Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense Lam.) is an Andean fruit crop with great economic prospects in global export markets. The conservation and improvement of this crop greatly depend on the quantification of its genetic variability and on finding alternative sources of diversity in the Lasiocarpa section. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the extent to which SSR primer pairs specifically designed for Solanum tuberosum L. could be used in genetic diversity and phenetic studies of S. quitoense and its wild relatives from the Lasiocarpa section. Thirteen nuclear SSR primer pairs, out of 48 tested, were successfully transferred. Seven of these primers produced a total of 25 alleles and an average polymorphic information content (PIC) value of 0.4030. The genetic similarity index (Jaccard) between all accessions analyzed was 0.46 (0.54 dissimilarity), a value expected to increase with a greater sample population and a greater array of SSR primer pairs. Our preliminary UPGMA cluster analysis displayed seven major clusters and reinforces previous claims regarding the phenetic relations of section Lasiocarpa. The most important similarities between our results and the results of previous studies lie in the potential exclusion of S. stagnate from this section and the close genetic relationship that exists between S. candidum and the Asian members of this plant group. Our findings open the possibility for the exploitation of cross-species amplification as a source of SSR markers for this plant group; thus contributing toward current developments aimed at improving and preserving S. quitoense, a crop of great importance to the Andean region.


One of the main topological invariants that characterizes several topologically ordered phases is the many-body Chern number (MBCN). Paradigmatic examples include several fractional quantum Hall phases, which are expected to be realized in different atomic and photonic quantum platforms in the near future. Experimental measurement and numerical computation of this invariant are conventionally based on the linear-response techniques that require having access to a family of states, as a function of an external parameter, which is not suitable for many quantum simulators. Here, we propose an ancilla-free experimental scheme for the measurement of this invariant, without requiring any knowledge of the Hamiltonian. Specifically, we use the statistical correlations of randomized measurements to infer the MBCN of a wave function. Remarkably, our results apply to disklike geometries that are more amenable to current quantum simulator architectures.


This paper presents results on the stability of hybrid systems which are continuous-time nonlinear systems with a digital controller. Existence and uniqueness results for quantized systems are presented. The main result of the paper shows that there exists a sampling time and quantization step such that the closed-loop system is uniformly and ultimately bounded given any arbitrary bound. An extension of the classical Lyapunov theorem is given to analyze this class of hybrid systems. The digital control scheme includes sampling (possibly multirate), quantization and reconstruction by a zero-order hold.


In the current economic debacle, we inherit a treasure from the past class struggles of treasure : the institutions of social security (health, pension, unemployment, family). In France, we celebrate seventy years of the 4 October 1945 order for the creation of a coordinated network of funds and the Act of 22 May 1946 establishing the principle of the extension of social security to all of the population. Far from being marginalized as sometimes said, these institutions weigh for almost a quarter of the economic value in the main countries of Western Europe (Source: OECD / Social Security Expenditures Database). They are crucial to who does not have sufficient means to safeguard against accidents of life. Although the trend towards nationalization - especially for family and health - is obvious, social security could ensure, without recourse to the State, a public good that each one can enjoy without selling anything. They recognize a non-capitalist economic value to people and their work: care work, the unemployed, pensioners, parents ... Social security has evolved and must still evolve. Still we can extend the institutions of social security? However, political and trade union movement in this direction can no longer ignore the reality of the ecological crisis we face. Also the political ecology movements to recognize the potential benefit of own emancipation to social security. An argument often heard is a necessary condition for funding is the greatest possible growth of economic value, which happens to be one of the structural causes of environmental degradation ... What would a social security in a society without growth ?


Background Relatively recent (Plio-Pleistocene) climatic variations had strong impacts on the fauna and flora of temperate-zone North America and Europe; genetic analyses suggest that many lineages were restricted to unglaciated refuges during this time, and have expanded their ranges since then. Temperate-zone Australia experienced less severe glaciation, suggesting that patterns of genetic structure among species may reflect older (aridity-driven) divergence events rather than Plio-Pleistocene (thermally-mediated) divergences. The lizard genus Bassiana (Squamata, Scincidae) contains three species that occur across a wide area of southern Australia (including Tasmania), rendering them ideally-suited to studies on the impact of past climatic fluctuations. Methodology/Principal Findings We performed molecular phylogenetic and dating analyses using two partial mitochondrial genes (ND2 and ND4) of 97 samples of Bassiana spp. Our results reveal a pattern of diversification beginning in the Middle Miocene, with intraspecific diversification arising from 5.7 to 1.7 million years ago in the Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene. Conclusions/Significance In contrast to the temperate-zone Northern Hemisphere biota, patterns of evolutionary diversification within southern Australian taxa appear to reflect geologically ancient events, mostly relating to east-west discontinuities imposed by aridity rather than (as is the case in Europe and North America) relatively recent recolonisation of northern regions from unglaciated refugia to the south.


The impact of Asian dust on cloud radiative forc- ing during 2003-2006 is studied by using the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Budget Scanner (CERES) data and the Fu-Liou radiative transfer model. Analysis of satellite data shows that the dust aerosol significantly reduced the cloud cooling effect at TOA. In dust contaminated cloudy regions, the 4-year mean values of the instantaneous short- wave, longwave and net cloud radiative forcing are 138.9, 69.1, and 69.7 Wm 2 , which are 57.0, 74.2, and 46.3%, respectively, of the corresponding values in pristine cloudy regions. The satellite-retrieved cloud properties are signif- icantly different in the dusty regions and can influence the radiative forcing indirectly. The contributions to the cloud ra- diation forcing by the dust direct, indirect and semi-direct ef- fects are estimated using combined satellite observations and Fu-Liou model simulation. The 4-year mean value of com- bination of dust indirect and semi-direct shortwave radiative forcing (SWRF) is 82.2 Wm 2 , which is 78.4% of the total dust effect. The dust direct effect is only 22.7 Wm 2 , which is 21.6% of the total effect. Because both first and second indirect effects enhance cloud cooling, the aerosol-induced cloud warming is mainly the result of the semi-direct effect of dust.


Fisheries management is essential to guarantee sustainable capture of target species and avoid undesirable declines of incidentally captured species. A key challenge is halting and reversing declines of shark and ray species, and specifically assessing the degree to which management is sufficient to avoid declines in relatively data-poor fisheries. While ecological risk analyses focus on intrinsic 'productivity' and extrinsic 'susceptibility', one would ideally consider the influence of 'fisheries management'. Currently, there is no single management evaluation that can be applied to a combination of fishery types at the scale of individual country or Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs). Here, we outline a management risk (M-Risk) framework for sharks, rays, and chimaeras used to evaluate species' risk to overfishing resulting from ineffective management. We illustrate our approach with application to one country (Ecuador) and RFMO (Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission) and illustrate the variation in scores among species. We found that while both management units assessed had similar overall scores, the scores for individual attributes varied. Ecuador scored higher in reporting-related attributes, while the IATTC scored higher in attributes related to data collection and use. We evaluated whether management of individual species was sufficient for their relative sensitivity by combining the management risk score for each species with their intrinsic sensitivity to determine a final M-Risk score. This framework can be applied to determine which species face the greatest risk of overfishing and be used by fisheries managers to identify effective management policies by replicating regulations from countries with lower risk scores.


Several methods have been reported in the literature for the measurement of riverbank retreat (Lawler, 1993). During recent years, particular interest has been aroused in the application of terrestrial photogrammetry because of several advantages over other more traditional methods (Barker et alii, 1997; Pyle et alii, 1997). In this study, digital terrestrial photogrammetry has been applied to measure the retreat of a riverbank reach along Sieve River (Tuscany), with the following objectives: a) to verify potentialities and to evaluate advantages and disadvantages in applying such a method to monitor riverbank erosion processes; b) to combine measurements and field observations with modelling and analysis of the main processes responsible for the bank retreat. The riverbank has a height of 4.5-5 m, and it is composite, with a basal portion predominantly composed of gravel and an upper portion of fine-grained material (silt and sand). The length of the reach studied is about 150 m. Five photogrammetric survey points have been arranged along a baseline on the opposite river side, at a constant distance of about 23 m. A Metric Wild P31 Camera has been used for the photogrammetric surveys. Each photograph has a coverage of 22 m, with a stereoscopic overlap of 60% for each pair of photos. A series of targets of aluminium (size 15X15 cm) have been inserted on metallic pins. The pins have been arranged with a configuration including a series of 3 horizontal pins, inserted at different heights of the bank, and a vertical pin on the scarp edge, at a short distance from it. Such an arrangement has been adopted for 11 bank profiles, with a total of 44 targets. A detailed topographic survey has been performed using a total station Nikon DTMA5LG for the determination of plano-altimetric co-ordinates of the targets and of the photogrammetric survey points. Two photogrammetric surveys have been carried out, the first during March 1999 and the second during December 1999, after a flow event (19/11/1999) that caused a significant bank retreat. Image elaboration has been carried out adopting a specific software (StereoView) for digital photogrammetry. Digital Terrain Models (DTM) of the bank surface for the two photogrammetric surveys (before and after the event) have been obtained, allowing detailed reconstruction of the retreat which occurred. For this aim, the bank surface has been divided in 4 sub-reaches (each one corresponding to a stereoscopic pair). The comparison of DTMs has highlighted a significant retreat for most of the entire study reach, with more than 2 m of retreat in some places. Based on the two DTMs, it has been possible accurately to evaluate, with automatic procedure, the difference in volume (corresponding to the eroded material during the flow event), resulting in a total of 1007 m 3 . From field observations conducted during the flow event, the main mechanisms determining the bank retreat have been identified. Most of the processes of retreat have been observed during the drawdown phase of the event. The main mechanisms have been: a) small slides and/or falls in the upper portion of the bank; b) piping/sapping phenomena (Hagerty, 1991; Thorne, 1998), corresponding with a series of centimetre-sized layers of sorted sand in the middle portion of the bank; c) planar-rotational or slab-type failures (Thorne, 1998), involving all or most of the fine-grained portion of the bank. For a better understanding of causes and triggering conditions of the observed instability mechanisms, modelling of saturated/unsaturated flow within the bank has been performed, while hydraulic analyses for studying fluvial erosion have been carried out. Flow modelling has been performed by the software SEEP/W for two representative sections. Results have highlighted: a) a localised increase of seepage velocity corresponding to the sandy layers, due to the differences in conductivity with the other materials, such to explain the triggering of piping processes; b) the interaction between pore water pressures and river confining pressures is particularly unfavourable during the drawdown phase of the flow event, during which most of the mass movements have been observed along the bank. The stability of the basal portion of the bank has been taken into account introducing a dimensionless hydraulic stability number (Casagli et alii, 1999) and analysing its variations during the flow event. The intensity of fluvial erosion has been shown to follow the trend of river level, that is maximum at the peak stage. Based on the results of the analyses, combined with field observations, two schemes of bank evolution have been obtained for the two representative sections. In conclusion, the main advantages and disadvantages in using digital terrestrial photogrammetry have been summarised and discussed. Among the main advantages are: a) the possibility to measure the retreat of all the points of the investigated surface, rather than for a limited number of points; b) high degree of accuracy of the measurements; c) limited disturbance of the investigated surface. Among the disadvantages, the following need to be noted: a) disturbance due to vegetation on the bank surface; b) the method is expensive, in terms of equipment needed, costs, field operations, data processing; c) the method has limited applicability to relatively large rivers.


Four experiments were conducted to evaluate the role and metabolism of phenolic
compounds particularly condensed tannins (CT) in selected Leucaena species
[Leucaena-hybrid Bahru; LLB, Leucaena-hybrid Rendang; LLR, Leucaena
leucocephala-local; LLL and Leucaena leucocephala-Subang; LLS] using in vitro and in
vivo studies. The occurrence of phenolic compounds in the above Leucaena and their
correlations with in vitro gas production and degradability were investigated in the first
experiment. The results showed that hybrid LLR had the highest CT content, resulting
in the lowest in vitro gas production and degradability among the four species tested.
Within shoot of similar age, the in vitro gas production and N degradability were
negatively correlated to CT content, but such relationship were not detected if shoot
samples of different age groups were pooled. The above findings indicated that
concentration of tannins may not be the sole factor affecting nutrient utilisation.
Results of the second experiment showed that there were no significant differences in
the total phenolics and extractable CT contents, gas production and DM degradability for the samples dried at temperature of 45° C as compared to the standard freeze drying
procedure. The present results indicated that where facilities for freeze drying are not
available, drying at 45° C would serve as an option for measurement of the content of
tannins as well as the effects on the in vitro. Drying at 60 °C and the addition of
polyethylene glycol (PEG) reduced the adverse effect of CT. When treated at 60° C,
the in vitro gas production and N degradability increased by about 24.7 and 26.2 %,
respectively. With the addition of PEG, the corresponding values were 42.6 and 22.6%,
respectively. Once again, DM degradability was highest in the local LLL (63.3%),
followed by the hybrids LLB (58.9%) and LLR (55.1%), suggesting the depression of
DM degradability of the hybrids as the results of their higher tannin contents.
In the third experiment, CT were isolated and purified from three Leucaena species to
evaluate differences in their biological binding affinity (astringency) and molecular
weight. The study showed that the phenolics precipitation protein (PPP) value for LLR
and LLB were significantly higher than that of LLL. Similarly, LLR and LLB also
exhibited higher binding affinity than LLL, with the values of 0.13, 0.72 and 1.32 mg
CT mg-1 bovine serum albumin (BSA), respectively. The above findings provide
further explanation for the stronger adverse effect of CT of the hybrid species as
compared to the local variety. Although majority of CT purified from the hybrid
species was made of larger molecules than those of the local Leucaena, thus once again
support the hypothesis that CT of stronger binding affinity are of larger molecular
weight. The conclusion based on the current results is not conclusive and need further
studies.The last Chapter consisted of two in vivo experiments. The results showed that
inclusion of PEG in diets improved DM and N digestibilities, N retention, rumen
ammonia (NH3) as well as microbial N supply in sheep, with no significant differences
on animal performance when the two types of Leucaena species (hybrid and local) were
compared.


This paper reports on the use of cellulose paper simultaneously as electrolyte, separation of electrodes, and physical support of a rechargeable battery. The deposition on both faces of a paper sheet of metal or metal oxides thin layers with different electrochemical potentials, respectively as anode and cathode, such as Cu and Al, lead to an output voltage of 0.70 V and a current density that varies between 150 nA/cm2 and 0.5 mA/cm2, subject to the paper composition, thickness and the degree of OHx species adsorbed in the paper matrix. The electrical output of the paper battery is independent of the electrodes thickness but strongly depends on the atmospheric relative humidity (RH), with a current density enhancement by more than 3 orders of magnitude when RH changes from 60% to 85%. Besides flexibility, low cost, low material consumption, environmental friendly, the power output of paper batteries can be adapted to the desired voltage-current needed, by proper integration. A 3-V prototype was fabricated to control the ON/OFF state of a paper transistor.


During the period 1980-1986, we captured triatomine bugs and mammalian reservoir hosts from sylvatic and domestic situations in different municipalities of the State of Minas Gerais. Trypanosoma cruzi was isolated from captured bugs, mammals and patients. After cultivation in LIT medium, the electrophoretic enzyme profiles were determined. We obtained a total of 32 parasite isolates from regions with active domestic transmission, and 24 isolates from areas under control. For the first areas the results suggest introduction of T. cruzi from sylvatic habitats, through incursion of infected opossums and/or sylvatic T. sordida, which appears to have given rise to at least one acute human infection. Of particular interest is the finding of sylvatic opossums and a T. sordida nymph infected with ZB, that could indicate return of parasites from chronic human infections to sylvatic transmission cycles. For the areas under control we also interpret the results as interaction between sylvatic and domestic cycles of transmission, here through the invasion of houses by bugs carrying the Z1 zymodeme from the sylvatic environment. The Multivariate Correspondence Analysis gives a spatial description between the different parasite isolates and confirms the existence of a bridge in the opposite direction in the region with active vectorial transmission including the exporting of Z2 through the peridomestic environment into the sylvatic cycle. For the other areas this bridge corresponds especially to Panstrongylus megistus, importing Z1 into the domestic environment.


Providing safe drinking water to the world's 6.9 billion and growing population is one of the greatest challenges of the century. Consideration of the global water cycle, however, shows that the available renewable freshwater resources exceed the current human demand by roughly a factor of 10. Scarcity results from the uneven spatial and temporal distribution of water. Over-withdrawal of surface water and groundwater has led to depletion of water resources and environmental damage in some regions. In many developing countries, inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease. These problems can be solved through the improved management of water infrastructure and water resources, advances in technology, and a valuation of water that reflects its importance to society. The role of Earth scientists in addressing the global water crisis is crucial. Indeed, resource monitoring, development of novel waste-water treatment technologies, and determination of the quantities of water that can be withdrawn without causing adverse effects on the environment will be essential for the efficient management of global water resources in the future.


IoT is leading a digital revolution in both academia and industry. It brings convenience to people's daily lives; however, the issues of security and privacy of IoT become challenges. Blockchain, a decentralized database based on cryptographic techniques, is promising for IoT security, which may influence a variety of areas including manufacture, finance, and trading. The blockchain framework in an IoT system is an intriguing alternative to the traditional centralized model, which is struggling to meet some specified demands in IoT. In this article, we investigate typical security and privacy issues in IoT and develop a framework to integrate blockchain with IoT, which can provide great assurance for IoT data and various functionalities and desirable scalability including authentication, decentralized payment, and so on. We also suggest some possible solutions to these security and privacy issues in IoT based on blockchain and Ethereum to show how blockchain contributes to IoT.


Oral arguments at the Supreme Court are important — they affect case outcomes and constitute the only opportunity for outsiders to directly witness the behavior of the justices of the highest court. This Article studies how the justices compete to have influence at oral argument, by examining the extent to which the Justices interrupt each other; it also scrutinizes how advocates interrupt the Justices, contrary to the rules of the Court. We find that judicial interactions at oral argument are highly gendered, with women being interrupted at disproportionate rates by their male colleagues, as well as by male advocates. Oral argument interruptions are also highly ideological, not only because ideological foes interrupt each other far more than ideological allies do, but we show that conservatives interrupt liberals more frequently than vice versa. Seniority also has some influence on oral arguments, but primarily through the female justices learning over time how to behave more like male justices, avoiding traditionally female linguistic framing in order to reduce the extent to which they are dominated by the men.
We use two separate databases to examine how robust these findings are: a publicly available database of Roberts Court oral arguments, and another that we created, providing in-depth analysis of the 1990, 2002, and 2015 Terms. This latter data allows us to see whether the same patterns held when there were one, two, and three female justices on the Court, respectively. These two sets of analyses allow us to show that the effects of gender, ideology, and seniority on interruptions have occurred fairly consistently over time. It also reveals that the increase in interruptions over time is not a product of Justice Scalia's particularly disruptive style, as some have theorized, nor of the political polarization in the country generally arising from the 1994 Republican Revolution. We also find some evidence that judicial divisions based on legal methodology, as well as ideology, lead to greater interruptions.


Revegetation of degraded soils is crucial to prevent erosion and improve soil structure and quality. We aimed to elucidate the role of the root system of grasses on the reclamation of a soil constructed after coal mining. In Candiota city, in Brazil, perennial grasses (Hemarthria, Paspalum, Cynodon, and Brizantha ) were cultivated for 103 months, when soil samples were collected from 0.00–0.30 m layer. The root development of these species substantially decreased in depth, reflecting soil restrictive conditions, as high soil pen etration resistance, especially below 0.10 m, assigned to the use of heavy machinery dur- ing soil construction. Below 0.10 m depth, fine and flattened roots were observed, which penetrated through the cracks of compacted soil layers. Regardless of the soil layer, all plant species had a greater proportion of roots <0.49 than >0.50 mm diameter class, aver-aged 92 and 8%, respectively. Below 0.10 m depth, Brizantha increased the proportion of roots >0.50 mm diameter class, while the other grasses increased the proportion of roots <0.49 mm diameter class. The highest root density, volume, and length observed for Brizantha along the soil profile indicate its high potential to improve physical attributes and therefore the quality of the constructed soil.


Recent decades have drawn the attention of researchers from various fields towards the indebtedness problem. Numerous research attempts have tried to determine demographic, economic, psychological characteristics that are connected with a higher risk of indebtedness. One of the most frequently mentioned psychological factors correlating with indebtedness level were positive attitudes to debt. Attitudes to debt were measured as a one-dimensional construct (pro- and anti- debt), but recent advances in the field show that attitudes towards debt can be better explained by two or three factors (for example, Scott & Lewis, 2001; Haultain, 2009). The main goal of this research was to explore the structure of attitudes to student debt among a sample of Lithuanian students (N=86), and explore relations between attitudes to debt and financial behavior among students. Method. We used two scales to measure attitudes to debt scale: Davies & Lea (1995), and the attitudes to debt scale and revised version of the scale, used by Haultain et al. (2010). Results and conclusions: Exploratory factor analysis of both of the scales shows that attitudes to debt are not unidimensional and could be better explained by two distinct factors. After factor analysis our final version of the student attitudes to debt scale consisted of 9 items falling into two factors: debt avoidance (Cronbach's ⟨=0,717) and debt utility (Cronbach's (=0,713). The scale closely resembled the Haultain et al. (2010) scale, although some of the items were different because of situational factors (e.g. items concerning interest free student loans do not apply in Lithuania). We also found that debt avoidance was lower among students who were using loans. Additionally, we found that debt utility did not correlate with financial behavior.


Railway infrastructure is a complex system which comprises different subsystems. Long useful life span is one of the important aspects of this prime mode of transport. The useful life length of its assets is highly dependent on the maintenance and renewal strategy used during its life cycle. Today's demands on the railway industry call for increased capacity, including more trains, travelling at higher speeds with higher axle loads. This increased usage will result in higher degradation of railway asset and higher maintenance costs. However, due to the competitive environment and limited budgets, railway infrastructure managers are compelled to optimize operation and maintenance procedures to decrease operation and maintenance costs while meeting high safety standards. To assure track safety and maintain high quality, a cost effective track maintenance strategy is required, one based not only on technical and/or safety limits but also on cost-effective maintenance thresholds. RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) and LCC (Life Cycle Cost) analyses, which are derived from reliable track condition data, provide an approach to specify cost effective maintenance strategy to lessen corrective maintenance actions and downtimes. One of the main parameters to assure railway safety and comfortable railway service is to maintain high quality of track geometry. Poor track geometry quality, directly or indirectly, may result in safety problems, speed reduction, traffic disruption, greater maintenance cost and higher degradation rate of the other railway components (e.g. rails, wheels, switch, crossings etc.). The aim of this study is to develop a methodology to optimize track geometry maintenance by using historical geometry data. The methodology is based on reliability and cost analysis and supports the maintenance decision-making process to identify cost-effective inspection interval. An important phase of track geometry maintenance optimization is to estimate the track degradation rate. Obtaining knowledge about degradation helps to properly schedule maintenance activities such as inspection and tamping. The thesis provides a methodology to identify a cost-effective inspection interval based on track degradation rate and cost drivers. It contains state-of-the-art track geometry maintenance optimization. It describes Trafikverket's (Swedish Transport Administration) maintenance strategy regarding measurements, reporting on and improving track quality, and it evaluates the efficiency of this strategy. Finally, it includes a case study carried out on the iron ore line in north of Sweden that runs from Boden to Gallivare to evaluate track geometry degradation and analyze the probability distributions of failures. A cost model is developed in order to find optimal inspection interval.


A demographic time bomb is ticking in many school jurisdictions. Up to 70 per cent of present leaders in the private and public sectors will retire within the next five to ten years as the "baby boomers" move on. While succession planning has become a major initiative in the private sector, leadership succession in education tends to hew to old paths. Where are new educational leaders to come from? How should their succession be orchestrated? The traditional source of succession at the secondary level, the department headship, is no longer an attractive route for many teachers. Many potential leaders do not perceive the role of principal or assistant principal in a positive light. These roles are increasingly being associated with managing the standards/standardization agenda with which many professionals profoundly disagree. While it is premature to declare a leadership crisis in education, it is not too early to call on policy makers to attend to the growing need for succession planning at all levels in education. Based on an examination of change over times in four schools in Ontario, this article addresses issues of leadership succession in education and, more precisely, examines the influence of principals' succession on the principals themselves and their schools.


Linear classifiers in kernel spaces have emerged as a major topic within the field of machine learning. The kernel technique takes the linear classifier--a limited, but well-established and comprehensively studied model--and extends its applicability to a wide range of nonlinear pattern-recognition tasks such as natural language processing, machine vision, and biological sequence analysis. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of both the theory and algorithms of kernel classifiers, including the most recent developments. It begins by describing the major algorithmic advances: kernel perceptron learning, kernel Fisher discriminants, support vector machines, relevance vector machines, Gaussian processes, and Bayes point machines. Then follows a detailed introduction to learning theory, including VC and PAC-Bayesian theory, data-dependent structural risk minimization, and compression bounds. Throughout, the book emphasizes the interaction between theory and algorithms: how learning algorithms work and why. The book includes many examples, complete pseudo code of the algorithms presented, and an extensive source code library.


The common ancestor of salmonids underwent a whole genome duplication approximately 88 million years ago. This duplication event still has a lasting impact on the form and structure of salmon genomes today and is evident in many duplicated genes and ongoing residual tetrasomic inheritance. This duplication also serves to complicate genetic analyses, as paralogous genes and sequences are difficult to distinguish, and often fully excluded prior to study. The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate how to incorporate duplicated loci into genetic studies of salmonids using high-throughput sequencing of chum salmon from the Salish Sea. In the first chapter, I develop a method to resolve paralogous loci within a pedigree and include them on a high-density linkage map. I show that paralogous loci are concentrated in 16 regions near the ends of linkage groups. These regions are inferred to have ongoing residual tetrasomic inheritance and we find that they have a lower incidence of transposable elements than the rest of the genome, a possible explanation for their stability since the whole genome duplication. In the second chapter, I use the discovered paralogous loci in a population genetic study of 10 collections of chum salmon from the Salish Sea. I compare genetic diversity and population structure at paralogous and non-paralogous loci and conduct a genome scan for association with run timing. I demonstrate that it is possible to characterize paralogous loci in wild populations and that they show similar patterns of population structure as the rest of the genome. The genome scan reveals genomic regions of elevated association with run timing, highlighting the potential downside of excluding paralogous loci in studies looking for genetic signals of adaptation.


In planning for Exploration missions and developing the required suite of environmental monitors, the difficulty lies in down-selecting a multitude of technology options to a few candidates with exceptional potential. Technology selection criteria include conventional analytical parameters (e.g., range, sensitivity, selectivity), operational factors (degree of automation, portability, required level of crew training, maintenance), logistical factors (size, mass, power, consumables, waste generation) and engineering factors such as complexity and reliability. Other more subtle considerations include crew interfaces, data readout and degree of autonomy from the ground control center. We anticipate that technology demonstrations designed toward these goals will be carried out on the International Space Station, the end result of which is a suite of techniques well positioned for deployment during Exploration missions. This paper discusses a sensor technology evaluation and selection process, criteria and schedule milestones with respect to anticipated requirements and timelines for Exploration vehicles, missions and habitats.


We use time series analysis methods to detect differences between individuals and expertise groups in continuous perceptions of the arousal expressed by Wishart's electroacoustic piece Red Bird. The study is part of a project in which we characterise dynamic perception of the structure and affective expression of music. We find that individual series of perceptions of expressed arousal often show considerable periods of stasis. This may challenge conventional time series methodologies, so we test their validity by application of a general linear autoregressive moving average (GLARMA) approach, which supports it. Acoustic intensity is a dominant predictor of perceived arousal in this piece. We show that responses are time-variant and that animate sounds influence the conditional variance of perceived arousal. Using vector autoregression and cross-sectional time series analysis (which preserves the integrity of each individual response series), we find differences between musical expertise groups (non-musicians, musicians, and electroacoustic musicians). Individual differences within each group are greater than those between expertise groups. The companion paper applies the developed methods to all four pieces in our overall project (Dean, R.T., F. Bailes, and W.T.M. Dunsmuir. 2014. "Shared and Distinct Mechanisms of Individual and Expertise-Group Perception of Expressed Arousal in Four Works." Journal of Mathematics and Music 8 (3): 207–223). An Online Supplement is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17459737.2014.928752.


We construct a heterogeneous agent-based model of the corporate bond market capturing the interaction of market maker behaviour, fund trading strategies, and cash allocation by investors in funds to study feedback effects and the impact of market changes. The model parameters are calibrated against empirical data on US corporate bond trading. Where available, inputs are taken from market data. Others are calibrated through matching statistical features of market returns such as auto-correlations, volatility and fat tails. We use the model to explore the impact of shocks. We find that the sensitivity of the market maker to demand and the degree to which momentum traders are active strongly influence the over and undershooting of yields in response to a shock. This suggests that correlation in funds' trading strategies can exacerbate extreme price movements and contribute to the procyclicality of financial markets. While the behaviour of investors in funds based on past experience plays a comparatively smaller role in model dynamics, it represents another source of amplification which could be particularly problematic if investors respond to a shock with greater risk aversion. Simple measures to reduce the speed with which investors can redeem investments can reduce the extent of yield dislocation. We also explore the impact of the growth in passive investment, and find that it increases the tail risk of big yield dislocations after shocks, though, on average, volatility may be reduced.


We present an attempt to link the large amount of different concept lists which are used in the linguistic literature, ranging from Swadesh lists in historical linguistics to naming tests in clinical studies and psycholinguistics. This resource, our Concepticon, links 30 222 concept labels from 160 conceptlists to 2495 concept sets. Each concept set is given a unique identifier, a unique label, and a human-readable definition. Concept sets are further structured by defining different relations between the concepts. The resource can be used for various purposes. Serving as a rich reference for new and existing databases in diachronic and synchronic linguistics, it allows researchers a quick access to studies on semantic change, cross-linguistic polysemies, and semantic associations.


Networks are protected using many firewalls and encryption software's. But many of them are not sufficient and effective. Therefore an intrusion detection system (IDS) is required that monitors the network, detects misbehavior or anomalies and notifies other nodes in the network to avoid or punish the misbehaving nodes. Numerous schemes have been proposed for intrusion detection and response systems, for ad hoc networks. The ultimate goal of the security solutions for wireless networks is to provide security services, such as authentication, confidentiality, integrity, anonymity, and availability, to mobile users. In this paper, we examine the vulnerabilities of wireless networks and argue that we must include intrusion detection in the security architecture for mobile computing environment. We propose a mIDS (mobile intrusion detection system) suitable for multi-hop ad-hoc wireless networks, which detects nodes misbehavior, anomalies in packet forwarding, such as intermediate nodes dropping or delaying packets. mIDS does rely on overhearing packet transmissions of neighboring nodes. Simple rules are designed to identify the misbehavior nodes. Theproess of identyfing the misbehavior node is carried out by a special node called a monitor node. Periodically monitor node is identified in the network.


The U.S. Bureau of Mines (Bureau), evaluated the effects of two iron-based fuel additives on diesel particulate matter (DPM) emissions. The 5.6-L, 6-cylinder test engine is typical of types used in underground mines. One additive, ferrous picrate, lacked measureable effects on exhaust emissions. The report is mainly about a ferrocene-based additive that reduced DPM between 4 and 45 pct, depending on engine operating conditions. The report concludes that the DPM reductions were caused by the catalytic oxidation properties of a ferric oxide coating developed inside the engine's combustion chamber. The ferric oxide coating also decreased gas-phase hydrocarbons and O2, but increased CO2 and NOX. The increased NOX, of about 12 pct, is considered the only adverse effect of the ferrocene-based fuel additive. The results suggest that the effectiveness of ferrocene was partially offset by increased sulfates because of the high-sulfur fuel used. Recommendations for continuing fuel additive research are presented.


We investigate the magnetic coupling of Ni centers embedded in two-dimensional metal-coordination networks self-assembled from 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) molecules on Ag(100) and Au(111) surfaces. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements show that single Ni adatom impurities assume a spin-quenched configuration on both surfaces, while Ni atoms coordinating to TCNQ ligands recover their magnetic moment and exhibit ferromagnetic coupling. The valence state and the ferromagnetic coupling strength of the Ni coordination centers depend crucially on the underlying substrate due to the different charge state of the TCNQ ligands on the two surfaces. The results suggest a superexchange coupling mechanism via the TCNQ ligands.


In most cases, a surface is not ideally smooth. It rather contains regular and irregular dents, bumps and other textures that influence the reflection of the incident wave. A reflection on such a corrugated surface causes a frequency-dependent redirection of the incident sound energy outside the specular direction, called scattering. While the computation of the specular part is well elaborated today, a model that thoroughly captures the wave phenomenon of scattering is still under discussion. Here, the most common assumption is that scattered energy follows a uniform Lambert distribution, which has proven to be a good approximation, especially in room acoustical applications. In this contribution, we will discuss Lambert-based scattering models (specular/diffuse sound field decomposition and vector mixing) and their implementations in methods of Geometrical Acoustics. We will analyze benefits and flaws of the respective models and investigate possibilities to introduce angle-dependent scattering for use cases where the uniform Lambertian distribution becomes invalid.


Abstract The routine use of urine dipstick testing in the consulting room of the family physician has fallen into disfavour for several reasons. One of the arguments cited most often is that it is time consuming and not cost beneficial. This is particularly true with respect to small children, because of the difficulties experienced collecting urine from this group of patients. The aim of this review is to stress the important role that urine dipstick testing plays in the diagnostic work-up of any patient with a kidney or urinary tract disorder. A practical approach is provided on urine dipstick test abnormalities in relation to kidney and urinary tract disorders in children.


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Abstract In a nuclear reactor vessel downcomer incorporating the safety feature of direct vessel injection (DVI), the direct bypass of emergency core coolant (ECC) is activated during the reflood phase of a large-break loss-of-coolant accident due to momentum transfer between the downward liquid film and transverse gas. Direct ECC bypass is reportedly the major bypass mechanism of ECC, and various experiments have been performed to obtain detailed information about the ECC bypass in a DVI downcomer. In the present study, a model of the direct ECC bypass was developed based on two-dimensional two-fluid equations for the adiabatic two-phase flow to predict the ECC bypass flow rate. The direct ECC bypass fractions were calculated with various interfacial friction factor correlations, and the results were compared with the available experimental data. The values predicted by the current model showed reasonably good agreement with the experimental data at bypass fractions >40% when applying the interfacial friction factor model developed in a countercurrent flow condition. However, when the bypass fraction was <40%, models incorporating cocurrent annular flow provided better results than those with countercurrent flow. These results suggest that a transition occurs from a smooth film to a rough film as the gas flow rate increases, and hence, interfacial friction factor models that adequately incorporate this transition are necessary to predict the direct ECC bypass phenomenon.


In this work, we develop a technique for training features directly from the single-channel speech waveform in order to improve wake word (WW) detection performance. Conventional speech recognition systems typically extract a compact feature representation based on prior knowledge such as log-mel filter bank energy (LFBE). Such a feature is then used for training a deep neural network (DNN) acoustic model (AM). In contrast, we directly train the WW DNN AM from the single-channel audio data in a stage-wise manner. We first build a feature extraction DNN with a small hidden bottleneck layer, and train this bottleneck feature representation using the same multi-task cross-entropy objective function as we use to train our WW DNNs. Then, the WW classification DNN is trained with input bottleneck features, keeping the feature extraction layers fixed. Finally, the feature extraction and classification DNNs are combined and then jointly optimized. We show the effectiveness of this stage-wise training technique through a set of experiments on real beam-formed far-field data. The experiment results show that the audioinput DNN provides significantly lower miss rates for a range of false alarm rates over the LFBE when a sufficient amount of training data is available, yielding approximately 12 % relative improvement in the area under the curve (AUC).


The development of mesoporous titania (meso-TiO2) films is a considerable research goal in the field of mesoporous material development due to their proven applicability in solar cells and phtocatalysts. In this work, the meso-TiO2 films were fabricated through different methods and these home-made titania structures were applied in DSSCs and photocatalysts. Meso-TiO2 powders were first prepared from ethanol/water or ethanol solvent. The meso-TiO2 made from the ethanol/water solvent did not have an ordered mesostructure, but that made from ethanol solvent had 2D-hexagonal mesostructure. Films were prepared by adding ordered meso-TiO2 particles into paste formulations of P25 nanoparticles with weight proportion ranging from 0 to 100%. These were used to form films by doctor blading, and the influence of paste composition on film structure, morphology, porosity, optical properties and cell performance were investigated. Secondly, ordered meso-TiO2 films were fabricated by dip coating from aqueous or ethanol solvent. Both films had cubic mesostructures, but the film coated from aqueous solvent was not uniform. The film formed from ethanol solvent was doped with sulphur. The effects of doping on the mesostructure, morphology, structure, optical properties and photocatalytic activity were studied. The thickness of films was increased by repeated coating. The number of layers had an influence on the mesostructure, morphology, optical properties and cell performance when these films were applied in DSSCs Finally, a novel method was adopted to prepared meso-TiO2 films. Molecular titania precursors or titania colloidal seeds were used as the titania source. Both of them can be used to prepare free-standing hybrid films at air-water interface by a self-assembly method, however the one synthesised from the molecular titania precursor did not contain very much titania and became a powder after calcination. In contrast, after calcination, the films formed from the colloidal titania solution remained intact, and were composed of mixtures of TiO2 nanoparticles and nanowires with mesopores arising from interparticle porosity. These films were applied in DSSCs. This interfacial method was also successfully extended to prepare free-standing ZnO films from a molecular precursor. After calcination, the free-standing ZnO films were found to be composed of rough spheres formed by flocculation of smaller nanoparticles.


A new architecture is proposed for achieving Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STAR) with a digital phased array. We demonstrate how digital beamforming and cancellation enables adjacent transmitting and receiving sub-arrays to operate simultaneously in the same frequency band without a significant reduction in performance. Our approach uses only digital signal processing techniques and does not require custom radiators or analog cancelling circuits that can increase front-end losses and add significant size, weight and cost to the array. Simulated results are presented for a 50-element array that achieves more than 160 dB of effective isolation between transmit and receive beams over a 100 MHz instantaneous band centered at 2.45 GHz.


The Internet is in transition. The original address space, IPv4, is nearly exhausted; the Internet is in the progress of migrating to the new IPv6 address space. The Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) developed in the late 1970s has the capacity for about 4 billion unique addresses. It would have been hard to imagine in the 1970s that 4 billion addresses were not going to be enough. But by the early 1990s, Internet engineers recognized that the supply of addresses was relatively limited compared to likely demand, and they set to work designing a successor to IPv4. They developed a new Internet Protocol, IPv6, with a vastly increased address space: 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses. Broadband Internet access has become essential to the United States and the rest of the world. The exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and the transition to IPv6 could result in significant, but not insurmountable, problems for broadband Internet services. In the short term, to permit the network to continue to grow, engineers have developed a series of kludges. These kludges include more efficient use of the IPv4 address resource, conservation, and the sharing of IPv4 addresses through the use of Network Address Translation (NAT). While these provide partial mitigation for IPv4 exhaustion, they are not a long-term solution, increase network costs, and merely postpone some of the consequences of address exhaustion without solving the underlying problem. Some of these fixes break end-to-end connectivity, impairing innovation and hampering applications, degrading network performance, and resulting in an inferior version of the Internet. These kludges require capital investment and ongoing operational costs by network service providers, diverting investment from other business objectives. Network operators will be confronted with increased costs to offer potentially inferior service. The short term solutions are necessary because there is not enough time to completely migrate the entire public Internet to native IPv6 where end users can communicate entirely via IPv6. Network protocol transitions require significant work and investment, and with the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses looming, there is insufficient time to complete the full IPv6 transition. But the short-term solutions are problematic. The solution to the solution is to complete the transition to a native IPv6 network. A native IPv6 network will restore end-to-end connectivity with a vastly expanded address space, will improve network performance, and should decrease costs. Completing the transition of the public Internet to IPv6 will take time.


This paper proposes a valuation model of a bond with default risk. Extending from the Brennan and Schwartz real option model of a firm, the paper treats the firm as a contingent claim on the business risk. This paper introduces the "primitive firm", which enables us to value firms with operating leverage relative to a firm without operating leverage. This paper emphasizes the business model of the firm, relating the business risk to the firm's uncertain cash flow and its assets and liabilities. In so doing, the model can relate the financial statements to the risk and the value of the firm. The paper then uses Merton's structural model approach to determine the bond value. This model considers the fixed operating costs as payments of a "perpetual debt", and the financial debt obligations are junior to the operating costs. Using the structural model framework, we relative value the bond to the observed firm's market capitalization, and provide a model that is empirically testable. We also show that this approach can better explain some of the high yield bond behavior. In sum, this model extends the valuation of high yield bonds to incorporate the business models of the firms and endogenizes the firm value stochastic process, which is a key element in high yield valuation in practice. We have shown that in relating the firm's business model to the firm value, the resulting firm value stochastic process affects the bond value significantly.


According to the assimilation theory, immigrants' acquisition of the citizenship of the destination country should increase the number of intermarriages as a result of immigrants' enhanced integration. Status exchange theory, instead, would predict a negative impact of citizenship acquisition, as the latter eliminates one of the possible 'rewards' that immigrants obtain in marrying a member of the native population. This paper provides a causal assessment of the impact of immigrants' citizenship acquisition on intermarriages exploiting the 2004 and 2007 European Union Eastern Enlargements, following which citizens of new EU member countries became EU citizens. The study focuses on intermarriages between Italian men and foreign women and applies the Synthetic Control Method to data of the Italian Register of Marriages. Our findings support the status exchange theory and are explained by the particularly difficult socioeconomic integration of immigrant women in Italy. Results point to the existence of heterogeneous effects of EU enlargement across immigrant groups, being larger for the least socioeconomically integrated groups.


Title of dissertation: CAPITAL INFLOWS, FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND CREDIT CONSTRAINTS AT THE FIRM LEVEL: THEORY AND EVIDENCE Armando J. Armenta Reales, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Directed by: Professor Carlos Vegh Department of Economics, University of Maryland This dissertation is composed of two related essays on the effects of periods of large capital inflows on macroeconomic aggregates and financing constraints at the firm level, and the relationship of the differences in these effects among developed and emerging economies with the degree of financial development. In the first essay I conduct an empirical exploration of this topic. I show that periods of large capital inflow are associated with more volatile macroeconomic outcomes in economies with a low degree of financial development, relative to economies with more developed financial systems. Employing firm level data for 42 countries, I show that firms in economies with a low level of financial development exhibit a relatively larger loosening in the cost of borrowing and a larger appreciation in equity prices. I show that financing constraints are more prevalent in firms located in countries with a low degree of financial development. Moreover, periods of capital inflow booms relax these financing constraints. This decrease is significant regardless of the composition of capital inflows, stronger when coupled with domestic credit booms, larger for firms in the non-tradable sector and larger for firms that depend more heavily on internal funds to finance their investment opportunities. In the second essay, using a theoretical model, I explain the larger aggregate response around capital inflow booms, as arising from varying degrees of financial development, and their relation to the pervasiveness of credit constraints at the firm level. I propose a heterogeneous agents model in which the share of borrowing-constrained agents depends on the level of financial development. Agents in an economy characterized by a low degree of financial development can use a lower share of their assets, measured at their market value, as collateral to secure debt. I show that a period of large capital inflow causes an increase in the demand for capital for both unconstrained and constrained firms. At the initial valuation of capital, only unconstrained firms can freely adjust their demand for capital. However, the increase in the aggregate demand for capital increases its valuation and thus generates a loosening in financing constraints for ex-ante constrained firms, and an amplified response at the firm level and on macroeconomic aggregates. Capital Inflows, Financial Development, and Credit Constraints at the Firm Level: Theory and Evidence


Estimating the distance covered by a spreading event on a network can lead to a better understanding of epidemics, economic growth, and human behavior. There are many methods solving this problem—which has been called Node Vector Distance (NVD)—for single layer networks. However, many phenomena are better represented by multilayer networks: networks in which nodes can connect in qualitatively different ways. In this article, we extend the literature by proposing an algorithm solving NVD for multilayer networks. We do so by adapting the Mahalanobis distance, incorporating the graph's topology via the pseudoinverse of its Laplacian. Since this is a proper generalization of the Euclidean distance in a complex space defined by the topology of the graph, and that it works on multilayer networks, we call our measure the Multi Layer Generalized Euclidean (MLGE). In our experiments, we show that MLGE is intuitive, theoretically simpler than the alternatives, performs well in recovering infection parameters, and it is useful in specific case studies. MLGE requires solving a special case of the effective resistance on the graph, which has a high time complexity. However, this needs to be done only once per network. In the experiments, we show that MLGE can cache its most computationally heavy parts, allowing it to solve hundreds of NVD problems on the same network with little to no additional runtime. MLGE is provided as a free open source tool, along with the data and the code necessary to replicate our results.


Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover

How is our language affected by our ethnicity, gender, and region? How are our conversations and other interactions structured? How does society view and regulate language? How do we use language to present ourselves to others? In this revised and updated second edition of the popular What Is Sociolinguistics? Gerard Van Herk explores these and other intriguing questions about language, how we use it, and its relationships to society. Van Herk guides the reader on a tour through the major issues that define the field, including region, status, gender, time, language attitudes, interaction, and style, at the same time exploring the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education.

This second edition has been revised and updated to include new and more exercises, discussion questions, and suggested readings, as well as expanded chapters exploring gender duality and Latino English. Key readings are introduced in Van Herk's clear and engaging voice, which accompanies the text throughout, providing an accessible point of entry for those new to, or less familiar with, sociolinguistics. Chapter summaries and textboxes are similarly employed to signpost and illuminate learning. A companion website features PowerPoint slides for each chapter with suggestions for framing class discussions and exercises, further examples of concepts discussed, additional reading suggestions, and ready-to-go slides for class presentation.

Packed with the latest research and practical teaching aids, What is Sociolinguistics? Second Edition retains the highly-praised character of its predecessor and provides an essential up-to-date text for both students and instructors alike.
About the Author

GERARD VAN HERK is Canada Research Chair in Regional Language and Oral Text at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has researched and written on African American, Caribbean, Quebec, and Newfoundland varieties of the English language and is the co-editor of Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications.


The thesis focuses on the work of the author and critic Carl Einstein (1885 -1940), a key figure in the history of early twentieth-century art and literature. Introducing new archival material from the Berlin Ethnological Museum, the British Museum and a number of other sources, it offers a thorough re-examination of the circumstances and cultural practices that shaped Einstein's antagonism towards the itinerant `primitivism hubbub' and contemporary prejudice, and retrieves what is his most incisive intervention into the discourse on art and primitivism: his book Negerplastik (1915).

Reconnecting Negerplastik to Einstein's early art-criticism in the context of pre-1914 German Kulturpolitik and in the often highly competitive circles of the intellectual avant-garde, the thesis investigates his hitherto neglected role in staging the first two exhibitions in Germany which, during 1913, presented African sculpture alongside avant-garde painting - and Picasso's Cubist work - at the Neue Galerie in Berlin. In what is described as a `visual turn', it analyzes Negerplastik and its audaciously modernist visualization of non-western sculpture, and argues that by making the ethnographic 'curio' an object of theory Einstein, as it were, 'invented' the aesthetic category of African art.

The thesis brings together material that, although embedded in the period's documents and chronicles, has largely gone unnoticed. Yet evidence, such as the critical reaction to Einstein's 1913 African exhibitions, his letters to his friends Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Ewald Wasmuth, or the material gathered between 1925 and 1930 for a joint project with the British Museum's keeper Thomas A. Joyce is central to understanding the historical significance of Negerplastik and Einstein's ethnographic encounter. Ethnography provided the basis for some of his most compelling art-critical texts in the journal Documents. It informed the development of his concept of an Ethnologie du blanc which transgressed academic disciplines and epistemic tradition, and engendered a 'visual turn' that, by leaving the images to do the work of language, operated as Einstein's `silent' critique of modernist sculpture. The thesis concludes by contending that, between 1916 and 1918, Negerplastik served as catalyst, and matrix, for a number of avant-garde reconfigurations of African sculpture in which the objects' photographic framing re-confirmed this sculpture as art. It addresses aspects of Einstein's role within the discourse on art and cultural difference, which - despite the now sizeable secondary literature devoted to him - have not been sufficiently examined.


Background The internet plays an important role in the dissemination of health information to the general public. Information on orthopaedic sports medicine websites has been shown to be of a varying standard, and to date there has been no evaluation of the overall quality of concussion-related websites. Methods A four-stage methodological sampling technique was used to identify concussion-related websites. Websites were assessed for the presence of a quality standard (the HONcode), their adherence to current expert concussion knowledge using a custom-developed concussion checklist ('CONcheck'), and their readability using the established Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL). Results 43 Websites were identified from the search strategy with the majority (70%) not HONcode certified. A wide distribution of scores was seen for the CONcheck (0–22), FRE (16.3–77.4) and FKGL (6–17.8). Statistical analysis using independent t tests between websites with the HONcode and websites without the HONcode showed no significant differences between the two groups for CONcheck (t41=0.571, p=0.571), FRE (t41=0.808, p=0.424) and FKGL(t41=−0.964, p=0.341) scores. Conclusions The variability in the standard of concussion-related websites highlights the need for sports medicine website providers to consider the delivery, content and readability of information to the public.


Construct a robust end-to-end solution for analyzing and visualizing streaming dataReal-time analytics is the hottest topic in data analytics today. In Real-Time Analytics: Techniques to Analyze and Visualize Streaming Data, expert Byron Ellis teaches data analysts technologies to build an effective real-time analytics platform. This platform can then be used to make sense of the constantly changing data that is beginning to outpace traditional batch-based analysis platforms.The author is among a very few leading experts in the field. He has a prestigious background in research, development, analytics, real-time visualization, and Big Data streaming and is uniquely qualified to help you explore this revolutionary field. Moving from a description of the overall analytic architecture of real-time analytics to using specific tools to obtain targeted results, Real-Time Analytics leverages open source and modern commercial tools to construct robust, efficient systems that can provide real-time analysis in a cost-effective manner. The book includes:A deep discussion of streaming data systems and architecturesInstructions for analyzing, storing, and delivering streaming dataTips on aggregating data and working with setsInformation on data warehousing options and techniquesReal-Time Analytics includes in-depth case studies for website analytics, Big Data, visualizing streaming and mobile data, and mining and visualizing operational data flows. The book's "recipe" layout lets readers quickly learn and implement different techniques. All of the code examples presented in the book, along with their related data sets, are available on the companion website.


A Gaussian model software (Atmospheric Dispersion Model System?ADMS-Urban) is used to forecast the carbon monoxide concentrations in the Urban Boundary Layer (UBL) of the city of Rome, Italy. The simulations refer to 14 days during 2002. Two data set inputs were considered in order to evaluate the urban background concentration and the effects of the main roads surrounding the monitoring stations. Results show that the background concentration plays a fundamental role in the whole balance of the pollution and that sometimes it overcomes the level associated to the local emissions. Finally, the background concentration appears to be strongly non-homogeneous within the urban area.


Advanced computer vision and statistical methods were employed for identifying living plants from soil/
residue background for two species of grasses (Shattercane, Green Foxtail) and two broadleaf species (Velvetleaf, Red
Root Pigweed) weeds. The excess green index method was used as a contrast enhancement for specifically identifying
plant from soil regions. Excess green classified plant and soil regions correctly over the entire three-week observation
period with high accuracies (99% plus). Plant and soil binary images were derived from excess green images and
provided edge boundaries. These boundaries were used with corresponding gray scale images to extract four classical
textural features for plants and soil: angular second moment, inertia, entropy, and local homogeneity. These features were
derived from the co-occurrence matrix. Stepwise and canonical discriminant analyses were used to test the classification
performance of the texture and excess green features. Discrimination models of local homogeneity, inertia, and angular
second moment were found to classify grass and broadleaf categories of plants, with classification accuracies of 93 and
85%, respectively. Classification accuracies of individual species only ranged from 30 to 77%. Soil classification
accuracies were also high for textural feature algorithms (97%). The time required to produce tokensets ranged from 15 to
20 s on a UNIX computer system. Additional time required for the system to reach a plant/soil classification ranged from
5 to 10 s. This translated into an overall system response time of 20 to 30 s, with the preprocessing step constituting the
major part of the system response time.


Climate change is a major concern for agriculture globally. Dynamic climatic parameters including
increased temperature and carbon dioxide have greatly affected crop production. As a consequence of
climatic uncertainties, new insect pests have emerged, the crop cultivation practices have changed, and
drought and floods have created havoc around the globe. Besides, plant and insecticidal resistance against
insects and diseases has got compromised, the diversity and abundance of arthropods has changed,
geographical ranges of insect pests have extended far beyond their existing limits and new biotypes have
evolved. All these have led to the reduced efficacy of crop protection technologies, huge crop losses,
thereby, food insecurity. Although concerted efforts have been made and simulation models have been
developed to mitigate the climate change effects on plants, still, most simulation models fail to account
for losses due to pests, weeds and diseases. In addition, the monitoring data of insect pests are not
available in most of the developing countries and the software models developed for prediction analysis
are not effective against insect- pests. This review highlights the possible impacts of climate change on
phytophagous insects, chemical ecology, and plant pest interactions leading to food insecurity and the
strategies thereof.


ABSTRACT This article presents an original engagement with research into emotions in the PhD to ask 'Where's the validation?' by using emotion work as a theoretical foundation. We develop a focus on emotional dissonance in the PhD journey to explore challenges around managing emotion. We explore how PhD students manage emotions around their projects and their PhD communities. Our focus in this paper is on the lived experiences of six PhD students, using reflective methods and interviews. In our analysis of the challenges PhD students face, we find that validation is a key part of the doctoral learning journey, and the emotion work that takes place. By aligning analysis of PhD emotion work with the theme of 'validation theory', we pinpoint how instances of validation are key to identity formation for PhD students. We argue that validation is crucial for PhD students' wellbeing and conclude that unless identity formation as a PhD student coincides with processes of external validation, then emotional dissonance occurs.


"Rapid growth in the agricultural sector is central to any strategy for slashing poverty and hunger on the African continent. Yet investments aimed at increasing agricultural productivity need to be linked to market opportunities if they are not to depress commodity prices and farm incomes. It is widely perceived that high market transaction costs, weak domestic consumer demand, and lack of export possibilities are major constraints on agricultural growth prospects for Africa. But just how severe are these constraints, and what can be done to enhance market opportunities to enable agriculture to become a more powerful engine of growth for the continent? This study addresses these questions. It concludes that non-traditional exports have the fewest constraints and remain the most profitable option for increasing export earnings.....Thus, investments in agriculture and other efforts to promote higher agricultural productivity growth need to be complemented with policies and investments to spur non-agricultural growth. More generally, investments in rural infrastructure can help to maximize positive linkage effects of agricultural growth. Agricultural growth can play a major role in increasing food supply, but sustained increases in incomes and reductions in poverty are likely to require a combination of labor-intensive growth in both agricultural and nonagricultural activities." from Authors' Abstract


Introduction: Screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) is critical in preventing visual loss. However, current tools are expensive, bulky and sensitive, thus limiting screening coverage, especially in developing areas such as the interior of Borneo. Smartphone-assisted devices may provide an alternative and this study seeks to determine the level of agreement between a smartphone retinal imaging adapter (SRIA) against conventional ones.
Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study with Institutional Review Board approval from the Medical Ethics Board of University of Malaya Medical Centre. A total of 284 eyes from 142 patients included underwent retinal imaging using a conventional fundus camera and the SRIA. The images were graded according to Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) classification. Agreement between both modalities was calculated using Cohen's Kappa statistics.
Results: The Kappa agreement between SRIA and conventional fundus imaging in grading individual ETDRS stages stood at 0.648 (p < 0.001), achieving up to 0.752 (p < 0.001) when differentiating between no DR, non-proliferative DR, and proliferative DR.
Conclusion: DR grading SRIA and conventional fundus camera imaging were comparable. SRIA can be useful in eye screenings but still needs improvement.


It is essential for language learners to get feedback either from peers or teachers because feedback is helpful for student s to achieve the target language. In writing class, it is common for teachers to give written feedback during the learning process, yet, the teachers' written feedback are sometimes not well-understood by the students because the feedback are not further clarified by the teachers. We knew a teacher who has successfully to not just provide written feedback, but also oral feedback to her students' writing essays in her English Beginners course at a university in Banda Aceh. Providing valuable feedback and building good relationship with each student in the writing class is important because these students can achieve better compared to those who do not receive any feedback from their teachers. Therefore, it is essential for us to understand how this teacher has meaningfully gave oral feedback to her students and how she sets forth the feedback because they are the key processes in her teaching. Accordingly, our paper presents the process of the oral feedback done by this teacher. The data were collected by an observation checklist and audio recording during the writing conference in which the oral feedback took place in the classroom. The results indicated that the teacher mostly focused on the explanation of the grammar errors conducted by her students in their writing and she also worked one-to-one with each student in which each of them had a chance to ask and clarify the mistakes or errors produced in his or her essay.


Radiation crosslinking of filled PBT is a well-recognized modification of improving basic material characteristics. Radiation, which penetrated through specimens and reacted with the cross-linking agent, gradually formed cross-linking (3D net), first in the surface layer and then in the total volume, which resulted in considerable changes in specimen behaviour. The specimens of 30% glass fiber filled PBT were made by injection moulding technology and irradiated by doses of beta radiation (0, 33, 66 and 99 kGy). The change of nanomechanical properties is greatly manifested mainly in the surface layer of the modified PBT where a significant growth of nano-mechanical values can be observed. Indentation modulus increased from 1.1 to 1.8 GPa (increasing about 64%) and indentation hardness increased from 56 to 85 MPa (increasing about 52%).The results of the measurements showed considerable increase in nano-mechanical properties (indentation hardness, indentation elastic modulus, indentation creep) when beta radiation are used.


Error decomposition analysis is a key problem for ensemble learning, which indicates that proper combination of multiple models can achieve better performance than any individual one. Existing theoretical research of ensemble learning focuses on regression or classification tasks. There is limited theoretical research for ranking ensemble. In this paper, we first generalize the ambiguity decomposition theory from regression ensemble to ranking ensemble, which proves the effectiveness of ranking ensemble with consideration of list-wise ranking information. According to the generalized theory, we propose an explicit diversity measure for ranking ensemble, which can be used to enhance the diversity of ensemble and improve the performance of ensemble model. Furthermore, we adopt an adaptive learning scheme to learn query-dependent ensemble weights, which can fit into the generalized theory and help to further improve the performance of ensemble model. Extensive experiments on recommendation and information retrieval tasks demonstrate the effectiveness and theoretical advantages of the proposed method compared with several state-of-the-art methods.


Abstract More than 1600 valves of Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain gryphaeid oysters (Exogyrinae and Pycnodonteinae) were examined for breakage-induced shell repair and morphologic variability to evaluate the hypothesis of escalation. The Exogyrinae show disproportionately higher average repair frequency (0.41) relative to the ecologically and functionally similar unornamented pycnodonts (0.19). An increase in repair frequency (independent evidence of the action of a selective agent, e.g., predation) through the stratigraphic interval supports escalation. Variation in repair frequencies may reflect differences in oyster morphology and in the strength and diversity of shell crushers across an onshore-offshore gradient. Escalation of antipredatory adaptation characterized the evolutionary response of gryphaeid oysters to their durophagous predators. Adaptation generally occurred by the enhancement of existing traits in both oyster lineages. Characters that confer a selective advantage against predators are not all expressed or improved concurrently in both oyster lineages. Morphologic adaptations to minimize shell breakage include the development of expansive, broad commissural shelves, thickened valves, and surface ornamentation (Exogyrinae). Surface ornament in the Exogyrinae gradually increased with time. For some characters, such as thickness, conflicting functional demands (e.g., valve stabilization) may have limited adaptation to predators.


ABSTRACT Objective: There is an urgent need to undertake Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) across Africa to document antimicrobial utilisation rates given high rates of infectious diseases and growing resistance rates. This is the case in Botswana along with high empiric use and extended prophylaxis to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) Method: PPS was conducted among all hospital sectors in Botswana using forms based on Global and European PPS studies adapted for Botswana, including rates of HIV, TB, malaria, and malnutrition. Quantitative study to assess the capacity to promote appropriate antibiotic prescribing. Results: 711 patients were enrolled with high antimicrobial use (70.6%) reflecting an appreciable number transferred from other hospitals (42.9%), high HIV rates (40.04% among those with known HIV) and TB (25.4%), and high use of catheters. Most infections were community acquired (61.7%). Cefotaxime and metronidazole were the most prescribed in public hospitals with ceftriaxone the most prescribed antimicrobial in private hospitals. Concerns with missed antibiotic doses (1.96 per patient), high empiric use, extended use to prevent SSIs, high use of IV antibiotics, and variable infrastructures in hospitals to improve future antibiotic use. Conclusion: High antibiotic use reflects high rates of infectious diseases observed in Botswana. A number of concerns have been identified, which are being addressed.


Abstract Mitochondrial disease (MD) and dysfunction are associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and most likely affect a substantial number of children with ASD. The mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the body's cells which supports and is supported by many metabolic systems, so mitochondrial dysfunction can have widespread consequences on cellular metabolism, especially in high energy cells like the brain, gastrointestinal tract and immune system, and especially during critical periods of high energy demand like childhood. This article reviews the treatments for MD as applied to children with ASD. We discuss supportive measures which aim at preventing further damage from occurring due to malfunctioning mitochondria, treatment with high dose vitamins that can support metabolism in light of dysfunctional mitochondria, dietary changes that can be useful in mitochondrial disease, and secondary organ systems to investigate due to mitochondrial dysfunction. We also discuss several treatments that have been reported to be of benefit in children with ASD which are also treatments that are standard of care for MD. This review provides a guide for appropriate treatments for children with ASD/MD and children with ASD that have mitochondrial dysfunction.


Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis In this form of dialysis, the patient's blood is filtered inside the body by means of a catheter in the patient's abdomen, which acts as a permanent pathway into the peritoneal cavity. Patients This article described a qualitative study that investigated the bio-psychosocial effects of renal replacement therapy on patients in a state hospital in South Africa. The study aimed to investigate the level of debility experienced by patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD) and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and to explore how this debility affects their bio-psychosocial functioning. Respondents comprised a small sample of HD and CAPD patients. Using an interview schedule as the research tool allowed rich data to be uncovered. Content analysis and reducing data into themes facilitated data analysis. Although the study was not quantitative and thus did not allow for comparative analysis, themes regarding the levels of stress emerged amongst participants. The HD group voiced greater concerns regarding the degree of debility and psychosocial distress than the CAPD group. Governmental support for holistic kidney disease treatment and careful teaming of key role players to reduce the severity and far-reaching bio-psychosocial effects of HD and CAPD treatment are recommended. Page 1 of 10


When a system administrator configures a network so it is secure, he understands very well the users, data, and most importantly the intent---what he is trying to do. However, he has a limited understanding of the mechanisms by which components interact and the details of each component. He could easily misconfigure the network so a hacker could steal confidential data. In addition to this complexity, about one hundred new security vulnerabilities are found each week, which makes it even more difficult to manage the security of a network installation---because of the large number of program vulnerabilities and challenging time constraints. Even professional administrators find this a difficult (impossible) task. How does one enable the system administrator to securely configure the network with a limited understanding of its components, program bugs and their interactions?
The solution is a security analysis framework that modularises information flow between the system administrator, security expert and the bug expert. The administrator specifies what he is trying to do, the security expert specifies component behaviour, the bug expert specifies known bugs. We developed a rule based framework---Multihost, Multistage, Vulnerability Analysis (MulVAL)---to perform end-to-end, automatic analysis of multi-host, multi-stage attacks on a large network where hosts run different operating systems. The MulVAL framework has been demonstrated to be modular, flexible, scalable and efficient. We used the framework to find serious configuration vulnerabilities in software from several major vendors for the Windows XP platform.


This paper deals with the hydraulic oil consumption of mobile working machines. Different mobile working machines are going to be investigated by setting out their hydraulic oil consumption per hour. The substitutable amount of mineral by bio-based hydraulic oil is examined by an exemplary calculation for a construction project. The observations are intended to establish the working medium bio-based hydraulic oil on the lubricants market and to increase its use quantities, especially for mobile machines, with regard to environmental protection. Environmentally friendly lubricants and process materials are used in a wide variety of technical applications. In mobile machines in particular, efforts are being made to further establish bio-based lubricants. Due to unforeseeable accidents and leaks, a considerable amount of lubricants is released into the environment every year. This results in contamination of the affected environment. For this reason, contaminated ground, for example, has to be excavated refurbished after contact with hydraulic oil in order to return them to their original natural state. Bio-based hydraulic oils minimize this risk through their biodegradability and antitoxicity. Despite the proven performance of environmentally friendly hydraulic oil, the market share of biolubricants is stagnating at a constant and very low level. The majority of mobile machines use mineral oil, as working fluid in their hydraulic systems. To evaluate the substitution potential of mineral oil by bio-based oil in construction projects, various mobile machines are considered. In addition to widely used mobile machines like, for example excavators or wheel loaders, road construction equipment is also considered, due to a high hydraulic oil consumption resulting through heavy heat loads.


Body mass and an index of condition for badgers (Meles meles) in a high-density population (Wytham Woods, UK) were examined between 1990 and 1997 and compared with the size of the groups with which individuals were associated. Both body mass and condition decreased as centered group size increased. Fecundity also declined with increasing centered group size. Female badgers exhibited the greatest effects of density-dependent constraints on body mass and condition in autumn, whereas for males the effect was most pronounced in spring.


Numerous experts reason that Russia is a normal country with a mid-range level of socioeconomic development. In other words, if one likens countries to students, Russia is a C-grade student: neither among the best in class like Finland or Singapore, nor among the worst like Zimbabwe. It is of an average mediocrity akin to Argentina. Even though such evaluations of Russia over the last decade are hardly unique, they have been met by a quite shocking reception among educated Russians. Across many generations, the government's propaganda—correctly or not—claimed the global superiority of the Soviet Union in numerous categories. Later on, during Soviet collapse, the country was placed in a dramatically lower "school" class and the assessment of Russia's global role reverted to the opposite pole, leading some intellectuals in the early 1990s to deny any achievements of Russia throughout its entire history. Today, the recognition of Russia's rank-and-file international position has become a painful burden for some of its citizens—especially for those who have aspired to be among the best and brightest domestically. For instance, Boris Akunin, the eminent liberal-minded Russian novelist and vocal spokesman for the opposition during the 2011-2012 wave of political protests, vividly complained in his popular blog that Russia has "turned into a global periphery." For many of the country's elite and ordinary citizens, such a realization has led to frustration and a conspicuous assertiveness. They have become hostage to a kind of "mediocrity syndrome," which has contributed to escapism and the open rejection of the ideas and values of A students. They search for a miraculous upswing, to turn Russia into a class leader without major effort. The consequences of this mediocrity syndrome are not helpful for solving Russia's real problems.


Horticultural produce begins to deteriorate as soon as it is harvested. It begins to lose its flavour and texture, and it is susceptible to infection by pathogens. An effective method of slowing the loss in quality is to cool the produce as soon as possible after harvest. Many crops, such as pome fruits, asparagus, broccoli, peas and beans can be cooled within half an hour or so by drenching them with chilled water in a device known as a hydrocooler.
The project described in this report was initiated by Mr Nick Christou of Christou Logistical Services. He was using a water chilling unit to cool water which he sprayed onto vegetables after which the water was discharged. This procedure was a waste of water and energy. He required a hydrocooler capable of cooling up to 6 tonnes per hour of produce, and that is transportable from growing region to growing region, and which is water-efficient.
The Smart Water Fund grant enabled a hydrocooler that incorporated water recirculation to be developed and built jointly by Victoria University and Wobelea Pty Ltd. The strategy of recirculating water has reduced the water consumption from a required 60,000 litres per tonne of broccoli cooled to about 75 litres per tonne. When round fruit such as apples are cooled the water consumption is estimated to be about 35 litres per tonne. Measurements show that broccoli cools by 80% of its possible cooling range, i.e. from 30ÂoC when sprayed with water at 0ÂoC, in about 35 minutes. The total electricity consumption is 20 kWh and 16 kWh when the throughputs are 4 tonnes per hour and 6 tonnes per hours respectively. If the water were not recirculated the electricity consumption would be about 300kWh per tonne.
Outcomes of the project include: The design and operation of a recirculating hydrocooling system. A demonstration that the new system cools horticultural produce to temperatures that will maintain the shelf life and quality of the produce. A demonstration that the hydrocooler is capabale of eliminating contaminants from the recirculated water over brief periods of time. The identification of improvements that can be made to the design of the system.
The hydrocooler is now being successfully operated in Wesley Vale near Devonport Tasmania in conjunction with Riverside Australia, Werribee.


ABSTRACT A floristic survey and analysis of community composition were conducted at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship (BRCES) in Loudoun County, Virginia during 2017 and 2018. BRCES comprises 392 hectares of open and forested upland and wetland habitat between the Blue Ridge and Short Hill Mountain in the Northern Blue Ridge physiographic province. In 2014, the majority of BRCES was transferred to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to be developed into the county's first state park. This study provides the first comprehensive inventory of its vascular flora. In total, 515 vascular plant species belonging to 328 genera and 105 families were identified. Forty-four species and seven varieties and subspecies identified were new records for Loudoun County. Pycnanthemum torreyi and Platanthera peramoena, which are considered rare at the state level under the Virginia Natural Heritage Resources designations S2 (imperiled) and S1 (critically imperiled), were recorded. Eleven 20 m × 20 m forest vegetation plots were used to determine community types as defined by the Virginia Natural Heritage Program. Forested habitat comprised five distinct community types belonging to terrestrial and palustrine systems: Inner Piedmont/Lower Blue Ridge Basic Oak-Hickory Forest, Piedmont/Central Appalachian Rich Floodplain Forest, Northern Piedmont Small-Stream Floodplain Forest, Inner Piedmont/Lower Blue Ridge Basic Mesic Forest, and Piedmont/Central Appalachian Mixed Oak/Heath Forest.


A number of studies have shown that object detection and object categorisation can occur outside consciousness, and are largely mediated by feedforward connections in the brain. Conscious object perception on the other hand, requires a process of neuronal integration mediated by recurrent connections. The question I will address in this talk, is to what extent this process of integration requires attention. Traditionally, recurrent processing has been associated with top down attention and control. However, going against a long tradition in which attention is thought to cause feature integration, a number of studies suggest that feature integration also takes place without attention. This would imply that neuronal integration does not require attentional control. In a recent EEG experiment, we tested whether neural markers of feature integration occur without attention. Employing a 2 by 2 factorial design of masking and the attentional blink, we show that behaviourally, both masking and attention affect the degree to which subjects are able to report on integrated percepts (i.e. illusory surface perception in a Kanizsa figure). However, when using a multivariate classifier on the EEG, one can decode the presence of integrated percepts equally well for blinked and non-blinked trials, whereas masking selectively abolishes the ability to decode integrated percepts (but not features). This study uncovers a fundamental difference in the way attention and masking impact cortical processing. Together, these data suggest that feature integration does not require attention, whereas it is abolished by masking.


Cyber warfare is increasingly listed alongside nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as a potential weapon of mass destruction. Interest in and concerns for cyber warfare have also been prevalent for decades. War-oriented writers usually exploited such serious and expensive terms as cyber war, information war and electronic war to spread their impetuous and cheap ideas. This paper by no means devaluates serious designs and plans, studies and research, ideas and claims revolving around cyber warfare. Rather, the purpose of this paper is to analyze existing jokes, hoaxes and hypes on the so-called cyber warfare, so as to distance serious research from misleading information.


ABSTRACT The influence of variations in genes coding for dopamine and serotonin transporters and receptors on the expression of these structures in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is not known. In order to investigate the significance of dopamine and serotonin transporter and receptor gene polymorphisms on the expression of dopamine and serotonin transporters and the dopamine D2 and serotonin 5HT2A receptors in brain tissue in PD, we conducted a study on brain autopsy material from 16 patients diagnosed with clinical PD and 11 controls. The polymorphisms studied were DAT1 VTNR, DRD2 Taq1A, 5HTTLPR, and 5HTR2A 102 T>C, 516 C>T, His425Tyr, and Thr25Asn. Compared to control subjects, patients with PD had a significantly lowered radioligand binding to the dopamine transporter (DAT) in nucleus caudatus (p = .001) and putamen (p = .008), and to the serotonin transporter in gyrus cingulatus (p = .010) and nucleus caudatus (p = .032). We did not observe any significant associations between genetic polymorphisms and the extent of radioligand binding or between the polymorphisms and a diagnosis of PD. In conclusion, the density of brain dopamine and serotonin transporters in patients with PD was reduced. However, there were no associations between the investigated genotypes and the expression of the corresponding receptors and transporters.