The Purpose of this paper is to ask how far Locke can be said to have anticipated modern theories of number, particularly the intuitionist theory of Brouwer and Heyting. It has in mind Mr Edward E. Dawson's statement that Locke's account of number was not merely 'a good effort in his own day' but that 'what Locke had to say really was quite fundamental, and a good deal of modern mathematics assumes his position, either explicitly or implicitly'. Mr Dawson thinks that some of the central notions of the intuitionist theory are already present in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, II, xvi, 'Of Number'. We should like to examine the view.


ABSTRACT Mid-Cretaceous ambers from Aix Island and Cadeuil (Charente-Maritime, southwestern France) have preserved a rich microorganism assemblage of cyanobacteria, testate amoebae, and algae. The assemblage contains the first fossil record of the modern green algae genus Enallax Pascher, 1943 (Chlorococcales, Scenedesmaceae) and a new species, Enallax napoleoni n. sp., is described. This discovery pushes back the origin of the genus Enallax to the Cretaceous. Enallax napoleoni n. sp. probably grew in freshwater ponds of the mid-Cretaceous amber forests of southwestern France under a warm climate, associated with the cyanobacterium Palaeocolteronema cenomanensis Breton & Tostain, 2005.


"This study was made to determine whether or not Gainesville Junior College Commercial Department at Gainesville, Texas, is meeting the probable future needs of business employers and employees. An attempt is being made to find which courses could be enriched to advantage and the nature of the material to be used in the enrichment. All factual information in this study was gained through fifty questionnaires which were sent to business graduates of 1935-1945 of Gainesville Junior College. " -- leaf 1


Our personal values are subject to forces of social influence. Deontological resolve captures how strongly one relies on absolute rules of right and wrong in the representation of one's personal values and may predict willingness to modify one's values in the presence of social influence. Using fMRI, we found that a neurobiological metric for deontological resolve based on relative activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) during the passive processing of sacred values predicted individual differences in conformity. Individuals with stronger deontological resolve, as measured by greater VLPFC activity, displayed lower levels of conformity. We also tested whether responsiveness to social reward, as measured by ventral striatal activity during social feedback, predicted variability in conformist behavior across individuals but found no significant relationship. From these results we conclude that unwillingness to conform to others' values is associated with a strong neurobiological representation of social rules.


This paper presents a novel coherent optical signal processing approach for synthesis of programmable microwave amplitude filters over an ultrawideband. The authors' scheme relies on a programmable hyperfine optical filter implemented in a pulse-shaping geometry, which provides arbitrary, user-defined amplitude-filtering functions over a 50-GHz bandwidth with resolution better than 0.7 GHz. In contrast to previous work on discrete time optical processing of microwave signals, their approach allows direct synthesis of microwave filter functions in spectral domain without computing filter coefficients, which is needed for a discrete-time-domain approach.


Pictures and Popery: Art and Religion in England, 1660-1760. By Clare Haynes. (Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2006. Pp. xii, 185. $99.95.) This excellent, accessibly written, and carefully evidenced study addresses the intriguing and long-neglected issue of religious painting and (in a deliberately more limited way) sculpture in England after the Reformation. The received notion has always been that antipapist iconoclasm and widely disseminated propaganda against imagery in Protestant churches, along with well-publicized laments from artists about the lack of native patronage for religious paintings, meant that there was indeed no pictorial work to speak of in churches in this period. The fact that wealthy and educated aristocrats who had undertaken the Grand Tour bought works of religious art by Italian artists has been explained by invoking the prevailing aesthetic hierarchy that-following the model taught by the French Academy and adopted in England-placed "history painting" (i.e., subjects inspiring moral virtue whether from classical history or the Bible) as far superior to other genres. Few have asked what, in fact, the owners of these paintings-whether situated in private chapels or in grand saloons-understood these paintings to signify or how they reconciled their imagery with the dictates of Protestant teaching. Moreover, anyone who regularly explores English cathedrals and parish churches can see for themselves a remarkable number of religious paintings from this period survive, not to mention stained glass and other church furnishings. Furthermore exhibition catalogues of the Royal Academy in London (founded in 1768-outside this book's chronological limits) furnish many more examples of religious art than might popularly have been supposed. Haynes draws out the complexities and nuances of these issues. Her proposition that "religion in England was not all of the plainness of Puritanism, the fervor and political dominance of which tends to overshadow our understanding of this period," provides the premise for chapters that deal specifically with Grand Tour education, the interpretation of Catholic pictures in England with particular reference to Raphael's cartoons (commissioned by Pope Leo X and purchased by Charles I-now on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum from the Royal Collection), the collecting of Catholic pictures with particular attention to Holkham Hall and Horace Walpole's sermon of 1752, and the dispute over the positioning of an image of St. …


Abstract In SCALE 6, the Tools for Sensitivity and UNcertainty Analysis Methodology Implementation (TSUNAMI) modules calculate the sensitivity of keff or reactivity differences to the neutron cross-section data on an energy-dependent, nuclide-reaction-specific basis. These sensitivity data are useful for uncertainty quantification, using the comprehensive neutron cross-section-covariance data in SCALE 6. Additional modules in SCALE 6 use the sensitivity and uncertainty data to produce correlation coefficients and other relational parameters that quantify the similarity of benchmark experiments to application systems for code validation purposes. Bias and bias uncertainties are quantified using parametric trending analysis or data adjustment techniques, providing detailed assessments of sources of biases and their uncertainties and quantifying gaps in experimental data available for validation. An example application of these methods is presented for a generic burnup credit cask model.


AIM
Carcinomatous meningitis (CM) is a rare neurological disorder. We aim to promote the diagnostic efficiency of CM.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Four patients (1 male and 3 females) who had been diagnosed with CM from June 2007 to June 2009 in our department were included in this study. The mean age of those patients was 55.25 years. Clinical presentation, magnetic resonance imaging findings, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum tumor markers were examined.

RESULTS
CM may present with acute or subacute onset of symptoms. Intracranial hypertension and meningeal irritation were common in patients with CM. Other symptoms included neck and occipital pain, unilateral lower limb weakness and abnormalities of the cranial nerves. Other unusual symptoms included impaired vision (2 cases), bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (1 case), and continuous roaring in both ears (1 case). MRI revealed contrast enhancement in the meninges in 3 cases. CSF cytology was positive for cancer cells in 2 cases. The survival of patients ranged from 18 days to 8 months.

CONCLUSION
Patients with CM may present with a variety of symptoms. Serum tumor biomarker determination, CSF cytology, and contrast-enhanced MRI scan are essential in the diagnosis of CM.


Horseracing as a high-risk sport can pose a significant risk to equine welfare. To date no epidemiological reviews of fall risk in horseracing have investigated the risks specific to point-to-point (PTP) racing. This study aimed to identify the main race level risk factors associated with horse falls in Irish PTP and to compare these to published findings for hurdle and steeplechase racing. The study used a retrospective case-control design. Relevant variables were identified and information was collated for all PTP races in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons. Race-level variables were analysed through univariable analysis to inform multivariable model building. A final multivariable logistic regression model was refined, using fall/no fall as the dependent variable, through a backward stepwise process with variables retained if likelihood ratio test P-values were <0.05. During the study period 1,358 PTP races were recorded, 727 races (54%) included at least one horse fall. The fall frequency noted during the current study was 88/1000 starts. Race category impacted the odds of a fall occurring with all categories of maiden races having increased odds of falls compared to open races. Maiden races for 6 year olds and 6 and 7 year olds had the greatest chance of falling with 6.9 times increased odds. The chance of a race containing a fall increased 38% for each additional runner and was reduced by 25% for every horse that pulled up during the race. Using a larger data set could enable further sub-models to be developed. In the current study some of the variables had a low number of cases and/or controls which limited the analysis. Retrospective analysis of fall risk exposed some risk factors that have been previously identified in hurdle and steeplechase racing. The variables identified could inform future research and interventions aimed at improving horse and jockey safety whilst racing.


This article sheds light on the debates that took place in ancient Judaism between sectarian and early rabbinic interpretation of Scripture. Scholarship on 11QMelchizedek (11QMelch; 11Q13) has largely taken the scroll's harmonization of Deuteronomy's Sabbatical debt release (Deut 15:2) with the Jubilee (Lev 25:13) for granted, without examining its rationale. We provide an analysis of the hermeneutics that triggered the synthesis and argue that it was generated in part as a response to a legal-exegetical question: The Jubilee of Leviticus releases slaves, but does it require debt remission? When the separate sources of the Pentateuch were redacted into a single corpus, the compilation of originally inconsistent material into a single Torah must have posed interpretive problems for postexilic readers. After the promulgation of the Torah, Deuteronomy's Sabbatical debt law and the Jubilee were read synchronically, now for the first time as part of a unified literary composition. This had to raise the issue of their relationship. Among the questions that emerged for Second Temple readers was whether the Jubilee of Leviticus requires debt release, as Deuteronomy commands. But the absence of an explicit demand for debt release in Leviticus left the door open to argue that the Jubilee does not release debts (the position maintained in the halakic exegesis of the Sipre Deuteronomy and Sipra Leviticus). Taking a contrary stance, the author of 11QMelchizedek responded to that absence by identifying Leviticus's Jubilee with Deuteronomy's Sabbatical debt release. His synthesis of the two laws demonstrates that the often presumed opposition of legal and eschatological exegesis does not hold in the case of 11QMelchizedek.


Designing a Transactional Environmental Support System grew from the desire to allow citizens to exchange knowledge on local land and animals for the purpose of learning how to increase their sustainability in regards to biodiversity and livelihood.Transactional Environmental Support System Design: Global Solutions details the results of this project ranging from studies done in small, local communities to those done in much larger national settings. Survey results of government practices, availability of decision support software, and community responses to data recording are all highlighted in this emerging research. Additionally, the book goes on to emphasize the increasing potential for environmental decision support while directly addressing some of the challenges that must be overcome.


A.S. Collins writes: In their recent paper Khan et al. 1997 succinctly discussed geochemistry of the Kohistan island arc of northern Pakistan. They presented excellent new data from metavolcanic lithologies throughout the arc and convincingly argued that Pb and Sr isotopic compositions suggested formation above the DUPAL isotopic anomaly, presently some 2000 km south of the present position of Kohistan. However,Khan et al. 1997 interpreted trace element geochemical data to imply a southerly dipping subduction zone beneath Kohistan during its formation as an intra-oceanic island arc. Below, I present a critique of this interpretation which suggests that southerly dipping subduction in not supported by available data. I also include structural evidence from a recent field study of the Shyok suture which upholds an alternative tectonic interpretation of northerly directed subduction (Pudsey 1986; Petterson & Windley 1991; Robertson & Degnan 1991). This subduction zone consumed an ocean that separated Kohistan and Eurasia in during the Cretaceous. (i) Interpretation of geochemical data. Fundamental to an interpretation of geochemical data in terms of lateral changes in tectonic environment, is showing that sampled rocks formed at the same time at sites separated horizontally from each other. The rocks in Kohistan are characterized by a sub-vertical foliation parallel to boundaries between the major rock units. Coupled with this is a progressive, and well-documented, increase in metamorphic grade southwards from chloritoid slates in the Hunza valley (developed in the Yasin formation that lies interbedded with the topmost Chalt Volcanics; Pudsey 1986) through greenschist-facies rocks (Jaglot group,


The tropical marine sponge, Halichondria phakellioides, from Darwin Harbour contains high concentrations of molybdenum. A rod-like bacterium extracellular in sponge tissue was observed using transmission electron microscopy. Molybdenum was located within these bacteria, but not in sponge cells. This is the first report of the trace element molybdenum localised in a sponge bacterial symbiont. Many different bacterial symbionts were identified in the sponge by sequence analysis so the identity of the molybdenum-accumulating bacterium could only be inferred.


This paper studies the relation between governmental system and gender equality polity of 81 countries (2010). In particular the institutional coherence of gender equality polities with the governmental system they work in may matter for achieving gender equality in society. Governmental systems such as presidentialism and parlamentarism may account for some of the variation of gender equality polity strength. The gender equality polity of a state comprises all administrative state entities designated to promote women's empowerment or gender equality in one country. Based on two theoretically derived hypotheses I developed predictions for gender equality polity patterns in the primary branches of government. My empirical hypotheses test shows that the governmental system makes a difference for gender equality polity strength. Only presidential countries display an institutional coherence. For the other governmental systems a considerable level of institutional tensions may account for poor performance of gender equality polities.


A study has been examining the present problems resulting from inappropriate re-entry times across Australian underground development heading mining practices. It has focused on possible solutions that enable current ventilation practices with reduced quantities of fresh air without affecting re-entry times, or shorter reentry times without increasing fresh air requirements or a combination of both. After blast re-entry times have been identified as a potential safety problems exaggerated by advanced mining technology and complicated by the modern prevalence of 12 hour shifts. Industry surveys on blasting re-entry time indicate most mines rely on a fixed time strategy to deal with the after blast re-entry mostly based on past experiences and observation. Very few monitor blast fumes for gas composition. A series of measurements of after blast fumes in various development heading arrangements has be undertaken to improve the understanding of occurrence and magnitude of blast contaminants. A development face ventilation study has been undertaken. Rigorous analysis has produced two empirical equations that can be used with some confidence to conservatively estimate re-entry times for level development headings. It was concluded that the working space volume used in mathematical modeling might be a constant for development headings of a similar configuration and environment, regardless of the relative distance from the end of the ventilation ducting to the face. Further testing is required to confirm this hypothesis.


In Unmarried Couples, Law, and Public Policy, Cynthia Grant Bowman explores legal recognition of opposite-sex cohabiting couples in the United States. Unmarried cohabitation has increased at a phenomenal rate in the U.S. over the last few decades, but the law has not responded to the legal issues raised by this new family form. Although a majority of cohabiting unions dissolve within the first two years, many are longer in term and function like other families; a large number of children also reside in these households. If one partner dies, is injured, or leaves the family, the remaining family members are left in an extremely vulnerable position in almost every state without any type of survivors' benefits, compensation for loss of a wage-earning partner, or remedies similar to those available upon dissolution of a marriage. The author argues that the many benefits attendant upon formal marriage should be extended to cohabitants who have lived together for more than two years or give birth to a child. In order to avoid these consequences, a couple would need to opt out of them by contract. Professor Bowman reaches this conclusion after a thorough review of the history of the legal treatment of cohabitation in the United States, the inadequacy of the legal remedies available to cohabitants in most states, the now-voluminous social science literature about cohabitation, and the experience of six other countries (England, Canada, Australia, France, The Netherlands, and Sweden) that have attempted a variety of legal reforms to address the problems of cohabitants.


The relationship between literature and psychology is long and richly complex, and nowhere more so than in the work of Jacques Lacan, the most controversial psychoanalyst since Freud. "The Literary Lacan" is dedicated to assessing Lacan's significant contribution to literary studies and the contribution, in turn, of literature to Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first essays in this collection provide close readings of Lacan's literature-related work, specifically his work on Hamlet, his homage to Marguerite Duras and Lewis Carroll, his concept of Lituraterre, and his seminar on James Joyce. Other essays examine Lacan's theories in conjunction with works of major writers such as Samuel Beckett. The book concludes with essays that investigate Lacan and literature more broadly, including the applicability of literature to psychoanalysis. With well-known contributors including Slavoj Zizek, Jacques-Alain Miller, Russell Grigg, and Ellie Ragland, this volume will appeal not only to specialists in literary and Lacanian theory but also to students and enthusiasts of the master and the literature that inspired him.


Current main memory database system architectures are still challenged by high contention workloads and this challenge will continue to grow as the number of cores in processors continues to increase. These systems schedule transactions randomly across cores to maximize concurrency and to produce a uniform load across cores. Scheduling never considers potential conflicts. Performance could be improved if scheduling balanced between concurrency to maximize throughput and scheduling transactions linearly to avoid conflicts. In this paper, we present the design of several intelligent transaction scheduling algorithms that consider both potential transaction conflicts and concurrency. To incorporate reasoning about transaction conflicts, we develop a supervised machine learning model that estimates the probability of conflict. This model is incorporated into several scheduling algorithms. In addition, we integrate an unsupervised machine learning algorithm into an intelligent scheduling algorithm. We then empirically measure the performance impact of different scheduling algorithms on OLTP and social networking workloads. Our results show that, with appropriate settings, intelligent scheduling can increase throughput by 54% and reduce abort rate by 80% on a 20-core machine, relative to random scheduling. In summary, the paper provides preliminary evidence that intelligent scheduling significantly improves DBMS performance.


A survey of opinion conducted by the Observatory of Public Broadcasting in Latin America indicates that one of the biggest challenges for Brazilian public broadcasting lies in changing the perception that has been crystallized by the public in relation to such stations. Initial analysis of the data obtained so far shows that the respondents have a negative image in relation to public media. At times, the people manifest themselves in favor of the principles that should delimit the performance of radios and TVs, such as diversity, independence and differentiation from commercial media, but, which are not fully followed. At other times they criticize the quality of programming and the political-governmental character of these stations. In this critical scenario, the text presents a discussion on the challenges facing the sector considering the complex historical, cultural, and economic policy circumstances, that have contributed to the maintenance of this "symbolic liability" between media and the audience/ citizens, and which reflects on the possible strategies to face the problem.


In this paper it was investigated the formation of complex boriding diffusion layers on metastable austenite Cr-Mn-N steel powder method. Defined phase and chemical composition, thickness, microhardness and wear resistance obtained by layers of metastable austenite Cr-Mn-N steel. It is established that the application of an external magnetic field (EMF) leads to a redistribution of the proportion boride phases in the surface layers of the crystal lattice period changes. EMF allows in 1.5 – 2 times to reduce the period of saturation details, microhardness diffusion boride coatings increase to 20,5 – 21 GPa and increase their wear resistance in 2.4 – 3 times compared to steel without protective coating. Boriding a magnetic field will increase the microhardness boride coatings 6 – 7 GPa compared to the boriding without application of a magnetic field.


We compute the partition function of $2D$ Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity at finite cutoff in two ways: (i) via an exact evaluation of the Wheeler-DeWitt wave-functional in radial quantization and (ii) through a direct computation of the Euclidean path integral. Both methods deal with Dirichlet boundary conditions for the metric and the dilaton. In the first approach, the radial wavefunctionals are found by reducing the constraint equations to two first order functional derivative equations that can be solved exactly, including factor ordering. In the second approach we perform the path integral exactly when summing over surfaces with disk topology, to all orders in perturbation theory in the cutoff. Both results precisely match the recently derived partition function in the Schwarzian theory deformed by an operator analogous to the $T\bar{T}$ deformation in $2D$ CFTs. This equality can be seen as concrete evidence for the proposed holographic interpretation of the $T\bar{T}$ deformation as the movement of the AdS boundary to a finite radial distance in the bulk.


Three-dimensional video processing has high computation requirements and multicore processors realized in 3-D integrated circuits (ICs) provide promising high performance computing platforms. However, the conventional approaches to accelerate the computations involved in 3-D video processing do not exploit the high performance potential of 3-D ICs. In this paper, we propose an application-driven methodology that performs efficient mapping of 3-D video applications' components on 3-D multicores to achieve high performance (throughput). The methodology involves an extensive application analysis to exploit the spatial and temporal correlation available in 3-D neighborhood. Afterward, it leverages the correlation and thermal properties of different 3-D views to perform an efficient mapping of 3-D video processing on cores available at different layers of 3-D IC. The goal is to optimize energy consumption and peak temperature while meeting the throughput requirement. Experiments show 76% reduction in communication energy along with reduction in peak temperature when compared with approaches exploiting architecture characteristics only.


International Journal of Dental Hygiene is the official scientific peer-reviewed journal of the International Federation of Dental Hygienists (IFDH). The journal brings the latest scientific news, high quality commissioned reviews as well as clinical, professional and educational developmental and legislative news to the profession world-wide. Thus, it acts as a forum for exchange of relevant information and enhancement of the profession with the purpose of promoting oral health for patients and communities.


The analysis presented here is to study the effect of non-homogeneity on thermally induced vibration of orthotropic visco-elastic rectangular plate of linearly varying thickness. Thermal vibrational behavior of non-homogeneous rectangular plates of variable thickness having clamped boundary conditions on all the four edges is studied. For non–homogeneity of the plate material, density is assumed to vary linearly in one direction. Using the method of separation of variables, the governing differential equation is solved. An approximate but quite convenient frequency equation is derived by using Rayleigh-Ritz technique with a two-term deflection function. Time period and deflection at different points for the first two modes of vibration are calculated for various values of temperature gradients, non- homogeneity constant, taper constant and aspect ratio. Comparison studies have been carried out with non-homogeneous visco-elastic rectangular plate to establish the accuracy and versatility.


We recommend suitable transport protocols for an aeronautical network supporting Internet and data services via satellite. We study the characteristics of an aeronautical satellite hybrid network and focus on the problems that cause dramatically degraded performance of the Transport Protocol. We discuss various extensions to standard TCP that alleviate some of these performance problems. Through simulation, we identify those TCP implementations that can be expected to perform reasonably well. Based on the observation that it is difficult for an end-to-end solution to solve these problems effectively, we propose a new TCP-splitting protocol, termed Aeronautical Transport Control Protocol (AeroTCP). The main idea of this protocol is to use a fixed window for flow control and one duplicated acknowledgement (ACK) for fast recovery. Our simulation results show that AeroTCP can maintain higher utilization for the satellite link than end-to-end TCP, especially in high BER environment.


Since the emergence of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its declaration as a global pandemic till now, scientists and physicians are still in the process of discovering the health implications caused by the infection. As for the ocular manifestations of COVID-19, the most common findings are ocular dryness, conjunctivitis, refractive error exacerbation and retinal vasculature occlusion. Central serous chorio-retinopathy (CSCR) is a type of retinopathy characterized by neuroepithelium detachment with the accumulation of serous sub-retinal fluid. Risk factors include exogenous corticosteroid usage, type A personality, hypertension and others. No correlation has been found between COVID-19 and central serous chorioretinopathy so far except for the previously known correlation where steroids, commonly used to treat COVID-19 patients, can trigger CSCR. The objective of our case series is to demonstrate cases of CSCR post COVID-19 infection and propose a possible mechanism that would define COVID-19 as a potential risk factor of CSCR due to the sympathetic system activation correlated with this infection.


Introduction: Acute Pancreatitis causes severe and persistent pain, and thus, necessitates effective treatment. Opioids are widely used to relieve pain in acute pancreatitis due to their efficacy and effectiveness. Intravenous paracetamol has been documented to have comparable effectiveness as that of opioids, with lesser side effects. In this study, the analgesic efficacy of tramadol, an opioid was compared with paracetamol in acute pancreatitis.
 Method: This was an open label comparative study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital of Nepal. Patients with Acute Pancreatitis were randomly assigned to receive 1 g of paracetamol or 50 mg of tramadol with 100 mL normal saline within 4-5 minute. Pain measurements of the patients were conducted at baseline and 24 hours after the treatment intervention. Changes in pain scores were calculated by subtracting the mean scores at baseline and 24 hours as pairs.
 Result: In this study, 80 patients were enrolled and included in the final analysis. The study subjects had a mean age of 39.33 +/- 13.3 years and 62(77.5%) of them were male. Alcohol was the etiology for pancreatitis in 67.5% (n=54) of patients. Mean pain scores at baseline and 24 hours were similar in the two groups. Similarly, change of scores from baseline to 24 hours did not differ between the groups. Comparison of pain improvements failed to reveal any differences between groups.
 Conclusion: Intravenous paracetamol is an effective alternative to tramadol in pain management of acute pancreatitis.


In the Miocene of the northern Apennines, methane-derived limestones from various geologic settings represent important examples of fossil chemoherms and provide a basis for more accurate interpretations of seepage systems. The systematic study of fossil chemoherms has allowed the definition of new field and compositional criteria for the recognition of these deposits, which were previously based almost exclusively on negative carbon isotope composition and peculiar chemosynthetic communities; this has constrained the relations between seepage and sedimentary and tectonic instability processes. We suggest that the peculiar brecciated structures associated with fossil chemoherms are related to diapirism of overpressured pelitic sediments due to fluid venting. Fluidization of sediments increases the instability of mudstones in which chemoherms are contained, thus favoring gravity slumping processes and the reworking of many chemoherms.


Tidal creeks are deteriorating more each day as a consequence of increased pollution caused by a boom in urbanization, which has intensified the anthropogenic impact on these ecosystems. These systems are subject to anthropogenic pollutants such as nutrients, pesticides, and fecal bacteria, which can cause loss of habitat, anoxia, and shellfish bed closures. In 2001, 13,410 recreational area closings and advisories were issued nationwide. Nearly 90% of these were due to the level of fecal coliform bacteria in the water. The standard method for fecal coliform pollution measurement enumerates, but does not distinguish between sources. Using standard methods for fecal coliform bacteria enumeration, and molecular methods of PCR and T-RFLP for bacterial source tracking using the genera Bacteroides as a target, it was possible to identify areas with high level of fecal coliform bacteria pollution as well as distinguish between human, canine and ruminant sources. Of the 54 samples, less than 23% were positive for canine fecal bacteria DNA by PCR, indicating fairly successful domestic animal waste management. Ruminant sources were found in 12 of the 54 PCR samples, mainly in the upstream sampling areas and near a known horse farm. Human fecal bacteria DNA was found in 18% of the PCR samples. T-RFLP produced 40 peaks, each corresponding to a bacterial taxon. Using the MiCA T-RFLP PAT+, it was possible to identify 13 of the 40 peaks, 11 of which were human-specific The presence of human-specific DNA is of particular concern. New Hanover County has been plagued with sewer-system failures. The presence of human-borne Bacteroides DNA is indicative of either continued sewer-line problems, septic system failures, or a general persistence in the bacteria itself.


The European Union is hosting the 12th ASEM Summit in Brussels on 18-19 October, 2018, where the ASEM leaders will meet under the theme of "Global Partners for Global Challenges" to chart ASEM's common response to global challenges. Leaders will also take stock of Asia - Europe cooperation and connectivity mechanisms and their contribution towards realisation of global development programmes. Building on ASEM leaders' resolve for sharing common goals and objectives of important global partnerships and cooperation programmes that add value to ASEM's vision of connectivity, the "Brussels Report on Strengthening Asia Europe Connectivity: Drawing Synergy from Global Development and Governance Programmes" draws out Asia and Europe's contribution towards the goals and objectives of important global partnerships and cooperation programmes. The Report suggests pathways for ASEM connectivity mechanisms to contribute to the global development programmes and to draw synergy for ASEM connectivity from the progress made in realizing the developmental goals. The Brussels Report brings out the importance of ASEM's Voice in global development and governance programmes, and its important role in sustaining the spirit of consensus and multilateralism in global governance. The Brussels Report draws out the interlinkages that will help ASEM to fulfil these roles, strengthen ASEM connectivity across all its three pillars and also facilitate the tasks of ASEM Pathfinders Group on Connectivity.


Abstract. The Meiji Restoration marks its 150th anniversary in 2018. This historical event memorializes the transition between the Tokugawa shogunate system and the Meiji government, a turning point in the modernization of Tokyo. In such an anniversary year, it is important to look back on the history of Tokyo, a city of global significance.Urban development in Tokyo has been commented on from various perspectives by Jinnai (1992), Maki (1980), Okamoto (2017), and others. However, few studies have followed quantitative changes to the city using GIS. In this study, a land-use map of Tokyo at the end of the Edo period was made as a GIS date. Using this map, we analyzed how land was used in the city during the Edo period; in the future we will quantitatively analyze land-use change up to the present.To create land-use maps, we first projected a paper map, the "restored Edo information map (geometrically corrected)," onto ArcGIS, and overlaid a 20-m mesh on top of it. Then, by manually inputting the attributes of each mesh, the map of Figure 1 was completed.Figure 2 shows the percentage of each land use based on the created land-use map. While more than 60% of the area comprised samurai residences, 14% was occupied by townspeople, even though townspeople accounted for more than half of the population. In addition, correlation with topographical data created using "the Digital Map 25000 (Land Condition)" shows the following. The upper-class samurai lived in comfort on the plateaus, while lower-class townspeople typically lived in the lowlands. The samurai used the sloping land of the plateau in characteristic ways. They built mansions at its edge, creating gardens that utilized springs flowing from the cliffs. In many cases, temples or shrines were located at one end of the valley so that these religious structures served as the boundary between the samurai and the townspeople.As has been noted, land use in the Edo period was characterized by a profusion of samurai residences. Additionally, land was used differently depending on topography. These results were quantitatively and comprehensively reached using GIS. Further, by using the same method to create land-use maps after the Meiji Restoration, we see that land-use change can be followed mechanically on GIS.


As online education proliferates, one concern that has been raised is that it may fail to capture desirable emergent phe-nomena from on-campus programs. Student community is one example of such a phenomenon: on-campus student communities thrive based on synchronous collocation. An online program might be designed to capture all deliberate constructs in an on-campus program, but there may be beneficial side effects of synchronous collocation that are not apparent. In this work, we examine the issue of social isolation in an online graduate program. By happenstance, three studies were conducted in relative isolation looking at social isolation from different angles. The first study exam-ined trajectories in social presence as a semester proceeded. The second study developed an understanding of students' needs with regard to community in an online program. The third study tested out an immersive virtual environment to try to improve students' sense of connectedness. Combin-ing their findings, we find compelling evidence of the exist-ence of a Synchronicity Paradox in online education: stu-dents desire synchronicity to form strong social communi-ties, and yet part of the chief appeal of these online pro-grams is their asynchronicity. In light of this finding, we provide design guidelines for how synchronicity may be reintroduced into asynchronous programs without sacrific-ing the benefits of asynchronicity. More specifically, we propose that scale itself may be the key to building emer-gent synchronicity.


The resistance throughout Jean-Franqois Lyotard's work to the reduction of phenomena to simple oppositions or binary sets alerts us to the necessity of hesitating before interpreting in that binary way his thinking on difference and equivalence, particularity and universality. His first major philosophical work, Discours, figure,1 criticized the tendency of structuralism to reduce difference to the oppositional movement of language. Radical difference emerges within the textual space in the form of figures, whose unsystematic meaning disturbs linguistic clarity by not yielding to its demand for categorization into conceptual oppositions. The persistence of this notion of radical difference2 in Lyotard's thinking frustrates any attempt to force his philosophy into a binary structure where difference opposes equivalence or the particular opposes the universal as discrete terms. Instead, it works to foreground the complex interaction of these terms, which repudiates the outright valorization of one over the other. Lyotard, however, frequently attacks what he views as the deceptive principle of equivalence governing liberal democracies that tries to make diverse activities, discourses, or values conform to a facile notion of specular identity. This reduction of difference to the same strives to conceal the political inequalities generated by the system through its exclusion and disavowal of diversity.3 While critics commend Lyotard's deconstruction of oppressive forms of unity and his insistence on the intensity of differences, they reproach him for not addressing the question of how a politics of difference can be integrated and maintained on a wider scale.4 This essay aims to respond to these reservations by demonstrating how Lyotard's politics of difference reinscribes a notion of equivalence as its necessary obverse, that is, as its condition of (im)possibility. Equivalence,5 in this context, does not amount to sameness, but to its inconceivability, that is, to the inherent incompletion that marks all identities, protecting them and preventing any one of them from subsuming all the others as the authentic identity underlying their multiplicity. At the center of Lyotard's political thinking, the equality of incompletion founds the justice of plurality. I shall explore this inter-penetration of equivalence and difference, the particular and the universal, with reference to The Differend: Phrases in Dispute,6 principally focusing on its last two sections where Lyotard more explicitly elaborates its political implications. The Differend Before developing my own line of argument, I shall remind readers of the basic tenets of Lyotard's approach in The Differend. The Differend adopts the phrase as its primary focus of analysis: "What escapes doubt is that there is at least one phrase, no matter what it is."7 Any refutation of this statement ends up proving it because "There is no phrase is a phrase."8 The inevitability of a phrase does not make it a meaningful unit in itself; its meaning is an effect derived from a process of phrasing. Before being integrated into a sequence, the phrase can be understood as a singular occurrence, an empty marker of an event. A phrase occurs without determinant rules or criteria for its mode of linkage. However, any phrase automatically presupposes another one; each one being linked to the next in an infinitely extended series. The need to link phrases therefore proves unavoidable. While linkage is necessary, the mode by which it takes place is purely contingent. The heterogeneous nature of phrases opens them to numerous modes of linkage. By connecting them, we inevitably deny other legitimate possibilities of connection. This gives rise to a differend where the singularity of a phrase becomes dissimulated by its inescapable articulation in a defining sequence. The modes of linkage are called genres. Genres provide rules or criteria that help to select the linking phrase among the many choices. …


'No one characteristic clasps us purely and universally in its embrace.' A selection of charming essays from a master of the genre exploring the contradictions inherent to human thought, words and actions. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Montaigne's works available in Penguin Classics are The Complete Essays, An Apology for Raymond Sebond, On Friendship, On Solitude and The Essays: A Selection.


A novel approach to synthesize hydroxy lactones using flow chemistry is reported. The system could be applied to a variety of functionalized alkenoic acids allowing the simple and eco-friendly generation of lactonic products within one hour (50 min). The reaction was optimized in terms of efficiency, productivity, resources and eco-sustainability using an integrated flow process assisted by in-line work-up and purification. In one example, the method was scaled to deliver 22 mmol of the product.


The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of undergoing a presymptomatic genetic test for the hereditary and fatal Huntington's disease, using a case study approach. The study was based on 18 interviews with a young woman and her husband from the decision to undergo the test, to receiving the results and trying to adapt to them, which were analysed using a life history approach. The findings show that the process of undergoing a presymptomatic test involves several closely connected ethical and medical questions, such as the reason for the test, the consequences of the test results and how health-care services can be developed to support people in this situation.


An optimized study of biconical tapered multi-mode plastic optical fiber sensor for concentration sensing of ethanol (C2H5OH) is presented. The sensitivity is enhanced through V-number matching as well as by optimizing the taper radius and taper length. The ray-tracing method is used to analyze the evanescent wave penetration depth (EWPD). The theoretical analysis and experimental results are used to optimize the taper ratio and taper length for the achievement of high EWPD and high sensitivity. The analysis indicates that the sensitivity of tapered fiber sensor can be improved by decreasing the taper ratio with simultaneous increase in the taper length. The highest sensitivity of 1.527 mV/% is achieved from the tapered fiber with a taper ratio of 0.27 and taper length of 8 cm. The proposed parametric optimized tapered fiber sensor can detect the change in concentration of C2H5OH as small as 6.55 × 10-3.


Northern oceans are in a state of rapid transition. Still, our knowledge of the likely effects of climate change and ocean acidification on key species in the food web, functionally important habitats and the structure of Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems is limited and based mainly on short-term laboratory studies on single species. This review discusses how tropical and temperate natural analogues of carbonate chemistry drivers, such as CO2 vents, have been used to further our knowledge of the sensitivity of biological systems to predicted climate change, and thus assess the capacity of different species to show long-term acclimation and adaptation to elevated levels of pCO2. Natural analogues have also provided the means to scale-up from single-species responses to community and ecosystem level responses. However, to date the application of such approaches is limited in high latitude systems. A range of Arctic and sub-Arctic sites, including CO2 vents, methane cold seeps, estuaries, up-welling areas, and polar fronts, that encompass gradients of pH, carbonate saturation state, and alkalinity, are suggested for future high latitude, in-situ ocean acidification research. It is recommended that combinations of monitoring of the chemical oceanography, observational, and experimental (in situ and laboratory) studies of organisms around these natural analogues be used to attain better predictions of the impacts of ocean acidification and climate change on high latitude species and ecosystems.


Abstract. The Spanish Central System is an intraplate mountain range that divides the
Iberian Inner Plateau in two sectors – the northern Duero Basin and the
Tajo Basin to the south. The topography of the area is highly variable with
the Tajo Basin having an average altitude of 450–500 m and the Duero Basin
having a higher average altitude of 750–800 m. The Spanish Central System
is characterized by a thick-skin pop-up and pop-down configuration formed by
the reactivation of Variscan structures during the Alpine orogeny. The high
topography is, most probably, the response of a tectonically thickened crust
that should be the response to (1) the geometry of the Moho discontinuity, (2) an imbricated crustal architecture, and/or (3) the rheological properties of
the lithosphere. Shedding some light on these features is the main
target of the current investigation. In this work, we present the
lithospheric-scale model across this part of the Iberian Massif. We have
used data from the Central Iberian Massif Deformation (CIMDEF) project, which consists of recordings of an
almost-linear array of 69 short-period seismic stations, which define a 320
km long transect. We have applied the so-called global-phase seismic
interferometry. The technique uses continuous recordings of
global earthquakes (>120∘ epicentral distance)
to extract global phases and their reverberations within the lithosphere.
The processing provides an approximation of the zero-offset reflection
response of a single station to a vertical source, sending (near)-vertical
seismic energy. Results indeed reveal a clear thickening of the crust below
the Central System, resulting, most probably, from an imbrication of the
lower crust. Accordingly, the crust–mantle boundary is mapped as a relatively
flat interface at approximately 10 s two-way travel time except in the
Central System, where this feature deepens towards the NW reaching more than
12 s. The boundary between the upper and lower crust is well defined and is
found at 5 s two-way travel time. The upper crust has a very distinctive
signature depending on the region. Reflectivity at upper-mantle depths is
scattered throughout the profile, located between 13 and 18 s, and probably
related to the Hales discontinuity.


In July 2002, the President's Council on Bioethics (PCB) issued its first report, Human Cloning and Human Dignity. The PCB's selection of this first topic was not surprising, in view of the lack of a federal ban on reproductive cloning (what the PCB calls "cloning-to-produce-children") and the vigorous, often rancorous debate about research cloning (what the PCB calls "cloning-for, biomedical research"). Indeed, it would have been surprising for the PCB to start with some other topic. After all, when President Bush met with the PCB during its first meeting, he said: "Let me say two other things and then I will listen. One, you need to monitor the stem cell issue .... And the other thing is that I have spoken clearly on cloning. I just don't think it's right. On the other hand, there is going to be a lot of nuance and subtlety to the issue, I presume. And I think this is very important for you all to help the nation understand what this means." My comments will focus on the report's assessment of ethical arguments for and against cloning-to-produce-children and cloning-for-biomedical research, its divided policy recommendations, and some of the responses it has evoked. Anyone interested in the PCB--or in bioethics--should consult its splendid website (http://www.bioethics.gov), an excellent resource from the very beginning and now even better. The website provides selected readings, staff background papers and working papers, and superb transcripts of the PCB's meetings. The main text of Human Cloning and Human Dignity starts with four relatively brief chapters devoted respectively to "The Meaning of Human Cloning: An Overview," "Historical Aspects of Cloning," "On Terminology," and "Scientific Background." They provide an indispensable background for the longer, central chapters--"The Ethics of Cloning-to-Produce Children" and "The Ethics of Cloning-for-Biomedical-Research." The final two chapters are "Public Policy Options" and "Policy Recommendations." An appendix includes personal statements, some extensive, by fourteen commissioners (two of whom joined on one statement). The Ethics of Human Cloning In many respects, in preparing this report, PCB chair Leon Kass conducted an academic seminar, creating the conditions for a careful and thoughtful analysis of the ethical arguments for and against human cloning. This possibility grew out of the executive order creating PCB. The council "shall be guided by the need to articulate fully the complex and often competing moral positions on any given issue, rather than by an overriding concern to find consensus. The Council may therefore choose to proceed by offering a variety of views on a particular issue, rather than attempt to reach a single consensus position." Instead of "experts" in bioethics, Kass wanted on the PCB "thoughtful" participants from various disciplinary and professional backgrounds. He wanted a "Council on Bioethics, not a council of bioethicists," in part because bioethicists do not address the fundamental questions about scientific and technological developments (Foreward, xvii). (1) The report uses such metaphors as depth, breadth, and richness to characterize what is distinctive about its own methodological commitments. It locates human cloning "within its larger human and technological context," rather than viewing it as an isolated technique (p. 3). The report seeks a "richer and deeper understanding of what human cloning entails, how we should think about it, and what we should do about it" (p. 3). And it does so by considering "broad human goods" that cloning may serve or threaten. This teleological approach examines the "meaning" of human cloning to produce children and for biomedical research in reference to such "broad human goods" as procreation and relief of suffering. Because space does not permit a full analysis of the moral arguments, I will concentrate on a few points. The report's title suggests that human cloning will be evaluated in light of a conception, or different conceptions, of 'human dignity'. …


PURPOSE
Ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy requires irrigation for adequate visualization and temperature control during treatment of ureteral stones. However, there are little data on how different irrigation and laser settings affect the ureteral wall and surrounding tissues. This effect has become an important consideration with the advent of high-powered lasers. We therefore evaluated the effect of laser settings and irrigation flow on ureteral temperature in an in vitro setting.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
To mimic ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy, we simulated clinically relevant irrigation flow rates and fired a Holmium:Yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Ho:YAG) laser while monitoring "intraureteral" temperature. The probe tip of a thermometer was placed 1 mm from the tip of a 200 μm laser fiber, which was fired for 60 seconds at 0.2 J/50 Hz, 0.6 J/6 Hz, 0.8 J/8 Hz, 1 J/10 Hz, and 1 J/20 Hz within a tubing system that allowed for specified room temperature flow rates (100, 50, and 0 mL/minute). We recorded temperatures every 5 seconds. The maximum temperature was noted, and each laser/flow trial was duplicated. Averaged maximum temperatures were compared using analysis of variance across irrigation settings.

RESULTS
At 100 cc/minute, only the 1 J/20 Hz laser setting produced a significantly higher maximum temperature (p < 0.01), although this finding was not clinically significant at a maximum of 30.7°C. At a lower irrigation rate of 50 cc/minute, the 1 J/20 Hz setting was again the only significantly higher maximum temperature (p < 0.05), although this temperature crossed the toxic threshold at a maximum of 43.4°C. With no flow, all maximum temperatures reached over 43°C, with 0.8 J/8 Hz, 1 J/10 Hz, and 1 J/20 Hz each statistically higher than the lower-energy settings (p < 0.05). The maximum temperature at 1 J/20 Hz with no irrigation was over 100°C.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite increasing laser settings, adequate irrigation can maintain relatively stable temperatures within an in vitro ureteral system. As irrigation rates decrease, even lower power laser settings produce a clinically significant increase in maximum temperature, potentially causing ureteral tissue injury.


Abstract : The purpose of this study is to assess the factorial structure regarding a commercially available computer-based intelligence test given to U.S. Air Force (USAF) pilot training candidates (manned as well as unmanned) during medical flight screening. Principal components analysis was conducted on the intelligence test scores from the computer-based Multidimensional Aptitude Battery-Second Edition (MAB-II). This test was administered to 10,612 USAF pilot training candidates. Subtest and measurement model correlations were estimated. Confirmatory factor analysis using the MAB-II showed positive correlations between specific subtests. The results of factor analyses suggest MAB-II intelligence test scores are best suited to a three-factor model unique to the rated USAF pilot population. In addition to verbal- and performance-based intelligence quotients, a visual reasoning and working memory intelligence quotient composed of the arithmetic, digit symbol, and spatial analyses subtests appears in test scores for this population. This finding is in contrast to the two-factor measurement model used for the general population. The results of the study support an alternative way for conceptualizing and reorganizing MAB-II intelligence test subtest scores to better account for the relationship between test scores from USAF pilot training candidates. The relationship of these test scores must be well understood to effectively evaluate how specific cognitive aptitudes are related to (and/or affected by) changes in any particular subtest. Rather than just measure global cognitive ability, it is recommended that neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists remain sensitive to the pattern and factor analyses of subtests that comprise the global score of intelligence for this commercially available intelligence test. This is especially important when the purpose of a psychological evaluation is to assess the cognitive strengths and weaknesses of a specific individual.


This paper first exploits a "bonus" policy providing low-income workers with cash grants in Brazil to study the effect of liquidity provision on unemployment outcomes. Based on a RD Design, I find that granting unemployed workers with a bonus equal to half of their previous monthly earnings decreases the probability of exiting unemployment within 8 weeks by around 0.65%. Second, by exploiting the UI potential duration schedule, I find that granting workers with an extra month of unemployment benefits decreases the same outcome by 1.9%. Then, theoretical results from Landais (2014) are used to combine these estimates and disentangle liquidity and moral hazard effects of UI. Based on these, I estimate the liquidity-to-moral hazard ratio in Brazil to be as large as 98%, similarly to values previously found in the US. It suggests that, contrary to common belief, providing UI in developing countries with large informal labor markets may yield substantial welfare gains.


Medical diagnostic support system is an automatic support system that prevents doctors from unknowingly mis-interpreting medical results. However, it is not an easy task to automate the procedure with high accuracy. Our goal is to construct such a medical diagnostic support system that could improve the overall accuracy of medical diagnoses. As a pilot study, we built a program that automatically answers the medical licensing examination (MLE), in our previous study. MLE involves questions that require the users to pick answers such as disease names or drug names from multiple choices, given the patient information. In our previous study, the program was developed to answer only disease related questions, but we realized that the study will not be complete without deciding optimal drug for patients. For this reason, we attempt to expand this program to answer drug related questions in the current research. The major improvements include vectorizing the words and automizing the construction of rule base. By this, we prevented the tedious task of inputting drug information manually and now it is possible to avoid influences of inconsistent spelling and synonyms by vectorization of words. We managed to increase the accuracy of the previous study up to 56.1%.


The current chemical industry is not sustainable, which leads to the fact that innovation of chemical processes and products is too often hazardous for society in general and the environment in particular. It really is a challenge to implement sustainability considerations in the design activities of chemical engineers. Therefore, the main question of this thesis is: how can a trained chemical engineer develop a conceptual design of a chemical process or a chemical product in such a way that the final result clearly contributes to sustainable development?
This question is answered after a profound discussion about the current chemical engineering practice and its relation to the sustainability debate. This dissertation claims that sustainable development of chemical engineering practices requires a general design methodology accompanied by a set of design tools. Such a combination of methodology and tools does not exist in the chemical engineering field.
The author developed a new design methodology and seven new design tools that enable the incorporation of sustainability issues into the design practice of the chemical engineering field. The application and validity of the methodology and its tools are shown in seven, mainly industrial, case studies.


We sketch a framework for the construction of evaluation systems for web sites. It is an iterative process consisting of the construction of a model, i.e. an enumeration of properties of web sites, its testing, the identification of normative criteria that the properties of web sites must satisfy for a web site to be user friendly and a test of the criteria. We also describe briefly our own experience in constructing evaluation systems based on a large number of evaluations of web sites.


The measurement of gradients of the earth's magnetic field from an airborne platform has been advocated for many years. In 1954 Wickerham proposed the use of what is essentially a gradient along the flight direction (longitudinal gradient). Hood's 1965 suggestion was to measure the vertical gradient using a total-field magnetometer mounted in a tail stinger and a second magnetometer in a towed bird below the tail stinger. In fact, the system finally built by Hood's group at the Geological Survey of Canada used two tail stingers separated by 2 m. The advantages of this type of total-field vertical gradiometry were advocated so convincingly that vertical gradiometers was also developed for helicopter surveying. One of the key developments that allowed the collection of high-quality vertical-gradient data from a fixed-wing aircraft was the development of aircraft compensation schemes for gradiometer arrays.

Subsequent installations generally measured a vertical gradient and a transverse gradient (perpendicular to the flight direction). The longitudinal gradient is either calculated by taking the spatial derivative of a single sensor traverse, or by averaging two wing tip sensors and subtracting this from a tail sensor. Marcotte et al. (1992) give a number of examples where having both horizontal gradients can help in the interpretation of magnetic data. They suggest that both gradients can be used to (1) determine whether the geology is two-dimensional; (2) estimate the strike direction, and (3) help calculate the vertical gradient. Interestingly, Marcotte et al. demonstrate that the vertical gradient derived from the horizontal gradients gives data with noise levels one tenth of that seen on the measured vertical gradients. Other advantages of measured horizontal gradients are that they can be used: (1) to derive a total field that is free of diurnal effects; (2) to derive the magnetic gradient tensor; (3) to estimate the depth …


Off-policy evaluation (OPE) in reinforcement learning allows one to evaluate novel decision policies without needing to conduct exploration, which is often costly or otherwise infeasible. We consider for the first time the semiparametric efficiency limits of OPE in Markov decision processes (MDPs), where actions, rewards, and states are memoryless. We show existing OPE estimators may fail to be efficient in this setting. We develop a new estimator based on cross-fold estimation of q-functions and marginalized density ratios, which we term double reinforcement learning (DRL). We show that DRL is efficient when both components are estimated at fourth-root rates and is also doubly robust when only one component is consistent. We investigate these properties empirically and demonstrate the performance benefits due to harnessing memorylessness.


Abstract Carnivores are difficult to survey due, in large part, to their relative rarity across the landscape and wariness toward humans. Several noninvasive methods may aid in overcoming these difficulties, but there has been little discussion of the relative merits and biases of these techniques. We assess the value of 5 noninvasive techniques based on results from 2 multiyear studies of carnivores (including members of Carnivora and Didelphidae) in New York forests. Two metrics were particularly valuable in assessing the species-specific value of any particular survey technique: latency to initial detection (LTD) and probability of detection (POD). We found differences in the value of techniques in detecting different species. For midsized species (raccoon [Procyon lotor], fisher [Martes pennanti], opossum [Didelphis virginiana], and domestic cat [Felis catus]), camera traps and track-plates were approximately equivalent in detection efficiency, but the potential for wariness toward the survey apparatus resulted in higher LTD for track-plates than for cameras. On the other hand, track-plates detected small carnivores (marten [M. americana] and weasels [Mustela spp.]) more often than cameras and had higher PODs for small and midsized species than did cameras. Cameras were efficient mechanisms for surveying bears (Ursus americanus; low LTD, high POD) but functioned poorly for discerning presence of coyotes (Canis latrans; high LTD, low POD). Scat surveys and snowtracking were the best methods for coyotes, which avoided camera traps and artificial tracking surfaces. Our analysis of fecal DNA revealed that trail-based fecal surveys were inefficient at detecting species other than coyotes, with the possible exception of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Genetic analyses of feces and snowtracking revealed the presence of foxes at sites where other techniques failed to discern these species, suggesting that cameras and track-plates are inefficient for surveying small canids in this region. The LTD of coyotes by camera traps was not correlated with their abundance as indexed by scat counts, but for other species this metric may offer an opportunity to assess relative abundance across sites. Snowtracking surveys were particularly robust (high POD) for detecting species active in winter and may be more effective than both cameras and track-plates where conditions are suitable. We recommend that survey efforts targeting multiple members of the carnivore community use multiple independent techniques and incorporate mechanisms to truth their relative value.


Electricity use is growing worldwide, providing a range of energy services: lighting, heating and cooling, specific industrial uses, entertainment, information technologies, and mobility. Because its generation remains largely based on fossil fuels, electricity is also the largest and the fastest-growing source of energy-related CO2 emissions, the primary cause of human-induced climate change. Forecasts from the IEA and others show that "decarbonising" electricity and enhancing end-use efficiency can make major contributions to the fight against climate change.
Global and regional trends on electricity supply and demand indicate the magnitude of the decarbonisation challenge ahead. As climate concerns become an essential component of energy policy-making, the generation and use of electricity will be subject to increasingly strong policy actions by governments to reduce their associated CO2 emissions. Despite these actions, and despite very rapid growth in renewable energy generation, significant technology and policy challenges remain if this unprecedented essential transition is to be achieved.
The IEA Climate and Electricity Annual
2011 provides an authoritative resource on progress to date in this area, with statistics related to CO2 and the electricity sector across ten regions of the world. It also presents topical analyses on meeting the challenge of rapidly curbing CO2 emissions from electricity, from both a policy and technology perspective.


The data we analyze derives from the observation of numerous cells of the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) growing and dividing. Single cells grow and divide to give birth to two daughter cells, that in turn grow and divide. Thus, a colony of cells from a single ancestor is structured as a binary genealogical tree. At each node the measured data is the growth rate of the bacterium. In this paper, we study two different data sets. One set corresponds to small complete trees, whereas the other one corresponds to long specific sub-trees. Our aim is to compare both sets. This paper is accessible to post graduate students and readers with advanced knowledge in statistics.


Southern minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata are genetically separated from Northern Hemisphere minke whales. Seasonal migrations take them from tropical latitudes in winter to high latitudes of the Antarctic in summer. Breeding takes place in warmer waters but llttle is known of breeding areas. Breedmg areas and southbound migrations were studied using sighhng data derived from the Japanese sighting surveys dunng 1976 to 1987. Relatively higher concentrations were observed In the waters mainly around 10" to 20" S in October, the end of the main conception period of this species in the Southern Hemisphere Spatial distribution in tropical and subtropical waters during the latter half of the conception period suggests that there are 2 breeding areas In the eastern and western South Paclflc and 2 others in the eastern and western Indian Ocean. It appears that breeding populations of the southern minke whale are relatively dispersed in open waters while coastal species such as right whales Eubalaena glacialis, humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae and gray whales Eschrichtius robustus migrate along the shore and congregate in near-shore breeding areas. Latitudinal occurrences by month suggest that southern minke whales moved southward from the breeding areas by October-November, and that most of them had migrated into Antarctic waters by January. They tend to move almost directly south from the breeding areas to feeding areas, and subsequently disperse after arriving at the feeding areas. Southbound migration speeds were estimated to average 20 nautical miles (n miles) d-' in waters north of the subtropical convergence and 40 to 50 n miles d' in waters south of the convergence.


Artificial intelligence (AI) has featured widely in the news recently. It is vital to the continued development of computer science and informatics, and is indispensable for the effective functioning of a multitude of systems in fields such as medicine, economics, linguistics, philosophy, psychology and logical analysis, as well as industry.This book presents the proceedings of the 13th Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence (SCAI 2015), held in Halmstad, Sweden, in November 2015. SCAI is the main biennial conference for the AI research communities of Scandinavia, but also attracts the attendance of a wide range of international participants. The book features 17 accepted papers from the conference as well as extended abstracts describing the work of six Ph.D. students who presented their research-in-progress to a panel of experts in the doctoral symposium which forms part of the conference. A wide range of topics are covered, including machine learning, data mining, logical reasoning, robotics and planning, and the papers included here focus on both the theory and practical applications of AI.The book will be of interest to all those wishing to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of AI. © 2015 The authors and IOS Press.


Autoregressive sequence models achieve state-of-the-art performance in domains like machine translation. However, due to the autoregressive factorization nature, these models suffer from heavy latency during inference. Recently, non-autoregressive sequence models were proposed to reduce the inference time. However, these models assume that the decoding process of each token is conditionally independent of others. Such a generation process sometimes makes the output sentence inconsistent, and thus the learned non-autoregressive models could only achieve inferior accuracy compared to their autoregressive counterparts. To improve then decoding consistency and reduce the inference cost at the same time, we propose to incorporate a structured inference module into the non-autoregressive models. Specifically, we design an efficient approximation for Conditional Random Fields (CRF) for non-autoregressive sequence models, and further propose a dynamic transition technique to model positional contexts in the CRF. Experiments in machine translation show that while increasing little latency (8~14ms), our model could achieve significantly better translation performance than previous non-autoregressive models on different translation datasets. In particular, for the WMT14 En-De dataset, our model obtains a BLEU score of 26.80, which largely outperforms the previous non-autoregressive baselines and is only 0.61 lower in BLEU than purely autoregressive models.


The extensive rhizome development found in Juncus roemerianu$ makes this species unique among rushes and is a biological feature responsible, in part, for its domination of large tracts of salt marsh. Branching in certain mature plants is distinctly sympodial, while in most it is obscured by precocious development of the continuation bud and appears to be monopodial. Each vegetative unit is composed of a scaly rhizome which grows to varying lengths and then abruptly turns up at the end to become an erect shoot. A continuation rhizome consistently arises from an axillary bud in a ventral scale leaf. Transitional leaves (large scale leaves) accompany development of the erect shoot. Rhizome scales, transitional and foliage leaves are distichously arranged and in the same vertical plane. The culm forms through an elongation of an internode of an erect shoot. Other rhizomes may also arise from buds in the axils of the transitional and foliage leaves. From one to seven terete leaves with a bifacial sheath are produced from the apical meristem of the erect stem. Fibrous roots occur laterally on erect shoots. Non-fibrous roots occur on the ventral surface to the rhizomes. The internal rhizome and root anatomy resembles that reported for most other species of Juncus while the leaf anatomy is very similar to that of Juncus maritimus and Juncus acutus.


The dairy industry in Canada was turned on its ear by the release of the WTO decision last fall that Canada's Special Milk Classes constitute an export subsidy. Dairy processors fear the loss of established export markets. At the same time, the decision threatens the role of supply management authorities as the sole marketers of farmers' milk. Will farmers market milk for export directly to processors? What consequences could renewed marketing board involvement in exports have in the international trade arena? The industry is preparing for conflict as it reorients itself in the international market. That conflict is embedded in proposals made by some of the milk marketing agencies and by some processor members of the National Dairy Council(NDCC). Because of the immediate importance of this case and the issues it spawns, the George Morris Centre is releasing this special report. It addresses the following topics: - The nature of the challenges to the Special Milk Classes scheme - The WTO decision Implications for the dairy industry - Marketing boards' proposal for export pricing reform - NDCC proposal for export pricing reform - Evaluation of the alternatives


My dissertation explores the relationship between the nation and a "free market" economy in 20th- and 21st-century Latina/o Literature and film. Although new political theories pronounce the "withering away of the state"—once a Marxist dream and now a neoliberal one—I challenge these theories by arguing that contemporary Latina/o literature and film reveals and exemplifies the remaining centrality of the nation even with neoliberal efforts to transcend it. My dissertation explores how Latina/o literature and film exposes and embodies an interdependent, albeit contradictory, relationship between the nation and a privatized economy, where free markets relies on nationalisms to operate.

Violent Fronteras approaches the relationship between the nation and the neoliberal economy through representations, first, of nationalisms (chapters 2-4) and, second, of the nation-state (chapters 5-6). Analyzing figures like one of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's Latina heroines who performs the stereotypical role of a "spicy Chicana" for her job in The Dirty Girl Social Club, I argue this emblematizes an interlocking relationship between economic institutions and cultural nationalisms in the equal-opportunity workplace. Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban is another novel that builds upon the way the economy normalizes nationalisms, as Pilar, a 1.5 Cuban-American teen who buys punk albums to pay homage to her idealist vision of socialist Cuba, portrays how nationalisms are a mechanism for economic consumption and also uneven development. My dissertation ends on the way the nation-state continues to maintain the border while simultaneously promoting policies such as NAFTA, where capital is mobile but people are not. For instance, Alex Rivera's film Sleep Dealer imagines a future where the capitalist needs of cheap labor in the U.S. are fulfilled without physical migrations or citizen outcries of an "alien invasion": the border (and thus the nation) remains intact, while Mexican laborers stay in Mexico operating U.S. machines through a Matrix-like virtual reality. The film's speculative premise demonstrates a compatibility with the maintenance of national difference, labor and immigration laws, and the creation of international/global markets. Ultimately, I show that Latina/o cultural production uncovers and exemplifies mystifications, contradictions, and the violence at the heart of the neoliberal state's unprecedented rule.


Enterprise architecture models support decision-making as they help organizations to understand, communicate and analyse how business processes are performed, the goals they achieve, the information they use, as well as the applications that realize the business, and the supporting technological infrastructure. The integrated analysis of these models is not straightforward because it cross-cuts different domains that are described using heterogeneous concepts. This paper explores the application of ontologies to analyse enterprise architecture models. Ontologies represent knowledge that can be analysed using computational inference. The contributions of this paper are (1) the specification of multiple enterprise architecture models as ontological schemas, (2) the integration of ontological schemas, and (3) the analysis of the integrated models. The solution artefact consists of a federated model specified as a set of ontological schemas described in OWL-DL that integrates multiple enterprise models and assists their analysis using computational inference. The paper demonstrates the application of the federated model to the ArchiMate language as a means to assess the compliance of business requirements in a civil engineering scenario.


The literature on capital controls has focused on their use as tools to manage capital and improve macroeconomic and financial stability. However, there is a lack of analysis of their effect on foreign exchange (FX) market liquidity. In particular, technological and regulatory changes in FX markets over the past decade have had an influence on the effect of capital controls on alternative indicators of FX liquidity. In this paper, we introduce a theoretical model showing that, if capital controls are modelled as entry costs, then fewer investors will enter an economy. This will reduce the market's ability to accommodate large order flows without a significant change in the exchange rate (a market depth measure of liquidity). On the other hand, if capital controls are modelled as transaction costs, they can reduce the effective spread (a cost-based measure of liquidity). Using a panel of 20 emerging market economies and a novel measure of capital account restrictiveness, we provide empirical evidence showing that capital controls can reduce cost-based measures of FX market liquidity. The results imply that capital controls are effective in reducing the implicit cost component of FX market liquidity but can also have a negative structural effect on the FX market by making it more vulnerable to order flow imbalances.


The San Francisco Bay Area played a critical role in
supporting military activities throughout the twentieth century.
Due to its location, the Bay Area served as one of the key military
staging grounds for the Pacific campaign of WWII, the Korean War,
and the Vietnam War. The region benefited from war-related
industry, housing the largest shipyard west of the Mississippi and
supporting the burgeoning postwar military industrial complex. Its
demographics diversified dramatically as soldiers, Vietnam War
refugees, and war workers migrated to the region. As part of the
Sunbelt, the Bay Area benefited economically from generous military
procurement spending. However, over the course of the 1980s, 1990s,
and the 2000s, the Bay Area shifted away from having a significant
military presence to having practically none. Compared to the
approximately thirty military facilities operating in 1980, today
all but a handful are either closed or slated for
closure.Residents, experts, and scholars wondered how could a
single region in the Sun Belt, which benefited from significant
federal defense investment, lose so much, so quickly? Many locals
blamed the region's "liberal" people and politicians for inciting
the military's wrath. Hence, a popular social narrative evolved.
Many contended that the navy and Department of Defense deliberately
targeted bases in the Bay Area for closure as a way of punishing
the Bay Area for its anti-war intransigence.This dissertation
challenges the narrative that the Bay Area was punished. It
examines the causal factors that led to the elimination of the
region's bases. Through three case studies covering base closures
in three Bay Area cities, Alameda (Alameda Naval Air Station),
Vallejo (Mare Island Naval Shipyard), and Oakland (Oakland Army
Base and Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Oakland), a different
explanation for the closures emerges. This project demonstrates
that the passage of federal policies and legislation, urban
encroachment, the reduction of military need, the advancement of
military technologies, the enforcement of environmental policies,
and shifts in military procurement processes caused a collective
cascading effect, which yielded unintended consequences on the
region. Going further, this dissertation likewise investigates the
effectiveness and fairness of the Defense Base Closure and
Realignment Commission (BRAC). The BRAC was designed as a way to
close bases in an independent, equal, and apolitical manner. Taken
together, these factors demonstrate that Bay Area bases closed due
to politics, just not the punishment kind.


The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), performing as the cathode reaction of electrochemical water splitting, is an important green energy producing process. An increasing interest in transition metal carbides (TMCs) applied in HER has been aroused owing to their similarity in electronic structure to platinum (Pt). In this review, we mainly introduced the recent progress of the elements in group VIB (W, Mo, Cr) and their carbides applied in hydrogen evolution reaction. The structure designs, the catalytic activities and the pH adaptations were primarily investigated and compared. It was promising to obtain a Pt-like catalytic activity and an extraordinary stability in a wide pH range with the transition metal carbide. We also looked forward to the challenges in designing novel TMCs for electrochemical HER catalysis.


Graphene opens up for novel optoelectronic applications thanks to its high carrier mobility, ultralarge absorption bandwidth, and extremely fast material response. In particular, the opportunity to control optoelectronic properties through tuning of the Fermi level enables electro-optical modulation, optical-optical switching, and other optoelectronics applications. However, achieving a high modulation depth remains a challenge because of the modest graphene-light interaction in the graphene-silicon devices, typically, utilizing only a monolayer or few layers of graphene. Here, we comprehensively study the interaction between graphene and a microring resonator, and its influence on the optical modulation depth. We demonstrate graphene-silicon microring devices showing a high modulation depth of 12.5 dB with a relatively low bias voltage of 8.8 V. On-off electro-optical switching with an extinction ratio of 3.8 dB is successfully demonstrated by applying a square-waveform with a 4 V peak-to-peak voltage.


Orientation : For a higher education institution (HEI) to maintain a long-term trajectory of excellence, a strong focus on retaining a younger generation of skilled academics is needed.
Research purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate intention to quit amongst Generation Y academics in HEIs.
Motivation for the study : Higher education institutions are more dependent on the abilities and commitment of their staff than most other organisations. More than 4000 academics will retire and need to be replaced by 2018, providing justification for the study of intention to quit of academics.
Research design, approach and method : An ex post facto quantitative research design was followed. Academics at six HEIs in South Africa were sampled. Measurement instruments included abridged versions of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Arnold and Feldman Intention to Quit Scale, Job Descriptive Scale and Chew's reward scale.
Main findings : Employee engagement, job satisfaction, remuneration, reward, recognition and transformational leadership were significantly related to intention to quit. In the partial model, three of these variables explained 45% of the variance in intention to quit. Partial least square path modelling revealed that employee engagement and job satisfaction have significant negative impacts on intention to quit.
Practical/managerial implications : The findings serve as input for the development of efficacious strategies to retain Generation Y academics at HEIs in South Africa.
Contribution/value-add : This study contributes to our knowledge of intention to quit amongst Generation Y academics. It provides evidence of the complexity and inter-relatedness of variables in the phenomenological network of intention to quit.


Because of India's size, the age of its most recent available poverty survey, and the availability of a more recent nationally representative survey, the World Bank utilized a survey to survey imputation exercise as a key input to estimate poverty in 2015. At the $1.90 per day international poverty line, the imputation model predicts a 2014-15 headcount poverty rate of 10 percent in urban areas and 16.4 percent in rural areas, implying a poverty rate of 14.6 percent nationally. The implied poverty elasticity with respect to growth is within the range of past experience, and states with higher GDP growth saw greater predicted poverty reductions. In validation tests, the model's predictions perform comparably to the current adjustment method when predicting into 2011-12 but are far more accurate when predicting into 2004-05. Three alternative specifications give moderately higher estimates of poverty. The results suggest that survey to survey imputation, when feasible, is a preferable alternative to the current method used to adjust survey-based poverty estimates to later years.


This paper derives from research that had the aim of understanding more about adolescents' views of sex education and adolescent sexuality. The data are taken from three separate pieces of research conducted in 1984, 1998 and 2003. This paper presents data about gender, information and knowledge relating to sexuality. It seeks to demonstrate that attitudes to information and knowledge vary significantly with gender. The data suggest that many adolescents we studied were offered different access to information about sex and sexuality in their families. The argument is that this has impact on the sources of information that they rely upon and prefer. We investigate the underlying issues about the ways boys obtain not only information about sex, but also their attitudes to sexual encounters. Sources of information and counselling about sexuality varied with gender. Boys and girls were exposed to different kinds of experience, in which information about sexuality and messages about desire also vary. Home and intimacy with parents, especially mothers, is important for many, although not all, girls in a way it is not for boys. This indicates a picture of boys learning about sex and sexuality in ways that by and large do not include adults, or more especially trusted adults, and where there appears to be some elements of exclusion from the family. This has important implications for sex education programmes, and may offer us insights into why the boys resist school sex education work.


With several COVID-19 vaccines now available, many questions regarding immunization within patients on immune modifying agents have been surfacing. One critical question is what effect methotrexate (MTX), a known inhibitor of antibody formation, may have on vaccine response during the pandemic. In particular, does holding methotrexate during the vaccination period have improved outcomes on vaccine response? A systematic review was conducted of previous randomized controlled trials and clinical trials of vaccine studies for methotrexate use. Studies were limited to the adult population and to those with autoimmune rheumatic conditions. 29 studies were included for review. There was heterogeneity in vaccinations used including pneumococcal, influenza (H1N1, H3N2, and various B strains), tetanus toxoid, hepatitis A, and varicella zoster. Measurement of vaccine response was non-uniform among the studies. Methotrexate dosing in some studies was not reported, and in many studies was variable. 82.8% of the studies demonstrated methotrexate users were able to meet the study defined vaccine response in the majority of methotrexate users in at least 1 endpoint. Two studies examined vaccine disruption for influenza vaccines and demonstrated improved vaccine response to methotrexate users who discontinued therapy. Dosing of methotrexate was identified in 3 studies as having an impact on vaccine response. Fortune J Rheumatol 2021; 3 (3): 11-41 DOI: 10.26502/fjr.26880026 Fortune Journal of Rheumatology 12 Based off review of previous vaccine literature, a temporary hold of methotrexate in the post vaccination period may be a reasonable option to try boost the immune response to a novel vaccine.


Iron treatment is necessary to replenish iron deficit due to several clinical conditions such as chronic diseases. However, as an excess of iron can result in redox imbalance resulting in oxidative stress and thus severe damage to tissue and organs, it is of utmost importance to develop iron therapies that are effective and yet safe to not induce iron overload. Especially in the case of intravenous iron formulations, several factors such as the physicochemical properties and manufacturing processes have demonstrated to impact their efficiency and safety in vivo. Up to date it has been a challenge to develop evaluation methods, particularly suitable in vivo pre-clinical models to perform proper comparisons and in-depth assessment studies of iron therapeutics. It is therefore of utmost importance to develop and define sensitive evaluation methods when original iron formulations with generics are compared from a pharmaceutical point of view. Several non-clinical animal studies have been previously published with the aim to compare the original intravenous iron sucrose product to new iron sucrose similars (generics). The objective of this thesis was to evaluate non-clinical in vivo models that aim to assess safety profiles of intravenous iron products, as these methods are not easy to standardize and the outcomes of the various studies are not in agreement. Furthermore, as characterization of the physicochemical properties (e.g. size, charge, stability) of an intravenous iron preparation is not predictive for the clinical effect of the injected iron formulation, an assessment of the iron distribution in vivo was done using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The results presented in this thesis demonstrate, the difficulties to compare, standardize and reproduce results from various pre-clinical iron related comparison studies that were performed with similar experimental design including a similar animal model. In addition after investigating whether a frequently used animal strain for these purposes is actually sensitive enough, it remained questionable whether this model is really able to give proper insight into possible toxic effects and biodistribution of various iron formulations. Furthermore, it was interesting to investigate other possible methods such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to obtain further insight into the iron biodistribution after intravenous iron administration. The MRI technique has proven to be a powerful non-invasive modality to monitor iron distribution after administering exogenous iron.


This paper examines the economic and social reasons that are attributed to the high emigration rate in Ireland and in Germany during the nineteenth century, and how the lives of these groups turned out in the United States. As a result of economic deterioration and social inequality, pessimism became prevalent in Ireland from the 1840s onward and in Germany from the 1830s onward. Because the United States was perceived as an optimistic avenue for advancement, thousands of Irish and Germans emigrated their homelands and fled to America in search of a better life. During the first few decades upon their arrival in America, these groups faced massive discrimination by nativists; cultural barriers propagated negative stereotyping, which in turn created a nativist environment that excluded anyone of foreign nationality. The Irish and German immigrants found themselves fighting hard to overcome their oppression in America. By creating a cohesive social network among people of their own kind, whether it was through politics, religion, or in business, these immigrants challenged the social stigmas that were attached to their status. They were able to develop themselves fruitfully through hard work and determination. As the Irish and German immigrants started to expand in the American labor market with their skills, and magnify the social climate of what it meant to be an American, they were steadily elevating up the social ladder. When these groups were increasingly assimilating into the United States, they were no longer being identified as outsiders. Instead, they and the future Irish and German generations have melted their immigrant status and molded their American-Irish and American-German identity. Though the Irish and Germans developed a more successful life in America than in their homelands, they simultaneously contributed to something bigger: They helped built America. This paper seeks to prove that the Irish and German immigrants of the nineteenth century were able to live a better life in America than in their native lands. The two chief reasons that led a great number of Irish to emigrate Ireland, which are the Great Potato Famine of 1845-52 and religious persecution which occurred throughout the 1800s, is discussed first. To show how the potato crop contributed to drastic impoverishment, specific emphasis is given to the scientific procedure of how the blight unfolded. Emigration statistics exemplifies the high scale of suffering in Ireland, particularly from 1840 to the 1850s. A transition is then drawn to analyze the lives of the Irish in the United States. It is established how the Irish were presented with economic opportunities, but faced terrible discrimination based on their low social status as poor immigrants. Through their continuous spread of an unwanted religion (Catholicism), and utilization of Tammy Hall politics, the Irish acquired power. Their defensive reactions further enabled the Irish to advance socially. In examining the second group's primary reasons for emigration, this paper focuses on the economic downturn in Germany, and how the influence of American advertisements impacted emigration altogether from the 1830s onward. The variation of German immigrants' occupations in America is detailed as well as their success in the cultivation of land. Like with the Irish immigrants, obstacles that the Germans encountered, such as their language barrier and suspicions with their religion is addressed. The Germans' persistence in their fierce antagonism of their involvement in organizations enabled them to counter the prejudices against them. Their assimilation and accomplishments in America stem mainly from major contributions that they have made that are well known today. With both groups, the common result boils down their success in America. The paper concludes that despite the hardships, the Irish and German immigrants not only achieve a better life here than in their homelands, but their incredible contribution to the American society serves as a success story both to their lives, and the foundation of the United States of America. Table of