The main objective of this study was to evaluate the in vivo toxicity of methanolic leaf extract of Vernonia lasiopus. To provide information on the safety of V. lasiopus, we evaluated its acute and sub-chronic toxicity in Wistar rats. For evaluation of acute toxicity of the plant extract, five Wistar rats were orally dosed with 2000 mg/kg body weight sequentially. Sub-chronic toxicity was tested in twenty Wistar rats using three extract doses 100, 300 and 1000 mg/kg body weight. They were orally administered for 28 days. Mortality and toxicity signs were monitored during the study period. At the end of the experiment, the animals were sacrificed, their internal organs weighed and blood samples collected for haematology and biochemical analysis. In acute toxicity, no single death was reported; leading to conclusion that the median lethal dose (LD50) of methanolic leaf extract of V. lasiopus is beyond 2000 mg/kg body weight. In sub-chronic toxicity studies, V. lasiopus lowered total proteins in all the study groups significantly. Albumin was also lowered at extract dose of 1000 mg/kg body weight. In addition, it resulted to significant neutropenia, lymphocytosis and thrombocytosis in the group administered with dose extract of 1000 mg/kg body weight (PA‹Â'0.05). It was therefore concluded that methanolic leaf extract of V. lasiopus is safe for use when administered at therapeutic doses. The plant extract may also be useful in the management of haematological disorders especially thrombocytopenia.


The neural crest is a unique population of pluripotent cells that are crucial in vertebrate embryogenesis. In the trunk, NCCs migrate along a ventromedial pathway give rise to the dorsal root ganglia or the sympathetic ganglia (SG), or follow a dorsolateral pathway and give rise to melanocytes. Intriguingly, NCCs following the ventromedial pathway migrate in a metameric pattern through the rostral half somite and avoid the caudal somite and this is thought to dictate the metameric pattern of the SG. Static analyses have characterized the development of these structures, but timelapse imaging of NCCs in their normal environment could potentially reveal unidentified cellular and molecular interactions integral to SG development. However, because NCCs migrate deep within the embryo, it is challenging to track NCCs little is known about the cellular mechanisms mediating their migration, aggregation and differentiation. Here, we follow fluorescently labeled trunk NCCs using a novel sagittal explant culture system and timelapse confocal microscopy. We show trunk NCCs migrate in chain-like formations, and restriction to the rostral somite is not maintained once these cells arrive at the dorsal aorta. Instead, discrete SG only arise after an intermixing of cells along the ventral border of the somite followed by segregation into ganglia. The diverse cell migratory behaviors and active reorganization at the target sites suggest that cell-cell and cell-environment interactions are coordinated with dynamic molecular processes. In a screen for molecules expressed on NCCs during SG formation, we identified the cell adhesion molecule N-cadherin expressed once NCCs arrive adjacent to the dorsal aorta and form ganglia. Additionally, altering cadherin function drastically alters ganglia size. Additionally, we found EphrinB1 expression was absent adjacent to the dorsal aorta as NCCs had dispersed in this corridor, but strikingly up-regulated in the inter-ganglionic regions after discrete ganglia formation. The ephrinB1 receptor, EphB2, is also expressed on NCCs distributed adjacent to the dorsal aorta when discrete ganglia form. Altering ephrinB1/EphB2 signaling interferes with formation of the primary SG chain and blocks the formation of discrete ganglia. Taken together, these results indicate the importance of adhesive and inhibitory mechanisms in the formation of SG.


We perform the largest currently available set of direct N-body calculations of young star cluster models to study the dynamical influence, especially through the ejections of the most massive star in the cluster, on the current relation between the maximum stellar mass and the star cluster mass. We vary several initial parameters such as the initial half-mass radius of the cluster, the initial binary fraction and the degree of initial mass segregation. Two different pairing methods are used to construct massive binaries for more realistic initial conditions of massive binaries. We find that lower mass clusters () do not shoot out their heaviest star. In the case of massive clusters (), no most massive star escapes the cluster within 3 Myr regardless of the initial conditions if clusters have initial half-mass radii, r0.5, ≥0.8 pc. However, a few of the initially smaller sized clusters (r0.5= 0.3 pc), which have a higher density, eject their most massive star within 3 Myr. If clusters form with a compact size and their massive stars are born in a binary system with a mass ratio biased towards unity, the probability that the mass of the most massive star in the cluster changes due to the ejection of the initially most massive star can be as large as 20 per cent. Stellar collisions increase the maximum stellar mass in a large number of clusters when clusters are relatively dense ( and r0.5= 0.3 pc) and binary rich. Overall, we conclude that dynamical effects hardly influence the observational maximum stellar mass–cluster mass relation.


E-finance in Korea has evolved since the late 1980s, when developments in information and telecommunication technology started to be applied to the financial industry. Since the 1990s, e-finance has led a paradigm shift in the financial industry as financial transactions in computer-based tools began increasing. There are several factors that contributed to e-finance development. Korea possess the basic requisite conditions to foster thriving e-finance, including an advanced IT infrastructure, several government e-commerce initiatives and financial restructuring resulting from the financial crisis. In fact, all of these factors have eliminated possible impediments to the development of e-finance in developing countries. This paper shows that the decision for the introduction of internet banking depends on the profit level for the bank rather than the asset size and/or operation costs. Intuitively, large banks are early takers in providing Internet banking de to a huge amount of initial investment costs to establish an Internet banking network. At the same time, cost inefficient banks are inclined to consider the introduction of Internet banking earlier to reduce inefficiency caused by replacing cost-inefficient infrastructure. However, Korea shows an interesting case such that the asset size and operation costs were irrelevant to the establishment of Internet banking networks. On the other hand, profitability was relevant to the introduction of Internet banking. This may imply that relatively profitable banks at the onset of the crisis were able to jump into e-finance earlier than non-profitable banks. Furthermore, this paper shows that the adoption of internet banking has a positive effect of bank profit.


This study evaluates regional‐scale hydrological simulations of the newly developed community Noah land surface model (LSM) with multiparameterization options (Noah‐MP). The model is configured for the Mississippi River Basin and driven by the North American Land Data Assimilation System Phase 2 atmospheric forcing at 1/8° resolution. The simulations are compared with various observational data sets, including the U.S. Geological Survey streamflow and groundwater data, the AmeriFlux tower micrometeorological evapotranspiration (ET) measurements, the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN)‐observed soil moisture data, and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite‐derived terrestrial water storage (TWS) anomaly data. Compared with these observations and to the baseline Noah LSM simulations, Noah‐MP shows significant improvement in hydrological modeling for major hydrological variables (runoff, groundwater, ET, soil moisture, and TWS), which is very likely due to the incorporation of some major improvements into Noah‐MP, particularly an unconfined aquifer storage layer for groundwater dynamics and an interactive vegetation canopy for dynamic leaf phenology. Noah‐MP produces soil moisture values consistent with the SCAN observations for the top two soil layers (0–10 cm and 10–40 cm), indicating its great potential to be used in studying land‐atmosphere coupling. In addition, the simulated groundwater spatial patterns are comparable to observations; however, the inclusion of groundwater in Noah‐MP requires a longer spin‐up time (34 years for the entire study domain). Runoff simulation is highly sensitive to three parameters: the surface dryness factor (α), the saturated hydraulic conductivity (k), and the saturated soil moisture (θmax).


The destiny of urban wetlands lies largely in the hands of the urban planners. The results of this study suggest that planners are underestimating the importance of the urban wetland with irreversible consequences. The ecological integrity of natural systems like wetlands is inevitably compromised when they occur in urban environments. The Resource Management Act 1991 altered the approach to urban development from being entirely anthropocentric to one of consideration of the environment in which such developments were planned. Supposedly, adherence to the Act has resulted in a more focused approach to environmental outcomes in district and regional plans. However, this research into the effects of urban development on urban wetland riparian areas identifies a lack of appreciation of their structure and function. Eight palustrine wetlands were assessed for health and riparian function. They comprised two non-urban wetlands that provided the best-available ecological data on wetland health and six urban wetlands. Ecological indicators and urbanisation data were incorporated into a multimetric model (named the Urban Wetland Health Index) to evaluate the biological health of urban wetlands. A key finding of this research is that the urban wetlands have poor ecological health and functioning indicated by excessive nutrients and algal blooms. Other key findings included the inadequate structure and function of the wetland riparian areas; the loss of riparian habitat associated with a lack of indigenous vegetation; the minimal cultural values given to the urban wetlands; and the negative impacts of urban imperviousness and inadequate stormwater infrastructure on wetland health. Notably, older residential areas that had poor stormwater connections to appropriate drainage also had the least healthy urban wetlands. The role of stormwater runoff in compromising the health of the urban wetlands was not addressed in the 2010 Kapiti Coast District Plan Review documents regarding Landscape and Biodiversity. These documents guide the development of the 'second generation' district plan. The Urban Wetland Health Index was found to be robust and reliable with this research. It was designed to address a gap in the tools available to planners, ecologists and other professionals seeking to assess the impacts of urban development on urban wetland ecosystem health. This Index is an important tool for use by councils in reviewing their district plans and undertaking plan changes. The incorporation of ecosystem services science into their policies and plans, and the understanding of the value of urban wetland ecosystem services, is needed to foster urban sustainability.


In the late apartheid period South African suburbs began to change dramatically in the way they looked and in the way in which they were designed. Essentially, housing was designed with the aim of keeping 'intruders' out. This meant a turn toward increasingly high walls, electrified fences and laser beams. Alongside these 'investments' and design innovations came a massive growth of the private security industry. A new mentality emerged which focused on the fortification of home and office space. This mentality, at least initially, was strongly supported and bolstered by the private security industry who had a real vested interest in this rush to monitor space and to harden security. Yet, whether or not high walls and electrified fences do in fact reduce experiences of crime victimisation for individual home owners and residents is up for debate. And the private security industry as well as the public police are now suggesting that walls might not provide the security that home owners believe they do. This research is aimed at interrogating whether walls, electric fences, beams and so on really do reduce fear of crime and victimisation, from the perspective of those who do the policing, i.e. the public and private. The aim here is to discover whether policing actors view walls as a help or a hindrance to policing and security governance. The 'praxis' goal of this research is, through public engagement, to shift paradigms about walls and security.


This study examines pre-service teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) development and analyses their conceptions of learning and teaching with technology. With this aim in mind, researchers designed and implemented a computerbased mathematics course based on a TPACK framework. As a research methodology, a parallel mixed method approach was used. The data were collected from 71 pre-service teachers taking the course. The TPACK survey, a semi-structured interview, and evaluation scores of pre-service teachers' microteaching performance, which also included analysis of lesson plans, were used as data collection instruments. The findings indicated that the implemented instructional processes affected pre-service teachers' TPACK development positively. There were significant differences before and after the course implementation concerning Technology Knowledge, Technological Content Knowledge, Technological Pedagogical Knowledge, and TPACK in general. Qualitative findings support and overlap the statistical inferences. There should be more courses which require pre-service teachers to develop computerbased instructional materials and use their materials with microteaching sessions. Instructors of faculties of education should use technology in their instructional environments not only for presentation purposes.


Terrorist groups, hijackers, and people hiding guns and knifes are a constant and increasing threat Concealed weapon detection (CWO) has turned into one of the greatest challenges facing the law enforcement community today. Current screening procedures for detecting concealed weapons such as handguns and knives are common in controlled access settings such as airports, entrances to sensitive buildings and public events. Unfortunately screening people in this way prior to entering controlled areas is ineffective in preventing some weapons from getting through and also produces bottle-necks in crowded environments. Also the screening technologies employed have a high rate of false alarms due to poor discrimination capability. A reliable CWD that is able to work in open areas and a robust method capable to discriminate between ferromagnetic weapons are necessary.

This thesis reviews recent developments in the area of CWO using largely electromagnetic methods. The advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are discussed and a new research direction in CWO is presented. This thesis proposes a cost-effective weapon detection system based on pulse induction technology which is able to work in open areas without invading individual privacy. This approach employs a uniform magnetic field generator to transmit pulses that cause eddy currents to flow in any metal object carried by people. The induced eddy currents decay exponentially following sudden changes in the exciting magnetic field with a characteristic decay time (time constant) that depends on the size, shape, and material composition of the object. The decay currents generate a secondary magnetic field and the rate-of-change ofthe field is detected by the sensors. This thesis introduces models based on finite element analysis (FEA) to study the potential use of the time constant as a signature for weapon discrimination. Experimental work is also presented that confirms the theoretical predictions obtained from FEA. It is shown that further work on signature extraction and signal processing needs to be done to build the weapon signature database necessary for classification.


The principle of creativity constitutes a central point in the philosophical-anthropological as much as in the psychoanalytic work of the Greek philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis. In Castoriadis's thought the creative praxis of the human being is dependent on the innate imaginary force. The purpose of this article is to elaborate the way that subjectivity and the social field are constituted and interconnected through the unfolding of two fundamental concepts of Castoriadis, the radical imaginary which applies to the psyche and the social imaginary which applies to the social. The text aims to point out that Castoriadis's intention was to make thinkable the content of autonomy in psychoanalytic terms of an "exchange" between the conscious and the unconscious that unleashes the creative potentiality of the psyche, and also becomes a precondition of political autonomy.


The western rock lobster fishery is one of the most significant and valuable singlespecies fisheries in Australia and in the world. It generates a gross commercial value of $200-300 million dollars per year for the economy of Western Australia. The impact of environmental factors on the daily catch rate of the western rock lobster is of particular interest to the W.A. Marine Research Laboratories, at the Ministry of Fisheries, Western Australia. Considerable time and effort has been invested intobuilding and developing suitable models to measure such impact on this fishery. While past research has focussed on monthly or seasonal data, this study investigated appropriate time series analyses to model the effect of major environmental factors such as lunar cycle, swell, and sea water temperature on the daily catch rate data of the western rock lobster at different depths. The variation in western rock lobster daily catch rate data for two periods ("whites" and "reds") and four categories (undersize, legal size, spawner, and setose ), was examined for three management zones, A, B, and C. Regression and transfer function models for relationships between catch rates and environmental data were considered and compared. Results show that the lunar cycle especially the presence of the full moon and the swell has a significant impact on the daily catch rates of the Western rock lobster. The results of this research assist in the development of improved models to support the management of this very valuable resource.


Abstract. OpenStreetMap (OSM) has become one of the largest sources of volunteered geographic information (VGI), and the data is now used for a wide range of applications. A massively popular augmented reality game, Pokémon GO, recently adopted OSM data for its in-game map and many of its in-game mechanics. This study investigated: (1) How Pokémon GO affected the quantity of daily contributors and daily edits to OSM in South Korea (the only country where OSM data was used exclusively since the game's launch); and (2) How the game affected volunteers' contribution habits. The main findings were: (i) the number of daily contributors and daily edits both increased by more than 17 times following the launch of Pokémon GO in South Korea, but returned to more normal levels after around 1½ months; (ii) Most individuals contributing to OSM because of Pokémon GO reportedly did so to improve the in-game map appearance and in-game mechanics; and (iii) Individuals motivated to contribute to OSM because of Pokémon GO tended to create/edit OSM "park" and "water body" features more than other OSM contributors. It is notable that the large increases in OSM contributors and edits occurred even in the absence of any formal guidance or encouragement by the game operator or other parties. If greater efforts are made to encourage participation in VGI initiatives linked to AR games, the observed impacts will likely be even more dramatic.


The objective of this paper is to consider the issues which farms should solve in order to reduce food risk, and to give a perspective of the farm of the next generation from a mid/long-term aspect. The food risk can be classified into the food pollution risk and the food shortage risk, and the integrated analysis and consideration are given. The result shows that the international GAP is required to manage food pollution risk, and the information management as a new farming operation is needed to achieve it. From this aspect, characteristics of both family farms and agricultural enterprises are clarified. The latter have advantages in the field. On the other hand, to discuss food shortage risk, the long term aspect of both demand and supply of energy and nutrients for the entire country is essential. The fundamental concept needed for this is proposed. Furthermore, it is statistically clarified that an agricultural enterprise increases the role of the major supplier. It is also clarified that the ordinary profit rate of agricultural enterprises in rice farming is higher than that of small and medium-sized enterprises in non-agricultural industries on average. A portion of the profit comes from agricultural policy, however.


Climate change creates an imperative to develop renewable energy infrastructure, and the state of Vermont has committed to developing new renewables. However, renewables pose significant threats to natural systems because of the dramatic changes to ecosystems that occur with development. Public outcry over new developments and dissatisfaction with the current process used for siting indicate that the old regulatory process may be outdated. This thesis seeks to bridge the divide between ecology and law in renewable energy infrastructure siting. Using the state of Vermont as a case study, it suggests a new, proactive energy planning process that would use spatial analysis and public involvement to bring experts and citizens together to evaluate difficult tradeoffs and make hard choices about where to site renewables. In this thesis I use content analysis to determine which issues are important to stakeholders involved in the debate about energy siting. I then develop spatial analysis of Chittenden County to examine four metrics important to siting: generating potential, carbon storage, viewshed, and biodiversity. This spatial analysis could be applied by policy makers to evaluate tradeoffs among these four metrics. Finally, I propose a new regulatory siting process that would use stakeholder engagement and proactive planning to create "Renewable Energy Zones" where development could be fasttracked while safeguards are in place to protect important natural resources and the public interest. A better understanding of public concern, landscape-scale spatial modeling of ecosystem services, and a new proactive energy planning process could pave the way for a more effective siting process that allows for rapid development of renewables to combat climate change and includes local voices.


The thermal diffusion enrichment system of the Quaternary Isotope Laboratory consists of 23 hot wire columns of 3m effective length combined to 2 separate systems of 3 and 3 separate systems of 4 columns at the top, each system in series with 1 bottom column. From ≈ 130 L NTP of CO (∼ 65g of carbon) it produces ≈ 8 L NTP of CO (~ 4g of carbon) enriched in 12C18O by a factor 6 to 7 and in 14C16O by a factor 7 to 8 in about 5 weeks. For 12C18O the system has a theoretical equilibrium separation factor of about 250 and a theoretical equilibrium enrichment of about 15. For 14C16O these values are 1300 and 16, respectively. The dependence of thermal diffusion transport on gas exchange between top and bottom section and between columns and reservoirs and on wire temperature is given. Forced gas exchange and a higher wire temperature gave a more rapidly increasing enrichment without substantially increasing its final value of 6 to 7 for 12C18O. A comparison with the Groningen enrichment system shows that the two systems behave very similarly and that not the system geometry but individual column parameters and the ratio total sample mass/enriched sample mass are the dominant factors determining the enrichment.


Information technologies have recently led to a surge of electronic documents in the form of emails, webpages, blogs, news articles, etc. To help users decide which documents may be interesting to read, it is common practice to organize documents by categories/topics. A wide range of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques already exist for automated text classification and text clustering. However, supervised learning requires a training set of documents already labeled with topics/categories, which is not always readily available. In contrast, unsupervised learning techniques do not require labeled documents, but assigning a suitable category to each resulting cluster remains a difficult problem. The state of the art consists of extracting keywords based on word frequency (or related heuristics). In this thesis, we improve the extraction of keywords for unsupervised labeling of document clusters by designing a Bayesian approach based on topic modeling. More precisely, we describe an approach that uses a large side corpus to infer a language model that implicitly encodes the semantic relatedness of different words. This language model is then used to build a generative model of the cluster in such a way that the probability of generating each word depends on its frequency in the cluster as well as the frequency of its semantically related words. The words with the highest probability of generation are then extracted to label the cluster. In this approach, the side corpus can be thought as a source of domain knowledge or context. However, there are two potential problems: processing a large side corpus can be time consuming and if the content of this corpus is not similar enough to the cluster, the resulting language model may be biased. We deal with those issues by designing a Bayesian transfer learning framework that allows us to process the side corpus just once offline and to weigh its importance based on the degree of similarity with the cluster.


Representing an environment globally, in a coarse way, and locally, in a fine-grained way, are two fundamental aspects of how our brain interprets the world that surrounds us. The neural correlates of these representations have not been explicated in humans. In this study we used fMRI to investigate these correlates and to explore a possible functional segregation in the hippocampus and parietal cortex. We hypothesized that processing a coarse, global environmental representation engages anterior parts of these regions, whereas processing fine-grained, local environmental information engages posterior parts. Participants learned a virtual environment and then had to find their way during fMRI. After scanning, we assessed strategies used and representations stored. Activation in the hippocampal head (anterior) was related to the multiple distance and global direction judgments and to the use of a coarse, global environmental representation during navigation. Activation in the hippocampal tail (posterior) was related to both local and global direction judgments and to using strategies like number of turns. A structural shape analysis showed that the use of a coarse, global environmental representation was related to larger right hippocampal head volume and smaller right hippocampal tail volume. In the inferior parietal cortex, a similar functional segregation was observed, with global routes represented anteriorly and fine-grained route information such as number of turns represented posteriorly. In conclusion, moving from the anterior to the posterior hippocampus and inferior parietal cortex reflects a shift from processing coarse global environmental representations to processing fine-grained, local environmental representations.


Preeclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide. It occurs in women with first or multiple pregnancies and is characterized by new onset hypertension and proteinuria. Improper placentation is mainly responsible for the disease. If PE remains untreated, it moves towards more serious condition known as eclampsia. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, proteinuria, obesity, family history, nulliparity, multiple pregnancies and thrombotic vascular disease contribute as the risk factors for PE. PE triggered metabolic stress causes vascular injury, thus contributing to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and/or chronic kidney disease (CKD) in future. This risk appears to be increased especially in women with a history of recurrent PE and eclampsia. Clinically increased serum levels of sFlt-1 and decreased placental growth factor (PIGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) represent the severe condition of PE. The clinical findings of sever PE are assorted by the presence of systemic endothelial dysfunction, microangiopathy, the liver (hemolysis, elevated liver function tests and low platelet count, namely HELLP syndrome) and the kidney (proteinuria). The early detection of PE is one of the most important goals in obstetrics.


Five scientists and engineers connected with Iran's nuclear program have been killed or injured in recent confirmed or possible assassination attempts. It is unclear who is responsible, but the attacks raise unique policy questions about motives, effectiveness, repercussions, and legal and moral standards. Past assassination plots—including a US plan to kidnap or kill a German atomic scientist in World War II—suggest that such attempts are products of desperation: A nation tries to kill another country's nuclear scientists when it sees no military or diplomatic options for addressing a perceived threat of existential proportions. The possible advantages of targeting another country's nuclear scientists are modest at best, possibly delaying (but not halting) a nuclear weapons program while providing some deniability to the attacking country. The disadvantages are many, including the possibility that assassinations will inspire retaliation, reduce the likelihood of a diplomatic solution, and increase the difficulties international regulators face in monitoring a covert nuclear program. In the abstract, moral and legal strictures also weigh against such assassination efforts. As a practical matter, however, if the existential imperative is present, it will likely trump legal and ethical considerations when a nation contemplates assassinating nuclear scientists.


This thesis consists of three main parts. The first part of the master thesis looks at the identification of thruster dynamics and low speed ship dynamics. The relevant parameters identified are time constants and time delays in the system. Simple step tests are used for the identification. Different models for identification are suggested, both for uncoupled surge, sway, and yaw dynamics. Other test results, such as agility plots, DP 4 corner tests, and pure DP tests (stationkeeping) are reported. All the results are to be compared to similar tests performed after R/V Gunnerus has a retrofit of the thruster system. The second part discusses another problem, and that is the topic of numerically estimat- ing the body frame position of the GNSS and MRU sensors. For the GNSS position an Luenberger observer design and an adaptive scheme are proposed and analyzed. The es- timation designs are tested using numerical simulations and experimental data from the Gunnerus sea trials. A similar Luenberger observer is proposed for the MRU positions, and experimental data from the sea trials are used to test the observer. The third part discusses a hybrid augmentation of integral action. The motivation is a DP system, where typically the integral action is tuned very low to avoid oscillations due to the integral action. When there is a sudden load change, such as a ice load that hits the vessel, or if a mooring wire snaps, then a hybrid update augmentation could be useful, to speed up the convergence of the integral action. The update law is a linear update law based on the error in the states (the velocity for the DP system). The augmentation can significantly improve performance, especially for very large disturbance changes.


Abstract: Our study represents the first attempt to describe biogeographic provinces for North American (México, United States, and Canada) turtles. We analyzed three nested data sets separately: (1) all turtles, (2) freshwater turtles, and (3) aquatic turtles. We georeferenced North American turtle distributions, then we created presence–absence matrices for each of the three data sets. We used watershed unit as biogeographic units. We conducted an unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean clustering analysis on each Jaccard index distance matrix from our watershed species matrices to delineate biogeographic provinces. Provinces were then tested for significant differences in species compositions in a global model with the use of a one-way analysis of similarity. We conducted a best subset of environmental variables with maximum (rank) correlation with community dissimilarities that determined the best model of abiotic variables explaining province delineation (i.e., climate, topography, and stream channel). To identify which species contributed the most to province delineations, we conducted an indicator species analysis and a similarity-percentage analysis. There were 16 all-turtle provinces, 15 freshwater provinces, and 13 aquatic provinces. Species compositions delineating the provinces were explained by abiotic variables, including mean annual precipitation, mean precipitation seasonality, and diversity of streams. Province delineations correspond closely with geographical boundaries, many of which have Pleistocene origins. For example, rivers with a history of carrying glacial runoff (e.g., Arkansas, Mississippi) sometimes dissect upland provinces, especially for aquatic and semiaquatic turtles. Compared with freshwater fishes, turtles show greater sensitivity to decreased temperature with restriction of most taxa south of the last permafrost maximum. Turtles also exhibit higher sensitivity to climatic, geomorphic, and tectonic instability, with richness and endemism concentrated along the more stable Gulf of México and Atlantic (south of the last permafrost maximum) coasts. Although distribution data indicate two aquatic turtles are most cold tolerant (i.e., Chrysemys picta, Chelydra serpentina), aquatic turtles overall show the most restriction to warmer, wetter climates. Sequential addition of semiaquatic and terrestrial turtles into analyses shows, as expected, that these taxa flesh out turtle faunas in climatically harsh (e.g., grasslands) or remote (e.g., California, Sonoran Desert) regions. The turtle assemblages of southwestern versus southeastern North America are distinct. But there is a transition zone across the semiarid plains of the Texas Gulf Coast, High Plains, and Chihuahuan Desert, including a strong boundary congruent with the Cochise Filter-Barrier. This is not a simple subdivision of Neotropical versus Nearctic taxa, as some lineages from both realms span the transition zone.


This work traces the history of the Dar al-Ifta, the Egyptian State Mufti's administration, from its inception in the 1890s to the present. Positioned between a state bereaucracy and an emerging Muslim public concerned with the transmission of Islamic values, the various State Muftis have been reinterpreting Islamic Law to demonstrate its relevance in the modern age. This history provides an insight into themes of 20th-century Islamic thinking. Four case studies demonstrate how fatwas can be used as sources for legal, social, intellectual and mentality history.


Competition is a defining element of democracy. One of the most noteworthy events over the last quarter-century in U.S. politics is the change in the nature of elite party competition: The parties have become increasingly polarized. Scholars and pundits actively debate how these elite patterns influence polarization among the public (e.g., have citizens also become more ideologically polarized?). Yet, few have addressed what we see as perhaps more fundamental questions: Has elite polarization altered the way citizens arrive at their policy opinions in the first place and, if so, in what ways? We address these questions with a theory and two survey experiments (on the issues of drilling and immigration). We find stark evidence that polarized environments fundamentally change how citizens make decisions. Specifically, polarization intensifies the impact of party endorsements on opinions, decreases the impact of substantive information and, perhaps ironically, stimulates greater confidence in those—less substantively grounded—opinions. We discuss the implications for public opinion formation and the nature of democratic competition.


In this paper we address the improvement of transfer quality in public mass transit networks. Generally there are several transit operators offering service and our work is motivated by the question how their timetables can be altered to yield optimized transfer possibilities in the overall network. To achieve this, only small changes to the timetables are allowed. The set-up makes it possible to use a quadratic semi-assignment model to solve the optimization problem. We apply this model, equipped with a new way to assess transfer quality, to the solution of four real-world examples. It turns out that improvements in overall transfer quality can be determined by such optimization-based techniques. Therefore they can serve as a first step towards a decision support tool for planners of regional transit networks.


How do we find patterns and anomalies, on graphs with billions of nodes and edges, which do not fit in memory? How to use parallelism for such Tera- or Peta-scale graphs? In this thesis, we propose PEGASUS, a large scale graph mining system implemented on the top of the HADOOP platform, the open source version of MAPREDUCE . PEGASUS includes algorithms which help us spot patterns and anomalous behaviors in large graphs.
PEGASUS enables the structure analysis on large graphs. We unify many different structure analysis algorithms, including the analysis on connected components, PageRank, and radius/diameter, into a general primitive called GIM-V. GIM-V is highly optimized, achieving good scale-up on the number of edges and available machines. We discover surprising patterns using GIM-V, including the 7-degrees of separation in one of the largest publicly available Web graphs, with 7 billion edges.
PEGASUS also enables the inference and the spectral analysis on large graphs. We design an efficient distributed belief propagation algorithm which infer the states of unlabeled nodes given a set of labeled nodes. We also develop an eigensolver for computing top k eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the adjacency matrices of very large graphs. We use the eigensolver to discover anomalous adult advertisers in the who-follows-whom Twitter graph with 3 billion edges. In addition, we develop an efficient tensor decomposition algorithm and use it to analyze a large knowledge base tensor.
Finally, PEGASUS allows the management of large graphs. We propose efficient graph storage and indexing methods to answer graph mining queries quickly. We also develop an edge layout algorithm for better compressing graphs.


We study long-run market stability for repeated price competitions between two firms, where consumer demand depends on firms' posted prices and consumers' price expectations called reference prices. Consumers' reference prices vary over time according to a memory-based dynamic, which is a weighted average of all historical prices. We focus on the setting where firms are not aware of demand functions and how reference prices are formed but have access to an oracle that provides a measure of consumers' responsiveness to the current posted prices. We show that if the firms run no-regret algorithms, in particular, online mirror descent(OMD), with decreasing step sizes, the market stabilizes in the sense that firms' prices and reference prices converge to a stable Nash Equilibrium (SNE). Interestingly, we also show that there exist constant step sizesunder which the market stabilizes. We further characterize the rate of convergence to the SNE for both decreasing and constant OMD step sizes.


Abstract Objective: A pay for performance programme was introduced in 2009 by a Swedish county with 1.6 million inhabitants. A process measure with payment linked to coding for medication reviews among the elderly was adopted. We assessed the association with inappropriate medication for five years after baseline. Design and setting: Observational study that compared medication for elderly patients enrolled at primary care units that coded for a high or low volume of medication reviews. Patients: 144,222 individuals at 196 primary care centres, age 75 or older. Main outcome measures: Percentage of patients receiving inappropriate drugs or polypharmacy during five years at primary care units with various levels of reported medication reviews. Results: The proportion of patients with a registered medication review had increased from 3.2% to 44.1% after five years. The high-coding units performed better for most indicators but had already done so at baseline. Primary care units with the lowest payment for coding for medication reviews improved just as well in terms of inappropriate drugs as units with the highest payment – from 13.0 to 8.5%, compared to 11.6 to 7.4% and from 13.6 to 7.2% vs 11.8 to 6.5% for polypharmacy. Conclusions: Payment linked to coding for medication reviews was associated with an increase in the percentage of patients for whom a medication review had been registered. However, the impact of payment on quality improvement is uncertain, given that units with the lowest payment for medication reviews improved equally well as units with the highest payment.


Softwares now-a-days have become the life line of modern day organizations. Organizations cannot think of doing their tasks effectively and efficiently without softwares. The extremely competitive environment, zero deficiency and enhanced productivity has made it mandatory for the organizations to carefully choose the appropriate software after comprehensive needs assessment. Softwares simply their tasks and saves a lot of precious time which can be utilized in managing other important issues. Libraries also need softwares if they want to create a parallel digital library with features which we may not find in a traditional library. There are several open source softwares available to create a digital library. For this, firstly the library professionals should be aware of the advantages of open source software and should involve in their development. They should have basic knowledge about the selection, installation and maintenance. Open source software requires a greater degree of computing responsibility than commercial software. Digitization involves huge money to create and maintain and the OSS appears to be a means to reduce it. Among these, DSpace and Greenstone are becoming more popular in India and abroad. This paper deals with the comparison of these two popular OSS from various points of view. The comparative table may help the professionals who are planning to create a digital library.


Flexible lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have a strong oncoming consumer market demand for use in wearable electronic devices, flexible smart electronics, roll-up displays, electronic shelf labels, active radio-frequency identification tags, implantable medical devices, and so forth. This market demand necessitates research and development of new flexible LIBs to fulfill the electrical energy and power requirements of these next-generation devices. In this study, we investigate the performance of a new flexible LIB made from semi-solid electrodes. The semi-solid electrodes are made by adding a mixture of electrode active material and conductive material to the organic liquid electrode. This gives a dense and viscous slurry so that all solid particles can move by acting pressure, shear, or bending forces to the battery. To study the performance of this battery we develop a 3D heterogeneous mathematical model that considers all necessary transport phenomena including the charge and mass transfer and electrochemical reactions at the continuum mechanics level on the reconstructed 3D structure of semi-solid electrodes. The finite element analysis (FEA) method was used to solve the governing equations using the COMSOL Multiphysics software package. The model is validated using experimental data for the flexible LIB made in the lab. Based on the developed model, several studies are conducted to understand the effect of the battery discharge rate and the operating temperature on the battery capacity. These studies recommend an operational range for the temperature and discharge rate for this flexible LIB.


Acidification is a technique used in oil reservoirs to improve annual production, reduce the skin and increase the pressure of an oil well while eliminating the formation damage that occurs during the drilling process, completion and, amongst others, to create new channels allowing the easy circulation of oil around a producing well. This is achieved by injecting an acidizing fluid at a relatively low pressure to prevent fracturing formation. The treatment fluid used depends on the type and nature of the reservoir rock traversed as well as its petrophysical properties. In order to understand the interaction mechanisms between the treatment fluids used for the reservoir rock acidizing, several candidate wells for stimulation were selected in the large Hassi Messaoud deposit in southern Algeria. The stimulation of these wells is completed using different fluids composed mainly of HCl acid with other additives such as corrosion inhibitors, clay stabilizers and iron controllers. These treatment fluids are injected over two phases, namely with clean tube (7.5% HCl) and matrix aidizing with HCl (15%). The stimulation results obtained are variable according to the type of rock traversed and its mineralogical composition. These results show that there has been an increase in production flow and head pressure respectively from 1.99 m3 / h to 3.56 m3 / h and from 13 Kgf / cm2 to 20 kgf / cm2 in the sands formation having good petrophysical properties of (porosity = 16%) and low amount of clay (Vsh = 6%). Keywords—Acidizing, Hassi-Messaoud reservoir, tube clean, matrix stimulation.


Surface soils from an acid sulfate soil (ASS) backswamp were inundated in a temperature controlled environment and surface-water chemistry changes monitored. The soils had contrasting in situ vegetative cover [i.e. 2 grass species, Cynodon dactylon and Pennisetum clandestinum (Poaceae), and litter from Melaleuca quinquenervia (Myrtaceae)]. The different vegetation types had similar biomass and carbon content; however, there were large differences in the quality and lability of that carbon, which strongly influenced decay/redox processes and the chemical composition of surface waters. The grass species had more labile carbon. Their surface waters displayed rapid sustained O2 depletion and sustained low Eh (~0 mV), high dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and moderate pH (5–6). Their soil acidity was partially neutralised, sulfides were re-formed, and reductive dissolution of Fe(III) led to the generation of stored acidity in the water column as Fe2+(aq). In contrast, M. quinquenervia litter was high in decay-resistant compounds. Its surface waters had lower DOC and low pH (<4) and only underwent a short period of low O2/Eh. Soluble Al caused M. quinquenervia surface waters to have higher titratable acidity and soil pH remained consistently low (~3.8–4.0). Concentrations of Cl– and Al in surface waters were strongly correlated to initial soil contents, whereas the behaviour of Fe and SO42– varied according to pH and redox status. This study demonstrates that changes in vegetation communities in ASS backswamps that substantially alter either (a) the pool of labile vegetative organic carbon or (b) the concentration of acidic solutes in surface soil can have profound implications for the chemical characteristics of backswamp surface waters.


The paper describes an analytical technique for predicting the eddy-current loss in the moving armature of a tubular permanent magnet machine. This loss component is usually neglected in conventional tubular permanent magnet machines since high-order time harmonics in the stator current waveform and space harmonics in the winding magnetomotive force (MMF) distribution are generally considered to be insignificant. However, a relatively new topology of tubular permanent magnet machine, sometimes referred to as "modular", has emerged in which the fundamental component of the stator MMF has fewer poles than that of the permanent-magnet armature, the thrust force being developed by the interaction between a higher order MMF harmonic and the permanent magnet field. Thus, the presence of lower and higher order space harmonics in the winding MMF distribution of a modular machine may gives rise to a significant eddy-current loss in the moving-magnet armature. An analytical model is developed to predict the eddy currents which are induced in the magnets, as well as in any electrically conducting supporting tube which may be employed, and to quantify the effectiveness of axially segmenting the magnets in reducing the eddy-current loss. The validity of the developed model, which is also applicable to conventional designs of tubular permanent-magnet machine, is verified by time-stepped transient finite-element analysis (FEA).


The most common way to communicate with those around us is speech. Suffering from a speech disorder can have negative social effects: from leaving the individuals with low confidence and moral to problems with social interaction and the ability to live independently like adults. The speech therapy intervention is a complex process having particular objectives such as: discovery and identification of speech disorder and directing the therapy to correction, recovery, compensation, adaptation and social integration of patients. Computer-based Speech Therapy systems are a real help for therapists by creating a special learning environment. The Romanian language is a phonetic one, with special linguistic particularities. This paper aims to present a few computer-based speech therapy systems developed for the treatment of various speech disorders specific to Romanian language.


Stanovich & West's target article undervalues the power of implicit learning (particularly reinforcement learning). Implicit learning may allow the learning of more rational responses–and sometimes even generalisation of knowledge–in contexts where explicit, abstract knowledge proves only of limited value, such as for economic decision-making. Four other comments are made.


You are subject to this subpart if you own or operate a stationary combustion turbine located at a major source of HAP emissions. (a) Stationary combustion turbine means all equipment, including but not limited to the turbine, the fuel, air, lubrication and exhaust gas systems, control systems (except emissions control equipment), and any ancillary components and sub-components comprising any simple cycle stationary combustion turbine, any regenerative/ recuperative cycle stationary combustion turbine, the combustion turbine portion of any stationary cogeneration cycle combustion system, or the combustion turbine portion of any stationary combined cycle steam/electric generating system. Stationary means that the combustion turbine is not self propelled or intended to be propelled while performing its function, although it may be mounted on a vehicle for portability or transportability. Stationary combustion turbines covered by this subpart include simple cycle stationary combustion turbines, regenerative/recuperative cycle stationary combustion turbines, cogeneration cycle stationary combustion turbines, and combined cycle stationary combustion turbines. Stationary combustion turbines subject to this subpart do not include turbines located at a research or laboratory facility, if research is conducted on the turbine itself and the turbine is not being used to power other applications at the research or laboratory facility. (b) A major source of HAP emissions is a contiguous site under common control that emits or has the potential to emit any single HAP at a rate of 10 tons (9.07 megagrams) or more per year or any combination of HAP at a rate of 25 tons (22.68 megagrams) or more per year, except that for oil and gas production facilities, a major source of HAP emissions is determined for each surface site.


Right iliac fossa pain syndrome is a diagnostic challenge in family doctor's practice, through various causes and the peculiarities of the age at which the affection can occur. Specific situations or differential diagnosis remain important challenges in medical practice, for which, in most cases, only history and physical examination are in handy. The technical conditions of the imaging diagnostic and invasive microsurgery make the diagnosis to be made with more accuracy, and the intervention and recovery to be fastened.


Scheduling is one of the most important resource allocation for networked systems. Conventional scheduling policies are primarily developed under light-tailed (LT) traffic assumptions. However, recent empirical studies show that heavy-tailed (HT) traffic flows have emerged in a variety of networked systems, such as cellular networks, the Internet, and data centers. The highly bursty nature of HT traffic fundamentally challenges the applicability of the conventional scheduling policies. This paper aims to develop novel throughput-optimal scheduling algorithms under hybrid HT and LT traffic flows, where classic optimal policies (e.g., maximum-weight/backpressure schemes), developed under LT assumption, are not throughput-optimal anymore. To counter this problem, a delay-based maximum-weight scheduling policy with the last-in first-out (LIFO) service discipline, namely LIFO-DMWS, is proposed with the proved throughput optimality under hybrid HT and LT traffic. The throughput optimality of LIFO-DMWS gives that a networked system can support the largest set of incoming traffic flows, while guaranteeing bounded queueing delay to each queue, no matter the queue has HT or LT traffic arrival. Specifically, by exploiting asymptotic queueing analysis, LIFO-DMWS is proved to achieve throughout optimality without requiring any knowledge of traffic statistic information (e.g., the tailness or burstiness of traffic flows). Simulation results validate the derived theories and confirm that LIFO-DMWS achieves bounded delay for all flows under challenging HT environments.


On March 6, 1987, the RO-RO ship Herald of Free Enterprise sailed from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, with the bow door unlocked because of negligence on the part of the crew. After leaving the port, exactly 90 seconds, the water came in great amount in the hold for vehicles, causing the heel of the ship. In a few minutes, the ship is lying on its starboard side, causing the loss of 193 people.

The official investigation showed that the management of the safety of their vessels by the shipping company had not been adapted, so that following this event and other high impact accidents in the maritime field, the International Maritime Organization through Resolution A.741 (18), approves the ISM Code on November 4, 1993, mandatory for all vessels with the entry into force of Chapter IX of SOLAS (International Safety Management Code) as it demonstrates that over 80% of accidents on vessels are due to human factors.

We proceed to list a number of selected by the number of victims and high impact on public opinion accidents. This is therefore a preliminary work that will form the basis for further study. We want, by analyzing a few cases after the accident Herald of Free Enterprise, if the implementation of the ISM Code has achieved the goals that had initially set; mainly "to ensure safety at sea, prevention of human injury or loss of life, and avoidance of damage to the environment, in particular, to the marine environment, and to property".

After this review, we can conclude if a change as important as the ISM code standard is necessary.


The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) has risen continuously in atmosphere due to human induced activities, and has been considered the predominant cause of global climate change. Paulowina tomentosa Steud. (P. tomentosa), a multipurpose tree is popular around global market for its timber and its potential role in CO2 sequestration. In this study, the total biomass carbon of five years old and newly planted P. tomentosa has been estimated. The results indicated that the average total biomass carbon of five years old plant was found to be 4.52±0.53Kg C Year-1 per tree i.e. 9.04±1.06-ton C ha-1 Year-1 (assuming 2000 plants per hector). Likewise, the average total biomass carbon of newly planted P. tomentosa within 4 months was found to be 6.07±0.38 Kg in remote village area in Nepal. The estimated biomass carbon in one year of newly planted plants was found to be 18.21±1.14 Kg Year-1 i.e. 0.36-ton C ha-1 Year-1. These findings reveled that short rotational trees like P. tomentosa can be implemented in agroforestry system to reduce the green house emission in cities and emphasizes the carbon storage potential of agroforestry. In vitro micro propagation technique could be implemented to produce genetically uniform clone of P. tomentosa and can be applied in agroforestry system for the adaptation and to mitigate global climate change.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 6(3): 220-226


Abstract Objective: The authors estimated the number of violations of a university policy that prohibited smoking within 25 ft of all campus buildings. Participants: The project was conducted by 13 student researchers from the university and a member of the local public health department. Methods: Students quantified cigarette butts that were littered in a 30-day period inside the prohibited smoking area of 7 campus buildings (large residential hall, small residential hall, administrative building, 2 academic buildings, campus cafeteria, and student union). Results: Investigators found a total of 7,861 cigarette butts (large residential hall: 1,198; small residential hall: 344; administrative building: 107; 2 academic buildings: 1,123 and 806; campus cafeteria: 2,651; and student union: 1,632). Conclusions: Findings suggest that there is low compliance with the university's smoking policy. The described project may be repeated by students at other universities as a method to advocate for policy change.


The full three-dimensional (3D) approach is now becoming an important issue for all magnetic confinement configurations. It is a necessary condition for the stellarator but also the tokamak and the reversed field pinch (RFP) now cannot be completely described in an axisymmetric framework. For the RFP the observation of self-sustained helical configurations with improved plasma performances require a better description in order to assess a new view on this configuration. In this new framework plasma configuration studies for RFX-mod have been considered both with tools developed for the RFP as well as considering codes originally developed for the stellarator and adapted to the RFP. These helical states are reached through a transition to a very low/reversed shear configuration leading to internal electron transport barriers. These states are interrupted by MHD reconnection events and the large Te gradients at the barriers indicate that both current and pressure driven modes are to be considered. Furthermore the typically flat Te profiles in the helical core have raised the issue of the role of electrostatic and electromagnetic turbulence in these reduced chaos regions, so that a stability analysis in the correct 3D geometry is required to address an optimization of the plasma setup. In this view the VMEC code proved to be an effective way to obtain helical equilibria to be studied in terms of stability and transport with a suite of well tested codes. In this work, the equilibrium reconstruction technique as well as the experimental evidence of 3D effects and their first interpretation in terms of stability and transport are presented using both RFP and stellarator tools.


The Objective of this thesis is to talk about the usage of Fuzzy Logic in pattern recognition. There are different fuzzy approaches to recognize the pattern and the structure in data. The fuzzy approach that we choose to process the data is completely depends on the type of data. Pattern reorganization as we know involves various mathematical transforms so as to render the pattern or structure with the desired properties such as the identification of a probabilistic model which provides the explaination of the process generating the data clarity seen and so on and so forth. With this basic school of thought we plunge into the world of Fuzzy Logic for the process of pattern recognition. Fuzzy Logic like any other mathematical field has its own set of principles, types, representations, usage so on and so forth. Hence our job primarily would focus to venture the ways in which Fuzzy Logic is applied to pattern recognition and knowledge of the results. That is what will be said in topics to follow. Pattern recognition is the collection of all approaches that understand, represent and process the data as segments and features by using fuzzy sets. The representation and processing depend on the selected fuzzy technique and on the problem to be solved. In the broadest sense, pattern recognition is any form of information processing for which both the input and output are different kind of data, medical records, aerial photos, market trends, library catalogs, galactic positions, fingerprints, psychological profiles, cash flows, chemical constituents, demographic features, stock options, military decisions.. Most pattern recognition techniques involve treating the data as a variable and applying standard processing techniques to it.


Infrasound has a long history in monitoring SSWs. Several pioneering studies have focused on the various effects of a major warming on the propagation of infrasound, described throughout this chapter. A clear transition can be denoted from observing anomalous signatures towards the use of these signals to study anomalies in upper atmospheric specifications. First studies describe the various infrasonic signatures of a major warming. In general, the significant change in observed infrasound characteristics correspond to summer-like conditions in midwinter. More subtle changes are denoted during a minor warming, recognizable by the presence of a bidirectional stratospheric duct. A combined analysis of all signal characteristic unravels the general stratospheric structure throughout the life cycle of the warming. From then on, infrasound observations are used to evaluate the state of the atmosphere as represented by various NWP models. A new methodology, comparing regional volcano infrasound with simulations...


Life parameters signal has characteristics of extremely lowfrequency, low signal-to-noise ratio, and the easy submerged in strong clutter noises. Howto extract the characteristic parameters of life is a problem. This kind of problemcan be widely used in non-contact medical ward, and also puts forward a newdirection for weak signal detection. Themethod for detecting life signal based on fuzzy neural network, which is proposed via taking full advantage of processing fuzzy information of the fuzzy pattern recognition and self-learning of the neural network (NN) pattern recognition. Simulated results show that the method not only can completely descript life signals in the time-frequency domain, but improve the signal-to-noise ratio and the ability of detecting algorithm.Moreover, the method is effective and practical.


Objective There are few published studies describing severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) epidemiology amongst older children and adults from high HIV-prevalence settings. We aimed to describe SARI epidemiology amongst individuals aged ≥5 years in South Africa. Methods We conducted prospective surveillance for individuals with SARI from 2009–2012. Using polymerase chain reaction, respiratory samples were tested for ten viruses, and blood for pneumococcal DNA. Cumulative annual SARI incidence was estimated at one site with population denominators. Findings We enrolled 7193 individuals, 9% (621/7067) tested positive for influenza and 9% (600/6519) for pneumococcus. HIV-prevalence was 74% (4663/6334). Among HIV-infected individuals with available data, 41% of 2629 were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). The annual SARI hospitalisation incidence ranged from 325-617/100,000 population. HIV-infected individuals experienced a 13–19 times greater SARI incidence than HIV-uninfected individuals (p<0.001). On multivariable analysis, compared to HIV-uninfected individuals, HIV-infected individuals were more likely to be receiving tuberculosis treatment (odds ratio (OR):1.7; 95%CI:1.1–2.7), have pneumococcal infection (OR 2.4; 95%CI:1.7–3.3) be hospitalised for >7 days rather than <2 days (OR1.7; 95%CI:1.2–2.2) and had a higher case-fatality ratio (8% vs 5%;OR1.7; 95%CI:1.2–2.3), but were less likely to be infected with influenza (OR 0.6; 95%CI:0.5–0.8). On multivariable analysis, independent risk indicators associated with death included HIV infection (OR 1.8;95%CI:1.3–2.4), increasing age-group, receiving mechanical ventilation (OR 6.5; 95%CI:1.3–32.0) and supplemental-oxygen therapy (OR 2.6; 95%CI:2.1–3.2). Conclusion The burden of hospitalized SARI amongst individuals aged ≥5 years is high in South Africa. HIV-infected individuals are the most important risk group for SARI hospitalization and mortality in this setting.


In Doubt, Scholarship and Society in 17th Century Central Sudanic Africa Dorrit van Dalen places the 17th century Bornu scholar al-Wālī in the contemporary intellectual environment of global Islam and in his direct social environment, where the spread of Islam caused identities to shift.


Background Regulatory T cells (Tregs) function in dampening excessive immune activation in steady state. However during HIV-1 infection there is sustained immune activation and it is not known how Tregs function in this context. To optimise immunotherapeutic strategies based on Tregs for HIV-1 infected people we assessed the phenotypic and functional properties of these cells from antiretroviral naïve HIV-1 infected adults in Cameroon. Methods Tregs were purified by magnetic sorting from PBMCs obtained from adults aged 21 to 65 years using microbeads according to the manufacturer's protocol (Miltenyi Biotec). The phenotypic properties of the purified Tregs were then determined by multiparametric flow cytometry. Tregs functions were assessed by measuring inflammatory cytokine formation by monocytes following co-culture with autologous Tregs in the presence of either polyICLC or CLO97. Samples were acquired on BD Fortessa X5 cytometer using BDFACS Diva Software and data analysed with FlowJo version 9.8.5. Graph Pad Prism 5 was used for statistical analysis. Results Tregs were defined as CD4+CD25+CD127LoFoxP3+ cells. However, the strong correlation between Foxp3 with the combination of CD25+CD127Lo (r=0,965; p< 0,001, Pearson's correlation) allowed us to use these surface markers as previously reported for tracking Tregs in subsequent experiments. With respect to surface expression there was a significant elevation of HLA-DR /CD38 in Tregs from HIV-1-infected people when compared to HIV-participants. When purified Tregs were co-cultured with autologous monocytes in the presence polyICLC (a TLR 3 agonist) and CLO97 (TLR7/8 agonist) they escalated the intracellular formation of both TNF-α and IL-6 by monocytes. The escalation was significantly higher in co-cultures of cells from antiretroviral naïve HIV-1-infected people relative to seronegative participants. Conclusions Dysregulation in Tregs function can exacerbate inflammatory cytokine formation.


When interviewed by a pension official in 1893, Ellen Davis stated that she was fifty-nine years old, employed as a washerwoman, and that she was born in Scotland. The widow spoke affectionately of her husband John Davis, a veteran of Company G of the 26th United States Colored Infantry who had passed away in 1887 at the age of seventy. The two had married at their home in Brooklyn in 1879 and settled down to raise Ellen's three children from her previous marriage. She recalled, "I had three children by my first husband [.H]is name was James Ronald [and] he was a Scotsman. I married him in Chanden, Scotland in 1859. We went to Australia within two weeks after we were married.... and lived on a sheep farm.... I lived there two years when his health began to fail and we moved back to Scotland." Her husband died soon thereafter and Ellen Davis moved to New York City in 1874 to stay with her cousin. Three years later, she met John Davis who worked as a sawyer in a mill. The Davis couple was well-liked in their neighborhood. According to a local official, "He was a superior colored man, a sawyer by trade, and was considered an honest and truthful man.... [she] is a Scotch woman [who] speaks with a strong Scotch accent [and] appears to [be] honest and truthful." (1) The marriage of John and Ellen Davis was one between a white woman and an African-American man, a Scottish immigrant and a native New Yorker, and two working class laborers. While one might assume that such relationships were rare in the nineteenth century, a close examination of United States Manuscript Census Records in New York City for 1850, 1860, and 1870 indicates that such interracial, cross-cultural marriages constituted five to seven percent of married couples living in predominantly black neighborhoods. The number of interracial marriages varied over the twenty year period under investigation but skyrocketed following the Civil War. Census records indicate that there were 29 interracial marriages in 1850, 19 in 1860, and 116 in 1870. The vast majority of such relationships occurred between black men and white women often between an African-American male born in the United States and a woman who had immigrated from Europe, most of whom were Irish, Scottish, or English. (2) While mixed-race couples in different regions and in different eras faced tremendous resistance, such couples were not uncommon in mid-nineteenth-century New York City. Interracial couples often married in black churches in New York, worked in the city, sent their children to local African schools, and successfully interacted with government institutions, including pension officials, local court representatives, and census takers. This article examines why such interracial relationships were not unusual to New York City from 1850 to 1870. A number of factors contributed to these unions. Interracial relationships met three criteria that reflected ideas about race, class, and gender during this era. First, these relationships were almost exclusively between immigrant women from Scotland and Ireland and native-born African-American men. They did not take on the taint of improper behavior because these immigrant women were not perceived to be "white." (3) Second, these relationships generally occurred between people of the same class background and between individuals who lived in close proximity to one another in working class neighborhoods. As a consequence, these relationships did not cross class lines and did not violate ideas about proper behavior within a certain class. Third, since these immigrant women were not held to middle class gender standards such liaisons did not infringe on ideals of proper female behavior in the mid-nineteenth century. Scholars have long discussed the incidence of interracial marriage in the nineteenth century. Such studies have usually focused on the prevalence of such unions in the American South. These works have examined how such relationships fit into the racial caste system in an agricultural society and how they shed light on ideas regarding proper gender roles. …


Humans understand novel sentences by composing meanings and roles of core language components. In contrast, neural network models for natural language modeling fail when such compositional generalization is required. The main contribution of this paper is to hypothesize that language compositionality is a form of group-equivariance. Based on this hypothesis, we propose a set of tools for constructing equivariant sequence-to-sequence models. Throughout a variety of experiments on the SCAN tasks, we analyze the behavior of existing models under the lens of equivariance, and demonstrate that our equivariant architecture is able to achieve the type compositional generalization required in human language understanding.


Locke emphasized that a concern for reputation powerfully shaped the individual's conduct. Most scholarship suggests that Locke portrayed this phenomenon in negative terms. This article complicates this picture. A concern for reputation served a constructive role in Locke's theory of social development, which offered a powerful alternative explanation of the origins of moral consensus and political authority to Hobbes's. Locke nonetheless suggested that misunderstandings engendered in Christian commonwealths regarding the nature of political and religious authority had impacted negatively on the moral regulation of societies. The forces governing society, which once habituated individuals in beneficial ways, now led them astray.


Air pollution is one of the key indicators for quality of life in urban environments, and is also the subject of global health concern, given the number of mortal diseases associated to exposure to pollutants. Assessing and monitoring air quality is an important step in order to better understand the impact of pollution on the health of the population. Nevertheless, in order to scale to the city level, traditional high-quality stationary sensing stations are not enough. Limitations include lack of coverage, the cost of deployment and maintenance, as well as the resolution of the observed phenomena. The OpenSense2 project aims at providing a city-level sensing deployment that combines different levels of air quality sensing: reference stations, mobile sensing on public transportation, and participatory crowdsensing. In this paper we highlight some of the key challenges of managing the data captured by such infrastructure, taking the city of Lausanne as a driving use-case. Furthermore, we present a semantics-based approach for characterizing and exposing the air quality data, so that it can be made available to citizens and application developers in a way that it can be usable and understood effectively.


The authors report 261 strontium isotopic analyses of well-preserved planktonic foraminifers from three Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites (519, 588, and 607). These samples cover the period from 24 Ma to present with an average of approximately one sample per 100 ka. The combination of high sample density and uniformity of analytical procedures has produced a well-defined record of changes in the {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr of seawater during the Neogene. The record can be viewed as a series of essentially linear segments with slopes ranging from as high as 6{times}10{sup {minus}5}/m.y. to as low as 0/m.y. The times associated with major inflections in the curve do not appear to correspond to simple geologic phenomena such as eustatic cycles, but are probably controlled by a combination of tectonic and climatic factors that influenced the abundance and isotopic composition of terrestrial strontium input to the oceans. The strontium isotopic data are consistent with a progressive increase in the chemical weathering rates of the continents during the Neogene, probably related to repeated glaciations, increased exposure of continents by lowered sea level, and increased continental relief resulting from high rates of tectonic uplift.


Ice based Cool Thermal Energy Storage (CTES) systems have attracted much attention during last few decades. The reasons are mainly of economical and environmental nature. Compared to conventional refrigeration and air-conditioning systems without cool thermal energy storage, implementation of CTES will increase environmental standards and overall efficiency of the energy systems as it contributes to the phase-out of synthetic refrigerants and reduces peak loads in electricity grids. For the application of a cool thermal energy storages in refrigeration installations and HVAC systems in industry and building sector, it is necessary to have appropriate design tools in order to sufficiently accurate predict their performance. In this thesis theoretical and experimental investigations of two ice based cool thermal energy storage systems, namely static, indirect, external melt, ice-on-coil, i.e. ice bank system and dynamic, ice slurry cool thermal energy storage system are carried out. An ice bank storage technology for cooling purposes is known for a long time. The main drawbacks which are hindering its wider use are the system complexity, high first costs, system efficiency which is highly dependant on design, control and monitoring of the system, etc. On the other hand, ice slurry technology was not well studied until recently, while in the current scientific literature there are still differences between results and conclusions reported by different investigators. The aim of the present thesis is to extend the knowledge in the field of ice based CTES systems, thereby contributing in the development and wider utilization of those systems. In the first part of the thesis a computer application, named "BankaLeda" is presented. It enables simulation of an ice bank system performance. In order to verify developed simulation model an experimental evaluation has been performed. Field measurements have been conducted on a two module silo which was installed as a part of the refrigeration system in dairy and cheese factory "Antun Bohnec" in the city of Ludbreg in Croatia. Experimental findings were compared to the simulation model. The software "BankaLeda" presents a strong optimization tool for designers and engineers in the field by providing a high degree of freedom in defining particular system design and operating parameters. It offers a basis for assessment and testing of a new energy efficient system arrangements and measures. Besides it will give decisionmakers the ability to test potential solutions in the process of CTES system design. In the second part of the thesis ice slurry pressure drop and heat transfer in horizontal straight tubes have been experimentally investigated. In particular a mixture of 10.3 % of ethanol and water with an initial freezing point of -4.4 °C was considered. It was found that the behaviour of ice slurry flow is changing with time and that ice slurry pressure drop is generally higher than for single phase flow. However for ice concentrations of 15 % and higher, for certain velocities ice slurry pressure drop is found to be of a similar value as for single phase fluid. Moreover, if ice slurry is to be used as a energy transport media it is recommended to keep the ice mass fraction at a level of 20 %. With tube geometry and thermophysical properties of a carrier fluid the heat transfer of ice slurry is generally a function of ice mass fraction and velocity. The imposed heat flux has no or has just minor influence on the heat transfer coefficient. Up to ice mass fraction between 10-15 % the mean heat transfer coefficient shows only slight (laminar flow) or no increase (turbulent flow) in comparison to single phase flow. Beyond that ice mass fraction the heat transfer coefficient is increasing significantly. The test data for pressure drop and heat transfer in laminar and turbulent regime was compared to several correlations from the literature. A new correlations for ice slurry pressure drop and heat transfer in the laminar flow regime, for 10.3 % ethanol and water mixture, were derived based on the present experimental data. The correlation for pressure drop predicts 82 % of the experimental data with ±15 % accuracy, while the correlation for heat transfer predicts 75 % of the data with the same accuracy. In order to investigate advantages and disadvantages of a dynamic, ice slurry system over a static, indirect, external melt, ice-on-coil CTES system and to assess their differences from economical aspects, a theoretical simulation model of an ice slurry CTES have been developed. It was found that the ice slurry based CTES systems posses higher economic and energy saving potential than static type systems. In the best case scenario the total energy consumption of dynamic CTES system was found to be approximately 25 % lower than for a static CTES system.


The work aims at covering the history of relations between Polish and Italian surgeons from the XVIth century until the end of the Second World War. The work is divided into five principal parts. In the first part the author presents the process of migration of Polish students in the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries to Italian universities in search of modern medical education as well as the process of migration of Italian surgeons of that period to Poland. The role of Italian surgeons in Polish XVIIIth century surgery and Polish surgeons traveling to Italy during this time are also recalled. The implications of resulting knowledge transfer are discussed. In the second part the author describes the era of rapid development of surgery which begun with the invention of anesthesia and antiseptics in the mid XIXth century. In this chapter the author describes in detail how new surgical ideas, technical innovations and particular surgical skills developed in Italy or in Poland have been implemented in the other country. The knowledge transfer with the help of scientific publications, travel of particular surgeons, and surgical congresses and publications of translated congress' proceedings is presented. This part is divided into subchapters each describing a particular surgical subspecialty. The third part of the work presents three of the most important surgical congresses that took place in Italy and in Poland before the outbreak of the Second World War. In the fourth part the memories of Polish surgeons travelling to visit Italian surgical clinics before the World War II are recalled and widely cited. The last part describes the contacts between surgeons from both nations during the first and second World Wars. Special attention is paid to Polish surgeons fighting in Italy during Italian Campaign.


Liberal democracies often include rights of participation, guarantees of protection, and policies that privilege model citizens within a bounded territory. Notwithstanding claims of universal equality for "humanity," they achieve these goals by epistemically elevating certain traits of identity above "others," sustaining colonial biases that continue to favor whoever is regarded more "human." The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these fault lines, unveiling once more the often-hidden prevalence of inequalities that are based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, and other axes of power and their overlaps. Decolonial theories and practices analyze these othering tendencies and inequalities while also highlighting how sites of suffering sometimes become locations of solidarity and agency, which uncover often-erased alternatives and lessons.


The problem of constructing millennia-long tree-ring chronologies from overlapping segments of cross-dated ring-width series is reviewed, with an emphasis on preserving very low-frequency signals potentially due to climate. In so doing, a fundamental statistical problem coined the 'segment length curse' is introduced. This 'curse' is related to the fact that the maximum wavelength of recoverable climatic information is ordinarily related to the lengths of the individual tree-ring series used to construct the millennia-long chronology. Simple experiments with sine waves are used to illustrate this fact. This is followed by more realistic experiments using a long bristlecone pine series that is randomly cut into a number of 1000-, 500- and 200-year segments and standardized using three very conservative methods. When compared against the original, uncut series, the resulting 'chronologies' show the effects of segment length even when the most conservative and noncommittal method of tree-ring standardiza tion is applied (i.e., a horizontal line through the mean). Alternative schemes of chronology development are described that seek to exorcise the segment length curse. While they show some promise, none is universal in its applicability and this problem still remains largely unsolved.


Chitin and chitinolytic enzymes are gaining importance for their biotechnological applications. Particularly, chitinases which have been widely used in agriculture to control plant pathogens. Chitinases and chitooligomers produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of chitin have also been used in human health care products. The success in employing chitinases for different applications depends on the supply of highly active preparations at reasonable cost. In this study, isolation and screening of fungus were carried out. Trichoderma sp. was selected due to the ability to produce chitinase enzyme with biggest clear zone formation on Chitinase Detection Agar (CDA) for qualitative confirmation. The slides were viewed under light microscope to determine the isolated fungi morphology. Shake flask fermentation using Trichoderma sp. was carried out to produce chitinase enzyme. Different types of media were investigated to find the best medium for chitinase enzyme production using colloidal chitin as the reference substrate. It was observed that the highest chitinase activities (0.70 U/mL) were obtained using Kawachi Medium at day 4 of fermentation. Kawachi Medium was selected as the basal medium for induction studies. Several types of inducers that included chitin colloidal and direct chitin, N-acetylglucosamine, glucosamine hydrochloride and chitosan oligosaccharides were used to investigate the feasibility of different inducers for enhancing chitinase enzyme production. The results indicated that all the tested inducers supported chitinase production by Trichoderma sp. It was suggested that the level of chitinase production were regulated or induced by the type of media and inducers used. In addition, it showed that colloidal chitin was the second best inducer after NAG. For economic considerations, colloidal chitin was chosen as the inducer for further study. The effect of different concentration of the inducer selected was studied on chitinase enzyme production. Low colloidal chitin concentration at 0.3% (w/v) gave the highest chitinase activity of 0.72 U/mL. Additionally, raw shrimp waste was also employed to induce chitinase enzyme production. Raw shrimp waste that was subjected to different pre-treatments including sun-dried, acid treated, alkali treated and enzyme treated were used to find cheaper alternative substrates for chitinase enzyme production. Sun dried and ground raw shrimp waste gave the highest chitinase enzyme production. The pretreated raw shrimp waste were also analysed for their composition include protein, moisture and ash content using proximate analysis.


Recent studies have indicated that the mass/content of intramyocellular lipid (IMCL), intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG), visceral fat (VF), and even deep abdominal subcutaneous fat (SF) may all be correlated with insulin resistance. Since simultaneous measurements of these parameters have not been reported, the relative strength of their associations with insulin action is not known. Therefore, the goals of this study were 1) to simultaneously measure IMCL, IHTG, VF, and abdominal SF in the same nondiabetic individuals using noninvasive (1)H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 2) to examine how these fat stores are correlated with systemic insulin sensitivity as measured by whole body glucose disposal (R(d)) during euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp studies. Positive correlations were observed among IMCL, IHTG, and VF. There were significant inverse correlations between whole body R(d) and both IMCL and VF. Notably, there was a particularly tight inverse correlation between IHTG and whole body R(d) (r = -0.86, P < 0.001), consistent with an association between liver fat and peripheral insulin sensitivity. This novel finding suggests that hepatic triglyceride accumulation has important systemic consequences that may adversely affect insulin sensitivity in other tissues.


After more than 30 years of research and teaching, artist Valerie Winslow has compiled her unique methods of drawing human anatomy into one groundbreaking volume: "Classic Human Anatomy". This long-awaited book provides simple, insightful approaches to the complex subject of human anatomy, using drawings, diagrams and reader-friendly text. Three major sections - the skeletal form, the muscular form and action of the muscles and movement - break the material down into easy-to-understand pieces. More than 800 distinctive illustrations detail the movement and actions of the bones and muscles and unique charts reveal the origins and insertions of the muscles. Packed with an extraordinary wealth of information, this is sure to become a new classic of art instruction.


Critical spare-parts stock optimization has become a relevant topic for academy and industry. In most articles, the problem has been stated as a trade-off between economic risks of shortages and financial costs. Risk optimization in this context has been mainly studied from a logistics point of view. The most common decision variables have been stock levels, stock location, and reorder points. In this context, buying insurance to cover shortage cost can be a complementary or exclusive measure for risk mitigation. Insurance optimization traditionally has been studied from a microeconomic and financial perspective. The main decision variable has been the indemnity function, and occasionally, the insurance premium. Its use in the context of physical asset management has not been observed to the best of our knowledge. This creates an opportunity to link inventory optimization techniques with insurance optimization for shortage losses. In this work, we present a novel approach to jointly manage the shortage risk of a critical non-repairable component in a unique critical system. We develop an original model to integrate critical spare-parts stock optimization with insurance optimization techniques. The result is a decision model to select the optimal stock and insurance policy that maximizes the decision maker's expected utility. This allows for a business-centered integrated perspective in critical parts decisions. We present a case study representative of the mining industry, illustrating the complementary nature of selecting optimal stock levels and contracting an optimal insurance. Our results show that contracting an insurance can lead to policies preferred by a risk-averse decision maker. The case study shows that this may even occur lowering stock levels and increasing profits. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT A halloysite clay from Nador (NE Morocco) was studied to evaluate its suitability in the ceramics industry. A cross-section involving all the Messinian facies was performed in the Melilla Neogene basin, at the foot of the Gourougou volcano, to establish the origin of the halloysite and estimate its reserves. White layers of halloysite and red clays rich in smectite occurring in contact with basal-reef limestone were characterized by mineralogical (XRD, IR), textural (SEM) and physico-chemical analyses (grain-size, Atterberg limits, DTA/TG, XRF and specific surface area). Ceramic properties were evaluated for halloysite fired from 500 to 1100°C to evaluate technical processing for ceramic production. The halloysite clay consists of fine particles with a high plasticity and a large specific surface area. The XRD investigation revealed the presence of 7 Å non-hydrated halloysite along with gibbsite, alunite, K-feldspar and traces of smectite and illite. The presence of halloysite was confirmed from the characteristic IR bands at 3695 and 3618 cm−1 and the predominance of tubular crystals observed in the SEM. The chemical analysis revealed high contents linked to the presence of Al-rich phases (gibbsite and alunite). DTA/TG and XRD results of fired clay samples proved the dehydroxylation of halloysite and a rearrangement of metakaolinite to form mullite and spinel at 975°C. The Moroccan halloysite might be suitable for refractory ceramic applications. However, addition of quartz sand might be necessary to avoid crack development during firing and to reduce the plasticity of raw halloysite and minimize shrinkage during sintering.


This article studies alterations in the values, attitudes, and behaviors that emerged among U.S. citizens as a consequence of, and as a response to, the attacks of September 11, 2001. The study briefly examines the immediate reaction to the attack, before focusing on the collective reactions that characterized the behavior of the majority of the population between the events of 9/11 and the response to it in the form of intervention in Afghanistan. In studying this period an eight-phase sequential model (Botcharova, 2001) is used, where the initial phases center on the nation as the ingroup and the latter focus on the enemy who carried out the attack as the outgroup. The study is conducted from a psychosocial perspective and uses "social identity theory" (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) as the basic framework for interpreting and accounting for the collective reactions recorded. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the interpretation of these collective reactions is consistent with the postulates of social identity theory. The application of this theory provides a different and specific analysis of events. The study is based on data obtained from a variety of rigorous academic studies and opinion polls conducted in relation to the events of 9/11. In line with social identity theory, 9/11 had a marked impact on the importance attached by the majority of U.S. citizens to their identity as members of a nation. This in turn accentuated group differentiation and activated ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986). Ingroup favoritism strengthened group cohesion, feelings of solidarity, and identification with the most emblematic values of the U.S. nation, while outgroup discrimination induced U.S. citizens to conceive the enemy (al-Qaeda and its protectors) as the incarnation of evil, depersonalizing the group and venting their anger on it, and to give their backing to a military response, the eventual intervention in Afghanistan. Finally, and also in line with the postulates of social identity theory, as an alternative to the virtual bipolarization of the conflict (U.S. vs al-Qaeda), the activation of a higher level of identity in the ingroup is proposed, a group that includes the United States and the largest possible number of countries— including Islamic states—in the search for a common, more legitimate and effective solution.


Our article is a critical survey of the concepts and data utilized by economists and economic historians that purport to measure relative levels and long term trends in GDP per capita from the Han Dynasty to Communist times. We favour attempts to extend macro-economic analysis and its associated quantification to China's long imperial history, but have concluded that estimates calibrated in international dollars for 1900, or 2005 or 2011 are not fit for that purpose. Furthermore, and after surveying recent endeavours to reconstruct the published secondary and official statistical sources available for the measurement of primary production for Ming and Qing China (1368-1911), we reluctantly suggest that Kuznetian paradigms for empirical economics are probably not viable, either for the measurement of the empire's growth over time or for reciprocal comparisons with European economies. This is because on both conceptual and statistical grounds the concept and associated metric for GDP per capita does not travel easily and securely between the fiscal systems of China and the West (Yun-Casallila and O'Brien 2012).


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between external monetary incentives (EMI) and affective commitment (AC), normative commitment (NC), and continuance commitment (CC). Design/methodology/approach - Data were obtained from a sample of 880 employees of different education and job levels, industries, sectors, and salary grades. Findings - An increase in EMI value is linked to a weakening of AC. In a non-Western context, specific employee characteristics – salary grade, educational level, industry type, and employment in the private vs public sector – are associated with different levels of CC. At the same time, employees at different job levels (top managers, middle managers, supervisor, and operative-level employees) are differently predisposed toward AC and NC. Job level emerged as a moderating variable between EMI and AC. Practical implications - Understanding of the ways in which EMI are related to organizational commitment will inform organizational decision makers about how to be more successful in retaining valuable employees. Originality/value - The study offers a systematic exploratory examination of the relationship between commitment components (AC, NC, and CC) and the amount of salary offered by an alternative employer.