The curious tale of the square tail Appendages in animals are typically round, but the seahorse tail has a square cross section. Porter et al. hypothesize that this shape provides better functionality and strength than a round cross section (see the Perspective by Ashley-Ross). Three-dimensional printed models show that square cross section shapes behave more advantageously when subjected to compressive forces. By allowing greater deformation without damage and accommodating twisting deformations, square appendages passively return to their original configurations. The added flexibility of the square cross section enhances the tail's ability to grasp objects. Science, this issue 10.1126/science.aaa6683; see also p. 30 3D-printed models show that square profile seahorse tails have better crush resistance and grasping ability than do circular ones. [Also see Perspective by Ashley-Ross] INTRODUCTION Although the predominant shapes of most animal tails are cylindrical, seahorse tails are square prisms. The skeleton of their tails consists of a bony armor arranged into several ringlike segments composed of four L-shaped plates that surround a central vertebra. These plates articulate with specialized joints that facilitate bending and twisting, as well as resist vertebral fracture from crushing. Muscles attached to the vertebral column transmit forces to the bony plates to provide motion for grasping and holding on to objects such as sea grasses, mangrove roots, and coral reefs, which allows them to hide and rely on camouflage when evading predators and capturing prey. RATIONALE We hypothesize that the square cross-sectional architecture of a seahorse tail improves mechanical performance in prehension (grasping ability) and armored functions (crushing resistance), relative to a cylindrical one. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the mechanics of two three-dimensional (3D)–printed prototypes composed of articulating plates and vertebrae that mimic the natural (square prism) and a hypothetical (cylindrical) tail structure. We compared the bending, twisting, and compressive behavior of the biomimetic prototypes to show that the square profile is better than the circular one for two integrated functions: grasping ability and crushing resistance. RESULTS Seahorse tails (and the prototypes) have three primary joints that enable motion: ball-and-socket, peg-and-socket, and gliding. The ball-and-socket joints connect adjacent vertebrae and constrain bending in both the square and cylindrical prototypes to the same degree, exhibiting a behavior similar to that of a natural seahorse tail. The peg-and-socket joints connect the plates of adjacent segments and substantially restrict twisting in the prototype with a square profile, as compared with the circular one. The square geometry limits excessive torsion and preserves articulatory organization, which could provide seahorses a natural safety factor against torsion-induced damage and assist in tail relaxation. Further, the square architecture is flat (increasing surface contact) and undergoes an exterior shape change when twisted, which could allow seahorses to grasp objects with more control. Gliding joints are present at the plate overlaps along all four sides of both prototypes. Under transverse compression and impact (with a rubber mallet), the plates of the square prototype slide past one another with one degree of translation freedom (analogous to the crushing behavior of a natural seahorse tail), exhibiting a response that is stiffer, stronger, and more resilient than its cylindrical counterpart, whose plates translate and rotate on impact. CONCLUSION Exploration of these biologically inspired designs provides insight into the mechanical benefits for seahorses to have evolved prehensile tails composed of armored plates organized into square prisms. Beyond their intended practical applications, engineering designs are convenient means to answer elusive biological questions when live animal data are unavailable (for example, seahorses do not have cylindrical tails). Understanding the role of mechanics in these prototypes may help engineers to develop future seahorse-inspired technologies that mimic the prehensile and armored functions of the natural appendage for a variety of applications in robotics, defense systems, or biomedicine. Engineering designs answer biological questions. 3D-printed models that mimic a seahorse tail were designed not only for potential engineering applications but also to answer the biological question, why might tails organized into square prisms be better than cylinders? A mechanical comparison of the prototypes shows that articulated square prisms perform better than do cylinders for grasping and resistance to crushing. Whereas the predominant shapes of most animal tails are cylindrical, seahorse tails are square prisms. Seahorses use their tails as flexible grasping appendages, in spite of a rigid bony armor that fully encases their bodies. We explore the mechanics of two three-dimensional–printed models that mimic either the natural (square prism) or hypothetical (cylindrical) architecture of a seahorse tail to uncover whether or not the square geometry provides any functional advantages. Our results show that the square prism is more resilient when crushed and provides a mechanism for preserving articulatory organization upon extensive bending and twisting, as compared with its cylindrical counterpart. Thus, the square architecture is better than the circular one in the context of two integrated functions: grasping ability and crushing resistance.


Tony Kytes is a favourite with the girls but he's not terribly clever. If you meet an old girlfriend and she asks for a ride home in your wagon, do you say yes? And then if you meet the girl you are planning to marry, what do you do? Very soon, Tony is in a great muddle, and does not know how to escape from it. These stories are set in an English country village of the nineteenth century, but Hardy's tales of mistakes and muddles and marriages belong in any place, at any time.


Neuroimaging studies in stroke survivors have suggested that adaptive plasticity occurs following stroke. However, the complex temporal dynamics of neural reorganization after injury make the interpretation of functional imaging studies equivocal. In the present study in adult squirrel monkeys, intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) techniques were used to monitor changes in representational maps of the distal forelimb in the supplementary motor area (SMA) after a unilateral ischemic infarct of primary motor (M1) and premotor distal forelimb representations (DFLs). In each animal, ICMS maps were derived at early (3 wk) and late (13 wk) postinfarct stages. Lesions resulted in severe deficits in motor abilities on a reach and retrieval task. Limited behavioral recovery occurred and plateaued at 3 wk postinfarct. At both early and late postinfarct stages, distal forelimb movements could still be evoked by ICMS in SMA at low current levels. However, the size of the SMA DFL changed after the infarct. In particular, wrist-forearm representations enlarged significantly between early and late stages, attaining a size substantially larger than the preinfarct area. At the late postinfarct stage, the expansion in the SMA DFL area was directly proportional to the absolute size of the lesion. The motor performance scores were positively correlated to the absolute size of the SMA DFL at the late postinfarct stage. Together, these data suggest that, at least in squirrel monkeys, descending output from M1 and dorsal and ventral premotor cortices is not necessary for SMA representations to be maintained and that SMA motor output maps undergo delayed increases in representational area after damage to other motor areas. Finally, the role of SMA in recovery of function after such lesions remains unclear because behavioral recovery appears to precede neurophysiological map changes.


1. Introduction The biggest threat to professional football in modern times is not doping, nor is it the extravagent lifestyles and excesses of football players or the exhorbitant fees paid to secure the services of individual players. It is also not the economic crisis that plays havoc with economies the world over, nor is it gambling or match-fixing. The biggest threat to football today is the unruly behaviour of fans. Events where fans have verbally abused players, chanted racist slogans and pelted the pitch with all kinds of missiles are legion. and then there is hooliganism. Some fans seem to revel in bloody battles with rival fans and police forces. Hooliganism in particular remains an ungly blemish on the face of the beautiful game. Ironically, fan behaviour is also the one variable over which football authorities have the least amount of control. Indirect measures of dealing with troublesome fans have to be employed, such as playing matches in empty stadiums or penalising clubs for their fans' unruly behaviour. Football authorities must also rely on state authorities to intervene and maintain some measure of control. When South Africa entered a bid to host the World Cup, at first unsuccessfully for 2006 and then with success in respect of 2010, the one question on many people's minds were: "What about the hooligans?" and with the Confederations Cup and World Cup approaching rapidly, it is a question which deserves some further attention. Hooliganism may seem to be a modern phenomenon which is closely associated with the modern sport of football. However, a glance through history shows that it is also a problem faced by the ancient Romans. and since the Romans shaped the world's modern legal order, perhaps the football and state authorities can take some guidance from the the way in which the Romans dealt with the problem. 2. Background In Western legal tradition, in particular continental civil law systems based on Roman law, the Roman emperor Justinian I is held in high esteem. It was he who commissioned a series of works which would eventually come to be known as the Corpus Iuris Civilis. and if it was not for this monumental work, Roman law would probably not have survived and exerted the vital influence which it eventually did have on our modern civilisation. However, there is also a dark side to Justinian. Procopius, the Greek historian who lived in the times of Justinian and actually served as legal counsel to Belisarius, one of the leading generals in Justinian's army, tells a tale of corruption, fraud, deceit, oppression, genocide and lawlessness which portrays Justinian in a less than favourable light. 3. The Rise of Hooliganism One aspect of the general lawlessness in the times of Justinian which has significant parallels in modern times, relates to the conduct of spectators at the chariot races. Procopius explains that there were four groups involved in the chariot races, the Blues, Greens, Reds and Whites. The Blues and Greens enjoyed massive support among the people and even Justinian himself was a supporter of the Blues. Initially, these groupings merely determined where the various supporters would be seated in the hippodrome during the chariot races, but in time the rivalry between the Blues and the Greens became very intense. …


The Steckel mill is a reversing rolling mill in which steel strip is coiled after each rolling pass in a heated coilbox positioned on either side of the mill. In addition to the lower capital costs associated with a single stand mill in comparison to multi-stand finishing mills, the Steckel mill offers a high degree of flexibility in the steel rolling process. IPSCO has pioneered the use of the Steckel mill for the production of flat-rolled high-strength steel for linepipe and structural applications. Much of this development has been based on an Nb-microalloying strategy. Niobium plays a key role in development of a fine-grained high strength steel in a number of ways: a) Nb(C,N) precipitation in austenite retards recrystallization effectively refining grain size; b) Solute Nb acts to enhance the hardenability of the steel, promoting formation of an acicular ferrite microstructure; and c) Nb(C,N) precipitation in ferrite subsequent to transformation provides substantial precipitation strengthening. This paper will review the use of niobium in microstructure development during Steckel mill rolling.


Introduction: A descriptive research was conducted for determination of knowledge and practices of medication use of elderly patients hospitalized in surgical clinics. The sample consisted of 128 patients over the age of 60 who were hospitalized at a university hospital with Neurosurgery, General Surgery, Thoraco/Cardio/Vascular Surgery and Urology departments. Materials and Method: For data collection, a questionnaire prepared by the researcher based on the literature was used. The data was collected by the researcher at two stages with face-to-face and telephone interviews by using the questionnaire. For evaluation of the data, percentage calculations and McNemar and Cohran Q tests were used. Results: We determined that elderly patients in surgical clinics did not take their medication in accordance with principles of rational drug use and elderly patients' knowledge of medication use was inadequate althought they demand information on use of medications from health officers, especially physicians. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it is suggested that nurses and all the other members of the medication team should educate elderly patients on rational drug use and further efforts should be made to improve nurses' awareness about rational drug use.


The Kariega Estuary is a freshwater-deprived system due to numerous impoundments in the catchment. This system has had little or no horizontal salinity gradient over the last 15 years, with hypersaline conditions sometimes predominating in the upper reaches. Following high rainfall events in the catchment during the spring of 2006, including a flood event (approximate 1:10 year) in August 2006, a series of riverine pulses entered the estuary and a horizontal salinity gradient was established. This study examined the influence of this freshwater pulse on four components of the biota within the estuary, namely the zooplankton, and larval, littoral and demersal fishes. The study demonstrated that in three of these components elevated densities were recorded following the riverine input, with only the littoral fishes retaining an almost constant density. In addition, changes in the relative contributions of the estuarine utilisation classes for all three fish groups examined indicated that freshwater input into these systems positively influences the abundances. This has significant implications for water managers as it demonstrates the importance of an Ecological Reserve (defined as 'the water required to protect the aquatic ecosystems of the water resource') for this system.


In the seven decades from its establishment in 1775 to the commercialization of the electric telegraph in 1844, the American postal system spurred a communications revolution no less far-reaching than the subsequent revolutions associated with the telegraph, telephone, and computer. This book tells the story of that revolution and the challenge it posed for American business, politics, and cultural life.During the early republic, the postal system was widely hailed as one of the most important institutions of the day. No other institution had the capacity to transmit such a large volume of information on a regular basis over such an enormous geographical expanse. The stagecoaches and postriders who conveyed the mail were virtually synonymous with speed.In the United States, the unimpeded transmission of information has long been hailed as a positive good. In few other countries has informational mobility been such a cherished ideal. Richard John shows how postal policy can help explain this state of affairs. He discusses its influence on the development of such information-intensive institutions as the national market, the voluntary association, and the mass party. He traces its consequences for ordinary Americans, including women, blacks, and the poor. In a broader sense, he shows how the postal system worked to create a national society out of a loose union of confederated states. This exploration of the role of the postal system in American public life provides a fresh perspective not only on an important but neglected chapter in American history, but also on the origins of some of the most distinctive features of American life today.


Cretaceous Gondwana breakup between East Antarctica and India was accompanied or followed by emplacement of the Kerguelen Plateau Large Igneous Province (LIP), north of Prydz Bay. During Polarstern expedition ANT-XXIII/9 in early 2007, deep crustal seismic and helicopter-magnetic surveys were conducted along a corridor between the southern Kerguelen Plateau and the outermost Prydz Bay. These surveys were designed to investigate breakup processes and the effect that the igneous activity had on the formation of the passive margin of East Antarctica and also the apparent oceanic crust between the plateau and the Antarctic margin in the Princess Elizabeth Trough (PET). Preliminary data analysis and modeling reveal a wide zone of highly extended continental crust on the margin of Mac.Robertson Land and that the southernmost Kerguelen Plateau is generally of continental affinity. Seismic velocities and magnetic data indicate an oceanic-type crust beneath the PET. Magmatic accretion to this crust from the Kerguelen LIP is widely observed.


This paper argues that attempts at state-building in Afghanistan have led to institutions that are not robust. The state institutions and organizations continue to be highly dependent on external resources and technical expertise, and lack of critical mass of people able and willing to maintain them when external support recedes. I contend that Afghanistan may have fallen into a 'capability trap' that can lead to an actual decrease in state capacity in spite of an appearance of progress. This capability trap has been facilitated by four conditions; (i) high expectations on the government without sequencing or prioritization, (ii) more weight on immediate results than on establishing capable institutions, (iii) a limited menu of acceptable options for institutional arrangements, leading to strong pressures for simple 'transplantation', and (iv) a top-down model of implementation. Thinking about state-building thus needs to shift towards helping to structure or guide a process through which the problem-solving capacity of a broader range of actors can be brought to the fore, and more contextually fit models can emerge, that are less reliant on external expertise, resources, and legitimacy.


This volume brings together papers that offer conceptual analyses, highlight issues, propose solutions, and discuss practices regarding privacy and data protection. The first section of the book provides an overview of developments in data protection in different parts of the world. The second section focuses on one of the most captivating innovations of the data protection package: how to forget, and the right to be forgotten in a digital world. The third section presents studies on a recurring, and still important and much disputed, theme of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conferences : the surveillance, control and steering of individuals and groups of people and the increasing number of performing tools (data mining, profiling, convergence) to achieve those objectives. This part is illustrated by examples from the domain of law enforcement and smart surveillance. The book concludes with five chapters that advance our understanding of the changing nature of privacy (concerns) and data protection.


Chlorine off-flavors of tap water have caused dissatisfaction and distrust from some consumers, placing pressure on operators concerning water disinfection. Evaluating practical approaches for eliminating chlorinous off-flavors by consumers at point-of-use while avoiding production of toxic byproducts is a practical concern. Three recognized dechlorination methods: ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, ascorbic acid (AA) and hydrogen peroxide (HP), were evaluated for chlorinated and chloraminated waters. AA is the most efficient for removing free chlorine and chloramine from water samples. Three new chlorine-containing compounds were detected and identified from the reaction between AA and chlorine. High doses of UV irradiation at 254 nm virtually eliminated chlorine. HP could effectively remove free chlorine but was not effective for chloramine elimination. AA shows promise as a practical household dechlorination agent. However, to assure consumers about drinking water safety, further investigation is needed to evaluate any potential toxicity concerns for reaction products in treated water.


This paper presents the theory, design principles, implementation and performance results of PicHunter, a prototype content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system. In addition, this document presents the rationale, design and results of psychophysical experiments that were conducted to address some key issues that arose during PicHunter's development. The PicHunter project makes four primary contributions to research on CBIR. First, PicHunter represents a simple instance of a general Bayesian framework which we describe for using relevance feedback to direct a search. With an explicit model of what users would do, given the target image they want, PicHunter uses Bayes's rule to predict the target they want, given their actions. This is done via a probability distribution over possible image targets, rather than by refining a query. Second, an entropy-minimizing display algorithm is described that attempts to maximize the information obtained from a user at each iteration of the search. Third, PicHunter makes use of hidden annotation rather than a possibly inaccurate/inconsistent annotation structure that the user must learn and make queries in. Finally, PicHunter introduces two experimental paradigms to quantitatively evaluate the performance of the system, and psychophysical experiments are presented that support the theoretical claims.


A theory of fault-based program testing is defined and explained. Testing is fault-based when it seeks to demonstrate that prescribed faults are not in a program. It is assumed that a program can only be incorrect in a limited fashion specified by associating alternate expressions with program expressions. Classes of alternate expressions can be infinite. Substituting an alternate expression for a program expression yields an alternate program that is potentially correct. The goal of fault-based testing is to produce a test set that differentiates the program from each of its alternates. A particular form of fault-based testing based on symbolic execution is presented. In symbolic testing, the output from the system is an expression in terms of the input and the symbolic alternative. Equating this with the output from the original program yields a propagation equation whose solutions determine those alternatives which are not differentiated by this test. Since an alternative set can be infinite, it is possible that no finite test differentiates the program from all its alternates. Circumstances are described as to when this can be decided. >


Abstract:The COVID-19 pandemic has created multiple opportunities to deploy artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tools and applied interventions to understand, mitigate, and manage the pandemic and its consequences. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racial/ethnic minority and socially disadvantaged populations underscores the need to anticipate and address social inequalities and health disparities in AI development and application. Before the pandemic, there was growing optimism about AI's role in addressing inequities and enhancing personalized care. Unfortunately, ethical and social issues that are encountered in scaling, developing, and applying advanced technologies in health care settings have intensified during the rapidly evolving public health crisis. Critical voices concerned with the disruptive potentials and risk for engineered inequities have called for reexamining ethical guidelines in the development and application of AI. This paper proposes a framework to incorporate ethical AI principles into the development process in ways that intentionally promote racial health equity and social justice. Without centering on equity, justice, and ethical AI, these tools may exacerbate structural inequities that can lead to disparate health outcomes.


Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often characterized by "a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships" (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 663). There has been limited research, however, to characterize the romantic partners of individuals with this diagnosis. Furthermore, the research to date has resulted in inconsistent findings and focuses exclusively on categorical diagnoses, rather than dimensional personality traits. Therefore, this study sought to characterize the ideal and actual romantic partners of individuals exhibiting BPD traits in terms of the five factor model and determine whether these romantic partnerships support an attraction model of similarity, complementarity, or neither. It was predicted that the ideal romantic partners of individuals exhibiting higher BPD traits would possess five factor traits similar to their own, while their actual romantic partners would possess largely complementary five factor traits. Questionnaires assessing BPD traits, five factor traits, and romantic relationship characteristics were administered to 70 female college undergraduates, and a measure of five factor traits to their current romantic partners. Participants scoring higher on measures of BPD traits were found to desire ideal partners with higher neuroticism, and pair with actual partners with higher neuroticism and lower extraversion and agreeableness. Support was provided for the similarity model of attraction.


The quality of a state's judicial system is an important determinant of economic growth and vitality. The decisions made within state judicial systems affect the degree to which private property rights are well-defined and enforced, which is an essential building block for entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. The key link between free-market institutions, such as secure property rights, and entrepreneurial activity has been demonstrated by Kreft and Sobel (2005) and Ovaska and Sobel (2005). Bad court decisions often infringe on the individual liberties and freedoms that are essential underpinnings for civil society and a well-functioning market economy (see Dorn 1985 and others in that special issue of the Cato Journal on this general topic). In addition, decisions made within state judicial systems also have important effects on the cost of doing business in a state. Poor liability rules reflected in state judicial decisions have been blamed for high medical malpractice rates, high workers" compensation rates, and high automobile insurance rates in many states. Judicial decisions also impact the costliness of mandates and other regulations faced by businesses. Thus, it is clear that the judicial system is important for economic activity, and thus so is the selection mechanism that is used to determine the membership of state courts. States use different methods for the selection of judges. In 29 states, the governor or legislature appoints judges, while in 21 states popular elections are used to select judges. (1) Among those states that elect judges, 8 rely on partisan elections, in which the judicial candidates run as a member of a particular political party, while the 13 other states use nonpartisan elections. (2) The extremely politicized nature of partisan elections casts some doubt on their ability to efficiently select unbiased judges. The 2004 state supreme court election in West Virginia provides a good example. This was the most expensive judicial election in the nation in 2004, with the Democratic incumbent spending $376,000 to the opponents $540,000. In addition, this spending was dwarfed by the spending on political advertisements and publicity by other groups in the state. One pro-incumbent group spent more than $1 million by itself, while the largest anti-incumbent group spent $2.5 million. The organized labor union interests in the state took the incumbent's side while the business associations supported the challenger. The candidates themselves ran on political platforms reflecting their party affiliation. The incumbent, well known for his reputation of deciding cases for labor interest and against business interests, stressed this reputation in his media ads, while the challenger outwardly vowed to decide cases in a more business friendly manner if he were to be elected. In partisan election states, citizens are used to this political bias in judicial elections, and there is no veil of judicial decisions being unbiased. Public opinion polls from these partisan election states confirm this claim. Geyh (2003) cites polls from Texas and Ohio that find more than 80 percent of adults believe that campaign contributions to judges running for election have a significant influence on subsequent judicial decisions they make. If an unbiased and fair judicial system is important, it is clear that having judicial candidates run for office on political platforms, with heavy support from labor or business groups, works contrary to this goal. In this article, we focus on two issues related to the determinants of judicial quality. Do states using partisan elections have lower judicial quality? If so, do states with partisan judicial elections have judicial outcomes that clearly differ depending on which political party controls the court? The article proceeds by first reviewing the previous literature on judicial appointment versus judicial election. We then continue by presenting data on the quality of state judicial systems and on other measures of judicial outcomes, and attempt to uncover the impact of partisan elections, and of specific party control. …


The Atlanta Public Schools system has been rocked by a series of reports documenting widespread cheating on the Georgia state tests.  Its reputation, and that of its leaders, has come into question.  In response, former superintendent Hall asserts that, despite any cheating, the city's students made "real and dramatic" progress during her tenure and cites the district's trends on NAEP as part of her evidence (Hall, 2011). In this report, I analyze Atlanta's performance on NAEP during the 2000s to assess this contention. I use diverse indicators:  district trends, national comparisons, grade equivalents, and percentages of students achieving proficiency. My preliminary assessment is that Atlanta's progress has been limited and, in many cases, slowed. In spite of a decade of effort, Atlanta's students still lag 1-2 years behind national averages and vast percentages do not even reach NAEP's basic level. Less than a fourth of its 4th and 8th graders achieve proficiency, a key national goal; in some subjects and grades, it is as few as a tenth. At current rates, it will take from 50 to 110 years to bring all students to proficiency. Such findings raise profound questions about current approaches to school reform, including No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.  The emphasis on targets and testing is failing and has contributed to cheating across the nation. More fundamentally, it has greatly distorted teaching and undermined authentic learning.  While test tampering is a serious problem, we need to re-conceptualize what we mean by cheating.  Every day, test-driven, bureaucratically controlled institutions are cheating tens of millions of students out of a genuine education. That is the real scandal.


Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, financial collapses, and other crisis situations have occupied public attention to an unprecedented degree in recent years. In the face of these events, the study of risk and crisis management is becoming more important than ever before. This book is a clear and comprehensive guide to the most common emergency situations of our day, giving succinct, practical advice on how best to avoid them if possible, how to minimize loss and damage once they have occurred, and how best to recover sustainably. The 101 cases presented here cover both natural and man-made disasters, drawing on recent and current case histories to propose workable solutions for governments, corporations and ordinary people facing extraordinary times.This revised and expanded edition of the authors' 1999 book, Survival - Simulation of Risk and Crisis Management 69, is written in an accessible style and contains the latest research in the field. It will benefit laypeople, professionals, and academics alike. In particular, safety professionals, public management professionals, CEOs, CIOs, tertiary students and researchers will appreciate its pragmatic, vigilant approach to dealing with and recovering from natural and man-made disasters in the interest of long-term survival and sustainability.


The preservation of meaning between inputs and outputs is perhaps the most ambitious and, often, the most elusive goal of systems that attempt to process natural language. Nowhere is this goal of more obvious importance than for the tasks of machine translation and paraphrase generation. Preserving meaning between the input and the output is paramount for both, the monolingual vs bilingual distinction notwithstanding. In this thesis, I present a novel, symbiotic relationship between these two tasks that I term the "circle of meaning".
Today's statistical machine translation (SMT) systems require high quality human translations for parameter tuning, in addition to large bi-texts for learning the translation units. This parameter tuning usually involves generating translations at different points in the parameter space and obtaining feedback against human-authored reference translations as to how good the translations. This feedback then dictates what point in the parameter space should be explored next. To measure this feedback, it is generally considered wise to have multiple (usually 4) reference translations to avoid unfair penalization of translation hypotheses which could easily happen given the large number of ways in which a sentence can be translated from one language to another. However, this reliance on multiple reference translations creates a problem since they are labor intensive and expensive to obtain. Therefore, most current MT datasets only contain a single reference. This leads to the problem of reference sparsity—the primary open problem that I address in this dissertation—one that has a serious effect on the SMT parameter tuning process.
Bannard and Callison-Burch (2005) were the first to provide a practical connection between phrase-based statistical machine translation and paraphrase generation. However, their technique is restricted to generating phrasal paraphrases. I build upon their approach and augment a phrasal paraphrase extractor into a sentential paraphraser with extremely broad coverage. The novelty in this augmentation lies in the further strengthening of the connection between statistical machine translation and paraphrase generation; whereas Bannard and Callison-Burch only relied on SMT machinery to extract phrasal paraphrase rules and stopped there, I take it a few steps further and build a full English-to-English SMT system. This system can, as expected, "translate" any English input sentence into a new English sentence with the same degree of meaning preservation that exists in a bilingual SMT system. In fact, being a state-of-the-art SMT system, it is able to generate n-best "translations" for any given input sentence. This sentential paraphraser, built almost entirely from existing SMT machinery, represents the first 180 degrees of the circle of meaning.
To complete the circle, I describe a novel connection in the other direction. I claim that the sentential paraphraser, once built in this fashion, can provide a solution to the reference sparsity problem and, hence, be used to improve the performance a bilingual SMT system. I discuss two different instantiations of the sentential paraphraser and show several results that provide empirical validation for this connection.


We have presented a bistable transflective cholesteric light shutter. The shutter contains dual-frequency cholesteric liquid crystals that incorporate a photocurable monomer. The electro-optical properties and optical microscope images of the shutter were examined. Good correlations between the cholesteric textures and optical properties of the shutters were obtained. The shutter was switched into a wide-band homogeneous transmission mode by a low frequency voltage pulse, and into a selective reflection mode using a high-frequency voltage pulse. The concentration of the monomer apparently affected the electro-optical characteristics of the shutter.


Design-by-Analogy (DbA) is a design methodology wherein new solutions, opportunities or designs are generated in a target domain based on inspiration drawn from a source domain; it can benefit designers in mitigating design fixation and improving design ideation outcomes. Recently, the increasingly available design databases and rapidly advancing data science and artificial intelligence technologies have presented new opportunities for developing data-driven methods and tools for DbA support. In this study, we survey existing data-driven DbA studies and categorize individual studies according to the data, methods, and applications in four categories, namely, analogy encoding, retrieval, mapping, and evaluation. Based on both nuanced organic review and structured analysis, this paper elucidates the state of the art of data-driven DbA research to date and benchmarks it with the frontier of data science and AI research to identify promising research opportunities and directions for the field. Finally, we propose a future conceptual data-driven DbA system that integrates all propositions.


The purpose of the present research was to explore practitioners' perspectives on play therapy as an intervention when working with a child who has experienced trauma, has present PTSD symptoms and has a co-morbid mental health diagnosis. Play therapy has been accepted as an effective intervention to utilize with children who have been exposed to trauma (Schaefer, 1994). However, there is currently limited research evaluating play therapy as an intervention with children who have been traumatized and have developed PTSD or other mental health symptoms/disorders. The current study aimed to supplement the gap in existing research. Two agencies that serve early childhood mental health clients agreed to participate in the present study by completing an online survey. Data was gathered from 22 practitioner respondents. The results indicate that practitioners believe that play therapy is an effective intervention when treating children with trauma histories, PTSD symptoms, and mental health disorders. The results of the present research support findings from previous literature regarding play therapy when used as an intervention for treating trauma and/or mental health disorders. Furthermore, the present research confirms the notion that creating a safe space for their clients using play therapy is an important part of the intervention process. Given the gap in research surrounding play therapy as an intervention when PTSD and a co-morbid mental health disorders occur concurrently, further research would be beneficial to the field of social work and would positively inform the practitioners who work in early intervention settings. PRACTITIONERS' PERSPECTIVES 2


Using Baccalaureate and Beyond data, I study whether university quality, both absolute and relative to other universities in the region, affects earnings one and ten years after graduation, controlling for the individual's SAT score. One year after graduation, high SAT score students earn 12% less if their university's regional rank is worse by 35 places, conditional on absolute university quality. This effect disappears ten years after graduation. The results suggest initial job quality does not have long-run career effects. The results also confirm the initial importance of a university's regional rank, an often overlooked dimension of university quality.


Context: Modern concepts of operative dentistry, popularly known as Minimal intervention dentistry, propose that only the infected dentin should be removed, leaving the affected dentine that has the potential to remineralize. Mineralization of the tooth structure left in the cavity is likely to occur due to the application of fluoride- releasing material such as glass ionomer cement (GIC). Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the remineralizing potential of GIC can be enhanced with the addition of zinc acetate. Study Design: An experimental in vitro intergroup randomized control trial. Materials and Methods: This study consisted of three groups. Group I was conventional GIC, Group II was GIC with 1% zinc acetate and Group III was GIC with 2% zinc acetate. Thirty human premolars (10 in each group) extracted for therapeutic reasons were used in the first part of this study. Standardized class V cavities were prepared on the buccal and lingual surfaces. Teeth were sectioned longitudinally to get one buccal and one lingual half, in which one half was used as the control and the other half was used as the test specimen. Artificial caries- like lesions were produced and subsequently restorations of experimental specimens were performed. The depth of demineralization and remineralization were photographed under a polarized light microscope and quantified using a computerized imaging system. In the second part of the study, fluoride ions released were measured after 24 h and 7 days using an ion sensitive electrode. In the third part of the study, the setting time was calculated using Vicker's apparatus, as the time elapsed from the beginning of mixing till the time when the needle could no more make a circular indentation on the cement. In the fourth part, specimens prepared using Teflon moulds of standardized dimensions were subjected to shear bond strength analysis using a universal testing machine. Statistical Analysis: The obtained results were subjected to statistical analysis using Student's paired and unpaired 't' test, One way ANOVA, Post hoc Tukey's test. Results: In part one of the study, Group III showed the highest amount of remineralization, followed by Group II. All the groups showed statistically highly significant (P < 0.001) zones of remineralization; the difference between the groups was statistically highly significant (P < 0.001) as well. Part two of the study showed that fluoride release was highest in Group III, the difference being statistically highly significant from Group II and Group I at both the time intervals (P < 0.001). However, the amount of fluoride ions released on the 7 th day were lesser than that at 24 h in all the groups (P < 0.001). Parts three and four of the study showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups with respect to setting time and shear bond strength (P = 0.82 and 0.64, respectively). Conclusions: Incorporation of zinc acetate to glass ionomer at 2% w/w was effective in enhancing the remineralization property and fluoride release of the cement without affecting its setting time and shear bond strength.


This study investigated comparatively the genetic influence on the susceptibility of exotic cockerels, pullets and broilers to natural infection with infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus in a flock of 150 seven-week-old exotic breed of chickens comprising of 50 Black Harco cockerels, 50 Black Harco pullets and 50 White Marshall broilers. Evaluation of possible genetic resistance was based on clinical signs, mortality and pathological changes in affected chicks. The virus was highly pathogenic for cockerels and pullets as clinical signs were evident on day 1 after the onset of the infection with hundred percent (100%) of the cockerels and pullets showing severe clinical disease on day 2 of the infection, while the broilers had the shortest timing as clinical signs were evident with 8% morbidity on day 2 of the infection only. The clinical signs were severe depression, diarrhoea, anorexia, prostration followed by death. Mortality was 92%, 78% and 6% for cockerels, pullets and broilers, respectively, within 3 days of the infection followed by recovery. Severe haemorrhages were present in the skeletal muscles, bursa, proventriculus-gizzard junction and caecal tonsils of dead cockerels and pullets only, while dead broilers showed only swollen bursae. Histologic lesions showed marked oedema, congestion of blood vessels, haemorrhages and necroses in the skeletal muscles, kidney, liver, and thymus of cockerels and pullets. Lymphocytic necrosis and depletion were marked in the spleen and caecal tonsils of the cockerels and pullets. Marked lymphoid depletion, oedema and heterophilic infiltrations were observed at day 2 of the infection in the bursae of cockerels, pullets and broilers. Assessing the clinical signs and lesions observed from affected chickens revealed that broiler is the least susceptible. It also revealed that within the Black Harco breed, cockerels are more susceptible to clinical IBD than the pullets. The low morbidity and mortality, and differential lesions observed in broilers indicated probable genetic resistance to clinical IBD. Keywords: Infectious bursal disease, chickens, breeds, susceptibility disease pattern, pathology


An academically rigorous and beautiful new publication on a crucial chapter in fashion history London Couture is the first book to examine, in detail, the luxurious garments produced by the rarefied London couture industry - from lavish ballgowns to sharply tailored suits and spectacular court dress - as well as the designers who conceived them, their clients and the prestigious publications that disseminated and promoted the 'London Look' to an international audience. Expert authors from around the world have delved into museum collections, as well as the archives of prestigious designers, textile suppliers and fashionable journals, to bring together this pioneering study of the London couture houses of the early to midtwentieth century, renowned for their superb craftsmanship and attention to detail.

The full breadth of London's offering is examined, from royal favourite Norman Hartnell to pioneer Charles James, and prestigious houses such as Lucile, Worth and Hardy Amies. The ancillary dressmaking trades in London are also considered, as are the international markets for London couture, and the impact of royal dress on high-end fashion.A wealth of visual material supports the extensive, original research - from beautiful features by celebrated photographer Norman Parkinson to the elegant illustrations of Francis Marshall. Previously unseen garments are illustrated throughout the book, alongside historical photography that documents the houses of the great designers, their favoured fabrics and their most glamorous clients, including Queen Elizabeth II, Margot Fonteyn, and many stars of stage and screen.

Edwina Ehrman and Amy de la Haye co-edited this book, and authored several chapters in addition to the co-authored Introduction and Conclusion.


The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we show that functionally motivated procedural approaches may help to automatically extract typological features from texts. This idea is illustrated with measuring cross-linguistic variation in the domain of morphological typology based on parallel texts. Second, we demonstrate that the methodology developed in the field of visual analytics allows for detecting patterns or regularities in the automatically extracted features. At the heart of our approach lies an extended sunburst visualization, which enables a cross-comparison of a large number of features within the context of language genealogy and areal information. We provide evidence of the usefulness of the present approach with case studies where the visualizations of the extracted features reveal interesting insights.


This article describes results of a systematic review of social marketing physical activity interventions targeting adults 60 years and over. Thirty-four articles covering seven social marketing interventions were identified following systematic literature review procedures. None of the identified interventions gave evidence that they addressed all six social marketing benchmark criteria; three interventions addressed five social marketing benchmark criteria and a further three interventions addressed four social marketing benchmark criteria. Four interventions reported positive behavior change, and no negative behavioral changes were reported among all seven social marketing interventions. Previous research shows that social marketing interventions employing all six benchmark criteria offer greater potential to change behaviors, yet none of the interventions in this review used all of the benchmark criteria. Audience segmentation and exchange were used by only three interventions.


Snoring noise is generated by vibration of the soft tissues of the upper airway, principally those that form the back of the roof of the mouth (the soft palate) and its conical extension (the uvula). In addition to discord with bed partners, snorers are at much greater risk of obstructive sleep apnoea. This sleep-related breathing disorder is characterised by episodic upper airway obstruction with accompanying sleep disruption and consequent excessive daytime sleepiness, as well as an elevated risk of accidents and cardiovascular disease. The instability that leads to flow-induced oscillations characteristic of inspiratory snoring in the human upper airway may be modelled using a cantilevered flexible plate in a mean channel flow. However, the cantilever in existing models strictly only captures the dynamics of the uvula. In a more complete model, these dynamics will be augmented by their interaction with the motions of the soft palate—itself a flexible structure of higher effective stiffness—from which the uvula extends. To investigate how the elasticity of the soft palate affects uvula motion and their combined susceptibility to flow-induced oscillation a modification is made to the standard model. In a one-dimensional can- tilevered flexible plate we allow thickness to vary as a function of length, thus effecting local changes in inertia and flexural rigidity. The overall cantilever therefore comprises a section representing the soft palate followed by a section of lower thickness that represents the uvula. The cantilever is attached to a rigid wall (hard palate) separating upper (nasal) and lower (oral) inlets of a rigid-walled channel (pharynx) conveying a viscous flow. This model is formulated using the open-source finite-element software library oomph-lib. A parametric study is performed in which the uvula-to-soft palate length and thickness ratios are varied whilst keeping their combined length constant. Results show that there is a critical uvula-length fraction that determines whether the uvula stabilises or destabilises the system. A relatively 'short' uvula swings out of phase with the soft palate and these oscillations are observed to decay; the mode shapes involved are not predicted by a uniform-thickness plate model. By contrast, if the uvula is relatively 'long' the flexible plate motion is isolated to the uvular section and the oscillations grow in amplitude, indicating a net energy transfer from fluid to structure. Increasing the thickness, hence inertia and flexural rigidity, of a 'short' uvula, e.g., by oedema, makes the fluid-structure system more unstable. In this case if the oedema were aggrevated by the vibratory mechanical insult then it would be self-sustaining and imply a bidirectional relationship between snoring and oedema of the uvula. Anatomical variability is common in the lengths of the soft palate and uvula which may make some people more susceptible than others to uvulopalatal snoring. Palatal surgery for snoring has proved highly vari- able in its effectiveness. Modelling of palatal motion using this approach may help guide patient selection for and type of soft-palate surgery applied to treat this common and potentially disabling condition.


ABSTRACT Mobility particle size spectrometers (MPSS) belong to the essential instruments in aerosol science that determine the particle number size distribution (PNSD) in the submicrometer size range. Following calibration procedures and target uncertainties against standards and reference instruments are suggested for a complete MPSS quality assurance program: (a) calibration of the CPC counting efficiency curve (within 5% for the plateau counting efficiency; within 1 nm for the 50% detection efficiency diameter), (b) sizing calibration of the MPSS, using a certified polystyrene latex (PSL) particle size standard at 203 nm (within 3%), (c) intercomparison of the PNSD of the MPSS (within 10% and 20% of the dN/dlogDP concentration for the particle size range 20–200 and 200–800 nm, respectively), and (d) intercomparison of the integral PNC of the MPSS (within 10%). Furthermore, following measurement uncertainties have been investigated: (a) PSL particle size standards in the range from 100 to 500 nm match within 1% after sizing calibration at 203 nm. (b) Bipolar diffusion chargers based on the radioactive nuclides Kr85, Am241, and Ni63 and a new ionizer based on corona discharge follow the recommended bipolar charge distribution, while soft X-ray-based charges may alter faster than expected. (c) The use of a positive high voltage supply show a 10% better performance than a negative one. (d) The intercomparison of the integral PNC of an MPSS against the total number concentration is still within the target uncertainty at an ambient pressure of approximately 500 hPa. Copyright © 2018 Published with license by American Association for Aerosol Research


Overland flow from cropland areas often contains nutrients and residue materials can either contribute to runoff nutrient load through leaching or remove nutrients by sorption. Measurements were made of leaching and sorption of nitrogen and phosphorus from corn (Zea mays L.), soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Pastiche) residues placed in solutions containing inorganic nutrients. Variables used were type of residue material, nutrient constituent, solution concentration, and residue / solution contact time. For a given residue material and nutrient constituent, four different solution concentrations were used (PO4 -P: 0 to 16 g mL -1 ; NO3 -N and NH4 -N: 0 to 24 g mL -1 ), and changes in solution concentration over five selected residue / solution contact times (25 to 86400 sec) were measured. Soybean and wheat residue contained relatively small amounts of NO3 -N and therefore had minimal impact on the NO3 -N content of the solutions. An increase in initial solution concentration did not substantially affect PO4 -P leaching from corn and soybean residue but caused the amount of NH4 -N removed to decrease. As residue solution / contact time increased from 25 to 86400 s (1 day), the amount of PO4 -P leached from corn and soybean residue consistently increased. Wheat residue sorbed PO4 -P with an increase in sorption generally resulting from greater residue solution / contact time. Thus, crop residue materials appear to have the potential to influence the N and P content of runoff through leaching and sorption.


P. Mac Carron, K. Kaski and R. Dunbar, "Calling Dunbar's Numbers", Social Networks, 2016, 47: 151-55. The social brain hypothesis predicts that humans have an average of about 150 relationships at any given time. Within this 150, there are layers of friends of an ego, where the number of friends in a layer increases as the emotional closeness decreases. Here we analyse a mobile phone dataset, firstly, to ascertain whether layers of friends can be identified based on call frequency. We then apply different clustering algorithms to break the call frequency of egos into clusters and compare the number of alters in each cluster with the layer size predicted by the social brain hypothesis. In this dataset we find strong evidence for the existence of a layered structure. The clustering yields results that match well with previous studies for the innermost and outermost layers, but for layers in between we observe large variability.


Phase synchronization of neuronal oscillations in specific frequency bands coordinates anatomically distributed neuronal processing and communication. Typically, oscillations and synchronization take place concurrently in many distinct frequencies, which serve separate computational roles in cognitive functions. While within-frequency phase synchronization has been studied extensively, less is known about the mechanisms that govern neuronal processing distributed across frequencies and brain regions. Such integration of processing between frequencies could be achieved via cross-frequency coupling (CFC), either by phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) or by n:m-cross-frequency phase synchrony (CFS). So far, studies have mostly focused on local CFC in individual brain regions, whereas the presence and functional organization of CFC between brain areas have remained largely unknown. We posit that inter-areal CFC may be essential for large-scale coordination of neuronal activity and investigate here whether genuine CFC networks are present in human resting-state brain activity. To assess the functional organization of CFC networks, we identified brain-wide CFC networks at meso-scale resolution from stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) and at macro-scale resolution from source-reconstructed magnetoencephalography (MEG) data. We developed a novel graph-theoretical method to distinguish genuine CFC from spurious CFC that may arise from non-sinusoidal signals ubiquitous in neuronal activity. We show that genuine inter-areal CFC is present in human resting-state activity in both MEG and SEEG data. Both CFS and PAC networks coupled theta and alpha oscillations with higher frequencies in large-scale networks connecting anterior and posterior brain regions. CFS and PAC networks had distinct spectral patterns and opposing distribution of low- and high frequency network hubs, implying that they constitute distinct CFC mechanisms. The strength of CFS networks was also predictive of cognitive performance in a separate neuropsychological assessment. In conclusion, these results provide evidence for inter-areal CFS and PAC being two distinct mechanisms for coupling oscillations across frequencies in large-scale brain networks.


Abstract One form of scepticism about the possibility of moral theory does not deny that there is something describable as 'the conduct of life', but it argues that there is no special ethical account to be given of this since conduct has no identifiably moral dimension. Here I explore the possibility that the problem of identifying distinctively moral aspects of action is explained by the thesis that the moral is ubiquitous; that every human action is – not 'may be' – morally significant. To say, however, that morality is all pervasive is not to say anything about how demanding moral considerations may be. Reasons for action ultimately relate to promoting or protecting the human good, and their relative strength and urgency derives from the manner, extent and immediacy of their bearing upon this end and not from belonging to some logically distinct category.


The mothballing option has been studied in the literature, but mainly in decision theoretic frameworks. This paper looks at it from a strategic point of view and applies it to an incumbent-entrant framework. In particular, based on the recent strategic interactions between OPEC and the shale oil industry, we conduct a case study where the incumbent OPEC is a exible producer that competes with a representative shale oil firm. Upon entry, the latter produces a fixed amount but it can apply the mothballing option in times of low demand. Our main results are threefold. First, we find that under low demand uncertainty, the mothballing option has a negative effect on the value of the entrant. Second, a large market share of the entrant will stimulate mothballing, caused by a so-called squeeze strategy of the incumbent. Third, our empirical analysis of the (shale) oil market learns that a higher demand elasticity induces mothballing.


Results of this study indicate that for a meandering channel in a valley there is an interaction between the channel flow and valley flow. The nature of the interaction varies with stage, in that channel flow remains dominant when the overbank flow is relatively shallow, but may become insignificant when the overbank flow is deep. Once the valley flow becomes dominant, the presence of the meandering channel can actually produce greater stages than would occur if the channel were absent. The tests showed that the method recommended for straight channels with irregular cross sections applies with good accuracy, but that it would be totally erroneous to apply this method to a meandering channel in a valley. Although not tested, there is little doubt that the effects noted for a sinusoidal channel would be even more pronounced for a channel with a convoluted meander pattern.


Two short novels, including the title story and Black Fairy Tale, plus a bonus short story. Summer is a simple story of a nine-year-old girl who dies while on summer vacation. While her youthful killers try to hide the her body, she tells us the story-from the POV of her dead body-of the boys' attempt to get away murder. Black Fairy Tale is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, but what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner.


OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the effect of a tracheal intubation safety bundle on adverse tracheal intubation-associated events across 15 PICUs.

DESIGN
Multicenter time-series study.

SETTING
PICUs in the United States.

PATIENTS
All patients received tracheal intubations in ICUs.

INTERVENTIONS
We implemented a tracheal intubation safety bundle as a quality-improvement intervention that includes: 1) quarterly site benchmark performance report and 2) airway safety checklists (preprocedure risk factor, approach, and role planning, preprocedure bedside "time-out," and immediate postprocedure debriefing). We define each quality-improvement phase as baseline (-24 to -12 mo before checklist implementation), benchmark performance reporting only (-12 to 0 mo before checklist implementation), implementation (checklist implementation start to time achieving > 80% bundle adherence), early bundle adherence (0-12 mo), and sustained (late) bundle adherence (12-24 mo). Bundle adherence was defined a priori as greater than 80% of checklist use for tracheal intubations for 3 consecutive months.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
The primary outcome was the adverse tracheal intubation-associated event, and secondary outcomes included severe tracheal intubation-associated events, multiple tracheal intubation attempts, and hypoxemia less than 80%.From January 2013 to December 2015, out of 19 participating PICUs, 15 ICUs (79%) achieved bundle adherence. Among the 15 ICUs, the adverse tracheal intubation-associated event rates were baseline phase: 217/1,241 (17.5%), benchmark reporting only phase: 257/1,750 (14.7%), early 0-12 month complete bundle compliance phase: 247/1,591 (15.5%), and late 12-24 month complete bundle compliance phase: 137/1,002 (13.7%). After adjusting for patient characteristics and clustering by site, the adverse tracheal intubation-associated event rate significantly decreased compared with baseline: benchmark: odds ratio, 0.83 (0.72-0.97; p = 0.016); early bundle: odds ratio, 0.80 (0.63-1.02; p = 0.074); and late bundle odds ratio, 0.63 (0.47-0.83; p = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Effective implementation of a quality-improvement bundle was associated with a decrease in the adverse tracheal intubation-associated event that was sustained for 24 months.


The paper examines innovation in the agrifood sector through an analysis of relationships between public institutions and the private sector. The first part is theoretical and analyses the roles played by public and private actors in innovation. The second part is a case study of the beef supply chain of COOP, the biggest retailer on the Italian market. It exemplifies product innovation driven by a regulatory framework and shows how organisation and structural renewal required by animal welfare legislation can lead to voluntary initiatives and additional innovation along the supply chain. The case study also features the role of institutions in communications and shows how market awareness drives improvement in organisation of production chains.


As a quintessential long-term policy problem, climate change poses two major challenges. The first is to develop, under considerable uncertainty, a plan for allocating resources over time to achieve an effective policy response. The second is to implement this plan, once arrived at, consistently over time. We consider the second of these two challenges, arguing that it consists of three interrelated, commitment problemsthe time inconsistency problem, the domestic politics problem, and the anarchy problem. We discuss each of these commitment problems in some detail, explore how they relate to climate policy, and suggest institutional designs that may help limit their adverse impact. While each of these commitment problems is difficult to tackle on its own, climate change requires us to cope with all of them at once. This is likely one major reason why we have so far made only modest headway on this vital issue.


Large volcano sector and flank collapse events are amongst the most devastating geological processes and thus pose an important threat to nearby and far away populations. These landslides can incorporate up to hundreds of cubic kilometres and travel distances of over 100 kilometres. Such events have happen on average every 25 years over the last half millennia. Thirteen large volcanic landslides have been identified in a total of eight volcanic edifices in Costa Rica. Most previous studies in this field have focused on the dynamics of emplacement of volcanic landslide avalanches and few have looked into the mechanism triggering the failures. Many such mechanisms have been proposed including volcanic phenomena such as: magmatic intrusions, hydrothermal alteration, caldera collapses or transient stress from seismicity; and non-volcanic
phenomena such as: geologic, morphologic, hydrogeologic, geotechnical and tectonic factors. However, in order to quantify the effect of each potential destabilising process requires knowledge of the mechanical properties of the materials comprised within the slopes. A yet unresolved issue in this matter is the geotechnical classification of volcanic materials. Herein we propose a new classification of materials into four units – lavas, autoclastic breccias, pyroclastic
rocks and volcanic soils – further subdivided on the basis of hydrothermal alteration, welding and interlocking. A combination of new data and normalised reworked data from the literature are
presented for each geotechnical unit. Material strengths from the geotechnical characterisation have then been incorporated into slope stability analyses. Both finite element (FEM) and limit equilibrium models (LEM) have been used in a detailed parameter sensitivity analysis of the destabilising effect of volcanic and non-volcanic process.


Genetic loci for body weight and subphenotypes such as fat weight have been mapped repeatedly. However, the distinct effects of different loci and physiological interactions among different traits are often not accounted for in mapping studies. Here we used the method of structural equation modeling to identify the specific relationships between genetic loci and different phenotypes influencing body weight. Using this technique, we were able to distinguish genetic loci that affect adiposity from those that affect muscle growth. We examined the high body weight-selected mouse lines NMRI8 and DU6i and the intercross populations NMRI8 x DBA/2 and DU6i x DBA/2. Structural models help us understand whether genetic factors affect lean mass and fat mass pleiotropically or nonpleiotropically. Sex has direct effects on both fat and muscle weight but also influences fat weight indirectly via muscle weight. Three genetic loci identified in these two crosses showed exclusive effects on fat deposition, and five loci contributed exclusively to muscle weight. Two additional loci showed pleiotropic effects on fat and muscle weight, with one locus acting in both crosses. Fat weight and muscle weight were influenced by epistatic effects. We provide evidence that significant fat loci in strains selected for body weight contribute to fat weight both directly and indirectly via the influence on lean weight. These results shed new light on the action of genes in quantitative trait locus regions potentially influencing muscle and fat mass and thus controlling body weight as a composite trait.


The most complete of all remaining surviving fragments sections of The Canterbury Tales, the First Fragment contains some of Chaucer's most widely enjoyed work. In The General Prologue, Chaucer introduces his pilgrims through a set of speaking portraits, drawn with a clarity that makes no attempt to conceal their peculiarities. The four tales that follow - those of the Knight, Miller, Reeve and Cook - reveal a wide variety of human preoccupations: whether chivalrous, romantic or simply sexual. Brilliantly bawdy and subtly complex, each of these tales is alive with Chaucer's skills as a poet, storyteller and creator of comedy.


Identification of Potential Strategies, Methods, and Tools for Improving Cost Estimating Practices for Highway Projects. (May 2005) Kelly E. Donnell, B.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Stuart D. Anderson Project cost escalation is a major problem for State Highway Agencies (SHA). This problem is evident in cost estimating procedures that may not promote consistency and accuracy of costs over the project development process. The research proposes that a relationship exists between applying good estimating practices and minimizing cost escalation from the initial planning estimate to the engineer's estimate at final design. The objective of this research is to develop a preliminary list of strategies, methods, and tools for project cost estimation practices aimed at achieving greater consistency and accuracy between the project development phases. A literature review was conducted that assisted in identifying factors that lead to the cost escalation of projects. The information from the literature was used to discover the core estimating assumptions that are the root causes behind cost escalation and lack of project estimate consistency and accuracy. After the cost escalation factors were determined, interviews with SHAs were conducted that lead to identifying unique and/or innovative approaches that will aid the SHAs in overcoming the cost escalation factors. The main methodology used to develop a potential list of strategies, methods, and tools was first focused on linking strategies to causes of cost escalation. Global strategies were identified by means of this approach. Methods and tools that would likely be effective in implementing the strategies are therefore directed at mitigating root causes of estimate problems in a focused approach. The strategies, methods, and tools are aligned with the project development phase where they would be implemented. Thus, a preliminary list of strategies, methods, and tools is provided in this study.


Data with multiple uncertain labels are common in many situations. For examples, a movie may be associated with multiple genres with different levels of confidence, and a protein sequence may be probabilistically assigned to several structural subcategories. Despite their ubiquity, the problem of visualizing uncertain labels has not been adequately addressed. Existing approaches often either discard the uncertainty information, or map the data to a low-dimensional subspace where their associations with multiple labels are obscured. In this paper, we propose a novel visual mining technique, UnTangle, for visualizing uncertain multi-labels. In our proposed visualization, data items are placed inside a web of connected triangles, with labels assigned to the triangle vertices such that nearby labels are more relevant to each other. The positions of the data items are determined based on the probabilistic associations between items and labels. UnTangle provides both (a) an automatic label placement algorithm, and (b) adaptive interaction mechanisms that allow users to control the label positioning for different visual queries. Our work makes a unique contribution by providing an effective way to investigate the relationship between data items and their uncertain labels, as well as the relationships among labels. Our user study suggests that the visualization effectively helps users discover emergent patterns and compare the nuances of uncertainty information in the data labels.


BACKGROUND
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and is characterised by an insidious onset and slow deterioration. The estimated prevalence of Alzheimer's disease for a standard health authority (500,000 people) is about 3330. Current service involves a wide range of agencies, and drug therapy for some patients.

OBJECTIVES
To provide a rapid and systematic review of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine in the symptomatic treatment of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

METHODS
A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. METHODS - DATA SOURCES: Searches were made of electronic databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, National Research Register, Science Citation Index, BIOSIS, EconLit, MRC Trials database, Early Warning System, Current Controlled Trials, TOXLINE, Index of Scientific and Technical Proceedings, and Getting Easier Access to Reviews. All sources were searched over the period covered by the databases up to March/July 2000. Bibliographies of related papers were assessed for relevant studies and experts were contacted for advice and peer review, and to identify additional published and unpublished references. Manufacturer submissions to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) were reviewed.

METHODS - STUDY SELECTION
Studies were included if they fulfilled the following criteria: (1) INTERVENTION: donepezil, rivastigmine or galantamine used to treat Alzheimer's disease. (2) PARTICIPANTS: people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease who meet the criteria for treatment with donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine. (3) OUTCOMES: measures assessing changes in cognition, function, behaviour and mood, quality of life (including studies assessing carer well-being and carer-input), and time to institutionalisation. (4) DESIGN: systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and RCTs comparing donepezil, rivastigmine or galantamine with placebo or each other or non-drug comparators were included in the review of effectiveness. Economic studies of donepezil, rivastigmine or galantamine used to treat Alzheimer's disease that included a comparator (or placebo) and both the costs and consequence (outcomes) of treatment were included in the review of cost-effectiveness. Studies in non-English language, and abstracts and conference poster presentations of systematic reviews, RCTs and economic evaluations were excluded. Two reviewers identified studies by independently screening study titles and abstracts, and then by examining the full text of selected studies to decide inclusion. METHODS - DATA EXTRACTION AND QUALITY ASSESSMENT: Data extraction and quality assessment were undertaken by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer, with any disagreements resolved through discussion. The quality of RCTs was assessed using the Jadad scale and the quality of systematic reviews was assessed using criteria developed by the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. The quality of economic evaluation studies was assessed by their internal validity (i.e. the methods used) using a standard checklist, and external validity (i.e. the generalisability of the economic study to the population of interest) using a series of relevant questions. METHODS - DATA SYNTHESIS: The clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine were synthesised through a narrative review with full tabulation of results of all included studies. In the economic evaluation, the reviewers assessed whether adjustments could be made to existing models to reflect the current situation in England and Wales. RESULTS - CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS: (1) Donepezil--three systematic reviews and five RCTs (plus four studies from industry (unpublished data, submitted as commercial in confidence)) were found. Results suggest that donepezil is beneficial when assessed using global and cognitive outcome measures. (2) Rivastigmine--three systematic reviews and five RCTs (plus two studies from industry (unpublished data, submitted as commercial in confidence)) were found. Results suggest that rivastigmine is beneficial in terms of global outcome measures. (3) Galantamine--one systematic review and three RCTs (plus three studies from industry (unpublished data, submitted as commercial in confidence)) were found. Results suggest that galantamine is beneficial in terms of global, cognitive and functional scales. RESULTS - SUMMARY OF BENEFITS: It is difficult to quantify benefits from the evidence available in the literature. Statistically significant improvements in tests such as ADAS-cog (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive subscale) may not be reflected in changes in daily life. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


An experimental and numerical study of the isothermal and non-isothermal warm formability of an AA3003 aluminum alloy brazing sheet is presented. Forming limit diagrams were determined using warm limiting dome height (LDH) experiments with in situ strain measurement based on digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. Forming limit curves (FLCs) were developed at several temperature levels (room temperature, 100oC, 200oC, 250oC, and 300oC) and strain-rates (0.003, 0.018, and 0.1s-1). The formability experiments demonstrated that temperature has a significant effect on formability, whereas forming speed has a mild effect within the studied range. Elevating the temperature to 250C improved the formability more than 200% compared to room temperature forming, while forming at lower speeds increased the limiting strains by 10% and 17% at room temperature and 250oC, respectively.
Non-isothermal deep draw experiments were developed considering an automotive heat exchanger plate. A parametric study of the effects of die temperature, punch speed, and blank holder force on the formability of the part was conducted. The introduction of non-isothermal conditions in which the punch is cooled and the flange region is heated to 250C resulted in a 61% increase in draw depth relative to room temperature forming.
In order to develop effective numerical models of warm forming processes, a constitutive model is proposed for aluminum alloy sheet to account for temperature and strain rate dependency, as well as plastic anisotropy. The model combines the Barlat YLD2000 yield criterion (Barlat et al., 2003) to capture sheet anisotropy and the Bergstrom (1982) hardening rule to account for temperature and strain rate dependency. Stress-strain curves for AA3003 aluminum alloy brazing sheet tested at elevated temperatures and a range of strain rates were used to fit the Bergstrom parameters, while measured R-values were used to fit the yield function parameters. The combined constitutive model was implemented within a user defined material subroutine that was linked to the LS-DYNA finite element code. Finite element models were developed based on the proposed material model and the results were compared with experimental data. Isothermal uniaxial tensile tests were simulated and the predicted responses were compared with measured data. The tensile test simulations accurately predicted material behaviour.
The user material subroutine and forming limit criteria were then applied to simulate the isothermal warm LDH tests, as well as isothermal and non-isothermal warm deep drawing experiments. Two deep draw geometries were considered, the heat exchanger plate experiments developed as part of this research and the 100 mm cylindrical cup draw experiments performed by McKinley et al. (2010). The strain distributions, punch forces and failure location predicted for all three forming operations were in good agreement with the experimental results. Using the warm forming limit curves, the models were able to accurately predict the punch depths to…


Abstract. Ultra-low-frequency (ULF) pulsations are critical in radial diffusion processes of energetic particles, and the power spectral density (PSD) of these fluctuations is an integral part of the radial diffusion coefficients and of assimilative models of the radiation belts. Using simultaneous measurements from two Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) geosynchronous satellites, three satellites of the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft constellation and the two Van Allen probes during a 10-day period of intense geomagnetic activity and ULF pulsations of October 2012, we calculate the PSDs of ULF pulsations at different L shells. By following the time history of measurements at different L it is shown that, during this time, ULF wave power is not enhanced uniformly throughout the magnetosphere but instead is mostly enhanced in the outer L shells, close to the magnetopause, and to a lesser extent in the inner magnetosphere, closer to the plasmapause. Furthermore, by using phase differences between two GOES geosynchronous satellite pairs, we estimate the daily-averaged distribution of power at different azimuthal wave numbers. These results can have significant implications in better defining the effect of radial diffusion in the phase space density of energetic particles for different wave numbers or L shell distributions of ULF power.


The current conflict in Ukraine has spawned the most serious crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. It has undermined European security, raised questions about NATO's future, and put an end to one of the most ambitious projects of U.S. foreign policy -- building a partnership with Russia. It also threatens to undermine U.S. diplomatic efforts on issues ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation. And in the absence of direct negotiations, each side is betting that political and economic pressure will force the other to blink first. Caught in this dangerous game of chicken, the West cannot afford to lose sight of the importance of stable relations with Russia. This book puts the conflict in historical perspective by examining the evolution of the crisis and assessing its implications both for the Crimean peninsula and for Russia's relations with the West more generally. Experts in the international relations of post-Soviet states, political scientists Rajan Menon and Eugene Rumer clearly show what is at stake in Ukraine, explaining the key economic, political, and security challenges and prospects for overcoming them. They also discuss historical precedents, sketch likely outcomes, and propose policies for safeguarding U.S.-Russia relations in the future. In doing so, they provide a comprehensive and accessible study of a conflict whose consequences will be felt for many years to come.


The current debate over graduate rate calculations and results has glossed over the relationship between student migration and the accuracy of various graduation rates proposed over the past five years. Three general grade-based graduation rates have been proposed recently, and each has a parallel version that includes an adjustment for migration, whether international, internal to the U.S., or between different school sectors. All of the adjustment factors have a similar form, allowing simulation of estimates from real data, assuming different unmeasured net migration rates. In addition, a new age-based graduation rate, based on mathematical demography, allows the simulation of estimates on a parallel basis using data from Virginia's public schools. Both the direct analysis and simulation demonstrate that graduation rates can only be useful with accurate information about student migration. A discussion of Florida's experiences with longitudinal cohort graduation rates highlights some of the difficulties with the current status of the oldest state databases and the need for both technical confidence and definitional clarity. Meeting the No Child Left Behind mandates for school-level graduation rates requires confirmation of transfers and an audit of any state system for accuracy, and basing graduation rates on age would be a significant improvement over rates calculated using grade-based data.


There is increasing interest in the application of ubiquitous computing concepts to the use of mobile and wireless technologies in business. This paper presents the results of a conceptual study of the literature in ubiquitous and mobile computing and related areas. The outcome of the conceptual study is a context model of an identified Mobile Work Domain (MWD) which is focussed on mobile commerce and the use of new technologies and approaches to business processes in the workplace. This framework and context model comprises existing domains of activity and research, including electronic commerce, computer mediated communication and computer supported collaborative work and the new domains emerging from the relationships between these domains. Specific issues regarding mobile business are also identified and discussed including work domains, usability, context, software and infrastructure.


On the island of Thera (Santorini), in a village, named Emporeio, at the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, a very large embroidered Epitaphios of Russian origin, unmentioned in any relevant publication, was found. In this article we identify and examine the morphology and technique of the Epitaphios' design and the typology of its iconography, as well as the relation of the indigenous Greek people with Orthodox Russia. Chronologically, we can assign the Epitaphios to the last decade of the 19th Century, most probably having been manufactured at some atelier in St Petersburg or Odessa.


The stratigraphic importance of many mid-Tertiary species of the foraminiferal genera Siphogenerina and Uvigerina has been obscured by stratigraphic complexities, nomenclatorial confusion such as synonyms and misidentifications, misunderstandings concerning phylogenetic relationships, and a paucity of reliable stratigraphic data. Some important species intervals are discussed and plotted on a correlation diagram and range chart for eastern Venezuela, California, and the Gulf Coast region. Although the treatment here is basically biostratigraphic, some taxonomic difficulties are discussed for future consideration. Two new species of Uvigerina are described.


People with severe disabilities (SD) communicate in complex ways, and their teachers, parents and other involved professionals find it difficult to gain knowledge and share their experiences regarding the person with SD's communication methods. The purpose of this study is to contribute to our understanding of how parents and professionals share learning about communication and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for people with SD by participating in blended learning networks (BLNs). Thirty-six parents and professionals participated in online web-based BLNs according to a prepared format; four groups were formed, and all of the groups participated in four discussion sessions and an evaluation session. Detailed minutes from the 16 BLN sessions, an evaluation session and course evaluation data were thematically analysed. The theoretical frameworks were different perspectives on disability within communication research and special education research, and theories about shared learning in networks. The analyses revealed themes that focused on communication partners' knowledge, attitudes and strategies regarding communicating with people with SD; the importance and power of using multimodal AAC; and the universality, user-friendliness and empowering aspects of iPads and apps. The findings suggest that participants perceive communication and AAC with people with SD from relational, dialogical and interactional perspectives, whereas the categorical perspective was less pronounced. In accordance with other professional competence research, the use of online web-based BLNs with mixed groups that was described in this paper yielded positive evaluations from the participants. The opportunity for meeting others involved in caring for people with SD, the actual blended groups and the sharing of technology and AAC experiences in particular were highlighted.


2-Acetylnaphtho [2,1-b] furan 1 was reacted with various aromatic aldehydes in presence of alkali, to produce corresponding chalcones 2a-i. These were converted into l-phenyl-3- (naphtho [2,l-b] fur-2yl-5- aryl-2-pyrazolines 3a-i and 1-(4-nitrophenyl)-3-(naphtho [2,1-b] fur-2yl-5-aryl-2-pyrazolines 4a-i by treatment with phenyl hydrazine and 4-nitrophenyl hydrazine respectively. The reaction of chalcones 2a-i with hydroxylamine hydrochloride in presence of sodium acetate in glacial acetic acid produced 3- (naphtho [2,1-b] fur-2yl)-5-aryI-2-isoxazole5a -i, whereas similar reaction in the presence of potassium hydroxide yielded 3-(naphtho [2,l-b] fur-2yl)-5-aryl-2-isoxazolines 6a and 6e. All the compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic data. These novel biheterocyclic compounds have been screened for antibacterial, antifungal, anthelmintic and analgesic activities. The compound 4e showed promising antimicrobial activity, some of the compounds exhibited moderate antibacterial and antifungal activity. The only compound that showed maximum analgesic activity is 3d. Anthelmintic activity revealed the compounds 4e, 5b and 5i were as active as the standard drug.


In this thesis we have considered a cognitive radio network (CRN) with a pair of primary user (PU) and secondary user (SU) in spectrum sharing networks in path-loss and without path-loss propagation environments under identically distributed m-Nakagami fading channel. The thesis consists of three parts. In the first part we propose an optimized Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) based power control strategy in cognitive radio networks (CRN) in spectrum sharing network in without path-loss propagation environment. The second part proposes an optimized Takagi-Sugeno FIS based power control strategy in cognitive radio networks in spectrum sharing network in path-loss propagation environment. For without path-loss propagation environment the proposed FIS takes the interference channel gain ratio between SU transmitter (CUtx) and PU receiver (PUrx) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) towards PU transmitter (PUtx) as antecedents and outputs the power scaling factor for SU. For path-loss propagation environment the proposed FIS takes the relative distance ratio between CUtx and PUrx and SNR towards PUtx as antecedents and outputs the power scaling factor for SU. The output power scaling factor is used to vary the transmit power of SU such that it does not degrade the quality of service (QoS) of PU link. The third part presents an implementation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission technique in CRN. The OFDM technique has intellectual attractive features like coping with the inter symbol interference (ISI), while providing increasing spectral efficiency and improved performance. This can be used in emergency conditions where transmission requires reliability and high data rate. The OFDM transmission technique is applied towards SU transmitter in CRN, which enables SU to utilize the spectrum efficiently under various fading environments. Spectrum sharing networks in with and without path-loss propagation environments and OFDM transmission were tested for bit error rate (BER) performance after fading effects from m-Nakagami fading channel. We conclude that by applying Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) based power control strategy we can improve the BER performance of PU when compared with no power control strategy and with other fuzzy based power control technique. OFDM transmission technique gives us better data rate and slightly improved BER in CRN hence making it suitable for use in emergency conditions.


Music is one of the most pleasant human experiences, even though it has no direct biological advantage. However little is known about individual differences in how people experience reward in music-related activities. The goal of the present study was to describe the main facets of music experience that could explain the variance observed in how people experience reward associated with music. To this end we developed the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ), which was administrated to three large samples. Our results showed that the musical reward experience can be decomposed into five reliable factors: Musical Seeking, Emotion Evocation, Mood Regulation, Social Reward, and Sensory-Motor. These factors were correlated with socio-demographic factors and measures of general sensitivity to reward and hedonic experience. We propose that the five-factor structure of musical reward experience might be very relevant in the study of psychological and neural bases of emotion and pleasure associated to music.


In this compelling new book, distinguished historian and writer Cassandra Pybus reveals that black convicts were among our first fleet settlers – a fact which profoundly complicates our understanding of race relations in early colonial Australia. Most of these black founders were originally slaves from America who had sought freedom with the British during the American Revolution only to find themselves abandoned and unemployed in England when the war was over. Pybus stories include the notorious runaway 'Black Caesar', who became our first bushranger, and the wonderfully subversive Billie Blue, who was the first ferryman on Sydney Harbour, after whom Blues Point is named.


The primary focus for this Thesis is an account of the degree to which nurses and other stakeholders in one National Health Service hospital Trust have responded to the 'clinical governance' initiative, the effects on quality improvement and professional regulation and the practical accomplishment of legitimacy. 'Clinical governance' involves demonstrating that quality assurance is routine practice within every healthcare organization.

A case study was undertaken, using broadly ethnographic methods. The qualitative data were obtained by documentary analysis, non-participant observation of meetings and day-to-day ward activity and semi-structured interviews. In terms of the analysis of documents and observation of meetings, new institutionalism theory was found to be useful as a framework for understanding the political and ceremonial conformity that marked the clinical governance process. Errors and inconsistencies were found in formal documentation and the Trusts' reporting systems were fraught with problems. Nevertheless, during the same period the Trust obtained national recognition for having appropriate structures and systems in place in relation to clinical governance.

A grounded theory approach was adopted in the analysis of the semi-structured interviews. Emerging themes from interview data were identified under the main categories of: 'Making Sense,' 'Knowledge Construction,' 'Somebody Else's Job' and 'Real Work.' It was concluded that at a practice level, clinical governance was poorly understood and that the corporate organizational goals were ambiguous and seen as unrealistic on a day-to-day basis.

The study concludes that what is happening is not a 'failure' but an unintended consequence that has resulted from an inadequate understanding of how organizations work. It is suggested that the organization has conformed to the appropriate standards in order to survive legitimately, but the ultimate impact of clinical governance on the quality of care in practice is inconsistent.