Based on the observation that frequentist confidence intervals and Bayesian credible intervals sometimes happen to have the same numerical boundaries (under very specific conditions), Albers et al. (2018) proposed to adopt the heuristic according to which they can usually be treated as equivalent. We argue that this heuristic can be misleading by showing that it does not generalise well to more complex (realistic) situations and models. Instead of pragmatism, we advocate for the use of parsimony in deciding which statistics to report. In a word, we recommend that a researcher interested in the Bayesian interpretation simply reports credible intervals.


There was an article entitled "Gnostic Traditionalists" in the July 31 edition of the Catholic Herald, one of England's best-known Catholic newspapers, by Stuart Reid that caught my attention. I do not have a subscription to the paper in question, but the article was reprinted and appeared on several Catholic websites that I regularly read. It caught my attention because those of us who have been involved in Catholic liturgical music--and indeed the "liturgy wars" of the past several decades--have at times been given pause to reflect upon some of our allies. One has to be very careful about sinning against charity in such cases. Certainly I do not wish to offend or even alienate my allies in the many prayers that led to Summorum Pontificum--a document that, in my opinion, will bear fruit for centuries. In fact, the chief good that Summorum Pontificum did--or should do--is to break once and for all the stifling psychological atmosphere which grew up after Vatican II that held much of the church's liturgical past as suspect. Nonetheless, I have to stress that, when asked to locate myself on the liturgical spectrum, I will typically say that "I love liturgical tradition--including the Tridentine Mass--but that I do not consider myself to be a 'traditional-ist.'" In his article, Stuart Reid quoted Thaddeus Kozinski, an American Catholic philosophy professor, who identified "Gnostic traditionalists" as having "the attitude that leads one to believe he possesses an irrefutable insight into the truth of matters of great importance, whether natural or supernatural." To be fair, Professor Kozinski also admits that this attitude "of which he speaks is not confined to the traditionalist right but can be found among ultra-orthodox adherents of the Novus Ordo." My point about not being a "traditional-ist" (or a "Gnostic traditionalist") is that as Catholics we are to love Christ and his church, follow what she teaches and how she prays--to love her traditional ways of prayer, which lead us to God the Father. Pope Benedict has given a green light to those of us who always thought that something fishy was going on in regard to matters liturgical over the past forty years--at least through semi-official ecclesiastical channels. The problem is that some traditionalists act as if they have "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" when it comes to everything from liturgy to chapel veils to American foreign policy. …


We present a new exponential B-spline basis that enables the construction of active contours for the analysis of biomedical images. Our functions generalize the well-known polynomial Hermite B-splines and provide us with a direct control over the tangents of the parameterized contour, which is absent in traditional spline-based active contours. Our basis functions have been designed to perfectly reproduce elliptical and circular shapes. Moreover, they can approximate any closed curve up to arbitrary precision by increasing the number of anchor points. They are therefore well-suited to the segmentation of the roundish objects that are commonly encountered in the analysis of bioimages. We illustrate the performance of an active contour built using our functions on some examples of real biological data.


A good visual representation is an inference map from observations (images) to features (vectors) that faithfully reflects the hidden modularized generative factors (semantics). In this paper, we formulate the notion of"good"representation from a group-theoretic view using Higgins' definition of disentangled representation, and show that existing Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) only disentangles simple augmentation features such as rotation and colorization, thus unable to modularize the remaining semantics. To break the limitation, we propose an iterative SSL algorithm: Iterative Partition-based Invariant Risk Minimization (IP-IRM), which successfully grounds the abstract semantics and the group acting on them into concrete contrastive learning. At each iteration, IP-IRM first partitions the training samples into two subsets that correspond to an entangled group element. Then, it minimizes a subset-invariant contrastive loss, where the invariance guarantees to disentangle the group element. We prove that IP-IRM converges to a fully disentangled representation and show its effectiveness on various benchmarks. Codes are available at https://github.com/Wangt-CN/IP-IRM.


In most courts, a statement in an opinion is a holding only if it was necessary for the outcome of the case. Several state courts and one federal court of appeals, however, have a much broader definition of a holding, which this Article calls the "adjudicative model." The adjudicative model defines a holding as any ruling expressly resolving an issue that was part of a case.

This Article offers the first empirical and normative assessment of the adjudicative model. It describes an empirical case study of the Ninth Circuit and finds that, after adopting the adjudicative model, that court was more likely to follow its precedent in cases involving disputes about the holding/dictum distinction. To the extent this finding can be generalized to other courts using the adjudicative model, it promotes consistency in a court's stated rules of law and hastens the development of case law. But the adjudicative model also creates an incentive for judges to overreach, perhaps reducing the overall quality of a court's decisions and giving greater influence to its outliers. Because these values are in tension, a court's definition of a holding should ultimately depend on its particular institutional features—such as its size, decisionmaking processes, and the nature of its docket—which can amplify or diminish the adjudicative model's relative costs and benefits.


Recently, the use of central venous catheters (CVC) as a vascular access in patients undergoing hemodialysis is significantly increased, mainly because of the aging of this population and the presence of several comorbidities. However, the implantation and the long stay of CVC are associated with many complications. Among them, central venous stenosis represents one of the most common problems that, if not properly diagnosed, could lead to vascular thrombosis and consequent vascular access malfunction. Here, we report a case of a 38-year-old patient, who underwent hemodialysis firstly by a CVC long-term into right jugular vein and then by a prosthetic fistula in the ipsilateral limb. The patient presented many episodes of vascular access thrombosis that required endovascular interventions. The ultrasound screening and CT-angiography revealed an asymptomatic stenosis of the superior cava vein, which treatment with the implantation of vascular stent resulted in an initial improvement of vascular access performance. However, in the following months, a restenosis was observed that required new interventions to reestablish a satisfactory vascular access function. This case highlights that patients on hemodialysis should undergo proper clinical and instrumental follow-up in order to prevent or early recognize vascular access complications.


Monitoring the internal loads acting in a total knee prosthesis (TKP) is fundamental aspect to improve their design. One of the main benefits of this improvement is the longer duration of the tibial inserts. In this work, an electromagnetic energy harvesting system, which is implantable in a TKP, is presented. This is conceived for powering a future implantable system that is able to monitor the loads (and, possibly, other parameters) that could influence the working conditions of a TKP in real-time. The energy harvesting system (EHS) is composed of two series of NdFeB magnets, positioned into each condyle, and a coil that is placed in a pin of the tibial insert and connected to an implantable power management circuit. The magnetic flux variation and the induced voltage are generated by the knee's motion. A TKP prototype has been realized in order to reproduce the knee mechanics and to test the EHS performance. In the present work, the experimental results are obtained by adopting a resistive load of 2.2 kΩ, in order to simulate a real implanted autonomous system with a current consumption of 850 µA and voltage of 2 V. The tests showed that, after 7 to 30 s of walking with a gait cycle frequency of about 1.0 Hz, the EHS can generate an energy of about 70 μJ, guaranteeing a voltage between 2 and 1.4 V every 7.6 s. With this prototype we can verify that it is possible to power for 16 ms a circuit having a power consumption of 1.7 mW every 7.6 s. The proposed generator is a viable solution to power an implanted electronic system that is conceived for measuring and transmitting the TKP load parameters.


We formulate the Nahm transform in the context of parabolic Higgs bundles on P^1 and extend its scope in completely algebraic terms. This transform requires parabolic Higgs bundles to satisfy an admissibility condition and allows Higgs fields to have poles of arbitrary order and arbitrary behavior. Our methods are constructive in nature and examples are provided. The extended Nahm transform is established as an algebraic duality between moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles. The guiding principle behind the construction is to investigate the behavior of spectral data near the poles of Higgs fields.


This paper presents an experimental study designed to explore some of the learner's individual and interpersonal factors (e.g. challenge, curiosity, control, enjoyment, recognition, etc.) that India learners experience when learning English as a Foreign Language and how learners' perceptions of these factors influence various aspects of their motivation to learn English language. As part of the study, a 27-item structured survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of 105 India learners from public schools and universities. Data collected through the survey were subjected to some basic statistical analyses, such as "mean" and "standard deviation". Based on the results from the analysis, a number of generalizations and conclusions are made in relation to how these inherent factors affect India learners' motivation to learn English as a foreign language. In addition, some recommendations are offered to India academics on how to effectively make use of such factors, which may enable India teachers and learners of English as a foreign language to achieve better learning outcomes in an area widely associated by India with lack of success.


The celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz, author of the New York Times bestselling book A Photographer's Life, provides the stories, and technical description, of how some of her most famous images came to be. Starting in 1974, with her coverage of Nixon's resignation, and culminating with her controversial portraits of Queen Elizabeth II early in 2007, Leibovitz explains what professional photographers do and how they do it. The photographer in this instance is the most highly paid and prolific person in the business. Approximately 90 images are discussed in detail -- the circumstances under which they were taken, with specific technical information (what camera, what settings, what lighting, where the images appeared). The Rolling Stones' tour in 1975, the famous nude session with John Lennon and Yoko Ono hours before Lennon was killed, the American Express and Gap campaigns, Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub of milk, Demi Moore pregnant and naked on the cover of Vanity Fair, and coverage of the couture collections in Paris with Puff Daddy and Kate Moss are among the subjects of this original and informative work. The photos and stories are arranged chronologically, moving from film to digital. Leibovitz's fans and lovers of great photography will find her stories of how one learns to see -- and then how to photograph -- inspiring.


Abstract My Space and Facebook are innovative digital communication tools that surpass traditional means of social interaction. However, in some instances in which educators have used these tools, public reactions to them have resulted in sanctions. With the notion that traditional ideas of privacy and teacher conduct are not yet defined in online worlds, the researchers developed a case-based reasoning intervention to support more informed decisions by preservice teachers. The case-based coursework led students to perceive a need for more definitive guidelines about their participation in social networking spaces. The findings have professional development implications for educators and educational institutions that wish to harness the positive potential of social networking tools without risking professional status.


In current literature, certain scholars have stressed the role of the private sector in the process of revitalizing agriculture through agribusiness-led development. Others have underlined the global risks of poorly negotiated land acquisitions that disadvantage farmers and of nontransparent trade arrangements that create suspicion within local communities. Official and unofficial data whose relevance is frequently questioned, because they differ from actual conditions found on the ground, are often built upon these narratives. This acknowledgement points to the need for reliable data in order to support constructive debates on models of agricultural development. Senegal is experiencing similar controversies involving the dynamics of agribusiness development within the context of inadequate information on land acquisitions. In this paper, we first acknowledge the existence of past and current efforts to address investments in the agricultural sector. After critical analysis of these documents, we propose another way to monitor investments with survey tools that are embedded in participatory action-research processes and then provide information that can be used as a boundary object. We advocate the use of mapping tools to identify and monitor land processes, and the use of geospatial information to help identify an initial inventory of various sources of data on large-scale land transactions.


In this paper I demonstrate how an attention to rural queerness offers a beneficial and necessary opportunity to examine queer subjectivies through the lens of space, place, and class. I highlight how individuals' claims to queerness can actually be embeddd within identifications with class and place. I demonstrate how identifications with place are illustrative of a broader coneption of rurality, an often-ignored yet immensely pervasive thread of identity, which, governed by familiarity, familial affiliation, and community participation, can actually provide rural queer individuals with a means of both acceptance and queer expression alternative to dominant models. I illustrate how rurality is not only absent from hegemonic urban conceptualizations of queer visibility, but is actually incompatible with the basic tenets of mainstream urban queer visibility politics. Rurality thus provides a compelling vehicle of critique and alternative envisioning for contemporary queer politics and subjectivities.


Within the last two decades, quantum technologies (QT) have made tremendous progress, moving from Nobel Prize award-winning experiments on quantum physics (1997: Chu, Cohen-Tanoudji, Phillips; 2001: Cornell, Ketterle, Wieman; 2005: Hall, Hänsch-, Glauber; 2012: Haroche, Wineland) into a cross-disciplinary field of applied research. Technologies are being developed now that explicitly address individual quantum states and make use of the 'strange' quantum properties, such as superposition and entanglement. The field comprises four domains: quantum communication, where individual or entangled photons are used to transmit data in a provably secure way; quantum simulation, where well-controlled quantum systems are used to reproduce the behaviour of other, less accessible quantum systems; quantum computation, which employs quantum effects to dramatically speed up certain calculations, such as number factoring; and quantum sensing and metrology, where the high sensitivity of coherent quantum systems to external perturbations is exploited to enhance the performance of measurements of physical quantities. In Europe, the QT community has profited from several EC funded coordination projects, which, among other things, have coordinated the creation of a 150-page QT Roadmap (http://qurope.eu/h2020/qtflagship/roadmap2016). This article presents an updated summary of this roadmap.


Balanced bipolar codes consist of sequences in which the symbols `-1' and `+1' appear equally often. Several generalizations to larger alphabets have been considered in literature. For example, for the q-ary alphabet {-q + 1, -q + 3, ..., q - 1}, known concepts are symbol balancing, i.e., all alphabet symbols appear equally often in each codeword, and charge balancing, i.e., the symbol sum in each codeword equals zero. These notions are equivalent for the bipolar case, but not for q > 2. In this paper, a third perspective is introduced, called polarity balancing, where the number of positive symbols equals the number of negative symbols in each codeword. The minimum redundancy of such codes is determined and a generalization of Knuth's celebrated bipolar balancing algorithm is proposed.


There is significant evidence that investments in agricultural research generate gains to farmers and the economy as a whole. The objective of this paper is to provide an assessment of the biotech industry in Canada including an update of producers' benefits from herbicide tolerant canola, comparisons of gains with other crops, and the need for government involvement. The study also assesses the evolution of research policies in Canada over time, exploring the role of government in today's crop research. The study develops a framework to analyze options for agricultural research, including property rights, subsidies to private researchers, and public research in the context of three representative case studies: canola (a large crop with significant privatization in plant breeding), wheat (a large crop without significant privatization), and pulses (a small crop with adequate crop development funding through check-offs). Current challenges and opportunities facing crop innovation are also discussed.


The use of alcohol and drugs among adolescents is of increasing public health and social concern. The normative relationship between young Irish people and harmful substances must be challenged (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Ireland, Changing the Future, 2011). Schools provide the perfect platform for the implementation of health education-prevention initiatives and must be facilitated with effective prevention programs (Fletcher et al., 2010). Irish school-based drug education-prevention is currently provided within the remit of the Social Personal Health Education (SPHE). However the effectiveness of the SPHE programme is often called into question, highlighting a number of issues which will be discussed in detail at a later stage.
This research aimed to investigate teachers' perspectives in Ireland on their role, and that of the school, in the delivery of school-based alcohol and cannabis education-prevention. The ultimate goal of this research is to make recommendations in order to develop the responsibility of teaching staff within schools to recognize, help and advise pupils who are using or who may be at risk of experimenting with substances such as alcohol and cannabis. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 13 second level schools located in the Southern region of the Republic of Ireland. The questionnaire developed by the research team at the Haute Ecole Pedagogique [HEP], Lausanne, Switzerland, collected a range of data including; demographics, information on the teaching of SPHE and evidence regarding teachers' participation, attitudes and perceptions of school-based alcohol and cannabis education-prevention.
Over half of participating teachers had never partaken in drug education activities despite majorities within the sample recognizing the importance and expressing their interest in alcohol and cannabis prevention. Teachers levels of satisfaction with their school were positively correlated with attitude toward the teacher and school's role in alcohol and cannabis education prevention. The need for the implementation of school drug policies, along with training, support and information for all teachers is highlighted in these findings. The need for continued revision of the SPHE programme and development of whole school integrated approaches involving a shared organisation wide approach to pupils substance education-prevention is evident throughout.


In the drive towards truly automated driving infrastructure data will play a substantial role, as it enhances the event horizon of the autonomous vehicle and enables the road operator to communicate strategic routing information. As infrastructure data is basically an aggregation of large data source systems, the guaranteed latency with which relevant information can be conveyed to the vehicle poses a challenge. This paper breaks up the downstream data chain from the infrastructure to the vehicle into its generic building blocks and focusses on the data throughput rate of the infrastructure database element. The achievable throughput rates are determined experimentally in a real life productive system during standard operation, the traffic information system of Austrian highway operator ASFINAG. The throughput rates through the main data gates have been made configurable and the timestamps for data passing through the individual software modules are recorded. Measurement results for the configuration with the highest throughput rate show a mean latency of 2 to 6 seconds for traffic messages from infrastructure into the vehicle, excluding the time for event detection. The concept will be expanded to eventually determine and monitor latency through all building blocks of the data chain.


The reconstruction of large abdominal wall defects still is a major surgical problem. Many different techniques have been developed for this purpose, most of which appeared to be unsatisfactory. The lack of sufficient tissue requires the insertion of prosthetic material. Non -absorbable prostheses used to reconstruct abdominal wall defects showed the best results . Polypropylene mesh (PPM) and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) soft-tissue patch are the most frequently used materials for this purpose . However, PPM induces extensive visceral adhesions and erosion of the skin, whereas ePTFE is insufficiently anchored to the adjacent tissue and therefore both materials are not ideal. As a result of own clinical and experimental studies , we constructed a new prosthesis that combines the favourable properties and avoids the drawbacks of PPM and ePTFE and tested it in an experimental study in the rat. The results are promising and warrant future study to find the ideal non -absorbable prosthesis to reconstruct large abdominal wall defects.


Unsupervised domain adaption (UDA) is a promising solution to enhance the generalization ability of a model from a source domain to a target domain without manually annotating labels for target data. Recent works in cross-domain object detection mostly resort to adversarial feature adaptation to match the marginal distributions of two domains. However, perfect feature alignment is hard to achieve and is likely to cause negative transfer due to the high complexity of object detection. In this paper, we propose a category dictionary guided (CDG) UDA model for cross-domain object detection, which learns category-specific dictionaries from the source domain to represent the candidate boxes in target domain. The representation residual can be used for not only pseudo label assignment but also quality (e.g., IoU) estimation of the candidate box. A residual weighted self-training paradigm is then developed to implicitly align source and target domains for detection model training. Compared with decision boundary based classifiers such as softmax, the proposed CDG scheme can select more informative and reliable pseudo-boxes. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that the proposed CDG significantly exceeds the state-of-the-arts in cross-domain object detection.


Media Education Conference (MEC 2015) "In the Light of the Midnight Sun" was organized in Sallatunturi, Finland in 15-17 of June 2015. Selected papers submitted by the conference participants are published in this special issue of seminar.net.MEC (former NBE) is an informal and friendly conference which participants attend to exchange ideas and information dealing with media education, educational use of ICTs and learning environments. MEC is organized by the Centre for Media Pedagogy at the University of Lapland.Themes and topics of the sixth MEC conference were as follows: Playful and Game-based Learning; Media and Code Literacies; Empowerment through Media; Media and ICT in Teaching and Learning; Digital Story Telling; 3D, Virtual and Simulation-based Learning; and Internet and Social Media in Everyday Life.In the first article, Tuulikki Keskitalo and Heli Ruokamo of the University of Lapland present "A model for simulation-based learning in healthcare". Simulations and virtual reality do have a major focus in current healthcare education. The authors designed the study in order to fill a gap about our knowledge the pedagogical models that underpin the present activities. They studied several cases involving facilitators and students, in order to find out when and how simulations should and could be used for the benefit of the students and their learning. They describe how a refined pedagogical was developed, a model that will provide a more holistic and meaningful approach to teaching and learning in health care.The second article is written by a group pf researchers from the university of Eastern Finland, Teemu Valtonen, Erkko T. Sointu and Jari Kukkonen of the department situated in Joensuu, while Kati Mäkitalo-Siegl is based in Savonlinna. The title of their paper is "Developing a TPACK measurement instrument for 21st century pre-service teachers". The investigate how terms, such as "Future skills", "21st century skills" and other, emphasise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and especially ICT skills. Their concern is that teachers have to be able to use various pedagogical approaches and ICT in order to support the development of their students' 21st century skills. They present a particular model, namely the "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge" as their theoretical framework for designing the instrument. Based on this framework they have taken the challenge to measure the various elements and variables of the model, and explain how they have gone about to improve their research instrument.Lauri Palsa , who works at the Department for Media Education and Audiovisual Media at the National Audiovisual Institute KAVI, in Finland has written the third article ins this issue together with Heli Ruokamo of the University of Lapland. Their concern is that there are so many interpretations of what it means to be literate when it comes to media. In the coming revision of the Finnish core curriculum, the term "multiliteracies" has been introduced as a transversal competence. The article contain a review of how research articles define the two phenomena "media literacy" and "multiliteracies". The article argues that significant differences exist between the concepts of media literacy and multiliteracies and, further, that the new Finnish core curriculum defines multiliteracies differently than the research literature defines the term. They propose a new approach to sort the different analytical levels the various definitions work at and outline new opportunities to carry out research on this conceptual field.Alessandra Carenzio, Simona Ferrari, Lorenzo De Cani, Sara Lo Jacono and Pier Cesare Rivoltella, all representing CREMIT, Research Centre on Media, Information and Technology Education, Department of Education of the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, have jointly produced the article "Body, identity and images of the self among adolescents. From research to action through Peer&Media Education". Their main topic is "sexting" and how adolescents can be trained to reflect and use their own contributions to social media more cautiously. They have developed the concept of "Peer&Media Education". They also present and discuss their research on their centre Cremit which has produced significant results for the strategies and methods of "Peer&Media Education".Katriina Heljakka, who works at the School of History, Culture and Arts Studies, University of Turku, presents her article "Toys as Tools for Skill-building and Creativity in Adult Life". Her point of departure is that previous understandings of adult use of toys generally see toy activities as ideas of collecting and hobbying, not playing. This study aims to address toys as play objects employed in imaginative scenarios and as learning devices. The main focus is the Blythe doll, and the article show us how this toy functions as a socially shared tools for skill-building and learning in adult life. The interviews with Finnish doll players and analyses of examples of their productive, toy-related play patterns showcased in both offline and digital playscapes reveal how toy play leads to skill-building and creativity at a mature age.Päivi Rasi and Arja Kilpeläinen, both of the University of Lapland, have written the paper «The Digital Competences and Agency of Older People Living in Rural Villages in Finnish Lapland". Their point of departure is that older people run a great risk of being excluded from vital functions of the society, because they fall short of digital competencies. They find it very important to strengthen the research in this field. The paper examines the digital competences and agency of older people who live in remote rural villages in Finnish Lapland and the authors argue that older people's agency is the key factor that keeps them included in contemporary society. They found that the respondents' digital competencies were diverse. They suggest that digital competence is very much a distributed competence of elderly dyads, families with three generations and informal networks of villagers and that it should not, therefore, be assessed solely as an individual characteristic.Heli Ruokamu (guest editor) and Yngve Nordkvelle (chief editor)


'IT in Business: A Manager's Casebook' examines the impact of new IT initiatives from the business angle. The case material is derived from the year's best research projects from three leading UK Business Schools - Bath, Cranfield and Warwick. This incisive exploration of managing processes in IT companies is essential reading for IT managers in 'end-user' businesses who have to deliver strong business benefits from IT. In a climate of rapid and continual change, such contemporary information is invaluable. 'IT in Business: A Manager's Casebook' tackles managerial issues using specific case studies such as Tesco, Johnsons News Limited and the Department of Health to illustrate these points. David Targett is the Professor of Information Management at Imperial College Management School, University of London. For eight years, 1990-98, he was the Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Centre for Research into Strategic Information Systems (CRSIS) at the University of Bath. Previously, he was at the London Business School and before becoming an academic he was an industrial engineer in the motor industry. David Grimshaw is Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Cranfield School of Management and was previously at the University of Leeds and Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He has wide teaching experience and has taught in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Portugal, Russia and Singapore. He has ten years' practical experience in information systems and as an independent consultant has advised many companies on strategic information systems planning and on geographical information systems. Philip Powell is Professor of Information Systems at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Prior to this he was Reader in Information Systems and ICAEW Academic Fellow in the Operational Research and Systems Group, and Director of the Information Systems Research Unit at Warwick Business School. Before becoming an academic he worked in insurance, accounting and computing. He has taught in Southampton, Australia and Portugal and held a number of other posts overseas


Recent advances in drilling technology have enabled wells reaching up to 10 km and beyond. Conventional intervention technology has limitations when reaching into the high deviated and long horizontal sections of these extended reach wells. This thesis presents a new type of material and technique that has been introduced to intervention applications the latest years - the composite intervention cable. The composite cable is lighter than the conventional steel wireline and has a higher strength, stiffness and electrical current transfer capability. One of the main benefits of the composite intervention cable is the high stiffness of the composite material, allowing a surface injector head to push the cable into the well and thereby eliminate the necessity of a well tractor. However, pushing the composite cable into the high deviated and long horizontal wells will cause helical buckling and lock-up. Axial oscillations and vibration can effectively reduce the friction forces that arise between the locked cable and the inner wall of the production pipe. Analyzing and testing the use of a vibration tool together with the composite intervention cable are therefore one of the main objectives of the thesis. To investigate the forces and stress involved in pushing the composite cable into a well and to further test the concept of using a vibration tool, a practical test model has been built. The results were used to address the advantages and limitations of the cable and the vibration tool and to utilize comparison with the simulation results. The test results show that the reach of the composite cable is limited by the friction forces that arise between the compressed cable and the inner wall of the production tubing. Therefore, lock-up should be set as the dimensional maximum axial force that could be applied to the cable. Further it is proven that axial vibration reduces the friction force between a locked cable and the inner wall of the production pipe. This permits a higher axial force to be transmitted through the system before lock-up again is reached. However, it is unlikely that the vibration tool alone is suffiecient to implement the use of a injector head to push the cable and PLT into the challenging highly deviated and horizointal wells. An advance in vibration technology and further development of well-tractors and injector heads could implement the composite intervention cable to help increase the recovery rate and further follow up latest advance in extended reach drilling, even into complex ultra-long wells.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between anxiety , pai n, and environment with sleep quality in patients with postoperative appendicitis . This study used a descriptive design with cross-sectional correlation. The sample of this research was the patient with postoperative appendicitis at Arifin Achmad Hospital , the number of samples is 54 respondents were taken using a consecutive sampling technique. I nstruments used in this research was a questionnaire that had been tested for validity and reliability. Data analysis used univariate and bivariate analysis using Chi Square test. The results showed that there is an correlation between pain and anxiety with sleep quality a ppendi c itis postoperative patients (p value = 0.000, 0.000) and there is no relationship between the environment and the quality of sleep in patients with postoperative a p p endi c itis (p value = 0.828). Based on the result of this research advised to the health care provider especially nurses to increase health care and patient needs. Keywords : Anxiety , e nvironmental , q uality , p ain


Vermicompost drippings (VD), one of the by-products of vermicomposting, have been largely ignored in the Philippines as an organic fertilizer for economically important vegetable crops. Several reports mention that using vermicompost drippings/leachates have significantly improved crop growth, which had been attributed to its large amounts of plant nutrients, growth hormones, and presence of beneficial organisms. This study aims to look into the potential of vermicompost drippings as a possible foliar fertilizer for lettuce. The application of vermicompost drippings, vermitea, and vermicompost significantly improved growth, yield and nutrient uptake of lettuce grown in acidic soil conditions, which is comparable with those fertilized by synthetic fertilizers. Further improvement in yield was recorded when vermicompost was supplemented with a foliar application of vermicompost drippings. In terms of nutrient uptake, a tripled increase from plants treated with at least two vermicomposting products was recorded while highest phosphorus uptake was manifested by the application of vermicompost drippings. The same trend exists in potassium plant uptake, where there was an observed increase of about four times potassium content in tissue compared to the control. This increased nutrient resulted in taller and heavier plants with bigger and more developed leaves, dramatically increasing yield. Hence, lettuce could be grown organically using vermitea, vermicompost, and vermicompost drippings, but further improvement of growth and yield could be done using a combined application of vermicompost and drippings.


Recent advances in nanotechnology have offered a wealth of new opportunities for the design of new therapy of cancer creating new drug delivery systems. It has been possible to produce nanoparticles, in particular polysaccharide-based ones, to allow the site-specific delivery of drugs and to improve the pharmacokinetic profile of numerous compounds.
Throughout this work, the system of chitosan (CS)-based nanocarriers produced by coacervation with gum arabic (GA) is presented. The main experiments were focused on the encapsulation of bortezomib (BTZ) and Gold nanoparticles (GoldNP) in the CS/GA system. Completing this work, chemopreventive agents were encapsulated in the same system; catechins (EGCG) and vitamin D; accompanied by Gold nanoparticles too.
All the different produced nanoparticles produced were within the size range of 200-400 nm, presenting a low polydispersity index, a positive zeta potential and a spherical shape. The different formulations attained a medium bortezomib encapsulation efficiency of 61%, a EGCG of 40%, a vitamin D of 83% and a Gold nanoparticles encapsulation efficiency of nearly 100%. The encapsulation efficiency was increased for bortezomib, EGCG and vitamin D when the particles were coated with polysorbate 80 which acted as a stabilizing agent.
Studies of release for bortezomib and Gold nanoparticles system were carried in water and PBS, showing a biphasic pattern with an initial burst, attributed to the entrapped and surface adsorbed drug, followed by slower release. In water, not all release from nanoparticles was appreciated after long time, besides in PBS it was noted that the nanoparticles were biodegradable.
In addition, bortezomib-loaded nanoparticles were tested by in vitro cytotoxic studies. The cytotoxic effect was studied in cancer pancreatic cell line compared to normal pancreatic cell line. They have shown how less concentration of encapsulated bortezomib was needed to have the same effect as free bortezomib in cancer cells. Furthermore, encapsulated bortezomib just inhibited the cell growth as opposed to death of cells produced by free bortezomib, at higher concentrations.
According to the results, it is possible to conclude that bortezomib and GoldNP CS/GA nanoparticles is a future alternative to replace the treatment with bortezomib of tumors. Continuing the work with encapsulated EGCG and vitamin D showed also promising results.


For the purpose of evaluating the performance of mmWave beamforming/tracking schemes, spatial consistency is regarded as a mandatory feature for 5G channel model. In this paper, the geometric stochastic modelling method for spatial consistency is implemented. And the specific modelling procedure is provided. By modifying the mmWave channel model in ITU-R, the spatial consistency is applied into the model. On the basis of it, the changes of cluster delays and angles as mobile station (MS) moving under a certain trajectory are researched. For comparing, the same research is operated on the platform without spatial consistency. It can be observed that delays and angles of cluster will change continuously and obviously with the trajectory. These analysis results can give insight into the performance of mmWave communication system.


Ethical decision making has become a critical issue as the pressure to improve the behavior of successful salespeople in all the current economic conditions. The values contained in the employees will affect the decision making of individuals or employees that will have an impact on organizational performance. Moral or cognitive moral is at the core of the most ethical decision-making models in the marketing and management. This study examined the effect of cognitive moral behavioral performance and  outcome performance of the sales force and influence behavioral performance in sales force outcome performance. By using simple linear regression method obtained  results that the  hypothesis that cognitive moral effect on behavioral performance of salespeople, singnifikan effect (b = -0.296; sig 0.000) supported. Hypothesis 2 is not supported, which suggests that moral considerations affect the outcome performance in this study were not significant (b = -0.122; sig .148). The next hypothesis states that behavioral performance positive influence on the outcome  performance of the support (b = 0.217; sig 0.009). To obtain the results of an individual's performance is good and responsible, it must enhance or improve the behavior of decision-making is based on cognitive moral salespeople. Performance results of the sales force increased when the behavior of salespeople work better and responsible.


We report results on the studies of the $e^+e^-\to B_s^{(*)}\bar{B}_s^{(*)}$ processes. The results are based on a $121.4$ fb$^{-1}$ data sample collected with the Belle detector at the center-of-mass energy near the $\Upsilon(10860)$ peak and $16.4$ fb$^{-1}$ of data collected at 19 energy points in the range from 10.77 to 11.02 GeV. We observe a clear $e^+e^-\to\Upsilon(10860)\to B_s^{(*)}\bar{B}_s^{(*)}$ signal, with no statistically significant signal of $e^+e^-\to \Upsilon(11020)\to B_s^{(*)}\bar{B}_s^{(*)}$. The relative production ratio of $B_s^*\bar{B}_s^*$, $B_s\bar{B}_s^{*}$, and $B_s\bar{B}_s$ final states at $\sqrt{s}=10.866$ GeV is measured to be $7:$ $0.856\pm0.106(stat.)\pm0.053(syst.):$ $0.645\pm0.094(stat.)^{+0.030}_{-0.033}(syst.)$. An angular analysis of the $B_s^*\bar{B}_s^*$ final state produced at the $\Upsilon(10860)$ peak is also performed.


Extracted text; Dental students need to develop clinical skills in determining the force applied during tooth extractions. A student must practice the procedure many times before attaining the appropriate skill level required for decision making during operations. A device is requested to improve proprioceptive experience and enhance operational practice while completing simple tooth extraction simulations. The current educational device being used by the ECU School of Dental Medicine as well as other institutions have been studied and analyzed. These educational devices lack a biopotential feedback mechanism and do not accurately mimic force requirements for simple tooth extractions. Ideation led to alternative design generation, in which each alternative was weighed against technical and economic feasibility criteria for selecting a preferred solution. A preferred device was designed, modeled, constructed, and tested in reflection to the design specifications and needs required by the users. Conclusions are stated for the final design with future recommendations on how the device can be improved, implemented, and commercialized.


The variety of charge transport theories for organic semiconductors (OSCs) raises the question of which models should be selected for each case, and there is a lack of generalized understanding regarding various OSCs over the full range of crystallinity from single crystal to amorphous. Here, we report that the generalized Einstein relation (GER) can unify various theoretical models and predict charge transport in OSCs with various crystallinities, by altering the variance of the density of states and the delocalization degree in a Gaussian-distributed density of states. The GER also provides a good fitting to much of the experimental data of temperature- and gate-voltage-dependent mobility for different OSCs in transistors. Consequently, disorders of charge transport in various OSCs can be directly compared in the same map, which reveals how energetic disorder and the delocalization degree determine charge transport in organic devices.


In the last 30 years women have made considerable strides into the workplace. But when it comes to staying in the workforce beyond the 10-year point, the numbers tell a different story. Specifically a woman at the 10-year point is five times more likely to leave the workforce than her male counterpart. This has left organizations grappling for strategies to retain them. This study first looks at why women leave through the eyes of women who have left the workforce all together, or crafted professional jobs into non-traditional careers, then creates an empirical survey to look at alternate reasons women may leave. The results of this study seem to suggest women leave the workforce because they cannot balance home and work responsibilities. It further suggests that a dynamic flexible full time schedule may prove to be a magical retention force. It also finds women walk a delicate tight rope between acting too masculine and too feminine on the job. It also supports previous findings that women are motivated by intrinsic factors than by extrinsic.


I compare Mill's and Sen's accounts of the value of opportunity, focusing on a tension between two ideas they both uphold: that individual freedom is an important component of well-being, and that, because desires can be adaptive, actual desire is not always a good indicator of what will give well-being. The two writers' responses to this tension reflect different understandings of the relationship between freedom and desire. Sen links an individual's well-being to her freedom to choose what she has reason to desire, and looks to a democratic political process for a collective judgement about what it is rational to desire. Mill links the individual's well-being to her freedom to act on her own desires, whatever they may be, within the constraints imposed by a fair initial distribution of resources. He sees no need for collective judgement about what is ultimately valuable in human life. I side with Mill.


Since South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a therapeutic moral order has become one of the dominant frameworks within which states attempt to deal with a legacy of violent conflict. As a consequence, the grammar of trauma, suffering, repression, denial, closure, truth-revelation, and catharsis has become almost axiomatic to postconflict state-building. The rise of the postconflict therapeutic framework is tied, ineluctably, to the global proliferation of amnesty agreements. This article examines the emergence and application of two therapeutic truisms that have gained political credence in postconflict contexts since the work of the TRC. The first of these is that war-torn societies are traumatized and require therapeutic management if conflict is to be ameliorated. The second, and related truism, is that one of the tasks of the postconflict state is to attend to the psychiatric health of its citizens and the nation as a whole. The article shows how, and to what effect, these truisms coalesce powerfully at the site of postconflict national reconciliation processes. It argues that the discourse of therapy provides a radically new mode of state legitimation. It is the language through which new state institutions, primarily truth commissions, attempt to acknowledge suffering, ameliorate trauma and simultaneously found political legitimacy. The article concludes by suggesting that, on a therapeutic understanding, postconflict processes of dealing with past violence justify nascent political orders on new grounds: not just because they can forcibly suppress conflict, or deliver justice and protect rights, but because they can cure people of the pathologies that are a potential cause of resurgent violence.


About 102.000 people were killed in single vehicle accidents in the 28 European Union countries between 2006 and 2015, representing almost one third of all road accident fatalities in these countries. Single vehicle collision is a type of road accident in which only one vehicle and no other road user is involved. The objective of this research is the analysis of characteristics of single vehicle accidents in European countries through the use of the EU CARE database with disaggregate data on road accidents, as well as of other European data sources (e.g. Eurostat). Time-series data from the EU countries over a period of 10 years (2006-2015) were correlated with basic safety parameters, such as mode of transport, type of road, presence of junction, lighting and weather conditions, seasonality and person related characteristics like age and gender. The results of the analysis allow for an overall assessment of the safety level concerning single vehicle accidents in Europe in comparison to other types of accidents, thus providing useful support to decision makers working for the improvement of safety in the European road network.


Many remote sensing image classifiers are limited in their ability to combine spectral features with spatial features. Multi-kernel classifiers, however, are capable of integrating spectral features with spatial or structural features using multiple kernels and summing them for final outputs. Using a support vector machine (SVM) as classifier, different multi-kernel classifiers are constructed and tested using 64-band Operational Modular Imaging Spectrometer II hyperspectral image of Changping Area, Beijing City. Results show that by integrating spectral and wavelet texture information, multi-kernel SVM classifiers can obtain more accurate classification results than sole-kernel SVM classifiers and cross-information SVM kernel classifiers. Moreover, when the multi-kernel SVM classifier is used, the combination of the first four principal components from principal component analysis and wavelet texture provides the highest accuracy (97.06%). Multi-kernel SVM is therefore an effective approach to improve the accuracy of hyperspectral image classification and to expand possibilities for remote sensing image interpretation and application.


Aims & rationale/Objectives Population ageing poses major challenges for health systems. Additionally, training future general practitioners in the management of older and chronically ill patients is potentially hampered by the reluctance of these patients to consult trainees for chronic care. This paper reports a crosssectional study investigating the attitudes of older patients to trainees, to inform strategies to improve older patient-trainee interaction. Methods The survey instrument was distributed to 1900 patients aged 60 and over from 38 training practices from five Australian states using a stratified, randomised cluster sampling process. Generalised estimating equation models were used for analysis. Principal findings The response rate was 47.9% (n=911). Over three-quarters (83.0%) were happy to see a trainee for a minor problem. Of respondents with a chronic/complex condition, a quarter (25.4%) was comfortable with independent trainee chronic/complex care; increasing to three-quarters (77.9%) if their usual GP checked management during the consultation. Modelling confirmed increased likelihood of comfort with trainee chronic/complex care with increasing involvement of the regular GP (p<.001). Perceived regular GP approval of seeing a trainee predicted frequency of trainee visits (p=.002); satisfaction with trainee consultations (p<.001); and comfort in independent trainee chronic/complex care (p<.001). Implications These data provide the foundation for a patient-centred GP training approach, which promises more effective chronic care training with timely access and satisfaction for patients. Ensuring inter-personal continuity with the patient's regular GP should also aid patient safety. In addition, some older patients may be comfortable with their GP taking a consultant-like role in chronic disease management, with significant implications for models of care.


OBJECTIVE
Diffuse coronary artery disease (CAD) is a challenging issue in clinical cardiology practice. There are limited data about percutaneous revascularization in these patients.

METHODS
This study was an observational clinical evaluation. The records of patients with diffuse CAD revascularized with new-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) were researched retrospectively. Patients treated with multiple, overlapping new-generation DES (at least 60mm in length per vessel) were included. The incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), defined as cardiac death, stent thrombosis, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and target lesion revascularization (TLR), at the end of the first year following the index procedure was recorded.

RESULTS
A total of 71 patients (with 75 coronary vessels) treated with new-generation DES for diffuse CAD were enrolled in the study. Zotarolimus-eluting stents were used in 48 vessels and biolimus A9-eluting stents were used in 27 vessels. The median total stent length per vessel was 75.0 mm (60.0-106.0) and the median number of stents implanted was 3 (2-4) for each vessel. The cumulative incidence of MACE at the end of the first year was 11.2% (8 patients). The presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) were defined as independent clinical risk factors related to MACE development.

CONCLUSION
Coronary artery revascularization with new-generation drug-eluting stents can be a good choice in the treatment of selected patients with diffuse CAD. DM and STEMI were found to be related to poorer clinical outcomes with this treatment option in our study.


Background: Although endometrial cancer is clearly influenced by hormonal factors, few epidemiologic studies have investigated the role of endogenous estrogens or especially estrogen metabolites. Methods: We conducted a nested case–control study within the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI-OS), a cohort of 93,676 postmenopausal women recruited between 1993 and 1998. Using baseline serum samples from women who were non-current hormone users with intact uteri, we measured 15 estrogens/estrogen metabolites via HPLC/MS-MS among 313 incident endometrial cancer cases (271 type I, 42 type II) and 354 matched controls, deriving adjusted ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall and subtype-specific endometrial cancer risk. Results: Parent estrogens (estrone and estradiol) were positively related to endometrial cancer risk, with the highest risk observed for unconjugated estradiol (OR 5th vs. 1st quintile = 6.19; 95% CI, 2.95–13.03, Ptrend = 0.0001). Nearly all metabolites were significantly associated with elevated risks, with some attenuation after adjustment for unconjugated estradiol (residual risks of 2- to 3-fold). Body mass index (kg/m2, BMI) relations were somewhat reduced after adjustment for estrogen levels. The association with unconjugated estradiol was stronger for type I than type II tumors (Phet = 0.01). Conclusions: Parent estrogens as well as individual metabolites appeared to exert generalized uterotropic activity, particularly for type I tumors. The effects of obesity on risk were only partially explained by estrogens. Impact: These findings enhance our understanding of estrogen mechanisms involved in endometrial carcinogenesis but also highlight the need for studying additional markers that may underlie the effects on risk of certain risk factors, for example, obesity. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(7); 1081–9. ©2016 AACR.


During an exceptionally warm September in 2016, unique and stable weather conditions contributed to a heat wave over Poland, allowing for observations of aerosol optical properties, using a variety of ground-based and satellite remote sensors. The data set collected during 11–16 September 2016 was analysed in terms of aerosol transport (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT)), aerosol load model simulations (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS), Global Environmental Multiscale-Air Quality (GEM-AQ), columnar aerosol load measured at ground level (Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET), Polish Aerosol Research Network (PolandAOD)) and from satellites (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)), as well as with 24/7 PollyXT Raman Lidar observations at the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) site in Warsaw. Analyses revealed a single day of a relatively clean background aerosol related to an Arctic air-mass inflow, surrounded by a few days with a well increased aerosol load of differing origin: pollution transported from Germany and biomass burning from Ukraine. Such conditions proved excellent to test developed-in-house algorithms designed for near real-time aerosol optical depth (AOD) derivation from the SEVIRI sensor. The SEVIRI AOD maps derived over the territory of Poland, with an exceptionally high resolution (every 15 min; 5.5 × 5.5 km2), revealed on an hourly scale, very low aerosol variability due to heat wave conditions. Comparisons of SEVIRI with NAAPS and CAMS AOD maps show strong qualitative similarities; however, NAAPS underestimates AOD and CAMS tends to underestimate it on relatively clean days ( 0.4). A slight underestimation of the SEVIRI AOD is reported for pixel-to-column comparisons with AODs of several radiometers (AERONET, PolandAOD) and Lidar (EARLINET) with high correlation coefficients (r2 of 0.8–0.91) and low root-mean-square error (RMSE of 0.03–0.05). A heat wave driven increase of the boundary layer height of 10% is accompanied with the AOD increase of 8–12% for an urban site dominated by anthropogenic pollution. Contrary trend, with an AOD decrease of around 4% for a rural site dominated by a long-range transported biomass burning aerosol is reported. There is a positive feedback of heat wave conditions on local and transported pollution and an extenuating effect on transported biomass burning aerosol. The daytime mean SEVIRI PM2.5 converted from the SEVIRI AODs at a pixel representative for Warsaw is in agreement with the daily mean PM2.5 surface measurements, whereby SEVIRI PM2.5 and Lidar-derived Angstrom exponent are anti-correlated.


All artists are tired of persuading their nearest and dearest to look sad...look glad...look mad...madder...no, even madder...okay, hold it. For those artists (and their long-suffering friends), here is the best book ever. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS includes more than 3,500 photographs of fifty faces, men and women of a variety of ages, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities, each demonstrating a wide range of emotions and shown from multiple angles. Who can use this book? Oh, only every artist on the planet, including art students, illustrators, fine artists, animators, story boarders, and comic-book artists. But wait, there's more! Additional photos focus on people wearing hats and couples kissing. while illustrations show skull anatomy and facial musculature. Still not enough? How about a one-of-a-kind series of photos of lips pronouncing the phonemes used in human speech? Animators will swoon--and artists will show a range of facial expressions from happy to happiest to ecstatic.


Phosphorylation of NBS1, the product of the gene mutated in Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS), by ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), the product of the gene mutated in ataxia telangiectasia, is required for activation of the S phase checkpoint in response to ionizing radiation (IR). However, NBS1 is also thought to play additional roles in the cellular response to DNA damage. To clarify these additional functions of NBS1, we generated NBS cell lines stably expressing various NBS1 mutants from retroviral vectors. The ATM-dependent activation of CHK2 by IR was defective in NBS cells but was restored by ectopic expression of wild-type NBS1. The defects in ATM-dependent activation of CHK2, S phase checkpoint control, IR-induced nuclear focus formation, and radiation sensitivity apparent in NBS cells were not corrected by expression of NBS1 mutants that lack an intact MRE11 binding domain, suggesting that formation of the NBS1-MRE11-RAD50 complex is required for the corresponding normal phenotypes. Expression of NBS1 proteins with mutated ATM-targeted phosphorylation sites (serines 278 or 343) did not restore S phase checkpoint control but did restore the ability of IR to activate CHK2 and to induce nuclear focus formation and normalized the radiation sensitivity of NBS cells. Expression of NBS1 containing mutations in the forkhead-associated or BRCA1 COOH terminus domains did not correct the defects in radiation sensitivity or nuclear focus formation but did restore S phase checkpoint control in NBS cells. Together, these data demonstrate that multiple functional domains of NBS1 are required for ATM-dependent activation of CHK2, nuclear focus formation, S phase checkpoint control, and cell survival after exposure to IR.


Hannah Arendt offered one of the most powerful criticisms of human rights in the light of the problems of statelessness and ended her critique with a rearticulation of human rights: "a right to have rights." Arendt provided only a brief and tantalizing discussion of this right and defined it mainly as a right to membership in a political community where one's action and opinions count. This paper engages with the interpretive controversies that this perplexing reformulation gave rise to so as to offer an alternative reading that makes a case for a "groundless cosmopolitics" centered on contemporary struggles, especially those waged by non-citizens, raising new rights claims. Of particular importance in this critical engagement are the interpretations that tie "a right to have rights" to the debates on the normative foundations of human rights. The paper contests the interpretations provided by not only the critics who fault Arendt for failing to provide normative foundations for human rights (e.g. Seyla Benhabib) but also scholars who turn to Arendt to find such foundations (e.g. Peg Birmingham). I suggest that directing our attention away from the endless quest for normative grounds to political practices of claiming rights is not only more in line with Arendt's political theory but also more helpful for understanding contemporary rights struggles such as the sans-papiers.


To meet the objectives of financial reporting in the International Accounting Standards Board's Conceptual Framework, the 'balance-sheet approach' embraced by the Framework is necessary but not sufficient. Critical, but largely overlooked, is the role of uncertainty, which we argue defines the role of accrual accounting as a distinctive source of information for investors when investment outcomes are uncertain. This role is in some sense paradoxical: on the one hand, uncertainty undermines both the balance sheet (because uncertain assets are unrecognized) and the income statement (because mismatching is unavoidable). However, these inevitable accounting effects can be exploited to provide information about uncertainty, though not by a balance-sheet approach alone. Rather, balance sheet recognition and measurement criteria are established by consideration of the impact of uncertainty on matching and mismatching in the income statement. This combination of balance-sheet and income-statement approaches enhances the communication of information to investors under conditions of uncertainty, thereby giving greater clarity and purpose in satisfying the objective of the Framework to provide information about "the amount, timing, and uncertainty of future cash flows."


Purpose: To better define the contributions of somatosensory and auditory feedback in vocal motor control, a laryngeal perturbation experiment was conducted with and without masking of auditory feedback.Method: Eighteen native speakers of English produced a sustained vowel while their larynx was physically and externally displaced on a subset of trials. For the condition with auditory masking, speech-shaped noise was played via earphones at 90 dB SPL. Responses to the laryngeal perturbation were compared to responses by the same participants to an auditory perturbation experiment that involved a 100-cent downward shift in fundamental frequency (fo). Responses were also examined in relation to a measure of auditory acuity.Results: Compensatory responses to the laryngeal perturbation were observed with and without auditory masking. The level of compensation was greatest in the laryngeal perturbation condition without auditory masking, followed by the condition with auditory masking; the level of compensation was smallest in the auditory perturbation experiment. No relationship was found between the degree of compensation to auditory versus laryngeal perturbations, and the variation in responses in both perturbation experiments was not related to auditory acuity.Conclusions: The findings indicate that somatosensory and auditory feedback control mechanisms work together to compensate for laryngeal perturbations, resulting in the greatest degree of compensation when both sources of feedback are available. In contrast, these two control mechanisms work in competition in response to auditory perturbations, resulting in an overall smaller degree of compensation.Supplemental Material S1. Laryngeal displacement device (LDD): Video laryngoscopy.Smith, D. J., Stepp, C., Guenther, F. H., & Kearney, E. (2020). Contributions of auditory and somatosensory feedback to vocal motor control. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00296


Limited potential of electroencephalogram (EEG), magnetic resonance images (MRI) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) test for 14-3-3 protein in the clinical diagnosis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) resulted in developments in diagnostic premortem tehniques. Recent studies provided evidence that magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and measurement of total-tau (T-tau) and phospho-tau (P-tau) may be useful to identify patients with CJD. We combined detected metabolic changes in the brain by MRS and measured T-tau and tau-pT181 by ELISA, and tau-pT231 by Westernblot in a patient with autopsy proven sCJD. Our results show that in contrast to negative CSF 14-3-3 protein, nonspecific EEG and MRI, MRS revealed metabolic alterations in regions of the brain that has appeared normal on MRI, and tau tests has shown measurable levels of phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated isoforms in CSF. We conclude that rapidly progressive dementia with negative 14-3-3 test and non-specific initial EEG and MRI must still be considered in the differential diagnosis of the sCJD. Combination of serial functional MRI along with MRS study and measurement of tau ratio could improve the early diagnosis of sCJD. The current case is the first attempt to study results of the use of MRS and tau tests in a case of sCJD with diagnostic dilemma.


We present a shared control paradigm that improves a user's ability to operate complex, dynamic systems in potentially dangerous environments without a priori knowledge of the user's objective. In this paradigm, the role of the autonomous partner is to improve the general safety of the system without constraining the user's ability to achieve unspecified behaviors. Our approach relies on a data-driven, model-based representation of the joint human-machine system to evaluate, in parallel, a significant number of potential inputs that the user may wish to provide. These samples are used to (1) predict the safety of the system over a receding horizon, and (2) minimize the influence of the autonomous partner. The resulting shared control algorithm maximizes the authority allocated to the human partner to improve their sense of agency, while improving safety. We evaluate the efficacy of our shared control algorithm with a human subjects study (n=20) conducted in two simulated environments: a balance bot and a race car. During the experiment, users are free to operate each system however they would like (i.e., there is no specified task) and are only asked to try to avoid unsafe regions of the state space. Using modern computational resources (i.e., GPUs) our approach is able to consider more than 10,000 potential trajectories at each time step in a control loop running at 100Hz for the balance bot and 60Hz for the race car. The results of the study show that our shared control paradigm improves system safety without knowledge of the user's goal, while maintaining high-levels of user satisfaction and low-levels of frustration. Our code is available online at this https URL.


Remote desktop protocols (RDPs) are used for connecting and interacting with computers remotely. In recent years, we have witnessed a number of vulnerabilities identified in two widely used remote desktop implementations, Microsoft Remote Desktop and RealVNC, that may expose the connected systems to a new attack vector. Such vulnerabilities are particularly concerning when it comes to mission-critical systems in which a client device with a low trust level connects to the critical system via a remote desktop server. In this preliminary study we propose a proxy-based solution that applies various modules, each of which mitigates a different type of threat, in order to secure remote desktop connections used in missioncritical systems.


The impressive surge of perovskite solar cells has been accompanied by a comparable effort to unveil the basics properties of this class of materials. Theoretical and computational modeling is playing a major role in providing scientists an in depth atomistic view of the intimate perovskite properties contributing to the success of this class of materials. In this chapter we discuss recent advances in our understanding of organohalide perovskites based on first principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. Emphasis is placed on the interplay of electronic and structural features and on the important role of the organic cation and of its dynamics in dictating the peculiar material's properties. The role of chlorine doping in methylammonium lead iodide and of interfaces with TiO2 in solar cells models are finally described.


Sir George Macartney's British embassy to the court of the Qiánlóng emperor in 1792–94 was a political and commercial failure. This essay seeks to think critically about Macartney's failure as it pertains to his journal—the posthumously published Journal of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China in the Years 1792, 1793, and 1794 (1807)—and its imaginative engagement with Chinese culture. While Macartney's narrative partakes of formal and aesthetic qualities associated with travel writing from the Grand Tour and with scientific exploration, it cannot wholly be identified with either. Instead, Macartney adopts a skeptical, self-conscious position with regard to his diplomatic and intellectual limitations in dealing with the Qing. Critical analysis of his narrative's literary qualities, as well as manuscripts in the Charles W. Wason Collection at Cornell University, enable an appreciation of the sophistication and deliberateness of Macartney's narrative. Thus, I argue that Macartney's "failure" is predicated on his understanding and exploration of cultural difference—his narrative opens a space that brings British and Chinese representatives together while also revealing differences between the two cultures. To illuminate that rich yet liminal cultural space in Macartney's narrative, I draw on a parallel moment in Sino-British cultural relations in the years leading up to the Opium wars—George Chinnery's painting, Rev. Morrison Translating the Bible in to Chinese (1829). Reading Macartney's narrative through the lens of Chinnery's painting, a work that also represents a relationship between the two cultures, brings out the distinctive tone and historiographical understanding of Macartney's An Embassy to China, 1792–94.


Banks are important financial intermediaries of any national economy, and corporate governance has an important role in banking sector; especially due to processes of the globalization and the internationalization, and also because of the sensitivity of the activities between the interest groups. The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between ownership structure, concentration, owners' type and bank performance. The authors made a research of banks' ownership structure using publicly available data. Using statistical tools authors discovered relationships between bank ownership structure and bank performance indicators (average asset, total asset, average equity, profit (loss) before taxes, profit (loss) after taxes, ROAA, ROAE). Further they discuss the relationships between ownership structure and a number of consequences for the bank performance. The authors discovered significant correlation between bank ownership structure and performance indicators variables that are described in the paper.


The article uses the cartographic metaphor to describe the relations between culture and nature, science and life world, signifier and signified. Modernism may be defined as a project to map the whole of human reality to ensure our comprehension and control of it. The Hobbes-Boyle controversy is cited by way of example. Today this project is under critical scrutiny, because there is more to the world than what is captured in maps. The main example of control and reduction of meaning is the way human nature is defined. Nowadays the main factor is not so much ideology of one kind or another but, increasingly, technoscience. Mapping the future of humankind will depend on successful integration of humans with nature, faith with reason, natural sciences with human sciences, physicality with spirituality. Heidegger provides an example of a meaningful way to integrate science and technology with the human life world. Finally, the self-transcending character of human culture remains the driving force behind the process.


In this paper, we build a subsurface model that helps us to visualize and understand the structural framework and geology, along with their interactions, in the Mt. Amiata geothermal system. Three-dimensional (3D) modeling provides the possibility of interpolating the geometry of structures, and is an effective method for understanding geological features. The 3D modeling approach is crucial for further progress in the reconstruction of the assessment of the geothermal model of Mt. Amiata. Furthermore, this model can be used as the basis for a 3D numerical thermo-fluid dynamic model of the existing reservoir(s). The integration of borehole data and the numerical modeling results allows us to reconstruct the temperature distribution in the subsoil of the Mt. Amiata area.


Abstract. Observations of stratospheric ozone from multiple instruments now span three decades; combining these into composite datasets allows long-term ozone trends to be estimated. Recently, several ozone composites have been published, but trends disagree by latitude and altitude, even between composites built upon the same instrument data. We confirm that the main causes of differences in decadal trend estimates lie in (i) steps in the composite time series when the instrument source data changes and (ii) artificial sub-decadal trends in the underlying instrument data. These artefacts introduce features that can alias with regressors in multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis; both can lead to inaccurate trend estimates. Here, we aim to remove these artefacts using Bayesian methods to infer the underlying ozone time series from a set of composites by building a joint-likelihood function using a Gaussian-mixture density to model outliers introduced by data artefacts, together with a data-driven prior on ozone variability that incorporates knowledge of problems during instrument operation. We apply this Bayesian self-calibration approach to stratospheric ozone in 10° bands from 60° S to 60° N and from 46 to 1 hPa (∼ 21–48 km) for 1985–2012. There are two main outcomes: (i) we independently identify and confirm many of the data problems previously identified, but which remain unaccounted for in existing composites; (ii) we construct an ozone composite, with uncertainties, that is free from most of these problems – we call this the BAyeSian Integrated and Consolidated (BASIC) composite. To analyse the new BASIC composite, we use dynamical linear modelling (DLM), which provides a more robust estimate of long-term changes through Bayesian inference than MLR. BASIC and DLM, together, provide a step forward in improving estimates of decadal trends. Our results indicate a significant recovery of ozone since 1998 in the upper stratosphere, of both northern and southern midlatitudes, in all four composites analysed, and particularly in the BASIC composite. The BASIC results also show no hemispheric difference in the recovery at midlatitudes, in contrast to an apparent feature that is present, but not consistent, in the four composites. Our overall conclusion is that it is possible to effectively combine different ozone composites and account for artefacts and drifts, and that this leads to a clear and significant result that upper stratospheric ozone levels have increased since 1998, following an earlier decline.


The idea of Heimat (home, homeland, native region) has been as important to German self-perceptions over the last two hundred years as the shifting notion of the German nation. While the idea of Heimat has been long neglected in English studies of German culture--among other reasons because the word Heimat has no exact equivalent in English--this book offers us the first cross-disciplinary and comprehensive analysis, in English or German, of this all-pervasive German idea. Blickle shows how the idea of Heimat interpenetrates German notions of modernity, identity, gender, nature, and innocence. Blickle reminds us of such commonplace expressions of Heimat sentimentality as Biedermeier landscapes of Alpine meadows and castles on the Rhine, but also finds the Heimat preoccupation in Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud. Always aware of the many literary representations of Heimat (for instance in Schiller, Holderlin, Heine, Kafka, and Thomas Mann), Blickle does not argue for the fundamental innocence of Heimat. Instead he shows again and again how the idealization of a home ground leads to borders of exclusion. ~~~~~ PETER BLICKLE is Professor of German at Western Michigan University.


Two encroachments, one long-standing, the other a product of the digital era, cramp the author's place in copyright today. First, most authors lack bargaining power; the real economic actors in the copyright system have long been the publishers and other exploiters to whom authors cede their rights. These actors may advance the figure of the author for the moral lustre it lends their appeals to lawmakers, but then may promptly despoil the creators of whatever increased protections they may have garnered. Second, the advent of new technologies of creation and dissemination of works of authorship not only threatens traditional revenue models, but also calls into question whatever artistic control the author may – or should - retain over her work. After reviewing these challenges, I will consider legal measures to protect authors from leonine contracts, and measures in the marketplace to obtain compensation for the exploitation of their rights, in order to assure authors better remuneration, as well as more power over the ways their works encounter their public.The author's place in the future of copyright (assuming copyright has a future) will not be assured until the full range of her interests, monetary and moral, receive both recognition and enforcement. Online micropayment and other systems for remunerating individual authors (including by means of collective licensing), albeit often embryonic, hold promise. But will these new means of remunerating authors (or for that matter older business models which, while often divesting authors of their rights, also often afforded them an income stream) remain viable in a digital environment in which paying for creativity increasingly seems an act of largesse? Most fundamentally, we need to appreciate authorship, and to recognize that a work in digital form is a thing of value, lest the old adage that "information" (meaning, works of authorship) "wants to be free" presage works of authorship that don't "want" to be created.


The Funds industry in Ireland has continued to grow over the last 25 years, becoming a key location for foreign investment and global leader in fund administration. With its global reach and skilled workforce, the funds industry continues to create revenue for the country and employment with over 12,000 currently employed in the Irish funds industry in 2013. Despite the current recession impacting the financial services heavily, the funds industry remained stable with assets under management reaching €2.3 trillion this year. However, fund administrators are under increased pressure to retain this level of profitability and success by introducing cost cutting measures such as downsizing but failing to understand its impact on the organisation and its workforce. A large quantity of research has been carried out on the effects of organisational downsizing and the impacts of survivor syndrome, however, this research predominantly originates from an African or US perspective, with little if any research carried out from an Irish perspective. This dissertation seeks to understand the impact of downsizing within a small to medium sized financial services organisation, a sub group of a global organisation operating within the Republic of Ireland in 2013, investigate if survivor syndrome exists within this organisation, and examine the management intervention necessary to avoid a negative impact on this organisation.


This week's articles feature insights into the regulation of cellular metabolism, regulation of transcription, and regulation of the immune system. Metabolism Controlling supplies for DNA and RNA synthesis Coupling cellular growth signals to synthesis of RNA and DNA. I. Ben-Sahra, G. Hoxhaj, S. J. H. Ricoult, J. M. Asara, B. D. Manning, mTORC1 induces purine synthesis through control of the mitochondrial tetrahydrofolate cycle. Science 351, 728–733 (2016). [Abstract] Spatial control of cellular enzymes Intracellular bodies composed of purine biosynthetic enzymes exhibit an mTOR-mediated association with mitochondria. J. B. French, S. A. Jones, H. Deng, A. M. Pedley, D. Kim, C. Y. Chan, H. Hu, R. J. Pugh, H. Zhao, Y. Zhang, T. J. Huang, Y. Fang, X. Zhuang, S. J. Benkovic, Spatial colocalization and functional link of purinosomes with mitochondria. Science 351, 733–737 (2016). [Abstract] E. H. Ma, R. G. Jones, (TORC)ing up purine biosynthesis. Science 351, 670–671 (2016). [Abstract] Lung Physiology Neuroendocrine cells as air sensors Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells aggregate to form airway sensors and control the lung's immune response. K. Branchfield, L. Nantie, J. M. Verheyden, P. Sui, M. D. Wienhold, X. Sun, Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells function as airway sensors to control lung immune response. Science 351, 707–710 (2016). [Abstract] J. A. Whitsett, E. E. Morrisey, Modulating pulmonary inflammation. Science 351, 662–663 (2016). [Abstract] Epigenetics Quantitative analysis of epigenetic memory Quantitative, single-cell measurements reveal characteristics of epigenetic control of transcription. L. Bintu, J. Yong, Y. E. Antebi, K. McCue, Y. Kazuki, N. Uno, M. Oshimura, M. B. Elowitz, Dynamics of epigenetic regulation at the single-cell level. Science 351, 720–724 (2016). [Abstract] A. J. Keung, A. S. Khalil, A unifying model of epigenetic regulation. Science 351, 661–662 (2016). [Abstract] The SAGA of removing nucleosomal ubiquitin The structure of a transcription complex bound to a nucleosome reveals how ubiquitin can be removed from nucleosomes. M. T. Morgan, M. Haj-Yahya, A. E. Ringel, P. Bandi, A. Brik, C. Wolberger, Structural basis for histone H2B deubiquitination by the SAGA DUB module. Science 351, 725–728 (2016). [Abstract] J. L. Workman, It takes teamwork to modify chromatin. Science 351, 667 (2016). [Abstract] Immunology T cells target peptide combos Autoimmune T cells recognize covalently linked peptides derived from two distinct proteins. T. Delong, T. A. Wiles, R. L. Baker, B. Bradley, G. Barbour, R. Reisdorph, M. Armstrong, R. L. Powell, N. Reisdorph, N. Kumar, C. M. Elso, M. DeNicola, R. Bottino, A. C. Powers, D. M. Harlan, S. C. Kent, S. I. Mannering, K. Haskins, Pathogenic CD4 T cells in type 1 diabetes recognize epitopes formed by peptide fusion. Science 351, 711–714 (2016). [Abstract] Genetic programming for self-renewal Tissue macrophages and embryonic stem cells use similar genetic programs to self-renew. E. L. Soucie, Z. Weng, L. Geirsdóttir, K. Molawi, J. Maurizio, R. Fenouil, N. Mossadegh-Keller, G. Gimenez, L. VanHille, M. Beniazza, J. Favret, C. Berruyer, P. Perrin, N. Hacohen, J.-C. Andrau, P. Ferrier, P. Dubreuil, A. Sidow, M. H. Sieweke, Lineage-specific enhancers activate self-renewal genes in macrophages and embryonic stem cells. Science 351, aad5510 (2016). [Abstract]


Abstract Evidence is accumulating of the negative impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic and related public health measures on mental health. In this emergent field, there has been little research into the role of risk perception on depressive symptoms and the contribution of health‐care resources to model risk perception and mental health. The aim of this paper is to describe the relationship between individual‐level perception of risk and depression, controlling for a set of confounders and for country‐level heterogeneity. A cross‐sectional and observational online survey was conducted using a non‐probability snowball sampling technique. We use data on 11,340 respondents, living in six European countries (Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, France, Poland, Czech Republic) who completed survey questionnaires during the first months of the pandemic. We used a fixed‐effect approach, which included individual and macro‐level variables. The findings suggest that a high proportion of people suffering from depression and heightened risk perception is positively associated with reporting depressive symptoms, even if this relationship varies significantly between countries. Moreover, the association is moderated by contextual factors including health‐care expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, hospital beds for acute care, and number of medical specialists per head of population. Investment in health care offers a concrete means of protecting the mental health of a population living under pandemic restrictions.


Customer churn is a central problem in almost every sector. Due to the diversity of the customers, products and services, and a massive amount of data being generated as a result of e-commerce tools and services, (big) data analytics and artificial intelligence-based methods have been developed and used for churn analysis in order to develop a strategy that is expected to understand the reasons behind the customer churn and subsequently to develop an effective and profitable customer retention programme. The analysis based on the data analytics and artificial intelligence methods focuses more on the profiling of customers, the classification of customer churn and identification of features that affect the churn. However, there doesn't seem many studies that would be able to help understand how much a potential customer is likely to (or not likely to) pay for the products or services when churned or not, and to predict how much a particular customer or group of customers may have paid for the products or services. Therefore, in this study, a two-level churn analysis is proposed to (1) classify the customer churn or not, and (1) predict how much the customer has paid for the service. In order to achieve it, a machine learning method, namely support vector machine (SVM), was used for the classification part whereas a monthly service charge was predicted by using support vector regression (SVR) method. In order to select the most appropriate feature sub-set for both analyses, an unsupervised feature selection method, namely the multi-cluster feature selection method was utilized. The same feature selection method was used for both analyses for the sake of consistency to understand its performance over both analyses. The proposed hybrid approach was then applied in IBM's Telcom data set with over 7000 customers in order to demonstrate the applicability and generalization ability of the proposed two-level approach. The SVM-based classification method has yielded AUC 85.6 and total classification accuracy of 81.5% being higher than those of a recent study where an aggressive set of the supervised classification methods was performed. The SVR-based prediction of the monthly charge has resulted in RMSE of 1.27, which is a reasonably acceptable outcome in the sector given the diversity of the ranges of charges as evidenced in its standard deviation. The approach presented in the study demonstrates that both the churn classification and charge prediction can be performed at the same time with a higher degree of accuracy. As the approach is open for further improvement, future analysis will be carried out to improve the accuracy for both analyses over other data sets to demonstrate its robustness and generalization ability.


The majority of the brain imaging studies on bilingualism have focused on the question of the separation or overlap of the neural regions involved when a bilingual brain is working with one language or the other. Researchers have been especially interested in the roles of factors such as age of acquisition of the second language and level of proficiency. In recent studies, however, new questions about the bilingual brain have started to be explored. For example, are there anatomical and/or functional differences between the brains of bilinguals and monolinguals? Do the interindividual differences in the ability to learn a second language correlate with brain differences? We will present recently published and ongoing work about these questions.


In this letter, a new kind of cavity resonator based on left-handed/right-handed transmission lines is presented. The left-handed transmission line (LHTL), which can realize a negative phase shift, is formed by resonant-slot coupled cavity chain unit cells, while the right-handed transmission line (RHTL), which can realize positive phase shift, is made of coaxial waveguides. Resonance condition can be satisfied by setting the total phase shift between two ends of the cavity resonators to be zero. The design approach of the subwavelength cavity resonator is presented. Simulation and experimental results prove that the lengths of these cavity resonators can be much shorter than the conventional half-wavelength while working at the same frequency.


Only two deltas are located along the Argentine coast, both of them at Buenos Aires state. The northern one is the Parana Delta at the Rio de La Plata estuary (34.99' Lat. Sur) and the southern is the Colorado delta (39.45' Lat. Sur). The first is a high constructive delta which occur i an area of about 3000 km, is dominated by fluvial processes. It end at a narrow freshwater and elongated basin (Rio de La Plata estuary). Colorado delta is a high destructive delta spread over an area of 900 km dominated by wave tide and fluvial interaction. It is under high wave energy, strong littoral drift, low sediment yield and low offshore slope conditions. Actually, the front has a low progradation rate. Shoreline progradation has produced an area of abandon barriers beach which extend inland for 12 km in the last 6,000 years. Rio Colorado had a backward motion of a meter per year during the last 400 years, while Parana delta has a rate of progradation of 50 m per year. The fast advance of the Parana delta will generate geopolitics implications between Argentina and Uruguay.


Background—Management of hemolysis in the setting of suspected device thrombosis in continuous-flow left ventricular assist device patients varies widely, ranging from watchful waiting with intensified antithrombotic therapy to early surgical device exchange. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of hemolysis events treated with surgical interventions versus medical management alone. Methods and Results—A retrospective review of Heartmate II continuous-flow left ventricular assist device patients at 2 centers from January 2009 to September 2014 was completed. Patients were categorized as surgical management if hemolysis refractory to intensification of standard antithrombotic therapy was treated surgically. The primary end point was the first occurrence of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or death. Sixty-four hemolysis events occurred in 49/367 patients implanted with Heartmate II continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices. Of 49 primary hemolysis events, 24 were treated with surgical interventions. After surgical treatment, 1 patient died and 2 experienced CVAs, as compared with 3 deaths and 9 CVAs in the 25 patients who remained on intensified antithrombotic therapy alone. The 1-year freedom from CVA or death was 87.5% and 49.5% in the surgical and medical cohorts, respectively (P=0.027). Resolution of a primary hemolysis event without CVA or death occurred in 21/24 patients treated with surgical interventions and in 13/25 who remained on medical therapy alone. A similar association between treatment and outcome was noted in the 15 recurrent hemolysis events. Conclusions—Hemolysis refractory to intensification of antithrombotic therapy identifies continuous-flow left ventricular assist device patients at major risk for CVA and death. Early device exchange should be considered to minimize these risks.


Abstract Estimating the moment magnitudes ( M w ) of a small earthquake is a challenging task. One viable option to measure its size is to calculate its local magnitude ( M L ) and convert it to the physically based M w . Unfortunately, to correctly perform such a conversion is not easy; moreover, even though many studies demonstrate that the equivalence between M L and M w is incorrect for small events, these two parameters are sometimes thought to be strictly equivalent, regardless of the earthquake's size. Using random vibration theory, we show that, below M w ∼4, the M L of a small earthquake is proportional to the logarithm of its seismic moment, and the following relationship holds: We test our findings on a high‐quality data set in the Upper Tiber Valley (northern Apennines, Italy), composed of events in the range of 0≤ M L ≤3.8, for which we compute accurate estimates of M L and M w . Online Material: Details of the processing procedure, figures of the empirical regional attenuation functional, and source terms of 1191 events from the Alto Tiberina fault (ATF) data set and earthquake catalog.


The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation's coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts to coastal wetlands. The goal of the Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment project is to integrate a wetland-change assessment with existing coastal-change assessments for the adjacent sandy dunes and beaches, initially focusing on Assateague Island along the Maryland and Virginia coastline. Assateague Island was impacted by waves and storm surge associated with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, including erosion and overwash along the ocean-facing sandy shoreline as well as erosion and overwash deposition in the back-barrier and estuarine bay environments. This report serves as an archive of data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. The geographic information system data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0968/ds968_data.html.