I applaud Feiner et al. (1) for the excellent report of their department's system of measuring the clinical productivity of the faculty. This is an important issue for our specialty in general and for academic anesthesiology in particular. If academic departments are to survive in the future, systems for accounting for faculty time will need to be in place. Any system must be capable of assigning value to the clinical, academic, research, teaching, and administrative limbs of our academic mission. As Feiner et al. (1) point out, clinical time is a valuable commodity; however, anesthesia time-based units may not work in all academic institutions as a measure of faculty clinical responsibility. I have struggled with this issue in a county hospital and have looked carefully at many "parts of the equation." At a Level One Trauma Center we are asked to "have the capability to run X number of rooms at any particular time," 24 hours a day/365 days per year. I use the analogy of the fire station—I have no idea if there will be a fire, but I must be able to put it out. This is currently an institutional mandate. Availability for the potential delivery of anesthesia services is the essence of a Level One Trauma Center. Many hospitals are now providing set fees for anesthesia provision in 12or 24-h increments, where payment is made by the institution to a group of providers for in-house availability, as productivity cannot be guaranteed. I understand the methodology of Feiner et al. (1) in evaluating their billable hour system. I am concerned that part-time faculty were omitted from their analysis and that only faculty taking full call were included in their investigation. In the future, we as a specialty must be flexible enough to allow part-time staff the opportunity to function in an academic setting (individuals who desire a part-time appointment). If our methods for monitoring productivity are not applicable to part-time individuals, or those not taking call, we are risking the loss of an important part of our workforce, particularly in this time of manpower shortage in anesthesiology. A difficult concept to grasp in the billable hour methodology, one that administratively generates significant challenges, is the concept of not giving credit for staffing more than one clinical site. I have a hard time determining in a given interval of time, that staffing an experienced senior resident in a complex case is "worth the same" as staffing two seasoned CRNAs in less complex cases, or is the same as doing a case with an inexperienced resident or a surgery rotator, or doing a case by yourself. From my perspective, these unique challenges must be better understood as we develop metrics to address faculty productivity. I agree with Feiner et al. (1) that availability alone in a large department with multiple subspecialty groups is difficult to use, especially when confused by coverage at multiple hospitals. Ultimately, large departments with numerous subspecialty divisions may need to implement a modification of the system described by Abouleish et al. (2) for services that require immediate availability (OB/Level One trauma units), while divisions with out of hospital call coverage may require a modification of the productivity formula as outlined by Feiner et al. (1).


Mapping the World is a one-of-a-kind collection of cartographic treasures that spans thousands of years and many cultures, from an ancient Babylonian map of the world etched on clay to the latest high-tech maps of the earth, seas, and the skies above. With more than one hundred maps and other illustrations and an introduction and running commentary by Ralph E. Ehrenberg, this book tells a fascinating story of geographic discovery, scientific invention, and the art and technique of mapmaking. Mapping the World is organized chronologically with a brief introduction that places the maps in their historical context. Special portfolios within each section feature key cartographic innovators and maps of exceptional artistic quality or significance, such as the 1507 Waldseemuller Map, the first to use the name America. Unusual and surprising maps are also presented, including a set of playing cards that contained a secret escape map for American prisoners in Germany during World War II. With its broad historical and cultural range, unmatched variety of maps from the finest map collections in the world, more than one hundred illustrations, and a fresh and authoritative perspective on the history of cartography, Mapping the World will delight everyone with an interest in maps and mapmaking like no other book on the subject.


This article aims to clarify the fundamental aspects of aggregating fuzzy scores of conditions with multiple attributes in fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Fuzzy multiple attribute conditions (FMACs) are conditions that are built using different types of concepts. FMACs are flexible conditions that express the ontological nature of the concept and deals with the causal heterogeneity. In fact, researchers can add a new attribute to a concept in order to consider the concept's meaning vis-à-vis to the outcome of interest instead of only considering the theory. In relation to FMAC fuzzy scores, we have individuated one problematic issue which is the aggregation strategy of attributes that are already calibrated that should be able to capture conceptual properties of membership and similarity. In this article, we will employ an empirical example in order to deal with causal heterogeneity and aggregation strategies. After discussing the disadvantages of the aggregation techniques used by QCA scholars, we individuate an axiomatic framework for defining logical conjunction operators that allows one to aggregate parts of concepts in accordance with membership and similarity. Then, we propose a technique to assign fuzzy scores to FMAC using the arithmetic mean–based compensatory fuzzy logic. This technique indirectly affects the solution formula(s) following the QCA and allows one to better locate cases in the XY plot during the post-QCA analysis.


Knowledge-based expert systems (KBES) are computer programs, based on artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, designed to reach the level of performance of a human expert in some specialized problem solving domain. Expert systems (ES) have a great potential for practical use in ill-structured problem solving domains, such as retaining structure selection, where explicit algorithms do not exist. A knowledge-based developmental prototype system is described in this paper for retaining wall selection and the subsequent design of the selected structure. Although the ES includes the various types of earth retaining structures, this paper presents the outline of the design procedure for only the cantilever wall. The prototype, developed using the M.1 knowledge engineering shell, incorporates algorithms and heuristics that simulates the selection process of experts or design engineers.


Mobile Content Delivery systems are becoming more popular with the increasing capacity demand by mobile subscribers. In order to reduce the total outgoing traffic a Content Delivery System for Mobile Operators (mCSDN) was proposed. The strength of the proposed system inspired by the idea of using Device-to-Device Communication (D2D), and Software Defined Networks (SDN) based middleware as the orchestrator of mobile device management and content locating. The approach of the study is assumed to be "using the content from the node as close as possible to the mobile user". The video used in the proposed system is coded by using Multiple Descriptor Coding (MD-FEC). The numerical simulations and analysis show that the capacity to be provided by the proposed model outperforms the current state of the art. The system also improves the quality of the service (QoS) while reducing the power consumption.


Objective: The purpose of this case study is to report on the resolution of a breech presentation in an expectant mother following a course of subluxation-based chiropractic care and administration of the Webster Technique. Clinical features: A 33-year old expectant mother presented 8 months pregnant with her second child. There were no complications with her first pregnancy. A breech presentation was noted by her midwife and vertebral subluxation and muscle spasm were observed upon chiropractic evaluation. Intervention and Outcomes: The patient was managed utilizing Webster's Technique and progress was monitored, specifically noting changes in the baby's position as reported by the midwife between adjustments. The fetus was no longer breech after nine visits and the mother delivered a healthy baby. Conclusion: This case describes the resolution of a breech presentation and a normal vaginal birth following the administration of Webster's Technique. More research is needed to determine the nature of outcomes related to the utilization of this technique.


The COVID-19 pandemic has dented China's image as an efficient party-state, given how an effort to cover up the outbreak and the resulting delays in reporting led to the virus spreading beyond its origins in Wuhan in Hubei province to the rest of the country as well as rapidly across the world. This article examines China's massive external propaganda effort launched as part of the effort to repair the damage to its global image and interests. It notes how China has not let the situation stop it from pursuing its traditional foreign policy and security interests, including, of competition with the USA. The article also argues that it is the ruling Communist Party of China's concerns about its legitimacy at home that have determined the nature and scale of Chinese responses to the pandemic outside its borders.


In his last years Mark Twain had become a respected literary figure whose opinions were widely sought by the press. He had also suffered a series of painful physical, economic, and emotional losses. The Mysterious Stranger, published posthumously in 1916 and belonging to Twain's "dark" period, belies the popular image of the affable American humorist. In this antireligious tale, Twain denies the existence of a benign Providence, a soul, an afterlife, and even reality itself. As the Stranger in the story asserts, "nothing exists; all is a dream."


A simple and inexpensive air bag system for allowing measurement of the deflected shape of laterally loaded piles has been developed. The air bag system may be used for hollow piles that have already been installed. The system includes an inclinometer casing that is held against the inner wall of the pile by an inflated air bag. Tests on small- and large-diameter steel pipe piles at two different locations showed that the air bag system performed reliably. The air bag system can allow measurement of p-y characteristics in lateral load tests on piles for which the possibility of such measurement may not have previously existed.


Wildlife management in Vermont has been the focus of significant public and political debate in the last few years. In 2009, "Pete the Moose," a young moose calf living within a privately-owned, 700-acre captive game facility in Irasburg, VT, became the central figure in a debate over whether a private party could possess any ownership interest in wildlife animals. Pete was the focus of a grassroots campaign to prevent his allegedly imminent destruction (along with other moose and white-tailed deer living within the facility's fences) by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department officials. The campaign received extensive local and national media. This position paper, submitted as public record in the February, 2011 House of Representatives Fish & Wildlife Committee Debate, is about the Vermont legislature's 2010 election-year response to the "Save Pete the Moose" campaign. The fight to save Pete and the subsequent legislation invoke important traditional and contemporary issues of property rights, hunting rights, and animal rights, including the privatization and domestication of wildlife, the importation of big game into Vermont, and the ethics of allowing such facilities to operate in this state. This legislation, known as the "Nelson Amendment," was enacted, without discussion, as part of the fiscal year 2011 Joint Appropriations Act. The Amendment may have "stayed" Pete's demise, but it eroded fundamental principles of wildlife management and hunting regulations by effectively rewarding a private landowner's continued attempts to thwart wildlife regulations and illegally entrap wild animals on his property. The facility where Pete lives and the Amendment threaten the health of wildlife in Vermont and the state's authority to manage and regulate that wildlife. This paper contextualizes the current debate about wildlife management, including the history of Vermont captive hunting legislation and the legal backdrop prior to the Nelson Amendment. Next, it addresses state common law and constitutional doctrines with respect to wildlife management, hunting rights, and wildlife ownership, followed by a discussion of several legal and policy issues invoked by the Amendment, and issues the legislature should consider in reviewing the current bill to repeal the Nelson Amendment (H.91).ADDENDUM (June 22, 2011) On May 31, 2011, Governor Shumlin signed H.91 into law, amending 10 V.S.A. section 4081. In addition to repealing the Nelson Amendment, section 4018 codified the public trust doctrine Vermont. In relevant part: Section 4081. POLICY(a) It is the policy of the state that the (1) As provided by Chapter II, section 67of the Constitution of the State of Vermont, the fish and wildlife of Vermont are held in trust by the state for the benefit of the citizens of Vermont and shall not be reduced to private ownership. The state of Vermont, in its sovereign capacity as a trustee for the citizens of the state, shall have ownership, jurisdiction, and control of all of the fish and wildlife of Vermont.


The spins of a pair of spin-orbit split surface states at a metal surface are usually antiparallelly aligned, in accord with the Rashba model for a two-dimensional electron gas. By first-principles calculations and twophoton photoemission experiments we provide evidence that in the surface alloy Bi/Cu111 the spins of an unoccupied pair of surface states are parallelly aligned. This unconventional spin polarization, which is not consistent with that imposed by the Rashba model, is explained by hybridization of surface states with different orbital character and is attributed to the spin-orbit interaction. Since hybridization is a fundamental effect our findings are relevant for spin electronics in general.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in differentiating benign from malignant disease in patients with possible pancreatic malignancy.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
All patients with a possible diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma based on CT or ERCP findings were eligible for inclusion in this prospective study. PET imaging of the abdomen was performed in 37 patients and was interpreted as positive if FDG activity in the pancreas exceeded background activity and as negative if activity was less than or equal to background activity. Semiquantitative analysis was performed by calculating a standardized uptake ratio. Studies were reviewed independently by two radiologists, and results were correlated with biopsy results and with CT and ERCP findings. Sensitivity and specificity of FDG PET for revealing pancreatic malignancy was determined.

RESULTS
FDG activity in the pancreas was increased in 24 patients, and adenocarcinoma was diagnosed in 22 of these patients (92%). Two patients (8%) with increased activity had benign disease, including one patient with chronic pancreatitis who showed no evidence of tumor at laparotomy and one patient with a mucinous cystic tumor who showed no malignant features at laparotomy. FDG uptake was low or normal in 13 patients, 10 of whom (77%) had benign disease. FDG uptake was also low in three patients with adenocarcinoma, whose tumor size ranged from 2 to 4 cm in diameter. The mean standardized uptake ratio value for malignant disease was 5.1 (range, 1.0-10.1) and for benign disease was 1.9 (range, 0.0-5.8) (p < .001). The sensitivity of FDG PET for revealing malignant disease in the pancreas was 88% and the specificity was 83%.

CONCLUSION
FDG PET is a sensitive and specific noninvasive technique for the diagnosis of pancreatic malignancy.


Recent observations reveal that spectral breaks at ~GeV are commonly present in Galactic gamma-ray supernova remnants (SNRs) interacting with molecular clouds and that most of them have a spectral ($E^2dF/dE$) "platform" extended from the break to lower energies. In paper I (Li & Chen 2010), we developed an accumulative diffusion model by considering an accumulation of the diffusive protons escaping from the shock front throughout the history of the SNR expansion. In this paper, we improve the model by incorporating finite-volume of MCs, demonstrate the model dependence on particle diffusion parameters and cloud size, and apply it to nine interacting SNRs (W28, W41, W44, W49B, W51C, Cygnus Loop, IC443, CTB 37A, and G349.7+0.2). This refined model naturally explains the GeV spectral breaks and, especially, the "platform"s, together with available TeV data. We find that the index of the diffusion coeffcient \delta\ is in the range of 0.5-0.7, similar to the galactic averaged value, and the diffusion coefficient for cosmic rays around the SNRs is essentially two orders of magnitude lower than the Galactic average, which is a good indication for the suppression of cosmic ray diffusion near SNRs.


This study aimed at exploring the critical factors for enterprises to adopt broadband mobile applications. The results are expected to guide enterprises to strengthen their competitiveness. Further, since the broadband mobile applications were integrated with many characteristics of information communication technologies, this study combined the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework and Diffusion of Innovation Theory in an effort to establish a comprehensive view and to increase the level of understanding. The Structural Equation Modeling and AMOS were applied for analysis; which discovered that the adoption of broadband mobile applications by enterprises is significantly affected by technological, organizational and environmental contexts. This paper also identified eleven critical factors from technological, organizational and environmental aspects, as well as two vital control variables. Based on the research outcome, this paper conducted an in-depth discussion and drew conclusions. Finally, the research implications were provided.


Quantitative room acoustics over a century has accumulated a knowledge base centred around objective acoustic parameters. Realistic and accurate measurements are essential in room acoustics. Occupied measurements are difficult to undertake with current technology, yet it is well established that occupancy changes acoustics. For this reason, new measurement techniques are sought. This thesis concerns anew, machine learning based approach for measuring room acoustic parameters, which is particularly useful for occupied in-situ measurements. A set of artificial neural networks, associated pre-processors and machine learning regimes are developed to extract Reverberation Time (RT), Early Decay Time (EDT) and Speech Transmission Index (STI) from received speech signals. Utilising naturalistic sounds - speech - as excitations, the developed methods circumvent the use of unpleasant noisy test signals and therefore measurements can be made in occupied spaces in a non-invasive fashion. Given the non-invasive nature and achievable accuracy, the new methods can facilitate occupied measurements, providing an alternative to traditional methods to better quantify acoustics of spaces where speech communication is important. Much of the development work of the neural network methods focuses on the preprocessors which produce data reduced and pre-conditioned signals for the neural networks. Two different speech scenarios, separate utterances and continuous running speech are considered, leading to the development of four major neural network methods: 1. Time domain method to extract RTIEDT from separate utterances. 2. Straightforward FFT method to extract STI from short-time speech. 3. Frequency domain method to extract STI from long-time running speech. 4. Frequency domain method to extract RTIEDT from long-time running speech. These methods are all based on supervised learning. Unsupervised models, representing another important class of neural networks, are also investigated in the context of this study and are found useful as pre-processors. The model development and validations are carried out through computer simulations. Results show that better than O.ls and 0.02 resolutions in reverberation time and STI extractions are achievable based on a "one-net-one-speech" machine learning regime: a neural network trains on a particular anechoic speech to extract a designated objective parameter under the excitation of that speech. Neural network systems extracting acoustic parameters from received arbitrary speech signals without using prior knowledge of the speech stimuli, termed source independent measurements, are explored. Although the achieved accuracy is not as good as that of the standard methods and the developed neural network methods on the one-net-one-speech basis, the source independent extraction is potentially more useful in practical systems. Improving the accuracy of the source independent measurements and extending the developed methods to music signals are seemingly the most significant further work of this study.


GaAs nanowires are promising candidates for advanced optoelectronic devices, despite their high surface recombination velocity and large surface-area-to-volume ratio, which renders them problematic for applications that require efficient charge collection and long charge-carrier lifetimes. Overcoating a bare GaAs nanowire core with an optimized larger-bandgap AlGaAs shell, followed by a capping layer of GaAs to prevent oxidation, has proven an effective way to passivate the nanowire surface and thereby improve electrical properties for enhanced device performance. However, it is difficult to quantify and distinguish the contributions between the nanowire core and cap layer when measuring the optoelectronic properties of a nanowire device. Here, we investigated the photoconductive terahertz (THz) response characteristics of single GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs core–shell–cap nanowire detectors designed for THz time-domain spectroscopy. We present a detailed study of the contributions of the GaAs cap layer and GaAs core on the ultrafast optoelectronic performance of the detector. We show that both the GaAs cap and core contribute to the photoconductive signal in proportion to their relative volume in the nanowire. By increasing the cap volume ratio to above 90% of the total GaAs volume, a quasi-direct-sampling type photoconductive nanowire detector can be achieved that is highly desirable for low-noise and fast data acquisition detection.


Today's autonomous vehicles rely extensively on high-definition 3D maps to navigate the environment. While this approach works well when these maps are completely up-to-date, safe autonomous vehicles must be able to corroborate the map's information via a real time sensor-based system. Our goal in this work is to develop a model for road layout inference given imagery from on-board cameras, without any reliance on high-definition maps. However, no sufficient dataset for training such a model exists. Here, we leverage the availability of standard navigation maps and corresponding street view images to construct an automatically labeled, large-scale dataset for this complex scene understanding problem. By matching road vectors and metadata from navigation maps with Google Street View images, we can assign ground truth road layout attributes (e.g., distance to an intersection, one-way vs. two-way street) to the images. We then train deep convolutional networks to predict these road layout attributes given a single monocular RGB image. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that our model learns to correctly infer the road attributes using only panoramas captured by car-mounted cameras as input. Additionally, our results indicate that this method may be suitable to the novel application of recommending safety improvements to infrastructure (e.g., suggesting an alternative speed limit for a street).


Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate perioperative morbidity of retroperitoneal lymph node dissection(RPLND) in patients with germ cell tumors in a reference center for cancer in Brazil. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients from our computerized database from all patients whounderwent RPLND. Intraoperative variables such as surgical time, blood loss, length of hospital stay, number of bloodunits required and associated procedures were evaluated. Results: A total of 28 cases were reviewed. The mean age was 27.8 years. The average operating time was 308 minutes.The blood loss averaged 865 ml. The average hospital stay was 6 days. As to the magnitude of the dissection, in 16 (57.1%)cases a nerve-sparing technique was applied. 39.2% of patients experienced at least one associated procedure. Conclusions: Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection is still a high morbidity procedure but necessary to obtain oncologiccontrol in high-risk cases, even in those with metastatic disease.


Tissue injury induced by a diverse group of xenobiotics appears to involve both direct and indirect damage to target cells. Thus, while chemicals may act directly on target cells resulting in toxicity, they may also act indirectly by recruiting and activating resident and inflammatory tissue macrophages. Macrophages are potent secretory cells that release an array of mediators, including proinflammatory and cytotoxic cytokines and growth factors, bioactive lipids, hydrolytic enzymes, reactive oxygen intermediates, and nitric oxide--each of which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of tissue injury. The potential role of macrophages and their mediators in tissue injury has been extensively investigated in the lung and the liver. In both of these tissues, xenobiotics induce localized macrophage accumulation and mediator release. Furthermore, when macrophage functioning is blocked, pulmonary and hepatic injury-induced agents such as ozone, bleomycin, acetaminophen, carbon tetrachloride, and galactosamine are reduced. These data provide direct support for the hypothesis that macrophages and the mediators they release contribute to xenobiotic-induced tissue injury.


In our dynamic business environment reporting, planning and analysis are more relevant than ever. The SAP EPM Excel Add-In is a business enabler. This book will provide useful information to jumpstart project implementations and facilitate end-user training in practical manner. Understand key features and concepts that the EPM Add-in brings to the table. Walk through a detailed case study and examples to familiarize yourself with the SAP EPM Excel Add-in features and functions within the context of a business example. This book was written with a broad audience in mind and will appeal to different implementation roles ranging from consultants to business users, and architects to planners. For entry-level and seasoned SAP practitioners alike, this book will serve as a reference guide that distills years of experience and focuses on some of the most frequently used features in successful implementation projects. This book offers tips, tricks, and time savers that you can immediately apply. * Learn about the Connection Concept * Familiarize yourself with the SAP EPM Add-In for Excel and BPC 10.1 * Create a basic report from scratch * Walk through a detailed case Study


If anyone had doubts that the much ballyhooed 2011 pivot to Asia was not much of a move, and that all the hot spots continue to be in the near, not far, east (east viewed from an American vantage point), the recent news should have removed these doubts. Reports suggest that the first international trip the President is planning to make at the start of his second term will include stops in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Secretary of State John Kerry was on the phone with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders even before he reached his desk. Making peace here is said to be one of the only two international issues that President Obama is emotionally engaged in and sees as part of his legacy. (The other is equally quixotic: moving toward zero nukes – by further reducing the strategic arms the US and Russia are holding, thus "inspiring" other nations to follow.)


Culture has an extensive influence on both Saudi Arabian society and its business environment. Saudi Arabia has a collective group oriented culture with close relationships between people. The Islamic religion is part of Saudi Arabian culture and it plays major roles in Saudis lives. Saudi Arabian cultural factors, including language barriers, hierarchy, gender communication, fear of losing face, nepotism and wealth, affect the performance of organisations and their security. This paper focuses on the impact of the environment and culture of Saudi Arabia on information security and makes some suggestions on how these problems may be overcome.


0132940299, 9780132940290, . The leading integrated chemical process design guide: Now with extensive new coverage and more process designs More than ever, effective design is the focal point of sound chemical engineering. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, Fourth Edition, presents design as a creative process that integrates both the big picture and the small detailsÐ2Ђ"and knows which to stress when, and why. Realistic from start to finish, this updated edition moves readers beyond classroom exercises into open-ended, real-world process problem solving. The authors introduce integrated techniques for every facet of the discipline, from finance to operations, new plant design to existing process optimization. This fourth edition adds new chapters introducing dynamic process simulation; advanced concepts in steady-state simulation; extensive coverage of thermodynamics packages for modeling processes containing electrolyte solutions and solids; and a concise introduction to logic control. "What You Have Learned" summaries have been added to each chapter, and the text's organization has been refined for greater clarity. Coverage IncludesConceptualization and analysis: flow diagrams, batch processing, tracing, process conditions, and product design strategies Economic analysis: capital and manufacturing costs, financial calculations, and profitability analysis Synthesis and optimization: principles, PFD synthesis, simulation techniques, top-down and bottom-up optimization, pinch technology, and software-based control Advanced steady-state simulation: goals, models, solution strategies, and sensitivity and optimization studies Dynamic simulation: goals, development, solution methods, algorithms, and solvers Performance analysis: I/O models, tools, performance curves, reactor performance, troubleshooting, and "debottlenecking" Societal impact: ethics, professionalism, health, safety, environmental issues, and green engineering Interpersonal and communication skills: improving teamwork and group effectiveness This title draws on more than fifty years of innovative chemical engineering instruction at West Virginia University and the University of Nevada, Reno. It includes suggested curricula for single-semester and year-long design courses, case studies and practical design projects, current equipment cost data, and extensive preliminary design information that can be used as the starting point for more detailed analyses. About the CD-Rom and Web SiteThe CD contains the newest version of CAPCOST, a powerful tool for evaluating fixed capital investment, full process economics, and profitability. The heat exchanger network software, HENSAD, is also included. The CD also contains an additional appendix presenting preliminary design information for fifteen key chemical processes, including four new to this edition: shift reaction; acid-gas removal via physical solvent; H2S removal from a gas stream using the Claus process; and coal gasification. The CD also includes six additional projects, plus chapters on outcomes assessment, written and oral communications, and a written report case study. Sixty additional projects and twenty-four more problems are available at www.che.cemr.wvu.edu/publications/projects..


In the Thamad area, east central Sinai, two stratigraphic sections are measured and sampled; Gebel El Mishiti and G. El Keeh, in order to determine the nannofossil biostratigrapy of the Paleocene-lower Eocene rocks. Gebel El Mishiti section is considered one of the most complete sections across the K/P boundary in Egypt where all the exposed rocks at G. El Keeh belong to the lower Eocene Egma Formation. A nearly complete sucession of Paleocene nannofossil biozones is recorded from the Esna Formation at G. El Mishiti. They are arranged from base to top as follows: Markalius inversus (NP1), Cruciplacolithus tenuis (NP2), Chiasmolithus danicus (NP3), Ellipsolithus macellus (NP4), Fasciculithus tympaniformis (NP5), Heliolithus kleinpellii (NP6), Discoaster mohleri (NP7/8) and Discoaster multiradiatus (NP9) zones. The Danian/Selandian boundary is located at the base of Zone NP5 at the level of the first appearance of Fasciculithus taxa. The Selandian/Thanetian boundary can be traced tentatively at the base of the Discoaster mohleri Zone (NP7/8). The Paleocene/Eocene boundary is traced between the NP9a/NP9b subzonal boundary which is marked by the first appearances of Discoaster araneus , Rhomboaster calcitrapa, R. bitrifida and R. cuspis . The Paleocene/Eocene boundary lies within the upper part of the Esna Formation. A very thin layer of conglomeratic chalk with no paleontological break is located between Zone NP9 and NP10. However, a very short nannofossil break is noted within Zone NP10 (subzones NP10b and NP10c are missing) which is overlain by Zone NP11. The lower part of the latter covers the topmost part of the Esna Formation where its upper part lies within the base of the Egma Formation; therefore, a conformable relationship between the two formations is suggested. At Gebel El Mishiti, the lower Eocene nannofossil biozones NP11, NP12, NP13 and lower/middle Eocene Zone NP14 are recorded. On the other hand, Gebel El Keeh section, which is about 95m thick is only represented by the Discoaster sublodoensis Zone (NP14).


The subtropical oceans are home to one of the largest ecosystems on Earth, contributing to nearly one third of global oceanic primary production. Ocean warming leads to enhanced stratification in the oligotrophic ocean but also intensification in cross-shore wind gradients and thus in eddy kinetic energy across eastern boundary regions of the subtropical gyres. Phytoplankton thriving in a future warmer oligotrophic subtropical ocean with enhanced CO2 levels could therefore be patchily fertilized by increased mesoscale and submesoscale variability inducing nutrient pumping into the surface ocean. Under this premise, we have tested the response of three size classes (0.2-2, 2-20, and > 20 μm) of subtropical phytoplankton communities in terms of primary production, chlorophyll and cell biomass, to increasing CO2 concentrations and nutrient fertilization during an in situ mesocosm experiment in oligotrophic waters offof the island of Gran Canaria. We found no significant CO2-related effect on primary production and biomass under oligotrophic conditions (phase I). In contrast, primary production, chlorophyll and biomass displayed a significant and pronounced increase under elevated CO2 conditions in all groups after nutrient fertilization, both during the bloom (phase II) and post-bloom (phase III) conditions. Although the relative increase of primary production in picophytoplankton (250%) was 2.5 higher than in microphytoplankton (100%) after nutrient fertilization, comparing the high and low CO2 treatments, microphytoplankton dominated in terms of biomass, contributing > 57% to the total. These results contrast with similar studies conducted in temperate and cold waters, where consistently small phytoplankton benefitted after nutrient additions at high CO2, pointing to different CO2-sensitivities across plankton communities and ecosystem types in the ocean.


In this study, we explore what happens to young people labelled as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after they have been excluded from mainstream class and placed in a special class. More specifically, we focus on how a specific disability identity is locally accomplished and ascribed to a girl placed in an ADHD class containing only boys. Data are drawn from the communication books that regularly passed between the parents and teachers, and from ethnographic work in a special class for children aged 7–12 years diagnosed with ADHD, during a period of one school year. We draw on ethnomethodology, especially membership categorisation analysis, when investigating unfolding trajectories of shifting identifications during a school year. The detailed analysis reveals that the girl is accomplished as capable of managing her life in school at the beginning of the year, but by the end is constructed as disabled and identified as a typical ADHD girl in very subtle ways in the teacher's communication with the parents. Furthermore, our analysis highlights how the process of exclusion and social identification of the girl as a typical ADHD girl is mutually constructed and achieved across classroom activities in everyday schooling contexts.


ABSTRACT We herein re-discuss the systematics of the Late Miocene representatives of the most common but poorly documented Eurasian giraffid genus Palaeotragus on the occasion of the review and description of new samples from the Vallesian faunas of Northern Greece. Our results detect five Late Miocene Palaeotragus morphotypes, recognizing at least four species. The so called 'small-sized palaeotrages' are represented by the type species P. rouenii and the Chinese P. microdon, whereas the validity of P. pavlowae from Grebeniki (Ukraine) is doubted. 'Large-sized palaeotrages' are mainly represented by P. coelophrys (synonym of P. expectans, P. borissiaki, P. hoffstetteri, P. quadricornis, and probably P. moldavicus), a species that thrived in the peri- Black Sea territories during Vallesian and survived during Turolian in the Irano-Anatolian domain, likely by adopting a more robust appearance. Large palaeotrages from the Vallesian faunas of Pentalophos and Ravin de la Pluie (Axios Valley, Greece) are identidied as P. coelophrys with certain confidence. The Vallesian P. berislavicus from Berislav (Ukraine) has intermediate morphometric features between P. rouenii and P. coelophrys and it is, therefore, recognized as a most probably valid species. The latest Vallesian Nikiti-1 (Chalkidiki peninsula) large palaeotrage shares many morphometric features with P. berislavicus, suggesting that the species may have invaded Balkans by the end of Vallesian and possibly survived there until middle Turolian. The Late Miocene Palaeotragus asiaticus from Central Asia is a quite problematic species; it appears closely related to the Turolian equivalent P. cf. coelophrys from China and both may be linked to the older Berislav taxon.


Since the 19th century, dolls have served as toys but also as objects of obsession, love, and lust. That century witnessed the emergence of the term "heterosexual" and of modern concepts of fetishism, perversity, and animism. Their convergence, and the demands of a growing consumer society resulted in a proliferation of waxworks, shop-window dummies, and customized love dolls, which also began to appear in art. Oskar Kokoschka commissioned a life-sized doll of his former lover Alma Mahler; Hans Bellmer crafted poupees; and Marcel Duchamp fabricated a nude figure in his environmental tableau Etant donnes. The Erotic Doll is the first book to explore men's complex relationships with such inanimate forms from historical, theoretical, and phenomenological perspectives. Challenging our commonsense grasp of the relations between persons and things, Marquard Smith examines these erotically charged human figures by interweaving art history, visual culture, gender, and sexuality studies with the medical humanities, offering startling insights into heterosexual masculinity and its discontents.


This study investigates the potential contribution of observed changes in lower stratospheric water vapour to stratospheric temperature variations over the past three decades using a comprehensive global climate model (GCM). Three case studies are considered. In the first, the net increase in stratospheric water vapour (SWV) from 1980–2010 (derived from the Boulder frost‐point hygrometer record using the gross assumption that this is globally representative) is estimated to have cooled the lower stratosphere by up to ∼0.2 K decade−1 in the global and annual mean; this is ∼40% of the observed cooling trend over this period. In the Arctic winter stratosphere there is a dynamical response to the increase in SWV, with enhanced polar cooling of 0.6 K decade−1 at 50 hPa and warming of 0.5 K decade−1 at 1 hPa. In the second case study, the observed decrease in tropical lower stratospheric water vapour after the year 2000 (imposed in the GCM as a simplified representation of the observed changes derived from satellite data) is estimated to have caused a relative increase in tropical lower stratospheric temperatures by ∼0.3 K at 50 hPa. In the third case study, the wintertime dehydration in the Antarctic stratospheric polar vortex (again using a simplified representation of the changes seen in a satellite dataset) is estimated to cause a relative warming of the Southern Hemisphere polar stratosphere by up to 1 K at 100 hPa from July–October. This is accompanied by a weakening of the westerly winds on the poleward flank of the stratospheric jet by up to 1.5 m s−1 in the GCM. The results show that, if the measurements are representative of global variations, SWV should be considered as important a driver of transient and long‐term variations in lower stratospheric temperature over the past 30 years as increases in long‐lived greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone depletion.


The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) is an electronic information repository created by Congress. It contains information on medical malpractice payments and certain adverse actions related to health care practitioners, entities, providers, and suppliers. Federal law specifies the types of actions reported to the NPDB, who submits the reports, and who queries to obtain copies of the reports. Organizations must be authorized according to federal law to submit reports and/or query the NPDB. Organizations authorized to access these reports use them to make licensing, credentialing, privileging, or employment decisions. Individuals and organizations who are subjects of these reports have access to their own information. The reports are confidential and not available to the public.[1]


The poet and artist Oyvind Fahlstrom (1928–1976) was the leader of the Scandinavian avant-garde during the fifties and the beginning of the sixties. He wrote his only collection of poetry Bord [ Tables ] in 1952–1955, but it was not published until 1966. In this book he applies the aesthetic ideas of his two manifestos – signification is what matters in poetry but signification emanates out of the visual materiality of letters and the sounds of speech. Bord contains advanced visual poetry as well as sound poetry. We may notice that the same tools for description and analysis can be utilized for both these modalities, something that can be explained with the help of gestalt psychology and the image schemas of cognitive poetics. Fahlstrom's poem "Den svara resan" ["The hard journey"] is a three-pages score for speech choir and a beautiful visual poem as well. A harmonious, strict picture contrasts to the turbulent sounds. What you see and what you hear express different moods and supply different significations. The printed picture of elder free verse typically has a straight left margin and a wavering right one. After Fahlstrom, poets more and more tended to pattern the whole page. With time, Fahlstroms ideas met with American language poetry, creating a special quality we recognize in contemporary poetry.


Arteriovenous access ischemic steal is a fairly uncommon complication associated with the creation of a vascular access for hemodialysis, which can sometimes cause potentially devastating complications, with permanent disability. Several old names for this syndrome have now been replaced by two new denominations: Hemodialysis Access-Induced Distal Ischemia (HAIDI) and Distal Hypoperfusion Ischemic Syndrome (DHIS). Clinically, we distinguish between the Peripheral Hypoperfusion Syndrome, which can cause gangrene of the fingers, and the Monomelic Syndrome, characterized by low incidence and by the presence of neurological dysfunctions. Risk factors include diabetes mellitus, atherosclerotic vascular disease, old age, female gender, tobacco use and hypertension. We report the case of a patient with HAIDI in order to increase awareness on this syndrome's early diagnosis and proper management. After describing the case, we also include a literature review.


EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TURBULENT STRUCTURES AND NON-EQUILIBRIUM EFFECTS IN AXIAL WAKE VORTICES VIA PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY Jeffry William Ely Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Robert Ash Vortices are a common phenomenon in fluid flows that arise as kinetic energy dissipates into heat via viscous interaction. They arise naturally at large scales in the form of dust devils, tornadoes, and as a counter-rotating vortex pair in the wake of aircraft. It is important to understand the conditions leading to their formation, their duration, and their dissipation in order to forecast or prevent undesirable effects. Among these deleterious effects is a decrease in safety of aircraft operations in the wake of other aircraft, an extremely common situation at airports around the world. A large number of mathematical models and experimental data sets exists to help explain various aspects of axial wake vortex behavior, but current models fail to explain why many vortices remain tightly wound with slowly decaying azimuthal velocities about their cores the length of time for which they have been observed. The current study builds upon the theoretical work of Ash, Zardadkhan and Zuckerwar [Ash et al., 2011], and tests specific attributes of a turbulent axial vortex for agreement with non-equilibrium pressure relaxation theory. This theory provides an exact solution to a modified version of the Navier-Stokes equations for an axial vortex, with a resulting velocity model that agrees with leading empirical models. In the present investigation, axial wake vortices were created with a bi-wing vortex generator in a low speed wind tunnel, at free stream velocities between 15 and 33 m/s. Stereo particle image velocimetry was employed to map three dimensional velocity vectors at positions between 5.4 and 10 chord lengths downstream of the vortex generator, and at a sampling rate of 1Hz for 200 seconds. A Reynolds time averaging approach was employed to express instantaneous velocity measurements as localized mean and fluctuating components and to study turbulent structures within the vortices. Periodicity in turbulent energy and Reynolds stress structures was observed by comparing vortex velocity fields normalized by age, based on free stream velocity and downstream distance. The cores of these vortices appeared to periodically ingest turbulent energy and compress it into approximately one half of local core radii. The cyclical ingestion of turbulence was shown to have the effect of tightening the core radius in the wake of the vortex generator center body. If this phenomenon persists for the life of the vortex, it could provide an explanation for the longevity of the azimuthal velocity component, as observed in natural wake vortices.


The body has multiple mechanisms to mount a response to infection, including pathways activated by lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. However, the mechanism by which DNA viruses trigger an innate immune response that is independent from pathways that involve the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) has been unclear. Muruve et al. found that adenovirus-infected cultured cells stimulated the processing and release of the proinflammatory mediator interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and that this response required the DNA from the virus (delivered by cationic liposomes), but not the capsid, and was independent of TLR signaling. Transfected DNA from bacteria, synthetic DNA, plasmid DNA, or mammalian DNA also triggered IL-1β secretion, although short double-stranded oligonucleotides did not. A minimum size of about 250 base pairs was required to stimulate IL-1β release. IL-1β processing involves the inflammasome, a multiprotein complex that includes a NALP protein (a Nod-like cytosolic receptor), the adaptor protein ASC, and caspase-1. Macrophages from NALP3- or ASC-deficient mice failed to stimulate IL-1β processing and secretion in response to adenovirus infection. However, if the DNA was introduced by cationic liposome delivery, then NALP3 was not required, but ASC and caspase-1 were required, suggesting that DNA delivered by that mechanism may use an inflammasome complex with a different sensor protein. K+ efflux is known to be involved in inflammasome activation, and blocking K+ efflux pharmacologically prevented IL-1β release by adenovirus infection or DNA transfection. Mice deficient in NALP3, ASC, or caspase-1 exhibited a reduced innate immune response to infection with adenovirus. The identification of this new DNA sensor pathway for innate immunity has implications not only for understanding and potentially manipulating the response to pathogen infection but also in autoimmune disease, which may also involve aberrant activity of the inflammasome. D. A. Muruve, V. Pétrilli, A. K. Zaiss, L. R. White, S. A. Clark, P. J. Ross, R. J. Parks, J. Tschopp, The inflammasome recognizes cytosolic microbial and host DNA and triggers an innate immune response. Nature 452, 103-107 (2008). [PubMed]


A recent study by Cass Sunstein identified ideological differences in the votes cast by judges on the United States Court of Appeals in certain types of cases. He also found that these patterns varied depending on the ideology of an appellate judge's co-panelists. In this study, we undertake a similar examination of the busiest appellate court in Canada, the Court of Appeal for Ontario. This study collects data on the votes cast by individual judges on that court in every reported decision between 1990 and 2003. Each case was coded by type, for example "criminal law", "constitutional law", or "private law". In addition, the votes cast by individual judges in each category were tracked based on variables such as the type of litigant, the political party that appointed the judge, and the judge's gender. This study reveals that, at least in certain categories of cases, both party of appointment and gender are statistically significant in explaining case outcomes. Between these two variables, gender actually appears to be the stronger determinant of outcome in certain types of cases. While these findings are cause for concern, this study also points toward a simple solution. Diversity in the composition of appeal panels both from the standpoint of gender and party of appointment dampened the statistical influence of either variable. In other words, in the case of gender, a single judge on a panel who is of the opposite sex from the others, or in the case of political party, a single judge appointed by a different political party, is sufficient to eliminate the potential distorting influence of either variable. This finding suggests a need to reform how appeal panels are currently assembled in order to ensure political and gender diversity, so as to minimize concerns about the potential for bias.


Resonant free-spectral-range (FSR) RF-optic modulators using dual-disc resonators with a 2:1 ratio of the radii of the discs have been proposed and theoretically analyzed to increase the sensitivity-bandwidth product compared with that of a single resonator modulator. The transmission of the coupled resonator structure is analyzed for various coupling parameters. The phase of the larger resonator is electro-optically modulated, and the output fields at the input laser frequency and the generated sideband frequencies are calculated. The detected RF power is then calculated. The modulator sensitivity, 3-dBe modulation bandwidth, and their product have been analyzed. The sensitivity and modulation bandwidth can be increased by factors of 1.9 and 6.4, respectively, for the different cases. The sensitivity-bandwidth product can be increased up to a factor of 3.3 in one design. For ±5% error of the ratio of the radius of each disc, errors of the sensitivity and modulation bandwidth were acceptable.


Because of the variable techniques and patients' positions used in urological surgery, anesthesia for urologic surgery requires advanced knowledge and special transactions. In this matter, it is important to follow current approaches for anesthesiologists. Different surgical procedures and complications due to different positions or anesthesia were eval ‐ uated separately to be more concise. We have researched recent literature and created this chapter about new technologies in urological surgery and development in anesthesia for urological surgery.


Automatic dubbing aims at replacing all speech contained in a video with speech in a different language, so that the result sounds and looks as natural as the original. Hence, in addition to conveying the same content of an original utterance (which is the typical objective of speech translation), dubbed speech should ideally also match its duration, the lip movements and gestures in the video, timbre, emotion and prosody of the speaker, and finally background noise and reverberation of the environment. In this paper, after describing our dubbing architecture, we focus on recent progress on the prosodic alignment component, which aims at synchronizing the translated transcript with the original utterances. We present empirical results for English-to-Italian dubbing on a publicly available collection of TED Talks. Our new prosodic alignment model, which allows for small relaxations in synchronicity, shows to significantly improve both prosodic alignment accuracy and overall subjective dubbing quality of previous work.


The fact that quatrains known as Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam were not really composed by the twelfth century astronomer of that name, but composed by various hands and made into collections later, is widely accepted. This paper examines under what political and social atmosphere in later times, the collections began to be compiled, and what elements of scepticism, irreligion, mysticism and even rationalism entered into them. It is argued that the collections retained their popularity and freely circulated wherever Persian was cultivated down to modern times.


ABSTRACT The conditions under which pension schemes merge is an important issue which has been under-researched. Mergers can affect the strength of the sponsor's covenant and the balance of power between the trustees and the sponsor, as well as the deficit or the surplus of the receiving scheme and its funding ratio. This paper sets out two financial criteria to be met by any pension scheme merger: no profit or loss on merging with another scheme; and no dilution of the funding ratio. After defining a merger basis for valuing the assets and liabilities, and allowing for adjustments to the funding ratio via side receipts and payments; it is shown that, whether or not these criteria are met, depends on the state of the financial markets.


Lack of data quantifying the performance cost of implementing good exception handling often causes developers to skimp on exception handling based on its overestimated perceived cost. In an effort to remedy this problem we provide performance data on the cost of building good exception handling into software. We use the Safe Fast IO library as a basis for this study. SFIO improves robustness by a factor of 3 to 10 over STDIO without sacrificing performance. We were able to improve the robustness of the critical SFIO functions by another factor of 5, thus quantifying and reducing robustness failure rates by a factor of up to 70 from standard I/O functions, with an average performance penalty of 1% as measured by the original SFIO benchmark scheme. Future processor architecture improvements will further improve checking speed, essentially eliminating performance as an obstacle to improving software robustness.


Takcı Ş, Anuk-İnce D, Louha M, Couderc R, Çakar N, Köseoğlu RD, Ateş Ö. A rare large mutation involving two exons of the SP-B gene in an infant with severe respiratory distress. Turk J Pediatr 2017; 59: 483-486. Hereditary surfactant protein-B (SP-B) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disease of newborn infants causing severe respiratory failure and death within the first year of life. The most common cause of SP-B deficiency is a frameshift mutation in exon 4 (121ins2) in the gene encoding SP-B. We report a term infant with unremitting respiratory distress who was unresponsive to all treatment modalities. The parents were consanguineous and a term sibling of the infant had died due to respiratory failure without a certain diagnosis. In the first step of the diagnostic work-up, common genetic mutations for SP-B, surfactant protein C and ATP-binding cassette s3 were absent, however sequencing of SP-B gene revealed a large homozygous genomic deletion covering exon 8 and 9. In this case report, we aimed to emphasize further genetic evaluation in all cases suggestive of surfactant dysfunction, even if common mutations are absent.


INTRODUCTION Managers in many industries are coming to the realisation that in order to remain competitive in the rapidly changing world economy they must learn to think globally. In order to become more competitive through striving to achieve international standards of management performance, managers must factor in explicitly to their management processes the environmental and social impacts of their operations. The upsurge of concern for environmental and social risk management is global and now plays a major role in corporate strategic decision making in leading international firms in many industries. In order to succeed in the global arena, certainly in North America and western Europe and increasingly in the 'developing' world, companies must increasingly turn the public's concern for the environment to their corporate advantage (Cairncross 1992, Hart 1992, 1997, Klassen and McLaughlin 1996, Reinhardt 1999, Russo and Fouts 1997, Shrivastava and Hart 1992, Sharma and Vredenburg 1998, Vredenburg and Westley 1997, Sharma, Pablo and Vredenburg 1999). The public's concern for the environment presents firms with market opportunities (Cairncross 1992, Reinhardt 1999, Westley and Vredenburg 1991), cost-saving opportunities (Porter and van der Linde 1995), or with actual or potential environmental legislation in the various jurisdictions in which the firm operates (Cairncross 1992, Porter 1991). Porter argues that environmental protection and its proper corporate response can benefit a country's competitiveness. Countries with strong national public concern for environmental protection, or strict environmental regulations, often lead in export of affected products and services (Porter 1990, 1991). Companies whose home markets are relatively lax with respect to the protection of the natural environment have difficulty competing in the world's richest and most attractive markets where environmental concerns are highest. When in the late 1980's, for example, Germany set limits on residues of chlorinated organics in papers, its own producers could generally meet the standards but Canadian firms could not. Canadian firms expected similar limits in their domestic market and quickly switched to low chlorine techniques (Cairncross 1992). When a British publishing firm learned that their Canadian paper supplier was using virgin old growth forest, they cancelled their supply contract (CBC News, October 1992). British Columbia's environmentally-inspired Forest Practices Code, in effect for almost a decade, has motivated the B.C. forestry industry to achieve higher environmental standards. Two B.C.-based forestry firms, Canfor Corp. and Interfor Corp, both have environmental certification from the Geneva-based International Standard's Organization (ISO) (Gibbon 2000). This certification has resulted in increased market access to major markets and major retail chains in those markets, such as Home Depot, who demand that producers log in environmentally friendly ways (Gibbon, 2000). Globally competitive companies will increasingly find themselves facing different environmental and social standards in different countries. World standards will, however, tend to be driven by the standards set in the larger, richer markets, which also tend to have the highest environmental and social standards. California's strict standards on car emissions have, after a lapse of time, become those of the U.S.; Germany's packaging laws increasingly have become Europe's (Cairncross, 1992). Multinational firms from the 'developed world' are finding, in a world of instant electronic communications and an increasingly active community of international non-governmental organisations (NGO's) (Economist, 2000) that they are expected to comply with the 'developed world's' highest standards regardless of where their operations are found. Nike, Shell, Enron, Monsanto, and McDonald's each were heavily criticised by critics abroad and in their home markets over the past few years for poor management decisions regarding environmental and social issues in their global operations (Economist, 2000). …


The article discusses implementation of Russia's international obligations in fisheries management, nuclear safety and air pollution control. Empirical evidence is taken from the country's northwestern region. A main theoretical question is to what extent the observed level of compliance with international agreements can be explained by the nature of the problem and agreements at hand, and by the implementation activities of public authorities and target groups. The implementation performance in the case of fisheries management can be explained mainly by both positive and negative elements in public authorities' implementation efforts. In air pollution control, the nature of the commitments, i.e. the very limited need for behavioral changes, is the main explanation for implementation performance. The picture is a bit more complex in the case of nuclear safety where all the factors reviewed have had a moderate or considerable effect on implementation performance. Notably, institutional conflict at the federal level has hampered implementation, while regional authorities have since the mid-1990s indulged in constructive collaboration with various federal agencies.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7, has been tasked as the lead federal agency in protecting water infrastructure in the U.S. As part of this directive, research has begun ondeveloping tools and strategies for consequence assessment, contaminant warning systems (CWS), and response management for drinking water distribution systems. The contaminant warning system portion of this research has been formulated toconsist of three data streams: public health data, water quality sensor reporting, andcomposite sampling. The Water Infrastructure Protection Division (WIPD) of the National Homeland Security Research Center (within the EPA) has been developingapproaches for implementing a sensor-based CWS. The sensor-based CWS usestypical water quality sensors, rather than contaminant specific sensors, to provide utilities a dual-benefit sensor network for both security and general management operations for improved water quality. Environmental systems analysis plays a large role in the development of a CWS. In2003, WIPD began a program entitled the Threat Ensemble Vulnerability Assessment (TEVA) Research Program. Phase I tools of the TEVA program have been developed for: 1) consequence assessment through a Monte Carlo based approach for simulating large numbers of contamination events; and 2) optimal sensor placement to minimize the expected consequences of potential events. The Phase I tools havebeen applied to the network models of several participating large-scale utilities. Phase II studies will develop real-time tools associated with a CWS that work with hydraulic and water quality sensors based on optimization, numerical, and statistical techniques. These tools will utilize real-time sensor data for, as examples, event detection, contaminant source location, and contaminant tracking. Phase II also includes the design and implementation of an environmental observatory for an engineered system (i.e., a CWS), which will provide the ability totest, evaluate, and refine the tools associated with the TEVA program. A complete set of water quality sensors will be placed at optimal locations throughout the distribution system. A sub-set of water quality, flow, and pressure sensors will beplaced at additional locations to ensure adequate spatial coverage corresponding to specific distribution system metrics (e.g., hydraulic residence time). Water quality monitoring will provide baseline information for understanding a multitude of issues, such as false-positive rates for sensor network reliability. Tracer tests will be used tosimulate otherwise low-probability events that assist in evaluating the performance of the Phase I and II tools. The combined hydraulic and water quality data will also beused to improve the ability of distribution system network models to represent observed dynamic behavior. The TEVA research program is a collaborative effort with other universities andnational laboratories. Our collaborative efforts will continue to expand to: 1) develop tools that will assist utility decision makers with daily operational and managementissues as well as long-term planning and design decisions as part of the dual-usebenefit; and 2) integrate the sensor based CWS data with other information to developa fully integrated warning system, which will include, but not limited to, public health syndromic information and emergency room data. These issues will require the collaboration with other individuals and groups in areas such as public health, epidemiology, and urban planning.


Meteor radars are used for continuous atmospheric observations for many years. The collected data can be used to create wind fields in heights between 70 and 120 km, which can further be used in comparison with other types of measurments to conclude interactions between atmospheric layers like vertical waves. The goal of this thesis is therefore the development of a multistatic continuous-wave radar with pseudo random coding. The idea behind this is a radar network with multiple transmit and receive stations, which creates multiple baselines for meteor detection. With that the observable volume of the atmosphere is enlarged and additionally the system is modularly expandable by adding transmit or receive systems, which allows to increase the performance of the system by means of meteor rates easily in the long term.


Comets formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the Pre-Solar Nebula and spent most of their existence in the outer and colder regions of the Solar System, beyond the Neptune's orbit. These small celestial bodies, with masses ranging between 1014g and 1021g, could be considered the cosmo-chemical record of the primordial Solar Nebula. Therefore studying comets means investigating the physic-chemical properties of the material that formed the Solar System. With the aim of exploring the nature and the composition of these fascinating objects, several cometary space missions have been realized since the 1980's. The first comet to be observed by a space probe, the NASA/ISEE 3 spacecraft, was comet 21P/Giacobini-Zimmer in 1985. One year after comet 1P/Halley was deeply studied by five different space probes: Vega 1 and Vega 2 (Soviet Union), Sakigake and Suisei (Japan), and GIOTTO (ESA). More recently two NASA missions, Deep Space 1 and Stardust, observed comet 19P/Borrelly and 81P/Wild 2, respectively, showing a considerable and unexpected mineral diversity in these objects. Despite the improvements provided by all these space missions, our knowledge about cometary nuclei, comae and activity remains rather primitive in many aspects.
An incredible opportunity to make a critical step forward in cometary science and more in general in the knowledge of the Solar System origin is represented by the ESA space mission, Rosetta (Chapter 1). Thanks to the encounter with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/CG), Rosetta will allow an extensive study of the mineral variety present in this Jupiter Family comet. Moreover this mission, for the first time, will undertake a comet long-term monitoring at close quarters along its orbit, allowing the study of the comet behaviour from the moment the cometary activity will start, when it will reach its maximum at perihelion and after it when it will slowly decrease.
Among the instruments mounted on-board Rosetta, there is the Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator (GIADA) developed with the aim of studying the cometary dust environment, the evolution of the dust flow and the dynamics of each single grain as a function of time and position, i.e. at variable distances of the spacecraft from the nucleus and of the comet from the Sun.
GIADA is designed as a single instrument composed of three different detection sub-systems:
1-	Grain Detection System (GDS): detects each incoming grain, providing its optical equivalent size and measuring its speed, without affecting its dynamical properties.
2-	Impact Sensor (IS): measures the momentum released from each grain impacting its sensitive surface.
3-	Micro-Balances System (MBS): a network of five Quartz Crystal Microbalances, pointing toward different directions, that measure the cumulative dust deposition in time and monitor the dust flux ejected from the comet.

Thanks to its features, described in Chapter 2, GIADA will contribute to the achievement of two of the five Main Goals assigned to the Rosetta space mission:
-	Define the physical properties and interrelation of volatiles and refractories in a cometary nucleus;
-	Study the development of cometary activity and processes in the surface layer of the nucleus and in the inner coma (dust-gas interaction).
Rosetta was launched on the 2nd March 2004 and will reach, at a distance of 4 AU from the Sun, the comet 67P/CG on May 2014, after a long trek lasted 10 years around the Sun. In order to limit power and fuel consumption, and to minimise operating costs, Rosetta was put in hibernation on the 8th of January 2011. The seven years after launch and prior to hibernation are called Cruise Phase. During the Cruise Phase 13 Payload Checkouts (PCs) have been executed in order to verify the instruments functionalities and to perform the maintenance. GIADA detection sub-systems were switched on to monitor their health state and verify their performances. The results of the analysis of the data collected by GIADA during these tests, reported in Chapter 3, show that GIADA functionalities and performances have maintained their nominal behaviour; only the cover mechanism showed a non-nominal behaviour, which had a small impact on the microbalance sub-system: contamination deposited on the QCM because of the cover remained open caused a small decrease of their dynamical range. This will not affect the GIADA measurement capability during the Rosetta comet encounter and escort phase.
Rosetta has awakened from hibernation on the 20th January 2014 and now its payloads are undergoing the post-hibernation commissioning, a phase devoted to the instruments re-activation-maintenance and checkout activities in preparation to the rendez-vous with comet 67P/CG. GIADA has successfully executed its first post-hibernation commissioning on the 27th March 2014.
In preparation to comet encounter, the GIADA Team planned an extended calibration activity (Chapter 4) devoted to create a database of the sub-systems response to different kind of cometary dust analogue grains (composition, mineralogy, ice and carbon coatings) that will be used to support the analysis of the data that GIADA will collect during the comet phase. This activity was planned taking into account the new knowledge on cometary dust composition reached after the NASA/Stardust space mission. In order to well characterize the instrument responsivity with respect to realistic cometary analogue materials, some dust samples were prepared, taking into account the GIADA sub-systems sensitivities (GDS and IS), in four distinct size classes: 20 μm<O<50 μm, 50 μm<O<100 μm, 100 μm<O<250 μm and 250 μm<O<500 μm. Single grains of these selected materials were shot into the GIADA Proto Flight Model, i.e. the spare of the instrument on board Rosetta operating in a clean room in our laboratory, with velocities in the range 1-100 ms-1. In order to capture, manipulate and shoot these small grains, an innovative Electrostatic Micromanipulator has been developed. The use of this tool resulted to be very useful during the calibration activities. In addition, two new empirical methods were developed with the aim to improve the capability of reconstructing the IS impact position and the GDS crossing position of each single grain entering into GIADA. These are key issues to scale the signal detected by the two sub-systems using the sensitivity maps measured during the pre-launch calibrations. The method developed for the GDS measurements was used during the present calibration activity with cometary dust analogues that led to the assembly of the calibration curves for each different material.
The results obtained after the work performed during the three years of PhD represent a significant step forward within the GIADA project that will surely critically contribute to make GIADA performances, data acquisition and reduction a success.


This paper is concerned with the ongoing changes and the evolution of CAAD using machine-assisted techniques. It is feasible to create a hypothesis of the identity of the discipline depicted in the archived published output, and semantically link it to the data cloud. This allows for expansion of the meanings embodied in the research and inference about what CAAD is, and to trace back how the field progressed. We present several case-studies showing how this inference is done and finally, observations are elaborated and an outlook on further work is discussed.


Received: August 2015, Accepted: September 2015 Background: Bakers, due to the nature of their jobs, are at risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) caused by ergonomic factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical risk factors for MSDs in bakers. Materials and Methods: In the current study, all Sangak, Taftoon, and Lavash bread bakeries in Gonabad, Iran, were selected based on census method. Then, hierarchical task analysis (HTA) method was used for task analysis and their occupation was classified into tasks, actions, and movements. The Shater (the employee who places the bread in the oven), Chanegeer (the employee who cuts the dough), and Nangeer (the employee who removes the bread from the oven) employees were studied in this respect. Subsequently,postural loading on the upper body assessment (LUBA) and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists-Hand activity level (ACGIH-HAL) methods were implemented to identify common risk factors in repetitive tasks that can contribute to the development of MSDs of upper limbs. Analysis of the results in this study was performed using SPSS software. Results: A LUBA score of higher than 10 was obtained by 83.33% of workers in Tafton bakeries, 100% of employees in Sangak bakeries, and 91.66% of workers inLavash bakeries. ACGIH-HAL index results of 100% of Sangak, 50.37% of Taftoon, and 50% of Lavash bakery workers were in the red (danger) zone. The LUBA score of nosubjects was below 5 (action level one).Highest relative discomfort score of Nangeer and Shater in Tafton bakeries was in the back area and of Chanegeer in the neck and shoulder area. Highest score of relative discomfort of Shater, Chanegeer, and Nangeeremployees of Lavash bakerieswas in the lumbar area and neck and ofShater and Nangeer of Sangak bakerieswas in the elbow and wrist area. Conclusions: The results showed that the risk of MSDs due to repetitive tasks is relatively high in bakeryand ergonomic interventions required in order to redesign the job.


Niobium is well known for its excellent corrosion resistance based on the formation of a stable passive oxide layer, which protects the metal against corrosion in most aqueous media and makes it an interesting candidate for corrosion resistant coating applications. However, deposition of Nb films is restricted to few technologies and difficulties arise from the toxic nature of the electrolytes employed in electrodeposition of Nb, the high reactivity of the metal with residual gases in vacuum plasma spraying and its high melting point (Tm = 2500 0C) in PVD deposition.The present thesis describes the development of corrosion resistant Nb coatings on stainless steel and brass substrates by the combined steered arc/ unbalanced magnetron sputtering technique. Evaluation of the corrosion behaviour is performed by potentiodynamic polarisation measurements in 3% NaCl. It is shown that corrosion resistant Nb coatings, with passivation characteristics similar to that of bulk Nb, can be produced on stainless steel substrates by unbalanced magnetron sputtering at a low deposition temperature (T = 250 0C) under reduced ion bombardment. However, the ion etching pre-treatment of the substrate prior to deposition has a significant influence on the corrosion resistance of the coating/ substrate system. The employed polarisation measurements reveal that a fully passive and protective behaviour could only be achieved if Nb ions from the cathodic arc source are chosen as the etching species. In contrast, coatings deposited after Cr ion etching from the arc source and inert Ar ion etching, utilising a glow discharge, exhibit localised breakdown and pitting of the substrate. Cross sectional TEM imaging and STEM-EDX analyses reveal that bombardment of the stainless steel substrate by the multiply charged Nb ions generates a compositionally intermixed, very fine crystalline or "amorphised" interface layer, with a thickness of ~3-8nm, depending on the Nb ion energy. It is proposed that this layer acts as an additional barrier against corrosion due to (i) the structural homogeneity achieved by amorphisation and (ii) chemical stabilisation due to the introduction of Nb in the near surface region. The energy of the bombarding Nb ions, i.e. the substrate bias voltage during the etching stage, was found to further influence the corrosion resistance. Best results are achieved with "medium" bias voltages in the range of -600V to -800V, which is believed to be due to an optimum combination of structural and chemical protection mechanisms.The fully passive corrosion behaviour could not be observed in the case of brass substrates. However, the PVD coating systems on brass and on stainless steel are superior, in the employed polarisation measurements, to commercially produced, electroplated Cr, Ni and Ni/Cr coatings on the same substrate materials.Other coating properties investigated in the present study include microstructure, hardness, crystallographic orientation and residual film stresses.


Objectives Cadmium is a non-essential toxic metal with multiple adverse health effects. Cadmium has been shown to be associated with cardiovascular diseases, but few studies have investigated heart failure (HF) and none of them reported atrial fibrillation (AF). We examined whether cadmium exposure is associated with incidence of HF or AF. Design A prospective, observational cohort study with a 17-year follow-up. Setting The city of Malmö, Sweden. Participants Blood cadmium levels were measured in 4378 participants without a history of HF or AF (aged 46–67 years, 60% women), who participated in the Malmö Diet and Cancer (MDC) study during 1992–1994. Primary and secondary outcome measures Incidence of HF and AF were identified from the Swedish hospital discharge register. Results 143 participants (53% men) were diagnosed with new-onset HF and 385 individuals (52% men) were diagnosed with new-onset AF during follow-up for 17 years. Blood cadmium in the sex-specific 4th quartile of the distribution was significantly associated with incidence of HF. The (HR, 4th vs 1st quartile) was 2.64 (95% CI 1.60 to 4.36), adjusted for age, and 1.95 (1.02 to 3.71) after adjustment also for conventional risk factors and biomarkers. The blood cadmium level was not significantly associated with risk of incident AF. Conclusions Blood cadmium levels in the 4th quartile were associated with increased incidence of HF in this cohort with comparatively low exposure to cadmium. Incidence of AF was not associated with cadmium.


Black Teeth is a novel based on Andrea Dunbar, a young woman with an extraordinary talent for writing who becomes famous by accident. She is propelled into the London theatre establishment via a Women's Aid refuge and an adapted screenplay of two of her early plays brings her wealth, accolades and notoriety. Rita, Sue and Bob Too! is a national scandal upon its release, and its tagline 'Thatcher's Britain with Her Knickers Down' ensures it is a box office sensation. Fame brings her great anxiety and she is unable to cope with the media attention of the national press who elect her a poster girl for the underclass. Dunbar slowly succumbs to the pitfalls of drink and spends her last days in her local pub The Beacon, where she writes her final script based on a gang of unscrupulous debt collectors. In 1990, aged 29, she collapses in the pub from a fatal brain haemorrhage.

This creative work reflects the harsh realities of working-class life during the 1980s and reveals the story of Andrea Dunbar, a remarkably stubborn 'genius straight from the slums'. Through a cast of real and imagined characters the novel explores how her portrayal of the Buttershaw Estate revealed levels of poverty within her own community that were previously unknown to the outside world. Her black-witted comedies included themes of domestic violence, underage sex, alcoholism and the declining status of men. By using frank and expletive-ridden dialogue Dunbar gave a no-holds-barred account of the working-class North composed in the tradition of social realism.

This is the first time an account of Dunbar's life and work has appeared in novel form and offers a unique insight into one of the North's lost literary greats. It places her work within the social and historical context of the Thatcher era and re-asserts her position within the cultural heritage of West Yorkshire. By drawing connections to recent works in contemporary Northern literature the research also explores representations of West Riding in the 1970s and 80s. It examines the work of Gordon Burn and David Peace and shows how they utilised the non-fiction novel and New Journalism forms to create fact-based fiction set in the region.


On September 28, 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug mifepristone, also known as RU-486, for the termination of early pregnancy. Because RU-486 is an abortion agent, the process of moving it out of the lab and into mainstream medicine has been fraught with controversy. Since its discovery, the pro-life movement has been adamantly against the use of this drug for abortion. This report discusses the procedure of obtaining and using the drug, as well as the ongoing debate regarding its usage and related legislation.


Swarms of robots can quickly search large environments through parallelisation, are robust due to redundancy, and can simplify complex tasks like navigation compared to a single robot. Flying swarms can rapidly cover rough terrain and have elevated sensing, aiding tasks such as search or surveillance. However, flying robots have severe limitations in sensing, processing and energy, which raise three open challenges to realise indoor aerial swarms. The first is goal-directed autonomous flight, which normally requires absolute positioning from GPS or external tracking systems, unavailable in unknown indoor environments. On-board sensing approaches using illumination-dependent cameras or laser scanners that can fail in homogeneous environments require processing on ground stations using long-range communication due to high computational demands. Although optic-flow based approaches can be less computationally demanding, they require significant illumination and contrast, and need additional sensors for goal-directed flight. The second challenge is cooperative search and navigation, which typically requires either absolute positioning, localisation using a priori environment maps or the computationally expensive online creation of maps. Thirdly, collective systems frequently suffer inefficiencies due to interference and unnecessary locomotion, resulting in wasted energy. Prior research to improve coordination usually required maps, centralised processing or GPS and considered only ground robots, but flying robots have significantly different energy characteristics and demands. Alternative strategies are therefore required that do not rely on absolute positioning or localisation, environment maps, long-range communication or centralised processing, referred to as Global Information. This thesis introduces a holistic approach to achieve autonomous flight and navigation by embedding a network of robots in the environment with local sensing, processing and communication. A new methodology is presented for goal-directed autonomous flight using relative positioning in reference to nearby static robots. This allows flying robots to directly perceive their motion and fly across the network through the environment. Comprehensive validation tests demonstrated a quadrotor successfully exploring a confined indoor environment. Efficient navigation is achieved using communication messages propagated across the robot network to retrieve the shortest paths. Search is accomplished with a systematic strategy to dynamically redeploy the robot network to unexplored areas. Extensive realistic simulation analysis showed that swarms of 20–30 robots could search a variety of large indoor environments. To mitigate the short flight endurance, different swarm deployment strategies are systematically compared that reduce robot interference and decrease unnecessary locomotion by exploiting gained environment information. The strategies either control the dispatching rate, robot activation or exploit the network to recruit robots when and where necessary. These comparisons facilitate the selection of the best strategy according to the robot capabilities and application requirements. In summary, this thesis resolves three major challenges in aerial swarm robotics and contributes new methodologies to significantly progress the realisation of energy-efficient indoor search by swarms of flying robots. This research should enable many applications such as locating toxic gas leaks, crowd monitoring, and searching for suspicious objects or injured victims.


The interweavement of philosophy and literature allows to gain a new sense from the own, lived experiences and to express them through narrations, as the paradigmatic works of Nietzsche, Deleuze and Borges show. They all deal with the inexorability of time and the fact of being at the mercy of the unwanted aspects of Being-in-the-world, the detailed reading of which allows us to assert that the event of the emergence of a new sense lies in the experience of the creative power of the instant, wherein the difference is introduced as the first principle through a Copernican turn and where the eternity expresses itself. In fact, the instant in its repetition results from a strike of chance, an assumption which leads to a new understanding not only of time as a network of destinies, but of eternity as extensive, intensive or ecstatic eternity. Being involved in this experience means to undergo an existential experience of time which produces an irrevocable change of the self.


The paper highlights the premises of the revitalization process of tourism: the significance of the "Transalpine" area, its intersection with routes of intense mobility of the population, the numerous natural and anthropogenic elements and their outstanding tourist value, the high rate of anthropization and insertions in the mountainous area caused by a diverse economy specific to mountainous areas, the tourist accessibility to the area, etc. The extremely favorable natural premises, the anthropogenic, ethnographic and enthno-folkloric potential, as well as the development of the north-south and east-west routes facilitate development of tourism in the Transalpine mountainous area. We have highlighted some distinct features of certain tourist models. Thus, there are two ethno-folkloric areas, two main tourist axes (a transversal one and a longitudinal one) and secondary tourist axes (along the mountains summits) as well as two urban areas (Sebes in the north and Novaci in the south) which attract and guide the tourist flow. The purpose of this approach is aimed at diminishing the transit tourism, as well as diminishing seasonal tourism through the diversification of tourism. This requires coherent national development strategy integrated in the regional context, inter-county joint projects, the involvement of local authorities and tourist agencies as well as substantial funding.


Microchannels are of current interest for use in heat exchangers where very high heat transfer performance is desired. Microchannels provide very high heat transfer coefficients because of their small hydraulic diameters. In this study, an investigation of fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannels is conducted.
A review of the literature published regarding fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannels is provided in this study. A thorough background on the theory of internal convective heat transfer is provided as well. A critical analysis of some of the published heat transfer experiments on microchannels is also given. It was found that some of the experimental methods published recently employ experimental and data reduction techniques which may result in errors for reported Nusselt numbers. A brief computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation into the heat transfer and fluid flow performance of some channels with designed bumps is also presented. It was found that designed channels offer enhanced Nusselt numbers in the turbulent regime at the cost of a higher friction factor when compared to a plain channel.
Fluid flow and heat transfer experiments were conducted on a copper microchannel heat exchanger (MHE). An experimental method of imposing a constant surface temperature to the MHE was used. A description of the experimental apparatus and procedure is provided. The friction factor results from the experiments agree fairly well with theoretical correlations. The experimental Nusselt number results agree with theory very well in the transition/turbulent regime, but the results show a higher Nusselt number in the laminar regime than predicted by theoretical correlations. A full description of the data reduction and analysis of the experimental data is given. A CFD model was created to simulate the fluid in the inlet plenum and the microchannels. The results from these simulations are presented, and they show good agreement with the experimental data in the transition/turbulent regime as well as with theoretical correlations for laminar and turbulent flow.


We investigated the habitat depth and population dynamics of mesopelagic foraminifera in Monterey Bay, California, using 12 yr of video surveys and specimens from live collections. The water column over Monterey Canyon continuously supports two distinct species of mesopelagic foraminifera, Hastigerinella digitata and a previously unknown species referred to as Hastigerina sp., with H. digitata dominating the planktonic foraminiferal assemblage at mesopelagic depths. H. digitata populations live within a narrow depth horizon that lies above the core of the regional oxygen minimum zone at a depth of 280–358 m and O2 concentrations of 1–1.3 mL L−1. Our observations provide a modern calibration for understanding fossil digitate planktonic foraminifera. We observed numerous copepods in various stages of ingestion on the spines of H. digitata and a conspicuous lack of detritus attached to the spine network, providing support for the hypothesis that H. digitata is an obligate carnivore. H. digitata populations did not show the strong two‐phase seasonality that characterizes the population dynamics of many mesopelagic species that live above the Monterey Canyon, although H. digitata was generally more abundant in cooler waters on seasonal and interannual timescales.


Hardware-in-the-loop simulation is today a standard method for testing electronic equipment in the automotive industry. Since electric drives and power electronic devices are more and more important in automotive applications, these kinds of systems have to be integrated into the hardware-in-the-loop simulation. Power converters and electric drives are used in many different applications in vehicles today (hybrid electric or electric powertrain, electric steering systems, DC-DC converters, etc.). The wide range of applications, topologies, and power levels results in various different approaches and solutions for hardware-in-the-loop testing. This paper gives an overview of hardware-in-the-loop simulation of power electronics and electric drives in the automotive industry. The currently available technologies are described and future challenges are outlined.


According to Labov (1966, 1972), the selection of a given style is primarily dependent on the amount of attention the speaker pays to what he is saying. In more formal styles he tends to be more aware of the way he speaks, and in less formal styles he does not concentrate on his linguistic performance. An alternative explanation of style-shifting was proposed by Giles (1973), who suggests that the speaker attunes his speech toward his addressee. The major aim of the present paper is to evaluate these two approaches in a single experiment. In order to fulfil this task the distribution of formal and informal variants of three selected variables have been investigated in the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). This corpus allows the testing of the variants according to specific transcript attributes, making it particularly suitable for the task. The results of the experiment indicate that the choice of a speaker's style depends on both of the factors suggested in the two theories and, as proposed in some recent publications, the process may be affected simultaneously by many other aspects of the speech event.


Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) for trajectory generation of mobile robot suffers from nonlinear constraints due to complex obstacle contours and dynamic environment. In this paper, firstly, we introduce a relative velocity coordinates MILP (RVCs-MILP) for solving the nonlinear constraints problem in the trajectory generation of the target pursuit and multiple-obstacle avoidance (TPMOA). The computational load of the RVCs-MILP does not increase with the complexity of obstacle contour but only relates to the number of the obstacles. It can be applied in real time when the number of the obstacles is small. For the large numbers of obstacles avoidance, further, we propose an IHDR based online learning mechanism. It sets up a "scenario-action mapping" knowledge base by continuously offline training and online updating. For a trajectory generation task, it will search a best match path of the current state in the knowledge base according to the external environments and the state of the robot in real time. Simulations are presented in comparison with the evolution algorithms (EA) and IHDR The former shows significant improvement in a number of aspects. The latter confirms the validation of the proposed IHDR methods.


This paper presents the current state of development and selected technological challenges in the application of ecologically and economically sustainable nets for aquaculture based on ongoing development projects. These aim at the development of a new material system of high-strength stainless steel wires as net material with environmentally compatible antifouling properties for nearshore and offshore aquacultures. Current plastic netting materials will be replaced with high-strength stainless steel to provide a more environmentally friendly system that can withstand more severe mechanical stresses (waves, storms, tides and predators). A new antifouling strategy is expected to solve current challenges, such as ecological damage (e.g., due to pollution from copper-containing antifouling substances or microplastics), high maintenance costs (e.g., cleaning and repairs), and shorter service life. Approaches for the next development steps are presented based on previous experience as well as calculation models based on this experience.