The results of a prospective, randomized double-blind study of magnesium substitution in pregnancy are reported. Of 997 gravidae, 985 were included in the study. Of these, 485 received magnesium aspartate (Mg 5-Longoral) and 500 a placebo. The results show that the course of pregnancy was better in the group which received the magnesium aspartate in a daily dose of 15 mmol (Mg 5-Longoral) than in the group given placebo. Among the women treated with magnesium were fewer premature births (less than 258 days' gestation). The proportion of newborns, small for date (less than 2500 g), was lower, as was the proportion of newborns with intrauterine retardation (greater than 10th percentile). There were significantly fewer cases of EPH gestosis in the magnesium group, and no serious side effects of treatment. In the authors' opinion, magnesium substitution should be included in routine antenatal care.


A detailed guide to financial market performance during financial crises
With the financial markets seemingly careening from one crisis to another, it's vital for today's investors and traders to have an historical perspective on market performance during times of great turmoil. In this book, Tim Knight provides an exhaustive analysis of financial market behavior prior, during, and following tumultuous events since 1600.
Making copious use of charts and basic technical analysis, Knight demonstrates how external shocks tend to create extreme reactions in the financial markets and how these predictable reactions provide opportunities for investors and traders to profit. Knight traverses five centuries of financial market history, from Tulipmania in the 1600s to the contemporary sovereign debt crisis. He looks at each event from the prism of the financial markets, examining the market climate prior to the event, during the event, and following the event.

Draws essential lessons from history providing investors and traders with guidelines to better navigate markets in today's tumultuous times
Offers valuable insights on understanding and anticipating market responses to shocks and crises
Companion website with a Q&A section contains charts from key moments in past financial crises and asks readers to choose whether to go long, short, or step aside

If you're looking for a better way to make it today's dynamic markets, look no further than this timely book.


Considering the great significance of proper clinical education in training nurses qualifying for provision of quality care, this study has been conducted with the aim of investigating the obstacles against clinical education among the nurses. In this systematic review study, international databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINHAL, EMBASE, ERIC, Google scholar, as well as national banks including Magiran and SID) were searched from the time of inception until January 30, 2018. The obstacles of clinical education in individual areas (associated with students (Lack of motivation in students), professors (Absence of experience professor with a high academic level), and nurses (Personnel uncooperativeness)), managerial (Shortage of time), facilities (Deficit of facilities and working conditions), structures, and other areas were identified. Based on the obstacles identified across various dimensions, proper plans and strategies should be designed and implemented with each of the obstacles to enhance the quality of clinical education.


The evidence indicates that small and young firms respond differently to shocks in the financial markets than larger, older firms. Moreover, gross job flows indicate that the differences are mostly in the activation and liquidation decisions. In this dissertation we examine the impact of shocks that affect the economy via the interest rates and explore the transmission on the cross-section of active firms. In the model, due to the limited commitment of entrepreneurs, credit constraints arise endogenously. The solution of the optimal infinite horizon contract between banks and firms turns out to be very simple. Initially firms accumulate net worth as fast as possible and their size and survival probabilities grow over time. We provide a decentralization in which entrepreneurs trade in one-period securities, rationalizing solvency and borrowing constraints and making it natural to link the collateral of the entrepreneur with the size and age of the firm. The results are consistent with observed entry and exit behavior. The larger the collateral of firms, the less sensitive to interest rates is the exit probability, i.e. small, younger firms are more sensitive to interest rates than that of larger, more mature firms. With respect to entry, with higher interest rates, less firms are created, and a higher productivity is needed for activation, purifying the pool of entrants and increasing future survival. However, given their characteristics, firms created during recessions face tighter credit constraints and have lower survival probabilities. The model is qualitatively consistent with the evidence. Real interest rates comove negatively with aggregate output, gross creation, net growth, of jobs and firms, and positively with flows of job and firm destruction. With the frictions in the creation of firms, the model also compatible with the volatility of destruction flows being much larger than that of creation flows. The response in the mass of active firms provides a propagation mechanism. Output dynamics is asymmetric as recessions are shorter than expansions. Additionally, the destruction series are highly concentrated in short periods of times.


We consider the weakly supervised binary classification problem where the labels are randomly flipped with probability $1-\alpha$. Although there exist numerous algorithms for this problem, it remains theoretically unexplored how the statistical accuracies and computational efficiency of these algorithms depend on the degree of supervision, which is quantified by $\alpha$. In this paper, we characterize the effect of $\alpha$ by establishing the information-theoretic and computational boundaries, namely, the minimax-optimal statistical accuracy that can be achieved by all algorithms, and polynomial-time algorithms under an oracle computational model. For small $\alpha$, our result shows a gap between these two boundaries, which represents the computational price of achieving the information-theoretic boundary due to the lack of supervision. Interestingly, we also show that this gap narrows as $\alpha$ increases. In other words, having more supervision, i.e., more correct labels, not only improves the optimal statistical accuracy as expected, but also enhances the computational efficiency for achieving such accuracy.


Detecting concurrency-induced bugs in multithreaded libraries can be challenging due to the intricacies associated with their manifestation. This includes invocation of multiple methods, synthesis of inputs to the methods to reach the failing location, and crafting of thread interleavings that cause the erroneous behavior. Neither fuzzing-based testing techniques nor over-approximate static analyses are well positioned to detect such subtle defects while retaining high accuracy alongside satisfactory coverage. In this paper, we propose a directed, iterative and scalable testing engine that combines the strengths of static and dynamic analysis to help synthesize concurrent executions to expose complex concurrency-induced bugs. Our engine accepts as input the library, its client (either sequential or concurrent) and a specification of correctness. Then, it iteratively refines the client to generate an execution that can break the input specification. Each step of the iterative process includes statically identifying sub-goals towards the goal of failing the specification, generating a plan toward meeting these goals, and merging of the paths traversed dynamically with the plan computed statically via constraint solving to generate a new client. The engine reports full reproduction scenarios, guaranteed to be true, for the bugs it finds. We have created a prototype of our approach named MINION. We validated MINION by applying it to well-tested concurrent classes from popular Java libraries, including the latest versions of openjdk and google-guava. We were able to detect 31 real crashes across 10 classes in a total of 23 minutes, including previously unknown bugs. Comparison with three other tools reveals that combined, they report only 9 of the 31 crashes (and no other crashes beyond MINION). This is because several of these bugs manifest under deeply nested path conditions (observed maximum of 11), deep nesting of method invocations (observed maximum of 6) and multiple refinement iterations to generate the crash-inducing client.


Within the framework of the OTKA K111917 research entitled 'From Equal Opportunities to Taygetus?', we examined, through narrative interviews, how mothers took a decision after learning of the positive Down Syndrome diagnosis of their foetus, and who and what events influenced their decision to go on with their pregnancy or not. In our article, after a focused analysis of the narrative interviews we conducted with 10 women about their life, our aim was to draw attention to the complexity and stratification of the social context and to pose questions. Our goal was to reveal the cultural background of the decision-making and the pieces of information which seem simple and unequivocal at first sight, in order to gain a clearer picture of the social and medical attitude and knowledge that surrounds mothers pregnant with a Down Syndrome foetus. Key-words: feminism, disability studies, foetus diagnosis, power, risk, decision-making


Environmental aspects have during the last years made electric vehicles an interesting competitor to the present internal combustion engine driven vehicles. For a broad introduction of pure electric vehicles, a battery charging infrastructure is deemed necessary. However, to build and maintain such an infrastructure is costly. Active power line conditioning capabilities could be included in the battery charger, making the infrastructure advantageous from the distribution network point of view. Another option is that the battery charger could be able to support the grid with peak power during periods of stability problems or emergency situations. This means that energy is borrowed from the batteries of vehicles connected to a charger. The price for energy supplied by the batteries is likely to be several times higher than the normal electric energy price, due to the wear costs of the batteries. Therefore, the battery charger losses also represents a high cost. It is often stated that resonant converters have a high efficiency compared to hard switched. Since carrier based pulse width modulation is employed, quasi resonant DC link converters are of interest. Four of the most promising quasi resonant DC link topologies reported in the literature are compared. A fair comparison is obtained by designing them to meet certain common design criteria, in this case the duration of the zero voltage interval and the maximum output voltage time derivative. The derivation of the design expressions are given, and also the simulation results, by means of efficiency. A 10 kW battery charger, equipped with one of the quasi resonant DC links investigated is implemented. A hard switched battery charger with the same rating is also tested to compare the measured efficiency with the simulated. Both the simulations and measurements shows that the efficiency decrease for quasi resonant battery chargers compared to the hard switched case. Furthermore, low frequency harmonics appear in the battery charger input and output currents. However, full control of the output voltage derivatives is obtained. (Less)


Christianity arrived in Wales with the Romans and spread rapidly in the early medieval period. Evidence for its success survives in the form of early stone sculpture and inscriptions, reliquaries and other holy objects and frequent references in historical documents. However, there are also many myths and misconceptions about Christianity in this period, often created in the medieval records of early saints, but perpetuated by later writers. This book explores the archaeology of the early Church in Wales from the arrival of Christianity in the Roman period until the end of the independent Welsh kingdoms in the late thirteenth century. It attempts to disentangle fact from fiction and develop a clearer understanding of the early Welsh Church. It looks at all aspects of religious life in this period from death and burial to the construction of churches and the writing and decoration of manuscripts. Using this information, combined with the historical evidence, the author presents an authoritative overview of the growth and spread of Christianity in Wales. He shows that although the early Welsh Church had some distinctive elements, it was not isolated or out-of-touch but closely linked with the growth of early Christendom elsewhere in the British Isles and mainland Europe.


One of the dominant classes of protein based drugs, which continues to contribute to the growth and success of biologics, are recombinant monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies. In preparing recombinant antibodies for biotherapeutic applications, the stability and maintenance of this is of utmost importance; not just for the activity of the molecule but also in terms of the safety of the drug and this must be demonstrated to regulatory authorities before a biotherapeutic receives approval for use. One such measure of protein integrity, quality or stability is the assessment of soluble aggregates and sub-visible particles present in formulations after stressed stability studies. The presence of such particles and aggregates in recombinant biotheraputics is potentially of concern in the manufacture of such biologics due to the reported immunogenic responses observed in patients when these biologics are administered; which is believed to be associated with the presence of aggregated antibody species. In addition to this, the in vivo efficacy of the biologic is inevitably compromised upon formation of such species. As such the regulatory bodies require that aggregate and particle levels are monitored and reported in the specification of a biologic.
The manufacturing of recombinant mAbs using mammalian expression systems involves three general stages; upstream, where the target molecule is cloned and expressed in the system of choice; downstream, where the recombinant protein material is recovered from the fermentation supernatant and formulation whereby the molecule is 'formulated' to maintain its stability and for delivery to patients. Throughout this process the mAb molecules experience a wide variety of stresses such as temperature, high concentrations, interactions with host cell impurities, varying pH and shear stresses that could all potentially influence a molecules susceptibility to aggregate or form particles. Whilst there has been much research at the amino acid level to determine how primary sequence influences propensity of molecules to aggregate, there has been little work investigating how the whole manufacturing process might influence the susceptibility of mAbs to aggregate and form particles. The focus of this work was therefore to investigate whether three variables during manufacturing of mAbs; feeding during fermentation, harvest day and the exclusion/inclusion of an additional wash step during purification, influence the levels of aggregates and particles in antibody formulations post-temperature stressing. Atomic force microscopy was also used to investigate the mechanism of mAb particle formation and aggregation using a model system under forced aggregation conditions.
The results from these studies confirmed that washing of the protein A column during mAb purification can influence subsequent particle formation. The inclusion of a specific wash step during protein A purification was effective at lowering particle levels in formulations of a model mAb compared to those samples which were purified without. The wash step was shown to remove mAb fragments and molecular chaperones and other host cell proteins from the Chinese hamster ovary cell host. The re-introduction of these species back into mAb solutions resulted in a subsequent increase in particle formation suggesting that species present in the material removed by the wash fraction influenced the particle numbers observed. With regard to culture conditions and feeding of the cells, batch cultures produced a less stable molecule compared to the fed-batch cultures as determined by the propensity to form particles and this could be related to the intracellular stress being experienced by cells in during culture. Cell lysis is influenced by the intracellular stress levels of the cultures, which is in-turn influenced by the feeding regime and harvest day. The levels of mAb fragments and sub-visible particles increased in fed-batch and batch Mab-184 samples, as culture viability decreases; which was mirrored by changes in the expression of certain stress inducible genes. Purification of the samples with the wash step reduces the particle levels to similar levels across all harvest days suggesting that the wash step is not only removing misfolded protein released into the culture supernatant upon cell lysis, but also removes species that are present in the cell culture supernatant which contribute to antibody particle formation. These results highlight the need for better monitoring of intracellular stress levels during CHO culture for informing harvest decisions as the intracellular state of the cells influence the quality of the final therapeutic product. Finally, using AFM particle formation of a model mAb is characteristic of a coagulation mechanism after one hour of temperature stress. Collectively together these studies demonstrate the importance of both upstream and downstream processing decisions on the subsequent propensity of mAbs to form particles and hence the need to consider the whole bioprocess to obtain the best possible product with regard to aggregate and particle amounts.


Although turbulence is usually considered to be the primary cause of image blur, simultaneous and independent measurements of overall atmospheric modulation transfer function (MTF) and turbulence MTF over fairly long horizontal paths at 15-m average elevation indicate that, even at midday, aerosol MTF deriving from forward scatter is usually more dominant than turbulence MTF. Three different experimental techniques are used, two passive and one active. Aerosol MTF measurements are accompanied by actual meteorological and coarse aerosol size distributions and scattering parameters at the times of MTF measurements. The wavelength dependence of aerosol and therefore of overall atmospheric MTF can be significant. This wavelength dependence and a usually well-defined knee can in no way be due to turbulence but can be explained by a significant aerosol MTF deriving from typical aerosol size distributions representative of other climates as well. Measurements confirm that the narrower the open-atmosphere aerosol scattering patterns and the greater the scattering densities, the greater the degradations of aerosol MTF and, consequently, of overall atmospheric MTF. Results imply that system design and image-restoration algorithms based on atmospheric turbulence only may often lead to image quality that is much poorer than if aerosol MTF is considered, too, with its proper proportional effect on imaging through the atmosphere. Whereas adaptive optics cannot correct for aerosol-derived blur, digital image restoration can.


This study utilizes the windowed-test procedure of Hinich and Patterson (1995) to examine the data generating process of KLSE CI returns series. Unlike previous studies, the present one relates the evidence to the popular weak-form EMH and behavioural finance, with the hope of offering some plausible explanations to the controversy arises between these two camps. Our econometrics results indicate that linear and non-linear dependencies play a significant role in the underlying data generating process. However, these dependencies are not stable as the results suggest that they are episodic and transient in nature. Along the line of our interpretations, we are able to offer some plausible explanations as to why weak-form EMH generally holds in KLSE, though the presence of linear and non-linear dependencies implies the potential of returns predictability. Specifically, these significant dependencies show up at random intervals for a brief period of time but then disappear again before they can be exploited by investors. Looking from a micro perspective, we are able to rationalize the co-existence of weak-form EMH and behavioural finance in KLSE when the statistical properties of random walk, linear and non-linear dependencies, which also co-exist in the time domain, are interpreted in the framework of information arrival and market reactions to that information.


With developments in economics and increasing work loads, alcohol abuse becomes more and more severe, leading to occurrences of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Pepsin-digested chicken liver hydrolysates (CLHs) contain high amounts of glutamic acid, leucine, lysine, and alanine while the contents of taurine, anserine, and carnosine are also elevated after pepsin hydrolyzation. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the protective effects of CLHs against chronic alcohol consumption. The results indicated that the enlarged (p < 0.05) sizes of liver and spleen, and serum AST, ALT, and ALKP levels of mice fed with an alcoholic diet were ameliorated by supplementing with CLHs. Moreover, increased hepatic immunocyte infiltration shown on the H&E staining and higher (p < 0.05) hepatic triglyceride contents, TBARS values, and proinflammatory cytokine levels in alcoholic diet fed mice were also reduced (p < 0.05) by supplementing with CLHs. Those benefits were attributed to up-regulated fatty acid β-oxidation and down-regulated fatty acid synthesis, as well as increased (p < 0.05) SOD, CAT, and GPx activities, TEAC levels, and elevated alcohol metabolic enzymatic activities (ALDH).


Background/Context This article addresses which school-level factors contribute to school quality. Previous research has focused on assessing the effects of school-level variables on student-level quality (e.g., achievement). However, the field has been limited in not evaluating the effects of school-level factors directly on measured school-level quality. This present study takes this next step. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study The purpose of this study is to determine which school-level factors across three categories—schoolwide programs, school-level personnel, and institutional environment—are significant predictors of school quality. Population/Participants/Subjects Two data sets from the School District of Philadelphia are employed. The first data set is longitudinal and comprises elementary school student data linked to teachers, classrooms, and neighborhoods. The second data set, linked to the first by way of school and year data, is longitudinal and comprises school-level variables for all elementary schools within the district over 3 years. Research Design This investigation first derives four quantifiable measures of school quality based on the student- and classroom-level data set. These measures are based on student reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, yearly attendance, and behavior grades. In the main analyses, this study separately tests each measure of quality in an empirical model that relates school-level inputs to school-level outputs. Each model does so while holding constant student, teacher, classroom, and neighborhood covariates as well as principal and school budget data. Findings Looking across all four measures of school quality, the study finds school quality to be higher in schools with music and language programs, more disciplinary resources per student with a behavior problem and more special education resources per special education student, having a school nurse, being a smaller sized campus, and being K–5 (versus K–8). Although there is some consistency in the predictors of school quality, this research also indicates that differentiating between all four measures of quality is critical: School-level factors provide distinct outcomes depending on the measure of school quality itself. Conclusions By identifying those school-level factors that directly relate school quality to its programs, personnel, and environment, this study has differentiated between the particular institutional resources of urban elementary schools that can potentially influence schooling experiences, above and beyond student or classroom factors. As such, this study can be used to more effectively identify those significant institutional challenges faced by urban schools, how these challenges are actualized, and, moreover, the types and levels of resources necessary to enhance school quality.


GENDEL, SCOTT (b. 1977). THE SPACE BETWEEN, a Song Cycle on the Poetry of Wendell Berry. High voice and piano. E. C. Schirmer Music Company (ECS), 2008. Tonal; C^sub 4^-A^sub 5^; Tess: CR & mL-mH; changing meters, a variety of tempos; V/-D, P/M-D; 20 minutes. High voice. Scott Gendel (pronounced with a hard "g" and the accent on the second syllable) currently lives in Madison, WI, where he is a freelance composer/arranger and a pianist/conductor who works with solo singers, choirs, and theater productions. His academic training is in composition, opera accompanying, and vocal coaching, and he puts all these skills to good use in his vocal compositions. First Prize Winner in the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition in 2005, the composer was commissioned by the Foundation to write a song cycle. The result is this set of songs on the poetry of Wendell Berry, whose poems have attracted other song composers because of the beauty of their imagery and the depth of their meaning. The composer states in "Program Notes by the Composer" printed on the back of the score that he wished to make this work a declaration of "both my personal philosophy and my musical passions." To that end he chose six poems (one is repeated) that speak of "the most large-scale and elevated of subjects: the meaning of love, the fate of the world, and the future of humanity," but that approach these subjects "with the simplest and lightest of touches." Berry is well known for his use of images in nature all around us to convey the atmosphere and meaning of his poems. This juxtaposition of large subjects and small details is reflected in the musical settings, which contain both large dramatic gestures and small simple details that adorn them. The composer admits that the poems he chose are "in some ways grandiose," and on more than one occasion, the music comes perilously close to being overblown. On balance, however, this is a truly beautiful work. There are many cyclic elements in the music throughout the work-recurring motifs, accompaniment patterns, and large musical themes-that tie the piece together. In addition, one poem is repeated (2. "Whatever Happens" and 6. "We Will Not Leave" are the same poem) in a position that turns the cycle toward its conclusion. In the last poem we find the source of the cycle tide: "We come at last to the dark and enter in . . . We come to me space between ourselves, the narrow doorway, and pass through into the land of the wholly loved." The cycle opens with a repeated B^sub 5^ in the right hand over a descending B^sub 2^, B[musical flat]^sub 2^, A^sub 2^, A[musical flat]^sub 2^, C^sub 2^, B^sub 2^, both single lines in a slow syncopated pattern that suggests the wakefulness of the poet whose despair for the world leads him to "go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds." The going out into "the peace of wild things" introduces a rather long musical theme in the left hand middle register of the piano under a triplet broken chord pattern high in the treble register. Within this texture, the voice paints the text in lyric lines. As the poet rests in "the grace of the world," the music returns to the beginning syncopated pattern that brackets calm chords in the middle voices. The second song, "Whatever Happens," continues the syncopated pattern in chords, with the addition of two small sixteenth note triplet figures. The vocal line introduces a new somewhat melismatic melodic theme that cycles through several tonal areas and will be heard again later in the cycle. The third song, "A Song of Thanks," marked "Allegro, wild, with abandon," is the most nearly grandiose song of the cycle and comes close to being over the top. …


CONTENTS
Sperm cryosurvival rates are not optimal for most species. Therefore, new cryopreservation strategies are needed with the objective of increasing the number of surviving sperm and the quality of those sperm after thawing. Cholesterol plays important roles in many sperm functions, including effects on membrane properties. One of these effects is to stabilize membranes at low temperatures. Thus, species that produce sperm which possess high membrane cholesterol : phospholipid ratios are more resistant to cold shock than sperm with low cholesterol : phospholipid ratios. Therefore, increasing the cholesterol content of sperm membranes may be a strategy that can improve sperm quality after freeze-thawing. In this review, information is presented related to using cyclodextrins pre-loaded with cholesterol for cryopreserving sperm from different species. The topics discussed include both in vitro and in vivo assessments of sperm quality after cryopreservation, as well as how increasing sperm cholesterol content affects other sperm functions.


The biological responses to precipitation within the terrestrial components of Earth system models, or land surface models (LSMs), are mechanistically simple and poorly constrained, leaving projections of terrestrial ecosystem functioning and feedbacks to climate change uncertain. A number of field experiments have been conducted or are underway to test how changing precipitation will affect terrestrial ecosystems. Results from these experiments have the potential to vastly improve modeled processes. However, the transformation of experimental results into model improvements still represents a grand challenge. Here we review the current state of precipitation manipulation experiments and the precipitation responses of biological processes in LSMs to explore how these experiments can help improve model realism. First, we discuss contemporary precipitation projections and then review the structure and function of current‐generation LSMs. We then examine different experimental designs and discuss basic variables that, if measured, would increase a field experiment's usefulness in a modeling context. Next, we compare biological processes commonly measured in the field with their model analogs and find that, in many cases, the way these processes are measured in the field is not compatible with the way they are represented in LSMs, an effect that hinders model development. We then discuss the challenge of scaling from the plot to the globe. Finally, we provide a series of recommendations aimed to improve the connectivity between experiments and LSMs and conclude that studies designed from the perspective of researchers in both communities will provide the greatest benefit to the broader global change community.


Regions sensitive to specific object categories as well as organized spatial patterns sensitive to different features have been found across the whole ventral temporal cortex (VTC). However, it is unclear that within each object category region, how specific feature representations are organized to support object identification. Would object features, such as object parts, be represented in fine-scale spatial tuning within object category-specific regions? Here, we used high-field 7T fMRI to examine the spatial tuning to different face parts within each face-selective region. Our results show consistent spatial tuning of face parts across individuals that within right posterior fusiform face area (pFFA) and right occipital face area (OFA), the posterior portion of each region was biased to eyes, while the anterior portion was biased to mouth and chin stimuli. Our results demonstrate that within the occipital and fusiform face processing regions, there exist systematic spatial tuning to different face parts that support further computation combining them.


Proteus mirabilis is one of the most common etiological agents of complicated urinary tract infections, especially those associated with catheterization. This is related to the ability of P. mirabilis to form biofilms on different surfaces. This pathogen encodes 17 putative fimbrial operons, the highest number found in any sequenced bacterial species so far. The present study analyzed the role of four P. mirabilis fimbriae (MR/P, UCA, ATF and PMF) in biofilm formation using isogenic mutants. Experimental approaches included migration over catheter, swimming and swarming motility, the semiquantitative assay based on adhesion and crystal violet staining, and biofilm development by immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. Different assays were performed using LB or artificial urine. Results indicated that the different fimbriae contribute to the formation of a stable and functional biofilm. Fimbriae revealed particular associated roles. First, all the mutants showed a significantly reduced ability to migrate across urinary catheter sections but neither swimming nor swarming motility were affected. However, some mutants formed smaller biofilms compared with the wild type (MRP and ATF) while others formed significantly larger biofilms (UCA and PMF) showing different bioarchitecture features. It can be concluded that P. mirabilis fimbriae have distinguishable roles in the generation of biofilms, particularly in association with catheters.


This is a study of Father Patrick Lavelle, one of the most radical members of the post- Famine Irish Catholic Church. Lavelle, who came from a comfortable tenant-farming background in Mayo, pursued his clerical studies in Maynooth and from an early stage displayed an aggressive and uncompromising manner. His confrontations with John Miley at the Irish College, Paris; Bishop Thomas Plunket in Partry, Cardinal Paul Cullen, John O'Connor Power and others gained him a reputation as a pugnacious and zealous opponent. However, the more gentler side of his nature was revealed when he met Sir Arthur Guinness in Cong in the 1870s.While Lavelle is commonly regarded as a tenacious radical, it is often overlooked that he laboured relentlessly for his poor, oppressed parishioners of Partry against the twin dangers of Evangelicalism and famine. His pastoral duties were similar to those of other clerics in the west of Ireland and highlight the importance of the priest in the survival of their congregations. Lavelle's fame is normally associated with the Fenian movement, in which he defended the right of Irish people to rebel against tyrannical government. This policy brought him into conflict with Paul Cullen who continuously endeavoured to have Lavelle suspended by the Vatican. Lavelle argued that the Fenian organisation had never been specifically named by the Church. He was able to pursue his radical course in Britain and Ireland because of John MacHale's protection. It is argued that Lavelle espoused militant nationalism because of the demise of constitutional nationalism, a position adopted by many other Irishmen. Once it became clear that the Fenians could not deliver on the national question, Lavelle and others reverted to parliamentary agitation and the Home Rule party. During this period Lavelle's fame declined, symbolising the clergy's fading power in Irish politics in the 1870s and the rise of the Catholic urban middle classes. Nevertheless, Lavelle has to be regarded as the link between the radical pre-Famine Irish Church and the socially aware clerics of the post-Land League Church.


This essay scrutinizes the persistence of inequality in the United States through a human rights lens and grapples with the troubling disparities unearthed by two works: American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass and Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. These two highly enlightening and, simultaneously, deeply troubling and depressing books elucidate the myriad locations at which inequalities persist and the historical, social, psychological, and legal foundations of, and explications for, such disparities in the African American community.This work proposes a human rights paradigm that provides a methodology to analyze, deconstruct and unravel the existing systematic inequalities in Black/white wealth. First, we examine the historical relationship between Blacks and Whites in the United States in the context of property, wealth, and economics. Then, in Part II, we reveal the disturbing reality that not much has changed. Next, we make a two-part suggestion of how to ameliorate, or at least begin to remedy, current economic inequalities by proposing the application of a human rights paradigm of economic discrimination as violence. Finally, we analyze the role of republican liberalism in Black/White economic inequality and reveal how, despite its equality-based dialect, it has translated into a model that has enabled inequality.


Objective To describe and compare outcomes from in-patient rehabilitation (IPR) in working-aged adults across different groups of long-term neurological conditions, as defined by the UK National Service Framework. Design Analysis of a large Australian prospectively collected dataset for completed IPR episodes (n = 28,596) from 2003-2012. Methods De-identified data for adults (16–65 years) with specified neurological impairment codes were extracted, cleaned and divided into 'Sudden-onset' conditions: (Stroke (n = 12527), brain injury (n = 7565), spinal cord injury (SCI) (n = 3753), Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (n = 805)) and 'Progressive/stable' conditions (Progressive (n = 3750) and Cerebral palsy (n = 196)). Key outcomes included Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores, length of stay (LOS), and discharge destination. Results Mean LOS ranged from 21–57 days with significant group differences in gender, source of admission and discharge destination. All six groups showed significant change (p<0.001) between admission and discharge that was likely to be clinically important across a range of items. Significant between-group differences were observed for FIM Motor and Cognitive change scores (Kruskal-Wallis p<0.001), and item-by-item analysis confirmed distinct patterns for each of the six groups. SCI and GBS patients were generally at the ceiling of the cognitive subscale. The 'Progressive/stable' conditions made smaller improvements in FIM score than the 'Sudden-onset conditions', but also had shorter LOS. Conclusion All groups made gains in independence during admission, although pattern of change varied between conditions, and ceiling effects were observed in the FIM-cognitive subscale. Relative cost-efficiency between groups can only be indirectly inferred. Limitations of the current dataset are discussed, together with opportunities for expansion and further development.


Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly being promoted as a means to address societal and environmental challenges, especially flood risk reduction. In the context of rapidly urbanizing catchments, NBS can take part of the development of sustainable cities, either by conserving peri-urban ecosystems from urban sprawl or by developing green infrastructure in the cities. Both can provide a wide range of co-benefits (e.g., climate regulation, air quality regulation), but also generate some negative effects (e.g., mobility issues, unsafety, allergens). We develop and implement a Discrete Choice Experiment survey to analyse people's perception of co-benefits and negative effects, and associated preferences for the two types of NBS at a catchment scale. The results obtained from 400 households living in a French Mediterranean catchment highlight that people associate numerous co-benefits to NBS, but also negative effects. Our estimations reveal that resident households are ready to contribute large amounts through a tax increase for the development of NBS (from 140 to 180 EUR/year, on average). There is however a strong heterogeneity of preferences at the catchment scale influenced by income, location of the respondent along an urban–rural gradient, and perception of the importance of ecosystem services. These differences may reflect urban environmental inequalities at the catchment scale, which are important to take into account in order to avoid distributive inequalities.


Background The prognostic impact of CD34 expression on malignant myeloid leukemia blast cells is still under debate. FLT3 mutation is a well-known poor prognostic factor in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The aim of the study was to assess CD34 expression in this subgroup of AML patients to detect the association of CD34 expression with FLT3-internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutation and its impact on the outcome. Patients and methods This prospective study, carried out at Zagazig University Hospitals, included 33 de-novo AML patients with a normal karyotype. CD 34 expression was detected by flow cytometry using FITC florescent monoclonal antibody and it was considered positive if a cutoff level of 10% expression was exceeded. FLT3-ITD mutation was detected by PCR. Results CD34 was positive in 20 cases while 13 cases were negative. Twenty-one cases were FLT3-ITD wild type while 12 cases were mutated. FLT3 mutation was significantly linked to CD34 reactivity (P=0.048). CD34-positive cases were associated with a significantly less complete remission (CR) achievement rate (33 and 80% in CD34-positive and CD34 negative, respectively, P=0.03). Those with positive CD34 had significantly lower overall survival compared with CD34-negative cases. Multivariate cox regression survival analysis showed that positive CD34 was a predictor of poor survival and higher risk of mortality (HR=1.3 and P=0.027, confidence interval, 1.1–2.9). Conclusion CD34 expression is a poor prognostic biomarker in normal karyotype AML. It is associated with and further worsens the poor prognosis in FLT3-mutated cases. Its role in different subgroups of AML layered by different genetic aberrations needs further study.


Note: This is an abstract of Mevlüt AYDOĞMUŞ master's thesis, which was done under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ali Murat SÜNBÜL at Necmettin Erbakan University, Institute of Educational Sciences. The aim of this research is to analyse the appropriate realization level of Comenius Projects in terms of some variables based on teachers' perceptions. In this research some questions about Comenius program asked to the teachers who carried out Comenius projects in Konya Province and the results have been analysed in terms of some variables. Also, literature research has been carried out about EU and Comenius Program which is part of EU Education Program and previous researches have been investigated. A survey has been used as a tool in order to collect data. Online survey has been used because the number of the participant is very high and geographically distributed. In order to receive the views of the teachers on Comenius program the survey was sent to the participants and totally 176 feedbacks received. At the end of the research continuous increase on the number of the application to the program has been observed. The teachers who have already taken part in Comenius Project thinks that Comenius Projects develops the teamwork among the students, Comenius Projects are effective on developing language skills of the students and skills of using ICT, Comenius projects makes positive contribution on views of the foreigners on our country. They think that by means of the project had opportunity to know different cultures.


Functional recovery after digit-to-hand replantation depends on the interaction of various factors. In addition to peripheral mechanisms, cortical and subcortical reorganization of digit representation may play a substantial role in the recovery process. However, cortical processes during the first months after replantation are not well understood. In this 25-year-old man who had traumatically lost digits II to V (DII-V) on his right hand, the authors used magnetoencephalographic source imaging to document the recovery of somatosensory cortical responses after tactile stimulation at four sites on the replanted digits. Successful replantation of DIV and DV was accomplished at the original position of DIII and DIV with mixed innervation. Cortical evoked fields could be recorded starting from the 10th week after digit-to-hand replantation. Initially, signals from all sites showed decreased amplitudes and prolonged latencies. In the subsequent six recordings obtained between the 12th and 55th week postreplantation, a continuous increase in amplitude but only a slight recovery of latencies were observed. Components of the recorded somatosensory evoked fields were localized in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI). The localizations of the replanted DIV showed a gradual lateral-inferior shift in the somatosensory cortex over time, indicating cortical reorganization caused by altered peripheral input. The authors infer from this shift that the original cortical area of the missing finger (DII) was taken over by the replanted finger. From these data the authors conclude that magnetic source imaging might be a reliable noninvasive method to evaluate surgical nerve repair and that cortical reorganization of SI is involved in the regeneration process following peripheral nerve injury.


One of the most acclaimed modern American novelists, Scott Spencer captures the intensity of human passion--and its capacity to both destroy and redeem--with unparalleled precision and insight. Now, in his most stunning novel yet, this wry, witty, and deeply sensitive writer returns to the territory of his New York Times bestseller A Ship Made of Paper, in a gripping and provocative psychological thriller of morality and manhood, choice and fate.Paul has been on his own since he was a teenager, leading a life of freedom and independence, beholden to no one and nothing. Fearless, resolute, and guided by his own private moral code, he has hunted for food in Alaska, fought forest fires, and been deputized in a manhunt for a kidnapper in South Dakota.Once he thought his life would have no particular rhyme or reason, touched only by transient strangers. Then he meets the beautiful, intelligent, loving Kate Ellis and her daughter, Ruby, who offer order and constancy. But Paul is a man of deep convictions, and the compromises we all make to get along in the world elude him.On his way home after rejecting a job remodeling a luxurious Manhattan apartment, Paul stops to gather his thoughts at a state park just off the highway. Instead of peace, he finds a man savagely beating a dog, and in a few fateful moments Paul is plunged into a world of violence and onto a tumultuous journey of self-knowledge, guilt, and redemption.With the psychological acuity and razor-sharp prose for which he has been celebrated, award-winning, bestselling novelist Scott Spencer once again takes us on an unforgettable journey of manhood lost and found.


Two Lhasa Apsos were diagnosed with lissencephaly based on MR imaging and clinical findings. Histologic confirmation of the diagnosis was obtained in one dog. The MR imaging appearance of the brain in 2 Lhasa Apsos with lissencephaly was of a smooth cerebral surface and a thick neocortex with an absence of the corona radiata. This correlated very well with the histopathologic findings in the dog. Our findings, together with the histopathologic features reported previously, are most consistent with Lhasa Apsos having the canine equivalent of human classical lissencephaly. MR is the imaging modality of choice for antemortem diagnosis of canine lissencephaly.


Two systems for the formation of cocrystals of donepezil were investigated using donepezil hydrochloride and donepezil solvate with salicylic acid and p-aminobenzoic acid. The donepezil solvate was prepared through an acidbase reaction between a hydrochloride salt and a base in methanol. Donepezil HCl (DH) and the solvate with salicylic acid and p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) at 1:1 molar ratios were prepared using the cogrinding method. Cocrystals were characterized using attenuated total reflection-FTIR spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (13C and 1H NMR), Powder X-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry. These results indicate that the cogrinding process could induce cocrystal formation in donepezil systems through a simple process that allows for rapid screening of cocrystals of donepezil.


Identification of the committed cardiomyoblast that retains proliferative potential may inform cardiac regenerative therapeutics. In the heart, multiple cell types work together. Cardiac progenitor cells give rise to cardiomyocyte, endothelial, or smooth muscle lineages. However, the identity of a marker specific to cardiomyocyte formation has been elusive. Jain et al. now identify a specialized progenitor population that is committed exclusively to forming cardiomyocytes. They also identify the niche signals that promote lineage commitment and the mechanisms involved in making cardiomyocytes. The findings may help in the development of future cell-based regenerative therapeutics for heart disease. R. Jain, D. Li, M. Gupta, L. J. Manderfield, J. L. Ifkovits, Q. Wang, F. Liu, Y. Liu, A. Poleshko, A. Padmanabhan, J. C. Raum, L. Li, E. E. Morrisey, M. M. Lu, K.-J. Won, J. A. Epstein, Integration of Bmp and Wnt signaling by Hopx specifies commitment of cardiomyoblasts. Science 348, aaa6071 (2015). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Consumers are the clear winners in the fast-growing sharing economy (and, more specifically, the "gig" economy), as are the technology companies that conceived and developed the digital platform models and that serve as the intermediaries. Though workers on the platforms have also benefited, particularly those who value flexibility, there is a sense that they are not receiving an appropriate share of the joint surplus that their "partnership" with the platforms is producing. For those troubled by this disparity, the challenge is to find a principled solution that would allow the benefits to be distributed more equitably, but would not upend the innovative business model and thereby lose the associated efficiencies and other benefits.
In this Essay, I argue for the extension of the antitrust labor exemption, currently limited to labor activities of employees, to encompass gig-economy workers. That would allow them to negotiate collectively with the platform/intermediary over compensation and benefits issues without exposure to antitrust liability. Gig-economy workers straddle the line between employee and independent contractor and do not currently receive the benefits and protections that are tied to employment. I explain why it would be consistent with the philosophies underlying the antitrust law and the exemption to extend the exemption to gig-economy workers, and why that can be reconciled with more recent refusals to apply the exemption to non-employee professionals—mostly independent physicians.
The Essay additionally addresses the drawbacks of different solutions proposed by others also concerned about the precarious circumstances of gig-economy workers, focusing in particular on a proposal to legislatively redefine "employment" broadly to cover gig-economy workers. My concern with this proposal is that it risks jeopardizing the very business model that has facilitated online intermediated work, and could also have the unintended effect of diminishing platform competition, which is troubling from a competition policy perspective. Given the uncertainties and risks, the simpler approach of extending the antitrust labor exemption to permit collective action by gig-economy workers, proposed in this Essay, seems to be the better path.
The exemption is not a perfect solution, and I address its weaknesses. But it is a means to advance the workers' interests in securing an appropriate share of the surplus that has been jointly created by the platform and the workers, without as much risk of dismantling the business model in the process.


Background The microscopical diagnosis of male urethritis was recently questioned by Rietmeijer and Mettenbrink, lowering the diagnostic criteria of the diagnosis to ≥2 polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNL) per high power field (HPF), and adopted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their 2015 STD Treatment Guidelines. The European Non-Gonococcal Urethritis Guideline advocates a limit of ≥5 PMNL/HPF. Objective To determine if syndromic treatment of urethritis should be considered with a cutoff value of ≥2 PMNL/HPF in urethral smear. Methods The design was a cross-sectional study investigating the presence and degree of urethritis relative to specific infections in men attending an STI clinic as drop-in patients. Results The material included 2 cohorts: a retrospective study of 13,295 men and a prospective controlled study including 356 men. We observed a mean chlamydia prevalence of 2.3% in the 0–9 stratum, and a 12-fold higher prevalence (27.3%) in the strata above 9. Of the chlamydia cases, 89.8% were diagnosed in strata above 9. For Mycoplasma genitalium, the prevalence was 1.4% in the 0–9 stratum and 11.2% in the stratum ≥10, and 83.6% were diagnosed in strata above 9. For gonorrhea, a significant increase in the prevalence occurred between the 0–30 strata and >30 strata from 0.2% to 20.7%. The results of the prospective study were similar. Conclusions Our data do not support lowering the cutoff to ≥2 PMNL/HPF. However, a standardization of urethral smear microscopy seems to be impossible. The cutoff value should discriminate between low and high prevalence of chlamydia, mycoplasma, and gonorrhea to include as many as possible with a specific infection in syndromic treatment, without overtreating those with few PMNL/HPF and high possibility of having nonspecific or no urethritis.


Disclaimer: This manuscript has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Case Reports and Images (IJCRI). This is a pdf file of the provisional version of the manuscript. The manuscript will under go content check, copyediting/proofreading and content formating to conform to journal's requirements. Please note that during the above publication processes errors in content or presentation may be discovered which will be rectified during manuscript processing. These errors may affect the contents of this manuscript and final published version of this manuscript may be extensively different in content and layout than this provisional PDF version.


A yeast identification procedure based on the sequencing of the D1/D2 region of the yeast 26S ribosomal DNA was presented in an undergraduate general mycology laboratory. Extracted genomic DNA of environmental yeasts collected by the students was used to PCR-amplify the D1/D2 region of the isolates. Agarose gel electrophoresis confirmed the presence of the expected amplicon which was purified for sequencing by a spincolumn method then submitted to a commercial sequencing laboratory. The students examined the sequence of their isolates for base miscalls using Applied Biosytem's Sequence Scan program. The sequences were then used to perform a BLAST search which compared them to the D1/D2 sequences of all validly described yeast species on file in the GenBank database. Of 37 isolates tested, 33 (89%) returned usable sequences for BLAST identification. The module required two lab periods of 1.5 and 2 hours, respectively, to complete with an enrollment of 40 students.


"Momentum is building in and around Africa today for policy action to decisively confront hunger and malnutrition. If we are to succeed, it is vital that food and nutrition security strategies be both sound and able to be implemented. Ultimately, strategies deficient in either of these two areas will be ineffectual. Lessons from past strategies provide a valuable resource in the design of future strategies, yet there is a dearth of programmatic information and rigorous evaluations of the approaches used in the past. With this in mind, the authors of this 2020 discussion paper review the multitude of approaches and strategies for achieving food and nutrition security in Africa within the context of development over the past four decades. They assess the extent to which these plans have been implemented and identify the key constraints and limitations, along with the priority investments needed for more effective design and implementation in the future." Foreword by Joachim von Braun, Director General, IFPRI


In this letter, an elliptic low-pass filter (LPF) implemented in coplanar waveguide (CPW) technology by etching open complementary split ring resonators (OCSRRs) in the central strip is presented for the first time. The OCSRRs behave as series connected parallel resonant tanks, whereas metallic patches etched in the back side of the substrate provide the required shunt capacitance to achieve the elliptic function response. An order-5 elliptic LPF has been designed and fabricated to illustrate the possibilities of this new approach. The measured frequency response is in good agreement with the ideal elliptic function up to twice the cutoff frequency (fc=1& GHz). Since OCSRRs are electrically small resonators, filter dimensions are also small (device length is 2.5 cm, namely 0.13 lambda , where lambda is the guided wavelength at fc). This work is illustrative of the possibilities of OCSRRs for the design of compact planar filters and other microwave components.


Relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq have evolved at a breathtaking pace, with Turkish policies currently bolstering the KRG's drift towards independence, a prospect considered unthinkable in Ankara only a few years ago. Energy politics is an important component of this puzzle, but Ankara's strategic choice can only be understood against the backdrop of Iraq's deepening sectarianisation, the unfolding civil war in Syria and the dynamics in Turkey's own Kurdish question. The Turkish government is pursuing a high risk/high gain strategy. A more democratic Turkey, in partnership with the KRG, would be best placed to hedge against the centrifugal sectarian trends afflicting its southern neighbours. It is far more likely that Turkey will win its gamble with the support of the European Union.


We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of Caché, a system that offers location privacy for certain classes of location-based applications. The core idea in Caché is to periodically pre-fetch potentially useful location-enhanced content well in advance. Applications then retrieve content from a local cache on the mobile device when it is needed. This approach allows an end-user to make use of location-enhanced content while only revealing to third-party content providers a large geographic region rather than a precise location. In this paper, we present an analysis that examines tradeoffs in terms of storage, bandwidth, and freshness of data. We then discuss the design and implementation of an Android service embodying these ideas. Finally, we provide two evaluations of Caché. One measures the performance of our approach with respect to privacy and mobile content availability using real-world mobility traces. The other focuses on our experiences using Caché to enhance user privacy in three open source Android applications.


This paper presents simulations of initial velocity distribution of fragments for non-trivial shapes of casing in exploding shells, using a semi-empirical computational model. The key to the proposed approach is the use of transformation of a general geometrical shape to a hollow sphere followed by an application of Gurney principles in the transformed domain. The model is validated against an analytical model for a finite cylindrical charge bounded by a cylindrical shell and identical end-plates. A computation for 105-mm shell with steel casing and aluminium fuze illustrates aspects involved in reliable comparisons of fragmentation models against a standard trial data. Further, a simple and inexpensive experimental procedure based on a pin gauges measurement is described. Measurements obtained for short cylinders and an 81-mm mortar bomb are compared with numerical predictions. The described model responds to the need for an improved, fast assessment tool applicable to practical designs involving geometrically complex multi-material shells. The results highlight a requirement for quality experimental data obtained for complex shapes.


This thesis explores the relationship between a firm's supply chain and a firm's degree of market orientation and economic performance. The results suggest that certain types of supply chain design - in particular those models that make for close links with the firm's customers - lead to superior marketing and shareholder value. Two sets of environmental forces have been particularly influential in reshaping supply chains over recent years. One is the enormous growth in production capacity, especially in the Far East, which has lead to more industries operating with excess capacity. Production skills and resources were once seen as at the heart of a firm's core capabilities and the source of its competitive advantage. Today, in more and more sectors, the key skill is marketing - creating customer preference in oversupplied markets through branding and customer relationship management. Downstream activities in the supply chain have risen in prominence compared to upstream activities.
The second change has been the information revolution brought about by the computer and the Internet. This has lowered the transaction costs of integrating the activities performed by the different businesses constituting a supply chain and made it increasingly attractive to achieve control without ownership. Supply chains can now become networks integrated through seamless in formation exchanges We explore these changes at the microeconomic level. The research draws upon the existing literature and on primary data including exploratory interviews, main-study in-depth interviews and survey data. Matched pair samples of 20 high performance and 20 low performance business units based in the UK provided the main body of data results. Data analysis involved four distinct phases; within case analysis and cross case analysis for the qualitative data collected; exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify dimensions of influence as a method of integration; discriminant analysis and Lambda to investigate the association between supply chain configuration typologies, market orientation and business performance.
Two major contributions stem from this research. First, the interdisciplinary domain for supply chain configuration can be established. Whereas traditionally competitive advantage has been built through a focus on operations efficiency - streamlining processes to reduce cost, today increased communications, global markets and the speed at which Internet technologies are developing, demand and facilitate an additional perspective for supply chain management - the effectiveness perspective. The concept of effectiveness brings the subject of supply chain management from the sphere of operations management into the domain of marketing strategy. From this perspective the building, maintenance and management of customer relationships becomes central to the supply chain configuration. Highly efficient production processes, where fiercely protected technical know-how enables the delivery of superior quality products, no longer acts as a sustainable source of competitive advantage. To achieve this, firms must focus on two principle activities: building brand value and carefully fostering relationships with key customers. For firms positioned upstream in the supply chain, building a strong brand identity offers potentially a means to integrate downstream with both customers and consumers.
The second contribution comes from the association of supply chain configuration with other variables. Our results show a relationship between market orientation, business performance and supply chain configuration. We conclude that companies are beginning to recognise opportunities that arise from using technology and information to blur traditional boundaries between suppliers, manufacturers and end users. We discuss how technology enables co-ordination across company boundaries to achieve new levels of efficiency and effectiveness, as well as extraordinary returns to investors. For example, a company, its suppliers, and even its customers might begin to share information and activities to speed the design of a product and raise the likelihood of its success in the marketplace. This should enable suppliers to begin developing components before the overall product design is complete, providing vital timely feedback regarding component specification, cost and time objectives. Equally, customers are able to review a product as it evolves and provide input on how it meets their needs. Managers must concern themselves with the design stages of the product and facilitate knowledge and information flows through the entire supply chain.
Business seems to be on the threshold of a new era of inter-firm relationships. Supply chain customers sharing the same suppliers are able to provide leadership, encouraging shared distribution systems and payment/ordering systems. Over capacity in firms forces such considerations. Collaborative approaches can drive down costs and ultimately offer improved services for consumers, making available the goods they want, where and when they want them. But this configuration of an interconnected, interdependent supply network requires much more openness. Interfirm boundaries must become almost invisible. Trust, commitment, open communication and information sharing must permeate the culture of partnering firms. The sharing of real time customer information both within and between firms facilitates the reduction of inventory and increases speed to market, reducing risk and increasing cost savings. Customer information provides a sound basis for segmenting markets, allowing the understanding of customer needs to develop in a deeper way. This customer closeness gives access to information critical in aiding accurate forecasting which is central to the elimination of unnecessary costs and enabling firms to dramatically extend the value they deliver to customers thus creating competitive advantage.
Shrinking the time and the resources it takes to meet customers' needs in a world where those needs are constantly changing is the challenge. As Wayne Gretzky, the famous hockey player explained, "the key to winning is getting first to where the puck is going next". The same could be said about succeeding in business. Listening to customers and then using and sharing this most valuable information resource throughout the supply chain will be the key.


We introduce the method of compressive dynamic mode decomposition (cDMD) for robustly performing real-time foreground/background separation in high-definition video. The DMD method provides a regression technique for least-square fitting of video snapshots to a linear dynamical system. The method integrates two of the leading data analysis methods in use today: Fourier transforms and Principal Components. DMD modes with temporal Fourier frequencies near the origin (zero-modes) are interpreted as background (low-rank) portions of the given video frames, and the terms with Fourier frequencies bounded away from the origin are their foreground (sparse) counterparts. When combined with compression techniques, the resulting cDMD can process full HD video feeds in real-time on CPU computing platforms while still maintaining competitive video decomposition quality, quantified by F-measure, Recall and Precision. On a GPU architecture, the method is significantly faster than real-time, allowing for further video processing to improve the separation quality and/or enacting further computer vision processes such as object recognition.


Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is regarded as the benchmark semiconductor in photocatalysis, which possesses a suitable band structure and makes the overall water splitting reaction thermodynamically possible. However, photocatalytic overall water splitting (POWS) (2H2O → 2H2 + O2) can only take place on rutile but hardly on anatase and brookite TiO2. So obtaining the POWS on TiO2-based photocatalysts has remained a long-standing challenge for over 40 years. In this work, we found that the POWS on anatase and brookite TiO2 becomes feasible under prolonged UV light irradiation. Further investigation by means of electron spin resonance spectroscopy (EPR) and transient infrared absorption–excitation energy scanning spectroscopy (TRIRA-ESS) reveals that both kinetics and thermodynamics factors contributed to unique POWS activity for different phases of TiO2. Kinetically the process of photocatalysis differs on different phases of TiO2 due to the intermediates (˙OH radical for anatase and brookite TiO2, peroxy species for rutile TiO2) that are formed. Thermodynamically there are many trapped states lying near the valence band of anatase and brookite but not for rutile TiO2, which reduce the overpotential for water oxidation. These findings develop our understanding of why some semiconductors are inactive as POWS photocatalysts despite having thermodynamically suitable band structures for the proton reduction and water oxidation reactions.


We study some stability properties of algorithms which minimize (or almost-minimize) empirical error over Donsker classes of functions. We show that, as the number n of samples grows, the L2-diameter of the set of almost-minimizers of empirical error with tolerance ξ(n)=o(n-1/2) converges to zero in probability. Hence, even in the case of multiple minimizers of expected error, as n increases it becomes less and less likely that adding a sample (or a number of samples) to the training set will result in a large jump to a new hypothesis. Moreover, under some assumptions on the entropy of the class, along with an assumption of Komlos-Major-Tusnady type, we derive a power rate of decay for the diameter of almost-minimizers. This rate, through an application of a uniform ratio limit inequality, is shown to govern the closeness of the expected errors of the almost-minimizers. In fact, under the above assumptions, the expected errors of almost-minimizers become closer with a rate strictly faster than n-1/2.


The thesis topic concerns the limitation of fault current high temperature superconducting (HTS), reported in scientific literature by the acronym HTSFCL (High Temperature Superconducting Fault Current Limiter) or
more commonly with SFCL.
These devices, at least in their ideal concept, turn on limiting short-circuit current only when the event of failure occurs, and are transparent to the network during normal operating conditions.
The thesis is therefore focused on the study of diff�erent types of SFCL and results in the production of a new and original concept of superconducting limiter, called "DC Resistive SFCL". It has designed and patented in
the Department of Electrical Engineering University of Bologna. The author and ing. Antonio Morandi (tutor) are the inventors.
The objective of the thesis is therefore to propose a type of SFCL which may have the potential to be a viable economic solution as well as technique.
The innovative concept of DC Resistive SFCL device, in fact, provides a DC operating conditions for the used superconducting (SC). It allows the use of cryogen-free solutions for cooling system and the exploitation of cheap
SC materials (MgB2), both of reality are already commercially existing and indeed precluded by the types of SFCL which provides an AC operating conditions for the used SC material.


We investigate the feasibility of controlling nonlinearity of an optical fiber by changing the polarization of in-coupled light. The proposed fiber structure has a nanostructured core composed of a stack of sub-wavelength stripes made from thermally matched soft glasses with different refractive indices. Numerical simulation results show both strong phase birefringence (of around 10–3) and small effective mode area, which is around 7.5 μm2 at 2000 nm and is weakly dependent on wavelength. Designed structure further shows different nonlinear coefficients for each of the orthogonally polarized guided modes. The fiber has engineered, flat normal dispersion characteristic for both principal polarization axes and its fabrication would concern use of standard, robust and commercially available soft glasses and combination of two technologically proven structured fiber drawing approaches.


This thesis describes approaches to the transformation of simple carbohydrates into a polyhydroxylated pyrrolidine and the formation of its glucosides. Chapter one describes the synthesis of the naturally occurring pyrrolidine 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol. Synthesised from di- O -isopropylidene-D-glucose, the key steps are the introduction of nitrogen at C-5 with retention of configuration. Then cyclisation of the nitrogen onto the C-2 position with inversion to form the pyrrolidine ring. Reduction of the aldehyde furnished the polyhydroxylated heterocycle in 3.4% yield over 16 steps. The synthetic compound matched the naturally occurring compound in all respects. Chapter two contains a review of commonly used glycosylation methods. It also describes the glycosylation of di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-glucose as a model system comparing the Koenig-Knorr method to the trichloroacetimidate method using several reaction conditions. Glycosylation of 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol was carried out using the trichloroacetimidate method to synthese all four glucosides. Boron trifluoride etherate and trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulphonate were used as catalysts in dichloromethane, diethyl ether and acetonitrile under strictly anhydrous conditions. All four glucosides were prepared 1- O -(αβ-D-glucopyranosyl)-2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol and 3- O -(αβ-D-glucopyranosyl)-2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol. Biological screening carried out against a wide range of glycosidases and glycosyl transferases indicated that the glucosides showed little inhibition in comparison to 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol. Chapter three describes the isolation and identification of 1- O -(β-D-glucopyranosyl)- 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol from Nephthytis poisonii N.E.Br. a member of the Araceae family found in tropical Africa. Identification was made by comparison with the previously synthesised glucosides of 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-Dmannitol. Investigations of Hyacinthoides non-scriptus (L.) chouard ex Rothm are also discussed. Chapter four describes the synthesis of a diazidolactone that could be used to form a 1,5 disubstituted tetrazole. This would have a second nitrogen functionality in the molecule allowing the possibility of the inclusion of the tetrazole into a peptide sequence. The synthesis was carried out from L-gulono-1,4-lactone. An azido group was introduced selectively at C-2, this unexpectedly occurred with retention of configuration. A second azide was then introduced at C-5, this occurring with the more commonly observed inversion of configuration to afford the 2,5-diazido-2,5-dideoxy-D-manno-1,4-lactone.


This report aims to explore the repercussion of the framed use of Essential Oils. These substances represent a real
potential for the food industry in order to substitute for the synthetic compounds and processes that have damaging effects
on health and the environment. The first part of this study highlights their main characteristics and generalities. The second
part is oriented to the optimization and development of the exploitation of EO in food products. The third and final part
summarizes the results of the survey submitted to the public and involving the context of alimentary EO. The conclusion,
very encouraging, exposes the positive outlook regarding their use and considers a promising future for EO.


A simplified propagation model is presented that provides a useful balance between accuracy, flexibility, completeness and ease of computation. The atmosphere is modeled by a combination of aberrated lenses that includes the phase front distortions generated by the device, optical train, atmospheric turbulence, and thermal blooming. When atmospheric heating occurs away from the focal plane the method gives results that are virtually identical to the exact, distributed lens analysis. The method applies especially to vertical propagation through the atmosphere and horizontal propagation of repetitively pulsed lasers. Numerical results are presented that illustrate the analysis.


"This dissertation is an exploration of identity formation when crossing national boundaries and confronting disparate cultures and histories. Working with the assumption that identifying (or not) with local discourses informs behaviors and values, this study examines what questions emerge when one is immersed in discourses that were created beyond one's locality. Through weekly interviews with two exchange students who came to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from Mexico, this inquiry explores how they situate themselves within and against their local discourses before, during and after the transnational experience. The author uses bricolage and brings together different ways of knowing: visual, textual, historical, personal, and analytical in order to explore this encounter with difference. Crossing national boundaries is an experience in which fixed notions are called into question through exposure to disharmonious realities. The purpose of using bricolage is to expose the readers to disharmony in hopes that their own questions emerge about the representation of culture and nature. Rather than leading the reader down a path in which an argument is built vertically, bricolage immerses the reader into a conversation and encourages the reader to make his or her own meaning in their engagement with the texts. By exploring the students' experiences through both a visual documentary and a textual discourse analysis, a comparison between the different forms of representation arises. Different questions and meanings emerge depending on which method the researcher is using. Different paradigms exist at the same time. The pedagogical implications challenge typical definitions of education. Rather than thinking about education as coming from an authority figure that has categorized phenomena for an audience to consume, this dissertation explores the educative experience of pulling apart fixed categories and meditating on the resulting dissonance. The former isolated notion of education complements the written media and the classroom environment. The latter notion considers visual media an important place to raise questions. It deems experience, i.e., traveling, educative and difficult questions central. And it regards considerations about the opportunities and limitations of visual texts, as well as, the opportunities and limitations of written texts as a priority."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB), as the most common cause of death from infectious disease in the world, is estimated to rank 10th in view of the global burden of disease. Due to the increasing prevalence of this disease and reduce the incidence of smear-positive pulmonary TB in the province, this study was designed to investigate the TB epidemiology and its affected factors in Hamadan province. Methods: In this study, 842 patients with TB during 2007 to 2013 referred to the health centers of the province were studied. All information of patients, including age, gender, place of residence and patients' condition, were collected. Data was analyzed by Chi-square test using SPSS22 statistical software. Results: The mean age of patients was 54.01±21.75. Of patients, 425 individuals (50.4%) were female. 2.1% of patients were infected with HIV, 579 (68.7%) with pulmonary TB and 412 (71.1%) were smear-positive cases. There was no significant relationship between gender and type of TB (P=0.81). Between place of residence (urban-rural) and the type of TB a significant relationship was found (P< 0.005). Age and type of TB, as well, showed statistically significant correlation (P<0.01). Conclusion: In this study, most patients with TB were in the age group of over 70 years old. Therefore, it is recommended to do more accurate screening in this age group to reduce the incidence risk of disease. Considering the high prevalence of TB and HIV at the same time, training and preventive Proceedings to control tuberculosis is recommended.


Scrutinising Sterne's fiction through a book history lens, Helen Williams creates novel readings of his work based on meticulous examination of its material and bibliographical conditions. Alongside multiple editions and manuscripts of Sterne's own letters and works, a panorama of interdisciplinary sources are explored, including dance manuals, letter-writing handbooks, newspaper advertisements, medical pamphlets and disposable packaging. For the first time, this wealth of previously overlooked material is critically analysed in relation to the design history of Tristram Shandy, conceptualising the eighteenth-century novel as an artefact that developed in close conjunction with other media. In examining the complex interrelation between a period's literature and the print matter of everyday life, this study sheds new light on Sterne and eighteenth-century literature by re-defining the origins of his work and of the eighteenth-century novel more broadly, whilst introducing readers to diverse print cultural forms and their production histories.


We present a review of digital imaging techniques to obtain highest resolution colour/greyvalue time-series from geological material. From suitable sediments these methods can yield time-series with subannual resolution. They can be utilized for the detection of high-frequency (< 300 years) climate change over long periods of time. Automated laminae counting produces a high-precision stratigraphy and data on the laminae thickness. The application of the methods to drill cores from the Santa Barbara Basin demonstrates the power of the techniques in detecting rapid climate change. El Niño/Southern Oscillation cycles as well as solar and lunar cycles could be detected from both, the greyvalue and the laminae thickness time-series. Evolutionary power spectra, calculated from the colour/greyvalue time-series, reveal dramatic variations in the power and frequency of rapid climate oscillations during the Holocene.


BACKGROUND
Children lose their vaccine-induced protection and are particularly vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases after chemotherapy. However, revaccination guidelines are heterogeneous, and there is often a lack of revaccination post-treatment.

AIMS
We conducted a retrospective study of children with hematologic cancer to evaluate vaccine immunity before and after the end of treatment and to determine whether the current institutional revaccination program based on vaccine serology results was followed and effective.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data of all children treated by chemotherapy between April 2015 and July 2021 were extracted from hospital medical records for analysis. Serum antibody levels and time of vaccination were evaluated for diphtheria, tetanus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), measles, varicella, and hepatitis B.

RESULTS
We included 31 patients (median age, 9 years). At cancer diagnosis, 90% of children were protected against tetanus, diphtheria, and measles; 65% to 67% were protected against pneumococcus and varicella; and 25% against hepatitis B. At the end of chemotherapy, 67% to 71% of patients were protected against tetanus, varicella, and measles; 40% remained protected against hepatitis B; and 27% to 33% against pneumococcus and diphtheria. Patients were revaccinated at various times after the end of treatment but not systematically. During the first-year post-treatment, 20% to 25% of children remained unprotected against pneumococcus, measles, and hepatitis B, one third against diphtheria, but all were protected against tetanus and varicella.

CONCLUSIONS
An effective individualized vaccination program post-cancer based on serology results should be accompanied by an appropriate serology tracking method and follow-up to assess if booster doses are necessary. Our study supports vaccinating all children with a dose of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate at cancer diagnosis and at 3 months post-treatment with the combined diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis/poliomyelitis vaccine/hepatitis B virus plus or minus Hib and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate and meningococcal vaccine, including measles/mumps/rubella-varicella zoster virus vaccine if good immune reconstitution is present.


Network security policies contain requirements – including system and software features as well as expected and desired actions of human actors. In this paper, we present a framework for evaluation of textual network security policies as requirements documents to identify areas for improvement. Specifically, our framework concentrates on completeness. We use topic modeling coupled with expert evaluation to learn the complete list of important topics that should be addressed in a network security policy. Using these topics as a checklist, we evaluate (students) a collection of network security policies for completeness, i.e., the level of presence of these topics in the text. We developed three methods for topic recognition to identify missing or poorly addressed topics. We examine network security policies and report the results of our analysis: preliminary success of our approach.


The microscopic origin of the intermediate phase in two prototypical covalently bonded AxB1-x network glass forming systems, where A=Ge or Si, B=Se, and 0=x=1, was investigated by combining neutron diffraction with first-principles molecular-dynamics methods. Specifically, the structure of glassy GeSe4 and SiSe4 was examined, and the calculated total structure factor and total pair-correlation function for both materials are in good agreement with experiment. The structure of both glasses differs markedly from a simple model comprising undefective AB4 corner-sharing tetrahedra in which all A atoms are linked by B2 dimers. Instead, edge-sharing tetrahedra occur and the twofold coordinated Se atoms form three distinct structural motifs, namely, Se-Se2, Se-SeGe (or Se-SeSi), and Se-Ge2 (or Se-Si2). This identifies several of the conformations that are responsible for the structural variability in GexSe1-x and SixSe1-x glasses, a quantity that is linked to the finite width of the intermediate phase window.


This thesis explores the issue of hunger in the context of climate change. In particular, it investigates the role that international law plays in finding ways to tackle hunger. The research focuses on one particular adaptation strategy to climate change that has been proposed, namely 'climate-ready seeds'. Climate-ready seeds are genetically engineered for resistance to abiotic stresses, such as drought, and intended to increase food production in the face of climate change. This research presents narratives of climate-ready seeds that expose different perspectives on whether these seeds can contribute to solving the problem of hunger. The specific example of climate-ready seeds is seen as a reflection of the 'neoliberal' food regime. While the exploration of the role of international law focuses primarily on climate-ready seeds, the conclusions are also relevant for food regime theory more broadly.
I study the role of law in discourse on climate-ready seeds through the fields of climate change adaptation law, intellectual property law (particularly seed patents), and human rights law (especially the right to food). My main argument is that, while law is often invoked as part of the solution to climate change-induced hunger, there is little attention for the role that law plays in framing the problem. How hunger is framed as a problem determines the solutions available to solve it. Ultimately, this inquiry investigates the contribution of international law in framing hunger in the context of climate change as a problem. The analysis is based on the identification of five fundamental assumptions underlying debates on climate-ready seeds. I argue that a great deal of critical attention is directed at corporate patent rights on seeds; much less consideration is given to fundamental questions about hunger and how to eradicate it
Finally, I apply the conclusions about the role of law in debates about climate-ready seeds to the neoliberal food regime. My broader argument is that global food relations as understood through food regime theory must consider the role that law plays in creating and reinforcing a certain way of thinking about hunger in the context of climate change. Without addressing the framework of assumptions on which the current food regime is based, it will be difficult to truly change global food relations and formulate alternative ways of combating hunger.


This article investigates the reception of the story of St Wilfrid in the early twelfth century, a critical period for the development of the standard narratives of English history. Two historians active at this time, Eadmer of Canterbury and William of Malmesbury, produced extended accounts of Wilfrid, but using different materials and for contrasting purposes. Eadmer was attempting to replace the early eighth-century uita by Stephen the Priest with a text that was less harmful to the interests of Canterbury, in an attempt to persuade the monks of his community (Christ Church Cathedral Priory) to embrace Wilfrid's cult. William revived and adapted Stephen's narrative in order to show that the English, their religious and their buildings were worthy of respect—themes that were central to his abbey's campaign to protect itself from the lordship of Roger, bishop of Salisbury (1102–39). The essay concludes by evaluating the Eadmer's and William's use of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, arguing that their responses to its treatment of Wilfrid reveal an acute understanding of their predecessor's biases and methods as an historian.


Abstract : In this paper, the authors present successful strategies for forgetting cases in a Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) system applied to autonomous robot navigation. This extends previous work that involved a CBR architecture that indexes cases by the spatio-temporal characteristics of the sensor data, and outputs or selects parameters of behaviors in a behavior-based robot architecture. In such a system, the removal of cases can be applied when a new situation unlike any current case in the library is encountered, but the library is full. Various strategies of determining which cases to remove are proposed, including metrics such as how frequently a case is used and a novel spreading activation mechanism. Experimental results show that such mechanisms can increase the performance of the system significantly and allow it to essentially forget old environments in which it was trained in favor of new environments it is currently encountering. The performance of this new system is better than both a purely reactive behavior-based system and the CBR module that did not forget cases. Furthermore, such forgetting mechanisms can be useful even when there is no major environmental shift during training, since some cases can potentially be harmful or rarely used. The relationship between the forgetting mechanism and the case library size also is discussed.


Dysregulation of vascular stiffness and cellular metabolism occurs early in pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, the mechanisms by which biophysical properties of the vascular extracellular matrix (ECM) relate to metabolic processes important in PH remain undefined. In this work, we examined cultured pulmonary vascular cells and various types of PH-diseased lung tissue and determined that ECM stiffening resulted in mechanoactivation of the transcriptional coactivators YAP and TAZ (WWTR1). YAP/TAZ activation modulated metabolic enzymes, including glutaminase (GLS1), to coordinate glutaminolysis and glycolysis. Glutaminolysis, an anaplerotic pathway, replenished aspartate for anabolic biosynthesis, which was critical for sustaining proliferation and migration within stiff ECM. In vitro, GLS1 inhibition blocked aspartate production and reprogrammed cellular proliferation pathways, while application of aspartate restored proliferation. In the monocrotaline rat model of PH, pharmacologic modulation of pulmonary vascular stiffness and YAP-dependent mechanotransduction altered glutaminolysis, pulmonary vascular proliferation, and manifestations of PH. Additionally, pharmacologic targeting of GLS1 in this model ameliorated disease progression. Notably, evaluation of simian immunodeficiency virus-infected nonhuman primates and HIV-infected subjects revealed a correlation between YAP/TAZ-GLS activation and PH. These results indicate that ECM stiffening sustains vascular cell growth and migration through YAP/TAZ-dependent glutaminolysis and anaplerosis, and thereby link mechanical stimuli to dysregulated vascular metabolism. Furthermore, this study identifies potential metabolic drug targets for therapeutic development in PH.


Summary Diabetic foot ulcer morbidity and mortality are dramatically increasing worldwide, reinforcing the urgency to propose more effective interventions to treat such a devastating condition. Previously, using a diabetic mouse model, we demonstrated that administration of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells derivatives is more effective than the use of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells alone. Here, we used the aforementioned treatments on three patients with grade 2 diabetic foot ulcers and assessed their beneficial effects, relative to the conventional approach. In the present study, two doses of cell derivatives, one dose of mesenchymal stem cells or one dose of vehicle (saline solution with 5% of human albumin), were intradermally injected around wounds. Wound healing process and changes on re-epithelialization were macroscopically evaluated until complete closure of the ulcers. All ulcers were simultaneously treated with conventional treatment (PolyMen® dressing). Patients treated with either cell derivatives or mesenchymal stem cells achieved higher percentages of wound closure in shorter times, relative to the patient treated with the conventional treatment. The cell derivative and mesenchymal stem cells approaches resulted in complete wound closure and enhanced skin regeneration at some point between days 35 and 42, although no differences between these two treatments were observed. Moreover, wounds treated with the conventional treatment healed after 161 days. Intradermal administration of cell derivatives improved wound healing to a similar extent as mesenchymal stem cells. Thus, our results suggest that mesenchymal stem cell derivatives may serve as a novel and potential therapeutic approach to treat diabetic foot ulcers. Learning points: In diabetic mouse models, the administration of mesenchymal stem cells derivatives have been demonstrated to be more effective than the use of marrow mesenchymal stem cells alone. Mesenchymal stem cells have been explored as an attractive therapeutic option to treat non-healing ulcers. Mesenchymal stem cells derivatives accelerate the re-epithelialization on diabetic foot ulcers.


The cause and age of the Moorhead low-water Phase of glacial Lake Agassiz remains uncertain. New geochemical (X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and elemental analysis) and chronological (optically stimulated luminescence (OSL)) data are used to test for evaporative enrichment within lacustrine sediment from Rabbit Lake, a small basin just above the highest Lake Agassiz strandline, and from two Lake Agassiz sediment cores at Fargo, North Dakota. Increases in quartz and gypsum interpreted to be of aeolian origin suggest increased aridity at Rabbit Lake sometime after 13 540–13 750 cal years BP. From the Fargo cores, lacustrine sediment of the Brenna and Sherack formations did not show convincing evidence for evaporative enrichment. However, this result is complicated by an erosional contact at the top of the Brenna Formation. A thin middle sand unit between the Brenna and Sherack formation clays is stratigraphically equivalent to the Poplar River Formation, West Fargo Member, but its properties differ from the fluvial sand of the West Fargo Member. Four OSL ages from the organic-poor, middle sand unit at Fargo range between 12.8 ± 0.2 and 13.5 ± 0.2 ka (with ±1.6 ka uncertainty) and suggest lake level fell at Fargo at, or before, 13.1 ± 0.2 ka, the average of the OSL ages. With different sedimentological properties, and a difference of ∼1750 years between the new OSL ages and previously published ages on the West Fargo Member sand, additional work is required to determine whether the middle sand unit is a new member of the Poplar River Formation, recording an earlier and different depositional environment than the West Fargo Member. From a plot of available ages for the Moorhead Phase, the regression remains poorly constrained in time.