The genus Thiomargarita includes the world's largest bacteria. But as uncultured organisms, their physiology, metabolism, and basis for their gigantism are not well understood. Thus, a genomics approach, applied to a single Candidatus Thiomargarita nelsonii cell was employed to explore the genetic potential of one of these enigmatic giant bacteria. The Thiomargarita cell was obtained from an assemblage of budding Ca. T. nelsonii attached to a provannid gastropod shell from Hydrate Ridge, a methane seep offshore of Oregon, USA. Here we present a manually curated genome of Bud S10 resulting from a hybrid assembly of long Pacific Biosciences and short Illumina sequencing reads. With respect to inorganic carbon fixation and sulfur oxidation pathways, the Ca. T. nelsonii Hydrate Ridge Bud S10 genome was similar to marine sister taxa within the family Beggiatoaceae. However, the Bud S10 genome contains genes suggestive of the genetic potential for lithotrophic growth on arsenite and perhaps hydrogen. The genome also revealed that Bud S10 likely respires nitrate via two pathways: a complete denitrification pathway and a dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia pathway. Both pathways have been predicted, but not previously fully elucidated, in the genomes of other large, vacuolated, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. Surprisingly, the genome also had a high number of unusual features for a bacterium to include the largest number of metacaspases and introns ever reported in a bacterium. Also present, are a large number of other mobile genetic elements, such as insertion sequence (IS) transposable elements and miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs). In some cases, mobile genetic elements disrupted key genes in metabolic pathways. For example, a MITE interrupts hupL, which encodes the large subunit of the hydrogenase in hydrogen oxidation. Moreover, we detected a group I intron in one of the most critical genes in the sulfur oxidation pathway, dsrA. The dsrA group I intron also carried a MITE sequence that, like the hupL MITE family, occurs broadly across the genome. The presence of a high degree of mobile elements in genes central to Thiomargarita's core metabolism has not been previously reported in free-living bacteria and suggests a highly mutable genome.


Scientists early in their careers do not often get a chance to meet with their peers in a well-structured professional environment to discuss and compare their initial experiences and results. Creating just such an opportunity, a meeting held on August 18−22, 2013 in Litohor, Czech Republic, titled 'Summer School – Methods of Basic and Translational Cancer Research', was organized by the Regional Centre of Applied Molecular Oncology at the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute and funded by IntegRECAMO project (EU funds, reg. no. CZ.1.07/ 2.3.00/ 20.0097). The participants included senior and junior scientists, as well as PhD students. Educational activities involved various formats: 1. handson activities, 2. educational talks, 3. junior and PhD student talks with many presentations in English, 4. science-related excursions, 5. an environment for informal researcher interactions, 6. reports from visits to dis tant laboratories. Each participant spoke for 20 minutes or more, introducing the methods performed in their laboratory and sharing their recently obtained data. The talks ranged from basic and pre-clinical research to clinical methods. In this report, basic and pre-clinical research is presented first, followed by clinically relevant methods and practices. Here we present overview of selected talks.


The possibility of controlling devastating infectious diseases through the application of beneficial bacteria has been an important challenge throughout centuries. Lactobacilli of human origin serve as the first candidates that could help in achieving this goal according to the ideas of the 20th century Russian scientist I. I. Metsnikof. The researchers of the University of Tartu (UT) have elaborated upon several theoretical approaches and studied probiotic preparations of beneficial bacteria to control the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal infections but also human metabolism and health markers to prevent the development of atherosclerotic lesions. In the 1960s the first three personalized and patented Lactobacillus sp. probiotic strains were administered to Russian astronauts to alleviate dysbacteriosis during long stressful space flights. As of 1992, approximately 15 members of the group of microbial ecology achieved PhD degrees owing to investigating healthy and diseased microbiota. Worldwide recognition has been obtained by deciphering some problems connected to gastrointestinal infections, allergies and lipid metabolism. In 2001 the group succeeded in creating the antimicrobial and antioxidative strain of Lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 DSM14241. With systemic studies, the strain was elaborated into a probiotic and patented in Estonia, Russia, the US and EU. The double-antioxidative and antimicrobial effects of the L. fermentum ME-3 strain have been shown by more than 40 publications. Besides Estonia, it has been licenced for dairy enterprises and food supplement companies in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Belgium, France, the US and Australia. The UT collection of human lactobacilli (HUMB.ee) has been used in research for the development of novel functional food and feed preservatives together with two research and development centres in the framework of the Estonian Biotechnology program. The principles discovered with basic microbial ecology will hopefully help us create innovative healthy products!


Following the deep-sea benthic foraminiferal extinction event (BEE) across the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), certain groups of agglutinated benthic foraminifera bloomed and dominated the foraminiferal assemblage. In particular, the widespread proliferation of Glomospira, Glomospirella and Repmanina species, known as the "Glomospira acme", has been recorded in bathyal to abyssal depths of the eastern North Atlantic and Tethys oceans. The Glomospira acme has been traditionally linked to the widespread rise in the calcite compensation depth (CCD) during the PETM, although recent studies suggest that calcite dissolution was not the only factor responsible for the acme. In order to investigate alternative paleoenvironmental causes that may have contributed to the Glomospira acme, we studied the Glomospira spp. abundances, their variations in test sizes, and the provenance of organic matter sources as indicated by lipid biomarkers in the Alamedilla section (southern Spain). Test size analysis for the acme interval reveals a reduction in test size characteristic of rapid population growth and reproduction due to the lack of interspecific competition after the BEE. Biomarkers for terrestrial sources suggest an increased influx of refractory organic matter to the seafloor across the PETM, and particularly during the Glomospira acme. We hypothesize that this influx may have favored the proliferation of detritivorous taxa such as Glomospira spp., which may have fed on refractory organic detritus that was not easily digested by other calcareous or agglutinated species. In summary, we suggest that an increased input of refractory organic matter across the PETM must have exacerbated the environmental stress caused by calcite dissolution and global warming leading to the Glomospira acme.


The South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, is used extensively as a model system to study development. It is easy to maintain a breeding colony of frogs, females can be induced to lay eggs all year round and hundreds of embryos can be generated that grow synchronously from a single fertilization. Embryos are easily amenable to microsurgery at any stage of development and adult frogs survive surgeries performed under limited aseptic conditions. The ease of injecting oligonucleotides or messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) into Xenopus leavis embryos has contributed to the discovery of genes with key functions in development. Another singularity of Xenopus leavis is the ease to manipulate its oocytes before fertilization; this has been a powerful tool to identify the function of maternally deposited mRNAs in development. Transgenic procedures are being developed using the related species Xenopus tropicalis and this will broaden the contribution of Xenopus to the understanding of early development.

Key concepts:

Xenopus laevis is easy to raise and feed in large colonies in the laboratory.

The female Xenopus can be induced to spawn repeatedly at any season, making it possible to obtain embryos all year round.

Xenopus leavis eggs are quite large, and are usually laid in large numbers that are fertilized in vitro.

Xenopus leavis oocytes can easily be obtained and manipulated before fertilization, making it possible to study the function of maternally deposited mRNAs.

The Xenopus embryos develop outside the female and are amenable to manipulation at any stage of development.

The mechanism of tissue formation has been elucidated from research carried out on Xenopus leavis embryos.

Xenopus leavis is an excellent model for studying body axis formation.

The early development of Xenopus is very fast, making it possible to study a full developmental programme in about three days.

The sequencing of the diploid genome, the ease of obtaining and injecting large numbers of eggs and the relatively short lifespan makes Xenopus tropicalis a very promising model for transgenic studies of organogenesis.

Eggs of Xenopus leavis provide a model of choice for studying the regulation of the cell cycle.

Keywords:

frog;
embryology;
tissue formation;
gene function;
cell cycle


Since 1996, the federal government has undertaken major initiatives to fund religious organizations to deliver social services. These programs, called charitable choice, continue to expand and now account for over $2 billion in social welfare spending. However, charitable choice blurs the lines between church and state and is thus highly controversial. This article reflects on ten years of experience with charitable choice and assesses the impact and effectiveness of these programs. There is little empirical evidence that faith-based social services are superior to secular programs. Moreover, religious grantees, and congregations in particular, are often unable to manage large federal grants and to maintain the constitutional balance required by charitable choice. Nevertheless, religious organizations have reserves of social capital that can be effectively channeled in the fight on poverty. Thus, this article suggests ways in which government can partner productively with congregations while avoiding the pitfalls inherent in current charitable choice programs. While congregations are ill-suited for delivering welfare counseling services that are transformative in nature, they are ideally suited to deliver discrete, sustenance-based services as well as to serve as links between the needy and other community groups and governmental providers.


Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are used widely in applications which require high speed parallel computing. It provides a perfect solution which requires short time for customization after manufacturing. MIPS soft-core processor and SPI protocol soft-core implementation is well known in FPGA, but the customized driver for SPI communication is not available. The SPI communication protocol is widely used in a wide range of devices such as sensors, memory devices, I/O expanders, etc. The objective of this research is to design and test a reconfigurable SPI driver for MIPS processor so that communication between devices which use an SPI protocol becomes feasible. Design requires three blocks a soft-core MIPS processor, SPI protocol block and an interconnecting block between MIPS processor and SPI block. MIPS processor loads the transmitting data and configuration bits in the SFR register of Data memory and SPI block reads that register and after communication loads the received data into another SFR register which MIPS processor can read upon request. To demonstrate the proposed technique, we wrote the code and verified the results. The design architecture is coded using Verilog and VHDL based on top-down hierarchical design methodology and realized in Spartan-3E FPGA using Xilinx ISE 14.7. Based on the ISE and FPGA implementation results, the maximum operating frequency of the whole system is found to be 122.632 MHz. KeywordsFPGA, MIPS, SPI, Verilog, VHDL,Reconfigrable Driver, SFR.


For any responsive and dependable political system, the development of the rural areas must be its major concern. Development will be insignificant in such a political system if the government does not positively affect the life of the people of the grassroots or if development eludes the grassroots dwellers. Therefore, the problem of governance, particularly at the local level, has been in a doldrums in the political history of Nigeria. These problems have been documented and they include corruption and mismanagement, lack of adequate manpower, lack of autonomy, inadequate planning, inadequate revenue, poor implementation of policies, lack of participation by the people and intergovernmental conflict. What this paper will try to do is to focus on these challenges and determine the factors responsible for them and suggest some relevant way forward in order to ameliorate the difficulties. This paper, therefore, concludes strongly that since the problems of local government in Nigeria are copious, adequate and practical solutions are needed. These include: the expansion of democratic space, the entrenchment of democratic culture and the promotion of good governance, transparency and accountability. Without these solutions, rural development of the grassroots will be a mirage.


Image-guided diagnosis and therapy are widely used in medicine nowadays. Going one step further involves methods that allow physicians to further improve their diagnosis and to plan therapy or surgery by quantitative analysis and simulation. Fundamental requirements for this kind of quantitative medicine are methods for reliable creation of 3D patient models that faith-fully represent the individual anatomy. We demonstrate the impact of geometric patient models in medicine by presenting several case studies on work that is based on the 3D geometry recon-struction and visualization software amira.


The potential supply of biomass feedstocks in the US and Canada is estimated using a static supply function approach. Estimated total biomass available at a price of $100 per metric ton is 568 million metric tons in the US and 123 million tons in Canada, which together can displace 23-45 billion gallons of gasoline. Sufficient biomass, mainly agricultural and mill residues, will be available at prices of around $50/ton to meet the advanced biofuel mandates of the US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The estimates of agricultural residue supply are very sensitive to the assumed fraction of residues that can be sustainably removed from the field, and the potential of municipal solid waste as a feedstock depends on which components can be economically converted into liquid biofuels.


Lee, H.S., 2018. Improvement of decomposing results of empirical mode decomposition and its variations for sealevel records analysis. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 526–530. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The performance of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and its variations such as ensemble EMD (EEMD), complete EEMD with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and improved CEEMDAN (impCEEMDAN) are tested using artificial signal tests. In the artificial signal test, intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are obtained using EMD, EEMD, CEEMDAN, and impCEEMDAN and then compared to prescribed oscillations in an artificial a priori known signal. In all cases, extra and redundant modes are found due to residual noises. Furthermore, the low frequency modes are generally distorted. To overcome this problem a novel approach for reconstructing IMFs is proposed, where low-energy redundant modes are merged to one common signal based on statistical significance tests by comparing the energy-density of IMFs with energy-density spread function of white noise with similar scale. Artificial signal tests illustrate that the mode reconstruction method works well in approximating the prescribed true modes. Overall, the impCEEMDAN performs best with a reasonable fit to the original components and statistically significant low-frequency modes. The mode reconstruction method can improve the decomposing and filtering capacity of EMD and its variations. ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: emporical mode decomposition, mode reconstruction, trend, detrending, sea-level INTRODUCTION For coastal engineering and management purposes sea-level rise is the key factor to be considered because of its large impacts in a changing climate. Therefore, the estimation of long-term trends and changing rates of sea-level records is of eminent importance. Visser et al. (2015) pointed that misunderstanding and controversies on acceleration or deceleration of sea-level records are due to mathematical or statistical characteristics of the models in use. The authors reviewed 30 methods applied to sealevel records and made recommendations for good modelling practices. However, while more and more in use to analyze sealevel records (Breaker and Ruzmaikin, 2011; Ezer et al., 2013; Ezer and Corlett, 2012; Lee, 2013; Lee and Kaneko, 2015), empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is not directly assessed in their model evaluation (Visser et al., 2015). In the meantime, Chambers (2015) investigated and mentioned that since the EMD is a purely mathematical deconstruction of data with no regard to the intrinsic covariance of signals or physics behind and a zero mean assumption nearby peaks, it is unlikely that a single intrinsic mode function (IMF) from the EMD analysis can represent a real physical climate variation. Therefore, it is more likely that multiple modes are required to quantify real signals. However, in case of needing more than one IMF to describe a real physical signal, the question naturally arises, which IMFs should be combined without any a priori knowledge of the real signal. Here to address this important question, EMD and recent advancements in EMD variations, such as ensemble EMD (EEMD), complete EEMD with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and improved CEEMDAN (impCEEMDAN), are applied to a randomly simulated artificial data set where the signal is a priori known. Moreover, we introduce a novel approach for reconstructing multiple IMFs into one combined signal based on statistical Monte-Carlo simulations for energy density levels of decomposed IMFs. METHODS Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) The EMD is an adaptive method to decompose a signal x(t) into a number of IMFs, which become the basis representing the signal. The algorithm can be described as follows (Colominas et al., 2014; Huang et al., 1998): Step 1. Set the IMF index k = 0 and find all extrema of the 0th residue r0 = x. Step 2. Interpolate between minima (maxima) of rk to obtain the lower (upper) envelope emin (emax). Step 3. Compute the mean envelope m = (emin + emax)/2. Step 4. Compute the IMF candidate dk+1 = rk – m. Step 5. Is dk+1 an IMF? †Graduate School for International Cooperation and Development, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan ____________________ DOI: 10.2112/SI85-106.1 received 30 November 2017; accepted in revision 10 February 2018. *Corresponding author: email@example.com ©Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc. 2018 www.JCRonline.org www.cerf-jcr.org Downloaded From: https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Coastal-Research on 22 Dec 2019 Terms of Use: https://bioone.org/terms-of-use


Basic concepts and notions of ontological description of domains are implemented in the conceptual model being understandable to ordinary users of this domain. Ontological approach is used for the presentation of software engineering domain—Life Cycle (LC) ISO/IEC 12207 with the aim to automate LC processes and to generate different variants of LC for development systems. And the second aim of Conceptual Model must teach the student to standard process LC, which includes general, organizational and supported processes. These processes are presented in graphical terms of DSL, which are transformed to XML for processing systems in the modern environment (IBM, VS.Net, JAVA and so on). The testing process is given in ontology terms of Protege systems, and semantics of tasks of this process is implemented in Ruby. Domain ontology LC is displayed by the several students of MIPT Russia and Kiev National University as laboratory practicum course "Software Engineering".


Hyperhydricity is a physiological disorder impacting plant growth and multiplication and acclimatization of regenerated plantlets. We report the use of calcium nitrate for reversion and acclimatization of banana 'Grand Naine' hyperhydric shoots cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium containing agar or gellan. Although 100% rooting of hyperhydric shoots occurred at all concentrations of calcium nitrate, only 50% rooting was recorded in the absence of calcium nitrate. Electrolyte leakage decreased significantly in the reverted banana tissues compared with the hyperhydric tissues. Histochemical staining for reactive oxygen species indicated that reverted banana tissues possess lower levels of both hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide (O2-) than do hyperhydric tissues. Rooting, growth, and survival of the reverted banana plantlets were significantly influenced by calcium nitrate concentrations as well as the type of gelling agent. Reverted banana plantlets in medium containing calcium nitrate (0.5–1 g·L−1) were acclimatized with 100% survival in a growing substrate of peatmoss and vermiculite (1:1).


This thesis is about growth, and the factors influencing growth in a positive or in a negative way. Particularly this thesis elaborates on growth of a profitable brand that is part of a group; i.e. growth within an internal capital market. A company being profitable does not equate growth; short-term profit is actually higher if the growth is held limited. This since growth implies a need for more assets, profit is traded for growth. However to keep market share a division needs to identify and pursue projects with positive net present value (NPV), otherwise competitors can find these same market opportunities and take the chance to grow stronger. The data for this thesis has been gathered from annual reports and from interviews with managers having influence of decisions affecting growth and profit. Text books and published research papers have been used for the theory building. The gathered data has been analyzed using the theory and conclusions have been drawn. The DuPont identity, relating the profit margin, asset turnover and leverage to the return on equity is used for analysis. The concept of external finance needed (EFN) has also been elaborated on i.e. that it takes money to make money. Finally Higgins equation for sustainable growth ratio (SGR) based on EFN, describing the relationship between growth and profit is the cornerstone of the theory used. A company operates under several stringent restraints leading to a trade of between growth and profitability. The group studied in this thesis consists of several divisions of which some consist of several brands. While the group as a whole has a relationship between growth and profitability in line with Higgins equation the individual brand in focus has the potential to grow faster. It seems that positive NPV's need to be left out due to a subsidizing of weaker parts of the group by better performing parts. Capital allocation within a heterogeneous company is complex; a trade off between diversification to attenuate risk and a concentration of resources where profitability is highest is made. The brand in focus of this study has a tradition of preferring high profitability before growth. Trading that high profitability to a higher growth is challenging the mindset both at group, division and brand level. Another reason for turning down positive NPV project may be the payback method being used extensively to make investment decisions, resulting in a project having a long payback period being ruled out despite having a high NPV. A way of increasing revenue growth without affecting profitability can be to providing service in conjunction with the hardware offer. Service offers can be made without heavy investments in production machinery, piggybacking on existing investments. The somewhat opaque structure of the studied group decreases the external market scrutiny and increases the likelihood of the above mentioned capital allocation behavior including subsidizing. Recent changes at group level addresses this, by forming new divisions that are more specialized within each product area.


Innovation is becoming more and more important as a driver of economic growth. In developed countries, a diverse set of innovation indicators has been developed to monitor innovation performance and the impact of innovation policies. Developing countries have been late to jump on this bandwagon and are now faced with a set of well-established innovation indicators that might not be that well suited to measure innovation in their economies. Existing innovation indicators can be broadly classified into three different types: Science & Technology (S&T) indicators, Innovation survey indicators, and Composite innovation indicators combining different indicators, including S&T and Innovation survey data, into one indicator. All of these have their own particular strengths and weaknesses, and they score above or below average on a wide range of attributes considered to be favourable, if not downright necessary, for innovation indicators. This paper argues that, for innovation indicators, and for innovation survey indicators in particular, data collection has to be customised to the different socio-economic structures of developing countries. For this, the definition of innovation has to become more inclusive by recognising the multitude of innovation actors and processes in developing countries. Developing countries also need to build competence regarding innovation indicators, not only within their statistical systems but also among their policy makers.


The authorization required for a structural alteration of part of a section and the adjoining part of the common property in a sectional title scheme
In this case a farmhouse was subdivided into two sectional title units in a sectional title scheme that consisted of these two units and an additional six-storey building comprising a further 10 sectional title units. The applicants, the owners of the unit on the ground floor of the farmhouse, wanted to replace the two kitchen windows of the unit with larger windows in order to improve the flow of natural light into the kitchen. When the owner of the unit on the first floor above them objected to this project, the applicants approached the court in order to determine what kind of authority was needed to allow them to proceed with their plans. The court decided that two kinds of authorisation would be sufficient for them to proceed. In the first place the court found that the applicants would be allowed in terms of prescribed conduct rule 4 to effect not only minor alterations to the common property but also significant alterations to the outer part of the boundary wall associated with the unit as intended in this case. In the second place the court held that the intended alterations could also proceed in terms of management rule 33, which deals with luxurious and non-luxurious improvements to the common property for which the cooperation of the body corporate is needed in the form of a unanimous or a special resolution.
The problem with this judgment is that management rule 33 deals only with improvements to the common property and does not regulate alterations to the common property. With regard to alterations of a sectional title unit, the sectional owner is not allowed to effect alterations within his or her section that impair the stability or the implied servitudes of the subjacent support of the building and of lateral support of the outside walls of the section. Furthermore, the owner is not permitted to effect alterations to his or her section that might impair the harmonious outside appearance of the building. Although the proposed replacement of the windows would not affect the harmonious appearance of the building there was a chance that the structural alterations to the outside wall, if not properly conducted, could jeopardise the stability of the building. Therefore it is submitted that the court erred in deciding that the proposed alterations could be authorised by the written consent of the trustees. This significant alteration could, as in the case of the extension of a section in terms of section 24 of the act, be effected only with the cooperation of the body corporate because it was similar to a non-luxurious improvement. Non-luxurious improvements could be carried out only if authorised by a special resolution adopted at a general meeting. Likewise, the alteration of the portion of the wall and window inside the section was impermissible without the approval of the body corporate.


Despite its strong theoretical position when it comes to explaining inflation in transition economies, the empirical merits of the Balassa-Samuelson (B-S) effect are weak. This paper points to three theory-based contributing factors to these weak findings and offers an alternative approach. First, the short-term focus makes B-S prone to underestimating the magnitude of the productivity growth differential. Second, the conventional demand side CPI based sectoral composition reduces the extent to which the productivity growth differential is passed through to inflation. Third, by ignoring the dependence between the two main B-S components, a second downward bias to the productivity growth pass through comes about. The key to our proposed alternative centres around an endogenous relation between the productivity growth differential and sector sizes. The long-run supply-side approach allows us to capture inflation drivers that conventional B-S fails to incorporate. The paper provides a blueprint for future empirical analysis.


Scent detection dogs are used in a variety of contexts; however, very few dogs successfully complete their training, and many others are withdrawn from service prematurely due to both detection accuracy issues in the field and wider behavioral issues. This article aims to review our understanding of the factors affecting variation in scent detection dogs' learning of the tasks and performance in the field. For this we deconstructed the scent detection task into its key behavioral elements and examined the literature relating to the factors affecting variation in the dogs' success all across their development. We first consider factors that affect individuality and individual performance, in general, such as temperament, arousal, the handler–dog relationship, training regimes, and the housing and management of scent detections dogs. We then focus on tasks specific to scent detection dogs and critically appraise relevant literature
relating to the learning and performance of these tasks by dogs. This includes prenatal and early life exposure and later environment, training regime, and the human–dog relationship, as well as performance limiting factors such as the need to pant in hot environments during work.


The publication of war letters represents multiple interests, personal, social and ideological. In addition to the perennial commercial conditions of a famous name and a complete well-written correspondence, letters can accrue interest through association with national ceremonies of war commemoration, debates over military history and even with the advent of other wars. The letters of David Tinker, killed in the Falklands, were compared to the writings of First World War poets. But also, conversely, Ronald Blythes 1991 edition of Second World War letters and diaries worried his eminent reviewer, Paul Fussell, for its too smooth integration into a glut of sanitised anniversary publication. The publishing of personal documents is perhaps even more entwined with generational, familial and individual time span. War letters are most often retrospectively consumed as personal commemorations by relations of their writers, although this auto/biographical frame itself has social determinants in a culture of memoir and autobiography-making. A rather different context for publication has been the rise of cultural and womens studies over the last twenty years. The interest stirred by these disciplines in the private documents of the socially and literarily marginalised has been particularly powerful in facilitating the publication of womens war letters. In all three contexts, letters are positioned in relation to the symbolic place that wars play in public and personal memory, and gather mythical as well as historical meanings. In this article, I consider the publication of Second World War letters as a fragment of this special epistolary niche. It is not my intention to analyse the letters themselves, but rather to add to the history of what Janet Altman has called the letter-book as a literary institution. I argue that the letter-books of the Second World War take three characteristic forms, according to whether a national, familial or academic memory is uppermost.


A combined experimental and analytical study has been conducted to investigate the phenomena of intersonic crack propagation along weak planes in homogeneous solids and dissimilar material interfaces. A single edge notch/crack oriented along a weak plane in a brittle polymer or along a polymer/metal interface was loaded in shear by impacting the specimen with a high velocity projectile fired from a gas gun. Homalite-100 or PMMA was chosen for the polymer and 6061 Aluminum or 4340 steel was chosen for the metal. The stress field information around the propagating crack tip was recorded in real time by two different optical techniques which provide complimentary information - photoelasticity and coherent gradient sensing (CGS), in conjunction with high speed photography. Along weak planes in Homalite-100, dynamic shear cracks were observed to initiate and propagate at speeds exceeding the shear wave speed (c_s) of the polymer. The isochromatic fringe patterns reveal two distinct lines of strong stress field discontinuity (Mach waves) emanating from the crack tip. Intersonic cracks were observed to initially accelerate up to the longitudinal wave speed (c_l) of Homalite and thereafter slow down to propagate at a near constant velocity slightly above √2c_s . A series of short secondary opening cracks parallel to each other and at a steep angle to the weak plane (≈ 80°) were also observed to initiate behind the main intersonic crack tip. Motivated by the experimental observations, an asymptotic analysis was performed to obtain the near tip fields for an intersonically propagating steady state mode II crack with a finite sized shear cohesive zone in front of it. The cohesive shear stress was chosen to be either a constant or to depend linearly on the magnitude of the local slip rate. Decohesion was chosen to occur when the relative slip between the two cohesive surfaces reaches a material/interface specific critical value. Unlike the case of a point sized dissipative region, it is shown that with a finite cohesive zone, the dynamic energy release rate is finite through out the intersonic regime. The influence of crack plane shear strength and of the rate parameter on the crack propagation behavior is investigated. Isochromatic fringe patterns were constructed using the cohesive crack tip fields, which compare favorably with the experimentally observed fringe patterns, and an attempt is made to extract the relevant analytical parameters. Unlike for a mode-I crack, a cohesive stress distribution that decreases with the local slip rate is found to match the experimental observations. The rate parameter was extracted by fitting the secondary crack angle observed in the experiments to that predicted by the analytical solution based on a maximum principal stress fracture criterion. Edge notches/cracks on polymer/metal interfaces were loaded under different impact configurations and the conditions governing the attainment of intersonic crack growth along a bimaterial interface were investigated. High resolution isochromatic fringe patterns were obtained to study the nature of the crack tip fields during subsonic/intersonic transition. Careful observations of the transition of an interface crack into the intersonic regime showed the formation of crack face contact at speeds beyond c_R of the polymer. Subsequently, the contact zone is observed to expand in size, detach from the intersonic crack tip and finally vanish. The recorded isochromatic fringe patterns showed multiple Mach wave formation associated with such a scenario. Along PMMA/ Al and PMMA/steel bimaterial interfaces, dynamic cracks initiating from edge notches were observed to accelerate to speeds higher than c_l of PMMA (supersonic), almost reaching c_R of aluminum. The resulting crack growth was observed to be highly transient and the gradients of in-plane normal stress components were recorded using CGS interferometry. Motivated by the aforementioned experimental observations, an asymptotic analysis was performed to obtain the stress and deformation fields around a steadily propagating intersonic crack on an elastic-rigid interface with a finite zone of crack face frictional sliding contact located a finite distance behind the tip. A linear frictional contact model is adopted, wherein the shear stress is proportional to the normal stress through a constant, the coefficient of dynamic friction. Isochromatic fringe patterns predicted by the near-tip fields exhibit the essential features observed during the experiments. Frictional sliding contact is shown to be possible only for velocities between c_s and √2c_s of the polymer. The relevant analytical parameters were predicted by comparing the model to the experimental isochromatic fringe patterns and comments are made on the merits of the model presented.


Wastewater and drinking water treatment are essential elements of urban infrastructure. In the course of the last century there has been enormous technical development, so successful that for the general public in industrialized countries this infrastructure is hardly noticed.

Nevertheless there is ongoing activity to further improve the existing processes. The IWA Leading Edge Technology conference held in Prague helped to stimulate this development and this book helps disseminate the results.

A selection of presentations from the conference are included in this volume. Wastewater and drinking-water treatment are normally considered as two separate fields due to the very different boundary conditions that apply. Nevertheless several issues such as membrane processes, removal of micropollutants and water reuse are of crucial importance to both. This potential for cross-fertilization further enhances the value of this collection of high-quality articles that delineate the leading edge of research and development in water and wastewater treatment.

This title belongs to Water and Environmental Management Series (WEMS)

ISBN: 9781843395089 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780402888 (eBook)


In many practical applications of multiple hypothesis testing using the False Discovery Rate (FDR), the given hypotheses can be naturally partitioned into groups, and one may not only want to control the number of false discoveries (wrongly rejected null hypotheses), but also the number of falsely discovered groups of hypotheses (we say a group is falsely discovered if at least one hypothesis within that group is rejected, when in reality the group contains only nulls). In this paper, we introduce the p-filter, a procedure which unifies and generalizes the standard FDR procedure by Benjamini and Hochberg and global null testing procedure by Simes. We first prove that our proposed method can simultaneously control the overall FDR at the finest level (individual hypotheses treated separately) and the group FDR at coarser levels (when such groups are user-specified). We then generalize the p-filter procedure even further to handle multiple partitions of hypotheses, since that might be natural in many applications. For example, in neuroscience experiments, we may have a hypothesis for every (discretized) location in the brain, and at every (discretized) timepoint: does the stimulus correlate with activity in location x at time t after the stimulus was presented? In this setting, one might want to group hypotheses by location and by time. Importantly, our procedure can handle multiple partitions which are nonhierarchical (i.e. one partition may arrange p-values by voxel, and another partition arranges them by time point; neither one is nested inside the other). We prove that our procedure controls FDR simultaneously across these multiple lay- ers, under assumptions that are standard in the literature: we do not need the hypotheses to be independent, but require a nonnegative dependence condition known as PRDS.


A general game player is a system that can play previously unknown games just by being given their rules. For this purpose, the Game Description Language (GDL) has been developed as a high-level knowledge representation formalism to communicate game rules to players. In this paper, we address a fundamental limitation of state-of-the-art methods and systems for General Game Playing, namely, their being confined to deterministic games with complete information about the game state. We develop a simple yet expressive extension of standard GDL that allows for formalising the rules of arbitrary finite, n-player games with randomness and incomplete state knowledge. In the second part of the paper, we address the intricate reasoning challenge for general game-playing systems that comes with the new description language. We develop a full embedding of extended GDL into the Situation Calculus augmented by Scherl and Levesque's knowledge fluent. We formally prove that this provides a sound and complete reasoning method for players' knowledge about game states as well as about the knowledge of the other players.


Regularization is an important method for solving a wide variety of inverse problems in image processing. In order to optimize the reconstructed image, it is important to choose the optimal regularization parameter. The unbiased predictive risk estimator (UPRE) has been shown to give a very good estimate of this parameter. Applying the traditional UPRE is impractical, however, in the case of inverse problems such as deblurring, due to the large scale of the associated linear problem. We propose an approach to reducing the large scale problem to a small problem, significantly reducing computational requirements while providing a good approximation to the original problem.


Confined liquid crystals (LCs) have attracted much interest because their richness in physical phenomena and potential applications. In this thesis the configuration of novel liquid crystal phases confined in cylindrical cavities from tens of nanometres to hundred of microns primarily were investigated by means of small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), grazing incident X-ray scattering (GSAXS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).

The arrangement of honeycomb phases and 3-d channeled-layer phases (ChL) formed by polyphilic side-branched compounds in nanoporous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates as well as in glass capillaries with micrometer diameters were investigated. 3-d diffraction patterns were reconstructed from the SAXS data. A fracture method associated with AFM observation was performed on the AAO samples to complement the X-ray study. Details of assembly of individual columns inside the nanochannel were directly observed by AFM for the first time. Surprisingly, even the planar-anchored columns were found reluctant to orient axially (parallel to the 1-d channel), which was explained by the strong deformation energy of the 2-d lattice. Besides, the in-plane orientation of the 2-d lattice was observed in both planar and homeotropic anchoring conditions and different mechanisms were proposed. For the ChL phase, axial orientation was observed due to the high rigidity of the columns. The 3-d layered structure could be suppressed by the nanopores and an induced smectic structure was observed.

Configuration of several discotic columnar LCs in cylindrical confinement was studied. The investigation of pure triphenylene derivatives in nanopores refutes the only detailed experimental work on discotics published as far. Again the discotic columns are mainly perpendicular to the channel axis, even with planar anchoring condition, to avoid the distortion of the 2-d lattice. The axial configuration was observed only when the rigidity of the columns was increased by dopant.

The structure of LC-directed mesoporous silica nanofibers fabricated via dual structure-directing agents in 200 nm AAO membranes was characterized by SAXS and TEM. Different mesoporous structures were observed when changing the alkyl chain length of the cationic surfactant.


Respirators are worn in only about 20-30% of the appropriate circumstances. This research examined the effect of inspired air conditions on performance time. An environmental chamber supplied air at 27°C, 28°C, 37°C, and 55°C to a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) worn by the subject while exercising in a neutral environment. A mathematical model of performance time as a function of the heat index (HI), respirator familiarity (RF), personality type (SN), and minute volume (V e) indicated that performance time increased with a decrease in HI and V e and with an increase in RF and SN ratio. A model of performance time as function of user acceptability and the heat index indicated that time to reach a level of " fairly uncomfortable " decreased exponentially from 5.34 minutes to 2.85 minutes with an increase in the heat index. Performance at the heat index conditions may be described by physiological, subjective, and individual characteristics.


The explosion of violence between Israelis and Palestinians that began in late 2000 is a tragic reminder of the potential for armed conflict in the Middle East. Although many developments in the 1990s appeared to have reduced the likelihood of war in the region, stability between Israel and its Arab neighbors remains tenuous. Security in the Persian Gulf also remains uncertain, as Iran and Iraq have continued their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Understanding the dynamics of security in the Middle East requires detailed information on the military capabilities of the region's countries.The Middle East Military Balance is prepared annually by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. It is based on data from many sources, including some that are unavailable to other institutes. With its wealth of current, hard-to-find information, it offers an authoritative and indispensable guide to military capabilities in the Middle East.Governments, the media, and researchers pay close attention to its data and analysis each year.


We propose a stable multi-longitudinal Brillouin/semiconductor fiber laser (BSFL) as the upstream source in a bidirectional single-fiber wavelength-division multiplexing-passive optical network (WDM-PON). The downstream wavelength serves as the pump of the BSFL. Brillouin-frequency-shifted (~10.8 GHz) upstream carrier is generated to suppress the Rayleigh backscattering and back re°ection-induced crosstalk. The stable multi-longitudinal operation of the BSFL, attributed to the four-wave mixing (FWM) effect in the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) reduces the difficulty of generating a stable single-longitudinal fiber laser-based upstream carrier. Bidirectional symmetric transmission at 10 Gb/s over a 12.5-km single mode fiber with less than 2-dB power penalty is demonstrated.


This analysis uses a residual demand elasticity model to measure market power in the international cotton market. The results indicate that China exerts significant market power and affects cotton prices. Those results, combined with a partial equilibrium model of the international cotton market, are used to evaluate the welfare consequences of U.S. cotton subsidy policies for major cotton exporters under alternative assumptions about global market structure. The results indicate that the effects of U.S. subsidies on the world cotton price are much smaller under an imperfectly competitive international market than under a perfectly competitive market scenario; the former appears to be a realistic case.


Most estimates of sea spray aerosol source functions have used indirect means to infer the rate of production as a function of wind speed. Only recently has the technology become available to make high frequency measurements of aerosol spectra suitable for direct eddy correlation determination of the sea spray particle flux. This was accomplished in this study by combining a newly developed fast aerosol particle counter with an ultrasonic anemometer which allowed for eddy covariance measurements of size-segregated particle fluxes. The aerosol instrument is the Compact Lightweight Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (CLASP) - capable of measuring 8-channel size spectra for mean radii between 0.15 and 3.5 μm at 10 Hz. The first successful measurements were made during the Waves, Air Sea Fluxes, Aerosol and Bubbles (WASFAB) field campaign in October 2005 in Duck (NC, USA). The method and initial results are presented and comparisons are made with recent sea spray source functions from the literature.


This article presents a critique of marijuana prohibition and suggests some alternative regulatory approaches that would be more productive and consonant with justice. Part I relies on a forty-year empirical record to demonstrate that (1) reliance on a law enforcement approach has aggravated rather than mitigated the risks involved with marijuana use, and (2) criminalization, which results in the arrest of more than 700,000 Americans annually for possession of any amount of marijuana, is an inhumane and destructive response to an act that almost 100 million Americans have committed. Part II assesses the relative merits of several alternative reform policies, including both decriminalization and legalization under a regulatory scheme.


Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infection can cause serious illness including haemolytic uraemic syndrome. The role of socio-economic status (SES) in differential clinical presentation and exposure to potential risk factors amongst STEC cases has not previously been reported in England. We conducted an observational study using a dataset of all STEC cases identified in England, 2010 – 2015. Odds ratios for clinical characteristics of cases and foodborne, waterborne and environmental risk factors were estimated using logistic regression, stratified by SES, adjusting for baseline demographic factors. Incidence was higher in the highest SES group compared to the lowest (RR 1.54, 95% CI 1.19 – 2.00). Odds of Accident and Emergency attendance (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.10 – 1.75) and hospitalisation (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.36 – 2.15) because of illness were higher in the most disadvantaged compared to the least, suggesting potential lower ascertainment of milder cases or delayed care-seeking behaviour in disadvantaged groups. Advantaged individuals were significantly more likely to report salad/fruit/vegetable/herb consumption (OR 1.59, 95% CI 1.16 – 2.17), non-UK or UK travel (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.40 – 2.27; OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.35 – 2.56) and environmental exposures (walking in a paddock, OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.22 – 2.70; soil contact, OR 1.52, 95% CI 2.13 – 1.09) suggesting other unmeasured risks, such as person-to-person transmission, could be more important in the most disadvantaged group.


Background: Depressive symptoms and food insecurity are two of the public health concerns in developing countries. Food insecurity is linked to several chronic diseases, while little is known about the association between food insecurity and depressive symptoms among adults. A person with limited or uncertain availability or access to nutritionally sufficient, socially relevant, and safe foods is defined as a food-insecure person. Materials and methods: Data were obtained from 8613 adults who participated in the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) in 2007 and 2014. The 10 items of the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) were used in food consumption score analysis to assess food insecurity based on the concept of the World Food Program (WFP). Depressive symptoms were assessed using 10 items of the self-reported Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) questionnaire. A linear and multiple logistic regression model with a generalized estimating equation was used to test the hypothesis while accounting for the health behaviors and sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Food consumption score was negatively associated with CES-D 10 score (β-coefficients: −9.71 × 10−3 to −1.06 × 10−2; 95% CIs: −7.46 × 10−3 to −1.26 × 10−2). The borderline and poor food consumption group was positively associated with the depressive symptoms, both in the unadjusted and adjusted models (exponentiated β-coefficients: 1.13 to 1.18; 95% CIs: 1.06 to 1.28). Conclusions: Depressive symptoms were positively significantly associated with food insecurity. Thus, health professionals must be aware of the issue, and should consider health and nutrition programs for adults at risk of food insecurity.


Humanitarian clearance of minefields is most often carried out by hand, conventionally using a a metal detector and a probe. Detection is a very slow process, as every piece of detected metal must treated as if it were a landmine and carefully probed and excavated, while many of them are not. The process can be safely sped up by use of Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) to image the subsurface, to verify metal detection results and safely ignore any objects which could not possibly be a landmine. In this thesis, we explore the possibility of using Full Wave Inversion (FWI) to improve GPR imaging for landmine detection. Posing the imaging task as FWI means solving the large-scale, non-linear and ill-posed optimisation problem of determining the physical parameters of the subsurface (such as electrical permittivity) which would best reproduce the data. This thesis begins by giving an overview of all the mathematical and implementational aspects of FWI, so as to provide an informative text for both mathematicians (perhaps already familiar with other inverse problems) wanting to contribute to the mine detection problem, as well as a wider engineering audience (perhaps already working on GPR or mine detection) interested in the mathematical study of inverse problems and FWI.We present the first numerical 3D FWI results for GPR, and consider only surface measurements from small-scale arrays as these are suitable for our application. The FWI problem requires an accurate forward model to simulate GPR data, for which we use a hybrid finite-element boundary-integral solver utilising first order curl-conforming N\'{e}d\'{e}lec (edge) elements. We present a novel `line search' type algorithm which prioritises inversion of some target parameters in a region of interest (ROI), with the update outside of the area defined implicitly as a function of the target parameters. This is particularly applicable to the mine detection problem, in which we wish to know more about some detected metallic objects, but are not interested in the surrounding medium. We may need to resolve the surrounding area though, in order to account for the target being obscured and multiple scattering in a highly cluttered subsurface.We focus particularly on spatial sensitivity of the inverse problem, using both a singular value decomposition to analyse the Jacobian matrix, as well as an asymptotic expansion involving polarization tensors describing the perturbation of electric field due to small objects. The latter allows us to extend the current theory of sensitivity in for acoustic FWI, based on the Born approximation, to better understand how polarization plays a role in the 3D electromagnetic inverse problem. Based on this asymptotic approximation, we derive a novel approximation to the diagonals of the Hessian matrix which can be used to pre-condition the GPR FWI problem.


Annus Virtualis: Some challenges that the virtual era of Web 2.0 face in terms of relevant church ministry Annus Virtualis, the digital explosion presents nothing less than a global paradigm shift away from the mass print culture. This is illustrated by a short discussion of the meteoric growth of digital platforms such as Facebook, before focusing on the new "Net Generation." These "Net Geners" are transforming the digital world from a place where you search for information to an interactive social space where you share information and collaborate on projects of mutual interest, such as solving the globe's most pressing problems. After dealing with a few dangers the new virtual era poses for authentic social connectedness, the need for churches to wake up to the digital word and come to terms with authentic digital ministry is finally addressed.


Wordsworth9s account in the "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads of the groundbreaking nature of his rustic poetics has long served as foundational to our understanding of Romanticism. Yet his representation of "the public taste in this country" in 1800 elided the presence of a decades-long tradition of "peasant" and "working-class" poetry in Britain. Figures like Stephen Duck ("The Thresher Poet"), Robert Burns, and Ann Yearsley ("The Bristol Milkwoman") had been the focus of fashionable critical interest because they were seen as embodying the very values of simplicity and rustic authenticity that Wordsworth claimed were absent from the contemporary scene. Though a review of this context exposes Wordsworth to charges of solipsism and historical repression, it also helps us to imagine how the pervasiveness of peasant verse complicated his efforts to establish himself as a legitimate conduit for rusticism and "the real language of men." While Wordsworth did not have to create a taste for rural subjects and pseudo-humble diction, he faced the more difficult task of creating a vital rustic verse that was distinct from peasant poetry. In staging confrontations between educated narrators and uneducated subjects, several poems of the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, including "The Thorn" and "Simon Lee," dramatize Wordsworth9s historical dilemma as a gentlemanly chronicler of "low and rustic life." Through these experiments in narratorial perspective, class identification, and social sympathy, Wordsworth establishes both the contemporaneity and the innovation of his poetic project.


Data from limited dietary intervention trials suggest that the cardiovascular health benefit of EVOOs may increase as their phenolic antioxidants content increases. However, while EVOOs contain an array of bioactive compounds, little information exists regarding the physiological effects of specific chemical species. Among the EVOO‐derived phenolics with demonstrated anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant effects in animal and in vitro models is oleocanthal, an inhibitor of cyclooxygenase (COX). The current study compared the impact of acute intake (40 mL) of EVOO on platelet reactivity in healthy adult males (n=9). Three EVOOs were characterized and chosen for equivalency in their total phenolic content and fatty acid profiles, but differing in their oleocanthal to oleacein ratio. In a randomized double‐blind cross‐over study design, subjects consumed EVOOs that provided either a ~2:1 oleocanthal/oleacein (Oleo+) or 2:1 oleacein compared to oleocanthal (Olea+). A third EVOO served as a control, providing minimal amounts of oleocanthal and oleacein but had a similar total phenolic content in the form of free tyrosol (Oleo− Olea−). A positive control for to platelet response was obtained after the intake of 400 mg of ibuprofen on a fourth study visit. Blood samples for optical platelet aggregometry were collected at baseline, and 2 hours post EVOO intake; with samples for oxylipin analysis collected from the activated platelet supernatants. Maximum platelet aggregation (Pmax) was significantly reduced 2 hours after Ibuprofen intake compared to all EVOOs when platelets were activated with either 1 μg/mL or 3 μg/mL of collagen. No significant differences between EVOOs for Pmax were observed with 3 μg/mL of collagen. However, scaling each individuals' response to their range of responses on the 4 treatments, 1 μg/mL collagen‐induced Pmax was significantly reduced (repeated measures ANOVA, p<0.05) for Oleo+, but not Olea+ compared to Oleo− Olea− 2 hours after intake (7.33 ± 7.9, −12.4 ± 12, and −29.3 ± 11, mean ± SEM percent basal activity, respectively). These changes in Pmax were strongly correlated with the change in the sum of COX and 12‐lipoxygenase (LOX) (r2 = 0.53), although considerable individual variability in both platelet response and COX and LOX product formation was noted. Taken together the data suggests that platelet response after EVOO intake is dependent on the presence of specific phenolics.


Background Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) caused by the eukaryotic parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The current clinical and preclinical pipeline for T. cruzi is extremely sparse and lacks drug target diversity. Methodology/Principal Findings In the present study we developed a computational approach that utilized data from several public whole-cell, phenotypic high throughput screens that have been completed for T. cruzi by the Broad Institute, including a single screen of over 300,000 molecules in the search for chemical probes as part of the NIH Molecular Libraries program. We have also compiled and curated relevant biological and chemical compound screening data including (i) compounds and biological activity data from the literature, (ii) high throughput screening datasets, and (iii) predicted metabolites of T. cruzi metabolic pathways. This information was used to help us identify compounds and their potential targets. We have constructed a Pathway Genome Data Base for T. cruzi. In addition, we have developed Bayesian machine learning models that were used to virtually screen libraries of compounds. Ninety-seven compounds were selected for in vitro testing, and 11 of these were found to have EC50 < 10μM. We progressed five compounds to an in vivo mouse efficacy model of Chagas disease and validated that the machine learning model could identify in vitro active compounds not in the training set, as well as known positive controls. The antimalarial pyronaridine possessed 85.2% efficacy in the acute Chagas mouse model. We have also proposed potential targets (for future verification) for this compound based on structural similarity to known compounds with targets in T. cruzi. Conclusions/ Significance We have demonstrated how combining chemoinformatics and bioinformatics for T. cruzi drug discovery can bring interesting in vivo active molecules to light that may have been overlooked. The approach we have taken is broadly applicable to other NTDs.


The last stage of the manufacturing process requires complex reactive diffusion formation process of MgB2 in the presence of SiC nanoparticles. Continuous thermal processing was adopted to produce long length MgB2 in situ wires with a homogeneous mixture of micron-sized Mg, nanosized B, as well as SiC dopant powders. This process has enabled the formation of MgB2 superconducting compound in a relatively short time. Traditional superconductor batch processing requires the wire batch to be heat treated in dedicated large furnaces. Additionally, such a batch process requires controllable slow heating-up, dwelling, and cooling down procedures to ensure uniformity of the superconducting properties along the wire length. Such a prolonged reactive diffusion process does require lower dwelling temperature and can potentially prevent full utilization of the doping materials, resulting in less effective pinning centers formation. On the other hand, continuous wire thermal processing enables rapid formation of the doped MgB2 with full utilization of the dopant. Also, in the continuous process, the moving thermal front brings complex dynamics to Mg–B, C–B, Mg–Si interaction during MgB2 formation processes. The manuscript presents a comparative study of the reactive diffusion kinetics, the microstructural formation of the doped MgB2 compound, and their Jc(B, T) characteristics.


The paper discusses the current state of research concerning railway network timetabling and traffic management. Timetable effectiveness is governed by frequency, regularity, accurate running, recovery and layover times, as well as minimal headway, buffer times and waiting times. Analytic (queuing) models and stochastic micro-simulation are predominantly used for estimation of waiting times and capacity consumption anlong corridors and in stations, while combinatorial models and stability analysis are suitable for network timetable optimisation. Efficient traffic management can be achieved by real-time monitoring, fusion, analysis and rescheduling of railway traffic in case of disturbances. Real-time simulation, optimisation and impact evaluation of dispatching measures can improve the effectiveness of rescheduling and traffic management. The display of dynamic signal and track occupancy data in driver cabins, as RouteLint developed by ProRail, can support anticipative actions of the driver in order to reduce knock-on delays and increase throughput.


Metal matrix composites (MMC) are generating extensive interest in diverse fields like defense, aerospace, electronics and automotive industries. In this present investigation, material removal rate (MRR) modeling has been carried out using an axisymmetric model of Al-SiC composite during electrical discharge machining (EDM). A FEA model of single spark EDM was developed to calculate the temperature distribution.Further, single spark model was extended to simulate the second discharge. For multi-discharge machining material removal was calculated by calculating the number of pulses. Validation of model has been done by comparing the experimental results obtained under the same process parameters with the analytical results. A good agreement was found between the experimental results and the theoretical value. Keywords—Electrical Discharge Machining,FEA, Metal matrix composites, Multi-discharge


We show that the gradient estimates used in training Deep Gaussian Processes (DGPs) with importance-weighted variational inference are susceptible to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) issues. Specifically, we show both theoretically and empirically that the SNR of the gradient estimates for the latent variable's variational parameters decreases as the number of importance samples increases. As a result, these gradient estimates degrade to pure noise if the number of importance samples is too large. To address this pathology, we show how doubly-reparameterized gradient estimators, originally proposed for training variational autoencoders, can be adapted to the DGP setting and that the resultant estimators completely remedy the SNR issue, thereby providing more reliable training. Finally, we demonstrate that our fix can lead to improvements in the predictive performance of the model's predictive posterior.


St. Louis Fed President James Bullard discussed the natural real rate of interest (commonly called r*) and its implications for the Fed?s policy rate at the NABE Economic Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. He presented a regime-switching view of the issues around the natural real rate of interest, which he called r-dagger (r?) to emphasize that these estimates use an alternative methodology. Bullard considered three factors that can influence the natural rate and noted that the U.S. is currently in a regime (or state) of low productivity growth, appears to be in a low-growth state for the U.S. labor force, and is in a regime of a high desire for safe assets (the most important of the three factors). He concluded that the natural safe real rate of interest, and hence the appropriate policy rate, is relatively low and unlikely to change very much over the forecast horizon of two years.


The structural design and construction process of the small spacing tunnel in the No. 2 line of the Guangzhou Metro have been simulated and analyzed by means of ANSYS Version 5.6 FEM program in this paper. The ground settlement and variation of internal forces of support structure induced by excavation of strata during tunnel driving have been obtained. The small spacing tunnel has been successfully driven according to the numerical results, and the ground subsidence is also controlled within the limited value so as to protect the safety of buildings on the ground, it has also provided scientific basis and technical guide for the construction of the small spacing tunnel in the urban metro.


Background noise should in theory hinder detection of auditory cues associated with approaching danger. We tested whether foraging chaffinches Fringilla coelebs responded to background noise by increasing vigilance, and examined whether this was explained by predation risk compensation or by a novel stimulus hypothesis. The former predicts that only inter-scan interval should be modified in the presence of background noise, not vigilance levels generally. This is because noise hampers auditory cue detection and increases perceived predation risk primarily when in the head-down position, and also because previous tests have shown that only interscan interval is correlated with predator detection ability in this system. Chaffinches only modified interscan interval supporting this hypothesis. At the same time they made significantly fewer pecks when feeding during the background noise treatment and so the increased vigilance led to a reduction in intake rate, suggesting that compensating for the increased predation risk could indirectly lead to a fitness cost. Finally, the novel stimulus hypothesis predicts that chaffinches should habituate to the noise, which did not occur within a trial or over 5 subsequent trials. We conclude that auditory cues may be an important component of the trade-off between vigilance and feeding, and discuss possible implications for anti-predation theory and ecological processes.


Australia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the recent release of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper affirm the Government's commitment toward carbon emissions reduction and the advancement of the environmental cause. Using a naive model which maximises the environmental cause at the expense of financial impact on the economy, this paper highlights how the failure of the first phase of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme can be attributed to the over-relaxation of parameters crucial to the success of the scheme as measured by verified reduction in emissions. The Government's preferred position as elucidated in the Green Paper is then contrasted in this context to illustrate the possible sources of failure that are currently engendered in the Scheme. The implementation of the Scheme will impose great compliance costs on the economy – we argue that the Government's over zealous protection of business interests may ultimately lead to failure of the Scheme, in which case the businesses and community would have incurred the financial burden over nothing.


Introduction: Scotland has an ageing population which has significant implications for health and social care services. Encouraging older people to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviours has the potential to maintain a person's functional ability, increase healthy life years and thus has the potential to enable older people to live at home independently for longer. Recommendations for levels of activity have been produced for older adults but whether these are being achieved is currently unknown. Levels of activity are influenced by many factors including nutritional and functional status, dietary intake and fatigue but as yet the relationship between these parameters and habitual activity has not been established. Therefore the aims of this study were 1) to determine the relationship between levels of habitual activity and nutritional status, functional ability, dietary intake, and levels of fatigue in older adults and 2) to inform physical activity targets for the aging population.
Methods: Older adults were recruited from a range of social and leisure facilities across central Scotland. Habitual activity was measured continuously for seven consecutive days using an activPALTM accelerometer. Nutritional status (BMI, waist circumference (WC), tricep skinfold and mid arm muscle circumference) was measured using ISAK methodology. Functional status (handgrip dynamometry, sit to stand (STS), six minute walk (6MW) and gait speed (m/s)) was measured along with dietary intake using a seven day unweighed diet diary. In addition levels of fatigue were measured using the Multi-dimensional Fatigue Inventory. Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis was utilised to establish relationships between levels of habitual activity and markers of nutritional status, functional status and dietary intake. Spearman's rho correlation analysis was utilised to establish the relationship between levels of habitual activity and levels of fatigue. Partial correlation analysis was used to establish the influence of age and gender on these relationships.
Results: Forty four (21m, 23f) healthy older adults were recruited and completed the study. Participants were found to spend a mean±sd 551 ± 88 min in sedentary behaviour daily which equates to 61±10% awake time being sedentary. They took 8721 ± 3585 steps daily and spent 108±38 min stepping, 253±78 min standing and 1080±103 min sitting or lying each day. Percent time in sedentary behaviour was positively associated with BMI (r=.302, p=.049), WC (cm) (r=.302, p=.049), percent energy intake from fat (r=.535, p<.001) and saturated fat (r=.381, p=.011) and was negatively associated with 6MW (m) (r=-.445, p=.002) and % energy from non-milk extrinsic sugar (r=-.314, p=.038). Total weekly time in moderate intensity activity accumulated in blocks of at least 10 minutes was positively associated with 6MW (r=0.321, p=.041), daily protein intake (g) (r=.350, p=.025) and mean daily vitamin D intake (μg) (r=.404, p=.009) and was negatively associated with STS (r=-.321, p=.041). Age but not gender influenced the relationships.
Conclusion: This is the first study to report objectively measured levels of sedentary behaviour where habitual activity was measured continuously over seven days and sedentary behaviour was considered during waking hours only in a Scottish older adult population. Recommendations for physical activity were not consistently met and there is therefore some indication that current recommendations for sedentary behaviour and physical activity should be reviewed. However activity cannot be considered in isolation as many factors influence this including nutritional status, functional status, dietary intake and levels of fatigue.


Studies of atomic point contacts reveal the fundamental quantum of heat transport The existence of universal upper bounds (limits) for the rates of transport of electricity and thermal energy is a striking manifestation of quantum mechanics. These fundamental bounds can be revealed in low-dimensional constrictions defining a single transport channel. The discrete unit (quantum) of electrical conductance G0 has been observed in many experiments dating back to 1988 (1, 2), but the quantum of thermal conductance G0,Th has been much more challenging to probe. Unlike tiny electrical currents, it is much harder to measure minute heat currents in a reproducible manner. On page 1192 of this issue, Cui et al. (3) conquer this challenge by developing an experimental platform for studying quantum thermal transport at the atomic limit. Their work reveals that thermal conductance can be quantized even at room temperature, as well as the fundamental relation between the thermal and electrical conductances. This study paves the way for investigations of thermal phenomena in individual molecular devices, with technological ramifications for controlling energy transport in nanoscale electronic circuitry.


Objective The aim of this review was to describe how patients experience an exacerbation of cystic fibrosis in terms of symptom management. Methods A systematic literature search was performed in MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PSYCINFO and ASSIA. Studies were included that contained any direct quotes or summaries of quotes from patients with cystic fibrosis aged 16 or older and were related to symptom experience and management during an exacerbation. Framework analysis, guided by Symptom Management Theory, was used to present the findings. Results The review included 18 qualitative studies. In addition to physiological symptoms, patients highlighted the significant role of psychological symptoms. Delayed help-seeking was a common first response. Participants choose their self-management strategies taking both physiological and psychological symptoms into account. Maintaining normality was an important short-term outcome for patients, leading to conflict with health professionals. Patients' symptom management during exacerbation was greatly influenced by the structure of cystic fibrosis care. Discussion Our findings provide an initial understanding of factors influencing patient self-management during an exacerbation. The transferal of these findings into clinical practice will provide a basis for shared goal setting and intervention planning. In addition, our findings have implications for future development of patient-reported outcome measures and intervention research.


Free/Libre and Open Source Software projects (FOSS) are a form of Internet-based commons. Since 1968, when Garrett Hardin published his famous article "Tragedy of the Commons" in the journal Science, there has been significant interest in understanding how to manage commons appropriately, particularly in environmental fields. An important distinction between natural resource commons and FOSS commons is that the "tragedy" to be avoided in natural resources is over-harvesting and the potential destruction of the resource. In FOSS commons the "tragedy" to be avoided is project abandonment and a "dead" project. Institutions – defined as informal norms, more formalized rules, and governance structures – are mechanisms that have been shown to help overcome tragedies in some environmental commons situations. The goal of this paper is to more formally describe the concept of FOSS institutions and to conduct a preliminary examination of FOSS projects in order to shed light into institutions, their composition and importance to the projects. We report findings from an initial set of interviews of FOSS developers and find that in commons settings that need to encourage contribution rather than control over-appropriation, the institutional designs appear to be extremely lean and as unobtrusive as possible. To the FOSS programmers we interviewed, institutional structure adds transaction costs and hinders collective action. This is markedly different from traditional environmental commons settings.


Notch Fairness Act of 2015 Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to revise the formula for the computation of minimum Old Age Insurance benefits for individuals who reached age 65 in or after 1979, and to whom applies the 15-year transition period for the changes in benefit computation rules enacted in the Social Security Amendments of 1977. (Notch refers to birth in the United States between 1917 and 1921, as a result of which a retiree born between those years received lower cost-of-living increases in Social Security than others after Congress readjusted Social Security benefits in 1977.) Sets forth a schedule of additional benefit increases for such beneficiaries (and related beneficiaries), with percentages declining from 55% to 5% and keyed to the year an individual became eligible for such benefits between 1979 and 1988. Allows such beneficiaries, in the alternative, to receive lump sum payments over four years totaling $5,000.


This paper is concerned with information extraction from top-k web pages, which are web pages that describe top k instances of a topic which is of general interest. Examples include "the 10 tallest buildings in the world", "the 50 hits of 2010 you don't want to miss", etc. Compared to other structured information on the web (including web tables), information in top-k lists is larger and richer, of higher quality, and generally more interesting. Therefore top-k lists are highly valuable. For example, it can help enrich open-domain knowledge bases (to support applications such as search or fact answering). In this paper, we present an efficient method that extracts top-k lists from web pages with high performance. Specifically, we extract more than 1.7 million top-k lists from a web corpus of 1.6 billion pages with 92.0% precision and 72.3% recall.


This edited volume reviews our past and present understanding of the ecology of Australian freshwater fishes. It compares patterns and processes in Australia with those on other continents, discusses the local relevance of ecological models from the northern hemisphere and considers how best to manage our species and their habitats in the face of current and future threats. In view of these challenges, the need for redress is urgent.

The chapters are written by some of our foremost researchers and managers, developing themes that underpin our knowledge of the ecology, conservation and management of fish and fish habitats. For each theme, the authors formulate a synthesis of what is known, consider the need for new perspectives and identify gaps and opportunities for research, monitoring and management. The themes have an Australian context but draw upon ideas and principles developed by fish biologists in other parts of the world.

The science of freshwater fish ecology in Australia has grown rapidly from its roots in natural history and taxonomy. This book offers an introduction for students, researchers and managers, one that the authors hope will carry Australian fish biology and resource management to new levels of understanding.


A soluble poly(2-methoxy-5-decoxy)-p-phenylene vinylene (PMODOPV) was synthesized via dehydrochlorination reaction and characterized by UV-visible absorption spectrum. The results showed that PMODOPV had a broad optical absorption band in the range of 450---550 nm and the optical band gap was calculated to be around 2.12 eV. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities (?(3)) of PMODOPV films implanted by 30-keV N+ ions in the dose range of 3.8 * 10^(15)---9.6 * 10^(16) ions/cm2 were measured by degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) technique. The results demonstrated that the resonant and off-resonant ?(3) values were all enhanced significantly by means of ion implantation. The maximum resonant ?(3) value of 9.67 * 10^(-9) esu at 532 nm and off-resonant ?(3) value of 2.49 * 10^(-10) esu at 1.064 ?m were obtained when the ion dose was 3.8 * 10^(16) ions/cm2.


Abstract The effect of vanadium microalloying in promoting a tough, acicular ferrite microstructure in C-Mn steels has been investigated. The microstructure obtained consisted of fine interlocking ferrite plates and was indistinguishable from acicular ferrite developed in steel weld metals, apparently from the intragranular nucleation of ferrite at inclusions. A number of variables were examined in high purity experimental steels including composition and heat treatment conditions, and related to a metallographic examination of the microstructure by high resolution micro-analytical transmission electron microscopy and surface analysis. A comprehensive study of the inclusions in the steels, containing different ratios of oxygen and nitrogen concentration, did not find any significant evidence that inclusion assisted nucleation was the sole determining factor in producing acicular ferrite. Moreover, no evidence could be found to relate vanadium alloying to significant vanadium nitride precipitation, either separately, or associated with the inclusions. Thus, in the present steels, any possible alternative influence of vanadium on intragranular ferrite nucleation is not obscured by effects associated with the inclusion population. The vanadium concentration appeared to be the most important influence in developing an acicular ferrite microstructure in these experimental steels, and this is not inconsistent with previous reports in the literature of a beneficial 'vanadium effect'. Evidence for vanadium segregation in the microstructure was found, which may be related to the effect of vanadium in encouraging the formation of acicular ferrite. Even when there is good evidence that inclusions are responsible for intragranular ferrite nucleation (as, for example, in steel weld metals), a 1 :1 inclusion-ferrite relationship has been difficult to establish. Thus, even an inclusion activated nucleation theory is likely to require additional intragranular ferrite formation without inclusion assistance, such as sympathetic or autocatalytic nucleation, and this could be reflected in the present study by vanadium atom clustering facilitating an alternative intragranular ferrite nucleation mechanism.


If perfectionism is understood as the state's non-neutral promotion of a valuable way of life, Confucian political theory, often pursued as a pluralist correction to global monism of liberal democracy, is ineluctably perfectionist. But how can Confucian perfectionism, committed to particular Confucian values, reconcile with the societal fact of value pluralism within the putative Confucian polity? This article argues that a potential tension between Confucian perfectionism and value pluralism can be avoided by making Confucian perfectionist goods the core elements of public reason with which citizens can justify their arguments to one another and by which the state can justifiably exercise its public authority to reasonable citizens who otherwise subscribe to various comprehensive doctrines. By defining a mode of Confucian perfectionism working through Confucian public reason broadly shared by citizens as public reason Confucianism, this article attempts to balance the Confucian polity's internal societal pluralism and the people's collective self-determination.


In this article, the construction and initial tests of a frictional force microscope are described. The instrument makes use of a microfabricated cantilever that allows one to independently measure the lateral forces in X and Y directions as well as the normal force. We use four fiber-optic interferometers to detect the motion of the sensor in three dimensions. The properties of our cantilevers allow easy and accurate normal and lateral force calibration, making it possible to measure the lateral force on a fully quantitative basis. First experiments on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite demonstrate that the microscope is capable of measuring lateral forces with a resolution down to 15pN.


International Journal of Exercise Science 11(4): 1145-1155, 2018. Accurate assessment of body composition is important to athletic performance goal setting and nutritional program design. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is considered the "gold standard" in body composition assessment, yet the cost renders DXA unfeasible for many. Therefore, it is of interest to compare other body composition assessment methods to DXA in resistance-trained individuals whose focus is athletic performance. The purpose of the current study was to determine the agreement in estimates of body composition ((body fat (BF%); fat mass (FM); fat free mass (FFM)) by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA; Tanita SC-331S) and air displacement plethysmography (ADP; BODPOD) compared to DXA (Hologic Horizon A) in 31 resistance-trained adults (men=15, women=16; mean±SD: 23.6±4.7years). Differences were found in BF% and FM between BIA and DXA. Regression analysis showed BF% and BMI to explain 24% and 29.9% of the variance in BF% measurements between DXA and BIA, respectively. The results of the Bland-Altman plot indicate a poor level of agreement between BIA and DXA for BF%, FM, and FFM (-4.56±8.82 %, -3.48±7.04 kg, 4.59±7.33 kg, respectively). ADP had wide limits of agreement for all variables (BF: 1.85±4.83 %, FM: 1.54±3.72 kg, FFM:-0.22±4.15 kg). BIA and ADP showed increasing variance in all measures as levels of fatness increased, with the exception of FFM for ADP. Compared to DXA, BIA overestimated BF% and FM, and underestimated FFM. Although wide individual errors were noted, no differences were found between ADP and DXA. The magnitude of inaccuracies between methods may be dependent upon individual body fatness.


Abstract : U.S. National Security Strategy calls in part for building on our alliances and friendships to enhance regional security. In so doing, our policy makers often treat these relationships from a global perspective, ignoring local norms and creating unnecessary friction in each relationship. This paper will demonstrate the need for regional and at times sub-regional approaches to collective security, using examples from the Asia-Pacific Region. A necessary comparison between the various styles of defining and achieving security leads to a set of policy recommendations that would best achieve U.S. security interests in the Asia-Pacific Region.


In expert systems, we elicit the probabilities of different statements from the experts. However, to adequately use the expert system, we also need to know the probabilities of different propositional combinations of the experts' statements -- i.e., we need to know the corresponding joint distribution. The problem is that there are exponentially many such combinations, and it is not practically possible to elicit all their probabilities from the experts. So, we need to estimate this joint distribution based on the available information. For this purpose, many practitioners use heuristic approaches -- e.g., the t-norm approach of fuzzy logic. However, this is a particular case of a situation for which the maximum entropy approach has been invented, so why not use the maximum entropy approach? The problem is that in this case, the usual formulation of the maximum entropy approach requires maximizing a function with exponentially many unknowns -- a task which is, in general, not practically feasible. In this paper, we show that in many reasonable example, the corresponding maximum entropy problem can be reduced to an equivalent problem with a much smaller (and feasible) number of unknowns -- a problem which is, therefore, much easier to solve.


This paper proposes discussions for the (re)negotiation of responsibilities in performances that involve a collaboration between human and computer agents. Most of current research is human-hierarchical, leaving the machine the role of a mere tool at performer's service. In this paper a more balanced distribution of responsibilities between the two agent is proposed. Chimney, a software developed by one of the authors, is proposed as a design probe to reflect on this topic. Chimney allows the composer to control only the musical material of a piece, leaving its evolution to an algorithmic agent whose decisions are unpredictable. This redistribution of responsibilities results in a compositional shift that causes the roles of the composer / performer to overlap. The implications for the experience of the performer operating Chimney are also discussed.


Exploitation of silicon capacity will require improvements in design productivity and more scalable system paradigms. Asynchronous message passing networks on chip (NOC) have been proposed as backbones for billion-transistor ASICs. We present a novel layered backbone-platform-system (BPS) design methodology for development of network-on-chip based products. It combines and extends the distributed, parallel, embedded and platform-based design concepts in order to manage the diversity and complexity of NOC-based systems. The reuse of communication principles in various platforms, the reuse of platforms in product differentiation, and system-level decision-support methods are the cornerstones of our methodology. The presented mappability estimation and workload simulations demonstrate the feasibility of such methods.


Policymakers are often hard-pressed to understand what economists have to say on policy issues, and scholars and students need to know what the latest research findings are and what questions remain unanswered. Fiscal Policy: Lessons from Economic Research presents the work of leading contributors to the public finance literature. The papers were originally presented at a 1996 conference sponsored by the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at the University of California, Berkeley. Although the papers are broad in scope, they are not intended to be neutral, comprehensive surveys of the literature. Instead, authors were encouraged to focus on the issues they thought most important or interesting. The conference confirmed that on some questions there is a broad consensus, and on others there is strong disagreement. Because perspectives differ, after each paper two discussants offer their own views on the subject. More so than in many conference volumes, these comments are an integral part of each presentation. The eight chapters fall into three subject areas: government budget management and control, federal entitlement programs, and attempts to influence private sector behavior through tax code management.


Tunupa volcano is a composite cone in the central Andean arc of South America located ∼115 km behind the arc front. We present new geochemical data and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age determinations from Tunupa volcano and the nearby Huayrana lavas, and we discuss their petrogenesis within the context of the lithospheric dynamics and orogenic volcanism of the southern Altiplano region (∼18.5°S–21°S). The Tunupa edifice was constructed between 1.55 ± 0.01 and 1.40 ± 0.04 Ma, and the lavas exhibit typical subduction signatures with positive large ion lithophile element (LILE) and negative high field strength element (HFSE) anomalies. Relative to composite centers of the frontal arc, the Tunupa lavas are enriched in HFSEs, particularly Nb, Ta, and Ti. Nb-Ta-Ti enrichments are also observed in Pliocene and younger monogenetic lavas in the Altiplano Basin to the east of Tunupa, as well as in rear arc lavas elsewhere on the central Andean Plateau. Nb concentrations show very little variation with silica content or other indices of differentiation at Tunupa and most other central Andean composite centers. We propose that this distinct compositional domain reflects an amphibole- and/or phlogopite-rich mantle lithospheric source. Breakdown of these minerals during lithospheric delamination may provide a melting trigger for Tunupa, as has been suggested for other rear arc plateau lavas of the central Andes, and for plateau regions globally. The ca. 11 Ma Huayrana lavas indicate that this process had begun in the central Altiplano Basin by this time. The enriched Nb-Ta-Ti signature of plateau lavas may be an important indicator of hydrous mineral breakdown within the mantle lithosphere, and it can be detected in lavas that that have likely experienced crustal contamination.


Among the best preserved royal tombs in early China, the tombs of the Zhongshan state (dated to the late fourth to early third centuries bce) in present-day Pingshan county each featured a concealed earthen shaft in the middle of the tomb. Constructed with rammed earth, this gigantic structure was located above the underground burial chamber, where the deceased's casket and body were located, and below the freestanding offering hall that housed the deceased's soul. Although this empty shaft would eventually be buried and become invisible, it was carefully embellished and sometimes even decorated with false architectural elements. What role did this seemingly superfluous "hidden level" play in the tomb and what meaning did it express? Previous scholarship failed to provide a satisfactory answer to these questions due to its blindness to the shaft's function in the entire architectural space and ritual time. From the hitherto ignored spatial and temporal perspective, this article argues that this prominent ritual structure forms an intermediary space: (1) spatially it links the underground burial chamber (i.e. body) and the top freestanding offering hall (i.e. soul); (2) temporally it forms a passage that symbolically guides the soul to ascend from the underground realm upward to the high offering hall. In doing so, this article examines not only the shaft itself, but also its relationships to the structures below and above it to reveal its forgotten intermediary function. Four problems are discussed: (1) how the architectural elements in the upper shaft simulated real architecture; (2) how the shaft connected the burial chamber with the offering hall to assume its mediating role between the divorced body and soul; (3) how the shaft was built to facilitate the upward ascension of the deceased's soul. (4) Finally, this article concludes that the appearance of these shafts indicates a concrete effort to resolve the contradictory notion of posthumous life—life and death at once, which is unexplained in surviving Eastern Zhou texts.