In order to investigate the effects of copper alloy on abalone physiology, we studied survival rate, respiration, excretion rate, and heavy metal accumulation in each organ of adults and spats. The survival rate of spats and adults showed 27-60% and 63-83% respectively, higher survival rate in adults. In particular, 100% of copper panel led to lowest survival rate and there was no sharp distinction according to copper alloy composition. The respiration rate and excretion rate of ammonia nitrogen was 1.81 mg O2/g D.W./h and 0.43 mg NH4-N/g D.W./h respectively at 100% of copper panel. In other words, there was a high significant difference at the level, but no significant difference at other test levels (P < 0.05). The atomic ratio (0: N) hit the lowest at the 100% of copper panel showing 3.79 and no significant differences were seen among other test groups with 6.57- 7.18 of a very low range. This means that the species might have undergone nutritional stress. In case of copper accumulation, the 100% copper panel group showed the highest level in hepatopancreas and muscle showing 6.91 mg/kg and 1.60 mg/kg respectively but the rest of groups showed similar levels. Zinc accumulation raised at Cu-Zn alloy panel had high significance showing 18.50 mg/kg and 1.10 mg/kg in hepatopancreas and muscle respectively (P < 0.05). To sum up, a cage net made of 100% pure copper is expected to have a negative effect on abalone in light of survival rate, heavy metal accumulation, and atomic ratio (0: N). Moreover, given that the substratum used for the high adhesive species and nutritious stress that is represented through the atomic ratio need to be considered, the copper alloy net is thought not to be suitable for abalone aquaculture.


This study explored how employees proactively responded to perceived communication problems and what employees considered when proactively responding. The study utilized semi-structured interviews to gather data, resulting in 15 interviews. The interviews were transcribed yielding 130 single-spaced pages of data. Template analysis was used to code the data for themes. This analysis was chosen because it allowed the researcher to utilize previously established literature to develop a codebook, which could then be modified on the data. The findings demonstrate that employees will enact many types of proactive behavior to correct perceived communication problems in an organization. Findings also demonstrated that participants often involved co-workers in their proactive behaviors. Altogether, findings support the notion that several factors may influence the proactive process.


New formulas are proposed as a means to express the conservation of information principle. The first of them modifies the expression we presented in a previous work (viXra:1312.0060). The second one deals with the entropy of a particle in a circle. It is used to treats in a novel way the thermodynamics of a quantum gas. The wave function of this particle, when inserted in the conservation principle, leads to its entropy and the structure of energy levels to its internal energy.


Tricuspid valve regurgitation (TVR) in the orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) recipient is quite common and has varied clinical sequelae. In its severest forms, it can lead to right-sided failure symptoms indistinguishable from that seen in native heart TVR disease. While certain implantation techniques are widely recognized to reduce the risk of TVR in the cardiac allograft, concomitant tricuspid annuloplasty, while having advocates, is not currently accepted as a routinely established adjunct. Decisions to surgically correct TVR in the OHT recipient must be made carefully, as certain clinical scenarios have high risk of failure. Like in the native heart, anatomic etiologies typically have the greatest chances for success compared to functional etiologies. While repair options have been utilized, there is emerging data to support replacement as the more durable option. While mechanical prostheses are impractical in the heart transplant recipient, biologic valves offer the advantage of continued access to the right ventricle for biopsies in addition to acceptable durability in the low pressure system of the right side.


While user representations are extensively used on public displays, it remains unclear how well users can recognize their own representation among those of surrounding users. We study the most widely used representations: abstract objects, skeletons, silhouettes and mirrors. In a prestudy (N=12), we identify five strategies that users follow to recognize themselves on public displays. In a second study (N=19), we quantify the users' recognition time and accuracy with respect to each representation type. Our findings suggest that there is a significant effect of (1) the representation type, (2) the strategies performed by users, and (3) the combination of both on recognition time and accuracy. We discuss the suitability of each representation for different settings and provide specific recommendations as to how user representations should be applied in multi-user scenarios. These recommendations guide practitioners and researchers in selecting the representation that optimizes the most for the deployment's requirements, and for the user strategies that are feasible in that environment.


What We Already Know about This TopicHip arthroscopy is a surgical procedure growing in popularityThe optimal approach to postoperative analgesia has not been identified What This Article Tells Us That Is NewThe addition of preoperative fascia iliaca block using ropivacaine to the intraarticular injection of ropivacaine did not improve early postoperative pain scoresThe fascia iliaca blocks also did not improve most secondary endpoints, although they did cause quadriceps weakness Background: Ambulatory hip arthroscopy is associated with postoperative pain routinely requiring opioid analgesia. The potential role of peripheral nerve blocks for pain control after hip arthroscopy is controversial. This trial investigated whether a preoperative fascia iliaca block improves postoperative analgesia. Methods: In a prospective, double-blinded trial, 80 patients scheduled for hip arthroscopy were randomized to receive a preoperative fascia iliaca block with 40 ml ropivacaine 0.2% or saline. Patients also received an intraarticular injection of 10-ml ropivacaine 0.2% at procedure end. Primary study endpoint was highest pain score reported in the recovery room; other study endpoints were pain scores and opioid use 24 h after surgery. Additionally, quadriceps strength was measured to identify leg weakness. Results: The analysis included 78 patients. Highest pain scores in the recovery room were similar in the block group (6 ± 2) versus placebo group (7 ± 2), difference: −0.2 (95% CI, −1.1 to 0.7), as was opioid use (intravenous morphine equivalent dose: 15 ± 7mg [block] vs. 16 ± 9 mg [placebo]). Once discharged home, patients experienced similar pain and opioid use (13 ± 7 mg [block] vs. 12 ± 8 mg [placebo]) in the 24 h after surgery. The fascia iliaca block resulted in noticeable quadriceps weakness. There were four postoperative falls in the block group versus one fall in the placebo group. Conclusions: Preoperative fascia iliaca blockade in addition to intraarticular local anesthetic injection did not improve pain control after hip arthroscopy but did result in quadriceps weakness, which may contribute to an increased fall risk. Routine use of this block cannot be recommended in this patient population.


A simple electrophysiological method is described for detecting weaknes of psychiatric origin. The method involves the interpolation of a single indirect stimulus to a muscle during the course of a supposedly maximal voluntary contraction. Incomplete motor activation is revealed by the presence of a twitch superimposed on the recording of voluntary torque.


Best-selling classicist Peter Green recreates the life and times of the Greek lyric poet Sappho in this beautifully conceived, sharply detailed work of historical imagination. We meet Sappho at the age of fifty, when she is shaken by her fatal and final love affair with Phaon. She narrates her own story from the vantage point of self-questioning middle age, and her candid meditations make intimate, engrossing reading. Only fragments of Sappho's poetry survive. In imagining Sappho's life Green found his task 'rather like that of an archaeologist reassembling some amphora from hundreds of shards - of which more than half are missing'. Yet, in his synthesis of historical evidence and ebullient invention, Green produces a seamless, moving, and persuasive portrait. He recreates Sappho's life by interweaving her surviving poetry into the narrative, not as quotations, but as her own imagined speeches and thoughts. Sappho's life spanned one of the most exciting periods in Greek history. Green's novel, full of details about daily life on ancient Lesbos, draws the reader into the political and social climate of her world: the civil strife accompanying the transition from aristocracy to mercantilism, the household relations between slave and aristocrat, the details of sea travel in the Aegean. Green wrote the novel while living on Lesbos, and his graceful rendering of the landscape, the rhythms of the seasons, and the varied flora of Sappho's island pervades the narrative. Sappho's poetry reveals a direct, spontaneous woman who eschewed artifice and embellishment. Green's extraordinary talent captures those qualities and brings this woman of unflinching honesty very much to life.


This article explores the abiding question of how to construe the state of mind set forth in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; that is "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such." The question promises to challenge the International Criminal Court just as it has judges of the ad hoc tribunals established in the 1990s, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for the former Yugoslavia. First the article traces the development of the group mentality element from its early and broad outline to the narrow formula in the Convention. It then looks at how the ad hoc tribunals have endeavored to construe the 1948 definition in light of much more recent events. In particular, the article contrasts the seriatim approach employed in most opinions with the ensemble approach adopted by the ICTY in Prosecutor v. Krstic. Analysis of this divide begins by posing a question sometimes overlooked in debates about the definition of genocide: What does it matter? Conduct that satisfies the actus reus component of genocide - murder, sexual assault, starvation - is without doubt reprehensible. Does naming an act "genocide" bring added significance? This article answers that question in the affirmative. Law operates as a means for articulation and nourishment of societal values. This expressive function has special force in international criminal law, only now entering an era in which ongoing international criminal tribunals reinforce pronouncements of norm, such as the proscription against genocide in the 1948 Convention. This offense - commission of a heinous act with the desire to eliminate a human group - is deemed the most serious of crimes, in legal writings no less than in popular media. That social meaning of genocide, this article argues, imposes constraints. Tribunals must act in a manner that recognizes and nurtures the status of the norm against genocide. Extending protection to too many groups could upset the singular status of the proscription against genocide; denying it to deserving groups could undermine the tribunal's authority. This article recommends answering the protected group question according to a synthesis of seriatim and ensemble construction. Key to the inquiry is the particular context in which an atrocity occurred. Resort to appropriate components of each method of construction will permit a tribunal to identify a group within its own social context, and thus to determine whether the particular group falls within the aegis of the Convention definition. This reasoned inquiry into individual culpability both strengthens the authority of the tribunal and assures that only those perpetrators whom society consider the very worst will receive the indelible brand of genocidaire.


What do stRNAs and siRNAs have in common apart from their small size and their ability to regulate gene expression? The enzyme Dicer it seems, according to a Perspective by
 Ambros
 discussing new findings by
 HutvA gner
 et al .
 and Knight and Bass. Dicer cleaves larger dsRNA precursors into stRNAs and siRNAs. stRNAs regulate gene expression during worm development by preventing the mRNAs they bind to from being translated. siRNAs inactivate gene expression by binding to and degrading target mRNAs.


This article analyses instruments adopted by the UN, UNESCO and regional organizations dealing with cultural rights. It presents the procedures aimed at the verification and control of the implementation of cultural rights based on reports and, in the case of UNESCO, on communications. The analysis leads to the conclusion that cultural rights are an underdeveloped category of human rights, often proclaimed by declarations and recommendations which at best can be qualified as `soft law'. Therefore they need further development, codification and strengthening of international control of their implementation.


Since F.P. Ramsey's introduction of the idea (Ramsey 1929, "Theories"), a number of philosophers have suggested that the cognitive content of a scientific theory should be given by its Ramsey sentence. Ramsification provides a means of eliminating theoretical predicates without having to provide an explicit definition, and is therefore attractive to philosophers of a positivist inclination. However, the Ramsey sentence of a theory is weaker than the theory itself. Demopoulos & Friedman (1985, "Critical Notice: Bertrand Russell's The Analysis of Matter: Its Historical Context and Contemporary Interest", Philosophy of Science 52) were the first to introduce the so-called Newman objection to Ramsey sentence approaches to eliminating theoretical predicates, based on Newman's 1928 critique of Russell's structuralism. Demopoulos & Friedman pointed out that, roughly, the truth of the Ramsey sentence of a theory is equivalent to its empirical adequacy and perhaps a cardinality condition on the external world. The technical details of one version of this objection were set out in Ketland 2004 ("Empirical adequacy and ramsification", BJPS). Roughly, one obtains theorems of the form, "the Ramsey sentence of a theory T is true if and only T has a model with certain properties". The main result of Ketland 2004 is one such theorem. However, there are in fact several inequivalent ways to analyse the formalization of scientific theories, the notion of "empirical adequacy" and the construction of the Ramsey sentence. (For example, whether the theory is 16 formulated in a one-sorted or many-sorted language; whether un-ramsified predicates are allowed to have unobservable objects in their field; etc.) This paper will survey several of these alternatives, and give corresponding results expressing the truth conditions of Ramsey sentences.


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aligned lifestyle change programs are effective in promoting weight loss among those with elevated cardiometabolic risk; yet, variability in weight outcomes among participants is high. Little is known about heterogeneity of short-term weight changes among participants in real-world clinical practice. We sought to identify short-term weight trajectory clusters among lifestyle change program participants in real-world clinical practice and to examine the relationship between cluster membership and long-term weight outcomes. We identified participants from the electronic health records (2010-2017) with weight measured ≤30 days prior to program initiation (baseline) and in four intervals (3-week segments) in the 12 weeks after baseline. Clustering analysis was performed to identify distinct trajectories in percent weight change over 12 weeks. Cluster-specific differences in weight change at 12 and 52 weeks were assessed. Among 1,148 participants, across 18 clinic sites, three clusters were identified: minimal-to-no weight loss (MWL), delayed-minimal weight loss (DWL), and steady-moderate weight loss (SWL), corresponding to mean weight changes of 0.4%, -2.3%, and -4.8% at 12 weeks follow-up, respectively. Mean weight changes were 0.4%, -1.8%, and -5.1% for MWL, DWL, and SWL clusters, respectively, at 52 weeks follow-up, which correlated in direction and magnitude with short-term weight changes. Clustering analysis reveals heterogeneous, short-term weight trajectories among lifestyle change program participants in real-world clinical practice. Given the relationship between the magnitudes of short- and long-term weight change, individual participant weight trajectories may be useful in identifying potential non-responders in need of adjunctive or alternative therapy.


Effective treatment and management of neuropathic pain have been limited. Tetrahydrocannabinol:cannabidiol (THC:CBD) endocannabinoid buccomucosal spray (Sativex) is used in this case study to treat a patient suffering from neuropathic pain postparotidectomy. Furthermore, this particular case study shows that cannabinoids may be effective, at least in part, through a central mechanism to relieve allodynia. This patient's allodynia was treated with Sativex buccomucosal spray. Six weeks later, the patient returned to the clinic with pain symptoms alleviated and transient decrease in alertness as the only side effect experienced. Two years since the initiation of Sativex treatment for allodynia, the patient has not experienced any relapse and is now working and fully functional. This case study demonstrates a successful off-label use of Sativex to treat post-parotidectomy neuropathic pain. Sativex is currently indicated in Canada to treat neuropathic pain only in multiple sclerosis and cancer. This is the first case study to report successful treatment of post-parotidectomy neuropathic pain with THC:CBD (Sativex) buccomucosal spray.


We establish a connection between continuous-time recursive utility and the notion of consistency studied, in particular, in connection with the non-linear objective mean-variance. We propose a time-global optimization problem and show that the optimal time-consistent solution to this time-global problem is closely related to the standard recursive utility solution which is defined via differential equations. The two approaches are, to some extent, equivalent. Standard continuous-time recursive utility was developed for Brownain markets, and a generalization is complicated. Our approach contributes with insight in the notion of recursive utility and lightens up a relatively simple path that potentially gives access to results for general Markovian markets.


OBJECTIVE
To explore caregiver adherence to chronic medications and predictors of appropriate medication use.

DESIGN
Descriptive, nonexperimental, cross-sectional study.

SETTING
United States in May 2009.

PARTICIPANTS
2,000 adults randomly selected from a large national consumer panel.

INTERVENTION
Web-based survey of community pharmacy patients.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Self-reported medication adherence.

RESULTS
21% of those invited (3,775) responded to the survey invitation. Of the 2,000 individuals who were eligible to participate, 38% described themselves as caregivers. Among caregivers, 45% agreed that they were more likely to forget their own medications than medications for their caregivees. Caregivers were 10% more likely to forget to take their medications, 11% more likely to stop taking medications if they felt well, and 13% more likely to forget to refill their medications than noncare-givers (P < 0.001 for all). In fully adjusted models, caregivers had 36% greater odds (95% CI 0.52-0.79) of reporting that they were nonadherent compared with noncare-givers and increased medication use among caregivees was associated with worse adherence among caregivers (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Medication nonadherence was common in this population, and caregivers were more likely to report poor medication adherence than noncaregivers. Considering that caregivers often engage health professionals, physicians and pharmacists may choose to screen for caregiving status. Pharmacists are uniquely positioned to intervene to enhance appropriate medication adherence.


Options with different maturities can be used to generate an implied forward volatility, a volatility forecast for non-overlapping future time intervals. Using five commodities with varying characteristics, we find that the implied forward volatility dominates forecasts based on historical volatility information, but that the predictive accuracy is affected by the commodity's characteristics. Unbiased and efficient corn and soybeans market forecasts are attributable to the well-established volatility during crucial growing periods. For soybean meal, wheat, and hogs, volatility is less predictable and investors appear to demand a risk premium for bearing volatility risk.


A changing nonprofit environment, stronger demands for nonprofit services and an impending leadership deficit has caused the nonprofit sector to place an even greater emphasis on leadership and leadership development. This research examines the changes in the sector and the skills required of leaders to adapt to these changes. Interviews with current nonprofit leaders, aspiring leaders and directors of nonprofit management programs shed light on the trends in leadership development, the challenges and opportunities, and recommendations for the sector. Aspiring nonprofit leaders, universities and nonprofit organizations can all play a role in ensuring the future success of the nonprofit sector by developing quality leaders.


Stanley R. Barrett's Anthropology has long been a premiere sourcebook for students, providing a comprehensive overview of both theory and method in the discipline. In this updated second edition, Barrett's discussion of the origins and evolution of anthropology remains, augmented by sections addressing recent changes and ongoing questions in the field. The second edition of Anthropology adds important new material on questions of culture versus power, Max Weber's thought, the potential of applied anthropology, and the rise of public anthropology, while briefly touching on the anthropology of globalization. As in the previous edition, Barrett remains committed to exploring the impact of postmodernism on the practice and theory of anthropology, positing that it is a formless and ultimately short-lived approach. Including case studies to demonstrate real-world applications of the theories discussed, Barrett's Anthropology remains an essential text for students and teachers of anthropology.


Introduction This study assessed the microbial quality of clay samples sold on two of the major Ghanaian markets. Methods The study was a cross-sectional assessing the evaluation of processed clay and effects it has on the nutrition of the consumers in the political capital town of Ghana. The items for the examination was processed clay soil samples. Results Staphylococcus spp and fecal coliforms including Klebsiella, Escherichia, and Shigella and Enterobacterspp were isolated from the clay samples. Samples from the Kaneshie market in Accra recorded the highest total viable counts 6.5 Log cfu/g and Staphylococcal count 5.8 Log cfu/g. For fecal coliforms, Madina market samples had the highest count 6.5 Log cfu/g and also recorded the highest levels of yeast and mould. For Koforidua, total viable count was highest in the samples from the Zongo market 6.3 Log cfu/g. Central market samples had the highest count of fecal coliforms 4.6 Log cfu/g and yeasts and moulds 6.5 Log cfu/g. "Small" market recorded the highest staphylococcal count 6.2 Log cfu/g. The water activity of the clay samples were low, and ranged between 0.65±0.01 and 0.66±0.00 for samples collected from Koforidua and Accra respectively. Conclusion The clay samples were found to contain Klebsiella spp. Escherichia, Enterobacter, Shigella spp. staphylococcus spp., yeast and mould. These have health implications when consumed.


Background. Rodent models suggest that follistatin-like 3 (fstl3) is associated with diabetes and obesity. In humans, plasma fstl3 is reduced with gestational diabetes. In vitro, TNF-α induces fstl3 secretion, which suggests a link to inflammation. Objective. To elucidate the association between plasma fstl3 and obesity, insulin resistance, and low-grade inflammation in humans. Study Design. Plasma fstl3 levels were determined in a cross-sectional study including three groups: patients with type 2 diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, and healthy controls. In addition, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), TNF-α, or interleukin-6 (IL-6) as well as a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp were used to examine if plasma fstl3 was acutely regulated in humans. Results. Plasma fstl3 was increased in obese subjects independent of glycemic state. Moreover, plasma fstl3 was positively correlated with fat mass, plasma leptin, fasting insulin, and HOMA B and negatively with HOMA S. Furthermore plasma fstl3 correlated positively with plasma TNF-α and IL-6 levels. Infusion of LPS and TNF-α, but not IL-6 and insulin, increased plasma fstl3 in humans. Conclusion. Plasma fstl3 is increased in obese subjects and associated with fat mass and low-grade inflammation. Furthermore, TNF-α increased plasma fstl3, suggesting that TNF-α is one of the inflammatory drivers of increased systemic levels of fstl3.


This paper estimates the effects of alternative reforms of the current system of low-income housing assistance on the number of people of various types who would receive assistance. The reforms are designed to eliminate the system's substantial inefficiencies, inequities, and bias against homeownership. All would replace HUD's largest low-income housing programs with alternative tenure-neutral housing voucher programs that serve all eligible families that apply for assistance. Most cost less than the current system. The estimated effects on program participation are long-run effects after the transition to the new system has been completed. The estimates of participation in the reformed voucher programs are based primarily on the five-percent household sample from the 2000 Decennial Census and participation experience in the only similar housing assistance programs that have been operated in the United States. HUD's administrative records provide data on current recipients of low-income housing assistance. The paper explores the sensitivity of the results to the equations used to predict participation in the reformed voucher programs. The results indicate that even the reformed program that reduces public expenditure by more than 10 percent would serve 75 percent more people in total and many more in families of each type – white, black, and Hispanic; elderly and nonelderly; families living in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas; small, medium, and large families; and families in the first two real income deciles. The most underserved types experience the largest increases.


The relationship between environment and health is part of the history of medicine and has always been important to any study of human health and to public-health interventions. In Latin America many health improvements are related to environmental interventions, such as the provision of better water and sanitation services. Latin America's development, industrialization, and sweeping urbanization have brought many improvements to the well-being of its populations; they have also inaugurated new societies, with new patterns of consumption. The region's basic environmental-health interventions have needed to be updated and upgraded to include disciplines such as toxicology, environmental epidemiology, environmental engineering, and many others. Multidisciplinary and inter-sector approaches are paramount to understanding new profiles of health and well-being, and to promoting effective public-health interventions.
 The new social, economic, labor, and consumption aspects of modern Latin American society have become more and more relevant to understanding the complex interactions in the region's social, biological, and physical environment, which are essential to explaining some of the emerging and re-emerging public-health problems. Environmental health, as concept and as intervention, is simple and easily understood, but no longer sufficient to achieve the levels of health and well-being expected and required by these new realities. Many global changes such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and mass migrations has been identified as main cause of ill health and are at the center of the sustainable development challenges in general, and many are critical and specific public health. To face this development, other frameworks have emerged, such as planetary health and environmental and social determinants of health. Public health remains central to some, such as the improved environmental-health agenda, while others assign public health a relative position in a variety of overarching frameworks.


A terahertz photoconductive source structure with nano-grating electrodes is proposed. The resonance modes of the one-dimensional nano-grating and their affect the optical power absorption are studied. In addition, an approach for optimal design of the grating to maximize the photocurrent for different proposed DC biases, is presented. The dependence of the photocurrent on physical parameters of photomixer are analyzed. A fast analysis method for a new terahertz waveguide for photo-mixing is proposed. The wave-guiding mixer structure is a modified parallel plate waveguide (PPWG) in which the top plate is replaced by a periodic array of sub-wavelength nano-slits. The substrate of the PPWG is made of a fast photoconductive material in which laser photomixing/absorption occurs. The characteristic equation of the modified PPWG when used as a THz waveguide is derived analytically, and its guided modes are studied in details over THz range of frequencies. The accuracy of the analytical results are verified by comparison with fullwave numerical simulations. The criteria for choosing the suitable mode for photomixing application are also discussed. Finally, based on dyadic Greens function representation, a systematic approach is provided for calculating the amplitude of the guided modes that are excited by an arbitrary photocurrent.


The Palladium Membrane Reactor (PMR) process was installed in the Tritium Facilities at the Savannah River Site to perform a production-scale demonstration for the recovery of tritium from tritiated water adsorbed on molecular sieve (zeolite). Unlike the current recovery process that utilizes magnesium, the PMR offers a means to process tritiated water in a more cost effective and environmentally friendly manner. The design and installation of the large-scale PMR process was part of a collaborative effort between the Savannah River Site and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The PMR process operated at the Savannah River Site between May 2001 and April 2003. During the initial phase of operation the PMR processed thirty-four kilograms of tritiated water from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The water was processed in fifteen separate batches to yield approximately 34,400 liters (STP) of hydrogen isotopes. Each batch consisted of round-the-clock operations for approximately nine days. In April 2003 the reactor's palladium-silver membrane ruptured resulting in the shutdown of the PMR process. Reactor performance, process performance and operating experiences have been evaluated and documented. A performance comparison between PMR and current magnesium process is also documented.


A full understanding of the biology and behavior of humans cannot be complete without the collective contributions of the social sciences, cognitive sciences, and neurosciences. This book collects eighty-two of the foundational articles in the emerging discipline of social neuroscience. The book addresses five main areas of research: multilevel integrative analyses of social behavior, using the tools of neuroscience, cognitive science, and social science to examine specific cases of social interaction; the relationships between social cognition and the brain, using noninvasive brain imaging to document brain function in various social situations; rudimentary biological mechanisms for motivation, emotion, and attitudes, and the shaping of these mechanisms by social factors; the biology of social relationships and interpersonal processes; and social influences on biology and health.


I am truly delighted to introduce the new Journal of Pain Management and Therapy (JPMT) (Allied Academies). JPMT provides a really exciting opportunity to consider the truly interdisciplinary treatment of pain. First of all, the main objective of this journal is to share and deliver content work done by researchers and scholars in the field of Pain Management and its treatment using many types of therapy. It also shares some articles on new regenerative medication and drugs therapies for pain management. Moreover, the journal counts on the collaboration of an international multidisciplinary Editorial Board. In fact, it has been conducted a rigorous selection of our editorial board and reviewers to ensure the quality and credibility necessary for a scientific journal. Inside you will find original research, timely review articles, case reports, commentaries, book and media reviews, as well as articles on efficacy, safety, costeffectiveness, availability, delivery systems, ethics, policy, philosophy, and other issues relevant to the management of acute and chronic pain. Needless to say, any papers that you wish to submit, either individually or collaboratively, are much appreciated and will make a substantial contribution to the early development and success of the journal. Best wishes and thank you in advance for your involvement to the Journal of Pain Management and Therapy.


Every day robots are becoming more common in the society. Consequently, they must have certain basic skills in order to interact with humans and the environment. One of these skills is the capacity to understand the places where they are able to move. Computer vision is one of the ways commonly used for achieving this purpose. Current technologies in this field offer outstanding solutions applied to improve data quality every day, therefore producing more accurate results in the analysis of an environment. With this in mind, the main goal of this research is to develop and validate an efficient object-based scene understanding method that will be able to help solve problems related to scene identification for mobile robotics. We seek to analyze state-of-the-art methods for finding the most suitable one for our goals, as well as to select the kind of data most convenient for dealing with this issue. Another primary goal of the research is to determine the most suitable data input for analyzing scenes in order to find an accurate representation for the scenes by meaning of semantic labels or point cloud features descriptors. As a secondary goal we will show the benefits of using semantic descriptors generated with pre-trained models for mapping and scene classification problems, as well as the use of deep learning models in conjunction with 3D features description procedures to build a 3D object classification model that is directly related with the representation goal of this work. The research described in this thesis was motivated by the need for a robust system capable of understanding the locations where a robot usually interacts. In the same way, the advent of better computational resources has allowed to implement some already defined techniques that demand high computational capacity and that offer a possible solution for dealing with scene understanding issues. One of these techniques are Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). These networks have the capacity of classifying an image based on their visual appearance.


The U.S. active-duty military population may differ from the U.S. general population in its exposure to cancer risk factors and access to medical care. Yet, it is not known if cancer incidence rates differ between these two populations. We therefore compared the incidence of four cancers common in U.S. adults (lung, colorectal, prostate, and breast cancers) and two cancers more common in U.S. young adults (testicular and cervical cancers) in the military and general populations. Data from the Automated Central Tumor Registry (ACTUR) of the Department of Defense and the nine cancer registries of the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) of the National Cancer Institute for the years 1990 to 2004 for persons with ages 20 to 59 years were analyzed. Incidence rates were significantly lower in the military population for colorectal cancer in White men, lung cancer in White and Black men and White women, and cervical cancer in Black women. In contrast, incidence rates of breast and prostate cancers were significantly higher in the military among Whites and Blacks. Incidence rates of testicular cancer did not differ between ACTUR and SEER. Although the numbers of diagnoses among military personnel were relatively small for temporal trend analysis, we found a more prominent increase in prostate cancer in ACTUR than in SEER. Overall, these results suggest that cancer patterns may differ between military and nonmilitary populations. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and explore contributing factors. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(6):1740–5)


Introduction and aims: The branched-chain aminotransferase (BCAT) enzymes are important in the regulation of brain L-glutamate. A unique function of these aminotransferases is their regulation by the redox environment, where our group have shown their function as oxidoreductases, and their ability to refold misfolded proteins in particular when S-glutathionylated. Our group recently showed a significant increase in the level of these proteins in Alzheimer's disease brain. An increase in BCAT metabolism could generate excess glutamate, contributing to the excitotoxic environment observed under pathogenic conditions. Alternatively, we hypothesize that if this protein is modified in response to cellular stress, it may play a more prominent role in regulating redox status or protein folding. To address these questions this project focussed on the design of chemical inhibitors and knock-down models together with a co-culture model of the human cerebrovasculature and specifically targeted key metabolic and redox pathways.
Methods: Several chemical inhibitors based on 4-Benzyloxyphenylacetic acid were identified using the DockBlaster and Schrodinger software suites, synthesized and structurally verified using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The functional impact and specificity of these inhibitors was assessed using the BCAT radiolabelled assay and a coupled-enzyme assay. In tandem, siRNA was used to knock-down both isoforms in SH-SY5Y cells, and validated using Western blot analysis and RT-PCR. The impact of BCAT inhibition on the expression of redox proteins, in addition to selected metabolic proteins, was assessed by Western blot analysis. Functional redox assays, including glutathione concentration and metabolic activity, were also used to investigate the impact of human BCAT (hBCAT) expression in neuronal cells. Finally, a model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) was developed and validated for studies into the role of mitochondrial hBCAT (hBCATm) in brain microvasculature.
Results: For the first time we have identified a family of chemical inhibitors of hBCATm. In particular, benzofenac has a two-fold greater enzyme affinity for hBCATm (Ki=43 μM) than cytosolic hBCAT (hBCATc) (Ki=93 μM) and a four-fold greater inhibition relative to alanine transaminase (ALT; Ki=167 μM). These inhibitors will require further optimisation but have potential as tools to assess the cellular function of hBCAT. In separate studies, knock-down of hBCATm in SH-SY5Y neuronal cells demonstrated that hBCATm expression has an impact on the metabolic and redox status of the cell. In particular, knock-down caused a >70% decrease in glutaredoxin (GRx), thioredoxin (TRx), branched-chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase α-subunit (BCKDHA), and AU-rich binding homolog of enoyl-CoA hydratase (AUH) expression. Interestingly, this effect was attenuated when cells were treated with L-leucine, indicating that these mechanisms may be regulated by a metabolic signal. L-glutamate treatment was also found to significantly increase hBCATm expression, but decreased glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) expression, except in cells overexpressing hBCATm, suggesting a metabolic synergy between the two enzymes. Finally, total glutathione concentration was significantly decreased on hBCATm knock-down, while sensitivity to L-glutamate toxicity was significantly increased.
Discussion: Results from this work has significantly contributed to the design of cellular models, which can be used to further investigate the role of BCAT in metabolic and redox metabolism. A model of the human blood-brain barrier, developed in this thesis, will also contribute to evaluating the endothelial role of hBCATm, particular to humans. The initial impact of limiting BCAT expression is both a reduction in the expression of key metabolic proteins and also the cellular reductants of the cell. Together this had an impact on cell viability and survival. Knowledge of these pathways and their regulation will be important to our understanding, of not only the regulation of brain glutamate, but also the role of BCAT in protein folding and as a contributor to cellular redox status. These factors are fundamentally important to the development of neurodegenerative conditions but also to tumour development such as gliomas.


BACKGROUND
The cardiovascular system is highly adaptable to sustained +Gz acceleration. Little is known as to whether the cardiovascular system can adapt to acute, repetitive +Gz exposures. This study tested the hypothesis that the cardiovascular system would adapt to repeated orthostatic challenges in a single session.

METHODS
Over a 70-min period, 14 subjects were exposed to 10 +75 degrees head-up tilts (HUT). Each tilt involved a 5-min supine period followed by a 2-min HUT. Heart rate (HR), systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), total peripheral resistance (TPR), stroke volume (SV), and cardiac output (CO) were determined non-invasively. Cardiovascular responses to HUT10 for the final 30 s of the supine period and the first 30 s of the tilt period were compared with those of HUT1. Integrated cardiac baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) was assessed using the Valsalva maneuver.

RESULTS
MAP and DBP increased in both supine (MAP p = 0.009, DBP p = 0.002) and tilt periods (MAP p = 0.003, DBP p = 0.009) for HUT10 compared with HUT1. TPR increased during the tilt period only (p = 0.001) during HUT10 compared with HUT1. CO and SV were decreased during the supine period at HUT10 relative to HUT1; however, there were no differences in the tilt period at HUT10 for either CO or SV. There was no change in the response of BRS, HR, or SBP from HUT1 to HUT10.

CONCLUSIONS
This study indicates that 10 repetitive HUTs can elicit changes in the cardiovascular responses to orthostasis, reflected by an increased vascular resistance.


Debates about the utility of p values and correct ways to analyze data have inspired new guidelines on statistical inference by the American Psychological Association (APA) and changes in the way results are reported in other scientific journals, but their impact on the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) has not previously been evaluated. A content analysis of empirical articles published in JEAB between 1992 and 2017 investigated whether statistical and graphing practices changed during that time period. The likelihood that a JEAB article reported a null hypothesis significance test, included a confidence interval, or depicted at least one figure with error bars has increased over time. Features of graphs in JEAB, including the proportion depicting single-subject data, have not changed systematically during the same period. Statistics and graphing trends in JEAB largely paralleled those in mainstream psychology journals, but there was no evidence that changes to APA style had any direct impact on JEAB. In the future, the onus will continue to be on authors, reviewers and editors to ensure that statistical and graphing practices in JEAB continue to evolve without interfering with characteristics that set the journal apart from other scientific journals.


Recent years have seen increased interest in data-driven methods in legal research. Technologies provide new automated alternatives to traditional doctrinal approaches, which rely on manual information retrieval. In this article, we address one aspect of this development. On the basis of a citation network containing judgments on Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights, we identify which cases are most frequently cited and explicitly used in the legal argumentation of the European Court of Human Rights. We subsequently compare our findings with presentations of Article 14 in German, French and British textbooks. We aim to demonstrate that 1) network analysis can provide relevant input to legal analysis by relying on objective measures of case importance and 2) scholarship relying on traditional doctrinal methods is more dependent on the authors' subjective outlook than necessary.


As a unique 2D carbon crystal with a zero bandgap nature, superior electron mobility and high transparency, graphene was introduced into BiOBr–TiO2 (BT) composites as a nano-filler by a facile one-pot approach to obtain a novel BiOBr–TiO2–graphene (BTG) ternary photocatalyst. The material exhibits superior photocatalytic activity towards the photodegradation of Rhodamine B under visible light irradiation, and has an enhancement in photocatalytic rate of up to 2.83-fold higher than that of the BT catalyst at an optimum content of 0.75 wt% graphene in the composites. The homogeneous hybrid colloids of BiNO3, tetrabutyl titanate and graphene oxide were employed as the precursor, while GO was reduced into graphene with a simultaneous formation of tetragonal BiOBr and amorphous TiO2 in the solvothermal process. The highly dispersed 2D graphene in the composites will not only serve as the electron reservoir, but also act as a conductive network to improve the migration efficiency of electrons. Furthermore, the spacer effect of graphene will increase the surface BiOBr concentration and decrease the crystal size of BiOBr, as well as facilitate the formation of relatively uniform channel-like pores, which is beneficial for the photocatalytic performance. The photodegradation in the BiOBr–TiO2–graphene system was carried out dominantly by an indirect dye photosensitization process and the superoxide radical anions ˙O2− were considered as the main reactive species. This work provides an in-depth perspective for understanding the graphene-involved photocatalytic mechanism and stimulates the design of novel catalytic materials for the exploitation and utilization of solar energy.


The discoverer of a naturally occurring phenomenon - such as an element, chemical, or mineral - cannot patent the phenomenon. This long-standing principle of patent law, which reflects the 'invention' prerequisite for patent protection, has been upheld consistently by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, the Patent and Trademark Office and federal courts now routinely hold discovered natural substances patentable if they are 'isolated and purified' or otherwise insubstantially modified. Naturally occurring DNA, protein biomolecules and other purified natural substances have, consequently, become the subject of thousands of patent applications.Courts have failed to interpret the Patent Act in a manner that captures the prerequisite of human ingenuity to patentability where the claimed product is based on a newly discovered, natural substance. It is inappropriate to examine whether the other, more often discussed, requirements of patentability, such as novelty, utility, and nonobviousness, are satisfied before properly determining that applicants are claiming more than a trivial modification of a natural substance. This article discusses the use of a variant of the 'substantial transformation test' (STT) used in customs law, in which a product is considered to have undergone a substantial transformation when it has a 'new and distinct name, character, or use,' to distinguish products of nature from patentable inventions. The real focus of the test as applied to natural substances is a change of character.


The members of the Tec family of tyrosine kinases contain Src homology 2 (SH2), SH3, and pleckstrin homology (PH) domains, in addition to their kinase domains. Unlike the Src family of tyrosine kinases, which have a negative regulatory tyrosine located at their COOH-termini, members of the Tec family do not have an obvious negative regulatory site. Liu et al. (News and Views by Koyasu) have now identified a protein, termed IBtk, that interacts with and inhibits Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) activity. IBtk and Btk associated in vitro and in vivo; however, IBtk did not interact with the related Tec family kinase Itk, suggesting that IBtk might specifically interact with Btk. Chicken B cells transfected with IBtk exhibited reduced changes of calcium concentrations and inhibition of NF-κB activation, in response to B cell-receptor stimulation. Other experiments revealed that the COOH-terminal portion of IBtk bound the the PH domain of Btk, and was responsible for mediating the inhibtion of Btk activity. Activation of B cells led to the localization of Btk and IBtk to the plasma membrane, which suggests that IBtk might inhibit Btk activity soon after B cell receptor-dependent activation to tightly control Btk-mediated signaling. These data are likely to spur a search for specific inhibitors of other Tec family members. W. Liu, I. Quinto, X. Chen, C. Palmieri, R. L. Rabin, O. M. Schwartz, D. L. Nelson, G. Scala, Direct inhibition of Bruton's tyrosine kinase by IBtk, a Btk-binding protein. Nature Immunol. 2, 939-946 (2001). [Online Journal] S. Koyasu, Beating a kinase? Nature Immunol. 2, 897-898 (2001). [Online Journal]


The U.S. colleges and universities offering non-sectarian educational programs in Jewish Studies rely on the support of their academic libraries for research materials and library services. For college libraries which use Library of Congress Classification scheme, it is a common practice to integrate "studies" resources into their general library collections. Since Jewish Studies sources span a vast number of subjects within all major disciplines, shelving integration leads to the dispersion of all relevant sources and such dispersion in turn leads to a variety of problems for library professionals and library users. For collection development librarians the problems range from lack of information about collection's size, strengths or weaknesses, and for library users interested in browsing the collection, dispersion of subjects creates a major roadblock. This practical guide aims at providing a solution to such problems. By identifying all relevant Library of Congress call numbers and the corresponding Library of Congress subject headings, the guide offers a simplified access to Jewish Studies sources in general library collections. It is arranged by four major discipline: Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, and General Works & Bibliographies. Within each discipline, specific LC call number ranges and corresponding subjects are listed. The subjects are further subdivided and precisely identified. The guide will assist collection development librarians, library liaisons, grants and fundraising professionals and especially the Jewish Studies faculty and students, in identifying and locating relevant sources.


This Story grows out of a study of the Supreme Court Record and other historical materials about the well-known 1880 copyright case of Baker v. Selden. Among the surprises the Story reveals are that Selden was not, as some have surmised, the author of a treatise on bookkeeping, nor was he the inventor of the now universally used T-account system of bookkeeping. Selden's books are better described as minor variants on one another, consisting of 20-some pages of bookkeeping forms with sample entries, a short preface, and an introduction. Most of the 650 words of text in the last book puff the merits of his system rather than explaining how to use it. Baker, not Selden, is mentioned in works on the history of bookkeeping, and Baker's books on bookkeeping (but not Selden's) are still available in various public and university libraries. Though burdened with thousands of dollars of debt, Selden's widow hired a prominent intellectual property lawyer to represent her in the lawsuit against Baker which charged him with pirating the Selden system. She believed she was owed damages (in today's dollars) of a quarter-million dollars a year from Baker and his customers. Baker probably lost at the trial court level because he hired an inexperienced young lawyer; Baker won before the Supreme Court in part because he was represented by a team of supple heavy-hitters. The most important lesson of this Story concerns the legal principle the Court was trying to promulgate. Although Baker v. Selden is widely cited as the genesis of the "idea/expression" distinction in copyright law, the Story shows that this distinction predated Baker. Nor is Baker the genesis of the "merger" doctrine (which holds that if an idea can only be expressed in one or a small number of ways, copyright law will not protect the expression because it has "merged" with the idea). The main objective of the Supreme Court's decision was to sharpen the distinction between authorship and invention. The complaint spoke of Selden as the author and inventor of several books and of a bookkeeping system. His lawyer kept speaking about its novelty in the state of the art. Selden's widow claimed exclusive rights not only to stop Baker from publishing competing books, but also to collect damages from all of Baker's customers for their use of the infringing system. That Selden had sought, but apparently not obtained, a patent on his bookkeeping system seems to have affected the Court. To clarify the proper roles of patent and copyright in protecting the fruits of intellectual labor, the Baker opinion introduced a new framework for analyzing copyright claims. It directed courts to consider whether the defendant had copied the author's description, explanation, illustration, or depiction of a useful art (such as a bookkeeping system) or ideas, or had only copied the useful art or ideas themselves. In the absence of a patent, the useful art depicted in a work, along with its ideas, could be used and copied by anyone, even in directly competing works. Any necessary incidents to implementing the art (e.g., blank forms illustrating use of the system) could likewise be used and copied by second comers without fear of copyright liability. The Baker opinion's rich analysis of the roles of copyright and patent in protecting intellectual creations has, over the past 125 years, spawned at least eight significant copyright doctrines, including four codified in the Copyright Act of 1976, as well as a few enduring controversies.


Derrida revealed the fallacy that it is possible to distinguish between reality, thinking and language; a fallacy
 constructed by Plato and transmitted through Western philosophy. Furthermore, this belief has been the foundation stone of
 translation studies, creating a concept of translation as a mechanism by means of which the essence of a message is transmitted
 from one language to another, and whose ultimate guarantor is always the author of the original text. Derrida makes use of writing
 to dismantle this fallacy and to show language as a complex system of signs that do not have one fixed, unchangeable meaning,
 insofar as they cannot actualize the referent, but rather imply a multiplicity of interpretations. In a multimodal context in
 which the original and the translation are simultaneous and complementary, subtitling brings us closer to the Derridian notion of
 writing as the place wherein language shows us precisely what it is.


Rethinking a key epoch in East Asian history, Hyun Ok Park formulates a new understanding of early-twentieth-century Manchuria. Most studies of the history of modern Manchuria examine the turbulent relations of the Chinese state and imperialist Japan in political, military, and economic terms. Park presents a compelling analysis of the constitutive effects of capitalist expansion on the social practices of Korean migrants in the region.

Drawing on a rich archive of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese sources, Park describes how Koreans negotiated the contradictory demands of national and colonial powers. She demonstrates that the dynamics of global capitalism led the Chinese and Japanese to pursue capitalist expansion while competing for sovereignty. Decentering the nation-state as the primary analytic rubric, her emphasis on the role of global capitalism is a major innovation for understanding nationalism, colonialism, and their immanent links in social space.

Through a regional and temporal comparison of Manchuria from the late nineteenth century until 1945, Park details how national and colonial powers enacted their claims to sovereignty through the regulation of access to land, work, and loans. She shows that among Korean migrants, the complex connections among Chinese laws, Japanese colonial policies, and Korean social practices gave rise to a form of nationalism in tension with global revolution—a nationalism that laid the foundation for what came to be regarded as North Korea's isolationist politics.


Aquaculture facilities provide a suitable habitat for a wide group of marine species that are able to colonise and settle on artificial structures. This study aims to determine the composition of fouling communities in off-coast facilities, with special emphasis on motile epifauna and amphipods as a main group. Seventeen aquaculture sites were sampled along the Mediterranean coast, collecting samples by scraping fouling organisms directly from the ropes. Additionally, thirty publications were reviewed, in order to assess the similarity of aquaculture fouling with other fouling communities. Our results reflect that amphipods accounted for more than 80% of the epifauna associated with farms fouling communities. This characteristic epifauna was defined by seven amphipod species well-adapted to colonise and survive in these off-coast habitats. Most species common in farms have also been commonly found in harbours, marinas, and/or offshore on turtles, buoys or platforms etc., showing a great resistance to polluted areas but also to dispersal via rafting on floating objects. In this study, two exotic species were identified: Caprella scaura and Stenothoe georgiana , the latter being the first report from the Mediterranean Sea. The presence of Jassa slatteryi was also confirmed, underestimated until now in the Mediterranean.


This paper presents empirical evidence for a theory of syntactic categories in the tradition of categorial grammar, in which more complex categories are derived from simpler ones by means of category formation operators. In Jakarta Indonesian, almost all words and larger expressions belong to a single open syntactic category, S(entence), while a small residue of semantically heterogeneous items belong to a single closed syntactic category S/S. The theory predicts that in first-language acquisition, simpler categories are acquired before more complex ones. Thus, for Jakarta Indonesian, it predicts that the category S is be acquired before the category S/S. Examination of a naturalistic corpus of almost one million utterances provides support for this prediction, deriving from errors of overgeneralization, in which members of S/S exhibit the distributional properties of members of S.


Abstract Background: Botulinum toxin has been recently known for its vasodilatory effect. The main purpose of our study was to demonstrate the anti-vasospastic effect of botulinum toxin B in animal models. Method: In this prospective experimental rat study, we used 10 male Sprague-Dawley rats. The right and left inguinal areas (femoral vessels) served as the experimental and control groups, respectively. Three days prior to the experimental procedure, botulinum toxin B and normal saline were subcutaneously injected in the experimental and control groups, respectively. After three days, the vascular diameter and flow were measured. Then, phenylephrine was injected, and after one hour the same parameters were measured. Results: The changes in arterial diameter in the experimental and control group were 30.83 ± 10.43% and 40.00 ± 8.61%, respectively. The vein diameter decreased by 22.98 ± 10.08% in the experimental group compared to 49.05 ± 10.08% for the control group. Furthermore, the arterial flow change in the control group was 8.28 ± 2.10% compared to 1.16 ± 0.65% in the experimental group. In addition, the venous flow in the control group decreased by 9.27 ± 2.75% compared to 0.92 ± 0.56% in the experimental group. Both arterial and venous diameters and flows showed statistical significance between the experimental and control groups (p < .05). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that pretreatment with botulinum toxin B led to significantly reduced change in vascular diameters and flows compared with the control group, supporting the anti-vasospastic effects of botulinum toxin B.


This article reports the application of a nonlinear impedance technique under a low-frequency vibration to detect contact-type structural defects such as fatigue cracks. If the contact-type damage is developed within the structure due to the low-frequency dynamic load, the vibration can cause a nonlinear fluctuation of the structural impedance because of the contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN). This nonlinear effect can lead to amplitude modulation and phase modulation of the current flow. The nonlinear characteristics of the structural impedance can be extracted by observing the coupled electromechanical impedance of a piezoelectric active sensor and utilizing nonlinear wave modulation spectroscopy. Experimentally, a low-frequency vibration was applied to a notched coupon at a certain natural frequency by a shaker, so that a nonlinear fatigue crack can be artificially formed at the notch tip. Then, the nonlinear features are extracted based on a self-sensing impedance measurement from a host structure under a low-frequency vibration. The damage metric was established based on the nonlinear fluctuation of the impedance due to the CAN.


scalability targeted versus universalist Abstract: With the expansion of social protection measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, considerations both old and new have surfaced regarding targeted versus universalist approaches. This study focuses on how social protection coverage before the pandemic influences the extent of targeted versus universalist policies in advanced and developing economies. It offers new insights regarding continued and new patterns in policy design, particularly concerning beneficiaries and the type of programmes, by learning from the policy mix of crisis relief. The study draws on two datasets: the COVID-19 Stimulus Tracker and the Social Protection Floor Index. Combined, they provide information about financing gaps for social protection floors before the pandemic and about countries' specific pandemic policy responses. Using standard regression modelling, an association is estimated between social protection floor indexes and the share of universal policy measures across different conceptualizations of social protection. The findings offer first reflections on the extent to which pre-existing systems matter and in what way recent policy innovations may inform the design of shock-responsive systems going forward.


In a recent past, Transposable Elements (TEs) were referred as selfish genetic components only capable of copying themselves with the aim to increase the odds that will be inherited. Nonetheless, TEs have been initially proposed as positive control elements acting in synergy with the host. Nowadays, it is well known that TE movement into genome host comprise an important evolutionary mechanism capable to produce diverse chromosome rearrangements and thus increase the adaptive fitness. According to as insights into TE functioning are increasing day to day, the manipulation of transposition has raised an interesting possibility to setting the host functions, although the lack of appropriate genome engineering tools has unpaved it. Fortunately, the emergence of genome editing technologies based on programmable nucleases, and especially the arrival of a multipurpose RNA-guided Cas9 endonuclease system, has made it possible to reconsider this challenge. For such purpose, a particular type of transposons referred as Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) has demonstrated a series of interesting characteristics for designing functional drivers. Here, recent insights into MITE elements and versatile RNA-guided CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering system are given to outline an effective strategy that allows to deploy the TE potential for control of the host transcriptional activity.


The Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) onboard the SELENE (Kaguya) spacecraft successfully performed subsurface radar sounding of the Moon and passive observations of natural radio and plasma waves from the lunar orbit. The operation of LRS started on October 29, 2007. Until the end of the operation on June 10, 2009, 2363 hours worth of radar sounder data and 8961 hours worth of natural radio and plasma wave data were obtained [Ono et al., 2010]. We found subsurface regolith layers at depths of several hundred meters, which were interbedded between lava flow layers in the nearside maria. [Ono et al., 2009]. Using the measured depths and structures of the buried regolith layers, we could determine several key parameters on tectonics, surface layer evolution, and volcanism in the maria: Base on the determined parameters such as the formation age of the ridges, effective permittivity of the uppermost basalt layers, and the lava flow volumes in the nearside maria, we made the following suggestions: (1) Global cooling, which forms ridges in southern Serenitatis, became dominant after 2.84 Ga. [Ono et al., 2009], (2) The porosity of the uppermost basalt layer in Mare Humorum was estimated to be 19-51%, much more than the average of Apollo rock samples (7%) [Ishiyama et al., 2013], and (3) The average eruption rate of the lava flow in the nearside maria was 10 km/yr. at 3.8 Ga and decrease to 10 km/yr at 3.3 Ga [Oshigami et al., 2014]. Thanks to the high downlink rate from the SELENE/LRS (0.5 Mbps), we could obtain almost raw (simply pulse-compressed) waveform data from the lunar subsurface radar sounding. Using this dataset, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing was applied with trying several permittivity models in the analyses on the ground [Kobayashi et al., 2012]. This dataset is provided via SELENE Data Archive (http://l2db.selene.darts.isas.jaxa.jp/index.html.en), which will be useful for researchers who have new ideas for applying them to the investigations of the lunar surface structures and there evolutions.


Bradley W. Buchanan. Oedipus Against Freud: Myth and the End(s) of Humanism in Twentieth-Century British Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Pp. x + 200. $45 (cloth). This book aims at modifying the general belief that the influence of the Oedipus myth on modern literature was confined to its embodiment in Freud's theory of the complex of the same name. It proposes that Sophocles's plays Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at Colonus were themselves an equally important influence on modern writing, though an influence of an essentially contrary nature. Buchanan sees Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex as "humanistic" in positing the concept of a universal "human nature" susceptible to rationalistic explanation, whereas the Theban plays expose such a reliance on human reason as delusory--human beings are here gripped by forces they cannot control or fully comprehend. Oedipus's success in solving the Sphinx's riddle leads to a hubris that results in his downfall. This Sophoclean type of action, for Buchanan, provides an alternate, non-Freudian paradigm consonant with much modernist and postmodernist writing. Buchanan has produced an ambitious, wide-ranging and absorbing study. Partly because it attempts to accomplish much, however, it opens itself to numerous objections. One such is that "humanism" and "anti-humanism" are difficult terms that can be variously defined; Buchanan recognizes this, but he still cannot always avoid confusion. He runs into confusion as well with the word "Oedipal," which can refer either to Sophocles's protagonist or Freud's theoretical use of him. As tends to happen in such rigorously themed studies, Buchanan presses the possible relevance of his major motifs to the limit; Oedipus keeps limping into sites strangely far removed from Thebes or Colonus. On a more broadly intellectual level, Buchanan foregrounds to an extreme degree Freud's place as an exemplar of humanist thought; while Freud was doubtless important in this context, other prominent figures--William James, Albert Einstein, Karl Popper, Jean-Paul Sartre, Aldoux Huxley's scientist brother Julian, to name just a few--were also surely influential. Buchanan sometimes seems arbitrarily to assume that a writer's hostility to Freud or rejection of his theories ipso facto places him or her as an anti-humanist. Several of these objections apply to Buchanan's treatment of Lawrence, the subject of the book's keynote chapter. (A prior introductory chapter looks at H.G. Wells's pre-Freudian use of the Oedipus myth in The Time Machine). Here Buchanan spends much of his time exploring Freudian and Oedipal motifs in Sons and Lovers. This is very familiar ground, but Buchanan introduces a fresh element by exploring differences between the final version of the novel and the earlier draft entitled Paul Morel. He arrives at some interesting findings, contending that Lawrence's initial indulgence towards Paul's incestuous urges changes, in the final version, to a more critical distance. He explains the change with reference to Lawrence's new familiarity (via Frieda) with Freud's ideas, and his reaction against Freud's "humanist" tolerance for such tabooed impulses. The reaction shows up especially in the less sympathetic portrayal in the final text of Gertrude Morel, who is now more clearly targeted as an inhibiting force on Paul's sexual relationships. This development presages Lawrence's anti-humanist--or specifically misogynistic--bias in his later writing, including Women in Love and Fantasia of the Unconscious. (Curiously, no mention is made of such important works as The Rainbow and Lady Chatterley's Lover, and The White Peacock, which already contains the clearly "anti-humanistic" figure of Annable, is also ignored). According to Buchanan it is only in the late The Man Who Died that Lawrence becomes reconciled with Freud and re-embraces a kind of universalist humanism. A drawback of Buchanan's method is his tendency to read some of the intransigent stances of the later "Psychoanalysis" essays back into Lawrence's earlier work, above all Sons and Lovers. …


A model which equates oxygen transport to hemoglobin concentration and molecular weight is used to demonstrate that high concentrations of hemoglobin will augment oxygen transport only if the molecular weight of the hemoglobin is low. The evolution of corpuscles is a necessary counterpart to having high concentrations of the low molecular weight hemoglobins. corpuscles prevent loss of the small molecules by way of excretory filters and prevent the development of exceedingly high plasma osmotic pressures.


Title of dissertation: THE INTERNET AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS: FORCE, TOOL, OR WILDCARD? Timothy E. Wedig, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor Ernest J. Wilson Department of Government and Politics The effect of Internet usage on political organizations is largely assumed in the literature, which limits our understanding of the topic. Three dominant perspectives have developed, viewing technology alternately as a Force that transforms organizations (Techno-determinist), a Tool that organizations can utilize (Situationalist), or as a Wildcard that will have unpredictable effects even on similar organizations (Technoskeptic). This dissertation examines each of these perspectives in detail and tests their predictive elements against case studies of four political organizations: the Dean for America campaign, MoveOn.org, and the Green and Reform Parties. Cases were chosen due to their innovative usage of the Internet, their outsider status, their status as contemporaries, and being active at the national level of American politics. The results demonstrate that while each perspective provides some insight, they are individually inadequate to explain the subject in its entirety and, therefore, a new approach to the topic is necessary. Suggestions for future research and steps to construct a new, more complete, model are presented along with recommendations for the application of these findings by political organizations. THE INTERNET AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS: FORCE, TOOL, OR WILDCARD?


The ongoing process of European integration is likely to increase trade and factor mobility thereby increasing interregional competition and affecting the interregional division of labor. From a theoretical standpoint, rising specialization and polarization of European regions may result from this process, and may entail a growing core-periphery-divide of regional income. Such a supposition evokes questions on the need of an accompanying compensatory regional policy and its adequate design. I find that a case for regional policy cannot be denied, but that the EU largely overstates the need for such a policy at EU level, and should abstain from direct structural interventions into regional economies.


In this paper we explore models of repricing automation -- that is, of price adjustments implemented by an algorithm in response to changes in demand, inventory, or competitors' prices. Our setting is a typical online multi-seller platform (e.g., Amazon, eBay) where competing firms sell products differentiated by a single quality dimension (e.g., seller reputation) and where quality is proxied by an observable metric (e.g., rating score). We study the performance of different repricing algorithms as compared with equilibrium prices and also analyze the robustness of those algorithms. In particular, we investigate the possible "gaming" of the automated price response by a strategic seller with perfect knowledge of its competitor's repricing scheme. Our analysis affirms the reasonableness of the simple structure exhibited by most repricing rules observed in practice yet also identifies their downsides.


Cosmopolitanism has recently been revived as a concept through which to explore increasing global interactions. While many theoretical advances have been made, these conversations focus on urban centers in the global North and remain caught up in binary concepts such as the global/local. In our article, we start with an empirical set of social processes and spatial practices in Cusco, a global South city with extensive international connections. To this we add theoretical concepts of rooted cosmopolitanism and multiplicity of space to move beyond the global/local dichotomy. We then formulate our theorization of the production of cosmopolitan places and propose a revised conceptualization of rooted cosmopolitanism. The multiple stories of Cusco allowed us to recognize the production of rooted cosmopolitan places through three interrelated processes: openness to diversity and difference, valuing of own aesthetics based on personal preferences and local traditions, and territorial commitment to shared space and its people. We provide examples of these processes, and posit the need for them to occur simultaneously, to show the potential for a rooted cosmopolitanism. Our intention is not to establish a set of criteria for development but to contribute to conversations on understanding, evaluating and negotiating diverse flows in place. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Library staffers like the ones at Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, can tell you. "Just a brief look at our Director's Blog will illuminate the fact that the blogs promote a constant two-way dialogue between our director, Josie Parker, and the public," notes John Blyberg, who works at AADL and authors Blyberg.net. "[You can also] take a look at some of AADL's other blogs that are staffed by some very clued-in, bright minds," he adds. AADL has realized real benefits of social-software use—a four-branch public system with 46% of its district-population served holding library cards, it has not only experienced an increase in the number of online visitors, but these days the public library is also boasting more than 20,000 registered users utilizing its Web site for library-related interaction and services. Incorporating such tools as blogs and RSS feeds, AADL's Web portal also recently garnered accolades from the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) in its 2006 Best of Show competition (Best of Show/Winner, Web Page/Home Page, $6,000,000+ category). AADL is just one of many libraries making patron/user inroads with Web 2.0 tools and also is just one of many cutting-edge libraries discussed in Michael Stephens's July/August 2006 issue of Library Technology Reports , "Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software." "Some see…Web 2.0 as a set of ever-evolving tools that can benefit online users," notes Stephens in the report's introduction. "With these tools, users can converse across blogs, wikis, and at photo-sharing sites…via comments or through online discussions… Some libraries and librarians are involved in creating conversations, connections, and community via many of these social tools. But it may be time for more librarians to explore how these tools can enhance communication with users…" Among the (virtually free) social software tools Stephens examines in his report:
 Not only does Stephens present in-depth discussion of the above-listed technologies, he also provides a plethora of library social-software use examples—from AADL's blog-based site and Kankakee Public Library's Podcasts and Streaming Media to the Kansas City Public Library's innovative use of RSS feeds in many of its subject guides, to the dedicated librarians creating wikis as user-centered tools for everything from best practices for libraries to the Ohio University Libraries BizWiki, a business resource created by librarian Chad Boeninger. Michael Stephens (MLS, Indiana University) has spent the last fifteen years working in public libraries as a reference librarian, technology trainer, and manager of networked resources. This fall, Michael will join the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at Dominican University, River Forest, IL, as an Instructor. In 2004, he was awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services–funded fellowship for the University of North Texas IMLS Distance Independent Information Science Ph.D. Cohort Program to study libraries, librarians, and social software. He is currently writing his dissertation. Active in the American Library Association, he has presented at library and information venues across the country as well as internationally. Michael is well-known for his popular Tame the Web Blog, he writes for the ALA TechSource Blog, and he tours with Jenny "The Shifted Librarian" Levine for the Social Technologies Roadshow. In 2005, he was named a Library Journal "Mover and Shaker," and he served as a scholar at the Chicago Public Library's Scholar in Residence program. He also has written for Library Journal and co-authors a dept. in Computers in Libraries with Rachel Singer Gordon. He resides in Mishawaka, IN, and spends as much of the summer as possible in Traverse City, MI.


Investigation of a Multi-Component Intervention Addressing Mathematical Reasoning and SelfRegulation of Behavior for Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities Marie B. Fisher Chair of Supervisory Committee: Professor Douglas Cheney Special Education For students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities (EBD), negative student outcomes are the poorest across disability categories, including high rates of school dropouts, unemployment and incarcerations. Mathematically, students with EBD receiving instruction in special education settings experience practices not consistent with recommendations for high quality mathematics instruction, resulting in 73% of students performing below the 50 th percentile on standardized mathematics achievement tests (Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, Epstein, & Sumi, 2005). This study focused on the development and implementation of a multicomponent mathematics/behavior intervention addressing mathematical reasoning and meaningful mathematics participation for elementary students with EBD. Participants for this study included 3 upper elementary students who were identified with EBD and low performance in mathematics. Each student participated in one-on-one instruction approximately 4 days per week for 20 minute over 4 weeks (n=16 sessions). A single-subject multiple baseline research design was implemented and intervention sessions were video recorded for further analysis. The intervention was effective in improving student outcomes in developing a deeper level of place value understanding, more efficient strategy use and an increase in productive participation.


Climate change is a global challenge that requires immediate individual and collective action. The self-evident fact that information alone is unable to motivate action suggests that effective communications and engagement will be critical in stimulating the required response. This research project explores how strategic thinking can be employed to support the New Zealand Government's climate change communication and engagement objectives. Strategic thinking is the active and deliberate pursuit of synthesising evidence with a creative anticipation of what might be possible. Rather than work within parameters set by precedent and convention, it represents the deliberate intent to question, disrupt and design new courses of action. This research explores the inertia in mainstream attitudes and behaviours towards climate change; relevant communications and social science best practice and theory; recent trends in New Zealand; and views and opinions from a diverse range of experts. The research outcome is a set of interconnected and interdependent principles that serve to inform and lead the development of a national climate change communications and engagement strategy.


Many relativistic plasma environments in high-energy astrophysics, including pulsar wind nebulae, hot accretion flows onto black holes, relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts, and giant radio lobes, are naturally turbulent. The plasma in these environments is often so hot that synchrotron and inverse-Compton (IC) radiative cooling becomes important. In this paper we investigate the general thermodynamic and radiative properties (and hence the observational appearance) of an optically thin relativistically hot plasma stirred by driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and cooled by radiation. We find that if the system reaches a statistical equilibrium where turbulent heating is balanced by radiative cooling, the effective electron temperature tends to attain a universal value $\theta = kT_e/m_e c^2 \sim 1/\sqrt{\tau_T}$, where $\tau_T=n_e\sigma_T L \ll 1$ is the system's Thomson optical depth, essentially independent of the strength of turbulent driving or magnetic field. This is because both MHD turbulent dissipation and synchrotron cooling are proportional to the magnetic energy density. We also find that synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) cooling and perhaps a few higher-order IC components are automatically comparable to synchrotron in this regime. The overall broadband radiation spectrum then consists of several distinct components (synchrotron, SSC, etc.), well separated in photon energy (by a factor $\sim \tau_T^{-1}$) and roughly equal in power. The number of IC peaks is checked by Klein-Nishina effects and depends logarithmically on $\tau_T$ and the magnetic field. We also examine the limitations due to synchrotron self-absorption, explore applications to Crab PWN and blazar jets, and discuss links to radiative magnetic reconnection.


Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), a soft actuator technology, hold great promise for biomimetic underwater robots. The high-voltages required to drive DEAs can however make them challenging to use in water. This paper demonstrates a method to create DEA-based biomimetic swimming robots that operate reliably even in conductive liquids. We ensure the insulation of the high-voltage DEA electrodes without degrading actuation performance by laminating silicone layers. A fish and a jellyfish were fabricated and tested in water. The fish robot has a length of 120 mm and a mass of 3.8 g. The jellyfish robot has a 61 mm diameter for a mass of 2.6 g. The measured swimming speeds for a periodic 3 kV drive voltage were ~8 mm/s for the fish robot, and ~1.5 mm/s for the jellyfish robot.


Background and Aims: Early extubation after cardiac operations is an important aspect of fast-track cardiac anesthesia. In order to reduce or eliminate the adverse effects of prolonged ventilation in pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD) surgical patients, the concept of early extubation has been analyzed at our tertiary care hospital. The current study was carried out to record the data to validate the importance and safety of fast-track extubation (FTE) with evidence. Materials and Methods: A total of 71 patients, including male and female aged 6 months to 18 years belonging to risk adjustment for congenital heart surgery-1 category 1, 2, and 3 were included in this study. All patients were anesthetized with a standardized technique and surgery performed by the same surgeon. At the end of operation, the included patients were assessed for FTE and standard extubation criteria were used for decision making. Results: Of the total 71 patients included in the study, 26 patients (36.62%) were extubated in the operating room, 29 (40.85%) were extubated within 6 h of arrival in cardiovascular intensive care unit and 16 (22.54%) were unable to get extubated within 6 h due to multiple reasons. Hence, overall success rate was 77.47%. The reasons for delayed extubation were significant bleeding in 5 (31.3%) cases, hemodynamic instability (low cardiac output syndrome) in 4 (25%) cases, respiratory complication in 2 (12.5%), bleeding plus hemodynamic instability in 2 (12.5) cases, hemodynamic instability, and respiratory complication in 2 (12.5%) cases and triad of hemodynamic instability, bleeding and respiratory complication in 1 (6.5%) case. There was no reintubation in the FTE cases. Conclusion: On the basis of the current study results, it is recommended to use FTE in pediatric CHD surgical patients safely with multidisciplinary approach.


The future energy demand necessitates the exploration of all potential energy sources both onshore and offshore. Global trend has shifted towards offshore energy, which can be obtained from either carbon intensive or renewable options, hence requiring structures such as rigs, platforms, and monopiles. Most of these structures adopt easily installable construction techniques, where lower foundation need to be connected with the super structure by mean of grouted composite joints. Generally, these composite connections have exterior sleeve, interior pile and infill grout. Being located in remote offshore conditions, connections can experience considerable adverse loading during their lifetimes. Degradations were reported inside similar connections, which were installed in last three decades. Besides, grouting in the offshore sites may often be proven difficult, which eventually leads to reduced capacity of connections in the long run. Thus, repair and rehabilitation of such connections should be planned ahead to minimize operational delays and costs in the future. This study aims at characterizing the nature of crack generation in grouted connections and thereby identifying the potential of repair using suitable repair material. Scaled grouted joints were manufactured using a novel mold, and connections were loaded under static load to visualize the main failure pattern. The failure mechanism and loading capacity are found compatible to previous results from earlier literature. Grouted connection was then repaired using cementitious injectable grout. The effectiveness of the repair system is also discussed.


Fano's inequality lower bounds the probability of transmission error through a communication channel. Applied to classification problems, it provides a lower bound on the Bayes error rate and motivates the widely used Infomax principle. In modern machine learning, we are often interested in more than just the error rate. In medical diagnosis, different errors incur different cost; hence, the overall risk is cost-sensitive. Two other popular criteria are balanced error rate (BER) and F-score. In this work, we focus on the two-class problem and use a general definition of conditional entropy (including Shannon's as a special case) to derive upper/lower bounds on the optimal F-score, BER and cost-sensitive risk, extending Fano's result. As a consequence, we show that Infomax is not suitable for optimizing F-score or cost-sensitive risk, in that it can potentially lead to low F-score and high risk. For cost-sensitive risk, we propose a new conditional entropy formulation which avoids this inconsistency. In addition, we consider the common practice of using a threshold on the posterior probability to tune performance of a classifier. As is widely known, a threshold of 0.5, where the posteriors cross, minimizes error rate--we derive similar optimal thresholds for F-score and BER.


Abyssal-hill faults are reactivated on the outer slope of trenches when they strike within 25° from trench parallel; otherwise, new faults form parallel to the trench. We use the observed transition angle (25°) and a three-dimensional failure analysis to determine the coeffi cient of friction on reactivated abyssal-hill faults. The stress state in the outer slope is modeled as the superposition of the overburden stress and bending-induced plane strain deformation. If new trench-parallel faults fail according to a linear failure relationship with no cohesion, then determination of the coeffi cient of sliding friction (μs) on reactivated faults is independent of the absolute value of the principal stresses and depends only on the Poisson ratio of the crust and the slope of the failure law for new faults (μf). We fi nd that reactivated faults, dipping at 45°, are ~30% weaker than surrounding crust (e.g., μs = 0.6 for μf = 0.85). These results suggest that the variation in the strength of oceanic crust due to the seafl oor spreading fabric is small, and that the coeffi cient of sliding friction on oceanic faults is consistent with that observed in the laboratory.


The objective of the present work is to assess the ability of primary care physicians to apply correctly the recent hyperlipidemia management guidelines. A cross – sectional study of primary care physicians working in the family medicine department affiliated with a tertiary hospital. Using 63 patient problem vignettes, which included lipid biochemistry, and a number of cardiovascular risk factors, each physician was asked, if a patient required no treatment, dietary or drug treatment. The vignette cases were matched against the NCEP ATPII guidelines. Forty-five physicians were recruited in this study. The Kappa statistics showed only two (4.4%) had excellent agreement, nine (20%) fair to good agreement while the remaining thirty-four (75.6%) of the physicians had poor agreement. The median Kappa statistics of 0.3 and a mean of 0.33 (SD = 0.18) suggested an overall poor agreement. Overall, the decisions to treat with medications were more consistent with the NCEP guidelines than diet alone or no treatment decisions. Saudi and younger physicians had statistically significant (P 35 years) and Non – Saudi physicians. About one third of the physicians were not consistent with guidelines rec-ommended by the NCEP-ATPII. The majority of the expatriate doctors are not following the NCEP which is evidence based and the most widely accepted guideline. Therefore, it is suggested that only one guideline to be adopted as a standard, and doctors must undergo adequate training and continuous evaluation of their skills.


Many studies have emphasized the strength of bedload transport fluctuations in steep streams, especially at low and intermediate transport conditions (relative to the threshold of incipient motion). The origins of these fluctuations, which appear on a wide range of time scales, are still not well understood. In this study, we present the data obtained from a 2D idealized laboratory experiment with the objective of simultaneously recording the channel bed evolution and bedload transport rate at a high temporal resolution. A 3-m long by 8-cm wide transparent flume filled with well-sorted natural gravel (d50=6.5 mm) was used. An efficient technique using accelerometers has been developed to record the arrival time of every particle at the outlet of the flume for long experimental durations (up to a few days). In addition, bed elevation was monitored using cameras filming from the side of the channel, allowing the observation of global aggradation/ degradation as well as bedform migration. The experimental parameters were the water discharge, the flume inclination (from 2° to 5°) and the constant feeding rate of sediments. Large-scale bed evolution showed successive aggradation and rapid degradation periods. Indeed, the measured global channel slope, i.e. mean slope over the flume length, fluctuated continuously within a range sometimes wider than 1° (experimental parameters were constant over the entire run). The analysis of these fluctuations provides evidence that steep channels behave like metastable systems, similarly to grain piles. The metastable effects increased for steeper channels and lower transport conditions. In this measurement campaign, we mainly observed upstream-migrating antidunes. For each run, various antidune heights and celerities were measured. On average, the mean antidune migration rate increased with decreasing channel slope and increasing sediment feeding rate. Relatively rare tall and fast-moving antidunes appeared more frequently at high flume angles and produced intense solid discharge pulses. Moreover, small avalanches occurred on the steep lee sides of antidunes. From these results, we infer a mechanism of steep channel evolution. The time- and space-averaged profile of the bed in the streamwise direction depends on the experimental parameters. Variations in the profile result mainly from bedform migration. The instantaneous global state of the bed (which can be characterized by the global channel slope) controls the growth of bedforms, which can be seen as local instabilities. When the global channel slope approaches its critical value, local instabilities of higher amplitude can develop and create intense bedload transport pulses, leading to a less steep, but more stable bed profile.


Mounting emphasis on construction supply chain management (CSCM) is due to both global sourcing of materials and a shortage of labor. These factors force increasing amounts of value-added work to be conducted off-site deep in the supply chain. Construction Supply Chain Management Handbookcompiles in one comprehensive source an overview of the diverse research and examples of construction supply chain practice around the world.Reflecting the emergence of CSCM as an important area of multi-national research and practice, this volume takes an interdisciplinary perspective with contributions from leading international authors in three major areas: production and operations analysis, organizational perspectives, and information technology. The book begins with a survey of the current literature on modeling construction supply chain production and describes a set of approaches and methods for designing and operating project supply chains with references to design and materials production. Itprovides the basic framework for understanding the challenges and approaches to representing and improving supply chain performance.The next section recognizes the importance of considering arrangements between the different firms involved in designing, procuring, and assembling construction, and reviews various perspectives to understanding and improving organizational issues in the supply chain. The final section provides an overview of a range of information technologies that can contribute to supply chain performance, as well as examples of effective use.The organization and sourcing of materials is increasingly complex across the global construction industry. Construction clients are demanding faster, more responsive construction processes and higher quality facilities. This volume provides an invaluable resource to understanding the implications of supply chain management, which is sure to result in more effective construction project execution.