The Chilean system of tradable water rights and water markets has been well known and controversial in international water policy circles since the 1990s. Chile's 1981 Water Code is a textbook example of neoliberalism, with strong private property rights and weak government regulation, and the market in water rights has been the dominant theme in debates about Chilean water policy, both nationally and internationally. The Water Code was somewhat reformed in 2005 after over 13 years of political debate. In this paper I review the issues in water policy and politics in Chile during the decade since that reform. What does the ongoing Chilean experience tell us about water privatisation, markets, and commoditisation? Water conflicts have become the essential issue in Chile, rather than water markets. In the past decade conflicts among multiple water users have deepened and widened in many parts of the country, involving river basins and groundwater aquifers. The institutional framework for governing these water conflicts has worked poorly, for a variety of reasons, and the conflicts have become a serious national political problem. I review the evolving political and policy debates in Chile, including the current government's proposal in 2014 for a new and stronger reform of the Water Code. In short, the critical problem of the Chilean water model is the lack of institutional capacity for governance or integrated water resources management, and the problem has worsened as water conflicts have become closely linked to conflicts in the energy and environmental sectors.


In our recent work, J. Chem. Phys. 2013, 138, 154712, we demonstrated the feasibility of unidirectional pumping of water, exploiting translational-rotational momentum coupling using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. Flow can be sustained when the fluid is driven out of equilibrium by an external spatially uniform rotating electric field and confined between two planar surfaces exposing different degrees of hydrophobicity. The permanent dipole moment of water follows the rotating field, thus inducing the molecules to spin, and the torque exerted by the field is continuously injected into the fluid, enabling a steady conversion of spin angular momentum into linear momentum. The translational-rotational coupling is a sensitive function of the rotating electric field parameters. In this work, we have found that there exists a small energy dissipation region attainable when the frequency of the rotating electric field matches the inverse of the dielectric relaxation time of water and when its amplitude lies in a range just before dielectric saturation effects take place. In this region, that is, when the frequency lies in a small window of the microwave region around ∼20 GHz and amplitude ∼0.03 V Å(-1), the translational-rotational coupling is most effective, yielding fluid velocities of magnitudes of ∼2 ms(-1) with only moderate fluid heating. In this work, we also confine water to a realistic nanochannel made of graphene giving a hydrophobic surface on one side and β-cristobalite giving a hydrophilic surface on the other, reproducing slip-and-stick velocity boundary conditions, respectively. This enables us to demonstrate that in a realistic environment, the coupling can be effectively exploited to achieve noncontact pumping of water at the nanoscale. A quantitative comparison between nonequilibrium molecular dynamics and analytical solutions of the extended Navier-Stokes equations, including an external rotating electric field has been performed, showing excellent agreement when the electric field parameters match the aforementioned small energy dissipation region.


Emerging literature indicates that a subset of children with a documented ASD lose their diagnosis and demonstrate cognitive and adaptive abilities within the average range. Multiple factors including symptom severity, cognitive and language abilities, adaptive skills and early intervention may help to predict these highly positive outcomes. Participants in the present study include 207 children diagnosed with an ASD by clinical best estimate at approximately age two (T1) and subsequently re-evaluated at approximately age four (T2). 171 (82.6%) children retained an ASD diagnosis (ASD-ASD) at re-evaluation and 19 children (9.2%) were determined to meet the following criteria for an "Optimal Progress" (OP): met criteria for an ASD using gold standard diagnostic procedures at T1, no longer meet criteria for any ASD at T2, and demonstrated functioning in the average range on standardized measures of cognition, language, communication and social skills. Results indicate that a number of early (T1) child-level factors help to predict OP: a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, fewer restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRBs), less severe autism symptomatology and stronger adaptive skills (but not cognitive or language abilities). These early traits may reflect more intact central nervous system functioning, and/or may provide these children with a greater likelihood of benefiting from interventions and everyday interactions, and in turn, with a greater likelihood of demonstrating OP. In combination with the findings of the current study, future studies should attempt characterize the mechanisms at work in producing these outcomes, including the role of early intervention. In doing so, we can begin to promote an increase in the percentage of children attaining highly positive outcomes


This study aims to investigate erythropoietin (EPO) regulate the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway on the cellular level, thus enhancing the antioxidant capacities of neurons to exert their antiaging effects. The long-range cultured neurons were set as the natural aging cell model, the cellular morphologies, antioxidant capacities and Nrf2 expression changes of naturally aged cells, and the cells that were administrated recombinant human erythropoietin (rh-EPO) and Nrf2 pathway blockers for intervention were observed. EPO intervention could increase Nrf2 expression and Nrf2 nuclear translocation, promote the expression of CuZn superoxide dismutase (SOD), enhance cellular antioxidant capacities, reduce malondialdehyde (MDA) retention and accumulation, thus significantly improving the morphology and neuronal networks of long-range cultured neurons; while LY294002 continuously blocked Nrf2 pathway, rhEPO lost its roles of promoting the proliferation of cytoplasmic Nrf2 protein levels and nuclear translocation of Nrf2. rhEPO could promote CuZn SOD expression, enhance the antioxidant capacities of long-range cultured neurons, increase cell survival by upregulating Nrf2 pathway.


The dynamics of a genetic algorithm undergoing ranking selection, mutation, and two-point crossover for the ones-counting problem is studied using a statistical mechanics approach. This approach has been used previously to study this problem, but with uniform crossover. Two-point crossover induces additional linkage between nearby loci, which changes the dynamics significantly. To account for this linkage, the evolution of the autocorrelation function is incorporated into a model of the dynamics. This complicates the analysis and requires several additional approximations to be made. However, the model we derive is shown to capture the main features of the dynamics and is in good agreement with simulations.


DreamFusion [31] has recently demonstrated the utility of a pretrained text-to-image diffusion model to optimize Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) [23], achieving remarkable text-to-3D synthesis results. However, the method has two inherent limitations: (a) extremely slow optimization of NeRF and (b) low-resolution image space supervision on NeRF, leading to low-quality 3D models with a long processing time. In this paper, we address these limitations by utilizing a two-stage optimization framework. First, we obtain a coarse model using a low-resolution diffusion prior and accelerate with a sparse 3D hash grid structure. Using the coarse representation as the initialization, we further optimize a textured 3D mesh model with an efficient differentiable renderer interacting with a high-resolution latent diffusion model. Our method, dubbed Magic3D, can create high quality 3D mesh models in 40 minutes, which is 2× faster than DreamFusion (reportedly taking 1.5 hours on average), while also achieving higher resolution. User studies show 61.7% raters to prefer our approach over DreamFusion. Together with the image-conditioned generation capabilities, we provide users with new ways to control 3D synthesis, opening up new avenues to various creative applications.


This article is quantitative research which aims to explore the factors influencing competitive performance of small firms using the Internet in Northeastern Thailand. The interview was conducted with 285 small firms that use the Internet. They were selected by stratified random sampling, which have fewer than 10 employees and have run the business for more than 1 year. Descriptive statistics are employed for data analysis in order to explain the characteristics of the sample group by frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, and maximum and minimum values. Besides, interpretation of competitive performance of small firms is done with the 5-level criteria, from the least to the most. Also, inferential statistics are used to test the hypothesis about the factors affecting competitive performance of small firms with the Internet according to the study. Standardized Coefficient of Regression: s is used with the level of significance at 0.05 and R-Square value from regression line in order to tell about variation of competitive performance of small firms with the Internet (Dependent Variable) influenced by independent variables, including 1) structure of small firms, 2) use of the Internet, and 3) external surroundings of small firms.


Hearing is one of our major senses. In addition to being, arguably, our primary form of communication, it affects how we perceive the world around us. Accurate acoustic simulation can complement graphical simulation systems, providing users with more immersive and believable environments. Furthermore, sound can assist users in localizing objects within space, and it has been shown to improve the perceived quality of visuals. Many of the audio properties that our brain subconsciously keys upon are artifacts inscribed into the signal by the environment as the sound propagates from the source to the listener. Diffraction, or the bending of sound around objects, is an important mode of transmission and a key source of reverberation in an audio signal. However, many current acoustic propagation simulation systems do not properly model diffraction. This work proposes a new method for performing the simulation of diffraction. Our formulation aims to provide accurate results across the frequency spectrum. Accordingly, we avoid using approximative models of diffraction, such as the Unified Theory of Diffraction, which are ubiquitous in the field, but lead to inaccurate results particularly in the lower frequencies. Furthermore, our algorithm can provide a time-domain solution for reverberant sounds and is controllable for stylistic adjustments. In order to evaluate our method, we compare our results against measured and experimental results reported in the literature.


BACKGROUND
The responsibility of obtaining organs for transplantation rests partly on critical care nurses. How nurses balance care of critically ill, brain-injured patients with the professional responsibility to procure organs is a question of ethical and clinical importance.

OBJECTIVES
To describe the experiences of critical care nurses in making the shift from caring for a brain-injured patient identified as a potential organ donor to maintaining a brain-dead body.

METHODS
An interpretive, phenomenological design was used. In 2 trauma centers, 9 critical care nurses were interviewed, and 2 of the 9 nurses were observed.

RESULTS
Identification of potential organ donors is made under conditions of prognostic ambiguity. The transition from brain injury to brain death is a period of instability in which the critical care team must decide quickly whether to resuscitate a patient in order to procure organs. After a patient is brain dead, critical care nurses' relationship with and responsibility toward the patient change.

CONCLUSIONS
The process of identifying potential organ donors and holding open the tentative possibility of organ procurement illustrates the practical difficulties of early referral of potential donors to organ procurement organizations. Early referral to an organ procurement organization implies a commitment to organ procurement that some nurses may hesitate to make because such a commitment changes their relationship with a brain-injured patient.


Despite the best efforts of nutritionists, many Americans still consume too much fat and not enough fruits and vegetables. An innovative, community-based project being carried out in Rochester, New York, may serve as a model for future food and nutrition intervention strategies and research models. For several years, "Strive for five!" has been the battle cry of nutritionists fighting to get people to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Unfortunately, their message frequently falls on deaf ears. Many Americans continue to consume diets high in fat and sugar and low in plant foods. In the process, they increase their risk for obesity and diet-related problems such as hypertension, heart disease, and cancer. New strategies to get people to adopt more nutritious eating habits are clearly needed. An innovative program being conducted in Rochester, New York, may be a step in the right direction. The Rochester Community Plant Food Project is a joint effort between nutritionists from the Division of Nutritional Sciences and Cornell Cooperative Extension professionals in Monroe County. The multiphase project is attempting to discover what can be done at the community level to increase consumption of plant foods. The project is one of several being funded by a special grant made to the Division of Nutritional Sciences by the USDA. "Individuals make food decisions within the larger contexts of family and community food systems," says Ardyth Gillespie, a professor in the division and the principal investigator in the project. "Food decisions also are the result of a complex set of interactions and patterns through which values are expressed and negotiated and individual preferences are considered and accommodated." Other factors influencing food decisions include time, money, ethnic and cultural influences, social and domestic responsibilities and relationships, personal food preferences and needs, and beliefs and knowledge about food and nutrition, she adds. "Many communities have tried various approaches to improve food choices, but they haven't been very successful," Gillespie says. "We think that's because such efforts have not been adequately tailored to communities. To do so, you need first to identify individual and family perceptions about plant foods, how families make food decisions, and community-level restraints on the availability of plant foods." Recognizing the role of the community in influencing food decisions, the researchers recruited an advisory committee composed of Rochester community decision makers to guide project staff members on the research component of the study. Later, they will assist in developing intervention strategies to help people in the community increase their consumption of plant foods. The project has several long-term goals. The first is to understand how individuals, families, and communities interact to determine the availability and consumption of plant foods. To do that, the researchers are taking an across-the-board look at the community. "We want to look at the dietary perspectives of people of all income levels because that's obviously important in gaining a community perspective," Gillespie says. The study is also looking at the diets of people of major ethnic groups. The researchers have found that ethnic differences must be taken into consideration if the project is to be effective. At the same time, they've found that there are many similarities that can enhance community social support. "For example, part of our sample is Hispanic, and one of the things we've found is that Hispanics tend to think of fresh vegetables as falling into two categories," Gillespie says. "One is the leafy green vegetables and the other includes the tubers and root vegetables. This has taught us the importance of communication, both in asking questions and learning about food choices as well as in planning interventions. …


There is great interest in application of natural fibres, such as bamboo fibre, as reinforcement in composite production. Herein, to achieve high performance under optimum process conditions, experimental design and optimization techniques are used to investigate the best parameter settings for processing bamboo fibre polyester composites. Single response optimization of the properties of bamboo fibre polyester composites using Taguchi orthogonal array, analysis of variance and Post hoc test was carried out. The test samples comprised of untreated, mercerized, acetylated and mercerized-acetylated bamboo fibre composites at fibre contents of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt %. All composite samples were fabricated using conventional hand lay-up process on randomly oriented long bamboo fibres. It was found that optimum parameter setting for impact strength was achieved at mercerization treatment and 30wt% fibre content with impact strength of 158.23 J/cm. For flexural strength, optimum parameter setting was found to be mercerization treatment at 50 wt % level of fibre content which resulted to flexural strength of 62.7 MPa. The optimum parameter setting for tensile strength is observed at mercerized-acetylation treatment at 50 wt% fibre content with tensile strength of 72.96 MPa. However, no significant difference, (P <.005) was observed in flexural strength, tensile strength and impact strength of mercerized and mercerized-acetylated fibre composites. This study established a research approach to improve bamboo fibre composite properties for more extended applications and to obtain optimal operating conditions by using optimization techniques. It will also serve as a guide for composite manufacturers on parameter settings selection.


The main purpose of this paper is to examine the foreign trade patterns and/or specialization in foreign trade of three EU member countries – namely, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and candidate country Turkey – and to compare the foreign trade patterns with the EU/12 in the period 1995- 2005. The paper is divided into seven main sections. The first section summarizes the export and import developments of the countries in question between the years 1995 and 2005. The second section describes the methodology and data sets. Empirical analysis is found in the third section, where in five subsections we investigate international competitiveness and trade specialization using different indices. In the fourth part of the research we compare the dynamic products in world exports with dynamic products in the exports of the four countries. The final section gives brief conclusions drawn from the results and considers the future position of Turkey within the enlarged EU. In this research we do not intend to explain why the foreign trade patterns are different in the considered countries. We simply try to show whether and where there are any differences in foreign trade specialisation among the four countries and EU/12.


The production of small volume silicic rocks in areas of oceanic crust is understood with less certainty than the production of silicic rocks in a continental setting. While the anatexis of silicic continental crust produces rhyolites within a continent, it is unlikely to occur in Iceland, an island composed of basaltic oceanic crust. After analyzing rhyolitic samples I collected from multiple locations throughout Iceland and samples from the Valles Caldera, a large volume rhyolitic body in New Mexico, chemical and petrologic differences between the samples confirmed that different processes form continental and island rhyolites. Trace element geochemistry of Icelandic rhyolite samples shows that closed-system crystal fractionalization is likely the primary driver behind the production of silicic magmas in oceanic island settings, although it has previously been argued that the anatexis of altered basaltic crust also plays a role. Variations in degrees of fractionation of parental melt and parental melt chemistry are responsible for chemical variations within Icelandic samples. Contrastingly, liquid-state differentiation is the source of a lone geochemical outlier amongst Valles rhyolites. For this question of island rhyolite genesis to be answered with greater certainty, a more in depth and complex study would need to be conducted.


How to display objects which were detected from different devices in one coordinate system? Nowadays most vehicles are equipped with front and back sensors to help the driver in driving process. Companies who provide this technology need to have an application which enables them for easy data fusion from these sensors and recording the process. Besides sensor's design, programming of them is an important aspect. BASELABS Connect has the solution in a user friendly way. Creating Sensor Central component for BASELABS Connect is the main goal of this thesis. Sensor Central from BASELABS Connect requires six variables of sensor's position for each sensor to demonstrate the objects from all sensors to one unique coordinate system. In this thesis, it was intended to create such a component which was mounted between all the sensors and the charting component to convert the objects location from different sensor's position to one coordinate system and to be usable from other vehicles too.


We present a scalable tree search planning algorithm for large multi-agent sequential decision problems that require dynamic collaboration. Teams of agents need to coordinate decisions in many domains, but naive approaches fail due to the exponential growth of the joint action space with the number of agents. We circumvent this complexity through an anytime approach that allows us to trade computation for approximation quality and also dynamically coordinate actions. Our algorithm comprises three elements: online planning with Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), factored representations of local agent interactions with coordination graphs, and the iterative Max-Plus method for joint action selection. We evaluate our approach on the benchmark SysAdmin domain with static coordination graphs and achieve comparable performance with much lower computation cost than our MCTS baselines. We also introduce a multi-drone delivery domain with dynamic, i.e., state-dependent coordination graphs, and demonstrate how our approach scales to large problems on this domain that are intractable for other MCTS methods. We provide an open-source implementation of our algorithm at https://github.com/JuliaPOMDP/FactoredValueMCTS.jl.


It is often suggested that the Greenland ice sheet is a relict ice mass left over from the Ice Ages. In that case the ice sheet would not regrow to its present configuration under present-day climatic conditions if it were to melt away in a warmer climate, except for some residual mountain glaciers in the east. The most cited reasons for this alleged hysteresis are the height-mass balance feedback and the albedo-temperature feedback. Future climatic warming is expected to cause more melting on the Greenland ice sheet, resulting in an overall shrinking of the ice sheet. For a warming in excess of some 3°C, models predict that the surface mass balance will become negative such that the ice sheet can no longer be sustained and starts to gradually disintegrate. An intriguing question is whether there exist points-of-no-return once such a disintegration has set in beyond which complete removal of the ice sheet were to become irreversible, even if climatic conditions were to revert to present-day conditions. To investigate these issues, we have inserted a 3-D thermomechanical model of the Greenland ice sheet in the HadCM3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model. Under constant 4xCO2 conditions, the Greenland ice sheet is found to disintegrate to less than 5% of its current volume within 3000 years. At different moments in time, we interrupt the melting process by inserting a 1xCO2 climate and let the ice sheet evolve to a new steady state. We also investigate the end member in which the ice sheet is entirely removed and bedrock topography has been uplifted. The original contribution of our approach is that precipitation and temperature patterns are allowed to fully interact with the changing topography and surface type of the Greenland continent.


Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) intravesical therapy against superficial bladder cancer is one of the most successful immunotherapies in cancer, though the precise mechanism has not been clarified. Recent studies have demonstrated urinary tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) levels to be higher in BCG-responsive patients than non-responders and shown that polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) migrating to the bladder after BCG instillation release large amounts of TRAIL. To establish a safer and more effective intravesical therapy than BCG, we examined whether other bacteria induced similar effects. We stimulated PMNs or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with BCG or other bacteria, and then aliquots of the culture supernatants or cell lysates were assayed for TRAIL. We examined the signaling pathway regulating the release of TRAIL from PMNs and evaluated the antitumor effects of BCG or other bacteria in vitro and in vivo. We have found that Clostridium butyricum MIYAIRI 588 (CBM588) induces the release of endogenous TRAIL from PMNs as well as BCG. In addition, we have shown that matrix metalloproteinase 8 (MMP-8) is one of the key factors responsible for the release. Interestingly, TLR2/4 signaling pathway has been suggested to be important for the release of TRAIL by MMP-8. CBM588 has been proven to be as effective as BCG against cancer cells by inducing apoptosis in vivo as well as in vitro. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that CBM588 is promising for a safer and more effective therapy against bladder cancer.


Advances in climate modelling now provide the opportunity for utilizing global general circulation models (GCMs) at very high-resolution for projections of future climate and extreme events. Diagnostics of global atmospheric GCM simulations at different horizontal resolutions of 20, 60, 120 and 180 km reveals the marked skill of 20 km mesh GCM (MRI– AGCM3.2S) in capturing regional characteristics of climatological summer monsoon rainfall over India and its frequency distribution, and mean annual variation of rainfall over most of the homogeneous regions of India. Future projections by time-slice simulations of MRI-AGCM3.2S under global warming scenario show widespread but spatially varying increase in rainfall over interior regions of peninsular, west central, central northeast and North East India (~ 5–20% of seasonal mean) and significant reduction in orographic rainfall over the west coast (~ 10–15%, consistent with the recent observed trends). MRIAGCM3.2S projects spatially heterogeneous increase in warm days and extreme hot events (highest decile) over India. Projected changes in extreme rainfall events (above 95 percentile) show intensification of extreme rainfall over most parts of India by the end of the century with opposite change over the west coast. Ultra-high-resolution is found to be crucial not only for realistic mean summer monsoon simulation, but for achieving useful future projections of Indian monsoon and extremes. At lower resolution, the simulations fail to capture the observed characteristics of present-day monsoon rainfall and its spatial heterogeneity, and projections lack useful regional climate information. Thus, consideration of fine-scale processes are critical for reasonable probabilistic projection of regional-scale climate change.


People Pretzel is a computationally enhanced game board that aims to encourage informal social interaction in public spaces. The People Pretzel uses sound, light and visual images to entice community members to participate in playful group interaction. To play, the players are required to collaborate, using their bodies as playing pieces. This physical interaction is computationally mediated and augmented to produce an improvisational multimedia performance for the enjoyment of players and spectators alike.


ABSTRACT A substantial part of asymmetric conflicts is the "image war" that takes place in the foreign media. This study examines the circumstances that explain the degree to which political actors successfully promote their preferred frames regarding the conflict in which they are involved to the foreign press. The study examines Israel and the Palestinians' ability to promote their messages in various events over the last decade. Seven factors were examined, divided into three groups: focal event factors, political context factors, and message context factors. Separate examination of each predictor, followed by analysis of their shared effect, reveals that most factors have an impact on how successful political actors are at promoting their preferred frames to the foreign press. Our findings suggests that the media place greater emphasis on focal event factors when covering conflicts, and that events have a greater impact than cultural assumptions in terms of how foreign media frame news stories.


Elizabeth Cary's closet drama, The Tragedy of Mariam: The Fair Queen of Jewry , is the first dramatic text authored by a female playwright in the English literary tradition. The play dramatizes the conflicts that characterize two marriages: Mariam and Herod, and Salome and Constabarus. Not surprisingly, initial critical attention to Cary's tragedy comparatively analyses the marital conflicts characterizing Cary's marriage, drawing on The Lady Falkland: Her Life , a biography written by one of her daughters, on the one hand, and the marital conflicts characterizing Mariam's marriage to Herod within the imaginative world of the dramatic text, on the other. Early critical attention also comparatively analyses Cary's dramatic text and her source, Josephus's Jewish Antiquities , translated into English by Thomas Lodge and published in 1602. Cary drew upon Josephus freely, but she makes two major alterations in the story that she inherits: the first is the addition of her Christian perspective, while the second is her focus on the character of Mariam as her tragic protagonist. What I aim to interrogate here is Cary's juxtaposition of two antithetical representations of femininity – Mariam, her tragic protagonist, and Salome, her villain – to structure her dramatic text. While Salome dominates the first half, Mariam dominates the second half. I aim, further, to examine Cary's skilful exploitation of early modern European discourses of race and gender in establishing the identity formation of these two female characters.


Major tin-tungsten deposits in Portugal are related to intrusions of the Younger Series (300-280 Ma) of Hercynian granitoids. Mineralized granites are 'specialized' by a specific increase or decrease of major, minor and trace element contents in comparison with non-mineralized occurrences. Component analysis is used to make distinctions between the various geochemical types of barren and mineralized granites (Chapter 2). A one-component model is characterized by positive loadings for Rb, Sn, Cs, Li, Nb, F, Ta, Zn, Wand P20S and negative loadings for Zr, Ba, Ti02 and Sr. In this one-component model the component scores increase from barren to highly specialized granites. In a two-component model component 1 (F, Li, Cs, Rb, Zn, Sn, P20S, Nb and W) expresses a hydrothermal influence upon the granites, whereas component 2 (Ti02, Ba, Zr, Sr, -Ta, -Nb, -Rb and -Sn) possibly represents the magmatic differentiation trend. In this model the composition of the individual granites concentrate in one of several fields according to their loadings by the element parameters. Muscovite granites, albitized and greisenized granites deviate clearly in composition from the more common granites. The geochemical variability of granites, greisens and schists of the Panasqueira tungsten-tin deposit is investigated in great detail (Chapter 3). The trace element contents of the Panasqueira cupola are compared with those of other granite occurrences in the surroundings. Only ore-bearing granites show a geochemical differentiation concurrent with mineralization. The major elements illustrate the general chemical evolution from muscovite-albite granite to greisenized granite; trace elements, however, show in addition distinct groups of granitoids. The general trend in the granitoids of Panasqueira is an increase in Rb, Li, F, Sn, Cs, W, Fe203' P20S, Zn, As, Nb, Ta and Cu contents while Na20, CaO, MgO, Sr, Zr, Ba and Ti02 contents decrease. Rare earths are strongly depleted in the greisen. This alteration in composition is the result of metasomatic and hydrothermal processes; closed in an early stage but thereafter opened due to the development of sub-horizontal joints. The schist along the hydrothermal ore veins at Panasqueira is affected as well by the mineralizing fluids in the veins; tourmaline and sericite alteration zones contain elevated amounts of the orerelated elements Rb, Li, Cs, Sn, Wand Na20 and K20. Schist samples were also taken at the surface and used for litho-geochemical exploration purposes. The same elements, when plotted in contour maps, outline the outcropping ore zones very well and can be used as a tool in geochemical exploration (Chapter 4). A major part of this investigation is dedicated to the physical conditions under which the mineralization of Panasqueira was formed (Chapter 5). Homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions in the minerals of Panasqueira point to an interval between 325 and 2500 C for the early stages; salinities are between 5 and 10 wt% NaC1. In the final hydrothermal stage homogenization temperatures dropped to about 100oC; the salinity is also lower, down to 3 wt% or less. Due to trapping of C02-rich fluids against an impermeable granite-schist contact, fluid pressures point to an 'overpressure' of about 1 kbar before opening of the joint system. Opening of this joint system caused vigorous boiling of the fluids in the ore veins at a depth of about 1800 m. Gas chromatographic analyses show next to C02 the presence of CH4 and N2' The presence of CH4 suggests a reducing environment during ore deposition. The origin of the CH4 and N2 is possibly found by assimilation of schist containing organic matter. Stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen indicate a homogeneous isotopic source for the early fluids. High overpressures in the earliest stage and about constant oxygen, carbon and nitrogen isotopes strongly favour a 'magmatic' origin for the initial mineralizing fluids. Oxygen and carbon isotopes of the fluids differ strongly in the latest stage and point to a large influx of meteoric water.


Data is recognized as an important corporate asset. Organizations use data in planning and decision making. However, data interpretation is the most important issue. In order to interpret the data clearly and efficiently, data visualization concept helps people understand the significance of data by placing it in visual context. This paper aims to provide a framework to create a web-based data visualization with Google charts. The framework was designed and developed based on MVC pattern. The MVC pattern is very useful for the architecture of web applications, separating the model, view and controller of a web application. In addition, the framework also was designed to connect a database that users can retrieve data from database to create web-based data visualization. Through this experimental development, we use White-Box testing for the code verification in the model module. Lastly, a web page example is shown to illustrate the process and result from the use of this framework.


Polarization-insensitive guided-mode resonance (GMR) filters have significant role in applications such as optical communication systems. Here, we report the design and fabrication of two types of simple-structured one-dimensional (1D) GMR gratings with non-polarizing resonance properties under normal incidence. A single-layer rectangular-profile TiO2 grating is fabricated by electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching, which demonstrates, for the first time in experiment, almost perfect non-polarizing filtering effect with 1D grating under normal incidence. Then, a TiO2-coated polycarbonate 1D GMR grating is fabricated by nanoimprinting and atomic layer deposition, which also exhibits good non-polarizing property and the potential of low-cost mass replication of such functional devices.


In recent years, increasing attention has been dedicated to the hazardous and volatile situation in the Middle East, a crisis which has pushed many to flee their countries and seek refuge in neighboring countries or in Europe. In describing or discussing these tragic events, labels such as "European migrant crisis" and "European refugee crisis" started being widely used by the media, politicians, and the online world alike. The use of such labels has the potential to dictate the ways in which displaced people are received and perceived. With this study, we investigate label use in social media (specifically YouTube), the emergent patterns of labeling that can cause further disaffection and tension or elicit sympathy, and the sentiments associated with the different labels. Our findings suggest that migration issues are being framed not only through labels characterizing the crisis but also by their describing the individuals themselves. Using topic modeling and sentiment analysis jointly, our study offers valuable insights into the direction of public sentiment and the nature of discussions surrounding this significant societal crisis, as well as the nature of online opinion sharing. We conclude by proposing a four-dimensional model of label interpretation in relation to sentiment—that accounts for perceived agency, economic cost, permanence, and threat, and identifies threat and agency to be most impactful. This perspective reveals important influential aspects of labels and frames that may shape online public opinion and alter attitudes toward those directly affected by the crisis.


Road Safety Audits (RSAs) are a formal safety examination of an existing or future roadway or off‐road facility and are conducted by an independent, experienced, multidisciplinary team. The purpose of the Bicycle Road Safety Audit Guidelines and Prompt Lists is to provide transportation agencies and RSA teams with a better understanding of the safety of cyclists in the transportation system when conducting an RSA. These Guidelines present the RSA team with an overview of basic principles of the safety of cyclists and potential issues affecting cyclists. They also provide information on how to conduct an RSA and effectively assess the safety of cyclists. Prompt lists describe safety considerations when conducting a cyclist‐specific RSA. These Guidelines will help RSA teams evaluate and suggest a multimodal approach to safety by improving the safety of cyclists and all roadway users.


The desire for fulfilling work is one of the great aspirations of our age and this inspirational book reveals how one might make it a reality. It explores the competing claims we face for money and status while doing something meaningful and in tune with our talents. Drawing on wisdom about work that is to be found in sociology, psychology, history and philosophy, Roman Krznaric sets out a practical and innovative guide to negotiating the labyrinth of choices, overcoming the fear of change, and finding a career that makes you thrive. One in the new series of books from The School of Life, launched May 2012: How to Stay Sane by Philippa Perry How to Find Fulfilling Work by Roman Krznaric How to Worry Less About Money by John Armstrong How to Change the World by John-Paul Flintoff How to Thrive in the Digital Age by Tom Chatfield How to Think More About Sex by Alain de Botton


We analyze the consequences of consumer education on prices and welfare in retail financial markets when some consumers are naive about shrouded add-on prices and banks try to exploit this. Allowing for different information and pricing strategies we show that education is unlikely to push banks to full price disclosure, which would be efficient, but instead to a new equilibrium in which banks discriminate between consumer types. Welfare analysis reveals that education, while positive for consumers who learn to make better financial decisions, imposes a negative externality on other consumers when banks respond by setting higher prices. Overall, the welfare effects of consumer education can be negative. Our results identify important pitfalls policy makers should take into account when considering the seemingly harmless intervention of consumer education.


This paper will provide an overview of the specific issues related to involving service users and carers in work‐based practice assessment of health and social care students. The outcomes of a shared workshop that involved service users and carers, practice assessors and students in the development of an interprofessional assessment tool, will be discussed. Key areas of concern, across all participants, were related to ethical, reliability and validity issues. These will be explored against the background of current literature, and recommendations will be made for involving service users and carers in assessment of practice. The original work for this paper was part of the Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), which is working towards a framework of interprofessional assessment of common competences in the health and social care professions.


How is our body imprinted in our brain? This seemingly simple question is a subject of investigations of diverse disciplines, psychology, and philosophy originally complemented by neurosciences more recently. Despite substantial efforts, the mysteries of body representations are far from uncovered. The most widely used notions-body image and body schema-are still waiting to be clearly defined. The mechanisms that underlie body representations are coresponsible for the admiring capabilities that humans or many mammals can display: combining information from multiple sensory modalities, controlling their complex bodies, adapting to growth, failures, or using tools. These features are also desirable in robots. This paper surveys the body representations in biology from a functional or computational perspective to set ground for a review of the concept of body schema in robotics. First, we examine application-oriented research: how a robot can improve its capabilities by being able to automatically synthesize, extend, or adapt a model of its body. Second, we summarize the research area in which robots are used as tools to verify hypotheses on the mechanisms underlying biological body representations. We identify trends in these research areas and propose future research directions.


Genetic disorders of the Ras/MAPK pathway, termed RASopathies, produce numerous abnormalities, including cutaneous keratodermas. The desmosomal cadherin, desmoglein-1 (DSG1), promotes keratinocyte differentiation by attenuating MAPK/ERK signaling and is linked to striate palmoplantar keratoderma (SPPK). This raises the possibility that cutaneous defects associated with SPPK and RASopathies share certain molecular faults. To identify intermediates responsible for executing the inhibition of ERK by DSG1, we conducted a yeast 2-hybrid screen. The screen revealed that Erbin (also known as ERBB2IP), a known ERK regulator, binds DSG1. Erbin silencing disrupted keratinocyte differentiation in culture, mimicking aspects of DSG1 deficiency. Furthermore, ERK inhibition and the induction of differentiation markers by DSG1 required both Erbin and DSG1 domains that participate in binding Erbin. Erbin blocks ERK signaling by interacting with and disrupting Ras-Raf scaffolds mediated by SHOC2, a protein genetically linked to the RASopathy, Noonan-like syndrome with loose anagen hair (NS/LAH). DSG1 overexpression enhanced this inhibitory function, increasing Erbin-SHOC2 interactions and decreasing Ras-SHOC2 interactions. Conversely, analysis of epidermis from DSG1-deficient patients with SPPK demonstrated increased Ras-SHOC2 colocalization and decreased Erbin-SHOC2 colocalization, offering a possible explanation for the observed epidermal defects. These findings suggest a mechanism by which DSG1 and Erbin cooperate to repress MAPK signaling and promote keratinocyte differentiation.


This paper presents the analysis and estimation of effective bandwidth of a router, handling multi-class traffic. Analysis is done with marginal buffering as well as large buffers. Performance of a periodic on-off source is compared with that of a Poisson¿s source with marginal buffering. Bandwidth requirement of the sources for a given Quality of Service is worked out. The analysis is then extended to routers with large buffers. Estimated performance parameters based on effective bandwidth are found out mathematically. Trade-off between required bandwidth and buffer provisioning is shown. A humble admission control algorithm, based on the measurement of certain parameters of the incoming flows is proposed. Finally the efficacy of the algorithm is shown by comparing its performance with the calculated bounds of the probability of overflow.


Fouling of fin-and-tube heat exchangers by particle deposition leads to diminished effectiveness in supplying ventilation and air conditioning. This paper explores mechanisms that cause particle deposition on heat exchanger surfaces. We present a model that accounts for impaction, diffusion, gravitational settling, and turbulence. Simulation results suggest that some submicron particles deposit in the heat exchanger core, but do not cause significant performance impacts. Particles between 1 and 10 {micro}m deposit with probabilities ranging from 1-20% with fin edge impaction representing the dominant mechanism. Particles larger than 10 {micro}m deposit by impaction on refrigerant tubes, gravitational settling on fin corrugations, and mechanisms associated with turbulent airflow. The model results agree reasonably well with experimental data, but the deposition of larger particles at high velocities is underpredicted. Geometric factors, such as discontinuities in the fins, are hypothesized to be responsible for the discrepancy.


Financial economists have long known that actively managed mutual funds underperform comparable index funds and that investment management fees are a major contributor to this underperformance. This article shows that the impact of mutual fund fees is even greater when one examines what funds actually do with investors' money. Many actively managed mutual funds have returns that are closely correlated with comparable index funds and yet have annual fees that can be 100 times higher. Because such 'shadow' or 'closet' index funds provide minimal active management of the assets they hold, the implied annual cost of the active management can dwarf the stated cost. This article provides a simple measure of what investors are actually paying fund managers for that active management that they can compute for themselves data available for free on the Internet. A recent sample of 731 actively managed large-cap US mutual funds has an average active expense ratio of 6.44%, more than 400% greater than their average reported expense ratio of 1.20%. This article also finds that even large, seemingly low-cost, mutual funds common in retirement plans frequently have active expense ratios above 4% a year.


The political debate on cannabis policy is often more based on opinions than on evidence. However, evidence-based knowledge is required to design effective cannabis policy. A review of the scientific literature on cannabis policy and its consequences was conducted. The evidentiary basis for cannabis policy is rather narrow. The study includes an agenda for further research on cannabis policy.


This document extends Directory-Based Information Services (DBIS)
described in [draft-bannister-dbis-mapping-00] to support hosts,
networks, netmasks, protocols, rpc and services databases. The
database schemas SHALL be backwards compatible with the Network
Information Service [NIS] but stored within [X.500] entries so that
they may be resolved with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
[RFC4510]. A hosts database maps hostnames to IP addresses, networks
map network names to network numbers, netmasks map network numbers to
netmasks, protocols map network protocol names to protocol numbers,
rpc maps Remote Procedure Call [RFC1057] program names to RPC program
numbers and services map network service names to port numbers and
protocols. This document describes configuration maps [draft-
bannister-dbis- mapping-00] for hosts, networks, protocols, rpc and
services, and database entries referenced by those maps.


Background Schizophrenia has been negatively observed in today's society due to several major violent crimes and violent actions committed by persons with the diagnosis. The general populations' lack of knowledge increases the risk of a faulty attitude when meeting individuals with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a psychosis which creates suffering for the effected. Common symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations, delusions, apathy and difficulties with emotional relations. Nearly half of all schizophrenics attempts suicide, at some point. Aim The aim of this study was to describe how people with schizophrenia experience their life-world. Method This study is based on six autobiographies and is analyzed with qualitative content analyses. Results The study resulted in six categories which are perception of their illness, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, suffering, experiences of health care and medication and strategies towards a brighter future. During psychotic periods the individuals often experienced their surrounding as frightening because of hallucinations. Some of them live their lives alone because they are afraid of being perceived as crazy and want to conceal their diagnosis. The result shows strategies that the persons were using for reducing their suffering. Conclusion Prejudices about the disease can generate that persons with schizophrenia is not getting the care they need. If the patient is treated based on a life-world perspective, he or she will feel like being seen as a person rather than a diagnosis.


Background It is critical to understand whether infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) protects from subsequent reinfection. Methods We investigated the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive results in seropositive and seronegative healthcare workers (HCWs) attending asymptomatic and symptomatic staff testing at Oxford University Hospitals, UK. Baseline antibody status was determined using anti-spike and/or anti-nucleocapsid IgG assays and staff followed for up to 30 weeks. We used Poisson regression to estimate the relative incidence of PCR-positive results and new symptomatic infection by antibody status, accounting for age, gender and changes in incidence over time. Results A total of 12219 HCWs participated and had anti-spike IgG measured, 11052 were followed up after negative and 1246 after positive antibody results including 79 who seroconverted during follow up. 89 PCR-confirmed symptomatic infections occurred in seronegative individuals (0.46 cases per 10,000 days at risk) and no symptomatic infections in those with anti-spike antibodies. Additionally, 76 (0.40/10,000 days at risk) anti-spike IgG seronegative individuals had PCR-positive tests in asymptomatic screening, compared to 3 (0.21/10,000 days at risk) seropositive individuals. Overall, positive baseline anti-spike antibodies were associated with lower rates of PCR-positivity (with or without symptoms) (adjusted rate ratio 0.24 [95%CI 0.08-0.76, p=0.015]). Rate ratios were similar using anti-nucleocapsid IgG alone or combined with anti-spike IgG to determine baseline status. Conclusions Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection that generated antibody responses offered protection from reinfection for most people in the six months following infection. Further work is required to determine the long-term duration and correlates of post-infection immunity.


A two-stage adaptive multiuser detector in an additive white Gaussian noise code-division multiple-access channel is proposed and analyzed. Its first stage is an asynchronous one-shot decorrelator which in terms of computational complexity only requires inversion of K symmetric K/spl times/K matrices for all K users. In addition, the K inversions can be done in parallel, and the computed results for one user can be reused by all other users as well, resulting in a latency of only one bit, same as its synchronous counterpart. The decorrelated tentative decisions are utilized to estimate and subtract multiple-access interference in the second stage. Another novel feature of the detector is the adaptive manner in which the multiple-access interference estimates are formed, which renders prior estimation of the received signal amplitudes and the use of training sequences unnecessary. Adaptation algorithms considered include steepest descent (as well as its stochastic version), and a recursive least squares-type algorithm that offers a faster transient response and better error performance. Sufficient conditions for the receiver to achieve convergence are derived. The detector is near-far resistant, and is shown to provide substantial steady-state error performance improvement over the conventional and decorrelating detector, particularly in the presence of strong interfering signals.


As subducting plates reach the base of the upper mantle, some appear to flatten and stagnate, while others seemingly go through unimpeded. This variable resistance to slab sinking has been proposed to affect long-term thermal and chemical mantle circulation. A review of observational constraints and dynamic models highlights that neither the increase in viscosity between upper and lower mantle (likely by a factor 20–50) nor the coincident endothermic phase transition in the main mantle silicates (with a likely Clapeyron slope of –1 to –2 MPa/K) suffice to stagnate slabs. However, together the two provide enough resistance to temporarily stagnate subducting plates, if they subduct accompanied by significant trench retreat. Older, stronger plates are more capable of inducing trench retreat, explaining why backarc spreading and flat slabs tend to be associated with old-plate subduction. Slab viscosities that are ∼2 orders of magnitude higher than background mantle (effective yield stresses of 100–300 MPa) lead to similar styles of deformation as those revealed by seismic tomography and slab earthquakes. None of the current transition-zone slabs seem to have stagnated there more than 60 m.y. Since modeled slab destabilization takes more than 100 m.y., lower-mantle entry is apparently usually triggered (e.g., by changes in plate buoyancy). Many of the complex morphologies of lower-mantle slabs can be the result of sinking and subsequent deformation of originally stagnated slabs, which can retain flat morphologies in the top of the lower mantle, fold as they sink deeper, and eventually form bulky shapes in the deep mantle.


Mid-frequency transient vibration analysis of flexible structures plays an important role in a variety of engineering applications. In a mid-frequency region, neither low-frequency methods like the finite element analysis (FEA) nor high-frequency methods like the statistical energy analysis (SEA) are directly applicable to transient vibration analysis. For optimal design of multi-body structures, a mid-frequency transient vibration analysis tool with a good balance of accuracy and efficiency in computation is in demand. In this paper, to address the aforementioned issue, a model reduction method is developed for mid-frequency transient vibration analysis of beam structures. The method is based on the augmented distributed transfer function method (augmented DTFM).
 In this work, the augmented DTFM is modified for model reduction in mid-frequency analysis of beam structures, which is an extension of the authors' previous effort. The idea behind this approach is to properly select several modes in the low-frequency region and a number of modes in a mid-frequency region that encompasses the excitation frequency spectrum, from the infinite series given by the augmented DTFM. This way, a reduced model of a beam structure for mid-frequency transient analysis is systematically obtained. The proposed model reduction method is validated in numerical examples, where the augmented method is compared with other methods, including the FEA. The accuracy and efficiency of the new method on the computation of transient displacement and shear force is demonstrated. As shown in the simulation results, a proper balance between accuracy and efficiency in model reduction can be achieved by the augmented DTFM. The computation savings by the proposed method, compared with the traditional numerical methods, can be of several orders of magnitude.


Reforestation of saline sodic soil is increasingly undertaken as a means of reclaiming otherwise unproductive agricultural land. Currently, restoration of degraded land is limited to species with high tolerances of salinity. Biochar application has the potential to improve physical, biological and chemical properties of these soils to allow establishment of a wider range of plants. In a glasshouse trial, we applied biochar made from Acacia pycnantha (5 Mg ha−1) or no biochar to either a low (ECe 4·75 dS m−1, ESP 6·9), a moderate (ECe 27·6 dS m−1, ESP 29·3) or a high (ECe 49·4 dS m−1, ESP 45·1) saline sodic soil. The regional common reforestation species Eucalyptus viminalis and Acacia mearnsii were planted as tubestock in to the soils. Early establishment indicators, including growth, plant condition and nutrition, were assessed at the end of a simulated growing season, 108 days after biochar application. Application of biochar increased height, and decreased root : shoot and the concentration of Mn, N and S in plants of E. viminalis when grown in the highly saline sodic soil. Biochar application increased the concentration of B in leaves of E. viminalis and increased the concentration of P, K and S in leaves of A. mearnsii when grown in the low saline sodic soil. The results confirm that there is potential for biochar to assist in reforestation of saline sodic soils. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Worms are malicious programs that spread over the Internet without human intervention. Since worms generally spread faster than humans can respond, the only viable defence is to automate their detection.

Network intrusion detection systems typically detect worms by examining packet or flow logs for known signatures. Not only does this approach mean that new worms cannot be detected until the corresponding signatures are created, but that mutations of known worms will remain undetected because each mutation will usually have a different signature. The intuitive and seemingly most effective solution is to write more generic signatures, but this has been found to increase false alarm rates and is thus impractical.

This dissertation investigates the feasibility of using machine learning to automatically detect mutations of known worms. First, it investigates whether Support Vector Machines can detect mutations of known worms.
Support Vector Machines have been shown to be well suited to pattern recognition tasks such as text categorisation and hand-written digit recognition. Since detecting worms is effectively a pattern recognition problem, this work investigates how well Support Vector Machines perform at this task.

The second part of this dissertation compares Support Vector Machines to other machine learning techniques in detecting worm mutations.
Gaussian Processes, unlike Support Vector Machines, automatically return confidence values as part of their result. Since confidence values can be used to reduce false alarm rates, this dissertation determines how Gaussian Process compare to Support Vector Machines in terms of detection accuracy. For further comparison, this work also compares Support Vector Machines to K-nearest neighbours, known for its simplicity and solid results in other domains.

The third part of this dissertation investigates the automatic generation of training data. Classifier accuracy depends on good quality training data -- the wider the training data spectrum, the higher the classifier's accuracy.
This dissertation describes the design and implementation of a worm mutation generator whose output is fed to the machine learning techniques as training data. This dissertation then evaluates whether the training data can be used to train classifiers of sufficiently high quality to detect worm mutations.

The findings of this work demonstrate that Support Vector Machines can be used to detect worm mutations, and that the optimal configuration for detection of worm mutations is to use a linear kernel with unnormalised bi-gram frequency counts. Moreover, the results show that Gaussian Processes and Support Vector Machines exhibit similar accuracy on average in detecting worm mutations, while K-nearest neighbours consistently produces lower quality predictions. The generated worm mutations are shown to be of sufficiently high quality to serve as training data.
Combined, the results demonstrate that machine learning is capable of accurately detecting mutations of known worms.


Recent blind super-resolution (SR) methods typically consist of two branches, one for degradation prediction and the other for conditional restoration. However, our experiments show that a one-branch network can achieve comparable performance to the two-branch scheme. Then we wonder: how can one-branch networks automatically learn to distinguish degradations? To find the answer, we propose a new diagnostic tool -- Filter Attribution method based on Integral Gradient (FAIG). Unlike previous integral gradient methods, our FAIG aims at finding the most discriminative filters instead of input pixels/features for degradation removal in blind SR networks. With the discovered filters, we further develop a simple yet effective method to predict the degradation of an input image. Based on FAIG, we show that, in one-branch blind SR networks, 1) we are able to find a very small number of (1%) discriminative filters for each specific degradation; 2) The weights, locations and connections of the discovered filters are all important to determine the specific network function. 3) The task of degradation prediction can be implicitly realized by these discriminative filters without explicit supervised learning. Our findings can not only help us better understand network behaviors inside one-branch blind SR networks, but also provide guidance on designing more efficient architectures and diagnosing networks for blind SR.


Flow cytometry (FCM) immunophenotyping is frequently used as an ancillary technique for the diagnosis of hematological malignancies or for measurement of DNA content. In recent years, we applied FCM to the diagnosis of metastatic adenocarcinoma and malignant mesothelioma in effusions. We established a panel of antibodies that allows for rapid and effective differentiation between epithelial cells, mesothelial cells, and leukocytes. FCM was subsequently used for quantitative analysis of integrin subunits. Recently, we studied different parameters of the immune response, including HLA molecules and chemokine receptors, using this method. Our data suggest that FCM is an effective method for the characterization of cancer cells in clinical effusion specimens in both the diagnostic and research setting, and that this method is comparable to immunohistochemistry in terms of sensitivity and specificity, with the additional advantage of providing quantitative data. This review discusses previous work in this area and the future potential of this method in the characterization of tumor cells in serous effusions. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2007;35:568‐578. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Feed costs comprise the majority of variable expenses in beef cattle systems making feed efficiency an important economic consideration within the beef industry. Due to the expense of recording individual feed-intake phenotypes, a genomic-enabled approach could be advantageous toward improving this economically relevant trait complex. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed using 748 crossbred steers and heifers representing seven sire breeds with phenotypes for ADG and ADFI. Animals were genotyped with the BovineSNP50v2 BeadChip containing approximately 54,000 SNP. Both traits were analyzed using univariate SNPbased (BayesC) and haplotype-based (BayesIM) models and jointly using BayesIM to perform a bivariate GWAS. For BayesIM, a hidden Markov model (HMM) of haplotype segments of variable length was built where haplotypes were mapped to clusters based on local similarity. The estimated HMM was then used to assign haplotype cluster genotypes, instead of SNP genotypes, as latent covariates in a Bayesian mixture model. The number of haplotype clusters at each location was assumed to be either 8 (BayesIM8) or 16 (BayesIM16). A total of three univariate analyses for each trait and two bivariate analyses were performed. Posterior SD (PSD) for ADG were 0.28 (0.08), 0.37 (0.11), 0.37 (0.11), 0.35 (0.11), and 0.35 (0.12) for BayesC, BayesIM8, BayesIM16, BayesIM8 bivariate, and BayesIM16 bivariate, respectively. ADFI PSD were 0.30 (0.07), 0.44 (0.13), 0.42 (0.12), 0.38 (0.10), and 0.38 (0.10) for the same models. The top 1% of 1-Mb windows that explained the largest fraction of genetic variation in common between univariate SNP and haplotype models ranged from 24% to 40% and from 20% to 32% for ADG and ADFI, respectively. Spearmen rank correlations between molecular breeding values from SNP and haplotype-based models in the training data were similar for both traits (>0.96) suggesting that either model would lead to similar rankings of animals, although resolution of potential QTL appeared to be greater for BayesIM.


Increasingly, uncertainties are explicitly considered for important engineering tasks. Often, little case-specific information is available for characterizing these uncertainties. Uniform distributions are an easy way to describe errors in absence of more precise information. In many situations, the bounds are fixed based on user experience. The extended uniform distribution (EUD) provides a probability density function that accounts for higher orders of uncertainty (uncertainty of uncertainty) when using a uniform distribution to describe errors. Since the EUD accounts for several orders of uncertainty it is more representative than uniform and curvilinear distributions. The extended uniform distribution helps increase the reliability and robustness of tasks requiring uncertainty combination through better representing incomplete knowledge of parameters.


In this work, we synthesized and characterized two new n-type polymers PTDPP-PyDPP and PIID-PyDPP. The former polymer is composed of pyridine-flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole (PyDPP) and thiophene-flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole (TDPP). The latter polymer consists of PyDPP and isoindigo (IID). PIID-PyDPP exhibits a much higher absorption coefficient compared to the widely used naphthalene diimide (NDI)-based acceptor polymers, and its high-lying LUMO level affords it to achieve a high open-circuit voltage (Voc). As a result, an all-polymer solar cell (all-PSC) fabricated from a high band gap polymer PBDTTS-FTAZ as the donor and PIID-PyDPP as the acceptor attained a high Voc of 1.07 V with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.2%. So far, it has been one of the highest PCEs recorded from all-PSCs using diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based acceptors. Gratifyingly, no obvious PCE decay was observed in two weeks, unraveling good stability of the all-PSC. This work demonstrates that the electron-withdrawing PyDPP unit can be a promising building block for new acceptor polymers in all-PSCs.


Six species of Melitta Kirby are recorded from southern Africa and one from East Africa. Four names are placed into synonymy : Melitta capensis, Melitta longicornis and Melitta turneri are junior synonyms of Melitta arrogans, and Melitta flavipes is a junior synonym of Melitta schultzei. Three new species have been described from southern Africa: Melitta whiteheadi Eardley sp. n., Melitta danae Eardley sp. n. and Melitta barbarae Eardley sp. n., and one from East Africa, namely Melitta katherinae Eardley sp. n. Melitta rufipes Friese is transferred to Rediviva.


Fish is a major source of protein and post-harvest loss of fish is a key factor of economic and protein wastages in developing countries like Bangladesh. This study was carried out to know the effects of sun drying, smoking, freezing and canning on proximate, biochemical and microbiological characteristics of chela (Laubuka dadiburjori) fish stored at room temperature for 60 days. The proximate compositions of the fish samples were determined. Moisture, protein, lipid, ash and carbohydrate contents of the fresh fish were 76.56, 13.74, 4.25, 2.37 and 1.41%, respectively. Total volatile base nitrogen content was 7.10 mg/100 g. Total plate count was 1.13×104 CFU gG1. The proximate compositions found in the different processing methods were statistically different to the fresh fish samples. Water activity and pH value increased significantly in sundried and smoked chela at the end of 60 days of storage. Salt content decreased significantly (p<0.05) in sundried fish than other three processing methods. Total protein content was high in smoke dried fish (61.31%) and low in frozen fish (11.85%) at the end of storage period. The TVB-N was found high in sundried and smoked fish samples after storage period. Smoking demonstrated efficient method of fish processing in terms of the retention of protein value and reduction in the moisture content but canning was the best method for benefit and retention of the product. The information obtained in this study could be useful to fish consumers, processors and nutritionists in the efficient management of fish resources.


European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is an important commercial species for several European bottom trawl fisheries. Therefore, understanding the influence of codend mesh size and shape on the size selection of European hake is critical for defining technical measures for fisheries targeting this species. Based on morphology data collected on European hake, the influence of mesh size and shape on bottom trawl codend size selectivity was investigated by simulation using the FISHSELECT methodology successfully applied previously for other species. The predicted size selection for European hake was found to agree well with previous experimental results for a wide range of mesh sizes if it was assumed that the codend meshes had a relatively small opening angle, between 20° and 40°, during trawling. This study enables detailed prediction of size selectivity for European hake and offers a potential explanation for previous experimental size selectivity results.


Terrifying Muslims highlights how transnational working classes from Pakistan are produced, constructed, and represented in the context of American empire and the recent global War on Terror. Drawing on ethnographic research that compares Pakistan, the Middle East, and the United States before and after 9/11, Junaid Rana combines cultural and material analyses to chronicle the worldviews of Pakistani labor migrants as they become part of a larger global racial system. At the same time, he explains how these migrants' mobility and opportunities are limited by colonial, postcolonial, and new imperial structures of control and domination. He argues that the contemporary South Asian labor diaspora builds on and replicates the global racial system consolidated during the period of colonial indenture. Rana maintains that a negative moral judgment attaches to migrants who enter the global labor pool through the informal economy. This taint of the illicit intensifies the post-9/11 Islamophobia that collapses varied religions, nationalities, and ethnicities into the threatening racial figure of "the Muslim." It is in this context that the racialized Muslim is controlled by a process that beckons workers to enter the global economy, and stipulates when, where, and how laborers can migrate. The demonization of Muslim migrants in times of crisis, such as the War on Terror, is then used to justify arbitrary policing, deportation, and criminalization.


This document is from the Charles B. Moore Collection. It is an envelop sent for an unknown writer. The envelope is Addressed to Charles B. Moore who was located in Melissa, Texas. The postal stamp is from Nashville, Tennessee and it is dated May 13, 1890. The back of the envelop has a post marked stamp from Melissa, Texas with no date.


OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship between type II diabetes and cognitive function in older Native Americans and to assess the effects of other selected risk factors for cognitive dysfunction on this relationship. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Cognitive function was assessed in 80 diabetic and 81 nondiabetic Native Americans who were 45–76 years of age in a cross-sectional population-based sub-study of the Strong Heart Study. Thirteen cognitive function tests were administered during a personal interview. Information about six other risk factors for cognitive dysfunction, including depressive symptoms, physical function, alcoholism, current alcohol use, hypertension, and myocardial infarction, was ascertained from interviews andfrom abstraction of medical records. RESULTS Diabetes was associated with impairment on only two tests of cognitive function: verbal fluency (P = 0.004) and similarities (P = 0.010). Depressive symptoms were related to verbal fluency (P = 0.004), but did not explain thediabetes-related difference in performance. The effects of hypertension, depressive symptoms, and current alcohol use explained the diabetes-related performance difference on similarities. Cognitive function was not related to metabolic control (HbA1c level). CONCLUSIONS We found little evidence that type II diabetes in this population of Native Americans is associated with decrement in cognitive function. Some of the cognitive impairment previously attributed to diabetes may be related, at least in part, to the influence of other risk factors. This should be considered in the design of future studies in other populations.


Space-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) applications have been widely used to monitor the cryosphere over past decades. Owing to temporal decorrelation, interferometric coherence often severely degrades on fast moving glaciers. TanDEM-X observations can overcome the temporal decorrelation because of their simultaneous measurements by two satellite constellations. In this study, we used the TanDEM-X pursuit monostatic mode with large baseline formation following a scientific phase timeline to develop highly precise topographic elevation models of the Petermann Glacier of Northwest Greenland. The large baseline provided the advantage of extracting topographic information over low relief areas, such as the surface of a glacier. As expected, coherent interferometric phases (>0.8) were well maintained over the glaciers, despite their fast movement, due to the nearly simultaneous TanDEM-X measurements. The height ambiguity, which was defined as the altitude difference corresponding to a 2π phase change of the flattened interferogram, of the dataset was 10.63 m, which was favorable for extracting topography in a low relief region. We validated the TanDEM-X derived glacial topography by comparing it to the SAR/Interferometric radar altimeter observations acquired by CryoSat-2 and the IceBridge Airborne Topographic Mapper laser altimeter measurements. Both observations showed very good correlation within a few meters of the offsets (−12.5~−3.1 m), with respect to the derived glacial topography. Routine TanDEM-X observations will be very useful to better understand the dynamics of glacial movements and topographic change.


One of the most active disputes in tax law today is the question of the proper tax consequences for a successful plaintiff, a portion of whose taxable damage award is paid to his or her attorney pursuant to a contingent fee arrangement. At issue is whether the plaintiff is taxable on the portion of the award that is payable to the attorney. One aspect of this problem was resolved prospectively by the adoption of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, but the problem continues to exist in other areas. The United States Supreme Court resolved a split in the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals with respect to the taxation of contingent attorney's fees in Commissioner v. Banks, but that decision provides no comfort for the plight of taxpayers because the government prevailed. Moreover, the attorney's fee dispute is only one small example of a much larger problem. Instead of dealing with the root cause of the problem, the focus (both in the courts and in Congress) has been on whether to provide a "fix" for the specific plight of the taxpayers who have raised issues in court. The courts and Congress, like the Little Dutch Boy, may be willing to plug one hole, but the broader problem is a structural fault in the "dam" of the tax law system - namely, the improper classification of a significant number of expenditures as itemized deductions. This Article argues that the current list of nonitemized deductions wrongly excludes a number of items, especially some that are directly connected to the production of income. This erroneous exclusion imposes an unwarranted and severe tax burden in far more circumstances than the attorney's fee problem on which Congress exclusively focused in the American Job Creation Act of 2004. The harsh consequences resulting from the misclassification of a number of items are exacerbated by the stringent limitations currently imposed on many itemized deductions; but even a repeal of those limitations, which is unlikely to occur, will not cure all of the harm that a wrongful classification causes. This author hopes that highlighting several examples of misclassification will induce Congress to implement a commission to study the entire classification system, rather than to rest on its laurels for solving one small part of the problem in the American Job Creation Act of 2004.


A Lagrangian stochastic (single particle) model is modified in order to account for simple chemistry reactions and tested against measured wind tunnel data. These data refers to a reactive plume generated by a single point source of NO inside a turbulent grid flow doped with ozone. The comparisons were made at different distances from the emission considering all the substances involved in the experiment. The cross correlation terms between the concentrations of the different chemical compounds are neglected or parameterised. Despite this simplification the results are rather satisfactory and seem to encourage practical applications in real atmosphere.


The authors present novel results on the interface between silicon and the high-κ oxides Al2O3 and HfO2 grown by atomic layer deposition. The determination of the thickness of the interfacial layer between oxide and Si(100) is crucial to the evaluation of the performances of devices based on high-κ dielectrics. They find through hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HaXPES) that no interfacial layer forms between Al2O3 and Si(100) whereas almost one monolayer forms between HfO2 and Si(100). HaXPES does not involve any destructive procedure nor any sample preparation. High-energy photoemission could therefore be widely employed for the characterization of real devices.


The remit of the UK-China Science Bridge focussing on sustainable energy and built environment is to accelerate the deployment of research knowledge from Queen's University Belfast to leading Chinese universities and research institutions who are partners of the bridge. As the emphasis of this Science Bridge is sustainable energy and built environment, the aim is to undertake proof of concept studies on Queen's University-developed technologies in this field at leading Chinese universities and research centres. Particular attention is given to non-destructive testing and sensors for monitoring the durability of structures as well as a novel form of construction called 'flexible arch'. The Chinese counterparts aim to set up monitoring systems in concrete bridges where the sensor systems from Queen's will be employed. Data from these monitoring stations will be used to predict the service life and the structural health performance of concrete bridges in marine environments. The aim of this paper is to introduce this international collaborative programme and describe the research undertaken so that other organisations can benefit from the outcomes.


BACKGROUND
Chemotherapy medications place nurses at risk for occupational exposure, a primary nursing safety concern. No literature was available on adherence to following chemotherapy handling practices and nurses' perceptions of safe-handling practices.

OBJECTIVES
The aims of the pilot study were to examine actual and subjective ambulatory oncology nurse adherence to chemotherapy safe-handling guideline recommendations that prevent chemotherapy exposure.

METHODS
A prospective, comparative mixed-methods study was used to compare objective and subjective nurse behaviors of expected safe chemotherapy handling-specifically, micro-ethnography and questionnaires. Fisher's exact test was used to assess differences in the rates of observations and questionnaire responses.

FINDINGS
Twenty-two cases of chemotherapy handling were observed, and 12 of 33 nurses completed self-assessments. Of observed practices, nurses completed three behaviors 100% of the time (disposing of gloves in a chemotherapy-approved container after initiating chemotherapy, discarding the chemotherapy bag and tubing after disconnecting chemotherapy infusions, and washing hands after chemotherapy was administered). When objective and subjective behavior adherence were compared, three behaviors were carried out with greater frequency than what nurses perceived on questionnaires (double gloving and gowning when disconnecting chemotherapy and properly discarding chemotherapy). Two behaviors were carried out with less frequency than nurses provided on questionnaires (double gloving and protecting work surfaces during administration).


"People 'think' in different ways, and I find that I think most effectively graphically and also that my thinking is influenced a great deal by my ability to get it down where I can 'look at it' and think about it further--the process of thinking with me generates more thinking--the notebooks, in other words, have been not only a way of 'recording' ideas but also of 'generating' ideas...they are ways of running out what I call series of alternative SCORES."These selections from Halprin's personal and professional notebooks take us as far as it may be possible to go within the imagination of another person, especially one whose highly energized originality is moving in several directions simultaneously. Halprin's creativity, as his "notebooks" attest, springs from his synthesizing instincts: the joining of elements of landscape and cityscape, melding of individual architectural entities with community living patterns. The whole is enlivened by Halprin's awareness in such matters as group and ecological dynamics, participatory art, the choreography and scoring of human movement.The notebooks reveal an embracing of progressively more inclusive environments over the years: "In the early notebooks there is emphasis on gardens and on landscape...the latter notebooks reflect my increasing interest and commitment to the total environment as an integrating matrix for 'community.'" The reader will find here both an abiding interest in the natural environment and an evolving interest in the man-made environment. There are numerous drawings of mountains, rock formations, and waterfalls in California and elsewhere and an increasing concern with cities and how they can best serve man and nature. Halprin records his reactions to a worldwide array of cities--Paris, Venice, Los Angeles, Jerusalem--and displays drawings of their grand aspects and sketches of their intimate features.Other entries reflect the inception and growth process of ideas later to be fully realized in book form "(Cities; Freeways; New York New York; The RSVP Cycles)" or in built form (the Portland fountains). Still others relate to Halprin's recent involvement with community workshops, group sessions and participatory planning. In short, the full range of Halprin's imagination and professional activities is displayed here: "These notebooks have been--for me--a process...a way of exploring ideas and of 'scoring' the future...they are filled with the trying-out-of-things...of alternative score "S" which have then been either discarded or recycled into actuality or put aside for other times...they are full of letters either sent or not sent, articles published or never submitted for publication, speeches made or only imagined...an assemblage."The material in this book represents about one-twelfth of the original notebooks and was selected by an associate, Jim Burns, on the grounds that someone close to Halprin's work but at one removed from his total personal involvement could best present a cross section equally accenting past interests and current concerns. The notebook is entirely written in Halprin's very legible hand.


The heart rate achieved with maximal upper limb exercise is quoted as being on average thirteen beats per min~te lower than when performing maximal leg exercise. Many canoeists use heart rate monitors during training and seek advice on setting their heart rate training zones. Existing guidelines are based on lower limb-derived heart rates, which may not be appropriate. As canoeists use predominantly their upper limbs during canoeing, it was hypothesized that as their upper limbs are trained, they may achieve heart rates and oxygen consumption similar to those achieved with lower limb exercise. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the relationship between heart rate and oxygen consumption when exercising on either a kayak ergometer or treadmill. Fifteen volunteer canoeists, who compete regularly, were recruited by convenience, purposive sampling and randomly allocated to a V02max test using open circuit spirometry, on either a kayak ergometer or treadmill. They returned within 5 to 7 days for a V02max test on the other apparatus. Their heart rates were also measured during these activities. The heart rate oxygen consumption relationship for upper and lower limb exercise was then analysed. Maximum heart rate was on average only 6 beats per minute lower with upper limb exercise, with some subjects achieving the same or very similar HRmax; the median difference in heart rate maximum was only 4 beats per minute. Although the response of heart rate and oxygen consumption to kayaking and running was similar at any given workload, the heart rate on the kayak was about 8 beats per minute higher at any submaximal workload. V02max. on the kayak was lower than on the treadmill. At any metabolic equivalent, the tidal volume was lower on the kayak and there was a lower respiratory rate on the treadmill. At any tidal volume, the metabolic equivalent was lower on the kayak ergometer. The minute volume on the kayak was higher than on the treadmill, for all but the highest intensities of exercise. Using the leg heart rate max to determine the training zones, a slightly higher (negligibJe) percentage of arm V02max is achieved at any given percentage heart rate. Kayakers who train regularly, appear to be able to attain similar maximum heart rates with upper and lower limb exercise, but a lower V02max when exercising with their arms. The heart rate oxygen consumption response is the same for upper and lower body exercise; and a reduced HRmax and increased heart rate at any sub maximal workload do not appear to apply to canoeists. It is therefore concluded that heart rate training zones based on leg HRmax are suitable for kayak training. This study has helped distinguish the difference between the heart rates of the upper and lower limbs at any given oxygen consumption in canoeists. The benefits of performing this study have also been to provjde better advice to canoeists on how to train using heart rate monitors.


Abscisic acid (ABA) regulates developmental processes and abiotic stress responses in plants. We recently characterized a new Arabidopsis mutant, abh1, which shows ABA-hypersensitive regulation of seed germination, stomatal closing, and cytosolic calcium increases in guard cells (V. Hugouvieux, J.M. Kwak, J.I. Schroeder [2001] Cell 106: 477–487). ABH1 encodes the large subunit of a dimeric Arabidopsis mRNA cap-binding complex and in expression profiling experiments was shown to affect mRNA levels of a subset of genes. Here, we show that the dimeric ABH1 and AtCBP20 subunits are ubiquitously expressed. Whole-plant growth phenotypes ofabh1 are described and properties of ABH1 in guard cells are further analyzed. Complemented abh1 lines expressing a green fluorescent protein-ABH1 fusion protein demonstrate that ABH1 mainly localizes in guard cell nuclei. Stomatal apertures were smaller in abh1 compared with wild type (WT) when plants were grown at 40% humidity, and similar at 95% humidity. Correlated with stomatal apertures from plants grown at 40% humidity, slow anion channel currents were enhanced and inward potassium channel currents were decreased in abh1 guard cells compared with WT. Gas exchange measurements showed similar primary humidity responses inabh1 and WT, which together with results fromabh1/abi1-1 double-mutant analyses suggest thatabh1 shows enhanced sensitivity to endogenous ABA. Double-mutant analyses of the ABA-hypersensitive signaling mutants,era1-2 and abh1, showed complex genetic interactions, suggesting that ABH1 and ERA1 do not modulate the same negative regulator in ABA signaling. Mutations in the RNA-binding protein sad1 showed hypersensitive ABA-induced stomatal closing, whereas hyl1 did not affect this response. These data provide evidence for the model that the mRNA-processing proteins ABH1 and SAD1 function as negative regulators in guard cell ABA signaling.


The use of wind energy is growing around the world, and its growth is set to continue into the foreseeable future. Estimates of the wind speed and power are helpful to assess the potential of new sites for development and to facilitate electric grid integration studies. In the present paper, wind speed and power resource mapping analyses are performed. These resource mappings are produced on a 13 km, hourly model grid over the entire continental USA for the years of 2006–2014. The effects of the rotor equivalent wind speed (REWS) along with directional shear are investigated. The total dataset (wind speed and power) contains 152,000 model grid points, with each location containing 78,000 hourly time steps. The resource mapping and dataset are created from analysis fields, which are output from an advanced weather assimilation model. Two different methods were used to estimate the wind speed over the rotor swept area (with rotor diameter of 100 m). First, using a single wind speed at hub height (80 m) and, second, the REWS with directional shear. The demonstration study shows that in most locations the incorporation of the REWS reduces the average available wind power. In addition, the REWS technique estimates more wind power production at night and less production in the day compared with the hub height technique; potentially critical for siting new wind turbines and plants. However, the wind power estimate differences are dependent on seasonality, diurnal cycle and geographic location. More research is warranted into these effects to determine the level at which these features are observed at actual wind plants. © 2015 The Authors. Wind Energy published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Most of the performance studies devoted to the analysis of multicarrier systems in the presence of nonlinear distortion assume that the multicarrier signal can be modeled as a random Gaussian process regardless of modulation format, guard interval duration, and number of subcarriers. On the contrary, we present an analysis based on the discrete model of the multicarrier signal. It is shown that the discrete model provides more accurate signal-to-distortion ratio and out-of-band spectrum prediction if the number of subcarriers is small. Only the effect of third-order nonlinearity is studied; however results can also be extended to the fifth-order polynomial model. Simulation results are provided which confirm analytical derivations.


The immune system plays a dual role against cancer: it prevents tumor cell outgrowth and also sculpts the immunogenicity of the tumor cells. Cancer cells are able to escape from the immune system by inhibiting T lymphocytes activation. New immunotherapies have been developped to target these T lymphocytes activation modulators: the immune checkpoints. These novel therapies are showing promising results with durable objective responses in some patients. Ipilimumab (anti-CTLA4) was the first of these new therapeutics to be approved by the FDA in March 2011 for advanced melanoma and other immunomodulators trials are ongoing in other cancers with similar encouraging results like with the anti PD-1/PD-L1. These drugs are already challenging our future practice like for evaluation of tumor response or for management of immune related toxicities. Many immune checkpoints have been identified and could potentially be targeted. Future studies will help to identify predictive factors but also to coordinate these new immunotherapies with our classic treatment strategies.


Eclampsia is a life threatening condition with highest mortality and morbidity characterized by uncontrolled hypertension un-consciousness fits albumin urea in the setting the of Pre Eclampsia.

Study: An extensive elaborative study carried out from 2005 to 2009, to study the therapeutic and prophylactic role of Magnesium Sulphate and Diazepam in Eclampsia.

Study Period: Four Years 2005 to 2009.

Objective: To study MgSo4 Vs Diazepam reducing MMR, NMR in Eclampsia.

Study Design: This was a comparative study. Total 500 patients of fulminent pre- Eclampsia/Eclampsia were studied included booked / un-booked patients attending Lady Willingdon Hospital were admitted evaluated assessed and put on MgSo4 Vs Diazepam divided in two groups. The results were compared which showed of MgSo4 as superior in efficacy of compared to Diazepam in improving overall mortality morbidity in Eclampsia.

Material and Methods: Total 500 patients of Eclampsia admitted and studied in Unit – 2 Lady Willingdon Teaching Hospital of King Edward Medical University Lahore managed in ICU according to a specially design proforma, protocol and were given MgSo4 and Diazepam for control of fits, Hydralazine, Labetalol and Isoket infusions for lowering – blood pressure (MgSO4) A+B. (Diazepam) with multi disciplinary involvement divided in two groups compared and followed up.

Results: In Group-A there were 20 mothers and in Group-B 40 mothers died. It was observed that maternal mortality. Was significantly higher in Group-B women as compared to that of Group-A. i.e. (p-value=0.005) In Group-A there were 20 mothers and in Group-B 40 mothers died. It was observed that maternal mortality was significantly higher in Group-B women as compared to that of Group-A. i.e. (p-value=0.005)

Conclusion: The comparative study and of role of MgSO4 Vs Diazepam in reducing Mortality, morbidity in maternities, neoneties, efficacy showed the superiorness of Magnesium Sulphate as compared to Diazepam without any doubt.


A new chart based on Burmister's layered theory programmed for a high-speed computer is developed for determining equivalent single-wheel loads for flexible pavements. The equivalent single-wheel load is defined as a single wheel load which results in a maximum deflection in the subgrade equal to that produced by a set of dual wheels. A salient feature of the chart is that it takes the ratio of the moduli of elasticity of the pavement and subgrade into account and presents the results of a wry involved problem in a simple manner. The equivalent single-wheel load for any combinations of pavement thickness, modulus ratio, wheel spacing, and contact radius can be obtained from the chart with simple calculation and interpolation. The chart shows that the equivalent single-wheel load increases appreciably with the increase in modulus ratio. Current practice of assuming pavements as homogeneous media always gives an equivalent single-wheel load which is too small and is not in line with the finding of the WASHO road test.