Introductory Note and Retrospective Disillusionment with the political process, brought on in part by extravagant perquisites and their abuse by public officials, has led to persistent calls for reform. The "powers of incumbency," it is charged, have been largely responsible for misrepresenting the intent of the electorate and for the malfunctioning of American political institutions. Claims abound that the democratic process will be best served if the terms of legislators are limited. Such changes, it is asserted, will do much to safeguard the public interest and to ensure a high level of services coupled with reductions in the volume of tax receipts needed to sustain it.(1) Whether major improvements may be expected to result from the restraints envisioned must remain an open question since, at least at the federal level, an end to the "corrosive" effects of incumbency is not likely to occur. The turmoil that marked recent campaigns for term limits was largely centered in the states though the notion of prescribing maximum terms for officeholders extended with equal weight to members of Congress as well as to state legislators. Since 1990, more than twenty states established state legislative term limits while many moved to place analogous restrictions upon those representing them in the councils of the nation. With respect to limits imposed at both levels, judicial review figured as a force that had to be reckoned with when recurring experiments touching upon the qualifications of legislators were challenged. The rulings of state courts remained significant, if not always conclusive, in the decisionmaking calculus. A revitalized judicial federalism took on a different aura in relation to these efforts. There were few occasions for a reliance on independent state grounds as the basis for a departure from federal standards. In the states, term limits generally were imposed by way of constitutional amendments. When these applied internally to state legislatures, judicial review was often limited to peripheral issues rather than to reexamination of the core principle of term limits. Beyond such inquiries, state courts were prone to premise consideration of projected restraints upon members of Congress by reference to the federal constitution. No more than an attenuated version of judicial federalism came into play as historically vexing questions reemerged. Previous fears of an "imperial" presidency, initially prompted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to four terms extending from the early 1930s to the mid-1940s, gave rise to a successful effort to amend the Constitution. The Twenty-Second Amendment, proposed in 1947 and adopted four years later, prescribed no more than two terms with specified exceptions resulting from uncompleted terms.(2) Ratification of the amendment in the states occurred with little contention; in several state legislatures, approval came about without significant debate. The two-term tradition, maintained uninterruptedly during most of the nation's history, reinforced efforts to prevent a recurrence of Roosevelt's abandonment of the practice before and during the wartime years. Although some students of the presidency allege the Twenty-Second Amendment measurably reduced the power of a second-term incumbent, such criticisms found almost no support in the electorate at large,(3) and have been discredited by other scholars.(4) By contrast, Congress has not acquiesced in any constitutional amendment that would impose oft-suggested term limits of six years in the House of Representatives and twelve years in the Senate. Regardless of widespread public support and countless promises made during political campaigns, members are disinclined to vote for what many take to be self-denying measures, much as the Framers were unwilling to proceed beyond minimal age requirements for elected offices that did not thwart their eligibility during a period marked by relatively short lifespans. …


The growing interconnection of the European Union and the increase of international traffic oppose new challenges to railways. The EU has decided to improve the situation by introducing the European Train Control System (ETCS) on corridors to achieve cross boarder interoperability. Therefore, an optimized migration strategy is needed. The approach presented in this paper examines the whole corridor with its details and the dependencies with the rolling stock. It avoids planning mistakes, guarantees cost optimized strategies, and eases adoption to changed parameters. To generate all possible migration strategies, the corridor has to be modelled in detail. Therefore, it is divided into homogenous sections. The fleet planning is extracted from the rolling stock and the traffic. It is applied on the corresponding sections. Based on this, requirements and dependencies are derived. This is especially important if deadlines have to be considered that determine the state of equipment to a specific point in time. Due to the complexity arising from the constraints and interdependencies, the generation of strategies is carried out automatically. The tool built upon the approach also delivers a rough schedule for the project management. Consequences of changes along the planning constraints can easily be computed, e.g. rescheduled deadlines. Subsequently, the strategies are evaluated and optimized. For a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, track performance can now be taken into account. Furthermore, different perspectives of the optimization can be compared. The method delivers comprehensive results that would be a good and transparent baseline for negotiations among the stakeholders to find a mutually agreed strategy.


A previously well 3-year-old girl presents to the emergency department with fever of 38.8°C and reduced oral intake. Aside from a mild tachycardia, which settles with antipyretics, observations are normal, and she is alert and settled. On examination, she is found to have a nasty tonsillitis; she cannot tolerate anything orally, so is admitted to the ward for intravenous antibiotics and maintenance fluids. Routine bloods are sent at the time of cannulation. The laboratory calls to inform you that the full blood count is abnormal; neutrophils are 0.7 and lymphocytes are 1.4.

You wonder if she needs further investigation or treatment for suspected neutropenic sepsis.

Should a 3-year-old immunocompetent child with a fever, upper respiratory tract infection and an incidental finding of moderate neutropenia (patient) be treated for suspected neutropenic sepsis (intervention)? Is neutropenia predictive of serious bacterial infection (SBI) in an immunocompetent child (outcome)?

### Secondary sources

The Cochrane library of systematic reviews was searched in May 2015 using the words 'neutropenia' and 'paediatric'. None of the 13 reviews identified were relevant.

### Primary sources

MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases were searched in May 2015 for the following terms: 'neutropenic OR neutropenia' AND 'child OR paediatric OR pediatric' AND 'immunocompetent OR healthy OR incidental' AND …


This paper presents the results of an investigation into the influence of both macro (tip relief) and micro (surface roughness) geometry on the generation of adverse conditions, such as high contact pressures, thin lubricant films or direct metallic asperity contact, which are known to be factors linked to the occurrence of micropitting in heavily loaded gear tooth contacts.
Results are shown of a transient elastohydrodynamic (EHL) analysis of the conditions at the contact of two pairs of helical gears operating with different gear ratios. The effects of the variation of contact geometry, kinematics and tooth loading during the meshing cycle are taken into account together with both tip relief and axial crowning profile modifications. The form of tip relief profile adopted is shown to be highly influential in determining the peak contact pressures and thinnest oil films within the contacts. These conditions are experienced at all axial positions on the tooth flanks at the locations of the start of tip relief profile modifications. If the tip relief profile introduces a slope discontinuity to the gear profile then this can cause a significant stress concentration and very poor film forming behaviour. A range of tip relief profiles are investigated, from linear tip relief to fully parabolic forms.
Further work is reported which investigates the level of direct metallic contact occurring between surface asperities in disk machine tests, which are designed to replicate heavily loaded rolling/sliding EHL contacts typical of aerospace gearing practice. The Electrical Contact Resistance (ECR) technique was implemented in these experiments to study realistic mixed lubrication conditions, and is found to be capable of identifying individual asperity contact events on a repeatable basis between two surfaces. The technique is then used to investigate the variation of mean ECR measurements with operating conditions for ground surfaces in contact, and in addition detailed high frequency measurements of contact resistance are shown to clearly demonstrate the influence of thermal effects on the occurrence of metallic contact.


It's a Trap! Unravelling Reversible Charge Trapping in Nanocrystals Through Single Particle and Ensemble Studies Patrick James Whitham Co-Chairs of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Philip Reid Department of Chemistry Professor Daniel Gamelin Department of Chemistry Copper containing semiconductors such as copper-doped ZnS and CuInS2 are classic phosphors materials that have had wide general use for decades. The photophysical processes of these bulk materials have been well studied. Recent application of these materials on the nanoscale has led to unique properties that are not exhibited in the bulk regime. Several properties, such as the large Stokes shift, tunable emission energy, and broad emission bandwidths have increased the general interest in copper containing nanomaterials. This thesis will reveal several remarkable photophysical aspects of these phosphors through studies of the ensemble, single particle, and time resolved luminescence to better understand new aspects of these materials that emerge on the nanoscale. Most notably, the homogeneous bandwidths, fluorescence blinking, and delayed luminescence were measured. The mechanistic implications of these properties and broader impact on the understanding of nanocrystal photophysics will be explained.


The wind-related processes in the atmospheric roughness layer strongly affect our comfort and health and can have a significant influence on our lives, especially in urban areas. The flow patterns are the main drivers of dispersion and transport of pollutants and particles. However, their evolution in the roughness layer is complex because of disturbances introduced by topology or wind flows in the ABL. Experimental approaches, such as wind-tunnels can significantly improve the understanding of characteristics and be used for the improvement and validation of model approaches. Nevertheless, they are conducted under ideal conditions and do not represent the complex influences occurring in the atmospheric roughness layer. Field measurements are therefore a very practicable approach to study the chaotic behaviour of environmental flow patterns. The effort required to obtain field measurements and their small spatial significance however make it difficult to obtain large spatial monitoring of the phenomena. In the past, numerical studies often used simplified and idealized geometries or methods to model roughness elements and only few studies were conducted in real environments using field measurements to improve the knowledge of roughness layer flows, especially in urban areas. While the different approaches have frequently been used separately, their combination could lead to significant knowledge and new insights into the complex processes. This thesis introduces the theory and major steps taken to model the relevant roughness elements: sub-grid elements, such as surface texture, vegetation elements, such as trees, and impermeable obstacles, such as buildings. The numerical domains were based on real environments where either field or experimental studies had been conducted providing data with which the numerical methods could be validated, highlighting the advantages of a combined, multidisciplinary approach. The bridge between the engineering derived CFD methods and their application in environmental flow case-studies is introduced, as well as methods to model urban areas from a micro to a neighborhood scale. Ways in which to deal with problems, such as meshing complex geometrical data, as well as an alternative approach for obtaining approximate transient results are shown using examples from case studies in different environments. Four case studies, all validated with either experimental wind-tunnel or field measurements were conducted for the relevant roughness elements: sub-grid, porous (e.g. trees) and impermeable (e.g. buildings). The case studies also create a bridge between the engineering dominated CFD methods and today's applications in environmental flows. In each of the case studies, the application of dispersion or transport is studied for gaseous fluids or solid-particle detachment, dispersion and transport. Numerical problems occurring, especially in urban areas, where the topology is complex and heterogeneous, were addressed and the successful solution demonstrated. The implementation used commercial software and OpenFOAM, an open-source code that was found to be an ideal software package for research purposes because of its parallel capabilities and flexibility for future studies.


In cells subjected to environmental stresses, such as oxidative stress and heat shock (HS), dynamic ribonucleoprotein aggregates, known as Stress Granules (SGs)), are formed as a part of the cell response program. Different types of stresses control pluripotent stem cell (PSCs) ability to self renew and differentiate, indicating the possible role of SGs in regulating stem cell fate. In this study we compared the effects of oxidative (sodium arsenite (SA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)) and thermal (Heat Shock) stresses on SG formation in human induced (hi) PSCs. Our aim was to examine whether these granules paly a role in regulating PSC self-renewal and differentiation. Our data showed that not all stressors induce SG formation in hiPSCs. Increasing SA concentartions, progressively increase the number of cells showing SGs, however, iPSCs treated with H2O2 exhibited no SG formation even with higher concentrations or longer periods of incubation. On the other hand, no granules were observed in cells kept at 37oC or exposed to mild HS (40oC) treatment, whereas at higher temperatures of 42oC, 100% of the cells formed SGs. Molecular analyses of the granules formed in iPSCs in response to stress conditions showed that they (i) contain the well-known SGs proteins markers (G3BP, TIAR, eIF4E, eIF4A, eIF3B, eIF4G, and PABP), (ii) are present in the cytoplasm in a physical attachment to processing bodies (PBs), and (iii) are disassembled after the removal of the stress. This data confirm that these iPSCs granules are per se SGs. In addition, the formation of SGs was associated with the stimulation of eIF2α phosphorylation in hiPSCs after SA and HS, but not H2O2, which confirm the stimulation of the stress response program. To test whether pluripotent marker proteins are recruited to SGs, we perform an initial screening for several pluripotent markers and confirmed that LIN28A and L1TD1 were SG markers and identified DPPA5 as a novel pluripotent marker that was weakly recruited to SGs. Altogether, our data introduce new aspects of how hiPSCs respond to adverse environmental conditions and identify SGs as a possible regulator of pluripotent stem cell self renewal and differentiation.


Earlier studies had shown that speakers naming several objects typically look at each object until they have retrieved the phonological form of its name and therefore look longer at objects with long names than at objects with shorter names. We examined whether this tight eye-to-speech coordination was maintained at different speech rates and after increasing amounts of practice. Participants named the same set of objects with monosyllabic or disyllabic names on up to 20 successive trials. In Experiment 1, they spoke as fast as they could, whereas in Experiment 2 they had to maintain a fixed moderate or faster speech rate. In both experiments, the durations of the gazes to the objects decreased with increasing speech rate, indicating that at higher speech rates, the speakers spent less time planning the object names. The eye–speech lag (the time interval between the shift of gaze away from an object and the onset of its name) was independent of the speech rate but became shorter with increasing practice. Consistent word length effects on the durations of the gazes to the objects and the eye-speech lags were only found in Experiment 2. The results indicate that shifts of eye gaze are often linked to the completion of phonological encoding, but that speakers can deviate from this default coordination of eye gaze and speech, for instance when the descriptive task is easy and they aim to speak fast.


The clinical, histologic, and immunohistologic features of 22 desmoplastic melanomas (DMM), 10 mixed desmoplastic and spindle-cell melanomas (DMM/SMM), and two cellular spindle-cell melanomas (SMM) were studied. Patients ranged in age from 35 to 91 years (mean, 67) and included 23 men and 11 women. Seventeen cases occurred in sun-damaged skin of the head and neck. 11 were on the extremities, and six on the trunk. Except for two cases, all were Clark's level IV or V. Twenty-two (65%) cases were associated with a recognizable overlying pigmented lesion. Thirty of 32 (94%) DMM and DMM/SMM were clearly positive for S100. S100 staining was limited to < 5% of the spindle cells in two DMM/SMM. All DMM were negative when stained with HMB45. Three DMM/ SMM were immunoreactive with HMB45, as were both SMM. CD68 staining was limited to < 5% of the spindle cells in two of 32 DMM and DMM/SMM and 20% of the cells in one of two SMM. Nine (32%) DMM and DMM/SMM contained significant numbers of spindle cells immunoreactive for SMA but not desmin. In five cases, the number of actin-positive spindle cells. Two color stains for SMA and S100 demonstrated that these smooth-muscle actin positive cells constituted a separate spindle-cell population, consistent with reactive myofibroblasts. This study indicates that the immunohistologic features of desmoplastic melanoma differ from those of conventional melanoma. If a problematic spindle-cell skin lesion is a suspected melanocytic process, HMB45 is unlikely to provide confirmatory (or exclusionary) evidence for the diagnosis of DMM. Similarly, because of the variability in S100 expression in this neoplasm, the absence of S100 staining should not be relied on too heavily to exclude DMM if the clinical and histologic features favor that diagnosis. Caution should be exercised in the interpretation of numerous actin-positive spindle cells in isolation of additional confirmatory or exclusionary data as desmoplastic melanomas may contain significant numbers of these cells.


The QT interval is measured from the beginning of the QRS complex to the end of the T wave on a surface electrocardiogram and represents the period from onset of depolarisation to completion of repolarisation of the ventricular myocardium.1 The interval varies greatly and is affected by age, sex, sympathetic tone, and diurnal pattern.2 Because it increases as heart rate falls, measurements of QT interval are usually corrected for heart rate (QTc). Several methods have been used (box 1) but, as the relation between QT interval and heart rate varies between individuals, guidelines recommend use of linear regression functions such as the Framingham rather than the Bazett or Fridericia method.4

#### Box 1: Formulae used to correct the QT interval for heart rate3

Measurement of the QT interval is not straightforward and is associated with considerable intraindividual and interindividual variability. There is currently no agreed consensus on how to measure the QT interval in patients with broad complex ventricular conduction abnormalities or paced ventricular rhythm, and measurement in patients with atrial fibrillation requires special consideration. The QT interval also differs between electrocardiograph (ECG) leads, and it is unclear whether normal values—historically derived from single lead measurements—relate directly to those obtained from multi-lead ECG recordings. In addition, details of algorithms used in semi-automated ECG machines are not always readily available. QTc intervals of 450 ms and 460 ms are generally accepted as the upper limits of normal for adult men and women, respectively.4

Although QT prolongation is associated with torsades de pointes (TdP) and sudden cardiac death,5 it is an imperfect predictor. Many patients with prolonged QT never experience TdP, whereas many who experience TdP have a normal QT before the episode. Similarly, some drugs (eg amiodarone) can markedly prolong QT but …


We report the use of biomass-derived furfuryl alcohol as an effective bidentate ligand able to promote the Ullmann-type copper-catalyzed coupling of aryl halides with heteroaromatic or aliphatic amines. Furfuryl alcohol (FA) can be mixed with water to form the corresponding azeotrope (20 wt% of FA) and therefore can be easily recovered and reused. This protocol is efficiently applied to substrates with various electronic nature and affords the expected products (27 examples) in generally good to excellent yields. It has also been demonstrated that the protocol is both chemically and environmentally effective as the azeotropic mixture can be easily and almost quantitatively recovered at the end of the process.


Alphonse Habyarimana is manager & developer of Kepler Tech Lab with the aim to improve and provide hands-on learning experiences for high school students and accelerates innovation through humancentered design, workshops, outreaches, and advising. He's a member of International Development Innovation Network and a fellow at Stanford FabLearn. Alphonse holds an Associate of Arts degree in General Studies from Southern New Hampshire University with the partnership of Kepler Kigali, where he is completing Bachelor of Arts in Management. Prior to joining Kepler in the summer of 2014, Alphonse has studied Electronics and Telecommunication for three years at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Center and earned a professional diploma, A2. At IPRC, he involved in electrical, electronics, and telecommunication workshops which all stimulated his interest in engineering education and digital fabrication. He educates youth to help them acquaint themselves with technical skills and hands-on experiments through STEM courses and independent projects.


Over one thousand objects have so far been discovered orbiting beyond Neptune. These trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) represent the primitive remnants of the planetesimal disk from which the planets formed and are perhaps analogous to the unseen dust parent-bodies in debris disks observed around other main-sequence stars. The dynamical and physical properties of these bodies provide unique and important constraints on formation and evolution models of the Solar System. While the dynamical architecture in this region (also known as the Kuiper Belt) is becoming relatively clear, the physical properties of the objects are still largely unexplored. In particular, fundamental parameters such as size, albedo, density and thermal properties are difficult to measure. Measurements of thermal emission, which peaks at far-IR wavelengths, offer the best means available to determine the physical properties. While Spitzer has provided some results, notably revealing a large albedo diversity in this population, the increased sensitivity of Herschel and its superior wavelength coverage should permit profound advances in the field. Within our accepted project we propose to perform radiometric measurements of 139 objects, including 25 known multiple systems. When combined with measurements of the dust population beyond Neptune (e.g. from the New Horizons mission to Pluto), our results will provide a benchmark for understanding the Solar debris disk, and extra-solar ones as well.


The data structure used ot maintain the sequence of characters is an important part of a text editor. This paper investigates and evaluates the range of possible data structures for text sequences. The ADT interface to the text sequence component of a text editor is examined. Six common sequence data structures (array, gap, list, line pointers, xed size bu ers and piece tables) are examined and then a general model of sequence data structures that encompasses all six structures is presented. The piece table method is explained in detail and its advantages are presented. The design space of sequence data structures is examined and several variations on the ones listed above are presented. These sequence data structures are compared experimentally and evaluated based on a number of criteria. The experimental comparison is done by implementing each data structure in an editing simulator and testing it using a synthetic load of many thousands of edits. We also report on experiments on the senstivity of the results to variations in the parameters used to generate the synthetic editing load.


This paper investigates the claim that aspect is a verbal device for constructing mental images of processes and these aspectual values correspond to the way(s) a process is profiled in different scanning modes: summary vs. sequential scanning and monosequential vs. polysequential scanning. This occurs through other cognitive abilities, such as chaining, scope of awareness, and zooming ((in) and (out)). The analysis is based on data from Standard Arabic. The study proceeds by presenting an overview of the aspectual system in Arabic and investigating the different facets involved: aspect as an image-building tool, aspect as a scanning device, scanning modes in Arabic (summary scanning, monosequential scanning, polysequential scanning) and, finally, scope of awareness and the process of zooming in aspectual representation.


Significance One of the most enduring and widely debated questions in prehistoric archaeology concerns the origins of Europe's earliest farmers: Were they the descendants of local hunter-gatherers, or did they migrate from southwestern Asia, where farming began? We recover genome-wide DNA sequences from early farmers on both the European and Asian sides of the Aegean to reveal an unbroken chain of ancestry leading from central and southwestern Europe back to Greece and northwestern Anatolia. Our study provides the coup de grâce to the notion that farming spread into and across Europe via the dissemination of ideas but without, or with only a limited, migration of people. Farming and sedentism first appeared in southwestern Asia during the early Holocene and later spread to neighboring regions, including Europe, along multiple dispersal routes. Conspicuous uncertainties remain about the relative roles of migration, cultural diffusion, and admixture with local foragers in the early Neolithization of Europe. Here we present paleogenomic data for five Neolithic individuals from northern Greece and northwestern Turkey spanning the time and region of the earliest spread of farming into Europe. We use a novel approach to recalibrate raw reads and call genotypes from ancient DNA and observe striking genetic similarity both among Aegean early farmers and with those from across Europe. Our study demonstrates a direct genetic link between Mediterranean and Central European early farmers and those of Greece and Anatolia, extending the European Neolithic migratory chain all the way back to southwestern Asia.


This article concerns the estimation of a particular kind of probability, namely, the probability of a noun sense appearing as a particular argument of a predicate. In order to overcome the accompanying sparse-data problem, the proposal here is to define the probabilities in terms of senses from a semantic hierarchy and exploit the fact that the senses can be grouped into classes consisting of semantically similar senses. There is a particular focus on the problem of how to determine a suitable class for a given sense, or, alternatively, how to determine a suitable level of generalization in the hierarchy. A procedure is developed that uses a chi-square test to determine a suitable level of generalization. In order to test the performance of the estimation method, a pseudo-disambiguation task is used, together with two alternative estimation methods. Each method uses a different generalization procedure; the first alternative uses the minimum description length principle, and the second uses Resnik's measure of selectional preference. In addition, the performance of our method is investigated using both the standard Pearson chi-square statistic and the log-likelihood chi-square statistic.


The authors analyze the January effect in fixed-income securities using stochastic dominance analysis. They define the January effect as the superior return performance observed in financial securities during January relative to other months, suggesting that other authors have observed that effect in several asset classes, such as common stock, preferred stock, securitized mortgages, and real estate investment trusts. Comparing January return distributions of corporate and government fixed-income portfolios to those of other months, they find some evidence of superior January return performance in risky, high-yield bonds but none in high-grade bonds. They conclude by advising investors seeking to exploit the January effect in fixed-income securities to focus on low-grade bonds and to avoid high-grade bonds.


This article examines the case of the Enrica Lexie, a commercial ship having on board military personnel engaging in anti-piracy duties who was involved in an incident with persons on a fishing vessel off the Indian coast. It takes into consideration India's claim to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over the Italian marines indicted of having killed two Indian fishermen, the judgments passed by India's courts and the multiple aspects of the ensuing controversy between India and Italy. It is argued that the two marines enjoy functional immunity, even if it is admitted that India has jurisdiction over the case. The article concludes that new conventional law is needed for incidents like that of the Enrica Lexie paralleling Article 97 UNCLOS on collisions on the high seas.


First responders, a critical lifeline of any society, often find themselves in precarious situations. The ability to track them real-time in unknown indoor environments, would significantly contributes to the success of their mission as well as their safety. In this work, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of TrackIO—a system capable of accurately localizing and tracking mobile responders realtime in large indoor environments. TrackIO leverages the mobile virtual infrastructure offered by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), coupled with the balanced penetration-accuracy tradeoff offered by ultra-wideband (UWB), to accomplish this objective directly from outside, without relying on access to any indoor infrastructure. Towards a practical system, TrackIO incorporates four novel mechanisms in its design that address key challenges to enable tracking responders (i) who are mobile with potentially non-uniform velocities (e.g. during turns), (ii) deep indoors with challenged reachability, (iii) in real-time even for a large network, and (iv) with high accuracy even when impacted by UAV's position error. TrackIO's real-world performance reveals that it can track static nodes with a median accuracy of about 1–1.5 m and mobile (even running) nodes with a median accuracy of 2–2.5 m in large buildings in real-time.


Travel time reliability (TTR) indices have gained considerable attention for evaluating the quality of traffic infrastructure. Whereas TTR measures have been widely explored using data from stationary sensors with high penetration rates, there is a lack of research on calculating TTR from mobile sensors such as probe vehicle data (PVD) which is characterized by low penetration rates. PVD is a relevant data source for analyzing non-highway routes, as they are often not sufficiently covered by stationary sensors. The paper presents a methodology for analyzing TTR on (sub-)urban and rural routes with sparse PVD as the only data source that could be used by road authorities or traffic planners. Especially in the case of sparse data, spatial and temporal aggregations could have great impact, which are investigated on two levels: first, the width of time of day (TOD) intervals and second, the length of road segments. The spatial and temporal aggregation effects on travel time index (TTI) as prominent TTR measure are analyzed within an exemplary case study including three different routes. TTI patterns are calculated from data of one year grouped by different days-of-week (DOW) groups and the TOD. The case study shows that using well-chosen temporal and spatial aggregations, even with sparse PVD, an in-depth analysis of traffic patterns is possible.


SUMMARY Management of beef suckler cattle herds requires a difficult but vitally important balance between farm profits, animal health and welfare and sustainable food production. A dynamic programming (DP) model was implemented to investigate the consequences of replacement and management decisions on the interactions and possible trade-offs between animal welfare, fertility and profitability in breeding beef suckler cattle herds. The model maximized profit from the current cow and all successors by identifying the best keep/replace decision. The 150 states incorporated in the DP model were all combinations of: ten cow-parity, five calving periods including one barren state (five in total) as fertility indicators and three body condition scores at weaning as an animal welfare indicator reflecting feeding and nutritional conditions of animals. Statistical models were fitted to data from a breeding suckler cattle herd, consisting of performance records of 200 cattle over 5 years, to parameterize the DP model. Estimated parameters used in the DP model were: (i) probabilities of transitions between states and (ii) probability of involuntary culling. These estimates were used in the form of conditional probabilities of successful or failed (as a result of involuntary culling) transitions to the next state. In addition, statistical models were used to estimate probability of calving difficulty. There was strong evidence (P < 0·001) that parity affected calving difficulty and weak evidence (P = 0·067) that parity affected the incidence of involuntary culling. The DP model outcomes indicated that cows calving very early, i.e. those who conceived in the first 21 days after artificial insemination, showed reduced frequencies of calving difficulty as well as voluntary culling, and so gave better financial returns than late-calving cows and barren cows. As a result, fewer replacements were needed that reduced the frequency of calving difficulty, further implying a win–win scenario for both profit and welfare. In contrast, in late-calving animals, the frequency of calving difficulty increased and they were less profitable and more prone to be culled. Results of sensitivity analysis showed that the optimum voluntary culling rate was sensitive to commodity market prices. These findings suggest well-informed nutrition and reproduction management could deliver a win–win outcome for profit and animal welfare.


This paper is an attempt to bring together two major streams of debate and policy analysis, which could make a major contribution to equitable development. The first concerns gender issues and how they relate to achieving both equity and efficiency goals. The second concerns innovation in agriculture and the way planning and policy is starting to view this as a multidimensional process driven by capacities distributed through society. This paper is being written in the context of a programme — the DFID-funded Research Into Use programme — that is exploring how research can be used for innovation and impact. The purpose of the paper is to reflect on the opportunities that a systems understanding of innovation provides for addressing gender issues and to provide some insight on what RIU might expect to achieve in this regard. The paper concludes with a call for two major shifts in practice and analysis: (1) A shift from gender analysis to gender learning and (2) A shift from women's empowerment to empowering innovation system capacity.


Activation of the non-phagocytic superoxide-producing NADPH oxidase Nox1, complexed with p22phox at the membrane, requires its regulatory soluble proteins Noxo1 and Noxa1. However, the role of the small GTPase Rac remained to be clarified. Here we show that Rac directly participates in Nox1 activation via interacting with Noxa1. Electropermeabilized HeLa cells, ectopically expressing Nox1, Noxo1, and Noxa1, produce superoxide in a GTP-dependent manner, which is abrogated by expression of a mutant Noxa1(R103E), defective in Rac binding. Superoxide production in Nox1-expressing HeLa and Caco-2 cells is decreased by depletion or sequestration of Rac; on the other hand, it is enhanced by expression of the constitutively active Rac1(Q61L), but not by that of a mutant Rac1 with the A27K substitution, deficient in binding to Noxa1. We also demonstrate that Nox1 activation requires membrane recruitment of Noxa1, which is normally mediated via Noxa1 binding to Noxo1, a protein tethered to the Nox1 partner p22phox: the Noxa1-Noxo1 and Noxo1-p22phox interactions are both essential for Nox1 activity. Rac likely facilitates the membrane localization of Noxa1: although Noxa1(W436R), defective in Noxo1 binding, neither associates with the membrane nor activates Nox1, the effects of the W436R substitution are restored by expression of Rac1(Q61L). The Rac-Noxa1 interaction also serves at a step different from the Noxa1 localization, because the binding-defective Noxa1(R103E), albeit targeted to the membrane, does not support superoxide production by Nox1. Furthermore, a mutant Noxa1 carrying the substitution of Ala for Val-205 in the activation domain, which is expected to undergo a conformational change upon Rac binding, fully localizes to the membrane but fails to activate Nox1.


Electric vehicle fleets and smart grids are two growing technologies. These technologies provided new possibilities to reduce pollution and increase energy efficiency. In this sense, electric vehicles are used as mobile loads in the power grid. A distributed charging prioritization methodology is proposed in this paper. The solution is based on the concept of virtual power plants and the usage of evolutionary computation algorithms. Additionally, the comparison of several evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithm, genetic algorithm with evolution control, particle swarm optimization, and hybrid solution are shown in order to evaluate the proposed architecture. The proposed solution is presented to prevent the overload of the power grid.


The Relapse Replication and Extension Project (RREP) was a multisite study to replicate and extend Marlatt's taxonomy of relapse precipitants. In addition to replicating Marlatt's original taxonomic system, three independent research teams utilized prospective designs to identify additional predictors of relapse and developed and evaluated two alternative systems for assessing high risk relapse situations. This overview describes the replication methodology, summarizes seven RREP studies completed by the three research groups, and discusses five cross-cutting conclusions emerging from the studies. These conclusions are: (1) reliability of Marlatt's taxonomic system was variable both within and across the three research sites; (2) Marlatt's taxonomic system showed little predictive validity in analyses that used pretreatment relapse data to predict post-treatment relapse, but there are important unresolved issues; (3) an alternative taxonomy provided little more predictive validity than the original taxonomy even though it measured more dimensions of relapse situations and provided greater analytic flexibility; (4) the Reasons for Drinking Questionnaire appeared to be a successful psychometric transformation of Marlatt's taxonomy, one which did demonstrate predictive validity; and (5) Marlatt's taxonomy was based on a time-intensive model of relapse prediction whereas RREP prospective analyses represented time-extensive models of relapse prediction. Coping responses are noted to be effective predictors of relapse under both models.


Hazard and risks are two terms that are often used interchangeably, but in reality, they are used in different context. In simple terms, hazard is basically something that exists all the time which is likely to cause damage whereas risks only appeared when there are exposures to the hazard. In chemical process industry, the occupational hazard caused by exposure to chemicals is quite difficult to detect, because some chemicals exist in a form which cannot be seen and are odourless. As a result, the workers who work in chemical process industry tend to have higher risk exposure to hazardous chemicals than in other industries. The reported cases of work-related diseases have been increasing yearly – this indicates that there is an urgent need to take into account the occupational health impact on worker's health when developing, designing and operating a chemical process. Several occupational health assessment methods are available on the literature review to assess occupational health hazards generated from chemical processes. Several regulations such as OSHA 1970 (United States) and OSHA 1994 (Malaysia) have been gazetted to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for the workers. This indicates that occupational health issues in the chemical industries have drawn much attention from public, business companies and policy makers. With growing concern over the issue of chemical exposure among workers in chemical industries, it is expected that there will be more methods to be introduced in the near future. This could give rise to the difficulties faced by users in selecting the most appropriate method that cam meet their needs and are within their constraints. As for current practice, upon interested in applying any of the available methods, the users need to put additional effort to first conduct a literature review and analyse each of the said methods in order to find the most suitable one that can be used for their process. The result of this research is to produce an occupational health assessment framework, which aims to provide a systematic guideline on how to select the most appropriate and reliable method from all the options available. However, the result presented in the paper only covers the finding from literature review. The future work of this study will be developed an occupational health assessment framework by combining all the existing occupational health assessment methods into a single framework.


In The Painting Career ofPiero di Cosimo (1462-1522), I have sought to assemble a critical,
monographic study of Piero's painting oeuvre that presently includes close to fifty works that are
either extant or exist only in references and sources. The Florentine painter has historically proven to
be among the most elusive artists of the Italian Renaissance and yet acted as a seminal figure in the
artistic transitions occurring from the close of the fifteenth century to the beginnings of Mannerism in
Florence.
My thesis consists of close iconographic and stylistic analyses that have been balanced by
archival work and technical examination. The latter involved numerous meetings with restorers in
United States and European conservation laboratories. The resulting in-depth study of the physical
states of Piero's paintings as objects involving painting technique, working methods and present
condition produces some of the most revealing results. My research with original documents and
other primary sources in Florence also introduces a number of new discoveries, particularly from the
early and middle stages of the painter's life and career.
The varied nature of Piero's art calls for a multidisciplinary approach. Combining iconographic,
conservational and archival methods, I aim to contribute new insights into several specific areas.
These include: a biographical grounding of Piero's life and those of his known patrons; Piero's
advances in portraiture; the use of visual narrative forms and literary sources in Piero's mythologies;
and the painter's large-scale devotional works.
The questioning of past assumptions concerning Piero's work and biography also leads me to
consider the larger scope of influence, legacy and modes of transmission between Piero and other
contemporary artists. As one of the most important older innovators, living well into the sixteenth
century, Piero was a major catalyst for the new generation of highly inventive artists such as Andrea
del Sarto and Pontormo, both of whom passed through his studio. It was Piero, however, who proved
to be perhaps the most groundbreaking practitioner in the domestic secular painting tradition before
his pupils' ascendance.


We consider variants of the triangle-avoidance game first defined by Harary and rediscovered by Hajnal a few years later. A graph game begins with two players and an empty graph on $n$ vertices. The two players take turns choosing edges within $K_{n}$, building up a simple graph. The edges must be chosen according to a set of restrictions $\mathcal{R}$. The winner is the last player to choose an edge that does not violate any of the restrictions in $\mathcal{R}$. For fixed $n$ and $\mathcal{R}$, one of the players has a winning strategy. For a pair of games where $\mathcal{R}$ includes bounded degree, connectedness, and triangle-avoidance, we determine the winner for all values of $n$.


A method for mitigating local oscillator (LO) phase noise-induced impairment, also known as equalization-enhanced phase noise, in coherent optical systems is discussed. The method is suitable for real-time implementation and requires hardware with a bandwidth much lower than the signal baud rate, even for a system utilizing conventional semiconductor laser as LO. We evaluate the required parameters like interpolation technique, electrical signal-to-noise ratio at digital coherence enhancement (DCE) front end, for long haul transmission links having quadrature phase shift keying and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation formats. We show that the method can be implemented using a low-speed DCE front end and a simple digital linear interpolator with small (<;1 dB) implementation penalty even in cases that would otherwise result in error floor.


The European Data and Computational Journalism Conference aims to bring together industry, practitioners and academics in the fields of journalism and news production and information, data, social and computer sciences, facilitating a multidisciplinary discussion on these topics in order to advance research and practice in the broad area of Data and Computational Journalism.


Countries in the Global South—which are contributing an increasing share of global greenhouse gas emissions—are actively developing carbon market mechanisms, including emissions trading systems and (voluntary) offset mechanisms. This article analyzes past and emerging experiments with carbon market mechanisms in Thailand and Vietnam, in the context of their domestic political economies and the shifting dynamics of the global climate governance regime. Drawing from thirty-three in-depth interviews and document analysis, I show the changing roles of government, the private sector, civil society, and donor and multilateral actors in these countries. Moreover, the article identifies key factors that may play roles in the further—and more synergistic—development of carbon market mechanisms: the generation of domestic demand for carbon credits; building and keeping human capacity and adequate data; creating space for civil society; ensuring coordination within the government and between sectors, notably the energy sector; and establishing further linkages with regional (Asian) and global carbon market mechanisms, such as those in China, Japan, and South Korea. These findings suggest that market-based mechanisms with high social and environmental integrity are one of the options that countries in the Global South have to achieve low-carbon development in the post-Paris climate change regime.


This essay explores the ambiguous position lawyers occupy in the popular mind in America by identifying some of the ideas which contributed to the schizophrenic popular attitude toward the legal profession in the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Many of the stock anti-lawyer themes and many of the intellectual sources of the profession's strength are clearly visible by the end of this period. The Author explores this problem, first by relating it to recent scholarship in American history describing the struggle between republicanism and liberalism at the time of the Founding. The way the profession was ground between these ideals, attacked by one, championing and then apparently betraying the goals of the other, illustrates well the process which has shaped the image of lawyers in the United States. Other points of contact have contributed to the complexity of lay attitudes toward lawyers. Some illustrated the usefulness of lawyers. Many produced resentment. Still others did both, depending on the perspective of the viewer. Among the points the Author discusses are attitudes toward change, autonomy, reason, human nature, and law itself. Ultimately, arguing that although lawyers were more hated than loved, their indispensability was widely recognized.


Public funding is believed to play an important role in the development of science and technology. However, whether public funding and, in particular, competitive funding from public agencies actually helps to increase scientific output (i.e. publications) remains a matter of debate. By analysing a dataset of co-publications between China and the EU and a dataset of joint project collaborations in European Framework Programs for Research and Innovation [FP7 and Horizon 2020 (H2020)], we investigate whether different public funding agencies' competitive assets have different impact on the volume of publication output. Our results support the hypotheses that competitively funded research output varies by funding sources, so that a high level of funding does not necessarily lead to high scientific output. Our results show that FP7/H2020 funded projects do not have a positive contribution to the output of joint publications between China and the EU. Interestingly, cooperation in the form of jointly writing proposals to these EU programmes, especially when they are not granted by the European Commission, can contribute significantly to joint scientific publications in a later stage. This applies in particular to cases where funding from China is involved. Our findings highlight the key role that funding agencies play in influencing research behaviour. Our results indicate that Chinese funding triggers a high number of publications, whereas research funded by the EU does so to a much lower extent, arguably due to the EU's strong focus on social impact and its funding schemes as tools to promote European integration.


Underwater networks have the potential to enable unexplored applications and to enhance our ability to observe and predict the ocean. Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are often deployed in unprecedented and hostile waters and face many security threats. Applications based on UASNs such as coastal defense, pollution monitoring, assisted navigation to name a few, require secure communication. A new set of communication protocols and cooperative coordination algorithms have been proposed to enable collaborative monitoring tasks. However, such protocols overlook security as a key performance indicator. Spoofing, altering, or replaying routing information can affect the entire network, making UASN vulnerable to routing attacks such as selective forwarding, sinkhole attack, Sybil attack, acknowledgement spoofing and HELLO flood attack. The lack of security against such threats is startling if maintained that security is indeed an important requirement in many emerging civilian and military applications. In this work, we look at one of the most prevalent attacks among UASNs which is Sybill attack and discuss mitigation approaches for it. Then, feasibly implemented the attack in UnetStack3 to simulate real-life scenario.


A 62‐year‐old man presented with bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferations (BDUMP) and painful flexor contractures of the fingers of both hands. All these features were considered paraneoplastic but extensive and repeated investigations revealed no underlying malignancy. Oral steroids and orbital radiotherapy were ineffective. The diagnosis was confirmed by trans‐scleral biopsy of the right choroid. Rapidly progressive cataracts were treated by phacoemulsification. Severe exudative retinal detachment with rubeosis and neovascular glaucoma in the left eye were treated successfully by partial choroidectomy. Fifteen months after presentation, investigations detected a 22 mm, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, which was resected without complication. The ocular tumours in both eyes regressed, without improvement in vision of Light Perception, and the palmar fasciitis also improved. The patient remained free of tumour recurrence until sudden death from myocardial infarction five years after he first presented.


The tactual scanning of five naturalistic textures was recorded with an apparatus that is capable of measuring the tangential interaction force with a high degree of temporal and spatial resolution. The resulting signal showed that the transformation from the geometry of a surface to the force of traction and, hence, to the skin deformation experienced by a finger is a highly nonlinear process. Participants were asked to identify simulated textures reproduced by stimulating their fingers with rapid, imposed lateral skin displacements as a function of net position. They performed the identification task with a high degree of success, yet not perfectly. The fact that the experimental conditions eliminated many aspects of the interaction, including low-frequency finger deformation, distributed information, as well as normal skin movements, shows that the nervous system is able to rely on only two cues: amplitude and spectral information. The examination of the "spatial spectrograms" of the imposed lateral skin displacement revealed that texture could be represented spatially, despite being sensed through time and that these spectrograms were distinctively organized into what could be called "spatial formants." This finding led us to speculate that the mechanical properties of the finger enables spatial information to be used for perceptual purposes in humans with no distributed sensing, which is a principle that could be applied to robots.


More designers expect and are willing to spend time to continue their education. It is not only because of new job requirements that designers need to upgrade and update their knowledge and experience, but also for self-satisfaction. To meet this educational need, a part-time programme has been offered to product designers with different educational backgrounds and working experiences. Evaluations of the overall arrangement of the programme and of the teaching and learning of some subjects have been conducted for six years. The evaluations have included questionnaires, classroom observations, and in-depth interviews with students and teachers. This paper briefly reviews the social changes and the need of product designers for continuing education. By reviewing the structure of the programme and the feedback of the design students, this paper discusses the difficulties that these students encounter in continuing their professional development in universities. According to the special arrangements in the programme aimed at meeting the needs of students, the paper identifies three opportunities to help students continue their education: that is, turning diversity into a resource, turning constraints into flexibility, and turning difficulties into motivation. The paper further discusses that, for such arrangements to be successful, administrators and teachers should have the same mission and goals in implementing the arrangements, such as flexible arrangements of timetables and flexible learning environment. Without consensus among administrators and teachers and their contribution and collaboration, it would be difficult to achieve success.


Today's desktop PCs rely on security software such as anti-v irus products and personal firewalls for protection. Unfortunately, malware authors have adapted by specifically targeting and disabling these defenses, a practice exacerbated by the rise in zero-day exploits. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of SAV-V, a platform that enhances the detection capabilities of antivirus software. Our platform leverages virtualization to p reserve the integrity of AV software and to guarantee access to AV updates. SAV-V also uses secure logging and a split file system to preserve the fidelity of input to the AV program. Combined with our technique of fake shutdowns, these measures allow SAV-V to eventually detect any zero-day malware that writes to disk. Benchmarks of our prototype system suggest that SAV-V can be implemented efficiently, an d we validate our prototype by testing it against real-world malware.


This study examines psychological determinants of the suppressed demand for recreational tourism. Its broad aim is to develop existing theoretical perspectives in order to throw light upon free choice non-holidaymaking. Part one uses structured interviews, and a supporting attitude survey, to contrast the perceptions and environmental circumstances of more and less vociferous participants. Specifically the interviewees' disclose perceived non-holidaymaking determinants and opportunity costs. Part two utilises questionnaires with personality items and non-parametric hypothesis testing, critically evaluating Nickerson and Ellis' (1991) postulated yet unsubstantiated predisposition to non-participation (introversion, low arousal seeking tendency and external locus of control). A cognitive mapping procedure then reveals evaluative criteria relevant to the holiday/no holiday decision.

The explorative analysis demonstrates that suppressed demand has a non-permanent composition. Also the perceived opportunity costs of holidaymaking are invariably connected with homemaking expenditures (eg decorating and DIY). People moreover differentially prioritise holidaymaking 'per se'. Regarding the personality affects on non-participation, the analysis finds no evidence to support Nickerson and Ellis' assertions about introversion and low arousal seeking. On the other hand, an external locus of control does to dispose to non-holidaymaking (p=<p.05). The cognitive mapping experiment illustrates that homemaking expenditures are generally prioritised over and above holidaymaking. Although, more adventurous travellers perceive that these expenditures are of relatively more equal importance. These findings are combined in a synthesis of an emotive generic holiday decision model; emphasising transient effects, a generic resource allocation bias, and the normative-affective influences of omnipresent constraints. It is proferred that this model provides a previously lacking foothold that will support further advancements in holiday decision making research.


Pure amorphous solids are traditionally considered to set the lower bound of thermal conductivity due to their disordered atomic structure that impedes vibrational energy transport. However, the lower limits for thermal conductivity in heterogeneous amorphous solids and the physical mechanisms underlying these limits remain unclear. Here, we use equilibrium molecular dynamics to show that an amorphous SiGe nanocomposite can possess thermal conductivity substantially lower than those of the amorphous Si and Ge constituents. Normal mode analysis indicates that the presence of the Ge inclusion localizes vibrational modes with frequency above the Ge cutoff in the Si host, drastically reducing their ability to transport heat. This observation suggests a general route to achieve exceptionally low thermal conductivity in fully dense solids by restricting the vibrational density of states available for transport in heterogeneous amorphous nanocomposites.


The Swaziland Association of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (S ASCCO) has been the focus of this study. It is envisaged that the research undertaken will be used to benchmark the cooperative's current strategy (reorganization) and help identify factors that will lead to a successful reorganization. SASCCO was officially registered as an apex body for all Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Saccos) in 1988 under the Cooperative Act of 1964. SASCCO is at present constructing a multi-million Emalangeni Cooperative Centre that will be wholly funded by its members. Dividends for members are expected to be not less than 12% a year. The cooperative is at its maturity stage. Its grand strategy is joint venturing with other cooperatives. It has further formed partnerships and strategic alliances with both local and international organizations. Its generic strategy is to create, market unique products and services for varied customer groups through differentiation. Its mission statement is "to be a member controlled and owned financial cooperative that establishes financially strong and sound savings and credit cooperative societies by providing them with quality financial, education and technical services in order to improve the socio-economic needs of their members at grass roots level". The management problem is finding a suitable reorganization strategy that will maximise shareholders' wealth and correctly position the Cooperative for the proposed Cooperative Bank. The Cooperative has serious financial problems, operating a poor balance sheet and lacks some key skills. The main objective of the research is, therefore, to analyze, assess and evaluate suitability of the Cooperative's current strategy based on both strategic and financial management views and then recommend a right way to a successful reorganization. A modified model adapted from (Johnson and Scholes, 1999) was used to map the whole study. The main findings centred on the Cooperative's reorganization's strategy and its suitability. Management is clear with the strategic direction. However, the strategy is not implemented and executed very well. SASCCO is capable and has the opportunity to own the largest market share in the financial arena due to the low interest rates it offers. It was concluded that the cooperative suffers because of its imbalanced capital structure and recommended that a suitable optimal capital structure would be found by gearing the cooperative adequately. However, due to the exploratory nature of the study, it was difficult to empirically investigate some of the issues fully. As a result, a further, more representative sample that will be able to generalize the results to the whole population is recommended.


OBJECTIVE--To compare the long term survival of a group of athletes taking prolonged vigorous physical exercise to that of the general population. DESIGN--Follow up of a cohort of participants in the Dutch eleven cities ice skating tour (a race and recreational tour) over a distance of 200 kilometers. SETTING--Data on participation from the organising committee and data on mortality from all municipalities in The Netherlands. SUBJECTS--2259 Male athletes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Comparison of all cause mortality in male participants in the tour with that in the general population of The Netherlands. RESULTS--The standardised mortality ratio for all participants during 32 years of follow up was 0.76 (95% confidence interval 0.68 to 0.85), and 0.90 (0.48 to 1.44) for participants in the race, and 0.72 (0.60 to 0.86) for participants in the recreational tour who finished within the time limit. CONCLUSIONS--The capacity for prolonged and vigorous physical exercise, particularly if the exercise is recreational, is a strong indicator of longevity.


The current shortage of qualified IT professionals in industry now extends to academia. Academic departments need a systematic approach to recruit new IT faculty effectively. This process is hindered not only by the shortage of formally qualified PhDs, but also by the lack of consensus in the definition of "IT" and the competition with industry for skilled professionals, even at the PhD level. Another challenge is the gap between new PhDs seeking research positions and the shortage of qualified faculty in institutions for which teaching is a priority. This tutorial explores these and other issues related to IT faculty recruiting, and provides a systematic and practical methodology for pro-actively attracting the right people to the right places in academia. An effective recruiting process requires thoughtful problem definition, identification of appropriate sources of alternatives, consistency and fairness in selection using well-defined criteria, and aggressive closure.


Cell migration is regulated in part by the connection between the substratum and the actin cytoskeleton. However, the very large number of proteins involved in this linkage and their complex network of interactions make it difficult to assess their role in cell migration. We apply a novel image analysis tool, spatio-temporal image correlation spectroscopy (STICS), to quantify the directed movements of adhesion-related proteins and actin in protrusions of migrating cells. The STICS technique reveals protein dynamics even when protein densities are very low or very high, and works in the presence of large, static molecular complexes. Detailed protein velocity maps for actin and the adhesion-related proteins α-actinin, α5-integrin, talin, paxillin, vinculin and focal adhesion kinase are presented. The data show that there are differences in the efficiency of the linkage between integrin and actin among different cell types and on the same cell type grown on different substrate densities. We identify potential mechanisms that regulate efficiency of the linkage, or clutch, and identify two likely points of disconnect, one at the integrin and the other at α-actinin or actin. The data suggests that the efficiency of the linkage increases as actin and adhesions become more organized showing the importance of factors that regulate the efficiency in adhesion signaling and dynamics.


Post larvae of wild and cultured spawners of the Indian white shrimp (Penaeus indicus, Milne Edwards, 1837) were reared to market size, in commercial ponds of shrimp farming site of Helleh, in Bushehr Province, during a six months period. Environmental factors, management process and the diet used to feed shrimps were almost similar for both treatments. Averages of the weight, length, specific growth rate, food conversion ratio and survival rate were measured and compared between the two treatments at harvesting time. Results indicated that, the post larvae of wild spawners had better growth, higher survival rate, and lower food conversion ratio. Weight gain of abdominal portion of the body, was higher in wild post larvae (P<0.01), which was in contrast to cephalothorax weight (P<0.01). Length-weight relationship measurements illustrated that, cultured post larvae obtained from wild spawners had similar size and were more acceptable for the market. Broodstock background could be the main reason for given differences, in which, those captured from the sea, had better condition due to receiving appropriate food with higher genetic diversity. To produce high quality post larvae for the expanding shrimp farming industry as an economic activity in the country, it is suggested that broodstocks to be obtained either from the sea as sub-adults or matured spawners, or to be provide from culturing shrimps, raised in conditions closest to the nature (i.e., ambient factors, prepared diets) and also with appropriate genetic diversity.


Background: Dental diseases negatively influence people′s oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and thus their perceived need for dental care. QoL is increasingly acknowledged as a valid, appropriate and significant indicator of service need and intervention outcomes in contemporary public health research and practice. Objectives: (1) To assess the psychometric properties of oral health impact profile-14 (OHIP-14) scale among rural and urban OHIP of Udaipur population. (2) To assess and compare clinical dental status (dental caries, periodontal disease and prosthetic status) and its impacts on OHRQoL rural and urban population of Udaipur. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among rural (600) and urban (600) population of Udaipur that have age ranges between 20 and 79 years, chosen from outpatient department of Pacific Dental College and Hospital. The OHIP-14 was tested for validity and reliability. Chi-square, Student′s t-test, analysis of variance and multiple logistic regression analysis were employed for statistical analysis. Results: The Cronbach′s alpha of the scale was found to be 0.85 among the rural population and 0.89 among the urban population. Prevalence of periodontal disease (community periodontal index and loss of attachment) was found greater among the rural population than the urban population. Urban population showed significantly greater proportion of subjects with prosthesis (including partial, fixed and total) as compared to the rural population. Among study population, OHIP-14 was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) associated with age, gender, presence of decayed teeth (DT), missing teeth (MT), and location. Significantly greater odds ratio (OR) (OHIP-14) were revealed among males (OR = 1.35, P = 0.02), urban residents (OR = 1.13, P = 0.002), those < 45 years of age (OR = 1.23, P = 0.01), those without DT (OR = 1.48, P = 0.002) and without MT (OR = 1.08, P = 0.03). Conclusion: The rural and urban study subjects had a fair clinical status. The presence of dental caries had greatest impacts on OHRQoL. In addition, rural subjects faced greater impact than urban subjects.


We present measurements on biomolecular surface multilayers using an integrated optical sensor based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The sensor design is unique in that it incorporates a three-waveguide coupler structure at the interferometer output which gives advantages in terms of signal referencing and in establishing and maintaining a sensitive operating point. The sensor performance is characterized with respect to bulk superstrate index and by the formation of multiple protein adlayers using a biotin-avidin-based biochemical system. The detection limit for protein loading is estimated as 5 pg/mm/sup 2/.


Few features of Irish English have been studied diachronically and the area ofpragmatic markers is likewise largely neglected even as regards present-dayIrish English (Corrigan 2010). This study uses data from the Corpus of IrishEnglish Correspondence (CORIECOR) to survey the history of some of thepragmatic markers regarded as most typical of Irish English, particularly likeand sure. Besides addressing issues like the historical provenance of thesepragmatic markers in varieties of British English, Scots, in contact with Irish,or as innovations in Irish English itself, we trace changes in the functions forwhich the markers are used throughout the timespans covered by CORIECOR(1750–1940). Also examined are usage patterns in the light of previous empiricalfindings that many of the distinctive features of Irish English tend to emergein the written record only at relatively late stages in the process of languageshift, and the hypothesis that this may be related to increasing colloquialisationor vernacularisation.


We analyze assortative mixing patterns of biological networks which are typically directed. We develop a theoretical background for analyzing mixing patterns in directed networks before applying them to specific biological networks. Two new quantities are introduced, namely the in-assortativity and the out-assortativity, which are shown to be useful in quantifying assortative mixing in directed networks. We also introduce the local (node level) assortativity quantities for in- and out-assortativity. Local assortativity profiles are the distributions of these local quantities over node degrees and can be used to analyze both canonical and real-world directed biological networks. Many biological networks, which have been previously classified as disassortative, are shown to be assortative with respect to these new measures. Finally, we demonstrate the use of local assortativity profiles in analyzing the functionalities of particular nodes and groups of nodes in real-world biological networks.


The current crisis, while of a global nature, has affected national labor markets to a varying extent. While some countries have experienced a steep increase in unemployment, employment in other developed economies has not fallen in parallel with a significant decline in GDP. Our analysis shows that labor market institutions frequently used to study employment performance can explain the development of unemployment in the situation of crisis in some clusters of countries much better than in others. One major factor to be incorporated in capturing national variations is the role of internal flexibility, in particular working time adjustment. This calls for a broader concept of labor market flexibility which takes into account different channels of adjustment.


Large vertebrate herbivores, when they find a salt-bearing layer of rock, say in a cliff face, can produce sizable voids where, over generations, they have removed and consumed salty rock. The cavities formed by this natural animal process constitute a unique class of caves that can be called salt ingestion caves. Several examples of such caves are described in various publications. An example in Mississippi U.S.A., Rock House Cave, was visited by the authors in 2000. It seems to have been formed by deer or bison. Perhaps the most spectacular example is Kitum Cave in Kenya. This cave has been excavated to a length over 100 meters by elephants. An ancient example is La Cueva del Milodon in Chile, which is reported to have been excavated by the now extinct milodon, a giant ground sloth. Still other possible examples can be cited. This class of caves deserves a careful definition. First, the cavity in rock should meet the size and other conventions of the locally accepted definition of a cave. Of course this requirement differs in detail from country to country, particularly in the matter of size. The intent is to respect the local conventions. The characteristic that human entry is possible is judged to be a crucial property of any recognized cave definition. Second, the cavity should be significantly the result of vertebrate animal consumption of salt-bearing rock. The defining process is that rock removed to form the cave is carried away in the digestive track of an animal. While sodium salts are expected to be the norm, other salts for which there is animal hunger are acceptable. Also some other speleogenesis process, such as solution, should not be excluded as long as it is secondary in formation of a cave in question.


Abstract This study explores the effectiveness of guided reflective journals to improve intelligibility in a Japanese higher educational context. Based on qualitative and quantitative methods, the paper evaluates changes in speech over the duration of one semester. In particular, this study focuses on changes in prosodic features such as stress, intonation and pausing in a small group of 22 students who were studying English at one university in Japan. Segmental features are also considered. Results from this study show that the goal-setting strategies embedded in the reflective journals served to direct autonomous learning efforts and motivated the participants from the experimental group to improve more than the control group, especially with regard to word stress, intonation and pausing. While the participants from the experimental group focused their learning goals mainly on prosodic features, no significant improvements were made in segmental features. While further research is needed in this area, this paper shows that guided reflective journals may be one intervention strategy to support learning and improve the pronunciation skills of EFL learners. However, further research is needed to explore the use and benefits of guided reflective journals as an independent learning tool to improve pronunciation.


This paper presents a case study on the ethical issues that relate to the use of Smart Information Systems (SIS) in predictive risk intelligence. The case study is based on a company that is using SIS to provide predictive risk intelligence in supply chain management (SCM), insurance, finance and sustainability. Thepaper covers an assessment of how the company recognises ethical concerns related to SIS and the ways it deals with them. Data was collected through a document review and two in-depth semi-structured interviews.Results from the case study indicate that the main ethical concerns with the use of SIS in predictive risk intelligence include protection of the data being used in predicting risk, data privacy and consent from those whose data has been collected from data providers such as social media sites. Also, there are issues relating to the transparency and accountability of processes used in predictive intelligence. The interviews highlighted the issue of bias in using the SIS for making predictions for specific target clients. The last ethical issue was related to trust and accuracy of the predictions of the SIS. In response to these issues,the company has put in place different mechanisms to ensure responsible innovation through what it calls Responsible Data Science. Under Responsible Data Science, the identified ethical issues are addressed by following a code of ethics, engaging with stakeholders and ethics committees.This paper is important because it provides lessons for the responsible implementation of SIS in industry, particularly for start-ups. The paper acknowledges ethical issues with the use of SIS in predictive risk intelligence and suggests that ethics should be a central consideration for companies and individuals developing SIS to create meaningful positive change for society.


This paper presents the optimal tuning of power system stabilizer parameters using a newly introduced evolutionary algorithm called Population Based Incremental Learning (PBIL). To robustly stabilize the system, an objective function that minimizes the infinity norm of the closed-loop system is introduced such that the parameters of a fixed structure PSS are optimally tuned and the controller stabilizes a pre-specified set of system models. The PBIL-PSS is compared with the Conventional PSS (CPSS). The simulation results presented in this paper show that the proposed PBIL- PSS is more effective than the Conventional PSS in damping the low frequency oscillations. The performance of the proposed PSS is also evaluated using the Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). The experimental results obtained from the RTDS confirm the proposed controller is robust for under small disturbance.


Economics is a policy discipline. It is engaged with the problems, large and small, of social organization and the general good. As such it co-evolves with circumstances. It is historically contingent. The application of economic ideas to specific problems under specific circumstances may succeed or fail, and in the latter case, people with different ideas normally rise to prominence. Capitalism is an economic system whose characteristics and problems have preoccupied economists since the 18th century. It is not the only such system; there were economists before capitalism going back to Aristotle. And there have been economists under competing systems: socialism and communism had economists of their own. Today it is common to speak of "varieties of capitalism"; these too foster economists of differing views and perspectives. Economists and economic theories are a byproduct of the social order that spawns them. The world to which economic policies are ultimately addressed is a complex system. Yet economists seeking to develop appropriate policies are necessarily guided by simplifications and heuristics. The question before the discipline is to decide what sort of simplification is best suited to the task. In the spirit of modern science, this paper argues that appropriate generalizations, simplifications, heuristics and principles are to be derived from a study of the actual world. While these may deploy mathematical tools and draw on insights from the behavior of mathematical systems, the latter by themselves are inadequate, especially where they start from the dead dogmas of the neoclassical mainstream: ex nihilo nihil fit. "Kepler undertook to draw a curve through the places of Mars, and his greatest service to science was in impressing on men's minds that this was the thing to be done if they wished to improve astronomy; that they were not to content themselves with inquiring whether one system of epicycles was better than another, but that they were to sit down to the figures and find out what the curve, in truth was" (Charles Sanders Peirce, 1877).


There is increasing interest in building systems that can automatically interpret hand-drawn sketches. However, many challenges remain in terms of recognition accuracy, robustness to different drawing styles, and ability to generalize across multiple domains. To address these challenges, we propose a new approach to sketched symbol recognition that focuses on the visual appearance of the symbols. This allows us to better handle the range of visual and stroke-level variations found in freehand drawings. We also present a new symbol classifier that is computationally efficient and invariant to rotation and local deformations. We show that our method exceeds state-of-the-art performance on all three domains we evaluated, including handwritten digits, PowerPoint shapes, and electrical circuit symbols.


Globally, natural resources are increasingly under pressure, especially due to population growth, economic growth and transformation as well as climate change. As a result, the water, energy and food (WEF) nexus approach has emerged to understand interdependencies and commonly manage resources within a multi-scale and multi-level framework. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the high and growing consumption of traditional biomass for cooking purposes - notably fuelwood and charcoal - is both a key source of energy and contributor for food security as well as a pressure on natural resources. Improving the bioenergy value chains is essential for limiting environmental degradation and for securing the livelihoods of millions of people. Although the WEF nexus approach entails large potential to address the complex problems arising along the bioenergy value chains, these are currently not considered. Based on the WEF nexus approach, we analyze the different steps within the charcoal value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa and highlight the respective interdependencies and the potential for improving overall socio-economic and environmental sustainability. We emphasize the water, energy and food related implications of vicious and virtuous production cycles, separated by value chain segments. We discuss the potential and major challenges for implementing more sustainable value chains. Furthermore, we underline the necessity of applying WEF nexus approaches to these value chains in order to optimize environmental and social outcomes.


Traditional web search engines treat queries as sequences of keywords and return web pages that contain those keywords as results. Such a mechanism is effective when the user knows exactly the right words that web pages use to describe the content they are looking for. However, it is less than satisfactory or even downright hopeless if the user asks for a concept or topic that has broader and sometimes ambiguous meanings. This is because keyword-based search engines index web pages by keywords and not by concepts or topics. In fact they do not understand the content of the web pages. In this paper, we present a framework that improves web search experiences through the use of a probabilistic knowledge base. The framework classifies web queries into different patterns according to the concepts and entities in addition to keywords contained in these queries. Then it produces answers by interpreting the queries with the help of the knowledge base. Our preliminary results showed that the new framework is capable of answering various types of topic-like queries with much higher user satisfaction, and is therefore a valuable addition to the traditional web search.


Find information about pharmacy and drug topics for professionals and for consumers. Most of the resources in this guide are freely available.


While the most common way of evaluating a computational model is to see whether it shows a good fit with the empirical data, recent literature on theory testing and model selection criticizes the assumption that this is actually strong evidence for the validity of a model. This article presents a case study from music cognition (modeling the ritardandi in music performance) and compares two families of computational models (kinematic and perceptual) using three different model selection criteria: goodness-of-fit, model simplicity, and the degree of surprise in the predictions. In the light of what counts as strong evidence for a model's validity—namely that it makes limited range, nonsmooth, and relatively surprising predictions—the perception-based model is preferred over the kinematic model.


Although waste prevention is considered the best possible waste management option in the European waste hierarchy model, it is unclear what constitutes waste prevention. To address this lack of clarity, this text presents an analysis of four Swedish case studies of waste prevention: a waste management company selling waste prevention services; the possibility offered to Swedish households to opt out of receiving unaddressed promotional material; a car-sharing program; and a re-use center. This analysis is informed by an action-net perspective that focuses on the way organizing emerges from connecting actions, often prior to networking between actors. In conclusion, we stress that waste prevention rests on the invention of new modes and patterns of interactions that both build and disrupt the existing institutional order and underscore the importance of physical artifacts and dedicated infrastructures for waste prevention initiatives.


Wildfires in chaparral shrublands of southern California are a major hazard and important ecological disturbance agent. Fire managers typically monitor fuel moisture of chaparral shrublands to assess the risk of wildfires, using field-based sampling methods for a few small study areas located sparsely throughout southern California. Remote sensing provides the potential for deriving spatially explicit and temporally frequent data on live fuel moisture (LFM) conditions. The objective of this present study was to explore the potential for monitoring LFM with maps derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Terra Earth-observing satellite. A time series of MODIS surface reflectance data (MOD-09_A1) for San Diego County, California from Fall 2000 through 2003 was used to derive normalized difference indices, which were regressed against LFM data. A high degree of temporal co-variability was found, with three MODIS indices providing similar predictability. Regression relationships were inverted and applied to MODIS images to map LFM interval classes for chaparral areas of San Diego County. The spatial–temporal patterns of LFM maps suggest that, at a minimum, the MODIS can provide spatially explicit information that extends the utility of ground-based measurements of LFM data at a few sites.


Received: January 11, 2019 Accepted: February 15, 2019 Published: March 31, 2019 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.2.18 This paper reflects the reality of today's education and how it is governed by a digital native generation. Technology has become a crucial factor in people's social and educational lives. In nearly every educational area, social networks are being used. This paper claims that the social networking sites of teaching English as a FL improve learners' English language skills, as they become authors and readers. This study investigates how a particular social networking tool, which was Twitter, that could be used in improving foreign language vocabulary skills. The purpose of the study was to determine EFL Saudi female students' improvements in vocabulary acquisition as well as their attitudes and motivation towards tweeting and reading others' tweets. Further, this paper suggests including Twitter into language teaching because it is crucial to use technology in our courses in order to improve FL teaching methods. n KEYWORDS


Heterogeneous base stations (e.g., picocells, microcells, femtocells, and distributed antennas) will become increasingly essential for cellular network capacity and coverage. Up until now, little basic research has been done on the fundamentals of managing so much infrastructure-much of it unplanned-together with the carefully planned macro-cellular network. Inter-cell coordination is in principle an effective way of ensuring different infrastructure components behave in a way that increases, rather than decreases, the key quality of service (QoS) metrics. The success of such coordination depends heavily on how the overhead is shared, and the rate and delay of the overhead sharing. We develop a novel framework to quantify overhead signaling for inter-cell coordination, which is usually ignored in traditional 1-tier networks, and assumes even more importance in multi-tier heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs). We derive the overhead quality contour for general -tier HCNs-the achievable set of overhead packet rate, size, delay, and outage probability-in closed-form expressions or computable integrals under general assumptions on overhead arrivals and different overhead signaling methods (backhaul and/or wireless). The overhead quality contour is further simplified for two widely used models of overhead arrivals: Poisson and deterministic arrival process. This framework can be used in the design and evaluation of any inter-cell coordination scheme. It also provides design insights on backhaul and wireless overhead channels to handle specific overhead signaling requirements.


The study is part of a larger project concerned with addressing the problem that Eritrean science teachers face in their attempt to implement a new learner-centred science curriculum. Specifically, the study attempted to determine the effects of the use of an Argumentation-Based Instructional Model (ABIM) on 25 pre-service science teachers' understanding of argumentation and its role in science teaching. Responses to an open-ended Learner-Centred Argumentation Instruction Questionnaire and interview responses were analysed qualitatively using open coding and the generation of categories. The Contiguity Argumentation Theory categories were also used to describe the type of cognitive shifts made by the group of pre-service teachers. The findings show that as a result of their experience with ABIM, the participants: (a) made noticeable cognitive shifts from seeing argumentation as a debate to win a case to a form of dialogue for reaching consensus; (b) became aware of the difference between everyday and scientific types of argumentation; and (c) came to recognize the important role that argumentation could play in science education.


Background: Herbal medications are used worldwide for a variety of diseases and conditions. Patients often elect not to disclose their herbal use history, or health care practitioners fail to enquire about specific alternative therapy. The aim of this study was to assess the conditions most frequently self-treated with herbal remedies by patients visiting a tertiary hospital in Garankuwa, South Africa. Methods: Patients attending an out-patient's clinic at the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital were given a questionnaire regarding their use of herbal remedies for various reasons. Assessment was done on past, current, and possible future use of herbal interventions. These interventions were categorised into acute medical conditions, chronic ailments, and cultural uses. Results: Respiratory tract infections were most frequently treated (34%). Other highly ranked uses included protection from evil spirits (32%) and for HIV/AIDS (29%). Digestive ailments (27%), hypertension (18%), and general malaise (17%) accounted for the remainder. Previous herbal use amounted to 74%, but only 30% indicated that they would use herbal medication in future. Conclusions: Traditional medication plays an important role in many communities in South Africa. For this reason health care workers need to be aware of the conditions most frequently self-treated with herbal remedies. Having knowledge about the incidence of herbal treatment for a specific condition could alert the health care practitioner to possible reasons for unidentifiable drug interactions, adverse events, treatment failure, or even death.


Background: Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) catheter has been characterized as the "lifeline" of PD patients. Timely and effective insertion of the PD catheter is essential for the success of a PD program. We describe our initial experience with peritoneoscopic implantation of PD catheters by nephrologists. Patients and Methods: Twenty-one patients underwent peritoneoscopic PD catheter implantation in our centre during 2007 – 2009. Their mean age was 57.3±14.7 years, 8 patients (38%) were transferred from hemodialysis and 12 patients (57%) had a previous history of uncomplicated abdominal surgery for various reasons. Results: All PD catheters were inserted under local anaesthesia in a nephrology ward. There were no major complications during, or immediately after catheter implantation. There were 4 cases of eosinophilic peritonitis following air entrapment in the peritoneal cavity. PD fluid leak was observed in two cases and an abdominal hernia in one case. The PD catheter did not work properly in 3 cases and in two of them the catheter was removed and replaced by a new one by surgeons. During the follow up period a total of 5 catheters were removed: three of them after successful renal transplantation and two due to poor functioning. Conclusions: PD catheter insertion by nephrologists with peritoneoscopy is a rather simple, safe and efficient method. It offers the opportunity for timely initiation of PD and a relative independence from surgeons, reducing the waiting times and therefore enhancing PD uptake. Hippokratia 2011; 15 (Suppl 2): 27-29


Numerous mathematical models have been developed to investigate the high
incidence of low back pain associated with lifting activities. These mainly
consider the muscle forces required to support the spine, and few have
considered the additional role of curvature.
One previous model which represented the spine as an arch (Aspden 1987)
indicated the curvature to have a significant effect on both loading and
stability of the spine. However this model included collective loading
patterns for body weight and muscle forces, and only partial representation
of the spine. On the basis that the level of anatomic detail of a model affects
the accuracy of its predictions (McGill and Norman, 1987), this thesis
describes the development of a model which provides greater detail for
investigating spinal stability in the sagittal plane.
The curvature of the whole spine, a distributed loading pattern for body
weight, and the activity of individual spinal muscle groups have been
considered. Comparison with the previous arch model has shown these to be
necessary features for determining the loading and stability associated with a
given posture. In particular, application of individual muscle forces provide
greater control of stability at each vertebral level. By considering the force
requirements of the individual muscle groups and the consequent loads at
each intervertebral joint, possible areas of tissue over load can be identified.


2 Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the implementation of Vedic multiplier with Chinese Abacus adder design, using Reversible Logic Gates. The power consumption of the Vedic multiplier is low as it generates all partial products and their sum in one step. Since high radix of Chinese Abacus adder reduces the carry propagation delay, it is observed here that the proposed design increases the speed of operation manifold. The proposed work is implemented on the Xilinx FPGA device, Spartan-3E. The results show that multiplier implemented using Chinese Abacus approach is quite efficient in terms of area, time and speed