Upper-Extremity motor impairment affects millions of Americans due to cerebrovascular incidents, spinal cord injuries, or brain trauma. Current therapy practices used to assist these individuals in regaining motor functionality often require extensive time at rehabilitation facilities with potentially prohibitive travel or financial costs. This work presents a mobile low-cost field programmable gate array (FPGA)-smart rehabilitation system that can be used in home environments. The prototype is a rehabilitation table instrumented with a capacitive sensor array (CSA) to track upper-extremity motions of the user through proximity or touch. In addition, inertial measurement units (IMUs) are placed on the affected upper limb and combined with the CSA data with our sensor fusion signal processing architecture. Motions are classified and evaluated using multi-task convolutional recurrent neural networks with three additional motion quality output classes to personalize recognition based on the particular motor skills of each patient. The prototype achieves above 99% accuracy with 32-bit fixed-point format implementation for recognizing dynamic motions and identifying unnatural characteristics (i.e., tremor or limited flexion and extension) in upper limb motions based on sensor values. The convolutional recurrent neural network (C-RNN) fusion classification network is implemented on a 200 MHz Zynq ZCU104 FPGA using an HLS-based design optimized with pipelining and parallelism techniques and achieves 5.4x speedup compared to ARM® Cortex-A53 implementation running at an operating frequency of 1.3 GHz. The prototype is also demonstrated to perform the machine learning classification in real-time.


Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) can be initiated by ectopic activation from the crista terminalis. The crista terminalis conduction gap is also a critical isthmus in atrial reentrant arrhythmias like upper and lower loop reentry. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism and results of catheter ablation for complex atrial arrhythmias originating from the crista terminalis using the noncontact mapping system (NCM). The study population consisted of six patients (5 men, 1 woman; 70 ± 9 years) with drug refractory PAF and typical/atypical atrial flutter. NCM identified the earliest ectopic activation originating from the crista terminalis in these six patients. The reentry circuit of atypical atrial flutter propagated around the upper crista terminalis in five patients, and lower crista terminalis in one patient. The reentry circuit of atypical atrial flutter and the initial reentry circuit of AF conducted through the crista terminalis gap in all patients. Radiofrequency applications were delivered on the sites of ectopy, which initiated AF. Substrate modification was also performed over the crista terminalis gap (six patients) and cavotricuspid isthmus (three patients) responsible for the reentry. During a mean follow‐up of 9 ± 5 months (range 5–18 months), five patients were free of AF without antiarrhythmic drugs, and one patient did not have AF or atrial flutter using propafenone. NCM demonstrated the mechanism of crista terminalis ectopy‐initiating AF and associated typical/atypical atrial flutter. Catheter ablation of crista terminalis ectopy and substrate for the reentry guided by NCM successfully eliminated these atrial arrhythmias.


Early‐stage nodular lymphocyte‐predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) is associated with a favorable prognosis. Our aim was to evaluate the patterns of care of radiotherapy utilization in this disease and to define the relationship between treatment modality and survival. The National Cancer Database was queried for patients with stages I‐II NLPHL diagnosed from 2004 to 2012. Patients were compared based on primary therapy into four categories: radiotherapy, chemotherapy, both, or neither. Covariate‐adjusted and propensity score‐weighted (PS) Cox proportional hazards models were used, adjusting for potential factors confounding survival. After exclusions, 1420 patients were evaluated, 571 (40%) received radiotherapy alone, 318 (22%) received chemotherapy alone, 351 (25%) received both, and 180 (13%) received neither. Younger patient age (P = 0.001), female gender (P = 0.019), and chemotherapy use (P < 0.001) were associated with decreased radiotherapy utilization. On PS, radiation alone (HR = 0.298, P < 0.001) and chemoradiotherapy (HR = 0.258, P < 0.001) were associated with improved survival compared to no upfront therapy, but the use of chemotherapy alone did not statistically differ compared to no initial therapy (HR = 0.784, P = 0.078). In this large database analysis, over one‐third of patients with early‐stage NLPHL did not receive radiotherapy as a component of initial therapy. The omission of upfront radiotherapy was associated with inferior survival.


Despite all of the power that machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) models bring to applications, much of AI development is currently a fairly ad hoc process. Software engineering and AI development share many of the same languages and tools, but AI development as an engineering practice is still in early stages. Mining software repositories of AI models enables insight into the current state of AI development. However, much of the relevant metadata around models are not easily extractable directly from repositories and require deduction or domain knowledge. This paper presents a library called AIMMX that enables simplified AI Model Metadata eXtraction from software repositories. The extractors have five modules for extracting AI model-specific metadata: model name, associated datasets, references, AI frameworks used, and model domain. We evaluated AIMMX against 7,998 open-source models from three sources: model zoos, arXiv AI papers, and state-of-the-art AI papers. Our platform extracted metadata with 87% precision and 83% recall. As preliminary examples of how AI model metadata extraction enables studies and tools to advance engineering support for AI development, this paper presents an exploratory analysis for data and method reproducibility over the models in the evaluation dataset and a catalog tool for discovering and managing models. Our analysis suggests that while data reproducibility may be relatively poor with 42% of models in our sample citing their datasets, method reproducibility is more common at 72% of models in our sample, particularly state-of-the-art models. Our collected models are searchable in a catalog that uses existing metadata to enable advanced discovery features for efficiently finding models.


Hybridomas secreting monoclonal antibodies to simian virus 5 (SV5) were obtained following immunization of mice with purified preparations of a human isolate (LN) of SV5. Immune precipitation studies showed that these monoclonal antibodies had specificities for the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN), fusion (F), nucleo-, matrix and phospho- (P) proteins of SV5. By use of a radioimmune competition assay the monoclonal antibodies to the HN protein were assigned to four groups, members of which recognized different antigenic sites on the protein. All the anti-HN antibodies and the anti-F antibody neutralized virus infectivity. The 54 monoclonal antibodies obtained were used to determine whether there were antigenic differences between five human, two canine and one simian isolate of SV5. Although most of the monoclonal antibodies reacted with all isolates, a few did reveal antigenic differences in the HN, F and P proteins. Furthermore, analysis by SDS-PAGE showed that while the electrophoretic mobilities of most of the virus polypeptides of these isolates were similar some differences could be detected. In particular the P protein showed the most marked mobility differences between the human, canine and simian isolates. Slight differences in the mobility of the F1 glycoprotein could also be visualized.


Lake morphometry may moderate the effects of water color on fish biomass in boreal lakes, but empirical evidence is scarce because there are a limited number of lakes for which both water color and bathymetry have been measured. We evaluated variations in catch‐per‐unit‐effort (CPUE), an indicator of fish biomass, across orthogonal gradients of light extinction and mean depth in 16 small Swedish lakes (mean depth 1.7–4.8 m, surface area 1–10 ha). Multiple regression coefficients indicated that the effect of light extinction on CPUE was negative, and that the relationship was more negative for deeper lakes than it was for shallower lakes. The pattern was strongest for lakes with mean depths between 2.1 m and 3.5 m. We estimated that 26% of small lakes in boreal Sweden fall within this mean depth range. These results contribute to the growing understanding of how variations in water color and lake morphometry influence patterns of fish biomass across the boreal landscape.


Shell matrix proteins from Pinctada margaritifera were characterized by combining proteomics analysis of shell organic extracts and transcript sequences, both obtained from the shell‐forming cell by using the suppression subtractive hybridization method (SSH) and from an expressed sequence tag (EST) database available from Pinctada maxima mantle tissue. Some of the identified proteins were homologues to proteins reported in other mollusk shells, namely lysine‐rich matrix proteins (KRMPs), shematrins and molluscan prismatic and nacreous layer 88 kDa (MPN88). Sequence comparison within and among Pinctada species pointed to intra‐ and interspecies variations relevant to polymorphism and to evolutionary distance, respectively. In addition, a novel shell matrix protein, linkine was identified. BLAST analysis of the peptide sequences obtained from the shell of P. margaritifera against the EST database revealed the presence of additional proteins: two proteins similar to the Pif97 protein that was identified in the shell of P. fucata, a chitinase‐like protein previously identified in Crassostrea gigas, two chitin‐binding proteins, and two incomplete sequences of proteins unknown so far in mollusk shells. Combining proteomics and transcriptomics analysis we demonstrate that all these proteins, including linkine, are addressed to the shell. Retrieval of motif‐forming sequences, such as chitin‐binding, with functional annotation from several peptides nested in the shell could indicate protein involvement in shell patterning.


About 80% of smokers who stop smoking gain weight after they stop; on average 5 kg in the first year and about 6 to 7 kg overall. However, weight gain varies a lot between individuals, with some putting on 10 kg or more in a year. Although some factors predict who will gain excessive weight, they are not clinically useful for targeting individuals at high risk. Instead, it may be prudent to monitor weight gain after cessation and intervene with people gaining more than 1 kg/month. There is some evidence that weight gain after cessation can be prevented by dietary intervention that includes setting an energy intake goal and regular monitoring of weight and adjustment of energy intake. However, there are fears that such an approach may harm the success of a quit attempt because it may worsen craving for cigarettes. There is no evidence that this is the case, but the data are too imprecise to be completely reassuring. Exercise programs may reduce cravings for tobacco and increase the likelihood of achieving smoking abstinence, and there is some evidence that they reduce weight gain in the longer term. Consequently, they may be safely recommended but the effect on weight gain is modest. Long‑term nicotine replacement therapy prevents several kilograms of weight gain but it may produce harmful metabolic changes that increase cardiovascular risk. Randomized trials are needed to assess efficacy. Thus, weight gain after cessation remains problematic with few interventions to prevent it that have only modest effectiveness.


Building on the recent solution for the spectrum of the non-commutative well [23] in two dimensions, the thermodynamics that follows from it is computed. In particular, the focus is put on an ideal fermion gas confined to such a well. At low densities the thermodynamics is the same as for the commutative gas. However, at high densities the thermodynamics deviates strongly from the commutative gas due to the implied excluded area resulting from the non-commutativity. In particular, there are extremal macroscopic states, characterized by area, number of particles and angular momentum, that correspond to a single microscopic state and thus have vanishing entropy. When the system size and excluded area are comparable, thermodynamic quantities, such as entropy, exhibit non-extensive features.


Work contributes to people's self-image in important ways. We propose a model in which individuals have a preference for being important to others. This leads to the following predictions: 1) In fully competitive markets with performance pay, behavior coincides with the standard model (bakers). 2) In jobs where e¤ort is not rewarded according to its social marginal value, behavior is more socially bene…cial than predicted by the standard model (nurses). 3) Even if unemployment bene…ts provide full income compensation, many workers' utility strictly decreases when losing their job. 4) Similarly, many workers will prefer to work rather than to live o¤ welfare, even with full income compensation. 5) To keep shirkers out of the public sector, nurses'wages must be strictly lower than private sector income. At this wage level, however, the public sector will be too small. 6) It is possible to attract motivated workers to the public sector, without simultaneously attracting shirkers, through capital input improving nurses'opportunity to do a good job.


Depressive disorders are some of the most common mental health problems among U.S. adolescents, particularly among Latino youth (Merikangas et al., 2010; Twenge & NolenHoeksema, 2002). When parents and their children provide ratings on the presence and severity of the child's depressive symptoms, their ratings show only low to moderate agreement (Mascendaro et al., 2012). Research has shown that parent–child discrepancies in ratings of youth emotional and behavioral problems are linked to factors such as parental depression and ethnicity. However, discrepancies research has focused primarily on European American families in clinical settings. Subsequently, research has failed to examine discrepancies in populations with the highest levels of unmet need and much less is known about patterns of parent–child endorsement agreement in depressive symptoms among ethnic minority families in community samples. Using a sample of 313 low-income, predominantly Latino students at chronic risk for depression, the present study addressed methodological limitations by utilizing Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to uncover patterns of parent–child endorsement of core diagnostic depressive symptoms. Three classes emerged, including classes characterized by high endorsement and agreement (HH), low endorsement and agreement (LH), and high youth endorsement and low agreement (HCL). Multinomial regression models revealed that prior mental health service use, higher comorbid externalizing problems, and parental Spanish interview language were associated with HCL class membership, in which parents underreported core depressive symptoms, relative to youth themselves. In contrast, youth age, youth gender, youth ethnicity, parental depression, and parental education were not associated with endorsement agreement classes. Findings provide evidence that cultural and clinical factors impact parental endorsement of youth depression and suggest that psychoeducation aimed at


The purpose of this doctoral dissertation has been to increase the knowledge of customers' view on relation to commercial restaurant meals and thereby increase the knowledge within the restaurant industry about customers' perspectives about meals. The dissertation is based on four studies of customers' meal experiences in á la Carte restaurants in Norway. In addition, a methodological paper has been written to illuminate central aspects of the method used in the dissertation. An explorative and qualitative approach was selected in the data collection, and focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews of experienced restaurant customers from à la Carte restaurants were used and analysed within a modified grounded theory approach. The participants were from the cities of Oslo and Stavanger in Norway. The conceptual models in the four studies are the result of the analysis of the data collected. The first study includes a conceptual model illustrating different aspects of the payment process of the bill; important aspects were expectations, sensibility, and reactions. It was demonstrated how a delay in the payment process had negative affects on the customers' meal experiences. In the second study, the five important elements of customers' meal experiences were: The core product, the restaurant interior, the personal social meeting, the company, and the restaurant atmosphere. These five aspects were woven tightly together and the restaurant atmosphere acted as the "glue" that connected the different meal experience aspects into a whole. The third study focused on the customers' choices of restaurants, and the occasion occurred as an important element in the decision-making process of choosing a restaurant. The fourth study revealed which consumer values were important in restaurant visits, and identified 13 single values that were integrated into five consumer value categories: Excellence, harmony, emotional stimulation, acknowledgement, and circumstance value. The fifth paper provides a thorough discussion of the usefulness of the modified grounded theory applied in the studies. When an overall comparison of the different studies is made, there are several indications that the restaurant employees, and especially the waiting staff, represent the restaurant's most important assets in the meetings with customers. Increasing the knowledge level of the staff about the customers seems to be an actual element, and thus education and training will be of great importance for development of the restaurant field.


Some of the world's most productive cropland requires artificial or improved drainage for efficient agricultural production. Soil hydraulic properties, such as hydraulic conductivity and drainable porosity, are conventionally used in design of drainage systems. While it is recognized that these soil properties vary over a relatively wide range within a given soil series, it is generally assumed they can be approximated based on soil type, independent of crop or land use. Effects of land use on hydrology of drained soils in the North Carolina lower coastal plain were investigated by comparing hydrologic measurements on drained agricultural cropland, drained forest land (Loblolly pine), and an undrained forested wetland. Higher ET on the drained pine forest site resulted in reduced drainage outflow and deeper water tables compared to the agricultural site. Measurements for the wetland site showed water tables near the surface but annual outflows similar to the drained forest site. Field effective hydraulic conductivity in the top 70 cm of the drained forest site was more than two orders of magnitude greater than that of corresponding layers of the soil on the agricultural site. Drainable porosity, based on measured soil water characteristics, was also much higher for the forested sites. Long term (50-year) DRAINMOD simulations predicted average annual drainage outflow of 51.4 cm for the agricultural field as compared to 37.6 cm for the forested site. The difference resulted primarily from greater ET predicted for the forested site. Because of the high hydraulic conductivity of the surface layers and large surface depressional storage, predicted surface runoff from the forested site was nil, compared to an average annual runoff of 13 cm for the drained cropland site. Results of long-term simulations were used to analyze these effects for the widely variable seasonal and annual weather conditions of eastern North Carolina.


Due to its high dimentionality, deformable object manipulation is a challenging problem in robotics. In this paper, we present a deep neural network based controller to servocontrol the position and shape of deformable objects with unknown deformation properties. In particular, a multi-layer neural network is used to map between the robotic end-effector's movement and the object's deformation measurement using an online learning strategy. In addition, we introduce a novel feature to describe deformable objects' deformation used in visualservoing. This feature is directly extracted from the 3D point cloud rather from the 2D image as in previous work. In addition, we perform simultaneous tracking and reconstruction for the deformable object to resolve the partial observation problem during the deformable object manipulation. We validate the performance of our algorithm and controller on a set of deformable object manipulation tasks and demonstrate that our method can achieve effective and accurate servo-control for general deformable objects with a wide variety of goal settings. Experiment videos are available at https://sites.google.com/view/mso-deep.


The spectral sen sitivity of the retina has been measured by finding the energy required at various wave-lengths through the visible spectrum to match the brightness of a fixed comparison field. Results are recorded for two observers for a series of brightness levels within the Purkinje range and for three retinal areas, the fovea, 3° from th e fovea an d 10° from the fovea. A small shift of the foveal luminosity curve to wards shorter wave-lengths has been observed with decreased brightness of the matching field, accompanied by the development of a hump on the red side of the curve. This may be due to the progressive isolation of the red response at low intensities. Forth e extrafoveal areas, the usual Purkinje shift was observed, although surprisingly high intensities were required before the photopic curve was approached. This suggests that the rods may continue to function over a greater range of intensities than is generally accepted. No sudden change from rod to cone vision was recorded, incontrast to other visual functions, an d of the possible mechanisms by which the transition from one system to the other may operate, the special tendency of the rod response towards convergence an d summation at low intensities seems the most likely. Approximate solutions to problem s in p h o to m e try concerned with the change in relative brightness of coloured surfaces with reduced illumination may be derived by comparison with the corresponding changes which occur between monochromatic radiations of the same hue.


Research focusing on the biodiversity potential of green roofs has led to an amendment in building and construction law in Basel, Switzerland. As part of the city's biodiversity strategy, green roofs are now mandatory on new buildings with flat roofs, and guidance is provided for the creation of different plant and animal habitats on the green roofs. Design criteria for the creation of these habitats include varying the substrate thickness and using natural soils from nearby areas. (Studies of green roofs in Zurich, Switzerland, have shown that natural soils can benefit biodiversity through their suitability for locally and regionally endangered species.) The design and construction of green roofs to re-create habitats require close cooperation among all specialists involved. Research and comprehensive planning are also important for creating space on roofs for urban wildlife.


Blind identification of under-determined mixtures (UDM) is involved in numerous applications, including multi-way factor analysis (MWA) and signal processing. In the latter case, the use of high-order statistics (HOS) like cumulants leads to the decomposition of symmetric tensors. Yet, little has been published about rank-revealing decompositions of symmetric tensors. Definitions of rank are discussed, and useful results on generic rank are proved, with the help of tools borrowed from algebraic geometry


Using data on 988 peer-to-peer lending platforms in China, we examine cross-side network effects (CNEs)---arguably the most important factor for multi-sided marketplaces---throughout platforms' lifecycle in a dynamic industry characterized by entries, exits, and network externalities. We find that unlike borrowers' symmetric CNEs, lenders' CNEs are lower on declining, more established, or smaller platforms than on growing, new, or larger platforms. Borrowers' CNEs are also larger than lenders' CNEs, especially for declining or sub-scale platforms. We rationalize the asymmetries in a model of financial platforms incorporating endogenous failures and their empirically motivated distinguishing features: lenders' portfolio diversification, failures' differential impacts on agents, and borrowers' stickiness. The model further predicts that lenders' CNEs and platforms' ranks predict the platforms' survival likelihood, among others, which the data corroborate. Our findings provide novel economic insights on multi-sided platforms and inform FinTech practitioners and regulators.


The skin microenvironment is characterized by the extracellular matrix components, soluble molecules produced by neighboring cells but also physicochemical parameters and particularly a very low oxygen level (called physioxia) compared to other organs and the atmosphere. This condition is not taken into account in classical in vitro experiments, which are now replacing animal models for dermocosmetic evaluations. It is now well known that the oxygen level controls the expression of various proteins, either by induction of hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs), or modulation of microRNAs, which are small molecules regulating mRNA transcription. In this review, we focus on both microRNAs regulated by oxygen level and microRNAs involved in the regulation of various skin functions. We highlight the importance of this new concept of skin hysioxia and its consequences on microRNA regulation.


Reflecting on education means analyzing the context in which one intends to work. Otherwise, when the context is not taken into account, education can be reduced to theoretical thinking. Real educational praxis must be linked to its social context and to the complexity of its environment. A theory cannot be a vehicle that secludes praxis, but rather an instrument of critical analysis that is embedded in our own praxis. From my point of view, one of the deepest teachings of Paulo Freire's pedagogy is the dialectic between theory and practice. Theory without practice would be mere abstract thinking, just as practice without theory would be reduced to naive action.


Today, in a period of economic crisis, public sector cuts and escalating class struggle, Marxism offers important tools for social workers and service users to understand the structures of oppression they face and devise effective means of resistance. This book uses Marxism's lost insights and reinterprets them in the current context by focussing on one particular section of the international working class - refugees and asylum seekers in Britain. Vickers' analysis demonstrates the general utility of a Marxist approach, enabling an exploration of the interplay between state policies, how these are experienced by their subjects, and how conflicts are mediated. The substantive focus of the book is twofold: to analyse the material basis of the oppression of refugees in Britain by the British state; and to examine the means by which the British state has 'managed' this oppression through the cultivation of a 'refugee relations industry', within a broader narrative of 'social capital building'. These questions demand answers if social workers and other practitioners are to successfully work with refugees and asylum seekers, and this book provides these through a detailed Marxist analysis.


The Neyman-Pearson (NP) paradigm in binary classification treats type I and type II errors with different priorities. It seeks classifiers that minimize type II error, subject to a type I error constraint under a user specified level α. In this paper, plug-in classifiers are developed under the NP paradigm. Based on the fundamental Neyman-Pearson Lemma, we propose two related plug-in classifiers which amount to thresholding respectively the class conditional density ratio and the regression function. These two classifiers handle different sampling schemes. This work focuses on theoretical properties of the proposed classifiers; in particular, we derive oracle inequalities that can be viewed as finite sample versions of risk bounds. NP classification can be used to address anomaly detection problems, where asymmetry in errors is an intrinsic property. As opposed to a common practice in anomaly detection that consists of thresholding normal class density, our approach does not assume a specific form for anomaly distributions. Such consideration is particularly necessary when the anomaly class density is far from uniformly distributed.


SUMMARY An outbreak of gastroenteritis affected at least 240 persons who had eaten at a gourmet restaurant over a period of 7 weeks in 2009 in England. Epidemiological, microbiological, and environmental studies were conducted. The case-control study demonstrated increased risk of illness in those who ate from a special 'tasting menu' and in particular an oyster, passion fruit jelly and lavender dish (odds ratio 7·0, 95% confidence interval 1·1–45·2). Ten diners and six staff members had laboratory-confirmed norovirus infection. Diners were infected with multiple norovirus strains belonging to genogroups I and II, a pattern characteristic of molluscan shellfish-associated outbreaks. The ongoing risk from dining at the restaurant may have been due to persistent contamination of the oyster supply alone or in combination with further spread via infected food handlers or the restaurant environment. Delayed notification of the outbreak to public health authorities may have contributed to outbreak size and duration.


PURPOSE
To evaluate whether different etching methods with reduced etching times would improve the enamel bonding efficacy of universal adhesives.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Three enamel etching methods were evaluated - 1. phosphoric acid ester monomer etching (PPM); 2. phosphoric acid etching (PPA); and 3. polyalkenoic acid etching (PLA) - as were three universal adhesives: 1. BeautiBond Universal (BU); 2. Prime&Bond elect (PE); and 3. Scotchbond Universal Adhesive (SU). The shear bond strengths of the universal adhesives to ground enamel and ground enamel etched for 1, 5, 10, and 15 s with different etching methods were determined after 24 h and 10,000 thermal cycles. Surface roughness average (Ra) and surface area ratio (surface area:planar area) were measured using a confocal laser scanning microscope. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) observations of enamel with different etching protocols were also conducted.

RESULTS
The bond strengths of universal adhesives to enamel subjected to PPA etching with maximum times of 1-15 s and PLA etching for 15 s were significantly higher than those to ground enamel. The bond strength to enamel subjected to PPM etching did not increase and was similar to that for ground enamel. PPA and PLA etching were effective at increasing the Ra and surface area ratio of enamel. Although both values were significantly higher than those of ground enamel, those subjected to PPA etching were significantly higher than those which underwent PLA etching. In addition, the Ra and surface area of enamel subjected to PPM etching were similar to those of ground enamel, regardless of the etching time.

CONCLUSIONS
Phosphoric acid etching for <1-15 s and polyalkenoic-acid etching for 15 s both improve the bonding of universal adhesives, the Ra, and the surface area ratio of enamel. However, phosphoric acid ester monomer etching was not effective, regardless of the etching time.


A Different Approach to the Narratives about the Tear of the Boycott Document Placed inside al-Ka'bah This article examines the narratives with regard to lifting the boycott decisions imposed upon the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. There are basically two narratives about this event. While the first one relies on more accurate knowledge, the other contains a speculative scenario. However, since these two narratives were mixed with each other in time, some contradictory information was narrated, especially information based on a speculative scenario became most popular among the people. At the end, it is understood that the document that included the decisions of boycott was not destroyed in a mysterious way, but torn by a group of people. 58 Ibn Ishaq, 147. 59 Ibn Hisham, I, 255. 60 Ibn Hisham, I, 256.


Functional Electrical Stimulation via electrode arrays enables the user to form virtual electrodes (VEs) of dynamic shape, size, and position. We developed a feedback-control-assisted manual search strategy which allows the therapist to conveniently and continuously modify VEs to find a good stimulation area. This works for applications in which the desired movement consists of at least two degrees of freedom. The virtual electrode can be moved to arbitrary locations within the array, and each involved element is stimulated with an individual intensity. Meanwhile, the applied global stimulation intensity is controlled automatically to meet a predefined angle for one degree of freedom. This enables the therapist to concentrate on the remaining degree(s) of freedom while changing the VE position. This feedback-control-assisted approach aims to integrate the user's opinion and the patient's sensation. Therefore, our method bridges the gap between manual search and fully automatic identification procedures for array electrodes. Measurements in four healthy volunteers were performed to demonstrate the usefulness of our concept, using a 24-element array to generate wrist and hand extension.


Abstract The recently described Arunachal macaque, Macaca munzala, has to date been reported only from western Arunachal Pradesh, Eastern Himalaya. Our surveys have recorded a total of 35 troops and 569 individuals, probably a conservative estimate, for the macaque population in the Tawang and West Kameng districts of the state. The species appears to be tolerant to anthropogenic habitat change, but is vulnerable to hunting and retaliatory killing in response to crop damage. Data from one part of the area surveyed, however, indicate that the species can attain remarkably high population densities in the absence of hunting. Macaca munzala will need to be protected in human-modified landscapes, and the issues of crop damage and retaliatory persecution must be addressed urgently.


Dynamic coefficients for a lemon bore journal bearing with a compliant PTFE surface are computed. An efficient method for the calculation of bearing dynamic coefficients proposed by Lund [4] has been extended to compliant bearings. Comparison with a rigid babbitted lemon bore journal bearing in terms of dynamic coefficients and stability is given and discussed. It is shown that it is important to consider perturbations of both the oil film and the compliant lining to obtain realistic results. It is also shown that stability of compliant bearings is improved at some eccentricities compared with conventional babbitted bearings.


Introduction: Sesame seeds contain large amounts of antioxidants and phytoestrogens, and it has been shown that the leaf extract of this plant may have some beneficial effects on the reproductive parameters of male rats. Thus we tested the effects of the sesame oil on these parameters of reproductivity in male rats. Materials and Methods: Fifteen mature male Wistar male rats were divided into the control and sesame oil groups. For eight weeks the control and sesame oil groups were fed the basic rat diet and basic rat diet supplemented with 5% sesame oil respectively. Following blood collection and euthanasia the epididymal sperm were counted, the morphology of testes was accessed, and leydig, sertoli, spermatogonia and spermatocyts cells were counted in histological sections of the testes. The level of testosterone and estradiol 17- β were measured. Results: Consumption of 5% sesame oil compared to control group, decreased blood glucose and increased the epididymal sperm count and progressive motility and the number of spermatogonia of seminiferous tubule (P<0.05), but had no effect on weight and testicular morphology. Conclusion: This study showed that the sesame oil consumption improves some reproductive parameters, which may be related to the antioxidative and phytostrogenic properties of the sesame oil or insulin action improvement.


This paper focuses on how budgetary scorekeeping systems affect governments' ability or willingness to support innovative development finance initiatives and explores several options to overcome the restrictions the systems often impose. As a starting point, it assumes that donor governments, such as the United States, will not reform their budgetary system regulations to accommodate innovative development finance commitments due to political and budget policy concerns. In general, each option outlined entails important financial, political, and bureaucratic challenges and tradeoffs. In other words, there are no silver bullets. However, there are possible approaches that may merit further exploration by donor governments that want to support specific innovative development finance initiatives but are constrained by existing budgetary systems.


Phosphorene, also known as monolayer black phosphorous, has been widely used in electronic devices due to its superior electrical properties. However, its relatively low Young's modulus, low fracture strength and susceptibility to structural failure has limited its application in nano devices. Therefore, in order to design more mechanically reliable devices that utilize phosphorene, it is necessary to explore the mechanical properties of polycrystalline phosphorene. Here molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the effect of grain size on the mechanical performance of polycrystalline phosphorene sheets. Unlike other two-dimension materials with planar crystalline structure, polycrystalline phosphorene sheets are almost linear elastic, resulting from its high bending stiffness due to its intrinsic buckled crystalline structure. Moreover, the percentage increase of stiffness for polycrystalline phosphorene associated with the increase of grain size from 2 to 12 nm is only 15.9%, much smaller than that for other two-dimension materials with planar crystalline structure. This insensitivity could be attributed to the small difference between the elastic modulus of the crystalline phase and amorphous phase of polycrystalline phosphorene. In addition, the strength deduction obeys well a logarithm relation of grain size, well explained by the dislocation pile-up theory analogous to that of polycrystalline graphene. Overall, our findings provide a better understanding of mechanical properties of polycrystalline phosphorene and establish a guideline for manufacturing and designing novel phosphorene-based nano devices and nano structures.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


Previous literature on South Africa's township uprisings has overlooked girls and young women's involvement in activism and political violence. Through oral history interviews with former male and female comrades, this article presents new evidence of girls' involvement in student politics and collective action in Soweto. Seeking to participate alongside male comrades rather than separately from them, these young women erased their femininity and adopted many of the characteristics of struggle masculinity in their dress, behaviour and use of violence. However, the gendered hierarchies of township life shaped the nature of female comrades' involvement in protest and violence, as their adolescent experiences of sexual violence and subordination remained salient in determining why and how they engaged in the liberation struggle. While female comrades participated in many of the same forms of protest and violence as male comrades, they speak most nostalgically and in most detail about their roles in policing and punishing perpetrators of sexual violence. This article demonstrates that the gendered hierarchies that shaped girls' lives were central to their involvement in the liberation struggle, and how, for female comrades, this involvement was not always or only about politics and ideology but was also a means through which they addressed the injustices and victimisation they faced as young women growing up in apartheid's townships.


There is conflicting evidence on the consequences of immigrant neighbourhood segregation for individual outcomes, with various studies finding positive, negative or insubstantial effects. In this paper, we document the evolution of immigrant segregation in England over the last 40 years. We show that standard measures of segregation point to gentle declines over time for all immigrant groups. However, this hides a significant increase in the number of immigrant enclaves where immigrants account for a substantial fraction of the local population. We then explore the link between immigrant segregation, enclaves and crime using both recorded crime and self-reported crime victimization data. Controlling for a rich set of observables, we find that crime is substantially lower in those neighbourhoods with sizeable immigrant population shares. The effect is non-linear and only becomes significant in enclaves. It is present for both natives and immigrants living in such neighbourhoods. Considering different crime types, the evidence suggests that such neighbourhoods benefit from a reduction in more minor, non-violent crimes. We discuss possible mechanisms for the results we observe. JEL Classifications: F22; J15; K42


It is widely assumed that regardless of the community in question, recently burnt forests are less flammable than long-unburnt areas, so that the fire-flammability feedback is negative. An alternative hypothesis has been proposed for Snowgum forest/woodland based on deterministic fire behaviour modelling, describing a positive feedback where mature forests are significantly less flammable than more recently burnt areas. To test this, the relative area burnt by wildfire was examined for 53 years of mapped fire history in 190 000 ha of subalpine Snowgum across the Australian Alps National Parks in south-eastern Australia. Results supported the deterministic modelling, demonstrating that where forest has been burnt in the previous 14 years, subsequent fires have burnt 2.3 times as much area as they did in older forests (p = 0.05). These findings provide validation for the modelling and suggest far reaching consequences for subalpine and alpine areas in the context of a warming climate. (The Victorian Naturalist 130 (6) 2013, 232-239).


The sheer scale of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has finally led to an expanded global response. South Africa, a nation where more than 5 million people are estimated to be HIV infected, has established large scale prevention and treatment programmes. Disclosure of one's HIV status is an essential part of behaviour modification, access to HIV treatment and management programmes and for decreasing levels of community stigma. We examined the possible causes for widely differing rates of disclosure in two South African communities of similar ethnic and cultural mix. Qualitative interviews were carried out in 18 households with 25 individuals, and thematic analsyses was undertaken. Findings included the negotiation of HIV disclosure, the 'unburdening' of a positive status, and the ability to become involved in community activism and leadership. In both communities, disclosure was the catalyst for access to a variety of important, and often essential resources required to respond effectively to the impact of HIV/AIDS-related shocks. HIV positive people in the community with higher rates of disclosure had greater access formal institutional support through local NGOs and government social services and greater opportunities to take a positive leadership role as HIV positive individuals in the community. The creation of an enabling, resource-rich environment for HIV disclosure holds the potential to form a virtuous cycle whereby individuals are more likely to disclose, thus offering personal and community benefits, and further perpetuating disclosure at all levels within society. iii Acknowledgements


Successful layer-by-layer (LbL) growth of short chain (∼30 repeat units per chain) poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) (PSS)-poly(diallyl dimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) multilayers is presented for the first time and compared with the growth of equivalent long chain polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs). A detailed study performed by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) is carried out and three main processes are identified: (i) initial mass uptake, (ii) adsorption-desorption during layer equilibration and (iii) desorption during rinsing. In contrast to the high stability and strong layer increment of high molecular weight (HMW) PEMs, layer degradation characterizes low molecular weight (LMW) multilayers. In particular, two different instability phenomena are observed: a constant decrease of sensed mass during equilibration after PDADMAC adsorption, and a strong mass loss by salt-free rinsing after PSS adsorption. Yet, an increase of salt concentration leads to much stronger layer growth. First, when the rinsing medium is changed from pure water to 0.1 M NaCl, the mass loss during rinsing is reduced, irrespective of molecular weight. Second, an increase in salt concentration in the LMW PE solutions causes a larger increment during the initial adsorption step, with no effect on the rinsing. Finally, the mechanical properties of the two systems are extracted from the measured frequency and dissipation shifts, as they offer a deeper insight into the multilayer structures depending on chain length and outermost layer. The paper enriches the field of PE assembly by presenting the use of very short PE chains to form multilayers and elucidates the role of preparation conditions to overcome the limitation of layer stability.


SummarySpring Batch in Action is an in-depth guide to writing batch applications using Spring Batch. Written for developers who have basic knowledge of Java and the Spring lightweight container, the book provides both a best-practices approach to writing batch jobs and comprehensive coverage of the Spring Batch framework. About the TechnologyEven though running batch jobs is a common task, there's no standard way to write them. Spring Batch is a framework for writing batch applications in Java. It includes reusable components and a solid runtime environment, so you don't have to start a new project from scratch. And it uses Spring's familiar programming model to simplify configuration and implementation, so it'll be comfortably familiar to most Java developers. About the BookSpring Batch in Action is a thorough, in-depth guide to writing efficient batch applications. Starting with the basics, it discusses the best practices of batch jobs along with details of the Spring Batch framework. You'll learn by working through dozens of practical, reusable examples in key areas like monitoring, tuning, enterprise integration, and automated testing.No prior batch programming experience is required. Basic knowledge of Java and Spring is assumed. What's InsideBatch programming from the ground up Implementing data components Handling errors during batch processing Automating tedious tasks Table of Contents PART 1 BACKGROUND Introducing Spring Batch Spring Batch concepts PART 2 CORE SPRING BATCH Batch configuration Running batch jobs Reading data Writing data Processing data Implementing bulletproof jobs Transaction management PART 3 ADVANCED SPRING BATCH Controlling execution Enterprise integration Monitoring jobs Scaling and parallel processing Testing batch applications


Online referral systems help firms attract new customers and expand their customer base by leveraging the social relationships of existing customers. We integrate ultimatum game theory, which focuses on fairness, with motivation theories to investigate the effects of social distance and monetary incentives on the performance of three competing designs for online referral systems: rewarding only or primarily the proposer, rewarding only or primarily the responder, or dividing the reward equally or fairly between the proposer and responder. A set of controlled laboratory and randomized field experiments were conducted to test how the fairness of the split of the reward (equal/fair versus unequal/unfair split of the referral bonus) and social distance (small versus large) between the proposer and the responder jointly affect the performance of online referral systems (the proposer sending an offer and the responder accepting the offer). For a large social distance (acquaintances or weak tie relationships), equally splitting the referral bonus results in the best performance. However, for a small social distance (friends or strong tie relationships), an equal split of the referral reward does not improve referral performance, which suggests that under a small social distance, monetary incentives may not work effectively. Face validity and external validity (generalizability) are ensured using two distinct measures of social distance across several contexts. Through the analysis of the interaction effects of fairness and social distance, our research offers theoretical and practical implications for social commerce by showing that the effectiveness of fairness on the success of online social referrals largely depends on social distance.


Control systems courses are common in undergraduate engineering programs. These courses focus on the design of the controller's mathematical model but rarely have students explore the practical issues of implementing the controller. Real-time and embedded systems courses focus on these practical issues with students implementing controllers for simplified Hardware-in-theLoop plants such as a digital servo motor. Designing controllers for complex physical plants is difficult due to prohibitive costs or the risk of accidents caused by faulty controllers. These difficulties can be overcome if a simulator replaces the hardware-in-the-loop physical plant. We designed and implemented the Control System Plant Simulator (CSPS) as a flexible framework for simulating plant models in control system implementation projects. The framework allows the user to model continuous and discrete plants defined as transfer functions or systems of state-space equations. This paper describes the design of the CSPS framework by highlighting the expansion and modification flexibility it provides with its operating system, non-real-time user interface, and physical device abstraction layers. The CSPS framework has advantages over commercial tools that can provide a hardware-in-the-loop plant simulation. The framework's scope of usage is much narrower than the commercial tools making it easier to learn how to use and modify. Also, we distribute the framework as an open-source project making it readily available for use in any course without licensing, and ensuring that deeper and more complex customizations are possible. The paper concludes with a discussion of our successful experience using the framework in real-time systems course projects, and porting to two operating environments (standard Windows XP and Ardence RTX Real-Time Extensions for Windows), two user interfaces (C-based text, Visual Basic GUI), and two data acquisition devices (USB data acquisition, simulated multi-channel IO device).


We develop a nonparametric estimation theory in a non stationary environment more precisely in the framework of null recurrent Markov chains An essential tool is the split chain which makes it possible to decompose the times series under consideration in independent and identical parts A tail condition on the distribution of the recurrence time is introduced This condition makes it possible to prove weak convergence results for series of functions of the process de pending on a smoothing parameter These limit results are subsequently used to obtain consistency and asymptotic nor mality for local density estimators and for estimators of the conditional mean and the conditional variance In contra distinction to the parametric case the convergence rate is slower than in the stationary case and it is directly linked to the tail behaviour of the recurrence time


several clinical observations suggest that changes in a fatty acid concentration are associated with the pathogenesis of chronic lung disease. As an example, cystic fibrosis (CF) subjects have lower concentrations of essential fatty acids in their plasma lipids compared with normal control subjects (6, 7). Although pathogenesis of CF lung disease is not a direct consequence of changes in fatty acids, the course of the disease may be influenced by these changes and other related changes in eicosanoid production. Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) subjects have also been reported to have lower ratios of ω-3 to ω-6 fatty acids in plasma lipids compared with normal control subjects (14). In addition to the general importance of fat as an energy source, essential fatty acids are important for cellular homeostasis. The two essential fatty acids supplied as dietary supplement, α-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA), belong to the ω-3 and ω-6 families of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), respectively. The PUFAs are metabolized into longer chain fatty acids that have important biological functions. Arachidonic acid (AA) is synthesized from LA, whereas eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids are from ALA (Fig. 1). Even though a precise mechanism for low LA levels in CF is unknown, the increased metabolism of the ω-6 fatty acid pathway is shown to be a potential mechanism (1, 3).

Fig. 1.

Schematic of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) metabolism in cystic fibrosis. CFTR, cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator.

The Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterial infection has been shown to have a critical role in pathogenesis of both CF and COPD (12, 13), however, it is unclear why these patients are highly sensitive to the P. aeruginosa infections. In the case of a monogenic lung disease, CF, the absence of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein from the plasma membrane has been shown to result in an inherent hyperinflammatory lung phenotype causing chronic obstructive lung disease in both humans and Cftr−/− mice (11, 16). Defective fatty acid metabolism is considered to be a potential mechanism for altered immune response in CF. A recent study shows that lower LA levels in CF are due to its increased metabolism to AA via Δ-6 desaturase (1). The human bronchial alveolar lavage fluids (BALF) of CF subjects show elevated levels of both AA (8) and PGE2 (15). We recently demonstrated that AA-PGE2-mediated IL-8 chemokine secretion in CF (18) is a mechanism for neutrophil chemotaxis and pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory lung disease (Fig. 1). In this issue of AJP-Lung, Zaman and colleagues (20) demonstrate that LA supplements induce PGE2-IL-8-mediated inflammation in CF due to increased levels of AA. However, higher LA supplement may induce cAMP-CFTR activity (Fig. 1) in non-CF subjects and a small group of CF subjects, like G551D with partially functional CFTR on the cell surface, but will have no significant benefit in ΔF508-CF subjects.

These authors have used both in vitro and in vivo models to test the clinical significance of the recommendation that CF patients should consume a high-fat diet containing >6% LA. The data are of high clinical relevance because CF patients display a fatty acid imbalance with low LA and variable changes in AA. In contrast to previous observations, data from the study suggest that LA supplement in CF for controlling inflammation may augment the progression of the lung disease by increasing AA, PGE2, and IL-8 levels. Moreover, 100 mg of LA induces neutrophil chemotaxis in Cftr−/− compared with Cftr+/+ lungs. As a proof of concept, PUFAs or dietary supplements have not shown very promising results in controlling inflammation in CF thus far. However, dietary LA seems to have some advantage for the growth of CF infants (17). We propose that sequential deciphering of fatty acid imbalance and lipid raft-mediated inflammatory signaling (4, 5) in CF may lead to the identification of better and more specific therapeutic target(s) to improve the overall CF pathophysiology and lung function.

As an alternative to high-dose LA supplements, it is anticipated that ω-3 PUFA-containing dietary bioactive agents (like DHA ethyl ester) will downmodulate inflammatory and immune responses in CF and other chronic inflammatory diseases by targeting sphingolipid metabolism and ceramide accumulation. The most novel finding, possibly relevant to increased infection and inflammation in CF, is that the expression of defective CFTR affects sphingolipid metabolism and ceramide mass (9, 10). It is becoming clear that the inability to express wild-type CFTR increases ceramide accumulation. Moreover, data obtained in different CF murine models suggest that normalization of ceramide levels prevent the secretion of select inflammatory markers and the susceptibility to infection (Refs. 4, 16; unpublished observations).

More than 10 studies assessed the feasibility and clinical benefit of receiving ω-3 fatty acid supplements in CF. As recently reviewed, 6 out of the 10 studies revealed no significant improvement in lung and liver function, whereas 2 studies reported improvement in lung function measured by increased forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and Shwachman scores or FEV1 alone (19). In contrast, a 60-day treatment of a congenic murine model of CF with DHA showed no obvious improvements in the morphology of lungs, pancreas, or intestine, however, a reduced periportal inflammation was observed. Current studies demonstrate that ω-3 supplementation can increase DHA and EPA levels, however, ω-3 fatty acids have yet to present a stable or significant therapeutic benefit. Although current studies have not resolved whether normalization of fatty acid profiles is clinically relevant (2), recent data demonstrate that ω-3 fatty acid, DHA, can normalize increased metabolism of LA, providing a rationale for supplementation. Future studies investigating the mechanisms of fatty acid and sphingolipid metabolism in CF hold a promise to identify novel strategies to control chronic inflammatory response in CF.

To summarize, the current data (20) suggest that the risk-benefit of increasing LA supplements for CF patients needs careful evaluation by preclinical and clinical studies. Although appropriate LA doses show a significant benefit for infant weight gain and head growth, higher doses may be detrimental. Moreover, increasing LA supplements in adolescence or adulthood may not be critical for growth benefits compared with the risks associated with propagation or exacerbation of the chronic CF lung disease. The data from this study raise a caution for current recommendations to increase LA intake in CF subjects due to the deficiency of systemic LA levels. The findings of this study also raise a concern on the use of high-dose LA for subjects suffering from other chronic airway inflammatory diseases like COPD and asthma.


In inter-Scandinavian communication, participants usually speak their mother tongues, accepting certain comprehension problems, but not expecting those problems to lead to a break down in communication. People often tend to apply convergent accommodation strategies, such as a slightly lower speech rate, a more distinct pronunciation, or avoidance of words known to be difficult to understand. This paper takes a look at the effects of comprehension understanding of Swedish in Denmark when accommodation strategies are used. In an experiment, comprehension of four Swedish texts was tested under the following conditions: (A0) no accommodation, (Al) (use of one) accommodation strategy, (A2) a combination of two strategies, and (A3) a combination of three strategies. Results show a moderate increase in comprehension between A0 and Al, Al and A2/A3 and a robust (significant) increase between (A0) and A2/A3. This effect, however, does not depend on hearers' perception of accommodation and must therefore be explained by objective criteria, such as the rise in processing time following from a lower speech rate. No effect of accommodation was seen between A2 and A3. This means that the maximum effect of accommodation is reached when speakers use a combination of two different accommodation strategies.


Abstract interpretation is a methodology for defining sound static analysis. Yet, building sound static analyses for modern programming languages is difficult, because these static analyses need to combine sophisticated abstractions for values, environments, stores, etc. However, static analyses often tightly couple these abstractions in the implementation, which not only complicates the implementation, but also makes it hard to decide which parts of the analyses can be proven sound independently from each other. Furthermore, this coupling makes it hard to combine soundness lemmas for parts of the analysis to a soundness proof of the complete analysis. To solve this problem, we propose to construct static analyses modularly from reusable analysis components. Each analysis component encapsulates a single analysis concern and can be proven sound independently from the analysis where it is used. We base the design of our analysis components on arrow transformers, which allows us to compose analysis components. This composition preserves soundness, which guarantees that a static analysis is sound, if all its analysis components are sound. This means that analysis developers do not have to worry about soundness as long as they reuse sound analysis components. To evaluate our approach, we developed a library of 13 reusable analysis components in Haskell. We use these components to define a k-CFA analysis for PCF and an interval and reaching definition analysis for a While language.


In recent years, many governments have shown a keen interest in "nudges" — approaches to law and policy that maintain freedom of choice, but that steer people in certain directions. Yet to date, there has been little evidence on whether citizens of various societies support nudges and nudging. We report the results of nationally representative surveys in six European nations: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom. We find strong majority support for nudges of the sort that have been adopted, or under serious consideration, in democratic nations. Despite the general European consensus, we find markedly lower levels of support for nudges in two nations: Hungary and Denmark. We are not, in general, able to connect support for nudges with distinct party affiliations.


This paper presents and analyzes a new algorithm for computing eigenvectors of symmetric tridiagonal matrices factored as LDLt, with D diagonal and L unit bidiagonal. If an eigenpair is well behaved in a certain sense with respect to the factorization, the algorithm is shown to compute an approximate eigenvector which is accurate to working precision. As a consequence, all the eigenvectors computed by the algorithm come out numerically orthogonal to each other without making use of any reorthogonalization process. The key is first running a qd-type algorithm on the factored matrix LDLt and then applying a fine-tuned version of inverse iteration especially adapted to this situation. Since the computational cost is O(n) per eigenvector for an n × n matrix, the proposed algorithm is the central step of a more ambitious algorithm which, at best (i.e., when all eigenvectors are well-conditioned), would compute all eigenvectors of an n × n symmetric tridiagonal at O(n2) cost, a great improvement over existing algorithms.


Dynamic metasurface antennas are planar structures that exhibit remarkable capabilities in controlling electromagnetic wavefronts, advantages that are particularly attractive for microwave imaging. These antennas exhibit strong frequency dispersion and produce rapidly varying radiation patterns. Such behavior presents unique challenges for integration with conventional imaging algorithms. We adapt the range migration algorithm (RMA) for use with dynamic metasurfaces and propose a preprocessing step that ultimately allows for expression of measurements in the spatial frequency domain, from which the fast Fourier transform can efficiently reconstruct the scene. Numerical studies illustrate imaging performance using conventional methods and the adapted RMA, demonstrating that the RMA can reconstruct images with comparable quality in a fraction of the time. The algorithm can be extended to a broad class of complex antennas for application in synthetic aperture radar and MIMO imaging.


A cDNA encoding a protein of 36 kDa, polymerase delta-interacting protein 1 (PDIP1), that interacts with the small subunit (p50) of DNA polymerase delta (pol delta) was identified in a two-hybrid screen of a HepG2 cDNA library by using p50 as bait. The interaction of PDIP1 with p50 was confirmed by pull-down assays, and a similar assay was used to demonstrate that PDIP1 interacts directly with the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). PCNA and p50 bound to PDIP1 simultaneously, and PDIP1 stimulated pol delta activity in vitro in the presence, but not the absence, of PCNA, suggesting that PDIP1 also interacts functionally with both p50 and PCNA. Subcellular localization studies demonstrated that PDIP1 is a nuclear protein that colocalizes with PCNA at replication foci. A putative PCNA-binding motif was identified within the C terminus of PDIP1, and a synthetic peptide containing this PCNA-binding motif was shown to bind PCNA by far-Western analysis. Northern analysis demonstrated that PDIP1 mRNA is present in a wide variety of human tissues. PDIP1 was found to be highly homologous to a previously identified protein, B12 [Wolf, F. W., Marks, R. M., Sarma. V., Byers, M. G., Katz, R. W., Shows, T. B. & Dixit, V. M. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 1317-1326], one of the early response genes induced by tumor necrosis factor alpha. PDIP1 synthesis can also be induced by tumor necrosis factor alpha and by IL-6, cytokines essential for liver regeneration after loss of hepatic tissue. It is suggested that PDIP1 provides a link between cytokine activation and DNA replication in liver as well as in other tissues.


This study examined the effectiveness of a short-duration but high-intensity exercise countermeasure in combination with a novel oral volume load in preventing bed rest deconditioning and orthostatic intolerance. Bed rest reduces work capacity and orthostatic tolerance due in part to cardiac atrophy and decreased stroke volume. Twenty seven healthy subjects completed 5 wk of -6 degree head down bed rest. Eighteen were randomized to daily rowing ergometry and biweekly strength training while nine remained sedentary. Measurements included cardiac mass, invasive pressure-volume relations, maximal upright exercise capacity, and orthostatic tolerance. Before post-bed rest orthostatic tolerance and exercise testing, nine exercise subjects were given 2 days of fludrocortisone and increased salt. Sedentary bed rest led to cardiac atrophy (125 ± 23 vs. 115 ± 20 g; P < 0.001); however, exercise preserved cardiac mass (128 ± 38 vs. 137 ± 34 g; P = 0.002). Exercise training preserved left ventricular chamber compliance, whereas sedentary bed rest increased stiffness (180 ± 170%, P = 0.032). Orthostatic tolerance was preserved only when exercise was combined with volume loading (-10 ± 22%, P = 0.169) but not with exercise (-14 ± 43%, P = 0.047) or sedentary bed rest (-24 ± 26%, P = 0.035) alone. Rowing and supplemental strength training prevent cardiovascular deconditioning during prolonged bed rest. When combined with an oral volume load, orthostatic tolerance is also preserved. This combined countermeasure may be an ideal strategy for prolonged spaceflight, or patients with orthostatic intolerance.


OBJECTIVES
To compare subjective complaints of xerostomia and salivary gland dysfunction and a clinical assessment of oral dryness with an objective measurement of salivary gland dysfunction, in a group of UK patients attending a Dry Mouth Clinic. The aim of the study was to identify signs and symptoms that may be of predictive value for salivary gland hypofunction (SGH) in clinical practice.

METHODS
This prospective study investigated 214 patients who attended a Dry Mouth Clinic, held at Liverpool University Dental Hospital. Patients gave a history of xerostomia for a minimum of 6 months and were asked standardised questions to subjectively assess oral dysfunction. The oral mucosa was then clinically assessed for dryness and sialometry was performed. Unstimulated whole saliva flow rates (UFR) of < 0.2 ml min-1 were considered to be indicative of SGH.

RESULTS
One or more symptoms of oral dysfunction were reported in 178 (83%) patients, in addition to xerostomia. The clinician diagnosed oral dryness in 105 patients. Objective evidence of SGH was found in 125 (58%) of patients. The clinicians' subjective assessment of oral dryness was indicative of a reduced UFR (P < 0.0001) and a significant predictor of an UFR < 0.2 ml min-1 using logistic regression analysis (odds ratio 9.6; 95% CI 4.8 and 19.3). The mean UFR of patients who reported symptoms of oral dysfunction was significantly lower than the mean UFR of patients who reported no oral dysfunction. Using logistic and multiple regression analyses, symptoms of oral dysfunction were not found to be significant predictors of either an UFR < 0.2 ml min-1 or a reduced UFR.

CONCLUSIONS
The clinical assessment of oral dryness was a significant predictor of SGH, in this selected group of patients. Patients who complain of xerostomia may have additional symptoms of oral dysfunction indicative of a reduced UFR.


The development of a software product in an organization involves various groups of stakeholders who may prioritize the qualities of the product differently. This paper presents an empirical study of 65 individuals in different roles and in different locations, including on shoring, outsourcing and off shoring, prioritizing 24 software quality aspects. Hierarchical cluster analysis is applied to the prioritization data, separately for the situation today and the ideal situation, and the composition of the clusters, regarding the distribution of the inherent groupings within each of them, is analyzed. The analysis results in observing that the roles are not that important in the clustering. However, compositions of clusters regarding the onshore-offshore relationships are significantly different, showing that the offshore participants have stronger tendency to cluster together. In conclusion, stakeholders seem to form clusters of aligned understanding of priorities according to personal and cultural views rather than their roles in software development.


Recently technological and population development, the usage of vehicles are rapidly increasing and at the same time the occurrence accident is also increased. Hence, the value of human life is ignored. No one can prevent the accident, but can save their life by expediting the ambulance to the hospital in time. A new vivid scheme called Intelligent Accident detection system is introduced. The objective of this scheme is to minimize the delay caused by traffic congestion and to provide the smooth flow of emergency vehicles. The concept of this scheme is to green the traffic signal in the path of ambulance automatically with the help of RF module. So that the ambulance can reach the spot in time and human life can be saved and the accident location is identified sends the accident location immediately to the main server. The main server finds the nearest ambulance to the accident zone and sends the exact accident location to the emergency vehicle. The control unit monitors the ambulance and provides the shortest path to the ambulance at the same time it controls the traffic light according to the ambulance location and thus arriving at the hospital safely. This scheme is fully automated, thus it locates the accident spot accurately, controls the traffic lights, provide the shortest path to reach the location and to the hospital in time. KeywordGlobal System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Short Message Service (SMS), Radio Frequency (RF) __________________________________________________________________________________________________


Women in Britain who work part-time have, on average, hourly earnings about 25% less than that of women working full-time. This gap has widened greatly over the past 30 years. This paper tries to explain this part-time pay penalty. It shows that a sizeable part of the penalty can be explained by the differing characteristics of FT and PT women. Inclusion of standard demographics halves the estimate of the pay penalty. But inclusion of occupation makes the pay penalty very small, suggesting that almost the entire unexplained gap is due to occupational segregation. The rise in the pay penalty over time is partly a result of a rise in occupational segregation and partly the general rise in wage inequality. Policies to reduce the pay penalty have had little effect and it is likely that it will not change much unless better jobs can be made available on a part-time basis.


The Hangman Sandstone Group (Eifelian) of North Devon contains two continental 'Old Red Sandstone' formations. The Trentishoe Formation is some 1000 m thick and consists of lithic arenites which petrographically match closely with those in the higher parts of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in South Wales. This formation was derived mainly from erosion of the highest Lower Old Red Sandstone in early mid-Devonian times as a result of end-Caledonian uplift and erosion in S Wales. The Rawns Formation which follows contains 120 m of conglomerates and pebbly sandstones with angular clasts of porphyry, tuff, quartzite and lithic arenite which do not match with rocks in possible source areas in Wales, but could have been derived from the Lower Palaeozoic and Precambrian rocks believed to lie at shallow depth to the north of the Bristol Channel Fault Zone. Fault movements along this zone are believed to have generated relatively short-lived coarse clastic supply at various times and places around the Bristol Channel in Lower to early mid-Devonian times, in response to end-Caledonian movements. The later production of late Namurian to Westphalian sands from the Bristol Channel area was unrelated to these Devonian events, and represents uplift in response to Variscan events in SW England.


Adders are one of the key components in arithmetic circuits. Enhancing their performance can significantly improve the quality of arithmetic designs. This is the reason why the theoretical lower bounds on the delay and area of an adder have been analysed, and circuits with performance close to these bounds have been designed. In this paper, we present a novel adder design that is exponentially faster than traditional adders; however, it produces incorrect results, deterministically, for a very small fraction of input combinations. We have also constructed a reliable version of this adder that can detect and correct mistakes when they occur. This creates the possibility of a variable-latency adder that produces a correct result very fast with extremely high probability; however, in some rare cases when an error is detected, the correction term must be applied and the correct result is produced after some time. Since errors occur with extremely low probability, this new type of adder is significantly faster than state-of-the-art adders when the overall latency is averaged over many additions.


Small linear motif targeting protein interacting domains called PDZ have been identified at the C-terminus of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) proteins E, 3a, and N. Using a high-throughput approach of affinity-profiling against the full human PDZome, we identified sixteen human PDZ binders of SARS-CoV-2 proteins E, 3A and N showing significant interactions with dissociation constants values ranging from 3 μM to 82 μM. Six of them (TJP1, PTPN13, HTRA1, PARD3, MLLT4, LNX2) are also recognized by SARS-CoV while three (NHERF1, MAST2, RADIL) are specific to SARS-CoV-2 E protein. Most of these SARS-CoV-2 protein partners are involved in cellular junctions/polarity and could be also linked to evasion mechanisms of the immune responses during viral infection. Seven of the PDZ-containing proteins among binders of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins E, 3a or N affect significantly viral replication under knock-down gene expression in infected cells. This PDZ profiling identifying human proteins potentially targeted by SARS-CoV-2 can help to understand the multifactorial severity of COVID19 and to conceive effective anti-coronaviral agents for therapeutic purposes.


In order to understand the effects of the earliest stages of hydrothermal alteration and fluid‐assisted metamorphism on the matrices of unequilibrated ordinary chondrites (UOCs), we have investigated the fine‐grained matrix of MET 00526 (L3.05) using multiple electron microscope techniques. Iron‐rich olivines (Fa50‐100) are present in all four representative fine‐grained matrix regions analyzed in this study. This study shows for the first time the occurrence of FeO‐rich olivines in distinct submicron veins that crosscut regions of matrix consisting of amorphous silicates and phyllosilicates, providing evidence for elemental mass transport in a hydrothermal fluid. Our detailed transmission electron microscopy study reinforces the idea that FeO‐rich olivines are formed on asteroidal parent bodies by the interaction between a hydrothermal fluid and the pristine solar nebular materials that may be the product of condensation processes in the protoplanetary disk, that is, amorphous silicates. We propose that the FeO‐rich olivines currently observed in MET 00526 matrix are the products of three possible reaction mechanisms, (1) replacement of amorphous silicates, (2) precipitation from an SiO‐rich fluid, and (3) replacement of phyllosilicates; all these mechanisms take place in the presence of an iron‐rich fluid. The chemical evolution of the hydrothermal fluid could trigger the formation of either fayalite or phyllosilicates depending on the Si/Fe ratios. A low Si/Fe ratio is required to form FeO‐rich olivines, rather than phyllosilicates, which form at high Si/Fe ratio. Although MET 00526 records the effects of secondary alteration processes, its fine‐grained matrix still preserves some evidence of its pristine, solar nebular characteristics.


Meta-analysis of the first generation of biodiversity experiments has revealed that there is a general positive relationship between diversity and ecosystem processes that is consistent across trophic groups and ecosystem types. However, the mechanisms generating these general patterns are still under debate. While there are unresolved conceptual issues about the nature of diversity and complementarity, the debate is partly due to the difficulty of performing a full-factorial analysis of the functional effects of all species in a diverse community. However, there are now several different analytical approaches that can address mechanisms even when full factorial analysis is not possible. This chapter presents an overview and users' guide to these methods. This chapter concludes that the current toolbox of methods allows investigation of the mechanisms for most, if not all, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning experiments conducted to date that manipulate species within a single trophic level (e.g. plant biodiversity experiments). Methods that can address mechanisms in multitrophic studies are a key need for future research.


An analysis of Arizona's water resources system has been implemented. This study uses a qualitative system analysis approach to evaluate the most important components of the system: water supply, water demand, laws and regulations, stakeholders, decision makers, etc. Moreover, the investigation centres on some key components of the water resources system such as water conservation in active management areas (AMA), rural Arizona, population growth, and water rights transfers. This study provides insights on these important components, identifies factors that can be enhanced and offers suggestions for improving them. The overall goal of this analysis is to contribute ideas that will help to establish a more efficient and holistic programme to secure sustainable development of water resources.


Few epidemiological studies of middle ear disease have been conducted in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, yet the disease is common and causes hearing impairment and poorer educational outcomes. The objective of this study is to identify factors associated with abnormal middle ear appearance, a proxy for middle ear disease. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0-14 years receiving a Child Health Check (CHC) at an urban Indigenous Health Service, Brisbane, Australia were recruited from 2007 to 2010. Mixed-effects models were used to explore associations of 10 recognised risk factors with abnormal middle ear appearance at the time of the CHC. Ethical approval and community support for the project were obtained. Four hundred and fifty-three children were included and 54% were male. Participants were Aboriginal (92%), Torres Strait Islander (2%) or both (6%). Abnormal middle ear appearance was observed in 26 (6%) children and was significantly associated with previous ear infection (odds ratio (OR), 8.8; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.2-24.0) and households with eight or more people (OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.1-14.1) in the imputed multivariable mixed-effects model. No significant associations were found for the other recognised risk factors investigated. Overcrowding should continue to be a core focus for communities and policy makers in reducing middle ear disease and its consequences in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.


Recent years have seen an increasing interest in the late-afternoon transition between the convective and stable regimes of the atmospheric boundary layer. There are several differences between the two regimes. On one hand, the convective boundary layer is characterized by an unstable stratification, turbulent mixing of mass, momentum and heat and buoyancy-driven eddies. On the other hand, the stable boundary layer is associated with a strong stable stratification that tends to suppress vertical motions generated by mechanical turbulence. One of the key processes of this complex transition period is the forcing time scale associated with the surface heat flux. Unfortunately, very few modeling studies have used realistic decaying time scales for the sensible heat flux. Therefore, in the first part of this study, we present a new function that better represents the afternoon and early-evening transitions and validate it with eddy covariance measurements over different land surfaces. The objectives are to capture the buoyancy forcing time scales observed in nature and the influence of surface properties. In the second part of the study, we show preliminary results of large-eddy simulation of atmospheric flow over heterogeneous cooling stripes. We focus our attention on the temperature advection between the different stripes as a result of their different cooling rates. Overall, this study is one of the first to model the convective decay of turbulence using realistic time scales over heterogeneous terrain.


In this study, cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings were investigated in children with moderate and severe protein energy malnutrition (PEM) to determine cerebral abnormalities in malnutrition in childhood. A total of 20 children aged 3 months to 36 months were included in the study. Thirteen (65%) children had severe malnutrition and seven (35%) children had moderate malnutrition. Fifteen (75%) children had abnormal MRI findings: all of them had cerebral atrophy, and 10 (75%) children had cerebral atrophy plus ventricular dilatation. None of the children had abnormality in the brain stem or cerebellum. The authors did not find statistically significant differences between the groups when comparing the MRI findings for degree of malnutrition, head circumference, iron deficiency anemia, and serum albumin levels. In conclusion, the findings showed that most (75%) children with moderate/severe PEM had abnormal MRI findings. Therefore, it is suggested that children with PEM should be evaluated for cerebral atrophy.


Analysing individual acts committed by financial criminals requires not only addressing the collective perception of individual responsibility but also the need for shared responsibility in the fight against financial crime. Given that financial crime impacts both on the functioning and financing of society, this paper highlights the need to explore the far-reaching implications of every criminal act. Engaging the necessary resources to effectively and collectively combat this scourge cannot be achieved if analysis is restricted to the nature of criminal acts and motives of the perpetrators.


Abstract This paper investigates the food security and nutritional status of formerly displaced households (HHs). Using the 2006 Core Welfare Indicator Survey for Burundi we compare their food intake and their level of expenses with that of their non-displaced neighbours. We test whether it is the duration of displacement that matters for current food security and nutritional status or the time lapsed since returning home. We use log-linear as well as propensity score matching and an instrumental variable-approach to control for self-selection bias. We find that the individuals and HHs who returned home just before the time of the survey are worse off compared to those who returned several years earlier. On average, the formerly displaced have 5 per cent lower food expenses and 6 per cent lower calorie intake. Moreover, we find evidence in favour of duration of displacement as the main mechanisms through which displacement affects HH welfare. Results are robust after controlling for self-selection bias. Despite international, government and NGO assistance, the welfare of recent returnees is lagging seriously behind in comparison with the local non-displaced populations.


The specific intensities of nonparallel light in the direction of a stellar source, such as the sun, resulting from multiple scattering and diffuse ground reflection of a unit flux of parallel radiation incident on a plane parallel, Rayleigh atmosphere, equivalent to the Earth's atmosphere in composition and density, are evaluated following S. Chandrasekhar's extension of the Rayleigh theory. Values are given as a function of direction of the source and normal optical thickness covering the visible and near ultra violet spectrum.It is shown that the flux resulting from such nonparallel radiation, for a sufficiently small solid angle (10−3 radian) around the source, when the latter is within 50° or less of the vertical, is of the order of 10−5 of the reduced flux of the direct solar beam, for radiation within the visible range. The relative importance of the scattered light increases with normal optical thickness and zenith distance of the source.It is pointed out that certain observations of apparent atmospheric transmissions of solar radiation in the blue end of the visible spectrum exceed in magnitude significantly the values obtained from the exact Rayleigh scattering theory, and it is suggested that this anomaly may be due to non-Rayleigh particles existing in the high atmosphere, with strong forward scattering characteristics.


The proliferation of ubiquitous computing introduces several challenges to user privacy. Data from multiple sensors and users is aggregated at various scales to produce new, fine-grained inferences about people. Users of these systems are asked to consent to sharing their data without full knowledge of what data are recorded, how the data are used, who has access to the data, and most importantly risks associated with sharing. Recent work has shown that provoking privacy speculation among system users, by visualizing these various aspects, improves user knowledge and enables them to make informed decisions about their data. This paper presents a conceptual model of how researchers can make inferences that provoke privacy speculation among system users and a case study applying the model.


Background: BK channels regulate smooth muscle contractility and provide docking site for steroids, such as bile acids. Results: Non-steroid leukotriene B4 activates the BK channel via a steroid-sensing site. Conclusion: Physiological lipids from different chemical families share their recognition site in BK proteins. Significance: Our data underscore a likely cross-talk between different physiological lipids in BK channel-driven pathophysiology. Calcium/voltage-gated, large conductance potassium (BK) channels control numerous physiological processes, including myogenic tone. BK channel regulation by direct interaction between lipid and channel protein sites has received increasing attention. Leukotrienes (LTA4, LTB4, LTC4, LTD4, and LTE4) are inflammatory lipid mediators. We performed patch clamp studies in Xenopus oocytes that co-expressed BK channel-forming (cbv1) and accessory β1 subunits cloned from rat cerebral artery myocytes. Leukotrienes were applied at 0.1 nm–10 μm to either leaflet of cell-free membranes at a wide range of [Ca2+]i and voltages. Only LTB4 reversibly increased BK steady-state activity (EC50 = 1 nm; Emax reached at 10 nm), with physiological [Ca2+]i and voltages favoring this activation. Homomeric cbv1 or cbv1-β2 channels were LTB4-resistant. Computational modeling predicted that LTB4 docked onto the cholane steroid-sensing site in the BK β1 transmembrane domain 2 (TM2). Co-application of LTB4 and cholane steroid did not further increase LTB4-induced activation. LTB4 failed to activate β1 subunit-containing channels when β1 carried T169A, A176S, or K179I within the docking site. Co-application of LTB4 with LTA4, LTC4, LTD4, or LTE4 suppressed LTB4-induced activation. Inactive leukotrienes docked onto a portion of the site, probably preventing tight docking of LTB4. In summary, we document the ability of two endogenous lipids from different chemical families to share their site of action on a channel accessory subunit. Thus, cross-talk between leukotrienes and cholane steroids might converge on regulation of smooth muscle contractility via BK β1. Moreover, the identification of LTB4 as a highly potent ligand for BK channels is critical for the future development of β1-specific BK channel activators.


UNLABELLED
Serum antibodies against Trypanosoma Cruzi have been observed in 19% of the Chilean population. Marked differences in organ involvement have been reported in patients with Chagas disease. Chagas disease is rarely an aetiological factor for achalasia in Chile, which is different from reports in other countries of South America. In contrast, a high incidence of megacolon among these patients have been reported.

AIM
To study the incidence of gastric and small intestinal motor disorders among these patients and their relationship to esophageal and colon motility disorders.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We studied 18 patients, 12 women (mean age 45 years); with positive antibodies against T. Cruzi. Seven had radiological evidence of megacolon and no one had radiological or manometric evidence for achalasia. Non specific motor esophageal abnormalities were found in 11 patients. Nine had an abnormal electrocardiogram, suggesting a myocardial disease. A questionnaire for gastrointestinal symptoms, an electrogastrography and a small intestinal motility study, were performed in each patient.

RESULTS
All patients had evidences of abnormalities in at least one segment of the digestive tract. Twelve patients had an abnormal electrogastrographic study, with bradygastria as the most common finding. Nine had an abnormal small intestinal manometry with a myophatic pattern evidenced by a decreased amplitude of contractions (18.5 +/- 3 mmHg). Also an increased number of clustered contractions was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Gastric dysrhythmias and small intestinal motor abnormalities are frequently associated to non specific esophageal motor disorders and megacolon in patients with Chagas disease.


The 3D physical model of the electrical water heater was built. The water-heater performance was resolved by computer fluid dynamics simulation (CFD). The heater performance is characterized by a new method rather than that the discharge efficiency, extraction efficiency and fraction of heat recoverable. The new method is based on the constant discharge water temperature and rate for end user, 5L/min and 43°C that include the hot water from EWH and cold water from outside EWH. But the water discharge rate from EWH was variable as the water temperature discharge from EWH was variable. Compared with the traditional method, it is more close to the user using reality condition.


Morphological and molecular evidence confirm that Sciuro-hypnum dovrense, nowadays considered conspecific with S. glaciate, is actually a distinct species that can be distinguished from related species by gametophytic characters, such as plant size and colour, branch shape, stem leaf shape and orientation, and costa length. An amended description of this moss is presented and its diagnostic characters are discussed. Finally, the known distribution of the species is extended with several localities from mountainous areas of Scandinavia, and its habitat preferences are inferred mainly based on specimen label information.


In recent years manufacturing enterprises are increasingly automated and collect and
store large quantities of data relating to their products and production systems. This
electronically stored data can hold both process measures and hidden information,
which can be very important when discovered. Knowledge discovery in databases
provides the tools to explore historic or current data to reveal many kinds of
previously unknown knowledge from these databases.
Manufacturing enterprises data is complex and may include information relating to
design, process improvement and limitations, manufacturing machines and tools, and
product quality. This thesis focuses on issues relating to information extraction from
engineering databases in general and from manufacturing processes in particular using
their historical databases. It also addresses the important issue of how the process or
the design of the product can be improved based on such information. [Continues.]


This thesis consists of an introductory chapter, three main chapters, and a concluding chapter. In Chapter 2, my co-author and I provide new empirical evidencethat the distribution of liquidity has a strong in-sample and out-of-sample predictive power on intraday market volatility. To this end, we introduce a novel way of summarizing the relative depth provision in the whole limit order book. Our measure, global depth, considers the entire quoted depth and assigns weights decreasing with distance from the best quotes. We document that global depth outperforms alternative predictors of volatility, such as the bid-ask spread, standard depth variables, and measures of trading activity, in explaining the variations in market volatility. The third chapter, forthcoming in the Journal of Banking and Finance, investigates the effects of competition and signaling in a pure order driven market and examines the trading patterns of agents when walking through the book is not allowed. We show that the variables capturing the cost of a large market order are not informative for an impatient trader under this market mechanism. We also document that the competition effect is not present only at the top of the book but persistent beyond the best quotes. Moreover, we show that institutional investors' order submission strategies are characterized by only a few pieces of the limit order book information. The fourth chapter provides evidence that implied correlation is a significant indicator of market-wide risk. From an aggregate perspective, I document that implied correlation explains an important fraction of the variation in market excess returns, with high implied correlation followed by an increase in subsequent market returns. The predictive power is stronger at a forecast of bimonthly, quarterly and semiannually return horizons and robust to the inclusion of standard predictors. Moreover, I show that the information content of the correlation risk premium on market returns is fully driven by the implied correlation. My findings indicate that periods of high market-wide correlation produce a deterioration of the investment opportunity set and, as a consequence, an increase in the equilibrium expected return.