The Brazilian Swine and Poultry Research Center (Embrapa Suinos e Aves) maintains a chicken breeding program for meat production since 1985. Two control lines (LLc and PPc) are maintained, whereas two male lines (TT and ZZ) and three female lines (PP, VV and KK) have been selected. This paper reports the genetic gain after 15 generations of combined selection (mass and independent culling levels) in order to develop the commercial broiler stocks Embrapa 021 and Embrapa 022. Selection pressure has been exerted on weight gain, carcass traits and fertility. In addition, female lines have also been selected for egg production, whereas males have been selected for feed efficiency since 1992. All lines have been selected for breast area instead of carcass traits since 1999. The genetic gain was estimated as the deviation between selected lines and the respective unselected lines at 42 days of age. In female lines, body weight improved 504, 548 and 587 g; average breast area increased 27.60; 16.99 and 26.43 cm2; adjusted feed conversion (42-49 d) improved -1.46; -0.97 and 1.76 units, and egg production varied 6.99; 7.12 and -3.43% units for PP, VV and KK, respectively. In male lines, body weight improved 758 and 408 g; average breast area increased 31.95 and 19.38 cm2, and adjusted feed conversion improved (42-49 d) -0.99 and 1.26 for TT and ZZ, respectively. This breeding program has been effective to generate genetic gain and to develop two commercial products, Embrapa 021 (standard) and Embrapa 022 (high yield). Nevertheless, feed efficiency is still not satisfactory.


The research focuses on the transfer of European urban ideas into Caracas, from Antonio Guzman Blanco's urban reforms in the 1870s to the proposal of the 1939 Plan Monumental de Caracas, devised under the guidance of the French urbanist Maurice Rotival. Considering that the emergence of urbanism cannot be reduced to its mere technical contents - especially in the backward context of the Venezuela of that period - the research traces not only the transfer of urbanistic ideas, but also the importation which took place in the domains related to the Caraquenians' urban culture and urbanity. At the same time, that urban transfer is not reduced to a deterministic effect of economic dependence, but is rather regarded as a component of the cultural relationship maintained by the Venezuelan elite with the most advanced countries of North Atlantic capitalism.

By tracing the transfer of urban ideas from Europe into Caracas - which remains the core issue of the research -a parallel question is explored: the reconstruction of the primary stages which articulated the urban debate in Venezuela and underpinned modern urbanism as a discipline, a process which apparently occurred against that European background. This reconstruction involves three episodes - the urban art of the Guzmanian city, the hygiene and progress of the belle Opoque and the monumental urbanism of the democratic capital - which are presented as components of a European-oriented cycle in the history of Caracas.

In order to trace that transfer and reconstruct those episodes, the research combines four types of urban discourse: the legal, political and administrative texts, the urban literature, the travel chronicles and general descriptions, and technical literature about urbanism. The interlacement of such a catalogue of specialized and non-specialized sources claims to be an innovation of the research.


In a seminal paper, Lin and Reiter introduced the notion of progression for basic action theories in the situation calculus. Earlier works by Moore, Scherl and Levesque extended the situation calculus to account for knowledge. In this paper, we study progression of knowledge in the situation calculus. We first adapt the concept of bisimulation from modal logic and extend Lin and Reiter's notion of progression to accommodate knowledge. We show that for physical actions, progression of knowledge reduces to forgetting predicates in first-order modal logic. We identify a class of first-order modal formulas for which forgetting an atom is definable in first-order modal logic. This class of formulas goes beyond formulas without quantifyingin. We also identify a simple case where forgetting a predicate reduces to forgetting a finite number of atoms. Thus we are able to show that for local-effect physical actions, when the initial KB is a formula in this class, progression of knowledge is definable in first-order modal logic. Finally, we extend our results to the multi-agent case.


In this paper, we present supervision-by-registration, an unsupervised approach to improve the precision of facial landmark detectors on both images and video. Our key observation is that the detections of the same landmark in adjacent frames should be coherent with registration, i.e., optical flow. Interestingly, coherency of optical flow is a source of supervision that does not require manual labeling, and can be leveraged during detector training. For example, we can enforce in the training loss function that a detected landmark at framet-1 followed by optical flow tracking from framet-1 to framet should coincide with the location of the detection at framet. Essentially, supervision-by-registration augments the training loss function with a registration loss, thus training the detector to have output that is not only close to the annotations in labeled images, but also consistent with registration on large amounts of unlabeled videos. End-to-end training with the registration loss is made possible by a differentiable Lucas-Kanade operation, which computes optical flow registration in the forward pass, and back-propagates gradients that encourage temporal coherency in the detector. The output of our method is a more precise image-based facial landmark detector, which can be applied to single images or video. With supervision-by-registration, we demonstrate (1) improvements in facial landmark detection on both images (300W, ALFW) and video (300VW, Youtube-Celebrities), and (2) significant reduction of jittering in video detections.


Management of systemic risk in financial markets is traditionally associated with setting (higher) capital requirements for market participants. There are indications that while equity ratios have been increased massively since the financial crisis, systemic risk levels might not have lowered, but even increased. It has been shown that systemic risk is to a large extent related to the underlying network topology of financial exposures. A natural question arising is how much systemic risk can be eliminated by optimally rearranging these networks and without increasing capital requirements. Overlapping portfolios with minimized systemic risk which provide the same market functionality as empirical ones have been studied by [pichler2018]. Here we propose a similar method for direct exposure networks, and apply it to cross-sectional interbank loan networks, consisting of 10 quarterly observations of the Austrian interbank market. We show that the suggested framework rearranges the network topology, such that systemic risk is reduced by a factor of approximately 3.5, and leaves the relevant economic features of the optimized network and its agents unchanged. The presented optimization procedure is not intended to actually re-configure interbank markets, but to demonstrate the huge potential for systemic risk management through rearranging exposure networks, in contrast to increasing capital requirements that were shown to have only marginal effects on systemic risk [poledna2017]. Ways to actually incentivize a self-organized formation toward optimal network configurations were introduced in [thurner2013] and [poledna2016]. For regulatory policies concerning financial market stability the knowledge of minimal systemic risk for a given economic environment can serve as a benchmark for monitoring actual systemic risk in markets.


Targeting of p53- and PUMA-dependent apoptosis protects intestinal stem cells, but not cancer cells, against chemotherapy. Safer without PUMA Gastrointestinal toxicity is a major cause of side effects from chemotherapy and radiation, which can greatly decrease the quality of life and limit the dosing of cancer treatments. Tumor suppressor p53 plays a major role in chemotherapy-induced intestinal cell death, but inhibiting p53 is not safe because a loss of p53 would worsen cancer growth. Instead, Leibowitz et al. showed that one can block only the detrimental function of p53 by inhibiting its downstream effector, PUMA. A small-molecule inhibitor of PUMA protected intestinal cells in mice and in human colon organoids but did not protect cancer cells, suggesting that this could be a viable strategy for intestinal protection in cancer patients. The gastrointestinal (GI) epithelium is the fastest renewing adult tissue and is maintained by tissue-specific stem cells. Treatment-induced GI side effects are a major dose-limiting factor for chemotherapy and abdominal radiotherapy and can decrease the quality of life in cancer patients and survivors. p53 is a key regulator of the DNA damage response, and its activation results in stimulus- and cell type–specific outcomes via distinct effectors. We demonstrate that p53-dependent PUMA induction mediates chemotherapy-induced intestinal injury in mice. Genetic ablation of Puma, but not of p53, protects against chemotherapy-induced lethal GI injury. Blocking chemotherapy-induced loss of LGR5+ stem cells by Puma KO or a small-molecule PUMA inhibitor (PUMAi) prevents perturbation of the stem cell niche, rapid activation of WNT and NOTCH signaling, and stem cell exhaustion during repeated exposures. PUMAi also protects human and mouse colonic organoids against chemotherapy-induced apoptosis and damage but does not protect cancer cells in vitro or in vivo. Therefore, targeting PUMA is a promising strategy for normal intestinal chemoprotection because it selectively blocks p53-dependent stem cell loss but leaves p53-dependent protective effects intact.


The first major and in-depth retrospective monograph on JR, the enigmatic and anonymous Parisian photographer/street artist/activist behind some of the world's most provocative large-scale public photography projects. Created in close collaboration with JR, this book includes all bodies of his work, his collaborations with other artists and institutions such as the New York Ballet and previously unpublished behind-the-scenes documentation of his studios in Paris and New York, where he and his creative collaborators live and work. Introducing JR 's story is a specially commissioned graphic novel by comic artist Joseph Remnant, which charts his rise from graffiti roots and his decision to become a full-time artist. Features a survey essay by Nato Thompson, Chief Curator of Creative Time, New York.


Many celebrate the Internet's ability to connect individuals and facilitate collective action toward a common goal. While numerous systems have been designed to support particular aspects of collective action, few systems support participatory, end-to-end collective action in which a crowd or community identifies opportunities, formulates goals, brainstorms ideas, develops plans, mobilizes, and takes action. To explore the possibilities and barriers in supporting such interactions, we have developed WeDo, a system aimed at promoting simple forms of participatory, end-to-end collective action. Pilot deployments of WeDo illustrate that sociotechnical systems can support automated transitions through different phases of end-to-end collective action, but that challenges, such as the elicitation of leadership and the accommodation of existing group norms, remain.


This note offers a new identification of a very prominent fifteenth-century owner of a Piers Plowman manuscript and brings together some disparate materials, to my knowledge unknown to Langland scholars, about the ownership of a few manuscripts and printed editions in the Tudor and Stuart eras. At issue in each case is the extent to which an absence or silence is meaningful or merely testimony to the inevitably patchy state of the textual record. A Fifteenth-Century King's Almoner, Registrar of the Order of the Garter--and Owner of British Library MS Add. 35287 (MS M of B) (1) The rather sparse evidence regarding who read or owned manuscripts of Piers Plowman in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has long been established, and often repeated. (2) This relative paucity has recently been interpreted as a sign that in the fifteenth century the ownership of Piers Plowman would have been akin to ownership of Lollard books, which "routinely served as evidence for prosecution." (3) In putting forth that case, John Bowers remarks that for the 120-odd years between Sir William Clopton (d. 1419), whose shield adorns the first page of University of London MS S.L. V. 17 (MS A of C), and Sir Adrian Fortescue, who copied Bodleian MS Digby 145 (MS K of A / [D.sup.2] of C) in 1532, the surviving manuscripts give no "evidence of high-status ownership." (4) I want now, however, to put forth an identification of an owner of Piers Plowman most closely associated with the very highest levels of English society of the mid-fifteenth century. The publication of London, British Library MS Add. 35287 (MS M of the B version) in the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, edited by Eric Eliason, Thorlac Turville-Petre, and Hoyt N. Duggan, has enabled the identification of an owner who was intimate with the king himself. These marks of ownership appear on the verso of the last folio, and are obscured both by the number of items there and by the fact that a large drawing of a mace has the effect of severing the constituent parts of the owner's signature. Two Latin tags, which I have elsewhere identified as being by "John of Bridlington" and John Gower, (5) appear on the left of this drawing, a feature that led Eliason, et al. (who provide by far the fullest account of the contents of this fascinating folio) to read the page in columns. They identify the words "danet the." on the left, and then remark: To the right of the mace are a set of pen trials, beneath which is a brief memorandum of expenses for Bruges satin in an early sixteenth-century hand: Item for a yerd and a quarter of saten ebregys [ij.sup.s] vj d beneath which is written the word Constat and various pen scribblings. (6) But the "danet" and "Constat" are on the same horizontal plane, and in the same hand, and "constat" is perhaps the most common term by which ownership of manuscripts is indicated, usually via the formula "iste liber constat [name of owner]." Perhaps because of the mace's dominance, or perhaps on a whim, the inscriber here indicated his ownership by placing his name before rather than after the verb. The hand would seem to belong to the latter part of the fifteenth century (the PPEA editors place the drawing of the mace and its attendant verses, which clearly pre-existed this signature, in mid-century). The most likely candidate might already appear to be one "Thomas Danet": and as Thorlac Turville-Petre graciously pointed out to me when I first put forth this idea to him, what he and his co-editors identified as "the" is surely instead "Tho." Thomas Danet was from a prominent family of Bromkinsthorpe, Leicestershire, his older brother Gerard dotting the pages of Eric Acheson's study of that county's gentry community. (7) Thomas himself left a trail of records of his remarkable and distinguished career, most of it helpfully collected by Emden, as summarized here. (8) He was most prominent in serving as privy councillor and almoner to King Edward IV, who sent him in 1475 to negotiate with Charles, duke of Burgundy, and in 1478 to take up the cause of Edward's sister, the duchess Margaret, with Louis XI of France. …


The present study empirically evaluates the socio-economic factors that affect the domestic violence against women in Turkey. The types of violence against women was examined with the Multinomial Logit Model (MNLM) by the use of data received from the Survey on Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey, which was performed by Turkish Statistical Institute for the year 2014. Empirical results show that physical and sexual violence raises as the women's age increase; and if the educational status of the women and their husbands was at and above university level, women faced less domestic violence. The results indicate that employment of women and husband did not have any significant effects on physical violence and economic and emotional violence. It is observed that if women had their own income or earning, they received less economic and emotional violence; and health insurance for women reduced the possibility of all types of violence. The results reveal that women living in urban areas were exposed to any type of violence more than those living in rural areas; and the bad habits of spouse (alcohol, gambling and drugs) increased every type of violence against women.


DNA damage is an important contributor to endothelial dysfunction and age-related vascular disease. Recently, we demonstrated in a DNA repair-deficient, prematurely aging mouse model (Ercc1Δ/- mice) that dietary restriction (DR) strongly increases life- and health span, including ameliorating endothelial dysfunction, by preserving genomic integrity. In this mouse mutant displaying prominent accelerated, age-dependent endothelial dysfunction we investigated the signaling pathways involved in improved endothelium-mediated vasodilation by DR, and explore the potential role of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). Ercc1Δ/- mice showed increased blood pressure and decreased aortic relaxations to acetylcholine (ACh) in organ bath experiments. Nitric oxide (NO) signaling and phospho-Ser1177-eNOS were compromised in Ercc1Δ/- DR improved relaxations by increasing prostaglandin-mediated responses. Increase of cyclo-oxygenase 2 and decrease of phosphodiesterase 4B were identified as potential mechanisms. DR also prevented loss of NO signaling in vascular smooth muscle cells and normalized angiotensin II (Ang II) vasoconstrictions, which were increased in Ercc1Δ/- mice. Ercc1Δ/- mutants showed a loss of Ang II type 2 receptor-mediated counter-regulation of Ang II type 1 receptor-induced vasoconstrictions. Chronic losartan treatment effectively decreased blood pressure, but did not improve endothelium-dependent relaxations. This result might relate to the aging-associated loss of treatment efficacy of RAS blockade with respect to endothelial function improvement. In summary, DR effectively prevents endothelium-dependent vasodilator dysfunction by augmenting prostaglandin-mediated responses, whereas chronic Ang II type 1 receptor blockade is ineffective.


Abstract African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are intensively managed in southern Africa and are routinely translocated between reserves. Domesticated elephants are used for elephant-back safaris and interactions with guests. Understanding how elephants respond to such activities is critical because of welfare issues associated with both humans and elephants. We investigated the stress response (i.e., fecal glucocorticoid metabolite secretion [FGM]) of working elephants in Letsatsing Game Reserve, South Africa, over 1 year to evaluate their response to transportation and ecotourism activities. We used free-ranging elephants in adjacent Pilanesburg National Park as controls. Fecal glucocorticoid metabolites were greatest prior to and during translocation and declined over the year. Within 1–2 months of transportation, FGM levels in working elephants became indistinguishable from those in wild elephants. Fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels were higher during human interaction days than days without interaction. The highest observed FGM levels were associated with transportation and episodic loud noises. Transportation is a stressful activity for elephants, and ≥3 months should be provided to translocated elephants to acclimate to their new surroundings. Although stress levels of elephants increased slightly when interacting with humans in the contexts we studied, evaluating interactions under a wider range of contexts is necessary to minimize danger to elephants and humans.


Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) have been widely employed in catalysis. Here, we report on the synthesis and catalytic evaluation of a hybrid material composed of Au NPs deposited at the surface of magnetic cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4). Our reported approach enabled the synthesis of well-defined Au/CoFe2O4 NPs. The Au NPs were uniformly deposited at the surface of the support, displayed spherical shape, and were monodisperse in size. Their catalytic performance was investigated towards the reduction of 4-nitrophenol and the selective oxidation of dimethylphenylsilane to dimethylphenylsilanol. The material was active towards both transformations. In addition, the LSPR excitation in Au NPs could be employed to enhance the catalytic performance, which was demonstrated in the 4-nitrophenol reduction. Finally, the magnetic support allowed for the easy recovery and reuse of the Au/CoFe2O4 NPs. In this case, our data showed that no significant loss of performance took place even after 10 reaction cycles in the oxidation of dimethylphenylsilane to dimethylphenylsilanol. Overall, our results indicate that Au/CoFe2O4 are interesting systems for catalytic applications merging high performances, recovery and re-use, and enhancement of activities under solar light illumination.


A realistic analysis of antitrust must deal in positive terms with political influences. Political influences are especially strong in the antitrust arena, where decisions and policy measures often significantly affect the profitability of market players. It is thus important, in designing an antitrust regime, to acknowledge such influences and to design institutions and methods that will harness political aspirations to the achievement of antitrust goals. Accordingly, the goal of this article is to analyze the different effects political motivations might have on antitrust, and to suggest tools that may minimize such effects. A short theoretical analysis of the political economy of antitrust enforcement is followed by some recent and interesting examples of cases in which political influences shaped antitrust decisions. The conclusion that is reached is that we should wisely recognize that politics cannot be simply ignored. Building upon this conclusion, the article then introduces and analyzes some institutional design mechanisms that can be applied in order to reduce political pressures and even harness them for the goals of antitrust.


Larval fish assemblages in Independencia Bay on the coast of Peru were examined using a combination of univariate and multivariate techniques. The plankton of Independencia Bay was sampled monthly during 2000, to ascertain ichthyoplankton composition, abundance, and seasonality, to determine diel abundance patterns and to assess the vertical variations of the dominant families in the area during a 24-hour cycle and relate those variations to oceanographic parameters. These data were used to assess the inferred function of the bay as spawning and nursery grounds and were related to the regional oceanography. Morphological development of some groups of the Ichthyoplankton from the bay is described. In total, 16,156 fish larvae, representing 34 families, 48 genera and 48 species were collected. Engraulidae, Normanichthyidae, Blenniidae, Gobiesoscidae, Haemulidae, Labrisomidae, Pinguipedidae and Atherinidae numerically dominated the larval fish fauna and comprised 96.8% of the larvae captured; the remaining 3.2% included several families. The monthly mean density of total fish larvae showed two peaks: one in spring, dominated by newly hatched mote sculpins (Normanichthyidae) and newly hatched and pre-flexion anchovies (Engraulidae). A second smaller peak in summer was dominated by preflexion-stage anchovies, followed by mote sculpins. Greatest mean larval fish densities were recorded between September and November, suggesting a major spawning period. The greatest mean density (no./100m3) during the spring peak was 7,492 larvae/100m3 recorded in October. The greatest mean density during summer was recorded in February (2,493 larvae/100m3). The occurrence of high larval fish densities and the wide range of larval stages suggest that Independencia Bay is a regionally important spawning and nursery ground for marine fish. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that temperature and salinity accounted for the largest fraction (74.4%) of the variability in the observed larval fish assemblage patterns. Vertical distribution patterns of ichthyoplankton were examined from two depths at two stations. Six families numerically dominated the diverse larval fish fauna, and comprised 97.6% of the larvae captured. The highest larval density and abundance cumulated through the water column was found at Panteon. The number of taxa was the same (5) at the surface at both stations, and was higher in m-water at Tunga (26) than at Panteon (21). Two patterns of larval vertical distribution were observed. There were no statistically significant differences between night and day densities of fish larvae at either depth. Nevertheless, a small degree of vertical redistribution was apparent.


This paper presents a new panel data set with annual time series of value added and persons employed for ten sectors of the economy. The database allows for consistent comparisons of output, employment and productivity trends in developing countries in Asia and Latin America during the period 1950-2005. It is based on an in-depth country-by-country study of available statistics to ensure consistency over time, across countries and across variables. Compared to the World Bank World Development Indicators, it offers more sectoral detail in the services sector, and longer and consistent time-series, in particular for employment. The new data set can be useful for a wide range of studies into the patterns and determinants of economic growth. In an illustrative analysis we identify accelerantions and decelerations in economic growht and perform a sectoral decomposition analysis. We find that accelerations in aggregate growth are mainly explained by productivity increases within sectors, not by reallocation of employment to more productive sectors. Challenging conventional wisdom, productivity improvements in market services appear to be more important than productivity growth in manufacturing.


This article on Maria Edgeworth's short story "Murad the Unlucky" may seem out of place in this issue devoted to magic realism and fantasy. However, the juxtaposition of the real and the fantastic and the idea of being a skilled reader of signs that Colleen Booker explores here is echoed in this issue's other articles: how to read magic realism within children's literature; how to read fantastic phenomena within a realistic setting; how to read gender in texts; how to read signs within a text to gain larger social insights. Booker's careful discussion of Edgeworth's political, social, and economic concerns behind the writing of "Murad the Unlucky" sheds an important light on an often-overlooked tale.


Introduction When I began my graduate studies in 1952 at University of Minnesota, the only psychology of learning presented was behavioral psychology, based largely on research with rats, cats and other animals. The only philosophy of knowledge, or epistemology, I was taught was logical positivism, for which the Philosophy Department at Minnesota was world famous. I did not see much value in behavioral psychology as a theory to guide research on human problem solving and ways to enhance this ability, which was the subject of my PhD thesis. Nor did I see value in a view of knowledge creation that centered on proving axioms and logically deriving new knowledge from basic premises, a view that did not appear to apply to the work I was doing in laboratory research in the Botany Department. Although there was the work of Barlett (1932) theorizing on how cognitive learning takes place, and the extensive work of Piaget beginning in 1926 describing how children's cognitive operations advance over time, I was taught none of this. I did, however discover the writing of Conant (1947) and his ideas on how the sciences create new knowledge. Later his protege, Kuhn (1962) would expand Conant's ideas in his enormously popular, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Lacking a psychology of learning that made sense to me, I chose to base my research on Wiener's (1948) cybernetic ideas, and we continued with these ideas until our research data failed to fit the theory. Most fortunately for us, Ausubel's (1963) cognitive psychology of learning was published about this time, and we embraced this as a foundation from 1963 onward. Today cognitive learning theories have essentially replaced behavioral theories, although much school learning still proceeds on behavioral learning principles, such as repetition and reinforcement. This is also evident in the common drill and practice observed in mathematics classrooms. One of the issues debated in the early 1960s was the extent to which children could profit from instruction on abstract, basic science concepts such as the nature of matter and energy. The dominant thinking in science education and development psychology was centered on the work of Jean Piaget (1926), particularly his ideas about cognitive operational stages. Piaget had devised some ingenious interviews administered to children, the results of which could be interpreted to support his theory of stages of cognitive operational development. It was widely assumed that children could not profit from instruction in such abstract concepts, such as the nature of matter and energy, before they reached the formal operational stage of thinking at ages 11 or older. Similar misperceptions are common with math educators who do not think young children can understand the basic concepts behind math procedures, or they may not even be aware of these concepts. The fundamental questions that concerned me and my research group were: 1. Are these claimed cognitive operational limitations of children the result of brain development, or are they at least partly an artifact of the kind of schooling and socialization characteristic of Piaget's subjects, and those commonly tested in US and other schools? 2. With appropriate instruction in basic science concepts such as the nature of matter and energy, can six to eight year-old children develop sufficient understanding to influence later learning? 3. Can the development of children's understanding of science concepts be observed as specific changes in their concepts and propositions resulting from the early instruction and from later science instruction? 4. Will the findings in a longitudinal study support the fundamental ideas in Ausubel's (1963) assimilation theory of learning? Answers to these questions could only be obtained by first designing systematic instruction in basic science concepts for 6-8 year-old children, and then following the same children's understanding of these concepts as they progressed through school, including later grades when formal science courses were taken. …


Hugh Trevor-Roper was educated as a classicist until he transferred to history, in which he made his reputation, after two years at Oxford. His schooling engendered in him a classicism that was characterised by a love of classical literature and style, but rested on a repudiation of the philological tradition in classical studies. This reaction helps to explain his change of intellectual career. His classicism, however, endured: it influenced his mature conception of the practice of historical studies, and can be traced throughout his life. This essay explores a neglected aspect of Trevor-Roper's intellectual biography through his 'Apologia transfugae' (1973), which explains his rationale for abandoning classics, and published and unpublished writings attesting to his classicism, especially his first publication 'Homer unmasked!' (1936) and his wartime notebooks.


The potential application for stem cell therapy is vast. Despite a limited understanding of their mechanisms of action, clinical trials assessing stem cells in human stroke are underway. Colony stimulating factors (CSF) such as granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), which have been used to mobilise haematopoietic stem cells (HSC), also show promise in treating stroke.

Preclinical experiments evaluating the effect of G-CSF in stroke were meta-analysed; G-CSF significantly reduced lesion size in transient but not permanent models of ischaemic stroke. Further studies assessing dose-response, administration time, length of ischaemia and long-term functional recovery are needed.

Tracking iron-labelled cells with MRI may help to establish migratory patterns following transplantation. Our systematic review of iron-labelled stem cells in experimental stroke suggests that compounds already licensed for humans (ferumoxide and protamine) may potentially be used in clinical trials.
In a phase IIb single-centre randomised controlled trial (n=60), the safety of G-CSF in recent stroke was assessed (STEMS-2). G-CSF appears safe when administered subacutely and may reduce stroke lesion volume. Phase III trials are required to test efficacy.

An updated Cochrane review on CSFs in stroke shows that G-CSF was associated with a non-significant reduction in early impairment but had no effect on functional outcome in 6 small studies. In two trials, erythropoietin therapy was significantly associated with death by the end of the trial. It is too early to know whether G-CSF could improve functional outcome in stroke.

In 8 recruits randomised into STEMS-2, mobilised CD34+ HSCs were paramagnetically labelled, re-infused and tracked with serial T2* MRI. Post-stroke HSC labelling appears safe and feasible. There is suggestive evidence in one patient that labelled HSCs migrate to the ischaemic lesion.

Our in vitro evaluation of CD34+ HSCs has revealed that uptake of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) is enhanced but not dependent upon a transfection agent. Iron labelling of CD34+ cells in this manner did not affect cell viability or inhibit growth. This methodology could be applied to clinical trials.

We have established the expression of G-CSF protein, its receptor (G-CSFR) and CD34 antigen in post-mortem brain tissue from participants recruited to STEMS-2. Areas of angiogenesis and expression of G-CSFR in acute and chronic infarction suggest potential targets for therapy.

There are many preclinical studies reporting the effects of stem cells in treating stroke (with a noticeable lack of neutral or negative articles). Despite the wealth of literature there remain many unanswered questions and patients should not undergo stem cell therapy unless it is as part of a well designed clinical trial.


An analytic approach to calculate the radiation pattern (including the wavelength dependence, azimuthal distribution, and polarization dependence) of tilted fiber phase gratings using the volume current method (VCM) is introduced in this paper. Results for both uniform and apodized fiber gratings are derived and discussed, and a brief comparison to experimental measurements from practical devices is also made.


The worldwide financial meltdown of 2008-09 caught economists and policy makers by surprise, including the U.S. president and his chief economic advisors. While the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the U.S. Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve (or Fed) expected a downward market correction from the dramatic boom in housing prices and homeownership, none of these economic agencies predicted the near collapse of the financial structure in the United States and its global economic repercussions. In his testimony before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform in 2008, Alan Greenspan, former Fed chairman, was asked by Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, "In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working." Greenspan responded, "Absolutely ... that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well" (U.S. Congress 2008a, 2008b). During the early months of the crisis, senior federal government policy makers, including the president, the secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and members of the president's economic team, as well as academic economists, shared these sentiments. How was it possible that senior economic officials in the president's administration and prior administrations did not see this crisis developing or pursue policies to avert it? The basic argument of the article is that the system for governing the market--the institutions, rules, regulations, and personnel practices that shape the way the market operates--is central to understanding the development of and failure to anticipate the financial crisis. In developing this argument, the article focuses on the role of the president in interactions with the Congress, economic advisors, and the independent regulatory agencies. Over the course of three decades leading up to the financial crisis, the give and take of macroeconomic ideas representing different economic interests and professional views converged into a common set of policy preferences and ideology across political parties, the houses of Congress, the president, and professional experts. Reinforcing this development was a powerful political moral hazard a condition in which public officials and private interests had strong incentives to take actions mutually beneficial to them but adverse to the overall economy and the interests of the general public--that led to a decline in institutional checks and balances in economic regulation. The system of economic governance thus failed to function as envisioned, and thereby, contributed to the crisis. These developments occurred during a time of significant economic change and financial innovation, making it difficult for the president and Congress, regulators, and private corporate directors to foresee the degree of risk building in the system. In this sense, the crisis represented a perfect storm in which financial innovations, a common set of policy preferences and ideology, and weakened check and balance governance converged to help bring the country to the brink of financial meltdown. In general, governance consists of the institutions and decision processes that determine how society makes choices. It includes the Constitution, the basic structure of the legislature, the presidency, and the courts, as well as legislative procedures, legal rules, and administrative practices. In the private sector, it includes the basic legal framework for private organizations, corporate policies and practices, and boards of directors. In the United States, the Constitution established a "check and balance" system as the basic structure of governance for the society and economy. Consequently, the U.S. Constitution prescribes an independent judiciary, separate houses of Congress elected in different ways and for different terms, and a separately elected chief executive as president. …


Gender-based heterogeneity in periodontal disease has been witnessed in the recent past with huge mounting evidence. The composite effect of sex-based genetic structure and the sex steroid hormones runs in line with the corresponding genderrelated differences in risk for chronic periodontitis. Since estrogens, the predominant sex hormones in women, show immune protective and anti-inflammatory effects in hormonally active premenopausal women, they show better periodontal status compared to age-matched men. Conversely, after menopause with a weakening estrogen signal, women may show an equal or even more serious periodontal status compared to men. Periodontal status of postmenopausal women may be improved by menopausal hormone therapy. Alveolar bone loss, an irreversible sign of past periodontal disease activity can be easily observed on radiographs in an objective manner. Orthopantomographs provide a fairly accurate assessment of the status of alveolar bone in the whole mouth. A cross-sectional retrospective panoramic radiographic analysis has been carried out in a north Indian dental institute to decipher the gender-based distribution of periodontal bone loss. The current chapter shall provide an update on gender-based differences in oral health, underlying mechanisms, differences in patterns and distribution of alveolar bone loss (case study), and potential gender-specific disease protection and management strategies.


Abstract In policy and research, migration and the welfare state are often seen as being at odds. When 'strangers' enter the welfare state, the financial and social foundations of solidarity are said to crumble. A prominent question, therefore, is whether immigrants should have the same rights as the autochthonous population. Within this frame, migrants are often 'objects'. This paper reports on qualitative research exploring what different types of labour migrants themselves think about the Dutch welfare state in general, and about giving social rights to immigrants, in particular. The differences in national backgrounds and levels of education in labour migrants' views are striking: lower-educated Turkish and Polish migrants show little interest in the welfare state, whereas higher-educated Western Europeans seek welfare state security. Higher-educated Indian migrants find the welfare state a totally new concept, although after a while some come to appreciate it. A significant proportion of the questioned migrants, moreover, believe that people should not be entitled to welfare state rights immediately upon arrival. They favour 'earned citizenship', with the welfare state being a 'contribution state', but stress that migrants should not have to wait too long before being entitled to such rights. The paper also suggests new topics for further research in the increasingly important field of migration, diversity and the welfare state.


Report on the Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) project undertaken by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in the period 1982-1992. The Fifth Generation Computer was developed using a framework of parallel processing and inference processing based on logic programming. The project received an investment of ¥54.15 billion ($416.54 million) and employed around 100 young engineers.


Objectives: Many medication management resources aim to improve the quality of prescribing for older people, but simple resources naively do not address potential interactions when there are many diseases and many medications, while complex ones seem impractical to use during consultations. Limited work has explored health professional preferences regarding prescribing resources for aged and/or multi-morbid patients. Therefore the aim of this study was to define the characteristics of an "ideal" medication management resource when caring for complex aged patients. Methods: Purposive convenience sampling was used to recruit geriatricians, GPs and accredited pharmacists for one hour, individual, semi-structured interviews though August 2011 to April 2012. Recruitment continued until data saturation. Nine geriatricians from Eastern Health, one GP and five accredited pharmacists from the Melbourne metropolitan area were interviewed. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo9 software. Results: Study participants reported current resources do not assist with complex patient prescribing and lack relevance to the Australian setting.  Difficulty in timely access to appropriate information and with contextualising vast amounts of new health information were identified hurdles in healthcare delivery, as were incomplete health care records. Key components which make resources useful include clear formatting, simplicity, use of peer-reviewed evidence-based recommendations, and ready electronic access via an easy to use interface. Conclusion: Current resources do not meet health professionals' needs when they seek practical assistance when prescribing to older people with multiple medical problems. Future resources need to address identified hurdles to providing optimal care and incorporate desired features.


Voltage clamp measurements reveal important insights into the activity of membrane ion channels. While conventional voltage clamp systems are available for laboratory studies, these instruments are generally unsuitable for more rugged operating environments. In this study, we present a non-invasive microfluidic voltage clamp system developed for the use under varying gravity levels. The core component is a multilayer microfluidic device that provides an immobilisation site for Xenopus laevis oocytes on an intermediate layer, and fluid and electrical connections from either side of the cell. The configuration that we term the asymmetrical transoocyte voltage clamp (ATOVC) also permits electrical access to the cytosol of the oocyte without physical introduction of electrodes by permeabilisation of a large region of the oocyte membrane so that a defined membrane patch can be voltage clamped. The constant low level air pressure applied to the oocyte ensures stable immobilisation, which is essential for keeping the leak resistance constant even under varying gravitational forces. The ease of oocyte mounting and immobilisation combined with the robustness and complete enclosure of the fluidics system allow the use of the ATOVC under extreme environmental conditions, without the need for intervention by a human operator. Results for oocytes over-expressing the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) obtained under laboratory conditions as well as under conditions of micro- and hypergravity demonstrate the high reproducibility and stability of the ATOVC system under distinct mechanical scenarios.


This book is the follow-up to its immediate predecessor, The Quality School. Based on the work of W. Edwards Deming and on Dr. Glasser's own choice theory, it is written for teachers who are trying to abandon the old system of boss-managing, which is effective for less than half of all students. William Glasser, M.D., explains that only through lead-management can teachers create classrooms in which all students not only do competent work but begin to do quality work. These classrooms are the core of a quality school. The book begins by explaining that to persuade students to do quality schoolwork, teachers must first establish warm, totally noncoercive relationships with their students; teach only useful material, which means stressing skills rather than asking students to memorize information; and move from teacher evaluation to student self-evaluation. There are no generalities in this book: It provides the specifics that classroom teachers seek as they begin the move to quality schools.


Conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems have increasingly been studied in recent decades. However, their applications have been limited due to their drawbacks such as low flux, membrane fouling, and high operating cost. In this study, a compact macro-filtration MBR (MfMBR) process was developed by using a large pore size membrane to mitigate the membrane fouling problem. A pilot trial of MfMBR process was set up and operated to treat 10 m(3)/day of saline wastewater within 4 h. The system was operated under an average permeate flux of 13.1 m(3)/(m(2)·day) for 74 days. The average total suspended solids, total chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and total nitrogen removal efficiencies achieved were 94.3, 83.1, 98.0, 93.1, and 63.3%, respectively, during steady-state operation. The confocal laser scanning microscopy image indicated that the backwash could effectively remove the bio-cake and dead bacteria. Thus, the results showed that the MfMBR process, which is essentially a primary wastewater treatment process, had the potential to yield the same high quality effluent standards as the secondary treatment process; thereby suggesting that it could be used as an option when the economic budget and/or land space is limited.


The factors affecting the regulation of photosynthetic carbon fixation in diverse phytoplankton populations are not yet understood. To this end, we have measured the expression of the gene (rbcL) for the major carbon fixation enzyme, ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, in coastal phytoplankton populations off Cape Hatteras and in oligotrophic oceanic picoplankton near Bermuda. Using gene probes specific for the cyanobacterial/chloro‐phytic clade and the chromophytic clade (diatoms, chrysophytes, prymnesiophytes, and others) of Form I rbcL genes ("cyano" and "chromo" probes, respectively), we have measured rbcL messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels in size‐fractionated coastal waters, in a decktop diel incubator and a Lagrangian drifter study, and in vertical profiles in stratified, oligotrophic ocean water. In coastal waters influenced by estuarine plumes, an equal distribution of carbon fixation between the picoplankton and the micro/nannoplankton occurred, with cyano rbcL mRNA coinciding with Synechococcus counts in the <1‐μm fraction, with the majority of the chromo rbcL mRNA expression occurring in the larger sized phytoplankton fraction. In profiles of oligotrophic oceanic waters, the cyano rbcL mRNA was found in the upper water column (∼50‐m depth) and coincided with peaks in Synechococcus counts. The chromo rbcL mRNA was concentrated at the subsurface chlorophyll a (Chl a) maximum (∼85 m) and corresponded to red‐fluorescing cell counts, thought to be picoeucaryotes and diatoms. Photosynthetic carbon fixation and RUBISCO enzyme activity encompassed both cyano and chromo rbcL mRNA peaks, suggesting a near equal contribution to carbon fixation in the water column by these two phytoplankton clades. Both decktop diel incubator studies and a Lagrangian drifter study in coastal waters indicated cyano rbcL transcription in the morning and chromophytic rbcL transcription in the late afternoon/early evening. Thus, the two major clades of RUBISCO‐containing phytoplankton occupy separate niches in time, space, and cell size in the waters off Cape Hatteras. The factors determining such clade‐specific niches may include efficiency of nutrient utilization, differences in relative carboxylase/oxygenase activity (τ values) of cyano (Form IB) and chromophytic (Form ID) RUBISCOs, and differences in pigment composition/adaptation to light regimes. Additionally, we propose that chromo rbcL mRNA may be indicative of new production, whereas cyano rbcL mRNA correlates with recycled production in stratified, oligotrophic oceanic environments.


Storm water quality models are useful tools in storm water management. Interest has been growing in analyzing existing data for developing models for urban storm water quality evaluations. It is important to select appropriate model inputs when many candidate explanatory variables are available. Model calibration and verification are essential steps in any storm water quality modeling. This study investigates input variable selection and calibration data selection in storm water quality regression models. The two selection problems are mutually interacted. A procedure is developed in order to fulfil the two selection tasks in order. The procedure firstly selects model input variables using a cross validation method. An appropriate number of variables are identified as model inputs to ensure that a model is neither overfitted nor underfitted. Based on the model input selection results, calibration data selection is studied. Uncertainty of model performances due to calibration data selection is investigated with a random selection method. An approach using the cluster method is applied in order to enhance model calibration practice based on the principle of selecting representative data for calibration. The comparison between results from the cluster selection method and random selection shows that the former can significantly improve performances of calibrated models. It is found that the information content in calibration data is important in addition to the size of calibration data.


Feline primary cutaneous lymphomas (FPCLs) account for 0.2% to 3% of all lymphomas in cats and are more frequently dermal nonepitheliotropic small T-cell tumors. Emergence of FPCL seems unrelated to feline leukemia virus (FeLV) serological positivity or to skin inflammation. A total of 17 cutaneous lymphomas with a history of vaccine injection at the site of tumor development were selected from 47 FPCLs. Clinical presentation, histology, immunophenotype, FeLV p27 and gp70 expression, and clonality were assessed. A majority of male (12/17), domestic short-haired (13/17) cats with a mean age of 11.3 years was reported. Postinjection time of development ranged from 15 days to approximately 9 years in 5 cats. At diagnosis, 11 of 17 cats had no evidence of internal disease. Lymphomas developed in interscapular (8/17), thoracic (8/17), and flank (1/17) cutaneous regions; lacked epitheliotropism; and were characterized by necrosis (16/17), angiocentricity (13/17), angioinvasion (9/17), angiodestruction (8/17), and peripheral inflammation composed of lymphoid aggregates (14/17). FeLV gp70 and/or p27 proteins were expressed in 10 of 17 tumors. By means of World Health Organization classification, immunophenotype, and clonality, the lesions were categorized as large B-cell lymphoma (11/17), anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma (3/17), natural killer cell–like (1/17) lymphoma, or peripheral T-cell lymphoma (1/17). Lineage remained uncertain in 1 case. Cutaneous lymphomas at injection sites (CLIS) shared some clinical and pathological features with feline injection site sarcomas and with lymphomas developing in the setting of subacute to chronic inflammation reported in human beings. Persistent inflammation induced by the injection and by reactivation of FeLV expression may have contributed to emergence of CLIS.


Given the ubiquity of deep neural networks, it is important that these models do not reveal information about sensitive data that they have been trained on. In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dataset used to train a supervised neural network. A successful model inversion attack should generate realistic and diverse samples that accurately describe each of the classes in the private dataset. In this work, we provide a probabilistic interpretation of model inversion attacks, and formulate a variational objective that accounts for both diversity and accuracy. In order to optimize this variational objective, we choose a variational family defined in the code space of a deep generative model, trained on a public auxiliary dataset that shares some structural similarity with the target dataset. Empirically, our method substantially improves performance in terms of target attack accuracy, sample realism, and diversity on datasets of faces and chest X-ray images.


We introduce a simple method to accelerate the convergence of iterative solvers of the frequency-domain Maxwell's equations for deep-subwavelength structures. Using the continuity equation, the method eliminates the high multiplicity of near-zero eigenvalues of the operator while leaving the operator nearly positive-definite. The impact of the modified eigenvalue distribution on the accelerated convergence is explained by visualizing residual vectors and residual polynomials.


In classification, the class imbalance issue normally causes the learning algorithm to be dominated by the majority classes and the features of the minority classes are sometimes ignored. This will indirectly affect how human visualise the data. Therefore, special care is needed to take care of the learning algorithm in order to enhance the accuracy for the minority classes. In this study, the use of misclassification analysis is investigated for data re-distribution. Several under-sampling techniques and hybrid techniques using misclassification analysis are proposed in the paper. The benchmark data sets obtained from the University of California Irvine (UCI) machine learning repository are used to investigate the performance of the proposed techniques. The results show that the proposed hybrid technique presents the best performance in the experiment.


Synchrotron based X-ray tomographic microscopy (XTM) is used for imaging and quantifying the redistribution of phosphoric acid (PA) in high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells (HT-PEFC) in-operando. The main focus of this work is the redistribution of phosphoric acid under dynamic load conditions. Therefore, two different load cycling protocols were applied and the transient redistribution within the fuel cell components was imaged. XTM, for the first time, revealed that the examined PBI based membrane system exhibits extensive electrolyte migration from cathode to anode under high current density operation. PA flooding of anode gas diffusion layer (GDL) and flow field channels occurred. Implications for technical applications and fuel cell degradation are discussed. Quantification of the migrated electrolyte is made by correlating in-operando grayscale values to ex-situ reference samples.


Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease affecting around 1% of the world's population leading to autoimmune arthritis. Though the exact etiology of RA remains unknown, various environmental and biological triggers have been suspected. The most important factor which is implicated in the pathogenesis of RA is oxidative stress. However the exact relationship between antioxidants and lipid peroxidation is not yet known in patients of RA. Hence the case control study was conducted in 50 patients of rheumatoid arthritis (Group II) diagnosed by criteria's recommended by American Rheumatology Association were compared with age and sex matched 50 normal healthy controls (GroupI). Malondialdehyde (MDA) a marker of oxidative stress, antioxidant enzymes Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and Superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured by enzymatic spectrophotometric method. MDA levels was significantly increased (p< 0.01) in RA patients as compared to controls. The concentrations of GPx and SOD were significantly lower in RA patients as compared to normal healthy adults. Our findings indicate that oxidative stress does occur in patients RA patients. Treatment with antioxidant therapy to limit the disease process of RA patients needs to be assessed.


Labile carbon, although often a small fraction of soil organic carbon (SOC), significantly affects heterotrophic respiration at short timescales because of its rapid decomposition. However, in the current literature, most soil respiration measurements are interpreted without simultaneous information on labile carbon pool dynamics. Sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature is routinely derived directly from field observations, and such relationships have been used to extrapolate effects of global change (e.g., warming) on carbon emission from SOC. Here we use a multipool SOC model to demonstrate the impacts of seasonal fluctuations of labile carbon pools on interpretation of soil respiration measurements. We find that labile carbon pool sizes vary widely in response to seasonal changes in representative plant material inputs and temperature even though the model is operating at equilibrium in terms of annual means. Convolution of the dynamics of fast turnover carbon pools and temporal progression in temperature lead to misrepresentation and misinterpretation of the heterotrophic respiration‐temperature relationships estimated from bulk soil CO2 exchanges. Temperature sensitivity is overestimated when the variations of labile carbon pools and temperature are in phase and underestimated when they are out of phase. Furthermore, with normally used observation time windows (weeks to a year), temperature sensitivity is more likely to be underestimated. A distortion of temperature sensitivity (Q10) from 2 (actual, sensitive dependence on temperature) to nearly 1 (false, no dependence on temperature) is shown. Applying estimated temperature sensitivity parameter back into the model considerably overestimates soil carbon storage at equilibrium. Our findings indicate that caution must be taken when soil respiration‐temperature relationships are evaluated based on bulk soil observations and when sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature estimated directly under field conditions is used to predict future carbon cycle‐climate feedbacks.


Background: Second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure is a modifiable cause of ill health. Despite the smoking ban in public places introduced in Hong Kong in 2007, infants and children continue to be exposed within the home. Aims: To determine the critical windows of SHS exposure and the duration of its impact on serious infectious morbidity in the first 8 years of life. Methods: The Hong Kong "Children of 1997" birth cohort is a prospective, population-based study of 8327 children comprising 88% of all births in April and May 1997, of whom 7402 (89%) were followed up until their eighth birthday in 2005. We used multivariable Cox regression to assess the relation between postnatal SHS exposure and risk of first admission to public hospitals (together accounting for >95% total bed-days overall) for respiratory, other and all infections from birth to 8 years of age, for all individuals and for vulnerable subgroups. Results: Overall, household SHS exposure within 3 metres in early life was associated with a higher risk of admission for infectious illness up until 8 years of age (hazard ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.31), after adjustment for sex, birthweight, gestational age, feeding method, maternal age, highest parental education and proxies of preferred service sector. The association was strongest in the first 6 months of life (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.83). In vulnerable subgroups such as premature babies, the association held through to 8 years of age (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.08 to 3.72). Infants exposed to SHS in the first 3 months of life were most vulnerable to infectious causes of hospitalisation. Conclusion: Household SHS exposure in early infancy increases severe infectious morbidity requiring hospital admission. Reducing SHS exposure in infants and particularly in more vulnerable infants will lower the bed-days burden due to infectious causes.


COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF VIBRATIONAL QUBITS IN ANHARMONIC LINEAR ION TRAPS Lei Wang, B.S., M.S. Marquette University, 2012 A string of cold ions confined in a linear trap represents a man-made quantum object with a broad range of applications in atomic and molecular spectroscopy, such as high-precision measurement of atomic properties. An efficient isolation from the environment guarantees excellent coherent properties of such systems and makes them suitable for practical realization of the quantum information processing. The pioneering theoretical [Cirac and Zoller] and experimental [Wineland and Monroe] work in 1990s resulted in the explosive expansion of this field during the last decade. In this dissertation an alternative new method for controlling the quantized motional/vibrational states of ions in a trap is explored theoretically. It is proposed to create small anharmonicity in the trapping potential which would modify the spectrum of states and allow addressing the state-to-state transitions selectively. In this approach all ions remain in the ground electronic state and their motion is controlled adiabatically and coherently by applying the optimally shaped electric fields (RF). The optimal control theory, accurate numerical calculation of the energies and wavefunctions, and numerical propagation of wave packets are employed. Two sources of vibrational anharmonicity are studied: the intrinsic Coulomb anharmonicity due to the ion-ion interactions and the external anharmonicity of the trapping potential. It is shown that the magnitude of Coulomb anharmonicity is insufficient for the control. In contrast, anharmonicity of the trapping potential allows controlling the motion of ions very accurately. It is demonstrated that one ion in a slightly anharmonic trap can be easily controlled and used to represent one qubit. A multi-qubit system can be created by employing a long progression of states of a single ion, or by trapping multiple ions and controlling several normal vibration modes of the ion string. Up to four qubits are modeled in this work and accurate pulses are optimized for a set of universal quantum gates: NOT, conditional NOT (CNOT) and Hadamard transformation. The control field for Shor's algorithm (quantum algorithm for factorization onto prime numbers) is also obtained. It is demonstrated that a careful choice of system properties allows achieving very high accuracy of qubit transformations, up to 0.999.


Abstract This article considers how gender and power are implicated in how prostitution policy is translated from initial proposal to enactment in law. The analysis brings together Freeman's proposal for "policy translation" (2009) and Connell's work on "hegemonic masculinity" (1987 with Messerschmidt 2005) to examine Hansard and other United Kingdom Parliament documents relating to Clause 13/14 of the Policing and Crime Bill 2008–2009, a proposal to criminalise the purchase of sex in England and Wales. It is argued here that hegemonic masculinity is implicated in how "responsibility" and "exploitation" in relation to sex purchase are disputed and defined within the Parliamentary debates on Clause 13/14, and this in turn informed the version of criminalisation that emerged as authoritative. This article reflects finally on how far mapping the translation of policy can elucidate the operation of gender and power within the policy process.


Bulbophyllum nilegiriensis Wt., an orchid of ethno medical significance, from Western Ghats of Karnataka was studied for antifungal and phytochemical properties. The phytochemical constituent analysis showed different phytoconstituents in different extracts. Petroleum ether, alcohol and chloroformextract showed alkaloid, steroid and terpinoids. Flavonoids were present in chloroform and alcohol extracts. Tannins were observed in petroleum ether and chloroform extract. Tannins and Flavonoids were present in chloroform extract and absent in petroleum ether extracts. In vitro antifungal efficacy of all the four extracts was tested by well in agar method. Both yeasts and filamentous fungi were inhibited with zone of inhibition upto 26 mm. Candida albicans was significantly inhibited in all four tested extracts followed byCandida kruseii and Fussariumoxysporium. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was unaffected by all the extracts. A zone of 20mmwas observed for Cryptococcus neoformens only in water extracts. The purity of the chloroformextract was assessed by Column Chromatography, HPLC and UV absorption studies with a single peak and absorption of 257nm.


ABSTRACT Significant intra-annual variability in flow rates of tidewater-terminating Arctic glaciers has been observed in recent years. These changes may result from oceanic and/or atmospheric forcing through (1) perturbations at the terminus, such as enhanced submarine melt and changes in sea-ice buttressing, or (2) increased surface melt, in response to atmospheric warming, reaching the bed and promoting glacier slip. We examine the influence of these processes on Belcher Glacier, a large fast-flowing tidewater outlet of the Devon Island ice cap in the Canadian Arctic. A hydrologically-coupled higher-order ice flow model is used to estimate changes in glacier flow speed as a result of changes in sea-ice buttressing and hydrologically-driven melt-season dynamics. Daily run-off from five sub-catchments over the 2008 and 2009 melt seasons provides meltwater forcing for the model simulations. Model results are compared with remotely-sensed and in situ ice-surface velocity measurements. Sea-ice effects are found to have a minor influence on glacier flow speed relative to that of meltwater drainage, which is clearly implicated in short-term velocity variations during the melt season. We find that threshold drainage is essential in determining the timing of these short-lived accelerations.


The Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) conducts annual examinations of Nebraska's interstate and federal highway pavements. During these examinations, numerous indicators of pavement quality are measured directly or are compiled from parameters recorded by a vehicle passing over the pavement section. Parameters are documented and analyzed for each one-tenth mile segment. A number of pavement sections where innovative features have been incorporated were selected by the NDOR for comparison to nearby conventional pavement sections. This study used data recorded by the NDOR as well as field observations to develop a comparison between two pavement sections, one with innovative features incorporated and a second of more conventional design. Pavement quality indicators measured and compared included Nebraska Serviceability Index, International Roughness Index, Present Serviceability Index, cracking index, rutting, faulting, and longitudinal and transverse cracking. Pavement sections where innovative features were incorporated generally performed better than pavement sections where only more conventional features were used.


Geostatistical seismic inversion is commonly used to infer the spatial distribution of the subsurface petroelastic properties by perturbing the model parameter space through iterative stochastic sequential simulations/co-simulations. The spatial uncertainty of the inferred petroelastic properties is represented with the updated a posteriori variance from an ensemble of the simulated realizations. Within this setting, petroelastic realizations are generated assuming stationary and known large-scale geologic parameters (metaparameters), such as the spatial correlation model and the global a priori distribution of the properties of interest, for the entire inversion domain. This assumption leads to underestimation of the uncertainty associated with the inverted models. We have developed a practical framework to quantify uncertainty of the large-scale geologic parameters in geostatistical seismic inversion. The framework couples geostatistical seismic inversion with a stochastic adaptive sampling and Bayesian inference of the metaparameters to provide a more accurate and realistic prediction of uncertainty not restricted by heavy assumptions on large-scale geologic parameters. The proposed framework is illustrated with synthetic and real case studies. The results indicate the ability to retrieve more reliable acoustic impedance models with a more adequate uncertainty spread when compared with conventional geostatistical seismic inversion techniques. The proposed approach accounts for geologic uncertainty at the large scale (metaparameters) and the local scale (trace-by-trace inversion).


Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is a powerful spectroscopic technique for studying samples at dilute fluorophore concentrations down to single molecules. The standard way of data acquisition, at such low concentrations, is an asynchronous photon counting mode that generates data only when a photon is detected. A significant problem is how to efficiently convert such asynchronously recorded photon count data into a FCS curve. This problem becomes even more challenging for more complex correlation analysis such as the recently introduced combination of FCS and time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC). Here, we present, analyze, and apply an algorithm that is highly efficient and can easily be adapted to arbitrarily complex correlation analysis.


Solubility enhancement is a technique used for the hydrophobic drugs. Low aqueous solubility is the major problem, due to which drugs cannot reach the therapeutic level. Most of drugs weakly acidic and weakly basic with poor aqueous solubility. Low aqueous solubility is the major problem encountered with formulation development of new chemical entities as well as for the generic development. Among all newly discovered chemical entities about 40% drugs are lipophilic and fail to reach therapeutic range due to their poor water solubility. Drug with poor water solubility cause slow dissolution rates, generally show erratic and incomplete absorption leading to low bioavailability when administered orally. The Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) reflects that Class II and IV drugs have low water solubility, poor dissolution, and low bioavailability. In this article various techniques are described to increase the solubility of drugs.


A group of Linearbandkeramik people at Talheim, Germany were previously found to have died at the same time, probably in a massacre, and the authors were able to ask some searching questions of their skeletons. The isotope signatures of strontium, oxygen and carbon, which gave information on diet and childhood region, showed up three groups which correlated with hereditary traits (derived previously from the analysis of the teeth). In the local group, there were many local children but no adult women, suggesting they had been selectively taken alive at the time of the massacre. Another group, with isotope signatures derived from upland areas, includes two men who may have been closely related. A third group has a composition suggestive of a nuclear family. The variations of one type of isotope signature with another suggested subtle interpretations, such as transhumance, and a probable labour division in the community between stockholders and cultivators. Here we see the ever-growing potential of these new methods for writing the 'biographies' of prehistoric skeletons.


An important sub-discipline within the field of Communication and Social Change addresses how meaningful participation can be practically implemented. This article presents the case of an intervention developed by the NGO 'Half the Sky Movement' and reflects upon how participation took shape within a primarily top-down program model. The design of the project bridges traditional, outsider-led and participatory, bottom-up design. The project accomplishes this by focusing on small group discussion and short videos as catalysts for reflection. In addition, the data suggest that storytelling may be particularly helpful for promoting engaged discussion and critical reflection.


OBJECTIVE
In line with a similar recent proposal for sleep bruxism (SB), defining clinically oriented research routes to implement knowledge on awake bruxism (AB) metrics is important for an enhanced comprehension of the full bruxism spectrum, i.e. better assessment and more efficient management.

METHODS
We summarised current strategies for AB assessment and proposed a research route for improving its metrics.

RESULTS
Most of the literature focuses on bruxism in general or SB in particular, whilst knowledge on AB is generally fragmental. Assessment can be based on non-instrumental or instrumental approaches. The former include self-report (questionnaires, oral history) and clinical examination, whilst the latter include electromyography (EMG) of jaw muscles during wakefulness as well as the technology-enhanced ecological momentary assesment (EMA). Phenotyping of different AB activities should be the target of a research task force. In the absence of available data on the frequency and intensity of wake-time bruxism-type masticatory muscle activity, any speculation about the identification of thresholds and criteria to identify bruxers is premature. Research routes in the field must focus on the improvement of data reliability and validity.

CONCLUSIONS
Probing deeper into the study of AB metrics is a fundamental step to assist clinicians in preventing and managing the putative consequences at the individual level. The present manuscript proposes some possible research routes to advance current knowledge. At different levels, instrumentally-based and subject-based information must be gathered in a universally accepted standardized approach.


Surprisingly little is known about the neural correlates of remembering real life events in the context of normal aging. We therefore asked young and older adults to retrieve real life autobiographical event memories accrued over decades, while their brains were scanned using functional MRI. There were many commonalities between the groups in the wider network of brain areas active during retrieval. Nevertheless, one key difference emerged; while left hippocampal activation was apparent in the young, bilateral hippocampal activation was evident in older adults and direct comparison between the groups confirmed significantly greater right hippocampal activation in older adults. Notably, this difference was specific to autobiographical event memory retrieval, as the groups were comparable in the areas active during semantic memory retrieval. The present findings show that even when stimuli, tasks and performance appear indistinguishable between young and older adults, neural changes occur in aging with specificity in both the memory type and the brain regions affected. In particular, the results reveal that age-related effects are detectable in the hippocampus. This highlights the need to consider how the dynamic course of normal aging interacts with pathological processes that might also affect the hippocampus. Understanding this relationship may aid prognosis, as well as providing insights into plasticity in the anatomy of memory.


The relevance of recording and assessing countries' capital flow management measures is well-recognized, but very few studies have focused on low-income developing countries (LIDCs). A key constraint is the lack of an appropriate index to measure the openness of capital account and its change over time. This paper fills the gap by constructing a de jure index based on information contained in the IMF's Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions. It provides an aggregate index to capture the overall openness of the capital account, and also provides a breakdown of openness for various subcategories of capital flows. The new database covers 164 countries with information on 12 types of asset categories over the period 1996–2013. The index provides the largest coverage of LIDCs among all existing indices and also provides granularity on openness across asset types, direction of flows and residency. The paper examines the link between de jure capital account openness with de facto capital flows and outlines potential applications of this database.


Manipulation of site organic matter and nutrients, in addition to planting of superior genotypes will likely influence carbon fluxes from intensively managed forests. The objective of this research is to monitor total soil carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux (FS), microbial respiration (RH), and leaf gas exchange (PN) in a two-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stand located on the Lower Coastal Plain of South Carolina, which has undergone logging residue (LR) and nutrient additions. Short-term results showed a 17 percent decrease in stem volume with the addition of LR, and showed only modest improvement with the addition of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). However, fertilizer alone increased stem volume by 40 percent and increased PN in needles produced in 2006. LR and fertilization had no consistent effect on FS, but showed a tendency to increase and decrease RH, respectively. Most notably, varieties showed a significant and sustained difference in FS, which was partially explained by increased RH and fine-root length. These early results suggest that clonal varieties respond differently to site manipulations and nutrient additions and some of these measured responses have implications for long-term C storage.


Abstract. The change of hydrological conditions during the evolution of caves in carbonate rocks often results in a complex subterranean geomorphology, which comprises specific landforms such as ceiling channels, anastomosing half tubes, or speleothems organized vertically in different levels. Studying such complex environments traditionally requires tedious mapping; however, this is being replaced with terrestrial laser scanning technology. Laser scanning overcomes the problem of reaching high ceilings, providing new options to map underground landscapes with unprecedented level of detail and accuracy. The acquired point cloud can be handled conveniently with dedicated software, but applying traditional geomorphometry to analyse the cave surface is limited. This is because geomorphometry has been focused on parameterization and analysis of surficial terrain. The theoretical and methodological concept has been based on two-dimensional (2-D) scalar fields, which are sufficient for most cases of the surficial terrain. The terrain surface is modelled with a bivariate function of altitude (elevation) and represented by a raster digital elevation model. However, the cave is a 3-D entity; therefore, a different approach is required for geomorphometric analysis. In this paper, we demonstrate the benefits of high-resolution cave mapping and 3-D modelling to better understand the palaeohydrography of the Domica cave in Slovakia. This methodological approach adopted traditional geomorphometric methods in a unique manner and also new methods used in 3-D computer graphics, which can be applied to study other 3-D geomorphological forms.


Time-delay estimation is studied for cognitive radio systems, which facilitate opportunistic use of spectral resources. A two-step approach is proposed to obtain accurate time-delay estimates of signals that occupy multiple dispersed bands simultaneously, with significantly lower computational complexity than the optimal maximum likelihood (ML) estimator. In the first step of the proposed approach, an ML estimator is used for each band of the signal in order to estimate the unknown parameters of the signal occupying that band. Then, in the second step, the estimates from the first step are combined in various ways in order to obtain the final time-delay estimate. The combining techniques that are used in the second step are called optimal combining, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) combining, selection combining, and equal combining. It is shown that the performance of the optimal combining technique gets very close to the Cramer-Rao lower bound at high SNRs. These combining techniques provide various mechanisms for diversity combining for time-delay estimation and extend the concept of diversity in communications systems to the time-delay estimation problem in cognitive radio systems. Simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed estimators and to verify the theoretical analysis.


In the field of international humanitarian law, there are a number of questions about the conduct of warfare in the cyber domain. In some cases, answers can be gleaned from treaties and customary international law but in other instances, solutions are seemingly intractable, begging for solutions that may only be answered by technology itself. From a legal perspective, such oversimplifications trivialize humanitarian law as well as other legal constructs already struggling to address complex issues in the cyber realm.It is within this context that this paper focuses on a recent event known as Stuxnet, a computer virus that infected and damaged a nuclear research facility in Natanz, Iran. Reflecting on this particular cyber attack, this paper addresses two IHL issues: Does the Stuxnet attack rise to the level of an armed attack within the meaning of international humanitarian law? If so, did it adhere to the two core principles of IHL, namely distinction and proportionality? This paper finds that the Stuxnet attack does in fact rise to the level of an armed attack within the meaning of IHL and adheres to the principles of distinction and proportionality.


The Kimmeridge Clay is a Jurassic mudrock succession that shows Milankovitch Band climatic cyclicity. A key issue is to determine how the subtle changes that define this cyclicity result from climatic change. Using material from the Natural Environment Research Council Rapid Global Geological Events (RGGE) Kimmeridge Drilling Project boreholes, the White Stone Band was investigated at the lamination scale using backscattered electron imagery and quantitative palynofacies. Fabric analysis shows the lamination to represent successive deposition of coccolith-rich and organic-matter-rich layers. Individual laminae contain unsorted palynological debris with a consistent ratio of marine and terrestrial components. Such mixed organic matter input is interpreted as the result of storm transport. Linking water column processes to laminae deposition suggests seasonal input with a coccolith bloom followed by a more diverse assemblage including dinoflagellates and photosynthetic chlorobiacean bacteria. As the photic zone extended into the euxinic water column organic matter export to the sea bed underwent minimal cycling through oxidation and subsequently became preserved through sulphurization with greatly increased sequestration of carbon. This was significantly increased by late season storm-driven mixing of euxinic water into the photic zone. Increased frequency of storm systems would therefore dilute the coccolith input to give an oil shale. Hence climatically induced changes in storm frequency would progressively vary the organic content of the sediment and generate the climate cycle signal.


This document discusses the profitability of grain corn taking into consideration different production scenarios, both in Chile and Argentina. First, the profitability of grain corn produced in Chile is analyzed under the assumption of land renting and considering different yields. Later on, Chilean and Argentinean profitability of grain corn production are compared, under the assumption of land renting and use of genetically modified seed (Bt and RR). In the case of Chile's data, in order to gather the required input to perform this analysis, a producer survey was administered in Chile during 2001. The survey was conducted in the Region del Libertador Bernardo O´Higgins, the main grain corn production zone. Additionally, the data collected through the survey was updated to 2006 values. In the case of Argentina, average costs and yields from the main production areas were estimated and used. Findings indicate that Chilean producers require to yield at least 120 qqm/ha to surpass the gross margin of 500 US$/ha, minimum profitability expected by producers under the assumption of land ownership. Taking into account the lower yield obtained by Argentinean producers, the use of Bt and RR seeds does not seem to be a great advantage in terms of profitability, over all if it is compared with the use of conventional seed in Chile. However, a substantial increase of grain corn yield in Argentina would have a considerable impact on the business profitability in Chile, mostly if a scenario of land renting is considered.


We study the relationship between environmental conditions at birth and adult stature using cohort-state level data in Brazil. We find that GDP per capita in the year of birth, not infant mortality rate, is a robust correlate of population stature in Brazil during the period 1950-1980. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness checks. Using a useful bracketing property of the (state) fixed effects and lagged dependent variables (heights) estimators, we find that an increase in GDP per capita of the magnitude corresponding to that period is associated with 43%-68% of the increase in adult height occurring in the same time span. Income, not disease, appears to be the main correlate of Brazilian population heights in the second half of the 20th Century.


Automatic aircraft recognition in high-resolution satellite images has many important applications. Due to the diversity and complexity of fore-/background, recognition using pixel-based methods usually does not perform well. In this letter, we propose a new method integrating the high-level information of a shape prior, which is considered as a coarse-to-fine process. In the coarse stage, the pose of an aircraft is roughly estimated by a single template matching with a defined score criterion. In the fine stage, we derive a parametric shape model by applying principal component analysis and kernel density function, which have good effects on both dimension reduction and sample space description; then, a new variational formulation combining region information and a shape prior is proposed to segment the object using a level set method. Finally, the parameters of the segmentation result are directly applied to verify aircraft type with two k-nearest neighbor steps. Experiments on QuickBird images demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of the proposed method.


Participatory Budgeting - the experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the U.S. Reinvesting in Democracy is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009. It has recently been called ""revolutionary civics in action"" by the New York Times . Participatory budgeting empowers citizens to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds. Reinvesting in Democracy places participatory budgeting within the larger discussion of the health of U.S. democracy and focuses on the enabling political and institutional conditions. Author and former White House policy adviser Hollie Russon Gilman presents theoretical insights, in-depth case studies, and interviews to offer a compelling alternative to the current citizen disaffection and mistrust of government. She offers policy recommendations on how to tap online tools and other technological and civic innovations to promote more inclusive governance. While the literature tends to focus on institutional changes without offering pragmatic ways in which ordinary people can become engaged, this book suggests practical solutions that empower citizens to become change agents. Reinvesting in Democracy also includes a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that come with using digital tools to re-engage citizens in governance.


Domain adaption (DA) allows machine learning methods trained on data sampled from one distribution to be applied to data sampled from another. It is thus of great practical importance to the application of such methods. Despite the fact that tensor representations are widely used in Computer Vision to capture multi-linear relationships that affect the data, most existing DA methods are applicable to vectors only. This renders them incapable of reflecting and preserving important structure in many problems. We thus propose here a learning-based method to adapt the source and target tensor representations directly, without vectorization. In particular, a set of alignment matrices is introduced to align the tensor representations from both domains into the invariant tensor subspace. These alignment matrices and the tensor subspace are modeled as a joint optimization problem and can be learned adaptively from the data using the proposed alternative minimization scheme. Extensive experiments show that our approach is capable of preserving the discriminative power of the source domain, of resisting the effects of label noise, and works effectively for small sample sizes, and even one-shot DA. We show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art on the task of cross-domain visual recognition in both efficacy and efficiency, and particularly that it outperforms all comparators when applied to DA of the convolutional activations of deep convolutional networks.


We identified a variational structure associated with traveling
waves for systems of reaction-diffusion equations of gradient type with equal
diffusion coefficients defined inside an infinite cylinder, with either Neumann
or Dirichlet boundary conditions. We show that the traveling wave solutions
that decay sufficiently rapidly exponentially at one end of the cylinder are
critical points of certain functionals. We obtain a global upper bound on the
speed of these solutions. We also show that for a wide class of solutions of
the initial value problem an appropriately defined instantaneous propagation
speed approaches a limit at long times. Furthermore, under certain assumptions on the shape of the solution, there exists a reference frame in which the
solution of the initial value problem converges to the traveling wave solution
with this speed at least on a sequence of times. In addition, for a class of solutions we establish bounds on the shape of the solution in the reference frame
associated with its leading edge and determine accessible limiting traveling
wave solutions. For this class of solutions we find the upper and lower bounds
for the speed of the leading edge.


As geographers recently abroad, we have come to the sad realization that the United States is increasingly perceived as a mighty global power crippled by ignorance of its vast global sphere of influence. To address this problem, the American Geographical Society (AGS) is sponsoring expeditions, named in honor of former AGS Director Isaiah Bowman, who served as geographer for Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. Informing the public and the U.S. government about world geography has long been a mission of the AGS, and now the Society renews this commitment. The AGS Bowman Expeditions prototype began in Mexico in 2005 (LJWorld.com 2006; Herlihy and others 2007); other expeditions have begun to the Antilles, Colombia, and Jordan. These initial expeditions are funded by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO). Simply stated, the AGS sends a team of geographers to a selected foreign region, where, in order to increase U.S. and international understanding of that region, it gathers cultural and physical GIS data, conducts original research on a geographical topic chosen by the lead investigator, builds collaborative relationships with foreign scholars and institutions, and reports findings in scholarly journals and popular media. Most fundamentally, the concept of the AGS Bowman Expeditions is based on the belief that geographical understanding is essential for maintaining peace, resolving conflicts, and providing humanitarian assistance worldwide. Troubled by intelligence failures, uninformed public debate, and related conflicts around the globe, AGS President Jerome Dobson "deplored the cost of geographic ignorance, measured in conflict" (2006a, 1; see also 2004, 20; 2005, 1; 2006b). He proposed the AGS Bowman Expenditions as a straightforward but ambitious plan to return geography to a more central place in higher education, science, and public policy circles. Past U.S. administrations relied on geographers in war and peace, and Dobson suggests that today's global and regional crises require new initiatives for geographical fieldwork and analysis. Regional geography and foreign-area studies are poised for a renaissance of relevance in a world fraught with intelligence failures, international misunderstandings, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, natural disasters, and other challenges to peace and prosperity. In this report we describe the background, development, and methodology of the AGS Bowman Expedition prototype, Mexico Indigena, led by a multinational team of Latin Americanist geographers, ourselves among them. Our experience recalls the time when geography and geographers played greater roles in U.S. government affairs and demonstrates the need for a digital regional geography. PAST FPIMSATIONS The concept of the AGS Bowman Expeditions resurrects the early-twentieth-century notion of open access geographical intelligence, when the U.S. government worked closely with geographers to better understand the world. Forerunners in bridging the divide between academic geographers and the government, the AGS has a distinguished tradition of assisting the U.S. government in great enterprises, including Arctic exploration, the first transcontinental railroad, the first transatlantic telegraph cable, and the Panama Canal (Wright 1952). During World War I, President Wilson commissioned the AGS to run a massive analysis of wartime foreign intelligence ("the Inquiry"), and the Society was also responsible for drafting his famous Fourteen Points for peace negotiations (N. Smith 2003). In addition, the AGS sponsored significant geographical exploration, scholarship, and mapping of Latin America (Bowman 1946). The discipline of geography entered the U.S. academy late: The first university department was not established until 1907. The fledgling discipline was thrust onto the world stage during World War I and came of age during World War II (Wright 1952; Stone 1979, 95; N. …


A technique is described for the use of a probe-type ultrasonic device to disaggregate selected Triassic continental sandstones, siltstones, shales, and several other rock types. The samples used in developing this method were particularly resistant to disaggregation by standard methods, which failed or were minimally successful. The average time needed to disaggregate samples was much less for those treated with the probe sonifier than in the tank-type of sonifier. There are however similar problems which may result from the use of either of these, including the necessity of guarding against rounding of grains and loss of relatively softer minerals by abrasion. Sandstones average 25 minutes per sample as compared with 13 minutes for shales and 58 minutes for the siltstones. Limestones or marbles take considerably longer with very poor results unless they are calcarenites in which the fragments are well separated by clay minerals. The time referred to includes only the actual running time of the apparatus and not the time involved in other phases of the procedure The probe-type ultrasonic device may also be used satisfactorily at the beginning of hydrometer or pipette analysis of clays in lieu of overturning the graduate cylinder or stirring with other devices In addition, if flocculation occurs after the test has begun, the probe may be inserted directly into the graduate cylinder and run for 5 to 10 minutes. This eliminates the necessity of either transfer of the suspension for further stirring, or stirring with large stirring devices which might result in some loss of the suspension.