The potential to collect brain data more directly, with higher resolution, and in greater amounts has heightened worries about mental and brain privacy. In order to manage the risks to individuals posed by these privacy challenges, some have suggested codifying new privacy rights, including a right to "mental privacy." In this paper, we consider these arguments and conclude that while neurotechnologies do raise significant privacy concerns, such concerns are-at least for now-no different from those raised by other well-understood data collection technologies, such as gene sequencing tools and online surveillance. To better understand the privacy stakes of brain data, we suggest the use of a conceptual framework from information ethics, Helen Nissenbaum's "contextual integrity" theory. To illustrate the importance of context, we examine neurotechnologies and the information flows they produce in three familiar contexts-healthcare and medical research, criminal justice, and consumer marketing. We argue that by emphasizing what is distinct about brain privacy issues, rather than what they share with other data privacy concerns, risks weakening broader efforts to enact more robust privacy law and policy.


In a clear-cut victory for campaign-finance reformers last December, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld virtually the entire Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA). McConnell v. FEC, No. 02-1674 (slip opinion available on the web at www.supremecourtus.gov). The Court's 298-page ruling rejected the free speech and other constitutional arguments pressed by an impressive array of challengers who had filed eleven suits against the law. The Court employed three separate majority opinions to decide the constitutionality of the various provisions contained in the five parts, or "titles," of the act: * Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor (joined by Justices David Sourer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer) delivered the Court's opinion upholding the constitutionality of the statutes most important features: Congress's effort to plug the "soft-money" loophole and its regulation of "electioneering communications." * Chief Justice William Rehnquist (joined by all of the other justices in whole or in part) delivered the Court's opinion striking down the act's ban on political contributions by minors, upholding its "stand by your ad" requirements, and declining to rule on, either its increase in "hard money" limits or its exception for candidates facing self-financed opponents (the law's so-called "millionaire exemption"). * Justice Breyer (joined by Justices Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg) delivered the opinion upholding the BCRA's requirement that broadcasters maintain certain publicly available records of politically related broadcasting requests. Background In 1997, Congress sought to address three important developments in campaign financing: "the increased importance of soft money, the proliferation of issue ads, and the disturbing findings of a Senate investigation into campaign practices related to the 1996 federal elections." (1) The term "soft money," though undefined in federal election laws, generally refers to money raised outside the regulatory structure for federal election campaigns. "Soft money" is money that is (theoretically) used for political parties' party-building activities and for so-called "issue ads" that supposedly do not target any specific election. "Hard money" refers to federally regulated funds subject to strict contribution limits under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA). It represents money that a donor contributes for the purpose of influencing an election for federal office. Hard money is regulated by the FECA; soft money was not--until the BCRA. The resulting legislation was known as either the McCain-Feingold bill, after its main Senate sponsors--Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.)--or Shays-Meehan, after its main sponsors in the House of Representatives, Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Marty Meehan (D-Mass.). The bill sought to close loopholes in the existing campaign-finance system. Rep. Shays explained, Our legislation aims to end the current system in which corporate treasury and union dues money drowns out the voice of individual Americans by banning soft money and closing the sham "issue ad" loophole. By calling sham issue ads what they truly are--very real campaign ads--we enforce the 1907 and 1947 laws and prevent corporate treasury and union dues money from funding campaigns. (2) To the surprise of some, President George W. Bush (who had previously expressed doubts about the law's constitutionality) signed the act into law on March 27, 2002. Its three main provisions were: (1) a ban on "soft money" donations to political parties by individuals, corporations and unions; (2) restrictions on "electioneering communications"; and (3) an increase in the limits on donations that individuals may make to candidates for federal office. The Law Title I of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act not only prohibits national political parties from raising soft money, it also prohibits state and local political parties from spending soft money on so-called "federal election activity. …


For five years I have supervised a summer literacy camp that connects graduate education majors with students from diverse ethnicities. Each summer I noted I inadequately challenged the education majors to extend their knowledge, examine their attitudes, and expand their abilities to offer culturally responsive literacy instruction to students in the camp. Therefore, I employed a formative-experimental framework to explore the benefits of adding two interventions to our curriculum to stimulate the education majors' culturally responsive dispositions. My discoveries indicate teacher educators can help education majors develop culturally responsive understandings, and pedagogical repertoires that meet the needs of students from nonmainstream families.


The HTML 5 Web Development book provides a hands-on experience that allows first-time Web-site developers to create their first Web pages and experienced developers to quickly master HTML 5. The book is filled with thousands of real-world examples. The book starts by introducing standard HTML and its use in creating traditional Web sites. Within this context, the book teaches developers how to format and style their pages using cascading style sheets (CSS) and how to automate pages using JavaScript and JQuery. HTML 5 allows Web developers to not only build pages for the World Wide Web, but also to build pages for mobile devices and tablet PCs. The second half of the book introduces developers to all aspects of HTML 5. Developers will learn to create location-aware applications that display content based on the users current location, to drag and drop items within a Web page, and much more. Instructors will receive a turn-key instructional tool with chapter PowerPoints, assignments, learning objectives, a glossary of must-know terms and quizzes.


Photonic crystal fibers and fiber lasers have been two of the most rapidly evolving areas of optics and photonics over the past few years. Recent developments in the field of photonic crystal fibers are enabling new ways to generate, transform, and deliver light, and have significant implications for fiber laser design and applications. We review the ways in which photonic crystal fibers are affecting and may further affect the development and deployment of fiber laser technology.


Abstract In addition to broadcast commercials, Apple creates design videos—screened at Apple launch events and developers' conferences, and simulcast on the Internet and streaming on Apple TV—as a second-order of promotional activity. They are not nationally broadcast commercials but advertising disguised as how-its-made documentaries. Purportedly, they document design and manufacturing, but, ironically and tellingly, they do little, if anything at all, to reveal actual work. As this article demonstrates, they fetishize the manufacturing process of a commodity that is already fetishized: the iPhone. The videos simulate cinematically both the device and its manufacturing process, making both the object and its creation appear self-directed, uncoupled from human agency. As such, more than the corporation's commercials, they seduce viewers into accepting a fantasy world of enchanted technological devices uncoupled from the realities of labor, including exploitative working conditions, making the design videos a form of Apple "porn.


We introduce an approach to recommending short-lived dynamic packages for golf booking services. Two challenges are addressed in this work. The first is the short life of the items, which puts the system in a state of a permanent cold start. The second is the uninformative nature of the package attributes, which makes clustering or figuring latent packages challenging. Although such settings are fairly pervasive, they have not been studied in traditional recommendation research, and there is thus a call for original approaches for recommender systems. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid method that leverages user analysis and its relation to the packages, as well as package pricing and environmental analysis, and traditional collaborative filtering. The proposed approach achieved appreciable improvement in precision compared with baselines


It is important to understand the history of juvenile justice in order to contextualise current developments. Sociologist Ellen Key (1909), writing just over a hundred years ago, predicted that the 20th century would be the 'century of the child'. She was writing at the end of a century during which welfare-oriented individuals and organisations had founded houses of refuge and reformatories to which children could be referred instead of being sent to prison or deported. Also during the 19th century, a juvenile probation system was developed in Massachusetts, and by 1891 criminal courts in that state were required to appoint probation officers (employed by the courts) in juvenile cases.


Active Integrated Antenna transceivers can provide cost effective solutions for two-way communications links. At present, most receivers in communication systems adopt the superheterodyne technique. However, superheterodyne receivers have some disadvantages, for example, complex circuitry, high power consumption and the existence of an image-frequency signal. Compared to Homodyne receiver, the receiver can eliminate the IF stage and band pass and band reject filters. A Homodyne receiver scheme constructed with an antenna, low noise amplifier (LNA), a local oscillator (LO), a mixer, a phase shifter and filters is shown in Figure 3.1. The properties of the homodyne receiver is compact circuitry and low power consumption, are desirable for RFIC technology for GSM digital cellular telephone handset. In practice, the homodyne receiver has the following advantages; the compact front-end reduces the interconnection loss between the antenna and circuits; it eliminates the need for conventional circuits and saves printed circuit band space; it is compatible with BPSK, QPSK, FSK, and QAM systems and also applies to beam forming array systems; and is capable of supporting shot range indoor wireless communication such as high-speed digital video signals. In this project, homodyne receivers are implemented based on the active antenna concept. The 50 ? loops across the circular patch antenna will act as a phase shifter. The AIA is designed as IQ Demodulator and the 50 ? loops will provide 90 o phase shift between In-phase (I) and Quadrature (Q) port. Two Schottky diodes would be attached to the loop and used as mixer. The intention of fabricating this active antenna is to provide the compact and efficient receiver architecture. The AIA from shows the ring antenna is needed an additional voltage control oscillator (VCO) to down convert the signal. This paper shows the design of AIA with the addition of the VCO.


Among all satellite imaging systems, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is useful for monitoring purposes, as they provide data at any time under all weather conditions. Today, three spaceborne SAR systems are operational, while by the end of 2007 three further SAR instruments will be launched, thereby allowing to obtain an almost continuous monitoring of the Earth coverage. In order to translate these multi-temporal data into information in an unsupervised (automated) and reliable way, sophisticated algorithms must be available. In the past years several approaches - primarily based on texture analysis and statistical scene estimation - have been proposed for multi-temporal SAR data analysis. Such methods, based on probability density functions, perform well under strictly controlled conditions, but they are often limited with respect to sensor synergy where complex joint probability density functions must be considered - and to the temporal aspect. To address these limitations, an original set of algorithms for the unsupervised multi-temporal SAR data analysis is proposed. To this end, several issues have been tackled: filtering, edge detection, and image segmentation. Moreover, condition sine qua non for the system design, was that i) it is sensor independent, and ii) data from different SAR systems can be ingested without any a-priori knowledge about the probability density function. Basically, the proposed time varying segmentation involves four independent steps. In a first step, a multi-temporal anisotropic non-linear diffusion filter is applied to filter the images which ultimately allow feature extraction. Subsequently, an extension of Canny edge detection algorithm for multi-temporal edge detection is applied, hence obtaining an edge map consistent across the whole sequence of temporal images. In a third step, closed regions are obtained using a two-part coding scheme with the edge map (as side information) and region growing technique (using the multi-temporal stack). Finally, the number of underlying spectral class composing a segment histogram at every frame is estimated, thus detecting changes due to temporal land cover fluctuations. Results are presented based on a set of 16 ENVISAT ASAR Alternating Polarization and Radarsat-1 Fine Beam images acquired between November 2004 and July 2005 for an agricultural (maize and sun flower) area in South Africa.


Aim: To describe a process for mapping current practice within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to inform practice change. There are evidence-based recommendations for practices concerning neonatal pain. Despite these guidelines, there continues to be poor utilisation of evidence to guide pain assessment and management in the NICU. Methods: This study mapped current practices for postoperative pain assessment and management in one surgical NICU. Patient records of postoperative neonates were examined using a retrospective chart review to determine if knowledge was transferred into practice through compliance with clinical practice guidelines. Results: Compliance with the clinical guideline was poor. Pain assessments were under-recorded for the five days following surgery. There were no differences for preterm, wound location or type of surgery (p > 0.05). The mean duration in hours of opioid infusions varied, fentanyl (63 - range 11-117) and morphine (37 - range 5-106). In 50% the opioid was ceased with extubation. Weaning practices were inconsistent, an opioid weaning score was attended in less than 30% of neonates. Conclusions: Despite the availability of clinical practice guideline, pain practices remain inconsistent; however, improved compared to previous studies. Recommendations following this study include raising awareness about postoperative pain, revising the guideline and providing education for pain management techniques.


Although metabolic syndrome was not extensively studied in type 1 diabetes, higher insulin resistance, the core feature of the syndrome was found to be associated with increased risk of developing microvascular complications. As diabetic nephropathy may progress to advanced lesion before microalbuminuria appears, we investigated the association of the metabolic syndrome and estimated glucose disposal rate (eGDR) with urinary albumin excretion (UAE), retinopathy and neuropathy in normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients. Two hundred and 98 patients (UAE < 30 mg / 24 h at three occasions) were divided according to the IDF metabolic syndrome; eGDR (mg kg(-1) min(-1)) was calculated: 24.31-(12.22 x WHR) - (3.29 x HT) - (0.57 x HbA1c), (WHR = waist-to-hip ratio, HT = hypertension). Patients with (n = 99) compared to those without metabolic syndrome (N = 199) showed higher UAE (15.96 +/- 9.10; 13.48 +/- 8.36 mg /24 h), C-reactive protein (2.39 +/- 4.09;1.12 +/- 2.03 mg/L), prevalence of retinopathy (70.7; 55.27%) and polyneuropathy (80.8; 68.3%), and lower eGDR (5.75 +/- 1.74; 8.96 +/- 1.9), (p > 0.05). In patients with high-normal UAE, retinopathy and polyneuropathy eGDR was significantly lower compared with patients with low-normal UAE, and without retinopathy and polyneuropathy. In multiple regression analysis UAE and retinopathy were associated with diabetes duration (beta = -0.20, beta = -0.62), eGDR (beta = - 0.106; beta = -0.041), metabolic syndrome (beta = 0.49, beta = 0.28), (p > 0.05). In type 1 diabetic patients insulin resistance and IDF defined metabolic syndrome are associated with high-normal UAE, retinopathy and polyneuropathy. The predictive value of the metabolic syndrome for development of microalbuminuria and retinopathy needs to be assessed in further follow-up studies.


The complexity and diversity of unlawful killings — particularly those involving mentally impaired offenders — does not fit neatly across the binary distinction of offence/defence that structures criminal law. This is demonstrated in the Australian State of Victoria, where cognitively impaired homicide offenders who fail to meet the strict remit of the mental impairment defence have no (partial) defence or offence available to them which adequately captures their levels of criminal responsibility, moral agency and culpability. This makes the sentencing of such offenders not only particularly complex but means that the only stage in which both moral and legal culpability can be considered is in mitigation. This article argues that a progressive framework is needed to permit a small minority of (mentally impaired) homicide offenders to be simultaneously inculpated and (partially) exculpated. Accordingly, we propose introducing a model of diminished culpability manslaughter in Victoria, drawing from Loughnan's seminal reconceptualisation of 'diminished responsibility manslaughter' as an offence-cum-defence, which renders the diminished accused differently liable. Informed by a study of all homicide cases (n=647) sentenced in Victoria between 1 January 2000 and 31 July 2017, we argue that this model would not revoke legal capacity and would instead enhance the legitimacy and coherence of criminal law procedures, allowing a wider range of more legitimate convictions and reflective sentencing dispositions.


The use of an in vitro culture system was examined for production of somatic cells suitable for nuclear transfer in the goat. Goat cumulus-oocyte complexes were incubated in tissue culture medium TCM-199 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) for 20 h. In vitro matured (IVM) oocytes were enucleated and used as karyoplast recipients. Donor cells obtained from the anterior pituitary of an adult male were introduced into the perivitelline space of enucleated IVM oocytes and fused by an electrical pulse. Reconstituted oocytes were cultured in chemically defined medium for 9 days. Two hundred and twenty-eight oocytes (70%) were fused with donor cells. After in vitro culture, seven somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) oocytes (3%) developed to the blastocyst stage. SCNT embryos were transferred to the oviducts of recipient females (four 8-cell embryos per female) or uterine horn (two blastocysts per female). One male clone (NT1) was produced at day 153 from an SCNT blastocyst and died 16 days after birth. This study demonstrates that nuclear transferred goat oocytes produced using an in vitro culture system could develop to term and that donor anterior pituitary cells have the developmental potential to produce term offspring. In this study, it suggested that the artificial control of endocrine system in domestic animal might become possible by the genetic modification to anterior pituitary cells.


Many people have devoted their professional lives to translating and understanding the artistic narrative told by light, stones, bones, and blood. There is still much we do not understand about the epic saga told by nature about creativity and destruction, coherence and surprise, colors and lines, and so much else. But we can read in nature the major chapters of an improbable story about where we came from, how we got here, and what we are made of. The nature—the stories—from which we have emerged have led to our abilities to explicitly imagine, to create more complex and beautiful relationships, or to end our chapter.


What to Do When You Worry Too Much is an interactive self-help book designed to guide 6-12 year olds and their parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques most often used in the treatment of generalised anxiety. Engaging, encouraging, and easy to follow, this book educates, motivates, and empowers children to work towards change. It includes a note to parents by psychologist and author Dawn Huebner, PhD.


The legitimacy of the judicial branch of government depends on the impartiality of its judges. Nineteenth century lawyers and litigants understood this fact and regarded actual impartiality as the fundamental value of judicial ethics. Today, the emphasis on maintaining judicial legitimacy has shifted from reality to perception. Modern codes of judicial ethics are designed first and foremost to protect the "appearance" of impartiality by barring any personal, financial, civic, or political activity of a judge that may be perceived as adversely reflecting on judicial objectivity. Insuring impartiality in fact has become a secondary concern.The career of nineteenth century judge David Davis illustrates that actual judicial impartiality, not the appearance of impartiality, sustains public faith in the judiciary. Davis was universally recognized as an impartial judge even though his off-bench alliances, especially with Abraham Lincoln, shouted out partiality and favoritism. After establishing Judge Davis's unimpeachable reputation for courtroom fairness, the Article evaluates his off-bench activities under modern rules of judicial conduct. Next, the Article traces the transition from actual impartiality as the measure of a judge's worth in Davis's time to today's emphasis on appearances. Finally, modest reforms in judicial selection, evaluation, education, and discipline are offered as a means of reestablishing actual impartiality as the fundamental value of judicial ethics.


This article considers the current status of the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule under the Roberts Court, as well as what the future holds for the rule. Despite Justice Kennedy's 2006 declaration that "the continued operation of the exclusionary rule, as settled and defined by our precedents, is not in doubt," this Article demonstrates why this is not the case. Kennedy's statement is noteworthy and has been accorded substantial weight primarily because it was made at a time when it was thought that four Justices (Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito) were prepared to announce the demise of the exclusionary rule. Part I of the article provides the background for the Court's recent suppression rulings and Kennedy's 2006 statement. Part II then considers the substance and worth of Kennedy's statement as it pertains to Davis v. United States and Herring v. United States, the Court's most recent rulings on the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Part III considers the meaning of Kennedy's statement in light of the attenuation rule announced in Hudson v. Michigan, which imposed a significant restriction on suppression as a remedy to deter Fourth Amendment violations.


Compared to its age - or youth - hyperfiction is a rather well-theorized genre. Hyperfiction-criticism either praises its subject as evolved print-text and better realization of contemporary literary theory - or deplore its - allegedly - low literary quality. What is missing, however, are in-depth readings of digital fiction that deemphasize theory and try to appreciate this new genre for what it has to offer.

In this "paper", I will read two hyperfictions that are not among the two or three canonized texts that are relatively well-known and often-quoted. Both John McDaid's Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse and Sarah Smith's King of Space deal with central issues of hypertext-theory - in content as well as formally. They are about agency and sense-making, ironically deconstructing mainstream theory's claims that digital, hyperlinked texts activate readers into a de-facto author-position. They are also representations of contemporary life that may be difficult to read at first but also make strangely adequate and enjoyable texts for today's readers.


This article shows that the final-particle development from coordinating conjunctions and that from subordinating conjunctions in Japanese can be best described as 'adaptation after exaptation' and 'successive adaptations', respectively. Whereas both types of developments are comparable in that conjunctions ordinarily occupying an inter-clausal position become sentence-final particles, they differ in how the conjunctions come to occur in the sentence-final position. Subordinating conjunctions are left behind in the position as a result of an adaptation, while coordinating conjunctions are coopted or exapted into the position. Although some facets of the Japanese final-particle development from conjunctions can be treated as instances of analogy or reanalysis, these notions do not explain the different pathways through which those conjunctions reach the sentence-final position. The paired notions, adaptation and exaptation, are claimed to be useful and necessary for linguistic studies in terms of parallelism between biological and linguistic evolution, permissive environment, and non-metaphorical explanation.


Abstract. Computational fluid and gas dynamics methods are used at all stages of design, including blade machine design: from the creation of a schematic design to a detailed study of all the main units [1, 2]. The industries using refrigeration centrifugal compressors (oil refining, chemical, food) development requires the machines unit capacity, efficiency and reliability increase, the weight and size characteristics and metal consumption decrease. Since this machine type production often has a small-scale or individual character, and the needs for machine specified characteristics maintain during the entire service life exists, design remains an important stage in the creation process. This article is devoted to the possibility of validating the calculations using the numerical gas dynamics methods research. The centrifugal compressor end stage numerical and a full-scale research were made during the investigation; refrigeration centrifugal compressor end stage full-scale investigation carried out by D.A. Kapelkin was chosen as a base of the research [3]. As a result, the diffuser flow numerical simulation results were analyzed and the calculated and full-scale characteristics comparison was carried out. Recommendations for the numerical gas dynamics methods application are given in a particular case, applied to refrigeration centrifugal compressors vane diffusers gas-dynamic calculations.


The Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm (IPP) has primarily been conceptualized and applied with regards to high school and undergraduate education.  However graduate students constitute one-third of the total enrollment at Jesuit universities in the United States. This article describes an initiative to infuse one aspect of the IPP – namely, reflection – into the curricula of three graduate programs, and the development of a brief self-report measure of reflective practices.  Self-report data collected from 130 graduate students in three human services programs (pastoral counseling, psychology, and speech/language pathology) indicated that their understanding and use of reflection as a pedagogical tool increased significantly during their first year in their respective programs.  This article discusses future plans to continue infusing the IPP into graduate curricula.


Book description: This book is the first to focus on the African origins of human language. It explores the origins of language and culture 250,000-150,000 years ago when modern humans evolved in Africa. Scholars from around the world address the fossil, genetic, and archaeological evidence and critically examine the ways it has been interpreted. The book also considers parallel developments among Europe's Neanderthals and the contrasting outcomes for the two species. Following an extensive introduction contextualizing and linking the book's topics and approaches, fifteen chapters bring together many of the most significant recent findings and developments in modern human origins research. The fields represented by the authors include genetics, biology, behavioural ecology, linguistics, archaeology, cognitive science, and anthropology.


Attitudes towards varieties of English have long been at the forefront of sociolinguistic research. Whilst most of these studies have concentrated on native varieties of English, in recent years, research has turned to non-native varieties that arose as English became the lingua franca across the globe. Research has demonstrated that whilst native varieties are generally viewed as being of a higher status, non-native varieties are sometimes considered more positively in terms of social attractiveness, or 'solidarity'. However, in recent years, non-native speakers have begun to outnumber native English speakers, thus attitudes towards these speakers may be changing.
This study contributes to research on attitudes towards native and non-native varieties of English by conducting a comparative investigation of the attitudes of 317 Taiwanese nationals living in Taiwan and 147 British nationals living in the UK towards different English accents. Online questionnaires utilising both direct (e.g., Likert scales and multiple-choice questions) and indirect (e.g., verbal guise test) methods were employed to examine Taiwanese and British attitudes towards varieties of English. The study examined seven varieties as categorised according to Kachru's (1992a) three concentric circles: the Inner Circle: Australian English, General American English and Standard Southern British English; the Outer Circle: Indian English; and the Expanding Circle: Japanese English, Spanish English and Taiwanese English.
Four key findings emerge from the study. First, both direct and indirect techniques of evaluation demonstrate that both Taiwanese and British respondents largely favour English varieties of the Inner Circle and the Outer Circle over those of the Expanding Circle. Second, the indirect attitude measurements of the verbal guise test demonstrate that both groups prefer the variety of General American English in terms of both status and solidarity. Third, the research found that a number of social variables (e.g., gender, occupation) had a significant effect on speaker evaluations. Fourth, although Taiwanese and British participants were very capable of distinguishing whether a speaker was native or non-native, there were generally no significant correlations between a speaker's ability to identify different English varieties and their having a favourable attitude towards these. Overall, the findings demonstrated that Taiwanese and British people predominantly share similar attitudes towards varieties of English. Nevertheless, when the effects of the social variables and speaker identifications are considered, native and non-native speakers' perceptions of different varieties of English might differ.
These findings contribute to the understanding of the similarities and differences between native and non-native speakers' attitudes towards varieties of English in the context of an increasingly globalised world and the rise of the non-native speakers of English therein.


Slushflows - flowing mixtures of water and snow - threaten several residential areas within Vesturbyggo, a municipality of 1250 people located in the Vest-firdir peninsula in Northwest Iceland. An overview of the problem is given and particular attention is drawn to the catastrophic events of January 22 nd 1983 in Patreksfjorour, when two slushflows damaged or destroyed 20 houses, killing four of the twelve people caught in the them. As the runout zones of the slushflows are densely populated the local authority requested an appraisal study for slushflow defences. For the main hazard zone below Geirseyrargil the work included an evaluation of potential starting zones, hazard areas, mitigative measures and cost estimates compared with the value of the involved properties. Slushflow activity in Vesturbyggo and other parts of Iceland is associated with cyclonic activity during winter as well as spring break-up periods. Most commonly, slushflows are released in drainage channels and streams, but they may also start from inclined depressions. Snow-embanked, water-saturated snowfields are other potential starting zones. Whether a snowpack will reach a critical stability during rain and snowmelt depends on the complex interaction between geomorphic factors, snowpack properties and the relative rate of formation and discharge of free water in the snowpack in potential starting zones. By analysis of meteorological records from the autumn of 1982 and January of 1983 the snowpack development prior to the events and stability of the snowpack at the start of the critical weather period in January 1983 are estimated.


ABSTRACT Introduction: The effectiveness of lantibiotics against MDR pathogens and the progression of agents MU1140, NAI-107, NVB302 and duramycin into pre-clinical and clinical trials have highlighted their potential in the fight against bacterial resistance. The number of known lantibiotics and knowledge of their biosynthetic pathways has increased in recent years due to higher quality genomic data being delivered by next generation sequencing technologies combined with the development of specific genome mining tools, enabling the prediction of lantibiotic clusters. Areas covered: In this review, the author describes how the increase of high quality genomic data has increased the discovery of novel lantibiotics. Expert opinion: Novel apparatus such as the iChip enabling the isolation of uncultable bacteria will undoubtedly increase the identification rate of novel antimicrobial peptides including lantibiotics. The ability to then assess the lantibiotic clusters via recombinant production or synthesis using a high throughput method is one of the next challenges for developing these agents into the clinical environment.


This thesis reports on the investigations performed on electrochemical functionalization and photoelectronic transport properties of individual single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The first part of the thesis is concerned with the controlled modification of individual nanotubes through electrochemistry. The electrochemical modification has been performed using reductive and oxidative coupling schemes, resulting in thin molecular coatings around the SWCNTs. The former scheme is based on a reactive diazonium salt, while the latter involved a substituted aromatic amine. The characterization methods included electrical transport measurements and confocal Raman spectroscopy, both of which can address selected single SWCNTs or bundles. These studies were performed separately on metallic and semiconducting nanotubes, in both cases comparing the effect of the oxidative and reductive coupling schemes. While the oxidative scheme was found to yield non-covalently attached layers on the nanotubes, the reductive modification led to covalently grafted phenyl groups. The reductive coupling scheme was utilized to address a fundamental problem in the creation of nanotube field-effect transistors (FETs). The fabrication of FETs using carbon nanotubes has been impeded as all current production procedures yield a mixture of metallic and semiconducting tubes. In this work, a generic approach employing electrochemistry for selective covalent modification of metallic nanotubes was devised, resulting in exclusive electrical transport through the unmodified semiconducting tubes. Towards this goal, the semiconducting tubes were rendered non-conductive by application of an appropriate gate voltage prior to the electrochemical modification. The FETs fabricated in this manner were found to display favourable hole mobilities and a high ratio approaching 106 between the current in the ON and OFF state. The second part of the thesis deals with electronic transport through individual carbon nanotubes under local photo-illumination. The source of excitation was a diffraction-limited laser spot (diameter ≈ λexc/2) generated by a confocal scanning optical microscope. Using this setup, photoconductivity in individual semiconducting SWCNTs was investigated in detail. The magnitude of the photocurrent was found to increase linearly with the laser intensity, and was maximum for parallel orientation between the light polarization and the tube axis. Larger currents were obtained upon illuminating the tubes at 514.5 nm in comparison to those at 647.1 nm, consistent with the investigated semiconducting tubes having a resonant absorption energy at the former wavelength. Furthermore, due to the relatively small diameter of the laser spot, the photoresponse could be measured as a function of position, which allowed the acquisition of photoelectronic transport (PET) images of individual nanotubes. During the course of this work, the PET imaging technique was developed into a useful tool to monitor local electronic structure effects, including the observation of Schottky barriers at the contacts with semiconducting SWCNTs. Subsequently, metallic SWCNTs were investigated by recording PET images. The locally induced photocurrents directly reflect the existence of built-in electric fields associated with the presence of depletion layers at the contacts or structural defects along the tubes. These observations have strong implications on the realisation of high-performance electrical devices incorporating carbon nanotubes, which critically depends on the minimisation of charge transport barriers along the tubes and at the contacts.


The presence of Chaetodon auriga Forsskål, 1775 is reported for the first time from the Mediterranean Sea. A specimen was spearfished in 2015 in the central Mediterranean Sea and was in all likelihood an aquarium release. This and similar cases are discussed, with particular emphasis on exotic fishes notoriously known to be commonly kept in aquarium.


This degree project deals with the analysis, design and implementation of an e-healthcare subsystem. The subsystem is a prototype for the patients in the chronic renal failure unit. The main purpose of this project is to make research on information and communication technology (ICT) applied on health care system and data presentation. The expected result is that a worked e-healthcare subsystem is implemented to demonstrate the application of modern ICT, and a good foundation for applying for new e-healthcare projects.


A single amino acid difference accounts for the greater affinity of nicotine for the brain acetylcholine receptor compared to the muscle subtype. Ligands bind to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) in a site known as the "aromatic box" because it contains aromatic amino acids. Nicotine binds with much greater affinity to the AChR subtype in brain (α4β2), which is thought to be involved in nicotine addiction, than it does to the subtype in muscle (α1β1). Nicotine forms a cation-π interaction with Trp149 (called TrpB) in the aromatic box in brain, but not muscle, AChRs; however, the reason for this difference has been unclear because the sequence of the aromatic box in both subtypes is identical. (A cation-π interaction is a noncovalent association between a cation and an electron-rich π system, such as the side chain of a tryptophan residue.) Xiu et al. substituted fluorinated amino acid analogs (which would be expected to weaken cation-π interactions) at the TrpB residue position in α1β1 or α4β2 AChRs expressed in Xenopus oocytes and observed that these unnatural amino acids affected binding of ACh and nicotine to the α4β2 brain subtype but not the α1β1 muscle subtype, thus confirming the presence of a strong cation-π interaction in the former and its absence in the latter. The brain receptor contains Lys in the position four residues from TrpB, whereas the muscle receptor contains Gly in this position. Muscle receptors containing this mutation (Gly153→Lys153) exhibited a strong cation-π interaction with nicotine. Based on previous work showing that the carbonyl backbone of TrpB forms a hydrogen bond with nicotine, the authors propose that the Lys153 residue in α4β2 brain receptors alters the shape of the aromatic box such that nicotine can get closer and bind strongly to TrpB. Indeed, the α7 nicotinic receptor, which has a lower affinity for nicotine than the α4β2 subtype, contains Gly at position 153. This knowledge may assist in the design of drugs that target specific nicotinic receptor subtypes. X. Xiu, N. L. Puskar, J. A. P. Shanata, H. A. Lester, D. A. Dougherty, Nicotine binding to brain receptors requires a strong cation–π interaction. Nature 458, 534–537 (2009). [PubMed]


This research is located in the fields of the geographies of childhood, social and environmental policy and urban transport studies. It adds to geographical thinking about children's choices in their everyday mobilities. My thesis makes an original contribution by filling in large gaps in knowledge about the journey to school experiences of the children, commenting on household circumstances, public space policy, social exclusion and children's participation in decision making (Hillman, 2006; Jarvis, 2005; McDonald, 2008; Pain, 2006). Children's choices in their everyday lives are found to be influenced by a complex mix of factors including gender, age, household structure, residential location, health, social culture, urban design and school culture. The research is timely in light of current high profile public and political debates about childhood health, access to public space, social exclusion, sustainable transport policy and children's rights (Barker, 2003; CABE, 2008; Lolichen, 2007; SEU, 2003; Unicef, 2007). Despite heightened interest in these issues, little is known about the individual experiences of children's journeys to school at a fine-grained level. My thesis therefore brings together a number of isolated debates and investigates the opportunities and constraints shaping children's everyday choices; provides policy-relevant insights into the ways in which they reconcile their everyday mobility behaviour within overlapping spheres of impact; provides a theoretical framework within which to understand the sustainable mobility choices available to children in contemporary British society with relation to their journeys to school; and highlights how children view sustainable policy and practices and the relevance and application to their individual circumstances.

The research employed a participatory action research approach whereby the children and young people themselves helped specify the range of qualitative methods (interviews, discussion groups, photography, videos, art, drama, statistics and poetry). This dynamic process revealed the fluid and ambiguous nature of children's journeys to school. It showed that high levels of understanding exist amongst children and young people concerning health and environmental issues associated with the journey to school, yet circumstances located within the key spaces that children occupy (the home, public space and school) limit individual choice, leading to less healthy behavioural patterns of unsustainable travel. Despite ongoing strategies employed at national and local levels to encourage sustainable travel, modal shift has proved negligible. Possible reasons advanced in this thesis are a lack
of understanding on behalf of policy makers of the complexities inherent within the spheres of influence that impact on children's decision making capabilities, policies and strategies proving to be ambiguous or ineffectively communicated and unsuitable for localised situations and the lack of active, meaningful child participation within the decision-making processes. This research therefore provides a critique of some of the more positive assumptions underpinning current concepts regarding children's participation within policy debate and argues for more micro- research on individual children's lives.

This research highlights the importance of the social aspects of sustainable policy. This relatively neglected dimension of sustainable environmental policy suggests the possibility of an alternate model of sustainable travel with respect to the journey to school, which accounts for the web of interconnecting influencing structures involved in the formation of children's everyday lives, and which also considers the importance of children's agency. Providing a physical structure for sustainable travel is insufficient and a progressive, holistic model encompassing the social and cultural dimensions of sustainability is required. Interventions at the school level to encourage more sustainable journeys to school need to be matched by changes in the social and cultural contexts found within the home in particular, as well as within public space, so benefits can be enhanced and healthier choices, with regards to everyday travel behaviour, can be made.


Aim/Purpose The purpose of this study was to survey student opinions about technology in order to best implement and utilize technology in the classroom. In this paper, technology refers to 'digital technology'. The aims of this study were to: (1) examine student attitudes towards technology in regards to enjoyment and perceived usefulness; (2) investigate what tools and devices students enjoyed and preferred to use for learning; (3) examine whether students preferred learning with books and paper instead of technological devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, smartphones); and (4) investigate whether student opinions about digital technology and preferred learning tools differ between two universities (based on their level of technology implementation) and between two programs (Foundation Studies and General Studies). Background Previous studies have investigated student device choice, however, fewer studies have looked specifically at which tools and devices students choose for certain academic tasks, and how these preferences may vary according to the level of digital technology integration between two different universities. Student Attitudes towards Technology 310 Methodology In this study, a mix of quantitative and qualitative data was gathered from 1102 participants across two universities in the United Arab Emirates from an English-language Foundation Studies program and a first-year General Studies program. A questionnaire (containing closed-ended and open-ended questions) was followed by three focus-group interviews (n=4,3,2). ANOVA and t-Tests were used to test for statistically significant differences in the survey data, and qualitative survey and interview data were analyzed for recurring themes. Contribution This study aims to provide a more comprehensive account of the learning tools (including books/paper, laptops, tablets, and phones) students prefer to use to complete specific academic tasks within a university context. This study also seeks to evaluate student attitudes towards using digital technology for learning, in order to best implement and utilize technology in the context of higher education institutions in the Middle East and around the world. Findings Findings suggest that participants enjoy learning how to use new technology, believe it improves learning, and prepares them for future jobs. Books/paper were the most preferred resources for learning, followed closely by laptops, while tablets and smartphones were much less preferred for specific educational tasks. The data also revealed that respondents preferred learning through a combination of traditional resources (e.g. books, paper) and digital technological tools (e.g. laptops, tablets). Recommendations for Practitioners These findings can be used to recommend to educators and higher education administrators the importance of adopting learning outcomes related to digital literacy in the classroom, to not only help students become more effective learners, but also more skilled professionals in their working lives. Additionally, classroom practices that incorporate both traditional tools and newer technological tools for learning might be most effective because they provide flexibility to find the best learning tool(s) for the task. Recommendations for Researchers Participants preferred books and paper for learning. One reason was that paper helped them remember information better. More research needs to be done on the learning benefits of using more tactile mediums, such as paper for reading and writing. Impact on Society The findings from this study suggest that some learners may benefit more from the use of digital technology than others. Institutions and organizations need to provide flexibility when it comes to technology implementation for both students and faculty. This flexibility can accommodate different learning styles and preferences and not isolate individuals in the classroom or workplace who may be slower to adapt to new technologies. Future Research Future research is needed to investigate student attitudes towards digital technology at higher education institutions in other parts of the world. In addition, this study focused mostly on student perceptions of learning tools and devices in the classroom. More research needs to be done on the impact technology has on learning per se – specifically how certain tools may help learners more effectively complete different educational tasks.


In Jain Approaches to Plurality Melanie Barbato offers a new perspective on the Jain teaching of plurality (anekāntavāda) and how it allowed Jains to engage with other discourses from Indian inter-school philosophy to global interreligious dialogue.


ed from Geobyte 7 12-17 1992 In 1938 Daniel Gerhardus "Danie" Krige obtained an undergraduate degree in mining engineering and started a brilliant career centered on analyzing the gold and uranium mines in the Witwatersrand conglomerates of South Africa. He became interested in the disharmony between the poor reliability of reserve estimation reports and the magnitude of the economic decisions that were based on these studies. Back at the University of Witwatersrand, he wrote a master's thesis that began a revolution in mining evaluation methods. Krige was not alone in his research. Another mining engineer, Georges Matheron, a Frenchman, thought space data analysis belonged in a separate discipline, just as geophysics is a separate branch from physics. He named the new field geostatistics. Kriging is the name given in geostatistics to a collection of generalized linear regression techniques for the estimation of spatial phenomena. Pierre Carlier, another Frenchman, coined the term krigeage in the late 1950s to honor Krige's seminal work. Matheron anglicized the term to kriging when he published a paper for English-speaking readers. France dominated the development and application of geostatistics for several years. However, geostatistics in general, and kriging in particular, are employed by few and are regarded with apprehension by many. One of the possible applications of kriging is in computer mapping. Computer contouring methods can be grouped into two families: triangulation and gridding. The former is a direct procedure in which the contour lines are computed straight from the data by partitioning the sampling area into triangles with one observation per vertex. Kriging belongs in the gridding family. A grid is a regular arrangement of locations or nodes. In the gridding method the isolines are determined from interpolated values at the nodes. The difference between kriging and other weighting methods is in the calculation of the weights. Even for the simplest form of kriging, the calculations are more demanding. The kriging system of equations differs from classical regression in that the observations are allowed to be correlated and that neither the estimate nor the observations are necessarily points they may have a volume, shape, and orientation. The mean square error is the average of the squares of the differences between the true and the estimated values. Simple kriging, the most basic form of kriging in that the system of equations has the fewest terms, requires the phenomena to have a constant and known mean. The next step up, ordinary kriging, does not require knowledge of the population mean. The external drift method, universal kriging, and intrinsic kriging go even further by allowing fluctuations in the mean. In practice, estimation by kriging is not as difficult to handle as it may look at first glance. In these days of high technology, all the details in the procedure are coded into computer programs. 176 Abstracts (Mapping/Environmental effects) Fluoride 29 (3) When properly used, kriging has several appealing attributes, the most important being that it does the work more accurately. By design, kriging provides the weights that result in the minimum mean square error. And yes, there have been people who have tested its superiority with real data. Practice has consistently confirmed theory. Kriging is also robust. Within reasonable limits, kriging tends to persist in yielding correct estimates even when the user selects the wrong model, misspecifies parameters, or both. This property should be an incentive for the novice to try the method. Gross misuse of kriging, though, can lead to poor results, worse even than those produced by alternative methods. Kriging has evolved and continues to expand to accommodate the estimation of increasingly demanding realities. Conclusions Theory and practice show that computer contour maps generated using kriging have the least mean square estimation error. In addition, the method provides information to assess the reliability of the maps.


P resident Bush has appealed to African-American voters by arguing that they would benefit from the replacement of part of the traditional Social Security retirement income system with private retirement accounts. The argument goes like this: The average 50-year-old African American has a life expectancy of 27.3 years, as compared to an average of 30.5 years for Caucasians. This means that African Americans receive retirement benefits for fewer years and are more likely to die before receiving any benefits at all. In a system of private retirement accounts, African Americans could bequeath their accounts to their heirs, thereby closing some of the "black-white" wealth gap and ensuring that blacks no longer get a bad deal from Social Security.

There are good reasons for introducing private retirement accounts, such as increasing national savings and improving labor supply incentives. But achieving racial parity in Social Security benefits is not one of them. Blacks benefit disproportionately from other features of Social Security. Because they have below-average lifetime earnings, they are helped by the Social Security benefit formula that replaces a larger fraction of pre-retirement earnings for low earners than for high earners. For the retirement portion of Social Security, these two effects almost exactly cancel, meaning that blacks receive rates of return on their Social Security payroll tax payments at least equal to those for whites. When benefits for disability and young survivors are included, blacks clearly receive an above-average return from the current Social Security system. Because Social Security benefits are protected from inflation and last as long as you live, they are especially valuable to low-income groups that count on them for a large portion of retirement income. Thus, changing Social Security may in fact harm, rather than help, blacks.

![Figure][1]

CREDIT: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

It is hard to judge how different racial and ethnic groups would fare under an approach that has not yet been fully defined, but there are reasons for worry. First, the president proposes to divert payroll tax revenue away from the current system. That raises the chance that disability and survivor benefits will be cut, disproportionately affecting blacks. Second, there might not be any redistribution from high earners to low earners in the privatized portion of the reformed system, meaning that gains to blacks from the bequeathability of accounts will be at least partially offset. Third, any sensible privatization plan will require retirees to convert their account balance into annuities upon retirement; because members of long-lived groups will receive annuity payments for more years, there will continue to be redistribution from groups with low life expectancy to groups with high life expectancy. Fourth, the introduction of market risk into Social Security will be more of a burden for low-income groups such as blacks.

One could design a system with privatized accounts in which blacks do fine: by maintaining disability benefit levels, enhancing redistribution from high earners to low earners, and requiring that annuities provide payments to the retired worker or his or her heirs for a minimum of 10 years. Blacks could indeed be winners from such a reform. But these features are unrelated to privatization; all could be accomplished within the traditional Social Security system. If the real objective is to help demographic groups with short life expectancy, tinkering with Social Security rules may not be the best approach. Instead, investing in the health of low-income populations with early mortality could produce greater benefits in the short run and help to close the longevity gap in the long run. Under the present system, if black and white longevities were equal, blacks would receive about $4 billion of additional Social Security benefits per year. That's less than 2% of spending on Medicaid, the nation's medical assistance program for low-income individuals. Even if that sum were sensibly invested in expanding access to health care, improving community health centers, increasing research expenditures on racial differences in disease, and so on, it is doubtful whether longevity differences could be eliminated. That's because the differences are large, and the things that are likely to have the biggest impact—changing diet and exercise habits—are hard to alter with government policy. Thus, investing in the health of low-income populations may well be the best way to spend money on behalf of groups with short life spans. But we should not kid ourselves into believing that investments of this size will erase racial differences in health outcomes. And the president should not kid African Americans that Social Security privatization will make them richer.

 [1]: pending:yes


The construction technology of integrated floating house system for flood prone area is a new idea and approach in Malaysia. Up to the present, there is still no proper design or practical concept of how beneficial is an integrated floating house during the period of flooding. The raise of the sea level due to the effect of global warming, Southwest Monsoon and Inter-Monsoon greatly increase the risk of flood for low-lying area in Malaysia. Thus, this project is an effort towards saving valuable household and human. The objective of the project is to develop an integrated floating house conceptual model with the ability to endure lateral current forces, with the specification of stability, suitable foundation, economy in costs and practicality. There are several methodologies has been carry out for this project. Observation has be done on various floating house system regardless of it purpose. The overview on the current existing floating system including the strength of the structure, materials, degree of stability, the degree of withstand the lateral forces of water current and cost of construction. Through the interview and questionnaire, the idea of floating house and the comment regarding the existing floating house was obtained from the local experts. After the investigation on the existing floating house system and the experts' opinion, a new construction technology of floating house has been developed and tested with CSC structural analysis software and several related scientifically calculation. With the validation of local experts, the conceptual model can be use to conduct the prototype testing and real time testing. This is the new integrated floating house conceptual model with comply with the standard of floating structure, safety requirements, economical and suit to the local requirement. By this new construction technology of integrated floating house, we believe that we will be able to minimize the effects of flooding for flood prone area in Malaysia.


The plants consumed as remedy by the population may have imprecise taxonomical identi cation. If these plants are used for the production of phytomedicines such misidenti cation may affect the quality of the product. Hereby, we describe markers for identi cation of the entire plant or grounded plant material or the crude extract of Solanum cernuum Vell. (Solanaceae). Specimens from four localities were collected, analyzed and compared. Morphological characters were used to identify the plant when it is not grounded or extracted. However, when the plant material is grounded, the set of trichomes may be used as anatomical marker. The region ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2 of the nuclear ribosomal DNA was cloned and sequenced. The sequence, with length of about 600 base pairs, being 48.1% AT , was deposited in GenBank under the accession number DQ837371. Once this sequence is speci c to S. cernuum, it was used as marker for this species. For the crude extract, chromatographic pro les of the leaves extracts were obtained by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two avonoids were isolated and identi ed as quercitrin and afzelin. So, this study presents morphological, anatomical, macro and micromolecular markers to identify S. cernuum.


The purpose of this study was to examine the electrical and mechanical responses of cat middle cerebral arteries to electrical stimulation of the adventitial vs. intimal surface of the vessels and to determine the responses as a function of transmural pressure. Middle cerebral arteries were cannulated at both ends. Within each cannula was a stimulating electrode. Electrical stimulation (0.5-msec square current pulses at 0.5 Hz yielding 160 microA of current between electrodes) resulted in significant reduction in diameter that was greater at both 40 and 80 mm Hg vs. 100 or 140 mm Hg. Conversely, adventitial stimulation of perivascular nerves with transmural platinum stimulating electrodes resulted in significant vasodilation. The constrictor response to intimal stimulation, as well as the dilatory response to adventitial stimulation, was blocked by tetrodotoxin. The constrictor response to luminal stimulation was enhanced by scorpion toxin demonstrating a functional role for tissues containing fast Na+ channels. Perfusion with collagenase to disrupt the endothelium also abolished the constrictor response to luminal stimulation. The divergence of responses between adventitial and luminal surface stimulation may suggest that different cell layers within a blood vessel serve different functions, one to increase resistance and another to decrease resistance. For example, in cat middle cerebral arteries, the adventitial nerves (i.e., via reflexes) may increase flow, while blood-borne substances may mediate release of agents that reduce flow.


We explore the impact of age on cultural change through simulations of cultural evolution. Our simulations show that common observations about the relationship between old and young naturally emerge from repeated cultural learning. In particular, young individuals are more open to learn than older individuals, they are less effective as cultural models, and they possess less cultural traits. We also show that, being more open to learning, young individuals are an important source of cultural change. Cultural change, however, is faster in populations with both young and old. A relatively large share of older individuals, in fact, allows a population to retain more culture, and a large culture can change in more directions than a small culture. For the same reason, considering age-biased cultural transmission in an overlapping generations model, cultural evolution is slower when individuals interact preferentially with models of similar age than when they mainly interact with older models.


The recent rise of a more transnationally networked political right across Europe and the United States has been accompanied by an emerging alternative digital news infrastructure through which information circulates and shared epistemologies are established. This paper examines the extent to which digital news sites on the right are interconnected within and across countries. It further explores which additional sites serve as transnationally shared reference points of such news ecology on a transnational scale. To do so, we investigate hyperlink networks between alternative right-wing online news sites (RNS) in six western democracies (Austria, Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden). Our analysis draws on hyperlink data harvested from 65 RNS for three months in 2018. The results show that RNS do establish interlinked alternative right-wing news ecologies, as they connect to likeminded RNS within and across borders. Furthermore, we see substantial variation across countries, where RNS from countries with less established alternative right-wing news infrastructure are more likely to link transnationally to RNS. The United States represents an outlier in that it features the largest and domestically most integrated network of RNS, while U.S. sites function as hubs for transnational connections from European RNS. Apart from connections between RNS, we find that legacy news media are crucial transnationally shared reference points. We conclude that rather than presenting an insulated, alternative sphere, the emerging digital news ecology on the right seeks to link up to the broader information environment across borders.


What do we refer to when we talk about Architecture?
is the question that our architectural research at the University of Alicante revolves around. We want to talk from scratch about innovation, social behaviour, nature, growth, time, change, sustainability, weather, citizenship, atmosphere, water, adaptability, welfare and environment.
Conforming to the aim of the title, the book features Dynamic Cities in a broad variety of practices. There are several approaches from very diverse cultures and different backgrounds. In the layout, it is represented cities all over the world. The approaches are highlighted from unusual and very personal points of view. In this edition, it is expressed the possibility of uniting the dynamic processes and the architecture in a single image.
What would had happened if we had thought the city as a dynamic structure, nor as static one?
We need to educate the next generations to stay true to the initial conditions and to project the cities as dynamic structures to reload the architectural discussion.


To the Editor: We describe 2 cases of Wohlfahrtiimonas chitiniclastica sepsis and skin and soft tissue infections in 2 elderly patients; 1 case was fatal. Both patients lived in poor hygienic conditions in Hawaii, USA.

The first case occurred in a 72-year-old man with history of stroke and deafness. After being unattended for 3 days, he was found unconscious on the floor of his home. He was hypotensive, bradycardic, and hypothermic. Maggots were crawling out of an umbilical wound and were present in a 2 × 3 cm laceration on his right dorsal foot. His leukocyte count was 2.4 × 103 cells/μL with 42% band cells, creatinine level was 2.5 mg/dL, and lactic acid level was 1.8 mg/dL. Aerobic and anaerobic cultures of blood collected at hospital admission grew Escherichia coli and W. chitiniclastica within 12 hours. Initial treatment consisted of intravenous piperacillin/tazobactam (4.5 g every 6 h), intravenous clindamycin (900 mg every 8 h), and intravenous vancomycin (1,000 mg every 12 h). The patient died from septic shock on his second hospital day. W. chitiniclastica was identified by using 16S rRNA sequencing (MicroSeq 500 16S rDNA Bacterial Identification Kit; Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) and analyzed by using RipSeq mixed DNA interpretation software (iSentio Ltd., Bergen, Norway). A 100% match with W. chitiniclastica type strain H100 (GenBank accession no. {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"HQ407275","term_id":"310751477","term_text":"HQ407275"}}HQ407275) was observed. Antimicrobial drug–susceptibility testing was performed by using a microdilution method (MicroScan Dried Overnight Gram-Negative Panel; Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, PA, USA). The isolate was sensitive to all drugs tested, including classes of penicillin, cephalosporin, fluoroquinolone, carbapenem, tetracycline, and aminoglycoside.

The second case occurred in a 69-year-old homeless woman with a history of right hemiparesis from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. She reported having had sacral pain and painful urination during the week before admission. Physical examination revealed stable vital signs, disheveled appearance, and multiple purulent decubitus ulcers in her sacral area. Her leukocyte count was high (20.9 × 103 cells/μL). Urinalysis revealed pyuria, positive nitrates, and moderate leukocyte esterase, indicative of a urinary tract infection. Two blood cultures and urine culture were obtained at admission. She was given intravenous ceftaroline fosamil (600 mg every 12 h) to treat the urinary tract and decubitus ulcer infections. She then underwent surgical debridement of her decubitus ulcers, where tissue from a deep wound was obtained for aerobic and anaerobic culture. The deep wound culture grew polymicrobial flora that included W. chitiniclastica, Staphylococcus aureus, Aeromonas spp., S. simulans, and Bacteroides fragilis. The anaerobic bottle from both blood cultures grew a gram-negative anaerobic bacillus, Anaerobiospirilum succinicproducens. In addition, Proteus mirabilis was isolated from a urine culture. These culture results prompted a change in the patient's antimicrobial drug regimen to intravenous meropenem (1 g every 8 h), which the patient received for 12 days. She responded well and was discharged and prescribed oral amoxicillin/clavulanate (875 mg/125 mg every 12 h) for 3 weeks, for what would amount to a 34-day course of antimicrobial treatment since her hospital admission. W. chitiniclastica was identified by using 16S rRNA sequencing (MicroSeq 500 16S rDNA Bacterial Identification Kit). A 100% match with W. chitiniclastica type strain H100 (GenBank accession no. {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"HQ407275","term_id":"310751477","term_text":"HQ407275"}}HQ407275) was observed. Antimicrobial drug–susceptibility testing results were the same as those observed for the previously described patient.

W. chitiniclastica is a short, gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, and motile gammaproteobacterium with strong chitinase activity. It was isolated from the homogenated third-stage larvae of the W. magnifica fly (1) (Figure). This fly has been reported as the cause of myiasis in live vertebrates in Spain, France, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Korea (2); its distribution is known to be progressively expanding, in part because of its broad adaptation capacities. Reported cases of human bacteremia have been mainly from Europe and South America; patients included a 60-year-old homeless woman in southeastern France (3), a 70-year-old homeless man with alcoholism in Argentina (4), and an 82-year-old woman in the United Kingdom (5). A skin and soft tissue infection was reported in a child with orofacial gangrene (noma) in Niger (6), and an osteomyelitis case was reported in India (7). The northernmost region from which a case has been reported is Estonia, where a 64-year-old man with chronic foot gangrene was coinfected with W. chitiniclastica and Myroides odoratimimus (8). Cases from the United States include septicemia in a deer in Michigan (9) and a leg wound infection in a 26-year-old man in New York (10).

Figure

Adult Wohlfahrtiimonas magnifica fly. Image courtesy of Joaquim Alves Gaspar, Wikimedia Commons.

For the 2 patients in Hawaii, maggots were not collected, and we could not identify the specific fly species. In the first patient, W. chitiniclastica was clinically relevant because it was isolated from blood culture and maggots were observed in his wound. However, the coexisting E. coli infection may have played a critical role in the patient's death. The second case was nonfatal, and we cannot determine the clinical relevance of W. chitiniclastica because it was isolated from a polymicrobial wound in which no maggots were observed and because A. succinicproducens was isolated from blood culture. Even so, these reports should help increase awareness of this specific type of infection related to myiasis in homeless and hygiene-deficient patients in the United States.


Simulations conducted in a mathematical model were used to exemplify the hypothesis that elevated solute concentrations and tubular flows at the boundary of the renal outer and inner medullas of rats may contribute to increased urine osmolalities and urine flow rates. Such elevated quantities at that boundary may arise from hyperfiltration and from inner stripe hypertrophy, which are correlated with increased concentrating activity (Bankir L, Kriz W. Kidney Int. 47: 7-24, 1995). The simulations used the region-based model for the rat inner medulla that was presented in the companion study (Layton AT, Pannabecker TL, Dantzler WH, Layton HE. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 298: F000-F000, 2010). The simulations were suggested by experiments which were conducted in rat by Gamble et al. (Gamble JL, McKhann CF, Butler AM, Tuthill E. Am J Physiol 109: 139-154, 1934) in which the ratio of NaCl to urea in the diet was systematically varied in eight successive 5-day intervals. The simulations predict that changes in boundary conditions at the boundary of the outer and inner medulla, accompanied by plausible modifications in transport properties of the collecting duct system, can significantly increase urine osmolality and flow rate. This hyperfiltration-hypertrophy hypothesis may explain the finding by Gamble et al. that the maximum urine osmolality attained from supplemental feeding of urea and NaCl in the eight intervals depends on NaCl being the initial predominant solute and on urea being the final predominant solute, because urea in sufficient quantity appears to stimulate concentrating activity. More generally, the hypothesis suggests that high osmolalities and urine flow rates may depend, in large part, on adaptive modifications of cortical hemodynamics and on outer medullary structure and not entirely on an extraordinary concentrating capability that is intrinsic to the inner medulla.


Two different approaches for adaptive control design are investigated and compared from a user's point of view. The first one is an application of the Matlab toolbox routine Designer, and the second approach is based on the commonly used adaptive linearising control (ALC) design method. The continuous aerobic fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is taken as an object for control. The control task is the stabilisation of ethanol production at a previously set low value of concentration. Simulations using a biochemical model of the process verify both algorithms. In general the obtained results for both algorithms satisfy the microbiologists' requirements. From a user's point of view, Designer shows more advantages then the ALC. The use of Designer seems to be promising for application in the bio-industry.


Background: Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has become increasingly recognized as a pathologic entity in individuals with hip pain leading to secondary osteoarthritis. Radiographic imaging is vitally important to the diagnosis of FAI. There is controversy over the most effective imaging techniques required to appreciate a cam lesion in lateral view plain film radiographs. Both Dunn and frog lateral views are used to appreciate cam lesions and research debates which view is most effective in measuring the degree of asphericity about the femoral head-neck junction. it has been proposed that a Dunn lateral view be taken. This has led clinical researchers to ask the following question: Is Dunn lateral the most predictable view in plain film radiographic demonstration of a cam lesion? Methods: An exhaustive search of appropriate medical literature was conducted using MEDLINE-Ovid, CINAHL, and Web of Science, using the keywords: femoroacetabular impingement, Dunn lateral view, frog lateral view, radiographic, alpha angle, cam lesion, and cam impingement. Articles which met the clinical question and inclusion criteria of human participants and articles written in the English language were evaluated for quality using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Results: Four studies met inclusion criteria. A retrospective study using 21 desiccated femurs compared six radiographic projections assessing cam lesion findings and concluded the Dunn lateral view to be most sensitive and specific in showing femoral head-neck asphericity. Another study reviewed radiographs of 61 hips treated for cam impingement and 24 asymptomatic control hips for accurate visualization of a cam lesion. They found the frog lateral view to be most accurate film compared to AP pelvis and cross-table lateral views. A retrospective study acquired CT arthrograms from 15 previously diagnosed patients with cam FAI. These were compared with a control group of 15 cadaveric femurs that were matched with height, weight, and BMI of the retrospect patients. Digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRR) were made in five views to correlate with the CT images of the FAI and control groups and alpha angles were measured showing the Dunn view as the highest correlation with the superior measurements of the CT arthrogram. The Dunn view was also considered superior to the frog lateral and AP views in cam lesion demonstration. Another retrospective study assessed the diagnostic sensitivity of Dunn view and cross-table lateral view in the evaluation of 60 cases of cam FAI by comparison with Radial MRI. The sensitivity for cam deformity was 96.4% in the Dunn view compared to 70% in the cross-table lateral view, showing the Dunn view was most appropriate for first line cam impingement diagnostics. Conclusion: Studies suggest that the 45-degree Dunn lateral view is superior to other lateral views on plain film radiograph in the initial evaluation of cam lesions associated with FAI. Research is currently debated with regard to frog lateral views being equally as efficient. Further research using a large-scale retrospective comparison study should be performed in order to further validate the claim that the Dunn lateral view is superior to all lateral views in the initial demonstration of a cam lesion.


Music is rich in information that can be processed along different dimensions. Four types of musical dimensions that correspond to different levels of perception and cognition are discussed: (1) the dimension of sound, (2) the dimensions of melody, rhythm, and harmony, (3) the dimension of compositional structure, and (4) the dimension of compositional content. These psychological dimensions of music, and the psychological activities relevant to these dimensions, depend highly on context and on schema. Thus the four types of musical dimensions are not independent, but interact with each other. Some evidence from new research on the sense of pitch deviation, the sense of fitness of timbre to melody, and similarity and octave judgments referring to the problem of wording are discussed.


The process of childbirth and the mechanisms of labor have been studied for over a century, beginning with simple measurements of fetal skull and maternal pelvis dimensions. More recently, X‐rays, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging have been used to try and quantify the biomechanics of labor. With the development of computational technologies, biomechanical models have emerged as a quantitative analysis tool for modeling childbirth. These methods are well known for their capabilities to analyze function at the organ scale. This review provides an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art finite element models of the mechanics of vaginal delivery, with detailed descriptions of the data sources, modeling frameworks, and results. We also discuss the limitations and improvements required in order for the models to be more accurate and clinically useful. Some of the major challenges include: modeling the complex geometry of the maternal pelvic floor muscles and fetal head motion during the second stage of labor; the lack of experimental data on the pelvic floor structures; and development of methods for clinical validation. To date, models have had limited success in helping clinicians understand possible factors leading to birth‐induced pelvic floor muscle injuries and dysfunction. However, much more can be achieved with further development of these quantitative modeling frameworks, such as tools for birth planning and medical education. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


In our demo, we present two hardware platforms for prototyping audio array signal processing. Pyramic is a 48-channel microphone array fitted on an FPGA and Compact Six is a portable microphone array with six microphones, closer to the technical constraints of consumer electronics. A browser based interface was developed that allows the user to interact with the audio stream from the arrays in real time. The software component of this demo is a Python module with implementations of basic audio signal processing blocks and popular techniques like STFT, beamforming, and DoA. Both the hardware design files and the software are open source and freely shared. As part of a collaboration with IBM Research, their beamforming and imaging technologies will also be portrayed. The hardware will be demonstrated through an installation processing the microphone signals into light patterns on a circular LED array. The demo will be interactive and let visitors play with different algorithms for DoA (SRP, FRIDA [1], Bluebild) and beamforming (MVDR, Flexibeam [2]). The availability of an open platform with reference implementations encourages reproducible research and minimizes setup-time when testing and benchmarking new audio array signal processing algorithms. It can also serve as a useful educational tool, providing a means to work with real-life signals.


The Gulf of Guinea creoles (GGCs) exhibit a number of cases of initial vowel agglutination to etymologically consonant-initial words in the lexifier, Portuguese. This property is especially common in Lung'ie (Principense). Comparing agglutinated items in the four GGCs not only sheds light on their diachronic development, it also shows the linguistic compromise made between the different strata that gave rise to this feature. It will be argued that prosthetic vowels are phonetically calqued on the Portuguese definite article system, which bleached and became generalized as something else than a gender/number system, whereas the African contribution consists of creating vowel-initial items that are guided by rules of vowel harmony.


Experimental evidence suggests that attachment of ovarian carcinoma cells to the peritoneal mesothelium involves the interaction between CD44 on ovarian carcinoma cells and hyaluronic acid on mesothelial surfaces. The authors therefore evaluated local and disseminated ovarian serous carcinomas for the expression of standard CD44 and CD44 splice variants CD44v5, CD44v6, and CD44v7/8. The relative amount of hyaluronic acid (HA) in stroma surrounding tumor nests also was studied. Using immunohistochemistry and archival tissue, 14 serous ovarian carcinomas confined to the ovary (stage I) and 14 serous ovarian carcinomas with peritoneal implants and positive peritoneal fluid (stage III) were stained with antibodies to standard CD44, CD44v5, CD44v6, and CD44v7/8. All tissues also were analyzed for HA using a HA binding peptide. Immunostaining was classified as focal or diffuse and graded from 1 to 4 based on intensity. Immunoreactivity for standard CD44 was seen in 5 of 14 (36%) stage I tumors and 10 of 14 (71%) stage III tumors. Similarly, immunoreactivity with CD44v5 was seen in 2 of 14 (14%) stage I tumors and 9 of 14 stage III tumors (64%). Hyaluronic acid was present in the stroma surrounding all stage I and III tumors, but was more intense in the stroma adjacent to metastatic implants from stage III carcinomas. Tumor cells were uniformly negative for intracellular HA. These results suggest that CD44S and CD44v5 are differentially expressed in early (stage I) and advanced (stage III) ovarian serous carcinomas and support previous studies that suggest a role for CD44 and stromal HA in the dissemination of ovarian epithelial cancer.


Microstructural properties play a key role to affect oil uptake and product quality during frying of foods. The objective of this study was to observe the complex microstructural changes and mass transfer mechanisms in potato disks during frying. The potato disks of 1.65 mm thickness were fried at 190 °C for 0, 20, 40, 60, and 80 s. X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) was used for 3-dimensional (3D) imaging of microstructure of porous potato disks. Total porosity, pore size distribution, oil content, and air content of potato disks were calculated from resulting 3D data sets. Oil and air content measured by analysis of micro-CT images followed trends similar to Soxtec and gas pycnometry methods, respectively. Image analysis showed a significant change in pore size distribution as a function of frying time. Frying time was also observed to have an effect on tortuosity, which is an important microstructural fluid transport property. Tortuosity was measured by path length ratio method from 3D data sets obtained from image analysis. A linear inverse relationship was observed between porosity and tortuosity where tortuosity decreased with the increase of porosity. It was also observed that during frying, oil content increased with the decrease of tortuosity. This phenomenon indicated that the lower tortuosity created a less complicated and sinuous path, thus resulting in less resistance to oil penetration. Micro-CT technique can serve as an effective tool for elucidating microstructure of fried foods, and can provide complementary information to conventional lab techniques.


We introduce the concept of nonlinear complexity, where the complexity of a function is determined by the number of nonlinear building blocks required for construction. We group functions by linear equivalence, and induce a complexity hierarchy for the affine equivalent double cosets. We prove multiple invariants of double cosets over the affine general linear group, and develop a specialized double coset equivalence test. This is used to classify the 16! permutations over 4 bits into 302 equivalence classes, which have a maximal nonlinear depth of 6. In addition, we present a new complexity class defined in terms of nonlinearity.


Understanding a mechanical behaviour of polymer-based nonwoven materials that include largestrain deformation and damage can help to evaluate a response of nonwoven fibrous networks to various loading conditions. Here, a nonwoven felt made by thermal bonding of polypropylene fibres was used as a model system. Its deformation and damage behaviour was analysed by means of experimental assessment of damage evolution based on single-fibre failure and finite element simulations. Tensile tests of nonwoven fabrics were carried out to characterise their damage behaviour under in-plane mechanical loading. It was found that progressive failure of fibres led to localization of damage initiation and propagation, ultimately resulting in failure of the nonwoven felt. To obtain the criteria that control the onset and propagation of damage in these materials, tensile tests on single fibres, extracted from the felt with bond points attached to their ends, were performed. A finite-element model was developed to study damage initiation and propagation in nonwovens. In the model, structural randomness of a nonwoven fibrous network was implemented by means of direct introduction of fibres according to the orientation distribution function. The evolution of damage in the network was controlled by a single-fibre failure criterion obtained experimentally. The proposed numerical model not only captured the macroscopic response of the


Our data are long-term population dynamics of a set of species in different localities in Finland. There is considerable level of species-specific synchrony in population fluctuations among the localities. The degree of synchrony levels off with increasing distance among the populations compared. Climatic perturbations and dispersal have been proposed as pace-making factors for synchrony. According to Moran's theorem, local populations sharing a common structure of density dependence should become synchronized under the influence of a spatially correlated density-independent factor. This predicts synchrony to decay slower with increasing distance between local populations than if the synchrony is caused by dispersal. To explore the significance of the Moran effect and dispersal in explaining the observed regional synchrony, we used a metapopulation system. The Moran effect and dispersal are both capable to synchronize alone local population fluctuations. However, with dispersal the level of synchrony decreases with distance among the populations. Adding Moran's effect does not greatly affect the level of synchrony, nor the negative correlation between synchrony and distance. This finding makes it difficult to tell apart whether an observed negative correlation between the level of synchrony and distance among the compared populations is caused by dispersal alone, or both dispersal and Moran's effect acting together.


Adrenaline containing lidocaine preparations such as lignospan are routinely used in ear, nose and throat (ENT) care. Despite this, textbooks and internet resources warn against their use in peripheries, including the nose and ear. As a result, they are commonly avoided by other specialties, such as emergency medicine. This article reports on the findings of a review undertaken to assess the evidence of harm associated with using lignospan in the pinna and external nose. A literature search was carried out, and retrospective data were collected on all elective facial skin lesion surgery in the ENT department at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon between 2005 and 2015. Cases using lignospan in the pinna and nose were included. The literature search revealed no reports of ischaemic complications of the pinna or nose following use of lignospan, or similar preparation. Of the 1,409 cases collected, no ischaemic complications were recorded. The article concludes that adrenaline containing lidocaine preparations such as lignospan are safe for use in the pinna and nose, and should be considered for use in emergency departments.


Abstract From 1991 to 2009, the fraction of Medicaid recipients enrolled in HMOs and other forms of Medicaid managed care (MMC) increased from 11 percent to 71 percent. This increase was largely driven by state and local mandates that required most Medicaid recipients to enroll in an MMC plan. Theoretically, it is ambiguous whether the shift from fee-for-service into managed care would lead to an increase or a reduction in Medicaid spending. This paper investigates this effect using a data set on state and local-level MMC mandates and detailed data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on state Medicaid expenditures. The findings suggest that shifting Medicaid recipients from fee-for-service into MMC did not on average reduce Medicaid spending. If anything, our results suggest that the shift to MMC increased Medicaid spending and that this effect was especially present for risk-based HMOs. However, the effects of the shift to MMC on Medicaid spending varied significantly across states as a function of the generosity of the state's baseline Medicaid provider reimbursement rates. Abstract From 1991 to 2009, the fraction of Medicaid recipients enrolled in HMOs and other forms of Medicaid managed care (MMC) increased from 11 percent to 71 percent. This increase was largely driven by state and local mandates that required most Medicaid recipients to enroll in an MMC plan. Theoretically, it is ambiguous whether the shift from fee-for-service into managed care would lead to an increase or a reduction in Medicaid spending. This paper investigates this effect using a data set on state and local level MMC mandates and detailed data from CMS on state Medicaid expenditures. The findings suggest that shifting Medicaid recipients from fee-for-service into MMC did not reduce Medicaid spending in the typical state. If anything, our results suggest that the shift to MMC increased Medicaid spending and that this effect was especially present for risk-based HMOs. However, the effects of the shift to MMC on Medicaid spending varied significantly across states as a function of the generosity of the state's baseline Medicaid provider reimbursement rates.


In the paper the problem of the development of the theory of stability is considered on the basis of the concept of an open system proposed by L. von Bertalanffy. The review of works in the field of stability in technical systems is made. When analyzing feature of complicated systems' sustainability, it is proposed to take into account the laws of the open system theory. The idea of using the laws that allow to estimate the degree of manifestation of entropic and negentropic tendencies in a system, the law emergence and the law of the additivity) is discussed. Proposed the quantitative estimates based on the information theory of A.A. Denisov. It is a definite contribution to the existing theory of sustainability.


The catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene is an industrially important reaction used in the commercial production of aniline for use in the polyurethane industry. A mechanism for the reaction was first proposed by Haber in 1898 and has been widely accepted despite never being fully delineated. During this study the nitrobenzene hydrogenation reaction was investigated, over a range of metal catalysts, to probe the mechanism of hydrogenation and catalyst deactivation.

Initial investigations over Pd/C catalysts revealed the reaction to be sensitive to the solvent and the nature of the carbon support. However more importantly it was shown that the first intermediate in Haber's scheme, nitrosobenzene, could not act as an intermediate to nitrobenzene hydrogenation. As a result, a new reaction mechanism was proposed where the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene and nitrosobenzene proceed via separate mechanistic routes, linked by a common adsorbed intermediate; the surface concentration of this adsorbed species controls the hydrogenation pathway followed. Further investigation over Raney nickel suggests this mechanism to be valid over other metals and not specific to palladium.

A series of novel bimetallic catalysts were also prepared for use in this study. Characterisation of these catalysts was carried out to determine the nature of the metal-metal interaction on the surface. the evidence suggests mixed metal particles may have been formed on some catalysts.

The activity of these catalysts was found to be greatly enhanced following pre-treatment with water vapour in a hydrogen atmosphere. It was postulated that partial oxidation of the metal active sites was occurring and that these systems were more active due to the enhanced adsorption of nitrobenzene. The copper nickel/systems were found to show enhanced catalytic activity, whereas all systems containing cobalt displayed irreversible deactivation following water treatment, which was attributed to the formation of irreducible cobalt aluminium spinel from the CoO formed on the surface.


Can health entities collaboratively train deep learning models without sharing sensitive raw data? This paper proposes several configurations of a distributed deep learning method called SplitNN to facilitate such collaborations. SplitNN does not share raw data or model details with collaborating institutions. The proposed configurations of splitNN cater to practical settings of i) entities holding different modalities of patient data, ii) centralized and local health entities collaborating on multiple tasks and iii) learning without sharing labels. We compare performance and resource efficiency trade-offs of splitNN and other distributed deep learning methods like federated learning, large batch synchronous stochastic gradient descent and show highly encouraging results for splitNN.


An output feedback (OFB) dynamic inversion control strategy is developed for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that achieves global asymptotic tracking of a reference model. The UAV is modeled as an uncertain linear time-invariant (LTI) system with an additive bounded nonvanishing nonlinear disturbance. A continuous tracking controller is designed to mitigate the nonlinear disturbance and inversion error, and an adaptive law is utilized to compensate for the parametric uncertainty. Global asymptotic tracking of the measurable output states is proven via a Lyapunov-like stability analysis, and high-fidelity simulation results are provided to illustrate the applicability and performance of the developed control law.