Background: Foot infection involving the skin, soft tissues and bony structures, is a common complication of foot ulcers in diabetic individuals and represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Systemic antibiotic treatment must be given as early as possible initially on empirical basis and based on the response to empirical therapy and wound culture and sensitivity results, definitive therapy should be decided. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of moxifloxacin for treating diabetic foot infections in Pakistani population. Methods: After taking ethical approval, an interventional phase IV study was conducted in the department of medicine and diabetic clinic, Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro, Hyderabad from March 2017 till August 2017. A total of 75 patients with diabetic foot infection who were sensitive to moxifloxacin on culture and sensitivity were included in the study using non-probability convenient sampling technique. All the demographic and clinical information was collected by using a questionnaire specially designed for the study. After making clinical assessment, all the patients were treated with sequential intravenous/oral moxifloxacin for 14 days. Bacteriologic response was based on the results of cultures of specimens of infected skin or soft tissue or blood. The data were analyzed on SPSS version 20.0. Chi-square test was used with significant level set at 0.05. Results: The study results revealed that the majority of patients with diabetic foot ulcer were males with the age of greater than 45 years. Only 21.3% of them had a comorbidity, either hypertension alone or hypertension with ischemic heart disease, whereas 84% of them reported their foot ulcers to be cured at the end of treatment. Furthermore, only younger age was found to have a significant positive association with healing of foot ulcers. Conclusions: Moxifloxacin is effective in treating diabetic foot infections and 84% of the diabetic patients in the present study reported the healing of foot ulcers as a result of a 2-week moxifloxacin treatment. Further evaluation of the role of moxifloxacin in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer is recommended. J Endocrinol Metab. 2018;8(2-3):32-36 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem485w


AD is characterized cognitively by memory, problem-solving, and language difficulties. It is estimated that 5.4 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's disease (AD). The cognitive difficulties in AD are reflected in the brain through the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), neurofibrillary tau tangles, neuronal tissue atrophy, and neuroinflammation, but the exact cause of AD is still in question. However, evidence suggests that differences in neuroimmune function—the central nervous system's ability to resist disease—may play a role in the development and progression of AD. This paper largely relates neuroimmune changes to the amyloid hypothesis of AD. This approach relates AD to Aβ production and clearance, and therefore, targets Aβ for treatment uses. A thorough literature search revealed evidence that the blood-brain barrier (BBB), glial cell mediation and effects on neuroinflammation, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and interstitial fluid (ISF) drainage systems are changed in AD. These changes seem to be detrimental for the AD brain and Aβ accumulation. Future research should be conducted regarding characterization of the lymphatic system in the human dura, the balance of helpful and harmful effects of activated microglia, the driving forces of paravascular CSF-ISF exchange, the effects of sleep on neuroimmunity, and genetic risk factors for neuroimmune dysfunction.


To date there is no documented procedure to extrapolate findings of an isometric nature to a whole body performance setting. The purpose of this study was to quantify the reliability of perceived exertion to control neuromuscular output during an isometric contraction. 21 varsity athletes completed a maximal voluntary contraction and a 2 min constant force contraction at both the start and end of the study. Between pre and post testing all participants completed a 2 min constant perceived exertion contraction once a day for 4 days. Intra-class correlation coefficient (R=O.949) and standard error of measurement (SEM=5.12 Nm) concluded that the isometric contraction was reliable. Limits of agreement demonstrated only moderate initial reliability, yet with smaller limits towards the end of 4 training sessions. In conclusion, athlete's na"ive to a constant effort isometric contraction will produce reliable and acceptably stable results after 1 familiarization sessions has


In recent years socio-psychological language research has influenced the fields of translation and interpreting studies resulting in a growing interest in personality traits such as extraversion, emotional stability, self-efficacy and risk-taking as relevant constructs of translator competence and interpreter aptitude (Hubscher-Davidson, 2009; Bolaños Medina, 2014). A personality trait that has received limited attention, especially in relation to interpreting, is tolerance of ambiguity (TA). TA is generally described as the ability to manage situations that are new, complex or insoluble (Budner, 1962). As these types of situations seem to be inherent to the translation and interpreting practice, the construct has interesting potential. This study aims to shed some light on the level of TA in novice and expert translators and interpreters. To this end, we have administered the Tolerance for Ambiguity Scale (Herman, Stevens, Bird, Mendenhall & Oddou, 2010) to two groups of student interpreters (n=20) and translators (n=20) and two professional populations of interpreters (n=20) and translators (n=14). The results indicate a significant difference between interpreters and translators at the professional level regardless of age. This seems to suggest that the nature of the interpreter's job aids the development of tolerance of ambiguity.


The mechanism o f continental growth o f Central Asia is currently debated between models invoking continuous subduction-accretion, or punctuated accretion due to closure o f multiple ocean basins. Ophiolites in Central Asia may represent offscraped fragments in an accretionary complex or true collisional sutures. The Bayankhongor ophiolite, a NW -SE-striking sublinear belt 300 km long and 20 km wide, is the largest ophiolite in M ongolia and possibly Central Asia. W e present results o f the first detailed structural and lithological study o f the ophiolite. The study area is divided into four zones: Baidrag complex, Burd G ol, Bayankhongor, and D zag zones. The Archaean Baidrag complex comprises tonalitic granulites and metasediments. The Burd G ol zone is a metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous melange. The Bayankhongor zone contains the dismembered ophiolite forming a serpentinite melange. The D zag zone consists o f asymmetrically folded chlorite-m ica schists resembling meta-turbidites. The structure is dominated by steeply dipping, N E directed thrusts and NE-vergent folds. We suggest the Bayankhongor ophiolite marks the closure o f an ocean separating two microcontinents: the Baidrag com plex with the Burd G ol accretionary complex to the south, and a northern continent that forms the basement for the Hangai region. Subduction was towards the SW with NE-directed ophiolite obduction onto a passive margin represented by the D zag zone.


OBJECTIVE
A registered nurse (RN) license can be obtained by completing a baccalaureate degree (BSN), an associate degree (AD), or a diploma program. The aim of this article is to examine the return to baccalaureate education from the perspective of the nurse.

DATA SOURCES
National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, 2000, 2004, and 2008.

STUDY DESIGN
The effect of education on RN wages is estimated using multivariate regression, both for initial education and for completing a second degree. The coefficients are used to calculate lifetime expected earnings. Multinomial logistic regression is used to examine the relationship between education and job title.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Lifetime earnings for nurses whose initial education is the BSN are higher than those of AD nurses only if the AD program requires 3 years and the discount rate is 2 percent. For individuals who enter nursing with an AD, lifetime earnings are higher if they complete a BSN. The BSN is associated with higher likelihood of being an advanced practice registered nurse, having an academic title, and having a management title.

CONCLUSIONS
Because baccalaureate education confers benefits both for RNs and their patients, policies to encourage the pursuit of BSN degrees need to be supported.


Paul Bairoch sets the record straight on twenty commonly held myths about economic history. Among these are that free trade and population growth have historically led to periods of economic growth; that a move away from free trade caused the Great Depression; and that colonial powers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became rich through the exploitation of the Third World. Bairoch argues that these beliefs are based on insufficient knowledge and misguided interpretations of the economic history of the United States, Europe, and the Third World. "A challenging and readable introduction to some major controversial themes in modern international economic history."—Peter J. Cain, International History Review "Paul Bairoch sheds fascinating light on many of the accepted truths of modern economic history: an intriguing account, well executed."—Alfred L. Malabre, Jr., Economics Editor, Wall Street Journal


Administrative agencies increasingly enlist the judgment of private firms they regulate to achieve public ends. Regulation concerning the identification and reduction of risk - from financial, data and homeland security risk to the risk of conflicts of interest - increasingly mandates broad policy outcomes and accords regulated parties wide discretion in deciding how to interpret and achieve them. Yet the dominant paradigm of administrative enforcement, monitoring and threats of punishment, is ill suited to oversee the sound exercise of judgment and discretion. This Article argues that this kind of regulation should be viewed, instead, as regulatory "delegation" of the type Congress makes to agencies when it accords them the authority to fill in the details of ambiguous statutory mandates. Administrative law's "delegation" paradigm, unlike its "regulation" counterpart, relies on decision processes to channel discretion in the service of public goals. Informed by the comparative capacities of different institutions, it structures delegated decisionmaking to promote rational and accountable policy implementation. The Article then applies this administrative law approach to the exercise of delegated discretion by regulated firms. Drawing from the literature on judgment and decisionmaking in organizations used increasingly by corporate law scholars, it suggests that the efficient structure of profit-making firms will, in a subset of cases, systemically blind decisionmakers to the types of risk and change in which regulation is interested, and lead to unaccountable regulatory decisions. Finally, I suggest ways in which administrative law might learn from recent research on organizational learning that examines how decisionmaking in firms can be structured more effectively, to incorporate additional accountability tools through regulatory design, third-party relationships, and relations between administrative agencies and those they regulate.


Book synopsis: Resonant Bodies, Memories, Voices orbits around the subjects of memory, voice and the body - more specifically around instances where our habitual abilities to sense, remember, and speak are somehow disrupted or suspended. Such shifts and ruptures may occur through experiences such as living under an oppressive regime, migration, trying to make oneself understood in a foreign language, or through physical inhibitions like aphasia or stuttering. It is exactly at moments when we struggle with memory, when language fails us or our voice breaks, when our bodies are affected by inhibitions or prohibitions, that it becomes pertinent what values we attach to memory, voice and the body, and what roles they have in shaping our subjectivity and our status as subjects.
It has become common to understand memory, voice and even bodily knowledge and sensations as something we not simply have, but something we do. But when the ability to remember, feel or speak gets disrupted, even this sense that we are engaged in doing - in interacting with and acting in the world - becomes a question. What happens to our sense of self and our relation to others when we try to relate to places where we are not, to a voice that does not seem to be our own, or to a body that we don't seem to be in control of?


In recent years, reports and public debate have depicted a crisis in higher education with students demonstrating difficulties in reading, writing, analyzing and problem solving and university teaching not helping students develop these skills. This situation does not appear to be limited only to Sweden (Enefalk, Andersson & Aronsson et al., 2013). In higher education, the importance of university teachers has not always been emphasized with regards to student learning and student success (cf. Mourshed et al, 2010). There is a cognitive gap between what is taught and the students' ability to develop the requested competencies (Lisberg Jensen, 2013).     Lulea University of Technology, in Northern Sweden, is attempting to implement and develop a learning environment based on core competencies (Wikberg Nilsson & Gedda, 2013; Alverno College, (n.d.) and the general exam objectives in the Higher Education Act (SFS 1993: 100). In doing this, the university is faced with a number of challenges.     In a pilot research and development project, we have been working with one possible way to support the implementation of a competence-based pedagogical concept by creating educational materials for university teachers and students. The research questions were: To what degree are core competencies integrated and developed within current university programs?What problems do university teachers face when attempting to implement the competence-based pedagogical concept of the university?How can university teachers ensure that their teaching and assessment promotes the development of core generic competencies without sacrificing acquisition of subject-specific knowledge? Methodologically, the first step was to map core competencies via qualitative interviews with both experienced and inexperienced university teachers as well as undergraduate students. Three key challenges were identified, the first being that some university teachers had difficulties understanding how the core competencies could be taught within their respective subjects or programs. Secondly, teachers voiced concerns that their lack of pedagogical training made it difficult for them to properly teach communication, problem solving, etc. Lastly, the interviews revealed that lack of time and pedagogical support were obstacles to the implementation of the educational concept.      In order to address the indicated problems and support the objectives of the educational concept, a set of digital materials were developed. These materials featured film clips of pedagogically and academically excellent university teachers explaining and providing clear examples of how they implement core competencies in their subjects. The films were then edited and supplemented with further examples and references. These materials are primarily directed at university teachers, as a supplement to existing courses in university pedagogy, but because they will be made openly available online, they will also be accessible to students.     The materials will help teachers to teach in accordance with the university's educational concept, develop and deepen their educational and pedagogical action competence (Jank & Meyer, 1997), and challenge themselves in the role of educational leaders. These materials could also help university teachers teach in ways that help students develop these core competencies in tandem with relevant subject knowledge. Students experience this as particularly useful educational training (Utbildningens anvandbarhet, 2013).     In this poster presentation, we will show the design of the project, how the results can be implemented in teaching at university level, and how the project has been deepened with further interviews, in order to learn more about how the objectives of the educational concept can be achieved. The presentation has broader relevance for all universities attempting to implement a pedagogical approach that develops generic competencies.                                                                                References Alverno College (n.d.). The 8 core abilities.http://www.alverno.edu/academics/ouruniquecurriculum/the8coreabilities/Enefalk. H., Andersson, L. M., Aronsson, A. m.fl. (2013). Vara studenter kan inte svenska. Upsala Nya Tidning 2/1.Jank, W. & Meyer, H. (1997). Didaktikens centrala fragor I: M. Uljens (Ed.). Didaktik. Lund: Studentlitteratur, 1997, pp. 47-74.Lisberg Jensen, Ebba. (2013). Studenter pa 13-aringsniva kraver nya arbetssatt. Universitetslararen 5/13.Mourshed, M., Chijoke, C. & Barber, M. (2010). How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better. New York: McKinsey Company.SFS 1993:100. Hogskoleforordning. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet.Utbildningens anvandbarhet. (2013). Sveriges forenade studentkar om syftet med hogre utbildning. Wikberg Nilsson, A. & Gedda, O. (2013). Guide 2013 for utbildningsutveckling enligt Pedagogisk ide LTU. LTU: Lulea: Lulea tekniska universitet.


The knowledge of the dynamics and characteristics of space plasma during solar-terrestrial coupling has been greatly enriched by process that aids the determination of the instantaneous frequencies which support the non-stationary and non-linear nature of signals. Such plasmas are observed in the magnetosheath in the downstream of bow shock. In this thesis a technique was applied which extracts the various contributing oscillatory modes reflecting the waveforms observed in the space by Cluster spacecraft instruments such as FGM, CIS and EFW, and decompose the frequency of each extracted mode using Instantaneous Frequency method that is based on Simple Hilbert Transform (SHT). This is achieved through the use of Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). To eliminate the negative frequency of the various extracted modes referred to as intrinsic mode function which appears with Fourier transform, we apply Hilbert transform leading to analytic representation of the signals. This process aids the determination of the instantaneous frequencies of the extracted modes. The combined process of EMD and Hilbert transform is called the Hilbert-Huang transform. The results in this thesis have been based on the improved EMD. To contribute to the understanding of plasma dynamics, the computed instantaneous frequencies are compared with the results obtained from the application of Simple Hilbert Transform. Instantaneous frequencies of overriding waves are easily separated as opposed to the application of just SHT. They offer the advantage of 3-dimensional study of the spatial characteristics of waves. The understanding of the instantaneous wave number has been achieved through the EMD and SHT combination. This provides the results which give the wave vector for a known frequency at a given instant of time. The instantaneous dispersion relation is determined using the knowledge of the instantaneous frequency and wave vector in the satellite frame, the plasma bulk velocity and the spacecraft velocity (found to be negligible compared with the plasma bulk velocity). This is accomplished using a Doppler shift relation. Wave modes identifications have been carried out by considering the proton temperature anisotropies, plasma beta and plasma bulk velocity and instantaneous phase velocity in the satellite frame. We report Alfven mode close to the bow shock, spreading out to mirror mode which dominates the middle of magnetosheath. The mirror mode then diminishes towards the magnetopause.


Background Dietary factors have been discussed to influence risk or disease course of multiple sclerosis (MS). Specific diets are widely used among patients with MS. Objective To design and pilot-test an evidence based patient education program on dietary factors in MS. Methods We performed a systematic literature search on the effectiveness of dietary interventions in MS. A web-based survey among 337 patients with MS and 136 healthy controls assessed knowledge, dietary habits and information needs. An interactive group education program was developed and pilot-tested. Results Fifteen randomised-controlled trials (RCTs) were included in the systematic review. Quality of evidence was low and no clear benefit could be seen. Patients with MS significantly more often adhered to a `Mediterranean Diet`(29.7% versus 14.0%, p<0.001) compared to controls. 143 (42%) of the patients with MS had tried special MS diets. Important information needs addressed effectiveness of MS diets (44%) and relation between nutrition and MS (43%). A pilot test of our newly developed patient education program with 13 participants showed excellent comprehensibility and the MS-specific content was judged as very important. However, the poor evidence base for dietary approaches in MS was perceived disappointing. Conclusions Development and pilot-testing of an evidence-based patient education program on nutrition and MS is feasible. Patient satisfaction with the program suffers from the lack of evidence. Further research should focus on generating evidence for the potential influence of lifestyle habits (diet, physical activity) on MS disease course thus meeting the needs of patients with MS.


Several frameworks have been developed to assess the resilience of social-ecological systems, but most require substantial data inputs, time, and technical expertise. Stakeholders and practitioners often lack the resources for such intensive efforts. Furthermore, most end with problem framing and fail to explicitly address trade-offs and uncertainty. To remedy this gap, we developed a rapid survey assessment that compares the relative resilience of social-ecological systems with respect to a number of resilience properties. This approach generates large amounts of information relative to stakeholder inputs. We targeted four stakeholder categories: government (policy, regulation, management), end users (farmers, ranchers, landowners, industry), agency/public science (research, university, extension), and NGOs (environmental, citizen, social justice) in four North American watersheds, to assess social-ecological resilience through surveys. Conceptually, social-ecological systems are comprised of components ranging from strictly human to strictly ecological, but that relate directly or indirectly to one another. They have soft boundaries and several important dimensions or axes that together describe the nature of social-ecological interactions, e.g., variability, diversity, modularity, slow variables, feedbacks, capital, innovation, redundancy, and ecosystem services. There is no absolute measure of resilience, so our design takes advantage of cross-watershed comparisons and therefore focuses on relative resilience. Our approach quantifies and compares the relative resilience across watershed systems and potential trade-offs among different aspects of the social-ecological system, e.g., between social, economic, and ecological contributions. This approach permits explicit assessment of several types of uncertainty (e.g., self-assigned uncertainty for stakeholders; uncertainty across respondents, watersheds, and subsystems), and subjectivity in perceptions of resilience among key actors and decision makers and provides an efficient way to develop the mental models that inform our stakeholders and stakeholder categories.


This paper uses a novel experimental approach to measure consumer willingness to pay for wine attributes in a hedonic framework. The research design allows us to deal with identification issues resulting from the interaction of demand and supply and to examine the effect of supply-side influences in price data. We employ information from observed wine choices and individual fixed effects to account for consumer heterogeneity and sorting. The effects of controlling for supply and addressing sorting and heterogeneity yield estimates of WTP for wine attributes markedly different than those found by past studies. The results demonstrate that consumer sorting is an important force in product markets and that consumer preferences for unobserved attributes drive valuation differences significantly. For instance, consumers in our sample display greater strength of preference over wine varieties than they do for appellations. It is therefore necessary to interpret results carefully when using valuation data that has been generated in controlled conditions.


A short course run in spring 2019 to as an introduction to fulfillment in Alma which covers traditional circulation and resource sharing areas.


Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have been widely studied in the last two decades and start to be commercialized in the photovoltaic market. Comprehensive characterization is needed to fully understand and optimize the device performance and stability. In this review, we summarize different characterization methods for dye-sensitized solar cells with liquid redox electrolytes or solid state hole transporting materials, most of which can also be used for similar devices such as perovskite based thin film solar cells. Limitations and advantages of relevant methods for studying the energy levels and time scales involved in charge transfer processes as well as charge transport related characteristic lengths are discussed. A summary of recent developments in DSCs and the importance of measured parameters for the device optimization procedure are mentioned at the end.


Electronic games are now an everyday part of childhood and adolescence. The debate has moved from whether children should play video games to how to maximize potential benefits and to identify and minimize potential harms. To do this, we must understand what motivates children to play electronic games and what needs the games meet. Drawing on a survey of 1,254 middle school children, focus groups with boys and their parents, and findings from other quantitative and qualitative research, the author describes a variety of motivations for video game play (including games with violent content) and how these may vary based on factors such as mood, environment, personality, and developmental stage. The findings are put into the context of normal development, and suggestions are given for parents, educators, and researchers.


This thesis examines the social and biological reproduction of households in the sectores populares, ie low income groups, both rural and urban, in the Meseta Central, yields specific outcomes at household level: the social formation based, originally, on smallholder coffee also depends on unusually successful domestic labour. Only multidisciplinary team work could adequately evaluate reproduction at the household level and establish the crucial role of the household in the wider economic system, as well as the role of women in maintaining diverse forms of subordination. The standard of living of the groups studied was estimated from the nutritional status of the children as a basic indicator of wellbeing; explanations of this status were sought in multivariate analysis of biological, economic, and social factors. Unexpectedly, the explanatory power of such variables such as income proved weak, the explanation appearing rather to lie with the less quantifiable social factors which rendered domestic labour more or less effective. Surveys and analysis, 1981-1984, sought to establish household survival strategies; diversified household enterprise proved of great importance in a survival constantly endangered by the insecurity of temporary, part-time and seasonal work so familiar in the Costa Rican economy as a whole. The household itself, as a flexible social organisation, seems one of the best resources for livelihood in the sectores populares, along with the 'peasant' tradition of unpaid female and child labour. Proletarianisation remains incomplete. The economic categories of traditional Marxism prove inadequate to explain the gender subordination which characterises male female relations in countries of markedly uneven development, such as Costa Rica.


The artist's relationship to landscape was once invoked by a canvas on an easel in a picturesque vista. No more. In the 1960s, the Earth Artists started focusing on natural systems and entropy; in the 1970s, photographers in the New Topographics movement turned their attention unsentimentally to the industrialized "man-altered" environment; in the 1980s, artists animated the natural landscape with art, movement, and performance; and in the 1990s, Eco-Artists collaborated with scientists to address sustainability, pollution, and politics. Badlands explores the latest manifestations of artists' fascination with the earth, gathering work by contemporary artists who approach landscape through history, culture, and science. Badlands, which accompanies an exhibition at MASS MoCA, approaches landscape as a theme with variations, grouping artists and their art (which is shown in 150 color illustrations) by category: Historians, who recontextualize the history of landscape depiction; Explorers, who explore the environment and our place within it; Activists and Pragmatists, who alert us to problems in the natural world and suggest solutions; and the Aestheticists, who look at the beauty found in nature. Each section begins with an essay: Gregory Volk maps the evolution of the genre from the Hudson River School to Earth Art; Ginger Strand examines the relationship between man and landscape through our cultural history; Tensie Whelan discusses environmental science, sustainability, and climate change; and Denise Markonish considers the new genre of landscape that emerges from the work displayed in Badlands. As a physical object, Badlands supports the values represented by its intellectual and artistic content: it was produced using FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified techniques including paper, printing, and inks.ArtistsRobert Adams, Vaughn Bell, Boyle Family, Melissa Brown, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Leila Daw, Gregory Euclide, J. Henry Fair, Mike Glier, Anthony Goicolea, Marine Hugonnier, Mike Glier, Paul Jacobsen, Nina Katchadourian, Jane Marsching, Alexis Rockman, Ed Ruscha, Joseph Smolinski, Yutaka Sone, Jennifer Steinkamp, Mary Temple


Mechanical micromachining is a reference process for producing 3D complex microparts and specifically tools for other processes as molds for micro injection molding and males for microextrusion. High aspect ratio features as bars, ribs, pins, etc. are very common in these cases and their quality strongly affects the final plastic part quality. This paper focuses on high aspect ratio steel pins, since they are one of the most challenging features to be manufactured on microextrusion males. The pin geometrical quality has been defined according to the standards and a suitable measurement procedure has been set up with the aim to study the micromilling process parameters effects on the most representative pin quality characteristics. The statistical analysis results point out some criteria for selecting the best process parameters.


Both experimental and process simulation studies were performed to develop physical property models of the concentrated cesium ion-exchange eluate solutions in one of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant evaporators. The physical properties of interest included the bulk solubility, density, viscosity, and heat capacity of the evaporator bottoms, and the proposed model of each response was a linear mixture model containing 12 coefficients. A unique feature of this work is that the values of these coefficients were determined by the regression of the "virtual" experimental data, which were not measured but were calculated using a computer process model that simulated the semibatch evaporation of cesium eluate solutions. To improve the accuracy of calculated virtual experimental data and the resulting physical property models, a series of benchscale evaporation tests was also conducted to provide the necessary experimental data for the development of a multielectrolyte thermodynamic database on which the computer process model was built. Specifically, the solubility and other physical properties of selected binary, ternary, and higher-order systems were measured to support the optimization of a sexenary database for the Na-K-Cs-Al-HNO3-H2O system. As the input to the virtual experimental runs, a matrix of cesium eluate simulants was designed within the bounding concentrations of the major analytes identified in radioactive samples. The computer process model was then run in conjunction with the sexenary thermodynamic database to calculate the physical properties of each matrix solution concentrated to the target end points of 80 and 100% saturation. The calculated physical properties were analyzed statistically and fitted into the 12-coefficient mixture function of temperature and the concentrations of major analytes in the unevaporated eluate. Over the concentration and temperature ranges considered, the resulting empirical physical property models were found to correlate the computer-generated data well without significant bias.


AN ACCOUNT OF JANE AUSTEN'S earliest literary legacy--one that would track the influence she exerted upon writers nearest to her own time--might productively consider the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. Mrs. Gaskell's North and South (1854-55) has all the makings of a deftly refashioned Pride and Prejudice. Here the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy is replayed when Margaret Hale's prejudice against the North and so-called "shoppy people" prompts her hasty misjudgment of John Thornton, the Milton manufacturer (19). Like all clever adaptations, Gaskell's has a twist, as it inverts our gendered expectations of the main protagonists: it is the "queenly" Margaret, not Thornton, who intimidates with a proud bearing and a "straight, fearless, dignified presence habitual to her" (57). In Gaskell, Margaret plays the proud Darcy, as it were. Originally published as a serial in Household Words in 1854 with Charles Dickens's editorial assistance, North and South may be the first full-length reworking of Pride and Prejudice. If this novel proves the Victorian ancestor of the cornucopia of modern adaptations that have deliciously reset Austen's original in contemporary environs, Gaskell's Milton (a thinly disguised Manchester) may have paved the way for Cohen's Boca Raton. (1) In sharp contrast, however, to those adaptations that proudly flaunt their Janeite lineage, North and South masked any debt to Austen. That is to say, Gaskell never acknowledged an influence outright, and, as a result, historians of the novel have never observed more than a vague family resemblance between her fictions and Austen's. In an argument such as this, authorial intention must remain speculative, but perhaps Gaskell's close relationship to Charlotte Bronte, who is known to have disapproved of Austen, explains this peculiar omission. By 1854, Gaskell could not have been ignorant of Austen's work and its increasing hold over popular taste. True, after the posthumous double publication of Northanger Abbey with Persuasion in December of 1817, no English reissue of her novels took place until Richard Bentley included them in his series of Standard Novels in 1883 (Gilson 211). Judging by the book market's apparent lack of interest, fifteen years of" relative obscurity followed Austen upon her death, as her legacy lay dormant. But in the wake of Bentley's republication of Austen's six novels in his relatively inexpensive series, her work saw a sudden surge of popularity. Many further reprintings, by Bentley as well as others, followed in the late 1830s, the 40s and early '50s--before Gaskell composed her adaptation. Pride and Prejudice alone--quick to become the darling of Austen's oeuvre--continued to be reprinted by Bentley in 1886, 1846, 1853, and 1854. Further printings of this same novel by other publishing houses occurred in 1838, 1844, 1845, 1848, 1849, and 1851 (Gilson 211-45). In October 1845, the high-profile reviewer George Henry Lewes mentioned Austen in the same breath with Shakespeare, Cervantes, Moliere, Goethe, Fielding, and Scott. In an unsigned review in Fraser's Magazine in December of 1847, Lewes praised Austen's "marvellous dramatic power" and her "truth in the delineation of life and character," declaring that "Fielding and Miss Austen are the greatest novelists in our language" (Southam 137-88). Lewes held up Pride and Prejudice, in particular, as the model for contemporary novelists. By 1859, David Masson, a prominent Victorian scholar, would sum up Austen's position in the literary landscape in British Novelists and Their Styles: All in all ... the best judges unanimously prefer Miss Austen to any of her contemporaries of the same order. They reckon her ['works, since a list of her six novels follows'] as not only better than anything else of the kind written in her day, but also among the most perfect and charming fictions in the language. I have known the most hard-headed men in ecstasies with them. …


BACKGROUND
Patients with Kostmann syndrome (severe congenital neutropenia [SCN]) typically normalize their absolute neutrophil count (ANC) upon granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) therapy. However, although they no longer experience life-threatening bacterial infections, they frequently still have recurrent gingivitis and even severe periodontitis, often starting in early childhood.

METHODS
We studied the periodontal disease in the four surviving patients belonging to the family originally described by Kostmann. Their odontological records, x-rays, color photos, bacterial cultures, serum antibodies to oral bacteria, and histopathological examinations were reviewed. The data were also correlated to previous investigations on their antibacterial peptides and molecular biology.

RESULTS
Three patients had periodontal disease, despite normal ANC and professional dental care, and had neutrophils deficient in antibacterial peptides. One of these patients also had a heterozygous mutation in the neutrophil elastase gene, had severe periodontal disease and overgrowth of the periodontal pathogen Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans in the dental flora, and 15 permanent teeth had been extracted by the age of 27. One bone marrow-transplanted patient had no periodontal disease.

CONCLUSIONS
Normalized ANC levels are not sufficient to maintain normal oral health in SCN patients, and because neutrophils are important for first-line defense and innate immunity, the deficiency of the antibacterial peptide LL-37 probably explains their chronic periodontal disease. Professional dental care is still important for SCN patients, despite treatment with G-CSF and normal ANC levels. Whether antibacterial peptides play a role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis in other patients remains to be elucidated.


The Manhattan Project, which was ultimately responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb, provided previously scarce opportunities for female scientists to contribute to a large government/military research project. Although women found positions in the Manhattan Project more easily than previous or other projects, the work conducted by those women was largely perceived as having reduced significance than similar work being conducted by male scientists. In the male dominated culture, women were once again subjugated to the sidelines despite the significant contributions made by female scientists. In general, the opportunities for scientists to inform political and public policy was limited at the time, but women faced additional obstacles due to their sex. In the telling of the history of the Manhattan Project, women have been relegated to the sidelines. This essay will examine the role of female scientists, specifically physicists, in the Manhattan Project and their ability to inform policy as limited by their sex and argue that despite facing many obstacles, female scientists were able to make valuable contributions to the Manhattan Project that contributed to the overall success of the


Industrial processes that involve fluid usually have filters which create resistance and require more energy for pumping. Desirable characteristics of an efficient filter include maximising the open area, but this decreases overall strength. Traditionally, metal filters have been manufactured using perforated plate and mesh. We successfully used additive manufacturing (AM) to create filter designs, that cannot be manufactured using conventional methods, These filters were designed around the apertures in the filter. This filter delivers decreased resistance, therefore reduces end-users energy costs and decreases their carbon footprint. 3D filter designs were created to deliver effective filtration by using the AM capabilities to maximise the open area (aperture size) whilst retaining strength in the filter. In effect we combined the filter portion and the support portion of a conventional filter into a single part. During the design process we had to develop new approaches in our CAD techniques to accommodate the high percentage of space compared to the relatively low percentage of material in our lattice design. Low density per unit volume also increased the slicing time for the layers to be defined for uploading to the machine. The integrated AM filter was created with incremental increases in aperture size, and the series of filters printed using the same material files. We then analysed the strands and aperture sizes within the lattice of the integrated filter using the optical techniques of SEM and X-Ray CT. Manipulation of the material files used in subsequent builds led to increased control of the quality and consistency of the lattice strands which in turn has led to increased consistency in the aperture sizes in the filters produced. We have therefore refined the AM process used to manufacture our filters to an effective process. Metal AM was used to develop a wedge wire filter that can be manufactured in a single step process. This eliminates the significant costs and time for conventional tooling requirements as well as reducing the overall lead time to delivery. The AM filter design to reflect wedge wire overcomes conventional fabrication issues. Filtration efficiency will be investigated by comparing the flow rates of a conventional and of an AM wedge wire filter. AM technology has enabled the production of innovative 3D designed filters that have design elements which significantly increase filtration efficiency. Industrial use of these 3D filters may reduce the end users carbon footprint.


The starting point for this exploration of the mens rea of the crime of aggression is its elements. The elements are an official ICC document clarifying the culpable mental state that applies to each aspect of the conduct, consequences, and circumstances constituting the crime. They are meant to "assist the Court in the interpretation and application" of the Rome Statute. The first and still the most intrepid scholar to brave the elements was Professor Roger Clark. As a diplomatic representative for Samoa, he played a leading role in the drafting of the elements. Clark later wrote a paper in 2001 about this exercise — he called it anthropology of treaty-making — which also amounted to an elaboration on the work of the Preparatory Commission. His 2008 article, published in the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, examines the way the elements of crimes were employed by the judges in the early jurisprudence of the ICC. In an article published just before the ICC Review Conference, Clark writes about negotiating the elements of the fledgling crime of aggression. This 2009 paper includes a revealing, if brief, discussion of the mens rea of the crime. Two other sources are foundational to this analysis of the mens rea of the crime of aggression. In April 2009, as the work of the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression ("SWGCA") was wrapping up, a small cadre of legal experts and diplomats was invited to an informal retreat in Montreux by the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs to draft the elements of the crime of aggression. Frances Angaddi, Greg French, and James Potter, legal experts and diplomatic representatives from Australia, contributed a chapter to the Crime of Aggression Library about this meeting. SWGCA Chair Christian Wenaweser and his team then based their 2009 Chairman's Non-paper on the Elements of Crimes, the other foundational source, on the work of the Montreux group. With only minor changes, the elements of the crime of aggression conceptualized in Montreux became the official elements adopted alongside the definition and jurisdictional conditions of the crime at the 2010 Review Conference in Kampala. The work of Clark, Anggadi et al., and Chairman Wenaweser are, therefore, the starting points analyzing the elements of the crime of aggression and its defenses.


Optical Music Recognition (OMR) is an important technology within Music Information Retrieval. Deep learning models show promising results on OMR tasks, but symbol-level annotated data sets of sufficient size to train such models are not available and difficult to develop. We present a novel deep learning architecture called a Convolutional Sequence-to-Sequence model to both move towards an end-to-end trainable OMR pipeline, and improve the learning process by training on full sentences of sheet music instead of individually labeled symbols. The model is trained and evaluated on a human generated data set, with various image augmentations based on real-world scenarios. This data set is the first publicly available set in OMR research with sufficient size to train and evaluate deep learning models. With the introduced augmentations a pitch recognition accuracy of 81% and a duration accuracy of 94% is achieved, resulting in a note level accuracy of 80%.


In this paper, we explore mining in Arctic Canada from the perspective of the people on the communities there, in particular the Inuit, the pre-colonial people of the area. To do so, we first provide a brief overview of the history of mining in Canada including recent incursions into Nunavut. Then, we examine the place of aboriginal people including the Inuit in the modern global economy. We focus on their desire to participate in this economy on their own terms, meaning the respect of traditional land rights, and the respect and incorporation of traditional environmental knowledge, culture, values and practices in economic activities. Following this, we examine aboriginal land rights and settlement in Northern Canada. After this is done, we go on to consider the particular case of Baker Lake in Nunavut. Finally, we draw some conclusions from the case that can be generalised to other communities in the Arctic.


Abstract Objective: To evaluate the total number of Epley manoeuvres required to provide symptomatic relief to patients newly diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Methods: This retrospective audit assessed every patient referred to the audiology department for investigations of their symptoms over a period of one year. Only patients diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo confirmed via a positive Dix–Hallpike test result, with no suggestion of dual pathology, were included. Results: Seventy patients with a positive Dix–Hallpike test result were identified. The total number of Epley manoeuvres required ranged from one to five. Thirty-three patients (47 per cent) were asymptomatic following one Epley manoeuvre. Eleven patients (16 per cent) needed 2 manoeuvres and 15 patients (21 per cent) required 3 manoeuvres for symptomatic control. Conclusion: Symptomatic control of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo was obtained following a single Epley manoeuvre for 47 per cent of patients. The majority of patients (84 per cent) experienced symptomatic improvement following three Epley manoeuvres.


Our time with Giuseppina started during the XIV (1985) National Entomology Congress in Palermo, Giuseppina and Tino shared a contribution on Italian Coccoidea Fauna with Salvatore Marotta and Antonio Tranfaglia. Later, the 6th ISSIS in Krakow (1990) was the first Tino's opportunity to join the international community of scale insect students. During the meeting, Giuseppina introduced Tino to other colleagues despite his partial experience in the topic and the difficulties in English (Tino studied mealybugs, mostly). That was the opportunity for Giuseppina and Tino to build a robust and fruitful collaboration on scale insect fauna and zoogeography. While attending the ISSIS-VII in Israel (1994) ARO Volcani Center at Bet Dagan (12-17 June, fig. 1) Francesco met the first time the coccidologists guild. Giuseppina immediately immersed Francesco into the group. At that time, Giuseppina had a firm position as a professor, but she has been suggestingon the topic and situations very friendly, despite the fact that we have just met. That was the start of a human and scientific friendship, still growing. Working together on papers, and visiting each other we were aware of Giuseppina studies on Scale Insects and the other many scientific interests of Giuseppina.


Within the framework of generalized Lorenz–Mie theory, the properties of three-dimensional photonic jets emerging from spheroidal particles illuminated by a focused Gaussian beam are studied. The intensity, focal distance, and transverse and longitudinal dimensions of a photonic jet depending on the ellipticity of the spheroidal particle are numerically investigated. The simulation results show that, by simply varying the ellipticity, it is possible to obtain localized photon fluxes having different power characteristics and spatial dimensions. This can be of interest for several applications, such as high-resolution (nanometer scale) optical sensors, subdiffraction-resolution optical virtual imaging, and ultradirectional optical antennas.


The aim of this study was to assess lipids, lipoprotein (a) profile and HbA1c in Qatari's type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and to correlate the values with various risk factors. This case control study was conducted in Hamad General Hospital, Doha, State of Qatar from May 2004 to November 2005 in 214 cases (with diabetes) and 214 controls (without diabetes) aged 25 to 65 years, males and females and Qatari nationals. Face to face interviews were based on a questionnaire that included variables such as age, sex, family history, physical examination, fasting blood glucose, lipids, Lp (a) HbA1c cholesterol total, HDL, LDL and triglycerides analysis. The age, male gender, BMI , obesity, WHR were higher in diabetics, (p<0.001). The prevalence of hypertension was associated with the presence of diabetes (29% for diabetics vs. 4% for control group , p<0.001). The percentages of patients with Lp (a) above 300 mg/l were significantly different between the two groups (48% vs 23%, p<0.001). Diabetic patients had significantly higher TC (p<0.001); TG (p<0.001), LDL (p<0.001) and Lp (a) (p = 0.0045). In diabetic patients, Lp (a) correlates with total cholesterol (r=0.296; p<0.05), LDL-C (r=0.285; p<0.05), but marginally significant with ApoB (r=0.573, p<0.001), TG (r=0.288; p<0.05), and LDL-C (r=0.584; p<0.001). Similarly, ApoA1 significantly correlated with TC (r= 0.292; p<0.05), LDL-C (r= 0.305; p<0.001) and HDL-C (r=0.565; p<0.001. The present study revealed that obesity, consanguinity, total cholesterol, reduced HDL cholesterol and triglyceride were more prevalent in diabetic patients. Furthermore, this study has reported that diabetes state does not increase plasma Lp (a) concentrations and fail to show any association of Lp (a) levels with glycemic control in type 2 diabetic patients.


Smart card technology has advanced to the point where computerized cards the size of credit cards can hold multiple interacting programs. These multi-applet cards are beginning to be exploited by business and government in security, transport and financial applications. We conduct a thorough analysis of a programmable payment card application: a smart card for making purchases which can be customized to allow or reject purchases based on various policies that are installed by users. We describe a framework for specifying, merging and analyzing modular policies. We present policy automata, a formal model of computations that grant or deny access to a resource. This model combines state machines with a voting system whereby the vote of each state machine is consolidated and resolved into a decision to accept or reject. We use defeasible logic as the primary mechanism for describing and resolving votes. This formal model effectively represents complex policies as combinations of simpler modular policies. We present Polaris, a tool which analyzes policy automata to reveal potential conflicts and compiles automata into an executable form when combined with our on-card policy manager. We show the effectiveness of our model in a case-study where actual University of Pennsylvania purchasing policies are encoded as policy automata. We demonstrate the feasibility of our framework with experiments that show that our implementation can convert formal policy automata to executable Java Card applets whose performance meets the requirements for retail credit card transactions.


The NGOs, government agencies, and medical personnel profess competing perceptions on Sri Lanka's female FTZ workers' reproductive health needs. Varied statistical sources also present and interpret the overall reproductive health outcomes for FTZ workers in differing ways. In this extraordinarily saturated field of power, where different agents and agencies jostle for legitimacy to speak for female global factory workers, the overarching question is where the women workers themselves stand? How do they perceive and respond to discourses and practices within this field? What are their experiences of reproductive health and knowledge and how have their attitudes changed over time? Based on 15 in-depth interviews with workers and a reproductive health survey of 100 workers, this paper seeks to answer these questions. The analyses are also informed by numerous interviews with NGO staff, government officials, health professionals and educators. The continuing cultural restrictions and resultant practices of denial and silences surrounding premarital sex render contraceptive usage an "after thought," leading to workers believing that emergency contraceptives alone allow them agency when managing reproductive choices. While the number of agents and agencies vying to speak for workers' reproductive rights has increased, nothing much has changed for workers at the ground level, making them marginal actors in these discourses and policy-wars. By demonstrating that workers are neither ignorant about reproductive technology nor naive about the difficulties encountered when exercising their reproductive rights, I argue that their choice of morning-after pill and abortions is, in fact, a critique of the actors and agencies who represent and advocate for FTZ workers based on their own particular agendas. The paper further argues that educational programs alone are meaningless without workers being paid a living wage.


For calculation or representation of very large or small numbers, large range is essential. These values can be represented using the IEEE-754 standard based floating point arithmetic representation. The paper presents efficient approach towards designing of high speed floating point unit using reversible logic. Programmable reversible logic design is trending as a prospective logic design style for implementation in recent nanotechnology and quantum computing with low impact on circuit heat generation. There are various reversible implementations of logical and arithmetic units have been proposed in the existing research, but very few reversible floating-point designs has been designed. Floating-point operations are used very frequently in nearly all computing disciplines. The analysis of proposed reversible circuit can be done in terms of quantum cost, garbage outputs, constant inputs, power consumption, speed and area.


The transition to renewables cuts across the entire urban energy landscape, from buildings, to transport, to industry and power. It means integrating energy supply and demand between different sectors, through smart technologies, rigorous planning and holistic decision-making. This report analyses the role cities can play in the transformation of the energy system. While the potential for renewables is high, it varies greatly depending on each city's characteristics. Population density, growth prospects and demand profiles in cold versus hot climates all shape the opportunities to introduce renewables, including the vast growth potential for uses in urban buildings and transport. Accordingly, deployment strategies must be tailored to technology options and enabling policy frameworks for each city. This report presents examples of city experiences, challenges and success stories to highlight viable and carbon effective options for renewable energy deployment. It also underlines the compelling business case for the transition, stressing that the time is ripe for cities to switch to renewable solutions.


Using lens-free holographic microscopy, we demonstrated 3D imaging in optically cleared tissue over a thickness of 0.2 mm. High-throughput sectioning and optical imaging of tissue samples using traditional immunohistochemical techniques can be costly and inaccessible in resource-limited areas. We demonstrate three-dimensional (3D) imaging and phenotyping in optically transparent tissue using lens-free holographic on-chip microscopy as a low-cost, simple, and high-throughput alternative to conventional approaches. The tissue sample is passively cleared using a simplified CLARITY method and stained using 3,3′-diaminobenzidine to target cells of interest, enabling bright-field optical imaging and 3D sectioning of thick samples. The lens-free computational microscope uses pixel super-resolution and multi-height phase recovery algorithms to digitally refocus throughout the cleared tissue and obtain a 3D stack of complex-valued images of the sample, containing both phase and amplitude information. We optimized the tissue-clearing and imaging system by finding the optimal illumination wavelength, tissue thickness, sample preparation parameters, and the number of heights of the lens-free image acquisition and implemented a sparsity-based denoising algorithm to maximize the imaging volume and minimize the amount of the acquired data while also preserving the contrast-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed images. As a proof of concept, we achieved 3D imaging of neurons in a 200-μm-thick cleared mouse brain tissue over a wide field of view of 20.5 mm2. The lens-free microscope also achieved more than an order-of-magnitude reduction in raw data compared to a conventional scanning optical microscope imaging the same sample volume. Being low cost, simple, high-throughput, and data-efficient, we believe that this CLARITY-enabled computational tissue imaging technique could find numerous applications in biomedical diagnosis and research in low-resource settings.


Respiratory auscultation is a fundamental tool in assessing the physiological state of a patient. Second opinions are regularly sought by medical practitioners which allows for a framework of reasoning between different hypotheses in establishing a final diagnosis. Here we assess two such reasoning mechanisms: a novel, structured approach of serially propagating knowledge from a Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) system to a Self Organising Map (SOM); and a more traditional parallel approach of multi-classifier combination using DempsterShafer Theory. We have demonstrated that in the context of breath sound classification the parallel system attained a classification accuracy of 87% (87.25% sensitivity) compared to individual classifiers such as the Multi-Layer Perceptron (72% accuracy, 72.75% sensitivity) and the Radial Basis Function Network (80% accuracy, 80.75% sensitivity). We have further demonstrated the validity of this combined approach with the FCM/SOM method of cluster analysis.


It has been shown that the Central Nervous System (CNS) integrates visual and inertial information in heading estimation for congruent multisensory stimuli and stimuli with small discrepancies. Multisensory information should, however, only be integrated when the cues are redundant. Here, we investigated how the CNS constructs an estimate of heading for combinations of visual and inertial heading stimuli with a wide range of discrepancies. Participants were presented with 2s visual-only and inertial-only motion stimuli, and combinations thereof. Discrepancies between visual and inertial heading ranging between 0-90° were introduced for the combined stimuli. In the unisensory conditions, it was found that visual heading was generally biased towards the fore-aft axis, while inertial heading was biased away from the fore-aft axis. For multisensory stimuli, it was found that five out of nine participants integrated visual and inertial heading information regardless of the size of the discrepancy; for one participant, the data were best described by a model that explicitly performs causal inference. For the remaining three participants the evidence could not readily distinguish between these models. The finding that multisensory information is integrated is in line with earlier findings, but the finding that even large discrepancies are generally disregarded is surprising. Possibly, people are insensitive to discrepancies in visual-inertial heading angle because such discrepancies are only encountered in artificial environments, making a neural mechanism to account for them otiose. An alternative explanation is that detection of a discrepancy may depend on stimulus duration, where sensitivity to detect discrepancies differs between people.


We present timing solutions for 10 pulsars discovered in 350 MHz searches with the Green Bank Telescope. Nine of these were discovered in the Green Bank Northern Celestial Cap survey and one was discovered by students in the Pulsar Search Collaboratory program during an analysis of drift-scan data. Following the discovery and confirmation with the Green Bank Telescope, timing has yielded phase-connected solutions with high-precision measurements of rotational and astrometric parameters. Eight of the pulsars are slow and isolated, including PSR J0930−2301, a pulsar with a nulling fraction lower limit of ∼30% and a nulling timescale of seconds to minutes. This pulsar also shows evidence of mode changing. The remaining two pulsars have undergone recycling, accreting material from binary companions, resulting in higher spin frequencies. PSR J0557−2948 is an isolated, 44 ms pulsar that has been partially recycled and is likely a former member of a binary system that was disrupted by a second supernova. The paucity of such so-called "disrupted binary pulsars" (DRPs) compared to double neutron star (DNS) binaries can be used to test current evolutionary scenarios, especially the kicks imparted on the neutron stars in the second supernova. There is some evidence that DRPs have larger space velocities, which could explain their small numbers. PSR J1806+2819 is a 15 ms pulsar in a 44-day orbit with a low-mass white dwarf companion. We did not detect the companion in archival optical data, indicating that it must be older than 1200 Myr.


A filamentary discharge is ignited in an argon plasma jet under atmospheric pressure conditions. The gas discharge is characterized with voltage-current measurements, optical emission spectroscopy and an ICCD-camera with a high temporal resolution down to 10 ns. In the effluent of the plasma jet, filaments come into contact with the surface of a silicon wafer and modify it, namely etching traces are produced and microcrystals are deposited. These traces are studied with optical and electron microscopes. The material of the deposited microcrystals and the surface modifications of the silicon wafer are analyzed with Raman microspectroscopy. Amorphous silicon is found within the etching traces. The largest part of the deposited microcrystals are composed of nitratine (NaNO3) and some of them are calcite (CaCO3). Analyzing the possible reasons for the silicon wafer modifications we come to the conclusion that plasmoids, which are produced near the substrate surface by interaction with ionization waves, are a plausible explanation for the observed surface modifications of the silicon wafer.


Role-based access control (RBAC) is increasingly attracting attention because it reduces the complexity and cost of security administration by interposing the notion of role in the assignment of permissions to users. In this paper, we present a formal framework relying on an extension of the π-calculus to study the behaviour of concurrent systems in a RBAC scenario. We define a type system ensuring that the specified policy is respected during computations, and a behavioural equivalence to equate systems. We then consider a more sophisticated feature that can be easily integrated in our framework, i.e., the possibility of automatically adding role activations and deactivations to processes to be run under a given policy (whenever possible). Finally, we show how the framework can be easily extended to express significant extensions of the core RBAC model, such as roles hierarchies or constraints determining the acceptability of the system components.


Digital wireless microphone systems have been developed to enhance speech intelligibility for hearing aid users. The voice of the speaker of interest is picked-up close to the mouth by a body-worn microphone, and rendered in a diotic way (same signal at the two ears) in both hearing aids. This means that binaural spatial cues are missing, whereas they are known to be useful for speech perception, speaker localization and sense of immersion. Some spatial information could be included in the microphone signal if the location of the talker relative to the listener would be known. This paper reports an algorithm that performs the real-time localization and tracking of the speaker's position, taking into account the technical constraints related to hearing aids. It has been assessed with speech signals in a conventional classroom, and has reached convincing performance.


This paper introduces a method for extracting the Cole-impedance model parameters using a meta-heuristic optimization technique. The method is based on a single proposed resistor controlled oscillator (SRCO) where the unknown bio-impedance is embedded. At two different oscillation frequencies, the start-up oscillation condition is recorded. Then the corresponding nonlinear equations are solved using the flower pollination optimization (FPA) technique to find the optimum impedance parameters that minimize an objective error function. Experimental results are provided, and comparisons with model parameters extracted using standard Impedance Spectroscopy are shown.


The nature of the self has intrigued philosophers, theologians, and scientists since inquiry began. After extensive investigations we are still trying to answer such questions as "What is the self?" and "How does the self develop?" Understanding the nature of self is fundamental to mental health work. This is especially so when clients/patients present with problems of identity and/or disordered states of personality. In recent years, neuroscience has shed new light on the development and functioning of the self. Our increasing knowledge of human memory systems, in particular, has advanced our understanding of how important reflective function is in the development of a sense of self. This paper draws on interpersonal psychodynamic theories, developmental theory, and a neuropsychological understanding of human memory systems to better understand the self. It is argued that the loss of episodic memory capacity due to traumatic psychosocial events is a primary cause of damage to the self system. An explanation of how episodic memory and the capacity for personal reflectivity can restore an integrated sense of self is offered.


The photooxidation of water using faceted Ag3PO4 was investigated, guided by theoretical modelling. Firstly, theoretical calculations were performed to predict the optimum morphology for solar energy conversion by probing the surface energies of three primary low index facets of Ag3PO4: {100}, {110} and {111}. It was elucidated that the {111} facet possessed considerably higher surface energy (1.65 J m−2) than either {110} or {100} (0.78 and 0.67 J m−2 respectively). We therefore attempted to fabricate Ag3PO4 crystals with {111} facets. Tetrahedral Ag3PO4 crystals, composed of {111} facets, were then successfully synthesised using a novel kinetic control method in the absence of surfactants. In comparison to rhombic dodecahedron {110} and cubic {100} structures, tetrahedral crystals show an extremely high activity for water photooxidation, with an initial oxygen evolution rate exceeding 6 mmol h−1 g−1, 10 times higher than either {110} or {100} facets. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge it is the first time that the internal quantum yield for water photooxidation is almost unity at 400 nm, and greater than 80% from 365 to 500 nm, achieved by {111} terminated tetrahedrons. The excellent and reproducible performance is attributed to a synergistic effect between high surface energy and a small hole mass, leading to high charge carrier mobility and active surface reaction sites.


The fourth Generation (4G) wireless networks are designed to accommodate the fast growth in mobile data traffic. The high data rate and all IP design opened the door for the introduction of new services. These services are putting more pressure on the network performance and resources. Voice calls, the basic service in wireless networks, are supported by a new overlay network, the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Another service that is expected to undergo fast growth is Machine to Machine (M2M) communication over wireless networks. This dissertation addresses the challenges of supporting a large number of M2M terminals in the 4G wireless networks and the challenges of load balancing in the IMS control plane. The 4G wireless networks are designed for User Equipment (UE) used in Human to Human (H2H) communication. This poses some deployment issues for M2M communication over the 4G wireless networks. The existing numbering scheme, for example, is not suitable for identifying the large number of M2M devices. The dissertation discusses the addressing of M2M terminals in the 4G wireless networks and proposes a solution to double the address space to support up to 1015 new globally unique identities for M2M terminals. Management of the subscription of M2M devices is one of the major challenges to M2M operators. The existing semi-manual process can be very labor-intensive, and thus costly, for large number of M2M devices such as utility meters. This dissertation addresses the challenges of M2M terminals subscription management and proposes an over the air scheme to remotely manage M2M subscription. The proposal supports initial subscription activation and subscription change to a new network operator. The large number of M2M devices can easily degrade the human users Quality of Experience (QoE) without careful scheduling of the radio resources. This dissertation proposes an M2M-aware LTE scheduler that preserves the human users' QoE and provides fair scheduling of M2M terminals. The two main entities in the IMS signaling plane are the Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) and Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF). Both entities are assigned to end users at registration for the duration of their connection to the IMS network. The assignment of end users to the two nodes does not take the node's current load into consideration as a selection criterion. This can lead to driving some of the nodes into overload while other similar nodes are still under-utilized. A cooperative framework is proposed for load balancing in the IMS network signaling plane to evenly distribute the users between available nodes.


Introduction High-fidelity simulation is frequently utilized in medical education. Its use in the neurosciences is limited by the inherent limitations of the manikin to simulate neurological changes. We report here the use of a hybrid simulation – a combination of lecture and high-fidelity manikin – in the education of neurosciences nurses, involved in care of neurocritical care patients. Methods Neurosciences nurses from at the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA, which is an academic, tertiary-care medical center participated in the simulation during Spring of 2016. The simulation involved a patient presenting with acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) who neurologically deteriorated to brain death. Pre- and post-simulation questionnaires were administered using a questionnaire with five-point Liker scale. Results Seventy-two responses were returned. The majority had 0–5 years of nursing experience with 83.8% having prior critical care experience. Pre-simulation, the majority of nurses (85.7%) agreed or strongly agreed with managing patients with ICH. When the responses of "agree" were compared to "strongly agree", a significant improvement (p<0.001) in all responses except confidence in speaking with other healthcare providers was found. Conclusion Nurses reported significant improvement in understanding and managing patients with acute ICH and neurological deterioration after participating in a neurocritical care hybrid simulation. This study shows the benefit of using hybrid simulation in the education of neurocritical care nurses.


On April 25, 1963, the ASCE Metropolitan Section held a seminar on 'Who Pays for the Unexpected in Construction?' at the United Engineering Center in New York City. The topics were: What is the Unexpected in Construction? How Should the Engineer Cope with the Unexpected in Construction? Should the Owner Pay for the Unexpected in Construction? Unexpected in Subsurface Construction, and Legal Aspects of the Unexpected in Construction. On March 7, 1989 at the ASCE Construction Congress I in San Francisco, 'Who Pays for the Unexpected?' was presented once again. The topics in the 1989 seminar were: Guidelines and Philosophy for a Successful Resolution, An Engineer's Viewpoint, A Contractor's Viewpoint, An Owner's Viewpoint, and An Attorney's Viewpoint.


1. Angiotensin II (ANG II) increases hepatic RNA synthesis. Because the hormone apparently can be found in the cytoplasm of at least some target cells and because intracellular receptors have been demonstrated for this hormone, we investigated the direct effect of angiotensin II on isolated nuclei. 2. Nuclei were purified from rat liver and then treated for 2 h at 37°C with various concentrations of angiotensin II. Chromatin was then isolated and initiation-site number was estimated by utilizing exogenous Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. 3. Statistically significant increases in initiation-site number were noted in nuclei treated with angiotensin II suggesting that at least part of the hormone9s stimulatory effect on RNA synthesis results by this mechanism. Furthermore, these observations suggest a direct nuclear effect of this peptide hormone.


When, a little time back on a mining excursion in the district of St. Austle, my avocation for the first time called me to visit a stream-work in that neighbourhood, I was so struck with what I saw, that I employed a second day from morning to evening in a most scrupulous examination of one of the works, from a wish of communicating my observations to the Geological Society. The works that I visited are called the upper and lower Pentowan Stream Works, and are situated on the river which flows from Hensbarrow Hill by St. Austle, and enters the sea about three miles and a half south of that town, and at about the same distance north of Chappel Point, after a course of somewhat more than eight miles. I calculate the elevation of Hensbarrow Hill at 900 or 1000 feet above the sea; from thence to St. Austle the descent of the ground being very rapid the river is precipitated over many considerable rocks, and during the rainy season may be considered as a succession of cascades. In the dry season there is but little water, but after sudden rains the rise is both rapid and dangerous. Small rounded pebbles are found all the way in this part of its bed. From St. Austle to the sea the descent of the land is very gentle, and the hills running north and south on each side of the river seem to direct its course. In some places these approach


This study reports on a possible very low frequency/low frequency (VLF/LF) subionospheric precursor to a recent earthquake in Japan. As the epicenter of this large Japanese earthquake on March 11, 2011, was located just on the great-circle path from one of our VLF/LF network stations (Chofu) to the NLK US transmitter, we examined the propagation characteristics mainly associated with the signals from the NLK transmitter, as observed at three of the stations in Japan (Chofu, Kasugai and Kochi). On March 5 and 6, 2011, a remarkable anomaly was found on the path from NLK to Chofu, which is highly likely to have been a precursor to this earthquake. The anomaly in the night-time average amplitude at Chofu was characterized by a serious decrease in the signal that exceeded −4v (v: standard deviations). The anomaly was found on the same days on the other propagation paths (from NLK to both Kasugai and Kochi), although it was less enhanced. Finally, this propagation anomaly is extensively discussed with respect to the geomagnetic activity, and we also compare this anomaly with the properties related to the former 2004 Sumatra earthquake that had nearly the same magnitude as this March 11, 2011, earthquake.


A historical glance at African patterns of migration exposes the drawbacks of humanitarian intervention. Since the American army and the United Nations left Somalia in 1995, most Westerners and humanitarian organizations have also decamped, overwhelmed by kidnapings and the racketeering of warlords. During 10 years of chaos, Mogadishu has become a field of ruins, a lunar landscape in which combatants and displaced people wander aimlessly. Deserted by the international community, the country has no more embassies, no government, no recognized authority. A single French nongovernmental organization remained in the country until recently. Permanently guarded by armed militia, this NGO's expatriate employees could barely leave their bunker to carry on their mission. The modus operandi of this group is typical of the way most NGOs operate in a context of war, and that has a significant effect on how a humanitarian crisis is perceived, followed, and evaluated by decision makers. Numbers Game Since the fall of the Somalian dictatorship and the pillage of the city in 1991, this NGO regularly sent its fundraisers reports on the number of persons displaced by the conflict, who live in the ruins of the capital on sites reported as so many "camps." Year after year, a rapid tally seems to indicate an almost constant rise in the number of these camps and their occupants. These reports, however, are misleading. In fact, unable to move around freely without armed escorts, humanitarian personnel have no clear picture of the entire city at any one time. Because of the insecurity and difficulty of living conditions, the rare foreigner stays in Mogadishu barely more than six months. Of course, the deployment of 30,000 American soldiers under the aegis of UNOSOM, the United Nations Operation in Somalia, did allow a more precise idea of the situation between 1992 and 1994. But our French NGO alone can't keep track of all the camps. So it continues to add, to the number of sites that close, the number of sites that open. What's more, certain camps may be counted more than once. The Somali language, which borrows many elements from the Arabic, was transcribed into the Roman alphabet in 1972. The word Ali, for example, is spelled Cali; and Hashi, Xashi. So the same camp may be found more than once in an alphabetical listing, depending on whether the inventory's author chooses a Somali or English spelling. In addition, because of the high rate of turnover of on-site personnel, camp names change constantly. The name may change depending on the whim of the spokesperson of the day, or whether the name is given in Somali, Arabic, English, or Italian. Thus, displaced persons who are squatters in the industrial zone of Mogadishu have seen their sites inventoried under the English name for factory as well its Somali equivalent warshadaha. In other words, no hard data can confirm that the number of displaced persons in Mogadishu has risen since the United Nations left in 1995. Quite the contrary, there is evidence the numbers stabilized. [1] In all war and emergency situations, the problem is the same, whether it's a question of evaluating needs, counting the dead, or estimating refugees. For the most part, to sensitize public opinion and obtain financing from their funders, humanitarian aid groups tend to exaggerate the extent of a crisis. Local authorities, for their part, at first try to minimize the drama to mask their responsibility in the matter. Then they solicit international aid for their own gain through embezzlement. In either case, very complex political considerations blur the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of humanitarian crises. Crisis Inflation In the Western world, the conflicts of the Third World have given rise to a very specific type of discourse that developed along with the rise of the "without borders" NGOs during the 1980s and later, at the end of the Cold War, with the establishment of partisan groups that claim a humanitarian right to interfere in the internal affairs of Third World countries. …


Nowadays, mobile devices, such as smartphones, have been widely used all over the world. In addition, the performance of image recognition has drastically increased with deep learning technologies. From these backgrounds, some photo-based information services provided in a client–server architecture are getting popular: client users take a photo of a certain spot and send it to a server, while the server identifies the spot with an image recognizer and returns its related information to the users. However, this kind of client–server image recognition can cause a privacy issue because image recognition results are sometimes privacy-sensitive. To tackle the privacy issue, in this paper, we propose a framework of privacy-preserving image recognition called EnfPire, in which the server cannot uniquely determine the recognition result but client users can do so. An overview of EnfPire is as follows. First, client users extract a visual feature from their taken photo and transform it so that the server cannot uniquely determine the recognition result. Then, the users send the transformed feature to the server that returns a set of candidates of the recognition result to the users. Finally, the users compare the candidates to the original visual feature for obtaining the final result. Our experimental results demonstrate that EnfPire successfully degrades the server's spot-recognition accuracy from 99.8% to 41.4% while keeping 86.9% of the spot-recognition accuracy on the user side.


This article deals with the macro-economics of the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System (TARGET2). It is shown that TARGET2 contrib-utes to a misallocation of real resources. The discussion high-lights that there are no tendencies for rebalancing TARGET2 claims and liabilities, but rather a dynamic towards infinite and prolonged TARGET2 imbalances in the form of hysteresis.


Since the start of the financial crisis, various forms of securitization have been criticized for causing the problems experienced. The amount of Asset Backed Commercial Paper outstanding fell drastically in the middle of 2007 drawing our attention to this market. Our study focuses on the use of receivables securitization by non-financial firms, and we investigate who uses these programs, why they do so, and whether it adds any economic value. We carefully collect data from the 10-K filings of 242 users of securitization across the fiscal years 2006 and 2007, and combining it with accounting information from COMPUSTAT form powerful comparisons between users and non-users of receivables securitization We find that securitization appears to be most commonly utilized by those who are larger in size, have enough receivables to support a program, and who are restricted from accessing traditional credit markets due to high credit risk.. We find that the use of receivables securitization does add economic value through its ability, as a form of secured financing, to help firms overcome the agency problems caused by 'debt overhang'. It indicates that although financial firms were hurt by their use of ABCP programs, securitization can be useful to particular types of firms.


During the period 1987–94, 11 bottom trawl surveys covering depths from 34 to 1 497 m were conducted at West Greenland. Two grenadier species not previously recorded for the area, Nezumia bairdi and Gadomus longifils, were caught bringing the number of species recorded in West Greenland waters to ten. A significant amount of new information on grenadier species previously recorded was also collected during the surveys. Geographic distribution in relation to depth and temperature, abundance of the most common species, Coryphaenoides rupestris, Coryphaenoides güentheri and Macrourus berglax and length distributions of all species encountered were analyzed. Growth of C. rupestris and M. berglax, food of C. rupestris, M. berglax (in relation to time of the year and predator length), C. güentheri and Coryphaenoides brevibarbis, length/weight relationships for C. rupestris, C. güentheri and M. berglax are also presented. Further, relationships between total length and pre-anal fin length for Trachyrhynchus murrayi and all species mentioned above, except G. longifilis, and maturation of C. rupestris and C. güentheri are given. The available information about three grenadier species not observed during the surveys but previously recorded from the area, i.e. Nezumia aequalis, Coryphaenoides armatus and Coryphaenoides carapinus, is summarized.


This article aims to identify the factors associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) using data from the latest available nationwide survey in Nicaragua. A secondary analysis of the 2011–2012 Nicaraguan Demography and Health Survey (ENDESA 2011–2012) was conducted. A total of 12,605 women aged 15–49 years who had reported being married or united were included. IPV (yes/no) was defined as the outcome variable, and it was considered if a woman suffered verbal, psychological, physical, or sexual violence during the previous 12 months. Crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% CI were calculated using a bivariate and multivariate logistic regression model. A p value <.05 was considered statistically significant and did not correct p values for multiple testing. The overall prevalence of IPV was 17.5%. Women living in urban setting (AOR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.26–1.80), women who self-identify as native (AOR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.34–1.61) or women who have a history of abuse as a child (AOR: 1.96, 95% CI: 1.69–2.27) were more likely to suffer IPV compared to their counterparts. Age was found to be a protective factor for IPV. Variables such as educational level and wealth index, do not report any association with IPV. Our findings shows that IPV in Nicaragua continues to be a frequent event. The results provide evidence of drivers for IPV at a national level. These findings are useful for the design of intervention policies and strategies for the prevention of IPV.


PURPOSE
The Salisbury Eye Evaluation (SEE) project investigates the impact of vision on functional status in a population-based sample of elderly persons. The prevalence of self-reports of functional status and the association with visual acuity loss are described.

METHODS
A random sample of men and women 65 to 84 years of age from Salisbury, Maryland were recruited for home interviews and clinic examinations. Of the eligible sample, 78% responded to the home questionnaire and 65% responded to the questionnaire and the clinic examination. Binocular visual acuity of each person was measured using ETDRS charts and protocols. Questions were asked concerning activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, physical function, social interaction, and activities of daily vision. Analyses of the association of presenting visual acuity worse than 20/40 with the measures of function were carried out and adjusted for age, race, and sex.

RESULTS
All measures of functional status showed a decline with age; women and blacks were more likely to report difficulties. The age-adjusted proportions of those with visual impairment were not significantly different between men and women (7.2% versus 6.7%; P = 0.60). Black persons had almost twice the rate (10.4%) of white persons (5.6%; P < 0.001). Age, race, gender, and visual impairment were all significantly related to declines in functional status in multivariate models.

CONCLUSIONS
Data on functional status in the project population were similar to national data and confirmed higher rates of disability in women and blacks. Binocular visual acuity worse than 20/40 appeared to have an impact on all the self-report measures of functional status. Further analyses on the interaction of vision with other comorbid conditions on function status clearly are indicated.


Dynamic systems have found their use in sound synthesis as well as score synthesis. These levels can be integrated in monolithic autonomous systems in a novel approach to algorithmic composition that shares certain aesthetic motivations with some work with autonomous music systems, such as the search for emergence. We discuss various strategies for achieving variation on multiple time-scales by using slow-fast, hybrid dynamic systems, and statistical feedback. The ideas are illustrated with a case study.


In this paper, we study information-theoretic limits for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) systems employing a practical nonlinear radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting (EH) receiver. In particular, we consider a three-node system with one transmitter that broadcasts a common signal to separated information decoding (ID) and EH receivers. Owing to the nonlinearity of the EH receiver circuit, the efficiency of wireless power transfer depends significantly on the waveform of the transmitted signal. In this paper, we aim to answer the following fundamental question: What is the optimal input distribution of the transmit waveform that maximizes the rate of the ID receiver for a given required harvested power at the EH receiver? In particular, we study the capacity of a SWIPT system impaired by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) under average-power (AP) and peak-power (PP) constraints at the transmitter and an EH constraint at the EH receiver. Using Hermite polynomial bases, we prove that the optimal capacityachieving input distribution that maximizes the rate-energy region is unique and discrete with a finite number of mass points. Our numerical results show that the rate-energy region is enlarged for a larger PP constraint and that the rate loss of the considered SWIPT system compared to the AWGN channel without EH receiver is reduced by increasing the AP budget.


When a government announces that an existing law will be amended and that the amendment, when finally enacted by the legislature, will be made effective from the announcement date, it is natural and inevitable that private entities will conduct their activities on the basis of the amended law immediately upon the announcement date, notwithstanding the announcement's lack of any formal legal effect. This practice of effecting immediate de facto legal changes is known derisively, but perhaps aptly, as "legislation by press release." This Article utilizes the recent use of legislation by press release to implement the Buyer's Stamp Duty in Hong Kong as a case study to critically examine the legality and normative considerations of this increasingly common but under-theorized practice. Legally, this Article argues that the prospective notice provided by the initial announcement ensures the practice's legality in all but an explicit prohibition of retrospective civil legislation. Normatively, this Article highlights the various criteria of clarity, consistency, necessity and political dynamic that affect the desirability of the practice. On a broader note, the formal retrospectivity inherent in the practice - but which does not disrupt the reliance interests of private entities - provides a useful reexamination of the conventional aversion towards retrospective laws.


As the title suggests, this article is an analysis of the selective waiver doctrine, which allows a party to disclose materials protected by the attorney-client and work product privileges to the government during investigations without waiving the privilege as to third-party litigants. Specifically, the article analyzes the development of the selective waiver doctrine and why recent polices adopted by governmental agencies, specifically the Department of Justice and SEC, have made this doctrine a forefront of conversation amongst litigators, legislators and academics. But is a blanket adoption of the selective waiver doctrine wise? Courts have taken a variety of approaches to the selective waiver doctrine. The doctrine was first introduced in 1978 by the Eighth Circuit in Diversified Industries, Inc. v. Meredith as a means of encouraging corporations to conduct internal investigations. Since Meredith, circuit courts have largely rejected the doctrine as inconsistent with the bedrock principle of confidentiality inherent in the attorney-client privilege. However, in 1999, the DOJ adopted a policy, articulated in what has become known as the Holder Memo, that set out factors a prosecutor should consider in whether to charge a corporation with a crime. This policy was rearticulated in 2003 through the Thompson Memo and the SEC has adopted a similar policy. One of the considerations involves whether a corporation has cooperated and has evolved into a policy which essentially requires corporations to waive the attorney-client and work-product protections to be deemed as cooperating. This has created what many have dubbed a culture of waiver in corporate America. Obviously, this has serious implications on the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege as well as practical concerns as, once the privilege has been waived, it is waived to all future parties including third-party litigants. In reaction to the waiver implications, some commentators and judges have found that selective waiver is a sound solution. This article chronicles the negative impacts a culture of waiver has, and in turn evaluates the adequacy of selective waiver in light of these policy concerns. Ultimately, the article concludes that selective waiver is a poor solution and that a change in the underlying governmental policies is a more desirable solution.


Measurement of the temporal (spectral) phase and amplitude of a 50 fs laser pulse approaching and exceeding the critical power for self-focusing (P(crit)) in air reveals the formation of an isolated 17 fs pulse at 3P(crit). The dynamics of self-shortening are measured directly in the filament using transient-grating cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating with a noble gas serving as the nonlinear medium. Our results support recent filamentary propagation simulations, suggesting that a Kerr-dominated temporal reshaping process toward the end of the filament is largely responsible for the generation of short pulses.


Sparse models are desirable for many applications across diverse domains as they can perform automatic variable selection, aid interpretability, and provide regularization. When fitting sparse models in a Bayesian framework, however, analytically obtaining a posterior distribution over the parameters of interest is intractable for all but the simplest cases. As a result practitioners must rely on either sampling algorithms such as Markov chain Monte Carlo or variational methods to obtain an approximate posterior. Mean field variational inference is a particularly simple and popular framework that is often amenable to analytically deriving closed-form parameter updates. When all distributions in the model are members of exponential families and are conditionally conjugate, optimization schemes can often be derived by hand. Yet, I show that using standard mean field variational inference can fail to produce sensible results for models with sparsity-inducing priors, such as the spike-and-slab. Fortunately, such pathological behavior can be remedied as I show that mixtures of exponential family distributions with non-overlapping support form an exponential family. In particular, any mixture of a diffuse exponential family and a point mass at zero to model sparsity forms an exponential family. Furthermore, specific choices of these distributions maintain conditional conjugacy. I use two applications to motivate these results: one from statistical genetics that has connections to generalized least squares with a spike-and-slab prior on the regression coefficients; and sparse probabilistic principal component analysis. The theoretical results presented here are broadly applicable beyond these two examples.