Many arts organizations today find themselves in financial difficulties because of economic constraints inherent in the industry. While other companies can improve productivity through the use of new technologies or better systems, these approaches are not available in the arts. Hamlet requires the same number of performers today as it did in Shakespeare's time. The New York Philharmonic requires the same number of musicians now as it did when Tchaikovsky conducted it over one hundred years ago. Costs go up, but the size of theaters and the price resistance of patrons limit what can be earned from ticket sales. Therefore, the performing arts industry faces a severe gap between earnings and expenses. Typical approaches to closing the gap—raising ticket prices or cutting artistic or marketing expenses—don't work. What, then, does it take to create and maintain a healthy arts organization? Michael M. Kaiser has revived four major arts organizations: the Kansas City Ballet, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, and London's Royal Opera House. In The Art of the Turnaround he shares with readers his ten basic rules for bringing financially distressed arts organizations back to life and keeping them strong. These rules cover the requirements for successful leadership, the pitfalls of cost cutting, the necessity of extending the programming calendar, the centrality of effective marketing and fund raising, and the importance of focusing on the present with a positive public message. In chapters organized chronologically, Kaiser brings his ten rules vividly to life in discussions of the four arts organizations he is credited with saving. The book concludes with a chapter on his experiences at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, an arts organization that needed an artistic turnaround when he became the president in 2001 and that today exemplifies in practice many of the ten rules he discusses throughout his book.


Two new genera of Neotropical laemophloeine Cucujidae are described, illustrated, and their affinities discussed. Odontophloeus Thomas, NEW GENUS, includes O. crybetes Thomas, NEW SPECIES. Other included species are: O. quadridentatus (Champion), NEW COMBINATION (type-species), O. kesseli (Hetschko), NEW COMBINATION, and O. dives (Sharp), NEW COMBINATION. Lepidophloeus Thomas, NEW GENUS, includes L. exquisitus (Grouvelle), NEW COMBINATION (type species), and L. minusculus (Grouvelle), NEW COMBINATION. Described species previously were assigned to Laemophloeus Dejean. Affinities of the new genera are with Lathropus Erichson, Microlaemus Lefkovitch, Rhabdophloeus Sharp, and Carinophloeus Lefkovitch.


In the much-watched Dukes v. Walmart, Walmart has advanced a deceptively compelling claim: Due process, Walmart says, guarantees it the right to mount a "full defense" based on "any relevant rebuttal evidence [Walmart] choose[s], including evidence that there was no discrimination against one or more members of the class." Because Walmart cannot possibly present rebuttal evidence against each of the 1.5 million gender discrimination claims that form the Dukes class, the class action, Walmart concludes, is unconstitutional. The argument is not original to Walmart - it is a staple of the class action defense bar. What should originalists make of it? This article is the first to examine the historical record with that question in mind. And for class action defendants, the verdict is a bad one: Throughout the nineteenth century, it was thought that judicial discretion to limit, even cut off, defendants' opportunities to present evidence was thoroughly consistent with due process. The origins of class action defendants' conception of a fair hearing lie, instead, in the early twentieth century - during the Lochner era. There, the Court, in a line of cases forgotten or ignored by scholars, held that a party can't be deprived of its property interests through a liability judgment without heightened procedural protections, including an opportunity to present all evidence supporting defenses to liability. This is the Lochner Court's distinctive contribution to procedural due process. This article retraces the origins of that innovation - underscoring that class action defendants' arguments are not originalist. They are Lochnerian.


Operational forecasting with simulation models involves the melding of observations and model dynamics to determine a set of initial conditions for each forecast. The Kalman filter (KF) provides the optimal closed-form solution to a general linear stochastic (perfect model) case, while the target of the problem has not even been defined in the case of imperfect models. Data assimilation in a nonlinear, perfect-model scenario is considered. It is shown that a new fully nonlinear approach based upon the indistinguishable states (IS) systematically outperforms the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). The IS provides an ensemble of initial conditions, consistent with (i) the model dynamics, (ii) the observational noise model, and (iii) the particular observations over a window. It is argued that this is the relevant limit to consider in data assimilation, when the desire is to place high probability density in the vicinity of the target state. The advantages of the IS approach come in part from its ability to provide attractor-balanced ensembles near any attracting manifold the system may evolve on. The use of an EnKF provides a computationally cheaper alternative that place points in the general vicinity of the target. A low (i.e., 2) dimensional example is used to provide easily visualized evidence for these claims, which are then tested in a higher (i.e., 12) dimensional system. Inasmuch as the IS approach is shown to outperform the EnKF systematically in these perfect-model experiments, it provides an interesting alternative approach when informative ensembles are desired.


In paper is presented technology of bimetallic layered castings based on founding method of layer coating directly in cast process so-called method of mould cavity preparation. Prepared castings consist two fundamental parts i.e. bearing part and working part (layer). The bearing part of bimetallic layered casting is typical foundry material i.e. ferritic-pearlitic unalloyed cast steel, whereas working part (layer) is plate of austenitic alloy steel sort X2CrNi 18-9. The ratio of thickness between bearing and working part is 8:1. The aim of paper was assessed the quality of the joint between bearing and working part in dependence of pouring temperature and carbon concentration in cast steel. The quality of the joint in bimetallic layered castings was evaluated on the basis of ultrasonic non-destructive testing, structure and microhardness researches.


This document specifies conventions for X.509 certificate usage by
Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) v3.2 agents.
S/MIME provides a method to send and receive secure MIME messages, and
certificates are an integral part of S/MIME agent processing. S/MIME
agents validate certificates as described in RFC 5280, the Internet
X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile. S/MIME
agents must meet the certificate processing requirements in this
document as well as those in RFC 5280. This document obsoletes RFC
3850. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Background: Developing countries are experiencing an epidemic of physical inactivity. However, only a few studies have focused on domains and pattern of physical activity (PA) among adolescents. Objective: This study attempts to find out the region specific environmental and social determinants of PA in 10 to 19-year age group. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted in the government and private schools of district Ambala, Haryana, situated in North India over a period of 1 year (2013–2014). A stratified random sampling technique was used for a sample size of 1714 participants. PA was assessed using an interviewer-administered youth PA questionnaire which prompts volunteers to self-report on the mode, frequency, and duration of PA and sedentary activities in different domains, including school time and leisure time over the past 7 days. Results: The average duration of screen time per day was reported significantly higher among female as compared to male adolescents; however, it was more than 2 h among both the genders. The average total moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) duration consistently remained less than 60 min/day and metabolic equivalent of task minutes decreased significantly (P = 0.00) with an increasing age after 12 years. Being overweight and obese had 30% less chance of carrying out MVPA as compared to those with body mass index (BMI) <85th percentile [odds ratio; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.70; 0.59–0.82]. Conclusion: The current study reported an overall higher duration of sedentary activity as compared to MVPA among adolescents of North India. PA was mostly associated with environmental factors and inactivity was most associated with sociodemographic factors.


UltraSail is a next-generation ultra-large (km2 class) sail system. Analysis of the launch, deployment, stabilization, and control of these sails shows that high-payload-mass fractions for interplanetary and deep-space missions are possible. UltraSail combines propulsion and control systems developed for formation-flying microsatellites with a solar sail architecture to achieve controllable sail areas approaching 1 km2. Electrically conductive CP-1 polyimide film results in sail subsystem area densities as low as 5 g/m2. UltraSail produces thrust levels many times those of ion thrusters used for comparable deep-space missions. The primary innovation involves the near-elimination of sail-supporting structures by attaching each blade tip to a formation- flying microsatellite, which deploys the sail and then articulates the sail to provide attitude control, including spin stabilization and precession of the spin axis. These microsatellite tips are controlled by microthrusters for sail-film deployment and mission operations. UltraSail also avoids the problems inherent in folded sail film, namely stressing, yielding, or perforating, by storing the film in a roll for launch and deployment. A 5-km long by 2 micrometer thick film roll on a mandrel with a 1 m circumference (32 cm diameter) has a stored thickness of 5 cm. A 5 m-long mandrel can store a film area of 25,000 m2, and a four-blade system has an area of 0.1 sq km.


This paper studies how global banks transmit liquidity shocks via their internal capital markets. The unexpected access of German banks' affiliates located in the United States (US) to the Federal Reserve's Term Auction Facility (TAF) serves as our liquidity shock. Using microdata on all affiliates abroad, we test whether affiliates located outside the US adjusted their balance sheets during periods, when the US-located affiliate of the same parent received TAF loans. Our analysis has three main findings. First, during periods of active TAF borrowing, foreign affiliates of parent banks with high US dollar funding needs reduced their foreign assets by less. We identify those parents based on their pre-crisis exposure to the US asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market. Second, foreign affiliates in financial centers also shrank their assets less. Third, there is no evidence that the ABCP exposure per se is driving the reduction of activity outside the US. In sum, our results show that the TAF program spilled over into foreign markets, while highlighting the importance of actively managed internal capital markets and the increased centralization of global banks' liquidity management at the domestic parent during and after the financial crisis.


Environmental pollution by petroleum hydrocarbons has serious environmental consequences on critical natural resources upon which all living things (including mankind) largely depend. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) could be employed in the treatment of these environmental pollutants with concomitant bioelectricity generation. Therefore, the overarching objective of this study was to develop an MFC system for the effective and efficient treatment of petroleum hydrocarbons in both liquid and particulate systems.

Biodegradation of target hydrocarbons, phenanthrene and benzene, was investigated in dual-chambered microbial fuel cells (MFCs) using different inoculum types - Shewanella oneidensis MR1 14063, Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCTC 10662, mixed cultures and their combinations thereof. All the inocula showed high potentials for phenanthrene and benzene degradation in liquid systems with a minimum degradation efficiency of 97 % and 86 % respectively with concomitant power production (up to 1.25 mWm-2).

The performance of MFCs fed with a mixture of phenanthrene and benzene under various operating conditions - temperature, substrate concentration, addition of surfactants and cathodic electron acceptor type – was investigated. The interaction effects of three selected operating parameters - external resistance, salinity and redox mediator were also investigated using response surface methodology. The outcomes of this study demonstrated the robustness of MFCs with good degradation performance (range 80 - 98 %) and maximum power production up to 10 mWm-2 obtained at different treatment conditions. Interactive effects existed among the chosen independent factors with external resistance having a significant impact on MFC performance, with maximum power output of 24 mWm-2 obtained at optimised conditions - external resistance (69.80 kΩ) , redox mediator (29.30μM, Riboflavin) and salinity (1.3 % w/v NaCl).

The treatment of a mixture of phenanthrene and benzene using two different tubular MFCs designed for both in situ and ex situ applications in aqueous systems was investigated over long operational periods (up to 155 days). The outcomes of this work demonstrated stable MFC performance at harsh nutrient conditions and ambient temperatures. Simultaneous removal of petroleum hydrocarbons (> 90 %) and bromate, used as catholyte, (up to 79 %) with concomitant biogenic electricity generation (i.e. peak power density up to 6.75 mWm-2) were observed.

The performance of a tubular MFC system in phenanthrene-contaminated soil was investigated in the last study. The outcomes of this work has demonstrated the simultaneous removal of phenanthrene (86%) and bromate (95%) coupled with concomitant bioelectricity generation (about 4.69 mWm-2) using MFC systems within a radius of influence (ROI) up to 8 cm.

The overall outcomes of this study suggest the possible application of MFC technology in the effective treatment of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated groundwater or industrial effluents and soil systems (mostly in subsurface environments), with concomitant energy recovery. MFC technology could potentially be utilised as an independent system in lieu of other bioremediation technologies (e.g. pump and treat, electrobioremediation or permeable reactive barriers) or integrated with existing infrastructure such as monitoring wells or piezometers.


Shabana Mir's powerful ethnographic study of women on Washington, D.C., college campuses reveals that being a young female Muslim in post-9/11 America means experiencing double scrutinyuscrutiny from the Muslim community as well as from the dominant non-Muslim community. Muslim American Women on Campus illuminates the processes by which a group of ethnically diverse American college women, all identifying as Muslim and all raised in the United States, construct their identities during one of the most formative times in their lives. Mir, an anthropologist of education, focuses on key leisure practices--drinking, dating, and fashion--to probe how Muslim American students adapt to campus life and build social networks that are seamlessly American, Muslim, and youthful. In this lively and highly accessible book, we hear the womenAEs own often poignant voices as they articulate how they find spaces within campus culture as well as their Muslim student communities to grow and assert themselves as individuals, women, and Americans. Mir concludes, however, that institutions of higher learning continue to have much to learn about fostering religious diversity on campus.


ABSTRACT
 The dromornithids were giant flightless birds endemic to Australia from the late Paleogene to the late Pleistocene. Dromornithids are generally considered to be divergent members of the Anseriformes, but they display many convergent features with extant ratites. In this study, we investigate Dromornis stirtoni from the Alcoota Local Fauna, a species for which little is known of its biology. We used traditional methods of comparative morphology, mass estimation, landmark-based morphometrics, and histological investigations to determine the presence of medullary bone, to assess the possible presence, form, and extent of sexual dimorphism in D. stirtoni. Two morphological groups were identified for each main leg element, differing primarily in relative robustness. Core samples from femora and tibiotarsi shafts revealed medullary bone in the less robust morph, indicating that these were females. Mass, as estimated by algorithms applied to our preferred measurement of least-shaft circumference of tibiotarsi, was significantly different between males (mean = 528 kg) and females (mean = 451 kg). Therefore, male D. stirtoni were more robust but not much taller than the females and challenge the elephant bird, Aepyornis maximus, for the title of the most massive bird to have existed. Sexual dimorphism in this largest of all dromornithids, therefore, was like that of extant Anseriformes. We infer long-term monogamy, mutual display, shared parental care, female incubation, and aggressive defense of nests in these birds. The techniques of geometric morphometrics applied in this study maximize the use of fragmentary material, helping to overcome the common paleontological challenge of limited sample sizes.


Variable binding is a prevalent feature of the syntax and proof theory of many logical systems. In this paper, we define a programming language that provides intrinsic support for both representing and computing with binding. This language is extracted as the Curry-Howard interpretation of a focused sequent calculus with two kinds of implication, of opposite polarity. The representational arrow extends systems of definitional reflection with the notion of a scoped inference rule, which permits the adequate representation of binding via higher-order abstract syntax. On the other hand, the usual computational arrow classifies recursive functions over such higher-order data. Unlike many previous approaches, both binding and computation can mix freely. Following Zeilberger [POPL 2008], the computational function space admits a form of open-endedness, in that it is represented by an abstract map from patterns to expressions. As we demonstrate with Coq and Agda implementations, this has the important practical benefit that we can reuse the pattern coverage checking of these tools.


Ischemia produced as a result of myocardial infarction might cause moderate or severe tissue death. Studies under development propose grafting stem cells into the affected area and we hypothesize that this mechanism could be enhanced by the application of a "bioactive implant." The implant herein proposed consists of a thin porous elastomeric membrane, filled with self-assembling nanofibers and human subcutaneous adipose tissue derived progenitor cells. We describe the development and characterization of two elastomeric membranes: poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA) and poly(caprolactone 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl ester) (PCLMA). Both are a good material support to deliver cells within a soft self-assembling peptide and are elastic enough to withstand the stresses arising from the heartbeat. Both developed composites (PEA and PCLMA, combined with self-assembling peptide) equally facilitate the propagation of electrical pulses and maintain their genetic profile of the seeded cells. Preliminary studies with small animal models suggest that, at short times, the bioimplant shows good adhesion with the myocardium. After three days cells loaded in the patch remain alive at the implanted site. We propose that the bioactive patch (elastomeric membranes with self-assembling peptide and cells) could increase the efficacy of future cardiac cell therapy by improving cell immobilization and survival at the affected site.


Hardware support for deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is critical to advanced computer vision in mobile and embedded devices. Current designs, however, accelerate generic CNNs; they do not exploit the unique characteristics of real-time vision. We propose to use the temporal redundancy in natural video to avoid unnecessary computation on most frames. A new algorithm, activation motion compensation, detects changes in the visual input and incrementally updates a previously-computed activation. The technique takes inspiration from video compression and applies well-known motion estimation techniques to adapt to visual changes. We use an adaptive key frame rate to control the trade-off between efficiency and vision quality as the input changes. We implement the technique in hardware as an extension to state-of-the-art CNN accelerator designs. The new unit reduces the average energy per frame by 54%, 62%, and 87% for three CNNs with less than 1% loss in vision accuracy.


We present a method for generating random bits on a computer system using interrupts from external sources (e.g., keyboard strokes, hard-disk I/O completions, network packet arrivals, etc). We show how a sequence of timestamps of external interrupts can be converted into a uniformly distributed random sequence of 0's and 1's. We also describe how the random sequence can later be used in blocking (/dev/random) and nonblocking (/dev/urandom) devices for providing a source of random bits in an UNIX environment. Our method was originally designed for servers based on the PA RISC and IA-64 architectures, and has already successfully been used to create random bit sources in those platforms. At the same time the method is general enough so that it could be deployed on a much wider spectrum of computer system architectures.


The aim of this paper is to propose and validate numerically a set of novel adaptive strategies for synchronization and consensus of complex networks of dynamical systems. We present both centralized and decentralized strategies where the adaptation law is based on, respectively, global and local information at the network nodes. All the proposed adaptive techniques are then validated using computer simulations on ensembles of two types of oscillators: Kuramoto and Rössler. We show that, in both cases, synchronization can be achieved with the adaptive gains reaching asymptotically finite steady-state values.


This work studies the problem of object goal navigation which involves navigating to an instance of the given object category in unseen environments. End-to-end learning-based navigation methods struggle at this task as they are ineffective at exploration and long-term planning. We propose a modular system called, `Goal-Oriented Semantic Exploration' which builds an episodic semantic map and uses it to explore the environment efficiently based on the goal object category. Empirical results in visually realistic simulation environments show that the proposed model outperforms a wide range of baselines including end-to-end learning-based methods as well as modular map-based methods and led to the winning entry of the CVPR-2020 Habitat ObjectNav Challenge. Ablation analysis indicates that the proposed model learns semantic priors of the relative arrangement of objects in a scene, and uses them to explore efficiently. Domain-agnostic module design allow us to transfer our model to a mobile robot platform and achieve similar performance for object goal navigation in the real-world.


A detailed analysis of wild-growing soybean (Glycin e soja Siebold & Zucc., 1845) and 8 cultivars of so ybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill, 1917), which differ in e arliness and which are recognized in the Amur regio n of the Russian Federation, was made using the methods of b iochemistry and bioinformatics. We systematized the data on revealed electrophoretic spectra of catalases, pero xidases, acid phosphatases, esterases and amylases of soybean seeds of different phylogenetic origin. It is shown that wild-growing soybean has a high adaptive capa city; it is characterized by a small number of enzyme forms (ca talases, peroxidases, acid phosphatases, esterases and amylases). A stable number of forms of the enzymes under study or their increase over the years of cul tivation of varieties demonstrate the high adaptive potential o f varietal soybean. Electrophoretic spectra of the enzymes of seeds can be used as the markers of soybean varieti es adaptation to different growing conditions.


Shock pressures of high intensity and short duration may occur during breaking of waves on coastal structures, slamming of ships, landing of seaplanes, and water entry of naval projectiles with flat nose. The phenomenon of shock pressures resulting from the impact between a solid and a liquid can better be described as a water hammer phenomenon wherein the elasticity of the solid and the compressibility of the liquid are the governing factors. The water hammer theory predicts the extreme values of shock pressures since it neglects the effect of air that might be entrapped between the solid an the liquid at the moment of impact. Analytical formulations of shock pressures as a water hammer phenomenon and as the compression of a thin layer of air entrapped between the solid and the liquid at the moment of impact are presented in this report. Tests were conducted by dropping a steel, aluminum or plastic plate whose edge was hinged at the water surface into a 3- by 3- by 6-ft steel tank that was partially filled with water. The shock pressures were measured at two locations by means of strain gage and piezoelectric type pressure cells mounted in the plate with special adapters. The ratio between the recorded and theoretical pressures when treated statistically was found to fit the Poisson distribution well. Correlation between the recorded pressures and the shape of the surface of contact between the solid and the liquid at the moment of impact indicated that although shock pressures have a great intensity, they have a short duration and occur only at some spots on the surface of the solid. Therefore (a) they should not be applied as static pressure for checking the stability of the coastal structure as a whole, (b) they may be absorbed by flexible structures, (c) they may cause cracks in rigid structures such as steel caissons filled with rock, and (d) they may affect the stability of structures that have natural frequencies within the range of duration of shock pressures. Equations and diagrams for the prediction of the magnitude and duration of shock pressures resulting from the impact between a solid and a liquid are presented herein.


This essay reviews the recent criticisms of legal education (costs, loss of job opportunities, content of curricula) and suggests that law students might be better served by studying and learning different things in law school – not only conventional Socratic, doctrinal and even, adversarial clinical education, but organizational development, problem solving, decision making, group dynamics, dispute resolution and dispute system design. The article also contrasts two other professions – one newer (business consulting) and another about the same age (architecture) for more adaptable models of educational change and professional task definitions and realignments. Rather than continuing the "negative" critique of current forms of legal education, this essay suggests a slightly more optimistic course for why studying and practicing law, as a more broadly defined discipline, should still be attracting both students and faculty who care about making the world more just, fair, efficient, effective, and peaceful.


The immune system plays a crucial role in providing the first line of defence against invading pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. It is activated when immune cells known as dendritic cells (DCs) detect specific molecules that are foreign to the host, and present them to T cells. This in turn causes the activation of T cells, which marks the start of an immune response leading to the clearance of the invader. The pathogen-derived molecules recognised by the immune cells are typically peptides and their role as activators of the immune system is well established. While T cells were originally thought to only recognise peptide antigens, it is now evident that T cells are also able to recognise nonpeptide antigens. Recognition of non-peptide antigens confers protection against pathogens that have cell surfaces that are highly functionalised with carbohydrate moieties, such as glycolipids, glycopeptides and polysaccharides. Specifically, glycosphingolipids (GSLs) can activate invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells via their T cell receptor (TCR) when presented by the CD1d molecule found on the surface of DCs. α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer 1, Figure 1), a synthetic analogue of a GSL extracted from the marine sponge Agelas mauritianus, was discovered to be a potent stimulator of iNKT cells when presented by CD1d.  α-GalCer is currently being used in clinical trials as an adjuvant to boost the activation of immune cells during cancer immunotherapy. Although the molecular interaction of α-GalCer with CD1d and iNKT cells is well established, it is not fully understood how the glycolipid interacts with different subsets of DCs. Greater understanding of the fate of the glycolipid during cancer immunotherapy will provide crucial information on how the current therapy can be improved. In this thesis, the design and synthesis of two fluorescent α-GalCer probes, dansyl-α-GalCer (2, Figure 1) and BODIPY-α-GalCer (3, Figure 1) is reported. Dansyl-α-GalCer was able to activate DCs and iNKT cells in a similar fashion to the parent glycolipid α-GalCer. Its activity was CD1d-dependent and DCs that have taken up α-GalCer in vitro can be detected by flow cytometry. Unfortunately, the fluorescence of dansyl-α-GalCer was too weak to be detected by fluorescent microscopy due to photobleaching of the dye. Accordingly, another α-GalCer probe bearing a brighter fluorescent group, BODIPY, was synthesised. The α-GalCer probes were made via two synthetic strategies and the benefits and shortcomings of each synthetic route are discussed. Isoglobotrihexosylceramide (4, iGb3, Figure 2) is another GSL known to activate iNKT cells. Like α-GalCer, it is presented by DCs in the context of a CD1d molecule. iGb3 contains a sphingosine lipid backbone β-linked to a trisaccharide head group, which is in contrast to the α-linked phytosphingosine lipid found on α-GalCer. Despite the structural difference, iGb3 can stimulate iNKT cells, though to a lesser extent than α-GalCer. The intriguing activity of iGb3 provides a platform to further investigate the molecular interactions between CD1d, glycolipid and TCR of iNKT cell. The crystal structure of iGb3 in complex with mouse CD1d and TCR of mouse iNKT cell show compelling evidence that the terminal galactose moiety is crucial for the observed activity and this is attributed to the hydrogen bond between the 6´´´-OH and Thr159 on the CD1d. To unambiguously determine the importance of the hydrogen bond conferred by 6´´´-OH, 6´´´-deoxy-iGb3-sphingosine (5, Figure 2) was synthesised. 6´´´-deoxy-iGb3-sphinganine 6 was also synthesised to study the role of the double bond on the sphingosine backbone. A novel synthetic route for the synthesis of iGb3 analogues was established. This allowed for the expedient synthesis of 6´´´-deoxy-iGb3 derivatives that will subsequently be crystallised with CD1d and TCR of iNKT cell, to provide further insight into the structural requirements of β-linked GSLs. Studies have also revealed that the length and saturation of the N-acyl chain of GSLs greatly influences their activity. It is speculated that varying the length of the acyl chain affects the processing and loading of the glycolipid onto CD1d and also TCR binding affinity. To this end, the syntheses of a series of acyl chain analogues of iGb3, including the shorter chain homologue C12:0 7 (Figure 3) and the unsaturated C20:2 derivative 8 are reported. A divergent synthetic route was employed, whereby a common intermediate from the synthesis of 6´´´-deoxyiGb3 was used. This allowed for efficient syntheses of the acyl chain analogues that will facilitate a greater understanding of the structure-activity relationships. Taken together, the GSLs synthesised provide crucial insight into how they modulate the immune system and will guide future optimisation of cancer immunotherapy regimes.


The competitiveness and efficiency of an enterprise is dependent on its ability to interact with other enterprises and organisations. In this context interoperability is defined as the ability of business processes as well as enterprise software and applications to interact. Interoperability remains a problem and there are numerous issues to be resolved in different situations. We propose method engineering as an approach to organise interoperability knowledge in a method chunk repository. In order to organise the knowledge repository we need an interoperability classification framework associated to it. In this paper we propose a generic architecture for a method chunk repository, elaborate on a classification framework and associate it to some existing bodies of knowledge. We also show how the proposed framework can be applied in a working example. for Method Chunk Repositories An Interoperability Classification Framework , Jan B.M. Goossenaerts den, firstname.lastname@example.com TROUX Technologies AS, P.O. Box 482, N-1327 Lysaker, Norwaz,


Introduction: Several studies have shown that goiter is more prevalent in females than in males, although before puberty there is no difference between genders, indicating that sex steroids may play a role in thyroid volume. Iodine deficiency may result in an increase prevalence in goiter prevalence but the difference between genders is not clear. This study is a metaanalysis of studies that have compared goiter prevalence between genders at different ages, with differing iodine status. Materials and Methods: This is a systematic review and metaanalysis based on Cochrane' criteria. Databases of MEDLINE-EMBASE-Cochrane and Persian databases of Iranmedex– MagiranSIDIrondoc were searched and all articles on goiter in both sexes goiter were examined were included. Results: A hundred and five studies, with total number of 429252 individuals, age range 1-80 y, were included. Odds ratio of female to male goiter was OR=1.39 (95%CI=1.28-1.51), a ratio higher in longstanding iodine insufficient areas, than in areas of recent iodine sufficiency (1.94 vs. 1.36), the difference in iodine sufficient area being non significant. This ratio for grade 2 of goiter was higher than grade 1(1.78 vs. 1.30), and in persons> 15 years old rose significantly, especially in iodine deficient areas. Conclusion: Goiter is more prevalent in females than in males.


The genus Malcolmia W.T.Aiton is taxonomically problematic, and some of its species have recently been transferred to the genera Strigosella Boiss. and Zuvanda Dvorak. Three species of this genus are native to Turkey. The revision studies based on molecular data, which were collected in the past few years, display the phylogenetic relations and the systematic positions of the taxa more reliably and apparently. Thus taxonomic problems of species are resolved through DNA-based molecular analyses, which are not affected by environmental factors compared to phenotypic studies. In the present study, the amplifications of the DNA fragments were carried out using ISSR primers, and the phylogenetic relationship among the taxa was revealed through a dendrogram produced as the outcome of the NTSYSpc 2.1 software. The infrageneric and intergeneric phylogenetic relationships among Malcolmia and other related genera are determined. A very close relationship was determined between Malcolmia chia and M. flexuosa. Strigosella and Zuvanda species were determined to be phylogenetically different from these 2 species. The phylogenetic relationships among the Malcolmia, Strigosella, Zuvanda, Leptaleum DC., Neotorularia Hedge & J.Leonard, and Sisymbrium L. taxa were investigated. The phylogenetic separation of Malcolmia, Strigosella, Zuvanda Leptaleum, Neotorularia, and Sisymbrium genera and their specimens constituted separate clades on the dendrogram.


Current uses of value-added modeling largely ignore or assume away the potential for teachers to be more effective with one type of student than another or in one subject than another. This paper explores the stability of value-added measures across different subgroups and subjects using administrative data from a large urban school district. For elementary school teachers, effectiveness measures are highly stable across subgroups, with correlations upward of 0.9. The estimated cross-subject correlation between math and English language arts is around 0.7, suggesting some differential effectiveness by subject. To understand the magnitude of this correlation, I simulate targeted re-sorting of teachers to classrooms based on their comparative advantage. The results suggest that using multiple measures of value added to specialize teachers by subject could produce small average increases in student achievement, and larger increases for some students.


Raising density and ever-increasing traffic demand within future 5G Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) will result in huge deployment, expansion and operating costs for upcoming Mobile Backhaul (MBH) networks. Multi-tenancy and network slicing based on virtualized resources are promising solutions to satisfy MBH network greediness while reducing related expenditures. Nevertheless, there is no appropriate model that fairly distributes costs over multiple Mobile Network Operators (MNO), and also optimizes physical resource planning. In this paper, we introduce a new model of 5G multi-tenant MBH costs (CapEx and OpEx). Then, we drive a novel pay-as-you-grow and optimization model called Virtual-Backhaul-as-a-Service (VBaaS) as a planning tool optimizing the Project Profit Margin (PPM) while considering the Total-Cost-of-Ownership (TCO) and the yearly generated Return-on-Investment (ROI). We also formulate an MNO pricing game (MPG) for TCO optimization to calculate the optimal Pareto-Equilibrium pricing strategy for offered Tenant Service Instances (TSI). Finally, we compare the PPM for a specific use-case known in the industry as CORD project using Traditional MBH (T-MBH) versus Virtualized MBH (V-MBH) as well as using randomized versus Pareto-Equilibrium pricing strategies. Numerical results show more than three times increase in network profitability using our proposed solutions compared with Traditional MBH (T-MBH).


Abstract Optimizing research on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) involves implementing initiatives maximizing the use of the available cohort study data; achieving sufficient statistical power to support subgroup analysis; and using participant data presenting adequate follow-up and exposure heterogeneity. It also involves being able to undertake comparison, cross-validation, or replication across data sets. To answer these requirements, cohort study data need to be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), and more particularly, it often needs to be harmonized. Harmonization is required to achieve or improve comparability of the putatively equivalent measures collected by different studies on different individuals. Although the characteristics of the research initiatives generating and using harmonized data vary extensively, all are confronted by similar issues. Having to collate, understand, process, host, and co-analyze data from individual cohort studies is particularly challenging. The scientific success and timely management of projects can be facilitated by an ensemble of factors. The current document provides an overview of the 'life course' of research projects requiring harmonization of existing data and highlights key elements to be considered from the inception to the end of the project.


This article reports on a study of gender differences in course experiences and achievement of students taking the introductory educational sciences course at Halmstad University in Sweden. Male and female students' completion rates and grades were analysed in relation to the students' grade point averages (GPAs) from upper secondary school and their experiences of the conditions for learning provided by the teachers as well as their own actorship in the course. Based on the idea that the subject of educational sciences and the characteristics of the educational context and setting are more feminine than masculine, the male students were expected to have lower completion rates and grades. A gender difference in completion rates was confirmed, in that 65% of the male and 80% of the female students completed the whole course. Male students also rated the conditions for learning provided by the teacher as well as their own actorship in the course lower than did their female peers. In order to reduce the drop‐out of male students, it is suggested that the department/teachers should pay more attention to any gendered aspects of the teaching/learning practices as well as to the educational context in general.


With the introduction of minimally invasive techniques, surgeons must learn skills and procedures that are radically different from traditional open surgery. Traditional methods of surgical training that were adequate when techniques and instrumentation changed relatively slowly may not be as efficient or effective in training substantially new procedures. Virtual environments are a promising new medium for training. This paper describes a testbed developed at the San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara campuses of the University of California for research in understanding, assessing, and training surgical skills. The testbed includes virtual environments for training perceptual motor skills, spatial skills, and critical steps of surgical procedures. Novel technical elements of the testbed include a four-DOF haptic interface, a fast collision detection algorithm for detecting contact between rigid and deformable objects, and parallel processing of physical modeling and rendering. The major technical challenge in surgical simulation to be investigated using the testbed is the development of accurate, real-time methods for modeling deformable tissue behavior. Several simulations have been implemented in the testbed, including environments for assessing performance of basic perceptual motor skills, training the use of an angled laparoscope, and teaching critical steps of the cholecystectomy, a common laparoscopic procedure. The major challenges of extending and integrating these tools for training are discussed.


Horseshoe Cave is located south of Ashland, Montana and at the northern end of the Powder River Basin. Its earliest documented human use and occupation dates to 2,000 years before the present. Evidence of that past use and occupation includes diagnostic bone and stone tools, hearth features and animal remains. The geoarchaeological investigation of this sandstone cave site reveals the cave host rocks to be sandstones of the Tongue River Member of the Early Tertiary Fort Union Formation. Results of the geoarchaeological inquiry demonstrate that a difference in the calcite cementation between the two host sandstone units is the leading geologic factor in the creation of the cave. The cap-rock material is found to contain twice the amount of calcite cement than does the underlying cave-forming wall-rock unit. This difference in hardness allows both gravity and water to remove the much softer sandstone to form a cave feature that today is some 7 m wide and 3 m high at its opening and that extends some 12 m to its back. The cave forming process appears to have been initiated tens of thousands of years ago when the gradient between the cave floor and the adjacent drainage bottom was steeper than at present. The pace of cave formation appears to have all but ceased and the majority of materials currently being deposited on the cave floor are from the grain-by-grain disintegration of the surrounding sandstone, a sedimentary process augmented by the occasional rock fall and from fine grained clastic materials being blown into the cave during arid times. The annual sedimentation rate ranges between 0.3 and 0.5 mm. A sieve analysis of a 1.35 m column of sediment, which spans some 2000+ years, indicates that the past climatic regime of the sediments found in the cave collection includes at least four periods of warm and dry conditions, periods delineated by an increase in fine-grained sediment. When the arid patterns are overlain on wall profiles containing cultural features it is apparent that none of these features coincide with the dry intervals. This is an association that strongly suggests the area immediately surrounding Horseshoe Cave was not as favorable an environment as might be found along the larger regional drainage bottoms or the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota.


We have used a combination of immunocytochemical and electrophysiological measurements to monitor the differentiation of cerebellar granule cells in vitro. We present immunocytochemical evidence showing that several characteristic features of developing rat cerebellar tissue were retained in postnatal explant cultures. Most notably the cultures expressed radiating GFAP-positive (Bergmann) glia processes, proliferating NSE-negative neuroblasts, and migrating NSE- positive granule cells. The latter were subdivided into 3 developmental stages--i.e., immature, intermediate, and mature granule cells, based upon cell differences in location from the explant, intensity of NSE staining, excitability, and the amplitude of voltage-dependent conductances. Immature cells were identifiable during the first week in culture and were located up to 140 micron from the explant. These cells stained lightly for NSE and displayed conductances of insufficient magnitude to generate action potentials. Intermediate cells were present after 1–2 weeks in culture and were located up to 500 micron from the explant. These cells were also NSE positive and were characterized by the presence of soma action potentials. Intermediate cells displayed 3 large voltage-dependent conductances: a transient, TTX-sensitive inward current; a delayed, TEA-sensitive outward current; and a transient, 4AP-sensitive outward current. Mature cells were present after 1 month in culture and, like intermediate cells, were no more than 500 micron from the explant. However, mature cells stained more intensely for NSE, and the somata of these cells were devoid of voltage-dependent conductances (although axonal currents were usually present). These results indicate that granule cells undergo a stereotypic sequence of differentiation in postnatal explant cultures. These stages may correspond to developmental changes in granule cells during migration into the (internal) granular cell layer in vivo.


Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) is undoubtedly one of the most significant liberal thinkers of the past century. Born and raised in Vienna in the tradition of the Austrian School, he held academic positions i.a. in London, Chicago and Freiburg, thus uniting in his vita the four principal centers of neo-liberalism. His intellectual development is of special interest, since he shifts the focus of his research agenda several times, most notably from the field of business cycle research towards the broader field of social philosophy. According to this well-known break in his oeuvre, there is a classical division in secondary literature, splitting him into the two phases: Hayek I (the business cycle theorist) and Hayek II (the social philosopher). The present paper will try to show that this two-fold division is inadequate, or at least incomplete. Instead, a three-fold division seems more appropriate: here, Hayek I would again be the business cycle theorist, but Hayek II is seen as an ordo-liberal philosopher and Hayek III as the evolutionist philosopher. Regarding the time-span of the latter phases, the paper contends that the ordoliberal Hayek is to be seen in the 1930s and 1940s (the time of The Road to Serfdom and the founding of the Mont Pelerin Society), whereas his evolutionist phase starts in the 1950s and continues to the end of his life.


By examining the actions of Paul Poitier in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation as an aesth/ethic subject, this essay explores the possibilities and challenges of integrating the aesthetic and ethical imperatives of self-formation within the limits of one's historical and cultural situation. In Guarian terms linking art and life, how does one find the salutary balance between chaos and control: how does one give structure, or teleological purpose, to a life of random color? While the scholarship on Guare's play readily includes discussions on race, class, and sexuality, notably lacking are rigorous ethical examinations that explore the play's signature concerns of aesthetics and ethics embedded in the issues of race and economics. A discerning examination of Paul's aesth/ethic pursuit within the framework of Foucauldian and Aristotelian ethics illuminates the play in unprecedented ways, at the same time offering valuable ethical insights into our own endeavors to live the good life.


The Malagasy genus Carphalea (Rubiaceae) consists of six species ( C. angulata, C. cloiselii, C. kirondron, C. linearifolia, C. madagascariensis, C. pervilleana) of shrubs or small trees and is recognizable by a distinctly lobed calyx, 2(–4)-locular ovaries, each locule with several ovules on a rod-like stalk arising from the base of the locule, and indehiscent fruits. Carphalea linearifolia , rediscovered in 2010, has not previously been included in any Rubiaceae molecular phylogenetic studies. We re-investigated the monophyly of Carphalea using sequence data from chloroplast ( rps 16 and trn T-F) and nuclear (ITS and ETS) markers analysed with parsimony and Bayesian methods. Carphalea linearifolia forms a clade with C . cloiselii and the type species C. madagascariensis. This clade is sister to a clade consisting of the rest of the Carphalea species plus the genus Triainolepis . According to these results, the new genus Paracarphalea is here described to accommodate Carphalea angulata, C. kirondron, and C. pervilleana . The conservation status of Carphalea linearifolia is assessed as critically endangered according to IUCN criteria.


Background: Melasma management is often difficult and unsatisfactory, and there is need to explore newer modalities for melasma treatment. Disruption in antioxidant balance occurs in melasma. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a cellular antioxidant and restores this balance. Our hypothesis is that the oral SOD-Gliadin can replenish the SOD stores in body and quench the 'reactive oxygen species'-induced damage in melasma.Methods: A randomized, open label, single centre, comparative, five arm study was conducted in 90 patients with facial mixed melasma, for 12 weeks to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of two regimens (BD & OD) of oral SOD as add-on treatment with triple combination cream in melasma patients compared with two regimens (BD & OD) of beta-carotene (BC) and placebo. Primary outcome measure was improvement in Melasma Area and Severity Index (MASI) score, and secondary outcome measures were quality of life score, patient satisfaction score, global assessment by investigator and patients. Pair-wise comparisons were performed on adjusted mean using SAS v9.1.3.Results: There was significant reduction in MASI score with add-on treatment with SOD BD (67.97%) as compared to BC BD (43.04%), BC OD (33.68%) and placebo (22.60%). There was significant reduction in MASI score with SOD OD (51.93%) as compared to placebo (22.60%). The subjective assessments reported by patient and evaluator also ranked SOD BD as a superior regimen.Conclusions: By inhibiting oxidative stress, nutraceutical SOD-Gliadin Combination offers significantly better efficacy and higher treatment satisfaction as add-on treatment compared to beta-carotene in Indian patients.


When compared to native-speaker language 'targets', second language (L2) speakers are known to exhibit within-speaker variation in their L2 language performance according to the identity of their interlocutor (Beebe & Zuengler, 1983), the topic that is being discussed (Dolgova Jacobsen, 2008), or both (Rampton, 2011). However, previous studies have rarely applied the same methodology to different first language (L1) groups and have rarely used data from a range of speakers, so they have been unable to explore differences between speaker groups. This paper examines situational style-shifting in L2 speakers of New Zealand English in two groups of speakers, one with Korean as their L1 and the other with German as their L1. Participants were recorded in three different settings: discussing family, discussing work, and in an authentic service encounter. Male and female speakers showed similar patterns, and all were found to exhibit stylistic variation in their production of English vowels such that tokens were most nativelike in service encounters, followed by discussion of work and then family. This pattern was more robust for the Korean L1 speakers than for the German L1 speakers, which is explained by different social and linguistic histories of the two groups in New Zealand. This paper adds to our current understanding of sociolinguistic variation in L2 speakers by applying audience design (Bell, 1984) and identity construction (Eckert, 2000) accounts to L2 speakers' production of vowels.


As computer networks become more critical to enterprises, it is inevitable that efficient security policies are designed, case in point: wireless networks, in order to effectively ensure the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data traversing these networks. The primary objective of this paper is to appropriately simulate an enterprise network, and evaluate the threats, and possible mitigation approaches applicable. An analysis of an enterprise WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) was carried out, to identify relevant vulnerabilities, and possible countermeasures against these threats. The primary threats analysed were those possible by an external adversary. Upon identification of said threats, a security model was developed, so as to improve enterprise network security, and ensure the levels are optimum. In addition, a number of the principles involved are applicable to non-wireless networks.   Keywords: WLAN, Wireless, Security, WPA 2, IEEE 802.11.


For stability analyses of the Swiss operating boiling water reactors, the methodology employed and validated so far at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) was based on the RAMONA-3 code with a hybrid upstream static lattice/core analysis approach using CASMO-4 and PRESTO-2. More recently, steps were undertaken toward a new methodology based on the SIMULATE-3K (S3K) code for the dynamical analyses combined with the CMSYS system, which relies on the CASMO/SIMULATE-3 suite of codes and was established at PSI to serve as framework for the development and validation of reference core models of all the Swiss reactors and operated cycles. This paper presents a first validation of the new methodology on the basis of a benchmark recently organized by a Swiss utility and including the participation of several international organizations with various codes/methods. Now in parallel, a transition from CASMO-4E (C4E) to CASMO-5M (C5M) as basis for the CMSYS core models was also recently initiated at PSI. Consequently, it was considered adequate to address the impact of this transition both for the steady-state core analyses as well as for the stability calculations and to achieve thereby an integral approach for the validation of the new S3K methodology. Therefore, a comparative assessment of C4 versus C5M is also presented in this paper, with particular emphasis on the void coefficients and their impact on the downstream stability analysis results.


Accompanied with the rise of smart city and the development of IoT (Internet of Things), people are looking forward to monitoring and regulating the traffic in a smarter way. Since the deep neural network has shown its great value in vehicle detection area, people may wonder what kind of impact would be brought by the combination of IoT and deep learning techniques. In this work, an exploration of implementation of CNN (convolutional neural network) on low-power platform for smart traffic optimization has been conducted. During the research, a new optimization approach, which aims at S-CNN (Sparse Convolutional Neural Network) optimization from architecture level, has been proposed; and outstanding performance has been obtained when compared to mainstream deep learning frameworks, such as Tensorflow. In the experiments, the new proposed S-CNN optimization approach is as twice fast as Tensorflow on 94% sparse model and becomes 5 times faster on 98% sparse model. Besides, the author also verified the feasibility of real-time CNN implementation on ARM platform and Jetson TX1 embedded system, which reveals the shortage of computational resource on ARM platform and the potential of Jetson series to become the low-power platform for CNN implementation.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is one of the most aggressive human malignancies, with a five year survival rate of less than five percent. New targets and more effective therapeutic intervention are required to improve diagnosis and prognosis for all patients with pancreatic cancer. Recent studies have established that the tumour suppressor protein Programmed Cell Death Gene 4 (PDCD4) plays a key role in the control of differentiation and neogenesis within the healthy adult pancreas. Pdcd4 was originally identified as a gene up-regulated during the process of apoptosis. However, recent data suggests a function for Pdcd4 as a tumour suppressor, making it a promising target for pancreatic cancer therapy. The present study utilised a novel model of tissue hypoxia, mimicking the oxygen-deprived core of cancerous tumours which is often resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs and which is likely to lead to secondary tumour formation or metastases, especially in pancreatic cancer. Understanding how Pdcd4 regulates pancreatic cell fate, both in healthy pancreatic cells and in conditions of tissue hypoxia, may well arm us with a new weapon in our fight for more effective therapeutic intervention in the treatment and prevention of pancreatic cancer.


We study the genealogical structure of samples from a population for which any given generation is made up of direct descendents from several previous generations. These occur in nature when there are seed banks or egg banks allowing an individual to leave offspring several generations in the future. We show how this temporal structure in the reproduction mechanism causes a decrease in the coalescence rate. We also investigate the effects of age-dependent neutral mutations. Our main result gives weak convergence of the scaled ancestral process, with the usual diffusion scaling, to a coalescent process which is equivalent to a time-changed version of Kingman's coalescent. Running head: Seed Bank Coalescents


Abstract Examining the oil and gas industry in the Russian Arctic, this article investigates the gap between corporate social responsibility (CSR) as articulated in corporate offices and implemented at the local level. In Russia, global CSR norms interact with weak formal institutions and the strong informal expectations of state officials and local communities that companies bear responsibility for welfare and infrastructure. As a result, the concept of citizens as 'stakeholders' is underdeveloped. Instead, local residents remain subjects within a neo-paternalist system of governance that mimics some elements of the Soviet past. Compensation for damages to indigenous peoples has blurred legal obligations and the voluntary nature of CSR. However, the CSR in the region is constantly developing and formal methods of compensation may assist in clarifying the scope and practice of CSR.


The corticolous fauna of plane trees: I. Arachnids (Arachnida: Araneae, Pseudoscorpiones, Acari)
From February until September 2000 an inventory was made of the bark-dwelling arthropod fauna of more than 400 plane trees (Platanus hybrida), all over the Netherlands. Arthropods were collected from bark and under the 'loose' bark fragments at a height of 160-175 cm from the ground. Algae, mosses and fungi are important resources for the corticolous fauna. Crevices in the tree trunk and loose bark fragments form a habitat for a large number of arthropods. The corticolous fauna is adapted to an extreme microclimate, caused by fluctuations in temperature, wind, humidity and water availability. Since plane trees are mostly planted in cities and along roads, air pollution is an additional stress factor. In total 31 species of spiders, 1 species of pseudoscorpion, and 3 species of oribatid mites were recorded. In this paper the results are presented with location maps, with notes on the presence on the stems and their ecology. Although the species composition varied from location to location, no clear distribution patterns for the individual species were observed. Only the pseudoscorpion, Chernes cimicoides, seems to be limited to the southern part of the country. Two spider species, Zygiella x-notata and Anelosimus vittatus were only recorded in spring. The other species were recorded during the whole investigation period or were only incidentally observed.


For more than two decades, Winning at New Products has served as the bible for product developers everywhere. In this fully updated and expanded edition, Robert G. Cooper demonstrates why consistent product development is so vital to corporate growth and how to maximize your chances of success. Winning at New Products cites the author's most recent research and showcases innovative practices by industry leaders to present a field-tested game plan for achieving product leadership. Cooper outlines specific strategies for making sound business decisions at every step-from idea generation to launch.


Objectives: Short leucocyte telomere length (LTL) might be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The present study examines the relation between LTL and incident fatal or non-fatal CVD, ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke in a Danish cohort followed for 29 years. Methods: In total, 1,397 men and women who participated in health examinations with blood sampling in 1981-1984 were followed for CVD outcomes until the end of 2012 by linkage to national registers. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to analyse the relation between LTL and CVD adjusting for potential confounding CVD risk factors. Results: During the follow-up, 603 participants experienced an incident fatal or non-fatal CVD. The survival analysis showed that baseline LTL was not associated with CVD outcomes. In the subanalysis with IHD as outcome, those with middle and short LTL had an increased hazard rate ratio of 1.97 (95% CI 1.31-2.93) and 1.55 (95% CI 1.02-2.35), respectively, which was attenuated when confounding factors were adjusted for. For stroke, the pattern of associations was similar but less precisely estimated. Conclusions: In this study short, LTL was not associated with an increased risk of CVD, but modestly associated with an increased risk of IHD.


ABSTRACT Purpose Beginning more than 30 years ago, opencast lignite mining in the "Belchatow" area is an important source of accompanying minerals. Lignite mining in the "Belchatow" mine yields, on average, more than 35 million tonnes per annum and requires removing more than 110 million cubic meters of overburden. Therefore the mine outside of the main mineral exploitation of lignite, leads to a large-scale economy of accompanying minerals. Part of the minerals are present in the overburden and are exposed on the slopes of the opencast mine; these minerals are selectively exploited in the event of the absence of recipients stored on anthropogenic deposits. The object of this mineralogical-geochemical study is a group of transitional rocks such as opoka-rocks, gaize and marls exposed when contact occurs between Neogene sediments and Mesozoic basement rocks in the "Belchatow" lignite deposit. In the case of these rocks, during preliminary geological research carried out on the mine, doubt often appear as to their explicit petrographic character and hence their practical use. Advanced mineralogical methods allow mistakes in their identification to be avoided and a geomechanical study indicates possible direction of their practical use. Methods The heterogeneous petrographic character of the examined rocks required the use of a broad research spectrum. The following microscopes were used in the framework of the mineralogical research: Polarizing Olimpus BX51 and electron (SEM) FEI Quanta 200FEG equipped with an X-ray spectrometer (EDX Genesis) and backscattered electron detector (BSE). In addition, observations were carried out using a cathodoluminescence apparatus, the Cambridge Image Technolgy Ltd CCL 8200 mk3 model, and a polarizing microscope, type Nikon Optiphot 2. Determination of the phase composition (qualitative and quantitative) was made using X-ray diffraction and utilizing the powder method of Debye-Sherrer. An X-ray diffractometer, a Philips PW 3020 X'PERT, was also used in the study. Analyses by Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy were performed using the production apparatus BIO-RAD, model FTS 165, equipped with a package of programs for the digital processing of results. The chemical composition was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) using a spectrophotometer Philips PU 9100Xi Camera SX-100 and atomic emission spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma (ICP AES) using spectrometer 40 PLASMA. The geomechanical properties were determined in accordance with the following standards: open and total porosity (PN-EN 1936:2001) compressive strength in air – dried state (PN-EN 1926:2001), bulk density and density (PN-EN 1936:2001), relative humidity (PN-EN 1925:2001); absorbability of stone material (PN-EN 13755:2002) and abrasion on the face of Boehme (PN-84/B-04111). Results Mineralogical-petrographic studies of the transitional rocks showed that the dominant component was SiO2 which was presented in the form of opal type A and CT, chalcedony, quartz and microquartz. In addition, it was found that the rocks studied had been covered by secondary mineralization processes. The observations carried out showed that these rocks underwent primary silicification and decalcination processes, which contributed to the diverse petrographic nature of the rocks studied and secondarily experienced a change in their physico-mechanical properties. The silification process was the result of diagenetic processes taking place within the Neogene argillaceous rocks occurring when a sub-coal series is situated in the immediate vicinity of the bedrock. There was a release of extruded silica-rich water from the clays during the mechanical compaction process. Some amounts of silica may also be derived from plagioclase dissolution and the transformation of terrigenous material, mainly grains of potassium feldspar. The precipitation of silica from porous solutions occurred most when coinciding with the presence of carbonic acid formed by the decomposition of organic substances of vegetable origin. Practical implications The studies carried out have a significant practical implication, as the transitional sediments from the "Belchatow" lignite deposit can be used in the production of building materials. Originality/value Against the background of a number of published papers on the rocks accompanying lignite seams there is a lack of the "Belchatow" mineralogical-petrographic studies of the transitional sediments in the Mesozoic-Neogene contact zone in the "Belchatow" lignite deposit taking into account the aspect of raw materials. This paper has been produced to fill the void in this area.


Depth-From-Defocus (DFD) is a monocular computer vision technique for creating
depth maps from two images taken on the same optical axis with different intrinsic camera
parameters. A pre-processing stage for optimally converting colour images to monochrome
using a linear combination of the colour planes has been shown to improve the
accuracy of the depth map. It was found that the first component formed using Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) and a technique to maximise the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
performed better than using an equal weighting of the colour planes with an additive noise
model. When the noise is non-isotropic the Mean Square Error (MSE) of the depth map
by maximising the SNR was improved by 7.8 times compared to an equal weighting and
1.9 compared to PCA. The fractal dimension (FD) of a monochrome image gives a measure
of its roughness and an algorithm was devised to maximise its FD through colour
mixing. The formulation using a fractional Brownian motion (mm) model reduced the
SNR and thus produced depth maps that were less accurate than using PCA or an equal
weighting. An active DFD algorithm to reduce the image overlap problem has been
developed, called Localisation through Colour Mixing (LCM), that uses a projected colour
pattern. Simulation results showed that LCM produces a MSE 9.4 times lower than equal
weighting and 2.2 times lower than PCA.
The Point Spread Function (PSF) of a camera system models how a point source of
light is imaged. For depth maps to be accurately created using DFD a high-precision PSF
must be known. Improvements to a sub-sampled, knife-edge based technique are presented
that account for non-uniform illumination of the light box and this reduced the
MSE by 25%. The Generalised Gaussian is presented as a model of the PSF and shown to
be up to 16 times better than the conventional models of the Gaussian and pillbox.


Plastids differentiate into subtypes. For example, the transition of proplastids to chloroplasts defines the photosynthetic tissues within a plant, whereas amyloplasts are formed in nonphotosynthetic tissues. Recently, evidence has accumulated for a novel class of plastids that is specialized for stress sensing and acclimation. These "sensory plastids," some of which occur in the epidermis, are ∼30% the size of mesophyll chloroplasts and are associated with shade and osmotic stress responses. Similar plastids within the vascular parenchyma are associated with abscisic acid biosynthesis, and high-light and drought responses. Beltrán et al. (pp. 672–683) reveal that the distinctive proteome of sensory plastids in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) derives from the spatiotemporal regulation of nuclear genes encoding plastid-targeted proteins. In particular, MutS HOMOLOG1 (MSH1), a plant-specific mitochondrial protein, is associated with this specialized plastid type. The global stress phenotype that derives from MSH1 RNAi knockdown is characterized by genome-wide DNA methylome repatterning, implying an epigenomic component to the phenotype. Investigation of the translatome within sensory plastid-containing cells, following MSH1 disruption, provides evidence of calcium signaling, redox, chromatin remodeling, and circadian clock network changes that, together, may account for the strikingly pleiotropic developmental phenotypes and the plant's capacity for transgenerational stress memory. The authors suggest that sensory plastids participate in sensing environmental stress, integrating this sensory function with epigenetic and gene expression circuitry to condition heritable stress memory.


The Iranian people did not rebel against their own failed rulers but against ours. --Robert J. Allison In his study of religious nationalism and modern politics, Mark Juergensmeyer describes secular nationalism and religion as two opposing "ideologies of order." (1) These ideologies, he explains, have a great deal in common. They "conceive of the world in coherent, manageable ways; they both suggest that there are levels of meaning beneath the day-to-day world that give coherence to things unseen; and they both provide the authority that gives the social and political order its reason for being." After a lengthy analysis in which he portrays religion and nationalism as opposing ideologies, Juergensmeyer concludes that "there can ultimately be no convergence between religious and secular political ideologies." (2) Juergensmeyer takes us some distance toward an understanding of the relationship between secular nationalism and religion. However, I want to take his insight into this relationship in a direction that he does not explore. For while he convincingly shows how secular and religious worldviews differ from each other, Juergensmeyer does not explore the extent to which secular order itself is created and maintained through its opposition to religion. Secularism has developed over centuries of experimentation and innovation. A curious relationship exists between this tradition and its religious counterparts. This article explores this relationship in the context of twentieth-century relations between the United States and Iran. To understand U.S. foreign policy toward Iran. I believe that we need to shift our attention away from religious threats to secular modernity and toward secular attempts to identify the "religious." There are two varieties of secularism in the West. The first is laicism, or the attempt to expel religion from public life. In this form of secularism, the "sacred" and the "religious" are expelled from public discourse and practice. (3) The second is what I call Judeo-Christian secularism, in which sacred aspects of Judeo-Christianity quietly inform public discourse and practice. Secularism has a rather cozy relationship with Judeo-Christian tradition. Judeo-Christian secularists believe that their religious tradition has culminated in the unique Western achievement of the separation of church and state. Secularization, then, is understood as the realization of a Western religious tradition. Both of these varieties of secularism are extremely unsympathetic toward the Islamic religion. Both chastise Islamic activists for attempting to import their religion into a would-be secular (either laicist or Judeo-Christian) democratic public sphere. (4) Both, in other words, are sustained through the identification and marginalization of Islam. When I refer to secularism, I am referring to both of these varieties. The argument is divided into three parts: The first sets out the conceptual framework that underlies my argument, the paradox of identity and difference; the second part applies this framework to relations between the United States and Iran. In particular I explain why the Islamic Revolution was perceived as such a profound threat to the United States. In challenging the automatic linkage between secularism, democracy, and freedom, the revolution threatened U.S. nationalism, in which these ideals are tightly interwoven. To counter this threat, Americans projected all of the negative traits that had been associated with secular modernity under the shah--violence, tyranny, and lack of democracy--onto an Islamic other. This projection served two functions: it exculpated the United States from its association with the shah's regime and it cemented the association of the United States with secular democracy in opposition to its nemesis, religious tyranny. My argument, then, in the third part, is that the very identity of the United States as secular and democratic was at stake in the Iranian Revolution. …


In Web hosting services, hosting systems use access controls like suEXEC on apache Web servers to separate privilege by each virtual host. However, existing access control architectures on Web servers have a problem in their low performance and are not appropriate for dynamic contents like Web API since these architectures require termination of the process after each HTTP session. System developers are not easy to install existing access controls since these are provided by each interpreter and program execution methods conventionally. In this paper, we propose the access control architecture gmod_process_securityh. In this architecture a server process creates a new thread on the server process when accepting a request. Then, the web server separates privilege by the thread and processes the contents on the thread. The server process installed gmod_process_securityh executes programs faster. System developers can easily install it on web servers since we replace it with the complicated existing access controls. gmod_process_securityh can be installed for Apache HTTP Server on Linux as Apache Module which is widely used.


—Habitat restoration is a necessary strategy to protect populations of Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) living in settled areas. Relatively little is known about thermal tolerances and requirements of this species in situ during the overwintering period, except that these turtles must find water bodies that do not freeze completely and that are sufficiently cool to allow them to stay dormant throughout the winter. We used water temperature data associated with Blanding's Turtle populations in a northern, central, and southern study area within Ontario, Canada to determine thermal characteristics of occupied overwintering habitats. From fall through spring from 2012 to 2014, we measured water temperature of 20 potential overwintering habitats within the three study areas. We also radio tracked 48 adult turtles to determine which habitats they occupied during winter. Water temperatures of all occupied habitats ranged from 0.44° C to 3.68° C, with a mean of 1.77° C (± 0.03° C), and showed slow steady declines throughout the overwintering period. Regardless of location, average water temperatures at all confirmed overwintering habitats remained above the freezing point of turtle body fluids (-0.6° C). Average water temperature at five of the six confirmed overwintering habitats never dropped below 0° C, but dropped to -0.33° C for eight days at the sixth overwintering habitat. Determining thermal parameters of overwintering sites can provide knowledge useful for habitat restoration and creation to ensure habitats provide suitable overwintering conditions in the face of global climate change.


Scant information is available to guide the selection and modification of methods for doing research with people with communication impairments. In this article, we describe and illustrate a novel combination of methods used to optimize data generation in research with 13 disabled youth who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Using a critical dialogical methodology developed for the study, we explored links between dominant calls for social inclusion, disabled youths' social relations and life circumstances, and their position-takings in relation to inclusion. Building on emergent methodologies, we selected and integrated complementary methods: photo-elicitation, a graphic elicitation method termed "Belonging Circles," observations, and interviews. The interview methods were modified to recognize all AAC modes used by participants and to acknowledge the relational, situated and thus, dialogical nature of all communication in interviews. Each method is described, and rationales for their selection and modification are discussed. Processes used to combine the methods, generate data, and guide analysis are illustrated using a case example from the study. The integrated methods helped illuminate the lives and practices of youth who use AAC and the strategies they used to negotiate inclusion across the social spaces that they traversed. We conclude with reflections on the strengths and limitations of our approach, future directions for development of the methodology, and its potential use in research with a broad range of persons experiencing communication impairments.


In this special collection we bring together four papers from last year's EADTU conference. The OOFHEC2019 conference was held in Madrid, Spain with the theme of "Blended and online education within European un iversity networks". Four papers that cover the range of this topic were extended and adapted for publication in this issue of JIME. The papers were selected by the conference orga nising committee and then subject to peer review from JIME. The articles address MOOCs for language learning, learning analytics, blockchain and virtual classrooms. EstebasVilaplana and Solans examine how a MOOC can be used to improve pronunciation in language learning. Gardner, Jones and Jefferis use a combination of ana lytics and interviews to gain a clearer understanding on why students might, or might not, engage specific resources. Mikroyannidis, Third and Domingue explore Blockchain as a means to enable decentralisation. They investigate different scenarios for making online education more open and decentralised, making the case that blockchain facilitates greater learner control. Wopereis offers a rather sobering examination of the effectiveness of virtual class rooms, which indicates that those who took part in the sessions valued them, turnout was low and cost effective ness was questionable. What these four papers illustrate is that these approaches are often not new, but we are now seeing more practical applications of them, that both extend their potential, and raise questions about their broad applicability. This focused approach is likely to be more successful than a panacea for all educational needs, and as such will prove useful for educators who are now examining the possibili ties of online education in greater detail as a result of the Covid19 pandemic.


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The Science of Security, particularly in the case of human factors and usability, remains inchoate. Individual research groups and researchers develop code, simulations, instruments, dataset and experimental designs that are either not released with adequate detail for reproducibility or simply not reused beyond the individual research group. Through this paper we seek to contribute to the Science of Security by providing our instruments grounded in previous scholarship to measure computer and security expertise of participants. Furthermore, we provide the rationale for developing an instrument for measuring user computer and security expertise, information needed to analyze results yielded using this instrument and also methods to measure confidence in such expertise instruments.


Determining specific N fertilization rates to achieve optimal return is difficult. Crop N stress sensing uses the plant as an indicator of N fertilization need and has potential to improve N management. However, for making N rate decisions, a calibrated relationship between measured N stress and optimum N rate is required. Corn (Zea mays L.) plant N stress was determined with a chlorophyll meter (CM) at 102 site-years of N rate trials conducted from 1999-2005 with corn following soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] (SC) and continuous corn (CC). Normalizing CM readings to relative chlorophyll meter (RCM) values reduced variation and improved the calibration of N stress with the nitrogen rate difference (ND) from the economic optimum nitrogen rate (EONR). With SC the adjusted R 2 (adjR 2 ) was 0.53 for CM readings and 0.73 for RCM values, and with CC the adjR 2 was 0.57 for CM readings and 0.76 for RCM values. The same statistically significant (P < 0.001) relationship between RCM values and ND was found for both SC and CC, indicating RCM critical values of 0.97 and 0.98, respectively. This indicates the same calibration for N rate determination based on RCM values can be used for both rotations. Evaluation of RCM values at multiple corn growth stages indicated the same relationship to ND at the fifteenth leaf and silking growth stages, suggesting a period of time during mid-to-late vegetative growth to collect CM readings, and make in-season N rate decisions and applications. The calibration of RCM values to the rate differential from optimum N can be used by producers to determine in-season N applications for corn across varying production conditions.


Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder, that is mostly treated with creams and ointments. When topical treatment fails, narrowband ultraviolet B (UVB) light becomes the primary treatment option. UVB treatment is nearly always carried out in an outpatient clinic, requiring patients to attend the clinic during working hours several times a week. To overcome this drawback, home UVB treatment was introduced in the 1970s. Ever since, however, the effectiveness and safety of this therapy have been debated. The results of chapter 2 demonstrate that very little research on home UVB treatment has been conducted. Literature is scarce and personal, non-evidence based opinions are widespread, while the official opinion suggests being cautious. Only a randomised study can settle the ongoing discussions concerning the advisability of home UVB phototherapy for psoriasis. Chapter 3 presents the protocol of a randomised clinical trial comparing home UVB treatment with outpatient UVB treatment. Both treatments were performed in a setting reflecting daily practice, a so-called 'pragmatic' design. In chapter 4 the methodological particulars of pragmatic and non-inferiority designs are explained. The results of the clinical trial (chapter 5) demonstrate that home and outpatient UVB treatment are equally effective and equally safe. Quality of life was also similar. Patients treated at home, however, experienced a lower burden of treatment, were more satisfied, while the waiting time for home treatment was mostly found acceptable or not a problem. Most patients said to prefer home UVB treatment over outpatient treatment in the future. In chapter 6 the relation between an improved patient assessed psoriasis severity and a better quality of life is specified. Also gender, age and employment status turned out to be important predictors of quality of life. The impact of psoriasis on quality adjusted life years (QALYs) was considerable and comparable to the impact of other chronic diseases. In chapter 7 the EQ-5D and SF-6D utility scores (both used to calculate QALYs) were compared for their agreement and usefulness in psoriasis studies. Agreement between individual measurements of both instruments was poor, but the mean scores displayed a similar sensitivity to change and hence a similar course during the study. In this population the use of either instrument may yield equal incremental costs-QALY ratios. The results of the economic evaluation (chapter 8) show very small and not significant differences in costs and effects (QALYs) between both groups, yielding home UVB phototherapy a cost-effective intervention. From a more clinical perspective, the number of days with a so-called 'relevant treatment effect' was taken into account. Overall, home UVB treatment appeared cost-effective, but cost-effectiveness may be improved by reducing waiting times for home UVB treatment. In chapter 9, the main findings are summarised and discussed. Home UVB treatment was proven to be an effective, safe and cost-effective treatment that it is preferred by most patients. Therefore the positioning of home UVB treatment should be reconsidered and agreed upon, and guidelines should be adapted to reflect this view. In addition, home UVB treatment should be routinely reimbursed and provision should be improved.


Thinking back on the globally televised images of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in which two airplanes flew into the World Trade Center, one aircraft hit the Pentagon in Washington, and another one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, the questions "whose suicide?" and "the collapse of what?" appear unmistakably straightforward. Nineteen Islamic suicide bombers turned their deaths into weapons, causing the collapse of the World Trade Center. However, taking a broader perspective, it is much less clear who committed suicide and what collapsed on September 11, 2001. This article addresses the question of whether the attacks were a sign of strength, or rather a symptom of ultimate despair. The article first engages with and develops a critique of Baudrillard's contention that the dominant Western order, which is based on the extrapolation of Good and the fostering of life, cannot survive an attack by radicals who utilize death as a weapon and turn Western globalization against itself. Secondly, the idea that the September 11 attacks are, conversely, a desperate attempt to escape structural crisis, signaling the prelude of Islamic neofundamentalist violence, will be assessed. It will be argued that, rather than the self-inflicted death of the global liberal order by means of irrational destructive terrorism, or the imminent collapse of Islamic fundamentalism, the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the subsequent war on terror exhibit the tensions between a global order characterized by "destructive construction" and the "constructive destruction" that mark contemporary terrorist violence. Their mutual complex interrelations, their reciprocal fascination for one another and the intricate interconnections with processes of globalization – that prevent the death of either one – present a conflict that is of, against, within, and eluding the grasp of the dominant order in a continuous play of antagonism, destruction, mixture, tension, translation, and fissure.


One of the key benefits of IEC 61850 is that it can facilitate interoperability between Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) from different vendors. However, at present, the scope of interoperability is constrained to communications data, such as Sampled Value (SV) and Generic Object Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) messaging, and has not been extended to protection setting information. The protection functions are implemented using proprietary parameters and are typically stored in vendor-specific binary files, which make it very difficult to manipulate these data directly from external applications. Engineers must also understand the meaning and implications of modification of all proprietary setting parameters and often need to be trained in the use of vendor-specific tools, which is time consuming and potentially increases the risk of introducing protection setting errors. Furthermore, the existing IED configuration process is complex, involves many steps, and requires the use of various software tools. To address these problems, this paper proposes the use of the IEC 61850 data model and System Configuration description Language (SCL) to represent protection settings. The proprietary protection settings data are mapped to the IEC 61850 standardised data and saved as SCL files. The common representation of protection settings in SCL files can also be interpreted and converted back to proprietary settings, thus achieving protection setting interoperability. A prototype tool that implements the process has been developed and demonstrated by the authors. In the paper, the entire process is described using examples. The SCL files, based on an XML syntax that can be easily manipulated automatically by applications such as protection coordination tools, are used to streamline the existing IED configuration process. A simplified IED configuration process using the SCL based setting files is proposed in the paper. Compared with the existing process, the new process is significantly streamlined, and permits an IED-independent system configuration tool to carry out the entire configuration process. No proprietary software or communications are needed. It also allows the protection settings to be performed at a system level, rather than individually on a "per device" basis. The key challenges that must be addressed in order for the proposed process to be widely adopted are: the IEC 61850 data model for protection settings is not complete; vendors may prefer to maintain proprietary formats; the data model should have the capability to be extended for future protection functions. This paper reports the progress towards addressing these challenges.


Abstract Methodologies to calculate adjoint-based first-order-linear perturbation theory sensitivity coefficients with multigroup Monte Carlo methods are developed, implemented, and tested in this paper. These techniques can quickly produce sensitivity coefficients for all nuclides and reaction types for each region of a system model. Monte Carlo techniques have been developed to calculate the neutron flux moments and/or angular fluxes necessary for the generation of the scattering terms of the sensitivity coefficients. The Tools for Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis Methodology Implementation in three dimensions (TSUNAMI-3D) control module has been written for the Standardized Computer Analyses for Licensing Evaluation (SCALE) code system implementing this methodology. TSUNAMI-3D performs automated multigroup cross-section processing and then generates the forward and adjoint neutron fluxes with an enhanced version of the KENO V.a Monte Carlo code that implements the flux moment and angular flux calculational techniques. Sensitivity coefficients are generated with the newly developed Sensitivity Analysis Module for SCALE (SAMS). Results generated with TSUNAMI-3D compare favorably with results generated with direct perturbation techniques.


Abstract Leisure studies is an applied field that draws on theory and methods developed in conventional academic disciplines. This paper illustrates the ways in which theory and methods developed in several academic disciplines (sociology, economics, computer science, and statistics) can be employed to help resolve an applied problem (carrying capacity of parks and related areas) in leisure studies. Application of disciplinary theory and methods to leisure studies raises several issues. These include the inherently interdisciplinary nature of leisure studies and the resulting need for applied academic units addressing leisure and related issues, adequate representation of all relevant academic disciplines, the most appropriate educational track for faculty/scholars in leisure studies, and the potential evolution of leisure studies from an applied field to an academic discipline.


Background Advance decisions to refuse medical treatment (ADRTs) are a key part of Advance Care Planning (ACP), because they imbue patient wishes with legal force. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) codified the law on ADRTs to safeguard patient choice in England and Wales. However, in 2014, the Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee (PLSC) published a report which found a very low level of awareness and uptake of ADRTs in society. Aim To consider whether the legal factors have impeded the popular utilisation of ADRTs. Methods Legal analysis. Results The PLSC found a widespread lack of awareness of law on ADRTs among both professionals and patients (only ~3% of adults in England and Wales have an ADRT). Moreover, the post-MCA case law suggests that it is extremely difficult to predict with certainty as to whether any given ADRT will be upheld in court. Discussion Although the MCA has clarified the procedure for the creation, interpretation and recognition of ADRTs, significant uncertainty remains in practice. I suggest that this uncertainty is an important reason for the lack popular utilisation of ADRTs and will suggest that adopting additional requirements used in other jurisdictions (e.g. registration and statutory renewal periods) may increase the reliability and popular utilisation of ADRTs. Conclusion ADRTs are a central pillar of ACP and if we expect them to be utilised they must offer greater certainty to their creators.