This paper presents BScope, a new system for interpreting human activity patterns using a sensor network. BScope provides a runtime, user-programmable framework that processes streams of timestamped sensor data along with prior context information to infer activities and generate appropriate notifications. The users of the system are able to describe human activities with high-level scripts that are directly mapped to hierarchical probabilistic grammars used to parse low-level sensor measurements into high-level distinguishable activities. Our approach is presented, though not limited, in the context of an assisted living application in which a small, privacy-preserving camera sensor network of five nodes is used to monitor activity in the entire house over a period of 25 days. Privacy is preserved by the fact that camera sensors only provide discrete high-level features, such as motion information in the form of image locations, and not actual images. In this deployment, our primary sensing modality is a distributed array of image sensors with wide-angle lenses that observe people's locations in the house during the course of the day. We demonstrate that our system can successfully generate summaries of everyday activities and trigger notifications at runtime by using more than 1.3 million location measurements acquired through our real home deployment.


A graph G of order n is called arbitrarily partitionable (AP, for short) if, for every sequence τ=(n1,\textellipsis,nk) of positive integers that sum up to n, there exists a partition (V1,\textellipsis,Vk) of the vertex set V(G) such that each set Vi induces a connected subgraph of order ni. A graph G is called AP+1 if, given a vertex u∈V(G) and an index q∈ {1,\textellipsis,k}, such a partition exists with u∈Vq. We consider the Cartesian product of AP graphs. We prove that if G is AP+1 and H is traceable, then the Cartesian product G□ H is AP+1. We also prove that G□H is AP, whenever G and H are AP and the order of one of them is not greater than four.


The paper presents the results of the analysis of road safety data, collected within the research project "SaferAfrica Innovating dialogue and problems appraisal for a safer Africa", aiming to support policy makers and stakeholders with evidence on critical risk factors, related actions and good practices drawn from high quality data and knowledge. The project is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The overall objective is to identify key risk factors affecting road safety in African countries. More specifically, a data organisation and analysis system was developed for the data gathered in order to produce indicators and define critical areas and challenges per topic and region of Africa. The analysis of the data for identifying key risk factors was performed on 5 different topics and priority areas for road safety actions and interventions were highlighted.


In the decades around 1900 the northern territories between Sweden-Norway and Finland-Russia were created and enforced as significant borderlands. In the article I situate the making of these borderlands in what was known as "the Defence Question." Taking my point of departure in this heated political debate, I discuss the various cultural meanings that were ascribed to the Swedish-Russian borderlands. I argue that at the time the discourse about the Swedish-Russian relationships stretched out and made the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia into a vast frontier between the west and the east, the occident and the orient and civilisation versus barbarism. In making borders culturally significant, material culture plays a vital role. In the article I analyze flags, border stones and the fortifications in Boden, Sweden. Through the discourse about the fortifications, the borderlands between Sweden and the Grand Duchy of Finland took on a new strategic meaning. In the political and public debate they served as a means to bring together trade, industry, communication and defence politics into one overarching narrative. The general argument of my article is that the historical study of borderlands can benefit from analyzing significant political debates, and from exploring the material culture of past borderlands.


A new approach for restoring sediment volumes onto the sediment source area to estimate uplift timing and magnitude is discussed and used in the context of late Tertiary basin and topographic development in NW Borneo. Sediment volumes for the Baram Deltaic Province were estimated for four time periods (latest Early, Middle and Late Miocene, and Pliocene–Recent), using 2D and 3D seismic horizons, wells and outcrops. Volume restoration onto the palaeo-sediment source area determined exhumation amount at the drainage divide (c. 5 km from 17 Ma to Recent) and provided a reasonable match with other denudation estimation methods (cooling ages and an older, regional sediment restoration study using 1979 vintage sediment isopach maps). Restoration took into account: (1) changing sediment densities during the erosion–deposition cycle; (2) changing area of the sediment source province with time (e.g. changing shoreline location as a result of eustacy, uplift and delta progradation, tectonic shortening); (3) uplift and partial erosion of Baram Deltaic Province sediment. Denudation at the drainage divide for the Middle Miocene, Late Miocene and Pliocene–Recent has proceeded at a similar rate for each period. Initial uplift of central Borneo has been attributed to buoyancy of thinned continental crust that jammed the subduction zone under NW Borneo in the Early Miocene. However, the absence of decay in the erosion rates with time from the Middle Miocene to Recent suggests operation of an additional uplift mechanism that may be related to delamination of mantle lithosphere; slab detachment is the favoured explanation.


Develop your own hands-free and attractive augmented reality applications with Microsoft Kinect Overview Understand all major Kinect API features including image streaming, skeleton tracking and face tracking Understand the Kinect APIs with the help of small examples Develop a comparatively complete Fruit Ninja game using Kinect and augmented Reality techniques In Detail Microsoft Kinect changes the notion of user interface design. It differs from most other user input controllers as it enables users to interact with the program without touching the mouse or a trackpad. It utilizes motion sensing technology and all it needs is a real-time cameras, tracked skeletons, and gestures. Augmented Reality with Kinect will help you get into the world of Microsoft Kinect programming with the C/C++ language. The book will cover the installation, image streaming, skeleton and face tracking, multi-touch cursors and gesture emulation. Finally, you will end up with a complete Kinect-based game. Augmented Reality with Kinect will help you get into the world of Kinect programming, with a few interesting recipes and a relatively complete example. The book will introduce the following topics: the installation and initialization of Kinect applications; capturing color and depth images; obtaining skeleton and face tracking data; emulating multi-touch cursors and gestures; and developing a complete game using Kinect features. The book is divided in such a way so as to ensure that each topic is given the right amount of focus. Beginners will start from the first chapter and build up to developing their own applications. What you will learn from this book Install a Kinect device and SDK packages on your computer Initialize Kinect with C++ APIs in your own application Obtain image streaming data from color and depth cameras Acquire skeleton data and face tracking results for use Use hand positions to emulate multi-touch cursors and gestures Develop a Fruit Ninja game with different Kinect functionalities Study with simple and interesting examples using a uniform OpenGL framework Find more open source and commercial resource on the Web Approach This book is a mini tutorial with plenty of code examples and strategies to give you many options when building your own applications. Who this book is written for This book is meant for readers who are familiar with C/C++ programming and want to write simple programs with Kinect. The standard template library can also be used as it is simple enough to understand.


Nonnative species pose a threat to native biodiversity and can have immense impacts on biological communities, altering the function of ecosystems. How much value is at risk from high-impact invasive species, and which parameters determine variation in that value, constitutes critical knowledge for directing both management and research, but it is rarely available. We evaluated the value of the commercial shellfish harvest that is at risk in nearshore ecosystems of Puget Sound, Washington State, USA, from the invasive European green crab, Carcinus maenas. We assessed this value using a simple static ecological model combined with an economic model using data from Puget Sound's shellfish harvest and revenue and the relationship between C. maenas abundance and the consumption rate of shellfish. The model incorporates a range in C. maenas diet preference, calories consumed per year, and crab densities. C. maenas is likely to prey on commercially harvested hardshell clams, oysters, and mussels, which would likely reduce additional revenue from processing and distribution, and the number of jobs associated with these fisheries. The model results suggest possible revenue losses of these shellfish ranging from $1.03-23.8 million USD (2.8-64% losses), with additional processing and distrubution losses up to $17.6 million USD and 442 job positions each year associated with a range of plausible parameter values. The broad range of values reflects the uncertainty in key factors underlying impacts, factors that are highly variable across invaded regions and so not knowable a priori. However, future research evaluating species invasions can reduce the uncertainty of impacts by characterizing several key parameters: density of individuals, number of arrivals, predation and competition interactions, and economic impacts. This study therefore provides direction for research to inform more accurate estimates of value-at-risk, and suggests substantial motivation for strong measures to prevent, monitor, and manage the possible invasion of C. maenas.


In this chapter we provide a summary description of Colombian Competition Policy with an emphasis on the agricultural sector. Key developments and recent changes in institutional arrangements affecting competition policy, as it applies to the agricultural sector, are highlighted. Illustrative case studies are depicted to show the richness and complexity of policy developments and enforcement. Some general conclusions are drawn from this examination. JEL: K21, D49, Q13


"1 is one duckling swimming in a dish 2 is two sisters making a wish" ""There will, of course, always be children who must learn to count. Teach them also to enjoy the process and to count those things that are most important to them. Eighteen stars twinkling in the sky and twelve baby birds learning how to sing are an excellent start."" Tasha Tudor


In this paper, we comprehensively review the five-dimensional (5D) fully-covariant theory of gravitation developed by Zhang two decades ago and its recent applications in astrophysics and cosmology. This 5D gravity describes not only the fields, but also the matter and its motion in a 5D spacetime. The greatest advantage of this theory is that there does not exist any unknown parameter, so that we can apply it to explain astrophysical and cosmological issues by quantitatively comparing the results obtained from it with observations and to predict new effects that could not be derived from any other gravitational theories. First, the 5D covariant description of matter and its motion enabled Zhang to analytically derive the fifteenth component of the 5D energy-momentum tensor of matter ( T - 44 ), which significantly distinguishes this 5D gravity from other 5D gravitational theories that usually assumed a T - 44 with an unknown parameter, called the scalar charge s, and, thus, to split the 5D covariant field equation into (4 + 1) splitting form as the gravitational, electromagnetic, and scalar field equations. The gravitational field equation turns into the 4D Einstein's field equation of general relativity if the scalar field is equal to unity. Then, Zhang solved the field equations and obtained an exact static spherically-symmetric external solution of the gravitational, electromagnetic and scalar fields, in which all integral constants were completely determined with a perfect set of simple numbers and parameters that only depend on the mass and electric charge of the matter, by comparing with the obtained weak internal solution of the fields at a large radial distance. In the Einstein frame, the exact field solution obtained from the 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation reduces to the Schwarzschild solution when the matter is electrically neutral and the fields are weak in strength. This guarantees that the four fundamental tests (light deflection, gravitational redshift, perihelion advance and radar echo delay) of the 4D Einstein's general relativity in the case of weak fields are also the tests of the 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation. In the case of strong fields, especially when the matter is highly charged, however, the results from the 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation are significantly different from the 4D Einstein's general relativity. Applying this 5D gravity and its exact field solution, Zhang has recently developed a new redshift mechanism, called electric redshift, a new supernova explosion mechanism with gravitational field shielding, a new gravitationless black hole model, a modified neutron star mass-radius relation, a modified Friedmann equation for the accelerating universe, and so on. This paper provides an overview of this 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation, including also its solution properties and astrophysical applications.


As the number of social networking services (SNS) and their users grow, so does the complexity of individual networks as well as the amount of information to be consumed by the users. Users of SNS exchange short and instantaneous messages interactively, which can be seen as conversations. We explore this conversational aspect of SNS and show how refined topic-based semantic social networks can be formed in order to reduce the complexity and information overload. Among other possibilities, we use the notion of topic diversity and topic purity of SNS conversations between two users and show different types of social relationships can be identified in that they break down a huge "syntactic" social network into topic-based ones based on different interaction types. Resulting semantic social networks can be useful in designing various targeted services on online social networks.


The demise of sterling as an international currency was widely predicted after 1945, but the process took thirty years to complete. Why was this demise so prolonged? Traditional explanations emphasize British efforts to prolong sterling's role because it increased the capacity to borrow, enhanced prestige, or supported London as a centre for international finance. This book challenges this view by arguing that sterling's international role was prolonged by the weakness of the international monetary system and by collective global interest in its continuation. Using the archives of Britain's partners in Europe, the USA and the Commonwealth, Catherine Schenk shows how the UK was able to convince other governments that sterling's international role was critical for the stability of the international economy and thereby attract considerable support to manage its retreat. This revised view has important implications for current debates over the future of the US dollar as an international currency.


The taxonomy of some Calligonum species has been controversial due to overlapping morphological characters between species. Although C. ebinuricum and C. trifarium are currently distinguished by the number of rows of bristles on fruit ribs, the suitability of this character for taxonomic classification has been questioned. In this study, morphological characters were used in combination with sequences of the chloroplast ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit (rbcL), chloroplast-encoded maturase K (matK), and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) DNA regions to aid in classification. The results revealed that, except the achene shape, the mean value of eight morphological characters of C. trifarium were larger than those of C. ebinuricum. All the intraspecific variability of nine morphological characters of C. ebinuricum were larger than C. trifarium. Other than achene diameter, the rest of the intraspecific variability of eight morphological characters of C. ebinuricum were larger than the interspecific variability. All the morphological characters were not significant between between C. ebinuricum and C. trifarium. No rbcL or matK sequence variation was observed between C. ebinuricum and C. trifarium. ITS sequences of C. ebinuricum and C. trifarium differed at four sites, one of which was parsimony informative, and pairwise distances and standard errors were equal to 0.003 and 0.002, respectively. Based on our statistical analysis of fruit morphological characters, molecular data and same geographical area, we support the merger of C. ebinuricum and C. trifarium into a single species, C. ebinuricum.


In expanding on earlier analyses of the evolution of multinational business that have drawn from concepts of competition and innovation, this study examines the strategies used by British multinationals, between 1870 and 1929, to protect the global reputation of their brands, which were crucial to their survival and success. Even after the passage of new trademark legislation in 1876, enforcement of trademarks remained expensive, and often firms preferred to negotiate, rather than to prosecute violations. Many trademark imitators were based in the newly industrializing countries of the time—the United States, Germany, and Japan—and were part of the British export supply chains as licensees, franchisees, or wholesalers. British firms responded to infringements by lobbying governments, appointing local agents to provide intelligence, and collaborating with other firms.


An emerging quantitative spatial economics literature models commuting interactions by a gravity equation that is mathematically equivalent to a multinomial logit model. This model is widely viewed as restrictive because of the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) property that links substitution behavior in response to changes in the attractiveness of choice alternatives to choice probabilities in a mechanistic way. This is relevant for counterfactual analysis. In this paper we examine the appropriateness of the commuting model from a theoretical as well as an empirical point of view. We show that conventional specification tests of the multinomial logit model are of limited use when alternative specific constants are used, as is common in the recent literature, and offer no information with respect to the validity of IIA. In particular, we show that maximum likelihood estimation of relevant nested logit model is impossible because the crucial parameters are not identified. We discuss cross-nested and mixed logit as alternatives. We argue that a comparison between predicted and actual changes in commuting flows in response to a change in the attractiveness of choice alternatives provides a more informative test for the validity of the multinomial logit model for commuting interaction and report the results of such a test – as well as others – for data referring to Copenhagen.


Background: Meta-analysis of the trials evaluating the effect of aspirin on cardiovascular outcomes demonstrated that aspirin prevented mortality from adenocarcinomas by 47% and reduced metastasis by 46%. Equivalent benefit was seen with both high and low doses of aspirin. We hypothesize that low dose aspirin blocks metastasis by inhibiting platelet COX-1 and also by inhibiting the biosynthesis of the pro-metastatic PGE2. Methods and Results: The effect of a range of doses of aspirin on PGE2 biosynthesis in three lung adenocarcinoma cell lines was compared with that in washed platelets. PGE2 was measured by GC/MS. In the cancer cell lines, aspirin inhibits COX-2-dependent PGE2 production with IC50s equivalent to or less than that for platelet COX-1. The IC50s were: Platelet = 19.8 ± 1.5 μM; H2122 = 19.5 ± 5 μM; HCC827 = 3.9 ± 2 μM; A549 = 1.6 ± 0.4 μM. To explore the extra-platelet effects of low dose aspirin in vivo, we examined the effect of aspirin 81 mg daily for 2 weeks on the biosynthesis of PGE2 and prostacyclin as reflected by their respective urinary metabolites in 54 healthy humans. The PGE2 metabolite was measured by LC/MS/MS and the prostacyclin metabolite by GC/MS. This dose of aspirin inhibited PGE2 production by 45% (p Adherence of platelets to tumor cells facilitates metastasis. We determined the effect of adherence of ADP-activated washed platelets to lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549) on the PGE2 biosynthetic pathway. COX-2 expression was determined by Western blot, and cytosolic calcium by Fura-2 AM. Activated platelets increased cytosolic calcium in A549 cells by 22% (p Conclusion: These findings form the basis for a hypothesis that the remarkable effect of low dose aspirin on adenocarcinoma prevention and reduction in metastatic behavior could result from inhibition of platelet activation in concert with inhibition of platelet-induced PGE2 biosynthesis and direct inhibition of the catalytic activity COX-2 in circulating tumor cells. Work funded by the Thoracic Program of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center Citation Format: John Oates, Pierre Massion, Bjorn Knollmann, James Smith, Elias Haddad, Philip Lammers, Denise Oram, Taneem Amin, Bradford Harris, Megan Hoeksema, Hyun Hwang. Low dose aspirin that reduces mortality from lung adenocarcinoma inhibits both platelet COX-1 and the biosynthesis of PGE2. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2014 Sep 27-Oct 1; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2015;8(10 Suppl): Abstract nr PR05.


This is an article for JCT Special Issue –Narrative of Curriculum in the South: Lives In-Between Contested Race, Gender, Class, and Power


In a mobile environment, communication links are subject to a wide range of channel variations due to mobility, multipath fading, shadowing, interference, etc. These variations combined with limited allocated bandwidth often constrain the design of such links and result in degradation of the quality of service and lowered capacity. Techniques such as error correction code are often used to mitigate channel errors at the expense of bandwidth. Other techniques such as the use of smaller cells with extensive frequency re-use are used to enhance system capacity. However, this operation approaches the theoretical channel capacity and increases the likelihood of errors on the channel due to co-channel interference. Although marginal channel conditions are quite common in mobile communication links, they are intermittent. These conditions are encountered for example just prior to handover; during deep shadowing such as is experienced when a communicating mobile suddenly goes behind a building or hill; during the power ramp-on phase of new mobiles joining the system etc. Therefore, the design of a mobile communication link that can adapt to such conditions when it is necessary would be ideal. A multi-rate source and channel coding (MRC) is one form of link adaptation which represents a new approach to achieving consistent high quality speech combined with efficient spectrum usage. In MRC, link adaptation is achieved by trading-off the gross bit rate of each traffic channel between the speech and channel codecs according to the prevailing channel conditions. When channel conditions degrade excessively, the system allocates more bits for error protection thereby operating with a lower bit rate speech codec. In this case, the powerful error protection might well correct all the errors and thus speech synthesis proceeds with uncorrupted parameters. This thesis presents a design of a CDMA-based MRC system. A quad-rate speech coder is designed based on Pulse Residual Excited LPC (PRELP), an algebraic CELP coder. Unequal error protection is used in the design of a quad-rate convolutional channel coder. In order to evaluate the output speech quality and capacity over realistic channel conditions, a CDMA-based comprehensive dynamic link simulator (DLS) is developed and used as a testbed. The simulation results of the MRC show that it is capable of maximising the output speech quality during good channel conditions and maintaining a satisfactory quality in marginal channel conditions. Whilst the lower rate speech codec is expected to produce reduced quality speech, the perceived degradation is shown to be less than that of a fixed rate system in which the error protection would quickly fail, possibly resulting in cessation of the link. Errors on the rate switching commands show no impact on the output speech quality. Indeed, the MRC system keeps its integrity with severe channel conditions and occasional command errors. This is assisted, however, by the careful design of the switching algorithm in which switching can only occur in consecutive modes. Since the multi-rate system permits the use of minimum resources of speech and channel coding bits, capacity of the mobile system is obviously increased. However, in this work it is shown that the multi-rate system can be particularly useful in crowded cells where it can increase the robustness of the system and enhances the capacity.


This paper discusses why a "corporate governance movement" that commenced in the United States in the 1970s became an entrenched feature of American capitalism and describes how the chronology differed in a potentially crucial way for banks. The paper explains corporate governance's emergence and staying power by reference to changing market conditions and a deregulation trend that provided executives with unprecedented managerial discretion as the 20th century drew to a close. With banking the historical pattern paralleled general trends in large measure. Still, while the "imperial" CEO who surged to prominence in the 1980s became outmoded for the most part after corporate scandals at the start of the 2000s, this was not the case with large financial companies. The continued boldness of "star" CEOs in the financial services industry plausibly contributed to the market turmoil of 2008 but the financial crisis emphatically ended this corporate governance "free pass" banks had enjoyed.


Winner of the Philippine National Book Award, this pioneering volume reveals how the power of Filipino family-based oligarchies both derives from and contributes to a weak, corrupt state. From provincial warlords to modern managers, prominent Philippine leaders have fused family, politics, and business to subvert public institutions and amass private wealth - an historic pattern that continues to the present day.Edited by Alfred W. McCoy, "An Anarchy of Families" explores the pervasive influence of the modern dynasties that have led the Philippines during the past century. From the Osmenas to the Lopezes and Pardo de Taveras, elite Filipino families have acted as formidable coalitions - controlling capital, dominating national politics, and deploying paramilitary force. Beyond Manila, strong men such as Ramon Durano, Ali Dimaporo, and Justiniano Montano have used 'guns, goons, and gold' to accumulate wealth and power in far-flung islands and provinces.


In many client-facing applications, a vulnerability in any part can compromise the entire application. This paper describes the design and implementation of Passe, a system that protects a data store from unintended data leaks and unauthorized writes even in the face of application compromise. Passe automatically splits (previously shared-memory-space) applications into sandboxed processes. Passe limits communication between those components and the types of accesses each component can make to shared storage, such as a backend database. In order to limit components to their least privilege, Passe uses dynamic analysis on developer-supplied end-to-end test cases to learn data and control-flow relationships between database queries and previous query results, and it then strongly enforces those relationships. Our prototype of Passe acts as a drop-in replacement for the Django web framework. By running eleven unmodified, off-the-shelf applications in Passe, we demonstrate its ability to provide strong security guarantees-Passe correctly enforced 96% of the applications' policies-with little additional overhead. Additionally, in the web-specific setting of the prototype, we also mitigate the cross-component effects of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks by combining browser HTML5 sandboxing techniques with our automatic component separation.


A proteornics approach using 2D-PAGE was initiated to investigate protein
expression in fish organs especially hepatopancreas, with the aim of providing
fish protein expression maps that are seriously lacking in the literature. Two
dimensional electrophoresis maps of hepatopancreas from Jelawat (Leptobarbus
hoevenii), Catfish (Clarias batrachus), Red tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus), Patin
(Pangasius pangasius) and Lampam Jawa (Puntius gonionotus); all Malaysian
freshwater fish species were constructed. The soluble protein sample was
analyzed by two dimensional electrophoresis, using immobilized pH gradient
strip (pH 3-10) and 15% gel acrylamide. 200 protein spots from Red Tilapia and
44 spots from Catfish were observed. Compari sons of similarities in terms of
protein spots in the fish species were made using ruler measurements and
superimposing the electropherogram of one fish species with the other to
confirm spots coordinate similarities. The maximum matching found in terms of
pI and molecular weight coordinate is limited to a maximum of three fish
species. Patin-Lampam Jawa-Jelawat and Lampam Jawa-Red tilapia-Jelawat share the most number of spots at 8 spots. At the two-fish comparison level, the
highest number of same spots was found in Red tilapia-Jelawat (33 spots)
followed by Lampam Jawa-Jelawat (25 spots), Lampam Jawa-Red tilapia (20
spots), Patin-Lampam Jawa (17 spots), Patin-Red tilapia, Patin- Jelawat and
Lampam Jawa-Catfish; all with 12 same spots.


Grass tetany, a Mg deficiency of ruminants, accounts
for significant economic losses to Western cattlemen during
the spring grazing period on Agropyron desertorum.
This nutritional deficiency may also occur when ruminants
graze other temperate grasses, but the soil-plant-animal
factors leading to the problem are not well understood.

The objective of this study was to provide definitive
data relating seasonal changes in the chemical composition
of forage to the occurrence of grass tetany on semiarid
grasslands.

The field experiment was established on two calcareous
soils where grass tetany had previously occurred. Agropyron
desertorum forage was harvested from both sites
at regular intervals during the spring tetany period in
each of 5 years. The forage samples were analyzed for
mineral elements, N, total water-soluble carbohydrates
(TWSC), higher fatty acids (HFA), ash alkalinity, and
aconitic acid.

High levels of N and HFA, which are known from
other studies to reduce Mg availability to the animal,
coincided with the occurrence of tetany. The low Mg
concentrations measured in the forage probably provided
only marginal levels of available Mg to the grazing
animals. A rapid increase in the ratio of N/TWSC coincided
with the onset of tetany, and may be the primary
factor which indirectly decreases Mg availability and
precipitates the occurrence of tetany. Although the relationship
of the protein/energy imbalance to grass tetany
has been suggested previously, as far as the authors are
aware this is the first time that N/TWSC values obtained
during the growing season have been documented in conjunction
with the occurrence of grass tetany.


AIMS
Developmental stuttering is now generally considered to arise from genetic determinants interacting with neurologic function. Changes within speech-motor white matter (WM) connections may also be implicated. These connections can now be studied in great detail by high-angular-resolution diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. Therefore, diffusion spectrum imaging was used to reconstruct streamlines to examine white matter connections in people who stutter (PWS) and in people who do not stutter (PWNS).

METHOD
WM morphology of the entire brain was assayed in 8 right-handed male PWS and 8 similarly aged right-handed male PWNS. WM was exhaustively searched using a deterministic algorithm that identifies missing or largely misshapen tracts. To be abnormal, a tract (defined as all streamlines connecting a pair of gray matter regions) was required to be at least one 3rd missing, in 7 out of 8 subjects in one group and not in the other group.

RESULTS
Large portions of bilateral arcuate fasciculi, a heavily researched speech pathway, were abnormal in PWS. Conversely, all PWS had a prominent connection in the left temporo-striatal tract connecting frontal and temporal cortex that was not observed in PWNS.

CONCLUSION
These previously unseen structural differences of WM morphology in classical speech-language circuits may underlie developmental stuttering.


ABSTRACT Handheld technologies with multi-touch functions have been embraced by the young generation and become their important tool for social and learning purposes. The purpose of this study was to explore how the state-of-art devices could be integrated into authentic art appreciation courses to motivate and enhance students' learning. It was conducted in a class entitled "Art and Society" at a university in northern Taiwan. A total of 118 college students participated in this study. They were divided into two groups instructed by two approaches: the experimental group used digital materials with multi-touch technology, and the control group used both slides and printed materials. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted in this study. The results indicate that there were statistically significant differences in learning motivation, with a higher level achieved by the experimental group than the control group. The interactive multi-touch operation allowed students to use annotation skills and graffiti to create visual comments that could be edited, reused, and shared easily among group members. This study further discusses the role of tablets, students' special annotation strategies, and the features of the tablets as superior to the conventional approach.


Abstract How to practically monitor what is sought from designers in practice forms a basic concern for educators in design. In this paper, we analyse what employers require from applicants in 230 job advertisements for graphic design positions from Finland. We structure the requests stated in the advertisements in terms of what graphic designers are expected (a) to deliver, (b) to know, and (c) to have. We compare the specific requirements listed for traditional and digital graphic design positions. The results of our analysis suggest that the skill set outlined in the advertisements for traditional graphic design positions suggests a more 'generalist' professional, whereas the skill set outlined for digital positions suggests a more 'specialist' professional. We end the paper by discussing the implications of our findings for graphic design education and how our research process could inform educational programme developments.


The correlation between wage premia and concentrations of firm activity may arise due to agglomeration economies or workers sorting by unobserved productivity. A worker's residential location is used as a proxy for their unobservable productivity attributes in order to test whether estimated work location wage premia are robust to the inclusion of these controls. Further, in a locational equilibrium, identical workers must receive equivalent compensation so that after controlling for residential location (housing prices) and commutes workers must be paid the same wages and only wage premia arising from unobserved productivity differences should remain unexplained. The models in this paper are estimated using a sample of male workers residing in 33 large metropolitan areas drawn from the 5% Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) from the 2000 U.S. Decennial Census. We find that wages are higher when an individual works in a location that has more workers or a greater density of workers. These agglomeration effects are robust to the inclusion of residential location controls and disappear with the inclusion of commute time suggesting that the effects are not caused by unobserved differences in worker productivity. Extended model specifications suggest that wages increase with the education level of nearby workers and the concentration of workers in an individual's own industry or occupation.


Introduction: The incidence and mortality of stroke in Uruguay is high. Posterior circulation strokes represent a significant percentage of them. In this study we describe baseline characteristics, clinical presentation, diagnostic test and therapy in a cohort of patients with stroke of posterior circulation. Method: Descriptive observational study. Inclusion: patients with a diagnosis of PC stroke admitted to Hospital de Clinicas between June 2007 and 2014. Results: 140 patients were included. Mean age was 68 years and a high frequency of classic risk factors for cerebrovascular disease was found. Cerebellar and pyramidal clinic were the most frecuent, with a low median score in the NIHSS scale (5.2) and low sensitivity of the craneal tomography for the diagnosis. The most prevalent etiology was cardioembolism. A fifth of patients consulted before 4.5 hours and 3.8% of patients were treated with iv thrombolysis. Discussion and comments: This is the largest series of PC strokes reported in our country. Clinical presentation was similar to that described in the literature. NIHSS scale underestimated the severity of this type of stroke. Craneal tomograhphy had low diagnostic sensitivity and the number of magnetic resonances performed was low. A small number of patients consulted on time for iv thrombolysis and only 3.8% of cases underwent such treatment.


. We report on recent VLBA/VERA/IVS observational tests of General Relativity. First, we will summarize the results from the 2005 VLBA experiment that determined gamma with an accuracy of 0.0003 by measuring the deflection of four compact radio sources by the solar gravitational field. We discuss the limits of precision that can be obtained with VLBA experiments in the future. We describe recent experiments using the three global arrays to measure the aberration of gravity when Jupiter and Saturn passed within a few arcmin of bright radio sources. These reductions are still in progress, but the anticipated positional accuracy of the VLBA experiment may be about 0.01 mas.


The global prevalence of obesity and obesity-associated cardiometabolic diseases is a significant public health burden. Chronic low-grade inflammation in metabolic tissues such as white adipose tissue (WAT) is linked to obesity and may play a role in disease progression. The overconsumption of dietary fat has been suggested to modulate the WAT inflammatory environment. It is also recognised that fats varying in degree of fatty acid saturation may elicit differential WAT inflammatory responses. This information has originated predominantly from animal or cell models and translation into human participants in vivo remains limited. This review will summarise human intervention studies investigating the effect of dietary fat quantity and quality on subcutaneous WAT inflammation, with a specific focus on the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/NF-κB and nucleotide-binding and oligomerisation domain-like receptor, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome molecular signalling pathways. Overall, firm conclusions are hard to draw regarding the effect of dietary fat quantity and quality on WAT inflammatory responses due to the heterogeneity of study designs, diet composition and participant cohorts recruited. Previous studies have predominantly focused on measures of WAT gene expression. It is suggested that future work includes measures of WAT total content and phosphorylation of proteins involved in TLR4/NF-κB and NLRP3 signalling as this is more representative of alterations in WAT physiological function. Understanding pathways linking the intake of total fat and specific fatty acids with WAT metabolic-inflammatory responses may have important implications for public health by informing dietary guidelines aimed at cardiometabolic risk reduction.


Objective:To examine factors relating to return to work (RTW) following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Participants:One hundred and nine patients (Age: M = 37.4 years, SD = 13.2; 52.3% women) who sustained an mTBI. Design:Inception cohort design with questionnaires and neuropsychological testing completed approximately 3 to 4 weeks postinjury. Setting:Emergency Department of Tampere University Hospital, Finland. Main Outcome Measures:Self-report (postconcussion symptoms, depression, fatigue, and general health) and neurocognitive measures (attention and memory). Results:The cumulative RTW rates were as follows: 1 week = 46.8%, 2 weeks = 59.6%, 3 weeks = 67.0%, 4 weeks = 70.6%, 2 months = 91.7%, and 1 year = 97.2%. Four variables were significant predictors of the number of days to RTW: age, multiple bodily injuries, intracranial abnormality at the day of injury, and fatigue ratings (all P < .001). The largest amount of variance accounted for by these variables in the prediction of RTW was at 30 days following injury (P < .001, R2 = 0.504). Participants who returned to work fewer than 30 days after injury (n = 82, 75.2%) versus more than 30 days (n = 27, 24.8%) did not differ on demographic or neuropsychological variables. Conclusions:The vast majority of this cohort returned to work within 2 months. Predictors of slower RTW included age, multiple bodily injuries, intracranial abnormality at the day of injury, and fatigue.


Stellite 6 is a cobalt based super alloy with major percentage of cr (27-32%), w(4-6%), c (0.9-1.4%) and other alloying elements like ni, fe, si, mn and mo. it is used for the improvement of wear resistance and mechanical properties of stainless steel engineering components used in harsh environment. the use of shielded metal arc welding (smaw) process for cladding of stellite 6 on stainless steel is getting attention due to high deposition rate and low dilution. initially bead on plate experiments were performed to optimize the single pass cladding process parameters i.e. current, electrode manipulation (stringer and weaving technique) and speed. 80 amp current with weaving technique were found to be optimum parameter for cladding with minimum dilution and maximum hardness with finer microstructure were found. these parameters were then used for multi pass multilayer cladding of stellite 6 on aisi 304 l. further the comparative study was performed for seven layer seven pass (slsp) and five layer five pass tig remelted (flfptr)stellite 6 cladding. the aim of this work is to analysis the effect of tig re-melting on wear, metallurgical and mechanical properties of aisi 304 l cladded with stellite 6.


Each "Communication Corner" essay is self-contained; however, they build on each other. For best results, before reading this essay and doing the exercise, go to the first essay "How an Ugly Duckling Became a Swan," then read each succeeding essay. Most companies and organizations of any size produce and distribute glossy brochures to enhance their image. Most such publications are largely a waste because they are seldom read, even by employees and members of these companies and organizations. But it doesn't have to be that way. Here is an approach to help ensure that such image brochures are actually worth the time and money expended on them.


Phase shifts suffered by evanescent electromagnetic waves traversing an air gap between two glass prisms have been measured. Because the evanescent waves propagate parallel to the glass-to-air interface, they should be able to penetrate in a direction normal to the interface, without change of phase, although the amplitude is expected to decrease with depth of penetration. This has been confirmed by the experiment, which showed that the phase shifts are substantially independent of the width of the air gap.


Using plant-based natural fibers to substitute glass fibers as reinforcement of composite materials is of particular interest due to their economic, technical, and environmental significance. One potential application of plant-based natural fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites is in automotive engineering as crushable energy absorbers. Current study experimentally investigated and compared the energy absorption efficiency of plant-based natural flax, mineral-based basalt, and glass FRP (GFRP) composite tubular energy absorbers subjected to quasi-static axial crushing. The effects of number of flax fabric layer, the use of foam filler and the type of fiber materials on the crashworthiness characteristics, and energy absorption capacities were discussed. In addition, the failure mechanisms of the hollow and foam-filled flax, basalt, and GFRP tubes in quasi-static axial crushing were analyzed and compared. The test results showed that the energy absorption capabilities of both hollow and foam-filled energy absorbers made of flax were superior to the corresponding energy absorbers made of basalt and were close to energy absorbers made of glass. This study, therefore, indicated that flax fiber has the great potential to be suitable replacement of basalt and glass fibers for crushable energy absorber application.


This study examines the fresh and flushing water pump installations for high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong in terms of system availability, mean time to failure, mean time between failures and restoration time. Together with some reliability data published elsewhere, it applies Bayesian analysis to improve our understanding of the downtime characteristics of water pump installations. For three consecutive years (2005–2007), water pump failures in 46 typical high-rise residential buildings were recorded to determine the component failure rates. In order to study the failure patterns, Monte Carlo simulations were performed for the operations of 100 parallel pump sets over a period of 10 years. The mean time to failure, total downtime, failure counts and system availability estimated for the fresh water pump installations were 1.24 years, 8990 h, 709 and 90% while those estimated for the flushing seawater pump installations were 0.46 years, 4049 h, 2081 and 78%, respectively. The results are useful in the calculation of water supply availability for high-rise residential buildings while keeping the balance between maintenance cost and system reliability. This study also demonstrates a method for reliability modelling of water supply for high-rise residential buildings. Practical applications: This study demonstrates a method for reliability modelling of building services systems. With the use of Bayesian analysis, example estimates of the mean time to failure, total downtime, failure counts and system availability were determined for the fresh and flushing water pump installations for high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong.


Climate change has become a widely discussed topic in many regions of the society. Green IT can be seen as part of the solution to this problem and can be defined as practices that work to improve the phases of design, production and usage of IT hardware, software and communication systems to effectively and efficiently use IT as a tool in the business, with minimal effect on the environment and promoting sustainability. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the Balanced Scorecard model has to be adapted and can be used to find objectives that can aid the implementation of Green IT. This was done by using an inductive approach to find Green IT practices through secondary data and with semi-structured interviews with four Swedish companies. From the interviews, several Green IT practices and drivers were established. The drivers allowed the authors to determine that the Balanced Scorecard's perspectives did not have to be adapted to fit a Green IT Strategy. The Green IT practices were transformed into initiatives that formed the basis for several Green IT objectives. Each objective individually fit into the four original perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard. These objectives, including initiatives, were the building blocks for the final Green IT Balanced Scorecard.


Orphan genes are protein coding regions that have no recognizable homologue in distantly related species. A substantial fraction of coding regions in any genome sequenced so far consists of such orphan genes, but their evolutionary and functional significance is not understood. A re-analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster proteome is presented that shows that there are still between 26 - 29% of all proteins without a significant match with non-insect sequences. Therefore, neither the growth of the database nor the re-annotations have significantly changed the proportion of orphans in the Drosophila genome over time. In addition, it was shown that these orphans are significantly underrepresented in the current genetic analysis. To analyse directly the evolutionary characteristics of orphan genes in Drosophila, 774 sequences were compared between cDNAs retrieved from two D. yakuba libraries (embryo and adult) and their corresponding D. melanogaster orthologues. Analysis of substitution rates shows that recovered orphans evolve on average more than three times faster than non-orphan genes, although the width of the evolutionary rate distribution is similar for both classes. In particular, some orphan genes show very low substitution rates, which are comparable to otherwise highly, conserved genes. A general model for orphan gene evolution is proposed that takes these large rate differences into account and suggests that they are caused by episodic phases of fast and slow divergence. Besides the result, that orphans are under-represented among genetically studied genes, additional findings suggest that orphan genes have less obvious phenotypes. For example, in the complete sample of the recovered cDNAs higher frequency of genetically studied genes was found among slow evolving genes, what supports the proposed hypothesis that functionally more important genes with obvious phenotypes have lower evolutionary rates. Interestingly, such relationship is lacking if only orphans are analysed. Additionally, orphans are over-represented among genes related to olfaction, hormonal activity, puparial adhesion, egg membrane structure and perception and response to abiotic stimulus. It is reasonable to expect for all of these functions to be involved in specific ecological adaptations that change easily over time, and accordingly to have mutant phenotypes which are difficult to detect. Finally, comparison between stages shows that the cDNA library from adults yields twice as many orphan genes than the one from embryos. An analysis of only genes having stage specific expression reveals a similar figure and together with lower evolutionary rate of embryo transcripts suggests a higher constraint on use of orphan genes in embryos. Furthermore, expression of embryo orphans is more often spatially restricted compared to a random sample of genes what shows that they act in more localised rather then ubiquitous manner. Taken together, the general characteristics of orphan genes in Drosophila suggest that they may be involved in the evolution of adaptive traits and that slow evolving orphan genes may be particularly interesting candidate genes for identifying lineage specific adaptations.


The objective of the current study is to build a stochastic model to simulate climate indices that are teleconnected with the hydrologic regimes of large‐scale water resources systems such as the Great Lakes system. Climate indices generally contain nonstationary oscillations (NSOs). We adopted a stochastic simulation model based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). The procedure for the model is to decompose the observed series and then to simulate the decomposed components with the NSO resampling (NSOR) technique. Because the model has only been previously applied to single variables, a multivariate version of NSOR (M‐NSOR) is developed to consider the links between the climate indices and to reproduce the NSO process. The proposed M‐NSOR model is tested in a simulation study on the Rössler system. The simulation results indicate that the M‐NSOR model reproduces the significant oscillatory behaviors of the system and the marginal statistical characteristics. Subsequently, the M‐NSOR model is applied to three climate indices (i.e., Arctic Oscillation, El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation) for the annual and winter data sets. The results of the proposed model are compared to those of the Contemporaneous Shifting Mean and Contemporaneous Autoregressive Moving Average model. The results indicate that the proposed M‐NSOR model is superior to the Contemporaneous Shifting Mean and Contemporaneous Autoregressive Moving Average model for reproducing the NSO process, while the other basic statistics are comparatively well preserved in both cases. The current study concludes that the proposed M‐NSOR model can be a good alternative to simulate NSO processes and their teleconnections with climate indices.


This essay examines the production of Native queer childhood in nineteenth- and twentieth-century boarding schools. I argue that the schools produced "sexual orphanings" in Native children, which was achieved through education and abuse that queered Native children's conceptualizations of gender, sexuality, and kinship and produced shame. Sexual orphanings queered children away from their bodies and sexualities, which also worked to orient them away from the future. I turn to Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998) to consider what erotics might remain for these children and to look at how genocidal sexual orphanings might be recalibrated in Native fiction toward survivance rather than disappearance.


This article describes an experiment investigating the relationship between deictic elements of focalisation and readers' perspective-taking within imaginative conceptualisations of a fictional narrative scene. The text variables tested here are whether the narrative is written in the first or second person, and whether the narrative is written in the present or past tense. The experiment tests the existence and nature of a relationship between these person and temporal deictic elements of focalisation and the likelihood of a reader's visual perceptual identification with the position of a narrator, narrator-character and / or character focaliser within a fictional scene. Within the experiment, participants read one of four variants of a short fictional text identical but for the person or tense employed in the narration. Results of the experiment suggest that person and temporal deixis both impact upon conceptual perspective-taking. Specifically, the results corroborate predictions that the present tense is more likely than the past tense to elicit readerly conceptual identification with a narrator, narratorcharacter or character focaliser. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, the results also suggest that there is no significant difference between first and second person narration with respect to readers' reported conceptual identification with the viewpoint of the narrator, narrator-character or character focaliser designated by that pronoun.


markdownabstractThe transfer of ownership by an authorized non-owner is a common situation in everyday commercial practice. However, the dogmatic framework surrounding it has often led to controversy when studying both Roman and modern private law. Key to this controversy is the introduction by German scholars, in the course of the 19th century, of the notion of 'direct representation' in order to approach the transfer of ownership by a non-owner. Regarding the study of Roman law, this involved assuming the existence of a primitive prohibition to alienate through a non-owner, since 'direct representation' was seen as a later innovation. This starting point had a decisive effect for the study of the transfer of ownership by a non-owner in Roman law, particularly concerning the significance of the voluntas domini, the way in which legal guardians alienate, the scope of praetorian innovations, the possibility to transfer ownership through formal acts and the role of the nemo plus rule. Regarding modern private law, this starting point has brought along a radical distinction based on whether the alienation takes place in the context of direct representation or not.

This book attempts to offer a fresh view through a source-oriented approach in order to provide an outlook of the evolution of the transfer of ownership by a non-owner in Roman law, as well as the dogmatic and systematic standpoints among the jurists of the ius commune. Special attention is dedicated to the innovations of German scholarship, due to their significance for the study both of Roman law and for the evolution of modern private law.


Realistic face animation is especially hard as we are all experts in the perception and interpretation of face dynamics. One approach is to simulate facial anatomy. Alternatively, animation can be based on first observing the visible 3D dynamics, extracting the basic modes, and putting these together according to the required performance. This is the strategy followed by the paper, which focuses on speech. The approach follows a kind of bootstrap procedure. First, 3D shape statistics are learned from a talking face with a relatively small number of markers. A 3D reconstruction is produced at temporal intervals of 1/25 seconds. A topological mask of the lower half of the face is fitted to the motion. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the mask shapes reduces the dimension of the mask shape space. The result is twofold. On the one hand, the face can be animated; in our case it can be made to speak new sentences. On the other hand, face dynamics can be tracked in 3D without markers for performance capture. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The aim of the study is to show how the theses prepared in the field of social studies education in Turkey have been distributed according to different criteria from 1990 to the present. Examining the prepared theses in the field of social studies in terms of various aspects, this research is thought to be beneficial in view the overall framework of the theses prepared on this subject. Descriptive method was used in this study. In this context, during the document analysis process, five major steps were followed as (1) access to documents, (2) checking originality, (3) understanding the documents, (4) analyzing the data, and (5) using the data. The research statement has been determined as "How the theses on the social studies education field in Turkey show distribution according to different criteria like the dates, the universities, and the research topics." Accordingly, in the theses prepared on the field of social studies , the sub-problems have been designed according to a) the dates, b) the universities, c) their status of being open to the reader in National Theses Database d) the research topics and how these topics are distributed according to the years. In the studies made, it has been observed that the first thesis prepared in the field of social studies was in 1990, and it has been found out that the number of the theses in the field has reached to 550 master theses and 62 doctoral dissertations to date. In the process of 20-year research, the number of theses increased rapidly by 2006, and both master and doctoral dissertations were mostly prepared in 2007. In the examination made according to the universities, both master theses and doctoral dissertations were most prepared at the Gazi University. When the total number of theses is examined, the number of master theses was observed to be approximately 9 times more than doctoral dissertation. In a study made according to theses' status of being open to the reader or not, the majority of doctoral dissertations and master theses are seen to be open to the reader, a great many of them are found to belong to 2006 and after. When the distribution of theses' topics is examined, it is found that, in the master theses and doctoral dissertations respectively curriculum and instructional methods were studied mostly.


Peripheral dopamine receptors are classified as DA1 and DA2 receptors, similar to but distinct from central D1 and D2 receptors. Here we report the characterization of DA1 dopamine receptors in the opossum kidney (OK) cell line, which possesses properties of renal proximal tubule cells. OK cell membranes contain 248 +/- 12 fmol [125I]Sch 23982 binding sites/mg protein, which possess pharmacological properties appropriate for a DA1 receptor. Dopamine stimulates adenylyl cyclase via these receptors 4.3 +/- 0.4-fold (50% effective concentration = 4.0 +/- 0.7 microM). The responsiveness of this signaling system is regulated by agonist exposure. Exposure of these cells to dopamine leads to a rapid and profound desensitization of DA1-receptor-stimulated adenylyl cyclase that appears to be independent of the slower downregulation of DA1 receptors. Treatment of cells with 8-bromoadenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate also desensitizes dopamine-stimulated adenylyl cyclase but in a fashion qualitatively and quantitatively distinct from that induced by agonist exposure. These data suggest that the cellular machinery for both homologous and heterologous desensitization of the DA1-receptor response exists in OK cells. Thus OK cells provide a model system for the study of the peripheral actions of dopamine at DA1 receptors and the regulation of these receptors.


OBJECTIVE
To provide a review of the current information on the etiology, clinical presentation, management, and outcome of pilomatrixoma of the head and neck in children.

DESIGN
Retrospective review.

SETTING
A tertiary care pediatric center.

PATIENTS
Fifty-one pediatric patients with a diagnosis of pilomatrixoma of the head and neck.

INTERVENTION
All patients underwent excision of pilomatrixoma from January 1997 to March 1999. A total of 55 tumors were studied.

RESULTS
A preponderance of girls (n = 36; 71%) presented with this condition. The average age at diagnosis was 5.7 years, and the average size of the lesion was 1 cm. The skin of the cheek and the periorbital area were the most commonly involved sites. Only 27 lesions (49%) had a correct preoperative diagnosis. Two (4%) of 55 tumors recurred after complete surgical excision.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The age and sex of the patient, preoperative diagnosis, time elapsed before diagnosis, site and size of the tumor, length of follow-up, presence of multiple or previous pilomatrixomas, and recurrence.

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative diagnosis may be improved with increased awareness of pilomatrixoma, a common, benign skin tumor in children. Clinical findings will aid in an accurate diagnosis. Recurrence after complete local excision is rare.


Copyright © 2017 for this paper is held by the author(s). Proceedings of MICI 2017: CHI Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Creative Interfaces. Abstract The co-creation of human and artificial intelligence in creative environments raises novel questions regarding the authorship of the crafted results. The traditional notion of attributing authorship to humans by default becomes increasingly challenged. In particular the factual contribution to authorship and the experience of authorship can become more divergent. Thus the perception for alternative designs can be different, although those require a similar amount of contribution. Especially in the creative domain, users favor personal expression and thus naturally want to feel as the authors of a created result. If a system cannot provide this sufficiently, the overall experience is negatively affected. However, usually systems are not evaluated deeply in this regard. To better guide design decisions that result in satisfying experiences, this aspect needs to be integrated in its evaluation. We suggest to further explore a technique that emerged from neuro-science; for this, we provide examples of application, discuss limitations and future work.


Single-strand conformation polymorphisms at 16S2 and COII mitochondrial genes were surveyed in 111 housefly samples from North, Central, and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Western Pacific. Forty-eight phenotypes were detected, of which none were ubiquitous, and 21 (44%) were confined to a single zoogeographical region. Nei's gene diversity index (H(S)) was 0.27 and was heterogeneous among zoogeographical regions. Phenotypes were the most diverse in the Ethiopian region and least diverse in the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. Hierarchical partitioning of the total diversity among regions (Nei's G(RT) = 0.49) indicated only a small proportion was shared. The differentiation of populations within regions (G(SR)) was 0.32. All pairwise estimates of gene flow between zoogeographical regions were less than 0.31 reproducing females per generation (mean 0.19). We conclude that housefly populations are highly structured even though the flies are mobile and easily capable of passive transport by ship and air.


1. When pig ear skin slices were cultured for 18h in the presence of 1mug of tunicamycin/ml the incorporation of d-[(3)H]glucosamine into the epidermis, solubilized with 8m-urea/5% (w/v) sodium dodecyl sulphate, was inhibited by 45-55%. This degree of inhibition was not increased by using up to 5mug of tunicamycin/ml or by treating the skin slices with tunicamycin for up to 8 days. The incorporation of (U-(14)C)-labelled l-amino acids under these conditions was not affected by tunicamycin. Polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis indicated that the labelling of the major glycosaminoglycan peak with d-[(3)H]glucosamine was unaffected, whereas that of the faster migrating glycoprotein components was considerably decreased in the presence of tunicamycin. 2. Subcellular fractionation indicated that tunicamycin specifically inhibited the incorporation of d-[(3)H]glucosamine but not of (U-(14)C)-labelled l-amino acids into particulate (mainly plasma-membrane) glycoproteins by about 70%. The labelling of soluble glycoproteins was hardly affected. Polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis of the plasma-membrane fraction showed decreased d-[(3)H]glucosamine incorporation into all glycoprotein components, indicating that the plasma-membrane glycoproteins contained mainly N-asparagine-linked oligosaccharides. 3. Cellulose acetate electrophoresis of both cellular and extracellular glycosaminoglycans showed that tunicamycin had no significant effect on the synthesis of the major component, hyaluronic acid. However, the incorporation of both d-[(3)H]glucosamine and (35)SO(4) (2-) into sulphated glycosaminoglycans was inhibited by about 50%. This inhibition was partially overcome, at least in the cellular fraction, by 2mm-p-nitrophenyl beta-d-xyloside indicating that tunicamycin-treated epidermis retained the ability to synthesize sulphated glycosaminoglycan chains. Tunicamycin may affect the synthesis and/or degradation of proteoglycan core proteins or the xylosyltransferase. 4. Electron-microscopic examination of epidermis treated with tunicamycin for up to 4 days revealed no significant changes in cell-surface morphology or in epidermal-cell adhesion. Either N-asparagine-linked carbohydrates play little role in epidermal-cell adhesion or more probably there is little turnover of these components in epidermal adhesive structures such as desmosomes and hemidesmosomes during organ culture.


Existing photometry for NGC 2264 tied to the Johnson and Morgan (1953) UBV system is reexamined and, in the case of the original observations by Walker (1956), reanalyzed in order to generate a homogeneous data set for cluster stars. Color terms and a Balmer discontinuity effect in Walker's observations were detected and corrected, and the homogenized data were used in a new assessment of the cluster reddening, distance, and age. Average values of E(B-V)=0.075+-0.003 s.e. and Vo-Mv=9.45+-0.03 s.e. (d=777+-12 pc) are obtained, in conjunction with an inferred cluster age of ~5.5x10^6 yr from pre-main-sequence members and the location of the evolved, luminous, O7 V((f)) dwarf S Mon relative to the ZAMS. The cluster main sequence also contains gaps that may have a dynamical origin. The dust responsible for the initial reddening towards NGC 2264 is no more than 465 pc distant, and there are numerous, reddened and unreddened, late-type stars along the line of sight that are difficult to separate from cluster members by standard techniques, except for a small subset of stars on the far side of the cluster embedded in its gas and dust and background B-type ZAMS members of Mon OB2. A compilation of likely NGC 2264 members is presented. Only 3 of the 4 stars recently examined by asteroseismology appear to be likely cluster members. NGC 2264 is also noted to be a double cluster, which has not been mentioned previously in the literature.


The thesis research presented here focused on studies of a novel myosin II heavy chain kinase D (MHCK D) expressed in Dictyostelium discoideum cells. MHCK D is made up of four distinct domains: a short coiled-coil region (Coil), a region rich in serine, asparagine, proline, & glutamine residues (SNPQ), a kinase catalytic domain (Cat), and a WD-repeat segment (WD). A major component of this project was to amplify the
Catalytic and WD repeat domains (Cat-WD) from genomic DNA. The Cat-WD truncation of MHCK D was cloned into pTX-GFP & pTX-Flag plasmids for expression in Dictyostelium cells. The recombinant plasmids were electroporated into Dictyostelium cells to over-express the fusion protein (GFP, or flag-tagged). To determine if MHCK D does phosphorylate the Myosin heavy chain, which in turn drives bi-polar filament
disassembly, the phenotype of cells overexpressing the Cat-WD domain were compared
to the phenotype of Myosin II-null cells and non-recombinant wild type cells. Cells overexpressing the Cat-WD domain from MHCK D, showed a phenotype similar to Myosin II-null cells, indicating that the Cat-WD domain plays a role in Myosin II bi-polar filament disassembly resulting from phosphorylation of the myosin heavy chain. Another aim of the thesis research focused on expression of the mhkd gene during the multicellular development cycle of Dictyostelium, using Reverse Transcriptase-PCR (RTPCR). The results indicate that mhkd is expressed throughout the multi-cellular development cycle, as well as during the vegetative growth phase of Dictyostelium. In summary, the results reveal that the Cat-WD domain of MHCK D drives Myosin II bipolar filament disassembly leading to defects in cytokinesis, and is expressed in both
vegetative cells as well as cells undergoing the multi-cellular development cycle. These studies provide a basis for future research focused on activation, localization, and substrate targeting of MHCK D.


Abstract. Meteorological conditions within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) are closely governed by large-scale synoptic patterns and play important roles in air quality by directly and indirectly affecting the emission, transport, formation, and deposition of air pollutants. Partly due to the lack of long-term fine-resolution observations of the PBL, the relationships between synoptic patterns, PBL structure, and aerosol pollution in Beijing have not been well understood. This study applied the obliquely rotated principal component analysis in T-mode to classify the summertime synoptic conditions over Beijing using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis from 2011 to 2014, and investigated their relationships with PBL structure and aerosol pollution by combining numerical simulations, measurements of surface meteorological variables, fine-resolution soundings, the concentration of particles with diameters less than or equal to 2.5 µm, total cloud cover (CLD), and reanalysis data. Among the seven identified synoptic patterns, three types accounted for 67 % of the total number of cases studied and were associated with heavy aerosol pollution events. These particular synoptic patterns were characterized by high-pressure systems located to the east or southeast of Beijing at the 925 hPa level, which blocked the air flow seaward, and southerly PBL winds that brought in polluted air from the southern industrial zone. The horizontal transport of pollutants induced by the synoptic forcings may be the most important factor affecting the air quality of Beijing in summer. In the vertical dimension, these three synoptic patterns featured a relatively low boundary layer height (BLH) in the afternoon, accompanied by high CLD and southerly cold advection from the seas within the PBL. The high CLD reduced the solar radiation reaching the surface, and suppressed the thermal turbulence, leading to lower BLH. Besides, the numerical sensitive experiments show that cold advection induced by the large-scale synoptic forcing may have cooled the PBL, leading to an increase in near-surface stability and a decrease in the BLH in the afternoon. Moreover, when warm advection appeared simultaneously above the top level of the PBL, the thermal inversion layer capping the PBL may have been strengthened, resulting in the further suppression of PBL and thus the deterioration of aerosol pollution levels. This study has important implications for understanding the crucial roles that meteorological factors (at both synoptic and local scales) play in modulating and forecasting aerosol pollution in Beijing and its surrounding area.


Allorecognition, the ability to distinguish 'self' from 'non-self' based on allelic differences at allorecognition loci, is common in all domains of life. Allorecognition restricts the opportunities for social parasitism, and is therefore crucial for the evolution of cooperation. However, the maintenance of allorecognition diversity provides a paradox. If allorecognition is costly relative to cooperation, common alleles will be favoured. Thus, the cost of allorecognition may reduce the genetic variation upon which allorecognition crucially relies, a prediction now known as 'Crozier's paradox'. We establish the relative costs of allorecognition, and their consequences for the short-term evolution of recognition labels theoretically predicted by Crozier. We use fusion among colonies of the fungus Neurospora crassa, regulated by highly variable allorecognition genes, as an experimental model system. We demonstrate that fusion among colonies is mutually beneficial, relative to absence of fusion upon allorecognition. This benefit is due not only to absence of mutual antagonism, which occurs upon allorecognition, but also to an increase in colony size per se. We then experimentally demonstrate that the benefit of fusion selects against allorecognition diversity, as predicted by Crozier. We discuss what maintains allorecognition diversity.


In our work we explore the development of a computational model capable of automatically detecting engagement in social human-robot interactions from real-time sensory and contextual input. However, to train the model we need to establish ground truths of engagement from a large corpus of data collected from a study involving task and social-task engagement. Here, we intend to advance the current state-ofthe-art by reducing the need for unreliable post-experiment questionnaires and costly time-consuming annotation with the novel introduction of implicit probes. A non-intrusive, pervasive and embedded method of collecting informative data at different stages of an interaction.


The efficiency of thermal nonlinear refractive effects in the nanosecond regime is discussed. A single-beam Z-scan and a two-color time-resolved Z-scan experiments demonstrate the influence of the geometric configuration and the pulse duration on the photoinduced index variation. We present a theoretical analysis of thermal-lens formation that takes into account acoustic wave propagation and thermal diffusive effects. It permits us to quantify the index variation during the pulse and to define a new figure of merit for thermal nonlinear refractive effects.


Based on the elaboration likelihood model, this study examines the influence of central and peripheral cues on a user's belief in or identification of false news and investigates the direct and moderating effects of information literacy. The results indicated that argument quality enables social media (SM) and news website (NW) users to identify false messages. Topical relevance contributed to a user's belief in false news (BFN) in the SM group but had no impact in the NW group. Image appeal had no impact in either group. Source credibility was associated with BFN in the SM group. Additionally, source credibility and homophily contributed to the identification of false messages in the NW group. Information literacy enabled individuals to identify false information only in the NW group, but it had no moderating effect on the relationship between informational cues and BFN.


About the book:
This is a coherent and integrated set of essays around the theme of governance addressing a wide range of questions on the organisation and legitimation of authority. At the heart of the book is a set of topics which have long attracted the attention of urbanists and urban historians all over the world: the growth and reform of urban local government, local-centre relationships, public health and pollution, local government finance, the nature of local social elites and of participation in local government. Approaching these topics through the concept of governance not only raises a series of new questions but also extends the scope of enquiry for the historian seeking to understand towns and cities all over the world in a period of rapid change.

Questions of governance must be central to a variety of enquiries into the nature of the urban place. There are questions about the setting of agendas, about when a localised or neighbourhood issue becomes a big city or even national political issue, about what makes a 'problem'. Public health and related matters form a central part of the 'issues' especially for the British; in North America fire and the development of urban real estate have dominated; in India the security of the colonial government had a prominent place.

The historical dynamic of these essays follows the change from the chartered governments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries towards the representative regimes of the nineteenth and twentieth. However, such historical change is not regarded as inevitable, and the effects of bureaucratic growth, regulatory regimes, the legitimating role of rational and scientific knowledge as well as the innovatory use of ritual and space are all dealt with at length.


Bell pepper is an economic product that widely used in the world. The total of Bell pepper and Chile pepper production of the world is about 25 million metric tons, while in Jordan about 5,000 ha are planted by bell pepper annually.During the 2010/2011 season,an experiment was carried out under plastic-house conditions at the Station of Princess Tasneem Bent Ghazi for Technological Research at Humrat Al-Sahen.To compare the effect of four fermented organic matter sources (cattle, poultry and sheep manure in addition to 1:1:1 mixture of the three organic matter sources), with that of the conventional treatment on soil properties and fruit nutrient content of bellpepper cultivar Marvello by using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replicates.Conventional treatment had a significant higher effect on the soil pH, EC, N, P, K and Na. Fruit nitrate content was within the acceptable levels. A high content of micronutrients (Zn and Fe) were observed in the conventionally treated bell pepper fruits.In addition, the bell pepper fruit content of minerals was higher in conventional treatment than all other organic treatments. The highest yield per plant was obtained by the conventional treatment, in comparison to other treatments. Although the reduction in yield per plant and the total yield reduction was about 20 % less than conventional farming, but the increase in profit was almost doubled due to higher prices of organic bell peppers.


We measured the terahertz spectra of five powdered vitamins, nicotinamide, nicotinic acid, ascorbic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, and biotin, to investigate intermolecular hydrogen bonding. These vitamins have various weak to moderate hydrogen bonds between molecules and thus are good candidates for the investigation of various hydrogen bond stretching. Using dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations on a periodic system, we assigned the observed THz peaks with excellent accuracy. The stretching vibrations of the intermolecular hydrogen bonds are mixed with the intermolecular translational and rotational modes. Depending on the strength of the hydrogen bond and the mass of the moiety linked via the hydrogen bond, the wavenumber of each type of hydrogen bond is located within a limited region. According to the present study, the stretching vibration of a weak hydrogen bond located at approximately 60–105 cm−1 is summarized as having a sharp full width at half maximum of 1–2 cm−1 and the molar extinction coefficient of 4–10 M−1 cm−1. The anharmonicity of the potential energy curve was found in modes containing weak intermolecular NH⋯N and NH⋯O stretching vibrations. Present research on the specific properties of hydrogen bond stretching vibrations observed in the THz region provides useful information for quickly estimating the existence of intermolecular hydrogen bonds.


Every cell of the body is capable of measuring the environmental oxygen concentration. When oxygen supply falls below oxygen demand of the cell (hypoxia), a series of genes will be activated whose products help the cell, the tissue as well as the whole organism in adapting to these altered oxygen concentrations. The discovery of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs) allowed the molecular understanding of these processes.


An assessment is made of the climate simulations from the NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) Reanalyses over Europe. This assessment was initiated as part of the European Commission funded study on Atmospheric Circulation Classification and Regional Downscaling (ACCORD) and was designed to test the suitability of the Reanalyses for this type of application. Here NCEP Reanalyses (pressure, temperature and precipitation) from 1958 through 1997 are compared to station data of precipitation and temperature and composites of mean sea level pressure (MSLP) data. The comparison is made over a European window using monthly data with a focus on 3 land areas: Central and Eastern England and Italy, where daily timescale data are employed. MSLP data are generally well simulated; however, an input problem in the NCEP data prior to 1967 results in unrealistically low surface pressure. NCEP surface pressure over Greenland is also shown to be unrealistically high during the winter months. Spatially NCEP MSLP is shown to correlate quite well with UK Meteorological Office (UKMO) MSLP over the ocean and much of northeast Europe, while they correlate less well over high orographical regions. It is shown that, while daily temperature is well simulated, daily precipitation is less so, particularly during the summer months when convective precipitation is dominant. Total precipitation over the 2 UK areas is lower than observed, by as much as 22% over Central England. The number of rain day events is underestimated over the 3 regions, although the anomaly of rain per rain day is shown to vary between the regions, being overestimated in NCEP in Eastern England and Italy. Mean daily temperature is shown to be much better simulated compared with precipitation, with a slight warm bias in all 3 grid boxes.


What is the appropriate amount of child support to require in particular cases? How should we take account, if at all, of subsequent events such as either parent's remarriage? It seems obvious that the answers to such questions ought to turn on our purpose in requiring support payments in the first place. But while fixing the amount of child support can be politically contentious, and has attracted the attention of partisans on both sides of the gender gap, the literature contains no systematic examination of support rules in light of their underlying policy purpose. This article identifies the three fundamental policy purpose that explain why we require child support, shows that the federally-required guidelines that determine most support orders are not usually designed to further those policies, and shows why this design failure is the unintended but inevitable consequence of the economic anaysis most states rely upon for constructing their guidelines. The Article offers a new method for setting support guidelines that would ensure they reflect the policymakers' purpose. It draws on work in law and economics, and psychology, in analyzing current practice and in formulating its suggested alternative.


The direct design of cities is often regarded as impossible, owing to the fluidity, complexity, and uncertainty entailed in urban systems. And yet, we do design our cities, however imperfectly. Cities are objects of our own creation, they are intended landscapes, manageable, experienced and susceptible to analysis (Lynch, 1984). Urban design as a discipline has always focused on "design" in its professional practices. Urban designers tend to ask normative questions about how good city forms are designed, or how a city and its urban spaces ought to be made, thereby problematizing urban form-making and the values entailed. These design questions are analytically distinct from "science"-related research that tends to ask positive questions such as how cities function, or what properties emerge from interactive processes of urban systems. The latter questions require data, analytic techniques, and research methods to generate insight. This theme issue "Urban Systems Design" is an attempt to outline a research agenda by connecting urban design and systems science, which is grounded in both normative and positive questions. It aims to contribute to the emerging field of urban analytics and city science that is central to this journal. Recent discussions of smart cities inspire urban design, planning and architectural professionals to address questions of how smart cities are shaped and what should be made. What are the impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the questions of how built environments are designed and developed? How would the internet of things (IoT), big data analytics and urban automation influence how humans perceive, experience, use and interact with the urban environment? In short, what are the emerging new urban forms driven by the rapid move to 'smart cities'?


The spread of insufficiency of vitamin D may expose primary students at hazard for bone development, innate and adaptive immune responses, and increases risk of certain chronic diseases. The study provides an examination of the pervasiveness of 3 levels of sera 25(OH)D (≥30, 29-20, and <20 ng/ml) in students at the age 6 to 13 years. The data highlights that several of children in the Babylon city have levels of 25(OH)D some consider low and that urban girls have a lower record 25(OH)D. The serum is used to estimate the circulating level of vit.D by using microplate technique.  Serum level 25(OH)D for children age 6 to 13 years is 28.77 ± 11.51ng/ml. Girls have suboptimal levels of 25(OH)D (25.96±9.95 ng/ml (95% CI:10.39-2.74) in comparison with the boys  (32.53±12.44 [95% CI:5.75-2.29). The prevalence of levels at <10 ng/ml is 15%, less 20 ng/ml is 56%, and less 30 ng/ml is 29%. The predominance of sera '25(OH)D levels of <30 ng/ml is higher among boys (43%) in comparison with the girls (32%); urban (45%) in comparison with rural (30%). Based on a delegate test of Babylon kids of primary students, many children have inadequate levels of 25(OH)D.


In this study,
 stable isotopes of carbon (13C), sulfur (34S), oxygen (18O),
 hydrogen (2H), nitrogen (15N) and radioactive isotope of hydrogen
 (tritium) have been applied in combination with conventional
 techniques (physiochemical and biological) to investigate Karachi
 Coastal water pollution due to Layari and Malir rivers, which mainly
 carry Karachi Metropolitan domestic and industrial wastewater, and
 to determine the effect of seawater on the aquifer system of the
 area.
 Physico-chemical (pH, electrical conductivity and turbidity),
 biological (fecal coliform), heavy metal and stable isotope (carbon
 and sulfur) characteristics of Layari and Malir rivers water,
 Karachi coastal waters and sea sediments showed that Karachi
 Metropolitan domestic sewage and industrial effluents were the main
 source of coastal water pollution, and coastal water of Manora
 Channel was heavily polluted as compared to water of southeast
 coastal area of Karachi. However, the northwest coastal water was
 marginally polluted. Turbidity and fecal coliform population levels
 in seawater of Manora Channel and some locations along southeast
 coast (Ghizri area and Ibrahim Haideri) were found above the WHO
 recommended threshold limits set for seawater bathing.
 Heavy metal contents of Manora Channel and southeast coastal waters
 were higher than the Swedish guidelines for the quality of seawater.
 In contrary, heavy metal concentrations in coastal sediments were
 found to be significantly higher than that of seawater. Mn and Ni
 contents in sediments of entire coast (Manora Channel, southeast and
 northwest coast) were above USEPA guidelines except at Buleji site,
 whereas Cr, Zn and Cu levels only in Manora Channel sediments were
 higher than USEPA guidelines. The higher heavy metal contents of
 Manora Channel water and sediments can be attributed to an influx of
 a major portion of untreated industrial and/or domestic wastewater.
 Layari and Malir rivers water was observed to be depleted in
 13C(TDIC) and 34S which showed heavy influx of sewage into these
 rivers. Manora Channel water was also depleted in 13CTDIC and 34S
 during low tide environment showing a large scale domestic
 wastewater mixing with seawater. Southeast coastal water was found
 to be slightly enriched in 13C(TDIC) and 34S and exhibited mixing
 of relatively small quantity of sewage with the seawater as compared
 to Manora channel. 13C(TDIC) and 34S contents of northwest coastal
 water were close to the values meant for normal seawater.
 13C and 15N contents of Karachi coastal seaweed ranged from -31.1
 to -4.9 PDB and 6.1 to 17.8 Air, respectively. Average 15N
 values (10.2 Air) of Ulva spp. collected from non polluted
 northwest coast was higher as compared to average 15N contents (8.0 Air) of Ulva from Manora Channel suggesting that nitrogen isotopic
 ratios of Ulva spp. could be a good indicator of sewage pollution.
 The results of a two component isotope mass balance equation using
 ;13C and ;34S values for Layari and Malir rivers and coastal water
 indicated that tide conditions and distance of sampling site from
 the pollution source were the main factors to control transport and
 dissemination of Layari river pollution into Manora Channel. High
 tide environment slowed down the Layari river water mixing with
 seawater coupled with a gradual decrease in pollution levels from
 Layari river out fall zone to Manora Lighthouse.
 Physico-chemical characteristics of groundwater showed that shallow
 aquifer system was not generally affected by seawater intrusion.
 Deep groundwater was observed to be moderately (chloride contents
 1000- 2000 ppm) to highly saline (chloride contents 2000 ppm).
 However, shallow and deep well located in vicinity of the Malir and
 Layari rivers showed fecal coliform contamination which rendered
 their water unfit for drinking.
 An anion based piper diagram showed predomination of chloride and
 bicarbonate ions relative to sulfate (SO4-2) ions in coastal
 groundwater. It was inferred from Piper diagram that shallow aquifer
 system was predominantly replenished by freshwater (mainly Layari
 and Malir rivers basin), while salinity of deep aquifer owes to the
 seawater intrusion or entrapped salinity. The 18O composition of
 groundwater and 2H vs. 18O relationship for groundwater of coastal
 aquifer also indicated that shallow aquifer system was predominantly
 recharged through fresh water sources. Salinity of deep aquifer
 seemed to originate from seawater intrusion and/or from entrapped
 salinity. These finding were strongly endorsed by anion and stable
 isotope interpretations such as Cl-concentration vs 18O, Cl-/HCO3
 -1 ratio vs 18O values and SO4-2 contents against SO4-2/Cl- ratio
 of shallow and deep aquifers.
 The present study has demonstrated that stable isotopes (13C, 15N,
 34S, 2H and 18O) can be effectively used to monitor the marine
 pollution and to investigate origin of salinity in the coastal
 aquifer. This study may also provide a precise and accurate isotopic
 database for researchers interested in seawater pollution and its
 effect on benthic life.


This paper presents a new volume displacement sensor (made of shaped strips of PVDF film) and the experimental implementation of this sensor in an active control system. A design strategy for a PVDF sensor detecting the volume displacement induced by a vibrating 2D structure is presented. It is based on the modal representation of the plate response. It actually consists in designing a PVDF sensor, composed of several shaped PVDF strips bonded to the surface of the structure, in such a way that the output signal of the sensor is directly proportional to the volume displacement. The design methodology is based on the experimental measurements of the plate mode shapes (eigenfunctions) and is valid for any type of boundary conditions. The experimental implementation of such a volumetric sensor in an active control system is then presented. The experimental results obtained validates this new type of volume displacement sensor.


Significance Many animals perform complex intelligent behaviors, but the question of whether animals are aware while doing so remains a long debated but unanswered question. Here, we develop a new approach to assess whether nonhuman animals have awareness by utilizing a well-known double dissociation of visual awareness—cases in which people behave in completely opposite ways when stimuli are processed consciously versus nonconsciously. Using this method, we found that a nonhuman species—the rhesus monkey—exhibits the very same behavioral signature of both nonconscious and conscious processing. This opposite double dissociation of awareness firstly allows stripping away the long inherent ambiguity when interpreting the processes governing animal behavior. Collectively, it provides robust support for two distinct awareness modes in nonhuman animals. Scholars have long debated whether animals, which display impressive intelligent behaviors, are consciously aware or not. Yet, because many complex human behaviors and high-level functions can be performed without conscious awareness, it was long considered impossible to untangle whether animals are aware or just conditionally or nonconsciously behaving. Here, we developed an empirical approach to address this question. We harnessed a well-established cross-over double dissociation between nonconscious and conscious processing, in which people perform in completely opposite ways when they are aware of stimuli versus when they are not. To date, no one has explored if similar performance dissociations exist in a nonhuman species. In a series of seven experiments, we first established these signatures in humans using both known and newly developed nonverbal double-dissociation tasks and then identified similar signatures in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). These results provide robust evidence for two distinct modes of processing in nonhuman primates. This empirical approach makes it feasible to disentangle conscious visual awareness from nonconscious processing in nonhuman species; hence, it can be used to strip away ambiguity when exploring the processes governing intelligent behavior across the animal kingdom. Taken together, these results strongly support the existence of both nonconscious processing as well as functional human-like visual awareness in nonhuman animals.