CONTEXT
Women are at increased risk for mood disturbance during the menopause transition. Hot flashes (HFs), sleep disruption, and fluctuating estradiol levels correlate with menopause-associated depression but co-occur, making cause and effect relationships difficult to disentangle.

OBJECTIVE
Using a GnRH agonist (GnRHa) experimental model, we investigated whether depressive symptoms are associated with HFs and/or are explained by concomitant sleep fragmentation in the absence of estradiol fluctuation.

DESIGN AND INTERVENTION
Depressive symptoms, objective polysomnographic sleep parameters, subjective sleep quality, serum estradiol, and HFs were assessed before and 4 weeks after open-label depot GnRHa (leuprolide 3.75-mg) administration.

SETTING
Academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-nine healthy nondepressed premenopausal volunteers (mean age, 27.3 years).

RESULTS
Serum estradiol was rapidly and uniformly suppressed. HFs developed in 69% of the subjects. On univariate analysis, worsening of mood was predicted by increases in time in light sleep (stage N1), number of transitions to wake, non-REM arousals, subjective sleep quality, and reductions in perceived sleep efficiency (all P < .045), as well as the number of nighttime (P = .006), but not daytime (P = .28), HFs reported. In adjusted models, the number of nighttime HFs reported, increases in non-REM arousals, time in stage N1, transitions to wake, and reduced sleep quality remained significant predictors of mood deterioration (P ≤ .05).

CONCLUSIONS
Depressive symptoms emerged after estradiol withdrawal in association with objectively and subjectively measured sleep disturbance and the number of nighttime, but not daytime, HFs reported. Results suggest that sleep disruption and perceived nighttime HFs both contribute to vulnerability to menopause-associated depressive symptoms in hypoestrogenic women.


In this study, the effects of black and blue coloured water pillows on eggplant yield and water productivities were investigated under greenhouse conditions in a semi‐arid region of Turkey. There were five different irrigation treatments: black water pillows (BLACKWP), black mulching + drip (BLACKM + D), blue water pillows (BLUEWP), blue mulching + drip (BLUEM + D) and drip irrigation (DI) without mulching. Yield per hectare, yield per plant, number of fruits per plant, number of fruits per unit area (m2) and seasonal water consumption were investigated. The yields in BLACKWP, BLUEWP, BLACKM + D, BLUEM + D and DI treatments were respectively measured as 104, 103, 115, 107 and 76.2 t ha−1. Seasonal water consumption of the BLACKWP and BLUEWP treatments and BLACKM + D and BLUEM + D treatments was respectively 19 and 16% less than that of DI treatment. Irrigation water productivity of the BLACKWP, BLUEWP, BLACKM + D and BLUEM + D treatments were respectively 40, 39, 44 and 40% greater than that of DI treatment. Yield of BLACKWP, BLUEWP, BLACKM + D and BLUEM + D treatments was respectively 26, 26, 34 and 29% higher than that of DI treatment. Black and blue water pillows and black and blue mulching + drip irrigations had much higher yields and water productivities than drip irrigation without mulching. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This book gives a comprehensive introduction to numerical methods and analysis of stochastic processes, random fields and stochastic differential equations, and offers graduate students and researchers powerful tools for understanding uncertainty quantification for risk analysis. Coverage includes traditional stochastic ODEs with white noise forcing, strong and weak approximation, and the multi-level Monte Carlo method. Later chapters apply the theory of random fields to the numerical solution of elliptic PDEs with correlated random data, discuss the Monte Carlo method, and introduce stochastic Galerkin finite-element methods. Finally, stochastic parabolic PDEs are developed. Assuming little previous exposure to probability and statistics, theory is developed in tandem with state-of the art computational methods through worked examples, exercises, theorems and proofs. The set of MATLAB codes included (and downloadable) allows readers to perform computations themselves and solve the test problems discussed. Practical examples are drawn from finance, mathematical biology, neuroscience, fluid flow modeling and materials science.


This article examines the role of innocence commissions as emerging criminal justice institutions. It draws a distinction between commissions devoted to the correction of errors in individual cases and commissions which make systemic reform recommendations in an effort to prevent wrongful convictions in future cases. The British and Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission are examined as examples of the former type of commission while Canadian public inquiries and commissions in Illinois, California and Virginia are examined as examples of the latter type of commission. Innocence commissions have had difficulties combining error correction and systemic reform because there are differences and tensions between the two functions. Error correction commissions play a quasi-judicial role while systemic reform commissions often engage in political compromise and advocacy. Although there is a need for both error correction and systemic reform with regard to wrongful convictions, more attention needs to be paid to the precise objectives and limitations of innocence commissions as new and fragile criminal justice institutions.


Recent advances in efficiency of organic photovoltaics are driven by judicious selection of processing conditions that result in a "desired" morphology. An important theme of morphology research is quantifying the effect of processing conditions on morphology and relating it to device efficiency. State‐of‐the‐art morphology quantification methods provide film‐averaged or 2D‐projected features that only indirectly correlate with performance, making causal reasoning nontrivial. Accessing the 3D distribution of material, however, provides a means of directly mapping processing to performance. In this paper, two recently developed techniques are integrated—reconstruction of 3D morphology and subsequent conversion into intuitive morphology descriptors —to comprehensively image and quantify morphology. These techniques are applied on films generated by doctor blading and spin coating, additionally investigating the effect of thermal annealing. It is found that morphology of all samples exhibits very high connectivity to electrodes. Not surprisingly, thermal annealing consistently increases the average domain size in the samples, aiding exciton generation. Furthermore, annealing also improves the balance of interfaces, enhancing exciton dissociation. A comparison of morphology descriptors impacting each stage of photophysics (exciton generation, dissociation, and charge transport) reveals that spin‐annealed sample exhibits superior morphology‐based performance indicators. This suggests substantial room for improvement of blade‐based methods (process optimization) for morphology tuning to enhance performance of large area devices.


In recent years, neural implicit representations gained popularity in 3D reconstruction due to their expressiveness and flexibility. However, the implicit nature of neural implicit representations results in slow inference time and requires careful initialization. In this paper, we revisit the classic yet ubiquitous point cloud representation and introduce a differentiable point-to-mesh layer using a differentiable formulation of Poisson Surface Reconstruction (PSR) that allows for a GPU-accelerated fast solution of the indicator function given an oriented point cloud. The differentiable PSR layer allows us to efficiently and differentiably bridge the explicit 3D point representation with the 3D mesh via the implicit indicator field, enabling end-to-end optimization of surface reconstruction metrics such as Chamfer distance. This duality between points and meshes hence allows us to represent shapes as oriented point clouds, which are explicit, lightweight and expressive. Compared to neural implicit representations, our Shape-As-Points (SAP) model is more interpretable, lightweight, and accelerates inference time by one order of magnitude. Compared to other explicit representations such as points, patches, and meshes, SAP produces topology-agnostic, watertight manifold surfaces. We demonstrate the effectiveness of SAP on the task of surface reconstruction from unoriented point clouds and learning-based reconstruction.


There are few quantitative predictions for the impacts of climate change on freshwater fish in Australia. We developed species distribution models (SDMs) linking historical fish distributions for 43 species from Victorian streams to a suite of hydro-climatic and catchment predictors, and applied these models to explore predicted range shifts under future climate-change scenarios. Here, we present summary results for the 43 species, together with a more detailed analysis for a subset of species with distinct distributions in relation to temperature and hydrology. Range shifts increased from the lower to upper climate-change scenarios, with most species predicted to undergo some degree of range shift. Changes in total occupancy ranged from –38% to +63% under the lower climate-change scenario to –47% to +182% under the upper climate-change scenario. We do, however, caution that range expansions are more putative than range contractions, because the effects of barriers, limited dispersal and potential life-history factors are likely to exclude some areas from being colonised. As well as potentially informing more mechanistic modelling approaches, quantitative predictions such as these should be seen as representing hypotheses to be tested and discussed, and should be valuable for informing long-term strategies to protect aquatic biota.


Ubiquitin plays a major role in many cellular processes including protein degradation. Ubiquitin attaches to a lysine group of a substrate molecule through its carboxyl terminal end, resulting in monoubiquitination and the subsequent post-translational modification of the protein. Substrate modifications are far more complex due to seven ubiquitin lysine residues which serve as acceptors for the conjugation with other ubiquitin molecules. The focus of this thesis is centered on the elucidation of ubiquitin chain formation through catalysis of E2 cascade enzymes. Here, we incorporate (Nε-L-Thiaprolyl-L-lysine) site specifically at the K11 position of ubiquitin. The incorporated protein is deprotected forming an acceptor ubiquitin molecule, which we utilize for ligation with a donor molecule to construct a di-ubiquitin probe and conjugate with a specific E2 enzyme. Future studies are aimed at retrieving a three-dimensional structure for this DiUb-E2 conjugate to understand the mechanisms of multiple proteins involved in ubiquitin chain synthesis. INDEX WORDS: Ubiquitin pathway, Aminoacyl tRNA synthetase, Conjugating enzymes, Unnatural amino acid, Post-translational modifications, Aminoacylating ELUCIDATING UBIQUITIN CHAIN FORMATION CATALYZED BY E2 ENZYMES THROUGH USE OF A DI-UBIQUITIN PROBE


EEG alpha rhythm amplitudes of six eccentrically fixating amblyopes between 8-39 years of age were studied during habitual fixation and central fixation with the amblyopic eye while the non-amblyopic eye was patched. Central fixation was achieved by utilizing an entopic phenomenon called Haidinger Brush and placing this brush-shaped image on a small letter. For each subject, habitual fixation of the amblyopic eye was considered the control, and attempting to centrally fixate with that eye was designated as the variable. The same procedure was repeated for the non-amblyopic eye of each subject. The latter was considered a second population, and the results were used to study the extent of psychological artifacts that could influence the results of this study. After one month of testing (up to 12 sessions for each subject) the amblyopic eye showed decreased amplitude of alpha rhythm when attempting to centrally fixate. However, the same result was obtained in the second population (the non-amblyopic eye) which suggests that some of the decrease in the amplitude may be the result of psychological factors such as motivation, anxiety and alertness while attending to a task.


Listeners responded continuously at the world and North American premiere concerts of The Angel of Death by Roger Reynolds using one of two rating scales: familiarity or resemblance of musical materials within the piece and emotional force. Two versions of the piece were tested in each concert in different presentation orders. Functional data analysis revealed the influence of large-scale musical form and context on recognition processes and emotional reactions during ongoing listening. The instantaneous resemblance to materials already heard up to that point in the piece demonstrates strong relations to the sectional structure of the music and suggests different memory dynamics for different kinds of musical structures. Emotional force ratings revealed the impact of computer-processed sounds and a diminution in emotional force with repetition of materials. Response profiles and global preferences across the two versions are discussed in terms of the multifaceted temporal shape of musical experience.


We analytically compare the system performance of various types of in-line optical regenerators in long distance amplified links. The evolution of the probability density function (pdf) of the optical signal intensity is evaluated, and bit error ratio (BER) is estimated numerically. Critical issues of common solutions are found


Up to 40% of patients with Parkinson's disease will develop visual hallucinations at some point in their illness. Although medication, depression, duration of illness, and peripheral visual impairment have been identified as risk factors for hallucinations, more specific changes in cognitive function may also play a role. This pilot study evaluated 9 PD patients with visual hallucinations and 9 nonvisually-hallucinating PD patients on tests of imagery, recognition of objects, reasoning processes and reality monitoring. The reasoning processes tapped ability to derive a set of rules based on feedback, application of a strategy in relation to goal attainment and concept formation. Reality monitoring is defined as the normal process by which perceived and imagined events are discriminated in memory. In healthy volunteers, memories originating from experienced events have more contextual, perceptual and meaningful information than memories derived from internally generated events such as imagery processes, dreams and fantasies. However, if perceptual qualities of imagined events are unusually vivid, they may be more difficult to discriminate from perceived events.

Our research revealed that visually hallucinating PD patients have greater difficulty with recognising visual objects viewed as either silhouettes (U=20.00, p=0.07) or when key identifying information which is hidden from view (U=22.00, p=0.05). Reasoning and reality monitoring processes were also deficient (both U=15.00, p=0.02). Errors in the reality monitoring task where most likely to occur for imagined items which were misattributed to perceived items. In contrast spatial processing, spatial imagery and visual object imagery showed higher levels of preservation.

The findings from this study raise the possibility that visual hallucinations in PD could stem from a combination of impairments in visual object processing, particularly when key visual attributes of an item are obscured, reasoning and reality monitoring processes.
Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Fasttrack grant from the Parkinson's Disease Society.


Languages have various ways of adjusting valency by either, increasing, decreasing or simply rearranging the syntactic valence of clauses. This paper focuses on the various valency adjusting strategies in Raga. Raga, genetically, is a member of the North–Central Vanuatu subgroup of the Oceanic languages in Vanuatu, a multilingual country with over a hundred indigenous languages. Raga is considered as one of the biggest languages of Vanuatu with around seven thousand speakers. Data for this study was collected during a fieldtrip and observations on the northern part of Pentecost where Raga is spoken as well as in Port Vila. The analysis shows that Raga follows a SVO constituent order and it is a nominative accusative language by distinguishing the subjects of both transitive and intransitive verbs from the object of the transitive verbs. Although much has been written on Raga, little has been written on its valency adjusting devices and therefore the purpose of this paper is to focus on the valency adjusting strategies. Analysis shows that Raga applies a range of structures as a means of adjusting the grammatical relations and semantic roles of verbs to their arguments. Like other Oceanic and Vanuatu languages, valency increasing and valency decreasing devices are common in Raga and both these valency adjusting devices mostly occur morphologically through the morphological fusion between the predicate of cause and that of effect. Causative as well as transitive clitics with an applicative role are two strategies, through which Raga verbs increase their valence. On the other hand, valency decreasing strategies in Raga comprise de-transitiviser, 4 Hannah Vari-Bogiri anti-causative, and verb reduplication. These valency increasing and decreasing devices play a very important role in modifying the syntactic and semantic relationships that exist between the verbs and their arguments in Raga.


The sea louse (Caligus rogercresseyi) is the most relevant parasite for the farmed salmon industry in Chile, the second largest producer worldwide. Although spatial patterns of C. rogercresseyi have been addressed from data obtained from established monitoring and surveillance programs, studies on its spatial ecology are limited. A wide geographic distribution of C. rogercresseyi is presumed in Chile; however, how this species could potentially be distributed in space is unknown. Our study presents an analysis of the habitat suitability for C. rogercresseyi in the entire area occupied by marine sites of salmon farms in Chile. Habitat suitability modeling was used to explore the likelihood of species spatial occurrence based on environmental characteristics. Due to the expanding salmon industry in southern Chile, we studied C. rogercresseyi habitat suitability models for present (average of 2005–2010) and two future projections (2050 and 2100) under different climate change scenarios. Models were constructed with the maxent algorithm using a large database of spatial C. rogercresseyi occurrences from the Chilean fisheries health authority and included 23 environmental variables obtained from the Ocean Rasters for Analysis of Climate and Environment (Bio-ORACLE). Habitat suitability models indicated that water temperature, water salinity, and current velocity of waters were the most important characteristics limiting C. rogercresseyi distribution in southern Chile. Habitat suitability models for current climate indicated a heterogeneous pattern with C. rogercresseyi being present in waters with temperature range 12.12–7.08°C (sd = 0.65), salinity range 33.7–25.5 pss (sd = 1.73), and current water velocity range 0.23–0.01 m−1 (sd = 0.02). Predictions for future projections in year 2050 and year 2100 suggest new clumped dispersion of the environmental conditions for C. rogercresseyi establishment. Our results suggest complexity and a wide dispersion of the biogeographic distribution of the C. rogercresseyi habitat suitability with potential implications for control strategies and environmental issues for salmon farming in Chile. Further investigations are required into C. rogercresseyi distribution in southern Chile considering the possible effect of climate change.


This Special Issue follows and complements a previous special issue on art and heritage disputes. Taken together the two special issues adopt a holistic approach to cultural heritage, considering the dynamic link or dialectical relationship between the tangible and intangible heritage. As intangible heritage is made up of processes and practices-its fate depending on oral transmission and being closely related to its creators and context-it may need ad hoc safeguarding approaches and methodologies. In particular, this special issue aims to explore some examples of intangible heritage related disputes, highlight the main tenets of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and suggest avenues for ways forward and further research.


In this research, we consider production/inventory management decisions of a rmthat sells its product in two market segments during a nite planning horizon. In thebeginning of each period, the rm makes a decision on how much to produce basedon the production capacity and the current on-hand inventory available. After theproduction is made at the beginning of the period, the rm rst satises the stochasticdemand from customers in its primary market. Any primary market demand thatcannot be satised is lost. After satisfying the demand from the primary market, ifthere is still inventory on hand, all or part of the remaining products can be sold ina secondary market with ample demand at a lower price. Hence, the second decisionthat the rm makes in each period is how much to sell in the secondary market, orequivalently, how much inventory to carry to the next period.The objective is to maximize the expected net revenue during a nite planninghorizon by determining the optimal production quantity in each period, and theoptimal inventory amount to carry to the next period after the sales in primary andsecondary markets. We term the optimal inventory amount to be carried to the nextperiod as \economic retention quantity". We model this problem as a nite horizonstochastic dynamic program. Our focus is to characterize the structure of the optimalpolicy and to analyze the system under dierent parameter settings. Conditioning on given parameter set, we establish lower and upper bounds on the optimal policyparameters. Furthermore, we provide computational tools to determine the optimalpolicy parameters. Results of the numerical analysis are used to provide furtherinsights into the problem from a managerial perspective.


The Cross Flow Turbine has the distinct advantage of lower initial and operating costs over other small scale turbines, but it is believed to lack somewhat in efficiency. In this study it was attempted to theoretically and physically determine the fraction of crossing flow. At the same time laboratory tests were conducted to collect and guide the crossing flow toward the second stage of the turbine in an interior guide tube. Design of the guide tube was based on studies of the flow pattern inside the runner. Two such tubes were tested. The first design proved to be restrictive, and choked before the peak turbine efficiency was achieved. The second design proved marginally effective at the peak rated turbine flow rate. However, at a smaller flow rate, the guide tube caused an efficiency of over 90 percent. Results of this work have been presented in this paper and recommendations for further study of the interior guide tube have been given.


As the population and longevity of older adults' increases, the prevalence of falls is becoming an ever-growing issue. Falls in older adults may lead to sedentary behavior, decreased independence, and lower quality of life. Evidence has shown that traditional exercise programs emphasizing strength and balance can decrease the fall risk in older adults, but may be difficult to sustain over time. Emerging evidence suggests that exercises that are integrated into daily life, as seen in the Lifestyle-integrated Functional Exercise (LiFE) program, may have a more lasting effect in reducing fall risk in older adults. This study explored the effectiveness of a 26-week modified-LiFE program in decreasing fall risk in community-dwelling older adults. Purposive sampling of men and women 65 years and older, with or without a history of falls, living at two retirement communities yielded 16 participants. Participants were assessed three times using a battery of six fall risk assessments. Results demonstrated a significant reduction in fall risk, and increase in strength and balance. Additionally, results showed a trend toward sustainability of exercise. Therefore, integrating exercises into daily life may offer occupational therapists an effective occupation-based intervention that promotes safety, independence, and quality of life for older adults.


This report presents the results from our independent analysis of One Acre Fund's (1AF) randomized control trial in the Teso region of Kenya. The main aim of this study is to assess program impacts on maize yields and profits from maize and beans. The results show that 1AF participation leads to statistically and economically significant increases in both yields and profits: 1AF participation resulted in a roughly 34 percent increase in maize yields per farmer, and almost 20 percent increase in maize and bean profits. We also investigate whether 1AF participation has persistent impacts for farmers even once they have stopped participating, but we find no differences between control group farmers who were former clients and those that had never participated. Finally, using a quasi-experimental approach using data from the four surrounding districts in which 1AF operates, we can see that results from propensity score analysis yields impact estimates that are somewhat larger in magnitude than those from the experimental analysis. These differences could be driven by differential program impact across districts, or due to methodological differences between the experimental and quasi-experimental approaches.


Although several fingerprint template protection methods have been proposed in the literature, the problem is still unsolved, since enforcing nonreversibility tends to produce an excessive drop in accuracy. Furthermore, unlike fingerprint verification, whose performance is assessed today with public benchmarks and protocols, performance of template protection approaches is often evaluated in heterogeneous scenarios, thus making it very difficult to compare existing techniques. In this paper, we propose a novel protection technique for Minutia Cylinder-Code (MCC), which is a well-known local minutiae representation. A sophisticate algorithm is designed to reverse MCC (i.e., recovering original minutiae positions and angles). Systematic experimentations show that the new approach compares favorably with state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy and, at the same time, provides a good protection of minutiae information and is robust against masquerade attacks.


Understanding critical habitats of threatened and endemic animals is essential for mitigating extinction risks, developing recovery plans, and siting reserves, but assessment methods are generally lacking. We evaluated critical habitats of 8 threatened or endemic fish species on coral and rocky reefs of subtropical eastern Australia, by measuring physical and substratum‐type variables of habitats at fish sightings. We used nonmetric and metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS, mMDS), Analysis of similarities (ANOSIM), similarity percentages analysis (SIMPER), permutational analysis of multivariate dispersions (PERMDISP), and other multivariate tools to distinguish critical habitats. Niche breadth was widest for 2 endemic wrasses, and reef inclination was important for several species, often found in relatively deep microhabitats. Critical habitats of mainland reef species included small caves or habitat‐forming hosts such as gorgonian corals and black coral trees. Hard corals appeared important for reef fishes at Lord Howe Island, and red algae for mainland reef fishes. A wide range of habitat variables are required to assess critical habitats owing to varied affinities of species to different habitat features. We advocate assessments of critical habitats matched to the spatial scale used by the animals and a combination of multivariate methods. Our multivariate approach furnishes a general template for assessing the critical habitats of species, understanding how these vary among species, and determining differences in the degree of habitat specificity.


Introduction I. Autism, Methods of Diagnosis, and Treatment A. Background on Autistic Spectrum Disorders B. Diagnosing Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Children C. Treatments for Children with Autism 1. Applied Behavioral Analysis 2. Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children ("TEACCH") Therapy 3. Picture Exchange Communication System ("PECS") teaching II. The IDEA, "Mainstreaming," and Judicial Tests of Compliance with the "Mainstreaming" Requirement A. A Brief History of the Development of the IDEA B. The Least Restrictive Environment: A Congressional Preference for Mainstreaming C. The Circuit Tests for Compliance with Mainstreaming Requirement 1. Roncker v. Walter 2. Daniel R.R 3. Holland 4. Summary of the Circuit Tests III. Evaluation of the Circuit Tests and of the IDEA Mainstreaming Requirement in the Context of Autistic Spectrum Disorders A. The Circuit Tests as Equivalents in the Context of Autistic Students 1. As Applied, the Tests Account for Substantially Similar Factors 2. The Circuit Tests Are Applied with Equal Deference to Local Educational Officials 3. Decisions Applying the Roncker Test Highlight Judicial Deference to the Educational Placement Decisions of State and Local Officials 4. The Daniel R.R. and Holland Tests Are not Clearly More Deferential than the Roncker Test to Educational Placement District Decisions B. Tensions Between the Underlying Principles of the Mainstreaming Requirement and the Clinical Features of Autistic Spectrum Disorders Conclusion INTRODUCTION Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impairments in social and communication abilities. (1) Children with autism or one of the related autistic spectrum disorders ("ASD") are eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), which provides, in part, that disabled students must be educated with non-disabled peers as often as possible, a practice referred to as mainstreaming or inclusion. The federal circuit courts apply different tests to evaluate compliance with this mainstreaming requirement, but as argued in this Note, the circuit tests are effectively equivalent with respect to children diagnosed with ASDs. One significant issue in applying each of these tests is that tensions exist between the mainstreaming requirement of the IDEA and the clinical features of children with ASD diagnosis. As discussed below, children with ASD have deficits in communicative and social behaviors that tend to minimize the importance of mainstreaming for these children. Part I of this Note provides a brief background on autism and methods of diagnosis and treatment. Part II of this Note reviews the development of the IDEA and outlines the main judicial tests for determining compliance with the mainstreaming requirement. Part III of this Note argues that despite differences in phrasing, the circuit tests as applied in the context of autistic children involve substantially the same inquiries. Part III discusses the tensions that exist between the needs of children with autism and the mainstreaming requirement of the IDEA, concluding that Congress and the Department of Education should relax the mainstreaming requirement in the context of autistic spectrum disorders. I. AUTISM, METHODS OF DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT A. Background on Autistic Spectrum Disorders Autism is a term used to describe a set of cognitive, social and behavioral impairments that are commonly found to coexist in affected individuals. (2) The disorder was first reported by Leo Kanner in a seminal publication in 1943, (3) in which Kanner reported observations of eleven children who exhibited a set of undocumented behavioral atypicalities. …


The interaction between an AFM probe and a thin film of water deposited over a flat substrate is studied using Molecular Dynamics (MD). The effects of the film thickness and of the probe radius on both the deformation height of the liquid interface, and the distance of the jump to contact at which the liquid comes in direct contact with the probe, are investigated. The dynamics of the surface deformation and the role of interface fluctuations are studied in details. The systems considered belong to the thin film regime described in a semi-analytical model previously established by Ledesma \textit{et al.} (Langmuir 2013, \textbf{29}, 7749-7757). MD simulations predict that for shallow films, both the distance at which the jump to contact occurs, and the surface maximal deformation height increase steadily with the layer thickness regardless of the probe radius, which is in agreement with the previously proposed theoretical model. The deformation of the surface was shown to be unstable due to the strong effect of thermal fluctuations. For each of the considered systems, the film thickness was such that interface fluctuations induced the jump to contact. The comparison of the deformation obtained in MD with the profiles predicted by the continuous model points out the complementarity between the two approaches. The results of the molecular approach are not only consistent with those of the continuous model, they also provide more information on the description of nano-scale phenomena. In particular, MD results points out the importance of fluctuations when it comes to the description of the particular dynamics of nanosystems involving soft interfaces. This shows the need to improve continuous models by complementing them with a molecular approach for a better accuracy.


Global optimization remains one of the great challenges in scientific computing. One particular successful approach is the usage of tunneling functions to cross barriers and transition states more easily thus allowing for a fast scan of the potential energy surface under investigation. In this paper we develop for the first time a performance measurement procedure for stochastic tunneling approaches and derive an adaptive algorithm that is steered by this performance measure. The proposed algorithm is based on a scale-free measure and thus applicable to general stochastic optimization schemes. We found for a very hard optimization problem the computational effort to be some order of magnitude lower while at the same time increasing the accuracy by a factor of three.


The digital divide is usually conceptualized through goods-dominant logic, where bridging the divide entails providing digital goods to disadvantaged segments of the population. This is expected to enhance their digital capabilities and thus to have a positive influence on the digital outcomes (or services) experienced. In contrast, this study is anchored in an alternative service-dominant logic and posits that viewing the divide from a service perspective might be better suited to the context of developing countries, where there is a huge divide across societal segments in accessing basic services such as healthcare and education. This research views the prevailing differences in the level of services consumed by different population segments (service divide) as the key issue to be addressed by innovative digital tools in developing countries. The study posits that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be leveraged to bridge the service divide to enhance the capabilities of service-disadvantaged segments of society. But such service delivery requires an innovative assembly of ICT as well as non-ICT resources. Building on concepts from service-dominant logic and service science, this paper aims to understand how such service innovation efforts can be orchestrated. Specifically, adopting a process view, two Indian enterprises that have developed sustainable telemedicine healthcare service delivery models for the rural population in India are examined. The study traces the configurations of three interactional resources--knowledge, technology, and institutions--through which value-creating user-centric objectives of increasing geographical access and reducing cost are achieved. The theoretical contributions are largely associated with unearthing and understanding how the three interactional resources were orchestrated for service-centric value creation in different combinative patterns as resource exploitation, resource combination, and value reinforcement. The analysis also reveals the three distinct stages of service innovation evolution (idea and launch, infancy and early growth, and late growth and expansion), with a distinct shift in the dominant resource for each stage. Through an inductive process, the study also identifies four key enablers for successfully implementing these ICT-enabled service innovations: obsessive customer empathy, belief in the transformational power of ICT, continuous recursive learning, and efficient network orchestration.


We study the relation between notions of game-theoretic equilibria which are based on stability under a set of deviations, and empirical equilibria which are reached by rational players. Rational players are modeled by players using no regret algorithms, which guarantee that their payoff in the long run is close to the maximum they could hope to achieve by consistently deviating from the algorithm's suggested action.

We show that for a given set of deviations over the strategy set of a player, it is possible to efficiently approximate fixed points of a given deviation if and only if there exist efficient no regret algorithms resistant to the deviations. Further, we show that if all players use a no regret algorithm, then the empirical distribution of their plays converges to an equilibrium.


To solve the problems of tracking errors such as target missing that emerged in compressive tracking (CT) algorithm due to factors such as pose variation, illumination change, and occlusion, a novel tracking algorithm combined angular point matching with compressive tracking (APMCCT) was proposed. A sparse measurement matrix was adopted to extract the Haar-like features. The offset of the predicted target position was integrated into the angular point matching, and the new target position was calculated. Furthermore, the updating mechanism of the template was optimized. Experiments on different video sequences have shown that the proposed APMCCT performs better than CT algorithm in terms of accuracy and robustness and adaptability to pose variation, illumination change, and occlusion.


Introduction Running injuries affect millions of persons every year and have become a substantial public health issue owing to the popularity of running. To ensure adherence to running, it is important to prevent injuries and to have an in-depth understanding of the aetiology of running injuries. The main purpose of the present paper was to describe the design of a future prospective cohort study exploring if a dose–response relationship exists between changes in training load and running injury occurrence, and how this association is modified by other variables. Methods and analysis In this protocol, the design of an 18-month observational prospective cohort study is described that will include a minimum of 20 000 consenting runners who upload their running data to Garmin Connect and volunteer to be a part of the study. The primary outcome is running-related injuries categorised into the following states: (1) no injury; (2) a problem; and (3) injury. The primary exposure is change in training load (eg, running distance and the cumulative training load based on the number of strides, ground contact time, vertical oscillation and body weight). The change in training load is a time-dependent exposure in the sense that progression or regression can change many times during follow-up. Effect-measure modifiers include, but is not limited to, other types of sports activity, activity of daily living and demographics, and are assessed through questionnaires and/or by Garmin devices. Ethics and dissemination The study design, procedures and informed consent have been evaluated by the Ethics Committee of the Central Denmark Region (Request number: 227/2016 – Record number: 1-10-72-189-16).


This paper is based on an ESRC-funded study into scientists' perceptions of management. Changes in the organisation, purpose and process of science were heralded with the publication of the White Paper (Cm2250 1993). However, to date there has been little empirical work into how research scientists understand such issues. Our research, based on qualitative interviews conducted with scientist/managers in seven government-funded research establishments, found that scientists' notions of scientific purpose varied, not just according to the nature of their work, but also evolved as careers progressed and the contexts within which they worked changed (in particular as the need to generate income through commissioned work has increased). The data also reveal a diversity in scientists' understanding of the relationship between discovery and applied science. Of central importance to R&D managers is the extent to which these scientists saw their aspirations as achievable within the changing context of public sector science. From the data we generate an Ideal Type model of approaches that may be taken to reconcile the imperatives of applied and fundamental research and develop an understanding of the key role of senior management in creating an effective interface with external stakeholders and the development of culture and vision within the laboratory that will enable effective synergy.


Broadcast encryption schemes enable senders to efficiently broadcast ciphertexts to a large set of receivers in a way that only non-revoked receivers can decrypt them. Identity based broadcast encryption schemes are public key broadcast encryption using identity as the public key. In this paper, we show a novel way to construct identity based broadcast encryption. We introduce a new concept: one to many identity based proxy re-encryption. And we show how to construct efficient identity based broadcast encryption based on this primitive. Our scheme can achieve constant size public keys and private keys and linear size ciphertext. But our scheme no longer needs explicitly describing receiver set while all the other schemes need. Thus our scheme is an efficient broadcast encryption scheme compared with other schemes.


We present an approach to generate rapid and fluid drawing movements on a compliant Baxter robot, by taking advantage of the kinematic redundancy and torque control capabilities of the robot. We concentrate on the task of reproducing graffiti-stylised letter-forms with a marker. For this purpose, we exploit a compact lognormal-stroke based representation of movement to generate natural drawing trajectories. An Expectation-Maximisation (EM) algorithm is used to iteratively improve tracking performance with low gain feedback control. The resulting system captures the aesthetic and dynamic features of the style under investigation and permits its reproduction with a compliant controller that is safe for users surrounding the robot.


A review of the literature indicates that (a) very little attention has been devoted to measurement problems plaguing the study of self-esteem and (b) few studies employ more than one type of self-esteem instrument. This study addresses these issues by using eight measures of self-esteem involving self-reports, ratings by others, and a projective instrument. Their intercorrelations are examined to provide preliminary validational evidence; then, confirmatory factor analysis is used to construct measurement models and further assess the validity of the measures. The results suggest that two traditional questionnaires and a personal interview are valid in measuring experienced self-esteem, and three measures involving ratings by others are valid in measuring presented self-esteem These findings are consistent with previous multidimensional conceptualizations of self-esteem, indicating that a variety of methods is necessary to adequately measure self-concept.


The classical setting of query answering either assumes the existence of just one knowledge requester, or the knowledge requests from different parties are treated independently from each other. This assumption does not always hold in practical applications where requesters often are in direct competition for knowledge. We propose a formal model for this type of scenario by introducing the Multi-Agent Knowledge Allocation (MAKA) setting which combines the fields of query answering in information systems and multi-agent resource allocation.


Organic dairy cows in Denmark are often kept indoors during the winter and outside at least part time in the summer. Consequently, their diet changes by the season. We hypothesized that grazing might affect enteric CH4 emissions due to changes in the nutrition, maintenance, and activity of the cows, and they might differentially respond to these factors. This study assessed the repeatability of enteric CH4 emission measurements for Jersey cattle in a commercial organic dairy herd in Denmark. It also evaluated the effects of a gradual transition from indoor winter feeding to outdoor spring grazing. Further, it assessed the individual-level correlations between measurements during the consecutive feeding periods (phenotype × environment, P × E) as neither pedigrees nor genotypes were available to estimate a genotype by environment effect. Ninety-six mixed-parity lactating Jersey cows were monitored for 30 d before grazing and for 24 d while grazing. The cows spent 8 to 11 h grazing each day and had free access to an in-barn automatic milking system (AMS). For each visit to the AMS, milk yield was recorded and logged along with date and time. Monitoring equipment installed in the AMS feed bins continuously measured enteric CH4 and CO2 concentrations (ppm) using a noninvasive "sniffer" method. Raw enteric CH4 and CO2 concentrations and their ratio (CH4:CO2) were derived from average concentrations measured during milking and per day for each cow. We used mixed models equations to estimate variance components and adjust for the fixed and random effects influencing the analyzed gas concentrations. Univariate models were used to precorrect the gas measurements for diurnal variation and to estimate the direct effect of grazing on the analyzed concentrations. A bivariate model was used to assess the correlation between the 2 periods (in-barn vs. grazing) for each gas concentration. Grazing had a weak P × E interaction for daily average CH4 and CO2 gas concentrations. Bivariate repeatability estimates for average CH4 and CO2 concentrations and CH4:CO2 were 0.77 to 0.78, 0.73 to 0.80, and 0.26, respectively. Repeatability for CH4:CO2 was low (0.26) but indicated some between-animal variation. In conclusion, grazing does not create significant shifts compared with indoor feeding in how animals rank for average CH4 and CO2 concentrations and CH4:CO2. We found no evidence that separate evaluation is needed to quantify enteric CH4 and CO2 emissions from Jersey cows during in-barn and grazing periods.


The Declaration of Independence is one of the paradigm texts in American history. It was originally written for a time-specific purpose. But it also has spoken to a broader audience across time, as an icon representing American ideals. After describing how the Declaration has been given both historical and iconic meaning by judges, presidents, and public figures, this Essay considers the relevance of these two forms of meaning to current debates over constitutional interpretation. Originalists generally privilege the historical meaning of texts. Yet originalist Justices on the Court have acknowledged that iconic meaning also exists and can sometimes be more relevant. In Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S. 460 (2009), these originalist Justices turned to iconic meaning over historical meaning, endorsing dynamic interpretation of monuments -- even those containing texts. Ironically, then, they found fluidity in the meaning of texts that are literally carved in stone. The Essay closes with a discussion of the interpreter's dilemma: the tension between fidelity to the past (served by historical meaning) and affirmation in the present (served by iconic meaning).


When used alone, both caffeine and sodium-aided hyperhydration (SAH) are ergogenic. When caffeine is used in conjunction with SAH, diuresis occurs, but hyperhydration is still achieved albeit at lower levels when compared to SAH alone. Caffeine has been shown to be ergogenic when taken as little as 5 min, or as much as 6 hr prior to the start of exercise. Thus, determining the temporal aspects of caffeine induced diuresis when used in conjunction with SAH may lead to superior pre-exercise nutritional strategies. PURPOSE: To investigate the time-course of caffeine-induced diuresis during a 90 min SAH protocol. METHODS Subjects were 15 males (21 ± 2 yr, 176 ± 6 cm, 80.2 ± 10.1 kg) free from known renal, digestive, and cardiovascular disease. Each underwent 2 hyperhydration strategies in a randomized, double-blind fashion. Both protocols began with a complete bladder void and measurement of urine specific gravity (USG) followed immediately by ingestion of a bolus of 20 mL H2O ∙ kg bm-1 combined with either 110 mg NaCl ∙ kg bm-1 (Na), or 5 mg caffeine ∙ kg bm-1 + 110 mg NaCl ∙ kg bm-1 (CafNa). Subjects then rested quietly for 90 min, performing a measured bladder void every 15 min. Urine excretions were expressed as a percentage of the total fluid consumed during each of the hyperhydration protocols. USG and total urine excreted (TUE) during the trials were compared using paired t-tests. Urine excretion (UE) for each of the 15 min collection periods for the two conditions were compared using a two-way repeated measures ANOVA with Sidak post hoc analyses. Levels of significance were set a priori at P < 0.05. RESULTS: USGs were 1.007 ± 0.003 (Na) and 1.005 ± 0.004 (CafNa) (P=0.34). TUE were 62.7±13.2% (Na) and 78.7±12.5% (CafNa) (P=0.001). UE for the Na and CafNa for each collection period respectively were 13.1±7.5%, 21.9±12.9% (15 min, P < 0.01), 11.7±3.3%, 13.8±3.8% (30 min, P=.30), 13.2±2.8%, 15.3±2.4% (45 min, P=0.32), 12.2±4.1%, 13.7±5.1% (60 min, P= 0.46), 8.4±6.3%, 8.9±4% (75 min, P= 0.80) and 4.7±3.6%, 4.4±2.8% (90 min P= 0.87).CONCLUSION: TUE was significantly higher in CafNa compared to Na; however, caffeine induced diuresis occurred only during the initial 15 min following consumption of the treatments.


Abstract Research literature about hypnosis highlights the importance of clients' attitudes and beliefs toward hypnosis because they promote hypnotic responses and may predict the effectiveness of hypnotic interventions as well as minimize iatrogenic effects for clients. This study analyzes the factorial structure and psychometric properties with confirmatory methodology of the Valencia Scale of Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Hypnosis–Client Version, using a Portuguese sample. We expected to replicate the results obtained in previous research conducted with samples from various countries. The Portuguese sample comprised 1,977 participants. We found a structure of 8 factors, with an adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Results are similar to those found in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with samples from other countries.


Named one of the 2003 books of the year in the "Economist" "A convincing explanation of why, despite all of the recent reforms in American corporate governance, there will probably be more firms that go the way of Enron." In the last thirty years, there has been a gradual erosion in the abilities and responsibilities of corporate boards. In addition to the ethics scandals that have plagued companies both new and established over the last three years, a number of over-diversified, over-staffed companies experienced failures that might have been avoided had there been proper oversight on the part of the board. While reform of the governance system has received considerable attention from the press, business leaders, and politicians, there have been few analyses of what is really happening on a systemic level, and even fewer workable suggestions for reform. "The Recurrent Crisis in Corporate Governance" provides an expert assessment of what went wrong on corporate boards and how to fix them. The book begins with both a legal and economic examination of corporate governance during the last three decades, including the broad issue of boards taking on responsibilities without being able to fulfill their obligations because of the lack of access to information and people within the corporation. The authors then go on to show the correlation between strong board performance and strong company performance, make the case for separating the CEO and Chair positions, comment on the collapse of nine major corporations, including Global Crossing, K-Mart, Lucent, and Qwest, and provide suggestions on how boards can be more effective stewards of the shareholders' and public's trust.


This paper examines the impact of development, including the impact of government and donor programmes, on ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. Through an examination of government policy, it considers arguments that mainstream development strategies tend to generate conflicts between states and ethnic minorities and that such strategies are, at times, ethnocidal in their destructive effects on the latter. In looking at more recent government policy in the region, it considers the concept of ethno-development (ie development policies that are sensitive to the needs of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples and where possible controlled by them), and assesses the extent to which such a pattern of development is emerging in the region. Since the late 1980s, it argues, governments across the region have made greater efforts to acknowledge the distinct identities of both ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, while donors have begun to fund projects to address their needs. In many cases, these initiatives have brought tangible benefits to the groups concerned. Yet in other respects progress to date has been modest and ethnodevelopment, the paper argues, remains confined to a limited number of initiatives in the context of a broader pattern of disadvantage and domination.


Epoxy-acrylate composite emulsions such as the one in this study can be used as metal coatings, etc. Many factors can influence the final quality of the product, and it is the aim of this study to highlight some of these factors. Statistically designed experiments were performed to investigate the influence of monomer level, the polymeric dispersant level, epoxy level, and the initiator level on particle size (light scattering), particle size distribution, and fractional conversion. It was found that the monomer level significantly influenced particle size and particle size distribution. The epoxy level and the monomer level influenced fractional conversion significantly. A qualitative model based on these observations is put forward to describe the mechanism of particle formation and polymerization. This model states that the high internal viscosity of the initial dispersed epoxy phase inhibits the formation of smaller particles and accelerates the polymerization rate during the first few minutes of polymerization by inducing a gel effect that inhibits termination and chain transfers of radical species. The addition of a monomer lowers the internal viscosity of the particles and causes them to break up into droplets containing dissolved epoxy, polyacrylate, and monomer. At the same time, radical species inside the smaller droplets can now undergo termination and chain transfer reactions. To confirm this model, polyacrylates of varying molecular masses were synthesized. Variation of the molecular masses of these polyacrylates resulted in variation in the viscosity of the dispersed phase. Polymerizations conducted with the polyacrylates confirmed the model observations. A dispersed phase with a high viscosity results in an increased polymerization rate, larger overall particle size, and a higher mass average molecular mass copolymer compared to lower molecular mass polyacrylates.


There are a lot of functional surfaces in nature, for example, a superhydrophobic surface of lotus leaves. Although there have been various artificial superhydrophobic surfaces, those are difficult to use in daily purposes because those have been built on brittle, stiff and breakable materials. In this report, we have focused on durable hydrophobic mate-rial of a vulcanized rubber, and attempted to prepare durable superhydrophobic surfaces by forming micro-structures on rubber surfaces. The surface micro-structured silicon molds were prepared by common lithographical techniques. Unvulcanized rubber was put on the silicon molds, and then pressed and vulcanized at 180 o C for 10 min. After peeling off from the silicon mold, vulcanized rubber surfaces were observed by field emission scanning electron microscope. Water contact angles and sliding angles on the vulcanized rubber surfaces were analyzed with 1.5 µL purified water droplets. As the results, micro pincushion arrays were successfully formed on the surfaces of the vulcanized rubbers with quite small defect and those surfaces showed superhydrophobicity. Furthermore, the structure of the micro pincushion arrays was not damaged by multiple elongations. The sliding angles were decreased with increasing degree of stretching of superhydrophobic micro-structured rubbers.


Objective: Perioperative complications are one of the surrogate indicators of surgical outcomes. However, reporting these complications need a precise grading system. Our aim is to report and grade the complications of semirigid ureteroscopy in ureteral stone management according to the modified Clavien classification system. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective study conducted From January 2012 to June 2013. All patients with ureteral stones who were indicated for semirigid URS were evaluated. All procedures were performed by the same surgeon. The data recorded including patient demographics, clinical indication, stone size and location, operative time and complications were classified according to the modified Clavien classification system. The patients were followed for 8 weeks postoperatively. Results: 148 patients included, Stone distribution was: 89 (60.1%) lower ureteral, 26 (17.6%) mid ureteral, and 33 (22.3%) upper ureteral. the mean stone size was 8.6 mm. Urgent URS done in 23% of patient. The overall stone free rate was 88.5%, the individual stone free rate for the upper, middle and lower ureter were 87.9%, 84.6%, and 89.9%, respectively. The mean operative time was 31.9 min (20-50 min.). Complications occurred in 26.35% of patients. Grade I complications occurred in 32 patients (26.1%), grade II in 9 (6.1%), grade IIIa in 7 (4.7%), grade IIIb in 8 (5.4%), grade IVa in two patient (1.35%), and grade IVb in one patient (0.7%). No grade V complication was encountered. Conclusion: Ureteroscopy becomes the vanguard interventional therapy for ureteral stones with well-established efficacy and safety. It is of paramount importance to adopt a precise structured classification system for reporting surgical complications, that should be flexible and comprehensive in order to accommodate the various and rapidly expanding surgical fields.


This paper reviews proposals for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in light of ILO standards. Some UBI proposals have the potential to advance equity and social justice, while others may result in a net welfare loss. The ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 202) includes a number of principles which are highly relevant to guide the debate on UBI, namely: (i) adequacy and predictability of UBI benefits to ensure income security, set at least at the national poverty line; (ii) social inclusion, including of persons in the informal economy; (iii) social dialogue and consultation with stakeholders; (iv) enactment of national laws regulating UBI entitlements, including indexation of benefits; (v) coherence with other social, economic and employment policies, and (vi) sustainable and equitable financing. The impact of a UBI on poverty and inequality depends on the level of benefits and the source of funding. Based on these principles, the paper shows that some models of UBI can be in accordance with ILO standards, while others are not.


Abstract:In 2008, the phrase "big data" shifted in meaning. It turned from referring to a problem and an opportunity for organizations with very large data sets to being the talisman for an emerging economic and cultural order that is both celebrated and feared for its deep and pervasive effects on the human condition. Economically, the phrase now denotes a data-mediated form of commerce exemplified by Google. Culturally, the phrase stands for a new form of knowledge and knowledge production. In this essay, we explore the connection between these two implicit meanings, considered as dimensions of a real social and scientific transformation with observable properties. We develop three central concepts: the datasphere, thick mediation, and representational opacity. These concepts provide a theoretical framework for making sense of how the economic and cultural dimensions interact to produce a set of effects, problems, and opportunities, not all of which have been addressed by big data's critics and advocates.


Filtration is one of core elements of analysis tools in geometrical metrology. Filtration techniques are progressing along with the advancement of manufacturing technology. The modern filtration techniques are requested to be robust against outliers, applicable to surfaces with complex shape and reliable in whole range of measurement data. A comparison study is conducted to evaluate commonly used robust filtration techniques in the field of geometrical metrology, including the two-stage Gaussian filter, the robust Gaussian regression filter, the robust spline filter and morphological filters. They are compared in terms of four aspects: functionality, mathematical computation, capability and characterization parameters. As a result, it offers metrologists an instruction to choose the appropriate filter for various applications.


This Article debunks the widely held view that the law of property in oil and gas is governed by a common law rule of capture. Rather, the common law courts embraced the paradigm of shared property for subsurface pools of oil and gas and treated these resources as owned by tenants in common, as modified by a nuisance exception for injuries to subsurface resource pools.In this revisionist description of the common law, we show that when faced with questions about the disruption of subsurface resource pools, courts were not concerned about title but about the hidden nature of the resources and the resulting inability of courts to determine which oil and gas was underneath which surface property. Instead of focusing on the capture of wild animals, courts held that injuries to subsurface oil and gas are damnum absque injuria and not legally actionable by analogy to earlier cases dealing with subsurface water. Moreover, although courts could not offer a remedy for diminution of subsurface resource pools because the resources were hidden, the migratory nature of the resources induced courts to develop several doctrines that required each surface owner to take into account the interests of other surface owners when deciding how to exploit the subsurface common pool resource: causes of action for malicious interference, waste, and unreasonable exploitation. The common law recognized, on the one hand, limits on the judicial ability to regulate hidden resources while, on the other hand, recognizing the responsibilities that arose from shared migratory ownership of subsurface resource pools.


The effects that dams have on rivers have been investigated for many years.
These effects include reduction of habitats and species downstream due to collection
of sediment, and also affecting the migratory patterns of fish. However there has been
very little research done into the effects of non-permanent dams, such as the one that
is in Garstang, Lancashire. This flood control gate was constructed as a part of the
River Wyre's flood alleviation scheme, and it can be raised and lowered when
required. The purpose of this study is to discover whether this flood control gate is
having an effect on the habitat and species of the river immediately downstream. This
was done by investigating two sites along the river, one just before the flood control
gate and one afterwards. The types and area of the habitats, as well as the species and
their populations were measured at each site. Statistical analysis was used to discover
if there was any significant difference between the two sites. It was found that there
was significance between some of the species, and also the area of the habitats, which
could be attributed to the presence of the flood control gate.


Dementia is a growing health threat. Affecting over 47M people worldwide (135M by 2050), it is becoming one of the greatest medical challenges we face globally. To help scientists working towards finding a cure, we created Sea Hero Quest – a mobile game where anyone can help fight dementia. Sea Hero Quest is a multi-platform adventure game designed specifically to help advance the understanding of spatial navigation, and therefore understand one of the first symptoms of dementia. Sea Hero Quest was developed in partnership with a number of world-leading dementia scientists, spatial navigation consultants and data security specialists (UCL, Cambridge, UEA, Alzheimer's Research UK, Deutsche Telekom) and global communications agency Saatchi & Saatchi.


Stochastic variance reduction algorithms have recently become popular for minimizing the average of a large, but finite number of loss functions. The present paper proposes a Riemannian stochastic quasi-Newton algorithm with variance reduction (R-SQN-VR). The key challenges of averaging, adding, and subtracting multiple gradients are addressed with notions of retraction and vector transport. We present convergence analyses of R-SQN-VR on both non-convex and retraction-convex functions under retraction and vector transport operators. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on the Karcher mean computation on the symmetric positive-definite manifold and the low-rank matrix completion on the Grassmann manifold. In all cases, the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art Riemannian batch and stochastic gradient algorithms.


Hydrogen is known to strongly affect the physical properties of amorphous semiconductors. Indeed hydrogen is introduced during the growth of amorphous silicon films, used in active matrix displays and solar cells, to passivate silicon dangling bonds and to relax the lattice thereby reducing the density of states in the energy gap by several orders of magnitude and giving rise to device grade material. Ideally, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is a continuous covalently bonded random network of silicon-silicon and silicon-hydrogen atoms, with the predominant nearest neighbour environment similar to that of crystalline silicon. a-Si:H typically contains about 10 atomic percent hydrogen. Tritium can readily substitute for hydrogen in a-Si:H without altering the physicochemical properties of the material. Tritium decay leads to a change in the local bond structure of the material as helium detaches from bonds leaving behind dangling bonds. The decay rate of tritium and therefore the rate of dangling bond formation is determined by the half-life of tritium. Hence, tritium provides a unique avenue to dynamically study the effect of dangling bonds on the density of states in the energy gap and therefore on the optoelectronic properties of a-Si:H. Tritiated hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H:T) was deposited using mixtures of tritium and silane gases in a dc saddle-field glow-discharge deposition system. The amount of tritium in the films was controlled by adjusting the relative flow of tritium and silane gases into the deposition chamber. Photoluminescence, isothermal capacitive transient spectroscopy and constant photocurrent spectroscopy were used to measure defect concentration as a function of time in the films. The defect concentration was found to increase between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude, in about 300 hours. Thermal annealing decreased the defect concentration. It was found that tritium permits a study of the change in the density of defect states due to dangling bond formation in a-Si:H without the uncertainties introduced by the use of multiple samples.


Contemporary separation-of-powers theory and practice generally rely on two competing theories — formalism and functionalism — to frame and decide contested questions about the scope of each branch's constitutional power and authority. In some areas, this dichotomy works reasonably well and possesses significant explanatory force. But the dichotomy's utility is considerably less obvious in the context of the federal appointments process.The Supreme Court's recent decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning crisply demonstrates the limitations of formalism and functionalism in resolving separation-of-powers questions that equally implicate text, structure, and historical practice. Moreover, Justice Breyer's Noel Canning opinion deftly transcends the formalism-functionalism dichotomy even while relying on textual, structural, historical, and practical arguments drawn from both modes of separation-of-powers analysis. Noel Canning teaches that constitutional text, by itself, will not always yield clear or reliable answers to difficult separation-of-powers questions. The decision also highlights a serious shortcoming in formalist legal analysis: When the Constitution expressly vests conflicting powers in different branches — as in the context of staffing the executive branch — purely formalist analysis will not suffice. Simply put, the Framers not only separated powers; they also blended them. In many important areas, the constitutional text does not clearly specify where one branch's authority ends and another's begins.A workable account of the federal appointments process requires careful consideration of structure and practice, of original intent and appointments conventions developed over time, and of the conflicting textual imperatives of the Senate's advice-and-consent power and of the unitary executive (understood in light of the President's Article II "take care" duty). In order to develop an effective separation-of-powers jurisprudence, the federal courts must transcend the formalism-functionalism dichotomy in this important area of separation-of-powers theory and practice. More broadly, the shortcomings of the formalism-functionalism dichotomy in the context of appointments suggest the need to rethink the dichotomy more broadly as well.


Orifice plate meters are one of the most widely used technologies in industry for gas flow metering. This is due to their relative simplicity, the extensive publicly available data sets that led to several orifice plate meter standards [1, 2, 3, and 4] and the fact that they are a relatively inexpensive method of gas metering. However, it is common in industry for gas meters to be installed in applications where the flows are actually wet gas flows, i.e., flows where there is some liquid entrainment in a predominantly gas flow. This is usually done out of economic necessity or due to the fact that the system designers were not aware at the conceptual design stage that the gas flow would have entrained liquid. Therefore, with the orifice plate meter being such a popular gas flow meter, it is by default possibly the most common wet gas flow meter.


Transient sediment storage and mixing of deposits of various ages during transport across alluvial piedmonts alter the clastic sedimentary record. We quantify buffering and mixing during cycles of aggradation–incision in the north piedmont of the Eastern Tian Shan. We complement existing chronologic data with 20 new luminescence ages and one cosmogenic radionuclide age of terrace abandonment and alluvial aggradation. Over the last 0.5 Myr, the piedmont deeply incised and aggraded many times per 100 kyr. Aggradation is driven by an increased flux of glacial sediment accumulated in the high range and flushed onto the piedmont by greater water discharge at stadial–interstadial transitions. After this sediment is evacuated from the high range, the reduced input sediment flux results in fluvial incision of the piedmont as fast as 9 cm year−1 and to depths up to 330 m. The timing of incision onset is different in each river and does not directly reflect climate forcing but the necessary time for the evacuation of glacial sediment from the high range. A significant fraction of sediments evacuated from the high range is temporarily stored on the piedmont before a later incision phase delivers it to the basin. Coarse sediments arrive in the basin with a lag of at least 7–14 kyrs between the first evacuation from the mountain and later basinward transport. The modern output flux of coarse sediments from the piedmont contains a significant amount of recycled material that was deposited on the piedmont as early as the Middle Pleistocene. Variations in temperature and moisture delivered by the Westerlies are the likely cause of repeated aggradation–incision cycles in the north piedmont instead of monsoonal precipitation. The arrival of the gravel front into the proximal basin is delayed relative to the fine‐grained load and both are separated by a hiatus. This work shows, based on field observations and data, how sedimentary systems respond to climatic perturbations, and how sediment recycling and mixing can ensue.


Conventional wisdom suggests that corruption has a negative effect on growth although the mechanisms are subject to debate. We take an alternate approach to challenge this wisdom by testing the economic effects of anti-corruption measures. Using panel data (1999-2016) from 31 provinces in China and difference-in-difference estimation, we find that President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign is associated with an average 1.3% drop in the real growth rates of provinces, controlling for relevant variables. We speculate that the fierce anti-corruption campaign has made local officials cautious in committing to public investments, the main driver of growth in China in recent years, and has also undermined investor confidence and deterred private investment which would further drag down China's economic growth. The effect is stronger for higher-income and more industrialized provinces. The result is robust to different model specifications. Our findings support the greasing-the-wheels hypothesis about corruption.


This paper elaborates on how design judgement can be
practiced in design education, as explored in several
iterations of an advanced course in interaction design. The
students were probed to address four separate design
tasks based on distinct high-level intentions, i.e. to 1) take
societal responsibility, 2) to generate profit, 3) to explore a
new concept, and 4) to trigger reflection and debate. This
structure, we found, served as a valuable tool in our
context for bringing important topics to discussion in class
and for actively practicing design judgement. We discuss
what we see as the main qualities of this approach in
relation to more conventional course structures in this area,
with a focus directed more towards aspects of
methodology, specific interaction techniques, and design
principles more generally.


An ecological thinning trial was established in 2003 in north-central Victoria as part of the development of an ecological management strategy to support the newly created Box-Ironbark Parks and Reserves System. The objective of the trial was to restore diversity of habitat structure to declining Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands. Three ecological thinning techniques were designed around several principles: reducing total basal-area of trees and retaining levels of patchiness whilst retaining large trees. Thinning treatments were implemented in 30 ha plots at four conservation reserves south of Bendigo, Victoria. A range of ecosystem components were monitored before and after thinning. A woody-debris removal treatment was also set-up at a 1 ha scale within thinning treatments. Prior to thinning, plots were dominated by high numbers of coppice regenerated trees with few of the trees sampled considered large, resulting in low numbers of tree hollows and low loadings of coarse woody debris. It is anticipated that the establishment of the ecological thinning trial (Phase I), is the beginning of long-term monitoring, as effects of thinning on key habitat values may not be apparent for up to 50 years or more. The vision for restoration of Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands is one of a mosaic landscape with a greater diversity of habitat types including open areas and greater numbers of larger, hollow-bearing trees. This paper summarises the experimental design and the techniques adopted in Phase I of this project during 2003-2008.


Late Quaternary (from the last glaciation to present) forest history is inferred from the Cedarburg Bog fossil pollen record. Analysis of fossil pollen samples extend over 4 meters of continuous core recovered from near the center of the bog. The deepest and oldest of the fossil pollen assemblages (ca. 12,000 years ago) suggest open spruce woodlands unlike any in the contemporary boreal ecosystem. Pollen from the PleistoceneHolocene transition (11,000 years ago) is marked by a number of abrupt changes in forest composition related to rapid climate change, species immigration, and progressive soils and ecosystem maturation. By 9,000 years ago most of the modern forest plant species were established. These mixed deciduous forests persisted until the historical deforestation.


Introduction A critical barrier to outcome assessment in gender-affirming healthcare is the lack of a specific patient-reported outcome measure (PROM). This phase I protocol describes an international collaboration between investigators in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA who have coalesced to develop a new PROM (ie, the GENDER-Q) to evaluate outcomes of psychological, hormonal and surgical gender-affirming treatments. Methods and analysis This phase I study uses an interpretive description approach. Participants aged 16 years and older seeking any form of gender-affirming treatments in centres located in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA will be invited to take part in qualitative interviews. Participants will review BREAST-Q and FACE-Q scales hypothesised to contain content relevant to specific gender-affirming treatments. Interviews will elicit new concepts for additional scale development. Each interview will be digitally recorded, transcribed and coded. The main outcome of this phase I study will be the development of a conceptual framework and set of scales to measure outcomes important to evaluating gender-affirming treatments. To this end, analysis will be used to add/drop/revise items of existing scales to achieve content validity. For new concepts, coding will assign top-level domains and themes/subthemes to participant quotes. Codes will be used to develop an item pool to inform scale development. Draft scales will be shown to transgender and gender diverse persons and experts to obtain feedback that will be used to refine and finalise the scales. The field-test version of the GENDER-Q will be translated by following rigorous methods to prepare for the international field-test study. Ethics and dissemination This study is coordinated at McMaster University (Canada). Ethics board approval was received from the Hamilton Integrated Ethics Board (Canada), the Medical Ethical Committee at VUmc (The Netherlands) and Advarra (USA). Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences and meetings.


This study intends to deal with attitudes of teachers and learners toward authentic listening materials at pre- intermediate level. Studies have indicated the positive effect of authentic listening materials on motivation and listening comprehension ability in learners of English as a foreign language (Nuttall, 1996; Peacock, 1997; Miller, 2005; Field, 2008). It focused on EFL teachers and students at pre intermediate proficiency level. Participants included 60 students, from both gender; male and female university students studying at Rodaki Higher Institute Education in the fields of: Accounting, Computer Engineering and Commercial Management and also 30 teachers who taught listening at Rodaki Higher Institute Education. The students were randomly selected and assigned to two groups. Then, Oxford Placement test as a standard test was administered to the participant in order to determine their proficiency level. Then, the participants were divided into two groups of control and experiment. The experiment group received the listening materials taken from UK radio program whereas the other group received simplified listening materials taken from the authentic listening materials. Afterwards, to be sure that they know what authentic materials are, they were exposed to both of related materials, then the questionnaire was distributed among them, the results taken from the questionnaire showed that the participants of this study prefer authentic materials and have positive attitudes toward using them. By the same token, the analysis of teachers' questionnaire also showed their satisfaction with authentic listening materials. These findings can have implications for language learning/teaching, and curriculum development paving the way for educational policy makers, teachers and learners to introduce authentic listening materials to EFL learners at pre- intermediate proficiency level.


Currently the feedback guidance of intracardiac radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is very limited, offering only a catheter electrode (not tissue) temperature estimation and a means to titrate radiofrequency (RF) power delivery to the tissue. Our "MicroLinear" (ML) forward imaging ultrasound catheter design, now at a true 9F (3mm) in size, has been optimized with several features to simultaneously permit, a) high quality intracardiac steering and imaging, b) tracking of 3D position with electroanatomical mapping, c) RF ablation, and d) tissue thermal strain (TS) estimation for direct tissue temperature feedback. Two types of ML catheters have been built and tested in 3 porcine animal models. The first type, in its third generation, is based on a PZT transducer array; the second type, in its second generation, is based on a CMUT array with custom integrated interface circuitry. Both types of devices are true 9F in size and performed well in imaging tests in recent in vivo studies. Both the ML-PZT and ML-CMUT arrays, as described previously, have a fine pitch (65 and 63 micron respectively) 24 element phased arrays operating at 14 MHz which project a B-mode plane directly out from the tip of the catheter. Intracardiac imaging performance was documented to show that the very small array apertures of the ML design (1.2mm × 1.58mm, and 1.1mm × 1.4mm) permit good, high resolution imaging to depths as great as 4 cm. The ML-PZT catheter was equipped with a special low profile ablation tip which allowed simultaneous imaging and ablation at the distal end of the catheter. TS data were acquired during tissue ablations in right atrium (RA) and right ventricle (RV). The TS data of the RF ablations were processed off line. In vivo use of this new technology has shown for the first time the very substantial potential for a single, low profile catheter to simultaneously image within the heart and perform intracardiac ablation therapy with tissue temperature guidance produced from the incorporation of TS imaging. Work is underway to further assess the temperature estimation accuracy and to integrate the TS processing for real time displays.


A dynamic treatment rule (DTR) is a treatment rule which assigns treatments to individuals based on (a subset of) their measured covariates. An optimal DTR is the DTR which maximizes the population mean outcome. Previous works in this area have assumed that treatment is an unlimited resource so that the entire population can be treated if this strategy maximizes the population mean outcome. We consider optimal DTRs in settings where the treatment resource is limited so that there is a maximum proportion of the population which can be treated. We give a general closed-form expression for an optimal stochastic DTR in this resource-limited setting, and a closed-form expression for the optimal deterministic DTR under an additional assumption. We also present an estimator of the mean outcome under the optimal stochastic DTR in a large semiparametric model that at most places restrictions on the probability of treatment assignment given covariates. We give conditions under which our estimator is efficient among all regular and asymptotically linear estimators. All of our results are supported by simulations.


We consider learning on multilayer neural nets with piecewise polynomial activation functions and a fixed number k of numerical inputs. We exhibit arbitrarily large network architectures for which efficient and provably successful learning algorithms exist in the rather realistic refinement of Valiant's model for probably approximately correct learning ("PAC learning") where no a priori assumptions are required about the "target function" (agnostic learning), arbitrary noise is permitted in the training sample, and the target outputs as well as the network outputs may be arbitrary reals. The number of computation steps of the learning algorithm LEARN that we construct is bounded by a polynomial in the bit-length n of the fixed number of input variables, in the bound s for the allowed bit-length of weights, in 1 / ~ , where E is some arbitrary given bound for the true error of the neural net after training, and in l / h where b is some arbitrary given bound for the probability that the learning algorithm fails for a randomly drawn training sample. However, the computation time of LEARN is exponential in the number of weights of the considered network architecture, and therefore only of interest for neural nets of small size. This article provides details to the previously published extended abstract (Maass 1994).


In this paper we discuss the issues of the graceful exit from inflation and of matter creation in the context of a recent scenario in which the back-reaction of long-wavelength cosmological perturbations induces a negative contribution to the cosmological constant and leads to a dynamical relaxation of the bare cosmological constant. The initially large cosmological constant gives rise to primordial inflation, during which cosmological perturbations are stretched beyond the Hubble radius. The cumulative effect of the long-wavelength fluctuations back-reacts on the background geometry in a form which corresponds to the addition of a negative effective cosmological constant to the energy–momentum tensor. In the absence of an effective scalar field driving inflation, whose decay can reheat the Universe, the challenge is to find a mechanism which produces matter at the end of the relaxation process. In this paper, we point out that the decay of a condensate representing the order parameter for a 'flat' direction in the field theory moduli space can naturally provide a matter generation mechanism. The order parameter is displaced from its vacuum value by thermal or quantum fluctuations, it is frozen until the Hubble constant drops to a sufficiently low value, and then begins to oscillate about its ground state. During the period of oscillation it can decay into standard model particles similar to how the inflaton decays in scalar-field-driven models of inflation.


Questions about the decline of Social democracy continue to excite wide interest, even in the era of Covid-19. This paper takes a fresh look at topic. It argues that social democratic politics faces a fundamental dilemma: short-term practical relevance requires it to accept, at least partly, the very socio-economic conditions which it purports to change in the longer run. Bhaduri's (1993) essay which analyzes social democracy's attempts to navigate this dilemma by means of 'a nationalization of consumption' and Keynesian demand management, was written before the rise of New ('Third Way') Labor and before the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-8. This paper provides an update, arguing that New Labor's attempt to rescue 'welfare capitalism' entailed a new solution to the dilemma facing social democracy based on an expansion of employment, i.e. an all-out emphasis on "jobs, jobs, jobs". The flip-side (or social cost) of the emphasis on job growth has been a stagnation of productivity growth—which, in turn, has put the 'welfare state' under increasing pressure of fiscal austerity. The popular discontent and rise of 'populist' political parties is closely related to the failure of New Labor to navigate social democracy's dilemma.


As a case study, this paper shows how a French cooperative seized on a new technology (capacitance sensors), tested it in real conditions (irrigation of maize in several Agronomic Department trial fields) and is now able to offer to its farmer members a subscriber decision support tool (DST) to increase water use efficiency.

Thus, technical and scientific trials have been conducted with fourteen farmers over the last four years. Managing irrigation with capacitance probes has resulted in an increase in water efficiency: most of the time, there is a reduction in water supply (the average is 22% (range 4–44%) less water use than without the probes). Sometimes, only a yield increase is observed with the same water quantity (see 2010 trial – farmer 2).

In 2012 Terrena conducted market research on 28 farmer members and 20 crop advisors. This showed that most farmers who irrigate do not use irrigation management tools. However with a tightening of regulations and an increase in irrigation costs, attitudes are changing. Thus, 12 farmers questioned, said they were ready to pay for an irrigation management service based on capacitance probes (continuous real time monitoring of soil moisture). It also showed that irrigation advice needs to take into account global irrigation system constraints (number of rollers, pump speed and the like). Farmers are ready to pay for an efficient irrigation management DST.

So as to be ready for a 2013 launch, a DST soft-launch was set-up in 2012 on ten experimental farms. The usual working practices of irrigators cannot be expected to change overnight. However, this study shows how important is the farmers' involvement in the building of this service, coupled with that of their crop advisors. Because farmers were involved at the beginning of the DST creation process, it made it possible to convince all of them to use this tool in a more sustainable manner.


Abstract. The regulating role of glaciers on catchment run-off is of fundamental importance in sustaining people living in low lying areas. The reduction in glacierized areas under the effect of climate change disrupts the distribution and amount of run-off, threatening water supply, agriculture and hydropower. The prediction of these changes requires models that integrate hydrological, nivological and glaciological processes. In this work we propose a local model that combines the nivological and glaciological scales, developed with the aim of a subsequent integration in hydrological distributed models. The model was derived from mass balance, momentum balance and rheological equations and describes the formation and evolution of the snowpack and the firn below it. The model was applied at the site of Colle Gnifetti (Monte Rosa massif, 4400–4550 m a.s.l.). We obtained an average net accumulation of 0.26 · 103 kg m−2 y−1 to be compared with the observed net annual accumulation that increases from about 0.15 · 103 kg m−2 y−1 to about 1.2 · 103 kg m−2 y−1 moving from the north facing to the south facing slope. The model results confirm the strong influence of wind on snow accumulation and densification, observed also from ice cores. The conserved precipitation is made up mainly of snow deposited between May and September, when temperatures above melting point are also observed. Even tough the variability of annual snow accumulation is not well reproduced by the model, the modelled and observed firn densities show a good agreement up to the depth reached by the model with the available input data.


Introduction: Schleichera oleosa (Lour) Oken., also known as Lac tree, is a traditional plant used to treat different ailments since ancient time. The folkloric use of this plant as hypoglycemics is still un-revealed scientifically. So, the present study includes the in-vivo evaluation of hypoglycemic activity with HPTLC fingerprinting, qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening of the extracts of the plant. Methods: Ethanolic extract of the plant (SOE) was subjected for phytochemical screening and HPTLC finger printing (using CAMAG LINOMAT 5 instrument). For the evaluation of hypoglycemic activity Streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats were treated with glibenclamide (0.5mg/kg body weight) and ethanolic extract (100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg body weight) of the plant. Acute and chronic studies were performed for the evaluation of blood glucose levels. Results: The presence of alkaloids, tannins, phenolics and flavonoids were confirmed in the preliminary phytochemical screening. Quantitative screening of total tannins (6.15±4.20), total flavonoids (25.13±3.21) and total phenolic compounds (48.09±2.58) were reported. HPTLC fingerprinting analysis of SOE affirmed the presence of quercetin. Conclusion: The positive outcome was observed in the results of hypoglycemic activity, as all the treatments significantly decreased blood glucose level. During the study, SOE and glibenclamide maintained the body weight of the rats while diabetic control reduced the body weight by 11.33%. In support of its traditional use Schleichera oleosa (Lour) Oken. was proved to be a potent antidiabetic herbal plant.


Predictability and variability are two measures commonly used in the empirical literature to gauge the quality of earnings and hence, decision usefulness to investors. We adopt both measures to investigate empirically the relative quality of Stern Stewart's measure of economic value added (EVA) compared to GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings, residual income, cash flows and other mandated metrics in the USA and UK. We proxy for accounting quality by applying a long-window methodology to obtain hindsight valuation errors based on the difference between ex ante market value and discounted ex post metrics. Decision usefulness, in terms of ease of forecasting, is proxied by differences in valuation errors between the benchmark and alternative accounting methods. Contrary to the Biddle et al. (Journal of Accounting and Economics, 24, pp. 301–336, 1997) finding that mandated earnings were superior to EVA and residual income, we find that EVA and other residual income metrics consistently give rise to lower average valuation errors and thus have higher predictability across a variety of windows and terminal dates. Further, on the basis of our second measure of accounting quality, the variability of valuation errors, EVA performs best in the USA and third in the UK. The results strongly indicate that differences between residual income constructs, including EVA, are generally small but that earnings quality will be improved by recognition of a cost of equity capital in measuring reported income.


[Excerpt] "Divorced parents in New Hampshire can rest a little easier these days. While there are a myriad of economic reasons why a divorce can become contentious, financing a child's college education can no longer be included among those reasons. In January 2004, in a rather bold and unconventional move, the New Hampshire legislature overruled years of legal precedent and enacted a new statutory amendment that should alleviate some of the financial pressures divorced parents inevitably face. The amendment, RSA § 458:17(XIa), is a victory for divorcees across the state because it prohibits superior court judges from issuing orders forcing divorced parents to contribute to their adult child's college expenses. [...] This article will use the recent New Hampshire amendment, prohibiting judges from ordering parents to pay for college expenses, as a backdrop for advocating that all states pass similar statutes. Part II of this article begins with a discussion of the state of the law in New Hampshire before the statute was amended in 2004. Next, the article discusses the relevant portions of the recent New Hampshire amendment. The article next outlines laws from various states in order to compare and contrast views from the rest of the country. In Part III, the focus shifts to the equal protection arguments both for and against divorced parents in relation to mandatory post-secondary education orders. Part IV of this article will analyze the laws from various states and address problems courts have either failed to address or have inadequately addressed. Finally, this article concludes by advocating in favor of the New Hampshire amendment and arguing that other states should follow New Hampshire's lead and adopt similar versions of RSA § 458:17(XI-a)."