In captivity colobine monkeys often display a soft to watery faecal consistency, in contrast to their wild conspecifics, which usually display well-formed faeces. It has been suggested that dietary fibre, and possibly also dietary water content is related to faecal consistency. To further test this assumption we pooled data on 15 individual feeding periods from six feeding trials with colobine monkeys from different species, during which dietary and faecal chemical composition had been determined and faeces consistency had been scored with one consistent scoring scheme. Our pooled data suggest that dietary neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and dietary dry matter content were significantly, positively correlated to a better faeces consistency, whereas dietary protein content was negatively correlated to faeces consistency. Influences on the faeces consistency like easy digestible carbohydrates and the mineral content of the diet were not considered. Firmer faeces did not contain less water, but more NDF and less protein. It is suggested that diets fed to colobine monkeys in Dutch zoos should be reduced in protein and dietary water, and increased in fibre content. A recognized problem for attaining this goal is the lack of a readily accepted primate pellet that is not only called "high fibre" but that actually mimics the fibre content of the diet of free-ranging colobine monkeys.


The paraxial wave equation, as is well known, predicts the catastrophic collapse of self-focusing beams. It is pointed out that this collapse is due to the loss of validity of the paraxial wave equation in the neighborhood of a self-focus. If nonparaxiality of the beam propagation is taken into account, on the other hand, a lower limit of the order of one optical wavelength is imposed on the diameter of a self-focus. A nonparaxial algorithm for the Helmholtz equation is applied to the self-focusing of Gaussian and ring-shaped beams. The self-focusing is noncatastrophic, and the results give insight into filament formation and beam breakup resulting from the self-focusing of optical beams.


In a genome-wide association study (GWAS), a large number of SNPs are genotyped in a large number of cases (with disease) and controls (without disease) using commercially available high-throughput genotyping platforms. In a GWAS, the genotype data collected in cases and unaffected, population-matched controls are compared. Other than identifying individuals with the disease, there is no requirement for prior biological knowledge of the trait under investigation. This analysis approach has discovered several thousand genetic loci reliably associated to a range of complex phenotypes and diseases.

Psychiatric diseases are characterized by affective, behavioral, and cognitive abnormalities. The majority of psychiatric diseases share a common feature, namely that family history of disease is a major risk factor, which is suggestive of a strong genetic component to the underlying disease risk. Epidemiological studies have estimated high heritability values of up to 80% for many common psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Psychiatric research to date has uncovered little about the underlying biology of disease. Commonly used tools in biomedical research, such as suitable in vitro and in vivo model systems, are essentially absent.

This makes GWAS the perfect tool for gaining more fundamental insight into the etiology of psychiatric diseases. Moreover, large-scale genotyping or whole-genome sequencing has become more affordable by today's standards. Indeed it is now feasible to analyze tens of thousands of individuals. This is a crucial requirement because large data sets are necessary for a successful GWAS of complex diseases as the apparent effect sizes are small.

In this thesis I have described initial results from GWAS for a range of psychiatric diseases. I have identified here which components have been critical for its success and discuss how we learned from both failures and successes. By far, it has become clear that the most important step to scientific progress in human genetics of complex traits is collaboration and exchange of data. In a world where data (in this case genotype data) becomes available in enormous amounts, and where computer power increases significantly via computer clusters and cloud computing, it has been essential to bring everybody together to produce robust findings.
In the first half of this thesis (chapter 2-6) I presented GWAS for three single psychiatric diseases: major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The most recent GWAS for schizophrenia, presented in Chapter 6 builds the central piece of this thesis. Here we could demonstrate the remarkable success via extensive collaboration.
The second half (chapters 7-9) concentrated on endophenotypes and cross-phenotypes with common variant analysis, where we attempted to dissect commonalities and differences between the classic psychiatric nosologies.
In summary the analyses of common variants in psychiatric genetics is the main contributor to a huge scientific success that is in the process of changing the field with many robust genetic findings. It will continue to be a valuable source of information to the biology in psychiatry for the decades to come.


In this work, adsorbents, namely bentonite and sludge, modified by iron and copper were used to remove the H2S and mercaptan from Kermanshah refinery. The used adsorbents are inexpensive materials, which substantially decrease the operational costs. The structure of the adsorbents was analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The effects of gas and flow rate on the H2S and mercaptan removal were also studied. The results indicated that the bentonite modified by iron has a high capacity for removing H2S (32.256 mg/g) and mercaptan (0.98 mg/g). Moreover, the adsorption capacity of the sludge modified by copper for removing H2S and mercaptan was 11.18 and 0.81 mg/g respectively. Furthermore, by increasing the flow rate and concentration of H2S and mercaptan, H2S and mercaptan concentrations in the sludge output gas increased, but no considerable change was observed in the bentonite output gas.


'Artistic research' (AR) is increasingly expanding in the academy, most recently exemplified in the establishment of the EU-funded Journal for Artistic Research. One of the characteristics of AR is that it accepts subjectivity (aka 'little r' research) as opposed to traditional scientific methods (or 'big R' research). As such, it is similar to the social sciences in using qualitative research and intersubjectivity as tools to apply measurement and critical analysis. AR investigates and tests with the purpose of gaining knowledge within and for artistic disciplines, and through presented documentation and artworks, the insights gained are placed in a context where the research aims to enhance knowledge and understanding in that discipline.

This presentation will present two interwoven components: i) a scholarly research paper complete with artistic research questions, method, analysis and conclusions; and ii) live music performance components that will feature the voice, acoustic instruments and digital arts technologies. This juxtaposition aims to present both highly familiar and unfamiliar thinking about musical practices to answer the following questions: How may musical thinking and preparation be considered 'research'? In what ways can both the music and the text best serve to answer these questions? In particular, the presentation and performance components will focus on three aspects of this process: in relation to musical improvisation (the beginning of a new work); the formalization of structure, form and repetition (in the composition of the piece); and finally, in the technical production, capture and representation of a 'final' work as audio-visual recording.


With their rich traditions of conflict resolution and peacemaking, the Pacific Islands provide a fertile environment for developing new approaches to crime and conflict. Interactions between formal justice systems and informal methods of dispute resolution contain useful insights for policy makers and others interested in socially attuned resolutions to the problems of order that are found increasingly in the Pacific Islands as elsewhere. Contributors to this volume include Pacific Islanders from Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea including Bougainville, as well as outsiders with a longstanding interest in the region. They come from a variety of backgrounds and include criminal justice practitioners, scholars, traditional leaders and community activists. The chapters deal with conflict in a variety of contexts, from interpersonal disputes within communities to large-scale conflicts between communities. This is a book not only of stories but also of practical models that combine different traditions in creative ways and that offer the prospect of building more sustainable resolutions to crime and conflict.


Part I of this article provides an overview of the medical necessity test, and examines the decision-making process pursuant to the test, including who makes coverage determinations and what criteria are used in making them. Part I also sets forth examples of conventional treatments that insurers routinely cover despite their questionable efficacy from a medical necessity perspective. Part II explores complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) disciplines and describes how they differ from conventional medicine. Part III discusses the legal challenges CAM faces and explores the limited extent to which CAM is covered by health insurance and the failure of state laws to provide mandates for such coverage. Part III also examines the need for expanded state licensing laws for CAM providers and highlights state laws that are designed to keep CAM dollars in the pockets of conventional medical doctors instead. Part N analyzes the inability of traditional methods of insurance decision-making to adequately determine whether CAM should also be covered, and sets forth a new paradigm for determining whether CAM should be covered by health insurers. Part IV proposes a shift from the current medical necessity test to a reasonable necessity standard. The term "medical" suggests decisions made solely by medical doctors. The reasonable necessity test, on the other hand, will encompass treatments that are necessary in the opinion of any licensed health care provider, including CAM providers. This would correct two problems. First, it would allow all licensed health care providers to determine what treatments are reasonably necessary. Second, it would acknowledge the limitations on the current state of knowledge and place more power back in the hands of health care providers, both conventional and CAM, rather than insurers,in making coverage determinations.


We report on miniature Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) operating in zipping mode with an analytical model that predicts their behavior. Electrostatic zipping is a well-known mechanism in silicon MEMS to obtain large deformations and forces at lower voltages than for parallel plate electrostatic actuation. We extend this concept to DEAs, which allows us to obtain much larger out-of-plane displacements compared to silicon thanks to the softness of the elastomer membrane. We study experimentally the e↵ect of sidewalls angle and elastomer prestretch on 2.3 mm diameter actuators with PDMS membranes. With 15 and 22.5 sidewalls angle, the devices zip in a bistable manner down 300 μm to the bottom of the chambers. The highly tunable bistable behavior is controllable by both chamber geometry and membrane parameters. Other specific characteristics of zipping DEAs include well-controlled deflected shape, tunable displacement vs. voltage characteristic to virtually any shape including multi-stable modes, sealing of embedded holes or channels for valving action and reduction of the operating voltage. These properties make zipping DEAs an excellent candidate for applications like integrated microfluidics actuators or Braille displays.


Over the four years since its launch, the Eastern Partnership initiative has created frameworks and mechanisms for the integration of Eastern Partnership countries with the European Union. Despite this, the partner countries have so far made little meaningful progress in modernisation, implementation of reforms or integration with the EU.Since the European Neighbourhood Policy was launched in 2004, the situation in areas of key importance for the EU, such as democratisation, free-market transformations, European integration, political stability and regional security, has not improved significantly.

In this context, it is legitimate to ask questions about the extent to which the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership have brought the Union closer to achieving its declared objectives in the relations with eastern neighbours. What is the underlying cause of the dwindling involvement and declining interest in achieving real progress in integration? How may the events that have been dominating the political agenda – i.e. the EU's financial crisis, the debate on the future of the Union, but also the political processes taking place within the partner countries – affect the future of mutual relations?


We present an experimental and theoretical comparison of two different scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) based techniques in the terahertz regime; nanoscale reflection-type terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz nanoscopy) and nanoscale laser terahertz emission microscopy, or laser terahertz emission nanoscopy (LTEN). We show that complementary information regarding a material's charge carriers can be gained from these techniques when employed back-to-back. For the specific case of THz nanoscopy and LTEN imaging performed on a lightly p-doped InAs sample, we were able to record waveforms with detector signal components demodulated up to the 6th and the 10th harmonic of the tip oscillation frequency, and measure a THz near-field confinement down to 11 nm. A computational approach for determining the spatial confinement of the enhanced electric field in the near-field region of the conductive probe is presented, which manifests an effective "tip sharpening" in the case of nanoscale LTEN due to the alternative geometry and optical nonlinearity of the THz generation mechanism. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of the finite dipole model (FDM) in predicting the broadband scattered THz electric field, and present the first use of this model for predicting a near-field response from LTEN.


Weak rocks encountered in open pit mines cover a wide variety of materials, with properties ranging between soil and rock. As such, they can provide a significant challenge for the slope designer. For these materials, the mass strength can be the primary control in the design of the pit slopes, although structures can also play an important role. Because of the typically weak nature of the materials, groundwater and surface water can also have a controlling influence on stability.

Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks is a companion to Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design, which was published in 2009 and dealt primarily with strong rocks. Both books were commissioned under the Large Open Pit (LOP) project, which is sponsored by major mining companies. These books provide summaries of the current state of practice for the design, implementation and assessment of slopes in open pits, with a view to meeting the requirements of safety, as well as the recovery of anticipated ore reserves.

This book, which follows the general cycle of the slope design process for open pits, contains 12 chapters. These chapters were compiled and written by industry experts and contain a large number of case histories. The initial chapters address field data collection, the critical aspects of determining the strength of weak rocks, the role of groundwater in weak rock slope stability and slope design considerations, which can differ somewhat from those applied to strong rock. The subsequent chapters address the principal weak rock types that are encountered in open pit mines, including cemented colluvial sediments, weak sedimentary mudstone rocks, soft coals and chalk, weak limestone, saprolite, soft iron ores and other leached rocks, and hydrothermally altered rocks. A final chapter deals with design implementation aspects, including mine planning, monitoring, surface water control and closure of weak rock slopes.

As with the other books in this series, Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks provides guidance to practitioners involved in the design and implementation of open pit slopes, particularly geotechnical engineers, mining engineers, geologists and other personnel working at operating mines.


System changing innovations for sustainability transitions are proposed to emerge in radical innovative niches. 'Strategic Niche Management' theory predicts that niche level actors and networks will aggregate learning from local projects, distilling and disseminating best practice. This should lower the bar for new projects to form and establish, thereby encouraging the innovation to diffuse through replication. Within this literature, grassroots innovations emerging from civil society are an under researched site of sociotechnical innovation for sustainable energy transitions. We consider the emerging community energy sector in the UK, in order to empirically test this model. Community energy is a diverse grassroots led sector including both demand and supply side initiatives for sustainable energy such as community owned renewable energy generation, village hall refurbishments, behaviour change initiatives and energy efficiency projects. Our analysis draws on in depth qualitative case study research with twelve local projects, and a study of how intermediary organisations aim to support local projects and encourage replication. This rich data allows us to examine the extent and nature of interactions between projects and intermediary actors in order to evaluate the utility of niche theories in the civil society context. In particular, we investigate which types of knowledge, support and resources were needed by our case study projects to become established and thrive, and compare and contrast this with those offered by the emerging community energy niche. Our findings indicate that while networking and intermediary organisations can effectively collate and spread some types of learning and information necessary for replication, this is not sufficient: tacit knowledge, trust and confidence are essential to these projects' success, but are more difficult to abstract and translate to new settings. We draw out the implications of our findings for niche theory, for community energy and other grassroots practitioners aiming to build robust influential niches, and for policymakers eager to harness civil society's innovative potential for sustainability.


Research on visual scene understanding has identified a number of regions involved in processing natural scenes, but has lacked a unifying framework for understanding how these different regions are organized and interact. We propose a new organizational principle, in which scene processing relies on two distinct networks at the edge of visual cortex. The first network consists of the Transverse Occipital Sulcus (TOS, or the Occipital Place Area) and the posterior portion of the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA). These regions have a well-defined retinotopic organization and do not show strong memory or context effects, suggesting that this network primarily processes visual features from the current view of a scene. The second network consists of the caudal Inferior Parietal Lobule (cIPL), Retrosplenial Cortex (RSC), and the anterior portion of the PPA. These regions are involved in a wide range of both visual and non-visual tasks involving episodic memory, navigation, imagination, and default mode processing, and connect information about a current scene view with a much broader temporal and spatial context. We provide evidence for this division from a diverse set of sources. Using a data-driven approach to parcellate resting-state fMRI data, we identify coherent functional regions corresponding to scene-processing areas. We then show that a network clustering analysis separates these scene-related regions into two adjacent networks, which exhibit sharp changes in connectivity properties across their narrow border. Additionally, we argue that the cIPL has been previously overlooked as a critical region for full scene understanding, based on a meta-analysis of previous functional studies as well as diffusion tractography results showing that cIPL is well-positioned to connect visual cortex with many other cortical systems. This new framework for understanding the neural substrates of scene processing bridges results from many lines of research, and makes specific predictions about functional properties of these regions. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Perceptions of women's intergenerational family obligations after divorce and remarriage were examined in this study. One hundred and ninety women and 93 men responded to a four-paragraph vignette about two women, either mother and daughter or in-laws, who alternately needed the other's help. Conditions in the vignette were systematically varied. Over time, the younger woman divorces and remarries. After each paragraph, respondents answered forced-choice and open-ended questions about what they thought the vignette characters should do. Participants believed that family members are obligated to help other family members in times of need, although these obligations are conditional. The obligation for the older generation to help their adult children appears to be greater than the obligation for adults to help elderly mothers and mothers-in-law, and there is a stronger obligation to biological kin than to in-laws. Perceived obligations toward stepgrandchildren are considerably weaker than obligations toward grandchildren. Key Words: divorce, family obligations, intergenerational support, remarriage. Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have become increasingly interested in beliefs and behaviors regarding intergenerational exchanges of support (Eggebeen, 1992). The focus on intergenerational issues can be attributed to a number of changes affecting American families, including rises in: (a) the number of elderly persons, (b) the percentage of households in which all adults are employed outside of the home, and (c) the number of marital transitions due to divorce and remarriage. As a result of these changes, there is a growing need for care for the elderly and for children (Wood, 1994). The elderly are the most rapidly growing segment of the population in the United States (Boyd & Treas, 1989), and it is estimated that by the year 2030, Americans aged 65 and older will be 20% of the population (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993). The rise in the number of elderly means that there are more people who potentially will need assistance as they get older. In addition, over half of mothers with children under the age of 3 work outside the home (Wood, 1994). Even when adequate day care is available, there are few facilities that care for children when they are sick. According to Hewlett (1991), the U.S. provides the least support for child care of any developed country in the world. Who will be responsible for caring for the growing number of elderly? Who will care for the growing number of children whose parents, and especially mothers, are employed outside the home, particularly in circumstances such as illness? In the U.S., caregiving has not been defined as a social issue, an issue of public concern, but as an issue to be confronted and resolved by individuals and families. Consequently, beliefs about family responsibilities are important foci of research. Unfortunately, although there is a burgeoning literature about intergenerational caregiving and exchange of support, little attention has been paid to beliefs about obligations to provide support. Normative family obligations are societally agreed-upon duties and responsibilities between kin. "Family obligations can be seen as part of normative rules which . . . get applied in appropriate situations" (Finch, 1987, pp. 155-156). These rules are important to understand because they serve as guidelines that direct individuals' decisions and behaviors and provide a framework that people use to justify and explain their conduct to others (Finch, 1987). In other words, widely held beliefs about family obligations function as parameters within which individuals define and negotiate their responsibilities. Widely held beliefs about family obligations serve as criteria to measure how well individuals are functioning as family members, and what people actually do in relationships is based in part on personal beliefs about appropriate actions between kin and in part on widely held expectations about what should be done regarding family responsibilities (Finch, 1989; Lee & Shehan, 1989). …


The profound use of the computer in discourse analysis must employ a theory of discourse comprehension and production with which to conduct the analysis. Models currently employed in computational linguistics have a semantic basis and are goal-directed. The basic model is an associative cognitive network. The basic inventory of concepts of the system is given in the systemic network, which is organized into paradigmatic, syntagmatic, and componential structures. Since events happen in particular places at particular times, there is also an episodic structure. The gnomonic system defines abstract concepts over episodes. According to Phillips (1975), discourse coherence must be considered on two levels, the episodic and the gnomic. A discourse which engenders episodic and/or gnomonic expectations which are not then fulfilled is incoherent. A lower limit on coherence may be defined as a discourse so ill-formed that it makes no sense even to its creator. The upper limit on coherence is set by the most powerful creative minds. Between the two limits, discourse analysis, from the point of view of the computational linguist, probably requires nothing less than a full-blown computational theory of the human mind.


This thesis examines Knowledge Exchange (KE) seminars and the wider social,
political, and economic environment in which they are situated
Two-way interactive exchanges between academics and Non-Academic
Professionals (NAPs) have been identified as an important factor in explaining why
some academic research is used by NAPs, or not (Meagher et al, 2008; Mitton et al,
2007; Lavis et al, 2003; Hanney et al, 2003). Despite this, very little research has
examined the social occasions where such exchanges occur. This thesis aims to fill
this lacuna by examining the process of knowledge exchange through one specific
type of intervention (Walter et al, 2003) – that of KE seminars.
KE seminars are a common, almost canonical, strategy for academics wishing to
engage with non-academic audiences, yet are relatively unexplored within the KE
literature. If 'sharing research findings with a non-academic audience' is the sole
purpose of KE seminars, then the goal could have been achieved more cheaply
through a mail-shot of a briefing paper to a targeted audience (Percy-Smith et al,
2002). By comparison, KE seminars require a considerable investment in resources
in terms of time and money. These factors make them theoretically and
substantively interesting. This thesis explores the rationale for hosting and
attending KE seminars, what benefits participants feel that they gain from
attending, and provides insights into how best to facilitate those benefits.
Conceptually this thesis draws on Spaapen and van Drooge (2011) & Molas-Gallart
and Tang's (2011) concept of 'productive interactions.' The thesis research examines
what makes interactions between academics and NAPs 'productive' in the context
of KE seminars, and the wider social network, economic and political environment
in which those interactions emerge and are shaped.
This thesis is based on a case study of the ESRC Centre for Population Change
(CPC). The empirical evidence comes from 27 semi-structured interviews conducted
with CPC academics & administrators (13), and NAPs who attended at least 1 CPC-organised
KE seminar (14); and an online questionnaire of 48 CPC staff members
(representing 75% of the Centre). The interviews were analysed thematically and the
online questionnaire was analysed using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The
research design was devised to collect data on the motivations, experiences, and
understandings of interactions between academics and NAP within the CPC's KE
seminars. The social network analysis was designed to reveal the CPC's KE social
networks which are pertinent to understanding how the CPC engages with NAPs.
This thesis documents ways in which KE seminars are sites of 'knowledge
interaction' (Davies et al, 2008) where multiple actors from multiple organisations
with different knowledges come together to engage in a topic of mutual interest. It
finds that KE seminars are worthwhile for participants despite being resource-intensive
because they fulfil multiple functions which cannot easily be replicated
through non-dialogical and non-corporeal interventions. The academic research
being presented on these social occasions is just one source of knowledge among
many others (ibid). KE seminars are also opportunities for participants to create new
informal contacts and strengthen existing ones. In other words, they help develop
informal professional networks which is an important component for successful KE
(Olmos-Penuela, 2014b; Grimshaw et al, 2012; Kramer and Wells, 2005; Greenhalgh
et al, 2004; Philip et al, 2003; Molas-Gallart et al, 2000).
This thesis makes three original contributions. It shows: how KE seminars fill a
number of functions that cannot easily be replicated by indirect forms of nonacademic
engagement, which makes the investment of resources for hosting and
attending them not only desirable but often necessary; how corporeal co-presence is
important for facilitating productive interactions (Goffman, 1966; Urry, 2002; 2003);
and the major factors which help facilitate 'productive interactions' within KE
seminars. It is a contribution to the KE field generally, and will also be helpful to KE
practitioners and academics that are tasked with organising and hosting KE
seminars.


To effectively understand the availability of soil nitrogen and assist in soil nitrogen control at the regional scale, it is essential to understand the accurate spatial distribution patterns of the three soil nitrogen parameters [i.e., total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN) and nitrogen availability ratio (NAR)] and explore the spatially varying influences of major impact factors on soil AN. Land use affects the spatial distributions of soil TN, AN and NAR (i.e., AN/TN). To explore the effects of different land use types and improve mapping accuracy, residual kriging with land use information and ordinary kriging (without land use information) were compared based on the sample data of soil TN and AN in Hanchuan county, China. A local regression technique, geographically weighted regression (GWR), was adopted to explore the varying relationships between soil AN and its major impact factors in soil (i.e., soil TN and soil pH), due to the advantages of GWR over the traditional ordinary least squares regression (OLS) model. The results showed that (1) land use types as auxiliary information obviously improved the prediction accuracies of the three soil nitrogen parameters; (2) GWR performed much better than OLS in terms of fitting accuracy; and (3) GWR effectively revealed the spatially varying influences of the impact factors on soil AN, which were ignored by OLS. Based on the results, suggestions for soil nitrogen control measures in different subareas were proposed.


This paper contains three different kinds of objections to Wittgenstein's famous " private language argument ". First I offer a possible reconstruction of the argument. Then, as a first objection, drawing my ideas from H.N Castañeda, I present cases where, against Wittgenstein's opinion, the subject corrects his own errors based on different subjective criteria (coherence, the preservation of regularities, the preservation of logical inferences, etc). Afterwards, as a second objection, I offer hypothetical examples in order to show that subjective experiences, even is they were private, could in principle be intersubjectively tested, although in a indirect way, as the unobservable entities of science are. Finally, as a third point, I challenge a basic presupposition of Cartesianism on which the private language argument rests. This presupposition is the well known thesis of the essential privacy of subjective experience. My argument against this thesis is based on the split-brain cases, studied by T. Nagel, M. Lockwood and others. Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative


International Journal of Exercise Science 9(5): 685-693, 2016. The purpose was to examine the effects of a 5-Hour ENERGY® shot (5HES) on aerobic performance in recreational athletes. Maximal Aerobic capacity (VO2max), substrate utilization and time to fatigue were determined in twenty-three male participants (21.7±3.3 years, Mean±SD), with a BMI of 25.6±3.7 kgm(Mean±SD). Each participant was tested twice in a randomised, double-blind cross-over study design, during which participants were provided with either a 5HES or a placebo shot to ingest prior to exercise. Participants completed a VO2 max treadmill test with RER and RPE values also being measured. Ingestion of a 5HES shot before exercise had no effect on peak VO2 (p=0.194), peak heart rate (p=0.507), peak RER (p=0.678), peak ventilation (p=0.056), and running time to exhaustion (p=0.091) as compared with the ingestion of a placebo shot before exercise. Test results also showed that at the end of each stage there was no difference between heart rate and RER, with P values ranging from 0.226 to 1.000, with an exception being RER at 6 minutes, where p=0.009. The results of this study indicate a 5HES shot before exercise does not have an effect on oxygen consumption, heart rate, or substrate utilization during submaximal and maximal exercise.


The study of composite beams is characterised by the connection between
the two components: the concrete slab and the steel girder. In this thesis, two
different problems, related to this connection were studied: the problem of partial
interaction in composite beams of long spans with low degrees of shear connection,
and the problem of transverse flexibility of the stud connection 'joint' between
the concrete slab and the steel beam as part of a discrete inverted U-frame. This
thesis is therefore divided into two separate parts.
The study of beams with partial shear connection and solid slabs or slabs
with metal decking is considered in the first part. Such beams, with a uniform
stud spacing over each shear span, with spans longer than 10 m - generally
propped during construction, and with low degrees of shear connection, could fail
prematurely and suddenly in shear rather than gradually in bending, due to the
limited slip deformation capacity of the studs in shear. In order to investigate
the behaviour of simply supported and continuous composite beams with different
degrees of shear connection, different geometry and different shear spans under
design ultimate loading conditions, a numerical computer simulation program
was written. The program takes account of the relative displacement between
the slab and the beam and the non-linear behaviour of steel, concrete and stud
connectors. A data bank of maximum slip results for different beams is obtained
for ultimate beam loads designed to the interpolation method in Eurocode 4. The
computer simulation gives a conservative but safe assessment of the suitability
of the degree of interaction for a specific design ultimate load . The results were
used to formulate a tentative design method for composite beams with solid slabs
and partial shear connection.
Discrete inverted U-frame action exists between composite bridge beams with
intermittent vertical web stiffeners which provide lateral restraint to the bottom
flange in the hogging bending region near the internal supports. The design
method in BS 5400:Part 3 for discrete U-frame action gives values for the transverse
flexibility of a number of standard structural steel connections which are
used in the calculation of the effective buckling length and the lateral deflection
of the compression flange. To obtain similar values for steel-concrete joints, tests
were done to scale 1:1 on six flange-slab connections with different stud configurations,
but constant conservative dimensions for the steel flange and the concrete
slab. Their crack patterns can be predicted by using a truss analogy. All test
specimens either failed in shear or by puffing out of the studs, and shear cracking
and shear failure criteria for concrete beams can be used to predict the cracking
and failure loads. The transverse elastic flexibiities of the joints in these tests
only represent the behaviour of the same joints in a complete structure up to the
point where the shear cracks propagated over the full width of the specimens.
Based on these few test results, a limited tentative design equation is proposed
for the transverse flexibility of these type of stud connections, although further
research is required into the influence of the increased flexibility on the buckling
mode and the variation of the flexibility with variables other than the stud
configurations.


The objective of this systematic review was to examine resting metabolic rate (RMR) measured through indirect calorimetry in adults with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) and to evaluate the predication equations used for the estimation of RMR in this population. The authors additionally aimed to review the impact of sex and level of injury on RMR. A MEDLINE/PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science search was performed for studies published from the database inception to January 2018, identifying 326 articles. On the basis of the inclusion criteria, 22 studies remained for review. All articles that were identified were full-text, English language articles examining adults with chronic SCI who were fasted for a minimum of 8 hr before undergoing RMR through indirect calorimetry for at least 20 min. The measured RMR ranged from 1,256.0 to 1,854.0 kcal/day, whereas the estimated RMR ranged from 1,276.8 to 1,808.0 kcal/day in the chronic SCI population. Seven studies overestimated RMR from 4% to 15%, whereas two studies underestimated RMR from 2% to 17% using prediction equations established for the able-bodied population. Two studies produced SCI-specific equations to estimate RMR. With regard to sex and level of injury, RMR does not differ between individuals with tetraplegia and paraplegia, whereas sex-based differences remain inconclusive, given limited results. These data provide evidence for the use of indirect calorimetry to assess RMR and the need to validate SCI-specific prediction equations in the estimation of RMR.


One promising application of semiconductor nanostructures in the field of photovoltaics might be quantum dot solar concentrators. Quantum dot containing nanocomposite thin films are synthesized at EPFL-LESO by a low cost sol-gel process. In order to study the potential of the novel planar photoluminescent concentrators, reliable computer simulations are needed. A computer code for ray tracing simulations of quantum dot solar concentrators has been developed at EPFL-LESO on the basis of Monte Carlo methods that are applied to polarization-dependent reflection/transmission at interfaces, photon absorption by the semiconductor nanocrystals and photoluminescent reemission. The software allows importing measured or theoretical absorption/reemission spectra describing the photoluminescent properties of the quantum dots. Hereby the properties of photoluminescent reemission are described by a set of emission spectra depending on the energy of the incoming photon, allowing to simulate the photoluminescent emission using the inverse function method. By our simulations, the importance of two main factors is revealed, an emission spectrum matched to the spectral efficiency curve of the photovoltaic cell, and a large Stokes shift, which is advantageous for the lateral energy transport. No significant energy losses are implied when the quantum dots are contained within a nanocomposite coating instead of being dispersed in the entire volume of the pane. Together with the knowledge on the optoelectronical properties of suitable photovoltaic cells, the simulations allow to predict the total efficiency of the envisaged concentrating PV systems, and to optimize photoluminescent emission frequencies, optical densities, and pane dimensions.


Regna Darnell, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001, xxvii + 373 pages.Reviewer: Naomi McPherson Okanagan University CollegeThere is a "rhetoric of discontinuity" among contemporary anthropologists that renders invisible the intellectual genealogies of American anthropology, particularly in relation to "Franz Boas and his first generation of students" (p. xiv). Darnell brilliantly and convincingly argues that, regardless of where they did fieldwork, all North American-trained anthropologists are Americanists who take as givens the theoretical, methodological and ethnographic heritage of the Boasian tradition--culture in the plural, participant observation fieldwork, the cross-cultural study of meaning, the collection of ethnographic and linguistic texts, relativity and relativism, anti-racism--concepts foreshadowing contemporary "feminist, postcolonial, and postmodern interests in narrative, dialogue, and standpoint" (p. xviii). Darnell's own intellectual genealogy connects her to the Boasians through Frederica de Laguna, Boas's last doctoral student and Darnell's first anthropology teacher, and from her first anthropology textbook, Kroeber's Anthropology (1948 edition), to her dissertation (1969) on the early history of Americanist anthropology. Darnell's own corpus of work (nearly 50 entries in the bibliography), is grounded in long-term ethnographic and linguistic collaboration with the Plains Cree of northern Alberta and a career-long study of the history of Americanist anthropology. This deep and abiding understanding of the Americanist tradition richly informs this "discursive essay" which is both ethnography and a "serious critique of contemporary anthropology...theory and practice in the context of history" (p. xxiii).The introduction, "The Invisibility of Americanist Genealogies," begins to reveal the intellectual continuities in contemporary, postmodern anthropological practice through a normative list of "distinctive features of the Americanist Tradition" which go to the heart of the anthropological endeavour theoretically, methodologically and ethically. Readers may well find themselves, perhaps surprisingly, acknowledging with Darnell that "The basic premises of the Americanist tradition are for me, not negotiable" (p. 23).The first five chapters explore the work and key contributions of the core Boasians--Boas, Kroeber, Sapir, Whorf and Benedict--but this is no mere chronology of anthropological begats; rather, it is a nuanced, layered and critical analysis of the Americanist tradition and its continuity with contemporary anthropological practice. For example, Darnell points out that the two theoretically central Boasian concepts, the "analytic discreteness of race, language and culture...[and] the relativism and historical contingency of cultural categories...have been so thoroughly incorporated into North American anthropological praxis that they now appear trivial and unproblematic" (p. 37). The oft-repeated charge that Boas was not a theoretician is soundly refuted and we are treated to a penetrating analysis of the estrangement that grew between Boas and Sapir whose "approach attacked the core of anthropological method and theory...questioning the very premises upon which Boas's own anthropology rested" (p. 65). These differences culminated in the separation of linguistics from anthropology and the primacy of cultural anthropology, rather than ethnology, as definitively Americanist.After Boas's death, Kroeber became the centre of Americanist anthropology and his concept of the superorganic, of culture as a creation of the mind, and of non-individualistic ideas transmitted socially rather than biologically reflect clearly the anti-reductionist Boasian paradigm. Kroeber's engagement with these concepts "have proved more interesting than his answers" (p. 89), as he was intuitively grappling with problems of order and individual agency which contemporary analyses explore within complexity theory, fractals and chaos theory. …


Documents are central to the infrastructure through which formal workforces are constituted. They thus offer a privileged vantage point onto how formality is asserted and experienced as real. On the Zimbabwean–South African border, where formality is a plural and uneven patchwork of "formalizations," thousands of migrants are employed on export-oriented commercial farms. Connections between state institutions and workplaces are regulatory spotlights. More complex than employee protection or domination, or than window-dressing fiction, they make workers by recognizing them as different from "border jumpers." Workers make their own use of spotlights. Documents become steppingstones, as migrants broker conversions toward more durable forms of worker identity. They navigate the constellation of fixed points that documents represent, bringing coherence to fragmentary encounters. Spotlights and stepping-stones lie at the point where formal regulation and livelihood plans constitute one another, and thereby establish the shared ground for negotiating the "reality" of a wage economy.


Previous studies illustrated the influence of T cell subsets on susceptibility or resistance to demyelination in the Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) model of multiple sclerosis. Genetic segregation analysis showed a correlation with disease phenotype in this model with particular Vβ genes. In this study we investigated the contribution of specific Vβ TCR to the pathogenesis of virus-induced demyelinating disease. Spectratype analysis of cells infiltrating the CNS early in infection demonstrated an over-representation of Vβ8 T cells in mice expressing a susceptible H-2 haplotype. We infected transgenic mice expressing the Vβ8.2 TCR directed against a non-TMEV antigen and found an increase in demyelinating disease in mice of either susceptible or resistant background compared with littermate controls. In addition, depletion studies with an anti-Vβ8-specific antibody in both susceptible (B10.Q) and resistant (C57BL/6) mice resulted in increased demyelination. TCR analysis of VP2-specific cytotoxic T cell clones from mice with a resistant genotype identified only the Vβ8.1 TCR, suggesting that limited T cell diversity is critical to TMEV clearance. Together, these results support a protective role for Vβ8 T cells in virusinduced demyelinating disease.


This article provides an overview of the theory of collaborative advantage. This is a practice-oriented theory concerned with enhancing practical understanding of the management isssues involved in joint working across organizations. Two contrasting concepts are central to it: collaborative advantage which is concerned with the potential for synergy from working collaboratively; and, collaborative inertia which relates to the often disappointing output in reality. The theory is structured as a set of overlapping themes, which are predominantly issues that practitioners see as causing pain and reward in collaborative situations. Five example themes are discussed: common aims; power; trust; membership structures; and, leadership. It is argued that the theory captures the complexity that underlies collaborative situations and conveys it in a way that seems real to those involved. It aims to empower those involved through legitimising experienced frustration and providing conceptual handles to help address the practical issues involved.


In recent decades, significant changes have occurred in high-latitude areas, particularly to the cryosphere. Sea ice extent and thickness have declined. In land areas, glaciers and ice sheets are experiencing negative mass balance changes, and there is substantial regional snow cover variability. Subsurface changes are also occurring in northern soils. This study focuses on these changes in the soil thermal regime, specifically the seasonally frozen ground region of Eurasia. We use a database of soil temperatures at 423 stations and estimate the maximum annual soil freezing depth at the 387 sites located on seasonally frozen ground. Evaluating seasonal freeze depth at these sites for 1930–2000 reveals a statistically significant trend of −4.5 cm/decade and a net change of −31.9 cm. Interdecadal variability is also evident such that there was no trend until the late 1960s, after which seasonal freeze depths decreased significantly until the early 1990s. From that point forward, likely through at least 2008, no change is evident. These changes in the soil thermal regime are most closely linked with the freezing index, but also mean annual air temperatures and snow depth. Antecedent conditions from the previous warm season do not appear to play a large role in affecting the subsequent cold season's seasonal freeze depths. The strong decrease in seasonal freeze depths during the 1970s to 1990s was likely the result of strong atmospheric forcing from the North Atlantic Oscillation during that time period.


Activation of CRH receptors type 1 (CRH-R1) by CRH or urocortin (UCN) leads to stimulation of multiple G proteins with consequent effects on diverse signaling cascades in a tissue-specific manner. In human myometrium and human embryonic kidney (HEK)293 cells, binding of UCN to CRH-R1alpha receptors activates both the Gs and Gq, leading to activation of the adenylyl cyclase/protein kinase A (PKA) and the phospholipase C/protein kinase C and ERK1/2 signaling pathways, respectively. The overall result of these signals is often unpredictable, as these two signaling pathways can interact in many cellular systems, with either potentiation or inhibition of ERK1/2 activity. In the present studies we investigated potential signaling interactions after stimulation of CRH-R1alpha receptors in human cultured pregnant myometrial cells or HEK293 cells overexpressing recombinant CRH-R1alpha receptors. We found that the adenylyl cyclase/PKA pathway has the capacity to markedly decrease UCN-induced ERK1/2 activation, and that these effects were due in part to the ability of PKA to phosphorylate the CRH-R1alpha at position Ser(301) in the third intracellular loop. Mutant CRH-R1alpha receptors with substitutions at position Ser(301), which is the only potential PKA phosphorylation site, were resistant to PKA-dependent phosphorylation and showed altered signaling characteristics, which were dependent upon the amino acid substitution at this position. We conclude that Ser(301), which is located in the third intracellular loop of CRH-R1alpha, is critical for efficient coupling of the receptor to G proteins and to second messenger generation. Phosphorylation by PKA prevents maximal coupling of the CRH-R1alpha to Gq-protein, and thereby reduces activation of ERK 1/2.


Ornamental plants constitute an important source of alien, and
potentially invasive species, but also include a substantial
part of native flora and consist of taxa that occur both in the
wild and in cultivation; yet garden floras are largely ignored
in ecological studies.We studied ornamental plants in the Czech
Republic in order to provide detailed information, based on
field sampling, on the diversity of taxa grown in cultivation
in private gardens. Sampling was done in accessible public
areas, private gardens and private areas in villages, town- and
city neighbourhoods, garden allotments, cemeteries, areas of
dispersed farmhouse settlements not accessible to the public,
and in new urban sprawl. The data can be used to estimate the
propagule pressure of individual taxa, measured in terms of the
frequency with which they are planted in the gardens. To make
the data comparable across sites, we adopted a two-level
approach that resulted in producing a detailed list (including
all the taxa recorded) and an aggregated list (merging closely
related and similar taxa, which was necessary in order to
assess the frequency of planting across sites). Each species on
the detailed list was assigned an origin, status, life history
and cultivation requirements. Comparing the field records with
national checklists of both native and alien vascular plants we
quantified particular components of the ornamental flora. The
floristic inventories for 174 sites yielded 1842 taxa on the
detailed list, consisting of 1642 species (standard binomials),
9 cultivars assigned to genera, 147 hybrids and hybridogenous
taxa, and 44 taxa identified at higher than species level. Of
these taxa 1417 (76.9%) were alien and 420 (22.8%) native. The
ornamental flora consisted of not-escaping aliens, escaping
aliens and cultivated natives. Of the recorded taxa, 841
(45.6%) occur both in cultivation and the wild. The aggregated
list comprised 1514 taxa and resulted from merging 533 taxa
from the detailed list into 205 taxa. Most alien ornamentals
are native to Asia and Americas. The proportion of escaped and
not-escaping aliens significantly differed from wild aliens in
the spontaneous flora with underrepresentation of escaped,
which originated from Australia, Africa and the Mediterranean
area. Taxa from Africa and anecophytes were overrepresented and
those from Australia, the Mediterranean and other parts of
Europe underrepresented among not escaping aliens. The
assessment of planting frequency revealed that 270 taxa were
found at more than 25% of the sites, while 584 (40%) occurred
at only one or two sites.Winter annuals and shrubs are most
represented among the commonly planted aliens; the only native
species with comparably high planting frequencies among the
aliens, are Vinca minor, Hedera helix and Aquilegia vulgaris.
Related to the invasion potential of ornamental garden flora we
analysed the recorded taxa with respect to the
transient/persistent character of their occurrence. The core
(persistent) part of the flora comprised 599 taxa (32% of the
total number of taxa) and the transient 240 (13%) taxa. The
"grey zone" between the two included 1003 taxa (55%). The
results reported here provide quantitative insights into the
role of horticulture as a major pathway of plant invasions.


Audiograms describe the fundamental ability of the sense of hearing for any species as a function of hearing threshold in respect to frequency. For most marine mammals, including all Antarctic seals, audiograms have not been described yet. In this study, we determined audiograms of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) by auditory evoked potential (AEP) measurements. Our experiments were conducted in the wild at Atka Bay, Antarctica, (70°31S 8°13W) on sea ice in December 2005. One adult male and eleven non-lactating females, with estimated body masses between 300 and 450 kg, were sedated prior to the audiometric measurements. We determined optimal electrode positions for the auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) on the scalp of the seals, and obtained a total of 120 measurements using stimulus frequencies from 1 kHz to 80 kHz and different sound levels. Sampling of the sensitive bio-potentials was affected by signal to noise ratios, environmental conditions, and course of narcosis. Hence, the results were pooled to obtain an integrative Weddell seal audiogram. ABR measurements in the wild are unprecedented. Technical experience developed continuously during the experiments progressively improved the signal to noise ratio and resulted in an increasing success rate. The know-how developed during these initial trials will significantly benefit future studies in Weddell seals and other species.


We present a simple statistical model to describe receptor-ligand binding in terms of the number of binding contact residues and the number of separate binding regions as a function of the temperature. The fact that the binding depends on various random factors is modeled by a distribution of local binding energies and we take into account that the interaction between receptor and ligand is only of significance for the activation of the receptor if the total binding energy exceeds a threshold energy. We interpret our results in the light of both experimentally observed antibody-antigen binding configurations and theoretical studies in the zero-temperature limit.


This paper empirically examines the agency problems associated with the use of soft dollars in delegated portfolio management. We assume that active portfolio managers are hired to identify private information about mispriced securities, but in the absence of careful monitoring by investors or compensating organizational arrangements they will have too little incentive to do the necessary research. To the extent they nevertheless succeed in identifying mispriced securities, much of the value of the information can be lost to market interlopers due to low-quality broker executions. We develop two agency cost hypotheses for the role soft dollars play in active portfolio management. One hypothesis views soft dollars as a symptom of agency costs that allows money managers to unjustly enrich themselves at portfolio investors' expense. The other hypothesis views soft dollars as a method of reducing agency costs by encouraging optimal research and enforcing property rights to private information by bonding the quality of broker executions. Using a database of institutional money managers, we find that soft dollar use is positively related to different measures of risk-adjusted performance, suggesting that soft dollars reduce agency costs when other controls are uneconomic. Moreover, soft dollar use is unrelated to management fees, suggesting that managers do not use soft dollars to unjustly enrich themselves.


Cell-seeded implants are a regenerative medicine strategy that aims to replace injured tissue and restore tissue function. Pluripotent stem cells are promising cell candidates for the development of regenerative medicine therapies as they have the ability to selfrenew and commit towards numerous cell types. In vivo, stem cells reside in a dynamic niche, a stem cell-specific microenvironment that possesses chemical, biological and mechanical cues, which drive the stem cell fate and renewal. The connection between stem cells and their niche is a two-way relationship consisting of both cell–cell interac‐ tion and cell–extracellular matrix ECM interactions. An alternative regenerative medicine approach is the manipulation of the stem cell microenvironment. Hence, novel strategies have been developed including D biomaterials and bioreactor technologies providing topographical, chemical and mechanical cues to recreate the stem cell niche. Understanding the mechanisms controlling stem cell fate and the dynamic nature of the stem cell niche will enable researchers to replicate this stem cell-specific microenviron‐ ment, and therefore, harness and control the valuable attributes which stem cells possess. This chapter elucidates the importance of pluripotent stem cells and their dynamic niche in regenerative medicine. It further presents novel strategies to replicate chemical, topographical and mechanical stimuli which are essential for the regulation of stem cell fate and hence tissue regeneration.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the long-term effectiveness of comprehensive support and counseling for spouse-caregivers and families in postponing or preventing nursing home placement of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD).

DESIGN
Randomized controlled intervention study.

SETTING
Outpatient research clinic in the New York City metropolitan area.

PARTICIPANTS
Referred, volunteer sample of 206 spouse-caregivers of AD patients who enrolled in the study during a 3 1/2-year period. All patients were living at home at baseline and had at least 1 relative living in the area.

INTERVENTION
Caregivers in the treatment group were provided with 6 sessions of individual and family counseling within 4 months of enrollment in the study and were required to join support groups. In addition, counselors were available for further counseling at any time.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Time from enrollment of caregivers in the study to placement of the AD patients in a nursing home.

RESULTS
Using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, we estimated that the median time (weighted average of estimates for male and female caregivers) from baseline to nursing home placement of AD patients was 329 days longer in the treatment group than in the control group (z=2.29; P=.02). The relative risk (RR) from a Cox proportional hazard model of nursing home placement (intent-to-treat estimate) after adjusting for caregiver sex, patient age, and patient income was 0.65 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45 to 0.94; P=.02), indicating that caregivers were approximately two thirds as likely to place their spouses in nursing homes at any point in time if they were in the treatment group than if they were in the control group. Treatment had the greatest effect on risk of placement for patients who were mildly demented (RR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.04 to 0.77) or moderately demented (RR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.17 to 0.82).

CONCLUSIONS
A program of counseling and support can substantially increase the time spouse-caregivers are able to care for AD patients at home, particularly during the early to middle stages of dementia when nursing home placement is generally least appropriate.


The availability of surplus capital from the oil producing Arab Gulf States has allowed joint ventures to become an economic reality and important Arab World phenomenon. Using appropriate methodology, projections have been made of population growth, petrochemical production levels and per capita income with a view to determining the market for textiles in the Arab States. Shirt production has been chosen as an area for the pilot development of projects based on textiles. Factors influencing the choice include the relatively small capital requirement, the use of sophisticated technology in a labour intensive industry, the possible diversions into similar areas and the use of raw materials produced in the Arab World. The project envisages the creation of an inter-Arab joint venture between Kuwait, the provider of capital, and Morocco, the production base. A computer model has been designed to produce one million shirts of various types per annum. The model embraces cash flows, rates of erage utilised capacity. The model allows a variety of different situations to be analysed In terms of varying input parameters. The flexibility is such that it may be made the basis for many similarly oriented projects. Constraints were identified - particularly those associated with obtaining Venture Capital. The problem of regional enterprise development within the Pan-Arab World was examined, and past lack of success of such enterprises identified with over idealistic objectives.


Anthropogenic activities have more than doubled the amount of reactive nitrogen circulating on Earth, creating excess nutrients across the terrestrial-aquatic gradient. These excess nutrients have caused worldwide eutrophication, fundamentally altering the functioning of freshwater and marine ecosystems. Riparian zones have been recognized to buffer diffuse nitrate pollution, reducing delivery to aquatic ecosystems, but nutrient removal is not their only function in river systems. In this paper, we propose a new conceptual framework to test the capacity of riparian corridors to retain, remove, and transfer nitrogen along the continuum from land to sea under different climatic conditions. Because longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity in riparian corridors influences their functional role in landscapes, we highlight differences in these parameters across biomes. More specifically, we explore how the structure of riparian corridors shapes stream morphology (the river's spine), their multiple functions at the interface between the stream and its catchment (the skin), and their biogeochemical capacity to retain and remove nitrogen (the kidneys). We use the nitrogen cycle as an example because nitrogen pollution is one of the most pressing global environmental issues, influencing directly and indirectly virtually all ecosystems on Earth. As an initial test of the applicability of our interbiome approach, we present synthesis results of gross ammonification and net nitrification from diverse ecosystems.


To Europe, the concept of the New World corresponded to the human need to escape from the common, every-day habitat to a blessed realm, a land of affluence and eternal bliss. The inhabitants of the Old World were charmed by the wonders of the Americas even since the first encounter, and one of the most active and effective ways of contact and communication was food. American cuisine was an illustrative instance of commonality since turkey, duck and rabbit, corn, sunflower and beans, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes, squash, pumpkin and wild ginger, cranberries, blueberries and raspberries, all were soon adopted and adapted to suit the taste buds of the Old World. Corn, in particular, was an extremely important staple food grown not only for its nutritive value but also for its high adaptability to a variety of soils and weather conditions. However, its importance extended far beyond its immediate benefit for the original corn growers developed an entire philosophy of life centred around the plant belonging to the Poaceae family. For the original American tribes, corn was a god: it was either Father Corn or Mother Corn, and had to be paid every form of respect in order to assure the necessary food supply. Feasts and festivals, chants and songs, dances and prayers, stories and games were dedicated to every stage of the agricultural process (from sowing to harvesting), in an attempt to determine and direct reality. This paper aims to briefly introduce some of the corn-related Amerindian customs, rituals and traditions believed to help the individual experience identity with the original forces of the earth in the eternal rhythm of life.


The experiment was conducted to study the effects of organic selenium (Se-enriched yeast) and vitamin E (α-tocopheryl acetate) supplementation, alone or together, on the performance and antioxidant status of broilers fed diets enriched in n-3 PUFAs using fish oil. Day-old Hubbard-JV strain broiler chicks allocated to one of the following treatments: (1) a commercial basal diet containing 0.15 mg inorganic Se /kg as sodium selenite and 50 mg α-tocopheryl acetate (α-TA)/kg feed acted as the control; (2) VE200: Control diet supplemented with 200 mg α-TA/kg feed; (3) OrgSe0.15: Control with inorganic Se replaced with 0.15 mg organic Se/kg; (4) OrgSe0.30: Control with inorganic Se replaced with 0.30 mg organic Se/kg feed; (5) VE200+OrgSe0.15, (6) VE200+OrgSe0.30. Body weight (BW) and body weight gain (BWG) to 42 d were significantly improved with vitamin E or organic Se at 0.30 mg/kg (but not at 0.15 mg/kg) when supplemented individually, but not in combination, except that VE200+OrgSe0.15 improved 28 and 35-d body weights significantly compared with the control. Feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), mortality, carcass characteristics and relative organ weights, except for the spleen, were unaffected by any of the supplementation treatments. The significant positive effect of VE200 on BWG was observed after 21 d. Relative spleen weight was significantly higher in broilers fed VE200 compared to the other treatments. The antioxidative effects of organic Se and vitamin E, alone or together, were not evident in diets enriched in n-3 PUFAs using 1.5% fish oil. Keywords : Fish oil, n-3 PUFAs, broiler, vitamin E, organic selenium, antioxidant


This paper examines the relevance of the bank lending channel of the monetary policy transmission mechanism in Uganda using micro-level data. In addition, the impact of individual bank characteristics of size, liquidity, and capitalization on the banks' loan supply function are also investigated. This is estimated in a dynamic panel data framework based on a generalized method of moment (GMM) dynamic panel estimator of Arellano and Bond, 1991, Arellano and Bover, 1995 and recently extended by Blundell and Bond, 1998. This framework has an advantage that it helps control for potential biases induced by endogeneity which is inherent in our specification due to the inclusion of lagged dependent variables as regressors. The empirical results indicate the presence of the bank lending channel of the monetary policy transmission mechanism in Uganda. In addition, individual bank-characteristics of liquidity and capitalization also play a significant role in influencing the supply of bank loans. There is there need for the central bank to monitor the micro-dynamics of individual bank behaviour in order to enhance the efficacy of the lending channel of monetary policy transmission mechanism.


The purpose of this study was to explore what exactly bound post-Second World War American conservatives together. Since modern conservatism's recent birth in the United States in the last half century or more, many historians have claimed that both anti-communism and capitalism kept conservatives working in cooperation. My contention was that the intellectual founder of postwar conservatism, Russell Kirk, made imagination, and not anti-communism or capitalism, the thrust behind that movement in his seminal work The Conservative Mind. In The Conservative Mind, published in 1953, Russell Kirk created a conservative genealogy that began with English parliamentarian Edmund Burke. Using Burke and his dislike for the modern revolutionary spirit, Kirk uncovered a supposedly conservative seed that began in late eighteenth-century England, and traced it through various interlocutors into the United States that culminated in the writings of American expatriate poet T.S. Eliot. What Kirk really did was to create a counter-narrative to the American liberal tradition that usually began with the French Revolution and revolutionary figures such as English-American revolutionary Thomas Paine. One of my goals was to demystify the fusionist thesis, which states that conservatism is a monolithic entity of shared qualities. I demonstrated that major differences existed from conservatism's postwar origins in 1953. I do this by using the concept of textual communities. A textual community is a group of people led by a privileged interpreter—someone such as Russell Kirk—who translates a text, for example Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, for followers. What happens in a textual community is that the privileged interpreter explains to followers how to read a text and then forms boundaries around a particular rendering of a book. I argue that conservatism was full of these textual communities and privileged interpreters. Therefore, in consecutive chapters, I look at the careers of Russell Kirk, John Lukacs, Christopher Lasch, and Paul Gottfried to demonstrate how this concept fleshed out from 1953 and well into the first decade of the new millennium.


Smokers aged 65 and over have been identified as a priority group for smoking-cessation interventions. However, despite confirmation of the benefits of cessation in later life and compelling evidence that interventions can be effective, studies have shown that members of the primary care team often fail to target this population. If these professionals are to be encouraged to broach the subject of smoking cessation with older people, it is important that barriers to the effective provision of interventions are uncovered. This article reports findings from a qualitative study that sought to do this by exploring the knowledge, attitudes and practice of members of the primary care team in relation to smoking/smoking cessation in later life. A purposive sample of health visitors, district nurses, practice nurses and general practitioners (n = 41) working in the west of Scotland was recruited. Data were collected during face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured interview schedule. The interviews were transcribed and then analysed using content analysis procedures. While the participants were generally convinced of the benefits of cessation many believed that few older people manage to stop smoking successfully. A pessimistic view of the success rate of older smokers appeared to negatively influence practice. In addition, a number of the participants lacked confidence in their own counselling skills and/or had limited awareness of smoking cessation resources and specialist services. These factors also appeared to preclude the provision of effective smoking-cessation interventions. Finally, there was little awareness of the content of the UK Smoking Cessation Guidelines. The findings from this study, and a parallel study that explored the health beliefs of older smokers, have been used to develop smoking cessation training designed specifically for members of the primary care team who have contact with older people who smoke. The efficacy of the training is currently being evaluated.


COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING THEORY AND ALGORITHMS, THOROUGHLY REVISED AND EXPANDED Nonlinear Programming: Theory and Algorithms—now in an extensively updated Third Edition—addresses the problem of optimizing an objective function in the presence of equality and inequality constraints. Many realistic problems cannot be adequately represented as a linear program owing to the nature of the nonlinearity of the objective function and/or the nonlinearity of any constraints. The Third Edition begins with a general introduction to nonlinear programming with illustrative examples and guidelines for model construction. Concentration on the three major parts of nonlinear programming is provided: Convex analysis with discussion of topological properties of convex sets, separation and support of convex sets, polyhedral sets, extreme points and extreme directions of polyhedral sets, and linear programming Optimality conditions and duality with coverage of the nature, interpretation, and value of the classical Fritz John (FJ) and the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions; the interrelationships between various proposed constraint qualifications; and Lagrangian duality and saddle point optimality conditions Algorithms and their convergence, with a presentation of algorithms for solving both unconstrained and constrained nonlinear programming problems Important features of the Third Edition include: New topics such as second interior point methods, nonconvex optimization, nondifferentiable optimization, and more Updated discussion and new applications in each chapter Detailed numerical examples and graphical illustrations Essential coverage of modeling and formulating nonlinear programs Simple numerical problems Advanced theoretical exercises The book is a solid reference for professionals as well as a useful text for students in the fields of operations research, management science, industrial engineering, applied mathematics, and also in engineering disciplines that deal with analytical optimization techniques. The logical and self-contained format uniquely covers nonlinear programming techniques with a great depth of information and an abundance of valuable examples and illustrations that showcase the most current advances in nonlinear problems.


OBJECTIVES
Domestic pig may serve as the most appropriate organ source for human xenotransplantation in the future. However, there is a serious threat of xenogeneic pathogens transmission, especially porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) which are present in genomes of all pigs. The aim of this study was to monitor the prevalence and distribution of PERV DNA in organs of a domestic pig.

METHODS
We used a primer set for a highly conserved fragment of PERV gag sequence to monitor a total PERV DNA copy number and genotype-specific primer sets to study PERV subtypes distribution using Real-Time QPCR (SYBR Green I).

RESULTS
Our results showed that PERV DNA was present in all studied pigs, however, most PERV DNA molecules carried numerous mutations thus indicating inability to express functional retroviral particles. The level of PERV DNA in kidney was much higher than in heart (p = 0.007) and in the liver (p = 0.009).

CONCLUSIONS
It indicates that kidney is potentially the biggest PERV reservoir which makes it the organ of particular concern in xenotransplantation. We also conclude it is possible to monitor pig herds for individuals with the lowest PERV DNA prevalence, especially lacking PERV-C, and perhaps with only defective PERV proviruses that are unable to express functional RNA.


These papers are preliminary in nature: their purpose is to stimulate discussion and comment. Therefore, they are not to be cited or quoted in any publication without the express permission of the author.


In this article we explore the syntactic and semantic properties of prepositions in the context of the semantic interpretation of nominal phrases and compounds. We investigate the problem based on cross-linguistic evidence from a set of six languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian. The focus on English and Romance languages is well motivated. Most of the time, English nominal phrases and compounds translate into constructions of the form N P N in Romance languages, where the P (preposition) may vary in ways that correlate with the semantics. Thus, we present empirical observations on the distribution of nominal phrases and compounds and the distribution of their meanings on two different corpora, based on two state-of-the-art classification tag sets: Lauer's set of eight prepositions and our list of 22 semantic relations. A mapping between the two tag sets is also provided. Furthermore, given a training set of English nominal phrases and compounds along with their translations in the five Romance languages, our algorithm automatically learns classification rules and applies them to unseen test instances for semantic interpretation. Experimental results are compared against two state-of-the-art models reported in the literature.


Developed countries report increasing trends in the prevalence of asthma and atopic diseases over the last 40 years. This change cannot be attributed to artefactual effects. Emerging from these information, new approaches have been generated to explore these novel findings. Among the most important new factors to be explored, scientific research is pointing out to variables related with physical environment, socio-economic and genetic background, anthrophometry at birth, nutritional status, diet, exercise and hormonal profile. Changes in the epidemiology of asthma and atopic conditions in developed countries were also preceded by increases in the prevalence of chronic diseases and their risk factors. Chile does not have information about time trends on these diseases, but several studies are reporting a high prevalence of asthma among adults. Conversely, results from the collaborative ISAAC study carried out in children, have shown a relative low prevalence of asthma in Chilean children. An increasing trend in chronic diseases and their risk factors has been reported in Chile, suggesting an epidemiological pattern similar to that experienced by industrialised countries, when the prevalence of asthma and atopic began to increase. This article review current information about etiological research emphasising the need to develop local research on asthma and atopic diseases taking into account our epidemiological situation (AU)


Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. Primary and secondary prevention strategies have improved tremendously. Conventional risk factors are identified and treated with intensive pharmacotherapy. Despite these measures, the incidence of CHD is on the rise in developed countries. Arterial stiffness has been identified as an independent risk factor for the development of CHD, both in the general population and in those with established CHD. This review examines the association of arterial stiffness with cardiovascular disease.


This article introduces the global Pro-Government Militias Database (PGMD). Despite the devastating record of some pro-government groups, there has been little research on why these forces form, under what conditions they are most likely to act, and how they affect the risk of internal conflict, repression, and state fragility. From events in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria and the countries of the Arab Spring we know that pro-government militias operate in a variety of contexts. They are often linked with extreme violence and disregard for the laws of war. Yet research, notably quantitative research, lags behind events. In this article we give an overview of the PGMD, a new global dataset that identifies pro-government militias from 1981 to 2007. The information on pro-government militias (PGMs) is presented in a relational data structure, which allows researchers to browse and download different versions of the dataset and access over 3,500 sources that informed the coding. The database shows the wide proliferation and diffusion of these groups. We identify 332 PGMs and specify how they are linked to government, for example via the governing political party, individual leaders, or the military. The dataset captures the type of affiliation of the groups to the government by distinguishing between informal and semi-official militias. It identifies, among others, membership characteristics and the types of groups they target. These data are likely to be relevant to research on state strength and state failure, the dynamics of conflict, including security sector reform, demobilization and reintegration, as well as work on human rights and the interactions between different state and non-state actors. To illustrate uses of the data, we include the PGM data in a standard model of armed conflict and find that such groups increase the risk of civil war.


Many information retrieval (IR) systems suffer from a radical variance in performance when responding to users' queries. Even for systems that succeed very well on average, the quality of results returned for some of the queries is poor. Thus, it is desirable that IR systems will be able to identify "difficult" queries so they can be handled properly. Understanding why some queries are inherently more difficult than others is essential for IR, and a good answer to this important question will help search engines to reduce the variance in performance, hence better servicing their customer needs. Estimating the query difficulty is an attempt to quantify the quality of search results retrieved for a query from a given collection of documents. This book discusses the reasons that cause search engines to fail for some of the queries, and then reviews recent approaches for estimating query difficulty in the IR field. It then describes a common methodology for evaluating the prediction quality of those estimators, and experiments with some of the predictors applied by various IR methods over several TREC benchmarks. Finally, it discusses potential applications that can utilize query difficulty estimators by handling each query individually and selectively, based upon its estimated difficulty.


This article assesses the Chinese intellectual scene through sketching four groups of Chinese intellectuals state strategists, the (politically) scandalous, professionals, and the weibo (microblogging) opinion leaders. The Chinese intellectual scene today is filled with excitement and sensationalism, a carnivalesque dinner party of festivity enjoyed by academics, media practitioners, and other cultural workers — the "discourse owners" of China's global "cultural soft power" or "discourse power," to use the new buzzwords. Missing, however, are well-grounded and seriously thought-out responses to the fundamental questions and dilemmas that China faces today: the absence of social consensus and coherent social values that provide not only cohesiveness to an increasingly diverse and fragmented society in rapid transformation but also clues to the world community as to the future orientations of a rising China. The GDP fetish and economic developmentalism have been the backbone of the pragmatic policies of the Chinese Communist Party since reform, but three decades of economic achievement have not bolstered the leadership's political selfconfidence, let alone their vision and courage for the inevitable reforms in political and ideological realms. The continued and omnipresent censorship and self-censorship in China's intellectual arena, as well as the corrosive effects of corruption, fraud, and the temptations of material benefits in the academic and media sectors, contribute to further divisions among Chinese intellectuals, whose identity as such has already transformed beyond recognition. China's global soft power and discourse power campaign may ultimately turn out to be a self- celebratory extravaganza bereft of real substance.


Knowledge graphs have been proven extremely useful in powering diverse applications in semantic search and natural language understanding. In this work, we present GraphGen4Code, a toolkit to build code knowledge graphs that can similarly power various applications such as program search, code understanding, bug detection, and code automation. GraphGen4Code uses generic techniques to capture code semantics with the key nodes in the graph representing classes, functions and methods. Edges indicate function usage (e.g., how data flows through function calls, as derived from program analysis of real code), and documentation about functions (e.g., code documentation, usage documentation, or forum discussions such as StackOverflow). Our toolkit uses named graphs in RDF to model graphs per program, or can output graphs as JSON. We show the scalability of the toolkit by applying it to 1.3 million Python files drawn from GitHub, 2,300 Python modules, and 47 million forum posts. This results in an integrated code graph with over 2 billion triples. We make the toolkit to build such graphs as well as the sample extraction of the 2 billion triples graph publicly available to the community for use.


Drawing on elements of self-determined learning or heutagogy, the graduate employability impact of the UK's leading Universities Business Challenge (UBC) competition is investigated over a five year period of from 2012-17. A central research question was addressed, namely: what do inter-university business simulations, such as the UBC, contribute to developing self-determined learner skills and graduate employability? A mixed-methods research approach combined structured equation modelling (SEM) results of 2 student surveys from over 50 (UK) universities, with qualitative analysis of 7 student focus-groups and 15 semi-structured interviews. The article contributes to new knowledge about the role of UBC as an example of an inter-university business simulation. It models the direct and indirect effects of personal/managerial skills development and reflective learning capacity (as mediator) on perceived employability impact. There is fresh evidence to support the claim that reflective learning is important in the study of self-determined learning and graduate employability.


Analysis and improvement of business processes, one of the core phases in the BPM life cycle, is becoming on top of the agenda for many enterprises. An emerging approach to analyze business processes is to use the business intelligence approaches that attempt to facilitate the analytical capabilities of business process management systems by implementing process-oriented data warehouse and mining techniques. However, very little work has been done on employing business orientation in the design and utilization of process warehouse, which greatly limit the number of users who are able to fully exploit the potential of warehouse technology. The approach presented in this paper, addresses that limitation by attempting to integrate business goals with warehouse. The proposed approach to integration spans across two levels, conceptual and implementation; the first defines the concepts that are used to relate goals and process warehouse; the latter is used to implement the concepts and the relations, to link warehouse data and goal records in relational databases. The proposed approach enhances the way users access warehouse data and interpret the data. To facilitate the use of the proposed approach we have implemented a prototype. The evaluation results, though preliminary, provides evidence of the usefulness of our approach.


Video streaming over wireless networks is compelling for many applications, ranging from home entertainment to surveillance to search-and-rescue operations. Interesting technical challenges arise when the unpredictable nature of the wireless radio channel meets the requirements of high data rate and low latency for video transport. This tutorial provides an overview of the technical challenges of video streaming over wireless networks, with a focus on novel cross-layer design solutions for resource allocation. Performance comparison of various centralized and distributed schemes are presented, using video streaming over wireless home networks as an application example.


Purpose: To present the technical aspect of the UGFS, and evaluate its efficiency in the management of GSV varicosities. Patients and methods: 100 patients (57 female and 43 male with age ranges from 16 to 55 years) with great saphenous vein primary varicosities were treated by UGFS on outpatient basis. Foam was generated by the Tessari method using Policonadol 2% and 3% as sclerosent material. One week, one month and 6months post intervention follow up using clinical examination and duplex scanning was used to asses outcome and detect complications. Results: After 6 months period ,On duplex scanning 88% of the patients showed successful Injection (83%) showed complete obliteration of the GSV and (5%) showed partial occlusion with no evidence of reflux) yet 12 % showed partial occlusion with reflux. 28% of patients needed re-injection during this period for one or more times to achieve this result. No major complications in this study, however 19% of patients had some skin pigmentation and 5 % had thrombophlebitis. Conclusion: This study showed that UGFS is safe, repeatable an effective mean of treating primary varicosities of the GSV.


From its early days, the Ottoman Empire produed large amounts of docuınents, all of which are primary sources for historical research. The most important amongst these groups of documents is without doubt tahrir defters, which can be categorized into three groups: (i) mufassal/detailed (ii) icmal/summarative, and (iii) evkaf/pious foundations tahrir defters. These three groups of documents have been the subject of study for many Turkish and foreign historians. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, historical geographers have hardly engaged in these defters in their studies. The statistical data found in them are quite diverse, detailed and suitable for establishing spatial distribution, an extremely important aspect of geographical research. Thcse defters provide very rich data on human geography, though they have insufficient information regarding physical geography. As these defters were prepared for the timar system, the Ottoman timar system, it is quite natural to find data focusing on human geography. In this article, the data recorded in tahrir defters are taken up, in line with the classical classification as physical geography, human gcography and economic geography data, and have been dealt with analytically, with a view to examinig tahrir defters as a historical geography source.


Recently, patients who have been exposed indoors to mixed molds, spores, and mycotoxins have reported asthma, airway irritation and bleeding, dizziness, and impaired memory and concentration, all of which suggest the presence of pulmonary and neurobehavioral problems. The author evaluated whether such patients had measurable pulmonary and neurobehavioral impairments by comparing consecutive cases in a series vs. a referent group. Sixty-five consecutive outpatients exposed to mold in their respective homes in Arizona, California, and Texas were compared with 202 community subjects who had no known mold or chemical exposures. Balance, choice reaction time, color discrimination, blink reflex, visual fields, grip, hearing, problem-solving, verbal recall, perceptual motor speed, and memory were measured. Medical histories, mood states, and symptom frequencies were recorded with checklists, and spirometry was used to measure various pulmonary volumes and flows. Neurobehavioral comparisons were made after individual measurements were adjusted for age, educational attainment, and sex. Significant differences between groups were assessed by analysis of variance; a p value of less than 0.05 was used for all statistical tests. The mold-exposed group exhibited decreased function for balance, reaction time, blink-reflex latency, color discrimination, visual fields, and grip, compared with referents. The exposed group's scores were reduced for the following tests: digit-symbol substitution, peg placement, trail making, verbal recall, and picture completion. Twenty-one of 26 functions tested were abnormal. Airway obstructions were found, and vital capacities were reduced. Mood state scores and symptom frequencies were elevated. The author concluded that indoor mold exposures were associated with neurobehavioral and pulmonary impairments that likely resulted from the presence of mycotoxins, such as trichothecenes.


Aim of this paper is to prove the second order differentiation formula for $H^{2,2}$ functions along geodesics in $RCD^*(K,N)$ spaces with $N < \infty$. This formula is new even in the context of Alexandrov spaces, where second order differentiation is typically related to semiconvexity.
We establish this result by showing that $W_2$-geodesics can be approximated up to second order, in a sense which we shall make precise, by entropic interpolation. In turn this is achieved by proving new, even in the smooth setting, estimates concerning entropic interpolations which we believe are interesting on their own. In particular we obtain:
- equiboundedness of the densities along the entropic interpolations,
- local equi-Lipschitz continuity of the Schr\"odinger potentials,
- a uniform weighted $L^2$ control of the Hessian of such potentials.
Finally, the techniques adopted in this paper can be used to show that in the $RCD$ setting the viscous solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation can be obtained via a vanishing viscosity method, in accordance with the smooth case.
With respect to a previous version, where the space was assumed to be compact, in this paper the second order differentiation formula is proved in full generality.


Curry, BS, Chengkalath, D, Crouch, GJ, Romance, M, and Manns, PJ. Acute effects of dynamic stretching, static stretching and light aerobic activity on muscular performance in women. J Strength Cond Res 23(6): 1811-1819, 2009-The purpose of this study was to compare three warm-up protocols-static stretching, dynamic stretching, and light aerobic activity-on selected measures of range of motion and power in untrained females and to investigate the sustained effects at 5 and 30 minutes after warm-up. A total of 24 healthy females (ages 23-29 years) attended one familiarization session and three test sessions on nonconsecutive days within 2 weeks. A within-subject design protocol with the testing investigators blinded to the subjects' warm-up was followed. Each session started with 5 minutes of light aerobic cycling followed by pretest baseline measures. Another 5 minutes of light aerobic cycling was completed and followed by one of the three randomly selected warm-up interventions (static stretching, dynamic stretching, or light aerobic activity). The following posttest outcome measures were collected 5 and 30 minutes following the intervention: modified Thomas test, countermovement jump, and isometric time to peak force knee extension measured by dynamometer. Analysis of the data revealed significant time effects on range of motion and countermovement jump changes. No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found between the warm-up conditions on any of the variables. The variation in responses to warm-up conditions emphasizes the unique nature of individual reactions to different warm-ups; however, there was a tendency for warm-ups with an active component to have beneficial effects. The data suggests dynamic stretching has greater applicability to enhance performance on power outcomes compared to static stretching.


The concept upon which most past analyses are based is that a continuum exists in aerated flow from 100 percent water, to air bubbles in water, to a water-air mixture, to an air-water mixture, to water droplets in air, to 100 percent air. Measurements of air concentration would seem to indicate that this is the case inasmuch as the air concentration varies in a continuous fashion over the depth of flow. J.M. Killen however, showed in high-speed photos taken during flume experiments in the mid-fifties, that the water surface remained 'intact but very contorted' with a very small quantity of flying droplets over the surface. Hence, a well-mixed continuum of increasing air and decreasing water over depth does not exist. This paper redefines some of the concepts of self-aerated flow and discusses the impacts of these concepts on the areas of interest.