Many clients have disabled children who receive Social Security supplemental security income benefits SSI). Parents of disabled children receiving benefits face an almost insurmountable dilemma when doing financial and estate planning for the child. To the extent these parents finance the disabled child's economic needs during their life and after their death, they risk the loss of public assistance to the child. For most parents, the thought of disinheriting a child as a means of preserving SSI benefits is intolerable. Conversely, outright distribution of the parent's estate to the child may result in the loss of these benefits. In an everchanging world with unknown future economic conditions, parents want to structure an estate plan that will not jeopardize the disabled child's access to SSI and other available public benefits. THE SOLUTION: A SPECIAL NEEDS TRUST A planning device called a special needs trust (SNT) has been developed over the past few years to deal with government agency restrictions. The SNT is based on Social Security Administration (SSA) guidelines that permit payment for certain social, medical, educational, transportation and other services without negatively affecting SSI benefits or eligibility status. The SNT is not based on legislation and should not be regarded as an absolutely certain way to protect a disabled child's assets and access to public assistance. It is, however, preferable to the alternatives. To be effective, the SNT must be carefully structured as an emergency backup fund that supplements, but does not supplant, SSI provisions for the beneficiary's needs in such areas as food, clothing and shelter. While the SNT can and should be structured to consider the complexities of Medicaid qualifications and disqualifications, the focus of this article is SSA guidelines, the essential elements of an SNT designed to conform to those guidelines and legislative proposals which, if enacted, would further sanction and bring additional certainty to special needs trust planning. SSA GUIDELINES: THE PROGRAM OPERATION MANUAL SSA guidelines are found in the Program Operational Manual (POM) used by SSA eligibility workers to determine whether the principal of a trust is includable as a resource for a claimant of SSI benefits. Conformity of an SNT to POM guidelines is vital to successful financial and estate planning for a disabled person. Nevertheless, the SSA has kept these guidelines a veritable secret from SSI recipients. It's critical, therefore, that SNT planners know both the SSI codified restrictions and POM guidelines used to determine whether trust principal is an includable resource. SSI RESTIUCTIONS To illustrate these restrictions, an SSI recipient is not permitted to own cash or other resources in excess of $2,000 in value. A resource (such as a trust) is considered to be "owned" by the beneficiary and thus "an includable resource" if it is available to be used for food, clothing and shelter; these are the needs SSI satisfies. There are other restrictions as well. For example, SSI recipients cannot have more than $20 per month of unearned income. Income above this amount will result in a reduction in SSI benefits on a dollar-for-dollar basis and could mean the ultimate loss of the entire public benefit. Many clients believe they can simply make distributions of assets to third parties to avoid this restriction. Of course, if public assistance agencies are not aware of funds received by a disabled recipient, no loss of benefits can occur. Not only is this a violation of the law with a potential liability, but there is the very real risk that a significant private family subsidy will be discovered. Loss of public assistance would be the unfortunate result. Public assistance agencies are strongly inclined to deny public assistance or attach assets of a beneficiary that might be used to provide benefits already being provided by public assistance. …


The post-operative radiological features in a case of circumferential prolapse of gastric mucosa into the duodenum are here descriptionbed for the first time, as far as we are aware. During 2 examinations, carried out 18 months after the operation, the bulb never exhibited the umbrella-like appearance seen pre-operatively; in the majority of views the bulb appeared quite normal, in some there was a small filling defect on the greater curvature side of the base. This indicates that a certain degree of prolapse is still present, but that the volume of prolapsing mucosa has been greatly reduced. The filling defect only appeared during contraction of the 'canalis egestorius' or, in other words, during antral systole. The symptoms have not recurred.


Abstract Coalition governance divides policy-making influence across multiple parties, making it challenging for voters to accurately attribute responsibility for outcomes. We argue that many voters overcome this challenge by inferring parties' policy-making influence using a simple heuristic model that integrates a number of readily available and cheaply obtained informational cues about parties (e.g., their roles in government and legislative seat shares)—while ignoring other cues that, while predictive of real-world influence, are not suitable for heuristic inference (e.g., median party status and bargaining power). Using original data from seven surveys in five countries, we show that voters' attributions of parties' policy-making influence are consistent with our proposed inferential strategy. Our findings suggest that while voters certainly have blind spots that cause them to misattribute policy responsibility in some situations, their attributions are generally sensible and consistent with the academic research on multiparty policy making.


The U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site was established in southeastern Washington to produce plutonium during World War II. The Pantex Plant in the Texas Panhandle was originally used for loading conventional ammunition shells and bombs, but was rehabilitated and enhanced in the 1950s to assemble nuclear weapons. Environmental monitoring has been ongoing at both locations for several decades. Monitoring objectives are to detect and assess potential impacts of facility operations on air, surface and ground waters, foodstuffs, fish, wildlife, soils, and vegetation. Measured concentrations of airborne radionuclides around the perimeters of both sites are currently below applicable guidelines. Concentrations of radionuclides and nonradiological water quality in the Columbia River at Hanford, and radiological and nonradiological water quality in the Ogallala Aquifer beneath the Pantex Plant are in compliance with applicable standards. Foodstuffs irrigated with river water downstream from the Hanford Site show levels of radionuclides that are similar to those found in foodstuffs from control areas. The low levels of 1 3 7 Cs and 9 0 Sr in some onsite Hanford wildlife samples and concentrations of radionuclides in soils and vegetation from onsite and offsite at both locations are typical of those attributable to naturally occurring radioactivity and to worldwide fallout. The calculated dose potentially received by a maximally exposed individual (i.e., based on hypothetical, worst-case assumptions for all routes of exposure) at both sites in 1994 was ≤0.05 mrem. Ironically, by virtue of its size (1,450 km 2 [560 mi 2 ]), restricted public access, and conservative use of undeveloped land, the Hanford Site has provided a sanctuary for plant and animal populations that have been eliminated from, or greatly reduced on, surrounding agricultural and range lands. Ongoing studies will determine if this is also true at Pantex Plant.


Abstract Objective: To examine the extent to which vacationing behavior is associated with metabolic outcomes. Specifically, we consider how total vacation episodes and total vacation days from the past 12 months relate to metabolic syndrome and metabolic symptoms. Design: Sixty-three workers eligible for paid vacation attended a lab visit during which their blood was drawn and they completed an interview assessing vacationing behavior in the past 12 months. Main outcome measures: Metabolic syndrome and metabolic symptoms are the main outcome measures. Results: Over the past 12 months, participants took approximately five vacations (M = 5.44, SD = 3.16) and used about 2 weeks of their paid vacation days (M = 13.80, SD = 7.25). Participants rated vacations positively, expressing low levels of travel-, childcare- and financial burden-related stress. As vacation episodes increased, metabolic syndrome incidence (OR = 0.76, p = 0.051) and number of metabolic symptoms met (IRR = 0.92, p = 0.035) decreased. Notably, risk for metabolic syndrome decreased by nearly a quarter with each additional vacation taken by participants. Conclusions: Overall, vacations are experienced as positive events. This positive subjective experience may translate into physical health benefits given that vacation frequency may protect against metabolic syndrome and symptoms.


The Flatland competition aimed at finding novel approaches to solve the vehicle re-scheduling problem (VRSP). The VRSP is concerned with scheduling trips in traffic networks and the re-scheduling of vehicles when disruptions occur, for example the breakdown of a vehicle. While solving the VRSP in various settings has been an active area in operations research (OR) for decades, the ever-growing complexity of modern railway networks makes dynamic real-time scheduling of traffic virtually impossible. Recently, multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) has successfully tackled challenging tasks where many agents need to be coordinated, such as multiplayer video games. However, the coordination of hundreds of agents in a real-life setting like a railway network remains challenging and the Flatland environment used for the competition models these real-world properties in a simplified manner. Submissions had to bring as many trains (agents) to their target stations in as little time as possible. While the best submissions were in the OR category, participants found many promising MARL approaches. Using both centralized and decentralized learning based approaches, top submissions used graph representations of the environment to construct tree-based observations. Further, different coordination mechanisms were implemented, such as communication and prioritization between agents. This paper presents the competition setup, four outstanding solutions to the competition, and a cross-comparison between them.


Semantic taxonomies such as WordNet provide a rich source of knowledge for natural language processing applications, but are expensive to build, maintain, and extend. Motivated by the problem of automatically constructing and extending such taxonomies, in this paper we present a new algorithm for automatically learning hypernym (is-a) relations from text. Our method generalizes earlier work that had relied on using small numbers of hand-crafted regular expression patterns to identify hypernym pairs. Using "dependency path" features extracted from parse trees, we introduce a general-purpose formalization and generalization of these patterns. Given a training set of text containing known hypernym pairs, our algorithm automatically extracts useful dependency paths and applies them to new corpora to identify novel pairs. On our evaluation task (determining whether two nouns in a news article participate in a hypernym relationship), our automatically extracted database of hypernyms attains both higher precision and higher recall than WordNet.


Blocking synchronisation idioms, e.g. mutexes and barriers, play an important role in concurrent programming. However, systems with semi-fair schedulers, e.g. graphics processing units (GPUs), are becoming increasingly common. Such schedulers provide varying degrees of fairness, guaranteeing enough to allow some, but not all, blocking idioms. While a number of applications that use blocking idioms do run on today's GPUs, reasoning about liveness properties of such applications is difficult as documentation is scarce and scattered. In this work, we aim to clarify fairness properties of semi-fair schedulers. To do this, we define a general temporal logic formula, based on weak fairness, parameterised by a predicate that enables fairness per-thread at certain points of an execution. We then define fairness properties for three GPU schedulers: HSA, OpenCL, and occupancy-bound execution. We examine existing GPU applications and show that none of the above schedulers are strong enough to provide the fairness properties required by these applications. It hence appears that existing GPU scheduler descriptions do not entirely capture the fairness properties that are provided on current GPUs. Thus, we present two new schedulers that aim to support existing GPU applications. We analyse the behaviour of common blocking idioms under each scheduler and show that one of our new schedulers allows a more natural implementation of a GPU protocol. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Software and its engineering → Semantics, Software and its engineering → Scheduling, Computing methodologies → Graphics processors


There is limited information about the distribution of strawberry viruses in North America and around the world. Since the turn of the century, there has been a concerted effort to develop sensitive tests for many of the previously uncharacterized, graft-transmissible agents infecting strawberry. These tests were employed to determine the presence of strawberry viruses in major strawberry production and nursery areas of North America. The viruses evaluated in this study were Apple mosaic, Beet pseudo-yellows, Fragaria chiloensis latent, Strawberry chlorotic fleck, Strawberry crinkle, Strawberry latent ring spot, Strawberry mild yellow edge, Strawberry mottle, Strawberry necrotic shock, Strawberry pallidosis, Strawberry vein banding, and Tobacco streak. The aphid-borne viruses were predominant in the Pacific Northwest whereas the whitefly-borne viruses were prevalent in California, the Midwest, and the Southeast. In the Northeast, the aphid-transmitted Strawberry mottle and Strawberry mild yellow edge viruses along with the whitefly-transmitted viruses were most common. The incidence of pollen-borne viruses was low in most areas, with Strawberry necrotic shock being the most prevalent virus of this group. These results indicate that there are hotspots for individual virus groups that normally coincide with the presence of the vectors. The information presented highlights the high-risk viruses for nursery production, where efforts are made to control all viruses, and fruit production, where efforts are made to control virus diseases.


In 2000, Duke University put into place a new curriculum that requires all undergraduates to take a seminar in "Academic Writing" in their first year and two "writing in the disciplines" courses afterwards. This new emphasis on writing as a mode of learning and inquiry was spearheaded by the dean oi Trinity College, Robert Thompson, who made professionalizing the first-year writing course one of his priorities. Under his leadership, Duke decided to invest in a new postdoctoral faculty to teach an ambitiously reimagined first-year writing course. "Academic Writing" is now the only course taken by every undergraduate at Duke. There are no prerequisites and no exemptions. More than 80 percent of the sections of this course are now taught by a faculty of twenty-five postdoctoral fellows in the University Writing Program. This multidisciplinary writing program is housed in the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Wiiting (CTLW), which also sponsors various programs supporting the work of undergraduate teachers at Duke-including workshops and consulting on teaching, a tutorial writing studio, training in teaching and technology, a Preparing Future Faculty program, a series of teaching breakfasts and lunches, and speakers and symposia on the scholarship of teaching. Our efforts to remake the first-year writing course are thus tightly connected to college-wide attempts to rethink the intellectual work of undergraduate teaching. "Writing in the disciplines" (WlD) courses are designed and staffed by faculty and graduate teaching assistants in the various departments throughout Duke. Students in WID courses are expected to write regularly throughout the semester, to discuss the work they are doing as writers in class, to revise their work in response to comments from their teachers and peers, and to leam about the roles and uses of writing in the ReId they are studying. To have a course designated as writing intensive, faculty must show how they will teach towards these four guidelines. The CTLW offers both workshops and one-on-one consulting for teachers of WID courses. In the last four years, more than 200 WID courses have been developed and taught across a wide range of departments, many several times and in multiple sections. Not all of these courses center on teaching the critical essay; rather, since their aim is to introduce students to the actual forms of writing practiced in the various disciplines, many instructors instead ask students to compose policy memos, field and lab reports, grant proposals, conference posters, Web sites, software programs, or proofs. In describing how these two new writing initiatives at Duke build on and diverge irom each other, we thus might say that while our first-year course draws on the materials of the disciplines to highlight issues in academic writing, WID courses make use of writing to investigate issues in the disciplines. Interdisciplinarity Since one of the aims of "Academic Writing" is to prepare students to approach writing in a wide range of disciplinary contexts, it seemed counterproductive to imagine a faculty for that first-year course composed only of scholars trained in English or composition. And so the first-year writing faculty at Duke is now truly multiclisciplinary. In the last several years we have recruited young scholars with PhDs in African-American studies, anthropology, architecture, biology, cultural studies, economics, education, engineering, English, epidemiology, genetics, history, linguistics, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, rhetoric, sociology, and women's studies to teach "Academic Writing." The Utopian goal of interdisciplinarity is thus an everyday, lived reality in the First-Year Writing Program. What gives our work its sense of coherence is not a set of specialized topics or controversies, as is the case in most departments, but a collective teaching project. We all teach the same course, if in very different ways, and that is what we talk about when we come together as a group; it is what centers our intellectual work. …


The transition metal ion copper(II) has a critical role in chronic neurologic diseases. The amyloid precursor protein (APP) of Alzheimer's disease or a synthetic peptide representing its copper-binding site reduced bound copper(II) to copper(I). This copper ion-mediated redox reaction led to disulfide bond formation in APP, which indicated that free sulfhydryl groups of APP were involved. Neither superoxide nor hydrogen peroxide had an effect on the kinetics of copper(II) reduction. The reduction of copper(II) to copper(I) by APP involves an electron-transfer reaction and could enhance the production of hydroxyl radicals, which could then attack nearby sites. Thus, copper-mediated toxicity may contribute to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease.


State frameworks for welfare and social security have been subject to processes of privatization, decentralization, and neoliberal reform in many parts of the world. This article explores how these developments might be theorized using anthropological understandings of social security in combination with feminist perspectives on care. In its application to post-1989 socioeconomic transformation in the former socialist region, this perspective overcomes the conceptual inadequacies of the "state withdrawal" model. It also illuminates the nuanced ways in which public and private (as spaces, subjectivities, institutions, moralities, and practices) re-emerge and change in the socialist era as well as today, continually shaping the trajectories and outcomes of reforms to care and social security.


The loss of reflectance from the oven dry state to field capacity for 15 surface soils from Central Indiana, representative of the Mollisol and Alfisol great soil groups, is definitely related to the oven dry reflectances of the soils. A regression analysis of the relationship of the darkening effect of wetting on the reflectance of the soils when dry results in regression curves with R2 values ranging from .9914 to .9291 over the five wavelength bands used, .52-.58 ~m, .71 ~m, .76 • 90 ~m, .90-1. 22 ~m and 1. 50-1. 73 ~m. Furthermore, striking evidence of the predictability of soil moisture tensions from reflectance data was noted when the regression curves at .71 ~m were run for the reflectance values of the 15 soils at 15 bar and 1/3 bar against their reflectances when oven dry. When the reflectances at 15 bar were plotted against those of the same samples when oven dry an R2 of 0.95 was found. The equation for predicting the reflectances at 15 bar from the reflectance values when oven dry was found to be: 15 bar 1.685 + 1.067 oven dry Similarly, when data for reflectances of the 15 soils at 1/3 bar were plotted against the oven dry reflectances, an R2 of .96 was computed and the formula for estimating reflectances of the samples at 1/3 bar on the basis of their oven dry reflectance was: 1/3 bar 0.709 + 0.487 oven dry This evidence strongly supports the thesis that moisture tensions of soils can be predicted from reflectance measurements. LARS TECHNICAL REPORT


Varicella zoster virus (VZV) causes chicken pox on first exposure (usually in children), and reactivates from latency causing shingles (usually in adults). Shingles can be extremely painful, causing nerve damage, organ damage, and blindness in some cases. The virus can be life-threatening in immune-compromised individuals. The virus is very difficult to culture for diagnosis, requiring a week or longer. This invention is a rapid test for VZV from a saliva sample and can be performed in a doctor s office. The kit is small, compact, and lightweight. Detec tion is sensitive, specific, and noninvasive (no needles); only a saliva sample is required. The test provides results in minutes. The entire test is performed in a closed system, with no exposure to infectious materials. The components are made mostly of inexpensive plastic injection molded parts, many of which can be purchased off the shelf and merely assembled. All biological waste is contained for fast, efficient disposal. This innovation was made possible because of discovery of a NASA scientists flight experiment showing the presence of VZV in saliva during high stress periods and disease. This finding enables clinicians to quickly screen patients for VZV and treat the ones that show positive results with antiviral medicines. This promotes a rapid recovery, easing of pain and symptoms, and reduces chances of complications from zoster. Screening of high-risk patients could be incorporated as part of a regular physical exam. These patients include the elderly, pregnant women, and immune-compromised individuals. In these patients, VZV can be a life-threatening disease. In both high- and low-risk patients, early detection and treatment with antiviral drugs can dramatically decrease or even eliminate the clinical manifestation of disease.


Background & Objectives : Job satisfaction is affected by several factors including personality characteristics and job stress. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between personality traits, job satisfaction, and stress-related. Methods : This analytical study was performed among the telecommunications industry workers. 254 persons were randomly selected as the population of the study. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and job satisfaction and stress questionnaires were applied to gather the required data. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Results : There was an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and job stress. The results of job stress questionnaires showed that 176, 37, and 8 employees were under high, moderate, and low stress, respectively. Overall job satisfaction scores were 14.25 + 10.95. The relationship between job stress and scale E showed a significant positive correlation between two variables so that as the level of introspection increases, people will feel more job stress. The two scale N and L have meaningful relationship with job satisfaction so that the more stable the character, the higher the job satisfaction. Conclusion : It can be concluded that in order for promoting the job satisfaction and reducing the job stress, self-confidence enhancing skills should be trained to the employees.


Extraordinary changes in patterns of family life – and family law – have dramatically altered the boundaries of parenthood and opened up numerous questions about debates. What is parenthood and why does it matter? How should society define, regulate, and support it? Despite this uncertainty, the intense focus on the definition and future of marriage diverts attention from parenthood. Demographic reports suggesting a shift away from marriage and toward alternative family forms also keep marriage in constant public view, obscuring the fact that disagreements about marriage are often grounded in deeper, conflicting convictions about parenthood. This book (as the posted Introduction explains) brings together a stellar interdisciplinary group of scholars with widely varying perspectives to consider parenthood. Law is the disciplinary center of the conversation, but the volume also includes scholars from anthropology, education, globalization and immigration studies, medicine, psychology, religious ethics, and sociology. As an organizing device, the book proposes two contrasting models of parenthood: the integrative model and the diversity model. The questions addressed by contributors include: (1) are the integrative and diversity models a fruitful way to make sense of contemporary debates about parenthood?; what are the bases for these models?; (2) is parenthood separable from marriage (or couplehood) when it comes to fostering child well-being and what light does anthropological study shed on this question?; (3) how should the rights of adults and children shape the law of parenthood?; (4) does one model produce, on average, better outcomes for children?; (5) how much does biology matter to secure parent-child attachment and how can attachment research inform the parenthood debate?; (6) are there gender differences in parenting and, if so, how should they inform public policy?; how should family law's commitment to gender equality shape the law of parentage?; (7) how do family immigration and transnational parenting shape parenthood and how should these experiences inform law and policy?; and (8) given current indicators about family life, in what direction should law and policy about parenthood move? The Introduction posted with this abstract explains the book's aims, provides an overview of the two models, and previews the questions taken up in the volume and the approaches taken by contributors in answering them. (NYU holds the copyright to this book and this material -- the table of contents, acknowledgments, and Introduction -- are being posted with their permission.)


We perform structural characterisation of direct laser write (DLW) waveguides. Quantitative phase microscopy, based on solution of the transfer of intensity equation, is used to measure the cumulative refractive index change through a waveguide perpendicular to its axis. Results are compared with interferometry, cross-sectional measurements using third harmonic microscopy, and analysis of the near-field image of the mode propagating in the waveguide. We show that in many situations, notably in the presence of depth dependent spherical aberrations, the cross-section for DLW waveguides may not be assumed symmetric about the waveguide axis. This is particularly important when fabricating at depths greater than 2 mm in fused silica. Therefore additional measurements are required to fully characterise the refractive index profile.


This thesis seeks to address to what extent the Conservative Party has re-ignited its interest in the broad sphere of social policy since 1997, which some political commentators believe the party neglected following the demise of the 'years of consensus' from the mid-1970s onwards. Having experienced one of its worst ever general election defeats in 1997, the Conservative Party spent an unfamiliar thirteen years in opposition, providing an original context to this study. During its sustained exile from national office until 2010, the party reviewed the perception of its primarily economic policy agenda, and it has subsequently revised its position on various social issues from the late 1990s onwards.

Following the introduction, the first four chapters provide a broad theoretical framework to the overall academic study that identifies the key ideas, theories and ideological traditions that have shaped and influenced Conservative Party policy-making since the emergence of mass democracy in the early 20th century. Links are subsequently made with key policies and attitudes that have been associated with the Conservatives while in office throughout the 20th century. The three further chapters are more policy-orientated and seek to link such ideas and ideological influences with practical policy-making while in power, with specific contemporary areas of social policy highlighted as case studies. Chapters five to seven subsequently highlight some notable social policy initiatives that the post-2010 Conservative-led government has developed in opposition and pursued in power, The Big Society, The Free Schools programme and the reform of the NHS, and they are framed within the context of David Cameron's depiction of the 'broken society'. Each chapter offers a rigorous concluding judgment relating to just how much 'change' the modern Conservative Party appears to have initiated within this particular policy sphere.

In chronological terms, the thesis addresses the social policy-making agendas of recent governments in order to make comparative analysis. The administrations led by Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, dating consecutively from 1979, alongside the David Cameron-led coalition from 2010, are therefore the key periods of modern government focused upon. However, as the thesis title suggests, specific attention is given to the evolution of Conservative Party social policy development from 1997 onwards.

Having made the link between ideas, ideology and theory to practical contemporary policy developments over seven rigorously constructed chapters, an attempt to reach a measured judgment is then provided. The central question of the thesis and the initial issues raised within the introductory chapter are again focused on, and the extent to which the Conservative Party has changed within this particular policy area is explicitly addressed throughout the concluding section, as well as the various social, political and electoral dimensions that emerge in the process of constructing such a conclusion.


Ecohydrological footprints are defined as the response of ecosystem functions or services to changes in their hydrologic drivers. In this thesis, several diverse footprints are addressed: noise-driven effects on storage-discharge relations and catchment streamflow distributions, that are important drivers of biodiversity; soil salinization and its ecohydrological implications; topological effects of the ecological interaction networks on living communities (e.g. on their species persistence); and form and function of the global virtual water trade network. The coherence of the conceptual framework is provided by the study of drivers and controls of ecohydrological variability using methodological approaches based on statistical mechanics. In fact, this thesis work outlines a significant portion of environmental statistical mechanics, an overarching discipline that is emerging in recent years, which applies mathematical tools from statistical mechanics to model several ecohydrological processes. The proposed relevance of this thesis lies in the major effects of hydrologic drivers on ecological process. The view that emerges from current research in ecohydrology, that this thesis supports, is that there exists a definite need for an integrated understanding of ecological and hydrological processes. Because stochasticity is intrinsic to environmental and ecohydrological variability, noise plays an important and constructive role in ecohydrological processes. In this thesis, a stochastic approach is applied to analyze different ecohydrological processes, ranging from green and blue water flows in river basins (part I), ecosystem dynamics affected by the directional dispersal provided by river networks (part II) to water footprints of human society (part III). Methods range from novel exact solutions to stochastic differential equations to random graph theory applications, and imply the analysis of suitable field data. An analytical framework for quantitative analysis is laid out to tackle complex problems and to estimate the effects of environmental change on the interaction of the hydrologic processes with the biota. The main results of this thesis are: i) the achievement of exact solutions for the probability distribution of catchment streamflow, that takes in account stochastic fluctuations in the storage-discharge relation and for the condition of a noise induced phenomena to the streamflows regimes; ii) the stationary solutions of soil salinity under stochastic hydrologic forcing; iii) a novel solution of the Ito−Stratonovich problem in multiplicative Poisson processes; iv) the proper framework for species' persistence time distributions, as a function of topological constraints on the ecosystem, and its connection with other important macroeco-


Vertebral augmentation (VA) is a minimally invasive, imaging-guided procedure with deep roots in the NeuroInterventional community. In the USA, this procedure has been performed primarily for painful osteoporotic compression fractures. Despite studies supporting its efficacy in malignant spinal fractures, it remains underutilized for this population of patients.1 One of the ironies of this development is the often forgotten fact that the first patient treated at the University of Virginia had metastatic breast cancer.

Because of the fear of tumor displacement during treatment and potential compressive neurological compromise, our early experience was characterized by: (1) advocating external beam radiation therapy in advance of treatment; (2) quoting to the patient a 'relatively high' 5%–10% procedural complication rate; (3) performing adjunctive procedures such as concurrent myelography to ensure no change in spinal canal patency during balloon inflation (for kyphoplasty) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)deposition (for kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty).

While such concerns are well intentioned, they lead to a reluctance on the part of practitioners to extend this therapy to cancer patients in need. The accompanying article may ameliorate some of these concerns and provides a substrate for cautious enthusiasm. Our retrospective 5-year cohort suggests that cancer patients with vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) can achieve meaningful pain control from VA with an acceptably low risk of complication. We recognize the limitation of this type of retrospective analysis and look forward to the publication of the Cancer Patient Fracture …


Ichnology of Upper Cretaceous deep-sea thick-bedded flysch sandstones: Lower Istebna Beds, Silesian Unit (Outer Carpathians, southern Poland) The Ophiomorpha rudis ichnosubfacies of the Nereites ichnofacies was recognized in thick- and very thick-bedded sandstones of the Lower Istebna Beds (Campanian-Maastrichtian), which were deposited mainly in deep-sea clastic ramps and aprons. It contains mainly Ophiomorpha rudis (produced by deeply burrowing decapod crustaceans) and rarely Zoophycos isp. and Chondrites isp. The impoverished Paleodictyon ichnosubfacies of the Nereites ichnofacies is present in the medium- and thin-bedded packages of flysch sandwiched between the thick- and very thick-bedded sandstones. They contain Chondrites isp., Phycosiphon incertum, Planolites isp., Arthrophycus strictus, Thalassinoides isp., Ophiomorpha annulata, O. rudis, Scolicia strozzii and Helminthorhaphe flexuosa. The relatively low diversity of this assemblage is influenced by limited areas covered by muddy substrate, which favours deep-sea tracemakers, and partly by a lowered oxygenation in the sediment.


A fully three-dimensional linear stability analysis is carried out to investigate the unstable bifurcations of a compressible viscous fluid past a sphere. A time-stepper technique is used to compute both equilibrium states and leading eigenmodes. In agreement with previous studies, the numerical results reveal a regular bifurcation under the action of a steady mode and a supercritical Hopf bifurcation that causes the onset of unsteadiness but also illustrate the limitations of previous linear approaches, based on parallel and axisymmetric base flow assumptions, or weakly nonlinear theories. The evolution of the unstable bifurcations is investigated up to low-supersonic speeds. For increasing Mach numbers, the thresholds move towards higher Reynolds numbers. The unsteady fluctuations are weakened and an axisymmetrization of the base flow occurs. For a sufficiently high Reynolds number, the regular bifurcation disappears and the flow directly passes from an unsteady planar-symmetric solution to a stationary axisymmetric stable one when the Mach number is increased. A stability map is drawn by tracking the bifurcation boundaries for different Reynolds and Mach numbers. When supersonic conditions are reached, the flow becomes globally stable and switches to a noise-amplifier system. A continuous Gaussian white noise forcing is applied in front of the shock to examine the convective nature of the flow. A Fourier analysis and a dynamic mode decomposition show a modal response that recalls that of the incompressible unsteady cases. Although transition in the wake does not occur for the chosen Reynolds number and forcing amplitude, this suggests a link between subsonic and supersonic dynamics.


This book explores the depths of adobe and enables the reader to build their own home intelligently and realistically. With an emphasis on adobe construction, McHenry discusses the planning of every aspect of one's home from the financing to the foundation, the floors to the fireplaces. The prospective builder must be prepared for a long period of frustration, doubt, worry, and plain hard work, but the helpful ideas found on the pages of this book will encourage readers to build despite the challenges. McHenry describes this process as a tremendous puzzle, for which one must create and arrange all the pieces, and then live with the result. McHenry begins with a brief history of adobe and then moves on to the planning of the home, emphasizing the influence of individual ideas. The intention of this book is to help bridge the gap between architects, builders, craftsmen, and the unskilled but determined individual who wants to build their own home. This book outlines the technical aspects of adobe construction with several pictures and figures to simplify production. The creation of a home, from the earliest design concepts to successful completion, is one of the most rewarding experiences one can ever have. McHenry's Adobe offers a realistic and straightforward guide to "doing it yourself." His advice regarding adobe is useful for professionals and amateurs alike.


This study details the Medically Assisted Procreation regulations in thirty-five nation-states, and explores the influence of national identity, social cultural and demographic differences on these regulations. Detailed data were gathered from ministries of health, offices of prime ministers, embassy staff, and others on regulations for each nation. These data were used to categorize the nations in regard to MAP legislation status and regulatory policy regarding marital or age restrictions; posthumous conception; sperm, ovum, or embryo donation, surrogacy; and policy on handling donors. Possible associations between national identity, social cultural, and demographic data for each nation and their regulations were explained. The thirty-five nations were treated as a population with common geographical and political ties. PRE methods, and eta coefficients were used to assess the associations. Sixteen nations have adopted MAP legislation, eight nations have either alternative regulatory guidelines or partial structures, four nations have legislation pending and possibly some laws, and seven nations are unregulated. Based upon statistical analysis, language group emerges as an important indicator for differences in MAP regulations. For example knowing a nation's language group enabled percent improved prediction of that nation's regulatory handling of embryo donation. The percent GDP spent on health care was found to have a substantial or moderate association with most regulations. The findings of this study indicate that the cultural roots associated with national identity as well as economic circumstances such as health care budgets impact the policy making process responsible for the regulation of MAP in Europe. Among other mediating circumstances, MAP related family law cases brought to the European Court of Human Rights create an accumulation of judge-made law, which help create a common European standard. This study of the European region provides a baseline for further research and a reference for cross cultural comparisons.


A conflict exists between the incentives offered to students and the institutional goal of increased science and math education. Students make their course choices in response to a powerful set of incentives: grades. These incentives have been systematically distorted by the grade inflation of the past 25 years. As a consequence of inflation, many universities have split into high- and low-grading departments. Economics, along with Chemistry and Math, tends to be low-grading. Art, English, Philosophy, Psychology, and Political Science tend to be high-grading. This paper presents evidence from nine colleges and universities that grade inflation has led to a divergence among departments in grading policies. We then discuss the results of an econometric study we conducted at Williams College of the influence of grading policies on course choice. The impact that differences in grading policies across departments have on the distribution of enrollments was also estimated, and policy implications of the findings are discussed.


Melon fly is one of the serious pest worldwide infesting cucurbitaceous fruits inducing considerable damage resulting insufficient growth and economical loss. It is known that the susceptibility and resistance against melon fly infestation among cucurbittae fruits varies considerably. Henceforth, present study attempts to understand the cellular antioxidants potential and Phenyl Proponoid Pathway (PPP) enzyme expression among different cucurbittae fruits during infestation to compare susceptibility and resistance. This experiment conduct was healthy and melon fly infected cucurbittae fruits (Snake guard, bitter guard and bottle gourd) were selected and analyzed for phytoconstituents. In vitro antioxidant potential and expression of antioxidant enzymes and larvicidal activity in healthy and infected were compared. The PPP pathway enzyme level and expressions were also compared in healthy and infected fruit samples. Melon fly infestation considerably increases the contents of phenolic and flavanoids components in cucurbittae fruits compared to their healthy counterparts. Antioxidant enzymes expression found high in infected tissue samples as compared to healthy and apparent healthy. These observations indicate melon fly infestation induces cellular oxidative damage which was defended by increased antioxidant potential in infected fruits. The PPP pathway enzymes ((Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase (PAL) and Tyrosine Ammonia-Lyase (TAL), Cinnamyl Alcohol Dehydrogenase (CAD)), were also seen increased in expression by infected tissues which define the increased lignin synthesis at infestation site to provide resistance. Present comparative observations conclude bottle guard is more resistant whereas snake guard and bitter guard are susceptible for melon fly infestation. The resistance provided is linked with increased antioxidant potential and PPP pathway enzyme expression involved in lignin synthesis which oppose cellular damage and melon fly development and infection. Importance role of latex lectin is defense mechanism against insect, pathogens. There larvae activity of latex lectin has been importance documentation used as naturally occurs larvae with pest.


In 2013, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) initiated a project to bring concentrated academic and policy attention to the US refugee protection system, broadly understood to encompass refugees, asylum seekers and refugeelike populations in need of protection. The initiative gave rise to a series of papers published in 2014 and 2015, which CMS is releasing as a special collection in its Journal on Migration and Human Security on the 35th anniversary of the Refugee Act of 1980. This introductory essay situates the papers in the collection within a broader discussion of state compliance with international law, impediments to protection, US protection programs, vulnerable populations, and due process concerns. The essay sets forth extensive policy recommendations to strengthen the system drawn from the papers, legislative proposals, and other sources.


Abstract This paper looks at brokerage functions in a project on building innovation capacity through improved networking. Innovation capacity influences how actors respond to changes in their environments. In such dynamic environments well connected sets of actors are at an advantage in that they can combine skills to address the emerging opportunities and challenges. However, policy and cultural barriers especially in African innovation systems raise the transaction costs of networking leading to weak connectivity among actors thus poor innovation capacity. This paper uses case studies from West Africa to illustrate that actors that play brokerage functions are critical in navigating around or dismantling the barriers and thus enhance innovation capacity. This paper assumes that innovation capacity rather than innovations per se is lacking in African agriculture. The paper is a product of an action research based study of Key Partner Organizations and the coalitions of stakeholders they formed around fodder innovation themes in Nigeria. We show that brokerage negotiates innovation barriers and improve networking. The paper concludes that brokerage roles are context-specific; policies that facilitate eclectic brokerage functions are critical. This paper is shedding light on the broadened scope for actors playing boundary roles, e.g. extension organizations under more relaxed organizational and policy contexts. There are few studies on brokerage and boundary work particularly in African agriculture. This study is a grounded discussion on the brokering functions in African rural development. It uses data from similar programmes to qualify observations and conclusions from the Fodder Innovation Project (FIP) case study.


Background Technology can play an important role in supporting mental health. Many studies have explored the effectiveness, acceptability, or context of use of different types of mental health technologies. However, existing research has tended to investigate single types of technology at a time rather than exploring a wider ecosystem that people may use. This narrow focus can limit our understanding of how we could best design mental health technologies. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate which technologies (smartphone apps, discussion forums and social media, and websites and Web-based programs) people use to support their mental health and why, whether they combine and use more than one technology, what purpose each technology serves, and which features people find the most valuable. Methods We conducted an online survey to gather responses from members of the public who use technology to support their mental health and well-being. The survey was advertised on social media and via posters at a university. It explored usage patterns, frequently used features, and engagement with technology. To gain deeper insights into users' preferences, we also thematically analyzed open-ended comments about each technology type and suggestions for improvements provided by the respondents. Results In total, 81 eligible participants completed the survey. Smartphone apps were the most commonly used technology, with 78% of the participants (63/81) using them, either alone (40%) or in combination with other technologies (38%). Each type of technology was used for specific purposes: apps provided guided activities, relaxation, and enabled tracking; social media and discussion forums allowed participants to learn from the experiences of others and use that knowledge to understand their own situation; and Web-based programs and websites helped to find out how to deal on a day-to-day basis with stress and anxiety. The analysis of open-ended responses showed that although many people valued technology and felt it could support targeted activities, it was not seen as a substitute for traditional face-to-face therapy. Participants wanted technology to be more sophisticated and nuanced, supporting personalized and actionable recommendations. There was evidence that participants mistrusted technology, irrespective of the type, and had broader concerns regarding the impact of overuse of technology. Conclusions People use different types of technology to support their mental health. Each can serve a specific purpose. Although apps are the most widely used technology, mixing and matching different types of technology is also common. Technology should not be seen as a replacement for traditional psychotherapy, rather it offers new opportunities to support mental health as part of an overall ecosystem. People want technology to be more nuanced and personalized to help them plan informed actions. Future interventions should explore the use of multiple technologies and their combined effects on mental health support.


CONTEXT
Apparent cortisone reductase deficiency (ACRD) is a rarely ascertained condition characterized by signs of androgen excess in women or children and decreased urinary excretion of cortisol metabolites compared with cortisone metabolites. These findings suggest a deficiency of 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11-HSD1; encoded by the HSD11B1 gene), which normally converts cortisone to cortisol. Common polymorphisms in both HSD11B1 and the hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PD) gene encoding hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase have been found together in ACRD patients, who carry three of a possible four minor alleles at the two loci.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to confirm the postulated digenic inheritance mechanism for ACRD.

DESIGN
This was a population-based association study (Dallas Heart Study). Subjects were genotyped for the 1971T>G polymorphism in intron 3 of HSD11B1 and the R453Q polymorphism in H6PD.

SUBJECTS
The study comprised 3551 individuals in a population-based sample (50% black, 35% white, and 15% Hispanic).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
The main outcome measure was association between genotypes and risk for polycystic ovarian syndrome.

RESULTS
Both polymorphisms occurred more frequently than previously reported. Thus, ACRD genotypes (at least three of four minor alleles) occurred in 7.0% of subjects. There were no associations between genotype and body mass index; waist/hip ratio; visceral adiposity; measures of insulin sensitivity; levels of testosterone, FSH, or LH (in females); or risk of polycystic ovarian syndrome. There was no genotype effect on urinary free cortisol/cortisone or corticosteroid metabolite ratios, which were measured in 10 subjects, each carrying zero, three, or four minor alleles.

CONCLUSIONS
Previously reported associations of ACRD with HSD11B1 and H6PD alleles represent ascertainment bias. However, rare severe mutations in these genes cannot be ruled out.


This new edition focuses on the Sonnets as poetry - sometimes strikingly individual poems, but often subtly interlinked in thematic, imagistic and other groupings. Gwynne Evans and Anthony Hecht also address the many questions that cast a veil of mystery over the genesis of the Sonnets: to what extent are they autobiographical? What is the nature of the 'love', strongly expressed, between the 'poet', the 'youth' and the 'Dark Lady'? Can they, apart from the poet, be identified? Who is the 'rival poet'? When were the Sonnets written and in what order? What were the circumstances surrounding their publication?


Cystic echinococcosis is characterized by the presence of slow growing hydatid cysts, usually in the liver or lungs. Survival of the parasite is based on an interaction of the host immune system and a range of parasite immune-evasive strategies. Fibrosis in the tissues surrounding the cysts can be seen as a host protective response isolating the parasite and restricting its growth or from another perspective fibrosis may be protective for the parasite by providing a barrier to more effective immunological responses. In this study the adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cell line (A549) was used as model system. This cell line can be involved in fibrosis as cells can transform into mesenchymal cells and differentiate later to fibroblasts and/or myofibroblasts which can ultimately secrete collagen. Cells were initially cultured in vitro in RPMI-1640 medium containing 1-10% hydatid cyst fluid (HCF). The possible effect of the parasite extracts on cell migration was investigated using a wound healing assay. The ability of HCF components to modify cell surface markers of mesenchymal transition was also investigated by fluorescence microscopy. Results showed that there was a dose-dependent increase in cell growth in the presence of cyst fluid after 5 days of culture. The migratory response of cells was also enhanced by the presence of HCF. Both the enhanced growth and migratory activity were still evident when the HCF had been boiled indicating that the components responsible were thermostable. Semi-purified extracts of a major HCF component, antigen B showed a similar high stimulatory effect similar to that of HCF. The fluorescence microscopy showed a significant expression in the fibronectin and E-cadherin cell markers in cells treated with HCF. These results indicate that components within HCF have a stimulatory effect in the possible enhancement of fibrosis.


Comparison of electrical conductivity and optical absorption spectrum of undoped PANI(polyaniline) and PANI doped with cobalt chloride, ferric chloride, copper chloride, hydrochloric acid is made. Absorption line shape is best fitted with Gaussian oscillators with different resonance frequencies, damping factors and relative oscillator strengths. copper chloride doped PANI is promising material for electronic application.


The general public's interests in the Olympics are the ceremonies, traditions and athletic competitions, not the cultural, economic, social, or, especially, political aspects of the Games. (1) Whenever the Games are threatened by political protests or demonstrations, boycotts or terrorism, commentators typically criticize the unwarranted intrusion of politics. Despite Jacque Rogge's assertion that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not a political organization, politics and protests have always been part of the modern Games. (2) Historically, the Olympics have experienced three kinds of political protests: 1) protests within the Olympic Movement--IOC expulsions and national boycotts; 2) protests within the Games, notably by athletes; and 3) protests held in conjunction with the Olympics. Notwithstanding widespread criticism of Beijing 2008 because of China's position on human rights, Tibet, Darfur and Myanmar, an improved international political climate and the liberalized domestic policies of most nations have decreased the likelihood of disruptive protests within the Olympic Movement, and given the increasingly high-stakes of athletic competition and greater organizational controls over athletes, protests within the Games seem a remote possibility. (3) However, the growth of the Olympics into a worldwide commercialized, televised entertainment spectacle ensures that the Games and the Olympic Movement will engender ever-more criticism and protest. Thus the third kind of political protest, demonstrations held concurrently with the Games is now a primary agenda issue for local organizing committees. The Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics is an instructive case study of how a host city and Olympic organizing committee dealt with the difficult and inherently contradictory effort to balance free speech with public security and efficient Games operations. (4) There are three interrelated concerns: 1) the measures adopted to control both peaceful demonstrations and potential disorders; 2) the community wide debate about the control measures, the propriety of Olympic protests, the nature and protection of free speech, and the obligation to protect the Games and spectators from unwarranted and potentially harmful intrusions; and 3) the agenda and conduct of protest groups. Even before Salt Lake City was chosen on June 15, 1995, to host the 2002 Games, Olympic organizers and city officials began preparations for the safety of athletes and the security of competition venues with an eye toward protest demonstrations. (5) The concern initially seemed exaggerated since the Winter Games, unlike the Summer Olympiads, had not been notable targets of protest. Accordingly, security for the Winter Olympics always had been considerably less extensive than for the Summer Games, especially after the terrorist attack during the 1972 Munich Olympics. (6) Moreover, as Mike Moran, spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee noted, demonstrations during the past three Olympics held in the United States--Lake Placid 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Atlanta 1996--were "minimal and caused no disruption whatsoever." (7) However, several circumstances made the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee (SLOC) and city officials especially concerned about possible disturbances. The worldwide media exposure accorded the first Winter Games held in America since 1980 itself presented an especially attractive venue for groups to present their views on a variety of domestic and international issues. Moreover, the dominant role of the U. S. in international affairs made Salt Lake a ready target for large, potentially violent demonstrations concerning globalization issues. Planners were mindful of the tumultuous World Trade Organization riots in Seattle in November 1999 that resulted in 1,300 arrests and millions of dollars in property damage, of the numerous protests threatened but not realized for the Sydney 2000 Summer Games, and of the nationwide demonstrations in August 2001 held in solidarity with the protests at the Group of Eight Summit in Genoa, Italy. …


On February 10-12, 2011, CAIDA hosted the third Workshop on Active Internet Measurements (AIMS-3) as part of our series of Internet Statistics and Metrics Analysis (ISMA) workshops. As with the previous two AIMS workshops, the goals were to further our understanding of the potential and limitations of active measurement research and infrastructure in the wide-area Internet, and to promote cooperative solutions and coordinated strategies to address future data needs of the network and security research communities. For three years, the workshop has fostered interdisciplinary conversation among researchers, operators, and government, focused on analysis of goals, means, and emerging issues in active Internet measurement projects. The first workshop emphasized discussion of existing hardware and software platforms for macroscopic measurement and mapping of Internet properties, in particular those related to cybersecurity. The second workshop included more performance evaluation and data-sharing approaches. This year we expanded the workshop agenda to include active measurement topics of more recent interest: broadband performance; gauging IPv6 deployment; and measurement activities in international research networks.


At 5.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was trapped - stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road. At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead - viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck. And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow . . . For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise . . .


Basel II bank capital regulations are designed to be substantially more risk sensitive than the current regulations. In the United States, only the largest banks would be required to adopt Basel II; other depositories could choose to adopt such standards or to remain under the Basel I capital standards. We consider possible effects of this two-pronged or "bifurcated" approach on the market for residential mortgages. Specifically, we analyze whether those institutions that adopt Basel II will enjoy lower costs than nonadopters and whether they have an incentive to retain mortgages in their own portfolios. We find that (1) despite the large differences in regulatory capital requirements between adopters and nonadopters, it is unlikely that there will be any measurable effect of Basel II implementation on most mortgage rates and, consequently, any direct impact on the competition between adopters and nonadopters for originating or holding residential mortgages; (2) the most significant competitive impact may be felt among mortgage securitizers; and (3) adopters might have increased profits from some mortgages relative to nonadopters because they will capture some of the deadweight losses that occur under the current regulatory regime, but nonadopters would likely retain their market shares.


Aim: Rasna Saptak Kwatha is an Ayurvedic formulation used orally to relieve inflammation and pain in arthritis. It has seven ingredients, namely, Pluchea lanceolata, Tribulus terrestris, Tinospora cordifolia, Boerhavia diffusa, Ricinus communis, Cedrus deodara, and Cassia fistula. The Zingiber officinale is used as additives at the time of administration. Materials and Methods: All these herbs were mixed together and making decoction and hydroalcoholic extraction of Rasna Saptak Kwatha churna. After that permeability of drug was checked as a membrane. Result and Discussion: The in vitro experiment results showed that the drug is permeating through the skin. In the carrageenan edema model, hydroalcoholic extract showed better inhibition in comparison to aqueous extract. Conclusion: It can be concluded from the study that extracts could be served or can be modified for topical or transdermal drug delivery system.


Anthropometry can be used in certain circumstances to facilitate comparison of a photograph of a suspect with the potential offender portrayed in video surveillance crime footage. Anthropometry does not have the same success rate in identification as DNA or fingerprinting. However, these types of evidence are not always left at crime scenes. Sometimes the only evidence available relating to an offence is from surveillance videos and research was needed to lend credence to anthropometry as a viable method of identification. An alternative method of detecting individuals from surveillance video, morphology, was also investigated to determine its accuracy in confirming the identity of individuals based on facial descriptions and for use as a comparison tool in forensic identification.
Pilot Laboratory Study: A number of different techniques are employed in facial image comparison of living persons. In this study, the effect of rotation on angles and proportions between selected facial landmarks is evaluated as a first step to assess whether facial anthropometry could be usefully applied to facial image comparison. The faces of five volunteers were photographed in the Frankfort plane at different angles of rotation from 0o (frontal) to 90o (side view), rotating every 10o both clockwise and counter-clockwise. Four landmarks were used: right and left ectocanthions, nasion, and stomion. The proportions of the measurements between these landmarks were calculated as well as the angles created by the lines connecting the same landmarks. The results show a consistent and predictable variation between the five subjects. With rotation, the greatest variation is seen where horizontal landmark connecting lines are combined with the ectocanthion/stomion or nasion/stomion lines. There is less variation in the proportions for vertical and diagonally orientated landmark connecting lines. In principle, the data from these empirical measurements could also be used to develop a photogrammetric model of the face which, if calibrated, could be used to correct anthropometric measurements for distortions caused by a camera angle which differs from the one specified in a protocol for facial comparison. The purpose of developing such a model would lie in its use to calculate correction factors to convert observed proportions and angles back to the full-face orientation values, which could then, for example, be used to search a database of the proportions.

Investigation of Uncertainty of Anthropometric Measurements: The objective of this study was to estimate the uncertainty in the measurements of the chosen facial proportions caused by landmark placement and by operators taking photographs, including the uncertainty contributions resulting from different people performing these tasks. The aim of this was to simulate effects found in the real world, as there would be different operators both placing landmarks and taking suspect photographs in various police departments. In addition, this study was completed in order to address variables encountered in the Pilot Laboratory Study that occurred as a result of the experimental set up. The first section of the study reviewed the errors involved in measuring facial proportions as a result of variations in landmark placement. Intra and inter-operator studies in landmark placement were conducted and as expected the average and range of coefficients of variation for the set of proportions were larger in the inter-operator error than that obtained in the intra-operator error. The second section of the study reviewed the errors in measuring facial proportions as a result of the process of taking photographs. The lowest variation in facial measurements was seen in the series of photographs taken of a single subject by a single operator and in general, the lowest variation in facial measurements was seen at 45° and the highest variation at 20°. The contributions of errors from landmark placement and photography were determined to produce an overall estimated uncertainty of 5%. When a comparison of 2D images is conducted in this manner this estimation of uncertainty should be taken into account.

Anthropometry Study: An existing database of video and photograhic images was examined, which had previously been used in a psychological research project with the aim to test the hypothesis: "Using a comparison of anthropometric facial proportions, it is possible to discriminate between individuals of two samples." Material avaliable consisted of 80 video (Sample 1) and 119 photograhic (Sample 2) images and were of high resolution, though taken with different cameras. A set of 37 anthropometric landmarks were placed measuring 59 proportions to conduct within sample and between sample comparisons using the following calculations; mean absolute value between proportions, Eulcidean distance and Cosine θ distance between proportions. First, the statistics of the two samples were examined to determine which calculation best ascertained if there were any differences between faces which fall under the same conditions. Subsequent to a between sample, the removal of up to 50% of the lowest variant proportions along with the determination of a subsample of faces requiring human verification were tested. Relative frequency distribution histograms were created from the data and the normal histogram curves of true positive and true negative faces were superimposed to determine their separation rate and how likley it may be to mix up the two categories of faces. Presented results showed that the Cosine θ distance equation using Z-normalized values was the preferred equation because it achieved the largest separation between true positive and true negative faces. Results also indicated that there was no benefit to removing up to 50% of the lowest variant proportions in the comparison of Sample 1 against Sample 2. Finally, applying the Cosine θ distance equation allowed a decrease to five database images to be verified by a human in approximately 75% of the cases tested.

Morphology study: A morphological analysis was conducted on high resolution images and although highly relevant to the process of facial identification did not contribute to the continuity of the thesis and thus was included as an Appendix. The morphological analysis was performed on a total of 199 images: 119 photographs and 80 images from video using a checklist of 20 facial characteristics. Each facial characteristic had numerous choices in which it could be described. Once the analysis on all 199 images was carried out, a comparison was conducted between each video (unknown) image and the database of 199 (known) images. In the research conducted, only 2.5% of the comparisons showed a true positive match between video and photograph with zero false positives in the group. Subsequent to analysis it was determined not possible to differentiate between individuals, however, when looking directly at the individuals' photographs, it is clear that there were differentiating characteristics amongst them.

Conclusions: After embarking upon a series of anthropometrical investigations using high resolution images to compare video images with photographic images, it was concluded that anthropometry, when used as a comparison method of identification, does not generate the results necessary for use as evidence in a court of law. Identifying individuals based on a morphological analysis of a check list of features alone also did not result in clear consistent identifications. If descriptions of facial characteristics are to be fully utilized, a side by side comparison is likely to be less subjective. This outcome was as expected and provides additional insights into forensic morphological research.


Reconstructing an estimate of linear Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from an evolved galaxy field has become a standard technique in recent analyses. By partially
removing non-linear damping caused by bulk motions, the real-space baryon acoustic peak in the correlation function is sharpened, and oscillations in the power spectrum are visible to smaller scales. In turn, these lead to stronger measurements of the BAO scale. Future surveys are being designed assuming that this improvement has been applied, and this technique is therefore of critical importance for
future BAO measurements. A number of reconstruction techniques are available, but the most widely used is a simple algorithm that de-correlates large-scale and
small-scale modes approximately removing the bulk-flow displacements by moving the overdensity field.
The initial work presented in this thesis shows the practical development of a reconstruction algorithm which is extensively tested on the mock catalogues created for the two Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Date Release 11 samples covering redshift ranges 0:43 < z < 0:7 and 0:15 < z < 0:43.
The practical implementation of this algorithm is tested, looking at the efficiency of reconstruction as a function of the assumptions made for the bulk-flow scale, the shot noise level in a random catalogue used to quantify the mask and the method used to estimate the bulk-flow shifts.
The reconstruction algorithm developed in Chapter 2 is applied to 5 different galaxy survey data sets. The algorithm was used directly to create the reconstructed
catalogues used to extract the cosmological distance measurements published in [3, 4, 5, 6], the results and cosmological implications are presented.
The efficiency of reconstruction is also tested against external factors including galaxy density, volume and edge effects, and the impact for future surveys is considered. The results of this work are published here.
The measurement of linear redshift space distortions apparent in the observed distribution of matter provides information about the growth of structure and potentially provides a way of testing general relativity on large scales. The last chapter of the thesis presents a model of the reconstructed redshift space power spectrum in resummed Lagrangian perturbation theory which is a new result. The goal of the work is to create a reconstruction algorithm that enhances the linear redshift space distortion signal measured from an evolved galaxy distribution analogous to the improvement seen in the BAO signal post-reconstruction.


Community Markets for Conservation is a private sector, not‐for‐profit social enterprise in Zambia. It was established in 2003 to halt wildlife poaching and illegal tree cutting for charcoal by helping poor rural families to increase their food and income security through improved farming practices and marketing of value‐added agricultural commodities. COMACO supports 178,891 farmers in the Luangwa Valley, providing them with improved farming skills, seed loans, a premium price for their crop surplus, and a dividend if they comply with sustainable farming and wildlife, and forest conservation best practices. Maize yields using COMACO methods increased by 63% and net income was 37% higher than for farmers who purchased inorganic fertilizers. Between 2012 and 2018 the number of food secure families increased from 67–84%. Elephant poaching has declined in all but one COMACO district, poaching is now primarily conducted by nonlocal hunters, and leg‐hold snare detections by community game scouts have decreased significantly in COMACO areas. Increasing food and income security while reducing deforestation and unsustainable hunting for ~$US10 per farmer per year is cheap and can be replicated in Zambia and other nations in Africa.


Mimicking the Mechanical Behavior of Advancing Disc Degeneration Through Needle Injections Jeremy S. Alsup Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Objective To investigate the effects of injected protease solution on the mechanical advancement of disc degeneration, and to establish test protocol for future pre-clinical validation of spinal arthroplasty devices. The hypothesis that injection of a protease into a cadaveric lumbar disc will mimic advanced degeneration mechanics was the subject of this study. Summary of Background Information Spinal disc degeneration is a universal condition that progresses in adults due to aging, disease, or injury. Stages of disc degeneration have been categorized in cadaver specimens, with each degeneration level exhibiting characteristic changes in flexibility parameters. Spinal disc tissue can be compromised through introduction of proteolytic enzymes into the collagenous fibers of the annulus fibrosus. Methods 18 motion segments from 8 human lumbar spines were subjected to flexibility testing. Each specimen was either injected with 600 μL of trypsin solution in the annulus fibrosus, 600 μL of phosphate-buffed saline, or a fluid-less needle-stick. Motion testing followed with rotations applied in all three major spinal motions. Test sections were transected mid-disc after testing to characterize initial degeneration severity, and acquired motion data was analyzed to show flexibility traits over time. Results Trypsin, saline, and control injections all caused changes in motion from preinjection baselines. Saline injections were slightly more effective at mimicking the mechanics of higher grades of degeneration with more fidelity than trypsin injections. All motion parameters were altered by the study treatments, with hysteresis and neutral zone parameters experiencing changes similar to that seen in natural degeneration with greater fidelity. Lateral Bending motion showed the greatest magnitude response to injections, with Flexion-Extension tests showing the smallest change. Discussion Unexpectedly, fluid-less control injections caused changes to hysteresis and neutral zone parameters, suggesting an alteration to viscoelastic properties due to simple needle puncture. Fluid injections (Trypsin and Saline) caused an immediate transient post-injection change to biomechanics that dissipated over time, except in Axial Rotation. Saline injections provided the highest fidelity in mimicking the motion of more advanced stages of degeneration.


Studies were carried out on isolation and identification of bacteria and fungi fromthe clinical specimen and assay the antimicrobial activity (MIC) of essential oil against the clinical isolates. In this study isolated bacterial colonies such as Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The KOH and lacto phenol mounting results the isolated fungal colonies were confirmed as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and Trichoderma viridae. The present investigation antibacterial activity (MIC) of essential oil was analyzed against isolated bacteria. The maximum activity was observed in coconut oil and then compared with other essential oil such as peanut oil and sesame oil. The results were compared with standard antibiotics.


This thesis examines the surfaces of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based high strength (HT) carbon fibres modified by electrochemical and ultra-violet ozone (UV/O3) treatment methods. The surface and bulk study was conducted by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. In addition, immersion calorimetry in polar and non-polar liquids, as well as dilute resins, is used to investigate fibre surface energies while temperature programmed desorption (TPD) is used to investigate adsorption of linear alcohols (C1 to C4) on the fibres. One of the main aims of the work is to understand the reaction mechanisms that take place between the surface oxygen functionalities on treated carbon fibres and the resin molecules that are used in forming composites. UV/O3 treatments were shown to produce significant levels of oxygen on the fibre surface. Anodic treatments did not alter the surface morphology, while UV/O3 treatments were seen to increase surface areas six fold. Immersion calorimetry measurements showed similar trends to carbon black materials but, due to the small surface areas of the fibre (typically 1 m2/g), the rush-in effect and heat of ampoule breakage was found to overshadow the signal from the fibre. TPD measurements showed that alcohol adsorption was considerably enhanced by the presence of surface oxygen. In addition a relationship between the acidity scale of the alcohols in the gas phase and the extent of their dissociative adsorption at room temperature was established. Overall this work has shown UV/O3 to be a successful surface treatment method, superior to electrochemical treatments and TPD to be a promising method for investigating bonding.


The identification of the geographical name "Canaan" continues to be widely debated in the scholarly literature. Cuneiform sources from Mari, Amarna, Ugarit, Assur, and Hattusha have been discussed, as have Egyptian sources. Renewed excavations in North Sinai along the "Ways of Horus" have, along with recent scholarly reconstructions, refocused attention on the toponyms leading toward and culminating in the arrival to Canaan. This has led to two interpretations of the Egyptian name Pa-Canaan: it is either identified as the territory of Canaan or the city of Gaza. This article offers a renewed analysis of the terms Canaan, Pa-Canaan, and Canaanite in key documents of the New Kingdom, with limited attention to parallels of other geographical names, including Kharu, Retenu, and Djahy. It is suggested that the name Pa-Canaan in Egyptian New Kingdom sources consistently refers to the larger geographical territory occupied by the Egyptians in Asia. DOI:10.2458/azu_jaei_v01i1_hasel


In this paper, we investigate the topology convergence problem for the gossip-based Gradient overlay network. In an overlay network where each node has a local utility value, a Gradient overlay network is characterized by the properties that each node has a set of neighbors containing higher utility values, such that paths of increasing utilities emerge in the network topology. The Gradient overlay network is built using gossiping and a preference function that samples from nodes using a uniform random peer sampling service. We analyze it using tools from matrix analysis, and we prove both the necessary and sufficient conditions for convergence to a complete gradient structure, as well as estimating the convergence time. Finally, we show in simulations the potential of the Gradient overlay, by building a more efficient live-streaming peer-to-peer (P2P) system than one built using uniform random peer sampling.


Background Exposure to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) can lead to important metabolic changes and increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Computerized clinical decision support systems have been advocated to improve the management of patients at risk for CHD but it is unclear whether such systems reduce patients' risk for CHD. Methods We conducted a cluster trial within the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) of HIV-infected patients, aged 18 years or older, not pregnant and receiving cART for >3 months. We randomized 165 physicians to either guidelines for CHD risk factor management alone or guidelines plus CHD risk profiles. Risk profiles included the Framingham risk score, CHD drug prescriptions and CHD events based on biannual assessments, and were continuously updated by the SHCS data centre and integrated into patient charts by study nurses. Outcome measures were total cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and Framingham risk score. Results A total of 3,266 patients (80% of those eligible) had a final assessment of the primary outcome at least 12 months after the start of the trial. Mean (95% confidence interval) patient differences where physicians received CHD risk profiles and guidelines, rather than guidelines alone, were total cholesterol -0.02 mmol/l (-0.09–0.06), systolic blood pressure -0.4 mmHg (-1.6– 0.8), diastolic blood pressure -0.4 mmHg (-1.5–0.7) and Framingham 10-year risk score -0.2% (-0.5–0.1). Conclusions Systemic computerized routine provision of CHD risk profiles in addition to guidelines does not significantly improve risk factors for CHD in patients on cART.


Recently, a range of organisations, including car and consumer electronics manufacturers, have applied so-called patent pledges. A patent pledge is a publicly announced intervention by patent-owning entities ('pledgers') to out-license active patents to the restricted or unrestricted public free from or bound to certain conditions for a reasonable or no monetary compensation. Despite growing research to better understand this phenomenon, the underlying terminology remains contradictory. We apply an inductive research approach using qualitative coding to analyse 60 patent pledges made by 80 organisations. Based on this analysis, we propose a three-dimensional taxonomy that distinguishes eight types of patent pledges. Extending this taxonomy using case examples, we then propose a generalised patent licensing taxonomy. This second taxonomy can be used to distinguish patent licensing strategies, including other frequently used approaches, such as patent pools and cross-licenses. Finally, we use the patent pledge taxonomy to illustrate how patent owners change their licensing strategies over time and how it can support strategic decision processes within an organisation. We contribute to the field of patent management by building an ontology of patent pledges through proposing a definition and eight types. The patent licensing taxonomy enables organisations to devise and choose licensing strategies, and to illustrate licensing approaches of competitors, for instance.


The relationship between legal offenses and punishment is well studied by scholars of sociology, economics and law. Economists contend that punishment is a cost of committing an offense, hence an increase in the severity of punishments should decrease incentives to commit legal offenses. And the efficiency of legal punishments are studied generally from this perspective: giving efficient incentives to commit legal offense. This paper studies the relationship between punishment and evidence disclosure in a game theoretical model. A defendant is trying to persuade a judge by presenting evidence to take a favorable legal action rather than less favorable ones on his case. I show that the equilibrium disclosure of the defendant is not affected by a change in the scale of legal actions when there is no uncertainty on how the judge evaluates evidence. With uncertainty, however, the defendant can be induced to disclose more information by decreasing the severity ratio of the most unfavorable legal action to the most favorable one. This shows that in the more realistic case of uncertainty the severity of punishments has an effect on evidence disclosure and efficiency of punishment schedule should be analyzed by internalizing its effect on evidence disclosure as well.


Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) includes three important points that the research of radiation therapy in 20th century has reached. BNCT, which started in nuclear reactors, has great promise in the future, as its effectiveness has been demonstrated on many X-ray resistant cancers. Under such circumstances, practical accelerator neutron sources are developed by researchers and companies in Japan, and clinical test is also at its final stage, and approval day for real medical treatment is approaching. However, expansion of the type of cancers for indication is an important subject, and for that, research on the CBE value for 10 B drug applicable to the response of normal tissue by BNCT must proceed. In addition, looking ahead to the future, development of a boron drug which is superior to current paraboronophenylalanine (BPA) is strongly desired especially. Boron chemists and pharmaceutical scientists are responsible on this subject. BNCT has infinite possibilities due to the development of such constituent elements.


ABSTRACT This article explores the gamification trend sweeping the globe promising increased engagement and motivation, in practically any industry, context and culture, based on a stratagem of "game design elements in non-game contexts," which is its most quoted definition [Deterding, Sebastian, Miguel Sicart, Lennart Nacke, Kenton O'Hara, and Dan Dixon. 2011. "Gamification – Using Game-Design Elements in Non-Gaming Contexts." Paper presented at the CHI EA "11 proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, BC, May 7–12.]. The rise of gamification as marketplace icon is examined and particularly claims that position gamification as the manifestation of a wider societal transformation into playful societies – a "ludic turn." Many of these grandiose statements are the result of ahistoricity and ambiguity regarding the definition of gamification. Based on game philosophy, game studies and gamification research this article posits gamification as an emergent perspective, as distinct conceptualisation, on the rule-driven organisation of sociotechnical management systems that reference "games." Of particular importance is the role of rules. Examples such as Frequent Flyer Programmes and Foursquare are analysed according to the player/consumer positions they bestow, which are explored from participatory, co-creational, critical and game philosophical perspectives. Conclusively, a "gameful" perspective of rule-generated goal-oriented behaviour, or "playful" perspective of instinctive and limitless fun, shed two challenging perspectives on the interpretation of gamification in the marketplace.


Carrier sense is often used to regulate concurrency in wireless medium access control (MAC) protocols, balancing interference protection and spatial reuse. Carrier sense is known to be imperfect, and many improved techniques have been proposed. Is the search for a replacement justified? This paper presents a theoretical model for average case two-sender carrier sense based on radio propagation theory and Shannon capacity. Analysis using the model shows that carrier sense performance is surprisingly close to optimal for radios with adaptive bitrate. The model suggests that hidden and exposed terminals usually cause modest reductions in throughput rather than dramatic decreases. Finally, it is possible to choose a fixed sense threshold which performs well across a wide range of scenarios, in large part due to the role of the noise floor. Experimental results from an indoor 802.11 testbed support these claims.


Three-dimensional visualization of 3D parcels have been investigated in many viewpoints in order to fulfil the demands of expanding cities and the increasing complexity of building design. In Malaysia, with the growing strata developed area, particularly residential buildings (i.e., apartments), land administration agencies will need to improve their application in sharing and disseminating cadastral data. Hence, web-based solutions have been recognized as an important visualization requirement among end-users. It acts as a distributed information platform that allows 3D data sharing with the minimal architecture of client-server connects by the internet. There are two key topics addressed in this paper, which is the depiction of 3D strata objects on the web and the linkage to their legal data. This paper also describes the implementation of conceptual model of strata object based on Malaysian Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) Country Profile for the representation of spatial and non-spatial data. Tools such as PostgreSQL with PostGIS extension is used for storing data, CesiumJS was used to handle and visualise 3D strata objects in a 3D browser that was customised as a web application. The results demonstrate a viewer of a multi-storey buildings using web visualization to display both physical and legal information of 3D Strata objects based on LADM country profile (Malaysia). This particular paper also attempts to address 3D visualization of spatial and non-spatial data query using a web application, which also suggests further directions for 3D cadastral visualization development.


We develop a product market theory that explains why firms provide their workers with skills that are sufficiently general to be potentially useful for competitors. We consider a model where firms first decide whether to invest in industry-specific human capital, then make wage offers for each othersi?½ trained employees and finally engage in imperfect product market competition. Equilibria with and without training, and multiple equilibria can emerge. If competition is sufficiently soft and returns to the number of trained workers decrease sufficiently, firms may invest in non-specific training if others do the same, because they would otherwise suffer a competitive disadvantage or need to pay high wages in order to attract trained workers.


In this study, removal of some heavy metals ions (Mn2+, Fe2+, Ni2+ and Cu2+) from aqueous solution by adsorption was investigated. For this purpose, high-grade MnSO4.H2O, FeSO4.7H2O, NiSO4.7H2O and CuSO4.5H2O were used as heavy metal samples. The commercial activated carbon (Merck 2514), chitosan and agar were used as adsorbents. The pH of each solution was not controlled. This is because the net interaction between the adsorbent and the heavy metal could be disturbed by the buffer solution. Therefore, all experiments were carried out in a pH range from 5.3 to 5.5. The equilibrium adsorption contact times were determined for M - 2514. The adsorption rate constants were determined from obtained kinetics curves suitable for first degree of rate kinetics. Adsorption isotherms of heavy metals on M - 2514 from aqueous solution were determined. These adsorption isotherms were seen to be consistent with Freundlich's adsorption isotherm. k and n constants were determined from Freundlich's linear equation. In addition, M - 2514, chitosan and agar were compared according to their percent uptake yields of the heavy metals.


Abstract. This paper describes the design and use of a recursive ensemble Kalman filter (REnKF) to assimilate streamflow data in an operational flow forecasting system of seven catchments in New Zealand. The REnKF iteratively updates past and present model states (soil water, aquifer and surface storages), with lags up to the concentration time of the catchment, to improve model initial conditions and hence flow forecasts. We found the REnKF overcame instabilities in the standard EnKF, which were associated with the natural lag time between upstream catchment wetness and flow at the gauging locations. The forecast system performance was correspondingly improved in terms of Nash–Sutcliffe score, persistence index and bounding of the measured flow by the model ensemble. We present descriptions of filter design parameters and explanations and examples of filter behaviour, as an information source for other groups wishing to assimilate discharge observations for operational forecasting.


Excerpt] This book examines not just RCA's most recent move to Mexico but a whole series of relocations of the company's radio and television manufacturing from the 1930s to the 1990s. Revealing a much longer and more complicated history of capital migration than we tend to hear about in the "global era," the story moves through four very distinct places and cultures as it examines the remarkably similar experiences of all of them with a single industry. Beginning with Southern and Eastern European immigrants in industrial New Jersey during the Great Depression, RCA moved production to employ ethnic Scotch-Irish workers in rural Indiana in 1940, briefly employed a combination of African American and white wage earners in Tennessee during the 1960s, and, since 1968, has employed Mexican workers in the border state of Chihuahua. Taken together, the chapters that follow comprise a comparative social history of industrial relocation that explores community life, gender, and labor organization across time and space. Placing the impact of capital migration on these working-class communities in a context that is both historically and internationally comparative, this book shows how social changes at the local level drive the relocation of capital investment.


Educator's perceptions and use of a state-mandated kindergarten entry assessment (KEA), the Alaska Developmental Profile (ADP), were investigated using a mixed-methods approach with 233 educators representing 23 districts in the state of Alaska. Educators reported inconsistencies in the administration, implementation, perceptions, and use of the ADP. These inconsistencies were connected to an unclear understanding of the purpose for the ADP, a finding that most likely reflects the compliance model of those administering state-mandated assessments instead of educators seeing these tools as useful for instructional decision-making. Results suggest policy makers should strive to ensure all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the purpose for a state-mandated KEA and that systems are in place to ensure reliability and validity of the data. Teachers are urged to become familiar in using formative, observation-based assessment approaches and consider how data gathered from a KEA can provide meaningful information for instructional planning. Administrators are encouraged to provide the professional development and support needed to engage in data-driven decision making. And finally, researchers are reminded of their role in helping conduct research that examines the processes and impact of state-mandated assessments.


Drosophila Pygopus was originally identified as a core component of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and a transcriptional coactivator. Here we have investigated the microophthalmia that arises in mice with a germline null mutation of pygopus 2. We show that this phenotype is a consequence of defective lens development at inductive stages. Using a series of regionally limited Cre recombinase transgenes for conditional deletion of Pygo2flox, we show that Pygo2 activity in pre-placodal presumptive lens ectoderm, placodal ectoderm and ocular mesenchyme all contribute to lens development. In each case, Pygo2 is required for normal expression levels of the crucial transcription factor Pax6. Finally, we provide multiple lines of evidence that although Pygo2 can function in the Wnt pathway, its activity in lens development is Wnt pathway-independent.