Conventional classification methods tend to focus on features of individual objects, while missing out on potentially valuable pairwise features that capture the relationships between objects. Although recent developments on graph regularization exploit this aspect, existing works generally assume only a single kind of pairwise feature, which is often insufficient. We observe that multiple, heterogeneous pairwise features can often complement each other and are generally more robust in modeling the relationships between objects. Furthermore, as some objects are easier to classify than others, objects with higher initial classification confidence should be weighed more towards classifying related but more ambiguous objects, an observation missing from previous graph regularization techniques. In this paper, we propose a Dirichlet-based regularization framework that supports the combination of heterogeneous pairwise features with confidence-aware prediction using limited labeled training data. Next, we showcase a few applications of our framework in information retrieval, focusing on the problem of query intent classification. Finally, we demonstrate through a series of experiments the advantages of our framework on a large-scale real-world dataset.


Anti-coagulation treatments are required for medical conditions that become more and more frequent with the ageing of the population in developed countries (atrial fibrillation, deep-venous thrombosis, heart prosthetic valves, etc.). These treatments generally use coumarin derivative (vitamin-K antagonist), whose activity needs to be monitored in order to keep the patient in an appropriate therapeutic range. This measurement can be done in laboratories but can also be performed by the patient himself using portable devices. This paper presents the different technological ways to selfmonitor vitamin-K antagonist treatment by measuring coagulation time. It will focus on portable devices, well suited to be used at home and on device to be manipulated by the patient, thus not requiring an extensive training nor sample treatment.


Excerpt] Each year, the Institute for Community College Development offers a leadership program on critical issues for community colleges. In August 2005, the issue was entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneurial College was a great success, but when it ended, the participants agreed that "if entrepreneurship education is going to succeed at community colleges, presidents need to hear this message." Therefore, we held a similar program for CEOs, The Entrepreneurial President, in February 2006. What follows are highlights of the presentations and small group discussions from the CEO conference, with some additional materials from the August 2005 program. In this time of increased competition for scarce resources, entrepreneurial community colleges will have an edge. We hope you will use the ideas in this publication, generated by your colleagues, to support entrepreneurship on your campus. The possibilities are limitless, from certificate and degree programs, to business incubators, to "Entrepreneurship Halls of Fame." The rewards include improved economic opportunities for the community, new donors for campus initiatives, and increased enrollment.


Nobutaka Yoshioka, MD, PhD and Albert L. Rhoton Jr., MD have created an anatomical atlas of astounding precision. An unparalleled teaching tool, this atlas opens a unique window into the anatomical intricacies of complex facial nerves and related structures. An internationally renowned author, educator, brain anatomist, and neurosurgeon, Dr. Rhoton is regarded by colleagues as one of the fathers of modern microscopic neurosurgery. Dr. Yoshioka, an esteemed craniofacial reconstructive surgeon in Japan, mastered this precise dissection technique while undertaking a fellowship at Dr. Rhoton's microanatomy lab, writing in the preface that within such precision images lies potential for surgical innovation. Special Features: * Includes a pair of 3D glasses to view the extraordinary images that are available online in the Thieme MediaCenter * Exquisite color photographs, prepared from carefully dissected latex injected cadavers, reveal anatomy layer by layer, with remarkable detail and clarity* Major sections include intracranial region and skull, upper facial and midfacial region, and lower facial and posterolateral neck region Organized by region, each layered dissection elucidates specific nerves and structures with pinpoint accuracy, providing the clinician with in-depth anatomical insights. Precise clinical explanations accompany each photograph. In tandem, the images and text provide an excellent foundation for understanding the nerves and structures impacted by neurosurgical-related pathologies as well as other conditions and injuries. An exceptionally stunning anatomical reference, this book is a must-have reference for residents, and advanced clinicians specializing in neurosurgery, facial plastic surgery, otolaryngology, maxillofacial surgery, and craniofacial surgery.


The Argentine Parliament recently passed the New Equal Marriage Act for same-sex couples, making Argentina the first country in Latin America to legalize this type of union. This act represents a victory for a group historically discriminated for its sexual preferences and until then absent from the national legislation. In this context, in appearance so favourable to sexual equality, I believe this new law does not match the sexual order that today regulates the bodies of Argentine women. As from 1920 abortion is illegal in Argentina and it is reckoned as a crime against human life. Nevertheless, abortion is still the major cause of death among women in this country. Given this situation, in this article I will analyze the gap I find between homosexual and reproductive politics in the country. Unlike Europe, where reproductive rights preceded homosexual rights, in Argentina the opposite situation is observed. In this country, the legal recognition of same sex couples matches measures taken by other democracies and aimed at reaching what certain authors call sexual citizenship. Nevertheless, as long as Argentina does not recognize the right to free and safe abortion, this notion, which legitimates the universal applicability of sexual rights, will continue to be problematic. I believe that without the right of self-ownership, which comprehends sexual freedom and the right to decide to terminate a pregnancy, in the current Argentine context the gay marriage act represents an isolated event.


Conflicting theories and mixed empirical results exist on the relationship between ethnic diversity and trust. This article argues that these mixed empirical results might be driven by contextual conditions. We conjecture that political competition could strengthen ethnic saliency and, in turn, salient ethnic identities can activate or intensify in-group trust and depress trust in members of other ethnic groups. We test this conjecture using the move towards secession in Catalonia, Spain. We conduct trust experiments across ethnic lines in Catalonia before and during the secessionist process. After three years of pro-independence mobilization in Catalonia, one of the ethnic groups, Spanish-speakers living in Catalonia, has indeed increased its in-group trust. This result is robust after a set of individual-level variables are controlled for, but no equivalent result is found in a comparable region, the Basque Country.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate the potential of applying a community-based intervention, implemented in the Swedish city of Trelleborg 1999-2002, to reduce adolescent alcohol use. In order to do so, we had four specific aims. First, we studied the processes, both in terms of action and institu-tionalization, within the intervention. This would improve our understanding of the quantitative analyses. Second, we investigated the effects of the intervention, based on a number of indicators related to the interven-tion objectives. Third, we investigated which risk factors were significant for adolescent alcohol use in Trelleborg. Fourth, we exam-ined whether the changes of the intervention's target indicators resulted in less alcohol-related accidents and violence among the Trelleborg youth. In the process evaluation (Paper I), we carried out a qualitative data analysis, apply-ing an iterative explanation-building process, using interviews, public records, meeting minutes and evaluation seminars. In Papers II-IV, we analyzed school survey data, apply-ing logistic regression modelling and other statistical analyses. The process evaluation showed that the community intervention did not adequately institutionalize alcohol and drug prevention within the city administration, mainly due to numerous un-planned events and that the structure was individual oriented. Neverthe-less, the community mobilization and the raise in public awareness regarding the alcohol issue are factors which could have contributed to the impact of the project. The effect evaluation (Papers II-IV) showed that the community-based interven-tion in Trelleborg is likely to have contributed to a reduction in adolescent alcohol consump-tion. When comparing the data, for a popula-tion 15 and 16 years old, from the first school survey in 1999 with the one carried out in 2003, there is a decrease in the proportion of alcohol consumers (decreased by 21.8%), monthly heavy episodic drinking (38.2%), excessive drinking (36.3%), alcohol-related accidents (38.5%), and alcohol-related vio-lence (50.0%). The data analyses show that these changes are independent of significant factors on community, group and individual level. Availability of alcohol was also reduced in the target group during the intervention, but this change was not sustained after the project completion. In addition, the analyses supported the hypothesis that the decrease in alcohol-related accidents and violence was related to the reduction in adolescent alcohol consumption. The findings in the thesis support the as-sumption that by implementing a city policy program, including a plan of action, a mu-nicipality can reduce adolescent alcohol use, and subsequently alcohol-related harm. How-ever, in order to institutionalize the interven-tions and the alcohol issue there has to be a balance of internal and external input throughout the project. It seems that the implementation process in terms of institu-tionalization and the effects of the interven-tion do not have to be correlated, i.e., a weak institutionalization does not necessarily result in weak effects. (Less)


Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) relates to poor physical and mental health in women. Women who have experienced it access healthcare facilities more frequently with symptoms that are often unrelated to violence. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of IPV and health-related factors in women in the study population. Method: This clinic-based, cross-sectional study was carried out between November 2010 and January 2011 at the general outpatient clinic of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Four hundred women aged 15 years and older with previous or current intimate partners were recruited by simple random sampling. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire to obtain information on the respondents' socio-demographic characteristics, lifetime experience of IPV and clinical data, i.e. presenting symptoms, body mass indices and blood pressure readings. The clinical data of women who had a lifetime experience of IPV were compared with those who did not. Results: The overall lifetime prevalence of IPV was 89.2%. Reported IPV types were controlling behaviour (79.5%), psychological violence (35.7%), and physical (19.8%) and sexual violence (9.8%). Non-specific complaints (p = 0.028), female genital complaints (p = 0.037), poor sleep (p = 0.049), headaches (p = 0.011), abrasions or scars (p = 0.012), suicidal ideation (p = 0.001) and obesity (p = 0.021) were significantly more common in women who had experienced IPV than in those who had not. The logistic regression analysis showed suicidal ideation as the most significant factor relating to IPV (odds ratio 12.658, 95% confidence interval: 1.248–29.677). Conclusion: The high prevalence of IPV in women who routinely present to this primary care clinic suggests that there is a need for IPV screening. The association of IPV with a spectrum of clinical factors signifies its ubiquitous occurrence and underscores the need for healthcare providers to have a high index of suspicion, especially in cases whereby women present with non-specific complaints. Suicide screening should also be performed on women found to be positive for IPV.


Amoebiasis is the third worldwide disease due to a parasite. The causative agent of this disease, the unicellular eukaryote Entamoeba histolytica, causes dysentery and liver abscesses associated with inflammation and human cell death. During liver invasion, before entering the parenchyma, E. histolytica trophozoites are in contact with liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC). We present data characterizing human LSEC responses to interaction with E. histolytica and identifying amoebic factors involved in the process of cell death in this cell culture model potentially relevant for early steps of hepatic amoebiasis. E. histolytica interferes with host cell adhesion signalling and leads to diminished adhesion and target cell death. Contact with parasites induces disruption of actin stress fibers and focal adhesion complexes. We conclude that interference with LSEC signalling may result from amoeba-triggered changes in the mechanical forces in the vicinity of cells in contact with parasites, sensed and transmitted by focal adhesion complexes. The study highlights for the first time the potential role in the onset of hepatic amoebiasis of the loss of liver endothelium integrity by disturbance of focal adhesion function and adhesion signalling. Among the amoebic factors required for changed LSEC adherence properties we identified the Gal/GalNAC lectin, cysteine proteases and KERP1.


The aim of this paper is to introduce Samuel Brassai, the teacher, the outstanding scholar of the 19th century. He played a great role in the Reform era. His life, work and activity were inspired by thoughts that nowadays, a hundred years after his death, at the beginning of the 21st century are still valid. These thoughts are in the fields of education, economy, morality, research into the nation's prosperity. He was an excellent linguist, natural scientist, philosopher, critic, mathematician, musician, teacher, essay writer, university professor, and a regular member of the Academy of Sciences. At the centre of Brassai's life-work was his research into the methodological principles of teaching. His pedagogical system is the harmonious synthesis of his educational goals and methods. He was an encyclopaedic scholar, the great teacher of the nation who was continuously searching for the solution to the reform of education.


Using administrative employee-firm-level data on the entire private sector from 1994 to 2007, we show that the labor market in France has polarized: employment shares of high and low wage occupations have grown, while middle wage occupations have shrunk. During the same period, the share of hours worked in technology-related occupations ("techies") grew substantially, as did imports and exports, and we explore the causal links between these trends. Our paper is among the first to analyze polarization in any country using firm-level data, and we show how polarization occurred within firms, but mostly due to changes in the composition of firms (between firms). Motivated by the fact that technology adoption is mediated by technically qualified managers and technicians, we use a new measure of the propensity of a firm to adopt new technology: its employment share of techies. Using the subsample of firms that are active over the whole period, we show that firms with more techies in 2002 saw greater polarization, and grew faster, from 2002 to 2007. Offshoring reduced employment growth. Among blue- collar workers in manufacturing, importing caused skill upgrading while exporting caused skill downgrading. To control for the endogeneity of firm-level techies and trade in 2002, we use values of techies and trade from 1994 to 1998 as instruments. We conclude that technological change, mediated through techies, is an important cause of polarization in France. Firm-level trade had important effects in manufacturing.


Benchmark generation plays an important role in all kinds of research areas especially in optimization related problems. For most of the hard problems such as the NP-hard family, the performance of the solutions or solvers is evaluated based on experimental results. However, the current approaches on benchmark generation have two drawbacks, (1) inefficiency in tuning the parameters in the generator, and (2) bias towards some special solvers. One of the ill effects is that many researchers do not trust the experimental results, hence many heuristic algorithms are not accepted.
In this work, a new framework is proposed for test case generation based on the Design and Analysis of Engineering Experiment methods. In this framework, the effect of parameters can be analyzed by conducting a small number of experiments, therefore the test cases of desired hardness can be generated efficiently and accurately.
The new framework is examined in three phases. In the first phase, a special test case generator for the Multiple Unit Combinatorial Auction problem is studied. In the second phase, the framework is applied to study the general test cases for the Combinatorial Auction problem. In the third phase, it is further applied in a real-life application utilizing this methodology to evaluate the performance of RFID middlewares.


"Whoever discovered balut stumbled onto the fact that food has changing excellences (taste, texture) as it evolves and develops. Thus between the egg and the full-grown duck, there are stages that bear exploring-and eating. And the Filipino has explored them and evolved the culture of balut." Doreen Fernandez in "The World of Balut" This essay illustrates how consumption of one particular food, fertilized duck eggs, can reveal the interplay between food, beliefs, culture and history. Called balut in the Philippines or hot vit lon in Vietnam, fertilized duck eggs are also familiar in the food customs of Chinese, Laotians, Cambodians and Thais. Socio-cultural factors, not just nutritional reasons dominate its consumption. Using historical and literary sources, as well as fieldwork data culled from 25 balut eaters, two balut distributors and a duck farmer as well, I will explore what it is about balut that makes eating it desirable. Why ingest something that may already have bones, feathers and a beak? For Filipino and other Asian Americans, there are alternative sources of protein, (which is not the case for many in the Philippines who do not have the luxury of choice). "Eating is usually a more complicated function than just taking nourishment" wrote food scholar Kurt Lewin. The complexities involved in the eating of balut, or any other food for that matter, has since been explored by a number of folklorists and anthropologists. Food scholarship has ranged from food as a semiotic system (Theophano 1991; Douglas 1966 & 1972; Weismantel 1988), to how consumption is tied to psychological and economic factors (Lewin 1942; Richards 1932), to the way food defines ethnicity (Brown and Mussell 1984; Georges 1984; Kalcik 1984). However, much of the debate between food scholars is between the materialists, led by Marvin Harris and Marshall Sahlins, and symbolic theorists such as Mary Douglas and Claude Levi-Strauss. Harris agrees that food may have symbolic meaning, but before anything else, "food must nourish the collective stomach before it can feed the collective mind" and whatever foods are eaten, "are foods that have a more favorable balance of practical benefits over costs than foods that are avoided (bad to eat)" (Harris 1985:15). For Douglas, however, food embodies a code, and the messages in it can be seen in "the pattern of social relations" (1972:61). Who is being excluded or included can be gleaned from the food categories and meal patterns; for example, drinks are reserved for strangers and acquaintances while meals are for intimate friends and family (Douglas 66). In the case of balut, both symbolic and material explanations can illuminate the reasons why people would eat embryonic duck eggs. Although it is always eaten boiled, and never raw, eating balut requires the consumption of something in the fetal stage, and psychological, cultural, and socio-economic factors must all be considered. Generally sold late at night or early morning, balut is consumed by Filipino males for its alleged aphrodisiac properties, while women eat it for reasons such as energy and nutrition, but never as a sexual stimulant. As one informant put it bluntly, balut as an aphrodisiac is "para lang sa lalaki ito" (it is just for men). Eaten usually as a snack, and not a formal food, fertilized duck eggs have been described to be as "popular in Manila as hotdogs in the United States" (Maness 1950:10). Although at one point, balut may have been prevalent only in the Luzon region, and not in other areas of the Philippines, it has been hailed the country's "national street food" (Fernandez 1994:11). Balut is so deeply embedded in Philippine culture that it has inspired everything from a hit record song about the distinctive howling calls of balut vendors in the late night and early morning to dishes in Filipino haute cuisine. Indeed, the love affair of Filipinos with fertilized duck eggs has been carried by immigrants to the United States. …


Bragg gratings have been written in a nonhydrogenated Corning's SMF28 telecommunication fiber using ultraviolet (UV) pulses at a high power density from an ArF laser. Some of these gratings were uniformly exposed with light at 193 nm. The isothermal accelerated aging method was used to characterize the thermal decays of both pristine and postexposed grating spectral characteristics. UV postprocessing led to an increase in the stability of the Bragg grating reflectivity meanwhile the shifts in the Bragg wavelengths of the postexposed gratings proved to be higher than those of untreated gratings. It is shown that the isothermal decays of the refractive index modulation cannot be used to predict the annealing induced irreversible shifts in the Bragg wavelengths. Our observations are discussed within the Frame of the current theoretical descriptions of the links that may exist between the writing and the thermal stability of Bragg gratings.


Transport control is an important factor in the performance of Internet protocols, particularly in the next generation network applications involving computational steering, interactive visualization, instrument control, and transfer of large data sets. The widely deployed Transport Control Protocol is inadequate for these tasks due to its performance drawbacks. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct a rigorous analytical study on the design and performance of transport protocols, and systematically develop a new class of protocols to overcome the limitations of current methods.
Various sources of randomness exist in network performance measurements due to the stochastic nature of network traffic. We propose a new class of transport protocols that explicitly accounts for the randomness based on dynamic stochastic approximation methods. These protocols use congestion window and idle time to dynamically control the source rate to achieve transport objectives. We conduct statistical analyses to determine the main effects of these two control parameters and their interaction effects. The application of stochastic approximation methods enables us to show the analytical stability of the transport protocols and avoid pre-selecting the flow and congestion control parameters. These new protocols are successfully applied to transport control for both goodput stabilization and maximization. The experimental results show the superior performance compared to current methods particularly for Internet applications.
To effectively deploy these protocols over the Internet, we develop an overlay network, which resides at the application level to provide data transmission service using User Datagram Protocol. The overlay network, together with the new protocols based on User Datagram Protocol, provides an effective environment for implementing transport control using application-level modules. We also study problems in overlay networks such as path bandwidth estimation and multiple quickest path computation.
In wireless networks, most packet losses are caused by physical signal losses and do not necessarily indicate network congestion. Furthermore, the physical link connectivity in ad-hoc networks deployed in unstructured areas is unpredictable. We develop the Connectivity-Through-Time protocols that exploit the node movements to deliver data under dynamic connectivity. We integrate this protocol into overlay networks and present experimental results using network to support a team of mobile robots.


There is no general theory of the grounds of judicial review (e.g., the rule against bias, the doctrine of legitimate expectations, unreasonableness). Here I try to fill the gap. My theory draws on ideas from the philosophy of law and the philosophy of action, but it's a simple theory. Officials make decisions for the community. Their decisions are subject to requirements of instrumental rationality. Ideally, officials would figure out for themselves how to live up to these requirements. Because officials aren't perfect, the law also has "Plan B", which is for judges to ensure that officials do what rationality requires of them. The grounds of judicial review are simply the grounds on which it's rational for officials to reconsider, retain, suspend, or apply their decisions. The "Plan B theory", as I call it, doesn't account for every detail of judicial review. Even so, the theory is powerful, parsimonious, fruitful, and sharply at odds with almost everything else written about judicial review.


This paper presents the results of a coordinated modelling assessment that incorporates European energy efficiency and renewable policies with two potential gas market scenarios. First, the impact of EU energy efficiency and renewable policies on natural gas demand is calculated using the PRIMES model 2014 Baseline projection, the Fraunhofer ISI Low Policy Intensity Energy Efficiency scenario, and the Green-X model for renewable deployment. Next, the effect of these policies on the natural gas markets is assessed, using the European Gas Market Model. The model tests scenarios for different positions on long-term gas contracts with Russia assuming different stages of European gas infrastructure development. The findings show that dependency on Russian natural gas can be reduced to low levels without triggering a significant increase in natural gas prices for any single EU member country. In an extreme scenario whereby energy efficiency savings, higher renewable energy sources deployment and the assumed positive gas market developments take place simultaneously, gas cost savings can reach as high as 37%. Benefits arise not only in the most recent round of EU Member States (12 MS) targeted in the study, but are visible across most EU gas markets. This underlines the interlinkages of the whole EU gas market, and the results suggest that security of gas supply is not only a challenge for new Member States, but in the broader European markets.


In eastern Africa droughts can cause crop failure and lead to food insecurity. With increasing temperatures, there is an a priori assumption that droughts are becoming more severe. However, the link between droughts and climate change is not sufficiently understood. Here we investigate trends in long-term agricultural drought and the influence of increasing temperatures and precipitation deficits. Using a combination of models and observational datasets, we studied trends, spanning the period from 1900 (to approximate pre-industrial conditions) to 2018, for six regions in eastern Africa in four drought-related annually averaged variables: soil moisture, precipitation, temperature, and evaporative demand (E0). In standardized soil moisture data, we found no discernible trends. The strongest influence on soil moisture variability was from precipitation, especially in the drier or water-limited study regions; temperature and E0 did not demonstrate strong relations to soil moisture. However, the error margins on precipitation trend estimates are large and no clear trend is evident, whereas significant positive trends were observed in local temperatures. The trends in E0 are predominantly positive, but we do not find strong relations between E0 and soil moisture trends. Nevertheless, the E0 trend results can still be of interest for irrigation purposes because it is E0 that determines the maximum evaporation rate. We conclude that until now the impact of increasing local temperatures on agricultural drought in eastern Africa is limited and we recommend that any soil moisture analysis be supplemented by an analysis of precipitation deficit. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 18 S. F. Kew et al.: Impact of precipitation and increasing temperatures on drought trends in eastern Africa


Changes in phospholipid composition are part of the biochemical changes that occur during apoptosis. Cytochrome c is normally associated with the outer surface of the mitochondrial inner membrane by electrostatic forces. Changes in phospholipid composition may underlie the mechanism for release of cytochrome from the mitochondria in response to apoptotic stimuli. Bid is a proapoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family. Bid and its caspase-cleaved form, tBid, relocate to mitochondria in response to apoptotic signals, where Bid promotes release of cytochrome c, contributing to the apoptotic cascade. Esposti et al. found that Bid and tBid could stimulate the transfer of a fluorescent phospholipid analog to artificial membranes or mitochondrial membranes in an in vitro assay. Furthermore, the addition of lipids such as phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, and phosphatidylcholine, but not phosphatidylserine, promoted the transfer of native Bid from subcellular fractions enriched in endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria-enriched fractions. The authors suggest that under nonapoptotic conditions, Bid acts in phospholipid recycling. Under apoptotic conditions, internal membrane phospholipid composition is altered, such that during Bid's action as a lipid transfer protein, lipids are transferred to the mitochondria that destabilize the mitochondrial membrane, promoting cytochrome c release. Ostrander et al. investigated the changes in phospholipid composition that occur during apoptosis induced by treatment of cells with palmitic acid. Treatment of cells with this saturated long-chain fatty acid resulted in the accumulation of saturated phosphatid acid and phosphatidylglycerol, which are poor substrates for the biosynthetic enzymes that produce cardiolipin. Thus, cardiolipin levels drop, which may contribute to destabilization of the mitochondrial membrane based on the linear correlation of cardiolipin levels with cytochrome c released into the cytosol. M. D. Esposti, J. T. Erler, J. A. Hickman, C. Dive, Bid, a widely expressed proapoptotic protein of the Bcl-2 family, displays lipid transfer activity. Mol. Cell. Biol. 21, 7268-7276 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text] D. B. Ostrander, G. C. Sparagna, A. A. Amoscato, J. B. McMillihn, W. Dowhan, Decreased cardiolipin synthesis corresponds with cytochrome c release from palmitate-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis. J. Biol. Chem. 276, 38061-38067 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In a recently published collection on materiality in art Petra Lange-Berndt asks, "what does it mean to give agency to the material, to follow the material and to act with the material" (2015:13). My article attempts to consider this question, focusing on the work of a number of musicians and composers who have chosen to engage creatively with the sounds produced by obsolete – or near obsolete – technologies of sound recording and reproduction. Every sound technology has the capacity to generate as well reproduce sound: in the case of the wax cylinder or shellac disc, surface noise is generated by physical contact between the recording medium and the needle/stylus, and with magnetic tape noise is created by the oxides used to make the tape. We might think of these sounds as the sound of technology itself – a sounding of each medium's material and technological bases. Historically these sounds have usually been treated a problem, and successive waves of technological innovation have been directed at removing or repressing the sound of technology. Thus the move from shellac to vinyl, the development of Dolby noise reduction, and the broader the shift from analogue to digital technology, have all been partly motivated by a desire to silence the medium itself. But what happens if we choose to work with these sounds rather than repress them; and following Lange-Berndt's prompt, what would this change in attitude mean? My aim in this article is to consider what the political potential of the sound of technology might be, explored through a discussion of works by Walter Ruttmann and John Oswald. The well-established discourses around the political potential of noise in the arts have tended to construct it as a form of attack: as Jacques Attali states, "Noise is a weapon" (1985: 24). But might there be other ways in which we could consider the political dimensions of noise, and if so, how might issues of materiality and agency within play though an alternative approach to the politics of noise? In addressing these questions, my article examines the historical and temporal dynamics at work in the sound of technology. Here I argue that the temporal displacement we witness in the contemporary use of past technologies results in an intensification and re-energisation of the various forms of noise. For the artist working with archive material or obsolete sound recording and playback equipment, temporal displacement of this sort materialises the sound of technology – materializing or rematerialising the sounds with which they work - and in so doing releases forms of potentiality that can be understood in political terms.


Do you wish Access was more accessible? Do you wonder what to do with databases in the first place? If youve just been letting Access sit there as an anonymous icon on the Ribbon, Access 2007 Workbook For Dummies can open up new worlds for you. The coolest thing about this friendly, easy-to-follow workbook is that youll actually create a database that you can use to organize your own home media collection, if you like. In the process, you discover how to build a database from the ground up and some of the ways a database can be helpful, even if youre not a business mogul or an accountant. Using a problem-solution approach, Access 2007 Workbook For Dummies gives you plenty of chances to practice each step, so you gain confidence along with information. Youll discover how to: Set up Access and use database fundamentals Create a home media database from start to finish Build tables, relationships, forms, and reports Use select and action queries View and manipulate data Edit and build simple macros and use them to automate navigation Arrange controls on a form Build a user interface to add, edit, and update data Track every aspect of the media collection, including The bonus CD-ROM includes separate database files for each exercise and a video that walks you through each step of the more complex procedures. In no time youll find Access is no longer unapproachable. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


Geographic information technologies are evolving from stand-alone systems to a distributed model of independent web services. In parallel, voluminous geographic data are being collected with modern data acquisition techniques such as remote sensing and personal navigation devices. There is an urgent need for effective and efficient methods to integrate and explore relationships between remote sensing and trajectory datasets. When it comes to integration, one would commonly rely on a conventional chain of GIS operations to match trajectory locations to grid values: download grid data, georeference, match each trajectory record to a corresponding image cell, perform overlay, extract cell values for a given location and time and compose values into a resulting table. If one has to deal with large and dynamic spatio–temporal data sets, this approach is clearly unmanageable. We propose an alternative approach: a four layered system architecture that utilizes web services for the integration of trajectory and remote sensing data. We demonstrate how this integration service can be embedded into distributed components for manipulation, analysis and visualisation of geospatial trajectories, using Antarctic iceberg trajectories and wind data as a case study. The prototype can be accessed on the Web. Future research will include optimisation and integration of more variables extracted from grid data sets, but the main focus will be on extension of the analytical component by implementing more mechanisms to discover patterns in the integrated data set, and on better visualisation.


The paper recommends an approach to estimate effectively the probability of buffer overflow in high-speed communication networks, capable of carrying diverse traffic, including self-similar teletraffic, and supporting diverse levels of quality of service. Simulations with stochastic, long-range dependent self-similar traffic source models are conducted. A new efficient algorithm, based on a variant of the RESTART/LRE method, is developed and applied to accelerate the buffer overflow simulation in a finite buffer single server model under long-range dependent self-similar traffic load with different buffer sizes. Numerical examples and simulation results are shown.


The continental margins of East Africa and West Madagascar are a frontier for hydrocarbon exploration. However, the links between the regional tectonic history of sedimentary basins and margin evolution are relatively poorly understood. We use a plate kinematic model built by joint inversion of seafloor spreading data as a starting point to analyse the evolution of conjugate margin segments and corresponding sedimentary basins. By correlating megasequences in the basins to the plate model we produce a margin‐scale tectono‐stratigraphic framework comprising four phases of tectonic development. During Phase 1 (183–133 Ma) Madagascar/India/Antarctica separated from Africa, first by rifting and later, after breakup (at ca. 170–165 Ma), by seafloor spreading in the West Somali and Mozambique basins and dextral strike‐slip movement on the Davie Fracture Zone. Mixed continental/marine syn‐rift megasequences were deposited in rift basins followed by shallow‐marine early postrift sequences. In Phase 2 (133–89 Ma) spreading ceased in the West Somali basin and Madagascar became fixed to the African plate. However, spreading continued between the African and Antarctic plates and deposition of the early postrift megasequence continued. The onset of spreading on the Mascarene Ridge separated India from Madagascar in Phase 3 (89–60 Ma). Phase 3 was characterized by the onset of deposition of the late postrift megasequence with continued deep marine sedimentation. At the onset of Phase 4 (60 Ma onward) spreading on the Mascarene ridge ceased and the Carlsberg Ridge propagated south to form the Central Indian Ridge, separating India from the Seychelles and the Mascarene Plateau. Late postrift deposition continued until a major unconformity linked to the development of the East African Rift System marked the change to deposition of the modern margin megasequence.


CaMKII, the Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase-II, is a multifunctional serine/threonine protein kinase that is a central regulator of cardiomyocyte excitation-contraction-coupling. Several isoforms exist. In the heart, CaMKIIδ und γ are expressed with CaMKIIδ clearly being the predominant isoform. Increased CaMKII-activity has been implicated to be central to pathophysiological cardiac remodeling, heart failure and arrhythmogenesis and CaMKII-inhibition has been suggested as a novel therapeutic approach. However, other CaMKII-isoforms also play critical roles in other tissues as well. Potentially, specific inhibition of CaMKIIδ could overcome this limitation.
The present study specifically investigates the role of CaMKIIδ for physiologic cardiomyocyte function in the context of a murine CaMKIIδ-knockout (KO) using epifluorescence microscopy for single cell Ca2+-transients and contractility as well as measuring SR Ca2+-leak by Ca2+-sparks.
Systolic Ca2+-transient amplitude and, consequentially, cardiomyocyte contractility were not impaired upon CaMKIIδ-KO. Diastolic SR Ca2+-reuptake (Ca2+-transient decay kinetics) and cell relaxation, however, appeared to be slightly slower. Yet, frequency-dependent acceleration of relaxation was not compromised. Diastolic Ca2+-levels, however, were significantly increased in the KO, possibly due to reduced NCX function, as shown by investigation of Caffeine-induced Ca2+-transients. Despite slightly lower diastolic SR Ca2+-leak in the KO already under these basal conditions, SR Ca2+-content was not significantly increased, presumably due to the slower SR Ca2+-reuptake. Inotropic and lusitropic effects of Isoprenaline stimulation were not impaired in the KO, demonstrating intact response to adrenergic stress on the myocyte level.
In summary, KO of CaMKIIδ does not appear to impair physiologic cardiomyocyte function, but reduces SR Ca2+-leak already under basal conditions.


Modern wind turbines have reached a size that makes hub height wind speed measurements rather expensive. The cost of masts increases rapidly with height (distinctly more than linearly) and their installation is subject to a (often) lengthy authorization procedure. A ground-based SODAR is able to measure at many levels simultaneously and is economically competitive with other forms of measurements. The main objectives of the project have been to optimize the SODAR availability and the quality of the SODAR readings. Based on the SODAR readings the reliability, accuracy, limits and limitations of the SODAR have been determined. A validation program with a SODAR has been performed for 1½ year at a remote location without any access to an electricity grid. The program will study whether the SODAR wind measurements are accurate enough for wind power assessment and whether the SODAR is applicable as a stand-alone instrument or as a "profiler" in combination with reference instruments on a 30-50m tower. Remote operation of the SODAR system was tested against traditional wind resource measurement set-up equipment. The test set-up consisted of a 50 m mast, equipped with three calibrated cup-anemometers, 1 wind vane and one 3-D ultrasonic anemometer sampled at 10 Hz using a low- power industrial computer. Statistics were transmitted every 10 minutes using SMS telegrams. The SODAR was a METEK PCS-2000.24 low power version. All equipment was powered by a commercial off-grid power system designed to continuously provide 120 watt. The equipment was installed on gently rolling, open farmland with few windbreaks. A SODAR provides approximately 20 instantaneous scans every minute. This is much less than a traditional cup anemometer / data logger setup. In addition, the instantaneous values do not have any inherent temporal averaging (rather vertical spatial averaging) and are often noisy. For good statistical reliability it is necessary to compare at least ten-minute average values. Good agreement between cup and SODAR average values is first seen when comparing 1-hour average values. Comparison between the SODAR and reference cup-anemometer readings revealed slightly higher indications (less than 0.1 m/s) in favor of the cup-anemometers and a corresponding averaged power law exponent of 0.26. Since the SODAR is an acoustic instrument, the operation is limited by the background noise, which results in a lack of valid measurements for wind speeds above 14 m/s. -The findings have been reported on the European Wind Energy Association Conference in Athens 27 February – 2 March 2006 (Annex F). -Three potential master thesis projects have been identified based on the findings. -A complete dataset, consisting of SODAR and cup-anemometer measurements have been compiled, this is available on request (Annex D).


In the mollusc Ilyanassa obsoleta, metamorphosis is a key event in its life history that is closely regulated by positive and negative modulators. Previous research has determined that nitric oxide (NO) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) maintain the larval state up to competency. RT-PCR of NOS transcripts, NADPH-diaphorase staining, and immunohistochemistry have all confirmed the presence of NOS during larval development and metamorphosis. However, these assays have given conflicting results on when and where NOS is produced. I developed an Ilyanassa-specific NOS antibody that was used in western blot analysis of larval extracts to determine temporal expression of the NOS protein. In situ hybridization was also done to localize NOS transcripts. My Ilyanassa-specific antibody recognized NOS, but the most prominently recognized epitope, a 66 kDa polypeptide, is likely to be a degradation product of NOS. In situ hybridization on competent larvae provided no meaningful data. My studies of temporal expression of the protein confirmed the previous RT-PCR results which demonstrated a constant level of NOS during larval development and a decrease in NOS during metamorphosis. These results were unlike those of previous NADPH-diaphorase histochemistry and suggest regulation of NOS enzymatic activity. My results indicate that metamorphosis in Ilyanassa may be controlled by the regulation of the quantity of NOS present as well as regulation of the level of NOS enzymatic activity.


After their meeting in December 2012 at Meech Lake, Quebec, the federal and provincial-territorial finance ministers decided to put expansion of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and its sister program, the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), back on the policy agenda. The idea of expanding the CPP is not new and, over the years, various individuals and groups have called for a more generous mandatory public pension system as a way to boost the overall retirement income of Canadians. With the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and attendant decline in the value of retirement-savings portfolios, these calls have been renewed.Recent proposals to expand the CPP call for an increase in the mandatory CPP contribution rate (payroll tax) to help fund larger benefits. Unfortunately, the debate about expanding the CPP has downplayed the basic economic insight that increasing mandatory contributions to the CPP could displace voluntary savings. Failure to account for this tendency could lead one to overestimate the increase in overall retirement savings that would result from an expanded CPP.To find out if increases in mandatory contributions tend to displace voluntary savings, in RRSPs and an expanded Canada Pension Plan we provide a preliminary investigation of readily available historical data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on contributions to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and also to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), an important voluntary retirement savings vehicle in Canada. The period examined is 1993 to 2008, which includes several increases to the CPP contribution rate. Indeed, the CPP contribution rate nearly doubled between 1993 and 2003.This preliminary investigation suggests that mandatory increases in CPP savings result in reduced voluntary savings in RRSPs. If the preliminary analysis is validated by more detailed microanalysis, the discussion about the efficacy of increasing the CPP contribution rate for all Canadian workers should then include the costs of reduced RRSP savings compared to increased CPP savings. Other aspects of this trade-off, such as the comparative benefits of the CPP (defined benefit in retirement) compared to the benefits of RRSPs (flexibility and choice), also need to be assessed and discussed.The key to a successful system for providing retirement income through savings is a set of rules that allow for an optimal mix of savings for different people in different stages of their lives and with different preferences. There may be benefits to a compulsory expansion of the CPP. However, these benefits need to be weighed against the costs, which, as our analysis shows, likely include a reduction in voluntary RRSP savings.


The ability of a node to relay information in a network is often measured using betweenness centrality. In order to take into account the fact that the role of the nodes vary through time, several adaptations of this concept have been proposed to time-evolving networks. However, these definitions are demanding in terms of computational cost, as they call for the computation of time-ordered paths. We propose a definition of centrality in link streams which is node-centric, in the sense that we only take into account the direct neighbors of a node to compute its centrality. This restriction allows to carry out the computation in a shorter time compared to a case where any couple of nodes in the network should be considered. Tests on empirical data show that this measure is relatively highly correlated to the number of times a node would relay information in a flooding process. We suggest that this is a good indication that this measurement can be of use in practical contexts where a node has a limited knowledge of its environment, such as routing protocols in delay tolerant networks.


Cotton rats live in oldfields, habitats with a variety of mostly herbaceous plants. Based on other studies, the hispid cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus, eats many kinds of herbaceous plants but grasses predominate. In contrast, our population of cotton rats ate many monocots but mostly they were not grasses. Our study sought to determine the diet of the cotton rat in eastern Virginia, near the northern limit of distribution on the Atlantic Coast. Fecal samples, collected each month during an on-going capture-mark-release demographic study of the rodent community, were analyzed using a standard method. A greater variety of foods (including insects) was eaten in the summer and autumn than in winter and spring. In winter, when much herbaceous vegetation is standing dead, cotton rats supplemented their diets with pine bark. Cotton rats ate significantly greater proportions of monocots in winter and spring, an apparent response to the need for more calories to compensate for greater heat loss. In summer and autumn, cotton rats enhanced their diets with significantly greater proportions of the more nutritious but harder to digest dicots. Reproductive females ate significantly more dicots and less monocots than males and non-reproductive females, whose diets were similar.


Electromagnetic metamaterials are composites consisting of sub-wavelength structures designed to exhibit particular responses to an incident electromagnetic wave. In general, the properties of a metamaterial are fixed at the time of fabrication by the dimensions of each unit cell and the materials used. By incorporating dynamic components to the metamaterial system, a new type of tunable design can be accessed. This thesis describes the design and development of resonant metallic nanostructures for use in active metamaterials. We begin by examining passive systems and introduce concepts that are critical for the design of more complex, tunable structures. We show how a simple metamaterial design, a plasmonic nanoparticle array, can be used to enhance the photocurrent of an ultrathin InGaN quantum well photovoltaic cell. We then explore how more complex resonator shapes can be coupled together in a single unit cell in order to access more complex resonant behavior. In the second half of this thesis, we use several material systems as the basis for the design of active metamaterials. We demonstrate the first tunable metamaterial at optical frequencies using vanadium dioxide, a phase transition material. We exploit this material's transition from a semiconducting to a metallic state and show how a novel fabrication scheme can be used to achieve a frequency tunable resonant response. We then abandon traditional hard and brittle substrates and develop a lithographic transfer process for adhering metallic nanostructures to highly compliant polymeric substrates. Mechanical deformation is then used to distort the resonator shapes and achieve resonant tunability of a full linewidth. This system is exploited to demonstrate interesting resonant hybridization phenomena, such as Fano resonance modulation, and sets the stage for the more elusive goal of driving two resonant nanostructures into contact. Finally, we describe the use of compliant tunable metamaterials as both refractive index sensors and surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) substrates. The results highlight the promise of post-fabrication tunable compliant metamaterial sensors and the potential for integration with spectroscopic devices in remote sensing and microfluidic device applications.


As the Internet usage grows, existing network infrastructure must deal with increasing demand. One way to deal with this is to increase network capacity, and another, is to set network parameters appropriately. In this dissertation we contribute to the latter approach by determining the unique network paths data must flow over from its origin to its destination, while accounting for an Active Queue Management method, Random Early Detection (RED). We formulate a mixed integer non-linear program to determine the data paths, referred to as a routing policy. We prove that determining an optimal routing policy that accounts for RED is NP-Hard. Furthermore, in order for the generated routing policies to be real-world implementable, also known as realizable, we must determine weights for all arcs in the network such that solving the all pairs shortest path problem using these weights reproduces the routing policies. We show that determining if our generated routing policies are realizable is NP-Hard. Fortunately, using traffic data from three real-world networks, we are able to find realizable routing policies for these networks that account for RED, using an off-the-shelf solver, and policies found perform better than those used in those networks at the time the data was collected.


Policy coordination between diverse regulatory regimes in financial services ranks highly on the international political agenda, because regulatory differences create impediments to growing financial activity. Efficiency-oriented theories fail to explain why coordination was achieved in some domains but not in others, while arguments linking coordination to similarities or differences in states' substantive policy goals cannot account for coordination progress in spite of vast differences in prior domestic regimes. I argue that coordination success or failure depends on the interaction of two variables: whether strong competitors to U.S. firms and markets challenge U.S. dominance and whether activity is centralized at a main facility in a single jurisdiction, such as a stock exchange, or diffused around many separate jurisdictions. Strong U.S. dominance attracts more foreigners to U.S. centralized markets, who voluntarily adopt U.S. laws and lobby their governments for policy coordination; yet in dispersed markets, policy coordination offers limited benefits to either the United States or to foreign countries when U.S. dominance is strong. When a competitor challenges U.S. dominance in a centralized market, U.S. policymakers will maintain regulatory barriers to prevent U.S. investors from migrating to competitors. In dispersed markets, on the other hand, the United States will promote policy coordination because it can eliminate its competitors' advantages across all national markets. Four case studies in areas with varying degrees of U.S. dominance and market centralization support this theoretical framework: the accounting standards (U.S. GAAP-IFRS) convergence, the SEC's refusal to authorize the establishment of European exchanges' trading screens in the United States, the regulation of audit firms under the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the 1988 Basel Accord. This paper makes two contributions: it generalizes across cases to draw broad conclusions about the field of finance as a whole, and it highlights the role of politics in financial regulation, refining the concept of power, clarifying mechanisms, and providing a theory of how increased competition might shape diverse fields.


In the social sciences, randomized experimentation is the optimal research design for establishing causation. However, for a number of practical reasons, researchers are sometimes unable to conduct experiments and must rely on observational data. In an effort to develop estimators that can approximate experimental results using observational data, scholars have given increasing attention to matching. In this article, we test the performance of matching by gauging the success with which matching approximates experimental results. The voter mobilization experiment presented here comprises a large number of observations (60,000 randomly assigned to the treatment group and nearly two million assigned to the control group) and a rich set of covariates. This study is analyzed in two ways. The first method, instrumental variables estimation, takes advantage of random assignment in order to produce consistent estimates. The second method, matching estimation, ignores random assignment and analyzes the data as though they were nonexperimental. Matching is found to produce biased results in this application because even a rich set of covariates is insufficient to control for preexisting differences between the treatment and control group. Matching, in fact, produces estimates that are no more accurate than those generated by ordinary least squares regression. The experimental findings show that brief paid get-out-the-vote phone calls do not increase turnout, while matching and regression show a large and significant effect.


Quantum mechanical applications range from quantum computers to quantum key distribution to teleportation. In these applications, quantum error correction is extremely important for protecting quantum states against decoherence. Here I present two main results regarding quantum error correction protocols.
The first main topic I address is the development of continuous-time quantum error correction protocols via combination with techniques from quantum control. These protocols rely on weak measurement and Hamiltonian feedback instead of the projective measurements and unitary gates usually assumed by canonical quantum error correction. I show that a subclass of these protocols can be understood as a quantum feedback protocol, and analytically analyze the general case using the stabilizer formalism; I show that in this case perfect feedback can perfectly protect a stabilizer subspace. I also show through numerical simulations that another subclass of these protocols does better than canonical quantum error correction when the time between corrections is limited.
The second main topic is development of improved overhead results for fault-tolerant computation. In particular, through analysis of topological quantum error correcting codes, it will be shown that the required blowup in depth of a noisy circuit performing a fault-tolerant computation can be reduced to a factor of O(log log L), an improvement over previous results. Showing this requires investigation into a local method of performing fault-tolerant correction on a topological code of arbitrary dimension.


A whole raft of studies have recently promulgated that pervasive commercial forces are eroding the publicness and cultural plurality of urban public spaces. Town Centre Management Companies, Public-Private Partnerships, Joint Ventures, City Development Companies and Business Improvement Districts, to name just a clutch of mechanisms, are being utilised throughout the UK to improve neglected urban landscapes. As their names suggest, they provide the platform for the private sector to take a greater responsibility for the design, management, ownership and governance of urban public space. The paradox, however, is how in a business world, dominated by global flows of capital, can place quality improvements best cater for the needs of local people and diverse communities of interest? This article identifies the links between cultural activity and economic vitality, making the case that the relationship between each of these objectives is not necessarily dichotomous but can be mutually reinforcing. The arguments contained here are based on a larger research project; Public Space Vitality, jointly commissioned by Culture North East and One NorthEast Regional Development Agency.


ABSTRACT Under warm, dry conditions, Erwinia amylovora can become established in relatively high populations on apple (Malus domestica) or pear (Pyrus communis) flower stigmas, and subsequent wet conditions facilitate its movement to the flower hypanthium where infection generally is initiated through the nectarthodes. Research on biological control of fire blight has focused mainly on the flower stigma, and knowledge is lacking regarding the effect of nectar on microbial antagonists in the flower hypanthium. The biocontrol agents Pseudomonas fluorescens strain A506 and Pantoea agglomerans strain C9-1 were cultured in a basal liquid medium with various concentrations (0 to 50% total sugar) of sucrose or synthetic nectar (sucrose/glucose/fructose, 2:1:1). Strain A506 showed less growth and lower survival than strain C9-1 at high sugar levels, and A506 was less effective than C9-1 as a preemptive antagonist of E. amylovora in high-sugar media. Both antagonist strains were less tolerant to high sugar levels than E. amylovora (strain Ea153). The same bacteria were cultured in a medium with 25% total sugar consisting of various proportions of sucrose, glucose, and fructose, and growth response correlated strongly with solute potential. When 28 microbial strains were cultured in synthetic nectar (25% total sugar) and ranked based on growth, strains clustered according to taxonomic group. Yeasts were most osmotolerant, followed by strains of E. amylovora, Pantoea agglomerans, Bacillus spp., and Pseudomonas spp. Further studies done in planta are necessary to determine whether osmotolerance of antagonists is advantageous in the biological control of fire blight.


Photonics technologies enable life scientists to probe samples in the increasingly sophisticated study of processes ranging from neuron signaling to heart muscle contraction, as well as cells and cellular development. As research continues at increasingly finer levels of resolution, the requirements for optomechanical positioning become ever more demanding. Positioning equipment manipulates the probes used to interact with biological samples. This includes positioning a light probe, such as a focused laser or LED, and positioning a physical probe, such as an electrode or microsyringe.


Intermodal freight transport has been discussed for decades as an alternative to unimodal road transport. However, it still does not represent a significant portion of the total freight market. A new and promising possibility to improve the performance of freight systems is the synchromodal design of hinterland transport systems. A cornerstone for synchromodality is an integrated view in the design and operation of intermodal transport. A main benefit of this integrated view is an improved flexibility in mode choice in hinterland transport. This paper gives a detailed description of this integrated view for synchromodal freight transport. Based on this description, a mathematical model for designing service schedules for synchromodal freight transport systems is also presented. The benefits of providing integrated transport services compared to separately planned transport services are also discussed for a case in the hinterland network of the Port of Rotterdam.


Abstract. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are widely used as cooling agents in refrigeration and air conditioning, as solvents in industrial processes, as fire-extinguishing agents, for foam blowing, and as aerosol propellants. They have been used in large quantities as the primary substitutes for
ozone-depleting substances regulated under the Montreal Protocol. However, many HFCs are potent greenhouse gases (GHGs) and as such subject to
global phase-down under the Kigali Amendment (KA) to the Montreal Protocol. In this study, we develop a range of long-term scenarios for HFC
emissions under varying degrees of stringency in climate policy and assess co-benefits in the form of electricity savings and associated reductions
in GHG and air pollutant emissions. Due to technical opportunities to improve energy efficiency in cooling technologies, there exist potentials for
significant electricity savings under a well-managed phase-down of HFCs. Our results reveal that the opportunity to simultaneously improve energy
efficiency in stationary cooling technologies could bring additional climate benefits of about the same magnitude as that attributed to the HFCs
phase-down. If technical energy efficiency improvements are fully implemented, the resulting electricity savings could exceed 20 % of future
global electricity consumption, while the corresponding figure for economic energy efficiency improvements would be about 15 %. The combined
effect of HFC phase-down, energy efficiency improvement of the stationary cooling technologies, and future changes in the electricity generation fuel
mix would prevent between 411 and 631 Pg CO2 equivalent of GHG emissions between 2018 and 2100, thereby making a significant
contribution towards keeping the global temperature rise below 2 ∘C. Reduced electricity consumption also means lower air pollution
emissions in the power sector, estimated at about 5 %–10 % for sulfur dioxide (SO2), 8 %–16 % for nitrogen oxides
(NOx), and 4 %–9 % for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions compared with a pre-Kigali baseline.


She was a warm and judicious admirer of landscape, both in nature and on canvas. At a very early age she was enamoured of Gilpin on the Picturesque; and she seldom changed her opinions either on books or men. --Henry Austen ("Biographical Notice") EVEN AS A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL, Jane Austen had a sharp appreciation of landscape and landscape art. When we read "Evelyn" and see Jane Austen's mildly satirical view of "perhaps one of the most beautiful Spots in the south of England" (MW 180), we can smile at the hero Mr. Gower's enchantment with a house in "the exact centre of a small circular paddock," borders of poplars and firs "alternatively placed in three rows" and--best yet--a field "grazed by four white Cows which were disposed at equal distances from each other" (181). Landscape strongly influenced Jane Austen's early works as well as her novels, and the situating of her heroines in that landscape reflected Austen's sense of aesthetic geography. Austen knew that a way of seeing and a way of being within a landscape were crucial for her novelistic heroines. She worked to create spaces for her heroines to negotiate positions of greater power with more opportunities for freedom and happiness on their own terms. Here we will examine how Austen's own ways of seeing the early nineteenth-century English countryside are linked with her heroines' abilities to find prospects and refuges in their novelistic landscapes. As we know from her brother's "Biographical Notice," Jane Austen read William Gilpin and knew about his prescribed ways of viewing the landscape through a Claude glass, a mirror device that allowed the viewer to frame the scene, leaving out the areas considered less than picturesque. Gilpin recommended that travelers use a Claude glass to frame the landscape, emphasizing the "correct" picturesque scene. His books instructed the viewer where to stand, what to keep in the view, and what to leave out. As a girl, Jane Austen "learnt to love a hyacinth," so to speak, in the Gilpinesque way, and she also knew early on how to mock such artificial constraints, taking care to place her heroines in locations which were geographically (and emotionally) advantageous to them. The topography of Hampshire and Somerset, even today, gives us a number of views with which Jane Austen was familiar. The hedgerows near her first home in Steventon have been discussed by her nephew in his Memoir. First, he describes the countryside: It is certainly not a picturesque country; it presents no grand or extensive views; but the features are small rather than plain. The surface continually swells and sinks, but the hills are not bold, nor the valleys deep; and though it is sufficiently well clothed with woods and hedgerows, yet the poverty of the soil in most places prevents the timber from attaining a large size. (Austen-Leigh 285) Soon after, he gives a description of the hedgerows: But the chief beauty of Steventon consisted in its hedgerows. A hedgerow, in that country, does not mean a thin formal line of quickset, but an irregular border of copse-wood, and timber, often wide enough to contain within it a winding footpath, or a rough cart track. Under its shelter the earliest primroses, anemones, and wild hyacinths were to be found.... Two such hedgerows radiated, as it were, from the parsonage garden. One, a continuation of the turf terrace, proceeded westward, forming the southern boundary of the home meadows; and was formed into a rustic shrubbery, with occasional seats, entitled "The Wood Walk." (286-87) So we can tell the kind of landscape with which Jane Austen was familiar in Hampshire, Steventon being only about eighteen miles from her last home in Chawton. Later we will see how the hyacinths and hedgerows serve her heroines. As her early heroine, Catherine Morland, learned the conventions of landscape art from lover/mentor Henry Tilney, so Jane Austen learned from Gilpin how the male proprietary landscape owners viewed the scene. …


Internet has become one of the most important information sources for students' personal and academic life. In addition, the World Wide Web is receiving increased attention in education because of its potential to support new forms of learning. However, using the information from the net for learning requires the development of a set of abilities such as searching and tackling information from the Internet to find solutions of a problem—this set of abilities is called Information-Problem Solving (IPS) skills. The main objectives of this study are the following three: first, to provide a detailed description about how secondary students solve an IPS task; second, to identify key IPS skills, sub-skills, and regulation activities that have more incidence upon students' success to solve a problem using digital information on the Web; and third, to use this information to draw educative guidelines to design web-based instructional process and foster IPS in secondary classrooms. In-depth analyses of quantitative and qualitative data of a multi-case study allowed us to identify distinctive patterns and sequences of IPS skills used by students to solve a task. Furthermore, IPS skills (defining the problem and search for information), sub-skills (specifying search terms and selecting results from a SERP), and regulation activities (orientation on the task, monitoring, and testing) were identified as key skills which have more incidence in students to solve successfully IPS tasks to learn curricular contents at school.


Independence from extrinsic influence is, we know, indispensable to public trust in the integrity of professional judges who share the duty to decide cases according to preexisting law. But such independence is less appropriate for those expected to make new law to govern future events. Indeed, in a democratic government those who make new law are expected to be accountable to their constituents, not independent of their interests and unresponsive to their desires. The Supreme Court of the United States has in the last century largely forsaken responsibility for the homely task of deciding cases in accord with preexisting law and has settled into the role of a superlegislature devoted to making new law to govern future events. Citizens who see our judges as primarily engaged in this political role are understandably less tolerant of their claim to independence and are more intent on holding them to account for unwelcome decisions. Such popular dissatisfaction, or even unrest, with our judiciary is a source of prudent concern expressed by Justices, among others. This Article responds to that shared concern with a proposal to restore the Supreme Court to a more purely judicial role by reviving the duty of Justices to decide cases. It would require the Court to decide numerous cases certified by a group of experienced lower federal court judges as the cases most in need of their judicial attention. This proposal is intended not only to strengthen the claim to independence of the Supreme Court, but also that of other courts subject to its leadership.


We present an in-depth study of the hard-binary population of the old (7 Gyr) open cluster NGC 188. Utilizing 85 spectroscopic binary orbits out of a complete sample of 129 detected binary members, we study the cluster binary frequency and the distributions of binary orbital elements among the main-sequence (MS), giant, and blue straggler (BS) populations. The results are derived from our ongoing radial velocity survey of the cluster, which spans in magnitude from the brightest stars in the cluster to V = 16.5 (about 1.1–0.9 M☉), and extends to a projected radius of 17 pc (∼13 core radii). Our detectable binaries have periods ranging from a few days to of order 104 days, and thus are hard binaries that dynamically power the cluster. The MS solar-type hard binaries in NGC 188 are nearly indistinguishable from similar binaries in the Galactic field. We observe a global solar-type MS hard-binary frequency in NGC 188 of 23% ± 2%, which when corrected for incompleteness results in a frequency of 29% ± 3% for binaries with periods less than 104 days. For MS hard binaries in the cluster, we observe a log-period distribution that rises toward our detection limit, a roughly Gaussian eccentricity distribution centered on e = 0.35 (for binaries with periods longer than the circularization period), and a secondary-mass distribution that rises toward lower-mass companions. Importantly, the NGC 188 BS binaries show significantly different characteristics than the solar-type MS binaries in NGC 188. We observe a BS hard-binary frequency of 76% ± 19%, three times that of the MS. The excess of this binary frequency over the normal MS binary frequency is valid at the >99% confidence level. Furthermore, the BS binary eccentricity−log-period distribution is distinct from that of the MS at the 99% confidence level, with the majority of the BS binaries having periods of order 1000 days and lower eccentricities. The secondary-mass distribution for these long-period BS binaries is narrow and peaked with a mean value of about 0.5 M☉. Predictions for mass-transfer products are most closely consistent with the binary properties of these NGC 188 BSs, which comprise two-thirds of the BS population. Additionally, we compare the NGC 188 binaries to those evolved within the sophisticated Hurley et al. (2005) N-body open cluster simulation. The MS hard-binary population predicted by the simulation is significantly different from the MS hard-binary population observed in NGC 188, in frequency and distributions of period and eccentricity. Many of these differences result from the adopted initial binary population, while others reflect on the physics used in the simulation (e.g., tidal circularization). Additional simulations with initial conditions that are better motivated by observations are necessary to properly investigate the dynamical evolution of a rich binary population in open clusters like NGC 188.


The effect of defoliation on Amarillo (Arachis pintoi cv. Amarillo) was studied in a glasshouse and in mixed swards with 2 tropical grasses. In the glasshouse, Amarillo plants grown in pots were subjected to a 30/20°C or 25/15°C temperature regime and to defoliation at 10-, 20- or 30-day intervals for 60 days. Two field plot studies were conducted on Amarillo with either irrigated kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) in autumn and spring or dryland Pioneer rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) over summer and autumn. Treatments imposed were 3 defoliation intervals (7, 14 and 28 days) and 2 residual heights (5 and 10 cm for kikuyu; 3 and 10 cm for rhodes grass) with extra treatments (56 days to 3 cm for both grasses and 21 days to 5 cm for kikuyu). Defoliation interval had no significant effect on accumulated Amarillo leaf dry matter (DM) at either temperature regime. At the higher temperature, frequent defoliation reduced root dry weight (DW) and increased crude protein (CP) but had no effect on stolon DW or in vitro organic matter digestibility (OMD). On the other hand, at the lower temperature, frequent defoliation reduced stolon DW and increased OMD but had no effect on root DW or CP. Irrespective of temperaure and defoliation, water-soluble carbohydrate levels were higher in stolons than in roots (4.70 vs 3.65%), whereas for starch the reverse occured (5.37 vs 9.44%). Defoliating the Amarillo-kikuyu sward once at 56 days to 3 cm produced the highest DM yield in autumn and sprong (582 and 7121 kg/ha DM, respectively), although the Amarillo component and OMD were substantially reduced. Highest DM yields (1726 kg/ha) were also achieved in the Amarillo-rhodes grass sward when defoliated every 56 days to 3 cm, although the Amarillo component was unaffected. In a mixed sward with either kikuyu or rhodes grass, the Amarillo component in the sward was maintained up to a 28-day defoliation interval and was higher when more severely defoliated. The results show that Amarillo can tolerate frequent defoliation and that it can co-exist with tropical grasses of differing growth habits, provided the Amarillo-tropical grass sward is subject to frequent and severe defoliation.


Description sos4R is a client for Sensor Observation Services (SOS) as specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It allows users to retrieve metadata from SOS web services and to interactively create requests for near real-time observation data based on the available sensors, phenomena, observations et cetera using thematic, temporal and spatial filtering.


Africa has been changing fast over the past fifteen to twenty years. Both the growth performances and the international image of the continent went through surprising U-turns, from widespread stagnation and pessimism to unprecedented progress and new prospects. The turnaround of economic performances began as early as the mid-1990s and led to a number of sub-Saharan countries achieving record growth rates for the better part of the following decade. In spite of the profound changes underway in sub-Saharan Africa, social, political and economic continuities were also bound to affect and challenge the region's trajectory. Africa remains the poorest continent in the world, the vulnerability of its people regularly exposed, (Carbone, 2017) what future for an emerging Africa? Can we predict an emerging Africa by 2030 or 2050? According to Godet and Roubelat (1996), all who claim to foretell or forecast the future are inevitably liars, for the future is not written anywhere - it is still to be built. This is fortunate, for without this uncertainty; human activity would lose its degree of freedom and its meaning, the hope of a desired future. If the future were totally foreseeable and certain, the present would become unlivable. Certainty is death. Because the future has to be built, it also cannot be conceived as a simple continuation of the past. Good forecasts are not necessarily those which are realized, but those which lead to action so as to avoid the dangers and arrive at the desired objective. The future is multiple and several potential futures are possible; the path leading to this or that future is not necessarily unique. The description of a potential future and of the progression towards it comprises a scenario.


The twentieth survey of the financial situation of students at the University of Brighton was conducted in 2014 and this document provides a summary of the supplementary qualitative findings. The qualitative findings draw on data from two focus groups and an open-ended question from the survey. This is the second time that focus groups were carried out to supplement the quantitative findings from the survey. This research is commissioned by the University's Senior Management Team, and was conducted by the University's Social Science and Policy Research Centre.


This extended abstract breifly introduces rewriting of networks (directed acyclic graphs with the extra structure needed to serve as expressions for PROducts and Permutations categories) and describes the critical pairs aspects of this theory. The author's interest in these comes from wanting to do equational reasoning in algebraic theories (such as Hopf algebras) that mix ordinary operations with co-operations; networks then serve as a formalism for expressions.The main message is to point out two phenomena that arise in network rewriting. The first is that of non-convexity of rules, wherein the left hand side of a rule need not be syntactically similar to a symbol in any extension of the underlying signature. The second is one of critical pairs potentially arising where two redexes wrap around each other even when they do not intersect.


Reintroduction of species is viewed as a conventional conservation tool across Europe. Yet, the reintroduction of a species into an area where it was formerly extinct in a country can involve considerable social and economic impacts. Effective national management strategies for European protected species must comply with the protection laid down in the Habitats or Birds Directives whilst, at the same time, addressing human socio-economic concerns. This case study on the Eurasian beaver (listed in Habitats Directive Annexes II and IV) examines the strict protection afforded to the beaver (Article 12) and the ways in which exceptions to that protection, or derogations (Article 16), may form part of national or regional species management strategies. Case studies from the Netherlands, Germany and Latvia illustrate conservation success but, at the same time, provide a cautionary tale about the management of a species with a well developed capacity for ecosystem engineering. What happens when a previously extinct or endangered species with the potential for impacts on human activities becomes abundant? While national law and policy makers must remain attentive to conservation concerns, ensuring the strict protection of the species, they must also be mindful of changes both in human political and socio-economic concerns and in the dynamic natural world. Twenty years on, is the protection afforded by the Habitats Directive sufficiently pragmatic and flexible to take account of changes in species conservation status and in the social, political and economic needs of Member States?


Nearly 60–70% of the child Indian population suffers from dental caries. Mouth rinsing is the most cost effective method of preventing dental caries. 'Triphala' has been a classic Ayurveda remedy, probably the best known among all Ayurvedic compounds. This study was conducted on 1501 students in the age group of 8-12 years with the aim of determining the effect of Triphala mouthwash on prevention of dental caries (manifest caries) as well as incipient carious lesions, and also comparing the effect of Triphala and chlorhexidine mouthwashes. The incipient caries was recorded at 3, 6, 9 months intervals and manifest caries at 9 months interval. No significant increase in the DMFS scores was found at the end of 9 months. Also, there was no significant increase in the incipient caries score towards the conclusion of the study. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between the Triphala and the chlorhexidine mouthwashes.


Reducing the leaching of NO−3-N is of great interest. The effects of different types of subsurface barriers on delaying and reducing anion leaching and the effect of barrier size on anion leaching were investigated. Three repacked soil columns filled with soil from a Sparta loamy fine sand (sandy, mixed, mesic Entic Hapludoll) mapping unit were used to run Cl−breakthrough experiments under saturated, steady-flow conditions. Subsurface barriers used were no barrier (NB), a polyethylene disk placed above the Cl−, the same disk placed below the Cl−, a compacted soil layer created outside of the column and placed above the Cl− (CA), and a compacted layer formed in situ above the Cl−. Compared with NB, all barriers tested delayed initial breakthrough of Cl− and reduced peak Cl− concentration. Subsurface barriers delayed occurrence of the peak concentration, indicating that harriers prolonged residence time of Cl− in the soil column. Among subsurface barriers used, the CA was most effective in delaying and reducing Cl− leaching. Initial breakthrough of Cl− was delayed by 0.9 relative pore volumes, and peak concentration was reduced by >50% with the CA treatment compared with the NB treatment. The occurrence of the peak concentration was also delayed by 1.2 relative pore volumes. Compared with the NB treatment, a 3-cm plastic disk, just large enough to cover the applied Cl−, reduced peak concentration of Cl−. A 5-cm-diam. barrier also delayed initial breakthrough of Cl−, reduced peak concentration by 40%, and delayed occurrence of the peak by 0.6 pore volumes. Disciplines Agronomy and Crop Sciences | Horticulture | Hydrology | Soil Science Comments This article is published as Kiuchi, M., R. Horton, and T. C. Kaspar. "Leaching characteristics of repacked soil columns as influenced by subsurface flow barriers." Soil Science Society of America Journal 58, no. 4 (1994): 1212-1218. Doi: 10.2136/sssaj1994.03615995005800040030x Rights Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/agron_pubs/315 Leaching Characteristics of Repacked Soil Columns as Influenced by Subsurface Flow Barriers M. Kiuchi, R. Horton,* and T. C. Kaspar


Introduction: An adequate hydration status is essential to maintain all our physiological and cognitive functions. These functions are directly correlated to age, gender, body composition, physiological status, level of physical activity and temperature/humidity of environment.
Objective: To evaluate hydration recommendations in graphical representations of Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) worldwide through literature review.
Method: FBDG have been studied in 79 countries on 6 continents. The study includes official and non-official FBDG created by universities or scientific associations.
Results: Ten out 79 countries have not got FBDG. Ninety-seven graphical representations have been analyzed with the following distribution: Africa (4%), Near East (4%), Asia and the Pacific (13%), North America (20%), Latin America and Caribbean (22%), Europe (37%). 46.4% of them presented a pyramid format, 18.5% a circle/plate format and 32.9% presented others.60.8% of FBDG included items related to hydration; the most frequent item was water (97%) and only 12.3% included in addition other beverages (milk, fruit juices, coffee and tea).
Conclusions: Official and non-official FBDG are not equally distributed among countries, the most common used format was pyramid model (65%). Hydration science has led some institutions to include water as an essential and necessary item in FBDG. These results
show that hydration guidelines should be given greater attention in the future.


A substantial body of literature supports the involvement of ethylene in abscission of leaves, flowers and flower parts, and fruit. Exogenous ethylene accelerates abscission in many, but not all, abscising plant systems. In some cases, endogenous ethylene production increases before abscission, while in others a change in ethylene sensitivity can be demonstrated. Ethylene interacts with auxin in regulating abscission, particularly in leaves and fruit. Ethylene has been shown to regulate expression of genes involved in cell separation, including cellulases and pectinases. Such regulation has been demonstrated at the level of mRNA abundance, but post-transcriptional regulation may also be important.


Regression models have been developed for the case where the dependent variable is a vector of shares. Some of them, from the marketing literature, are easy to interpret but they are quite simple and can only be complexified at the expense of a very large number of parameters to estimate. Other models, from the mathematical literature, are called compositional regression models and are based on the simplicial geometry (a vector of shares is called a composition, shares are components, and a composition lies in the simplex). These models are transformation models: they use a log-ratio transformation of shares. They are very flexible in terms of explanatory variables and complexity (component-specific and cross-effect parameters), but their interpretation is not straightforward, due to the fact that shares add up to one. This paper combines both literatures in order to obtain a performing market-share model allowing to get relevant and appropriate interpretations, which can be used for decision making in practical cases. For example, we are interested in modeling the impact of media investments on automobile manufacturers sales. In order to take into account the competition, we model the brands market-shares as a function of (relative) media investments. We furthermore focus on compositional models where some explanatory variables are also compositional. Two specifications are possible: in Model A, a unique coefficient is associated to each compositional explanatory variable, whereas in Model B a compositional explanatory variable is associated to component-specific and cross-effect coefficients. Model A and Model B are estimated for our application in the B segment of the French automobile market, from 2003 to 2015. In order to enhance the interpretability of these models, we present different types of impact assessment measures (marginal effects, elasticities and odds ratios) and we show that elasticities are particularly useful to isolate the impact of an explanatory variable on a particular share. We show that elasticities can be equivalently computed from the transformed model and from the model in the simplex and that they are linked to directional C-derivatives of simplex-valued function of a simplex variable. Direct and cross effects of media investments are computed for both models. Model B shows interesting non-symmetric synergies between brands, and Renault seems to be the most elastic brand to its own media investments. In order to determine if component-specific and cross-effect parameters are needed to improve the quality of the model (Model B) or if a global parameter is reasonable (Model A), we compare the goodness-of-fit of the two models using (out-of-sample) quality measures adapted for share data.


This paper develops a large-scale, dynamic life-cycle model to simulate Russia's demographic and fiscal transition under favorable and unfavorable fossil-fuel price regimes. The model includes Russia, the U.S., China, India, the EU, and Japan+ (Japan plus Korea). The model predicts dramatic increases in tax rates in the U.S., EU, India, and Russia. Indeed, the increases are so large as to question their political feasibility let alone their actual collection given the potential for tax avoidance and tax evasion.


In spite of different water resources available at many locations, adequate supplies of fresh water are rare for human demands due to various sources of pollution. Water pollutants can be classified as 1) suspended pollutants and, 2) dissolved pollutants. Dissolved pollutants consist of acids and heavy metallic ions. Foam fractionation method which is based on differences in surface activity is a new method whereby dissolved solids are adsorbed on the surface of liquid bubbles. Various purposes are served by the separation of metallic ions from water which include removal of metallic ions from water and extraction of precious metals from wastewater. In this method, water is mixed with a surfactant and fed continuously to a column. The supernatant foam thus formed starts to move along the column neck. Finally the foam breaks up into two fractions of heavy metal ions and pure water each leaving the column through separate outlets. In this study, neck height design and optimization is investigated to achieve the best copper ion removal efficiency. Based on our experiments, it was found that increasing neck height up to a certain height increased the enrichment ratio. Also increasing metal ion concentration for a given neck height improved recovery.


Abstract Economists have spent a good deal of time examining and trying to explain the positive association between female employment and divorce. However, in doing so, they have paid very little attention to the behavior of men. This paper addresses that oversight. Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study – a study conducted at a time when gendered specialization was the normative household arrangement for families with small children and when economic theories of marriage and divorce were first being developed – this study considers whether and how fathers' contributions to unpaid work are associated with divorce. Information on fathers' involvement in domestic work and childcare permits a deeper exploration of the relationship between mother's employment and divorce. Contrary to what gains from specialization and trade predict, the findings suggest that fathers' home production stabilizes marriage regardless of mothers' employment statuses.


Background Hypomagnesaemia is a well-known side effect of cisplatin, induced by the drug's renal toxicity. Although hypomagnesaemia refers to any magnesium level below 1.7 mg/dL, it does not lead to clinical symptoms until levels Purpose To evaluate the incidence and severity of cisplatin-induced hypomagnesaemia. Material and methods A retrospective and observational study (April 2001–March 2014) was conducted in a General Hospital (600 beds). All patients who had received at least one dose of cisplatin were included. Start date of cisplatin chemotherapy, gender, age, tumour type and blood magnesium levels were collected for each patient. According to the hospital protocol, patients receive magnesium supplementation before and after cisplatin and aggressive hydration in order to prevent nephrotoxicity. All patients with hypomagnesaemia were classified according to the CTCAE grade. Results 528 patients (3,682 cisplatin administrations) were included (79.3% male, mean age = 56.68 ± 12.29 years). Magnesium level was assessed in 6,021 blood tests and it was below the lower limit in 1,421 of them. Hypomagnesaemia was observed in at least one blood test, in 320 patients (60.6%), during or after treatment. The incidence of hypomagnesaemia was similar for men and women (60.3% vs. 61.7%). 93.9% of patients with haematological malignancies and 57.2% of patients with solid tumours showed hypomagnesaemia in at least one blood test, (OR: 11.47; IC95%: 3.52–37.40; p Mean time until onset of hypomagnesaemia was 211 days and in the vast majority of patients (89.4%) this happened within the first year of treatment. Conclusion Hypomagnesaemia is a common and long-term side effect of cisplatin but only in very few cases was it considered to be severe. The incidence of life-threatening hypomagnesaemia is extremely low. The prevalence of hypomagnesaemia was much higher in haematological patients than in patients with solid tumours. Reference Pham PC, Pham PA, Pham SV, et al . Hypomagnesemia: a clinical perspective. Int J Nephrol Renovasc Dis 2014;7:219–30 No conflict of interest.


Unlike most media, the U.S. television industry has continued to prosper as broadband diffusion has grown to reach over 2/3 of households. We first identify the source of standard TV's long term prosperity: technology, especially digital conversion. The result has been a massive shift since the 1970s from advertising to direct pay support, and greatly increased quality and variety of television programs-- in turn leading to ever-higher TV usage. Since about 2000, online video streaming has become widespread, but its overall proportion of all TV viewing remains under 2%. Focusing on professionally produced commercial TV products, we find that online TV has also shifted toward a direct pay revenue model, and we offer suggestive evidence that online distribution is cheaper and more efficient than MVPD distribution. We attribute the apparent dominance of aggregators in online TV distribution to economic efficiencies. Drawing on a taxonomy of "Everywhere TV" systems marketed by the top 25 MVPDs, we model these "authentication" tie-ins as price discrimination devices intended to slow MVPD disconnections; although in plausible circumstances, the price discrimination incentive can slow development of online TV. Anti-competitively motivated behavior by established MVPDs or ISPs is also plausible, but while facilitated by vertical integration into program supply, the viability of anti-competitive strategies ultimately depends on large national market shares of the MVPD and ISP markets to be effective. Note: A set of slides presented by David Waterman at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan on March 29, 2012 offers a preliminary outline for the analysis now underway in support of this paper.