We prove a pair of transformations relating elliptic hypergeometric integrals of different dimensions, corresponding to the root systems BC_n and A_n; as a special case, we recover some integral identities conjectured by van Diejen and Spiridonov. For BC_n, we also consider their "Type II" integral. Their proof of that integral, together with our transformation, gives rise to pairs of adjoint integral operators; a different proof gives rise to pairs of adjoint difference operators. These allow us to construct a family of biorthogonal abelian functions generalizing the Koornwinder polynomials, and satisfying the analogues of the Macdonald conjectures. Finally, we discuss some transformations of Type II-style integrals. In particular, we find that adding two parameters to the Type II integral gives an integral invariant under an appropriate action of the Weyl group E_7.


Abstract The last interglacial, commonly understood as an interval with climate as warm or warmer than today, is represented by marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e, which is a proxy record of low global ice volume and high sea level. It is arbitrarily dated to begin at approximately 130,000 yr B.P. and end at 116,000 yr B.P. with the onset of the early glacial unit MIS 5d. The age of the stage is determined by correlation to uranium–thorium dates of raised coral reefs. The most detailed proxy record of interglacial climate is found in the Vostok ice core where the temperature reached current levels 132,000 yr ago and continued rising for another two millennia. Approximately 127,000 yr ago the Eemian mixed forests were established in Europe. They developed through a characteristic succession of tree species, probably surviving well into the early glacial stage in southern parts of Europe. After ca. 115,000 yr ago, open vegetation replaced forests in northwestern Europe and the proportion of conifers increased significantly farther south. Air temperature at Vostok dropped sharply. Pulses of cold water affected the northern North Atlantic already in late MIS 5e, but the central North Atlantic remained warm throughout most of MIS 5d. Model results show that the sea surface in the eastern tropical Pacific warmed when the ice grew and sea level dropped. The essentially interglacial conditions in southwestern Europe remained unaffected by ice buildup until late MIS 5d when the forests disappeared abruptly and cold water invaded the central North Atlantic ca. 107,000 yr ago.


In February 2018 the LSTA prevailed in its long legal battle with federal regulators when the DC Circuit Court ruled that CLO managers were not subject to risk retention. With the favorable resolution of that key issue and in light of the hands-off approach to financial regulation, it appeared that the CLO market would be able to continue doing business at historic levels for years to come. However, recent pressures from three different directions are calling that assumption into question. A lawsuit contending that loans are subject to the disclosure and anti-fraud provisions of the securities laws, new capital rules on CLOs published by Japanese regulators, and recent legislation relating to leveraged loans and CLOs introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate may change the benign landscape. This article examines the new threats and explains how each could upend the loan and CLO markets. TOPICS: CLOs, CDOs, and other structured credit; legal and regulatory issues for structured finance Key Findings • The leveraged loan and CLO markets successfully navigated regulatory challenges imposed by Dodd–Frank. • CLO issuance has reached record levels in the past few years, operating in a more benign regulatory environment. • Challenges from US and Japanese regulators and a lawsuit that could change the legal status of loans threaten to upend the loan and CLO markets.


The Scottish Government has issued a prospectus for independence, should it win a plebiscite in September 2014. It plans independence to be in March 2016, together with accession to membership of the European Union. Its proposed arrangements for the regulation of broadcasting are presently very weak, with omission of a media regulator, a spectrum regulator, an advertising standards authority and the bodies for protecting children when using the Internet. Given the need to re-issue broadcasting and spectrum licences, it would be necessary to have laws and at least senior staff for regulatory bodies in place one year before independence. Complex arrangements have been proposed to replace the BBC with a Scottish Broadcasting Service, while maintaining BBC broadcasts. In order to be ready for independence, considerable further work is required to address essential institutions, their independence and systems of appeal and oversight.


Canada's Industrial and Regional Benefits (IRB) Policy ensures that Canadian industry benefit from Government defence and security procurement. The Policy requires companies that win defence and security contracts with the Government of Canada place business activities in Canada at the same value of the contract. This website details how the IRB Policy works and how Canadian companies can benefit.


It is the aim of this article to propose a novel system of dispute resolution for disputes which turn on interpretations of complex but uncertain scientific evidence. Part II identifies a specific subset of legal disputes that can only be resolved through policy judgments from ambiguous scientific data. Recognizing the underlying commonalities of these science-policy disputes offers an opportunity to craft a single dispute resolution mechanism which may be utilized for a wide variety of disputes. Part III outlines the benefits of using a mediation-based dispute settlement mechanism, as opposed to the traditional adversary-style litigation system, for these specific types of disputes. Part IV proposes a model mediation system for disputes turning on policy-based interpretations of complex scientific information. Part V concludes by applying the model to a fictional products liability dispute which involves conflicting scientific determinations from technically complex data.


. Although it plays a key role in the theory of stratified turbulence, the concept of available potential energy (APE) dissipation has remained until now a rather mysterious quantity, owing to the lack of rigorous result about its irreversible character or energy conversion type. Here, we show by using rigorous energetics considerations rooted in the analysis of the Navier-Stokes for a fully compressible fluid with a nonlinear equation of state that the APE dissipation is an irreversible energy conversion that dissipates kinetic energy into internal energy, exactly as viscous dissipation. These results are established by showing that APE dissipation contributes to the irreversible production of entropy, and by showing that it is a part of the work of expansion/contraction. Our results provide a new interpretation of the entropy budget, that leads to a new exact definition of turbulent effective diffusivity, which generalizes the Osborn-Cox model, as well as a rigorous decomposition of the work of expansion/contraction into reversible and irreversible components. In the context of turbulent mixing associated with parallel shear flow instability, our results suggests that there is no irreversible transfer of horizontal momentum into vertical momentum, as seems to be required when compressible effects are neglected, with potential consequences for the parameterisations of momentum dissipation in the coarse-grained Navier-Stokes equations.


Drawing on a wealth of original sources, including interviews with politicians and activists this book explores the changing contours of the politics of race in the present social and political environment. The volume seeks to go beyond abstract generalisations in order to develop an account which takes seriously the everyday processes that have shaped social understandings of race and politics in British society. At the same time it links up to the broader debates about the impact of multiculturalism on contemporary politics, the role of minorities in political life and the limits of democratic government. Its account of the role of black politicians within the context of party politics will be of particular appeal to those interested in the interplay between mobilisation and the development of racial justice and equality. Race, Politics and Social Change will appeal to students of British Politics and Society and to all those with interests in the politics of race.


Unsupervised skill learning objectives (Gregor et al., 2016, Eysenbach et al., 2018) allow agents to learn rich repertoires of behavior in the absence of extrinsic rewards. They work by simultaneously training a policy to produce distinguishable latent-conditioned trajectories, and a discriminator to evaluate distinguishability by trying to infer latents from trajectories. The hope is for the agent to explore and master the environment by encouraging each skill (latent) to reliably reach different states. However, an inherent exploration problem lingers: when a novel state is actually encountered, the discriminator will necessarily not have seen enough training data to produce accurate and confident skill classifications, leading to low intrinsic reward for the agent and effective penalization of the sort of exploration needed to actually maximize the objective. To combat this inherent pessimism towards exploration, we derive an information gain auxiliary objective that involves training an ensemble of discriminators and rewarding the policy for their disagreement. Our objective directly estimates the epistemic uncertainty that comes from the discriminator not having seen enough training examples, thus providing an intrinsic reward more tailored to the true objective compared to pseudocount-based methods (Burda et al., 2019). We call this exploration bonus discriminator disagreement intrinsic reward, or DISDAIN. We demonstrate empirically that DISDAIN improves skill learning both in a tabular grid world (Four Rooms) and the 57 games of the Atari Suite (from pixels). Thus, we encourage researchers to treat pessimism with DISDAIN.


A new white-light interferometry point sensor utilizing a chromatically dispersed depth detection field is addressed. Monitoring the interference in the optical frequency domain allows for microscopic height detection without the necessity of a mechanical axial scan. The problem of limited dynamic range in previously reported spectral interferometric schemes is solved by forming a high-contrast interference window due to the chromatically dispersed focusing of the detection field. In a proof-of-principle experiment, the position of a reflecting object could be retrieved with a focus of 0.8 NA over an axial range of 30 microm by analyzing the phase of the emerging interference wavelets.


BACKGROUND
Health systems are faced with a large array of transitional care interventions and patient populations to whom such activities might apply.

PURPOSE
To summarize the health and utilization effects of transitional care interventions, and to identify common themes about intervention types, patient populations, or settings that modify these effects.

DATA SOURCES
PubMed and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (January 1950-May 2014), reference lists, and technical advisors.

STUDY SELECTION
Systematic reviews of transitional care interventions that reported hospital readmission as an outcome.

DATA EXTRACTION
We extracted transitional care procedures, patient populations, settings, readmissions, and health outcomes. We identified commonalities and compiled a narrative synthesis of emerging themes.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Among 10 reviews of mixed patient populations, there was consistent evidence that enhanced discharge planning and hospital-at-home interventions reduced readmissions. Among 7 reviews in specific patient populations, transitional care interventions reduced readmission in patients with congestive heart failure and general medical populations. In general, interventions that reduced readmission addressed multiple aspects of the care transition, extended beyond hospital stay, and had the flexibility to accommodate individual patient needs. There was insufficient evidence on how caregiver involvement, transition to sites other than home, staffing, patient selection practices, or care settings modified intervention effects.

CONCLUSIONS
Successful interventions are comprehensive, extend beyond hospital stay, and have the flexibility to respond to individual patient needs. The strength of evidence should be considered low because of heterogeneity in the interventions studied, patient populations, clinical settings, and implementation strategies.


Using a newly developed optoelectronic source of well-collimated beams of subpicosecond pulses of terahertz radiation to excite a N2O vapor cell, we have observed the subsequent emission from the vapor of a coherent pulse train extending as long as 1 ns. The individual subpicosecond terahertz pulses of the train are separated by 39.8 ps, corresponding to the frequency separation between adjacent rotational lines of the excited manifold of more than 50 lines. From these observations the coherent relaxation time T2 is obtained as a function of vapor pressure, even for the case of overlapping lines. In addition, from the pulse repetition rate in the train the frequency separation between the rotational lines is determined. Finally, from the changing individual pulse shapes in the train the anharmonicity factor for the N2O molecule is evaluated.


On June 5, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting en banc, concluded that the Morrow family failed to state a claim against their school district for failing to protect their daughters from harm sustained by a school bully. By dismissing the Morrows' suit, the Third Circuit failed to hold schools accountable for violence against students under their watch. Worse still, the majority's holding incentivized inaction by school administrators even though they are uniquely positioned to protect bullied students. Judge Julio M. Fuentes, in his dissent, found that Blackhawk High School had coercive control of their students such that a special relationship, and therefore a duty to protect, existed. The failure of the Third Circuit to adopt this reasoning left students vulnerable to school bullying while shielding schools from liability.


Background Non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (NVUGIB) is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in the USA. Currently, there are limited data on the inpatient outcomes of patients admitted with a diagnosis of NVUGIB stratified according to teaching hospital status. We analyzed data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) intending to evaluate these outcomes. Methods We queried the NIS 2016 and 2017 databases for NVUGIB hospitalizations by teaching hospital status. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality while secondary outcomes were rate of endoscopy for hemostasis, rate of early endoscopy (endoscopy in 1 day or less), mean time to endoscopy, rate of complications including acute kidney injury (AKI), acute respiratory failure (ARF), need for blood transfusion, development of sepsis, need for endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation as well as healthcare utilization. Results There were over 71 million weighted discharges in the combined 2016 and 2017 NIS database. A total of 94,900 NVUGIB cases were identified with 63.4% admitted in teaching hospitals. The in-hospital mortality for patients admitted with an NVUGIB in teaching hospitals was 1.98% compared to 1.5% in non-teaching hospitals (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08 - 1.77, P = 0.010) when adjusted for biodemographic and hospital characteristics as well as comorbidities. Patients admitted with a diagnosis of NVUGIB in teaching hospitals had a 10% adjusted increased odds of getting endoscopy for hemostasis (27.0% vs. 24.5%, aOR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02 - 1.19, P = 0.016) compared to patients in non-teaching hospitals. There was, however, no difference in early endoscopy between the two groups. Conclusion Patients admitted at teaching hospitals for an NVUGIB had worse outcomes during hospitalizations including mortality, median length of stay, and total hospital charges when compared to NVUGIB patients managed at non-teaching hospitals.


Manure amendments affect several soil physical and hydrologic properties. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of (i) manure amendment rates (0, 168, 336, and 672 kg total N ha−1), levels (one-time application, and two-time application), and types (chicken manure [CM], dairy manure [DM], and swine manure [SM]) on bulk density (&rgr;b), total soil porosity (&thgr;t), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) of a highly weathered tropical soil (Waialua gravely clay variant, isohyperthermic Pachic Haplustolls) and (ii) measuring instruments (tension infiltrometer [TI] and double-ring infiltrometers [DR]) on Ksat. For the two-time application level, all the plots received additional manure to compensate for the amounts decomposed during the first growing season. The field was tilled to the top 15-cm depth before and after manure application during the two growing seasons. Measurements of &rgr;b and &thgr;t were conducted on undisturbed soil core samples collected from the top 10 cm of soil from a field cultivated with sweet corn (Zea mays L. subsp. mays) and irrigated with a drip irrigation system for two consecutive growing seasons. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was calculated from steady state infiltration rates measured with TI and DR. Results show that the increased manure amendment rates and levels significantly (P < 0.01) decreased &rgr;b and consequently increased &thgr;t. The values of Ksat increased significantly (P < 0.01) with increase in CM and DM amendment rates and levels. For SM treatments, the values of Ksat decreased with increase in manure amendment rates and levels; these results concur with those reported in literature on liquid manures. Saturated hydraulic conductivity calculated from DR data was slightly greater than that from TI data for CM and DM treatments. Opposite results were found for SM treatments. However, a good agreement (R2 = 0.90) was observed between Ksat values calculated from TI and DR data across treatments. We conclude that the CM and DM amendments increased &thgr;t and Ksat and may also temporarily improve soil aggregation; however, SM amendments result in decreased Ksat. Thus, it is not recommended that slurry SM be applied to the soils with low hydraulic conductivity because it could further inhibit water infiltration and increase surface runoff and soil erosion.


This paper explores the role that lines play in information design and their contribution to the development of human communications. It focuses on lines that represent quantitative data but not lines in graphic design that are aesthetic, symbolic or marked in the physical landscape. A number of publications and websites were consulted. These explore information design theory, semiotics, cartography and thematic mapping and showcase the latest innovations in data visualisation. The main part of the paper examines the historical milestones in the development of the line from its first recorded use as concrete representations of figures, then as abstractions of the physical environment in maps and later for metaphorical communication. The last part of the paper mentions some of the different ways to distinguish multiple lines on the same graph, the different forms that the line can take and the symbolic uses of the line. Maps and figures are provided in an annex to demonstrate examples of the key works discussed. This paper concludes that although the line has existed for a very long time, it continually finds new ways to communicate and represent data. Through the history of the line, a series of creative people improved its capacity to carry information. This has been possible due to the versatile form and ambiguous interpretation that the line has to offer. Each innovation has encouraged scientists and innovators to improve on the new technique and take it a step further. They appreciated the value of being able to express complex information and phenomena in a visual format, where the line is key.


Against the back ground of a quite similar legal situation in Germany and Switzerland, the latter country accepts an open practice of assisted suicide. Right to die organisations such as Exit and Dignitas play a key role in this. In Switzerland several hundred assisted suicides take place each year. Nearly half concern foreigners who travel from abroad. In recent years there has been an increased demand for stricter control with this practice. It seems likely that we in the coming years will witness the establishment of institutional mechanisms to achive that, having to do with registration, licencing, and supervision. Thereby, Switzerland may become the first country in the world to legally determine a role for non-doctors in assisted dying.


Since bonding systems were introduced in the restorative procedures carried out with esthetic materials, the treatment of dentin surfaces has been widely studied in order to establish the ideal technique. The application of 37% phosphoric acid on dentin is still the best known method. However, alternative methods for treating the dentin surface have been discussed in the literature, including the utilization of some kinds of laser irradiation. The purpose of this research was to morphologically evaluate the bond between adhesive materials and the dentin treated with Er:YAG and Nd:YAG lasers, in a comparative study by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Irradiation either substituted acid etching, or was associated to it. Recently extracted bovine incisors were utilized. They received class V cavity preparations and were restored with a bonding system and a light-cured composite resin. Meanwhile, some of the teeth underwent irradiation with Er:YAG laser or Nd:YAG laser before the application of the bonding agent and the composite resin. The samples were selected, prepared for SEM and submitted to morphological analysis. Data were registered in photomicrographs. Based on the microscopic observations, we concluded that only in the dentin surfaces submitted to irradiation with Er:YAG laser and to acid conditioning there was penetration of resin into the dentine. With the Nd:YAG laser treatment, there was only visual superposition of resin over the dentin surface, which suggests that there was only occlusion of the tubules, with characteristics of fusion in the superficial dentine.


In this paper we present a fully tunable and reconfigurable single-laser multi-tap microwave photonic FIR filter that utilizes a special SM-to-MM combiner to sum the taps. The filter requires only a single laser source for all the taps and a passive component, a SM-to-MM combiner, for incoherent summing of signal. The SM-to-MM combiner does not produce optical interference during signal merging and is phase-insensitive. We experimentally demonstrate an eight-tap filter with both positive and negative programmable coefficients with excellent correspondence between predicted and measured values. The magnitude response shows a clean and accurate function across the entire bandwidth, and proves successful operation of the FIR filter using a SM-to-MM combiner.


The OFDM technology has been extensively used in many radio communication technologies. For example, OFDM is the core technology applied in WiFi, WiMAX and LTE. Its main advantages include high bandwidth utilization, strong noise immunity and the capability to resist frequency selective fading. However, OFDM technology is not only applied in the field of radio communication, but has also been developed greatly in acoustic communication, namely the so called acoustic OFDM. Thanks to the acoustic OFDM technology, the information can be embedded in audio and then transmitted so that the receiver can obtain the required information through certain demodulation mechanisms without severely affecting the audio quality. This thesis mainly discusses how to embed and transmit information in audio by making use of acoustic OFDM. Based on the theoretical systematic structure, it also designs a simulation system and a measurement system respectively. In these two systems, channel coding, manners of modulation and demodulation, timing synchronization and parameters of the functional components are configured in the most reasonable way in order to achieve relatively strong stability and robustness of the system. Moreover, power control and the compatibility between audio and OFDM signals are also explained and analyzed in this thesis. Based on the experimental results, the author analyzes the performance of the system and the factors that affect the performance of the system, such as the type of audio, distance between transmitter and receiver, audio output level and so on. According to this analysis, it is proved that the simulation system can work steadily in any audio of wav format and transmit information correctly. However, due to the hardware limitations of the receiver and sender devices, the measurement system is unstable to a certain degree. Finally, this thesis draws conclusions of the research results and points out unsolved problems in the experiments. Eventually, some expectations for this research orientation are stated and relevant suggestions are proposed.


Summary

1. Deterministic models predict that susceptible-infective-susceptible (SIS) disease, where there is no immunity to reinfection following recovery, will become infinitely persistent in a host population. We explored the incorporation of stochasticity into SIS models; modelled interacting host-disease agents in metapopulations; and examined model predictions in a real system involving viral infection in domestic cats.

2. SIS models incorporating stochasticity predicted that disease persistence would be finite and dependent on the host population size, provided the host population was isolated. However, the disease may persist by dynamic spread among interacting host metapopulations.

3. Feline enteric coronavirus (FECV) dynamics in domestic cats were well predicted by stochastic metapopulation models.

4. The models we present are mathematically tractable, generalizable, and mechanistically realistic. The findings from the cat-virus system are immediately applicable to the management of cattery populations and could be adapted to inform eradication programmes for other infectious diseases in animal and human populations. The most practical methods to eradicate feline enteric coranovirus would be to remove small catteries (islands) from interactions with large catteries (mainlands) and to convert mainlands to islands by depopulation.


A study of several chemical and electrochemical factors which affect the behaviour of embedded steel in cement pastes and concrete has been made. The effects of internal and external sources of chloride ions on the pore solution chemistry of Portland cement pastes, with and without additions of anodic corrosion inhibitors, have been studied using a pore solution expression device which has enabled samples of pore solution to be expressed from hardened cement pastes and analysed for various ionic species. Samples of pure alite and tricalcium aluminate have been prepared and characterised with respect to morphology, free lime content and fineness. Kinetics of diffusion of chloride ions in hardened pastes of alite and alite blended with tricalcium aluminate have been investigated and an activation energy obtained for the diffusion process in alite. The pore structures of the hardened pastes and the chloride ion binding capacity of alite have also been determined. Concrete cylinders containing embedded steel with four different surface conditions were exposed to various environments. The electrochemical behaviour of the steel was monitored during the period of exposure by means of rest potential measurements and the steel corrosion products analysed before and after being embedded. An examination was made of the nature of the interfacial zones produced between the embedded steel and cement. Rest potential measurements were monitored for steel embedded in alite paste in the presence of chloride ions and cement paste containing various levels of inhibitors in combination with chloride ions. In the latter case the results were supported by polarisation resistance determinations.


A preliminary numerical experiment is conducted for laboratory experiments on the generation of magnetized collisionless shocks with high-power lasers by using one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The present study deals with the interaction between a moving aluminum plasma and a nitrogen plasma at rest. In the numerical experiment, the nitrogen plasma is unmagnetized or magnetized by a weak external magnetic field. Since the previous study suggested the generation of a spontaneous magnetic field in the piston (aluminum) plasma due to the Biermann battery, the effect of the magnetic field is of interest. Sharp jumps of the electron density and magnetic field are observed around the interface between the two plasmas as long as one of the two plasmas is magnetized, which indicates the formation of tangential electron-magneto-hydro-dynamic discontinuity. When the aluminum plasma is magnetized, strong compression of both the density and the magnetic field takes place in the pure aluminum plasma during the gyration of nitrogen ions in the aluminum plasma region. The formation of a shock downstream is obtained from the shock jump condition. The results suggest that the spontaneous magnetic field in the piston (aluminum) plasma plays an essential role in the formation of a perpendicular collisionless shock.A preliminary numerical experiment is conducted for laboratory experiments on the generation of magnetized collisionless shocks with high-power lasers by using one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The present study deals with the interaction between a moving aluminum plasma and a nitrogen plasma at rest. In the numerical experiment, the nitrogen plasma is unmagnetized or magnetized by a weak external magnetic field. Since the previous study suggested the generation of a spontaneous magnetic field in the piston (aluminum) plasma due to the Biermann battery, the effect of the magnetic field is of interest. Sharp jumps of the electron density and magnetic field are observed around the interface between the two plasmas as long as one of the two plasmas is magnetized, which indicates the formation of tangential electron-magneto-hydro-dynamic discontinuity. When the aluminum plasma is magnetized, strong compression of both the density and the magnetic field takes place in the pure aluminum plasma during...


Laboratory experiments have established the existence of cognitive biases, but their explanatory power in real-world economic settings has been difficult to measure. We estimate the extent of a cognitive bias, confirmatory bias, among experts in a real-world environment. In the Associated Press Top 25 College Football Poll expert pollsters are tasked with assessing team quality, and their beliefs are treated week-to-week with game results that serve as signals about an individual team's quality. We exploit the variation provided by actual game results relative to market expectations to develop a novel regression-discontinuity approach to identify confirmatory bias in this real-world setting. We construct a unique personally-assembled dataset that matches more than twenty years of individual game characteristics to poll results and betting market information, and show that teams that slightly exceed and barely miss market expectations are exchangeable. The likelihood of winning the game, the average number of points scored by teams and their opponents, and even the average week of the season are no different between teams that slightly exceed and barely miss market expectations. Pollsters, however, significantly upgrade their beliefs about a team's quality when a team slightly exceeds market expectations. The effects are sizeable-- nearly half of the voters in the poll rank a team one slot higher when they slightly exceed market expectations; one-fifth of the standard deviation in poll points in a given week can be attributed to confirmatory bias. This type of updating suggests that even when informed agents make repeated decisions they may act in a manner which is consistent with confirmatory bias.


This instrumental case study examined excellence in community college teaching from the perspectives of nine distinguished faculty at a national award-winning community college in the Southwest. This study utilized an appreciative inquiry interviewing framework approach in order to examine excellence in teaching from an affirmative perspective. This study began by introducing a Conceptual Framework: The Value of Community College Excellence in Teaching, which is designed to understand the potential of excellence in teaching from the viewpoint of human capital. The Conceptual Framework asserts that excellence in community college teaching has the capacity to improve student and family lives, resulting in overall better-quality societal impacts that lead to economic prosperity. The central question in this instrumental case study was: How do distinguished faculty at a nationally top-ranked community college perceive excellence in teaching? COMMUNITY COLLEGE TEACHING EXCELLENCE ix The study presented findings from emergent thematic coding from applications submitted by award-winning distinguished faculty participants and from demographic surveys, semistructured interview transcripts, two focus group transcripts, and observation notes taken during the focus groups. These documents were examined multiple times to determine themes and commonalities that emerged and from their community college teaching excellence perspectives of distinguished faculty. The findings in this study provide a potential model to consider, Community College Teaching Excellence: A Distinguished Faculty Perspective, The AEACSA Model, that community college faculty can apply and include examples of excellence in teaching under each element. The AEACSA Model consists of six elements: authentically connect with students with the intent to create a trustful learning environment, embrace diversity, activate high expectations and encourage excellence, cultivate a passion for lifelong learning, strengthen a student's confidence in their ability to learn, and apply theory to the real world. COMMUNITY COLLEGE TEACHING EXCELLENCE x Table of


Cardiac arrhythmias are often fatal in patients with heart failure. Ufret-Vincenty et al. studied mechanisms underlying arrhythmias in a mouse model of heart failure, the MLP–/– mouse in which the gene encoding the cardiac LIM domain protein is disrupted. Myocytes from MLP–/– mice showed prolonged action potentials, which resulted in lengthening of the QT interval on electrocardiograms, a phenomenon like long QT syndrome in humans. Alterations in the Na+ current (INa) were the likely cause of the action potential prolongation and increase in arrhythmogenic voltage fluctuations, called early after-depolarizations. Analysis of the Na+ channel α subunit by Western blotting suggested that along with an overall decrease in abundance in MLP–/– myocytes, the α subunit exhibited altered glycosylation. Treatment of wild-type mouse myocytes with neuramidase to cleave sialic acid reproduced the altered INa characteristics observed in the MLP–/– myocytes. Thus, altered glycosylation of cardiac Na+ channels in heart failure patients may represent a mechanism for the production of fatal arrhythmias. C. A. Ufret-Vincenty, D. J. Baro, W. J. Lederer, H. W. Rockman, L. E. Quiñones, L. F. Santana, Role of sodium channel deglycosylation in the genesis of cardiac arrhythmias in heart failure. J. Biol. Chem. 276, 28197-28203 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


We have applied the seeded infiltration and growth (IG) technique to the processing of samples containing Ag in an attempt to fabricate Ag-doped Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) bulk superconductors with enhanced mechanical properties. The IG technique has been used successfully to grow bulk Ag-doped YBCO superconductors of up to 25 mm in diameter in the form of single grains. The distribution of Ag in the parent Y-123 matrix fabricated by the IG technique is observed to be at least as uniform as that in samples grown by conventional top seeded melt growth (TSMG). Fine Y-211 particles were observed to be embedded within the Y-123 matrix for the IG processed samples, leading to a high critical current density, Jc, of over 70 kA/cm2 at 77.3 K in self-field. The distribution of Y-211 in the IG sample microstructure, however, is inhomogeneous, which leads to a variation in the spatial distribution of Jc throughout the bulk matrix. A maximum-trapped field of around 0.43 T at 1.2 mm above the sample surface (i.e. including 0.7 mm for the sensor mould thickness) is observed at liquid nitrogen temperature, despite the relatively small grain size of the sample (20 mm diameter × 7 mm thickness).


Tritiated promegestone ([3H]R5020) is bound with high affinity in cytosol prepared from the thymus gland of both male and female rats. To prevent tracer binding to glucocorticoid receptors, we have used excess RU26988 (11 beta, 17 beta-dihydroxy-21-methyl-17 alpha-pregna-1,4,6-trien-20-yn-3-one), a highly specific synthetic glucocorticoid. In the presence of 1 microM RU26988, [3H]R5020 was bound with high affinity (Kd less than or equal to 1 nM) and specificity (R5020 greater than progesterone much greater than estradiol greater than dihydrotestosterone = cortisol = corticosterone = dexamethasone) appropriate for progesterone receptors (PR). These sites were predominantly located in the epithelioid fraction of the thymus. PR levels were 14 +/- 3 fmol/mg protein in female thymus and 10 +/- 4 fmol/mg in male thymus; estrogen administration elevated thymic PR levels in both species (female, 26 +/- 2 fmol/mg; male, 21 +/- 3 fmol/mg). In estrogen-primed female rats, cytosolic thymic PR levels were acutely lowered to 20% of estrogen-primed control levels by the im administration of 1 mg progesterone. Thymic PR levels in pregnant (11-14 days) rats were approximately 50% of those in nonpregnant controls. Effects of glucocorticoids, androgens, and estrogens on the thymus are well documented; the demonstration of PR raises the possibility of direct effects of progesterone on the thymus.


Background Handwashing is a cost-effective way of preventing communicable diseases such as respiratory and food-borne illnesses. However, handwashing rates are low in developing countries. Target 7C of the seventh Millennium Development Goals was to increase by half the proportion of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Studies have found that better access to improved water sources and sanitation is associated with higher rates of handwashing. Objective Our goal was to describe handwashing behaviour and identify the associated factors in Vietnamese households. Design Data from 12,000 households participating in the Vietnam Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2011 were used. The survey used a multistage sampling method to randomly select 100 clusters and 20 households per cluster. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from a household representative. Demographic variables, the presence of a specific place for handwashing, soap and water, access to improved sanitation, and access to improved water sources were tested for association with handwashing behaviour in logistic regression. Results Almost 98% of households had a specific place for handwashing, and 85% had cleansing materials and water at such a place. The prevalence of handwashing in the sample was almost 85%. Educational level, ethnicity of the household head, and household wealth were factors associated with handwashing practice (p<0.05). Those having access to an improved sanitation facility were more likely to practise handwashing [odds ratio (OR)=1.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.37–2.09, p<0.001], as were those with access to improved water sources (OR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.37–2.21, p<0.001). Conclusions Households with low education, low wealth, belonging to ethnic minorities, and with low access to improved sanitation facilities and water sources should be targeted for interventions implementing handwashing practice. In addition, the availability of soap and water at handwashing sites should be increased and practical teaching programs should be deployed in order to increase handwashing rates.


Information about cigarettes can help smokers come to an informed decision about what cigarettes to purchase. Countermarketing information, which helps counter potentially biased marketing information, can fill this void, but little is known about the value of this information to smokers. In this paper, we use data from experimental auctions to estimate the value of countermarketing information to smokers. We find that countermarketing information has significant value to smokers who have been exposed to marketing information from tobacco companies, but we find no evidence it provides value to smokers not exposed to marketing information


This paper presents two complementary statistical computing frameworks that address challenges in parallel processing and the analysis of massive data. First, the foreach package allows users of the R programming environment to define parallel loops that may be run sequentially on a single machine, in parallel on a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) machine, or in cluster environments without platform-specific code. Second, the bigmemory package implements memory- and file-mapped data structures that provide (a) access to arbitrarily large data while retaining a look and feel that is familiar to R users and (b) data structures that are shared across processor cores in order to support efficient parallel computing techniques. Although these packages may be used independently, this paper shows how they can be used in combination to address challenges that have effectively been beyond the reach of researchers who lack specialized software development skills or expensive hardware.


The phenomenal growth of data traffic, the increasing popularity of multimedia applications, and the convergences of mobile and Internet communications have fueled the development of the next generation (3G) wireless cellular networks capable of supporting multi-services. Various issues related to the next-generation wireless cellular system have to be carefully examined before such systems can be implemented. The fundamental challenge is to expand the single voice-centric service that the current wireless cellular network operates to provide a truly multiservices. This is further complicated by the limited radio resources available. Therefore, traffic engineering is essential, which defines a set of policies and mechanisms that allow networks to effectively satisfy a diverse range of service requests. This includes bandwidth provisioning, call admission control, packet scheduling, and buffer management, flow control and etc. The main issue in traffic engineering is to strike a balance between the diversity and efficiency, as both are critical in providing the necessary service guarantee. This thesis focuses on the bandwidth allocation and call admission control, whose main objectives are somewhat conflicting with each other in that (1) the primary objective of bandwidth allocation schemes is to achieve maximal bandwidth efficiency by allowing more traffic in the system, while (2) the primary objective of call admission control is to limit the number of traffic that can be admitted into the system such that each individual traffic flow can obtain the desired service guarantee.
We first study the problem of call admission control for two traffic types, namely voice and data. We answer two fundamental questions. First, how the bandwidth can be allocated to multiple traffic streams? Second, how to ensure that potentially different service requirement from diverse traffic can be guaranteed.
We then investigate the bandwidth allocation for mixed traffic types. Specifically, we propose a new analytical model that can capture the performance in terms of call blocking and handoff dropping probabilities for two exemplary bandwidth allocation schemes, complete partition and complete sharing. We quantitatively demonstrate that both schemes can offer the needed service guarantee; the trade-off is that the complete sharing approach can obtain better bandwidth efficiency, while a partition based scheme can lead to easier derivation of the necessary control parameters.
We next study the problem of bandwidth allocation for elastic data services, which is crucial for the next generation wireless cellular network operating over a packet-switching technology. We show that the proposed Dual Threshold Bandwidth Reservation (DTBR) scheme can effectively manage the bandwidth for voice with hard service guarantee, and for data with elastic service requirement.
We proceed to study the problem of dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme, and extend to DTBR to a Multi-Threshold Bandwidth Reservation scheme (MTBR). We show that this scheme is capable to provide the service guarantee and differentiation for different type of traffic, while at the same being adaptive to changing traffic condition in the system.
Finally, we also study the problem of bandwidth allocation for multi-services in a CDMA system. We compute the key performance for the downlink transmission, and demonstrate that the proposed bandwidth allocation scheme can also provide the necessary bandwidth and service provisioning for such systems.


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The authors investigate the perceptions, preferences, and valuation of university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) regarding the potential to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) for personal transport by surveying a diverse sample of 664 students from the seven emirates (the capital Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain). Details were elicited about social, economic, and environmental factors that influence the potential to adopt EVs for personal transport, perceived advantages of EVs over gasoline automobiles, and knowledge about EVs. The authors employed the SPSS software platform to categorize various factors according to age and gender. Respondents reported a wide variety of perspectives about EVs including environmental benefits and functional drawbacks. Findings show that participant perceptions, preferences, and valuation about EVs are influenced by a multiplicity of social, economic, and environmental factors. Neglect of these factors will undermine the potential to shift preferences toward greater adoption of emerging sustainable transport technologies.


The Lov asz theta function (G) of a graph G has attracted a lot of attention for its connection with diverse issues, such as communicating without errors and computing large cliques in graphs. Indeed this function enjoys the remarkable property of being computable in polynomial time, despite being sandwitched between clique and chromatic number, two well known hard to compute quantities. In this paper we deal with the computation of the Lov asz function of certain circulant graphs, i.e., graphs whose adjacency matrix is circulant. Such graphs are important for both theoretical and practical reasons, and indeed arise in many dieren t contests. The simplest circulant graph is the cycle; for the cycle, Lov asz showed a simple formula expressing the value of the theta function. We consider the theta function of circulant graphs which can be viewed as the super-position of two cycles, i.e., circulant graphs of degree 4. We invertigate the possibility to take advantage of the specis structure of the circulants in oreder to achieve higher eciency . For a circulant graph Cn;j on n vertices and with a chord length j, 2 j bn=2c, we propose an O(j) time algorithm to compute (Cn;j) if j is odd and an O(n=j) time algorithm if j is even. This is a signican t improvement over the best known algorithms for the theta function computation for general graphs which take O(n 4 ) time. We also derive conditions under which (Cn;j) can be computed in O(1) time.


During the lifetime of a nuclear facility, radioactive material may become deposited onto process and structural material surfaces. Due to their high corrosion resistance, steels comprise the largest class of metal-based materials encountered on nuclear sites. A greater understanding of the mechanisms of how contaminant radionuclides interact with and attach to process steels in nuclear plant environments is required in order to enable informed decisions to be made about the design and effective application of decontamination techniques, reducing secondary wastes. There is limited literature relating to radionuclide sorption mechanisms on steels. Key studies have found that sorbed contamination is almost entirely located in the outermost oxide layers formed at steel surfaces. Thus, a molecular level investigation of contaminant uptake during induced oxide formation would be beneficial in developing steel decontamination strategies. Stainless steel 316L is commonly employed in the nuclear industry in process streams and pipework. Thus, we describe work carried out on electrochemically accelerated oxide growth on 316L and SS2343 (a 316L analog) in nitric acid media and its characterisation using combined voltammetric and microgravimetric measurements. These allow identification of active, passive, high voltage passive, transpassive and secondary passivation regimes in the associated current voltage curves. EQCM on SS2343 coated quartz crystal piezoelectrodes, combined with potentiodynamic polarisation data have allowed us to determine that fastest net growth of surface oxide occurs in the low voltage passive regime. Further, we have directly measured the growth of that layer by using in situ microgravimetry for the first time. We will be shortly using the methods described above and radionuclide surrogates for the study of contaminant uptake during oxide formation and uptake onto preformed oxide layers. XPS will be used to determine layer composition and mode of contaminant uptake.


Author(s): Mileva, Ana | Advisor(s): Kammen, Daniel M | Abstract: Deep de-carbonization of the electric power sector is indispensable to achieving climate change mitigation. This work explores how aggressive reductions in electricity sector emission levels can be achieved, what the associated costs would be, and how these costs may be minimized. Integrating increased levels of intermittent renewable energy sources into the electricity grid poses new challenges to system planning, operation, and reliability, increasing the need for models that can merge the capabilities of capacity-expansion and production cost simulation models.I describe the operational detail I have incorporated into the long-term investment framework of the SWITCH model to allow for more accurate evaluation of both the potential contribution of intermittent renewable technologies to electricity decarbonization and the associated system flexibility requirements. I have implemented a series of enhancements to the model's treatment of system operations and generator types -- the SWITCH "system flexibility module" -- in order to simulate unit commitment as realistically as possible, at an unprecedented resolution for a capacity-expansion model of a large geographic area, offering some of the most detailed treatment to date of day-to-day system operations in an investment model.I run a range of scenarios to explore the effect of various sources of uncertainty for system development between present day and 2050 in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). I include sensitivities for technology costs, fuel prices, technology availability, demand profile, and availability and cost of system flexibility options. I find that meeting a carbon emissions reduction target of 85 percent below 2050 levels is feasible across a range of assumptions. The cost of achieving the goal is highly uncertain, but a number of opportunities to contain costs exist. In the 2030 timeframe, lowering the cost of solar technologies to the SunShot target is the main cost-reduction strategy. Achieving the ARPA-E battery cost target has a small impact on system costs through 2030, as other sources of flexibility are available to the system, including gas generation, hydro, and CAES. The price of natural gas is key to its utilization in the 2030 timeframe, but is not an important driver in 2050 when natural gas flexibility is of high value yet fuel use is limited by the carbon cap.Solar PV deployment is the main driver of CAES and battery storage deployment: its diurnal periodicity results in opportunities for daily arbitrage that these technologies are well suited to provide. Storage operation is very different from present day patterns - storage tends to charge during the day when solar PV is available and discharge in the evening and at night. Similarly, the ability to shift loads to the daytime solar peak could have cost-reduction benefits for the system. Wind output exhibits large seasonal variations; because it can remain at very low (or very high) levels for extended periods of time, it does not benefit from CAES and battery storage (operating as providers of daily arbitrage) as much as solar PV does, and instead requires storage with a large energy subcomponent.CSP with thermal storage is an important component of the 2050 power system, but it directly competes with the combination of solar PV and batteries. If low solar PV costs and low battery costs are achieved, the two technologies may be deployed at large-scale, displacing CSP with thermal storage. The combination of SunShot solar technology and advanced battery technology has the largest impact on total storage capacity deployment in 2050. This combination can provide substantial savings through 2050, greatly mitigating the cost of climate change mitigation and outperforming the nuclear-dominated scenario given the costs assumed here.Policy goals for storage deployment should incorporate both the power subsystem component and the energy subsystem component of energy storage. In addition, storage deployment requirements should be set as part of overall system development goals as system flexibility needs will vary depending on the rest of the grid mix. Policy ought to be technology-neutral and support a comprehensive portfolio of system flexibility options, allowing flexible generation, demand response, and flexible electric vehicle charging, which can provide comparable services, to compete with storage on a level playing field. The increase in system flexibility requirements can be managed through a system-wide approach including regional cooperation to strategically plan for transmission interconnection and geographic diversity of renewable resource deployment to mitigate the variability of overall output. System-level planning is critical to ensure that appropriate incentives are put in place for all grid assets to fully recover their costs and justify investment while providing the most value to the system and ensuring cost-effective system development over time.


Egypt's aquaculture production (705,490 tonnes in 2009) is by far the largest of any African country and places it 11th in terms of global production. The aquaculture sector makes a significant contribution to income, employment creation and food security in the country, all of which are national priority areas given low per capita income levels, rising population, worsening food security indicators, and official unemployment levels which have remained at around 10% for the last ten years. Despite the fact that the aquaculture sector in Egypt is now a mature one, having developed over a period of more than 30 years, the economic performance of the sector is not well understood or documented. To help improve this understanding, this report presents the outputs of a value-chain study for the sector. The study focused on four of the most important governorates in terms of aquaculture production: Kafr el Sheikh, Behera, Sharkia, and Fayoum. Individual interviews and focus group discussions with fish farmers, traders/wholesalers, and retailers, were used to collect quantitative and qualitative information about financial performance, employment creation, and the critical factors impacting on the performance of each sub-sector of the value-chain.


Cementation is an important part of arthroplasty operations. Recent publication of results of Charnley total hip replacement found a rate of early aseptic loosening of 2.3% at 5 years following surgery across a NHS region. There are possibly many reasons for early loosening but precise reasons are still not fully understood, however, it is felt that cementation technique is very important. There seems to be a number of factors involved such as cement mixing techniques and conditions, physical properties of the cement, cementation and surgical techniques, bone-cement interface as well as bone- prosthesis interface. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the clinical environment in producing bone cement of predictable mechanical and physical properties, and how those properties compare with published data. The investigation compared samples of bone cement, taken from material prepared and used in surgery with cement samples prepared under controlled laboratory conditions and in accordance with ISO materials testing standards. During 2000–01, 10 total hip replacements were selected for study. All operations involved the use of CMW1 (DePuy) radio-opaque cement, which was mixed using the Vacumix system. In this cohort, all femoral cementations were performed using an 80g cement mix. After careful preparation of the femoral canal, the scrub nurse mixed the cement in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. The cement was introduced into the femoral canal, via a nozzle, using the cementation gun and a pressurizer. Following introduction of cement into the canal, the nozzle and cement contained within, was broken off the gun distal to the pressurizer. Once cured, the cement samples were removed from the nozzle, sectioned, and mechanically tested. Due to this novel sample preparation procedure, the tested cement was expected to exhibit mechanical and physical properties characteristic of the cement present in the femoral canal. Samples of CMW1 (Vacumixed) of similar mass and aspect ratio were produced within the laboratory, in accordance with the manufacturers mixing instructions. PMMA bone cement is a brittle, glassy polymer that is susceptible to stress raisers, such as pores, which can reduce the load carrying ability, which in vivo is predominantly compressive in nature. Published mechanical properties of PMMA bone cement vary somewhat, reflecting the dependence of properties on flaw distribution. The density, which provides a measure of porosity, hardness and ultimate compressive strength of the cement samples was measured and compared. The surgical samples were found to be very consistent in compressive strength (121 ± 6 MPa), density (1.20 ± 0.02 gcm −3 ) and hardness (23.2 ± 1.6 VHN) and closely matched the mechanical properties of the cement mixed in the laboratory. This study suggests that for the studied cement and mixing regime, the clinical environment is capable of producing a well-controlled cement product that has reproducible and predictable mechanical properties. Further, the novel sample preparation procedure used suggests that the cement within the femoral cavity should demonstrate equally predictable, mechanical and physical properties.


Neuroscientists usually investigate stimulus selectivity by using a stimulus set and identifying the stimulus that evokes the largest electrophysiological responses averaged over a certain time period. However, the visual environment, and hence the brain activity, changes all the time. A method with sufficiently high temporal resolution for the investigation of dynamic changes in stimulus selectivity is desired. Here, we propose a method by dividing the usual time window for spike rate calculation into multiple smaller time windows. We applied this method to the analysis of temporal change in stimulus selectivity of inferotemporal (IT) cells in macaque monkey recorded previously using microelectrode while they were performing an object discrimination task, in which one object had to be discriminated from others regardless of change in viewing angle. The IT cortex is located at the last stage of the ventral cortical pathway, and is important for object recognition and discrimination. The proposed method theoretically possesses temporal resolution in millisecond order. We demonstrated its ability by following the changes in stimulus selectivity with temporal resolution as high as 20 ms. Furthermore, we divided the response time window into early phase and late phase. In each phase, single cell responses to images (4 objects × 4 views; 16 images in each of the stimulus set) were compared to iden-tify the stimulus evoking the largest response. When comparing the early and late phases, 40% of the cells showed the largest response to the same stimulus (same object and same viewing angle); 13% of the cells showed the largest response to the same object but at different viewing angles; 20% of the cells showed the largest response to different objects at the same viewing angle; and 20% of the cells showed the largest response to different objects at different viewing angles. The dynamic change of stimulus selectivity from early phase to late phase may provide important information about the underlying neuronal mechanism for object recognition. Successful application of the proposed method to the analysis of IT cell activity demonstrates the validity and usefulness of the method.


: Objective: To determine the association of metabolic syndrome with atypical antipsychotic drug (olanzapine) short term versus long term use. Study Design: Case control study. Place and Duration of Study: Chemical pathology department Services hospital, Lahore from August, 2018 to July, 2019. Material and Methods: The study was carried out on 240 subjects, 120 cases and 120 controls. For the purpose of the study cases were divided into four groups A, B, C and D according to the duration of drug use. Group A patients included those who the last the drug olanzapine for the last three months. Group B patients included those who were using the drug olanzapine for the last six months. Group C and D included those who were using the drug for last 1 year and more than one year (2-5 years) respectively. By employing non probability convenience sampling technique the data was collected from patients having the diagnosis of psychosis as per DSM IV modified criteria through a proforma and fasting blood samples were drawn. These samples were tested for fasting serum lipid profile and fasting plasma glucose. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 21. For quantitative data Mean and SD were calculated. For qualitative data frequency and percentages were calculated. Qualitative data was compared using chi square test whereas quantitative data was compared using independent sample t-test. Results: There was statistically no significant difference in fasting plasma glucose between group A and B and their controls whereas in group C and D these levels were significantly high as compared to controls. Triglyceride levels were significantly higher and HDL cholesterol levels were significantly lower in all four groups as compared to controls. Comparison of qualitative data which included waist circumference and blood pressure showed statistically no significant rise for group A whereas waist circumference showed insignificant rise and blood pressure showed statistically significant rise for group B. On the other hand both waist circumference and blood pressure were significantly higher for group C and D as compared to controls. Overall study revealed a graded increase in components of metabolic syndrome with duration of olanzapine use. Out of thirty patients in each group two patients in group A, 5 in group B, 7 in group C and 10 patients in group D developed metabolic syndrome as per NCEP ATP III modified criteria. Conclusion: Development of metabolic syndrome is strongly associated with long term use of atypical antipsychotic drug olanzapine.


Discrete choice models are a key technique for estimating the value of travel time (VTT). Often, stated choice data are used in which respondents are presented with trade-offs between travel time and travel cost and possibly additional attributes. There is a clear possibility that some respondents experience time constraints, leaving some of the presented options unfeasible. A model not incorporating information on these constraints would explain choices for faster and more expensive options as an indication that those respondents have a higher VTT when in reality they may be forced to select the more expensive option as a result of their personal constraints. This paper puts forward the hypothesis that this can have major impacts on findings in terms of heterogeneity in VTT measures. This paper examines via simulation the bias in VTT estimates and especially preference heterogeneity when such constraints are (not) accounted for. Empirical evidence is provided that preference heterogeneity is confounded with the travel budget impact on the availabilities of alternatives, and it is shown that there is a risk of producing biased estimates for appraisal VTT if studies do not explicitly model choice set formation. The inclusion of an opt-out alternative could be an effective measure to reduce the bias. This paper also explores the potential use of non-linear functional forms to capture the time budget impacts.


Diversity preservation is a crucial technique in multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs), which aims at evolving the population toward the Pareto front (PF) with a uniform distribution and a good extensity. In spite of many diversity preservation approaches in existing MOEAs, most of them encounter difficulties in tackling complex PFs. This article gives a detail introduction to existing diversity preservation approaches, as well as a revelation of the limitations of them. To address the limitations of existing diversity preservation approaches, this article proposes a multistage MOEA for better diversity performance. The proposed MOEA divides the optimization process into multiple stages according to the population in each generation, and updates the population by different steady-state selection schemes in different stages. According to the experimental results on 21 benchmark problems, the proposed MOEA exhibits better diversity performance than 11 existing MOEAs.


This thesis describes efficient solution methods developed for N-component condensation
processes. These methods are aimed at either the reduction of the numerical
effort required for solving the equations describing the condensation process or the
simplification of the physical description. The models and corresponding algorithms
differ in their ability to describe the condensation phenomenon and the required computing
times.
The equilibrium thermodynamics of real gases is presented and a robust numerical
procedure is constructed based on Newton-Raphson iteration. The Jacobian of the
system of equations has been determined analytically. The initialization scheme for
the iterative procedure for these equilibrium problems uses a pressure-extrapolation
scheme. Results are given for a three-phase ternary real-gas mixture.
A multigrid method has been developed to enhance the efficiency of implicit numerical
methods for solving the N-component Becker-Doring (NBD) equations. The
geometrical multigrid method for arbitrary number of grid levels is presented. The
multigrid algorithm solves the full set of NBD equations 10 times faster than conventional
iterative schemes. The method is restricted to the regime of small cluster
sizes due to limited available computational resources. However, the time dependent
solution of the NBD equations does provide useful insight in the physics of the initial
stages of the nucleation process.
For single component condensation the Stationary Diffusion Flux (SDF) model
has been derived which is valid in the entire cluster size space. The diffusion flux in
the Fokker-Planck equation for unsteady condensation contains an unknown distribution
function. This distribution function is approximated by a closed-form expression
based on the cluster size distribution function for steady condensation. The resulting
Stationary Diffusion Flux model is valid for all cluster sizes, computationally efficient and applicable to various types of cluster formation processes. In the regime of
supercritical cluster sizes the diffusion flux is given by an analytical expression.
The Phase Path Analysis (PPA) algorithm has been extended to N-component mixtures.
For this method the N-component General Dynamic Equation (NGDE) is
constructed. This model introduces clusters at a source point in the N-component cluster size space. The model allows for a very fast solution of the approximate Ncomponent
cluster size distribution. For validation of the method a nucleation pulse
test case involving a binary mixture has been used. Comparison of the numerical
results of the NBD equations and those from the NGDE shows excellent agreement
for the cluster size, cluster composition and the integral properties of the cluster size
distribution. The PPA algorithm applied to the NGDE reduces the computational effort
by a factor 105 compared to the effort required for solving the full set of NBD
equations.


We use the concept of marginal intra-industry trade (MIIT) to analyse the effect of trade expansion on labour productivity growth across 23 EU countries and 94 manufacturing sectors in 1995-2005. The highest MIIT index values are found in sectors producing differentiated goods as well as in science and scale-intensive sectors, while the lowest are found in resource and labour-intensive sectors. Thus specialisation in sectors characterised by traditional comparative advantage has been associated with slower productivity growth. The results indicate that a trade-flow expansion characterised by intraindustry trade (high MIIT) is associated with faster productivity growth also after we control for the size in trade flow changes. Especially the increase in imports seems important. The analysis is mostly done using random-effects linear model specifications but further evidence is presented using several other estimation methods.


OF THE THESIS Modeling of Metabolism and Gene Expression Under Hypoxia in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Afif Elghraoui Master of Science in Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics San Diego State University, 2015 Tuberculosis is a major disease in the several high-burden countries and remains a global threat according to the World Health Organization. Constraint-based modeling of metabolism has proven to be predictive of the metabolic adjustments due to genetic and environmental perturbations and is made more accurate by the inclusion of gene-expression pathways. Such models can be used to help develop new diagnostics and treatments for the disease by illuminating our understanding of the organism's function in different conditions. M. tuberculosis in particular is known to encounter several stresses amenable to modeling such as hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, and oxidative/reductive stress. Here, an automated pipeline for reconstructing combined metabolic and gene expression models was implemented and used to create a reconstruction of central metabolic and the associated gene expression networks for M. tuberculosis. This model was then used to simulate the organism's hypoxic response and compare simulated transcriptomic data with an experimental dataset. The final model accounted for 347 genes in metabolic and gene expression subsystems. While the simulated transcription fluxes and transcriptomic data were on the whole uncorrelated, the model correctly predicted the downregulation of genes encoding subunits of the Type I NADH dehydrogenase. The CD-ROM, an appendix to the thesis, is available for viewing at the Media Center of Library & Information Access.


More than ever before, the global and transnational movements of young people for work and study have become part of everyday life. Yet there is very little research on this phenomenon in relation to how actors in transience create strategies to cope with being away from home nation (place of birth and/or citizenship) and from family. As part of the findings of a larger international study on the identities, social networks and media/communication use of transient migrants, researchers found that Christianity featured prominently during life in transience for Asian respondents. This paper thus puts forward the notion that Christianity may well function as a culture of mobility by looking at its significance to Asian "foreign talent" transient migrants in Singapore. Through face-toface interviews with fifty-seven Asian working professionals and international students, this paper found thirty that not only identified themselves as Christian, but whose social networks were also made up of Asian foreign talent transient migrant Christians. This paper thus suggests that Asian foreign talent transient migrants turn to Christianity as a way of coping with everyday life in transience. The Christian groups they join allow them to create a sense of community while being away from the home nation. This sense of community however is with other transient migrants, rather than with locals.


The Women's Comprehensive Healthcare Center (CAISM) has provided care for women who have suffered sexual violence since 1986. Since 1998, a special multidisciplinary team has been in charge of emergency and long-term care for victims of sexual violence. From August 1998 to May 2006, 1,174 women were treated, with an average of 150 per year in the last five years. During the same period, 71/109 women who became pregnant after rape had their pregnancies terminated, 23/109 continued the pregnancy to term, and 15/109 did not undergo abortion due to gestational age greater than 20 weeks. In Brazil, there are not enough public services to treat female victims of sexual violence who require legal abortion. Nationwide implementation of new services should be encouraged, in addition to all measures known to reduce the problem such as sex education in schools and widespread information and easy access to effective contraception.


One of the most important outstanding problems with the hydrometallurgy of copper is the low temperature leaching of chalcopyrite. In this thesis, a fundamental study at low temperature was undertaken in order to establish a mechanism, which is consistent with the data obtained in an extensive study of the kinetics of dissolution of several chalcopyrite concentrates.

It will be demonstrated that enhanced rates of dissolution can be achieved at ambient temperatures by the application of controlled potentials in the range 560-650 mV, depending on the concentration of chloride ions. However, control of the potential by the use of electrochemical or chemical oxidation of iron(II) or copper(I) ions is ineffective unless carried out in the presence of dissolved oxygen. The rates of dissolution are approximately constant for up to 80% dissolution for sized fractions of the concentrates with an activation of energy of about 75 kJ mole-1. Chalcopyrite from different sources appears to dissolve at approximately the same rate which is largely independent of the iron and copper ion concentrations, the acidity and chloride ion concentration but depends in some cases on the presence of additives such as fine pyrite or silver ions.

Based on the results of these leaching experiments and detailed mineralogical analyses of the residues, a mechanism involving non-oxidative dissolution of the mineral coupled to oxidation of the product hydrogen sulfide will be proposed. The latter reaction is shown to occur predominantly by a copper ion - catalyzed reaction with dissolved oxygen. The results of an independent study of the kinetics of this reaction will be presented which will demonstrate that the rates are consistent with those obtained for the dissolution of the mineral. The possible involvement of a covellite-like surface layer on the chalcopyrite under some conditions will also be discussed as it relates to the mechanism. It will also be shown that fine pyrite particles can also act as a catalyst surface for the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide. This mechanism is consistent with the mineralogy which confirmed the formation of secondary sulfur which is not associated with chalcopyrite but is associated with fine pyrite if present.

A comparison of this mechanism with that proposed in other more limited studies of the dissolution of chalcopyrite under similar conditions in sulfate solutions has been made.


Twenty years ago, we proposed a model of developmental control based on tensegrity architecture, in which tissue pattern formation in the embryo is controlled through mechanical interactions between cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) which place the tissue in a state of isometric tension (prestress). The model proposed that local changes in the mechanical compliance of the ECM, for example, due to regional variations in basement membrane degradation beneath growing epithelium, may result in local stretching of the ECM and associated adherent cells, much like a "run-in-a-stocking". Cell growth and function would be controlled locally though physical distortion of the associated cells, or changes in cytoskeletal tension. Importantly, experimental studies have demonstrated that cultured cells can be switched between different fates, including growth, differentiation, apoptosis, directional motility and different stem cell lineages, by modulating cell shape. Experiments in whole embryonic organ rudiments also have confirmed the tight correlation between basement membrane thinning, cell tension generation and new bud and branch formation during tissue morphogenesis and that this process can be inhibited or accelerated by dissipating or enhancing cytoskeletal tension, respectively. Taken together, this work confirms that mechanical forces generated in the cytoskeleton of individual cells and exerted on ECM scaffolds, play a critical role in the sculpting of the embryo.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of SciELO and MEDLINE indexing on the number of articles submitted to Jornal de Pediatria. METHODS: Analysis of total article submission, submission of articles from foreign countries and acceptance figures in the following periods: stage I - pre-website (Jan 2000-Mar 2001); stage II - website (Apr 2001-Jul 2002); stage III - SciELO (Aug 2002-Aug 2003); stage IV - MEDLINE (Sep 2003-Dec 2004). RESULTS: There was a significant trend toward linear increase in the number of submissions along the study period (p = 0.009). The number of manuscripts submitted in stages I through IV was 184, 240, 297, and 482, respectively. The number of submissions was similar in stages I and II (p = 0.148), but statistically higher in Stage III (p < 0.001 vs. Stage I and p = 0.006 vs. Stage II) and Stage IV (p < 0.001 vs. stages I and II, and p < 0.05 vs. stage III). The rate of article acceptance decreased during the study period. The number of original articles published has been stable since the 2001 March/April issue (n = 10), when the journal reached a printed page limit, leading to stricter judgment criteria and a relative decrease in acceptance rate. The number of foreign submissions in stages I through IV was 1, 2, zero and 17, respectively, with p < 0.001 for the comparison of stage IV with previous stages. CONCLUSIONS:SciELO indexing was associated with an increase in Brazilian manuscript submissions to Jornal de Pediatria, whereas MEDLINE indexing led to an increase in both Brazilian and foreign submissions.


This paper aims to study how the population size affects the computation time of evolutionary algorithms in a rigorous way. The computation time of evolutionary algorithms can be measured by either the number of generations (hitting time) or the number of fitness evaluations (running time) to find an optimal solution. Population scalability is the ratio of the expected hitting time between a benchmark algorithm and an algorithm using a larger population size. Average drift analysis is introduced to compare the expected hitting time of two algorithms and to estimate lower and upper bounds on the population scalability. Several intuitive beliefs are rigorously analysed. It is proven that (1) using a population sometimes increases rather than decreases the expected hitting time; (2) using a population cannot shorten the expected running time of any elitist evolutionary algorithm on any unimodal function on the time-fitness landscape, however this statement is not true in terms of the distance-based fitness landscape; (3) using a population cannot always reduce the expected running time on deceptive functions, which depends on whether the benchmark algorithm uses elitist selection or random selection.


Background: The objective of this investigation was to evaluate adverse short-term outcomes following partial forefoot amputation with a specific comparison performed based on subject height.
Methods: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was analyzed to select those subjects with a 28805 CPT code (amputation, foot; transmetatarsal) that underwent the procedure with "all layers of incision (deep and superficial) fully closed." This resulted in 11 subjects with a height ≤60 inches, 202 subjects with a height >60 inches and <72 inches, and 55 subjects ≥72 inches.
Results: Results of the primary outcome measures found no significant differences between groups with respect to the development of a superficial surgical site infection (0.0% vs. 6.4% vs. 5.5%; p=0.669), deep incisional infection (9.1% vs. 3.5% vs. 10.9%; p=0.076), or wound disruption (0.0% vs. 5.4% vs. 5.5%; p=0.730). Additionally, no significant differences were observed between groups with respect to unplanned reoperations (9.1% vs. 16.8% vs. 12.7%; p=0.0630) or unplanned hospital readmissions (45.5% vs. 23.3% vs. 20.0%; p=0.190).
Conclusions: The results of this investigation demonstrate no difference in short-term adverse outcomes following the performance of partial forefoot amputation with primary closure based on subject height. Although height has previously been described as a potential risk factor in the development of lower extremity pathogenesis, this finding was not observed in this study from a large US database.


Across the United States, government agencies and energy developers are looking to agricultural land for development of renewable energy. One attraction of agricultural lands is that they are already relatively ecologically impaired compared with the previous solar development sites in the California and Arizona desert that have been a major source of concern for many environmental groups — and subject to expensive mitigation requirements under the Endangered Species Act. Renewable energy development pressures are accelerating the existing loss of agricultural land, heightening concerns about food security and the economic viability of agricultural communities. California farmland is at the center of this conflict. Suburban sprawl in California already leads to conversion of nearly 40,000 acres of agricultural land a year.

Now, a new competitor has entered the scene: solar energy facilities. Both users compete for water, which is only becoming scarcer in the face of climate change and periodic drought. The pressures on California's agricultural land have long inspired the state legislature and local governments to enact various measures to protect farmland and promote the business of agriculture. We examine the ways California's Williamson Act (which provides tax benefits for agricultural land) and the California Environmental Quality Act (the state's environmental review statute) have proven and not proven to be obstacles to taking agricultural land out of crop production and putting it into solar energy production. We demonstrate that current laws are neither protecting prime agricultural lands nor adequately creating conditions for evaluating the tradeoffs and alternatives when farmland — or ecologically sensitive habitat — is used for large-scale renewable energy development.


Monitoring live and dead discarded catch contributes to effective fisheries management and ecological and socioeconomic sustainability. We determined contemporary rates and levels of discards in global tuna fisheries. An estimated 265 279 t (52 283 to 478 275 t 95% CI) is annually discarded by global tuna fisheries, composing about 5% of the weight of the total catch. Pelagic longline and purse seine fisheries contributed about 64 and 36% of discards, respectively. Other gear types composed < 1% of discards. Discards in tuna fisheries are now 63% lower than estimated 1 decade earlier, mainly due to large declines in discards in longline tuna fisheries, possibly from increased retention of formerly discarded species and sizes of catch and increased gear selectivity. The decline also resulted, in part, from employing different methods to categorize caught sharks whose fins were retained and carcasses discarded following processing. Discard rates were greater in shallow-than deep-set longline fisheries, and higher in purse seine sets associated with fish aggregating devices and other floating objects than in other purse seine set types. The quality and availability of data on discards in global tuna fisheries were extremely limited. Filling gaps in monitoring, improving observer data fields and collection protocols, and providing public access to amalgamated discard data held by fisheries management organizations will improve the certainty of future discard estimates, supporting effective management of discards in global tuna fisheries.


Big and Little Books offer an introduction to classic and multi-cultural literature. Original colour illustrations and read-along cues encourage even the youngest children to participate. Comprehensive Teacher's Guides are also available.


Background & objectives Endothelial nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator and impairment of its generation brought about by gene polymorphism is considered a major predictor for several diseases. A single nucleotide polymorphism G894T within exon 7 of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS-7) gene, resulting in a replacement of glutamic acid by aspartic acid, has been studied as a putative candidate gene for cardiovascular diseases. The pattern of eNOS-7 Glu298Asp variant in the Indian population is poorly known. The present study was planned to determine the prevalence of the variant of this gene among tea garden community in Assam, North-East India with high prevalence of hypertension. Methods Study participants of both sex aged ≥18 yr were recruited randomly from temporary field clinics established in tea gardens of Dibrugarh, Assam. Genomic DNA was extracted from 409 subjects by the conventional phenol-chloroform method. The prevalence of the eNOS exon 7 Glu298Asp variant was determined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Results The study population was in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. The frequency of the eNOS GG, GT and TT genotypes was found to be 75, 22 and 3 per cent respectively and did not show any significant difference in gender wise analysis. Interpretation & conclusions Our results showed that the prevalence of the homozygous GG genotype was high (75%) and the rare mutant genotype (homozygous, TT) was 3 per cent in a population at risk with cardiovascular disease. Such population-based data on various polymorphisms can ultimately be exploited in pharmacogenomics.


During fluid-structure interaction (FSI) fluid forces acting on the structure result in the structure
moving and deforming, which in turn affects the flow boundary conditions, hence fluid motion.
This interaction, also known as two-way coupling, has been studied in marine, offshore and coastal
engineering. The majority of approaches used are based on potential flow where nonlinear effects
are either ignored or allowed for through various assumptions on the body and free surface
boundary conditions, leading to a range of partly to fully nonlinear methods. However, numerical
models based on potential flow theory are unable to deal with extreme free surface deformations,
as well as FSI problems where the effects of viscosity, turbulence and compressibility are
significant. In order to address such shortcomings, there have been several attempts to solve
nonlinear rigid body FSI and benefitting from rapid progress in Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
(RANS) code development, using either the finite difference method (FDM) or the finite volume
method (FVM). However, most of these methods are Eulerian and, by and large, ineffective in the
case of extreme events of wave breaking and water spray. Therefore, Lagrangian meshless
methods are viewed as alternatives in providing accurate numerical solutions to improve
inadequacy of mesh-based discretization.
Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a mesh-free, Lagrangian method whereby the
computational domain is represented by a set of interpolation points called particles where the
fluid medium is discretised by the interaction between particles rather than grid cells. Each particle
carries an individual mass, velocity, position and any other requisite physical characteristics, which
evolve over time through the governing equations. All particles have a kernel function to define
their range of interaction, while the hydrodynamic variables are defined by integral
approximations.
The current works presented are the first step in extending the application of WCSPH (weakly
compressible SPH) to simulate two-way coupling in FSI. Numerical predictions for such
interactions involving rigid and elastic body could provide useful knowledge in the possibility of
implementing particle method in FSI. In the first part, WCSPH is applied to simulate rigid body
motion of barge in regular waves. Vertical displacements of barge under different wave conditions
are calculated and their Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) and vertical bending moments
(VBMs) are determined. Results are then compared to experimental data and 2 other numerical
data.
Secondly, forced oscillation tests are performed on a uniform flexible barge using WCSPH for
the 3D radiation problem. Hydrodynamic coefficients, namely added mass and damping
coefficients, are obtained for the rigid body motions of heave and pitch, and the 2-node (2VB) and
3-node (3VB) symmetric distortion mode shapes, including coupling terms. These are compared
with potential flow (using 3D hydroelasticity) and RANS (using STAR-CCM+) predictions.
Domain size, particle numbers and damping zones are modified based on different frequencies of
oscillation, allowing the free surface to be well captured by WCSPH.


OBJECTIVE
Difficulties in communication and social relationships present a formidable challenge for many people after traumatic brain injury (TBI). These difficulties are likely to be partially attributable to problems with emotion perception. Mounting evidence shows facial affect recognition to be particularly difficult after TBI. However, no attempt has been made to systematically estimate the magnitude of this problem or the frequency with which it occurs.

METHOD
A meta-analysis is presented examining the magnitude of facial affect recognition difficulties after TBI. From this, the frequency of these impairments in the TBI population is estimated. Effect sizes were calculated from 13 studies that compared adults with moderate to severe TBI to matched healthy controls on static measures of facial affect recognition.

RESULTS
The studies collectively presented data from 296 adults with TBI and 296 matched controls. The overall weighted mean effect size for the 13 studies was -1.11, indicating people with TBI on average perform about 1.1 SD below healthy peers on measures of facial affect recognition. Based on estimation of the TBI population standard deviation and modeling of likely distribution shape, it is estimated that between 13% and 39% of people with moderate to severe TBI may have significant difficulties with facial affect recognition, depending on the cut-off criterion used.

CONCLUSION
This is clearly an area that warrants attention, particularly examining techniques for the rehabilitation of these deficits.


1. In two groups of diabetic patients, one with and one without signs of peripheral neuropathy, reflex short vasoconstrictor responses to such stimuli as a cough, a sharp inspiration or sudden noise were recorded from a finger and both big toes by volume plethysmography. Simultaneous electrodermal responses to the same stimuli were recorded from a hand and a foot. Vasodilator responses to body warming were also recorded. 2. Significant impairment of these vasomotor reflexes in diabetic patients with neuropathy indicates that the sympathetic vasomotor system can be involved in diabetic peripheral neuropathy. 3. Loss of the reflex electrodermal responses is also evidence of impairment of another sympathetic function in such patients. 4. Because stimuli vary in their effectiveness in causing responses in both groups of subjects, it is suggested that changes of central nervous conductivity also occur in diabetes.


One of the hallmarks of our patent system is that it provides a one-size-fits-all reward for innovation. The uniform patent laws offer insufficient incentives to develop some socially valuable inventions, and offer excessive rewards for other inventions that impose an unnecessary tax on consumers and subsequent innovators. If the government could adequately tailor patent awards to account for differences in inventions' need for protection and the likelihood that patents will stifle subsequent innovation, it could spur additional innovation while avoiding the social costs of excessive patent protection. However, although we may know which economic determinants are relevant to a socially optimal patent strength, we lack a reliable way to directly measure and synthesize this information into a usable framework. Absent a principled and administrable system to determine which inventions need more protection than others, the uniform patent system is our best option. This Article identifies a readily observable, cross-industry indication of optimal patent strength for different technologies — inventions' time-to-market. Some inventions take much longer to develop than others, and there is tremendous variation in the average time-to-market across industries. This Article first shows that there is a strong, positive correlation between the amount of time needed to complete an R&D project and the amount of patent protection (if any) necessary to motivate investment in that R&D project. A longer time-to-market for inventions is associated with higher out-of-pocket R&D costs, greater risk of failure, increased opportunity costs of R&D investments, and diminished value of future revenue streams from the developed invention because of discounting. Moreover, because imitators frequently avoid much of the increased R&D costs and uncertainty associated with a longer time-to-market, lengthier R&D times also usually correspond to a greater vulnerability to free riding. Second, this Article shows that a longer time-to-market is associated with a reduced likelihood of patents stifling subsequent innovation. Inventions with a longer time-to-market usually have longer commercial lifespans (product life cycles) because the inventions that ultimately replace them in the market also generally take longer to develop. The slower rate of product turnover in these markets reduces the need for patent licensing between early and later innovators, and offers more time to negotiate licenses, which diminishes the likelihood that patents granted on earlier inventions will stifle later improvements to those technologies. Similarly, because inventions with a lengthy time-to-market have higher total R&D costs, fields in which inventions typically have a lengthy time-to-market have higher entry costs. Those higher costs diminish the number of entrants in these markets, and encourage later innovators to develop inventions that are more differentiated from earlier inventions. The reduced entry and greater product differentiation once again decreases the need for patent licensing, thereby lessening the potential harm from patents stifling subsequent innovation.Since a longer time-to-market is indicative of a greater need for patent protection and a lower risk of patents stifling subsequent innovation, time-to-market is likely a uniquely powerful indicator of the optimal patent strength for different types of inventions. Moreover, because time-to-market is relatively observable, it can be used to create a framework for a principled and administrable system of tailored patent awards. Such a system would enable the government to strike a better balance between the benefits of promoting innovation with temporary monopoly rights and the social costs of restricting access to inventions.