Natural organic matter is ubiquitous in aquatic systems, and has long been associated with disinfection by-product (DBP) formation during chlorination in water treatment plants and distribution systems. In this study modelled water was irradiated with either ultraviolet (UV) lamps or with UV combined with the addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The changes in the fluorescence intensity between the pretreated and post-treated samples were measured to determine the changes in the molecular size distribution of this reactive fraction of NOM. It was determined that the UV/H2O2 process reduces the concentration of these potential DBP precursors more effectively than UV irradiation alone.


Each organisation exists or is created for the achievement of one or more goals. To ensure continued success, the organisation should monitor its performance with respect to the formulated goals. In practice the performance of an organization is often evaluated by estimating its performance indicators. In most existing approaches on organization modelling the relation between
performance indicators and goals remains implicit. This paper proposes a formal
framework for modelling goals based on performance indicators and defines mechanisms for establishing goal satisfaction, which enable evaluation of
organizational performance. Methodological and analysis issues related to goals
and performance indicators are briefly discussed in the paper. The described
framework is a part of a general framework for organization modelling and analysis.


The aim of this research was to determine the nutrient content, antioxidant activity and the sensory characteristics of functional powder from pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) and tempeh. The formula was consists of 15% pumpkin flesh powder, 35% pumpkin seed powder, and 50% powder tempeh. The nutritional component was determined by proximate and spectrophotometric analysis, DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhidrazyl) assay for antioxidant activity, and the sensory characteristics was analyzed by 39 semi-trained panelists using 3 types of beverage i.e water, orange juice and milk. The results showed that the functional powder contained 6.84±0.09% moisture, 3.18±0.02% ash, 35.15±0.07% fat, 30.15±0.35% protein, 20.85±0.35% carbohydrate, 3.86±0.02% crude fiber, 308.85±0.55 ppm total carotene, 515.00 ppb chromium, and 4.59% total sugar. Antioxidant activity of functional powder was 6765.88 ppm. According to the panelists, orange juice has the best sensory characteristics. This functional powder qualified for diabetic, futhermore investigate needed to improve the sensory characteristics and nutritional interactions.


Poor service provision in developing countries, and particularly the provision of water-related services, present serious challenges to urban development. It is estimated that 300 m. people in Africa do not have access to safe drinking water and 313 m. have limited access to adequate sanitation. The critical situation in the water sector continues to undermine strategies for poverty eradication and retards development. It is possible that the failure in service provision can in part be attributed to an inability by policy makers to address urban water management in a holistic  manner. In this study, a systems approach has been adopted to develop a composite index that could be used to assess the potential of a town or city to be sustainable. This index, the Sustainability Index for Integrated Urban Water Management (SIUWM) is composed of 5 components which disaggregate into 20 indicators and ultimately into 64 variables. Two Southern African urban centres, Hermanus and Maputo, were selected as initial case studies to test the applicability and validity of the index and to compare their sustainability index scores. Results of the SIUWM  application demonstrate that the index could highlight areas for  improvement and ultimately guide appropriate action and policy-making towards better service delivery and improved resource management.


Hailed as "the Oxford English Dictionary of American constitutional history," the print edition of The Founders' Constitution has proved since its publication in 1987 to be an invaluable aid to all those seeking a deeper understanding of one of our nation's most important legal documents. In this unique anthology, Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner draw on the writings of a wide array of people engaged in the problem of making popular government safe, steady, and accountable. The documents included range from the early seventeenth century to the 1830s, from the reflections of philosophers to popular pamphlets, from public debates in ratifying conventions to the private correspondence of the leading political actors of the day. These rich and varied materials are arranged, first, according to broad themes or problems to which the Constitution of 1787 has made a significant and lasting contribution. Then they are arranged by article, section, and clause of the U.S. Constitution, from the Preamble through Article Seven and continuing through the first twelve Amendments.


Vertical flow filters (unplanted) and vertical flow constructed wetlands (planted), simple and inexpensive technologies to treat effectively volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contaminated water, consist of containers filled with granular material which is intermittently fed with contaminated water. Contaminants are removed from the water percolating through the filter due to a combination of biodegradation, volatilization and root uptake as the main removal processes. While biodegradation is the desired process, volatile emission might restrict the application of such systems. The focus of this thesis is on the assessment and quantification of individual removal processes in pilot-scale outdoor vertical filters and wetlands, located in Leuna, Germany used for VOCs contaminated groundwater treatment.

Numerical reactive transport simulations were performed to extrapolate findings from a pilot-scale intermittently loaded system used for domestic waste water treatment to predict the performance of such a system for treatment of water containing ammonium and two VOCs: benzene and methyl tertiary butyl ether – MTBE. Model simulations considered aerobic degradation and volatilization assuming different scenarios. Model results predicted depth and frequency of the intermittent water loading, as well as the degradation kinetics and material properties are relevant for the contribution of the individual processes to total VOCs removal. An appropriate combination of injection depth and composition of the filter material would result in increasing biodegradation enhanced by oxygen recharge, at a limited emission of volatiles.

For a selected pilot-scale vertical flow filter in Leuna, benzene and MTBE volatilization and biodegradation were investigated by a combination of field measurements and conservative numerical model simulations. Non-reactive tracer tests and flow rate measurements showed highly transient flow and heterogeneous transport regime in this filter system. Radon-222 (naturally occurring in the treated water and measured at the in- and out-flow of the filter) behavior reproduced by numerical simulations and extrapolated for benzene and MTBE, indicated high volatilization potential. In contrast, relatively low volatile concentrations were detected by passive samplers on top of the filter. Qualitative assessment of biodegradation by catabolic genes analysis at different depths of the filter; and semi-quantitative assessment by stable isotope fractionation analysis indicated high potential for aerobic degradation. Thus, despite the high volatilization potential, biodegradation is dominating the contaminant mass removal: VOCs entering the soil air are subject to subsequent biodegradation in the upper filter layer acting, which is acting as a biofilter and reducing atmospheric VOCs emissions.

Removal processes in a pilot-scale vertical flow filter and a vertical flow constructed wetland showing high VOCs removal, were analyzed by numerical reactive transport model simulations. Model calibration was based on porous material analyses, flow rate measurements, conservative solute and gas tracer tests, and in- and out-flow contaminant concentrations measurement. Numerical modeling results suggested very high biodegradation rates at both filters avoided volatile atmospheric emissions attributing the observed removal to biodegradation only. The simulation study thus supports the use of both of these vertical flow systems for the treatment of contaminated groundwater and the use of reactive transport modeling for the assessment of volatile organic compound removal in these high performance treatment systems.


The remote authentication has been advancing with the growth of online services being offered on remotely basis. This calls for an optimal authentication framework other than single-server authentication. In this connection, the multi-server authentication architecture has been introduced in the literature that enables the users to avail variety of services of various servers, using a single pair of identity and password. Lately, we have witnessed a few multi-server authentication schemes in the literature, although security with loopholes. One of those multi-server authentication schemes has been presented by Chang et al. recently. Our analysis shows that the Chang et al. is vulnerable to impersonation attack, stolen smart card attack. In this study, we have reviewed the protocol thoroughly, and proposed an improved model, that is resistant to all known and identified attacks. The formal and informal security analysis for proposed model is also presented in this study, besides performance and its evaluation analysis.


We investigate the surface properties of a series of random copolymers of perfluoroalkylated biphenyl acrylates (CH2CHCOO(CH2)mOC6H4C6H4O(CH2)3C8F17, m = 0, 6, 11) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) or octadecyl methacrylate (SMA). The surface properties of the polymers were correlated to the structural parameters. Wetting hysteresis and surface tensions were estimated from dynamic contact angle measurements. It was established from atomic force microscopy analysis that wetting hysteresis cannot arise from surface anomalies. The stability of the polymer surface is enhanced by the presence of biphenyl groups and octadecyl side chains in SMA copolymer series. Surface tensions of polymers were calculated using different methods involving the Lifshitz−van der Waals/acid−base approach (van Oss et al.) and the equation of state (Neumann et al.). The low surface tensions (ca. 11 mN/m) depend on three main structural parameters:  copolymer composition, type of comonomer, and length of hydrocarbon spacer (CH2)m.


The use of Information and Communication Technologies can be seen as an important factor for social inclusion in its different aspects - economic, social, relational and informational, among others. Inclusion potentiality is even more relevant for groups of people who face limiting life conditions which determine social barriers. This study investigated the social support offered to people with disabilities based on the social network analysis method. The research objective was to make the online support dynamics for low vision people, friends and relatives evident, having as case study the Facebook Low Vision group. The social network modelling and quantitative analysis were performed from user data collection, posts, comments and likes. Contents were classified according to the type of support (Emotional or Instrumental) and according to its intention (Offered or Requested), represented in graphs as indicators for analysis. Results pointed towards a larger use rate of Instrumental and Offered support although a more intense and comprehensive exchange of Emotional and Requested support was found. Data collection limitations indicate the need for more empirical studies on the social use of socio-technical networks for different types of social support. This theme points to a research agenda about the role of information and communication technologies as a possible condition for inclusion, life quality and well-being of people with disabilities.


The Expert Panel on Older Workers made recommendations designed to increase the labour force participation of older workers. We explore the implications that higher rates of older-worker participation would have for the overall size and age composition of the labour force, for the productive capacity of the economy, and for the incomes of Canadians. Our purpose is to assess the potential impact that increased participation of older workers might have in offsetting any anticipated adverse effects of population aging on standards of living.


Agronomy/agriculture and biodiversity (ag & biodiv) communities face several major societal, economic, and environmental challenges that data science approaches will help address. To achieve their goals, researchers of these communities must be able to rapidly discover, aggregate, integrate, and analyse different types of data and information sources. Semantic technologies, combined to open, FAIR data and services, is one of the answers to fully knowledge-driven, and transparent science and innovation. The D2KAB project (www.d2kab.org) aims to create a framework to turn agronomy and biodiversity data into knowledge – semantically described, interoperable, actionable, open – and investigate the scientific methods and tools to exploit this knowledge for applications in agriculture and biodiversity sciences. This project, funded by French ANR (2019-2023), will provide the means –ontologies and linked open data– for ag & biodiv to embrace semantic Web technologies in order to produce and exploit FAIR data and services. To do so, D2KAB will develop new original methods and algorithms in the following areas: data integration, text mining, semantic annotation, ontology alignment and linked data exploitation and visualization.

D2KAB project brings together a unique multidisciplinary consortium of 12 partners to achieve this objective: 2 informatics research units (LIRMM, I3S); 6 INRA/IRSTEA/IRD research units at the interface of computer science and ag & biodiv (URGI, MaIAGE, IATE, DIST, TSCF, DIADE) specialized in agronomy or agriculture; 2 labs in biodiversity and ecosystem research (CEFE, URFM); 1 association of agriculture stakeholders (ACTA); and 1 partnership with Stanford BMIR department.

Three main goals drive D2KAB's roadmap: 1. To develop state-of-the-art methods and technologies for ontology lifecycle and alignment. 2. To build the agronomy, agriculture and biodiversity Linked Open Data cloud. 3. To enable new semantically driven agronomy and biodiversity science.

The work is starting from the recommendations of several RDA WG and IG already published or in progress (e.g. Agrisemantic WG, Vocabulary Services IG, Wheat and Rice Data Interoperability WGs, Agricultural Data IG, SHARC IG). Some of the key technological building blocks of D2KAB are AgroPortal, a reference repository for ontologies and vocabularies in agronomy; AgroLD, a semantic Web knowledge base that integrates agronomic data from public databases including GO associations, Gramene, UniprotKB, and OryGenesDB ; Corese, a semantic Web factory that implements the W3C standards RDF, RDFS, OWL-RL and SPARQL, and LDScript, a Linked Data Script Language, and STTL, the SPARQL Template Transformation Language for RDF; and Alvis, a text mining for semantic normalisation of free text by ontologies. D2KAB will allow the valorization of ag & biodiv data into real world applications leading to economic impact, smart agriculture and ecological preservation. Five driving scenarios are planned: development of an ontology-based expert system to select food packaging solutions; creation of an augmented semantic reader for Plant Health Bulletins; advanced integration of textual and experimental data on wheat phenotypes; development of new ontologies on plant root traits and extension of the Thesaurus Of Plant Characteristics; integration of plant functional biogeography data related to the Mediterranean Basin. Each of the project scenarios will have a significant impact and produce concrete outcomes for ag & biodiv scientific communities and socio-economic stakeholders in agriculture.


Art beyond its aesthetics can create empathy and understanding of the effects of illness, whether chronic like diabetes or triggered by environmental pollution such as water contamination. Utilizing the sense of touch, sight, and sound as a dynamic method of storytelling art can communicate where traditional spoken word and data representation fall short. For me the often invisible fluctuations of my blood glucose I experience as someone living with type 1 diabetes can be visualized and shared through "Diabetes Data Sculptures" ( Figure 1 ). These sculptures take the thousands of blood glucose readings and other variables that I collect each month and consolidate them into color coded and tactile summaries of that data ( Figure 2 ).


Abstract. A single particle soot photometer (SP2) was operated on the NCAR C-130 during the MIRAGE campaign (part of MILAGRO), sampling black carbon (BC) over Mexico. The highest BC concentrations were measured over Mexico City (sometimes as much as 2 μg/m3) and over hill-fires to the south of the city. The age of plumes outside of Mexico City was determined using a combination of HYSPLIT trajectories, WRF-FLEXPART modeling and CMET balloon tracks. As expected, older, diluted air masses had lower BC concentrations. A comparison of carbon monoxide (CO) and BC suggests a CO background of around 65 ppbv, and a background-corrected BC/COnet ratio of 2.89±0.89 (ng/m3-STP)/ppbv (average ± standard deviation). This ratio is similar for fresh emissions over Mexico City, as well as for aged airmasses. Comparison of light absorption measured with a particle soot absorption photometer (PSAP) and the SP2 BC suggests a BC mass-normalized absorption cross-section (MAC) of 10.9±2.1 m2/g at 660 nm (or 13.1 m2/g @ 550 nm, assuming MAC is inversely dependent on wavelength). This appears independent of aging and similar to the expected absorption cross-section for aged BC, but values, particularly in fresh emissions, could be biased high due to instrument artifacts. SP2-derived BC coating indicators show a prominent thinly-coated BC mode over the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA), while older air masses show both thinly-coated and thickly-coated BC. Some 2-day-old plumes do not show a prominent thickly-coated BC mode, possibly due to preferential wet scavenging of the likely-hydrophilic thickly-coated BC.


Teesid: Artikkel vaatleb Uku Masingu poeetilist keelekasutust, tapsemalt tema metafoorsete keelevaljendite moistmise ja moodustamise protsesse. Lahenedes tema luulele kognitiivse keeleteaduse meetoditega, kirjeldatakse, kuidas boreaalne vaimsus toob esile Masingu luule boreaalset isikupara. S U M M A R Y This paper focuses on the poetic language use of Estonian poet and theologian Uku Masing, and more specifically on his comprehension and construction of metaphorical linguistic expressions. One of the most unique authors in Estonian literature, his exceptional intellect and body of work, which covers a range of topics, have established him as a phenomenal figure in Estonian culture. Masing was a part of the 'academics generation' of Estonian literature in the 1930s. He completed his master's degree at the age of twenty-one on the science of the Old Testament and Semitic philology (1930) and was probably one of the youngest MA degree holders at the University of Tartu at the time. Upon receiving his PhD in 1934, he published his first collection of poetry. Uku Masing's religious poetry is a unique phenomenon in Estonian literature, both in its style and form. His poetry is so multi-layered that we could truthfully call him a mystic, shaman, soothsayer, or visionary, which explains the difficulty different generations have had in understanding him. It is important to note that being a poet and theologian during the years of Soviet Occupation (1940–1991) meant the doors to most publications were closed to Masing; therefore, aside from Neemed vihmade lahte (1935), he composed all of his poetry collections without considering the possibility of publishing them. Masing's bibliography is a telling example of Soviet censorship and the lack of freedom of expression. The reception of his poetry at home showed signs of awakening after the political situation changed in 1987; however, ten more years passed before the first appearances of research on Masing's work and worldview. The formation of Masing's individual style would not have been possible without examples or fulcrum, which he found from his the surrounding culture, namely from archaic Estonian folksong ( regilaul ) traditions. Masing uses repetition the same way as it is appears in Estonian folksongs, through semantic parallelism with varying subjects of repetition. Via variation, he pursues precise expressions in such a way that his poetics resembles regilaul while retaining similarities to collective mythological patterns and religious influences. This paper illustrates the importance of the linguistic role of the "I" speech act in the interpretation of Masing's poetic figures, including parallelism, and relies partially on pragmatics, since poetic figures in his poetry refer not only to the individual speech act of the here and now, but also to the subjective mythological reality of the "I" in an utterance. To describe a speech event in Masing's poetry, one must first assume that his poetry is understood as a dialogical sensory or communication act. Secondly, when observing referentiality, one must assume that different levels of language use (i.e., the differentiation of Saussure's langue and parole ) also exist, which influence the semantic understanding of the sentence and utterance level of his work. Until recently, the hidden and repetitive patterns in Masing's work have largely gone unnoticed. To many, his poetic language consists of a lexicon known only to him. When considering the basis of his creative process, I find that conceptual theory of metaphor, a cognitive linguistic approach popularized in the 1980s, helps to make sense of his poetic language system and, additionally, to differentiate the archaic boreal mentality and mytho-poetic symbols containing universal cultural meaning. The current article primarily uses material from Masing's 1930s body of work, but also references later periods when necessary. I will show how Masing's creative conscious is based on image schema, which in turn are based on archaic mythological patterns. These patterns form a corresponding system of concept formation in the text. The primary goal of this analysis is to observe Masing's body of work, regardless of genre, be it poetry or prose, fact or fiction. Although many critics have analyzed Masing's linguistic and theological ideas, mostly drawing from his essays and articles, this paper's author finds that Masing's poetry and essays are not two separate phenomena, but rather originate from one cultural-philosophical foundation. The article starts by following Masing's own three-step division of the evolution of culture/belief: primal symbiosis – analytical phase – new synthesis. These three steps are considered to be different aspects of the human mentality, and accordingly, can be used to differentiate conceptual metaphor as different degrees of the "I" identity. Masing's metaphorical models are constructed from his poetic utterances and divided into two large groups. This article aims to explain how conceptual metaphor based on experience can be interpreted on a wider cultural level as well as how boreal spirituality gives rise to Masing's poetic boreal identity.


Bonobo (Pan paniscus): One of the two species comprising the genus, Pan, and branched from chimpanzees ~1 million years ago. Sometimes referred to as "pygmy chimpanzee." Bonobos, compared to chimpanzees, are more gracile, have female social dominance, relatively long legs, pink lips, a dark face, a "tail-tuft" through adulthood, and parted long head hair . The species is omnivorous and inhabits primary and secondary forests, including seasonally inundated swamp forests. The bonobo is found in a 500,000 km2 (190,000 sq mi) area of the Congo Basin, only south of the Congo River, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to political instability, little field work in their natural habitat has been performed. Most behavioral knowledge is a result of studies of captive bonobos.


We study the optical output power of a semiconductor laser, which exploits tunneling-injection of electrons and holes into quantum dots (QDs) from two separate quantum wells. Even if there is out-tunneling leakage of carriers from QDs, the intensity of parasitic recombination outside QDs remains restricted with increasing injection current. As a result, the light-current characteristic becomes increasingly linear, and the slope efficiency grows closer to unity at high injection currents—a fascinating feature favoring the use of tunneling-injection of both electrons and holes into QDs for high-power lasing.


The study of accent is related to word and language pronunciation that can be linked to a social class, a nationality, a part of the world, or a historic time period. Accent can be characterized as an "identifier" based on sound and sound production rather than visual cues. Accent is thus linked to fields such as linguistics and pronunciation, language education, drama, literature and performance, sound studies, disability studies (communication disorders to hearing to speech), as well as to sociology and global studies (how do people speak and understand each other in different parts of the world and across geographical borders), to nationalism (how does language bring communities and societies together), and to media (how is communication presented and how is language received). Phonetic literacy (as studied by socio-linguists) involves subcategories such as speech and accent (from access to learning English by non-native speakers to the ability to speak English), dialect (variations of English based on geography), and slang. A cultural and interdisciplinary study of accents allow for inquiries about national community that move beyond legal and geographical forms of community and identity. Looking at accents emphasize the linguistic and sonic components of American global cultural values that are present in media representation, performance, and the politics of social relations.
 In particular, the study of Asian American accents in popular culture lies at the intersection of interpretations of text and sound where standard American English (the language taught in American schools) is positioned as the normative mode of communication and the criterion that non-native speakers are often judged upon in American culture. An accent is both a phonetic and visual means of interpreting the assimilation of immigrants in general, and Asians, more specifically, in relation to themes of American citizenship. Focusing on accent allows for a linguistic and narrative composition of how racial difference goes beyond a visual physical difference and is embedded in the systemic nature of how race and privilege operate in culture. Asian American and South Asian American vocal accents and other kinds of cultural "accents" offer an alternative approach to discuss American racial and ethnic performances because the notion of an accent is also inherently comparative. Accents appear only in comparison to what is considered normal or accepted universal speech, such as Standard American English. An accent can mark or distinguish someone or something in relation to something else or a prevailing norm. An accent can create contrast by its very difference. For Asian Americans, identifying how speech and communication is represented and produced in media and culture is a primary means of characterizing what is not only considered different but also what is seen to be foreign or outside definitions of American national identity. The media representations of Asian Americans exaggerate physical differences from a white American mainstream identity and dwell on alternative cultural values and behaviors that include accent and language.


Global population has grown at such an alarming rate that it is critically straining the
planet's resources. Thus regulating human fertility with an effective and inexpensive
remedy, for example from plant sources is an attractive proposition. In this study,
Phyllanthus amarus aqueous extract was given orally at 50, 100, 250 and 500mglkg
body weight daily for 90 days to male rats to investigate its effect on the male
reproductive function. Clomiphene citrate (a known male anti·fertility agent) was
given orally at 5mgllOOg b. w. for comparison. The extract treatment lowered the
fertility index (100, 250 and 500 mglkg b.w.) but litter size was not affected.
Testicular (500mglkg b.w. group) and prostate (all extract treated groups) weights
were significantly reduced. Epididymal sperm count and viability were significantly
lowered (500mglkg b.w. group) without affecting motility and morphology.
Testicular cholesterol showed a trend increase but was not significantly different
compared to control whereas the mean volumetric proportion of testicular
spermatozoa (500mglkg b.w. group) was significantly lower. Seminiferous tubules of
rats given the highest dose showed interference in spermatogenesis at the spermatid level with the presence of degenerated spennatids in the lumen. In clomiphene
treated rats, fertility was suppressed and the testis, epididymis, seminal vesicles and
prostate were severely affected. Epididymal sperm count dropped to less than 2% of
control while motility and viability were also as severely affected. Meanwhile sperm
morphology revealed abnormalities of the head, neck and tail. Testicular histology
showed progressive regression of the seminiferous tubules with most tubules devoid
of spermatozoa and spermatid while testicular cholesterol was much higher
compared to control. These results suggest that Phyllanthus amarus had a mild
inhibitory effect on the male reproductive function as compared to clomiphene.
These effects were reversible upon cessation of treatment. The extract possibly
exerted an estrogen-like effect on the male reproductive system.


The main purpose of this study is to design and develop an Online Management System for the College of Information &
Communications Technology OJT Office with SMS Notification.
The On-the-Job-Training (OJT) Office in the College of Information & Communications Technology at Bulacan State
University manually process and keep the records of every student who are taking up their OJTs. Compiling student
documents needs a lot of work and greater space, and maintains them organized and safe. Web-based Management System
with SMS Notification gives a solution in managing time, improve working processes, design precise monitoring program,
and capability to store a huge data that could generate different reports accurately. This web application features
expandability and flexibility by making standard procedures for database back-up and archiving of records and transactions.
The website lets every student create an account and access all its features such as announcements, downloadable forms,
schedule of visits and forum discussions. Submission of requirements can upload to the website anytime. Information
dissemination like important announcements and events could send to the students via Short Message Service (SMS)
notification.


The land use and land use and management changes are among the main determinants of the stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC). The spatially explicit dynamic modeling is a technique that has been successfully used in evaluations of regional SOC stocks changes. Thus, this study aimed to use the Century 4.0 model associated with geoprocessing and remote sensing techniques to evaluate the effects of agricultural use and soil management changes on dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) on farms in Santana (Ijui, RS, Brazil). A geospatial database of the thematic plans: soil classes, land cover, landforms and beginning of agricultural use, were created in ARCGIS 9.x. After land use and soil management systems had been reconstituted from historical and current surveys, the model was initialized with local soil and climate data and calibrated in two steps. In the first calibration step, internal model parameters based on maize, wheat and soybean biomass C additions to the soil were adjusted, as well as SOC measured in 2007 (0-20 cm layer) of native forest (original condition) and an adjacent farm, where agriculture had been initiated between 1901 and 1930 (older plantation, area 1), sampling an Oxisol, on hilltops. Afterwards, the Century model was statistically validated based on data from 10 fields, initiated at different times, with the same soil type and landscape, sampled in 2007 (0-20 cm layer) divided into four homogeneous areas (Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4) within the district of Santana. In the calibration for generalization, four "subtropical forest " options were created to represent the native forest of each soil type in (Oxisol, Mollisol and two Entisol types) based on the tropical forest option generated in the primary calibration step; the adjustments of this step were maintained and only the parameter related to maximum gross monthly production of forest biomass was changed to stabilize the output variable SOMTC (simulated SOC), after running the model for 3000 years (equilibrium run), matching the measured SOC stocks of each soil type under native vegetation. After calibration, all possible combinations of soils, landforms, land use cover and land use change for the agricultural use of Santana ((1901 to 2007; 54 simulation units) were simulated by the i-Century interface. The model estimated the C dynamics adequately, reproducing the evolution of SOC stocks in the area. According to the estimates, the adoption of conservation management practices ensures the reduction of C losses caused by erosion and microbial decomposition, resulting in increases in SOC stocks.


Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on happiness in The Netherlands

 In the media we read mainly about negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our subjective wellbeing, such as increased depression, anxiety and loneliness. There is less attention for possible positive effects and for this reason it is worth examining how the life-satisfaction of the Dutch population has developed during the pandemic. In the short run, this will help policy makers to balance loss of happiness against loss of lives and in the long run it will help to examine which policies have resulted in the lowest loss of happy life years. In this article, we describe observed effects on happiness in the Netherlands during the pandemic (until spring 2021) using three empirical approaches: 1) trend in subsequent survey studies, 2) analysis of a panel study, and 3) analysis of a dairy study in which mood during daily activities was measured. Average life-satisfaction declined by about 4% of which 3% between summer 2020 and spring 2021. Whereas in the early days of the pandemic, the Dutch population only reported a minor loss of happiness, the decline has become substantial at the end of the road.


ABSTRACT This introductory symposium article develops a framework for an urban political reading and a theorization of urban uprisings. We argue that there is a need to foreground the notion of the urban political as central to the theoretical and practical demands of urban research today. First, we revisit critical urban theory in light of recent urban insurrections and point out a lack of sustained theoretical engagement with the political. Second, based on this critique, we argue for what we call a 're-centring of the urban political' to rethink urban theory in ways that consider the city as a site of political encounter, interruption and experimentation, even when, or perhaps especially when, these ways fall outside institutional forms or lack the organizational form or legitimacy of social movements. Thus, we attempt to place politics at the heart of radical urban political theory and practice today in order to make sense of urban subjects, events and claims that elude established government practices and institutionalized structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


This Reference Manual addresses land use and development practices that support and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of associated transportation systems. It references strategies and tools used to foster transportation-efficient land-use patterns (transportation-efficient development is defined as supporting the use of alternative transportation modes while reducing the need to drive alone). The manual documents state-of-the-art best practices at the national level, in addition to practices that are specific to Washington State and the Puget Sound region. The Manual is in two parts: regulatory strategies and tools and financial strategies and tools. The strategies (six regulatory and four financial) relate to the planning and policy-making environment shaping land use - those general approaches and related policies used to plan transportation-efficient land use and development. Each strategy in turn contains a number of tools, the specific mechanisms used to guide the implementation of the strategies. Detailed explanations of how the tools have functioned or can work are provided, along with examples of specific applications and case studies to illustrate the scope and extent of the tools' effectiveness. The Reference Manual is the second product of a three-phase project by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which is known as "Integrating Land Use and Transportation Investment Decision-Making." The first phase reviewed current land-use and development practices by the various local jurisdictions. It is summarized in "Implementing Transportation-Efficient Development: A Local Interview" (WSDOT 2002, WA-RD 549.1). The third phase will integrate findings from phases 1 and 2 with other data to produce criteria for evaluating the transportation efficiency of land-use and development patterns. It will provide WSDOT with a method to assess how existing and planned land uses could extend, support, or shorten the lifespan of existing or planned transportation system capacity.


A population of multipotent stem cells capable of differentiating into neurons and glia has been isolated from adult intestine in humans and rodents. While these cells may provide a pool of stem cells for neurogenesis in the enteric nervous system (ENS), such a function has been difficult to demonstrate in vivo. An extensive study by Joseph et al. involving 108 rats and 51 mice submitted to various insults demonstrated neuronal uptake of thymidine analog BrdU in only 1 rat. Here we introduce a novel approach to study neurogenesis in the ENS using an ex vivo organotypic tissue culturing system. Culturing longitudinal muscle and myenteric plexus tissue, we show that the enteric nervous system has tremendous replicative capacity with the majority of neural crest cells demonstrating EdU uptake by 48 hours. EdU+ cells express both neuronal and glial markers. Proliferation appears dependent on the PTEN/PI3K/Akt pathway with decreased PTEN mRNA expression and increased PTEN phosphorylation (inactivation) corresponding to increased Akt activity and proliferation. Inhibition of PTEN with bpV(phen) augments proliferation while LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, blocks it. These data suggest that the ENS is capable of neurogenesis in a PTEN dependent manner.


Language serves two key functions. It enables communication between agents, which allows for the establishment and operation of formal and informal institutions. It also serves a less obvious function, a reassuring quality more closely related to issues linked with trust, social capital, and cultural identification. While research on the role of language as a learning process is widespread, there is no evidence on the role of language as a signal of cultural affinity. I pursue this latter avenue of research and show that subtle language affinity is positively linked with change in earnings when using English-speaking data for cities in the Golden Horseshoe area in Southern Ontario during the period 1991 to 2001. The results are robust to changes in specification, a broad number of empirical tests, and a diverse set of outcome variables.


We propose a structural model of consumer sequential search under uncertainty about attribute levels of products. Our identification of the search model relies on exclusion restriction variables that separate consumer utility and search cost. Because such exclusion restrictions are often available in online clickstream data, the identification and corresponding estimation strategy is generalizable for many online shopping websites where such data can be easily collected. Furthermore, one important feature of online search technology is that it gives consumers the ability to refine search results using tools such as sorting and filtering based on product attributes. The proposed model can coherently integrate consumers' decisions of search and refine. The model is instantiated using consumer clickstream data of online hotel bookings provided by a travel website. The results show that refinement tools have significant effects on consumer behavior and market structure. We find that the refinement tools encourage 34% more searches and enhance the utility of purchased products by 18%. However, most websites by default rank search results according to their qualities or relevance to consumers (e.g., Google). When consumers are unaware of such default ranking rules, they may engage in disproportionately more searches using refinement tools. Consequently, overall welfare surplus may deteriorate when search cost outweighs the enhanced utility. In contrast, if the website simply informs consumers that the default ranking already reflects product quality or relevance, consumers search less and the welfare surplus improves. We also find that refinement tools lead to a less concentrated market structure.


Today an ever increasing amount of data is collected and analyzed by researchers, businesses, and scientists in data warehouses (DW). In addition to the data size, the number of users and applications querying data grows exponentially. The increasing concurrency is itself a challenge in query execution, but also introduces an opportunity favoring synergy between concurrent queries. Traditional execution engines of DW follows a query-centric approach, where each query is optimized and executed independently. On the other hand, workloads with increased concurrency have several queries with common parts of data and work, creating the opportunity for sharing among concurrent queries. Sharing can be reactive to the inherently existing sharing opportunities, or proactive by redesigning query operators to maximize the sharing opportunities. This demonstration showcases the impact of proactive and reactive sharing by comparing and integrating representative state-of-the-art techniques: Simultaneous Pipelining (SP), for reactive sharing, which shares intermediate results of common sub-plans, and Global Query Plans (GQP) for proactive sharing, which build and evaluate a single query plan with shared operators. We visually demonstrate, in an interactive interface, the behavior of both sharing approaches on top of a state-of-the-art storage engine using the original prototypes. We show that pull-based sharing for SP eliminates the serialization point imposed by the original push-based approach. Then, we compare, through a sensitivity analysis, the performance of SP and GQP. Finally, we show that SP can improve the performance of GQP for a query mix with common sub-plans.


The authors study the interaction among population demographics, the desire for intergenerational redistribution of resources in the economy, and the optimal inflation rate in a deterministic life cycle economy with capital. Young cohorts initially have no assets and wages are the main source of income; these cohorts prefer relatively low real interest rates, relatively high wages, and relatively high rates of inflation. Older cohorts work less and prefer higher rates of return from their savings, relatively low wages, and relatively low inflation. In the absence of intergenerational redistribution through lump-sum taxes and transfers, the constrained efficient competitive equilibrium requires optimal distortions on relative prices. The authors' model allows the social planner to use inflation/deflation to try to achieve the optimal distortions. In the model economy, changes in the population structure are interpreted as the ability of a particular cohort to influence the redistributive policy. When older cohorts have more influence on the redistributive policy, the economy has a relatively low steady-state level of capital and a relatively low steady-state rate of inflation. The opposite happens when young cohorts have more control of policy. These results suggest that aging population structures, such as those in Japan, may contribute to observed low rates of inflation or even deflation. (JEL E4, E5, D7)


† In this paper we investigate real-time tracking of a tennis-ball using various image differencing techniques. First, we considered a simple background subtraction method with subsequent ball verification (BS). We then implemented two variants of our initial background subtraction method. The first is an image differencing technique that considers the difference in ball position between the current and previous frames along with a background model that uses a single Gaussian distribution for each pixel. The second is uses a mixture of Gaussians to accurately model the background image. Each of these three techniques constitutes a complete solution to the tennis ball tracking problem. In a detailed evaluation of the techniques in different lighting conditions we found that the mixture of Gaussians model produces the best quality tracking. Our contribution in this paper is the observation that simple background subtraction can outperform more sophisticated techniques on difficult problems, and we provide a detailed evaluation and comparison of the performance of our techniques, including a breakdown of the sources of error.


Using the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres Goddard Earth Observing System 5-yr analyses and the Zwack‐Okossi equation as the diagnostic tool, the horizontal distribution of the dynamic and thermodynamic forcing processes contributing to the maintenance of a Northern Hemisphere midlatitude blocking anticyclone that occurred during the summer season were examined. During the development of this blocking anticyclone, vorticity advection, supported by temperature advection, forced 500-hPa height rises at the block center. Vorticity advection and vorticity tilting were also consistent contributors to height rises during the entire life cycle. Boundary layer friction, vertical advection of vorticity, and ageostrophic vorticity tendencies (during decay) consistently opposed block development. Additionally, an analysis of this blocking event also showed that upstream precursor surface cyclones were not only important in block development but in block maintenance as well. In partitioning the basic data fields into their planetary-scale (P) and synoptic-scale (S) components, 500-hPa height tendencies forced by processes on each scale, as well as by interactions (I) between each scale, were also calculated. Over the lifetime of this blocking event, the S and P processes were most prominent in the blocked region. During the formation of this block, the I component was the largest and most consistent contributor to height rises at the center point. It was also shown that the height-rise regions located on the anticyclonic side of the jet maxima associated with block development and intensification were primarily composed of the S and I components. Also, the precursor cyclones were associated with S or S and I height rises that contributed to the formation of this block. Finally, the results of this paper show that the forcing associated with summer-season blocking events are similar to that of their winter-season counterparts neglecting the natural case-to-case variability. In comparing these results to the results of other papers in this series, however, it is suggested that there may be two models for block development.


Abstract Background: Metaplastic breast cancer is one of the most therapeutically challenging forms of breast cancer because of its highly heterogeneous and chemoresistant nature. We have previously demonstrated that ribosomal protein L39 (RPL39) and its gain-of-function mutation A14V have oncogenic activity in triple-negative breast cancer and this activity may be mediated through inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). The function of RPL39 and A14V in other breast cancer subtypes is currently unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the role and mechanism of action of RPL39 in metaplastic breast cancer. Methods: Both competitive allele-specific and droplet digital polymerase chain reaction were used to determine the RPL39 A14V mutation rate in metaplastic breast cancer patient samples. The impact of RPL39 and iNOS expression on patient overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Co-immunoprecipitation and immunoblot analyses were used for mechanistic evaluation of RPL39. Results: The RPL39 A14V mutation rate was 97.5% (39/40 tumor samples). High RPL39 (hazard ratio = 0.71, 95% confidence interval = 0.55 to 0.91, P = .006) and iNOS expression (P = .003) were associated with reduced patient overall survival. iNOS inhibition with the pan-NOS inhibitor NG-methyl-L-arginine acetate decreased in vitro proliferation and migration, in vivo tumor growth in both BCM-4664 and BCM-3807 patient-derived xenograft models (P = .04 and P = .02, respectively), and in vitro and in vivo chemoresistance. Mechanistically, RPL39 mediated its cancer-promoting actions through iNOS signaling, which was driven by the RNA editing enzyme adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 1. Conclusion: NOS inhibitors and RNA editing modulators may offer novel treatment options for metaplastic breast cancer.


An increase in the household debt to GDP ratio predicts lower GDP growth and higher unemployment in the medium run for an unbalanced panel of 30 countries from 1960 to 2012. Low mortgage spreads are associated with an increase in the household debt to GDP ratio and a decline in subsequent GDP growth, highlighting the importance of credit supply shocks. Economic forecasters systematically over-predict GDP growth at the end of household debt booms, suggesting an important role of flawed expectations formation. The negative relation between the change in household debt to GDP and subsequent output growth is stronger for countries with less flexible exchange rate regimes. We also uncover a global household debt cycle that partly predicts the severity of the global growth slowdown after 2007. Countries with a household debt cycle more correlated with the global household debt cycle experience a sharper decline in growth after an increase in domestic household debt.


Settlers feature in many protracted territorial disputes and ethnic conflicts around the world. Explaining the dynamics of the politics of settlers in contested territories in several contemporary cases, this book illuminates how settler-related conflicts emerge, evolve, and are significantly more difficult to resolve than other disputes.

Written by country experts, chapters consider Israel and the West Bank, Arab settlers in Kirkuk, Moroccan settlers in Western Sahara, settlers from Fascist Italy in North Africa, Turkish settlers in Cyprus, Indonesian settlers in East Timor, and Sinhalese settlers in Sri Lanka. Addressing four common topics—right-sizing the state, mobilization and violence, the framing process, and legal principles versus pragmatism—the cases taken together raise interrelated questions about the role of settlers in conflicts in contested territory. Then looking beyond the similar characteristics, these cases also illuminate key differences in levels of settler mobilization and the impact these differences can have on peace processes to help explain different outcomes of settler-related conflicts. Finally, cases investigate the causes of settler mobilization and identify relevant conflict resolution mechanisms.


Mutations in the RNase IIIb domain of DICER1 are known to disrupt processing of 5p-strand pre-miRNAs and these mutations have previously been associated with cancer. Using data from the Cancer Genome Atlas project, we show that these mutations are recurrent across four cancer types and that a previously uncharacterized recurrent mutation in the adjacent RNase IIIa domain also disrupts 5p-strand miRNA processing. Analysis of the downstream effects of the resulting imbalance 5p/3p shows a statistically significant effect on the expression of mRNAs targeted by major conserved miRNA families. In summary, these mutations in DICER1 lead to an imbalance in miRNA strands, which has an effect on mRNA transcript levels that appear to contribute to the oncogenesis.


For over three decades (1966-1998) socio-economic policies in Indonesia were founded on Soeharto's development trilogy "growth, stability and equity". Literature agrees that the policy goals of growth and stability were met by and large, but remains inconclusive about equity. In this paper we estimate Theil indices of sector income distribution to evaluate the impact of structural change on the trend of Indonesian income inequality for the period 1961-2002. Where conventional Gini-coefficients based on household expenditure surveys suggest that Indonesian income equality is comparatively confined and reveals no long run tendency in either upward or downward direction, our results indicate that inter and intra-sector income inequality increased rapidly under Soeharto, as well as the share of the labour force engaged in informal sector activities.


Highly structured fluorescence is reported for C60 mols. isolated in Ne and Ar matrixes. Their excitation spectra are similar to the gas-phase 2-photon ionization spectrum of C60. Most of the bands seen in emission can be attributed to Herzberg-Teller or Jahn-Teller active modes and to combinations of these modes. The intensity distribution of the fluorescence bands is compared with calcd. intensities and shows that the emission is of mixed singlet T1g and T2g character in Ne matrixes in nearly equal proportions and of mixed singlet T1g and Gg character in Ar matrixes, in a proportion of 4 to 1 in favor of the T1g state. The band frequencies show that these 3 states are degenerate to within exptl. uncertainty and the authors est. their gas-phase energy at 15,695 +- 5 cm-1. The assignment of ground-state vibrational band frequencies are rediscussed. [on SciFinder (R)]


Motivation
Computational identification of promoters is notoriously difficult as human genes often have unique promoter sequences that provide regulation of transcription and interaction with transcription initiation complex. While there are many attempts to develop computational promoter identification methods, we have no reliable tool to analyze long genomic sequences.

Results
In this work we further develop our deep learning approach that was relatively successful to discriminate short promoter and non-promoter sequences. Instead of focusing on the classification accuracy, in this work we predict the exact positions of the TSS inside the genomic sequences testing every possible location. We studied human promoters to find effective regions for discrimination and built corresponding deep learning models. These models use adaptively constructed negative set, which iteratively improves the model's discriminative ability. Our method significantly outperforms the previously developed promoter prediction programs by considerably reducing the number of false positive predictions. We have achieved error-per-1000-bp rate of 0.02 and have 0.31 errors per correct prediction, which is significantly better than the results of other human promoter predictors.

Availability
The developed method is available as a web server at http://www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/PromID/.


An extracellular chemokine gradient drives formation of an intracellular pH gradient that guides directional cell migration. Intracellular pH gradients may contribute to directional migration by affecting the activity of proteins that control cell motility. Using fluorescent intracellular pH biosensors, Tarbashevich et al. observed a dynamic intracellular pH gradient in migrating primordial germ cells (PGCs) in zebrafish embryos. The intracellular pH was highest at the leading edge when PGCs were polarized and actively migrating, but there was no intracellular pH gradient during normal pauses in PGC migration when the cells became unpolarized. Carbonic anhydrase 15b (Ca15b) is abundant in the cytoplasm of PGCs. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of Ca15b eliminated the pH gradient in migrating PGCs and caused improper migration of PGCs. Although some PGCs reached their target, many ended up at ectopic sites, indicating that directionality, but not motility, was impaired. PGCs in ca15b morphants changed direction more frequently than control PGCs, which migrate in a relatively straight path towards their target. A gradient of the chemokine Cxcl12a guides PGC migration. Knocking down Ca15b in embryos heterozygous for a mutation in cxcl12a increased the number of PGCs that failed to reach their target compared to knocking down Ca15b in wild-type embryos. Experiments in which Cxcl12a was knocked down or misexpressed or in which the ability of PGCs to respond to Cxcl12a was compromised demonstrated that the ability of the Cxcl12a gradient to promote the formation of the intracellular pH gradient depended on Ca15b. Comparing PGCs expressing tagged actin or a Rac1 biosensor in the ca15b morphants to those in wild-type embryos indicated that the pH gradient stimulated actin polymerization and activity of Rac1, a GTPase that promotes actin polymerization and is most active at high pH, at the leading edge. Thus, an extracellular chemokine gradient drives formation of an intracellular pH gradient in PGCs, and this promotes cytoskeletal reorganization necessary for directed migration toward the chemokine source. K. Tarbashevich, M. Reichman-Fried, C. Grimaldi, E. Raz, Chemokine-dependent pH elevation at the cell front sustains polarity in directionally digrating zebrafish germ cells. Curr. Biol. 25, 1096–1103 (2015). [PubMed]


Background: This study aimed at determining the appropriate method for dewatering and drying biomass and selecting a suitable organic solvent for lipid extraction.Methods: Nannochloropsis Oculata was cultured in Gillard F/2 medium and after reaching the end of the stationary growth phase, algal biomass was separated from aqueous by centrifuge and dried through three methods: Oven, Air-dried and Lyophilized. Soxhlet apparatus achieved lipid extraction of all samples: diethyl ether, n-hexane and n-pentane using three solvents. At each stage, the quantity and quality of the extracted lipids were determined by Gas Chromatography.Results: In all three drying methods, palmitic acid and palmitoleic acid, and most significantly fatty acid composition of microalgae were extracted. The fatty acid composition of palmitic acid extracted by Diethyl ether was significantly more than the other two solvents. Maximum production of triglyceride was observed in Lyophilized and air-dried microalgae where lipid extraction was performed with diethyl ether solvents and are 75.03% and 76.72% of fatty acid.Conclusion: The use of Lyophilized method for dewatering and drying of biomass and Diethyl ether as solvent for the extraction of lipids from biomass, studied in this paper, as compared to other methods, had higher yields and researches proved that the production of biodiesel from microalgae's lipid was more efficient.


Users of CloudLab (and other GENI-derived testbeds) commonly use image snapshots to preserve their working environments and to share them with other users. While snapshots re-create software environments byte-for-byte, they are not conducive to composing multiple environments, nor are they good for experiments that must run across many versions of their environments with subtle differences. This paper describes our initial work on an alternative experiment management system. This system is built on expendable instances of the Chef configuration management system, and can be used "on top of" existing testbeds.


Non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are a group of often chemically unrelated compounds with some common therapeutic actions and side effects. However, the use of conventional NSAIDs has been restricted due to their side effects especially gastric erosion and ulcer so; the attention is focused on chalcones having gastric protectant and anti-inflammatory, activities by virtue of free radical scavengers. In the present study, alkoxy chalcones were synthesized by Claisen–Schmidt condensation reaction and evaluated for an antiulcer activity in the rats by indomethacin-induced gastric damage. The structures of the compounds were established by IR, 1H NMR and Mass spectral analysis. Possible correlation between observed biological activities and substituents at different positions on rings was also studied. The spectral analysis reveals that all the compounds 1a-1j was in good agreement with the standard values reported in the literature for these types of structures. Most of the synthesized compounds have shown good to moderate activity. Compounds with electron releasing groups (1i, 1j & 1g) at para position of both rings (R1 & R2) showed excellent antiulcer activity whereas compounds having pharmacophore such as iodo & bromo electron withdrawing groups (1b & 1h) at R2 position has mild action. The result obtained in the present study may be attributed to their antioxidant activity through scavenging of ROS, protection of glutathione peroxidase.


This software is an implementation of the Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP), a communications protocol intended to support the Bundle Protocol in Delay-Tolerant Network (DTN) operations. LTP is designed to provide retransmission-based reliability over links characterized by extremely long message round-trip times and/or frequent interruptions in connectivity. Communication in interplanetary space is the most prominent example of this sort of environment, and LTP is principally aimed at supporting long-haul reliable transmission over deep-space RF links. Like any reliable transport service employing ARQ (Automatic Repeat re-Quests), LTP is stateful. In order to assure the reception of a block of data it has sent, LTP must retain for possible retransmission all portions of that block which might not have been received yet. In order to do so, it must keep track of which portions of the block are known to have been received so far, and which are not, together with any additional information needed for purposes of retransmitting part, or all, of the block. Long round-trip times mean substantial delay between the transmission of a block of data and the reception of an acknowledgement from the block s destination, signaling arrival of the block. If LTP postponed transmission of additional blocks of data until it received acknowledgement of the arrival of all prior blocks, valuable opportunities to use what little deep space transmission bandwidth is available would be forever lost. For this reason, LTP is based in part on a notion of massive state retention. Any number of requested transmission conversations (sessions) may be concurrently in flight at various displacements along the link between two LTP engines, and the LTP engines must necessarily retain transmission status and retransmission resources for all of them. Moreover, if any of the data of a given block are lost en route, it will be necessary to retain the state of that transmission during an additional round trip while the lost data are retransmitted; even multiple retransmission cycles may be necessary. LTP's possible multiplicity of sessions per association makes it necessary for each segment of application data to include an additional demultiplexing token: a session ID that uniquely identifies the session in which the segment was issued and, implicitly, the block of data being conveyed by this session. This software comprises a prototype implementation developed by Johns Hopkins University APL in cooperation with JPL, together with adaptations that improve the robustness, correctness, and operability of that implementation.


Nationality, argues Peter Hall, did not follow directly from the colonists' declatation of independence from England, nor from the political union of the states under the Constitution of 1789. It was, rather, the product of organizations which socialized individuals to a national outlook. These institutions were the private corportions which Americans used after 1790 to carry on their central activities of production. The book is in three parts. In the first part the social and economic development of the American colonies is considered. In New England, population growth led to the breakdown of community - and the migration of people to both the cities and the frontier. New England's merchants and professional tried to maintain community leadership in the context of capitalism and democracy and developed a remarkable dependence on pricate corporations and the eleemosynary trust, devices that enabled them to exert influence disproportionate to their numbers. Part two looks at the problem of order and authority after 1790. Tracing the role of such New England-influenced corporate institutions as colleges, religious bodies, professional societeis, and businesses, Hall shows how their promoters sought to "civilize" the increasingly diverse and dispersed American people. With Jefferson's triumph in 1800. these institutions turned to new means of engineering consent, evangelical religion, moral fegorm, and education. The third part of this volume examines the fruition a=of these corporatist efforts. The author looks at the Civil War as a problem in large-scale organization, and the pre- and post-war emergence of a national administrative elite and national institutions of business and culture. Hall concludes with an evaluation of the organizational components of nationality and a consideration of the precedent that the past sets for the creation of internationality.


In this study, a uniform and dense cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin film is utilised as an electron-transport layer in CH3NH3PbI3-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs). CdS films are synthesized by a homogeneous precipitation method in urea aqueous solution. The effect of urea concentration on the growth of CdS films has been investigated. It is noted that increasing urea concentration remarkably affects the grain size and uniformity of the films. A compact CdS thin film with appropriate grain size can be obtained by adding 1.5 M urea. The photovoltaic performance of the PSCs based on the as-prepared CdS films is also studied. The photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSCs shows a significant dependence on CdS layers. The highest PCE is obtained by using a CdS thin film prepared in 1.5 M urea, which can be attributed to the better coverage of perovskite on the CdS film for efficient charge separation and transport.


As the dreadful reality of the Coalition's defeat in Iraq begins to sink in, one question dominates Washington and London: why? In this controversial new book, award-winning journalist Jonathan Steele provides a stark and arresting answer: Bush and Blair were defeated from the day they decided to occupy the country. Iraq had enough of foreign armies. Steele describes the memories of centuries of humiliations that have scarred the Iraqi national psyche, creating a powerful and deeply felt nationalism. Drawing his unique access to senior Western policymakers, Steele shows how the key players in the occupying coalition totally failed to inform themselves about this smouldering backhistory of resentment and suspicion. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with ordinary Iraqis, Steele shows for the first time how the staging posts of the conflict so familiar to Western newspaper readers were seen by the Iraqis themselves.Blending vivid reportage, informed analysis and sweeping historical narrative, "Defeat" is the definitive anatomy of an historic catastrophe.


The oldest recorded earthquake in South Africa is widely accepted (in several seismic catalogues) to have occurred on 07 April 1620. This earthquake was regarded as having a Modified Mercalli Scale intensity of II-IV, corresponding to a Richter Scale Magnitude of ~4. An examination of the original sources on which the record of this earthquake rests, reveals that it was based on a description of 'two startling thunderclaps like cannon shots while ship was becalmed near Robben Island' by Augustin de Beaulieu, who was the head of a fleet of three ships which put in Table Bay in March–April 1620. A full excerpt of Beaulieu's account reveals that the thunderclaps took place in a short period of calm during an extended period of stormy weather, and that the observations were made on board ship, so that no seismic ground vibration was felt. The Western Cape has a much lower incidence of lightning than the interior of South Africa, and the fact that the thunderclaps were not accompanied by lightning is not unusual. Thus the simplest explanation of the thunderclaps is that they were the result of atmospheric phenomena, and not a result of seismic activity, as interpreted by J.N. Theron in 1974. The events of 07 April 1620 should thus be removed from the catalogues of historical seismicity in South Africa, making the slight shock felt in Cape Town in 1690, with a Modified Mercalli Scale intensity of III, the oldest recorded seismic tremor in the history of South Africa.


No period has been more discussed, dissected and argued over than the Renaissance, and every age has reconstructed it in its own image. Today's emphasis is on its complexity - the way ideas, politics, religion, society, art and science depended upon and affected one another. "The Renaissance Complete" does away with watertight divisions by means of a lucid, innovatory system of cross-references and brings the image to centre stage. The fascinating range of topics covered includes the revival of classical learning, the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, philosophy and the role of women. The scope is all-embracing: Italy, France, Spain, Britain, Germany and the northern countries; and, courts and patrons, painters and sculptors, churchmen and traders, men, women and children. Over 1,000 illustrations are carefully focused on over 100 key topics, subject-matter taking precedence over art history. This is an impressive information resource that provides biographies, timelines, bibliography, a gazetteer of museums and galleries and an illustrated glossary.


Virtualization technology has revolutionized the mobile network and widely used in fifth‐generation innovation. It is a way of computing that allows dynamic leasing of server capabilities in the form of services like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The proliferation of these services among the users led to the establishment of large‐scale cloud data centers that consume an enormous amount of electrical energy and results into high metered bill cost and carbon footprint. In this paper, we propose three heuristic models, namely, median migration time, smallest void detection, and maximum fill technique, that can reduce energy consumption with minimal variation in service‐level agreements negotiated. Specifically, we derive the cost of running cloud data center, cost optimization problem, and resource utilization optimization problem. Power consumption model is developed for cloud computing environment focusing on linear relationship between power consumption and resource utilization. A virtual machine (VM) migration technique is considered, focusing on synchronization‐oriented shorter stop‐and‐copy phase. The complete operational steps as algorithms are developed for energy‐aware heuristic models including median migration time, smallest void detection, and maximum fill technique. To evaluate the proposed heuristic models, we conduct experimentations using PlanetLab server data often in ten days and synthetic workload data collected randomly from the similar number of VMs employed in PlanetLab servers. Through evaluation process, we deduce that the proposed approaches can significantly reduce the energy consumption, total VM migration, and host shutdown while maintaining high system performance.


Although intimate partner violence (IPV) is routinely encountered in health care, it often goes undetected. Medical organizations recommend routine screening of women alone without children or partner. Separating a mother from her children may not be feasible in busy practices. Therefore, screening may not occur. Little research has examined women's desires about IPV screening in front of their children. This study interviewed 32 mothers/survivors who were in either an IPV shelter or support group regarding their wishes about IPV screening and discussions in front of their children. Interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis techniques. Major themes included mothers' comfort with the use of general IPV screening questions in front of children ages 3 to 12 years. In summary, most mothers/ survivors were comfortable with physicians using general questions to screen for IPV but preferred in-depth discussions about the abuse and resource sharing in private.


Ultrahigh-purity undoped binary lead-silicate and ternary barium borosilicate glass systems were used to study the dependence of photoinduced second-harmonic generation (SHG) on the composition of these materials. The experiments revealed a peak in the SHG conversion efficiency as a function of the compositional dependence in the ternary glass system that correlates with the density of three-oxygen-coordinated boron. A nonexponential decay of the SHG during the readout process was observed for the lead-silicate glasses. In addition, these glasses exhibited threshold behavior in the second-harmonic conversion efficiency with varying IR preparation intensity.


In access-point based wireless networks employing the IEEE 802.11 protocol in DCF mode, without bandwidth management and rate control, users pump data into the network as fast as it is generated. This results in a loss of QoS for the user and performance degradation of the network. There is a need for bandwidth allocation and for users to cooperatively control their rates based on the allocated bandwidth. We use price as a signal for bandwidth allocation in wireless hot spot networks. We allocate more bandwidth to users that pay more. At the same time, we also aim to maximize channel utilization and increase mean satisfaction across all the users.


Abstract. Biological dinitrogen (N2) fixation is the major source of new nitrogen (N) for the open ocean, and thus promotes marine productivity, in particular in the vast N-depleted regions of the surface ocean. Yet, the fate of the diazotroph-derived N (DDN) in marine ecosystems is poorly understood, and its transfer to auto- and heterotrophic surrounding plankton communities is rarely measured due to technical limitations. Moreover, the different diazotrophs involved in N2 fixation (Trichodesmium spp. vs. UCYN) exhibit distinct patterns of N2 fixation and inhabit different ecological niches, thus having potentially different fates in the marine food webs that remain to be explored. Here we used nanometer scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) coupled with 15N2 isotopic labelling and flow cytometry cell sorting to examine the DDN transfer to specific groups of natural phytoplankton and bacteria during artificially induced diazotroph blooms in New Caledonia (southwestern Pacific). The fate of the DDN was compared according to the three diazotrophs: the filamentous and colony-forming Trichodesmium erythraeum (IMS101), and the unicellular strains Crocosphaera watsonii WH8501 and Cyanothece ATCC51142. After 48 h, 7–17 % of the N2 fixed during the experiment was transferred to the dissolved pool and 6–12 % was transferred to non-diazotrophic plankton. The transfer was twice as high in the T. erythraeum bloom than in the C. watsonii and Cyanothece blooms, which shows that filamentous diazotrophs blooms are more efficient at promoting non-diazotrophic production in N-depleted areas. The amount of DDN released in the dissolved pool did not appear to be a good indicator of the DDN transfer efficiency towards the non-diazotrophic plankton. In contrast, the 15N-enrichment of the extracellular ammonium (NH4+) pool was a good indicator of the DDN transfer efficiency: it was significantly higher in the T. erythraeum than in unicellular diazotroph blooms, leading to a DDN transfer twice as efficient. This suggests that NH4+ was the main pathway of the DDN transfer from diazotrophs to non-diazotrophs. The three simulated diazotroph blooms led to significant increases in non-diazotrophic plankton biomass. This increase in biomass was first associated with heterotrophic bacteria followed by phytoplankton, indicating that heterotrophs took the most advantage of the DDN in this oligotrophic ecosystem.


Randomized matrix compression techniques, such as the Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform, have emerged as an effective and practical way for solving large-scale problems efficiently. With a focus on computational efficiency, however, forsaking solutions quality and accuracy becomes the trade-off. In this paper, we investigate compressed least-squares problems and propose new models and algorithms that address the issue of error and noise introduced by compression. While maintaining computational efficiency, our models provide robust solutions that are more accurate than those of classical compressed variants. We introduce tools from robust optimization together with a form of partial compression to improve the error-time trade-offs of compressed least-squares solvers. We develop an efficient solution algorithm for our Robust Partially-Compressed (RPC) model based on a reduction to a one-dimensional search.


BACKGROUND
A study deriving a threshold for moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) in terms of accelerometer counts in 12-year-old children was repeated with a subset of the same children at 16 years.

METHODS
Fifteen girls and thirty boys took part in 6 activities (lying, sitting, slow walking, walking, hopscotch and jogging) while wearing an Actigraph 7164 accelerometer and a Cosmed K4b2 portable metabolic unit. Random intercepts modeling was used to estimate cut points for MVPA (defined as 4 METs).

RESULTS
Using a single model, the sex-specific thresholds derived for MVPA at 16 years were some way below the 3600 counts/minute used for both sexes at age 12, particularly for girls. However graphical examination suggested that a single model might be inadequate to describe both higher- and lower-intensity activities. Models using only lower-intensity activities close to the 4 METs threshold supported retention of the 3600 counts/minute cut point for both sexes.

CONCLUSIONS
When restricting to lower-intensity activities only, these data do not provide sufficient evidence to change the previously established cut point of 3600 counts/minute to represent MVPA. However, further data and more sophisticated modeling techniques are required to confirm this decision.


From the Publisher:
Python Web Programming is a practical introduction to building networked systems in the object-oriented framework of the Python language. It shows how to leverage the powerful Python libraries to build systems with less programming effort and easier maintenance. It leaves involved discussion of the Python language by itself to other books and dives right into using Python within web enables applications.
This book is intended for programmers who have experience with other programming languages (such a C or C++) and has some experience with building web-based systems. It is for the serious programmer who does not want a basic introductory to the language.
All code developed in the book will be available on the newriders.com website. This is an incredible asset because the Python language allows for modular programming between systems, thus readers in their projects can use code created in the book.


Amid the bloodshed of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) introduced into their repertoire a new tool of war: the handheld camera. Tracing the evolution of the ghazwa, or military expedition aesthetic, in ISI and later ISIS filmmaking, this article explores the way in which the organization's primary organ of communication, Al-Furqan Media Foundation, expanded from its origins as a documentary film unit to become one of the world's most potent vehicles of performative violence. Drawing on a comparative frame of reference with other active media units within the greater sphere of Al-Qaeda communications, including the Al-Andalus Establishment for Media Production of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Furqan Media in the Egyptian Sinai, this article examines the manner in which aesthetic prerogatives, intertwined with religious mythology, served to transcend and unite disparate political factions around a common "narrative identity," one that preceded and will outlast the reign of the Islamic State caliphate.


Author(s): Godoey, Anna; Reich, Michael | Abstract: Empirical work on the minimum wage typically estimate effects averaged across high and low wage areas. Low wage labor markets could potentially be less able to absorb minimum wage increases, in turn leading to more negative employment effects. In this paper we examine minimum wage effects in low wage counties, where relative minimum wage ratios reach as high as .82, well beyond the state-based ratios in extant studies. Using data from the ACS, the QWI and the QCEW, we implement event study and difference-in-difference methods, estimating average causal effects for all events in our sample and separately for areas with lower and higher impacts. We find positive wage effects, especially in high impact counties, but do not detect adverse effects on employment, weekly hours or annual weeks worked. We do not find negative employment effects among women, blacks and/or Hispanics. In high impact counties, we find substantial declines in household and child poverty. These results inform policy debates about providing exemptions to a $15 federal minimum wage in low-wage areas.


"There is great concern with an increase in the number of Americans who are overweight and obese. Fat cells or adipocytes play a central role in obesity. These cells are metabolically active and play a fundamental role in energy allocation and storage. The adipocyte functions as the energy storage cell by storing excess energy in the forms of triglycerides in lipid vesicles within the cell. The morphology of mitochondria is a dynamic process that varies from cell type to cell type and in response to a variety of signals and conditions (Wilson-Fritch, 2002; Wilson-Fritch, 2004). The morphology of mitochondria in the cell often reflects the functions of that type of cell. In my thesis I characterize the changes in mitochondrial morphology and actin during adipogenesis. In this thesis I found that mitochondria undergo a radical change in morphology during the first two days of adipogenesis. In the pre-adipocyte cell mitochondria assume a reticular morphology that is distributed uniformly throughout the cell. After stimulation of differentiation this reticular morphology fragments. The fragmented mitochondrial morphology persists throughout adipocyte differentiation and is the form of the mitochondria present in the mature adipocyte. These results suggest that the reorganization of mitochondrial morphology is established early during adipogenesis and may play a role in the functions of fully differentiated adipocytes."--Abstract


This thesis examines the reasons why a key policy goal of New Zealand's National Health IT Board to provide electronic health records to all New Zealanders, with an essential prerequisite being greater connectivity between sector information systems has not materialised and, indeed, seems to be such a distant prospect. The research focuses on the Auckland metropolitan region, and where information exchange intersects with the primary care sector. The research was conducted by interviewing some of the key policy actors involved in this issue, all of whom could speak from different parts of the sector and held different perspectives and roles in the implementation of the policy. A theoretical framework based on the Policy Implementation literature was utilised, which identifies the extent to which there is both policy congruence and policy clarity amongst stakeholders. The thesis first encompasses the complex and fragmented history of New Zealand's health system, and identifies relevant international literature which recommends avoiding either 'top down' or 'bottom up' implementations of IT systems in health. A strong theme was that the focus must begin with implementing standards, and incentivising sector stakeholders to work on that basis. Participant interviews revealed a perception that the centre is relatively weak, and that there has been no clear articulation of a 'burning platform' for change and there has been no targeted incentivising, such as has been seen in the US since 2009. The structure of the health system itself particularly the primary care funding model was also repeatedly noted by participants as providing a disbenefit to support a goal such as interoperability. Another key issue was the dissatisfaction expressed by primary care informants about their PMS products and vendors. Those working in primary care appear to sharply feel a power imbalance, both in the relationship with DHBs and with their software vendors. The interoperability policy goal is therefore considered to be a 'symbolic implementation' (Matland, 1995), featuring high levels of ambiguity and conflict. The route out of this situation is for the centre to clearly assess the relative coalitional strengths of different groups in the sector, and allocate resources and provide incentives in such a way as to shift power imbalances, so that the desired outcome can be achieved. This will require proactive and bold initiatives from the centre, which participants did not perceive had been forthcoming.


In the past decade, the attention of science and technology has focused on production of nanoparticles. There are various ways for synthesizing of nanoparticles that many of them are not cost effective due to power and material consumption. Therefore, production of nanoparticles through biologic ways is needed. For this purpose, different biological structures such as plants, algae, and microorganisms such as bacteria, string molds, and yeasts are used for nanoparticles production. This study is focused on biosynthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles by cytoplasmic extracts of bacteria Lactobacillus Fermentum, which is a probiotic microorganism, based on the method of green chemistry. After preparation of cytoplasmic extract of bacteria Lactobacillus Fermentum through freez-thow method, iron sulfate solution (III) with a concentration of 10-3 M was added in an equal volume ratio (V / V% 10) and incubated for 3 weeks at 37 ° C in the presence of 5% carbon dioxide. Production of nanoparticles was investigated by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Changing the color of solution to black is an indication of iron sulfate nanoparticles production. The formation of iron oxide nano crystals by Lactobacillus Fermentum cytoplasmic extract was shown by XRD analysis. The average nanoparticles sizes as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were found to be about 10-15 nm with a spherical shape. Using Lactobacillus fermentum cytoplasmic extract can be considered as an efficient biological method for the production of iron oxide nanoparticles .In addition to be environmentally friendly, this method is cost effective.


Diver's "Theory" (1995) is the most comprehensive and, in fact, the final statement by the founder of the Columbia School of that school's contribution to an understanding of the essential nature of language. The unifying idea that runs through this statement is Diver's insistence that a theory of language consist of a set of conclusions drawn from a body of individual analytical successes, that it not be a collection of a priori categories and speculations. Diver's anti-apriorism opens the way to understanding the workings of language in terms of innovative and language-specific categories, and it brings the normal practice of linguistics into line with that of other natural sciences.


Mobile app developers constantly monitor feedback in user reviews with the goal of improving their mobile apps and better meeting user expectations. Thus, automated approaches have been proposed in literature with the aim of reducing the effort required for analyzing feedback contained in user reviews via automatic classification/prioritization according to specific topics. In this paper, we introduce SURF (Summarizer of User Reviews Feedback), a novel approach to condense the enormous amount of information that developers of popular apps have to manage due to user feedback received on a daily basis. SURF relies on a conceptual model for capturing user needs useful for developers performing maintenance and evolution tasks. Then it uses sophisticated summarisation techniques for summarizing thousands of reviews and generating an interactive, structured and condensed agenda of recommended software changes. We performed an end-to-end evaluation of SURF on user reviews of 17 mobile apps (5 of them developed by Sony Mobile), involving 23 developers and researchers in total. Results demonstrate high accuracy of SURF in summarizing reviews and the usefulness of the recommended changes. In evaluating our approach we found that SURF helps developers in better understanding user needs, substantially reducing the time required by developers compared to manually analyzing user (change) requests and planning future software changes.


1. A method involving centrifugation through phthalate ester oils is described for the rapid separation of isolated cells from suspending medium. Intracellular potassium concentrations and intracellular water space values for isolated adrenal zona glomerulosa and zona fasciculata cells are given. 2. The effects of angiotensin II and a high external potassium concentration (8·4 mmol/l) on intracellular potassium contents, intracellular water spaces and hence intracellular potassium concentrations of purified glomerulosa cells have been investigated. Corticosterone secretion was also measured. Previously reported results showing a significant increase in potassium content with high external potassium were confirmed. However, angiotensin II slightly, but significantly, decreased potassium content. No significant change in intracellular water space or intracellular potassium concentration was observed with either stimulus. 3. Both stimuli significantly increased corticosterone production. There was no correlation between the percentage increase in potassium content or concentration and the percentage increase in steroid output after stimulation with high external potassium. 4. It is concluded that angiotensin II does not stimulate steroidogenesis in adrenal glomerulosa cells by raising the intracellular potassium concentration. The small, but statistically insignificant, increase caused by high-potassium medium is unlikely to be causally linked to steroidogenesis.


The Desire for Hastened Death in Home Hospice Care Introduction: The desire for hastened death describes the desire of a terminally ill patient to die sooner than anticipated through disease progression. There is growing awareness that this phenomenon is not unusual among individuals facing the end of life. Though research on this topic is expanding, the majority of studies focus on inpatient populations, with limited investigation into the challenges specific to the home hospice experience. Significance: Annually, forty percent of deaths in the United States represent hospice patients. Hospice social workers are responsible for addressing the mental health needs of their patients. There are few practice guidelines or concrete frameworks for social work assessment and intervention when a patient expresses the "desire to hasten death." Understanding the circumstances that influence "hastened death" in home hospice can provide a foundation for future development of social work practice guidelines and interventions to improve services and better support the complex needs of patients who choose to die at home. Objective: This study aimed to enhance understanding about what motivates one's "desire for hastened death" in the unique context of the home hospice setting. This research used in-depth interviews to elicit patient perspectives and regarding factors that have contributed to contemplating hastened death. Methodology: This study consisted of cross-sectional, semi-structured interviews with home hospice patients. Potential subjects were recruited through a New York City hospice agency. Hospice social workers provided referrals for this study. Results: Fifty-five referrals were made for this study. Of those, twenty-seven patients did not meet eligibility criteria, twenty-seven patients were lost to follow up, and one patient volunteered to be interviewed. Discussion: The interview indicated that this patient had contemplated the idea of hastened death, and was aware of the general discussion about "right to die" legislation. The respondent indicated that she was fearful of having future symptom issues, and being home alone and unable to access help when these symptom needs arose. She also spoke about the challenge of navigating her relationship with her daughter as her daughter took on more responsibility as caregiver. Given that the scope of this study was limited to its one respondent, results are not generalizable. However, this patient's experience reinforces the impact of many of the factors discussed in the current literature. Practice Guidelines: This study presents a review of current practice guidelines and identifies areas of assessment and intervention that would be most useful for clinicians in home hospice care. Given the multifactorial natural of the "desire for hastened death," social work assessment should consider a "biopsychosocial-spiritual" approach. Recommended therapeutic interventions include aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness practice, as well as newer therapies developed from research on the "desire for hastened death." Implications for Social Work Practice: Social workers need more focused training and education about the "desire for hastened death." It is important that they understand both the etiology of "desire to die" statements, and how to assess and intervene appropriately in order to understand and support their home hospice patients. This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/78 Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Social Work (DSW) Department Counseling and Human Services First Advisor Zvi D. Gellis, Ph.D Second Advisor Tracy A. Schroepfer, PhD


The development of the concept of subsidiarity principle has been characterised by a movement from a philosophical idea to the interests' legislating principle in the national law and the law of the European Union. In human society, subsidiarity was born as a humanistic idea that later acquired the status of ethical and social value, elaborated to the level of the legal category by the scientific and political communities and has become the main principle of the European Union law, helping to combine the interests and beliefs of different societies, to ensure collaboration of European, national, regional and local authorities, and to bring decision-making closer to citizens. Today, on the basis of subsidiarity ideas, the concept of social law-governed state is developed, and socially responsible personality is fostered being able to take care of themselves and others. It is also noted that the state must support the person requesting assistance, but that assistance is needed only in order to help a person to acquire the ability to independently exercise his rights, thereby maintaining the personal initiatives, their individuality and ability to care for themselves. In antiquity, subsidiarity was seen as an organic connection of the whole and its differentiated parts as well as a way to create the common good, and to stabilize the social order of society. In the Middle Ages and recent times, it has been seen as a legal regulatory approach to support the public initiatives of society's members within the state (autonomous derivatives activity), and to help those unable to take care of themselves. In Catholic social doctrine, subsidiarity has been enhanced by the recognition of naturality of human rights, as well as by calling the state to act towards social harmony in the society, to overcome social tensions neither by revolutions nor wars, but by agreements and social reforms. In the area of implementation of personal rights, the principle of subsidiarity is further developed and concretised by the legal personalism, which provides opportunities for specifying both the concepts of justice and solidarity, as well as their interactions. Doing this, legal personalism prescribes two features of solidarity (as state aid to person): 1) support for a person to acquire and maintain the ability to perform his duties and thus participate in exchange relations, and ground those relations on justice that is built by the participants of the relationship together, 2) public support for a person that temporarily or permanently lost the ability to perform his duties in terms of unaided self-regard. The goal of both these functions is to develop and maintain social stability of public and legal order.