Here, we combine the use of host screening, protein crystallography and QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how the protein structure affects iminium catalysis by biotinylated secondary amines in a model 1,4 conjugate addition reaction. Monomeric streptavidin (M-Sav) lacks a quaternary structure and the solvent-exposed reaction site resulted in poor product conversion in the model reaction with low enantio- and regioselectivities. These parameters were much improved when the tetrameric host T-Sav was used; indeed, residues at the symmetrical subunit interface were proven to be critical for catalysis through a mutagenesis study. The use of QM/MM simulations and the asymmetric dimeric variant D-Sav revealed that both Lys121 residues which are located in the hosting and neighboring subunits play a critical role in controlling the stereoselectivity and reactivity. Lastly, the D-Sav template, though providing a lower conversion than that of the symmetric tetrameric counterpart, is likely a better starting point for future protein engineering because each surrounding residue within the asymmetric scaffold can be refined for secondary amine catalysis.


A series of mono- and multimeric polyamine-containing ferrocenyl complexes containing a quinoline motif were prepared. The complexes were characterised by standard techniques. The molecular structure of the monomeric salicylaldimine derivative was elucidated using single crystal X-ray diffraction and was consistent with the proposed structure. The antiplasmodial activity of the compounds were evaluated in vitro against both the NF54 (chloroquine-sensitive) and K1 (chloroquine-resistant) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The polyamine derivatives exhibit good resistance index values suggesting that these systems are beneficial in overcoming the resistance experienced by chloroquine. Mechanistic studies suggest that haemozoin formation may be the target of these quinoline complexes in the parasite. Some of the complexes exhibit moderate to high cytotoxicity against WHCO1 oesophageal cancer cells in vitro. The monomeric ferrocenyl-amine complexes exhibit potent activity against this particular cell line. The complexes were also screened against the G3 strain of Trichomonas vaginalis and the salicylaldimine complexes demonstrated promising activity at the tested concentration. All of these compounds show no inhibitory effect on several common normal flora bacteria, indicative of their selectivity for eukaryotic pathogens and cancer.


The creation in DSM-5 of a new category 'unspecified catatonia' aspires to improve diagnosis and treatment of catatonia in patients of all ages without diagnosable major psychotic, affective or medical disorders. Unspecified catatonia may be particularly beneficial in boosting recognition and treatment of pediatric catatonia that often occurs outside these disorders. Until now, pediatric catatonia has been poorly recognized. Benzodiazepines and electroconvulsive therapy are underutilized in pediatric catatonia, yet are safe and effective treatments without the risk of worsening catatonia or precipitating neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Unspecified catatonia should be considered when catatonic symptoms are present in children and adolescents with autistic and other developmental disorders, autoimmune encephalitides, tic disorders (with or without self-injury) and Tourette's syndrome, Kleine–Levin syndrome, post-traumatic reactions, pervasive refusal syndrome and other disorders. The aspirations of the 'unspecified catatonia' category to reduce morbidity and mortality and to increase further research are bound to be tested in the field of pediatric catatonia over the next few years. Changes in DSM-5 regarding the classification of catatonia are reviewed. Case reports are presented to illustrate the use of the new category, unspecified catatonia, in children and adolescents.


Background Center-specific TTR (c-TTR) is a measure reporting the mean patient TTR within an anticoagulation clinic describing the quality of anticoagulant monitoring offered by that clinic. c-TTR has a considerable between-center variation, but its determinants are poorly understood. Objectives We aimed at evaluating which clinical, procedural or laboratory factors could be associated with c-TTR variability in a multicenter, observational cross-sectional study over a five-year period. Patients/Methods Data from 832,204 individual patients followed for VKA therapy in 292 Centers affiliated with the Italian Federation of Anticoagulation Clinics (FCSA) were analyzed. c-TTR was computed based on the TTR of patients followed at each Center, and a mixed linear regression model was used for a predefined set of explanatory variables. Results The Center next-visit interval ratio (the mean number of days after a visit with an INR outside the therapeutic range, divided by the days after a visit with an INR within the therapeutic range), the Center mean patient INR and the Center laboratory performance at EQA proficiency testing were the only variables that were independently associated with c-TTR (β-coefficients -17.32, 9.67, and -0.11, respectively; r 2 = 0.635). Conclusions These findings suggest that c-TTR associates with proactive strategies aimed at keeping patients very close to their target INR with a prompt re-evaluation of those patients with under- or over-therapeutic INR.


An improved phase detection scheme for Mach-Zehnder and bimodal interferometers is presented. By using a 90° hybrid, always two outputs operate at a highly sensitive point and the phase-shift-unambiguousness is extended to a range of 2π. The phase detection is independent of mode attenuations and input power fluctuations.


The design of active semiconductor microdisk switches, modulators, or wavelength routers enabled by modulating the transfer characteristics of a resonant cavity is investigated. A simple theoretical model based on coupled-mode theory is used to elucidate design trends and constraints in the cases where electroabsorption, gain, and free carrier injection are employed to modulate the resonator characteristic.


The paper will discuss the phenomenology of drawing and how this may be useful for
thinking about documenting and holding information, to provide aids when working with
blind and visually impaired students. Drawing is said to be phenomenological: not only
capable of recording its own making, but also the movement of the thoughts and body of
the draftsman. Rosand (2002, p.16) states, "Responding to drawings, we make our way back,
through line, to the originary impulse of the draftsman. Interpretation involves a connecting
act of re-creation, the self-projection of the viewer reimagining the process of drawing." Are
these still viable claims when the visual element of the drawing is removed and replaced by
touch? Working from the standpoint of Merleau-Ponty (2004) - who sought to identify the
specific role of the body as mediator between the world and self - the paper will argue that
they are and, as a consequence, drawing has the potential to enhance the documentation
and transferring of information to the blind and visually impaired, through tactiles created
from their own experiences of drawing through touch.


Abstract. Automatic three-dimensions modeling of the real world is an important research topic in the geomatics and computer vision fields for many years. By development of commercial digital cameras and modern image processing techniques, close range photogrammetry is vastly utilized in many fields such as structure measurements, topographic surveying, architectural and archeological surveying, etc. A non-contact photogrammetry provides methods to determine 3D locations of objects from two-dimensional (2D) images. Problem of estimating the locations of 3D points from multiple images, often involves simultaneously estimating both 3D geometry (structure) and camera pose (motion), it is commonly known as structure from motion (SfM). In this research a step by step approach to generate the 3D point cloud of a scene is considered. After taking images with a camera, we should detect corresponding points in each two views. Here an efficient SIFT method is used for image matching for large baselines. After that, we must retrieve the camera motion and 3D position of the matched feature points up to a projective transformation (projective reconstruction). Lacking additional information on the camera or the scene makes the parallel lines to be unparalleled. The results of SfM computation are much more useful if a metric reconstruction is obtained. Therefor multiple views Euclidean reconstruction applied and discussed. To refine and achieve the precise 3D points we use more general and useful approach, namely bundle adjustment. At the end two real cases have been considered to reconstruct (an excavation and a tower).


The murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi took place inside the Saudi Arabian Consulate, Istanbul, in October 2018. This brutal political assassination, whose strategic, political and legal ramifications are still ongoing, provoked an international outcry, remaining prominent in the global news agenda for several months. This article will compare and contrast the information and analysis conveyed by Turkey's state news agency, the Anadolu Agency, with the Saudi Press Agency. The framing, rhetoric and discursive structures used by both sides while covering this incident will be thoroughly evaluated. The research purpose is threefold: First, this article seeks to examine the political and social dynamics underpinning the ensuing contest of media narratives in the region. Second, it aims to analyse the communication strategies employed by the two states, namely Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Not only are these two countries diametrically opposed in regard to the Khashoggi killing, they are also on a collision course concerning several geo-strategic matters throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Third, the article explores the use of news framing (in the words of Robert Entman) and the role of state news agencies as they publicise particular events and convey the vantage point of their respective ruling establishments. Beyond these objectives, this article will also offer some clues about the mediated geo-political space(s) in which the opposed framings proceed, bearing in mind that these battles of frames take place in English and involve several public spheres, ranging from the Eastern Mediterranean, to the Middle East, to the Anglophone global public arena.


A general framework of personalized federated multi-armed bandits (PF-MAB) is proposed, which is a new bandit paradigm analogous to the federated learning (FL) framework in supervised learning and enjoys the features of FL with personalization. Under the PF-MAB framework, a mixed bandit learning problem that flexibly balances generalization and personalization is studied. A lower bound analysis for the mixed model is presented. We then propose the Personalized Federated Upper Confidence Bound (PF-UCB) algorithm, where the exploration length is chosen carefully to achieve the desired balance of learning the local model and supplying global information for the mixed learning objective. Theoretical analysis proves that PF-UCB achieves an $O(\log(T))$ regret regardless of the degree of personalization, and has a similar instance dependency as the lower bound. Experiments using both synthetic and real-world datasets corroborate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


The Tertiary sediments preserved at St Agnes, Crousa Downs and Polcrebo Downs, Cornwall, are described in detail. The deposits at St Agnes have yielded two contrasting floras, one mid-Oligocene, the other Miocene in age. The latter appears to be the first recorded proven Miocene extant in the British landscape. Accordingly, it has become necessary to distinguish two discrete outliers at St Agnes: that termed the St Agnes Formation sensu stricto (Miocene) and the Beacon Cottage Farm Formation (Oligocene, the local equivalent of the Bovey Formation). A tripartite stratigraphy is proposed for the former, the upper and lower Members comprising wind-blown sands and the middle Member a colluvial slope-wash deposit; all were apparently formed under warm-temperate conditions. The sediments at Crousa and Polcrebo remain undated; both preserve deep weathering profiles of tropical or subtropical type in the Palaeozoic floor below and are themselves much affected by in situ deep weathering. Structurally, all four outliers appear to be simple erosional relics of once more widespread and, possibly, thicker sheets. No secondary structures have been identified. All four apparently survived as a result of their locations on prominent watersheds originating in at least mid- or even early Tertiary times. The geomorphological relations of the four outliers are considered in detail. The sub-St Agnes Surface is shown to be the homologue of a planation surface that is widely developed in west Cornwall at an elevation of between ca. 75-131 m above sea level (ASL). The latter is redefined and termed the Reskajeage Surface. Its age is shown to be pre-Upper Miocene rather than Pleistocene, as was previously widely held. There is indirect evidence that it formed subaerially over a long period during mid-Tertiary times; essentially, it appears to be an etchplain of tropical and subtropical origins, now largely stripped of its former saprolitic cover. It is demonstrated that the grosser physiography of west Cornwall was established by the end of the Palaeogene at the latest and, also, that the area has probably never been inundated by Tertiary seas, except shallowly near to the end of that period (i.e. by the St Erth transgression). The prolonged morphodynamic stability of the region, as established in this paper, has important consequences for the interpretation of landscape evolution elsewhere in areas of Oldland (i.e. post-Armorican) western Europe, especially where datable Tertiary deposits have yet to be recognized.


America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Best Care at Lower Cost explains that inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. According to this report, the knowledge and tools exist to put the health system on the right course to achieve continuous improvement and better quality care at a lower cost. The costs of the system's current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. About 30 percent of health spending in 2009--roughly $750 billion--was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state. This report states that the way health care providers currently train, practice, and learn new information cannot keep pace with the flood of research discoveries and technological advances. About 75 million Americans have more than one chronic condition, requiring coordination among multiple specialists and therapies, which can increase the potential for miscommunication, misdiagnosis, potentially conflicting interventions, and dangerous drug interactions. Best Care at Lower Cost emphasizes that a better use of data is a critical element of a continuously improving health system, such as mobile technologies and electronic health records that offer significant potential to capture and share health data better. In order for this to occur, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, IT developers, and standard-setting organizations should ensure that these systems are robust and interoperable. Clinicians and care organizations should fully adopt these technologies, and patients should be encouraged to use tools, such as personal health information portals, to actively engage in their care. This book is a call to action that will guide health care providers; administrators; caregivers; policy makers; health professionals; federal, state, and local government agencies; private and public health organizations; and educational institutions.... Download ebook, read file pdf The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America


Advanced hashing technique is essential to facilitate effective large scale online image organization and retrieval, where image contents could be frequently changed. Traditional multi-view hashing methods are developed based on batch-based learning, which leads to very expensive updating cost. Meanwhile, existing online hashing methods mainly focus on single-view data and thus can not achieve promising performance when searching real online images, which are multiple view based data. Further, both types of hashing methods can only produce hash code with fixed length. Consequently they suffer from limited capability to comprehensive characterization of streaming image data in the real world. In this paper, we propose dynamic multi-view hashing (DMVH), which can adaptively augment hash codes according to dynamic changes of image. Meanwhile, DMVH leverages online learning to generate hash codes. It can increase the code length when current code is not able to represent new images effectively. Moreover, to gain further improvement on overall performance, each view is assigned with a weight, which can be efficiently updated during the online learning process. In order to avoid the frequent updating of code length and view weights, an intelligent buffering scheme is also specifically designed to preserve significant data to maintain good effectiveness of DMVH. Experimental results on two real-world image datasets demonstrate superior performance of DWVH over several state-of-the-art hashing methods.


This article describes the application of computational decision analytic techniques for a national policy decision. It constitutes an example of the increasing use of modern computational decision methods to assist in decision-making in society. An integrated flood catastrophe model is presented as well as some results of a case study made in the Upper Tisza region in north-eastern Hungary. Background data was provided through the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and complemented by interviews with different stakeholders in the region. Based upon these data, where a large degree of uncertainty is prevailing, we demonstrate how an implementation of a simulation and decision analytical model can provide insights into the effects of imposing different policy options for a flood risk management program in the region. We focus herein primarily on general options for designing a public/private insurance and reinsurance system for Hungary. It should, however, be emphasized that the main purpose of this article is not to provide any definite recommendations, but rather to present a methodology for handling a set of policy packages with the aim of gaining a consensus among stakeholders.


Despite improvements in treatment options for breast cancer, breast cancer remains the most prevalent cancer affecting women worldwide. The heterogeneous nature of breast cancer tumors and the prevalence of drug resistance towards antiestrogen therapy are two major impediments in the treatment of breast cancer. Initial experiments conducted on the leaf extract of Cerbera odollam revealed that the extract contains an extremely potent cytostatic agent which is more effective towards hormone-responsive cell lines compared to hormone-independent cell lines. The active compound within the extract was determined to be neriifolin, which causes prolonged cytostatic effects for up to 10 days at a dose of 18.7 nM. Gene expression analyses indicate that the cytostatic activity of neriifolin is mediated by the estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) – estrogen signaling pathway as well as p53-dependent induction of the cell cycle inhibitor, p21WAF1. Increased oxidative DNA damage was observed as a result of neriifolin treatment, suggesting that neriifolin-induced cell death and cytostaticity occurs in response to DNA damage resulting from treatment. A high resolution melt-based method was developed to enable rapid detection of DNA methylation changes on the ERα gene (ESR1) promoter. While the active C. odollam plant fraction resulted in hypermethylation on the ESR1 promoter, treatment with neriifolin caused no detectable changes of DNA methylation patterns, suggesting that neriifolin treatment would not result in antiestrogen resistance. ESR1 promoter hypermethylation was also observed in cells deficient in p53. A possible relationship between ERα silencing and the formation of oxidative DNA damage was also investigated.


ABSTRACT Elder financial exploitation (EFE), the misuse of a vulnerable adult's property or resources for personal gain, is a form of elder abuse. This study addresses whether dual-eligible EFE victims were experiencing pent-up demand for health services alleviated through investigation by Adult Protective Services (APS). A quasi-experimental design addressed health service utilization and costs for 131 dual-eligible Maine APS clients over age 60 with substantiated allegations of EFE relative to comparable non-APS controls. APS case files spanning 2007–2012 were linked to 2006–2014 Medicare and Medicaid claims data. Service utilization and costs were analyzed 1 year prior, during, and 2 years after the initial APS investigation. Difference in differences logistic regression and generalized linear models addressed the likelihood of incurring costs and expenditure levels relative to matched controls, respectively. Victims of EFE had higher overall odds of using inpatient and long-term services and supports (LTSS) and higher odds of using LTSS post-investigation than controls. Higher overall levels of outpatient and prescriptions expenditures and higher inpatient expenditures during the APS event year contributed toward APS clients incurring $1,142 higher PMPM total costs than controls. Victims of EFE were experiencing significant pent-up demand for health services post-APS involvement.


Based upon an aggregate production function, this paper develops a growth model to test the hypothesis that the further the ownership moves into private hands, the greater are efficiency gains and the more rapid is economic growth. Using provincial data in the period 1985–1997, the paper finds that the hypothesis cannot be rejected in China. That is to say, provinces with greater progress in privatization witnessed greater gains in marginal productivity of capital and more rapid economic growth. To test the robustness of the finding, the study classifies forms of ownership into different categories that represent variant degree of the privatization process. The finding suggests that China should pursue the ownership reform in the direction of privatization to maintain growth momentum. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification:O53; O17; P2; P3


Abstract. In the last decade, we have observed an increasing demand for indoor scene modeling in various applications, such as mobility inside buildings, emergency and rescue operations, and maintenance. Automatically distinguishing between structural elements of buildings, such as walls, ceilings, floors, windows, doors etc., and typical objects in buildings, such as chairs, tables and shelves, is particularly important for many reasons, such as 3D building modeling or navigation. This information can be generally retrieved through semantic labeling. In the past few years, convolutional neural networks (CNN) have become the preferred method for semantic labeling. Furthermore, there is ongoing research on fusing RGB and depth images in CNN frameworks. For pixel-level labeling, encoder-decoder CNN frameworks have been shown to be the most effective. In this study, we adopt an encoder-decoder CNN architecture to label structural elements in buildings and investigate the influence of using depth information on the detection of typical objects in buildings. For this purpose, we have introduced an approach to combine depth map with RGB images by changing the color space of the original image to HSV and then substitute the V channel with the depth information (D) and use it utilize it in the CNN architecture. As further variation of this approach, we also transform back the HSD images to RGB color space and use them within the CNN. This approach allows for using a CNN, designed for three-channel image input, and directly comparing our results with RGB-based labeling within the same network. We perform our tests using the Stanford 2D-3D-Semantics Dataset (2D-3D-S), a widely used indoor dataset. Furthermore, we compare our approach with results when using four-channel input created by stacking RGB and depth (RGBD). Our investigation shows that fusing RGB and depth improves results on semantic labeling; particularly, on structural elements of buildings. On the 2D- 3D-S dataset, we achieve up to 92.1 % global accuracy, compared to 90.9 % using RGB only and 93.6 % using RGBD. Moreover, the scores of Intersection over Union metric have improved using depth, which shows that it gives better labeling results at the boundaries.


We describe a corpus study of the Anglicisms and false Anglicisms used by two major Italian newspapers (La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera) in their representation of the bailout and privatization of the Italian airline Alitalia. Our aim is to establish if and to what extent the use of new non-adapted Anglicisms in news reports of Alitalia's crisis and privatization, especially in the domains of economics and aviation, had an impact on the transparency of the information provided. The results show that, in the coverage of this news story, new Anglicisms are often left undefined, or provided with an inappropriate Italian equivalent. This may have made it more difficult for readers to develop a thorough understanding of Alitalia's crisis and privatization.


Differently from orthodox stabilization programmes, exchange rate based stabilization programmes (ERBS) show a peculiar cycle. Output, growth and consumption rise from the onset and there is a huge current account deficit. Since several programmes have been accompanied by huge capital inflows, the economic cycle is known as the capital inflows problem. The economic literature has identified the capital inflows problem with a situation where there is not fiscal adjustment or people do not believe in the programme (see chapter two). However, chapter one of this thesis shows that the cycle has been observed in successful and consistent programmes (Argentina 1991- , Bolivia 1985- , Israel 1985- and Mexico 1987-1994). It has been also observed in absence of capital inflows (Mexico 1988). Furthermore, some of its negatives consequences (eg balance of payments crises) have occurred in programmes under fiscal adjustment. These observations deserve an explanation. Chapter two makes a review of the literature about the economic effects of ERBS. Chapter three questions why successful ERBS have observed, increases in long run growth and/or output from the onset and also the symptoms of the capital inflows problem (higher consumption, current account deficits). To answer the question, the chapter sets a growth model in a cash in advance economy. The main results are that sluggish disinflation can increase the long run growth and definitely increases the long run output of the economy. However, it cannot explain the symptoms of the capital inflows problem by itself. When the model is extended to capture some externalities, then it suggests that the structural policies accompanying successful ERBS are responsible of higher consumption and current account deficits. In those cases, that situation is not a problem. Chapter four questions why the symptoms of the capital inflows problem may appear in absence of capital inflows. The answer is that these symptoms emerge when there is lack of credibility and the monetary policy is accommodative. In this context, actual fiscal policy is irrelevant to combat the problem if it cannot change expectations of future inflation. Monetary policy is effective but often produces huge fiscal costs since real interest rates have to rise considerably. When the actual fiscal deficit increases the future expected inflation, tight monetary policy may generate a perverse effect fuelling the symptoms of the problem. Chapter five questions why ERBS that apparently are consistent may be subject to the capital inflows problem and eventually to balance of payments crises. Political factors are responsible of this situation. The chapter sets a model that resembles the Mexican political system. Actual government chooses its successor. The former has incentives to choose a future candidate with preferences for high inflation. People, forecasting this possibility, consumes more in periods of low inflation. That generates the capital inflows problem. Chapter six concludes.


Summary: Approximately 300 pelagic fish species naturally aggregate around floating objects (FOBs) at the surface of the oceans. Currently, more than 50% of the world catch of tropical tuna comes from the industrial tuna fisheries around drifting FOBs. Greater understanding of the complex decision-making processes leading to this aggregation pattern and the impact of the massive release of artificial FOBs by fishermen on the spatial distribution and management of tuna is needed. We analyse how the interplay between social (relationships between individuals) and non-social (responses to the environment) behaviours may affect the spatial distribution of a population in a multi-FOB environment. Taking the example of tropical tunas associating with FOBs and using differential equations and stochastic simulations, we examine how, when increasing the number of FOBs, fish aggregation dynamics and the distribution of the population among patches are affected by the population size, level of sociality and the natural retentive and/or attractive forces of FOBs on individual tuna. Our model predicts that, depending on the species' level of sociality, fish will be scattered among FOBs or aggregated around a single FOB based on the number of FOBs deployed in a homogeneous oceanic region. For social species, we demonstrated that the total fish catch is reduced with increasing FOBs number. Indeed, for each size of population, there are a number of FOBs minimizing the total population of fish associated with FOBs and another number of FOBs maximizing the total population of associated fish. Synthesis and applications. In terms of fisheries management, the total catch volume is directly linked to the total number of floating objects (FOBs) for non-social species, and any limit on the number of sets would then result in a limit on the total catch. For social species (e.g. tuna), however, increasing the number of FOBs does not necessarily lead to an increase in the total catch, which is a non-intuitive result. Indeed, our model shows that, for specific values of the parameters, deploying a greater number of FOBs in the water (all other parameters being constant) does not necessarily help fishermen to catch more tuna, but does increase the level of fishing effort and bycatch. In terms of fisheries management, the total catch volume is directly linked to the total number of floating objects (FOBs) for non-social species, and any limit on the number of sets would then result in a limit on the total catch. For social species (e.g. tuna), however, increasing the number of FOBs does not necessarily lead to an increase in the total catch, which is a non-intuitive result. Indeed, our model shows that, for specific values of the parameters, deploying a greater number of FOBs in the water (all other parameters being constant) does not necessarily help fishermen to catch more tuna, but does increase the level of fishing effort and bycatch. © 2013 British Ecological Society.


The number of acetylcholine receptors was determined in the neuromuscular junctions of eight patients with typical myasthenia gravis and in five controls, by means of 1251-labeled α-bungarotoxin binding. The junctional acetylcholine receptors were reduced in the myasthenic muscles as compared with the controls. This reduction in receptors may account for the defect in neuromuscular transmission in myasthenia gravis.


This paper examines some of the features of the idea of an intellectual, accounting for the many nuances that its components enclose and the heterogeneous arguments that are elaborated in order to illustrate it. The development of the sections are based upon studies on the subject made by many analysts, and it reviews the changes attributable to the different historical situations, the vicissitudes of the relationship between intellectuals and politics, and especially, the difficult articulation between thought, democracy and inequality. As an illustration of the problematic ties which bind the university producers of knowledge with its own disciplinary field, the factors of power, the definition of their place in the struggles for the monopoly of knowledge and the means of orientation of collective life; the work includes an item on the conceptions of Argentine academics working in the field of sociology. In this case, data comes from in-depth interviews with professors- researchers developing activities in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. The findings aim to show that reflective thinking and power maintain unstable relationships that renew the debates about the role and reinstall the problem of the legitimacy of intellectual autonomy.


[The book] explores the connections between motherhood and the theater both on and off stage throughout the long eighteenth century. Although the realities of eighteenth-century motherhood and representations of maternity have recently been investigated in relation to the novel, social history, and political economy, the idea of motherhood and its connection to the theatre as a professional, material, literary, and cultural site has received little critical attention. The essays in this volume, spanning the period from the Restoration to Regency, address these forgotten maternal narratives, focusing on: the representation of motherhood as the defining female role; the interplay between an actress's celebrity persona and her chosen roles; the performative balance between the cults of maternity and that of the "passionate" actress; and tensions between sex and maternity and/or maternity and public authority. In examining the overlaps and disconnections between representations and realities of maternity in the long eighteenth century, and by looking at written, received, visual, and performed records of motherhood, Stage Mothers makes an important contribution to debates central to eighteenth-century cultural history.


Throughout history, many diseases have carried considerable stigma, including leprosy tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness and many STDs. Now HIV/AIDS is the topmost in the list of diseases that leads to devastating patient stigmatization. Despite international efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS, stigma and discrimination remain among the most poorly understood aspects of the epidemic. In the face of numerous intervention strategies, HIV/AIDS continues to spread and to pose a threat to the socio-economic transformation of South Africa. The broad objective of this study was to investigate how the stigmatisation of HIVPositive women is made manifest and look at how successful the National Association of people living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) in South Africa has been in achieving their objectives and goals of changing the perceptions people have about HIV/AIDS and creating awareness about the debilitating effect stigmatisation has in the society, especially when it viciously targets HIV-positive women. A case study approach was used to examine the experiences of HIV/AIDS infected/affected women and NAPWA administrators. Methods used in the collection of data were self-administered questionnaires, participant observation and archival evidence in the form of documents. Through these methods, the study investigated ways in which the stigmatisation of HIV-positive women was made manifest, the role of NAPWA in fighting HIV/AIDS stigmatisation, how successful NAPWA has been in the fight against the stigmatisation of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, challenges faced by NAPWA in the fight against HIV stigmatisation and discrimination, weaknesses of NAPWA and what impact all these have in the spread of HIV/AIDS. The research results show that HIV-positive women suffer stigmatisation and that; organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS (e.g. NAPWA-SA) play a major role in eradicating the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS. It also suggests that APWAs in effect help to reduce the spread of the disease and prolong the life span of those infected by it. All this not withstanding, the study also discovered that APWAs like NAPWA-SA need the support of government and stakeholders in South Africa to fully implement their strategies and programmes geared towards reducing stigma and the spread of HIV/AIDS.


Objectives: The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of fruits of Tribulus terrestris on
learning and memory in rodents. Materials and Methods: Thirty wistar rats were divided in 5 groups of 6 rats each.
Baseline values for the time taken to reach reward chamber (TRC) in the Hebb William Maze and transfer latency
(TL) in the T-maze were recorded on Day 1. Mean of 5 sessions was calculated for each rat. Group I was normal
control, group II piracetam standard, group III, IV and V received Tribulus terrestris orally at 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg
and 400mg/kg respectively for 14 days. At the end of 14 days, each rat was tested for TRC and TL and compared
with the control group. Results: Group IV showed a significant decrease in TRC when compared to group I in Hebb
William Maze (p<0.0001). Group IV also showed a significant decrease in TL when compared to group I in T-maze
(p<0.0001). Group III showed a significant decrease in TL when compared to group I in the T-maze (p=0.035),
however there was no decrease in TRC in this group. Conclusions: The aqueous extract of fruits of Tribulus
terrestris showed a dose dependent beneficial effect in learning and memory models in rats, with 200mg/kg being
most beneficial.


As Marxism has segued in and out of vogue, there is hardly a Marxian concept that has not at some time been questioned as anachronistic, in the light of the transformations in economic and political conditions that have occurred over the last century and a half. The current renewal of interest in Marx's ideas is no exception. One current idea that has attracted considerable support, especially among the young, is the notion that the idea of a working class defined by its direct relationship to production is outmoded. Since all aspects of life, such arguments go, have been drawn into the scope of the capitalist cash nexus in some way, all those who are not actually part of the capitalist class must be regarded as part of an undifferentiated 'multitude'.

In these debates particular attention has been paid to the value created online by 'virtual' or 'digital' labour. In the field which is becoming known as 'Internet studies', there have recently been energetic discussions about 'digital labour' and how it should be conceptualised. These debates have addressed the increasingly blurred boundaries between 'work' and 'play' (encapsulated in the term 'playbour') and between production and consumption ('prosumption' and 'co-creation'); discussed the problematic category of 'free labour' and questioned whether such labour, paid or unpaid, can be regarded as producing surplus value and whether it is 'exploitative' or 'alienated'. With the exception of Andrew Ross, few of these authors have drawn parallels with other forms of labour carried out offline. Yet, many of the questions they raise apply much more generally to labour under capitalism. These debates thus provide a useful starting point for investigating the labour theory of value itself, and how – or, some would wonder, even if – it can be applied in twenty-first century conditions.

This essay argues that it is still possible to apply Marx's theory in current conditions, to define what is, or is not, a commodity, to identify the point of production of such commodities, whether material or immaterial, and to define the global working class in relation to these production processes. In order to do so, however, it is necessary to re-examine the labour theory of value in all its dimensions. I pay particular attention to 'digital' or 'virtual' labour not only because it is currently attracting so much attention, but also because online labour is particularly difficult to conceptualise. It is thus a fertile source of cases against which to test more general hypotheses. If a theory can apply here, then it should be more generally applicable. The aim of doing this is to enable a mapping of the working class across the whole economy by applying the theory more broadly (as Marx did). This is an important task, in my view, because without a clear sense of which workers are engaged directly in the antagonistic relation to capital that characterises commodity production, and without identifying where that point of production is located, it is impossible to identify strategies that will enable labour to confront capital where it is possible to exercise some power to shape the future in its own interests.


The complexity of multi-level governance is well illustrated by forest management in one of Europe's large forested states, Sweden. Deregulated government policies emphasize 'freedom with responsibility', largely expecting the forest sector to determine ways in which policy goals and legal requirements are reached. In relation to this, Sweden has become one of the countries with the largest share of forests certified by third-party organizations, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), in accordance with specific environmental and social criteria. This multi-level case study draws on official documents and semi-structured interviews to analyze Swedish forest governance; specifically, the impact of multiplicity and complexity of environmental considerations on agreement over goal coordination, implementation, and evaluation for feedback and accountability. This contributes to previous research by analyzing interactions between state regulation and certification at multiple levels.


This study compared the responses of human participants studying motor interference and motor coordination when they were interacting with three different types of visual stimuli: a humanoid robot, a pendulum, and a virtual moving dot. Participants' responses indicated that participants' beliefs about the engagement of the robot affected the elicitation of the motor interference effects. Together with research supporting the importance of other elements of robot appearance and behavior, such as bottom-up effects and biological motion profile, we hypothesize that it may be the overall perception (in this study, by the term "overall perception," we mean the human observer's overall perception of the robot in terms of appearance, motion, and observer's beliefs) of a robot as a "social entity" instead of any individual appearance or motion feature that is critical to elicit the interference effect in human-humanoid interaction. Moreover, motor coordination responses indicated that the participants tended to synchronize with agents with better overall perception, which were generally in-line with the above hypothesis. Based on all the results from this experimental study, the authors suggest that a humanoid robot with good overall perception as a "social entity" may facilitate "engaging" interactions with a human.


Labeling data is an important step in the supervised machine learning lifecycle. It is a laborious human activity comprised of repeated decision making: the human labeler decides which of several potential labels to apply to each example. Prior work has shown that providing AI assistance can improve the accuracy of binary decision tasks. However, the role of AI assistance in more complex data-labeling scenarios with a larger set of labels has not yet been explored. We designed an AI labeling assistant that uses a semi-supervised learning algorithm to predict the most probable labels for each example. We leverage these predictions to provide assistance in two ways: (i) providing a label recommendation and (ii) reducing the labeler's decision space by focusing their attention on only the most probable labels. We conducted a user study (n=54) to evaluate an AI-assisted interface for data labeling in this context. Our results highlight that the AI assistance improves both labeler accuracy and speed, especially when the labeler finds the correct label in the reduced label space. We discuss findings related to the presentation of AI assistance and design implications for intelligent labeling interfaces.


The inclusion of references to human rights in the Paris Agreement was celebrated as a milestone towards greater integration of human rights in environmental and climate governance. Beyond their symbolic value, the significance of these provisions however depends on the extent to which they inform the implementation of the Paris Agreement both at the national and international levels. This article takes stock of the integration of human rights in climate governance and identifies concrete opportunities to ensure that human rights considerations are included in the Paris Implementation Guidelines to be adopted at COP-24, promoting climate action that aligns with Parties' human rights obligations. We first consider the relevance of human rights to climate action and the incremental recognition of these linkages in the international climate regime - both in the lead up to the adoption of the Paris Agreement and since. We then consider in specific terms how human rights could inform five key dimensions of the Paris Agreement's Implementation Guidelines: NDC guidance, adaptation communications, transparency framework, global stocktake, and the article 6 mechanisms. This article will reflect on past experience of how climate policy impacts human rights and on proposals put forward in the context of the negotiations of the implementation guidelines. It concludes with recommendations on a right-based approach to the implementation of the Paris Agreement.


Birth in the Age of AIDS is a vivid and poignant portrayal of the experiences of HIV-positive women in India during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood at the beginning of the 21st century. The government of India, together with global health organisations, established an important public health initiative to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. While this program, which targets poor women attending public maternity hospitals, has improved health outcomes for infants, it has resulted in sometimes devastatingly negative consequences for poor, young mothers because these women are being tested for HIV in far greater numbers than their male spouses and are often blamed for bringing this highly stigmatised disease into the family. Based on research conducted by the author in India, this book chronicles the experiences of women from the point of their decisions about whether to accept HIV testing, through their decisions about whether or not to continue with the birth if they test HIV-positive, their birthing experiences in hospitals, decisions and practices surrounding breast-feeding vs. bottle-feeding, and their hopes and fears for the future of their children.


The Upper Paleocene–Eocene rock record in the Faroe–Shetland Basin is punctuated by a series of unconformities that reflect a persistent tectonic instability throughout the syn- to early post-breakup period, a duration of about 20 myr. A particular focus is on a Late Paleocene subaerial unconformity, herein termed the Flett unconformity, which has been argued to have formed in response to a transient pulse of mantle convective uplift associated with a proto-Iceland plume. However, ambiguity over its presumed correlation with the Faroe Islands Basalt Group combined with stratigraphic and palaeogeographical analysis of the Upper Paleocene–Eocene succession indicates that it is just one of a series of subaerial unconformities that are spatially linked to the same part of the Faroe–Shetland Basin. Most of these Late Paleocene–Eocene unconformities post-date volcanism, and their formation coincides with vertical motions associated with phases of uplift, inversion and compressional deformation linked to the growth of structures, such as the Wyville Thomson and Munkagrunnur ridges, and the Judd Anticline. These deformation phases are broadly coeval with intraplate and plate-boundary events in the wider NE Atlantic region. The possibility that the Flett unconformity had a similar tectonic origin should not be discounted.


This working paper explores alternative means for broadband expansion: wireless broadband. Although at present, wireless broadband cannot provide anywhere close to the type of capacity available from advanced fiber networks, it has many other advantages. First, and perhaps foremost, wireless alternatives may be the only economically feasible means of broadband expansion to certain parts of the country. Although they cannot provide capacity that is measurable in terabits, as fiber networks might, wireless technology might nevertheless suffice for many modern applications: information acquisition for job search, health, and other needs; distance learning; and even streaming. Second, wireless broadband can permit mobility, something that wireline networks are not designed to provide. Finally, wireless networks can be deployed more rapidly than wireline networks, so that even if there are plans for higher capacity, wireline deployment in the future, wireless can meet more urgent needs. This report aims to explore the various regulations and technical aspects that characterize different wireless broadband alternatives. The report begins by exploring the historical and policy developments for various spectrum bands that are being actively used or could see near term deployment for the provision of wireless broadband. In addition, for several of these bands, we examine the existing rules governing these bands in the Code of Federal Regulations. In addition to looking at Federal spectrum related regulations, we also consider rules related to wireless infrastructure deployment at both the Federal and State levels. Finally, we synthesize our findings by comparing the costs and benefits associated with different spectrum bands.


This policy brief examines the role of complementary education (CEP) in progress towards Education for All in northern Ghana. The paper looks at the context of basic education that makes complementary education relevant. It also looks at the lessons and benefits of the CEP model and highlights key policy issues that need to be addressed in discussions on the state's attempts to utilise CEP to reach out to all school aged children in marginalised communities in Northern Ghana. It is based on the CREATE Pathways to Access Research Monograph, 'Complementary education and meaningful access to primary education in northern Ghana' (Arkoful, forthcoming).


The series "Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing" contains publications on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment, healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft computing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuroscience, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems, Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning paradigms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia.    The publications within "Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing" are primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results.   Indexed by DBLP, EI Compendex, INSPEC, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST), SCImago.  All books published in the series are submitted for consideration in Web of Science.


Lou et al. investigated the effect of phorbol esters on neurotransmitter release at the calyx of Held, a central synapse with a giant presynaptic nerve terminal. Phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate (PDBu) increased the amplitude of evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) and the frequency of spontaneous miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs) without affecting mEPSC amplitude (indicating a presynaptic mechanism). When release was evoked by photolysis of "caged" presynaptic Ca2+, the EPSC amplitudes and peak release rate evoked by weak Ca2+- uncaging stimuli (2.5 to 5 μM presynaptic [Ca2+]i) were markedly potentiated by PDBu, whereas those evoked by strong Ca2+ -uncaging stimuli (10 to 13 μM presynaptic [Ca2+]i) were not. Moreover, PDBu increased the frequency of mEPSCs at basal [Ca2+]i without affecting [Ca2+]i.. Measurement of release at near-basal [Ca2+]i indicated that, surprisingly, the Ca2+ cooperativity of release was low at [Ca2+]i values below 3 μM compared with that at higher concentrations. Modeling the data led the authors to propose an allosteric model in which vesicle fusion can occur even in the absence of bound Ca2+, with the rate of fusion increasing with increased occupancy of the Ca2+ sensor. In this model, phorbol esters enhance the basal "willingness" of vesicles to fuse with the cell membrane, an effect that the authors suggest could explain the link between increases in evoked and spontaneous release seen in many forms of synaptic plasticity. X. Lou, V. Scheuss, R. Schneggenburger, Allosteric modulation of the presynaptic Ca2+ sensor for vesicle fusion. Nature 435, 497-501 (2005). [PubMed]


This article, based on ethnography conducted in Istanbul, focuses on
the experience of the political among young, far-left Turkish militants and young
adults whose parents belong to the '78 revolutionary generation. It shows how
their 'red youth subculture' is imbricated with family, solidarity and generational
bonds. Through the analysis of ritualised political practices such as the May
Day parades, the feeling of nostalgia for a never-lived past, political meetings
and the role of politics in families, it argues that the experience of the political
is irreducible to a set of strategies and ideas: it consists of affections, corporeal
sensations, embodied knowledge, aesthetic choices and material culture, which
all contribute to substantialise relationships with the state, forms of intimacy and
practices of distinction.


J. B. Jackson, a pioneer in the field of landscape studies, here takes us on a tour of American landscapes past and present, showing how our surroundings reflect important changes in our culture. Because we live in urban and industrial environments that are constantly evolving, says Jackson, time and movement are increasingly important to us, place and permanence less so. We no longer gain a feeling of community from where we live or assemble but from common work hours, habits, and customs. Jackson examines the new vernacular landscape of trailers, parking lots, trucks, loading docks, and suburban garages, which all reflect this emphasis of motility and transience; he redefines roads as scenes of work and leisure and social intercourse - as places rather than as means of getting to places; he argues that pubic parks are now primarily for children, older people, and nature lovers, while more mobile or gregarious people seek recreation in shopping malls, in the street, and in sports arenas; he discusses the form and function of dwellings in New Mexico, from prehistoric Pueblo villages to mobile homes; and he criticizes the tendency of some environmentalists to venerate nature instead of interacting with it and learning to share it with others. Written with Jackson's customary lucidity and elegance, this book reveals his passion for vernacular culture, his insights into a style of life that blurs the boundaries between work and leisure, between middle and working classes, and between public and private spaces.


Just as the public increasingly wants corporate taxation to serve as a mechanism for ensuring that business contributes to society, the sustainability of corporate taxation is increasingly under challenge by a changing global landscape. This tension between the heightened demands placed on the corporate tax system and its reduced capacity prompts the question: How can an increasingly tenuous fiscal instrument be modified to accommodate rising expectations? In this paper, we address this question by reviewing the empirical evidence on, and conceptual underpinnings of, the corporate tax. We place the taxation of corporations in a wider context that links it to ongoing debates on corporate law and governance and on corporate social responsibility. Drawing on an agency cost perspective on the corporate tax, we argue that one approach to its reform is to focus on circumstances in which there may exist a coincidence of interests between shareholders and the general public. This perspective encompasses many of the themes of current debates surrounding the taxation of corporations. We also outline three possible alternative futures for the corporate tax that have quite different implications for efficiency and distribution. One involves enhanced multilateral cooperation to preserve the corporate tax, another involves abandoning (corporate and personal) income taxation in favour of consumption taxation, and the third entails abolishing the corporate tax (while transforming personal taxation to address the resulting tax planning opportunities for individuals).


The bacterium Lactococcus lactis has become a model organism in studies of growth physiology and membrane transport, as a result of its simple fermentative metabolism. It is also used as a model for studying the importance of specific genes and functions during life in excess nutrients, by comparison of prototrophic wild-type strains and auxotrophic domesticated (dairy) strains. In a study of the capacity of domesticated strains to perform directed responses toward various stress conditions, we have analyzed the heat and salt stress response in the established L. lactis subsp. cremoris laboratory strain MG1363, which was originally derived from a dairy strain. After two-dimensional separation of proteins, the DnaK, GroEL, and GroES heat shock proteins, the HrcA (Orf1) heat shock repressor, and the glycolytic enzymes pyruvate kinase, glyceral-dehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and phosphoglycerate kinase were identified by a combination of Western blotting and direct N-terminal amino acid sequencing of proteins from the gels. Of 400 to 500 visible proteins, 17 were induced more than twofold during heat stress. Two classes of heat stress proteins were identified from their temporal induction pattern. The fast-induced proteins (including DnaK) showed an abruptly increased rate of synthesis during the first 10 min, declining to intermediate levels after 15 min. GroEL and GroES, which also belong to this group, maintained a high rate of synthesis after 15 min. The class of slowly induced proteins exhibited a gradual increase in the rate of synthesis after the onset of stress. Unlike other organisms, all salt stress-induced proteins in L. lactis were also subjected to heat stress induction. DnaK, GroEL, and GroES showed similar temporal patterns of induction during salt stress, resembling the timing during heat stress although at a lower induction level. These data indicate an overlap between the heat shock and salt stress responses in L. lactis.


To minimize the impact of electronic waste recycling at the community level on public health and the environment, careful planning and appropriate solutions are needed. The authors worked with the Khok Saat community in Kalasin Province as a case study and found that it is most effective to involve all the stakeholders during management of the problem solving process. Some of the most important stakeholders are national and local government, community members, and local recyclers. There are two phases to this study. In the first phase, four existing public participation models were used to develop a new and more suitable public participation model. This new model identifies and includes seven groups of stakeholders and five degrees of participation. In the second phase, the new model was used to identify problems and find solutions regarding e-waste recycling in the affected community.   To apply the new model, focus groups were created and their opinions and views were gathered and analyzed by applying the Appreciation Influence Control (AIC) technique. Face to face interviews were conducted with various representative stakeholders using both structured and unstructured questionnaires completed by all participants. The focus group technique was shown to be the most suitable and most efficient approach to gathering information, and for delivering and clarifying information to the participants. The resulting effective solutions were divided into three Solution Groups, namely 'Use of an effective business model', 'Delivery of knowledge, skill, and technology', and 'Development of local regulations and law enforcement'. All three Solution Groups must be implemented in order to successfully decrease environmental and health impacts in the Khok Saat community. The new problem solving approach as well as the action model developed should be applicable to any other community regardless of country or culture.
Keywords:  Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Environmental Impact, Public Health Impact, Waste Recycling, Community Level


This article aims to give a general understanding about the popularity of electronic resources in Independent University, Bangladesh, which would help in shaping higher education in the country. Resources usages were determined on the basis of electronic resources providers' data. The article comes up with some important findings. Use of Emerald database in IUB found to be more rational compared to other three IP based databases. The ratios between the top-most and the 25th documents those opened, from Emerald 5:1, from JSTOR 13:1, from ABI/Inform 19:1, from OUP Journals 31:1. Users preferred PDF documents and Period had no influence over usage. The study only covered IP based electronic resources; password based or other free electronic resources were out of the study. This is the first case study on the use of electronic resources in Bangladesh, which would give Bangladeshi libraries a guidance regarding electronic resources subscription. Bangladesh Journal of Library and Information Science Vol.2(1) July 2012 pp.79-91 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjlis.v2i1.12924


Novel data has been leveraged to estimate the socioeconomic status in a timely manner, however, direct comparison on the use of social relations and talent movements remains rare. In this letter, we estimate the regional economic status based on the structural features of two networks. One is the online information flow network built on the following relations on social media, and the other is the offline talent mobility network built on the anonymized résumé data of job seekers with higher education. We find that while the structural features of both networks are relevant to the economic status, the talent mobility network in a relatively smaller size exhibits a stronger predictive power for the gross domestic product (GDP). In particular, a composite index of structural features can explain up to about 84% of the variance in GDP. The result suggests that future socioeconomic studies should pay more attention to the cost-effective talent mobility data.


Active modes of transportation are essential for the promotion of sustainable mobility. Increasing cycling and walking participation has the potential to improve various aspects of traffic congestion and contribute to human health. The goal of this study was to analyse the factors that influence the choice of active modes of transport on a university campus at Joinville in southern Brazil. An online cross sectional survey of students from two nearby universities was also conducted. Based on quota sampling, participants were surveyed regarding their mode of transport to and from campus, as well as their place of residence, socioeconomic data and trip information. A total of 284 responses were received, where only 22.5% of trips were made using active modes of transport. A binomial logistic model was used to identify the factors that influence modal choices. The results of this study indicate that modal choices are influenced by travel time, university, income, and marital status.


Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder of significant prevalence and morbidity, whose pathogenesis relies on paradoxical changes of emotional memory processing. An ideal treatment would be a drug able to block the pathological over-consolidation and continuous retrieval of the traumatic event, while enhancing its extinction and reducing the anxiety symptoms. While the latter benefit from antidepressant medications, no drug is available to control the cognitive symptomatology. Endocannabinoids regulate affective states and participate in memory consolidation, retrieval, and extinction. Clinical findings showing a relationship between Cannabis use and PTSD, as well as changes in endocannabinoid activity in PTSD patients, further suggest the existence of a link between endocannabinoids and maladaptive brain changes after trauma exposure. Along these lines, we suggest that endocannabinoid degradation inhibitors may be an ideal therapeutic approach to simultaneously treat the emotional and cognitive features of PTSD, avoiding the unwanted psychotropic effects of compounds directly binding cannabinoid receptors.


Prototype-driven text generation uses non-parametric models that first choose from a library of sentence "prototypes" and then modify the prototype to generate the output text. While effective, these methods are inefficient at test time as a result of needing to store and index the entire training corpus. Further, existing methods often require heuristics to identify which prototypes to reference at training time. In this paper, we propose a novel generative model that automatically learns a \emph{sparse} prototype support set that, nonetheless, achieves strong language modeling performance. This is achieved by (1) imposing a sparsity-inducing prior on the prototype selection distribution, and (2) utilizing amortized variational inference to \emph{learn} a prototype retrieval function. In experiments, our model outperforms previous prototype-driven language models while achieving up to a 1000x memory reduction, as well as a 1000x speed-up at test time. More interestingly, we show that the learned prototypes are able to capture semantics and syntax at different granularity as we vary the sparsity of prototype selection, and that certain sentence attributes can be controlled by specifying the prototype for generation.


Abstract : In this paper, we propose new algorithms for computing the Discrete Hartley and the Discrete Cosine Transform. The algorithms are based on iterative applications of the modified small n algorithms of DFT. The one dimensional transforms are mapped into two dimensions first and then implemented on two dimensional systolic arrays. Pipelined bit serial architectures operating on left to right LSB to MSB binary arithmetic is the basis of the hardware design. Different hardware schemes for implementing these transforms are studied. We show that our schemes achieve a substantial speed-up over existing schemes.


Abstract This paper presents the experimental breakthrough curves for conservative and non-conservative tracers through a fractured porous sandstone rock mass. An experimental model for the fractured rock mass was developed in the laboratory. This model consisted of 4 m long sandstone slabs, placed face to face parallel to each other. A small space of 4 mm wide was created between sandstone slabs, through which the water was allowed to flow. Sodium chloride and sodium fluoride solutes were used as conservative and non-conservative tracers through experiments. A numerical model was also developed for the solution of advective–dispersive transport equation including the equilibrium sorption and the first order degradation constant for reactive solute transport. The developed numerical model was used to simulate the observed experimental breakthrough curves through the fractured rock mass. The observation of the breakthrough curves indicates that the mass of solute reduces in the fracture due to sorption and diffusion of solute within the rock mass. An attempt has also been made to estimate the transport parameters such as effective diffusion, dispersion coefficients and sorption coefficients.


Finding outliers in datasets is a classical problem of high interest for (dynamic) social network analysis. However, most methods rely on assumptions which are rarely met in practice, such as prior knowledge of some outliers or about normal behavior. We propose here Out skewer, a new approach based on the notion of skewness (a measure of the symmetry of a distribution) and its evolution when extremal values are removed one by one. Our method is easy to set up, it requires no prior knowledge on the system, and it may be used on-line. We illustrate its performance on two data sets representative of many use-cases: evolution of ego-centered views of the internet topology, and logs of queries entered into a search engine.


Human activities have significantly altered not only the chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere, but also the climate system. Human influences have led to increases in well-mixed greenhouse gases, decreases in stratospheric ozone, and changes in the atmospheric burdens of sulfate and soot aerosols. All of these atmospheric constituents interact with incoming solar and outgoing terrestrial radiation. Human-induced changes in the concentrations of these constituents modify the natural radiative balance of Earth's atmosphere, and therefore perturb climate. Quantifying the size of the human effect on climate is a difficult statistical problem. 'Fingerprint' methods are typically used for this purpose. These methods involve rigorous statistical comparisons of modeled and observed climate change patterns. Fingerprinting assumes that each individual influence on climate has a unique signature in climate records. The climate fingerprints in response to different forcing factors are typically estimated with computer models, which can be used to perform the controlled experiments that we cannot conduct in the real world. One criticism of the findings of previous scientific assessments is that they have relied heavily on fingerprint studies involving changes in near-surface temperature. Recent fingerprint work, however, has considered a variety of other climate variables, such as ocean heat content, stratospheric temperatures,more » Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent, sea level pressure, atmospheric water vapor, and the height of the tropopause. These studies illustrate that a human-induced climate change signal is identifiable in many different variables and geographic regions, and that the climate system is telling us an internally- and physically-consistent story.« less


Chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) is standard of care, first‐tier clinical testing for detection of genomic copy number variation among patients with developmental disabilities. Although diagnostic yield is higher than traditional cytogenetic testing, management impact has not been well studied. We surveyed genetic services providers regarding CMA ordering practices and perceptions about reimbursement. Lack of insurance coverage because of perceived lack of clinical utility was cited among the most frequent reasons why CMA was not ordered when warranted. We compiled a list of genomic regions where haploinsufficiency or triplosensitivity cause genetic conditions with documented management recommendations, estimating that at least 146 conditions potentially diagnosable by CMA testing have published literature supporting specific clinical management implications. Comparison with an existing clinical CMA database to determine the proportion of cases involving these regions showed that CMA diagnoses associated with such recommendations are found in approximately 7% of all cases (n = 28,526). We conclude that CMA impacts clinical management at a rate similar to other genetic tests for which insurance coverage is more readily approved. The information presented here can be used to address barriers that continue to contribute to inequities in patient access and care in regard to CMA testing.


I develop a multitarget takeover model with bid revisions, in which bidders desire a reputation for having low valuations. Such a reputation increases the likelihood that future targets will accept low premium bids. Bidders develop reputation by using low take-it-or-leave-it offers. Consequently, tender premiums bid revision rates, and success rates are lower for continuing bidders than for those considering only a single target. Success rates vary within a series, and reputation building is more likely with highly correlated target valuations. I provide an exploratory empirical analysis consistent with lower premiums from continuing bidders and discuss some resulting implications regarding "raiders," conglomerates, and resistance strategies. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.


The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will likely revolutionize transiting exoplanet atmospheric science, due to a combination of its capability for continuous, long duration observations and its larger collecting area, spectral coverage, and spectral resolution compared to existing space-based facilities. However, it is unclear precisely how well JWST will perform and which of its myriad instruments and observing modes will be best suited for transiting exoplanet studies. In this article, we describe a prefatory JWST Early Release Science (ERS) Cycle 1 program that focuses on testing specific observing modes to quickly give the community the data and experience it needs to plan more efficient and successful transiting exoplanet characterization programs in later cycles. We propose a multi-pronged approach wherein one aspect of the program focuses on observing transits of a single target with all of the recommended observing modes to identify and understand potential systematics, compare transmission spectra at overlapping and neighboring wavelength regions, confirm throughputs, and determine overall performances. In our search for transiting exoplanets that are well suited to achieving these goals, we identify 12 objects (dubbed "community targets") that meet our defined criteria. Currently, the most favorable target is WASP-62b because of its large predicted signal size, relatively bright host star, and location in JWST's continuous viewing zone. Since most of the community targets do not have well-characterized atmospheres, we recommend initiating preparatory observing programs to determine the presence of obscuring clouds/hazes within their atmospheres. Measurable spectroscopic features are needed to establish the optimal resolution and wavelength regions for exoplanet characterization. Other initiatives from our proposed ERS program include testing the instrument brightness limits and performing phase-curve observations. The latter are a unique challenge compared to transit observations because of their significantly longer durations. Using only a single mode, we propose to observe a full-orbit phase curve of one of the previously characterized, short-orbital-period planets to evaluate the facility-level aspects of long, uninterrupted time-series observations.


Why should people--and economies--save? The typical answer usually focuses on the need to protect against future shocks, to smooth consumption during hard times, in short, to save for the proverbial rainy day. This book approaches the question from a slightly different angle. While saving to survive the bad times is important, saving to thrive in the good times is what really counts. People must save so they can invest in their own and their children's health and education, live productive fulfilling lives, and end their days in comfort and peace. Firms must save so they can grow productive enterprises that employ more workers in better jobs to produce quality goods for domestic and international markets. Governments must save to build bridges, highways, and airports that support a productive economy, to provide quality services such as education, health, water, and sanitation to their citizens, and to assure their senior citizens a dignified, worry-free retirement. In short, countries must save for a sunny day -a time when everyone can bask in the benefits of growth, prosperity, and well-being.


We present a statistical study of propagation times of solar wind discontinuities between Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft orbiting the L1 libration point and the Cluster quartet of spacecraft near the Earth's magnetopause. The propagation times for almost 200 events are compared with the predicted times from four different models. The simplest model assumes a constant convective motion of solar wind disturbances along the Sun-Earth line, whereas more sophisticated models take the orientation of the discontinuity as well as the real positions of the solar wind monitor and target into account. The results show that taking orientation and real position of the solar wind monitor and target into account gives a more precise time delay estimation in most cases. In particular, we show that recent modifications to the minimum variance technique can improve the estimation of propagation times of solar wind discontinuities.


THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT WALKS OF LIFE HAVE OVER THE PAST decade become familiar with the name Little Rock Reed, an American Indian activist and writer who had spent many years in a maximum-security prison because of his advocacy for prisoners' rights and the rights of American Indians. Few of those people, however, are aware that over the past several months, Little Rock has been forced underground and is now a political fugitive. As a personal friend and as an attorney working with him on behalf of the Aboriginal Ute Nation, I am impelled to write about his personal circumstances, which continue to impede the progress of our work. On July 5, 1993, several well-known and highly regarded social scientists and attorneys(1) submitted a petition for clemency/pardon to George Voinovich, governor of Ohio, on Little Rock's behalf. In their petition, they stated: After having carefully reviewed the enclosed "Statement of Facts Regarding Little Rock (a.k.a. Timothy) Reed's Situation with the Ohio Adult Parole Authority" and supporting documentation attached thereto, it is our informed opinion that Little Rock Reed, an articulate human rights advocate for American Indians and prisoners, has been made to serve many years in Ohio's maximum-security prison solely and expressly because of his legitimate and peaceful activism. In our opinion, the enclosed evidence indicates that because Little Rock Reed, while on parole, was exposing civil and criminal violations, which have been and continue to be committed by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority (APA), the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction, and other agencies that have influence with the APA, the APA intends to use its power to place Little Rock back in prison for up to fifteen more years to silence his voice. In fact, the evidence is so overwhelming that on June 4, 1993, after reviewing only a very small portion of |Little Rock's sworn affidavit and supporting documents~, a Kenton County, Kentucky, judge |acknowledged~ that Little Rock's life is |indeed~ in danger due to the fact that the APA has plans to politically imprison -- and very possibly to politically assassinate -- Little Rock if and when he comes out of hiding.... The petitioners also told Governor Voinovich that even though under Ohio law petitions for clemency or pardon are to be submitted to the APA for their review and recommendation, "in light of the APA's apparent conflict of interest in this particular case, such procedure would be entirely inappropriate" and "would preclude Little Rock from being given real consideration for pardon or clemency." Notwithstanding the above, on July 28, 1993, Governor Voinovich forwarded the petition to the APA for their recommendation. On July 30, 1993, the Ohio Parole Board denied the petition, stating that it will be given no consideration until Little Rock is back in the APA's custody. For those of us familiar with the facts set out in the petition, the Ohio Parole Board's response is appalling. Little Rock's affidavit, which is reproduced below, speaks for itself:(2) 1. I was convicted for aggravated robbery and sentenced to 7-to-25 years in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC). My sentence began in May of 1982. 2. Under Ohio law, I became eligible for parole after less than four and one-half years. Accordingly, I appeared before the parole board in 1986. Because I was serving a 180-day term in solitary confinement for having committed the offense of going on a hunger strike to protest the ODRC's refusal to recognize and respect the religious rights of American Indian prisoners, I was brought before the parole board clad in handcuffs and |shackles~. The members of the parole board stated to me then that if I were released on parole I could practice my traditional religious beliefs, the implication clearly being that if I were to drop the religious issue and impending lawsuit against the prison officials for religious deprivations, I would be granted a parole. …


This study was conducted in Rabun County, GA, on the Warwoman Wildlife Management Area to measure the annual accumulations and decomposition of leaf litter, fine woody fuel, and total fuel loadings on undisturbed sites across different topographical positions in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. There were five "treatments" used in this study, representing five topographic positions: ridge tops, middle, and lower slopes on northeast (325 to 125 degrees) and southwest (145 to 305 degrees) aspects. Ten plots (replicates) were established at each topographic position for a total of 50 plots. Results suggested that there were few differences in accumulation and decomposition of leaf litter, 1-, 10-, and 100-hour fuels among different topographical positions. The only exception was coarse woody debris, which had significantly more on northeast facing slopes (26.6 tons/ha) compared to all other slope positions (10.8 tons/ha). Ericaceous shrubs were present on 74 percent of plots and could have influenced the results.


Systemic administration of the cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) results in increased secretion of ACTH and corticosterone in rats. The available evidence suggests that the acute effects of IL-1 are exerted ultimately at the level of the hypothalamus to increase corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) secretion into the hypophyseal portal circulation, and hence the central drive on the pituitary-adrenal system. However, the route(s) and mechanism(s) by which circulating IL-1 gains access to central mechanisms governing pituitary-adrenal output remain poorly understood. In this study, we show that intravenous injection of IL-1 beta provokes time- and dose-dependent increases in the expression of the immediate-early gene c-fos, in identified CRF and oxytocin- producing cells of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH). Several cell groups known to be involved in central visceromotor regulation also displayed comparable time- and dose-related activation to systemic IL-1, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the central nucleus of the amygdala, the lateral parabrachial nucleus, and cell groups of the dorsomedial and ventrolateral medulla. Activation of circumventricular organs, which have been hypothesized to serve as central monitors of circulating IL-1, required doses roughly an order of magnitude above those required to activate CRF neurons in the PVH. Combined immunohistochemical and retrograde tracing experiments revealed many IL-1-responsive cells in the nucleus of the solitary tract and the ventrolateral medulla to be catecholaminergic and to project to the region of the PVH. Discrete and unilateral interruption of ascending catecholaminergic projections from the medulla attenuated IL-1-stimulated increases in Fos immunoreactivity and CRF mRNA in the PVH on the ipsilateral side. Disruption of descending projections from circumventricular structures associated with the lamina terminalis did not affect IL-1-mediated Fos induction in the PVH. We conclude that medullary catecholaminergic projections to the PVH play either a mediating or a permissive role in the IL-1- induced activation of the central limb of the hypothalamo-pituitary- adrenal axis.


We have developed a new multi-step strategy for quantum chemical calculations on atmospherically relevant cluster structures that makes calculation for large clusters affordable with a good accuracy-to-computational effort ratio. We have applied this strategy to evaluate the relevance of ternary ion induced nucleation; we have also performed calculations for neutral ternary nucleation for comparison. The results for neutral ternary nucleation agree with previous results , and confirm the important role of ammonia in enhancing the growth of sulfuric acid clusters. On the other hand, we have found that ammonia does not enhance the growth of ionic sulfuric acid clusters. The results also confirm that ion-induced nucleation is a barrierless process at high altitudes, but at ground level there exists a barrier due to the presence of a local minimum on the free energy surface.


Raised blood pressure (BP) is the world's leading mortality risk factor. Childhood BP substantially predicts adult levels, and although both prenatal and postnatal growth influence it, their relative importance is debated. In a longitudinal study (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) of 12 962 healthy children, we aimed to assess the relative contribution of different growth periods and of standardized measures of height versus weight-for-height (an adiposity marker) to BP at age 10 years. Conditional growth modeling was used in the 3230 boys and 3346 girls with BP measurements. Systolic BP was inversely associated with birth weight and weight-for-height but not length (−0.33, −0.27, and −0.12 mm Hg · SD−1; P=0.003, 0.035, and 0.35, respectively). In infancy, weight, weight-for-height, and height gains were all positively associated with systolic BP (0.90, 0.41, and 0.82 mm Hg · SD−1, respectively; all P<0.001). After infancy, all of the growth modalities were positively associated with systolic BP (weight, 1.91; weight-for-height, 1.56; height, 1.20 mm Hg · SD−1; all P<0.001). Similar but weaker associations were found with diastolic BP. Although BP at 10 years was associated with both prenatal and early postnatal growth, their influence was small compared with that of later growth. Because BP ranking relative to the population is substantially determined in the first decade of life, a focus on strategies to reduce the development of adiposity from infancy onward, rather than an emphasis on the nutrition and weight of mothers and infants, should bring greater reductions in population BP.


Overview – keypointsAcoustic terms: LAeq,T is the 'average' of the total sound. LA90,T is the background sound when the loudest elements are ignored. LAeqT and L90 do not take account of the type of the sound. Sound reduces with increasing distance from the source and is affected by weather and the landscape. At a distance of 1km you mainly only hear the low pitch (frequency) sounds.Mechanical noise from wind turbines is generally the result of faults or wear and tear. Most wind turbine noise is not mechanical, it is aerodynamic noise ie 'swish'. The sound from turbine blades is not steady, it fluctuates, this is called amplitude modulation (AM). Wind turbine noise can also contain noticeable tones. Generally, sounds containing tones more annoying. Wind turbine noise is more annoying than transport noise or noise from other industries. Reasons for recommendation that ETSU-R-97 is updatedModern wind turbines are considerably larger now than in those that were in place in 1997, this can result in more lower frequency noise and an increased risk of AM due to high level wind fluctuations. ETSU - R - 97 The Assessment and Rating of Noise from Wind Farms' is influenced by BS4142 Method for rating industrial noise affecting mixed residential and industrial areas. BS4142 is currently being updated. The draft revised BS4142 includes further emphasis on the annoyance from tones and fluctuations. The draft proposes that when both characteristics are present the two should individually be taken into account.The WHO guidance for indoor noise levels at night was 35dB when ETSU-R-97 was published in 1997, it has now been revised to 30dBETSU-R-97 advises using the LA90,10min noise index for both turbine and background noise. Most other relevant standards use LAeq for source noise. LA90 was adopted by ETSU-R-97 as it was assumed at the time of drafting that wind turbine noise was relatively steady and characterless. Evidence and knowledge since 1997 has highlighted that certain wind farms/single wind turbines produce AM and hence the original assumption within ETSU-R-97 that wind turbine noise was relatively steady and characterless no longer holds true. ETSU-R-97 needs to be updated to take account of much greater understanding of the acoustics of large wind turbines and the annoyance/health effects of wind turbine noise. In particular, consideration of the following content of ETSU-R-97 is recommended: • The statement that it is not necessary to use a margin above background approach in low-noise environments• The use of LA90 for both the background noise and the wind farm noise • Night time limit of 43dBA bearing in mind the revised WHO guidelines• The assumption that background noise rises with increasing wind speed• The consideration of fluctuations and tones.Specific issuesMore recent designs of wind turbines are much quieter than older designs. Many industries are required to apply Best Available Techniques (BAT) to prevent noise disturbances. The enquiry may wish to consider the age and type of turbines being proposed for installation in Northern Ireland. Anecdotally, many "new" wind turbines installed in Northern Ireland (NI) are in fact reconditioned turbines. On-going, long term monitoring by the developer would enable the continuing noise exposure of the nearby residents to be determined and increases in noise, beyond the predicted and permitted levels, to be identified and remedied.It is common practice for local planning authorities to set planning conditions to control or reduce noise levels, or to mitigate the impact of noise. Examples relating to wind turbine noise are provided in the IOA Good practice guide to the application of ETSU-R-97.There is a great deal of expertise within the Environmental Health profession in Northern Ireland's district councils. There is a considerable burden, on individual councils, associated with contributing to planning applications regarding wind turbines.It is suggested that a more strategic approach to both single turbine and wind farm applications would be beneficial, as opposed to the ad hoc approach currently employed in Northern Ireland. Danish policy The Danish policy includes• a replacement Scheme for Wind turbines on land • a recent emphasis on a planned and coordinated development of offshore wind farms • a loss of value scheme for dwellings• the option to purchase scheme. Erectors of large wind turbines shall offer for sale at least 20% of the wind turbine project to the local population.


This paper presents the results of evaluation of possible biophysical methods and approaches for registering of various non-ionizing radiation (NIR) wave types of the human body in the electromagnetic and optical range. Many types of NIR (electromagnetic waves, infrared radiation, thermo radiation, bioluminescence) emitted from the human body were reviewed. In particular the results on of spontaneous biophoton emission and delayed luminescence from the human body are submitted along with i nfrared thermography (IRT) results. It was shown that 1 cm 2 of skin generally emits ~85 photones for 1s. The intensity of biophoton emission ranges from 10 −19 to 10 −16 W/cm 2 (approx. ~1–1000 photons . cm -2. s -1 ). The specific photon emission from part of the human thumb was detected as a spectrum of various colours with the method of Colour coronal spectral analysis on a device with an electrode made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET hostafan) with applied electric voltage 15 kV, electric impulse duration 10 ms, and electric current frequency 15 kHz. It was established that photons corresponding to a red color emission of visible electromagnetic spectrum have energy at 1.82 еV. The orange color of visible electromagnetic spectrum has energy at 2.05, yellow – 2.14, blue-green (cyan) – 2.43, blue – 2.64, and violet – 3.03 eV. The reliable result measurement norm was at E ≥ 2.53 eV, while the spectral range of the emission was within 380–495 nm and 570–750 nm±5 nm. Also were estimated some important physical characteristics (energy of hydrogen bonds, wetting angle, surface tension) of water by the methods of non-equilibrium energy (NES) and differential non-equilibrium energy (DNES) spectrum of water, that helps understand in general how electromagnetic radiation interacts with water and establish the structural characteristics of water. Keywords: electromagnetic waves, infrared radiation, thermo radiation, bioluminescence, color coronal spectral analysis, NES, DNES


6 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France ABSTRACT: Time-series of growing season air temperature anomalies in the Parisian region and of Pinot noir grape harvest dates (GHD) in Burgundy (1676-2004) are analyzed in the frequency domain. Variability of both time-series display 3 significant frequency-bands (peaks significant at the 5% level): (1) a low-frequency-band (multi-decadal) with a 25 yr peak period, (2) a 3 to 8 yr band period (inter-annual) with a 3.1 yr peak period, and (3) a 2 to 3 yr band period (quasi-bien- nial) with a 2.4 yr peak period. Joint sea surface temperature/sea level pressure (SST/SLP) EOF analyses based on data from the 20th century along with spatio-temporal patterns for the above frequency-bands, are presented. SST anomalies were found to display early significant spatial SST patterns in the north Atlantic ocean (air temperature lagging by 6 mo) similar to those ob - tained from EOF analyses. It is proposed that the robust power spectra for the above frequency- bands are linked with Atlantic climate variability modulating western European climate: (1) the global Multi-Decadal Oscillation (MDO) with its Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) foot- print, (2) the Atlantic Inter-Annual (IA) fluctuations, and (3) the Atlantic Quasi-Biennial (QB) fluc- tuations. Moreover these specific western European climate signals are perceived as contributors to the timing of GHD in Burgundy. Thus, advance knowledge on the evolution and phasing of the above climate fluctuations become important elements for viticulture and wine industry management, since anthropogenic effects could have modified time-series patterns, particularly since the mid-1980s.


Abstract. In the context of building renovation, infrared (IR) cameras are widely used to perform the energy audit of buildings. They allow analysing precisely the energetic performances of existing buildings and thermal analyses represent a key step for the reduction of energy consumption. They are also used to assess the thermal comfort of people living or working in a building. Building Information Models (BIM) are widespread to plan the rehabilitation of existing buildings and laser scanning is now commonly used to capture the geometry of buildings for as-built BIM creation. The combination of thermographic and geometric data presents a high number and variety of applications (Lagüela and Díaz-Vilariño, 2016). However, geometric and thermal information are generally acquired separately by different building stakeholders and thermal analyses are performed with independence of geometry. In this paper, the combination of thermal and geometric information is investigated for indoor of buildings. The aim of the project is to create 3D thermographic point clouds based on data acquired by a laser scanner and a thermal camera. Based on these point clouds, BIM models might be enriched with thermal information through the scan-to-BIM process.