This fall, most states are likely to see a massive surge in absentee voting. The significantly greater burdens absentee ballots impose on election administration, compared to in-person voting, are not widely appreciated. Unless certain key dates in the election calendar are changed to take this unprecedented surge into account, the structural integrity and legitimacy of the election could be called into doubt.

The date changes suggested here have three specific objectives. First, to enable as many absentee ballots as possible to be counted on (rather than after) Election Night. If tens of thousands of votes cannot be counted until many days after the election, with the front-runner on Election Night turning out to lose, this increases the risk of the loser and his supporters declaring the process "rigged." Minimizing that risk must be a key focal point of election-administration this fall. Second, to give election officials enough time to complete the complicated task of processing all these ballots fairly and properly. Third, to give voters an adequate opportunity to vote in the novel circumstances this fall might pose.

The dates changes identified in this essay involve state law and the federal law that governs the final stage of the presidential election, The Electoral Count Act. The date the electoral college votes should be pushed back to accommodate the longer time states are likely to need to process properly levels of absentee voting that might be an order of magnitude greater than in normal times.


Mozambique is mainly a rural country. Agriculture is a pillar of the Mozambique economy and is the main source of income for 80% of the population living in rural areas. One of the major problems in the agricultural sector is low productivity, which for most crops is the lowest in Africa. The main food crop cultivated in Mozambique is maize. This research aims to characterize households with high and low maize yields based on the National Agricultural Survey Data from 2007 and 2008 using a data mining approach. To this end, we used: a) decision trees, b) association rules, and c) classification rules. The results show that households with high maize yields are those with the capacity to generate income through the commercialization of their production and agricultural assets. Households with low maize yields are associated with production loss before harvest which results in food insecurity.


This paper presents an optimal power management mechanism for grid connected photovoltaic (PV) systems with storage. The objective is to help intensive penetration of PV production into the grid by proposing peak shaving service at the lowest cost. The structure of a power supervisor based on an optimal predictive power scheduling algorithm is proposed. Optimization is performed using Dynamic Programming and is compared with a simple ruled-based management. The particularity of this study remains first in the consideration of batteries ageing into the optimization process and second in the "day-ahead" approach of power management. Simulations and real conditions application are carried out over one exemplary day. In simulation, it points out that peak shaving is realized with the minimal cost, but especially that power fluctuations on the grid are reduced which matches with the initial objective of helping PV penetration into the grid. In real conditions, efficiency of the predictive schedule depends on accuracy of the forecasts, which leads to future works about optimal reactive power management.


Splines, which were invented by Schoenberg more than fifty years ago, constitute an elegant framework for dealing with interpolation and discretization problems. They are widely used in computer-aided design and computer graphics, but have been neglected in medical imaging applications, mostly as a consequence of what one may call the bad press phenomenon. Thanks to some recent research efforts in signal processing and wavelet-related techniques, the virtues of splines have been revived in our community. There is now compelling evidence (several independent studies) that splines offer the best cost-performance tradeoff among available interpolation methods. In this presentation, we will argue that the spline representation is ideally suited for all processing tasks that require a continuous model of signals or images. We will show that most forms of spline fitting (interpolation, least squares approximation, smoothing splines) can be performed most efficiently using recursive digital filters. We will also have a look at their multiresolution properties which make them prime candidates for constructing wavelet bases and computing image pyramids. Typical application areas where these techniques can be useful are: image reconstruction from projection data, sampling grid conversion, geometric correction, visualization, rigid or elastic image registration, and feature extraction including edge detection and active contour models.


Using comprehensive financial data on UK unquoted firms, we investigate whether technological differences of UK manufacturing industries influence the response of firms' capital-labour ratio (K/L) to changes in financial indicators under capital market imperfections. The results reveal that cash flow has a positive impact on the K/L ratio for constrained firms in high tech industries and a negative impact for firms with similar characteristics in low tech industries. Specifically, the sensitivity of the K/L ratio to cash flow not only depends on firms' net worth and financial frictions, but most importantly on firms' industry affiliation.


In order to have a fuller understanding of the policy implementation challenges facing land restitution in conservation areas, this research identifies and analyses the perspectives in the literature on policy implementation. The study explains how the land restitution programme emerged as a policy solution to the legacy of a deep historical racial divide regarding land ownership in South. Africa. However, it explores the implication of this on the conservation of the environment. The study shows that reconciling land restitution on conservation areas is a complex process, owing, partially to two different and conflicting policies namely the, Restitution of Land Rights Act (Act 22 of 1994) and the National Forest Act (Act 84 of 1998). The researcher has explored the policy implementation challenges encountered in reconciling land restitution in the Dukuduku forest located within the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park which has official World Heritage Site status situated in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The study should show how the ongoing conflict between Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the occupants of Dukuduku forest revolves around issues of land ownership pertaining Dukuduku forest, a forest which is one of the few indigenous forests left in South Africa. It concludes that policy implementation is a complex process, especially when two divergent policy objectives Restitution of Land Rights Act (Act 22 of 1994) and the National Forest Act (Act 84 of 1998) and are sought. A formulated conceptual framework for the study, public policy analysis and policy implementation models will be discussed to provide a clear perspective on policy implementation.


The use of toxic chemicals in articles is a growing concern for public health and the environment. International trade results in substances being transported among regions. From toys and household items to electronic equipment and automobiles, toxic substances in articles are an increasingly important factor contributing to the global burden of toxic substances. Toxic substances in articles may pose threats at every stage of the product life cycle - production, use, and disposal or recycling. In this report, we consider a factor that is critical for the sound management of substances in articles: the availability of information. At present, there is no global system for provision of information about substances in a wide range of articles. First, the report describes the problem of toxic substances in articles, with detailed case studies of selected examples and considers the advantages that would result from better information management systems. Second, the report considers existing efforts to generate and disseminate information about substances in articles, both regulatory requirements and voluntary initiatives. Third, the report offers suggestions as to the questions and themes that would need to be considered in order to improve management of information about substances in articles.


Chitosan passivated carbon nanodots (C-Dots$_{CHIT})$ were synthesized from expired molasses via a simple and green thermal synthesis procedure. As-synthesized C-Dots were nitrogen-doped (NC-Dots$_{CHIT})$ by posttreatment with liquid ammonia and used as nanoprobes for fluorometric detection of mercury ions (Hg(II)$_{aq.})$. Fluorescence response of NC-Dots$_{CHIT}$ in the presence of mercury was evaluated and compared with that of the polyethylene glycol passivated C-Dots$_{PEG}$. This sensing strategy using NC-Dots$_{CHIT}$ displayed a wide linear working range from 1.25 $\mu $g/mL to 43.54 $\mu $g/mL with a detection limit of 1.41 $\mu $g/mL. The fluorescence of C-Dots$_{PEG}$ did not show any significant change upon mercury addition. Selectivity of as-synthesized NC-Dots$_{CHIT}$ to Hg(II)$_{aq.}$ was assessed by comparing the level of fluorescence quenching in the presence of four other divalent cations (cadmium(II), zinc(II), nickel(II), and copper(II)). Finally, synthesized nanoprobes were embedded into the cross-linked alginate hydrogels and test strips were formed on the FTO-coated glass. Images captured under a UV light source (λexc: 365 nm) were successfully processed by a smartphone application. Color codes generated by the app showed a close resemblance to the data gathered from fluorescence spectroscopy. The proposed detection system was applied satisfactorily to both a certified calibration standard and real water samples. The methodology developed within this study could be a potential candidate for detection of mercury concentration in water samples with high recovery rates reaching up to 98%. This smartphone applicable detection platform that uses carbon nanodots as cheap yet sensitive nanoprobes could lead to more advanced lab-on-site systems for water or food sample analysis that can be performed by anyone, anywhere, anytime.


An approximate calculation method for light propagation in random multilayer films is presented. It is applied to a particular structure consisting of alternating lower- and higher-refractive-index materials with one type of layer having random thickness. An analytical expression for the localization length is derived. It is found to be in excellent agreement over a broad wavelength range, with numerical calculations performed by use of the transfer matrix formalism without any simplifying assumptions. Furthermore, this approximation accounts very well for anomalous reflectance effects that have been reported in experimental studies of amorphous silicon–silicon nitride multilayer films with random-thickness layers. Within the approximation presented, one can identify separate terms that are responsible for localization and for anomalous reflectance. This separation is helpful in clarifying the origins of both effects.


We have previously shown that gene expression alterations in normal-appearing bronchial epithelial cells can serve as a lung cancer detection biomarker in smokers. Given that miRNAs regulate airway gene expression responses to smoking, we evaluated whether miRNA expression is also altered in the bronchial epithelium of smokers with lung cancer. Using epithelial brushings from the mainstem bronchus of patients undergoing bronchoscopy for suspected lung cancer (as part of the AEGIS-1/2 clinical trials), we profiled miRNA expression via small-RNA sequencing from 347 current and former smokers for which gene expression data were also available. Patients were followed for one year postbronchoscopy until a final diagnosis of lung cancer (n = 194) or benign disease (n = 153) was made. Following removal of 6 low-quality samples, we used 138 patients (AEGIS-1) as a discovery set to identify four miRNAs (miR-146a-5p, miR-324-5p, miR-223-3p, and miR-223-5p) that were downregulated in the bronchial airway of lung cancer patients (ANOVA P < 0.002, FDR < 0.2). The expression of these miRNAs is significantly more negatively correlated with the expression of their mRNA targets than with the expression of other nontarget genes (K-S P < 0.05). Furthermore, these mRNA targets are enriched among genes whose expression is elevated in cancer patients (GSEA FDR < 0.001). Finally, we found that the addition of miR-146a-5p to an existing mRNA biomarker for lung cancer significantly improves its performance (AUC) in the 203 samples (AEGIS-1/2) serving an independent test set (DeLong P < 0.05). Our findings suggest that there are miRNAs whose expression is altered in the cytologically normal bronchial epithelium of smokers with lung cancer, and that they may regulate cancer-associated gene expression differences. Cancer Prev Res; 10(11); 651–9. ©2017 AACR.


It is often assumed that natural philosophy was the forerunner of early modern natural sciences. But where did these sciences' systematic observation and experimentation get their starts? In Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe , the laboratories, workshops, and marketplaces emerge as arenas where hands-on experience united with higher learning. In an age when chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and botany intersected with mining, metallurgy, pharmacy, and gardening, materials were objects that crossed disciplines. Here, the contributors tell the stories of metals, clay, gunpowder, pigments, and foods, and thereby demonstrate the innovative practices of technical experts, the development of the consumer market, and the formation of the observational and experimental sciences in the early modern period. Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe showcases a broad variety of forms of knowledge, from ineffable bodily skills and technical competence to articulated know-how and connoisseurship, from methods of measuring, data gathering, and classification to analytical and theoretical knowledge. By exploring the hybrid expertise involved in the making, consumption, and promotion of various materials, and the fluid boundaries they traversed, the book offers an original perspective on important issues in the history of science, medicine, and technology.


Abstract X-ray spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study the local charge distribution of chemical systems. Together with the liquid jet it becomes possible to probe chemical systems in their natural environment, the liquid phase. In this work, we present X-ray absorption (XA), X-ray emission (XE) and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) data of pure water and various salt solutions and show the possibilities these methods offer to elucidate the nature of ion-water interaction.


Education is about teaching and learning. This is the case at school level. At the center of learning are pupils. The effectiveness of education is measured in terms of the amount of learning acquired by the pupils. In any society children go to school to acquire academic skills. At primary school level, children go to school to learn reading, writing and mathematics. At secondary level children go to school to acquire academic skills based on various subjects broadly categorized as mathematics and science, arts and humanities, practical and commercial subjects. To acquire these skills pupils need teachers and schools. It is against this background that a study on secondary teacher effectiveness in Zimbabwe was undertaken.


Abstract The geochemical changes associated with the experimental serpentinization of peridotite are due to reaction with sea water and to the growth of new mineral phases. Since the rare earth elements (REE) and Sr are primarily ensconced in clinopyroxene, it is the unreactive nature of this phase in the presence of sea water that determines the REE content, the 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd ratio of the experimentally produced serpentinites. Serpentinites (after lherzolite and dunite) have chondrite-normalized REE abundance patterns similar to the initial peridotite indicating that the light REE (LREE) are not selectively mobilized by peridotite-sea water interaction at 300°C. However, the serpentinites produced as a result of harzburgite-sea water experiments show an increase in LREE content. Despite the sporadic behaviour of the LREE, the 143Nd/144Nd ratios in experimentally produced serpentinites (after lherzolite and harzburgite) are identical to primary clinopyroxene in the unaltered peridotite. In contrast, a marked change in the strontium isotopic composition of the peridotites occurs during experimental serpentinization due to the growth of hydrous and Ca-rich phases which facilitates the uptake of sea water Sr. Whereas harzburgite and dunite alter to produce serpentinites with high Sr contents and 87Sr/86Sr > 0.709, lherzolites tend to alter to serpentinites with 87Sr/86Sr < 0.709. This behaviour invalidates the use of Rb-Sr data in understanding the origin of oceanic and ophiolitic peridotites, but the relative immobility of the light REE (in clinopyroxene-bearing peridotites) and the low REE content of sea water encourages the careful use of the REE and neodymium isotopes as a petrogenetic indicator for elucidating the origin of serpentinized abyssal peridotites.


To conserve marine biodiversity, we must first understand the spatial distribution and status of at‐risk biodiversity. We combined range maps and conservation status for 5,291 marine species to map the global distribution of extinction risk of marine biodiversity. We find that for 83% of the ocean, >25% of assessed species are considered threatened, and 15% of the ocean shows >50% of assessed species threatened when weighting for range‐limited species. By comparing mean extinction risk of marine biodiversity to no‐take marine reserve placement, we identify regions where reserves preferentially afford proactive protection (i.e., preserving low‐risk areas) or reactive protection (i.e., mitigating high‐risk areas), indicating opportunities and needs for effective future protection at national and regional scales. In addition, elevated risk to high seas biodiversity highlights the need for credible protection and minimization of threatening activities in international waters.


We propose vq-wav2vec to learn discrete representations of audio segments through a wav2vec-style self-supervised context prediction task. The algorithm uses either a Gumbel-Softmax or online k-means clustering to quantize the dense representations. Discretization enables the direct application of algorithms from the NLP community which require discrete inputs. Experiments show that BERT pre-training achieves a new state of the art on TIMIT phoneme classification and WSJ speech recognition.1


The Keilor archaeological area is located approximately 16 km northwest of Melbourne near the confluence of Dry Creek and the Maribymong River. In 1940 a human cranium was discovered in the locality and later the area was excavated by Alexander Gallus and teams from the Victoria Archaeological Survey and La Trobe University (Bosler 1975, Mulvaney 1998). This paper details the results of a faunal analysis conducted on materials recovered from the later excavation (Duncan 1998). Its focus is the lower stratigraphic layers known as the D-Clay and the underlying Older Dry Creek Alluvium (ODCA).  During the late 1960s and early 1970s Gallus (1971, 1972,  1974,1983) conducted a series of excavations at Keilor which were driven by his quest to find evidence of the earliest technical developments of hominids in Australia. Marshall's (1974) analysis of the faunal remains recovered from those digs showed that extinct megafaunal species were present at Keilor, perhaps as recently as 20,000 years ago. This faunal analysis aims to test the validity of claims made by Marshall by comparing the results of his study with the results of the VASLTU excavation faunal analysis. The results reaffirm Keilor's importance to Australian archaeology, and are relevant to the megafauna extinction debate.


A method was found to synthesize 1-( 2,5-dimethoxy-4-(t~uoromethyl)phenyl)-2-a~opropane, 5, and its des-a-methyl congener 2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)aminoethane, 6 the trifluoromethyl analogs of substituted hallucinogenic phenethylamine derivatives such as l-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)-2-aminopropane (3, DOI) that are potent ~ H T ~ A / ~ c agonists. In our hands, 5 and 6 have proven to have affinity for [3H]ketanserin or [12511-3-labeled 5-HT,, sites in rat cortex comparable to or higher than the analogous bromo or iodo analogs. Similarly, 5 and 6 had potency comparable to or slightly greater than that of their bromo or iodo congeners in the two-lever drug discrimination assay in rats trained to discriminate saline from LSD tartrate. The agonist properties of 5 and 6 were evaluated by measuring the accumulation of [3H]inositol monophosphate in cultured cells selectively expressing either 5-HTu or 5-HT2c receptors. In comparison to serotonin (5-HT), compounds 3 (DOI), 5, and 6 were equally efficacious and full agonists at the 5-HTzc receptor. Similarly, 3 and 5 produced equivalent responses at the 5-HTu receptor as compared to 5-HT. In contrast, 6, the a-desmethyl analog of 5, was only half as potent at stimulating inositol monophosphate accumulation at the ~ H T ~ A receptor. In conclusion, the title compound 5 and its a-desmethyl congener 6 appear to be the most potent of the so-called hallucinogenic amphetamine 5-HT agonists reported to date. Further, the reduced efficacy of 6 at the 5-HTu receptor may offer at least a partial explanation for the observed higher in vivo potencies of a-methyl-substituted compounds in this series.


A National Group is a group of up to four persons appointed by a Member State of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The sum of all individuals in National Groups constitute a list of qualified persons available to act as arbitrators when appointed by States in arbitration procedures under the auspices of the PCA. Moreover, each National Group has the exclusive right to nominate candidates for the election of judges to the International Court of Justice (Art 4 Statute International Court of Justice). Finally, National Groups from States party to the Rome Statute may be tasked with the nomination of candidates for election as judge to the International Criminal Court (Art 36 (4) (a) (ii) Rome Statute)).

This entry examines in detail the special roles given to National Groups, or the individuals belonging to them, within the realm of the legal settlement of international disputes. Whereas National Groups at the beginning of the twentieth century had only one prerogative (ie to form a list of potential arbitrators), their subsequent complementary role in the selection of international judges has taken on such importance that the primary function of National Groups nowadays is that of a nominating body. This entry also analyses various factors grounded in institutional-procedural law and practice that give rise to (the potential for) governmental control or interference over the nomination process. Depending on the attitude of the State concerned, these factors may render nominations for the international judiciary more politicized than was originally foreseen when this system was introduced.


The teachers' prior practice indicates that the conceptual understanding of buoyancy among lower secondary school students is often deficient. Therefore we introduced a new teaching sequence in which students are actively involved and they experience a cognitive conflict. Pre-test analysis shows that students are acquainted with the definition of buoyancy, but their understanding of the phenomenon is rather weak. To expand their conceptual understanding, we designed the activities in such way that students experience buoyancy as a relevant concept for daily life. The proposed student activities are based on team work, hands-on experiments and discussions. The aim of the new approach is to gradually expand students' understanding of buoyancy based on their intuitive notions and pre-knowledge. This context-based approach aims to bring the students' learning closer to their own experiences and share characteristics that make the learning of physics more meaningful. The results of the new approach are evaluated by semi-structured interview.


The early detection of cancer is crucial for successful treatment, and medical researchers have investigated a number of early-diagnosis techniques. Recently, they have discovered that some cancers affect the concentration of certain molecules in the blood, which allows early diagnosis by analyzing the blood mass spectrum. Researchers have developed several techniques for the analysis of the mass-spectrum curve, and used them for the detection of prostate, ovarian, breast, bladder, pancreatic, kidney, liver, and colon cancers. We have continued this work and applied data mining to the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. We have identified the most informative points of the mass-spectrum curve, and then used decision trees, support vector machines, and neural networks to determine the differences between the curves of cancer patients and healthy people.


A person's ability to perform a task is often limited by their ability to maintain balance. This is particularly true in lateral work performed in seated environments. For a truck driver operating the shift lever of a manual transmission, excessive shift forces can necessitate pulling on the steering wheel with the other hand to maintain balance, creating a potentially unsafe condition. An analysis of posture and balance in truck shifter operation was conducted using balance limits to define the acceptable range of shifter locations. The results are dependent on initial driver position, reach postures, and shoulder strength. The effects of shifter force direction and magnitude were explored to demonstrate the application of the analysis method. This methodology can readily be applied to other problems involving hand-force exertions in seated environments.


This volume contains a further selection of the best papers presented at the Seventh Emonet conference (Montreal, Canada, August 2010), following on from Volume 7 and augmented once again with invited chapters authored by leading scholars in the field. "Experiencing and managing emotions in the workplace" comprises fourteen chapters arranged in four sections: The experience of emotion; The dynamics of emotion; Regulating emotion; and The emotionally intelligent organization. These encompass a variety of methodological approaches, including qualitative and quantitative research, sourced from research conducted in organizations in the USA, Europe, and Australasia. The volume's secondary theme is "care and compassion", the theme of the Academy of Management meetings that followed the Emonet conference in Montreal. In effect, organizations that understand their members' emotions and utilize this information in their management practices become "emotionally intelligent" and capable of showing care and compassion to all stakeholders. The chapters in this book provide a rich and varied coverage of the latest developments in the study of the role of emotions in organizational settings.


In this paper, we present a convolutive basis decomposition method and its application on simultaneous speakers separation from monophonic recordings. The model we propose is a convolutive version of the nonnegative matrix factorization algorithm. Due to the nonnegativity constraint this type of coding is very well suited for intuitively and efficiently representing magnitude spectra. We present results that reveal the nature of these basis functions and we introduce their utility in separating monophonic mixtures of known speakers


Following up on Marcus's seminal article on cinema and ethnography [1995] and weaving together anthropology, film theory and the analysis of four films—from the ethnographic, commercial, art and documentary genres—I argue that cinema can open a democratic and egalitarian space of observation of and interaction with "the other" and that anthropologists should approach their subjects in ways similar to some other filmmakers. But unlike Marcus, who considers films as metaphors of ethnography and advocates a posture of modernist distance, I look for juxtapositions between film and anthropology and, extending the Surrealist notion of "the double" across the fields of politics and aesthetics, I argue for a humanist anthropology, one that celebrates the dual nature of humans and cinema.


Aim: To describe both the epidemiology and prognosis of people living with HIV (PLHIV) hospitalized in intensive care. Methodology: It is a prospective cross-sectional study conducted at the CHU Sylvanus Olympio, Lome over a period of 12 months on known HIV infected patients or patients newly diagnosed on admission, from both sexes, aged over 15 years, hospitalized during the period between January 1st and December 31st, 2011. We studied the socio-demographic parameters, the reason for hospitalization, the infections and affections found and and their evolution. Results: During our study period 124 patients (46 men and 78 women) ere selected out of 1130, i.e. a rate of 10.9%, witz a sex ratio of 0.6. The average age of our patients was 41 ± 15.5 years, ranging from 20 years to 69 years. On admission, 41% (51 patients) ere aware of their HIV-positive status, witz 30% on antiretroviral treatment. The reasons for admission ere dominâtes by altered consciousness, repetitive seizures, severe dehydration, severe anemia witz impaired general condition and paroxysmal dyspnees witz respective rates of 48.4%, 22, 6%, 12% 32% and 4.3%. The clinicat manifestations ere dominâtes by hemi corporal sensoriel motor deficit (56.7%), fever (53%) and coma (48.4%). Biologically, 83.6% had a CD4 rate below 200 elements per mm3. Anemia was severe in 32 % out of the 87% of cases of anemia. This anemia is associated witz a lymphopenia or neutropenia or thrombocytopenia in respectively 63.3%, 57.1% and 20% of cases. Creatinine and blood urea ere elevated in 20% of cases. Infections and diseases found ere dominâtes by cerebral abscesses (40%), severe anemia (32%), gastroenteritis (12%) and meningitis (11.2%). Brain abscess ere represented by toxoplasmosis in 90% of cases. Meningitis was bacterial in 5 cases (pneumococcus), fungal (Cryptococcus) in 3 cases. Overall mortality was 43% witz a higher lethality for meningitis and severe anemia.


Diverse applications including switches, deployable structures, and reconfigurable robots can benefit from bi-stability characteristics. However, the complexity of the implementation and the limitation of the structural configuration makes it difficult to apply conventional bi-stable mechanisms to the structures that require rotational bi-stability. In this paper, an implementation method using cylindrical magnets for the rotational bi-stable mechanism is proposed. The proposed bi-stable mechanism consists of a revolute joint with two links. It has rotational bi-stability through the magnetic force relationship between the array of magnets on each link. To identify the characteristics of the proposed bi-stable mechanism, a cylindrical permanent magnet is considered as an electromagnet model that consists of one ring with a virtual electric current. The magnetic field of the cylindrical permanent magnet can be calculated using the Biot–Savart law. Similarly, the magnetic force between two cylindrical permanent magnets is calculated using the Lorentz force law. The criteria of the magnet array for symmetric bi-stability are described and the potential energy diagram of the rotation link is considered as the performance criterion to identify the stable state. The proposed bi-stable mechanism was applied to the prototype of a deployable structure consisting of two links. The load testing of the structure against external torque was performed and it was obtained that the rotation link can stay within 5 deg angle to the maximum load applied and was experimentally verified with good agreement.


The economic value of palynology is an accepted fact but its practice is misunderstood by some oil companies. As in other disciplines, palynology has its limitations. These stem from the unsuitability of the method in certain rocks, a lack of knowledge on the part of the palynologists often hired by managements, the inferior equipment in use, and the absence of literature available. Those companies who understand these problems are successfully resolving many pertinent questions. Suggestions are made that will advance the value of palynology to science and industry.


Dear Editor,

The treatment of hepatic encephalopathy in patients, whose liver disease has reached a palliative stage, has been particularly challenging, given the low levels of evidence, increasing range of therapeutic options (including rifaximin) and the difficulties in managing patients when they lose the ability to swallow.

However, a recent Cochrane Systematic Review 'Non-absorbable disaccharides versus placebo/no intervention and lactulose versus lactitol for the prevention and treatment of hepatic encephalopathy in people with cirrhosis'1 has recently highlighted significant benefits of lactulose in the management of hepatic encephalopathy. This updated review, which had previously found 'no evidence to supporting the use of disaccharides',2 identified 38 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with 1828 participants. The review found that non-absorbable disaccharides have been demonstrated to reduce mortality (RR 0.59, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.87; 1487 participants; 24 RCTs; I2=0%; moderate quality evidence when all RCT data were included in analysis). However, more importantly for the quality of life of palliative care patients, it also demonstrated that hepatic encephalopathy improved (RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.69; 1415 …


Domestic and service robots have the potential to transform industries such as health care and small-scale manufacturing, as well as the homes in which we live. However, due to the overwhelming variety of tasks these robots will be expected to complete, providing generic out-of-the-box solutions that meet the needs of every possible user is clearly intractable. To address this problem, robots must therefore not only be capable of learning how to complete novel tasks at run-time, but the solutions to these tasks must also be informed by the needs of the user. In this letter we demonstrate how behaviour trees, a well established control architecture in the fields of gaming and robotics, can be used in conjunction with natural language instruction to provide a robust and modular control architecture for instructing autonomous agents to learn and perform novel complex tasks. We also show how behaviour trees generated using our approach can be generalised to novel scenarios, and can be re-used in future learning episodes to create increasingly complex behaviours. We validate this work against an existing corpus of natural language instructions, demonstrate the application of our approach on both a simulated robot solving a toy problem, as well as two distinct real-world robot platforms which, respectively, complete a block sorting scenario, and a patrol scenario.


Carlos Castaldi provides a 'dense description' of the tragedy that took place in the municipality of Malacacheta, in Minas Gerais, on the Sao Joao da Mata Farm in 1955. In April of that year, four children were murdered by a group of sharecroppers converted to the Adventist Church of the Promise, believing that the children had become possessed by the devil. After the incident, a joint initiative of the magazine Anhembi, the National Institute of Pedagogical Studies and the Department of Sociology of the Sao Paulo University Faculty of Philosophy led to the visit of a team formed by sociologist Carlos Castaldi, anthropologist Eunice Ribeiro (later Durham) and psychologist Carolina Martuscelli, who stayed at the locale from July 11th to August 8th with the aim of discovering the reasons behind the event. The text relates the incident to the social changes that had led to the destructuring of the group, dialoguing closely with the doctoral thesis The sharecroppers of the Bonito River, completed by Antonio Candido in 1954.


BACKGROUND
Nonoperative management of blunt injury to the spleen in adults has been applied with increasing frequency. However, the criteria for nonoperative management are controversial. The purpose of this multi-institutional study was to determine which factors predict successful observation of blunt splenic injury in adults.

METHODS
A total of 1,488 adults (>15 years of age) with blunt splenic injury from 27 trauma centers in 1997 were studied through the Multi-institutional Trials Committee of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. Statistical analysis was performed with analysis of variance and extended chi2 test. Data are expressed as mean +/- SD; a value of p < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS
A total of 38.5 % of patients went directly to the operating room (group I); 61.5% of patients were admitted with planned nonoperative management. Of the patients admitted with planned observation, 10.8% failed and required laparotomy; 82.1% of patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) < 15 and 46.6% of patients with ISS > 15 were successfully observed. Frequency of immediate operation correlated with American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) grades of splenic injury: I (23.9%), II (22.4%), III (38.1%), IV (73.7%), and V (94.9%) (p < 0.05). Of patients initially managed nonoperatively, the failure rate increased significantly by AAST grade of splenic injury: I (4.8%), II (9.5%), III (19.6%), IV (33.3%), and V (75.0%) (p < 0.05). A total of 60.9% of the patients failed nonoperative management within 24 hours of admission; 8% failed 9 days or later after injury. Laparotomy was ultimately performed in 19.9% of patients with small hemoperitoneum, 49.4% of patients with moderate hemoperitoneum, and 72.6% of patients with large hemoperitoneum.

CONCLUSION
In this multicenter study, 38.5% of adults with blunt splenic injury went directly to laparotomy. Ultimately, 54.8% of patients were successfully managed nonoperatively; the failure rate of planned observation was 10.8%, with 60.9% of failures occurring in the first 24 hours. Successful nonoperative management was associated with higher blood pressure and hematocrit, and less severe injury based on ISS, Glasgow Coma Scale, grade of splenic injury, and quantity of hemoperitoneum.


High-resolution spectroscopic studies of solar-type stars have revealed higher iron abundances derived from singly ionized species compared to neutral, violating the ionization equilibrium under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium. In this work, we investigate the overabundances of Fe ii lines reported in our previous work for a sample of 451 solar-type HARPS stars in the solar neighborhood. The spectroscopic surface gravities of this sample, which emerge from the ionization balance, appear underestimated for the K-type stars. In order to understand this behaviour, we search our Fe ii line list for unresolved blends and outliers. First, we use the Vienna Atomic Line Database to identify possible unresolved blends around our lines and calculate which ones are strong enough to cause overestimations in the equivalent width measurements. Second, for our sample we use reference parameters (effective temperature and metallicity) and the Gaia DR2 parallaxes to derive surface gravities (trigonometric gravities) and calculate the Fe i and Fe ii abundances from different line lists. We exclude the Fe ii lines which produce overabundances above 0.10 dex. The derived surface gravities from the clean line list are now in agreement with the trigonometric. Moreover, the difference between Fe i and Fe ii abundance does not show now a correlation with the effective temperature. Finally, we show that the ionization balance of Ti can provide better estimates of surface gravities than iron. With this analysis, we provide a solution to the ionization balance problem observed in the atmospheres of cool dwarfs.


Given a quantum circuit, a quantum computer can sample the output distribution exponentially faster in the number of bits than classical computers. A similar exponential separation has yet to be established in generative models through quantum sample learning: given samples from an n-qubit computation, can we learn the underlying quantum distribution using models with training parameters that scale polynomial in n under a fixed training time? We study four kinds of generative models: Deep Boltzmann machine (DBM), Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Autoregressive GAN, on learning quantum data set generated by deep random circuits. We demonstrate the leading performance of LSTM in learning quantum samples, and thus the autoregressive structure present in the underlying quantum distribution from random quantum circuits. Both numerical experiments and a theoretical proof in the case of the DBM show exponentially growing complexity of learning-agent parameters required for achieving a fixed accuracy as n increases. Finally, we establish a connection between learnability and the complexity of generative models by benchmarking learnability against different sets of samples drawn from probability distributions of variable degrees of complexities in their quantum and classical representations.


In a changing employment climate and with the growth of demand for careers guidance at all stages of life, careers guidance practice has moved from its positivist world view, with the counsellor as expert and client as passive responder, to more holistic 'constructivist' approaches. In essence, these approaches view the career as a holistic concept in which work and personal life are inextricably intertwined, and individuals are experts in their own lives, actively constructing their careers. The first to fully explore the constructivist approach, this book: provides a theoretical background to constructivism; outlines a range of constructivist approaches to career counselling; and gives examples of the practical application of constructivism. Essential for anyone involved in career guidance wishing to learn more about this vital new approach, this book combines theory with practicable guidance, and represents a new direction for career counselling.


The integration of biomimetic robots in a fish school may enable a better understanding of collective behaviour, offering a new experimental method to test group feedback in response to behavioural modulations of its 'engineered' member. Here, we analyse a robotic fish and individual golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) swimming together in a water tunnel at different flow velocities. We determine the positional preference of fish with respect to the robot, and we study the flow structure using a digital particle image velocimetry system. We find that biomimetic locomotion is a determinant of fish preference as fish are more attracted towards the robot when its tail is beating rather than when it is statically immersed in the water as a 'dummy'. At specific conditions, the fish hold station behind the robot, which may be due to the hydrodynamic advantage obtained by swimming in the robot's wake. This work makes a compelling case for the need of biomimetic locomotion in promoting robot–animal interactions and it strengthens the hypothesis that biomimetic robots can be used to study and modulate collective animal behaviour.


The studies in Weaving a Lexicon make a significant contribution to the growing field of lexical acquisition by considering the multidimensional way in which infants and children acquire the lexicon of their native language. They examine the many strands of knowledge and skill -- including perceptual sensitivities, conceptual and semantic constraints, and communicative intent -- that children must weave together in the process of word learning, and show the different mix of these factors used at different developmental points. In considering the many different factors at work, the contributors avoid both the "either-or" approach, which singles out one strand to explain word learning throughout childhood, and the "all-inclusive" approach, which considers the melange of factors together. Their goal is to discover precisely which strands of ability or understanding make which contributions to acquisition at which points in infancy and childhood.The nineteen chapters are arranged in two broadly thematic sections. The chapters in "Initial Acquisitions," focus on issues involved in word learning during infancy, including how learners represent the sound patterns of words, infants' use of action knowledge to understand the meaning of words, and the links between early word learning and conceptual organization. In "Later Acquisitions," the chapters treat topics concerning the stages of toddler and preschooler language acquisition, including part-of- speech information in word learning, the proper-count distinction, and a comparison of verb acquisition in English and Spanish. Because the contributors present their work in the broader context of the interconnection of different processes in lexical acquisition, the chapters in Weaving a Lexicon should suggest new directions for research in the field.


In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the Garden's Catalogue in unforeseen situations, the radioactivity of some plant species cultivated on different plots of the Agrobotanical Garden has been measured in May 1986. Comparative measurements have been carried out on species harvested from the experimental fields Sapca-Verde (Cluj-Napoca) and from a collection trip in Tulcea county (Tulcea, Babadag), too. A monocanal energy spectrometer NK-350 (Gamma) has been used for measurements; impulses per minute have been registered and plant radioactivity expressed in Becquerel (Bq) units has been calculated. The highest values have been measured in the Agrobotanical Garden (alt. s.m. 475 m, incl. about 200 , exp. NE). Small-leaved low stature plants of Cyperaceae and Poaceae family have been much more radioactive than large-leaved Brassicaceae. In 28th May 1986 plants were generally more radioactive at basis as on top; older stems were 4-6 times more radioactive than top leaves or regrowth after harvest. Washing in running water (100 gr fresh weight in 50 l water for 5 minutes) reduced the radioactivity levels measured in different species with about 30%.


Racial and ethnic residential segregation are persistent features of urban areas throughout the world. This study focuses on the search behaviour of owner occupier households in the Belfast Urban Area, an area segregated on the basis of religion. The study was initiated under the premise that household search behaviour was important in the context of a spatially segregated housing market, and is a research area that has been neglected at least as far as Belfast is concerned.

The overall aim of the research is to develop a better understanding of how owner occupied households made their housing choices against such a segregated background.

For many years, the literature has recognised the two-way relationship between mobility and urban form and, at the same time, it has acknowledged that residential decision making is inherently conservative in nature. The US evidence on racial search and mobility behaviour indicates that such behaviour is supportive of the existing patterns of separate living. This observation set up the basic proposition for this study; namely, Catholic searchers in the BUA will exhibit search behaviour similar to that of black households in comparably segregated urban areas in the United States.

The literature on racial differences in search suggests that black household search is less efficient and more costly than that of whites. In particular, blacks are seen to search for longer than whites, during which time they view a similar number or fewer dwellings, but over a more restricted range of areas. In terms of information use, the evidence is that black households make extensive use of existing information channels. In particular, informal sources such as friends and relatives, which serve to reinforce the localised nature of search, and estate agents are important sources of information for minority searchers. The evidence is also clear that black households tend to end up in black areas.


Understanding plasma-liquid interactions is a growing interdisciplinary area of
research, due to the increasing applications of nothermal discharge plasma in environmental,
biological, medical and material synthesis. With the beginning of industrialization, mankind
has witnessed environmental concerns. In a way, industrialization has not only brought
economic development but also troubled the environment. One of the concerns is visible in
the form of environmental and water pollution. Unfortunately, a lot of water bodies are
contaminated with chemical and pathogenic substances. Advanced Oxidation Processes
(AOPs) are universally recognized tertiary treatments and have a strong potential towards
the bio-recalcitrant (non-biodegradable) pollutants. AOPs are a class of oxidation processes,
which involve the in-situ generation of hydroxyl radical (•OH), which can oxidize many
harmful pollutants, including organic pollutants, heavy metals, and micro-organisms.
Among the AOPs, utilization of plasma discharges is of particular interest to the
scientific community, as it can generate a wide spectrum of multiple reactive species,
intense electric fields, UV radiation and shock waves. In addition, plasma contact with
liquid (water) can also generate significant amounts of secondary oxidants like H2O2 and O3
and other reactive oxygen species like •O, HO2•, and O2
•–. Plasma discharges also lead to
the formation of powerful reducing agents such as hydrated electrons (eaq
–), and hydrogen
radical (•H). However, the optimization of discharge plasma reactors for wastewater
treatment is a complicated task, which still needs much more exploration. In a similar
context, a large number of chemical reduction methods have been reported for the synthesis
of nanomaterials, these chemical reductions introduce more impurities/defects in materials
and are also harmful to the environment. The present study reports the potentials of an
atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) for handling the above said problems.
Typical observation is that the concentration of the secondary oxidants (like H2O2,
O3 and HNO3) can be tuned by varying the plasma gas. It was observed that the
concentration of active species increased gradually with increasing the plasma treatment
time. More acidification and increase in the conductivity were observed while operating in
air plasma due to the formation of inorganic acids, whereas, the highest amount of H2O2
formation was observed with oxygen gas. The hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide are
the main contributors to the organic compounds (model dyes) degradation and phenol
mineralization. The addition of Fe2+ salt showed a positive effect on the formation of •OH.
The addition of a radical scavenger (methylene blue) promoted the reduction of Cr(VI) to
Cr(III), whereas addition of iron (II) salt decreased Cr(VI) reduction and promoted the
vii
competing methylene blue oxidation via Fenton reaction. Interesting observation is that
plasma treated water also showed a significant reduction of Cr(VI), probably due to the
availability of long lived species, including H2O2. Degradation and mineralization of phenol
was carried out by using an APPJ operating under argon/air plasma. The combination of
CeO2, Ce0.90Ni0.10O2- and 10 wt % NiO/CeO2 catalysts were studied to improve the phenol
degradation efficiency. It was observed that catalyst addition to NTP reactor improves the
efficiency of the process. The stable intermediates formed during the discharge process were
identified by HR-MS.
For the first time, APPJ has been demonstrated as an environmentally benign
approach for the redox transformations of As(III) and Cr(VI). The simultaneous treatment of
Cr(VI) and As (III) appears to be more beneficial than the removal of individual pollutant,
which was assigned due to the synergistic effect between Cr(VI) reduction and As(III)
oxidation. The solution pH also showed a significant effect on the redox transformations.
Addition of Fe2+ salts not only favored the As(III) oxidation to As(V) but also promoted the
immobilization of As(V) by Fe(III) ions.
The present APPJ reactor has been tested successfully for the bacterial inactivation
in an aqueous medium. Typical results indicated that gaseous (Ar + air) mixture showed the
highest bacterial inactivation, possibly due to the right combination of solution pH and
active species concentration. The •OH present in the solution contributes significantly to the
bacterial inactivation, whereas, the presence of either HNO3 and/or H2O2 is not effective.
APPJ has been used for the green synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Active
species formed during plasma discharge are the main contributors to the reduction as well as
oxidation of the GO/RGO. Removal of the functional groups and re-oxidation of
unsaturated double bonds present in graphene were successfully characterized by various
physico-chemical studies. Yet another application of the APPJ is the green synthesis of
highly dispersed colloidal silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) under ambient conditions. The size
of the colloidal AgNPs was tuned by adjusting the AgNO3 initial concentration and the
applied power. Interestingly the plasma reduced AgNPs are stable even after 30 days,
whereas the chemically reduced ones agglomerated within 12 h.


This Article explores serious questions that remain about the U.N. role in human rights struggles following the South African elections. Are there structural barriers that prevent the United Nations from acting more rapidly and decisively on human rights matters? What role does the United Nations have in the human rights struggle beyond the mechanics of electoralism and attainment of formal political equality? How can human rights non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") help the United Nations become more effective in its human rights work? The fiftyyear global campaign against state-directed racial oppression in South Africa provides lessons that help answer such questions. This Article is divided into two parts. Part One reviews five decades of the U.N.-centered global campaign for human rights in South Africa. The campaign was built around dismantling apartheid and replacing it with a new political order, legitimized through elections. The review reveals the general inadequacy of the formal United Nations structure and processes and highlights the effectiveness of the international anti-apartheid movement, human rights NGOs who employed U.N. resources to reach across sovereign boundaries and mobilize popular support against apartheid. This Article's evaluation focuses on the enduring nature and comprehensiveness of the global response to apartheid and suggests that the campaign should be used as a standard for judging global responses to other human rights violations. Part Two of this Article identifies the domestic and international aspects of the global campaign against apartheid that can effectively be applied in other human rights struggles. Part Two of the Article critiques the institutional deficiencies of U.N. intervention, which involved little effort to deal with the underlying socio-economic disparities that pervade South Africa. Part Two also explores how the United Nations' lack of influence on international economic matters undermines the efficacy of popular efforts to address vast economic disparities that characterize societies like South Africa. This Article concludes by discussing how human rights NGOs could further the human rights mission of the United Nations by interpreting their work in light of ideas developed in the critique and defense of rights-discourse. In particular, it discusses the promise of the "jurisprudence of reconstruction," which is committed to both a radical and critical posture toward power even as it seeks to transform power relationships by appealing to ideas like truth and justice.


Abstract Within international development, strengthening the voice of citizens living in poverty is recognised as vital to reducing inequity. In support of such endeavors, participatory video (PV) is an increasingly utilised communicative method that can stimulate community engagement and amplify the voice of groups often excluded from decision-making spaces. However, implementing PV processes specifically within an international development context is an immensely complex proposal. Practitioners must take into consideration the different ways institutions may understand the use of participatory video for raising citizen voice; and how therefore the practice may be influenced, co-opted or even devalued by these institutional assumptions. To this end, this article interrogates how global PV practitioners express tension in their work. Analysis of their descriptions suggests six influential views on PV practice with the potential to diminish the value of voice from the margins.


We report on a patient who developed capsular block syndrome (CBS) in the early postoperative period with marked myopic shift in absence of anterior dislocation of the posterior-chamber intraocular lens (PC/IOL) and iris diaphragm. Treatment with focal 6-o'-clock Nd: YAG-capsulotomy resulted in complete visual acuity restoration. To the best of our knowledge this is the fist case of early onset CBS with significant myopic shift in absence of anterior PC/IOL dislocation, which was successfully treated with focal 6-o'-clock Nd: YAG-capsulotomy. The possible underlying pathophysiological mechanism is discussed.


The Other's War is an intervention into a set of contemporary moral, political and legal debates over the legitimacy of war and terrorism within the context of the so-called global war on terror. Tarik Kochi considers how, despite the variety of its approaches just war theory, classical realist, post-Kantian, poststructuralist - contemporary ethical, political and legal philosophy still struggles to produce a convincing account of war. Focusing on the philosophical problem of the rightness of war, The Other's War responds to this lack. Through a discussion of a number of key Western intellectual traditions, Kochi demonstrates how often conflicting and contradictory conceptions of wars rightness have developed in modernity. He shows how a process of ordering violence around different notions of right has constantly redrawn the boundaries of what constitutes legitimate violence. Such a process has consequences for anyone who claims to be fighting a just war. Building upon this account and drawing upon the philosophical heritage of G.W.F. Hegel and Ernst Bloch, The Others War proposes a new understanding of war, not just as a social condition characterised by violent conflict and struggles for power, but as the attempt of individuals and groups to realise their normative claims through violence. Kochi argues that both of these aspects of war are an expression of the metaphysics of human subjectivity. War begins with, and is the radical exaggeration of, a fundamental activity of human subjectivity, in which the subject constitutes its normative and material identity; realising and positing itself through acts that involve negation and violence. By drawing consideration of the problem of war back to the level of a philosophical examination of the metaphysics of human subjectivity, The Other's War develops a novel theory of war that helps us to better understand the nature of contemporary conflict as a process of recognition. From this perspective, judgment, it is concluded, needs to be constantly guided by the effort to recognise the ethics of the other's war.


By definition the extra teeth present in the oral cavity are the supernumerary teeth which are found in any area of the oral cavity. Sometimes Supernumerary teeth are present even in the anterior region of the maxilla which is called as mesiodens. Mesiodens are the most common supernumerary teeth, occurring in 0.15–1.9% of the population. The exact etiology of mesiodens is not fully understood, but proliferation of the dental lamina and genetic factors can be the reason. Mesiodens can be either paired or single, unerupted or impacted which can be unaesthetic and most of the time associated with complications like midline diastema, rotation, displacement, and root resorption and cyst formation. It should be properly diagnosed for the appropriate management to reduce the complications to the developing dentition. In the present cases mesiodentes were found in the anterior maxilla, one erupted and another unerupted and inverted in one case and unerupted causing resorption of root of permanent central incisor in another case. In these cases mesiodentes are prophylactically extracted to prevent its adverse effects on developing dentition.


Background: Recombinant proteins, including antibodies and antibody fragments, often contain disulfide bond bridges that are necessary for their folding, stability and function. Production of disulfide-bond-containing proteins in the periplasm of Escherichia coli has been very useful, due to unique characteristics of the periplasm, for obtaining fully active and correctly folded products and for alleviating downstream processing. Results: In this study, fed-batch cultivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) for production of Fab D1.3, which is an anti-hen egg white Lysozyme (HEWL) antibody fragment was carried out at 37oC, and the bacterial cells were induced by adding 0.1 mM IPTG to the culture medium. Fermentor was sampled over the course of fermentation; the bacterial cells were centrifugally separated from the culture broth and subjected to osmotic shock (with excluding HEWL) and sonication procedures. The resulting fractions were analysed for Fab using a combination of ELISA, SDS-PAGE and Western blotting and changes in product titre, location, and form was assessed throughout growth. It was shown that osmotic shock released the Fab from the periplasm very efficiently and its efficacy was 20-45% more than sonication. This study demonstrates that, at high cell density cultivation in fermentor, target product can appear inside and outside the cells, depending on the time of induction. The maximum amount of Fab (47 mg/l) in the periplasm was reached at 14 hrs cultivation (4 hrs post induction), being suitable time for cell harvest, selective periplasmic extraction and downstream capture. The Fab increasingly leaked into the culture medium, and reached its maximum culture medium titre of ~78 mg/L after 6 hrs post induction. After 16 hrs cultivation (6 hrs post induction) the amount of Fab remained constant in different locations within and outside the cells. Western blot analysis of cell fractions showed that certain amount of the Fab was also produced in the cells as insoluble form. Conclusions: In this work we showed that the production of Fab in the periplasm during high cell density cultivation of E. coli in fermentor can be challenging as the product may appear in various locations within and outside the cells. To exploit the advantages of the periplasmic expression systems for purification in downstream processing, bacterial cells should be harvested when they maintain the majority of the target protein in their periplasmic space ( i.e. 4 hrs post induction).


Most of students who learn Additional Mathematics in higher secondary school
and the high institute of education students who study Discrete Mathematics found that
the topic of probability is very boring and difficult to learn. In official examination such
as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) in Additional Mathematic subject, the questions
related of probability will be skipped by most students. Moreover, the questions about
probability are optional. It is because from their opinion, this topic is hard to learn
especially in conventional way. It influenced some teachers to do not teach this topic.
Another problem traced is the students feel hard to recognize the type of probability
problems which will be using permutation method and which kind of questions will be
using combination method. The process of designing of the prototype of courseware is
more focus to Permutation and Combination, one of the topics in Discrete Mathematics
and also in Additional Mathematics. This courseware is developed for not only the
students who take that course, but also suitable for anyone who did not know before
about probability. In designing this courseware, the examples and questions will be
constructed based on the learning theory that is constructivism approach. The
courseware will be following the constructivism theory which the students will be able
to construct the solutions and finally will come up with general ideas of what they have
learned. Besides of that, the examples of the problem will be provided and suited the
each subtopic which they will learn.


In this paper, we analyze heterogeneous performance exhibited by some popular deep learning software frameworks for visual inference on a resource-constrained hardware platform. Benchmarking of Caffe, OpenCV, TensorFlow, and Caffe2 is performed on the same set of convolutional neural networks in terms of instantaneous throughput, power consumption, memory footprint, and CPU utilization. To understand the resulting dissimilar behavior, we thoroughly examine how the resources in the processor are differently exploited by these frameworks. We demonstrate that a strong correlation exists between hardware events occurring in the processor and inference performance. The proposed hardware-aware analysis aims to find limitations and bottlenecks emerging from the joint interaction of frameworks and networks on a particular CPU-based platform. This provides insight into introducing suitable modifications in both types of components to enhance their global performance. It also facilitates the selection of frameworks and networks among a large diversity of these components available these days for visual understanding.


This study is a quantitative study of the impact of arts integration on the academic achievement in English language arts and mathematics of urban fourth-grade students. The data were the results of a federally funded Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant project from 2006-2009 implemented in a large urban school district. This secondary analysis used the data from 2009, the third and final year of the AEMDD study. The analysis used the New York State ELA and mathematics test scores of fourth graders as the measure to determine if arts integration had an effect on student achievement in these two content areas. Additionally, this analysis was conducted to determine which art form, music, visual art, theater, or dance had the greatest impact. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0. The ANOVA results indicate that integrated arts instruction has a positive impact on student achievement in ELA and mathematics at grade four. The Pairwise Comparison with the Bonferroni Correction was used to determine the effect of the specific art form used as the intervention to determine which of the arts forms had the greatest effect on fourth grade student achievement in ELA and mathematics. It was determined that visual art had a significant effect on the fourth-grade students' performance in mathematics and that music had a significant effect on the academic achievement of urban fourth graders in ELA. Teachers, school and policy makers need to support arts integration as a means of increasing student achievement. Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Education (EdD) Department Executive Leadership First Supervisor Diane Reed Second Supervisor Bruce Blaine Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at Fisher Digital Publications: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/education_etd/59 The Impact of Integrated Arts Instruction on Student Achievement of Fourth Grade Urban Students in English Language Arts and Mathematics


We have developed novel fluorescence bio-imaging based automated models to screen for novel candidate targets involved in prostate cancer metastasis. Utilizing these models and adopting a functional genomics based approach; we identified SYK as a novel regulator of prostate cancer progression. We also identified functional involvement of MST1R in regulating the progression of prostate cancer. For both of these targets, there is supporting human clinical data to validate our results in prostate cancer.


The paper makes an empirical contribution to knowledge about the impact of enterprise education in secondary schools, and contributes to the debate on methodological practices in the evaluation of enterprise programmes. The case is made for greater use of longitudinal studies and the contribution that can be made by multivariate techniques. The current Labour leadership in the UK continues to be committed to fostering an enterprise culture through a range of initiatives, most importantly through its enterprise education strategy in schools. Evidence from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the UK has consistently pointed towards an association between participation (both voluntary and compulsory) enterprise training at school and college and early stage entrepreneurial activity. While this paper will present data on this association, the evidence base for most of these initiatives, however, is insubstantial, and the inadequacy of enterprise policy evaluations demonstrated by researchers. The aim of this research was to show how the development of an instrument to measure attitudes towards enterprise can contribute to the evidence and debate focused on enterprise education in schools. The research involved a longitudinal study of a year long Young Enterprise Company Programme in secondary schools in London. Findings showed that participation in an enterprise programme can influence young peoples' enterprise potential, though type of school, parental occupation and gender were also associated. Pupils in the study were approaching the turbulent transition period from education to employment and need to make informed career decisions, and therefore enterprise programmes need to be sensitive to the dangers of raising unrealistic expectations in young people.


The scattering of light within paper can affect the color of a halftone image. Because of scattering, a photon may enter and emerge from the paper in different regions of the halftone microstructure. The microstructure of a halftone print consists of a number of dots of ink of varying color and size. The color of the halftone image is the partitive mixture of the colors of the microstructure—the colors of the dots, the colors of the dot overlaps, and the color of the bare paper. In the present study the tristimulus values of the color of a halftone print are calculated in terms of the halftone microstructure. The analysis includes the effects of the scattering of light within the paper, an effect known as optical dot gain or the Yule–Nielsen effect. The tristimulus values are expressed as the trace of the product of two matrices—one a matrix that expresses the different colors of the microstructure that contribute to the partitive mixture and is a function of the ink transmittances and the paper reflectance and the other a matrix that expresses the amount of each color that contributes. The relative amount of each color is equal to the probability of the scattering process that gives rise to that color. These probabilities are calculated in terms of the dot shapes and sizes and in terms of the photon migration in the paper. As a result of the scattering, several "new" colors contribute to the partitive mixture.


Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is an important virus pathogen of lupins in Australia which causes serious yield losses of up to 60% in epidemic years. In commercially grown lupin (Lupinus angustifolius and L. luteus) crops CMV is spread non-persistently by aphid vectors, but it can also be seed borne and this extends virus infection into successive generations. Resistance to CMV has been identified in L. luteus cv. Wodjil and is the conferred by the Ncm-1 gene. The aims of this research were to study the Ncm-1 gene in order to gain a better understanding of resistance in yellow lupin, and to develop a molecular marker linked to Ncm-1 for use in marker assisted selection.

Previously published data by Jones et al (1996) identified Ncm-1 as being a single dominant resistance gene, however, phenotypic analysis of CMV infection in a segregating L. luteus mapping population in this thesis was consistent with the Ncm-1 gene being a dominant gene modified by at least one other minor gene. The polygenic nature of CMV resistance in this genetic background was further supported by AFLP analysis which identified one major and one minor QTL associated with resistance.

A PCR based approach, using degenerate primers designed on conserved disease resistance protein motifs, was used to identify resistance gene analogues (RGA) in L. luteus. Comparative analysis revealed that RGAs isolated from L. luteus were members of the TIR-NBS-LRR class of R proteins and were similar to the TMV resistance gene N identified in tobacco and the RT4-4 CMV resistance gene from pepper. Extensive comparative analysis using the genomes of model species (including Medicago truncatula, Glycine max, Arabidopsis thaliana and Lotus japonicus) was explored and validated the assignment from L. luteus RGAs to the category of candidate gene for CMV resistance. The RGAs identified in L. luteus were found to be highly conserved in both the CMV resistant and susceptible varieties tested. SNPs which resulted in non-synonymous mutations were identified using cDNA based 5' RACE and used to develop a single nucleotide primer extension (SNuPE) assays for MALDI-ToF mass spectrophotometric analysis. As SNuPE is based on the allele specific extension of a single nucleotide, genotyping is highly accurate and provides co-dominant information. Two SNuPE assays were developed based on the RGAs isolated and validated on bulked samples from two L.luteus populations segregating for CMV resistance. One assay, SNuPE A267→C was found to associate with CMV resistance. This co-dominant assay is the first of its kind reported for yellow lupin.


In Queer Activism in India , Naisargi N. Dave examines the formation of lesbian communities in India from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Based on ethnographic research conducted with activist organizations in Delhi, a body of letters written by lesbian women, and research with lesbian communities and queer activist groups across the country, Dave studies the everyday practices that constitute queer activism in India.

Dave argues that activism is an ethical practice comprising critique, invention, and relational practice. She investigates the relationship between the ethics of activism and the existing social norms and conditions from which activism emerges. Through her analysis of different networks and institutions, Dave documents how activism oscillates between the potential for new social arrangements and the questions that arise once the activists' goals have been achieved. Queer Activism in India addresses a relevant and timely phenomenon and makes an important contribution to the anthropology of queer communities, social movements, affect, and ethics.


This article examines the relationship between government budgetary policy and the pursuit of accelerated economic growth. The authors review the academic debate over long-term economic growth and associated short-term fluctuations and conclude that Russian budgetary intended to smooth fluctuations in economic activity are of limited effect and that there are no opportunities for increasing public expenditure in the medium and long-term. For these reasons, the structure of expenditures must be changed and budgetary institutions must be transformed with a view to creating the preconditions for economic growth in the long-term.


Epistemology is the study of how knowledge is formed. Standard epistemology isolates the known from the knowers, thereby defining knowledge as objectively constant. Multiple epistemologies suggest that individuals learn in different ways shaped by life factors such as education, family, ethnicity, history, and regional beliefs. In this groundbreaking volume, editors Peter V. Paul and Donald F. Moores call on ten other noted scholars and researchers to join them in examining the many ways that deaf people see and acquire deaf knowledge. This collection considers three major groups of deaf knowledge perspectives: sociological and anthropological, historical/psychological and literary, and educational and philosophical. The first explores the adoption of a naturalized, critical epistemological stance in evaluating research; the epistemology of a positive deaf identity; how personal epistemologies can help form deaf education policies; and valuing deaf indigenous knowledge in research. The next part considers dueling epistemologies in educating deaf learners; reforms in deaf education; the role of deaf children of hearing parents in creating Deaf epistemologies; and the benefit of reading literature with deaf characters for all students. The final part explores the application of the Qualitative-Similarity Hypothesis to deaf students acquisition of knowledge; a metaparadigm for literacy instruction in bilingual-bicultural education; collaborative knowledge-building to access academia; and examination of the benefits and disadvantages of being deaf."


It is estimated that every year in the UK, more than one million people attend Accident and Emergency following a head injury. Neuropsychological assessment to detect impairments after a traumatic brain injury is a primary aspect of care. There is little information on how the neuropsychological assessment is experienced. This study captures the experience of undergoing a neuropsychological assessment from the viewpoint of clients with traumatic brain injury. Semi-structured Interviews were conducted with eight clients with traumatic brain injury, who had recently undergone a neuropsychological assessment. These were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Overall, the experiences of undergoing a neuropsychological test were variable, with reports of positive and negative experiences. Participants valued being treated as equal partners during the assessment process while also respecting that the assessor held the knowledge and expertise to aid their understanding of the injury. Assessor qualities and the relationship with the assessor affected participants' assessment experiences. Familiarity with the assessor allowed participants to relax, whilst an unfamiliar assessor lead to uncertainty and anxiety. Participants had mixed views for the reason for the assessment. They approached the assessment with determination and a need to try their best. Feelings of anxiety, confusion, anger and frustration were reported. Participants also described feelings of relief and an eagerness to complete the tests. There was an overall sense that the assessment provided awareness about their difficulties after head injury, from which they could progress. Participants spoke about the fatigue experienced during the assessment which they felt negatively impacted on their assessment experience, as did a poor assessment environment. The analysis has demonstrated that undertaking a neuropsychological assessment is not a neutral experience for clients with a TBI.
The results of the study are considered in the light of existing research and its clinical implications.


The rapid rise of international collaboration over the past three decades, demonstrated in coauthorship of scientific articles, raises the question of whether countries benefit from cooperative science and how this might be measured. We develop and compare measures to ask this question. For all source publications in 2013, we obtained from Elsevier national-level full and fractional paper counts as well as accompanying field-weighted citation counts. Then we collected information from Elsevier on the percent of all internationally coauthored papers for each country, as well as Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measures of the international mobility of the scientific workforce in 2013, and conducted a principle component analysis that produced an openness index. We added data from the OECD on government budget allocation on research and development (GBARD) for 2011 to tie in the public spending that contributed to the 2013 output. We found that openness among advanced science systems is strongly correlated with impact—the more internationally engaged a nation is in terms of coauthorships and researcher mobility, the higher the impact of scientific work. The results have important implications for policy making around investment, as well as the flows of students, researchers, and technical workers.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Corynebacterium glutamicum share a similar cell wall structure and orthologous enzymes involved in cell wall assembly. Herein, we have studied C. glutamicum NCgl1505, the orthologue of putative glycosyltransferases Rv1459c from M. tuberculosis and MSMEG3120 from Mycobacterium smegmatis. Deletion of NCgl1505 resulted in the absence of lipomannan (Cg‐LM‐A), lipoarabinomannan (Cg‐LAM) and a multi‐mannosylated polymer (Cg‐LM‐B) based on a 1,2‐di‐O‐C16/C18:1‐(α‐D‐glucopyranosyluronic acid)‐(1→3)‐glycerol (GlcAGroAc2) anchor, while syntheses of triacylated‐phosphatidyl‐myo‐inositol dimannoside (Ac1PIM2) and Man1GlcAGroAc2 were still abundant in whole cells. Cell‐free incubation of C. glutamicum membranes with GDP‐[14C]Man established that C. glutamicum synthesized a novel α(1→6)‐linked linear form of Cg‐LM‐A and Cg‐LM‐B from Ac1PIM2 and Man1GlcAGroAc2 respectively. Furthermore, deletion of NCgl1505 also led to the absence of in vitro synthesized linear Cg‐LM‐A and Cg‐LM‐B, demonstrating that NCgl1505 was involved in core α(1→6) mannan biosynthesis of Cg‐LM‐A and Cg‐LM‐B, extending Ac1PI[14C]M2 and [14C]Man1GlcAGroAc2 primers respectively. Use of the acceptor α‐D‐Manp‐(1→6)‐α‐D‐Manp‐O‐C8 in an in vitro cell‐free assay confirmed NCgl1505 as an α(1→6) mannopyranosyltransferase, now termed MptB. While Rv1459c and MSMEG3120 demonstrated similar in vitroα(1→6) mannopyranosyltransferase activity, deletion of the Rv1459c homologue in M. smegmatis did not result in loss of mycobacterial LM/LAM, indicating a functional redundancy for this enzyme in mycobacteria.


Beginning in 1945, the occupying powers wanted to reconstruct German society by removing the authoritarianism and militarism that were so firmly entrenched in German life--and sport. (1) Officials attempted to rebuild Germany's economy, politics, and society through the four Ds: democratization, demilitarization, denazification, and decartelization. In addition to assisting with the three punitive aspects, sport provided a wide-reaching venue through which the Allies could implement the one positive attribute (democratization) within Germany, and for youth in particular. Britain, France, and the United States paid careful attention to the re-formation of athletic clubs in occupied Germany, believing sport, as it was a wide-reaching activity for youth and adults, could assist with democratization if led properly. Rather than welcoming Germany back into the world of international sport immediately, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not reaccept Germany until May 1951. (2) The Allies pushed for international acceptance of Germany, but the Nazi pasts of many German sport leaders created problems for both the western powers and the IOC. The two-year delay in formal recognition came as a result of the intimate involvement by the American and British High Commissioners regarding the composition of the German Olympic Committee. The French, while present at tripartite meetings and expressing their opinions in the matter of German Olympic participation, did not work as strenuously behind the scenes because two of their members were fairly compromised from their own actions during the war. (3) Nonetheless, American and British dissatisfaction with the German sport leaders' Nazi pasts and the German struggle to gain IOC recognition demonstrate the problems the Allies faced in implementing denazification, as well as the shift in priorities with a changing international situation. To understand the objections raised by the American and British governments (and some IOC members), it is first necessary to introduce the two German members of the International Olympic Committee. Duke Adolf Friedrich von Mecklenburg and Karl Ritter von Halt had been IOC members since 1926 and 1929 respectively. (4) Von Halt, who was from Bavaria, assisted with the 1936 Berlin Olympic bid and became President of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games. Von Halt rose rapidly in the 1930s to higher positions in both international sport as well as in the SA (Sturmabteilung). As the director of the Deutsche Bank, he provided funds to Himmler and was part of his inner circle. For the last year of the Third Reich, von Halt was also the final Reichssportfuhrer, resulting in his imprisonment in Buchenwald by the Soviets, who released him only in February 1950 in order to join the IOC themselves. (5) Mecklenburg's actions are not as well-documented, at least during the Third Reich. He was the Governor of the Togo Colony from 1912-14 and was highly involved in German sport during the Weimar Republic. As the brother-in-law to the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina, his connections to exiled European royalty led to his dismissal from any posts under the Nazis. (6) The occupation governments had understood the importance to Germany of its acceptance back into the world of international sport even before the founding of the Federal Republic and the new National Olympic Committee. J.G. Dixon, the Physical Education Officer in the British Zone, wrote in 1948 that recognition by the IOC and the other international sport federations "would in fact involve a recognition that Germany had taken her place again amongst the commity [sic] of nations, and there is no doubt that Germans themselves would attach considerable political significance to it." (7) Even at the beginning of 1949, as plans to form a federal government were underway, the British Educational Advisor, Robert Birley, sent out a staff memo in which he stated, "Present policy excludes Germany from participation in International Championships and this policy was endorsed by the International Olympic Committee. …


When looking at the history of surgical procedures and general surgical practice, there is a stark difference between the state of the discipline in the 1500s compared to the present day. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG), contains a large collection of surgical tools dating back to the 18th Century. Many of the instruments are fragile and must be well protected within glass cases due to their historical significance. This protection of historical artefacts is much needed for conservation, but reduces the ability for individuals to appreciate the importance of these tools. To address issues such as this, many collections are now displayed online. However, most digital libraries only present objects as static images, reducing the level of interaction, control and reality. This can be improved upon with the development of 3D digital models. However, problems arise when 3D scanning objects that feature reflective surfaces; the reflection of light or glare obscures common reference points required to compose a 3D digital model. It must be questioned as to whether 3D digital models of specular artefacts can be obtained by 3D scanning methods and whether such visualizations are more effective than static 2D images. Hence, the present study proposes a method of digitization and presentation of historical surgical artefacts, with international significance, via the application of photogrammetry and virtual reality software for use in an online learning module for the module "Medicine and Society in Europe, 1500-1930" at the Open University (OU). Six items of surgical importance from the historical collections from the RCPSG were included in the sample group, many being composed of metal and/or glass. Image capture was achieved with a Nikon D5300 digital camera, and 52mm polarizing filter, with both static and dynamic photogrammetric methods employed. Images were then processed through two photogrammetric software packages, Agisoft Photoscan and Autodesk Memento, and one virtual reality package, Garden Gnome Object 2VR. The online learning module, including the obtained digital models, was constructed using the website-building software Moodle. On examination, the presence of glare resulted in incomplete 3D models after processing in Photoscan and Memento. However, it was possible to construct complete 2D virtual reality models via Object 2VR. Although not technically three-dimensional, 2VR models can be manipulated positionally to view the artefact from all angles, giving the impression of a 3D experience. The Object 2VR models were implemented into the online learning module to provide a more interactive and realistic experience for learners. It is hoped that future research can be performed to determine the efficiency of this learning module in transferring information to learners. 3D digitization of specular artefacts is still a problem in the research field, and is yet to be solved. However, the use of 2D virtual reality models could prove to be a useful alternative until 3D scanning of specular objects is perfected. This paper shall present the workflow methodology to ensure effective representation of historical surgical instruments of international significance, to enable a wider reach of education, in a more interactive means than used in many other digital museums.


The disposition of rental articles constitutes a complex logistic problem. In general, those articles circulate in closed logistic systems and their order-oriented transport between different hubs within the network defines a variety of the Traveling-Salesman-Problem (TSP). As the complexity of this problem class grows with the number of parameters involved, resolving the TSP is a challenging task in daily business. This is especially the case in the field of event logistics, a business area, which extends the common problems related to rental articles with a dynamically changing logistic system. This paper addresses the application of methods from the field of autonomous control for the disposition of rental articles in event logistics with a special focus on the integration aspects. As information transparency is an indispensable requirement for the application of autonomous control, the provision of the corresponding hardware for identification, positioning and communication purposes is the first emphasis. The second is the design and integration of the related agent-based disposition software within the typical software landscape of a company. A small enterprise from the relevant business field serves as an example for the integration proceeding.


The Italian gas market is the third largest in Europe with strong demand growth especially in the power generation sector up to the mid 2000s. But projections of demand growth from that era have not been realised. Clearly the impact of the financial crisis and subsequent recession has had a significant impact, exacerbated by the growth in wind and solar generation capacity. Market liberalisation in the 2000s failed to achieve levels of competition in the mid and downstream sectors to the extent seen in North West European markets. This resulted not only in some of the highest European end-user gas prices, but also delayed development of a liquid trading hub. Only in late 2012 did prices at the Italian gas hub PSV align with the prices at the Dutch gas hub TTF and other North West European hubs after capacity availability issues in linking infrastructure were resolved. Italy's contracted supply commitments considerably exceed current and envisaged gas consumption levels. Scenarios on gas demand are not optimistic and will ultimately depend on future economic activity, tempered by the growth of renewable capacity. This paper takes these issues into consideration, and offers some insights regarding the challenges but also the opportunities that will arise in the Italian gas industry up to 2020.


In an endeavour to achieve high standards, Australia has directed its attention to the Towards Zero strategy that involves aiming for no fatalities on the road. Road crashes are costing Australia $18 billion every year. This paper highlights the sustainability benefits of the 40km/h school zone that has provided safer roads, higher savings and socially pleasant environments. It examines why school zone drivers are prompted to slow down and elsewhere they are not. They are the same drivers, but on different segments of the road network. This safe driving behaviour needs to be shifted to roads outside the school zones. A comparative analysis of the recent enforcement data has focused on two detection types, the 'On the spot' and 'roadside'. Results show that two domains need to be continuously proactive: the no fatality approach and the harm minimisation approach (minor injuries rather than severe). The paper focuses on changing the detection type according to the environment of the zone. This is considered as the ultimate unfailing planning enforcement support. From an engineering viewpoint, the remarkable flashing 40km/h limit signs may have proven to be of impressive benefits in terms of drivers obeying the speed limit. The signs are bright and clear and most of all alerting as they flash, causing fast drivers to observe them and adjust their speed. It is concluded that the aim of achieving sustainability is to manage and monitor the maximum benefits of the trade-off between the diminishing returns in achieving highest harm minimisation and a police presence between school and non-school zones.


This paper presents a novel deployable antenna mechanism for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. First, the topological structure of the new deployable mechanism is designed based on the five conditions expected to be satisfied. Then, the kinematic model of the new mechanism is fully established based on vector equations and structural symmetry. Third, the deployed/folded ratio and interference of the new mechanism are analyzed. Finally, a typical numerical example is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis, and a physical prototype is developed to show the fabrication feasibility of the new deployable mechanism. Compared with the latest counterpart for SAR satellites in the existing literature, the new deployable mechanism of this paper has the simpler driving system, has the simpler deployment movement, and has no prismatic pairs with cold welding problems. With these characteristics, the presented new mechanism has a good application prospect in SAR satellites.


Interdisciplinary study of granite rapakivi biofouling in the natural and anthropogenic environment (St. Petersburg, Vyborg, Southern Finland) was carried out. The biodiversity of microorganisms (cyanobacteria, micromycetes, and organotrophic bacteria) and various types of biofilms are characterized. The influence of external factors on the changes of cyanobacterial biofilms is shown. The features of biofilms localization on the granite surface in an urban environment and in natural outcrops are studied. Differences in the biofilms metabolites composition at the granite quarries and monuments of St. Petersburg are shown. The behavior of chemical elements during the bioweathering of granite is estimated. The role of biofilms in the accumulation of chemical elements on the surface of granite is established. The dynamics of chemical elements leaching from granite may depend on the type of biofilm developing on granite.


PURPOSE
This study examined the influence of stimulus chromaticity on simple reaction times (RTs) to determine the stage of chromatic processing that is most influential in their generation.

METHODS
Simple RTs were measured in response to the cosinusoidally ramped onset of small, equiluminant, colored Gaussian spots. The chromaticity of these stimuli was varied, to modulate along a series of vectors in color space that included red-green (L-M) and blue-yellow (S-[L+M]) opponent axes.

RESULTS
RTs are highly sensitive to small departures from subjective equiluminance. They are also dependent on stimulus chromaticity. The longest RTs are generated in response to equiluminant stimuli that isolate S-cone activity, whereas the shortest are generated by stimuli that modulate the L-M opponent axis. However, temporal processing differences are highly dependent on how the chromatic stimuli are scaled in relation to one another. The differences are reduced when scaling is based on detection threshold. The relationship between chromatic contrast and RT can be described by the modified Piéron equation RT = RT(0) + k x C(-1).

CONCLUSIONS
Simple RTs generated in this study conform to the idea that they are largely determined by cone-opponency mechanisms. The use of cone contrast as a metric for scaling chromatic stimuli exaggerates differences between the temporal responsiveness of L-M and S-(L+M) opponency mechanisms.