Long-wave theory and simple turbulence closures have been used to show that three distinct types of circulation (highly stratified, weakly stratified, and partially mixed) arise in narrow, shallow estuaries from the finite amplitude of the tide and the interaction of stratification with vertical mixing. Each type has a different dominant process causing the vertical exchange of salt and fresh water on the flood, and each gives rise to a characteristic residual circulation. The tidal circulation in highly stratified shallow estuaries, described herein, is the result of a finite amplitude internal motion driven by the barotropic tide; shear instabilities at the interface are the major vertical exchange mechanism. The residual circulation is caused primarily by ebb-flood asymmetry in interface position and thickness. A model based on our theoretical analysis shows that the interface thickness on flood is much less than the depth of flow up to a critical tidal amplitude at which the two-layer flow is destroyed, and correctly predicts the tidal amplitude of the neap-spring transition in the Columbia River Estuary. Tidal frequency internal wave motion is not found in weakly stratified and partially mixed estuaries. Because of the reduced tidal shear, shear instabilities are weak or absent, and the residual circulation assumes a very different character, as described in part 2.


Rupture of the gastrocnemius muscle and subsequent disruption of the reciprocal mechanism of the hind limb was diagnosed in 6 foals examined at 7 hours to 3 weeks of age. In 2 foals, the musculoskeletal injury was detected as an ancillary finding to clinical signs of neurologic dysfunction ascribed to hypoxic ischemic insult during delivery, whereas in the other 4 foals, musculoskeletal injury, manifested as inability to rise or stand unsupported, was the chief complaint at admission. Five foals had a history of dystocia and assisted delivery. Common clinical signs were inability to rise, disruption of the reciprocal mechanism, swelling in the caudal aspect of the thigh, instability of the stifle joint, and stifle joint effusion. For mild gastrocnemius injury, exercise restriction via forced recumbency, with minimal or no bandaging, may be sufficient treatment. For more severe disruption of the muscle, limb stabilization via splinting and intensive nursing and monitoring are necessary. Four foals had important concurrent problems, including musculoskeletal deformations (joint contractures), hypoxic ischemic disease, and failure of passive transfer and associated problems (ie, sepsis, polyarthritis, and pneumonia). Moderate to severe gastrocnemius muscle injury is difficult to treat successfully, and the long-term prognosis for athletic function should be regarded as guarded.


Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is a large university consisting of several campuses, all containing many buildings and a variety of rooms. As a result of this magnitude it is challenging for facility managers to properly monitor and manage all building resources in the most advantageous approach. Since it's launch in 2011, MazeMap has helped both students and staff at NTNU to reach their destinations by providing means of outdoor and indoor navigation capabilities. In addition to being an application, MazeMap is also the underlying infrastructure for the collection of indoor positioning data from wireless devices at campus Gløshaugen. The creators of MazeMap, Wireless Trondheim, has also developed a system called Analytics System which uses the collected positioning data in order to calculate how many devices are located in each room at Gløshaugen. The goal of this research is to investigate whether or not the data produced by the Analytics System can provide a good representation of actual room usage at campus Gløshaugen. The research uses the quantitative research approach in order to investigate if the accuracy of the collected positioning data is sufficient in order to give a good representation of room usage. By doing measurements in various rooms at Gløshaugen by measuring how many people are in the rooms it is possible to do comparison between actual room usage and the number of devices the Analytics System have estimated. Measurements are done in different types of rooms such as lecture halls, reading rooms and computer labs. The result of the research is that the usage data produced by the current Analytics System can't be used to give a good representation of actual room usage at Gløshaugen. The numbers produced by the system is so low that no connection can be made between the calculated number of devices there are in a room and the actual number of persons in the room. It was only possible to see a small spikes in the usage data for measurements where about 150 persons were present in the room. Various approaches to improve the current Analytics System are suggested.


Geodetic baseline measurements using the Global Positioning System (GPS) were acquired in November 1985 across the Gulf of California between Loreto (Bahia Concepcion) and Cabo San Lucas in Baja California and Mazatlan on the mainland of Mexico. This experiment had two main objectives. The first was initiation of a research effort, hopefully spanning a decade or more, aimed at determining spreading rates in the Gulf and, with the eventual expansion of the network to northern Baja California, understanding the complex pattern of strain distribution along this part of the Pacific-North American plate boundary. The second objective, the focus of this paper, was assessment of deployment strategies, analytical techniques, and the inherent precision of GPS-based geodetic measur ments in the region. We review several approaches for calibration of path delays due to variable tropospheric water vapor content, and investigate the effect of varying the number and geometry of fixed GPS tracking sites (the fiducial network). Day-to-day repeatability using optimum tropospheric calibration methods and four fiducial stations in the U.S. is better than 2.0 cm in horizontal baseline components for baselines up to 650 km in length spanning the Gulf of California. In the absence of any slowly varying systematic error sources, this performance should permit detection of spreading across the southern Gulf of California in less than 5 years, and estimation of spreading rates to better than 0.3 cm/yr in less than 10 years, assuming short-term (geodetic) and long-term (geologic) rates are comparable. Similar precision should be achievable throughout the region as the network is expanded. End_Page 497------------------------


INTRODUCTION
Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are abnormalities affecting the temporomandibular joint, jaw muscles, or both. An intrinsic relationship reportedly exists between TMDs and psychosocial factors, including stress. Parafunctional habits such as bruxism and clenching are also known to be responsible for TMDs.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the association of anxiety, depression, and bruxism with TMD symptoms and their relationship with age and sex.

METHODS
Patients included in the study reported, as their chief concern, pain lasting for more than a week in the temporomandibular joint area and/or masticatory muscles. The patients were divided into age groups as follows: Younger than 20 years, 21 to 30 years, 31 to 40 years, 41 to 50 years, 51 to 60 years, and above 60 years. Patients were examined clinically and were asked to complete an anamnestic questionnaire (modified version of Helkimo Anamnestic Index) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

RESULTS
Seventy-five patients (55 women, 20 men) were included in the study. The prevalence of TMDs was higher in female patients, of whom 33 (60%) had moderate to severe TMDs. Of the 20 male patients, 12 (60%) had signs and symptoms of moderate TMDs. Anxiety and depression scores were higher in female patients. No significant correlation was found between degree of malocclusion and TMDs.

DISCUSSION
We found correlations between the degree of TMD with age, sex, parafunctional habits, and psychosocial factors. Symptoms of TMD seemed to increase in patients with parafunctional habits, from younger to older age groups, and with increased anxiety and depression scores.

CONCLUSION
The degree of TMDs is higher in women, and TMDs are associated with higher anxiety and depression scores. Correlation between these factors paves the way for preventive actions aimed at those with moderate and severe signs of TMDs.


Idiopathic scoliosis (IS) is a lifetime condition and is defined as a structural, lateral rotated curvature of the spine of >10° on standing coronal plane radiographs. It should be distinguished from other causes of scoliosis. It can be classified as infantile, juvenile, and adolescent according to age. As a rule of thumb, about 80% of all curves are idiopathic, right convex thoracic, and present in otherwise healthy girls at the beginning of puberty. A family member most commonly detects scoliosis. The structural asymmetry of the spine is best observed by asking the patient to bend forward. IS is often seen in more than one member of a family, but the aetiology remains unknown. Multiple genes are likely to be involved with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. Early detection by screening allows for monitoring curve progression and timely initiation of bracing, but school screening is controversial and practises vary worldwide. Most patients have minor scoliosis and treatment is generally not recommended for patients with curves <20°, but in many European countries clinicians recommend physiotherapy (scoliosis specific exercises) for smaller curves. The indication for bracing is a progressive curve of 25-45° in a growing child. Its effectiveness has been debated, but in a large recent randomised study, the number of teenagers with high-risk curves who progressed to the threshold of surgery was significantly reduced. Surgery is recommended for patients with curves >45°. Scoliosis surgery was not successful until the introduction of Harrington's instrumentation in the 1960s. Modern instrumentation has evolved from the Cotrel-Dubousset system in the 1980s, and a variety of methods are available today. Although scoliosis may be a burden, long-term studies suggest that a good quality of life is maintained in most patients.


This dissertation examines the impact of the First Principles of Instruction (FPI) model when applied to face-to-face (F2F) and flipped technology integration courses. Through this investigation, I demonstrate how the FPI inform the design of problem-centered environments, their impact on participants' technological, pedagogical, content knowledge (TPACK), and the essential aspects of experiencing these FPI-based courses. Using an embedded quasiexperimental mixed methods design, the quantitative analyses of preand postTPACK outcomes were examined and related to the interventions' mechanisms via the descriptive phenomenological analysis of participants' course learning experiences. Participants were 32 preservice teachers enrolled in the second of three required technology integration courses during the 2017 spring and fall semesters. Data included surveys, technology-integrated lesson designs, prompted course reflections, and semi-structured interviews. In the flipped group, preservice teachers' self-perceptions of TK, PK, TCK, TPK, and TPACK statistically significantly increased and had large effect sizes. Except for TK, the F2F group's self-perceptions of all TPACK domains statistically significantly increased with medium to large effect sizes. The non-significant growth in the F2F group's TK, an unexpected outcome of a technology integration course, was illuminated by the qualitative analysis. Participants' experiences unique to the flipped section indicated that exposure to new technologies prior to the physical class contributed to their increased perception of TK. As for application of TPACK to technology-integrated lesson designs, both groups demonstrated statistically significant growth with large effect sizes (F2F p = .000, d = 1.17; Flipped p = .000, d = 1.97). The magnitude of the results strongly demonstrates the FPI's positive impact on TPACK-related learning outcomes in the F2F and flipped courses. Further analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between groups' perceptions and application of TPACK. These non-significant differences suggest the FPI were equally effective when applied to designing flipped and F2F courses. The phenomenological analyses revealed that the participants experienced technology integration often in class and noted the importance of purposefully selecting and using technologies. Participants described learning new technologies in the course as proceeding from practicing technological skills to evaluating digital tools' potential for future integration. While iterative component tasks were experienced by some as redundant, participants valued the problem progression corollary's task variation and scaffolded nature for focusing their learning and keeping them confident when challenged. Experiencing incongruous moments between design and implementation prompted participants' contemplations of persisting barriers to technology integration and appraisals of in-class experiences as designed for the ideal. The FPIbased elements experienced by participants, when viewed through the perspective of constructionism, facilitated preservice teachers' TPACK construction as they designed and shared tangible artifacts with an authentic audience. The study's implications endeavor to inform future approaches to technology integration preparation, directions for FPI-based research and design, and the development of TPACK measures. A Mixed Methods Comparison of the First Principles of Instruction in Flipped and Face-to-Face Technology Integration Courses By Jacob A. Hall B.S. University of Central Florida, 2008 M.A. Teachers College, Columbia University, 2012 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation Syracuse University August, 2018 Copyright © 2018 Jacob A. Hall All rights reserved


Given that the production of sexual subjects is inextricably bound to language, theorists Lee Edelman and Jasbir Puar investigate the imbrication of the sexual subject in discourses of the Child (Edelman 2004) and the nation-state (Puar 2007). Through an interdisciplinary lens, this essay builds on their conceptual frameworks in its examination of homoerotics and the figure of the Child in Cuban cultural production. Of interest is how peripheral verbal and visual language challenge discourses that fold the sexual subject and the Child into the good of the nation and the coherence of the social order. In Edelman's argument (2004: 3), the Child and queerness are held apart: the Child is bound to futurity given that the "political order […] returns to the Child as the image of the future it intends" and queerness figures "the place of the social order's death drive." The queer poetics of the peripheral language examined in this essay revise the trajectory of Child to "true man," creating new space for movement of the queer subject and the Child in the political field.


We study intertemporal price discrimination when consumers can store for future consumption needs. To make the problem tractable we offer a simple model of demand dynamics, which we estimate using market level data. Optimal pricing involves temporary price reductions that enable sellers to discriminate between price sensitive consumers, who anticipate future needs, and less price-sensitive consumers. We empirically quantify the impact of intertemporal price discrimination on profits and welfare. We find that sales: (1) capture 25-30% of the profit gap between non-discriminatory and third degree price discrimination profits, and (2) increase total welfare.


In this contribution, the authors investigate the single-user-bound performance of a direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system, where one source mobile terminal (MT) communicates with its base-station (BS) with the assistance of multiple relays. The authors assume that the communications channels experience both propagation pathloss and fast fading, and that the channels from the source MT to the BS and relays as well as that from the relays to the BS may experience different fast fading modelled correspondingly by Nakagami-m distributions. In the study, they assume both the single-user combining using maximal ratio combining and the multiuser combining, which are derived based on the maximum signal-tointerference-plus-noise ratio criterion. The bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the DS-CDMA is investigated associated with considering the locations of the relays as well as the power-allocation among the source MT and relays. From the study and simulation results, it can be shown that the achievable BER performance of the DS-CDMA depends on the locations of the relays and also on the power-allocation among the source MT and relays. When the relays of a source MT are chosen from a different area, the power-allocation should also be adjusted correspondingly in order to achieve the minimum BER. Furthermore, when optimum power allocation is assumed, the BER performance of the DS-CDMA can be significantly improved, when increasing the number of relays assisting the source MT.


Abstract Background. The Danish Medico-Legal Council provides the court with statements based on available psychiatric assessment reports to assist the law in the use of the Penal Code sections on mentally disordered offenders. Aims. To analyse the impact of the Council on the courts' choice between punishment and treatment in cases of offenders falling under §69 of the Penal Code, i.e. mentally disordered, although not psychotic offenders. Methods. In 298 cases of defendants who according to the Medico-Legal Council might fall under §69 the recommendations of the assessment reports, the recommendations of the Council and the final verdicts are compared; and assessment reports from forensic psychiatric centres are compared with those from other psychiatrists. Results. The recommendations of the Medico-Legal Council were often, but not blindly followed by the courts. The probability for the Council to recommend some measure of treatment was about 50% for adult males, and higher for adolescents and for females. In court, however, the two genders as well as adolescents and adults alike all had the same probability, approximately 50%, of being sentenced with treatment instead of punishment. When measured by the final verdict, the Medico-Legal Council is of higher quality than the assessment reports, especially those from outside forensic psychiatry. Conclusion. The Council serves as a quality assurance of Danish forensic psychiatric assessments, and the Council's statements are by the court considered to represent the state of the art of these assessments.


The production of cyclopentanone derivatives from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) using non-noble metal based catalysts is reported for the first time. Five different mixed oxides containing Ni, Cu, Co, Zn and Mg phases on an Al-rich amorphous support were prepared and characterised (XRD, ICP, SEM, TEM, H2-TPR, NH3/CO2-TPD and N2 sorption). The synthesised materials resulted in well-dispersed high metal loadings in a mesoporous network, exhibiting acid/base properties. The catalytic performance was tested in a batch stirred reactor under H2 pressure (20–50 bar) in the range T = 140–180 °C. The Cu–Al2O3 and the Co–Al2O3 catalysts showed a highly selective production of 3-hydroxymethylcyclopentanone (HCPN, 86%) and 3-hydroxymethylcyclopentanol (HCPL, 94%), respectively. A plausible reaction mechanism is proposed, clarifying the role of the reduced metal phases and the acid/basic sites on the main conversion pathways. Both Cu–Al2O3 and Co–Al2O3 catalysts showed a loss of activity after the first run, which can be reversed by a regeneration treatment. The results establish an efficient catalytic route for the production of the diol HCPL (reported for the first time) and the ketone HCPN from bio-derived HMF over 3d transition metals based catalysts in an environmental friendly medium such as water.


The production of bio-fuel from algae is one of the few remaining potential sustainable resources that continue to show considerable potential for fuel production (the others include cellulosic ethanol, sugar cane ethanol, and biodiesel from jatropha and the oil palm). However the need for large areas for production and the low areal yield make the costs of surface structures prohibitive to the commercial development of algae as a biodiesel source of sufficient size to have a significant impact on the international need for liquid fuel. Through the use of abandoned portions of existing mines a productive volume is created that has no impact on the controversies over "food or fuel" and which has the additional benefit of the existing third dimension in the mine which allows an increase in areal yield of as much as 60-fold. This space has already been created, and has the advantage of remaining at a constant, and optimal growing, temperature all year with minimal cost. The presence of existing infrastructure, including walls, means that construction costs are also minimized. The darkness of the mine can be overcome by transmitting in light, and distributing it throughout the bioreactor using an array of LEDs. While there is some loss in conversion, there is also an advantage, since it has been shown that by modulating light (flashing it on and off) the yield of algae can be increased an additional eight-fold. In this way the additional cost of providing that light can be overcome, particularly since, with the use of suitable LEDs the light can be distributed only in the wavelengths (450 650 nm) that is the range most productively used by the algae. The process has the advantage of capturing carbon dioxide, and reusing it, rather than immediately discharging it into the atmosphere, if the algae are fed with power plant flue gases (which are often conveniently located near mining operations).


Antiretroviral therapy has transformed the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) into a chronic condition. Molecular epidemiology and biopsychosocial unique approach systems are required to advance towards a better assessment and understanding of the complex interactions between HIV and its human host. Therefore, it was proposed to establish the biopsychosocial risk factors of oral pathologies in HIV, determining the relationship between oral‐systemic health status and antiretroviral treatment. Material and Methods Participants were recruited from HIV/AIDS healthcare providers, non‐governmental and community‐based organizations in Monterrey, Mexico and adopted a non‐probability and snowball sampling. The research involved 202 consenting adult men who have sex with men (MSM [epidemiology], defined by the World Health Organization as one of the Key populations at higher risk of acquiring HIV). Step 1 (Psychosocial research). MSM filled out structured, analytical, self‐administered, anonymous questionnaires. Besides the sociodemographic variables, the perception regarding public and private dental services and related professionals there was also evaluated the perceived stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and sexual orientation. Likewise, their perception towards rapid HIV‐1/2 testing in the dental practice. All the biopsychosocial aspects were explored by designing psychometric Likert‐type scales. Step 2 (Biological research). Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and serum samples from 78 HIV‐positive adult male subjects (cases) and 39 HIV‐negative male subjects (controls) were examined for 17 cytokines using multiplex ELISA. Results Psychosocial analyses revealed that most subjects reported omitting their HIV serodiagnosis and agreed that dentists must be trained and qualified to treat patients with HIV/AIDS. The factorial analysis revealed two elements in HIV/AIDS perception: experiences of stigma and discrimination in dental appointments and feelings of concern regarding the attitudes of professionals or their teams concerning patients' HIV serodiagnosis. Most respondents expressed their willingness to take a rapid HIV‐1/2 screening test during their dental visit. Nevertheless, most of them considered important that dental professionals must be well trained before applying any rapid HIV‐1/2 tests. Factor analysis revealed two factors towards sexual orientation: experiences of sexual orientation stigma and discrimination in dental settings, and feelings of concern about the attitude of dentists and dental staff towards sexual orientation Biomolecular analyses results of GCF concentrations of IL‐6, IL‐7, IL‐10, IL‐12, G‐CSF, and MCP‐1, as well as serum concentrations of IL‐1β, IL‐2, and IL‐6, showed a statistically significant difference among subgroups. We found a significant effect size correlation on cytokines expression levels. Subjects who were not in antiretroviral therapy (ART) showed significantly higher levels of some of the analyzed cytokines compared to the rest. We found that GCF IL‐8 was a significant predictor of the Non‐ART HIV status (p <0.05). We observed the same result for GCF G‐CSF in the ART Short‐term group and serum GM‐CSF in the ART Long‐ term subgroup. Conclusion The dental practice may represent a potential location for rapid HIV‐1/2 testing contributing in early HIV infection diagnosis. We also observed a low percentage of stigma and discrimination in dental appointments; however, most MSM with or without HIV/AIDS do not reveal their sexual orientation or HIV serodiagnosis to the dentists out of fear of being rejected. Such fact implies a workplace hazard to dental professionals, but especially to the very own health of HIV/AIDS patients, as dentists will not be able to provide them a proper clinical and pharmaceutical treatment. Molecular results indicated a high variability of GCF and serum cytokines concentrations and low frequency of their detection in different HIV/ART stages. However, within the limits of the present study, some GCF and serum cytokine concentrations correlated positively. Oral and periodontal innate immunity is affected by HIV viremia and ART. GCF IL‐8, G‐CSF, as well as serum IL‐8, MCP‐1, and GM‐CSF may be useful biomarkers for the detection of disease presence and its severity due to HIV infection and ART use. In following years, oral treatment based upon a professional practice focused on specific biological, psychological, social, and environmental (genetic and non‐genetic) criteria will contribute to a more 'precise medicine and dentistry' accentuating professional practice upon individualized periodontal prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.


Polymeric materials exhibit temperature and rate dependent behavior. Therefore, in the modeling of polymeric and polymer based composite materials, the mechanical properties should be defined as rate and temperature dependent to be able to capture the behaviors. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) is mostly used method to determine the viscous and elastic properties via loss and storage modulus. The storage modulus obtained from DMA and the elasticity moduli relate to the same physical phenomena. Even though the magnitudes of elasticity modulus and the storage modulus are not the same, the variation of modulus values with varying temperature follows the same trend. Therefore in the modeling of polymeric material behaviors, temperature and rate dependent elasticity modulus can be determined using DMA results. The objective of this work is to model the storage modulus which can be used as the elasticity modulus with a proper shift in the material models. For that purpose, a semi crystalline Polypropylene (PP) and amorphous plasticized Polyvinyl Chloride (PPVC) thermoplastics are selected to show the applicability of the model for amorphous and semi crystalline polymers. Different from many works in the literature, Genetic algorithm (GA) optimization method is used for parameter estimation in the modeling of storage modulus of PPVC and PP. The parameter optimization procedure is successfully implemented for the case of two polymers. The experimental storage modulus versus temperature curves of PP and PPVC obtained from [1, 2] respectively are used for validation. Good match with experimental data is observed. The rubbery state and rubbery flow observed in semi crystalline PP and sudden drop in the modulus around the glass transition temperature seen in amorphous PPVC are successfully simulated.


Cross-reactivity of T cells is defined as recognition of two or more peptide–MHC complexes by the same T cell. Although examples of cross-reactivity have been reported, a detailed examination of cross-reactivity has not been performed. In this study, we took advantage of the high degree of polyclonality in the BV19 T cell repertoire responding to influenza M158–66 in HLA-A2 individuals to obtain a measure of simple cross-reactivity. We used substitutions that incrementally change the structure of the M158–66 peptide to measure how the HLA-A2–restricted response adapts to these changes. In three HLA-A2 adult subjects, we identified the BV19 clonotypes in the recall response to the influenza epitope M158–66 and 12 M1 peptides substituted at TCR contact position 63 or 65. The fraction of cross-reactive clonotypes in the M158–66 repertoire varied from 45–58% in the three donors. The extent of cross-reactivity, which is the additional number of peptides recognized by a single clonotype, is as high as six. We summarized the data using graph theory, with the cross-reactive clonotypes connecting the different HLA-A2 peptides recognized. The cross-reactive clonotypes form a well-connected network that could provide protection from virus-escape variants. We predict that any new pathogen with an epitope whose shape corresponds to that of the peptides that we studied would find a pre-existing repertoire ready to respond to it. We propose that in adult memory repertoires, previously encountered epitopes may have generated similar cross-reactive repertoires.


Many epidemiological studies have shown an association between outdoor particulate air pollutants and increased morbidity and mortality. Inhalation of ambient aerosols can exacerbate or promote the development of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases as well as other diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and neurodegenerative diseases. Occupational exposure to dust, fumes and diesel exhaust particulates can also cause adverse health outcomes and there are numerous occupations where workers are exposed to airborne particles that are similar to ambient air pollution. An individual's job title has normally been identified as a major determinant of workplace exposure in epidemiological studies. This has led to the development of Job–Exposure Matrices (JEMs) as a way of characterising specific workplace exposures. One JEM for airborne chemical exposures is the Airborne Chemical Exposure Job–Exposure Matrix (ACE JEM), developed specifically for the UK Biobank cohort. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of the ACE JEM in assessing occupational aerosol exposure of participants in the UK Biobank. We searched the scientific literature to identify exposure data linked to selected jobs in the ACE JEM and compared these data with the JEM assessments. Additionally, we carried out an independent expert-based assessment of exposure to compare with the JEM estimates. There is good published evidence to substantiate the high dust and biological dust assignments in the JEM and more limited evidence for diesel exhaust particulates. There is limited evidence in the published literature to substantiate moderate or low exposure assignments in the JEM. The independent expert-based assessment found good agreement at the two extremes of exposure in the JEM (high and no exposure), with uncertainty in all other classifications. The ACE JEM assignments are probably reliable for highly exposed jobs and for jobs assigned as unexposed. However, the assignments for medium and low exposures are less reliable. The ACE JEM is likely to be a good tool to examine associations between occupational exposures to particulates and chronic disease, although it should be used with caution. Further efforts should be made to improve the reliability of the ACE JEM.


The ability of the human brain to change the priority of which information is being processed is a key property that underlies day-to-day functioning. We constantly shift our attention to those stimuli or events that are behaviorally important. This thesis is focused on understanding the biological neural mechanisms by which the brain accomplishes this feat and what the long term consequences are. In the studies described in this dissertation we asked participants to do computer-run cognitive tasks during which we recorded high-temporal resolution electroencephalography (EEG) measures of their electrical brain activity. We used rewards to change the behavioral relevance of certain events, and investigated how the brain was able to facilitate the processing of those events. Besides improved behavioral performance for rewarded stimuli or events, as measured by fast and accurate responses, EEG results indicated that the brain was able to boost the neural activity in less than a second following a reward in those neural populations involved in the processing of those potentially rewarding stimuli or events. These mechanisms were very similar to those involved in the control of attention, suggesting that attention is guided by reward. Moreover, these prioritization processes do not only work on a moment-to-moment basis but can also occur on a much longer timescale, by changing the priority of stimuli by integrating multiple encounters of rewards. Accordingly, as a consequence, the evaluation and use of rewards enables the brain to continually facilitate optimization of specialized neural pathways in the processing and responses to incoming information.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate a device in which common-path interferometry combined with off-axis holographic geometry is used to realize a digital holographic camera which can be attached to the camera port of a conventional transmission microscope for complex wavefront analysis. A thick transmission volume grating recorded holographically into thick photosensitive glass splits the beam containing the sample information in two beams. The untouched transmitted beam creates the sample arm of the interferometer. The Bragg diffracted order of the grating is spectrally and spatially filtered by diffraction to generate a clean reference beam. Double passing the diffracted order through the grating using a retroreflector device provides filtering in two dimensions. The spatial filtering done by the grating which works based on high angular selectivity of thick volume gratings, reduces the alignment spatial sensitivity which is an advantage over the conventional spatial filtering done by pinholes. Besides, using a second thick grating, we introduce a desired coherence plane tilt in the reference beam which is sufficient to create high-visibility interference over the entire field of view. The full-field off-axis interferograms are created from which the amplitude and phase can be reconstructed. The advantage of the proposed camera is the insensitivity to the alignment, thus can be the basis for a standalone camera mountable on a standard optical microscope.


"Cloud" computing – a relatively recent term, builds on decades of research in virtualization, distributed computing, utility computing, and more recently networking, web and software services. It implies a service oriented architecture, reduced information technology overhead for the end user, great flexibility, reduced total cost of ownership, on demand services and many other things. This paper discusses the concept of "cloud" computing, some of the issues it tries to address, related research topics, and a "cloud" implementation available today.


In the field of robotics many researchers have devoted a large amount of time to pursuing means to reduce the weight of robotic systems. For space robotics, this becomes even more important due to launch cost being directly affected by weight. During review, potential progress involving weight reduction of actuators has been encountered, which it is necessary to investigate further in order to ascertain the potential advantages and disadvantages of such work. The contribution to be put forth here is a review of means by which reductions in weight can be achieved, with particular emphasis on space robotic actuation sub-systems. Ideas will be posited about the possible configurations which could be explored to reduce weight whilst attempting to maintain performance. It is expected that this contribution will provide evidence-based support for some future research directions, and will also help to stimulate discussion and further work on the subject of lightweight robotics and lightweight actuators. The next stages of this project aim to enhance some of the actuation ideas investigated so far, test these comparatively against one another, and critically review them alongside existing lightweight actuation methods. Following this, simulation of actuation concepts being applied to robotic applications will take place. This is in order to evaluate their performance in microgravity environments and to test their versatility. This process, as part of this project, will also be discussed in this paper


Abstract
Background: The occurrence of Down syndrome is strongly dependent on maternal age and incidence varies at various maternal ages. This incidence may differ from one country to another according to the social and environmental factors predominant in such countries. The study aims to document the prevalence of congenital heart defects in patients with Down syndrome, identify the association between maternal age and occurrence of congenital heart disease among these subjects
Methods: The study was prospective, cross-sectional and consecutive, involving subjects from two centers which were; a tertiary hospital, a private hospital which is a major cardiology center. Children with clinical features of Down syndrome had transthoracic echocardiography done by a cardiologist.
Results: A total of 195 patients with Down syndrome were studied ages between1day to 12years. The mean age + SD were 241.03 + 529.71days and male to female ratio of 1.04:1. The mother's age range was from 19 to 44years with a mean age + SD of 32.36 + 5.43 years. Up to 16.9% had structurally normal heart. The most common heart defect was atrioventricular septal defect 24.1%. There was no significant association between maternal age and occurrence of congenital heart defects in the subjects.
Conclusion: The incidence of congenital heart disease is high among subjects with Down syndrome. Atrioventricular defects were the commonest cardiac defect among the subjects. The incidence of congenital heart defect in the subjects was decreasing from maternal age 36 years and above. Routine cardiac evaluation including echocardiography is recommended for all patients with Down syndrome.


Summary

Singularities often cause trouble in tracing rays in inhomogeneous anisotropic media. The ray-tracing algorithms can break down in the vicinity of the singularities because the medium becomes nearly degenerate and the right-hand sides of the ray-tracing equations yield indefinite expressions. We propose a modified ray-tracing approach, which is numerically stable and yields correct results in all types of singularities and their vicinities. We demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of this approach using various numerical examples. We discuss the possibility of the splitting of a ray when crossing a singularity.


The modelling of cancer provides an enormous mathematical challenge because of its inherent multi-scale nature. For example, in vascular tumours, nutrient is transported by the vascular system, which operates on a tissue level. However, it also affects processes occurring on the molecular level. Molecular and intra-cellular events in turn affect the vascular network and therefore the nutrient dynamics. Our approach is to model, using partial differential equations, processes on the tissue level, and couple these to the intra-cellular events (modelled by ordinary differential equations) via cells modelled as automaton units. Thus far, within this framework, we have investigated the effects on tumour cell dynamics of structural adaptation at the vessel level, have explored certain drug protocol treatments, and have modelled the cell cycle in order to account for the possible effects of p27 in hypoxia-induced quiescence in cancer cells. We briefly review these findings here.


We study experimentally the dynamics of quantum-dot (QD) passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers under external optical injection. The lasers demonstrated multiple dynamical states, with bifurcation boundaries that depended upon the sign of detuning variation. The area of the hysteresis loops grew monotonically at small powers of optical injection and saturated at moderate powers. At high injection levels the hysteresis decreased and eventually disappeared.


Abstract This paper examines the introduction of land-use planning requirements into the regularization process of informal settlements in areas designated as "conservation land" in Mexico City. Since 1997, the government has increasingly deployed digital technologies to map and track informal settlement in conservation land in order to select those eligible for reclassification as "residential land use": a prerequisite for other stages in the regularization process, including property titling, access to urban services and subsidised loans for home improvements. We argue that the incorporation of land use planning into the discursive and material enactments of regularization continues to reproduce the social class divisions behind the otherwise rather tenuous distinction between formal and informal urban development. Although presented as a technical concern by planners, regularization remains embedded in political processes and outcomes, a characteristic long recognised in the abundant literature on the subject. What is new is the geo-referencing of informality as part of land use planning, as this alters the dynamics of regularization processes, now involving the everyday planning practices of local government. This experience thus suggests the need for re-conceptualising informality as a form of selective spatial regulation and governance integral to the planning and urban development process.


Neural networks with binary weights are computation-efficient and hardware-friendly, but their training is challenging because it involves a discrete optimization problem. Surprisingly, ignoring the discrete nature of the problem and using gradient-based methods, such as the Straight-Through Estimator, still works well in practice. This raises the question: are there principled approaches which justify such methods? In this paper, we propose such an approach using the Bayesian learning rule. The rule, when applied to estimate a Bernoulli distribution over the binary weights, results in an algorithm which justifies some of the algorithmic choices made by the previous approaches. The algorithm not only obtains state-of-the-art performance, but also enables uncertainty estimation for continual learning to avoid catastrophic forgetting. Our work provides a principled approach for training binary neural networks which justifies and extends existing approaches.


Recruitment order among motoneurons from different motor nuclei. The principles by which motoneurons (MNs) innervating different multiple muscles are organized into activity are not known. Here we test the hypothesis that coactivated MNs belonging to different muscles in the decerebrate cat are recruited in accordance with the size principle, i.e., that MNs with slow conduction velocity (CV) are recruited before MNs with higher CV. We studied MN recruitment in two muscle pairs, the lateral gastrocnemius (LG) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscles, and the MG and posterior biceps femoris (PBF) muscles because these pairs are coactivated reliably in stretch and cutaneous reflexes, respectively. For 29/34 MG-LG pairs of MNs, the MN with lower CV was recruited first either in all trials (548/548 trials for 22 pairs) or in most trials (225/246 trials for 7 pairs), whether the MG or the LG MN in a pair was recruited first. Intertrial variability in the force thresholds of MG and LG MNs recruited by stretch was relatively low (coefficient of variation = 18% on average). Finally, punctate stimulation of the skin over the heel recruited 4/4 pairs of MG-LG MNs in order by CV. By all of these measures, recruitment order is as consistent among MNs from these two ankle muscles as it is for MNs supplying the MG muscle alone. For MG-PBF pairings, the MN with lower CV was recruited first in the majority of trials for 13/24 pairs and in reverse order for 9/24 pairs. The recruitment sequence of coactive MNs supplying the MG and PBF muscles was, therefore, random with respect to axonal conduction velocity and not organized as predicted by the size principle. Taken together, these findings demonstrate for the first time, that the size principle can extend beyond the boundaries of a single muscle but does not coordinate all coactive muscles in a limb.


Overweight and obesity in all populations are now realised as worldwide epidemic health problems. The aetiology of these conditions suggests a disruption in regulation of energy at the population level, leading to a positive energy balance and excess adiposityamong others.Overweight and obesity can be defined in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI), which is the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters (kg/m).The aim of this study was, therefore, to measure the BMI and find out its association with physical activity and energy intake among university students in Nairobi County, Kenya. The target population comprised full-time students in selected public and private universities in Nairobi County.The population data was divided into two strata: public universities and private universities with a sample of 384 respondents obtained through stratified random sampling. Data management and analyses were done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 17.0. BMI was categorised into underweight, normal, overweight and obese. The association among energy intake and expenditure and BMI was determined by Spearman's rho and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results were presented in tables and figures. The findings of this study indicated that overweight and obesity status was 6.5% and 1.0% respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among public university students was 3.8% and 0.7% respectively compared to the private university students (2.7% and 0.3% respectively). In the study, 91.2% of the males' energy intake was less than the recommended daily allowances (RDAs), and 8.8% had an energy intake above the RDAs as compared to 93.4% of females who had energy intake below RDAs and 6.6% above RDAs. Correlation analysis of the association between energy intake through dieting and BMI score of the university students was significant (P<.01). The study findings also indicated that 40.5% of the students had a high score of participation in physical activity while 8.6% had a low physical activity level. However, the analysis of the association between physical activity and BMI of the university students was not significant (P = .608).


We analyze the impact of trade-induced income shocks on the size of local government, and the provision of public services. Areas in the US with declining labor demand and incomes due to increasing import competition from China experience relative declines in housing prices and business activity. Since local governments are disproportionately funded through property and sales taxation, declining property values and a decrease in economic activity translate into less revenue, which constrains the ability of local governments to provide public services. State and federal governments have limited ability to smooth local shocks, and the impact on the provision of public services is compounded when local income shocks are highly correlated with shocks in the rest of the state. The outcome is greater inequality not only in incomes but also in the quality of public services and amenities across US jurisdictions.


Abstract The Tertiary East Greenland Volcanic Rifted Margin is characterized by massive magmatic construction that produced a distinctive crustal architecture including: (1) a thick pile of flood basalts continuing offshore as seismically imaged 'seaward-dipping reflector sequences'; (2) an extensive margin-parallel mafic dyke swarm; and (3) shallow crustal gabbroic plutons and deeper crustal 'underplated' material. These igneous units developed in the framework of an asymmetrical, crustal-scale fold, or 'flexure', that accommodated major subsidence along the continent-ocean transition. Extensive exposures along the margin reveal that the flexure and associated igneous structures define rift segments separated by various types of structural discontinuities. First-order segments occur between major triple-rift junctions as at Kangerlussuaq. At an intermediate scale, second-order accommodation zones bound margin segments c. 100 km in length with long-lived structural and/or magmatic expressions. Third-order discontinuities, spaced at tens of kilometres, correspond to smaller accommodation zones at abrupt along-strike changes fault or magmatic structures. Outcrop-scale transfer and transform faults occur at still smaller scales. Some of the larger accommodation zones appear to be related to pre-existing Precambrian structures and may have helped localize relatively late, post-flexure alkalic intrusions. The style of segmentation provides a link between similar segmentation patterns in continental rifts and mid-ocean ridge spreading centres that persist long after continental separation.


We report on the observation of a dynamical thermal effect in InGaAsP microtubes at telecom wavelengths. The microtubes are fabricated by releasing a strained semiconductor bilayer and are picked up by abruptly tapered optical fibers for subsequent coupling with adiabatically tapered optical fibers. As a result of absorption by InAs quantum dots embedded in the tube structure, these microtubes show dynamical thermal effects at wavelengths around 1525 nm and 1578 nm, while they are passive at longer wavelengths near 1634 nm. The photon absorption induced thermal effect is visualized by generating a pair of microbottles. The dynamical thermal effect can be avoided or exploited for passive or active applications by utilizing appropriate resonance wavelengths.


An electromigration (EM) test mask was designed to utilize both standard ASTM and Standard Wafer-level Electromigration Accelerated Test Structures (SWEAT) fourterminal EM test structures of varying line-widths. The mask was used to pattern 4" test wafers consisting of 300 nm of sputtered aluminum-1% silicon on a thermal Si02 layer. A custom thermal setup was developed for a Micromanipulator 6000 manual probe station. A new 4" brass chuck was machined to include cooling channels, wafer vacuum, and a thermocouple monitoring system. A resistive ring heater was bonded to the chuck and was controlled via a process temperature controller. Extensive electrical test of interconnect structures was necessary to generate EM lifetime data for the alloy film. Multiple measurements on a given type of test structure were used to generate acceptable sample sizes for mean-time-fail (MTF) statistics. Test data for both ASTM and SWEAT structures demonstrated a lognormal distribution for cumulative failure with a decrease in mean fail time for increased test temperatures. The activation energy for Al-Si at RIT was approximately 0.5 eV for 2.7 urn lines of both types of test structures. A test station and methodology are now in place for future EM lifetime studies to be completed at RIT.


A rationalization of case law is useful to a legal historian in attempting to reveal the stimuli which induced decisions. To one interested in predicting what the courts will do tomorrow -i.e., in stating the law-or in drafting legislation, it likewise is of interest and utility, inasmuch as it furnishes possible bases for cases yet to be decided or for laws yet to be passed. We are here concerned with a rationalization, and while its utility for the former purpose is not denied, we are more particularly concerned with its utility for the latter purpose. Why Holt, J. put his seal of approval on the doctrine of vicarious liability 1 is still a riddle. From whence came the rule and a complete exposition of its pedigree are problems as yet unanswered. The learned attempts made are admittedly ineffectual.2 Similarly, whether the rules of vicarious liability made satisfactory and effective adjustments of the economic and social conflicts in the industrial society out of which they rose is highly significant and as yet unexplored.3 Each of these problems is of great importance to every legal historian, and of immeasurable interest to all who are concerned with the history of the science of jurisprudence. But one of more immediate significance to all legal scholars--teacher, practitioner and judge-and to all social scientists is, what rationale justifies the various rules of vicarious liability in modern society? The importance of the answer to that question is at once apparent when the first court is striving to phrase the rule, when the hundredth variation of the normal situation is up for decision and the court is seeking to delimit the rule, when bases for legislation are sought, and when the economic and social effects of these social regulatory rules are measured. The necessary economic and social data are not at hand to attempt a complete statement of the rationale, but one major problem can be analyzed. It is the problem of the administra-


According to a series of hypothesis, for the spiral galaxy, a mathematical equation of the graviton movement track is built, it is also the central curve of the nebulae density distribution, which offers the method to measure the moving speed of the graviton. Using the observed images of the M51 galaxy, it confirms that the graviton movement curve in the spiral galaxy conforms to the image, QUOTE QUOTEis a constant. It points out that by measuring the rate of angular motion of the equivalent center in the galaxy, the real speed of the graviton can be estimated. Under the measuring condition of the M51,. The theory presented in this article also helps to calculate the rotation speed of a galaxy, provided the graviton speed is known for certain. With the model in this article and fitting data from the observation images of M51 galaxy, the guess which says "the moving speed of graviton is a constant" is supported unprecedentedly by observation data. It is for the first time that the upper limit of graviton speed, i.e. no more than times of light speed, is obtained from observation data. At the same time, the paper puts forward one possible way that the lower limit of graviton speed may be measured. And a new idea also brought forward in the paper is that the rotational angular velocity w of the equivalent center which plays an important role in a spiral galaxy may be measured according to the observed data of the thickness of galactic center of the spiral galaxy.


Despite the potential political impact of industry attempts to influence public policy about genetic modification, little research has focused on critical understanding of industry perspectives. This article explores the rhetorical and discursive construction of public messages about this controversial issue by two major New Zealand export industries. The kiwifruit industry advocates a very cautious public policy position, while the dairy industry has been a strong advocate for the commercial development of genetic modification. We demonstrate that these industries draw on multiple identities and rationalities to negotiate, express, and elaborate their positions on genetic modification, informed variously by discourses of risk, science, the political economy of the marketplace, and images of the 'natural' environment. We suggest that exploring how organizations seek to influence controversial socio-political issues through the management of multiple identities may facilitate greater understanding of viewpoints often represented in the media as two distinct polarities; that is as either 'for' or 'against' the issues.


The neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) is highly expressed in mammalian skeletal muscle, but its functional role has not been defined. NO has been implicated in the local metabolic regulation of blood flow in contracting skeletal muscle in part by antagonizing sympathetic vasoconstriction. We therefore hypothesized that nNOS in skeletal muscle is the source of the NO mediating the inhibition of sympathetic vasoconstriction in contracting muscle. In the mdx mouse, a model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in which dystrophin deficiency results in greatly reduced expression of nNOS in skeletal muscle, we found that the normal ability of skeletal muscle contraction to attenuate alpha-adrenergic vasoconstriction is defective. Similar results were obtained in mutant mice that lack the gene encoding nNOS. Together these data suggest a specific role for nNOS in the local metabolic inhibition of alpha-adrenergic vasoconstriction in active skeletal muscle.


Technology has always played an important role in medical science by contributing extraordinary advancements to health care. Archaeological excavation shows that the Greek society had already used tools to explore the human body in order to understand human physiology and to diagnose normal and pathologic states. In the last four decades, emerging biomedical engineering sciences have led to the manufacturing of cutting edge medical instruments. Those technical tools are used to enhance clinician's know-how by providing better knowledge of the human anatomy. A more accurate diagnostic is crucial for medical practitioners in order to suggest an appropriate treatment. For example, the introduction of endoscopes into surgical practice is considered as one of the biggest success stories in the history of medicine. However, in order to develop suitable medical instruments or procedures, one key issue for successful biomedical research is the ability to understand the requirements as defined by medical doctors. Furthermore, biomedical universities and the biomedical industry, who are the two main actors of the development process of new technologies, need to collaborate and cooperate in an efficient way with medical staff. This ongoing study intends to explore the nature and the role of knowledge transfer between the various stakeholders with the aim to develop innovative medical instruments. Factors inhibiting or facilitating knowledge sharing processes are outlined in this paper.


The appearances of the gonads are described in males and females of 18 Inia geoffrensis , 11 Pontoporia blainvillei , and eight Sotalia fluviatilis from South America. Males of I. geoffrensis become sexually active at a length of about 228 centimeters, females at 175 to 180 centimeters. Length at birth is 76 to 80 centimeters; parturition occurs from about July to September in the upper Amazon. Males of P. blainvillei are still sexually immature at a length of 128.5 centimeters, females become sexually active at a length of 137 centimeters. Off Uruguay, pregnant females have fetuses 6 centimeters in length in February and 61 centimeters in October. Males of S. fluviatilis are sexually active at a length of 148 centimeters, females at 140 centimeters. Gonad weights and details of corpora lutea and albicantia are given. Corpora albicantia appear to persist as in other cetaceans. The ovaries of I. geoffrensis are relatively bulky with the corpora enclosed in the ovarian substance and not pedunculated as in P. blainvillei and S. fluviatilis in which the right ovary is poorly developed.


This paper studies the impact of the Stockholm road pricing trial on retail revenues. The analysis is performed using revenue data from 14 shopping malls, 9 within the tool area and 5 outside the tool area. The data also include revenue data from a sample of retail stores located along the main shopping streets in Stockholm. The results show that the Stockholm road pricing trial did not negatively affect retail revenue, neither in shopping malls nor in the sample of retail stores.


BACKGROUND
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the current gold standard in the pharmacologic treatment of generalized social phobia. SSRIs are only effective in approximately 50% of individuals with generalized social phobia and can be associated with significant side effects. Based on the successful use of the anticonvulsants gabapentin and pregabalin in treating generalized social phobia, we conducted an open trial examining the efficacy of the glutamatergic and GABAergic anticonvulsant topiramate in the treatment of generalized social phobia.

METHOD
Twenty-three adult outpatients with DSM-IV social phobia, generalized type, were entered into a 16-week open trial of topiramate, starting at 25 mg/day, and gradually titrated up to a maximum dose of 400 mg/day.

RESULTS
Twelve of 23 patients completed the trial. In the intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis, 11 (47.8%) of 23 were responders by a Clinical Global Impressions Improvement (CGI-I) scale rating of "much" or "very much" improved. The mean drop in the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) score for the ITT group was 29.4%. The change in LSAS score from baseline to endpoint was significant for the ITT group (F = 3.44, df = 4,110; p = .01). In the completers group, 9 (75.0%) of 12 were responders by CGI-I at 16 weeks, with a mean drop in LSAS score of 45.1%. The rate of remission in the ITT sample, using a definition of an LSAS score of </= 30, gave a remission rate of 26.1% (6/23).

CONCLUSION
This study suggests that topiramate may be effective in the treatment of generalized social phobia. These results also suggest the possibility that the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA may be involved in the neurobiology of generalized social phobia.


Abstract Pollen and geochemical data from Little Lake, western Oregon, suggest several patterns of millennial-scale environmental change during marine isotope stage (MIS) 2 (14,100–27,600 cal yr B.P.) and the latter part of MIS 3 (27,600–42,500 cal yr B.P.). During MIS 3, a series of transitions between warm- and cold-adapted taxa indicate that temperatures oscillated by ca. 2°–4°C every 1000–3000 yr. Highs and lows in summer insolation during MIS 3 are generally associated with the warmest and coldest intervals. Warm periods at Little Lake correlate with warm sea-surface temperatures in the Santa Barbara Basin. Changes in the strength of the subtropical high and the jet stream may account for synchronous changes at the two sites. During MIS 2, shifts between mesic and xeric subalpine forests suggest changes in precipitation every 1000–3000 yr. Increases in Tsuga heterophylla pollen at 25,000 and 22,000 cal yr B.P. imply brief warmings. Minimum summer insolation and maximum global ice-volumes during MIS 2 correspond to cold and dry conditions. Fluctuations in precipitation at Little Lake do not correlate with changes in the Santa Barbara Basin and may be explained by variations in the strength of the glacial anticyclone and the position of the jet stream.


Label noise is frequently observed in real-world large-scale datasets. The noise is introduced due to a variety of reasons; it is heterogeneous and feature-dependent. Most existing approaches to handling noisy labels fall into two categories: they either assume an ideal feature-independent noise, or remain heuristic without theoretical guarantees. In this paper, we propose to target a new family of feature-dependent label noise, which is much more general than commonly used i.i.d. label noise and encompasses a broad spectrum of noise patterns. Focusing on this general noise family, we propose a progressive label correction algorithm that iteratively corrects labels and refines the model. We provide theoretical guarantees showing that for a wide variety of (unknown) noise patterns, a classifier trained with this strategy converges to be consistent with the Bayes classifier. In experiments, our method outperforms SOTA baselines and is robust to various noise types and levels.


We present STIS spectral images of the HH 30 stellar jet taken through a wide slit over two epochs. The jet is unresolved spectrally, so the observations produce emission-line images for each line in the spectrum. This rich data set shows how physical conditions in the jet vary with distance and time, produces precise proper motions of knots within the jet, resolves the jet width close to the star, and gives a spectrum of the reflected light from the disk over a large wavelength range at several positions. We introduce a new method for analyzing a set of line ratios based on minimizing a quadratic form between models and data. The method generates images of the density, temperature, and ionization fraction computed using all the possible line ratios appropriately weighted. In HH 30, the density declines with distance from the source in a manner consistent with an expanding flow and is larger by a factor of 2 along the axis of the jet than it is at the periphery. Ionization in the jet ranges from ~5% to 40%, and high-ionization/excitation knots form at about 100 AU from the star and propagate outward with the flow. These high-excitation knots are not accompanied by corresponding increases in the density, so if formed by velocity variations the knots must have a strong internal magnetic pressure to smooth out density increases while lengthening recombination times.


There are two major types of diabetes mellitus, Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), however a number of subtypes have been defined and classified. Maternally Inherited Diabetes and Deafness (MIDD) and Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) are monogenic forms, whereas Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA) is thought to be a polygenic subtype similar to T1D. Mutations in the Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1a (HNF1a) gene cause MODY3, however common genetic variation could predispose to the more common T2D. It is important to learn more about genes causing or predisposing to diabetes to understand the mechanisms by which impaired beta cell function and insulin sensitivity lead to diabetes. The aim of this thesis was to elucidate the role of and functionally characterize mutations and polymorphisms in candidate genes for different subtypes of diabetes.

The L107I-mutation in the HNF1a gene resulted in decreased transcriptional activity and DNA-binding in vitro which by haploinsufficiency mechanisms led to a defect insulin secretion and MODY3. Another mutation in HNF1a, M626K, was found to co-segregate with the A3243G-mutation in mitochondrial DNA in a large pedigree with diabetes. The M626K mutation resulted in decreased transcriptional activity of HNF1a in vitro, while co-inheritance of M626K and A3243G was associated with an earlier age at onset of diabetes. Our studies on the role of common variation in HNF1a in T2D indicate that certain combinations of the I27L and A98V lead to decreased transcriptional activity of HNF1a in vitro and were in vivo associated with decreased insulin secretion and a moderately increased risk of future T2D. We also compared the role of genetic variation in TCF7L2, PAX4, PAX6 as well as HLA genotypes between LADA, T1D and T2D. The results showed that LADA patients share genetic features with both T2D (TCF7L2) and T1D (HLA) but also retain characteristic features (PAX6), which justifies classifying LADA as a distinct diabetic subgroup in the twilight zone between T1D and T2D.


This is a small quantitative study with focus on colloquial English words with an Old Norse origin. The essay aims to study the history of the Viking invasion and its impact on the English language and to answer the question to what extent Old Norse has influenced modern English vocabulary. Also, the quantitative study aims to answer how well elderly British people are familiar with colloquial English words with Old Norse origins and their denotative meaning and also whether there is a difference in knowledge depending on where in Britain one lives.A quantitative questionnaire was designed to research elderly British people's knowledge of fifteen different colloquial words with Old Norse origins and to see whether the respondents recognized the words and if they knew the words. This questionnaire was then sent to managers working for AgeUK. The managers in their turn distributed the questionnaire to elderly people in their municipality.The results indicate that the elderly people living in parts of Britain that were part of the Danelaw have a better understanding of the words researched. The research has also shown that different spellings of the words exist and that the denotative meaning of the words might differ depending on from where in Britain one originates.


We demonstrated improved performance of a low-noise broadband light source (BLS) based on mutually injected Fabry-Perot laser diodes for a large capacity and high bit-rate wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON). The 3-dB linewidth and relative intensity noise of each mode of the low-noise BLS are improved by radio-frequency modulation, where the frequency was detuned from the fundamental noise peak of the low-noise BLS. Then, a 622-Mb/s WDM-PON was demonstrated. Furthermore, a 1-Gb/s WDM-PON can be realized with Manchester coding at a channel spacing of 100 GHz. Thus, the proposed low-noise BLS can be employed to realize a highly scalable WDM-PON.


ABSTRACT
 Fossil soft-shelled turtles (Trionychidae) have so far been recognized in all continents except Antarctica, based largely on remains preserving their diagnostic sculptured shell bones. The origin of the group is generally assumed to be in the Early Cretaceous of Asia, whereas they first appear in North America and Europe during the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene, respectively. Here we describe the first record of an indeterminate trionychid from the late early Campanian from southern Sweden, a part of the paleobiogeographically isolated Fenno-Scandian Shield, thus extending the stratigraphic record of the group in Europe back about 15 Ma into the Late Cretaceous. Our finding provides evidence against the currently favored dispersal scenario in which trionychid turtles are interpreted to have come to Europe first during the Paleocene either directly from North America or via Asia. The described indeterminate trionychid possibly represents a relic of a pre-Cretaceous endemic radiation of North European trionychids living mainly on the Fenno-Skandian Shield or it may indicate a potential lower latitude dispersal route of trionychids from Asia to North America via Europe during the Late Cretaceous.


The increasing use of trophic position (TP) for assessing and describing ecosystems has resulted in the emergence of novel techniques for accurate and accessible measurements. The strength of amino acid compound specific nitrogen isotopic analysis (AA‐CSIA) lies in its ability to determine TP using a single organism, utilizing the isotopic differences between two or more amino acids (AAs). However, calculating TP from this technique relies upon the predictability of isotopic differences across consumer types and consistency among ecosystems. The goal of this study was to use wild samples to evaluate 15N enrichment between AA groups with differing trophic fractionation patterns, termed the trophic discrimination factor (TDFAA), and determine an accurate value for calculating TPs of marine teleosts. Using a large sample size (224 samples of 47 species) across a broad range of TPs (2.0–4.5, estimated by stomach content analysis [SCA]) and marine ecosystems, we derived TDFAA values that explained up to 80% of the variability between TP calculations from SCA and AA‐CSIA. We found a TDFAA value of 5.7 ± 0.3‰ using the difference between δ15N values of glutamic acid and phenylalanine, 2‰ lower than the most commonly used value of 7.6 ± 1.3‰. The weighted mean of several AAs resulted in the same value for TDFAA, but provided greater agreement with TPs from SCA. For more reliable TP calculations in marine teleosts, our results strongly advocate a lower TDFAA and the use of weighted mean AA δ15N values from triplicate analyses.


A survey on feline scratching of household items and attitudes towards declawing was distributed to 140 cat owners. Of 116 returned surveys, most cats (83.9 %) scratched inappropriate items, mainly furniture. Carpeted and fabric items and items that were angled vertically were scratched significantly more than items of another angle or material (all repeated measures model, p<0.05). Most cats (76.1 %) had at least one designated scratching item. Scratching posts were preferred over scratch pads (repeated measures model, p=0.0156). Declawing (12.9 % of all cats) reduced the amount of damage to furniture, pets or people significantly (all Wilcoxon's signed rank test, n=10, p< 0.05). Most cats were declawed to prevent or stop scratching of furniture.
A survey of 23 veterinary practices revealed that 17 out of 20 practices explained alternatives to declawing to clients, but were willing to declaw cats without any attempts by the client to try alternatives.


Study Design. Patient satisfaction with the cosmetic result of spinal fusion surgery was studied in 42 cases of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Neutral or dissatisfied patients were compared with satisfied patients on several physical and psychological characteristics. Objectives. To determine whether adolescents generally report satisfaction with the postoperative appearance of their back after the correction of severe curves and whether preoperative medical and/or psychological factors distinguish between patients who will report satisfaction with the cosmetic surgical result from those who will report neutrality or dissatisfaction. Summary of Background Data. Previous reports emphasize the need for medical outcomes research that evaluates both patient satisfaction and technical success. Patient satisfaction with spinal surgery has largely been evaluated in retrospective studies and most consistently related to postoperative cosmesis and degree of curve correction. Methods. Forty-two adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis without comorbidity, who were 12 years 6 months of age or older, and who did not require both anterior and posterior spinal fusion, were studied preoperatively and postoperatively by physical and psychological measurements. Results. Of patients undergoing surgical correction of severe curves, 73% reported satisfaction with the cosmetic result. Neutral or dissatisfied patients were more likely than satisfied patients to have a lower body mass index (P < 0.05), to be younger in menarcheal status (P < 0.05), and have a King II or King III curve type. Preoperative psychological difficulties (P < 0.05) and unmet expectations regarding the postoperative cosmesis (P < 0.05) were more common among neutral or dissatisfied patients. Conclusions. Most adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis expressed satisfaction with the cosmetic surgical result. Preoperative physical characteristics, psychological difficulties, and unrealistic expectations regarding postoperative cosmesis are associated with patient neutrality or dissatisfaction.


In this study, a model masonry wall (MW) was constructed in the laboratory and experimented under out of plane cycling load. Then it was analyzed with ANSYS which is a finite element technology. After analyzing this selected model masonry wall with ANSYS programme, the results of strength, displacement and stress distributions obtained were compared with the values of the experiments. Thus, the usability of ANSYS programme in the analysis of masonry walls was searched. As a result of the experiments, it was observed that the first cracking load was 45 kN, fracture load was 65 kN and the maximum value of the displacement for MW under out of plane cycling load was 4.0 mm in both of the applications. When the stress distributions were taken into consideration in the experiments and solutions of ANSYS, it was observed that the stresses occurred on the uppermost horizontal plane in the middle of the wall and decreased through basic connection beam. Consequently, it can be said that ANSYS programme can be used in the analysis of masonry walls under out of plane cycling load and ductility, rigidity and energy consumption capacities of masonry walls can be calculated with the data obtained.

 Key words:  Masonry, ANSYS programme, wall, stress behavA±our, horizontal load, earthquake.


Cystic lymphangiomas are birth defects affecting the lymphatic system. These are rare benign dysembryoplastic lesions predominate in the region of the head and neck, more particularly in the posterior cervical triangle. They usually occur in childhood and are exceptional in adults. The diagnosis is evoked by the clinic (lateral-cervical swelling) and imaging (ultrasound and tomodensitometry), then confirmed by histology after surgery which forms the basis of treatment. We report a case of cervicothoracic cystic lymphangioma in a patient of 45-year-old with a review of the literature.


Abstract Bringing together popular culture studies and sociocultural learning theory, in this paper we formulate the concept of "connected civics," grounded in the idea that young people today are engaging in new forms of politics that are profoundly participatory. Often working in collaboration with adult allies, they leverage digital media and emerging modes of connectivity to achieve voice and influence in public spheres. The rise of participatory politics provides new opportunities to support connected civics, which is socially engaged and embedded in young people's personal interests, affinities, and identities. We posit three supports that build consequential connections between young people's cultural affinities, their agency in the social world, and their civic engagement: 1. By constructing hybrid narratives, young people mine the cultural contexts they are embedded in and identify with for civic and political themes relevant to issues of public concern. 2. Through shared civic practices, members of affinity networks lower barriers to entry and multiply opportunities for young people to engage in civic and political action. 3. By developing cross-cutting infrastructure, young people–often with adults–institutionalize their efforts in ways that make a loosely affiliated network into something that is socially organized and self-sustaining. Drawing from a corpus of interviews and case studies of youth affinity networks at various sites across the US, this paper recasts the relationship between connected learning, cultural production, and participatory politics.


Graphene and other two-dimensional (2d) crystals are promising materials for photonic and optoelectronic applications. A key requirement for these applications is the development of industrial-scale, reliable, inexpensive production processes, while providing a balance between ease of fabrication and final material quality with on-demand properties. Solution-processing offers a simple and cost-effective pathway to fabricate various 2d crystal based photonic devices, presenting huge integration flexibility compared to conventional methods. Here we present an overview of graphene and other 2d crystals based ultrafast photonics, from solution processing of the raw bulk materials, the fabrication of saturable absorbers, to their applications in ultrafast lasers.


Over the past few years, the previously largely silent epidemic of HIV in South Africa has shifted to a visible epidemic of AIDS. The impact of this on health services, families and communities are emerging at a rapid pace. In an attempt to deal with this impact, it is common practice for health care facilities to ration services to people with HIV, with much of the burden of caring for the ill falling onto households and communities. In South Africa, ""home-based care"" has become a national policy priority. This chapter presents the findings of a review of various NGO, community and religious-based projects which are involved in helping people infected and affected by AIDS. The chapter looks at programmes which provide funding, technical assistance and support to communities, those which are involved in advocacy and community mobilisation, drop-in centres and support groups, home visiting and comprehensive home-based care as well as the care of orphans. The challenges to these programmes are listed and discussed, as are the factors which promote their success.


Airway disease is a group of devastating conditions the prevalence of which has increased substantially in past decades despite the advanced therapeutic interventions. The term describes several events that lead to lung tissue scarring, poor lung circulation, and airway obstruction that prevent the lungs from working properly. Biodegradable polymers have emerged as significant advancements of modern medicine. In this review, we sought to discuss the clinical potential of biopolymers in airway disease. First, we describe succinctly the biosynthesis of biomaterials, their use in lung tissue scaffolding, and their use as substrates for in vitro culture of respiratory epithelial cells. We then discuss their utilization as bio-absorbable nanostructured drug delivery systems that combat lung cancer and prevent metastasis by targeting lung cancer stem-like cells. Additionally, we review the use of biopolymers as substitutes of pulmonary surfactant in acute respiratory distress syndrome. We bring forward the use of biopolymers as surgical implants in lung blood vessels. Also, the encapsulation of plasmids or antibiotics in polymer-based nanoparticles is discussed for pulmonary gene therapy in the context of modulating the function of alveolar macrophages, dendritic cells and adaptive immune responses. The use of nanoparticles for nasal, bronchial and lung vaccine administration is also reviewed as a novel method to induce favorable immune responses at the respiratory mucosa with the potential to induce systemic immunity. This review summarizes the most recent advances in the field over the past decade, specifically highlighting new and interesting applications in airway disease. Pneumon 2018, 31(1):24-34. George T. Noutsios1, Anastasia A. Pantazaki2*


Realization of current trends and innovative uses of insect fiber, silk is required to exploit its compatibility, eco friendly and value addition potential. An adhesive silk protein sericin has high potential for use in biomedical applications. It has important properties such as excellent oxygen permeability, cell protecting and antioxidant action, moisture regulating ability, protection from ultraviolet (UV) radiation and microbes, wound healing, anticancer and anticoagulant properties. Hence this study was taken to find out the bioactive functional groups present in silk extract of Sericin for their antibacterial activity. The characterization and presence of functional groups in sericin was achieved by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. Antibacterial activity of silk extract of sericin was evaluated against two pathogenic bacterial species, namely gram negative bacterial pathogen Escherichia coli and gram positive bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus by agar well diffusion method. The FT-IR analysis revealed the presence of functional groups such as primary amine, carboxylic acid, alkane, aromatic ring and alcohol. Major peaks were observed at 3425.58 and 1064.71 cm -1 which corresponds to N-H and O-H functional groups respectively. Both pathogenic bacterial species were sensitive to silk extract of sericin. For the treatment of diseases associated with these pathogenic bacteria the silk extract of sericin have promising antibacterial potential and could be effective natural medicine.


The PBMR has called for research into the possibility of distributed in-core temperature measurement. In this thesis, several methods for distributed temperature measurement in high-pressure, -radiation and -temperature environments have been investigated by means of a literature study. The literature study has revealed FBG temperature sensors as the most feasible solution to the temperature measurement challenge. Various parameters affecting the propagation of light in optical fibres and consequently the FBG reflection profile was researched. The differential equations describing FBG structures were solved and implemented in Matlab in order to simulate WDM of a distributed FBG sensing system. Distributed sensing with apodized FBGs written in sapphire optical fibre show the most promise of becoming a solution to the measurement challenge. However, practical testing of sapphire FBGs exposed to the environment in the PBMR core is required. With this long-term goal in mind, a general test platform for FBG temperature sensors was assembled. A heater controller was built for a specialized fibre heating element capable of controlling the temperature of a single FBG up to 1600◦C. Temperature measurement using wavelength division multiplexing of apodized FBGs written in silica optical fibre were demonstrated in the test platform with great success. The measured results corresponded very well with the theory. Finally, the implementation of FBGs in the PBMR is discussed and recommendations are made for future work.


The concept of globalisation has become fashionable at local, national and international levels in public leadership and governance. It is widely gaining acceptance in the world of today to the extent that this emerging global process determines successes and failures of nation states' cultural, economic and social lives. The article attempts to address some critical policy issues on globalisation and gives an overview on the expected role of the states in pursuit of a better global public administration. The article identifies a link between public leadership and governance bringing out some benefits and challenges of globalisation in global policy-making. Some of the basic policy issues such as social, political, economic and technological were identified as keys towards transforming policy-making in the present globalisation era. Attempts were made to develop strategies that could encourage good leadership and governance through sustainable democracy and transparency at all levels of government. Conclusions were drawn on the urgent need for some global policy alternatives aimed at outcome based methods which targets specific policy needs at all levels of public leadership and governance terrain.


Reachable volumes are a geometric representation of the regions the joints of a robot can reach. They can be used to generate constraint satisfying samples for problems including complicated linkage robots (e.g. closed chains and graspers). They can also be used to assist robot operators and to help in robot design.We show that reachable volumes have an O(1) complexity in unconstrained problems as well as in many constrained problems. We also show that reachable volumes can be computed in linear time and that reachable volume samples can be generated in linear time in problems without constraints. We experimentally validate reachable volume sampling, both with and without constraints on end effectors and/or internal joints. We show that reachable volume samples are less likely to be invalid due to self-collisions, making reachable volume sampling significantly more efficient for higher dimensional problems. We also show that these samples are easier to connect than others, resulting in better connected roadmaps. We demonstrate that our method can be applied to 262-dof, multi-loop, and tree-like linkages including combinations of planar, prismatic and spherical joints. In contrast, existing methods either cannot be used for these problems or do not produce good quality solutions.


We estimate income/expenditure inequality in Britain, exploiting five household surveys, spanning the years 1890 to 1961, some of which we recovered and digitised. After adjusting for differences in scope and sampling, we find little change in inequality among worker households over the period and that the three decades after World War 2 were probably the low point of survey-based inequality measures in the eight decades since the late 1930s. Our findings are consistent with the evidence from wage censuses on the overall variance of earnings, which only falls marginally over the period. We argue this relative steadiness was the result of opposing proximate forces, one being the decline in manual skill differentials due largely to changing wage-setting institutions. On the other side was growth in the employment share of non-manuals, with their higher skill and wage variance. We also argue that two demographic factors also played their parts. The sharp decline in fertility in the early part of the century reduced inequality, while the emergence of pensioner households in the 1950s tended to increase inequality in the lower end of the distribution. Lastly, our work suggests a substantial downward revision in the estimated size of the fall in inequality through World War Two. We find a fall of between one and two Gini percentage points between 1937/8 and 1953/4, compared with the often-quoted Blue Book estimate of almost seven Gini percentage points.


Two major rhyolitic tephra units (Lower and Upper Acigöl Tuffs) have been erupted from the Acigöl Complex. The Lower Acigöl Tuff (>13km3 uncompacted volume) was erupted more than c. 180 ka ago, forming an extensive Plinian pumice-fall deposit with associated ashfall and ignimbrite. Well-developed ignimbrite veneer facies are preserved where the pyroclastic flows passed over hilly topography. Following the eruption, a thick rhyolite coulée (Bogazköy obsidian) was extruded. The Upper Acigöl Tuff eruption (age 70 < t< 150 ka) generated a second major Plinian deposit, an ignimbrite preserved up to 24 km from the vent, and an 80 m thick proximal succession of surge and fallout deposits; it resulted in collapse of the 6×5 km Acigöl caldera. The two major tuffs are chemically similar but can be distinguished on the basis of lithic populations. Subsequent rhyolitic activity formed the c. 0.25 km3 dome of Kocadag Tepe (c.70ka) and five dome/maar clusters (c. 20 ka). Late Quaternary and/or Holocene basalts and andesites surround the Acigöl caldera, which developed in a zone of sinistral shear associated with approximate N-S compression. Vent distribution patterns, the eruption of young basalts, and the crystal-poor nature of the c. 20 ka rhyolites are consistent with basaltic stoking of a sizeable silicic magma chamber beneath the Acigöl Complex.


As embedded devices are becoming more pervasive in our everyday lives, they turn into an attractive target for adver-saries. Despite their high value and large attack surface, ap-plying automated testing techniques such as fuzzing is not straightforward for such devices. As fuzz testing firmware on constrained embedded devices is inefficient, state-of-the-art approaches instead opt to run the firmware in an emulator (through a process called re-hosting ). However, existing approaches either use coarse-grained static models of hardware behavior or require manual effort to re-host the firmware. We propose a novel combination of lightweight program analysis, re-hosting, and fuzz testing to tackle these challenges. We present the design and implementation of F UZZWARE , a software-only system to fuzz test unmodified monolithic firmware in a scalable way. By determining how hardware-generated values are actually used by the firmware logic, F UZZWARE can automatically generate models that help fo-cusing the fuzzing process on mutating the inputs that matter, which drastically improves its effectiveness. We evaluate our approach on synthetic and real-world targets comprising a total of 19 hardware platforms and 77 firmware images. Compared to state-of-the-art work, F UZZ WARE achieves up to 3.25 times the code coverage and our modeling approach reduces the size of the input space by up to 95.5%. The synthetic samples contain 66 unit tests for various hardware interactions, and we find that our approach is the first generic re-hosting solution to automatically pass all of them. F UZZWARE discovered 15 completely new bugs including bugs in targets which were previously analyzed by other works;


In two situations, transfer of normal unsensitized bone marrow cells into heavily irradiated H-2-identical allogeneic mice caused a high incidence of lethal chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), i.e. mortality occuring between days of 20 and 80 postirradiation. Minor histocompatibility determinants appeared to be the main target for eliciting GVHD. Removing mature T cells from the marrow with anti-Thy 1.2 serum and complement before injection prevented GVHD. On the basis of adding purified T cells to T-cell-depleted marrow cells, it was concluded that contamination of the marrow with as few as 0.3% T cells was sufficient to cause a high incidence of lethal GVHD in certain situations. No GVHD was found with the injection of non-T cells (Thy 1.2-negative cells) or with tolerant T cells. Irradiated recipients of T-cell-depleted marrow cells remained in good health for prolonged periods. These mice showed extensive chimerism with respect to the donor marrow, normal numbers of T and B cells and were immunocompetent. The data provide no support for the view that chronic GVHD developing after bone marrow transplantation in man is the result of an attack by the progeny of the donor stem cells. The results imply that mature T cells contaminating marrow inocula are probably the main cause of GVHD seen in the clinical situation.


The influence of rainstorm on soil respiration of a mixed forest in southern New England, USA was investigated with eddy covariance, rain simulation and laboratory incubation. Soil respiration is shown to respond rapidly and instantaneously to the onset of rain and return to the prerain rate shortly after the rain stops. The pulse‐like flux, most likely caused by the decomposition of active carbon compounds in the litter layer, can amount to a loss of 0.18 t C ha−1 to the atmosphere in a single intensive storm, or 5–10% of the annual net ecosystem production of midlatitude forests. If precipitation becomes more variable in a future warmer world, the rain pulse should play an important part in the transient response of the ecosystem carbon balance to climate, particularly for ecosystems on ridge‐tops with rapid water drainage.


The main functions of a saddle are to improve rider stability and comfort, with the stirrups providing support for the rider's legs. The criteria upon which riders base their choice of stirrup length for different equestrian disciplines does not appear to have been reported. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the factors that play a role in a rider's choice of stirrup length for different equestrian and para-equestrian disciplines. An online questionnaire consisting of open and closed demographic questions, and 28 Likert scale questions related to factors which are anecdotally associated with stirrup length was distributed via social media horse pages. Respondents were asked to identify factors that influenced their decision making when setting their stirrup length in dressage, showjumping and eventing (dressage, showjumping and cross-country phases). 2,183 participants took part in this study, the majority were female (97%; n=2,131). 8% of the sample (n=184) categorised themselves as para-equestrians. Most respondents (n=1,200) identified themselves as dressage riders (amateur: 89%, n=1,068; professional: 11%, n=132), 665 riders engaged in showjumping (amateur: 87%, n=579; professional: 13%, n=86) and a further 393 riders selected eventing as their primary discipline (amateur: 89%, n= 350; professional: 11%, n=43). All riders consistently ranked feel of stirrups once mounted, how stable stirrups feel once moving and type of saddle being used as the three most important factors when deciding stirrup length across the disciplines. Dressage riders were more greatly influenced by the factors investigated when setting stirrup length then either showjumping or event riders (Kruskal Wallis: P<0.04). For eventing participants, exercise type, safety, saddle type and rider stability were key factors influencing stirrup length selection between different phases of the competition. These factors were generally ranked as more important for the dressage/flatwork phase compared to showjumping or cross country schooling (Kruskal Wallis: P<0.01). Stirrup length is likely to affect rider comfort, performance and safety while having relatively less effect on the horse's well-being, therefore it is not surprising that riders from all disciplines placed high emphasis on factors related to the rider and saddle.


This article examines two key texts from early fourteenth-century Hangzhou to explore how they shaped the process of textualization of a new genre, the so-called sanqu songs. The article argues that both of these texts, the seminal anthology of the genre, the Yangchun baixue, and the first biographical compendium, the Lugui bu, sought to uncouple social status from literary reputation to varying degrees. The article suggests that the anthology made a case for a universalist poetic practice open to diasporic and Chinese writers, while the biographical collection took a more localist approach focused on urban Chinese writers. Taken together, they illustrate that the realm of songwriting in Yuan China constituted a contested discursive space that should not be solely understood in ethnic terms but can be enriched through the analytical perspectives of diaspora, cosmopolitanism, and urban culture.