The fundamental basis of the project concentrates upon an interactive manoeuvre involving Modern Continental Philosophy and the Postmodern Visual Arts. The primary components that structure the thesis conduct a Deleuzoguattarian "process" of action to produce a series of mechanisms designed to "open-up" a space in which to manifest a range of interpretations/translations that follow the developmentary trajectory of designated specific areas of art production. The primary aims concern the advance of the action to communicate an innovative/original set of expositions with a view to both "animate" and enhance these designated perspectives.

The structural framework of the project tracks through "passages'/lines of flight" that occur/result from the impact of the Deleuzoguattarian mechanisms upon chosen material - "Introduction" (Primary) sets forth some guiding themes (how to think knowledge without the presumption of the neutral interchangeability of the subject?). "Tours of the Black Clock" (Dark) elaborates the Nietzschean background that informs the philosophical basis of the complete project. "Electrolite" (Spin the Black Circle), "Where Angels Play" (In a Network of Lines that Intersect), "Not to Touch the Earth" (Elephant Stone) "Across" (Out of Time) are sections designed to trace a number of alternative pathways through the major texts of the Deleuzoguattarian enterprise.

"Becoming X" (Impact) initiates a secondary movement of experimentation. "Animal Nitrate" (The Image of Chance) effects "an encounter" with the work of painter Francis Bacon via the Deleuze text(s) "Logique de la Sensation" (1981), "Time and Again" (New Damage) introduces and articulates a number of instances from Deleuzian film-theory "The Fountainhead" (Vision Machines) is the main section of the project which evolves a detailed process analysing the paintings of American painter David Salle "The Mirror of Enigmas" (Numbers in the Dark) traces related Deleuzeoguattarian themes through the films of David Lynch, maintaining as a background an examination of Postmodern American culture/society. "Breaking into Heaven" (Elegia) returns to the more specific analysis of the late paintings of David Salle and uses the mechanics elaborated in Deleuze's book "Le Pli". "Final Cut"/"Last Exit"/"Memorial Beach" is an attempt at a series of concluding remarks within the project divisions are resolved within a comprehensive Deleuzoguattarian structural system - evolving to be primarily defined in terms of two "active" processes/movements which engage theory and explanation, practice and application respectively, being therefore both a philosophical /academic debate while incorporating a high-level of "creative" experimentation.

The first sections of the project detail an extensive series of explanatory "pathways/journeys" through the texts of Deleuze and Guattari with a view to indicating measures that can be deployed/utilized in a Deleuzoguattarian process of art/cultural analysis. Constructing the architectural pattern/"anatomy" of a series of interpretative surfaces to reflect the dimensions of the cultural material approached.

The sections in the second part of the project enact a number of experimental designs, dispatching Deleuzoguattarian mechanisms in the body of the chosen cultural material. An interpretative surface is never under the influence of a single differentiated flow it constitutes the mutual boundary of numerous adjacent flows. The same interpretative surface is therefore available to be understood in as many different ways as there are adjacent flows along its fractural surface.

This project is essentially a speculative enterprise, a philosophical experiment whose aim is to enhance, enlarge and intensify our "knowledge" of the area defined, through a synthesis, here labelled as a "Deleuzoguattarian process of Art analysis".

For Deleuze, thought creates what it thinks, as perception creates what it perceives (and therefore does not relate to it). The philosophical concept does not refer to the lived, but consists through its own creation, in setting up an event that surveys ("survole") the whole of the lived no less than every state of affairs Deleuzoguattarian philosophy does not establish a relationship "between" philosophy and other disciplines, other ways of making sure, but eliminates this relationship to the advantage of a type of "greater philosophy" Thought/Philosophy thinks the sufficient reason of the actual in this manner.

For Nietzsche, whose enterprise constitutes (I have suggested) the base/departure for the Deleuzoguattarian program, "the world" we know lies in our interpretation of it. However, the task of interpretation is not to discover "truth" but to "create" it. According to Nietzsche, there is no "world-in-itself, no unconditioned and stable entities that await our discovery, but a dynamic and turbulent "becoming" in which the forms we perceive are not separate from our interpretations of them

Because we are ourselves part of this becoming, there is no vantage point from which it is possible to gain the absolute/unconditioned knowledge that we have imbued with the idea of "truth". The exercise merely becomes self-reflective. However, despite this skepticism, Nietzsche realizes that the game of truth is unavoidable, so therefore he, and In consequence we, departing/initiating the pathways through this project, have to cast in the role of the philosopher who knows what he invents and invents while he knows.

In Postmodern Art no style dominates. Alternatively we experience endless improvisations and variations on themes, parody/playfulness. Postmodern artists are unabashedly eclectic and call attention to it, combining traditions borrowing from rituals and myths. All the world's cultural symbols are now available in the public domain - "SANTA CLAUS IS ON THE CROSS".

The Deleuzoguattarian process of art delineated is a play with the game of "truth" and not an explanation of a "whole" a description of the network of the "dynamic"/fluid nature of our transitional relationship to it. It is the flow of energy that encompasses what Deleuze/Nietzsche refer to as "the whole" A flow invokes the dynamic/fluid nature of becoming, while energy/activity implies a potentiality - the inherent capacity and growth actuated by the will to power. The flows of energy are manifested into differentiated flows within flows, "Ad infinitum" and powered by the parameters of state space - a potential i.e field defined by the characteristics of the subject flows associated Nothing exists in isolation Differentiation exists only via relations to other flows in a dynamic/non linear network of resistances


ABSTRACT Energetic materials generating biocidal combustion products to disable airborne pathogenic microorganisms (including bio-threat agents) were designed as compounds of halogens and metals with high heats of oxidation. Thermally stable Al-based powders containing iodine and chlorine were prepared using ball-milling at room and cryogenic temperatures. Such powders can replace pure aluminum in metallized energetic formulations. Their stability and halogen release were quantified using thermo-gravimetric analysis. Ignition temperatures were determined by coating prepared powders onto an electrically heated filament. All prepared composites had lower ignition temperatures and longer combustion times compared to pure Al. In separate experiments, combustion products generated by injecting the prepared powders into an air-acetylene flame were mixed with a well-characterized bioaerosol. Inactivation of viable bioaerosol particles exposed to the heated combustion products for a short period of time (estimated to be 0.33 s) was quantified. The combustion products of materials investigated in this study effectively inactivated the aerosolized spores of two tested surrogates of Bacillus anthracis (B. atrophaeus and B. thuringiensis var kurstaki). A ternary composite with 20 wt% of iodine, 40 wt% of aluminum and 40 wt% of boron was found to be most attractive based on both its stability and efficiency in inactivating the aerosolized spores. The inactivation achieved was primarily attributed to chemical stresses as the thermal effect could not solely produce the high measured levels of inactivation. The findings point to a possible synergy of the thermal and chemical spore inactivation mechanisms. © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research


We present an efficient implementation of hypergeometric functions in arbitrary-precision interval arithmetic. The functions 0F1, 1F1, 2F1, and 2F0 (or the Kummer U-function) are supported for unrestricted complex parameters and argument, and, by extension, we cover exponential and trigonometric integrals, error functions, Fresnel integrals, incomplete gamma and beta functions, Bessel functions, Airy functions, Legendre functions, Jacobi polynomials, complete elliptic integrals, and other special functions. The output can be used directly for interval computations or to generate provably correct floating-point approximations in any format. Performance is competitive with earlier arbitrary-precision software and sometimes orders of magnitude faster. We also partially cover the generalized hypergeometric function pFq and computation of high-order parameter derivatives.


Objectives: Stroke is a major event in one's life, and patients will inevitably require the use of coping strategies in order to try to reestablish acceptable life equilibrium. Due to the extensive role that nurses can be active members in the patient's rehabilitation plan, the Mauk model is a model that focuses on stroke patients. For each stage of this model, Mauk has developed appropriate rehabilitation nursing interventions. This study aimed to analyze the effect of implementation of the Mauk nursing rehabilitation model (Agonizing phase, Fantasy phase, Realizing phase) on the coping strategies of stroke patients. Methods: This study is a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test - post-test study. The interventions are identified and coping strategies for patients based on the Mauk model have been trained. Convenience sampling has been done in Imam Khomeini hospital and Tabassom rehabilitation center in 1392. Data collection instruments included a demographic questionnaire and a coping strategies questionnaire for stroke patients. The educational program was implemented in sessions of 45 minutes. The patients' coping strategies, before and after training, were assessed. Data was statistically analyzed using descriptive and inferential tests in SPSS software 16. Results: The mean score for coping strategies before intervention was 111.42 ±11.71, and after intervention was 102.14± 12.45 (P<0.05). The physical, mental and social dimensions in the coping strategies showed significant differences before and after intervention. Discussion: Using the rehabilitation program interventions for effectively dealing with stress, changing and unpredictable behavior patterns in chronic patients is an important component of the treatment protocol, and helps deliver an increase in coping strategies for stroke patients.


This paper describes how GNAT Pro for ERC32 and the Ravenscar profile are suitable for designing and implementing complex on-board software using high-level tasking facilities. The static and simple tasking model defined by the Ravenscar profile allows for a streamlined implementation of the run-time system directly on top of bare machines. The reduced size and complexity of the run time, together with its configurability, makes it suitable for mission-critical space applications in which certification or reduced footprint is needed. Software reliability and predictability is also increased by excluding non-deterministic and non analysable tasking features. Product validation has been achieved by means of a comprehensive test suite intended to check compliance with the Ravenscar profile and Ada standards, and correct behaviour of specialised features and supplemental tools. Code coverage analysis is also part of the validation campaign, with the goal of achieving 100% statement coverage.


Objective. The etiology of embryonic demise is multifactorial, with chromosomal abnormalities being the most common (40%). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the correlation between a serum biomarker, inhibine A, and an ultrasonographic parameter, the distance between yolk sac (YS) and embryo (DYSE), in assessing the prognosis of pregnancy evolutivity in the first trimester. Method. The study is a case-control prospective analysis that includes two groups of patients: 81 patients with first-trimester pregnancy in evolution, and 89 patients with embryonic demise, all of the patients having amenorrhea between 6 and 11 weeks. The endovaginal ultrasonographic exploration was performed to evaluate the distance between the lower pole of the embryo and the yolk sac. From each subject enrolled in the study, 20 ml of blood was collected for inhibin A dosing. Results. Regarding the DYSE in the case group, lower values were observed compared to the control group, the difference being statistically significant. In the statistical analysis of serum inhibin A values, statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups (p<0.05). Conclusions. DYSE has a high positive predictive value in identifying pregnancies with potentially reserved evolutivity, this study demonstrating that a DYSE<3 mm may lead to an unfavorable evolution of pregnancy. The low serum level of inhibine A is associated with an increased rate of non-viable embryos.


Bump attractors are wandering localised patterns observed in in vivo experiments of spatially-extended neurobiological networks. They are important for the brain's navigational system and specific memory tasks. A bump attractor is characterised by a core in which neurons fire frequently, while those away from the core do not fire. We uncover a relationship between bump attractors and travelling waves in a classical network of excitable, leaky integrate-and-fire neurons. This relationship bears strong similarities to the one between complex spatiotemporal patterns and waves at the onset of pipe turbulence. Waves in the spiking network are determined by a firing set, that is, the collection of times at which neurons reach a threshold and fire as the wave propagates. We define and study analytical properties of the voltage mapping, an operator transforming a solution's firing set into its spatiotemporal profile. This operator allows us to construct localised travelling waves with an arbitrary number of spikes at the core, and to study their linear stability. A homogeneous "laminar" state exists in the network, and it is linearly stable for all values of the principal control parameter. Sufficiently wide disturbances to the homogeneous state elicit the bump attractor. We show that one can construct waves with a seemingly arbitrary number of spikes at the core; the higher the number of spikes, the slower the wave, and the more its profile resembles a stationary bump. As in the fluid-dynamical analogy, such waves coexist with the homogeneous state, are unstable, and the solution branches to which they belong are disconnected from the laminar state; we provide evidence that the dynamics of the bump attractor displays echoes of the unstable waves, which form its building blocks.


This article surveys the contribution of non-state actors to the changes in the Middle East known popularly as the "Arab Spring." Scholars have developed three prominent schools of thought on the Arab Spring, which emerged in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and other countries. One school describes the Arab Spring as a "pristine" popular movement akin to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the anti-apartheid movement in southern Africa, the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the Tiananmen Square protests, or the Iranian Green Movement. Another argues that it is a change shaped by the great powers, especially the United States acting through the the State Department, the Pentagon, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International Republican Institute, and the National Endowment for Democracy. Two strands of this theory exist. The first strand, popular among critics of Arab Spring and the U.S. role, suggests that the United States has perhaps unwittingly allied itself with jihadist non-state actors such as the Muslim Brotherhood and even al Qaeda veterans, and used them to topple relatively moderate and secular regimes with likely disastrous results. The second strand, popular among supporters of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, characterizes U.S. policy as actively promoting popular demands for democracy and freedom, and as sanctioning dictators, torturers, and other forces that are denying freedom and prosperity to majority Arab countries. A third theory evokes Clay Shirky's book "Here Comes Everybody": social media (especially Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) converged with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and satellite television channels such as Al Jazeera to make it possible to have simultaneous revolutions in many different countries. After presenting a summary of the genesis and course of the Arab Spring from the standpoint of international legal history, this article applies certain key international legal instruments to the crimes of the Arab Spring, and attempts to bring greater local specificity to sweeping generalizations about the Arab Spring and its causes and consequences. Three findings emerge from this analysis. First, the role of the United States cannot be discounted, as illustrated by the divergent response of its leaders to crimes against humanity, such as torture and political persecution, in Egypt and Libya as opposed to in Iraq or Sudan, for example. Depending on U.S. economic and security interests with respect to a country and its military, crimes may be excused, and tyrants granted a new lease on life despite overseeing failed states and resentful populations. This is most obvious in the case of Sudan, where the United States has not called for regime change despite far worse crimes against civilians, significantly harsher tyranny and social malaise, and greatly inferior economic and human development statistics than in Egypt, Libya, or Tunisia. Second, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda veterans have played a unique role in the Arab Spring, as compared to prior social movements, but their interventions have been mediated by U.S. policy, social media, and Al Jazeera. Focusing unduly on technology or foreign states and neglecting local political and religious movements distracts attention from the interdependence of these social and technological forces on one another. Third, the lessons of Iraq since 2003 and the Gaza Strip since 2005 should not be ignored in wargaming (or predicting the results of) what may be called the "Twitterlutions." Reprisals against politicians and security forces that perpetrated or tolerated mass violence against civilians, chaos and rampant violence, religious extremism, and economic disaster may be inevitable after the abrupt collapse of regimes such as those in Libya. These lessons suggest explanations for Washington's strong support for the central role of the military in Egypt, while possibly foretelling a humanitarian disaster after a chaotic regime change in other Arab states. Looking to the future, the United Nations must strive to apply the foundational multilateral treaties relating to genocide, war crimes, the political independence of states, refugee flows, and human rights. These covenants provide an adequate legal structure, despite some gaps, for responding to the Arab Spring's principal dangers. The challenge is to apply them more equitably and consistently. Unfortunately, international judicial institutions are a pale shadow of what they should be. A politicized and selective response to the Arab Spring threatens to create a double standard to political violence in Egypt, Libya, or Syria as compared with ethnic and religious violence in Iraq, Palestine, or Sudan, a standard which gives extremist regimes and movements a decisive advantage. Permitting this trend to continue will create more and more enclaves for al Qaeda activity beyond those existing in Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. For the United Nations to respond adequately to the threats faced by diverse populations in Asia and Africa in particular, it must return to first principles, namely respect for territorial integrity and political independence, promotion of international peace, settlement of international controversies in accordance with law, the prevention of genocide, insistence on the equal rights of peoples, and greater regard for human rights.


Local Coordinate Coding (LCC) [18] is a method for modeling functions of data lying on non-linear manifolds. It provides a set of anchor points which form a local coordinate system, such that each data point on the manifold can be approximated by a linear combination of its anchor points, and the linear weights become the local coordinate coding. In this paper we propose encoding data using orthogonal anchor planes, rather than anchor points. Our method needs only a few orthogonal anchor planes for coding, and it can linearize any (α, β, p)-Lipschitz smooth nonlinear function with a fixed expected value of the upper-bound approximation error on any high dimensional data. In practice, the orthogonal coordinate system can be easily learned by minimizing this upper bound using singular value decomposition (SVD). We apply our method to model the coordinates locally in linear SVMs for classification tasks, and our experiment on MNIST shows that using only 50 anchor planes our method achieves 1.72% error rate, while LCC achieves 1.90% error rate using 4096 anchor points.


In the literature on the links between socio-economic status (SES) and child health, there is evidence that the SES gradient is weaker for objective indicators of child health (e.g., height) than for subjective indicators (e.g., parental-assessed health). In this paper, we use crosssectional micro-data from the Growing Up in Ireland study to examine the SES gradient in height, weight, general health status and chronic illness incidence. Using household income and mother's education as indicators of SES, we find only limited support for the contention that the SES gradient in child health in Ireland is stronger for more subjective indicators of child health.


Ultrabroadband radiation from Yb(2)O(3) at ambient and low air pressures was investigated under the excitation of a 980 nm diode laser. The radiation was confirmed to be blackbody radiation, and it is sensitive to environmental air pressure in the way that the integrated radiation intensity decreases linearly with increasing air pressure. An ideal gas model may be employed to interpret the linear dependence. The pressure-sensitive radiation characteristic provides a potential method for noncontact measurement of air pressure with high accuracy.


This paper examines public preferences for natural resource lands by exploring over a decade of ballot initiatives related to land management in Maine. Results of each ballot initiative are scrutinized to examine factors that significantly influenced voting outcomes and to compare and contrast outcomes over time, space, and type of proposed land management. Referenda in the sample include broad land conservation measures, calls for changes in forest management practices, and modifications to property tax and assessment of "working" natural resource lands. Results confirm strong spatial patterns in voting behavior in Maine, with higher support for land conservation measures in southern and coastal areas relative to eastern and northern areas. These spatial patterns may reflect variation in the benefits provided and costs imposed by the various land management initiatives. Empirical analysis suggests proximity or access to public goods provided by an initiative increases the likelihood of support. In contrast, proximity to perceived costs decreases the likelihood of support for an initiative.


Using field measurements and field experiments, we investigated the effect of a dominant Southwest Atlantic intertidal burrowing crab, Chasmagnathus granulatus, on the inland growth of tidal creeks and creek genesis in salt marshes. By burrowing intensively on marsh sediments, this crab changed sediment physical parameters, such as penetrability, water content, and shear strength, which are related to sediment resistance to erosion. There were positive relationships between crab density and activities occurring in the creek heads and creek growth rates. Field experiments show that the presence and activity of C. granulatus and the presence of their burrows enhance the growth rates of tidal creeks, promoting marsh erosion. When crabs were present, these creeks grew faster than did creeks in which crabs were excluded. Furthermore, the interaction (disturbance and herbivory) between crabs and the dominant halophyte marsh plant, Sarcocornia perennis, generate circular depressions that accumulate standing water (salt pans), which in turn facilitates the creation of new creeks in the marsh surface, which evolve, to a greater extent, into fully functional tidal creeks because of colonization by crabs, which in turn further enhances creek growth rates. These direct and indirect effects of crabs on marsh erosion provide strong evidence of the importance of bioturbation and biological processes to the erosion and geomorphology of marshes.


Background and Aims: Eutypa dieback is a major threat to the sustainability and productivity of the viticulture industry worldwide. The fungicide benomyl has been the most effective treatment to protect wounds against infection by ascospores of Eutypa lata and to control eutypa dieback. However, because of the withdrawal of benomyl from the market, there is a need to develop alternatives to protect pruning wounds.

Methods and Results: Twenty-five compounds were evaluated in laboratory experiments and field trials. A selection of the compounds effective at inhibiting germination and/or mycelial growth in the laboratory were further evaluated in the field. Of the 15 fungicides tested, carbendazim was the most effective in reducing colonisation of pruning wounds by E. lata in the field. Other fungicides, including fluazinam, pyrimethanil and pyraclostrobin, reduced colonisation of wounds by E. lata but require further evaluation at higher concentrations. Physical barriers such as acrylic paint (with or without fungicides) and a commercial tree wound paste formulated with fungicides (Garrison) also protected pruning wounds from infection by E. lata.

Conclusions: Fungicides and physical barriers have been identified for the control of eutypa dieback in grapevines. The registration of Bavistin (carbendazim) and Garrison is being sought for use on pruning wounds on grapevines in Australia.

Significance of the Study: Protection of pruning wounds is essential for the management of eutypa dieback in grapevines. Identification of alternative methods for disease control will provide significant economic benefits for the grapegrowing industry


A field experiment was conducted to examine the relative importance of soil factors and plant species on communities of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi. Populations of VAM fungal spores were studied in 4-yr-old monocultures of five succes- sional grass species grown in a gradient of soil mixtures ranging from pure subsurface sand to pure sandy loam topsoil. A total of 19 species of VAM fungi were found across all treatments. Of the 12 most abundant VAM fungal species, 6 species had a significant dependence on both soil mixture and host species, while 2 were dependent only on soil and 2 only on host. To our knowledge, these are the first results indicating that even closely related hosts (five grasses) may cause divergence in VAM fungal communities on initially identical soils. Cluster analysis of the similarity of fungal communities by host plant species showed the fungal communities in the two late successional grasses to be most similar to one another and least similar to the fungal communities in the early successional grass species. Cluster analysis of the similarity of fungal communities by soil mixture showed the fungal communities in the sandy end of the soil gradient diverged predictably from the fungal communities in the black soil end of the gradient. These results support the hy- pothesis that soil factors and plant species may be of equal importance in regulating the species composition of VAM fungal communities.


Research findings suggest that college student-athletes are at risk for using a variety of substances, especially alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. One strategy that has shown promise in preventing substance use among student-athletes is programming rooted in the Social Norms Theory. Currently, social norms research among student-athletes in terms of injunctive norms (e.g., the perception of other people's approval of substance use) and descriptive norms (e.g., the perception of other people's substance use behaviors) is limited. Studies that have investigated injunctive norms held by student-athletes have not compared the effect of different reference groups on personal substance use behaviors. In terms of descriptive norms, past research has shown mixed findings. Some researchers have suggested that proximal norms are stronger predictors of personal substance use behaviors, while other researchers have contended that distal norms are stronger predictors. The purpose of this dissertation was to extend research on social norms reference groups held by student-athletes by comparing reference groups of injunctive norms and proximal-distal groups of descriptive norms. Specifically, this dissertation sought to answer the following research questions: (a) Do student-athlete perceptions of teammate and coach approval of substance use predict student-athlete substance use? (b) Do student-athlete perceptions of substance use by proximal and distal reference groups predict student-athlete substance use? To answer the first research question, a convenience sample of 3,339 student-athletes from 54 NCAA colleges and universities completed a survey about their personal substance use and their perceptions of teammate and coach approval of substance use. A multi-level model regression analysis indicated that the perception of approval from both teammates and coaches predicted the participants' substance use behaviors. To answer the second research question regarding descriptive norms, a convenience sample of 3,347 student-athletes from 32 NCAA colleges and universities completed a survey about their personal substance use and their perceptions of substance use among close friends and college athletes. A multi-level model regression analysis indicated that only the perception of substance use among close friends acted as a predictor of participant substance use behaviors. This dissertation contains further explanations of the findings, recommendations for future research, and a description of the studies' methodological limitations.


Autism is a development disorder that has increased in prevalence from 0.5 to 14.7 per 1,000 children over 1970–2010. Using annual wages and provider counts from the American Community Survey and information from 21 regional development centers in California, we estimate the labor demand for auxiliary health providers. We focus on this subset of providers because, unlike physicians and psychologists who can diagnose autism, these workers cannot induce their own demand. If the incidence of autism is increasing independently of other mental disorders, then the demand for auxiliary health providers should increase, leading to higher wages and labor supply. Otherwise, the increase in autism diagnosis is merely displacing other mental disorders. We find that a 100% increase in autism cases increases the wages of auxiliary health workers over non-autism health occupations by 8–11% and the number of providers by 9–14%. Furthermore, we find that one of every three new autism diagnoses is merely supplanting mental retardation diagnoses, but does not displace other mental disorders. These estimates suggest that at least part of the increase in autism diagnoses, about 50–65%, reflects an increase in the true prevalence of the disorder.


Abstract. Teflon chambers are ubiquitous in studies of atmospheric chemistry. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation can be underestimated, owing to deposition of SOA-forming vapors to the chamber wall. We present here an experimental protocol and a model framework to constrain the vapor–wall interactions in Teflon chambers. We measured the wall deposition rates of 25 oxidized organic compounds generated from the photooxidation of isoprene, toluene, α-pinene, and dodecane in two chambers that had been extensively used and in two new unused chambers. We found that the extent of prior use of the chamber did not significantly affect the sorption behavior of the Teflon films. Among the 25 compounds studied, the maximum wall deposition rate is exhibited by the most highly oxygenated and least volatile compounds. By optimizing the model output to the observed vapor decay profiles, we identified that the dominant parameter governing the extent of wall deposition of a compound is its wall accommodation coefficient (αwi), which can be correlated through its volatility with the number of carbons and oxygens in the molecule. By doing so, the wall-induced deposition rate of intermediate/semi-volatile organic vapors can be reasonably predicted based on their molecular constituency. The extent to which vapor wall deposition impacts measured SOA yields depends on the competition between uptake of organic vapors by suspended particles and the chamber wall. The timescale associated with vapor wall deposition can vary from minutes to hours depending on the value of αw,i. For volatile and intermediate volatility organic compounds (small αw,i), gas-particle partitioning will dominate wall deposition for typical particle number concentrations in chamber experiments. For compounds characterized by relatively large αw,i, vapor transport to particles is suppressed by competition with the chamber wall even with perfect particle accommodation.


The primary challenges in making renewable energy competitive with fossil fuels for utility scale electricity are to reduce the levelized cost and enable dispatchable power delivery. In this respect concentrated solar power (CSP) with thermal storage could play an important role, since the cost of thermal storage is lower than that of electrochemical batteries. CSP, however, is still expensive and a number of ongoing research efforts are targeted at reducing the cost via a number of technological development pathways. Here, we present a simplified cost model for CSP and show that increasing the temperature of the heat delivered to the power cycle is a potential pathway to reduce the cost. We also propose that solid state energy converters, possibly in combination with traditional turbines, provide additional advantages that can enable high temperature CSP systems with a lower levelized cost of electricity.


During the last two decades, free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) studies have been conducted to study the effects of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations on ecosystems.
The distances between fumigated and control plots differ widely among those projects, but no experimental data are available how far into the surrounding area an effect of CO2
fumigation can be detected. As the CO2 gas added to the fumigated plots has a different 13C label than ambient atmospheric CO2, its carbon can be traced into plants and soil organic matter (SOM). The Swiss FACE in Eschikon had been conducted for 10 years on a grassland site. After it had ended, we analysed soil samples from three transects
extending from the plots to the surrounding area for their organic carbon (Corg) content and carbon isotopic signature. We determined the maximum spatial extension to which carbon originating from the fumigation was incorporated into SOM. A budget of the fumigation gas-derived Corg in the upper 10 cm of the soil showed that approximately 50 kg C were stored within the plots, and an additional 31 kg C were stored in their immediate surroundings up to a distance of 9m from the gas pipes. The presented approach provides us with a method to determine a posteriori the extension to which the CO2 fumigation treatment contaminated its immediate surroundings during a FACE experiment. In the presented example, this showed that the distances between plots could have been reduced significantly. Although not generalizable to other experimental settings, the finding indicates that optimizing the spatial layout, e.g. by modelling gas
dispersion, will be useful when planning future large-scale FACE infrastructures. Our approach provides a solid basis to test such gas-dispersion models on existing FACE sites
before planning new sites.


Objectives: To determine the rate of, and potential risk factors for, unscheduled PICU readmission and assess for variability among PICUs within the United States. Design and Data Source: This retrospective cohort study used 2005–2008 data from 73 PICUs in the Virtual PICU Systems database. Methods and Measurements: Early (within 48 hr of PICU discharge) and late (later than 48 hr) unscheduled readmission rates were calculated. Hierarchical logistic regression, with a random intercept for site, was used to identify factors independently associated with early readmission. Significant random effects identified sites with an outlying risk of readmission, adjusting for patient and admission characteristics. Main Results: For 117,923 children meeting inclusion criteria, the unscheduled readmission rate was 3.7% with 38% (1.4%) occurring early. Half of early readmissions had the same primary diagnosis as the first admission. Patients with late readmissions had a higher mortality (6.6% vs 3.3%, p < 0.001) and longer median total PICU length of stay (11 d vs 6 d, p < 0.0001) than those with early readmission. Patient characteristics strongly associated with increased risk of early readmission included the following: age < 6 months, acute respiratory and renal disease, and several underlying chronic conditions such as liver disease, bone marrow transplant, airway stenosis, and abnormal antidiuretic hormone balances. An initial PICU admission that was unscheduled, originated from the general floor, or with a discharge time between 4 PM and 8 AM was associated with higher risk of readmission. A quarter of sites were identified as potential high (16%) or low (8%) outliers. Conclusions: The rate of unscheduled PICU readmission was low but associated with worse outcomes. Patient and admission/discharge characteristics associated with increased risk of readmissions could be used to target high-risk populations or modifiable factors to improve outcome. Variation of risk among centers suggests room for improvement.


Reliable protection and communication are the key features in a digital substation from protection, control and automation perspective. Implementation of digital protection in high voltage (HV) substations could provide increased reliability, optimized maintenance cost and improved communication capabilities. The application of IEC 61850-9-2 process bus technology in a utility substation has reduced the fault diagnosis downtime due to decreased number of nodes likely to be tested for investigation. Additionally, manufacturers are offering new smart primary plants that have intelligent features built within to makes it a fit case to replace Conventional Instrument Transformers (CITs). These Non-Conventional Instrument Transformers (NCITs) coupled with Merging Units and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) provide better accuracy, transient response and wider bandwidth when implemented in a process bus system guided by IEC 61850-9-2 standard. It is seen that use of NCIT could mitigate issues arising out of CIT failures, provide better safety, reliability, and increased asset life. At present, majority of the CITs operating in the air insulated and gas insulated high voltage (HV) substations are either oil filled or SF6 type which has few environmental issues in the event of a catastrophic failure or leakage. NCITs have better performance as compared to CITs. However, before these high voltage NCITs could find their way in a mass implementation in smart grids and digital substations, there is a need for modelling and simulation at the design stage for its application as per IEC61850-9-2 process bus and its successful implementation. Optimized Network Engineering Tool (OPNET) or Riverbed Modeler is a popular simulation software for such design and modeling of Ethernet networks. This paper presents a model of OPNET software for the simulation of a NCIT based on digital substation in a process bus environment.


Spotlight is a novel application that monitors electrical energy consumption at the individual level. Obtaining reports of energy consumption at this fine granularity allows identifying new areas for energy saving and acting upon it in real-time. Spotlight views appliances as rendering a service to a user and the energy consumption associated with the appliance as a cost for the service. Each participating appliance is specified a service range, a physical vicinity from the appliance within which the user benefits from the service. Using radio receive strength from user-wearable active RFID tags, an appliance is able to determine the users in its service range. In order to make these measurements, each appliance is instrumented with a power meter and an active RFID tag reader. The current implementation of Spotlight uses a COTS power meter and MicaZ motes as active RFID tags and readers. The Spotlight system is deployed and tested in an experimental setup with various appliances and users. We evaluate multiple schemes of accounting energy consumption based on an individual's movement profile and the appliances' power profile. Our preliminary results show how the system could detect wasted energy and we discuss interesting individual behavior that could be interpreted for various energy optimizations.


The importance of understanding how confidence varies across time has been encouraged by sport confidence researchers (Vealey & Chase, 2008). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between confidence and performance throughout an entire competitive season. Two levels of confidence consistent to team sports were analyzed. Team and coach confidence were collected through the Collective Efficacy Questionnaire for Sport (CEQS) and Coaching Efficacy Scale (CES) respectively. Two teams, women's soccer and volleyball (n=48) from a college in the western United States, completed their specific questionnaires five times throughout the season. The CEQS measured collective efficacy (team confidence) and the CES measured coaching efficacy (coach confidence) for each team. Simple linear regressions were used to determine the relationship team confidence and coaching confidence had on the success of each team. Pearson's correlation coefficients were taken to determine if team and coach confidence were connected throughout the season. Volleyball was statistically significant for both team and coach confidence at p = 0.033 and p = 0.040 respectively, with a .68 correlation coefficient. Conversely, the soccer team was not statistically significant for both team and coach confidence at p = 0.53 and p = 0.93 for each. There was, however, a strong correlation coefficient at .89 for the two levels. The findings suggest that team and coach confidence may be related and associated with the success of the team. The results also hint, through the correlation coefficients, that team and coach confidence may be


A number of oil- and gas-producing leases have been operating in Italy in the last decades, many of which are located in the surroundings of tectonically active regions. Identifying human-induced seismicity in areas with high levels of natural seismicity is a difficult task for which virtually any result can be a source of controversy. We implemented a large-scale analysis aiming at tracking significant departures of background seismicity from a stationary behavior around active oil and gas development leases in Italy. We analyzed seismicity rates before and after hydrocarbon peak production in six oil-producing and 43 gas-producing leases, and evaluate the significance of possible seismicity rate changes. In a considerable number of cases seismicity rate results stationary. None of the observed cases of seismicity rate increase after the peak production is statistically significant (at a s.l. = 0.05). Conversely, considering cases of seismicity rate decrease after peak production, our results suggest that the seismicity rate reduction is statistically significant (s.l. = 0.05) around one oil-producing lease (Val d'Agri, Basilicata) and around a cluster of gas-producing leases in Sicily. Our results put in evidence correlated changes between the rates of shallow seismicity and hydrocarbon production in these areas, which are then identified as hotspots requiring more detailed research; assessing actual causal relationships between these processes will require further physically-based modelling. If a physical causative link between these processes exists, then the observed seismicity rate reduction could either be due to increased seismicity during the progressive increase in production before reaching its maximum, or to an actual seismicity rate reduction after that peak. Considering that there is evidence of seismicity occurring before the start of hydrocarbon production, which contrasts with the evident reduction of events observed after the peak production, we think it likely that the seismicity inhibition is a plausible hypothesis. Using a simple model we also calculate Coulomb stress changes in planes optimally oriented for failure, and we show that under some conditions the inhibition of seismicity is feasible in at least one of these cases. We conclude that more efforts to study the mechanisms and the possible consequences of anthropogenically-driven seismicity inhibition are required.


Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be reliable tools in agricultural management. In this work, a low cost, low power consumption, and simple wireless sensing system dedicated for agricultural environments is presented. The system is applicable to small to medium sized fields, located anywhere with cellular network coverage, even in isolated rural areas. The novelty of the developed system lies in the fact that it uses a dummy device as Coordinator which through simple but advanced programming can receive, process, and send data packets from all End-nodes to the cloud via a 4G cellular network. Furthermore, it is energy independent, using solar energy harvesting panels, making it feasible to operate in remote, isolated fields. A star topology was followed for the sake of simplification, low energy demands and increased network reliability. The developed system was tested and evaluated in laboratory and real field environment with satisfactory operation in terms of independence, and operational reliability concerning packet losses, communication range (>250 m covering fields up to 36 ha), energy autonomy, and uninterrupted operation. The network can support up to seven nodes in a 30 min data acquisition cycle. These results confirmed the potential of this system to serve as a viable option for monitoring environmental, soil, and crop parameters.


The slow advective-timescale dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans is referred to as balanced dynamics. An extensive body of theory for disturbances to basic flows exists for the quasi-geostrophic (QG) model of balanced dynamics, based on wave-activity invariants and nonlinear stability theorems associated with exact symmetry-based conservation laws. In attempting to extend this theory to the semi-geostrophic (SG) model of balanced dynamics, Kushner & Shepherd discovered lateral boundary contributions to the SG wave-activity invariants which are not present in the QG theory, and which affect the stability theorems. However, because of technical difficulties associated with the SG model, the analysis of Kushner & Shepherd was not fully nonlinear. This paper examines the issue of lateral boundary contributions to wave-activity invariants for balanced dynamics in the context of Salmon's nearly geostrophic model of rotating shallow-water flow. Salmon's model has certain similarities with the SG model, but also has important differences that allow the present analysis to be carried to finite amplitude. In the process, the way in which constraints produce boundary contributions to wave-activity invariants, and additional conditions in the associated stability theorems, is clarified. It is shown that Salmon's model possesses two kinds of stability theorems: an analogue of Ripa's small-amplitude stability theorem for shallow-water flow, and a finite-amplitude analogue of Kushner & Shepherd's SG stability theorem in which the 'subsonic' condition of Ripa's theorem is replaced by a condition that the flow be cyclonic along lateral boundaries. As with the SG theorem, this last condition has a simple physical interpretation involving the coastal Kelvin waves that exist in both models. Salmon's model has recently emerged as an important prototype for constrained Hamiltonian balanced models. The extent to which the present analysis applies to this general class of models is discussed.


Tropical reforestation (TR) has been highlighted as an important intervention for climate change mitigation because of its carbon storage potential. TR can also play other frequently overlooked, but significant, roles in helping society and ecosystems adapt to climate variability and change. For example, reforestation can ameliorate climate‐associated impacts of altered hydrological cycles in watersheds, protect coastal areas from increased storms, and provide habitat to reduce the probability of species' extinctions under a changing climate. Consequently, reforestation should be managed with both adaptation and mitigation objectives in mind, so as to maximize synergies among these diverse roles, and to avoid trade‐offs in which the achievement of one goal is detrimental to another. Management of increased forest cover must also incorporate measures for reducing the direct and indirect impacts of changing climate on reforestation itself. Here we advocate a focus on "climate‐smart reforestation," defined as reforesting for climate change mitigation and adaptation, while ensuring that the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on reforestation are anticipated and minimized.


The discovery of endocannabinoids, which act as retrograde messengers in the brain, changed the way we think about the flow of information across the synapse. Are the endogenous actions of endocannabinoids in the brain solely accounted for by activation of CB1 receptors? Although there are hints for the presence of another receptor type, there have been no reports of an alternative CB receptor in the brain. Using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), pharmacological, and behavioral evidence, Van Sickle et al. show that functional cannabinoid CB2 receptors, a receptor subtype traditionally considered to be expressed in immune tissues and circulating immune cells, are also present in brainstem neurons. This finding could lead to new therapies without the usual drawbacks of addiction and mind alteration traditionally associated with the consumption of cannabis derivatives. M. D. Van Sickle, M. Duncan, P. J. Kingsley, A. Mouihate, P. Urbani, K. Mackie, N. Stella, A. Makriyannis, D. Piomelli, J. S. Davison, L. J. Marnett, V. D. Marzo, Q. J. Pittman, K. D. Patel, K. A. Sharkey, Identification and functional characterization of brainstem cannabinoid CB2 receptors. Science 310, 329-332 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Objectives To determine the relative contribution of general practices (GPs) to the diagnosis of chlamydia and gonorrhoea in England and whether treatment complied with national guidelines. Design Analysis of longitudinal electronic health records in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and national sexually transmitted infection (STI) surveillance databases, England, 2000–2011. Setting GPs, and community and specialist STI services. Participants Patients diagnosed with chlamydia (n=1 386 169) and gonorrhoea (n=232 720) at CPRD GPs, and community and specialist STI Services from 2000–2011. Main outcome measures Numbers and rates of chlamydia and gonorrhoea diagnoses; percentages of patients diagnosed by GPs relative to other services; percentage of GP patients treated and antimicrobials used; percentage of GP patients referred. Results The diagnosis rate (95% CI) per 100 000 population of chlamydia in GP increased from 22.8 (22.4–23.2) in 2000 to 29.3 (28.8–29.7) in 2011 (p<0.001), while the proportion treated increased from 59.5% to 78.4% (p=0.001). Over 90% were prescribed a recommended antimicrobial. Over the same period, the diagnosis rate (95% CI) per 100 000 population of gonorrhoea in GP ranged between 3.2 (3–3.3) and 2.4 (2.2–2.5; p=0.607), and the proportion treated ranged between 32.7% and 53.6% (p=0.262). Despite being discontinued as a recommended therapy for gonorrhoea in 2005, ciprofloxacin accounted for 42% of prescriptions in 2007 and 20% in 2011. Over the study period, GPs diagnosed between 9% and 16% of chlamydia cases and between 6% and 9% of gonorrhoea cases in England. Conclusions GP makes an important contribution to the diagnosis and treatment of bacterial STIs in England. While most patients diagnosed with chlamydia were managed appropriately, many of those treated for gonorrhoea received antimicrobials no longer recommended for use. Given the global threat of antimicrobial resistance, GPs should remain abreast of national treatment guidelines and alert to treatment failure in their patients.


This book breaks new theoretical and methodological ground in the study of the African diaspora in the Atlantic world. Leading scholars of archaeology, linguistics, and socio-cultural anthropology draw upon extensive field experiences and archival investigations of black communities in North America, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa to challenge received paradigms in Afro-American anthropology. They employ dialogic approaches that demand both an awareness of the historical fashioning of anthropology's categories and self-reflexive, critical research and define a new agenda for the field. Paying close attention to power, politics, and the dynamism of never-finished, open-ended behavioral forms and symbolic repertoires, the contributors address colonialism, the slave trade, racism, ethnogenesis, New World nationalism, urban identity politics, the development of artworlds, musics and their publics, the emergence of new religious and ritual forms, speech genres, and contested historical representations. The authors offer sophisticated interpretations of cultural change, exchange, appropriation, and re-appropriation that challenge simplistic notions of culture.


As more speech processing applications execute locally on edge devices, a set of resource constraints must be considered. In this work we address one of these constraints, namely over-the-network data budgets for transferring models from server to device. We present neural update approaches for release of subsequent speech model generations abiding by a data budget. We detail two architecture-agnostic methods which learn compact representations for transmission to devices. We experimentally validate our techniques with results on two tasks (automatic speech recognition and spoken language understanding) on open source data sets by demonstrating when applied in succession, our budgeted updates outperform comparable model compression baselines by significant margins.


Under-assessment and inadequate treatment of pain is a common problem for older adults, particularly those with dementia. This may be in part attributed to knowledge deficits and negative attitudes among healthcare staff and informal caregivers towards pain, its assessment and its management in dementia. Knowledge and attitudes have a significant predictive relationship with behavior, potentially impacting pain assessment and management practices. Despite this there remains a paucity of research in the area and a lack of clarity about existing knowledge levels and attitudes among dementia caregivers. Therefore, the aims of this review were to: identify what knowledge deficits and attitudinal barriers exist amongst dementia caregivers; and identify the scales available to measure these. A search was carried out in the following electronic databases: Academic Search Premier; CINAHL; Education Research Complete; Humanities International Journals; Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection; PsychINFO; PsychArticles; Teacher Reference Center; and MEDLINE. A total of 13 articles met the inclusion criteria. A number of knowledge deficits and negative attitudes were identified, particularly in the use self-reports and pain assessment tools in dementia, and the safety of opioids. Understanding and positive attitudes were demonstrated in some areas, such as non-narcotic pain medications and identifying behavioral pain indicators. Of the 4 scales identified, positive results were found for internal consistency and content validity, however further refinement and testing is necessary. It was concluded attitudinal and knowledge barriers exist which should be addressed given their influence over practice behavior, however, there is a willingness and knowledge base from which progress can build.


Species that are either sessile or too slow to resort to flight may instead rely on defences such as natural armour or protective structures, but they will still face the same economic decisions as do more mobile species about when to re-emerge from cover. The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is a species of conservation significance due to its important role as an ecosystem engineer and habitat loss due to human activities. In this study, we examined escape responses of gopher tortoises approached by a human observer. Our data supported our prediction that the level of disturbance would influence escape responses, with animals that were picked and handled taking longer to emerge and move off than animals that had simply been approached or approached and walked around. We also found that tortoises took half as long to extend their heads at our study site, where tortoises exposed to a high level of benign human activity over a long period, compared with an adjacent site where there had been minimal human interaction with tortoises. These data suggest that gopher tortoises adjust their escape responses according to the level of risk they are exposed to. Over the long-term, this plasticity in escape responses can potentially result in some level of habituation to human presence.


Today, energy saving is one of the main objectives for engineers. In the case of mobile applications, energy can be saved by two different ways. First, decreasing the total masse of the system, and second, increasing the efficiency of the overall system. This paper presents two optimization strategies to design a predefined multichannel structure of a boost converter dedicated to a solar airplane and used to interface PV panels and the battery system. The first strategy is a multi-criterion method able to trace the dependency between the converter's efficiency and its power density through the intermediary of the Pareto front. The second method, a mono-criterion approach, maximizes efficiency while respecting the constraint imposed on power density. The mono-criterion method applied to maximizing the European efficiency criterion showed that an increase in the number of channels increased the quantity of energy collected over a day by increasing the power density of the converter. At the end of the paper, the optimal design calculated was build to give an example of the result obtained by this design methodology. The results of the efficiency measurements made on a realized prototype are presented in this paper.


In this paper, a novel approach based on acoustic cues for automatic segmenting television stream into individual programs is proposed. This presented method is composed of the following steps: Several sets of repetitions in the audio track is detected by using silence detection and robust audio hashing; The found repetitions are treated as advertisements if the range of their length is from 5 seconds to 120 seconds; Programs are segmented from the recorded TV streams using the detected advertisements. Experiments on real-world TV recordings show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


The three title reductant systems have significant advantages in generating aldehydes fromnitriles. These include: the utilization of convenient hydrogen sources, namely, sodium hypophosphite monohydrate and formic acid, respectively, and of the relatively inexpensive Raney nickel and Raney (Ni/Al) alloy; the convenience of conducting the reaction(s) in aqueous media at ambient temperatures and pressures, and avoiding the use of trapping agents (except when transforming glycosyl nitriles ( vide infra )) and of hydrogen cylinders. Numerous examples of the utilization of the title systems are presented (mostly from the more recent literature) that demonstrate the utility of the respective methods in transforming a solo cyano group, or when accompanied by other chemosensitive functions in a structure, to the corresponding aldehyde. Such substrates include benzonitriles, glycosyl nitriles, O-, N- and S-containing heterocyclic nitriles, aliphatic-aromatic situations, and more complex fused heterocyclic and carbocyclic scaffolds. The review reports modifications of the title methods and several notable steric effects. Keywords:  Advantages, modifications, steric effects, benzonitriles, glycosyl nitriles, O-, N- and S-containing heterocyclic nitriles, miscellaneous nitriles


A fundamental study on the damage evolution of composite materials being considered by US Navy made of T700 based carbon fiber fabric (12k tows and plane weave) and vinyl ester resin (Derakane 510A) using VARTM process is presented utilizing high-resolution X-ray computed tomography, 3-D Digital Image Correlation integrated with mechanical testing systems. Panels of approximately 1.5 m x 1.5 m are manufactured using VARTM and coupon samples are obtained from various orientations. The deformation behavior of matrix dominated samples having [±45]2S orientation with the fiber dominated samples of [0/90]2S typically show large changes in damage evolution with increased deformation. A time aged (dry) and saturated sample are then subjected to controlled rate of strain loading monotonically with several unload-reload loops to evaluate the accumulated plastic strain (damage) as a function of stress amplitude. Damage is quantified using surface strain variations along the gage length of a deforming sample using a high resolution three-dimensional digital imaging correlation system. The surface deformation data obtained from 3DDIC is then considered synergistically with the variation of microstructural features obtained from high-resolution X-ray micro-tomography. The experimental techniques developed for this study are then utilized to evaluate the effect of sea environment on the damage behavior of marine composites for tensile monotonic loading conditions and fatigue loading. The motivation of the current study is to identify failure modes applicable for naval carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites and for developing future material systems with a targeted microstructure that can minimize accumulation of damage from repeated loading, blast, and impact conditions under harsh naval environment. Additive manufacturing techniques can realize the prospect of printing carbon fiber reinforced composites with target microstructure.


According to current morphological descriptions, Latvian has one case and Finnish and Estonian have six cases that primarily serve to specifically express spatial relations. These forms caused difficulties for the first grammarians of these languages since there seemed to be no appropriate place for many of them in the framework of Latin grammar. The overall move towards the acknowledgement of critical forms in the case paradigm was slightly different in each country but, at the same time, two grammatical traditions out of three shared some traits. The sources of these similarities are the joint history of Estonia and Latvia and the linguistic kinship of Estonian and Finnish. This article seeks to describe the three traditions by first describing the background of the grammars. It will then provide an overview of the treatment of cases used to express spatial relations in each country.


The use of private cars with low occupancy is increasingly predominant in workers' transport to industrial estates in Valles Occidental County, within the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. This unsustainable trend is already on the political agenda. However, sound theoretical background and methodologies to assess sustainability in the field of transport to industrial estates are scarce. In order to gain insight that may increase the effectiveness of future policies for sustainability, this paper describes a practical example of the application of Multi-Criteria Analysis to the design of effective and adaptive policies. Based on the analysis of an inventory of policy documents and plans, several policy measures are assessed using NAIADE, in order to establish priorities. This evaluation method considers multiple valuation languages and provides solid arguments to design potentially successful policies for sustainable transport. Suggestions for further improvement of the methodology and of practical applications are made.


Answering conjunctive queries (CQs) over a set of facts extended with existential rules is a prominent problem in knowledge representation and databases. This problem can be solved using the chase algorithm, which extends the given set of facts with fresh facts in order to satisfy the rules. If the chase terminates, then CQs can be evaluated directly in the resulting set of facts. The chase, however, does not terminate necessarily, and checking whether the chase terminates on a given set of rules and facts is undecidable. Numerous acyclicity notions were proposed as sufficient conditions for chase termination. In this paper, we present two new acyclicity notions called model-faithful acyclicity (MFA) and model-summarising acyclicity (MSA). Furthermore, we investigate the landscape of the known acyclicity notions and establish a complete taxonomy of all notions known to us. Finally, we show that MFA and MSA generalise most of these notions.

Existential rules are closely related to the Horn fragments of the OWL 2 ontology language; furthermore, several prominent OWL 2 reasoners implement CQ answering by using the chase to materialise all relevant facts. In order to avoid termination problems, many of these systems handle only the OWL 2 RL profile of OWL 2; furthermore, some systems go beyond OWL 2 RL, but without any termination guarantees. In this paper we also investigate whether various acyclicity notions can provide a principled and practical solution to these problems. On the theoretical side, we show that query answering for acyclic ontologies is of lower complexity than for general ontologies. On the practical side, we show that many of the commonly used OWL 2 ontologies are MSA, and that the number of facts obtained by materialisation is not too large. Our results thus suggest that principled development of materialisation-based OWL 2 reasoners is practically feasible.


Fertilization of mammalian eggs is characterized by a series of Ca2+ oscillations triggered by a phospholipase C activity. These Ca2+ increases and the parallel generation of diacylglycerol (DAG) stimulate protein kinase C (PKC). However, the dynamics of PKC activity have not been directly measured in living eggs. Here, we have monitored the dynamics of PKC‐induced phosphorylation in mouse eggs, alongside Ca2+ oscillations, using fluorescent C‐kinase activity reporter (CKAR) probes. Ca2+ oscillations triggered either by sperm, phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ) or Sr2+ all caused repetitive increases in PKC‐induced phosphorylation, as detected by CKAR in the cytoplasm or plasma membrane. The CKAR responses lasted for several minutes in both the cytoplasm and plasma membrane then returned to baseline values before subsequent Ca2+ transients. High frequency oscillations caused by PLCζ led to an integration of PKC‐induced phosphorylation. The conventional PKC inhibitor, Gö6976, could inhibit CKAR increases in response to thapsigargin or ionomycin, but not the repetitive responses seen at fertilization. Repetitive increases in PKCδ activity were also detected during Ca2+ oscillations using an isoform‐specific δCKAR. However, PKCδ may already be mostly active in unfertilized eggs, since phorbol esters were effective at stimulating δCKAR only after fertilization, and the PKCδ‐specific inhibitor, rottlerin, decreased the CKAR signals in unfertilized eggs. These data show that PKC‐induced phosphorylation outlasts each Ca2+ increase in mouse eggs but that signal integration only occurs at a non‐physiological, high Ca2+ oscillation frequency. The results also suggest that Ca2+‐induced DAG formation on intracellular membranes may stimulate PKC activity oscillations at fertilization. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 110–119, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This research explores whether people who take a stand to give up flying because of climate change influence the attitudes and behaviour of others, and whether this could contribute to a shift away from unlimited flying as a social norm. A survey (n=380) distributed online and conducted face-to-face (n=32) found that around half of respondents who know someone who has given up flying because of climate change say they fly less because of this example. Furthermore, around three quarters say it has changed their attitudes towards flying and climate change in some way. The effects are increased if it is a high-profile person that is known to have given up flying, with around two thirds saying they fly less because of this person, and only 7% saying it has not affected their attitudes. Semi-structured interviews with people who have been influenced by such 'leaders' highlighted commitment and expertise as the leaders' most significant influential qualities, while interviews with leaders themselves revealed their strategies for bringing about social change. The results of the research suggest that there is an 'appetite for leadership' when it comes to tackling emissions from aviation. Leading by example by giving up flying appears to send a powerful and effective message that, in combination with structural changes in transport provision and different policy signals from government, could contribute to a shift away from unlimited flying as a social norm, as part of a collective effort to reduce carbon emissions.


In this contribution, we present the results of the application of a parameter space reduction methodology based on active subspaces to the hull hydrodynamic design problem. Several parametric deformations of an initial hull shape are considered to assess the influence of the shape parameters considered on the hull total drag. The hull resistance is typically computed by means of numerical simulations of the hydrodynamic flow past the ship. Given the high number of parameters involved - which might result in a high number of time consuming hydrodynamic simulations - assessing whether the parameters space can be reduced would lead to considerable computational cost reduction. Thus, the main idea of this work is to employ the active subspaces to identify possible lower dimensional structures in the parameter space, or to verify the parameter distribution in the position of the control points. To this end, a fully automated procedure has been implemented to produce several small shape perturbations of an original hull CAD geometry which are then used to carry out high-fidelity flow simulations and collect data for the active subspaces analysis. To achieve full automation of the open source pipeline described, both the free form deformation methodology employed for the hull perturbations and the solver based on unsteady potential flow theory, with fully nonlinear free surface treatment, are directly interfaced with CAD data structures and operate using IGES vendor-neutral file formats as input files. The computational cost of the fluid dynamic simulations is further reduced through the application of dynamic mode decomposition to reconstruct the steady state total drag value given only few initial snapshots of the simulation. The active subspaces analysis is here applied to the geometry of the DTMB-5415 naval combatant hull, which is a common benchmark in ship hydrodynamics simulations.


Recent changes in speed, thinning, and retreat rates of marine-terminating outlet glaciers have raised concerns about the future stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Establishing a longer term record of outlet glacier retreat rates is essential to provide a context for present-day observations and to improve and constrain numerical models of outlet glacier behavior. New exposure dating (10Be) of streamlined bedrock surfaces and glacial erratic boulders of Sermilik Fjord, southeast Greenland, the present-day drainage route of Helheim Glacier, documents rapid retreat (∼80 m a−1) of this major marine-terminating outlet glacier at the close of the last glaciation. The glacier front retreated ∼80 km to within 20 km of the present-day (2010) position of Helheim Glacier in <1 ka, ca. 10.8 ± 0.3 ka ago. Retreat followed rapidly rising air temperatures at the start of the Holocene, and at this temporal resolution there is no evidence that fjord geometry influenced glacier behavior. The significant response to climatic amelioration at the end of the last glacial suggests a high sensitivity to abrupt temperature increases, which has major implications for the future stability of present-day Greenlandic outlet glaciers in a warming climate.


The paper presents the general scheme and the relevant implementation of a Maximum Efficiency Point Tracking (MEPT) system for a Small Hydro Power (SHP) plant equipped with a variable-speed generator. This last consists of a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) and a power electronic converter that independently controls both the rotor speed and the generator power factor. The MEPT is designed to be used with a propeller turbine with adjustable runner blade angle and it is coupled with the headwater level regulator. Such a regulator imposes the water flow to the turbine. The conceived MEPT periodically tries to improve the production efficiency by solving a constrained optimization problem, subject to the feasibility operating constraint of the SHP unit and to the equality constraint which forces to meet the water flow value provided by the headwater regulator.


An interview transcript can be a rich source of geographical references whose potential are not always fully realised in their conventional analysis. Geo‐referencing techniques can be used to assign a spatial footprint to place names, adding value to these data and allowing the geographic information within them to be exploited when coupled with GIS technology. This paper discusses a method of analysing and visualising interview transcripts in order to understand the spatial extent of public policy practitioners' activities. Through aggregation and statistical mapping it is possible to gain insight into the importance of space across a range of public policy themes and to understand the relationship between practitioner‐defined policy themes and the formal administrative boundaries within which they typically work. The research demonstrates that spatial working practices rarely conform to formal administrative boundaries and that there are varying degrees of spatial focus between different policy themes within localities. It also reveals that spatial working practices can continue to be influenced by historic geographies and can be pulled in different directions, reflecting both the devolved nature of the sector and the particular geographical context of the setting. It concludes that mapping the interview transcript can add value and provide additional insights to more conventional analysis.


2014-155 2:30 PM (Carnegie III) Physical inactivity is a prominent concern for people of all ages across North America. In 2011, just 20.6% of American adults over the age of 18 met the Physical Activity Guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011). Of those participants who do attempt physical activity routines, there is often a lack of persistence (Dishman & Sallis, 1994; Wankel, 1985). Part of the role that fitness managers and sport researchers have in serving society is to explore the reasons which motivate or detract from participation in physical activity. CrossFit can be described as a relatively new physical training method that is based on a variety of high-intensity weight training, gymnastics, body weight movements, and cardiovascular exercise (Glassman, 2011). CrossFit sessions, known as WOD's (workout-of-the-day) encompass all types of physical fitness: endurance, stamina, strength, speed, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, and balance (Sibley, 2012). CrossFit sessions take place in gyms known as "boxes" since the locations are typically old warehouses converted to useable gym space. Athletes, former athletes, sedentary and ordinary gym-goers participate in CrossFit, as the workouts can be tailored to individual fitness levels. CrossFit affiliates have grown from seven to 3500 between 2005 and 2012, and operate in 61 different countries with nearly 50 new affiliates added each week. Two studies have examined the effects of CrossFit training on physical fitness (Pain, Uptgraft, & Wylie, 2010) while another study examined the application of CrossFit as a lesson plan for high school physical education (Jeffrey, 2012). To date, however, no study has examined the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction as it relates to adult CrossFit participation. Given the lack of empirical research on the psychological impact of the unique CrossFit environment, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively analyze CrossFit participants' reasons for pursuing the activity in relation to their basic needs satisfaction. Under self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), researchers have found that when the three basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) are satisfied, a person will be more internally motivated to pursue an endeavor (Alexandris, Kouthouris, & Girgolas, 2007; Patrick & Canevello, 2010). Research has also found that those who are more intrinsically motivated are more likely to persist at an activity. The theory also suggests that because these are basic needs, people will be intrinsically motivated to find situations and activities which satisfy these needs. Competence refers to how effective one feels in their environment, while autonomy refers to the choice surrounding the behavior as being derived by the self, and relatedness refers to a sense of belongingness with significant others (Deci & Ryan, 2006; Harter, 1981; Kipp & Amorose, 2008). Researchers can, therefore, pinpoint conditions and undertakings which are more likely to facilitate intrinsic motivation via basic need satisfaction (Vallerand & Losier, 1999). Getting qualitative feedback from participants can also help box owners to further emphasize the praised elements in order to further recruit and retain self-determined participants. Current CrossFit participants (N = 146) in the United States were asked to provide the personal reason(s) for which they participate in CrossFit. Most participants reported attending three sessions (46.9%, n = 69) and five sessions (38.1%, n = 56) per week during the previous month, while exerting a perceived rate of exertion (RPE) of 15-17 (57.7%, n = 82) on a 20 point scale, where 20 is the highest rate of exertion. Open-ended survey responses were coded by two researchers using a thematic, theoretically-driven deductive analysis (Creswell, 2009). Following the methodology provided by Farrell, Crocker, McDonough, and Sedgwick (2004), the researchers divided participants' answers into "meaning units" (i.e., single words, sentences, or paragraphs) based on the theme they were deemed to belong with and then sorted appropriately into one of three themes. Relatedness was the predominant theme which emerged from these participants. The theme had 49 meaning units attached, and included statements like "the workouts are tough, but the sense of community and friendships I've 2014 North American Society for Sport Management Conference (NASSM 2014) ! Pittsburgh, PA May 27 – 31, 2014 Page 410 built have kept me coming back for me" or "I love the camaraderie that comes from CrossFit." The Competence theme had 39 meaning units emerge which referred to things like being challenged, hitting "new records," and "proving to myself that I can do these exercises." These accounts align with Deci's (1975) definition that competence is the perception that our behavior and interaction with our environment is effective. While autonomy did not emerge from the data, the final theme Well-Being was reflected with 24 meaning units and was expressed with statements referring to overall health, fitness, shape and well-being. One participant said for example, "my personal reason for CrossFit participation is to have the best health I can have. I want to live pass 100 and live well the whole time." Given the relationship between basic need satisfaction and motivational outcomes, most notably persistence, findings from this study offer box owners and researchers plenty of specific elements which are satisfying the basic needs of CrossFit participants. The emphasis on community and relationships between members and coaches should continue to be a priority for box owners. Additionally, members appreciate the opportunity to push themselves and achieve results which help them to display competence which in turn relates with the final well-being theme. Given the sustained participation from this sample, at relatively high energy expenditures, box owners and other sport and exercise managers should take note of the qualities expressed through this study to promote and sustain adult participation in a viable physical activity routine, and ultimately help reduce physical inactivity.


Significance Increased mortality of honey bee colonies has been attributed to several factors but is not fully understood. The herbicide glyphosate is expected to be innocuous to animals, including bees, because it targets an enzyme only found in plants and microorganisms. However, bees rely on a specialized gut microbiota that benefits growth and provides defense against pathogens. Most bee gut bacteria contain the enzyme targeted by glyphosate, but vary in whether they possess susceptible versions and, correspondingly, in tolerance to glyphosate. Exposing bees to glyphosate alters the bee gut community and increases susceptibility to infection by opportunistic pathogens. Understanding how glyphosate impacts bee gut symbionts and bee health will help elucidate a possible role of this chemical in colony decline. Glyphosate, the primary herbicide used globally for weed control, targets the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) enzyme in the shikimate pathway found in plants and some microorganisms. Thus, glyphosate may affect bacterial symbionts of animals living near agricultural sites, including pollinators such as bees. The honey bee gut microbiota is dominated by eight bacterial species that promote weight gain and reduce pathogen susceptibility. The gene encoding EPSPS is present in almost all sequenced genomes of bee gut bacteria, indicating that they are potentially susceptible to glyphosate. We demonstrated that the relative and absolute abundances of dominant gut microbiota species are decreased in bees exposed to glyphosate at concentrations documented in the environment. Glyphosate exposure of young workers increased mortality of bees subsequently exposed to the opportunistic pathogen Serratia marcescens. Members of the bee gut microbiota varied in susceptibility to glyphosate, largely corresponding to whether they possessed an EPSPS of class I (sensitive to glyphosate) or class II (insensitive to glyphosate). This basis for differences in sensitivity was confirmed using in vitro experiments in which the EPSPS gene from bee gut bacteria was cloned into Escherichia coli. All strains of the core bee gut species, Snodgrassella alvi, encode a sensitive class I EPSPS, and reduction in S. alvi levels was a consistent experimental result. However, some S. alvi strains appear to possess an alternative mechanism of glyphosate resistance. Thus, exposure of bees to glyphosate can perturb their beneficial gut microbiota, potentially affecting bee health and their effectiveness as pollinators.


Many of the standard equilibrium statistical mechanics techniques do not readily apply to nonequilibrium phase transitions such as the fluid-todisordered solid transition found in repulsive particulate systems. Examples of repulsive particulate systems are sand grains and colloids. The first part of this thesis contributes to methods beyond equilibrium statistical mechanics to ultimately understand the nature of the fluid-to-disordered solid transition, or jamming, from a microscopic basis. In Chapter 2 we revisit the concept of minimal rigidity as applied to frictionless, repulsive soft sphere packings in two dimensions with the introduction of the jamming graph. Minimal rigidity is a purely combinatorial property encoded via Laman's theorem in two dimensions. It constrains the global, average coordination number of the graph, for instance. Minimal rigidity, however, does not address the geometry of local mechanical stability. The jamming graph contains both properties of global mechanical stability at the onset of jamming and local mechanical stability. We demonstrate how jamming graphs can be constructed using local rules via the Henneberg construction such that these graphs are of the constraint percolation type, where percolation is the study of connected structures in disordered networks. We then probe how jamming graphs destabilize, or become fluid-like, by deleting an edge/contact in the graph and computing the resulting rigid cluster distribution. We also uncover a new potentially diverging lengthscale associated with the random deletion of contacts. In Chapter 3 we study several constraint percolation models, such as k-core percolation and counter-balance percolation, on hyperbolic lattices to better understand the role of loops in such models. The constraints in these percolation models incorporate aspects of local mechanical rigidity found in jammed systems. The expectation is that since these models are indeed easier to analyze than the more complicated problem of jamming, we will gain insight into which constraints affect the nature of the jamming transition and which do not. We find that k = 3-core percolation on the hyperbolic lattice remains a continuous phase transition despite the fact that the loop structure of hyperbolic lattices is different from Euclidean lattices. We also contribute towards numerical techniques for analyzing percolation on hyperbolic lattices. In Chapters 4 and 5 we turn to living matter, which is also nonequilibrium in a very local way in that each constituent has its own internal energy supply. In Chapter 4 we study the fluidity of a cell moving through a confluent tissue, i.e. a group of cells with no gaps between them, via T1 transitions. A T1 transition allows for an edge swap so that a cell can come into contact with new neighbors. Cell migration is then generated by a sequence of such swaps. In a simple four cell system we compute the energy barriers associated with this transition. We then find that the energy barriers in a larger system are rather similar to the four cell case. The many cell case, however, more easily allows for the collection of statistics of these energy barriers given the disordered packings of cell observed in experiments. We find that the energy barriers are exponentially distributed. Such a finding implies that glassy dynamics is possible in a confluent tissue. Finally, in chapter 5 we turn to single cell migration in the extracellular matrix, another native environment of a cell. Experiments suggest that the migration of some cells in the three-dimensional extra cellular matrix bears strong resemblance to one-dimensional cell migration. Motivated by this observation, we construct and study a minimal one-dimensional model cell made of two beads and an active spring moving along a rigid track. The active spring models the stress fibers with their myosin-driven contractility and alpha-actinin-driven extendability, while the friction coefficients of the two beads describe the catch/slip bond behavior of the integrins in focal adhesions. Net motion arises from an interplay between active contractility (and passive extendability) of the stress fibers and an asymmetry between the front and back of the cell due to catch bond behavior of integrins at the front of the cell and slip bond behavior of integrins at the back. We obtain reasonable cell speeds with independently estimated parameters. Our model highlights the role of alpha-actinin in three-dimensional cell motility and does not require Arp2/3 actin filament nucleation for net motion. Rigidity and Fluidity in Living and Nonliving Matter by Jorge H. Lopez B.S. Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia 2003 M.S. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2007


The processes of globalisation, liberalisation and monetary integration set the conditions for considerably improving the strength and competitiveness of the Lithuanian and European economy. Development of new technologies, introduction of Euro increases competition in the financial services sector and intensifies creation of effective single financial market. The purpose of this study is to analyse the rules of competition in banking sector in Lithuania and European Union. Intensive liberalisation processes in banking sector and remaining competition problems there are discussed in this paper. The attention is paid to the extend of applicability of general competition rules and the institutional framework for creation and implementation of those rules as well as the role of central bank in implementation of competition rules in banking sector. Effectively functioning supervision and control institution, which enforces competition law in banking sector, is a key issue in many countries. It is summarised in this paper the practise of foreign countries in this field, which let us to draw the conclusion that most of countries seek close co–operation between national competition authority and Central bank while implementing competition rules in banking sector and relinquish from the sectoral competition law supervision model and from duplication of functions of competition authority and Central bank. According to that, Lithuanian model of supervision and control of competition rules in banking sector and the possibilities of improvement of it are discussed in this paper.


Renal tuberculosis is relatively uncommon in children. Imaging of renal tuberculosis in children differs from adults in that intravenous urography is rarely performed for urinary symptoms in childhood because of radiation dose considerations. Modern imaging modalities include cross-sectional techniques such as ultrasound, CT and MRI, which successfully show renal, calyceal, ureteric and bladder pathology of renal tuberculosis in children.


CONTEXT
Bile acids and fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) have been suggested as key mediators of the improvements in glucose metabolism after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB).

OBJECTIVE
To describe fasting and postprandial state total bile acid (TBA) and FGF19 concentrations before and after RYGB and relate them to parameters of glucose metabolism, glucagon-like peptide-1, cholecystokinin, and cholesterol fractions.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A prospective descriptive study was performed at the Department of Endocrinology, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.

PATIENTS
Thirteen type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients and 12 normal glucose tolerant (NGT) subjects participated in the study.

INTERVENTION
A 4-hour liquid meal test was performed before and 1 week, 3 months, and 1 year after RYGB.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
We measured fasting and postprandial TBA and FGF19 concentrations.

RESULTS
Fasting TBA concentrations decreased in NGT subjects (P < .001) and were unchanged in T2D patients 1 week after surgery, but then increased gradually in both groups with time from surgery (ANOVA Ptime < .001). Area under the curve (AUC) TBA was decreased in NGT subjects 1 week after RYGB (before surgery, 567 mmol * min/L [interquartile range, 481-826]; 1 wk, 419 [381-508]; P = .009) and was unchanged in T2D patients (894 [573-1002]; 695 [349-1147]; P = .97) but then increased with time from surgery in both groups (Ptime < .001). Fasting FGF19 concentrations were unchanged acutely after RYGB (NGT, 140 pg/mL [100-162], 134 [119-204], P = .42; T2D, 162 [130-196], 154 [104-164], P = .68) and remained unchanged throughout the follow-up period. AUC FGF19 increased gradually with time after surgery (Ptime < .001), resembling the changes seen with AUC TBA. One week after RYGB, glucose metabolism improved, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol decreased, and cholecystokinin and glucagon-like peptide-1 secretion increased, whereas FFA concentrations were unchanged.

CONCLUSION
TBA and FGF19 do not explain acute changes in glucose metabolism, cholesterol fractions, and gut hormone secretion after RYGB.


Modeling temporal sequences plays a fundamental role in various modern applications and has drawn more and more attentions in the machine learning community. Among those efforts on improving the capability to represent temporal data, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) has achieved great success in many areas. Although the LSTM can capture long-range dependency in the time domain, it does not explicitly model the pattern occurrences in the frequency domain that plays an important role in tracking and predicting data points over various time cycles. We propose the State-Frequency Memory (SFM), a novel recurrent architecture that allows to separate dynamic patterns across different frequency components and their impacts on modeling the temporal contexts of input sequences. By jointly decomposing memorized dynamics into state-frequency components, the SFM is able to offer a fine-grained analysis of temporal sequences by capturing the dependency of uncovered patterns in both time and frequency domains. Evaluations on several temporal modeling tasks demonstrate the SFM can yield competitive performances, in particular as compared with the state-of-the-art LSTM models.


In his article, "Literary Careers: Breaks and Stalls," W. Ray Crozier argues that biographical evidence points to considerable individual variation in writers' output over the life span even when allowance is made for longevity and length of writing career. This issue has been neglected by psychological accounts of creativity. Crozier outlines a theoretical framework for understanding variation in terms of an "artistic career." This is conceptualised as a sequence of projects, the success of which are influenced by intra-project factors such as the rewardingness and difficulties of literary projects and extra-project factors such as work pressures, poverty, and competing demands on time. This account is compared to an explanation proposed by Dean Keith Simonton, which emphasises the reduction over time in the potential to produce new work. The framework is applied to the analysis of biographical material on six writers of fiction who were all critically acclaimed writers who lived until at least their eightieth year but who were among the least productive in a large sample of twentieth-century British novelists. W. Ray Crozier, "Literary Careers: Breaks and Stalls" page 2 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 3.3 (2001):


The flea beetle, Aphthona nigriscutis Foudras, is a potentially useful agent for biological control of leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.) in grasslands devoted to wildlife conservation. However, effects of other grassland management practices on the persistence and dynamics of flea beetle populations are not well understood. We conducted small plot tests to evaluate 1) the effect of prerelease burning on establishment of A. nigriscutis colonies, and 2) the ability of established A. nigriscutis colonies to survive prescribed fire. More colonies established on plots that were burned prior to beetle release (83% establishment) than on unburned plots (37% establishment), possibly due to litter reduction and baring of the soil surface. However, most colonies established with the aid of fire did not survive past the first generation unless the habitat was otherwise suitable for the species, and we conclude that the primary benefit of prerelease burning is increased recruitment of A. nigriscutis during the first few generations. Established colonies were not harmed by burns in October and May. Both spring and fall burns resulted in an increase in leafy spurge stem density during the first growing season, but stem density declined to the preburn level by the second growing season.