Energy savings have always been the primary concern in wireless sensor network protocols, however there are applications where latency and throughput are prioritized over energy efficiency and are so significant that the application would not be able to satisfy its requirements without them. The communication unit and the antenna operation consume most of the battery-powered energy of the node. Thus, the access to the medium must be controlled in a very strict manner in order to avoid collisions which result in lost transmissions and have a dramatic impact on the lifetime of the network. Although existing duty cycle MAC protocols are power efficient, they introduce significant end-to-end delivery latency and provide poor throughput. In this paper, we propose SN-MAC, a CDMA-based power controlled medium access protocol that uses both transmitter-based and receiver-based CDMA inside a formed cluster, and uses a TDMA schedule to make the cluster heads communicate with the base station. Our algorithm targets latency and throughput needs in addition to its ability to increase the overall network lifetime. We provide a head-to-head comparison with other protocols through extensive simulations focusing on the performance in terms of latency, throughput, and energy consumption.


nflammation in gastrointestinal mucosa can remodel the topography of the overlying epithelium. If such inflammation is chronic, it has fundamental clinical consequences, the principal of which is premalignant metaplasia throughout the alimentary tract. Furthermore, mucosal inflammation, even if subtle, is the single most common pathway for GI cancer.
This book discusses all aspects of the relation between inflammation and GI cancer, from the basic science through to the translational science which is helping in the optimization of clinical management strategies. Among the topics considered are the impact of inherited syndromes; the roles of acid reflux, H. pylori, inflammatory bowel disease, and primary sclerosing cholangitis; screening strategies; targeted drug therapies; genetics; and the use of endoscopic methods. The authors are the best in their field, and this book is designed for the enthusiastic student as well as the professional in GI science and medicine.


Fertility transformations observed since the early 1990s and their determinants have been rather thoroughly investigated in Lithuania. There are fairly numerous national and international studies devoted to this topic, mainly based on survey data. However, none of these studies looks into the effect of ethnicity on fertility. It is, to a large extent, caused by limitations of sample survey data. This study demonstrates potentials of census-linked fertility data to estimate robust and nationally representative parity-specific period fertility measures by ethnicity. The findings of this first systematic study of ethnicity-specific fertility differentials in Lithuania indicate that ethnicity does matter for fertility even in such ethnically homogenous country as Lithuania. Fertility among Lithuanians is higher than in the other ethnic groups, especially among Russians. Lower fertility in the Russian ethnic group is mainly explained by differences in the risk of having the second child. Importantly, this disadvantage remains significant even after controlling for selected compositional characteristics including urban-rural place of residence and education. The approach used in this study may be applied for Latvia and Estonia, where national minorities constitute substantial shares of the entire populations and significantly contribute to overall fertility levels.


Despite growing global attention to the development of strategies and policy for climate change adaptation, there has been little allowance for input from Indigenous people. In this study we aimed to improve understanding of factors important in integration of Yolngu perspectives in planning adaptation policy in North East Arnhem Land (Australia). We conducted workshops and in-depth interviews in two 'communities' to develop insight into Yolngu peoples' observations and perspectives on climate change, and their ideas and preferences for adaptation. All participants reported observing changes in their ecological landscape, which they attributed to mining, tourism 'development', and climate change. 'Strange changes' noticed particularly in the last five years, had caused concern and anxiety among many participants. Despite their concern about ecological changes, participants were primarily worried about other issues affecting their community's general welfare. The results suggest that strategies and policies are needed to strengthen adaptive capacity of communities to mitigate over-arching poverty and well-being issues, as well as respond to changes in climate. Participants believed major constraints to strengthening adaptive capacity had external origins, at regional, state and federal levels. Examples are poor communication and engagement, top-down institutional processes that allow little Indigenous voice, and lack of recognition of Indigenous culture and practices. Participants' preferences for strategies to strengthen community adaptive capacity tended to be those that lead towards greater self-sufficiency, independence, empowerment, resilience and close contact with the natural environment. Based on the results, we developed a simple model to highlight main determinants of community vulnerability. A second model highlights components important in facilitating discourse on enhancing community capacity to adapt to climatic and other stressors.


Viewing property rights as a "bundle of sticks" can be descriptively clarifying because the law commonly entitles an owner of a particular resource to split up entitlements in it. Nonetheless, Thomas Merrill and Henry Smith, the most prominent critics of the metaphor, assert that this conception both ignores the existence of various legal constraints on the decomposition of property rights, and also encourages lawmakers to support the excessive splintering of entitlements. These concerns are well-grounded. More controversial are Merrill and Smith's inclinations to equate private property with property generally, to deny that human capital can be characterized as property, and to assert that affirmative duties never attach to property ownership.


pICln is found ubiquitously in mammalian cells and is postulated to play a critical role in cell volume regulation. Mutagenesis studies led to the proposal that pICln is a swelling-activated anion channel. However, recent studies in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells and endothelial cells have shown that the protein is localized primarily to the cytoplasm. It has therefore been postulated that activation involves reversible translocation of pICln from the cytoplasm and insertion into the plasma membrane. We tested this hypothesis using several different approaches. Fractionation of C6 glioma cells into plasma membrane- and cytoplasm-containing fractions demonstrated that approximately 90% of the recovered pICln was confined to the cytosol. Swelling had no effect on the relative amount of protein present in the plasma membrane fraction. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that pICln is localized primarily, if not exclusively, to the cytoplasm of swollen and nonswollen cells. Similarly, transfection of cells with a green fluorescent protein-labeled pICln construct failed to reveal any membrane localization of the protein. These findings do not support the hypothesis that pICln is a volume regulatory anion channel activated by swelling-induced membrane insertion.


COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC POLICY . Preface 1. Introduction. David L. Weimer, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Public Policy 2. The Issue of Standing. Whittington, D., & MacRae, D., Jr. (1986). The issue of standing in cost-benefit analysis. MacRae, D., Jr, & Whittington, D. (1988) Assessing preferences in cost-benefit analysis: Reflections on rural water supply evaluation in Haiti. Trumbull, W. N. (1990). Who has standing in cost-benefit analysis?. Whittington, D., & MacRae, D., Jr. (1990). Comment: Judgments about who has standing in cost-benefit analysis. Trumbull, W. N. (1990). Reply to Whittington and MacRae. Zerbe, R. O., Jr. (1991). Comment: Does benefit-cost analysis stand alone? Rights and standing. Discounting for Time. Brown, P. G. (1988). Policy analysis, welfare economics, and the greenhouse effect. Kolb, J. A., & Scheraga, J. D. (1990). Discounting the benefits and costs of environmental regulations. Metcalf, G. E., & Rosenthal, D. (1995). The "new" view of investment decisions and public policy analysis: An application to green lights and cold refrigerators. Moore, M. A., Boardman, A. E., Vining, A. R., Weimer, D. L., & Greenberg, D. H. (2004). "Just give me a number!" Practical values for the social discount rate. Risk and the "Value of Life". Moore, M. J., & Viscusi, W. K. (1988). Doubling the estimated value of life: Results from new occupational fatality data. Fisher, A., Chestnut, L. G., & Violette, D. M. (1989). The value of reducing risks of death: A note on new evidence. Knetsch, J. L. (1995). Assumptions, behavioral findings, and policy analysis. Mrozek, J. R., & Taylor, L. O. (2002). What determines the value of life: A meta-analysis. Hammitt, J. K. (2002). Understanding differences in estimates of the value of mortality risk. Krupnick, A. (2002). The value of reducing risk of death: A policy perspective. Non-Use Value as a Benefit Category. Rosenthal, D. H., & Nelson, R. H. (1992). Why existence value should not be used in cost-benefit analysis. Kopp, R. J. (1992). Why existence value should be used in cost-benefit analysis. Quiggin, J. (1993). Existence value and benefit-cost analysis: A third view. Smith, V. K. (1993). Rethinking the rithmetic of damage assessment. CBA in Administrative and Legal Context. Boardman, A., Vining, A., & Waters, W. G., II (1993). Costs and benefits through bureaucratic lenses: Example of a highway project. Krutilla, K. (2005). Using the Kaldor-Hicks tableau format for cost-benefit analysis and policy evaluation. Kopp, R. J., & Smith, V. K. (1989). Benefit estimation goes to court: The case of natural resource damage assessment. Zerbe, R. O., Jr. (1998). Is cost-benefit analysis legal? Three rules. Harrington, W., Morgenstern, R. D., & Nelson, P. (21--1). On the accuracy of regulatory cost estimates. CBA Applications. Long, D. A., Mallar, C. D., & Thornton, C. V. D. (1981). Evaluating the benefits and costs of the Job Corps. Gomez-Ibanez, J. A., Leone, R. A., & O'Connell, S. A. (1983). Restraining auto imports: Does anyone win?. Kamerud, D. B. (1988). Benefits and costs of the 55 MPH speed limit: New estimates and their implications. Vitaliano, D. F. (1992). An economic assessment of the social costs of highway salting and the efficiency of substituting a new deicing material. Devaney, B., Bilheimer, L., & Schore, J. (1992). Medicaid costs and birth outcomes: The effects of prenatal WIC participation and the use of prenatal care. Schwindt, R., Vining, A., & Globerman, S. (21--1). Net loss: A cost-benefit analysis of the Canadian Pacific salmon fishery. Chen, G., & Warburton, R. N. (2006). Do speed cameras produce net benefits? Evidence from British Columbia, Canada. Index 457


Abstract. We introduce tobac (Tracking and Object-Based Analysis of Clouds), a newly developed framework for tracking and analysing individual clouds in different types of datasets, such as cloud-resolving model simulations and geostationary satellite retrievals. The software has been designed to be used flexibly with any two- or three-dimensional time-varying input. The application of high-level data formats, such as iris cubes or xarray arrays, for input and output allows for convenient use of metadata in the tracking analysis and visualisation. Comprehensive analysis routines are provided to derive properties like cloud lifetimes or statistics of cloud properties along with tools to visualise the results in a convenient way. The application of tobac is presented in two examples. We first track and analyse scattered deep convective cells based on maximum vertical velocity and the three-dimensional condensate mixing ratio field in cloud-resolving model simulations. We also investigate the performance of the tracking algorithm for different choices of time resolution of the model output. In the second application, we show how the framework can be used to effectively combine information from two different types of datasets by simultaneously tracking convective clouds in model simulations and in geostationary satellite images based on outgoing longwave radiation. tobac provides a flexible new way to include the evolution of the characteristics of individual clouds in a range of important analyses like model intercomparison studies or model assessment based on observational data.


Obesity is considered a major health threat to the U.S. due to being a strong risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases. The prevalence and severity of obesity is even greater among some subpopulations in the U.S. (African-American Women). In this regard metabolic dysfunction may be associated with an impairment of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (mtFAO) which can lead to over accumulation of bioactive lipids such as fatty acyl-CoA species. While reductions in mitochondrial content may be a precipitating variable reductions in key enzymes that lead to partitioning fatty acids towards mitochondrial oxidation may also be a contributing factor. Recently reductions of acyl-CoA synthetase (ACS) activity have been identified in skeletal muscle. Long chain acyl-CoA synthetase (ACSL) exists as five different isoforms the roles of which are to activate fatty acids to acyl-CoAs in the initial step of fatty acid metabolism (synthesis or oxidation). In liver of rodents ACSL-1 has been thought to direct fatty acids toward mtFAO but little data exists in human skeletal muscle. The purpose of this study was to understand the potential role of ACSL-1 activity in lipid metabolism in human skeletal muscle. To address the purpose of the study we employed a model of underexpression/knockdown (UEX/KD) of ACSL-1 in primary human skeletal muscle cells (HSKM). Based on data from our laboratory ACSL-1 overexpression significantly increased mtFAO in HSKM cells from obese individuals. Therefore we hypothesized that ACSL-1 UEX/KD would reduce mtFAO in this tissue. To address our hypothesis we conducted fatty acid oxidation and lipid synthesis experiments following 48 h of lipid exposure in HSKM primary myotubes obtained from percutaneous biopsies of the vastus lateralis transfected with either shRNA (KD) or scrambled RNA (control) plasmid vectors. Results demonstrated that ACSL-1 was significantly reduced (P<0.05) following KD vs. control. However following ACSL-1 KD we observed an absence of change in complete (CO2) and acid soluble metabolites (ASM) incomplete metabolites oxidation palmitate. In addition we also reported no alterations of total lipid synthesis and esterification of acyl-CoA toward MAG DAG and TAG synthesis despite the supply of exogenous lipids in our cell model. This is the first report of successful transfection and ACSL-1 KD in HSKM cells. Given the inconsistent findings with our original hypothesis we now hypothesize the presence of compensatory mechanisms that exist following UEX/KD of ACSL-1 to offset the negative effects of ACSL-1 KD. Alternatives include upregulation of additional ACSL isoforms (e.g. ACSL-5) and/or elevations in peroxisomal activity.


We present a framework of adaptive (self-training) semi-supervised learning as applied to the problem of handwriting recognition. Each problem instance itself is treated as a set of unlabeled "training'' data; a general model, trained on a set of labeled data, is adapted into an appropriate problem specific model. Learning is continued until convergence is reached, yielding better results than the generalized model alone. An implementation of the framework was tested on English and Arabic handwritten documents. The initial supervised learning model gave word recognition performance of 81% and 67% for English and Arabic respectively. The subsequent semi-supervised learning adjustments yielded 86% and 77% word recognition performance for English and Arabic respectively.


Since the dawn of globalization, man has searched for new frontiers at the expense of the indigenous peoples (IPs). In the name of conquest the indigenous communities, as exemplified by those in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Mexico, lost their humanity through the assimilation and their homelands by virtue of the Regalian doctrine. Some IPs were given token recognition, while the colonizers exploited and destroyed the former's ancestral lands. Others were acculturated through mainstream, pacified through foreign religions, or annihilated through brute force. Development is usually invoked by the state to justify the subjugation and disenfranchisement of the indigenes whose plight has been aggravated by globalization. Because of these events, their common clamor in protest actions or armed resistance is their right to self-determination. Nowadays, more IPs' organization with the aid of other sectors of society are pursuing this cause by neutralizing discrimination, political marginalization, and cultural suffocation. Elsewhere, governments are forced to listen but they respond slowly and with little impact. Most responses fall into the too-little-too-late syndrome, leaving the IPs deeply disillusioned. However, no matter if the struggle has a long way to go, it has also come a long way as the IPs have become more aggressive and creative in their collective action to defend their rights and advance their causes.


A Princeton University geneticist and a former consultant whose son has a rare metabolic disease have formed a company to predict disease risk in hypothetical children based on the DNA of prospective parents. The company, aptly named GenePeeks, is the brainchild of Lee Silver, a molecular geneticist, and Anne Morriss, who used a sperm donor to conceive her child 6 years ago. Their goal is to help parents improve their chances of having healthy offspring. The company9s plans are creating buzz among geneticists and others, who are questioning whether the science is up to the challenge and raising possible ethical concerns.


In order to analyze and determine the daily release decisions of each dam in coordination with other dams in the basin for real-time operation, we developed a multiple objective mixed-integer goal programming (MOMIGP) model. We assumed that there are monthly target storages which have to be attained, and that the daily inflows for the next few days could be predicted in advance, while using the yearly averages thereafter. To account for the effect of daily river-routing, the lagged time water conveyance as a function of the volume of water released is incorporated into the model. With a multiple objective model, it is desirable to provide the DM (decision maker) with a wide range of choices of Pareto-optimal solutions. We suggest the use of the convex hull of individual maxima based interactive tchebycheff procedure (CBITP), in order to provide the DM with the most preferred daily release decisions in coordination with other dams in the basin.


Sabah timber industry is facing a shortage of raw material due to past over-logging and lack of sustainable forest management program (Borneo Post Online, 2012). This
critical situation has forced this industry to depend on other means for sustainability, especially for sawn timber. Hence, this research endeavours to give a mathematical
approach for a more sustainable industry by modelling the export price of sawn timber in Sabah. lime series and artificial neural network (ANN) are used to develop
forecasting model of the sawn timber export price. In this research, Autoregressive
Moving Average (ARMA) model is utilized which incorporates the times series model building procedures, while ANN is solved using the MATLAB Toolbox with one dependent and two independent variables. The historical monthly data on sawn
timber export price of 228 observations is acquired from the Department Statistic of Sabah from 1991 to 2009. The data must achieve the assumption of stationary before the ARMA model is determined. The best model in ARMA and ANN is
determined by obtaining the minimum value in the eight selection criteria (SSC). Finally, MAPE is used to check the validity of the best model. The results show that the best model for ARMA model is M23.0.1, while best neural network model is the single layer of 4 which is based on the R2 value, MSE value and standardized residuals.


This paper will concentrate on the local influence governments have had on sweatshop factories in developing countries. Based on the literature reviewed and analyzed, it was important to discuss several topics surrounding government influence. Topics covered in this paper include: the ethics behind sweatshops, workers' wages and their choices, government responsibility, and then ending with introducing the Framing Theory. This particular theory was useful in part because of the method implemented in this research paper. The Framing Theory is closely associated with media content because it attempts to compare what the media says on a particular topic verse what the audience or other outlets relay. However, it can be used for other types of topics and thus has been used to analyze the perception of government influence on sweatshops. To acquire the necessary data, in-depth interviews were employed and emailed to the participants. Email was the best option due to participants' access to internet in their country. The findings revealed that governments have a large influence on the sweatshops and its workers. If sweatshops were removed, it would lead to unemployment for many or force governments to engage in legit industries that would generate more income. Moreover, findings highlighted that it is very important to educate the workers on their own rights. Further research needs to investigate how sweatshops affect GDP and learn why the income is not included in the country's GDP. 2 Siegel Institute Ethics Research Scholars, Vol. 1 [2017], Art. 2 http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/siers/vol1/iss1/2 GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE ON SWEATSHOPS 3


Identification, authentication, and integrity checking are important tasks for ensuring the security and protection of valuable objects, devices, programs, and data. The utilization of the microscopic, random and unclonable disorder of physical media for such security tasks has recently gained increasing attention. Wherever applicable, the harnessing of disorder can lead to intriguing advantages: First, it can avoid the permanent storage of digital secret keys in vulnerable hardware, promising to make the resulting systems more resilient against invasive and malware attacks. Second, random physical disorder has the natural feature of being very hard to clone and to forge: Fully controlling the microand nanoscale fabrication variations in physical media is extremely difficult and, even if possible, prohibitively expensive. Third, utilization of the natural disorder and entropy in physical systems can sometimes enable cryptographic protocols whose security does not rest on the usual unproven number-theoretic assumptions like factoring and discrete log, creating an alternate foundation for cryptography. Physical Unclonable Functions or PUFs are perhaps the best known representative of this new class of "disordered" cryptoprimitives, but there are also others. In this chapter, we provide a classification for past and ongoing work in physical disorder based security alongside with security analyses and implementation examples. We will also outline some open problems and future research opportunities in the area.


Particle reinforced metal matrix composites are manufactured by high-pressure infiltration. These composites contain roughly 50% by volume of discrete alumina inclusions dispersed homogeneously in a continuous aluminium-based matrix. Three matrices, namely pure Al, Al-2%wtCu and Al-4.5%wtCu are compared. Two reinforcement types, namely angular (or irregular) and polygonal (or equiaxed) Al2O3 particles of different sizes (5 to 60 µm for angular, and 5 to 25 µm for polygonal alumina), are used. These materials are tested under uniaxial tensile loading, recording stress and strain. The evolution of Young's modulus using periodic unload/reload cycles, and several mechanical properties are measured. The development of internal damage is studied qualitatively using metallography, and quantified using the measured evolution of the Young's modulus as a function of tensile strain. In general, composites with polygonal particles have higher mechanical properties and accumulate internal damage more slowly than composites with angular particles, in which there is a significantly greater propensity for particle cracking under stress. Mean-field models are used to approximate the elastic behaviour of these two-phase materials. The Mori-Tanaka method is found to agree, within error, with the experimental data. Ponte Castaneda's variational estimate, shown by Suquet to be equivalent to a modified secant modulus approach, is used to effect the passage from linear to non-linear composite deformation. The three damage mechanisms present in composite materials of this class, namely particle cracking, matrix voiding, and interphase debonding, are finally incorporated in these models, again building on recent progress in the micromechanics of two-phase materials such as these. It is shown, for a pure aluminium matrix reinforced with angular 35 µm alumina, that the proposed analytical method gives solutions very close to experimental in-situ matrix flow stress found with neutron diffraction. On this basis, the in-situ matrix stress-strain curve is calculated for each composite and the effect of the intrinsic characteristics of the components is studied. A strong particle size effect is found with a pure aluminium matrix, while it practically disappears in alloyed matrix composites; this latter observation is explained by the role of (much finer) intermetallic precipitates in the matrix. Analysis of matrix flow stress data using the Taylor relation leads to conclude that the size effect is also dependent on particle shape. The presence of sharp angular ridges, existing in angular but not in polygonal particles, is probably the main reason. Finally, the mean-field approximations and the variational estimate are extended to composites of metal and pores, i.e., to microcellular metallic materials. Comparison with data for open-pore aluminium foam data leads to the conclusion that features of the phase distribution exert a very strong influence on both the elastic modulus and the flow stress of these infinite contrast two-phase materials.


Director John Woo (b. 1946) reinvented the modern action movie and helped open the door for Asian filmmakers to the Western world. His hyper-violent, highly choreographed style made him a box office powerhouse, a respected auteur, and a revered figure among fellow directors. First discovered by Western audiences through his Hong Kong films The Killer and Hard Boiled, Woo introduced the world to a new brand of psychologically frenzied action film. After coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Woo produced a trilogy of hard-charging action films--Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible II--that were both popular and critically acclaimed. But Woo's signature bullet ballets, his kinetic, blood-spattered action sequences, represent a dichotomy in the director's philosophy. John Woo: Interviews reveals a peace-loving, devoutly religious man at odds with his reputation as the master of cinematic violence. Unprecedented access to the director helped editor Robert K. Elder create in John Woo: Interviews the first authoritative English-language chronicle of Woo's career. Robert K. Elder writes about film, the arts, travel, and music for the Chicago Tribune. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Premiere, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Gear, the Oregonian, and many other publications. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Elder teaches film at the Facets Film School in Chicago.


The p38 mitogen activated protein kinase pathway (MAPK) is known to promote cell survival, endocrine therapy resistance and hormone independent breast cancer cell proliferation. Therefore, we utilized the novel p38 inhibitor RWJ67657 to investigate the relevance of targeting this pathway in the ER+ breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Our results show that RWJ67657 inhibits both basal and estrogen stimulated phosphorylation of p38α, resulting in decreased activation of the downstream p38α targets hsp27 and MAPAPK. Furthermore, inhibition of p38α by RWJ67657 blocks clonogenic survival of MCF-7 cells with little effect on non-cancerous breast epithelial cells. Even though p38α is known to phosphorylate ERα at residue within ER's hinge region at Thr311, resulting in increased ERα transcriptional activation, our results suggest RWJ67657 inhibits the p38α-induced activation of ER by targeting both the AF-1 and AF-2 activation domains within ERα. We further show that RWJ67657 decreases the transcriptional activity of the ER coactivators SRC-1, SRC-2 and SRC-3. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that in addition to phosphorylating Thr311 within ERα, p38α indirectly activates the ER by phosphorylation and stimulation of the known ERα coactivators, SRC-1, -2 and-3. Overall, our data underscore the therapeutic potential of targeting the p38 MAPK pathway in the treatment of ER+ breast cancer.


The carbohydrate deficit induced by exercise is thought to play a key role in increased post-exercise insulin action. However, the effects of replacing carbohydrate utilized during exercise on postprandial glycaemia and insulin sensitivity are yet to be determined. This study therefore isolated the extent to which the insulin-sensitizing effects of exercise are dependent on the carbohydrate deficit induced by exercise, relative to other exercise-mediated mechanisms. Fourteen healthy adults performed a 90-min run at 70% V˙O2max starting at 1600–1700 h before ingesting either a non-caloric artificially-sweetened placebo solution (CHO-DEFICIT) or a 15% carbohydrate solution (CHO-REPLACE; 221.4 ± 59.3 g maltodextrin) to precisely replace the measured quantity of carbohydrate oxidized during exercise. The alternate treatment was then applied one week later in a randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blinded crossover design. A standardized low-carbohydrate evening meal was consumed in both trials before overnight recovery ahead of a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) the following morning to assess glycemic and insulinemic responses to feeding. Compared to the CHO-DEFICIT condition, CHO-REPLACE increased the incremental area under the plasma glucose curve by a mean difference of 68 mmol·L−1 (95% CI: 4 to 132 mmol·L−1; p = 0.040) and decreased the Matsuda insulin sensitivity index by a mean difference of −2 au (95% CI: −1 to −3 au; p = 0.001). This is the first study to demonstrate that post-exercise feeding to replaceme the carbohydrate expended during exercise can attenuate glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity the following morning. The mechanism through which exercise improves insulin sensitivity is therefore (at least in part) dependent on carbohydrate availability and so the day-to-day metabolic health benefits of exercise might be best attained by maintaining a carbohydrate deficit overnight.


Abstract. Current climate and environmental changes strongly affect shallow marine and coastal
areas like the Baltic Sea. This has created a need for a context to
understand the severity and potential outcomes of such changes. The context
can be derived from paleoenvironmental records during periods when comparable
events happened in the past. In this study, we explore how varying bottom
water conditions across a large hydrographic gradient in the Baltic Sea
affect benthic foraminiferal faunal assemblages and the geochemical
composition of their calcite tests. We have conducted both morphological and
molecular analyses of the faunas and we evaluate how the chemical signatures
of the bottom waters are recorded in the tests of several species of benthic
foraminifera. We focus on two locations, one in the Kattegat (western Baltic
Sea) and one in Hanö Bay (southern Baltic Sea). We show that seawater
Mn∕Ca, Mg∕Ca, and Ba∕Ca
(Mn∕Casw, Mg∕Casw, and Ba∕Casw)
variations are mainly controlled by dissolved oxygen concentration and
salinity. Their respective imprints on the foraminiferal calcite demonstrate
the potential of Mn∕Ca as a proxy for hypoxic conditions, and Ba∕Ca as a
proxy for salinity in enclosed basins such as the Baltic Sea. The traditional
use of Mg∕Ca as a proxy to reconstruct past seawater temperatures is not
recommended in the region, as it may be overprinted by the large variations
in salinity (specifically on Bulimina marginata), Mg∕Casw, and
possibly also the carbonate system. Salinity is the main factor controlling
the faunal assemblages: a much more diverse fauna occurs in the higher-salinity (∼32) Kattegat than in the low-salinity
(∼15) Hanö Bay. Molecular identification shows that only
Elphidium clavatum occurs at both locations, but other genetic types
of both genera Elphidium and Ammonia are restricted to
either low- or high-salinity locations. The combination of foraminiferal
geochemistry and environmental parameters demonstrates that in a highly
variable setting like the Baltic Sea, it is possible to separate different
environmental impacts on the foraminiferal assemblages and therefore use
Mn∕Ca, Mg∕Ca, and Ba∕Ca to reconstruct how specific conditions may have
varied in the past.


Synthetic biology is an emerging field that integrates and applies engineering design methods to biological systems. Its aim is to make biology an "engineerable" science. Over the years, biologists and engineers alike have abstracted biological systems into functional models that behave similarly to electric circuits, thus the creation of the subfield of genetic circuits. Mathematical models have been devised to simulate the behavior of genetic circuits in silico. Most models can be classified into deterministic and stochastic models. The work in this dissertation is for stochastic models. Although ordinary differential equation (ODE) models are generally amenable to simu- late genetic circuits, they wrongly assume that a system's chemical species vary continuously and deterministically, thus making erroneous predictions when applied to highly stochastic systems. Stochastic methods have been created to take into account the variability, un- predictability, and discrete nature of molecular populations. The most popular stochastic method is the stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA). These methods provide a single path of the overall pool of possible system's behavior. A common practice is to take several inde- pendent SSA simulations and take the average of the aggregate. This approach can perform iv well in low noise systems. However, it produces incorrect results when applied to networks that can take multiple modes or that are highly stochastic. Incremental SSA or iSSA is a set of algorithms that have been created to obtain ag- gregate information from multiple SSA runs. The marginal probability density evolution (MPDE) algorithm is a subset of iSSA which seeks to reveal the most likely "qualitative" behavior of a genetic circuit by providing a marginal probability function or statistical enve- lope for every species in the system, under the appropriate conditions. MPDE assumes that species are statistically independent given the rest of the system. This assumption is satisfied by some systems. However, most of the interesting biological systems, both synthetic and in nature, have correlated species forming conservation laws. Species correlation imposes con- straints in the system that are broken by MPDE. This work seeks to devise a mathematical method and algorithm to correct conservation constraints errors in MPDE. Furthermore, it aims to identify these constraints a priori and efficiently deliver a trustworthy result faithful to the true behavior of the system.


Computer models of the economy are regularly used to predict economic phenomena and set financial policy. However, the conventional macroeconomic models are currently being reimagined after they failed to foresee the current economic crisis, the outlines of which began to be understood only in 2007-2008. In this article we analyze the most prominent of this reimagining: Agent-Based models (ABMs). ABMs are an influential alternative to standard economic models, and they are one focus of complexity theory, a discipline that is a more open successor to the conventional chaos and fractal modeling of the 1990s. The modelers who create ABMs claim that their models depict markets as ecologies , and that they are more responsive than conventional models that depict markets as machines . We challenge this presentation, arguing instead that recent modeling efforts amount to the creation of models as ecological machines . Our paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the organizing metaphors of macroeconomic models, which we argue is relevant conceptually and politically, e.g., when models are used for regulatory purposes.


Objective: This study evaluated the effect of rosemary extract on Candida albicans , Staphylococcus aureus , Enterococcus faecalis , Streptococcus mutans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa monomicrobial biofilms viability, as well as on C. albicans associated with S. aureus , E. faecalis , S. mutans or P. aeruginosa in polymicrobial biofilms. Material and Methods: In microtiter plate, mono- and polymicrobial biofilms for 48 h were formed. Then, they were exposed for 5 min to rosemary extract (200 mg/mL). Saline (0.9% NaCl) was used as control. After, washes were done with saline to remove the affected cells. Biofilm viability was checked by MTT colorimetric assay, after treatment. Absorbance of the wells was read in microplate spectrophotometer (570 nm) and data were converted to reduction percentage and statistically analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey test ( p ≤ 0.05). Results: After application of rosemary extract, with exception of the E. faecalis biofilm, significant reductions in mono- and polymicrobial biofilms viability were observed. Conclusion: C. albicans , S. aureus , S. mutans and P. aeruginosa monomicrobial biofilms were affected by rosemary extract, as well as C. albicans associated with S. aureus , E. faecalis , S. mutans or P. aeruginosa in polymicrobial biofilms, presenting significant viability reductions.


This paper reviews the Moroccan experience with financial reforms, suggesting that, while financial liberalisation may be an important factor in the growth process, it is not sufficient in itself to promote productive investment. Increased financial deepening in Morocco mostly benefited government budget deficits and household consumption, essentially because of the absence of appropriate labour regulation and an efficient legal system. This paper therefore investigates the hypothesis that the absence of proper governance experienced by Morocco have stimulated informal, rather than formal activity. The MIMIC methodology used to estimate the size of the shadow economy in Morocco reveals that governance failure resulted in a black economy of a magnitude averaging 37 percent of GDP over the period 1975-2000. Furthermore, budget deficit financing through borrowing rather than tax collection appears to lead to more informal activity. This paper therefore concludes by arguing that reviving private sector investment in Morocco requires reducing government dependence on borrowing to finance its budget deficit as well as the adoption of less stringent labour regulations and a more efficient legal system.


This paper develops the framework of analysis of monetary systems put together by authors such as Macleod, Keynes, Innes, and Knapp. This framework does not focus on the functions performed by an object but rather on its financial characteristics. Anything issued by anybody can be a monetary instrument and any type of material can be used to make a monetary instrument, as these are unimportant determinants of what a monetary instrument is. What matters is the existence of specific financial characteristics. These characteristics lead to a stable nominal value (parity) in the proper financial environment. This framework of analysis leads the researcher to study how the fair value of a monetary instrument changes and how that change differs from changes in the value of the unit of account. It also provides a road map to understanding monetary history and why monetary instruments are held.


In many large companies the widespread usage of computers has led a number of different application-specific databases to be installed. As company structures evolve, boundaries between departments move, creating new business units. Their new applications will use existing data from various data stores, rather than new data entering the organization. Henceforth, the ability to make data stores interoperable becomes a crucial factor for the development of new information systems. Data interoperability may come in various degrees. At the lowest level, commercial gateways connect specific pairs of database management systems (DBMSs). Software providing facilities for defining persistent views over different databases [6] simplifies access to distant data but does not support automatic enforcement of consistency constraints among different databases. Full interoperability is achieved by distributed or federated database systems, which support integration of existing data into virtual databases (i.e. databases which are logically defined but not physically materialized). The latter allow existing databases to remain under control of their respective owners, thus supporting a harmonious coexistence of scalable data integration and site autonomy requirements [9]. Federated systems are very popular today. However, before they become marketable, many issues remain to be solved. Design issues focus on either human-centered aspects (cooperative work, including autonomy issues and negotiation procedures) or database-centered aspects (data integration, schema/database evolution). Operational issues investigate system interoperability mainly in terms of support of new transaction types, new query processing algorithms, security concerns, etc. General overviews may be found elsewhere [4, 9]. This paper is devoted to database integration, possibly the most critical issue. Simply stated, database integration is the process which takes as input a set of databases, and produces as output a single unified description of the input schemas (the integrated schema) and the associated mapping information supporting integrated access to existing data through the integrated schema. As such, database integration is also used in the process of re-engineering an exist i ng l egacy system. Database integration has attracted many diverse and diverging contributions. The purpose, and the main intended contribution of this article is to provide a clear picture of what are the approaches and the current solutions and what remains to be achieved.


As the Web of Data grows, the number of available SPARQL endpoints increases. SPARQL endpoints conceptually represent RPC-style, coarse-grained data access mechanisms. Nevertheless, through the potential interlinking of the contained entities, SPARQL endpoints should be able to over distinct advantages over plain Web APIs. To our knowledge, to date, there has been no study conducted that gauges the impact of the link on SPARQL query execution, especially in a federated set-up. In this paper, we investigate how the existence and types of typed links influences the execution characteristics of different SPARQL federation frameworks. In order to measure the query performance, we propose a combined cost model based on a statistic analysis of the query performance metrics that involves parameters such as type of link, the data catalogues and cache, number of links, and number of distinct subjects. As result, we show that number of distinct subject and number of links have significant impact on Federation over SPARQL Endpoints performance whereas type of link does not have significantly influence in federation query performance.


Abstract Two patterns dominate changes of monthly mean temperature and pressure-height in the stratosphere. In the one, the middle latitudes vary oppositely to low and high latitudes, and in the other the changes at higher latitudes are out of phase with those at lower latitudes. A shorter trend consisting of opposite changes at middle and high latitudes is superposed on the above variations which a cross-spectrum analysis shows has a preferred time scale of one to three weeks. The contrast between middle and high latitudes thus undergoes a series of corresponding fluctuations and we show that these are associated with amplitude changes in waves 1 and 2 in that the meridional contrast decreases when the amplitude of one or both waves is large, and vice versa.


Galen, ad 129–216, Greek physician, anatomist and physiologist, was the most influential of ancient doctors. His combination of erudition, logic and practical skills convinced many contemporaries of his supreme merits, and his theories came to dominate learned medicine in medieval Europe and in the Islamic world. He saw himself as continuing the work of Hippocrates of Cos in medicine, and of the physicians of early Alexandria in anatomy, systematising the notion that health and disease depended on an individual balance or imbalance of four fluids, or humours, blood, bile, black bile and phlegm. He was a prolific dissector, almost entirely of animals, and his description of the body, bolstered by an exuberant rhetoric, remained largely unchallenged until the sixteenth century CE.

Keywords:

medicine;
anatomy;
humours;
hippocrates;
Rome;
Greece;
Alexandria;
renaissance


The global concern about climate change has been increasing, since the emission of gases from human activities contributes to the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, indicating significant impacts to the planet in the coming years. The study of precipitation regime is fundamental for the development of research in several areas. Among them are hydrology, agriculture, and electric sector. Using the climatic projections of the models belonging to the CMIP5, the main objective of the paper was to present an analysis of the impacts of climate change without rainfall in the Uruguay River basin. After an analysis of the results, it can be observed that for the future climate, there is a tendency, in relation to the present climate, for larger numbers of dry events, mainly in the winter months, changing the pluviometric regime for wet summers and drier winters. Given this projected framework, it is important to note the importance of adequate management of the existing water sources in the river basin, since the value of rainfall is reduced for the next years, it may compromise the dynamics of the ecosystems in the region. Facing climate change is fundamental issue for regions and cities all around the world. Society must improve its resilience to phenomenon impacts, and spreading the knowledge among decision makers and citizens is also essential. So, these research results can be subsidies for the decision-making in planning and management of mitigation measures and/or adaptation in south Brazil. Keywords—Climate change, hydrological potential, precipitation, mitigation.


Abstract. Wind-profiling lidars are now regularly used in boundary-layer meteorology and in applications such as wind energy and air quality. Lidar wind profilers exploit the Doppler shift of laser light backscattered from particulates carried by the wind to measure a line-of-sight (LOS) velocity. The Doppler beam swinging (DBS) technique, used by many commercial systems, considers measurements of this LOS velocity in multiple radial directions in order to estimate horizontal and vertical winds. The method relies on the assumption of homogeneous flow across the region sampled by the beams. Using such a system in inhomogeneous flow, such as wind turbine wakes or complex terrain, will result in errors. To quantify the errors expected from such violation of the assumption of horizontal homogeneity, we simulate inhomogeneous flow in the atmospheric boundary layer, notably stably stratified flow past a wind turbine, with a mean wind speed of 6.5 m s−1 at the turbine hub-height of 80 m. This slightly stable case results in 15° of wind direction change across the turbine rotor disk. The resulting flow field is sampled in the same fashion that a lidar samples the atmosphere with the DBS approach, including the lidar range weighting function, enabling quantification of the error in the DBS observations. The observations from the instruments located upwind have small errors, which are ameliorated with time averaging. However, the downwind observations, particularly within the first two rotor diameters downwind from the wind turbine, suffer from errors due to the heterogeneity of the wind turbine wake. Errors in the stream-wise component of the flow approach 30% of the hub-height inflow wind speed close to the rotor disk. Errors in the cross-stream and vertical velocity components are also significant: cross-stream component errors are on the order of 15% of the hub-height inflow wind speed (1.0 m s−1) and errors in the vertical velocity measurement exceed the actual vertical velocity. By three rotor diameters downwind, DBS-based assessments of wake wind speed deficits based on the stream-wise velocity can be relied on even within the near wake within 1.0 m s−1 (or 15% of the hub-height inflow wind speed), and the cross-stream velocity error is reduced to 8% while vertical velocity estimates are compromised. Measurements of inhomogeneous flow such as wind turbine wakes are susceptible to these errors, and interpretations of field observations should account for this uncertainty.


This study provides insight into technology-enhanced assessment (TEA) in diverse higher education contexts. The effectiveness of using technology for assessment in higher education is still equivocal, particularly in regard to evidence of improvements in student learning. This empirical research explores the affordances that technology offers to assessment for transforming student learning. A systematic literature review, guided by an analytic survey tool, was used to identify and interrogate recent scholarly articles published in 19 international journals. From a total of 1713 articles, 139 articles were identified as being focused on the use of technology for assessment. The analytic tool guided the rigorous exploration of the literature regarding the types of technology being used, the educational goal, the type of assessment, and the degree of "transformation" afforded by the technology. Results showed that, in the sample investigated, TEA is used most frequently for formative peer learning, as part of the task design and feedback stages of the assessment cycle, and that social media has been a major affordance for this. Results are discussed with a view to fostering a future culture of inquiry and scholarship around TEA in higher education.


Industries that are traditionally technical and hierarchical present a variety of challenges for today's leaders, particularly given the rapidly evolving, technology-driven global business environment. In addition, the movement toward more collaborative and horizontal work environments encourages a uniquely collective perspective comprised of individuals who are expected to continually shift between innovation and conformance. Success in the contemporary business environment largely depends on a firm's speed and efficiency in relation to its competitors, which challenges leaders to not only remain on the cutting edge of their respective industries, but also stay "in tune" with the inner workings of their organizations in terms of culture, climate, and vision. If the pursuit and implementation of operational excellence demands a commonality or unified vision, employee perception is a critical component of this process. This study focused on a single division within a global energy company that was seeking to identify and evaluate employee perceptions with respect to a corporate vision that emphasized operational excellence (OE). The study administered a survey instrument to which 204 of the division's 300 employees responded and the subsequent analysis used a series of linear regressions to measure the degree to which each demographic variable was associated with, and could ultimately predict, OE comprehension and engagement. The data showed that business unit and field of study (engineering or construction management) were both positively associated with several of the model's dependent variables; however, employment tenure, role within the company, and level of educational attainment were not statistically significant predictors. The data also showed that employees from the Public Sector (the business unit with the largest number of employees) were less likely to perceive that current managers actively set and communicate OE expectations. Subsequent phases of this analysis will help identify organizational structures and management styles that might contribute to (or detract from) this process. Finally, by involving key partners and potential clients in future studies to ascertain the external value of this vision, the organization will be able to shed valuable light on not only the culture of the firm itself, but also its market position within a highly competitive industry.


The problem of the metaphysics of time is whether the time is real or unreal. This paper will introduce some of the major positions and arguments concerning the unreality of time. We all know the external world is constantly changing. 'Change is the only constant in life'. We get trapped in the illusion of time and space. But in reality, the past isn't here anymore, the future yet to be seen, only the present moment seems to be real. But present time also flies or passes away very rapidly. Whenever we try to grasp it, it slips away. Before discussing the unreality of time, it is necessary to mention that we will deal with the 'experience of time' in this chapter. The mathematical or physicist concept of absolute time would not be discussed here. Firstly, 'Motion is impossible' would be discussed from Zeno's paradox, followed by an effort to connect it with McTaggert's argument on 'Unreality of Time'. Then presentism and eternalism would be discussed in reference to the unreality of time.


Dense ZnO films with a strong c‐axis texture have been deposited on transparent conductive oxide glass, glass, and Si wafers, respectively, with a two‐step pressureless wet chemical method using zinc acetate dihydrate as Zn‐precursor. The crystallographic structure of the films has been studied with XRD and scanning electron microscopy. Optical measurements reveal a high transparency of the ZnO films with a thickness of up to 10 μm. This new cost‐effective route for ZnO film deposition does not require expensive sophisticated equipment and is easily upscaled.


A search-as-you-type system computes answers on-the-fly as a user types in a keyword query character by character. We study how to support search-as-you-type on data residing in a relational DBMS. We focus on how to support this type of search using the native database language, SQL. A main challenge is how to leverage existing database functionalities to meet the high performance requirement to achieve an interactive speed. We study how to use auxiliary indexes stored as tables to increase search performance. We present solutions for both single-keyword queries and multi keyword queries, and develop novel techniques for fuzzy search using SQL by allowing mismatches between query keywords and answers. We present techniques to answer first-N queries and discuss how to support updates efficiently. Experiments on large, real data sets show that our techniques enable DBMS systems on a commodity computer to support search-as-you-type on tables with millions of records.


We present a general method for isolating molecular markers specific to any region of a chromosome using existing mapping populations. Two pools of DNA from individuals homozygous for opposing alleles for a targeted chromosomal interval, defined by two or more linked RFLP markers, are constructed from members of an existing mapping population. The DNA pools are then screened for polymorphism using random oligonucleotide primers and PCR (1). Polymorphic DNA bands should represent DNA sequences within or adjacent to the selected interval. We tested this method in tomato using two genomic intervals containing genes responsible for regulating pedicle abscission (jointless) and fruit ripening (non-ripening). DNA pools containing 7 to 14 F2 individuals for each interval were screened with 200 random primers. Three polymorphic markers were thus identified, two of which were subsequently shown to be tightly linked to the selected intervals. The third marker mapped to the same chromosome (11) but 45 cM away from the selected interval. A particularly attractive attribute of this method is that a single mapping population can be used to target any interval in the genome. Although this method has been demonstrated in tomato, it should be applicable to any sexually reproducing organism for which segregating populations are being used to construct genetic linkage maps.


During the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the censorious attitude that characterized China's post-1989 official response to contemporary art gave way to a new market-driven, culture industry valuation of art. Experimental artists who once struggled against state regulation of artistic expression found themselves being courted to advance China's international image. In Experimental Beijing Sasha Su-Ling Welland examines the interlocking power dynamics in this transformational moment and rapid rise of Chinese contemporary art into a global phenomenon. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and experience as a videographer and curator, Welland analyzes encounters between artists, curators, officials, and urban planners as they negotiated the social role of art and built new cultural institutions. Focusing on the contradictions and exclusions that emerged, Welland traces the complex gender politics involved and shows that feminist forms of art practice hold the potential to reshape consciousness, produce a nonnormative history of Chinese contemporary art, and imagine other, more just worlds.


As enterprise information systems are collecting event streams from various sources, the ability of a system to automatically detect anomalous events and further provide human readable explanations is of paramount importance. In this position paper, we argue for the need of a new type of data stream analytics that can address anomaly detection and explanation discovery in a single, integrated system, which not only offers increased business intelligence, but also opens up opportunities for improved solutions. In particular, we propose a two-pass approach to building such a system, highlight the challenges, and offer initial directions for solutions.


If the oil can not be produced using natural flow due to reservoir pressure lower than well flowing pressure, it is used artificial lift. Wells A, B, C, and D lie in the Field Y - Block Japura, currently 4th in production wells using sucker rod pump as a device of artificial lift method . As time goes on the well production decrease . So we do the evaluation of the volumetric efficiency and optimization for installed sucker rod pumps , with the aim of knowing the volumetric efficiency and what can be done to do the optimization pumps installed so that the production rate at the surface up. Sucker rod pump used in wells A, B, C, and D respectively-160D-C 173-100, C-57D-95-48, C-114D-119-86, and C-160D-173-64 . Volumetric efficiency evaluation was done by comparing the total capacity of the pump with a flow rate of the fluid on the surface, while the optimization simply changing the pump speed and stroke length. Results of the evaluation of the volumetric efficiency of the pump to 4 in a row for wells A, B, C, and D are 55.07%, 62.4%, 64.22%, and 41.9%. From the results of the optimization, the wells A production increase from 459 to 485.20 BFPD BFPD. In the B wells, production increase from 134 to 163.45 BFPD BFPD. C for wells, production increase from 225 to 272.72 BFPD BFPD. And for wells D, increase from 74 to 80.72 BFPD BFPD. But if it is done turn the pump installed a new pump that has the same specs with attached pump but efficiency is 80% and is considered the rate of production wells in a row for


Given a set of agents, the multi-agent pathfinding problem consists in determining, for each agent, a path from its start location to its assigned goal while avoiding collisions with other agents. Recent work has studied variants of the problem in which agents are assigned a sequence of goals (tasks) that become available over time, such as the online multi-agent pickup and delivery (MAPD) problem. In this paper, we propose a multi-label A* algorithm (MLA*) for this problem. It extends the classic A* algorithm by allowing the computation of paths with multiple ordered goals (such as a pickup and delivery). Moreover, we develop a new h-value-based centralized heuristic for the MAPD. Computational experiments show that our proposed MLA* obtains substantial improvements in terms of makespan and service time as compared to existing methods, while being more computationally efficient. On instances with a thousand tasks and hundreds of agents, our method reduces the average service time by 43% compared to the state of the art, with considerably less computational effort.


On behalf of the editorial board and the publishing staff of our international journal, it is my pleasure to inform our esteemed readers that from this issue, all published papers will have a summary in Chinese. Such a decision was taken in light of the impressive development of Chinese milk production and dairying (yearly growth rate higher than 35%), a development which requires giving to interested Chinese parties up-to-date information in the field, as will also be done by the next session of the IDF world congress in Shanghai. Our decision is also based on our certainty that Chinese Dairy R&D will rapidly become a major actor in the progress of knowledge related to this marvellous liquid "milk" and in its numerous derivatives, because of the hugeness and the variety of its needs in terms of scientific disciplines (biochemistry, microbiology, physico-chemistry, nutrition, etc.) and technology. Translations into the Chinese language will be undertaken by Professor Ying Ma, a very well-known Chinese dairy expert from the Harbin Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious Chinese universities, to which the Chinese government has entrusted the responsibility of leading Chinese dairy science within its Graduate School of Food Science and Genetic Engineering. Consequently, in anticipation of the proceeding future toplevel manuscripts from Chinese institutions, Professor Ying Ma has also been appointed deputy editor-in-chief for Asia.


A rapid plantar flexion perturbation in the early stance phase of walking elicits a large stretch reflex in tibialis anterior (TA). In this study we use repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to test if this response is mediated through a transcortical pathway. TA stretch reflexes were elicited in the early stance phase of the step cycle during treadmill walking. Twenty minutes of 1 Hz rTMS at 115% resting motor threshold (MTr) significantly decreased (P < 0.05) the magnitude of the later component of the reflex at a latency of ∼100 ms up to 25 min after the rTMS. Control experiments in which stretch reflexes were elicited during sitting showed no effect on the spinally mediated short and medium latency stretch reflexes (SLR and MLR) while the long latency stretch reflex (LLR) and the motor‐evoked potential (MEP) showed a significant decrease 10 min after 115% MTr rTMS. This study demonstrates that 1 Hz rTMS applied to the leg area of the motor cortex can suppress the long latency TA stretch reflex during sitting and in the stance phase of walking. These results are in line with the hypothesis that the later component of the TA stretch reflex in the stance phase of walking is mediated by a transcortical pathway. An alternative explanation for the observed results is that the reflex is mediated by subcortical structures that are affected by the rTMS. This study also shows that rTMS may be used to study the neural control of walking.


Transformers are state-of-the-art in a wide range of NLP tasks and have also been applied to many real-world products. Understanding the reliability and certainty of transformer models is crucial for building trustable machine learning applications, e.g., medical diagnosis. Although many recent transformer extensions have been proposed, the study of the uncertainty estimation of transformer models is under-explored. In this work, we propose a novel way to enable transformers to have the capability of uncertainty estimation and, meanwhile, retain the original predictive performance. This is achieved by learning hierarchical stochastic self-attention that attends to values and a set of learnable centroids, respectively. Then new attention heads are formed with a mixture of sampled centroids using the Gumbel-Softmax trick. We theoretically show that the self-attention approximation by sampling from a Gumbel distribution is upper bounded. We empirically evaluate our model on two text classification tasks with both in-domain (ID) and out-of-domain (OOD) datasets.
 The experimental results demonstrate that our approach: (1) achieves the best predictive-uncertainty trade-off among compared methods; (2) exhibits very competitive (in most cases, better) predictive performance on ID datasets; (3) is on par with Monte Carlo dropout and ensemble methods in uncertainty estimation on OOD datasets.


Many introductory biology students have a weak (or nonexistent) chemistry background. Due to this apparent knowledge gap, many students struggle to understand the process of polypeptide formation via dehydration synthesis as well as the interactions between individual polypeptide chains. This inability to reason about how individual amino acids interact with one another prevents students from making the cognitive leap from primary to secondary structure. In turn, students do not fully understand how even higher levels of organizations (i.e., tertiary and quaternary interactions) form the final three-dimensional configurations of proteins. We designed Build-a-Polypeptide in an attempt to help fill the part of the knowledge gap. In this activity, students physically represent the process of polypeptide synthesis and R group interactions using a paper model. Essentially, this is a simple cut and paste project that allows students to build a beginner's (i.e., highly truncated and simplified) model of protein folding. Previous research has shown that physical modeling can aid student understanding of complex topics (1,2). With that in mind, we developed this interactive activity to improve student understanding of protein synthesis and structure formation. This activity requires no laboratory equipment and can be completed within one (50 minute) class. Our worksheets were designed for use in introductory college-level biology courses, but could easily be adapted for high school or AP biology classes.


Two-dimensional (2D) materials display unique properties that could be useful for many applications ranging from electronics and optoelectronics to catalysis and energy storage. Entropically necessary defects are inevitably present in 2D materials in the form of vacancies and grain boundaries. Additional defects, such as dopants, may be intentionally introduced to tune the electronic structure of 2D materials. While defects are often perceived as performance limiters, the presence of defects and dopants in 2D materials results in new electronic states to endow unique functionalities that are otherwise not possible in the bulk. In this chapter, we review defect-induced phenom‐ ena in 2D materials with some examples demonstrating the relevance of defects in electronic and energy applications. In particular, we present how the (i) N-dopant configuration in graphene changes the electron-phonon interactions, (ii) zigzag defects and edges in graphene increase the quantum capacitance to improve energy density of graphene-based supercapacitors, and (iii) charged grain boundaries in exfoliated Bi 2 Te 3 preferentially scatter low-energy electrons and holes to enhance the thermoelectric performance. 9.55 eV) confirming the stability of N-doped configurations.


: From 1986 to 1993, the National Irrigation Water-Quality Program (NIWQP) of the U.S. Department of the Interior studied whether contamination was induced by irrigation drainage in 26 areas of the Western United States. In 1992, a study to evaluate and synthesize data collected during these 26 investigations began. Selenium, boron, and molybdenum are the trace elements and DDT the pesticide most commonly found in surface water at concentrations exceeding chronic criteria for the protection of aquatic life. In six of the areas, the median selenium concentration exceeded the criterion. Aquatic-life criteria have not been developed for uranium, but the median uranium concentration exceeded the proposed Maximum Contaminant Level for drinking water in seven areas. A principal components analysis indicates that severity of selenium contamination is not related to the severity of contamination by boron, molybdenum, and arsenic. Arsenic, boron, molybdenum, and selenium concentrations are nearly the same in both filtered and unfiltered samples, which indicates that contaminant concentrations in filtered samples can be directly compared with biological-effects data developed using unfiltered samples. At a given site, selenium concentrations in surface water can change by an order of magnitude during the course of a year and from one year to another.


We consider a globally neutral Lorentzian plasma as a possible remnant of a preinflationary stage of expansion and pose the problem of the suitable initial conditions for the evolution of the large-scale electromagnetic inhomogeneities. During the protoinflationary regime the Weyl invariance of the Ohmic current guarantees that the comoving conductivity is approximately constant. The subsequent breaking of Weyl invariance by the masses of the charge carriers drives the conductivity to zero. The newly derived conducting initial conditions for the amplification of large-scale magnetic fields are contrasted with the conventional vacuum initial conditions. It is shown, in a specific class of examples, that when the number of inflationary efolds is close to minimal the effects of the conducting initial conditions cannot be neglected.


Nanocrystalline cellulose is a renewable nanomaterial that has gained huge attention for its use in various applications from advanced biomedical material to food packaging material due to its exceptional physical and biological properties, such as high crystallinity degree, large specific surface area, high aspect ratio, high thermal resistance, good mechanical properties, abundance of surface hydroxyl groups, low toxicity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. However, they still have drawbacks: (1) sources of raw materials and its utilization in the production of nanocomposites and (2) high chemical and energy consumption regarding the isolation of macro-sized fibers to nano-sized fibers. The incorporation of hydrophilic nanocrystalline cellulose within hydrophobic polymer limits the dispersion of nano-sized fibers, thus resulting in low mechanical properties of nanocomposites. Hence, surface modification on nano-sized fiber could be a solution to this problem. This review focuses on the advanced developments in pretreatment, nanocrystalline production and modifications, and its application in food packaging, biomedical materials, pharmaceutical, substitution biomaterials, drug excipient, drug delivery automotive, and nanopaper applications.


This paper provides a framework for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of public assets owned by: (i) The State, (ii) A State owned corporatized body, (iii) Private investors or (iv) By a network of constituents. A basis is presented for analysing these four governance architectures based on their (i) Accountability, (ii) Quality of service, (iii) Operating costs, (iv) Funding (v) Cost of finance, and (vi) Political outcomes. Network governance augments and/or replaces the centralized communication and control of the other three alternatives with distributed: communications, intelligence, decision making, and control to prodigiously reduce information overload and bounded rationality that can facilitate more dynamic, efficient and effective operations. At the same time, network governance can improve the volume and integrity of information and control for detecting and correcting errors to improve economy, efficiency and effectiveness while enhancing self-regulation to minimize the dead weight cost of regulation and compliance. Other attractions of governance by a network of private sector constituents arises from: (i) No increase in government debt; (ii) Replacing Ministerial accountability with accountability by constituents to constituents; (iii) Enriching democracy by direct citizen participation; (iv) Changing the role of government from direct intervention to establishing the rules of the game for self-governance; (v) Increasing economy, efficiency and effectiveness by replacing private sector competition for control through markets and regulation with internal organizational competition for control among constituents with competing interests; (vi) Avoiding autocratic or plutocratic control of public assets by investors that undermines democracy and creates resentment. In these ways, network governance can reduce cynicism of politicians and government that can generate social alienation and disengagement.


An optimal control scheme for sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to meet the wastewater effluent standard with minimal energy consumption is proposed. The software for computation of sequencing batch reactor for nutrient removal is developed based on the Activated Sludge Model (ASM2d) issued by Work Groups of International Water Association (IWA), combined with the features of SBR. MATLAB simulation platform and C++ programming language are selected to build the simulation model of SBR, which can be used to evaluate the results of control strategies based on it. Simulation shows that this optimal control scheme has a significant effectiveness on reaching the control goals.


Following upon the first discoveries of Scrolls in the Judaean Wilderness (1947/1948), Prof. Eliezer Sukenik proposed, primarily on the basis of his reading of the Serekh Hayahad (Discipline Scroll of the Unity Brotherhood), that they were writings of the Essene sect. Pliny the Elder, after all, had described that sect as having settled in the Judaean Wilderness as refugees from the destruction of Jerusalem, and as being near the settlement of En Gedi. During that same early period of discoveries, the Dominican scholar-priest Roland de Vaux expressed the opinion that these Essenes (whom Pliny had described as celibates) had lived near the area where the original Scroll cave — and others being discovered nearby, for a total number of eleven — were located. On this basis de Vaux began exploring and excavating the nearest place of habitation, namely Khirbet Qumran, and eventually announced that he had uncovered the very settlement of the Essenes described by Pliny; he went on to offer specific interpretations of structures within the settlement, such as "The Scriptorium," the Essenes' "Refectory," and "Ritual Baths" that facilitated the claimed Essenes' purification — interpretations that appeared to justify his designation of the settlement in its entirety as the "Laura," or monastery, of the Essenes.


Background. Antenatal pertussis vaccination is being considered as a means to reduce the burden of infant pertussis in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but its likely impact in such settings is yet to be quantified. Methods. An individual-based model was used to simulate the demographic structure and dynamics of a population with characteristics similar to those of LMICs. Transmission of pertussis within this population was simulated to capture the incidence of infection in (1) the absence of vaccination; (2) with a primary course only (three doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccines [DTP3] commencing in 1985, 1995, or 2005 at 20%, 50%, or 80% coverage); and (3) with the addition of an antenatal pertussis program. Results. Modeled annual incidence averaged over the period 2015–2024 reduced with increasing DTP3 coverage, regardless of the year childhood vaccination commenced. Over the same period, the proportion of infants born with passive protection did not change substantially compared with the prevaccination situation, regardless of DTP3 coverage and start year. We found minimal impact of antenatal vaccination on infection in all infants when mothers were eligible for a single antenatal dose. When mothers were eligible for multiple antenatal doses, incidence in infants aged 0–2 months was reduced by around 30%. This result did not hold for the full 0- to 1-year age group, for whom antenatal vaccination did not reduce infection levels. Conclusions. While antenatal vaccination could potentially reduce infant mortality in LMICs, broader gains at the population level are likely to be achieved by focusing efforts on increasing DTP3 coverage.


SpelLit 4.0 is a collaborative bodyand space-related learning experience for elementary school children, which facilitates to acquire reading and writing skills in a playful way. SpelLit allows teachers to edit and change the game by themselves. In this contribution, we introduce this new didactic concept for regular school lessons. Additionally, we present studies employing a semi-structured survey based on cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) enriched by the System Usability Scale (SUS) and the Affinity for Technology Scale (ATI-Scale) questionnaires. We gained insight into questions and potential contradictions in the teacher's perception of this didactic and technology-assisted concept for their lessons. The results reveal that even teachers with a weak technical affinity show a high degree of willingness to use this novel configurable learning game in regular lessons. In addition to a high degree of usability, we conclude that this is due to the fact that there are no barriers between the pedagogical demands of the educators and the application of the learning game.


Large wildfires (>40 ha) account for the majority of burned area across the contiguous United States (US) and appropriate substantial suppression resources. A variety of environmental and social factors influence wildfire growth and whether a fire overcomes initial attack efforts and becomes a large wildfire. However, little is known about how these factors differ between lightning-caused and human-caused wildfires. This study examines differences in temperature, vapour pressure deficit, fuel moisture and wind speed for large and small lightning- and human-caused wildfires during the initial days of fire activity at ecoregion scales across the US. Large fires of both human and lightning origin occurred coincident with above-normal temperature and vapour pressure deficit and below-normal 100-hour dead fuel moisture compared with small fires. Large human-caused wildfires occurred, on average, coincident with higher wind speeds than small human-caused wildfires and large lightning-caused wildfires. These results suggest the importance of winds in driving rapid fire growth that can allow fires to overcome many of the factors that typically inhibit large human-caused fires. Additionally, such findings highlight the interplay between human activity and meteorological conditions and the importance of incorporating winds in modelling large-fire risk in human-dominated landscapes.


Archaeologists have been aware of the potential of satellite imagery as a tool almost since the first Earth remote sensing satellite. Initially sensors such as Landsat had a ground resolution which was too coarse for thorough archaeological prospection although the imagery was used for geo-archaeological and enviro-archaeological analyses. In the intervening years the spatial and spectral resolution of these sensing devices has improved. In recent years two important occurrences enhanced the archaeological applicability of imagery from satellite platforms: The declassification of high resolution photography by the American and Russian governments and the deregulation of commercial remote sensing systems allowing the collection of sub metre resolution imagery. This thesis aims to evaluate the archaeological application of three potentially important resources; Corona space photography and Ikonos panchromatic and multispectral imager). These resources are evaluated in conjunction with Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery over a 600 square km study area in the semi-arid environment around Homs, Syria. The archaeological resource in this area is poorly understood, mapped and documented. The images are evaluated for their ability to create thematic layers and to locate archaeological residues in different environmental zones. Further consideration is given to the physical factors that allow archaeological residues to be identified and how satellite imagery and modern technology may impact on Cultural Resource Management. This research demonstrates that modern high resolution and historic satellite imagery can be important tools for archaeologists studying in semi-arid environments. The imagery has allowed a representative range of archaeological features and landscape themes to be identified. The research shows that the use of satellite imagery can have significant impact on the design of the archaeological survey in the middle-east and perhaps in other environments.


In many applications, ideas that are described by a set of words often flow between different groups. To facilitate users in analyzing the flow, we present a method to model the flow behaviors that aims at identifying the lead-lag relationships between word clusters of different user groups. In particular, an improved Bayesian conditional cointegration based on dynamic time warping is employed to learn links between words in different groups. A tensor-based technique is developed to cluster these linked words into different clusters (ideas) and track the flow of ideas. The main feature of the tensor representation is that we introduce two additional dimensions to represent both time and lead-lag relationships. Experiments on both synthetic and real datasets show that our method is more effective than methods based on traditional clustering techniques and achieves better accuracy. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the usefulness of our method in helping users understand the flow of ideas between different user groups on social media.


This is the first comprehensive guide and only substantial undergraduate level introduction to ancient Greek and Roman ethics. It covers the ethical theories and positions of all the major philosophers (including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) and schools (Stoics and Epicureans) from the earliest times to the Hellenistic philosophers, analyzing their main arguments and assessing their legacy. This book maps the foundations of this key area, which is crucial knowledge across the disciplines and essential for a wide range of readers.


Genes in Drosophila melanogaster that control acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were searched for by segmental aneuploidy techniques. Homogenates of flies containing duplications or deletions for different segments were assayed for enzyme activity. A region on the third chromosome was found for which flies having one dose consistently gave lower AChE activity than euploid flies, which in turn had lower activity than flies with three doses. The activity differences were in the approximate ratio 1:2:3. Fine structure deletion mapping within this region revealed a very small segment for which one-dose flies have approximately half-normal activity. To obtain putative AchE-null mutations, lethal mutations within this region were assayed. Four allelic lethals have approximately half-normal activity in heterozygous condition. These lethals probably define the structural locus (symbol: Ace) for AchE.


It is proposed here a compilation of US tide gauges with more than 70 years of measurements. The average sea level rise was 2.19 mm/year in 1999, 2.14 mm/year in 2006 and it is 2.14 mm/year in the last computation with data updated to 2011. This result is consistent with all the other compilations of tide gauges of enough length for other geographical areas as well as for the worldwide average tide gauge. The result is compared with the IPCCAR4 sea level projections.While the IPCCprojections suppose the sea levels are positively accelerating at various rates, the US tide gauge results show a small negative acceleration.


The knowledge regarding the life and charism of Saint Francis of Assisi, until thirty years ago, was largely limited to some of the sources of his life, particularly The Little Flowers of Saint Francis and The Major Legend of Saint Francis, the latter by Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. Few persons realized that Francis of Assisi is, in fact, the author of a group of Witings, among which three are autobiographical. Nowadays, we can be thankful to the Franciscan researchers who have unearthed the manuscripts containing the Writings of Saint Francis, and have handed them down to us in critical editions. These Writings provide us with the personality of Saint Francis as it is revealed in the ideals and values he cherished and transmitted to his followers.


Outsourcing in many of large, medium and small scale international companies is considered as a solution to reduce costs and increase incomes; it doesn't imply that increase in outsourcing level isn't involved with any problem. Although companies benefit from outsourcing to economize their costs (cost saving), there are unsuccessful outsourcing experiences which cause lack of achievement of the expected service level. Despite such issues, companies prefer to outsource their information technology (IT) services. The purpose of this article could be stated as identifying effective factors which cause IT companies face risks during outsourcing of their IT projects. Such objective is investigated using meta-synthesis method and prioritized factors. Besides, their influence level is determined using questionnaires. In the present study, effective factors influencing risk of IT projects outsourcing are extracted. Main variables consist of: contract, costs, security, legal factors, new technologies and innovation, Contractor exclusive issues and finally client items. These variables are validated by experts of this field then distributed throughout the companies which have ranked primarily by the Informatics council. They have been given (hold) the exploitation permit from previous industrial and mines ministry. Concerning descriptive statistics, among the 39 factors, the factors which were given the highest priority are as follow respectively: First of all, deviation from the contract terms and conditions, Second, insufficient allocation of time to execute the contract, and third, contractor poor performance, Forth, costs due to undelivered items and Finally using the contracts which aren't prepared based on a specific procedure.


In education, the government has raised the bar related to expectations placed upon school districts to ensure that school letter grades are high, schools meet growth measures, and proficiency increases. While the bar is heightened, so is the student achievement gap between white students and students of color. Currently, there is not an existing policy, program, or practice that has resulted in the achievement gap closing. Therefore, instead of looking for external solutions, school leaders must look within their school buildings to identify what perceptions, biases, attitudes, and beliefs educators bring with them into the school that influence the work they do with students, especially those within marginalized populations. Deficit thinking is the practice of holding lower expectations for students with demographic, linguistic, and socioeconomic characteristics that do not align with the American dream, also known as the American way. Deficit thinking asserts that the low academic achievement of low-income students from culturally, racially, and socioeconomically different backgrounds is to be blamed on these external factors— factors not related to the school and the work done within the four walls of a classroom. Those whose thought is based in a deficit perspective attempt to "fix" marginalized students by assisting in their assimilation. School leaders must help educators search within to recognize the biases, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that they possess that are laced with deficit notions. This action research study examined the benefits of a focus group within an elementary school setting in which educators and the principal worked together to discuss their thoughts and practices aligned with deficit thinking. The goal was for the dialogue about race, deficit thinking, and achievement to spark educators to take action in which they would eliminate deficit thinking and practices within their classrooms and seek ways to spread the dialogue to their peers to do the same. Based on the findings, recommendations include having intentional discussions about deficit thinking to create school settings that promote a safe and supportive space for all students, including those who are often marginalized.


I argue that the extension of collective bargaining rights and formation of public sector labor unions requires the prior existence of these rights among significant sections of the private sector economy. The secular decline in private sector unionization will undermine the political bases of support for public sector unions. I demonstrate that public sector unionism emerged where private sector unions were initially strong. Declining private sector unionism has led to a marked decrease in support for public sector unions. The diminution of their allies in the private sector and the prospect of extended periods of austerity at the state and local level have put public sector unions in a precarious position that Republican governors and legislatures are taking full advantage of. The prospects for renewal in the labor movement are dim.


Algae and especially microalgae are very promising into eventual biotechnological applications. Indeed, microalgae are unique compared to other living organisms thanks to their valuable biochemical compounds for aquaculture, human health food, biofuels and other applications. Recently, studies on the oleaginous microalgae, for instance, those from the genus Chlorella , have emerged their uses for commercial exploitations with applications focused on nutrition and aquaculture uses. Chlorella minutissima has outstanding features in health and nutrition; and it could play an important part in aquaculture improvement methods as it produces significant amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Microalgae are considered to be among the promising feedstocks for aquaculture in the future. For this end Chlorella minutissima is an oil-rich green alga, was studied in many reports as a source of long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) to replace control diet without microalgae for rotifers, which serve in turn as food for early stages of fish.


We know that good, supportive relationships generally promote good health, and that bad, stressful relationships take a toll on our health. Yet most of our relationships - relatives, co-workers, caregivers, and romantic partners among them - are complicated, providing varying degrees of both support and stress. The contributors to Health and Social Relationships not only examine the psychological and physiological linkages between relationships and health, but also offer clinical implications - such as how to foster good social relationships in our personal lives and in our communities at large. Health and Social Relationships is an excellent compendium of research geared toward scholars and students in health psychology at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.


The computation of electric field strength is the state-of-the-art technique for designing and optimizing High-Voltage (HV) equipment. In this research, the equipment under analysis is Cable Termination (CaTr) which is used to apply high-voltage (75 kV 800 kV AC) on the cable to be tested (Figure 1). The CaTr is based on the principle of linear electric field control using deionised water with a specific and controlled conductivity [1]. The CaTr model under analysis has been already manufactured by HIGHVOLT for rated Alternating Current (AC) voltages from 75 kV to 800 kV for testing cables with diameters across the outer semi conducting layer up to 160 mm. However, with the recent focus of the power industry on High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC), the design and subsequent testing of HV equipment for the application of HVDC voltages are inevitable [3]. This forms the underlying motivation for carrying out the presented investigations for analyzing the already designed AC CaTr for its application towards testing HVDC cables (350 kV DC), thus working towards feasibility electric field studies and nuances of the CaTr model for the application of both AC and DC voltages using COMSOL Multiphysics®. The electrical conductivity and permittivity characterizes the material properties which are subsequently realized by solving parts of Maxwell equations. The challenge hereby lies in understanding the physical effects of electric field distribution in case of AC and DC voltages and subsequently simulating them. The AC electric field distribution is mainly influenced by geometry and permittivity, whereas the DC electric field distribution, under steady state conditions, is influenced by electrical conductivity (σ) and space charge accumulation [2], [3]. These influencing factors of DC are in turn strongly governed by temperature (T) and electric field (E) at a particular instant i.e. σ = f(T,E). This encourages the further understanding of temperature distribution, in addition to the electric field strength. By using COMSOL Multiphysics® software, we discuss the above challenges by implementing the necessary parameters in Electric Currents 'ec' and Heat Transfer 'ht' Physics. Results: The determination of electric field strength is the main intention. With appropriate boundary conditions for simulation, the electric field transition between AC and DC [3] shall be demonstrated using COMSOL Multiphysics®. The results achieved till today (Figure 2) are in agreement with the actual physical effects encountered, hence subsequent attempts to couple the two physics ('ec' and 'ht') shall be made. Additionally, though trivial, the transient phenomenon in the event of a flashover in the test object, i.e. cable, shall be attempted. The technical adaptability of a modeling and simulation tool has been demonstrated in the area of high-voltage equipment design and optimization. Such methodology is supportive in updating and meeting the state-of-the-art requirements of the power industry. Especially in HV engineering, where the recent trend of increasing voltage levels and simultaneously decreasing device sizes pushes the boundaries of technology, which in our case is the present shift of technology from AC to DC.