Land application of sludge has been shown to improve soil properties and aid crop growth, but the possibility of constituent nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus reaching environmentally toxic levels has caused governing authorities to set limits to how much sludge can be applied to agronomic land. The high nitrogen utilisation potential of pasture grasses suggests that more sludge can be used in this cropping system without the risk of excess nitrates. This study investigates the effect of exceeding the South African sludge application limit on hay yield, soil nitrates and phosphorus. Field plots were arranged in a complete block design comprising 4 replications of 4 treatments planted to Eragrostis curvula. The treatments consisted of 0, 4, 8 and 16 Mg∙ha-1 anaerobically digested sludge. Soil samples were collected before treatment application and at the end of each growing season for N, P, NO 3 , NH 4 + , and Bray-1P analyses. Plant samples were collected at flower ing stage for hay yield and N and P uptake determination. Statistical analyses were conducted using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and general linear model (GLM) procedures of Windows SAS 9.0 to evaluate the effect of sludge application rates on hay yield. Results over 4 growing seasons indicate that exceeding the recommended limit increased hay yield by 4% in a dry season (11.7 vs. 12.36 Mg∙ha-1) and by 16% in a wet season (14.19 vs. 17.31 Mg∙ha-1) and also increased nitrogen uptake by 15%. Sludge applied at double the recommended limit did not cause the accumulation of nitrate and ammonium in the soil, however, both total and Bray-1P were doubled. The study shows that the potential long-term environmental risk of doubling the sludge application rate norm would be from labile P accumulation in the soil profile despite a sludge P:Fe molar ratio of less than unity.


This paper analyses the role of perceptions of inequality and distributive beliefs in motivating people to engage in protests. The paper focuses on the case of Latin America, where an interesting paradox has been observed: despite considerable reductions in inequality, most countries in Latin America have experienced increases in protests and civil unrest in the last decade. In order to understand this paradox, we analyse the relationship between inequality and protests in recent years in Latin America, using micro-level data on individual participation in protests in 2010, 2012 and 2014. The results show that civil protests are driven by distributive beliefs and not by levels of inequality because individual judgements and reactions are based on own perceptions of inequality that may or may not match absolute levels of inequality. The results also point to the important role of government policy in affecting perceptions of inequality and ensuring social and political stability.


We seek to understand how the ability of trees to acquire and retain nitrogen (N) changes throughout their lifetimes. This capacity enables trees to act as carbon (C) sinks individually and collectively in forest ecosystems over successional time scales. We evaluate how properties that govern nutrient retention change with tree size and forest age, and how allometric relationships scale up to influence ecosystem-level patterns of N cycling and retention. Most generally, we hypothesized that changes in N uptake and recycling efficiency with increasing tree size would vary with forest age and N availability. Additionally, we evaluated changes in ecosystem-level C and N accumulation throughout secondary forest succession following clear-cut logging disturbances in an effort to understand how N limitation may become expressed over time and interact with forest successional dynamics. Our findings highlight the importance of large trees in ecosystem N cycling and growth. We find that increasing mass growth rates are matched by an increasing capacity to acquire and retain N without necessitating increases in growth efficiency. Research findings indicate that mortality of single trees may hold profound consequences for standlevel N retention in addition to C storage. At the ecosystem scale, we find N accumulation and limitation are dynamic processes that fluctuate in strength and source over forest succession, and that ecosystem accumulation of N was driven predominately by increasing N in plant biomass rather than in soil pools.


If produced in high energy particle collisions at the LHC, magnetic monopoles could stop in material surrounding the interaction points. Obsolete parts of the beam pipe near the CMS interaction region, which were exposed to the products of pp and heavy ion collisions, were analysed using a SQUID-based magnetometer. The purpose of this work is to quantify the performance of the magnetometer in the context of a monopole search using a small set of samples of accelerator material ahead of the 2013 shutdown.


There is growing interest in the application of "continuous simulation" conceptual rainfall‐runoff models for flood frequency estimation as an adjunct to event‐based or statistical design methodology. The approach has advantages that stem from the use of models with continuous water balance accounting. Conceptual rainfall‐runoff models usually require calibration, which in turn requires gauged rainfall and flow data. One of the key challenges is therefore to develop ways of generalizing models for use at ungauged sites. Recent work has produced a prototype scheme for achieving this aim in Great Britain for two catchment models by relating model parameters to spatial catchment properties, such as soils, topography, and geology. In this paper we present an analysis of the uncertainty associated with one of the generalized models (the "probability distributed model") in terms of confidence intervals for simulations at test sites that are treated as if they were ungauged. This is done by fitting regression relationships between hydrological model parameters and catchment properties so as to estimate the parameters as distribution functions for the ungauged site case. Flood flow outputs are then simulated from the parameter distributions and used to construct approximate confidence intervals. Comparison with gauged data suggests that the generalized model may be tentatively accepted. Uncertainty in the modeled flood flows is often of a similar order to the uncertainty surrounding a more conventional statistical model, in this case a single‐site generalized Pareto distribution fitted to the gauged data.


Abstract This article juxtaposes donors' analyses of state failure and strategies of post-conflict statebuilding in Sierra Leone with actual processes of state-formation. It argues that international state-builders' analytical and policy frameworks are built on stylized assumptions about how states form and operate influenced by ideas derived from neoclassical economics. They focus on individual decision-making and functionalist formal institutions and provide a-historical analyses that fail to comprehend long-term state-formation. Interveners need to broaden their conceptual toolbox by paying more attention to local power structures, informal institutions and historical path dependency. Such a deeper analysis would encourage reflection on whether and how social change can be influenced by external intervention and allow donors to evaluate their statebuilding activities more honestly. This would raise important questions about the mismatch between interveners' ambitious goals and modest tools.


Black wattle (Acacia meamsii), which belongs to the genus Acacia, is one of the many species of trees or hardwoods grown commercially in South Africa. Black wattle is a species indigenous to Australia and was introduced into South Africa by the van der Plank brothers in 1864. These trees are grown in South Africa because of its tannin-rich bark, the extract of which is used by the leather tanning industry. Black wattle is also grown for its timber, timber products and pulp. The introduction and cultivation history of black wattle suggests that the South African plantations contain limited genetic variation with relatedness amongst groups estimated to be high, thus implying a narrow genetic base in the South African black wattle population. In this investigation, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to estimate the genetic variation between seven different black wattle groups. A total number of 34 individuals obtained from different areas in South Africa were examined; Piet Retief (group 47 and 50: half-sibs), Kumbula (group 85: unrelated individuals), Howick (group 400: unrelated individuals) and an unknown area (groups 88, 89, 91: full-sibs). As this investigation was the first of its kind, a DNA isolation method as well as a PCR-RAPD protocol had to be modified. Total genomic DNA was successfully extracted using the CTAB DNA extraction method. This method removed large amounts of tannin present in the cells of the black wattle leaves and extracted high quality DNA to conduct between 50-100 RAPD reactions. The DNA purities ranged from 0.1 to 1.8, with an average of 1.46. A total of fourteen 10-mer RAPD primer sequences were randomly selected from the Operon Technologies primer list A, and tested in this investigation. Of the 14 primers used, only nine primers produced clear, single and repeatable bands. Therefore nine primers were selected for subsequent analyses. Ninety one loci that generated bands ranging from 300-3050 base pairs were produced. Seven to 13 loci per primer were generated. A total of 95.6 % of the loci were polymorphic. The overall expected mean heterozygosity (H = 0.3) obtained in this stUdy was high in comparison to other studies conducted on acacias. The high levels of genetic variation were attributed to mating systems, dissortative mating and geographic distribution. The statistical packages POPGENE and ARLEQUIN were used to analyse the RAPD fingerprints. The genetic measures, Nei's diversity and Shannon's Information Index, showed that there was greater diversity exhibited (Nei's gene xv diversity = 32.09 % and Shannon's = 48.31 %), in the whole population than in each of the groups (with average of Nei's gene diversity = 20.33 % and Shannon's = 34.64 %). With regards to individual group analyses, low levels of genetic variation was obtained in group 400 (unrelated), from the Howick region, and group 85 (unrelated), from the Kumbula region, (mean 0.14 and 0.17 respectively). The low genetic values were attributed to limited gene exchange occurring in these two areas, bottlenecks and selection pressures. Groups 88, 89 and 91, from the unknown region (full-sib groups), were the most variable in comparison to the other groups, with means of (0.27,0.24 and 0.18 respectively). These high genetic variation values could be due to the fact that gene migration could have occurred between these groups and others in the area. It is thought that most acacias are insect-pollinated and this could have lead to gene migration between groups or populations, thereby explaining the high mean values. The gene flow obtained for the seven groups (FST = 0.174) indicated that great genetic differentiation existed in this population of black wattle studied. This value is higher in comparison to other woody species; however it is similar to other acacia species. UPGMA cluster analysis using Nei's unbiased genetic distance, revealed four distinct clusters of groups corresponding to the distribution areas represented in this study. The Howick (group 400: unrelated) and Kumbula (group 85: unrelated) were more closely related to each other than to the other groups, since both these groups are from Natal. The Piet Retief groups (groups 47 and 50: half-sibs), branched-off together, indicating that they are distinct from the other groups. The pairwise analysis of identity showed that the relationship between the group from Howick (group 400: unrelated) and all the other groups from the other regions was the lowest, ranging from 64 % to 79 %. The relationship between all the groups beside the group from Howick (group 400: unrelated) was reasonably high, ranging from 78 % to 90 %. This distance displayed by group 400 (unrelated) from Howick in relation to the groups, is attributed to the fact that it is frost resistant and the other groups not. Genetic variation was also detected and partitioned, between and within groups, by Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMQVA). Majority of the variation existed within groups (82.65 %) but significant differentiation was recorded between groups (17.44 %). This high level of within group differentiation may be explained by many aspects, such as the species breeding system, genetic drift or genetic isolation of groups or populations. The application of RAPD fingerprinting in black wattle has provided a more in depth understanding of the genetic variation xvi residing in the South African population. The results achieved implementing this technique has shown that significant genetic variation exists within the black wattle population in South Africa. The results obtained in this study are also important since it is contrary to the expectation that the black wattle population in South Africa has low genetic variation. This knowledge is of great value to genetically discriminate between individuals or groups, to improve the selection of superior genotypes and allowing improved quality control in breeding programmes and seed orchard management.


Pneumonia is still a global health concern with high mortality rate, mainly among chil- dren under 5 years and adults over 65 years. In addition to pathogen virulence, immu-noevasion capacity, and drug resistance ability, risk factors for the patient include aging, comorbidities, malnutrition, and all causes affecting the immune system. The extent to which environmental disorders affect the respiratory health is established for chronic diseases such as asthma, COPD, and cardiovascular diseases, but less is known about the underlying mechanisms of their impact on infectious diseases of the respiratory system. This chapter aims to recall the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of pneumonia, with a focus on the impact of climate change and related risk factors on acute low tract respiratory infections.


AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between secondary school teachers' distribution of student responsibilities on the learners' perception of gender equality. It is based on a study conducted in Uasin-Gishu County in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between the hidden curriculum and gender equality amongst secondary school students. The authors adopted a survey research design. The target population consisted of the accessible population was the selected students in sampled mixed schools in the area. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to select 21 schools. Stratified random sampling based on gender was used to obtain the representative sample of 271 participants. The authors used questionnaires and document analysis as the main tools for collection of data. The collected data was coded using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, and then presented using descriptive statistics. It was found that the teachers failed to promote gender equality amongst the students in assignment of responsibilities and rather believed that certain duties were masculine while others were feminine responsibilities, a situation that further promoted gender inequality amongst the students. As such, it was recommended that teachers be sensitized through seminars and workshops on the need to provide equal opportunities as well as the need to change attitudes towards girls, especially as regards girls' interest and performance in Mathematics and Technological subjects. Schools must focus on reversing the traditional allocation of responsibilities and roles to girls and boys in order to build and shape them towards equality. The study is important both scholars and general readers as it sheds light to teachers and aids in understanding the effects of the attitudes, assumptions and expectations that may be placed on the students and therefore cause the gender gap.Keywords: influence, secondary, schools, teachers, distribution, student, responsibilities, learners, Kenya.INTRODUCTIONGender issues have continued to play a key role in the formulation of public policy, not least in the education sector, where the gender gap in many developing countries remains a challenge (Sifuna et al., 2006). It is, however, important to understand the process of policy formulation because it is crucial to the final outcome of its implementation. In contemporary educational theory and practice, feminist thought provides invaluable direction on gender policies that seek to enhance inclusiveness and equality in education (Sifuna et al., 2006). The Sessional paper No. 1 of 2005 (GoK, 2005) points to the support and implementation of affirmative action in secondary education to address the needs of the marginalized and/or those in difficult circumstances and the need to ensure that the school environment is gender and special needs education responsive.Sifuna et al. (2006), however, point out how education policies reveal the absence of comprehensive gender policy with specific Monitoring and Evaluation guidelines. Further, the Kenya Government hardly provides effective guidelines on how to ensure that schools are, not only, learner-friendly, but also that girls are made to feel safe at school. Further, unless the policies are explicit on girls' educational needs, the gender gap would continue to be skewed in favour of the boys. There is therefore need to address gender issues within the broader policy concerns and in the context of the global focus of EFA, the MDG's and other international conventions and treaties that advocate equal education for every person.Some of the key international treaties, according to Chege et al. (2006), include:(a) The international Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which was adopted in 1966 and came into force 10 years later in 1976, albeit with a limited coverage of gender and education issues. …


The formation of boron–nitrogen (B–N) bonds has been widely explored for the synthesis of small molecules, oligomers, or linear polymers; however, its use in constructing porous organic frameworks remains very scarce. In this study, three highly porous diazaborole-linked polymers (DBLPs) have been synthesized by condensation reactions using 2,3,6,7,14,15-hexaaminotriptycene and aryl boronic acids. DBLPs are microporous and exhibit high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area (730–986 m2 g−1) which enable their use in small gas storage and separation. At ambient pressure, the amorphous polymers show high CO2 (DBLP-4: 4.5 mmol g−1 at 273 K) and H2 (DBLP-3: 2.13 wt% at 77 K) uptake while their physicochemical nature leads to high CO2/N2 (35–42) and moderate CO2/CH4 (4.9–6.2) selectivity. The electronic impact of integrating diazaborole moieties into the backbone of these polymers was investigated for DBLP-4 which exhibits green emission with a broad peak ranging from 350 to 680 nm upon excitation with 340 nm in DMF without photobleaching. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of B–N formation in targeting highly porous frameworks with promising optical properties.


It has become a copybook maxim to assert that the policy of "War Communism" was imposed on the Bolsheviks by the Civil War and the foreign intervention. This is completely untrue, if only for the reason that the first decrees on introducing the "socialist ideal" exactly "according to Marx" in Soviet Russia were issued long before the beginning of the Civil War (the decrees of fan. 26 and Feb. 14, 1918, on the nationalization of the merchant fleet and of all banks), while the last decree on the socialization of all small handicraftsmen and artisans was issued on Nov. 29, 1920, i.e., after the end of the Civil War in European Russia. Of course, the conditions of the Civil War and the intervention left an imprint. But the main thing was something else the immediate implementation of theory in strict accordance with Marx (from "Critique of the Gotha Program") and Engels (from "Anti-During"). Sirotkin-1989. In the failure of War Comunism and the retreat to NEP the impossibility of the planning as articulated theoretically in the MisesHayek critique was directly demonstrated in practice. Don Lavoie1986-87.


Photochemical ozone and black carbon are key substances both for regional air pollution and global climate change. These two pollutants are so-called SLCPs (Short-Lived Climate Pollutants). International comparison studies among megacities with widely different conditions are effective in clarifying the formation mechanisms of SLCPs. A comparison study in megacity areas of Japan and Mexico mainly focusing on ozone, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and PM2.5 was conducted based on air pollution trend analysis and field measurements including vertical soundings of ozone and meteorological parameters. In this study, co-beneficial countermeasure scenarios based upon the obtained scientific data has been proposed. Photochemical ozone, EC (elemental carbon; a major SLCP), and NOx (nitrogen oxides) and VOCs (NOx and VOCs are implicit SLCPs) need to be controlled to improve the regional and global atmospher ic environment. In Japan, countermeasures including the whole Asian area wil l be necessary because there is considerable contribution from trans-boundary air pollution. In Mexico, regulation of VOCs including energy shift and diesel exhaust gas control will be effective. These findings will be utilized to formulate and/or evaluate ProAire (Program for Air Quality Improvement) for the three studied megacity areas of Mexico.


Importance
A high 21-gene recurrence score (RS) by breast cancer assay is prognostic for distant recurrence of early breast cancer after local therapy and endocrine therapy alone, and for chemotherapy benefit.

Objective
To describe clinical outcomes for women with a high RS who received adjuvant chemotherapy plus endocrine therapy in the TAILORx trial, a population expected to have a high distant recurrence rate with endocrine therapy alone.

Design, Setting, and Participants
In this secondary analysis of data from a multicenter randomized clinical trial, 1389 women with hormone receptor-positive, ERBB2-negative, axillary node-negative breast cancer, and a high RS of 26 to 100 were prospectively assigned to receive adjuvant chemotherapy in addition to endocrine therapy. The analysis was conducted on on May 12, 2019.

Interventions
The adjuvant chemotherapy regimen was selected by the treating physician.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Freedom from recurrence of breast cancer at a distant site, and freedom from recurrence, second primary cancer, and death (also known as invasive disease-free survival [IDFS]).

Results
Among the 9719 eligible women, with a mean age of 56 years (range 23-75 years), 1389 (14%) had a recurrence score of 26 to 100, of whom 598 (42%) had an RS of 26 to 30 and 791 (58%) had an RS of 31 to 100. The most common chemotherapy regimens included docetaxel/cyclophosphamide in 589 (42%), an anthracycline without a taxane in 334 (24%), an anthracycline and taxane in 244 (18%), cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/5-fluorouracil in 52 (4%), other regimens in 81 (6%), and no chemotherapy in 89 (6%). At 5 years, the estimated rate of freedom from recurrence of breast cancer at a distant site was 93.0% (standard error [SE], 0.8%), freedom of recurrence of breast cancer at a distant and/or local regional site 91.0% (SE, 0.8%), IDFS 87.6% (SE, 1.0%), and overall survival 95.9% (SE, 0.6%).

Conclusions and Relevance
The estimated rate of freedom from recurrence of breast cancer at a distant site in women with an RS of 26 to 100 treated largely with taxane and/or anthracycline-containing adjuvant chemotherapy regimens plus endocrine therapy in the prospective TAILORx trial was 93% at 5 years, an outcome better than expected with endocrine therapy alone in this population.

Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00310180.


A re-issue of a best seller with a fun new cover for a new generation of teens. Over 75,000 copies sold! Should you kick bullies? What if all your friends swear? What about girlfriends/boyfriends? What about God? Staying in shape when the heat is on isn't easy - ask any chocolate teapot! So here is some practical help on how to live for Jesus at school. There's help with telling others about Jesus, touching base with other Christians, when you feel you've let God down, and how not to start your career at secondary school. All this wrapped up with fun and humour, and lots of teen-appeal.


Researchers increasingly use more and more survey studies, and design medical studies to better understand the relationships of patients, physicians, their health care system utilization, and their decision making processes in disease prevention and management. Longitudinal data is widely used to capture trends occurring over time. Each subject is observed as time progresses, but a common problem is that repeated measurements are not fully observed due to missing response or loss to follow up. An individual can move in and out of the observed data set during a study, giving rise to a large class of distinct "non-monotone" missingness patterns. In such medical studies, sample sizes are often limited due to restrictions on disease type, study design and medical information availability. Small sample sizes with large proportions of missing information are problematic for researchers trying to understand the experience of the total population. The information in the data collected may produce biased estimators if, for example, the patients who don't respond have worse outcomes, or the patients who answered "unknown" are those without access to medical or non-medical information or care. Data modeled without considering this missing information may cause biased results. A first-order Markov dependence structure is a natural data structure to model the tendency of changes. In my first project, we developed a Markov transition model using a full-likelihood based algorithm to provide robust estimation accounting for "non-ignorable'' missingness information, and applied it to data from the Penn Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research. In my second project, we extended the method to a pseudo-likelihood based approach by considering only pairs of adjacent observations to significantly ease the computational complexities of the full-likelihood based method proposed in the first project. In my third project, we proposed a two stage pseudo hidden Markov model to analyze the association between quality of life measurements and cancer treatments from a randomized phase III trial (RTOG 9402) in brain cancer patients. By incorporating selection models and shared parameter models with a hidden Markov model, this approach provides targeted identification of treatment effects. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Epidemiology & Biostatistics First Advisor Andrea B. Troxel This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/658


Developed a lightweight containment system for high-speed composite rotors. The containment device, consisting of a rotatable, composite structure, has been demonstrated to contain the high-energy release from a rotor burst event and is applicable to composite rotors for pulsed power applications. The most important aspect of this design is that the free-floating containment structure dissipates the major loads (radial, torque, and axial) encountered during the burst event, greatly reducing the loads that pass through the stator structure to its attachments. The design results in significant system-level weight savings for the entire rotating machine when compared to a system with an all-metallic containment. Of equal interest to the containment design, the experimental design and instrumentation was very challenging and resulted in significant lessons learned. This paper describes the containment system design, rotor burst test setup, instrumentation for measuring loads induced by the burst event, and a detailed explanation of the successful containment test results and conclusions.


In order to study the influence on blue-green algal nitrogenase activity of environmental variables in deepwater rice-fields (DWR), a laboratory study was planned on a DWR isolate of Calothrix (D764). The variables chosen were light, oxygen, combined nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. As availability of P is likely to play an especially important role for growth and nitrogen fixation in DWR, studies on phosphatase activity of the isolate were also included. The method used for measuring nitrogenase activity was acetylene reduction assay (ARA). In order to convert nitrogenase activity to nitrogen fixation, the conversion ratio of N(_2) : C(_2)H(_2) reduced was determined by comparing the total amount of N fixed with total C(_2)H(_2) reduced. The ratio was 1 : 4.1 and 1 : 5.2 at 85 and 10 µmol photon m(^-2) s(^-1), respectively. Changes in nitrogenase activity in batch culture were studied in relation to growth characteristics. Maximum activity (10.5 nmol C(_2)H(_4) mg d. wt(^-1) min(^-1)) was observed after two days of growth. During this period, juvenile trichomes (hence maximum heterocyst frequency) were abundant and cyanophycin granules were absent; chl a, phycobiliprotein and algal N decreased. It is suggested that the juvenile filament is the most active nitrogen-fixer during the growth of the alga. The response of nitrogenase to changes in light flux (down- or upshift) was rapid. The alga showed a marked drop in nitrogenase activity in the dark, but subsequent changes were slow, with detectable activity after 24 h. Higher nitrogenase activity was observed when the dark grown alga was re-illuminated, than the maximum activity found under continuous illumination. Nitrogen fixation and heterocyst differentiation were suppressed when 10 mg 1(^-1) NH(_4)-N was added to a batch culture. Fe-deficient cultures had lower nitrogenase activity and N content than Fe-sufficient cultures. Fe- deficiency led to the development of a series of new heterocysts apical to the basal ones. Addition of Fe to Fe-deficient cultures led to a marked increase in nitrogenase activity and loss of the degenerated basal heterocysts. The alga was capable of using a number of organic P substrates as the sole source of phosphorus and showed both cell-bound phosphomono- and phosphodiesterase activities. In batch culture, phosphatase activity was detected when cellular P content dropped to 0.98%. A brief study on the influence of the environmental factors on cell-bound phosphatase activities of the alga has been included. A brief comparison in nitrogenase activity of a UK field Rivularia population and bacterised laboratory isolate Rivularia D403 was made and probable behaviour of algae in DWR is discussed.


A Composite Tracer Analysis Approach to Reservoir Characterization. (August 2004) Adedayo Stephen Oyerinde, B.S., University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria; Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta In the quest for production optimization from established resources, there is a continual interest in secondary and tertiary recovery methods. The success of these enhanced recovery methods, however, rely to a large extent on a sound understanding of fluid dynamics and migration paths in the reservoir. To this end, several approaches to reservoir characterization have been put to test with varying degrees of success. The unique ability of tracers to provide direct information on preferential fluid flow paths in the reservoir, and the sensitivity of partitioning tracers to fluid saturation distribution has highlighted the prospects of a detailed reservoir characterization through interwell tracer tests. In a broad sense, analysis of interwell tracer tests fall into two categories, analytical and inverse modeling. While most of the analytical methods are laden with limiting assumptions, the method of moments boasts rigorous formulation and accurate estimates of swept volume and average saturation of bypassed oil. The inverse modeling infers permeability and saturation distribution by matching the tracer response. An extremely effective approach to the inverse modeling methods computes sensitivities based on streamlines. The accurate modeling of tracer flow requires accounting for complex phenomena such as transverse dispersion. Also, it is sometimes desired to model pertinent tracer components through compositional simulation. This necessitates the inclusion of a physical dispersion tensor and, hence, the well established finite difference formulation. In this work, we have coupled the finite difference and streamline simulation techniques for the inversion-based reservoir characterization to take advantage of the robustness of the finite difference formulation and computational efficiency of streamline simulation. We have also extended the formalism of the inversion technique for fluid distribution estimation to scenarios with mobile oil saturations and have attempted integrating the analytical and inverse-modeling techniques to facilitate detailed reservoir characterization. We have demonstrated the feasibility of our approach on both synthetic and field cases.


Storeys is a graph-based visualization tool designed for collaborative story writing that represents stories in a branching tree of individual sentences. The fine-grained, branching structure supports collaboration by reducing contribution cost, conflict over text ownership, and production blocking. Also designed to be ludic and playful, in initial evaluations Storeys was seen as a fun tool for creativity that balanced the exploration and elaboration of ideas.


We present the first coordinated study using two lidars at two separate locations to characterize a 1 h mesoscale gravity wave event in the mesopause region. The simultaneous observations were made with the Student Training and Atmospheric Research (STAR) Na Doppler lidar at Boulder, CO, and the Utah State University Na Doppler lidar and temperature mapper at Logan, UT, on 27 November 2013. The high precision possessed by the STAR lidar enabled these waves to be detected in vertical wind. The mean wave amplitudes are ~0.44 m/s in vertical wind and ~1% in relative temperature at altitudes of 82–107 km. Those in the zonal and meridional winds are 6.1 and 5.2 m/s averaged from 84 to 99 km. The horizontal and vertical wavelengths inferred from the mapper and lidars are ~219 ± 4 and 16.0 ± 0.3 km, respectively. The intrinsic period is ~1.3 h for the airglow layer, Doppler shifted by a mean wind of ~17 m/s. The wave packet propagates from Logan to Boulder with an azimuth angle of ~135° clockwise from north and an elevation angle of ~ 3° from the horizon. The observed phase difference between the two locations can be explained by the traveling time of the 1 h wave from Logan to Boulder, which is about ~2.4 h. The wave polarization relations are examined through the simultaneous quantifications of the three wind components and temperature. This study has developed a systematic methodology for fully characterizing mesoscale gravity waves, inspecting their intrinsic properties and validating the derivation of horizontal wave structures by applying multiple instruments from coordinated stations.


We introduce a library for the productive development of image processing accelerators using C-based high-level synthesis. The key concept of our approach is to provide a set of generic building blocks that is applicable to a multitude of image processing applications. An efficient memory architecture that facilitates easy integration of point and local image processing operators is the centerpiece of the library. The generic building blocks are kept very compact and can be tailored to support sophisticated processing techniques. The representation enables the designer to comply with specific design requirements, such as stringent timing constraints or limited resource budgets. Results show a significant gain in productivity compared to hand coded implementation while delivering comparable performance and resource requirements.


Background and Aims The long-term survival in people with type 2 diabetes following first diagnosis of diabetic foot complications (FDDFC) is unclear. The object is to evaluate the mortality rate in subjects with type 2 diabetes following FDDFC and the impacts of the major cardiovascular comorbidities. Methods Nationwide data were analyzed for subjects with T2D and DFC between 2003 and 2017 according to ICD-9 coding. DFC was defined with the codes of ulcers, infections, or severe peripheral artery disease that required intervention (PAD) to mimic the real world diagnosis. Criteria of FDDFC were preceded by a period without any DFC for at least 5 years. Major cardiovascular comorbidities: established PAD and cardiovascular diseases (CVD: including coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or heart failure) before the index date as well as lower-extremity amputations (LEA) at the index episode were analyzed. Results Among 300,115 subjects with DFC, a total of 103,396 patients had FDDFC. The mean 5-year survival rate of these subjects was 81.05%. Using subjects without associated major cardiovascular comorbidity as baseline, the adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) were1.43 (95% confidence interval 1.38–1.49) in group PAD-/CVD+, followed by 1.70 (1.59–1.80) in PAD+/CVD- and 1.98 (1.89–2.08) in PAD+/CVD+. The aHR was further increased in patients with PAD who additionally had heart failure (3.77, 3.50–4.05), stroke (2.06, 1.95–2.18), or CHD (1.89, 1.79–2.00). Subjects with PAD rather than other CVD were associated with LEA at FDDFC. Patients with major LEA (above the ankle) at FDDFC episode had lower 5-year survival rate (65.01%) followed by those with minor LEA (72.24%) and without LEA (81.61%). Conclusions Cardiovascular comorbidity as well as LEA status at the event of FDDFCs were both associated with patient survival outcomes. Earlier identification of this large population could lead to higher survival rates.


The thesis consists of three sections which are: Carol Shields the ordinary and the extraordinary ; the translation of the short stories "Hazel" and "Hinterland" from The Orange Fish by Carol Shields; and Antoine Berman's systems of deformation in literary prose . In the first section, the author, Carol Shields, is introduced by a short biography to underscore her interests in everyday life and in women and, in the third section, Antoine Berman's theory on the analytic of translation by means of thirteen tendencies of deformation, which are inherent to translation, is presented. The analytic of translation helped the translator self-evaluate and self-revise the translation. Destruction of underlying networks of meaning is examined in detail in order to reveal the underlying text of "Hazel" by analyzing the metaphors and their keywords. Even if certain tendencies of deformation were spotted in the two short stories, by no means was it always necessarily possible to avoid them, as the translation would have been incoherent. The analytic of translation is not a recipe for translating a literary text or producing a perfect translation, but rather a reflection to help the translator validate his choices and welcome the Foreign.


Profunctor optics are bidirectional data accessors that capture data transformation patterns such as accessing subfields or iterating over containers. They are modular, meaning that we can construct accessors for complex structures by combining simpler ones. Profunctor optics have been studied only using $\mathbf{Sets}$ as the enriching category and in the non-mixed case. However, functional programming languages are arguably better described by enriched categories and we have found that some structures in the literature are actually mixed optics. Our work generalizes a classic result by Pastro and Street on Tambara theory and uses it to describe mixed V-enriched profunctor optics and to endow them with V-category structure. We provide some original families of optics and derivations, including an elementary one for traversals that solves an open problem posed by Milewski. Finally, we discuss a Haskell implementation.


ProblemThere is a lack of knowledge about how Swedish SMEs make decisions on IT service selection. There is also lack of information about the attributes of IT service providers that are most important to Swedish SMEs. By discovering these attributes, IT service providers could focus on improving their services in those dimensions and become more attractive for Swedish small and medium enterprises.PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate the decision making process over selection of IT services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. Additionally, this research intends to discover the most important features (attributes) of an IT service provider in its selection.What are the steps involved in decision-making process? What decision-making methods can be used to help explain the process that goes on in the minds of the decision makers? What aspects influence their behaviour when decision makers prefer one service provider to another?IT service comprises of internet-based services such as web hosting, email services, online backup services and cloud apps or locally offered IT services such as IT helpdesk. The candidates who were interviewed were employees or entrepreneurs who work and live in Sweden.MethodThis research was conducted with an inductive approach using mono method for semi-structured interviews for primary data collection. Secondary data collection was multiple-source through literature reviews in order to learn about different attributes and current knowledge about this subject. The research method was qualitative with exploratory strategy in order to get insights into managers' decision-making processes. Sampling was non-probability purposive method with sample size as saturation method. The focus was illustrative and method chosen as typical case.ConclusionThe conclusions of this thesis illustrates that the important attributes (features) of IT services required by Swedish SMEs are the requirement that the service is being offered from Sweden, due to tax conformity laws and security matters. Moreover, SAT, WADD, FRQ and EBA are decision-making heuristics in use by the companies in selection of suitable IT services.


Using Statistics to Understand the Environment covers all the basic tests required for environmental practicals and projects and points the way to the more advanced techniques that may be needed in more complex research designs. Following an introduction to project design, the book covers methods to describe data, to examine differences between samples, and to identify relationships and associations between variables. Featuring: worked examples covering a wide range of environmental topics, drawings and icons, chapter summaries, a glossary of statistical terms and a further reading section, this book focuses on the needs of the researcher rather than on the mathematics behind the tests.


There has been a shift in the U.S. job tenure distribution toward longer-duration jobs since 2000. This change is apparent both in the tenure supplements to the Current Population Survey and the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics matched employer-employee data. A substantial portion of these changes are caused by the ageing of the workforce and the decline in the entry rate of new employer businesses. We show that the tenure distribution is a function of historical hiring rates and tenure-specific separation rates, and we use this framework to show that the shift in the tenure distribution is accounted for primarily by declines in the hiring rate, which are concentrated in the labor market downturns associated with the 2001 and 2007-2009 recessions. We also find that the increase in average real earnings since 2007 is less than what would be predicted by the shift toward longer-tenure jobs; this reflects declines in tenure-held-constant real earnings. Regression estimates of the returns to job tenure provide no evidence that the shift in the job tenure distribution is being driven by better matches between workers and employers.


GABAA receptor channels (GABARs) composed of varying combinations of alpha 1, beta 1, and gamma 2S subunits were transiently expressed in mammalian cell lines. The whole-cell patch-clamp recording technique was used to determine which combinations of GABAR subunits produced functional receptor channels and whether assembly of GABAR subunits into receptor channels followed a random or preferred sequence. To identify rapidly cells expressing GABARs, mammalian cell lines were cotransfected with combinations of GABAR subunit cDNAs and the Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase gene as a transfection marker. Positively transfected cells were identified by staining with the enzyme substrate fluorescein di-beta-galactopyranoside. Using this technique, we confirmed that functional alpha 1 beta 1 and alpha 1 beta 1 gamma 2S GABARs were assembled in transfected mouse L929 fibroblast cells, but surprisingly, functional alpha 1 gamma 2S and beta 1 gamma 2S GABARs were not expressed. It was determined that after transient transfection, levels of expressed receptors varied little among individual cells permitting comparison of absolute whole-cell GABA- evoked current values. Whole-cell currents recorded from cells coexpressing alpha 1 beta 1 gamma 2S subunits were three to four times larger than those recorded from cells coexpressing alpha 1 beta 1 subunits, and they were always enhanced by coapplied diazepam. The increase in whole-cell current was due in part to the larger single- channel current of the alpha 1 beta 1 gamma 2S GABARs. GABARs comprised of alpha 1 beta 1 gamma 2S subunits were formed preferentially over GABARs of alpha 1 beta 1 subunits alone, since only after substantially increasing the ratio of the beta 1 expression vector over the alpha 1 and gamma 2S subunit expression vectors were alpha 1 beta 1 GABARs formed in the presence of the gamma 2S subunit. These findings suggest that assembly of GABARs from constituent subunits did not proceed randomly to form all possible combinations, but that certain subunit combinations were preferred intermediates during the assembly process.


Jane Austen lived for nearly all her life in two Hampshire villages: for 25 years in her birthplace of Steventon, and then for the last 8 years of her life in Chawton, during which latter period she wrote and published her great novels. While there are plenty of books describing her periods of urban life in Bath, Southampton and London, and the summer holidays in Lyme Regis and other West Country seaside resorts, no consideration has been given to this rural background to her life. Her father was not only the rector of Steventon but a farmer there as well, managing a property of some 200 acres. Her brother Edward, in addition, was a large landowner, holding the three estates of Godmersham in Kent, Steventon and Chawton in Hampshire. Agriculture in all its aspects was even more important to Jane than clerical life or the naval careers of her younger brothers. This book fills a gap in the Austen family background, discussing the state of agriculture in general in the south of England during the wartime conditions which lasted for most of Jane Austen's life, and considering in particular the villages and their inhabitants, the weather conditions, field crops, farm and domestic animals, and the Austens' household economy and rural way of life. All appear in Austen's letters, and appear also unobtrusively in her novels, lending that air of verisimilitude for which her works are famous. Apart from these obvious sources, there are other Austen family manuscripts, as yet unpublished, which provide particular and unique information. Richly illustrated with contemporary depictions of country folk, landscapes and animals, Jane Austen and Country Life conjures up a world which has vanished more thoroughly than the familiar Regency townscapes of Bath or London, but which is no less important to an understanding of this most treasured writer's life and work.


The relationship between the abundance of cholesterol in the brain and Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression is a controversial one, although cholesterol is necessary for neuronal function. Because the ε4 allele of the gene encoding apolipoprotein E (apoE), a lipoprotein that transports cholesterol, is a genetic risk factor for late-onset AD, Liu et al. investigated a link between amyloid precursor protein (APP), apoE, and cholesterol metabolism. Sequential cleavage of APP, a transmembrane protein, by β-secretase and γ-secretase releases amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) and the APP intracellular domain (AICD) into the extracellular space, where the former forms plaques. The authors found that the abundance of apoE (as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) was lower in the brains of APP-deficient mice (APP-KO) and mice deficient in both APP and the related APLP2 (DKO) than in wild-type mice. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting analyses showed that the abundance of the apoE receptor LRP1 was higher in APP-KO and DKO mice than in wild-type controls. Brain-specific deletion of LRP1 resulted in the higher abundance of apoE in the brains of these mice than in the brains of wild-type mice. Deletion of the gene encoding β-secretase, which is required for Aβ production, had no effect on LRP1 abundance or function. However, deletion of both presenilin 1 (PS1) and PS2 (PS DKO), which encode proteins critical to the function of γ-secretase, resulted in the higher abundance of LRP1 in PS DKO mice compared with that of wild-type mice. Further analysis showed that the AICD, released through γ-secretase activity, combined with the adaptor protein Fe65 and bound to the LRP1 promoter, inhibiting its expression. Thus, APP processing by γ-secretase results in the decreased abundance of LRP1, which results in the reduced uptake of apoE-complexed cholesterol. Together, these data suggest a role for APP in regulating apoE and cholesterol metabolism, through the lipoprotein receptor LRP1, which provides new therapeutic targets for treating AD. Q. Liu, C. V. Zerbinatti, J. Zhang, H.-S. Hoe, B. Wang, S. L. Cole, J. Herz, L. Muglia, G. Bu, Amyloid precursor protein regulates brain apolipoprotein E and cholesterol metabolism through lipoprotein receptor LRP1. Neuron 56, 66-78 (2007). [PubMed]


Species distribution models (SDMs) for presence‐only data depend on accurate and precise measurements of geographical and environmental covariates that influence presence and abundance of the species. Some data sets, however, may contain both systematic and random errors in the recorded location of the species. Environmental covariates at the recorded location may differ from those at the true location and result in biased parameter estimates and predictions from SDMs. Regression calibration is a well‐developed statistical method that can be used to correct the bias in estimated coefficients and predictions from SDMs when the recorded geographical location differs from the true location for some, but not all locations. We expand the application of regression calibration methods to SDMs and provide illustrative examples using simulated data and opportunistic records of whooping cranes (Grus americana). We found we were able to successfully correct the bias in our SDM parameters estimated from simulated data and opportunistic records of whooping cranes using regression calibration. When modelling species distributions with data that have geographical location errors, we recommend researchers consider the effect of location errors. Correcting for location errors requires that at least a portion of the data have locations recorded without error. Bias correction can result in an increase in variance; this increase in variance should be considered when evaluating the utility of bias correction.


Organic micropollutants are posing great challenges to global water resources, especially for non-biodegradable synthetic chemicals. In this study, a carboxyl-derived pillar[5]arene (P5) and p-phenylenediamine (PPD) were crosslinked to produce a 3D network polymer, P5-P, for the adsorption and removal of organic micropollutants from water. This 3D network polymer sequesters a variety of organic micropollutants in water with rapid adsorption rates and large uptake amounts, much greater than those of conventional activated carbon. Especially, this polymer demonstrates superior adsorption performance for fluorescein sodium and methyl orange and it can be fully regenerated multiple times by a mild washing procedure. The structure of this 3D network polymer and its adsorption mechanisms have been confirmed by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR). The excellent pollutant removal ability demonstrates the promise of the pillar[5]arene-based 3D network polymer for rapid waste-water treatment.


Introduction: Over the past two decades, the field of resiliency has attracted increasing attention in evolutionary psychology. Having mentally retarded children is one of life's stressors for parents, that can have a devastating impact on their mental health. Therefore, any strategy that can help the parents of these children relieve stress and deal effectively is important. This study aimed to determine the impact of Adler lifestyle education on resiliency, especially on parents of mentally retarded students and will measure the following two hypotheses. Method: This was a semi-experimental study with pre and post-test with control group. The statistical population of this study included parents of all the students of the Shahid Alavian Exceptional Education Center in Gonabad (N=120) whose children were studying in the 2012/2013 academic year; 60 people were randomly selected and assigned to two groups of 30 (case and control). It should be noted that each group consisted of 15 fathers and 15 mothers. The pre-test was administered to both groups separately. After that, the training in 11 sessions of 60 minutes was presented in the workshop of advisers for the case group. In this study, the Connor and Davidson's resiliency questionnaire was used. In this study, the reliability coefficient equal to 0.89 was obtained using Cronbach's alpha method. To determine the validity, the correlation of each item with the total score was calculated. In the present study, the reliability of this instrument using Cronbach's alpha coefficient was determined as 0.89. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 16. Results: The mean scores of the resiliency have increased in the case group than the control group which is statistically significant (P 0.05). Conclusion: The result of this study concluded that appropriate Adler lifestyle training helps parents of educable mentally retarded children to boost their resiliency. This is important due to the existence of mentally retarded children on parental stress.


In this thesis the factors surrounding the permeation of alkali and alkaline earth metal salts through hydrogel membranes are investigated. Although of relevance to aqueous separations in general, it was with their potential application in sensors that this work was particularly concerned. In order to study the effect that the nature of the solute has on the transport process, a single polymer matrix, poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), was initially studied. The influence of cation variation in the presence of a fixed anion was looked at, followed by the effect of the anion in the presence of a fixed cation. The anion was found to possess the dominant influence and tended to subsume any influence by the cation. This is explained in terms of the structure-making and structure-breaking characteristics of the ions in their solute-water interactions. Analogies in the transport behaviour of the salts are made with the Hofmeister series. The effect of the chemical composition of the polymer backbone on the water structuring in the hydrogel and, consequently, transport through the membrane, was investigated by preparing a series of poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) copolymer membranes and determining the permeability coefficient of salts with a fixed anion. The results were discussed in terms of the `free-volume' model of permeation and the water structuring of the polymer backbone. The ability of ionophores to selectively modulate the permeation of salts through hydrogel membranes was also examined. The results indicated that a dualsorption model was in operation. Finally, hydrogels were used as membrane overlays on coated wire ion-selective electrodes that employed conventional plasticised-PVC-valinomycin based sensing membranes. The hydrogel overlays were found to affect the access of the analyte but not the underlying electrochemistry.


The phylogeny of Crocoideae, the largest of four subfamilies currently recognized in Iridaceae, has eluded resolution until sequences of two more plastid DNA regions were added here to a previously published matrix containing sequences from four DNA plastid regions. Sister to the core Nivenioideae, the woody Klattia, Nivenia, and Witsenia, Crocoideae are a climax group in Iridaceae, comprising some 995 species, slightly more than half of the total in the family. Synapomorphies of Crocoideae include pollen exine perforate, pollen aperture operculate, ovule campylotropous (or hypotropous), root xylem vessels with simple perforations, cormous rootstock, inflorescence a spike, and plants deciduous. The six DNA region analysis here that includes examples of 27 of the 28 genera of the subfamily shows the southern African Tritoniopsis sister to the remaining genera, which resolve into four well-supported clusters (bootstrap support >85%). Each of these major clades is treated as a tribe, the synapomorphies of which are discussed in light of the molecular phylogenetic analyses. Original embryological and seed developmental studies largely support the tribal classification. Tritoniopsideae alone has the inner floral bracts not forked apically, and a hypotropous ovule, while this tribe and Watsonieae have axillary corm development. The remaining three tribes have apical corm development, and together with Watsonieae have a campylotropous ovule, and the inner layer of the inner integument crushed at maturity.


Snowmelt-dominated streamflow of the Western Himalayan rivers is an important water resource during the dry pre-monsoon spring months to meet the irrigation and hydropower needs in northern India. Here we study the seasonal prediction of melt-dominated total inflow into the Bhakra Dam in northern India based on statistical relation- ships with meteorological variables during the preceding winter. Total inflow into the Bhakra Dam includes the Satluj River flow together with a flow diversion from its tributary, the Beas River. Both are tributaries of the Indus River that originate from the Western Himalayas, which is an under- studied region. Average measured winter snow volume at the upper-elevation stations and corresponding lower-elevation rainfall and temperature of the Satluj River basin were con- sidered as empirical predictors. Akaike information criteria (AIC) and Bayesian information criteria (BIC) were used to select the best subset of inputs from all the possible combinations of predictors for a multiple linear regression framework. To test for potential issues arising due to multi- collinearity of the predictor variables, cross-validated predic- tion skills of the best subset were also compared with the pre- diction skills of principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) techniques, which yielded broadly similar results. As a whole, the forecasts of the melt season at the end of winter and as the melt season commences were shown to have potential skill for guiding the development of stochastic optimization models to man- age the trade-off between irrigation and hydropower releases versus flood control during the annual fill cycle of the Bhakra Reservoir, a major energy and irrigation source in the region.


The ubiquitous Lipkin model is investigated for an interaction parameter beyond the traditional critical point. It is argued that a phase transition occurs higher up in the spectrum for such larger interaction, where, using appropriate scaling of the energies, the position of the phase transition becomes independent of the particle number. The phase transition is related to near singularities in the complex interaction plane, the exceptional points. Consideration of finite temperature yields the well-known physical features associated with phase transitions.


As the oil and gas industry migrates towards deepwater exploration, the need to characterize the deep-water environments of the Gulf of Mexico has become increasingly important. This study focused on developing remote sensing tools to study Loop Current Frontal Eddies (LCFEs), which are cyclonic features found along the periphery of the Loop Current (LC). These features have proven problematic for study as they often move rapidly and they do not always have a distinct thermal signature. They play an integral but not completely understood role in separation of warm core rings from the LC and have been discussed as potential trigger mechanisms for high-energy events within the water column and near the bottom along the Sigsbee Escarpment. They are biological oases along the margin of the oligotrophic LC waters. The over-arching goal of this project was to develop and apply new remote sensing methodologies to improve upon the surveillance of ocean features and the understanding of circulation processes in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The more specific project goal was to apply these new techniques to improve understanding of the basic characteristics of LCFE cyclones, specifically where they develop, how they evolve as they travel around the LC, frequency of occurrence, and their impacts on surface and deeper circulation in areas of oil and gas operations. Satellite data included GOES sea surface temperatures (SST), sea surface height (SSH) data from several operational sensors, and satellite-tracked drifters. The new techniques provided metrics on LCFE motion, size, frequency and intensity. Extensive use was made of Hovmoller time/distance graphs comprised of daily "de-clouded" SST composite data (from GOES-8 and GOES-12) for tracking the LCFEs around the entire perimeter of the LC. The 17-cm SSH contour was used as a useful benchmark for the location of the LC on a daily basis. The along track SSH data was essential for determining intensity and size of LCFEs as they evolved along the LC margin. Case study analyses of selected events provided important additional information on LCFE variability during extreme events and their affects on circulation through the water column. These new techniques can be used in real-time to improve on surveillance and modeling capabilities of mesoscale circulation in the GoM.


The occurrence of high profile political events coupled with the wave of firm internationalisation have, in recent years, aroused interest in understanding the phenomenon of political risk. Although risk perception and political risk assessment are already established topics, there is limited knowledge about managerial perception of political risk while undertaking international business activities. And, while it can be argued that the way managers perceive risk is important to the subsequent assessment of such risk, the literature on risk perception and the literature on risk assessment have not been connected. Furthermore, there is a well-established body of literature on risk perception using and supporting the relevance of the psychometric framework – this framework has been successfully used to study risks like technological and environmental risks but not political risk in particular. Moreover, the existing political risk literature has not used any generally acknowledged approach like the psychometric framework to enhance our understanding of political risk perception. This study presents findings on managerial perception and assessment of political risk in the context of the developing economy of Kuwait, and the recent unique series of political events known as the Arab Spring. It argues that understanding both risk perception and assessment, and their inter-relationship, is important in understanding how and why international firms respond to political risk. Data for this study was collected through a mixed methods approach of a questionnaire survey and interviews to achieve two broad objectives: to study managerial political risk perception of Kuwaiti international firms based on the psychometric approach; and to study the political risk assessment and how this relates to political risk perception. The psychometric framework-based questionnaire survey data was collected from 120 managers from across 44 firms. The interview data was collected using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with 34 managers in 34 Kuwaiti firms. The main findings revealed that the general model, and the specific risk attributes, used in the traditional psychometric approach are highly applicable to political risk perception. They also showed clear differences in managers' perceptions of governmental and non-governmental risks, with higher risk perceptions being associated with non-governmental risk. In addition, the findings indicate that there is no influence of firms' characteristics on political risk perceptions. This confirms the basic assumption of the psychometric approach, which is that the characteristics of the perceived risk, not the characteristics of the individual perceiver, are what primarily determine risk perception. The findings also indicated that the level of institutionalisation of political risk assessment is not significantly correlated with any obvious firm characteristic. In addition, managers were found to resist quantitative assessment despite their high awareness of political risk (especially for nongovernmental risks). There are two main intended contributions of this study to the literature on political risk. First, by applying the psychometric paradigm to political risk, this study has not only extended the applicability of the psychometric framework but also made a connection between the political risk literature and risk perception literature. Second, the specific observations reported by the study – for example, the way managers dichotomise risks between governmental and non-governmental sources and the reasons why managers resist quantitative assessment – make a contribution to our understanding of how political risks to firms are considered and prioritised at an organisational level. The findings from this study also have practical implications for managers of international firms. For example, the strong explanation of political risk perceptions provided by the psychometric framework may help managers predict the risk perceptions of other managers who they may have to persuade or negotiate with. Understanding the reasons why managers dichotomise governmental and nongovernmental risk also has practical importance, as it helps them to reflect on their own circumstances and assess whether this dichotomisation is appropriate to these circumstances. Similarly, knowing the way that other managers rationalise the use, or non-use, of quantitative assessment allows a firm to assess whether such reasons fit their own problems, and so come to a deeper understanding of how much formal assessment of political risk is appropriate to their situation. There are several limitations to this study. Some relate to its external validity, because it is difficult to generalise the findings outside of Kuwait, and some to its internal validity, because the firms included in the sample may not be completely representative. Other limitations include possible sampling bias due to the self- selection process by potential respondents, and using only a single respondent manager per firm in the interview study. Also it is a cross sectional study, not a longitudinal one, and the characteristic of managerial position is the only individual characteristic considered as potentially affecting political risk perception. The recommendations for future work would therefore include carrying out similar studies that consider larger samples and different contexts to improve internal and external validity. Such studies should include longitudinal designs and consider other individual characteristics besides managerial position (such as age, gender and education), and their effect on managerial political risk perception.


Since its creation by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964), Doctor Doom's homeland of Latveria has gone through many changes. Its initial portrayal as a 'storybook kingdom' evolved throughout the Cold War as a metaphor for American attitudes towards Eastern Europe, becoming variously a warning against the return of Nazism, a satire on Communist regimes, and eventually a complex examination of US foreign policy towards dictators.

This paper draws upon the work of Jason Dittmer around national superheroes and 'popular geopolitics', examining storylines from 1964, 1970, 1978 and 1982 to show how a fictional country created by second generation European immigrants came to act as a mirror of US attitudes towards Eastern Europe and its own place in the global community.


The ultimate end of patent law must be to spur innovations that improve human welfare — innovations that make people better off. But firms will only invest resources in developing patentable inventions that will allow them to make money — that is, inventions that people will want to use and buy. This can gravely distort the types of incentives that firms face and the types of inventions they pursue. Nowhere is this truer than in the pharmaceutical field. There is by now substantial evidence that treatments for diseases that primarily afflict poorer people — including the citizens of developing nations — are dramatically under-produced, compared with drugs that treat diseases that afflict the wealthy. In addition, the pharmaceutical markets are rife with "me too" drugs — drugs that treat diseases or conditions for which successful medications already exist.

This state of affairs is not inevitable. In recent years, medical and psychological research on well-being has created the capacity for policymakers to draw direct links between patents and human welfare. Armed with this information, policymakers have, for the first time, the power to use the patent system to directly incentivize welfare-enhancing innovations. In this Article, we propose a system of extended patent terms for drug inventions that have a substantial impact on human welfare. We further propose that policymakers lift many of the legal protections for patents that have an insubstantial effect on human welfare — which we term "futility patents" — making those patents easier to challenge and invalidate. The result would be a reorientation of pharmaceutical firm incentives toward drugs that will have a significant impact on welfare, particularly for poorer and underserved populations, and away from drugs that are profitable but do little to improve human life.


This thesis aims to build a working design-analyze-optimize methodology for Alstom Power Sweden AB at Vaxjo, Sweden. In order to be profitable in today's competitive industrial product market, it is necessary to engineer optimized products fast. This involves CAD design and FEA analysis to work within an optimization routine in a seamless fashion which will result in a more profitable product. This approach can be understood as a model-based design, where the 3D CAD data is central to the product life cycle. The present approach provides many benefits to a company because of the use of a central database ensure access to the latest release of the 3D model. This allows for a streamlined design to fabrication life cycle with inputs from all departments of a product based company. Alstom is looking into automating some of their design process so as to achieve efficiency within their design department. This report is the result of a study where an industrial silo is taken as an example. A design loop involving CAD design and FE analysis is built to work with an optimization routine to minimize the mass and also ensure structural stiffness and stability. Most engineers work with a lot of constraints with regard to material stock size and other design codes (e.g. Euro Codes). In this report an efficient way to design an industrial product in a 3D CAD (CATIA) program so as to stay within these constrains and still obtain credible computation results within an optimization loop will be discussed.


One hundred twelve cases of blunt splenic rupture were prospectively entered (October 1987-October 1991) into surgical or nonsurgical management groups using these criteria for the nonsurgical group: hemodynamic stability-age less than 55 years-CT scan appearance of grade I, II, or III injury-absence of concomitant injuries precluding abdominal assessment+absence of other documented abdominal injuries. All ages were included and AAST injury scaling was used. Patients were grouped from the trauma room. The surgical treatment group included 66 patients (49 splenectomies, 17 splenorraphies). These patients were generally older and more severely injured, required more transfused blood, and a longer ICU stay. The nonsurgical group included 46 patients with 33 older than 14 years. There were 3 patients over the age of 55 years inappropriately included in this group, and nonsurgical therapy failed in all three. Statistical analysis (chi 2) showed that more splenic injuries were observed and more spleens were saved with these criteria applied prospectively compared with a previous retrospective series in the same institution. The series had a success rate of 93%, and validates the criteria used for safe, nonsurgical management of the ruptured spleen and adds a new criterion: a maximum age of 55 years.


Abstract A greater understanding of population dynamics is essential in the management of any species. The Western Gulf stone crab, Menippe adina, is taken as incidental by-catch in the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, fishery in Mississippi. However, there is a lack of information on the ecology of M. adina in estuaries of the northern Gulf of Mexico. We know that M. adina is associated with hard-bottom habitats such as rock-rubble jetties and oyster reefs and that this habitat is sparse in Mississippi Sound, which mainly consists of soft-bottom habitat. Many studies have demonstrated that habitat complexity is important to several benthic crustaceans because it provides a matrix of different sized refuges that organisms can use to escape from predation. The importance and availability of refugia varies throughout the life history of organisms because of the increase in size of an organism as it grows. Refuge limitation acting on a specific size class may create a demographic bottleneck thereby limiting the production of a population through mortality, migration, or stunting of the affected size class. We tested this refuge limitation bottleneck hypothesis in juvenile stone crabs by supplementing an existing oyster reef with four different sizes of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. We found that lack of refuge affected both population size structure and density of large juvenile stone crabs on the reef. We also found that competition for available refuges may occur among M. adina and two other xanthid crab species, Eurypanopeus depressus and Panopeus simpsoni. We examined the diet of oyster toadfish, Opsanus beta, in Mississippi Sound and found that the three xanthid crabs comprised a significantly large portion of oyster toadfish diet. Predation by O. beta emphasized the importance of the availability of suitable refugia for the xanthids.


Title: THE FEASIBILITY OF USING WEB-BASED TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF DREDGING PROJECTS Gustavo A Vecino, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Directed by: Professor Miroslaw Skibniewski, Ph.D., Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The research investigates the feasibility of using web-based project management systems for dredging. To achieve this objective the research assessed both the positive and negative aspects of using web-based technology for the management of dredging projects. Information gained from literature review and prior investigations of dredging projects revealed that project performance, social, political, technical, and business aspects of the organization were important factors in deciding to use web-based systems for the management of dredging projects. These factors were used to develop the research assumptions. An exploratory case study methodology was used to gather the empirical evidence and perform the analysis. An operational prototype of the system was developed to help evaluate developmental and functional requirements, as well as the influence on performance, and on the organization. The evidence gathered from three case study projects, and from a survey of 31 experts, were used to validate the assumptions. Baselines, representing the assumptions, were created as a reference to assess the responses and qualitative measures. The deviation of the responses was used to evaluate for the analysis. Finally, the conclusions were assessed by validating the assumptions with the evidence, derived from the analysis. The research findings are as follows: 1. The system would help improve project performance. 2. Resistance to implementation may be experienced if the system is implemented. Therefore, resistance to implementation needs to be investigated further and more R&D work is needed in order to advance to the final design and implementation. 3. System may be divided into standalone modules in order to simplify the system and facilitate incremental changes. 4. The QA/QC conceptual approach used by this research needs to be redefined during future R&D to satisfy both owners and contractors. Yin (2009) Case Study Research Design and Methods was used to develop the research approach, design, data collection, and analysis. Markus (1983) Resistance Theory was used during the assumptions definition to predict potential problems to the implementation of webbased project management systems for the dredging industry. Keen (1981) incremental changes and facilitative approach tactics were used as basis to classify solutions, and how to overcome resistance to implementation of the web-based project management system. Davis (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to assess the solutions needed to overcome the resistances to the implementation of web-base management systems for dredging projects. THE FEASIBILITY OF USING WEB-BASED TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF DREDGING PROJECTS


This PhD Thesis work was aimed at investigating the potentiality of tungsten-base materials as structural materials for the future thermonuclear fusion reactors in attempting to develop reduced activation tungsten-base materials with high strength and sufficient ductility, especially in terms of fracture toughness and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature, on the basis of the following ideas: (1) nano-grained materials are expected to show an improved ductility with respect to normal grain-sized materials, and (2) nano-grained materials and materials reinforced with either oxide or carbide particles are expected to show improved strength and radiation resistance, as (i) the particles should act as obstacles for the propagation of mobile dislocations, (ii) the numerous grain boundaries and interfaces between the matrix and the particles should act as sinks for the irradiation-induced defects, and (iii) the particles should also help stabilizing the numerous grain boundaries upon thermal annealing and/or irradiation. A variety of W-base materials, namely W-(0.3-1.0-2.0)Y2O3, W-(0.3-1.0-2.0)Y and W-(0.3-0.9-1.7)TiC materials (in weight percent), have been successfully produced at the laboratory scale by powder metallurgy techniques including mechanical alloying followed by either cold pressing and sintering or hot isostatic pressing (HIPping). X-ray diffractometry and scanning and transmission electron microscopy observations combined with density and microhardness measurements as well as with tensile, Charpy impact, fracture toughness and non-standard three point bending tests allowed the identification of optimal chemical compositions and manufacturing conditions, among those investigated and on the basis of the experimental devices at disposal. Microscopic investigations showed that the materials produced at the laboratory scale are composed of small grains, with sizes between a few tens and a few hundreds nanometers, and contain a high density of small Y2O3 or TiC particles, with sizes between 1 and 50 nm. In the case of W-Y materials, all the Y transformed into Y2O3 during mechanical alloying, due to the high amount of O (around 1 wt.%) present in the milled powders, which is beneficial for reducing the excess O content in the materials. All materials also contain a residual porosity of a few percents, which is typical of materials compacted by HIPping. Macroscopic investigations showed that the HIPped materials exhibit high strength values and a promising resistance to irradiation but poor fracture properties up to a very high temperature of about 1100 °C, due mostly to air contamination of the mechanically alloyed powders and to residual porosity of the compacted materials. The materials produced entirely at the laboratory scale by mechanical alloying and HIPping are of better quality than a W-2Y material that was produced by mechanical alloying at the laboratory scale and compacted by sintering and forging at the Plansee company (Austria). Further studies should focus on reducing the O content in the mechanically alloyed powders and the residual porosity of the compacted materials. The grain size should be also optimized as well as the size distribution, number density and crystallographic features of the oxide and carbide particles.


OBJECTIVE
The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of the immediate-release (IR) formulation of quetiapine is characterized by a rapid peak in plasma level and striatal dopamine D(2) receptor occupancy, followed by a rapid decrease to baseline levels, necessitating the use of twice-daily dosing. An extended-release (XR) formulation of quetiapine is currently being developed to achieve similar efficacy using a once-daily dosing regimen. We compared the central D(2) receptor binding between the IR and XR formulations.

METHOD
In this open-label, crossover positron emission tomography study using [(11)C]-raclopride, we compared the central D(2) receptor binding potential at expected peak and trough plasma levels using equivalent daily doses of the IR and XR formulations (300, 600, and 800 mg/day) in 12 subjects. Data were collected from April 2002 to May 2003.

RESULTS
The mean plasma level of quetiapine at trough was significantly lower than that at peak for all dose groups of both formulations except for IR 300 and 800 mg (all p values < .05), while the mean plasma level did not differ significantly between formulations at trough and peak. The mean occupancy at peak was significantly higher than that at trough for all dose groups other than IR 800 mg/day (all p values < .05) and did not differ significantly between formulations at trough and peak.

CONCLUSION
Once-daily dosing of the XR formulation gives peak and trough plasma levels and central D(2) receptor occupancy comparable to twice-daily dosing of the IR formulation. These data should be considered while determining equivalent doses, as well as switching strategies.


Urban areas represent an ever increasing challenge in terms of energy use and environmental impact associated with it. Projections from the United Nation expect this number to reach 66% by 2050. In Europe 40% of the final energy consumption and 36% of the emissions of greenhouse gases are caused by buildings. The building sector is also one of the area where there is a great potential of reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions and of the dependence on fossil fuels. Among the measures that can help realise this potential, efficient energy conversion technologies supplying thermal energy services could play an important role. The present thesis aims at demonstrating the potential of a new type of district network, capable of delivering indistinctly cooling and heating services using a two-pipe network and in which the transfer of energy across the network is done by exploiting the evaporation/condensation of a refrigerant. The main research question is: "Is it possible to build and operate safe, reliable, energy efficient and economically profitable district heating and cooling networks that use a refrigerant as a transfer fluid?" The demonstration followsthree axes, the first being a thermoeconomic analysis. Thisanalysis focuses on a test case area in Geneva's city centre where 5 variants of refrigerant based district heating and cooling networks, one cold water network and the mix of conversion technologies currently in use are compared on the basis of their energy and exergy performances and on the economic profitability. Considerations on economic uncertainty, safety and technical issues are also included in the analysis. The key findings are: • All the variants of network can potentially reduce the final energy consumption of over 80% as compared to the current situation. • All the variants of network have rather similar exergy efficiencies comprised between 39.5% and 45%. • The most profitable variant uses CO2 as a transfer fluid and an open cycle CO2 heat pump at the central plant. It costs initially between 27 and 35 mio € , reaches break-even in 4 to 6 years and the net present value after 40 years is comprised between 40 and 80 mio €. • A cold water network is the second best option, although more expensive initially and thus less profitable, it has several advantages in terms of safety and availability of components. • The CO2 variants exhibit a much better compactness than the cold water network. The second axis is the design, construction and testing of a lab scale refrigerant network. First a description of the design process and of the test facility is provided. It is followed by a presentation of the results of the test campaign. The tests aimed at demonstrating the practical feasibility of the concept, mostly by assessing the controllability of the network. Overall the good behaviour of the test facility and its ability to be smoothly and automatically controlled could be demonstrated, which further improved confidence in the practicality of the concept. The third axis is the development of dynamic models of simulation. These models are described in the present manuscript. They include, heat exchangers, pipes, pumps and valves. A short comparison between experimental and simulation results is also provided. The comparison between experiment and simulation showed that at their current stage of development the models cannot simulate accurately enough a refrigerant based network.


The study was motivated by the fact that Binongko as a region of coastal areas and small islands tend to have limited agricultural resources and access to food from outside. The limited problem that forced people to commit acts of adjustment so that the food needs can be met sustainably. Therefore, the research was conducted with the aim to analyze Binongko island community adaptation strategies for ensuring the sustainable food security systems. This study designed qualitatively using the phenomenological approach. Data collected through the study of literature, orientation, observation, interviews, and focus group discussions. Interviews were conducted at the informants who determined by purposive use the snowball system. Collected data were analyzed using the method of historical analysis. The results showed that the adaptation strategies of society in the food production system namely the amount of cultivated land of farmers is more than one place and processed in a relatively different. Farming activities carried by upholding the principles of local wisdom advantageous economic, social, cultural and ecological namely pohamba-hamba. In the food distribution system, adaptation measures do with differentiation of livelihoods through mechanisms time distribution, resulting in the stability of the flow of food supplies, both of in and outside the area. While the consumption system known presence of some adaptation measures such as habituation eat twice a day, side dishes substitution between fish and vegetables as well as techniques of food storage to remain durable. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the adaptation strategy by Binongko island community in ensuring food security in a sustainable system includes a system of agricultural production, distribution and consumption of food.


This manuscript describes the development of a "learn by actively participating" curriculum for youth and their adult caregivers (dyad pair) to increase gardening skills, culinary competence, and family meal time. The curriculum was developed by integrating "iCook 4-H" and Junior Masters Gardener "Health and Nutrition from the Garden", and "Essential Elements of 4-H Youth Development" curriculums with additional resources for gardening activities from the USDA's My Plate and garden-based recipes. Expert reviewers (n = 11) provided feedback on the curriculum content, session structure, dosage, age appropriateness, and balance of the three focused areas. Seven family dyads (n = 14) participated in focus groups about understanding of need, interest, barriers, and potential engagement. A 10-week curriculum was developed and named: iGrow. The curriculum is a hands on, active learning program delivered through five, two-hour sessions using a family dyad model. Three main focus areas included gardening, culinary skills, and family conversation/interaction that all focused on togetherness. For the final iGrow curriculum, expert-level content review and feedback from focus group dyad pairs was used to revise the curriculum which further enhanced the approach and balance of the curriculum content. Focus group feedback supported appropriateness, dosage and learning objectives, and content depth. This curriculum has been developed to provide knowledge of gardening and culinary skills with the goal of increased consumption of fruit and vegetables.


Force Optimization and Flow Field Characterization from a Flapping Wing Mechanism Nathaniel Stephen Naegle Department of Mechanical Engineering Master of Science Flapping flight shows promise for micro air vehicle design because flapping wings provide superior aerodynamic performance than that of fixed wings and rotors at low Reynolds numbers. In these flight regimes, unsteady effects become increasingly important. This thesis explores some of the unsteady effects that provide additional lift to flapping wings through an experiment-based optimization of the kinematics of a flapping wing mechanism in a water tunnel. The mechanism wings and flow environment were scaled to simulate the flight of the hawkmoth (Manduca sexta) at hovering or near-hovering speeds. The optimization was repeated using rigid and flexible wings to evaluate the impact that wing flexibility has on aerodynamic performance of flapping wings. The trajectories that produced the highest lift were compared using particle image velocimetry to characterize the flow features produced during the periods of peak lift. A leading edge vortex was observed with all of the flapping trajectories and both wing types, the strength of which corresponded to the measured amount of lift of the wing. This research furthers our understanding of the lift-generating mechanisms used in nature and can be applied to improve the design of micro air vehicles.


We study distribution free, nonparametric prediction bands with a special focus on their finite sample behavior. First we investigate and develop different notions of finite sample coverage guarantees. Then we give a new prediction band estimator by combining the idea of "conformal prediction" (Vovk et al. 2009) with nonparametric conditional density estimation. The proposed estimator, called COPS (Conformal Optimized Prediction Set), always has finite sample guarantee in a stronger sense than the original conformal prediction estimator. Under regularity conditions the estimator converges to an oracle band at a minimax optimal rate. A fast approximation algorithm and a data driven method for selecting the bandwidth are developed. The method is illustrated first in simulated data. Then, an application shows that the proposed method gives desirable prediction intervals in an automatic way, as compared to the classical linear regression modeling.


Sociolinguistics is described as "the study of how language and social factors such as ethnicity, social class, age, gender, and educational level are related". Social factors may result in differences in language use, which may then be referred to as sociolinguistic differences. The goal of this project is to answer the following question: is it possible to identify sociolinguistic differences in the way people use programming languages? How might we go about answering our question? We propose that techniques from corpus linguistics may be of use. Computer-based techniques such as text mining allow the use of software in the identification of trends in language use that would otherwise require an enormous amount of human effort to discover. Once various sociolinguistic differences have been identified by computational means, traditional critical analysis methods can then be applied for further analysis.


Abstract. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in surface waters is connected to DOC in soil solution through hydrological pathways. Therefore, it is expected that long-term dynamics of DOC in surface waters reflect DOC trends in soil solution. However, a multitude of site studies have failed so far to establish consistent trends in soil solution DOC, whereas increasing concentrations in European surface waters over the past decades appear to be the norm, possibly as a result of recovery from acidification. The objectives of this study were therefore to understand the long-term trends of soil solution DOC from a large number of European forests (ICP Forests Level II plots) and determine their main physico-chemical and biological controls. We applied trend analysis at two levels: (1) to the entire European dataset and (2) to the individual time series and related trends with plot characteristics, i.e., soil and vegetation properties, soil solution chemistry and atmospheric deposition loads. Analyses of the entire dataset showed an overall increasing trend in DOC concentrations in the organic layers, but, at individual plots and depths, there was no clear overall trend in soil solution DOC. The rate change in soil solution DOC ranged between −16.8 and +23 % yr−1 (median  = +0.4 % yr−1) across Europe. The non-significant trends (40 %) outnumbered the increasing (35 %) and decreasing trends (25 %) across the 97 ICP Forests Level II sites. By means of multivariate statistics, we found increasing trends in DOC concentrations with increasing mean nitrate (NO3−) deposition and increasing trends in DOC concentrations with decreasing mean sulfate (SO42−) deposition, with the magnitude of these relationships depending on plot deposition history. While the attribution of increasing trends in DOC to the reduction of SO42− deposition could be confirmed in low to medium N deposition areas, in agreement with observations in surface waters, this was not the case in high N deposition areas. In conclusion, long-term trends of soil solution DOC reflected the interactions between controls acting at local (soil and vegetation properties) and regional (atmospheric deposition of SO42− and inorganic N) scales.


Using a compact optically pumped silicon nanophotonic chip consisting of coupled silicon microrings, we generate photon pairs in multiple pairs of wavelengths around 1.55 μm. The wavelengths are tunable over several nanometers, demonstrating the capability to generate wavelength division multiplexed photon pairs at freely chosen telecommunications-band wavelengths.


Systems containing linear first-order dynamics and static nonlinear elements (i.e., nonlinear elements whose outputs depend only on the present value of inputs) are often encountered; for example, certain automobile engine subsystems. Therefore, system identification of static nonlinear elements becomes a crucial component that underpins the success of the overall identification of such dynamical systems. In relation to identifying such systems, we are often required to identify models in differential equation form, and consequently, we are required to describe static nonlinear elements in the form of functions in time domain. Identification of such functions describing static elements is often a black-box identification exercise; although the inputs and outputs are known, correct mathematical models describing the static nonlinear elements may be unknown. Therefore, with the aim of obtaining computationally efficient models, calibrating polynomial models for such static elements is often attempted. With that approach comes several issues, such as long time requirements to collect adequate amounts of measurements to calibrate models, having to test different models to pick the best one, and having to avoid models over-fitting to noisy measurements. Given that premise, this paper proposes an approach to tackle some of those issues. The approach involves collecting measurements based on an uncertainty-driven Active Learning scheme to reduce time spent on measurements, and simultaneously fitting smooth models using Gaussian Process (GP) regression to avoid over-fitting, and subsequently picking best fitting polynomial models using GP-regressed smooth models. The principles for the single-input-single-output (SISO) static nonlinear element case are demonstrated in this paper through simulation. These principles can easily be extended to MISO systems.