Communities in western North Dakota are struggling to manage the unprecedented growth in employment associated with the current oil boom. The city of Dickinson is undergoing a comprehensive plan to develop policies, strategies, and solutions for providing infrastructure, transportation, housing, and public services as a result of the new conditions brought on by oil field development. This study was designed to provide input into the city's comprehensive planning effort. Employment projections for the Dickinson trade area included future changes to employment in existing industries, future direct employment in the petroleum sector, and potential secondary employment associated with changes in direct employment in the petroleum industry. To frame the context and scope of future oil field development, perceptions and opinions on current and expected development in the Williston Basin were solicited from industry leaders and government representatives with knowledge of the industry. Those opinions and perceptions provided the basis for creating two development scenarios based on 32,000 wells in the Bakken/Three Forks formations in North Dakota by 2036. Near-term growth in employment in the Dickinson trade area was substantial in the slow and rapid development scenarios. However, long-term employment dynamics differed. Those differences were reflected in the level of temporary employment and changes in permanent employment over the 25-year period. The slow development scenario produced a set of employment dynamics much more conducive to an orderly and sustained expansion. By contrast, the rapid development scenario indicated continued rapid growth in employment over the next decade. Further into the rapid scenario timeline, assumptions on oil field development produced a strong contraction in employment upon completion of well drilling which results in an employment change reminiscent of boom-bust resource development. Neither scenario was modeled as a prediction, but rather a potential possibility. Two separate approaches were used to estimate future population for the city of Dickinson. One approach used current and planned build-out rates for future housing developments within the current city limits, occupancy rates in motels and other non-traditional housing arrangements, crew camps, lodging at work sites, and existing traditional Census population figures to produce an estimate of service population. Based on that approach, the city will reach a physical maximum service population of approximately 35,000 upon completion of all current and proposed projects (i.e., proposed projects as of early 2012). When all of the planned developments are build-out additional growth beyond that level will be dependent on how the city reacts to the demand for additional housing. Additional growth will require additional annexations. A second approach to estimating future population used projections of regional employment in all industries to generate estimates of regional housing demand. Future housing demand in the region was estimated separately for permanent and total (permanent and temporary jobs) workforce. Permanent workforce produced housing needs associated with longvi term employment and would produce population estimates consistent with the Census. Total workforce (permanent and temporary workers) was used to produce estimates of future housing demand that were used to estimate service populations. Future housing demand was allocated among the region's counties based on historic distributions of housing within the region. The allocation process was largely driven by the need to address mobility of the petroleum sector workforce. Petroleum sector workers may not necessarily reside where they work or be employed where they reside. Therefore, a direct correlation between place of employment and place of residence could not be used to allocate regional housing demand. Future housing demand in each county was divided into homes, twin homes, and apartments (i.e., R1, R2, and R3 housing) and assigned occupancy rates by housing type by county based on historical data. Information on the expected mix of housing in future housing developments was used to adjust the future distribution of single family houses, twin homes, and apartments within the trade area counties. The process produced county-level estimates of permanent population and service population over the 25-year period. Assuming all permanent housing needs are met within the region, an average of the slow and rapid development scenarios revealed that the Dickinson trade area permanent population could approach 57,000 in 25 years. If temporary employment is included, trade area service population could peak near 64,000 people around 2020. Two levels of future housing demand within the city in Dickinson were considered. First, housing demand was modeled at a rate consistent with Dickinson's historic share of regional housing, approximately 50 percent. A second scenario assumed the city would supply 70 percent of the regional housing supply. The second scenario was based on the premise that other cities and communities in the region would not be able to meet future housing demand proportionate to their historical levels. Housing demand for a permanent workforce was projected to be 72 percent to 140 percent above the 2010 Census estimate of housing units in the city of Dickinson, depending upon the share of regional housing units supplied by Dickinson. When housing demand included housing for the temporary workforce, housing demand peaked at 95 to 173 percent of the 2010 Census estimate of housing units in Dickinson 10 to 12 years into the planning period. Future permanent population in the city of Dickinson could approach 30,000 in 15 years assuming 50 percent of regional housing demand. If that ratio were to change based on the assumption that smaller communities in the trade area were either unwilling or unable to maintain their historic housing supply and Dickinson now supplied 70 percent of the regional housing demand, future permanent population was estimated to approach 40,000 in 15 years. When temporary employment is included in the population estimates, the city of Dickinson could see a service population between 34,000 to 47,000 in 10 years depending upon the share of regional temporary housing demand supplied by the city. Aside from detailed estimates of future employment, housing, and population, a number of insights were gained regarding current and expected future activity in the Dickinson trade area. ● Employment • Employment in the petroleum sector will remain high, and there are strong indications that increases in direct employment could occur in the near term. • Near-term employment drivers are associated with drilling and fracing activity in the Bakken/Three Forks formations. • Longer-term employment drivers are associated with oil field service and will be a direct function of the number of wells operating in the state. •Wildcards in the long-term employment may include development of other shale formations (e.g., Tyler formation). •Long-term predictions of employment are difficult. ◦ The industry has substantial incentives to reduce current labor requirements. ◦ Future use of new technologies and techniques are likely to be a factor in employment requirements. ◦ Macro-economic factors affecting oil field development rates and the future desirability of the industry to pursue opportunities in shale oil formations in ND are difficult to predict. ◦ Therefore, a host of factors make concise long-range estimates impossible. The best antidote for long-term uncertainty is to shorten the time between assessments and make the process of forecasting more iterative. ● Housing • There is substantial demand for housing in the Dickinson trade area. • Current build-out rates for water, sewer, and housing are not likely to result in overbuilding of infrastructure within the city of Dickinson. • Despite enormous demand for housing, it is not unlimited. The city must carefully plan how it will respond to the demand as overbuilding can result in equally serious ramifications. ◦ Too much housing is likely to result in high vacancy rates, and a depressed housing market. ◦ Too little housing drives up values and rents and creates additional problems for elderly and other fixed income residents. • Communities' response to the housing issue must include continual monitoring and periodic re-assessment to avoid building to peak demand. ● Workforce Characteristics • Workers in the petroleum sector are far more mobile than previously thought. • A good understanding of workforce characteristics is lacking. viii • Planning efforts at both the local and state level would benefit from a better understanding of demographic profiles, anticipated work schedules, and likelihood/willingness of existing workforce to become North Dakota residents. • Antidotal evidence (airline boardings, real estate purchases) suggests that workers are seeking housing outside of the oil fields, and using work schedules that allow them to work in ND but maintain their home residence elsewhere in the state or outside of ND. • A mobile workforce responsive to housing availability has substantial implications for level of secondary employment–implications for support businesses, services, and commercial activity. ● Population • Local communities must include estimates of service population when planning for delivery of public services. • The duration and intensity of service population will largely be reflective of the city's policy regarding housing supply and the future rates of development within the oil field.


Ocular inflammatory diseases, which include uveitis, are a leading cause of visual impairment.
A number of systemic immunosuppressive agents (ISAs) are available, as well as biological
therapies. However, these therapies may not always be effective and can be limited by
toxicity. This thesis aimed to evaluate established and emerging therapies in ocular
inflammatory disease.
The reasons for changing ISAs and the success of subsequent ISA regimes have not previously
been investigated for ocular inflammatory diseases. A review of a case series of 64 uveitis
patients on ISAs revealed that the commonest reason for a treatment failing was lack of
efficacy. A comparison between the most commonly used strategies after treatment failure,
such as switching strategies (eg switch-to mycophenolate vs switch-to methotrexate) and
add-on strategies (eg add-on azathioprine vs mycophenolate) revealed no significant
difference in the time-to-success and retention times.
The long-term efficacy and effects of repeat therapy with rituximab (anti-B cell therapy) in
ocular Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) was evaluated in the largest case series reported to
date. Rituximab was effective in inducing remission, but relapse occurred in 33% of patients
at about 12 months, and could be predicted by rising anti-PR3 titres. Retreatment with
rituximab was effective.
The work presented in the final part of this thesis utilised murine models of experimental
autoimmune uveitis (EAU) to evaluate novel tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitory
therapies. EAU was initially characterised in two strains of mice, C57B/6 and B10.RIII, to
identify key therapeutic windows and key target inflammatory cytokines. When testing the
TNF inhibitor therapies, the EAU model failed due to possible genetic contamination of the
B10.RIII strain from the supplier, this is still an on-going issue. However, some of the TNF
inhibitory therapies administered by intravitreal injection increased the degree of
inflammation compared to those injected with a placebo control.


Cardiorespiratory fitness programs are increasingly used in stroke rehabilitation. Maximal oxygen uptake is the gold standard measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness; however, no recent publications have collated evidence about maximal oxygen uptake levels following stroke. We therefore performed a systematic review of maximal oxygen uptake in stroke survivors, aiming to observe changes in levels over time, and associations with severity of stroke. We searched Medline and Embase until April 2011, and included cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, and baseline data from intervention trials. Studies had to recruit at least 10 stroke survivors, and report direct measurement of maximal/peak oxygen uptake. We then compared maximal oxygen uptake with published data from age and gender-matched controls. The search identified 3357 articles. Seventy-two full texts were retrieved, of which 41 met the inclusion criteria. Time since stroke ranged from 10 days to over seven-years. Peak oxygen uptake ranged from 8 to 22 ml/kg/min, which was 26–87% of that of healthy age- and gender-matched individuals. Stroke severity was mild in most studies. Three studies reported longitudinal changes; there was no clear evidence of change in peak oxygen uptake over time. Most studies recruited participants with mild stroke, and it is possible that cardiorespiratory fitness is even more impaired after severe stroke. Maximal oxygen uptake might have been overestimated, as less healthy and older stroke survivors may not tolerate maximal exercise testing. More studies are needed describing mechanisms of impaired cardiorespiratory fitness and longitudinal changes over time to inform the optimal 'prescription' of cardiorespiratory fitness programs for stroke survivors.


This thesis investigates shareholder wealth impact surrounding the issue of seasoned equity by companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. The first two essays contained in this thesis examine the wealth impact of stock dividends. Technically, issuing new shares through the mechanism of stock dividends is simply a cosmetic accounting change and therefore should not have any impact on shareholder wealth. However, consistent with other international markets we find shareholder wealth is impacted around the announcement date and again on the ex-dates of stock dividends. In both stock dividend essays, we find evidence that investors value imputation tax credits attached to stock dividends. One of the major theories explaining stock dividend ex-dates in the US is the odd-lot cost theory but no direct test has been possible in that market. The New Zealand market enables us to directly test the odd-lot cost argument by examining the ex-date effect when odd-lot costs are present to a later period when they were eliminated. We find evidence supporting the odd-lot cost theory. The final essay contained in this thesis examines the announcements of new shares issued through the private placement mechanism. In New Zealand, private placement price contains important information regarding firm quality. In examining volumes surrounding private placement we find evidence supporting market commentators' conjecture that some placement purchasers may be exploiting relatively weak regulations by immediately reselling the new shares on the market for an instant profit.


Mental distress or dysfunction serious enough to be regarded as illness is a common experience. In the United Kingdom four to five million people a year consult their family doctors because of conditions such as depression and anxiety. Perhaps as many again suffer similar symptoms but either do not seek medical help, or are not identified as being psychiatrically disturbed. A central objective of this OHE publication is to assess what essential service elements the nation's mental health care system should be able to offer, and to evaluate the barriers to, and opportunities for, their achievement. It outlines, first, the nature and scale of four of the main groups of mental health problems affecting the UK population. (Topics such as the harm caused by illegal drug use and alcohol related conditions are not touched on in detail, although OHE has considered them elsewhere - see, for instance, Taylor 1981.) Second, the paper traces the development of the mental health and social care provisions available in Britain. Third, it discusses the place that medicines, alongside psychological and social approaches, have to play in this context. And, fourth, it examines the prospects for future improvements in care. Throughout the paper emphasis is given to the need to combine social, psychological and biomedical knowledge to help generate unified and realistic understandings of mental health problems and the ways available to ease them. This is because one of the central lessons this study has to offer is that a lack of appropriate communication between professionals who should be sharing their complementary knowledge and skills, coupled with failures to listen to the experiences and ideas of mentally distressed people and their informal carers, lies at the heart of many service provision problems. Fragmentation, conflict and disillusion at the 'grass roots' promotes general public and political distrust, which all too often feeds back via inadequate resource availability for research and for care. Breaking such cycles of self-sustaining distress and defeat is a central task for everyone involved in mental health care today, at both individual and societal levels.


In the wake of the global financial crisis, exchange-traded products (ETPs) have faced to increasing levels of scrutiny. It is understandable that regulators might view such a rapidly expanding and innovative niche within the financial markets with caution; however, such increased regulatory scrutiny could ultimately stifle the development of a product that is in many regards far safer, more transparent, and less costly than many competing investment vehicles. But as with any investment vehicle, there are risks entailed in investing in ETPs, and it is vital that investors understand these risks. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) using synthetic replication techniques have been at the epicenter of the most recent round of high profile warnings on the risks associated with ETPs. These funds' added layer of complexity vis-a-vis traditional physical replication funds has led to a good deal of confusion among those investors unfamiliar with the mechanics of swaps—which ultimately provide investors with the return of the reference index within synthetic ETFs. In assessing the risks associated with these structures it is important to address three key questions:1)What is the source of the risk? 2) How are investors being protected against this risk? 3) How are investors being compensated for assuming this risk? This article seeks to answer each of these questions and concludes by providing recommended best practices.


Understanding how neural dynamics give rise to behaviour is one of the most fundamental questions in systems neuroscience. To achieve this, a common approach is to record neural populations in behaving animals, and model these data as emanating from a latent dynamical system whose state trajectories can then be related back to behavioural observations via some form of decoding. As recordings are typically performed in localized circuits that form only a part of the wider implicated network, it is important to simultaneously learn the local dynamics and infer any unobserved external input that might drive them. Here, we introduce iLQR-VAE, a control-based approach to variational inference in nonlinear dynamical systems, capable of learning both latent dynamics, initial conditions, and ongoing external inputs. As in recent deep learning approaches, our method is based on an input-driven sequential variational autoencoder (VAE). The main novelty lies in the use of the powerful iterative linear quadratic regulator algorithm (iLQR) in the recognition model. Optimization of the standard evidence lower-bound requires differentiating through iLQR solutions, which is made possible by recent advances in differentiable control. Importantly, the recognition model is naturally tied to the generative model, greatly reducing the number of free parameters and ensuring high-quality inference throughout the course of learning. Moreover, iLQR can be used to perform inference flexibly on heterogeneous trials of varying lengths. This allows for instance to evaluate the model on a single long trial after training on smaller chunks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of iLQR-VAE on a range of synthetic systems, with autonomous as well as input-driven dynamics. We further apply it to neural and behavioural recordings in non-human primates performing two different reaching tasks, and show that iLQR-VAE yields high-quality kinematic reconstructions from the neural data.


The study examines the online shopping intentions of consumers from the perspective of planned behaviour theory. 92 online users and 134 non-online users completed a specially derived questionnaire. Using structural equation modelling, consumers' attitude towards online shopping, particularly their 'perceived behaviour control' beliefs were found to significantly influence their shopping behaviour. Further, the influence of these control beliefs was stronger than that of the consumers' online shopping attitudes on their shopping intentions, while the subjective norms of the consumers had no influence on their online shopping intentions. The Implications of the findings for online shopping are discussed. 1. Introduction Consumers' shopping habits have changed. According to Continental Research In 2003, 13.8 million British consumers had experienced online transactions such as online shopping or paid downloading. The Institute for Information Industry Internet Information Center (FIND, 2004) estimated that the amount spent on online shopping in Taiwan in 2003 was NT 20.4 billion, with a 30% increase to NT 26.6 billion expected for 2004. In 2005, the amount spent on online shopping amount is predicted to be NT 50.1 billion, an increase of 88% from 2004. At present, 20% of Taiwanese Internet subscribers purchase goods online. A number of models have been proposed to explain consumer behaviour, including the Nicosia Model (Nicosia, 1996) and EBM Model (Engel, Blackwell & Miniard, 1993). Such consumer behaviour models are useful for analyzing usual or traditional consumer shopping behaviour. However, since online shopping behaviour is different from traditional shopping further study is required to understand online shopping behaviour. In addition, most of the existing studies on online shopping only Investigated consumers' purchasing intentions and offered no clear solution to the problems encountered actual online shopping. Further, the topics for discussion were obtained from actual observation without the support of precise theory, thus restricting their usefulness in explaining the phenomenon. This study attempts to understand and explain consumers' online shopping intentions from the viewpoint of social psychology, using the well-developed theory of planned behaviour. In addition, it intends to provide online shops with suggestions and ideas for improving their approach to customers. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the research frameworks as well as the research hypotheses and sampling processes. The research results are presented in section 3. The final section addresses the conclusion and managerial implications. 2. Research Methodology 2.1 Theory of Planned Behavior and hypotheses The Theory of Planned Behaviour-TPB (Ajzen, 1985, 1988, 1991) is a theory developed by extending the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen,1975; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). TPB is not only a cognitive psychology theory within an expectancyvalue framework, but also a social psychology theory for explaining human decision processes. Assumptions made by the theory of planned behaviour are basically the same as those made by the theory of reasoned action; the main difference being that TPB suggests human behavioural decision-making is only partly, not fully, under the control of the people concerned, thus adding the determinant of uncertain time and uncertain opportunity, the so-called 'perceived behavioural control' factor. Such a factor can influence behaviour Indirectly through Its impact on intentions as well as directly. Behaviour intentions (BI) refer to the attitudes or motivations when one intends to take specific action. The theory suggests that behaviour intentions are the most direct, dominant factor in determining the decision to take a specific action or not, and that all factors which may influence actual behaviour are a manifestation of the indirect influence of intentions on behaviour. …


One of the important cultivable indigenous finfish which deserves immediate attention for commercial scale seed production and farming is the snakehead, Channa striatus. Provision of suitable live feed is the bottleneck in rearing larvae of this fish. Culture performance of larval snakehead was examined in the present study by feeding them with cladocerans (Ceriodaphnia cornuta, Moina micrura and Daphnia carinata) and Artemia nauplii as individual and mixed cladoceran diet (C. cornuta, M. micrura and D. carinata) for four weeks. Fish fed Artemia nauplii, C. cornuta and mixed cladocerans showed higher weight gain (15.88±0.11 mg), (9.72±0.04 mg) and (10.0±0.06 mg) respectively during the I st week. Fish fed C. cornuta and M. micrura showed better weight gain (12.88±0.21 mg) and (11.90±0.09 mg) respectively during the 2 nd week. Fish fed on mixed cladocerans showed better survival and growth with less cannibalism in the last three weeks. Fish fed Artemia nauplii showed less growth and more cannibalism during the last two weeks. It is concluded that C. striatus larvae could be fed cladocerans both individually as well as in mixed preparation during their early life stages. The nauplii of the brine shrimp Artemia which are extensively used in hatcheries are exotic and highly priced resulting in higher cost of seed production. Use of cladocerans for early larval rearing of C. striatus will reduce the expenditure for seed production. It is also observed that with the increase in age and growth, the fish prefers large sized prey than the smaller ones. Cannibalism can be reduced at different stages by providing prey of suitable size to the growing fish.


Edwardsiella tarda is an enteric pathogen that causes diarrhea, wound infection, and death due to septicemia. This species is capable of invading fish and human epithelial cell lines, and E. tarda escapes from the endocytic vacuole within minutes of entry and then replicates within the cytoplasm moving directly from cell to cell. Edwardsiella tarda was much more frequently isolated from lake fish. The aim of research was to find out the strain variation of several isolates of E. tarda from different islands in Indonesia. Four isolates of E.tarda from catfish (Java and Sumatra), Cyprinus carpio (Kalimantan), Brazilian turtle (imported), and ATCC from Singapura were identified by morphology. All isolates were DNA extracted and DNA amplified by PCR. Products of amplification were digested with AluI and HaeIII enzymes (RFLP) for 1 hour. They were visualized with electrophoresis in 8% polyacrylamid gel and stained with silver. The restriction endonuclease result showed that 3 isolates from fish had the same bands. Two isolates from imported turtle had the same band as ATCC isolates. Digestion with HaeIII enzyme gave more different bands than with AluI enzyme. It was thought that isolates of E. tarda from turtle and from ATCC were originated from human. Keyword : Edwardsiella tarda, PCR, RFLP


The electrical and optical characteristics of a cylindrical alumina insulator (94% Al203) have been measured under ultra-high vacuum (P < 10-8 mBar) conditions. A high-resolution CCD camera was used to make real-time optical recordings of DC prebreakdown luminescence from the ceramic, under conditions where DC current magnitudes were limited to less than 50μA. Two concentric metallized rings formed a pair of co-axial electrodes, on the end-face of the alumina tube; a third 'transparent' electrode was employed to study the effect of an orthogonal electric field upon the radial conduction processes within the metallized alumina specimen. The wavelength-spectra of the emitted light was quantified using a high-speed scanning monochromator and photo-multiplier tube detector. Concurrent electrical measurements were made alongside the recording of optical-emission images. An observed time-dependence of the photon-emission is correlated with a time-variation observed in the DC current-voltage characteristics of the alumina. Optical images were also recorded of pulsed-field surface-flashover events on the alumina ceramic. An intensified high-speed video technique provided 1ms frames of surface-flashover events, whilst 100ns frames were achieved using an ultra high-speed fast-framing camera. By coupling this fast-frame camera to a digital storage oscilloscope, it was possible to establish a temporal correlation between the application of a voltage-pulse to the ceramic and the evolution of photonic emissions from the subsequent surface-flashover event. The electro-optical DC prebreakdown characteristics of the alumina are discussed in terms of solid-state photon-emission processes, that are believed to arise from radiative electron-recombination at vacancy-defects and substitutional impurity centres within the surface-layers of the ceramic. The physical nature of vacancy-defects within an alumina dielectric is extensively explored, with a particular focus placed upon the trapped electron energy-levels that may be present at these defect centres. Finally, consideration is given to the practical application of alumina in the trigger-ceramic of a sealed triggered vacuum gap (TVG) switch. For this purpose, a physical model describing the initiation of electrical breakdown within the TVG regime is proposed, and is based upon the explosive destabilisation of trapped charge within the alumina ceramic, triggering the onset of surface-flashover along the insulator. In the main-gap prebreakdown phase, it is suggested that the electrical-breakdown of the TVG is initiated by the low-field 'stripping' of prebreakdown electrons from vacancy-defects in the ceramic under the influence of an orthogonal main-gap electric field.


An increase of violence in public spaces has prompted the introduction of more sophisticated technology to improve the safety and security of very crowded environments. Research disciplines such as civil engineering and sociology, have studied the crowd phenomenon for years, employing human visual observation to estimate the characteristics of a crowd. Computer vision researchers have increasingly been involved in the study and development of research methods for the automatic analysis of the crowd phenomenon. Until recently, most existing methods in computer vision have been focussed on extracting a limited number of features in controlled environments, with limited clutter and numbers of people. The main goal of this thesis is to advance the state of the art in computer vision methods for use in very crowded and cluttered environments. One of the aims is to devise a method that in the near future would be of help in other disciplines such as socio-dynamics and computer animation, where models of crowded scenes are built manually on painstaking visual observation.
A series of novel methods is presented here that can learn crowd dynamics automatically by extracting different crowd information from real world crowded scenes and modelling crowd dynamics using computer vision. The developed methods include an individual behaviour classifier, a scene cluttering level estimator, two people counting schemes based on colour modelling and tracking, two algorithm for measuring crowd motion by matching local descriptors, and two dynamics modelling methods - one based on statistical techniques and the other one based on a neural network. The proposed information extracting methods are able to gather both macro information, which represents the properties of the whole crowd, and micro information, which is different from individual (location) to individual (location). The statistically-based dynamics modelling models the scene implicitly. Furthermore, a method for discovering the main path of the crowded scene is developed based on it. Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is chosen in the neural network approach of modelling dynamics; the resulting SOMs are proven to be able to capture the main dynamics of the crowded scene.


This book teaches students how to use and manage IT to deliver business value, with a focus on IT management issues, rather than technical issues. KEY TOPICS: IT Strategy in Actiontackles the real world challenges of IT management first, by exploring a set of the most important issues facing IT managers today and second, by providing a series of mini-cases which present these critical IT issues within the context of real organizations. Most suited for business professionals who are interested in discovering the latest research in business solutions through IT.


Complex systems are often modeled as Boolean networks in attempts to capture their logical structure and reveal its dynamical consequences. Approximating the dynamics of continuous variables by discrete values and Boolean logic gates may, however, introduce dynamical possibilities that are not accessible to the original system. We show that large random networks of variables coupled through continuous transfer functions often fail to exhibit the complex dynamics of corresponding Boolean models in the disordered (chaotic) regime, even when each individual function appears to be a good candidate for Boolean idealization. A suitably modified Boolean theory explains the behavior of systems in which information does not propagate faithfully down certain chains of nodes. Model networks incorporating calculated or directly measured transfer functions reported in the literature on transcriptional regulation of genes are described by the modified theory.


This study analyses variations in the size of black woody phytoclast and palynofacies types of shallow subtidal environments evolving to deeper subtidal environments, of latest Illyrdian-latest Fassanian age (Upper Muschelkalk). Some of the results display some discrepancies between elevated particle sizes that were supposedly deposited in a relative proximal source and the rich veryhachid palynofacies that are thought to represent distal marine environments. A case study of the succession in the Heming quarry, located in the Alsace-Lorraine trough (southwestern part of the intracratonic Germanic basin) reveals that : (1) the palynological assemblages are dominated by acritarchs belonging to micrhystridids, disaccate pollen and woody phytoclasts; (2) the abundance of phytoclasts, sporomorphs and marine groups is not correlated with lithologies; (3) the length of the processes of micrhystridids is not a useful parameter in defining palynofacies types. In carbonate ramp environments, many factors could have confused the palynological signals such as high-energy events and the water level on which the nutrient supply depended pro parte. All these factors seem to have been governed by climatic or tectono-eustatic events.


The Mediterranean Sea needs a connection to the world ocean otherwise it would evaporate. If the Gibraltar Straits were closed, the Mediterranean would desiccate in about 3000 to 8000 years. Because the volume of water lost by evaporation exceeds the volume received by rain and rivers, constant exchange is crucial between the Mediterranean and the ocean via key marine gateways. The geometry and location of these gateways have changed over time thus influencing the environments and climate of the circum-Mediterranean region. For example, during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97 – 5.33 million years ago), the Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange became sufficiently restricted to isolate the Mediterranean and gross evaporation caused the deposition of Earth's youngest salt giant. Unlike today's single narrow Mediterranean–Atlantic connection through the Strait of Gibraltar, before 5.33 Ma, there were multiple gateways. Most important of these ancient gateways was the Rifian Corridor, through what is now Morocco, and the Betic Corridor in what is now Spain. This PhD thesis focusses on the timing, causes and consequences of the closure of the Rifian Corridor. Applying techniques of sedimentology, stratigraphy and structural geology, we show that the progressive restriction of the Rifian Corridor was caused by a switch in tectonic regime that favoured enhanced uplift in the region. High-angle faults that cross-cut the seaway axis created narrow constrictions that funnelled bottom-currents in the seaway. We found that distinctive, sandy contouritic sediments denote emanation of saline plumes out of the Mediterranean; these plumes might have influenced thermohaline circulation at a time of pronounced global cooling and transition from a greenhouse to icehouse system. Finally, this thesis proposes four new palaeogeographic maps showing the evolution of the Rifian Corridor, whose closure occurred at 7 ±0.1 Ma. These results, combined with Mediterranean hydrological models and recent dating of the Betic Corridor sediments, indicate that both seaway systems were closed by 7 Ma. Since the Mediterranean requires at least one open seaway to the Atlantic in order to exist until 5.5 Ma, we conclude that the Strait of Gibraltar was already the sole Mediterranean-Atlantic seaway 2 million years earlier than previously thought.


Synopsis A substantial history of research has established the Ballantrae Complex as an ophiolite assemblage, generated within the Iapetus Ocean and accreted at the margin of Laurentia as that ocean began to close. Radiometric dates and graptolite biostratigraphy provide an age range from Neoproterozoic (rarely and questionably) to Early Ordovician (commonly and securely). Components of the complex formed in a range of oceanic environments: within-plate oceanic islands, island arcs and back-arc spreading zones. Overall, the various lines of evidence point to an early Arenig marginal basin, incorporating some older elements, which was tectonically disrupted and compressed during an obduction event driven by arc–continent collision. Despite the general consensus as to the age and origin of the complex there remain areas of uncertainty. It is highly probable that some components of the complex that are now structurally juxtaposed originated at a considerable distance from each other both horizontally and vertically. Further, the sporadic presence of high-grade metamorphic rocks – notably blueschists – suggests a complicated and probably polyphase structural history, whilst the relative importance of serpentinite diapirism versus compressional and strike-slip tectonics remains unresolved. In terms of regional structure, the complex appears to occupy a steeply inclined fault zone, separating the Midland Valley from the Southern Uplands terrane to the south, to a depth of several kilometres. This situation questions the concept of the complex as the vestige of an ophiolite sheet obducted on to the Midland Valley basement.


Production of lime (Citrus aurantifolia) in Oman has been significantly reduced in recent years. The reduction in yield has been attributed to a combination of biotic and abiotic factors that adversely affected tree growth and productivity. Lime cultivation area has lost 50% of its acreage compared to 1990, mainly due to tree loss caused by Witches' Broom Disease of Lime (WBDL) associated with Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia. The disease that originated in the Sultanate and spread to neighboring countries has the potential to devastate lime production throughout the entire regions of western Asia and North Africa thus affecting fruit imports to Oman as well. Infection with WBDL has been worsened by increasingly stressful abiotic conditions, mainly frequent drought and soil and water salinity that ultimately led to the decline of lime production in the country. This decline subsequently resulted in loss of lime acreage and profitability and reduced income from largely traditional farming systems. The unsustainable lime production has eventually led to abandonment of many farms, to conversion of fruit farms to forage farms, or to a complete change of the land use into other commercial projects. While the causal agent of WBDL has long been identified, there have been no practical solutions to control the disease thus far and these challenges remain decades later. This review will address the current status of lime in Oman and propose some solutions to enhance productivity of infected trees.


This study investigated 18 broadband teleseismic records and 451 near field GPS coseismic deformation data to determine the spatial and temporal slip distribution of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (M 9.0). The results show a large triangular shaped slip zone with several asperities. The largest asperity centered above the hypocenter at about 5 - 30 km depth. A secondary large asperity was found in the deeper subduction zone beneath the hypocenter. The average slip on the fault is ~15 m and the maximum displacement on the biggest asperity is > 30 m. The temporal rupture process shows that the slip nucleated near the hypocenter at the beginning, and then ruptured to the shallow fault plane forming the largest asperity. The slip developed in the deeper subduction zone in the second stage. Finally, the rupture propagated toward the north and south of the fault along the Japan Trench. The source time function shows three segments of energy releases with two large peaks related to the development of the asperities. The overall rupture process is ~180 seconds. This source model coincides well with the aftershock distribution and provides a first-order information on the source complexity of the earthquake which is crucial for further studies.


This paper examines and compares quantity approximation in English and French business news reporting using two comparable 500,000-word corpora. The method used to identify quantity approximation is inductive and involves the scrutiny of concordances of numbers automatically retrieved from a part-of-speech tagged version of the corpora. The contrastive study of quantity expressions co-occurring with numbers reveals some similarities and differences between English and French when it comes to the company the approximators tend to keep and the semantic and grammatical categories they represent. The analysis shows that overall there is less approximation around numbers in the French corpus than in the English corpus.


The publication of the first edition of A Bilingual Dictionary of the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner in 1953 marked a major event in Old Testament studies. It presented a vast treasure of lexicographical material, with renderings into both German and English. Its publication superseded at once all other existing dictionaries, mostly stemming from the 19th century. The Dictionary offered for the first time a strictly alphabetical order of entries, rather than a simple arrangement by roots. This feature not only saved the scholar much time and work, it also set the standard for future lexicographical work on the Old Testament. In 1958 a new, expanded edition was published which included an extensive supplement. Many reprints have followed since, all following the original presentation of a dictionary and supplement in two separate volumes. To this very day the Dictionary remains the only complete and comprehensive English-German dictionary of the Old Testament. This new impression of the Dictionary is published in one handy volume, meeting the needs of many scholars and students. Originally published as Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, 1953-1983


Both histamine and bradykinin induce gastric-cardiovascular reflexes and are released during several pathophysiological conditions. This study examined the possibility that histamine modulates the magnitude of the reflex response to stimulation by bradykinin. Thus in chloralose anesthetized cats, the cardiovascular response to stimulation of the gastric serosa with 1 microgram/ml bradykinin was monitored before and after topical application of 100 micrograms/ml histamine (n = 6) or 1 mg/ml diphenhydramine (H1-receptor antagonist) and histamine (n = 5). After application of histamine, bradykinin-induced increases in mean arterial pressure and left ventricular pressure were attenuated by 23 and 27%, respectively. Conversely, when the H1-receptors on the serosal surface of the stomach were blocked (n = 5) before application of histamine, the pressor response to bradykinin was augmented by 26%. To determine the afferents that might contribute to the attenuating effect of histamine, we recorded single unit activity in 14 A delta and 21 C visceral afferent fibers in response to bradykinin stimulation before and after histamine stimulation. We observed that the impulse activity of 10 of the A delta and 14 of the C fibers to bradykinin stimulation was reduced after treatment with histamine. These results suggest that histamine induces an inhibitory effect on the nerve endings of visceral A delta and C fibers to the action of bradykinin through an H1-receptor mechanism. This inhibitory effect attenuates the magnitude of the consequent cardiovascular reflex response.


This report describes a study which examined measures provided for the mitigation of adverse ecological effects of road construction on designated sites and protected species, and determined the extent of their success. In particular, the design and management of such measures was examined. Fourteen sites were selected as case studies. These were either designated sites (Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), National Nature Reserves (NNRs) both of which are the UK's most important sites for nature conservation), or the habitats of protected species. This report describes each of the case study sites in terms of its ecological interest, the extent of the impact of road construction on the site, the mitigation measures taken, and assesses the success of these mitigation measures. At eleven of the sites assessment of the mitigation was by field surveys conducted during 1996 or 1997, by Scott Wilson Resource Consultants, under contract to TRL. At the remaining three sites assessment of the mitigation methods relied on documented evidence. Of the fourteen schemes studied, possibly only three could be regarded as successful. Of the remainder, most could be considered partially successful, or their success is uncertain at the present time, and three could be regarded as failures. The main reasons for failure was inadequate management of the implementation of the scheme, or inadequate post-implementation management. (A)


Although the federal government dedicated nearly $40 billion to funding student loans in 2006, only 60 percent of potential students from low-income families attend college, compared with 90 percent from high-income families. This paper argues that enrollment rates are lower than they could be because potential students undervalue loan subsidies, which are delivered after graduation instead of up front when a student enrolls and incurs costs. The behavioral economics concept of myopic loss aversion suggests that accelerating loan subsidies to the time of enrollment would increase their effectiveness as an incentive to enroll. Empirical studies also find a larger response to up-front subsidies such as grants than to delayed subsidies delivered after graduation such as loan forgiveness. Eliminating interest rate subsidies from student loans, which cost 12 cents on the dollar for loans issued in 2006 and works out to approximately $950 per borrower, is a revenue-neutral means of funding up-front subsidies. Accelerating the subsidy would make higher education spending more efficient by encouraging more students on the financial margin to enroll. Allocating the subsidy on a need-only basis would deliver, on average, a $4,800 up-front lump-sum subsidy to students from low-income families, increasing the enrollment rate among low-income students from 60 percent to almost 70 percent.


Controlling deforestation, which is responsible for about one-fifth of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, has become a major tool in the battle against global warming. An important new international initiative – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) – provides economic incentives to forest users to encourage preservation of trees. Nearly all Latin American countries are introducing national REDD strategies and pilot schemes.


Ruth Ben-Ghiat's innovative cultural history of Mussolini's dictatorship is a provocative discussion of the meanings of modernity in interwar Italy. Eloquent, pathbreaking, and deft in its use of a broad range of materials, this work argues that fascism appealed to many Italian intellectuals as a new model of modernity that would resolve the contemporary European crisis as well as long-standing problems of the national past. Ben-Ghiat shows that--at a time of fears over the erosion of national and social identities--Mussolini presented fascism as a movement that would allow economic development without harm to social boundaries and national traditions. She demonstrates that although the regime largely failed in its attempts to remake Italians as paragons of a distinctly fascist model of mass society, twenty years of fascism did alter the landscape of Italian cultural life. Among younger intellectuals in particular, the dictatorship left a legacy of practices and attitudes that often continued under different political rubrics after 1945.


The study examined the long-term effects of a death of a child on a variety of parental psychological and physical outcomes, incorporating several methodological and conceptual innovations over previous research. Prior bereavement research typically has focused on functioning within a short time period after the death and often has utilized self-selected samples of grieving parents; thus current models of grief may be inadequate. In contrast, this study broadened the timeframe in which bereavement is studied (average time since death= 20 years), and examined a sample of bereaved parents who were not self-selected. Participants were members of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (713 bereaved and 713 non-bereaved parents) who were assessed in 1957, 1975/77, and 1992/94 and were matched on family of origin demographic variables. Results show that bereaved parents reported a higher sense of purpose in life than non-bereaved parents. Further, higher levels of purpose in life was associated with lower levels of depression in bereaved parents, and with lower levels of physical illness in bereaved men. As expected, bereaved parents exhibited higher levels of depression than nonbereaved parents. For bereaved women, having someone with whom to share private thoughts and feelings was correlated with higher levels of depression, indicating that social support may be sought when functioning is poor. Higher job satisfaction was associated with lower levels of depression in bereaved women suggesting that role variegation is a factor promoting resiliency. Further, having another child after the death of a child was associated with lower levels of depression for bereaved women. Contrary to expectations, having other children in the home at the time of death was associated with lower social support and higher divorce rates for bereaved women. In sum, the current study suggests that the negative effects of the death of a child are longstanding. Several factors (e.g., purpose in life, role variegation) may promote resiliency and thus merit more scientific study and clinical attention. INDEX WORDS: Bereavement, Death of a Child, Coping, Resilience THE EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF A CHILD ON MIDLIFE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH: AN EXPLORATION OF RISK AND RESILIENCE FACTORS


Molecular image-based techniques are widely used in medicine to detect specific diseases. The analysis of the eye plays an important role in order to detect specific diseases. Eye background analysis is used in order to detect certain forms of diabetes and others diseases. In the alternative medicine plays the diagnosis of the iris an important role. One understands by iris diagnosis (Iridology) the investigation and analysis of the colored part of the eye, the iris, to discover factors which play an important role for the prevention and treatment of illnesses, but al-so for the preservation of an optimum health. Although alternative practitioner describe substantial success with the iris diagnosis. The conventional medicine is not convinced of the diagnosis method. A big drawback of the method is the subjective interpretation of what is seen in the iris image. An automatic system would pave the way for much wider use of the iris diagnosis for the diagnosis of illnesses and for the purpose of individual health protection. With this paper we de-scribe our work towards an automatic iris diagnosis system. We describe the image acquisition and the problems with it. Different ways of image acquisition and image preprocessing are explained. We describe the image analysis method for the detection of the iris. This method is based on our novel case-based object recognition and case mining method. Results for the recognition of the iris are given. We describe how to detect the pupil and not wanted lamp spots. We explain how to recognize orange blue spots in the iris and match them against the topological map of the iris. Finally, we give an outlook for further work.


In an effort to further explore the role of the right hemisphere in auditory processing, this study utilized brain event-related potentials (ERPs) and standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) in order to localize electrical brain activity of complex tone processing. Participants engaged in a diotic pitch discrimination task while ERP components were recorded from 28 electrodes on the scalp. ERPs were analyzed via individual/group average area measurements and were submitted to sLORETA for neural source localization. Results showed stronger right vs. left hemisphere activation to complex tone processing that was localized to regions of the auditory cortex. Findings support the notion that auditory cortical regions in the right hemisphere may be involved in music processing. Moreover, these findings indicate that source localization methods may be a good approach to study the complex nature of brain electrical activity during cognitive processing.


Terminals
and stations as one of the most important parts of transportation systems and
also as the arteries of the country's economy
life undertake significant role in adjustment and regulation of the traffic
pulse of cities and roads. Urban furniture is one of the components considered
in urban designing and as a part of the whole city, it defines the urban
identity and structure. In today's world,
the importance of designing the urban equipment and furniture is to an extent
that even active architects in the field of industrial designing are invited
for designing and performing the urban furniture and equipment. Urban designing
is a thing beyond making some flower box in squares and determining bus and
taxi stations. Evidently, what gives identity to the city or according to the
saying of "Sansovini", what has
tranquility for the city's
residents and creates attraction for foreigner tourists, not only include the
mass buildings and streets traffic, but also include landscape, parks and
furniture of the city. Standard designing of bus terminals like other urban
furniture influences on urban face and it can have significant role in
satisfaction of domestic tourists and increase and propagation of using of
terminals. In this research, it has been attempted that the effect of furniture
in the terminals of Isfahan city on domestic tourists should be
studied that
for this purpose, descriptive-analytic method has been used and data have been
collected through field and library studies and secondary sources by using of
SWOT model.


Sample costs and returns to establish and produce alfalfa hay, barley, corn (silage), and wheat (dry or irrigated) under wheel line irrigation in Cache County, Utah are presented in this publication. This publication is intended to be a guide used to make production decisions, determine potential returns and prepare business and marketing plans. The practices described are not the recommendations of Utah State University, but rather the production practices and materials considered typical of a well-managed farm in the region, as determined by producer survey results from 2011. Costs, materials, and practices are not applicable to all situations as management and cultural practices vary among growers within the region. The "Your Farm" column in all tables is provided for your use.


Determining the quantum (both annual maxima and minima) and the temporal variation in the leaf area index (LAI), and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), are three fundamental biophysical characteristics of the plant canopy that should parameterise ecophysiological models of water use (evapotranspiration) and carbon sequestration. Although Earth observation provides values and time series for both these parameters, in-field validation of these values is necessary. Following a very wet summer season, we conducted field surveys of several land cover classes within two quaternary catchments in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa, to determine maximum values of LAI and fPAR that occur within each of these land cover classes. To assist in up-scaling these point measures to the landscape, we present a regression relationship between Landsat 8 NDVI and LAI measured using an Accupar Ceptometer (r2 = 0.92). Peak wet season LAI varied from extremely high (>7.0) under the canopy of invasive black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) trees to ∼2.0 under the canopy of a Eucalyptus plantation. Ungrazed native grassland displayed an intermediate LAI value of 3.84. The black wattle stand absorbed 97% of the available PAR, whereas the mature Eucalyptus plantation only absorbed 66% of PAR.


This book approaches the developing field of synthetic biology by focusing on the experimental and institutional lives of practitioners in two labs at Princeton University. It highlights the distance between hyped technoscience and the more plodding and entrenched aspects of academic research. The book follows practitioners as they wrestle with experiments, attempt to publish research findings, and navigate the ins and outs of academic careers. It foregrounds the practices and rationalities of these pursuits that give both researchers' lives and synthetic life their distinctive contemporary forms. Rather than draw attention to avowed methodology, the book investigates some of the more subtle and tectonic practices that bring knowledge, doubt, and technological intervention into new configurations. In so doing, it sheds light on the more general conditions of contemporary academic technoscience.


This article discusses a recurrent connectionist network, simulating empirical phenomena usually explained by current dual-process approaches of attitudes, thereby focusing on the processing mechanisms that may underlie both central and peripheral routes of persuasion. Major findings in attitude formation and change involving both processing modes are reviewed and modeled from a connectionist perspective. We use an autoassociative network architecture with a linear activation update and the delta learning algorithm for adjusting the connection weights. The network is applied to well-known experiments involving deliberative attitude formation, as well as the use of heuristics of length, consensus, expertise, and mood. All these empirical phenomena are successfully reproduced in the simulations. Moreover, the proposed model is shown to be consistent with algebraic models of attitude formation (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). The discussion centers on how the proposed network model may be used to unite and formalize current ideas and hypotheses on the processes underlying attitude acquisition and how it can be deployed to develop novel hypotheses in the attitude domain.


This research is a case study on child?s language acquisition. The main focus of this study is on the analysis of phonological process of the words produced by a two-year-old Indonesian child. Realizing that there are a number of different theories of child?s language acquisition, it is interesting to know how the theory of phonological process proposed by David Ingram in general helps the Indonesian child to understand the language; and which phonological process mostly occur in his speech. This thesis presents further evidence and example of phonological process which involves substitution, assimilation, and syllable structure process. The data of an Indonesian child aged two years old is analyzed based on each process. The result of the research indicates that what described in Ingram?s phonological process theory also occurs in the subject?s speech such as substitution, assimilation and syllable structure process; and some of them are quite favored by the subject, as in stopping, fronting, substitution of retroflex, substitution of alveolar, deletion of unstressed syllable and reduplication. However, some of the phonological processes are absent in the subject?s speech such as gliding, vowel neutralization, vocalization, voicing, and labial assimilation. As the conclusion is drawn, the result of the study from the phonological process the subject is going through has proven that the subject already acquired most of the consonants and all the vowels in his first language. Phonological process by David Ingram has universal significance in some processes, which are extremely common across all languages and all children. The subject shows no uniqueness in acquiring his language. In fact, he follows the general phonological process as the other children do.


Abstract Objective: Little is known about how first episode bipolar disorder (BD) is managed in early intervention for psychosis services (EIS). We aimed to investigate the knowledge and views of EIS staff on the assessment and treatment of BD. Methods: A 27-item anonymised online questionnaire was distributed to EIS mental health professionals in England. Descriptive data analysis was undertaken. Results: Responses were received from 117 EIS staff. Most were 'fairly confident' in their knowledge about causes, presentations and relapse indicators of BD, but less confident on pharmacological and psychological treatments. Eighty five percent expressed the view that more BD training was necessary in this area with 78% reporting no clear care packages within the service. Seventy two percent believe early BD should be treated within EIS only if patients have psychosis. Conclusions: Clearer care packages and staff training are needed for EIS staff to optimise care for BD.


Asylum policy in the European nation-states has been a subject of increasing influence form the European Union over the last 12 years since the call for the establishment of a Common European Asylum System. This article presents an assessment of the EU impact on the asylum policy outcomes in the 27 member states, Norway and Switzerland. The article focuses on three central hypotheses about the effects of Europeanization – a race to the bottom, convergence and burden sharing. Using aggregate and origin-specific asylum data for the period 1999–2010 provided by the UNHCR, we show that the increasing Europeanization of asylum policy has not resulted in a race to the bottom in which asylum recognition rates and the numbers of admitted refugees have eroded. Contrary to existing literature, we find some evidence for convergence of the overall asylum recognition rates but important national differences in the recognition of applicants from the same country of origin persist. Europeanization has not led to more equal distribution of the applications and recognitions of asylum status in Europe. Overall, the EU has had only a limited impact on the changes in asylum policy outcomes.


Oxygen isotope ratios and rare earth element (REE) concentrations provide independent tests of competing models of injection v. anatexis for the origin of migmatites from amphibolite and granulite facies metasedimentary rocks of the Adirondack Mountains, New York. Values of δ18O and REE profiles were measured by ion microprobe in garnet–zircon pairs from 10 sample localities. Prior U–Pb SIMS dating of zircon grains indicates that inherited cores (1.7–1.2 Ga) are surrounded by overgrowths crystallized during the Grenville orogenic cycle (∼1.2–1.0 Ga). Cathodoluminescence imaging records three populations of zircon: (i) featureless rounded 'whole grains' (interpreted as metamorphic or anatectic), and rhythmically zoned (igneous) cores truncated by rims that are either (ii) discordant rhythmically zoned (igneous) or (iii) unzoned (metamorphic or anatectic). These textural interpretations are supported by geochronology and oxygen isotope analysis. In both the amphibolite facies NW Adirondacks and the granulite facies SE Adirondacks, δ18O(Zrc) values in overgrowths and whole zircon are highly variable for metamorphic zircon (6.1–13.4‰; n = 95, 10 μm spot). In contrast, garnet is typically unzoned and δ18O(Grt) values are constant at each locality, differing only between leucosomes and corresponding melanosomes. None of the analysed metamorphic zircon–garnet pairs attained oxygen isotope equilibrium, indicating that zircon rims and garnet are not coeval. Furthermore, REE profiles from zircon rims indicate zircon growth in all regions was prior to significant garnet growth. Thus, petrological estimates from garnet equilibria (e.g. P–T) cannot be associated uncritically with ages determined from zircon. The unusually high δ18O values (>10‰) in zircon overgrowths from leucocratic layers are distinctly different from associated metaigneous rocks (δ18O(Zrc) < 10‰) indicating that these leucosomes are not injected magmas derived from known igneous rocks. Surrounding melanosomes have similarly high δ18O(Zrc) values, suggesting that leucosomes are related to surrounding melanosomes, and that these migmatites formed by anatexis of high δ18O metasedimentary rocks.


Abstract Objective To compare the effectiveness and safety of three non-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) α inhibitors (rituximab, abatacept, and tocilizumab) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Design Population based prospective study. Setting 53 university and 54 non-university clinical centres in France. Participants 3162 adults (>18 years) with rheumatoid arthritis according to 1987 American College of Rheumatology criteria, enrolled in one of the three French Society of Rheumatology registries; who had no severe cardiovascular disease, active or severe infections, or severe immunodeficiency, with follow-up of at least 24 months. Intervention Initiation of intravenous rituximab, abatacept, or tocilizumab for rheumatoid arthritis. Main outcome measure The primary outcome was drug retention without failure at 24 months. Failure was defined as all cause death; discontinuation of rituximab, abatacept, or tocilizumab; initiation of a new biologic or a combination of conventional disease modifying antirheumatic drugs; or increase in corticosteroid dose >10 mg/d compared with baseline at two successive visits. Because of non-proportional hazards, treatment effects are presented as life expectancy difference without failure (LEDwf), which measures the difference between average duration of survival without failure. Results Average durations of survival without failure were 19.8 months for rituximab, 15.6 months for abatacept, and 19.1 months for tocilizumab. Average durations were greater with rituximab (LEDwf 4.1, 95% confidence interval 3.1 to 5.2) and tocilizumab (3.5, 2.1 to 5.0) than with abatacept, and uncertainty about tocilizumab compared with rituximab was substantial (−0.7, −1.9 to 0.5). No evidence was found of difference between treatments for mean duration of survival without death, presence of cancer or serious infections, or major adverse cardiovascular events. Conclusion Among adults with refractory rheumatoid arthritis followed-up in routine practice, rituximab and tocilizumab were associated with greater improvements in outcomes at two years compared with abatacept.


Distance Metric Learning aims to learn an appropriate metric that faithfully measures the distance between two data points. Traditional metric learning methods usually calculate the pairwise distance with fixed distance functions (\emph{e.g.,}\ Euclidean distance) in the projected feature spaces. However, they fail to learn the underlying geometries of the sample space, and thus cannot exactly predict the intrinsic distances between data points. To address this issue, we first reveal that the traditional linear distance metric is equivalent to the cumulative arc length between the data pair's nearest points on the learned straight measurer lines. After that, by extending such straight lines to general curved forms, we propose a Curvilinear Distance Metric Learning (CDML) method, which adaptively learns the nonlinear geometries of the training data. By virtue of Weierstrass theorem, the proposed CDML is equivalently parameterized with a 3-order tensor, and the optimization algorithm is designed to learn the tensor parameter. Theoretical analysis is derived to guarantee the effectiveness and soundness of CDML. Extensive experiments on the synthetic and real-world datasets validate the superiority of our method over the state-of-the-art metric learning models.


In work with clients having profound learning disability, music therapists may include in sessions assistants not trained as music therapists. This study is a qualitative inquiry addressing the questions:
1) How does improvised music influence the interaction between teenagers with profound and multiple disability and learning support assistants?
2) Which aspects of the music are associated with any influences found?
A survey of music therapists, exploring how assistants are used and how effectively they
perform their role, found that assistants are often used as 'interaction partners'. To explore
how the therapist may facilitate client-assistant interaction, about which little is known,
video clips from the writer's clinical practice were purposively selected in order to
illustrate an approach entitled Triadic Support of Interaction by Improvisation (TSII).
Seven learning support assistants (LSAs) each viewed a video clip showing her own
interaction with a teenager having profound disability, supported by the writer's
improvised music. Semi-structured interviews explored the LSAs' understanding of the
behaviour and inferred mental processes of the teenagers, their own behaviour and mental
processes and the music improvised by the therapist to support the interaction. A variant of
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis generated shared themes, which included
concern for the teenagers' autonomy, interest in their communicative behaviour and
understanding of the mutuality of interaction. The therapist's improvisation was seen by
the LSAs as influencing only the teenagers.
All the clips were also viewed by three music therapists, who used a mechanical
continuous response device to register the influence of the therapist's improvisation on
four 'scenarios': the teenagers' behaviour, their inferred mental processes, the LSAs'
behaviour and their inferred mental processes. Inter-rater agreement between the three
therapists' continuous responses was generally low, but some intra-rater correlations were
found between pairs of scenarios, which the music was perceived as influencing in similar
ways. This finding supports the conclusion that musical influences, although they may be
analysed according to the four scenarios, actually function as a mutually inter-related
system rather than as four independent processes.
Each therapist selected decision points from the graphic record of her/his individual
responses to discussed with the other therapists as a panel. Positive evaluations were made
of the role of TSII in supporting the observed teenager-LSA interactions and the inferred
underlying mental processes. This research design was exploratory, and not intended to test
specific hypotheses about the mechanisms of musical influence. Tentative suggestions of
associations between influences and musical features are however offered by the writer.
Indications for the use of TSII are given and other applications suggested for novel aspects
of the methodology developed for this study. A refinement of the continuous response task
is proposed, and the requirements for any future formal evaluation of TSII are outlined.


The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) has been the most widely used questionnaire in the evaluation of burnout. However, in both its theoretical formulation and its psychometric characteristics it poses some problems. In this paper we present the Physician Burnout Questionnaire (PhBQ), a new operationalization of physician burnout with three main components: Exhaustion, Disengagement, and loss of expectations. The PhBQ is a process model which includes four steps or subscales: antecedents, syndrome, consequences, and positive personal resources. This paper presents the development and validation of the PhBQ through two studies, the first on the psychometric characteristics of the measure, in particular concerning dimensionality of the PhBQ (examined by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), and internal consistency of its scales in a sample of 485 physicians working in 20 hospitals in Madrid (Spain). The second study focuses on convergent validation with a sample of 100 physicians working in 11 Primary Care centers in Madrid (Spain).


Conservation of large landscapes requires three interconnected types of leadership: collaborative leadership, in which network members share leadership functions at different points in time; distributive leadership, in which network processes provide local opportunities for members to act proactively for the benefit of the network; and architectural leadership, in which the structure of the network is intentionally designed to allow network processes to occur. In network governance, each leadership approach is necessary to achieve sustained, successful outcomes. We discuss each of these approaches to leadership and offer specific practices for leaders of networks, including: shaping the network's identity and vision, attracting members, instilling leadership skills in members, and advancing common interests. These practices are then illustrated in case studies.


This paper argues that for countries where equity investments dominate cross-border capital flows, the proper framework for analyzing the role of a flexible exchange rate system as a buffer against external shocks is the uncovered stock return parity condition, rather than the uncovered interest parity condition. Estimation of the stock return parity condition shows that it fails to hold in the Republic of Korea largely because of co-movement in the Republic of Korea and United States stock markets. Three global factors are largely responsible for the co-movement : global financial integration, which may be generating a global financial cycle; acceptance of insensitivity of exchange risk by global equity investors; and domestic investors imitating the trading behavior of foreign equity investors.


Reading is a complex psychological activity which enables receiving the information in written form and its comprehension. The perception of signs has a major importance in the beginning of reading, but, as the child improves, it relies more on the content of reading. Enabling pupils in elementary school to realize and understand the facts in the text and the whole text, and to develop individual comprehension of the text, can significantly improve their school success, and , generally life success. It is of great importance for elementary school pupils to overcome all levels of reading, starting with remembering the shape of letters, connecting the letters and the sounds, recognizing the letters and their bonding in one unity, connecting words into sentences, learning the basic reading techniques, speed reading and reading to oneself with full comprehension of the read text. The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between understanding the read text and the general success of pupils. The survey includes 196 pupils of the fifth grade in Elementary schools "Huso Hodžić", "1.mart" and "9.septembar". In this paper, several methods were used, such as theoretical analysis and descriptive method. Besides the research methods, two research techniques were used: testing and interviewing. Within the testing technique, the test of knowledge was used, so called "test of understanding the read text". Considering the distribution of frequency and percentage in the contingency table, as well as the chi square value and the contingency coefficient, we can make a conclusion that there is a statistical connection between understanding the read text and school success at the end of the fourth grade.


The recognition of diaspora contributions towards their home country through remittances, investments and networks has facilitated a shift in attitude and thinking regarding migration, from brain drain to "brain bank", "brain gain", "brain trust" and "brain circulation". This shift in thinking is also evident in India in recognition of the manifold contributions being made by the Indian diaspora to the home country. This paper examines the historical and socio-economic characteristics of one important Indian diaspora community, the Punjabis in the UK and discusses the latter's contributions to India and to its home state of Punjab. The evidence reveals that the NRI Punjabi diaspora in the UK is quite old, dating back to the colonial period. It is a heterogeneous community, divided by castes and sub-castes which influence the institutions through which its subgroups engage with the homeland. The secondary and primary evidence collected for this study indicate a wide variety of contributions - economic, social, philanthropic, cultural and political. Some of the main sectors of contribution are health, education and rural infrastructure. However, the evidence also reveals that there is much greater potential for diaspora engagement and that large scale investments by the diaspora are deterred by corruption, an inefficient bureaucracy, lack of streamlined procedures and lack of supportive diaspora policies at the state and central levels. The study thus concludes that greater thrust is needed, especially at the state level to facilitate the Punjabi diaspora's engagement with India and with its home regions and state.


As part of efforts to tackle climate change, grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) play an essential role in facilitating reliable and secure power system operation with variable renewable energy (VRE). BESS can balance time-varying electricity demand and supply in the spot market through energy arbitrage and in the frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) market through service enablement or delivery. Effective algorithms are needed for the optimal participation of BESS in multiple markets. Using deep reinforcement learning (DRL), we present a BESS bidding strategy in the joint spot and contingency FCAS markets, leveraging a transformer-based temporal feature extractor to exploit the temporal trends of volatile energy prices. We validate our strategy on real-world historical energy prices in the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM). We demonstrate that the novel DRL-based bidding strategy significantly outperforms benchmarks. The simulation also reveals that the joint bidding in both the spot and contingency FCAS markets can yield a much higher profit than in individual markets. Our work provides a viable use case for the BESS, contributing to the power system operation with high penetration of renewables.


ABSTRACT
 The adult sphingid communities of three sites in southeastern Peru representative of the moist tropical forest of the lowland Amazon, the pluvial tropical forest of the upper Amazon and Andean foothills, and the montane cloud forest of the eastern slopes of the Andes were sampled during 2004–2006 by using mercury vapor light traps. In total, 119 species of Sphingidae were documented. Species diversity was highest in the upper Amazon and Andean foothills, with 94 species (21 genera), followed by 80 species (21 genera) in the Amazonian lowlands, and 43 species (17 genera) in the montane cloud forest. The greatest number of endemics (22) was registered at the upper AmazonAndean foothills site. The montane cloud forest site was characterized by the highest relative percentage of endemic species. The species assemblages of the lowland Amazon and the Andean foothills were more similar in composition to each other than to the montane assemblage. All three assemblages proved to be more distinctive than expected based on the proximity of the sampled sites and seemingly good flight capabilities of sphingid moths. This was reflected by the endemics accounting for nearly 40% of the total species pool. By contrast, cosmopolitans numbered only 26 species, or 22% of the total assemblage. We hypothesize that the composition and distribution of sphingid species along this elevational gradient may reflect floristic similarities and differences between the study sites and the extent to which different species are adapted to cope with certain environmental conditions, such as temperature and air humidity.


A one-hour online food safety curriculum was developed to inform university farm workers on food safety hazards associated with production and harvesting of fresh produce. The farm curriculum consists of five sections (food safety importance, pre-harvest hazards, post-harvest hazards, personal hygiene, and regulations). Engagement activities and a user manual were developed to support the curriculum. Curriculum content was validated by an expert panel and a convenience panel of farm workers. The developed curriculum was piloted at two land grant universities (n=50). Multiple-choice quizzes were used to assess knowledge changes in each of the sections. Results indicated significant knowledge gains at both universities for all sections except the personal hygiene section. This pilot study provides evidence that an online format is effective in improving food safety knowledge. Because knowledge is a prerequisite for behavior, this curriculum can assist with mitigating food safety risk on university and other research farms.


Online poker has grown into a multibillion dollar industry, but unlike in live poker, other players do not display physical cues; in fact the only information readily available is other players' nationality. This provides a unique opportunity to examine how intergroup attitudes can be influenced by social interactions during a game. To do so, I examined how vicariously watching negative, positive, or neutral contact between an ingroup and outgroup member at an online poker table affects ingroup and outgroup attitudes, trust, and perceived group variability. One hundred New Zealand based participants watched a video of actual online poker hands being played between a New Zealand (ingroup) and Russian (outgroup) player. Participants either saw positive, negative, or neutral contact occur between the players. Although there were no overall differences in outgroup attitudes, trust, or perceived group variability towards Russians, there was evidence of intergroup attitudes and trust when considering attitudes and trust toward Russians relative to New Zealanders. These findings suggest that merely watching positive or negative online poker interactions can affect intergroup attitudes and trust. NEGATIVE VS. POSITIVE VICARIOUS ONLINE POKER CONTACT II


We examine the impact of "substantially heightened" capital requirements on large financial institutions, and on their customers. Our analysis yields three main conclusions. First, the frictions associated with raising new external equity finance are likely to be greater than the ongoing costs of holding equity on the balance sheet, implying that the new requirements should be phased in gradually. Second, the long-run steady-state impact on loan rates is likely to be modest, in the range of 25 to 45 basis points for a ten percentage-point increase in the capital requirement. Third, due to the unique nature of competition in financial services, even these modest effects raise significant concerns about migration of credit-creation activity to the shadow-banking sector, and the potential for increased fragility of the overall financial system that this might bring. Thus to avoid tilting the playing field in such a way as to generate a variety of damaging unintended consequences, increased regulation of the shadowbanking sector should be seen as an important complement to the reforms that are contemplated for banks and other large financial institutions. * This research was funded by The Clearing House Association L.L.C.


Ecological restoration efforts can increase the diversity and function of degraded areas. However, current restoration practices cannot typically reestablish the full diversity and species composition of remnant plant communities. Restoration quality can be improved by reintroducing key organisms from the native plant microbiome. In particular, root symbionts called arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are critical in shaping grassland communities, but are sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance, which may pose a problem for grassland restoration. Studies of mycorrhizal amendments include inoculation densities of 2–10,000 kg of inocula per hectare. These studies report variable results that may depend on inocula volume, composition, or nativeness. Here we test eight different densities of native AM fungal amendment, ranging from 0 to 8,192 kg/ha in a newly installed prairie restoration. We found that native plant establishment benefited from native mycorrhizal inocula, resulting in improvements in native plant abundance, richness, and community diversity. Moreover, the application of very low densities of native mycorrhizal inocula, as suggested on commercial mycorrhizal products, were ineffective, and higher concentrations were required to benefit native plant abundance and community diversity. These data suggest that higher densities of mycorrhizal amendment or perhaps alternative distribution methods may be required to maximize benefits of native mycorrhizal amendments in restoration practices.


Glasshouse whiteflies can decimate a tomato crop. The greenhouse pests transmit viruses and snack on the plants' leaves, resulting in secretions that hinder photosynthesis. It's lore among gardeners that planting marigolds alongside tomatoes protects the plants from glasshouse whiteflies, but until now, no one knew how the flowers worked their magic. In search of the answer, Niall J. A. Conboy and researchers at Newcastle University studied the volatile compounds given off by French marigolds. Among those is (+)-limonene, a terpene that the pests find repugnant (PLOS One 2019, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213071). The researchers placed air-freshener-like dispensers loaded with (+)-limonene among tomato plants and found that these deterred glasshouse whiteflies more effectively than marigolds. Inexpensive (+)-limonene is a major component of citrus peels, so it could be a green option for pest control. "Most pesticides are sprayed onto the crops," Conboy explains. "This doesn't only kill the pest that is ta...


BACKGROUND
Long-QT syndrome is a monogenic disorder that produces cardiac arrhythmias and can lead to sudden death. At least 5 loci and 4 known genes exist in which mutations have been shown to be responsible for the disease. The potassium channel gene KCNQ1, previously named KVLQT1, on chromosome 11p15.5 is one of these.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We initially analyzed one family using microsatellite markers and found linkage to KCNQ1. Mutation detection showed a G to C change in the last base of exon 6 (1032 G-->C) that does not alter the coded alanine. Restriction digest analysis in the family showed that only affected individuals carried the mutation. A previous report suggested that a G to A substitution at the same position may act as a splice mutation in KCNQ1, but no data was given to support this hypothesis nor was the transcription product identified. We have shown by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction that 2 smaller bands were produced for the KCNQ1 gene transcripts in addition to the normal-sized transcripts when lymphocytes of affected individuals were analyzed. Sequencing these transcripts showed a loss of exon 7 in one and exons 6 and 7 in the other, but an in-frame transcript was left in each instance. We examined other families in whom long-QT syndrome was diagnosed and found another unreported splice-site mutation, 922-1 G-->C, in the acceptor site of intron 5, and 2 of the previously reported 1032 G-->A mutations. All these showed a loss of exons 6 and 7 in the mutant transcripts, validating the proposal that a consensus sequence is affected in the exonic mutations and that the integrity of the base at position 1032 is essential for correct processing of the transcript.

CONCLUSIONS
The 6 cases already reported in the literature with the 1032 G-->A transition, the novel 1032 G-->C transversion, and a recent G-->T transversion at the same base show that codon 344 is the second most frequently mutated after codon 341, suggesting at least two hotspots for mutations in KCNQ1.


Northern Nigeria has some of the worst health indices in sub‑Saharan Africa. Poor health outcomes are the result of multiple factors, including the lack of front-line health workers in rural and hard-to-reach areas. In 2012, funded by UK aid and DFID, the Women for Health programme was created to address the issue of gendered barriers of access to health education programmes and the subsequent dearth of nurses and midwives. It emerged that a different kind of 'accountability' was required to achieve improved maternal health outcomes: holding to account powerful actors within the community for their role in creating barriers of access to education for women and girls, as well as barriers to the retention of female health workers. This article, drawn directly from programme activities in Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Yobe, and Zamfara states, documents strategies to shift gender norms that limit women's professional choices and their access to quality maternal health services.


Background: Hypothermia is a major cause of deterioration and death in the neonatal period. Temperature deviations are key signs of illness. Objective: To determine normal patterns of temperature variation in newborn babies and the influence of external factors. Methods: Abdominal and foot skin temperature were continuously recorded in 27 healthy full term babies during the first two days of life and related to the care situation—that is, whether the baby was with the mother or in its cot. The recordings were made using no wires to avoid interference with the care of the neonate. Ambient temperature was close to 23°C during the study period. Results: Mean rectal and abdominal and foot skin temperature were lower on day 1 than day 2. The foot skin temperature was directly related to the care situation, being significantly higher when the baby was with the mother. The abdominal skin temperature was much less influenced by external factors. When the neonates were with their mothers, the mean difference between rectal temperature and abdominal skin temperature was 0.2°C compared with a mean difference between rectal temperature and foot skin temperature of 1.5°C, indicating a positive heat balance. In the cot the corresponding temperature differences were 0.7°C and 7.5°C. A temperature difference between rectal and foot skin temperature of 7–8°C indicates a heat loss close to the maximum for which a neonate can compensate (about 70 W/m2). Conclusion: This study emphasises the importance of close physical contact with the mothers for temperature regulation during the first few postnatal days.


This paper reports the case of an educational practice and evaluation of team learning using project-based learning to develop Information Technology engineers. This program aims to develop the competencies of engineers, such as their communication skills, problem solving within teams, and other abilities. Its subject is the â??Upper Processâ? of Information Technology systems development. To determine the feasibility of the course, it was conducted at a computer college. The teamâ??s products and team learning activities were evaluated using rubrics and self evaluation inventories, and learning performance was discussed. Also, the evaluation of the learning management system affected the learning activity.


We introduce a hybrid CPU/GPU version of the Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C) algorithm, currently the state-of-the-art method in reinforcement learning for various gaming tasks. We analyze its computational traits and concentrate on aspects critical to leveraging the GPU's computational power. We introduce a system of queues and a dynamic scheduling strategy, potentially helpful for other asynchronous algorithms as well. Our hybrid CPU/GPU version of A3C, based on TensorFlow, achieves a significant speed up compared to a CPU implementation; we make it publicly available to other researchers at this https URL .


The aim of this work was to investigate the aerodynamic performance of sports stadiums located in the built environment and conduct a design optimisation study to
improve the wind comfort conditions for both players and spectators. A 1:300 scale semi-open stadium model was assessed with combined Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) wind tunnel experimentation and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques against pressure and velocity distribution patterns in both interior and exterior areas of the stadium bowl. The validation of the numeric analysis was performed with the experimental results of pressure coefficients.
The aerodynamic performance analysis compared two impinging wind angles (0o and 90o) and two building envelope porosities, defined by the existence of an
elevated and non-elevated roof configuration. The results indicated that the wind direction caused small differentiations on the developed wind distribution patterns, with the wind angle of 90o generating smaller negative pressures in both interior and exterior stadium surfaces. Further analysis of the air velocity distribution results indicated that the provision of a horizontal ventilation opening between the roof and
the upper spectator tiers substantially improves the airflow distribution for the benefit of spectators, but induces up to 25 % higher velocities at the centre of the
pitch level.
Parametric studies were performed to evaluate the impact of the roof geometry changes on the developed wind comfort conditions for the players and the spectators.
By employing coupled CFD-Response Surface Methodology (RSM) techniques, it was found that the wind speeds and the flow homogeneity at the stadium bowl are more susceptible to firstly the roof height and secondly the roof radius. Finally, the generated response surfaces formed the basis for the conduction of a multi-objective
optimisation study, which revealed that a drastic reduction of the roof height and the roof radius by 96.9 % and 50 % respectively may reduce the wind speeds and the flow heterogeneity up to 37 % and 49.6 % in the occupied areas.