Previously, we have developed a gradient elution system for pillar array columns, which achieved faster separation than isocratic elution. In this study, we validated gradient elution in microchip liquid chromatography (LC) and investigated the retention and bandwidth predictions of fluorescently labeled aliphatic amines in fast gradient elution chromatography using semi-empirical retention models. The retention times and peak widths under different gradient elution programs were predicted by three solvent strength models and compared with the experimental results. The relative errors of prediction for the retention times and peak widths were below 14 % and 12 %, respectively. The results showed that the solvent strength models could be utilized for predicting the retention times and peak widths under gradient elution in the microchip LC system and that the gradient elution program for pillar array columns worked efficiently. The prediction by the retention model promises to be a potential tool for essential compound identification in biological samples.


Background and Aims Understanding the interplay between genetic susceptibility, the microbiome, the environment and the immune system in Crohn's Disease (CD) is essential for developing optimal therapeutic strategies. We sought to examine the dynamics of the relationship between inflammation, the ileal microbiome, and host genetics in murine models of ileitis. Methods We induced ileal inflammation of graded severity in C57BL6 mice by gavage with Toxoplasma gondii, Giardia muris, low dose indomethacin (LDI;0.1 mg/mouse), or high dose indomethacin (HDI;1 mg/mouse). The composition and spatial distribution of the mucosal microbiome was evaluated by 16S rDNA pyrosequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Mucosal E. coli were enumerated by quantitative PCR, and characterized by phylogroup, genotype and pathotype. Results Moderate to severe ileitis induced by T. gondii (day 8) and HDI caused a consistent shift from >95% Gram + Firmicutes to >95% Gram - Proteobacteria. This was accompanied by reduced microbial diversity and mucosal invasion by adherent and invasive E. coli, mirroring the dysbiosis of ileal CD. In contrast, dysbiosis and bacterial invasion did not develop in mice with mild ileitis induced by Giardia muris. Superimposition of genetic susceptibility and T. Gondii infection revealed greatest dysbiosis and bacterial invasion in the CD-susceptible genotype, NOD2−/−, and reduced dysbiosis in ileitis-resistant CCR2−/− mice. Abrogating inflammation with the CD therapeutic anti-TNF-α-mAb tempered dysbiosis and bacterial invasion. Conclusions Acute ileitis induces dysbiosis and proliferation of mucosally invasive E. coli, irrespective of trigger and genotype. The identification of CCR2 as a target for therapeutic intervention, and discovery that host genotype and therapeutic blockade of inflammation impact the threshold and extent of ileal dysbiosis are of high relevance to developing effective therapies for CD.


Purpose: The purpose of this research was to compare the outcomes of two hearing screening protocols for preschoolers, toddlers, and infants: (1) Using only transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs); and (2) Using TEOAEs, immittance, otoscopy, and pure-tone screening. Method: This research consisted of a secondary data analysis of hearing screening results from 592 preschoolers, toddlers, and infants screened in Albany County, Wyoming. Data was collected by the Wyoming Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program and analyzed using the statistical software program SPSS 22. Results: Results of a Pearson chi-square analysis showed no significant difference between the two hearing screening protocols. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in sensitivity and specificity of the two hearing screening protocols. Using TEOAEs only is an efficient, low-cost hearing screening protocol that could maximize the early identification of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with hearing loss and allow them the opportunity to benefit from early intervention COMPARISON OF HEARING SCREENING PROTOCOLS 3 Comparison of Hearing Screening Protocols for Preschoolers, Infants, and Toddler


In this paper, a code division multiple access (CDMA) enabled dynamic bandwidth allocation (CDBA) algorithm is proposed for the upstream access scheme for Ethernet passive optical networks. The CDBA algorithm is based on two major components. The first is the parallel transmission capacity offered by CDMA according to the quality-of-service requirement, and the second is the scheduling algorithm, which uses the round robin technique. The CDBA algorithm is presented and its cycle time is derived. The performance of the proposed algorithm is studied, assuming that the traffic load is symmetric and that the packet arrivals are Poisson distributed. Extensive simulations have been performed in order to compare the proposed CDBA algorithm with existing dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms that achieve good bandwidth utilization by use of polling schemes. It is shown that the CDBA algorithm can significantly improve the network performance in terms of packet delay, throughput, and queue size management as compared with the well-known interleaved polling with adaptive cycle time algorithm.


Trade in specialty agricultural products remains a significant foreign exchange earner for many developing countries that largely depend on the agricultural sector for their national income. With the changing consumers' tastes and preferences, production and marketing of specialty products could improve incomes of farmers particularly when such changes are accompanied by price increments for quality produce. The existing specialty varieties are bred to suit specific agro-ecological conditions and the preferences of both farmers and consumers. The cultivation of specialty varieties further appropriates the small-farm sector in most developing countries, characterized by small fragmented plots. It is therefore important to develop specialty agricultural products that are suited for small-scale agricultural production and could significantly improve the welfare of small-scale farmers.
Rice production has contributed significantly to food security and poverty reduction among rural farming households of Vietnam for the past three decades. For instance, it accounts for 30% of total value of crops, and its cultivated area has consistently increased by 1.2% annually since 1986, resulting in annual increments by 1 million tons (Appendix 5). Over the years, the Government has focused on promoting export-oriented production, resulting in substitution of hybrid varieties by indigenous and traditional varieties including specialty rice (SR). However, adverse effects of climate change, poor yields, high production costs, and rice price volatility have led to declining incomes of rice farmers. The negative effects are exacerbated by the dwindling arable land, dysfunctional marketing farmer association, and limited investment in domestic rice value chains. As a mitigation measure, the Government is promoting SR production which demand is quickly growing in Vietnam by reviving the dysfunctional farmer associations to facilitate collective action in adoption of technologies, access to markets, and marketing information.
Farmer associations play a significant role in knowledge transfer to farmers thereby facilitating adoption of SR varieties, which has been effective in minimizing pest resurgence from mixed variety cropping with variations in harvesting periods. The farmer associations also strive to overcome problems of information asymmetry thus ensuring that small-scale farmers fetch better prices for quality rice with brand names. With all these initiatives, several questions remain unanswered. For instance, the drivers of adoption of SR varieties and intensity of their adoption are not yet well understood. The existing literature focused on the role of collective action in facilitating adoption of hybrid and SR varieties although in most cases only qualitatively. None of the studies analyzed the effects quantitatively as we do in our study. Further, the effectiveness of such initiatives depends on farmers' preferences for marketing channels, an aspect that has not been fully studied before, at least in the SR context.
From a New Institutional Economics perspective, market imperfections result in information asymmetries that also hinder technology transfer to farmers and access to input and output markets. This is also relevant in our study particularly in the three topics related to adoption of SR, collective action and choice of marketing channels. In spite of the increasing demand for SR varieties along with other value-added products which has been highlighted in recent studies, small-scale rice farmers still lack knowledge and marketing information in order to access such high-value markets. Besides, specialty crops contribute to biodiversity and improvement of local livelihoods. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the relation between specialty variety adoption and increasing production efficiency.
This dissertation combines three essays on the adoption of SR, effects of collective action on technical efficiency (TE) and farmers' choice of marketing channels. We address these topics by using cross-section data collected from 336 rice farmers in the Red River Delta (RRD) region who were interviewed between October and December 2014. The RRD is one of the major rice producing regions of Vietnam, supplying specialty and high-value rice varieties to the domestic markets including Hanoi and other cities. The question whether smallholder farmers in developing countries can be integrated successfully into high-value supply chains by adopting specialty varieties remains unanswered. Also, and particularly for SR, the drivers of adoption and intensity of SR varieties and the subsequent choice of marketing channels are not clear yet.
In the first essay, we follow the adoption behavior model based on the utility maximization criterion and adopt a two-step approach, starting with a Probit model for determinants of SR adoption then analyzing the intensity of adoption using a Tobit model. In general, the case of SR adoption in the RRD region contributes new insights into our understanding of the adoption decisions, especially with regard to the role of social networks and farmer group membership in rural areas. Social networks have a positive influence on SR adoption through knowledge exchange and collective decision-making in the groups. Based on the findings, we recommend strengthening farmers' networks to enhance SR production.
The second essay provides an overview of current literature on collective action and its effects on rice production efficiency in developing countries. We analyze the effects of collective action (via SR farmer associations) on TE by using a Translog stochastic model. In the first part of our results, factors such as expenditure on labor and expenditure on other costs have a statistically significant impact on the SR yield. The results show a small variation in production efficiency among the households sampled. The average TE score of SR farmers in the RRD region is 77.1%. In this regard, farmers need to increase their productivity and efficiency as well as produce more SR varieties to increase their incomes from rice production.
In the third essay, we finally examine the existing rice marketing channels and farmers' choice of these channels using a multi-specification model from 280 farmers growing SR varieties. We employed a Multinomial logit model to examine the drivers of farmers' choice of marketing channels. The results reveal that even though local collectors and wholesalers dominate the rice value chain in rural areas, farmers still prefer modern marketing channels (via collective marketing channels) because of higher price and reduction in transaction costs. This has been augmented by the expansion of information sources available to farmers.


Due to scientific, public and political concern regarding antimicrobial resistance (AMR), several EU countries have already taken steps to reduce antimicrobial (AM) usage in production animal medicine, particularly that of the highest priority critically important AMs (HP-CIAs). While veterinarians are aware of issues surrounding AMR, potential barriers to change such as concerns of reduced animal health, welfare or production may inhibit progress towards more responsible AM prescribing. Farmers from seven dairy farms in South West England engaged in changing AM use through an active process of education and herd health planning meetings. Prescribing data were collected from veterinary sales records; production and health data were accessed via milk recording and farm-recorded data. This study demonstrates that cattle health and welfare—as measured by production parameters, fertility, udder health and mobility data and culling rates—can be maintained and even improved alongside a complete cessation in the use of HP-CIAs as well as an overall reduction of AM use on dairy farms. This study also identified a need to consider different metrics when analysing AM use data, including dose-based metrics as well as those of total quantities to allow better representation of the direction and magnitude of changes in AM use.


On-road emissions, a dominant source of urban air pollution, damage human health. Emissions increase air pollution intake (and damage health) of travelers (internal costs), and of non-travelers (external costs). This research constructs a framework modeling the microscopic production of emission cost from the vehicle and link level and applies it to a metropolitan road network. It uses project-level Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) simulations to model link-specific on-road emissions, and then employs the RLINE dispersion model to estimate on- and off-road concentrations of pollutants from vehicles. The internal and external emission costs are measured accordingly by counting the health damage costs of travelers and general population because of exposure. The framework is applied to the Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) Metropolitan Area as a proof-of-concept. The estimates show that highways have higher emission concentrations because of higher traffic flow, but that the internal and external emission costs per vehicle kilometer traveled are lower. The emission costs that commuters impose on others greatly exceeds that which they bear. This modeling process is replicable for planners and practitioners assessing emission costs in other regions.


This paper explores multilingualism at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, an officially trilingual institution of higher education in Italy. By discussing examples of institutional communication and informal student interaction, and relating them to official language policies and social actors' reported practices, the study aims to provide insights into how institutional trilingualism is viewed and translated into practice in the context under examination, and on how, in more general terms, linguistic diversity can be an advantage rather than a drawback in higher education.The emergence of two different models of multilingual education is discussed, showing how multilingual practices – sometimes in tension with official policies – can enhance participation and knowledge co-construction. Analyses of service encounters document the role played by social actors' multilingual competence in accomplishing their communicative goals, while the examination of students' informal peer-interaction highlights the impact of social networks on the development of multilingual repertories.


We performed density functional calculations aimed at identifying the atomistic and electronic structure origin of the valence and conduction band, and band gap tunability of halide perovskites ABX3 upon variations of the monovalent and bivalent cations A and B and the halide anion X. We found that the two key ingredients are the overlap between atomic orbitals of the bivalent cation and the halide anion, and the electronic charge on the metal center. In particular, lower gaps are associated with higher negative antibonding overlap of the states at the valence band maximum (VBM), and higher charge on the bivalent cation in the states at the conduction band minimum (CBM). Both VBM orbital overlap and CBM charge on the metal ion can be tuned over a wide range by changes in the chemical nature of A, B and X, as well as by variations of the crystal structure. On the basis of our results, we provide some practical rules to tune the valence band maximum, respectively the conduction band minimum, and thus the band gap in this class of materials.


Abstract. Recent studies have used regression decomposition to analyze recent data and found that over seventy percent of the black-white wealth differences remained unexplained (See, e.g., Gittleman & Wolff 2000 ; Altonji, Doraszelski & Segal 2000 ; and Blau & Graham 1990 ). Their results are limited to the variation in modern data. This study contributes improved methodology and historical empirical results to the literature on economic discrimination. In this paper, (i) presents structural regression decompositions, which are modifications to methods developed by Becker ( 1957 ) and Oaxaca ( 1973 ); (ii) presents a basic empirical test when analyzing structural regression decompositions; (iii) reports the estimated sources of black-white differences in wealth directly before and after emancipation; (iv) links these findings to recent studies. Empirical estimates confirm that the size and persistence of modern black-white wealth differences have historical roots. (v) presents decision-making considerations of "individuals" in an economy with grouped individuals, owners of firms, and social planner(s), conditional on wealth constraints with applied social economic considerations. Keywords. Theory of economic discrimination, Structural regression decomposition, Wealth inequality. JEL. J70, D90, E20, C20, H50, N30.


The integration and application of a new multi-objective tabu search optimization algorithm for Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) problems are presented. The aim is to enhance the computational design process for real world applications and to achieve higher performance of the whole system for the four considered objectives. The described system combines the optimizer with a well established FSI solver which is based on the fully implicit, monolithic formuFlation of the problem in the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian FEM approach. The proposed solver resolves the proposed uid-structure interaction benchmark which describes the self-induced elastic deformation of a beam attached to a cylinder in laminar channel ow. The optimized ow characteristics of the aforementioned geometrical arrangement illustrate the performance of the system in two dimensions. Special emphasis is given to the analysis of the simulation package, which is of high accuracy and is the core of application. The design process identifies the best combination of ow features for optimal system behavior and the most important objectives. In addition, the presented methodology has the potential to run in parallel, which will significantly speed-up the elapsed time. Finite Element Method (FEM), Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI), Multi-Ojective Tabu search (MOTS2). Copyright © 2013 Tech Science Press.


Issues in Building a Parallel Java Virtual Machine on Cenju-3/DE X. Defago and A. Konagaya This paper describes how a Java virtual machine can use the inherent concurrency of Java programs on a massively parallel processor machine (MPP) like NEC Cenju-3. An application written with the Java programming language has two different ways to introduce concurrency; threads and processes. While it is possible to introduce parallelism by using different processes, the granularity is likely to be coarse and applications would have to be written specifically for parallel machines or would lack flexibility, scalability and the level of parallelism would be very low. On the other hand, while most non trivial Java applications are already highly multi-threaded, the problem of locality of objects shared between threads makes it difficult to take advantage of the availability of many processors. Since the availability of multi-threaded applications is going to be extremely large, there is much to gain in being able to exploit the concurrency of such applications. This is what we try to address in this paper by describing the issues raised in the implementation of a parallel Java virtual machine for Cenju-3. This paper illustrates the use of low-level communications and remote DMA accesses in implementing a distributed shared memory for the Java virtual machine.


The annual SHape REtrieval Contest (SHREC) measures the performance of 3D model retrieval methods for several different types of models and retrieval purposes. In this contest the structural shape retrieval track focuses on the retrieval of 3d models which exhibit a relevant similarity in the shape structure. Shape structure is typically characterised by features like protrusions, holes and concavities. It defines relationships in which components of the shape are connected.


Due to the fact that the last three years have been defined by an overlapping series of crises having the disruptive effect of full lockdown, the digital transition to the online learning environment has been immediately adopted as the sole solution of the Romanian authorities. The main purpose of this research paper is to study what type of consequences has produced the e-learning conducted during the pandemic years for the middle-school students, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Hence, the questionnaire-based survey has been used in order to collect primary data from 333 participants and measured the perception of middle school students from a low-income unit school of Bucharest with regard to a series of nine variables. Thereupon, a comparative analysis of the research findings and both officials and NGOs reports was conducted, with the aim of addressing the research hypotheses and providing a set of recommendations for an increasing satisfaction of both students and teachers towards the education quality. The results reveal that the online learning period is the major factor behind the excessive use of online devices of more than a half of the children asked, which can have very negative effects on their psychological development.


The distribution pattern and nocturnal surface behaviour of the deep-sea medusa Periphylla periphylla in a Norwegian fjord was studied. Medusa abundance, size distribution and condition were determined, using surface collections, net tows and ROV-based video profiles. Only larger, mature medusae reached the surface and aggregated into small groups of both sexes, whereas juvenile medusae remained in deeper waters. Observations on the behaviour and cytology of aggregated medusae suggested a mating strategy. We hypothesize that this behaviour is the by-product of a holopelagic life history, developed in a more oceanic deep environment with low species abundance, as surface aggregation increases the chance of encounter and mating.


The Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larus fuscus Linnaeus, 1758, is a surface feeder with a broad prey spectrum that forages in the North Sea on subsurface pelagic fishes and crabs swimming within 0.6 m of the sea surface. In July 2006 and in July/August 2009, we surveyed the Frisian Front area in the southern North Sea (53.4°N–54.3°N, 4.0°E–5.5°E) to determine the prey base for Lesser Black-backed Gulls. In July/August 2009, we conducted bird counts in an integrated ecosystem survey by simultaneously sampling subsurface pelagic prey by a combination of fishing and echosounding. Lesser Black-backed Gulls make use of facilitated foraging to improve the catchability of their prey. The two most important aids for facilitated foraging by Lesser Black-backed Gull in the Frisian Front were (1) multispecies feeding associations with Common Murre, Uria aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763), and (2) fisheries discarding bycatch and offal. We found that in the top meter of the water column, the natural prey base is large enough to provide for self-foraging; however, Lesser Black-backed Gulls were found to rely mainly on facilitated foraging.


Objective The best way to test serologically for coeliac disease (CD) remains controversial, with endomysial (EMA), transglutaminase (TTG), and gliadin antibodies (AGA) being assessed in various combinations with no apparent standardization. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether TTG-IgA+/−TTG-IgG could be used as a replacement for endomysial antibodies as a reliable screen for CD in patients presenting to a major Australian tertiary referral hospital for assessment of symptoms consistent with CD. Methods Individuals referred for gastroscopic assessment of possible CD were prospectively evaluated by duodenal biopsy assessment. The following diagnostic methods were compared: dual-isotype transglutaminase (TTG-dual), combined-isotype transglutaminase (TTG-IgA+G), TTG-IgA, combined-isotype gliadin antibodies (AGA-IgA+G), AGA-IgA, and endomysial antibody assays. Clinical performance characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve for receiver-operating characteristic analysis; AUROC) were assessed for all kits. Results The correlation between transglutaminase kits was generally good, with the best transglutaminase kit demonstrating high correlation (r=0.86) with endomysial antibodies. A comparison of different types of endomysial antibody assays displayed variable diagnostic performance (sensitivity 61.90–68.42%; specificity 80.00–98.57%; AUROC 0.71–0.83). Sensitivity (90.48–92.31%), specificity (80.77–82.89%) and AUROC values (0.92–0.94) for dual-isotype transglutaminase kits displayed narrow ranges. AGA assays were less sensitive (AGA-IgA: 42.31–46.15%; AGA-IgG: 61.54%) and less specific (AGA-IgA: 85.09–87.73%; AGA-IgG: 82.46–84.09%). Dual-isotype transglutaminase testing was diagnostically equivalent to transglutaminase-IgA (AUROC 0.92 versus 0.91, P=0.33). Conclusions Our study suggests that transglutaminase screening (using the IgA±IgG isotype) is a sensitive and specific alternative to endomysial antibody testing in the serological assessment of CD. On the basis of our findings, AGA antibody testing no longer appears to be an essential part of the diagnostic strategy for adult CD.


This thesis presents a theory of the consumption function called the 'Inter- Generational Hypothesis' (IGH). The theory starts from the premise that individuals derive utility not only from their own consumption, but also from the welfare of their offspring. Individuals are supposed to maximise an intergenerationally altruistic utility function subject to a lifetime budget constraint and so derive their optimal consumption and bequest plans. From these plans, it is possible to construct an individual's consumption function. This contains earnings and inheritance terms, and is non-linear in earnings; this is consistently aggregated over all living individuals to yield the aggregate IGH consumption function. A feature of this function is the rich set of intergenerational information hypotheses it is able to encompass; there are also several implications with respect to earnings redistribution policy. The IGH function is estimated using 23 years of post-war UK data, and tested against rival consumption models, including Hall's (1978) REPIH. The principal finding is that the data do not appear to be consistent with either model in their pure form; however, they support a hybrid consumption function where a proportion of the population behave according to the altruistic IGH, and where the rest behave according to the 'selfish' REPIH. An additional finding, necessarily tentative given the imperfections of the distributional data, is a failure to detect significant non-linearity in the aggregate consumption function. This result casts doubt on the usefulness of policies designed to redistribute incomes in order to affect aggregate consumption.


This article explores the phenomenon of lifestyle migration from Britain to Spain to interrogate, empirically, the continued relevance of class in the era of individualizing modernity (Beck, 1994). Lifestyle migrants articulate an anti-materialist rhetoric and their experiences of retirement or self-employment diminish the significance of class divisions. However, as researchers who independently studied similar populations in the Eastern and Western Costa del Sol, we found these societies less 'classless' than espoused. Despite attempts to rewrite their own history and to mould a different life trajectory through geographical mobility, migrants were bound by the significance of class through both cultural process and the reproduction of (economic) position. Bourdieu's methodological approach and sociological concepts proved useful for understanding these processes. Employing his concepts throughout, we consider the (limited) possibilities for reinventing habitus, despite claims of an apparently egalitarian social field.


The first step in understanding ecological community diversity and dynamics is quantifying community membership. An increasingly common method for doing so is through metagenomics. Because of the rapidly increasing popularity of this approach, a large number of computational tools and pipelines are available for analysing metagenomic data. However, the majority of these tools have been designed and benchmarked using highly accurate short read data (i.e. illumina), with few studies benchmarking classification accuracy for long error-prone reads (PacBio or Oxford Nanopore). In addition, few tools have been benchmarked for non-microbial communities. Here we use simulated error prone Oxford Nanopore and high accuracy Illumina read sets to systematically investigate the effects of sequence length and taxon type on classification accuracy for metagenomic data from both microbial and non-microbial communities. We show that very generally, classification accuracy is far lower for non-microbial communities, even at low taxonomic resolution (e.g. family rather than genus). We then show that for two popular taxonomic classifiers, long error-prone reads can significantly increase classification accuracy, and this is most pronounced for non-microbial communities. This work provides insight on the expected accuracy for metagenomic analyses for different taxonomic groups, and establishes the point at which read length becomes more important than error rate for assigning the correct taxon.


Adaptive flexibility in response to environmental variation is often advantageous and occurs in many types of traits in many species. Although the basic designs of the orb webs of a given species are relatively uniform, spiders can adjust their webs to some types of environmental variation. This study of adult female Leucauge argyra tests the extremes to which they can adjust with respect to reduced area in which to build, and documents probably the most pronounced flexibility in orb design ever recorded. These adjustments revealed several behavioral rules that guide orb construction behavior. Spiders adjusted at least seven probably independent aspects of orb design when confined in tiny spaces that spanned about 7% of the maximum distance normally spanned by webs in the field and that had diameters that were only about three times the length of the spider itself. Webs in intermediate sized containers had intermediate designs, and many of the adjustments appear to result from extensions of the behavioral rules guiding orb construction in less severely restricted spaces in the field.


The traditional Dolev-Yao model of security limits attacks to "computationally feasible" operations. We depart from this model by assigning a cost to protocol actions, both of the Dolev-Yao kind as well as non traditional forms such as computationally-hard operations, guessing, principal subversion, and failure. This quantitative approach enables evaluating protocol resilience to various forms of denial of service, guessing attacks, and resource limitation. While the methodology is general, we demonstrate it through a low-level variant of the MSR specification language.


Process‐based models describing biogeochemical cycling are crucial tools to understanding long‐term nutrient dynamics, especially in the context of perturbations, such as climate and land‐use change. Such models must effectively synthesize ecological processes and properties. For example, in terrestrial ecosystems, plants are the primary source of bioavailable carbon, but turnover rates of essential nutrients are contingent on interactions between plants and soil biota. Yet, biogeochemical models have traditionally considered plant and soil communities in broad terms. The next generation of models must consider how shifts in their diversity and composition affect ecosystem processes. One promising approach to synthesize plant and soil biodiversity and their interactions into models is to consider their diversity from a functional trait perspective. Plant traits, which include heritable chemical, physical, morphological and phenological characteristics, are increasingly being used to predict ecosystem processes at a range of scales, and to interpret biodiversity–ecosystem functional relationships. There is also emerging evidence that the traits of soil microbial and faunal communities can be correlated with ecosystem functions such as decomposition, nutrient cycling, and greenhouse gas production. Here, we draw on recent advances in measuring and using traits of different biota to predict ecosystem processes, and provide a new perspective as to how biotic traits can be integrated into biogeochemical models. We first describe an explicit trait‐based model framework that operates at small scales and uses direct measurements of ecosystem properties; second, an integrated approach that operates at medium scales and includes interactions between biogeochemical cycling and soil food webs; and third, an implicit trait‐based model framework that associates soil microbial and faunal functional groups with plant functional groups, and operates at the Earth‐system level. In each of these models, we identify opportunities for inclusion of traits from all three groups to reduce model uncertainty and improve understanding of biogeochemical cycles. These model frameworks will generate improved predictive capacity of how changes in biodiversity regulate biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Further, they will assist in developing a new generation of process‐based models that include plant, microbial, and faunal traits and facilitate dialogue between empirical researchers and modellers.


Smart portable applications increasingly rely on edge computing due to privacy and latency concerns. But guaranteeing always-on functionality comes with two major challenges: heavily resource-constrained hardware; and dynamic application conditions. Probabilistic models present an ideal solution to these challenges: they are robust to missing data, allow for joint predictions and have small data needs. In addition, ongoing efforts in field of tractable learning have resulted in probabilistic models with strict inference efficiency guarantees. However, the current notions of tractability are often limited to model complexity, disregarding the hardware's specifications and constraints. We propose a novel resource-aware cost metric that takes into consideration the hardware's properties in determining whether the inference task can be efficiently deployed. We use this metric to evaluate the performance versus resource trade-off relevant to the application of interest, and we propose a strategy that selects the device-settings that can optimally meet users' requirements. We showcase our framework on a mobile activity recognition scenario, and on a variety of benchmark datasets representative of the field of tractable learning and of the applications of interest.


Society and the Supernatural in Song China is at once a meticulous examination of spirit possession and exorcism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and a social history of the full panoply of China's religious practices and practitioners at the moment when she was poised to dominate the world economy. Although the Song dynasty (960-1276) is often identified with the establishment of Confucian orthodoxy, Edward Davis demonstrates the renewed vitality of the dynasty's Taoist, Buddhist, and local religious traditions. He charts the rise of hundreds of new temple-cults and the lineages of clerical exorcists and vernacular priests; the increasingly competitive interaction among all practitioners of therapeutic ritual; and the wide social range of their patrons and clients.


Early Ordovician (Phase 1) magmatism in the Macquarie Arc was followed by a magmatic hiatus of ∼9 million years, between late Bendigonian and early Darriwilian (i.e. between ca 475 and ca 466 Ma). Resumption of magmatism in the Middle Ordovician produced Phase 2 rocks, recorded by three major rock suites: (i) medium-K calc-alkaline lavas in the Cargo block (Molong Volcanic Belt) have primitive Nd values (+6.9 to +7.8) and volcanic facies suggesting eruption in an intra-oceanic arc stratovolcano; lavas in the fault-bounded Parkes Volcanics in the Junee – Narromine Volcanic Belt are compositionally identical to those in the Cargo block, suggesting that similar Phase 2 Middle Ordovician arc-type lavas may underlie the Cowra Trough; (ii) medium- to high-K dioritic to monzodioritic intrusions in the Narromine and Cowal Igneous Complexes of the Junee – Narromine Volcanic Belt have ages that cluster in the 470 – 460 Ma interval, and intrude presumed Phase 1 lavas and volcaniclastics; and (iii) in all three main volcanic belts, Middle Ordovician lavas range from medium-K to dominantly high-K calc-alkaline compositions with a clear trend to shoshonitic compositions late in the Phase 2 magmatic episode. Phase 2 units in the Molong Volcanic Belt (lower Blayney, Byng and lower Fairbridge Volcanics) and Rockley – Gulgong Volcanic Belt (Rockley and lower Sofala Volcanics) are dominated by significantly more unfractionated high-MgO lava compositions than contemporaneous lavas in the Cargo block or Junee – Narromine Volcanic Belt, suggesting that rifting of the arc had occurred by this time, and that the main extensional zone lay along the eastern side of the Macquarie Arc. Identical compositions of unusual shoshonitic ultramafic lavas in the Byng Volcanics of the Molong Volcanic Belt and the Rockley Volcanics of the Rockley – Gulgong Volcanic Belt provide strong evidence that these volcanic belts were once contiguous and were disrupted during Silurian – Devonian opening of the Hill End Trough. Phase 3 magmatism in the Macquarie Arc is represented by a widespread but relatively small volume magmatic event, dominated by shallow intrusive rocks of the Copper Hill Suite, emplaced in the Eastonian – Bolindian, between 456 and 441 Ma. These distinctive porphyritic dacites and associated holocrystalline diorites and granodiorites show medium-K calc-alkaline compositions, and their emplacement was intimately linked to an episode of regional uplift, erosion and limestone deposition in the Junee – Narromine Volcanic Belt and western Molong Volcanic Belt. Phase 4 magmatism extended from late Eastonian or Bolindian until Early Silurian time, and was dominated by relatively evolved (compared with Phase 2 lavas) shoshonitic lavas until the end of the Bolindian and porphyries in the Early Silurian. Collision-related shut-down of the arc, and initiation of arc extension and dismemberment, occurred around 438 Ma in the latest Ordovician. Post-arc magmatism during the Early Silurian is represented by high-Th, high-Nb lavas of the shoshonitic Nash Hill Volcanics in the Junee – Narromine Volcanic Belt, and Alaskan-type zoned ultramafic intrusions of the Fifield complexes farther west. The latter were emplaced through deformed Ordovician turbidites of the Girilambone Group, and their radiogenic isotope signatures show significant crustal involvement.


The brain uses spikes in neural circuits to perform many dynamical computations. The computations are performed with properties such as spiking efficiency, i.e. minimal number of spikes, and robustness to noise. A major obstacle for learning computations in artificial spiking neural networks with such desired biological properties is due to lack of our understanding of how biological spiking neural networks learn computations. Here, we consider the credit assignment problem, i.e. determining the local contribution of each synapse to the network's global output error, for learning nonlinear dynamical computations in a spiking network with the desired properties of biological networks. We approach this problem by fusing the theory of efficient, balanced neural networks (EBN) with nonlinear adaptive control theory to propose a local learning rule. Locality of learning rules are ensured by feeding back into the network its own error, resulting in a learning rule depending solely on presynaptic inputs and error feedbacks. The spiking efficiency and robustness of the network are guaranteed by maintaining a tight excitatory/inhibitory balance, ensuring that each spike represents a local projection of the global output error and minimizes a loss function. The resulting networks can learn to implement complex dynamics with very small numbers of neurons and spikes, exhibit the same spike train variability as observed experimentally, and are extremely robust to noise and neuronal loss.


In 1953, at the age of 41, Kathleen Ferrier, England's greatest lyric contralto, lost her courageous battle with breast cancer. Her huge appeal to a wide audience - in concerts, on records, on the radio and in the opera house - has ensured her name endures to this day, despite a career which lasted barely ten years. In just half that time, this former telephone exchange operator was singing on stage at Covent Garden, before royalty at private parties, and at New York's Carnegie Hall. This collection of letters and twelve years of her personal diaries was first published by Boydell Press in 2003. Here, an enlarged paperback edition contains a new chapter revealing her growing importance to the BBC, an additional 90 letters, together with much revised material and a selection of moving tributes. Published to mark the centenary of her birth in 1912, the book, of more than 400 letters, provides a vivid picture of a life which illuminated the war and post-war years of austerity and hardship. Kathleen Ferrier was surely fun to know. Her personality was a mix of extreme modesty and self-determined ambition, topped with a mischievously blunt sense of earthy Lancastrian humour. She is known for her glorious voice, but through the pages of these fascinating letters and diaries we get to meet the real person. DR CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is a conductor, music historian, lecturer and broadcaster. He is the biographer of Max Bruch (Boydell Press 2005) and conductor Hans Richter, and the author of a history of the music agents Ibbs & Tillett.


"Painting is at an interesting crossroads in relation to digital culture and the media - I try to reflect this through the painting's chaotic visual spaces." (Michael Stubbs).

In this solo exhibition I presented six medium sized works in an independent space. Continuing with my ongoing studio research which operates at the interface of abstraction and pop, the paintings are constructed by combining poured, abstract configurations of transparent varnishes and opaque household paints with ready-made graphic stencils. The repeated pouring, in conjunction with pop signs, form a physical process of sensual flat-on-flat layering that reveals multiple perspectives and optical depths.

This layering is part of the fracturing process, the breaking up or 'exploding' of a recognisable image, a response to the ever expanding proliferation of broadcast and internet-based images that fill our world. Amorphous shapes, sharp-edged logos, scything blocks of colour and silky veils of tinted varnish intrude into the picture planes, fragmenting the surface; it is as though the physicality of the works are coming up against the pixilation of the flattened, immaterial space of the digital image.

Yet an overriding seductiveness is intended; the perfection of the finish and the boldness of the palette alleviate the chaos of the visual explosion; there is a simultaneous interrogation of the sensual as a critical re-configuration of the painted medium in an age of internet information overload.


For decreasing light loss and diminishing the aberrations of the optical system, an open-loop adaptive optics (AO) system for retinal imaging in vivo is introduced. Taking advantage of the ability of young human eyes to accommodate, there was only one single curved mirror to make the pupil of the eye conjugate with the wavefront corrector and the wavefront sensor. A liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) was adopted as the wavefront corrector because the LC-SLM can be made in a small size to match the sensor. To reduce a pair of lenses or focusing mirrors, the wavefront corrector and sensor are positioned in the noncommon path. The system adopts open-loop control and the high-precision LC-SLM guarantees the effectiveness of the AO system. The designed field of view is 1° on the retina (about 300 μm). The image quality was simulated with different mirror surface types, including circular, parabolic, and hyperbolic. A hyperbolic mirror with conic constant −1.07, which is close to −1, could best eliminate the aberrations. Theoretical analysis showed that the optical throughput of this system was at least 22.4% higher than that of a standard transmission AO system. In a practical experiment, a parabolic mirror was positioned in the optical path. Images of the cone photoreceptors and the capillary vessels were obtained successfully. This system simplifies the optical setup in comparison to the commonly used 4F systems while still guaranteeing the effectiveness of AO to correct the ocular aberrations.


As President Obama is in the midst of deciding whether additional U.S.combat forces are needed in Afghanistan in addition to the 21,000 troops recently committed, he must realize that additional armed forces are only a stopgap measure in Afghanistan's downward spiral into an 'undergoverned' failed state. Similarly, as Pakistan's fragile and fractured civilian government continues to appease the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of Pakistani Pashtun tribesmen with Taliban cultural values led by Baitullah Mehsud and others, it comes closer to the concept of a "misgoverned" failed state, possessing a small arsenal of nuclear arms. The problem for the U.S. administration is that neither of these countries can be allowed to fall further into disrepair. At the same time each requires a different and unique approach to the threat of "Talibanization" that faces each country—the control of territory within each country by Islamic radicals seeking to impose their ultraconservative interpretation of shar'ia law onto the general populace. Generally acknowledged is the belief that what has tentatively worked in Iraq, that is, the additional U.S. troops and employment of former Sunni insurgents to help fight foreign fighters associated with al-Qaida, will not work in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. While a regional approach to the conflict in these two countries is warranted, Afghanistan and Pakistan are on two different economic, social, and political playing fields. Hence, there cannot be a onesize-fits-all solution for the two countries, especially one that draws on the Iraq playbook. In addition to its internal political problems, Pakistan also faces the issue of al-Qaida and Taliban training camps positioned in its literal back yard, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA or Tribal Areas). Resolution of the War on Terror cannot come to fruition without addressing the problems that exist in the Tribal Areas. This largely self-governed terrain has come under Taliban influence and serves as a safe haven for Taliban and foreign-fighter crossborder attacks into Afghanistan and, more recently, large-scale attacks into Pakistan itself. This article is available in Journal of Strategic Security: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol2/iss4/2 17 Reviving the United States' Commitment to Pakistan and Afghanistan By Steve A. Young, Ph.D. and Imdad Hussain Sahito, Ph.D.


Background : Disaster nursing has become a critical concern, worldwide, due to a trend toward management strategy. However, limited studies are conducted in Thailand where nurses have faced increasing threat to both natural and man-made disasters. Purpose : To describe the amounts of learning needs (both expressed and normative needs) regarding disaster nursing among Thai nurses. Methods : The sample included 454 registered nurses who have been working in Thailand for at least six months selected through the multi-stage sampling methods. Data were collected using questionnaire included the Learning Needs Regarding Disaster Nursing Questionnaire (LNDNQ), developed based on the learning needs triangle model and the concept the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Framework of Disaster Nursing Competencies. The LNDNQ was tested for content validity by three experts and for reliability with 20 nurses using Cronbach's alpha coefficient yielding a value of .97 (expressed needs), and .99 (normative needs), respectively. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Result : This study found that the top three contents of the most learning needs in expressed needs were similarly with the most normative needs which items were related to mitigation/prevention and response phase. The most learning needs they expressed were assisting and first aid for victims at the scene (n=229, 50.4%), followed by basic principle of triage (n=218, 48.0%), and training of the disaster nursing management plans (n=217, 47.80%). However, the top least expressed needs were related to mitigation/prevention and recovery/rehabilitation phase. These were providing an information for community with the notification, and announcement the severity level of disaster (n=32, 7.0%), followed by preparing and organizing the evacuation area for victims (n=37, 8.1%). Conclusion : The contents related to the most learning needs (expressed needs and normative needs) regarding disaster nursing must be emphasized in training course and nursing curriculums in Thailand to improve Thai nurses' capability in disaster nursing management.


Summary
Arboviral neutralizing (N) substances appearing in avian plasmas after shooting and cardiac puncture were found sometimes to be nonspecific and at other times to be specific antibody. N substances which selectively neutralized western encephalitis (WE) and not St. Louis (SLE) or Japanese encephalitis (JE) viruses, and possibly also those that coexisted with HI substances in acetone-precipitated plasmas could be interpreted as being viral antibodies. N substances neutralizing both WE and SLE viruses were considered to be nonspecific. Neutralization of SLE or JE but not WE virus was an uninterpretable finding because this result could readily be produced by bile in plasma as well as by specific antibodies. Trauma to abdominal and thoracic viscera from shooting was probably more important in the appearance of N substances in avian plasmas than was cardiac puncture per se, since cardiac puncture of living, netted birds failed to engender appearance of N substances. Nevertheless, in birds dying or dead after shooting, it seemed likely that probing of the chest and abdominal cavities during cardiac puncture sometimes resulted in contamination of blood with bile or other body fluids containing nonspecific N substances. These findings make qualitative interpretations of results of serologic surveys of shot birds for arboviral N antibodies impossible unless each plasma with N substance is studied for specificity for the neutralized virus.


The goals of climate change mitigation and energy security policies are key drivers for the EU energy transition towards low-carbon energy generation. Even though alternative technologies, including renewable energy, are well advanced, the current state of electricity grids is one of the bottlenecks for its further deployment. Inhabitants of communities affected by planned infrastructure are protesting against further projects to deploy electricity grids in many European countries. The innovative BESTGRID process brings together organized stakeholders from civil society, academia and the energy sector to understand the nature of concerns about these projects and to test various actions to address the concerns.
The major research questions addressed by this work are:
What are the main stakeholder concerns about the deployment of electricity transmission grids in Europe?
What are successful actions to address these concerns?
Which level of participation can be achieved in electricity transmission infrastructure project siting in Europe?
We address these research questions through a variety of methods, which allow us to gain a systemic look and the holistic understanding of the problem. We analyse five real-world pilot projects which are under planning or construction in Germany (SuedLink and Bertikow-Pasewalk connections), UK (NEMO Link connection) and Belgium (Stevin and Waterloo-Braine l'Alleud connections). We collect empirical data through extensive dialogue with stakeholders, by observation of public and stakeholders information events on-site, by conducting interviews with key stakeholders, and by conducting an on-site survey of all communities where public information events were organized. We mapped participation in each project according to the methodology developed by Arnstein and finally analyzed how concerns about the planned power lines changed before and after actions and policy interventions, which were developed and tested in BESTGRID.


One way to develop intercultural sensitivity in learners is through the inclusion of intercultural training in ELT and teacher training courses. This study aimed at enhancing the intercultural sensitivity of EFL pre-service teachers through interactive culture-focused speaking tasks. Therefore, a task-based syllabus was designed based on the principles of constructivism and intercultural themes and implemented throughout one academic semester. An intercultural sensitivity scale was administered to find out any possible significant change in the level of intercultural sensitivity of the participants. At the end of the course, a self-report course evaluation survey was implemented in order to ask participants to evaluate different aspects and objectives of the course. The related data were collected and analyzed. The findings indicated that the level of intercultural sensitivity of the participants developed significantly through the intervention of mediating tasks. The findings of the self-report survey also showed that the participants` attitudes and evaluation of different parts and objectives of the course were positive.


Abstract The numerical stability, equilibrium diffusive limit, and accuracy of the variable Eddington factor (VEF) methods and flux-limited diffusion methods for radiation transport calculations are considered. The diffusive limit analysis proves that three VEF closures and their associated flux-limiters retain full first-order accuracy in the equilibrium diffusion limit while achieving the correct propagation speed in the optically thin streaming limit. The stability analysis reveals that the flux-limited diffusion methods are unconditionally stable, but the VEF equations with an arbitrary nonlinear closure can be numerically unstable for certain commonly used differencing schemes. However, regular solutions to the VEF equations are obtainable by Godunov-type schemes. Numerical comparisons among various solutions for a test problem show that flux-limited diffusion methods are only slightly less accurate than their corresponding VEF methods, and the Minerbo VEF method and the Minerbo flux-limited diffusion method are in general more accurate than other approximations.


This study examines immigrants' employment careers and their (dis)similarity with the standard career sequence of native Germans. Applying the sequence analysis techniques, the study shows that career patterns of ethnic Germans and EU immigrants are closer to the employment patterns of the native-born than it is the case for other immigrant groups. Career paths of guest workers from Turkey remain however extremely dissimilar even when differences in the age structure and the educational level are taken into account. Long and frequent unemployment seems to be behind this dissimilarity. Immigrants, and particularly Turks, not only have higher propensity to be unemployed, they are also pushed to the unskilled occupations. The second generation, although displaying the closest degree of similarity to the employment career patterns of native-born Germans, largely fail when it comes to occupational assimilation, even though they seem to escape labour market segmentation, pronounced among their parents, often entering occupations in which first-generation unprivileged immigrants are barely found.


The spaceborne advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) sensor data record is approaching 40 years, providing a crucial asset for studying long‐term trends of aerosol properties regionally and globally. However, due to limitations of its channels' information content, aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from AVHRR over land are still largely lacking. In this paper, we describe a new physics‐based algorithm to retrieve aerosol loading over both land and ocean from AVHRR for the first time. The over‐land algorithm is an extension of our Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue algorithm, while a simplified version of our Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval algorithm is used over ocean. We compare retrieved AVHRR AOD with that from MODIS on a daily and seasonal basis and find, in general, good agreement between the two. For the satellites with equatorial crossing times within 2 h of solar noon, the spatial coverage of the AVHRR aerosol product is comparable to that of MODIS, except over very bright arid regions (such as the Sahara), where the underlying surface reflectance at 630 nm reaches the critical surface reflectance. Based upon comparisons of the AVHRR AOD against Aerosol Robotic Network data, preliminary results indicate that the expected error confidence interval envelope is around ±(0.03 + 15%) over ocean and ±(0.05 + 25%) over land for this first version of the AVHRR aerosol products. Consequently, these new AVHRR aerosol products can contribute important building blocks for constructing a consistent long‐term data record for climate studies.


Both sides in the U.S. Civil War financed military spending by issuing new fiat currencies. The Union 'greenback' underwent moderate inflation (by wartime standards), but the Confederate 'greyback' suffered hyperinflation. Existing explanations for these price movements typically treat only one of the two cases and adopt either a quantity theory or rational expectations approach. We compare Union and Confederate policies directly and highlight the importance of taxation for assuring the value of inconvertible money. Combining monetary and fiscal history literatures, we find that tax policies were determined by long-term development of democratic governing institutions. Higher levels of democracy in the North, as compared to the slaveholding South, meant greater tax policy legitimacy and administrative competence. The Union drew on this legacy to back its money effectively, while the Confederacy failed to do so. We contribute to credit theories of money by drawing attention to the political determinants of effective fiscal policy.


Flooding-based route discovery is usually preferred in MANETs in order to set up the route with reliability between transmission pair. However, this approach may cause a serious contention in information transfer between adjacent nodes and a considerable amount of control packets. The transfer of information between nodes is made secured by Intrusion detection system (IDS). The architecture of IDS is discussed in the manuscript to achieve the reliable and confidential transmission over MANET which follows some techniques such as Watch Dog, Confident, and CORE.


While the development of life skills (e.g., communication, problem solving, etc.) is a commonly targeted youth program outcome, the lack of standardized conceptualizations and instrumentation make it difficult to compare impacts across programs and develop validated best practices. In order to promote a more unified approach to life skill development, literature reviews were conducted for 10 life skill domains to identify common definitions and, if available, appropriate outcome measures. Data were then collected from an ethnically diverse sample (N = 758) of elementary, middle, and high school aged youth for the 10 identified instruments. Analyses were conducted to ascertain the psychometric qualities of each measure, the interrelationships among measures, and the measures' relationships with gender, ethnicity, and school level. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to life skill theory and measurement.


Why is Testimony important?  The field of testimony is a sub-discipline of the study of epistemology, the study of how we come to know things. Existing literature on testimony mainly focuses on face-to-face interactions. However, online communications have become an integral part of our daily discourse. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an account of testimonial injustices in the context of online testimony. First I will examine cases of face-to-face epistemic injustice which result from failures of knowledge transmission in communicative acts. I will then outline cases of online epistemic injustice. This showcases differences between the kinds of epistemic injustices that can arise in online and in face-to-face contexts. My intention is to identify epistemic issues unique to online environments, with the overall objective to hold agents accountable for acts of epistemic harm, such as intentional misinformation or trolling. I will then be in a position to introduce key features of online testimony, and explain the significance of distinguishing online testimony as a space for shared knowledge from face-to-face testimony. Finally, I propose a viable framework for successful online testimony which holds agents accountable for epistemic harms.


The author wishes to acknowledge the children, parents, student caregivers, and staff of the Center for Child and Family Studies at the University of California, Davis for their time and patience with this study. Thanks also to the dedicated and talented research assistants who collected and coded these data. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, grant number 1 F32 HD050040-01. Before first words, children use gestures to communicate and represent concepts. This study investigated two questions: Can infants pair gestures together to create two-gesture sentences ? Further, can preverbal children engage in conceptually focused gesturing conversations ? I observed 10 infants for 8 months during interactions with caregivers and coded all gesturing behavior. I used longitudinal growth modeling to analyze the developmental trajectories of gesturing sentence and conversation length. Infants formed 2-gesture sentences as early as 9 months and 3-gesture sentences at 1 year. Infants engaged in 4-turn conversations as early as 11 months; maximum gesture conversation length was 16 turns. Infants' early gesturing frequency and variety predicted later sentence length; however, caregivers' gesturing sentence length suppressed child's sentence length.


Time-memory-data (TMD) tradeoff attacks limit the security level of many classical stream ciphers (like E 0 , A5/1, Trivium, Grain) to 1 / 2 n , where n denotes the inner state length of the underlying keystream generator. In this paper, we present Lizard, a lightweight stream cipher for power-constrained devices like passive RFID tags. Its hardware efficiency results from combining a Grain-like design with the FP (1)-mode, a recently suggested construction principle for the state initialization of stream ciphers, which offers provable 2 / 3 n -security against TMD tradeoff attacks aiming at key recovery. Lizard uses 120-bit keys, 64-bit IVs and has an inner state length of 121 bit. It is supposed to provide 80-bit security against key recovery attacks. Lizard allows to generate up to 2 18 keystream bits per key/IV pair, which would be sufficient for many existing communication scenarios like Bluetooth, WLAN or HTTPS.


This paper examines which economic, fiscal, external, financial, and institutional characteristics of countries affect the likelihood that they adopt inflation targeting as their monetary policy strategy. We estimate a panel binary response transition model for 60 countries and two subsamples consisting of OECD and non-OECD countries over the period 1985-2008. The findings suggest that past macroeconomic performance of a country, its fiscal discipline, exchange rate arrangements, as well as the structure and development of its financial system have a significant impact on the likelihood to adopt inflation targeting. However, the determinants of inflation targeting differ between OECD and non-OECD countries.


We present an ontological stand in which spatial entities and events are considered on a par, in a common domain of entities. Thus, everything that has a spatial extension also has a temporal extension. We show the kind of questions this raises for the reference to objects and events in language and how some of them can be addressed in such a theoretical framework. This model indeed provides a means of formally defining some differences between usually accepted categories of concrete objects referred to in natural language: the difference between mass terms and singular nouns, between singular and collective entities, and between material objects and events.


Argentina has a long tradition as a beef producer country. Cattle in particular, have played a major role in the traditional environment as a source of food, employment and savings. Many of the typical symbols of this country are found within an environment of ranches, cowboys, horses and cattle, called in Spanish: Estancias Gauchos, Caballos and Ganado. The cattle sector not only represents a source of food, employment and savings to many people in Argentina, but is also a social symbol which the Argentines are proud of and identify with. Cattle can be sold at the ranch or at any city market. The selling and buying operations are performed through open auctions. If the animal is sold for fattening, the price is set per head. When it is going to slaughter the animal or group of animals are weighed and sold per kilogram. From 10 to 25 percent of the production is exported, the rest is consumed mostly as fresh meat. Agricultural production represents approximately 13 percent of Argentina's gross national product and nearly 50 percent of the value of agricultural production comes from meat production. Complex interactions between supply and demand in a market cause prices to change constantly during the year. Seasonal patterns are also evident in the quantities supplied or demanded of a commodity. The measurement of these variations in quantities or prices have some complications, especially in the cattle subsector. The objectives of the paper are the following: 1) to do research on monthly prices of finished cattle to find out if a seasonal pattern exists for the following five categories of animals: calves, small steers, big steers, cows and heifers; 2) to do research on monthly quantities of slaughtered finished cattle to find out if a seasonal pattern exists for the same five categories; 3) to describe the patterns and present them in an easy and applicable way for decision making; 4) to provide an explanation for the nature of the seasonal patterns; 5) to estimate the variability of prices for each month in a risk analysis framework; and 6) to provide an idea of how the market works as a whole by combing all the seasonal patterns obtained for each category.


Changes in cognitive function induced by physical activity have been proposed as a mechanism for the link between physical activity and academic performance. The aim of this study was to investigate if executive function mediated the prospective relations between indices of physical activity and academic performance in a sample of 10-year-old Norwegian children. The study included 1,129 children participating in the Active Smarter Kids (ASK) trial, followed over 7 months. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with a latent variable of executive function (measuring inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) was used in the analyses. Predictors were objectively measured physical activity, time spent sedentary, aerobic fitness, and motor skills. Outcomes were performance on national tests of numeracy, reading, and English (as a second language). Generally, indices of physical activity did not predict executive function and academic performance. A modest mediation effect of executive function was observed for the relation between motor skills and academic performance. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov registry, trial registration number: NCT02132494.


We consider the dynamics of swarms of scalar Brownian agents subject to local imitation mechanisms implemented using mutual rank-based interactions. For appropriate values of the underlying control parameters, the swarm propagates tightly and the distances separating successive agents are iid exponential random variables. Implicitly, the implementation of rank-based mutual interactions, requires that agents have infinite interaction ranges. Using the probabilistic size of the swarm's support, we analytically estimate the critical interaction range below that flocked swarms cannot survive. In the second part of the paper, we consider the interactions between two flocked swarms of Brownian agents with finite interaction ranges. Both swarms travel with different barycentric velocities, and agents from both swarms indifferently interact with each other. For appropriate initial configurations, both swarms eventually collide (i.e., all agents interact). Depending on the values of the control parameters, one of the following patterns emerges after collision: (i) Both swarms remain essentially flocked, or (ii) the swarms become ultimately quasi-free and recover their nominal barycentric speeds. We derive a set of analytical flocking conditions based on the generalized rank-based Brownian motion. An extensive set of numerical simulations corroborates our analytical findings.


Covert channels are usually used to circumvent security policies and allow information leakage without being observed. In this paper, we propose a novel covert channel technique using the packet reordering phenomenon as a host for carrying secret communications. Packet reordering is a common phenomenon on the Internet. Moreover, it is handled transparently from the user and application-level processes. This makes it an attractive medium to exploit for sending hidden signals to receivers by dynamically manipulating packet order in a network flow. In our approach, specific permutations of successive packets are selected to enhance the reliability of the channel, while the frequency distribution of their usage is tuned to increase stealthiness by imitating real Internet traffic. It is very expensive for the adversary to discover the covert channel due to the tremendous overhead to buffer and sort the packets among huge amount of background traffic. A simple tool is implemented to demonstrate this new channel. We studied extensively the robustness and capabilities of our proposed channel using both simulation and experimentation over large varieties of traffic characteristics. The reliability and capacity of this technique have shown promising results. We also investigated a practical mechanism for distorting and potentially preventing similar novel channels.


The occurrence of tsunami waves on the eastern Caribbean Venezuelan coasts during 5 Venezuelan (local) earthquakes (01-IX-1530, 15-VII-1853, 29-X-1900, 17-I-1929 and 9-VII-1997), have been confirmed through the search and evaluation of written accounts by primary sources (eye witnesses) of tsunami inundation during these events. Among the outcomes of this new assessment are: 1) the run-up heights of several of those tsunamis have been substantially reduced. In fact, maximum run-up heights for the 5 tsunamis are: 5-7 m at Cumana for the 1530 event, 5 m at Barlovento and 3 m at the Neveri mouth for the 1900 tsunami, 3 m at western Cumana for the 1853 and 1929 events and about 1 m for the 1997 earthquake. 2) These new estimates on wave heights for local earthquakes restrict the search for tsunamites by trenching and coring to mainly the first 500-m-wide strip from the coastline in low-lying flatlands. The source of these tsunami waves may be complex. Some are surely the result of coastal-submarine sliding (1929 AD, 1997 AD), tectonic slip on active strike-slip (or normal oblique slip) faults (1530 AD, 1900 AD) or combination of tectonic slip and sliding (1853 AD). Appropriate numerical modeling of tsunami wave generation, migration and inundation are urgently in need to understand these tsunami mechanics.


Most higher education alumni work in professional fields, making higher education responsible for the provision of high-quality professionalism throughout society. However, higher education does not yet fulfil its role as a provider of methodologies for the renewal of professionalism. In this lecture, Didi Griffioen outlines the characteristics of professionalism, asserting that current methodologies for the continuous renewal of different elements of professionalism are lacking. By positioning itself as provider of these methodologies, higher education can play a more relevant role in society while also contributing to its own professional renewal and innovativeness.


V groove GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires are investigated by spatially resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy using a low-temperature scanning near-field optical microscope. The spectra along the wires feature several sharp emission lines, which are understood as the emission from exciton states localized in inhomogeneities of the confining potential. It is expected that these exciton states spatially overlap and that their energies are correlated, which leads to level repulsion. The statistical analysis of the spectra in terms of autocorrelation functions clearly reveals this effect. In order to model photoluminescence rather than absorption spectra, we perform detailed simulations of exciton relaxation and luminescence kinetics in a disordered one-dimensional system, taking into account the realistic structure of the facets at the bottom of the V groove in our disorder model. Combining near-field measurements and numerical simulations we show that disorder prevents the full relaxation of excitons towards the local ground states in the dips of the disordered potential. As a consequence, luminescence from excited states is observed. We identify in the spatial and energy correlation between localized states the origin of the observed level repulsion and discuss the role played by the two facets at the bottom of the V groove in this mechanism. This analysis also highlights the relevance of the broad photoluminescence background observed in this and in analogous experiments. We propose as explanation for the origin of this broad background the strong exciton-acoustic phonon coupling that results in phonon sidebands in the spectrum of each localized state.


Rapid Documentation of Policies and Procedures - The Handbook is an instruction guide for developing high-quality manuals quickly. Benchmark Technologies International Inc. (BTI) developed the Rapid Documentation process in 1997 and has since used the methodology successfully to create hundreds of manuals for their clients. The Rapid Documentation process results in manuals that are comprehensive, easy to use, and easy to maintain. This handbook takes you step by step through the design, development, and release stages of a documentation project. Especially useful for those new to writing manuals, the book explains how to organize a manual effectively from the start to meet strategic objectives and simplify maintenance. Also included is detailed information about conducting data collection interviews. The book covers different types of publication, including publication to Web-based systems. Clear examples are provided throughout.


It is well-known that there are different tumor-type-dependent metastatic patterns. For example, in carcinomas metastatic spread is preferentially via the lymphatic system by which they reach regional lymph nodes through pre-existent afferent lymph vessels and/or newly formed lymph capillaries; while in sarcomas the favored pathway is through bloodvessels. These metastatic patterns have been used for many years by clinicians and surgeons for staging and tumor resection, particularly in the case of breast cancer. Recently this knowledge has been applied to detection and resection of sentinel lymph nodes. The lymphatic system drains the interstitial fluid from tissues and reincorporates it into the blood flow; in addition, it forms part of the host's immune defense and in pathological conditions, induces different types of lymph edema and participates in tumor invasion and metastasis. Although, the study of lymphangiogenesis was stagnated for several decades, it was not until a few years ago that biomolecular mechanisms were discovered and many specific markers are now in use to study the process of tumor dissemination and metastasis. There is a tendency to utilize molecular knowledge in clinical settings for grading and estimating prognostic significance of tumors as well as to develop specific therapeutic strategies.


Passivation of GaAs by silicon nitride (SixNy) deposition using low-frequency PECVD (LF PECVD) is presented. The high amount of hydrogen implantation during this process enhances the passivation effect, demonstrating for the first time the unpinning of the Fermi level by a simple deposition of SixNy on a deoxidised GaAs surface. The (NH4)2S/SixNy passivation is also simplified, and MIS capacitors are fabricated by a novel process, which consists in exposing the GaAs surface directly to sulphur solution, without the usual deoxidation etching step, followed by the deposition of LF PECVD SixNy. Good modulation of the surface potential is observed, and the interface state density (Dit) as measured from 1 MHz C–V characteristics has a minimum of 3×1011 cm−2 eV−1.


We present a two-step approach of assessing whether major donors of foreign aid have met recent demands for less proliferated and better coordinated aid efforts. First, we calculate Theil indices revealing the concentration of each donor's aid on recipient countries and specific aid sectors. Second, we map overlaps of aid from different donors and over time to analyze the degree of coordination. Our results point to a wide and persistent gap between the rhetoric of political declarations and the donors' actual aid allocation during the period 1995-2006. Few donors have specialized on a limited set of recipients and aid sectors, and coordination has remained elusive.


Polyplexes composed of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and DNA or siRNA have attracted great attention for their use in gene therapy. Although many physicochemical characteristics of these polyplexes remain unknown, PEI/DNA complexes have been repeatedly shown to be more stable than their PEI/siRNA counterparts. Here, we examine potential causes for this difference using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of complexation between linear PEI and DNA or siRNA duplexes containing the same number of bases. The two types of polyplexes are stabilized by similar interactions, as PEI amines primarily interact with nucleic acid phosphate groups but also occasionally interact with groove atoms of both nucleic acids. However, the number of interactions in PEI/DNA complexes is greater than in comparable PEI/siRNA complexes, with interactions between protonated PEI amines and DNA being particularly enhanced. These results indicate that structural differences between DNA and siRNA may play a role in the increased stability of PEI/DNA complexes. In addition, we investigate the binding of PEI chains to polyplexes that have a net positive charge. The binding of PEI to these overcharged complexes involves interactions between PEI and areas on the nucleic acid surface that have maintained a negative electrostatic potential and is facilitated by the release of water from the nucleic acid.


Culture plays an important role in all health message design, and school-based substance abuse prevention is no exception. Because most adolescent substance abuse prevention programs in the United States are delivered in schools, this is particularly important given the diversity of the students. Unfortunately, there is little theory to guide these programs and fewer programs that successfully achieve cultural competence. Using communication accommodation theory as a framework, this article articulates the principle of cultural grounding using the Drug Resistance Strategies Project as an exemplar. The article then describes a line of research describing youth, ethnic, and gender cultures leading to the development and evaluation of the keepin' it REAL curriculum. Results demonstrate the efficacy of a multicultural approach to prevention in controlling the onset of adolescent drug use.


I. Solo Recital: Sunday, April 28, 2013, 7:30 p.m., UNCG Recital Hall. Sonata Concertante, (Walter Hartley); Romanza Appassionata, (Carl Maria von Weber); Ballade for Bass Clarinet, (Eugene Bozza); Sonatine, pour Trombone et Piano (Jacques Casterede); Cinq melodies de Venise, op. 58 (Gabriel Faure). II. Solo Recital: Sunday, March 2, 2014, 3:30 p.m., UNCG Recital Hall. Red Dragonfly, (Amy Riebs Mills); Sieben fruhe Lieder, (Alban Berg); Capriccio da camera, Op. 35 (Bernhard Krol). III. Solo Recital: Sunday, November 16, 2014, 1:30 p.m., UNCG Recital Hall. Fanfare, (John Kenny); Sonata, for trombone and piano (Eric Ewazen); Funf Lieder, (Witold Lutoslawski); Fandango, for trumpet, trombone and piano, (Joseph Turrin). IV. Lecture Recital: Friday, February 27, 2015, 3:30 p.m., UNCG Organ Hall. Drei Gesange von Goethe, "Mit einem gemalten Band," (Ludwig von Beethoven); Sieben fruhe Lieder, "Die Nachtigall," (Alban Berg); Funf Lieder, "Dzwony cerkiewne," (Witold Lutoslawski). V. D.M.A. Recital Document. SONG SETS BY BEETHOVEN, BERG, AND LUTOSLAWSKI: TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR TROMBONE AND PIANO WITHIN A LECTURE RECITAL. The purpose of this project was to transcribe and adapt idiomatic songs for the trombone and present the songs in a lecture recital that demonstrated the efficacy of the vocal works as literature for the trombone. The song sets chosen for this project represent three different periods of music composition, from Romantic to mid-twentieth century. The Romantic song set of Drei Gesange von Goethe by Ludwig von Beethoven was chosen to best display the melodic and vocal quality of the trombone. Sieben fruhe Lieder by Alban Berg was chosen to demonstrate the chromatic capability of the trombone as a melodic instrument. The tonal and dynamic ranges of the trombone, as well as its rhythmic and articulation abilities were exercised in Funf Lieder by Witold Lutoslawski.


MOTIVATION
The lack of new antimicrobials, combined with increasing microbial resistance to old ones, poses a serious threat to public health. With hundreds of genomes sequenced, systems biology promises to help in solving this problem by uncovering new drug targets.

RESULTS
Here, we propose an approach that is based on the mapping of the interactions between biochemical agents, such as proteins and metabolites, onto complex networks. We report that nodes and links in complex biochemical networks can be grouped into a small number of classes, based on their role in connecting different functional modules. Specifically, for metabolic networks, in which nodes represent metabolites and links represent enzymes, we demonstrate that some enzyme classes are more likely to be essential, some are more likely to be species-specific and some are likely to be both essential and specific. Our network-based enzyme classification scheme is thus a promising tool for the identification of drug targets.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


The use of extracts of plant parts in the treatment and/or management of diabetes mellitus has formed the basis of health care in most African countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible effect of oral administration of extracts Hunteria umbellata (HU) leaves and seeds on streptozotocin- induced pancreatic β-cell damage. Twenty four (24) adult wistar rats were selected into two control group (negative control group A and positive control group B) and two treatment groups (C & D) each containing six animals each (n= 6 per group). Rats in the positive control group (B) were giving intraperitoneal injection of with 50 mg/kg body weight of Streptozotocin (STZ) prepared with 0.05M Citrate buffer solution while the negative control group A rats were injected with a corresponding volume of Citrate buffer without STZ. Rats in the treatment groups were treated with 250 mg/kg body weight aqueous extract of seeds of Hunteria umbellata (group C) and 250 mg/kg body weight aqueous extract of leaves of Hunteria umbellata (group D) respectively. Blood samples were taken by repeated needle puncture of their tail tip vein every 72 hours at the end of a 12 hrs fasting. Fasting blood glucose was determined using a fine test glucometer and compatible glucose test strips. Rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation on the 15 th day and the pancreas was accessed and dissected out through a midline incision of the anterior abdominal wall of the rats. The pancreas was fixed in 10% buffered formal saline for routine histological examination. 5ml blood samples were collected in heparin coated tubes for serum anti-oxidant estimation. Results obtained showed that HU seeds and leaves extracts significantly (P < 0.05) increased Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Catalase (CAT) activities and decrease in the activity of Thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) when compared streptozotocin injected rats. Histological sections showed marked distortion, vacoulation of the central part of the Islet. Treatment with Hunteria umbellata seed and leaf extracts reversed the cytoarchitectural distortion of pancreatic Islet cells caused by Streptozotocin. This suggests that extracts of HU seeds and leaves posses antidiabetic potential.


The goal of this work is to develop a computational model of the human retina and simulate light scattering through its structure aiming to shed light on data obtained by optical coherence tomography in human retinas. Currently, light propagation in scattering media is often described by Mie's solution to Maxwell's equations, which only describes the scattering patterns for homogeneous spheres, thus limiting its application for scatterers of more complex shapes. In this work, we propose a discontinuous Galerkin method combined with a low-storage Runge-Kutta method as an accurate and efficient way to numerically solve the time-dependent Maxwell's equations. In this work, we report on the validation of the proposed methodology by comparison with Mie's solution, a mandatory step before further elaborating the numerical scheme towards the propagation of electromagnetic waves through the human retina.


Introduction: Intraoperative endoscopy is a procedure that supports open and laparoscopic surgery, helping the surgeon to identify the presence of endoluminal gastrointestinal lesions which need to be treated, with a correct diagnosis and an adequate therapy. Material and methods: A search on PubMed was performed using "intraoperative esophagoscopy", "intraoperative duodenoscopy", and "intraoperative enteroscopy" as Mesh terms. The applied exclusion criteria were: papers written before 2000, not concerning pediatric or gastrointestinal pathology, literature-review articles, language different from English. Results: Sixteen studies from 2000 to 2018 were included. Overall, 1210 patients were treated. Different pathologies were considered. Complications were observed in a range of 0.3-14%. The most frequent complications were perforation, bleeding and mucosal tear. Mortality ranged between 0.7% and 1,2%. Conclusion: Intraoperative endoscopy is an indispensable tool for gastrointestinal surgery. In the hands of experienced endoscopists, intraoperative endoscopy can be performed safely, in time-efficient manner, facilitating diagnosis and treatment. (www.actabiomedica.it)


Features inexpensive ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller development systems available from Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics. This book presents a hands-on approach to teaching Digital Signal Processing (DSP) with real-time examples using the ARM Cortex-M4 32-bit microprocessor. Real-time examples using analog input and output signals are provided, giving visible (using an oscilloscope) and audible (using a speaker or headphones) results. Signal generators and/or audio sources, e.g. iPods, can be used to provide experimental input signals. The text also covers the fundamental concepts of digital signal processing such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion, FIR and IIR filtering, Fourier transforms, and adaptive filtering. Digital Signal Processing Using the ARM Cortex-M4: Uses a large number of simple example programs illustrating DSP concepts in real-time, in an electrical engineering laboratory setting Includes examples for both STM32F407 Discovery and the TM4C123 Launchpad, using Keil MDK-ARM, on a companion website Example programs for the TM4C123 Launchpad using Code Composer Studio version 6 available on companion website Digital Signal Processing Using the ARM Cortex-M4 serves as a teaching aid for university professors wishing to teach DSP using laboratory experiments, and for students or engineers wishing to study DSP using the inexpensive ARM Cortex-M4. Donald Reay is a lecturer in electrical engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has also taught hands-on DSP, on a number of occasions, as a visiting lecturer at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. He co-authored Digital Signal Processing and Applications with the TMS320C6713 and TMS320C6416 DSK, Second Edition (Wiley 2008) with Rulph Chassaing, and is the author of Digital Signal Processing and Applications with the OMAP-L138 eXperimenter (Wiley 2012).


More than identity politics, intersectionality regards the inability of institutional structures to remedy discrimination because of the intersection between social dynamics which are often discretely conceived (Crenshaw & Dill, 2009). For a set of Black women workers in the manufacturing context, the court found that they were not discriminated against on the basis of their race, because Black male workers were hired for manufacturing positions. Those Black women were not discriminated against because of their gender, because there were White women hired for the front office. Those Black women workers were caught at the intersections of race and gender discrimination laws and left their employment without an effective remedy (Crenshaw, 1989). This intersection metaphor is worth examining in the higher education context as we consider that the majority of students on most U.S. campuses are women (Allen, Dean, & Bracken, 2008), and an increasing number of these women are not White; yet, most campuses have support services targeted at African American and/or multicultural student affairs and women's services which are generally targeted at White women. This volume will focus on the subpopulation of Black female college students, examining institutional and non-institutional supports for their persistence to the undergraduate degree.


In the spring, the bear returns to the forest, the glacier returns to its source, and the salmon returns to the fresh water where it was spawned. Drawing on the special relationship that the Native people of southeastern Alaska have always had with nature, Blonde Indian is a story about returning. Told in eloquent layers that blend Native stories and metaphor with social and spiritual journeys, this enchanting memoir traces the author's life from her difficult childhood growing up in the Tlingit community, through her adulthood, during which she lived for some time in Seattle and San Francisco, and eventually to her return home. Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges, including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty. The author's personal journey, the symbolic stories of contemporary Natives, and the tales and legends that have circulated among the Tlingit people for centuries are all woven together, making Blonde Indian much more than the story of one woman's life. Filled with anecdotes, descriptions, and histories that are unique to the Tlingit community, this book is a document of cultural heritage, a tribute to the Alaskan landscape, and a moving testament to how going back?in nature and in life, llows movement forward.


Nanosized TiO2 is well-known for its photocatalytic property. From the combination of photocatalysis and photoinduced hydrophilicity properties, thin films of this material have also anti-fogging, self-cleaning and antimicrobial properties. There are numerous deposition techniques e.g. spin-coating, dip-coating, spraying, the most suitable one is chosen based on substrate or solution characteristics. Thin films are often required to be transparent for visible light, especially if we use them on transparent substrates, or they should not affect the color of the substrate. Radicals that are produced during photosensitizing process are able to destroy structure of a substrate and substrate can lose mechanical stability [1,2]. Some studies show that adding a SiO2 protective layer can prevent the damage of the substrate [3–5]. Ti-Zr containing sols were prepared with sol-gel process, where titanium(IV) isopropoxide, zirconium(IV) butoxide and ethanol were hydrolyzed with aqueous solution of perchloric acid. Solution was then refluxed for 48 hours. During that time crystallization and deaggregation took place and that resulted in a stable final solution [6]. To prepare suitable solution for production of durable films silica binder was added. On glass and plastic substrates, thin films were deposited with the dip-coating method and dried with a heat-gun. Thin films were characterized by measurements of photocatalytic activity with terephthalic acid as model organic pollutant subjected to oxidation via fluorescent degradation product, photoinduced superhydrophilicity phenomena, UV-Vis and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, SEM images, as well as mechanical properties measurements.
References
[1] H. Schmidt, M. Naumann, T.S. Muller, M. Akarsu, Thin Solid Films (2006) 502, 132– 137.
[2] W. A. Daoud, J.H. Xin, Y.H. Zhang, Surf. Sci. (2005) 599, 69–75.
[3] Ž. Senic, S. Bauk, M. Vitorovic-Todorovic, N. Pajic, A. Samolov, D. Rajic, Sci. Tech. Rev. (2011) 61, 63–72.
[4] T. Yuranova, R. Mosteo, J. Bandara, D. Laub, J. Kiwi, J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem. (2006) 244, 160–167.
[5] T. Yuranova, D. Laub, J. Kiwi, Catal. Today (2007) 122, 109–117.
[6] N. Vodisek, K. Ramanujachary, V. Brezova, U. Lavrencic Stangar, Catal. Today (2017) 287, 142–147.


Ontario's Medical Expert Panel on Duty to Inform was formed to consider the duty of Ontario physicians in circumstances where a patient threatens to kill or cause serious bodily harm to a third party. The panel was concerned about the implications of any duty to inform on the integrity of the physician-patient relationship, particularly with respect to confidentiality. The panel agreed that regulations safeguarding the confidentiality of patient information ought to be changed only if there is a critical reason for doing so, but, after deliberation, the panel members concluded that the need to protect the public from serious risk of harm is a paramount concern that should supersede the duty of confidentiality. The recommendations reported here were endorsed in principle by the panelists and the groups they represented (the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Canadian Medical Protective Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the Ontario Medical Association) and are being implemented by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.