Although coronary artery spasm has been implicated as an important cause of myocardial ischemia in humans, an animal model of reversible segmental coronary constriction has not been described. To provoke coronary spasm in open-chest dogs, selected vasoconstricting agents adsorbed to viscous ion exchange gels were applied topically to the surface of epicardial coronary arteries. The procedure provided a sustained localized release of drug, and minimized effects on contiguous myocardium or on the systemic circulation. Segmental arterial constrictor responses were evaluated by sonomicrometry, arteriography, and electromagnetic flow measurements. Potassium evoked sustained constrictions or spasms, and concomitantly reduced flow by −42 ± 4% (SE; n = 34). Serotonin likewise produced sustained decreases in flow of −22 ± 6% (SE; n = 5). Other constrictors, including norepinephrine and angiotensin, failed to evoke sustained constrictions. Spasms nearly abolished reactive hyperemic responses elicited by temporary complete occlusion of the artery. Intravenous nitroglycerin and dihydropyridine calcium antagonists promptly relieved the spasms. Scanning electronmicroscopic examination of the intimal surface of arteries undergoing sustained spasm revealed no platelet thrombi. Thus, nonthrombotic, vasodilator-sensitive segmental coronary spasms were elicited by endogenous constrictors which may play a role in regulating flow to ischemic myocardium.


The first volume of the new young adult novel series Zak Raven, Esq. Zak Raven is your typical 15-year old boy living in Bluffside. He wakes up, goes to school, comes home and does his homework. But somewhere between dinner and curfew, while most of his friends are playing video games - Zak can be found battling real life robots and his very own arch-enemy, Professor Bimitri Raine. Once a super-powered hero, Zak fought to save the world as Kid Ranger! Now his superhuman abilities have diminished and he's just ordinary Zak, a regular 15-year old who strives to remain the hero he once was. Without superpowers he must depend on his own agility and training to help him save the day and still find time for that algebra homework!The first volume of the new young adult novel series Zak Raven, Esq. Zak Raven is your typical 15-year old boy living in Bluffside. He wakes up, goes to school, comes home and does his homework. But somewhere between dinner and curfew, while most of his friends are playing video games - Zak can be found battling real life robots and his very own arch-enemy, Professor Bimitri Raine. Once a super-powered hero, Zak fought to save the world as Kid Ranger! Now his superhuman abilities have diminished and he's just ordinary Zak, a regular 15-year old who strives to remain the hero he once was. Without superpowers he must depend on his own agility and training to help him save the day and still find time for that algebra homework!


The security of any cryptosystem relies on the secrecy of the system's secret keys. Yet, recent experimental work demonstrates that tens of thousands of devices on the Internet use RSA and DSA secrets drawn from a small pool of candidate values. As a result, an adversary can derive the device's secret keys without breaking the underlying cryptosystem. We introduce a new threat model, under which there is a systemic solution to such randomness flaws. In our model, when a device generates a cryptographic key, it incorporates some random values from an entropy authority into its cryptographic secrets and then proves to the authority, using zero-knowledge-proof techniques, that it performed this operation correctly. By presenting an entropy-authority-signed public-key certificate to a third party (like a certificate authority or SSH client), the device can demonstrate that its public key incorporates randomness from the authority and is therefore drawn from a large pool of candidate values. Where possible, our protocol protects against eavesdroppers, entropy authority misbehavior, and devices attempting to discredit the entropy authority. To demonstrate the practicality of our protocol, we have implemented and evaluated its performance on a commodity wireless home router. When running on a home router, our protocol incurs a 1.7× slowdown over conventional RSA key generation and it incurs a 3.6× slowdown over conventional EC-DSA key generation.


The study of visual working memory (VWM) has recently centered around a fundamental question: Does VWM have a discrete capacity limit, such that only a few items may be actively maintained at any time, or is VWM a continuous resource that can be flexibly allocated to any number of items with varying degrees of precision? The key signature of discrete theories is that pure guessing will occur on some trials when the number of items to be remembered exceeds the capacity of VWM, whereas continuous models predict that all information in a visual scene can be stored with some precision. However, evidence for guessing has proven difficult to assess, as continuous resource models can predict data patterns that mimic guessing by allowing precision to vary randomly across trials. Here, we evaluated the hypothesis that a major source of trial-to-trial variability in VWM performance is due to variation in perceptual sensitivity across stimuli, an effect that both discrete and continuous models can account for. Participants viewed oriented gratings, and after a brief delay reported the orientation held in memory for a probed grating. When simply modeling the distribution of report errors, a continuous resource model with variable precision provided a better fit to the data than a discrete capacity model. However, precision was markedly higher for vertical and horizontal orientations than for oblique orientations, and this well-known perceptual effect accounted for a substantial proportion of the trial-to-trial variability in VWM performance. After explicitly including this source of variability within both models, the resulting discrete capacity model provided a better fit to the data than the continuous resource model. Our results suggest that the variability in VWM precision arises largely from differences in perceptual sensitivity across stimuli, and taking this variability into account reveals evidence in favor of the discrete capacity model. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


This paper seeks to address how discourses of fashion intersect with global politico‐economic processes by looking at the marketing of 'Uzbek' fashions and textiles both within Uzbekistan and internationally.

The concepts of nationality and ethnicity within Central Asia will be examined closely and used as a lens for discussing how the greater political and economic dialogues of the region become embodied within the clothing and textiles. Exploring the complexities of Central Asian identity politics is vital to understanding how ideas about culture, identity and value are conceptualized and connected within Uzbekistan and how these concepts are translated, interpreted and augmented for marketing materials aimed at a 'western' market.

Where does the role of the artisan fit within this matrix of culture, identity and value and how can her agency be understood within the structure of global value chains? How does the relationship between producer and consumer work when 'western' designers or brands appropriate 'Uzbek' designs, in the climate for increased transparency across supply chains in fashion and textiles? How are these issues related to and explained by the socio‐political and economic landscape of the region?

The paper seeks to address these questions and link the roles of artisan – designer – manufacturer – retailer – consumer through a series of interviews, visual and textual analyses to consider the questions of agency and the artisan within Uzbekistan.


A 12-year-old boy was admitted to the paediatric ward with a 4-month history of worsening pain and bruising to his legs, which had resulted in a progressive reduction in his mobility. He initially had had difficulty weight bearing, which had then progressed further making him wheelchair bound. On examination, there was extensive bruising (figure 1) to his oedematous legs, worse on his right leg compared with his left. His background of autism and 15q13.3 deletion, along with maternal learning difficulties, made deciphering a clear history difficult. However, there was no account of trauma, and he had been afebrile throughout his illness. He had though lost 6 kg in weight but remained clinically stable. He was admitted to the ward for further assessment. Figure 1 Clinical photograph showing bilateral bruises and swellings of the legs. Question 1 What differentials should be considered? Question 2 What investigation is more likely to suggest the diagnosis? Baseline bloods: full blood count—including platelets, albumin and coagulation. Extended bloods: vasculitis screen, erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, endocrinopathies and iron studies. Doppler ultrasound calves. X-ray legs/hips. MRI tibia and fibula. Initial investigations showed a haemoglobin of 67 g/L, with mean cell volume of 76 fL. Platelet count and white cell counts, including differentials, were all within range. Infection markers, renal function tests, liver function tests and clotting screens were all normal. Leg X-rays were performed and showed no obvious fracture. However, there were some bone changes noted that had not been present 4 months prior during a previous presentation. USS Doppler of his calves were done, excluding deep vein thrombosis. Further investigations as to possible causes of his anaemia and other symptoms were then started, including rheumatology screens, haemaglobinpathy screens, endocrinopathies and viral screens. These results, along with vitamin D levels and bone profile, all came back normal. However, iron studies showed low serum iron and transferrin saturation. He had been empirically treated with a course of intravenous ceftriaxone on admission, which was subsequently stopped in view of lack of any evidence (clinically, radiologically or otherwise) of osteomyelitis, septic arthritis or other infective state. His behaviour on the ward, however, quickly raised some questions; in particular his detailed dietary history showed a very limited range, consisting solely of chicken nuggets, chips and pizza. Therefore, while awaiting results of any definite 'cause' of his immobility, his care was managed holistically. He was started on oral iron therapy and a strict dietary plan, including Ensure supplements. Physiotherapy was started, and various methods to encourage him to mobilise were commenced. His reluctance to engage with these 'treatments' initially caused problems, however through negotiation of 'iPad time' with compliance, they were slowly built up. Along with other professionals, the safeguarding team were also involved in his care at this point. Though a clear diagnosis was still unclear, he clinically improved. Oedema of his legs and bruising reduced, and he was able to mobilise a few steps further each day on the ward. Question 3 What is the most likely action that would help confirm the diagnosis? Bone marrow biopsy. Full-body MRI. Complete nutritional history. Referral to tertiary orthopaedic centre. Answers can be found on page 02.


Objectives. Bone tumors are heterogeneous neoplasms, comprising a large spectrum of entities, both benign and malignant. One of the greatest challenges regarding bone and soft tissue pathology is highlighting osteoblastic differentiation in malignant lesions. From the numerous osteoblast-specific markers previously described in the literature, only osteocalcin, osteonectin and RANK have been used in histology studies. More recent proposed markers for osteoblastic differentiation are CD56 and special AT-rich sequence binding protein 2 (SATB2). Giant cell tumour of the bone is a special entity, in the category of intermediate tumors, locally aggressive and rarely metastasising. It is also known to become malignant. Specific markers for giant tumor of the bone are p63 and RANK, the latter being an osteoblastic marker. We investigated the expression of the quoted recent emerged markers, p63, CD56 and SATB2, in 23 bone and soft tissue primary and secondary neoplasms by constructing a tissue microarray paraffin block, and we analysed the impact of using them as a diagnostic marker in current practice.


We report new solution processable electron transport layers for organic photovoltaic devices based on composites of metal oxides and reduced graphene oxides. Low bandgap polymer cells fabricated using these nanohybrid transport layers display power conversion efficiencies in the range of 7.4–7.5% which is observed to be an improvement over conventional metal oxide or thermally evaporated electron transport layers. This efficiency enhancement is driven mainly by improvements in the short circuit current (from ∼14.8 to ∼15.0 mA cm−2) as well as the fill factor (∼65% to ∼68%) upon the inclusion of reduced graphene oxide with the metal oxides. This is attributed to the reduced graphene oxide providing charge transfer pathways between the metal oxide nanoparticles. In addition, the metal oxide/reduced graphene oxide nanohybrids also lead to more balanced electron and hole mobilities which assist in the improvement of the fill factor of the device. The versatile nature of these nanohybrids is increased due to the wrapping of the graphene layers around the metal oxide nanoparticles, which leads to very smooth films with surface roughness of ∼3 nm. The improvement observed in this study upon the incorporation of RGO as well as the solution processable nature of the interfacial layers brings the organic photovoltaic technology a step closer towards realising an all solution processed solar cell.


I analysed school facilities maintenance, a school governance function in South Africa. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 principals and three deputy principals as coordinators of this function at their schools. The interviews were purposively and conveniently selected to gather data regarding school facilities maintenance and gain insight into the challenges this function presents to schools and their governing bodies. Findings indicate that schools generally do not have organisational structures for planned facilities maintenance, nor do they have policies on facilities maintenance. Evidence of facilities maintenance at schools mainly relates to concerns with facilities repairs, (mostly "as the need arises") and general campus cleanliness; mostly with emergency and corrective forms of maintenance as opposed to crucial preventive maintenance. Therefore, there is a need for interim facilities maintenance committees and, in the long term, a whole-school approach to facilities maintenance that makes facilities maintenance a strategic lever for school functionality.


This scoping study summarizes the challenges with integrating wind and solar generation into the California's electricity grid. These challenges include: Smoothing intra-hour variability Absorbing excess renewable energy during over-generation periods Addressing morning and evening ramping periods In addition, there are technical challenges to integrating retail demand response (DR) triggered by the wholesale conditions into the CAISO markets. The study describes the DR programs available to the consumers through the utilities in California and CAISO's ancillary services market because an integration of the wholesale and retail DR requires an understanding of these different offerings and the costs associated with acquiring them. Demand-side active and passive storage systems are proposed as technologies that may be used to mitigate the effects of intermittence due to renewable generation. Commercial building technologies as well as industrial facilities with storage capability are identified as targets for the field tests. Two systems used for ancillary services communications are identified as providing the triggers for DR enablement. Through the field tests, issues related to communication, automation and flexibility of demand-side resources will be explored and the performance of technologies that participate in the field tests will be evaluated. The major outcome of this research is identifying and defining flexibility of DR resources and optimized use of these resources to respond to grid conditions.


We describe a simple and efficient approach to learning structures of sparse high-dimensional latent variable models. Standard algorithms either learn structures of specific predefined forms, or estimate sparse graphs in the data space ignoring the possibility of the latent variables. In contrast, our method learns rich dependencies and allows for latent variables that may confound the relations between the observations. We extend the model to conditional mixtures with side information and non-Gaussian marginal distributions of the observations. We then show that our model may be used for learning sparse latent variable structures corresponding to multiple unknown states, and for uncovering features useful for explaining and predicting structural changes. We apply the model to real-world financial data with heavy-tailed marginals covering the lowand highmarket volatility periods of 2005-2011. We show that our method tends to give rise to significantly higher likelihoods of test data than standard network learning methods exploiting the sparsity assumption. We also demonstrate that our approach may be practical for financial stress-testing and visualization of dependencies between financial instruments.


The present study analyzed the effects of ethanol extracts of scorpion on epilepsy prevention and hippocampal expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein in a lithium chloride-pilocarpine epileptic rat model. Results were subsequently compared with valproic acid. Results showed gradually-increased hippocampal glial fibrillary acidic protein expression following model establishment; glial fibrillary acidic protein mRNA expression was significantly increased at 3 days, reached a peak at 7 days, and then gradually decreased thereafter. Ethanol extracts of scorpion doses of 580 and 1 160 mg/kg, as well as 120 mg/kg valproic acid, led to a decreased number of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive cells and glial fibrillary acidic protein mRNA expression, as well as decreased seizure grades and frequency of spontaneously recurrent seizures. The effects of 1 160 mg/kg ethanol extracts of scorpion were equal to those of 120 mg/kg valproic acid. These results suggested that the anti-epileptic effect of ethanol extracts of scorpion were associated with decreased hippocampal glial fibrillary acidic protein expression in a rat model of lithium chloride-pilocarpine induced epilepsy.


Source Localization in Cross Modality Matching of Brightness and Loudness in Young Adults Tawnya Nadine Coates Department of Communication Disorders, BYU Master of Science Cross modality matching is a magnitude matching procedure, developed to study the relationships between sensory modalities. Auditory and visual sensory integration can be examined through cross modality matching of brightness and loudness. Brightness and loudness are natural correlates of one another as they both represent the parameter of intensity for their respective sensory modalities. Past studies have demonstrated that typical individuals tend to match brighter lights with louder sounds and dimmer lights with softer sounds. The current study utilized a modified cross modality matching procedure, combined with electroencephalography (EEG) data, to examine the cortical response to sensory integration. It was hypothesized that the response latency and cortical distribution of the EEG data would show differences between matched and unmatched conditions of light and sound stimuli. Light and sound stimuli were presented to 10 participants (five males and five females between the ages of 18 and 28 years) in a forced choice paradigm. The behavioral responses, reaction times, and EEG data were recorded for each patient. Results demonstrated that there were significant differences in behavioral reaction time among the stimulus conditions. However, reaction times were only significantly faster for the loudest sound paired with the brightest light. No other pairs of matched stimuli resulted in faster reaction times. Event related potentials (ERPs) were identified for matched and unmatched stimulus conditions. No differences were identified in latency of the ERPs among conditions. Additionally, source localization revealed that dipole locations for each stimulus condition remained relatively constant in the prefrontal cortex. As the prefrontal cortex has been found to be associated with decision-making and sensory integration, it can be concluded that sensory integration did occur. However, the processing of sensory information did not change for matched or unmatched conditions of light and sound.


Complexity theory of circuits strongly suggests that deep architectures can be much more efficient (sometimes exponentially) than shallow architectures, in terms of computational elements required to represent some functions. Deep multi-layer neural networks have many levels of non-linearities allowing them to compactly represent highly non-linear and highly-varying functions. However, until recently it was not clear how to train such deep networks, since gradient-based optimization starting from random initialization appears to often get stuck in poor solutions. Hinton et al. recently introduced a greedy layer-wise unsupervised learning algorithm for Deep Belief Networks (DBN), a generative model with many layers of hidden causal variables. In the context of the above optimization problem, we study this algorithm empirically and explore variants to better understand its success and extend it to cases where the inputs are continuous or where the structure of the input distribution is not revealing enough about the variable to be predicted in a supervised task. Our experiments also confirm the hypothesis that the greedy layer-wise unsupervised training strategy mostly helps the optimization, by initializing weights in a region near a good local minimum, giving rise to internal distributed representations that are high-level abstractions of the input, bringing better generalization.


Nanosize copper particles were prepared using Damdei green leaves extract without involving any harsh chemicals and special capping agent in aqueous phase. The particles are spherical with an average diameter of 5 nm as determined by HRTEM. These ensuing copper nanoparticles (NPs) possess significant catalytic potential for oxidation of o-dianisidine in presence of hydrogen peroxide. This oxidation reaction itself is extremely slow but the inclusion of copper NPs enhance the reaction rate efficiently even at room temperature. This report may be useful in analytical industries as well as clinical chemistry for successful estimation of hydrogen peroxide present in the surrounding environment.


Rates of evolution have been important components of many phylogenetic and population genetic studies. In Antarctica, underlying active and abandoned Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) rookeries, are well preserved sub fossil bones. This thesis aimed to estimate a rate of mitochondrial (mt) DNA evolution by sampling sequences from serially preserved subfossil bones through time, and compare these to sequences from modem populations. During this study four field expeditions were undertaken in Antarctica during the austral summers, resulting in the collection of over 400 blood and 329 subfossil bone samples. This thesis research showed that the Adelie penguin mtDNA control region is unusually long (1768 b.p.) and contains a repeat complex at the 3'-end. A phylogeny of 17 penguin species (suborder Sphenisciformes) was constructed from rns and rnl mtDNA gene sequences. The characteristics (Le. heteroplasmy and length variation) of control region sequences from penguin species were plotted onto this phylogeny as a mechanism for investigating their evolution. DNA sequence variation from a total of 381 modern Adelie penguin samples revealed the presence of two distinct maternal lineages (7.1% net sequence difference). One lineage is present in all locations around Antarctica (A) sampled and the other was recorded only in Ross Sea populations (RS). The phylogeographic pattern of the A and RS lineages suggests Adelie penguins were restricted to distinct ice-age refugia during the last glacial cycle. Ancient DNA was extracted from 80 sub fossil bones C4C dates ranged from 310-6082 years before present) from 16 locations on the coast of the Ross Sea. The ancient DNA from these frozen subfossil Adelie penguins is extraordinarily well preserved. Using both modem and ancient DNA sequences a rate of mtDNA control region evolution was determined. This estimated rate is five times higher than previous estimates for the avian mtDNA control "region. This rate was then used to time the divergence of the two lineages A and RS, and showed they split 83 kyr BP during the last glacial cycle. Adelie penguins appear to have endured dramatic changes to their habitat during the ice-ages of the Late Pleistocene.


Sursassite occurs as orange-red needles associated with nsutite, hematite, apatite-(CaF), spessartine, manganoan clinochlore, and ardennite in quartz veinlets cross-cutting the red-purple schists of the Ottre Formation (Salm Group, Middle Ordovician) in the core of the Lienne syncline, Stavelot Massif, Belgium. The chemical composition of sursassite shows the presence of about 2 wt.% MgO and up to 4 wt.% CaO, while FeO does not exceed 1 wt.%. The crystal-chemical formula for sursassite, calculated on the basis 16 cations per unit cell, is (Mn 3:59 Ca 0:44 ) ∑=4:00 (Al 5:25 Mn 0:19 3+ Mg 0:44 Fe 0:12 3+ ) ∑=6:00 (Si 5:97 Al 0:03 ) ∑=6:00 (O 21:53 OH 0:47 ) (OH) 6:00· A single-crystal structure refinement has been performed to R 1 = 0.0454, in space group P 21/ m , with a = 8.697(1), b = 5.787(1), c = 9.769(1) A, and β = 108.91(1)°· The structure is based on chains of edge-sharing aluminium octahedra arranged along the b axis, connected together by sharing corners with the Si(1)O 4 tetrahedron and the Si(2)Si(3)O 7 group. Two independent manganese cations, Mn1 and Mn2, occur between the aluminium chains and are linked to seven and six oxygen atoms, respectively. The Mn1 site is occupied by Mn and minor amounts of Ca, while the Al1 sites contains aluminium and minor amounts of Mg, Mn 3+ , and Fe 3+ . The absence of Mg from the Mn1 and Mn2 positions is in accord with the low-pressure conditions in which sursassite crystallized in the Lienne Valley, conditions that have been estimated at 1–2 kbar.


Edith Wharton (1862-1937), who lived nearly half of her life during the cinema age when she published many of her well-known works, acknowledged that she disliked the movies, characterizing them as an enemy of the imagination. Yet her fiction often referenced film and popular Hollywood culture, and she even sold the rights to several of her novels to Hollywood studios. "Edith Wharton on Film" explores these seeming contradictions and examines the relationships among Wharton's writings, the popular culture in which she published them, and the subsequent film adaptations of her work (three from the 1930s and four from the 1990s). Author Parley Ann Boswell examines the texts in which Wharton referenced film and Hollywood culture and evaluates the extant films adapted from Wharton's fiction. The volume introduces Wharton's use of cinema culture in her fiction through the 1917 novella "Summer", written during the nation's first wave of feminism, in which the heroine Charity Royall is moviegoer and new American woman, consumer and consumable. Boswell considers the source of this conformity and entrapment, especially for women. She discloses how Wharton struggled to write popular stories and then how she revealed her antipathy toward popular movie culture in two late novels. Boswell describes Wharton's financial dependence on the American movie industry, which fueled her antagonism toward Hollywood culture, her well-documented disdain for popular culture, and her struggles to publish in women's magazines. This first full-length study that examines the film adaptations of Wharton's fiction covers seven films adapted from Wharton's works between 1930 and 2000 and the fifty-year gap in Wharton film adaptations. The study also analyzes Sophy Viner in "The Reef" as pre-Hollywood ingenue, in "Twilight Sleep" and "The Children" and the real Hollywood figures who might have inspired them, and The Sheik and racial stereotypes. Boswell traces the complicated relationship of fiction and narrative film, the adaptations and cinematic metaphors of Wharton's work in the 1990s, and Wharton's persona as an outsider. Wharton's fiction on film corresponds in striking ways to American noir cinema, says Boswell, because contemporary filmmakers recognize and celebrate the subversive qualities of Wharton's work. "Edith Wharton on Film", which includes eleven illustrations, enhances Wharton's stature as a major American author and provides persuasive evidence that her fiction should be read as American noir literature.


1. Recent reviews demonstrate that genetically determined alternative mating strategies (AMS) are widespread and typically consist of morphs that are recognized by morphological or colour traits. Despite well-established behavioural differences associated with each morph, and evidence that androgens are involved in the induction of morphs, few studies have examined whether morphs also vary in whole-organismal performance traits, which may affect dominance status, resource holding potential (RHP) or mate attraction. 2. Our survey revealed a link between androgens and physiological performance traits that are associated with territorial or courtship displays across vertebrate taxa, although the number of species in the sample is limited. Experimental elevation of testosterone alters muscular contractile properties, swimming performance, sprint speed and endurance in males. Whether morphs differ in physiological capacities is relatively unexplored, although recent studies have found that males with high dominance status also exhibit greater physiological capacities (locomotor performance, call duration). 3. Multiple studies support the hypothesis that elevated testosterone results in fitness trade-offs. Potential costs of testosterone include impaired immune function, higher parasite loads, greater energetic requirements and ultimately reduced survival. Long term studies of Uta stansburiana highlight the trade-offs among life-history traits induced by variation in testosterone. Circumstantial evidence suggests a role of testosterone in depressing immune function in species with AMS. 4. We argue that hypotheses regarding the role of trade-offs in shaping selection on functional modules, which are involved in sexual selection, are best developed by manipulative studies on discrete morphs. Our review highlights the need to measure multiple traits to provide additional insights into the roles of sexual selection and physiological epistasis in maintaining intraspecific variation in reproductive phenotypes. The integration of endocrine control of behaviour, physiology and performance is rarely attempted in most studies and may be facilitated by analyses that focus on estimating correlational selection.


The economic crisis which began in most European countries in mid-2008 has had severe effects on labour markets. Although no country has escaped the crisis, the extent of output losses and the number of jobs lost, as well as the resulting rise in unemployment, vary considerably between countries. In order to shed light on this issue, this paper examines empirically how the current economic crisis has affected the different European economies in terms of the impact on output, and the knock-on effects, influenced by the specific institutional frameworks, on employment and unemployment.On the basis of comparable quarterly Eurostat data the differences between countries in terms of the way that the loss of output is translated into falls in working hours and head-count employment and rises in unemployment are analysed. A range of institutional factors expected to influence the transmission from output to employment and unemployment is examined for a selected group of four countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Spain).


Aggression/victimization in school is a problem that is associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors which may develop into long term emotional problems for the child. Sixth grade is a transitional period in a child's life, whereby a child experiences hormonal changes, enters a new school and establishes social status. Depending on the child's emotional well-being, these are antecedents that are related to experiencing aggression/victimization. Children develop within a context. Within this context there are parents, adults, siblings, peers and teachers whereby the child learns behaviors through proximal and distal interactions which may impact the child's life either positively or negatively. Within this context the child develops resilience, which is a protective factor that enables the child to "bounce back" from negative situations. The goal of this study is to establish a connection between the environment in which a child develops and the impact emotional well-being, peers and adults have on a child in relation to experiencing aggression and ultimately becoming a victim. The findings indicate that children who suffer from emotional distress are more likely to become victims and children who have supportive adults in their lives are less likely to become victims. Overall, emotional distress plays a negative role and resilience plays a positive and protective role in a child's life. This outcome suggests that prevention/interventions should be created whereby a child has more supportive adults in their lives creating a resilient environment.


In Denmark more than 50% of known cases of Legionnaires' disease are community acquired with no known association with traveling. To assess the role of hot water systems in private homes and institutions as possible sources for infection, a pilot study was performed from October 1999 to May 2000. A total of 46 hot water systems in large buildings situated in or around Copenhagen were included in the study. Twenty-four systems were in public buildings in one municipality. The systems included 13 blocks of flats, 14 schools, seven nursing homes, eight sport centers, two industries, and two other institutions. The water samples were analyzed at The National Centre for Hospital Hygiene, Statens Serum Institute, within 2 days of sampling. Two to five colonies from each water sample were further tested by monoclonal antibodies (Dresden MAb panel) that distinguish between 15 serogroups of Legionella pneumophila. All isolates determined to be L. pneumophila serogroup 1 were further characterized by an Enzyme Immuno Assay, distinguishing between MAb 3/1-reactive isolates (Pontiac group) and MAb 3/1-negative isolates (non-Pontiac group). Five of the six serogroups of L. pneumophila identified as causing community acquired Legionnaires' disease in Denmark were isolated from the water samples. The results of this pilot study are in accordance with the possibility that domestic hot water systems in private homes and institutions may be the sources of some of the community-acquired cases in Denmark.


This study consists of three essays on electoral accountability and local public finance. 'A comprehensive test of Yardstick Competition in the Italian Municipalities' tests the Yardstick Competition hypotheses on a dataset of Italian Municipalities during the period 1995-2004, focusing on the local property tax rate on the main dwelling (ICI abitazione principale). First, a vote popularity equation is estimated with instrumental variables, including an original measure of inter-jurisdictional comparison between the domestic tax rate and the average neighbors' tax rate. The findings verify popularity concerns of the incumbent, robust to alternative
definitions of popularity. Then, we estimate a spatial tax setting equation detecting interactions driven by the positive spatial lag coefficient. Given these evidence, we conclude that Yardstick Competition is present in the dataset. 'The time dynamics of Yardstick Competition in the Italian Municipalities' investigates the pattern of strategic interaction from 1995 to 2004. The literature identifies Yardstick Competition with the average interaction in time; we move forward, by estimating the spatial tax setting equation on subsequent time subsamples of the dataset to capture the variation of the interaction due to the introduction of a marginal year. The results show a converging trend towards the lowest level of spatial correlation. This pattern is especially evident in those Regions with a higher density of municipalities, where there are more opportunities to make inter-jurisdictional
comparisons. This evidence suggests that the informational
spillover generating Yardstick Competition, contrary to the
assumption in the literature, changes over time. 'Do voters learn from past experience? Yardstick Competition
and political selection' extends the model of Yardstick
Competition by assuming that the stock of information available to voters accumulates over time. The theoretical results show that when past mimicking is observed there is a range of values of the weight attached to past experience for which the less competent incumbent would not be re-elected. If voters do not observe past mimicking, however, successful mimicking is always feasible. The predictions of the model are tested on an electoral cohort of Italian Municipalities by estimating a probit regression where the dependent variable is the dummy for reelection
of the incumbent and the variables of interest are the
voters' beliefs on the tax rate computed through dynamic
Bayesian updating. The results, however, fail to verify the
predictions of the model as the coefficient associated to the updated belief is never statistically significant.
'Asymmetric information and Political Budget Cycles: the effect of the local diffusion of newspapers' examines the expenditure cycles in the Italian Regions from 1984 to 2008 and their nexus with voters' awareness, proxied with the local diffusion of newspapers. We estimate a dynamic expenditure equation with Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (Bruno, 2005) accounting for the small size of the dataset. The results, robust to different specifications of the econometric model, find cycles in
total expenditure and in capital expenditure before the electoral and fiscal reforms in the mid-90s. During this period the diffusion of newspapers constrains the electoral expenditure of those same items; the diffusion of generic newspapers is associated to a larger effect than the diffusion of economic newspapers, suggesting stronger popularity concerns towards the newly informed voters. The analyses does not detect neither expenditure cycles nor any effect of the diffusion of newspapers after 1995, indicating a possible shift from a cycle in the size of
expenditure to a less visible type of signaling, the cycle in the composition of expenditure.


Abstract Steffensen's inequality is used to obtain new properties of nuclear Doppler broadening functions. We apply the inequality on subinterval integrals of these functions to obtain bounds that provide new approximations for the Doppler broadening functions. The Taylor series is used to further simplify the analytic approximations for the bounds to sums of terms of elementary transcendental functions. The approximations for bounds are able to reproduce the functions with any desired decimal place accuracy. The average of the lower and upper bounds provide better approximations to achieve the same level of decimal place accuracy and are much more efficient computationally. The method is capable of computing the functions to arbitrary accuracy as the inequality essentially gives the bounds of the functions.


The birth of a disabled child creates a stressful family situation and changes the inner and social life in the family changes. It predetermines existential problems of the family that raises a disabled child. The article seeks to answer the following problematic questions: What changes in inner life are characteristic to families that raise a disabled child? How does the birth of a disabled child influence the social position of the family? What encounters and experiences strengthen the family? Having conducted qualitative research, categories have been singled out, the content of which reveal these changes: an initial reaction of members of the family to the birth of a disabled child and inner and social changes of the family. Changes in the inner life of the family that raises a disabled child are connected with the change of purposefulness of personal life, the test of marital relationship, the acquisition of new skills and responsibility when realizing the significance of the birth of a child and giving meaning to themselves anew. After the birth of a disabled child families are influenced by both internal and social environmental stressors that influence the dynamics of their functioning. Social changes in the family come to light in the areas of career possibilities, the modification of living environment, the search of information and resources. Child disability supposes the change of parental expectations that create fear about the future of the family, problems of reconciliation with the fact of a disability; however certain families are mobilized by such a situation. Faith in God allows a person to have greater assurance of himself and the child; leave his fears and anxiety behind, and the possibility arises for the inner strengths of the parents to be revealed.


Kalirin-7 (Kal7) is a Rho-guanine nucleotide exchange factor that is localized in neuronal postsynaptic densities. Kal7 interacts with the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor and regulates aspects of dendritic spine dynamics both in vitro and in vivo. Chronic treatment with cocaine increases dendritic spine density in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of rodents and primates. Kal7 mRNA and protein are upregulated in the NAc following cocaine treatment, and the presence of Kal7 is necessary for the normal proliferation of dendritic spines following cocaine use. Mice that constitutively lack Kal7 [Kalirin-7 knockout mice (Kal7KO)] demonstrate increased locomotor sensitization to cocaine and a decreased place preference for cocaine. Here, using an intravenous cocaine self-administration paradigm, Kal7KO mice exhibit increased administration of cocaine at lower doses as compared with wild-type (Wt) mice. Analyses of mRNA transcript levels from the NAc of mice that self-administered saline or cocaine reveal that larger splice variants of the Kalrn gene are increased by cocaine more dramatically in Kal7KO mice than in Wt mice. Additionally, transcripts encoding the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor increased in Wt mice that self-administered cocaine but were unchanged in similarly experienced Kal7KO mice. These findings suggest that Kal7 participates in the reinforcing effects of cocaine, and that Kal7 and cocaine interact to alter the expression of genes related to critical glutamatergic signaling pathways in the NAc.


- Provides a detailed record of a vanishing people (Generation A) through ethnographic fieldwork situated historically and socially.
- Offers insights and theory into why the women engage in a particular mode of religious practice.
- Reflects on the consequences of their loss in both religious and secular domains.
- Challenges, revises, and introduces theories related to religiosity, women, and generations.

The Religious Lives of Older Laywomen draws on ethnographic fieldwork, cross-cultural comparisons, and relevant theories exploring the beliefs, identities, and practices of 'Generation A'—Anglican laywomen born in the 1920s and 1930s. Now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, they are often described as the 'backbone' of the Church and likely its final active generation. The prevalence of laywomen in mainstream Christian congregations is a widely accepted phenomenon that will cause little surprise amongst the research community or Christian adherents. What is surprising is that we know so little about them.

Generation A laywomen have remained largely invisible in previous work on institutional religion in Euro-American countries, particularly as the focus on religion and gender has turned to youth, sexuality, and priesthood. Female Christian Generation A is on the cusp of a catastrophic decline in mainstream Christianity that accelerated during the 'post-war' (post-1945) age. The age profile of mainstream Christianity represents an increasingly aging pattern, with Generation A not being replaced by their children or grandchildren—the Baby-Boomers and generations X, Y, and Z. Generation A is irreplaceable and unique. 'Generation' shares specific values, beliefs, behaviours, and orientations, therefore, when this generation finally disappears within the next five to 10 years, their knowledge, insights, and experiences will be lost forever. Abby Day both documents and interprets their religious lives and what we can learn about them and more widely, about contemporary Christianity and its future.


Er2O3 coating for tritium permeation barrier has been fabricated on steel substrates by a filtered arc deposition method at room temperature and 973 K. Thermal expansion of the oxide layer and the substrate induced peel-off of the coating. The non-crystalline layer is thought to play a role in forming a uniform surface coating. Five cycles of permeation measurements at 773-973 K resulted in no degradation of the coating. Different permeation behaviors are seen between degassing for 12 h at 873 K and at room temperature. Low hydrogen background following degassing at 873 K helps detect the transition to deuterium permeation. The permeation flux following different degassing conditions eventually approached comparable levels.


Abstract The family Ampullariidae includes both aquatic and amphibious apple snails. They are an emerging model for evolutionary studies due to the high diversity, ancient history, and wide geographical distribution. Insight into drivers of ampullariid evolution is hampered, however, by the lack of genomic resources. Here, we report the genomes of four ampullariids spanning the Old World (Lanistes nyassanus) and New World (Pomacea canaliculata, P. maculata, and Marisa cornuarietis) clades. The ampullariid genomes have conserved ancient bilaterial karyotype features and a novel Hox gene cluster rearrangement, making them valuable in comparative genomic studies. They have expanded gene families related to environmental sensing and cellulose digestion, which may have facilitated some ampullarids to become notorious invasive pests. In the amphibious Pomacea, novel acquisition of an egg neurotoxin and a protein for making the calcareous eggshell may have been key adaptations enabling their transition from underwater to terrestrial egg deposition.


The objective of this research project was to evaluate searching methodologies used by undergraduate learners in
searching for academic information, and to design an aid if required. Literature surveys indicated that the sheer size of the
Internet and lack of categorization of the information available makes finding relevant information a daunting task. Other
problems include a lack of clear search specification formulation and inefficient usage of time and computing power by
loading and using one search engine at a time. It was also clear from the literature that Internet searchers have difficulty
in general to locate relevant information. The methodology used included empirical experiments involving a total of 1109
learners in a series of empirical experiments to address this situation. Their failure/success, methodology and a number of
other factors were measured, and an instrument was designed to overcome these problems. The main conclusion was that
the use of this instrument (called FOIOTI: Finder Of Information On The Internet) increased the chances of success under
controlled circumstances dramatically. This was achieved by hiding the operationalist detail from the user, allowing him/
her to concentrate on conceptualizing the topic.


Small ruminants (i.e., sheep and goats) are widespread in the tropics and are important to the subsistence, economic and social livelihoods of a large human population in these areas. The aim of this thesis was to identify the breeding objectives for tropical small ruminants, and to develop appropriate breeding strategies for their improvement. The results indicated that breed substitution and crossbreeding programmes involving temperate breeds are rarely successful due to incompatibility of the genotypes with the farmers' breeding objectives and the production systems. Within-breed selection programmes utilizing indigenous breeds are likely to be more sustainable than breed substitution and crossbreeding. In addition, they help to maintain biodiversity. Indigenous genotypes were predominantly found among pastoral/extensive farmers and mixed crosses among smallholders. In general farmers perceived crosses less favourably than indigenous breeds for a range of traits. The effect was studied of including intangible benefits in the calculation of economic values of breeding goal traits. It resulted in increased values of traits related to longevity. Litter size and lambing frequency were more important traits in smallholder and pastoral production. 12-month live weight also featured prominently in pastoral production. Constraints to small ruminant productivity included low levels of management, disease and parasite challenge, inadequate feed and poor marketing. Nucleus breeding schemes are recommended to optimize the limited available resources. However, 'interactive cycling screening' schemes would be more practical under village settings as the farmers are actively involved in genetic improvement, and minimal recording is required in the commercial flocks. A single nucleus could serve both the smallholder and pastoral production. In conclusion, it is prudent to examine the production system holistically, and involve the producer at every stage in the planning and operation of a breeding programme, integrating traditional knowledge, practices, behaviour and values.


The Financial Instability Hypothesis associated with Hyman Minsky has profound implications for the conduct of monetary policy in modern capitalist economies. At its core is the proposition that the central bank may contribute to the financial fragility of leveraged firms in its pursuit of inflation-targeting interest rate policies. This paper develops a small macroeconomic model incorporating many of the salient features of a Minskyan economy. The imposition of the resulting theoretical restrictions in a CVAR model provides support for Minsky's main proposition that interest rate innovations can drive a wedge between the cash-inflows of firms and their debt-servicing obligations. The paper concludes that the implementation of countercyclical capital requirements can provide monetary policymakers with additional policy instruments that can be used to cool overheated sectors without recourse to the 'blunt instrument' of interest rate policy.


Bacchylides, nephew of Simonides and rival of Pindar, wrote choral poetry of many types. We have a number of his victory odespoems celebrating victories in athletic contestsas well as dithyrambs and other hymns. He was a master of the captivating narrative. Also represented in this volume is the Boeotian Corinna, whose work, versions of local myths, survives in greater quantity than that of any other Greek woman poet except Sappho. Ancient authorities regarded Corinna as an older contemporary and mentor of Pindar; but some modern scholars place her later, in the third century BCE. Other women are here too: Myrtis, also from Boeotia; Telesilla of Argos, famous for her military leadership as well as her hymns; the shadowy Charixena; and Praxilla of Sicyon, author of choral poems and drinking songs. David Campbell gives all the extant verse of these poets, along with the ancients' accounts of their lives and works. This fourth volume of his much-praised edition of Greek lyric poetry also includes Timocreon of Rhodes, pentathlete and writer of invective; Diagoras of Melos, choral poet and alleged atheist; and Ion of Chios. Sophocles is represented by fragments of his paean "Asclepius," Euripides by the few surviving lines of his ode for Alcibiades' dazzling victory in the chariot race at Olympia. This is the fourth in a five-volume edition of Greek lyric poets. Sappho and Alcaeus, the illustrious singers of sixth-century Lesbos, are in the first. Volume II contains the work of Anacreon, composer of solo song; the "Anacreontea"; and the earliest writers of choral poetry, notably the seventh-century Spartans Alcman and Terpander. Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and other sixth-century poets are in Volume III. The last volume includes the new school of dithyrambic poets (mid-fifth to mid-fourth century), together with the anonymous poems: drinking songs, children's songs, cult hymns, and others.


The 2016 Good University Guide demonstrated that Australian rural and regional universities are outperforming more established, and highly internationally ranked city peers in relation to student perceptions of the quality of teaching that they experience. Recently, many universities have encouraged academic staff to rethink the delivery method for subjects and give consideration to the further development of significant online components. Lecturers at rural and regional universities are increasingly encouraged and supported to include a variety of online resources in their subjects and to explore the use of promising methods such as the 'flipped classroom'. The 'flipped classroom' is an innovative pedagogical approach and is a technique that has garnered a lot of attention among school-based and tertiary educators. It is important to identify what influences successful implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) for augmented learning in the context of the flipped classroom. This paper briefly outlines aspects of the flipped classroom approach and looks at how the school of Education, in a regional Australian university servicing rural and remote areas, in particular, is integrating this approach in their pedagogy. This paper reports on interviews conducted with the lecturers at the university about their views, understanding, and challenges of the learning and teaching environment in a flipped classroom approach. This paper also reports the lecturers' perception of student learning when a 'flipped classroom' approach is adopted. As a variant of blended learning and an innovative pedagogical approach, it was found that the flipped classroom approach has gathered a lot of attention and challenges among university lecturers.


The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) is a unique international institution, established by the Security Council in 1991 entrusted with the power of processing and assessing of claims against Iraq arising from the Gulf War and the payment thereof. The UNCC, as a subsidiary organ of the Council, has been created to determine the validity and amount of claims arising on or after August 2, 1990 based upon any direct loss, damage, including environmental damage and depletion of natural resources, to foreign States, nationals or corporations. Iraq, as a consequence of its unlawful invasion and occupation of Kuwait, is liable under international law for the damages incurred. In the seven years since its establishment, the UNCC's major body, the Governing Council, has issued more than forty decisions of a substantive and procedural nature, covering almost all areas of international law in the field of claims. The Panels of Commissioners, the quasi-arbitral bodies of the UNCC, have issued many reports examining a plethora of new as well as old legal issues which have been approved by the Governing Council; and, last but not least, the UNCC has started the payment of the awards. Not only will the UNCC be providing satisfaction to the numerous victims of Iraq's aggression; indeed, its activity will provide useful guidelines for the handling of mass international claims programs in the future. The Handbook contains the complete text of the relevant Security Council Resolutions and Reports of the Secretary General, all Governing Council's decisions, a review of the main legal statements by the Panels of Commissioners, a selected bibliography, an index and an introductory essay dealing with the origins of the UNCC, the claims procedure, the substantive rules on State responsibility, the legal basis of the UNCC and its activities and the perspectives of the UNCC.


Adaptive management is a theory that encourages environmental managers to engage in a continual learning process and adapt their management choices based on learning about new scientific developments. One such area of scientific development relevant to water management is bacterial genetics, which now allows scientists to identify when human sewage has seeped into unintended places. Source-specific bacterial testing in a variety of cities across the United States indicates there is human sewage in urban stormwater pipes. These pipes are designed to carry runoff from city streets and lots; sending untreated water directly into rivers, streams, and lakes. This scientific breakthrough could be highly useful to urban water managers because it helps identify sewage infrastructure problems that pose significant public health risks. While accepted within the scientific community, this research sought to understand the extent to which urban water managers were using this new monitoring method and, to the degree they were not, to identify the barriers. We designed our study to illustrate how municipal stormwater managers understand and adapt to highly relevant scientific developments in monitoring techniques. The research findings and analysis are based on qualitative research interviews with urban stormwater managers and their state and federal agency regulators to identify what encourages and discourages the application of useful scientific discoveries to better manage water systems, with a particular focus on how the law influences adaptive management. This research provides important insights into necessary legal and management reforms that must occur if the theoretical benefits of adaptive management are to be realized. Moreover, it adds to the theoretical research on adaptive management by providing a detailed case study of the barriers in practice to the adoption of adaptive management approaches.


A set of coupled, nonlinear differential equations is developed describing the propagation of a pulsed, quasi-monochromatic beam of electromagnetic radiation in a medium containing vaporizing aerosols. Spatiotemporal distortions in the beam are produced as a result of radiation-induced changes in the absorption and scattering coefficients as well as in the angular spread of the phase function. The irradiance distribution function of the pulse is governed by a time-dependent transfer equation in the small-angle approximation. Numerical solutions to the equations are obtained for the case of pulse propagation through a cloud of vaporizing water droplets. It is found that significant spatiotemporal distortion of the pulse accompanies enhanced aerosol vaporization.


Many search algorithms have parameters that need to be tuned to get the best performance. Typically, the parameters are tuned offline, resulting in a generic setting that is supposed to be effective on all problem instances. For suboptimal single-agent search, problem-instance-specific parameter settings can result in substantially reduced search effort. We consider the use of dovetailing as a way to take advantage of this fact. Dovetailing is a procedure that performs search with multiple parameter settings simultaneously. Dovetailing is shown to improve the search speed of weighted IDA* by several orders of magnitude and to generally enhance the performance of weighted RBFS. This procedure is trivially parallelizable and is shown to be an effective form of parallelization for WA* and BULB. In particular, using WA* with parallel dovetailing yields good speedups in the sliding-tile puzzle domain, and increases the number of problems solved when used in an automated planning system.


Scarab is a prospecting rover for lunar missions to survey resources, particularly water ice, in polar craters. It is designed for the deployment of a deep coring drill and for transport of soil analysis instruments. Its chassis can transform to stabilize the drill in contact with the ground and can also adjust to ascend and descent steep slopes of unconsolidated soil. Additional features include a compact body for better thermal regulation, laser scanners for dark navigation, and power system designed for a persistent, low-capacity source. Scarab was prototyped at the Robotics Institute, has undergone mobility testing in soils laboratories and field sites leading up to an integrated system test including the RESOLVE drill and instrument suite at the PISCES lunar analogue site on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.


ABSTRACT In this study, we test whether the securities markets perceive changes in effective tax rates as being fair across high- and low-growth firms. In those years surrounding major tax legislation (1981-1982, 1986-1987, and 1990-1992), we find that the market perceived increases in effective tax rates as taxing high-growth firms to the extent that their expected rate of growth will suffer. We find no such evidence for low-growth firms, however, suggesting that the government properly calibrates tax increases for low-growth firms, but may overestimate the degree to which high-growth firms will alter their contracting environment to avoid higher taxation. With reductions in effective tax rates, we find that the 1981 and 1986 Acts were perceived as stimulating growth for all firms, but the acts of the early 1990s were perceived as stimulating growth only for low-growth firms. The RD Milgrom & Roberts, 1992). When tax laws change, however, the contracting environment is altered, compelling firms to negotiate new "contracts" or renegotiate existing "contracts." These changes in contracting arrangements arise from attempts to exploit new tax incentives that lower a firm's effective tax rate or from attempts to mitigate the effects of new tax increases that raise a firm's effective tax rate. The extent to which a firm can successfully negotiate or renegotiate these contracts depends on a firm's tax-planning flexibility. Prior empirical research on tax-planning flexibility has been limited to examining whether taxpayers respond to tax law changes by shifting reported earnings into the more favorable taxing period (pre- or post-enactment). Guenther (1994), for instance, shows that firms managed accruals in response to the tax law changes of 1986. These one-time shifts in reported earnings were designed either to exploit tax loopholes that would be closed by the end of 1986 or to exploit tax incentives that became effective in 1987. While the timing of earnings recognition may be easily managed by a broad cross-section of firms, the flexibility to favorably negotiate new contracts or to renegotiate existing contracts in light of new tax legislation is likely to vary significantly across firms. The ability to favorably negotiate new contracts (and possibly renegotiate existing contracts) should be most easily accomplished by firms experiencing high growth. Such firms are engaging in new business where the terms of trade are yet to be determined. These firms would thus have the greatest flexibility in structuring their future contracts. This flexibility in structuring future contracts affords high-growth firms greater opportunities to pursue those tax planning strategies that would exploit the provisions of the new tax laws. In the short-run (the phase-in period provided by many statutory changes) tax planning strategies are likely to be limited to modifying the firm's investment and financing positions in order to exploit any loopholes or incentives in the new statute. In the long-run, tax planning strategies are likely to be more flexible, allowing a firm to increase the level of debt, exercise options to purchase leased assets, exploit any 'grandfather' provisions or exercise provisions in existing contracts that allow for renegotiation, among others. The Federal Government typically amends the Federal tax code in an attempt to achieve some policy objective. It targets specific classes of taxpayers and either lowers taxes by providing tax incentives and rate reductions, or raises taxes by eliminating incentives, raising rates or identifying sources of additional revenue. …


The substructure inhomogeneity of real textured metal materials was studied by use of the X-ray method of Generalized Pole Figures. Main regularities of substructure inhomogeneity were revealed for the first time. Substructure conditions of grains in rolled material form an extremely wide spectrum and vary by passing from texture maxima to texture minima, where residual deformation effects are most significant. The distribution of residual elastic microstrains in the orientational space of rolled material shows the distinct cross-wise system, consisting in alternation of quadrants with predominant microstrains of opposite signes.


The emergence of new and social media has transformed the way that stakeholders and organizations interact between and amongst each other. Online news consumers are now able to directly respond to crisis news reports by offering their own interpretation, thus expanding the diversity of viewpoints audiences are exposed to (Carpenter, 2010; Springer, 2014). Using the Theory of Emotional Stakeholders framework our study aims (1) to understand how positive and negative user-generated comments in response to online news reports of crisis events impacts audience perceptions of organizational blame; (2) to examine the persuasive effects of user comments when expert or official organizational responses are provided; and, (3) to measure the affective response to online news reports including user comments. Using experimental procedures our findings show that user comments from organizations, faith-holders, and hate-holders contribute to audience evaluations of crisis responsibility, both causal and treatment. Results found that user comments from faith-holders reduced causal responsibility in the intentional cluster compared to the control condition; however, when organizations were facing preventable crises, user comments from faith-holders amplified perceived treatment responsibility. A detailed description of the findings, discussion, limitations and future directions are provided.


A MODIFIED WIDEBAND GYSEL POWER DIVIDER STRUCTURE Dilara Oğuz M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Advisor: Abdullah Atalar December 2016 Power dividers/combiners are one of the essential and crucial components of the modern RF communication systems since dividing makes RF power amplification easier to handle. As the data rates of the systems increase, the demand for wide bandwidth devices become more urgent and essential. Also, wide bandwidth systems show broadband performance in electronic warfare applications such as jamming. However, for RF power combiners/dividers increasing the bandwidth comes along with an engineering trade-off; the isolation of the divider decreases significantly. There are several studies in literature that offer various types of trivial solutions for improving both the bandwidth and the isolation performance of generic Wilkinson and Gysel power divider structures. This work concentrates on the conventional Gysel power divider structure since for high-power applications Gysel divider is preferred mainly for the feasibility of external isolation resistors. We propose a modified Gysel divider structure with a series LC circuit resonant at the center frequency to correct the impedance at the output and the isolation ports and the generic transmission line impedances optimized to adapt to this modification. We both show the interrelations of the capacitor and inductor values and also their relations to the scattering parameters and offer a guideline to choose the appropriate filter for the required application. The experimental results are presented to verify the proposed Gysel divider structure.


ABID, M., E. MANSOUR, A. BEN KHALED, Kh. D. BACHAR, L. BEN YAHYA and A. FERCHICHI, 2016. Induced osmotic adjustment in alfalfa plants confers tolerance to water stress. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 22: 415–425 South Tunisian oases are characterized by arid environment in which drought is a major limiting factor for growth and crop production. In these conditions, understanding plant adaptation is required in order to preserve such regions from degradation. Four levels of water stress were applied to evaluate the effect of drought in three Medicago sativa populations (Chenini, Gannouch and Tebelbou): 25%; 50%; 75% and 100% of fi eld capacity. Under water defi cit conditions, leaves and roots exhibited a higher increase in proline, total soluble sugars, amino acids and potassium. A decrease in dry matter production was observed especially in alfalfa leaves. Chenini population showed the highest increase in different solutes, in contrary Tebelbou seems to be the most affected by drought as it showed lowest values. A close relationship was observed between proline and several osmolytes indicating that it is an important indicator of drought stress tolerance in alfalfa plants.


There were 26 patients enrolled in a pilot study of high-dose immunosuppressive therapy (HDIT) for severe multiple sclerosis (MS). Median baseline expanded disability status scale (EDSS) was 7.0 (range, 5.0-8.0). HDIT consisted of total body irradiation, cyclophosphamide, and antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and was followed by transplantation of autologous, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized CD34-selected stem cells. Regimen-related toxicities were mild. Because of bladder dysfunction, there were 8 infectious events of the lower urinary tract. One patient died from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-related posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) associated with a change from horse-derived to rabbit-derived ATG in the HDIT regimen. An engraftment syndrome characterized by noninfectious fever with or without rash developed in 13 of the first 18 patients and was associated in some cases with transient worsening of neurologic symptoms. There were 2 significant adverse neurologic events that occurred, including a flare of MS during mobilization and an episode of irreversible neurologic deterioration after HDIT associated with fever. With a median follow-up of 24 (range, 3-36) months, the Kaplan-Meier estimate of progression (>/= 1.0 point EDSS) at 3 years was 27%. Of 12 patients who had oligoclonal bands in the cerebrospinal fluid at baseline, 9 had persistence after HDIT. After HDIT, 4 patients developed new enhancing lesions on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. The estimate of survival at 3 years was 91%. Important clinical issues in the use of HDIT and stem cell transplantation for MS were identified; however, modifications of the initial approaches appear to reduce treatment risks. This was a heterogeneous high-risk group, and a phase 3 study is planned to fully assess efficacy.


40Ar/39Ar incremental-heating studies have been carried out on three whole-rock specimens from the Siberian Traps. A basalt lava flow from the lowermost horizon yields an age of 238.4 ±1.4 Ma (1σ error). A second basalt lava flow from the top of the section, ∼800 m above the first specimen, yields an age of 229.9 ±2.3 Ma, indicating that the duration of volcanism was ∼5-10 m.y. A doleritic dike intrusive into the lower parts of the Siberian Traps contains excess argon and yields an isochron age of 234 ±7 Ma. Critical reexamination of relevant radiometric data relating two separate episodes of flood-basalt volcanism to global faunal extinctions suggests the volcanic event forming the most voluminous sections of the Deccan Traps, India, was coincident to within ±1 m.y. with the time of the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. However, the onset of volcanism in the Siberian Traps apparently occurred at a time postdating that of the Permian/Triassic boundary.


The 4f optical setup is considered with a wave field modulation by a spatial light modulator located in the focal plane of the first lens. Phase as well as amplitude of the wave field are reconstructed from noisy multiple-intensity observations. The reconstruction is optimal due to a constrained maximum likelihood formulation of the problem. The proposed algorithm is iterative with decoupling of the inverse of the forward propagation of the wave field and the filtering of phase and amplitude. The sparse modeling of phase and amplitude enables the advanced high-accuracy filtering and sharp imaging of the complex-valued wave field. Artifacts typical for the conventional algorithms (wiggles, ringing, waves, etc.) and attributed to optical diffraction can be suppressed by the proposed algorithm.


Abstract Nanoscale details of original aragonite crystals and organic inclusions are preserved in shells from the Pennsylvanian Buckhorn Asphalt of Oklahoma, USA. Exceptional preservation occurred because, either during or shortly after deposition, oil migrated along wrench faults generated during the simultaneous Ouachita Orogeny. The early sealing by oil (later converted into asphalt) prevented diagenetic alteration of shell material. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Electron Backscatter Detection (EBSD), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) reveal a striking high fidelity of preservation, including the oldest known unaltered nacre tablets in gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods. These nacre tablets are indistinguishable from modern representatives in nanoscale morphology and crystallographic orientations. Fossils from the Buckhorn Asphalt show that by the Pennsylvanian Period, nacre and crossed lamellar were the dominant microstructures in the inner shell layer of the Mollusca. Calcitic microstructures and loosely organized horizontal bundles of aragonite fibers were common among Cambrian mollusks and problematic lophotrochozoans (e.g., hyoliths). Through the early to middle Paleozoic the dominance changed to more fracture-resistant textures nacre and crossed lamellar. This transition reflects the importance of these two types of shell microstructure in deterring predation, and it is clear that the ability to produce crossed lamellar and nacreous microstructures contributed to molluscan success during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.


BACKGROUND: Nitrous oxide is a commonly used anesthetic that inhibits the activity of methionine synthase, an enzyme involved in methylation reactions and DNA synthesis and repair. This inhibition triggers vacuole formation and degeneration of neurons in areas of the developing and mature brain that are important for spatial memory, raising the possibility that nitrous oxide might have sustained effects on learning. METHODS: To test this possibility, we randomized 18-month-old Fischer 344 rats (n = 13 per group) to 4 h of 70% nitrous oxide + 30% oxygen or 70% nitrogen + 30% oxygen (control) and assessed memory using a 12-arm radial maze for 14 days beginning 2 days after nitrous oxide inhalation. In separate, identically treated groups of rats, we measured methionine synthase activity in the cortex and liver at the end of nitrous oxide exposure and 2 days later (n = 3 rats per group per time point) using a standard assay. RESULTS: Liver and cortical methionine synthase was inhibited during nitrous oxide inhalation (6% and 23% of control in liver and cortex, respectively; P < 0.01). Liver enzyme activity remained depressed 2 days later, whereas cortical enzyme activity recovered. There was no difference in error rate between control and nitrous oxide treated rats. However, those exposed to nitrous oxide took more time to complete the maze and made fewer correct choices before first error (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Sedation with 70% nitrous oxide profoundly, but transiently, reduces the activity of cortical methionine synthase but produces lasting impairment in spatial working memory in aged rats.


More than a decade has passed since IBMs Deep Blue computer stunned the world by defeating Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion at that time. Beyond Deep Blue tells the continuing story of the chess engine and its steady improvement. The book provides analysis of the games alongside a detailed examination of the remarkable technological progress made by the engines asking which one is best, how good is it, and how much better can it get. Features: presents a total of 118 games, played by 17 different chess engines, collected together for the first time in a single reference; details the processor speeds, memory sizes, and the number of processors used by each chess engine; includes games from 10 World Computer Chess Championships, and three computer chess tournaments of the Internet Chess Club; covers the man-machine matches between Fritz and Kramnik, and Kasparov and Deep Junior; describes three historical matches between leading engines Hydra vs. Shredder, Junior vs. Fritz, and Zappa vs. Rybka.


Object detection and 6D pose estimation in the crowd (scenes with multiple object instances, severe foreground occlusions and background distractors), has become an important problem in many rapidly evolving technological areas such as robotics and augmented reality. Single shotbased 6D pose estimators with manually designed features are still unable to tackle the above challenges, motivating the research towards unsupervised feature learning and next-best-view estimation. In this work, we present a complete framework for both single shot-based 6D object pose estimation and next-best-view prediction based on Hough Forests, the state of the art object pose estimator that performs classification and regression jointly. Rather than using manually designed features we a) propose an unsupervised feature learnt from depth-invariant patches using a Sparse Autoencoder and b) offer an extensive evaluation of various state of the art features. Furthermore, taking advantage of the clustering performed in the leaf nodes of Hough Forests, we learn to estimate the reduction of uncertainty in other views, formulating the problem of selecting the next-best-view. To further improve pose estimation, we propose an improved joint registration and hypotheses verification module as a final refinement step to reject false detections. We provide two additional challenging datasets inspired from realistic scenarios to extensively evaluate the state of the art and our framework. One is related to domestic environments and the other depicts a bin-picking scenario mostly found in industrial settings. We show that our framework significantly outperforms state of the art both on public and on our datasets.


This article introduces a new attribute called SPICE (spectral imaging of correlative events) that calculates a bed-form boundary framework from the seismic data, and highlights detail from subtle changes in the seismic wavelet. The concept of spectral imaging is presented in the context of a well-log model and its relationship to impedance layering. Further validation of the method is provided by a detailed sequence stratigraphy analysis using well logs and seismic data from the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The technique, based on wavelet transform decomposition and singularity analysis of migrated seismic data, uses the localization properties of the wavelet transform in time and frequency to produce a unique display that provides a boundary framework of the subsurface that is rich in structural and stratigraphic detail. This advances seismic interpretation closer to the goal of producing accurate geologic mapping of the subsurface. Additionally, this attribute offers a straightforward way to interpret a seismic section similar to a geologist in the field who maps beds and faults directly from the outcrop.

Most seismic interpretation today is performed on variable area displays of the seismic amplitude of a wavelet that changes with depth. This has historically posed a number of significant problems for the interpreter. Reflections in seismic data are blurred representations of the actual stratigraphy. The interference of a changing pulse shape with a wide variety of impedance contrasts in the subsurface adds a significant element of uncertainty to the final mapping of reservoir, seal, and trap. The richness and nonstationary character of the seismic trace require a process that localizes rapidly changing features in the spectrum. The unique calculation reduces the uncertainty in picking subtle bed-form boundaries and brings out the full extent of the resolution of the seismic amplitude data.

SPICE is computed in the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) domain …


OBJECTIVE
To determine the percent gutta-percha-filled area in the apical third of root canals after filling with 2 different root filling techniques.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty extracted human lower premolars were instrumented with ProTaper rotary files (Dentsply Maillefer) and then randomly divided into 2 groups of 15 teeth each. The first group was filled using the single-cone technique with a tapered gutta-percha cone. The second group was filled with the lateral condensation technique. Horizontal sections were cut 2 and 4 mm from the apical foramen of each tooth. Photomicrographs of the apical surface of each cross-section were obtained at magnification x40. Digital image analysis was used to measure the overall area of the canal and the aggregate area occupied by gutta-percha; from these values, the percent gutta-percha-filled area was calculated. The data were compared by t test.

RESULTS
The single-cone technique produced significantly greater percent gutta-percha filled area at 2 mm from the apex (p = 0.046), but there was no significant difference between the techniques at 4 mm from the apex (p = 0.17).

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the single-cone technique with tapered gutta-percha cones may yield better filling (measured as the percent gutta-percha-filled area) than the lateral condensation technique, at a level 2 mm from the apex.


The interpretation of Ravel's La Valse by George Balanchine (1904-83) opens up new avenues of study for Ravel scholars by inviting enquiry into a complex web of relationships among music, choreography, literature, and historical context. Specifically, the choreographer's superb visualization of La Valse (1951) yields additional meanings and implications for Ravel's music - and, more speculatively, for his biography. By extension, the question is raised as to what theoretical-critical framework(s) might help to probe these relationships. In engaging with these issues, I hope to show that Balanchine's realization can mediate powerfully between so-called "inherent" musical meaning and meaning that emerges through an examination of sociocultural forces (theorized broadly after Nicholas Cook). Balanchine's choreography, I would argue, successfully negotiates both poles to open up ontological issues and intertextual networks that emphasize some of Ravel's most recognized musical attributes. Finally, in light of Benjamin Ivry's controversial biography, I maintain that Balanchine's work permits hermeneutic enquiry into the composer's possible homosexuality, and his preoccupation with death.


Compute clusters are consuming more power at higher densities than ever before. This results in increased thermal dissipation, the need for powerful cooling systems, and ultimately a reduction in system reliability as temperatures increase. Over the past several years, the research community has reacted to this problem by producing software tools such as HotSpot and Mercury to estimate system thermal characteristics and validate thermal-management techniques. While these tools are flexible and useful, they suffer several limitations: for the average user such simulation tools can be cumbersome to use, these tools may take significant time and expertise to port to different systems. Further, such tools produce significant detail and accuracy at the expense of execution time enough to prohibit iterative testing. We propose a fast, easy to use, accurate, portable, software framework called Tempest (for temperature estimator) that leverages emergent thermal sensors to enable user profiling, evaluating, and reducing the thermal characteristics of systems and applications. In this thesis, we illustrate the use of Tempest to analyze the thermal effects of various parallel benchmarks in clusters. We also show how users can analyze the effects of thermal optimizations on cluster applications. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) reduces the power consumption of high-performance clusters by reducing processor voltage during periods of low utilization. We designed Tempest to measure the runtime effects of processor frequency on thermals. Our experiments indicate HPC workload characteristics greatly impact the effects of DVFS on temperature. We propose a thermal-aware DVFS scheduling approach that proactively controls processor voltage across a cluster by evaluating and predicting trends in processor temperature. We identify iii approaches that can maintain temperature thresholds and reduce temperature with minimal impact on performance. Our results indicate that proactive, temperature-aware scheduling of DVFS can reduce cluster-wide processor thermals by more than 10 degrees Celsius, the threshold for improving electronic reliability by 50%.


We present and evaluate several optimization and implementation techniques for string sorting. In particular, we study a recently published radix sorting algorithm, Forward radixsort, that has a provably good worst-case behavior. Our experimental results indicate that radix sorting is considerably faster (often more than twice as fast) than comparison-based sorting methods. This is true even for small input sequences. We also show that it is possible to implement a radixsort with good worst-case running time without sacrificing average-case performance. Our implementations are competitive with the best previously published string sorting programs.


The thermodynamics of lanthanide complexation with a series of diglycolamides (DGAs) containing varying alkyl chain lengths (methyl, ethyl, n-butyl and n-hexyl) was studied in [C4mim][Tf2N], a room temperature ionic liquid. The stability constants, enthalpies and entropies of complexation were determined by spectrophotometry and calorimetry. All the DGA ligands formed a 1 : 3 (Nd3+/DGA) complex as the limiting species, and their stability constants increased linearly with increasing alkyl chain length. The stability constants of the Nd3+/DGA complexes are orders of magnitude higher in [C4mim][Tf2N] as compared to those observed in aqueous medium. For all the complexes, the enthalpy of complexation was negative with a positive entropy change, indicating that the complexation was driven by both enthalpy and entropy. The enthalpy changes observed in [C4mim][Tf2N] medium were more exothermic than those in the aqueous medium. Fluorescence lifetime data indicated that the complexation proceeded via the replacement of water molecules from the primary coordination sphere of the metal ion. DFT calculations were performed on the structures of the different Nd3+/tetramethyl DGA (TMDGA) complexes, and the corresponding free energies in both gas and solution phases were calculated. Insights into the structural features by DFT studies confirmed that the nature of Ln3+/DGA complexes formed in [C4mim][Tf2N], n-dodecane, and aqueous medium and that in the crystalline state is identical.


Steam condensation phenomenon plays an important role in many industrial applications. Especially in energy sector this process requires deep understanding. When noncondensable gases are taken into consideration description of the entire phenomenon becomes more complicated. If the surface condensation is taken into consideration this additional species accumulates and creates noncondensable layer near the surface on water vapour condenses. Due to this effect heat and mass transfer rates from gas mixture decreases. Also volume condensation (if it occurs) is affected by the presence of inert gases. Several examples where the phenomena described above are important can be taken into consideration: studies of accidents in the nuclear power plants where condensation in the volume and condensation on the cold containment's structures occurs after steam is released due to the pipe brake in the primary loop (especially this is important for PWR's containments which in normal operation conditions are filled with air or nitrogen); condensation of steam in the pipe systems of BWR reactors where some amount of hydrogen can be accumulated due to the water vapour condensation in nonvented pipes; condensation of steam in the condensers after low pressure stage turbine; etc. Also in other fields, e.g. chemistry or meteorology, the condensation of water vapour in presence of noncondensable species plays very important role. Diffusion surface condensation model and its implementation into CFX – 4 CFD code has been described in this licentiate thesis. Three different situations have been taken into account: surface condensation of water vapour in presence of air on the vertical wall (computational results have been compared with several commonly used correlations), surface condensation of water vapour in presence of air on the horizontal wall (results have been compared with experimental data), volume condensation in presence of air (known also as spontaneous condensation) – principle of the model has been described and calculation example has been presented and analysed.


Citalopram is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants prescribed to treat severe
depression and treat anxiety. Marketed in many countries, it is easily available to the French population, known to
be one of the biggest consumers of antidepressants in Europe. Although citalopram overdose has long been known
to cause cardiotoxicity especially QT prolongation and torsades de pointes, seizures and serotoninergic syndrome,
only a few reports have analysed citalopram levels in post mortem blood.

We report two fatal cases involving citalopram: a 47 year old woman and a 55 year old man. Both treated for
severe depression, were discovered dead in what was believed to be a case of suicide. Toxicological screening was
performed to assist in establishing the cause of death.
 Blood alcohol was determined using GC-FID (Thermo Scientific). When screening for organic xenobiotics, preparation
consisted of liquid-liquid extraction of 1 mL of blood collected with sodium fluoride preservative at both acid
 and alkaline pH by ternary solvent (dichloromethane/hexane/ethyl acetate, 50/40/10, v/v/v). After evaporation, the
dry residue was reconstituted in mobile phase at initial condition. The first half of the sample was directly analysed
 by LC-MS and DAD (Agilent 1100-MSD). Separation was performed on a Macherey-Nagel Nucleodur C18 Gravity
column (150 mm x 2 mm, 3 µm) with a mobile phase gradient at 0.5 mL/min (methanol / water 5 mM ammonium
formate with 0.2% formic acid). For the second part, after evaporation to dryness and acetylation, analysis was
performed on full-scan mode with a GC-MS (Thermo Scientific) equipped with a Varian CP-Sil 8 CB Low Bleed/MS
column (25 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 µm). All substances found were subsequently quantified by LC-MS after addition
of internal standard.

In both cases, high blood concentration of citalopram was found (5.54 and 0.93 mg/L respectively) related to its
main metabolite desmethylcitalopram (0.19 and 0.17 mg/L respectively). Citalopram was associated with various
other psychoactive substances. In the first case, a toxic level of alimemazine (0.77 mg/L) was discovered as well
as a therapeutic level of zolpidem (0.16 mg/L), nordazepam (0.53 mg/L) and cyamemazine (0.35 mg/L with 0.86
mg/L of norcyamemazine). In the second case, a high blood alcohol level was also found (3.53 ± 0.17 g/L) alongside various analgesics within therapeutic ranges (dextropropoxyphene, paracetamol and tramadol at 0.27, 3.7 and 0.6
mg/L respectively).
 Considering both cases, citalopram was identified within the toxic range (over 0.5 mg/L).

Numerous CYP enzymes
are involved in citalopram metabolism especially CYP2D6, CYP3A4 and CYP2C19. Use of citalopram with CYP2C19
inhibitors is not recommended by the FDA. Based on this recommendation, no significant pharmacokinetic drug
 interactions were found among citalopram and the other drugs reported. In those cases, the metabolizer status
was not investigated. The overdose of citalopram appears to be responsible for the death, even though presence of
other drugs may have potentiated its toxic effects.


Abstract The Horn of Africa forms one of the two main historical entry points of domestics into the continent and Ethiopia is particularly important in this regard. Through the analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) d‐loop region in 309 individuals from 13 populations, we reveal the maternal genetic variation and demographic dynamics of Ethiopian indigenous goats. A total of 174 variable sites that generated 231 haplotypes were observed. They defined two haplogroups that were present in all the 13 study populations. Reference haplotypes from the six globally defined goat mtDNA haplogroups show the two haplogroups present in Ethiopia to be A and G, the former being the most predominant. Although both haplogroups are characterized by an increase in effective population sizes (N e) predating domestication, they also have experienced a decline in N e at different time periods, suggesting different demographic histories. We observed seven haplotypes, six were directly linked to the central haplotypes of the two haplogroups and one was central to haplogroup G. The seven haplotypes were common between Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia populations, suggesting common maternal history and the introduction of goats into East Africa via Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, respectively. While providing new mtDNA data from a historically important region, our results suggest extensive intermixing of goats mediated by human socio‐cultural and economic interactions. These have led to the coexistence of the two haplogroups in different geographic regions in Ethiopia resulting in a large caprine genetic diversity that can be exploited for genetic improvement.