The existence of any elementary particle in universe requires the existence of some region of universe occupied by it. By taking the volume of this occupied region, the author will reformulate the relativistic quantum field theory using new 3-dimensional region-like idealization of elementary particles and hereinafter will call the total volume of all regions occupied by the elementary constituent particles of the quantum system the occupied volume. Also the author will call the set of all regions of universe filled by elementary constituent particles of the quantum system the occupied path. Always any quantum system is existed at a head of its occupied path. This path is growing by mutual filling and leaving regions of universe by its elementary constituent particles. The conservation of this elementary constituent particle requires the conservation of its occupied volume during this process. This requirement could be summarized by the following conditions: 1) the total volume of all regions of universe filled by the elementary constituent particles of the quantum system minus the total volume of all regions of universe left by these elementary constituent particles must be equal to the occupied volume of the quantum system; 2) the total increase in the occupied volume of the quantum system due to the absorption of another elementary particles from outside its occupied regions minus the total decreasing in its occupied volume due to the emission of another elementary particles outside its occupied regions must be equal to the occupied volume of it. The wave-particle duality of the elementary constituent particles implied accumulation of them as the finite set of interfered waves. This accumulation of elementary constituent particles causes the absolute probabilistic nature of event of finding the elementary consistent particle in specified interfered wave, and hence the mathematical representation of this interfered wave should take into account the value of probability amplitude of finding an elementary particle inside the region occupied specified interfered wave. In quantum theory this probability amplitude corresponds to complex amplitude of the wave function of interfered wave. Also in Hilbert's representation of the quantum theory these wave functions are representing the components of the quantum state vector. In this paper the author will develop the transformation theory of the region-like quantum state of the quantum system.


Digital television signal is a promising signal of opportunity for wireless positioning. This paper studies the time of arrival (TOA) estimation on the European standard DVB-T signals in the context of positioning. Theoretical analysis on the autocorrelation of the pilot signal and multipath error envelop suggests that DVB-T has the appropriate characteristics for positioning. A software defined radio-based DVB-T receiver is developed for field testing, in which the radio frequency DVB-T signals are first sampled by universal software radio peripheral, and then algorithms of the coarse symbol synchronization, the pilot detection, the first path acquisition, and the delay tracking are sequentially performed to obtain the TOA estimation. To quantify the TOA tracking results on real DVB-T signals, field testing campaigns are carried out in five cities in Southern France. Test results showed that, in the high signal-noise ratio condition, the 2-σ error interval is within 1 m. By taking into account all the field tests, the interval of 95% accuracy is within 4 m and the corresponding C/N0 varies from 48 to 62 dB-Hz. In addition, with the developed TOA estimation method, the synchronization of the emitters with global positioning system time is evaluated and the distance difference of the multiple emitters within single frequency networks are also measured during the tests.


The automatic extraction of brain vessels from Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) has found its application in vascular disease diagnosis, endovascular operation and neurosurgical planning. In this paper we first present a concise methodology, pros & cons of well-known vessel extraction techniques. A systematic survey of latest development in the area of vessel extraction by using region growing algorithms is present. Then we detail the main challenges of vessel extraction and segmentation area. Based on review and our experience in the area, we finally present enhancement in region growing algorithm. Our proposed algorithm shows performance improvement as compare to traditional region growing algorithm.


While parental influences on adolescent health behaviors are well recognized, there is limited understanding of the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of their parents' expectations and their sexual behaviors. This mixed-methods study explored how White and Asian American adolescents perceive parental expectations via parent–child interactions, and how such expectations relate to adolescents' self-reported sexual activities over time. Using gender-matched, in-depth interviews with 28 White and Asian American adolescents, ages 17 to 19, we explored adolescents' perceptions of parental expectations about when, how, and under what conditions adolescents should engage in sexual activity. Stronger conservative parental sexual expectations and disapproving parental attitudes were closely related to later sexual debut and fewer sexual partners. Perceived closeness determined the degree to which adolescents respected and incorporated their parents' beliefs, values, and sexual expectations. Future research should focus on developing family strategies to utilize the concept of perceived parental expectations.


This paper combines a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) with a no-arbitrage approach to build a multifactor affine term structure model (ATSM). The resulting no-arbitrage structural vector autoregressive (NA-SVAR) model implies that expected excess returns are driven by the structural macroeconomic shocks. This is in contrast to a standard ATSM, in which agents are concerned with non-structural risks. As a simple application of a NA-SVAR model, we study the effects of supply, demand and monetary policy shocks on the UK yield curve. We show that all shocks affect the slope of the yield curve, with demand and supply shocks accounting for a large part of the time variation in bond yields. The short end of the yield curve is driven mainly by the expectations component, while the term premium matters for the dynamics of the long end of the yield curve.


This paper develops an analytically tractable general equilibrium model of inventory dynamics based on a precautionary stockout-avoidance motive. The model's predictions are broadly consistent with the US business cycle and key features of inventory behavior. It is also shown that technological improvement of inventory management can increase, rather than decrease, the volatility of aggregate output. Key to this seemingly counterintuitive result is that a stockout-avoidance motive leads to a procyclical shadow value of inventories, which acts as an automatic stabilizer that discourages sales in booms and encourages demand in recessions, thereby reducing the variability of GDP. (JEL D92, E22, E23, E32, G31)


An Italian immigrant says, "I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: first, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all; and third, I was expected to pave them." Against all odds-a new language, new customs, and the ethnic slurs and catcalls of prejudice-Italian Americans paved the streets, rolled the cigars, sewed the clothes, cooked the meals, and did all manner of back-breaking work to build a new life in Lamerica, the land of success. The Italian American Family Album brings us into the heart of those immigrants' experiences. Through diaries, letters, interviews, and articles from magazines and newspapers we share the ordeals and the triumphs of the Italian American first setting foot on his new homeland. These personal accounts and family photographs of scores of Italian American families tell inspiring and courageous stories of hardship and suffering. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the journey across the Atlantic was remembered by many as the via dolorosa, the "sorrowful way." And even after arriving in the new homeland and successfully getting through immigration, finding a job and a place to live, and learning new ways of doing almost everything was a challenge. But there was joy in the new country, as well. The new arrivals were embraced by a community of fellow Italians with a grand sense of humor, an intense appreciation of music, and an even greater appreciation of good food. Life for the newcomer was full of old traditions and pleasure, and we hear first-hand how the old ways endured even as new philosophies and customs were embraced daily. Through the stories of the children of those early immigrants-writers Gay Talese and John Ciardi, entertainers like Tony Bennett, baseball great Yogi Berra, and others not famous, but still proud to call themselves Italian Americans-we see how family pride and strong ties to the old country survive even today. As Governor Mario Cuomo says in his introduction: "I have always been intensely proud that I am the son of Italian immigrants and that my Italian heritage helped make me the man I am." That pride and the unique experiences of the early Italian Americans are an integral part of our country's history. Through the memories and photographs from the albums of generations of Italian families we meet real people, cut of the same cloth as we are-a many-colored and multi-textured cloth of ethnic customs, languages, traditions, and memories. We are a nation of immigrants, and The Italian American Family Album belongs to each of us.


Yeast use at least three different strategies to regulate how transcription factors position genes within the nucleus, < a d d a r t t y p e = " r e l " d o i = " 1 0. 1 0 8 3 / j c b. 2 0 1 5 0 8 0 6 8 " > Randise-Hinchliff et al.< / a d d a r t > reveal. In budding yeast, many genes are recruited to nuclear pore complexes when they are induced, potentially hastening the export of transcribed mRNAs into the cytoplasm. Repositioning can be mediated by transcription factors that bind to specifi c sites—called DNA zip codes—within the genes' promoters. How cells regulate gene positioning remains unknown, however. The transcription factor Put3 binds to a zip code in the promoter of INO1 and moves this gene to the nuclear periphery when it is induced in response to inositol starvation. Randise-Hinchliff et al. found that, in the presence of inositol, transcriptional repressors prevent Put3 from binding to INO1's zip code by recruiting the histone deacetylase Rpd3(L), which presumably alters the promoter's chromatin structure. In contrast, the transcription factor Ste12 binds constitutively to the promoter of PRM1, and yet, the researchers found, it only moves this gene to the nuclear periphery in the presence of mating pheromone. The pheromone induces a MAP kinase signaling cascade that results in the phosphorylation and dissociation of a Ste12 inhibitor called Dig2, allowing PRM1 repositioning. Finally, Randise-Hinchliff et al. found that the transcription factor Gcn4 increases HIS4 targeting to the nuclear periphery when its abundance—and thus its occupancy of the HIS4 pro-moter—increases in response to amino acid starvation. Senior author Jason Brickner says that the different regulatory strategies allow cells to control gene positioning over different time scales; chromatin alterations and INO1 repositioning are relatively slow, whereas MAP kinase signaling and PRM1 targeting occur much faster. Changes in Gcn4 abundance, on the other hand, can fi ne-tune HIS4's nuclear position over intermediate time scales. < a d d a r t t y p e = " r e l " d o i = " 1 0. 1 0 8 3 / j c b. 2 0 1 5 0 7 0 5 4 " > Le et al.< / a d d a r t > identify a signaling circuit that may protect breast epithelial cells from the …


Conventional flow cytometry (FC) methods report optical signals integrated from individual cells at throughput rates as high as thousands of cells per second. This is further combined with the powerful utility to subsequently sort and/or recover the cells of interest. However, these methods cannot extract spatial information. This limitation has prompted efforts by some commercial manufacturers to produce state‐of‐the‐art commercial flow cytometry systems allowing fluorescence images to be recorded by an imaging detector. Nonetheless, there remains an immediate and growing need for technologies facilitating spatial analysis of fluorescent signals from cells maintained in flow suspension. Here, we report a novel methodological approach to this problem that combines micro‐fluidic flow, and microelectrode dielectric‐field control to manipulate, immobilize and image individual cells in suspension. The method also offers unique possibilities for imaging studies on cells in suspension. In particular, we report the system's immediate utility for confocal "axial tomography" using micro‐rotation imaging and show that it greatly enhances 3‐D optical resolution compared with conventional light reconstruction (deconvolution) image data treatment. That the method we present here is relatively rapid and lends itself to full automation suggests its eventual utility for 3‐D imaging cytometry.


Abstract. Globalisation and interregional exchange of people, goods, and services has boosted the importance of and reliance on all kinds of transport networks. The linear structure of road networks is especially sensitive to natural hazards. In southern Norway, steep topography and extreme weather events promote frequent traffic disruption caused by debris flows. Topographic susceptibility and trigger frequency maps serve as input into a hazard appraisal at the scale of first-order catchments to quantify the impact of debris flows on the road network in terms of a failure likelihood of each link connecting two network vertices, e.g. road junctions. We compute total additional traffic loads as a function of traffic volume and excess distance, i.e. the extra length of an alternative path connecting two previously disrupted network vertices using a shortest-path algorithm. Our risk metric of link failure is the total additional annual traffic load, expressed as vehicle kilometres, because of debris-flow-related road closures. We present two scenarios demonstrating the impact of debris flows on the road network and quantify the associated path-failure likelihood between major cities in southern Norway. The scenarios indicate that major routes crossing the central and north-western part of the study area are associated with high link-failure risk. Yet options for detours on major routes are manifold and incur only little additional costs provided that drivers are sufficiently well informed about road closures. Our risk estimates may be of importance to road network managers and transport companies relying on speedy delivery of services and goods.


We present well-dated high-resolution Holocene records of sea-surface temperature (SST) and upwelling intensity off northwest (NW) Africa. We identify long-term cooling trends over the Holocene in the subtropical North Atlantic in response to boreal summer insolation. A pronounced cooling event of similar to 1 degrees C ca. 8.5 cal ka indicates a large-scale reorganization of the ocean current system possibly induced by meltwater from the northern North Atlantic. Our alkenone SST record off Cape Ghir provides strong evidence for the impact of ocean circulation changes on subtropical North Atlantic SSTs. It is likely that cold waters were propagated to the subtropics via the Canary Current in a way similar to Heinrich events and the Younger Dryas off Cape Blanc. We find 2-3 k.y. periodic variations in SST and upwelling intensity off NW Africa superimposed on the cooling trend. Such a cycle has been documented in various paleoclimate archives in phase with solar forcing. We show that these variations on millennial time scales are linked to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre circulation and the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation, and in particular to changes in the pressure gradient between the Icelandic Low and the Azores High. This suggests that oceanic circulation, in response to solar forcing, played a more important role in the generation of 2-3 k.y. cyclicity than has been previously considered.


This study investigates the impact of Turkish 'settlers' on conceptions of collective identity in northern Cyprus during the period 1995-2013. It traces the discursive effects of immigration and the citizenship status of populations from Turkey on competing identity narratives in the context of Cyprus's EU accession by focusing on three distinct empirical domains: political parties, civil society and the print media. Inspired by the conceptual framework of the poststructuralist discourse theory and constructivist readings on nationalism and immigration, the investigation seeks to explain the discursive mechanisms of identity construction and transformation in relation to immigration from Turkey which represents a key element in the narration of identity in northern Cyprus. More specifically, the thesis explores how the presence of populations from Turkey has been framed within the dominant narratives on identity along two antagonistic versions: Turkishness and Cypriotness. Using qualitative methodology based on discourse analysis, the empirical sections trace the continuity and change in these narratives and their framing of the 'settler issue' in the course of Cyprus's EU accession and the ongoing anticipation on part of the Turkish-Cypriot community for eventual membership. The purpose of the investigation is to reveal the logic of securitization within both discourses that compete to attach a meaning onto identity in northern Cyprus. The findings demonstrate that the discursive space of the Turkish-Cypriot community is dominated by these competing, securitised versions of subjectivity and belonging. Traditionally interpreted within the hegemony of Turkishness, the antagonistic reading of immigration and the citizenship status of 'settlers' by the subversive Cypriotness discourse also reveals the potential to significantly increase the appeal of alternative visions and projects through securitization. Indeed, the northern Cyprus case testifies that appeal to identity involves much more than a source of self-identification, involving a contestation over autonomy, statehood and purpose. In this sense, the thesis aspires to make a contribution in both empirical and conceptual terms. The investigation of identity politics in relation to Turkish 'settlers' provides fascinating empirical findings on Turkish-Cypriot politics and society but also the Turkish-Cypriot perceptions of Turkey which have attracted limited scholarly attention thus far. Placing the investigation within the wider discourse-analytical framework also offers significant insights to complement existing understandings of the political relevance of identity in particularly intriguing migration settings found in unrecognised states but also in other contexts involving similar dynamics such as the presence of a 'kin'state. The current thesisthus offers a particular aspect of the infamous 'Cyprus Problem' but one that points to many 'bigger' stories in Europe and beyond.


In Becoming Palestine, Gil Z. Hochberg examines how contemporary Palestinian artists, filmmakers, dancers, and activists use the archive in order to radically imagine Palestine's future. She shows how artists such as Jumana Manna, Kamal Aljafari, Larissa Sansour, Farah Saleh, Basel Abbas, and Ruanne Abou-Rahme reimagine the archive, approaching it not through the desire to unearth hidden knowledge, but to sever the identification of the archive with the past. In their use of archaeology, musical traditions, and archival film and cinematic footage, these artists imagine a Palestinian future unbounded from colonial space and time. By urging readers to think about archives as a break from history rather than as history's repository, Hochberg presents a fundamental reconceptualization of the archive's liberatory potential.


Purpose – The move from congregated living arrangements to more homely, community-based accommodation is a policy objective in many developed countries but its implementation is rarely monitored. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – The National Intellectual Disability Database in Ireland provided the data to explore the changes in provision that occurred from 1999 to 2009 for nearly 8,000 adults resident in either congregated or community-based accommodation.Findings – Over the ten years, there was a marked rise in the numbers living in community group homes and by 2009 just under 50 per cent of persons resided in community settings. Although there was a reduction in the number of places in congregated options over the decade, this was not uniform in that increased numbers of persons were living in new forms of congregated provision designated as specialist units. Moreover, the estimated annual turnover of 2.4 per cent vacancies per annum meant that nearly half of the new admissions were to congregated settings. Over the ten years, a few people moved to a different type of accommodation although more people moved from congregated to community settings than vice versa. A few moved to more independent living arrangements. Despite unprecedented increased investment in services in this period, on average only 70 new places were created per annum – a 1 per cent increase on total places.Research limitations/implications – Outmoded models of residential provision are likely to persist unless there is sustained investment in new forms of provision largely through a planned transfer of resources.Originality/value – This national study illustrates how policy changes could be monitored in other countries.


The C-Band All-Sky Survey is a project to map the full sky in total intensity and linear polarization at 5 GHz. The northern component of the survey uses a broad-band single-frequency analogue receiver fitted to a 6.1-m telescope at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California, USA. The receiver architecture combines a continuous-comparison radiometer and a correlation polarimeter in a single receiver for stable simultaneous measurement of both total intensity and linear polarization, using custom-designed analogue receiver components. The continuous-comparison radiometer measures the temperature difference between the sky and temperature-stabilized cold electrical reference loads. A cryogenic front-end is used to minimize receiver noise, with a system temperature of ≈30 K in both linear polarization and total intensity. Custom cryogenic notch filters are used to counteract man-made radio frequency interference. The radiometer 1/f noise is dominated by atmospheric fluctuations, while the polarimeter achieves a 1/f noise knee frequency of 10 mHz, similar to the telescope azimuthal scan frequency.


A geophysical investigation of an archaeological site in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska, was conducted in 2014 by an interdisciplinary team consisting of researchers from Cornell University, Bucknell University, Central Washington University, and the U. S. National Park Service. The site is known for a historic cabin, Slaven's Roadhouse, which was constructed on a deep, stratified river terrace. This landform was previously found to contain archaeological materials that are at least 4000 years old. The geophysical study, which included a combination of ground-penetrating radar, magnetic, electromagnetic, and electrical methods, revealed details of the depositional context and potential archaeological features of likely Middle Holocene origin, the age of which is supported by radiocarbon dates of charcoal found in association with some of the detected anomalies.


Abstract: A growing trend in higher education institutions
 (HE) to move course offerings to Blended Learning (BL) modes is
 challenging many of our traditional views and practices of teaching
 and learning. Part of the problem is that many of those working
 within these institutions at the macro, meso and micro levels have
 stubbornly resisted abandoning the view that knowledge is imparted
 by the institution and that knowledge is consumed by students.
 Advances in technology have upturned this positionality as learners
 and institutions alike realize that roles are evolving in the
 process of education. Tracking the scholarship on BL, for example,
 reveals a major issue preventing successful learning outcomes is
 reticence on the part of learners to be socially interactive and
 engaged online. Through the lens of socialcultural and identity
 theories and a conceptualization of engagement being composed of
 behavioural, emotional and cognitive components, this paper aims to
 respond to a call for greater insight into this pressing issue. With
 findings from a recent qualitative longitudinal study of a BL
 program in a large private‑for‑profit university in Chile we unravel
 the complex social psychological aspects that contribute to
 learners' willingness, or unwillingness, to engage in interacting
 with others and with content online – an essential determinant of
 successful learning and quality BL programs. A critical discussion
 of the findings from multiple qualitative data sources reveals that
 the general lack of undergraduate students' incentive to develop
 agency and adopt empowered learner identities characteristic of
 active participators online, is strongly influenced by the assumed
 or imposed identities of teachers, academic leaders and
 institutional decision makers that create a climate that fails to
 nurture community building in these contexts. Abundant evidence
 suggests a model for BL in HE that could lead to decisive, strategic
 and coordinated action at each level and measurable improvement in
 student online learning engagement and outcomes.


Ozone sounding profiles will be used to analyse the ozone distribution in the Antarctic vortex collar region. The collar region will be defined based on the gradient in the potential vorticity field calculated from ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis data. The sounding profiles will be classified into vortex collar and in-vortex cases. Additionally the data will be divided according to equivalent latitude.

Ozone soundings have been made in Marambio (64S, 57W), on the Antarctic Peninsula, since 1988, i.e. soon after the discovery of the Antarctic 'ozone hole'. The ozone sounding record at Marambio now covers more than two decades of nearly continuous ozone profile data. The vortex edge is often located close to Marambio.

Data from other Antarctic sounding stations and Earth observation data will be used to increase the number of observations from the collar area. The analysis will be supported by data from the FinROSE chemistry-transport model, which will be driven by the ERA-Interim winds and temperatures.


Search advertising depends on accurate predictions of user behavior and interest, accomplished today using complex and computationally expensive machine learning algorithms that estimate the potential revenue gain of thousands of candidate advertisements per search query. The accuracy of this estimation is important for revenue, but the cost of these computations represents a substantial expense, e.g., 10% to 30% of the total gross revenue. Caching the results of previous computations is a potential path to reducing this expense, but traditional domain-agnostic and revenue-agnostic approaches to do so result in substantial revenue loss. This paper presents three domain-specific caching mechanisms that successfully optimize for both factors. Simulations on a trace from the Bing advertising system show that a traditional cache can reduce cost by up to 27.7% but has negative revenue impact as bad as -14.1%. On the other hand, the proposed mechanisms can reduce cost by up to 20.6% while capping revenue impact between -1.3% and 0%. Based on Microsoft's earnings release for FY16 Q4, the traditional cache would reduce the net profit of Bing Ads by $84.9 to $166.1 million in the quarter, while our proposed cache could increase the net profit by $11.1 to $71.5 million.


The European Court of Justice's landmark decision in Van Gend en Loos is often casually compared to Marbury v. Madison simply because in each case a central high court declares itself to be the final arbiter of central government law. But there is a good deal more to the comparison than this. Both cases serve up what is perhaps the single most profound and complex issue in their respective constitutional systems: multiple competing claims of ultimate legal authority. In addressing this issue, both decisions make important claims for central judicial authority. And yet, neither decision successfully establishes a central judicial monopoly over final legal authority. Instead, both decisions inaugurate a tradition of mutual accommodation among the competing actors lasting to this very day. By juxtaposing accommodation in the two systems, we may understand these practices better than if we limit ourselves to only one or the other legal order. In particular, we recognize that actors in both systems rely on considerations of voice, expertise, and rights to manage the pluralist standoff.


A China-UK free trade agreement has been extensively discussed since the UK's vote for Brexit. Many supporters of Brexit argue that the UK's regained flexibility to strike trade deals with other partners, and in particular with China given its economic size, will be a key advantage. This analysis indicates that a China-UK FTA will be neither as easy nor as clearly advantageous as portrayed by Brexit supporters.


Although many software books highlight open problems in secure software development, few provide easily actionable, ground-level solutions. Breaking the mold, Secure and Resilient Software Development teaches you how to apply best practices and standards for consistent and secure software development. It details specific quality software development strategies and practices that stress resilience requirements with precise, actionable, and ground-level inputs. Providing comprehensive coverage, the book illustrates all phases of the secure software development life cycle. It shows developers how to master non-functional requirements including reliability, security, and resilience. The authors provide expert-level guidance through all phases of the process and supply many best practices, principles, testing practices, and design methodologies. For updates to this book and ongoing activities of interest to the secure and resilient software community, please visit: www.srsdlc.com "Secure and Resilient Software Development provides a strong foundation for anyone getting started in application security. Most application security books fall into two categories: business-oriented and vague or ridiculously super technical. Mark and Laksh draw on their extensive experience to bridge this gap effectively. The book consistently links important technical concepts back to the business reasons for application security with interesting stories about real companies dealing with application security issues." Jeff Williams, Chair, The OWASP Foundation


As the Internet has grown, so has the challenge of accurate measurement and modeling of its topology. Commonly used but coarse methods of measuring topology, e.g., BGP tables, suffer from several limitations. To pursue more accurate empirically-based topology modeling, in 1998 CAIDA began its Macroscopic Topology Project, which focuses on actively measuring topology and round trip time (RTT) information across a large cross-section of the commodity Internet. We describe CAIDA's topology measurement architecture and our analysis and visualization tools. We describe differences between IP and AS (BGP-based) granularities of topology modeling, including advantages and limitations of both, as well as how correlation between both types of data can yield more relevant insights. We introduce four new visualization metaphors for handling macroscopic topology data, as well as a tool for aggregating multiple IP addresses into the same physical router. We highlight results of our analyses, in particular relationships between RTT and topology data, and how source and destination selection and geopolitical boundaries affect those relationships.


This report presents information on how the need for software assurance affects software project management. The impact of software assurance on the tasks and concerns of a project manager are addressed, first in terms of discipline, then in terms of life cycle. It includes a discussion of the business case for justifying software assurance activities, the impact of software assurance on project management tasks and concerns involved in planning, and on project monitoring and tracking during development. The additional activities and project management concerns are identified and presented as they arise with each phase of a development life cycle, and as a work breakdown structure. This report also contains resources and pointers to enable the reader to continue to track the state of the art, beyond this static document.


Network reading through the new media is widely popular among college students, the network reading has the characteristics of having much media information, obtaining information conveniently, presenting multimedia, language easy to understand and complex contents. However, the general effect is reflected in college students' network reading, which also has brought new opportunities and challenges to college education workers. They should help college students establish the reading guidance, improve the ability of identifying information and promote the ability of network reading. In short, college students' network personalized reading literacy needs cultivating to make students grow up smoothly and become a useful person.


Technetium‐99 is a mobile, long‐lived radionuclide and environmental risk driver at some nuclear waste sites. The feasibility of decreasing 99Tc mobility in vadose zone sediments using H2S and NH3 gases was evaluated in laboratory experiments. In untreated sediments, 75 to 95% of the 99Tc was leachable. Using combinations of H2S and NH3 gases, the 99Tc mobility was reduced to 14 to 48%. Individual H2S or NH3 gas treatment of sediments had little lasting effect. For the combined gas treatment, the H2S gas created reducing conditions at the pore water–mineral interface, which temporarily reduced and precipitated 99Tc, while the NH3 gas created alkaline pore water that caused mineral dissolution. As the pH neutralized, subsequent aluminosilicate precipitation probably coated 99Tc precipitates and rendered them less mobile. Surface phase analysis showed that 99Tc was associated with weathered basalt clasts and S, possibly from the precipitation of TcSx. Treatment performance was nearly the same at different 99Tc concentrations (1.3–240.5 Bq g−1), water contents (1–8%), and gas injection rates but was sensitive to gas concentrations. Low gas concentrations (<3%) had insufficient reductant or slower mineral dissolution. High gas concentrations (>30%) formed an NH4SH precipitate. The 14 to 48% mobile 99Tc remaining after gas treatment may have been caused by the limited time for aluminosilicates to precipitate in our experiments. Degradation of added NH3 was not observed during the 3‐mo experiment. Overall, this study showed that combined H2S and NH3 gas treatment of low‐water‐content sediments can be applied to significantly decrease 99Tc mobility.


First Nations of Canada have experienced issues similar to other First Nations' worldwide that have led to poor health and wellness.  Carrier Sekani Family Services is a health and wellness agency that serves 11 First Nations in Canada's North West.  This agency has run a residential addiction recovery program for almost 25 years on traditional land, based on traditional culture.  The agency recently participated in a national study that explored the healing benefits of using traditional culture in addiction treatment.  The results showed that healing through culture is an effective model for treatment.


A model of atmospheric composition and climate has been developed at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) that includes composition seamlessly from the surface to the lower mesosphere. The model is able to capture many features of the observed magnitude, distribution, and seasonal cycle of trace species. The simulation is especially realistic in the troposphere. In the stratosphere, high latitude regions show substantial biases during period when transport governs the distribution as meridional mixing is too rapid in this model version. In other regions, including the extrapolar tropopause region that dominates radiative forcing (RF) by ozone, stratospheric gases are generally well-simulated. The model's stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) agrees well with values inferred from observations for both the global mean flux and the ratio of Northern (NH) to Southern Hemisphere (SH) downward fluxes. Simulations of preindustrial (PI) to present-day (PD) changes show tropospheric ozone burden increases of 11% while the stratospheric burden decreases by 18%. The resulting tropopause RF values are −0.06 W/m 2 from stratospheric ozone and 0.40 W/m 2 from tropospheric ozone. Global mean mass-weighted OH decreases by 16% from the PI to the PD. STE of ozone also decreased substantially during this time, by 14%. Comparison of the PD with a simulation using 1979 pre-ozone hole conditions for the stratosphere shows a much larger downward flux of ozone into the troposphere in 1979, resulting in a substantially greater tropospheric ozone burden than that seen in the PD run. This implies that reduced STE due to stratospheric ozone depletion may have offset as much as 2/3 of the tropospheric ozone burden increase from PI to PD. However, the model overestimates the downward flux of ozone at high Southern latitudes, so this estimate is likely an upper limit. In the future, the tropospheric ozone burden increases by 101% in 2100 for the A2 scenario including both emissions and climate changes. The primary reason is enhanced STE, which increases by 124% (168% in the SH extratropics, and 114% in the NH extratropics). Climate plays a minimal role in the SH increases, but contributes 38% in the NH. Chemistry and dry deposition both change so as to reduce tropospheric ozone, partially in compensation for the enhanced STE, but the increased ozone influx dominates the burden changes. The net RF due to projected ozone changes is 0.8 W/m 2 for A2. The influence of climate change alone is −0.2 W/m 2 , making it a substantial contributor to the net RF. The tropospheric oxidation capacity increases seven percent in the full A2 simulation, and 36% due to A2 climate change alone.


Frequency domain dielectric spectroscopy, measurements of capacitance and dissipation factor/power factor in a wide frequency range becomes increasingly popular in assessment of power transformer insulation systems. The interpretation of the measurement results is mostly made using a simple model taking the relative amount of oil and impregnated cellulose paper into account. This paper presents main findings from frequency domain dielectric spectroscopy measurements on transformer oil samples from different power transformers still in service. The interpretation model using oil permittivity of 2.2 combined with its conductivity is compared with actual measurements in the frequency range of 1000 Hz down to 0.01, sometimes down to 0.001 Hz. The temperature dependence and possible voltage dependence, especially at lower frequencies, are also investigated.


Compaction is a big problem in agriculture today since it has negative effects on both yield and environment. The change in the environment caused by compaction will mean decreased quality of atmosphere, surface- and ground water and soil resources. It is therefore very important to know how different agricultural practices and technical solutions of machinery affect the soil and its functions in order to be ab1e to decrease the negative effects from farming. Three field experiments were carried out during the autumn 200l. Vertical soil displacement and vertical soil stress was measured at 15, 30 and 50 cm depth in three different tractor comparisons; wheel- and tracked tractor, single and dual wheel and pulling and non pulling tractor. For the pull and the track experiments macroporosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity and bulk density were also measured. Calculations of the vertical soil stress were also made. For the single- dual wheel experiment a John Deere 4640 with single wheel and a wheel load of 2500 kg and a Steiger with dual wheels and a wheel load of 2200 kg were used. Both tractors had 60 kPa tyre inflation pressure. The John Deere was also used, together with a cultivator, for the pull experiment. These two experiments were carried out at Staby Sateri, Uppland. The experiment with a tracked vehicle was carried out at Krenkerup Gods, Lolland, Danmark with a rubber tracked tractor weighing 18,5 tons and a wheel tractor weighing 9,7 tons. The tracked tractor was balanced before comparing it to the wheeled tractor to get the weight distribution as even as possible. Vertical soil stress and vertical soil displacement right under the wheels of the single and dual wheels did not differ significantly. The soil stress was lowest between the dual wheel at 15 cm depth but ii was evenly distributed under the wheels at 50 cm depth. No significant differences were found between a non pulling and a pulling tractor regarding vertical soil stress and soil displacement. There was however a tendency that the saturated hydraulic conductivity was lowest after the pass of a pulling tractor. It is possible that a higher pull would have affected the soil more. The soil stress was higher at 15 and 30 cm depth for the wheeled compared to the tracked tractor. There were no significant differences in soil displacement, saturated hydraulic conductivity and bulk density but there was a tendency that the bulk density was higher for the tracked than for the wheeled tractor. The most important conclusions were: (1) The two tyres in a dual wheel arrangement acted as two separate wheels which makes it more relevant to talk about wheelload than axle 1oad regarding the risk for subsoil compaction. This is a very important result because the recommendation today is to avoid an axle load over 6 tons. (2) Even for a well balanced tracked tractor the maximum soil stress will be considerably higher than the theoretically calculated. In spite of these problems and a higher total weight, a tracked tractor can have a smaller impact on the soil than a wheeled tractor. (3) The model calculations correlated well with the measured values in the subsoil but not in the topsoil!. A better approximation for the ground pressure than the tyre inflation pressure is however' needed since the ground pressure of ten was as much as twice as high as the tyre inflation pressure.


The best understood sensors of oxidative stress are the OxyR and SoxR proteins in E. coli. SoxR has an iron-sulfur center that acts as a sensor, whereas OxyR is regulated by formation of an intramolecular disulfide bond. Less clear is how eukaryotic cells sense oxidative stress. Delaunay et al. examined the response of yeast to H2O2 through the Yap1 protein, a transcription factor that regulates the expression of genes, such as those encoding antioxidants or components of the glutathione pathway, that allow adaptation during exposure to reactive oxygen species. They find that Yap1 itself has two cysteine residues that are required for activation of the transcriptional response. Exposure to H2O2 may cause formation of a disulfide bond between these residues, which could then explain the conformational change in Yap1 that allows masking of a nuclear export signal and thus promotes transcriptional activity of the protein. Unlike OxyR, Yap1 appears not to be sensitive to the general redox state of the cell. Indeed another oxidant, diamide, appears to influence Yap1 through a distinct mechanism. Also, inactivation of Yap1 was mediated by the thioredoxin pathway, but not the glutathione pathway. These findings support a role of Yap1 as a specific sensor of peroxide concentrations rather than a monitor of the general glutathione redox balance of the cell. Delaunay, A., Isnard, A.-D., and Toledano, M.B. (2000) H2O2 sensing through oxidation of the Yap1 transcription factor. EMBO J. 19: 5157-5166. [Full Text] [Abstract]


Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) occurs due to the build up of atherosclerotic plaque and reduces blood flow to cause chronic ischemia. Patients with PAOD may experience intermittent claudication, or the pain in limb skeletal muscles due to a decease in blood flow. Collateral arteries can act as a natural bypass and improve blood flow to hypoxic tissue by creating an alternate route for blood to flow, but not all patients with PAOD have pre-existing collateral networks. Animal studies indicate that tissues without pre-existing collateral networks can form de novo collaterals from capillaries following occlusion of a feed artery. Unfortunately, theses de novo collaterals, termed arterialized collateral capillaries (ACCs) lack functional vasodilation at day-7 following feed artery occlusion. To induce the formation of ACCs, we ligated the lateral feed artery in the spinotrapzeius muscle in Balb/c mice. We evaluated the potential mechanism of impaired functional vasodilation in immature arterialized collateral capillaries (7 days following occlusion) by measuring endothelial-dependent vasodilation to bradykinin and endothelial-independent vasodilation to isoproterenol and sodium nitroprusside. Vasodilation to both the endothelial-dependent and endothelial-independent vasodilators was impaired in the immature ACCs as compared to the terminal arterioles on the unoperated sham side. Similar responses to the endothelial cell and smooth muscle cell-dependent vasodilations suggest that impaired functional vasodialtion is due to impaired vascular smooth muscle cell function, which is consistent with our preivous research. We speculate that the SMCs of the ACCs are immature and may still be remodeling, rearranging, or modulating phenotype in the newly formed collaterals. Determining factors to induce mature arterialized collateral capillaries in patients with PAOD lacking pre-existing collateral netoworks could reduce ischemia and improve prognosis. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


This book,
 Basics of Consolidation of Financial Statements, presents a step-by-step approach in learning the basics concepts in consolidation of financial statements. Rather than focusing on complex explanations and discussions, this book explains consolidation of financial statements using simple concepts. The book is intended primarily for students who are at the advanced stage of financial accounting and reporting course. To prepare consolidated financial statements, it is essential for students to equip themselves with strong understanding of the basic concepts of consolidation. Therefore, the aim of this book is to provide accounting students with a framework for learning these basic concepts in consolidation. Each chapter of the books offers examples, comprehensive illustrations, exercises and problems for students to tackle at different stages of the consolidation so that the students understanding on the concepts and techniques of consolidations is strengthened.


Ambient noise levels emanating from religious activities in residential neighbourhoods are an emerging environmental problem that educes little attention from enforcement agencies and policy makers in Ghana. This paper set out to quantify religious noise exposure in urban residential neighbourhoods in the Cape Coast metropolis of Ghana. Subjective annoyance levels of residents in selected communities were determined. Noise risk zones were mapped using ARCGIS 9.3 software and surface interpolation for the data was carried out using inverse distance weighting. The results show that most (77 and 86 per cent) of the locations recorded noise levels that were above the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency maximum permissible limit for day and night, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficient for day and night noise exposure shows strong association (0.714) at the 0.01 level. There is variability in the levels of noise for both day and night, which are rather high (standard deviation = 7.59477 and 7.94022, respectively). Generally, levels of noise exposure correlated with levels of annoyance of residents, except that the highest noise exposure was not recorded in the community where the annoyance level of residents was highest. Residential neighbourhoods within the study area largely experienced safe to tolerable levels of religious noise, although 5 per cent were within the high-risk zone. Given that the selected residential areas have high population densities, even when the dispersion of noise risk is spatially limited, it affects a large number of people who belong to different socio-economic classes.


[1] A systematic study is undertaken for projected changes in tropical Australian climate in 19 CMIP3 Coupled Models for the A2 scenario over the 21st century. While equatorial regions to the north of Australia are projected to have increased precipitation during austral summer (December to February) by the end of the 21st century, there is no significant change over northern Australia based on the model ensemble mean. There is a large spread in model simulations of precipitation change, with both large positive and negative anomalies. The ensemble mean change in the seasonal cycle of precipitation over tropical Australia is small, with precipitation increase during March and April, suggesting a prolonged Australian wet season. There is no model consensus on how interannual variability of tropical Australian precipitation will change in future climate, although more models simulate increased variability than decreased. Correlations between full wet season (October to April) precipitation and austral spring (September to November) NINO3.4 sea surface temperature anomalies show a slight weakening. The spread in projected precipitation seasonal cycle changes between simulations from the same model is larger than the inter-model range, indicating that there is large internal or natural variability in tropical Australian precipitation relative to the climate change signal. Zonal wind changes indicate an intensification of austral summer low level westerlies although combined with a weakening of upper easterlies. Low level westerlies also persist for longer, consistent with a delay in the monsoon retreat. All models simulate an increase in the land-ocean temperature contrast in austral summer, with a significant correlation between changes in land-ocean temperature contrast in the pre-monsoon (austral spring) and summer precipitation changes. Analysis of precipitation changes using regime-sorting techniques shows offsetting tendencies from thermodynamic changes associated with enhanced atmospheric moisture and dynamic changes associated with a weakened atmospheric circulation.


There is a land of 300 km 2 lower than sea level with a million citizens facing Isebay in the central part of Japan, which is located on a possible route of typhoons and is exposed to a risk of serious storm surge and flood. This area was attacked by storm surge by "Ise-bay Typhoon" in 1959 and more than 5,000 people were killed. In spite of a protection infrastructure constructed in this half decade after the event, recent climate change may cause extreme typhoons exceeding the level of protection and response, and resilience against such an enormous disaster has not yet been prepared. We have made efforts to prepare an action plan of risk management and emergency response since 2005. Once an extreme storm surge breaks the protection infrastructure, a wide area will be inundated with various risks and drainage from there will take a long time. Meanwhile, with recent progress in weather forecasting of magnitude and course of big typhoons, we may have a lead time of 36 hrs. We introduce 4 phases: Risk management before typhoon arrival (Phase 0), emergency response within 0– 72 hrs (Phase I) and successive stages (Phases II and III). In particular, we study how to make a wide preliminary evacuation possible with proper operation in Phase 0. We have organized a working group to support the authority including all the stakeholders related to disaster mitigation to make an action plan of risk management and emergency response.


Human conversation groups have a characteristic size limit at around four individuals. Although mixed-sex social groups can be significantly larger than this, census data on casual social groups suggest that there is a fractal pattern of fission in conversations when social group size is a multiple of this value. This study suggests that, as social group size increases beyond four, there is a tendency for sexual segregation to occur resulting in an increasing frequency of single-sex conversational subgroups. It is not clear why conversations fragment in this way, but a likely explanation is that sex differences in conversational style result in women (in particular) preferring to join all-female conversations when a social group is large enough to allow this.


Phenotypic variability may contribute to the evolution of a species. Raser and O'Shea now measure variability in gene expression, sometimes known as noise, in yeast. Noise was gene-specific and controlled by the balance between promoter activation and transcription. Two types of noise were examined: intrinsic noise, which occurs during gene expression, and extrinsic noise, which can be caused by cell heterogeneity or signal transduction events. J. M. Raser, E. K. O'Shea, Control of stochasticity in eukaryotic gene expression. Science 304, 1811-1814 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


While biodiversity has played a major role in sustaining human existence on earth, the world has witnessed the decline of these biological resources over the last century, with several species of flora and fauna being driven into extinction while others are either endangered or vulnerable. The international community, through the platform of the United Nations, convened the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 to address the numerous challenges faced by the environment, including biodiversity loss. During the summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity was one of the international instruments opened for signature. The Convention was signed by Nigeria and subsequently ratified in 1994. However, to date, Nigeria has not domesticated the Convention into its laws.
In order to determine to what extent the Convention is being implemented in Nigeria, this study examines the activities of the authorities which conform to the strategies incorporated in the articles of the Convention.
While the analysis shows that Nigeria has taken some actions which substantially comply with some of the provisions of the Convention, it demonstrates that it has failed to repeat this in relation to other provisions. The findings also show that in instances where there is compliance, for example through the promulgation of policies and establishment of facilities for conservation, fundamental problems such as lack of proper enforcement and poor management culture are still evident. This study makes valuable recommendations for improving Nigeria's compliance with the objectives of the Convention, by identifying biodiversity conservation activities taking place in other jurisdictions, especially South Africa.


Abstract Traditional interpretations of Aristotle's theory of perception mainly focus on uncovering the underlying mechanisms that are at stake when perceivers are affected by sensible qualities. Investigating the nature of sense perception is one of Aristotle's main worries and one that he explicitly relates to the question of its causes (e. g. Sens. 436a16–17, 436b9) and its ends (e. g. de An. 434a30 ff.). Therefore I suggest that, in order to fully explain Aristotle's view of perceptual phenomena, the possibilities, the constraints, and the goals defined by the embodied and situated engagement of perceivers with the external world must be taken into account. Accordingly, in this paper, I provide an affective reading of Aristotle's theory of perception. I shall ask what, in addition to functioning sense organs and appropriate response mechanisms, the perceiver contributes to perceptual content. Specifically, I propose to shed light on the significance of perceptual experience for the perceiver and I aim to show that, according to Aristotle, one's biological and personal qualities are perceptually relevant, meaning that they underpin perception, rather than coming into play after perception has occurred and its objects have been discerned. The paper is divided into two parts, respectively dealing with sensory affections and more complex affective phenomena. As regards the domain of primal sense perception, I will focus on smell as a representative example: since Aristotle identifies it as the least developed of human sensory faculties, it will serve as a revealing illustration of how sense perception is informed and qualified by what, drawing on contemporary philosophical terminology, I will call 'perceptual interests', viz. the affective sense of what is at stake in the living being's interaction with the environment. I will then proceed to consider the way more complex affective phenomena underpin perception by examining the case of emotions and that of virtues of character. By showing how perception is affectively inflected and how emotion is rooted in perception's bodily nature, I aim to sketch out the general lines along which I believe that the Aristotelian theory of perception should be approached.


ROS (reactive oxygen species; including superoxide and H202) are conventionally thought of as being broadly reactive and cytotoxic. Phagocytes utilize an NADPH oxidase to generate large amounts of ROS, and exploit their toxic properties as a host-defence mechanism to kill invading microbes. However, the recent discovery of the Nox and Duox enzymes that are expressed in many non-phagocytic cells implies that the 'deliberate' generation of ROS has additional cellular roles, which are currently incompletely understood. Functions of ROS in mammals have been inferred primarily from cell-culture experiments, and include signalling for mitogenic growth, apoptosis and angiogenesis. Nox/Duox enzymes may also provide H202 as a substrate for peroxidase enzymes (or, in the case of Duox, for its own peroxidase domain), thereby supporting peroxidative reactions. A broad comparison of biological functions of ROS and Nox enzymes across species and kingdoms provides insights into possible functions in mammals. To further understand novel biological roles for Nox/Duox enzymes, we are manipulating the expression of Nox/Duox enzymes in model organisms including Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and mouse. This chapter focuses on new insights into the roles of Nox enzymes gained from these approaches.


The waterborne bacterial pathogen Vibrio cholerae utilizes a cell-cell communication system called quorum sensing to coordinate group behavior in both a human host and aquatic environments. Virulence genes like the cholera toxin, biofilm genes for sticky secreted attachment factors, and competence genes for DNA uptake are all regulated through this population density-dependent system. In a human host, both virulence and biofilm genes are repressed late in infection presumably to promote transmission upon exhausting the host's resources. However, in the natural environment, regulation is more complex. Namely, at high cell densities, repression of biofilm production is coordinated with activation of competence genes that can promote horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Based on this model, it was proposed that accumulation of biofilm material on cells could hinder the uptake of extracellular DNA in aquatic settings. In support of this hypothesis, significant decreases were seen in DNA uptake with V. cholerae strains engineered to overproduce biofilm. However, reductions were also observed in strains that produced no biofilms. These results suggest that proper timing of biofilm formation plays an important role in the capacity of V. cholerae to engage in HGT, one mechanism thought to allow this pathogen to rapidly evolve in changing environments.


The comments students receive on their written work are one of the most ubiquitous forms of advice found in educational settings, and this advice takes on even greater importance in second language classrooms. This study is based on a small corpus of feedback given by two teachers to six ESL writers at a New Zealand university. The data comprises all the feedback given to these students, the teachers' verbal protocols when giving this advice, and interviews with the students on their interpretations of the advice. The analysis reveals how teachers negotiate the complex power relations involved in a relationship which depends on close interpersonal engagement and mutual understanding and illuminates something of this complex and interesting speech act.


We construct a secure protocol for any multiparty functionality that remains secure (under a relaxed definition of security introduced by Prabhakaran and Sahai (STOC '04)) when executed concurrently with multiple copies of itself and other protocols, without any assumptions on existence of trusted parties, common reference string, honest majority or synchronicity of the network. The relaxation of security is obtained by allowing the ideal-model simulator to run in quasipolynomial (as opposed to polynomial) time. Quasipolynomial simulation suffices to ensure security for most applications of multiparty computation. Furthermore, Lindell (FOCS '03, TCC' 04) recently showed that such a protocol is impossible to obtain under the more standard definition of polynomial-time simulation by an ideal adversary. Our construction is the first such protocol under reasonably standard cryptographic assumptions (i.e., existence of a hash function collection that is collision resistent with respect to circuits of subexponential size, and existence of trapdoor permutations which are secure with respect to circuits of quasi-polynomial size). We introduce a new technique: "protocol condensing". That is, taking a protocol that has strong security properties but requires super-polynomial communication and computation, and then transforming it into a protocol with polynomial communication and computation, that still inherits the strong security properties of the original protocol. Our result is obtained by combining this technique with previous techniques of Canetti, Lindell, Ostrovsky, and Sahai (STOC '02) and Pass (STOC '04).


Background Consideration of older adults' quality of life (QoL) is becoming increasingly important in the evaluation, quality improvement and allocation of health and social care services. While numerous definitions and theories of QoL have been proposed, an overall synthesis of the perspective of older adults themselves is lacking. Methods Qualitative studies were identified in PubMed, Ebsco/Psycinfo and Ebsco/CINAHL, through a search on 28 November 2018. Articles needed to meet all of the following criteria: (i) focus on perceptions of QoL, (ii) older adults living at home as main participants, (iii) use of qualitative methodology, (iv) conducted in a Western country and (v) published in English (vi) not focused on specific patient groups. A thematic synthesis was conducted of the selected studies, using the complete 'findings/results' sections from the papers. Results We included 48 qualitative studies representing the views of more than 3,400 older adults living at home in 11 Western countries. The QoL aspects identified in the synthesis were categorized into nine QoL domains: autonomy, role and activity, health perception, relationships, attitude and adaptation, emotional comfort, spirituality, home and neighbourhood, and financial security. The results showed that although different domains can be distinguished, these are also strongly connected. Conclusion QoL can be expressed in a number of domains and related subthemes that are important for older adults living at home. The findings further support that the concept of QoL should be seen as a dynamic web of intertwined domains.


Today's globalized economy puts considerable pressure on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as they are forced to compete in a world where business is often conducted over nations' borders. This globalization has also led to the creation of free trade areas such as the European Union, where most traditional barriers to trade have been removed. Despite this there still seems to be several, more invisible, barriers that hampers business between member states. We therefore intend to examine how companies in two member states – Lithuania and Sweden – have been affected by such invisible barriers and how they are trying to cope with them. This research has been conducted using following theoretical foundation; Invisible barriers, knowledge, the Uppsala model, psychic distance and networks. Our empirical data have been gathered by holding semi structured interviews with 7 SMEs, this data have then been analyzed with the help of our theoretical foundation. We have found substantial evidence pointing towards the importance of psychic distance and lack of knowledge when explaining the barriers still in existence. Furthermore we have also discovered the duality of knowledge and networks which can be both barriers in themselves as well as ways for companies to work their way around previously mentioned barriers.


The modified You only look once (YOLO) network architecture that allows one-dimensional direction estimation along with classic object detection in real time, is considered in the task of street traffic surveillance from unmanned aerial vehicles. The key feature is a modified output fully connected layer with additional orientational parameters. It has been shown that this network can estimate the direction of vehicles on a custom testing dataset with photos.


Transfer line tubes of an ethane pyrolysis furnace, operating at 850 ±20°C and 1.0 atm pressure, developed longitudinal cracks after less than one third of their expected service life. The tubes were constructed of Fe-based USN N08810 alloy with a wall thickness of 10 mm. Metallurgical evaluation revealed that the mode of failure was high-temperature carburization attack leading to intergranular cracking. The cause of failure was overheating, likely to have occurred during decoking operations. Better control of furnace temperature was recommended to avoid overheating. Alternatively, a wrought alloy capable of developing highly protective aluminum oxide (Al2O3)-base scale such as Ni-based UNS N07214 could be used as a replacement.


Absence of an inflammatory cytokine in maternal milk enhances hippocampal development and cognitive function in offspring. Tumor necrosis factor–α (TNFα) is a proinflammatory cytokine produced by various cell types, including glial cells in the brain. In characterizing the role of TNFα in the mouse brain, Liu et al. found that a maternal TNFα deficit enhanced memory and learning in offspring (see also Parylak et al.). TNFα-deficient mothers had lower concentrations of various TNF-inducible chemokines in their milk. Pups (wild-type, Tnf+/–, or Tnf–/–) raised by mothers with a partial or complete deficit of TNFα (Tnf+/– or Tnf–/–) had longer dendrites in distal hippocampal dentate gyrus granule cells compared with those raised by wild-type mothers. In addition, pups raised by Tnf+/– or Tnf–/– mothers performed better on spatial memory and contextual fear learning tests, which require hippocampal activity. Conditional knockout of TNFα in hematopoietic cells, but not in glia or neurons, in mother mice elicited the improved learning performance in pups, which suggested that factors in a mother's immune system can affect the development of their offspring's central nervous system. Labeling with 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) showed that neural progenitor proliferation was increased specifically in the dorsal dentate gyrus in 14-day-old mice but not in 5-day-old or adult mice. Selectively blocking this transient proliferation in neuronal precursors prevented the memory enhancement in offspring raised by TNFα-deficient mothers. Daily administration of TNFα-inducible chemokines to pups from postnatal day 1 to 21 that were raised by Tnf–/– mothers impaired hippocampal cell proliferation and memory performance, whereas injection of a TNF inhibitor in pups raised by wild-type mothers phenocopied the effects of being raised by TNFα-deficient mothers. The expression of genes encoding proteins in the cholinergic pathway (including nicotinic receptor subunits and choline acetyltransferase) was increased, whereas the expression of genes encoding inhibitory neuropeptides (such as galanin and somatostatin) was decreased in the hippocampal cells of adult mice raised by TNFα-deficient mothers. These findings suggested that these mice may be more sensitive to cholinergic neurotransmission, which promotes learning and memory. TNFα-deficient mothers did not show changes in maternal care behavior, which excludes a behavioral contribution to the improved cognitive function in offspring. The findings show that proteins in a mother's milk influence development and long-term function of the CNS as well as the immune system. B. Liu, B. Zupan, E. Laird, S. Klein, G. Gleason, M. Bozinoski, J. Gal Toth, M. Toth, Maternal hematopoietic TNF, via milk chemokines, programs hippocampal development and memory. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 97–105 (2014). [PubMed] S. L. Parylak, W. Deng, F. H. Gage, Mother's milk programs offspring's cognition. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 8–9 (2014). [PubMed]


A framework is presented for evaluating methods of testing programmable logic arrays (PLAs), and the attributes of 25 test design methodologies are tabulated. PLA testing problems are first examined, and several test-generation algorithms are briefly described. Techniques for designing testable designs are examined, namely, special coding, parity checking, signature analysis, divide and conquer, and fully testable PLAs. The attributes that make a good testable design are then discussed. They fall into four categories: (1) testability characteristics; (2) effect on original design; (3) requirements of the application environment; and (4) design costs, i.e. how difficult it is to implement the technique.<<ETX>>


Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability with ~80% of post-stroke survivors suffering from gait-related deficits. Conventional gait rehabilitation settings are labor-intensive and need rigorous involvement of clinicians (who use their expertise to decide the dosage of exercise intensity based on patient's capability). This demands a technology-assisted individualized exercise platform that can offer varying dosage of exercise intensity based on one's capability. Here, we have used an individualized physiology-sensitive treadmill-assisted gait exercise platform. We wanted to investigate the implications of this platform on one's lower limb muscle strength and muscle fatigue by analyzing surface Electromyogram (sEMG)-related indices and standard gait-related clinical measures. Methods: We designed a feasibility study involving post-stroke patients (n=9; 44.4(±15)years; post-stroke period=3.1(±3)years) and gave them multiple exposures to this exercise platform. We investigated the Gastrocnemius Lateralis and Tibialis Anterior muscle activation prior to and post multiple exposures to our exercise platform while they walked overground. The feasibility study ended with collecting feedback on the patients' perception on the implications of having gait exercise using such a platform on their ambulation capability. Results: The results showed that repeated exposures to this gait exercise platform can contribute towards gait rehabilitation of post-stroke patients with rehabilitation outcomes measured in terms of group average improvement of (i)~14% in muscle strength and (ii)marginal (~6%) in functional mobility (as in our case). Conclusion: Such a physiology-sensitive treadmill-assisted gait exercise platform can hold promise towards contributing to post-stroke gait rehabilitation in low-resource settings with the rehabilitation outcomes being measured in terms of sEMG-based observations.


Lending itself perfectly to Abrams' highly successful "365 Days" format, this book is a journey around the globe showcasing the greatest golf courses. It gives armchair golfers a chance to "visit" 365 courses via superb colour photographs and learn about them through informative text. No stone is left unturned as the book covers the great courses in golf strongholds like the U.S., Canada, Scotland, England, Ireland, and Australia, and also hidden gems in exotic locales like Indonesia, Nepal, Dubai, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Brazil. Sidorsky is a knowledgeable guide, providing information about the history, natural setting, design features, most notable holes, and even the native vegetation on all of the courses. The photographs, often featuring spectacular scenery, come from the world's leading golf photographers.


Introduction: Hypoglycemia is a prevalent condition where diabetic patients experience low blood glucose. There are approximately 300 million diabetic patients in the world; at least 30 million of those are in the United States. Diabetic patients facing hypoglycemia continue to grow but the condition worsens as patients lose awareness the more episodes that occur. Mild hypoglycemia is characterized as blood glucose below 70mg/dl and severe as blood glucose below 40mg/dl (Kalra et al., 2013). Severe hypoglycemia may cause loss of patient's awareness and in some cases fatality. Loss of awareness leads to a 6-fold increase in the risk of death. While in most cases hypoglycemia is treated through medication and diet (e.g. fast-acting carbohydrates), a popular technology among diabetic patients; especially those with hypoglycemia unawareness; is continuous glucose monitors (CGM). While CGMs have shown promise, these devices are expensive, invasive, and not always accurate throughout the day (Bay et al., 2013). Hypoglycemic events are associated with several signs and symptoms such as fatigue, sweating, and pale skin, but tremors seem to be a prevalent symptom as well. One study has reported that around 20% of hypoglycemic patients stated that trembling is the first symptom they notice indicating low blood sugar (Muhlhauser, 1991), and another showed that 77.5% of diabetic patients who are aware of their symptoms experience tremors (Berlin, 2005). Our research aims at investigating the efficacy of using hand (or leg) tremor to predict the early onset of hypoglycemic events. Work is in progress to design and develop a non-invasive sensor-based wearable system that detects hypoglycemic tremor with high sensitivity and specificity. Method: A systematic review of literature is in progress to search variety of medical and engineering databases to identify research related to hypoglycemia detection, wearable sensors, and tremor. The studies considered are those pertaining to diabetic patients who have been assessed for the symptoms of hypoglycemia and the sensors used in order to predict a hypoglycemic episode. One of the main objectives of the study is to understand hypoglycemia and its symptoms, and to document technological interventions, related detection methods and sensors, as well as their shortcomings and opportunities. We hypothesize that tremor has not been used for hypoglycemia detection. The research is motivated by the preliminary review evidence that suggests current sensor-based technologies to address diabetes and hypoglycemia suffer from low patient engagement and satisfaction due to intrusiveness, low accuracy, and price. Results: While the review is in progress, we expect to have completed the search by January and plan to present the comprehensive findings at the conference. Our preliminary findings suggest a large research gap in non-intrusive technologies and methods to detect hypoglycemic events. While a frequency band of 10-14 Hz in the wrist for hypoglycemic tremors has been suggested in the literature (Rana & Chou, 2015), there is very little research done on utilizing this phenomenon to predict hypoglycemia. Most research relies on other symptoms such as skin conductance and body temperature which have been shown to cause inaccurate predictions (Howsmon & Bequette, 2015). In understanding the tremors, it is important to consider at the time the tremors start to occur in relation with particular activities, food consumption, and blood sugar; as well as the location of these tremors and their prevalence. The current review found studies that assess and promote user-centered design, and the usability of wearable sensors. This includes usability studies, human factors and FDA requirements, and other recommendations to be incorporated into developing a wearable sensor. Wide range of factors related to patient comfort and usability were identified, they include optimizing between battery life and data processing, size, location on the body. These findings are in line with other studies such as those done on wearable sensors for detection of Parkinson's disease (Rigas et al., 2012). Despite these preliminary findings, comprehensive guidelines to design for wearability had not been offered. Based on these and upcoming findings a taxonomy for design criteria for wearability will be presented. Conclusion: Diabetes is a growing epidemic and the occurrence of hypoglycemia for diabetic patients is prevalent and potentially fatal. Detecting the onset of hypoglycemia is vital and tremors seem to be a viable symptom. Our preliminary findings from a systematic literature review suggest a general gap in technological interventions for early detection and recognition of hypoglycemic events. In particular, our current findings show that tremor detection technologies have not been utilized in this domain. Sensors assessing tremor frequency could be an alternative approach to current sensors in the market and may contribute to non-intrusive, high accuracy and low cost solutions. This review will inform a taxonomy of design considerations for non-intrusive wearable technologies. Our future work aims at addressing this gap by utilizing a user-centered design of a wearable device to detect the early onsets of hypoglycemic events by measuring tremor.


This work investigated the ultrafiltration of trihalomethanes (THMs) from petrochemical wastewater by polyethersulfone (PES) membrane. The ultrafiltration process was carried out by using UHP-62 dead-end filter cell unit. The wastewater was initially characterised using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and gas chromatography (GC) to identify the presence and concentrations of THMs, respectively. Prior to the experiment, PES membrane was soaked overnight with deionised water before being used to remove the particles attached on the membrane surface during their packaging and transportation. The concentration of THMs in the feed was determined and the effects of solution chemistry were studied to investigate the removal efficiency of the THMs by PES membranes. The operating pressure was kept constant at 1 bar and the homogeneity of the feed solution was achieved with a constant stirring at 400 rpm. FTIR was used to analyse the THM removal through IR spectrum result. The study showed that the effect of pH somehow gave significantly acceptable results on the THM removal. The chloroform functional group was found at peak 771.71 cm–1 with highest concentration about 1750 μg l–1. At neutral and alkaline conditions, no chloroform peak was detected, whereas in acidic solution, the peak was identified at 717.22 cm–1.


Why care about hardware/firmware interaction? These interfaces are critical, a solid hardware design married with adaptive firmware can access all the capabilities of an application and overcome limitations caused by poor communication. For the first time, a book has come along that will help hardware engineers and firmware engineers work together to mitigate or eliminate problems that occur when hardware and firmware are not optimally compatible. Solving these issues will save time and money, getting products to market sooner to create more revenue.The principles and best practices presented in this book will prove to be a valuable resource for both hardware and firmware engineers. Topics include register layout, interrupts, timing and performance, aborts, and errors. Real world cases studies will help to solidify the principles and best practicies with an aim towards cleaner designs, shorter schedules, and better implementation! Reduce product development delays with the best practices in this bookConcepts apply to ASICs, ASSPs, SoCs, and FPGAsReal-world examples and case studies highlight the good and bad of design processes


Importance Estimates of the incidence of overall antibiotic-associated adverse drug events (ADEs) in hospitalized patients are generally unavailable. Objective To describe the incidence of antibiotic-associated ADEs for adult inpatients receiving systemic antibiotic therapy. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort of adult inpatients admitted to general medicine wards at an academic medical center. Exposures At least 24 hours of any parenteral or oral antibiotic therapy. Main Outcomes and Measures Medical records of 1488 patients were examined for 30 days after antibiotic initiation for the development of the following antibiotic-associated ADEs: gastrointestinal, dermatologic, musculoskeletal, hematologic, hepatobiliary, renal, cardiac, and neurologic; and 90 days for the development of Clostridium difficile infection or incident multidrug-resistant organism infection, based on adjudication by 2 infectious diseases trained clinicians. Results In 1488 patients, the median age was 59 years (interquartile range, 49-69 years), and 758 (51%) participants were female. A total of 298 (20%) patients experienced at least 1 antibiotic-associated ADE. Furthermore, 56 (20%) non–clinically indicated antibiotic regimens were associated with an ADE, including 7 cases of C difficile infection. Every additional 10 days of antibiotic therapy conferred a 3% increased risk of an ADE. The most common ADEs were gastrointestinal, renal, and hematologic abnormalities, accounting for 78 (42%), 45 (24%), and 28 (15%) 30-day ADEs, respectively. Notable differences were identified between the incidence of ADEs associated with specific antibiotics. Conclusions and Relevance Although antibiotics may play a critical role when used appropriately, our findings underscore the importance of judicious antibiotic prescribing to reduce the harm that can result from antibiotic-associated ADEs.


ABSTRACT The rapid changes during last several years in size and diversity of the Korean derivative market may warrant the introduction of new accounting standards for derivatives in Korea. One feasible and effective way to obtain ideas for new standards fitting into Korea derivative market is to compare Korean, US, and international accounting standards for derivatives. Thus, the objectives of this paper are two-fold. The first is to make a comparison between Korean, US, and international accounting standards for derivatives. The second is to make a recommendation for new accounting standards for derivatives in Korea. To achieve these objectives, the following steps were taken. First, compare current Korean, US, and international accounting standards for derivatives. Secondly, a literature survey on this issue of derivative accounting and examination on current trading practice of derivatives in Korea were conducted to draw an insightful inference for derivative accounting standards setting process. Finally, make a recommendation for new accounting standards for derivatives in Korea. Potential contributions of this study would be to setting new accounting standards for derivatives in Korea and to developing a general body of knowledge that provides meaning insights to accounting standards for derivatives. INTRODUCTION Derivative instruments (derivatives in short, hereafter) are instruments whose value depends on the values of other more basic underlying variables. In spite of relatively short trading history, derivatives become increasingly important in the Korean capital market (1). The derivative market in Korea has grown dramatically in terms of trading volume, trading value, the number of products, and their diversity. 17 derivatives, eight different types, are currently traded in two security exchanges: i.e., 8 derivatives in Korean Futures Exchange (KOFEX) and 9 derivatives in Korean Security Exchange (KSE). Ever since its opening in 1999, KOFEX has been growing so much that the trading volume for the year 2001 surpassed 10 million contracts and the trading value exceeded 1,000 trillion Korean won (i.e., equivalent to approximately US$ 860 billion). The trading value of derivatives in KSE also increased dramatically that it reached about 1,176 trillion Korea won (i.e., equivalent to US$ 1,022,billion) in 2001. The growth of Korean derivative market has been significantly pronounced during the last two-year period starting late 2000. Korean derivative market increased more than 400% and ten new derivatives were listed in KOFEX or KSE during the period (2). Accounting and reporting of derivatives are standardized in Korean Financial Accounting Standards (KFAS), Accounting Standards (AS) for security industry, & Accounting Standards for banking industry. KFAS were originally issued in April 1998 and revised in August 2000 by Korean Financial Accounting Standards Board, which is a Korean counterpart of FASB in US, while AS were originally issued in December 1998 and revised in December 1999 by Financial Supervisory Service of Korea, which is a Korean counterpart of SEC in US. Therefore, the above- mentioned significant changes in Korean derivative market during 2001 and 2002 were not incorporated in these standards. These standards require an entity to recognize derivatives as assets or liabilities at their fair value. Any gains or losses on derivatives due to fair value changes should be recognized as current income items unless the purpose of holding derivatives is hedging. There are brief disclosure requirements for derivatives in the standards, too. But, in general, the current standards are not articulate and specific enough to capture the diverse nature of derivatives traded in Korea. The rapid changes in size and product diversity of the Korean derivative market may warrant the introduction of more advanced accounting and reporting standards for derivatives in Korea. …


Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, is characterized by deficits in cognition and memory. Although amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation is known to be the earliest pathological event that triggers subsequent neurodegeneration, how Aβ accumulation causes behavioral deficits remains incompletely understood. In this study, using the Morris water maze test, ELISA and stereological methods, we examined spatial learning and memory performance, the soluble Aβ concentration and the myelination of fibers in the hippocampus of 4-, 6-, 8- and 10-month-old Tg2576 AD model mice. Our results showed that spatial learning and memory performance was significantly impaired in the Tg2576 mice compared to the wild type (WT) controls and that the myelinated fiber length in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) was markedly decreased from 0.33 ± 0.03 km in the WT controls to 0.17 ± 0.02 km in the Tg2576 mice at 10 months of age. However, the concentrations of soluble Aβ40 and Aβ42 were significantly increased as early as 4-6 months of age. The decreased myelinated fiber length in the DG may contribute to the spatial learning and memory deficits of Tg2576 mice. Therefore, we suggest that the significant accumulation of soluble Aβ may serve as a preclinical biomarker for AD diagnosis and that protecting myelinated fibers may represent a novel strategy for delaying the progression of early-stage AD.


At the pore scale, unstable displacement is often observed for two‐fluid systems, depending on the capillary number and fluid viscosity ratio. At the continuum scale, unstable displacement is usually not considered. In this work, relations between nonwetting fluid relative permeabilities (krn), fluid saturations (Sn), and capillary pressure heads (hc) are evaluated to predict average Sn values using a continuum‐based simulator for displacements in a micromodel. To this end, a series of displacement experiments was conducted using five wetting–nonwetting immiscible fluid pairs in a homogenous pore network. The micromodel was initially saturated with either polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG) or water as a wetting fluid, which was subsequently displaced by a nonwetting fluid (dodecane, hexadecane, or mineral oil) at different flow rates. Nonwetting fluid saturations increased with increasing flow rates for all five fluid pairs. Viscous fingering occurred when PEG was displaced by either dodecane or hexadecane. For the displacements of water, capillary fingers were observed at low capillary numbers. Fitting the experimental Sn and hc data with the BrooksCorey relationship indicated that the fitted and computed entry pressure heads, based on pore geometry and fluid properties, compare reasonably well. However, the fitted pore geometry factor values for these displacements are considerably lower than what is expected for displacements in homogeneous, highly uniform, porous systems, demonstrating the impact of unstable displacement. It was shown that a continuum‐based multiphase simulator could be used to reasonably estimate the average Sn behavior for unstable wetting fluid displacement in a pore network as long as independently fitted hc–Sn and krn–Sn relations were used.


This volume explores the pervasive influence exerted by some prehistoric monuments on European social life over thousands of years, and reveals how they can act as a node linking people through time, possessing huge ideological and political significance. Through the advancement of theoretical approaches and scientific methodologies, archaeologists have been able to investigate how some of these monuments provide resources to negotiate memories, identities, and power and social relations throughout European history. The essays in this collection examine the life-histories of carefully chosen megalithic monuments, stelae and statue-menhirs, and rock art sites of various European and Mediterranean regions during the Iron Age and Roman and Medieval times. By focusing on the concrete interaction between people, monuments, and places, the volume offers an innovative outlook on a variety of debated issues. Prominent among these is the role of ancient remains in the creation, institutionalization, contestation, and negotiation of social identities and memories, as well as their relationship with political economy in early historic European societies. By contributing to current theoretical debates on materiality, landscape, and place-making, The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Europe seeks to overcome disciplinary boundaries between prehistory and history, and highlight the long-term, genealogical nature of our engagement with the world


An evaluation was made of upland cotton cultivar fiber quality, when subjected to water deficit periods, on the phenological stages. The experiment was carried out at the Campina Grande Federal University, Pombal county Campus, Paraiba State, Brazil, between June and December 2015. Treatments were formed using a split-plot arrangement, in which the plots were 6 water deficit periods (P) (P1 = No deficit; P2 = Deficit in the initial growth stage; P3 = Deficit in the flower bud stage; P4 = Deficit in the flower stage; P5 = Deficit in the boll stage; and P6 = Deficit in the open boll stage) and the subplots, 2 upland cotton cultivars (C) (C1 = Brazil Seeds 286 and C2 = BRS 336), in randomized block design, with 4 replicates. The water deficits applied affected cultivars fiber quality, except maturity, reflectance and yellowness. The treatment without water deficit promoted the best fiber values, except of short fiber index, elongation and micronaire. Tested upland cotton cultivars were more tolerant to water deficit in the initial growth and boll stages. In general, BRS 336 was more tolerant to water deficits than BRS 286.

 Key words: Gossypium hirsutum L. r. latifolium H., stress, cotton lint industry technological characteristics.


Abstract Objective To examine whether the association between soft drinks consumption and child behaviour problems differs by food security status and sleep patterns in young children. Design Cross-sectional observational data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), which collected information on food insecurity, soft drinks consumption, sleep patterns and child behaviour problems. Bivariate and multivariate ordinary least-squares regression analyses predicting child behaviour problems and accounting for socio-economic factors and household characteristics were performed. Setting Twenty urban cities in the USA with a population of 200 000 or more. Subjects Parental interviews of 2829 children who were about 5 years old. Results Soft drinks consumption was associated with aggressive behaviours, withdrawn and attention problems for children aged 5 years. However, the association differed by food security status. The association was mostly statistically insignificant among food-secure children after accounting for socio-economic and demographic characteristics. On the other hand, soft drinks consumption was associated with behaviour problems for food-insecure children even after accounting for these factors. However, after accounting for child sleep patterns, the association between soft drinks consumption and child behaviour problems became statistically insignificant for food-insecure children. Conclusions The negative association between soft drinks consumption and child behaviour problems could be explained by sleep problems for food-insecure children. Since about 21 % of households with children are food insecure, targeted efforts to reduce food insecurity would help improve dietary (reduce soft drinks consumption) and health behaviours (improve sleep) and reduce child behaviour problems.


In this study Stackhouse and Wells' speech processing model (1997), is used to create a psycholinguistic profile of a 9 year old boy, (MC), who has a moderate hearing impairment and has been identified as having additional literacy difficulties. The Rees-Coleman Procedure, a series of computer tests including real- and nonword repetition, lexical decision, etc. is used along with informal real- and nonword reading and writing tests to identify levels of breakdown for different contrasts and to see if any deficits identified could account for his literacy difficulties. Different levels of breakdown are identified for different contrasts which can be divided into four separate profile patterns. Even though it is found that input skills for all contrasts tested except for sh/ch are now generally accurate, MC does not always distinguish between them in his speech as he has not yet updated his motor programs for these phonemes at the beginning of words. Results indicate that some of MC's literacy difficulties can be explained by deficits identified in the Rees-Coleman Procedure due to these inaccurate motor programs. Additional difficulties are also identified which are more likely to be due to deficits in phonological awareness and/or the ability to make links between phonemes and graphemes, therefore supporting a diagnosis of dyslexia.


We have implemented the recently demonstrated technique of chirped-pulse upconversion of midinfrared femtosecond pulses into the visible in a visible pump–midinfrared probe experiment for high-resolution, high-sensitivity measurements over a broad spectral range. We have succeeded in time-resolving the CO ligand transfer process from the heme Fe to the neighboring CuB atom in the bimetallic active site of mammalian cytochrome c oxidase, which was known to proceed in <1 ps, using the full CO vibrational signature of Fe–CO bond breaking and CuB–CO bond formation. Our differential transmission results show a delayed onset of the appearance of the CuB-bound species (200 fs), followed by a 450-fs exponential rise. Trajectories calculated by using molecular-dynamics simulations with a Morse potential for the CuB–C interaction display a similar behavior. Both experimental and calculated data strongly suggest a ballistic contribution to the transfer process.


Dispersion and longitudinal chromatic aberration (LCA) of the crystalline lens of the African cichlid fish Haplochromis burtoni were measured with laser lights of four wavelengths: 457, 488, 515, and 633 nm. LCA and spherical aberration, as an indicator of image quality, were determined from the back vertex distances of laser beams deflected by the lens. In the green range between 488 and 515 nm, dispersion is almost constant in the entire lens. In the blue and the red ranges (457–488 and 515–633 nm, respectively), dispersion of lens material increases approximately linearly with increasing refractive index from the periphery to the center of the lens. Spherical aberration and thus monochromatic image quality are independent of the wavelength of light. Dispersion and LCA of the lens are lower than expected from the dispersive properties of ocular media measured in other vertebrate species. Since the lens in fish sets the limit on optical performance, reduction of chromatic aberration of the crystalline lens improves the image quality of the eye.


We show that finite external excitation can lead to a traveling wave in an excitable passive optical system with one-dimensional space geometry. We have studied the excitable behavior of this system in parallel with that of its diffusive counterpart and show the effects of optical phase on the traveling-wave solution and its velocity. In two-dimensional space we observe numerically rotating optical spiral waves evolving from a truncated planar wave front.