Reinforced concrete (RC) beams with light transverse reinforcement are vulnerable to shear failure during seismic response. In order to prevent brittle shear failures at beam plastic hinge regions of earthquake-resistant structures, the Turkish Earthquake Code and ACI318 require the use of sufficient transverse reinforcement to resist the total expected shear demand. These codes tend to be excessively conservative and, in some cases, the contribution of the concrete to the shear strength is neglected. The aim of this study is to investigate the contribution of concrete to shear strength of RC beams failing in shear experimentally. The beams were tested under monotonically increasing reversed cyclic loading to determine the concrete contribution to shear strength. It is observed that the concrete contribution to the shear strength at ultimate state ranges from 18% to 69% of the ultimate strength.


We evaluate an intervention targeting early life nutrition and well-being for households in extreme poverty in Northern Nigeria. The intervention leads to large and sustained improvements in children's anthropometric and health outcomes, including an 8 percent reduction in stunting 4 years, post-intervention. These impacts are partly driven by information-related channels. However, the certain and substantial flow of cash transfers is also key. They induce positive labor supply responses among women, and enables them to undertake productive investments in livestock. These provide protein rich diets for children, and generate higher household earnings streams long after the cash transfers expire. (JEL I12, I32, I38, J13, J16, J22, O12)


Fiber gratings operating in the transmission mode can provide high dispersion at wavelengths close to the Bragg resonance. When multiple gratings are cascaded for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) applications, the net dispersion between the stop bands of any two consecutive gratings is significantly modified. We discuss the dispersion characteristics of such cascaded fiber gratings and propose a dispersion compensator for simultaneous compensation of group-velocity dispersion (GVD) for multiple channels of a WDM lightwave system. We also discuss the impact of the dispersion possessed by cascaded gratings on grating based add-drop multiplexers.


Yoshida et al. generated knockout mice lacking the Tob protein, a member of a family of proteins implicated in inhibition of cell proliferation. The Tob knockout animals showed increased bone mass that apparently resulted from increased abundance of osteoblasts. Bone formation in response to bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) was increased in the knockout animals. In transiently transfected cells, the authors could show that BMP-mediated transcriptional regulation mediated by Smad proteins was inhibited by overexpression of Tob. Immunoprecipitation of protein complexes from cells overexpressing Tob and Smads showed that Tob interacted with Smads 1, 4, 5, and 8 and that BMP signaling could enhance the interaction. Overexpression of Tob also caused localization of Smads to nuclear bodies. The authors suggest that Tob functions as an inhibitor of BMP-Smad signaling through direct interaction with Smads. Yoshida, Y., Tanaka, S., Umemori, H., Minowa, O., Usui, M., Ikematsu, N., Hosoda, E., Imamura, T., Kuno, J., Yamashita, T., Miyazono, K., Noda, M., Noda, T., and Yamamoto, T. (2000) Negative regulation of BMP/Smad signaling by Tob in osteoblasts. Cell 103: 1085-1097. [Online Journal]


An optical biochip is being developed for monitoring the sensitivity of biological cells to a range of environmental changes. Such changes may include external factors such as temperature but can include changes within the suspending media of the cell. The ability to measure such sensitivity has a broad application base including environmental monitoring, toxicity evaluation and drug discovery. The device under development, capable of operating with both suspension and adherent cell populations, employs electrokinetic processes to monitor subtle changes in the physicochemical properties of cells as environmental parameters are varied. As such, the device is required to maintain cells in a viable condition for extended periods of time. The final device will employ integrated optical illumination of cells using red emitting LED or laser devices with light delivery to measurement regions achieved using integrated micro-optical components. Measurements of electrokinetic phenomena such as dielectrophoresis and electrorotation will be achieved through integrated optical detectors. Environmental parameters can be varied while cells are actively retained within a measurement structure. This enables the properties and sensitivity of a cell population to be temporally tracked. The optical biochip described here uses a combination of microfabrication techniques including photolithographic and laser micromachining processes. Here we describe the design and manufacturing processes to create the components of the environmental monitoring strutures of the optical biochip.


In 2005, the five leading causes of death in Taiwan were malignant neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and trauma. Of these, diabetes is the most rapidly increasing disease. Older adults are the fastest growing segment of the population; high incidence and prevalence rates of chronic diseases are associated with aging and older adults are likely to require and consume the high cost of long-term care. Taiwanese groups include Non-Aborigines: Holo, Hakkas, Mainlander and Aborigines who total 13 groups. Aborigines have a unique culture, traditional religion and customs, that are all very different from Taiwanese non-Aboriginal people. From a cultural perspective, different ethnic groups may have different "thinking, decisions, and actions in patterned ways" (Leininger, 1985, p.209).

The primary purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the diabetes self care knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, medical status, and quality of life of Taiwanese elderly with Type 2 diabetes mellitus, could be improved by the delivery of a specific health care package. The theoretical model used to drive the study was the Health Education Model based on the Revised Pender's Health Promotion Model (RHPM). The secondary purpose of the study was to compare the different ethnic groups and how their lifestyle impacted on their perceptions of diabetes. Comparisons were drawn between the Taiwanese Aborigines and non-Aborigine groups. This study utilised an experimental design with a cluster randomized sample (N=500, included experimental group 241 and control group 259, after three and six months followed-up, N= 485, experimental group 235 and control group 250) of Taiwanese elderly with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Outpatients from Middle to Northern Taiwan included experimental group from 5 public health centres, 1 private clinic and 1 regional hospital and control group from 1 public health centre, 1 private clinic and 3 regional hospitals.

Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows, version 12.0 and STATA for Windows, release 8. Five research questionnaires were inquired in the study: Diabetes Personal Data Sheet which includes patient's demographic data and health status; the Rand Social Health Battery and Social Services questionnaire which includes an 11 item self-report scale that provides for social resources and social interaction; the Social Services questionnaire, adapted from the "Structured Interview Guide" (Ervin, 2004) which uses questions focused on the family's experiences of using services from various agencies and social services; the Health perceptions questionnaire (HPQ) (Ware, 1976) which includes 33 self-report items that records perceptions of past, present, and future health, resistance to illness, and attitude toward sickness; the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDACA) which consists of 11 items and 14 additional questions about diet, exercise, self-monitoring of blood glucose, foot care and smoking termination; and the Quality of Life (WHOQOL-Brief-TAIWAN) which contains four domains, and 26 facets include physical, psychological health, social relationship, and environment and which is adapted for use in Taiwan.

The results indicated that the intervention health care package had a strong effect on blood glucose levels and well-controlled levels increased from about 60% to 80% in the intervention group. At 6 months of follow-up medical risk markers for complications were significantly reduced for patients in the intervention group compared to control group. Further, the intervention group improved in exercise, healthy diet choices, and blood glucose data but this had no effect on overall quality of life. Aboriginal participants were more likely than non-Aboriginal participants to understand the complications of diabetes complications other chronic diseases however the Aboriginal participants were less likely than the non-Aboriginal participants to have friends who supported them, attend religious services, participate in voluntary group activities, and eat fruit and vegetables.

The study concluded that the special health care package developed for Taiwanese elderly with Type 2 diabetes mellitus was able to affect diabetes participants' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours and improve clinical data outcomes. The intervention did not however improve participants' quality of life. Further investigation is required to confirm the effects of the intervention in younger patients and patients of other ethnic backgrounds such as foreigners who live in Taiwan.


BACKGROUND
Long-term exposure to particulate matter <2.5 μm in size (PM2.5) is considered a risk factor for premature death. However, only a few studies have been conducted in areas with moderate PM2.5 concentrations. Moreover, an ageing society may be more susceptible to environmental exposure and future burden of mortality due to PM2.5.

METHODS
This study estimates hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality from long-term exposure to moderate PM2.5 concentrations in the elderly populations of seven cities in South Korea. We also projected nationwide elderly mortality caused by long-term exposure to PM2.5, accounting for population ageing until 2045. Mortality in 1 720 230 elderly adults aged ≥65 years in 2008 was monitored across 2009-16 and linked to modelled PM2.5 concentrations.

RESULTS
A total of 421 100 deaths occurred in 2009-16, and the mean of annual PM2.5 concentration ranged between 21.1 and 31.9 μg/m3 in most regions. The overall HR for a 10 μg/m3 increase in a 36-month PM2.5 moving average was 1.024 (95% confidence intervals: 1.009, 1.039). We estimated that 11 833 all-cause nationwide elderly deaths were attributable to PM2.5 exposure. Annual death tolls may increase to 17 948 by 2045. However, if PM2.5 is reduced to 5 μg/m3 by 2045, the tolls may show a lower increase to 3646.

CONCLUSIONS
Long-term exposure to moderately high levels of PM2.5 was associated with increased mortality risk among the elderly. Thus, PM2.5 reduction in response to the projected ageing-associated mortality in South Korea is critical.


When, where and how is the head-tail axis of the embryo set up during development? These are such fundamental and intensely studied questions that one might expect them to have been answered long ago. Not so; we still understand very little about the cellular or molecular mechanisms that lead to the orderly arrangement of body elements along the head-tail axis in vertebrates. In this paper, we outline some of the major outstanding problems and controversies and try to identify some reasons why it has been so difficult to resolve this important issue.


Manufacturing companies are continuously faced with requirements regarding technology novelty, shorter time to market, a higher level of functionality, and lower prices for their products. This is especially true of suppliers that develop and manufacture highly customized products within the automotive industry. It is not uncommon that a request for a new product or subsystem goes out to several suppliers and that the one that can deliver the product most quickly and at the lowest price receives the contract. It is therefore vital for any supplier to answer to quotation requests rapidly and with a high level of precision while also ensuring that company assets are used efficiently. Other issues that apply to suppliers in the automotive industry are heavily fluctuating requirements during development projects, each customer's individual preferences, and the ever changing interfaces with the OEM product with which the supplier's product is to be integrated. Platform strategies have been widely accepted in industry to serve a wide product variety while maintaining business efficiency. However, the challenge of applying a platform strategy at the supplier level in the face of the reality described above has not been fully investigated. Platform approaches tend to require a focused development of the platform, which in turn requires some knowledge about which future variants are to be derived from the platform. The research presented in this thesis investigates the state of practice in industry regarding the challenges, needs, and current use of platforms. To respond to the identified need, a platform approach is proposed that expands the scope of what a product platform has traditionally contained. This is undertaken to aid in the development of highly customized products when physical modules or component scalability does not suffice. The platform approach provides a coherent environment for heterogeneous design assets to be used in product development, supporting both the activity of designing and off-the-shelf solutions. The approach is based on identifying and modelling generic product items that are associated with descriptions governing their design. By describing the outcome of technology and product development like finished designs, design guidelines, constraints, etc., in a standardized format, the platform continues to evolve. To aid in using the platform approach, a support system called Design Platform Manager is introduced at a company active as a secondtier supplier in the automotive industry. The system enables the creation of generic product items that can be structured, instantiated, and associated with descriptions, which aids in realizing product variants. The aim of the platform approach and tool is to support the quotation and continued design processes by identifying valid knowledge to use as circumstances, such as requirement changes or new design iterations, warrant. The support tool and overarching model have been evaluated by company representatives, who reported good results.


In this thesis we present efficient algorithms for various combinatorial problems arising in sequence assembly and self assembly . Sequence assembly is a major phase in uncovering the genomic sequence of an organism. Sequence assembly has several underlying combinatorial problems on bi-directed de Bruijn graphs. Existing algorithms to build and operate on these graphs cannot scale with ever increasing volume of sequence assembly data. In this thesis we close this gap by providing efficient algorithms build and operate on bi-directed de Bruijn graphs. We first show how a bi-directed de Bruijn graph can be constructed optimally in Θ(n) time in contrast to the existing [ZB08] Θ(n log( G)) algorithm, here n is the input size and G is the size of genome. This algorithm is also I/O optimal and requires Θ( logn/M logM/B ) I/Os to build the graph, here M is the main memory size and B is the block size. Secondly we show that we can solve the Chinese Postman walk Problem on a bi-directed graph without reducing it to bi-directed flow problem. This bi-directed flow based algorithm [MGMB07] to solve the CPP on a bi-directed graph G( V,E) takes O(|E|2 log2(V)) time. We show that we can improve this algorithm to Θ(p(|V| + | E|) log(|V|) + (dmaxp) 3), here p = max{|{ν|din(ν) − dout(ν) > 0}|, |{ν|din(ν) − dout(ν) < 0}|} and dmax = max{|din(ν) − dout(ν)|}. This algorithm performs asymptotically better than the bi-directed flow algorithm when the number of imbalanced nodes p is much less than the nodes in the bi-directed graph.
On the other hand self assembly systems have numerous critical applications in medicine, circuit design. Theoretical modeling of self assembly is very useful before performing self assembly experiments. Algorithmic self assembly studies the efficiency of self assembly systems on an abstract two dimensional (2D) tile assembly model (TAM). The theory behind TAM is based on Wang's tiling technique, TAM has the power to simulate a turing machine. Algorithms with an optimal tile complexity of (Θ( logN loglogN )) were proposed earlier to uniquely self assemble an N × N square (with a temperature of α = 2) on TAM. However efficient algorithms (tile set constructions) to assemble arbitrary shapes on TAM are not known and have remained open. In this thesis we try to bridge this gap by presenting algorithms which can self assemble some regular polygons with a tile complexity of Θ(log(N)), here N is the area of the underlying polygon. In a deterministic self assembly model such as TAM, it has been proven that the tile complexity lower bound to self assembly any shape is Θ( logNloglog N ) (inferred from the Kolmogrov complexity), here N is the area of the underlying shape. However designing even Θ( logN loglogN ) unique tiles specific to a shape which needs to be self assembled is still an intensive task. Creating a copy of a tile is much simpler than creating a unique tile. With this constraint in mind probabilistic tile assembly models (PTAM) were introduced—these models are also referred as concentration programming models or randomized self assembly models. These systems have O(1) tile complexity and the concentration of each of the tiles can be varied to produce the desired shape. Existing algorithms [KS08] [Dot09] on PTAM suffer from large underlying constant, this is because all these algorithms adopt sub-tiles which perform binary arithmetic. In contrast to the existing algorithms, in this thesis we show that its possible to self assemble rectilinear shapes on PTAM without using any sub-tiles performing binary arithmetic; We introduce a technique called staircase sampling which can self assemble squares, rectangles and rectangles with constant aspect ratio with high probability (i.e. Ω(1 − 1/nα), for any fixed α > 0), here n is the dimension of the shape which needs to be self assembled.


Interspecies signalling through the action of diffusible signal molecules can influence the behaviour of organisms growing in polymicrobial communities. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa occur ubiquitously in the environment and can be found together in diverse niches including the rhizosphere of plants and the cystic fibrosis lung. In mixed species biofilms, S. maltophilia substantially influenced the architecture of P. aeruginosa structures, which developed as extended filaments. This effect depended upon the synthesis of the diffusible signal factor (DSF) by S. maltophilia and could be mimicked by the addition of synthetic DSF. This response of P. aeruginosa to DSF required PA1396, a sensor kinase with an input domain of related amino acid sequence to the sensory input domain of RpfC, which is responsible for DSF perception in xanthomonads. Mutation of PA1396 or addition of DSF to P. aeruginosa led to increased levels of a number of proteins with roles in bacterial stress tolerance, including those implicated in resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides. This effect was associated with increased tolerance to polymyxins. Homologues of PA1396 occur in a number of phytopathogenic and plant‐associated pseudomonads, suggesting that modulation of bacterial behaviour through DSF‐mediated interspecies signalling with xanthomonads is a phenomenon that occurs widely.


ABSTRACT Scholarship on labour informalisation in Vietnam pulls in two different directions. One set of policy-focused literature suggests that there is an increasing formalisation of labour. Literature of critical labour studies and cognate disciplines, however, suggests the opposite; an increasing informalisation of labour as workers must accept less security of employment and income. This article argues that these two trends are both true, and that there has been a simultaneous expansion and informalisation of formal labour. It introduces the concept of the informalising-formalising labour regime. The formalising element of the informalising-formalising labour regime means that increasing numbers of people have been brought into the formal economy, as salaried workers with contracts. Concurrently, work within the formal economy has become increasingly informal. Such workers may enjoy some legal benefits or entitlements, but in comparison to previously existing formal urban jobs this work is much less secure. Viewing informalisation as a form of class struggle from above, the article argues that employers in the garment and footwear industry use many techniques to informalise work. It outlines the informalising-formalising labour regime, focusing on various concrete techniques used by capital to fragment working class power.


The present research is a follow-up study of earlier published analyses that looked at the relationship between high-stakes testing pressure and student achievement in 25 states. Using the previously derived Accountability Pressure Index (APR) as a measure of state-level policy pressure for performance on standardized tests, a series of correlation analyses was conducted to explore relationships between high-stakes testing accountability pressure and student achievement as measured by the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) in reading and math. Consistent with earlier work, stronger positive correlations between the pressure index and NAEP performance in fourth grade math and weaker connections between pressure and fourth and eighth grade reading performance were found. Policy implications and future directions for research are discussed.


Introduction: AIM-HIGH trial and Heart Protection Study 2 (HPS 2) THRIVE failed to demonstrate a significant reduction in cardiovascular (CV) events when niacin was added to statins (with or without ezetimibe) in high risk patients that achieved low cholesterol levels. These results were discordant with previous randomized trials and meta-analyses that showed the clinical benefit of niacin as monotherapy or combined to lipid-lowering therapy. Hypothesis: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of niacin for reducing cardiovascular events, adding clinical data from the Harvard Atherosclerosis Reversibility Project (HARP) and HPS 2 THRIVE to revised outcomes of trials included in two previous meta-analyses. Methods: Odds ratios (ORs) for four cardiovascular disease endpoints were calculated with a random-effects meta-analysis. Random meta-regression analyses were done to model the relationship between differences in on-treatment low-density cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density cholesterol (HDL-C) and the size of effect of niacin on CV risk. Results: Thirteen eligible trials, including 35,723 subjects were identified. Niacin use was associated with a significant reduction in the composite endpoints of any CV event (OR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.59 to 0.89; p=0.003; I2 =65%), major coronary heart disease events (OR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.65 to 0.98; p=0.03; I2 =54%) and any revascularization (OR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.40 to 0.86; p=0.006; I2 = 58%). No significant association was observed between niacin therapy and stroke incidence (OR: 0.93; 95% CI: 0.70 to 1.24; p=0.64). Meta-regression analysis showed no significant relationship between the difference in on-treatment HDL-C and the natural log-adjusted OR for any CV event (p =0.36). The relationship between the amount of on-treatment LDL-C difference between arms and the effect of niacin on outcomes showed a positive trend that did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: This meta-analysis strongly suggests that niacin reduces CV events and that this may occur through a mechanism not reflected by changes in HDL-C and not fully explained by LDL-C reduction. Niacin could be useful for CV prevention in patients who do not respond adequately to intensive doses of statins.


This paper aims to demonstrate the relationship between economic growth and the urban core area in order to help urban planners reach a better understanding of the pressures that are leading to changes in land use. Using a unique panel dataset with measures of China's land use, it is shown that, during the late 1980s and 1990s, China's urban land area rose significantly. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis are then used to identify the determinants of urban land use change. In addition to using more standard regression approaches such as ordinary least squares, the analysis is augmented with spatial statistical analysis. The analysis demonstrates the overwhelming importance of economic growth in the determination of urban land use. Overall, it is found that urban land expands by 3 per cent when the economy, measured by gross domestic product, grows by 10 per cent. It is also shown that the expansion of the urban core is associated with changes in China's economic structure. If urban planners have access to forecasts of economic growth, using these results they should be able to have a better basis for planning the expansion of the built-up area in the urban core.


Assessing the fair value of the post-NIM residual of a subprime NIM securitization deal is not a straightforward task. It involves analyzing the capital structure and cash flow mechanism of the NIM securitization deal. This article walks readers through the NIM securitization structure and post-NIM residual (PNR) thus generated using an actual deal as an example. Then it illustrates the detailed components of cash flows that drive the fair value of PNRs. The input parameters for PNR fair value derivation are examined through the EITF 02-3 observability test. In the end, the article demonstrates the fair value calculation based on an actual post-NIM residual deal.


Multiband printed monopole antennas loaded with open complementary split-ring resonators (OCSRRs) are presented. The OCSRRs, modeled as parallel LC resonant tanks, act as high-impedance elements at their resonance frequencies, and different effective λ/4 sections can be achieved in the monopole by placing them at proper locations. Thus, the first working frequency is related to the length of the monopole, while the additional bands are controlled by the resonance frequencies of the OCSRRs. Moreover, the proposed antennas present monopolar radiation characteristics at all the operation bands. Two prototypes are designed, manufactured and measured: 1) a single-loaded OCSRR dual-band printed monopole antenna covering the Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n bands (2.40-2.48 and 5.15-5.80 GHz, respectively); and 2) a triband prototype based on the same design, but with an additional OCSRR designed to also cover the IEEE 802.11y frequency band (3.65-3.70 GHz). Both antennas are printed on a single-layer of a low-cost substrate, resulting in very compact designs.


Hypervisors provide strong isolation and can be leveraged to disaggregate large software stack of a traditional, monolithic system. Disaggregation can be achieved by running individual applications and kernel components in separate VMs. Existing hypervisors, however, do not offer a fine grained access control mechanism. Without such mechanism, individual VMs still run in one of two extremes—complete isolation or excessive authority. This project extends Xen with the capability access control model—a mechanism for fine grained, dynamic management of rights. Together with strong isolation, capabilities can be used to create least-privilege services—an environment in which individual applications have minimal rights, that are required to perform their tasks. We discuss the design and implementation of a capability access framework for Xen. We also demonstrate examples of least-privilege services. Overall, we gained valuable insights for designing a secure system using an industry standard virtualization platform.


Suspended sediment concentration estimation has a major influence on river basin planning and management. Prediction of such parameter with artificial neural network (ANN) has shown its performance, because of this, Back Propagation Neural Network model trained with particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used to forecast the daily sediment concentration for Ksob river, Tebessa using 22 years data set from Morsott gauging station; the recorded daily suspended sediment concentrations and correspondent daily discharges were used to train the ANN model. PSO is used to allow ANN architecture to be easily optimized. Simulation of both ANN and PSO-ANN models has shown more accurate results compared with the traditional sediment rating curve.

 Key words:  Ksob basin, Algeria, sediment rating curve, neural networks, particle swarm optimization.


In this study, the dye degrading the ability of marine cyanobacteria, Geitlerinema sp TRV27 was tested against the textile dye Acid black 52. Optimum conditions like pH, temperature, dye concentration for acid black 52 dye degradation were studied and were found to be pH 7, 25±2°C. More than 50% of degradation was observed for the tested maximum dye concentration, 100 ppm. The degraded dye intermediate was found to be naphthalene by GC-MS analysis and their toxicity on seed germination was studied. The dye treated biomass was used for the production of biodiesel and the physicochemical properties of biofuel were found to be within the standard limits.


If an agency newly declares that it lacks statutory power previously claimed, how should such a move — what this article calls agency statutory abnegation — be reviewed? Given the array of strategies an agency might use to make a policy change or move the law in a deregulatory direction, why might statutory abnegation be chosen? After all, it is always a perilous and likely doctrinally disadvantageous strategy for agencies. Nonetheless, agencies from time to time have utilized statutory abnegation claims as part of their justification for deregulatory shifts. Actions by agencies during 2017 and 2018, under the administration of President Donald J. Trump, reveal an especially prevalent use of such statutory abnegation strategies. This article explains the agency statutory abnegation strategy, illustrating its variants with review of past and recent uses. It then distinguishes statutory abnegation claims from other agency actions and explanations that might appear to manifest or permit such a strategy, but actually involve doctrinally different and less problematic settings. Then, after distilling the key elements of doctrines governing agency policy change, or what is sometimes referred to as consistency doctrine, it reviews procedural and analytical hurdles agencies must surmount to succeed in a policy change. It closes by exploring how analysis of this strategic move reveals the inadequacy of, or perhaps the naive publicly interested optimism behind, prevalent theories and linked normative claims about agency incentives, judicial roles, and political accountability. The article closes by analyzing the persistent judicial rejection of such strategies and the underlying normative vision they reflect about the balance of law and politics in the administrative state.


ABSTRACT Even though differentiation has become a core feature of the EU, the grand theories have focused almost exclusively on uniform integration. In this article, we derive hypotheses about differentiated integration from liberal intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism, and postfunctionalism. In an analysis of EU treaty making between 1992 and 2016, we find evidence that heterogeneity of both wealth and identity, integration in the area of core state powers, and pre-existing differentiation drive differentiated integration. A comparison of the explanatory power of the grand theories shows that neo- and post-functionalism explain the differentiations that member states obtain in EU reform treaties more convincingly than liberal intergovernmentalism. A synthetic model performs best, however. The grand theories also leave noteworthy variation unexplained.


We present an experimental study on a unidirectional surface plasmon
 polariton (SPP) launcher based on a compact binary area-coded nanohole array, where
 the symmetry breaking is realized via effective-index modulation in the binary
 pattern of the gold film, thus avoiding the challenge of modulating nanostructure in
 its depth. It is shown that SPPs can be unidirectionally and effectively excited at
 normal incidence. The SPP intensity and asymmetric excitation ratio, which are two
 key figure-of-merits of SPP launchers, can be improved by increasing the number of
 array rows. The proposed device is compatible with most mature top-town
 nanofabrication techniques and thus is perspective for low-cost mass production.


This paper analyzes the financial soundness indicators in Iran's banking system. In the first part it emphasis on asset quality measure by the non-performing loans ratio. The non-performing loans grew rapidly in last decade in Iran's banking system and it reached higher than 25 percent of total loans in 2010. We conclude that NPLs increase have impact on real part of economy in the concept of credit crunch and bank lending decline when NPLs exceeds a specific level of total loans. This paper also analyzes the relationship between three financial soundness indicators (asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability) and key macroeconomic, bank-specific, and structural variables. The results show that asset quality and capital adequacy are influenced by business cycle. Lending interest rate over two previous years has a negative effect on asset quality. Capital adequacy is affected by short term deposit interest rate and changes in the exchange rate. Profitability fluctuates with inflation rate and NPLs ratio.


OBJECTIVES
Subcutaneous and intramuscular implants of bone morphogenetic protein-12 (BMP-12) have been shown to induce formation of tendon and ligament tissue. BMP-12 induced a new attachment with a distinct fibrocartilaginous zone at the tendon-bone interface in the rat tendon-bone attachment model. Surgical controls showed poor healing and failure to reform the appropriate tendon-bone attachment morphologically. Application of recombinant human BMP-12 (rhBMP-12) to periodontal defects suggests that rhBMP-12 has the potential to support regeneration of the periodontal ligament (PDL). The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate this effect of rhBMP-12 in a tooth replantation model.

METHODS
Six, young adult, male Hound Labrador mongrel dogs were used. Maxillary and/or mandibular incisor and premolar teeth were extracted and the PDL was either left "intact" or removed by root planing. rhBMP-12 (1.0 mg/ml) or a buffer control was topically applied to teeth with "intact" PDL in contralateral jaw quadrants in each of 3 animals. The teeth were immersed in 1.0 ml of the rhBMP-12 or the buffer solution for 10 min and then replanted. The remaining three animals received rhBMP-12 (1.0 mg/ml) and the buffer control in a similar fashion applied to teeth instrumented to remove the PDL and cementum, and surface demineralized with citric acid. The animals were euthanized at 8 weeks postsurgery and block sections were collected and processed for histopathologic analysis.

RESULTS
No dramatic differences were found between teeth receiving topical rhBMP-12 and the buffer control. Application of rhBMP-12 did not have an apparent effect on new cementum and PDL formation in the tooth replantation model. Moreover, application of rhBMP-12 did not increase nor did it decrease the apparent presence and extent of ankylosis along the root surface compared to the control.

CONCLUSIONS
The observations from this study do not support the use of topical rhBMP-12 to support the reestablishment of the PDL including regeneration of cementum and functionally oriented fibers, and to prevent ankylosis and root resorption following replantation of teeth.


1. Restoration of high plant species diversity to sites where it has been reduced by intensive grassland management requires identification of appropriate management regimes. Understanding the combinatorial effects of management on above-ground vegetation and below-ground microbial communities will inform management prescriptions on how best to increase plant diversity, restore rare vegetation types and achieve agri-environmental objectives. 2. Changes in vegetation and soil microbial community structure are described from the second phase of a 1990-2004 field trial that investigated the interacting effects of fertilizer and farmyard manure (FYM) treatments imposed after 1998, in the context of previous hay-cut date and seed-addition treatments. 3. Hay-cut date was the main factor influencing plant species composition in phase 1, whereas FYM was the dominant factor in phase 2. 4. Poa trivialis and Lolium perenne increased in abundance with FYM application, particularly in combination with mineral fertilizer, and particularly in 2002 after the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic. The lowest Ellenberg fertility scores were associated with absence of FYM and mineral fertilizer but with addition of seed. 5. The highest plant species diversity in phase 2 was associated with seed addition and the absence of mineral fertilizer, an effect that had probably persisted from phase 1. Progressive development of the target traditional meadow vegetation occurred through phase 2. 6. Fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios, a measure of changes in the relative abundance of fungi and bacteria in the microbial community, generally increased from 1996 to 2004, and were particularly high in the seed-addition treatments and in the absence of fertilizer. Here the high F:B ratios were associated with species (including legumes) typical of traditionally managed mesotrophic grassland in northern England. 7. Synthesis and applications. These results demonstrate that biodiversity goals for upland meadows need to plan beyond the typical 5-10-year management agreement period of agri-environment schemes. Combination treatments, in which seed addition is vital, alongside appropriate fertilizer, FYM, hay-cut date and grazing regimes, are needed for grassland restoration. However, even after 14 years the most effective treatment combinations had still not restored the target species composition and diversity. The demonstrated change in soil microbial communities, linked to the growth of legumes, might be important to facilitate future increases in plant diversity.


Evaluations of the quality of School-Based Health Center (SBHC) care, both satisfaction and outcomes, have been developed by several state SBHC initiatives. However, few of these patient satisfaction surveys have been rigorously evaluated. An adolescent patient satisfaction based on a grading rubric familiar to the adolescents was developed and used to assess care at a nurse-managed teen health center. Satisfaction data on 190 encounters were collected in one SBHC using a report card rubric. The adolescent patients represented grades 6th through 8th, and were almost equally distributed between girls (55.9%) and boys (44.1%). This SBHC was a part of a university consortium of nurse-managed centers. Results demonstrated high satisfaction (approximately 3.7 out of 4) with care using a reliable tool (a = .84) designed for adolescents, which incorporated a grading rubric for the evaluation criteria. The nurse practitioner received high marks for listening to the students and treating the students with respect. Yet, statistical differences by grade level were found. The satisfaction tool was found to be reliable (alpha = .84) and consistent with adolescent's perspectives on satisfaction with health care. The study is the first published report that specifically examined student satisfaction with care in a nurse-managed SBHC. Overall satisfaction with care received high "grades" from both first time and repeat users, and from boys and girls.


In the summer of 1956, John McCarthy organized the famous Dartmouth Conference which is now commonly viewed as the founding event for the field of Artificial Intelligence. During the last 50 years, AI has seen a tremendous development and is now a well-established scientific discipline all over the world. Also in Europe AI is in excellent shape, as witnessed by the large number of high quality papers in this publication. In comparison with ECAI 2004, there's a strong increase in the relative number of submissions from Distributed AI/Agents and Cognitive Modelling. Knowledge Representation & Reasoning is traditionally strong in Europe and remains the biggest area of ECAI 2006. One reason the figures for Case-Based Reasoning are rather low is that much of the high quality work in this area has found its way into prestigious applications and is thus represented under the heading of PAIS.


Background: Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) are undergoing a paradigm shift from femoral to forearm approach due to obvious advantages in terms of patient safety, comfort, and faster ambulation. Transradial access (TRA) has been established as a primary forearm access site. Use of transulnar access (TUA) as an alternative to radial route can serve as novel forearm access to the interventionalists. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate TUA versus TRA access as a default strategy for PCI. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, single-center randomized controlled trial involving 2700 patients, of whom 220 underwent PCI in 1:1 randomization to TUA (n = 110) or TRA (n = 110). The primary endpoint was composite of major adverse cardiac events during hospital stay, cross-over to another arterial site, major vascular events of the arm during hospital stay (large hematoma with hemoglobin drop of ≥5 g%) and occlusion rate. Secondary endpoints were individual components of primary endpoint and spasm of the vessel. Results: Two groups did not differ in baseline characteristics. On intention to treat (ITT) analysis, primary end point occurred in 10.91% of TUA and 12.73% of TRA arm (odds ratio [OR]: 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.37–1.91; P = 0.68 at α = 0.05). Further on per protocol (PP) analysis, primary end point occurred in 9.21% of TUA and 11.11% of TRA arm (OR: 0.81; 95% CI, 0.29–2.30; P = 0.68 at α = 0.05). Secondary endpoints also did not differ significantly between the two groups in ITT and PP analysis. Conclusions: TUA is an excellent alternative to TRA, while performing PCI when performed by an experienced operator. When utilized as an option, TUA increases the chance of success with forearm access and reduces the need for cross over to femoral route.


This paper provides new evidence on the link between finance and firm-level productivity focusing on the case of Estonia. We contribute to the literature in two important respects: (1) we look explicitly at the role of financial constraints; and (2) we develop a methodology that corrects for the misspecification problems of previous studies. Our results indicate that young and highly indebted firms tend to be more financially constrained. Overall, a large number of firms shows some degree of financial constraints, with firms in the primary sector being the most constrained. More importantly, we find that financial constraints do not lower productivity for most sectors with the exception of R&D, where the dampening effect of financial constraints on productivity is remarkably large. These results are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests.


Implementation of tautological relation of light speed and gravity (g=cd) solved and explained the anomaly observed during the OPERA experiment. The observed disagreement with the predicted time has been calculated up to the level of tolerance of +3.375 ns, which is 4.236 times less than the specified tolerance. The only used data from the experiment was the length of a specific baseline. Because of the rigidity of the principle, the degree of approximation from the use of mean values of the Earth's radius and acceleration is irrelevant in the solution of the anomaly.


In the wake of the financial crisis, many state and local pension plans have reduced benefits and increased required employee contributions to curb rising employer costs. While past research suggests that most state plans have made some changes, little information is available about reforms at the local level.1 This brief documents and compares the reform patterns for over 200 major state and local plans between 2009 and 2014 and investigates how and why the changes were made. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section describes the data and methodology. The second section provides background on legal protections that might impede changes in benefits for current employees. The third section catalogues and compares the benefit reforms made since the financial crisis – separately assessing reforms applied to current employees and to new hires. The fourth section introduces a regression analysis to better understand what factors have motivated both reforms overall and reforms aimed at current employees. The fifth section presents the regression results. The final section concludes that, unsurprisingly, the biggest factor related to reforms overall was the cost of the plan relative to the total revenue of its sponsoring government, while the main factor related to reforms for current employees was the strength of state legal protections for benefits.


Perlis is the smallest and northernmost state in Peninsular Malaysia, bordered by Thailand in the north and Kedah in the south. Most of the remaining forested areas in Perlis lie in a continuous belt along the western border. The forests lie mainly on hilly terrain of limestone, which is part of the Setul and Chuping limestone formation. The forest in Perlis is characterized as semi-deciduous forest and influenced by the monsoonal season, floristically unique to Peninsular Malaysia. Thus, Perlis is well-known to have many species unique only to limestone and endemic to the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia and Perlis. However, most of the studies on limestone flora, including Orchidaceae in the northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia were concentrated on Langkawi Islands. Therefore, the diversity and distribution of Orchidaceae in Perlis is still poorly known. In this study, 11 limestone hills and a granite hill in the western part of Perlis have been botanized. The diversity and distribution of orchids in Perlis are discussed. A total of 117 taxa in 50 genera representing 4 subfamilies were recorded. Sixty two species and 20 genera are new records for Perlis. Out of these, nine species and one genus are new records for Malaysia. Dendrobium hughii and Taeniophyllum intermedium are endemic to Malaysia. Perlis orchids consist mainly of the Indo-Malayan floristic element, which contribute about 98% at the generic level and 94.6% at species level, of the total orchids collected. In a comparison with other surrounding regional orchids, the Perlis orchids show stronger affinity to Thailand orchids than to Malayan orchids. The Perlis orchid flora is thus part of the Indo-Malayan orchid flora, with the geographic, climatic, and floristic as the contributing factors.


Festivals are becoming a key feature on the tourism calendar of many towns and cities. Cultivaria is one of South Africa's newest arts festivals and is held at Paarl annually. The festival is one combining the arts, wine and food. The purpose of this research is to determine the reasons (motives) for visitors attending the festival. This information is needed so that a marketing plan can be developed, as well as to be able to ensure that visitors' needs are fulfilled. In order to do this, the organisers' need to know the reasons why people attend the festival. In order to achieve the goal of the research, a survey (N=450) was conducted where 409 questionnaires were successfully retrieved for use in a factor analysis. The results showed the three main motives for attendance were the event attraction, cultural exploration and escape. Escape was found to be the main motive, which contradicted similar research done in other parts of the world. The results also indicated that, even though Cultivaria is an Afrikaans-language festival, language did not play a significant role as a motivator to the event. This contradicted similar research conducted at Aardklop National Arts Festival, also primarily an Afrikaans-language festival. From the results, recommendations are made that will contribute to a more sustainable event.


Young-of-the-year (YOY) bluefish Pomatomus saltatrix become piscivorous at about 40 mm total length, coinciding with a habitat shift from offshore waters to estuarine nursery areas. Although YOY bluefish are primarily piscivorous in estuarine waters, shrimp prey can often be an important component of diets in mid-summer. In this study, we first compare the feeding behaviour and prey selection patterns of bluefish feeding on fish Menidia menidia and sand shrimp Crangon septemspinosa prey in a series of laboratory experiments, and then assess prey-type selectivity in the field. Compared to consuming fish prey, ingesting shrimp prey involved added manipulation and close inspection by the predator. Feeding on shrimp prey resulted in lower attack success rates, longer handling times, and lower relative profitabilities than feeding on fish prey. When given a choice, bluefish selectively ingested fish prey over similarly-sized shrimp prey. The results of these experiments suggest that species-specific differences in prey response lead to the observed differ- ences in predator behaviour and selectivity. Examination of field-collected spring-spawned bluefish showed that their diet was dominated by fishes; however, sand shrimp were important prey in early summer. Selectivity index values showed that bluefish exhibited positive selection for fishes and avoidance of shrimp. The occurrence of shrimp in bluefish diets probably results from high relative abundance of shrimp and the small size of shrimp relative to fish prey. We conclude that the timing of bluefish entry into estuaries relative to peaks in abundance of various prey could have a strong effect on bluefish size at the end of the growing season and, therefore size-dependent survival.


C. acetobutylicum A TCC 824 is a well characterized microorganism known for its ability to produce solvents using the Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (AB E) fermentation process. It can utilize a variety of Cs and C6 sugars, but cannot directly access the complex lignocellulose plant cell wall material which is the most abundant source of carbon in nature. Sophisticated genetic tools are required to enhance the substrate utilisation ability of the organism by incorporating synthetic operons using a synthetic biology approach. Efficient tools were developed for making precise alterations to the C. acetobutylicum genome using either heterologous pyrE or codA genes as counterselection markers. In the case of the former, the utility of the method was also demonstrated in Clostridium difficile. The robustness and reliability of the methods were demonstrated through the creation of in-frame deletions in two genes (spoOA, amylase) using pyrE and also two genes (Cac1502 and Cac2071 (spoOA) using codA. The pyrE system is reliant on the initial creation of a pyre deletion mutant using Allele Coupled Exchange (ACE), that is auxotrophic for uracil and resistant to fluoroorotic acid (FOA). This enables the subsequent modification of target genes by allelic exchange using a heterologous pyre allele from C. sporogenes as a counter-/negative-selection marker in the presence of FOA. Following modification of the target gene, the strain created is rapidly returned to uracil prototrophy using ACE, allowing mutant phenotypes to be characterised in a pyrE proficient background. Crucially, wild-type copies of the inactivated gene may be introduced into the genome using ACE concomitant with correction of the pyrE allele. This allows complementation studies to be undertaken at an appropriate gene dosage, as opposed to the use of multicopy autonomous plasmids. The rapidity of the 'correction' method (5-7 days) makes pyrE strains attractive hosts for mutagenesis studies.


While previous economic research focuses on the financial well-being of retirees, this paper examines the determinants of overall well-being of retirees. Using data from the 2000 Health and Retirement Study, the strongest predictor of retirement well-being is the reason for entering retirement. If individuals were "forced" to retire, their well-being is significantly lower than those who chose to retire. This indicates the importance of expectations on retirement satisfaction. Additionally, health, current income, and comparison retirement income have important roles in determining overall well-being.


The art historical literature on Pieter Bruegel's 'Tower of Babel' paintings offers a microcosm of the more general methodological and interpretative interests in Bruegel studies today. Art History has a long-standing and ubiquitous interest in the 'allegorical' nature of Bruegel's work. The Babel paintings are no exception. In this article, I consider both the paintings and the art historical literature, as well as introducing Walter Benjamin's writings on allegory into Bruegel studies in order to make three interventions into the field.

Firstly, through a close reading of the paintings, the art historical literature on the paintings (with its emphasis on history, nature, sovereignty utopia and ruins) and a philosophical interpretation of the Tower of Babel narrative, I offer a new interpretation of the paintings to art history. Second, I intervene into the methodological debates on allegory by putting forward a Benjaminian conception of the dialectical aspects of Bruegel's paintings. Third, I discuss how this knowledge puts pressure on our comprehension of Benjamin's writings on the dialectical nature of allegory, its relationship to ruins, and their reliance on nature, history, philosophy and the question of sovereignty.


The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) is a multi-sector, integrated model of the U.S. energy system put out by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. NEMS is used to produce the annual 20-year forecast of U.S. energy use aggregated to the nineregion census division level. The research objective was to disaggregate this regional energy forecast to the county level for select forecast years, for use in a more detailed and accurate regional analysis of energy usage across the U.S. The process of disaggregation using a geographic information system (GIS) was researched and a model was created utilizing available population forecasts and climate zone data. The model's primary purpose was to generate an energy demand forecast with greater spatial resolution than what is currently produced by NEMS, and to produce a flexible model that can be used repeatedly as an add-on to NEMS in which detailed analysis can be executed exogenously with results fed back into the NEMS data flow. The methods developed were then applied to the study data to obtain residential and commercial electricity demand forecasts. The model was subjected to comparative and statistical testing to assess predictive accuracy. Forecasts using this model were robust and accurate in slow-growing, temperate regions such as the Midwest and Mountain regions. Interestingly, however, the model performed with less accuracy in the Pacific and Northwest regions of the country where population growth was more active. In the future more refined methods will be necessary to improve the accuracy of these forecasts. The disaggregation method was written into a flexible tool within the ArcGIS environment which enables the user to output the results in five year intervals over the period 2000-2025. In addition, the outputs of this tool were used to develop a time-series simulation showing the temporal changes in electricity forecasts in terms of absolute, per capita, and density of demand.


Blend thin films, prepared by dip-coating, of polyfluorene (F8 or PFO), acting as an electron donor, and [6,6]-phenyl-C61- butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM), acting as the electron acceptor, have been characterized by UV/VIS absorption spectroscopy, static and dynamic fluorescence, and atomic force microscopy. Four different solvents were used for the film preparation; the monohalogenated fluorobenzene and chlorobenzene and their dihalogenated counterparts odifluorobenzene and o-dichlorobenzene, respectively. Fluid mechanics calculations were used to determine the withdrawal speed for each solvent, in order to prepare wet films of comparable thicknesses. The resulting dry films were also of similar thicknesses. It was found that the choice of solvent influences the ability for F8 to form its β-phase.


Abstract In a flipped classroom, an increasingly popular pedagogical model, students view a video lecture at home and work on exercises with the instructor during class time. Advocates of the flipped classroom claim the practice not only improves student achievement but also ameliorates the achievement gap. We conduct a randomized controlled trial at West Point and find the flipped classroom produced short-term gains in math and no effect in economics. The flipped model broadened the achievement gap: Effects are driven by white, male, and higher-achieving students. We find no long-term average effects on student learning but the widened achievement gap persists. Our findings demonstrate feasibility for the flipped classroom to induce short-term gains in student learning; however, the exacerbation of the achievement gap, the effect fade-out, and the null effects in economics, suggest that educators should exercise caution when considering the model.


We present an algorithm for the automatic alignment of two 3D shapes (data and model), without any assumptions about their initial positions. The algorithm computes for each surface point a descriptor based on local geometry that is robust to noise. A small number of feature points are automatically picked from the data shape according to the uniqueness of the descriptor value at the point. For each feature point on the data, we use the descriptor values of the model to find potential corresponding points. We then develop a fast branch-and-bound algorithm based on distance matrix comparisons to select the optimal correspondence set and bring the two shapes into a coarse alignment. The result of our alignment algorithm is used as the initialization to ICP (iterative closest point) and its variants for fine registration of the data to the model. Our algorithm can be used for matching shapes that overlap only over parts of their extent, for building models from partial range scans, as well as for simple symmetry detection, and for matching shapes undergoing articulated motion.


Clausal Coordinate Ellipsis (CCE) is a frequent but relatively ill-understood grammatical phenomenon in written and spoken language. It involves the elision of one or more constituents that are shared by two or more coordinated clauses. In this paper, we study four types of CCE that occur in coordinations of two clauses: (1) Gapping (including Long Distance Gapping, Subgapping and Stripping), (2) Forward Conjunction Reduction (FCR), (3) Backward Conjunction Reduction (BCR), and (4) Subject Gap with Finite/Fronted Verb (SGF). In Gapping and its variants, at least the Head Verb of the second clause is deleted. FCR involves deletion of one or more left-peripheral major constituents of the second clause. In BCR, one or more right-peripheral (sub)constituents of the first clause are left out. SGF is deletion of the Subject of the second clause in case of Subject-Verb inversion within the first clause. We adopt the psycholinguistically motivated treatment of CCE by Kempen (2009). This theoretical framework was originally developed for CCE phenomena in two Indo-European languages (Dutch and German), and was shown to generalize, with very few amendments, to Estonian, a Finno-Ugric language. In the present paper, we show that the CCE treatment applies to Hungarian, another Finno-Ugric language, as well.


Coral bleaching—the loss of symbiotic dinoflagellates—is initiated when corals are exposed to sea surface temperatures above the regional summer average and has been responsible for massive coral mortality episodes. The ability of symbionts to recolonize the host after bleaching may be critical in determining if a colony will recover or experience mortality. Here, following the serendipitous bleaching of specimens of Montastraea faveolata of known photosynthetic, spectroscopic, and genetic characteristics, we describe changes in photosynthesis and light utilization during the recovery process. Fully recovered M. faveolata had minimum quantum requirements (1/Θmax) that are very close to the theoretical minimum, indicating that symbiotic corals are not only one of the most efficient light collectors in nature, but also use this energy with maximum efficiency. Analyses of the photosynthetic responses of M. faveolata throughout the recovery process indicate that during the early stages, the symbiont population exhibited characteristics consistent with acclimation to higher irradiance relative to fully recovered corals. The absorption spectra of bleached samples showed contributions of chlorophyll b (Chl b) associated with a biomass increase of the endolithic algae. The propagation of endolithic algae after bleaching may provide partial protection to the surviving symbionts from excessive radiation by reducing the reflectivity of the skeleton. Changes in the relative abundances of different symbiotic algae between recovered and unbleached colonies did not result in significant variations in photosynthetic and light utilization characteristics.


To assess effects of fluoride (F) and lead (Pb) on the energy metabolism of the male reproductive system, the activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase), and Gammaglutamyltranspeptidase (γ-GT), along with sperm quality and testicular histology, were determined at week 6, 8, 10, and 12 in male offspring rat pups exposed in their drinking water either to sodium fluoride (150 mg/L=HiF) or to lead acetate (300 mg/L =HiPb). Compared with the control, LDH activities were significantly increased, whereas SDH activities were decreased in the HiF and HiPb group. Both F and Pb resulted in lower ATPase activity. Additionally, changes in γ-GT activities were also observed, which were decreased in the HiF group and increased in the HiPb group. In contrast to the control group, the F-treated and Pb-treated rats exhibited a marked decline in sperm density and sperm viability along with a significant increase of sperm abnormalities over the entire 12-week study period. Moreover, F and Pb obviously affected the testicular histology, finally resulting in significant increases in the diameter and thickness of seminiferous tubules. Therefore, F and Pb may share a similar reproductive toxic mechanism by which disordered energy metabolism in the testis and epididymis influenced the sperm quality.


Errors in Discussion Section, Conclusion, and Figure Legend: In the Original Investigation titled "Effect of the INSIGHT Responsive Parenting Intervention on Rapid Infant Weight Gain and Overweight Status at Age 1 Year,"1 published online June 6, 2016, there were errors in the Discussion section, the Conclusions section, and in the legend of Figure 3. In the first sentence of the second paragraph of the Discussion section, "Nourishing Our Understanding of Role-modeling to Improve Support and Health" should be replaced with "NOURISH-RCT." In the third sentence of the fourth paragraph of the Discussion section, "with the exception of NOURISH34" should be deleted. In the second sentence of the Conclusions section, reference 34 should be added following references 14 and 33. Finally, the legend of Figure 3 should be replaced with the following: "Infants in the responsive parenting group have lower weight-for-length percentiles at age 1 year compared with control group infants (ANOVA P = .04). Among responsive parenting group infants, 5.5% were overweight at age 1 year compared with 12.7% of control group infants." This article was corrected online.


Abstract In order to investigate the effectiveness of science and technology industrial parks (STIPs), this study examines data on high-tech firms within and outside the STIPs in China, while paying special attention to the issues related to agglomeration and congestion. The main finding is that the negative effect of congestion on productivity is highly likely to outweigh the positive productivity effect of agglomeration economies within the STIPs but not among hightech firms outside the STIPs. The paper also finds that the productivity of high-tech firms, whether within or outside the STIPs, are positively associated with foreign direct investment and the academic activities of local universities in the same city.


Singapore being a city state with 712.4km2, 5.183million people, S$59,813 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital, population density of 7,126 per square kilometer [1] and limited natural resources, identified her GHG emission as carbon dioxide (CO2) mainly from combustion of fossil fuels and natural gas to generate energy meeting development and human needs. By 2006 highly efficient combined cycle technology was deployed to generate 78% primary energy by burning natural gas [2]. One of Singapore key strategies to further mitigate GHG emissions is to increase the energy efficiency of various sectors and/or introducing renewable energy sources. Singapore Industry, Buildings and Households sector consumes 54%, 16% and 9%, respectively, of generated secondary energy [2]. Three areas of pilot test beddings are presented to enhance Singapore energy efficiency. First, Energy Market Authority (EMA) launched a pilot project Intelligent Energy System (IES) in 2010 to test and evaluate new applications and technologies around a smart grid, thereby enhancing Singapore's power system efficiency and resilience, reducing wastage, saving peak loads and deferring capital investments to meet consumer demand in the future. Second, EMA will show case in 2012 how clean and renewable energy can be deployed at the system level in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner for an off-grid community at Pulau Ubin, an island located at North East of Singapore. Third, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and four industry partners developed a test facility Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC) [4], housing a 1MW power grid at Jurong Island in South West Singapore.


AIM
To determine the role of epidermal growth factor-like repeats and discoidin I-like domains 3 (EDIL3) in pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by investigating the EDIL3 expression in HCC and its prognostic value for HCC.

METHODS
EDIL3 expression was detected in 101 HCC surgical tissue samples with immunohistochemistry method, and its relation with clinicopathologic features and prognosis of HCC patients was analyzed.

RESULTS
EDIL3 was highly expressed in 48.5% of the HCC patients. Although the EDIL3 expression level did not correlate with any clinicopathological parameters, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that high expression level of EDIL3 resulted in a significantly poor prognosis of HCC patients (log-rank test, P = 0.010). Multivariate Cox's analysis showed that the EDIL3 expression level was a significant and independent prognostic parameter for the overall survival rate of HCC patients (hazard ratio = 1.978, 95% confidence interval = 1.139-3.435, P = 0.015).

CONCLUSION
High expression level of EDIL3 predicts poor prognosis of HCC patients. EDIL3 may be a potential target of antiangiogenic therapy for HCC.


Title of Document: EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A MULTIFUNTIONAL VARIABLE REFRIGERANT FLOW SYSTEM IN AN EDUCATIONAL OFFICE BUILDING Laeun Kwon, Master of Science, 2013 Directed by: Dr. Yunho Hwang, Mechanical Engineering The top three end uses space heating, space cooling, and water heating – accounted for close to 41 percent of site energy consumption in U.S. building primary energy consumption. Therefore, energy efficient heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings is essential for energy savings in the building sectors. A multifunctional variable refrigerant flow (MFVRF) system is finding its way into residential and commercial buildings since it can simultaneously provide space cooling, space heating and hot water. The MFVRF system was installed in an educational office building and fully instrumented to measure the performance of the system under a wide range of outdoor weather conditions. The effects of a part-load ratio (PLR) on the daily performance factor (DPF) and total energy consumption were experimentally investigated in the field performance tests. Although the higher PLR represents a more effective cooling and/or heating the system, the DPF is not always increased with PLR because the system is optimized at a certain range of PLR. Furthermore, the effects of the hot water demand and the heat recovery operation modes on the performance of the system were investigated in a field test for the heating and shoulder seasons. Integrating the water heating functions into the heat recovery type variable refrigerant flow (HRVRF) system, not only supplies hot water year-round, it also improves the system performance. As the hot water demand for the MFVRF system increased, the PLR was improved, which resulted in an increase system heating performance. In the heat recovery operation mode, the heat absorbed from the indoor units operating in the cooling mode was transferred to other indoor units operating in the heating mode. The DPF was 2.14 and 3.54 when the ratio of daily total cooling energy to daily total heating energy was 13.0% and 28.4%, respectively, at the similar outdoor weather conditions. This enhancement was attributed to the waste heat recovered during the heat recovery operation mode and the decrease in pressure ratio, which is a result of the improvement of the compressor efficiency. Energy saving potential of the MFVRF system in a building with high internal heat gains, resulted in a high cooling load for the cooling season and a low heating load for the heating season, was verified through the field performance test. The performance of the MFVRF system for the heating and shoulder seasons was improved by transferring the recovered energy to the indoor space and supplying the hot water. EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A MULTIFUNTIONAL VARIABLE REFRIGERANT FLOW SYSTEM IN AN EDUCATIONAL OFFICE BUILDING


A model
of an intentional self-observing system is proposed based on the structure and
functions of astrocyte-synapse interactions in tripartite synapses. Astrocyte-synapse
interactions are cyclically organized and operate via feedforward and feedback
mechanisms, formally described by proemial counting. Synaptic, extrasynaptic
and astrocyte receptors are interpreted as places with the same or different
quality of information processing described by the combinatorics of tritograms.
It is hypothesized that receptors on the astrocytic membrane may embody
intentional programs that select corresponding synaptic and extrasynaptic
receptors for the formation of receptor-receptor complexes. Basically, the act
of self-observation is generated if the actual environmental information is
appropriate to the intended observation processed by receptor-receptor
complexes. This mechanism is implemented for a robot brain enabling the robot
to experience environmental information as "its own". It is suggested that this mechanism enables the
robot to generate matches and mismatches between intended observations and the
observations in the environment, based on the cyclic organization of the
mechanism. In exploring an unknown environment the robot may stepwise construct
an observation space, stored in memory, commanded and controlled by the
intentional self-observing system. Finally, the role of self-observation in
machine consciousness is shortly discussed.


Adsorption in zeolites is widely and increasingly used in many industrial processes. For the design of new processes and improvement of the performance of existing ones, basic adsorption data is needed but due to the difficulties of experimentation it is lacking.
In this thesis, different methods have been used to calculate the adsorption
isotherms of benzene, methane, ethane and CO, mixtures as well as
Propane, i-butane and n-butane and their binary and ternary mixtures in zeolites.
Firstly, Lattice Model has been used to calculate benzene adsorption isotherms in silicalite zeolite whose experimental adsorption isotherms exhibit unusual features. The zeolite is modelled as two types of quasi one- dimensional pores. The lattice model has dimer states to represent molecules lying in extended states with the aromatic ring on average parallel to the pore wall, the monomer state to represent molecules standing perpendicular to the principle axis of the pores. Vacant sites or holes allow for incomplete filling of the lattice sites. For a wide range of interaction parameters the model gives steps in the adsorption isotherms similar to those observed experimentally for benzene adsorption in silicalite. The model attributes the experimentally observed steps in the level of adsorption with rising pressure, to re-orientational transitions amongst molecules in the adsorbed phase.
Secondly Conventional Grand Canonical Monte Carlo techniques have been used to calculate methane, ethane and co, binary mixture adsorption isotherms in silicalite as well as propane, i-butane and n-butane equimolar binary and ternary mixture adsorption in silicalite.
In the last part of the thesis, studies have made of lattice models of
CH, I C,H, and CO, adsorption in silicalite and the results compared with the
Monte Carlo data. One dimensional lattice models have also been used to
calculate the binary and ternary mixture adsorption of propane, i-butane and
n-butane. The isotherms were compared with the Monte Carlo results.


The cofactors commonly involved in natural enzymes have provided the inspiration for numerous advances in the creation of artificial metalloenzymes. Nevertheless, to design an appropriate cofactor for a given biomolecular scaffold or vice versa remains a challenge in developing efficient catalysts in biochemistry. Herein, we extend the idea of G-quadruplex-targeting anticancer drug design to construct a Gquadruplex DNA metalloenzyme. We found that a series of terpyridine–Cu(II) complexes (CuLn) can serve as excellent cofactors to dock with human telemetric G-quadruplex DNA. The resulting Gquadruplex DNA metalloenzyme utilising CuL1 catalyzes an enantioselective Diels–Alder reaction with enantioselectivity of >99% enantiomeric excess and about 73-fold rate acceleration compared to CuL1 alone. The terpyridine–Cu(II) complex cofactors demonstrate dual functions, both as an active site to perform catalysis and as a structural regulator to promote the folding of human telemetric G-quadruplex DNA towards excellent catalysts.


Replicability in political science is on the rise, as disciplinary journals have been placing a growing emphasis on data access and research transparency (DA–RT) practices and policies. As a result, nearly every article that is published today in leading political science journals offers an online appendix that includes data, code, and methodological explanations necessary for replication. While these developments are laudable, many appendices still do not enable satisfactory replication because they are inaccessible, compartmentalized, and difficult to understand. In this article and in its accompanying online appendix, we demonstrate this problem and make the case for more accessible and comprehensive appendices whose contribution can fulfill and go beyond mere replicability. We propose several ways in which authors and journals can produce better appendices, namely, by making appendices more intuitive, integrated, and standardized, and by choosing an adequate online platform on which to create and host the appendix.


BACKGROUND
A researcher must carefully balance the risk of 2 undesirable outcomes when designing a clinical trial: false-positive results (type I error) and false-negative results (type II error). In planning the study, careful attention is routinely paid to statistical power (i.e., the complement of type II error) and corresponding sample size requirements. However, Bonferroni-type alpha adjustments to protect against type I error for multiple tests are often resisted. Here, a simple strategy is described that adjusts alpha for multiple primary efficacy measures, yet maintains statistical power for each test.

METHOD
To illustrate the approach, multiplicity-adjusted sample size requirements were estimated for effects of various magnitude with statistical power analyses for 2-tailed comparisons of 2 groups using chi2 tests and t tests. These analyses estimated the required sample size for hypothetical clinical trial protocols in which the prespecified number of primary efficacy measures ranged from 1 to 5. Corresponding Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels were used for these calculations.

RESULTS
Relative to that required for 1 test, the sample size increased by about 20% for 2 dependent variables and 30% for 3 dependent variables.

CONCLUSION
The strategy described adjusts alpha for multiple primary efficacy measures and, in turn, modifies the sample size to maintain statistical power. Although the strategy is not novel, it is typically overlooked in psychopharmacology trials. The number of primary efficacy measures must be prespecified and carefully limited when a clinical trial protocol is prepared. If multiple tests are designated in the protocol, the alpha-level adjustment should be anticipated and incorporated in sample size calculations.


The New Deal during the 1930s was arguably the largest peace-time expansion in federal government activity in American history. Until recently there had been very little quantitative testing of the microeconomic impact of the wide variety of New Deal programs. Over the past decade scholars have developed new panel databases for counties, cities, and states and then used panel data methods on them to examine the examine the impact of New Deal spending and lending policies for the major New Deal programs. In most cases the identification of the effect comes from changes across time within the same geographic location after controlling for national shocks to the economy. Many of the studies also use instrumental variable methods to control for endogeneity. The studies find that public works and relief spending had state income multipliers of around one, increased consumption activity, attracted internal migration, reduced crime rates, and lowered several types of mortality. The farm programs typically aided large farm owners but eliminated opportunities for share croppers, tenants, and farm workers. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation's purchases and refinancing of troubled mortgages staved off drops in housing prices and home ownership rates at relatively low ex post cost to taxpayers. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation's loans to banks and railroads appear to have had little positive impact,although the banks were aided when the RFC took ownership stakes.


This paper deals with the evolution of the genitive case from Latin to Old and Middle French, and from Middle French to Modern French. The loss of morphological case inflection in French raises the question whether the category of the genitive is still a relevant notion. The authors claim it is, by showing that the prepositional phrase de + NP, which gradually spread from Latin to Modern French, fundamentally marks the dependency of a nominal constituent with respect to another nominal expression, just like the adnominal genitive did in Latin. They show that the preposition de underwent a pervasive grammaticalization process from a full-fledged preposition introducing adjuncts expressing spatial origin to a structural marker of arguments of verbal and (especially) nominal heads.


Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison, though one of the most famous decisions ever issued by the Supreme Court is one of the most misunderstood. Marbury is widely thought to be the decision that created the doctrine of judicial review but by the time Chief Justice Marshall issued the opinion, judicial review was already generally accepted.. Marbury was, however, the first case in which the Supreme Court explicitly embraced the power and struck down a statute. The case was not simply an exercise of judicial review, but it reflected an expansive conception of the judicial power to review legislative acts affecting the judiciary and to review and provide remedies against Executive Branch decision making. In order to properly understand what Marshall accomplished with Marbury, the decision must be viewed in the context of the political disputes of the early nineteenth century, particularly contention between the Republican administration of President Thomas Jefferson and the Federalist-dominated judiciary. This essay establishes that background and then draws back chronologically and describes the early history of judicial review, highlighting the history of judicial review in Virginia to which Chief Justice Marshall would have been exposed as a young lawyer. The essay then turns to the decision itself and its significance in light of its unique context.


During the national crisis, caused by a novel pandemic such as COVID-19 virus infections, people need authentic information to face such a virus Libraries need to come forward in such a situation as primary sources of trustworthy information by providing rapid and easy access to those seeking authentic information sources In this crisis, giving Remote Access, Virtual Library, eresources, Ask the Librarian reference services to the user in real-time and at scale for a range of scientific- and policy-related responses can be very significant to the academic and research community The present study has collected data from authentic information sources, mainly Government official portals of Indian states such as the MyGov COVID-19, UTs, and National/International agencies, etc After analyzing and studying the data, the authentic information sources served to the research community are listed out This paper also highlights the ratio of COVID-19 publications and highly cited publication of the same, using the Scopus abstracting databases This study is an original research work focused on the roles and responsibilities and actions taken by the Library and librarians in crisis situations Hence this study will help Librarians, Information Providers, Practitioners, Policy Makers, Researchers, and development activity in this field


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a complex progressive disease, is currently the third leading cause of death worldwide. One recommended treatment option is fixed-dose combination therapy of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long-acting β-agonist. Clinical trials suggest pressurized metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs) and dry powder inhalers (DPIs) show similar efficacy and safety profiles in COPD. Real-world observational studies have shown that combination therapy has significantly greater odds of achieving asthma control when delivered via pMDIs. Our aim was to compare effectiveness, in terms of moderate/severe COPD exacerbations and long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) prescriptions, for COPD patients initiating fluticasone propionate (FP)/salmeterol xinafoate (SAL) via pMDI versus DPI at two doses of FP (500 and 1,000 μg/d) using a real-life, historical matched cohort study. COPD patients with ≥2 years continuous practice data, ≥2 prescriptions for FP/SAL via pMDI/DPI, and no prescription for ICS were selected from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database. Patients were matched 1:1. Rate of moderate/severe COPD exacerbations and odds of LAMA prescription were analyzed using conditional Poisson and logistic regression, respectively. Of 472 patients on 500 μg/d, we observed fewer moderate/severe exacerbations in patients using pMDI (99 [42%]) versus DPI (115 [49%]) (adjusted rate ratio: 0.71; 95% confidence interval: 0.54, 0.93), an important result since the pMDI is not licensed for COPD in the UK, USA, or China. At 1,000 μg/d, we observed lower LAMA prescription for pMDI (adjusted odds ratio: 0.71; 95% confidence interval: 0.55, 0.91), but no difference in exacerbation rates, potentially due to higher dose of ICS overcoming low lung delivery from the DPI.


Virtualization has become a common abstraction layer in modern data centers. By multiplexing hardware resources into multiple virtual machines (VMs) and thus enabling several operating systems to run on the same physical platform simultaneously, it can effectively reduce power consumption and building size or improve security by isolating VMs.
In a virtualized system, memory resource management plays a critical role in achieving high resource utilization and performance. Insufficient memory allocation to a VM will degrade its performance dramatically. On the contrary, over-allocation causes waste of memory resources. Meanwhile, a VM's memory demand may vary significantly. As a result, effective memory resource management calls for a dynamic memory balancer, which, ideally, can adjust memory allocation in a timely manner for each VM based on their current memory demand and thus achieve the best memory utilization and the optimal overall performance.
In order to estimate the memory demand of each VM and to arbitrate possible memory resource contention, a widely proposed approach is to construct an LRU-based miss ratio curve (MRC), which provides not only the current working set size (WSS) but also the correlation between performance and the target memory allocation size. Unfortunately, the cost of constructing an MRC is nontrivial. In this dissertation, we first present a low overhead LRU-based memory demand tracking scheme, which includes three orthogonal optimizations: AVL-based LRU organization, dynamic hot set sizing and intermittent memory tracking. Our evaluation results show that, for the whole SPEC CPU 2006 benchmark suite, after applying the three optimizing techniques, the mean overhead of MRC construction is lowered from 173% to only 2%.
Based on current WSS, we then predict its trend in the near future and take different strategies for different prediction results. When there is a sufficient amount of physical memory on the host, it locally balances its memory resource for the VMs. Once the local memory resource is insufficient and the memory pressure is predicted to sustain for a sufficiently long time, a relatively expensive solution, VM live migration, is used to move one or more VMs from the hot host to other host(s). Finally, for transient memory pressure, a remote cache is used to alleviate the temporary performance penalty. Our experimental results show that this design achieves 49% center-wide speedup.


Dispersal syndromes (i.e. suites of phenotypic correlates of dispersal) are potentially important determinants of local adaptation in populations. Species that exhibit sexual dimorphism in their life history or behaviour may exhibit sex-specific differences in their dispersal syndromes. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence of sex differences in dispersal syndromes and how they respond to environmental change or dispersal evolution. We investigated these issues using two same-generation studies and a long-term (greater than 70 generations) selection experiment on laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster. There was a marked difference between the dispersal syndromes of males and females, the extent of which was modulated by nutrition availability. Moreover, dispersal evolution via spatial sorting reversed the direction of dispersal × sex interaction in one trait (desiccation resistance), while eliminating the sex difference in another trait (body size). Thus, we show that sex differences obtained through same-generation trait-associations ('ecological dispersal syndromes') are probably environment-dependent. Moreover, even under constant environments, they are not good predictors of the sex differences in 'evolutionary dispersal syndrome' (i.e. trait-associations shaped during dispersal evolution). Our findings have implications for local adaptation in the context of sex-biased dispersal and habitat-matching, as well as for the use of dispersal syndromes as a proxy of dispersal. This article is part of the theme issue 'Linking local adaptation with the evolution of sex differences'.


Sexual harassment has been documented as a widespread and damaging phenomenon yet the specific patterns of behaviour reported in alleged sexual harassment cases and the factors influencing the lodgement of formal, legal complaints have received little attention. This two-stage study explored 632 cases of sexual harassment reported to a community advocacy organisation in Queensland, Australia. Two kinds of sexual harassment are distinguished: quid pro quo harassment (an exchange for sexual favours) and hostile environment harassment (sustained unwelcome overtures). Only 10 per cent of specialised assistance cases involved quid pro quo harassment, with the remainder categorised as hostile environment claims, including sexual remarks, physical contact and sexual gestures. Organisational responses to many of the allegations of sexual harassment were inadequate. The seriousness of many claims was also concerning, although the gravity of the harassment was not closely linked with the likelihood of a complaint being formally lodged. Most cases in one of three state / Commonwealth commissions involved a conciliation conference and financial settlement, averaging A$5289. The study has implications for women's equal opportunity. Among these, the study suggests that complaints encountered long delays and received small settlements incommensurate with harm. This suggestion recognises the needs to search for other solutions to sexual harassment.


Web applications must use special string-manipulating sanitization functions on untrusted user data, but writing these functions correctly is error prone and time consuming. We present a domain-specific imperative language, BEK, that is expressive enough to capture real web sanitizers used in the Internet Explorer XSS Filter and the Google AutoEscape framework. We exhibit a translation from the BEK language to symbolic finite state transducers (SFTs), a novel representation for transducers that annotates transitions with logical formulae. Symbolic finite state transducers give us a new way to marry the classic theory of finite state transducers with the recent progress in satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solvers. We exhibit algorithms for checking equivalence of images of regular languages, idempotency, commutativity, and other properties of SFTs that scale quadratically in the number of states, and we show that BEK's implementation of these algorithms scales near-linearly in practice. We then show how BEK can be applied to checking key security properties of web sanitizers, and how programs written in the BEK language can be compiled to traditional languages such as JavaScript. BEK makes it possible for web developers to write sanitizers supported by deep analysis, yet deploy the analyzed code directly to real applications. BEK: Modeling Imperative String Operations with Symbolic Transducers


Telling a story requires linking a series of significant events using statements to maintain tension, create suspense and allow time for the development of emotions. When automating this process, one major challenge is the generation of these filling sentences and ensuring that they are sufficiently consistent with the story. To this end we propose in this paper to use a knowledge representation model of a local coherent world. We present a scheme for automatic storytelling based on an ontological representation of concepts and natural language generation algorithms that dynamically build relations between concepts. Our algorithms scan the scenario to build a sentence skeleton that will be enriched using pseudo-random queries in the ontology. This allows us to enrich the story while keeping the storyline coherent. We end by discussing our evaluation and presenting our preliminary results.


Most issues in American political life are complex and multifaceted, subject to multiple interpretations and points of view. How issues are framed matters enormously for the way they are understood and debated. For example, is affirmative action a just means toward a diverse society, or is it reverse discrimination? Is the war on terror a defense of freedom and liberty, or is it an attack on privacy and other cherished constitutional rights? Bringing together some of the leading researchers in American politics, Framing American Politics explores the roles that interest groups, political elites, and the media play in framing political issues for the mass public. The contributors address some of the most hotly debated foreign and domestic policies in contemporary American life, focusing on both the origins and process of framing and its effects on citizens. In so doing, these scholars clearly demonstrate how frames can both enhance and hinder political participation and understanding.


Voice assistants, e.g., Alexa or Google Assistant, have dramatically improved in recent years. Supporting voice-based search, exploration, and refinement are fundamental tasks for voice assistants, and remain an open challenge. For example, when using voice to search an online shopping site, a user often needs to refine their search by some aspect or facet. This common user intent is usually available through a "filter-by" interface on online shopping websites, but is challenging to support naturally via voice, as the intent of refinements must be interpreted in the context of the original search, the initial results, and the available product catalogue facets. To our knowledge, no benchmark dataset exists for training or validating such contextual search understanding models. To bridge this gap, we introduce the first large-scale dataset of voice-based search refinements, VoiSeR, consisting of about 10,000 search refinement utterances, collected using a novel crowdsourcing task. These utterances are intended to refine a previous search, with respect to a search facet or attribute (e.g., brand, color, review rating, etc.), and are manually annotated with the specific intent. This paper reports qualitative and empirical insights into the most common and challenging types of refinements that a voice-based conversational search system must support. As we show, VoiSeR can support research in conversational query understanding, contextual user intent prediction, and other conversational search topics to facilitate the development of conversational search systems.


Plants are sessile organisms that have to cope with their environment as it is exposed to them in nature. To do so, they developed systems to sense environmental signals and to integrate these with endogenous developmental programs. As a result, they are well equipped to survive and flourish in very different environments, while it also ensures the timely production of offspring for survival in the long run. In horticulture, aims and environmental conditions for plant growth are often very different from nature. For growers, survival is associated with responding to market and societal demands, and with efficient and exact timed production of high quality plants and products at a minimum of costs (financial and environmental). Greenhouses and plant factories provide growers with means for extensive control of the growth climate, including the light environment. In nature, the light environment of plants is largely determined by the sun. Important characteristics of this natural light include intensity, length of the photoperiod, and the spectral composition, which are eventually modified by neighboring plants and or weather and provide the signals under which plants evolved their mechanisms to cope with their environmental conditions. Therefore, they have become genetically programmed to respond in accordance with these natural light signals. In horticulture, however, applied lighting can be very different from nature. Lengthening the photoperiod and increasing intensity with artificial lighting enabled the culture of plants at times and locations on earth, where this would never have been possible under the prevailing natural light climate. The introduction of LEDs as low-energy alternatives for conventional lamps, adds a new opportunity for control via the light spectrum, which is also not natural at all. Consequently, horticulture crops are now often exposed to light climates that they would never have experienced in nature. Applying lighting to plants beyond their natural comfort zone may also results in unexpected negative effects. This hampers the development of optimal lighting strategies in horticulture. In this paper, two examples of such negative effects on leaf photosynthesis are presented, aiming to induce a discussion on how genetic and physiological knowledge from natural systems may help to develop new lighting strategies for horticultural production in greenhouses and plant factories.