Monty Python, the genius comedy troupe from Britain, single-handedly revolutionized sketch comedy and paved the way for everything from Saturday Night Live to Austin Powers. Now, in their official oral history, founding members John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin take readers behind the scenes in this no-holds-barred look at their lives and unforgettable comic works like "The Spanish Inquisition," "Dead Parrot," Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Spamalot), and many, many more, with never-before-seen photos and rare interviews from friends and collaborators.


Abstract. In the Republic of Moldova, non-sustainable arable farming led to severe degradation and erosion of fertile steppe soils (Chernozems). As a result, the Chernozems lost about 40% of their initial amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC). The aim of this study was to remediate degraded arable soils and promote carbon sequestration by implementation of cover cropping and green manuring in Moldova. Thereby, the suitability of the legume hairy vetch (Vicia sativa) as cover crop under the dry continental climate of Moldova was examined. At two experimental sites, the effect of cover cropping on chemical and physical soil properties as well as on yields of subsequent main crops was determined. The results showed a significant increase of SOC after incorporation of hairy vetch mainly due to increases of aggregate-occluded and mineral-associated OC. This was related to a high above- and belowground biomass production of hairy vetch associated with a high input of carbon and nitrogen into arable soils. A calculation of SOC stocks based on equivalent soil masses revealed a sequestration of around 3 t C ha−1yr−1 as a result of hairy vetch cover cropping. The buildup of SOC was associated with an improvement of the soil structure as indicated by a distinct decrease of bulk density and a relative increase of macroaggregates at the expense of microaggregates and clods. As a result, yields of subsequent main crops increased by around 20%. Our results indicated that hairy vetch is a promising cover crop to remediate degraded steppe soils, control soil erosion and sequester substantial amounts of atmospheric C in arable soils of Moldova.


Graphic organizers are frequently utilized by teachers to assist learning. Characteristics of graphic organizers include an organizational process, opportunities for brainstorming, planning, assessment, illustrations, visual stimuli, note taking, checking understanding, and allowing an instructor to effectively deliver instruction (Ausubel, 1969; Bromley, Irwin-DeVitis, & Modlo, 1995; Gregory & Chapman, 2002; Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D.J., & Pollock, J.E., 2001; Stronge, 2002). Mind mapping and outlining are specific instructional tools teachers utilize to improve learning. These instructional tools have the characteristics of graphic organizers and allow individuals to process information. Mind mapping and outlining allow individuals to foster and create meaningful learning, which is critical to the learning process (Ausubel, 1969; Novak, 1981). The purpose of this study was to determine effects of mind mapping and outlining on learning Life Science in the seventh grade. This study evaluated unit test scores, one-week delayed comprehensive posttest scores, and attitudes of students toward the strategy implemented on a Life Science Unit on cellular biology. Permission was obtained from the Texas Tech Institutional Review Board and Hobbs (NM) Municipal Schools to conduct this study. Consent was received and each participant was randomly assigned to one of three groups (control, outlining, and mind mapping) to assure equal distribution of difference between these groups (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996). A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine effects of groups in unit test scores and one-week delayed comprehensive posttest scores. A MANOVA was utilized to evaluate effects of groups' attitude survey scores. Results of the study demonstrated a significant difference in means of unit test scores. A post-hoc test was conducted to evaluate which groups were different. A significant difference existed for students who used the outlining strategy to answer unit test questions on cellular biology when compared to the control and mind-mapping groups. In evaluation of one-week delayed comprehensive posttest results on cellular biology, a significant difference did not exist between groups. Attitudes toward the strategy being implemented differed between means of groups for survey questions two and seven. The mind-mapping group indicated significant agreement regarding the statement "I enjoyed creating an (outline, mind map, writing information) for the cell block." Ancillary data was compiled of basic and application questions of unit test and one-week delayed comprehensive posttest. In unit test basic questions, the outlining group performed significantly better than the mind-mapping group. In the one-week delayed comprehensive posttest, the outlining group performed significantly better than the control group. Limitations in this study involved students' lack of engagement of the learning process, student diversity, classroom disruptions, student interactions, student resistance, and immediacy of feedback. Recommendations for further study include grouping students according to their developmental level using Piaget's theory, modeling of note taking strategies by teachers, increasing the length of training sessions on graphic organizers, and selecting other areas of science content. URI http://hdl.handle.net/2346/1058 Collections Electronic Theses and Dissertations Mind mapping and outlining: comparing two types of graphic organizers for learning seventh-grade life science  


Nutrigenomics studies the impact of nutrients on genome and response of individual genetic makeup to diet. On the other hand nutrigenetics studies the impact of nutrient on a single gene. Some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are determinants of individual requirement of nutrients but some others may be responsible for causing diseases. System biology approach is mainly used in nutrigenomics whereas individual nutrition is the major subject of nutrigenetics. Diet active molecules and human genetics are two major factors which govern the development of chronic diseases, namely cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Adequate and proper amount of nutrients prevent us from developing chronic diseases. The nutrients should keep desired balance between total oxidation status and total antioxidant response of the genome to maintain a balanced level between these two variables. If this balance is disturbed by our eating habits, our genomic system may become prone to development of chronic diseases. Nutrigenomic approach for control of such diseases is to enhance antioxidant status of body by supplementing food with antioxidants which become deficient in a diseased person.


Scott Kelby, author of the groundbreaking bestseller The Digital Photography Book, Vol. 1 is back with an entirely new book that picks up right where Vol. 1 left off. Its more of that Ah haso thats how they do it, straight-to-the-point, skip the techno jargon; packed with stuff you can really use today, that made Vol. 1 the worlds bestselling book on digital photography.In Volume 2, Scott adds entirely new chapters packed with Plain English tips on using flash, shooting close up photography, travel photography, shooting people, and even how to build a studio from scratch, where he demystifies the process so anyone can start taking pro-quality portraits today! Plus, he's got full chapters on his most requested topics, including loads of tips for landscape photographers, wedding photographers, and there's anentirechapter devoted to sharing some of the pro's secrets for making your photos look more professional, no matter what you're shooting. This book truly has a brilliant premise, and heres how Scott describes it: If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, When I use my flash, the background behind the person Im shooting turns black. How do I fix that? I wouldnt give you a lecture on flash ratios, or start a discussion on flash synchronization and rear curtain sync. Id just say Lower your shutter speed to 1/60 of a second. That should do it Well, thats what this book is all about: you and I out shooting where I answer questions, give you advice, and share the secrets Ive learned just like I would with a friendwithout all the technical explanations and techie photo speak.Each page covers a single concept on how to make your photography better. Every time you turn the page, youll learn another pro setting, tool, or trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. If youre tired of taking shots that look okay, and if youre tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, Why dont my shots look like that? then this is the book for you.This isnt a book of theoryfull of confusing jargon and detailed concepts. This is a book on which button to push, which setting to use, and when to use it. With nearly another 200 of the most closely guarded photographic tricks of the trade, this book gets you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time.


In the present investigation, bulk and chemical partitioning of elements in the Shefa-Rud riverbed sediments are studied. Higher concentrations of elemental concentrations have been observed in estuarine zone when compared with riverine sediments (except for Al, Fe, Pb and Mn). Manganese is mobilized under anoxic conditions prevailing in the Caspian Sea. Lithogenous materials are greatly diluted in the estuarine zone by various pollutants present in the Caspian Sea. Organic metallic bonds are not significantly present in the area of study. Geological units of the area of study have resulted in the lower concentrations of elemental concentrations of riverbed sediments when compared with published values for mean crust and world sediments ones. Though, cluster analysis has clearly shown the importance of alumina-silicates in controlling the distribution of Fe and Mn in riverbed sediments but it could not depict controlling mechanism for other studied elements. Geochemical Index (Igeo) and Enrichment Factor (EF) values are indicative of a clean environment throughout the river course. These values are in a well agreement with results of chemical partitioning data. Quantification of EF values is not logically possible and therefore Igeo values can be used more effectively.


In addition to the constant demand of low-loss dielectric materials for wireless telecommunication, the recent progress in the Internet of Things (IoT), the Tactile Internet (fifth generation wireless systems), the Industrial Internet, satellite broadcasting and intelligent transport systems (ITS) has put more pressure on their development with modern component fabrication techniques. Oxide ceramics are critical for these applications, and a full understanding of their crystal chemistry is fundamental for future development. Properties of microwave ceramics depend on several parameters including their composition, the purity of starting materials, processing conditions and their ultimate densification/porosity. In this review the data for all reported low-loss microwave dielectric ceramic materials are collected and tabulated. The table of these materials gives the relative permittivity, quality factor, temperature variation of the resonant frequency, crystal structure, sintering temperature, measurement frequency and references. In addition, the methods commonly employed for measuring the microwave dielectric properties, important from the applications point of view, factors affecting the dielectric loss, methods to tailor the dielectric properties and materials for future applications, are briefly described. The data will be very useful for scientists, industrialists, engineers and students working on current and emerging applications of wireless communications.


Foraging mode of the Cape grass lizard, Cordylus anguina, was determined by using three criteria: 1) the number of movements per minute (MPM) and the percentage of time spent moving (PTM) during periods of activity; 2) prey chemical discrimination ability; 3) stomach contents. To determine MPM and PTM, observations were made from an observation tower using a semi-natural outdoor enclosure, and through a one-way glass panel using a semi-natural indoor enclosure. Each lizard (n = 10) was observed for a 10 minute period during peak activity and the times it was moving and the times it was stationary were recorded. Data obtained in the indoor- and outdoor enclosures did not differ significantly and were pooled. MPM (0.37 ± 0.21 S.D.) and PTM (1.92 % ± 0.93 S.D.) values recorded for C. anguina fall within the range given as characteristic for sit-and-wait foragers. Nine C. anguina were habituated in glass terraria to accept mealworms offered to them. When all lizards accepted food without hesitation, they were tested for their ability to discriminate among three different odours presented to them in a randomized block design: prey odours consisting of mealworm surface odours, distilled water as an odourless control stimulus, and cologne as a pungency control. The number of tongue-flicks directed at the cotton applicator containing the stimulus odour during 60 seconds was recorded. No statistically significant differences were found among the responses to the three treatment odours. An analysis of the stomach contents of 21 C. anguina revealed a diet of mostly diurnally active arthropods.


The evolution of meaning of integration is the natural development, good and normal for all states involved in this process, with the ultimate goal of increasing the welfare and living standards for their populations. The benefits of development should enjoy more numerous groups of people. Promoting collective responsibility for development to underpin social economy encumbered the common good must be the path to healthy development. The European construction sustainability must be based on assimilation integration spiritual values in people, as Europeans, to think, think, act, live and hope. If the results of integration are realized gradually and not immediately felt in every country, the confidence in integration gradually diminishes and the development process of each country is slowly but surely turning into a European Trojan horse.


The paratext framework is now used in a variety of fields to assess, measure, analyze, and comprehend the elements that provide thresholds, allowing scholars to better understand digital objects. Researchers from many disciplines revisit paratextual theories in order to grasp what surrounds text in the digital age.

Examining Paratextual Theory and its Applications in Digital Culture suggests a theoretical and practical tool for building bridges between disciplines interested in conducting joint research and exploration of digital culture. Helping scholars from different fields find an interdisciplinary framework and common language to study digital objects, this book serves as a useful reference for academics, librarians, professionals, researchers, and students, offering a collaborative outlook and perspective.


Importance
More than 30 million people live with a stroke diagnosis worldwide. Depression after stroke is frequent, and greater knowledge of associated risk factors and outcomes is needed to understand the etiology and implications of this disabling complication.

Objectives
To examine whether the incidence of and risk factors for depression differ between patients with stroke and a reference population without stroke and to assess how depression influences mortality.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Register-based cohort study in Denmark. Participants were all individuals 15 years or older with a first-time hospitalization for stroke between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2011 (n = 157 243), and a reference population (n = 160 236) matched on age, sex, and municipality. The data were analyzed between January and March 2016.

Main Outcomes and Measures
The incidence of depression and mortality outcomes of depression (defined by hospital discharge diagnoses or antidepressant medication use) were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.

Results
In total, 34 346 patients (25.4%) with stroke and 11 330 (7.8%) in the reference population experienced depression within 2 years after study entry. Compared with the reference population, patients with stroke had a higher incidence of depression during the first 3 months after hospitalization (hazard ratio for stroke vs the reference population, 8.99; 95% CI, 8.61-9.39), which declined during the second year of follow-up (hazard ratio for stroke vs the reference population, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.85-2.08). Significant risk factors for depression for patients with stroke and the reference population included older age, female sex, single cohabitation status, basic educational attainment, diabetes, high level of somatic comorbidity, history of depression, and stroke severity (in patients with stroke). The associations were strongest for the reference population. In both populations, depressed individuals, especially those with new onset, had increased all-cause mortality (hazard ratio for new-onset depression, 1.89 [95% CI, 1.83-1.95] for patients with stroke and 3.75 [95% CI, 3.51-4.00] for the reference population) after adjustment for confounders. Similar patterns were found for natural and unnatural causes of death. In most models, the depression-related relative mortality was approximately twice as high in the reference population vs the stroke population.

Conclusions and Relevance
Depression is common in patients with stroke during the first year after diagnosis, and those with prior depression or severe stroke are especially at risk. Because a large number of deaths can be attributable to depression after stroke, clinicians should be aware of this risk.


Working memory is the cognitive ability to hold a discrete amount of information in mind in an accessible state for utilization in mental tasks. This cognitive ability is impaired in many clinical populations typically assessed by clinical neuropsychologists. Recently, there have been a number of theoretical shifts in the way that working memory is conceptualized and assessed in the experimental literature. This study sought to determine to what extent the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (WAIS–III) Working Memory Index (WMI) measures the construct studied in the cognitive working memory literature, whether an improved WMI could be derived from the subtests that comprise the WAIS–III, and what percentage of variance in individual WAIS–III subtests is explained by working memory. It was hypothesized that subtests beyond those currently used to form the WAIS–III WMI would be able to account for a greater percentage of variance in a working memory criterion construct than the current WMI. Multiple regression analyses (n = 180) revealed that the best predictor model of subtests for assessing working memory was composed of the Digit Span, Letter–Number Sequencing, Matrix Reasoning, and Vocabulary. The Arithmetic subtest was not a significant contributor to the model. These results are discussed in the context of how they relate to Unsworth and Engle's (2006, 2007) new conceptualization of working memory mechanisms.


There is evidence that ELT INSET does not always result in the desired level of 'follow-up', i.e. impact on teachers' classroom practices. Nevertheless, little research appears to have been carried out concerning how the design of INSET systems affects such outcomes. This paper therefore attempts to throw light on some of the factors involved, using data derived from research into the operation of the Philippines English Language Teaching (PELT) Project INSET system. In order to attempt to facilitate follow-up, this programme took the form of a hybrid, joint course- and school-based model. Trainees' views on the functioning of the model were elicited via questionnaires and structured discussions. The findings show that the following variables are among those which are important in determining how effectively such an INSET system operates: 1) the nature of its course- based component; 2) the interface between trainees, trainers and school- based 'ELT managers'; and 3) the form of school-based follow-up activity employed. The data also indicates how these elements might be configured so as to optimize the potential for INSET follow-up to occur.


Diverse shifts have taken place in both the daily practice and academic analyses of diplomacy. The authors argue that the various conceptualizations do not sufficiently take into account that diplomacy is increasingly concerned with influencing or shaping structures. The aim of this article is therefore to reappraise the nature of diplomacy in general and of the European Union in particular by elaborating on the concept structural diplomacy. This concept refers to the process of dialogue and negotiation by which actors in the international system seek to influence or shape sustainable external political, legal, economic, social and security structures at different relevant levels in a given geographic space (from the level of the individual and society, to the state, regional and global levels). The EU's institutional and diplomatic set-up allows it to conduct structural diplomacy. However, the extent and effectiveness of this diplomacy strongly differ depending on the regions in question.


Weak signals are valuable tools when anticipating the future changes. They mean today's information that can foretell the changes in the future. This article focuses on the good sources of weak signals. For this an international study was made where futurists were asked to list sources that they appreciate in finding weak signals. It appeared that futurist generally consider futurist, scientist and colleagues to be good sources for future oriented information. For spotting weak signals openness and dialogue is recommended.


Thermal imaging is a promising technology in the medical field. Recent developments in low-cost infrared (IR) sensors, compatible with smartphones, provide competitive advantages for home-monitoring applications. However, these sensors present reduced capabilities compared to more expensive high-end devices. In this work, the characterization of thermal cameras is described and carried out. This characterization includes non-uniformity (NU) effects and correction as well as the thermal cameras' dependence on room temperature, noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD), and response curve stability with temperature. Results show that low-cost thermal cameras offer good performance, especially when used in temperature-controlled environments, providing evidence of the suitability of such sensors for medical applications, particularly in the assessment of diabetic foot ulcers on which we focused this study.


Background We sought to investigate the optimal values of BMI for the lowest risk of all-cause death and whether the optimal BMI differs according to smoking status in large-scale pooled analysis of 13 Japanese cohorts. Methods Data from 179,987 participants of 13 well-qualified cohort studies conducted throughout Japan were used for our analysis. A cohort-stratified Cox proportional hazard model was used. P values for interactions were calculated based on the cross product of BMI and age, sex, or smoking status. Results In the entire study population, all-cause mortality risk was lowest when the BMI was 22.0–24.9 kg/m2. This was also the case for selected healthy participants (never smoked, baseline total cholesterol level ≥4.1 mmol/L; the first 5 years of follow-up data were excluded). No effect modification of age, sex, or smoking status was observed. Regardless of their BMI, never smokers always had a lower all-cause mortality risk than did current smokers even with an ideal BMI in terms of mortality risk. Conclusion A BMI of 22–24.9 kg/m2 correlated with the lowest risk of mortality, regardless of whether all participants or selected healthy participants were analyzed. The fact that smoking was more strongly associated with mortality than obesity emphasizes the urgency for effective anti-smoking programs.


Purpose
This paper aims to identify the state of the art in Green Leases and Green Leasing in theory and practice, while also identifying how the roles and motivations of the stakeholders of "owner/landlord", "lessee" and "facilities management" are different in a building that uses Green Leasing and Green Leases, as opposed to the one without.

Design/methodology/approach
Through existing literature and existing case studies from 1995 to the present day, this paper will identify the state of the art of Green Leases and Green Leasing and the extent to which literature-based discussions have played out in their practical application in the real estate sector. The roles of key stakeholders will be analysed and then compared to the interactions and roles identified in a theoretical model that describes the same stakeholders but from a more traditional stakeholder perspective. This will be achieved through using literature from journal papers mostly from the disciplines of built environment, facilities management, finance, investment, law, management and real estate.

Findings
The literature and case studies found in literature demonstrate a gradual move towards advancing Green Lease adoption and development. While the roles of key stakeholders do see a change in Green Leased buildings in terms of, for example, changing competencies for facilities managers (FMs) and more user engagement with their buildings sustainability, the literature indicated most of the changes are realised through a strengthening of existing interactions already evident in buildings without a Green Lease or Green Leasing.

Originality/value
This paper provides a state of the art review on the development of Green Leasing and Green Leases in theory and practice from a stakeholder perspective. It provides possibility to expand further on the changing roles of these stakeholders in Green buildings, which in turn could also positively affect the further development of Green Leases themselves, as well as sustainable certification methodologies such as Europe's leading certification "Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method" (BREEAM).


My studies were part of a project to determine whether mink populations are negatively impacted by pollution in Lake Ontario, especially in the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern (AOC). My first study used video traps to monitor mink activity as a surrogate for mink abundance, with video traps placed in four regions: AOC: In/Inland, AOC: In/Lakeshore, AOC: Out/Inland, and AOC: Out/Lakeshore. My MustelaVision data tentatively suggest that there may be differences in abundances in mink populations inside and outside the AOC, and between the lakeshore and inland areas, but my analysis was unable to assign significance to those differences. The statistical power of my tests was low due to small sample sizes and large variability in the data, and the test was further confounded by the fact that landscape-scale features (wetland complexes) and microhabitat factors (tunnels) are key predictors of mink presence or absence at a sampling site. I also showed that mink are reproducing in the AOC, and that mink are not chiefly nocturnal. My second study used age and stable isotope data taken from mink carcasses to compare populations among the four regions, and to create a model to predict exposure levels of mink to bioaccumulative chemicals of concern (BCCs ). The Regional Descriptors (AOC: In vs. Out, Lakeshore vs. Inland, Wetland vs. Mixed habitat) had no significant effect on the ages of mink trapped, but mean ages were depressed in areas previously trapped. Mink less than one year old were trapped in each area, suggesting reproduction in all areas. δN values indicated that mink in the study area feed on prey at trophic level 2.5 (slightly higher along the lakeshore and in the AOC than elsewhere), with the highest level (2.8) in the Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area. Using known concentrations of selected BCCs in Lake Ontario and trophic level calculations based on stable isotope analyses, I created a food web bioaccumulation model to predict the exposure of mink in the AOC to those BCCs.


In a dialogue procedure the decision maker has to determine in each step the aspiration and reservation level expressing his wishes (goals). This leads to an optimization problem which is not easy to solve in the nonconvex case (the known starting point is not feasible). We propose a modified standard embedding (one parametric optimization). This problem will be discussed from the point of view of parametric optimization (non-degenerate critical points, singularities, pathfollowing methods to describe numerically a connected component in the set of stationary points and in the set of generalized critical points, respectively, and jumps (descent methods) to other connected components in these sets). This embedding is much better for computing a goal realizer or replaying that the goal was not realistic than the embeddings considered in the literature before, but in the worst case we have to find all connected components and this is an open problem.


The subjective nature of gender inequality motivates the analysis and comparison of data from real and fictional human interaction. We present a computational extension of the Bechdel test: A popular tool to assess if a movie contains a male gender bias, by looking for two female characters who discuss about something besides a man. We provide the tools to quantify Bechdel scores for both genders, and we measure them in movie scripts and large datasets of dialogues between users of MySpace and Twitter. Comparing movies and users of social media, we find that movies and Twitter conversations have a consistent male bias, which does not appear when analyzing MySpace. Furthermore, the narrative of Twitter is closer to the movies that do not pass the Bechdel test than to those that pass it. We link the properties of movies and the users that share trailers of those movies. Our analysis reveals some particularities of movies that pass the Bechdel test: Their trailers are less popular, female users are more likely to share them than male users, and users that share them tend to interact less with male users. Based on our datasets, we define gender independence measurements to analyze the gender biases of a society, as manifested through digital traces of online behavior. Using the profile information of Twitter users, we find larger gender independence for urban users in comparison to rural ones. Additionally, the asymmetry between genders is larger for parents and lower for students. Gender asymmetry varies across US states, increasing with higher average income and latitude. This points to the relation between gender inequality and social, economical, and cultural factors of a society, and how gender roles exist in both fictional narratives and public online dialogues.


The academic achievements of students taught by under-certified primary school teachers were compared to the academic achievements of students taught by regularly certified primary school teachers.  This sample of under-certified teachers included three types of under-qualified personnel: emergency, temporary and provisionally certified teachers.  One subset of these under-certified teachers was from the national program "Teach For America (TFA)."  Recent college graduates are placed by TFA where other under-qualified under-certified teachers are often called upon to work, namely, low-income urban and rural school districts. Certified teachers in this study were from accredited universities and all met state requirements for receiving the regular initial certificate to teach.  Recently hired under-certified and certified teachers (N=293) from five low-income school districts were matched on a number of variables, resulting in 109 pairs of teachers whose students all took the mandated state achievement test. Results indicate 1) that students of TFA teachers did not perform significantly different from students of other under-certified teachers, and 2) that students of certified teachers out-performed students of teachers who were under-certified.  This was true on all three subtests of the SAT 9reading, mathematics and language arts.  Effect sizes favoring the students of certified teachers were substantial.  In reading, mathematics, and language, the students of certified teachers outperformed students of under-certified teachers, including the students of the TFA teachers, by about 2 months on a grade equivalent scale.  Students of under-certified teachers make about 20% less academic growth per year than do students of teachers with regular certification.  Traditional programs of teacher preparation apparently result in positive effects on the academic achievement of low-income primary school children.  Present policies allowing under-certified teachers, including those from the TFA program, to work with our most difficult to teach children appear harmful.  Such policies increase differences in achievement between the performance of poor children, often immigrant and minority children, and those children who are more advantaged.


On April 2, the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) released a report—National Pain Strategy. A Comprehensive Population Health-Level Strategy for Pain—which is a compilation of expert working groups who focused on six areas of need identified in the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) well-known 2011 study, Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research: population research, prevention and care, disparities, service delivery and reimbursement, professional education and training, and public awareness and communication. The National Pain Strategy is in response to a call from the IOM for development of a "comprehensive population healthlevel strategy." A key conclusion of the report, as articulated in the executive summary, is that the "cultural transformation in our efforts to reduce the burden of pain in the United States will not be achieved without sustained and indeed expanded investment into basic and clinical research studies of the biopsychosocial mechanisms that produce and maintain chronic pain and into the development of safe and effective pain treatments." The report further highlights that "Much of the responsibility for front-line pain care rests on primary care clinicians, who are not sufficiently trained in pain assessment and comprehensive, evidence-based treatment approaches." The IPRCC accepted comments on the draft guidance until May 20, 2015.


Caveolin-1 (cav-1) has been reported to regulate apoptosis, lipid metabolism and endocytosis. In the present study, we demonstrate that cav-1 can act as a potent immunomodulatory molecule in murine macrophages and play an important role in the development of fibrosis. In murine alveolar and peritoneal macrophages, loss of function experiments using siRNA showed that down-regulating cav-1 expression increased lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production but decreased anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) production. Gain of function experiments demonstrated that overexpression of cav-1 in RAW264.7 decreased LPS-induced TNF-a and IL-6 production and augmented IL-10 production. Cav-1 interacted with TLR4 as revealed by co-immunoprecipitation in peritoneal macrophages. Overexpressing cav-1 in RAW264.7 disrupted Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) MyD88 and TRIF complex formation; regulated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation; and inhibited NF-eB activation. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory modulation by cav-1 involved p38, since the administration of SB203580 significantly abrogated the effects of cav-1, and peritoneal macrophages isolated from MKK3 null mice did not demonstrate any modulation of cav-1. Interestingly, HO-1 translocated into caveolae after LPS stimulation. Carbon monoxide (CO), the gaseous byproduct of HO activity responsible for the anti-inflammatory effects of HO-1, did not regulate cytokines production in cav-1 null macrophages. We observed marked reduction of cav-1 expression in lung tissues and in primary pulmonary fibroblasts from IPF patients, compared to controls. Transforming growth factor-â1 (TGF-â1), the well-known pro-fibrotic cytokine, decreased cav-1 expression in human pulmonary fibroblasts. Cav-1 was able to suppress TGF-â1-induced extracellular matrix (ECM) production in cultured fibroblasts through the regulation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway. Interestingly, highly activated JNK was detected in IPF and bleomycin (BLM)-instilled lung tissue samples, which was dramatically suppressed by adenovirus cav-1 infection. Moreover, JNK1 null fibroblasts showed reduced Smads cascades signaling, mimicking the effects of cav-1. We also demonstrated that cav-1 markedly ameliorated BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis as evidenced by histological analysis, hydroxyproline content and immunoblot analysis. In summary, our data suggest that cav-1 acts as a potent immunomodulatory and anti-fibrotic effector molecule. Cav-1 may mediate the anti-inflammatory effects of HO-1/CO in immune cells involving the MKK3/p38 MAPK pathway. Cav-1 also plays a pivotal role in ECM regulation and the development of fibrosis, possibly through the MAPK and Smads pathway. This study suggests cav-1 as a novel therapeutic target for patients with fibrosis and inflammation.


Trichloroethylene (TCE), a widely used solvent, is often determined in groundwater and is one of biologically refractory organic contaminants. The aim of the study is to use a new chemical oxidation method to degrade TCE source pollution in groundwater. Fenton-like reactions (hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by iron minerals generates hydroxyl radicals) and sodium persulfate activation (sodium persulfate activated by heat/iron minerals to produce sulfate radicals) have strong oxidative capacity to degrade a wide range of organic contaminants. In this work, hydrogen peroxide and/or sodium persulfate catalyzed by siderite (designated as STO, SO, PO systems, respectively) degrading TCE in groundwater were investigated. Removal rates of TCE in STO, SO, and PO systems were 100%, 57%, 20%, respectively. The order of TCE removal rates is in agreement with that of hydroxyl radicals generated in the systems, indicating that hydroxyl radicals play a critical role in removing TCE. No by-product except CO2, Cl− and H2O generated as final products in the STO system suggests that TCE was near completely mineralized. The results show that the STO is an effective method to treat TCE contaminated source in groundwater.


While you were seizing the power, you asked the people to trust you, and made promises to them. But have those promises been fulfilled? You gave a stone instead of a loaf, and a serpent instead of a fish (Mt.7:9-10). You have substituted a soulless international concept for our Motherland. You have divided the people into enemy camps and plunged them into a fratricidal war of an unprecedented cruelty. You have openly replaced Christ's love by hatred; you have not brought peace, you have incided class hatred. There seems to be no end in sight to the war instigated by you, because with the hands of Russian workers and peasants you are trying to bring about the triumph of a phantom world revolution. No one feels safe under your regime, where there reigns a constant fear of search, robbery, arrests and exile or execution. You promise freedom, but there can hardly be anything more painful and cruel than violation of religious freedom. The press is blasphemous and full of a malicious ridiculing of sacred things. You have barred the entrance to the Moscow Kremlinthe sacred inheritance of all pious Russians. We know that our accusations will anger you and cause severe reprisals, that you will use our words as a pretext to accuse us of resisting your government. But the greater your anger and punitive acts, the more the truth of our accusations will be confirmed. Mark the anniversary of your rule by liberating those imprisoned by you; by ceasing bloodshed, violence, destruction and oppression of religion. Otherwise all righteous blood shed by you, shall be required of you (Lk.11:51), and 'you that take the sword shall perish by the sword' (Mt.26:52). Metr. [Patriarch] Tikhon's Epistle to the Soviet of the People's Commissars, 26 October, 1918:


This paper explores relationships between retirement and migration into and within remote rural areas. Rural areas in the UK are characterised by net population gain, with pre-retirement age migrants being an identifiable sub-group of rural in-migrants. This paper reports findings from a household survey which sought evidence for retirement transition migration into remote, rural areas. Drawing upon data collected on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, we show that the economic characteristics of migrant households and their motivations for moving vary by age group and by migrant status. Non-local moves were most common when the householder was aged 50–64. Early retirement has facilitated these moves onto Bute, allowing migrants to fulfil their residential preferences and satisfy quality of life aspirations when their place of residence is no longer tied to their place of employment. Local moves associated with retirement were most likely when the householder was aged 65+. Our findings reflect the complexity of retirement, an event individuals and households react to over an extended period of time, and demonstrate the importance of early retirement as a catalyst for bringing 'young-old' migrants into a remote rural area, acting as a counterbalance to the ongoing effects of outmigration by young adults.


With support from the Bush administration, the Federal Reserve Board Chairman, and Congress, a major cut in the federal income tax is almost certain. The question now is what type of cut it should be. Proponents often speak as though all tax cuts would benefit all groups. Not all income tax cuts are alike, however. Many popular options in fact provide no benefit to low-income families.


The automotive energy storage market is currently dominated by the existing Li-ion technologies that are likely to continue in the future. Thus, the on-road electric (and hybrid) vehicles running on the Li-ion battery systems require critical diagnosis considering crucial battery aging. This work aims to provide a guideline for pack-level lifetime model development that could facilitate battery maintenance, ensuring a safe and reliable operational lifespan. The first of the twofold approach is a cell-level empirical lifetime model that is developed from a lab-level aging dataset of commercial LTO cells. The model is validated with an exhaustive sub-urban realistic driving cycle yielding a root-mean-square error of 0.45. The model is then extended to a 144S1P modular architecture for pack-level simulation. The second step provides the pack electro-thermal simulation results that are upscaled from a cell-level and validated 1D electrical model coupled with a 3D thermal model. The combined simulation framework is online applicable and considers the relevant aspects into account in predicting the battery system's lifetime that results in over 350,000 km of suburban driving. This robust tool is a collaborative research outcome from two Horizon2020 EU projects—GHOST and Vision xEV, showcasing outstanding cell-level battery modeling accuracies.


The present study tests the effectiveness of short videotaped messages about HIV
antibody testing at promoting HIV testing in a college student population by using four
videotape conditions: fear arousal, internal attribution, information only, and a first-aid
control video. Male and female participants (n = 163) were recruited and tested in groups
of 2 – 14 students. Each participant completed a battery of personality measures
including Health Locus of Control, Sexual Opinion Survey, Sensation-Seeking, Selfesteem,
Health Self-efficacy, and Social Desirability as well as the HIV Testing Attitude
Scale and a demographic questionnaire prior to viewing the video. The HIV Testing
Attitude Scale and demographic questionnaire were administered after the video to
examine immediate effects and at a follow-up session to examine long-term effects.
Results indicate there was a decrease in perceived susceptibility to HIV infection for
participants in the Fear Arousal videotape condition. In addition, self-reported selfefficacy
with regard to condom use increased after participants viewed the Fear Arousal
videotape. These effects were not observed in any of the other videotape conditions.
This suggests that while the Fear Arousal videotape demonstrated some interesting
effects, the other videotape conditions fail to make much difference in participant's
responses. This is discussed in relation to the extant literature.


In this paper we investigate a time delay neural network (TDNN) for a keyword spotting task that requires low CPU, memory and latency. The TDNN is trained with transfer learning and multi-task learning. Temporal subsampling enabled by the time delay architecture reduces computational complexity. We propose to apply singular value decomposition (SVD) to further reduce TDNN complexity. This allows us to first train a larger full-rank TDNN model which is not limited byCPU/memory constraints. The larger TDNN usually achieves better performance. Afterwards, its size can be compressed by SVD to meet the budget requirements. Hidden Markov models (HMM) are used in conjunction with the networks to perform keyword detection and performance is measured in terms of area under the curve (AUC) for detection error tradeoff (DET) curves. Our experimental results on a large in-house far-field corpus show that the full-rank TDNN achieves a 19.7% DET AUC reduction compared to a similar-size deep neural network (DNN) baseline. If we train a larger size full-rank TDNN first and then reduce it via SVD to the comparable size of the DNN, we obtain a 37.6% reduction in DET AUC compared to the DNN baseline.


Measurements have been carried out to determine the effect of porous sediments in a pipe on the attenuation and spectrum of the airborne acoustic field. The results show that the presence of even a relatively thin sandy layer results in a considerable increase in the acoustic attenuation over the broad frequency range. The measured value of the relative attenuation is in the range of 0.6 dB/m. The effect of the sediment on the acoustic spectrum is the reduction in energy of the propagating modes, which is an easily detectable phenomenon. These results pave the way for the development of the instrumentation for non-invasive characterisation of the parameters of sediments in wastewater systems.


The nature of Egyptian control in the southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age has been the subject of vivid debate. Historical reconstructions either see a substantial presence of Egyptian personnel into the southern Levant (Weinstein) or local Canaanites emulating the Egyptian mode of rulership (Higginbotham). This paper offers a re-evaluation of the archaeological data by focusing on evidence that might indicate the presence of Egyptian individuals. This data is reanalyzed in light of indicators for "embodied knowledge," which can be used to differentiate the presence of individuals accultured in Egypt from the "emulation" of Egyptian practices by local, Canaanite individuals. It is argued that limited evidence can be found for local Canaanites adopting an Egyptian style of architecture and material culture during the Late Bronze Age I. In the Late Bronze Age II, however, archaeological evidence supports the notion of Egyptian individuals being present in the southern Levant. Egyptians appear to have occupied both lower administrative functions as well as higher positions in this hierarchy. It can therefore be concluded that Egyptian control of the Levant initially relied on loyal local Canaanites, but later came to include a limited influx of Egyptian personnel.


The ability to spatially control cell adhesion and multicellular organization is critical to many biomedical and tissue-engineering applications. This work describes a straightforward method to micropattern cells onto glass, silicone rubber, and polystyrene using commercially available reagents. An elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane stamp is used to contact-transfer extracellular matrix protein onto a surface followed by blocking cell adhesion in the surrounding regions by the physisorption of Pluronic surfactants. Using self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols on gold as model surfaces to control surface wettability, we found that protein printing was most effective at intermediate to highly wetting surfaces whereas Pluronic adsorption occurred at intermediate to low wetting surfaces. Within a regimen of intermediate wettability both techniques were applied in conjunction to restrict cell adhesion to specified patterns. Adjusting the wettability of common tissue culture substrates to the same intermediate range again allowed the micropatterning of cells, suggesting that this approach is likely to be generally applicable to many types of materials. This technique therefore may allow for wider adoption of cell patterning.


The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships between knowledge management, entrepreneurial skills, and innovation toward informal entrepreneur success. About 180 questionnaires were distributed randomly to micro and small food business owner within Klang Valley, and 150 questionnaires returned (83.33% response rate).The finding shows that innovation, knowledge management, and entrepreneurial skills have direct influence towards informal entrepreneur success in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The limitations of the finding only can be generalized to micro and small food business owner within Klang Valley, Malaysia. The findings are useful for future micro and small food entrepreneur or informal entrepreneur to be successful in their business. More training on knowledge management, entrepreneurial skills, and innovation should be in place to ensure micro and small food business success in the future. The most interesting finding from this research shows that the most important factor for informal food entrepreneur success is innovation followed by knowledge management, and finally, entrepreneur skills.


Nowadays, digital watermarking has many applications such as broadcast monitoring, owner identification, proof of ownership, transaction tracking. Embedding a hidden stream of bits in a file is called Digital Watermarking. This paper introduces a LSB information hiding algorithm which can lift the wavelet transform image. LSB based Steganography embeds the hiding text message in least significant bit of the pixels. The proposed method has good invisibility, robustness for a lot of hidden attacks. As we think about the capacity lead us to think about improved approach which can be achieved through hardware implementation system by using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). In this paper hardware implementation of digital watermarking system is proposed. MATLAB is used to convert images into pixel-format files and to observe simulation results. To implement this paper XPS & VB are needed. In XPS, first select hardware & software components then by adding source and header files & converting into bit streams and download into FPGA, to obtain Stego image.


Nanosized Tubular Clay Minerals provides the latest coverage from leading scientists on a wide field of expertise regarding the current state of knowledge about nanosized tubular clay minerals. All chapters have been carefully edited and coordinated, and readers will find a resource that provides a clear view of the fundamental properties of clay materials and how their properties vary in chemical composition, structure, and the ways in which their modes of occurrence affect their engineering applications. Besides being a great reference, the book provides research scientists, university teachers, industrial chemists, physicists, graduate students, and environmental engineers and technologists with the ability to analyze and characterize clays and clay minerals to improve selectivity, along with techniques on how they can apply clays in ceramics in all aspects of industrial, geotechnical, agricultural, and environmental use.Examines clay properties from the molecular to the macroscopic scale Addresses experimental and modeling issues Authored by experts who are well-versed in the properties of nanosized tubular clay minerals


W7X stellarator 3D equilibrium has been computed with the equilibrium code ANIMEC (Anisotropic Neumann Inverse Moments Equilibrium Code). This equilibrium was used to model ICRH minority heating in 4He(H) plasma with the 3D full-wave code LEMan (Low frequency ElectroMagnetic wave propagation). The coupled power spatial distribution is shown for different resonance positions within the range of frequencies foreseen for the ICRH antenna. It is found that for the high mirror equilibrium examined, the antenna frequency can be chosen to optimise the power deposition in the plasma core while limiting the absorption at the edge.


Noise caused by randomness in the spiking times of neurons in the brain has a number of advantages, including contributing to probabilistic decision-making. However, noise results in the brain operating effectively as a non-deterministic system, which has implications for free will. Noise also results in decisions being taken probabilistically between the reasoning system and the implicit reward system. I propose that free will can be used to describe the operation of the reasoning system, and that consciousness is a property of a reasoning system that must use higher order syntactic thoughts (HOSTs) to correct its first order thoughts. When the implicit system takes a decision, we may confabulate a reason for the decision, and in that case the feeling of free will may be an illusion.


Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most common preventable cause of hospital deaths, and almost all hospitalised patients have at least one risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Despite the availability of highly effective thromboprophylaxis in preventing VTE, numerous studies worldwide have demonstrated its under-utilisation. The aim of this study was to review and improve the utilisation of thromboprophylaxis in the prevention of VTE in hospitalised patients at Oudtshoorn district hospital, and to make recommendations to the Western Cape Department of Health on how to improve the quality of care for patients at risk for VTE at district hospitals. Method: A quality improvement cycle (QIC). Retrospective analysis of files of adult patients admitted to the male and female wards at Oudtshoorn district hospital was performed prior to and after a five-month intervention phase. The target standards for the QIC were: (1) availability of a written hospital policy on VTE prevention; (2) every adult admission should have a formal VTE risk assessment documented; (3) every adult admission who is at risk for VTE should receive thromboprophylaxis. Results: Some 38% of adult patients admitted to Oudtshoorn Hospital, excluding the maternity ward, were at risk of developing VTE. There was no written hospital policy on VTE prevention. This was developed and made available during the intervention. In the pre-intervention group there were no patients who had a documented VTE risk assessment. The post intervention group showed a considerable increase with 45.2% having had a completed VTE risk assessment on admission (p < 0.001). In the pre-intervention group only 4.6% of patients who were at risk of VTE received thromboprophylaxis. There was a statistically significant difference in the number of patients at risk who received thromboprophylaxis in the post-intervention group where 36% of these patients received thromboprophylaxis (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The study identified a major shortcoming in the prevention of VTE in those patients at risk who were admitted to Oudtshoorn district hospital. An intervention as part of a quality improvement cycle has been able to demonstrate a significant improvement in the detection of patients who are at risk of VTE and a subsequent improvement in appropriate thromboprophylaxis. A number of barriers to their implementation have been identified and need to be addressed. This QIC may in time be of value to assist other district hospitals in addressing the issue of VTE prevention.


Saliva as a diagnostic tool, is gaining attention world wide. Due to non-invasiveness of its collection and non-necessity of skilled technician for collection, and presence of sensitive biomarkers in saliva, it is considered as a worthwile diagnostic tool. Present study made an attempt to evaluate the status of proteins, sialic acid and oxidative stress in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected from healthy controls and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Salivary levels of total proteins, free sialic acid, protein-bound sialic acid, malondialdehyde and glutathione were assayed by spectrophotometric methods. OSCC patients had higher salivary levels of total proteins, free sialic acid, protein-bound sialic acid and malondialdehyde, and lower levels of glutathione, when compared to healthy controls. The changes correlated with progression of cancer as evident by more pronounced changes of above biochemical parameters in well-differentiated cases of OSCC, compared to moderately differentiated OSCC and patients with pre-malignant lesions of OSCC. Elevated levels of proteins and sialic acid suggest role of glycoproteins in carcinogenesis. Oxidative stress is involved in etiopathology of oral cancer, as evident from elevated malondialdehyde and decreased glutathione. Salivary parameters could be of use in diagnosis and prognosis of oral cancer.


A new 1D bed-scale model has been built to help model shale smear in interbedded sand–shale sequences using the shale smear factor (SSF). A smear envelope is generated by mapping each potential shale smear onto the fault plane employing five different shale smear geometries. Graphical outputs then focus on the cumulative length of the resultant smears and the remaining sand–sand juxtaposition windows in the predicted shale smear envelope. The smears are evaluated stochastically with lengths that are a randomized function of the estimated Vclay content of the source shale layers, allowing the smear pattern to change with each realization. A new fragmented smear mode is developed that allows discontinuous smears to be distributed randomly on the fault plane and can be used to modify the smear pattern as fault displacement increases. The model has been tested using well data. Results show that windows in the smear envelope are commonly present, and that their frequency and location are dependent on the smear placement model and sand–shale stacking pattern. Smear fragmentation leads to more windows being preserved. The 1D model can also assess the impact of geocellular upscaling on fault seal analysis. Upscaling reduces cross-fault sand connectivity due to the elimination of thin beds. Shale smear envelopes are also reduced in length as fewer shale beds are involved, even though layers are thicker. A fault may or may not appear more sealing dependent on the layer configuration and net-to-gross ratio (NTG). The model offers results that can inform input to fault seal evaluations and allows the effect of geomodel upscaling to be more closely interrogated.


This paper presents the design and validation of two computer games for the monitoring and measurement of cognitive change. Computer games that claim to improve cognitive ability are focused on healthy players while the testing of these games has been limited to healthy adults and has typically not included older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The two games presented in this paper have specific features to aid and monitor cognitively impaired users including a hint system so that players do not become frustrated with the games. Cognitive performance is measured through a game play log in the Carleton Word Search Game (CWG) and Carleton Sudoku Game (CSG) that has been designed into the games. The paper presents how the measures indicate user performance across the various aspects of game play such as search, logic and general motor skills. The paper presents the results of initial validation tests using cognitive distraction to simulate cognitive impairment.


The study of the relation between galaxies and their surrounding haloes of dark matter is a fundamental component to understand the evolution of the large-scale structure of the Universe. In this thesis, we investigate how galaxy-galaxy lensing, the distortion of the shapes of background galaxies around selected foreground lens galaxies, can help to elucidate this interplay together with complementary galaxy clustering measurements. Galaxy-galaxy lensing, on one hand, provides a direct estimate of the mass inside a given aperture and also its distribution, which allows for connecting certain classes of galaxies, chosen according to properties such as stellar mass and colour, to the mass and shape of the encompassing dark host structures. Galaxy clustering, on the other hand, describes the spatial distribution of galaxies and the combination of the two probes can be used to jointly constrain the cosmological parameters for the matter fraction Ωm and the amplitude of the matter fluctuations σ8.

This thesis is split into three parts addressing three outstanding challenges each for small-scale galaxy-galaxy lensing to act as a competitive probe for current and future large-scale structure surveys. In Chapter 3 (Renneby et al., 2018), we investigate how a cosmological rescaling algorithm, which fast and cost-efficiently maps particle and halo distributions from one N-body simulation to another one with a different set of cosmological parameters, can be adapted to accurately predict galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles and quantify the induced errors. The subsequent Chapter 4 (Renneby et al., prepa) deals with verifying that both lensing and clustering probes yield consistent predictions in semi-analytical models of galaxy formation (SAMs) and hydrodynamical simulations. To conclude in Chapter 5 (Renneby et al., prepb), we examine the main systematic effect on lensing profiles, namely the imprint of baryonic processes, using a range of hydrodynamical simulations.

The major findings are the following: In Chapter 3 we establish that an N-body simulation with a set of parameters (Ωm, σ8) can be used to emulate the lensing profiles for central galaxies with no further restriction in a different background cosmology with two principal biases in halo concentrations Δc and the positions of the halo splashback radii Δrsp. These biases can be predicted well with the concentration-mass-redshift relations presented in Ludlow et al. (2016) and the splashback radius-mass-redshift relations from Diemer et al. (2017).

To continue, we discover that lensing and clustering observations in Chapter 4 point towards a consistent picture for the feedback prescriptions. The hydrodynamical IllustrisTNG simulation suite is in agreement with current constraints from the KiDS+GAMA surveys for stellar mass only selected samples as well as locally brightest galaxies (LBGs) in SDSS. For the Munich SAM L-Galaxies, constraints from LBG lensing and general clustering demand a weaker radio-mode AGN feedback and shorter dynamical friction merger time than the default setup in the latest model from Henriques et al. (2015). Still, this comparison also highlights difficulties in the two modelling frameworks to accurately predict the signal for intermediate mass red galaxies below < 10^11 Msun, where the observations suggest lower host halo masses for quenched satellite galaxies. This calls for improved environmental quenching and merging mechanisms in galaxy groups and clusters.

Finally, we retrieve a similar baryonic imprint as previously established in the literature for specific lens samples (e.g. Leauthaud et al., 2017) with suppressions of 10 − 20% for 0.1 < r h−1 Mpc < 1 and show that it is generalisable to a large range of stellar masses and for central galaxies in groups. Despite their different galaxy formation recipes, the Eagle and IllustrisTNG simulations produce similar lensing profile descriptions consistent with observations. The considerable gas ejection of the AGN feedback implementation in the Illustris simulation puts it at the extreme end in terms of the extent of the suppression up to r ~ 5 − 6 h−1 Mpc whereas its successor IllustrisTNG achieves mass convergence at r ~ 1 − 2 h−1 Mpc. These radii are largely independent of the stellar mass of the samples, with a slightly larger impact for group class haloes where the AGN feedback is most efficient, and there is little redshift evolution to z = 1. We attempt to parameterise the effect using the baryonic correction model of Schneider & Teyssier (2015) for group and cluster-size haloes in the TNG300 simulation. We find that the model captures the main deformation features but that further work is required for it to properly adjust the gravity-only mass profiles.


A new electrode configuration was proposed to improve the performance of color ac plasma display panels (PDPs). ITO electrodes on the front plate of a PDP were used as auxiliary sustain electrodes, which were electrically isolated from the metal electrodes by a dielectric isolation layer. When this type of PDP operates, the sustain voltage waveforms are only applied to the metal electrodes, so the ITO electrodes always lie in floating potentials. By numerical simulation, the microdischarge process in a PDP cell with floating auxiliary electrodes was analyzed, and the influence of the insulation layer thickness on the cell electrical parameters was investigated. It was found that a discharge in the cell was firstly generated at the narrow gap between a pair of floating electrodes, and then it grew into a long-path discharge including a positive column region between a pair of metal electrodes. Two 12-inch test panels having this floating-electrode-type cell structure were fabricated, together with two other test panels as references having a conventional cell structure and a regular long-gap cell structure, respectively, and their electrical and optical characteristics were measured and compared to each other. The results indicate that the PDP with floating electrodes can achieve a high luminance and a high luminous efficacy at a relatively low sustain voltage.


Most sources for renewable energy can be deduced from solar radiation as the main natural income of society. Contrary to conventional fossil and radioactive energy resources that are mined or pumped out from central point sources, solar energy is a de-central resource that requires area for its conversion to useful products and services. This requires a new technological as well as logistical concept for energy systems where regions play a key role as providers of energy and goods. The contribution will provide the conceptual framework for renewable energy system generation on a regional level, taking into account the responsibility of regions to provide goods and services to the larger society and to support urban centres. It will show how optimal resource-technology-demand networks may be constructed, using process network synthesis approaches and how the ecological efficiency of such regional systems can be measured. Application of these methods to real life case studies (in particular the region of Muhlviertel in Austria) will on the one hand prove the versatility of the methods presented and on the other hand will provide insight into the scope of necessary change if society moves towards a low carbon sustainable energy system.


ABSTRACT Early efforts to bring particle accelerators into Brazil exemplify the interactions between advanced scientific countries and the periphery in the years 1948––1956 and between the history of science and the history of foreign affairs. The physicists Cesar Lattes, Ernest Lawrence, Herbert Anderson, Isidor Rabi, and Rear Admiral AAlvaro Alberto played central roles in these efforts. The story brings out the role of the military and scientists acting within the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fiisicas and the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas to promote nuclear physics research aimed at the development of nuclear technology in Brazil. The decision-making process involved science, politics, secret agreements, and international affairs.


Nonvolatile processors (NVPs) have integrated nonvolatile memory to preserve task-intermediate on-chip state during power emergencies. NVPs hide data backup and restoration from the executing software to provide an execution mode that will always eventually complete the current task. NVPs are emerging as a promising solution for energy-harvesting scenarios, in which the available power supply is unstable and intermittent, because of their ability to ensure that even short periods of sufficient power, on the order of tens of instructions, will result in net forward progress. This article explores the design space for an NVP across different architectures, input power sources, and policies for maximizing forward progress in a framework calibrated using measured results from a fabricated NVP. The authors propose a heterogeneous microarchitecture solution that more efficiently capitalizes on ephemeral power surpluses.


Steel tubular truss are lightweight, aesthetical and used in many different applications. These structures are sensitive to fatigue and specific verification methods have been developed for them, in particular by CIDECT [2001]. Due to assembly and welding, these structures contain large internal self-balanced stresses. Since tensile residual stresses tend to open cracks, they have a detrimental influence on the fatigue crack propagating under cyclic traffic loadings. Different studies on the behaviour of tubular structures have been focussing on the behaviour of tubular K-joints, one very much use type of joint, with tubes having low diameter to thickness ratios, for use in particular in bridge applications. In these cases, the CIDECT rule for reduction of fatigue strength with thickness becomes very penalizing and one has to see if alternatives are possible (changing the stress definition and/or the thickness effect formula). Also, many joints have members loaded under compression, such as upper chord joints in a truss. In these cases, tensile residual stress effect on fatigue life can be set apart from external loads effect. With welding imperfections acting like microcracks, residual stress can make the difference between a fatigue microcrack beginning to grow or not. Indeed, residual stress can raise the crack driving force above the threshold value. Moreover, it also influences the rate of crack propagation and therefore the residual stress distribution is essential to estimate accurately the crack development under fatigue loads. In this paper, work on the effects of size and residual stresses on fatigue life of tubular joints carried out at EPFL is summarised.


Timbre is a well known concept in music and denotes adjectives describing a sound or sound sensation. All instruments possess a characteristic timbre making it possible to distinguish one type of instrument from another. An instrument can also produce a range of different timbres. It is highly relevant for a musician knowing about these innate properties of the instrument, as well as appropriate technical skills in order to change the musical expression. In this thesis, piano timbre is studied by performing various analyses on several recorded versions of the same excerpt from Symphonic Etudes op.13 by R. Schumann. The pianist has been asked to perform the piece with three different timbral intentions. Parts of this project have been to study whether there are physical qualities in the recorded signals which support this subjective intention. Possible relations between perceived sound and relative physical properties found from analyses have been examined. This is a classic acoustic problem where a subjective comprehension exists and then analysing the signal in order to identify audible properties to support this sensation. Various features of the signals have been identified and looked into, and thereby also studied the possibility to quantitatively distinguish these three timbres from each other. Part of this project have been to become familiar with functions available from the MIR(Music Information Retrieval)Toolbox in Matlab. Properties studied include temporal features, envelope amplitudes of signals, spectral centroids, rolloff frequencies, spectra and histogram envelopes, low-energy ratios and temporal development of energy together with average RMS energy for each signal. Length of each measure is found in order to examine the temporal development of each recording relative to average time per measure (inter-measure intervals). Smaller segments are studied, where analyses have been performed on various onsets. These analyses involve time between successive chords or notes (inter-onset intervals), in addition to attack time, attack slope and relative RMS energy for each onset. Some of the performed analyses showed clear differences between recordings, but not all cases showed clear documented unambiguous results.


This article presents the Networked Pantheon, a relational database of biographies of globally famous people spanning the last 5,500 years of human history. This information source is intended to complement Pantheon 1.0 (Yu et al., 2016), a dataset that includes temporal, spatial, gender, and occupational information on 11,341 world-renowned people – defined as those who have biographies available in more than 25 languages on Wikipedia. The Networked Pantheon adds information about the biographical links between these historical figures, compiled from hyperlinks between the biographies in the English Wikipedia. This digital method enables techniques from network analysis to be used in studying the biographical relationships between globally famous people. Thus, distinct measures of historical centrality can be calculated for individuals, cities, countries, genders, and occupations. The Networked Pantheon includes indicators of figure centrality in the network of biographical references and provides an approximation of the information flows between various territories, genders, and occupations of famous people over time.


Postmodern theories of the development of archival collections argue that archives created and administered under executive power often exclude voices and accounts outside the mainstream. These critiques are generally directed towards the absence of life experiences outside the purview of the central activities of the state. However, there is little empirical testing of how women's active contributions within the concerns of government activity are recorded. This article tracks two events, recorded in the oral histories of two women lawyers collected as part of the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project, through the records of the National Archives of Australia (NAA). Its purpose is to start investigating how well these women, who have been active citizens, are 'recorded' in the formal national memory. It highlights the importance of undertaking further research to determine how well the NAA, as a state-run archive, represents women's active citizenship in its telling of Australian legal history.


PURPOSE
To compare the metabolic parameters, body composition and muscle strength of women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) to those of women with ovulatory menstrual cycles.

METHODS
A case-control study was conducted on 27 women with PCOS and 28 control women with ovulatory cycles, aged 18 to 27 years with a body mass index of 18 to 39.9 kg/m², who did not practice regular physical activity. Serum testosterone, androstenedione, prolactin, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), insulin and glycemia levels were determined. Free androgen index (FAI) and resistance to insulin (by HOMA) were calculated. The volunteers were submitted to evaluation of body composition based on skin folds and DEXA and to 1-RM maximum muscle strength tests in three exercises after familiarization procedures and handgrip isometric force was determined.

RESULTS
Testosterone levels were higher in the PCOS group than in the Control Group (68.07 ± 20.18 versus 58.20 ± 12.82 ng/dL; p=0.02), as also were the FAI (282.51 ± 223.86 versus 127.08 ± 77.19; p=0.01), insulin (8.41 ± 7.06 versus 4.05 ± 2.73 µIU/mL; p=0.01), and HOMA (2.3 ± 2.32 versus 1.06 ± 0.79; p=0.01), and SBHG levels were lower (52.51 ± 43.27 versus 65.45 ± 27.43 nmol/L; p=0.04). No significant differences in body composition were observed between groups using the proposed methods. The PCOS group showed greater muscle strength in the 1-RM test in the bench press (31.2 ± 4.75 versus 27.79 ± 3.63 kg; p=0.02), and leg extension exercises (27.9 ± 6.23 versus 23.47 ± 4.21 kg; p=0.02) as well as handgrip isometric force (5079.61 ± 1035.77 versus 4477.38 ± 69.66 kgf/m², p=0.04). PCOS was an independent predictor of increase muscle strength in bench press exercises (estimate (E)=2.7) (p=0.04) and leg extension (E=3.5) (p=0.04), and BMI in the exercise of isometric handgrip (E=72.2) (p<0.01), bench press (E=0.2) (p=0.02) and arm curl (E=0.3) (p<0.01). No association was found between HOMA-IR and muscle strength.

CONCLUSIONS
Women with POS showed greater muscle strength, with no difference in body composition, and IR was not associated with muscle strength performance. Muscle strength may be possibly related to high levels of androgens in these women.


Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medicinal system being practiced for thousands of years. Considerable research on pharmacognosy, chemistry, pharmacology and clinical therapeutics has been carried out on ayurvedic medicinal plants. Natural products, including plants, animals and minerals have been the basis of treatment of human diseases. The current accepted modern medicine or allopathy has gradually developed over the years by scientific and observational efforts of scientists. However, the basis of its development remains rooted in traditional medicine and therapies. . Melia azedarach Linn, commonly known as mahanimba belongs to family Meliaceae. It is large evergreen tree found throughout India and very similar to neem. Traditionally it is used as anthelmintic, antilithic diuretic, emmenagouge, astringent and stomachic. Varios scientific studies reported the analgesic, anticancer, antiviral, antimalarial, antibacterial, antifeedent and antifertility avtivity of this plant. So the objective of the present review is to highlight the phytochemical and pharmacological information of this plant.


The Ellenburger–San Saba aquifer discharges spring flows into the overlying Hamilton Creek bed in Burnet County, central Texas. The aquifer is susceptible to contamination from surface-water reservoirs because of the presence of dissolution cavities that are hydraulically connected to the reservoirs in some locations. There is concern that preferential groundwater seepage from reservoirs into the aquifer in these locations might ultimately degrade the quality of the springwater that enters Hamilton Creek. To investigate preferential groundwater seepage patterns and hydraulic connectivity between surface-water reservoirs and the Ellenburger–San Saba aquifer, geophysical reconnaissance surveys were completed between July 2017 and January 2018 to map dissolution cavities and locate preferential groundwater seepage within a specific region of the aquifer. Two-dimensional electric resistivity tomography and self-potential profiling were utilized, and a simplified, three-dimensional finite-element model of the field site was constructed to provide an interpretive aid. The self-potential data indicated the occurrence of preferential groundwater seepage through a porous seepage conduit that was imaged by the electric resistivity tomography data but did not indicate the occurrence of groundwater seepage through two fluid-filled dissolution cavities that were imaged by electric resistivity tomography data. Collectively, the surveying and modelling results demonstrate the efficacy of geoelectric methods for mapping the locations of dissolution cavities and preferential groundwater seepage in the electrically resistive karst terrane of the Ellenburger–San Saba aquifer.


Introduction In order to reduce deforestation, the current attitude of conservation programmes and forest politics does no longer ban the local populations from the forests, because such measures present negative consequences for the communities. Today's tendency is to focus on a multifunctional planning of the forest landscape that combines the conservation of biodiversity with the long-run improvement of local livelihood. Following this global trend, Madagascar – biodiversity hotspot of international importance – has been passing through a process of devolution of the renewable resources management rights to local communities since 1995. Because of a too strong human pressure, the Malagasy forests have been drastically reducing; the conversion of forest soils into cultivated lands is the major cause of deforestation. In Madagascar, cultivation is the main activity in rural areas, and 73.5% of rural population is still living below the poverty line. Research background In the Central Menabe region, west coast of Madagascar, the annual loss of forest cover (dry dense forest) is about 1%. Numerous researches were carried out on the forests or on the man-forest interface in Central Menabe, but studies focusing on interdisciplinary questions at a regional level are rare. A forest landscape research that considers villages, cultivated fields, secondary vegetations and natural forests is therefore necessary to propose regional forest landscape management recommendations. Such a research project aiming at providing scientific information for a sustainable, multifunctional and participative forest landscape management was launched in 2005 in this region; the present PhD thesis integrates with this research project. Objectives, methods and results The PhD thesis aims at setting up a scientific basis for a sustainable management of forest soils, non timber forest products (NTFPs) and forest services. This management tries to answer, in a participative way, the local populations' needs and expectations while decreasing the pressure on biodiversity. The research methodology comes from social (questionnaires, surveys, participant's observations, scoring exercises) and natural sciences (inventories and descriptions of the cleared surfaces, NTFPs' inventories). The analyses were done mainly by means of non parametrical tests, and calculations of averages, standard deviations and frequencies. The following paragraphs present the PhD thesis's specific objectives and the obtained results. To analyze the socio-economic role and ecological impact of cultivation in the Central Menabe rural system Rice and slash and burn cultivation products are the objects of a bit less than the half of rural commercial transactions. Rice is the product the most marketed, but its supply is judged insufficient. The slash and burn cultivation contributes intensively to the rural households' alimentary and financial safety, but the commercial interest in its products remains weak. The surfaces of the clearings for cultivation vary between 0 and 2 ha, but it is difficult to estimate the frequency of the different types of vegetation that are cleared. Nevertheless, clearings for rice cultivation (cultivation principally done on irrigated plots) are less frequent than the ones for slash and burn cultivation. To analyze the socio-economic role and potentialities of the small and big livestock, and to assess the environmental impact of the big livestock Dependently on the breeders' ethnicity, zebus represent a social (enhancing of the breeder's social prestige) or an economical (products' utilisation or sale) value, always slightly lucrative. The small livestock's products contribute more intensively to the households' budgets, because the majority of the breeders sell these products for emergency or precise needs. The use of fire to renew pasture lands accentuates the deforestation, and the overgrazing present during the dry season creates local ecological instabilities. To analyze the NTFPs' socio-economic potentialities and to assess the harvests' environmental impact Amongst the four studied NTFPs, tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus) is the one economically the most promising. For tenrec as for both tubers, traditional harvests do not represent a threat for the upholding of the species; however, the destructive harvest of wild honey perils the long-run survival of the bees' specie. To analyze the possibilities and political choices concerning the biodiversity conservation payments PES (payments for environmental services) programmes proposing payments in kind would be suitable, on some conditions, to protect biodiversity and to reduce poverty in Central Menabe. These conditions are i) to establish a PES contract with villages that are aware of biodiversity conservation and other economical potentialities, and ii) to focus the PES's goal on deforestation decrease and not on its full cessation. To synthesise, on a regional level, the socio-economic role and ecological impact of the main villager land uses, and to analyze the potentialities and the constraints of an optimisation of the forest landscape traditional use Socio-economically, cultivation and small livestock represent the main activities that insure the rural households' alimentary and financial safety. Ecologically, clearings for cultivation and big livestock's pastures are the activities generating the most destructive environmental impacts. Globally, the optimisation of cultivation techniques, the chicken breeding development and the improvement of the pasture management present big potentials to optimise the rural livelihood while decreasing the pressure on biodiversity. More detailed recommendations are presented in the chapter 7. Global synthesis and conclusion The recommendations are divided into three categories: some only act on biodiversity conservation, others have an exclusive effect on livelihood improvement, and some contribute to the both goals. This highlights the necessity to consider both the relation between biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvement, and other alternatives that are particular either to biodiversity conservation or to livelihood improvement.


The antibacterial photocatalytic activity of TiO2 supported over two types of substrates, borosilicate glass tubes (TiO2/SiO2-borosilicate glass tubes (BGT)) and low-density polyethylene pellets (TiO2-LDPE pellets), which were placed in a compound parabolic collectors (CPC) reactor, was evaluated against Enterobacter cloacae and Escherichia coli under sunlight. Three solar photocatalytic systems were assessed, suspended TiO2, TiO2/SiO2-BGT and TiO2-LDPE pellets, at three initial bacterial concentrations, 1 × 105; 1 × 103; 1 × 101 CFU/mL of E. coli and total bacteria (E. cloacae and E. coli). The solar photo-inactivation of E. coli was achieved after two hours with 7.2 kJ/L of UV-A, while total bacteria required four hours and 16.5 kJ/L of UV-A. Inactivation order of E. coli was determined, as follows, suspended TiO2/sunlight (50 mg/L) > TiO2-LDPE pellets/sunlight (52 mg/L) > TiO2/SiO2-BGT/sunlight (59 mg/L), the best E. coli. inactivation rate was obtained with TiO2-LDPE pellets/sunlight, within 4.5 kJ/L and 90 min. The highest total bacteria inactivation rate was found for TiO2/sunlight (50 mg/L) and TiO2-LDPE pellets/sunlight (52 mg/L), within 11.2 kJ/L and 180 min. TiO2 deposited over LDPE pellets was the most effective material, which can be successfully used for water disinfection applications. Bacterial regrowth was assessed 24 h after all photocatalytic treatments, none of those microorganisms showed any recovery above the detection limit (2 CFU/mL).


We make a theoretical investigation of nonlinear surface polaritons localized at a single interface separating a nonlinear conventional dielectric medium and a linear indefinite medium. The propagation properties of such nonlinear surface polaritons are demonstrated in several distinct frequency intervals. The surface effect of optical beams suffers different dynamics from the propagation (transmission) effect in indefinite media. The existence conditions, frequency thresholds, group velocity, and the power fluxes of the nonlinear surface polaritons are also discussed in detail.


Agarose hydrogel was used as the transport medium for the investigation of the diffusion of lignohumate through plant cuticle. The cuticles were isolated from Prunus laurocerasus by two different methods: chemical and enzymatic. At first, the diffusion coefficient of lignohumate in agarose hydrogel was determined by means of the technique of diffusion couple: the donor part was enriched by lignohumate with homogeneous distribution on its whole volume and connected with the "pure" acceptor part without lignohumate. The diffusion coefficient was calculated on the basis of time development of diffusion flux through the interface. After that, the cuticle was placed into interface between donor and acceptor parts and the barrier ability of cuticles were characterized by the decrease in diffusion flux and the change of the concentration of lignohumate at the interface between donor and acceptor hydrogels. The transport through chemically and enzymatically cuticles as well as the abaxial (stomatous) and adaxial (astomatous) cuticles was investigated. Diffusion characteristics were determined, compared and discussed.


This paper describes the design and empirical evaluation of statistical models that use domain and lexical knowledge to organize new semantic options in interfaces for editing knowledge bases. We employ the models in a system that allows a domain expert to perform languageneutral knowledge editing by interacting with natural language text generated by a natural language generation system. This editing produces a knowledge base used for natural language generation in multiple languages. To create statistical models, we use natural language techniques to automatically process a large corpus and then collect statistics based on the frequency of objects and verb-object pairs. The models are used to produce methods for organizing new semantic options based on 1) overall object frequency and 2) verb-object pair frequency. We compare these two innovative methods to the more traditional method of organizing options alphabetically. We conduct a set of experiments to evaluate these three methods for organizing new semantic options and analyze subjects' interactions with the different methods in terms of speed and accuracy.


A comprehensive account of the ten parishes comprising the southern half of the Catsash hundred, an area rich in its archaeology and history, is presented here, in the authoritative detail which is the hallmark of the Victoria County History. To the north, the Barrows, of which Queen Camel, North Cadbury and Sparkford (home of the Haynes Motor Museum) are the largest and most populous, lying in an area rich in archaeology and history. To the south, prominent hills include Cadbury Hill, crowned by Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort dating from 600-400 BC. In South Cadbury and the surrounding parishes there is much evidence of prehistoric activity such as Bronze-Age finds. From a later period, the manor at Queen Camel is recorded in 1066, though decimated by fire in 1639 and subsequently rebuilt in local Blue Lias stone; and the sites of abandoned medieval homesteads are visible at Sparkford, Weston Bampfylde, Sutton Montis and Maperton. Later still, Compton Castle in Compton Pauncefoot was constructed in 1821 while North Cadbury's medieval manor house still survives today. M.C. Siraut is a historian and archivist; she is the county editor for the Victoria History of Somerset.


'I do not know what to write' or 'I do not have any good topic to share' - This is the answer I often get when asked why isn't there an urge to publish. This is a common problem as most busy clinicians often cease reading scientific paper or journal to constantly update their knowledge. The reading habit appear to have ceased after MRCP / M MED or Nephrology exit exam. As a matter of fact, everyone can write and publish, if you have your will.


Abstract : This work entails further investigation of the absorption of photons in indium antimonide (InSb). Previously work at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) attributed laser blooming effects in InSb focal plane arrays (FPA's) to the Burstein-Moss effect. The contributing effect is from a decrease in the absorption of the InSb material, such that the transmitted optical energy scatters off the integrated circuitry beneath the InSb thin film back into the optical system. To evaluate this, irradiance-dependent laser-absorption experiments were performed on thinned, InSb wafers prior to their FPA fabrication. The samples were illuminated with a focused CO2 laser at 4.6 micrometers, and translated along the optical axis to vary the irradiance. A control process to remotely manage the experiment's apparatuses during data collection has been developed utilizing LabView 8.5. The transmission of the InSb sample was measured at different laser powers and temperatures. As the temperature decreases for a determined laser irradiance, it has been observed that the absorption decreases nonlinearly. A model of the absorption-saturation phenomena is also developed so that agreement between the measured and modeled results can be studied for the carrier lifetime and density of carriers.


We propose a discriminative approach to acoustic space dimensionality selection based on maximum entropy modelling. We form a set of constraints by composing the acoustic space with the space of phone classes, and use a continuous feature formulation of maximum entropy modelling to select an optimal feature set. The suggested approach has two steps: (1) the selection of the best acoustic space that efficiently and economically represents the acoustic data and its variability; (2) the combination of selected acoustic features in the maximum entropy framework to estimate the posterior probabilities over the phonetic labels given the acoustic input. Specific contributions of the paper include a parameter estimation algorithm (generalized improved iterative scaling) that enables the use of negative features, the parameterization of constraint functions using Gaussian mixture models, and experimental results using the TIMIT database.


When firms trade forward contracts with banks to protect foreign currency cash flows against exchange rate movements, foreign exchange risk migrates to the banking sector. We show how this migrated risk may induce systemic repercussions with severe implications for the real economy. For identification, we exploit the Brexit referendum in June 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment in combination with detailed microdata on forward contracts and the credit register in Germany. Before the referendum, firms substantially increased their use of derivatives in response to the heightened uncertainty; banks, in providing these contracts, did not fully intermediate the risk and retained a large share of it on their own books. The depreciation of the British pound in response to the referendum's outcome posed a shock to the capital of ex ante exposed banks. Banks, especially weakly capitalized ones, absorbed these losses by cutting back credit to all firms, including those unlikely to have had any exchange rate exposure to begin with. Firms that had ex ante borrowing relationships with banks facing losses experienced a larger reduction in credit and a greater decline in investment compared with their industry peers, thereby contributing to the aggregate investment contraction. We also find these effects to be more pronounced for small firms, which is consistent with credit market frictions being rooted in asymmetric information problems.


Three sediment transport rate equations and the same number of friction factor equations for mobile boundary channel flows were evaluated using a mobile boundary flow model called MOBED. The MOBED model was formulated in such a way that it is possible to use different friction factor and sediment transport relations easily. The model was used to simulate degradation downstream of a transition from fixed bed to movable bed in a laboratory flume using the nine possible combinations of sediment transport rate and friction factor equations. Comparing the predicted degradation and water surface elevation with the measured data, it was possible to draw conclusions regarding the suitability of different combinations of the selected equations.


Biometric iris recognition systems are widely used for a range of identity recognition applications and have been shown to perform with high accuracy. For large-scale deployments, however, system enhancements leading to a reduction in error rates are continually sought. In this paper we investigate the performance of human verification of iris images and compare against a standard computer-based method. Our results suggest that performance using the computer-based system is no better than performance of the human participants. Additionally and importantly, however, performance can be improved through incorporation of the human as a `second decision maker'. This fusion system yields a false acceptance rate of just 9% when disagreements are resolved in line with strengths of each `decision-maker'. The results are presented as an illustration of the benefits that can be gained when combining human and automated systems in biometric processing.