There is a long tradition in psychology, the social sciences and, more recently though, economics to hypothesize that religion enhances prosocial behavior. Evidence from both survey and experimental data however yield mixed results and there is barely any evidence for Germany. This study adds to this literature by exploring data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which provides both attitudinal (importance of helping others, of being socially active) and behavioral components of prosociality (volunteering, charitable giving and blood donations). Results from analyses that avoid issues of reverse causality suggest mainly for moderate, positive effects of individuals' religious involvement as measured by church affiliation and church attendance. Despite the historic divide in religion, results in West and East Germany do not differ substantially.


This paper reports the design of a simple and inexpensive optical fiber capillary flow cell which is ideally suited to Raman spectroscopy and, in particular, the analysis of high-pressure supercritical fluid solutions. Light is delivered directly to the solution by use of optical fibers which run along the bore of the capillary. For maximum efficiency of light collection, the capillary is mounted directly onto and along the axis of the entrance slit of a dispersive Raman spectrometer. The Raman spectra of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) solutions of gases (e.g., nitrogen and hydrogen), and solid solutes (e.g., naphthalene) are presented.


The reduction of NOx, soot and other emissions in aero or industrial gas turbines are engage by the concept of new combustion system such as the lean premixed pre-vaporized system. Which brings with it several engineering solutions such as combustion instabilities, flashback and autoignition. An experimental test rig named Sheffield Rapid Compression Machine (Shef-RCM) is designed to investigate the autoignition chemistry of alternative fuels relevant to gas turbine plant and to handle high boiling point long chain hydrocarbon fuels.
The Shef-RCM incorporates a hydraulic stopping mechanism, piston release mechanism, an optimal crevice piston design and a reactor chamber is designed which utilises the direct test chamber method for easy admittance of fuels. The machine is pneumatically driven and hydraulically stopped. The novelty in the design of the Shef-RCM is the introduction of a piston release mechanism (brake) pneumatically operated use to hold the reactor piston in position at its bottom dead centre.
A computational fluid dynamics study on crevice piston was undertaken to produce the best-optimized crevice piston head design that will suppress the roll-up vortex to enhances the homogeneity of the temperature field of the reactor chamber. The simulation used a 2-Dimensional computational moving mesh axisymmetric in the commercial code of Ansys fluent. The model adopted for this calculation was the laminar flow. Appropriate choice of the model parameter was taken into consideration during the simulation to reduce errors caused by a poor mesh quality. These parametric studies examine the time step size and the mesh density, which was been deemed necessary for running the simulation to handle errors of negative cell volume. The parameters maintained for the model are a constant stroke length of 142 mm with a volume clearance height of 17 mm. Further optimisation of a 282 mm3 crevice volume on the width resulted to five different crevice widths of 3 mm, 5 mm, 7mm, 9 mm and 12 mm respectively. The widths of the piston head crevice of 5mm gave a better result regarding the peak pressure profile and maintained a homogeneous temperature field at the end of the TDC at post compression time of about 40ms.
Performance characterization of the Shef-RCM, using inert gases, N-Heptane and Jet A-1 showed that the experimental data obtained was highly reproducible and repeatable. The machine is vibration free, allows for fast compression, less than 35 ms, an obtainable compressed gas pressure of 22 bar. The estimation of the compressed gas temperature at the top dead centre using numerical modelling was 698 K; the heat loss implemented in the model used an effective volume approach, which showed a perfect match for the model with experiment.
Ignition delay time measurement for Jet A-1 are reported for low to intermediate temperatures regime (734 ≤ TC ≥ 815)K, compressed gas pressure, PC = 6 and 10 bar and equivalent ratios, ф= 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 in air. Jet A-1 exhibited Arrhenius behaviour at 6 bar and 10 bar except for some suspected traces of NTC at ф = 0.5,which needed to be fully established. No evident of Negative Temperature Coefficients (NTC) behaviour at a higher pressure of 10 bar. The kinetic modelling conducted for Jet A-1 used Ranzi et al.[1] model with Dooley et al. [2] and Aachen[3] surrogate mixture. At a compressed pressure of 6 bar, ф= 0.75, the model predicted a shorter ignition delay time and displayed a two stage ignition delay time for Jet A-1 fuel, and the model was in agreement with the experiment. The Shef-RCM facility has also been used to measure the combustion behaviour of Banner-Solvent at low to intermediate temperature regime (718 ≤ TC ≥ 916) K at compressed pressure, PC = of 6 and 10 bar, and equivalence ratios, ф= 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 in air. Various diluent mixtures were carried out to alter the end gas temperature, it was found that ignition delay within the temperature range of 718 – 916 K exhibited NTC behaviour at lean condition and stoichiometric. Banner-Solvent reacts faster compare to Jet A-1, and this showed some trend of Negative Temperature Coefficient behaviour at a compressed gas pressure of 6 bar. Experimental measurement of the ignition delay response of UCO-HEFA at low to intermediate temperature regime (680 ≤ TC ≥ 777) K at compressed gas pressure, PC = 6 and 10 bar, and equivalence ratios, ф= 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 in air was studied. The effects of temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio and oxygen concentration on the ignition delay time was investigated. The overall reactivity of the three fuels showed that Banner-Solvent had showed a higher reactivity than Jet A-1 and UCO-HEFA at 10 bar compressed gas pressure. At 6 bar compressed gas pressure, UCO-HEFA showed some signs of NTC behaviour. The uncertainty for the three fuels was considered and this was seen to be within the limits compared in literature. The global correlation for Jet A-1 and UCO-HEFA were derived for both fuels.


Restaurant Revenue Management: Examining Reservation Policy Implications at Fine Dining Restaurants by Nanishka Hernandez MBA, American Intercontinental University, 2005 BBA, American Intercontinental University, 2004 AA, Universidad del Sagrado Corazon, 1990 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University August 2015 Abstract In the restaurant industry, some patrons do not honor their reservations, especially on holidays. Grounded in postpositivism and system theories, the purpose of this comparative study was to examine the impact of implementing a credit card payment policy for fine dining restaurants reservations and no shows after implementation of a credit card guarantee policy at a high-end hotel located in the southeast United States.In the restaurant industry, some patrons do not honor their reservations, especially on holidays. Grounded in postpositivism and system theories, the purpose of this comparative study was to examine the impact of implementing a credit card payment policy for fine dining restaurants reservations and no shows after implementation of a credit card guarantee policy at a high-end hotel located in the southeast United States. Data were collected from archival records provided by the hotel executives. According to the results of a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of no shows, p < .001, after the implementation of the credit card guarantee policy. In a paired sample t-test, there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of reservations, p < .001, after implementation of the credit card guarantee policy. The implications for positive social change include the potential to increase understanding of payment policies as they relate to the restaurant industry. Service industry managers can benefit from implementing payment policies that can vary from specific dates, seasons, and type of services. Customers will also benefit by being able to make reservations not originally possible due to demand. The current study adds to service industry knowledge, increasing the understanding of payment policies as they relate to restaurant industry. Conducting a similar study in other service industries in the future may lead to a better understanding of the nature of policies and customers' traits


The needs of software architectural design and analysis have led to a desire to create CASE tools to support the processes. Such a tool should help: to document an architecture; to reuse architectural artifacts; to aid in exploring architectural alternatives; and to support architectural metrics. This position paper first presents a set of requirements that an ideal tool for architectural design and analysis, and then presents a tool—called SAAMtool—that meets most, but not all, of these requirements. SAAMtool embodies both SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method) and an architectural description framework which describes architectural elements according to their static and temporal features. The tool serves several purposes. It supports and documents the results of architectural design and analysis efforts at varying degrees of resolution, it acts as a repository of both designs and design rationales in the form of scenarios, it applies metrics to architectures, and it visualizes architectures with respect to architectural metrics.


The influence of the main chromatographic parameters on the conduct of the HPLC-UV assays was elaborated on the elution of four vitamers (retinol, retinyl acetate, tocopherol and tocopheryl acetate). Considering, both type A and type B methods to estimate their measurement uncertainty magnitudes, taking into account the specifications information and the repeated available data. In this context, the retention time variability was used to cover the effect of the most factors. Likewise, the areas data for all peaks of interest were randomly generated on current chromatograms by the software, to examine the baseline effect on the peaks integration. As a result, the peak area's variability, which reaches up to 5%, indicates that the uncertainty contribution, in area measurement is mainly due to the baseline effect, which make difficult the peaks integration, especially for low amount compounds. Nevertheless, the low variability between runs in the retention time reflects much more the stability of the HPLC-UV system and attests that the influences of the other chromatographic parameters remain insignificant.


What role did manhood play in early American Politics? In A Republic of Men, Mark E. Kann argues that the American founders aspired to create a "republic of men" but feared that "disorderly men" threatened its birth, health, and longevity. Kann demonstrates how hegemonic norms of manhood-exemplified by "the Family Man," for instance--were deployed as a means of stigmatizing unworthy men, rewarding responsible men with citizenship, and empowering exceptional men with positions of leadership and authority, while excluding women from public life. Kann suggests that the founders committed themselves in theory to the democratic proposition that all men were created free and equal and could not be governed without their own consent, but that they in no way believed that "all men" could be trusted with equal liberty, equal citizenship, or equal authority. The founders developed a "grammar of manhood" to address some difficult questions about public order. Were America's disorderly men qualified for citizenship? Were they likely to recognize manly leaders, consent to their authority, and defer to their wisdom? A Republic of Men compellingly analyzes the ways in which the founders used a rhetoric of manhood to stabilize American politics.


CONTEXT
Optimal ages of breast cancer screening cessation remain uncertain.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate screening policies based on age and quartiles of life expectancy (LE).

DESIGN AND POPULATION
We used a stochastic model with proxies of age-dependent biology to evaluate the incremental U.S. societal costs and benefits of biennial screening from age 50 until age 70, 79, or lifetime.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Discounted incremental costs per life years saved (LYS).

RESULTS
Lifetime screening is expensive (151,434 dollars per LYS) if women have treatment and survival comparable to clinical trials (idealized); stopping at age 79 costs 82,063 dollars per LYS. This latter result corresponds to costs associated with an LE of 9.5 years at age 79, a value expected for 75% of 79-year-olds, about 50% of 80-year-olds, and 25% of 85-year-olds. Using actual treatment and survival patterns, screening benefits are greater, and lifetime screening of all women might be considered (114,905 dollars per LYS), especially for women in the top 25% of LE for their age (50,643 dollars per LYS, life expectancy of approximately 7 years at age 90).

CONCLUSIONS
If all women receive idealized treatment, the benefits of mammography beyond age 79 are too low relative to their costs to justify continued screening. However, if treatment is not ideal, extending screening beyond age 79 could be considered, especially for women in the top 25% of life expectancy for their age.


Postulating that, when hiring an investment consultant or wealth advisor, high-net-worth families expect good investment performance, the author first notes that this carries with it three potential pitfalls for the wealth advisor: unrealistic performance expectations, increasingly challenging needs to differentiate themselves based solely on their investment performance, and the prospects for a changing equity valuation environment. He then argues that, facing the potentially toxic mix of unrealistic expectations combined with anticipated lower realized returns, many advisors are beginning to challenge traditional assumptions regarding the creation of investment portfolios. This article surveys several of the more interesting investment ideas currently working their way into client portfolios. Some of them remain largely academic; others remain largely institutional, though these are "trickling down" to individual portfolios in increasingly short cycle.


Formation of gas hydrates can lead to serious operational, economic and safety problems in the petroleum industry due to potential blockage of oil and gas equipment. Thermodynamic inhibitors are widely used to reduce the risks associated with gas hydrate formation. Thus, accurate knowledge of hydrate phase equilibrium in the presence of inhibitors is crucial to avoid gas hydrate formation problems and to design/optimize production, transportation and processing facilities. The work presented in this thesis is the result of a study on the phase equilibria of petroleum reservoir fluids containing aqueous salt(s) and/or hydrate inhibitor(s) solutions. The incipient equilibrium methane and natural gas hydrate conditions in presence of salt(s) and/or thermodynamic inhibitor(s) have been experimentally obtained, in addition to experimental freezing point depression data for aqueous solution of methanol, ethanol, monoethylene glycol and single or mixed salt(s) aqueous solutions, are conducted. A statistical thermodynamic approach, with the Cubic-Plus-Association equation of state, has been employed to model the phase equilibria. The hydrate-forming conditions are modelled by the solid solution theory of van der Waals and Platteeuw. Predictions of the developed model have been validated against independent experimental data from the open literature and the data generated in this work. The predictions were found to agree well with the experimental data. Dedicated to my parents, Fereidoon and Manijeh and my brother, Ali


GAIL is a recent successful imitation learning architecture that exploits the adversarial training procedure introduced in GANs. Albeit successful at generating behaviours similar to those demonstrated to the agent, GAIL suffers from a high sample complexity in the number of interactions it has to carry out in the environment in order to achieve satisfactory performance. We dramatically shrink the amount of interactions with the environment necessary to learn well-behaved imitation policies, by up to several orders of magnitude. Our framework, operating in the model-free regime, exhibits a significant increase in sample-efficiency over previous methods by simultaneously a) learning a self-tuned adversarially-trained surrogate reward and b) leveraging an off-policy actor-critic architecture. We show that our approach is simple to implement and that the learned agents remain remarkably stable, as shown in our experiments that span a variety of continuous control tasks. Video visualisations available at: \url{this https URL}.


A stochastic model of contaminant mixing in non-homogeneous porous media has been developed. The model is three dimensional and relates the contaminant distribution to the probability distribution of particles released from a source. Particles are advected by interpolating Lagrangian velocities from a velocity grid whose nodal values are estimated using a three-dimensional finite-difference groundwater flow model. A random seepage velocity is related to the variance of the hydraulic conductivity within each segment of the formation. This formulation is shown to accurately simulate the dispersion process in idealized formations and yield results consistent with field observations.


Since a high percentage of bus crashes are caused by rear-end collisions with private automobiles, improving signage and lighting is important for bus safety and operations. This paper reports on a comprehensive research project to assist transit vehicles in safely reentering the traffic stream. A literature review, crash data analysis, bus operator surveys and field studies were used to accomplish three objectives: (1) make recommendations on lighting configuration and signage practices for the back of transit buses; (2) develop signage and pavement markings to address yield-to-bus (YTB) safety issues; and (3) develop recommendations for draft statutory language or modifications to existing statutes that would be need to enforce the YTB law and help increase its viability. The study found that the decal currently place on the back of buses in Florida had no significant safety or operational effects. The majority of bus operators surveyed preferred a flashing sign with the word "MERGING" on the back of the bus. New signage and pavement markings can be developed based on existing principles for yielding to pedestrians and bicyclists. Additional signs and pavement marking for the YTB law should be used only in areas where other measures have failed. Flashing beacons that are activated by a bus in a bus pull-out bay also show potential. Although Florida, along with 5 other states, currently has a YTB law, the current Florida statutes make no mention of how the law is to be implemented. It is recommended that statutes include a penalty or classification for the type of offence committed when the YTB law is violated. A public awareness campaign to inform motorists about the YTB laws and a system to evaluate the necessity of the law should also be implemented.


Quality of Life (QOL) amongst transplant patients has become an issue as a means to optimize the use of scarce resources and improve outcome. The relationship between QOL, medical compliance, psychosocial states and QOL is presented as follows:
Patient empowerment: Patient empowerment and compliance with medications in patients who experienced late acute rejection, was assessed using the Long-term Medication Behaviour Scale (LTMBS-scale). We demonstrated a relationship between late acute rejection and low confidence in taking medication and items relating to physical and psychological symptoms.
Effect of psychotherapeutic program on emotional states after kidney transplantation: Recurring emotional states as recalled by patients during psychotherapy sessions (e.g. loss of QOL) were analysed and used to formulate effective group and individual psychotherapy intervention. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was utilised as a measure of change before, during and after treatment. There was significant improvement in psychological states after therapy contemplated as follows, (i) fear of rejection, (ii) feelings of paradoxical loss (iii) psychological integration of the transplant.
Randomised controlled study to determine the efficacy of individual or group psychotherapy amongst kidney transplant patients: Analysis of group and individual psychotherapy in recipients of kidney transplants versus control patients was
conducted. Improvement appeared to be more significant in the individual therapy compared to group therapy (p= 0.01). In both the individual and group therapy arm, lowering of scores was progressive and sustained (p=O.OI). However, individual
therapy resulted in the lowest BDI scores at the end of treatment period.
Coming to terms with the 'imagined past': After a successful transplant, patients may present with feelings of paradoxical loss (e.g. grief or low mood). We propose that paradoxical loss should be considered in terms of an imagined past (loss of life goals which have never been actualised as a result of chronic illness). Feelings of loss present an obstacle to a good QOL after transplantation as low mood may lead to ambivalence and subsequently to non-compliance.


In this paper, I compare Romance and Germanic left periphery. I show that Italian Resumptive Preposing (RP) differs from both Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD) and Focalization and shares many properties with fronting phenomena in English (Topicalization, Locative Inversion, Comparative Inversion). RP constituents are ( wh -)moved to a high Topic position only available in root contexts and can co-occur with either preverbal pronominal subjects or post-verbal heavy subjects (while CLLD can target a Topic position lower than Focus – Rizzi 1997, Frascarelli and Hinterholzl 2007 – and does not display any restriction on the subject). The analysis is based on Rizzi and Shlonsky's (2006) account of English Locative Inversion and will lead us to the discussion of the interaction of Fin and Subj, i.e., the heads which lie at the interface of the I and C layers, and the comprehension of the different restrictions on the occurrence of preverbal subjects in Italian and English/German left-peripheral constructions, ultimately explaining the generalizations arrived at in Cardinaletti (2007).


This document defines a set of requirements for NATs that handle TCP
that would allow many applications, such as peer-to-peer applications
and online games to work consistently. Developing NATs that meet this
set of requirements will greatly increase the likelihood that these
applications will function properly. This document specifies an
Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and
requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.


Background: There is no scientific evidence to support the beneficial effects of noni fruit juice which is claimed as a "natural health enhancer" and is consumed extensively. Aim: To evaluate the beneficial effects of noni fruit juice on glycaemic control, lipid profile and antioxidant activity and its safety in diabetic patients. Settings and Design: A hospital based, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study Material and Methods: 34 diabetic subjects with normal haematological, serum potassium, renal and liver function test and electrocardiogram readings were enrolled into the study. After collecting venous blood for biochemical efficacy measures, the subjects were randomly allocated to two treatment groups, either to receive noni juice or to get placebo, at a dose of 30 ml/day. The efficacy measures included fasting and postprandial blood glucose, complete lipid profile with fasting, serum fructosamine and endogenous antioxidants like super oxide dismutase and reduced glutathione. The safety and efficacy measures were repeated after 21 days of treatment with placebo or noni juice. Statistics: The baseline characteristics were compared between the groups using the unpaired t test. Pre-post treatment changes in the efficacy measures within each group and between the groups were analyzed by applying the repeated measures ANOVA test. P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The efficacy measures were comparable between the two groups at the entry into the study. The influence of the two treatments on blood glucose levels, on the lipid profile and on the endogenous antioxidant activity were similar, without statistical significance. The noni and placebo treated groups came out with decrease and increase in serum fructosamine levels, respectively, both changes being statistically insignificant. Between groups, the comparison of these changes appeared to be statistically significant (p=0.036). The safety measures were within the normal range and no adverse events were reported. Conclusion: Consumption of noni juice for 21 days yielded elusive results on glycaemic control. It's beneficial effects on plasma lipid profile and endogenous antioxidant activity were not established. Consumption of the lowest recommended doses of noni fruit juice for a short period of 21 days was found to be safe in diabetic patients. Long term studies with a large population may be needed for evidence of the favourable effects of noni juice on organ functions. Key Messages 1. Noni fruit juice may possess glucose lowering actions in diabetic subjects. 2. The current study did not establish the beneficial effects of noni fruit juice on plasma lipid profile. 3. The endogenous antioxidant activity was not enhanced by noni fruit juice in the current study. 4. Safety of the short term use of noni fruit juice was proved in diabetic individuals. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 2009 Dec ;(3):1822-1826 SABITHA P, ADHIKARI PRABHA MR, et al;Noni Juice In Diabetics


This paper presents a new method for the solution of multiscale stochastic differential equations at the diffusive time scale. In contrast to averaging-based methods, e.g., the heterogeneous multiscale method (HMM) or the equation-free method, which rely on Monte Carlo simulations, in this paper we introduce a new numerical methodology that is based on a spectral method. In particular, we use an expansion in Hermite functions to approximate the solution of an appropriate Poisson equation, which is used in order to calculate the coefficients of the homogenized equation. Spectral convergence is proved under suitable assumptions. Numerical experiments corroborate the theory and illustrate the performance of the method. A comparison with the HMM and an application to singularly perturbed stochastic PDEs are also presented.


The central portion of chronic wounds is often hypoxic and relatively hypothermic, representing a deficient energy supply of the tissue, which impedes wound healing or even makes it impossible. Water-filtered infrared-A (wIRA) is a special form of heat radiation with a high tissue penetration and a low thermal load to the skin surface. wIRA produces a therapeutically usable field of heat and increases temperature, oxygen partial pressure and perfusion of the tissue. These three factors are decisive for a sufficient tissue supply with energy and oxygen and consequently as well for wound healing, especially in chronic wounds, and infection defense. wIRA acts both by thermal and thermic as well as by non-thermal and non-thermic effects. wIRA can advance wound healing or improve an impaired wound healing process and can especially enable wound healing in non-healing chronic wounds. wIRA can considerably alleviate the pain and diminish wound exudation and inflammation and can show positive immunomodulatory effects. In a prospective, randomized, controlled study of 40 patients with chronic venous stasis ulcers of the lower legs irradiation with wIRA and visible light (VIS) accelerated the wound healing process (on average 18 vs. 42 days until complete wound closure, residual ulcer area after 42 days 0.4 cm² vs. 2.8 cm²) and led to a reduction of the required dose of pain medication in comparison to the control group of patients treated with the same standard care (wound cleansing, wound dressing with antibacterial gauze, and compression garment therapy) without the concomitant irradiation. Another prospective study of 10 patients with non-healing chronic venous stasis ulcers of the lower legs included extensive thermographic investigation. Therapy with wIRA(+VIS) resulted in a complete or almost complete wound healing in 7 patients and a marked reduction of the ulcer size in another 2 of the 10 patients, a clear reduction of pain and required dose of pain medication, and a normalization of the thermographic image. In a current prospective, randomized, controlled, blinded study patients with non-healing chronic venous stasis ulcers of the lower legs are treated with compression garment therapy, wound cleansing, wound dressings and 30 minutes irradiation five times per week over 9 weeks. A preliminary analysis of the first 23 patients of this study has shown in the group with wIRA(+VIS) compared to a control group with VIS an advanced wound healing, an improved granulation and in the later phase of treatment a decrease of the bacterial burden. Some case reports have demonstrated that wIRA can also be used for mixed arterial-venous ulcers or arterial ulcers, if irradiation intensity is chosen appropriately low and if irradiation is monitored carefully. wIRA can be used concerning decubital ulcers both in a preventive and in a therapeutic indication. wIRA can improve the resorption of topically applied substances also on wounds. An irradiation with VIS and wIRA presumably acts with endogenous protoporphyrin IX (or protoporphyrin IX of bacteria) virtually similar as a mild photodynamic therapy (endogenous PDT-like effect). This could lead to improved cell regeneration and wound healing and to antibacterial effects. In conclusion, these results indicate that wIRA generally should be considered for the treatment of chronic wounds.


A few years ago Maryse Conde declared tongue-in-cheek: "I think I've somewhat lost the power to displease. It's something I miss." (1) Pleasing or displeasing at her own leisure, her work is by now unsurpassed in scope as a fiction monument originating in the Francophone Caribbean. In the past fifteen years, her work has taken a distinct turn towards playful irony and exuberant narration. Conde has underscored on several occasions that she has been misread when taken too seriously, referring specifically to her most popular novel on US campuses, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. She confided having had a lot of fun inventing Tituba's adventures, despite the powerful indictment of slavery and racism and sexism this novel constitutes. Indeed, to make Tituba meet a very pregnant Hester Prynne in jail and to suggest passionate feelings between them, to show Tituba in the sunset telling a tale to Hester's unborn child, then to "suicide" this feminist Hester by hanging, in order to protect her child from a sexist puritanical world--thus crediting Hester with the despair and determination of an infanticidal slave--, these narrative components illustrate the dominant mood of Conde's later novels. Conde commented on Tituba for Francoise Pfaff, a Tituba who gets herself impregnated by an adolescent before hanging from a tope, and who, "naturally," survives in ghost form: "since I am not one to create models, I eagerly made sure to destroy anything that might be found exemplary in Tituba's story, and in the end I showed her rather naive, and at times ludicrous." (2) Of Conde's transgressive mode of story-spinning, a recent novel is most exemplary. Celanire cou-coupe ("Cut-throat Celanire") can and should be taken seriously at various levels, but here Conde has made sure she would not again be misread. She told another interviewer: "the only means for us, as a black nation--although I have said on several occasions this word does not mean all that much is to distance ourselves from our history, to be able to laugh about our history and to acknowledge the components of it that we can attribute to our personal or collective responsibility. I don't think one should see the world in black and white." (3) Several critics have already shown the novelist's strategies of distancing used in various ways in earlier works. Leah Hewitt underlined how Conde, in The Last of the African Kings, resists the temptation to reassure or seduce distinct constituencies of readers: Africans, Creoles, African-American women, and other repressed, marginalized groups. (4) In her very first novel, Heremakhonon (1976), Conde was already "mistreating" the dominant narrative scheme of the quest for roots and the return to Africa; already baring the teeth of a gnashing irony that purports to debunk received ideas. She was already using female sexuality to question the conventions of novelistic discourse where sexuality was traditionally inexplicit. There were always already forms of transgression in Conde's discourse: Veronica's hyper-sexuality and that of her "sister in joyful bitchery" ("soeur en putainerie"), Adama, were risky stereotypes in the context of an Afrocentric identity quest. Nor was it a simple indiscretion to put in the mouth of her protagonist the following remark about African political figures: "To possess the white man's riches (the colonized is envious, Fanon said so) and their blonde women. The blonde woman is the black man's dream, everybody knows that." (5) This sort of sally at the expense of her "heroes" will be cultivated by other scandal-prone women writers; not the least among them, Calixthe Beyala takes pride in her "bad genre/gender" ("mauvais genre"). Not all of Conde's novels push the reader around to the same extent as do the characters of Tituba the witch or Celanire the "cut-throat cut-throat." Not all of her protagonists charm us into first-degree, comfortable, and erroneous interpretations. Some narratives are seriously dominated by the somber or tragic mode along with in-depth reflection on socio-political questions. …


Objectives: Survival among neonates supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiac indications is 39%. Previous single-center studies have identified factors associated with mortality, but a comprehensive multivariate analysis is not available for this population. Understanding factors associated with mortality may help design treatment strategies, determine optimal timing for cannulation, and inform patient selection. This study identifies factors associated with mortality in neonates supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiac indications. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Two hundred and thirty U.S. and international centers reporting extracorporeal membrane oxygenation data to the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. Subjects: Four thousand and four seventy one neonates with congenital and acquired cardiac disease supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiac indications during 2001–2011. Interventions: None. Measurements and Results: The primary outcome measure was mortality prior to hospital discharge. Overall hospital mortality was 59%. Demographic and preextracorporeal membrane oxygenation factors associated with mortality were evaluated in a multivariable model. Factors associated with death prior to hospital discharge included lower body weight, earlier era, single ventricle physiology, lower preextracorporeal membrane oxygenation arterial pH, and longer time from intubation to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cannulation. Lower pH was associated with increased mortality regardless of cardiac diagnosis and surgical complexity. The majority of survivors separated from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation less than 8 days after extracorporeal membrane oxygenation deployment. Conclusions: Mortality for neonates supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiac indications is high. Severity of preextracorporeal membrane oxygenation acidosis was independently associated with increased risk of mortality. Earlier initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation may reduce the degree and duration of acidosis and may improve survival. Further studies are needed to determine optimal timing of cannulation in this population.


BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to characterize the cause of death in severely injured trauma patients to define potential responses to resuscitation. METHODS Prospective analysis of 190 critically injured patients who underwent massive transfusion protocol (MTP) activation or received massive transfusion (>10 U of packed red blood cells [RBC] per 24 hours). Cause of death was adjudicated into one of four categories as follows: (1) exsanguination, (2) early physiologic collapse, (3) late physiologic collapse, and (4) nonsurvivable injury. RESULTS A total 190 patients underwent massive transfusion or MTP with 76 deaths (40% mortality), of whom 72 deaths were adjudicated to one of four categories: 33.3% died of exsanguination, 16.6% died of early physiologic collapse, 11.1% died of late physiologic collapse, while 38.8% died of nonsurvivable injuries. Patients who died of exsanguination were younger and had the highest RBC/fresh frozen plasma ratio (2.97 [2.24]), although the early physiologic collapse group survived long enough to use the most blood products (p < 0.001). The late physiologic collapse group had significantly fewer penetrating injuries, was older, and had significantly more crystalloid use but received a lower RBC/fresh frozen plasma ratio (1.50 [0.42]). Those who were determined to have a nonsurvivable injury had a lower presenting Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, fewer penetrating injuries, and higher initial blood pressure reflecting a preponderance of nonsurvivable traumatic brain injury. The average survival time for patients with potentially survivable injuries was 2.4 hours versus 18.4 hours for nonsurvivable injuries (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Severely injured patients requiring MTP have a high mortality rate. However, no studies to date have addressed the cause of death after MTP. Characterization of cause of death will allow targeting of surgical and resuscitative conduct to allow extension of the physiologic reserve time, therefore rendering previously nonsurvivable injury potentially survivable. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic study, level III.


In this paper we address the need to automatically texture 3D objects. The currently accepted approach is to submit the 3D object to a sophisticated 3D modelling package. Then with a lot of user know-how, correctly cut and parameterise the mesh so as to minimise the overall distortion. In the presented framework, this is completely automated, even the texture discontinuities across the mesh seams are virtually eliminated. The framework also supports multiple textures over the mesh, plus overlays and bump mapping. We even revisit pixelwise texture synthesis, and show its superiority over conventional patch-based methods. Thereby, included in the framework is a texture synthesiser, not only for creating 2D texture, but also 3D volumetric texture for the purpose of filling the 3D object.


This essay investigates the moral aspects of humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian intervention involves the balancing of at least three sometimes contradictory principles ‐ the autonomy of states, the prohibition of war and the reduction of harm and human suffering ‐ and hence requires not merely a legal and political approach to the matter but renders a moral viewpoint necessary. It is argued that P.F. Strawson's concept Moral Reactive Attitudes MRA) contributes to analysing the moral dilemmas and priorities involved. First, MRA underlines the moral aspects of international society that are essential for dealing with the moral conflict inherent in international society. Secondly, MRA helps to balance between competing claims of justification and legitimacy in cases of humanitarian intervention.


Microbes live as densely populated multicellular surface-attached biofilm communities embedded in self-generated, extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs). EPSs serve as a scaffold for cross-linking biofilm cells and support development of biofilm architecture and functions. Biofilms can have a clear negative impact on humans, where biofilms are a common denominator in many chronic diseases in which they prime development of destructive inflammatory conditions and the failure of our immune system to efficiently cope with them. Our current assortment of antimicrobial agents cannot efficiently eradicate biofilms. For industrial applications, the removal of biofilms within production machinery in the paper and hygienic food packaging industry, cooling water circuits, and drinking water manufacturing systems can be critical for the safety and efficacy of those processes. Biofilm formation is a dynamic process that involves microbial cell migration, cell-to-cell signaling and interactions, EPS synthesis, and cell-EPS interactions. Recent progress of fundamental biofilm research has shed light on novel chemical biology strategies for biofilm control. In this article, chemical biology strategies targeting the bacterial intercellular and intracellular signaling pathways will be discussed.


Microarray-based whole genomic analyses of submicroscopic chromosomal rearrangements (CNVs) lead to the identification of pathogenic genetic variants in 15-20% children with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders and congenital abnormalities. Using the genotype-first approach more than 250 loci across the human genome related to pathogenic microdeletions and microduplications were identified so far. The significant phenotypic variability among patients with identical pathogenic CNVs results in complications and uncertainty in the genetic counselling for the assessment of prognosis and challenges to additional whole genomic analyses. Based on the results of complex whole genomic analyses the phenomenon of variable expressivity leading to the phenotypic variability among patients with recurrent pathogenic CNVs can be explained using the "two-hit" model.In the 8-year period of array-CGH analyses at the Department of Medical Genetics (University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic) 724 children patients were examined using 4X180K and 8X60K microarray platforms. In our study we present clinical characteristics of 8 patients with two structurally independent submicroscopic pathogenic CNVs (dup 2q12.1-q12.3 + dup 2q13, del 4q12-q13.1 + del 9q21.1, del 2q23.1-q23.3 + dup 7q21.12-q21.13, del 10q26.2-q26.3 + dup 11p14.3-p15.1, del 10p15.1-p15.3 + del 15q13.2-q13.3, del 13q12.12 + dup 13q21.31, dup 1q21.1 + del 1q21.1-q21.2) or one submicroscopic pathogenic CNV and chromosomal aneuploidy (47,XXY + del 7q11.23). The comparison of their phenotypes to the typical phenotypes related to given pathogenic CNVs may help to specify their partial impact on the total phenotypic effect.


Background— Primary amyloidosis has a poor prognosis as a result of frequent cardiac involvement. We recently reported a high prevalence of intracardiac thrombus in cardiac amyloid patients at autopsy. However, neither the prevalence nor the effect of anticoagulation on intracardiac thrombus has been evaluated antemortem. Methods and Results— We studied all transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiograms of cardiac amyloid patients at the Mayo Clinic. The prevalence of intracardiac thrombosis, clinical and transthoracic/transesophageal echocardiographic risks for intracardiac thrombosis, and effect of anticoagulation were investigated. We identified 156 patients with cardiac amyloidosis who underwent transesophageal echocardiograms. Amyloidosis was the primary type (AL) in 80; other types occurred in 76 patients, including 56 with the wild transthyretin type, 17 with the mutant transthyretin type, and 3 with the secondary type. Fifth-eight intracardiac thrombi were identified in 42 patients (27%). AL amyloid had more frequent intracardiac thrombus than the other types (35% versus 18%; P=0.02), although the AL patients were younger and had less atrial fibrillation. Multivariate analysis showed that atrial fibrillation, poor left ventricular diastolic function, and lower left atrial appendage emptying velocity were independently associated with increased risk for intracardiac thrombosis, whereas anticoagulation was associated with a significantly decreased risk (odds ratio, 0.09; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.51; P<0.006). Conclusions— Intracardiac thrombosis occurs frequently in cardiac amyloid patients, especially in the AL type and in those with atrial fibrillation. Risk for thrombosis increased if left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and atrial mechanical dysfunction were present. Anticoagulation therapy appears protective. Timely screening in high-risk patients may allow early detection of intracardiac thrombus. Anticoagulation should be carefully considered.


One of the promises of the use of new technologies in university education has been the convergence of on and off-campus teaching and learning. Technology has been mooted as the means by which students who study a subject away from the campus can join the learning space with their on-campus colleagues. To date, there are few examples of how the convergence might be achieved. This paper describes a project at Edith Cowan University that is exploring ways in which innovative forms of learning supported by computer-mediated communications can realise this promise.

The majority of the projects describing CMC as a learning support in university have focused on particular communication styles such as discussion groups, interactive chat rooms, bulletin boards and document sharing. In the majority of the settings, the learning environments have tended to be characterised by the repeated and consistent use of a small numbers of communication applications. The Collaborative World Wide Web Environment Support System (CWEST) project at Edith Cowan University is looking to create more diverse forms of usage for curriculum applications. It is an instructional support tool that will facilitate the implementation of a variety of WWW-based collaborative learning activities. It is intended that CWEST will enable customised collaborative WWW learning environments to be created quickly and efficiently. CWEST is planned to provide a series of templates of collaborative WWW-based learning activities and a means for a teacher to choose a template and to enter the customised details to create customised WWW pages and associated CGI scripts to support the planned activity.

This paper describes the forms of converged learning environment being explored and the planned functionality of the CWEST system needed to support this. The paper also describes outcomes from preliminary explorations of use of the various collaborative learning spaces in online settings where both on-campus and off-campus students have shared a common learning space.


Neuroaesthetics, the science studying the biological underpinnings of aesthetic experience, recently extended its area of investigation to literary art; this was the humus where neurocognitive poetics blossomed. Divina Commedia represents one of the most important, famous and studied poems worldwide. Poetry stimuli are characterized by elements (meter and rhyme) promoting the processing fluency, a core aspect of neuroaesthetics theories. In addition, given the evidence of different neurophysiological reactions between experts and non-experts in response to artistic stimuli, the aim of the present study was to investigate, in poetry, a different neurophysiological cognitive and emotional reaction between Literature (L) and Non-Literature (NL) students. A further aim was to investigate whether neurophysiological underpinnings would support explanation of behavioral data. Investigation methods employed: self-report assessments (recognition, appreciation, content recall) and neurophysiological indexes (approach/withdrawal (AW), cerebral effort (CE) and galvanic skin response (GSR)). The main behavioral results, according to fluency theories in aesthetics, suggested in the NL but not in the L group that the appreciation/liking went hand by hand with the self-declared recognition and with the content recall. The main neurophysiological results were: (i) higher galvanic skin response in NL, whilst higher CE values in L; (ii) a positive correlation between AW and CE indexes in both groups. The present results extended previous evidence relative to figurative art also to auditory poetry stimuli, suggesting an emotional attenuation "expertise-specific" showed by experts, but increased cognitive processing in response to the stimuli.


Research guide for the study of the fascinating historical figures and momentous changes in the monarchy and church during the Tudor and Stuart periods in English History. Originally created for Dr. Kerns' EUH 3511 class.


We show how to use large biomedical databases in order to obtain a gold standard for training a machine learning system over a corpus of biomedical text. As an example we use the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) and describe by means of a short case study how the obtained data can be applied. We explain how we exploit the structure of the database for compiling training material and a testset. Using a Naive Bayes document classification approach based on words, stem bigrams and MeSH descriptors we achieve a macro-average F-score of 61% on a subset of 8 action terms. This outperforms a baseline system based on a lookup of stemmed keywords by more than 20%. Furthermore, we present directions of future work, taking the described system as a vantage point. Future work will be aiming towards a weakly supervised system capable of discovering complete biomedical interactions and events.


Trainee and beginning teachers often find the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling especially challenging as they are not confident in their own knowledge. This popular text explores and provides the subject knowledge you will need to teach grammar, punctuation and spelling and gives guidance on how to teach it.

The text is really accessible and includes lots of examples and teaching ideas, enabling you to approach teaching with ease. Detailed examples of effective lessons show you how to engage children's interest in some of the more formal aspects of writing and throughout, activities and practical examples demonstrate how you can translate this learning into the classroom.

This third edition has been updated to include more examples of children's work. A new chapter is added on 'Teaching grammar across the curriculum' to support an integrated approach to the teaching of grammar


Message processing is the extraction of information about key events described in brief narratives concerning a narrow domain. This is a suitable task for natural language understanding, since the amount of world knowledge required is limited. However, the messages are often ill-formed and therefore require the grammar which parses them to be quite forgiving. This often results in a proliferation of parses. This problem is compounded by one's inability to construct a complete domain model which would resolve all the semantic ambiguity. Thus, selection of the correct parse becomes an important goal for such systems.
Structural preference is a technique which helps disambiguation by assigning a higher preference to certain syntactic structures. The idea of statistical parsing evolved from the desire of being able to prefer certain structures over others on the basis of empirical observations, rather than ad-hoc judgement. In the framework of statistical parsing, every production of the grammar is assigned a priority, which is computed from a statistical analysis of a corpus.
There are two distinct methodologies that can be used for assigning these priorities. In Supervised Training, only the correct parses are used for training the grammar. On the other hand, Unsupervised Training uses parses independent of their semantic validity. After assigning the priorities, the parser searches for parses in a best-first order as dictated by these priorities.
When this scheme was incorporated into the PROTEUS message understanding system while processing OPREP (U.S. Navy Operational) messages, a two-fold advantage was observed. Firstly, the speed of the parsing increased, because rare productions tended not to get used at all. Secondly, since the parses were generated in the best-first order, the parses generated earlier on tended to be more likely and semantically more acceptable.
The performance of the modified parsing algorithm was evaluated with and without several refinements such as the use of context sensitive statistics and the use of heuristic penalties. The relative performances of the grammars trained by Supervised Training and Unsupervised Training were also compared.


I would like to take this opportunity to express my admiration for Eric Pool, an excellent Romanist. I also wish to show my deep respect for his great teaching skills. It has always been a great pleasure to listen to his presentations, especially at the Societe Fernand de Visscher. Furthermore, I want to express my gratitude for his invitation to deliver a paper at his university in Amsterdam.


Abstract. Global mean sea level is an integral of changes occurring in the climate system in response to unforced climate variability as well as natural and anthropogenic forcing factors. Its temporal evolution allows changes (e.g., acceleration) to be detected in one or more components. Study of the sea-level budget provides constraints on missing or poorly known contributions, such as the unsurveyed deep ocean or the still uncertain land water component. In the context of the World Climate Research Programme Grand Challenge entitled Regional Sea Level and Coastal Impacts, an international effort involving the sea-level community worldwide has been recently initiated with the objective of assessing the various datasets used to estimate components of the sea-level budget during the altimetry era (1993 to present). These datasets are based on the combination of a broad range of space-based and in situ observations, model estimates, and algorithms. Evaluating their quality, quantifying uncertainties and identifying sources of discrepancies between component estimates is extremely useful for various applications in climate research. This effort involves several tens of scientists from about 50 research teams/institutions worldwide (www.wcrp-climate.org/grand-challenges/gc-sea-level, last access: 22 August 2018). The results presented in this paper are a synthesis of the first assessment performed during 2017–2018. We present estimates of the altimetry-based global mean sea level (average rate of 3.1 ± 0.3 mm yr−1 and acceleration of 0.1 mm yr−2 over 1993–present), as well as of the different components of the sea-level budget (http://doi.org/10.17882/54854, last access: 22 August 2018). We further examine closure of the sea-level budget, comparing the observed global mean sea level with the sum of components. Ocean thermal expansion, glaciers, Greenland and Antarctica contribute 42 %, 21 %, 15 % and 8 % to the global mean sea level over the 1993–present period. We also study the sea-level budget over 2005–present, using GRACE-based ocean mass estimates instead of the sum of individual mass components. Our results demonstrate that the global mean sea level can be closed to within 0.3 mm yr−1 (1σ). Substantial uncertainty remains for the land water storage component, as shown when examining individual mass contributions to sea level.


Pre-oxidation has been extensively studied as a pre-treatment for enhancement of algae-laden water coagulation. However, most current chemical oxidation technologies suffer from aggressive destruction of algae cells, which leads to cell lysis and undesirable release of algal metabolites. In this study, a novel calcium peroxide (CaO2) pre-oxidation process combined with ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) coagulation was explored to treat Microcystis aeruginosa-laden water, while minimizing the release of intracellular organic matter (IOM). This study aimed to investigate the removal efficiency of algae, microcystins (MCs) and dissolved organic matter (DOM), and explore the reaction mechanisms. Under the optimal conditions (0.5 mM CaO2), CaO2 enhanced coagulation resulted in algae, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and MCs removal rates of 88.8%, 83.9% and 46.8%, respectively. Moreover, soluble microbial products and humic acid-like materials were effectively removed with increasing CaO2 dose. Notably, the photosynthetic activity of algal cells was significantly inhibited with slight damage of cell integrity, demonstrating the moderate oxidative capacity of CaO2. The H2O2 yield from CaO2 reached >50% over the entire treatment duration, which caused the inactivation of algal cells and improved DOM removal. Ca(OH)2 formed simultaneously, serving as a coagulant aid for enhanced formation of Fe-hydroxide and Fe-hydroxyl polymers (Fem(OH)n) from Fe(II) and in situ formed Fe(III), which promotes the aggregation of algae and organic matter to form larger flocs. This new treatment effectively mitigates the effects of algal blooms on water treatment, while minimizing the issues associated with current chemical oxidation technologies.


Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is characterized by multiple motor and phonic tics and high comorbidity rates with other neurobehavioral disorders. It is hypothesized that frontal-subcortical pathways and a complex genetic background are involved in the etiopathogenesis of the disorder. The genetic basis of GTS remains elusive. However, several genomic regions have been implicated. Among them, 17q25 appears to be of special interest, as suggested by various independent investigators. In the present study, we explored the possibility that 17q25 contributes to the genetic component of GTS. The initial scan of chromosome 17 performed on two large pedigrees provided a nonparametric LOD score of 2.41 near D17S928. Fine mapping with 17 additional microsatellite markers increased the peak to 2.61 (P=.002). The original families, as well as two additional pedigrees, were genotyped for 25 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with a focus on three genes in the indicated region that could play a role in the development of GTS, on the basis of their function and expression profile. Multiple three-marker haplotypes spanning all three genes studied provided highly significant association results (P<.001). An independent sample of 96 small families with one or two children affected with GTS was also studied. Of the 25 SNPs, 3 were associated with GTS at a statistically significant level. The transmission/disequilibrium test for a three-site haplotype moving window again provided multiple positive results. The background linkage disequilibrium (LD) of the region was studied in eight populations of European origin. A complicated pattern was revealed, with the pairwise tests producing unexpectedly high LD values at the telomeric TBCD gene. In conclusion, our findings warrant the further investigation of 17q25 as a candidate susceptibility region for GTS.


The optical absorption and the optical rectification coefficients associated to hydrogenic impurity interstate transitions in zincblende GaN-based nanostructures of the quantum wire type are investigated. The system is assumed to have cylindrical shape and the influence of external tuning probes such as hydrostatic pressure and static electric fields is particularly taken into account. The electron states are obtained within the effective mass approximation, via the exact diagonalization of the donor-impurity Hamiltonian with parabolic confinement. The nonlinear optical coefficients are calculated using a nonperturbative solution of the density-matrix Bloch equation. Our results show that the resonance-related features of the optical response become shifted in the frequency range of the incident radiation due to the effect of the hydrostatic pressure, the strength of the applied field and the change in the impurity center position.


Visualization of blood vessels during X-ray based interventional procedures is hindered by patient motion and noise in the X-ray imaging systems. This degrades the image quality in Operating Room (OR) procedures.

This paper presents a two step strategy to improve the image quality: (a) compensates the motion and (b) enhances the vessels thereby suppressing the background. We minimize the motion artifacts by first registering the bolus images to mask images using B-spline based inverse-consistent image registration method. In step (b), we use two class-based strategies: piecewise and nonlinear, to gradually suppress background noise thereby enhancing the blood vessels and preserving its translucency. The two step enhancement method was tested on 73 different subjects depicting several anatomies such as: brain, carotid and renal. The presented method was compared with the existing methods using signal-to-noise ratio over all the datasets. Our experimental protocol demonstrated consistency between both methods and a significant improvement of both enhancement strategies (SNR improvement of 49.21% for piecewise normalization and 66.44% for nonlinear normalization) compared to conventional methods. We validated our system using GE's PMMA phantoms. The system works on PC using C++.


This contribution forms part of a series of collective articles published regularly in Mediterranean Marine Science that report on new biodiversity records from the Mediterranean basin. The current article presents 51 geographically distinct records for 21 taxa belonging to 6 Phyla, extending from the western Mediterranean to the Levantine. The new records, per country, are as follows: Spain: the cryptogenic calcareous sponge Paraleucilla magna is reported from a new location in the Alicante region. Algeria: the rare Atlanto-Mediterranean bivalve Cardium indicum is reported from Annaba. Tunisia: new distribution records for the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois miles from Zembra Island and Cape Bon. Italy: the ark clam Anadara transversa is reported from mussel cultures in the Gulf of Naples, while the amphipod Caprella scaura and the isopods Paracerceis sculpta and Paranthura japonica are reported as associated to the –also allochthonous–bryozoan Amathia verticillata in the Adriatic Sea; in the latter region, the cosmopolitan Atlantic tripletail Lobotes surinamensis is also reported, a rare finding for the Mediterranean. Slovenia: a new record of the non-indigenous nudibranch Polycera hedgpethi in the Adriatic. Greece: several new reports of the introduced scleractinian Oculina patagonica, the fangtooth moray Enchelycore anatina , the blunthead puffer Sphoeroides pachygaster (all Atlantic), and the lionfish Pterois miles (Indo-Pacific) suggest their ongoing establishment in the Aegean Sea; the deepest bathymetric record of the invasive alga Caulerpa cylindracea in the Mediterranean Sea is also registered in the Kyklades, at depths exceeding 70 m. Turkey: new distribution records for two non indigenous crustaceans, the blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Atlantic origin) and the moon crab Matuta victor (Indo-Pacific origin) from the Bay of Izmir and Antalya, respectively; in the latter region, the Red Sea goatfish Parupeneus forsskali , is also reported. Lebanon: an array of records of 5 alien and one native Mediterranean species is reported by citizen-scientists; the Pacific jellyfish Phyllorhiza punctata and the Indo-Pacific teleosteans Tylerius spinosissimus , Ostracion cubicus , and Lutjanus argentimaculatus are reported from the Lebanese coast, the latter notably being the second record for the species in the Mediterranean Sea since 1977; the native sand snake-eel Ophisurus serpens , rare in the eastern Mediterranean, is reported for the first time from Lebanon, this being its easternmost distribution range; finally, a substantial number of sightings of the lionfish Pterois miles further confirm the current establishment of this lessepsian species in the Levantine.


Written in cookbook style, this book offers solutions to all common Flash Android development problems through recipes. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The book is designed so that you can read it chapter by chapter, or you can look at the list of recipes and refer to them in no particular order. This book contains recipes covering a variety of topics from the very simple to those that are more advanced. If you are a seasoned Flash developer, this book will get you quickly up to speed with what is possible with Android. For those who are new to Flash, welcome to the world of visually rich, rapid application development for mobile Android devices! If you have any interest in Flash development for Android, this book is for you.


This thesis addresses the manner in which Christian maturity is constructed in modernity. The premise developed through the course of the study is that modern works on the nature of Christian maturity have disregarded, or even been ignorant of, the genealogy of maturity. Thus, their constructions of Christian maturity are significantly influenced by modern ideals that are, at times, at odds with ideals espoused by the biblical texts. Specifically, the Enlightenment directed the goal of human existence towards individual autonomy, and subsequent psycho-social theory has standardised the attainment of this goal according to a series of developmental stages. Whilst there are different trends in modern constructions of Christian maturity, the paradigm of developing individual autonomy is still the underlying principle of each construct.

I argue that the ancient world constructed maturity in a fundamentally different manner. Human teleology referenced not only individual persons, but also a divine figure, social group, and the cosmos. Even though Ephesians and Colossians express their theology of Christian maturity in different ways, both letters present a remarkably similar construction that operates within the ancient referential framework. Christian maturity is the eschatological existence of believers, both as individuals and as the corporate community of the Church, in Christ. Moreover, within the mystery of God's plan, the attainment of Christian maturity is the mechanism that will bring about the redemption of the entire cosmos. Thus, Ephesians and Colossians construct Christian maturity so that the teleology of the individual references the triune God, the Church and the cosmos.

This reading that is based on a historical and philological exegesis of Ephesians and Colossians necessitates the hermeneutical task of determining how to re-appropriate this theology of Christian maturity in the modern world. I argue that there are three distinct features of the construction of Christian maturity when compared to other ancient constructions, namely its basis in God's mystery, in the somatic nature of the Church, and especially in union with Christ. Whilst it is not possible to return to a pre-modern conception of human teleology, it is possible to recover these three distinct features within the modern discourse about maturity. The proposal offered demonstrates how the recovery of these distinct features provides the necessary corrective to the odern construction of Christian maturity.


Knowledge of sediment dynamics in rivers is of great importance for various practical purposes. Despite its high relevance in riverine environment processes, the monitoring of sediment rates remains a major and challenging task for both suspended and bedload estimation. While the measurement of suspended load is currently an active area of testing with non-intrusive technologies (optical and acoustic), bedload measurement does not mark a similar progress. This paper describes an innovative combination of measurements techniques and analysis protocols that establishes the proof-ofconcept
for a promising technique, labeled herein Acoustic Mapping Velocimetry (AMV). The technique estimates bedload using non-intrusive measurements acquired in rivers developing bedforms.
The raw information for AMV is collected with acoustic multi-beam technology that in turn provides maps of the river bathymetry over swaths of the river cross-section (acoustic mapping). As long as the acoustic maps can be acquired relatively quickly and the repetition rate for the mapping is commensurate with the movement of the bedforms, the acoustic maps can capture continuously the progression of the bedform movement. Conversion of the bed elevation maps in homologous gray-level "images" followed by application of particle image velocimetry concepts to the obtained maps allow quantification of the bedform dynamics as two-dimensional velocity maps superposed on the streambed plane. Furthermore, use of the velocity fields in conjunction with conventional analytical methods for estimation of the bed movement (e.g., Exner equation) enable estimation of bedload rates over the whole imaged area in any direction. The technique represents a promising approach for in-situ measurement of the bedform dynamics either as a distribution of bedload rates over the stream cross section or as a bulk bedload rate in the streamwise direction, as typically requested in most of the practical applications.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the features that distinguish bundle branch reentry (BBR) ventricular tachycardia from a supraventricular tachycardia with aberration on the 12 lead electrocardiogram (ECG). PATIENTS: Three patients in whom premature beats (2 cases) or sustained tachycardia (2 cases) showed a QRS configuration identical to that observed during sinus rhythm. INTERVENTIONS: Programmed electrical stimulation. RESULTS: These arrhythmias were ventricular in origin and caused by a BBR mechanism, as suggested by the following data obtained during electrophysiological study: (a) an H-V interval shorter during tachycardia than during sinus rhythm; (b) A-V dissociation; (c) activation of the right bundle branch before activation of the bundle of His. The ECG of all 3 patients showed right bundle branch block with very prolonged QRS duration (0.16 to 0.20 s). Characteristically, all 3 had prolonged H-V interval during sinus rhythm. All patients had had a previous myocardial infarction and had a dilated left ventricle. CONCLUSION: The presence of (a) wide complex extrasystoles or tachycardia with a QRS morphology identical to that of sinus rhythm; (b) A-V dissociation; and (c) a very prolonged QRS duration (0.16 s or more) is suggestive of ventricular tachycardia caused by bundle branch reentry.


This map is the result of a year-long research project on the geographies of skateboarding in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, UK. Skateboarders are often seen as invaders of urban space, subverting it for their own purposes, contrary to the normative actions of others. In the capitalist system, abstract space is created in which behaviour is prescribed and dictated, often for commercial consumption practices. Borden (2001) has suggested that the act of skateboarding the city rejects this use of urban space by implicitly critiquing space and architecture as a commodity. Through the reproduction of space as a play zone, skateboarders offer no monetary exchange value for the time which they spend at a location. This frequently leads to conflict with those seeking to control urban spaces designed for capitalist consumption.


Bariatric surgery for the morbidly obese patient is no longer just indicated for weight reduction, but has also become an important co-morbid disease modifier in these patients. As the procedures are becoming safer to perform and better understood, more and more obese patients are turning to this therapeutic modality for a long-lasting solution to their weight and medical problems. The accreditation of "bariatric centres of excellence" throughout the country have ensured a safe environment for these procedures to take place in, and also the appropriate follow-up and support that these patients require in the years following bariatric surgery. In these centres, the mortality for bariatric surgery procedures is documented at less than 1%, and the overall morbidity at about 8%.


Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are derived from and closely related to the pluripotent cells of the early mammalian embryo. ESCs are able to re-enter embryonic development to populate the entire embryonic body once introduced into the blastocyst. Furthermore, such capacity of ESCs for unrestricted differentiation is possible both in vivo and in vitro , providing an excellent platform for studying early mammalian embryogenesis (1). Moreover, because of these remarkable properties, ESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells, which bear essentially the same biological properties as ESCs (2), are regarded with great promise for use in regenerative medicine as sources of numerous transplantation-competent cell types (3). However, the directed differentiation required to generate any specific cell type from these cells is much more difficult relative to inducing the full repertoire of differentiated cells; therefore, understanding the molecular basis of each specific differentiation pathway is crucial for efficient generation of a desired differentiated cell type.


Considered one of the most important sculptors working today, Nancy Rubins has been the subject of few scholarly or critical writings. This book fills that void as it considers the relationship between the artist's works on paper and her sculpture. Called the "California genius of junk" by critic Peter Schjeldahl, Rubins has a unique talent for transforming industrial materials into weightless, delicate objects. She incorporates pre-fabricated boat and plane parts, mattresses, discarded appliances and other recycled items into visually stunning, gravity-defying installations that encourage viewers to reconsider the pieces' original elements and how they should behave. Dazzling color illustrations explore these muscular yet graceful pieces while thoughtful essays consider previously unexamined aspects of Rubins' work, such as its relationship to that of other artists, its physiological and psychological impact on the viewer, and its feminist underpinnings. Fans of Rubins' sculptures will find this volume a satisfying and enriching exploration of her process and artistic vision. Published in association with Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.


Spectator, Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday Books of the Year 2015. Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture. It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie. To put it simply, no country on earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst toThe X Factor.


New drugs are desperately needed to combat XDR-TB as effective treatment involves at least four drugs to which the patient is sensitive or has never received in the past. Most Indian patients have received almost all second line drugs and have amplified resistance to most of the available drugs. Thioridazine has proven anti tuberculous effects in vitro and in vivo mouse models and we used this drug as salvage therapy in 4 Indian patients with XDR (near total drug resistance) with advanced disease. We found this drug to be well tolerated, even in this malnourished and ill patient population. It also resulted in clinical improvement in 3 of the 4 patients. Larger studies are being planned with this drug being added on to standardized or individualized XDR-TB regimens at an earlier stage. Because thioridazine has been used successfully for therapy of XDR-TB when in combination with antibiotics to which the patients were nonresponsive, the suggestion has been made that Thioridazine is eligible for patent as "New Use".


In professional organizations undergoing commercial change a natural dilemma presents itself between two competing value orientations; one more market-driven, the other based on an occupational or ideological ethic. As a natural hybrid the cultural industry may be considered as an extreme case in this respect, due to the inherent tension between being both 'cultural' (i.e., a focus on professional quality, public good) and 'industry' (a commercial imperative and market orientation). In this paper internal negotiations resulting from this inherent tension within two media organizations are analysed. The study examines how members of an established Dutch newspaper and a relatively new British television station deal with their increasingly commercialised working environments. By analysing everyday talk and text competing cultural discourses and rhetorical strategies are discerned, showing the politicised nature of cultural change. Theoretical implications of the findings for culture theory are discussed by critiquing clear-cut boundary thinking. The focus on hybridity (or hybridisation) helps to clarify the complexity of cultural change in organizations that become infused with commercial values and, more specifically, the way cultural boundaries are reinforced and transcended in this process.


A number of internet-based digital currency platform based on decentralized public ledgers have started since the introduction of the blockchain concept by the founder of Bitcoin in 2008. An important element of these public ledger platforms is an incentive system that elicits efforts from a distributed global workforce to verify and record transactions on the public ledger and a governance system for the platform. The economic efficiency and possibly viability of a public ledger platform ultimately depend on the design of these incentive and governance systems. Even if a decentralized public ledger were a more efficient technology for conducting financial transactions, and for providing a platform for distributed innovation, deficiencies in its incentive and governance systems could make it overall inferior to alternatives, including existing systems. Current claims that public ledger platforms can conduct financial transactions more efficiently ignore the inefficiencies associated with the incentive and governance systems and the likely costs associated with regulation of these platforms and complementary service providers such as vaults, wallets, and exchanges. It is possible that public ledger platforms are more efficient than other alternative platforms for conducing financial transactions, but as of now the proposition is based on apples-to-oranges comparisons compounded with speculation. Competition will lead to better incentive and governance systems for public ledger platforms.


Purpose: To demonstrate the use of phase-variance optical coherence tomography (PV-OCT) angiography for detection of pigment epithelial detachment (PED) vascularization in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Patients and methods: Patients with PEDs and exudative AMD were evaluated by the Retina Services at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. Each subject underwent fluorescein angiography and structural optical coherence tomography (OCT). Phase-variance OCT analysis was used to create angiographic images of the retinal and choroidal vasculature. PV-OCT-generated B-scans were superimposed on structural OCT B-scans to allow easy identification of perfused vascular structures. Results: Three patients with vascularized PEDs were imaged with PV-OCT, and each was found to have a vascular signal extending from the choroid into the hyperreflective substance of the PED. Two patients who had no evidence of PED vascularization on fluorescein angiography did not have vascular signals within their PEDs on PV-OCT. Conclusion: Structural OCT and PV-OCT images can be combined to create composite B-scans that offer high-resolution views of the retinal tissue along with dynamic vascular visualization. This technique offers a fast, noninvasive method for detecting vascularization of PEDs in AMD and may aid in the early detection of neovascular disease. Optometry;


An authoritative and entertaining account by one of our most talented writers of the courageous and unusual women who have been the backbone of the British Empire and foreign service. 'English ambassadresses are usually on the dotty side and leaving their embassies drives them completely off their rockers' - Nancy Mitford From the first exploratory expeditions into foreign lands, through the heyday of the British Empire and still today, the foreign service has been shaped and run behind the scenes by the wives of ambassadors and minor civil servants. Accompanying their spouses in the most extraordinary, tough, sometimes terrifying circumstances, they have struggled to bring their civilization with them. Their stories - from ambassadresses downwards - never before told, are a feast of eccentricity, genuine hardship and genuine heroism, and make for a hilarious, compelling and fascinating book.


The cobalt mineralization in the Blackbird district of Lemhi County, Idaho, probably the most extensive mineralization of its kind in the United States, is confined to irregular and discontinuous veins and lodes along zones of fractured and schistose quartzite belonging to the Belt series (pre-Cambrian). These lodes are represented by (1) zones of cobaltite-impregnated tourmalinized quartzite (cobalt-tourmaline lodes); (2) zones of cobaltite-impregnated biotitized quartzite (cobalt-biotite lodes); (3) bodies of cobaltite-containing quartz in zones of cobaltite-impregnated biotitized quartzite (cobalt-quartz lodes); and (4) stringers and lenses of quartz and such ore minerals as cobaltite, native silver, chalcopyrite, gold, and electrum in zones of cobaltite-impregnated biotitized quartzite (gold-copper-cobalt lodes).These lodes are the products of three stages of mineralization: (1) an early cobalt stage during which biotite, tourmaline, and cobaltite were formed, (2) a copper-cobalt stage during which biotite, quartz, cobaltite, arsenopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, native silver, chalcopyrite, siderite and other minerals were deposited, and (3) a gold-electrum stage during which scant amounts of these minerals and quartz were deposited. The differences that exist among the lodes depend largely on the variations in the amounts and kinds of minerals added during each stage of mineralization. All lodes show marked effects of the first stage of mineralization; the cobalt-quartz and the gold-copper-cobalt, also the effects of the second stage; and the gold-copper-cobalt lodes, mild effects of the third.The mineralizing solutions apparently had their source in early Tertiary magma which also provided the substance for accompanying bodies of gabbro and lamprophyre. Lode schistosity, which developed concomitantly with the mineralization, indicates deposition along zones of deepseated shearing under intense stress conditions. Mineral associations suggest relatively high temperatures, particularly when cobaltite was deposited. The early-stage solutions apparently carried the cobalt direct from its magmatic source, but the cobalt contained in the second-stage solutions was probably obtained by solution of the earlier-deposited cobaltite.


INTRODUCTION: The study of ambulatory human motion with accelerometer -based activity monitors has increased in many areas of biomedical research. These research areas include the monitoring of both older and younger adults. Reduction in sensor size coupled with more powerful data mining techniques have enabled the use of single sensor devices for longitudinal monitoring but sensor location and algorithm complexity play a key role in deriving a more complete activity summary.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to investigate the feasibility of a discrete accelerometer-based sensor located on the lower back (L5) in determining sit-to-stand (SiSt) and stand-to-sit (StSi) postural transitions based upon a previous algorithm [1].

METHODS: Participants wore the AX3 (Axivity, York, UK) tri-axial accelerometer-based sensor on the lumbar vertebrae (L5). The device was attached by means of double sided tape and Hypafix. Sampling rate for the AX3 was set at 100 Hertz (Hz). Participants were initially told to stand still for 10 seconds to calibrate the accelerometers prior to testing. Participants were then asked to perform 3 SiSt and StSi transitions from 2 chairs (chair with/without arm rests, height = 43cm) at the notification of a researcher. Upon completion data were downloaded and analysed using MATLAB.

CONCLUSION: Postural transitions can be accurately detected for older and younger adults with an accelerometer-based sensor located on L5. Previously the VESPA algorithm solely utilised vertical velocity estimates to differentiate between SiSt and StSi transitions. To improve the detection rates presented here, future work will incorporate vertical displacement values calculated from the vertical velocity. In addition, longitudinal (7 day) community based data will be assessed in comparison with a commercial activity monitor (activPAL™) to assess long term suitability and accuracy.


The molecular mechanisms induced by G-quadruplex ligands to trigger senescence in mammalian cells are still unknown, although the critical role of telomerase is highly suspected. JFA2 cells selected for resistance to senescence induced by the G-quadruplex ligand 12459 presented an overexpression of hTERT transcript that correlated to a functional increase in telomerase activity and telomere length. Consistently, treatment with 12459 failed to trigger senescence and telomere shortening in JFA2 cells. Resistant cells also presented cross-resistance for senescence induction to telomestatin, another G-quadruplex ligand from a different series, but not to other anticancer agents, indicating the selectivity of the resistance mechanism. We, thus, provide evidence that telomerase activity and telomere length are key cellular determinants of the resistance to G-quadruplex ligands.


An Exploration of the Influence of Specialized Recreation Program Participation on Inclusive Recreation Involvement Whitney E. Mayer State University of New York at Cortland 2009 The purpose of this study was to explore the influence participation in specialized recreation programs may have on inclusive recreation involvement. The research questions were concerned with the relationships between specialized recreation participation, inclusive recreation participation, self-determination and the role of supports. The study was conducted with the New York State Inclusive Recreation Resource Center (NYSIRRC) at SUNY Cortland. The NYSIRRC was interested in this information to help improve its Recreation Referral Service (RRS). The RRS serves people with disabilities and helps them to pursue inclusive recreation. Specialized programs are segregated and do not always lead to inclusion in recreation. Research has not shown whether participation in specialized programs may help to promote participation in inclusive recreation or if they create dependency or other barriers. There is little research on whether participation in specialized recreation programs leads to greater involvement in inclusive recreation, or unintentionally enables a cycle of participation in segregated services. There is much research to support that inclusion in recreation has significant benefits to all participants, with and without disabilities. What is unclear is why, when the benefits of inclusion are well documented, people still chose not to participate in these programs. Is it as simple as personal choice, or are there other reasons? This study explored these questions in order to help service providers offer programs, both specialized and inclusive, to help promote recreation participation that will help people to participate fully in the recreation of their choice. This study used qualitative methods to address the research questions. The study sample was selected using purposive sampling, where individuals who had the specific characteristics of importance to this study were deliberately selected. This type of sampling led "information rich cases" (Patton, 1990, p. 169). Only a small sample was analyzed for this study because cases are in-depth and information rich. Based on the findings it was concluded that specialized recreation programs do have a positive influence on inclusive recreation for people with disabilities. Results are discussed in more detail.


This paper presents a method for reasoning about the effects of sensor error on high-level robot behavior. We consider robot controllers that are synthesized from a set of high-level, temporal logic task specifications, such that the resulting robot behavior is guaranteed to satisfy these specifications when assuming perfect sensors and actuators. We relax the assumption of perfect sensing, and calculate the probability with which the controller satisfies a set of temporal logic specifications. We consider parametric representations, where the satisfaction probability is found as a function of the model parameters, and numerical representations, allowing for the analysis of large examples. We illustrate our approach with three examples of varying size that provide insight into unintuitive effects of sensor error that can inform the specification design process.


Medications can pose considerable risk in older adults. This article annotates four articles addressing this concern from 2016. The first provides national data on the use of specific prescription, over‐the‐counter and dietary supplements in older adults and their change over time. The second discusses the opportunity of deprescribing ineffective/unnecessary stool softeners (i.e., docusate) routinely given to older hospital patients. The third national study examines common adverse drug events in older emergency room patients. Finally, a study published demonstrating a potential association between melatonin and fractures is discussed. This manuscript is intended to provide a narrative review of key publications in medication safety for clinicians and researchers committed to improving medication safety in older adults.


English is a main subject in Chinese English classes, which requires plenty of practice, needs cooperation between the teacher and students in class to jointly fulfill the verbal communication and the teaching-learning procedure. Classroom questioning, the skill of the elicitation method of teaching that is student-oriented and advocated today, gives an incentive to communicative activities in English. Raising questions effectively is a major method of the teacher who guides his students to think actively, fostering students' ability of analysis and creation. It is also an essential way for the teacher to output information and obtain feedback, and an important channel to exchange ideas between the teacher and students. Therefore, the teacher must pay great attention to the skill of asking questions in English class. Each question must be presented to accomplish the teaching objective and task. Only in this way may the English teachers ask question effectively and improve the skill of questioning so as to make contribution to our Chinese English education. To begin with some elemental definitions, this paper discusses some basic knowledge of questions, and then explores the skill of questioning in English class about the preparing, designing, controlling and evaluating of questioning. Finally the benefit of the skill is studied with abundant teaching cases. The paper analyzes tentative in English class by integrating theory with practice. Thus, the skills of questioning are further understood in English classes.


Using historical census microdata, we present a unique analysis of racial and gender disparities in destination selection and an exploration ofhypotheses regarding tied migration in the historical context ofthe Great Migration. Black migrants were more likely to move to metropolitan areas and central cities throughout the period, while white migrants were more likely to locate in nonmetropolitan and farm destinations. Gender differences were largely dependent on marital status. Consistent with the "tied-migration" thesis, married women had destination outcomes that were similar to those of men, whereas single women had a greater propensity to reside in metropolitan locations where economic opportunities for women were more plentiful.


The Department of Water Affairs often has to build on inferior dam sites which present engineering problems requiring ingenuity for their solution. The paper deals with the factors that finally lead to the choice of a shaft spillway in the case of the Ebenezer Dam and descriptionbes how the site problems were solved by its use. After dealing with aspects of structural safety such as over-loading erosion, cavitation and vibration that have influenced the general acceptance of shaft spillways, the hydraulic elements of design are descriptionbed and their application is shown in the design of the funnel, the bend, the horizontal shaft and the stilling basin. The loading factors taken into consideration in the structural design, and the manner in which the concrete specification and the design were moulded to fit, the site conditions and loading requirements, are then covered. Finally the results of model tests carried out to confirm the discharge and flow conditions of the shaft spillway as designed are supplied.


The aluco-group of the Indo-Australian genus Anisoneura is revised with characterisation of its component species and updating of their distribution. Types of all but one nominal taxa of the group are illustrated. The concept of Anisoneura zeuzeroides Guenée, 1852 is restricted to sole populations from Western New Guinea, while Moluccan (including Kei Islands') populations previously ascribed to this nominal taxon are distinguished as Anisoneura sphingoides C. Felder, 1861 stat. rev. (= Anisoneura depressa Hulstaert, 1924, syn. nov.), and those from Eastern New Guinea are re-evaluated as Anisoneura papuana Hampson, 1913 stat. rev. The unusual circumstances of the scarce divergence in genitalia characters between species looking externally different (either sphingoides or zeuzeroides vs aluco) and vice versa, that is species almost indistinguishable in habitus albeit strongly differentiated in genitalia (either sphingoides or zeuzeroides vs papuana), is stressed. Lectotypes to Anisoneura hypocyana Guenée, 1852 and Anisoneura sphingoides C. Felder, 1861 are designated.


Software Defined Networking (SDN) has recently emerged as the promising network architecture paradigm that is believed to revolutionize the networking world by making it more intelligent, flexible and programmable. SDN has mainly been researched for wired and data center networks. However, aligned with the evolution of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Internet of Things (IoT) and similar technologies, we believe that the principles and potentials of SDN can be applied to a network of resourceconstrained devices. The main objective of this thesis is to test if SDN can be deployed in a network of small wireless-capable and resourceconstrained devices by setting up an experimental testbed, and then to evaluate its performance. The methodology used is real hardware-based experimentation and measurement instead of simulation. The rationale behind the choice is so as to undertake the evaluation in an environment that depicts reality and get reasonable results. A literature review of previous studies shows that most of the research works done are at an architectural or prototype level. However, the authors who suggested SDN for WIreless SEnsor Network (SDN-WISE) tried to implement their solution and made their source code publicly available. This thesis work uses SDN-WISE codebase as a starting point and further implementation of missing components and improvement of existing functionalities is carried out. A working hardware-based WSN testbed that uses SDN paradigm is implemented as one of the contributions of this thesis work. Software related contributions include implementation of a dynamic topology discovery, set of serial commands to program sensor nodes, a Python-based SDN controller, and a simple serial line based communication protocol between WSN and the SDN controller residing in a general purpose computer. The performance of the developed testbed is evaluated under different scenarios. The effects of topology, hop distance, and rate of packet arrival on the performance of the testbed have been analyzed. As the topology grows with more sensor nodes and becomes more complex, the performance declines. The same is true when the hop distance and rate of packet arrivals increase also. The ease of management, flexibility, and programmability provided by SDN, as witnessed in the experiments, convinced us to recommend and propose SDN as a viable solution for a network of small wireless-capable and resource-constrained devices.