Background. Problem-based learning (PBL) is now an accepted component of many medical school programmes worldwide. Our university also follows the PBL 'SPICES' model for MB ChB III. The assessment modalities used are the modified essay questions (MEQ), objective structured practical examination (OSPE), individualised process assessment (IPA) and tutorial continuous assessment (TUT). This study was done to compare the students' performances in individual assessment components with the final mark to determine the correlation between these parameters. Materials and methods. The study was retrospective, descriptive and analytical, based on the integrated marks of all the MB ChB III students at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in 2007. Assessment marks were stratified according to blocks and different types of assessment (MEQ, TUT, OSPE, IPA). Regression analysis was used to compute and scrutinise these vis-a-vis their correspondence with the final marks for each block. Results. Three hundred and seventy-nine block assessment marks of 96 students from 4 blocks of MB ChB III were analysed and the correlation between the assessment components and final mark were compared. Regression analysis showed good correlation when analysing the assessment modality versus the final mark for the MEQs ( r=0.93, 0.93, 0.94, 0.96), followed by OSPEs (r=0.71, 0.70, 0.76, 0.77) and IPAs (r=0.62, 0.51, 0.68, 0.77). However, correlation was not significant with the TUT. Conclusion. There was good correlation between the students' performance in the majority of assessment modalities and the final mark in the dif ferent blocks of the MB ChB III examination. There may be a need to make tutorial assessment methods more objective, partly by additional tutor training.


Several recent studies have documented a negative relationship between informal care-giving and labour market attachment in Great Britain. This paper examines the relationship from a longitudinal perspective using data from the Great Britain 1994–95 Family and Working Lives Survey. The first part of the paper studies the timing of informal care-giving to a sick, disabled or elderly person. This information is used in the second part to examine the effects of caring on employment. The results show that most carers look after only one dependant during their lives, and only around one-fifth to one-third look after a second dependant before the age of 65 years. Of all informal carers, about one-third had not been employed when they started caring for the first time in their lives, another third said that caring had no effect on their work arrangements, and about one-third reported one or several effects on their work arrangements, most commonly that they stopped working. Multivariate analyses show that semi-routine and routine manual workers report the strongest effects of care-giving. Part-time workers were more likely than full-time workers to reduce their hours of paid employment when they started caring.


Compiler-based auto-parallelization is a much-studied area but has yet to find widespread application. This is largely due to the poor identification and exploitation of application parallelism, resulting in disappointing performance far below that which a skilled expert programmer could achieve. We have identified two weaknesses in traditional parallelizing compilers and propose a novel, integrated approach resulting in significant performance improvements of the generated parallel code. Using profile-driven parallelism detection, we overcome the limitations of static analysis, enabling the identification of more application parallelism, and only rely on the user for final approval. We then replace the traditional target-specific and inflexible mapping heuristics with a machine-learning-based prediction mechanism, resulting in better mapping decisions while automating adaptation to different target architectures. We have evaluated our parallelization strategy on the NAS and SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks and two different multicore platforms (dual quad-core Intel Xeon SMP and dual-socket QS20 Cell blade). We demonstrate that our approach not only yields significant improvements when compared with state-of-the-art parallelizing compilers but also comes close to and sometimes exceeds the performance of manually parallelized codes. On average, our methodology achieves 96% of the performance of the hand-tuned OpenMP NAS and SPEC parallel benchmarks on the Intel Xeon platform and gains a significant speedup for the IBM Cell platform, demonstrating the potential of profile-guided and machine-learning- based parallelization for complex multicore platforms.


The Afar hotspot has long been attributed to one or more thermal upwellings in the mantle, in particular starting thermal plumes characterized by a head that spreads laterally beneath the lithosphere, and a tail. New P-wave tomography images of the upper mantle beneath Ethiopia reveal an elongated low wave speed region that is deep (>400 km) and wide (>500 km). The location of the low wave speed anomaly aligns with the Afar Depression and Main Ethiopian Rift in the uppermost mantle, but the center of the anomaly shifts to the west with depth. The shape, depth extent, and location of the low wave speed anomaly is not consistent with a starting thermal plume presently beneath the hotspot. Instead, the anomaly suggests that the hotspot may be the surface manifestation of a broad mantle upwelling connected to the African Superplume in the lower mantle beneath southern Africa.


The discovery of the many important roles of nitric oxide in vivo has prompted a large research effort, in recent times, into the chemistry of nitric oxide and of nitric oxide donors. The chemical and biological aspects of NO and S-nitrosothiols (thionitrites RSNO) are reviewed in Chapter 1. It is known that RSNO decomposition is Cu(^+) catalysed, while formation by S-nitrosation of thiols ensures the presence of some thiolate ion in solutions of RSNO generally. The extent of free thiolate ion in solutions of S-nitroso-N-acetylcysteine (SNAG) has been determined by the Ellman procedure. The effects of added Cu(^2+), thiolate ion and ascorbic acid on the reactivity of SNAG have been determined experimentally, and conditions established where the thiolate ion acts either primarily as a reducing agent or a complexing agent for Gu(^2+). UV spectral evidence is produced for the intermediacy of Cu(^+), by the observation of its complex with neocuproine, a specific chelator for Cu(^+) Finally the results of the reactions of SNAG with both ascorbate and thiolate ion at significantly higher added concentrations have confirmed the existence of other reaction pathways, yielding ammonia from thiolate ion and nitric oxide from ascorbate in reactions which do not involve copper ions. Reaction pathways consistent with the results are presented.


This paper describes the concept, architecture, development and demonstration of a high performance, 4 transmitter, real-time space time encoder designed for research into transmitter diversity and multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) wireless systems. It is implemented on a Xilinx Virtex 2 Pro field programmable gate array (FPGA) and parallel processing on multiple Freescale DSP56321 digital signal processors (DSP). The system is software defined to allow for flexibility in the choice of transmit modulation formats, data rates and space-time coding schemes. Hardware, firmware and software aspects of the space time encoder system to meet design requirements are discussed. The testing and demonstration of the system running the Alamouti space time coding scheme is covered


This research investigates the perceptions of hill tribe people in Northern Thailand of the sociocultural impacts and changes in their communities resulting from the interaction between themselves, their communities and the incoming mainly Thai, origin, external tourism actors
(ETAs), such as tourism authorities, tourism businessmen / investors and tour operators. In Thailand, most studies on the impacts of tourism have been limited to economic analyses, and the socio-cultural impacts of tourism on hill tribe people has been under-researched. Of the previous studies of the socio-cultural impacts of tourism, the majority have examined the impacts from host and guest interactions, emphasising the negative social impacts resulting from the influx of tourists in general. Specific research on the interaction of local hill tribe people with incoming ETAs has not been reported. To fill this gap, this research aims to compare the perceptions of two hill tribe peoples (the Karen and Hmong), both those working for ETAs and those who do not, in terms of their employment experiences and perceived socio-cultural impacts resulting from the arrival of ETAs. In order to achieve the research aim, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. A sequential approach was adopted incorporating a mixed methods design in order to better answer the research challenge of exploring the participants' views and perceptions. Building on a thorough literature review the first phase of primary data collection adopted a
qualitative approach. Focus groups were used to explore the local hill tribe perceptions towards the interaction between ETAs and themselves, and their perceptions towards socio-cultural impacts upon themselves and changes in their community. Then semi-structure interviews were used to gain more in-depth details from selected participants. Themes from this qualitative phase were then used in the second stage of primary data collection to develop an essentially
quantitative questionnaire, to measure, by means of a large scale survey, the perceptions of the selected population.
The fmdings suggest that exposure to the social and cultural characteristics of ETAs, have significantly influenced some of the values, beliefs and lives of tribal people. However, despite the impacts resulting from the arrival of ETAs, these hill tribe people tend to be in favour and perceive these impacts and changes as positive changes. Moreover, the fmdings also suggest that differences in ethnic background, working environment
and gender can be factors that influence perceptions of these hill tribe people. However, each factor, ethnicity, working environment, gender, exerts differing degrees of influence upon the perceptions of these hill tribe people toward different issues regarding impacts from ETAs. In
addition, individual's perceptions toward impacts from ETAs differ despite their having the same ethnic background. However, the evidence gathered suggests that ethnic background does still control, to a degree, these differences with the result that while people's perceptions do differ in many ways nevertheless those from the same ethnic background tend to show greater similarities in their perceptions and actions when compared to those of different ethnicities. To this end, this study has pointed out several recommendations for future research together
with the implications of the findings from this research on tourism management and policy makers.


This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Information Management in a Changing World, IMCW 2013, held in Limerick, Ireland, in September 2013. The 12 revised full papers presented together with three keynotes were carefully reviewed and selected from 31 submissions. The papers deal with the following topics: Cloud Architectures and Cultural Memory; Cloud Computing Beyond the Obvious: An Approach for Innovation; Cloud Computing: A New Generation of Technology Enables Deeper Collaboration; Evaluation of Conditions Regarding Cloud Computing Applications in Turkey, EU and the USA; Trustworthy Digital Images and the Cloud: Early Findings of the Records in the Cloud Project; Cloud Computing and Copyright: New Challenges in Legal Protection? Clouding Big Data: Information Privacy Considerations; The Influence of Recent Court Cases Relating to Copyright Changes in Cloud Computing Services in Japan; Government Participation in Digital Copyright Licensing in the Cloud Computing Environment; Evaluation of Information Security Approaches: A Defense Industry Organization Case; Information-Seeking Behavior of Undergraduate, Graduate, and Doctoral Students: A Survey of Istanbul University, Turkey; Students Readiness for E-Learning: An Assessment on Hacettepe University Department of Information Management; Evaluation of Scientific Disciplines in Turkey: A Citation Analysis Study.


Power law distributions have been observed and investigated by researchers for many decades, reaching back over a hundred years to Pareto and his observation of power law distribution of the size of income, followed by power law distribution of word frequencies, city sizes and many other in the areas of biology, chemistry, linguistics, economy and most recently computer science. Since power law distributions play such an important role in many areas it is natural to investigate their properties and construct models leading to their emergence. Many such models have been proposed but no definite conclusions were reached. Most recently, results in computer science demonstrate power law distribution in the number of links between web pages in the World Wide Web network, other research suggests power law for the file size distribution. These observations inspire computer scientists to attempt the construction of power law models followed by their computer simulations. Here we use several Swarm simulations to investigate such models. We base our simulations on existing models where incremental growth and preferential attachment are the key ingredients for the emergence of power laws as well as expand those to include new variables. A new model without the incremental growth requirement is also proposed.


Leadership is an under-studied topic in the international development literature. When the topic is broached it is usually in support of what might be called a 'hero orthodoxy': One or other individual is identified as the hero of a specific achievement. The current article offers a three part argument why this orthodoxy is problematic and wrong for many developing countries, however. It suggests first that heroes have not emerged in many countries for a long period and individuals who may have been considered heroes in the past often turned out less than heroic. It posits second that heroes are actually at least as much the product of their contexts as they turned out to be the shapers of such. It proposes third that the stories about hero-leaders doing special things mask the way such special things emerge from the complex interactions of many actors--some important and some mundane. Leadership, it appears, is about multi-agent groups and not single-agent autocrats. The conclusion posits that romantic notions of heroic-leadership in development become less convincing when one appreciates these three arguments. It calls development theorists and practitioners to go beyond the heroic-leader perspective.


Quantitative data of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) kinematics is vital for understanding component failure and to provide guidelines for improvement of the component design. Our lab started studying TKA kinematics in 1998. First, we developed an in vitro robotic experimental setup to test knee kinematics after TKA surgery under various simulated physiological loading conditions. Second, we developed a dual fluoroscopic imaging system (DFIS) to analyze the in vivo knee kinematics after TKA surgery during functional activities. Using these in vitro and in vivo approaches, we have extensively investigated the kinematics of typical posterior cruciate retaining (CR) and posterior substituting (PS) TKAs. Analyses included six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) tibiofemoral joint kinematics, tibiofemoral articular contact locations, posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) function in CR TKAs and cam-post contact in PS TKAs. In addition we have studied the biomechanical factors that may affect flexion capabilities of the knee by comparing the biomechanics of conventional, high-flexion TKA designs with normal knees and knees with osteoarthritis (OA). In this review, we will briefly describe the in vitro and in vivo testing systems developed at our lab for TKA kinematics analyses followed by a summary of our research results on various TKA components.


To forecast how blogging will impact the practice of law, we need to consider how some similar, equally revolutionary technology has impacted attorneys. I nominate the clock radio. Given that example, you might suppose that I don't think blogging will radically change the practice of law. Correct. Blogging has many virtues. It offers a largely harmless outlet for extroverted cranks and cheap entertainment for procrastinating office workers. Blogging even stands to do some very real good. I have nothing against blogging; I blog, myself. I simply don't think it will change the practice of law very much. Why not? First, because blogs seldom offer the sort of detailed and applied legal analysis that a careful attorney must perform. Second, because an attorney would find it next to impossible to practice law via a blog without violating several rules of professional responsibility. I thus conclude that neither reading nor writing blogs will have a significant influence on the practice the law.


An Autonomous vehicle depends on the combination of latest technology or the ADAS safety features such as Adaptive cruise control (ACC), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Automatic Parking, Blind Spot Monitor, Forward Collision Warning or Avoidance (FCW or FCA), Lane Departure Warning. The current trend follows incorporation of these technologies using the Artificial neural network or Deep neural network, as an imitation of the traditionally used algorithms. Recent research in the field of deep learning and development of competent processors for autonomous or self driving car have shown amplitude of prospect, but there are many complexities for hardware deployment because of limited resources such as memory, computational power, and energy. Deployment of several mentioned ADAS safety feature using multiple sensors and individual processors, increases the integration complexity and also results in the distribution of the system, which is very pivotal for autonomous vehicles.This thesis attempts to tackle two important adas safety feature: Forward collision Warning, and Object Detection using the machine learning and Deep Neural Networks and there deployment in the autonomous embedded platform.This thesis proposes the following: 1. A machine learning based approach for the forward collision warning system in an autonomous vehicle.2.3-D object detection using Lidar and Camera which is primarily based on Lidar Point Clouds. The proposed forward collision warning model is based on the forward facing automotive radar providing the sensed input values such as acceleration, velocity and separation distance to a classifier algorithm which on the basis of supervised learning model, alerts the driver of possible collision. Decision Tress, Linear Regression, Support Vector Machine, Stochastic Gradient Descent, and a Fully Connected Neural Network is used for the prediction purpose.The second proposed methods uses object detection architecture, which combines the 2D object detectors and a contemporary 3D deep learning techniques. For this approach, the 2D object detectors is used first, which proposes a 2D bounding box on the images or video frames. Additionally a 3D object detection technique is used where the point clouds are instance segmented and based on raw point clouds density a 3D bounding box is predicted across the previously segmented objects.


Background: Dentin hypersensitivity is a common dental problem with no permanent cure and predictable prognosis. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of fluoride varnish (sodium fluoride [NaF]), diode laser, and the combination of NaF and diode laser in the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity. Settings and Design: This was a randomized split-mouth clinical trial. Materials and Methods: Sixty patients aged 20–60 years suffering from dentin hypersensitivity to air-blast, cold, and tactile stimulation corresponding to 4 cm and above on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) in three quadrants with at least two hypersensitive teeth per quadrant were selected. Hypersensitive teeth were allotted to Group 1 – 5% NaF varnish application alone, Group 2 – 810-nm gallium–aluminum–arsenide laser (GaAlAs) diode laser (0.5 W) irradiation alone, and Group 3 – NaF varnish application, followed by diode laser irradiation. VAS score was recorded at baseline, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months. Results: A statistically significant reduction in dentin hypersensitivity was observed in all the three groups, from the baseline to the 1st-, 3rd-, and 6th-month follow-ups (P < 0.05). Group 2 and Group 3 demonstrated a significantly higher reduction (P < 0.05) in dentin hypersensitivity for all the stimuli as opposed to Group 1 at all follow-up intervals. However, no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) was present between Group 2 and Group 3 at all follow-ups. Conclusion: Diode laser is significantly more effective than fluoride varnish alone in the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity over a period of 6 months.


In contrast to the mechanism of interaction determined by the Kerr nolinearity, the electrostrictive interaction between picosecond pulses in optical fibers can occur when the temporal interval between them is much greater than their duration. The width of the interval is determined by the lifetime of the sound wave in the fiber core region, i.e., ~1 nsec. It follows from our calculations that for long propagation distances (L > 1000 km) the relative temporal separation of the interacting pulses can reach hundreds of picoseconds at the temporal interval between them of ~1 nsec.


Abstract. Previous works on substorm triggering have shown that more than 50% of the substorms are triggered by a northward turning of the IMF Bz; However, recent studies have found a much lower percentage. We have examined triggering using three different onset lists: The THEMIS All Sky Image (ASI) list, substorm onsets from IMAGE-FUV, and events with large geosynchronous injections. We analyzed these onset lists with three different triggering criteria: (1) a criteria based on Lyons et al. criteria; (2) a relaxation of the Lyons et al. criteria based on the visual criteria proposed by Hsu et al.; and (3) a further relaxation of the Lyons et al. criteria, requiring the same conditions proposed in the visual criteria by Hsu et al. but without the growth phase southward IMF requirements. Appling the Lyons et al. criteria we find that only 17% and 22% of the substorms are triggered in the THEMIS ASIs and IMAGE-FUV onset lists respectively, consistent with the recent studies. However, the percentage reached nearly 50% when we applied relaxed criteria, suggesting that it is possible that the Lyons et al. criteria are too strict to identify all IMF triggered events. The triggering percentage for the events with large injections reached up to 60% applying the relaxed criteria, a result suggesting the possibility that triggers are more easily identified, or that triggering is more common for larger than for smaller substorm events. We have also found evidence that larger substorms may be more likely to be non-triggered under mostly southward IMF conditions than for other IMF conditions.


The citizens of Spiff are a trendy bunch, perched on the cutting edge of fashion ("They were always wearing the sassiest styles/ which of course they would sport with the smuggest of smiles"). Princess Frannie, the king's less-than-chic daughter, prefers books to clothes, however, and refuses to heed her father's request that she don something other than comfy pajamas to the upcoming ball. Meanwhile, in the neighboring and far less ritzy realm of Spud, the recently crowned Prince Puggly is feeling hesitant about attending the Spiffian ball himself, certain his Spuddish style will only get him mocked and ridiculed. When circumstances bring the two neighboring royals together, they concoct a plan to teach the Spiffians a lesson or two about true class. Goofy but gentle humor along with some delightfully inventive word play characterize this novel in verse, making it an excellent choice for a classroom or family read aloud. The small trim size adds accessibility, creative typography and text layout (including intricate chapter headpieces) accentuates the fractured fairy-tale feel, and Weston's rhyming couplets are funny in their form and ingenuity ("He heard from below him . . . the tearing of threads!/ The fizzle of fabric being ripped into shreds!/ The splitting of seams! The unravel of yarn!/ All that King Dandy could say was: 'Oh, darn'"). Even the mostly predictable lesson of the book is made humorous with a droll rhyme: "Whether wild or refined, whether subtle or brash,/ you can wear it—as long as you don't get a rash." Aspiring fashionistas and poets would likely agree. KQG


The M(subscript w) 6.3, 21 February 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake is regarded as an aftershock of the M 7.1, 4 September 2010 Darfield earthquake. However, it caused severe damage in the downtown Christchurch. Such a circumstance points out the importance of an aftershock sequence in seismic hazard evaluation and suggests the re-evaluation of a seismic hazard immediately after a large earthquake occurrence. For this purpose, we propose a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA), which takes the disturbance of a short-term seismicity rate into account and can be easily applied in comparison with the classical PSHA. In our approach, the treatment of the background seismicity rate is the same as in the zoneless approach, which considers a bandwidth function as a smoothing Kernel in neighboring region of earthquakes. The rate-and-state friction model imparted by the Coulomb stress change of large earthquakes is used to calculate the fault-interaction-based disturbance in seismicity rate for PSHA. We apply this approach to evaluate the seismic hazard in Christchurch after the occurrence of the M 7.1, 4 September 2010 Darfield earthquake. Results show an increase of seismic hazards due to the stress increase in the region around the rupture plane, which extended to Christchurch. This provides a suitable basis for the application of a time-dependent PSHA using updating earthquake information.


The drastic increase in the usage of SMS technology has led service providers to seek for a solution that enable users of mobile devices to access services through SMSs. This has resulted in the proposal of solutions towards SMS-based service invocation in service oriented environments. However, the dynamic nature of service-oriented environments coupled with sudden load peaks generated by service request, poses performance challenges to infrastructures for supporting SMS-based service invocation. To address this problem we adopt load balancing techniques. A load balancing model with adaptive load balancing and load monitoring mechanisms as its key constructs is proposed. The load balancing model then led to realization of Least Loaded Load Balancing Framework (LLLBF). Evaluation of LLLBF benchmarked with round robin (RR) scheme on the queuing approach showed LLLBF outperformed RR in terms of response time and throughput. However, LLLBF achieved better result in the cost of high processing power. Keywords—SMS (Short Message Service), LLLBF (Least Loaded Load Balancing Framework), Service Oriented Computing (SOC).


An improved value of the 203Hg–198Hg isotope shift in the 2537 A 3P1–1S0 line of mercury was determined from emission spectroscopy, with mass-separated samples, and from absorption spectroscopy with unenriched pile-produced isotope. The spectroscopic data were analyzed to yield the isotope shift by use of precise hfs interaction constants that we obtained previously from a level-crossing experiment. The new value for the 203Hg–198Hg isotope shift is IS(203–198) = 0.392 ± 0.006 cm−1; 203Hg lies at the lower-wave-number side. The experiment demonstrates the advantages of absorption spectroscopy for samples of low isotopic purity. The application of this technique to work with small samples is also discussed.


Abstract. Since the start of the Holocene, temperatures in the Arctic have steadily declined. This has been accredited to the orbitally forced decrease in summer insolation reconstructed over the same period. However, here we present climate modelling results from an Earth model of intermediate complexity (EMIC) that indicate that 17–40% of the cooling in the Arctic, over the period 9–0 ka, was a direct result of the desertification that occurred in the Sahara after the termination of the African Humid Period. We have performed a suite of sensitivity experiments to analyse the impact of different combinations of forcings, including various vegetation covers in the Sahara. Our simulations suggest that over the course of the Holocene, a strong increase in surface albedo in the Sahara as a result of desertification led to a regional increase in surface pressure, a weakening of the trade winds, the westerlies and the polar easterlies, which in turn reduced the meridional heat transported by the atmosphere to the Arctic. We conclude that during interglacials, the climate of the Northern Hemisphere is sensitive to changes in Sahara vegetation type.


In previous work, a novel supervised framework implementing a binary classifier was presented that obtained excellent results for side effect discovery. Interestingly, unique side effects were identified when different binary classifiers were used within the framework, prompting the investigation of applying a multiple classifier system. In this paper we investigate tuning a side effect multiple classifying system using genetic algorithms. The results of this research show that the novel framework implementing a multiple classifying system trained using genetic algorithms can obtain a higher partial area under the receiver operating characteristic curve than implementing a single classifier. Furthermore, the framework is able to detect side effects efficiently and obtains a low false positive rate.


This article examines whether some response strategies to climate variability and change have the potential to undermine long‐term resilience of social–ecological systems. We define the parameters of a resilience approach, suggesting that resilience is characterized by the ability to absorb perturbations without changing overall system function, the ability to adapt within the resources of the system itself, and the ability to learn, innovate, and change. We evaluate nine current regional climate change policy responses and examine governance, sensitivity to feedbacks, and problem framing to evaluate impacts on characteristics of a resilient system. We find that some responses, such as the increase in harvest rates to deal with pine beetle infestations in Canada and expansion of biofuels globally, have the potential to undermine long‐term resilience of resource systems. Other responses, such as decentralized water planning in Brazil and tropical storm disaster management in Caribbean islands, have the potential to increase long‐term resilience. We argue that there are multiple sources of resilience in most systems and hence policy should identify such sources and strengthen capacities to adapt and learn. WIREs Clim Change 2011 2 757–766 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.133


The process capability index C pk is widely used when measuring the capability of a manufacturing process. A process is defined to be capable if the capability index exceeds a stated threshold value, e.g. C pk >4/3. This inequality can be expressed graphically using a process capability plot, which is a plot in the plane defined by the process mean and the process standard deviation, showing the region for a capable process. In the process capability plot, a safety region can be plotted to obtain a simple graphical decision rule to assess process capability at a given significance level. We consider safety regions to be used for the index C pk . Under the assumption of normality, we derive elliptical safety regions so that, using a random sample, conclusions about the process capability can be drawn at a given significance level. This simple graphical tool is helpful when trying to understand whether it is the variability, the deviation from target, or both that need to be reduced to improve the capability. Furthermore, using safety regions, several characteristics with different specification limits and different sample sizes can be monitored in the same plot. The proposed graphical decision rule is also investigated with respect to power.


Abstract Concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and inorganic pollutants including sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) were measured using passive samplers in both indoor and outdoor environments at 2, 5, 8, 13, 17, 24, and 29 m from the ground level at a high-rise building in the Middle East Technical University campus in Ankara, Turkey. The measured indoor concentrations of ∑24VOCs were highly variable, ranging from 98 μg m−3 (at the ground floor) to 235.3 μg m−3 (at the fourth floor), while the outdoor concentrations varied between 96.8 μg m−3 (at the seventh floor) and 189.8 μg m−3 (at the ground level). Outdoor concentrations of inorganic pollutants ranged between 58 μg m−3 at the ground floor and 26 μg m−3 at the ninth floor for SO2, and 59.9 μg m−3 at the ground floor and 31.2 μg m−3 at the ninth floor for NO2. A similar decreasing trend with altitude was also observed for indoor concentrations of these pollutants. Indoor and outdoor O3 concentrations did not change with altitude. Statistically significant correlations were found between indoor and outdoor concentrations of some of the measured NO2, SO2 toluene, octane, nonane and 1,2-dichlorobenzene, indicating moderate-to-strong relationships between their indoor and outdoor concentrations. The factor analysis revealed six factors for both indoor and outdoor data. Traffic was found to be the highest contributor to the measured VOCs, SO2, and NO2 concentrations, which was followed by painting activities.


Existing reports of viral hepatitis, resulting in liver cell death have not been fully
explained with regards to the mechanism ofthe viral proteins involved. The objective
of the study is to determine if any of the Hepatitis B viral proteins cause changes in
the survival of human hepatocytes and if so by what means. The two main candidates
for inducing survival changes were the precore proteins (HBE) and HBX, both of
which have been reported to accumulate in the liver of patients and to trigger an
immune response. The human liver HepG2 cell line was chosen to study the effect ,of
these proteins during transient expression. The results from this study show that both
viral proteins can induce cell death by an apoptotic mechanism via caspases. HBX
appears to trigger more cell death than HBE, while HBE-induced an initial
proliferation of the cell culture followed by cell death. HBX-induced apoptosis
appears to involve both extrinsic and intrinsic cell death systems through the Fas system and the mitochondria, respectively. There is also a total loss of the PI3K/Akt
pathway surivial signals. The HBE-induced apoptosis appears to be through DNA
damage triggering an intrinsic cell death program, coupled with a partial loss of the
PI3K/Akt pathway that allows GSK313 to be activated, while keeping FHKR inactive.
In both cases, the viral cell death can be prevented using the correct dosage of IL-6
stimulation, while loss of serum or the addition of ethanol can have an overall
positive effect on the viability of HBX and HBE transfected cells. The deaths can
also be prevented in varing degress by the inhibition of MEKI and PPIA/2A
suggesting these pathways are involved probably by cross talking.


PURPOSE
To develop an analytical cascaded systems analysis (CSA) model for investigating the limits of signal and noise performance [noise-power spectrum (NPS), modulation transfer function (MTF), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE)] of photon-counting detectors (PCDs).

METHODS
Previously developed models for signal and noise propagation in flat-panel detectors were extended to include physical effects in the imaging chain specific to the performance of PCDs, including the effect of Compton scatter in the detector, time and energy dependent effects of pulse pileup, and signal threshold. A CT imaging bench incorporating a Si-strip PCD was constructed to test and validate the theoretical model and provide a plaform for evaluation of image quality in photon counting CT. The linearity of detector response was measured across a range of techniques (80 kVp, 0.03- 0.15 mAs), and a phantom consisting of simulated bone and soft tissue was used to evaluate the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) in CT reconstructions. The model was used to investigate limits in DQE as a function of imaging conditions and detector characteristics.

RESULTS
The signal response of the imaging system was highly linear with exposure (mR) across the operating range of the x-ray source as predicted by the model, suggesting a lack of pulse pileup effects under conditions of interest. The soft-tissue CNR ranged from 1.3 (at 2 mA) to 2.7 (at 10 mA), suggesting quantum-limited performance and the potential advantage of zero electronic noise for low-dose imaging. The model predicts zero-frequency DQE ∼0.2-0.6 over the range 40-90 kVp and demonstrates an optimal range of signal threshold above the electronic noise but below the level of true counts.

CONCLUSION
CSA modeling can be extended to include characteristics unique to PCDs and provide a basis for understanding the limits of imaging performance in photon counting CT. National Institutes of Health Grant No. 2R01-CA-112163-02. Some authors affiliated with Phillips Healthcare.


What is the likelihood that real stock returns will average approximately 7% in the future, as they have done in the past? The author addresses this issue by analyzing the components of real stock returns over the period 1926 to 2005. The analysis allows investors to both understand real stock returns and make informed estimates of average real returns going forward. Although the typical case being made today for lower stock returns in the future is apparent, given today's significantly lower dividend yield, the author explores the conditions under which real returns can continue at their historical average. Using this framework, investors can easily substitute their expectations about real earnings growth and market valuations into the model to make intelligent estimates of average real returns over some future period.


While the economic debate on climate policy focuses on discounting, we do not know yet what to discount. The potential (non-discounted) socio-economic cost of climate change, indeed, is still unknown. Only a few studies have tried to estimate socio-economic costs of climate change. Most of them concluded that, for a warming of a few degrees, damages will be limited to a few percent of GDP. All these studies, however, have disregarded important mechanisms and have only considered the cost of a stabilized new climate. This article claims that the climate change issue should instead be framed in terms of the adaptation of socio-economic systems to a changing climate. Doing so, it calls for the taking into account of (1) the interaction between the uncertainty on future climate and the inertia of important economic sectors ; (2) the short-term economic constraints that will be key in the response to climate shocks. Finally, the impacts of climate change cannot be estimated assuming that societies will always be able to manage in a perfect way the subsequent change in risks, as past experiences demonstrate our poor ability to do so. These mechanisms suggest that the uncertainty on future climate change damages is even larger than is usually acknowledged, and calls for additional research on climate change impacts.


A person who, under classical Roman law, purchased a res mancipi a domino and received it by mere traditio could rely on and plead the exceptio rei venditae et traditae against the seller. He was considered to be a possessor. He was not in bad faith, although he knew that he had not acquired ownership and he could therefore acquire ownership by prescriptive acquisition (usucapio). He did not have to have recourse to longi temporis praescriptio. It is uncertain whether in Dutch law the same person is classified as a possessor or as a detentor. If the judge considers him to be a possessor he is nevertheless in bad faith, and therefore has to have recourse to the equivalent of the longi temporis praescriptio contained in article 3:105 BW. The uncertainty whether such a person may make use of article 3:105 BW at all forms a weak point in our legislation. The fact that he is, at best, a mala fide possessor makes his position less comfortable than the equivalent position in Roman law. The absence of an exceptio doli (and the derivates like the exceptio rei venditae et traditae) or a form of estoppel in our code (and in his predecessors) seems regrettable also in this case. All in all there is less reason under Dutch law to protect a person who has purchased an immoveable thing and recieved it by mere traditio. That his position under modern law is weaker is understandable. Unlike the obsolete mancipatio and in iure cessio the requirement of a notarial deed followed by its entry in the public registers forms a useful legal instrument that enhances legal certainty.


Julia Tanney offers a sustained criticism of today's canon in philosophy of mind, which conceives the workings of the rational mind as the outcome of causal interactions between mental states that have their bases in the brain. With its roots in physicalism and functionalism, this widely accepted view provides the philosophical foundation for the cardinal tenet of the cognitive sciences: that cognition is a form of information-processing. Rules, Reason, and Self-Knowledge presents a challenge not only to the cognitivist approach that has dominated philosophy and the special sciences for the last fifty years but, more broadly, to metaphysical-empirical approaches to the study of the mind. Responding to a tradition that owes much to the writings of Davidson, early Putnam, and Fodor, Tanney challenges this orthodoxy on its own terms. In untangling its internal inadequacies, starting with the paradoxes of irrationality, she arrives at a view these philosophers were keen to rebut--one with affinities to the work of Ryle and Wittgenstein and all but invisible to those working on the cutting edge of analytic philosophy and mind research today. This is the view that rational explanations are embedded in "thick" descriptions that are themselves sophistications upon ever ascending levels of discourse, or socio-linguistic practices. Tanney argues that conceptual cartography rather than metaphysical-scientific explanation is the basic tool for understanding the nature of the mind. Rules, Reason, and Self-Knowledge clears the path for a return to the world-involving, circumstance-dependent, normative practices where the rational mind has its home.


Using overlapping synthetic deficiencies, we find that a haplo-insufficient locus affecting flight behavior and the myosin light chain-2 gene co-map to the Drosophila melanogaster polytene chromosome interval 99D9-E1 to 99E2-3. From screening over 9000 EMS-treated chromosomes, we obtained alleles of two complementation groups that map to this same interval. One of these complementation groups lfm(3)99Eb, exhibits dominant flightless behavior; thus, flightless behavior of the deficiency is in all likelihood due to hemizygosity of this single locus. Rescue of flightless behavior by a duplication indicates that the single allele, E38, of the Ifm(3)99Eb complementation group is a hypomorph. Based upon its map position and a reduction in concentration of myosin light chain-2 mRNA in heterozygotes, we propose that Ifm(3)Eb(E38) is a mutant allele of the myosin light chain-2 gene. Our genetic analysis also resulted in the identification of four dominant flightless alleles of an unlinked locus, l(3)nc99Eb, that exhibits dominant lethal synergism with Ifm(3)99Eb.


The notion of state is fundamental for many state-based computer systems, which represents the static snapshot of the world in discourse, while the dynamic historical scenarios of the world can be characterised in terms of temporally ordered state-sequences. This paper introduces a formal characterization of time-series and state-sequences, based on which, the formalism and algorithm for matching state-based temporal patterns are presented. As a case study of real-life applications, zone-defense pattern recognition in basketball games is specially examined as an illustrating example. Experimental results show that it is useful in helping the coach of the defense side to check whether the players play in a right zone-defense strategy, as well as the coach of the offensive side to detect the defense patterns of the opponent. Also, the approach proposed here can be adapted for applications to other team-work sports such as football, volleyball, and so on.


Abstract. Here, we establish a spatiotemporal evolution of the sea-surface
temperatures in the North Atlantic over Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events 5–8
(approximately 30–40 kyr) using the proxy surrogate reconstruction method. Proxy data
suggest a large variability in North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures during
the DO events of the last glacial period. However, proxy data availability is
limited and cannot provide a full spatial picture of the oceanic changes.
Therefore, we combine fully coupled, general circulation model simulations
with planktic foraminifera based sea-surface temperature reconstructions to
obtain a broader spatial picture of the ocean state during DO events 5–8. The
resulting spatial sea-surface temperature patterns agree over a number of
different general circulation models and simulations. We find that
sea-surface temperature variability over the DO events is characterized by
colder conditions in the subpolar North Atlantic during stadials than during
interstadials, and the variability is linked to changes in the Atlantic
Meridional Overturning circulation and in the sea-ice cover. Forced
simulations are needed to capture the strength of the temperature variability
and to reconstruct the variability in other climatic records not directly
linked to the sea-surface temperature reconstructions. This is the first time
the proxy surrogate reconstruction method has been applied to oceanic
variability during MIS3. Our results remain robust, even when age
uncertainties of proxy data, the number of available temperature
reconstructions, and different climate models are considered. However, we
also highlight shortcomings of the methodology that should be addressed in
future implementations.


Ghrelin, the endogenous ligand of growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a (GHS-R1a), has emerged as pleiotropic modulator of diverse biological functions, including energy homeostasis and recently, reproduction. The influence of intracerebroventricularly (ICV) administered ghrelin (1 μg/day/rat for 5 days) to rats of different ages, i.e, peripubertal (38 days), adult (60 days) and middle-aged (180 days) on the ventral prostate size and morphology, serum testosterone levels and testis weight was examined. Ghrelin treatment significantly increased (p < 0.05) absolute ventral prostate weight in peripubertal and middle-aged rats, by 27% and 37% respectively, due to enhancement of epithelial and/or luminal compartment of the gland. In adult rats, both absolute and relative volumes of the acinar lumen were significantly decreased (p < 0.05), by 38% and 44% respectively, which was associated with significant increases (p < 0.05) in relative and absolute volumes of interacinar stroma, whereas ventral prostate weigh was unchanged. Irrespective of animal age, ghrelin did not affect serum testosterone levels. These are the first results of ghrelin treatment effects on healthy prostate appearance, which allow us to conclude that the rat ventral prostate response to ghrelin depends on the developmental stage of animals. Our results merit further investigations and may have clinical implications, especially in the light of data on possible role of ghrelin in prostate hypertrophy and adenomas.


Scholarship on the administrative process has scarcely attended to the role that states play in federal regulation. This Article argues that it is time for that to change. An emerging, important new strand of federalism scholarship, known as "administrative federalism," now seeks to safeguard state interests in the administrative process and argues that federal agencies should consider state input when developing regulations. These ideas appear to be gaining traction in practice. States now possess privileged access to agency decisionmaking processes through a variety of formal and informal channels. And some courts have signaled support for the idea of a special state role in federal agency decisionmaking.These developments have important implications for administrative law and theory. In particular, they bear on the paramount question of administrative legitimacy — the decades-long effort to justify the exercise of lawmaking power by unelected administrators in our constitutional democracy. A robust state role in the administrative process, this Article shows, is in tension with the models of legitimacy that have come to serve as administrative law's North Star. Whereas the two reigning legitimacy models alternatively prize (1) centralized presidential control to ensure responsiveness to majority preferences, and (2) apolitical application of expertise, state input raises the specter of regional factionalism and home-state politics. Two types of solutions could alleviate this tension: reforming state involvement in the regulatory process, or updating legitimacy models. The Article concludes by charting both courses — identifying potential reforms and sketching possibilities for a new understanding of administrative legitimacy that would better accommodate the state role.


As reproduction by surrogacy increases, the problems arising from surrogacy contracts also increase. Countries around the world are being asked to solve never-before-seen legal problems arising from surrogacy agreements. When trying to solve the newly arisen problems, the rights of the child born from the surrogacy contract tend to be overlooked. Enacted laws try to solve the enforceability of the contract and protect the rights of the parties involved—such as, who are the legal parents of the child if both sides of the agreement wish to keep the child. However, few of these laws address a situation where the opposite is true, a situation in which neither side wants to keep the child. In these situations, the primary focus should be the rights of the child, not the rights of the people involved in the contract. The law should be up to date and ready to protect the well-being of the child—a person who never asked to be born. Specifically, rights such as the citizenship of the child, the right to financial support, the right to inherit, and the right to identity should be protected. The Comment discusses how prepared U.S. and Texas law is to handle problems arising from a surrogacy contract in which neither side wants to keep the child. In this case, a child with intended American parents should have the right to be a U.S. citizen, the right to receive financial support from a party involved in the contract, the right to inherit, and the right to know his or her identity. These problems may not be currently present, but with the increase of surrogacy use, it surely could be an issue in the future.


This article focuses on social pedagogy and how social pedagogical approaches are used in Swedish welfare contexts. Social pedagogy as a phenomenon has existed in a variety of settings and during different periods of time. However, the meaning of social pedagogy as a concept depends to a great extent on the context in which it occurs, and the concept therefore has various connotations. The aim of this article is to analyse and discuss trends, directions and goals in social pedagogical practice. Three research projects (cases) are described, analysed and related to three theoretical models. The three cases – (1) a 'drive-in football' project for young people in a suburb, (2) an alternative residential caresetting for young people with learning disabilities, and (3) a 'future workshop' for older people – involved different situations and different audiences, all with elements of marginalisation and exclusion. The analysis of the three examples shows that social pedagogical practice in the Swedish context is characterised by the challenge of balancing the tensions between the individual and the collective, between emancipation and adaptation and between action and negotiation. The social pedagogical activities are also characterised by the fact that they all contain social, practical and existential dimensions of social support and an approach rooted in ethical core values.


Self-driving automobiles have emerged as the future of vehicular travel, but this innovation is not developing in isolation. Simultaneously, the popularity of transportation network companies functioning as ride-hailing and ride-sharing services have altered traditional conceptions of personal transportation. Technology companies, conventional automakers, and start-up businesses each play significant roles in fundamentally transforming transportation methods.
These transformations raise numerous liability questions. Specifically, the emergence of self-driving vehicles and transportation network companies create uncertainty for the application of tort law's negligence standard. This Note addresses technological innovations in vehicular transportation and their accompanying legislative and regulatory developments. Then, this Note discusses the implications for vicarious liability for vehicle owners, duties of care for vehicle operators, and corresponding insurance regimes. This Note also considers theoretical justifications for tort concepts including enterprise liability. Accounting for the inevitable uncertainty in applying tort law to new invention, this Note proposes a strict and vicarious liability regime with corresponding no-fault automobile insurance.


Eosinophil granulocytes are intriguing members of the innate immunity system that have been considered important defenders during parasitic diseases as well as culprits during allergy‐associated inflammatory diseases. Novel studies have, however, found new homoeostasis‐maintaining roles for the cell. Recent clinical trials blocking different Th2 cytokines have uncovered that asthma is heterogeneous entity and forms different characteristic endotypes. Although eosinophils are present in allergic asthma with early onset, the cells may not be essential for the pathology. The cells are, however, likely disease causing in asthma with a late onset, which is often associated with chronic rhinosinusitis. Assessment of eosinophilia, fraction exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and periostin are markers that have emerged useful in assessing and monitoring asthma severity and endotype. Current scientific knowledge suggests that eosinophils are recruited by the inflammatory environment, activated by the innate interleukin (IL)‐33 and prevented from apoptosis by both lymphocytes and innate immune cells such as type two innate immune cells. Eosinophils contain four specific granule proteins that exhibit an array of toxic and immune‐modulatory activates. The granule proteins can be released by different mechanisms. Additionally, eosinophils contain a number of inflammatory cytokines and lipid mediators as well as radical oxygen species that might contribute to the disease both by the recruitment of other cells and the direct damage to supporting cells, leading to exacerbations and tissue fibrosis. This review aimed to outline current knowledge how eosinophils are recruited, activated and mediate damage to tissues and therapies used to control the cells.


Introduction Nationally, 60% to 75% of older adults have multiple (2 or more) chronic conditions (MCCs), and the burden is even higher among low-income, racial/ethnic minority populations. MCCs limit activities of daily living (ADLs), yet this association is not well characterized outside of clinical populations. We examined the association of MCCs with ADLs in a racially/ethnically diverse population of low-income older adults living in New York City public housing. Methods A representative sample of 1,036 New York City Housing Authority residents aged 65 or older completed a telephone survey in June 2009. We examined the association of up to 5 chronic conditions with basic ADL (BADL) limitations, adjusting for potential confounders by using logistic regression. Results Of respondents, 28.7% had at least 1 BADL limitation; 92.9% had at least 1 chronic condition, and 79.0% had MCCs. We observed a graded association between at least 1 BADL limitation and number of chronic conditions (using 0 or 1 condition as the reference group): adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for 3 conditions was 2.2 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3–3.9); AOR for 4 conditions, 4.3 (95% CI, 2.5–7.6); and AOR for 5 conditions, 9.2 (95% CI, 4.3–19.5). Conclusion Prevalence of BADL limitations is high among low-income older adults and increases with number of chronic conditions. Initiating prevention of additional conditions and treating disease constellations earlier to decrease BADL limitations may improve aging outcomes in this population.


Partition testing is one of the widely used approaches in software testing. The efficacy of partition testing methods, such as the category-partition method and the classification-tree method, depends highly on the partitioning scheme, which groups together inputs that share some common characteristics. This paper reports case studies on the partitioning of the input domain from considerations of both the input and output perspectives, and discusses the relationships among the subdomains so formed.


Local-based 2013 curriculum encourages to raise students' awareness. The purpose of this study is to describe the need for 2013 curriculum learning syllabus in elementary schools, the procedures for developing the local-based 2013 curriculum learning syllabus, and the effectiveness of local-based syllabus to develop environmental awareness. This research used research and developmental method. This developmental research was conducted on thematic learning in four grade of Elementary School in Surakarta, Central Java in the 2017/2018 academic year. The data were collected through observation, documentation, and interviews. The data analysis used triangulation by combining information from various sources and data collection techniques. The results of this study showed that there is a need on syllabus with suitable material for the development of students and the local-based materials contained in the syllabus is placed in the development of indicators and learning activities in the syllabus product. The development of local-based material is perceived more complete than the official syllabus material and still in line with the theme or sub-theme. After using the local-based syllabus, teachers can provide character values that can be taken by students. Generally, the syllabus used by most teachers has met the standards but is not yet fully local-based, so the local-based syllabus will be a creative and innovative alternative in realizing students' caring attitudes especially toward the environment


In this work we report a straightforward and scalable method to fabricate luminescent and iridescent chiral nanomaterials with potential metal ion sensing capacity for environmental and biological applications. Nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) were synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction of D-glucose and melamine. New free-standing chiral nematic composite materials with randomly distributed nanoparticles were prepared after N-CD co-assembled with CNCs via evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA). The left-handed twisted, layered structure of chiral CNC composites remains intact for all the studied compositions, providing both iridescent and photoluminescent properties to our films. Structural, thermal, morphological and photophysical properties of the films were further explored. Overall, our experimental findings reveal that hydrothermal synthesis of melamine and D-glucose is an effective approach to obtain luminescent materials that can be combined with CNCs to obtain photonic films that retain long-range chiral nematic organization. These new functional materials have potential application as luminescent sensors for metal ions or bioimaging purposes.


We present a technique which allows subtle nonlinear quasi-static deformations of articulated characters to be compactly approximated by data-dependent eigenbases which are optimized for real time rendering on commodity graphics hardware. The method extends the common Skeletal-Subspace Deformation (SSD) technique to provide efficient approximations of the complex deformation behaviours exhibited in simulated, measured, and artist-drawn characters. Instead of storing displacements for key poses (which may be numerous), we precompute principal components of the deformation influences for individual kinematic joints, and so construct error-optimal eigenbases describing each joint's deformation subspace. Pose-dependent deformations are then expressed in terms of these reduced eigenbases, allowing precomputed coefficients of the eigenbasis to be interpolated at run time. Vertex program hardware can then efficiently render nonlinear skin deformations using a small number of eigendisplacements stored in graphics hardware. We refer to the final resulting character skinning construct as the model's EigenSkin. Animation results are presented for a very large nonlinear finite element model of a human hand rendered in real time at minimal cost to the main CPU.


We employed solid state reaction technique to synthesize ZnGa2O4 particles, produced in steps of mixing/milling the ingredients in H2O following thermal treating under 1200 °C. We compare spinel and partially inverse spinel structure in ZnGa2O4 particles using Rietveld refinement. Crystal structure of ZnGa2O4 particles was identified with two structural phases; normal spinel structure and partially inverse spinel structure using Rietveld refinement. It is found that the partially inverse spinel structures occupy nearly 13% and the rest is normal spinel structure. The obtained X-ray diffraction data show that lattice constant and the position of Oxygen atoms remain almost constant in both structures. The characterization of the particles was also improved using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy measurements. The optical analyses were done with UV–visible spectroscopy. The band gap, calculated from climate point of UV–visible data, was found as 4.6 ± 0.1 eV. Despite no unexpected compound (such as ZnO and Ga2O3) in the structure, the optical analyses were shown defective ZnO structure in ZnGa2O4.


The research and development work toward a compact SF$_6$-free load break switch for the medium voltage range has led to several design proposals. The interruption capability of three different nozzles and gas flow concepts with atmospheric air as the interrupting medium is compared and assessed. The three test switches are installed in circuits corresponding to the mainly active load and switch-fuse test duties of the 24 kV/630 A load break switch standard. A pressure tank is used to provide different air flow rates, and the interruption capabilities of the different flow concepts are compared with basis in the tank pressure required to give successful interruptions. Two hundred and seventy current interruption tests were carried out. Air flows directed radially onto the arc or swirling along the arc turn out to result in a substantially better interruption performance than when the air flows straight and parallel to the arc. Air flows corresponding to upstream over-pressures of a few tenths of a bar seem to be sufficient for an air-based load break switch rated for 24 kV/630 A.


The aims of this research are (1) determine the feasibility, (2) estimate the contribution of fisheries to the household income and (3) formulate business development strategies for seeding and enlargement of the tilapia catfish and carp comoditiesy   Sleman regency. Purposive sampling was used and the following locatios District Ngemplak, Moyudan, and Minggir. Data collection was perfomed proptionally interviewing 15 farmers in hatchery operations and enlargement of catfish, tilapia, and carp. The feasibility analysis tools used was the analysis of costs and revenues, financial analysis that includes the Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Net Benefit Cost (Net B/C), Payback Period (PP), and Break Event Point (BEP). Descriptive analysis was used for contributions to household income. The formulation of the strategy was carried out by the SWOT matrix analysis. The feasibility analysis result are NPV hatchery of catfish Rp. 193.091.118, NPV enlargement of catfish Rp 17.943.762, NPV hatchery of tilapia Rp 60.162.636, NPV of enlargement of tilapia Rp 31.850.378, NPV hatchery of carp Rp 44.981.614, and NPV enlargement of carp Rp 39.507.351. IRR hatchery of catfish 66%. IRR enlargement of catfish 29%. IRR hatchery of tilapia 63% IRR enlargement of tilapia 77%, IRR hatchery of carp 33% and IRR enlargement of carp 52%. Net B/C hatchery of catfish 1,57, Net B/C enlargement of catfish 1,08, Net B/C hatchery of tilapia 1,48, Net B/C enlargement of tilapia 1,65, Net B/C hatchery of carp 1,09 and Net B/C enlargement of carp 1,63. The payback period below 3 years. Fish farming contributes to the monthly family income at 48,87% and is above the minimum regional wages in Sleman. Thus the cultivation of freshwater fish in Sleman is feasible because it is profitable and can incease the family income. Aquaculture business development strategies can be applied based on the SWOT matrix and the feasibility result that include innovation, taking advantage of the simplicity of production and infrastructure factors that support freshwater fish farming and increasing the role of entrepeneurs and the stakholders through the development if technology and information.


The term "lifelog" refers to a comprehensive archive of an individual's quotidian existence, created with the help of pervasive computing technologies. Lifelog technologies would record and store everyday conversations, actions, and experiences of their users, enabling future replay and aiding remembrance. Products to assist lifelogging are already on the market; but the technology that will enable people fully and continuously to document their entire lives is still in the research and development phase. For generals, edgy artists and sentimental grandmothers alike, lifelogging could someday replace or complement, existing memory preservation practices. Like a traditional diary, journal or day-book, the lifelog could preserve subjectively noteworthy facts and impressions. Like an old-fashioned photo album, scrapbook or home video, it could retain images of childhood, loved-ones and travels. Like a cardboard box time capsule or filing cabinet it could store correspondence and documents. Like personal computing software, it could record communications data, keystrokes and internet trails. The lifelog could easily store data pertaining to purely biological states derived from continuous self-monitoring of, for example, heart rate, respiration, blood sugar, blood pressure and arousal. To the extent that it preserves personal experience for voluntary private consumption, electronic lifelogging looks innocent enough, as innocent as Blackberries, home movies, and snapshots in silver picture frames. But lifelogging could fuel excessive self-absorption, since users would be engaged in making multimedia presentations about themselves all the time. The availability of lifelogging technology might lead individuals to overvalue the otherwise transient details of their lives. Furthermore, the potential would be great for incivility, emotional blackmail, exploitation, prosecution and social control by government surrounding lifelog creation, content and accessibility. Existing privacy law and policy do not suggest meaningful limits on unwanted uses of lifelogging data. This parry of the costs and benefits commences a fuller discussion of lifelogging's ethical and legal implications.


[1] Aerosol retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Terra and Aqua platforms are available from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) data sets. Over ocean, two aerosol products are reported side by side. The primary M product is generated by subsetting and remapping the multispectral (from 0.47 to 2.1 μm) MOD04/MYD04 oceanic aerosol data onto CERES footprints. M*D04 processing uses cloud screening and aerosol algorithms developed by the MODIS science team. The secondary AVHRR-like A product is generated in only two MODIS bands. The A processing uses the CERES cloud-screening algorithm and NOAA/NESDIS glint identification and single-channel aerosol retrieval algorithms. The M and A products have been documented elsewhere and preliminarily compared using 2 weeks of global Terra CERES SSF edition 1A data, in which the M product was based on MOD04 collection 3. In this study, the comparisons between the M and A aerosol optical depths (AOD) in MODIS band 1 (0.64 μm), τ1M and τ1A, are reexamined using 9 days of global CERES SSF Terra edition 2A and Aqua edition 1B data from 13 to 21 October 2002 and extended to include cross-platform comparisons. The M and A products on the new CERES SSF release are generated using the same aerosol algorithms as before but with different preprocessing and sampling procedures, thus lending themselves to a simple sensitivity check to nonaerosol factors. Both τ1M and τ1A generally compare well across platforms. However, the M product shows larger differences, which increase with ambient cloud amount and toward the solar side of the orbit. The cross-platform, cross-product, and cross-release comparisons conducted in this study confirm an earlier observation that the major area for improvement in the current aerosol processing lies in a more formalized and standardized sampling (most importantly, cloud screening), whereas optimization of the aerosol algorithm is deemed to be an important yet less critical element.


There are many interface schemes that allow users to work at, and move between, focused and contextual views. We review and categorise these schemes according to the interface mechanisms used to separate and blend views. The four approaches are spatial separation, typified by overview+detail interfaces; temporal separation, typified by zoomable interfaces; seamless focus+context, typified by fisheye views; and cue-based techniques which selectively highlight or suppress items within the information space. Critical features of these categories, and evidence of their success, are discussed. The aim is to provide a succinct summary of the stateof-the-art, to illuminate successful and unsuccessful interface strategies, and to identify potentially fruitful areas for further work.


This paper investigates the statistical relationship between integration policies and public opinion toward immigrants. Overall, the eighteen reviewed studies indicate that integration policies are strongly associated with the general public?s level of perceived threat from immigrants and, perhaps, to their level of anti-immigrant attitudes. Inclusive policies can be said to reduce the level of perceived threat while exclusionary policies tend to reinforce perceptions of threat. Since most studies could not establish a causal link, further research is needed to corroborate the impact of integration policies on public opinion.


"I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera, Ah this indeed is music-this suits me."-Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself" America has had a love affair with opera in all its forms since it was first performed here in colonial times. This book-the first comprehensive cultural and social history of musical theater in the United States-includes vignettes of productions, personalities, audiences, and theaters throughout the country from 1735 to the present day. John Dizikes tells how opera, steeped in European aristocratic tradition, was transplanted into the democratic cultural environment of America. With a wealth of colorful detail, he describes how operas were performed and received in small towns and in big cities, and he brings to life little-known people involved with opera as well as famous ones such as Oscar Hammerstein, Jenny Lind, Gustav Mahler, Enrico Caruso, Milton Cross, Maria Callas, and Leonard Bernstein. He tells us about the often overlooked African American contribution to operatic history, from nineteenth-century minstrel shows to the work of Scott Joplin and Marian Anderson, and he discusses operetta and Broadway musicals, recognized everywhere in the world as one of the triumphs of American twentieth-century art. Dizikes considers the increasingly diverse operatic audiences of the twentieth century, shaped by records, radio, and television, and he describes the places where opera now flourishes-not only New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, but also St. Louis, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Santa Fe, Seattle, and elsewhere. Generously illustrated and engagingly written, the book is a fitting tribute to its subject-as grand and entertaining as opera itself.


Cell surface oligosaccharides control cell adhesion, fertilization, inflammation, the immune response and metastasis. Their biosynthesis implies sequences of reactions catalysed by glycosidases and glycosyltranferases. Inhibitors of these enzymes are therefore potential antiviral, antibacterial, antimetastatic, antidiabetes, antihyperglycemic, antiadhesive or immunostimulatory agents. Carbohydrate mimetics are among the most powerful inhibitors of these enzymes. They are more stable towards endogenous degradative enzymes, they have improved bioavailability and reduced clearances rates, and they have a higher affinity and selectivity for their cognate receptors by taking advantages of interactions that the natural saccharide does not. Besides the polyhydroxylated piperidines, pyrrolidines, indolizidines, pyrrolizidines and nortropanes, important classes of glycomimetics are C-glycosides and aza-C-disaccharides. Aza C-disaccharides are an emergent class of glycomimetics that combine the features of azasugars and C-glycosyl compounds. The first part of this work was devoted to the synthesis of new aza-C(1—>2)-disaccharides. The type of reaction applied to generate the C-C linkage-bond to join the two monosaccharide fragments was an aldol reaction. Reaction of 4,6-O-benzylidene-2-deoxy-α-D-erythro-hexopyranosid-3-ulose and a N-protected pyrrolidine-derived aldehyde generated the corresponding aldol adduct. First assays of aldol coupling gave poor yields. The reaction was improved by realizing the instability of the aldehyde partner, increasing the concentration, decreasing the temperature and by addition of HMPA as stabilizer of the enolate intermediate. From the aldol adduct a first aza-C-disaccharide with a hydroxy group on the methano linker and with D-allose configuration for the pyranose ring was prepared. In order to synthesize branched aza-C-disaccharides without heteroatom on the methano linker, dehydration of the β-hydroxyketone (aldol adduct) was done. Best results for this transformation were obtained using DAST as dehydration agent, in order to avoid secondary reactions. Dehydrated E and Z isomers were thus obtained. Further transformations from these isomers generated two other aza-C(1—>2)-disaccharides with D-allose and D-glucose configuration for the pyranose ring, respectively. In the second part of this work a new and efficient combinatorial methodology has been developed for the design and screening of new inhibitors of α-mannosidases. A family of iminederivatives was formed by mixing amines and aldehydes in a 96-wells microplate. The inhibitory activities against two different mannosidases were measured in situ. On the other hand, isolated imines showed analogous activities to the mixtures prepared in the microplates. The rapid biological screening makes the method a valuable tool. Moreover minutes amounts of products are required. This method can be applied for the discovery of new lead compounds of all classes of enzymes and biopolymers.


This paper presents an adaptive framework for prognostics in civil aero gas turbine engines, which incorporates both performance and degradation models, to predict the remaining useful life of the engine components that fail predominantly by gradual deterioration over time. Sparse information about the engine configuration is used to adapt a performance model, which serves as a baseline for implementing optimum sensor selection, operating data correction, fault isolation, noise reduction and component health diagnostics using nonlinear Gas Path Analysis (GPA). Degradation models, which describe the progression of faults until failure, are then applied to the diagnosed component health indices from previous run-to-failure cases. These models constitute a training library from which fitness evaluation to the current test case is done. The final remaining useful life (RUL) prediction is obtained as a weighted sum of individually evaluated RULs for each training case. This approach is validated using dataset generated by the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation (CMAPSS) software, which comprises both training and testing instances of run-to-failure sensor data for a turbofan engine, some of which are obtained at different operating conditions and for multiple fault modes. The results demonstrate the capability of improved prognostics of faults in aircraft engine turbomachinery using models of system behavior, with continuous health monitoring data.


Studies of transcriptome profiles have provided new insights into mechanisms underlying the development of hypertension. Cell type heterogeneity in tissue samples, however, has been a significant hindrance in these studies. We performed a transcriptome analysis in medullary thick ascending limbs of the loop of Henle isolated from Dahl salt-sensitive rats. Genes differentially expressed between Dahl salt-sensitive rats and salt-insensitive consomic SS.13BN rats on either 0.4% or 7 days of 8.0% NaCl diet (n=4) were highly enriched for genes located on chromosome 13, the chromosome substituted in the SS.13BN rat. A pathway involving cell proliferation and cell cycle regulation was identified as one of the most highly ranked pathways based on differentially expressed genes and by a Bayesian model analysis. Immunofluorescent analysis indicated that just 1 week of a high-salt diet resulted in a severalfold increase in proliferative medullary thick ascending limb cells in both rat strains, and that Dahl salt-sensitive rats exhibited a significantly greater proportion of medullary thick ascending limb cells in a proliferative state than in SS.13BN rats (15.0±1.4% versus 10.1±0.6%; n=7–9; P<0.05). The total number of cells per medullary thick ascending limb section analyzed was not different between the 2 strains. The study revealed alterations in regulatory pathways in Dahl salt-sensitive rats in tissues highly enriched for a single cell type, leading to the unexpected finding of a greater increase in the number of proliferative medullary thick ascending limb cells in Dahl salt-sensitive rats on a high-salt diet.


The amounts of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco), total chlorophyll (Chl), and total leaf nitrogen were measured in fully expanded, young leaves of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), and pea (Pisum sativum L.). In addition, the activities of whole-chain electron transport and carbonic anhydrase were measured. All plants were grown hydroponically at different nitrogen concentrations. Although a greater than proportional increase in Rubisco content relative to leaf nitrogen content and Chl was found with increasing nitrogen supply for rice, spinach, bean, and pea, the ratio of Rubisco to total leaf nitrogen or Chl in wheat was essentially independent of nitrogen treatment. In addition, the ratio of Rubisco to electron transport activities remained constant only in wheat. Nevertheless, gas-exchange analysis showed that the in vivo balance between the capacities of Rubisco and electron transport in wheat, rice, and spinach remained almost constant, irrespective of nitrogen treatment. The in vitro carbonic anhydrase activity in wheat was very low and strongly responsive to increasing nitrogen content. Such a response was not found for the other C(3) plants examined, which had 10- to 30-fold higher carbonic anhydrase activity than wheat at any leaf-nitrogen content. These distinctive responses of carbonic anhydrase activity in wheat were discussed in relation to CO(2)-transfer resistance and the in vivo balance between the capacities of Rubisco and electron transport.


Current school guidance and policies from central government place behaviour as a key priority. Historically, governments have also placed behaviour at the forefront. Recently, for example, the 2010 White paper, Department for Education (DfE) 'Behaviour and Discipline in Schools' guidance (2011), and Education Minster Nicky Morgan's appointment of a behaviour tsar (Tom Bennett) tasked with advising policy on how to raise standards of behaviour in schools (2015) confirms this emphasis. Even though regulatory bodies recognise the importance of schools managing 'problematic behaviours' there appears to have been a failure to explicitly define what constitutes a problem behaviour in schools. However, this is not surprising given the continuing controversy regarding how 'behaviour' (and particularly, 'problematic behaviour') should be characterised and defined. To date the support for schools and teachers to better understand 'behaviour' characteristics and more importantly 'difficult behaviours' is limited. Thus, the issue of behaviour and its management in schools is a longstanding concern. This raises the issue of how schools can continue to raise standards when no clear definition is offered to guide leaders and teachers to better understand 'behaviours'.
This thesis addresses these concerns in a systematic attempt to promote understanding of the following key areas:
1. How teachers define 'problematic' classroom behaviours and their reasons for this.
2. How teachers respond to such 'problematic' behaviours in classroom settings.
3. The extent to which teachers reflect upon such 'problematic' behaviours and the impact their responses have on the learners previously identified as exhibiting 'problematic' behaviours.
This work incorporates a comprehensive review of how schools have historically managed pupil behaviours with reference to biological and sociological influences. For the purpose of this study, the ways in which relevant ideas and their boundaries are formed held particular interest. Hence, the methodology incorporates a heuristic approach. There was a primary interest in reviewing how teachers define and respond to behaviours deemed 'problematic'. The methodological approach allowed both the researcher and research respondent to discover if factors such as gender, length of service, or subject area helped to define and shape teacher definitions. A key aim was to understand how teachers respond to those defined behaviours by identifying and analysing: a) What types of non-verbal and verbal communications do teachers use and why?
b) What sanctions/ rewards do teachers use and why?
c) To what extent do teachers use their classroom environment to respond to behaviours, i.e., seating arrangements, behaviour rules displayed?
d) How and when do teachers use support networks in the management of behaviours?
e) What heuristics do teachers employ in relation to their decision around defining learners' 'problematic' behaviours?
The research project concluded by examining the extent to which teachers reflect upon problematic behaviours, considering the possible impacts that their responses have towards pupils displaying 'problematic' behaviours.
This main issue identified in this study was teacher congruency, i.e., how what teachers say and do when defining and managing pupils' problematic behaviours differed. It is those observed differences in teachers' consistency which was of most interest. The disparity in the ways different teachers identified and responded to 'problematic' behaviours was considered against the national backdrop, in which new benchmarks for behaviour have been produced (2015 Ofsted framework).The NFER 2012 findings, which identified pupils' problematic behaviours as a contributing factor for teacher stress and teacher recruitment, especially within the secondary sector, provided an important context for this work while also highlighting the potential importance of enhancing understanding in this area. The study argues that teachers and education settings could benefit from understanding how teachers' definition and management of pupils' problematic behaviours might be influenced by factors not necessarily directly linked to those behaviours. By better understanding the processes involved in the identification and management of pupils' and their problematic behaviours more parity between what teaches do and say may be achieved.


In this new "Technology Q&A" column, the technology expert answers questions submitted by JVIB readers. This month's question was submitted by a case manager at an independent living center who wrote: I am working with several individuals who have lost vision later in life. They cannot use the computer for personal communication, access to information, and entertainment as their peers do at our center. They want to be able to send and receive e-mail, look up things of interest on the Internet and play games. However, they often cannot see the letters on the keyboard without bending very close, and the mouse pointer or the text on the screen is very difficult if not impossible for them to see. What options exist for enhancing the size and viewability of a standard computer? Are there other options seniors who do not have much, if any, computer experience could use more easily? Many of the people I work with are on fixed incomes. Are there affordable means of adapting a standard computer? Thanks for any help you can give me. There are a number of options for increasing the size and contrast of the information presented on a computer screen without needing to purchase an expensive screen magnifier. Computers running relatively recent versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system have a number of built-in accessibility features (such features in Apple Macintosh computers are discussed at the end of this column). Although these built-in features may not be as versatile as the screen magnification and screen reading software that is currently available in the marketplace, they have the advantage of requiring no additional cost from the consumer. Here are some tips to get started. CONTROL PANEL In Windows, it is possible to modify and customize a variety of the computer's features through the Control Panel, an area that contains a variety of options for controlling the visual aspects and accessibility features of the computer. The Control Panel is located on the Start menu, possibly under Settings in some versions of Windows. Accessibility Options Accessibility Options in the Control Panel includes a list of selections that enable users to apply certain accessibility features Microsoft has built into Windows. This option has tabs to control the display, keyboard, and the mouse and its cursor and to allow an individual to add sounds that may be helpful for confirming that a program has launched or that a new message has been received by the computer's e-mail application. Accessibility Options is available on most Windows operating systems. However, selections within Accessibility Options vary depending on which version of the operating system the computer is running. Once Accessibility Options is open, choose the Display tab. One of the selections in the Display tab adjusts the Cursor Options Blink Rate. By increasing or decreasing the rate at which the cursor blinks, it may become easier for a computer user with low vision to see the cursor when working in word processing programs. Also within the Display tab is the Cursor Options Width control. This tool is designed to change the width of the cursor that appears on the screen, making it easier to locate and follow the cursor when entering information. Once all the desired changes have been made within the Display tab, select the Apply button followed by the OK button to enact your changes. (The Apply button followed by the OK button needs to be pressed to put into effect the changes made in the other tabs of Accessibility Options, as well.) In order to see the changes that were made to the cursor, a word-processing document needs to be opened in an application such as Microsoft Word. Display Properties Like Accessibility Options, Display Properties is located within the Control Panel. Within this multipage dialog box are various options for changing the computer screen's appearance. …


most instances gastro-oesophageal reflux has only been of clinical importance when occurring in association with a partial thoracic stomach (hiatal hernia).' Recognition of a partial thoracic stomach can thus provide a most valuable and reliable guide to the existence of pathological reflux. Herein lies the importance of radiological examination, for only by the use of fluoroscopy during a barium swallow is it possible to detect the presence of a partial thoracic stomach. Radiology has long been the accepted routine method for investigating gastro-oesophageal reflux and should remain so in preference to all other investigatory procedures not because of any greater accuracy in detecting reflux but because it affords the only way of identifying a partial thoracic stomach. It is essential, however, that this examination be undertaken by a radiologist with experience of this problem since a partial thoracic stomach can sometimes prove difficult to identify. This is not to say that every infant with clinical features suggestive of gastro-oesophageal reflux should be examined radiologically. I agree completely with Dr A Massarano (10 August, p 411) that a carefully evaluated history and clinical assessment will obviate the need for any form of further investigation in most instances. Radiological study is required only in the minority of regurgitating infants who show no response to treatment with thickened feeds2 and those with additional symptoms suggestive of a partial thoracic stomach.3 To these should be added all regurgitating younger siblings of children with a partial thoracic stomach because of the high familial incidence of this disorder (I J Carre, P Thomas. Paper presented at annual meeting of the Society for Pediatric Radiology, Boston, 1985).


We recently demonstrated that blood–brain barrier permeabilization using mannitol enhances the therapeutic efficacy of systemically administered human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) by facilitating the entry of neurotrophic factors from the periphery into the adult stroke brain. Here, we examined whether the same blood–brain barrier manipulation approach increases the therapeutic effects of intravenously delivered HUCB in a neonatal hypoxic‐ischaemic (HI) injury model. Seven‐day‐old Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to unilateral HI injury and then at day 7 after the insult, animals intravenously received vehicle alone, mannitol alone, HUCB cells (15k mononuclear fraction) alone or a combination of mannitol and HUCB cells. Behavioural tests at post‐transplantation days 7 and 14 showed that HI animals that received HUCB cells alone or when combined with mannitol were significantly less impaired in motor asymmetry and motor coordination compared with those that received vehicle alone or mannitol alone. Brain tissues from a separate animal cohort from the four treatment conditions were processed for enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay at day 3 post‐transplantation, and revealed elevated levels of GDNF, NGF and BDNF in those that received HUCB cells alone or when combined with mannitol compared with those that received vehicle or mannitol alone, with the combined HUCB cells and mannitol exhibiting the most robust neurotropic factor up‐regulation. Histological assays revealed only sporadic detection of HUCB cells, suggesting that the trophic factor–mediated mechanism, rather than cell replacement per se, principally contributed to the behavioural improvement. These findings extend the utility of blood–brain barrier permeabilization in facilitating cell therapy for treating neonatal HI injury.


Under the guise of consumer protection, lawyers and bar associations have used disparate litigious mechanisms to thwart, inadvertently or not, the use of self-help legal technology. This paper will demonstrate that such adversity is not logical after a consideration of the technical functions that the software performs and unduly restricts underserved populations' access to the law because of the misapplication of policy to vaguely worded laws. This paper will provide a thorough analysis of legal action taken against the high-profile company LegalZoom under the theory of unauthorized practice of law provides direct support of this claim. Summary and critique of this litigation will demonstrate the realworld effects of the traditional legal industry's wielding of the weapon of unauthorized practice of law in order to resist disruptive legal technology. It will further consider whether the application of the unauthorized practice of law rules to legal technology logically align with policy reasons for the implementation of these rules. Comparing these policies to the American Bar Association recommendations on unauthorized practice of law regulation, this paper will consider their validity in light of emerging views of the relationship between the professional rules and legal technology. I argue that that more permissive regulation of self-help legal technology is better for two reasons. First, anticipating the precise scope of the benefits of legal technology in the future is not possible due to the fast pace of improvements. And second, permissive rules leave space for experimentation and innovation, maximizing the number of people who have access to affordable legal services.


As shown in the early 1960s, the gain in stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is drastically suppressed when the rate of creation of phonons (via pump-to-Stokes conversion) is exactly balanced by the rate of phonon annihilation (via pump-to-anti-Stokes conversion). This occurs when the phonon coherence waves synchronized vibrations of a large population of molecules have identical propagation constants for both processes, i.e., they are phase-velocity matched. As recently demonstrated, hydrogen-filled photonic crystal fiber pumped in the vicinity of its zero dispersion wavelength provides an ideal system for observing this effect. Here we report that Raman gain suppression is actually a universal feature of SRS in gas-filled hollow-core fibers, and that it can strongly impair SRS even when the dephasing rate is high, particularly at high pump powers when it is normally assumed that nonlinear processes become more (not less) efficient. This counterintuitive result means that intermodal stimulated Raman scattering (for example between LP01 and LP11 core modes) begins to dominate at high power levels. The results reported have important implications for fiber-based Raman shifters, amplifiers or frequency combs, especially for operation in the ultraviolet, where the Raman gain is much higher.


Although Africa is host to the vast majority (and the most deadly) of conflicts in the world, it would appear that there is a distinct lack of genuine interest in African affairs shown by the UN Security Council and its key members. This paper proposes a 10-level scale of response system to measure the seriousness of the Council in dealing with conflicts. By comparing the Council response with the size and severity of each individual conflict, the scale attempts to assess the Council performance in the fulfilment of its duty to restore international peace and security. The results show that Africa has been (and remains) marginalized in the Council work.


The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires not-for-profit hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to engage in meaningful community assessment and collaboration efforts in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. Now that the ACA has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, this paper argues that the requirements related to a more robust community engagement process should be embraced by Catholic not-for-profit hospitals and health systems. Apart from the legal requirements under ACA, an equally persuasive moral mandate to engage in community-level assessment and action exists in the ethical tradition of Catholic health care, particularly in the notions of the common good, preferential option for the poor, and subsidiarity. This paper examines the compelling nature of these moral norms in light of the dual goals of improving overall community health and reducing health disparities among vulnerable populations. It concludes with the examination of one model of community collaboration: Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP).