Global Positioning System (GPS) geodesy is a well-known tool to measure the long-term surface deformation of the Earth at various temporal and spatial scales, and it is widely used in studies of geodynamics. GPS dual-frequency geodetic-quality receivers are typically sampled at rates of 15 to 30 s and analyzed in a batch mode over intervals from one hour to 24 hours. Recently, 1-Hz or greater rate sampled continuous GPS has been recognized as useful in combination with seismometers to capture the long-period seismic waves from large earthquakes and to detect volcano inflation and tsunamigenic landsliding (Bock et al. 2000; Larson et al. 2003; Bock et al. 2004; Mattia et al. 2004). Modern GPS receivers are capable of sampling at rates as high as 50 Hz (Genrich and Bock 2006).

The impact of heavy pedestrian movement on a highway suspension bridge has not yet been documented by precise observations, nor has it been modeled, although the impact of vehicles and wind was observed and used to constrain theoretical analysis (Nakamura 2000; Roberts et al. 2004; Guo et al. 2005). A large crowd can gather on a highway suspension bridge under extreme natural or human-generated conditions like earthquakes or power blackouts (Julavits 2003); an unpredicted response to the crowd was observed on a foot-bridge (Strogatz et al. 2005). Using GPS observations, here we evaluate the deflection of a large suspension bridge that connects Brooklyn with Staten Island at the mouth of upper New York Bay under the load of marathon runners and under the load of vehicles. Furthermore, by combining GPS and accelerometer data, we find that the runners excited the vibrations of the bridge at a modal frequency of 2.8 Hz, vastly different from the first vertical frequency of 0.13 Hz excited by vehicles. Our …


Threats linked to Islamic fundamentalism have been hanging over Central Asia for almost two decades. Many believe that militant Islam has played a significant part in each major political crisis in the region, and Central Asia is perceived as an almost perfect environment for its further development. Such a picture of this region is a result of serious abuses and manipulations.

The real threat posed by militant Islam seems to be rather limited, and its roots lie outside Central Asia. This region is unlikely to become a key front of global jihad. Nevertheless, this does not guarantee peace and safety in Central Asia, as the Islamic threat remains an element of the geopolitical rivalry in the region – the 'New Great Game'.


One of the well-known barriers to development is persistence of disadvantage among communities. The lack of occupational and therefore upward social mobility continues to restrain households from achieving socially desirable outcomes. This paper studies the effect of short-term internal migration experience on the intergenerational persistence of industry upon a migrant's return to native place. We develop an occupational choice model of a return migrant to study the relationship between the migrant's savings, skill or any other productive asset accumulation during migration and the decision to work upon return, in the industry where his/her father is employed. Using data from a nationally representative sample survey, we find that short-term migration by males reduces the probability of intergenerational persistence by 20% in rural India. Migration to urban areas, work experience in a different industry and higher frequency of migration reduce the return migrant's chance of being employed in the industry where his father is employed. The results suggest that skill formation during migration can play a key role in reducing labour market inequality by weakening the strength of intergenerational transmission of disadvantages.


Thoroughbred racehorses are commonly characterized as unprofitable investments. Previous studies, grouping all racehorses together, estimate that over 80% of all racehorses in training fail to earn enough to recover the variable costs of training. However, these studies are not truly representative, because they fail to account for a number of factors affecting profitability. This study estimates expected purse earnings and profitability of claiming horses in Kentucky. Maximum-likelihood estimates of probability distribution parameters show that expected purse earnings follow an exponential distribution with a mean of $25,267. Profitability is best described by a Gamma distribution with a mean of $4,824. Of the 305 claims analyzed for profitability, 61% were profitable. The results indicate substantial financial risk associated with claiming race horses, but conclude that there are positive economic returns on average.


This paper deals with diffusion processes in dynamic networks. We propose new notions for measuring the exposure of a node to diffusion processes taking place over the network, that is the likelihood of the node to be affected by such processes. We introduce different exposure scores, based either on contacts or on flows in the dynamic network. We study the distribution of these values in the example case of a real-world dynamic network and investigate possible correlations between them. We also discuss computational complexity issues.


Environmental changes, such as sea level rise, are forcibly displacing communities around the world. Forced displacement, inadequate governance mechanisms to address relocation and economic-based adaptation and restoration efforts are leading to devastating social, cultural, health, and economic consequences for the people and communities affected. This article focuses on three tribal communities in coastal Louisiana that are experiencing rapid environmental change and risk of displacement due to historical discriminatory processes, oil and dam-related development projects, oil disasters, increased exposure to hurricanes, and relative sea level rise. Focusing on the political ecology of the communities' experiences of environmental change, including the impacts of displacement and decisions to stay in-place vs. relocate, this paper addresses broader issues of adaptive governance structures and policy implications. Building on Bronen's (2011) rights-based approach to adaptation and Shearer's (2012) approach to a political ecology of adaptation, I argue that governance structures should be put in place that support communities' in-situ adaptation efforts or, if the community decides its current location is no longer inhabitable, to assist community-led relocation efforts. Multiple forms of knowledge should be incorporated into and should inform the structures supporting the adaptation process. I highlight the social, political, environmental and economic context within which environmental changes are occurring in coastal Louisiana through discussion on the loss of the commons, the creation of an energy sacrifice zone, costbenefit based restoration efforts and forced displacement and relocation. Key words: Environmental change, displacement, relocation, adaptation


Emerging research has demonstrated the viability of on-textile actuation mechanisms, however, an easily customizable and versatile on-cloth actuation mechanism is yet to be explored. In this paper, we present ClothTiles along with its rapid fabrication technique that enables actuation of clothes. ClothTiles leverage flexible 3D-printing and Shape-Memory Alloys (SMAs) alongside new parametric actuation designs. We validate the concept of fabric actuation using a base element, and then systematically explore methods of aggregating, scaling, and orienting prospects for extended actuation in garments. A user study demonstrated that our technique enables multiple actuation types applied across a variety of clothes. Users identified both aesthetic and functional applications of ClothTiles. We conclude with a number of insights for the Do-It-Yourself community on how to employ 3D-printing with SMAs to enable actuation on clothes.


The workings of "message"—a coherent, brand-like biographical chronotope—as it has long-circulated in the specifically American system of fifty-state presidential electoral politics helps to explain the outcome of the 2016 vote. The agōn of positive and negative messaging about the respective candidates, Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump, seems to have worked, at the regional margins of an otherwise remarkably stable system, to the ultimate disadvantage of the former and the ultimate advantage of the latter.


The vast majority of known proteins have not yet been experimentally characterized and little is known about their function. The design and implementation of computational tools can provide insight into the function of proteins based on their sequence, their structure, their evolutionary history and their association with other proteins. Knowledge of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein can lead to a deep understanding of its mode of action and interaction, but currently the structures of <1% of sequences have been experimentally solved. For this reason, it became urgent to develop new methods that are able to computationally extract relevant information from protein sequence and structure. The starting point of my work has been the study of the properties of contacts between protein residues, since they constrain protein folding and characterize different protein structures. Prediction of residue contacts in proteins is an interesting problem whose solution may be useful in protein folding recognition and de novo design. The prediction of these contacts requires the study of the protein inter-residue distances related to the specific type of amino acid pair that are encoded in the so-called contact map. An interesting new way of analyzing those structures came out when network studies were introduced, with pivotal papers demonstrating that protein contact networks also exhibit small-world behavior. In order to highlight constraints for the prediction of protein contact maps and for applications
in the field of protein structure prediction and/or reconstruction from experimentally determined contact maps, I studied to which extent the characteristic path length and clustering coefficient of the protein contacts network are values that reveal characteristic features of protein contact maps. Provided that residue contacts are known for a protein sequence, the major features of its 3D structure could be deduced by combining this knowledge with correctly predicted motifs of secondary structure. In the second part of my work I focused on a particular protein structural motif, the coiled-coil, known to mediate a variety of fundamental biological interactions. Coiled-coils are found in a variety of structural forms and in a wide range of proteins including, for example, small units such as leucine zippers that drive the dimerization of many transcription factors or more complex structures such as the family of viral proteins responsible for virus-host membrane fusion. The coiled-coil structural motif is
estimated to account for 5-10% of the protein sequences in the various genomes.
Given their biological importance, in my work I introduced a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) that exploits the evolutionary information derived from multiple sequence alignments, to predict coiled-coil regions and to discriminate coiled-coil
sequences. The results indicate that the new HMM outperforms all the existing programs and can be adopted for the coiled-coil prediction and for large-scale genome annotation. Genome annotation is a key issue in modern computational biology, being the starting point towards the understanding of the complex processes involved in biological networks. The rapid growth in the number of protein sequences and structures available poses new fundamental problems that still deserve an interpretation. Nevertheless, these data are at the basis of the design of new strategies for tackling problems such as the prediction of protein structure and function. Experimental determination of the functions of all these proteins would
be a hugely time-consuming and costly task and, in most instances, has not been carried out. As an example, currently, approximately only 20% of annotated proteins
in the Homo sapiens genome have been experimentally characterized. A commonly adopted procedure for annotating protein sequences relies on the "inheritance through homology" based on the notion that similar sequences share
similar functions and structures. This procedure consists in the assignment of sequences to a specific group of functionally related sequences which had been grouped through clustering techniques. The clustering procedure is based on suitable similarity rules, since predicting protein structure and function from sequence largely depends on the value of sequence identity. However, additional levels of complexity are due to multi-domain proteins, to proteins that share common domains but that do not necessarily share the same function, to the finding that different combinations of shared domains can lead to different biological roles. In the last part of this study I developed and validate a system that contributes to sequence annotation by taking advantage of a validated transfer through inheritance procedure of the molecular functions and of the structural templates. After a cross-genome comparison with the BLAST program, clusters
were built on the basis of two stringent constraints on sequence identity and coverage of the alignment. The adopted measure explicity answers to the problem of multi-domain proteins annotation and allows a fine grain division of the whole set of proteomes used, that ensures cluster homogeneity in terms of sequence length. A high level of coverage of structure templates on the length of protein
sequences within clusters ensures that multi-domain proteins when present can be templates for sequences of similar length. This annotation procedure includes
the possibility of reliably transferring statistically validated functions and structures to sequences considering information available in the present data bases of
molecular functions and structures.


At the Rio +20 conference attention was focused upon the variable effectiveness of a large range of international instruments. The IUCN too has recently began to focus upon the effectiveness of legal arrangements for environmental governance. Both of these developments are representative of an increasing awareness that legal environmental governance arrangements frequently fail to achieve the desired outcomes, or give rise to perverse and unexpected effects. The reasons why this may be so include issues such as the limited commitment of the responsible government or its agents, issues of corruption or incapacity, problems arising from the choice of the governance instrument, or the design of the law. This book tackles the challenges of implementation of environmental law, drawing upon the expertise of an international cast of contributors and investigations across a range of jurisdictions.


Open savannas and wet grasslands are present under the same seasonal macro-climate in central Brazil. However, in open savannas, temperatures during fires are higher than in wet grasslands. Grasses dominate both ecosystems and exhibit large variation in seed dormancy. We hypothesise that seeds of grass species from open savannas are more tolerant to heating than those of wet grasslands. Also, assuming that dormant seeds remain longer in the soil than non-dormant seeds – thus being more likely to burn – we expect that dormant seeds are more tolerant to heating than non-dormant seeds. We tested the effects of heating at 80 and 110°C for 2.5 and 5.0 min on the survival of seeds of 14 species, seven from each community, containing dormant and non-dormant species. Seeds of most species survived at 80°C, but seeds from open savannas maintained greater survival for 5 min than seeds from wet grasslands. Seeds of most species died at 110°C, but dormant seeds survived more than non-dormant seeds. We conclude that species with seed dormancy experience selection for covarying characteristics that allow tolerance to heating in hotter fires. Our findings suggest that both seed dormancy and habitat-specific fire temperatures may contribute to the evolution of seed fire tolerance in Neotropical savannas.


Abstract A refinement of the analytic function expansion nodal (AFEN) method is described. By increasing the number of flux expansion terms in the way that the original basis functions are combined with the transverse-direction linear functions, the refined AFEN method can describe the flux shape in the nodes more accurately, since the added flux expansion terms still satisfy the diffusion equation. The additional nodal unknowns introduced are the interface flux moments, and the additional constraints required are provided by the continuity conditions of the interface flux moments and the interface current moments. Also presented is an algebraically exact method for removing the numerical singularity that can occur in any analytic nodal method when the core contains nearly no-net-leakage nodes. The refined AFEN method was tested on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-L336 mixed-oxide benchmark problem in rectangular geometry, and the VVER-440 benchmark problem and a nearly no-net-leakage node embedded core problem, both in hexagonal geometry. The results show that the method improves not only the accuracy in predicting the flux distribution but also the computing time, and that it can replace the corner-point fluxes with the interface flux moments without accuracy degradation, unless the problem consists of strongly dissimilar nodes. The possibility of excluding the corner-point fluxes increases the flexibility in implementing this method into the existing codes that do not have the corner-point flux scheme and may make it fit better for the nonlinear scheme based on two-node problems.


The rise of the "gig economy" has attracted wide attention from both scholars and the popular media. Much of this attention has been devoted to jobs mediated through various online platforms. While non-traditional work arrangements have been a perennial subject of debate and study, the perception that new technology is producing an accelerated pace of change in the organization of work has fueled a resurgence of interest in how such changes may be affecting both workers and firms. This paper provides a typology of work arrangements and reviews how different arrangements, and especially gig activity, are captured in existing data. A challenge for understanding recent trends is that household survey and administrative data paint a different picture, with the former showing little evidence of the growth in self-employment that would be implied by a surge in gig activity and the latter providing evidence of considerable recent growth. An examination of matched individual-level survey and administrative records shows that a large and growing fraction of those with self-employment activity in administrative data have no such activity recorded in household survey data. The share of those with self-employment activity in household survey data but not administrative data is smaller and has not grown. Promising avenues for improving the measurement of self-employment activity include the addition of more probing questions to household survey questionnaires and the development of integrated data sets that combine survey, administrative and, potentially, private data.


AIM
The purpose of this article was to evaluate the reliability of maternal serum triple marker screening of alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin, and unconjugated estriol for the prenatal diagnosis of fetal chromosomal abnormalities in Turkish pregnant women.

METHOD
Medical records were used to analyze indications of amniocentesis and quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction. Anomaly screening was performed for all patients between 13 and 22 weeks of pregnancy. A total of 1725 pregnancies with chromosomal abnormality risk according to triple test screening were accepted for fetal chromosome analysis and quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS
Chromosomal aberrations were observed in 56 (3.2%) cases. About 44.6% of the abnormalities detected were numerical aberrations; however, 55.3% of the abnormalities were structural aberrations. Abnormalities detected were inversion of chromosome 9 in 20 cases, trisomy 21 in 14 cases, 46,XX/47,XX, +21 in 1 case, trisomy 18 in 2 cases, trisomy 13 in 1 case, 47,XXY, in 1 case, 45,X, in 1 case, structural abnormalities in 12 cases, and mosaic or tetraploidy in 6 cases.

CONCLUSION
Second trimester triple test is an effective screening tool for detecting fetal Down syndrome in Turkish women.


The authors conducted research aimed at developing a new type of permeable concrete material with enhanced structural strength. This paper presents and discusses the results of their investigation on the unaxial compressive stress-strain relationship of porous concrete made with two different mix designs with constant water to cement ratio. The concrete mixes were designed with a target compressive strength between 15-25 MPa and target porosity between 10-15% to study the effect of pore sizes on the stress-strain curve. The average pore space was increased by increasing the relative amount of large aggregate. The reduction in the relative amount of fine aggregate increased the average pore space and resulted in a reduction in mix stiffness and a marginal increase in ultimate strength.


Introduction: Recently, researches showed that educational study for some peoples may convert to forced and extreme action and leads to study addiction. The outline of this paper was surveying the reliability and validity of the study addiction scale in undergraduate students of medical science universities in Tehran.
Method: The society of research was all undergraduate students in medical science universities in Tehran. The sampling method was a multistage cluster sampling with a sample size of 743students That filled work addiction scale, Bergen study addiction scale, learning engagement scale and Oxford Happiness Inventory and 2 self-report questions about grade point average (from 20) and study time per week.
Results: Only one factor was extracted. The Relationship between learning engagement subscales with study addiction, work addiction, grade point average and study time was significantly positive. Work addiction positively related to study addiction. Relationship between happiness with study addiction and work addiction strongly was negative. Happiness and learning engagement had a positive relationship. Happiness had positive relationship with Grade point average. Happiness hadn't significant relationship to study time
Conclusion: The study addiction scale has convergent validity with work addiction and divergent validity with happiness. This topic can be studied independently from other addiction types


Optical feedback interferometry (OFI) is a contactless technique that is employed for measuring parameters related to object's motion. The light emitted by a laser is backreflected or scattered from a moving object and a small portion of the scattered waves re-enters the laser cavity and impacts the laser's emission properties. We review the theoretical basics of optical feedback interferometry and explain the physical principles in the frame of laser Doppler flowmetry. We present a model derived from the Lang and Kobayashi rate equations to show the particular features of the optical feedback signal in temporal and frequency domain. In addition, we present experimental measurements relative to the detection of flowing particles in a microchannel, the measurement of unsteady flows and the quantification of blood perfusion in skin, which demonstrate the potential use of OFI sensors in the assessment of fluidic systems of interest in chemical and biomedical engineering.


This paper presents a recent type of object name: it discusses the international and Hungarian practices of giving names to shields used in construction work. An overview is provided of shield names occurring in different parts of the world. The author describes the conditions of the tender announced for naming the two shields that are now being used in the construction of the 4th line of the Budapest Underground and thoroughly examines the 96 proposed name pairs. Names of shields – like object names in general – for the most part are transferred proper names, and only few of them are so-called "word names" (i.e. names having appellative meanings) and "sign names" (i.e. names having no appellative meanings). Names proposed for drilling constructions are especially interesting, because they always form name pairs as two shields have to be named at a time. The author thus, apart from analysing name types and their semantic ranges, highlights the relations between the members of the proposed name pairs.


Following the demand of the speech technology market, a number of companies and research laboratories joined their forces in order to produce valuable and reusable resources, especially speech databases. Serving their purpose, the collected databases are used for developing, testing, enhancing and evaluating speech technology products, like interactive voice servers, listening typewriter, speaker verification and identification systems, etc. Especially for capturing intra-speaker variability, the PolyVar database was designed and recorded at IDIAP, as a complement to the Swiss French PolyPhone database, which adresses inter-speaker variability issues. We will detail in the following the specific problems of speech database collection (sampling the speaker population, selection of vocabulary items, ...), and will present actual development we carried out at IDIAP throught the PolyPhone and PolyVar databases.


For real-time wireless communications, short forward error-correcting (FEC) codes are indispensable due to the strict delay requirement. In this paper we study the performance of short FEC codes. Reed-Solomon (RS) codes and concatenated zigzag (CZ) codes are chosen as representatives of classical algebraic codes and modern simple iterative decodable codes, respectively. Additionally, we use random binary linear codes as a baseline reference for comparison. Our main results (demonstrated by both simulation and ensemble distance spectrum analysis) are as follows: 1) Short RS codes are as good as random binary linear codes; 2) Carefully designed short low- density parity-check (LDPC) codes are almost as good as random binary linear codes when high decoding complexity can be tolerated; 3) Low complexity belief propagation decoders incur considerable performance loss at short coding lengths.


and Implications This study evaluated the effect of EDTA and lysozyme on the antibacterial activities of activated ovotransferrin against 5 strains of L. monocytogenes. First, a disc test was performed to screen the concentrations of EDTA or lysozyme that showed antibacterial activities in ovotransferrin (O) or ovotransferrin in 100 mM NaHCO3 (OS) solution. Turbidity and viability test were conducted using O or OS solution combined with either lysozyme (OL and OSL) or EDTA (OE and OSE). Also, OS combined with 2 mg/ml lysozyme (OSL) or/and 1 mg/ml EDTA (OSLE) were applied on commercial hams to determine if the solutions show antibacterial activities on meat products. The effect of initial cell population on the antibacterial activities of ovotransferrin combined with either EDTA or lysozyme was also determined. L. monocytogenes started to grow after 1 day of incubation in the presence of > 2.0 mg/ml lysozyme. OL groups showed weak antibacterial activities against L. monocytogenes in BHI broth culture and their activities were bacteriostatic. OSL groups were bactericidal against L. monocytogenes, resulting in 1 log reduction from initial cell population. Even though OSL showed stronger antibacterial activity than OS, lysozyme had no significant effect on antibacterial activity of OS against L. monocytogenes. Also, EDTA itself at 1.0 and 2.0 mg/ml were bacteriostatic against 5 strains of L. monocytogenes. They were more susceptible to EDTA than lysozyme, and OSE1 and OSE2 had bactericidal activity against L. monocytogenes. There was a significant difference in the survivor cell populations between OS and OSE groups (p < 0.05). Therefore, EDTA enhanced the antibacterial activity of OS against L. monocytogenes. However, ovotransferrin plus either lysozyme or/and EDTA did not show any antibacterial effect in commercial hams during storage at 10C. In addition, the initial population of L. monocytogenes cells influenced the antibacterial activity of OSL or OSE.


This study is based on surveys of police recruits representing four agencies across the United States. The recruits were surveyed at the beginning and end of their academy training and asked about coping strategies and the confidence they had in performing their jobs. Coping shifted significantly over time, with recruits utilizing task-oriented and outreach strategies less frequently at the end of the academy than at the beginning. Avoidance coping strategies were used more frequently by recruits at the end of the academy than at the beginning. Slight changes were also found in the influence of these strategies on job confidence over time, with avoidance coping having a stronger influence in the beginning of the academy than at the end. The role of demographic factors on coping was largely invariant over time, with only slight differences detected. Implications for policy and research are also discussed.


niis study attempts a comprehensive analysis of the German so-called inseparable prefixes be-, ge-. er-, ver-, ent-. The framework Is Talmy's (1978) Figure/Ground distinction, in which a Figure is perceived as located or moving with respect to a frame of reference, the Ground. The pre-syntactic templates of X categories [Figure V [[±LOC] Ground]] and [Agent V Figure [[+LOC] Ground]]derive Das Heu war auf dem Wagen "The hay was on the cart' and Er bid Heu avf den Wagen 'He loaded hay onto the cart'. The be- prefix and its inverse the ent- prefix are prepositional allomorphs which alternatively realize the feature (+LOC]. Foregrounding of [[+LOC] Ground]] causes the feature [+LOC] to be adjoined to the verb as the prefix be-: Er belud den Wagen mitt Heu 'He be-loaded the cart with hay'. The Figure argument may also be incorporated by substitution into the verb forming a denominal be- or ent-verb (bewaffnen 'be-weapon, arm', entwaffnen 'ent-arm, disarm'. Adjunction of [+LOC] and substitution of the Figure are according to Van Riemsdijk's (1998) Head Adjacency Principle for syntactic head movement A set of verb Classes is established according to whether the Figure and Ground arguments are VP-internal, subjects, or incorporated, thus rendering the traditional notions of 0-roles (Patient, Experiencer, theme. etc.) superfluous. I propose a crucial development of Talmas Figure/Ground distinction, the hidden' Ground, whereby the Ground is the prior location or state of the Figure, hi tills case the prefixes are allomorphs of the change of state' P that 1 denote as (-*). On simplex verbs this feature means simply 'forth, onward', as in geleiten 'ge-lead, escort', bestehen 'be-stand, continue to exist', verfuhren 'ver-lead, tempt". The Figure N can substitute into a null V : The template [[ env ] N [ → Film ]] gives Er machte Hamlet zu einem Film He made Hamlet into a film'. The Ground is the prior state of Hamlet (not a film). The same template permits adjunction of (→) and substitution of Film into the null verb slot: [[ver-(_i) Film(_j) –en(_v) ] [ t(_i) t(_j) ]]. Thus. we get Er verfilmte Hamlet He filmed Hamlet'. Deadjectival prefixed verbs are of two types. The prefix er- alternatively realizes (→) with positive degree adjectives ( from not-A → A), ver- alternatively realizes the (→) that is the feature [COMPARATIVE]. Thus, erblassen 'er-pale' (from not-pale to pale) means '(suddenly) become pale', whereas verblassen 'ver-pale' (from pale to more-pale) means (gradually) fade, lose colour". The feature (←) on ent- is the inverse of [→) and denotes 'return to prior state", as in entfalten "ent-fold, unfold", entwaffnen "ent-weapon. disarm'. Connotations such as inchoative, pejorative, concealment that are associated with certain prefixes are accounted for by the underlying change of state template. Key concepts: Figure/Ground, inseparable prefix, incorporation, abstract feature, alternative realization. Locative Alternation. Dative Alternation, diachronic. morphological cases, prepositions.


This article reviews the legal regime for the protection of minors in the UAE. First, the rights of minors protected under threat of criminal sanctions, as enshrined in the UAE Children Rights Law 2016, is addressed. Subsequently, the protection of minors in civil legislation, especially with regard to financial transactions, is considered by examining the legal effects of acts performed by minors themselves or by agents on their behalf. The legal authority of a minor's agent to act on his/her behalf is outlined and the consequences of acts performed by the minor or his/her agent beyond legal limits is presented. Finally, the role of the Social Care and Minors Affairs Foundation (SCMAF) is considered when caring for minors and protecting their property. The article concludes with an assessment of the legal regime for the protection of minors, especially in connection with financial transactions, evaluates the guarantees and safeguards included therein, and issues some additional recommendations.


In "Creating High-Tech Teams: Practical Guidance on Work Performance and Technology," leaders in science and industry explore the state-of-the-art in technology and teamwork and how to translate this information into the best possible guidance for industrial - organizational practitioners. Contributors who work with specific types of technology, such as groupware and data visualization, describe their understanding of how that technology affects teamwork and how to use it. Contributors provide the reader with a review of the most prevalent tools used today and how to apply them in a number of industries. The final section of the volume provides a glimpse into the future by discussing various applications of "virtual" teammates, where part of the team is the technology. The problems that arise with technology and teamwork - and sometimes even their solutions - often never make it into the pages of scientific journals. Thus much of the information collected in this volume is appearing for the first time anywhere. This, combined with the accessibility of the writing and the fascinating range of fields and technology covered, makes "Creating High-Tech Teams" an invaluable resource for industrial - organizational psychologists and others working to make teams more effective through technology.


Guaranteeing that assembled components will behave as required is one of the main aspects in working with Component-Based Development. In this paper we present a formal approach for tackling this problem by applying the concept of bisimulation, originally presented in the study of concurrency theory. Bisimulation allows us to abstract details that are irrelevant from the behavioral point of view, such as data representations and implementation structures, providing a powerful formalism for proving software correctness properties. Thus, our approach facilitates to demonstrate the behavioral equivalence between the integrated system and the required specification. We introduce these concepts with the help of an example described in RAISE.


This paper studies a firm's profitability problem offering its products into different market segments at differentiated prices. In order to improve the firms' profitability the firm needs to decide the prices and order quantities allocations for each market segment. In perfect market segmentation, it is assumed that the customers do not cannibalize between market segments. Whereas, in the case of imperfect market segmentation, the customers are assumed to cannibalize from a high price market segment to a lower price segment. Models to determine the optimal strategies for pricing and order quantity for the perfect as well as for the imperfect market segmentations are proposed with both the deterministic and stochastic customers' demand. The study has shown that the perfect market segmentation always yields higher revenues compared to no segmentation for a firm facing both the deterministic and stochastic demand situations. In addition to this, the study has also shown that when cannibalization exists, a firm is still able to yield higher revenues compared to the case of no market segmentation facing both the deterministic and stochastic demands, however, greater the extent of cannibalization could result substantial losses in the profitability.


The Reef Ridge deposit is a typical supergene "nonsulfide" zinc mineralization, located in the Yukon-Koyukuk region of west-central Alaska (USA). It is hosted in sedimentary rocks of the Farewell terrane, a continental fragment sandwiched between the Siberian and Laurentian cratons during the early Paleozoic. The mineralization occurs in Lower–Middle Devonian shallow-water dolomite of a Paleozoic carbonate platform succession belonging to the Nixon Fork tectonic unit. The mineralization consists of oxidized minerals associated with minor remaining sulfides (pyrite/marcasite and sphalerite). In the oxidation zone, smithsonite is the predominant mineral, mixed with Fe-(hydr)oxides (goethite and hematite). A complete petrographic and mineralogical study was performed. Samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry and emission spectrometry, energy dispersive scanning electron microscopy, and QEMSCAN ® (quantitative evaluation of minerals by scanning electron microscopy). The most abundant mineral in the nonsulfide ore is smithsonite. Similar to other nonsulfide Zn deposits worldwide, the first generation of smithsonite has replaced both primary sphalerite and the host carbonates. A second smithsonite generation precipitated as cement in vugs, cavities, and fractures. Minor zinc amounts also occur in the Fe-(hydr)oxides, and zinc traces have been identified in clay minerals. The carbon and oxygen isotope values of smithsonite at Reef Ridge vary from −0.7 to 2.1‰ relative to Vienna Peedee belemnite (VPDB) and 19.1‰ to 21.9‰ relative to Vienna standard mean ocean water (VSMOW). The δ 13 C values are similar to those of the host rock, suggesting that the predominant carbon source for smithsonite was the host carbonates, with only a limited contribution from organic carbon. The oxygen isotope ratios of Reef Ridge smithsonite are more depleted in 18 O compared to supergene nonsulfides from other parts of the world formed under warm-humid, temperate, or semiarid climates. The oxygen isotope fractionation between water and smithsonite, which relates the δ 18 O value of the mineralizing solution, the formation temperature of smithsonite, and its δ 18 O composition, indicates that the δ 18 O composition of Reef Ridge smithsonite is related to very low formation temperatures (~10 °C), and strong depletion in 18 O of the precipitating waters. The δ 18 O smithsonite composition, the strong 18 O depletion, and the relationship of the formation of the Reef Ridge nonsulfide deposit with the development of the Sleetmute upland surface (which started in the Late Tertiary and continues to the present) indicate that the formation of the Reef Ridge nonsulfide deposit is probably related to cold/humid weathering episodes during a period comprised between Late Tertiary and Holocene. The "traditional" interpretation on the genesis of Zn nonsulfide deposits in warm-humid, temperate, or semiarid conditions should be questioned where other climate zones are indicated.


Co-production was developed by several European countries to revive their film industries and has become increasingly popular, spreading across the region and beyond. However, this scheme should be carefully examined as to whether it is truly beneficial to the film industry. In response, this paper proposes two new concepts, "corporation-led" and "state-led" co-productions by distinguishing them from the prevailing notion of "(international) co-production." Corporation-led coproduction is to achieve the best outcome through the optimal utilization of production (or creative) factors and business activities. By contrast, state-led co-production has been used to enhance the national image and has been supported by financial incentives. As such, this type of co-production becomes a hindrance for the optimal utilization of production factors. All of these aspects can be found throughout the history of Europe's co-production efforts. In the future, such an instrument should be redesigned in order to promote the film industry more effectively.


Causal association between trade openness and government size has gained interest of researchers and policy makers all around the world. These two crucial macroeconomic variables are of utmost importance when it comes to attainment of economic growth via the channel of globalization. This paper examines the cointegration and causal relationship between trade openness and government size in Bangladesh economy using annual data from 1980 to 2013. We consider a multivariate model and perform the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) tests to check if the variables are stationary. Next, we apply the Johansen cointegration method followed by the Granger causality test to check for robustness of the relationship among the variables. Our results reveal that there is a unidirectional causality running from trade openness to government size in Bangladesh which provides support to the compensation hypothesis for Bangladesh economy.


Network slicing enables 5G network operators to offer diverse services in the form of end-to-end isolated slices, over shared physical infrastructure. Wireless service providers are facing the need to plan and rapidly evolve their slices configuration to meet the varied tenants' demand. Network slicing unfolds a new market dimension to the infrastructure providers as well as to the tenants, who may acquire a network slice from the infrastructure provider to deliver a specific service to their respective subscribers. In this new context, there is a growing need for new network resource allocation algorithms to capture such proposition. This paper addresses this problem by introducing a family of online algorithms with the aim to (i) minimize tenants spectrum allocation costs, (ii) maximize radio resource utilization and (iii) ensure that the service level agreements (SLAs) provided to tenants are satisfied. We focus on improving the performance of prediction-based decisions that are made by a tenant when prediction models lack the desired accuracy. Our evaluations show that the proposed probabilistic approach can automatically adapt to prediction error variance, while largely improving network slice acquisition cost and resource utilization.


CO on a Chip Microfluidics technology has facilitated remarkable miniaturization of chemical synthesis platforms; through electrically gated solution flow and mixing, molecular reactions can be carried out on chips several centimeters across. When it comes to more fundamental dynamics studies, though, which involve probing gas-phase molecules in specific quantum mechanical states, the experiments still tend to require much larger interaction areas. Meek et al. (p. 1699) take a step toward miniaturization in this latter regime by demonstrating the isolation of a cold gas-phase beam of CO molecules just above a microelectrode-decorated chip. The technique relies on rapidly modulated electric fields that trap and then slow down the incoming molecules through dipole interactions. Once brought to a stop, the molecules can be held on the chip for a discrete period and then released to a detector. Trapping a beam of carbon monoxide molecules onto a chip should enable fundamental studies of chemical dynamics. Magnetic trapping of atoms on chips has recently become straightforward, but analogous trapping of molecules has proved to be challenging. We demonstrated trapping of carbon monoxide molecules above a chip using direct loading from a supersonic beam. Upon arrival above the chip, the molecules are confined in tubular electric field traps ~20 micrometers in diameter, centered 25 micrometers above the chip, that move with the molecular beam at a velocity of several hundred meters per second. An array of these miniaturized moving traps is brought to a standstill over a distance of only a few centimeters. After a certain holding time, the molecules are accelerated off the chip again for detection. This loading and detection methodology is applicable to a wide variety of polar molecules, enabling the creation of a gas-phase molecular laboratory on a chip.


The soil fluorine (F) concentration in New Zealand agricultural soils has increased with time as a direct result of the widespread application of phosphate fertilizer to land. Elevated soil F concentrations may potentially harm soil microorganisms, which are important for nutrient cycling and soil formation. Rhizobium leguminosarum is a N2 -fixing soil bacterium that is a fundamental component in New Zealand legume-based pastoral farming. Any impact of F on Rhizobium leguminosarum would have an adverse effect on New Zealand pasture production. In this study, F toxicity to Rhizobium leguminosarum was examined as a first step to develop F guideline values for New Zealand agricultural soils. Bottle-based experiments were conducted to examine the effect of the F- ion on Rhizobium-white clover (Trifolium repens L.) symbiosis by observing nodule morphology and growth. Results indicate that the F- concentration that causes 10% inhibition of Rhizobium respiration (IC10 ) for F- toxicity to Rhizobium leguminosarum was >100 mg F-  L-1 . Significant morphological changes occurred when Rhizobium was exposed to F concentrations of 500 and 1000 mg L-1 . Both light and transmission electron micrographs confirmed that the Rhizobium leguminosarum-white clover interaction was not influenced by F- concentrations >100 mg L-1 . The toxic F- concentration for Rhizobium leguminosarum determined in this study is orders of magnitude higher than the F- concentration in New Zealand agriculture soils under "normal conditions." There appears to be no indication of imminent risk of soil F to Rhizobium leguminosarum.


Unhealthy diet is a primary risk factor for noncommunicable diseases. University student populations are known to engage in health risking lifestyle behaviours including risky eating behaviours. The purpose of this study was to examine eating behaviour patterns in a population of British university students using a two-step cluster analysis. Consumption prevalence of snack, convenience, and fast foods in addition to fruit and vegetables was measured using a self-report "Student Eating Behaviours" questionnaire on 345 undergraduate university students. Four clusters were identified: "risky eating behaviours," "mixed eating behaviours," "moderate eating behaviours," and "favourable eating behaviours." Nineteen percent of students were categorised as having "favourable eating behaviours" whilst just under a third of students were categorised within the two most risky clusters. Riskier eating behaviour patterns were associated with living on campus and Christian faith. The findings of this study highlight the importance of university microenvironments on eating behaviours in university student populations. Religion as a mediator of eating behaviours is a novel finding.


Background: To compare the mean central macular thickness (CMT) and the mean average optic nerve retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in the eyes of patients with a history of optic neuritis and/or multiple sclerosis (MS) using 5 commercially available optical coherence tomography (OCT) instruments. Methods: Cross-sectional study including 46 patients (92 eyes) with a history of optic neuritis and/or MS. Both eyes were imaged on the same day with 5 OCT instruments: 1 time-domain OCT (Stratus) and 4 different Fourier-domain (spectral-domain) OCT (3D OCT-1000, Cirrus, RTVue-100, and Spectralis). Results: Twenty-five patients (50 eyes) were included in the final analysis after excluding patients with diabetes, glaucoma, ocular hypertension, or retinal pathology and inadequate scan quality. Randomized block analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences across instruments (P < 0.001) for both eyes for mean CMT and mean average optic nerve RNFL. When testing for significant differences in measurements from instrument to instrument, some difference was noted between the right and left eyes. Conclusions: Statistically significant differences exist among commercially available OCT instruments in measuring mean CMT and mean average RNFL thickness in patients with optic neuritis and/or MS. These findings likely result from the differences in data acquisition and segmentation algorithm software among OCT instruments. Awareness of these variations among OCT instruments will be important in using these instruments for clinical trials and management of patients with optic neuritis and/or MS.


In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum the U.S. Supreme Court wrongly applied a presumption against extraterritoriality to claims authorized by the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). Even assuming such a presumption properly could extend to the ATS and claims authorized thereunder, the presumption is easily overcome by Congress's unambiguous instruction that the statute encompasses violations of "the law of nations," which includes both substantive and jurisdictional components — including principles of extraterritorial jurisdiction. Early 19th Century case law and congressional reaction thereto clearly demonstrate that Congress expressly invoked "the law of nations" to overturn the Court's imposition of a limiting presumption in the piracy context in order to grant the United States universal jurisdiction over that offense. Rather than rely on this strong indicia of congressional intent, the Court in Kiobel instead seized upon a judicially invented presumption that came into existence twenty years after the ATS was enacted, gave it novel application to a jurisdictional statute and claims authorized thereunder, and then projected it backward in time.Yet Kiobel nonetheless correctly determined that conduct-regulating rules of decision under the ATS derive from international law and that domestic law of the forum, or lex fori, provides procedures and remedies. This framework is consistent with public and private law principles of the law of nations under which the statute ought to be construed. Although this framework should have led the Court to conclude that the claims in Kiobel were actionable, the Court's misunderstanding has not completely erased the possibility of future claims involving foreign elements from being brought under the statute. The Court left the door open for claims that sufficiently "touch and concern" the United States. The Article concludes that, going forward, courts should use international law for the conduct-regulating rules under the ATS and domestic law for procedures and remedies. Jurisdictional principles of the law of nations ought to guide analysis of whether claims involving foreign elements sufficiently touch and concern the United States so as to displace the presumption against extraterritoriality.


In Thailand's early history, prior to the availability of paper and printing technologies, palm leaves were used to record information written by hand. These ancient documents contain invaluable knowledge. By digitising the manuscripts, the content can be preserved and made widely available to the interested community via electronic media. However, the content is difficult to access or retrieve. In order to extract relevant information from the document images efficiently, each step of the process requires reduction of irrelevant data such as noise or interference on the images. The pre-processing techniques serve the purpose of extracting regions of interest, reducing noise from the image and degrading the irrelevant background. The image can then be directly and efficiently processed for feature selection and extraction prior to the subsequent phase of character recognition. It is therefore the main objective of this study to develop an efficient and intelligent image preprocessing system that could be used to extract components from ancient manuscripts for information extraction and retrieval purposes.

The main contributions of this thesis are the provision and enhancement of the region of interest by using an intelligent approach for the pre-processing of ancient Thai manuscripts on palm leaves and a detailed examination of the preprocessing techniques for palm leaf manuscripts. As noise reduction and binarisation are involved in the first step of pre-processing to eliminate noise and background from image documents, it is necessary for this step to provide a good quality output; otherwise, the accuracy of the subsequent stages will be affected. In this work, an intelligent approach to eliminate background was proposed and carried out by a selection of appropriate binarisation techniques using SVM. As there could be multiple binarisation techniques of choice, another approach was proposed to eliminate the background in this study in order to generate an optimal binarised image. The proposal is an ensemble architecture based on the majority vote scheme utilising local neighbouring information around a pixel of interest. To extract text from that binarised image, line segmentation was then applied based on the partial projection method as this method provides good results with slant texts and connected components. To improve the quality of the partial projection method, an Adaptive Partial Projection (APP) method was proposed. This technique adjusts the size of a character strip automatically by adapting the width of the strip to separate the connected component of consecutive lines through divide and conquer, and analysing the upper vowels and lower vowels of the text line. Finally, character segmentation was proposed using a hierarchical segmentation technique based on a contour-tracing algorithm. Touching components identified from the previous step were then separated by a trace of the background skeletons, and a combined method of segmentation.

The key datasets used in this study are images provided by the Project for Palm Leaf Preservation, Northeastern Thailand Division, and benchmark datasets from the Document Image Binarisation Contest (DIBCO) series are used to compare the results of this work against other binarisation techniques. The experimental results have shown that the proposed methods in this study provide superior performance and will be used to support subsequent processing of the Thai ancient palm leaf documents. It is expected that the contributions from this study will also benefit research work on ancient manuscripts in other languages.


The persistence of Salmonella spp. in low moisture foods is a challenge for the food industry as despite control strategies already in place, notable outbreaks still occur. The aim of this study was to characterise isolates of Salmonella, known to be persistent in the food manufacturing environment, by comparing their microbiological characteristics with a panel of matched clinical and veterinary isolates. The gross morphology of the challenge panel was phenotypically characterised in terms of cellular size, shape and motility. In all the parameters measured, the factory isolates were indistinguishable from the human, clinical and veterinary strains. Further detailed metabolic profiling was undertaken using the biolog Microbial ID system. Multivariate analysis of the metabolic microarray revealed differences in metabolism of the factory isolate of S.Montevideo, based on its upregulated ability to utilise glucose and the sugar alcohol groups. The remainder of the serotype-matched isolates were metabolically indistinguishable. Temperature and humidity are known to influence bacterial survival and through environmental monitoring experimental parameters were defined. The results revealed Salmonella survival on stainless steel was affected by environmental temperatures that may be experienced in a food processing environment; with higher survival rates (D25=35.4) at temperatures at 25°C and lower humidity levels of 15% RH, however a rapid decline in cell count (D10=3.4) with lower temperatures of 10°C and higher humidity of 70% RH. Several resident factories strains survived in higher numbers on stainless steel (D25=29.69) compared to serotype matched clinical and veterinary isolates (D25=22.98). Factory isolates of Salmonella did not show an enhanced growth rate in comparison to serotype matched solates grown in Luria broth, Nutrient broth and M9 minimal media indicating that as an independent factor, growth was unlikely to be a major factor driving Salmonella persistence. Using a live / dead stain coupled with fluorescence microscopy revealed that when no longer culturable, isolates of S.Schwarzengrund entered into a viable nonculturable state. The biofilm forming capacity of the panel was characterised and revealed that all were able to form biofilms. None of the factory isolates showed an enhanced capability to form biofilms in comparison to serotype-matched isolates. In disinfection studies, planktonic cells were more susceptible to disinfectants than cells in biofilm and all the disinfectants tested were successful in reducing bacterial load. Contact time was one of the most important factors for reducing bacterial populations in a biofilm. The genomes of eight strains were sequenced. At the nucleotide and amino acid level the food factory isolates were similar to those of isolates from other environments; no major genomic rearrangements were observed, supporting the conclusions of the phenotypic and metabolic analysis. In conclusion, having investigated a variety of morphological, biochemical and genomic factors, it is unlikely that the persistence of Salmonella in the food manufacturing environment is attributable to a single phenotypic, metabolic or genomic factor. Whilst a combination of microbiological factors may be involved it is also possible that strain persistence in the factory environment is a consequence of failure to apply established hygiene management principles.


Background: Currency notes represent a universal medium for transmission of bacteria in the environment and among humans. Care should be taken by those handling these currencies. Aim: To quantitatively assess and compare the total bacterial load of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Proteus species present on the currency notes circulating in the open market area and hospitals in Mangalore city. Methodology: A total of 24 frequently circulated currency notes were collected from open markets and hospitals (12 from each group). They were then deposited in sterile pouches. Samples were collected using moistened cotton swabs and inoculated onto MacConkey agar for bacterial growth. The isolated bacteria were then assessed for the percentage of bacteria and colony-forming units (CFUs) on the notes using standardized microbial analysis. Results: Cultures after microbial analysis showed bacterial contamination with S. aureus, E. coli, Klebsiella, and aerobic spore-bearing bacteria. Approximately >103 CFUs/plate were found. In the hospital group, isolated organisms comprised S. aureus (54%) and E. coli(25%); in the open market areas, E. coli(36%) and S. aureus (38%) were found. Proteus species were not present on any of the samples. Intergroup statistical analysis carried out using the Chi-square test was statistically significant (P = 0.034). Conclusion: The study concluded that the notes from hospitals were contaminated more with S.aureus than in open markets, whereas E. coli was found to be more in open market areas than in hospitals.


With passage of the Food Security Act of 1985 (FSA85), Congress and the Administration set in motion the largest set of conservation measures since the inception of federal soil conservation programs. Although the FSA85 also has sodbuster, swampbuster, cross compliance and conservation easement components, the Conservation Reserve (CR) is the centerpiece. During Congressional deliberations, some participants claimed the CR as a foundation of all future agricultural conservation policy (U.S. Senate).


Single-polarization characteristics in highly birefringent fibers have been investigated by considering the photoelastic effect in the entire cross section of the fiber. It has been shown by stress analysis that the stress-induced birefringence between the two orthogonal polarization modes in the cladding is much smaller than that in the core and the vicinity of the core–cladding interface, which causes differential bending loss for the two polarization modes. A bending loss formula, which takes into account the photoelastic effect, has been derived for each polarization mode. Differential attenuation characteristics and extinction ratios have been investigated for several bending radii using the bending loss formula.


Networks are characterized by nodes and edges. While there has been a spate of recent work on estimating the number of nodes in a network, the edge-estimation question appears to be largely unaddressed. In this work we consider the problem of estimating the average degree of a large network using efficient random sampling, where the number of nodes is not known to the algorithm. We propose a new estimator for this problem that relies on access to node samples under a prescribed distribution. Next, we show how to efficiently realize this ideal estimator in a random walk setting. Our estimator has a natural and simple implementation using random walks; we bound its performance in terms of the mixing time of the underlying graph. We then show that our estimators are both provably and practically better than many natural estimators for the problem. Our work contrasts with existing theoretical work on estimating average degree, which assume that a uniform random sample of nodes is available and the number of nodes is known.


Mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or smart phones are rapidly increasing their graphics and networking capabilities. However, real-time rendering of large terrains is still a challenging task to accomplish in such limited devices. In this paper we describe the principles involved in the design and development of a scalable client-server architecture for hybrid rendering of terrains over wireless networks on mobile devices. We have developed a hybrid adaptive streaming and rendering method based on a server-client approach. The rendering workload is distributed between a server and the clients and the terrain is partitioned into the close-range geometry and the background. The close-range geometry is downloaded from the database and rendered on the mobile client, and the background is portrayed as a view-dependent panoramic impostor and rendered by the server on demand then it is sent on request to the server for display. The system architecture is organized in three levels: the main server, the panorama server and the mobile device client. This architecture provides support for efficient delivery of geometry and impostors to mobile clients according to their capabilities. As a proof of concept, we have implemented a prototype and carried out exhaustive experiments considering different network scenarios and different number of connected clients. The analysis of the server workload and response times shows that our architecture achieves a great scalability and performance even when using low-end mobile devices.


Concretely defined targets are guiding policy efforts and the measures required to achieve national energy and low-carbon transformations in order to reach the maximum 2 degree climate change mitigation target agreed at the COP in Paris in 2015. Reducing energy consumption by harnessing the potential of energy efficiency, expanding the use of renewable energy resources, and transforming all sectors into low-energy and low-carbon structures is crucial. Among the G20 states, most states have set targets for renewable energies, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. Yet, it seems that starting points and target units differ a lot between the G20, and hence comparability is difficult. This topical paper presents a synopsis on the current targets within the G20. The relative lack of energy efficiency targets shows that this pillar needs much greater efforts in current and future energy policy.


The circumgalactic medium (CGM) around galaxies is believed to record various forms of galaxy feedback and contain a significant portion of the "missing baryons" of individual dark matter halos. However, clear observational evidence for the existence of the hot CGM is still absent. We use intervening galaxies along 12 background active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as tracers to search for X-ray absorption lines produced in the corresponding CGM. Stacking Chandra grating observations with respect to galaxy groups and different luminosities of these intervening galaxies, we obtain spectra with signal-to-noise ratios of 46–72 per 20 mÅ spectral bin at the expected O vii Kα line. We find no detectable absorption lines of C vi, N vii, O vii, O viii, or Ne ix. The high spectral quality allows us to tightly constrain upper limits to the corresponding ionic column densities (in particular ). These nondetections are inconsistent with the Local Group hypothesis of the X-ray absorption lines at z ≃ 0 commonly observed in the spectra of AGNs. These results indicate that the putative CGM in the temperature range of 105.5–106.3 K may not be able to account for the missing baryons unless the metallicity is less than 10% solar.


The rule of in delectus personae is well rooted in the law of LLCs; no person can by acquisition of an interest in the venture exercise management functions unless and until some threshold of the incumbent members consents to the assignee doing so. The various LLC Acts are abundantly clear as to this protocol. What is less clear, and is typically ignored in the various acts, is the effect of an assignment among the members. Does, in that instance, the assignee succeed to the right to participate in management appurtenant to the assigned interest, or rather are they an assignee with respect thereto?


We investigate the cosmological properties of Galileon models which admit Minkowski space as a stable solution in vacuum. This is motivated by stable, positive tension brane world constructions that give rise to Galileons. We include both conformal and disformal couplings to matter and focus on constraints on the theory that arise because of these couplings. The disformal coupling to baryonic matter is extremely constrained by astrophysical and particle physics effects. The disformal coupling to photons induces a cosmological variation of the speed of light and therefore distorsions of the Cosmic Microwave Background spectrum which are known to be very small. The conformal coupling to baryons leads to a variation of particle masses since Big Bang Nucleosynthesis which is also tightly constrained. We consider the background cosmology of Galileon models coupled to Cold Dark Matter (CDM), photons and baryons and impose that the speed of light and particle masses respect the observational bounds on cosmological time scales. We find that requiring that the equation of state for the Galileon models must be close to -1 now restricts severely their parameter space and can only be achieved with a combination of the conformal and disformal couplings. This leads to large variations of particle masses and the speed of light which are not compatible with observations. As a result, we find that cosmological Galileon models are viable dark energy theories coupled to dark matter but their couplings, both disformal and conformal, to baryons and photons must be heavily suppressed making them only sensitive to CDM.


Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate may interfere with the normal endocrine function of humans and other animals, affecting their growth, development, behavior and reproductive ability. This study examined the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature, pH and dibutyl phthalate (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate concentration, on the breeding by zebra fish. Gene confirmation was used to determine the effect of phthalate (2-ethyhexy) phthalate in vivo on the growth, development, behavior and reproductive ability of zebra fish.


This book provides a comprehensive introduction to modern auction theory and its important new applications. It is written by a leading economic theorist whose suggestions guided the creation of the new spectrum auction designs. Aimed at graduate students and professionals in economics, the book gives the most up-to-date treatments of both traditional theories of 'optimal auctions' and newer theories of multi-unit auctions and package auctions, and shows by example how these theories are used. The analysis explores the limitations of prominent older designs, such as the Vickrey auction design, and evaluates the practical responses to those limitations. It explores the tension between the traditional theory of auctions with a fixed set of bidders, in which the seller seeks to squeeze as much revenue as possible from the fixed set, and the theory of auctions with endogenous entry, in which bidder profits must be respected to encourage participation.


Rapid urbanization, climate change, resource depletion, the desire for more sustainable development and widespread use of the Internet and mobile phones are major challenges for urban planning. While the smart city model is seen as a means to cope with these challenges, it is often reduced to an amalgam of technologies. Citizens are usually seldom included in the planning process, though the knowledge they produce and can share on how they use and live in the city is extremely valuable. Digital technologies create an opportunity to reshape the planning process by improving interactions and information exchanges among urban planners and citizens, which are central in the move towards more sustainable, responsive planning. This research aims to answer the following two questions: (1) how is digital participation changing the role citizens play in urban planning and decision making processes? and, (2) what are the advantages and limitations of involving citizens in these processes through digital tools? This paper explores how digital tools can be harnessed to enhance citizen involvement in the planning process. We will give an overview of how these tools can inform urban planning by providing citizen-centric data to foster more inclusive and responsive planning. This paper identifies both the opportunities - particularly in terms of data production and exchange – and limitations of digital tools.


Two ophiolite outcrops at Oramar and Karadađ, SE Turkey, of possible Upper Cretaceous age, occupy the same tectonic position on the northern margin of the African-Arabian continental crust as the Troodos, Kizildađ, Baer Bassit, and Oman ophiolites. Field relationships suggest that they were generated in a marginal basin. Southward subduction under the northern extension of the Arabian plate probably resulted in island are volcanism and metamorphism, as well as development of a marginal basin to the S in the Late Cretaceous. Continental convergence caused displacement of the marginal basin ophiolites as well as the northern are-trench complex southward onto the Arabian shelf towards the end of the Cretaceous and Tertiary. Another possibility is that the ophiolites are products of a leaky trans-tensional faults activated by changes in relative plate motions during the Upper Cretaceous.


The Atacama Desert, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes in northern Chile and southern Peru, is one of the driest regions on the planet. In spite of the extreme aridity, the Atacama is traversed by the Rio Loa, a perennial river which owes its continuous flow to precipitation and runoff at high elevations (>4000 m) along the western Andes, and the emergence of groundwater from thick alluvial aquifers. Water within the Rio Loa is an extremely important resource, but its water and sediment are contaminated, exhibiting levels of trace metals and metalloids that exceed drinking water standards (e.g., for arsenic) and threshold effect guidelines for aquatic biota (e.g., for copper, cadmium, antimony, and zinc). Previous studies, combined with data collected in 2009, suggest that trace metals/metalloids are derived from multiple sources, including El Tatio (a large geyser basin) and three large copper mines. Determination of the relative contribution of contaminants to the river from the geyser basin and the mines has proven problematic using spatial patterns in arsenic concentrations. This study utilizes both total elemental concentrations (arsenic, antimony, copper, and lead) along with isotopes of antimony and lead to distinguish contaminant sources in the Rio Loa. Additionally, a sequential extraction procedure provided additional geochemical understanding of the elemental dispersal pathways via sediment binding.
Isotopes of antimony and lead did not provide enough information to distinguish contaminant sources. Total concentrations of arsenic, antimony, and copper proved to be more informative, the largest source of copper contamination was determined to be the copper mining operations of El Abra, Radiomiro Tomic, and Chuquicamata. But mining did not input significant quantities of arsenic or antimony, both of which were found in very high concentrations within the Rio Loa. Results showed that El Tatio Geyser Basin input most of the arsenic and antimony contamination. For this reason, a ratio of antimony/copper proved to be a good contaminant tracer to distinguish and quantify contaminated sediment from El Tatio and mining operations. This ratio was applied to floodplain cores and older terrace deposits to determine how sediments have been distributed within the basin over time.
The El Tatio Geyser Basin proved to be the largest contaminator within the Rio Loa basin, mostly due to older terrace deposits, which are high in contamination from El Tatio, continually being eroded and re-worked into the floodplains and channel bed deposits of the lower reaches of the Rio Loa. Contaminated sediment from copper mining operations was not as relevant of a concern because copper transport downstream is inhibited by its adsorption onto Fe-Mn oxide rich particles, which are quickly deposited and/or diluted within the Rio San Salvador (a tributary) before reaching the Rio Loa.


www.ids.ac.uk Learning about Theories of Change for the Monitoring and Evaluation of Research Uptake This paper captures lessons from recent experiences on using 'theories of change' amongst organisations involved in the research–policy interface. The literature in this area highlights much of the complexity inherent in the policymaking process, as well as the challenges around finding meaningful ways to measure research uptake. As a tool, 'theories of change' offers much, but the paper argues that the very complexity and dynamism of the research-to-policy process means that any theory of change will be inadequate in this context. Therefore, rather than overcomplicating a static depiction of change at the start (to be evaluated at the end), incentives need to be in place to regularly collect evidence around the theory, test it periodically, and then reflect and reconsider its relevance and assumptions. ILT BRIEF 14 SEPTEMBER 2013


Adaptive scientific computations require that periodic repartitioning (load balancing) occur dynamically to maintain load balance. Hypergraph partitioning is a successful model for minimizing communication volume in scientific computations, and partitioning software for the static case is widely available. In this paper, we present a new hypergraph model for the dynamic case, where we minimize the sum of communication in the application plus the migration cost to move data, thereby reducing total execution time. The new model can be solved using hypergraph partitioning with faced vertices. We describe an implementation of a parallel multilevel repartitioning algorithm within the Zoltan load-balancing toolkit, which to our knowledge is the first code for dynamic load balancing based on hypergraph partitioning. Finally, we present experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a Linux cluster with up to 64 processors. Our new algorithm compares favorably to the widely used ParMETIS partitioning software in terms of quality, and would have reduced total execution time in most of our test cases.


A fast method is developed for value-at-risk and expected shortfall prediction for univariate asset return time series exhibiting leptokurtosis, asymmetry and conditional heteroskedasticity. It is based on a GARCH-type process driven by noncentral t innovations. While the method involves the use of several shortcuts for speed, it performs admirably in terms of accuracy and actually outperforms highly competitive models. Most remarkably, this is the case also for sample sizes as small as 250.


Speech to personal assistants (e.g., reminders, calendar entries, messaging, voice search) is often uttered under cognitive load, causing nonfinal pausing that can result in premature recognition cut-offs. Prior research suggests that prepausal features can discriminate final from nonfinal pauses, but it does not reveal how speakers would behave if given longer to pause. To this end, we collected and compared two elicitation corpora differing in naturalness and task complexity. The Template Corpus (4409 nonfinal pauses) uses keyword-based prompts; the Freeform Corpus (8061 nonfinal pauses) elicits open-ended speech. While nonfinal pauses are longer and twice as frequent in the Freeform data, prepausal feature modelling is roughly equally effective in both corpora. At a response latency of 100 ms, prepausal features modelled by an SVM reduced cut-off rates from 100% to 20% for both corpora. Results have implications for enhancing turn-taking efficiency and naturalness in personal-assistant technology.


This article addresses the role that 'civilisation rallying' (sometimes known as the 'kin-country syndrome') had in the orientation of both North American countries, Canada and the United States, towards the First World War, with special emphasis upon how France was being reconceptualised in debates taking place in each. France may have been 'ousted' from the geostrategic reality of North America back in 1763, but it had an uncanny way of failing to disappear. In fact, you could almost say that as strategic actors about to play an 'independent' role in global and European affairs, for both Canada and the US it was a case of France's having been 'present at their creation'. But while France figured in both North American countries' kin-country rallying, it did so for different reasons. Notwithstanding the differences, the pull of a transatlantic 'collective identity' whose European point of reference for the North Americans was France (along, of course, with Britain) was packed with tremendous policy significance, and never more so than in the critical year, 1917.


Background: Practical training on hospital wards is a major component of basic nurse training. With this in mind, there were concerns with respect to the ability to provide nursing students with the quality of clinical experience that is required as a result of changes in the Barbados nursing policy to increase the number of students. Aim: The overall aim of this research was to understand student nurses' clinical placement learning experience at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, based on their current and desired clinical experiences. Research objectives: (1) to examine the student nurses' current learning experiences at the hospital; (2) to determine the student nurses' desired experiences at the hospital; and, (3) to compare and contrast their current clinical experience with their desired experience by integrating the data across the quantitative and qualitative studies. Design: A sequential explanatory mixed methods research. Methods: First study: The Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) (current and desired form) and the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) questionnaires were distributed to second and third year student nurses (n = 191) at the Barbados Community College. Descriptive and inferential analysis performed. Second study: Qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 10) among second and third year student nurses analysed thematically. Results: Quantitative survey (First study): 'Student satisfaction' (mean 25.74 of 35), 'Task orientation' (mean 25.62 of 35), the 'Leadership style of the ward sister' (mean 4.02 of 5) and 'Premises of nursing care on the ward' (mean 4.01 of 5) greatly informed students' actual hospital experience. The current and desired hospital experiences were statistically significant different (z = 6.68 to 8.07, p = 0.000). Qualitative interviews (Second study): Four overarching themes were generated: 'Engaged, proactive and communicative team'; 'No cohesion among team'; 'Students – willing to learn and motivated'; and, 'Consequences – positive and negative'. Overarching findings from both studies: Four major topics describe the student nurses' experiences: 'Engagement of the ward nursing team', 'The nature of nursing care delivery', 'Clinical supervision and teaching of nursing students on the ward', and 'Nursing student satisfaction'. Conclusion: The ward sister influences the ward team spirit and students' clinical learning, negatively or positively. Nurse educators should acknowledge the value of clear, well organised ward activities on students' learning. Clinical nursing curricula should be based on a blended educational learning perspective.


Introduction by Dr. William H. Lewis George Washington University THE ACTIONS BY THE UNITED NATIONS Security Council in the matter of Iraq's attempt to annex Kuwait have lead some observers to conclude that the United Nations is now well positioned to play a consequential role in the maintenance of international order. The coalition formed to meet Iraq's aggression included thirty-seven member states from five continents. This successful action represented a significant precedent for future preventive diplomacy and collective security actions by the world body. As one senior Canadian official somewhat exuberantly observed, a powerful message has been sent: "the United Nations, can as it was intended, safeguard world order and security." The organization had been playing a stellar role in the cause of peace for a number of years. Prior to the 1990-91 Gulf War, the United Nations had been accorded recognition for its contributions to peace and stability. In September 1988, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the organization's efforts in the field. At the time of the award, observer forces were in Afghanistan and Pakistan monitoring Soviet troop withdrawals from Afghanistan; 350 men were on duty in the Gulf to serve as a buffer between Iraq and Iran in compliance with a United Nations cease-fire resolution; concomitantly, the Secretary-General was organizing a peacekeeping unit for deployment to Namibia, and was preparing for future involvement in conflicts in the Western Sahara, Kampuchea, and Central America. The invasion of Kuwait by the forces of Saddam Hussein on August 2, 1990 was a qualitatively different situation, however. As President Bush noted, it represented the first major crisis to confront the international community in the post-Cold War period. The crisis would ultimately require the organization of massive military efforts to force the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Even more critically, in the wake of the war, the Security Council took several punitive actions against Iraq that could serve as precedent in dealing with future acts of aggression. Most notable: * Creation of a special agency to monitor the destruction of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; * Determination of the circumstances and the conditions under which Iraq may export its oil and related products; and * Deployment of monitors to ensure humanitarian treatment by Baghdad of its Kurdish and Shiite communities. These were more than onerous cease-fire conditions; rather, they signalled the Security Council's determination to penalize the Iraqi regime with terms that were the political and legal equivalent of the Versailles Treaty. On the other hand, the mood of high expectation regarding future United Nations performance in the cause of peace encountered in the United States was not widely shared by other member states. The new-found unity among the permanent members of the Security Council has been greeted with ambivalence by others, many feeling themselves threatened by American "hegemony" or potentially marginalized by the "Big Five." To address these developments and their implications for the US military, the Institute for National Strategic Studies of the National Defense University organized a series of conferences and special seminars, beginning in October 1991. The meetings brought together an outstanding group of senior officials, officers of flag rank, and national security policy specialists. The most recent meeting in the series-a one-day seminar convened on November 17, 1992-assessed problems confronted by United Nations military leaders as they engaged in peacekeeping missions. Their observations, frequently candid, provide useful insights regarding problems of effective command and control. To make the results of these meetings available to a wider audience, we are re-publishing the previously published proceedings as a McNair Paper. …


Trace methane detection in the parts per million range is reported using a novel detection scheme based on optical emission spectra from low temperature atmospheric pressure microplasmas. These bright low-cost plasma sources were operated under non-equilibrium conditions, producing spectra with a complex and variable sensitivity to trace levels of added gases. A data-driven machine learning approach based on partial least squares discriminant analysis was implemented for CH4 concentrations up to 100 ppm in He, to provide binary classification of samples above or below a threshold of 2 ppm. With a low-resolution spectrometer and a custom spectral alignment procedure, a prediction accuracy of 98% was achieved, demonstrating the power of machine learning with otherwise prohibitively complex spectral analysis. This work establishes proof of principle for low cost and high-resolution trace gas detection with the potential for field deployment and autonomous remote monitoring.


Background and aim: The aim of this prospective, observational study was to evaluate the potential benefit of nalbuphine in paediatric adenotonsillectomy in comparison to alfentanil in the terms of the emergence delirium and other procedural adverse events. Methods: Monitored adverse events were tachycardia, dyspnoea, hypotension, hypertension and emergence agitation according to the adapted Watcha scale. All eligible patients were given oral premedication and general anaesthesia was induced using inhalational or intravenous route. Patients were given nalbuphine (0.1-0.2 mg.kg-1) or alfentanil (10-15 ug.kg-1) and had all requested data recorded in the study form (age, study group, metamizole usage, body weight, total dose of nalbuphine or alfentanil, ASA, studied parameters). Results: Total of 122 patients were enrolled for this study, 8 patients were excluded because of incomplete study form. This resulted in study population of 114 patients. All patients were ASA I–II. No differences in age or body weight were observed. Emergence agitation was significantly (p=0.024) more frequent in the Alfentanil group (39.66%) than in Nalbuphine group (19.64%). Tachycardia was significantly more frequent in younger patients. Dyspnoea was significantly dose-dependent and more frequent in lower dosages (p=0.045). Hypertension was more frequent in patients with higher grade of agitation, but statistically significant only in the Alfentanil group (p=0.044). Conclusion: Nalbuphine in the setting of paediatric adenotonsillectomy makes a good alternative to short acting opioid and postoperative analgesia using NSAID or other nonopioid analgesics. Our results show that nalbuphine provides less emergence agitation and therefore provides a patient better early postoperative outcome.


The massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology has great potential to manage the rapid growth of wireless data traffic. Massive MIMO achieves tremendous spectral efficiency by spatial multiplexing many tens of user equipments (UEs). These gains are only achieved in practice if many more UEs can connect efficiently to the network than today. As the number of UEs increases, while each UE intermittently accesses the network, the random access functionality becomes essential to share the limited number of pilots among the UEs. In this paper, we revisit the random access problem in the Massive MIMO context and develop a reengineered protocol, termed strongest-user collision resolution (SUCRe). An accessing UE asks for a dedicated pilot by sending an uncoordinated random access pilot, with a risk that other UEs send the same pilot. The favorable propagation of massive MIMO channels is utilized to enable distributed collision detection at each UE, thereby determining the strength of the contenders' signals and deciding to repeat the pilot if the UE judges that its signal at the receiver is the strongest. The SUCRe protocol resolves the vast majority of all pilot collisions in crowded urban scenarios and continues to admit UEs efficiently in overloaded networks.


Lingering vacant facilities deteriorate the condition of an urban environment, and, as a consequence, actuate neighboring companies to leave the area as well. In addition, new development efforts keep depleting scarce land resources. In this paper, a framework is presented to match existing vacant facilities to the requirements of potential customers or owners to promote sustainable redevelopment and reuse. Important attributes for facility reuse are identified from literature. To automatically extract these attributes from models and their surroundings, Geospatial information and Building Information Models (BIM) are combined. In the proposed framework, a profile is created for each existing vacant facility by combining BIM and GIS attributes. As a result, these profiles can be matched to the desired BIM model, which the aspiring users have provided, based on a weighted distance calculation. The framework presents the most suitable vacant facilities to the users in order to promote facility reuse. These facility reuse alternatives are evaluated based on a single monetary metric that represents the effort required to partially or fully accommodate the requirements of the aspiring users, which is reflected in the weighted distance between profiles from existing vacant facilities and the facility desired by the end-user. This framework identifies suitable areas for redevelopment after which a process is started that forms an iterative and comprehensive evaluation dialog between demand and supply parties, on multiple scale levels, including various design alternatives to adapt the existing facility to the desires of the consumer and revitalize the surroundings according to Geodesign principles. A proof-of-concept of the framework is presented together with the conceptual system structure. Evaluation of the attributes and the technical implementation of their extraction from BIM and GIS data show the technical feasibility of the approach.


In this blockbusting trade debut, distinguished American professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager interweaves international events and previously unknown personal accounts to give a brilliant new history of the war, its aftermath and its global impact told from American, Korean, Soviet and Chinese sides. This is the first account to examine not only the military, but the social and political aspects of the war across the whole region - and it takes the story up to the present day: for the current wrangles are part of a conflict that has been ongoing for more than seventy years. Drawing on newly accessible diplomatic archives and reports from South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Comission, Jager not only analyses top-level military strategy but also depicts on-the-ground atrocities committed by both side that have never been revealed. The most accessible, up-to-date and balanced account yet written, rich with maps and illustrations, Brothers at War is the thrilling and highly original debut of a historian comparable to Max Hastings or Antony Beevor. It will become the definitive chronicle of the struggle's origins, aftermath, and global impact for years to come. As North Korea enters the headlines again on the 60th anniversary of the armistice, this book provides a vital and comprehensive account of a war between brothers that shaped the current crisis. 'I entered the prison and walked around and discovered the corpses; they were black and covered with flies. I couldn't believe how cruelly these civilians were killed. I thought that it didn't matter whether this was done by the Communists or by our own troops -- it represented the sorrow of a weak people, the tragedy of a civil war.' Yi Chun-yong, a South Korean prison guard recalls a massacre scene at Taejon prison in 1950


Purpose
Nowadays, in this highly dynamic and complex context, companies have to act in a socially responsible and sustainable way to survive, creating shared value. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, through descriptive statistics, the elements that Italian banks identify as strategic to increasing their relational and reputational capital and to being in consonance with stakeholder's expectations.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper investigates the width (number of intermediaries that included the materiality matrix in their non-financial reports) and the depth (number of indicators in the matrix) of the phenomenon to detect the bank's attention on critical topics for their stakeholders.

Findings
The focus is on materiality matrices in order to detect a correspondence among the significant indicators selected by the banks and those value generators for stakeholders. In the perspective used in this work, property is also a stakeholder; indeed, wanting to use the terminology of the viable systems approach, property represents a relevant supra-system as it is critical and influential for the decision makers.

Research limitations/implications
The main limits are the low number of non-financial reports published by Italian banks, and the little information on the type of stakeholder involved in the building of the materiality matrix.

Originality/value
The originality of this work is multifaceted. Primarily, there are no similar studies in the banking sector. The present work intends to go beyond the studies already in the literature on mapping and stakeholder prioritisation as well as on the identification and selection of material themes. Moreover, having found, during the analysis of the banks' reports, the heterogeneity of indicators identified as material, for both banks and stakeholders, the same have been traced back to the related stages identified by Carroll in the pyramid of social responsibility.


Pannexin1 mediates excitotoxicity in neurons and vasoconstriction in vascular smooth muscle. Pannexin1 (Panx1) forms a nonselective channel in cell plasma membranes. NMDA receptors are a type of ionotropic glutamate receptor. Weilinger et al. found a "metabotropic" signaling pathway for NMDA receptors that is involved in excitotoxicity. Ligand binding to both the glutamate site and the modulatory site occupied by glycine or serine triggered excitotoxic signaling in hippocampal neurons through a mechanism that did not involve the channel function of NMDA receptors. Instead, these NDMA receptors formed a heterotrimeric complex with Panx1 and the tyrosine kinase Src, which activated Panx1. Panx1 mediated the cytotoxic current in these neurons. Importantly, a peptide derived from the C-terminal region of Panx1, which contained a site phosphorylated in an NMDA-dependent manner and interfered with this pathway, limited neuronal death and improved sensorimotor function in rodents subjected to experimentally induced stroke. Thus, disrupting this metabotropic NMDA receptor–activated Panx1-Src pathway may be a therapeutic strategy for treating stroke without causing the undesired side effects associated with other NMDA receptor–targeted therapies. NDMA receptors are not the only receptors coupled to Panx1 channels. Billaud et al. found a connection between Panx1 and α1 adrenergic receptors (α1ARs), which are Gq-coupled G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs), in smooth muscle cells. In this case, peptides from a region in the first intracellular loop of Panx1 disrupted vasoconstriction mediated by activation of α1ARs. The tyrosine residue in this region of Panx1 was required for α1AR-mediated vasoconstriction in mice, suggesting that phosphorylation may be involved in this regulatory pathway as well. These studies highlight "noncanonical" signaling pathways downstream of an ionotropic receptor (NMDA receptors) and a Gq-coupled GPCR (α1ARs). N. L. Weilinger, A. W. Lohman, B. D Rakai, E. M. Ma, J. Bialecki, V. Maslieieva, T. Rilea, M. V. Bandet, N. T. Ikuta, L. Scott, M. A. Colicos, G. C. Teskey, I. R. Winship, R. J. Thompson, Metabotropic NMDA receptor signaling couples Src family kinases to pannexin-1 during excitotoxicity. Nat. Neurosci. 19, 432–442 (2016). [PubMed] M. Billaud, Y.-H. Chiu, A. W. Lohman, T. Parpaite, J. T. Butcher, S. M. Mutchler, L. J. DeLalio, M. V. Artamonov, J. K. Sandilos, A. K. Best, A. V. Somlyo, R. J. Thompson, T. H. Le, K. S. Ravichandran, D. A. Bayliss, B. E. Isakson, A molecular signature in the pannexin1 intracellular loop confers channel activation by the α1 adrenoreceptor in smooth muscle cells. Sci. Signal. 8, ra17 (2015). [Abstract]