flew too closely to hazardous weather compared to what is recommended in current Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. We also found a credibly higher cognitive engagement (prefrontal oxygenation levels) for the experimental group, possibly reflecting increased flight planning and decision-making among the participants. Using a change-detection experiment, we assessed participant discriminability of signal and noise trials using cloud ceiling, precipitation, and PIREP information. We found that discrimination performance was low for all conditions in comparison to the performance of a group of ideal observers as measured by the signal detection (SD) metric for discriminability (d). Conclusion: The study outcome supports our hypothesis that the portable weather application can be used without degrading pilot performance on safety-related flight tasks, actions, and decisions. However, it also shows that an increased WSA does not automatically transfer over to improved flight behavior. The outcome shows that participants could learn and operate the portable weather application with relative ease, but training is necessary to help pilots translate weather information into improved flight-behavior strategies. The outcome from the change-detection experiment shows that work is still needed to optimize the symbology for portable cockpit weather presentations. Applications: This simulation is part of an initial assessment of the effects of portable weather applications on pilot behavior and decision-making.


During a recent population increase, the high-arctic nesting Greater Snow Goose Chen caerulescens atlantica greatly expanded its spring staging habitat. Over two decades, the flock over-spilled from its tra ditional fresh-water Scirpus marshes of the upper St. Lawrence River estu ary into the salt-water Spartina marshes of the lower estuary. It also consi derably expanded its use of neighbouring fannland. Concurrent studies revealed that the geese were completing the spring staging with substantial ly lower fat reserves in the recently invaded area. The present study was de signed to identify the causes of these differences in the level of pre-breeding conditioning by making energy budgets covering the 6-week staging period in both habitats. There were profound differences in energy budgets be tween the two study sites, which was mainly caused by differences in digestibility of food plants (Spartina rhizomes 25%, Scirpus rhizomes 51 %). An increased use of fannland and especial! y of cereal grains in the newly-invaded habitat, partly made up for the inadequacy of the Spartina rhizomes in supplying metabolizable energy. Under these circumstances, it is expected that the geese wil! further increase their dependence on agricul tural plants in order to complete pre-breeding fattening. Departement de biologie, Faculte des sciences et de genie, Universite Laval, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada, GIK 7P4


Female Transvestism in Denmark in the 18th and Early 19th CenturiesIn the 18th century, several women, whose fate in other respects was likely to pass unnoticed, chose to disguise themselves as men and live as such for long periods of their lives. Studies carried out by scholars in Sweden, The Netherlands and England reveal a few dozens of cross-dressing women in each country. This article presents four, maybe five similar cases from Denmark.In 1714, Sidsel Andersdatter, aged 34, after two childbirths and a subsequent career as wet-nurse, changed her gender identity. She married a young woman, whom she – under secret circumstances – had assisted during pregnancy and delivery and in having the woman's child registered as legitimately born. Pretending to be male, Sidsel joined the Navy as a cook. The next four years she participated in several naval battles with Sweden. When at home during winter breaks in military activity, she behaved as a man, had herself shaved, carried a rapier and frequented alehouses. After the war, her marriage soured and she left Copenhagen to work as a farmhand. Her wife divorced her and married a better off ship's clerk. After a while, Sidsel returned to Copenhagen and worked as a tailor until 1728, when her sex was publicly disclosed after she had been leading a man's life for 14 years. The court sentenced her to two years of hard labour on grounds of the false marriage and on suspicion that a horn she carried, allegedly using it to pee through, had in fact been used as a dildo.Else Kortzdatter disguised herself as a boy at the time of pubescence and worked with nightmen on Zealand. In 1731, 21 years old, she disclosed herself and married an older nightman in the town of Koge.Engelbrecht Maria Stockenbeck, aged 20, after being married in Copenhagen, left her husband and went to Holstein, where she disguised herself as a man and took up the profession of a tailor. Over a period of three years, she moved between many different places in Northern Germany and Jutland as a travelling journeyman. After returning to Copenhagen in 1784 her sex was disclosed. She then applied for and was awarded a royal privilege which allowed her, despite being a woman, to work as a tailor and employ a journeyman.The same year an account of her adventures was published. In the booklet, she told with pleasure of victorious tavern brawls and spoke highly of the solidarity between travelling journeymen. When she once again assumed a female identity, Engelbrecht Maria maintained both the masculine (Engelbrecht) and the feminine (Maria) marker in her name, even though her baptismal name appears to have been Ellen Maria. In the following years she resumed the life of a travelling journeyman, including such lifestyle features as frequenting taverns, only now as a woman. Several times during her travels, she had confrontations with local authorities who disbelieved her claim of a royal privilege to perform an otherwise exclusively male occupation. Her husband filed for divorce after her return to Copenhagen and provided solid proof to the court that Engelbrecht Maria lived with another man, whom she apparently had been bossing around. There are indications that she gave birth to several children.Finally, the tailor and pauper Liebenberg Petersen was discovered to be a woman in 1839, at about the age of 80. She had lived in a village in Jutland for 30 years, first with her wife, who had died 15 years prior to the disclosure. Her remains were now exhumed and examined, corroborating an earlier suspicion that it was really a male person. Thus, Liebenberg and wife had both lived under reversed gender identities. Liebenberg refused to reveal her own past identity or any details about the disguise of the couple. Witnesses reported that Liebenberg, who had a sharp tongue, used to chew and smoke tobacco and take a drink, habits her wife would never engage in.The research in female early modern transvestism has explained the phenomenon partly with the social advantages provided by male status, such as better wages and employment opportunities as well as personal freedom and freedom to travel, partly with sexual attraction to other women. The cases that are analysed in the present study likewise emphasize the social motives to assume a male identity. However, the other presumed motive, the possibility to court and marry other women, corresponds less smoothly with the evidence and is at any rate a gross simplification. Rather, the cross-dressing women did not feel at home in the traditional gender and sexual dichotomies. Even when showing heterosexual preferences, they were nevertheless attracted by the comportment and lifestyle of men.


Turkey's accession to the European Union is one of the most controversial and divisive topics the EU faces. Both EU governments and citizens are deeply divided on whether Turkey should become a member or not. This paper takes an in-depth look at European citizens' attitudes towards Turkey's accession to the EU and explains which elements are key in determining support for or opposition to Turkish membership. We use new data, derived from the new questions measuring citizens' attitudes towards Turkey that have recently been introduced in Eurobarometer questionnaires. We prove that views for and against Turkish membership are multidimensional and that citizens use different arguments for both positions. In particular, we show that the likelihood of supporting or opposing Turkey's membership depends on whether citizens adopt a perspective that is utilitarian (resting on costs and benefits), identity-based (founded on Turkey being part of Europe) or post-national (linked to the view of a rights-based EU emphasising democracy and human rights). The main findings are as follows: first, support for Turkey's membership is mostly based on post-national arguments; second, opposition to Turkey's accession is mainly connected with identity-related arguments; and third, instrumental reasons (costs/benefits) play a less relevant role. Turkey's future membership in the EU, we conclude, will thus not be won or lost at the public opinion level on the material plane (costs/benefits) but on the relative weight of post-national visions of the EU vis-a-vis more essentialist visions of Europe. The key to Turkish EU membership, we suggest, may well lie in the way accession is argued and justified, and not wholly in the way it is negotiated.


Nanotechnologies have reached maturity and market penetration that require nano-specific changes in legislation and harmonization among legislation domains, such as the amendments to REACH for nanomaterials (NMs) which came into force in 2020. Thus, an assessment of the components and regulatory boundaries of NMs risk governance is timely, alongside related methods and tools, as part of the global efforts to optimise nanosafety and integrate it into product design processes, via Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) concepts. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art regarding risk governance of NMs and lays out the theoretical basis for the development and implementation of an effective, trustworthy and transparent risk governance framework for NMs. The proposed framework enables continuous integration of the evolving state of the science, leverages best practice from contiguous disciplines and facilitates responsive re-thinking of nanosafety governance to meet future needs. To achieve and operationalise such framework, a science-based Risk Governance Council (RGC) for NMs is being developed. The framework will provide a toolkit for independent NMs' risk governance and integrates needs and views of stakeholders. An extension of this framework to relevant advanced materials and emerging technologies is also envisaged, in view of future foundations of risk research in Europe and globally.


Background : Evidence-based practice advocates decisions based on evidence. While pharmacotherapy had been a mainstay in the management of depression and anxiety disorders in the past, psychological interventions (like counselling and psychotherapy) are gaining in popularity and approval from public and healthcare professionals alike. The evidence- bases for comparing these two very different treatment modalities are often complex and sometimes contradictory. Aims : This article aims to explore the evidence-based behind these two treatment modalities with respect to the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. Method and outcome : A literature review was carried out in Medline searching only systematic reviews and meta-analyses, comparing psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for depression and anxiety disorders. Six systematic reviews on depression and four on anxiety disorders were found. There were also several other pertinent articles that were consulted. Conclusion : The current evidence base suggests that pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, especially CBT, may be equally effective in the treatment of depression and in most anxiety disorders, although any firm or definitive evidence-base would require further direct comparative studies. However, this presumes one is comparing like-with-like, which is not necessarily the case.


Characterization of ecosystem contamination and evaluation of potential mitigation schemes represent two of the most immediate challenges to management of water resources. Heavy metals in the aquatic environment are of particular concern and pose a special problem to water managers. Contamination by heavy metals can range through all levels of aquatic ecosystems as metal species are dissolved in the water column, adsorbed to fine sediments, and transported with biota. Management of these water resources is complicated by the variety of interactions among the various transport mechanisms and the environmentally dependent speciation of heavy metals. Numerical models are being utilized to describe these aquatic systems, simulate different natural scenarios, and estimate the effects of imposed mitigation schemes. The task of manipulating the data necessary for model implementation and evaluation can be daunting. To assure effective modeling and management of water resources, field data must be coordinated with model requirements and correlated to model results during analysis, calibration, and review. Computer Aided Support Systems (CASS) provide innovative approaches to solving problems of managing, analyzing, and displaying field and simulation data for decision making. This paper describes the development and preliminary application of a CASS for evaluation of mercury contamination and eutrophication in Clear Lake, California.


Distance learning generally relies on one or more telecommunications technologies to deliver course instruction from a central location to students at remote locations. One thing that most distance learning systems have in common is that they are course delivery methods, not interactive teaching environments. Educators in the Keene, New Hampshire, area have taken this a step further, creating an interactive, distance-learning system by combining video and microwave technologies. The system is producing significant results, yielding intrinsic as well as intangible benefits such as development of interpersonal skills for students and educators. The program is also economically justifiable and potentially self-sustaining-vital statistics if the program is to succeed. Keene is a town of 25,000 located in southwestern New Hampshire. While essentially a rural community, the educational atmosphere in Keene is decidedly contemporary. For example, all the classrooms at Keene Junior High School are connected via a four-channel video-distribution system. The bidirectional network allows any classroom in the school to broadcast to any other classroom. Every morning the students are greeted by a newscast from WCAN (for Cardinal Area News), which is operated by the students and broadcast throughout the school. Born From a Need for Equity The geographical variation in the area served by School Administrative Unit (SAU) 29 presents challenges in providing equality of course material. It was this need that brought Keene's administrators to the distance-learning concept in December 1987. Elliot Washor, a reading and computer literacy teacher at Keene Junior High School, was selected as distance-learning project coordinator. The goal was to equalize course offerings between schools in Westmoreland, Marlborough and Chesterfield. Most of these towns are rural and scattered throughout mountainous southwestern New Hampshire. However, all their students eventually converge on Keene High School. Course offerings of each outlying school differ and are generally limited compared to those offered at Keene. For example, students from outlying schools entering at the ninth-grade level will not have taken the same computer courses, had the same opportunity for foreign-language study or the opportunity to take algebra. Traditionally, these students have been at a considerable disadvantage compared with their peers at Keene. In addition, they are also strangers to the Keene students, whom they will first meet upon entering the high school. The members of SAU 29 agreed that distance learning might be a unique way to solve the curriculum inequities in the area, while opening the door to other activities such as community education and staff development. By televising courses emanating from Keene Junior High and transmitting them to the other outlying schools, the inequity in curriculum could be reduced and students from each school could build relationships before entering the high school. Linked by Microwave One of the major questions was which method of delivery to choose-telephone or microwave. Telephone, the most obvious choice, was ruled out. First, because of cost considerations, and second, because T1 lines could not accommodate the bandwidth of the program material, thus eliminating the possibility of using full-motion video. Microwave transmission had neither of these drawbacks. A proposal submitted by Motorola C&E, of Schaumburg, Ill., was significantly less expensive, required no outside control or reliance on a third-party carrier, and promised to deliver broadcast-quality audio and video. Microwave transmission was selected as the medium choice. A classroom at Keene Junior High was configured for broadcast by Video Labs of Hudson, N.H., and cabling was installed by Macro Media Systems of Merrimack, N.H. The microwave equipment was designed and installed by Motorola's office in Keene. …


Shine-through occurs when a briefly presented vernier stimulus is followed by a grating consisting of 25 lines: the vernier appears brighter, longer, wider, and superimposed on the grating. However, vernier offset discrimination is strongly impeded if two of the lines in the grating are omitted. In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of the large perceptual differences associated with these nearly identical stimuli. The two types of gratings as well as the vernier offset direction were randomly interleaved, and participants indicated the perceived offset by button-presses. As a control, only the gratings were displayed and observers instead reported which grating had been presented. We recorded high-density EEG and conducted both stimulus- and response-locked analyses. While the former revealed no statistically significant effects of interest, the response-locked analysis showed an interaction effect on the global field power around 740 ms before the button-press, namely a stronger response for the shine-through condition than for the masking condition. This suggests that the differences in processing might be locked to the response rather than stimulus onset. This work was supported by ProDoc "Processes of Perception" of the Swiss National Science Foundation.


There is a need to rapidly quantify erosion from irrigated farmland.
The prevailing method consists of collecting runoff samples, then filtering,
drying, and weighing them to determine sediment concentration.
Labor cost and slow data availability prompted development of
a faster, less expensive technique. Sediment settling volume in a graduated
vessel was expected to correlate well with total mass of suspended
sediment. Eight soils varying in texture, mineralogy, and
organic-matter content were sampled, fragmented, and air dried. A
series of 1-L suspensions was prepared with sediment concentrations
from 1 to 30 g L-1. Samples were either hand shaken for 30 s or
mechanically blended for 60 s. Suspensions were decanted into graduated
Imhoff cones and allowed to settle for 0.5 h (1800 s). The series
was repeated three times for each soil. Settling volume was regressed
against sediment concentration (total sediment, g L-1 ). Field calibrations
for two soils were developed from furrow runoff samples. Laboratory
regressions had a mean r2 of 0.99. Field regressions of two
soils had r2 of 0.94 or higher. Cone design did not permit accurate
volume estimates of the first 1 mL, causing slopes and intercepts to
very among field regressions for sediment concentrations <1.0 g L-1.
These samples, however, represent negligible erosion, and therefore
have little value. Slope and intercept of field regressions corresponded
closely to 30-s-shaken laboratory regressions but different statistically
at P ? 0.05. The technique provided a rapid, inexpensive, and accurate
suspended-sediment determination in the field for concentrations
>1.0 g L-1. Several settling-volume predictions based on textural
components and organic-matter content had r2 > 0.60. Laboratory 30-
s hand-shaken calibrations may be adequate for diagnostic purposes,
but individual field calibrations should be performed for research
purposes


Regurgitations from nestling Grey Herons Ardea cinerea at Loch Leven, Scotland, April-July 1981-83, contained mainly three types of prey: perch, brown trout and ducklings. T h e diet varied markedly through the season but not between years. As the heron breeding season progressed, perch occurred in fewer regurgitations and ducklings in more. There was no seasonal variation in the occurrence of brown trout. Regular collections of duckling down from the heronry suggested that the consumption of ducklings peaked in early June. T h e ducklings taken by herons were less than 10 days old, Mallard ducklings predominating before mid June and Tufted ducklings later. Most ducklings were taken by only a few herons: those that bred earliest and which initially fed their young on perch. Ducklings became a major part of their diet in the late nestling period and broods fed on ducklings fledged no more or fewer young than others. Herons feeding their young on brown trout took ducklings rarely, if ever. I t is argued that variation in the contents of regurgitations resulted from three interacting variables; the type of feeding habitat used by individual Grey Herons, the date at which they bred and the date that regurgitations were produced by their nestlings. T h e numbers of ducklings taken by herons were calculated to be about 230 in 1981 and 291 in 1982, about So;, of Mallard and 3:b of Tufted ducklings estimated to have hatched annually. Assuming herons continued to consume ducklings at the same rate after their young had dispersed, the figures for Tufted ducklings would be higher but still only about 49, in 1981 and 6 O I 0 in 1982. Compared with total duckling losses of over 75'b, predation by Grey Herons was minor and did not affect duckling production in the years concerned.


In 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Doe v. Reed that Washington citizens who signed a petition to eliminate legal rights for LGBT couples did not have a right to keep their names secret. A year later, in ProtectMarriage.com v. Bowen, a district court in California partially relied on Reed to reject a similar request from groups who lobbied for California Proposition 8-a constitutional amendment that overturned the California Supreme Court's landmark 2008 gay marriage decision. These holdings are important to election law, feminist, and first amendment scholars for a number of reasons. First, they flip the traditional roles of the civil rights litigants from earlier cases, like NAACP v. Alabama. In those early cases, publicly persecuted groups sought protection from disclosure laws, but, here, the persecutors themselves are looking for help. Second, the Doe v. Reed opinion, and especially Justice Scalia's concurrence, articulate an age-old conception of republican citizenship, one supported by a number of modern and contemporary political theorists. Last, this conception of citizenship has interesting, and largely positive, implications for political polarization, especially in the context of LGBT rights. It facilitates the realization of the fruits of hard-fought public opinion victories by the LGBT community and their allies. The Reed holding has the potential to help turn the ever-growing support for LGBT rights into concrete policies in the next decade. Marriage rights and employment protections for gays, lesbians, and transgender Americans have been put up for public referenda in a number of states. While the last few months have seen a number of key victories for the LGBT community, most states still have laws preventing gay and lesbian couples from marrying. Increased transparency might be good for LGBT legislative battles for a number of reasons. I argue that the LGBT movement is at a place where embracing Scalia's combative public citizenship is a winning strategy. Justice Scalia has provided the LGBT community with a critical weapon in its fight for marriage equality. By examining political science literature and public opinion polling, I hope to show that making public ballot initiatives transparent will curb the trend of states taking away rights and privileges from their LGBT citizens. I share the concerns of commentators like Cass Sunstein, who fear the phenomenon of insular political communities moving to extremes. I also share the concerns of thinkers ranging from James Madison to Alexis de Tocqueville to modern day political scientists about political majorities targeting unpopular minorities in winner-take-all elections. The "brave citizen" of Scalia's concurrence is a conception of deliberative democracy that serves the LGBT community well. In this Note I look at the likely impact of Doe v. Reed on the politics of the fight for LGBT rights.


The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and it connects our inner selves to the outer world more evocatively than any other part of the body. Yet there is a dark side to the head's pre-eminence. Over the centuries, human heads have decorated our churches, festooned our city walls and filled our museums. Long regarded as objects of fascination and repulsion, they have been props for artists and specimens for laboratory scientists, trophies for soldiers and items of barter. Today, as videos of decapitations circulate online and scientists promise the wealthy among us that our heads may one day live on without our bodies, the severed head is as contentious and compelling as ever. From the western colonialists whose demand for shrunken heads spurred brutal massacres to the troops in the Second World War who sent the remains of Japanese soldiers home to their girlfriends; from the memento mori in Romantic portraits to Damien Hirst's With Dead Head; from grave-robbing phrenologists to enterprising cryonicists, Larson explores the bizarre, often gruesome and confounding history of the severed head. Its story is our story.


`They were perhaps three hundred yards away from me, but their personalities seemed as vivid as if they were in the same room. I had an overpowering impression of a burning vitality which was also evil, a glowing, incandescent evil.' The Island of Sheep (1936) is John Buchan's last thriller, featuring the return of Richard Hannay, the hero of The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr Standfast and The Three Hostages , from a comfortable retirement. Hannay redeems his promise to protect the son of an old acquaintance from a sinister conspiracy, and the action moves rapidly from England through the Scottish Borders to the Island of Sheep in the remote Norlands, where Hannay and his friends turn at last to confront their enemy. Memorable for its vivid evocations of place, the novel constitutes a complex reflection upon its own position at the end of Buchan's career and at the end of a modern Scottish tradition of adventure romances. This is the first critical edition of The Island of Sheep , and the introduction explores the novel's themes and concerns in relation to Buchan's previous works. This book is intended for twentieth-century fiction courses; the general reader.


Stimulated Brillouin scattering (BS) in optical fibers is investigated for the generation of millimeter waves (mm-waves) for radio over fiber systems. Predictions of a numerical simulation are compared to experimental results, and both are in good agreement with each other. With the numerical simulation, the optimum parameter for the technique is calculated. It will be shown that the optimum length of the fiber for BS depends on the signal rather than on the pump power. This gives us the opportunity to adjust the parameters for any given fiber length. The advantages and limits of the proposed method for mm-wave generation are discussed.


It is not clear how the profile of immune cells in peripheral blood differs between patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and healthy controls (HC). This study aimed to identify a CIS peripheral blood signature that may provide clues for potential immunomodulatory approaches early in disease. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected from 18 people with CIS, 19 HC and 13 individuals with other demyelinating conditions (ODC) including multiple sclerosis (MS). Individuals with CIS separated into two groups, namely those with early (≤14 days post-diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); n = 6) and late (≥27 days; n = 12) blood sampling. Transitional B cells were increased in the blood of CIS patients independently of when blood was taken. However, there were two time-dependent effects found in the late CIS group relative to HC, including decreased CD56bright NK cells, which correlated significantly with time since MRI, and increased CD141+ myeloid dendritic cell (mDC2) frequencies. Higher CD1c+ B cells and lower non-classical monocyte frequencies were characteristic of more recent demyelinating disease activity (ODC and early CIS). Analysing cell populations by time since symptoms (subjective) and diagnostic MRI (objective) may contribute to understanding CIS.


Bootstrapping is a useful technique for estimating the uncertainty of a predictor, for example, confidence intervals for prediction. It is typically used on small to moderate sized datasets, due to its high computation cost. This work describes a highly scalable online bootstrapping strategy, implemented inside Vowpal Wabbit, that is several times faster than traditional strategies. Our experiments indicate that, in addition to providing a black box-like method for estimating uncertainty, our implementation of online bootstrapping may also help to train models with better prediction performance due to model averaging.


Abstract The Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous age mafic lavas from the Neotethyan suture zone ophiolites in western Turkey exhibit a wide diversity of geochemical signatures, indicating derivation from extremely heterogeneous mantle sources. The rocks as a whole can be divided into three broad subdivisions based on their bulk-rock geochemical characteristics: (1) mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) that range in composition from light rare earth element (LREE)-depleted varieties (N-MORB; (La/Sm)N<1) through transitional MORB to LREE enriched types (E-MORB; (La/Sm)N>1); (2) the ocean island basalt (OIB)-type alkaline volcanic rocks with significant enrichment in LILE, HFSE and L-MREE, and a slight depletion in HREE, relative to normal mid-ocean ridge basalts (N-MORB); and (3) the supra-subduction zone (SSZ)-type tholeiites originated from arc mantle sources that are characterized by selective enrichments in fluid-soluble large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and LREE relative to the high field strength elements (HFSE). The formation of MORB tholeiites with variable enrichments and depletions in incompatible trace elements is probably related to the processes of crust generation along an oceanic spreading system, and the observed MORB–OIB associations can be modelled by heterogeneous source contribution and mixing of melts from chemically discrete sources from sub-lithospheric reservoirs. Evaluation of trace element systematics shows that the inferred heterogeneities within the mantle source regions are likely to have originated from continuous processes of formation and destruction of enriched mantle domains by long-term plate recycling, convective mixing and melt extraction. The origin of SSZ-type tholeiites with back-arc basin affinities, on the other hand, can be attributed to the later intra-oceanic subduction and plate convergence which led to the generation of supra-subduction-type oceanic crust as a consequence of imparting a certain extent of subduction component into the mantle melting region. Mixing of melts from a multiply depleted mantle source, which subsequently received variable re-enrichment with a subduction component, is suggested to explain the generation of supra-subduction-type oceanic crust. The geodynamic setting in which much of the SSZ-type ophiolitic extrusive rocks from western Turkey were generated can be described as an arc-basin system that is characterized by an oceanic lithosphere generation most probably associated with melting of mantle material along a supra-subduction-type spreading centre.


The transverse 'Sillaro line' is merely the outcrop line of the north-west dipping overthrust plane of the Liguride Complex. The anti-Apenninic strike of this overthrust plane is the result of the 'Sillaro flexure', a large synsedimentarily developed flexure of the basement of the Northern Apennines. The Liguride Complex overlies to the north-east progressively younger deposits dating from Early Miocene to eventually Pliocene: the Liguride overthrust is tectonically transgressive. The Liguride Complex is made up largely of clay, the Argille Scagliose; the overthrusting was gravitational. Just like glaciers and ice-sheets the Liguride Complex is a plastic mass capable of spreading under the influence ofgravitation. Olistostromization played a role ofvarying importance in the advance of the Liguride Complex. During the Pliocene, when a shallow molasse basin was invaded, it was the dominating mechanism. Locally the Liguride Complex interfingers with autochthonous deposits, as a result of a temporary standstill of the thrust sheet. The deposits just below the overthrust plane often show the influence of the approaching Liguride Complex. The Marnoso Arenacea is a turbidite formation of Miocene age. The configuration of its sedimentation basin was influenced strongly by an anticline that developed synsedimentarily, resulting in the Castel Vecchio 'high'. This 'high' divided the basin into an inner and outer basin in the south-west and north-east respectively, each with its own sedimentary history. The position of the inner basin axis was defined by the Rovigo syncline, which was also synsedimentary. A 'klippe sedimentaire', the Casaglia Member, invaded the basin from the south-west, and carne to a standstill near the basin axis. It proved impossible to describe the turbidites in terms of inner and outer fan and basin plain deposits by analogy with recent turbidite sedimentation in oceanic environments. A purely descriptive classification in facies associations is introduced here. The thickest and coarsest turbidites were usually deposited in the deepest parts of the basin. Towards the 'high' they became thinner and finer grained, until only marls were deposited. Upon the Castel Vecchio 'high' moluscs are found in living position, indicating that occasionally this 'high' approached sea-level. The Castel Guerrino Formation which constitutes a separate tectonic unit, was probably deposited in a more internal part ofthe Marnoso Arenacea basin. This formation thrust from the south-west upon the Marnoso Arenacea, after which it overthrust 5 km further to the north-east over a thin slice of Liguride rocks which had already overthrust the Marnoso Areacea.


Many algorithms for ranked data become computationally intractable as the number of objects grows due to the complex geometric structure induced by rankings. An additional challenge is posed by partial rankings, i.e. rankings in which the preference is only known for a subset of all objects. For these reasons, state-of-the-art methods cannot scale to real-world applications, such as recommender systems. We address this challenge by exploiting the geometric structure of ranked data and additional available information about the objects to derive a kernel for ranking based on the graph cut function. The graph cut kernel combines the efficiency of submodular optimization with the theoretical properties of kernel-based methods. The graph cut kernel combines the efficiency of submodular optimization with the theoretical properties of kernel-based methods.


This paper examines sentencing and treatment practices for juvenile sex offenders in Australia and the challenges of reconciling the imperatives of rehabilitation, accountability and community protection. It begins with an overview of juvenile offenders and the juvenile justice system, including the principles for sentencing young offenders. It then considers the complex lives and offending patterns of juvenile sex offenders, before providing examples of judicial reasoning in sentencing.

It concludes by examining best practice in treatment for sexually abusive behaviours and innovative justice responses to juvenile sex offending, such as therapeutic treatment orders and restorative justice conferencing.


The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has recently published a strategic plan and surveillance guidelines for measles and congenital rubella infection. The strategy prioritises measles control activities but encourages the introduction of rubella vaccine when measles vaccine coverage has reached >90 %; although, many western European countries with suboptimal measles vaccine coverage are already using the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Women in these countries may have an especially high risk of having an infant with congenital rubella syndrome. WHO is seeking to improve the surveillance for rubella and congenital rubella syndrome as a means to obtain better information on the burden of these diseases and engage policy decision makers in the need to support the WHO European Region's strategies for rubella.


This paper describes a new method for determining corneal surface detail utilizing a modified Zeiss photo slit lamp. This system projects a grid onto the cornea through a cobalt blue filter. The tear film is stained with fluorescein, causing the projected grid pattern to be visible on the corneal surface. A video image of the grid is then digitized by an image processor which calculates surface detail by evaluating the distortion of the grid lines. Information on curvature and surface detail is obtained across the full corneal surface, both the central optical axis and peripherally beyond the limbus.


Background - Falls are a major cause of disability and the leading cause of mortality due to injury in people over 75 years living in the UK. Falling in hospital is a significant problem, with falls rates almost three times higher than community-dwelling populations. Interventions effective in the community are not necessarily transferable to an in-patient setting.

Aims - The primary aim of the research was to facilitate changes to in-patient rehabilitation services for older people, with a focus on improving falls prevention by exploring patients' experiences and collaborating with NHS staff.

Method - This qualitative action research study had two cycles. In the first cycle, semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of the experiences of in-patients who had fallen. In the second cycle, ward staff participated in educational focus group sessions.

Findings - The adherence to patient safety and risk management after a fall formed a priority for ward staff which affected the promotion of patients' independent functioning. The consequences of falling, particularly psycho-social issues such as low self-efficacy and reduced confidence, and restrictions to mobility due to fear were reinforced by the actions of the staff. This resulted in a change in the expected pathway of patients receiving rehabilitation, which prevented them from achieving optimal functioning. Staff identified that inadequate staffing levels affected the rehabilitation ethos. This was compounded by poor relationships and team-working practices.

Discussion/Conclusion - The patients' and staff's voices of experience demonstrated a range of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that were either in harmony (resonance) or opposition (dissonance) to each other. Increasing the resonance offered opportunities for service improvement. This study was unique in its focus on two areas of falls research where there is a lack of evidence: patients' experiences of falling in hospital and interprofessional collaboration for service improvement for in-patient falls prevention. Recommendations to improve Trust practice included greater involvement of patients in decision-making and falls management; adherence to effective team-working practices; and engaging in opportunities to enhance professional learning through falls documentation and monitoring.


Background/aims Radiographic damage is frequently observed in patients with longstanding gout. The aim of this prospective observational study was to determine factors associated with change in radiographic damage scores in gout. Methods People with gout and disease duration <10 years were recruited into this prospective observational study. At the baseline visit, structured assessment was undertaken in 290 participants including detailed clinical examination and plain radiographs (XR) of the hands and feet. Participants were invited to attend a further study visit with repeat XR 3 years after the baseline visit. XR were scored for erosion and joint space narrowing according to the gout-modified Sharp/van der Heijde XR damage score. Results Age, subcutaneous tophus count and tender joint count were independently associated with XR damage score at the baseline visit. Paired serial XR were available for 140 participants. In stepwise linear regression analysis, change in total damage score over 3 years was positively associated with change in subcutaneous tophus count and baseline XR damage score, and inversely associated with baseline subcutaneous tophus count (model R2=0.39, p<0.001). Change in subcutaneous tophus count contributed most to the change in erosion score (partial R2 change=0.31, p<0.001), and baseline XR damage score contributed most to the change in narrowing score (partial R2 change=0.31, p<0.001). Conclusions Development of new subcutaneous tophi and baseline radiographic damage are associated with progressive joint damage scores in people with gout. These data provide further evidence that the tophus plays a central role in bone erosion in gout.


The physical properties of the light-propagation equations in a weakly inhomogeneous anisotropic medium derived by the authors are investigated with the help of the Poincare sphere. Three nondestructive methods of determining a dielectric tensor field having nine unknown components at each point are considered theoretically, which approximately evaluate the tensor at each point by recording two-dimensional projected information involved in transmitted or scattered light in the medium. The first two methods use the measurement of the Stokes parameters, and the other utilizes an analysis to determine a stress tensor in three-dimensional photoelasticity.


Tabulation of thickness data on nearly 3000 Proterozoic and Paleozoic peritidal carbonate cycles indicates that metre-scale facies associations exhibit exponential thickness frequency distributions. Because carbonate deposition occurs during infilling of available space between sea level and the surface of the preceding cycle, and because the rate of generation of accommodation space is ultimately determined by rates of platform subsidence, thicknesses of individual cycles must record the duration of time since deposition of underlying units. Exponential thickness distributions therefore require either that upward-shoaling carbonates record aperiodic accumulation, or that any periodic forcing manifest during sedimentation has been masked by the vagarious nature of depositional processes. Such a conclusion is contrary to interpretation of such carbonate units as originating from high-frequency eustatic change. In addition, exponential thickness distributions and sequence thickness structures are replicated when assuming a random probability of carbonate deposition under conditions of constant subsidence. The nature of cycle thickness distributions therefore invalidates virtually any endeavor to derive an average depositional period from mean cycle thicknesses, and refutes the use of such estimates as proxy records of past sea-level oscillation frequency, whether they are related to Milankovitch-band climate forcing or to any other periodic process.


It was instrumental in securing the phased withdrawals of the permitted uses of organochlorine insecticides and has since provided a measure of the effectiveness of regulatory bans in reducing the exposure of wildlife. The PBMS has expanded over the years and currently monitors carcasses and/or eggs of particular species for organochlorine (OC) pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury and second-generation rodenticides (carcasses only). Since 1974, the PBMS has been the subject of a series of contracts (known as the Wildlife and Pollution contracts) from the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) and subsequently from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

Some of current activities reported under the Wildlife and Pollution contracts address issues that have declined in importance in terms of conservation and regulation. This report describes a suite of new activities that could be incorporated into the PBMS to address crucial gaps in the understanding of contemporary wildlife and pollution issues and to maximise the usefulness of the PBMS to regulators and policy-makers. These activities include: widening the numbers and types of compounds monitored; improving the link between environmental residue data and toxicity for compounds already monitored; identifying unknown compounds in birds; and using data from the scheme to identify contamination hotspots on a national scale. The OSPAR list of chemicals for priority action has been used as a guide to which additional compounds it may be most important to monitor. Activities that can be introduced into the PBMS immediately have been highlighted.

Some of the activities considered require additional specific resources. However, others are longer-term monitoring activities for which additional resources may be limited. It is proposed that the PBMS could alter the frequency of monitoring for any one compound or suite of compounds from a yearly to a multi-year basis. Different suites of compounds could be analysed on a 2-3 year rolling cycle for example. The resources released would allow an expansion of the breadth of the PBMS.

A fuller analysis of the impacts of any change in reporting frequency should first be undertaken before it is implemented. It is recommended that a statistical review of the long-term datasets available for organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, mercury and rodenticides is undertaken. The aim of this review would be to determine whether the long-term temporal changes in residues detected by analysing birds on a year by year basis would have been identified (and with what degree of precision) if sampling had been on a two, three, four or more year basis. The review should be coupled with an outline of how new analyses/species will be incorporated into the PBMS in the intervening years should a multi-year cycle prove feasible. This outline would be based on feedback from conservation and regulatory agencies about their requirements and would take account of the practicalities of applying existing monitoring methodologies already employed by such agencies.


Abstract This study reports on the relationship between stage of recovery and hope, meaning and responsibility for individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness. Methods: Seventy-seven people with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder of at least 6 months' duration participated in the study. Participants completed the Self-Identified Stage of Recovery (SISR) scale, measures of component processes of recovery (Hope Scale; Positive Interpretation of Disease, SpREUK; Active Involvement, Personal Health Management Questionnaire (PHMQ) and the Recovery Assessment Scale-short (RAS). Results: Hope, meaning, Personal Confidence and Hope and Not Being Dominated by Symptoms varied significantly across stages of recovery; however, neither in a parallel nor linear fashion. Hopefulness and sense of meaning in relation to the experience of mental illness increase before personal confidence and resilience in the face of setbacks. Conclusions and implications: Symptoms appear to take less prominence in individuals' lives in later stages of recovery. Greater insight into the relationship between stage of recovery and component processes may allow for more targeted recovery-oriented support for individuals at different stages of recovery.


We investigate the azimuth response function, θo = f(θi), of a linear nondepolarizing optical system S, where θi and θo are the azimuths (orientations) of the generally elliptic vibrations of totally polarized light at the input and output of S. We find that the azimuth response function depends on five of the six parameters that specify the normalized circular Jones matrix of the optical system. Thus the entire polarization response of an optical system can be nearly completely reconstructed from its azimuth response alone. Five input-output azimuth measurements (θik, θok), k = 1, 2, …, 5 are sufficient to fix the ARF. The procedure for such determination is considerably facilitated if the average of θo, when θi sweeps a full rang of π, is measured. The general design and automation of an instrument for performing azimuth measurements are discussed and the use of such measurements to determine the optical parameters of elliptic retarders is given as an application.


Integrated "omic" analyses reveal pathways to drug resistance for melanoma. Melanomas acquire resistance to MAPKi, which are various drugs that inhibit individual enzymes in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. To understand the development of drug resistance, Hugo et al. performed whole-exome sequencing (WES), transcriptomic analysis, and analysis of the methylation status of DNA (methylomic analyses) on biopsies from patients with melanomas prior to drug therapy, after single-drug therapy with a MAPKi targeting the MAPK kinase BRAF, double-drug therapy with a MAPKi targeting BRAF and a MAPKi targeting the MAPK kinase MEK, and as the disease progressed. WES analysis revealed that the two most frequently occurring genetic mutations to MAPKi-resistant melanomas were amplifications of BRAF encoding the BRAFV600E/K mutant and RAS. However, not all of the drug-resistant melanomas exhibited these genetic changes. Transcriptomic profiling of the biopsies showed enrichment of 855 genes with significantly altered expression prior to therapy, after therapy, and after the recurrence of disease. Unexpectedly, many of the genes with altered expression were classified as related to the immune system or immune response; in particular the drug-resistant melanomas exhibited altered expression of genes associated with inflammation, monocyte function, and T cell function. The transcriptomic data indicated that the MAPKi-resistant melanomas may have fewer CD8+ T cells, which could be an indication that the melanomas were evading the immune system after drug treatment. Epigenetic chromatin modifications may underlie some of the differences in gene expression, because there was a positive correlation between differential genomic CpG methylation and mRNA abundance for a subset of the genes with altered expression. In particular, decreased CpG methylation was associated with increased abundance of the transcript for the hepatocyte growth factor receptor c-MET, whereas increased CpG methylation was associated with decreased abundance of the transcript for the transcription factor and β-catenin–binding partner LEF1. To verify the involvement of increased c-MET signaling and decreased LEF1-dependent transcription on MAPKi resistance, the authors examined how altering these two processes in MAPKi-resistant subclones of M229 and SKMEL28 melanoma cell lines, which have the BRAFV600E mutation, affected the response to MAPKi. Increased c-MET abundance in these MAPKi-resistant cell lines correlated with increased phosphorylation of the kinase AKT, which is part of a MAPK-independent survival pathway. Analysis of growth in a clonogenic assay indicated that knocking down c-MET reduced the growth of a subpopulation of the MAPKi-resistant cell lines, and application of the c-MET ligand enhanced the clonogenic survival of the MAPKi-resistant cells in the presence of the MAPKi, but did not enhance survival of the parental cell lines. Compared with the parental cell lines, a panel of MAPKi-resistant cells had decreased abundance of both LEF1 mRNA and LEF1 protein. In addition, expression of LEF1-related pathway genes was decreased, suggesting reduced signaling through the Wnt–β-catenin pathway. Consistent with reduced β-catenin signaling leading MAPKi resistance, exposure of MAPKi-resistant cell lines to an inhibitor of the kinase glycogen synthase kinase β (GSK-3β)—the kinase responsible for destabilizing cytosolic β-catenin—to increase the transcriptional-regulating activity of β-catenin resensitized the cells to MAPKi, and overexpression of LEF1 in the presence of GSK-3β inhibition further sensitized the cells to MAPKi. Although the transcriptional regulator YAP1 was not identified as affected at the genetic, epigenetic, or transcriptional level in the melanoma patient samples, the gene signature of this transcriptional regulator was enriched in the MAPKi-resistant tumors and cell lines, suggesting a posttranscriptional change in YAP1 activity contributed to resistance. Indeed, the abundance of YAP1 and phosphorylated YAP1 was increased in MAPKi-resistant cell lines. YAP1 knockdown resensitized the MAPKi-resistant cell lines to MAPKi. Additionally, individually YAP1 knockdown and GSK-3β inhibition increased the abundance of a marker of apoptosis, and combined reduction in YAP1 and enhanced β-catenin signaling produced an even stronger increase in this apoptotic marker. This study provides insight into the diverse mechanisms by which melanoma becomes resistant to MAPKi and implies that changes not only in the melanoma cells but also in the immune system may contribute to the progression of this disease. W. Hugo, H. Shi, L. Sun, M. Piva, C. Song, X. Kong, G. Moriceau, A. Hong, K. B. Dahlman, D. B, Johnson, J. A. Sosman, A. Ribas, R. S. Lo, Non-genomic and immune evolution of melanoma acquiring MAPKi resistance. Cell 162, 1271–1285 (2015). [PubMed]


This study compared the attitudes and reactions of thirty preschool and thirty school-age children toward a child speaker with stuttering patterns. An introduction reviewed previous literature on defining stuttering, adults' and children's attitudes toward stuttering, and the stutterer's personality traits. The children of the study rated either a normal child speaker or a child speaker with stuttering patterns on a sociometric scale. In a giving task, the children were asked to choose one of the speakers. Statistical testing revealed that the school-age children had a more negative attitude toward and less social acceptance of the child speaker with stuttering patterns than the normal-speaking child. Implications for the speech-language pathologist in treating the child stutterer are discussed.


Cognitive and Emotional Abnormalities in People with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus by Philip Watson Advisor: Justin Storbeck, Ph.D. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-system autoimmune disorder characterized by the production of autoantibodies (ABs). Approximately 30-50% of patients produce ABs directed against N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors (NMDARs). Previous research with animals has identified these ABs as being associated with amygdala damage and a deficit in fear conditioning. People with SLE can have damage to the amygdala. This study aimed to determine if emotional processing deficits occur in people with SLE and to associate such deficits, if they exist, with anti-NMDAR AB presence, length of disease, cognition, and mood. Fifty-eight (11 AB+, 24 AB-, 23 healthy) women participated in tasks used to assess emotional facial recognition, attention to emotional stimuli, and emotional learning, and underwent cognitive testing, including measures of working memory, processing speed, executive functioning, language, visuospatial processing, and memory. Lupus patients were slower than healthy participants in identifying emotional faces, and measures of processing speed and executive functioning proved to be significant predictors of recognition of emotional faces and speeded reactions to emotional pictures. Thus, the results do not provide robust evidence for the existence of emotional processing deficits in people with lupus. The results are discussed within the context of the complex neuroanatomical system involved in cognition and affective processing. Future studies aimed at identifying dysfunction in the cognitive-affective control network are necessary to elucidate dysfunction in this patient group.


A rich theoretical literature argues that, in contradiction to Duverger's law, the plurality voting rule can fail to produce two-party system when voters do not share their common information about the electoral situation. We present an empirical operationalization and a series of tests of this informational hypothesis in the case of India using constituency- and individual-level data. In highly illiterate constituencies where access to information and information sharing among voters is low, voters often fail to coordinate on the two most viable parties. In highly literate constituencies, voters are far more successful at avoiding vote-wasting—in line with the informational hypothesis. At a microlevel, these aggregate-level patterns are driven by the interaction of individual information and the informational context: In dense informational environments, even low-information voters can successfully identify viable parties and vote for them, but in sparse informational environments, individual access to information is essential for successful strategic voting.


The spectral irradiance calibration of tungsten strip and spiral filament lamps applying synchrotron radiation revealed that the spectral irradiance in the wavelength range from 280 to 400 nm can be well approximated by blackbody radiation according to Planck's law. Consequently, the spectral irradiance of the filament lamp can then be described by an effective irradiance temperature, which would be beneficial for practical measurements. Including the emissivity of tungsten into the approximation, the model can be expanded to visible and near-infrared wavelength regions. The effective irradiance temperature dependence of the lamp current was investigated and appeared to be close to linear.


Become a competent, confident, and critical consumer of social research with Earl Babbie's SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNTS. Written with wit, and with a desire to see you succeed in the course, the book presents the main tenets of research methods concisely and in a visually appealing, full-color format that engages you in the topics and helps you make the connection between a concept and its real-world applications. Each chapter includes features designed to guide you through the material, including Learning Objectives that offer you an easy-to-follow guide to the content, as well as "Tips and Tools" and "Research in Real Life" boxes that provide opportunities for you to better equip yourself with relevant skills. As a result of using this book, you will gain a firm footing in the foundational skills and principles of research methods.


After the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, nationalism in Scotland bloomed, and folklore, traditional songs, and ballads were collected as an important part of Scottish culture. Robert Chambers, a leading nineteenth-century publisher in Edinburgh (famous for Chambers Encyclopaedia and Dictionary), compiled and published various books of those traditional and popular songs of Scotland collected by his predecessors, together with the ones discovered in the nineteenth century. It became a valuable record of the traditional culture of Scotland. The present collection of four volumes consists of the three works of songs he published and-unlike various abridged versions published afterwards-this set includes all original editions in facsimile format, together with illustrations and scores of some of the songs. It provides scholars in the field with the most comprehensive source of Scottish songs and ballads.


Various types of titanium alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus and, at the same time, vanadium and aluminium free have been developed as surgical biomaterials in recent years. Moreover, porous metals are promising hard tissue implants in orthopaedic and dentistry, where they mimic the porous structure and the low elastic modulus of natural bone. In the present study, new biocompatible Ti-based alloy foams with approximate relative densities of 0.4, in which Sn and Nb were added as alloying metals, were synthesised through powder metallurgy method. The new alloys were prepared by mechanical alloying and subsequently sintered at high temperature using a vacuum furnace. The characteristics and the processability of the ball milled powders and the new porous titanium-based alloys were characterised by X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy .The mechanical properties of the new titanium alloys were examined by Vickers microhardness measurements and compression testing.


Acetabular angles (AAs) and dorsal acetabular rim angles acquired by computed tomographic (CT) imaging have been used to assess patient response to juvenile pubic symphysiodesis surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of patient positioning and slice selection on these angles, and an attempt was made to devise a repeatable method of measuring these angles that would eliminate positioning effects. We found significant variation in AAs with small differences in pelvic tilt and slice selection. Dorsal acetabular rim angles were not affected. As a result of positioning differences from one CT study to the next, every attempt should be made to standardize pelvic tilt, or eliminate its effect on AAs by standardizing gantry angle in relation to an anatomic landmark that will not change over time. The floor of the sacral vertebral canal may be a reasonable landmark for this purpose and deserves further study.


On December 15, 1993, in Geneva, Switzerland, negotiators representing 117 countries reached consensus on the Final Act of the Uruguay Round, the most comprehensive international trade agreement in history. The Final Act prescribes, among other things, that tariffs on industrial products be reduced by an average of more than one-third, that trade in agricultural goods be progressively liberalized, and that a new body, the World Trade Organization, be established both to facilitate the implementation of multilateral trade agreements and to serve as a forum for future negotiations. The Final Act is a formidable document, entailing more than 26,000 pages of technical language and detail. The chief purpose of this article is to summarize and assess in nontechnical language the main results of the Uruguay Round as recorded in that Act. Some estimates of the consequences of the agreement for world trade and income are also presented.


We studied morphometric, hematology, and serum chemistry variables in 140 Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) to establish normal baseline values for these variables among free-living seals. We compared seals at French Frigate Shoals (FFS), Midway Atoll (MID), and Pearl and Hermes Reef (PHR) because these subpopulations differ in their rates of population recovery. Dorsal standard length and axillary girth differed significantly between immature (1-4 yr old) and adult ( > 5 yr old) seals among sex and island subgroups. Immature seals at FFS were shorter than those at MID and PHR; adult seals at FFS had smaller dorsal standard lengths and axillary girths compared to the other subpopulations. The differences in size were more pronounced among adult females. Significant differences were also found for hematology and serum chemistry variables among seals at FFS, MID, and PHR. Monk seals at FFS had an absolute lymphopenia and eosinopenia compared to those at MID and PHR, compatible with a stress response. Seals at FFS also had lower blood urea nitrogen than seals at PHR, and a lower plasma potassium than seals at MID or PHR. Monk seals had an absolute and relative eosinophilia compared to previously published values. Analysis of subpopulation differences is useful for population health assessment and for long-term monitoring of an endangered species.


Research on early action perception has documented infants' astounding abilities in tracking, predicting, and understanding other people's actions. Common interpretations of previous findings tend to generalize across a wide range of action stimuli and contexts. In this study, ten-month-old infants repeatedly watched a video of a same-aged crawling baby that was transiently occluded. The video was presented in alternation with videos displaying visually either dissimilar movements (i.e., distorted human, continuous object, and distorted object movements) or similar movements (i.e., delayed or forwarded versions of the crawling video). Eye-tracking behavior and rhythmic neural activity, reflecting attention (posterior alpha), memory (frontal theta), and sensorimotor simulation (central alpha), were concurrently assessed. Results indicate that, when the very same movement was presented in a dissimilar context, it was tracked at more rear parts of the target and posterior alpha activity was elevated, suggesting higher demands on attention-controlled information processing. We conclude that early action perception is not immutable but shaped by the immediate visual context in which it appears, presumably reflecting infants' ability to flexibly adjust stimulus processing to situational affordances.


The geographical distribution of mixed-ethnicity (or mixed-race) couples is an important indicator of the spatial dimensions of cultural 'mixing' in a given society. A small number of studies have mapped the residential geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples, revealing distinctive residential patterns that differ from those of each partner's respective ethnic group. Most such analyses have adopted broad pan-ethnic or racial categories (e.g. 'black-white', 'white-Asian'). The Australian Census – which eschews broad racial categories – provides an opportunity to explore the unique residential geographies of different 'types' of mixed-ethnicity couples. Using customised 2011 Census data, this paper maps the residential geographies of diverse mixed-ethnicity couples in Australia's most populous cities: Sydney and Melbourne. We focus on couples where one partner nominated 'Anglo-European' ancestry and the other nominated one of five 'minority' ancestries. Our findings highlight the value in disaggregating the coarse pan-ethnic or racial groupings adopted in some existing studies, and prescribed in some national censuses. The residential geographies of mixed-ethnicity couples challenge established perspectives on urban ethnic landscapes. As these couples grow in number, particularly in immigrant societies, they have the potential to fundamentally reshape established ethnic residential geographies away from patterns of residential segregation. Fine-grained analyses such as ours provide scope to explore the myriad directions in which these shifts will unfurl. They also provide a starting point for better understanding the preferences and pressures that shape the residential geographies of diverse mixed-ethnicity couples.


Decoupling of a multivariable system is much pronounced control problem in many indus- trial process. This has received much importance since last 20 years to develop decoupling controllers as an alternative to multi-loop PI controllers in order to achieve satisfactory set- point responses when there exist multiple time delays, non-minimum phase zeros and large uncertainties. In this thesis, static and dynamic decoupling control strategies are discussed. Static decouplers are designed for control of multi-variable processes by RGA interaction analysis to determine the nature of interaction for static decouplers applied to multi-loop con- trollers and integral mode only at low and high frequencies. Here it is shown that static decouplers applied to integral modes perform better for processes in which non-diagonal ele- ments decrease faster as frequency increases. This approach is sensitive to process changes and require detailed models. In dynamic decoupling, internal model control and inverted decoupling methods are dis- cussed here. Internal model control approach comprises both open-loop decoupling and closed- loop decoupling techniques. Internal model control is a centralized controller derived from the desired diagonal system matrix defined taking in consideration of time-delay compensation, non-minimum phase zeros and H2 optimal performance objective; which effectively perform both decoupling and controlling functions. In open-loop IMC decoupling, the controller is de- signed from open-loop equation of process assuming that the model is exactly matching with the process. In closed-loop IMC decoupling, only model of the system is considered and con- troller is derived from closed-loop equation of the overall system. The presence of RHP zeros is elaborately discussed in different cases like no RHP zeros, finite RHP zeros, infinite RHP and LHP zeros and infinite RHP but finite LHP zeros. Inverted decoupling approach utilizes inverse transfer matrix of the multivar


Qualitative simulation is often a useful tool for studying the behavior of physical systems and has promise for providing automatic explanations of their behavior. However, in some cases it can overwhelm with detail. Behavior graphs with hundreds or thousands of states may obscure the basic patterns of behavior that a qualitative model was intended to explore. This paper describes an approach to comprehending complex behavior graphs by abstracting the behavior graph according to user-specified criteria that are simple and natural to provide. We present properties that an abstraction should meet to be faithful to the original behavior graph, prove necessary and sufficient operational conditions for an abstraction method to maintain these properties, and present a simple algorithm that incorporates these conditions and works for any behavior graph. We demonstrate on several externally-provided problems that our method can greatly simplify complex behavior graphs in number of states and behaviors while remaining faithful to the original behavior graph. It enables simple graphical output that can reveal underlying patterns of behavior that have not been apparent with previous methods, and shows promise for expanding the utility of qualitative reasoning for generating explanations.


Background : Due to the increasing risk of getting co-morbidity and frailty, older people tend to be prone to hospitalization. Hospitalization in older people brings many adverse effects. Moreover, when these elderly get delirium, the mortality and morbidity will increase. The risk of getting deterioration and worsening condition because of delirium would also increase. In fact, delirium assessment is not a high priority in taking care older people during hospitalization because the focus of care is treating the disease.Delirium screening as an early recognition of delirium in the hospitalized elderly inIndonesia remains unreported and even do not well evaluated. Therefore, delirium as a preventable problem or causing problems remains unrecognized. Purpose : This paper aims to review the current evidence of early assessment of delirium in hospitalized older people. Methods : A systematic review was conducted from four databases yielding to 4 articles which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results : There are four focuses on the result, namely delirium screening tools, patient characteristics, identified early delirium assessment, and outcomes affected by early delirium assessment. Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) was used as the delirium screening tool in the hospital. Establishing the care team involving many disciplines will give a better way to improve the integrated care and collaborative care. Conclusion : Performing CAM integrated into comprehensive geriatric assessment can be the most important thing to be undertaken when looking after the hospitalized elderly.


We show that chemical differences found along the open coast are sufficiently strong to leave a readable natal signature in fish otoliths. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric (LA‐ICPMS) analysis of individual larval otoliths taken from near‐term females of the primitively viviparous rockfish Sebastes atrovirens indicates detectable levels of several trace elements. Although these larvae show considerable between‐brood differences in elemental concentrations for females taken at the same site, there was significant between‐site discrimination of natal signatures for regions only tens of kilometers apart in the waters off of Santa Barbara, California. For several (but not all) elements, differences between regions were consistent between 2 yr. We also explore three different possible proxies (edges of otoliths of adult fishes, resin‐based elemental accumulators, and samples of seawater) that might be used to predict geographic differences in natal signatures. Although these proxies all showed significant regional differences in the concentration of some elements, only manganese showed some congruency in the spatial patterns seen in the larval otoliths. Consequently, currently available proxy measures cannot accurately predict the elemental composition of otolith cores.


Chinese cities have adopted many policy strategies internationally that have created many problems due to the differences in local context and institutional structure. In this paper the authors report an example of automobile license auction policy transferred from Singapore to Shanghai, and how a technical issue of non-local vehicles raised a dilemma for Shanghai government in the trade-off between congestion management and openness of Shanghai as a metropolitan center. The government sets up a total quota each month and requires every car owner to join a bidding process to obtain a vehicle license. As Shanghai license prices continue to increase, many Shanghai residents get a non-local license outside Shanghai for a much cheaper price. The problem of non-local vehicles is a unique phenomenon that only happens in Shanghai that waters down the policy effectiveness, and results in challenges in traffic management. It also results in large revenue loss outside Shanghai, exacerbates equity concerns among Shanghai car owners, and decreases trustworthiness of government policy. Singapore as a state-city has no non-local vehicles, but Shanghai as a city within a region, is facing the dilemma of further controlling non-local vehicles to mitigate congestion versus the city's openness to promote inter-city trade. Although Shanghai has taken actions in controlling non-local vehicles through both internal policy refinement and regional collaboration, it has hesitated in posing harsher restrictions. Public views vary across different dimensions and two variables show the largest impact on attitude: car ownership and license type, and residence status. The public do understand Shanghai's dilemma and the importance of the city to remain open as the public opposes further restrictions on non-local vehicles. Even local license owners and locally-born residents, who are most likely in favour of further restrictions, do not want harsh restrictions banning non-local vehicles.


, Abstract Background: Telomeres, the ends of chromosomes, are critical for maintaining genomic stability and grow shorter with age. Shortened telomeres in pancreatic tissue play a key role in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer,andshortertelomeresinperipheralbloodleukocytes(PBL)havebeenassociatedwithincreasedriskfor several cancer types. We hypothesized that shorter blood telomeres are associated with higher risk for pancreatic cancer. Methods: Telomere length was measured in PBLs using quantitative real-time PCR in 499 cases with pancreatic cancer and 963 cancer-free controls from the Mayo Clinic. ORs and confidence intervals (CI) were computed using logistic generalized additive models (GAM) adjusting for multiple variables. Results: In multivariable adjusted models, we observed a significant nonlinear association between telomere length in peripheral blood samples and the risk for pancreatic cancer. Risk was lower among those with longer telomeres compared with shorter telomeres across a range from the 1st percentile to 90th percentile of telomere length. There was also some evidence for higher risk among those with telomeres in the longest extreme. Conclusions: Short telomeres in peripheral blood are associated with an increased risk for pancreatic cancer across most of the distribution of length, but extremely long telomeres may also be associated with higher risk. Impact: Although the temporality of this relationship is unknown, telomere length may be useful as either a marker of pancreatic cancer risk or of the presence of undetected pancreatic cancer. If telomere shortening precedes cancer incidence, interventions to preserve telomere length may be an effective strategy to prevent pancreatic cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 21(11); 1–6. (cid:1) 2012 AACR.


In this article, multi-decadal variations in the French hydroclimate are investigated, with a specific focus on river flows. Based on long observed series, it is shown that river flows in France generally exhibit large multi-decadal variations in the instrumental period (defined in this study as the period from the late 19th century to the present), especially in spring. Differences of means between 21 yr periods of the 20th century as large as 40% are indeed found for many gauging stations. Multi-decadal spring river flow variations are associated with variations in spring precipitation and temperature. These multi-decadal variations in precipitation are themselves found to be driven by large-scale atmospheric circulation, more precisely by a multi-decadal oscillation in a sea level pressure dipole between western Europe and the eastern Atlantic. It is suggested that the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, the main mode of multi-decadal variability in the North Atlantic–Europe sector, controls those variations in large-scale circulation and is therefore the main ultimate driver of multi-decadal variations in spring river flows. Potential multi-decadal variations in river flows in other seasons, and in particular summer, are also noted. As they are not associated with significant surface climate anomalies (i.e. temperature, precipitation) in summer, other mechanisms are investigated based on hydrological simulations. The impact of climate variations in spring on summer soil moisture, and the impact of soil moisture in summer on the runoff-to-precipitation ratio, could potentially play a role in multi-decadal summer river flow variations. The large amplitude of the multi-decadal variations in French river flows suggests that internal variability may play a very important role in the evolution of river flows during the next decades, potentially temporarily limiting, reversing or seriously aggravating the long-term impacts of anthropogenic climate change.


We find families of vortex solitary waves in bulk quadratic nonlinear media under conditions for second-harmonic generation. We show that the vortex solitary waves are azimuthally unstable and that they decay into sets of stable spatial solitons. We calculate the growth rates of the azimuthal perturbations and show how those affect the pattern of output light.


Closing areas where juveniles aggregate has often been assumed to benefit recruitment since it reduces mortality of undersized individuals. However, the number of juveniles per unit area that recruit to an adult population may vary due to a combination of factors. Consequently, more appropriate nursery definitions have been based on measures of juvenile contribution to an adult population, either as overall contribution (essential juvenile habitat hypothesis) or recruits per area (the nursery role hypothesis). Nonetheless, these definitions do not explain why nursery contribution differs. In the present study, the nursery contribution of areas in the North Sea and west of Scotland was examined for haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus. Elemental concentrations in the equivalent parts of the otolith of juvenile and adult fish were compared from the same year-class. Discriminant analysis indicated that 4 discrete 0-group regions around the Scottish coast could be distinguished with a classification accuracy of 83 to 89%. In contrast, the elemental signatures from adult cores sampled in adjacent spawning areas indicated high levels of mixing throughout the study region. The Scottish east coast region accounted for the highest overall contribution in 2003, and this was related to the high 0-group density in that region. While 0-group densities in this area have been consistently high since 2001, previous large year-classes have been characterised by high densities further north and east. Therefore, if 0-group density is always a good indicator of nursery contribution, temporary area closures that vary in relation to juvenile settlement concentrations may have more benefit to recruitment than permanent closures.