Judge Milton I. Shadur was a disrupter of frivolous defenses. In 2018, Judge Shadur died at the age of 93 after 37 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Sua sponte, Judge Shadur reviewed civil answers, and disrupted the pleading of frivolous defenses. Sua Sponte Shadur—as some lawyers called him—rejected answers that departed from or ignored Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In 2001, Judge Shadur issued an Appendix to an order in State Farm v. Riley, 199 F.R.D. 276 (N.D. Ill. 2001) with his expectations regarding how defense lawyers were to answer according to Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. As the Appendix makes clear, Judge Shadur disallowed pleaders to dodge Rule 8 by 1) claiming that an allegation called for a legal conclusion, 2) claiming that documents speak for themselves; and 3) demanding strict proof. Judge Shadur also expected that affirmative defenses (Or ADs, as he called them) would be true affirmative defenses and that defense attorneys would support affirmative defenses with foundational or predicate facts.

The Appendix, now 20 years old, is living a rich life. Judges have cited Judge Shadur's order and appendix 233 times. Litigants have cited the case 452 times in trial-court motions and filings as well as 14 times in appellate matters. Westlaw reports 52 citations in secondary sources and another 13 in a directory West calls "Practical Law."

After presenting a mini-biography of Judge Shadur, the backstory of State Farm v. Riley, and a gloss on the Appendix, this article tracks Appendix use by federal judges throughout the United States. Specifically, the article focuses on legal conclusions, speaking documents, and affirmative defenses. The article organizes the cases by federal circuit. The organization should be interesting to academics and useful to attorneys preparing F.R.C.P. 12 motions to strike affirmative defenses, motions to deem allegations admitted, or motions for more definite statement.

The article first covers the citation of the Appendix first by Judge Shadur himself, next by Northern District of Illinois colleagues, then within the broader Seventh Circuit, and finally outside his Circuit. Last are the few citations in state courts finishing, though, with the epitome of Shadur's Appendix, which was a rule change by the Arizona Supreme Court in 2018, the year of Shadur's death. Arizona's Rule 8 now aligns with Shadur's Appendix.

This article meshes with the empirical analysis of my related article Frivolous Defenses. In that piece, I examine car-crash answers and complaints in the state courts of Colorado, where I live, teach, and have practiced law. For 298 lawsuits, I retrieved and read the complaints and corresponding 356 answers, which number more than 298 because a number of suits had multiple defendants. Frivolous Defenses examines the departures from Colorado's Rule 8 using, among other things, Judge Shadur's Appendix and analysis.

I welcome comment and suggestions by professors, attorneys, and judges concerning either of these articles.


We present an example of how vision systems can be modeled and designed by integrating a top-down computationally- based approach with a bottom-up biologi cally-motivated architecture. The specific visual processing task we address is occlusion-based object segmentation — the discrimination of objects using cues derived from object interposition. We construct a model of object segmentation using hybrid neural networks—distributed parallel systems consisting of neural units modeled at different levels af abstraction. We show that such networks are particularly useful for systems which can be modeled using the combined top-down/bottom-up approach. Our hybrid model is capable of discriminat ing objects and stratifying them in relative depth. In addition, our system can account for several classes of human perceptual phenomena, such as illusory contours. We conclude that hybrid systems serve as a powerful paradigm for understanding the information processing strategies of biological vision and for constructing artificial vision-based applications.


The refractive index and extinction coefficient of purple K3Sb film prepared on a quartz substrate were determined from the transmittance data in the photon-energy region 0.5–6.2 eV through the Kramers–Kronig (KK) dispersion analysis. The interference effect due to the internal reflection of the light in the substrate was eliminated by taking the average value over the substrate thickness. The refractive index in the low-photon-energy region is nearly equal to 2.0, e.g., 1.97 at 0.5 eV and 2.17 at 0.9 eV. The static refractive index evaluated from the KK integral of the imaginary part of complex dielectric constant up to 10 eV is 1.98. The spectrum of the refractive index shows some structures corresponding to the structure in the transmission spectrum; the peak at 1.05 eV corresponds to the start of the fundamental absorption, the sharp decrease from the shoulder at 2.1 eV to the minimum at 2.75 eV corresponds to the first strong absorption band, and the well-defined peak at 3.35 eV corresponds to the sharp increase of the absorption. Calculated reflectivity using the refractive index and extinction coefficient obtained from the KK dispersion analysis explains quite well the features of the measured reflectivity in the 2.7–5.8-eV range.


The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), with Docket No. PHMSA-2011-0023, substantially revises 49 CFR Part 191 and 192. Notable among these changes was the addition of §192.607, verification of pipeline material. This section calls for the verification of material properties of pipe and fittings located in either high consequence areas, class 3, or class 4 locations where traceable, verifiable, and complete records do not exist. Material properties include grade (yield strength, YS, and ultimate tensile strength, UTS) and chemical composition. The proposed regulations include an independent third-party validation for non-destructive testing (NDT) methods to determine material strength and require an accuracy of within ±10% of an actual strength value.
 Among the NDT technologies currently available to pipeline operators to estimate material strength is instrumented indentation testing (IIT). IIT is based on the principal that there exists a relationship between the indentation response of a material and its stress-strain curve. The indentation response is measured during the IIT process whereby an indenter is sequentially forced into the material during testing. The link between the indentation response and the material stress-strain curve is established often through the use of iterative Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The IIT vendor's proprietary software performs this calculation, converting force-displacement measurements into an estimate of YS and UTS.
 In this study we extracted force-displacement data from IIT performed using FEA on an idealized steel. This data was then coupled with literature algorithms developed at Seoul National University (Kwon et al.). Parametric sensitivity analysis was then performed on estimated YS with respect to the algorithm parameters. Preliminary results indicate that while variations in the indenter constant, ω, used to estimate surface deformation do not significantly alter the predicted UTS or YS, the sensitivity to deviations in the empirical constant, Ψ, relating normal load to representative stress was more pronounced due to an effect on the calculated power-law constant, K.
 PHMSA's NPRM accuracy requirements for NDT to establish yield and tensile strength should be driven by a rigorous understanding of material inhomogeneities, uncertainties in actual tensile strength determination, experimental uncertainty, and modeling uncertainties. The analysis performed in this paper provides part of this rigorous framework to establish realistic accuracy requirements for NDT that must drive federal rulemaking. In addition, this research highlights the need for pipeline operators to establish controls on the algorithms adopted by commercial NDT vendors.


The high altitude mountain ecosystems are very breakable and susceptible to any kind of changes introduced by human being. The critical balance of such ecosystem has largely been offset by the land use/land cover changes for development purposes. The natural processes are accelerated out of proportion by strong anthropogenic modifications of landscape through clearance of forest for agriculture, settlement, pasturing, mining and quarrying, water resource capturing, road construction etc. to invite hazardous events which have dramatic impact on human property and lives(Das, Chatterjee and Roy,2011). Thus humans have been instrumental for significant increase in the frequency and magnitude of these hazardous events. An evaluation of civilized intervention on the natural landscape is needed for the mountainous sustainability of an urban landscape, particularly in those urban areas where large volume of population throng together for livelihood. The Kurseong Town occupies the east facing cliff like slope of Senchal-Mahaldiram ridge of the Darjeeling Himalayas that rises steeply from Rinchengtong Khola River Valley (a tributary of the Balason River) from an altitude of 800m, in the east, to an altitude of 2200m to the west. The present study enlightens the echelon of human impacts in causing physical hazards like landslide, soil erosion and social hazards like water scarcity, building congestion, traffic congestion, road accident etc. This study is based on household survey and Global Positioning System aided survey. Dumpy level survey has been carried out for drawing topographic profiles. Satellite images (Wikimapia and LISS-III) have been used to detect the changes in land use pattern. Finally, GIS is used for data analyses and preparation of maps.


The cognitive interference channel is a two-user interference channel in which one transmitter is non-causally provided with the message of the other transmitter. This channel model has been extensively studied in the past years and capacity results have been proved for certain classes of channels. This paper presents new inner and outer bounds for the capacity region of the cognitive interference channel, as well as new capacity results. Previously proposed outer bounds are expressed in terms of auxiliary random variables for which no cardinality constraint of their alphabet is known. Consequently, it is not possible to evaluate such outer bounds explicitly for a given channel. The outer bound derived in this work is based on an idea originally devised by Sato for channels without receiver cooperation and results in an outer bound that does not contain auxiliary random variables, thus allowing it to be more easily evaluated. The inner bound presented in this work-which includes rate splitting, superposition coding, a broadcast channel-like binning scheme and Gel'fand Pinsker coding-is the largest known to date and is explicitly shown to include all previously proposed achievable rate regions. The novel inner and outer bounds are shown to coincide in certain cases. In particular, capacity is proved for a class of channels in the so-called "better cognitive decoding" regime, which includes the regimes in which capacity was known. Finally, the capacity region of the semi-deterministic cognitive interference channel, in which the signal at the cognitive receiver is an arbitrary deterministic function of the channel inputs, is established.


Self-regulation refers to the ability to control one's emotions, behaviors, and cognitions. Selfregulation includes both emotional regulation skills (the ability to moderate emotions through cognitive and behavioral strategies) and executive function skills (which include working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility). These components of self-regulation work together and have been shown to predict school readiness and academic performance. Previous research indicates that children who have difficulty regulating their emotions and behaviors have lower academic achievement and have been found to receive less instruction and to be less engaged in learning. Additionally, certain groups of children who display behavioral problems are more susceptible to being excluded from preschool. As a result early intervention that can target the promotion of self-regulation skills is important. In recognition of the importance that behavioral self-regulation and social-emotional development plays in improving outcomes for young children, the Office of Child Care recently released a Policy Memorandum to all State, Territorial and Tribal Lead Agencies administrating child care programs under the Child Care and Development Block Grant, highlighting state policies to promote the social-emotional and behavioral health of young children in child care settings.


Software architecture is considered as a set of architectural design decisions. The recent trends, both in research and industry, call for improved tool support for software architects and developers to manage architectural design decisions and its associated concepts. As part of our ongoing work, we propose a framework for managing architectural design decisions in large software-intensive projects. Each component within this framework addresses specific use cases including (a) extraction and classification of design decisions from issue management systems, (b) annotation of architectural elements, (c) recommendation of alternative decision options, (d) reasoning about decisions' rationale, and (e) recommendation of experts for addressing design decisions. These components are planned to be iteratively realized and evaluated using the design science research approach. We believe that the realization of such a framework will allow an architectural knowledge management system to integrate with the design, development, and maintenance phases to support stakeholders not only to document design decisions but also to learn from decisions made in the past projects.


Recent research has achieved impressive results in single-turn dialogue modelling. In the multi-turn setting, however, current models are still far from satisfactory. One major challenge is the frequently occurred coreference and information omission in our daily conversation, making it hard for machines to understand the real intention. In this paper, we propose rewriting the human utterance as a pre-process to help multi-turn dialgoue modelling. Each utterance is first rewritten to recover all coreferred and omitted information. The next processing steps are then performed based on the rewritten utterance. To properly train the utterance rewriter, we collect a new dataset with human annotations and introduce a Transformer-based utterance rewriting architecture using the pointer network. We show the proposed architecture achieves remarkably good performance on the utterance rewriting task. The trained utterance rewriter can be easily integrated into online chatbots and brings general improvement over different domains.


Finding an appropriate image representation is a crucial problem in robotics. This problem has been classically addressed by means of computer vision techniques, where local and global features are used. The selection or/and combination of different features is carried out by taking into account repeatability and distinctiveness, but also the specific problem to solve. In this article, we propose the generation of image descriptors from general purpose semantic annotations. This approach has been evaluated as source of information for a scene classifier, and specifically using Clarifai as the semantic annotation tool. The experimentation has been carried out using the ViDRILO toolbox as benchmark, which includes a comparison of state-of-the-art global features and tools to make comparisons among them. According to the experimental results, the proposed descriptor performs similarly to well-known domain-specific image descriptors based on global features in a scene classification task. Moreover, the proposed descriptor is based on generalist annotations without any type of problem-oriented parameter tuning.


Abstract Adjoint Monte Carlo methods for coupled transport are developed. The phase-space is extended by the introduction of an additional discrete coordinate (particle type of so-called generalized particle). The generalized particle concept allows the treatment of the transport of mixed radiation as a process with only one particle outgoing from a collision regardless of the physical picture of the interaction. In addition to the forward equation for the generalized particle, the adjoint equation is also derived. The proposed concept is applied to the adjoint equation of the coupled gamma-ray–electron–positron transport. Charged particle transport is considered in continuous slowing down approximation and Molière's theory of multiple scattering, for which special adjoint sampling methods are suggested. A new approach to simulation of fixed-energy secondary radiation is implemented into the generalized particle concept. This approach performs fixed-energy secondary radiation simulation as the local energy estimator through the intermediate state with fixed energy. A comparison of forward and adjoint calculations for energy absorption shows the same results for radionuclide energies with and without electron equilibrium. Adjoint methods show greater efficiency in thin slabs.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of rofecoxib on bone repair process in tibiae of rats by means of analysis of gray levels acquired by digital optical density. Ten Wistar rats were assigned to two groups: an untreated control group and a group treated with rofecoxib. The experimental procedures comprised the following stages: general anesthesia, preparation of unicortical bone defect on the left tibiae of each rat, medication with rofecoxib and radiographic examination. Digital radiographic images were taken using Visualix GX-S-HDITM digital sensor, an X-ray equipment. Radiographics were taken at baseline, 7, 14, 21 and 30 days postoperatively and the gray levels were evaluated using the Vix winTM 1.4 system of the region of interest (ROI). The mean values of ROI readings were analyzed statistically by repeated measures ANOVA with significance level of 5%. There were no statistically significant differences among gray levels between rofecoxib and control groups (p=0.2429), but there were statistically significant differences between times baseline, 7, 14, 21 and 30 in both groups (p=0001). The findings of this study suggest that no influence was found when rofecoxib was used in bone tibiae repair after 30 days post-treatment.


The Volcker Rule is part of the post-financial-crisis regulatory reforms that partly aim at addressing problems associated with proprietary trading by banking entities and the risks associated with the interconnectedness of private funds (e.g., hedge funds and private equity funds) with Large Complex Financial Institutions (LCFIs). This mission is pursued by introducing provisions that prohibit proprietary trading and banking entities' investment in and sponsorship of private funds. These prohibitions have three specific objectives: addressing problems arising from the interconnectedness of private funds with LCFIs; preventing cross-subsidization of private funds by depository institutions having access to government explicit and implicit guarantees; and regulation of conflicts of interest in the relationship between banks, their customers, and private funds. Having studied the provisions of the Volcker Rule in light of its objectives, this article highlights the potential problems with the Rule and provides an early assessment as to how successful the Rule is in achieving its objectives.With respect to achieving these objectives, the Volcker Rule can only be partially successful for various reasons. The foremost reason is the numerous built-in exceptions (i.e., 'permitted activities') in the Rule included as a result of political compromises. Although the permitted activities under the Rule are backed by sound economic reasoning, there are serious practical problems with these exceptions. The main problem involves distinguishing prohibited activities from permitted activities. Such determinations require regulatory agencies to make subjective and case-by-case evaluations of activities. It is not known what the costs of such determinations would be in practice or how regulators would react if the costs of such determinations exceed their benefits.Regarding concerns about moral hazard, the Volcker Rule strikes a reasonable balance between preventing such an opportunistic behavior (i.e., taking advantage of government subsidies) while not stifling the investment by the banking industry in start-up private funds. However, with regard to mitigation of conflicts of interest, the Volcker Rule only marginally addresses such concerns. This limited regulatory intervention in mitigating conflicts of interest could be partially understood in light of the fact that market forces and private law have been successful in addressing conflict-of-interest concerns originating from the relationships between hedge funds and the banking industry.


Introduction Internet generate a revolution in the economic geography in the 21st century, modern neighborhoods are not connected with streams and roads but with wires and microwave. Nowadays, more than a quarter of the world's planet (1.8 billion people) uses the internet on a regular basis (Leamer and Storper, 2001). The virtual revolution is in full swing and it changes many aspects of our lives (Nicholas et al., 2011): ranging from email to electronic shopping, cyberspace has become an indispensible part of everyday life. The economy now is depended on uncodified messages transmission which requires understanding and trust that historically have come from face-to-face contact (Leamer and Storper, 2001). Numerous studies document various dimensions of the internet such as its growth, political, economic and social applications. While many of previous studies focus on the economically advanced parts of the world; few have studied in our less developed world (Warf, 2010) such as mainland China. This paper firstly reviews the causes of economic growth in 18th-20th century, followed by an analysis on economic growth due to the presence of internet in literature. In view of the popular communication channel in World Wide Web, relevant knowledge on how the presence of internet leads to economic growth available in the internet will be discussed. Causes of Economic Growth in 18th-20th Century The economic geography in the 18th century was affected by the costs of moving raw materials to production locations where the raw materials were combined with capital and labor to make final products. Home and small workshop production were the norm until the end of the 18th century. Cities and towns were marketplaces and transportation nodes (Leamer and Storper, 2001). In the 19th century, better private property rights system protected the intellectual innovation; industrial revolution took place in Europe fastened the pace of machinery invention. Mechanization in manufacturing gained importance, and it created pressures on centralize production in factories and cities. A deeper division of labor allowed capital to operate many more hours each day which led to an increase in production (Leamer and Storper, 2001, Li, 2011, Li, 2009). Because of improvements in transportation network, transportation costs keep falling (Leamer and Storper, 2001, Ioannides et al., 2008), for instance, steam engine, railways, the combustion engine and the use of containers for transportation. All these lowered the cost of shipping goods. While the automobile, railways and the airplane have performed a similar role for lowering the cost of moving people (Ioannides et al., 2008). In the 20th century, there was a tendency toward geographical fragmentation in the production chain. It was accompanied by the spatial agglomeration on parts of the chain, particularly the intellectual or immaterial activities such as marketing, accounting, legal and finance work. Intellectual activities have risen greatly as value added activities. Highly divisions of labor made it uneconomic for a single firm to employ all these specialists on full time basis. Businessmen outsourced many of these activities to specialized firms to produce intermediate intellectual inputs. As immaterial products could be transported virtually with limited cost, these intellectual activities were amenable to procurement at a distance: designed in New York, product made in China and advertised in Chicago. From this history we can conclude that economic progress over the past three centuries has come with an increasingly division of labor in the 19th Century and intellectual activities in the 20th century (Leamer and Storper, 2001). Furthermore, there were two innovations in the 20th century which had dramatically lowered the cost of communicating and transmitting information. The first one was the widespread adoption of telephony, fixed line first, followed by mobile. …


I am deeply honoured by the invitation to share with you some thoughts on a double occasion: AESOP's 30th anniversary, and the launching of its open-access e-journal. Both these occasions represent important milestones towards the future of the planning profession globally. To reveal why this is not an exaggeration, I will take the readers on a journey across time and continents, to encounter the story of the evolution of planning as a discipline and a profession. The journey will also expose challenges facing planning theory.


The goal of this paper is to identify key financial and accounting variables that can accurately classify Green IT leaders against Green IT followers. The detailed objectives are: (i) to build and compare single and meta classifiers to identify the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance; (ii) to select and interpret a final prediction model with a smaller set of financial performance indicators; and (iii) to validate propositions based on theories and literature review. Our experimental results demonstrate that several key variables representing the size, financial resources, operational efficiency, and risk-taking tendency of an organization can successfully identify Green IT leaders with approximately 90% of accuracy.


Multiproxy reconstructions of monthly and seasonal surface temperature fields for Europe back to 1500 show that the late 20th- and early 21st-century European climate is very likely (>95% confidence level) warmer than that of any time during the past 500 years. This agrees with findings for the entire Northern Hemisphere. European winter average temperatures during the period 1500 to 1900 were reduced by ∼0.5°C (0.25°C for annual mean temperatures) compared to the 20th century. Summer temperatures did not experience systematic century-scale cooling relative to present conditions. The coldest European winter was 1708/1709; 2003 was by far the hottest summer.


I most marketing experiments, managerial decisions are not based directly on the estimates of the parameters but rather on functions of these estimates. For example, many managerial decisions are driven by whether or not a feature is valued more than the price the consumer will be asked to pay. In other cases, some managerial decisions are weighed more heavily than others. The standard measures used to evaluate experimental designs (e.g., A-efficiency or D-efficiency) do not accommodate these phenomena. We propose alternative "managerial efficiency" criteria (M-errors) that are relatively easy to implement. We explore their properties, suggest practical algorithms to decrease errors, and provide illustrative examples. Realistic examples suggest improvements of as much as 30% in managerial efficiency. We close by considering approximations for nonlinear criteria and extensions to choice-based experiments.


The biocatalytic synthesis of monoacylglycerides (MAGs) was carried out by the direct esterification of fatty acids (i.e. capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic and oleic acids, respectively) with glycerol in different ionic liquids (ILs) based on cations with long alkyl side-chains (e.g. 1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [C16mim][NTf2], 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [C12mim][BF4], etc.). Although all ILs have been shown as suitable reaction media for Novozym 435-catalyzed esterification of glycerol with free fatty acids, a high selectivity of MAGs was only observed in the [C12mim][BF4] case (e.g. up to 100% selectivity and 100% yield for monolaurin). Furthermore, as these ILs are temperature switchable ionic liquid/solid phases that behave as sponge-like systems, a straightforward protocol for IL-free MAG recovery, based on iterative centrifugations at controlled temperature, has been developed.


As any well-taught law student knows, two things must generally be true in order for an American court to render a binding in personam judgment against a party who does not reside within the borders of the state in which the court is located:' (1) the party's conduct must fall within the terms of a statute of that state, universally known as a "long arm statute," conferring power upon that state's courts to hear cases of the kind described therein, and (2) the assertion of personal jurisdiction under the long arm statute must satisfy the "minimum contacts" test articulated by the United States Supreme Court in the case of International Shoe Co. v. Washington.


Widespread concern that voter identification laws suppress turnout among racial and ethnic minorities has made empirical evaluations of these laws crucial. But problems with administrative records and survey data impede such evaluations. We replicate and extend Hajnal, Lajevardi, and Nielson's 2017 article, which concludes that voter ID laws decrease turnout among minorities, using validated turnout data from five national surveys conducted between 2006 and 2014. We show that the results of their article are a product of data inaccuracies, the presented evidence does not support the stated conclusion, and alternative model specifications produce highly variable results. When errors are corrected, one can recover positive, negative, or null estimates of the effect of voter ID laws on turnout, precluding firm conclusions. We highlight more general problems with available data for research on election administration, and we identify more appropriate data sources for research on state voting laws' effects.


Urban planning is, in many countries, increasingly becoming intertwined with local climate ambitions, investments in urban attractiveness and "smart city" innovation measures. In the intersection between these trends, urban experimentation has developed as a process where actors are granted action space to test innovations in a collaborative setting. One arena for urban experimentation is urban testbeds. Testbeds are sites of urban development, in which experimentation constitutes an integral part of planning and developing the area. This article introduces the notion of testbed planning as a way to conceptualize planning processes in delimited sites where planning is combined with processes of urban experimentation. We define testbed planning as a multi-actor, collaborative planning process in a delimited area, with the ambition to generate and disseminate learning while simultaneously developing the site. The aim of this article is to explore processes of testbed planning with regard to the role of urban planners. Using an institutional logics perspective we conceptualize planners as navigating between a public sector—and an experimental logic. The public sector logic constitutes the formal structure of "traditional" urban planning, and the experimental logic a collaborative and testing governance structure. Using examples from three Nordic municipalities, this article explores planning roles in experiments with autonomous buses in testbeds. The analysis shows that planners negotiate these logics in three different ways, combining and merging them, separating and moving between them or acting within a conflictual process where the public sector logic dominates.


Although no non-European Union convention focusing on international electronic commercial contracts is currently in effect, such contracts are growing in number and importance and do not exist in a legal vacuum. The Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) has been interpreted by its Advisory Council to apply to such electronic contracts. International law, based on general principles of good faith and equity and on customary international law, is an existing and future source of international commercial electronic contract law. Customary international electronic commerce law is derived from the general practices of businesses contracting through electronic communications that are accepted as law, and from international treaties and model laws, and their interpretations, which have been accepted as authoritative descriptions of such practices. The United States will decide whether or not and how to ratify the Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (CUECIC) that was proposed by it to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and was drafted and approved by UNCITRAL. CUECIC advances further than existing law the legitimacy and functionality of international electronic commercial contracts. U.S. ratification decision makers should recognize this advancement, reinforce the freedom of contract norms promoted by CUECIC, and preserve the legitimacy of customary international law as a supplement to the limited contract formation rules of CUECIC.


One of the major problems with agricultural soils in the tropical region of the western Pacific islands is their low organic matter content, which results from rapid decomposition due to the hot and humid environment. Composted organic material is frequently applied on agricultural fields as an amendment to provide nutrients and also to increase the organic matter content and to improve the physical and chemical properties of soils. Our goal is to develop management strategies that can use available organic wastes on the farm for improving soil quality for better crop production while conserving resources and preserving environmental quality. The project described here is designed to improve soil fertility by addition of composted organic wastes and to assess the contribution of nitrogen and other essential nutrients to long-term soil fertility and crop productivity in the absence of synthetic fertilizers. In our pilot project, compost was produced from wood chips derived from grounded typhoon debris and animal manure, fish feed, and other organic wastes available at or in proximity of the farms. Mature compost was then applied to experimental plots of the eroded Cobbly soils of southern Guam at a rate of 0, 74, 148, or 296 metric tons per hectare. Maize planted on the plots showed great increases in both quality and yield, and the soil quality improved with each successive application of compost.


Abstract. Indonesia is one of the most seismically active regions in the world and mitigation of seismic hazard is important. It is reported that Ultra low frequency (ULF) geomagnetic anomalies are one of the most convincing phenomena preceding large earthquakes (EQs). In this paper we have analyzed geomagnetic data at Pelabuhan Ratu (PLR) (7.01° S, 106.56° E), Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia, from 1 September 2008 to 31 October 2010. There are twelve moderate–large EQs (M ≥ 5) within 160 km from the station during the analyzed period. The largest one is the M =7.5 EQ (depth = 57 km, epicentral distance = 135 km, 2 September 2009) based on EQ catalog of Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG). To investigate the ULF geomagnetic anomalous variations preceding all the EQs, spectral density ratio at the frequency range of 0.01 ± 0.003 Hz based on wavelet transform (WT) and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) have been carried out. The spectral density ratio results show the enhancements a few weeks before the largest EQ. The enhancement persists about one week and reaches a maximum on 16 August 2009. At the same time, the result of the DFA presents the decrease of α value. For other EQs, there are no clear increases of the spectral density ratio with simultaneous decrease of α value. When these phenomena occur, the value of Dst index shows that there are no peculiar global geomagnetic activities at the low latitude region. The above results are suggestive of the relation between the detected anomalies and the largest EQ.


Through the use of 28 in-depth interviews with victims, activists, and criminal justice staff, this research details the emotional, physical, and social impact of image based sexual abuse (IBSA) on women's everyday lives, and identifies some of the key policing and legislative issues which prevent women from achieving justice within the criminal justice system. In doing so, this study is the first and one of the largest pieces of research to examine IBSA through the use of in-depth interviews with victims in the UK. Therefore, it is able to significantly contribute to our understanding of victims' experiences. By taking a radical feminist and victimological approach, this research also highlights the gendered nature of IBSA, including the motivations behind perpetration, the normalisation of sexual violence against women in online environments, and the link between IBSA and domestic abuse. Importantly, by examining IBSA as part of a victimisation process rather than as an event, this research identifies IBSA as being interlinked with coercion, control, blackmail, harassment, and verbal and physical abuse. Thus, the research places IBSA on Kelly's (1988) continuum of violence. The research also identifies continued problematic responses within policing and legislation, demonstrating a failure of the state to account for gendered violence and the silencing of women's experiences. The findings raise fundamental concerns; they call for greater recognition of IBSA as a serious form of sexual violence against women, and for a radical overhaul of criminal justice responses in order to aid women in their pursuit of justice.


A newly identified and dated segment of the South Tibetan detachment in the Karnali klippe, western Nepal Himalaya, constrains initiation of mid-crustal tectonically driven exhumation to the early Oligocene. The folded top-to-the-northeast high-temperature (∼600 °C) shear zone separates amphibolite-facies rocks with a ca. 36–30 Ma prograde metamorphic history in the footwall from weakly to non-metamorphosed upper crustal rocks in the hanging wall. In situ dating of syn-kinematic–post-metamorphic peak monazite indicates that the base of the shear zone was active from ca. 30–29 to <24 Ma, and a post-deformation muscovite cooling age implies that ductile shearing had ceased by ca. 19 Ma. Deformation along the South Tibetan detachment in western Nepal was thus synchronous with thrust-sense shearing along the lower boundary of a zone of migmatitic rocks, compatible with tectonic models involving mid-crustal channelized flow during the Oligocene. Along with other published data from the Himalayan range, this suggests that the South Tibetan detachment actively exhumed the middle crust for almost 20 m.y.


Conflicting information about treatments is known to undermine compliance with the use of medications.1 The education of patients and caregivers that accompanies prescribing should therefore be as consistent as possible. Clients may conduct research on the internet into particular medicines and try to corroborate "what the doctor said". In the case of the use of clonidine in children, publicly available information is conflicting. The websites of two regulatory agencies, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, give conflicting information on using this α-2 adrenergic agonist. Doctors in Australia may refer patients to the TGA website for information on clonidine, but in doing so will only provide information on the use of clonidine for hypertension. However, paediatricians and child and adolescent psychiatrists may use clonidine (following guidance used in other countries) in children and adolescents for diverse beneficial effects in managing attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), outside its TGA-approved use.2


Calluna vulgaris is an important ornamental crop of the horticultural industry in Europe. In order to improve breeding of this species, especially of the most important trait of 'bud-flowering', the implementation of molecular techniques that allow rapid, reproducible and efficient screening of whole segregating populations e.g. for molecular marker and mapping approaches is a requirement. We therefore aimed to introduce the powerful tool of amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP ® ), a widely and successfully applied method, into our methodological assortment. As an essential prerequisite, the isolated DNA should be of adequate quality which is a common obstacle when dealing with woody species and their interfering secondary components/metabolites. The results of screening different and modified DNA isolation protocols are described. As the outcome of our evaluations of reaction conditions during the AFLP ® procedure, we circumstantiate a functional protocol ranging from DNA extraction to visualization of AFLP ® banding patterns for the woody crop C. vulgaris . This method is suitable for high throughput genetic applications and may even be transferable to other species. In addition, costs are reduced by reasonable reagents and multiplexing assays.


This paper deals with fault-tolerant controller design for linear time-invariant (LTI) systems with multiple actuators. Given some critical subsets of the actuators, it is assumed that every combination of actuators can fail as long as the set of the remaining actuators includes one of these subsets. Motivated by electric power systems and biological systems, the goal is to design a controller so that the closed-loop system satisfies two properties: (i) stability under all permissible sets of faults and (ii) better performance after clearing every subset of the existing faults in the system. It is shown that a state-feedback controller satisfying these properties exists if and only if a linear matrix inequality (LMI) problem is feasible. This LMI condition is then transformed into an optimal-control condition, which has a useful interpretation. The results are also generalized to output-feedback and decentralized control cases. The efficacy of this work is demonstrated by designing fault-tolerant speed governors for a power system. The results developed here can be extended to more general types of faults, where each fault can possibly affect all state-space matrices of the system.


This volume brings together essays by different generations of Italian thinkers which address, whether in affirmative, problematizing or genealogical registers, the entanglement of philosophical speculation and political proposition within recent Italian thought. Nihilism and biopolitics, two concepts that have played a very prominent role in theoretical discussions in Italy, serve as the thematic foci around which the collection orbits, as it seeks to define the historical and geographical particularity of these notions as well their continuing impact on an international debate. The volume also covers the debate around 'weak thought' (pensiero debole), the feminist thinking of sexual difference, the re-emergence of political anthropology and the question of communism. The contributors provide contrasting narratives of the development of post-war Italian thought and trace paths out of the theoretical and political impasses of the present—against what Negri, in the text from which the volume takes its name, calls 'the Italian desert'.


Introduction: Immunization is one of the most effective public health tools available to prevent death and disease. Serious adverse events following immunization (AEFI) are rare. However, coincidental sudden-infant-death-syndrome (SIDS) deaths do occur temporally associated with vaccination. In 2010, the Government of India (GoI) introduced a new standard operating procedure (SOP) to report AEFI. There have been stray newspaper reports of deaths soon after the administration of the pentavalent vaccine (PV) which was introduced by the GoI in December 2011. This study was conducted to examine if there is an epidemiological signal from the data collected passively under the new SOP. Materials and Methods: We used data provided by the GoI on the number children who received three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP), the number receiving PV and the number of deaths in the vaccinated within 72 h. Results: After PV was introduced in the states, 45 million infants received DTP vaccination and 25 million received PV. There were 217 deaths within 72 h after DTP was administered and 237 following PV. There were 4.8 deaths per million vaccinated with DTP (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.2–5.5) and 9.6 deaths (95% CI: 8.4–10.8) per million vaccinated with PV (odds ratio 1.98 (95% CI 1.65-2.38) There were 4.7 additional deaths (95% CI: 3.5–5.9), per million, vaccinated with PV instead of DTP (P < 0.0001). Discussion: Deaths following DTP vaccination would include the natural rate of deaths within that window period, plus deaths if any, caused by DTP. For purposes of this study, we assumed that all the deaths associated with DTP are coincidental SIDS deaths. Taking that as the base rate of SIDS, we look for any increase in the death rate after PV. This study demonstrated an increase in reports of sudden unexplained deaths within 72 h of administering PV compared to DTP vaccine. Whether improvements in AEFI surveillance system or other factors contributed to this increase cannot be ascertained from this study. Conclusion: These findings do not warrant deviation from current vaccination schedule, but the differential death rates between DTP and PV do call for further rigorous prospective population-based investigations.


Oxidative modification of a potassium channel in C. elegans mediates decreased chemotaxis in old worms. Our senses dull as we age; we don't see as well, hear as well, or smell or taste as well. Insights from aging in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans connect oxidative damage of potassium channels to this process. The potassium channel KVS-1 is present in the worm's nervous system and in the ASE neurons that mediate the chemotactic response to food substances. Cai and Sesti found that, in a reconstituted system, KVS-1's electrophysiological properties were altered by oxidation (application of chloramine T or hydrogen peroxide). Oxidation increased KVS-1 conductance, which would decrease the excitability of the neuron, a change that was due to Cys113, because a C113S mutant channel was resistant to oxidation-mediated changes in electrophysiological properties. By expressing either the wild-type KVS-1 channel or the C113S-KVS-1 channel in kvs-1-knockout worms, the authors showed that the loss of chemotactic response due to exposure to oxidants was much more pronounced in the worms expressing wild-type KVS-1 and that incubation with dithiothreitol (DTT) restored chemotaxis in these worms. In contrast, C113S-KVS-1–expressing worms showed a limited decrease in chemotaxis after exposure to oxidants and were largely unaffected by DTT. Electrophysiological analysis of the ASE neurons showed that the potassium currents were altered by application of oxidants in wild-type worms and worms reconstituted with the wild-type KVS-1 but not in those reconstituted with the C113S-KVS-1 channel. As the worms aged, more of the ASE neurons exhibited changes in their electrophysiological properties similar to those caused by exogenous application of oxidants. These changes were largely prevented by reconstitution with the C113S-KVS-1 channel or in worms overexpressing superoxide dismutase and catalase. Thus, accumulated oxidative damage of potassium channels contributes to reduced sensory perception associated with aging in worms. S.-Q. Cai, F. Sesti, Oxidation of a potassium channel causes progressive sensory function loss during aging. Nat. Neurosci. 12, 611–617 (2009). [PubMed]


For the past forty years shamanism has drawn increasing attention among the general public and academics. There is an enormous literature on shamanism, but no one has tried to understand why and how Western intellectual and popular culture became so fascinated with the topic. Behind fictional and non-fictional works on shamanism, Andrei A. Znamenski uncovers an exciting story that mirrors changing Western attitudes toward the primitive. The Beauty of the Primitive explores how shamanism, an obscure word introduced by the eighteenth-century German explorers of Siberia, entered Western humanities and social sciences, and has now become a powerful idiom used by nature and pagan communities to situate their spiritual quests and anti-modernity sentiments. The major characters of The Beauty of the Primitive are past and present Western scholars, writers, explorers, and spiritual seekers with a variety of views on shamanism. Moving from Enlightenment and Romantic writers and Russian exile ethnographers to the anthropology of Franz Boas to Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda, Znamenski details how the shamanism idiom was gradually transplanted from Siberia to the Native American scene and beyond. He also looks into the circumstances that prompted scholars and writers at first to marginalize shamanism as a mental disorder and then to recast it as high spiritual wisdom in the 1960s and the 1970s. Linking the growing interest in shamanism to the rise of anti-modernism in Western culture and intellectual life, Znamenski examines the role that anthropology, psychology, environmentalism, and Native Americana have played in the emergence of neo-shamanism. He discusses the sources that inspire Western neo-shamans and seeks to explain why lately many of these spiritual seekers have increasingly moved away from non-Western tradition to European folklore. A work of intellectual discovery, The Beauty of the Primitive shows how scholars, writers, and spiritual seekers shape their writings and experiences to suit contemporary cultural, ideological, and spiritual needs. With its interdisciplinary approach and engaging style, it promises to be the definitive account of this neglected strand of intellectual history.


We continue our study of the inverse scattering problem for diffuse light. In particular, we derive inversion formulas for this problem that are based on the functional singular-value decomposition of the linearized forward-scattering operator in the slab, cylindrical, and spherical geometries. Computer simulations are used to illustrate our results in model systems.


Climate change and environmental degradation are causing species extinction worldwide. Automatic wildlife sensing is an urgent requirement to track biodiversity losses on Earth. Recent improvements in machine learning can accelerate the development of large-scale monitoring systems that would help track conservation outcomes and target efforts. In this paper, we present one such system we developed. 'Tidzam' is a Deep Learning framework for wildlife detection, identification, and geolocalization, designed for the Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary, the site of the largest freshwater wetland restoration in Massachusetts.


A variety of tools can be used for the purposes of QRM, either alone or in combination. It is important to note that no single tool or combination of tools is applicable to every situation in which a QRM procedure is used. Examples of tools are listed in regulatory guidance; neither list is exhaustive. The important criterion for acceptability is that the tool or tools are used effectively to support the key attributes of a good risk assessment.


Recent advances in theoretical cognitive science can be fruitfully characterized as part of the ongoing attempt to come to grips with the very idea of homo sapiens—an entity at once biological and intelligent—and among the more striking developments has been the emergence of a philosophical anthropology that, contra Descartes and his thinking thing, instead puts doing at the center of human being. This shift to a more "enactive" understanding of human nature is owed proximally to the work of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, but also has clear precursors in such figures as William James and Hegel—and more specifically Marx and Marxist interpreters of Hegel such as Kojeve. Naturally, Darwin must be considered as central as any philosopher, and many of the recent developments also echo the Aristotelian sense that being-at-work is the primary way of being anything at all.


Animals use color vision for a number of tasks including food localization, object recognition, communication, and mate selection. For these and other specific behaviors involving the use of color cues, models that quantify color discriminability have been developed. These models take as input the photoreceptor spectral sensitivities of the animal and radiance spectra of the surfaces of interest. These spectra are usually acquired using spectroscopic instruments that collect point-by-point data and can easily yield signals contaminated with neighboring colors if not operated carefully. In this paper, I present an equation that relates the optical fiber diameter and numerical aperture to the measurement angle and distance needed to record uncontaminated spectra. I demonstrate its utility by testing the discriminability of two solid colors for the visual systems of a dichromatic ferret and a trichromatic frog in (1) a conspicuous scenario where the colors have little spectral overlap and (2) a perfect camouflage scenario where the spectra are identical. This equation is derived from geometrical optics and is applicable to spectroscopic measurements in all fields.


Lymph node staging in colorectal cancer (CRC) is established by histological examination. Molecular techniques, such as one-step nucleic acid amplification (OSNA), have been recommended by NICE1 for intraoperative sentinel node assessment in breast cancer. OSNA is a relatively novel and simple molecular technique that uses a reverse-transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) reaction to detect tumour specific (CK19) mRNA in lymph nodes. We aim to provide unbiased data on the diagnostic accuracy of OSNA in detecting CRC nodal metastases and feedback the practicalities of running such a service in an National Health Service (NHS) cellular pathology department.

Consent was sought from consecutive patients undergoing elective resection for any stage CRC over a 14-month period (November 2013–December 2014). Stented tumours and perforated cases were excluded.

Resected specimens were received fresh, inked according to standard guidelines and lymph nodes were dissected. Each harvested node was bisected—one half was fixed in 10% formalin for routine histology and the other was snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C for OSNA processing. The remaining specimen was fixed and subsequently dissected for standard histology. OSNA assaying was performed as per manufacturers' instructions. Lymph nodes weighing >0.05 g were analysed in a single assay and those <0.05 g were combined for processing. Nodes were homogenised in lysis buffer (Lynorhag; Sysmex) and …


This report provides an overview of the HiRES-1 airborne
geophysical survey of Central England. The BGS and World
Geoscience (UK) Ltd. carried out the survey jointly in 1998.
The three main survey data sets acquired were magnetic,
radiometric (gamma ray spectrometry) and Very Low
Frequency (VLF) electromagnetic. The main aim of the report
is to provide information on the acquisition, processing and
storage of the final data and map products produced by the
HiRES-1 project. Additional descriptions of ground truthing
activities, data licensing and dissemination are also provided.
A significant aspect of the project was the assessment of the
potential of, and issues raised by, modern, multi-parameter,
regional-scale airborne geophysical surveys in the UK
context. Some of the main issues outlined in the report are:
• The practical difficulties of conducting extensive low
level, fixed-wing geophysical surveying in the UK.
Issues discussed include CAA regulatory permissions,
flight height adjustments above conurbations and
surveying near areas with dense air traffic.
• The processing challenges introduced by cultural (nongeological)
influences on high resolution airborne
magnetic data sets in the UK.
• The significant amounts of detailed geological and
environmental information contained within the
radiometric data.
• The weak application potential provided by passive
(i.e. VLF) measurements, in contrast to active airborne
electromagnetic techniques.
The future prospects for regional-scale, airborne geophysical
surveys in the UK are considered. Such prospects are also
influenced by a further set of trial airborne data, obtained in
1999, but not described here.
Further detail of the HiRES-1 survey, productivity,
technical specifications and data pre-processing are contained
in the survey logistics report prepared by WGL: 'British
Geological Survey "Hi-Res Phase One" Airborne Geophysical
Survey (Survey Details, Technical Specifications &
Processing Summary)' (WGL 2000).


Publication of this thesis is supported by the Estonian University of Life Sciences and
by the Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology created under the auspices of
European Social Fund.


A brand-new edition of this popular field guide, Reptiles and Amphibians describes and illustrates every species found in Britain and Europe. This book contains descriptions of every species of salamander, newt, frog, tree frog, toad, tortoise, turtle, terrapin, gecko, agama, lizard, chameleon, slow worm, skink, amphisbaenian and snake found in mainland Europe. Every species and distinct subspecies is described in detail, with notes on its range, size, colour and markings, diagnostic characters, habitat, behaviour and, in the case of venomous snakes, the type and virulence of its poison. The final part of the book deals with the identification of the eggs and tadpoles of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. There are also introductions to each group of animals, with helpful keys to aid identification where necessary, an introduction to the biology of reptiles and amphibians and how best to study this fascinating part of our fauna. The book is also beautifully illustrated with 49 colour plates and distribution maps for each species.


In this report, two di erent methods to calculate reference evapotranspiration are applied and compared.
This has been done in response to inconsistencies among the daily variables in the WATCH
Forcing Data (WFD). One method is so-called radiation based (ET0rad), and is the well known
Penman-Monteith equation with, among others, incoming short wave radiation as a variable. The
radiation-based method used the variables Tair, Tmax and Tmin, Wind, SWdown, LWnet, Qair and
PSurf from the WFD. The other method is so-called temperature-based (ET0temp), the radiation
term is replaced by an approximation of the radiation based on minimum and maximum air temperature.
The temperature-based method only used the variables Tair,Tmax, Tmin and Wind from
the WFD. After calculating reference evapotranspiration ET0 with both methods, it is fed into a
conceptual hydrological model that combines a soil water balance and a simple lumped groundwater
model. The model generates a daily water balance, e.g. potential evapotranspiration (ETP ), actual
evapotranspiration(ETA), soil moisture storage, groundwater recharge and groundwater discharge.
Eventually, the simulated groundwater discharge is used to de ne periods of drought with a Variable
Threshold (VT) method. The VT in this study used Q80, implying that a period is designated as
drought as soon as the groundwater discharge is in the lowest 20% of all simulated discharges for that
particular month. Drought periods and characteristics, like length and de cit, are identi ed. The
model using the two di erent ET0 series, is applied to 1495 cells (land grids) that well represent the
 ve K oppen-Geiger major climates across the world. First, a comparison is made between the ET0rad and ET0temp. There are clearly di erences between
the two methods, and generally the radiation-based method leads to higher ET0 than the
temperature-based method. There are some exceptions within the di erent major climates, and also
the northern and the southern hemisphere behave di erently in this perspective. The di erences
between ETArad and ETAtemp are signi cantly smaller than for the reference evapotranspiration. In
general the radiation-based method still leads to higher ETA than the temperature-based method, but
the di erence is smaller and in many cases the di erence even decreases to zero (26% of the cells globally).
Finally, the di erent drought characteristics are compared. There are remarkable di erences in
drought characteristics, especially in de cit volume and intensity, but in general the di erences are
within ranges found in other literature that describes the impact of hydrological models or datasets
with di erent diurnal forces on hydrological drought. Climate D and E, the snow-a ected climates,
show the largest di erences.


We have studied the evolution of the T1 triplet excited state in an extensive series of phenylene ethynylene polymers and monomers with platinum atoms in the polymer backbone and in an analogous series of all-organic polymers with the platinum(II) tributylphosphonium complex replaced by phenylene. The inclusion of platinum increases spin–orbit coupling so T1 state emission (phosphorescence) is easier to detect. For both, the platinum-containing polymer series and for the all-organic polymers, we find the T1 state to be at a constant separation of 0.7±0.1 eV below the singlet S1 state. It is not possible to change this singlet–triplet splitting by altering the size or the charge-transfer character of the polymer repeat unit or by changing the electron delocalization along the polymer backbone. The S1–T1 gap can be increased by confining the S1 state in oligomers and monomers.


Manufacturing robotics is moving towards human-robot collaboration with light duty robots being used side by side with workers. Similarly, exoskeletons that are both passive (spring and counterbalance forces) and active (motor forces) are worn by humans and used to move body parts. Exoskeletons are also called 'wearable robots' when they are actively controlled using a computer and integrated sensing. Safety standards now allow, through risk assessment, both manufacturing and wearable robots to be used. However, performance standards for both systems are still lacking. Ongoing research to develop standard test methods to assess the performance of manufacturing robots and emergency response robots can inspire similar test methods for exoskeletons. This paper describes recent research on performance standards for manufacturing robots as well as search and rescue robots. It also discusses how the performance of wearable robots could benefit from using the same test methods.


This thesis studies the access and use of public spaces from a gender perspective, with Zanzibar Stone Town as a case study. The thesis brings together and discusses several theories that might explain the access and use of public spaces from a gender perspective; planning theory, theories about public space, theories about how places are gendered and Islam since the case study is carried out in a Muslim area. Moreover, the thesis takes a starting point in a feminist scholarship. The discussion shows that places and gender are constructed over and over again. Today, women are sub-ordinated men and have less access to public space, but this is a constructed fact. Since culture is not static, subordination of women can be changed into equality between women and men. However, the task is not simple and one might wonder whether spatial planners can do anything at all. This thesis argues that planners can put their piece to the jigsaw. They can facilitate a planning process that takes power relations into consideration and they can question the social and cultural constructions of gender and place.


Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AHA) is a common complication in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The UK LRF CLL4 trial is the largest prospective trial in CLL to examine the prognostic impact of both a positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT) and AHA. Seven-hundred seventy-seven patients were randomized to receive chlorambucil or fludarabine, alone or with cyclophosphamide (FC). The incidence pretreatment of a positive DAT was 14%. Ten percent developed AHA. The DAT correctly predicted the development, or not, of AHA after therapy in 83% of cases, however only 28% of DAT-positive patients developed AHA. Of 299 patients tested both before and after treatment, those treated with single-agent fludarabine were most likely to remain DAT positive and to change from negative to positive. Patients treated with chlorambucil or fludarabine were more than twice as likely to develop AHA as those receiving FC. In a multivariate analysis, stage C disease and high beta2 microglobulin were independent predictors of a positive DAT result. AHA, or a positive DAT, with or without AHA, independently predicted for reduced overall survival (OS). Four deaths, all on fludarabine monotherapy, were attributed to AHA. In conclusion, DAT status at the time of initiation of therapy provides a new prognostic indicator, although FC may protect against AHA. This trial was registered at http://isrctn.org as no. 58585610.


The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) policy on academic Performance of Rural Public Day Secondary Schools (RPDSS) in Kilifi County, Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and a sample of 375 subjects was considered sufficient. Structured questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from principals, teachers, and education directors. Data on performance and enrolment were collected through document analysis. Reliability of the instruments was ascertained through test and retest method that yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.83, an indication of reliable instruments. The study found out that there was a decrease in school mean score between 2003-2007 and 2013-2017. There was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.93) between enrollment and poor performance. Further, learning resources and student finances were inadequate. The study recommends a reduction in class size, timely disbursement and increased students' capitation.


Foreign Minister Bob Carr has said Australia needs to "know Asia" in order to prosper, writes Susan Leong and Catherine Gomes for The Conversation. . Delivering a speech to the Asia Society on behalf of Prime Minister Julia Gillard in New York he argued that "we'll need Asia-literate policies and Asia-capable people". Ken Henry, who heads the Asian century taskforce, has also argued that Australians should, from their earliest years, acquire the cultural and linguistic literacy to "operate more effectively in an Asian-centred world". So how do we prepare Australians who attend universities today for this new world? A large decline in the uptake of Asian language courses has prompted some experts and public figures to argue for a greater emphasis on studying languages. Without a fluent population they argue, we can't reach Australia's full potential in the Asian century. But while learning a foreign language undoubtedly improves one's cultural awareness, it represents only one part of the puzzle. What we need is to incorporate Asia into curricula more broadly, not just compartmentalise it into separate areas of study. More than Asian Languages Despite its proximity, Asia is a foreign continent to most Australian tertiary students. Its cuisine may be regularly sampled, its people part of everyday life and its exports a fact of life, but Asia as a natural avenue for our aspirations is an alien concept. We don't advocate that Australia emulates the Asian style of education, dominated by rote learning, especially in maths, science and reading. As Education expert Stephen Dinham argues, this approach does not necessarily translate to greater innovation and creativity. But universities can play a greater role in helping Australians feel comfortable with our place in and relationship to Asia. Understanding Asia But you might ask, is that not exactly what courses teaching Asian languages and Asian history already do? Yes, but it needs to move beyond compartmentalisation of knowledge about Asia and include Asian topics into all kinds of courses, whether discussing the way Asia is represented in mainstream advertising, or becoming more familiar with Asian languages' cadences in a class on community radio. Students need help to move beyond the cliches. A class on the Indian media and movie industry, for example, needs to present a full picture. One that doesn't just examine Bollywood but looks at shows like Satyamev Jayante, a popular talk show that highlights social issues in India. Lessons on communism and nation-states need to include comparative analyses of how these ideologies and concepts are and were lived in Asia as well as Europe. When discussing the relationship between music and identity, non-English pieces can be used to open up discussions on how technology enables the exploration of both music and culture. The Asia within Australia has some important assets for this task – the many thousands of students at undergraduate and post-graduate level from Asia trained in our higher education institutes. When tapped into and shared in our classrooms their experiences become part of our shared repository of knowledge about the many Asias, from many perspectives. The key to all this is the notion of initiating and recognising Asia as part of everyday life in Australia. Far beyond exotic holiday destinations, Asia is where a significant part of Australia's future lies and our university students need to become accustomed to and informed on the region's diversity and many contradictions if we are to make sense of our place in our time within an Asian-centred world. Susan Leong works as a Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology teaching in the discipline of Media and Communication. Catherine Gomes is a Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article. Image: Flickr / CISDSU


This volume--a collection of essays dedicated to one of this century's most distinguished medieval historians, David Herlihy--introduces the general reader to the new social history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The essays address three themes: sex and the family, power and patronage in local history, and society in town and countryside. The authors use current research to illustrate how Herlihy's ideas continue to shape work about the lives of powerful and ordinary people in this long and important period of Western history."Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living" opens with Herlihy's final summary of his views on family history, followed by a reminiscence by his most important collaborator, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber. The first group of essays takes us inside specific familial settings, using recent methods in anthropological, legal, and women's studies to uncover new dimensions of medieval and Renaissance family life. A second group of studies focuses on the question of authority in medieval society and advances new theses about politics and society in Florence and other local settings. The final group of authors considers the special circumstances of town and countryside in Italy, England, and Spain and draws insightful generalizations across territorial and national boundaries.Like Herlihy's own work, these essays present innovative and challenging hypotheses about significant problems in the history of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Important new material on Florence, family history, religion, the Inquisition, and taxation is presented for the first time, but the essays are not simply technical exercises focused on small or isolated pieces of research. Thus the volume will go beyond the interest of specialists in medieval and Renaissance social history and will attract a wide audience of students and scholars.Samuel K. Cohn, Jr., is Professor of History, Brandeis University. Steven Epstein is Professor of History, University of Colorado.


We report secondary eclipse photometry of two hot Jupiters, WASP-48b and HAT-P-23b, at 3.6 and 4.5 μm taken with the InfraRed Array Camera aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope during the warm Spitzer mission and in the H and KS bands with the Wide Field IR Camera at the Palomar 200 inch Hale Telescope. WASP-48b and HAT-P-23b are Jupiter-mass and twice Jupiter-mass objects orbiting an old, slightly evolved F star and an early G dwarf star, respectively. In the H, KS, 3.6 μm, and 4.5 μm bands, respectively, we measure secondary eclipse depths of 0.047% ± 0.016%, 0.109% ± 0.027%, 0.176% ± 0.013%, and 0.214% ± 0.020% for WASP-48b. In the KS, 3.6 μm, and 4.5 μm bands, respectively, we measure secondary eclipse depths of 0.234% ± 0.046%, 0.248% ± 0.019%, and 0.309% ± 0.026% for HAT-P-23b. For WASP-48b and HAT-P-23b, respectively, we measure delays of 2.6 ± 3.9 minutes and 4.0 ± 2.4 minutes relative to the predicted times of secondary eclipse for circular orbits, placing 2σ upper limits on |ecos ω| of 0.0053 and 0.0080, both of which are consistent with circular orbits. The dayside emission spectra of these planets are well-described by blackbodies with effective temperatures of 2158 ± 100 K (WASP-48b) and 2154 ± 90 K (HAT-P-23b), corresponding to moderate recirculation in the zero albedo case. Our measured eclipse depths are also consistent with one-dimensional radiative transfer models featuring varying degrees of recirculation and weak thermal inversions or no inversions at all. We discuss how the absence of strong temperature inversions on these planets may be related to the activity levels and metallicities of their host stars.


We study the dynamics of the formation of circular domain walls, which are large-intensity structures, in a degenerate optical parametric oscillator. We show that the mean-field and the propagation models predict the same increase in the domain size proportional to t(1/3) .


The present study examined whether observers could distinguish between cattle that are naïve to road transport and the same cattle after becoming more habituated to transport. The behavioural expression of cattle was assessed through the method of qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA), and these assessments were correlated with various physiological parameters. Fourteen Angus steers were assessed during their first road trip and then again on their ninth trip, 15 days later. Blood samples were collected immediately before and after transport, and heart rate and core body temperature were measured continuously throughout each trip. Video footage recorded during each trip was edited and clips showing each individual within the first 30 min of departure were randomly ordered and shown to observers for QBA. There was significant (P < 0.001) consensus among 40 observers in their assessment of behavioural expression of the cattle. Transport-naïve cattle were described as more 'agitated', while transport-habituated were described as more 'calm'. Core body temperature (P < 0.01), plasma glucose (P < 0.05) and the neutrophil : lymphocyte ratio (P < 0.01) were higher for the first trip than for the habituated trip (P < 0.01). QBA were significantly correlated with core body temperature (P < 0.01), heart rate (P < 0.01), plasma glucose (P < 0.05) and the neutrophil : lymphocyte ratio (P< 0.01).QBA appears to be a valid and integrative method of assessing cattle welfare under the conditions tested within the present study. There was significant consensus in the ability of human observers to interpret behavioural expression of cattle during this experiment. In addition, observers could identify differences in behavioural expression between cattle that were naïve versus habituated to transport, and these differences were supported by physiological measurements.


The mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO in 1993 signalled a major shift in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This study examines, both theoretically and empirically, the basic question of how meaning of conflict may change and how conflict may be resolved. The broad aims are: first, to analyse and empirically improve knowledge of the transitional processes from conflicting interaction to cooperation in the Israeli-Palestinian case; and second, to develop conflict research by advancing theoretical ideas concerning these processes. Three analytical concepts constitute the core of the research problem: (i) meaning, (ii) reframing and (iii) resolving. These concepts are advanced throughout this study by an adaptive interplay between theoretical concepts and empirical analysis. The meaning of conflict highlights the dominant frames of political actors and the international and domestic normative and behavioural structures of conflict. The reframing of conflict is linked to negotiation by an emphasis on such concepts as turning point, motivation, opportunity and focal point. The resolving of conflict, which is the subject of the most extensive part of the study, focuses on frame, strategy, structural characteristics, and processes of negotiation. Drawing theoretical insights from constructivism, conflict research, negotiation theory and social psychology, the author advances a dynamic theoretical model, using an agent-structure approach. The single-case study of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict covers a period of eleven years, 1988-98. The author presents an in-depth analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during this period, which constitutes one of the first major studies to cover the entire interim period. The empirical analysis centres on the implications of the intifada for the level of agent and structure, and the behavioural turning point, constituted by the 1991 Madrid Conference. The official negotiation process from 1991 to 1998 is then analysed and categorised in three phases: public diplomacy, two-track diplomacy, and trilateral diplomacy. The negotiation process was characterised by an oscillation between competitive and problem-solving frames of negotiation, a diversity of mediation and negotiation strategies, major structural restraints emanating from the domestic arenas, and various obstacles to communication. These phases of negotiation highlight the cyclical, transformative nature of conflict.


In this work, the canonical transformation method is applied to a general second order differential equation (DE) in order to trasform it into a Schr?dinger-like DE. Our proposal is based on an auxiliary function g(x) which determines the transformation needed to find exactly-solvable potentials associated to a known DE. To show the usefulness of the proposed approach, we consider explicitly their application to the hypergeometric DE with the aim to find quantum potentials with hypergeometric wavefunctions. As a result, different potentials are obtained depending on the choice of the auxiliary function; the generalized Scarf, Posh-Teller, Eckart and Rosen-Morse trigonometric and hyperbolic potentials, are derived by selecting g(x) as constant and proportional to the P(x) hypergeometric coefficient. Similarly, the choices g(x)~P(x)/x2 and g(x)~x2/P(x) give rise to a class of exactly-solvable generalized multiparameter exponential-type potentials, which contain as particular cases the Hulthen, Manning-Rosen and Woods-Saxon models, among others. Our proposition is general and can be used with other important DE within the frame of applied matematics and physics.


PREFACE. Chapter 1: Indicators of an Industry in Transition. 1.1 Interoperability Barriers are Breaking. 1.2 Construction Becomes Sustainable. 1.3 E-Construction Management. 1.4 Linking up to Smart Construction Equipment. 1.5 Highly Successful Engineering Managers. 1.6 Chapter Review. Chapter 2: Productivity in the Spotlight. 2.1 Measuring National Productivity. 2.2 Basic Relationships Effecting Productivity. 2.3 Factors Related to Process Productivity. 2.4 Taxonomy of Work Time. 2.5 Gauging Construction Process Efficiency. 2.6 Identifying Critical Impact Factors. 2.7 Chapter Review. Chapter 3: Corner Stones of Efficient Site Operation. 3.1 Loss and Revival of the Master-Builder. 3.2 Planning the (Re-) Supply of the Construction Process. 3.3 Top-Down Frameworks to Manage Projects. 3.4 Bottom-Up Quantitative Planning. 3.5 Synchronization of Processes in The Supply Chain. 3.6 Chapter Review. Chapter Four: Introduction to simulation and its use in modeling production systems. 4.1 Building Simulation Models. 4.2 Chapter Review. Chapter Five: A case study -- Applying simulation in tunnel construction. 5.1 Project background. 5.2 Preparation work - understanding the construction process. Shaft Construction. Tunnel Construction. 5.3 Developing the simulation model. Assumptions and input. Simulation Model. 5.4 Run the Model and derive results. 5.5 Analysis of the operation. Chapter Review. Chapter 6: Competencies That Drive the Company. 6.1 Generic Work Competencies for the 21 Century. 6.2 Managerial Competences of Productive Organizations. 6.3 Gaining Competence Through Learning and Training. 6.4 Job-Oriented Training and Competence Development. 6.5 Becoming a Learning Organization (LO). 6.6 Chapter Review. Bibliography. Chapter 7: Productive in a Healthy and Safe Work Environment. 7.1 Two Strains Press on the Health of a Productive Body. 7.2 The Engine That Supports and Limits Human Work. 7.3 Ergonomics in Construction. 7.4 A Modern Debilitating Disease: Job Stress. 7.5 The Silent Epidemic: Workplace Harassment. 7.6 Chapter Review. Chapter 8: The Complexity of Human Motivation. 8.1 Background. 8.2 Behavioral Aspects of the Human Mind. 8.3 Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation. 8.4 Maslow s Need Based Motivators. 8.5 Vroom s Expectancy Theory. 8.6 Herzberg s Two-Factor Theory. 8.7 Measuring Job Satisfaction. 8.8 Job Enrichment. 8.9 Chapter Review. Chapter 9: Performance Factors of Leaders and Teams. 9.1 Is a Manager also a Leader? 9.2 Theories About Effective Leadership. 9.3 Power and Problems of Teamwork. 9.4 Basics About Creativity. 9.5 Chapter Review. References. Chapter 10: Communication - The Nerve System of Construction. 10.1 Engineering Drawings - the Ancient Communication Media. 10.2 Communication Strategies Employed by Organizations. 10.3 Logistics of Project Information. 10.4 Chapter Review. Key Terms and Terminologies. Chapter 11: Performance Management. 11.1 Historical Recount of Key Management Concepts. 11.2 From Measuring to Managing Performance. 11.3 The Balanced Scorecard of a Corporation. 11.4 Performance Management of Supply Chain. 11.5 Performance Management at the Task Level. 11.6 Chapter Review. INDEX.


Beginning from the 1950's, Palu š and Novotńa (2009) observed statistically significant phase coherence among oscillatory modes with the period of approximately 7–8 years detected in monthly time series of sunspot numbers, geomagnetic activity aa index, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index and near-surface air temperature from several mid-latitude European stations. Focusing on geographical distribution of the phenomenon we study Northern Hemisphere patterns of phase coherence between solar/geomagnetic activity and NCEP/NCAR and ERA40 nearsurface air temperature. Both the reanalysis datasets provide consistent patterns of areas with marked phase coupling between solar/geomagnetic activity and climate variability observed in continuous monthly data, independent of the season, however, confined to the temporal scale related to the oscillatory periods about 7–8 years.


A comparison of four community hospitals in four countries (U.S.A., Sweden, U.K., Switzerland) shows important differences regarding the average length of stay in these four countries. The mean stay for the diagnosis of inguinal hernia in Switzerland is about twice as high as in the other countries. Explanations for such variations lie with the shape of the system of care rather than with the medical needs of different populations.


Tale-enders is a collaborative project between the Cricket Board of Wales and the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling at the University of Glamorgan, aimed at gathering the narrative heritage of Welsh Cricket. The project coincides with the redevelopment of the Glamorgan cricket ground at Sophia Gardens. Working with six representative cricket clubs throughout Wales, a wide-range of stories, memories and reminiscences are being gathered from club members, players and spectators for deposit in the new Museum of Welsh Cricket, which is part of the development programme. The stories are being collected in a range of forms (such as digital stories) and will be accessible from terminals inside the Museum and via the internet. It is also hoped to make the stories available for download within the ground and for broadcast during intervals and play interruptions on match days on the in-ground giant screen. This project is currently ongoing and this paper takes the form of a report on the work so far in gathering oral histories and narratives from the Welsh cricketing communities. The project aims to involve the cricketing community in developing the museum's collections and giving a sense of ownership of the museum to all the sport's stakeholders in Wales, thus democratising its collections, as well as significantly enhancing the visitor experience through the exploitation of new technology.


An Orthodox spiritual centre since 1054, Mount Athos has enjoyed an autonomous statute since Byzantine times. The 'Holy Mountain', which is forbidden to women and children, is also a recognized artistic site. The layout of the monasteries (about 20 of which are presently inhabited by some 1,400 monks) had an influence as far afield as Russia, and its school of painting influenced the history of Orthodox art. © UNESCO


This dissertation: (a) investigated the degree to which the squared canonical correlation coefficient is biased in multivariate nonnormal distributions and (b) identified formulae that adjust the squared canonical correlation coefficient (Rc2) such that it most closely approximates the true population effect under normal and nonnormal data conditions. Five conditions were manipulated in a fully-crossed design to determine the degree of bias associated with Rc2:
distribution shape, variable sets, sample size to variable ratios, and within- and between-set correlations.
Very few of the condition combinations produced acceptable amounts of bias in Rc2, but those that did were all found with first function results. The sample size to variable ratio (n:v)was determined to have the greatest impact on the bias associated with the Rc2 for the first, second, and third functions. The variable set condition also affected the accuracy of Rc2, but for the second and third functions only. The kurtosis levels of the marginal distributions (b2), and the
between- and within-set correlations demonstrated little or no impact on the bias associated with Rc2. Therefore, it is recommended that researchers use n:v ratios of at least 10:1 in canonical analyses, although greater n:v ratios have the potential to produce even less bias. Furthermore,because it was determined that b2 did not impact the accuracy of Rc2, one can be somewhat confident that, with marginal distributions possessing homogenous kurtosis levels ranging
anywhere from -1 to 8, Rc2 will likely be as accurate as that resulting from a normal distribution.
Because the majority of Rc2 estimates were extremely biased, it is recommended that all Rc2 effects, regardless of which function from which they result, be adjusted using an appropriate adjustment formula. If no rationale exists for the use of another formula, the Rozeboom-2 would likely be a safe choice given that it produced the greatest number of unbiased Rc2 estimates for the greatest number of condition combinations in this study.


Background and Aim: Pediatric obesity and overweight have become worldwide epidemics. Iran is not an exemption in this regard. In the last decade, numerous studies have been conducted in Iran in relation to obesity in children, and an increasing rate of obesity has been reported in the Iranian context. Some of these studies have included an extensive domain covering several provinces, while others have been limited to few cities. In this study, the papers focusing on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in school-aged children in Iran were reviewed. Methods: This study was a systematic review. The key terms "child", "obesity", "overweight", and "Iran" were searched for in PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, ProQuest, and Elsevier databases. Similarly, the key terms' translations in Persian were searched for in Magiran, Iranmedex, Medlib, and SID. Non-repetitive papers conducted from 2001-2013 holding the key terms in their abstracts, keywords, or main body were extracted and reviewed. Results: A total number of 20 Persian and 11 English papers were reviewed. The overall prevalence rate of obesity in primary-school children in the published literature varied considerably from 1.4% in Zahedan to 17.7% in Ahwaz, and the prevalence rate of overweight from 1.5% in Zahedan to 27.4% in Sari. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity prevalence rates are varied across Iran and high in certain regions – a fact which may be attributed to climatic, racial and temporal


Running critical applications, such as e-commerce, in a distributed environment requires assurance of the identities of the participants communicating with each other. Providing such assurance in a distributed environment is a dicult task. The goal of a security protocol is to overcome the vulnerabilities of a distributed environment by providing a secure way to disseminate critical information into the network. However, designing a security protocol is itself an error-prone process. In addition to employing an authentication protocol, one also needs to make sure that the protocol successfully achieves its authentication goals.
The Distributed Temporal Protocol Logic (DTPL) provides a language for formalizing both local and global properties of distributed communicating processes. The DTPL can be effectively applied to security protocol analysis as a model checker. Although, a model checker can determine flaws in a security protocol, it can not provide proof of the security properties of a protocol. In this research, we extend the DTPL language and construct a set of axioms by transforming the unified framework of SVO logic into DTPL. This results into a deductive style proof-based framework for the verification of authentication protocols. The proposed framework represents authentication protocols and concisely proves their security properties. We formalize various features essential for achieving authentication, such as message freshness, key association, and source association in our framework. Since analyzing security protocols greatly depends upon associating a received message to its source, we separately analyze the source association axioms, translate them into our framework, and extend the idea for public-key protocols. Developing a proof-based framework in temporal logic gives us another verification tool in addition to the existing model checker. A security property of a protocol can either be verified using our approach, or a design flaw can be identified using the model checker. In this way, we can analyze a security protocol from both perspectives while benefiting from the representation of distributed temporal protocol logic.
A challenge-response strategy provides a higher level of abstraction for authentication protocols. Here, we also develop a set of formulae using the challenge-response strategy to analyze a protocol at an abstract level. This abstraction has been adapted from the authentication tests of the graph-theoretic approach of strand space method. First, we represent a protocol in logic and then use the challenge-response strategy to develop authentication tests. These tests help us find the possibility of attacks on authentication protocols by investigating the originator of its received messages. Identifying the unintended originator of a received message indicates the existence of possible flaws in a protocol. We have applied our strategy on several well-known protocols and have successfully identified the attacks.


We show, in this paper, how it is feasible to efficiently perform large radiosity computations on a conventional (distributed) shared memory multiprocessor machine. Hierarchical radiosity algorithms, although computationally expensive, are an efficient view-independent way to compute the global illumination which gives the visual ambiance to a scene. Their effective parallelization is made challenging, however, by their non-uniform, dynamically changing characteristics, and their need for long-range communication. To address this need, we have developed appropriate partitioning and scheduling techniques, that deliver an optimal load balancing, while still exhibiting excellent data locality. We provide the detailed implementation of these techniques and present results of experiments showing very good acceleration and scalability performances. The accurate radiosity solutions required to render high quality images of an extremely large model are computed in a reasonable time. The rendering capabilities of modern graphics hardware are then used to visualize this virtual pre-lit environment in real-time: a two minutes QuickTime movie example can be downloaded from our site: ftp://ftp.loria.fr/pub/loria/isa/Cavin/sodaHallWalk.qt.gz (last accessable in 2000)


The purpose of this study was to determine the scope and breadth of recreation therapy (RT) treatment interventions currently used in practice that address pain management. A total of 1,296 Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists participated in the study (a 21.6% response rate). Less than half (42.6%) reported that pain management (PM) was a RT treatment goal. For those not using PM, the predominant reason was a lack of training/education on pain. The top 10 RT interventions to manage pain included music, relaxation, deep breathing, exercise, distraction, coping skills, stress management, guided imagery, yoga, and play. Findings from this study provide some insight into the extent to which PM is used in RT programs and provides suggestions to address concerns regarding lack of expertise as well as lack of assessing pain. There is a clear need to develop additional training, PM protocols, and establish pain practice groups to address these needs. Subscribe to TRJ


ABSTRACT
High consumption of imported energy in the United States and other countries has increased the interest in bio-renewable sources of energy. This interest has fueled research into crop residues as one potential alternative fuel source. At issue is how to balance economic viability with the sustainability of the endeavor.
The objective of this project was two-fold. The first objective was to quantify the amount and distribution of dry matter, moisture, fiber, and minerals in corn stover from a number of corn hybrids, grown at varying population densities. In this multi-year study we found that of the stover material remaining after harvest roughly 55% is found in the stalk and leaf material below the ear, 25% in the stalk and leaf material above the ear and the remaining 20% is found in the cob (12%) and husk (8%). The moisture, composition, and mineral concentration were significantly affected by year, planting density, and hybrid. Due to the highly variable quantities of biomass and the composition and nutrient concentrations within the stover fractions our guidance is to collect and analyze representative samples from each field level treatment in order to accurately predict stover constituents.
The second objective was to develop a predictive model which can be used to quantify corn stover biomass present on a given field. Harvest index (HI) values were calculated in order to evaluate their value in predicting stover biomass. However the significant variability observed in the two years tested limited the usefulness of this ratio in predicting stover biomass. Given the variation in HI, its utility as a stable, predictive measurement across years and productivity levels for the estimation of stover biomass is questionable. In the evaluation of HI in highly productive environments commercially available corn hybrids averaged 0.55 kg kg-1and can achieve HI levels of 0.60 kg kg-1. However, under stressful conditions these levels are significantly lower. Plant density is a significant variable for HI in stressful conditions.
Additional morphological measurements were collected for the development of an allometric model. A trend was observed for the fractions evaluated and a composite model fit the corresponding measured biomass with an adjusted R2 of 0.55. However, when the model was applied to the validation data set, very poor predictions were observed for each fraction and in composite.
The data gathered from this research, which was gathered and utilized to develop predictive models for the estimation of corn stover biomass, characterized a large amount of variation which exists across current corn production variables. To characterize this variation properly the data suggest adequate sampling across all field level variables is necessary to accurately predict corn stover biomass. If estimates must be made it is suggested to use conservative estimates of stover biomass, for example a HI ratio of 0.55 : 0.45 kg kg-1 of grain to stover. It is hoped that with this conservative estimate and other field level…