Drought is one of the most harmful natural hazards in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River basin (URYR) in the mid-west part of China. Alterations in precipitation will affect the severity of drought. The nonparametric Mann–Kendall (MK) test was used in this paper to examine the trend of precipitation and the standardized precipitation index (SPI) was adopted to analyze the spatial–temporal variations of meteorological drought over different time scales in the last 50 years. The MK test value of precipitation indicated that, for most of the URYR showed an increasing trend of precipitation in the months of January, February, March and June, mainly in the Min-Tuojiang, Jialingjiang and Wujiang sub-basins and a decreasing trend was observed in August to December. The most obvious decreasing trend of precipitation occurred in the Jialingjiang, upper mainstream and Wujiang sub-basins in September, with a rate ranging from –7.89mm/10 years to –39.36mm/10 years. The results show that the SPI is applicable in the URYR basin. The number of severe droughts differed among the six sub-basins, i.e., a more obvious 3-month drought takes place in the middle of the upper mainstream, Wujiang sub-basins and the southeast of Jialingjiang sub-basin and other droughts in 6, 9 and 12 month timescales have the same effect in these three sub-basins. The outcomes of the paper could provide references for droughts mitigation, local water resources management and agriculture decision making.


The work detailed in this thesis aimed to address antibiotic resistance - a pressing health issue on a global scale - through three different approaches: identifying the mechanisms of bacterial resistance evolution; modifying antibiotic treatment strategies to limit, or redirect, the course of resistance evolution, and; developing an effective method to find potential compounds for new therapeutic agents.

Initially, a systematic investigation was conducted to monitor the emergence of bacterial antibiotic resistance when bacteria were exposed to a single antibiotic. In order to study the dynamics of bacterial resistance emergence, we constructed a morbidostat device to continuously monitor bacterial growth, and regulate drug concentrations to maintain an antibiotic-induced selection pressure. The resistance evolution was then examined with eight antibiotics from different classes. During 12 days of antibiotic exposure, resistance levels increased dramatically, exhibiting various evolutionary patterns depending on which antibiotics were administered. The mechanisms underlying these various evolutionary changes were further investigated by genotypic and phenotypic characterisation experiments.

Secondly, the effect of an alternating antibiotic treatment, in which antibiotics were administered sequentially with periodic switching, was examined. The intention was to identify a dosing regimen that could suppress or control the resistance evolution, using only existing antibiotics. Antibiotic-sensitive bacteria had their resistance evolution tested in response to a range of alternating treatments that employed seven antibiotics and three different cycling interval times. We found that the development of antibiotic resistance could be reduced, or even reversed, by using certain antibiotic pairs. Additionally, we also identified the optimal interval time to further increase the degree of resistance evolution suppression. Further genotypic and phenotypic assays were then conducted to gain insight into the population dynamics occurring during antibiotic cycling and the underlying mechanisms that enabled the manipulation of antibiotic resistance.

Finally, the optimisation of antimicrobial peptide sequences (AMPs) was achieved, demonstrating the potential to rapidly discover new antibiotic candidates. The conventional approaches to drug discovery are extremely time and labour-intensive, and hence struggle to cope with the accelerated development of bacterial drug resistance. AMPs demonstrate great promise as a potential new class of antibiotics; they display a range of modes-of-action against bacterial pathogens, and there are an astronomical number of possible sequences available to explore (e.g. 20^13 ≈ 8×10^16 combinations for a 13-mer peptide). An evolution-based algorithm was developed to effectively find the most potent antimicrobial peptides whilst requiring only a small number of experimental evaluations. The algorithm was subsequently validated by conducting an optimisation experiment, whereby, a naturally-occurring 13-mer AMP was taken as a starting point, and optimised over three generations. Finally, the physicochemical properties of the identified potent peptides were examined to gain insights into the underlying mechanisms responsible for the improvement in antimicrobial activity.


Mesozooplankton (Copepods, Daphnia, Appendicularians) impact on microbial food webs was studied by experimental manipulation of its density and composition in five large-scale mesocosm experiments carried out in spring and summer in a mesotrophic lake (Schohsee, Plon) and a fully marine site (Trondheim Fjord, Norway). Despite considerable differences in the biotic and abiotic start conditions, a general pattern of microbial food web structuring was found. The size-dependent food choice of copepods resulted in mostly community-level 3- to 4-link trophic cascades leading to a significant reduction of ciliate abundances and substantial increases in nanoplankton densities. Changes at mesozooplankton level cascaded down to bacterioplankton and triggered temporal and density-dependent changes in bacterial abundance, activity (production, single-cell DNA content), respiration (redox dye CTC), substrate turnover as well as phenotypic and genotypic community composition (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis plus sequencing; Richness, Shannon´s diversity index H´) and feedback mechanisms against protist grazing. While the copepod-mediated predation cascade led to positive responses in freshwater bacterial communities with respect to biomass and activity, respective cascading effects caused negative trends in marine bacterioplankton. Filter-feeding Daphnia exerted strong top-down control on all microbial food web components in spring and summer and was the main reason for the termination of a bloom of filamentous bacteria. An induced blooming event of the appendicularian Oikopleura dioica substantially reduced bacterial abundance and production (3- to 5-fold), but caused only modest changes in bacterial community composition.


Odontocetes have evolved a rich diversity of prey- and habitat-specific foraging strategies, which allows them to feed opportunistically on locally and temporally abundant prey. While habitat-specific foraging strategies have been documented for some odontocete species, this is less known for the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). We collected multiple years of acoustic data using echolocation click loggers to analyse porpoise occurrence and buzzing behaviour, indicating feeding, in the German Wadden Sea (North Sea). Seasonal, diel and tidal effects were studied using Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE-GAMs). Locally season, time of day and tidal time significantly influenced the probability of porpoise detections and detection of foraging sequences (buzzes). Hunting strategies, and therefore frequency of buzzes, were likely affected by prey distribution and large differences between POD locations indicated that porpoises used highly specific behaviour adapted to tide and time of day to efficiently feed on the available prey. Strong seasonal and spatial variation in diel and tidal effects underline the importance of long-term observations. Studies on porpoise behaviour are often based on short-term observations and might rather reflect a seasonal than a general pattern. The results of this study show clearly that significant changes in porpoise behaviour can be found in short and long-term observations. Here some features are based on short term determinants and others are stable over years and care should be taken about drawing general conclusions based on local patterns. Highly variable spatio-temporal patterns indicate a high flexibility of porpoises in a highly variable environment and address a challenge for complex conservation management plans.


Abstract This paper investigates the effect of firm- and country-level governance quality on audit quality, as measured by (i) auditor choice and (ii) audit fees. Our findings are three-fold. First, our evidence suggests that board independence is positively related to engaging a Big 4 auditor, while family shareholdings show a negative association with hiring a Big 4 auditor. Second, board size, board independence, and director shareholdings are positively related to audit fees, while government shareholdings and family shareholdings show a negative relationship with audit fees. Third, higher country-level governance quality is positively associated with hiring a Big 4 auditor and paying higher audit fees. Overall, we provide evidence that external audit quality in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries is affected by firm- and country-level governance quality, which suggests that governance quality and external audit quality seem to be complements in protecting stakeholders interests through securing higher audit quality. Our results are robust to controlling for alternative measures and endogeneities.


Soil microbial biomass in arctic heaths has been shown to be largely unaffected by treatments simulating climate change with temperature, nutrient and light manipulations. Here, we demonstrate that more than 10 years is needed for development of significant responses, and that changes in microbial biomass are accompanied with strong alterations in microbial community composition. In contrast to slight or nonsignificant responses after 5, 6 and 10 treatment years, 15 years of inorganic NPK fertilizer addition to a subarctic heath had strong effects on the microbial community and, as observed for the first time, warming and shading also led to significant responses, often in opposite direction to the fertilization responses. The effects were clearer in the top 5 cm soil than at the 5–10 cm depth. Fertilization increased microbial biomass C and more than doubled microbial biomass P compared to the non‐fertilized plots. However, it only increased microbial biomass N at the 5–10 cm depth. Fertilization increased fungal biomass and the relative abundance of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) markers of gram‐positive bacteria. Warming and shading decreased the relative abundance of fungal PLFAs, and shading also altered the composition of the bacterial community. The long time lag in responses may be associated with indirect effects of the gradual changes in the plant biomass and community composition. The contrasting responses to warming and fertilization treatments show that results from fertilizer addition may not be similar to the effects of increased nutrient mineralization and availability following climatic warming.


Abstract. In hydrology, solving the energy balance could be needed to estimate evapotranspiration or snowmelt. Shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) incoming radiation fluxes are often derived from climate models or reanalyses. The resolution of these models is often too scarce to reproduce the variability of the energy fluxes in complex topography situations. For hydrological purposes, these radiations can also be simulated using empirical formulations with only maximum and minimum daily air temperature data as inputs. Many different formulations have been developed, mainly for specific areas. In this paper, we modify the existing Bristow atmospheric transmissivity equation so that it can be adapted to different areas and different elevation ranges. A calibration method for the transmissivity equation, coupled to the Sicart emissivity parameterization, has been determined. The new parameterization was developed and validated on a total of 115 meteorological stations from the MeteoSwiss network over the Swiss Alps. The results showed an increase in performances for simulating shortwave radiations in high-elevation areas, without decreasing the performance for lower elevations. However, the performance increase on transmissivity did not improve the longwave simulations as had been expected. The parameterization was also validated on reference surface temperature by solving a simplified energy balance. This makes it possible to evaluate the performance of the two parameterizations combined, considering a typical retro-action of the snow surface. This provided good results with a slight increase in performance compared to the original formulation. It also showed that the inaccuracy of SW radiations has a greater impact on the performance of the reference surface temperature than LW radiation errors. The drawback of this new formulation is that it converges to unexpected parameter values at the calibration process, which requires setting some parameters before calibration.


The purpose of this study was to compare the short-term outcomes of the Multiwave Locked System (MLS) laser therapy versus the combined Transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS) and ultrasound therapy in the treatment of the subacromial pain syndrome (SAPS). Forty-seven patients with SAPS were included in the study. Two different rehabilitation protocols were tested: Group 1 (n = 22)–MLS laser therapy and physical exercises and Group 2 (n = 25)–TENS, ultrasound and physical exercises. The analyzed outcomes were levels of pain, functionality and disability, assessed with visual analog scale (VAS), Constant Shoulder Score (CSS) and the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI). The post-treatment evaluations showed significantly better scores in Group 1 patients for VAS score (p = 0.03) and SPADI (p = 0.04). Significant improvement was seen in both groups for all scores. Both treatment regimens showed to be efficient in the treatment of SAPS, improving functionality and reducing pain and disability in the short term. Multiwave Locked System laser therapy in conjunction with physical exercise therapy exercises may have advantages over TENS, ultrasound and physical exercise therapy in the treatment of subacromial pain syndrome. Future studies assessing both short- and long-term outcomes in patients with SAPS treated with different electrotherapy procedures added to the physical therapy are needed.


Abstract Middle Welsh is a language with a restricted set of morphosyntactic distinctions for grammatical relations and with relatively free word order in positive main declarative causes. However, syntactic ambiguity rarely, if ever, arises in natural texts. The present article shows in a corpus-based study how syntactic ambiguity is prevented and how morphological features interact with two referential properties, namely animacy and accessibility, in order to successfully identify grammatical relations in Middle Welsh. Further lower-tier factors are the semantics of the verb and the wider narrative context. The article complements recent insights suggesting that subject-verb agreement is not only determined by wordorder patterns, but also by referential properties of subjects.


Many variables have an impact on our willingness to act helpfully and prosocially towards others. Extant research has shown that being mimicked increases helping behaviour towards the mimicker and others. Viewing someone as part of one's in-group also appears to increase helping behaviour towards that person. However, the effects of mimicry and belonging to the in-group have not been measured together in regards to how they impact helping behaviour. An experiment to measure mimicry and the in-group effect is proposed with the intention of elucidating whether there is an interaction between the two factors. The mimicry condition will be examined by having the experimenter mimic the participant, a method that has been reliable in previous studies. The in-group perception will be examined by having the experimenter say they attended the same institution and enjoyed a course the participant enjoyed. Conversely, the experimenter will say they attended a rival institution and disliked a course the participant enjoyed to create an out-group perception. Helping behaviour will be measured by having the experimenter ask the participant to opt into an optional questionnaire after the experiment. If the participants did choose to complete the questionnaire, this would indicate helping behaviour. The findings of this experiment will help to refine theories of helping behaviour that have been previously proposed in the literature.


It has proved remarkably difficult to confirm or refute an association between Helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis and non-ulcer dyspepsia for several reasons. Dyspepsia has not been defined adequately and current definitions include a variety of symptoms that probably reflect a number of underlying pathophysiological processes. Dyspepsia is a symptom complex, rather than a specific disease entity, and cannot be easily identified. There are probably many causes of dyspepsia, and if H. pylori does cause symptoms, it may produce different symptoms in different people. However, little is known about variations in host susceptibility and H. pylori virulence, or their potential effect on symptomatology. In addition, the mechanisms responsible for dyspeptic symptoms are unknown, regardless of whether or not there is concomitant H. pylori-induced inflammation. A possible aetiological role for H. pylori in dyspepsia has been sought in three major types of study. Epidemiology studies have suggested that H. pylori is not a major cause of non-ulcer dyspepsia. However, both dyspepsia and H. pylori are common, and the studies cannot account for many of the variables detailed above. Pathophysiological studies have commonly reported a variety of motor and sensory 'abnormalities' in association with H. pylori, but none has been confirmed or reproduced. In eradication studies, there is continuing debate as to whether dyspeptic symptoms diminish with treatment. This is partly because of the high placebo-response rate and partly because many treatment regimens have not cured the infection. Suppression of bacterial growth may not affect symptoms significantly, if they are due to mucosal inflammation, and symptom resolution may take many weeks or months following cure of H. pylori and the associated gastritis. Recent findings have shown that symptom reduction is more evident 1 year after eradication of H. pylori than after 4 weeks. There is a continuing and urgent need for well-designed studies to assess the long-term effect of H. pylori and its cure on both gastrointestinal function and dyspeptic symptoms.


In this study, a symmetrical directional complex discrete wavelet packet transform, which can be applied directly to the quadrature format signals and has the ability of mapping directional information during decomposition stage, is proposed. With the proposed symmetrical directional complex wavelet packet transform, traditional symmetrical phasing filter technique, which is used for quadrature signal to directional signal conversion, is eliminated and the computational complexity of whole process is reduced. The performance of proposed method is examined in detail using real quadrature embolic signals.


OBJECTIVE
The insulinotropic effect of exogenous, intravenously infused glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) is impaired in patients with type 2 diabetes. We evaluated the effects of endogenous GIP in relation to glucose and bone metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes using a selective GIP receptor antagonist and hypothesized that the effects of endogenous GIP were preserved.

DESIGN
A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

METHODS
Ten patients with overweight/obesity and type 2 diabetes (mean±SD; HbA1c 52±11 mmol/mol; BMI 32.5±4.8 kg/m2) were included. We infused a selective GIP receptor antagonist, GIP(3-30)NH2 (1,200 pmol × kg-1 × min-1), or placebo (saline) during two separate, 230-minute, standardized, liquid mixed meal tests followed by an ad libitum meal. Subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies were analyzed.

RESULTS
Compared with placebo, GIP(3-30)NH2 reduced postprandial insulin secretion (Δbaseline-subtracted area under the curve (bsAUC)C-peptide%±SEM; -14±6%, p=0.021) and peak glucagon (Δ%±SEM; -11±6%, p=0.046), but had no effect on plasma glucose (p=0.692). Suppression of bone resorption (assessed by circulating carboxy-terminal collagen crosslinks (CTX)) was impaired during GIP(3-30)NH2 infusion compared with placebo (ΔbsAUCCTX;±SEM; -4.9±2 ng/ml × min, p=0.005) corresponding to a ~50% reduction. Compared with placebo, GIP(3-30)NH2 did not affect plasma lipids, ad libitum meal consumption or adipose tissue triglyceride content.

CONCLUSIONS
Using a selective GIP receptor antagonist during a meal, we show that endogenous GIP increases postprandial insulin secretion with little effect on postprandial glycemia but is important for postprandial bone homeostasis in patients with type 2 diabetes.


Abstract The Protein Ensemble Database (PED) (https://proteinensemble.org), which holds structural ensembles of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), has been significantly updated and upgraded since its last release in 2016. The new version, PED 4.0, has been completely redesigned and reimplemented with cutting-edge technology and now holds about six times more data (162 versus 24 entries and 242 versus 60 structural ensembles) and a broader representation of state of the art ensemble generation methods than the previous version. The database has a completely renewed graphical interface with an interactive feature viewer for region-based annotations, and provides a series of descriptors of the qualitative and quantitative properties of the ensembles. High quality of the data is guaranteed by a new submission process, which combines both automatic and manual evaluation steps. A team of biocurators integrate structured metadata describing the ensemble generation methodology, experimental constraints and conditions. A new search engine allows the user to build advanced queries and search all entry fields including cross-references to IDP-related resources such as DisProt, MobiDB, BMRB and SASBDB. We expect that the renewed PED will be useful for researchers interested in the atomic-level understanding of IDP function, and promote the rational, structure-based design of IDP-targeting drugs.


The Irish nation was judged barbarous by the English colonizer, mainly because of the hybrid Catholicism, the primitive customs and traditions and the inexistence of property warrants of its inhabitants. Hence, Ireland, the first English colony, served as an imperial laboratory and as a reservoir for land. Its population was used to meet the high demand of labour in the North American colonies. Some Irish decided to follow their own interest and participate in building the English empire while a lot more, mostly commoners, were driven to be agents of the empire, but against their will.


Industrial wastewater contaminated with toxic heavy metals is a big ecological and environmental problem. Applying biological materials to effectively remove and recover heavy metals from contaminated wastewaters has gained importance as promising alternative to conventional treatment techniques. Thus, the objective of the presented paper is the investigation of the capability of microorganisms, isolated from polluted (metal-laden) soil, to biosorb toxic metals from aqueous solutions. Biosorption process for heavy metal removal was conducted in a new pilot scale horizontal rotating tubular bioreactor (HRTB). This bioreactor provides conditions for microorganism's growth in a form of suspended cells and biofilm. Biofilm is capable to protect microorganisms from interaction with toxic metals in the surrounding environment. Three metals were selected as model examples: cations of manganese and cobalt and hexavalent chromium (an oxyanion). Optimized bioreactor conditions, namely, medium inflow rate (F) and bioreactor rotation speed (n) for biofilm formation and metal removal were monitored, and under optimized bioreactor conditions, promising results were obtained.


Pedestrian attribute recognition in surveillance is a challenging task due to poor image quality, significant appearance variations and diverse spatial distribution of different attributes. This paper treats pedestrian attribute recognition as a sequential attribute prediction problem and proposes a novel visual-semantic graph reasoning framework to address this problem. Our framework contains a spatial graph and a directed semantic graph. By performing reasoning using the Graph Convolutional Network (GCN), one graph captures spatial relations between regions and the other learns potential semantic relations between attributes. An end-to-end architecture is presented to perform mutual embedding between these two graphs to guide the relational learning for each other. We verify the proposed framework on three large scale pedestrian attribute datasets including PETA, RAP, and PA100k. Experiments show superiority of the proposed method over state-of-the-art methods and effectiveness of our joint GCN structures for sequential attribute prediction.


The Problem-based Learning Authoring and Transformation Environment (PLATE) project seeks to improve student learning using innovative approaches to problem-based learning (PBL) in a cost-effective, flexible, interoperable, and reusable manner. Traditional subject-based learning that focuses on passively learning facts and reciting them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare potential engineers and all students to be effective. Within the last two decades, the problem-based learning approach to education has started to make inroads into engineering and science education. This PBL educational approach comprises an authentic, ill-structured problem with multiple possible routes to multiple possible solutions. The PBL approach offers unscripted opportunities for students to identify personal knowledge gaps as starting points for individual learning. Additionally, it requires a facilitator (not a traditional teacher) who guides learning by asking probing questions that model expert cognitive reasoning and problem solving strategies. Bringing real-life context and technologies into the curriculum through a problem based learning approach encourages students to become independent workers, critical thinkers, problem solver, lifelong learners, and team workers. A systematical approach to support online PBL is the use of a pedagogy-generic e-learning platform such as IMS Learning Design (IMS-LD 2003), which is an e-learning technical standard useful to script a wide range of pedagogical strategies as formal models. This PLATE project uses the IMS-DL strategies. It seeks to research and develop a process modeling approach together with software tools to support the development and delivery of face-to-face, online, and hybrid PBL courses or lessons in a cost-effective, flexible, interoperable, and reusable manner. The research team seeks to prove that the PLATE authoring system optimizes learning and that the PLATE system improves learning in PBL activities. For this poster presentation, the research team will demonstrate the progress it has made within the first year of research. This includes the development of a prototype PBL scripting language to represent a wide range of PBL models, the creation of transformation functions to map PBL models represented in the PBL scripting language into the executable models represented in IMS-LD, and the architecture of the PLATE authoring tool. The research team plans to illustrate that the research and development of a PBL scripting language and the associated authoring and execution environment can provide a significant thrust toward further research of PBL by using meta-analysis, designing effective PBL models, and extending or improving a PBL scripting language. The team believes that PBL researchers can use the PBL scripting language and authoring tools to create, analyze, test, improve, and communicate various PBL models. The PLATE project can enable PBL practitioners to develop, understand, customize, and reuse PBL models at a high level by relieving the burdens of handling complex details to implement a PBL course. The research team believes that the project will stimulate the application and use of PBL in curricula with online learning practice by incorporating PBL support into popularly used e-learning platforms and by providing a repository of PBL models and courses.


This paper explores the potential for increasing the dissemination of knowledge in a global, extra-organisational community of practice -the Information Systems academic community. The paper begins by defining the IS academic community as an extra-organisational community of practice, individuals linked by what they do rather than for whom they work. Second, incentives for knowledge sharing are examined and peer recognition is identified as a key incentive. Third, IS academics are characterised as shared work practitioners and implications for distributing knowledge in the community are suggested The article concludes with a brief proposal for ISNet, a knowledge dissemination system for the global IS academic community.


Identifying the matter in the universe is one of the main challenges of modern cosmology and astrophysics. An important part of this matter seems to be made of non-baryonic particles. EDELWEISS is a direct dark matter search using cryogenic germanium bolometers in order to look for particles that interact very weakly with the ordinary matter, generically known as WIMPs. An important challenge for EDELWEISS is the radioactive background and one of the ways to identify it is to use a larger variety of target crystals. Sapphire is a light target which can be complementary to the germanium crystals already in use. Spectroscopic characterization studies have been performed using different sapphire samples in order to find the optimum doping concentration for good low temperature scintillation. Ti doped crystals with weak Ti concentrations have been used for systematic X ray excitation tests both at room temperature and down to 30 K. The tests have shown that the best Ti concentration for optimum room temperature scintillation is 100 ppm and 50 ppm at T = 45 K. All concentrations have been checked by optical absorption and fluorescence. After having shown that sapphire had interesting characteristics for building heat-scintillation detectors, we have tested if using a sapphire detector was feasible within a dark matter search. During the first commissioning tests of EDELWEISS II, we have proved the compatibility between a sapphire heat-scintillation detector and the experimental setup.


This paper introduces a series of iterative designs that investigate how the aggregation and visualization of student-contributed work can support collaborative problem solving in the domain of physics. We investigate how new technologies can enable students to contribute to a shared knowledge base, working across contexts: in class, at home, and in a specialized "smart classroom" environment. We explore how student data can be provided to the teacher before class, in support of planning the next day's lesson, and during class, to help the teacher orchestrate class activities and respond to student needs. Our work builds upon the research tradition of knowledge communities and inquiry learning to inform its design of materials and activities that support productive collaborative interactions for learners. We are also guided by the recent literature on scripting and orchestration to define curricular activities that bridge home and school environments, leveraging a digital platform that includes Web 2.0 features to guide structured collaborations. This paper reports on a design-based research program in which the development of the curriculum and technology platform is informed by successive cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and re-design. The paper will review our efforts through three successive design cycles, exploring the evolution of our own "smart classroom curriculum" for high school physics. For each iteration, we present our design goals, the resulting curriculum and technology, the student learning outcomes, and our evaluation that informs the next iteration. We end with a description of our current design, and discuss the goals and directions of our future efforts.


In this paper, we study a parameter that is squeezed between arguably the two most important domination parameters, namely the domination number, $\gamma(G)$, and the total domination number, $\gamma_t(G)$. A set $S$ of vertices in $G$ is a semitotal dominating set of $G$ if it is a dominating set of $G$ and every vertex in S is within distance $2$ of another vertex of $S$. The semitotal domination number, $\gamma_{t2}(G)$, is the minimum cardinality of a semitotal dominating set of $G$. We observe that $\gamma(G)\leq \gamma_{t2}(G)\leq \gamma_t(G)$. We give a lower bound for the semitotal domination number of trees and we characterize the extremal trees. In addition, we characterize trees with equal domination and semitotal domination numbers.


Recruiting the right people is one of the most important activities organisations can undertake. Getting it right can mean fast, healthy growth and the fulfilment of business goals; getting it wrong can mean heavy costs, sinking morale and stunted growth. The Complete Guide to Recruitment is a practical self-help guide to best practice in recruitment. With international case studies demonstrating how recruitment contributes to business success, it covers every aspect of the recruitment process including: developing an effective recruitment strategy; relationship building for long-term hiring; assessing and selecting candidates; designing the contract of employment; and creating a great place to work. Also incorporating a broad range of sample adverts, contracts and assessment tests which are available to download and edit, The Complete Guide to Recruitment is ideal for companies of all types and sizes who want to attract and retain top talent.


We present a method to optically store multiple information in one location by having angular momentum imparted to the scanning beam by specially designed optical phase objects on an optical disc. We show how the azimuth, the rotation sense and the amount of rotation are detected in the focal region.


Reducing Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system is justified on both social justice and economic grounds. We developed an innovative costing framework and estimated direct criminal justice system unit costs based on critical cost drivers. These estimates were applied to offender trajectories, modelling offences of all individuals registered as being born in Queensland during 1983–1984 (from ages 10 to 31). Separate trajectory models were developed for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Queenslanders in the birth cohort to enable separate cost estimations for these groups. Findings identified over one-half (53%) of the identified Indigenous cohort and 16 percent of the non-Indigenous cohort had moderate to chronic offender trajectories. Because of the high levels of recontact and sanction seriousness and length, Indigenous offenders were on average more costly. These findings emphasise the high cost of current criminal justice system responses to Indigenous and chronic offenders in particular and the need to consider innovative and more cost-effective approaches to reduce offending by individuals in these groups.


Although stemming from very different research areas, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and Service Oriented Computing (SOC) share common topics, problems and settings. One of the common problems is the need to formally verify the conformance of individuals (Agents or Web Services) to common rules and specifications (resp. Protocols/Choreographies), in order to provide a coherent behaviour and to reach the goals of the user.In previous publications, we developed a framework, SCIFF, for the automatic verification of compliance of agents to protocols. The framework includes a language based on abductive logic programming and on constraint logic programming for formally defining the social rules; suitable proof-procedures to check on-the-fly and a-priori the compliance of agents to protocols have been defined.Building on our experience in the MAS area, in this paper we make a first step towards the formal verification of web services conformance to choreographies. We adapt the SCIFF\ framework for the new settings, and propose a heir of SCIFF, the framework AlLoWS (Abductive Logic Web-service Specification).. AlLoWS comes with a language for defining formally a choreography and a web service specification. As its ancestor, AlLoWS has a declarative and an operational semantics. We show examples of how AlLoWS deals correctly with interaction patterns previously identified. Moreover, thanks to its constraint-based semantics, AlLoWS deals seamlessly with other cases involving constraints and deadlines


The financial crisis has re-ignited the fierce debate about the merits of financial globalization and its implications for growth, especially for developing countries. The empirical literature has not been able to conclusively establish the presumed growth benefits of financial integration. Indeed, a new literature proposes that the indirect benefits of financial integration may be more important than the traditional financing channel emphasized in previous analyses. A major complication, however, is that there seem to be certain "threshold" levels of financial and institutional development that an economy needs to attain before it can derive the indirect benefits and reduce the risks of financial openness. In this paper, we develop a unified empirical framework for characterizing such threshold conditions. We find that there are clearly identifiable thresholds in variables such as financial depth and institutional quality -- the cost-benefit trade-off from financial openness improves significantly once these threshold conditions are satisfied. We also find that the thresholds are lower for foreign direct investment and portfolio equity liabilities compared to those for debt liabilities.


Visceral leishmaniasis, a lethal parasitic disease, is caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania donovani. The absence of an effective vaccine, drug toxicity and parasite resistance necessitates the identification of novel drug targets. Reconstruction of genome-scale metabolic models and their simulation has been established as an important tool for systems-level understanding of a microorganism's metabolism. In this work, amalgamating the tools and techniques of computational systems biology with rigorous manual curation, a constraint-based metabolic model for Leishmania donovani BPK282A1 has been developed. New functional annotations for 18 formerly hypothetical or erroneously annotated genes (encountered during iterative refinement of the model) have been proposed. Further, to formulate an accurate biomass objective function, experimental determination of previously uncharacterized biomass constituents was performed. The developed model is a highly compartmentalized metabolic model, comprising 1159 reactions, 1135 metabolites and 604 genes. The model exhibited around 76% accuracy for the prediction of experimental phenotypes of gene knockout studies and drug inhibition assays. Employing in silico gene knockout studies, we identified 28 essential genes with negligible sequence identity to the human proteins. Moreover, by dissecting the functional interdependencies of metabolic pathways, 70 synthetic lethal pairs were identified. Finally, in order to delineate stage-specific metabolism, gene-expression data of the amastigote stage residing in human macrophages were integrated into the model. By comparing the flux distribution, we illustrated the stage-specific differences in metabolism and environmental conditions that are in good agreement with the experimental findings. The developed model can serve as a highly enriched knowledgebase of legacy data and an important tool for generating experimentally verifiable hypotheses.


A knowledge of the amount of pasture biomass available in farm paddocks is crucial for improving utilization and productivity in the Australian grazing industry. A method to quantitatively map the biomass of annual pastures under grazing has been developed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from high-resolution satellite imagery. Relationships between field-measured pasture biomass and the NDVI were examined for different transects in paddocks under different grazing regimes across three geographically dispersed farm sites. A significant linear relationship (R 2 = 0.84) was observed when the NDVI was regressed against biomass. The slope of the relationship between the NDVI and biomass declined in a highly predictable (R 2 = 0.82) exponential form as the growing season progressed and this pattern was consistent across four separate seasons. This knowledge was used to formulate a reliable model to predict paddock average pasture biomass using the NDVI. The model estimates were validated against observed biomass in the range 500–4000 kilograms of dry matter per hectare (kg DM ha–1) with R 2 = 0.85 and a standard error of 315 (kg DM ha–1).


A PCB input−output balance study was performed on five cows in which they were fed a natural background contaminated diet and kept under typical U.K. winter husbandry conditions for 15 weeks. Initially an intensive study was performed over five days to investigate short-term variability in PCB fluxes. This was followed by a long-term (14 week) study to again assess variability and the appropriateness of a steady-state assumption for modeling purposes. Measurements of feed intake, milk, and milk fat output were made regularly, and feces output was estimated on two occasions using a recognized dosing and recovery technique. It was found that PCB concentrations in milk dropped by an average of 25% through the lactation, while PCB intakes rose as the cows voluntarily ate more silage later in the lactation. No difference was found in PCB concentrations from the morning and afternoon milkings. True steady-state conditions were not attained at any time, and therefore models which assume steady-state conditions to predict milk and meat concentrations should be used with care. It was evident that changes in the body fat depot throughout the lactation cycle play an important role in the storage and release of PCBs. Input−output balances (i.e. milk and fecal output fluxes divided by the dietary intake flux) of over 100% were found for conservative, or unmetabolized, PCB congeners (e.g. PCB 138). However, this dropped to approximately 20% for readily metabolized congeners (e.g. PCB 33). Variability in congener-specific carry-over rates (CORs, defined as the output flux in milk divided by the dietary intake flux) was small between cows sampled at the same time. Elevated levels of certain PCB congeners were found in the liver of a cow which was slaughtered at the end of the study.


The increase of attacks on e-Government infrastructures led to the emergence of several information security techniques. Insider threat is one of the most complex problems in information security. It requires a sophisticated response to detect and protect the un-authorized use. This chapter provides a framework for developing a high level security management for e-Government website. The framework is based on the sensors and detectors, which consist of relatively small amounts of source code to detect all attacks in e-Government website against all threats in real time. In this chapter, the authors also provide a full illustration of how to design and protect all files used to implement a secure e-Government websites. This should contain a selfaudit of the file and represent a kind of processes that are used to protect data in different types of files including: image, sound, string or any file within e-Government website.


This article problematizes the concept of highly skilled migrants through an analysis of policy documents and interviews with key informants involved in the admission process in Switzerland. Current political discourse classifies foreigners differently according to their country of origin and skill level. Existing legislation prioritizes immigrants from the European Economic Area and is very restrictive towards third-country nationals. By examining the implementation of the admission policy for labour migration, this article evaluates which criteria matter most to state authorities when determining if someone is a desirable immigrant. Despite its stress on qualifications and economic interest, the admission process for third-country workers was also found to fulfil non-economic objectives such as providing the impression of state control over immigration and of state protection of local populations from migrants. Building on this observation, the article argues that more in-depth studies are required to better understand how states reconcile the different objectives of immigration governance in practice.


A general metabolic profile of macrophages was established by measurement of maximum catalytic activities of enzymes in energy-producing pathways and rates of utilisation of glucose, glutamine, fatty acids and ketone bodies under various conditions. It was found that glucose, glutamine and fatty acids can be used to satisfy the energy requirement of the cell. Although a significant proportion of utilised glutamine or fatty acid was converted to C02 by the macrophage, most glucose was not oxidised and was converted, almost stoichiometrically, to lactate. Utilised fatty acids were not only oxidised by the macrophage, but were incorporated into cellular lipid (mainly triacylglycerol and phospholipid). The triacylglycerol rich macrophage was shown to be able to release fatty acids into the culture medium. The importance of glutamine in macrophages was indicated from the high activity of phosphate-dependent glutaminase. Glutamine is probably metabolised by the following enzymes in macrophages: phosphate-dependent glutaminase, aspartate aminotransferase (or other amino acid aminotransferases), oxoglutarate dehydrogenase followed by enzymes of the TCA cycle and metabolism of oxaloacetate by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. Pyruvate derived via this pathway may be metabolised via pyruvate dehydrogenase or pyruvate carboxylase. A study of the sub-cellular distribution of some of these enzymes suggested that phosphate-dependent glutaminase has a cytosolic as well as a mitochondrial localisation. Further characterisation suggested that the non-mitochondrial activity could be associated with the plasma membrane. To the author's knowledge, this is the first report of a non-mitochondrial localisation for phosphate-dependent glutaminase. Glutaminase was shown to be activated by phosphate and inhibited by glutamate and 2-oxoglutarate. Significant inhibition of glutaminase occurred only at high concentrations of these compounds. Glucose and glutamine were utilised at very high rates by the macrophage, but were not fully oxidised even though the cells were incubated in aerobic conditions. The significance of these high rates of utilisation to the macrophage is discussed.


Study Design. A retrospective, multicenter study. Objective. To investigate the relationship between postoperative shoulder balance and adding-on in Lenke type 2 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Summary of Background Data. Postoperative shoulder imbalance (PSI) and adding-on are the main postoperative complications occurring at the proximal to upper instrumented vertebra and the distal to the lower instrumental vertebra (LIV), respectively. Inadequate selection of LIV in the selective thoracic fusion surgery may result in postoperative distal adding-on. It remains unclear whether postoperative shoulder balance is associated with postoperative adding-on. Methods. Preoperative, postoperative, and 2-year follow-up radiographs of 142 consecutive patients with Lenke type 2 curves who underwent posterior-fusion surgery were analyzed. The patients were grouped into PSI positive and negative at follow-up. Radiographical and categorical factors between patients with and without PSI were compared. The relationship between the radiographical shoulder height and the parameters of adding-on were analyzed. Results. PSI occurred in 23 patients (16.2%) and distal adding-on was recognized in 20 patients (14.1%) at final follow-up. The occurrence of adding-on was significantly lower in the shoulder imbalance group at follow-up (P < 0.01). There was no shoulder imbalance occurring in the patients with distal adding-on at final follow-up (P < 0.01). Correlation analysis showed that the radiographical shoulder height was positively correlated with the change in the angulation of the first disc below LIV (r = 0.228, P ⩽ 0.01) and negatively correlated with the deviation change of the LIV+1 at follow-up (r = −0.254, P ⩽ 0.01). Conclusion. The postoperative shoulder balance and postoperative distal adding-on were weakly but significantly associated with each other, and both shoulder imbalance and adding-on need to be prevented in Lenke type 2 curves. Level of Evidence: 4


Elevated peripheral vascular resistance, which characterizes hypertension and congestive heart failure (the latter regardless of absolute blood pressure level) is maintained to a large extent by the combined effects of three major neurohormonal pressor mechanisms: the renin-angiotensin system, the sympathoadrenal system, and arginine vasopressin. Blockade of one of these mechanisms may lead to compensatory stimulation of the others, thus offsetting in part the hemodynamic benefits of a specific intervention. Combination therapy, designed to attack all three systems (with use of an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, a sympathetic blocker such as clonidine, and an antagonist of the vasopressor action of vasopressin), may help in the treatment of such cases. To illustrate this strategy, two experimental studies, one case of malignant hypertension, and one case of congestive heart failure are presented. (Hypertension 1990;16:587-593)


Simulation is a pedagogy that has been widely used in a number of educational settings (e.g., aviation, transport, social work, nursing education). While it can take numerous forms, it often involves an assortment of high-tech equipment (e.g., flight simulators, manikins) that seek to replicate real settings. Specifically, this paper provides an empirically driven exploration of how simulation laboratories, used in the professional education of nurses, and medical and other health professionals in higher education settings, are practised. Informed by sociomaterial understandings, the paper problematises and disrupts homogeneous understandings of the simulation space as found in much of the health sciences literature. This is done by providing a number of layers ranging from accounts of simulation in literature and empirically driven accounts of simulation in action through to more abstract discussion. The paper is attentive to both the distinct materiality of the spaces involved and the human activities the spaces engender. This dual focus enables the consideration of spatial injustices as well as new directions for the development of simulation pedagogies.


To evaluate the role of salicylic acid (SA) in Nb-mediated hypersensitive resistance to Potato virus X (PVX) avirulent strain ROTH1 in Solanum tuberosum, we have constructed SA-deficient transgenic potato plant lines by overexpressing the bacterial enzyme salicylate hydroxylase (NahG), which degrades SA. Evaluation of these transgenic lines revealed hydrogen peroxide accumulation and spontaneous lesion formation in an age- and light-dependent manner. In concordance, NahG potato plants were more sensitive to treatment with methyl viologen, a reactive oxygen species-generating compound. In addition, when challenged with PVX ROTH1, NahG transgenic lines showed a decreased disease-resistance response to infection and were unable to induce systemic acquired resistance. However, the avirulent viral effector, the PVX 25-kDa protein, does induce expression of the pathogenesis-related gene PR-1a in NahG potato plants. Taken together, our data indicate that SA is involved in local and systemic defense responses mediated by the Nb gene in Solanum tuberosum. This is the first report to show that basal levels of SA correlate with hypersensitive resistance to PVX.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an algorithm that solves the supply network configuration and operations scheduling problem in a mass customization company that faces alternative operations for one specific tool machine order in a multiplant context. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve this objective, the supply chain network configuration and operations scheduling problem is presented. A model based on stroke graphs allows the design of an algorithm that enumerates all the feasible solutions. The algorithm considers the arrival of a new customized order proposal which has to be inserted into a scheduled program. A selection function is then used to choose the solutions to be simulated in a specific simulation tool implemented in a Decision Support System. Findings and Originality/value: The algorithm itself proves efficient to find all feasible solutions when alternative operations must be considered. The stroke structure is successfully used to schedule operations when considering more than one manufacturing and supply option in each step. Research limitations/implications: This paper includes only the algorithm structure for a one-by-one, sequenced introduction of new products into the list of units to be manufactured. Therefore, the lotsizing process is done on a lot-per-lot basis. Moreover, the validation analysis is done through a case study and no generalization can be done without risk. Practical implications: The result of this research would help stakeholders to determine all the feasible and practical solutions for their problem. It would also allow to assessing the total costs and delivery times of each solution. Moreover, the Decision Support System proves useful to assess alternative solutions. Originality/value: This research offers a simple algorithm that helps solve the supply network configuration problem and, simultaneously, the scheduling problem by considering alternative operations. The proposed system allows an easier generation of many different alternatives for the supply network configuration.


Firm-level investment paths are commonly characterised by periods of low or zero investment punctuated by large investment 'spikes'. We document that such spikes are important for understanding ?rm and aggregate level investment in the UK. We show that annual variation in aggregate investment is driven by variation in the number of ?rms undertaking investment spikes rather than in the size of spikes or in investment outside of spikes. Our main contribution is to set out and estimate a ?rm-level model of the timing of investment spikes that: (i) incorporates measures of macroeconomic conditions and can be used to replicate movements in aggregate investment; (ii) incorporates a role for ?rm capital structure, which we demonstrate explains part of ?rms' heterogeneous investment responses to the Great Recession. We ?nd an important role for low demand growth in depressing investment in the recession and for ongoing uncertainty in prolonging investment weakness in later years. The minority of ?rms that persistently operate with high debt levels were signi?cantly less likely to undertake an investment spike after the recession, which is consistent with them having been more exposed to ?nancial distress.


Andrew Metrick * A mutual-fund manager earns annualized returns of 20 percent per year for a five-year period. Over the same period, the stock market as a whole earns 10 percent per year. Was this manager smart, or just lucky? Some companies engage in a lot of merger activity. Other companies do not. A researcher finds that the former group performs less well than the latter group in the stock market. Is this difference related to the merger activity, or does it simply reflect underlying differences between the two groups of firms? While the questions just raised may seem quite different, they can be answered using similar methods. In both cases, it is necessary to define some appropriate "benchmark" return. This benchmark return then can be compared to the actual return earned by the mutual fund manager, group of merged firms, or group of non-merged firms. The difference between the actual and benchmark returns then can be defined as an "abnormal" return. Abnormal returns then can be tested for statistical and economic significance. These are the key steps in performance evaluation (PE), a methodology central to the investigation of many questions in financial economics. The seminal PE study, Jensen (1968), uses the classic Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) as its benchmark and analyzes mutual funds (1); for the next 25 years, most PE studies followed this same strategy In the last ten years, though, researchers have developed many new models of benchmark returns and demonstrated their usefulness in PE studies of both investor performance and corporate finance. In this article, I illustrate some of these diverse applications with recent examples from my own work and with studies of investment newsletters, insider trading, and corporate governance. I then discuss a new approach to PE that allows fresh insights into the canonical mutual-fund topic. I conclude with a discussion of future directions for PE-based research. Applications Investment newsletters have been around since the early 1900s, and the current industry of over 500 active letters has about 2 million subscribers. The typical newsletter is produced by a small staff and provides a wide range of advice targeted at the retail investor. Is any of this advice useful? Using PE methodology, I analyze the performance of newsletters' equity recommendations using a dataset of 153 newsletters' that spans 17 years. (2) In contrast to most PE studies, this study's data contain information about every transaction, rather than just the periodic returns earned by these transactions. Thus, I can address two questions: First, do investment newsletters have stock-selection ability? Second, can transactions data be used to improve the precision of PE? In response to the first question, I find that newsletters do not demonstrate significant abnormal performance: average abnormal returns are close to zero; the best performing newsletter does not seem unusual given the sample size; and the number of extreme performers is not surprising Taken together these results imply that the average subscriber is not getting useful stock-selection advice. To address the second question, I compare several methods. Most PE refinements involve adding additional benchmarks and forming multifactor extensions to the regression framework of the CAPM. These methods require only periodic return data. When transactions data are available, portfolios can be compared on a day-to-day basis, with each stock matched to an appropriate benchmark. (3) Using a measure of precision defined in the paper, I find that the transactions-based approach yields a median improvement of 10 percent over an analogous multifactor model, with the former approach providing more precise estimates of abnormal performance for over 80 percent of the newsletters. This compares with a median improvement of less than one percent achieved by adding factors to the CAPM. …


Hierarchical matrices are an efficient framework for large-scale fully populated matrices arising, e.g., from the finite element discretization of solution operators of elliptic boundary value problems. In addition to storing such matrices, approximations of the usual matrix operations can be computed with logarithmic-linear complexity, which can be exploited to setup approximate preconditioners in an efficient and convenient way. Besides the algorithmic aspects of hierarchical matrices, the main aim of this book is to present their theoretical background. The book contains the existing approximation theory for elliptic problems including partial differential operators with nonsmooth coefficients. Furthermore, it presents in full detail the adaptive cross approximation method for the efficient treatment of integral operators with non-local kernel functions. The theory is supported by many numerical experiments from real applications.


We investigate shock propagation in confined, frictionless granular media using discrete element simulations with an elastoplastic contact law. Depending on the level of confinement and loading, elastoplastic systems exhibit a weak or strong shock propagation response similar to an elastic Hertzian system although the details of the shock development differ markedly from the elastic case. Two modes of dynamic stress propagation are observed based on the shock intensity regime: weak shocks carry the stresses via the initial contact path while strong shocks form new contact networks behind the front. However, unlike for elastic shock propagation, there is an upper bound to the front velocity of strong shocks that depends on the maximum intergranular contact stiffness. Since elastoplastic contact is a dissipative process, results show that dissipation is enhanced with confining pressure in the weak shock regime.


The main aim of this research work is investigate into coolant delivery system in order to develop a radically new generation of parametric multi-purpose nozzle system, which incorporate a dual/triple flow coupled system to deliver a low volume, low pressure fluid for both conventional and MQL coolant applications in grinding process with step-up pressure. The investigation aimed to show through design, simulation and experimental study the possibility of a step change in the amount of cutting fluid used in grinding by combining positive aspects of MQL and conventional nozzles, to come up with high performance universal nozzle and draw its characteristics via measurement in terms of jet velocity, trends of coherence length, and fluid flow patterns. To achieve this, aim a new concept termed 'Nested Nozzles' was designed and implemented giving birth to a new approach to fluid delivery that is "Dual/Triple Fluid Configurable Delivery". It is demonstrated here for the first time that by nesting a nozzle in the cavity of another one can step up the inlet pressure by a factor, thus eliminating the need of high pressure supply. The nested nozzle acts as a flow conditioner creating a laminar flow; also in addition the flow through this nested nozzle accelerates the primary flow, thus inducing a stepping effect in the velocity. Besides flow conditioning, pressure and velocity step-up effect, the nested nozzle offers the supply of one or two fluids either alone or in combination. This, together with the main nozzle allows for dual/triple fluid delivery and their combination The relationship between the flows and the pressures in the main and nested nozzles was investigated and an optimized design emerged with a modular configurable multi-purpose nozzle. Here with a single nozzle one could apply conventional flood cooling with reduced fluid requirement, MQL or multiple fluid deliveries. The nozzle exit aperture can be flexibly configured based on the application need from 0.3 mm up to 0.7 mm. A wide range of simulations was undertaken in SolidWorks CFD and ANSYS CFX software packages. Air, oil, water and their mixtures were used as cooling media. The results revealed the flow behaviour intra-nozzle and externally where the fluid exited the nozzle aperture. The jet coherency length was estimated from these simulations along with velocity profiles. An attempt was made in simulating Wheel-Nozzle-Workpiece subsystem to show the interaction of the three elements. A test rig was set up using a surface grinding machine, which was modified and instrumented with 3-axis digital readout, data acquisition system with LabVIEW software and sensors with Pitot tube. The results of the measurement reveal fundamentally new behaviour of the fluid that has not recorded earlier. In a three-layered measurement across nozzle aperture and along the stream, it was found that the fluid velocity after exiting the nozzle increased from top layer to bottom layer, however decreased monotony down the stream. A conical core of fluid keeping original exit velocity was observed in the centre of the jet. These two key finding gave an indication as to where to position the workpiece (grinding contact zone) and the orientation of the nozzle relative to the cutting zone. It is therefore suggested that the bottom third of the jet be directed into the contact zone whilst the top two third be aimed at the wheel. As this work has only answered some questions in fluid application, it has conversely open numerous questions yet to be investigated, therefore, recommendations for further studies are given along with some initial ideas and directions.


Census counts (>63 μm) of 461 species in 361 samples are used as the basis for recognizing and mapping associations of deep-sea benthic foraminifera (50–5000-m depth) around New Zealand, southwest Pacific (28–60°S, 155°E–170°W). Fourteen faunal associations are identified by cluster analysis with five of these subdivided into 20 subassociations. The deepest associations, dominated by Nuttallides spp., Globocassidulina subglobosa , and diverse agglutinated species, occur at middle–lower abyssal depths (>3600 m) right around New Zealand, where they have been impacted by differing levels of taphonomic modifications. Two large associations are widespread throughout the region: one ( Alabaminella weddellensis-Epistominella exigua ) at lower bathyal–middle abyssal depths (~1500–4000 m) and the other ( Cassidulina carinata - A. weddellensis - Abditodentrix pseudothalmanni ) mostly at mid-bathyal–upper abyssal depths (~500–3000 m). Two deep-water associations occur on current-swept submarine highs: one ( Trifarina angulosa-Ehrenbergina glabra ) at lower bathyal–upper abyssal depths (1000–2400 m) along the southeastern margin of the Camp-bell and Bounty plateaux and the other ( Bolivina robusta-Globocassidulina canalisuturata ) at mid–upper bathyal depths in coarse sediment east and southeast of New Zealand. Two large associations occur at mid-shelf–uppermost-bathyal depths (50–400 m): one ( Cassidulina carinata - Bulimina marginata - Gavelinopsis praegeri ) around the coast beneath warm Subtropical Water and the other ( C. carinata - T. angulosa - G. praegeri ) further south beneath the cooler Subtropical Front and Subantarctic Water.

A major reason for this study was to understand the environmental drivers of foraminiferal faunal distribution in this region to assist in paleoenvironmental interpretations of fossil faunas which have a significant regional character. Canonical correspondence analysis indicates that the distribution of bathyal and abyssal associations is more strongly influenced by depth-related variables, while shallower associations are influenced by latitude-related differences in surface-water characteristics. Environmental variables that influence faunal patterns at abyssal and bathyal depths appear to be, in decreasing order: food supply (organic-carbon flux, chlorophyll- a proxies), bottom-oxygen concentration, and carbonate corrosiveness (Fragmentation Index, planktic % proxies). Latitude-related variables driving mid-shelf–uppermost bathyal faunal patterns are water temperature, followed by primary productivity (phosphate and chlorophyll- a proxies). Environmental variables related to bottom-current strength appear to drive the faunal composition of three associations at shelf and bathyal depths. Cluster analysis enables the recognition of 22 anomalously deep faunas that are inferred to have a significant displaced content. There are no significant diversity trends correlated with depth, but species diversity decreases with increasing latitude at all depths.


Abstract. The flow regimes of glacier-fed rivers are sensitive to climate change due to
strong climate–cryosphere–hydrosphere interactions. Previous modelling
studies have projected changes in annual and seasonal flow magnitude but
neglect other changes in river flow regime that also have socio-economic and
environmental impacts. This study employs a signature-based analysis of
climate change impacts on the river flow regime for the deglaciating Virkisá
river basin in southern Iceland. Twenty-five metrics (signatures) are derived from
21st century projections of river flow time series to evaluate changes in
different characteristics (magnitude, timing and variability) of river flow
regime over sub-daily to decadal timescales. The projections are produced by
a model chain that links numerical models of climate and glacio-hydrology.
Five components of the model chain are perturbed to represent their
uncertainty including the emission scenario, numerical climate model,
downscaling procedure, snow/ice melt model and runoff-routing model. The
results show that the magnitude, timing and variability of glacier-fed river
flows over a range of timescales will change in response to climate change.
For most signatures there is high confidence in the direction of change, but
the magnitude is uncertain. A decomposition of the projection uncertainties
using analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that all five perturbed model chain
components contribute to projection uncertainty, but their relative
contributions vary across the signatures of river flow. For example, the
numerical climate model is the dominant source of uncertainty for projections
of high-magnitude, quick-release flows, while the runoff-routing model is
most important for signatures related to low-magnitude, slow-release flows.
The emission scenario dominates mean monthly flow projection uncertainty, but
during the transition from the cold to melt season (April and May) the
snow/ice melt model contributes up to 23 % of projection uncertainty.
Signature-based decompositions of projection uncertainty can be used to
better design impact studies to provide more robust projections.


Typical courses in computer graphics focus mainly on the core graphics rendering algorithms and software interfaces hardware and system-level issues are addressed, if at all, through classroom lectures of industrial case studies. We have recently introduced a senior technical elective which introduces graphics processing from the perspective of the software developer, hardware architect, and system integrator. Towards this end, lecture topics are designed for students with no computer graphics background, and focus on solving specific computing problems using skills learned from a variety of computer engineering courses (e.g. digital logic, computer architecture, software design, embedded systems). As part of the laboratory component, students are presented with a series of bi-weekly design challenges that are geared towards implementing a particular module in the 3D graphics pipeline (with both hardware and software support) using an FPGA-based hardware prototyping platform. Although the main focus of the labs is on architectural design, hardware implementation, and hardware / software verification; each assignment also involves both a functional correctness as well as an optional performance optimization component. Only by analyzing the interactions between the graphics application, middleware, architecture, and logic levels can the performance optimization goal be achieved. Each subsequent challenge builds upon those previous, such that by the end of the semester students will have designed and implemented a fully-functional OpenGL-compliant graphics processor, capable of running significant applications. The course was introduced in the Spring of 2011 and the results from the final course project indicated that many of our intended learning objectives were met; student feedback was also positive.


This thesis investigates room acoustic diffusers based on number sequences, exploring their
shortcomings and presents improvements.
Standard Phase Grating Diffusers display frequencies where they act like flat plates and fail
to diffuse. To overcome this, two new sequences (Luke and power residue) are introduced.
The diffusers based on these sequences display extended frequency range compared to
standard ones such as Quadratic Residue and Primitive Root Diffusers. Their performance is
studied using Boundary Element Modelling which shows that they can avoid flat plate
phenomena in the audible frequency range. Furthermore, it is shown that by taking advantage
of their inner symmetries Quadratic Residue and Primitive Root Diffusers can be created
from smaller components thus allowing for the flat plat effect to be mitigated.
Next, Absorption Grating Diffusers are investigated. They consist of ideally absorbing and
reflecting elements. For their implementation heavily damped Helmholtz Resonators are
investigated showing that they give an approximation of the required distribution of
admittance on the surface.
Then the performance of ideal Absorption Grating Diffusers is investigated using Boundary
Element Modelling. Even with idealised completely absorbing elements, the performance of
the diffuser is shown not to achieve substantial diffusion. This arises because edge diffraction
from the reflecting elements weakens at high frequencies. At frequencies where smaller
elements are creating substantial scattering, larger elements are producing specular
reflections. Furthermore, due to the lack of cancellation, the specular reflected lobe is
insufficiently attenuated, because it can only be changed through absorption.
Improvements to the original design are suggested. By changing reflective elements to
reactive ones, scattering can be extended to higher frequencies. This allows for a range of
frequencies were more reflecting elements display substantial dispersion. Also, implementing
the absorbing elements using porous material in a shallow well allows some reflection,
resulting in cancellation in the specular reflection lobe due to interference.
Measurements of the scattered pressure distribution of absorption grating surfaces are carried
out and then compared to Boundary Element Modelling simulations using surface admittance
data measured in an impedance tube. The agreement between measurement and simulation is excellent proving the accuracy of this simulation method for these applications. The results
show that the samples tested perform as two level Phase Grating Diffusers, with some energy
loss, while their diffusion characteristics are shifted to lower frequencies. This arises because
of the lower speed of sound in the porous medium. This implementation is shown to absorb
50% of the incident sound while the rest is scattered uniformly but only over a limited
bandwidth.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To gain a unique perspective of the experiences of young women with cancer (age 20-39 years at diagnosis) through analysis of their online illness blogs.

DESIGN
A qualitative analysis of online narratives based on hermeneutic phenomenology.

SETTING
Online illness blogs found through young adult cancer Web sites and social media sites such Twitter.

SAMPLE
16 women, aged 20-39 years, who self-identified as being diagnosed with cancer and who initiated and maintained an illness blog based on their cancer experience.

METHODS
Ethnographic immersion in online culture, thematic analysis based on line-by-line coding, and construction of themes and meanings.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Transitions from diagnosis, through treatment, to long-term survivorship.

FINDINGS
Themes were identified as the women processed their diagnosis: living in the middle, new normal, urgency, and transition into the abyss.

CONCLUSIONS
The narratives shared on illness blogs offer an online place for expression of emotion, information exchange, and online social support. Emotional catharsis in the young women's narrative elucidated the experiences of transition through diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship that allow a better understanding of their emotional and psychosocial needs.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Illness narratives are a naturalistic form of inquiry that allow nurses to understand the experience of the patient beyond the traditional clinic setting. This initial study provides a point for understanding the content of online narratives and has vast implications for nursing-based interventions.


A population of bacteria is engineered to communicate with each other and to detect differences in illumination to define light-dark edges. To take control of biological systems, Tabor et al. argue, we need the ability to predict the behavior of complex genetic programs, which are analogous in some ways to electronic circuits that allow logical operations in computers. One strategy to obtain such an understanding is to build such circuits and to observe and to model mathematically their behavior. Tabor et al. used a combination of simple genetic circuits in combination to build a program that allowed a layer of bacteria on a Petri dish to function as an "edge detector" sensitive to areas of transition between high and low illumination (light-dark). A photoreceptor provided light sensitivity and was coupled through a two-component regulatory system to control of a transcriptional promoter that regulated production of a dark pigment (though production of β-galactosidase). Instead of the brute force method your computer would use (in which each pixel of an image has to be compared for its intensity with that of its neighbors, a process that requires ever-larger computation time as the image size increases), Tabor et al. designed a massively parallel computation system involving large numbers of bacteria spatially distributed in a layer. This required communication between bacteria such that cells in the dark produced a diffusible signal (3-oxohexanoyl-homoserine lactone) that activates a transcription factor. By wiring the genetic circuit so that only cells that are both sensing light and receiving the diffusible signal from a neighboring cell in the dark produced pigment, the system reliably controlled pigment production to define the edges. This, the authors note, is the same sort of combination of logic functions and cell-cell communication that allows pattern formation in development. Building and understanding such simple systems is expected to both enhance our capacity to understand more complicated natural systems and to enhance our ability to engineer desired biological effects in living systems. J. J. Tabor, H. M. Salis, Z. B. Simpson, A. A. Chevalier, A. Levskaya, E. M. Marcotte, C. A. Voight, A. D. Ellington. A synthetic genetic edge detection program. Cell 137, 1272–1281 (2009).[PubMed]


For decades, the questions of whether, how, and when pregnant people living in Ireland can access abortion have been a matter of contention. The Constitution recognised "the right to life of the unborn" and the first step to meaningful law reform is unavoidably a referendum to remove this provision (the 8th Amendment). That referendum will take place in 2018. This paper analyses a sample of submissions from the public made to a 'Citizens Assembly' established to consider constitutional reform, in order to identify the kinds of arguments that inform the submissions in favour of, and against, repeal. This analysis shows that, rather than the technical and technocratic arguments that now dominate elite discourses about abortion law reform in Ireland, first principles arguments about fetal personhood and rights, on the one hand, and women's autonomy on the other dominate these submissions. If this is reflective of popular discourse on reform, it may be taken to indicate the shape of the debates that will dominate the 2018 referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment.


Average levels of PM10 pollutants in Khayelitsha, a poor informal settlement nears Cape Town, are unusually high. The contributory factors are the burning of household waste, wood and used tyres; vehicular emissions; and dust. This paper gives guidance towards selecting interventions for reducing these pollutants. The options include planting windbreak trees; paving roads and walkways ; using cleaner sources of energy; and supplying additional refuse skips. Based on cost data collected from relevant municipal departments and service providers, over a 20-year planning horizon, the following are cost equivalents: planting between 419 and 936 windbreak trees; paving 6 685m 2 of exposed areas; replacing between 451 and 870 wood-fired meat traders' braai (i.e. barbecue) sets with gas braais; and providing a 6m 3 refuse skip. On the basis of cost-effectiveness in reducing PM10 pollutants, this paper ranks the interventions as follows: (1) providing gas braai sets; (2) planting windbreak trees; (3) paving exposed areas; and (4) providing the refuse skip. Thus, providing gas braai sets to the meat traders in Khayelitsha will significantly reduce PM10 levels, but will also contribute to the sustained livelihoods of some of the poor households. However, planting windbreak trees may nevertheless be undertaken because of this option's linkage to climate change initiatives, which open up a wide range of potential funding opportunities.


The Visual and the Visionary adds a new dimension to the study of female spirituality, with its nuanced account of the changing roles of images in medieval monasticism from the twelfth century to the Reformation. In nine essays embracing the histories of art, religion, and literature, Jeffrey Hamburger explores the interrelationships between the visual arts and female spirituality in the context of the cura monialium, the pastoral care of nuns. Used as instruments of instruction and inspiration, images occupied a central place in debates over devotional practice, monastic reform, and mystical expression. Far from supplementing a history of art from which they have been excluded, the images made by and for women shaped that history decisively by defining novel modes of religious expression, above all, the relationship between sight and subjectivity. With this book, the study of female piety and artistic patronage becomes an integral part of the general history of medieval art and spirituality.


For developing countries, remittances are an important and expanding source of capital, equivalent to two-thirds of overall foreign direct investment and nearly 2 percent of gross domestic product. ; This article examines the relationship between remittance inflows, financial sector development, and the real exchange rate. The authors test whether financial sector development can prevent appreciation of the real exchange rate. In particular, they show that well-developed financial sectors can more effectively channel remittances into investment opportunities. ; Using panel data for 109 developing and transition countries for 1990–2003, the authors find that remittances by themselves tend to put upward pressure on the real exchange rate. But this effect is weaker in countries with deeper and more sophisticated financial markets, which seem to retain trade competitiveness.


Background Exposure to environmental chemicals may impair endocrine system function. Alaska Native (AN) women may be at higher risk of exposure to these endocrine disrupting chemicals, which may contribute to breast cancer in this population. Objective To measure the association between exposure to select environmental chemicals and breast cancer among AN women. Design A case-control study of 170 women (75 cases, 95 controls) recruited from the AN Medical Center from 1999 to 2002. Participants provided urine and serum samples. Serum was analyzed for 9 persistent pesticides, 34 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, and 8 polybrominated diethyl ether (PBDE) congeners. Urine was analyzed for 10 phthalate metabolites. We calculated geometric means (GM) and compared cases and controls using logistic regression. Results Serum concentrations of most pesticides and 3 indicator PCB congeners (PCB-138/158; PCB-153, PCB-180) were lower in case women than controls. BDE-47 was significantly higher in case women (GM=38.8 ng/g lipid) than controls (GM=25.1 ng/g lipid) (p=0.04). Persistent pesticides, PCBs, and most phthalate metabolites were not associated with case status in univariate logistic regression. The odds of being a case were higher for those with urinary mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) concentrations that were above the median; this relationship was seen in both univariate (OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.16-4.05, p=0.02) and multivariable (OR 2.43, 95% CI 1.13-5.25, p=0.02) logistic regression. Women with oestrogen receptor (ER)-/progesterone receptor (PR)-tumour types tended to have higher concentrations of persistent pesticides than did ER+/PR+ women, although these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions Exposure to the parent compound of the phthalate metabolite MEHP may be associated with breast cancer. However, our study is limited by small sample size and an inability to control for the confounding effects of body mass index. The association between BDE-47 and breast cancer warrants further investigation.


This paper deals with the problem of estimating the probability of causation, that is, the probability that one event was the real cause of another, in a given scenario. Starting from structural-semantical deenitions of the probabilities of necessary or suucient causation (or both), we show how to bound these quantities from data obtained in experimental and observational studies, under general assumptions concerning the data-generating process. In particular, we strengthen the results of Pearl (1999) by presenting sharp bounds based on combined experimental and nonexperimental data under no process assumptions , as well as under the mild assumptions of exogeneity (no confounding) and monotonicity (no prevention). These results delin-eate more precisely the basic assumptions that must be made before statistical measures such as the excess-risk-ratio could be used for assessing attributional quantities such as the probability of causation.


For a long time, viruses have been shown to modify the clinical picture of several autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes (T1D), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren's syndrome (SS), herpetic stromal keratitis (HSK), celiac disease (CD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Best examples of viral infections that have been proposed to modulate the induction and development of autoimmune diseases are the infections with enteric viruses such as Coxsackie B virus (CVB) and rotavirus, as well as influenza A viruses (IAV), and herpesviruses. Other viruses that have been studied in this context include, measles, mumps, and rubella. Epidemiological studies in humans and experimental studies in animal have shown that viral infections can induce or protect from autoimmunopathologies depending on several factors including genetic background, host-elicited immune responses, type of virus strain, viral load, and the onset time of infection. Still, data delineating the clear mechanistic interaction between the virus and the immune system to induce autoreactivity are scarce. Available data indicate that viral-induced autoimmunity can be activated through multiple mechanisms including molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, bystander activation, and immortalization of infected B cells. Contrarily, the protective effects can be achieved via regulatory immune responses which lead to the suppression of autoimmune phenomena. Therefore, a better understanding of the immune-related molecular processes in virus-induced autoimmunity is warranted. Here we provide an overview of the current understanding of viral-induced autoimmunity and the mechanisms that are associated with this phenomenon.


On 17 July in the town of Gadap in Karachi, Pakistan, two gunmen shot at a Ghanaian doctor and his Pakistani driver, who were participating in a national polio vaccination campaign. Three days later, another WHO polio worker was shot and killed outside a Gadap clinic. The attacks, sadly, are not uncommon. Polio workers in Pakistan have received death threats. Two doctors on WHO duty and their driver were killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan in September 2008. And just last year 23 people were killed when the jihadist terrorist organization Boko Haram bombed U.N. House in Abuja, Nigeria. The attack in Gadap came just as the town was, for the first time, showing signs of progress in its fight against polio.


Despite considerable recent experience and attention, effective civilmilitary cooperation in peace operations remains elusive. This paper explores the US Armed Forces' approach to relationships with civilian relief organizations including UN agencies, US government agencies, and NGOs. It derives several hypotheses from organizational theory and tests them in a case study of the planning and execution of peace operations in Somalia from August 1992-May 1993. In this case, the military's organizational interest in reducing uncertainty best explains the generally uncooperative way in which civil-military relationships developed in Somalia. This conclusion implies that policy makers in current and future peace operations may need to press the military to be more proactive and persistent in cooperating with civilian relief organizations.


Channels of the plastid and mitochondrial outer membranes facilitate the turnover of molecules and ions via these membranes. Although channels have been studied many questions pertaining to the whole diversity of plastid and mitochondrial channels in Arabidopsis thaliana and Pisum sativum remain unanswered. In this thesis I studied OEP16, OEP37 and VDAC families in two model plants, in Arabidopsis and pea.
The Arabidopsis OEP16 family represents four channels of α-helical structure, similar to the pea OEP16 protein. These channels are suggested to transport amino acids and compounds with primary amino groups. Immunoblot analysis, GFP/RFP protein fusion expression, as well as proteomic analysis showed that AtOEP16.1, AtOEP16.2 and AtOEP16.4 are located in the outer envelope membrane of plastids, while AtOEP16.3 is in mitochondria. The gene expression and immunoblot analyses revealed that AtOEP16.1 and AtOEP16.3 proteins are highly abundant and ubiquitous; expression of AtOEP16.1 is regulated by light and cold. AtOEP16.2 is highly expressed in pollen, seeds and seedlings. AtOEP16.4 is a low expressed housekeeping protein. Single knockout mutants of AtOEP16.1, AtOEP16.2 and AtOEP16.4, and double mutants of AtOEP16 gene family did not show any remarkable phenotype. However, macroarray analysis of Atoep16.1-p T-DNA mutant revealed 10 down-regulated and 6 up-regulated genes.
In contrast to the α-helical OEP16 proteins, the OEP37 and VDAC proteins are of β-barrel structure. The PsOEP37 and AtOEP37 channel proteins form a selective barrier in the outer envelope of chloroplasts. Electrophysiological studies in lipid bilayer membranes showed that the PsOEP37 channel is permeable for cations. Specific expression profiles showed that AtOEP37 and PsOEP37 are highly expressed in the entire plant.
The isolated PsVDAC gene encodes a protein, which is located in mitochondria. In Arabidopsis gene database, five Arabidopsis genes, which code for VDAC-like proteins were announced. One gene was not detected, whereas four of these genes expressed in leaves, roots, flower buds and pollen.


The authors reviewed the changes in speech production as a result of aging, including changes in structure and function as well as changes in motor control for speech. The following speech production processes in normal or typical aging were reviewed: breathing for speech, phonation, resonation, articulation, and fluency. Different theories of the role of motor control were reviewed, including more recent conclusions that cognition influences speech motor behavior throughout the lifespan. There are many speech changes in the communication of an older adult, but most are adaptive and do not affect good conversational speech.


Fluctuating asymmetry, small deviations from perfect bilateral symmetry, is negatively correlated with health and positively correlated with sexual selection in human adults, but the accumulation, persistence, and fitness implications of asymmetries during childhood are largely unknown. Here, we introduce the Jamaican Symmetry Project, a long-term study of fluctuating asymmetry and its physical and behavioral correlates in rural Jamaican children. The project is based on an initial sample of 285 children (156 boys and 129 girls), aged 5 to 11 years. We describe the design of the project and the methodology of measuring 10 paired morphometric traits. All traits except hand width showed fluctuating asymmetry. Fluctuating asymmetries of the legs tended to be related and were less than half as great as fluctuating asymmetries of the arms and ears. Therefore the legs may show high developmental stability resulting from selection for mechanical efficiency. A fluctuating asymmetry composite score revealed that boys have significantly lower fluctuating asymmetry than girls and that this effect resides mainly in the elbows. There were significant positive relationships between composite fluctuating asymmetry and age, height, and weight, but multiple regression analyses showed that age was negatively related to fluctuating asymmetry, whereas body size was positively correlated. These findings are compared with results from recent English studies.


America is a wonderful and magnificent country that affords its citizens the broadest freedoms and the greatest prosperity in the world. But it also has its share of warts. It is embroiled in a war that many of its citizens consider unjust and even illegal. It continues to ravage the natural environment and ignore poverty both at home and abroad, and its culture is increasingly driven by materialism and consumerism. But America, for better or for worse, is still a nation that "we" have built. So why then, asks Albert Borgmann in this most timely and urgent work, are we failing to take responsibility for it? In "Real American Ethics," Borgmann asks us to reevaluate our role in the making of American values. Taking his cue from Winston Churchill who once observed that we shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us Borgmann considers the power of our most enduring institutions and the condition of our present moral makeup to propose inspired new ways in which we, as ordinary citizens, can act to improve our country. This, he shows, includes everything from where we choose to live and what we spend our money on to daunting tasks like the reshaping of our cities habits and actions that can guide us to more accomplished and virtuous lives. Using prose that is easy and direct throughout, Borgmann s position is grounded neither by conservative nor liberal ideology, but in his understanding that he is a devoted citizen among many. In an age in which the blame game is the only game in town, this patriotic book is an eloquent reminder of the political strength we all wield when we work together. "


Purpose: The main focus is on the export and import of agricultural products in the EU in the years 2002-2017 outside the EU (extra-EU). Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper investigates the impact of EU (European Union) enlargement on food trade using descriptive statistics. First, EU-28 exports, imports, and trade balance of agricultural products outside the EU (extra-EU) are presented for 2002-2017. Findings: The trade balance between EU countries for food, beverages, and tobacco are also presented. Accession has led to the elimination of trade tariffs and accelerated improvements in trade. The most exported products by EU countries were alcoholic beverages (spirits and liquors, wine, and vermouth), bakery products, and wheat. Most of the export of agri-food products is directed to other EU countries, Russia, China, and various countries in South America, Africa, and Asia. Imports to EU countries comprised mostly of vegetables and fruits, coffee, tea, cocoa, and various fish products. Practical implications: The results will fill in the gap concerning the food trade of agricultural products in the EU. Originality/Value: The new information about extra EU trade of agricultural products and a GARCH (Generalized Autoregressive Conditionally Heteroscedastic) model was presented.


Abstract.
 Sauropod bone histology has provided a great deal of insight into the life history of these enormous animals. However, because of high growth rates, annual growth rings are not common in sauropod long bones, so directly measuring growth rates and determining sexual maturity require alternative measures. Histological ontogenetic stages (HOS) have been established to describe the changes in bone histology through development for basal Macronaria and Diplodocoidea, and subsequently for Titanosauria. Despite this, the current HOS model is not able to discriminate bone tissues in late ontogeny, when sauropods had reached asymptotic size and continued to live into senescence but their long bones became extensively remodeled by secondary osteons and all primary bone was destroyed. Here we establish remodeling stages (RS) to characterize the Haversian bone development through ontogeny in eight sauropod taxa (Apatosaurinae, Giraffatitan brancai, Camarasaurus spp., Dicraeosaurus spp., Ampelosaurus atacis, Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae, Magyarosaurus dacus, and Alamosaurus sanjuanensis) and find significant correlation of RS with corresponding femur length (CFL) for the studied taxa, with the exception of Dicraeosaurus and Magyarosaurus. Remodeling stages are based on the maximum number of observable generations of crosscutting osteons from the innermost, mid-, and outermost part of the cortex. The correlation with CFL indicates that secondary osteons present an ontogenetic signal that could extend the histological ontogenetic stages. Remodeling stages also provide additional insight into the changes in histology through ontogeny for Sauropoda. This method has the potential to be used in other taxa, such as thyreophorans and many ornithischians, that develop Haversian tissue through development.