One topic of current interest in thermoacoustic research is an annular prime mover [Lin et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 2846(A) (1996)]. The starting point for this research is an investigation of a constricted annular resonator. A literature search of the field resulted in surprisingly few references. The results of analytic, numerical, and experimental investigations are presented. It was found that introducing a constriction to an annular resonator split each longitudinal duct mode into two modes, one of a higher frequency with a pressure antinode at the constriction, and one at a lower frequency with a velocity antinode near the constriction. While changing the size of the constriction appreciably modified the lower resonance frequency and the position of the velocity antinode, the upper resonance frequency was only moderately modified and the position of the pressure antinode was virtually fixed. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research and the American Society for Engineering Education.]


The Novillo Gneiss is one of several exposures of Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1.0–1.2 Ga) basement in eastern Mexico interpreted to be outcrops of a single crustal block (Oaxaquia) that has figured prominently in continental reconstructions for the late Precambrian-Paleozoic. Exposed within the Sierra Madre Oriental near Ciudad Victoria, the Novillo Gneiss comprises two major Mesoproterozoic igneous suites that intrude rare metasedimentary rocks. The older suite, previously dated at 1235–1115 Ma, principally comprises garnet K-feldspar augen gneiss and granite gneiss with arc/back-arc geochemical affinities. The younger suite (charnokitic gneiss, anorthositic metagabbro) has been dated at 1035–1010 Ma and is interpreted to be part of an anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite assemblage. Both suites are intruded by two sets of amphibolite dikes, the earlier of which predates metamorphism under granulite facies conditions at ca. 990±5 Ma, whereas the later set is of low grade and was emplaced at ca. 546 Ma. New structural data in both major igneous suites are dominated by the presence of a composite NW-trending, steeply dipping metamorphic banding/foliation (S1) axial planar to rare isoclinal folds, and a lineation defined by stretched, 12:2:1, K-feldspar augen and quartz ribbons developed under highgrade metamorphic conditions. The irregular contacts between leucosome and mesosome boundaries may be a remnant of earlier, pre-S1 migmatization. These are overprinted by tight-isoclinal F2 sheath folds associated with a moderately ESE-plunging clinopyroxene mineral lineation that bisects the great circle distribution of S- and Z-shaped asymmetrical F2 fold axes, indicating oblique sinistral, top-to-NW relative movement. The L1 lineations also have a great circle distribution suggesting that inhomogeneous stretching in the foliation rotated L1 towards L2. Syntectonic fabrics are overprinted by a granoblastic granulite facies mineralogy followed by retrograde amphibolite and greenschist facies fabrics, the latter associated with the fault that juxtaposes the Novillo Gneiss and the Paleozoic Granjeno Schist. A ca. 350 Ma leucogranite intruded along this fault was deformed at ca. 313 Ma. This tectonothermal history is closely comparable to that of the Oaxacan Complex (southern Mexico), supporting the existence of a coherent Oaxaquia. The absence of the later amphibolite dikes in the Oaxacan Complex likely reflects its relative paleogeography at the time of dike emplacement.


Intelligent transport system (ITS) can induce improvement in road safety, as long as acceptability by user's population and adequacy with driving task demands have been checked. The human-centred design process allows taking into account the diversified driver's population needs and functional abilities in addition to the complexity of the driving context, for setting up design recommendations and for the development of methodologies for safety assessment. Evaluation of the driver's mental workload is an important parameter, complementary to objective ones such as control of the vehicle and driver's visual strategies. This paper describes experiments conducted in the framework of the European project AIDE aiming at validating the DALI (driving activity load index), a tool set up to allow the evaluation of driver's mental workload while driving, with or without the support of in-vehicle systems. The main results and conclusion from the conducted analysis are presented.


Modern developments in nonequilibrium thermodynamics have significant implications for the origins of life. The reasons for this are closely related to a generalized version of the second law of thermodynamics recently found for entropy production during irreversible evolution of a given system such as self-replicating RNA. This paper is intended to serve as an introduction to these developments.


In this report, the third in a series, we provide an evaluation of several products that exemplify the current state of practice of Energy Management, Control, and Information Systems (EMCIS). The available features for these products are summarized and analyzed with regard to emerging trends in EMCIS and potential benefits to the federal sector. The first report [1] covered enabling technologies for emerging energy management systems. The second report [2] serves as a basic reference for building control system (BCS) networking fundamentals and includes an assessment of current approaches to open communications. Part 4 of this series will discuss applications software from a user's perspective. It is important for energy managers in the Federal sector to have a high level of knowledge and understanding of these complex energy management systems. This series of reports provides energy practitioners with some basic informational and educational tools to help make decisions relative to energy management systems design, specification, procurement, and energy savings potential.


Unless the benefits to society of measures to protect and improve the welfare of animals are made transparent by means of their valuation they are likely to go unrecognised and cannot easily be weighed against the costs of such measures as required, for example, by policy-makers. A simple single measure scoring system, based on the Welfare Quality® index, is used, together with a choice experiment economic valuation method, to estimate the value that people place on improvements to the welfare of different farm animal species measured on a continuous (0-100) scale. Results from using the method on a survey sample of some 300 people show that it is able to elicit apparently credible values. The survey found that 96% of respondents thought that we have a moral obligation to safeguard the welfare of animals and that over 72% were concerned about the way farm animals are treated. Estimated mean annual willingness to pay for meat from animals with improved welfare of just one point on the scale was £5.24 for beef cattle, £4.57 for pigs and £5.10 for meat chickens. Further development of the method is required to capture the total economic value of animal welfare benefits. Despite this, the method is considered a practical means for obtaining economic values that can be used in the cost-benefit appraisal of policy measures intended to improve the welfare of animals.


Objective: To assess the intraoperative surgical findings and difficulties of cochlear implantation in preschooler age group and how to overcome these difficulties. Aims of the study: 1. To assess the intraoperative findings and difficulties of cochlear implantation in preschooler age group. 2. How to overcome these difficulties. Study design: Cross sectional study. Setting: This study was conducted in the department of otolaryngology in Al-Yarmook teaching hospital in Baghdad, from (April /2008) to (February /2015). Patients selection: 426 patients between (18) months to the end of (6) years old, who had severe to profound S.N.H.L. were selected after no hearing improvement occurred with wearing of hearing aids for at least 6 months. A multidisciplinary team (otolaryngologist, audiologist, radiologist, pediatrician, psychiatrist, neurologist) was selected for assessment of the patients and subject them for the candidacy of patient for cochlear implantation, any patient not fulfilled the criteria of assessment was excluded. Unilateral cochlear implantation was done for all the patients. Data regarding the surgical findings and difficulties is designed according to the surgical steps of cochlear implantation ( mastoidectomy, bone well setting, posterior tympanotomy, middle ear cavity and cochleostomy or round window approach). Results: The most common age group was 3-4 years. The study showed that (54%) of patients were females, while (46%) of patients were males, female to male ratio was 1.2:1. The most frequent finding and difficulty during mastoidectomy for cochlear implantation was presence of Koerner's septum (29.81 %) while in bony well drilling, dural exposure (31.7%) was the most frequently encountered. During posterior tympanotomy, the most common finding was non-pneumatized antral threshold angle (40%). In the middle ear eight patients (1.87%) found to have O.M.E. The most common surgical finding and difficulty during cochleostomy or round window approach was abnormal round window niche position in postero-inferior direction (9.154%). The majority of these findings and difficulties had been overcome during surgery and successful C.I. was done for the patients, while only few cases were postponed. Conclusion: 1Cochlear implantation surgery had multiple steps with large number of difficulties, but most of these difficulties can be managed during surgery without complications. 2Good assessment of patients by otolaryngeal examination, radiological and audiological investigations with good experience and multidisciplinary team work make cochlear implantation surgery with low rate of complications.


Background: Strongyloides stercoralis is a world wide distributed small intestinal nematode parasite. In immunocompetent individuals S stercoralis can produce asymptomatic infections or a moderate clinical picture of diarrhea, some cases become chronic. In immunocompromised patients, a disseminated disease may appear, sometimes fatal. In Chile, there is little epidemiological information about S stercoralis infections and appropriate diagnostic techniques are usually not used. Aim: To evaluate the yield of an ELISA test for the diagnosis of strongyloidiasis in Chilean patients. Material and methods: Ten serum samples from patients with S stercoralis infections confirmed by a positive stool examination, 66 samples from individuals with other infections by tissue helminthes (24 toxocariasis, 15 trichinellosis, 11 hydatidosis, 12 fascioliasis and 4 cysticercosis), 13 samples from subjects with autoimmune diseases and 49 samples from apparently healthy individuals with a normal eosinophil count, were studied. ELISA antigen was prepared using a filariform larval extract obtained from a murine species of Strongyloides, maintained in laboratory animals. Results: Using 0.33 optical density units as a cut off value, 9 of 10 sera of S stercoralis infected individuals, had a positive ELISA test. No cross reactions were observed with sera of patients with other helminthic infections, autoimmune diseases or in healthy individuals. Thus, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 100%. Conclusions: The results obtained are similar with those found by other investigators. ELISA test for strongyloidiasis is a useful tool for the diagnosis of clinical cases and for seroepidemiological studies of this nematode infection in Chile (Rev Med Chile 2002; 130: 1358-64)


How can memory work be used as a pathway to reflect on the situatedness of the researcher and field of inquiry? The key aim of this article is to contribute to knowledge about the gendering of space developed by feminist geographers by using memory work as a reflexive research method. The authors present a brief review of feminist literature that covers the local and global symbolic meanings of spaces and the power relations within which space is experienced. From the literature they interpret themes of the interconnections between space, place, and time; sexualization of public space; and the bodily praxis of using space. Memories of gendered bodies and landscapes, movement and restricted space, and the disrupting of space allow the exploration of conceptualizations within the literature as active, situated, fragmented, and contextualized.


We propose a method for face de-identification that enables fully automatic video modification at high frame rates. The goal is to maximally decorrelate the identity, while having the perception (pose, illumination and expression) fixed. We achieve this by a novel feed-forward encoder-decoder network architecture that is conditioned on the high-level representation of a person's facial image. The network is global, in the sense that it does not need to be retrained for a given video or for a given identity, and it creates natural looking image sequences with little distortion in time.


Interactions between dilute meltwater and fine-grained, freshly comminuted debris at the bed of temperate glaciers liberate significant solute. The proportions of solute produced in the subglacial environment via biotic and abiotic processes remains unknown, however, this work suggests the biotic contribution is substantial. Laboratory analyses of microbiological and geochemical properties of sediment and meltwater from the Haut Glacier d'Arolla (HGA) indicates that a metabolically active microbial community exists in water-saturated sediments at the ice-bedrock interface. Basal sediment slurries and meltwater were incubated in the laboratory for 100 days under near in situ subglacial conditions. Relative proportions of solute produced via abiotic v. biotic mineral weathering were analyzed by comparing the evolved aqueous chemistry of biologically active (live) sediment slurries with sterilized controls. Aqueous chemical analyses indicate an increase in solute produced from mineral weathering coupled with nitrate depletion in the biologically active slurries compared with the killed controls. These results infer that microbial activity at HGA is likely an important contributor to chemical weathering associated solute fluxes from the glaciated catchment. Due to the magnitude of past glaciations throughout geologic time (e.g., Neoproterozoic and LatePleistocene), and evidence that subglacial microbial activity impacts mineral weathering, greater consideration needs to be given to cold temperature biogeochemical weathering and its impact on global geochemical cycles.


Abstract
The world of materials is an exciting and challenging field of research since it has always played a dominant role in the evolution of human civilization. The demands from aerospace, defence, automotive and industrial branches on more advanced and innovative materials has led to the development of a new generation of materials with much better performance and capabilities than the existing conventional structural and functional materials. As a result, the era of smart materials has started.
Smart materials can change their physical properties in response to a specific stimulus input. However, there is still a blurry image over the types and potential applications of smart materials. The objective of this paper is to define the field of smart materials and structures, together with its current status and potential benefits. However, more focus will be devoted to piezoelectric materials and results are presented and discussed. Finally, and in order to demonstrate the characteristics of one class of smart materials, two numerical examples are proposed and results are presented.


*Corresponding author Various origins have been assigned to rounded to subrounded and elliptical quartz megacrysts ("quartz eyes") in dyke rocks associated with mineral deposits/occurrences worldwide. An exact interpretation of their nature is likely to tightly constrain the petrogenesis of the host rocks, and by association may be critical in evaluating genetic models for spatially associated ore minerals. ChromaSEM-CL imaging and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) of "quartz eyes" within porphyry dykes associated with Au–Bi–Cu–As, Mo–Cu, and base-metal–Au–Ag mineral occurrences across the Northern Freegold Resources (NFR) property in the Dawson Range of Yukon Territory, Canada, reveals that the cathodoluminescence (CL) response of quartz is a function of its trace-element abundance(s). Bright blue luminescent growth zones are in most cases richer in Fe (up to 8839 ppm) and Ti (up to 229 ppm) relative to CL dark growth zones, with up to 41 times lower concentration of these elements. Assuming a TiO 2 = 1, the Ti-poor dull cores consistently recorded lower temperatures (mostly < 600 °C) compared to Ti-rich brighter blue rims (up to 860 °C). This suggests either overgrowth on xenocrystic cores or an increase in crystallization temperature. The temperature rise likely reflects magma mixing, and is therefore consistent with the phenocryst/phenoclasts having formed in a magma chamber rather than by secondary processes. Also, the great variability in composition and temperature of crystallization and/or reequilibration of brighter blue growth zones of two quartz crystals (660 °C and 855 °C) from a single sample suggests that multiple episodes of magma mixing and incremental growth of parental magma chambers occurred. Some "quartz eyes" are overprinted by variably oriented, bifurcating, and anastomosing fluid migration trails ("splatter and cobweb textu res") of red to reddish-brown CL quartz that is in most cases of low-temperature origin, and trace-elements poor, thus implying interaction of deuteric fluids with quartz phenocrysts/phenoclasts. The presence of "quartz eye" crystals with broken and angular blue cores, overgrown by oscillatory-zoned rims in which the zoning pattern does not correspond with the crystal boundaries, further suggests that some quartz crystals had been explosively fragmented (phenocrysts) and are now hosted in a recrystallized tuffisitic groundmass. The volatile exsolution that likely accompanied both magma mixing and decompression (as suggested by dendritic quartz, fine-grained recrystallized tuffisitic groundmass, and corroded quartz grains) was probably an important process that could have favoured the ore formation.


There is a growing interest in the use of offensive cyber capabilities (OCC) among states. Despite the growing interest in these capabilities, little is still known about the nature of OCC as a tool of the state. This research therefore aims to understand if (and how) offensive cyber capabilities have the potential to change the role of military power. Drawing on a wide range of cases, we argue that these capabilities can alter the manner in which states use their military power strategically in at least four ways. OCC are not particularly effective in deterring adversary military action, except when threatened to be used by states with a credible reputation. However, they do have value in compellence. Unlike conventional capabilities, the effects of offensive cyber operations do not necessarily have to be exposed publicly, which means the compelled party can back down post-action without losing face thus deescalating conflict. The potential to control the reversibility of effect of an OCC by the attacker may also encourage compliance. OCC also contribute to the use of force for defensive purposes, as it could provide both a preemptive as well as preventive strike option. Finally, its symbolic value as a 'prestige weapon' to enhance 'swaggering' remains unclear, due to its largely non-material ontology and transitory nature.


This paper employs citation analysis to investigate empirically the influence of MIS Quarterly on both IS and other literature. Specifically, we examine the impact of source article category, method type, and research area on article citation rates. Our results reveal that the citation-based quality indices of MISQ have been improving over the years. In addition, among the six categories of MISQ source articles, the methodological articles on average receive the most citings per article. Moreover, of the source articles employing different research methods, surveys, case studies, and lab experiments are more likely to be cited. Among source articles addressing different research areas, those focusing on IT and individuals receive the most citings per article. Finally, our analysis also shows that MISQ articles are well-cited by researchers from both IS and other disciplines, implying that IS does make knowledge contribution to other disciplines.


The contenporany society has favored the development of tourism, this development has caused changes in the communities. This phenomenon is called "Impacts of Tourism". Even being the touristic activity goal of economic, organizational, administrative and political plannings, the postimplantantion controll is seldon carried out. Through the researchs many successfull actions could be shown in order to be taken as an example to others cities, and mistakes could be corrected. The research "Impacts of Tourisc Activity - Studies on Danielas's Beach" has the purpose to verify which is the community feelings towards tourism, and yet trys to show the impacts on economical, social sectors and mainly on the local community. The present research shows the surprising transformation and defines the questions on the changes caused by the tourism, find out next.


Nanomanipulation inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been employed to maneuver and characterize nanomaterials. Despite recent efforts toward automated nanomanipulation, it is still largely conducted manually. In this paper, we demonstrate automated nanomanipulation inside an SEM for a well-structured nanomanipulation task via visual servo control and a vision-based contact detection method using SEM as a vision sensor. Four-point probe measurement of individual nanowires is achieved automatically by controlling four nanomanipulators with SEM visual feedback. A feed-forward controller is incorporated into the control system to improve response time. This technique represents an advance in nanomanipulation inside SEM and can be extended to other nanomanipulation tasks.


SHORT BIO Michael Ashley Stein holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School for over a decade, Stein holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria's Centre for Human Rights, and a visiting professorship at the Free University of Amsterdam. Stein previously was Professor (and Cabell Professor) at William & Mary Law School, and also taught at New York University and Stanford law schools. His path-breaking scholarship has been published globally by leading journals and presses, and he is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research, among others. An internationally recognized expert on disability law and policy, Stein participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, works with disabled peoples organizations around the world, actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies, advises a number of UN bodies and national human rights institutions, and has brought landmark litigation. Stein has received numerous awards for his work, including the inaugural Morton E. Ruderman Prize for Inclusion, the inaugural Henry Viscardi Achievement Award, and the ABA Paul G. Hearne Award, and was appointed by President Obama to the United States Holocaust Council.


An analysis of panel data on individuals in a random selection of urban households in Ethiopia reveals large, sustained, and unexplained earnings gaps between public and private, and formal and informal sectors over the period 1994-2004. The authors have no formal evidence whether these gaps reflect segmentation of the labor market along either of these divides. In other words, they cannot show whether they are at least in part due to impediments to entry in the higher wage sector. But they do have evidence that, if segmentation explains any part of the observed earnings gaps, then it could only have weakened over the survey decade. The authors find, first, that the rate of mobility increased between the two pairs of sectors. Sample transition rates grew across survey waves, while state dependence in sector choice decreased. Second, the sensitivity of sector choice to earnings gaps increased over the same period. In particular, the role of comparative earnings in selection into the informal sector was evident throughout the survey decade and increased in magnitude over the second half of the period.


In this paper, we propose a Deep Active Ray Network (DARNet) for automatic building segmentation. Taking an image as input, it first exploits a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) as the backbone to predict energy maps, which are further utilized to construct an energy function. A polygon-based contour is then evolved via minimizing the energy function, of which the minimum defines the final segmentation. Instead of parameterizing the contour using Euclidean coordinates, we adopt polar coordinates, i.e., rays, which not only prevents self-intersection but also simplifies the design of the energy function. Moreover, we propose a loss function that directly encourages the contours to match building boundaries. Our DARNet is trained end-to-end by back-propagating through the energy minimization and the backbone CNN, which makes the CNN adapt to the dynamics of the contour evolution. Experiments on three building instance segmentation datasets demonstrate our DARNet achieves either state-of-the-art or comparable performances to other competitors.


Last but not least because of the continuously deteriorating personnel relation in Higher Education Institutes, the number of lectures has increased since the 1970s. Looking at it from an educational-economic point of view, it appears unbeatable to have up to 1,200 students "served" by a single teacher (e. g. the AudiMax at Bielefeld University). At any rate, the learning success of the most frequent type of lecture, the basic lecture comprising a great deal of learning matter, is quite small. (Those who may not believe it should work up the courage and have students done a spontaneous exam on the past 90 minutes, provided they consider themselves psychically strong enough to cope with the results.) However, there are possibilities of increasing the learning effects of lectures. In their article, Tobias Zimmermann, Daniel Hurtade, Mirjam Berther & Felix Winter raise the question: Dialogue with 200 students – is that possible? Blended Learning in a lecture with a large number of participants. They successfully arranged a large lecture with the help of Dialogical Learning on learning platforms. Given present-day's equipment, this concept is transferrable to many cases and deserves to be distributed, which is done here in a first step.


Our goal in this article is to intervene and disrupt current contentious debates regarding the predominant lines of inquiry bourgeoning in settler colonial studies, the use of 'settler', and the politics of building solidarities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Settler colonial studies, 'settler', and solidarity, then, operate as the central themes of this paper. While somewhat jarring, our assessment of the debates is interspersed with our discussions in their original form, as we seek to explore possible lines of solidarity, accountability, and relationality to one another and to decolonization struggles both locally and globally. Our overall conclusion is that without centering Indigenous peoples' articulations, without deploying a relational approach to settler colonial power, and without paying attention to the conditions and contingency of settler colonialism, studies of settler colonialism and practices of solidarity run the risk of reifying (and possibly replicating) settler colonial as well as other modes of domination.


Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), particularly BMP9, have been shown to promote the osteogenic differentiation of murine multilineage cells (MMCs) and to promote bone formation in bone diseases; however, the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) have been proven to regulate mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation. In this study, we identified a novel mechanism that unravels the functional axis of a key miRNA (miR-21) which contributes to BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation. We screened differentially expressed miRNAs in MMCs during BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation and found that miR-21 was significantly upregulated by BMP9 during the osteogenesis of MMCs. Furthermore, miR-21 was confirmed to promote the osteogenic differentiation of the MMCs by suppressing Smad7, which negatively regulates the osteogenic differentiation of MMCs. The upregulation of miR-21 may promote the osteogenic differentiation of MMCs in synergy with BMP9. The findings of our study revealed a novel function of miR-21, and suggest that the overexpression of miR-21 contributes to bone formation by promoting BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation. Our data may provide a molecular basis for the development of novel therapeutic strategies to treat bone diseases, such as osteoporosis and other inflammatory bone diseases.


Abstract Prevalence rates are still lacking for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD) diagnoses based on the new ICD-11 criteria. In a nationwide representative German sample (N = 2524; 14–99 years), exposure to traumatic events and symptoms of PTSD or CPTSD were assessed with the International Trauma Questionnaire. A clinical variant of CPTSD with a lower threshold for core PTSD symptoms was also calculated, in addition to conditional prevalence rates dependent on trauma type and differential predictors. One-month prevalence rates were as follows: PTSD, 1.5%; CPTSD, 0.5%; and CPTSD variant, 0.7%. For PTSD, the highest conditional prevalence was associated with kidnapping or rape, and the highest CPTSD rates were associated with sexual childhood abuse or rape. PTSD and CPTSD were best differentiated by sexual violence. Combined PTSD and CPTSD (ICD-11) rates were in the range of previously reported prevalences for unified PTSD (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition; ICD-10). Evidence on differential predictors of PTSD and CPTSD is still preliminary.


The Rothbarth model of intrahousehold resource allocation has consistently failed to detect child gender bias in many applications over the past two decades. This paper challenges the current consensus that the Rothbarth method is not effective in revealing child gender bias from consumption behavior of adults. It proposes an approach to the Rothbarth model that restricts its application to samples of nuclear households, and employs an index of child gender based on the number of children in the household and related to a specific selective mechanism of discrimination. It demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach with an application to a 2005-06 Ethiopian consumption survey of 21,299 households conducted by Ethiopia's Statistical Authority, covering both urban and rural areas. The paper presents the first clear and extensive evidence of discrimination against girls by all four adult goods employed, and the outcome persists, in various degrees, when reexamined with a lower definition of child age, and with female-headed households. The findings provide support for gender-based policies in child-health and education in Ethiopia.


We propose a mechanism where high entanglement between very distant boundary spins is generated by suddenly connecting two long Kondo spin chains. We show that this procedure provides an efficient way to route entanglement between multiple distant sites. We observe that the key features of the entanglement dynamics of the composite spin chain are well described by a simple model of two singlets, each formed by two spins. The proposed routing mechanism is a footprint of the emergence of a Kondo cloud in a Kondo system and can be engineered and observed in varied physical settings.


We propose a strategy for merging both active and passive data sets in linearized tomographic inversion. We illustrate this in the reconstruction of 3D images of a complex volcanic structure, the Campi Flegrei caldera, located in the vicinity of the city of Naples, southern Italy. The caldera is occasionally the site of significant unrests characterized by large ground uplifts and seismicity. The P and S velocity models of the caldera structure are obtained by a tomographic inversion based on travel times recorded during two distinct experiments. The first data set is composed of 606 earthquakes recorded in 1984 and the second set is composed of recordings for 1528 shots produced during the SERAPIS experiment in 2001. The tomographic inversion is performed using an improved method based on an accurate finite‐difference traveltime computation and a simultaneous inversion of both velocity models and earthquake locations. In order to determine the adequate inversion parameters and relative data weighting factors, we perform massive synthetic simulations allowing one to merge the two types of data optimally. The proper merging provides high resolution velocity models, which allow one to reliably retrieve velocity anomalies over a large part of the tomography area. The obtained images confirm the presence of a high P velocity ring in the southern part of the bay of Pozzuoli and extends its trace inland as compared to previous results. This annular anomaly represents the buried trace of the rim of the Campi Flegrei caldera. Its shape at 1.5 km depth is in good agreement with the location of hydrothermalized lava inferred by gravimetric data modelling. The Vp/Vs model confirms the presence of two characteristic features. At about 1 km depth a very high Vp/Vs anomaly is observed below the town of Pozzuoli and is interpreted as due to the presence of rocks that contain fluids in the liquid phase. A low Vp/Vs body extending at about 3–4 km depth below a large part of the caldera is interpreted as the top of formations that are enriched in gas under supercritical conditions.


This study aimed to analyse the relation of nutritional status, physical activity or oxidative stress with cognitive function of pre-elderly and elderly. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 40 pre-elderly and 35 elderly subjects who were admitted to the Integrated Development Post Program ( Posbindu ) between September 2014 and January 2015. Anthropometric measurements (weight and height), physical activity, and biochemical data (oxidized low-density lipoprotein[Ox-LDL] and serum malondialdehyd [MDA]) were obtained. Nutritional status was assessed through body mass index (BMI), while the cognitive function was measured by Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) and Digit Span Backward. The data were analysed using an independent t-test and Spearman's test with a confidence level of 95%. The study showed that the prevalence of malnutrition among the pre-elderly and elderly were 60.0% and 80.0%, respectively. Concerning physical activity, those who belonged to inactive-sedentary activity based on physical activity level (PAL) ratio were 55.0% and 45.7%, respectively. There were no significant differences in Ox-LDL, MDA levels and cognitive function (p>0.05). Significant negative correlations existed between Ox-LDL and immediate visual memory function (r=-0.289; p<0.05), as well as between Ox-LDL and delayed visual memory function (r=-0.288; p<0.05). The conclusion that visual memory function was only correlated with Ox-LDL.


A small experimental study sponsored by the British Geological Survey (aligned to the
Geosphere Containment Project) and the Mont Terri Consortium (as part of the HA experimental
programme) was undertaken by the Transport Properties Research Laboratory (TPRL). The
objective of the work was to provide information on the evolution of intrinsic permeability and
the stress-dependent specific storage of an Opalinus Clay specimen subject to an isotropic
unloading stress history.
Isotropic effective stress was reduced in a step wise manner on a specimen of Opalinus Clay
subject to a constant hydraulic gradient. Permeability values were found to be in the range 3.8 to
9.5 x 10-21 m2 at average effective stresses of 3.25 to 0.40 MPa respectively, with permeability
significantly increasing when effective stress declined to below around 1.0 MPa. However, this
study clearly shows that on the scale of this experiment, the specimen continues to exhibit very
low permeability.
Storage values for the stress regime imposed during this study were found to range from 3.8 to
46.7 x10-5 m-1, exhibiting a general trend of increasing storage with decreasing effective stress.
The relationship between void ratio and logarithm of effective stress is reasonably linear for the
stress regime of the test indicating the specimen exhibits soil-like behaviour. Evidence suggests
that the locus in void ratio-effective stress space corresponds to the rebound-reconsolidation line
of theoretical soil mechanics. The general trend of increasing material compressibility and
decreasing bulk modulus are symptomatic of an increase in specimen volume due to swelling of
the clay during stress unloading.
Values of Young's modulus based on analysis of the unloading data are generally lower than
those derived from numerical modelling of the data. However, both determinants exhibit a
general decreasing trend as average effective stress declines. The combination of low modulus
values and the inability of the numerical model to fit all the data simultaneously, strongly
suggests that the specimen is exhibiting a form of visco-plastic deformation during the unloading
process.


The prevalence of lower-extremity arterial occlusive disease (LEAOD), the progression of LEAOD, and the incidence of new LEAOD were determined by noninvasive method in 410 volunteers between the ages of 50 and 70 yr; 252 individuals had type II (non-insulindependent) diabetes, 158 were control subjects. LEAOD was monitored with the ankle/arm systolic blood pressure index in combination with Doppler arterial velocity waveform analysis. LEAODwas much more prevalent in the type II patients (22%, 55 of 252) than in thecontrol subjects (3%, 4 of 158) (P > .00001). The prevalence of risk factors for LEAOD was much higher in the type II patients, including elevated triglyceride, depressed high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, hypertension, smoking, and elevated systolic blood pressure. In type II diabetic patients the incidence of new LEAOD over a 2-yr period (14%, 28 of 197) was lower than the incidence of LEAOD progression (87%, 45 of 52). Type II patients with LEAOD also had a high incidence of mortality (22%, 12 of 55) compared with those without LEAOD (4%, 8 of 197) (P < .0005). A risk score including smoking history, duration of diabetes, depressed HDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, elevated systolic blood pressure, and low obesity index is related to LEAOD. After accounting for the effect of all of the risk factors, we suggest that type II diabetes contributes additional risk for LEAOD.


Accurate prediction of the intensity and variability of strong ground motions from future large earthquakes depends on our ability to simulate realistic earthquake source models. We have developed a procedure to generate physically consistent earthquake-rupture models that should help make such simulations more accurate. We term these models "pseudo dynamic" because they are kinematic models that are designed to emulate important characteristics of dynamic rupture. We construct pseudo-dynamic models first by generating a slip distribution as a realization of a spatial random field that is consistent in its scaling and spatial variability with slip distributions observed in past earthquakes. We then compute the static stress drop associated with the slip distribution, which in turn is used to estimate the temporal evolution of slip through a set of empirical relationships derived from the analysis of spontaneous rupture models. Finally, a simple energy-budget calculation is used to eliminate models that are not likely to propagate spontaneously. The principal advantage of the pseudo-dynamic approach is that it avoids the computational demands of generating fully dynamic rupture models for multiple realizations of a scenario earthquake. While the relationships between source parameters described in this paper are simplifications of the true complexity of the physics of rupture, they help identify important interactions between source properties that are relevant for strong ground motion prediction, and should provide an improvement over purely kinematic models.


The Visible Spectro-Polarimeter (ViSP) is one of the first light instruments for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST). It is an echelle spectrograph designed to measure three different regions of the solar spectrum in three separate focal planes simultaneously between 380 and 900 nm. It will use the polarimetric capabilities of the ATST to measure the full Stokes parameters across the line profiles. By measuring the polarization in magnetically sensitive spectral lines the magnetic field vector as a function of height in the solar atmosphere can be obtained, along with the associated variation of the thermodynamic properties. The ViSP will have a spatial resolution of 0.04 arcsec over a 2 arcmin field of view (at 600 nm). The minimum spectral resolving power for all the focal planes is 180,000. The spectrograph supports up to 4 diffraction gratings and is fully automated to allow for rapid reconfiguration.


Substrate removal mechanisms in a mixed culture of an activated sludge system are still a mystery that researchers have been trying to unravel by proposing and
developing models to interpret the observed experimental data. Activated Sludge Model Number 1 (ASM1) was first introduced to better understand the biochemical
mechanisms during carbon and nitrogen oxidation and was based on the assumption that the external substrate is consumed only for biomass growth. This model ignored
the formation of intracellular polymers (storage products) in the biomass cell, though several researchers observed the phenomenon of storage of carbon sources and the
significant role it played in the carbon removal process. As a consequence, the Activated Sludge Model Number 3 (ASM3) was formulated assuming that all the easily biodegradable substrate is first stored internally during the feast phase before being used for growth during famine conditions. However, experimental observations proved that both storage and growth occur simultaneously during the
feast phase. Consequently, the simultaneous storage and growth (SSAG) model was developed as an extension to ASM3 specifically to gain an in-depth understanding of
the carbon oxidation process.

While considerable investigation has been focused on model calibration using respirometric measurements of the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) during the aerobic biodegradation of substrate, model-based interpretation of titrimetric measurements has been limited. In biological systems, the oxygen consumption and corresponding
pH changes occur simultaneously and can be easily monitored using respirometric and titrimetric experimental observations respectively. Attempts were, therefore,
made to calibrate ASM1 using titrimetric measurements. During the subsequent successful development, consideration was given to the pH effects of carbon uptake,
ammonia uptake for growth, CO2 production from carbon metabolism and the nonlinear carbon dioxide transfer rate (CTR) due to stripping. While respirometry was successfully used to calibrate every proposed new model, the interpretation of titrimetric measurements, however, was always based on ASM1, using calibration substrates such as acetate and ammonium. The SSAG model, developed in the year
2005, proposed an improved kinetic expression for the degradation of storage products under famine conditions. It was successfully calibrated using on-line respirometric measurements and validated using off-line storage products
measurements with acetate used as a calibration substrate. However it failed to explain the titrimetric behavior of the substrate biodegradation process. While in most cases the above models were calibrated using simple synthetic substrates, the application of these models for complex substrates was not investigated.

Therefore, in this dissertation, the biodegradation kinetics for different substrates like acetate (simple carbon source), sodium dodecyl sulfate (relatively complex carbon source), ammonium (simple nitrogen source), urea (relatively complex nitrogen source) and glutamic acid (combination of carbon and nitrogen) were investigated. A
titrimetric respirometer, established in the Water-waste laboratory in the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, University of Southern Queensland, Australia, was used
to conduct batch experiments in order to monitor substrate biodegradation process in an aerobic activated sludge system. Both the dissolved oxygen and the pH control
data were logged with the Labview software package. A spreadsheet program was used to calculate the oxygen uptake rate and the proton production/consumption rate
from the raw measurements.

During batch experiments, the biodegradation of all five test substrates showed unique respirometric and titrimetric behaviors indicating that each of these compounds is biodegraded using distinctive mechanisms with the involvement and coordination of different bacterial populations. The pattern of OURs were observed
varying from substrate to substrate describing the characteristics of test compounds. The titrimetric profiles were also different for different substrates biodegradation
reflecting the on-going biochemical reaction of respective substrate in activated sludge system. While acetate biodegradation, for example, caused proton
consumption (at pH 7.8) in the liquid medium, proton production was noted under feast conditions when either sodium dodecyl sulfate or glutamic acid was used as a
test substrate.

An in-depth revision of the existing activated sludge models was completed and the models were assessed using experimental observations. An improved bio-kinetic
model which includes both the oxygen and proton balances for the biodegradation of each of the test substrates was then developed. In addition, the substrates
biodegradation pathway and the non-linear CO2 transfer process were considered during the modeling. For proper model evaluation, the proposed model was calibrated using varying initial substrate concentrations and pH levels. In addition, three different calibration approaches: using respirometric measurements alone, using titrimetric measurements alone and using combined respirometric-titrimetric measurements, were applied during the study. The estimation of model parameters was undertaken using non-linear techniques utilizing the algorithms in the
optimisation toolbox (MATLAB).

For the biodegradation of each test substrate, the proposed model was successfully calibrated using both the respirometric and titrimetric behaviors in the activated
sludge system. The estimated model parameters showed consistent results for all three calibration approaches thereby confirming the precision of the proposed model.
The parameter estimation errors (calculated for 95% confidence intervals) as well as the mean squared errors for the different calibration approaches were quite
reasonable and confirmed the statistical soundness of the proposed model. In addition, the proposed model was validated using off-line measurements.

This dissertation presents an in-depth explanation of how the proposed models interpret the biodegradation processes and how the model parameters vary for different substrates in an activated sludge system. The results will be helpful in further refining current models that can contribute to the optimization of the design operation and enhanced performance of full scale wastewater treatment plants.


The criminal law relating to sex work was last modified in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Three years later in January 2006 the UK government published a 'prostitution strategy' that set out four core aims: challenge the view that street prostitution is inevitable and here to stay; achieve an overall reduction in street prostitution; improve the safety and quality of life of communities affected by prostitution, including those directly involved in street sex markets, and finally, to reduce all forms of commercial sexual exploitation. This framework prima facie failed to take into account both the issue of male sex work and also the Internet effect upon sex work. This article seeks to examine the intersection of technology and male for male sex work and reviews both the criminal law and UK policy framework in that context.


Tullio Lombardo's approach to narrative relief sculpture was grounded in the debate over the paragone or relative merits of painting versus sculpture, but it was also informed by the example of two earlier masters, with whose work he was well acquainted: Donatello and Andrea Mantegna. In particular, Tullio drew upon elements from both these masters in the design of the Chapel of the Arca del Santo in the basilica of St Anthony in Padua, a project that he began with his brother Antonio in 1500. Tullio's basic concept of fusing relief sculpture with an architectural perspective stems from Donatello's bronze reliefs for the high altar of the Santo, and the earlier sculptor remained an important interlocutor for Tullio across his engagement with the relief cycle for the chapel, an engagement only terminated with his death in 1532. The debt to Mantegna is more general, in part because Mantegna's approach to painting was profoundly influenced by Donatello; yet there were two areas of Mantegna's oeuvre that served as a crucial example for Tullio and his brother during the 1490s: the canvases of Caesar's Triumphs and the small-scale paintings in grisaille. These works embodied an ideal of rilievo, which Alberti had described as the goal of painting and sculpture. They demonstrated knowledge of the classical world virtually unrivalled at that time, as well as furnishing a new morphology of figural types saturated in the antique. That the Lombardo brothers were aware of Mantegna's work is confirmed by a comparison of Mantegna's drawing after the Calumny of Apelles in the British Museum with a drawing attributed to Antonio Lombardo in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A comparison of the two drawings shows that the Lombardo brothers were familiar with Mantegna's graphic style and sculptural approach to narratives. In short, Mantegna's paintings furnished a model for creating figural types and narratives all'antica, without which the sculpture of the Lombardo brothers and their followers would not have developed as it did.


Here, we provide the summary statistics for our GWAS of self-reported risk-taking propensity amongst 436,236 white European participants of the UK Biobank (UKB) study, measured by the question: "Would you describe yourself as someone who takes risks?". GWAS testing for associations between SNPs and self-reported risk-taking was performed using a linear mixed model (LMM) implemented in BOLT-LMM. Sex, age and genotyping array were included as covariates. SNPs were filtered based on info >0.5 and minor allele frequency >1%.


The paper examines Hungarian complement clauses where two morphologically identical moods in Hungarian, the subjunctive proper and/or the imperative may be used, including comparison of minimal pairs of contexts, where both are grammatical. It presents a case study and its statistical analysis aimed at characterising the grammatical and semantic role of the moods in question. On the basis of the empirical study it is suggested that independent semantic factors also support the claim that these moods need to be handled separately.


We discuss the development of policy rules at the University of Chicago and compare those rules with modern, Taylor-type rules. A key feature of the 1930s Chicago approach was the view that discretionary monetary policy has a destabilizing effect on the economy. Empirical confirmation of this view was provided by Friedman and Schwartz during the 1950s. Friedman's empirical findings that: (1i) the money supply can be controlled by the monetary authorities; and (ii2) the demand for money exhibits secular stability, provided the underpinnings for his money-supply rule. Friedman's statistical approach led him to believe that relationships formed on the basis of structural-parameter estimates within the cycle were likely to be unreliable. Both the Friedman rule and the Taylor rule share several important characteristics, including the focus on reducing both policy uncertainty and the possibility of reducing the policy mistakes of the past. We argue, however, that am implicit aspect of modern rules may pave the way for a return to discretion.


The COVID-19 Psychological Wellbeing Study was designed and implemented as a rapid survey of the psychosocial impacts of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), known as COVID-19 in residents across the United Kingdom. This study utilised a longitudinal design to collect online survey based data. The aim of this paper was to, describe (1) the rationale behind the study and the corresponding selection of constructs to be assessed; (2) the study design and methodology; (3) the resultant sociodemographic characteristics of the full sample (4) how the baseline survey data compares to the UK adult population (using data from the Census) on a variety of sociodemographic variables; (5) the ongoing efforts for weekly and monthly longitudinal assessments of the baseline cohort and (6) outline future research directions. We believe the study is in a unique position to make a significant contribution to the growing body of literature to help understand the psychological impact of this pandemic and inform future clinical and research directions that the UK will implement in response to COVID19.


Security and insecurity are complex concepts that states have problem in defining them in different conditions. Complexity of the concepts comes out of security dilemma which states face when they seek to recognize enemy and scale of threat that the enemy may cause. Events of September the 11 th formed a new condition in which United States faced the security dilemma that had not risen from a specific country but the enemy that was not recognizable and did not behave like states. United States attempted to solve the mentioned security dilemma by defining enemy, its threats and the new condition after events of September the 11 th . This article, in order to explain the security dilemma of the United States after events of the September the 11 th , is written in two parts; the first part is to explain security dilemma and the approaches that have been given to solve it and the second part tends to explain the security dilemma that United States faced after terrorist attacks of September the 11 th 2001.


The purpose of this thesis is to examine selected elements, which have influence on customer satisfaction in services. The investigation is conducted bot from a theoretical and empirical point of view. The theoretical analysis considers four dimensions. The first dimension is concerned with the service company's internal services, which have an indirect influence on the overall customer satisfaction. It focuses on internal services which involves an analysis of operations, processes, and activities which influence the behavior of employees within service companies, e.g. internal marketing decision making processes, management styles, communication patterns, empowerment, and employee motivation. The second dimension deals with the external value and therewith the relation between service providers and their customers. It focuses on issues of strategic service marketing relating to customer satisfaction, e.g. service marketing mix, service delivery, and service encounter. The third dimension takes the concept of service quality into account which corresponds to the level of customer satisfaction


Hypoxia is a major concern for human health. Multiple new techniques were proposed for tissue oxygenation in different variety of patients.  Clark Jr. et al. presenting their article titled "Fluorovent: A New Perfluorocarbon for Liquid Ventilation", at a symposium in neonatology, in 1995, described the scientific importance for perfluorocarbons which would be ideally suited for use in liquid ventilation and artificial blood as well. In 1966, Clark published his article that demonstrated that spontaneously breathing mice could survive when submerged in perfluorocarbons (PFCs) under normobaric conditions. The first trial of liquid ventilation in preterm neonates in 1989 showed the feasibility and potential of liquid ventilation in humans [1]. So liquid ventilation became as an alternative ventilation strategy for respiratory distress. The administration of perfluorocarbons in liquid form to the lungs has been associated with improved gas exchange, respiratory mechanics, and lung structure in different models of acute lung injury. Because of the characteristically high density of this chemical group, liquid perfluorocarbon columns may also exert a mechanical effect in dependent lung zones, contributing to the opening of atelectatic areas and maintaining them open at end-expiration, as well as diverting pulmonary blood flow to nondependent lung zones. In addition, perfluorocarbons are able to attenuate the proinflammatory response during lung injury, which may improve pulmonary function and histologic findings. [2]. The preterm infant also experiences improvement in lung compliance and gas exchange within hours of partial liquid ventilation initiation, most likely due to reductions in surface tension and volume recruitment. Some investigators suggested that liquid ventilation could generate a "baby lung" effect, due to the migration of an incompressible liquid in the dependent lung and the resulting overdistension of the nondependent zones [3]. However, some clinical trials failed to demonstrate the ability of partial liquid ventilation to decrease morbidity in acute respiratory failure. Due to some complications and morbidities, less invasive modes of PFC application have been developed, whereby PFC was either vaporized or aerosolized, especially using perfluorohexane vapor. Perfluorohexane has a relatively low molecular weight and unique physicochemical properties among the perfluorocarbons, particularly the relatively high vapor pressure which permits its administration in vapor form [4]. The administration of vaporized perfluorohexane is particularly interesting because of the ease of its application. This vapor is distributed directly to ventilated regions that may be damaged in respiratory distress syndrome. In addition, some adverse effects of filling the lungs with a liquid perfluorocarbon, as pneumothorax, and formation of liquothoraces, can be avoided in this approach [5]. Ventilation with oxygen vaporized perfluorohexane can facilitate some catastrophic situations in anesthesia field, for example this method can be used in the time of laryngeal laser surgeries, or bronchus anastomosis, for a short period of time to avoid hypoxia, or for acute treatment of burn victims. Oxygenation with perfluorohexane vapor can be used in the time of resuscitation, in the time of difficult intubation or for treatment of severe asthma. Lung lavage associated with perfluorocarbons and antibiotics can be used to eradicate infectious and inflammatory debris from the airways. Oxygenated perfluorocarbons can also have some other useful application in medical practice. Treatment of helicobacter pylori can be facilitated by drinking this fluid. Necrotizing cholitis can be treated by enema of this fluid. Chronic or acute sinusitis or pilonidal sinus can be treated by injection of this fluid to the infected sinus. Induced hypothermia for brain protection can be performed by cold oxygenated liquid ventilation, but the heart muscle must be heated by a laser apparatus or other devices to avoid arrhythmia


Planning information pertaining to the potential visual impacts of proposed construction developments is particularly important in the case of wind farm planning, given the high levels of concern amongst members of the public regarding the perceived negative visual impacts of wind turbines on the landscape. Previous research has highlighted the shortcomings associated with traditional visualization techniques used to assess these impacts, and also the means by which such information is then disseminated to the wider public during the consultation stages of the wind farm planning process. This research is concerned with examining the potential of Web‐based mapping and digital landscape visualization techniques for addressing some of these shortcomings. This article reports the findings of a Web‐based survey study designed to evaluate the potential of online GIS‐based approaches for improving the effectiveness and dissemination of wind farm visualizations and enhancing public participation in the wind farm planning process. Results from the survey study add to the research literature by demonstrating how innovative Web‐based approaches have real potential for augmenting existing methods of information provision and public participation in the planning process. The findings of this study are also potentially transferrable to other landscape planning scenarios.


Nuclear waste repositories are being installed in deep excavated rock formations in some places in Europe to isolate and store radioactive waste. In France, the Callovo-Oxfordian formation (COx) is a potential candidate for a nuclear waste repository. The redox reactivity (kinetics and thermodynamic redox potential) of COx clay rock samples are already under study using microscopic, spectrometric and wet analysis techniques. In order to cross and overcome certain limits by improvement in the knowledge, specific electrodes should be constructed and devoted to the deepening of the electrochemical behaviour of the COx system in different situations. Iron is one of the most common redox species in soils and sedimentary rocks. Iron-bearing phyllosilicates play key roles in various biogeochemical processes. The complexity of the physical and chemical (along with structural) changes involving their structural iron makes the studies of its redox properties challenging. Most of the recent reported efforts were focused on probing Fe redox on finely powdered clay (and often micas) particles, and have been hampered by inadequate interactions between particles and electrodes. Moreover, such experiments usually involve redox probe ions, thus adding supplementary difficulties in the determination of structural iron redox parameters such as redox potential (Eh) and kinetics. The present study aims at qualitatively investigating the above mentioned phenomena on minerals like iron-bearing micas. In the current work, we present initial insights regarding efforts to build a direct electrical interface between solid electrodes and conveniently shaped macroscopic mica crystals in order to investigate the redox properties of structural iron in dry and aqueous environments, in the presence of representative perturbations. A classical three electrode system has been used for voltammetric measurements. Platinum plate (1cm²) was the counter electrode. Potentials have been measured against either silver-silver chloride electrode (Ag-AgCl/3M KCl) or Saturated Calomel Electrode (SCE/KClsat) as reference electrodes. Open Circuit Potential (OCP) measurements and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) were realised as well as Long term OCP measurements, along with pH and other parameters, are also measured. Most of the experiments discussed here have been conducted in unbuffered NaCl or KCl 0.1 M solutions, at 25°C. Anoxic conditions were maintained by first bubbling N2 and then maintaining a gas layer in the head space of the reactor. Long term measurements showed that in these conditions, pH stays at a value around 8.9 and is stable for several weeks. Experiments realised in buffered solution, at pH 7.5, using 1 mM Piperazine-1,4-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid) (PIPES) and 2 mM NaOH did not show any observable change. In some experiments, 5 mM ferricyanide (Fe(CN)63-) have also been used as a redox probe. High resistivities previously have been reported for this type of material, ranging from 1010 to 1015 Ω.cm at room temperature. Given the current flows detection limit of the apparatus used for measuring (~nA), the mm-thick pieces used in first experiments should normally behave like insulating screens on Ag (or maybe Cu-Ag) electrodes, e.g. no current could be measured across the sample with low iron content. OCP measurement consists in measuring the electrode rest potential against a reference electrode, in absence of observable current. It provides a first indication on the type of material present on the support electrode; normally no potential should be measured in absence of an electrically conductive path. Unfortunately, first records showed that OCP can be measured immediately after the immersion of all the first electrodes prepared (Figure 1, left) even on muscovite and lepidolite, clearly indicating the presence of water in the different samples. However, signals obtained for lepidolite and muscovite are less stable and can only be conveniently recorded in absence of external perturbation around the electrode such as vibration or even air movement, whereas signals obtained for the different biotite samples are very stable. Changing parameters in the electrolyte such as pH (figure 1, right) removal of O2, or change in Cl- does not seems to affect the measured OCP of this type of electrode as it stay stable for days. Several week-longs monitoring on ten biotite electrodes, dipped in unbuffered NaCl 0.1 M, showed that the OCP slowly decreases and stays stable, at values between 0.1 and 0.14 mV/NHE (data not shown), despite occasional pH oscillation between 4 and 9. Results of these experiments show that several aspects of the designs of such electrodes have to be improved for further experiments. From these observations, we can't preclude that water might participate in the electrical contact between the support electrode and the solution, but we can still hypothesize that it could be due to interlayer traces of water, offering a poorly electrically conductive path in lepidolite and muscovite, whereas another mechanism might participate in the biotite sample. First, lowering of the water content in the mineral must be realised, using smaller crystals, longer drying and vacuuming time, and using more penetrating and impregnating resins. Platinum plates and evaporated platinum or carbon are envisioned for the inert support electrode. Using thinned slices should reduce electrical resistivity of the whole bulk structure, allowing a more convenient observation of the coupled electrons transfers that might occur between separated crystal surfaces. Hence, more suitable cutting techniques, such as wire sawing, should be planned to obtain thinner slices. More mica samples must also be selected, with higher and lower iron contents than the one used in the present experiments. This first set of experiments in interfacing solid electrodes and conveniently shaped mica crystals offers hope that this will be a valuable technique for probing structural iron. .


In this study, structural transformation of female employment is scrutinized during the years 2000-2010 in Turkey. Investigated seacular has particular importance from the point of view economic crisis in both the world and Turkey. Women employment is been dramatically empierced in times of slump periods. Such that women are impelled from primary sector to secondary moreover are digressed out of labor market at that times. The shape of U-curve in women employment becomes dissimilar depending on economic crisis in thriving economies and underdeveloped countries. In this regard, the paper reconnoitres whether sectoral impact has emerged with the effect of economic depression and U-curve impact has showed an alteration in Turkey's female employment or not. The more than four million surveys which derived from Turkish Statistical Institute have analyzed within the scope of this essay. It comprehends employment scrutinies in the context of gender at the first stage and detailed evoluation that acquired by the way of cross and frequency tables as a second part.


Africa's modern Zambezi is proposed as an example of a major extant river system, which archives the tectonic events that assembled and then fragmented a supercontinent. The Zambezi and an earlier Karoo river system, (here designated the Proto-Zambezi River system), have a recorded geological history spanning approximately 280 million years. Its original headwaters were formed when the End-Neoproterozoic to Ordovician amalgamation of the Gondwana Supercontinent created a central Himalayan-scale mountain belt, now called the Trans-Gondwana Mountain Range (at the core of the East Africa-Antarctica-Orogenic Belt). Eroded remnants of these mountains were the source of west-directed Dwyka glacial sediments and Ecca and Upper Karoo, Permo-Triassic, rift-controlled lakes and rivers across West Gondwana. The reversed drainage of the Zambezi River started to flow eastwards through the same rift valleys in the Middle Jurassic (at about 165 Ma), as Africa started to separate from the eastern part of West Gondwana, with the resultant development of an eastern seaboard. This second stage in the evolution of the Zambezi River mirrored sequential openings of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, in the post-Gondwana interplay between epeirogeny and rifting. Protracted longevity of the Zambezi River and its ancient precursor shows that major drainage systems can survive plate break-up, albeit with changed flow directions and continuously evolving catchments.


To explore the interplay between new mutation, transmission, and gender bias in genetic disease requires formal quantitative modeling. Autism spectrum disorders offer an ideal case: they are genetic in origin, complex, and show a gender bias. The high reproductive costs of autism ensure that most strongly associated genetic mutations are short-lived, and indeed the disease exhibits both transmitted and de novo components. There is a large body of both epidemiologic and genomic data that greatly constrain the genetic mechanisms that may contribute to the disorder. We develop a computational framework that assumes classes of additive variants, each member of a class having equal effect. We restrict our initial exploration to single class models, each having three parameters. Only one model matches epidemiological data. It also independently matches the incidence of de novo mutation in simplex families, the gender bias in unaffected siblings in simplex populations, and rates of mutation in target genes. This model makes strong and as yet not fully tested predictions, namely that females are the primary carriers in cases of genetic transmission, and that the incidence of de novo mutation in target genes for families at high risk for autism are not especially elevated. In its simplicity, this model does not account for MZ twin concordance or the distorted gender bias of high functioning children with ASD, and does not accommodate all the known mechanisms contributing to ASD. We point to the next steps in applying the same computational framework to explore more complex models. Author summary For understanding complex genetic diseases one needs both data and molecular/genetic models. In the absence of any model, it is impossible to do more than summarize observations. A good model will be consistent with much or all of the existing data and puts the data in the context of known genetic principles. Ideally the model will make testable predictions. Where the good models fail often shows the directions that require more thought about mechanisms. In this paper we describe a new computational framework that we use to explore a complex genetic disorder with many gene targets, with both de novo and transmitted variants, and with gender bias. The disorder we consider is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and our framework rules out some previous models that make unsustainable predictions. We identify a formal model that satisfies diverse epidemiologic and genomic observations. This model makes strong and untested predictions and thereby suggests new studies that would resolve outstanding aspects of autism genetics.


Wireless communications are showing an explosive growth in emerging consumer and military applications of radiofrequency (RF), microwave, and millimeter-wave circuits and systems. Applications include wireless personal connectivity (Bluetooth), wireless local area networks (WLAN), mobile communication systems (GSM, GPRS, UMTS, CDMA), satellite communications and automotive electronics. Future cell phones and ground communication systems as well as communication satellites will require more and more sophisticated technologies. The increasing demand for size and weight reduction, cost savings, low power consumption, increased frequency and higher functionality and reconfigurability as part of multiband and multistandard operation is necessitating the use of highly integrated RF front-end circuits. Chip scaling has made a major contribution to this goal, but today a situation has been reached where the presence of numerous off-chip passive RF components imposes a critical bottleneck to further integration and miniaturization of wireless transceivers. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is a rapidly emerging enabling technology that is intended to replace the discrete passives by their integrated counterparts. In this thesis, an original metal surface micromachining process, which is compatible with CMOS post-processing, for above-IC integration of RF MEMS tunable capacitors and suspended inductors is presented. A detailed study on SF6 inductively coupled plasma (ICP) releasing has been performed in order to ascertain the optimal process parameters. This study has emphasized the fact that temperature plays an important role in this process by limiting silicon dioxide etching. Moreover, the optimized recipe has been found to be independent of the sacrificial layer used (amorphous or polycrystalline silicon) and its thickness. Using this recipe, 15.6 µm/min Si underetch rate with high Si: SiO2 selectivity (> 20000: 1) has been obtained. Single-air-gap and double-air-gap parallel-plate MEMS tunable capacitors have been designed, fabricated and characterized in the pF range, from 1 MHz to 13.5 GHz. It has been shown that an optimized design of the suspended membrane and direct symmetrical current feed at both ports can significantly improve the quality factor and increase the self-resonant frequency, pushing it to 12 GHz and beyond. The maximum capacitance tuning range obtained for a single-air-gap capacitor is 29% for a bias voltage of 20 V. The maximum capacitance tuning range obtained for a double-air-gap capacitor is 207% for a bias voltage of 70 V. The post-processing of X-FAB BiCMOS wafers has been successfully demonstrated to fabricate monolithically integrated VCOs with above-IC MEMS LC tank. Comparing a suspended inductor and the X-FAB inductor with the same design, it has been shown that increasing the thickness of the spiral from 2.3 to 4 µm and having the spiral suspended 3 µm above the passivation layers lead to an improvement factor of 2 for the peak quality factor and a shift of the self-resonant frequency beyond 15 GHz. No significant variation on bipolar and MOS transistors characteristics due to the post-processing has been observed and we conclude that the variation due to post-processing is in the same range as the wafer-to-wafer variation. Based on our metal surface micromachining process, coplanar waveguide (CPW) MEMS shunt capacitive switches and variable true-time delay lines (V-TTDLs) have been designed, fabricated and characterized in the 1 - 20 GHz range. A novel MEMS device architecture: the SG-MOSFET, which combines a solid-state MOS transistor and a metal suspended gate has been proposed as DC current switch. The corresponding fabrication process using polysilicon as a sacrificial layer has been developed to release metal gate suspended over gate oxide by SF6 plasma. Very abrupt current switches have been demonstrated with subthreshold slope better than 10 mV/decade (better than the theoretical solid-state bulk or SOI MOSFET limit of 60 mV/decade) and ultra-low gate leakage (less than 0.001 pA/µm2) due to the air-gap.


"The goal of this study was to determine what region of the Dkk-1 promoter was required for expression of the Dkk-1 gene under different growth conditions. Dkk-1 promoter activity was analyzed in NIH3T3 cell lines stably transfected with luciferase vectors containing 1068, 535, and 228 bp of Dkk-1 upstream sequence that were growing, confluent, serum starved and during the cell cycle. Dkk-1 promoter activity was also analyzed in the cell lines treated with the inhibitors aphidicolin, methotrexate, and U0126. In general, we found that Dkk-1 promoter activity is higher in a growing cell population than in a nondividing population. The 1068 Dkk-1 promoter construct does not appear to change dramatically during the cell cycle nor is it sensitive to an S phase inhibitor or U0126. Methotrexate treatment was found to decrease promoter activity. A sequence region between 1068 and 535 appears to be important for regulation of Dkk-1 promoter activity."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


In this book, Miguel Basanez presents a provocative look at the impact of culture on global development. Drawing on data from governments, NGOs, the World Values Survey and more addressing over one hundred countries, he argues that values, as the "building blocks" of culture, are directly related to the speed with which social, cultural and economic development occurs. Basanez utilizes quantitative survey data to delineate three cultural hyperclusters across the globe: cultures of honor, which prioritize political authority; cultures of achievement, which emphasize economic advancement; and cultures of joy, which focus on social interactions. According to Basanez, these cultures evolved chronologically, mirroring the development of agrarian, industrial and service societies. He argues that a country's developmental path is profoundly influenced by its people's values and culture, as crystallized through its formal and informal governing institutions. Culture is passed down over generations through families, schools, the media, religious institutions, leadership, and the law. Although culture and values are in a permanent state of evolution, leaders and policymakers can also push cultural change in order to promote desirable goals such as economic growth, democratization, and equality. Over the course of the book, Basanez introduces two new measures of development: the Objective Development Index (which blends rubrics such as health, education, income, gender equality, political rights and civil liberties, and economic inequality) and the Subjective Development Index (which uses responses to the World Values Survey to classify countries according to their values).


We demonstrate that efficient meta-learning can be achieved via end-to-end training of deep neural networks with memory distributed across layers. The persistent state of this memory assumes the entire burden of guiding task adaptation. Moreover, its distributed nature is instrumental in orchestrating adaptation. Ablation experiments demonstrate that providing relevant feedback to memory units distributed across the depth of the network enables them to guide adaptation throughout the entire network. Our results show that this is a successful strategy for simplifying metalearning – often cast as a bi-level optimization problem – to standard end-to-end training, while outperforming gradient-based, prototype-based, and other memorybased meta-learning strategies. Additionally, our adaptation strategy naturally handles online learning scenarios with a significant delay between observing a sample and its corresponding label – a setting in which other approaches struggle. Adaptation via distributed memory is effective across a wide range of learning tasks, ranging from classification to online few-shot semantic segmentation.


Background: Safe systemic protection from the health hazards of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) in sunlight is desirable. Green tea is consumed globally and is reported to have anti-inflammatory properties, which may be mediated through the impact on cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways. Recent data suggest that green tea catechins (GTCs) reduce acute UVR effects, but human trials examining their photoprotective potential are scarce. Objective: We performed a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to examine whether GTCs protect against clinical, histologic, and biochemical indicators of UVR-induced inflammation. Design: Healthy adults (aged 18–65 y, phototypes I–II) were randomly allocated to 1350 mg encapsulated green tea extract (540 mg GTC) with 50 mg vitamin C or placebo twice daily for 3 mo. Impact on skin erythema, dermal leukocytic infiltration, and concentrations of proinflammatory eicosanoids was assessed after solar-simulated UVR challenge, and subject compliance was determined through assay of urinary GTC metabolite epigallocatechin glucuronide. Results: Volunteers were assigned to the active (n = 25) or the placebo (n = 25) group. After supplementation, median (IQR) sunburn threshold (minimal erythema dose) was 28 (20–28) and 20 (20–28) mJ/cm2 in the active and placebo groups, respectively (nonsignificant), with no difference in AUC analysis for measured erythema index after a geometric series of 10 UVR doses. Skin immunohistochemistry showed increased neutrophil and CD3+ T-lymphocyte numbers post-UVR in both groups (P < 0.01) with no statistically significant differences between groups after supplementation. Cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase metabolites prostaglandin E2 (vasodilator) and 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoicacid (chemoattractant), respectively, increased after UVR (P < 0.05), with no differences between supplementation groups. Conclusion: Oral GTC (1080 mg/d) with vitamin C over 3 mo did not significantly reduce skin erythema, leukocyte infiltration, or eicosanoid response to UVR inflammatory challenge. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01032031.


A number of inter-related issues since the turn of the 21st century have resonated through domestic and foreign policies across the world: ongoing violences and the war on/of terror, various urban 'racial disturbances', economic austerity and an increasing hostility to immigrants across Europe. In the UK, this has resulted in both more repressive policies on immigration, and the acceleration of efforts to bring different communities together (Askins and Pain 2011). Among the latter, 'community cohesion' has become a central theme for social policy, outlined as the attempt to build communities with a 'common vision and a sense of belonging', in which diversity is valued, there are similar life opportunities for all, and positive relationships between people from different backgrounds within neighbourhoods (DCLG 2007). Given that this era is dominated by increasingly diverse migration (ONS 2013), heterogeneity and intercultural encounter is arguably more routine, raising speculation as to whether better appreciation and understanding of difference can move us towards a more 'cosmospolitan' society (eg. Simonsen 2008; Valentine 2008). However, such 'superdiversity' also has the potential to increase conflict between selves/others, namely, in the UK, between majority white and minority and migrant communities of colour. Back (2007) argues that 'the immigration line' has replaced 'the color line' as humanity's key challenge in the 21st century.


We report the design and measurement of a 1:2 demultiplexer (DMUX) integrated circuit (IC) including a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) as input stage for optimum sensitivity and automatic single-ended-to-differential signal conversion. The monolithic TIA-DMUX was realised in a 0.7-μm indium phosphide (InP) double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) technology. Measured on wafer at 100 Gb/s with a single-ended input signal of 28.2-mVpp eye height, the TIA-DMUX provides two clear 50-Gbit/s demultiplexed outputs larger than 400 mVpp for a total power consumption of 2.1 W.


Racemic epinephrine has been advocated for the treatment of croup, but controlled studies have not proved it more effective than saline. Twenty patients (aged 4 months to 5 years) hospitalized with acute croup and persistent inspiratory stridor at rest were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: saline or racemic epinephrine, both nebulized and delivered by intermittent positive pressure breathing. Clinical scores were significantly improved (P less than .01) at ten and 30 minutes following the treatment with racemic epinephrine but not at 120 minutes. Racemic epinephrine was significantly more effective than saline at 10 (P less than .01) and 30 minutes (P less than .05) but not at 120 minutes after the treatment. We conclude that nebulized racemic epinephrine is effective treatment for the acute signs of croup.


From the hot, arid Sahara Desert to the humid, West African monsoon, Africa is a continent with vastly different weather and climate patterns from one region to the next. For this reason, thunderstorm forecasting over Africa has presented significant difficulty. The Gálvez-Davison Index (GDI) was developed for the Americas and provides a more accurate convective forecasting index than the conventional indices for thunderstorm forecasting, including the K, Total Totals, Showalter, and Lifted indices. Previous research using the GDI via the Global Forecasting System (GFS) model data over Africa showed promising results for areal coverage (Donndelinger 2018), especially during the spring through fall months. This study will look to test the GDI via the Global Air Land Weather Exploitation Model (GALWEM) to determine if the GALWEM GDI forecast is able to more accurately forecast the location and areal coverage, as well as resolve airmass thunderstorms, when compared to the GALWEM K Index (KI) and GFS GDI forecast. Results from this study show the GDI and KI have similar location error at the 95% confidence level across the monthly, Zulu time, convective regime, and regional studies. GDI consistently outperforms the KI in terms of areal convection coverage in every study analyzed at the 95% confidence level. The GDI proves to perform best when convection is primarily airmass-based, while the KI performs best when convection is primarily from Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs). Furthermore, Kelvin waves and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) show promise as additional convective forecast tools for Africa. This study contains important information for furthering meteorological understanding of convection and precipitation over the African continent


We adapt the heterogeneous firm trade models of Helpman, Melitz, and Rubinstein (2008) and Lawless (2010) to analyze extensive and intensive trade margins using state-level exports to foreign nations. Our theoretical analysis provides definitive predictions for the effects of changes in fixed costs, variable costs, and foreign income on the extensive margin, while for the intensive margin the predictions regarding changes in fixed costs are definitive, but the effects of changes in variable costs and foreign income are not. The number of exporting firms of a state is used to measure the extensive margin, while the intensive margin is approximated by the average firm exports of a state. Various count-data models, such as the standard negative binomial and its hurdle extension, are used to address non-trading pairs and overdispersion in the extensive trade estimations, while a Heckman correction is examined to handle sample selection issues in the intensive margin estimations. As the theory predicts, we find more consistent and statistically significant effects of changes in cost-related variables on the extensive than on the intensive margin of trade. Unlike Lawless (2010), but consistent with a truncated Pareto distribution, empirical findings suggest that variable costs reduce average exports. A noteworthy finding is that U.S. foreign direct investment has a positive effect on both margins.


In this paper, we consider how Russian Agriculture has developed since the constitution of the Russian Federation. The analysis is based on Oblast level data of 75 territorial units during the period from 1993 to 1998 and is focusing on technical efficiency (TE), technological change, and (both aggregated as overall index) on Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Given that the initial natural conditions were approximately constant the consistence of political programs, market reforms and restructuring were essential determinants of regional developments of TE and TFP above or below the common trend. If this assumption is widely true an investigation of responsible circumstances for these divergences seems to be an important task in the actual regional-economic research. This paper should provide a step of such an analysis - discover common trends, make divergences visible and detect Oblasts characterised by diverging trends. The results have shown that the agricultural TE and the technological change varied dramatically among regions. Beyond it, we have found a growing gap of TE among regions and a relative homogeneous negative trend of technical change resulting, altogether, in a divergence of regional agricultural TFP. Because agriculture is for many regions the fundamental source of income this fact is alarming, especially when the local agriculture becomes noncompetitiveness in comparison with other regions, actually or in future.


On any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients in the U.S. has a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) that the patient contracts as a direct result of his or her treatment. Fortunately, the spread of most HAIs can be halted through proper disinfection of surfaces and equipment. Consequently, cleaners — "environmental services" (EVS) in hospital parlance — must take on the important task of defending hospital patients (as well as employees and the broader community) from the spread of HAIs. Nevertheless, despite the importance of this task, hospitals frequently outsource this function, increasing the likelihood that these workers are under-rewarded, undertrained, and detached from the organization and the rest of the care team. As a result, the outsourcing of EVS workers could have the unintended consequence of increasing the incidence of HAIs. We demonstrate this relationship empirically, finding support for our theory by using a self-constructed dataset that marries infection data to structural, organizational, and workforce features of California's general acute care hospitals. The study thus advances the literature on nonstandard work arrangements — outsourcing, in particular — while sounding a cautionary note to hospital administrators and healthcare policymakers.


Cestodes collected from a variety of species of rodents of the genera Chiruromys Thomas, 1888, Hydromys Geoffroy, 1804, Melomys Thomas, 1922, Paramelomys Rümmler, 1936, Pogonomys Milne-Edwards, 1877, Rattus Fischer de Waldheim, 1803 and Uromys Peters, 1867 from New Guinea and adjacent islands are reported. The species most frequently encountered was the cosmopolitan species Hymenolepis diminuta (Rudolphi, 1819) with a single occurrence of the related hymenolepidid Rodentolepis fraterna (Stiles, 1906). Davaineid cestodes were common with Raillietina celebensis (Janicki, 1902) and R. melomyos Jones & Anderson, 1996 being found in several host species. Paroniella blanchardi (Parona, 1897) is reported and is redescribed together with an apparently novel species of Paroniella Fuhrmann, 1920. Two species of Bertiella Stiles & Hassall, 1902, B. anapolytica Baylis, 1934 and B. musasabi Yamaguti, 1942 were encountered considerably extending their known host and geographical ranges. Mathevotaenia niuguiniensis Beveridge, 2008, previously reported from New Guinea was found in additional host species. A dilepidid cestode species was also found but the material available was insufficient to allow identification. Numerous new host species are reported for the cestodes described.


The potential relationship between Schistosoma mansoni and anemia was examined using data obtained by the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) before (baseline) and 1 year after (follow-up) a chemotherapeutic treatment program in Uganda. Changes in hemoglobin (Hb) levels in 2,788 children in relation to their schistosomiasis and/or hookworm infection intensity category and baseline anemia status were analyzed. At baseline, significant predictors of childhood anemia were intensities of S. mansoni and hookworm infection. At follow-up, moderate or heavy hookworm as well as heavy S. mansoni infections were important. Children heavily infected with S. mansoni or hookworm had significantly lower Hb counts at baseline compared with those not infected. Among anemic children at the baseline survey, a significant increase in Hb counts of 0.834 g/dL after treatment was found. Our results suggest that anemia is associated with schistosomiasis and hookworm in Ugandan children and that such anemia shows a significant improvement after chemotherapy.


___________________________________ Soura Dasgupta ii To my parents and brother. iii ABSTRACT In this dissertation, we propose a novel distributed approach to the control of generators in the electric grid. Specifically, we consider the problem of the optimal economic dispatch of generator; we present a simple, distributed algorithm, which adjusts the power-frequency set-points of generators to correct for power imbalances arising from generation and load fluctuations. In this algorithm each generator independently adjusts its real-power output based on its estimate of the aggregate power imbalance in the network; such as an estimate can be independently obtained by each generator through local measurements of the frequency deviation on the grid. Eventually, over the course of network operation, the distributed algorithm achieves the equal-marginal-cost power allocation among generators while driving the power imbalance exponentially to zero. In the absence of power losses, we prove the eventual optimality of the distributed algorithm under mild assumptions (strict convexity and positivity of cost functions) and present simulation results to compare its performance with traditional (centralized) dispatch algorithms. Furthermore, we present numerical simulation results that show that the distributed algorithm performs well even in the presence of power losses and other constraints. We argue that distributed control methods are especially attractive for electric grids with smart meters and other advanced capabilities at the end node and grids with high penetration of alternative energy generators and we identify interesting open problems for future work in this area.


This forum is dedicated to personal health in all its many facets: decision making, goal setting, celebration, discovery, reflection, and coordination, among others. We look at innovations in interactive technologies and how they help address current critical healthcare challenges. --- Yunan Chen, Editor


The rapid growth of documents across the web has necessitated finding means of discarding redundant documents and retaining novel ones. Capturing redundancy is challenging as it may involve investigating at a deep semantic level. Techniques for detecting such semantic redundancy at the document level are scarce. In this work we propose a deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based model to classify a document as novel or redundant with respect to a set of relevant documents already seen by the system. The system is simple and do not require any manual feature engineering. Our novel scheme encodes relevant and relative information from both source and target texts to generate an intermediate representation which we coin as the Relative Document Vector (RDV). The proposed method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art on a document-level novelty detection dataset by a margin of ∼5% in terms of accuracy. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a standard paraphrase detection dataset where paraphrased passages closely resemble to semantically redundant documents.