The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Speech Clause of the First Amendment to mean that when the government distributes money or other resources to private speakers, it generally may not discriminate among speakers based on viewpoint. The government is, however, allowed to express its own viewpoint, even if it enlists the aid of private parties to get the message out, as long as the communication does not violate some separate legal restriction, such as the Establishment Clause. Together, these understandings form the core of what has become known as the government speech doctrine. This doctrine signals that distinguishing between government speech and private speech will become crucial in many cases involving either the Speech Clause or the Establishment Clause. While the Court has announced the distinction in general terms and has decided cases based on it - including a notable case in 2009 involving Ten Commandments monuments - the Court has yet to announce a standard by which judges can reliably identify government speech across a range of cases. After examining several attempts by others to formulate such a standard, this Article suggests that the Court has now identified three basic types of government speech. Accordingly, the Article proposes a three-factor test for identifying government speech, demonstrating how the test could function as a unifying explanation of precedent and a uniform method of resolving future cases.


The discovery that the Lackagh Quartzite correlates with the Ards (Errigal) Quartzite (Pitcher & Shackleton 1966) means that the structure in the meta-sediments adjacent to The Main Granite at Dunlewy, as deduced by Rickard (1962), is incorrect. Revision of the mapping (Fig. 1) shows that the structural arrangement can be interpreted in conformity with the new stratigraphical concept. All the formations of the Greeslough Succession (Fig. 1B) are attenuated in this district and the structure is complicated by the Dunlewy crossfolds (Rickard 1962). Several black pelitic layers were previously included in the Creeslough Formation but a consistent structural model can now be made by assigning these to the Ards Black Pelite Formation. Similarly the several limestone bands reduce to two main members, one within the Ards Pelites and the other close to the junction of the Ards and Greeslough Pelites—the latter representing the Altan Limestone Formation. Southwest of Dunlewy Lough black pelites surround the outcrop of the Greeslough Pelites defining an anticline, on the southern flank of which the Ards Quartzite is reduced to a very narrow outcrop of flaggy quartzites, previously mapped as Lackagh. Within this quartzite an interlayered pelite and flaggy quartzite unit is now recognized (Fig. 1): this resembles the Falcarragh Pelite Formation at its closest outcrop to the north west. There must be a tight syncline here in which the intervening Clonmass Group has been sheared out, as elsewhere in the Dunlewy crossfolds (Rickard, 1962). The structure that is now deduced is that of two


This paper discusses fluctuations of linear spectral statistics of high-dimensional sample covariance matrices when the underlying population follows an elliptical distribution. Such population often possesses high order correlations among their coordinates, which have great impact on the asymptotic behaviors of linear spectral statistics. Taking such kind of dependency into consideration, we establish a new central limit theorem for the linear spectral statistics in this paper for a class of elliptical populations. This general theoretical result has wide applications and, as an example, it is then applied to test the sphericity of elliptical populations.


The energy harvesting industry has seen steady growth in recent years. This growth has been driven by the increasing demand for remote sensing, implantable technologies, and increased battery life in mobile and hand held devices. Due to the limited amount of energy available from ambient sources, any system that attempts to harness energy from them should necessarily be highly efficient to make the net output power useful. A lot of work has been done on minimizing losses in piezoelectric energy harvesters. Most of this has however been limited to harvesters with single vibration sources or multiple sources vibrating synchronously. This work presents a multiple input piezoelectric energy harvester capable of harvesting from multiple piezoelectric energy sources vibrating asynchronously (at different frequencies, or at the same frequency but in different phases) using a single inductor. The use of a single inductor eliminates the extra quiescent power consumption, component count, printed circuit board real estate that would have been incurred by using a one inductor per input device. The inductor is time shared between three input devices using a digital control circuit which regulate access to the inductor while avoiding any destructive interaction between the input devices. The chip was designed in a 0.18μm technology and achieves a conversion efficiency of 60%. Testing with three asynchronously vibrating sources shows that the chip extracts maximum power from all inputs simultaneously, independent of vibration frequency or phase.


International achievement measures such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have traditionally reported a significant gap between non-migrant and immigrant student groups—a result that is often referred to as the immigrant performance disadvantage . This article examines first- and second-generation immigrant student achievement results in greater detail across Canada. Overall, Canadian achieve ment results are atypical in relation to the international community in that immigrant student groups significantly outperform non-migrants in some provincial jurisdictions, and also significantly underperform in other provincial jurisdictions, in relation to reading, mathematics, and scientific literacy. This article examines these diverse results in relation to the available literature and offers a conceptual framework that explains the unique case of Canada. The framework highlights the importance of assessing immigrant student achievement by taking into account the level of individual characteristics, provincial policies, as well as sociocultural and demographic contexts across Canada.


In recent times, the usage of Voice and Video over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services has increased tremendously. There are many signaling protocols such as Bearer Independent Call Control (BICC), H.323, Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), Session Initiation protocol (SIP) etc., that are used for establishment of sessions and to carry out voice and video data services. SIP has become popular because of its easy implementation, flexibility and good scalability. Choice of Open Source SIP server software (OS-SIP Server Software) is important when deploying in a VoIP based network. So we need to evaluate the performance of OS-SIP Server Softwares in an ideal condition before it is deployed to real environment. This document evaluates and compares the performance of three OS-SIP Server Softwares which are quite popular. A SIPp traffic generator tool is used to generate scenarios namely Registration with authentication, Registration without authentication, Session establishment, and Session establishment with response delay at User Agent Server (UAS) side. Using these scenarios, the performance of OS-SIP Server Softwares is evaluated with respect to parameters such as Registrations per second, Calls per second, Response delay, and Percentage of successful calls and registrations. From the experimental results, we observed that there is a significant performance difference among the SIP server softwares. OpenSIPS is the best OS-SIP Server Software for the scenarios Registration with authentication, Registration without authentication and Session establishment with response delay. Asterisk server is the best OS-SIP Server Software when compared with the other two (OpenIMSCore and OpenSIPS) servers for the scenario Session establishment.


In a remote site in eastern Idaho, now known as the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) Site, the U.S. Government established a facility to test‐fire naval gunnery during World War II. The mission after the war switched to development and demonstration of nuclear technology. For more than 50 yr, the site has been devoted to nuclear energy research. Because of the remote location of the site west of Idaho Falls, ID, wastes containing radioactive and hazardous materials were disposed to the subsurface. It was felt that any disposed materials would not travel downward through the vadose zone, which is 100 to 300 m thick, to the underlying Snake River Aquifer. However, some materials have traveled through the thick vadose zone and contaminated the aquifer. Other wastes were injected directly into the aquifer. To provide a general background for papers in this special issue of Vadose Zone Journal on research at the INEEL, we give a brief historical perspective of work conducted at the INEEL Site west of Idaho Falls and associated subsurface contamination issues. We furthermore give an overview of the research papers presented in this special issue.


The worst of the housing crisis may be behind us, but the recent housing market recovery opens up a number of new community development questions. Of particular concern is the potential impact of investor purchases of single-family residences, especially in hard-hit neighborhoods that experienced severe price depreciation and offered an abundant supply of distressed property. This Research Brief examines trends in rental housing composition in Arizona, California and Nevada and takes a closer look at local areas that have seen the fastest growth in single-family rentals. These three states were hit particularly hard by the foreclosure crisis and have major markets that have been impacted by investor purchases.


Memento is a software infrastructure to support the construction and evolution of assistant applications (or assistants) that act as adjuncts to the human mind. Each assistant embodies an effective understanding of some information domain or problem domain. The assistant employs this understanding to aid a user or user community in the manipulation, transmission, and storage of meaningful information artifacts from the assistant's domain, called models. Additionally, models flow via the assistant's user interface at the semantic level. Memento provides mechanisms which address all of these common assistant responsibilities. When combined, the mechanisms result in real-time artifact-based collaboration over an assistant's models. Memento preserves the meaning of an assistant's models throughout these processes by enforcement of the domain's membership rules, called semantic constraints. Because Memento abstracts an assistant's models and semantic constraints, it is therefore said to be domain-independent.
Memento is composed of two layers. The bottom layer, described in Chapter 2, supports real-time artifact-based collaboration over collections of name-value attribute pairs, called MObjects. A dynamic, hierarchical type system over MObjects characterizes what attributes are required to appear on an MObject. Memento facilitates MObject collaboration through mechanisms for coherent transactions over MObjects, notification of dynamic MObject changes, and shared, persistent MObjects storage.
Chapter 3 describes Memento's second, higher layer which permits the expression of an assistant's models as conceptual graphs, a knowledge representation scheme based in cognitive psychology. Conceptual graphs are, in turn, represented as collections of MObjects. Model meaning is preserved through enforcement of conceptual graph schemata that characterize a domain's semantic constraints.
A developer can easily create a domain-specific customization of Memento, called a domain representation. The domain representation becomes a portable, collaborative applications programmer's interface (API) for the assistant's models and domain. The domain representation is then combined with a suitable user interface to make a complete assistant. This process and several example assistants are described in Chapter 4.
The dissertation concludes in Chapter 5 with a survey of related research in the areas of artifact-based collaboration, human-computer interaction, software engineering, and knowledge representation.


A simple automatic procedure for segmentation of gray and white matter in high resolution 1.5T T1-weighted MR human brain images was developed and validated. The algorithm is based on histogram shape analysis of MR images that were corrected for scanner nonuniformity. Calibration and validation was done on a set of 80 MR images of human brains. The automatic method's values for the gray and white matter volumes were compared with the values from thresholds set twice by the best three of six raters. The automatic procedure was shown to perform as good as the best rater, where the average result of the best three raters was taken as reference. The method was also compared with two other histogram-based threshold methods, which yielded comparable results. The conclusion of the study thus is that automated threshold based methods can separate gray and white matter from MR brain images as reliably as human raters using a thresholding procedure.


We conduct a randomized evaluation of two job-search support programs for urban youth in Ethiopia. One group of treated respondents receives a subsidy to cover the transport costs of job search. Another group participates in a job application workshop where their skills are certified and they are given orientation on how to make effective job applications. The two interventions are designed to lower spatial and informational barriers to employment. We find that both treatments significantly improve the quality of jobs that young jobseekers obtain. Impacts are concentrated among women and the least educated. Using rich high-frequency data from a phone survey, we are able to explore the mechanisms underlying the results; we show that while the transport subsidy increases both the intensity and the efficacy of job search, the job application workshop mainly operates through an increase in search efficacy. Both interventions mitigate the adverse effects of spatial constraints on employment outcomes, and the job application workshop alleviates informational asymmetries by helping workers to signal their ability.


This paper examines the twin deficits hypothesis in the ASEAN countries. The major findings of this paper are the following. (1) Long run relationships are detected between budget and current account deficits. (2) The Keynesian view fits well for Thailand since the causality runs from budget deficit to current account deficit. For Indonesia, the causality runs in an opposite direction while the empirical results indicate that a bidirectional pattern of causality exists for Malaysia and the Philippines. (3) We also found support for an indirect
causal relationship that runs from budget deficit to higher interest rates, and higher interest rates leading to the appreciation of the exchange rate, which in turn leads with the widening of the current account deficit. The results of the variance decompositions and impulse response functions suggest that the consequences of large budget and current account deficits become noticeable only over the long run


Diagnosing the impacts of climate change on water resources is a difficult task pertaining to the uncertainties arising from the different modelling steps. Lumped hydrological model structures contribute to this uncertainty as well as the natural climate variability, illustrated by several members from the same Global Circulation Model. In this paper, the hydroclimatic modelling chain consists of twenty-four potential evapotranspiration formulations, twenty lumped conceptual hydrological models, and seven snowmelt modules. These structures are applied on a natural Canadian sub-catchment to address related uncertainties and compare them to the natural internal variability of simulated climate system as depicted by five climatic members. Uncertainty in simulated streamflow under current and projected climates is assessed. They rely on interannual hydrographs and hydrological indicators analysis. Results show that natural climate variability is the major source of uncertainty, followed by potential evapotranspiration formulations and hydrological models. The selected snowmelt modules, however, do not contribute much to the uncertainty. The analysis also illustrates that the streamflow simulation over the current climate period is already conditioned by the tools' selection. This uncertainty is propagated to reference simulations and future projections, amplified by climatic members. These findings demonstrate the importance of opting for several climatic members to encompass the important uncertainty related to the climate natural variability, but also of selecting multiple modelling tools to provide a trustworthy diagnosis of the impacts of climate change on water resources.


A large root system can be an important character for drought tolerance. Measuring root characteristics in soil medium is tedious, time consuming, and labor intensive. The objective of this study was to determine the association between root characteristics of peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) grown in hydroponics and in pot experiments. Twelve peanut genotypes were planted in a randomized complete block design with four replications in a hydroponics study, a small pot, and a large pot experiment. The studies were conducted in two years during 2004–2005. Shoot dry weight, root dry weight, root-to-shoot ratio, root length, root surface, average diameter of roots, and root volume were measured. Tifton-8 and 'KK 60-3' had consistently higher values for all root characteristics compared to the other genotypes. Root characteristics of peanut genotypes grown in hydroponics were positively correlated with those of peanut genotypes grown in pot conditions. The results suggested that assessment of root characteristics of peanut in hydroponics for possible drought tolerance could replace the assessment in soil medium conditions.


In order to enable a culture of critical, informed and reflective design practice we need a linguistic framework for communicating design knowledge: the knowledge of the characteristic features of a domain of practice, the challenges which inhabit it, and the established methods of resolving them. Such an infrastructure must "serve two masters"; on one hand, it should adhere to the requirements of scientific rigor, ensuring that the proposed conditions and challenges are genuine and the solutions effective. On the other hand, it should maintain pragmatic adequacy, ensuring that the insights it encapsulates are readily available for practitioners to implement in real-world situations. Several representations have been proposed to this effect: design narratives (Mor, 2011; Barab et al, 2008; Bell, Hoadley and Linn, 2004; Hoadley, 2002; Linn & Hsi, 2000), design principles (Kali, 2006, 2008; Linn, Bell, & Davis, 2004; Merrill, 2002; Quintana et al., 2004; van den Akker, 1999), and design patterns (Derntl & Motschnig-Pitrik, 2005; Goodyear, 2005; Mor & Winters, 2007; Retalis et al, 2006), to name a few. The aim of this chapter is to characterise two of these forms – design narratives and design patterns, and propose a third form – design scenarios, and suggest how these could be embedded in a cycle of reflective learning design.


Harnessing and then controlling combinatorial explosions in uncontrolled condensation reactions of simple building blocks is a key problem to many hypotheses on the origin of life. Much has been achieved in understanding how the building blocks of biopolymers may be formed, and in understanding how macromolecules may produce functional and increasingly life-like systems. How these steps can be joined, and how defined populations of macromolecules can form from mixtures of simple building blocks, instead of an undifferentiated mess, remain open questions. Herein, we show how unconstrained condensation reactions of both amino acids, and prebiotic soup mixtures produced by spark discharge, can be steered by changes in the reaction environment, such as order of reactant addition (mixing history), and addition of salts or minerals. Using techniques akin to untargeted metabolomics to survey product distributions we demonstrate that while these reactions do produce a large range of species, there are distinct, significant, and reproducible differences between the product ensembles. Furthermore, we observe that differences in composition are demonstrated through clearly different structural and functional properties. Using this approach, we demonstrate for the first time that simple variations in environmental parameters can mediate the differentiation of distinct ensembles from both amino acid mixtures and a classic primordial soup model (products of a 'Miller Urey' type spark discharge reaction). This shows that the synthetic complexity produced by such unconstrained reactions is not as intractable as often suggested, when viewed through a chemically agnostic lens. An open approach to complexity can generate compositional, structural, and functional diversity from fixed sets of simple starting materials, suggesting that differentiation of product mixtures can occur in the wider environment without the need for biological machinery.


Introduction. Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography. Chapter 1: Shining a Light on HDR. Chapter 2: Gearing Up for HDR. Chapter 3: Looking Hard at HDR Software. Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography. Chapter 4: Becoming One with Your Camera. Chapter 5: Bracketing Exposures for HDR. Chapter 6: Shooting Single-Exposure HDR. Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR. Chapter 7: Generating HDR. Chapter 8: Preparing to Tone Map. Chapter 9: Tone Mapping for Fun and Profit. Chapter 10: Layers, Process, and Blending. Chapter 11: Cleaning Up Your Photos. Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images. Chapter 12: Creating Panor-Ahhh-Mas. Chapter 13: Going Old School with Black-and-White HDR. Part V: The Part of Tens. Chapter 14: (More Than) Ten Ways to Shoot Better Photos for HDR. Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Ruin a Good HDR Image. Index.


For many years the empirical prediction of pillar stability has been the dominant method for pillar design. Now, with the advanced numerical modelling of dynamic fracture propagation, it is possible to study the correlation between the empirical pillar load estimates and the actual pillar fracture mechanics. An upgraded version to previously developed constitutive FISH subroutine in FLAC 2D driving the User-Defined-Model which simulates compressive failure behaviour of coal pillars through the development of dynamic fracture propagation. Special insight on peak strength and post failure behaviour is presented through analysis of fracture development as a function of the pillar width to height ratio. Results derived as part of this study show that the numerical fracture propagation in coal pillar produces similar results to the classical empirical estimations of pillar peak loads. The classical progressive shear failure in pillar ribs was observed in the models depicting the probable rib failure mechanisms. Such model is well suited towards providing better understanding of fracture behaviour in rock or coal mass to improve safety when mining within or around complex geological structures.


To trigger innate behavior, sensory neural networks are pre-tuned to extract biologically relevant stimuli. Many male-female or insect-plant interactions depend on this phenomenon. Especially communication among individuals within social groups depends on innate behaviors. One example is the efficient recruitment of nest mates by successful bumblebee foragers. Returning foragers release a recruitment pheromone in the nest while they perform a 'dance' behavior to activate unemployed nest mates. A major component of this pheromone is the sesquiterpenoid farnesol. How farnesol is processed and perceived by the olfactory system, has not yet been identified. It is much likely that processing farnesol involves an innate mechanism for the extraction of relevant information to trigger a fast and reliable behavioral response. To test this hypothesis, we used population response analyses of 100 antennal lobe (AL) neurons recorded in alive bumblebee workers under repeated stimulation with four behaviorally different, but chemically related odorants (geraniol, citronellol, citronellal and farnesol). The analysis identified a unique neural representation of the recruitment pheromone component compared to the other odorants that are predominantly emitted by flowers. The farnesol induced population activity in the AL allowed a reliable separation of farnesol from all other chemically related odor stimuli we tested. We conclude that the farnesol induced population activity may reflect a predetermined representation within the AL-neural network allowing efficient and fast extraction of a behaviorally relevant stimulus. Furthermore, the results show that population response analyses of multiple single AL-units may provide a powerful tool to identify distinct representations of behaviorally relevant odors.


Thematic set assembled by J. D. Hudson & D. M. Martill. The Oxford Clay Formation is one of the classical units in British Jurassic stratigraphy. It crops out almost continuously in an arc running from the Dorset coast to Oxford, through the Midlands to Yorkshire. It was traditionally subdivided into Lower, Middle and Upper divisions, now formalized as the Peterborough, Stewartby and Weymouth Members, respectively (Cox et al. 1993). The Peterborough Member is organic-rich, the Stewartby and Weymouth Members more calcareous and generally organic-poor. Excellent ammonite faunas throughout the sequence are important in the international bio- and chrono-stratigraphy of the Callovian and Oxfordian Stages, and in correlation between the Tethyan and Boreal fauna1 realms. The Peterborough Member—'the clay that burns'—supports Britain's largest brick industry. Why study the Oxford Clay? Most obviously for its superb fossils, to be seen in museums the world over (Martill & Hudson 1991). The Peterborough Member also serves as an example of a potential petroleum source-rock, besides being an important current industrial resource. It has not yielded petroleum, because it has never been deeply buried. This means that the rocks and fossils preserve much of their original chemistry and thus help bridge the gap between studies of modern sediments and of conventional source rocks. In the papers in this thematic set we have tried to make use of these opportunities to show what modern methods and concepts can add to classical geological interpretation. We have studied mainly central and eastern England, the area of least burial, simplest structure, best fossil preservation, and, because of the


In this thesis we examine the possibility to create an Access Control Service, offering Authentication, authorization and confidentiality to support users with remote access to a Home network system. We study different security technologies already available and used in other Access Control systems, and Security pattern which can be used to design a satisfying solution. Based on this study, we propose an Access Control service for a Home network System.


In older individuals, hand fine motor skill disability is associated with cognitive levels. Similarly, patients with moderate-to-advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) often have cognitive dysfunction. Here, we investigated the association between hand fine motor skill and cognitive dysfunction in patients with moderate-to-advanced PD. Moderate and advanced PD patients with and without dementia were identified from the Taiwan Data Bank of Persons with Disability. Hand fine motor capacities, namely pen holding, buttoning, and knotting, were assessed with the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. Statistical analyses were performed on Statistical Analysis System (SAS) and a p value of <0.05 was considered significant. In total, 3440 patients with PD were enrolled, of which 612 had dementia, exhibiting significant disability in all three tasks. After adjustments for age, sex, and PD severity, pen holding and knotting were significantly associated with PD dementia. The presence of any disability in either task was not only sensitive to the presence of dementia but also associated with cognitive disability in moderate and advanced PD patients without dementia. In conclusion, hand fine motor skill disability was associated with cognitive disability in patients with moderate-to-advanced PD. These simple hand fine motor skills may thus be applicable in screening tests for the early identification of cognitive dysfunction in patients with moderate-to-advanced PD.


Thank you, Philip. It is nice to be back with old friends and also to have a chance to make the acquaintance of Ambassador Jones and Attorney General Solis Zelaya, but you may be wondering what I am doing here as an Asian specialist in a conference that is focused on Latin America. And with Phil's introduction I think it is clear that my knowledge of legal and economic development issues, which I hope are more global than parochial, may have some bearing on today's discussion. Also, since Professor Fried made the point about the "Asian contagion" and its possible spread, I am here to say that I am not trying to spread the contagion, but perhaps to suggest some prophylactic measures that can be taken in Latin America to avoid falling ill to the same things that have affected so desperately the markets in certain Asian countries. In fact, if you look in recent Washington Post articles from just the past several weeks, you can see a certain concern about what Henry Kissinger called in one article The Perils of Globalism and how interconnected markets, particularly financial markets, have become. Paul Blustein, The Post's economic correspondent for international matters, wrote in one of the Sunday op-ed pieces about the annus panicus--which, based on my Jesuit education, I do not think is legitimate Latin--based on my Jesuit education--for the IMF and what it means for the global economy. And what I am going to talk about in the short time that I have this morning is essentially what national legal systems and national markets can do as a kind of reinforcing role with respect to what happens on the larger regional and global basis. I want to focus particularly about the role of the U.S. capital markets--which I have studied both as an academic and as a practitioner on Wall Street--and how they have acted to provide liquidity to foreign investors. They do this in a way that enhances overall confidence about economies and markets, but they also try to function as a disciplinary mechanism that allocates capital to more efficient users, penalizes those who fail to pursue shareholder and other stakeholder interests, and hopefully reduce the need for legal intervention in other areas. I will not be able to cover all of this, and as a last-minute replacement for another panelist I am sorry that you do not have a paper in front of you that could flesh out my views. I want to talk almost exclusively about the legalities of securities markets and finance, but I think it is important to note that this is part of a larger enterprise that parallels not only diversification and change in many other related commercial and financial markets, but really speaks to the question of the overall economic, political, and legal reform that is going on around the world, particularly--with the focus of this conference--in our own hemisphere. I think a number of important changes are transforming not only our financial markets but how we think about markets in general. Capital markets are not, any more, domestic or even regional. They are truly global and what happens halfway around the globe can have a very direct effect on what was previously a more insulated national economy. In fact, there are three points that I would make in greater detail if I had more time. I would speak about the increased volatility that flows as a result of this globalization, about the global competitive pressures that it puts secondly on many economies that have previously not had to face that kind of intense scrutiny, and about the attitude of various regions to try to circle the wagons--the European Union is particularly notable in this regard--to try to consolidate their own regulatory regimes but also act in a way that may make it possible for them to withstand the pressures that come from outside. And underlying all this, of course, is a global attitude, which I think was initiated in the United States in the 1970s, about deregulation that complicates the efforts in these areas. …


The purpose of this study was to investigate the concepts prevalent among students in specific physical science related classes and to identify what classroom teachers would do when confronted with this knowledge. A 40 item instrument, Misconception Identification in Science Questionnaire (MISQ), was developed to identify certain concepts in the areas of force, heat, light, and electricity and administered to 509 students. Interviews were conducted with a stratified sampling of 27 students to validate the instrument. Six teachers were observed and interviewed to determine teacher opinion relative to test usefulness, diagnostic testing in general and other instructional factors. Quantitative and qualitative means were utilized to determine test reliability, validity, and usefulness. Item analysis was performed to determine item discrimination ability, as well as test reliability. Students were interviewed using the MISQ items and their oral responses were compared to their answers given on the pen-and-paper test. Confidence and sensibleness ratings were determined for each MISQ item utilizing responses given on the written test. The MISQ was analyzed and determined to have the ability to discriminate among various ability groups and possesses both validity and reliability. Female elementary science methods and physics students performed no better than the male physical science students on the MISQ. In general male students scored higher than their female peers and viewed their responses as more sensible and with more confidence. As age decreased among the students tested with the MISQ the confidence and sensibleness rating tended to decrease. Analysis of teacher interviews revealed three uses of the MISQ instrument in this study. The first of these was in the form of a general informative nature. The second utilized selected items as integral parts of the instructional process. The third used student responses as part of a grouping strategy. Further analysis reveals that the limited use of the MISQ may be due to several factors, both external and internal. External factors include governmental control through curricular and text requirements and societal control through future educational expectations. Internal factors include teacher held concepts of learning in general and specifically those regarding student behaviors used to identify learning.


D prostanoid receptor 2 (DP2) [also known as chemoattractant receptor-homologous molecule expressed on T helper 2 (Th2) cells (CRTH2)] is selectively expressed by Th2 lymphocytes, eosinophils, and basophils and mediates recruitment and activation of these cell types in response to prostaglandin D2 (PGD2). (5-Fluoro-2-methyl-3-quinolin-2-ylmethylindo-1-yl)-acetic acid (OC000459) is an indole-acetic acid derivative that potently displaces [3H]PGD2 from human recombinant DP2 (Ki = 0.013 μM), rat recombinant DP2 (Ki = 0.003 μM), and human native DP2 (Th2 cell membranes; Ki = 0.004 μM) but does not interfere with the ligand binding properties or functional activities of other prostanoid receptors (prostaglandin E1–4 receptors, D prostanoid receptor 1, thromboxane receptor, prostacyclin receptor, and prostaglandin F receptor). OC000459 inhibited chemotaxis (IC50 = 0.028 μM) of human Th2 lymphocytes and cytokine production (IC50 = 0.019 μM) by human Th2 lymphocytes. OC000459 competitively antagonized eosinophil shape change responses induced by PGD2 in both isolated human leukocytes (pKB = 7.9) and human whole blood (pKB = 7.5) but did not inhibit responses to eotaxin, 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid, or complement component C5a. OC000459 also inhibited the activation of Th2 cells and eosinophils in response to supernatants from IgE/anti-IgE-activated human mast cells. OC000459 had no significant inhibitory activity on a battery of 69 receptors and 19 enzymes including cyclooxygenase 1 (COX1) and COX2. OC000459 was found to be orally bioavailable in rats and effective in inhibiting blood eosinophilia induced by 13,14-dihydro-15-keto-PGD2 (DK-PGD2) in this species (ED50 = 0.04 mg/kg p.o.) and airway eosinophilia in response to an aerosol of DK-PGD2 in guinea pigs (ED50 = 0.01 mg/kg p.o.). These data indicate that OC000459 is a potent, selective, and orally active DP2 antagonist that retains activity in human whole blood and inhibits mast cell-dependent activation of both human Th2 lymphocytes and eosinophils.


This study explores the different ways in which social development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) can be enhanced by tapping into the experiences and energies of retirees who should be empowered through active participation in society and engagement with social agency managers and policy-makers. The research was conducted in light of the Islamic principles governing the KSA life and considered a number of sociological and theoretical premises. Consequently, an integrative approach is outlined that sets out to articulate an Islamic vision of active ageing within a participation framework. Methodologically, the theoretical underpinnings of the study are active ageing and approaches to participation while at the analytical level it is a descriptive study, based on social surveys using a cluster sample. The sample consisted of one hundred and fifty retirees in both urban and rural locations in Riyadh. Fifteen additional retirees were selected for unstructured in-depth interviews. Sixteen agency managers were selected for semi-structured interviews; among these five were selected for in- depth unstructured interviews. In order to gauge institutional willingness to accept retirees' participation five policy makers were interviewed. Eighty five per cent of retirees agreed that in their retirement they wished to participate in and contribute to the development of society. The retirees, managers and policy-makers all agreed that there was a need to implement stable and long term social policies to boost the social participation of retirees. Based on the effect of demographic variables on retirees' possible participation, three hypotheses were highlighted. The first concerned actual or past social participation; the second, readiness to participate in future social programmes; and the third, the variety of activities preferred for social programmes. Tests on the hypotheses of the study proved them partially unsubstantiated. In the light of the findings, a framework is proposed to activate the participation of retirees in programmes for the social development of Saudi society.


In the present paper, an experimental investigation on the application of high-speed sweeping jet actuators was carried out. It examines the feasibility of a super sonic exit jet to control boundary layer separation caused by an adverse pressure gradient in a compressible Mach number regime. The first part of the investigation includes a thorough assessment of the used sweeping jet actuator by three dimensional numerical simulations using OpenFoam®. A validation of the results was done by means of schlieren visualization within the actuator and dynamic pressure measurements at the actuator outlet. The outlet signal of the actuator features a characteristic switching frequency of fs ≈ 1200 Hz and a peak Mach number of Ma ≈ 1.4 which was evident in the experiments and the CFD simulation. The supply pressure ratio of the actuator was set to PR = 3.6 using compressed air. The second part of the paper presents the results of the wind tunnel experiments using a test section with the geometry of a half-diffusor ramp equipped with two sweeping jet actuators. Inflow conditions of Mach numbers ranging from Ma∞ = 0.3 to Ma∞ = 0.8 were investigated. The conducted wind tunnel experiments include detailed oil flow surface visualizations and mean surface pressure measurements in order to demonstrate the impact of the active flow control system. By varying the mass flow rate of the actuator system different operating points were studied. The presented results indicate the positive effect of active flow control regarding the pressure rise over the ramp in a compressible Mach number regime. The separated flow region was significantly reduced.


We prove that the sequence of projective quantum SU(n) representations of the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface, obtained from the projective flat SU(n)-Verlinde bundles over Teichm?uller space, is asymptotically faithful. That is, the intersection over all levels of the kernels of these representations is trivial, whenever the genus is at least 3. For the genus 2 case, this intersection is exactly the order 2 subgroup, generated by the hyper-elliptic involution, in the case of even degree and n = 2. Otherwise the intersection is also trivial in the genus 2 case.


Abstract. The observation of waves that propagate along density interfaces inside the ocean poses a significant challenge, as their visible surface signatures are much lower compared to their internal amplitudes. However, monitoring internal waves is important as they redistribute large amounts of energy, play a role in mixing and vertical heat transfer, and modify water and nutrient transports. Although satellite observations would allow global monitoring of internal waves at constant time intervals, their automatic detection is challenging: In optical images, internal waves are hardly visible and can be obscured by clouds, whereas radar data have limitations in coastal regions and their spatial coverage is not perfect. Furthermore, the occurrence of internal waves can be confused with other ocean phenomena. In this work, we present an automated detection framework for internal waves based on multiple data sources in order to compensate for the shortcoming of single data sources. In our application, we use Ocean and Land Color Imager and Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter data. Our contributions are (1) we develop a multi-modal deep neural network SONet with multi-streams and late fusion, which performs a classification on the basis of training with both modalities, and (2) we establish a method to deal with missing modalities. Experiments in the Amazon Shelf region show SONet achieves adequate results when both modalities are available, but also when only a single modality is available. By exploiting correlations between the modalities, SONet classifies OLCI images off the SRAL ground track better than uni-modal network ONet, which describes a great advantage of our multi-modal network.


Bipolar disorder is often seen as a perplexing illness by patients and clinicians alike. In recent years, there has been a growing appreciation in psychiatric circles of the disorder's prevalence. This increased attention has filtered its way down to the general public, which, in turn, has produced sometimes sensationalistic media portrayals of manic depression, a number of speculative books about historic figures and noted artists who purportedly had the illness, and an array of self-help books marketed to individuals (and their families) afflicted with the disorder.


The antenna and the Doppler estimation characteristics of a coherent pulsed lidar intended for short-range aerosol backscatter applications have been analyzed. The system used fiber-optic interconnects and operated at a wavelength of 1.548 microm. The range dependence of the signal for various bistatic and monostatic antenna configurations has been determined. The system operated in a low-pulse-energy, high-pulse-repetition-rate mode, and the Doppler estimates from the return signal were achieved with a multipulse accumulation procedure. The expected performance of the accumulation in this low-photocount regime was compared with the data obtained from the system, and a reasonable level of agreement was demonstrated.


Co-crystals and co-amorphous systems are two strategies to improve the physical properties of an active pharmaceutical ingredient and, thus, have recently gained considerable interest both in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. In this study, the behavior of the recently identified sodium naproxen-lactose-tetrahydrate co-crystal and the co-amorphous mixture of sodium, naproxen, and lactose was investigated. The structure of the co-crystal is described using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structural analysis revealed a monoclinic lattice, space group P21, with the asymmetric unit containing one molecule of lactose, one of naproxen, sodium, and four water molecules. Upon heating, it was observed that the co-crystal transforms into a co-amorphous system due to the loss of its crystalline bound water. Dehydration and co-amorphization were studied using synchrotron X-ray radiation and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Subsequently, different processing techniques (ball milling, spray drying, and dehydration) were used to prepare the co-amorphous mixture of sodium, naproxen, and lactose. X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) revealed the amorphous nature of the mixtures after preparation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis showed that the blends were single-phase co-amorphous systems as indicated by a single glass transition temperature. The samples were subsequently tested for physical stability under dry (silica gel at 25 and 40 °C) and humid conditions (25 °C/75% RH). The co-amorphous samples stored at 25 °C/75% RH quickly recrystallized into the co-crystalline state. On the other hand, the samples stored under dry conditions remained physically stable after five months of storage, except the ball milled sample stored at 40 °C which showed signs of recrystallization. Under these dry conditions, however, the ball-milled co-amorphous blend crystallized into the individual crystalline components.


We present contemporaneous X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, near-infrared, and radio observations of the black hole binary system, A0620-00, acquired in 2010 March. Using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have obtained the first FUV spectrum of A0620-00 as well as NUV observations with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The observed spectrum is flat in the FUV and very faint (with continuum fluxes ≃ 1e − 17 erg cm−2 s−1 Å−1). The UV spectra also show strong, broad (FWHM ∼ 2000 km s−1) emission lines of Si iv, C iv, He ii, Fe ii, and Mg ii. The C iv doublet is anomalously weak compared to the other lines, which is consistent with the low carbon abundance seen in NIR spectra of the source. Comparison of these observations with previous NUV spectra of A0620-00 shows that the UV flux has varied by factors of 2–8 over several years. We compiled the dereddened, broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) of A0620-00 and compared it to previous SEDs as well as theoretical models. The SEDs show that the source varies at all wavelengths for which we have multiple samples. Contrary to previous observations, the optical–UV spectrum does not continue to drop to shorter wavelengths, but instead shows a recovery and an increasingly blue spectrum in the FUV. We created an optical–UV spectrum of A0620-00 with the donor star contribution removed. The non-stellar spectrum peaks at ≃3000 Å. The peak can be fit with a T = 10,000 K blackbody with a small emitting area, probably originating in the hot spot where the accretion stream impacts the outer disk. However, one or more components in addition to the blackbody are needed to fit the FUV upturn and the red optical fluxes in the optical–UV spectrum. By comparing the mass accretion rate determined from the hot spot luminosity to the mean accretion rate inferred from the outburst history, we find that the latter is an order of magnitude smaller than the former, indicating that ∼90% of the accreted mass must be lost from the system if the predictions of the disk instability model and the estimated interoutburst interval are correct. The mass accretion rate at the hot spot is 105 the accretion rate at the black hole inferred from the X-ray luminosity. To reconcile these requires that outflows carry away virtually all of the accreted mass, a very low rate of mass transfer from the outer cold disk into the inner hot region, and/or radiatively inefficient accretion. We compared our broadband SED to two models of A0620-00 in quiescence: the advection-dominated accretion flow model and the maximally jet-dominated model. The comparison suggests that strong outflows may be present in the system, indicated by the discrepancies in accretion rates and the FUV upturn in flux in the SED.


Secondary postpartum hemorrhage is defined as vaginal bleeding from 24 hours after delivery to 6 weeks postpartum, rarely caused by uterine dehiscence. A 25-year-old lady, parity 2, live 2, abortion 1, with previous two cesarean section presented on postoperative day 42 with heavy bleeding per vaginum and pain abdomen since one day. The patient had history of PPH for which medical management and evacuation was done within ten days of surgery. On examination, patient was anemic, 50 cc clots removed per vaginum. Ultrasound showed RPOCs; evacuation was done under antibiotic cover. Beta hCG and ultrasound Doppler were obtained to rule out gestational trophoblastic tumor and AV malformation respectively. Injection methotrexate was given when patient continued to have bleeding per vaginum on and off. On postoperative day 52, patient developed heavy bleeding, that did not respond to medical management. The patient was taken for emergency hysterectomy after consent was given. Peroperatively, bladder was found adherent to scar as well as scar dehiscence. Tissue around scar was found necrotic. Total abdominal hysterectomy was performed. The patient was discharged on day four in stable condition. Aim of this case study is to emphasize the-; diagnosis of uterine scar dehiscence as a cause of secondary PPH that requires a high index of suspicion in patients who are not responding to medical or surgical management;with infection and anemia. Uterine Scar Dehiscence Rare Cause of Secondary Postpartum Hemorrhage – A Case Report Pragati Aggarwal, Zara Ali, Asha Sharma


Virtual spatial audio often utilizes the inverse-square law to model the relationship between intensity and distance for sources in the far-field. The present study explores the potential advantages of an "inverse-Nth" law, where N is greater than two, for dense, noisy environments where sources are distributed over a wide range of distances, or potentially sparse environments where the distance varies little. The findings of the study show significantly improved listener search and recall performance, without affecting sound search time, when using an inverse-8th law.


Across a wide range of scientific communities, there is growing interest in accelerating and improving the progress of scholarship by making the peer review process more open. Multiple new publication venues and services are arising, especially in the life sciences, but each represents a single point in the multidimensional landscape of paper and review access for authors, reviewers and readers. In this paper, we introduce a vocabulary for describing the landscape of choices regarding open access, formal peer review, and public commentary. We argue that the opportunities and pitfalls of open peer review warrant experimentation in these dimensions, and discuss desiderata of a flexible system. We close by describing OpenReview.net, our web-based system in which a small set of flexible primitives support a wide variety of peer review choices, and which provided the reviewing infrastructure for the 2013 International Conference on Learning Representations. We intend this software to enable trials of di!erent policies, in order to help scientific communities explore open scholarship while addressing legitimate concerns regarding confidentiality, attribution, and bias.


'Balancing the Tides' highlights the influence of marine practices and policies in the unincorporated territory of American Sāmoa on the local indigenous group, the American fishing industry, international seafood consumption, U.S. environmental programs, as well as global ecological and native concerns. Poblete explains how U.S. federal fishing programs in the post–World War II period encouraged labor based out of American Sāmoa to catch and can one-third of all tuna for United States consumption until 2009. Labeled "Made in the USA," this commodity was sometimes caught by non-U.S. regulated ships, produced under labor standards far below continental U.S. minimum wage and maximum work hours, and entered U.S. jurisdiction tax free.

The second half of the book explores the tensions between indigenous and U.S. federal government environmental goals and ecology programs. Whether creating the largest National Marine Sanctuary under U.S. jurisdiction or collecting basic data on local fishing, initiatives that balanced western-based and native expectations for respectful community relationships and appropriate government programs fared better than those that did not acknowledge the positionality of all groups involved. Despite being under the direct authority of the United States, American Sāmoans have maintained a degree of local autonomy due to the Deeds of Cession signed with the U.S. Navy at the turn of the twentieth century that created shared indigenous and federal governance in the region.

Balancing the Tides demonstrates how western-style economics, policy-making, and knowledge building imposed by the U.S. federal government have been infused into the daily lives of American Sāmoans. American colonial efforts to protect natural resources based on western approaches intersect with indigenous insistence on adhering to customary principles of respect, reciprocity, and native rights in complicated ways. Experiences and lessons learned from these case studies provide insight into other tensions between colonial governments and indigenous peoples engaging in environmental and marine-based policy-making across the Pacific and the globe. This study connects the U.S.-American Sāmoa colonial relationship to global overfishing, world consumption patterns, the for-profit fishing industry, international environmental movements and studies, as well as native experiences and indigenous rights.

Open Access publication of this book was made possible by the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, an initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


Background: Understanding the brain function and how it coordinate the motor activity, means to have a map of brain using a lot of modern technologies which can give us information about the role and functions of different brain areas. Objective: The aim of our study is to explore the brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) and make the evaluation of differences in brain functions depend on specific sport activity. Methods: We make the study on two lots of athletes from judo (12subjects) and volleyball (11subjects), yrs. 22. All of them have a great sport activity experience and the anthropometric characteristics are similar. For recording the brain activity we use Nihon EEG product. The protocol of the research includes recording of brain activity during muscle contraction and relax of hand flexors. The parameters that we follow up are alpha1, alpha2 and theta waves. The information have been analysed using statistic methods and Pearson coefficient. Judo players present a little bit increase values of theta waves and we observe also a correlation between alpha waves for dominant hemisphere. For the second lot the the values of theta waves are highest. Conclusions: Analyse the behaviour of EEG waves could help the trainer and staff for approach the training results in term of build the brain and motor pattern. This is the result of professional approach of training based on neurophysiologic assessment using the brain mapping.


Coiled tubing (CT) drilling has grown tremendously in the last few years. In spite of the many technological advances that have accompanied this growth, one significant remaining challenge is effective cuttings transport, particularly in deviated wells. This paper presents a summary of cuttings transport problems and current solutions (including fluid selection, flow rates, and operational techniques such as short trips and pumping viscous slugs). It is shown that in many circumstances hole cleaning is more efficient if a low-viscosity fluid is pumped in turbulent flow rather than a high-viscosity fluid in laminar flow. Several detailed case studies are presented that illustrate both severe cuttings transport problems and routine applications without cuttings transport difficulties. The proposed hole cleaning models are used to interpret these data and suggest possible alternative approaches. Hole cleaning relying on viscous fluids in laminar flow has proved to be inefficient because of the inability to rotate the string to agitate bedded cuttings. Alternatively, a high flow rate for turbulent hole cleaning is more effective, but difficult to achieve because of high friction pressures in the coiled tubing. Therefore, a cuttings bed is almost always present in CT (or any slide) drilling. This has a major operational impact resulting from required remedial activities, increased risk of stuck pipe and the inability to attain the desired reach. Two novel approaches to understanding hole cleaning are introduced. First, for laminar flow, the distance that a particle will travel (downstream) before it falls across the annulus clearance is calculated using Stokes' law and the local viscosity while flowing. This analysis may be easily applied to optimize mud selection and wiper trips. Applying this model to high low-shear-rate-viscosity (LSRV) gels shows that they may perform well inside casing but are expected to do a poor job of hole cleaning in a narrow openhole horizontal annulus without rotation. Second, for turbulent flow in horizontal wells, the concept of using annular velocity (AV) as a measure of hole cleaning is shown to be insufficient. A more complete term called AVRD is introduced, which is the product of the AV and the square root of the hydraulic diameter. This term should be used to compare cuttings transport in turbulent flow in horizontal wells of different cross sectional areas.


A secure roaming protocol for mobile networks is proposed. Roaming has been analysed in some schemes from the security point of view; however, there are vulnerabilities in most of them and so the claimed security level is not achieved. The scheme offered by Wan et al. recently is based on hierarchical identity-based encryption, in which the roaming user and the foreign network mutually authenticate each other without the help of the home network. Although the idea behind this proposal is interesting, it contradicts technical considerations such as routing and billing. The proposed protocol makes use of similar functions used in Wan et al.'s scheme but contributes a distinguished structure that overcomes the previous shortcomings and achieves a higher possible level of security in mobile roaming as well as enhancing the security of the key issuing procedure.


Abstract Market mechanisms are increasingly being used as a tool for allocating somewhat scarce but unpriced rights and resources, and the European Emission Trading Scheme is an example. By means of dynamic optimization in the contest of firms covered by such environmental regulations, this article generates endogenously the price dynamics of emission permits under asymmetric information, allowing inter-temporal banking and borrowing. In the market, there are a finite number of firms and each firm's pollution emission follows an exogenously given stochastic process. We prove the discounted permit price is a martingale with respect to the relevant filtration. The model is solved numerically. Finally, a closed-form pricing formula for European-style options is derived.


Code coverage is a popular method to find design bugs and verification loopholes. However, once a piece of code is determined to be unreachable, diagnosing the cause of the problem can be challenging: since the code is unreachable, no counterexample can be returned for debugging. Therefore, engineers need to analyze the legality of nonexistent execution paths, which can be difficult. To address such a problem, we analyzed the cause of unreachability in several industrial designs and proposed a diagnosis technique that can explain the cause of unreachability. In addition, our method provides suggestions on how to solve the un-reachability problem, which can further facilitate debugging. Our experimental results show that this technique can greatly reduce an engineer's effort in analyzing unreachable code.


This guide to the unique theatrical venues of London, from 1567, when the first playhouse was built, to 1642, when Cromwell closed them down, sets out the rich dramatic history of this period in relation to the latest exciting archaeological evidence. The book also details the people involved - the builders, actors, playwrights and audiences - what they wore and what they ate, where they drank, where they fought, where they lived and died. There are theatrical quotes and jokes, and illustrations old and new, while a series of walks explores different areas of today's London, where glimpses of Shakespeare's London can still be caught.


When solving two-player zero-sum games, multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithms often create populations of agents where, at each iteration, a new agent is discovered as the best response to a mixture over the opponent population. Within such a process, the update rules of"who to compete with"(i.e., the opponent mixture) and"how to beat them"(i.e., finding best responses) are underpinned by manually developed game theoretical principles such as fictitious play and Double Oracle. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework -- Neural Auto-Curricula (NAC) -- that leverages meta-gradient descent to automate the discovery of the learning update rule without explicit human design. Specifically, we parameterise the opponent selection module by neural networks and the best-response module by optimisation subroutines, and update their parameters solely via interaction with the game engine, where both players aim to minimise their exploitability. Surprisingly, even without human design, the discovered MARL algorithms achieve competitive or even better performance with the state-of-the-art population-based game solvers (e.g., PSRO) on Games of Skill, differentiable Lotto, non-transitive Mixture Games, Iterated Matching Pennies, and Kuhn Poker. Additionally, we show that NAC is able to generalise from small games to large games, for example training on Kuhn Poker and outperforming PSRO on Leduc Poker. Our work inspires a promising future direction to discover general MARL algorithms solely from data.


Dementia is the most expensive disease in the United States and its prevalence is rapidly increasing as the older adult population grows. The number of older adults diagnosed with dementia living alone is also rising, which brings about numerous safety risks. Due to the declining cognitive skills and behavior changes seen with dementia, it is important find approaches for monitoring their safety. This literature review discusses commercially available monitoring systems and empirical studies using sensor technology with older adults. It also describes a current pilot study that is exploring the use of sensor technology in the homes of cognitively impaired elders as a means to monitor the safety of these individuals. Objectives: 1) To test the feasibility of sensor technology in the home of cognitively impaired older persons living alone. 2) To evaluate the clinical value of sensor data from participating subjects. Methods: Exploratory study with a non-randomized sample of 10 subjects. Subjects will be recruited from a local healthcare organization for frail and vulnerable older adults. Sensors will be installed in the homes of subjects and data will be collected and compared to baseline routine information to detect behavior, cognitive, and condition changes over a six-month period. Outcomes: 1) It will provide important data about behavior outside the clinical setting for highrisk elders. 2) The acceptability of the technology and its impact on clinical care will be assessed through a survey administered to CentraCare staff. Conclusions: The use of sensor technology in the homes of older adults with cognitive impairments has the potential to decrease healthcare costs and increase quality of life. SENSOR TECHNOLOGY FOR SUPPORTING INDEPENDENCE 3 Sensor Technology for Supporting Independence Among Cognitively Impaired Elders Dementia is the most expensive disease in the United States and its prevalence is rapidly increasing as the older adult population grows. Annual payments for health care for those diagnosed with dementia is projected to increase from $214 billion in 2014 to $1.2 trillion in 2050. 1 These costs are affected by the rising number of diagnoses in the United States; 1-in-8 Americans age 65 and older have been diagnosed with this disease and this number is expected to double by 2050 because of the growing older adult population. 1 In 2010, the US Census reported there was over 40.3 million adults aged 65+ in the United States and this number is estimated to more than double to 88.5 million by 2050. 2


It is argued that land is perhaps the most essential resource and an important pillar of national development. In Uganda, the management of land is regulated by the 1995 constitution and the Land Act of 1998, which recognise four tenure systems, namely; Customary, Mailo, Freehold and Leasehold tenure systems, each of which possess unique features and associated ownership rights. This study analysed important dimensions largely of a locational and regional nature, on tenure system and the value of agricultural land. The general objective was to investigate the determinants of the value of agricultural land in Uganda. The study hypothesized that institutional factors such as land titles were important determinants of agricultural land prices in Uganda; that there was a significant premium for agricultural land with title/certificate relative to that without, and that the premium for agricultural land with a freehold title was significantly higher than that for other titles/certificates. Data was obtained from the third round of the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) conducted by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) during the 2004/2005 crop year. Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression techniques using 9,045 parcel level observations were used to answer the study objectives. Results showed that region, location in the peri-urban and institutional factors such as leasehold title were the major determinants of the value of agricultural land in Uganda. Compared to the Central region, agricultural land in the Eastern and Northern regions had significantly lower prices suggesting a high demand for land in the urbanising Central. Results from the characterisation of agricultural land ownership systems revealed that mailo tenure was dominant in the Central region, whereas customary tenure was dominant in the other regions of Uganda. However, current agricultural use, soil quality, trees/perennials, as well as proximity of agricultural land which were associated with higher land values in developed countries were not generally capitalised into the price of agricultural land. The study recommended that the current land policy should promote the leasehold system in upcoming cities/ or urbanising areas, since it opens land to a wide range of users and use-options to encourage allocation of land to the best alternative uses. The land policy should also address the double ownership structure under mailo tenure which constrains its marketability and transferability, and probably services to discount its price. This can be done possibly by facilitating arrangements for single ownership of land such that either the landlord willingly sells off his ownership rights to the tenant; or the tenant accepts compensation to leave the land; or alternatively the two parties could agree to share the land. Further research was recommended to explore the benefits of freehold title since it is viewed as the tenure system of the future. More research is also needed on the impact of converting one form of land tenure to another, for instance, on the conversion of customary land to freehold, since it is the dominant tenure system in Uganda.


A valence fluctuating phenomenon, which is one of the most interesting subjects in strongly correlated electron systems, has been studied theoretically in EuNi2(Si0.18Ge0.82)2, in which the field-induced valence transition from a nonmagnetic Eu3+ state (4f6) to a magnetic Eu2+ state (4f7c1) was observed at around 40 Tesla by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at Eu L-edges. Here, c denotes a hole in a conduction band. Both XAS and XMCD in fields exhibit two peaks corresponding to the two valence states, although one of them is nonmagnetic. In this paper, we propose a model to explain the field-induced valence transition, in which the hybridization between the 4f6 state and the 4f7c1 state plays an essential role. Comparing XAS and XMCD calculated with experimental data, we find that XAS and XMCD provide us with detailed microscopic information on the mixed valence state through the polarized 5d electrons. Finally, we demonstrate how effective XAS and XMCD are for studying such mixed valence phenomena.


Abstract: Several studies have looked at how individual environmental factors influence needle morphology in conifer trees, but interacting effects between drought and canopy position have received little attention. In this study, we characterized morphological responses to experimentally induced drought stress in sun exposed and shaded current-year Norway spruce needles. In the drought plot trees were suffering mild drought stress, with an average soil water potential at 50 cm depth of -0.4 MPa. In general, morphological needle traits had greater values in sun needles in the upper canopy than in shaded needles in the lower canopy. Needle morphology 15 months after the onset of drought was determined by canopy position, as only sun needle morphology was affected by drought. Thus, canopy position was a stronger morphogenic factor determining needle structure than was water availability. The largest influence of mild drought was observed for needle length, projected needle area and total needle area, which all were reduced by ~27% relative to control trees. Needle thickness and needle width showed contrasting sensitivity to drought, as drought only affected needle thickness (10% reduction). Needle dry mass, leaf mass per area and needle density were not affected 15 months after the onset of mild drought. Our results highlight the importance of considering canopy position as well as water availability when comparing needle structure or function between conifer species. More knowledge about how different canopy parts of Norway spruce adapt to drought is important to understand forest productivity under changing environmental conditions.


Objective. To identify a biomarker for prediction of the response to infliximab (IFX) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we focused on a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 5 (ADAMTS5) that seems to play a key role in aggrecan degradation in cartilage. Methods. Seventy-three randomly selected patients with active RA were treated with IFX. Peripheral blood samples were collected at baseline and ADAMTS5 messenger RNA (mRNA) was quantified using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results. Baseline ADAMTS5 mRNA levels in the good responder group were significantly lower (1.84 ± 1.56; p = 0.0408) than those in the moderate and nonresponder groups (2.54 ± 1.70) at 38 weeks of treatment with IFX. The 28-joint count Disease Activity Score (DAS28) at 38 weeks of treatment was significantly lower in the low ADAMTS5 group (2.30 ± 1.28; p = 0.0038) than in the high ADAMTS5 group (3.90 ± 1.61). The percentage reduction of the DAS28 was significantly higher in the low ADAMTS5 group (52.5% ± 28.8%; p = 0.0156) than in the high ADAMTS5 group (29.4% ± 27.2%). Further, the Δ Health Assessment Questionnaire (ΔHAQ) score, an estimate of the improvement in the HAQ score, at 38 weeks of treatment was significantly higher in the low ADAMTS5 group (1.18 ± 0.60; p = 0.0102) than in the high ADAMTS5 group (0.21 ± 0.78). The positive predictive value of a low baseline ADAMTS5 level for predicting good response and remission (DAS28 < 2.6 at 38 weeks) was 90.0% and 70.0%, respectively. Conclusion. The baseline ADAMTS5 mRNA level is a candidate biomarker for prediction of the response to IFX in patients with RA.


Objectives
We examined the effects of the food preservative, tert-Butylhydroquinone (tBHQ), on natural killer (NK) cells when infected with influenza in C57Bl/6 mice. Previously, we found tBHQ to negatively impact splenic NK cell effector function in vitro. Therefore, we hypothesized that the consumption of tBHQ would impair the NK cell response against a primary influenza virus infection.

Methods
Female, C57Bl/6 mice were fed either a diet containing 0.0014% tBHQ or a control diet two weeks prior to infection. Mice were instilled intranasally with 21.78 HAU of influenza A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) and were monitored for two days. Body weight was recorded as a measurement for infection. After day two of infection, lungs were collected and processed for analysis by flow cytometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC).

Results
The NK cell activation markers, CD25 and CD69, were not affected by tBHQ consumption. Additionally, tBHQ did not have an effect on maturation of NK cells or interferon (IFN)γ production. Notably, NK cell expression of granzyme B was significantly decreased with tBHQ in infected mice. Furthermore, mice on the tBHQ diet showed decreased TAC after two days of infection compared to mice on the control diet, suggesting increased oxidative stress in the tBHQ group.

Conclusions
tBHQ had no effect on NK cell activation, maturation, and IFNγ production after two days of influenza infection. However, decreased expression of granzyme B by NK cells suggests tBHQ may impair NK cell cytoxicity during the infection. Moreover, the decrease in TAC suggests increased oxidative stress in the tBHQ-treated mice.

Funding Sources
This study was funded by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES024966).


Context. Frequencies of acoustic and mixed modes in red giant stars are now determined with high precision thanks to the long continuous observations provided by the NASA's Kepler mission. Here we consider the eigenfrequencies of nineteen low-luminosity red giant stars selected by Corsaro et al. (2015) for a detailed peak-bagging analysis. Aims. Our objective is to obtain stellar parameters by using individual mode frequencies and spectroscopic information. Methods. We use a forward modelling technique based on a minimization procedure combining the frequencies of the p modes, the period spacing of the dipolar modes, and the spectroscopic data. Results. Consistent results between the forward modelling technique and values derived from the seismic scaling relations are found but the errors derived using the former technique are lower. The average error for log g is 0.002 dex, compared to 0.011 dex from the frequency of maximum power, νmax, and 0.10 dex from the spectroscopic analysis. Relative errors in the masses and radii are on average 2% and 0.5% respectively, compared to 3% and 2% derived from the scaling relations. No reliable determination of the initial helium abundances and the mixing length parameters could be made. Finally, for our grid of models with a given input physics, we found that low-mass stars require higher values of the overshooting parameter.


The study of erythrocyte aggregation and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is very important both for basic research and medical applications. The duration of the Westergren ESR test is one hour which seems excessive. The hematocrit and conductivity of blood demonstrate high correlation. This makes it possible to evaluate the erythrocyte aggregation kinetics and ESR by measuring changes in the blood conductivity. We measured the time-dependent changes in conductivity at the bottom of the blood column during sedimentation. A digital camera is used to obtain the blood sedimentation curve and to determine the hematocrit profile. The effective conductivity of blood is calculated based on effective medium theory. Simple analytical expressions are derived to extrapolate changes in blood conductivity over time. We proposed an improved physical model of sedimentation which reveals additional information about the kinetics of blood sedimentation and erythrocyte aggregation. An explicit expression is obtained to characterize the rate of aggregate formation. A numerical model was developed to investigate these mechanisms, and it was tested by comparing simulation results with experimental data. Based on our model, the ESR, blood sedimentation curve and hematocrit profiles can be numerically restored using only the first 400 seconds of the recorded changes in blood conductivity. The proposed technique allows measuring the erythrocyte aggregation as well as the sedimentation kinetics. The changes in blood conductivity at the bottom of the blood column at the initial stage of sedimentation reliably reflect the erythrocyte aggregation kinetics and ESR over time.


Abstract The thermal diffusivity of diopside, jadeite and enstatite were measured at simultaneous pressures and temperatures of up to 7 GPa and 1200 K using the X-radiographic Ångström method. The measurements herein show that the pressure dependency of thermal diffusivity in pyroxenes is significantly greater than in olivine or garnet and that in the MORB-layer of a subducting slab the thermal diffusivity of pyroxenes are a factor of 1.5 greater than that of olivine. The temperature dependence of all the data sets is well described by a low-order polynomial fit to 1/K and the pressure dependence is exponential in 1/K, formulations which are consistent with the damped harmonic oscillator model for thermal properties.


We have previously shown that prostatic stem cells are located in the proximal region of mouse prostatic ducts. Here, we show that this region responds differently to transforming growth factor (TGF)-β than the distal ductal region and that under physiological conditions androgens and TGF-β are crucial overall regulators of prostatic tissue homeostasis. This conclusion is supported by the observations showing that high levels of TGF-β signaling are present in the quiescent proximal region of ducts in an androgen-replete animal and that cells in this region overexpress Bcl-2, which protects them from apoptosis. Moreover, androgen ablation reverses the proximal-distal TGF-β signaling gradient, leading to an increase in TGF-β signaling in the unprotected distal region (low Bcl-2 expression). This reversal of TGF-β–mediated signaling accompanies apoptosis of cells in the distal region and gland involution after androgen withdrawal. A physiological TGF-β signaling gradient (high proximally and low distally) and its functional correlates are restored after androgen replenishment. In addition to highlighting the regulatory role of androgens and TGF-β, these findings may have important implications for the deregulation of the stem cell compartment in the etiology of proliferative prostatic diseases.


After last year's the discovery of the Higgs boson by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, the guessing began: Who would win the Nobel for the Higgs? This week, the Nobel physics committee announced they had settled on Peter Higgs and Francois Englert, two of the gaggle of theorists who proposed a mechanism that gives force-carrying fundamental particles mass and that required the existence of the now-famous boson. Meanwhile, the selectors for the physiology or medicine prize honored three biologists who explored various aspects of how cells package, transport, and release their internal proteins.


Large scale simulations easily produce vast amounts of data that cannot always be evaluated in-situ. At that point parallel file systems come into play, but their per node performance is essentially limited to about the speed of a USB 2.0 thumb drive (e.g. the Spider file system at OLCF provides over 1 TB/s write bandwidth, but with 18000+ nodes of Titan writing simultaneously, this number is reduced to about 50 MB/s per node). Making the most out of such a limited resource requires I/O libraries that actually scale. In addition such libraries also offer on the fly data transformations (e.g. compression) to better utilize the raw I/O bandwidth, albeit, opening a new can of worms by trading compression throughput with compression ratios for performance. We will present a detailed study of I/O performance and various compression techniques at OLCF and compare them against smaller local I/O installations, demonstrating the highest achieved I/O performance for real world applications at OLCF. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the best performing I/O setup can be determined prior to starting the job based on hardware characteristics.
Now that you have your data on disk the clock starts ticking and you are fighting against the deadline until your data will be purged, since most centers only offer the high performing storage spaces on a temporary basis. Extracting all valuable information out of a petabyte sized data set requires parallel processing as well and induces wait times until the resources are available and quite naturally a lot of trial-and-error for the evaluation. The time constraint for keeping the temporary data becomes even more troublesome when trying to compare multiple large simulations that naturally have a delay of multiple days until they are scheduled and write their results. And ideally analysis could embrace the data of multiple simulations of a quarterly accounted, yet year-long computing campaign. Another challenge for actually conducting scientific discoveries comes when utilizing multiple compute sites. This seems to be rather usual for research groups as they will use all the compute clock cycles they
can get wherever that may be. For comparative studies the data sets now need to be available at the same time for analysis, e.g. via archiving solutions or transfer to one location. The achievable transfer bandwidth between data centers is in our experience still much lower than expected. The talk will also present on the experiences of evaluating petabyte sized data sets in such a diverse environment.


Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent developmental disability in the United States and can compromise a child's behavioral and intellectual development. We used a longitudinal birth cohort from Pittsburgh, PA to study maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) in relation to 1) offspring intelligence and executive function at age ten 2) offspring behavior and ADHD symptoms at age ten 3) offspring academic achievement at ages six, ten, and fourteen. Mother-child pairs (n=763) from the Maternal Health Practices and Child Development pregnancy cohort were followed from <21 weeks gestation to 14 years postpartum. Self-reported total GWG was classified using gestational-age standardized z-score charts and BMI was categorized in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Validated assessment tools were used to measure child intelligence, executive function, and behaviors consistent with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as academic achievement. Compared with children of normal weight mothers, offspring of obese mothers had 3.2 lower IQ points (95% CI: -5.6, -0.8), were 12.7 seconds slower on the executive function scale (95% CI: 2.8, 22.7), and had increased problem behaviors consistent with ADHD including withdrawn or somatic complaints (adj β: 4.9 points, 95% CI: 1.7, 8.1), delinquent or aggressive behaviors (adj β: 4.2 points, 95% CI: 1.1, 7.3), and attention problems (adj β: 3.5 points, 95% CI: 1.2, 5.8) after adjusting for confounders. Academic achievement was also lower among children of obese mothers, compared with children of normal weight mothers. In generalized estimating equation models, high GWG was significantly associated with a 4 point decrease in reading (adjβ: -3.75, 95% CI: -7.1, -0.4) and spelling scores (adjβ: -3.90, 95% CI: -7.8, -0.2) at ages 6, 10, and 14. There was a non-significant trend towards lower offspring domain-specific cognition with high maternal GWG. This dissertation is important to public health because pre-pregnancy BMI and GWG are potentially modifiable factors and a reduction in obesity and excessive GWG could alleviate, although not eliminate, the burden of ADHD and related impairments in the population.


Regulation A offers small businesses an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. The exemption is generally consistent with the obligation of the Securities and Exchange Commission to fashion exemptions that balance investor protection and capital formation. From the perspective of small businesses, the exemption may appear to provide an efficient access to external capital.Regulation A, however, has fallen into nearly complete disuse. The millions of small businesses in this country, all of which at some point need external capital to survive and grow, simply do not use Regulation A.Two reasons account for small businesses' non-use of Regulation A. First, the disclosure and filing requirements for Regulation A are somewhat out of balance, unnecessarily increasing the relative offering costs. Second, and much more important, is the impact of the registration provisions of state securities laws. The added burden – and expense – of meeting the state registration requirements simply price Regulation A out of the marketplace for exemptions.Congress recently passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act). Title IV of the JOBS Act delegates to the Commission broad authority to enact new regulations that cure the problems that made Regulation A unusable.Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the Commission will step up to its responsibility to enact regulations that provide small businesses with efficient access to external capital. Historically, the Commission has shown an unwillingness to expand by regulation the preemption of state authority over the registration of securities. Without preemption, the new regulatory regime under Title IV of the JOBS Act will be useless to small businesses in search of external capital.Such an outcome would amount to an abdication of the Commission's responsibilities to enact regulations that balance investor protection and capital formation.


The management of adult dental trauma can be a daunting challenge for practitioners at any level. Like medical emergencies, initial management can have a large influence on prognosis. It is important that practitioners understand the basic principles of managing the acute presentations of dental trauma. This article aims to illustrate a step-by-step approach in order to improve the management within general dental practice for better outcomes for patients.


Examining legal ethics within the framework of modern practice, this book identifies two important ethical issues that all lawyers confront: the difference between the role of lawyers and the role of judges in pursuing justice, and the conflicting responsibilities lawyers have to their clients and to the legal system more broadly. In addressing these issues, Legal Ethics provides an explanation of the duties and dilemmas common to practicing lawyers in modern legal systems throughout the world. The authors focus their analysis on lawyers in independent practice in modern capitalist constitutional regimes, including the United States, Japan, Europe, and Latin America, as well as the emerging legal systems in China and the former Soviet bloc, to develop connections between the legal profession and political systems based on the rule of law. They find that although ethical tension is inherent in the legal practice of all these societies, the legal profession is essential to stable political institutions.


Hardware impairments in physical transceivers are known to have a deleterious effect on communication systems; however, very few contributions have investigated their impact on relaying. This paper quantifies the impact of transceiver impairments in a two-way amplify-and-forward configuration. More specifically, the effective signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratios at both transmitter nodes are obtained. These are used to deduce exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions for the outage probabilities (OPs), as well as tractable formulations for the symbol error rates (SERs). It is explicitly shown that non-zero lower bounds on the OP and SER exist in the high-power regime-this stands in contrast to the special case of ideal hardware, where the OP and SER go asymptotically to zero.


The problem of the unity of the sentence is to explain how a sentence manages to say something, to 'make a move in the language-game'. In the particular case of the declarative sentence, which is characterized essentially by its ability to say something true or false (cf. Aristotle De Int. ch. 4), the challenge is to explain how the sentence as a whole manages to attract this property, given that its components do not have it. In his book Language, Thought and Falsehood in Ancient Greek Thought, Nicholas Denyer implicitly commits himself to two conflicting accounts of what this unity consists in. The conflict is illuminating because it can be seen as giving expression to two attractive but apparently opposed thoughts on the nature of the sentence: the thought that all significant components of a sentence must have reference, or semantic role (a position which in the writings of Donald Davidson and Michael Dummett is truistic), and the thought that the semantically significant components of the sentence cannot all be names, since then the sentence would lose its peculiar unity — its ability to say something (true or false) — and degenerate into a mere list. In this paper I shall try, using Denyer's text as my point of departure, to resolve the conflict by suggesting how a unified sentence can, after all, be composed of names. The first account which Denyer gives of the unity of the sentence is not offered as such, but it emerges from his discussion of the differences between three primitive kinds of language, which he calls Agglomerative (A), Orthographic (O) and Sentential (S). The three languages have in common that their basic 'sentences' all consist of linear strings of unambiguous names of primary elements, themselves arranged linearly. Thereafter they diverge in the following respects. In A and O, these basic 'sentences' are, according to Denyer, only by courtesy so called, for they are really complex names; but whereas in A the order in which the names are listed is insignificant, in O it is significant. Thus 'ab', for example, would in A merely designate a complex object composed of the simple objects designated by 'a' and 'b', and is not semantically distinguishable from 'ba'; in O, on the other hand, these two composite names additionally signify two different ways in which the complex consisting of a and b may be composed, for example, that a is to the left of b, and that b is to the left of a, respectively. In S, by contrast with both A and O, the basic 'sentences' are said to be genuine sentences: they are not merely lists of names, but are suitable for the making of assertions. In S, a symbol such as 'ab' says that (for example) a is to the left of b.


The textile-block system was a fascinating experiment that Frank Lloyd Wright conducted from about 1922 to 1932 as part of his quest to find a new system of construction using a standardized building material based on the idea of twentieth-century machine technology. Robert Sweeney has meticulously researched the textile block system, providing a case-by-case account of each project, commenting on Wright's clients, collaborators, and contractors, and positioning Wright's experiment firmly within the larger historical context of concrete block technology. Sweeney traces the forms of several of the early concrete block projects to Wright's own earlier work, clarifies an array of important technical challenges the architect faced, and notes the numerous block shapes required for executionThe concrete block experiment was firmly rooted in the concept of architectural simplification that Wright established at the outset of his career. It was begun in Hollywood, where he was living at the time, but was part of a larger vision with global application. Wright pursued the concept with a sense of mission, designing approximately thirty projects through the decade. Sweeney shows, however that this technical evolution can be explained in just three designs: the canonical Millard house of February 1923; and in two unexecuted projects, the Community Playhouse, "Little Dipper," for Aline Barnsdall, and in designs for a resort hotel for the Arizona desert.Although Wright began with structure, Sweeney points out that he was primarily interested in form: technology of assembly was only a path to architectural creation. As the structural system matured - a process coinciding with the evolution of the minimalist International Style in Europe - the buildings became increasingly architectonic; forms were simplified, and the initial fascination with ornament all but disappeared.Robert L. Sweeney is Executive Director of the R. M. Shindler House in Los Angeles. His comprehensive annotated bibliography on Wright was published in 1978.


The issue of notch sensitivity and brittleness of the test failure is used to forecast the necessary specimen size for a material property initiation toughness; a methodology is developed suitable for all test geometries. The scatter in the fracture toughness values reported in the literature is partially accounted for by examining the requisite notch acuity or crack tip sharpness. This topic is important for the eventual standardization of fracture testing. The third subject examined is the research to date on crack growth stability. Closely related to this topic are concerns such as: under what conditions (if at all) does a crack in ice remain atomically sharp, and under what conditions will blunting take place? If crack-tip blunting occurs, or if blunting does not occur but fracture re-initiation requires a larger energy release rate, what are the underlying mechanisms, and what are the most applicable concepts of fracture mechanics? Information related to the above issues are of fundamental importance to applications involving the fracture of ice and the fracture of quasi-brittle materials in general.


Background: The yeast neutral trehalase Nth1 is activated by the 14-3-3 protein binding. Results: The 14-3-3 protein induces a structural rearrangement of Nth1 with changes within the EF-hand like motif being essential for the activation process. Conclusion: The EF-hand-like motif-containing domain is crucial for the 14-3-3-dependent activation of Nth1. Significance: Structural basis of the mechanism of Nth1 activation. Trehalases hydrolyze the non-reducing disaccharide trehalose amassed by cells as a universal protectant and storage carbohydrate. Recently, it has been shown that the activity of neutral trehalase Nth1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is mediated by the 14-3-3 protein binding that modulates the structure of both the catalytic domain and the region containing the EF-hand-like motif, whose role in the activation of Nth1 is unclear. In this work, the structure of the Nth1·14-3-3 complex and the importance of the EF-hand-like motif were investigated using site-directed mutagenesis, hydrogen/deuterium exchange coupled to mass spectrometry, chemical cross-linking, and small angle x-ray scattering. The low resolution structural views of Nth1 alone and the Nth1·14-3-3 complex show that the 14-3-3 protein binding induces a significant structural rearrangement of the whole Nth1 molecule. The EF-hand-like motif-containing region forms a separate domain that interacts with both the 14-3-3 protein and the catalytic trehalase domain. The structural integrity of the EF-hand like motif is essential for the 14-3-3 protein-mediated activation of Nth1, and calcium binding, although not required for the activation, facilitates this process by affecting its structure. Our data suggest that the EF-hand like motif-containing domain functions as the intermediary through which the 14-3-3 protein modulates the function of the catalytic domain of Nth1.