The Pt-based alloyed clusters are the important catalysts in the chemical industry. The global minimum structures of PtmPdn (m + n = 5) clusters were searched for based on the CALYPSO algorithm, and the various properties of the lowest-energy PtmPdn clusters have been studied. The results show that introducing the Pd element can modify the morphology and composition of the pure Pt5 cluster, i.e., from a 2D planar to a 3D trigonal bipyramid structure, except for the Pt4Pd1 (square pyramid). According to the average cohesive energy, the Pt4Pd1 cluster possesses the highest stability among these Pt–Pd alloyed clusters. The O2 molecule prefers to anchor on the clusters by the Yeager mode. The catalytic property for O2 dissociation of the pure Pt5 cluster can be further improved by introducing the Pd atoms. Moreover, the Pt4Pd1 cluster with the high Pt composition and the structure of square pyramid shows the highest catalytic activity. More importantly, the Bronsted–Evans–Polanyi relationship is found to be applicable to the current mini alloyed metal clusters. This study will help to understand the prediction of the global minimum structure of metal cluster by CALYPSO and shed light on the design of the less expensive and more effective alloyed cluster catalysts by controlling the morphology and composition in the fuel cells.


Re-processing of 3D seismic reflection data from the Halfmile Lake area, New Brunswick, Canada has been carried out over a grid of 3 by 6 km with the aim of improving the seismic signatures of a 12 million ton volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposit located at depth of about 1200 m, known as the Deep zone. We chose a sequence of prestack DMO and poststack migration processing algorithm in order to preserve the possible diffraction signature of the Deep zone. The DMO-stack is characterized by a large and high-amplitude asymmetric diffraction signature originating from the Deep zone. The asymmetry of the diffraction hyperbola relative to the location of the Deep zone is interpreted as a shape effect from the Deep zone, with the strongest amplitudes along the diffraction hyperbola found north-northwest of the apex, indicating that the Deep VHMS zone dips in a similar direction. This diagnostic diffraction signature could not be preserved with the prestack migration approach previously implemented for the processing of the Halfmile Lake data.


In this paper we model the formation of innovation networks as they emerge from bilateral decisions. In contrast to much of the literature, here firms only consider knowledge production, and not network issues when deciding on partners. Thus we focus attention on the effects of the knowledge and information regime on network formation. The effectiveness of a bilateral collaboration is determined by cognitive, relational and structural embeddedness. Innovation results from the recombination of knowledge held by the partners to the collaboration, and its success is determined in part by the extent to which firms' knowledge complement each other. Previous collaborations (relational embeddedness) increase the probability of a successful collaboration; as does information gained from common third parties (structural embeddedness). Repeated alliance formation creates a network. Two features are central to the innovation process: how firms pool their knowledge resources; and how firms derive information about potential partners. When innovation is decomposable into separate sub-tasks, networks tend to be dense; when structural embeddedness is important, networks become cliquish. For some regions in this parameter space, small worlds emerge.


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent and curable cancer among children and adolescents less than 15 years of age in the United States. Essential for cure of childhood ALL is prophylactic treatment of the central nervous system (CNS), with methotrexate (MTX) being the most widely used drug in this treatment. While CNS treatment has contributed to long-term disease-free survival, resulting declines in academic abilities have been reported. There is growing evidence that CNS treatment with MTX increases oxidative stress, a potential mechanism of CNS injury. This article reports changes in oxidative stress, measured by the biomarker F2-isoprostane (F2-IsoP), in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in 47 children with ALL during the first 18 months of treatment. The number of CSF samples ranged from 5 to 14 during postinduction and from 1 to 9 during continuation. Total doses of intrathecal MTX during postinduction were significantly correlated with the mean and highest concentrations of F2-IsoP during postinduction and the mean concentration of F2-IsoP during continuation. F2-IsoP concentrations during postinduction and continuation were higher in children who received more than six doses of intrathecal MTX. New therapies for a highly curable disease such as childhood leukemia have the potential to be individualized in the future, requiring reliable molecular and biochemical markers, such as oxidative stress indicators. Innovative use of biomarkers has the potential to increase our understanding of treatment-related toxicities and associated symptoms and to inform future therapeutic approaches for optimizing cure and quality of life among children with leukemia.


This paper empirically investigates the relevance of liquidity constraints and excess sensitivity in intertemporal household consumption. Using a pseudo panel that has been constructed on rich German consumption survey data, we estimate the consumption responses to permanent and transitory income shocks, as well as the presence of excess sensitivity to anticipated income changes. A switching regression approach with unknown sample separation is applied to identify the two regimes whether to be liquidity constrained or not. The results are used to test whether liquidity constraints affect the validity of the permanent income hypothesis. For households in the constrained regime, reactions to changes in transitory income are found to be significantly greater than for households in the unconstrained regime. Furthermore, we provide evidence for excess sensitivity to anticipated income changes for households in the constrained regime if total consumption, durable as well as non-durable, is considered.


The increasingly complex world of work has prompted many individuals to
search for new meaning and purpose in their work. For many employed
professionals, meaning and purpose are also realised through identification with
their profession and commitment to its distinctive ideology of values and beliefs
about work and organizations. Published research into the psychological contract
between the employee and the organization has given limited consideration to the
role that occupational ideologies play in psychological contracts. This study
addresses that gap in the literature.
The study has two broad themes: the relationship between the occupational
ideologies of employed professionals and their psychological contracts, and
the importance of that relationship for conceptualisation of the
psychological contract. Using a qualitative research design, the study
explores the perceptions of a sample of registered nurses, research scientists
and primary teachers with regard to their occupational ideologies and the
terms of their psychological contracts.
The research findings show that study participants in each sample group
perceived their contributions to the organization to include professional
competence, a client focus, and a service orientation, that is, delivery on core
elements in their occupational ideologies. Study participants also perceived the
provision of credible commitments of support as being part of the contribution by
their organizations under the psychological contract. In regard to perceived
failure by the organization to provide this support, the research findings show
clear impacts on the individual in terms of commitment and job performance. In
addition, the findings reveal nuances and a level of complexity in attitudinal and
behavioural responses by the individual that have not hitherto been revealed in
psychological contract research.
The study discusses the relevance of the research findings for the bidimensional
(transactional/economic and relational/socio-emotional) interpretative framework
that currently underpins the concept of the psychological contract. It supports
calls in the literature for a broadening of this framework to include an ideological
dimension. The study also discusses the multiplicity and interdependency of
exchange that professional employees can engage in as a consequence of enacting
their occupational ideologies through their psychological contract. It calls into
question the emphasis on a single dyadic relationship with the organization that
underpins the predominant conceptual approach used in much of the work to date
on the psychological contract.
Finally, a number of possible future research directions are outlined. The study
highlights the need for managers to understand the nature of the occupational
ideologies operating within their organization, and how, in the case of
professional employees, these ideologies can drive perceptions about what they
contribute to the organization and what the organization is expected to contribute
in return.


"Do you really think that after a jury has found someone guilty, and dismissed someone from the military for sexual assault, that one person [the commander], over the advice of their legal counselor, should be able to say, 'Never mind'?" Senator Claire McCaskill recently posed this question in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, as she and others expressed outrage over the disapproval of a sexual assault conviction by a military commander. Her question reflects a justifiably profound respect for the verdicts of juries, one that runs deep in American legal tradition, but reveals a basic misunderstanding about the court-martial panel in the military. The court-martial panel is not a true jury. Federal juries in criminal cases must have twelve jurors and be unanimous. State juries must have at least six jurors, and five of six jurors voting to convict is not enough to satisfy the Sixth Amendment. Unlike federal and state juries, the panel that convicted the accused in the sex assault case discussed above had only five members and it did not have to be unanimous – only a two-thirds vote, or four out of five, was needed for a conviction. No five-member panel, unanimous or not, is a jury. Because the panel was not a true jury, the panel's verdict will not always resemble the commonsense judgment of a jury. The Supreme Court made clear that court-martial panels are not juries. Because a court-martial panel is not a true jury, the commander should retain the authority to review its findings for this reason alone. The commander's authority to review the findings is actually a safeguard against the court-martial panel's verdict, which is sometimes not supported by the evidence. Part I introduces the right to trial by jury as the key to liberty in the American scheme of justice. It also explains why the Founding Fathers denied military members this right along with all other protections of the Bill of Rights. Part II discusses the historical foundations of the court-martial and why the military justice system developed separately from the civilian justice system. The court-martial was and still is, first and foremost, a tool of discipline and not a court of law. Part III describes the essential differences between panels and juries and why those differences materially affect the reliability of verdicts. Part IV discusses the safeguards enacted by Congress to make up for the panel's structural flaws. These safeguards are as unorthodox to the American scheme of justice as they are now controversial. They should not be eliminated unless the panel's structural flaws are also corrected. Part V contains recommendations for amending the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to include a return to the original understanding that courts-martial should be limited in times of peace to disciplinary infractions. If the commander's role seems antiquated today, so, too, is the denial of genuine due process to the men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.


Whether government has the political will and capacity to control pollution is crucial for environmental outcomes. A vast country such as China, with centralized policymaking but idiosyncratic local implementation of environmental regulations and drastic regional disparities in wealth, raises the question of how does the central government stimulate local environmental commitment to accommodate such diversity? In exploring this issue, this paper compares three national environmental management programs that are used as influencing and bargaining tools between the central and local governments of China: Quantitative Examination of Comprehensive Control of Urban Environment (1989), Model City for Protecting the Environment (1997) and pilot Green Gross Domestic Product (2005). Although the introduction of these schemes represents an important step forward in addressing demanding environmental issues their impact is found to be mixed. However, each scheme also has something important to offer to this particular realm of environmental management and by recognizing and compiling their comparative advantages a number of policy implications for future local commitment towards and capacity for environmental protection can be provided.


Abstract We investigated postfledging parental care in a philopatric population of Savannah sparrows, Passerculus sandwichensis , breeding on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada in an effort to understand the factors influencing adult birds' decisions about parental investment in offspring. Brood division was not based on offspring sex: male and female parents were equally likely to care for sons or daughters. The total duration of parental care, from hatching to independence, was similar for sons and daughters (median=23 days), regardless of the sex of the care-giving parent. The duration of parental care also corresponded closely to the time required for juveniles to acquire basic foraging skills. Despite high levels of extrapair paternity, male Savannah sparrows invested as much in postfledging care and were as effective as females in caring for fledglings, based on recruitment of fledglings into the breeding population the following year. Male parents were more likely to care for smaller fledglings and for offspring from early broods (presumably to enable females to dedicate their efforts towards second clutches). Caring for fledglings was costly for parents: survivorship decreased as a function of the duration of postfledging parental care and the number of fledglings cared for. Parental survivorship, however, was not affected by the sex of the fledglings cared for. This study suggests that sex-biased provisioning may be unlikely except in species with strongly sexually dimorphic offspring, biased offspring sex ratios and sex-biased natal dispersal. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


For many decades, most of the decision-making authority in public schools has been vested in individual principals and other administrators. However, new models of collaborative teacher leadership are beginning to emerge, thanks to four trends: 1) evidence on the positive effects of teacher leadership continues to mount, 2) districts and state policies are codifying teacher leadership roles, 3) teacher leaders are becoming more proficient at using educational technology and sharing their expertise through digital media, and 4) researchers are deepening their knowledge about how teachers learn to lead effectively.


Background The effects of the menstrual cycle on exercise participation and performance are poorly researched. Menstrual blood loss is a leading cause of iron deficiency (ID) and ultimately iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). Furthermore, iron losses are increased in those who exercise. The menstrual cycle, ID and IDA may affect the ability to exercise, mood state, productivity and quality of life while also increasing fatigue and anxiety. Objective To determine the impact of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) on iron status; to identify the association between HMB, ID and IDA with self-reported exercise training and performance. Design A cross-sectional study design was used. Setting Routine healthcare assessments in Singapore. Participants Healthy females (n=271; mean age 36.3±9.6 years, body mass 58.3±12.5 kg, height 1.59±0.12 m). Inclusion criteria: regularly menstruating and reporting >60 minutes exercise participation per week or 'taking part in races, in a relatively non-competitive manner'. Interventions No interventions were applied. Main Outcome Measurements Participants completed a 'Female Health Questionnaire' capturing: a 4-part diagnostic criteria for HMB; aspects of exercise training habits and performance; exercise volume; and competition level. Haemoglobin concentration ([Hb]) and serum ferritin were measured in all participants. Results 22.4% reported HMB, 18.8% had IDA ([Hb]<12 g/dL), 30.0% severe ID (ferritin<16 ug/L), and 48.0% had moderate ID (ferritin <30 ug/L). Those with HMB were twice as likely to suffer IDA or have moderate ID, while they were nearly three times as likely to have severe ID (p<0.05). When controlling for IDA those with HMB were 3.9 times more likely to cite negative impacts on training and performance as a result of the menstrual cycle (p<0.05). Conclusions Heavy menstrual bleeding is common in exercising women. Regular screening should be encouraged to check iron status as this has potential to cause IDA in addition to compromising exercise training behaviours and performance.


The present review seeks to bridge research on accents, stigma, and communication by examining the empirical literature on nonnative accents, considering the perspectives of both speakers and listeners. The authors suggest that an accent, or one's manner of pronunciation, differs from other types of stigma. They consider the role of communicative processes in the manner in which accents influence people and identify social and contextual factors related to accents that affect the speaker, the listener, and the interaction between them. The authors propose a framework of stigma of accents and possible future avenues of research to examine the social psychological and communicative effects of accents. They also discuss implications for stigma of other types of accents (e.g., other native, regional, and ethnic). Understanding how stigma of accents and communication affect each other provides a new theoretical approach to studying this type of stigma and can eventually lead to interventions.


The regenerative method enjoys asymptotic properties that make it a highly desirable approach for steady-state simulation output analysis. It has been shown that virtually all discrete-event simulations are regenerative. However, the method is not in widespread use, perhaps primarily because of a difficulty in identifying regeneration times. Our goal in this paper is to highlight the essence of the difficulty in identifying regeneration times in discrete-event simulations. We focus on a very simple example of a discrete-event simulation and explore its regenerative properties. We show that, for our example, it is possible to explicitly determine regeneration times. The ideas that are used to establish this fact might prove useful in identifying regeneration times in more general discrete-event system simulations.


Drawing on a sample of children's reading primers published between
1938 and 1953 in Romania, this article explores ways in which both the monarchic and the communist regimes used primary education to fashion political subjects before, during, and after the Second World War. Theoretically grounded in a sociological approach and empirically grounded in textual and visual thematic content analysis, the findings reveal significant semantic shifts in understandings of the "nation" in relation to internal and external anchors, including religion, monarchy, and work, but they also indicate important continuities relating to an ethos of political submission (toward God and king, or the party and the Soviet Union) and patriotic solidarity (with the Romanian Orthodox nation or the workers' proletarian nation).


Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is used as a vegetable and medicinal plant. It is a rich source of organosulfur compounds, in particular allicin, which contributes to the flavour and health benefits. Although worldwide garlic production is increasing, demand continues to outstrip supply. Improving the yield of garlic will address the increasing demand, while increasing allicin concentration will improve its potential health benefits and flavour. It is unknown if increasing garlic bulb size (yield) has a negative effect on allicin concentration of garlic. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of the relationship between yield and allicin concentration is required. A field experiment was conducted at Gatton (QLD, Australia) with 32 varieties, of which 29 varieties were sourced from World Vegetable Centre and 3 varieties from existing Queensland sub-tropical varieties. The garlic cloves were planted in March 2018 with 4 replicates in a randomised complete block design and harvested when garlic had 70% senescence. Varieties showed large variation in bulb size, ranging from about 35 to 120 g, with fresh yield ranging from about 5.5 to 16 t/ha. The allicin concentration ranged from 3.5 to 6.6 mg g−1 fresh weight (FW) between varieties and more than 50% of varieties were under the minimum pharmaceutical standard for allicin concentration (>4.5 mg g−1 in FW). Across varieties there was an inverse relationship between yield and allicin concentration. However, there were some varieties which had both high allicin concentration and yield. Current field trials investigate the effect of agronomic practices on yield and allicin concentration in garlic varieties.


An amplitude versus offset (AVO) case study is presented from the West of Shetlands, UKCS in which pre-drill AVO signatures over a prospect were interpreted to be expressions of hydrocarbons but upon study of the data provided by the well were interpreted as a manifestation of anisotropy. The core from the well proved to be crucial in understanding the non-hydrocarbon AVO signature. The well encountered good quality, high porosity, water wet sand and an underlying tuff sequence. Neither the dipole sonic log nor the check-shot survey revealed any anomalous elastic properties, nor did they detect the presence of anisotropy. Conventional, isotropic modelling using the measured log properties could not match the observed AVO response. Only comparison of the dipole sonic log and the check-shots with the core measurements gave evidence for the presence of substantial elastic anisotropy. Incorporation of anisotropy inferred from core and log measurements in the shales and tuffs gave a reasonable match to the observed AVO. The inferred anisotropies are substantial, averaging 15% for both the compressional and shear velocities and increasing over some depth intervals to 25%. A subsequent walkaway vertical seismic profile (VSP), acquired for the specific purpose of calibrating the AVO response, shows a marked AVO effect at the base of the target sandstone and tuffs, consistent with the surface seismic data. It is clear from this case study and other work that simple transverse anisotropy, for example, produced by the natural layering in shales, can cause first order effects on the AVO response.


Introduction
This thesis looks at the pharmacist's contribution to the capture of medication errors and preventing harm reaching patients. It has several components: an analysis of annual surveys of interventions made by pharmacists at a large teaching hospital, a re-coding of these surveys to see how many interventions were the result of prescribing errors, and an experiment in A&E where the pharmacist drafted the first prescription chart.

Methods
One-week surveys of pharmacist interventions were regularly made at Southampton General Hospital between 1999 and 2009. These were analysed for trends, then recoded to identify the proportion that were caused by prescribing errors. In addition, a controlled trial was conducted to investigate the effects on prescribing error rate, of a pharmacist obtaining an accurate medication history in A&E, then transcribing the data onto the first inpatient prescription.

Key findings
In the period 1999-2001, the average number of interventions in each week long survey was 575 and during 2005-9 it was 973. This was a statistically significant increase. More interventions were recorded as serious in the latter period.

The rate of interventions also increased from between one per every five and seven patients (31 to 45 prescribed items) to one per every one to two patients (8 to 20 items). The severity of interventions also increased, with between one and five deaths avoided each week. Almost three quarters of pharmacists' interventions (73.9%) were triggered by prescribing errors, giving an error rate of 644 prescribing errors per week, or 6.2 per 100 prescribed items. These data are in contrast to the Trust submitting 918 error reports per year to the NPSA, the majority of which were administration errors reported by nurses.

Nearly a half (45.3%) of all prescribing errors occurred during the admission phase of the hospital episode. Two thirds (67.1%) of prescribing errors detected were errors of omission - things that had not been done. Prescribing errors of commission occurred mainly during the inpatient phase and errors of omission during the admission phase. A quarter of prescribing errors were planning errors. These were failures to follow guidelines, failures to review patients' prescriptions, manage interactions, and adjust dosage in liver or renal failure or in response to TDM results.

One fifth (21.7%) of the patients had events or symptoms that contributed to the admission that could be explained by the medicines they were consuming. Over half of these were potentially avoidable by better monitoring or product selection.

A pharmacist working in A&E to obtain complete and accurate drug histories, then transcribing the data onto the first prescription, produced a trend to reduction in the generation of errors throughout the whole hospital episode.

Conclusions
Analysing pharmacist's interventions is a useful method of investigation prescribing errors and ways to stop them happening. First prescriptions written by pharmacists should provide an effective means of reducing errors which may be promulgated throughout the hospital stay.


Philosophical anthropology is a tradition that is as old as philosophy itself, so much so that it might be said to be indistinguishable from philosophy itself. Philosophical anthropology, extending as it does from Socrates to Sartre, best describes the work of V.Y. Mudimbe. Anthropology, broadly conceived as the science that studies human origins, the material and cultural development of humanity (philosophical anthropology concerns itself with human nature, particularly what it is that distinguishes human beings from other creatures and how philosophy allows human beings to understand themselves), is always Mudimbe's first line of philosophical inquiry. It is certainly Mudimbe's interest in anthropology that allows him to conduct his investigations into Africa, its modes of thinking, and colonialism and its continuing effects on the continent. Writing on the latter issue in The Invention of Africa , Mudimbe, with his customary deftness of mind, argues that colonialism and its aftermath cannot by itself account for the continent's extant condition: "The colonizing structure, even in its most extreme manifestations . . . might not be the only explanation for Africa's present-day marginality. Perhaps this marginality could, more essentially, be understood from the perspective of wider hypotheses about the classification of beings and societies." [ Making sense of Africa, in Mudimbe's terms, must begin with a hypothesization that explicates how "beings and societies" come to be classified, the anthropological undertaking par excellence, which also requires a study of the forces that construct, implement and maintain these classifications.


The total world population comprises of 50% women. As far as the social status of women is concerned it has been seen that in the Indian context in most states women are not treated as equal to men in most places. This gender discrimination is very deep rooted and it adversely affects the moral of the women population in the country as a whole. The need of the hour is to address this issue with full sincerity and ensure that women are provided with the necessary rights which could enable them to take up decision making role and thereby play a significant part in the society they reside in. Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. Self-help group is a method of organizing the poor people and the marginalized to come together to solve their individual problem. The SHG method is used by the government, NGOs and others worldwide. One estimate places the total number of people in self-help support groups at 20 million worldwide. In the past couple of decades SHGs in India have emerged as a very powerful tool for poverty alleviation and empowerment of women. INTRODUCTION Empowerment is a process of awareness and capacity building leading to greater participation, to greater decision making power and control and transformative action. Empowerment of women signifies harnessing women power by conscientising their tremendous potential and encouraging them to work towards attaining a dignified and satisfying way of life through confidence and competence as person with self-respect, rights and responsibilities. Empowerment as a concept was introduced at the International Women's Conference at Nairobi in 1985. The conference defined empowerment as "A redistribution of social power and control of resources in favour of women. Empowerment is a multi-faceted process which encompasses many aspects i.e. enhancing awareness, increasing access to resources of economic, social and political etc." In recent years women empowerment has become a subject of great concern for the nations all over the world especially in poor and developing countries. The impact of globalization is seen eventually on position of women in some form or other in most of the developing countries with the variation of degree. The United Nations has also strived hard in an incredible way to draw the due attention of the World Community on this issue in the past years. SHGs AS A MOTIVATIONAL TOOL TO EMPOWER WOMEN One has to believe that the progress of any nation is inevitably linked with social and economical plight of women in that particular country. For concrete results, we have to assert and act with our full might and what is needed most. Empowerment by way of participation in SHG can bring enviable changes and enhancement in the living conditions of women in poor and developing nations.. Self Help Group (SHG) is a process by which a group of 10-20 women with common objectives are facilitated to come together voluntarily to participate in the development activities such as saving, credit and income generation thereby ensuring economic independence. The principles underlying the SHGs are financing the poorest of the poor, and achieving holistic empowerment. SHG phenomenon certainly brings group consciousness among women, sense of belonging, adequate self confidence. What she cannot achieve as an individual, can accomplish as a member of group with sufficient understanding about her own rights, privileges, roles and responsibilities as a dignified member of society in par with man. When she becomes a member of SHG, her sense of public participation, enlarged horizon of social activities, high self-esteem, self-respect and fulfillment in life expands and enhances the quality of status of women as participants, decision makers and beneficiaries in the democratic, economic social and cultural spheres of life. …


Medicinal plant extracts prepared with selected ethanol concentrations from eight species, Peumus boldus (boldo leaf), Agathosma betulina (buchu leaf), Echinacea angustifolia (echinacea root), Humulus lupulus (hops strobile), Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice root), Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon grape root), Usnea barbata (usnea lichen), and Anemopsis californica (yerba mansa root), were screened for antibacterial activity against four Gram-positive and four Gram-negative pathogens. The antibacterial activity of the extracts (50, 70, and 90% ethanol) was evaluated using a standard well assay and microbroth dilution method. Minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) were also determined for each extract. Plant extracts showed strong antibacterial action against Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus pyogenes, while negligible to no inhibitory activity against Gram-negative bacteria; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enteritidis was observed. Among the plant extracts, the boldo, hops, licorice and yerba mansa exhibited a strong antibacterial action at all three ethanol concentrations. Of these four, hops showed the strongest activity at 90% ethanol. Echinacea angustifolia extracts did not show any considerable antibacterial activity, while usnea showed strong activity only at 90% against S. epidermis. Except Echinacea angustifolia and usnea, the plant extracts were strongly inhibitory towards the MRSA strain. Buchu, yerba mansa and Oregon grape showed higher activity at 50% or 70% on MRSA. MBCs varied from 1/4 to >1/256 dilution levels and were in agreement with well assay results. The results suggest that the extracts of boldo, hops, licorice and yerba mansa could be considered as potentially effective antibacterial agents against Gram-positive bacteria including MRSA. For hops, buchu, Oregon grape and usnea, the activity is dependent on the concentration of ethanol used in the extraction procedure. The ratio of ethanol/water mixture used for extraction of medicinal plants is an important factor to obtain optimum antibacterial activity.


The demand of city planners for quantitative information on the impact of climate change on the urban environment is increasing. However, such information is usually extracted from decadelong climate projections generated with global or regional climate models (RCMs). Because of their coarse resolution and unsuitable physical parameterization, however, their model output is not adequate to be used at city scale. A full dynamical downscaling to city level, on the other hand, is computationally too expensive for climatological time scales. A statistical–dynamical computationally inexpensive method is therefore proposed that approximates well the behavior of the full dynamical downscaling approach. The approach downscales RCM simulations using the combination of an RCM at high resolution (H-RES) and a land surface model (LSM). The method involves the setup of a database of urban signatures by running an H-RES RCM with and without urban parameterization for a relatively short period. Using an analog approach, these signatures are first selectively added to the long-term RCM data, which are then used as forcing for an LSM using an urban parameterization in a stand-alone mode. A comparison with a full dynamical downscaling approach is presented for the city of Brussels, Belgium, for 30 summers with the combined ALADIN–AROME model (ALARO-0) coupled to the Surface Externalisée model (SURFEX) as H-RES RCM and SURFEX as LSM. The average bias of the nocturnal urban heat island during heat waves is vanishingly small, and the RMSE is strongly reduced. Not only is the statistical–dynamical approach able to correct the heat-wave number and intensities, it can also improve intervariable correlations and multivariate and temporally correlated indices, such as Humidex.


The externally excited and damped vibrations of the double pendulum in the vertical plane are considered. The pendulum can collide with a rough obstacle many times during its motion. The pendulum is modeled as a piecewise smooth system. The differential equations govern the motion of the system in the relatively long time between the collisions. When a contact with the obstacle occurs, the pendulum exhibits a discontinuous behaviour. The velocities of both parts of the pendulum and the reaction forces are changing stepwise. An important element of the solving algorithm is aimed on the continuous tracking of the position of the pendulum in order to detect the collision with the unilateral constraints and to determine the state vector of the pendulum at the impact time instant. A single collision is described by the Euler's laws of motion in the integral form. The equations are supplemented by the Poisson's hypothesis and Coulomb's law of friction. The friction law is formulated for the instantaneous values of the reaction forces. The values of their impulses depend on the existence of a slip between the contacting bodies. Furthermore, during the collision the dynamic behaviour may change. Therefore the Coulomb law cannot be generalized for the linear impulses of the forces in a simple way. We have applied the Routh method in order to solve the problem. The method has a simple geometrical interpretation in the impulse space.


Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2009 - Amends the National Dam Safety Program Act to require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish a program to provide grant assistance to states for use in rehabilitating publicly-owned dams that fail to meet minimum safety standards and pose an unacceptable risk to the public (deficient dams). Sets forth provisions regarding procedures for grant awards and fund allocation. Requires: (1) a state receiving a grant under this Act to comply with requirements applicable to contributions of federal funds under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; and (2) FEMA to develop a risk-based priority system for identifying deficient dams for which such grants may be made. Limits the federal share of rehabilitation costs to 65%. Prohibits funds from being used to: (1) rehabilitate a federal dam; (2) perform routine operation or maintenance; (3) modify a dam to produce hydroelectric power; (4) increase water supply storage capacity; or (5) make any other modification that does not also improve safety. Conditions the receipt of grants by states upon compliance with specified requirements regarding contracts for architectural and engineering services. Provides that such contracts shall not be considered to confer a proprietary interest upon the United States.


Abstract This study reports observations of Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a remote and protected expanse of coral atolls considered outside the species range. Since no direct monitoring efforts exist, we synthesized records from historical accounts, opportunistic sightings, and internet crowdsourcing. We found 6 definitive hawksbill observations and 3 additional potential nesting records, documenting that hawksbills currently reside in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and suggesting that they occurred there in greater numbers historically.


This study performs an inverse detection of stiffness degradation occurred by the delamination in laminated composite plates under impact loading. Five unknown parameters are considered to determine the delamination region, which is a modified form of the bivariate Gamma distribution function. The validity of the technique is numerically verified using a set of acceleration data obtained from a finite element simulation of laminated composites. The numerical examples show that the proposed technique is a feasible and practical method which can prove the location of a delamination region as well as inspect the distribution of deteriorated stiffness of composites.


Records provide a safe and flexible way to construct data structures. We describe a natural approach to typing polymorphic and extensible records that is simple, easy to use in practice, and straightforward to implement. A novel aspect of this work is that records can contain duplicate labels, effectively introducing a form of scoping over the labels. Furthermore, it is a fully orthogonal extension to existing type systems and programming languages. In particular, we show how it can be used conveniently with standard HindleyMilner, qualified types, and MLF.


A simple Lagrangian stochastic (LS) dispersion model was used to investigate atmospheric dispersion in the lower atmospheric boundary layer, for near-surface sources. The sensitivity of ground-level concentration to numerical errors was revealed. Numerical treatments of inhomogeneous atmospheric turbulence and surface reflection in Lagrangian trajectory calculations may cause non-negligible overestimates of ground-level concentration for elevated sources, although these errors become trivial for surface sources and for concentrations above the ground-level. Using a numerical error-correction scheme, the LS model was evaluated against an analytical model. Close agreement was found between the two models in predicting ground-level concentrations for dispersions in the surface layer. LS simulations for an elevated source were also conducted. A scaling scheme was proposed to normalize the dispersion results, by including the source height as a scaling length. The relationships between the normalized surface concentration and downwind distance were distinguished by atmospheric stabilities. In the near-field, the distance of peak ground-level concentration was 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 times zs U/u*, where zs is the source height, U is the mean wind speed at height 10 m, and u* is the friction velocity, for unstable, neutral and stable atmospheric stability conditions, respectively. In the far-field, the concentration approached approximately the "-3/2", "-1" and "-2/3" law for unstable, neutral and stable atmospheres respectively.


Flume studies have demonstrated that foraging by fish can modify the structure and topography of gravel substrates, thereby increasing particle entrainment probabilities and the amount of sediment mobilized during subsequent experimental high flows. However, the zoogeomorphic impact of benthic foraging has not previously been investigated in the field. This paper reports field experiments that examined the nature and extent of disturbance of riverbed gravels by foraging fish, predominately Cyprinids, at patch, riffle, and reach scales and complementary ex situ experiments of the impacts on bed stability. At patch scale, benthic feeding fish displaced particle sizes ≤90 mm in diameter, increased bed surface microtopography and grain protrusion, and loosened surface structures. Although enhanced mobility was expected from these structural changes, foraging also caused localized coarsening of sediments, and the ex situ experiments recorded significantly reduced grain entrainment, bedload flux, and total transported mass from foraged patches. Foraging disturbed bed materials at all 12 riffles in the study reach and, on average, disturbed 26.1% of riffle area per 24 h feeding period. These findings demonstrate for the first time that foraging fish, which are widespread and feed perennially, can act as zoogeomorphic agents in rivers, affecting grain‐size distributions and bed material structure, with potential implications for bed stability and bedload transport at reach and river scales. Whether fish increase or reduce bed mobility is probably dependent on a host of factors, including the net effects of both structural disturbance and biogenic particle sorting, as these affect entrainment stresses under subsequent competent flows.


Natural ventilation, used appropriately, has the potential to provide both significant HVAC energy savings, and improvements in occupant satisfaction. Central to the development of natural ventilation models is the need to accurately represent the behavior of building occupants. The work covered in this paper describes a method of implementing a stochastic window model in EnergyPlus. Simulated window use data from three stochastic window opening models was then compared to measured window opening behavior, collected in a naturally-ventilated office in California. Recommendations regarding the selection of stochastic window use models, and their implementation in EnergyPlus, are presented.


Abstract The general consensus on the security-development nexus is that both are key to achieving sustainable peace in war-torn societies. However, this debate has largely taken place among international actors, with little empirical evidence about how security and development relate to each other or are even considered by local actors. The current paper applies the security-development nexus to the case of land restitution in Colombia. Following decades of internal armed conflict, in 2012 the national government passed sweeping land restitution legislation amid ongoing violence. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups with multiple actors involved in this process, ranging from international organisations to national government units, from regional institutions to local communities, the paper analyses the objectives, impact, challenges and opportunities for land restitution related to security and development. Undermining peace-building, a lack of coherence in the integration of security and development priorities limits the extent to which either supports, or is promoted by, land restitution efforts in Colombia. The paper concludes with reflections on how the security-development nexus may promote peace-building amid ongoing conflict.


The recent worldwide discovery of plant growth-promoting (PGP) Kosakonia radicincitans in a large variety of crop plants suggests that this species confers significant influence on plants, both in terms of yield increase and product quality improvement. We provide a comparative genome analysis which helps to unravel the genetic basis for K. radicincitans' motility, competitiveness and plant growth-promoting capacities. We discovered that K. radicincitans carries multiple copies of complex gene clusters, among them two flagellar systems and three type VI secretion systems (T6SSs). We speculate that host invasion may be facilitated by different flagella, and bacterial competitor suppression by effector proteins ejected via T6SSs. We found a large plasmid in K. radicincitans DSM 16656T, the species type strain, that confers the potential to exploit plant-derived carbon sources. We propose that multiple copies of complex gene clusters in K. radicincitans are metabolically expensive but provide competitive advantage over other bacterial strains in nutrient-rich environments. The comparison of the DSM 16656T genome to genomes of other genera of enteric plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) exhibits traits unique to DSM 16656T and K. radicincitans, respectively, and traits shared between genera. We used the output of the in silico analysis for predicting the purpose of genomic features unique to K. radicincitans and performed microarray, PhyloChip, and microscopical analyses to gain deeper insight into the interaction of DSM 16656T, plants and associated microbiota. The comparative genome analysis will facilitate the future search for promising candidates of PGPB for sustainable crop production.


Summary The major pests and diseases were identified and quantified on thirteen potato landraces and three bred varieties cultivated in Peru. Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) was the primary biotic constraint affecting plants before flowering with an average severity of 24%. No other pathogens caused severe foliar disease, but black scurf (Rhizoctonia solani) was relatively common on tubers of some genotypes with incidence ranging from 4.30 to 33.33%. The viruses most generally considered important in potato seed degeneration, PVY and PLRV, were extremely rare, with 1.11 and 0.12 % incidence, respectively. Other viruses considered mild, such as PVX and PVS, were more common, with incidence of 28.23 and 22.29 %, respectively. Potato flea beetle (Epitrix spp.), potato leaf beetle (Diabrotica spp.) and Andean potato weevil (Premnotrypes spp.) were common, with incidence of 28.14, 18.75 and 13.61%, respectively. Potato landraces known as Ishkupuru, Lengua de vaca, Chaulina, Chaulina Tajacaja and Negro cayash were identified as potentially resistant to P. infestans.


In this work, we present WALK‐MAN, a humanoid platform that has been developed to operate in realistic unstructured environment, and demonstrate new skills including powerful manipulation, robust balanced locomotion, high‐strength capabilities, and physical sturdiness. To enable these capabilities, WALK‐MAN design and actuation are based on the most recent advancements of series elastic actuator drives with unique performance features that differentiate the robot from previous state‐of‐the‐art compliant actuated robots. Physical interaction performance is benefited by both active and passive adaptation, thanks to WALK‐MAN actuation that combines customized high‐performance modules with tuned torque/velocity curves and transmission elasticity for high‐speed adaptation response and motion reactions to disturbances. WALK‐MAN design also includes innovative design optimization features that consider the selection of kinematic structure and the placement of the actuators with the body structure to maximize the robot performance. Physical robustness is ensured with the integration of elastic transmission, proprioceptive sensing, and control. The WALK‐MAN hardware was designed and built in 11 months, and the prototype of the robot was ready four months before DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals. The motion generation of WALK‐MAN is based on the unified motion‐generation framework of whole‐body locomotion and manipulation (termed loco‐manipulation). WALK‐MAN is able to execute simple loco‐manipulation behaviors synthesized by combining different primitives defining the behavior of the center of gravity, the motion of the hands, legs, and head, the body attitude and posture, and the constrained body parts such as joint limits and contacts. The motion‐generation framework including the specific motion modules and software architecture is discussed in detail. A rich perception system allows the robot to perceive and generate 3D representations of the environment as well as detect contacts and sense physical interaction force and moments. The operator station that pilots use to control the robot provides a rich pilot interface with different control modes and a number of teleoperated or semiautonomous command features. The capability of the robot and the performance of the individual motion control and perception modules were validated during the DRC in which the robot was able to demonstrate exceptional physical resilience and execute some of the tasks during the competition.


BACKGROUND
Although the prevalence of trauma in the United States is high, data on the economic burden of this public health problem to third-party payors is limited.

METHODS
Retrospective claims from a large health plan were analyzed for 12,615 adults (age >or=18 years) hospitalized for blunt or penetrating trauma between January 1, 2003 and February 1, 2005. Per patient charges were estimated for resources utilized during a 6-month period before and after initial injury. Continuous health plan enrollment during these periods was required. Three cohorts were examined: isolated traumatic brain injury (TBI); other trauma with TBI (trauma w/TBI); and other trauma without TBI (trauma w/o TBI). Patients were also stratified by Injury Severity Score (ISS) and trauma designation of the admitting hospital.

RESULTS
Initial hospitalization charges ranged from $32,627 for isolated TBI to $103,667 for trauma w/TBI. Charges for initial hospitalization were highest ($199,443) among patients with the most severe injuries. Overall, initial hospitalization charges were highest among those admitted to Level I trauma centers ($68,626); for trauma w/TBI, however, initial hospitalization charges were highest among those admitted to nontrauma centers ($130,997). Charges incurred during postdischarge medical encounters ranged from $16,361 for isolated TBI to $23,761 for trauma w/TBI. Increased charges for postdischarge encounters compared with the 6-month preinjury period ranged from $6,756 for isolated TBI to $19,771 for trauma w/TBI.

CONCLUSIONS
The economic burden of blunt and penetrating trauma to third-party payors is high. Efforts to reduce the incidence of trauma may result in substantial economic savings to managed care systems.


This article puts forward a thesis and then attempts to prove (or at least to develop) that thesis in two related areas. The thesis is that legal theory in general, and critical legal theory in particular, has concentrated too much on critiques of objectivity, wrongly assuming that "subjectivity" was an unproblematic term. Subjectivity, like mortality, has seemed not only attainable but inevitable. It is objectivity which is presumed to be the problematic goal of our theories and our attempts at doctrinal interpretation. This article reverses the focus, concentrating on the construction of subjectivity in law and social theory... Having pointed out that critical theories focus mainly on the impossibility of reaching "objectivity," I show that some of the same critiques can be turned on the construction of "subjectivity" as well. The parallelism is more than mere symmetry. Just as the concept of objectivity can be used to armour decisions or social practices, so theoretical results and ideological slant can be dictated by loading up the abstract "subject" of a political or economic theory with a particular set of drives, motivations, and ways of reasoning...I then turn to the legal "subject" around whom the law revolves and try to develop a sketchy history of the changing qualities which that subject has been believed to possess. I conclude that the ideas associated with postmodernism are a useful framework for understanding the subject in legal theory and in legal practice. In fact, bizarre as it may seem, the law already incorporates a more postmodern view of the subject than either economics or mainstream political theory.


The paper presents attitude determination results obtained with the "GPS-Enhanced Navigation system for the University of Stuttgart microsatellite" (GENIUS) onboard "Flying Laptop." Real flight data have been collected in different measurement campaigns. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated in the presence of typical satellite attitude maneuvers. It is shown that the major sources of errors are offsets and variations of the differential antenna phase patterns. The variations depend on azimuth and elevation angle of the line-of-sight vector to the tracked satellite. They lead to systematic errors in the carrier-phase single differences on the order of a few tens of millimeters. These errors translate into attitude errors up to 1?. It will be demonstrated how much these errors can be mitigated by in-flight calibration based on carrier-phase measurement residuals. The flight results will be compared with the prelaunch ground tests and simulations performed, which will provide valuable insight into how realistically the flight performance can be predicted before launch.


Deep mixing is an improvement method performed in the form of the creation of mixed columns, which includes the in-situ mixing of soil and lime or Portland cement using special equipment (using rigs with counter rotating augers). In this study, a series of unconfined compression tests on soft clayey soils with deep mixing using polymers were carried out. In the experiments, two polymers (i.e. polyester and guar gum) and lime were used as binder materials at different ratios. Samples cured for 14, 28 and 150 days, which were exposed to 5 and 10 cycles of freeze-thaw and samples that were not exposed to freeze-thaw cycles were tested in order to investigate the freeze-thaw effect. The unconfined compressive strength increased continuously with the increase of polyester and curing period, while the changes on unconfined compressive strength with increase of freeze-thaw cycles were insignificant. The overall evaluation of the results has revealed that polyester and guar gum showed potential as a candidate for deep mixing applications on soft clayey soils.


The Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 Receivables Essentials exam is designed for individuals who possess a strong foundation and expertise in implementing Oracle E-Business Suite Financial Management solutions. This certification exam covers topics such as: how to access and navigate within the R12 E-Business Suite, how to enter data, retrieve information in the form of a query and access online help. Candidates must also demonstrate knowledge of Order-to-Cash Lifecycle, Oracle Receivables Process, Manage Parties and Customer Accounts, Process Invoices Using AutoInvoice, Process Invoices, Bill Presentment Architecture, Credit Management, Implement Customer Invoicing, Receipts, Implement Receipts, Tax Processing and Period Closing process. Up-to-date training and field experience are recommended. Some unique features of this book: - There is NO Other book in the market for the Oracle Accounts Receivables Certification exam. - The authors have themselves cleared the exam. - All questions are multiple choice format, similar the questions you will get in the actual exam. - 200+ authentic questions, testing the exact same concepts that will be tested in Your exam! Clearing the Oracle Order Management Certification will not automatically lead you to a job. However a Certification with some project experience will certainly open a lot of doors for you. The consultants who will benefit the most from a certification are the ones with typically less than 2 year's project experience. This is not to say that consultants with higher experience will not benefit, but at that level, having a certification matters much less. So if you have little or no Oracle Receivables experience, you should get yourself certified, get some project experience, and then the whole of the Oracle applications World is open for you to explore. Helping you with the first step on you ladder to success is this book!


An initialization relevant to interannual-to-decadal climate prediction has usually used a simple restoring approach for oceanic variables. Here, we demonstrate the potential use of four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) coupled data assimilation on the leading edge of initialization approach particularly in multi-year (5-year-long) climate prediction. We perform full-field initialization rather than anomaly initialization and assimilate the atmosphere states together with the ocean states to an atmosphere-ocean coupled climate model. In particular, it is noteworthy that ensembles of multi-year hindcasts using our assimilation results as initial conditions exhibit an improved skill in hindcasting the multi-year changes of the upper ocean-heat-content (OHC) over the central North Pacific. The 4D-Var approach enables us to directly assimilate a time trajectory of slow changes of the Aleutian Low that are compatible with the sea-surface-height and the OHC. Consequently, we can estimate a coupled climate state suitable for hindcasting dynamical changes over the extratropical North Pacific as observed.


Water quality of
 many rivers in the developing countries is under serious threat of
 degradation and Pakistan is no exception to this. The river water
 may be polluted by the effluents stemming from industrial,
 municipal, agricultural or mining activities. The most affected
 rivers are those flowing through the urban areas and subjected to
 anthropogenic activities. The river Chenab, traversing near the
 industrial cities and municipalities, is largely used for constant
 disposal of untreated effluents in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
 Consequently water quality of the river degrades particularly in the
 low flow months. This study was conducted to monitor, assess and
 model the water quality (WQ) of river Chenab over a length of 292 km
 from its entrance in Pakistan at Marala. The monitoring program was
 conducted during low flow months (October to March) of years 2006-7
 and 2007-8. Water samples were collected from seven locations along
 the river and all the contributing drains as well. These samples
 were analyzed for a variety of physical, chemical and biological
 quality parameters. The data collected from monitoring as well as
 from secondary sources were utilized in three phases of analysis. In
 the first phase water quality indices (WQIs) were calculated using
 CWQI 1.0 model developed by Canadian Council of Ministers of the
 Environment (CCME). Three intended uses of river water i.e.
 drinking, aquatic life and irrigation were incorporated for WQI
 calculations at selected points along the river. In the second
 phase, mathematical model (MIKE 11 model developed by Danish
 Hydraulic Institute (DHI), Denmark) was formulated to simulate a
 conservative WQ parameter (salinity of river water). Two non-conservative WQ parameters
 (dissolved oxygen (DO) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)) were
 modeled in third phase of the analysis using MIKE 11 model. The
 results of WQI revealed that the lower river reach (185 to 233 km)
 was more polluted than the upper 185 km segment. In this river
 reach, overall WQI ranking were poor for drinking and marginal for
 both irrigation and aquatic life. The WQIs for all three uses were
 ranked poor at sampling point located at 233 km below Marala
 headworks. The calibrated model for salinity simulated the most
 saline condition in the river during the months with minimum flow
 (i.e. November and December). The results also depicted high
 salinity in the downstream river reach receiving polluted effluents
 from two major drains (Faqirian Sillanwali and Chakbandi drain).
 Finally the model was calibrated and validated for DO and BOD. The
 results of simulations indicated DO depletion and high BOD levels in
 the downstream river reaches particularly from 200 to 270 km.
 Different scenarios were also tested to predict the river water
 salinity by varying discharge of the drains. The salinity of river
 water was found highly sensitive to the amount of effluents added by
 the surface drains. The study of management scenarios for BOD
 suggested that the maximum water quality improvement can be achieved
 if there is no diversion of flow from the river coupled with 60
 percent reduction in BOD of the drain effluents through treatment.


The popular press is currently rife with speculation that emoji are becoming a global, digitally-mediated language. Sequences of emoji that function like verbal utterances potentially lend strong support to this claim. We employ computer-mediated discourse analysis to analyze the pragmatic meanings conveyed through emoji sequences and their rhetorical relations with accompanying text, focusing on posts by social media influencers and their followers on a popular Chinese social media platform. The findings show that the emoji sequences can function pragmatically like verbal utterances and form relations with textual propositions, although their usage differs from textual utterances in several respects. We also observed user innovations that make the sequences more language like, although there is not as yet a fixed grammar of emoji sequences. We characterize this emoji use as an emergent graphical language, with the caveats that it is not yet a fully-formed language and that the Chinese emoji language that is emerging is different from the English variety, and therefore emoji are not a universal language. In order to promote the further development of emoji language(s), we advance recommendations for emoji design grounded in linguistic principles.


This paper has become a cornerstone of studies of the chemical composition of galactic disk stars and of its link to the galactic orbits of the stars. It is the first systematic homogeneous study of a large sample of stars, both for their detailed chemical compositions and for complete kinematical data, allowing their galactic orbits to be reconstructed. A selection of 189 F and G stars was made from Strömgren uvby-β photometry, covering the full range of metallicity in the disk, favoring slightly evolved stars so as to be able to also get their ages and place them in a grid of internal structure isochrones. Full sets of kinematical parameters were collected to get the orbits of each target star in the Galaxy. High S/N spectra at high spectral resolution taken at the 2.7m Mc Donald Observatory (Texas) and at the ESO 1.4m CAT telescope Coudé spectrograph, in several wavelength intervals, have allowed observation of 86 lines of the 11 elements O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, Ni, Y, Zr, Ba, and Nd. The spectra were analyzed using a new generation of model atmospheres, based on the opacity-sampling method instead of the opacitydistribution functions. This new grid gives an improved fit of the solar UV flux in the 1500–3000 Å, with the inclusion of a large number of previously unknown lines. It was the first time that a systematic homogenous analysis was done on such a large sample of stars, allowing the chemical composition of galactic disk stars to be connected with their kinematics with unprecedented accuracy. The first impact of this paper was to show that the metallicity scatter in the local sample was not principally due to an age-metallicity effect, as expected by a progressive metallicity enrichment of the disk from the metallicity of the thick disk to its present metallicity. A second cause of scatter, linked to the kind of orbit of the star, studied by Wielen (1977), is the birthplace of the star. Stars with excentric orbits may have originated at various distances from the galactic center. The existence of a well-established radial metallicity gradient in the Galaxy, already found by the study of open clusters by Friel & Janes (1993), opens the possibity that the star comes from either a metal-richer or metal-poorer region than the solar neighborhood. The cause of this scatter was also studied in the paper and found to be too small to explain the full metallicity scatter at any given age. For example, stars with a nearly circular orbit, with radial distances within 7 to 9 kpc from the galactic center, and at any given age still show an intrinsic scatter of about 0.2 dex, in [Fe/H]1. This may be explained by the heterogeneity of the interstellar medium, because the metallicity enrichment by local events are not followed by immediate mixing. Accretion of gas from outside can generate scatter, but also may help in producing a flat [Fe/H] versus age diagram, if the accreted gas is metal-poor. If hardly any age-metallicity slope is seen for ages between 3 and 10 Gyr, a clear slope in the diagram [Fe/H] versus age exists for ages above 10 Gyr. This is obviously a signature of the start of the transition to the thick disk and halo populations. Other sections of the paper deal with the behavior of other elements than Fe, in relationship with their nucleosynthetic sources. Particular attention is given to the α-elements, which are formed early by massive SNe II. Very clearly, Mg/Fe and O/Fe have similar behavior when plotted versus [Fe/H], whereas the α-elements Si and Ca have a somewhat reduced amplitude in the increase in Si/Fe and Ca/Fe with decreasing metallicity. The element showing the strongest age-metallicity effect is barium, which is mainly produced by the neutron-capture s-process in AGB stars. The different timescale of this process explains this result, since it is linked to stars that are more similar in mass to the bulk of galactic stars. The behavior of the odd elements Na and Al were also obtained, and dwarf barium stars discovered. We conclude by saying that this paper was the first to have studied a large enough sample and its abundance determinations were accurate enough above observational errors to have reached significant statistical conclusions on the trends and scatter of stellar abundances, in connection with the galactic orbital parameters of the objects.


Summary: Objectives. To investigate the relationship between acoustic signal typing and perceptual evaluation of sustained vowels produced by tracheoesophageal (TE) speakers and the use of signal typing in the clinical setting. Methods. Two evaluators independently categorized 1.75-second segments of narrow-band spectrograms according to acoustic signal typing and independently evaluated the recording of the same segments on a visual analog scale according to overall perceptual acoustic voice quality. The relationship between acoustic signal typing and overall voice quality (as a continuous scale and as a four-point ordinal scale) was investigated and the proportion of inter-rater agreement as well as the reliability between the two measures is reported. Results. The agreement between signal type (I–IV) and ordinal voice quality (four-point scale) was low but significant, and there was a significant linear relationship between the variables. Signal type correctly predicted less than half of the voice quality data. There was a significant main effect of signal type on continuous voice quality scores with significant differences in median quality scores between signal types I–IV, I–III, and I–II. Conclusions. Signal typing can be used as an adjunct to perceptual and acoustic evaluation of the same stimuli for TE speech as part of a multidimensional evaluation protocol. Signal typing in its current form provides limited predictive information on voice quality, and there is significant overlap between signal types II and III and perceptual categories. Future work should consider whether the current four signal types could be refined.


The official guide to the riverside path from its Gloucestershire source all the way to the outskirts of London. With the London Thames now covered by Aurum's separate new guide, a companion volume can concentrate on the appeal of the full 150 miles of the country Thames, which winds all the way from its Gloucestershire source near Cirencester to Hampton Court on the edge of the London conurbation. This new edition has a wealth of new information about the many sights and places of interest along the way, from Wittenham Clumps that Paul Nash used to paint to Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant at Bray, as well as full walking tours of historic Oxford and Windsor & Eton. There are sections on Stanley Spencer at Cookham, and Cliveden and the Cliveden Set, as well as on handsome and interesting towns like Henley and Abingdon. There is also a new section on the wildlife and natural history of the Thames, and plenty of extra information on transport links to and from individual sections.


This paper examines one aspect of the role of the individual in international law, through analysis of the increasing recognition of individual rights in the context of jurisdiction in both public and private international law. Jurisdiction has traditionally been considered in international law as a right or power of states. The challenge to this traditional approach has arisen both at the international level and also within states, through the rise in theory and practice of doctrines of 'denial of justice', 'access to justice' and 'party autonomy', which reflect the increasing treatment of jurisdiction as a matter of individual right rather than state power. These developments arguably signify a transformation in the status of individuals at both international and national levels, from the passive objects of jurisdictional regulation to active rights-holders. The analysis in this paper therefore highlights a challenge which cuts across the dual aspects of sovereignty – as international law increasingly recognises the power of legal persons beyond the state, this also provides a challenge to the claims for exclusive legal authority within states. This can also be described as the recognition of the individual, alongside the state, as a 'sovereign' actor, or as the recognition of 'normative individualism' in international and domestic law. The increased recognition of the individual in international law is a key feature of the arguments of cosmopolitan legal theorists – the challenge of normative individualism may therefore further be described as the question of whether, or to what extent, there is an emerging idea of 'cosmopolitan sovereignty' which attempts to accommodate the normative value of both state and individual actors.


California has an ambient air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and oxides of nitrogen are also critical participants in atmospheric photochemistry to form ozone. Ambient air quality monitoring networks use chemiluminescent analyzers that alternately measure NO and all nitrogenous species that are converted to NO by a heated catalyst. The difference is defined as NO2. In the atmosphere these nitrogenous species (NOy) consist of, in addition to NO and NO2, nitrogenous acids (nitric and nitrous), ammonia (NH3), and organic nitrates. Dual converter NOx analyzers were used during SCOS97-NARSTO to measure NOy and nitric acid. These instruments were refurbished by replacing or reactivating their reduction converters and thoroughly evaluating their efficiency to convert nitrogen-containing species. These instruments are equipped with dual converters with one channel fitted with a NaCl-coated fabric denuder to selectively remove nitric acid (NOy*). Since the instrument automatically cycles between the two channels, the difference is a measure of nitric acid. A pair of collocated analyzers was set up at the CE-CERT laboratory in Riverside and a single analyzer was installed in Azusa at the monitoring site operated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). Data collection started April and October 2000, respectively, for the Riverside and Azusa measurement sites. Data were compiled and validated until April 2001. NOy values at Riverside ranged up to 300 ppb, and values at Azusa reached up to 500 ppb. The Azusa NOy and NOx reported by the SCAQMD compared quite closely. Since it was not possible to have both analyzers sample the same span gas, the significance of differences between the two approaches could not be evaluated. The diurnal pattern of nitric acid was observable nearly every day during the smog season. The concentrations at Riverside ranged up to 6 ppb in the summer. Despite the measurement period at Azusa not including the summer smog season, nitric acid concentrations as high as 8 ppb were observed. A thermoevolution denuder (TED) to measure nitric acid was evaluated under laboratory conditions. This device uses a special ceramic fabric denuder coated with sodium chloride to selectively remove nitric acid. Since this fabric strongly adsorbs microwave radiation at the same wavelength as that for cooking, the fabric can be heated rapidly and controllably to high iv temperatures using a standard microwave oven. This heating will decompose the collected sodium nitrate to NOx. While this design allowed the denuder to adsorb nitric acid, the amount recovered was low and variable. We found that the denuder was not evenly heated, and the amount recovered when drops of dilute nitric acid were placed on the denuder depended on the location on the denuder that was used. It was likely that the microwave oven, which was a consumer product, was not designed to produce a uniform microwave field. We concluded that additional research was needed before the system was ready to evaluate with other methods of measuring nitric acid. This report included the initial year of NOy and nitric acid data. We continued to maintain the NOy analyzers and added NO2/PAN gas chromatographs at both sites. These chromatographs separate NO2 and quantify the amount using luminol detection. This selective method of measuring NO2 will be used to quantify the amount of NO2 contained in the NOy. Under additional funding these instruments will be maintained until October 2002. The results from this period will be the subject of a final report for the second period of funding.


In two controlled experiments we compare the performance on maintenance tasks for three equivalent programs with 0, 3, and 5 levels of inheritance. For the given tasks, which focus on understanding effort more than change effort, programs with less inheritance were faster to maintain. John Daly et al. previously reported on similar experiments on the same question with quite different results. They found that the 5-level program tended to be harder to maintain than the 0-level program, while the 3-level program was significantly easier to maintain than the 0-level program. We describe the design and setup of our experiment, the differences to the previous ones, and the results obtained. Ours and the previous experiments are different in several ways: We used a longer and more complex program, made an inheritance diagram available to the subjects, and added a second kind of maintenance task. Nevertheless, when taken together, the results suggest that there is no such thing as usefulness or harmfulness of a certain inheritance depth as such. Maintenance effort depends on other factors partly related to inheritance depth. Using a posthoc statistical analysis, we identify the number of relevant methods to be one such factor. It can be used to build a statistical prediction model of average maintenance effort that is much more powerful than a model relying on inheritance depth.


Microbial colonization of the gastrointestinal tract is an essential process that modulates host physiology and immunity. Recently, researchers have begun to understand how and when these microorganisms colonize the gut and the early-life factors that impact their natural ecological establishment. The vertical transmission of maternal microbes to the offspring is a critical factor for host immune and metabolic development. Increasing evidence also points to a role in the wiring of the gut-brain axis. This process may be altered by various factors such as mode of delivery, gestational age at birth, the use of antibiotics in early life, infant feeding, and hygiene practices. In fact, these early exposures that impact the intestinal microbiota have been associated with the development of diseases such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, asthma, allergies, and even neurodevelopmental disorders. The present review summarizes the impact of cesarean birth on the gut microbiome and the health status of the developing infant and discusses possible preventative and restorative strategies to compensate for early-life microbial perturbations.


Aesthetic experience was problematic for Enlightenment authors. Arguing against the commonly held view that aesthetics in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was defined by the professionalization of criticism and the disinterested contemplation and evaluation of the work of art in isolation, David Marshall seeks to understand how and why aesthetic experience in fact often generated tremendous emotion and tension. Focusing on stories about art told in literary, critical, and philosophical writings, in which art is represented as both powerful and disconcerting, he demonstrates how an aesthetic perspective blurs the boundaries between art and reality rather than separating them. Lucid and erudite, The Frame of Art examines an Enlightenment preoccupation with the pervasive presence of art and aesthetic experience in everyday life. Viewing a world composed of images, simulacra, copies, reenactments, performances, paintings, and texts, authors and characters describe and enact-in what Marshall describes as a "representation compulsion"-intense experiences of art that are far from the disinterested museum experience typically seen as the endpoint of eighteenth-century aesthetics. These insightful readings of Charlotte Lennox, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gotthold Lessing, Lord Kames, Henry Mackenzie, David Hume, Jane Austen, and the theorists of the picturesque trace the dramatization of aesthetic experience and the desire to design one's life as if it were a work of art-a painting, a play, or a novel. Marshall asks what it means for these authors to view the world through the frame of art.


As we design tabletop technologies, it is important to also understand how they are being used. Many prior researchers have developed visualizations of interaction data from their studies to illustrate ideas and concepts. In this work, we develop an interactional model of tabletop collaboration, which informs the design of VisTACO, an interactive visualization tool for tabletop collaboration. Using VisTACO, we can explore the interactions of collaborators with the tabletop to identify patterns or unusual spatial behaviours, supporting the analysis process. VisTACO helps bridge the gap between observing the use of a tabletop system, and understanding users' interactions with the system.


This study investigates Canadian and American public opinion concerning the use of public funds to restore and protect Great Lakes coastal areas. Based upon survey data collected among citizens living in Great Lakes metropolitan areas, it is evident that both Canadian and American respondents support the use of public funds to restore damaged shoreline along the Great Lakes. Canadians were found to be more supportive of public programs when compared to their American counterparts. A variety of factors including socioeconomic characteristics, political and environmental value orientations, and geographical proximity to coastal areas, are investigated as possible sources of support for public programs. Findings suggest that all of these factors have a significant impact upon citizen support for government programs to restore damaged Great Lakes shoreline.


Passive air sampling of gaseous mercury (Hg) requires a high level of accuracy to discriminate small differences in atmospheric concentrations. Meteorological parameters have the potential to decrease this accuracy by impacting the sampling rate ( SR ), i.e., the volume of air that is effectively stripped of gaseous mercury per unit of time. We measured the SR of a recently calibrated passive air sampler for gaseous Hg in the laboratory under varying wind speeds (wind-still – 6 m s −1 ), temperatures (−15–35 °C), and relative humidities (44–80 %). While relative humidity has no impact on SR , SR increases slightly with both wind speed (0.003 m 3  day −1 increase in SR or 2.5 % of the previously calibrated SR for every m s −1 increase for wind speeds > 1 m s −1 , typical of outdoor deployments) and temperature (0.001 m 3  day −1 increase in SR or 0.7 % for every 1 °C increase). The temperature dependence can be fully explained by the effect of temperature on the molecular diffusivity of gaseous mercury in air. Although these effects are relatively small, accuracy can be improved by adjusting SR s using measured or estimated temperature and wind speed data at or near sampling sites. We also assessed the possibility of reusing Radiello® diffusive barriers previously used in the passive air samplers. The mean rate of gaseous Hg uptake was not significantly different between new and previously used diffusive barriers in both lab and outdoor deployments, irrespective of the applied cleaning procedure. No memory effect from Radiellos® previously deployed in a high Hg atmosphere was observed. However, a loss in replicate precision for the dirtiest Radiellos® in the indoor experiment suggests that cleaning is advisable prior to reuse.


Polarized optical spectra of quaterthiophene single crystals are reported over a wide spectral range for different planes and angles of incidence corresponding to either transverse or mixed longitudinal/transverse wave propagation. From the absorbance and reflectance spectra the corresponding absorption coefficients are deduced. In the region of the first molecular transition, polarized exciton states of Frenkel origin are found to be responsible for a strong optical anisotropy and for the modification of the state of polarization during light propagation in the crystal. Transmission measurements with crossed polarizer and analyzer allow to clearly identify Frenkel replica of the principal transition.


Miss Bronte was struck by the force or peculiarity of the character of some one she knew; she studied it, and analyzed it with subtle power; and having traced it to its germ, she took that germ as the nucleus of an imaginary character, and worked outwards;--thus reversing the process of analyzation, and unconsciously reproducing the same external development. Elizabeth Gaskell on Bronte's Shirley in The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857) 1. A Cognitive Perspective on Literary Character Mrs. Gaskell's statement about Charlotte Bronte's method of creating characters hints at the double nature of literary characters: on the one hand, they are based on real-life experiences with living persons; on the other, they are the result of processes of literary construction. (1) Whereas Gaskell looks to the author's contribution to construction, my aim is to look at literary character from the point of view of readers and to elucidate what effects this doubleness has on their experience of encountering characters in fiction. (2) It may be a truism to say that the reading of literary texts is a process in which textual information interacts with the reader's knowledge structures and cognitive procedures. (3) But in literary text-analysis the constraints on literary understanding that arise from the interactive nature of the reading process are rarely acknowledged. Whereas a number of theorists from Iser through to Perry and Phelan have paid attention to the dynamic aspects of narrative, such attention is by no means the rule, and categories for text analysis still tend to highlight the nondynamic, structural side. For the analysis of literary character, there exist some categories that at least show an awareness of the dynamics of reception. In a famous distinction between flat and round characters, implying such awareness, E. M. Forster defines flat characters as those who "are easily recognized," whereas round characters are "capable of surprising" (Aspects of the Novel 74, 81); for the experience of recognition and surprise, the reader must previously have established mental representations and expectations. Other categories, such as the well-known differentiation between static and dynamic characters, fail to account for these dynamics: to decide whether a character is static or dynamic, the reader would have to wait until he or she has read the whole book, since changes in the character's traits may occur late in the story. Of course, readers start forming impressions of characters from the very beginni ng of the reading process on, and from a reader-oriented point of view, the question is not whether a character is static or dynamic, but, rather, when and under which conditions he or she appears static or dynamic to the reader. Even the categories aware of the temporal dimension of understanding seldom offer any detailed description of how the dynamic processing strategies of the reader interact with the successive presentation of information in the text. Drawing on results from cognitive psychology and cognitive social psychology, as well as from research in discourse processing, I attempt to capture the quality of this interaction more precisely than the more text-oriented, structuralist approaches have been able to do. My theory-building is similar to that of Richard Gerrig in his Experiencing Narrative Worlds (1993), in that my method attempts to align psychological models of the workings of cognition and emotion in text understanding with the description of textual properties. (4) In such an alignment, the interaction between reader and text appears, above all, as a dynamic process, for the framework of cognitive psychology affords a view not only on such general constraints on information processing and text-understanding as l imitations on working memory, but also on the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processing in using inference and forming hypotheses, activating schemas, and constructing categories. …


Objectives: To quantify the contribution of patient delay, provider delay, and diversion between services to delayed access to genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics. To describe the factors associated with delay, and their contribution to STI transmission. Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 3184 consecutive new patients attending four GUM clinics purposively selected from across England to represent different types of population. Patients completed a short written questionnaire that collected data on sociodemographics, access, and health-seeking behaviour. Questionnaires were then linked to routinely collected individual-level demographic and diagnostic data. Results: Patient delay is a median of 7 days, and does not vary by demographic or social characteristics, or by clinic. However, attendance at a walk-in appointment was associated with a marked reduction in patient delay and provider delay. Among symptomatics, 44.8% of men and 58.0% of women continued to have sex while awaiting treatment, with 7.0% reporting sex with >1 partner; 4.2% of symptomatic patients reported sex without using condoms with new partner(s) since their symptoms had begun. Approximately 25% of all patients had already sought or received care in general practice, and these patients experienced greater provider delay. Conclusions: Walk-in services are associated with a reduction in patient and provider delay, and should be available to all populations. Patients attending primary care require clear care pathways when referred on to GUM clinics. Health promotion should encourage symptomatic patients to seek care quickly, and to avoid sexual contact before treatment.


Background & aim: Health-promotion lifestyle is a valuable agent to promote life quality. In health system, health volunteers play an undeniable role in the development of health behaviors in society; therefore, pay attention to health status is very important. This study was conducted to investigate the health-promotion lifestyle among health volunteers.  Methods: This is a descriptive/analytical study carried out on 191 health volunteers of health care center No.3 in Mashhad based on inclusion criteria through convenience sampling in 2015. Data collection tools include two demographic information and health-promotion lifestyle questionnaires. The validity of tools and reliability of life style questionnaire were confirmed through content validity and Cronbach's alpha (α= 0.87) methods, respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: The age mean of subjects was 39.8±8.5. The mean score of health-promoting lifestyle of health volunteers was 129.9±13.6. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between lifestyle and family size, monthly income and level of education in volunteers (p<0.001(. Conclusion: Health-promoting lifestyle of health volunteers is in moderate to low level. Therefore, regarding their crucial role in the development of health-promoting behaviors in society, it is recommended to implement educational interventions to promote health volunteers lifestyle.


Background Deliberate self-harm (DSH) has been a major health problem in the UK for nearly three decades. Any changes in rates of DSH or the demographic characteristics of the patient population are likely to have important implications for clinical services and suicide prevention. Method Data collected by the Oxford Monitoring System for Attempted Suicide were used to review trends in DSH between 1985–1995 Results There was a substantial increase in DSH rates during the 11-year study period, with a 62.1% increase in males and a 42.2% increase in females. The largest rise was in 15–24-year-old males (+194.1%). Changes in DSH rates correlated with changes in national suicide rates in both males and females in this age group. Rates of repetition of DSH increased in both genders during the study period. Paracetamol self-poisoning has continued to increase, half of all overdoses in 1995 involving paracetamol, and antidepressant overdoses have become more common. Conclusions The increase in DSH, especially in young males, has important implications for general hospital DSH and medical services. It may herald a reversal of recent progress towards achievement of national suicide targets.


"According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the agricultural sector is one of the most hazardous to health worldwide. Agricultural work possesses several characteristics that are risky for health: exposure to the weather, close contact with animals and plants, extensive use of chemical and biological products, difficult working postures and lengthy hours, and use of hazardous agricultural tools and machinery. This brief outlines the occupational health hazards of agriculture, presents a case study on the trade-offs between their health and economic impacts, and proposes responses... To effect change, the agriculture and health sectors should work together more closely. The agricultural sector should develop and build on ways of working with farmers to grow crops that promote healthier cultivation practices and reduce exposure to hazards. Health-sector staff, meanwhile, should document health problems and identify the greatest hazards, help explain the health reasons for such changes, and monitor changes in health with improved production methods." From text


In a 4 week double masked comparative study, patients received 2% nedocromil sodium (48), 2% sodium cromoglycate (48), or placebo eye drops (42), four times daily, for the treatment of vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC). Clinical examinations of eye condition and symptom severity were made before and after a 1 week baseline before starting test treatment, and after 1, 2, and 4 weeks of treatment. Patients kept daily diary card records of symptom severity and concomitant therapy. At the clinic, significant improvements were seen with both active treatments after 2-4 weeks. During the final visit, significant benefits over placebo were recorded for five ocular signs with nedocromil sodium and three with sodium cromoglycate, bulbar and lower tarsal chemosis being better controlled by nedocromil sodium (p < 0.05 v sodium cromoglycate). Diary card trends showed improvement with all three treatments, which was greatest with nedocromil sodium and least with placebo. Compared with placebo, both the active drugs produced statistically significant improvements in general eye condition during weeks 1-2, and nedocromil sodium significantly reduced itching within the first week. Overall, nedocromil sodium had the greatest effect on symptoms, although diary card data revealed no statistically significant differences between the two active drugs. In conclusion, both 2% nedocromil sodium and 2% sodium cromoglycate were effective in controlling VKC when administered four times daily into the eyes, while the marked anti-inflammatory activity of nedocromil sodium was apparent in its more pronounced overall therapeutic effect.


Pleadings, Minutes of Public Sittings and Documents 2009-2010 - Volume 15 The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an international court with competence to settle disputes concerning the law of the sea. It is a central forum for the settlement of disputes relating to the interpretation and application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This volume contains the texts of written pleadings, minutes of public sittings and other documents from the proceedings in two cases: Case concerning the Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Swordfish Stocks in the South-Eastern Pacific Ocean (Chile/European Union). Further to the agreement of the parties, the case was discontinued by the Order of the Special Chamber dated 16 December 2009. The Order is published in Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders 2008-2010 (ITLOS Reports 2008-2010). The M/V "Louisa" Case (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v. Kingdom of Spain), Provisional Measures. The Tribunal delivered its Order on 23 December 2010. It is published in Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders 2008-2010 (ITLOS Reports 2008-2010). The documents are reproduced in their original language.