PETROVA, D., 2006. Structure and the Development of the Phytoplankton (2001 2003) in the Bulgarian Wetlands, North Part of the Black Sea. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 12: 261-267 The interest to the Bulgarian wetlands and the problems related to them increased in the last few years. It implies a new understanding of the role and the importance of the wetlands apart from they being used as resources. The dynamic in the phytoplankton development in Durankulak and Shabla lakes enable the evaluation of the rate of the eutrophication of the system and assessing the trophic state of the wetlands under investigation. Thus the phytoplankton, being the first target of nutrient alterations, is considered to be a decisive factor for the quality of the lake water and that of the ecosystem's health. The samples were collected in April JuneSeptember 2001 2003 in the surface waters. The present paper aims at characterizing more thoroughly the qualitative and quantitative structure of the phytoplankton, to determine the dominants species, to retrace seasonal dynamics of phytocenosis of the Bulgarian Black Sea wetlands. The abundance and the biomass of the phytoplankton increased from April to September during the whole period of the investigation. The biomass predominantly was formed of Chlorophyceae, Euglenophyceae and Diatoms species.


How does the potency of fiscal policy depend on a country's exchange-rate regime? The Mundell-Fleming theoretical model predicts that fiscal policy can affect output under both fixed and flexible exchange rates, but that the effect is larger when the exchange rate is fixed. Using a panel data set of 61 countries for the 1951-2007 period, the paper shows that fiscal policy is indeed more potent under fixed exchange rates than under flexible, and that the difference is substantial: the estimated models imply that maintaining a fixed exchange rate raises the long-run fiscal multiplier by roughly a third.


Carbon black filled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was considered as a prospective bipolar plate material candidate for a fuel cell. In this perspective, thermal conductivity and stability of the composites were investigated. Samples with filler weight fractions from 10% to 25% were prepared. The Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) study under oxygen atmosphere has shown good thermal stability of the composite up to 300°C. Thermal conductivity as a function of temperature and filler fraction was measured. Results have shown excellent improvement in the PDMS thermal conductivity with carbon black fillers (an order of magnitude, when compared with the pure PDMS). We found that PDMS?CB composites with lesser CB loading (10 wt%) achieve thermal conductivity on par with the reported values in the literature of epoxy resin?CB composites (with 70wt% loading).


An active plasma profile control approach for ITER, which is potentially robust by being tolerant to changing and uncertain physics, has been explored in this work, using a technique based on real-time estimation of linearized profile response models. The linearized models approximate static responses of the plasma profiles to power changes in auxiliary heating and current drive systems. These models are updated in real-time, differing from the model-based technique which deduces a dynamic model from identification experiments. The underlying physics is simplified with several assumptions to allow real-time update of the profile response models; however, without significant loss of information necessary for feedback control of the plasma profiles. The response of the electron temperature profile is modelled by simplifying the electron heat transport equation. The response of the safety factor profile is computed by directly relating it to the changes in source current density profiles. The required actuator power changes are directly computed by inverting the response matrix using the singular value decomposition technique. The saturation of the actuator powers is taken into account and the capability of using quantized auxiliary powers is provided. The potential of our active control approach has been tested by applying it to simulations of the ITER hybrid mode operation using CRONOS. In these simulations, either a global transport model or a theory-based local transport model has been used and the electron temperature and safety factor profiles were well controlled either independently or simultaneously.


We describe a new, quadruped robot platform, Aracna, which requires non-intuitive motor commands in order to locomote and thus provides an interesting challenge for gait learning algorithms, such as those frequently developed in the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life communities. Aracna is an open-source hardware project composed of off-the-shelf and 3D-printed parts, enabling other research teams to modify its design according to their scientific needs. Aracna was designed to overcome the shortcomings of a previous quadruped robot platform, whose legs were so heavy that the motors could not reliably execute the commands sent to them. We avoid this problem by locating all motors in the body core instead of on the legs and through a design which enables the servos to have a greater mechanical advantage. Specifically, each of the four legs has two joints controlled by separate four-bar linkage mechanisms that drive the pitch of the hip joint and knee joint. This novel design causes unconventional kinematics, creating an opportunity for gaitlearning algorithms, which excel in counter-intuitive design spaces where human engineers tend to underperform. Because it is low-cost, flexible, kinematically interesting, and and improvement over a previous design, Aracna provides a useful new hardware platform for testing algorithms that automatically generate robotic behaviors.


This study examines the variations in the practice of implementation in different implementation structures using the case of police education reforms that were undertaken by the Turkish National Police (TNP) in 2001 and 2003. Differentiations and similarities in the top-down and bottom-up structures while practicing the process of implementation were investigated in this study. First, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of the process of implementation and structure of implementation. Second, the study introduces TNP education reforms and explains the reasons for the reform. Third, a quantitative approach is used to measure the success of the TNP educational reforms. Specifically, multiple regression analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and post hoc tests are used to clarify if police performance in the TNP has improved since the reforms. Fourth, the study uses a qualitative approach to find out how features associated with top-down or bottom up approaches were involved in the process of implementation of the educational reforms. Finally, based upon the views of the participants in the qualitative analysis, the study examines the variations in the practice of implementation between decision makers and the street level bureaucrats.


To better assess the contribution of wind power plants (WPPs) during disturbances, Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie (HQT), the main transmission system operator in the Quebec Interconnection, uses on-line monitoring to record data at the point of common coupling of each WPP. This data is used to analyse their performance during voltage and frequency disturbances. Until recently, very few WPPs were able to provide an inertial response (IR) for under-frequency events. On 28 December 2015, a generation loss of 1700 MW caused a frequency nadir of 59.08 Hz on the system, to which most WPPs required to provide IR contributed significantly. The analysis of the event showed that the behaviour of the WPPs had a significant effect on the recovery of the system frequency. This study presents the performance analysis of WPPs during this under-frequency event. The analysis is based on data collected from 25 large-scale WPPs in operation and equipped with the IR feature as required by HQT. Field measurements and simulation results are used to emphasise the effect of the active power reduction during the recovery phase. Impacts of the IR from the WPPs as used on the Hydro-Quebec system are discussed.


Components in ducts systems that create flow separation can for certain conditions and frequencies amplify incident sound waves. This vortex-sound phenomena is the origin for whistling, i.e., the production of tonal sound at frequencies close to the resonances of a duct system. One way of predicting whistling potential is to compute the acoustic power balance, i.e., the difference between incident and scattered sound power. This can readily be obtained if the scattering matrix is known for the object. For the low frequency plane wave case this implies knowledge of the two-port data, which can be obtained by numerical and experimental methods. In this paper the procedure to experimentally determine whistling potential will be presented and some examples are given to show how this procedure can be used in some applications for automotive intake and exhaust system components.


The oldest rocks of the area are the (?) Precambrian
pyritic quartzites with interbedded conglometates.
These are overlain by 60 m of pebbly
siltstone, about 300 m of ferruginous sandstones
and siltstone and 300 m of quartzitc and siltstone
which represent a stable tectonic environment
of pre-Ordovician age. The pre-Ordovician
rocks were folded before deposition of the Ordovician
sediments.
The Arenigian Florentine Valley Mudstone is
at least 140 m thick and is overlain by the lower
600m. of the Gordon Limestone, the upper parts
of. Which are faulted out.The Lower•Upper
Middle Devonian .Tabberabberan Orogeny resulted
In the formation of north-westerly plunging folds.
A complete flatly dipping Permian sequence
begins with at least 220 m of Lower Sakmarian
Wynyard Tillite, which was derived from a glacier
With a north-westerly origin .This. is overlain by
137 m of Woody Island Siltstone, 9.2 m of
fossiliferous siltstones, 3.7 m of Darlington Limestone,
and 32 m of Bundella Mudstone all of
which are marine. These are overlain by the
freshwater sedimennts of the Mersey Group (with
a maximum thickness of 52 m), followed] by a
marine sequence composed of 80 m of the Cascades
Group, 64 m of the Malbina Siltstone and
Sandstone and about 150 m of the Ferntree
Group. The terrestrial Cygnet Coal Measures
4.4 m thick, is the top Permian formation. The
Permian rocks form a very shallow east plunging
syncline.
Three hundred and twenty metres of freshwater
Triassic sediments disconformably overly the
Permian rocks and are intruded by a Middle
Jurassic dolerite sill. Normal faults, with down throw
to the east -north-east and to t he northwest
and probably associated with the formation
of the Tertiary Derwent Graben, cut the older
rocks. Dolerite talus slopes developed as periglacial
material during the Pleistocene.


Soil compaction has been described as the most serious environmental problem caused by conventional agriculture, as it results in several stresses which may interact simultaneously, including increased soil strength, decreased aeration and reduced hydraulic conductivity. Root system architecture (RSA) is the arrangement of roots within the soil matrix and is important because the specific deployment of roots within the soil can determine soil exploration and resource uptake. As roots deliver water and nutrients to growing plants, whilst also providing anchorage, their importance cannot be overstated. Yet, our understanding of how roots interact with the surrounding soil, especially at the micro-scale level, remains limited because soil is an opaque medium, so preventing roots from being visualised without disturbing them. Destructive techniques are commonly employed for the analysis of RSA, however this can result in the loss of key information concerning root architecture, such as elongation rates and root angles and important soil characteristics such as soil structure and pore connectivity. However, X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) has been shown to be a promising technique for visualising RSA in an undisturbed manner. The species considered in this thesis were wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Further information regarding the response of roots to soil compaction has been achieved through the use of X-ray CT, automatic root tracing software and novel image analysis procedures. Soil compaction significantly affected root length, volume, surface area, angle, diameter, elongation rates and root path tortuosity, however the influence of soil texture on root responses to soil compaction was significant. Moderate compaction benefits root growth in clay soil, possibly due to the greater nutrient and water holding capacity, but adversely affected root growth in loamy sand. The results suggest that there is an optimum level of soil compaction for the different soil types. Roots elongated rapidly between 2-3 days after germination (DAG), it is hypothesised that is related to the mobilization of seed storage substances to the growing roots. The use of transgenic mutants of tomato with altered levels of abscisic acid (ABA) has provided a greater insight into the role of ABA in mediating root responses to soil compaction. This work will enable better phenotyping of plant varieties with enhanced root system traits for resource foraging and uptake. Knowledge of the responses of root systems in heterogeneous soil is vital to validate root phenotypes and overcome future food security challenges.


The diffraction of electromagnetic radiation from one-dimensional planar transmittive screens illuminated by Gaussian-profile beams is examined. The incident Gaussian beam is expressed as a superposition of elementary plane waves that propagate along different directions, with the aid of the plane-wave spectrum technique based on Fourier optics. For each elementary plane wave, the diffracted field is obtained by applying the spectral domain method combined with the method of moments. Results for the cases of normal and oblique incidence are in agreement with theoretically expected properties of such planar screens and are found to be very sensitive to the aspect ratio γ (strip width to period). The diffracted beam is composed of distinct subbeams that propagate along specific directions. These directions coincide with the Floquet harmonics generated by an incident plane wave propagating along the same direction as the initial beam.


Social connections and cultural aspects play important roles in shaping an individual's preferences. For instance, people tend to select friends with similar music preferences. Furthermore, preferences and friending are influenced by cultural aspects. Recommender systems may benefit from these phenomena by using knowledge about the nature of social ties to better tailor recommendations to an individual. Focusing on the specifities of music preferences, we study user connections on Last.fm—an online social network for music. We identify those countries whose users are mainly connected within the same country, and those countries that are characterized by cross-country user connections. Strong cross-country connection pairs are typically characterized by similar cultural, historic, or linguistic backgrounds, or geographic proximity. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia are identified as countries having a large relative amount of user connections from other countries. Our results contribute to understanding the complexity of social ties and how they are reflected in connection behavior, and are a promising source for advancements of personalized systems.


Background: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), severe retinopathy of prematurity (sROP), and cystic periventricular leukomalacia (cPVL) are 3 major morbidities with long-term neurodevelopmental impairments in preterm infants. Objective: To investigate the strength of associations and identify key risk factors shared by BPD, sROP, and cPVL for targeted intervention. Methods: We studied the Taiwanese very-preterm-infant registry data on 3,507 infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units and discharged at postmenstrual age ≥36 weeks between 2008 and 2013. Results: Of 3,507 infants, 1,497 presented with at least 1 morbidity (26 [1.7%], 386 [25.8%], and 1,085 [72.5%] exhibited 3, 2, and 1 morbidities, respectively). BPD was strongly associated with sROP (odds ratio 5.93; 95% confidence interval 5.02–7.03), followed by cPVL (2.08; 1.63–2.64), but sROP and cPVL were weakly associated (1.59; 1.17–2.13). Most risk factors contributed to BPD, which shared risk factors with sROP and cPVL. A birth weight of < 1,000 g, male sex, and prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV) were shared by BPD and sROP, and chorioamnionitis, severe respiratory distress syndrome, and prolonged MV specifically contributed to BPD and cPVL. Prolonged MV was the single risk factor common to BPD, sROP, and cPVL. Avoiding prolonged MV reduced the risk of having at least 1 of the 3 morbidities by 37%. Conclusions: BPD and sROP were most strongly associated. Most risk factors contributed to BPD, with differentially shared effects on sROP and cPVL. Prolonged MV was the only risk factor shared by all 3 morbidities, and avoiding it potentially reduced the risk of having at least 1 of them.


Much of the work on perception and understanding of music by computers has focused on low-level
perceptual features such as pitch and tempo. Our work demonstrates that machine learning can be
used to build effective style classifiers for interactive performance systems. We also present an analysis explaining why these techniques work so well when hand-coded approaches have consistently
failed. We also describe a reliable real-time performance style classifier.


This paper presents a failure assessment diagram (FAD) and crack size based comparison of the ASME BVPC Section XI Nonmandatory Appendix C and Nonmandatory Appendix H and the British Standard BS 7910:2013 Option 1 assessment methods. The Section XI appendix C evaluates the acceptability of a flaw by determining the expected failure mechanism and by comparing the flaw size with allowable flaw size limits or by comparing the applied stress to the allowable stress. The Section XI appendix H and BS7910 employ a FAD based approach that simultaneously considers brittle fracture, ductile crack extension prior to reaching the limit load and exceedance of the limit load due to the gross plasticity in the cross section. The assessment is performed by calculating the assessment point coordinates and evaluating whether the point is located on the safe side of the FAD line. The three methods are compared for simplified austenitic and ferritic pipes under internal pressure and bending loads with postulated axial and circumferential internal surface flaws. The methods are applied to generate limiting flaw size diagrams for each component under the specified loads. Additionally, the limiting flaw size results are presented in the FAD plots. To maintain comparability between the results, identical input data are used with each analysis approach but using the method-specific formulae.
 The performed comparison shows that most often the limiting state is governed by the 75 % flaw depth rule in Section XI article IWB-3640. The largest differences between the methods are observed for cracks with a high length to depth ratio. The difference to the tabulated allowable planar flaws in Article IWB-3514 is typically high. When increasing the applied load to values approaching the limit load, differences in the limiting flaw sizes between the methods are observed, mostly due to the different limit load models and different assumptions on the utilization of the post-yield capacity.
 Besides the presented flaw size comparison, the paper presents a quick tool suitable for ranking different piping segments based on failure potential and for quick scoping evaluations of indications found in inspections. The case specific scoping tool is a map of yearly flaw size lines providing the information on which flaw sizes would grow to the final limiting size in a specified timeframe.


Scientific and engineering research is heavily dependent on effective development and use of software artifacts. Many of these artifacts are produced by the scientists themselves, rather than by trained software engineers. To address the challenges in this area, a research community often referred to as "Development of Scientific Software" has emerged in the last few decades. As this research area has matured, there has been a sharp increase in the number of papers and results made available, and it has thus become important to summarize and provide an overview about those studies. Through a systematic mapping and bibliometrics study, we have reviewed 130 papers in this area. We present the results of our study in this paper. Also we have made the mapping data available on an online repository which is planned to be updated on a regular basis. The results of our study seem to suggest that many software engineering techniques and activities are being used in the development of scientific software. However, there is still a need for further exploration of the usefulness of specific software engineering techniques (e.g., regarding software maintenance, evolution, refactoring, re(v)-engineering, process and project management) in the scientific context. It is hoped that this article will help (new) researchers get an overview of the research space and help them to understand the trends in the area.


We analyze a class of combined random number generators recently proposed by L'Ecuyer, which combines a set of linear congruential generators (LCG's) with distinct prime moduli. We show that the geometrical behavior of the vectors of points produced by the combined generator can be approximated by the lattice structure of an associated LCG, whose modulus is the product of the moduli of the individual components. The approximation is good if these individual moduli are near each other and if the dimension of the vectors is large enough. The associated LCG is also exactly equivalent to a slightly different combined generator of the form suggested by Wichmann and Hill. We give illustrations, for which we examine the approximation error and assess the quality of the lattice structure of the associated LCG.


A genome-wide association study (GWAS) reported that common variation in the human Niemann-Pick C1 gene (NPC1) is associated with morbid adult obesity. This study was confirmed using our BALB/cJ Npc1 mouse model, whereby heterozygous mice (Npc1+/- ) with decreased gene dosage were susceptible to weight gain when fed a high-fat diet (HFD) compared with homozygous normal mice (Npc1+/+ ) fed the same diet. The objective for our current study was to validate this Npc1 gene-diet interaction using statistical modeling with fitted growth trajectories, conduct body weight analyses for different measures, and define the physiological basis responsible for weight gain. Metabolic phenotype analysis indicated no significant difference between Npc1+/+ and Npc1+/- mice fed a HFD for food and water intake, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, locomotor activity, adaptive thermogenesis, and intestinal lipid absorption. However, the livers from Npc1+/- mice had significantly increased amounts of mature sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) and increased expression of SREBP-1 target genes that regulate glycolysis and lipogenesis with an accumulation of triacylglycerol and cholesterol. Moreover, white adipose tissue from Npc1+/- mice had significantly decreased amounts of phosphorylated hormone-sensitive lipase with decreased triacylglycerol lipolysis. Consistent with these results, cellular energy metabolism studies indicated that Npc1+/- fibroblasts had significantly increased glycolysis and lipogenesis, in addition to significantly decreased substrate (glucose and endogenous fatty acid) oxidative metabolism with an accumulation of triacylglycerol and cholesterol. In conclusion, these studies demonstrate that the Npc1 gene interacts with a HFD to promote weight gain through differential regulation of central energy metabolism pathways.


We studied methods for diagnosing the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) based on its characteristic abnormalities. A gamma-ray external counting method with Tc-99m human serum albumin revealed that pulmonary microvascular permeability was abnormally high in patients with ARDS. With this method, ARDS could be distinguished from cardiogenic pulmonary edema. Levels of interleukin-8 in bronchoalveolar fluid from patients with septic ARDS, reexpansion pulmonary edema, and inhalation burn injury were abnormally high. In 21 patients with acute lung injury, 15 of whom had ARDS, plasma concentrations of three inflammatory markers were measured: thiobarbituric acid reactive material which reflects cell membrane lipid peroxidation; 7S collagen, a component of basement membrane; and the soluble form of P-selectin, an adhesion molecule. Levels of all three were abnormally high in patients with ARDS, and correlated with the degree of lung injury and with the outcome in these patients. We conclude that these measurements in plasma or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid may enable us to assess the severity of ARDS.


This essay explores the cultural economy of commercial waste. Drawing from ethnographic research with Dumpster divers in Seattle, Washington, and other cities with comparable waste streams, it explores the ways in which waste may constitute a distinct cultural-economic logic with the capacity to produce value. In particular, I argue that massive quantities of unspoiled food and other discarded commercial goods with persistent use values constitute a kind of abject capital, the economic significance of which is precisely that it is removed from circulation. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben's description of the nature of political exclusion, and Julia Kristeva's work on abjection, I locate this abject capital at the intersection of cultural logics of capitalist exchange and consumer aesthetics. Quarantined in exceptional spaces like the retail or wholesale Dumpster, its economic and cultural value is paradoxically evacuated and preserved in the imprint of its absence from the market and as such is conferred upon those goods remaining upon the shelves. Exception and abjection, therefore, respectively describe the biopolitical and affective dimensions of waste and the preconditions of commodity exchange. I conclude that abject capital may thereby constitute both a functional boundary to capital and a threshold for the inception of those forms of life, such as Dumpster diving and squatting, that are anathema to the dominant market calculus.


In this paper we disprove the belief widespread within the computer graphics community that Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces cannot be evaluated directly without explicitly subdividing. We show that the surface and all its derivatives can be evaluated in terms of a set of eigenbasis functions which depend only on the subdivision scheme and we derive analytical expressions for these basis functions. In particular, on the regular part of the control mesh where Catmull-Clark surfaces are bi-cubic B-splines, the eigenbasis is equal to the power basis. Also, our technique is both easy to implement and efficient. We have used our implementation to compute high quality curvature plots of subdivision surfaces. The cost of our evaluation scheme is comparable to that of a bi-cubic spline. Therefore, our method allows many algorithms developed for parametric surfaces to be applied to Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces. This makes subdivision surfaces an even more attractive tool for free-form surface modeling.


Background: Cholecystitis is a common indication for major abdominal surgeries. It may occur with or without obstruction of common bile duct. Obstruction leads to secondary bacterial infection of bile. Bactibilia is an important predisposing factor for post-operative complications. Hence, this study was designed to determine the prevalence of bacteria in bile samples of cholecystitis patients and to correlate bactibilia and post-operative wound infection. Materials and Methods: Bile samples collected intra-operatively were subjected to gram stain, culture, and antibiotic sensitivity testing. The patients were followed-up for post-operative complications. If post-operative wound infection was found, cultures were done and correlated with bacteria isolated from bile samples. Results: Bactibilia was found in 27/50 (52%) of patients. Polymicrobial flora was found in 10% of bile samples. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis were the predominant organisms isolated. None of the anaerobes were isolated. Extended spectrum β-lactamase and AmpC β-lactamase (AmpC) production was seen in 47% and 31.5% of Enterobacteriaceae isolates respectively. Post-operative wound infection was found in six (12%) patients who had bactibilia. Combination of piperacillin-tazobactam and amikacin was most effective in prophylactic regimen. Conclusion: The organisms responsible for bactibilia were found to cause post-operative infections in the same patient warranting the use of prophylactic antibiotics in every patient undergoing cholecystectomy. All patients undergoing open cholecystectomy should receive prophylactic antibiotics to prevent post-operative wound infections.


In this Essay, I argue that civil discovery rules compelling the production of private papers violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches. A "search" occurs when a government agent intrudes upon a sphere in which society recognizes "a reasonable expectation of privacy." Implicit in this definition is an affinity for private papers such as letters and diaries. Creators of such media possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in their contents. Thus, when police seek to examine such documents to look for evidence of crime, they usually must obtain a search warrant. For the warrant to issue, the police must establish probable cause. Conversely, under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and parallel state provisions, all a litigant needs to do to "unlock the doors of discovery" is file a complaint endowed with "well-pleaded factual allegations" that "plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief." When this modest obligation is met, the Federal Rules direct courts to compel the production of any papers sought that are "relevant to the claim or defense of any party." No detail is too intimate to shield it from scrutiny. Courts even routinely order the production of personal diaries. I assert that to pass constitutional muster such orders, like search warrants, must be premised on a showing of probable cause.


The third episode of lava dome growth at Soufrière Hills Volcano began 1 August 2005 and ended 20 April 2007. Volumes of the dome and talus produced were measured using a photo‐based method with a calibrated camera for increased accuracy. The total dense rock equivalent (DRE) volume of extruded andesite magma (306 ± 51 Mm3) was similar within error to that produced in the earlier episodes but the average extrusion rate was 5.6 ± 0.9 m3s−1 (DRE), higher than the previous episodes. Extrusion rates varied in a pulsatory manner from <0.5 m3s−1 to ∼20 m3s−1. On 18 May 2006, the lava dome had reached a volume of 85 Mm3 DRE and it was removed in its entirety during a massive dome collapse on 20 May 2006. Extrusion began again almost immediately and built a dome of 170 Mm3 DRE with a summit height 1047 m above sea level by 4 April 2007. There were few moderate‐sized dome collapses (1–10 Mm3) during this extrusive episode in contrast to the first episode of dome growth in 1995–8 when they were numerous. The first and third episodes of dome growth showed a similar pattern of low (<0.5 m3s−1) but increasing magma flux during the early stages, with steady high flux after extrusion of ∼25 Mm3.


Looking to study up for the new J2EE 1.5 Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) exam? This book will get you way up to speed on the technology you'll know it so well, in fact, that you can pass the brand new J2EE 1.5 exam. If that's what you want to do, that is. Maybe you don't care about the exam, but need to use servlets and JSPs in your next project. You're working on a deadline. You're over the legal limit for caffeine. You can't waste your time with a book that makes sense only AFTER you're an expert (or worse, one that puts you to sleep). Learn how to write servlets and JSPs, what makes a web container tick (and what ticks it off), how to use JSP's Expression Language (EL for short), and how to write deployment descriptors for your web applications. Master the c:out tag, and get a handle on exactly what's changed since the older J2EE 1.4 exam. You don't just pass the new J2EE 1.5 SCWCD exam, you'll understand this stuff and put it to work immediately. Head First Servlets and JSP doesn't just give you a bunch of facts to memorize; it drives knowledge straight into your brain. You'll interact with servlets and JSPs in ways that help you learn quickly and deeply. And when you're through with the book, you can take a brand-new mock exam, created specifically to simulate the real test-taking experience.


This thesis presents some substantial theoretical analyses and optimal treatments
of Kohonen's self-organising map (SOM) algorithm, and explores the practical
application potential of the algorithm for vector quantisation, pattern classification,
and image processing. It consists of two major parts. In the first part, the SOM
algorithm is investigated and analysed from a statistical viewpoint. The proof of its
universal convergence for any dimensionality is obtained using a novel and
extended form of the Central Limit Theorem. Its feature space is shown to be an
approximate multivariate Gaussian process, which will eventually converge and
form a mapping, which minimises the mean-square distortion between the feature
and input spaces. The diminishing effect of the initial states and implicit effects of
the learning rate and neighbourhood function on its convergence and ordering are
analysed and discussed. Distinct and meaningful definitions, and associated
measures, of its ordering are presented in relation to map's fault-tolerance. The
SOM algorithm is further enhanced by incorporating a proposed constraint, or
Bayesian modification, in order to achieve optimal vector quantisation or pattern
classification. The second part of this thesis addresses the task of unsupervised
texture-image segmentation by means of SOM networks and model-based
descriptions. A brief review of texture analysis in terms of definitions, perceptions,
and approaches is given. Markov random field model-based approaches are
discussed in detail. Arising from this a hierarchical self-organised segmentation
structure, which consists of a local MRF parameter estimator, a SOM network, and
a simple voting layer, is proposed and is shown, by theoretical analysis and
practical experiment, to achieve a maximum likelihood or maximum a posteriori
segmentation. A fast, simple, but efficient boundary relaxation algorithm is
proposed as a post-processor to further refine the resulting segmentation. The class
number validation problem in a fully unsupervised segmentation is approached by
a classical, simple, and on-line minimum mean-square-error method. Experimental
results indicate that this method is very efficient for texture segmentation
problems. The thesis concludes with some suggestions for further work on SOM
neural networks.


The objective of this study was to investigate the possible correlation between honey production in Apis mellifera hives and vegetation health and greenness as well as other measurements of the surrounding environment, such as precipitation and land use. Specific focus was placed upon the use of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a satellite-imagery derived index of vegetation strength, as an indicator of vegetative nectar supply to hives. The NASA program HoneyBeeNet furnished the dependent variable, mass records of hives in the mid-Atlantic region for four years (2008 to 2011). Using a Geographic Information System (GIS) software package, precipitation data were selected, land use statistics were derived, and NDVI values were extracted from satellite imagery in an area surrounding each hive location. Additional metrics were derived from this information using a simple statistics package. Patterns in NDVI values at the start of the honey production season were observed, most notably an NDVI threshold below which hive mass gain will not outpace hive mass loss. However, the results indicated that NDVI and other expected indicators show little linear or multivariate correlation with honey production mass in Apis mellifera hives within the study at any level of appreciable statistical significance.


Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a process that involves a multidisciplinary team of health professionals in order to optimize the status of patients' physical, psychological, social, and vocational well being. The CR program has been proven to influence health outcomes in patients with cardiac diseases, particularly myocardial infarction (MI) and stable angina. However, patients' compliance with cardiac rehabilitation programs remains a challenge. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review and identify interventions that enhance cardiac rehabilitation behaviors in MI patients. Method: A literature review was conducted by analyzing related research reports published since 2000 to 2012. Only English language articles were included. Result: There were 10 experimental studies and 2 meta-analysis studies. Interventions widely used to enhance cardiac rehabilitation behaviors in MI patients were self-efficacy and self management derived programs. These programs involved interventions that enhance cardiac rehabilitation behaviors, including training exercise, behavioral change, education and psychological support, and lifestyle changing strategies. None have reported the use of culturally tailored intervention. Four phases of cardiac rehabilitation were accepted as each phase represents a different aspect of care: inpatient care, early post discharge period, exercise training, and long term follow up. Critical factors for patients in maintaining an optimum health condition after a cardiac event are, in order, status of patient's physical, psychological, social, and vocational well being. Conclusion: Cardiac Rehabilitation program has been shown to improve quality of life and decrease mortality in MI patients. The development of culturally specific interventions to increase cardiac rehabilitation behaviors will provide a significant improvement for cardiac patient's care that ultimately results in better health outcomes. Health care professionals should be involved in CR programs in order to enhance patients' performance in CR behaviors; moreover, further study is also needed to examine the existing intervention studies to improve the CR program. Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation, attendance, behaviors, outcomes, secondary prevention and myocardial infarction (MI).


We have reported previously that Short Interspersed Degenerate Retroposons of the SIDER2 subfamily, largely located within 3'UTRs of Leishmania transcripts, promote rapid turnover of mRNAs through endonucleolytic cleavage within the highly conserved second tandem 79-nt hallmark sequence (79-nt SII). Here, we used site-directed mutagenesis and in silico RNA structural studies to delineate the cis-acting requirements within 79-nt SII for cleavage and mRNA degradation. The putative cleavage site(s) and other nucleotides predicted to alter the RNA secondary structure of 79-nt SII were either deleted or mutated and their effect on mRNA turnover was monitored using a gene reporter system. We found that short deletions of 8-nt spanning the two predicted cleavage sites block degradation of SIDER2-containing transcripts, leading to mRNA accumulation. Furthermore, single or double substitutions of the dinucleotides targeted for cleavage as well as mutations altering the predicted RNA secondary structure encompassing both cleavage sites also prevent mRNA degradation, confirming that these dinucleotides are the bona fide cleavage sites. In line with these results, we show that stage-regulated SIDER2 inactivation correlates with the absence of endonucleolytic cleavage. Overall, these data demonstrate that both cleavage sites within the conserved 79-nt SII as well as RNA folding in this region are essential for SIDER2-mediated mRNA decay, and further support that SIDER2-harboring transcripts are targeted for degradation by endonucleolytic cleavage.


The application of the activity of play for educational purposes has caused heated debates among the scientific audience. The content of the didactic games is mainly determined by the program, thus it takes up the shape of a task that should be solved. What is of great significance are the rules that the pupils should follow in order to achieve the desired goal, which is in fact solving the task and finishing the game. In every didactic game, there is the expected result, which on the one hand carries the feeling of satisfaction from the achieved success, while on the other hand, represents a marker of the degree of development. In the orientation of the didactic games, two extremes can be differentiated: The child's development is left fully to the children's spontaneous activities, which are most often the children's self-created games; Didactization of games – its complete transformation and inclination towards strictly directed and previously established educational goals. Hence, the question posed regards whether the activity of game can be freed from its didactic aspect or whether it can be interpreted more freely, in the holistic spirit of contemporary pedagogy. The subject of research in this work is directed towards the didactic aspect of the activity of play. The methods and techniques that were applied are the following: the method of analysis, the inductive, descriptive and the method of generalization, as well as the techniques of analysis of pedagogical documentation, observation and surveying. On the basis of the received results, it can be concluded that: The professional readiness of the teachers is of vital importance to the organization and the realization of the activities of play; Equivalents of the teaching programs are necessary for the realization of the activity of play in the first educational cycle; There is a need for respect towards children's interests, needs and previous knowledge as the foundation in the didactic-methodic preparation of the activity of play; There is need for creating a contemporary concept of didactic materials that shall be applied in the realization of the activity of play.


The goal of this study was to establish the biometric characteristics of cysts and nauplii of seven Artemia populations from Mexico, covering aspects related with the normal and decapsulated cysts diameter, chorion thickness, and nauplii instar I length. Cysts used for the experiment were collected in their natural habitat, cleaned, dried, and stored in the laboratory. One hundred measurements for each of the variables where done with an Olympus optical microscope equipped with a digital camera and an automated image analyzer program. To determine differences in the mean values of variables among populations, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed with post hoc Tukey pairwaise comparison tests. In hydrated cysts, Tukeys analysis showed no significant differences between the pairs: Yavaros/Cuatro Cienegas and Cuatro Cienegas/Texcoco. For the diameter of decapsulated cysts the same analysis indicated no significant differences in Yavaros/Cuatro Cienegas, Yavaros/Texcoco, and Cuatro Cienegas/Texcoco. Comparisons of naupliar lengths among Yavaros/Ohuira, Real Salinas/Cuatro Cienegas, and San Luis Potosi/Texcoco did not reveal differences. The Texcoco, San Luis Potosi, Yavaros, and Ohuira populations had smaller naupliar lengths than those of the San Francisco Bay populations. It is advisable to use these populations in larviculture and to consider their cultivation in their own habitats as possible viable projects.


This study aimed to assess efficacy and safety data from pilot trials of the radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) refractory to current medical therapy. A total of 29 men with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of BPH who had responded poorly to medical therapy for at least 6 months and were poor surgical candidates were enrolled. Each participant was treated with rESWT once a week for 8 weeks, each by 2000 impulses at 2.0 bar and 10 hertz of frequency. International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL), and International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) were evaluated before treatment, after the fourth and eighth rESWT, and 3 months after the end of treatment. Peak urinary flow (Qmax) and postvoid residual (PVR) were assessed. Safety was also documented. Statistically significant clinical improvements were reported for IPSS, QoL, and IIEF-5 after treatment, and those were sustained until 3 months follow-up. Qmax and PVR improved evidently at 8 weeks with a 63% and 70% improvement, respectively. The only adverse event was the occasional perineum pain or discomfort, which usually disappeared within 3 days. The rESWT may be an effective, safe, and noninvasive treatment for symptomatic BPH in selected patients whose medical treatment has faced failure and are poor surgical candidates.


BACKGROUND
Anticoagulation may improve survival in patients with cancer through an antitumor effect in addition to the perceived antithrombotic effect.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of parenteral anticoagulants in ambulatory patients with cancer who, typically, are undergoing chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or radiotherapy, but otherwise have no standard therapeutic or prophylactic indication for anticoagulation.

SEARCH METHODS
A comprehensive search included (1) an electronic search (February 2013) of the following databases: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (2013, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1966 to February 2013; accessed via OVID) and EMBASE(1980 to February 2013; accessed via OVID); (2) handsearching of conference proceedings; (3) checking of references of included studies; (4) use of the 'related citation' feature in PubMed and (5) a search for ongoing studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the benefits and harms of parenteral anticoagulation in ambulatory patients with cancer. Typically, these patients are undergoing chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or radiotherapy, but otherwise have no standard therapeutic or prophylactic indication for anticoagulation.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Using a standardized form we extracted data in duplicate on methodological quality, participants, interventions and outcomes of interest including all-cause mortality, symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE), symptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT), symptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE), arterial thrombosis (e.g. stroke, myocardial infarction), major bleeding, minor bleeding and quality of life.

MAIN RESULTS
Of 9559 identified citations, 15 RCTs fulfilled the eligibility criteria. These trials enrolled 7622 participants for whom follow-up data were available. In all included RCTs the intervention consisted of heparin (either unfractionated heparin or low molecular weight heparin). Overall, heparin may have a small effect on mortality at 12 months and 24 months (risk ratio (RR) 0.97; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.92 to 1.01 and RR 0.95; 95% CI 0.90 to 1.00, respectively). Heparin therapy was associated with a statistically and clinically important reduction in venous thromboembolism (RR 0.56; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.74) and a clinically important increase in the risk of minor bleeding (RR 1.32; 95% 1.02 to 1.71). Results failed to show or to exclude a beneficial or detrimental effect of heparin on major bleeding (RR 1.14; 95% CI 0.70 to 1.85) or quality of life. Our confidence in the effect estimates (i.e. quality of evidence) was high for symptomatic venous thromboembolism, moderate for mortality, major bleeding and minor bleeding, and low for quality of life.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Heparin may have a small effect on mortality at 12 months and 24 months. It is associated with a reduction in venous thromboembolism and a likely increase in minor bleeding. Future research should further investigate the survival benefit of different types of anticoagulants in patients with different types and stages of cancer. The decision for a patient with cancer to start heparin therapy for survival benefit should balance the benefits and downsides, and should integrate the patient's values and preferences.


JOSEPH WRONKA is Associate Professor of Social Work at Springfield College and Research Associate at the Heller School of Brandeis University's Center for Social Change. The 1998 US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices do not review the status of human rights in the United States, officially because Congress does not "appropriate funds to monitor its own country." Certainly these annual reports, written in part to shape policy, are helpful, if only because they alert the world to human rights atrocities committed in foreign countries. But what about human rights abuses in the United States? The United States is a powerful moral leader when it comes to monitoring international human rights, but its failure to monitor itself seriously compromises its credibility. The Leadership Role of the US To be sure, the United States has played a leadership role in the development of international norms of human rights. For example, largely upon the initiative of the United States, members of the international community met at the Conference of Evian in 1938 to stop the abuses of the Third Reich. Although that conference failed, it was an American, Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the drafting committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a few years later. This landmark manifesto was ratified by the United States and the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, with no dissent. Today, that document is increasingly referred to as "customary international law," by which all countries must abide. More recently, the United States played a pivotal role in the International Human Rights Vienna Conference in 1993 by urging the establishment of a High Commissioner of Human Rights, a position presently held by the able Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland. The United States' pride in its historical leadership role ought to be tempered with humility, however. While it continually admonishes nations that fail to follow the basic guidelines of human dignity and justice accepted throughout the international community, it prevents the international community from criticizing its own human rights practices. Furthermore, the United States has failed to practice what it preaches by refusing to ratify various important human rights initiatives, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ROC, 1989), the Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR, 1966), and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1981). While the United States has been a major leader in the development of international norms of human rights, its abstention from the ratification of numerous conventions supported by the majority of the United Nations has greatly eroded the credibility of its moral leadership. To its credit, the United States has ratified several initiatives, including the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CEAFRD, 1969), and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT, 1984). Who guards the guardians? Why is the United States so aggressive in pursuing human rights violations elsewhere, yet so resistant to examining its own human rights situation? As Plato asked, "Who guards the guardians?" The reason the United States refuses to sign on to these conventions is simply that numerous domestic policy changes would have to be made were the United States forced to measure up to various international human rights standards. Indeed, legislation in the United States would be drastically transformed under the auspices of the numerous human rights conventions that the United States has refused to ratify. Current laws pertaining to children, poverty, welfare, and crime would be seriously affected if the United States were to confront them with the international human rights norms embodied in the ROC, CEDAW, and the CESCR. …


The emerging cloud-computing paradigm is rapidly gaining momentum as an alternative to traditional IT (information technology). However, contemporary cloud-computing offerings are primarily targeted for Web 2.0-style applications. Only recently have they begun to address the requirements of enterprise solutions, such as support for infrastructure service-level agreements. To address the challenges and deficiencies in the current state of the art, we propose a modular, extensible cloud architecture with intrinsic support for business service management and the federation of clouds. The goal is to facilitate an open, service-based online economy in which resources and services are transparently provisioned and managed across clouds on an ondemand basis at competitive costs with high-quality service. The Reservoir project is motivated by the vision of implementing an architecture that would enable providers of cloud infrastructure to dynamically partner with each other to create a seemingly infinite pool of IT resources while fully preserving their individual autonomy in making technological and business management decisions. To this end, Reservoir could leverage and extend the advantages of virtualization and embed autonomous management in the infrastructure. At the same time, the Reservoir approach aims to achieve a very ambitious goal: creating a foundation for next-generation enterprise-grade cloud computing.


This article describes planned research on the practice of inclusive education in Poland in the context of Pierre Bourdieu's [3] concept of society, in which field is one of the basic concepts. In using this term, the author intends to describe the social space of the school, the social space's organization, and the state of the school's social position; as well as to answer the question: What is the reality of inclusive education, as analyzed using the illusio category? It is necessary to analyze the state of the implementation of the assumptions made by inclusive education in primary schools, and to find out the opinions of teachers working with students covered by this type of education. In P. Bourdieu's [3] concept of society, the field is the source of what is social, it shapes it in those who are within its area of influence. This "attitude" is called illusio [11, p. 188]. Illusio is a state of engrossment in a game that the participant is unaware of. This is the result of direct recognition of the field's requirements. Everyday educational life in the context of P. Bourdieu's concept falls within the field of activities of the Ministry of National Education. The teacher takes part in a game whose rules are set by the Ministry of National Education. In the context of the proposed research within the scope of the field, apart from teachers, there are also the parents of the children covered by inclusive education.


Research on aging in social insects has progressed much more than has been generally acknowledged. Here I review what I think are the four greatest contributions of social insect work to the field of aging research with the hope of highlighting the truly exciting discoveries being made. These include the reversal of the fecundity / lifespan and size / lifespan trade-offs due to the evolution of sociality, that social environment can reverse the effects of aging, the contribution of social insect work to the overturning of the free radical theory of aging, and the discovery of vitellogenin as an important protein for longevity. All of these discoveries have important ramifications for human and mammalian aging.


This paper suggests that issues surrounding non-compliance should not be dismissed as resistance but instead should be further studied by managers and developers, leading to accommodation of differing views. The technological frames of reference strand of social shaping of technology theory is used to overlay the issues arising from a case study looking at non-compliance with information systems. This procedure highlights underlying antecedent organizational conditions which are likely to underpin non-compliant behaviour. These antecedent conditions include acceptance, control and proceduralisation. Examination shows that change in these areas is within the remit of managers and yet noncompliance continues and is accepted by managers. This raises the question not of why or how these behaviours exist, but why they continue to exist in the light of their unmasking and exposure. This paper suggests that non-compliance should not be dismissed as resistance but should addressed by managers and developers leading to a skeleton or framework for understanding problems and developing organisationally aligned solutions.


Virtual assembly environment (VAE) technology has the great potential for benefiting the manufacturing applications in industry. Usability is an important aspect of the VAE. This paper presents the usability evaluation of a developed multi-sensory VAE. The evaluation is conducted by using its three attributes: (a) efficiency of use; (b) user satisfaction; and (c) reliability. These are addressed by using task completion times (TCTs), questionnaires, and human performance error rates (HPERs), respectively. A peg-in-a-hole and a Sener electronic box assembly task have been used to perform the experiments, using sixteen participants. The outcomes showed that the introduction of 3D auditory and/or visual feedback could improve the usability. They also indicated that the integrated feedback (visual plus auditory) offered better usability than either feedback used in isolation. Most participants preferred the integrated feedback to either feedback (visual or auditory) or no feedback. The participants' comments demonstrated that nonrealistic or inappropriate feedback had negative effects on the usability, and easily made them feel frustrated. The possible reasons behind the outcomes are also analysed.


ABSTRACT Worldwide, humans have access to a greater range of food plants than does any other species. Examination of phylogenetic patterns in plants consumed by animals has recently uncovered important ecological processes. The same techniques, however, have not been applied to our own species. Here we show that although humans tend to eat more species in certain families (e.g., Rosaceae) and fewer in others (e.g., Orchidaceae), the proportion of edible species in most families is similar to random expectations. Phylogenetic patterning in angiosperm edibility is also weak. We argue that the remarkable breadth of the human diet is the result of humans' huge geographic range, diverse food-collection methods, and ability to process normally inedible items. Humans are thus generalist feeders in the broadest sense. Cross-cultural analyses of diversity in the plant diet of humans could represent a fascinating new field of research linking ecology, anthropology, history, and sociology.


One of the most hotly contested issues in class action practice today is ascertainability – when and how the identities of individual class members must be ascertained. The courts of appeals are split on the issue, with courts in different circuits imposing dramatically different burdens on putative class representatives. Courts adopting a strict approach require the class representative to prove that there is an administratively feasible means of determining whether class members are part of the class. This burden may be insurmountable in consumer class actions because people tend not to save receipts for purchases of low-cost consumer goods, like soft drinks and snacks and have no other objective proof of their membership in the class. Thus, in circuits adopting the strict approach, class certification may be denied, whereas in other circuits, the same class may be certified. Notwithstanding the circuit split on this critical issue, the Supreme Court has denied several petitions for writs of certiorari raising the issue; the Senate has failed to act on a bill passed by the House to address it; and the Advisory Committee has placed the issue on hold. Given the current state of disuniformity and the resultant inequitable administration of the laws, the time is ripe to address the issue.

Ascertainability is not only of great practical importance, but it is interesting on three different levels. First, there is a question of prose – whether the text of the Rule supports the implication of the strict ascertainability requirement. Second, there is a question of policy – whether concern for the class action defendant, the absent class members, or the trial court overseeing the action justifies imposition of the strict requirement, notwithstanding its harsh impact on consumer class actions. Third, there is a process question: which governmental actor – the lower courts, the Supreme Court, the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, or Congress – has the greatest institutional competency to resolve the policy issue and establish a uniform approach to ascertainability. This Article addresses each of these questions in turn.


Due to the development of technological innovation in various fields, human life is improving. Modern society has recently entered an era of technological revolution, and metaverse technology is playing a pivotal role. Metaverse is a compound word of 'meta,' a prefix meaning 'going over,' and 'universe.' Although the metaverse does not yet exist in its entirety, metaverse-like features can be found on various platforms that use the virtual world concept. In our society, the death rate of the elderly and the disabled is decreasing, and life expectancy is increasing due to the development of medical technology. Due to this, there will be more people living with various disabilities or inconveniences in the future, and a time may come when young people will be burdened as caregivers. To prepare for this future, rehabilitation exercises and rehabilitation medicine using the metaverse must be developed. 'Care robots' that are recently being developed are good examples. Exercise rehabilitation refers to restoring physical, mental, and social health through human movement to help the elderly and the physically challenged live independent lives. Exercise rehabilitation includes the concept of holistic health service that helps patients perform daily life activities and also serves as a prevention and recovery program for physical, mental, and social health. Currently, and in the future, the supply of exercise rehabilitation programs for the disabled, the elderly, and patients is insufficient compared to demand. To address this issue, virtual exercise rehabilitation programs have recently been developed for weak and injured populations. The metaverse is an interactive simulation that allows users to have experiences similar to reality in a virtual space created through computer hardware and software. Metaverse users can use sensory organs such as sight, hearing, and touch to realize movement in the virtual world. Metaverse technology for exercise rehabilitation is attracting the interest of the public as the number of users grows. Furthermore, the effectiveness, efficiency, and convenience of exercise rehabilitation using the metaverse have also been reported through various studies. That is, the metaverse exercise rehabilitation program has been used to treat Parkinson's disease (Griffin et al., 2011), traumatic brain injury (Ustinova and Perkins, 2013), arthritis (Iversen et al., 2014), Alzheimer disease (White and Moussavi, 2016), strokes (Laver et al., 2017), spinal injuries (SaadonGrosman and Arzy, 2017), and multiple sclerosis (Hsieh et al., 2020). In addition, exercise rehabilitation programs using the metaverse are being utilized and studied in fields related to various diseases. Metaverse technology has been reported to increase patient satisfaction due to its usefulness and positive user interaction. However, there are also reports that 'presence,' which is important in metaverse technology, does not significantly affect satisfaction. In other words, an environment that can increase the sense of presence in the metaverse environment must be built. As mentioned above, it is clear that metaverse technology is an essential factor in exercise rehabilitation. However, technological advances will be required, such as increased presence, more efficient software development, and various treatment contents.


In this paper, a new resolver-to-digital conversion method is presented. This method is based on synchronous demodulation of resolver's output signals. A modified angle-tracking observer is proposed to extract the rotor angle in high speeds as well as in low speeds. An estimation algorithm, which is based on the sign and absolute values of sine and cosine of the rotor angle, is introduced to find an appropriate initial value for this observer. This method can be incorporated in a DSP-based motor drive system. The proposed method is simple and cost effective when an appropriate microcontroller is selected for motor control. This method has been successfully implemented in a DSP board. Several tests at different speeds and initial positions have been performed to evaluate the proposed method.


Collective cell migration is central to many developmental and pathological processes. However, the mechanisms that keep cell collectives together and coordinate movement of multiple cells are poorly understood. Using the Drosophila border cell migration model, we find that Protein phosphatase 1 (Pp1) activity controls collective cell cohesion and migration. Inhibition of Pp1 causes border cells to round up, dissociate, and move as single cells with altered motility. We present evidence that Pp1 promotes proper levels of cadherin-catenin complex proteins at cell-cell junctions within the cluster to keep border cells together. Pp1 further restricts actomyosin contractility to the cluster periphery rather than at internal cell-cell contacts. We show that the myosin phosphatase Pp1 complex, which inhibits non-muscle myosin-II (Myo-II) activity, coordinates border cell shape and cluster cohesion. Given the high conservation of Pp1 complexes, this study identifies Pp1 as a major regulator of collective versus single cell migration.


Advanced Studies in the Graphic Novel entails a practical intimacy with the form. My work serves to elucidate only some of the many differences between the graphic novel and traditional literature, to complicate the use of written language in the form as it relates to images, to address confrontations with publishing, and to share intimately the process and mechanisms by which my effort functions. The paper will reveal the guts of the effort (itself a graphic novel) and in doing so will highlight issues as they uniquely relate to the form, and hopefully encourage others to attempt such work. The topical subject of my effort, inspired by the literature of H. P. Lovecraft, is a concern about anonymity.


I, Elizabeth, first became affected by bullying when I was bullied as a child. I couldn't
understand why I was bullied, and why, even though some people were aware of
this, it continued to happen. I was called racist names and physically assaulted,
people used to spit in my hair, and sometimes, when I was hiding, several people
would search for me to threaten and push me. As an adult looking back, I realise that as
the bullying grew in severity, I became known and targeted as a 'victim'.
When I later researched bullying for my undergraduate degree, the academic
literature made me feel ashamed of being a victim, particularly when I read
a description from Salmivalli et al. about 'helpless' and 'provocative' victims1. I
remembered what my experience felt like as a child: the cold sweats, being frightened
of school every day, unable to concentrate on my work. I became weak, anxious and I
could hardly eat.


Subaqueous sediments comprise the cores of a group of drumlins formed at about 17 ka YBP towards the margin of the Late Pleistocene ice sheet is Galway Bay, western Ireland. Four major lithofacies associations (L.F.A.s) are identified. Regional ice flow patterns and isostatic depression together with sedimentary characteristics indicate that the three lowermost L.F.A.s accumulated in shallow-water settings fed by meltwater venting under high hydrostatic pressure. These sediments are tabular, lensate or channelled and have not been deformed by glacially-influenced tectonics. L.F.A.1 is an apron of interbedded mud and muddy diamict deposited from sediment plumes and ice-rafting. L.F.A.2 infills channels cut in the underlying muddy diamict and consists of interbedded poorly-sorted pebbly gravels, sands and diamicts formed by sediment gravity flows. L.F.A.3 is tabular and comprises a massive diamict derived from powerful meltwater jets. L.F.A.4 is a massive diamict carapace which overlies stratified facies and was deposited by basal ice processes. The model presented envisages subaqueous deposition below floating ice followed by till deposition and drumlinization. Coarsening upwards facies transitions are interpreted in terms of progressive change from ice-distal to ice-contact sedimentation. The sequence preserved in the drumlin cores forms part of a regional apron of sediments probably of glaciomarine origin which normally occurs in front of the drumlin belt in Irish coastal areas. Deposition probably occurred in isostatically-depressed zones around the drumlin ice sheet when high relative sea levels occurred. Local streamlining of ice marginal sequences was probably a result of accelerated ice flow triggered by rapid calving, subglacial channel development, sea level change or soft bed conditions. It is concluded that high relative sea levels, calving and high longitudinal stretching rates provide suitable mechanisms which help to explain drumlinization and the rapid disintegration of the last ice sheet in western Ireland.


Five federally funded optical and radio telescopes in the United States could be forced to shut down over the next 3 years because of budget cuts by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The decision has sparked widespread dismay among astronomers, who say the loss will severely hurt students and early-career scientists, especially at small and midsized institutions. But NSF officials say the agency has no choice but to divest itself of these five telescopes if it is to operate new telescopes expected to come online in the next several years.


This paper seeks to explore orthogonal training in end-to-end speaker verification (SV) tasks. In various end-to-end speaker verification systems, cosine similarity has been used as the distance measurement for speaker embeddings. However, the effectiveness of cosine similarity is based on the assumption that the dimensions of the speaker embeddings are orthogonal. In our previous orthogonal training work, we have shown that in SV systems with cosine similarity backend, introducing orthogonality on the weights in speaker-discriminative deep neural networks can significantly improve the system performance. In this paper, we introduce two orthogonality regularizers to end-to-end speaker verification systems. The first one is based on the Frobenius norm, and the second one utilizes restricted isometry property. Both regularization methods can be handily incorporated into end-to-end training. We build systems based on the state-of-the-art end-to-end models. Two network architectures, LSTM and TDNN, are used in order to investigate the effects of orthogonality regularization on different types of models. Systems are assessed on the Voxceleb corpus and significant gains are obtained with our new regularized orthogonal training.


Background Inappropriate overuse of antibiotics contributes to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), yet policy implementation to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use is poor in low and middle-income countries. Aims To determine whether public sector inappropriate antibiotic use is lower in countries reporting implementation of selected essential medicines policies. Materials and Methods Results from independently conducted antibiotic use surveys in countries that did, and did not report implementation of policies to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, were compared. Survey data on four validated indicators of inappropriate antibiotic use and 16 self-reported policy implementation variables from WHO databases were extracted. The average difference for indicators between countries reporting versus not reporting implementation of specific policies was calculated. For 16 selected policies we regressed the four antibiotic use variables on the numbers of policies the countries reported implementing. Results Data were available for 55 countries. Of 16 policies studied, four (having a national Ministry of Health unit on promoting rational use of medicines, a national drug information centre and provincial and hospital drugs and therapeutics committees) were associated with statistically significant reductions in antibiotic use of ≥20% in upper respiratory infection (URTI). A national strategy to contain antibiotic resistance was associated with a 30% reduction in use of antibiotics in acute diarrheal illness. Policies seemed to be associated with greater effects in antibiotic use for URTI and diarrhea compared with antibiotic use in all patients. There were negative correlations between the numbers of policies reported implemented and the percentage of acute diarrhoea cases treated with antibiotics (r = -0.484, p = 0.007) and the percentage of URTI cases treated with antibiotics (r = -0.472, p = 0.005). Major study limitations were the reliance on self-reported policy implementation data and antibiotic use data from linited surveys. Conclusions Selected essential medicines policies were associated with lower antibiotic use in low and middle income countries.


Among the most surprising findings in Physics Education Research is the lack of positive results on attitudinal measures, such as Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey CLASS and Maryland Physics Expectations Survey MPEX . The uniformity with which physics teaching manages to negatively shift attitudes toward physics learning is striking. Strategies which have been shown to improve conceptual learning, such as interactive engagement and studio-format classes, provide more authentic science experiences for students; yet do not seem to be sufficient to produce positive attitudinal results. Florida International University's Physics Education Research Group has implemented Modeling Instruction in University Physics classes as part of an overall effort toward building a research and learning community. Modeling Instruction is explicitly designed to engage students in scientific practices that include model building, validation, and revision. Results from a preinstruction/postinstruction CLASS measurement show attitudinal improvements through both semesters of an introductory physics sequence, as well as over the entire two-course sequence. In this Brief Report, we report positive shifts from the CLASS in one section of a modeling-based introductory physics sequence, for both mechanics N=22 and electricity and magnetism N=23 . Using the CLASS results and follow up interviews, we examine how these results reflect on modeling instruction and the unique student community and population at FIU.


At a time of increasing globalization and worldwide vulnerability, the study of disasters has become an important focus for anthropological research-one where the four fields of anthropology are synthesized to address the multidimensionality of the effects to a community's social structures and relationship to the environment. Using a variety of natural and technological disasters-including Mexican earthquakes, drought in the Andes and in Africa, the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Oakland firestorm, and the Bhopal gas disaster-the authors of this volume explore the potentials of disaster for ecological, political-economic, and cultural approaches to anthropology along with the perspectives of archaeology and history. They also discuss the connection between theory and practice and what anthropology can do for disaster management.


Social agreement regarding redistribution of wealth is often unattainable because the poor cannot sufficiently compensate the rich for their contribution. In this paper, we submit that under certain circumstances, such an agreement could obtain wide-spread support if, and only if, it contains a clause postponing the implementation of the redistribution of wealth by a given period of time. Thus, despite the fact that consensus on redistribution at the present cannot be attained, society can reach an agreement to redistribute wealth in the future. We term such an agreement a "deferred-implementation agreement" ("DIA") and focus on two reasons which could explain the appeal of such an agreement. The first reason is that the rich take the possibility into account that they might be compelled to change sides with the poor some time in the future and would become the beneficiaries of the redistribution scheme, rather than its financiers. The second reason is that a DIA entails the externalization of costs to third parties, thereby reducing the costs of the agreement to the contracting parties. In addition to promoting consensus in society regarding the redistribution of wealth, which might be virtuous in itself, DIAs can also be justified on normative grounds. Firstly, by establishing the possibility of a change of sides, the DIA places the parties to the agreement behind the veil of ignorance, or at least closer to this position, and encourages them to make an unbiased decision as to whether to enter into the social agreement. Secondly, despite the inefficiencies commonly associated with externalities, the externalization of costs from the present generation to future generations and to others who are ultimately expected to benefit from the agreement might be an efficient move that also promotes intergenerational justice. Arguably, if DIAs were such an attractive mechanism as we contend, one should expect these agreements to be widely used in the real world. We believe that the main reason for the rarity of DIAs is the parties' concern that future generations might avoid implementing such agreements. However, if the parties to these agreements utilized certain mechanisms and adopted a few constraints discussed below, such agreements would become less vulnerable to future nullification.


This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 186107, "Optimization of Spacing and Penetration Ratio for Infinite-Conductivity Fractures in Unconventional Reservoirs: A Section-Based Approach," by S. Liu, SPE, and P.P. Valko, SPE, Texas A&M University. The paper has been peer reviewed and published in the December 2017 SPE Journal.
 In this paper, the authors consider the development plan of shale gas or tight oil with multiple multistage fractured laterals in a large square drainage area that they call a "section" (usually 640 acres in the US). A section-based optimization of the fracture array is proposed to provide some general statements regarding spacing of wells and fractures. The approach is dependent on a reliable and efficient productivity-index (PI) calculation for the boundary-dominated state (BDS). The information derived from the section-based optimization method and the efficient and reliable algorithm for PI calculation should help the design of multistage fracturing in shale-gas or ultralow-permeability oil formations.
 Introduction
 During the last decade, multiple studies have been conducted on various aspects of fracture design. Most of these use a numerical simulation that requires a large number of inputs, which, at the early stages of development, may be in-accessible or burdened by substantial uncertainty. Many of these works use quite sophisticated nonlinear search algorithms. In this work, however, only that part of the problem that can be addressed in rather general terms is considered. Therefore, simplifying assumptions are made to a point at which numerical results can be delivered. The results will provide some insight and useful bounds on achievable productivity. The methodology is dependent on an accurate numerical solution of a well-defined eigenvalue problem and, as such, can provide reference values for various research fields relying heavily on the diffusivity equation.
 In the complete paper, a method that combines the finite-element method (FEM) with Richardson extrapolation is introduced to calculate the single-fracture PI both for constant-pressure and constant-rate wellbore conditions. Then, with the reliable PI for a single fracture, a convenient section-based optimization is conducted involving only two integer decision variables: the number of columns and the number of rows of the fracture array. Because the constant-pressure wellbore condition is more realistic, the overall PI of the section in the BDS flow regime is considered as the objective function. Two parameters are suggested as the main decisive factors: the dimensionless total fracture length and the feasible range of fracture half-length. In the present approach, the actual optimization takes a simple form of enumeration of a limited number of discrete cases; therefore, advanced nonlinear search algorithms are not involved. Those algorithms become irreplaceable when petrophysical and economic details are incorporated and the structure of the objective function loses its transparent nature, but such situations are beyond the focus of the present work.


Multi-word expressions are often considered problematic for parsing or other tasks in natural language processing. In this paper we investigate a specific type of multi-word expressions: binomial adverbs. These adverbs follow the pattern adverb + conjunction + adverb. We identify and evaluate binomial adverbs in English, German and Swedish. We compute their degree of idiomaticity with an ordering test and with a mutual information score. We show that these idiomaticity measures point us to a number of fixed multi-word expressions which are often mis-tagged and mis-parsed. Interestingly, a second evaluation shows that state-of-the-art machine translation handles them well – with some exceptions.


We investigated the properties of dark soils, namely Luvic Phaeozems in the Lower Rhine Basin (NW-Germany). We discovered clusters of hundreds of regularly shaped pits that were always connected to the Bht horizons of adjacent Luvic Phaeozems. The occurrence of anthropogenic pits in connection with Phaeozems was never reported before, and we called them Phaeozem pits. We conducted archaeobotanical (charcoal analysis) and geochemical (black carbon, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations) investigations.
We compared soil material from Phaeozem pits with clearly anthropogenic pits: (i) settlement pits, and (ii) slot pits, that can be found outside of prehistoric settlements and do not contain any visible artefacts, but are defined as anthropogenic by their shape. The main results of our study were: (1) Phaeozem Bht horizons and pits are man-made and archaeological off-site features. (2) Soil properties of
the Phaeozem horizons could have been affected by inputs of soil amendments, perhaps to fertilize agricultural fields or gardens. (3)
The high proportion of charred organic matter in the dark soil material of Phaeozem horizons and pit fillings results from vegetation fires ignited by man. (4) They were presumably formed in several periods between Mesolithic and the Middle Ages, mainly during Younger to End-Neolithic (4400-2200 BC). We concluded that the Phaeozem horizons could have been formed by agricultural burning, like slash-and-burn, during several (pre)historic epochs.


Previous studies of Bank Note forgery in England during the Bank Restriction Period have adopted a highly institutional focus. Thus, much is known about the role played by both the Bank of England and the workings of the criminal justice system in combating both forgers and forged note utterers. The question of how the new system of small denomination Bank Notes impacted upon the day to day lives and understandings of the people that used them has received far less attention. The actual means by which Bank Notes were themselves forged has also been overlooked. This has led to a somewhat two-dimensional view of these notes as material objects. This thesis will engage with common mentalities and perceptions, seeking to write a 'new history from below' of both Bank Notes and their forgery in this period. Its primary aims will be to explore the question of why the English people were so easily imposed upon by forged Bank Notes; the various means by which forged notes could be constructed; and what an analysis of both of these points can tell us about economic and social understandings of non-elite people at this time. It will be argued that by studying instances in which small denomination Bank Notes were routinely exchanged, we can highlight a significant dichotomy of understanding in a society that was starting to engage with a new culture of promise based fiduciary paper money, yet was still deeply rooted in early-modern notions of paper instruments as objects of personal credit and debt. The thesis will show that heavy exposure to Bank Notes at this time clearly equipped some contemporaries with their own personalised sets of aesthetic and material "standards", against which the "goodness" of any monetary instrument with which they were presented would be compared. Others continued to examine the material aspect of Bank Notes via a direct comparison or consultation with others. Neither approach was always successful and indeed whatever method was adopted, the common occurrence of the materials and technologies required to construct a credible imitation of a Bank Note meant that it was not just illiterate persons that were susceptible to being deceived. Even a reading of the Bank Note's literate text failed to provide sufficient defence against the activities of the forger.


Ambiguity aversion has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena in law and policy: incomplete contracts, stock market volatility, abstention from voting, and why prosecutors offer and defendants accept harsh plea bargains. This paper presents evidence problematizing the experimental basis for ambiguity aversion. Ambiguity aversion is the interpretation of the experimental finding (Ellsberg paradox) that most subjects violate probabilistic sophistication: They prefer betting on events whose probabilities are known (objective) to betting on events whose probabilities are unknown to them (subjective). However in typical experiments these unknown probabilities are known and often determined by the experimenter. Thus the typical Ellsberg experiment is a situation of asymmetric information. People may try to avoid situations where they are the less informed party in an asymmetric situation setting. Indeed doing so is often normatively appropriate. Thus avoidance of situations of informational asymmetry is a potential confound in typical Ellsberg experiments. Paying to avoid information asymmetry in an Ellsberg experiment would constitute the misapplication of a heuristic to the unfamiliar experimental situation. To eliminate this confound, this paper proposes a new source of ambiguity: participant generated ambiguity. Instead of the experimenter filling an Ellsberg urn, the opaque Ellsberg urn is filled by the other subjects in a laboratory session. We find that eliminating asymmetric information while leaving ambiguity in place, makes subjects more than willing to choose the ambiguous bet rather than the objective one. This is despite the fact that choosing the objective bet is costless. These results have fundamental implications for individual decision making and for the empirical predictions of theoretical models incorporating Knightian uncertainty.


Background Research suggests an association between frontal and temporal injury and antisocial conduct. We studied the frequency of antisocial behaviours in fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) where pathology is anterior frontal-temporal, compared with Alzheimer's disease (AD) where pathology is primarily posterior temporal-parietal. Method The presence of antisocial conduct was compared in 22 FTD versus 22 AD subjects. All FTD patients had anterior frontal or temporal hypoperfusion with single photon emission computed tomography, whereas those with AD had posterior temporal-parietal hypoperfusion. Results Ten FTD and one AD subject showed antisocial behaviours, which included assault, indecent exposure, shoplifting and hit-and-run driving. Three FTD subjects were arrested. This difference was highly significant (P = 0.004). Conclusions Degeneration of frontal and temporal lobes predisposes to antisocial behaviour. This study supports a relationship between frontal-temporal dysfunction and certain types of antisocial activities.


This piece is taken from the novel "Heaven and Hell at the Paradise Motel" and the exegesis that together forms my PhD thesis. The three main strands of this thesis are Gothic, Noir and sense of place. The novel, ''Heaven and Hell at the Paradise Motel", is preoccupied with the natural environment, its subtle seasonal changes and the way the environment impacts on its human inhabitants and how they in turn affect it. The novel is, in a very Gothic sense, haunted by dreams, apparitions and narratives – specifically mini-narratives that reflect the nature of fairy tales, horror stories and urban myths. It contains elements of melodrama, horror, romance. The story follows a deeply dysfunctional family through a seasonal cycle: beginning in Spring and ending once again in Spring. A key focus for both the creative and the theoretical work was the everyday application of the Gothic and Noir – for example a house doesn't have to be a castle to be haunted; people don't have to be monsters to be monstrous. The dark, the strange, the sinister and the perverse lurk in the shadows of everyday reality, but also how these elements intertwined within the landscape.


Objectives: Faculty of Medicine students are practicing on a human cadaver in the course of education especially in Anatomy lessons. There are some physical, emotional, and ethical problems that students have experienced with participation in these lessons. In some publications we have reviewed issues regarding these, we aimed to reveal whether ethical issues are being addressed. Methods: We conducted literature searches by writing the clues "Publications relating to the Faculty of Medicine student's reactions to cadavers lessons and ethics" on search engines on the internet. By examining the articles obtained, we investigated whether students are experiencing problems, especially on ethics. Results: 28 articles (90.3%) were original research, 2 (6.4%) were reviews and 1 (3.2%) was a book. Only 6 out of these studies (19.3%) have addressed ethical issues. In our research, quite a few publications (19.3%) have been found that dealt with ethical problems in cadaver lessons. Human body dissection during an anatomy course for the first-year medical students raises questions about invasion of privacy, cadaver sources, dying, and death. Conclusion: Detailed reviews of the situations that causes ethical problems in the studies to be done in this direction are thought to be beneficial to the medical faculties students education.


ABSTRACT In this paper I am interested in the question of whether and why states should prioritize child refugees over adult refugees in cases where they are not able to grant refuge to all those who are entitled to it. In particular I discuss three grounds on which such a prioritization could be based: (a) vulnerability, (b) efficiency and (c) life phase and life span. As can be shown, these grounds also apply, to some extent, to particular groups of adults such as women, the elderly, or people with special needs. Based on this I conclude that states should invest significant resources into filtering out those who are the most needy and vulnerable although there are several limitations to doing that. Only if such a selection process were impossible, or so costly and time-consuming that it would result in significantly fewer refugees being admitted, would states have good moral reasons to prioritize children without further screening.


Surfaces govern functional behaviours of geometrical products, especially high-precision and high-added-value products. Compared with the mean line-based filters, morphological filters, evolved from the traditional E-system, are relevant to functional performance of surfaces. The conventional implementation of morphological filters based on image-processing does not work for state-of-the-art surfaces, for example, freeform surfaces. A set of novel geometric computation theory is developed by applying the alpha shape to the computation. Divide and conquer optimization is employed to speed up the computational performance of the alpha-shape method and reduce memory usage. To release the dependence of the alpha-shape method on the Delaunay triangulation, a set of definitions and propositions for the search of contact points is presented and mathematically proved based on alpha shape theory, which are applicable to both circular and horizontal flat structuring elements. The developed methods are verified through experimentation.


Different levels of β-galactosidase are found in various trp-lac fusion strains. These levels of β-galactosidase fall within a 60-fold range. The amount of thiogalactoside transacetylase activity detected in these same strains only varies 10-fold and is found in amounts greater than those predicted from the β-galactosidase levels. The observation that the β-galactosidase and thiogalactoside transacetylase levels are not directly proportional, that the lacZ messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels are not proportional to the β-galactosidase activity, that, at least for the one fusion strain tested, the SuA polarity suppressor does not affect the β-galactosidase level, and that, in all but one strain, the β-galactosidase activity appears to reside in normal β-galactosidase molecules suggests that the disproportionately low production of β-galactosidase is due to a decrease in the frequency of translation initiation of lacZ mRNA in these strains. Several mechanisms are proposed to explain this decrease. Some possible bases for the disproportional production of β-galactosidase and thiogalactoside transacetylase are also described. The preferred explanation for these disproportional enzyme levels is that only a fraction of the full complement of ribosomes need initiate translation at lacZ for the functional synthesis of lac mRNA to occur and that once the lac ribonucleic acid is made a full complement of ribosomes can bind at internal translation initiation sites at Y and A.


The goal of this study was to conduct a detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the U.S. live swine production supply chain to quantify land use requirements and to assess the impact associated with various ration compositions. The functional unit was defined as one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of live swine at the farm gate, ready for transport to the abattoir. This assessment focused on the three highest producing USDA regions, which encompassed the Midwest (Regions 5 and 7) and the Southeast (Region 4), representing 86% of U.S. market hog production. First, a literature review was conducted to summarize the most current information and knowledge regarding the status of land use accounting in agriculture and livestock production. The literature review identified work reported by other researchers and organizations, nationally and internationally, and was used to guide the methods and help create the life cycle inventory (LCI) for the detailed LCA. The study showed that the average land occupation required to produce 1 kg of live swine weight (LW) in the U.S. was 4.22 ma. This result is based on a feed ration that was intended to represent a typical U.S. swine ration, referred to as the baseline. Regional results were calculated assuming corn, DDGs, and soybean meal were sourced within each production region, excluding Region 4, which assumed 70% of the feed was a commodity average. Swine in Region 4 had the highest land occupation at 4.59 ma/kg LW, followed by 4.13 ma/kg LW in Region 5 and 4.11 ma/kg LW in Region 7. In addition to the baseline diet, six diet scenarios were modeled to assess the impact of ration composition. A linear programming model was used to construct four ration manipulation strategies intended to lower cost, carbon footprint, water use, and land use. Two more rations were included to assess the increased use of synthetic amino acids. All scenario diets showed impact reductions from the baseline in one or more categories ranging from 2% to 73%. However, each diet also resulted in greater impacts for at least one of the other categories.