This essay focuses on possible nonhuman applications of CRISPR/Cas9 that are likely to be widely overlooked because they are unexpected and, in some cases, perhaps even "frivolous." We look at five uses for "CRISPR Critters": wild de-extinction, domestic de-extinction, personal whim, art, and novel forms of disease prevention. We then discuss the current regulatory framework and its possible limitations in those contexts. We end with questions about some deeper issues raised by the increased human control over life on earth offered by genome editing.


Optical thin films are used in a wide variety of optical components. An important aspect of modern thin film design work is the use of computers to match the multilayer parameters to a set of optical specifications such as a desired reflectance curve. There are several basic approaches to the design of thin film multilayer coatings. These include graphical, analytical and digital design methods. The latter, representing both local and global minimum seeking algorithms, are particularly powerful because they lend themselves to the design of coatings with much more complicated properties than is possible with the other methods. Many traditional optimization techniques, including Simplex, Gradient, and Damped least squares method, have been used in this field. However, up to now, it has not been possible to say if one of these techniques gives the optimal solution of the problem to be solved. A genetic algorithm is introduced to search for the optimal optical thin film design. This paper discusses the problem of thin film design in greater detail. It shows how a genetic algorithm can evolve the design for better performance. Examples of designs obtained by GA optimization techniques are given.


Large-scale distributed training requires significant communication bandwidth for gradient exchange that limits the scalability of multi-node training, and requires expensive high-bandwidth network infrastructure. The situation gets even worse with distributed training on mobile devices (federated learning), which suffers from higher latency, lower throughput, and intermittent poor connections. In this paper, we find 99.9% of the gradient exchange in distributed SGD are redundant, and propose Deep Gradient Compression (DGC) to greatly reduce the communication bandwidth. To preserve accuracy during this compression, DGC employs four methods: momentum correction, local gradient clipping, momentum factor masking, and warm-up training. We have applied Deep Gradient Compression to image classification, speech recognition, and language modeling with multiple datasets including Cifar10, ImageNet, Penn Treebank, and Librispeech Corpus. On these scenarios, Deep Gradient Compression achieves a gradient compression ratio from 270× to 600× without losing accuracy, cutting the gradient size of ResNet-50 from 97MB to 0.35MB, and for DeepSpeech from 488MB to 0.74MB. Deep gradient compression enables large-scale distributed training on inexpensive commodity 1Gbps Ethernet and facilitates distributed training on mobile.


What we see currently emerging, in short, is a middle way between the warring fundamentalisms – religious and scientific – that have so polarized recent public discourse; specifically, an expanded science-based worldview that can accommodate empirical realities of paranormal and spiritual sorts, including postmortem survival, while also rejecting rationally untenable overbeliefs of the sorts targeted by critics of institutional religions. This emerging vision is both scientifically justifiable and spiritually satisfying, combining the best aspects of our scientific and religious heritage in an effort to reconcile these two greatest forces in human history. What is ultimately at stake here seems nothing less than recovery, in an intellectually responsible manner, of parts of our human heritage that were prematurely discarded with the meteoric rise of modern science starting four centuries ago. And what is especially significant at this critical juncture, and the fundamental new factor that may finally allow this recovery to succeed after numerous previous failures, is that it is now being energized by leading-edge developments in science itself. A potentially viable path to a better world seems to be opening up.


The paper analyzes the effects of a source-based capital income tax on production and market structures, trade and capital flows as well as national and global welfare. The analysis is carried by means of a general equilibrium model of trade which incorporates international capital flows as well as the existence of multinational enterprises. The focus of the paper is on identifying the influence of different absolute and relative factor endowments on the effects of capital income taxation. Simulations of the model show that a one-size-fits-all tax policy does not exist and that governments need to take their own country's factor endowment into account when making tax policy decisions.


As policymakers refocus on growth, the ability to take a firm-level view is key to disentangling the various factors at the root of competitiveness, and thus to designing appropriate policies.

• Firm-level data provides critical information for the design of appropriate competitiveness measures that complement traditional macro analysis.

• More work remains to be done assembling firm-level information, but the variance of the distribution of firm characteristics already conveys important information in addition to standard averages.

• New indicators should be developed to translate the distribution of firm characteristics into indicators of competitiveness designed to capture not only average performance but also the heterogeneity of firm performance.

This Policy Contribution builds on ongoing research within EFIGE (www.efige.org), a project to help identify the internal policies needed to improve the external competitiveness of the European Union.


Neglected parasitic infections, including Chagas disease, toxocariasis, cysticercosis, and toxoplasmosis, affect millions of persons in the United States. Relatively few resources have been devoted to surveillance, prevention, and treatment of these diseases. Chagas disease primarily affects Latin American immigrants and can cause heart failure and death if not treated. Immediate antiparasitic treatment is indicated for most patients with acute Chagas disease. Treatment is recommended for patients younger than 18 years who have chronic Chagas disease and is generally recommended for adults younger than 50 years who do not have advanced cardiomyopathy; treatment decisions for other patients should be made on an individual basis. Toxocariasis primarily affects children and can cause gastrointestinal, respiratory, and ophthalmologic disease. Treatment options include albendazole and mebendazole. Patients with ocular infection require referral to an ophthalmologist. Neurocysticercosis, a form of cysticercosis, is the most common infectious cause of seizures in some parts of the United States. Initial treatment should focus on symptom control. Humans generally acquire toxoplasmosis by eating undercooked contaminated meat or ingesting things that have been contaminated with cat feces. Congenital infection can result in miscarriage or adverse fetal effects. Treatment is recommended for immunosuppressed persons, pregnant women, and immunocompetent persons with severe symptoms.


This study is based on the following observation: there is a significant difference between the initial budget forecast and the final budget of construction project. Cost differences in construction projects between the first estimate made by the engagement committee and the actual construction cost at the end of the project are highlighted. Our study therefore focuses on indicators that track the overall cost of a construction project from the client's perspective, in this case the real estate development company. The objectives are as follow: Highlight cost variances in construction projects and analyze the gaps between the initial cost design by customer and final construction. The waste between the "design", "marketing" and "construction" phases is discussed. The paper also quantifies waste in terms of cost between the phases. The analysis reveal that the overall cost evolution is 2.59%, with 0.89% coming from the Construction phase and 1.72% from the Marketing phase, and 0.09% from the Design phase. The results could be of interest to a wide range of researchers working on the interface between the design and construction phases.


Writing from the culturally hybridised spaces of Malaysia and Australia, Hsu-Ming Teo addresses the question of what it means to 'be an Australian' in her most recent novel Behind the Moon (2005a). Teo makes reference to Peter Weir's now iconic film Gallipoli (1981) and to the filmic version of The Wizard of Oz ( 1939 ) in order to re-evaluate the way nation is inextricably tied to discourses of mateship and masculinity. Teo explores how the formation of a seemingly unitary national identity is embedded in a stereotype that privileges the white, heterosexual male. Inarguably, one of the most enduring and revered myths of the birth of Australian nationhood circulates around the feats of the ANZAC soldiers in Turkey during World War I, and Gallipoli, written by the award-winning Australian playwright David Williamson, and starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, is a potent cultural instance of such essentialised perceptions. It is far from incidental that Teo reintroduces her readers to Gallipoli though the eyes of one of the novel's central characters Justin Cheong, who is a gay, Chinese Australian male living out the reality of a suburban existence in the inner west suburb of Strathfield, Sydney. Pointedly engaging in contemporary Australian representational politics, Teo's resurrection of Gallipoli and The Wizard of Oz allows for a (re)visioning of 'other' models of mateship; models that exist outside of the heroic, white male duo otherwise encoded in Gallipoli. In this sense, Behind the Moon is a timely intervention in the debate about national identity, prompting as it does a collision between discourses of masculinity, mateship, nationhood and race.


Black oak (Quercus velutina Lam.) and scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea Muenchh.)—two major components (44% of total stand basal area) of upland oak forests—are suffering severe decline and mortality in the Ozark Highlands, Missouri. However, factors influencing their survival (mortality) are not well understood. In this study we quantified how stand and tree-level predisposing factors are associated with survival of black and scarlet oaks. Sixteen-year monitoring data from the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) indicated that overall annual mortality of black and scarlet oaks averaged 2.2 and 1.7%, respectively, three to five times higher than expected (around 0.5%) for white oak, a common associate. For the first 8 years of the study (1990 –1998), survival rates of black and scarlet oaks were similar. Thereafter, the survival rate of black oak declined relative to scarlet oak. Using the classification and regression tree (CART) method we classified black oak and scarlet oak trees into seven and nine risk groups, respectively, that differed significantly in rates of tree mortality. Groups were distinguished based on tree diameter, crown class, and size relative to competitors. An oak decline and mortality hazard index was thus developed as the weighted means of risk group mortality, which can help managers prescribe species-specific silvicultural treatments to help mitigate oak decline and associated mortality.


Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive brain tumor with poor prognosis to most patients. Immunotherapy of GBM is a potentially beneficial treatment option, whose optimal implementation may depend on familiarity with tumor specific antigens, presented as HLA peptides by the GBM cells. Furthermore, early detection of GBM, such as by a routine blood test, may improve survival, even with the current treatment modalities. This study includes large-scale analyses of the HLA peptidome (immunopeptidome) of the plasma-soluble HLA molecules (sHLA) of 142 plasma samples, and the membranal HLA of GBM tumors of 10 of these patients' tumor samples. Tumor samples were fresh-frozen immediately after surgery and the plasma samples were collected before, and at multiple visits after surgery. In total, this HLA peptidome analysis involved 52 different HLA allotypes and resulted in the identification of more than 35,000 different HLA peptides. Strong correlations were observed in the signal intensities and in the repertoires of identified peptides between the tumors and plasma-soluble HLA peptidomes of the individual patients, whereas low correlations were observed between these HLA peptidomes and the tumors' proteomes. HLA peptides derived from Cancer/Testis Antigens (CTAs) were selected based on their presence among the HLA peptidomes of the patients and absence of expression of their source genes from any healthy and essential human tissues, except from immune-privileged sites. Additionally, peptides were selected as potential biomarkers if their levels in the plasma-sHLA peptidome were significantly reduced after the removal of tumor mass. The CTAs identified among the analyzed HLA peptidomes provide new opportunities for personalized immunotherapy and for early diagnosis of GBM.


Despite calls over the past several decades for increased attention to the needs of gifted and advanced learners, little is known about how South Australian schools currently identify and provide for these students. An online questionnaire was sent to all schools in the state and was completed by participants from 71 schools. Findings suggested inconsistency between schools in the combinations of measures used to identify gifted students and in the nature and content of educational provisions. Low rates of teacher professional development in gifted education were reported, despite most schools expecting classroom teachers to differentiate for gifted students and recommend students for advanced learning opportunities. Responses revealed a perceived tension between addressing the needs of gifted learners and catering for more disadvantaged groups. Few schools reported formally evaluating their provisions for gifted students. Recommendations are made for a renewed focus on the purpose and place of gifted education in South Australia (SA).


In order to develop performance measures to communicate the effect of Virginia's access management program, five tasks were performed: (1) the appropriate literature was reviewed, (2) a catalog of potential performance measures was developed, (3) potential users of the performance measures were surveyed, (4) promising measures were tested, and (5) measures were recommended. The literature review yielded a catalog of 42 potential performance measures. These measures are based on five goals and nine objectives related to the desired outcomes of the access management program. The five goals are reduce congestion, enhance safety, support economic development, reduce the need for new highways, and preserve the public investment in highways. Seven objectives are design elements: reduce conflict points, provide adequate distance between signals, provide adequate distance between unsignalized access points, add medians and two way left turn lanes, add dedicated turn lanes, restrict median openings, and use frontage roads and supporting streets. Two objectives are administrative elements: to enhance cooperation between agencies, and to plan for future development. Professionals engaged in access management provided their views regarding aspects of performance measures. Performance measures that reflected improved safety, measures related to goals, and measures related to design elements were favored. The literature review and comments from Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) staff and other professionals yielded 23 candidate measures that were tested for ease of data collection and computation. The results showed substantial variation in the time required to estimate each measure. Five criteria were used to determine performance measures for implementation: (1) Does VDOT control the measure? (2) Is improvement likely? (3) Is the measure an outcome, output, or input? (4) Does the survey support the measure? and (5) How much data collection effort is required? Each of the 23 measures was evaluated against the five criteria, and 7 measures were selected for review and refinement by the steering committee. Five performance measures were recommended for implementation: crashes per million vehicle miles traveled, percentage of signals with spacing at or above standard distance, percentage of commercial entrance permits issued that meet access management standards, percentage of median openings with left turn lanes, and percentage of localities with a corridor access management plan. Appendix A describes how each of the five measures may be computed.


Background: Adenotonsillectomy is a common surgical procedure in pediatric population, but postoperative pain management is a challenging concern for anaesthetist. The present study was designed to assess the efficacy of dexmedetomidine on post-operative sedation and analgesia in paediatric cases undergoing adenotonsillectomy. Materials and methods: A total 80 pediatric cases undergoing adenotonsillectomy between age group 4-9 years belong to ASA grade I and II were recruited. Study consists of two groups i.e. group 1 with 1mcg/kg Dexmeditomidine and group 2 with 2 mcg/kg fentanyl. Parameters like heart rate, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), requirement of post-operative analgesia and sedation assessed by Ramsay sedation score & CHEOPS score and emergence agitation were assessed. Results: The mean heart rate was significant between two study groups at the beginning, 5 min, 15 min, 20 min and at 25 min (p<0.005). The mean SBP in group 1 was high at the beginning, later the values were decreased when compared group 2. However, the mean DBP in group 1 was low when compared to the group 2 at all-time intervals. The mean Ramsay sedation score difference was statistically significant among two study groups at the beginning, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min and 45 min (p<0.005). The requirement of additional rescue doses were noticed more in group 2. Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine was effective in maintaining intraoperative heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. Dexmedetomidine is an effective and safe analgesic substitute to fentanyl intra-operatively and reduces the requirement of postoperative rescue opioid. Dexmedetomidine was more effective in preventing emergence agitation, avoiding severe pain and reducing incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting.


A recent article by Jamieson in Medical Education outlined some of the (alleged) abuses of "Likert scales" with suggestions about how researchers can overcome some of the (alleged) methodological pitfalls and limitations (1) . However, many of the ideas advanced in the Jamison article, as well as a great many of articles it cited, and similar recent articles in medical, health, psychology, and educational journals and books, are themselves common misunderstandings, misconceptions, conceptual errors, persistent myths and "urban legends" about "Likert scales" and their characteristics and qualities that have been propagated and perpetuated across six decades, for a variety of different reasons. This article identifies, analyses and traces many of these aforementioned problems and presents the arguments, counter arguments and empirical evidence that show these many persistent claims and myths about "Likert scales" to be factually incorrect and untrue. Many studies have shown that Likert Scales (as opposed to single Likert response format items) produce interval data and that the F-test is very robust to violations of the interval data assumption and moderate skewing and may be used to analyze "Likert data" (even if it is ordinal), but not on an item-by-item "shotgun" basis, which is simply a current research and analysis practice that must stop. After sixty years, it is more than time to dispel these particular research myths and urban legends as well as the various damage and problems they cause, and put them to bed and out of their misery once and for all.


Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) were used to study optical and electrochemical properties of a new series of dye sensitizers for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The dyes include triphenylamine (TPA) unit as an electron donor and cyanoacrylic acid moiety as an electron acceptor/anchoring groups with different π-linkers. The effect of linkers on the performance of these dyes as photo-sensitizers was investigated. The linkers are benzene and azabenzenes and their hydrocarbon parent systems. The results indicated that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) is delocalized over the TPA unit and ᴫ-linker while lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is localized on the electron acceptor and ᴫ-linker. The HOMO level of the investigated dyes is located below the HOMO level of the I/I3 redox couple while the LUMO is situated above the conduction band of TiO2. The gradual insertion of nitrogen at benzene bridge decreases HOMO-LUMO energy gap. This ensures good electron injection and dye regeneration. They also introduce gradual red shift by increasing nitrogens at benzene bridge which is an indicator for enhancing photocurrent. The results suggest the possibility of design of efficient photovoltaic organic materials in DSSCs from the selected dyes.


Significance Accumulating evidence suggests that, during task performance, information is encoded at shorter timescales in primary sensory regions as compared to longer timescales in higher-order cortical regions. These encoding timescales correlate with the timescales of activity within these regions. Here, we test the hypothesis that a hierarchy of activity timescales represents a general organizing principle of brain function. Using functional imaging of the human brain in the eyes-open resting state, we find that the timescales of ongoing activity are hierarchically organized as gradients across the entire cerebral cortex. Further, whole-brain coverage permitted examination of subcortical structures, which exhibited hierarchical timescale gradients parallel to cerebral cortex. Altogether, our results support the existence of hierarchical gradients that globally organize human brain dynamics. Multimodal evidence suggests that brain regions accumulate information over timescales that vary according to anatomical hierarchy. Thus, these experimentally defined "temporal receptive windows" are longest in cortical regions that are distant from sensory input. Interestingly, spontaneous activity in these regions also plays out over relatively slow timescales (i.e., exhibits slower temporal autocorrelation decay). These findings raise the possibility that hierarchical timescales represent an intrinsic organizing principle of brain function. Here, using resting-state functional MRI, we show that the timescale of ongoing dynamics follows hierarchical spatial gradients throughout human cerebral cortex. These intrinsic timescale gradients give rise to systematic frequency differences among large-scale cortical networks and predict individual-specific features of functional connectivity. Whole-brain coverage permitted us to further investigate the large-scale organization of subcortical dynamics. We show that cortical timescale gradients are topographically mirrored in striatum, thalamus, and cerebellum. Finally, timescales in the hippocampus followed a posterior-to-anterior gradient, corresponding to the longitudinal axis of increasing representational scale. Thus, hierarchical dynamics emerge as a global organizing principle of mammalian brains.


The Himalayan region has a record of several phases of igneous activity which indicate a continued N—S orientated tensional regime since at least late Precambrian time. Though the earlier volcanic eruptions were restricted both in time and space, the Late Carboniferous-Triassic activity was widespread in terms of both the time interval and area covered. The Abor Volcanic activity in the Eastern Syntaxial Bend of the Himalayan fold belt is coeval with the initiation of Late Carboniferous—Triassic Panjal Trap volcanism of the Western Syntaxial Bend and eruption of the Sikkim lavas. Chemical characters of the Abor Volcanics indicate (1) a within-plate rift tectonic setting of the lava eruptions, (2) a transitional nature between tholeiitic and alkalic compositions, (3) relative enrichment in incompatible elements, and (4) high Fe-Ti values similar to many such basalts erupted in the regions of active lithospheric rifting. The olivine-free nature, a linear trend for MgO and low Co contents of the studied rocks are suggestive of high pressure olivine fractionation for the generation of the bulk chemistry. However, large variations in the incompatible element abundances and ratios of rocks at a similar fractionation stage discount the evolution of the lava chemistry exclusively by simple fractionation or partial melting processes. Instead, these characters together with the low Zr/Nb ratio and within-plate rift tectonic setting suggests the modification of an upper mantle source region, possibly by fluid phase CO2 immediately before the partial melting and lithospheric rifting. Combining geology of the region with the geochemistry and inferred tectonic setting of these rocks, the lava eruptions are suggested to have been associated with the 'rift valley stage' of the Tethys Ocean formation in the present Himalayan region.


Developments technology of information and communications over the past decade had led to fundamental changes in educational practice, leading to the introduction of modern teaching and learning methods. Educational practice has changed from a closed pedagogical approach, closely taught by the teacher, to an open, transparent, integrated society, involving parents and the community, supporting the student's initiative, facilitating collaboration, personal skills and lifelong learning, and the online environment on it various types of effects: social, exposure or portraiture, different attitude, etc. The study proposes an impact analysis on how Gheorghe Asachi Technical University Iasi students perceive the importance from using e-learning, m-learning, but also the knowledge which they have about new learning methods. Identifying and analyzing: the current framework in which e-learning and m-learning are used in the teaching programs of the university, the type of technologies used by the students in the training phase they are going through, respectively the undergraduate, master or doctoral programs, the main advantages and disadvantages of e-learning and m-learning and if students find relevant to such courses, how respondents have knowledge of e-learning or m-learning learning systems, and whether in the training programs they participated had disciplines to which they are used, learning styles and their importance to students are the objectives of this article. Measuring the link between students' perception of the essential elements of e-learning and m-learning methods and those defined by specialists in the field, and if they considers relevant from university should adapt its programs and introduce some online courses.


Mountain forest ecosystems in the Andes are threatened by deforestation. Increasing fire frequencies lead to fire-degraded habitats that are often characterized by a persistent fern-dominated vegetation. Little is known about the consequences of these drastic changes in habitat conditions for pollinator communities. In a rapid diversity assessment, we collected individuals of two major groups of insect pollinators (bees and butterflies/moths) with pan traps and compared pollinator diversities in a spatial block design between forest interior, forest edge and adjacent fire-degraded habitats at eight sites in the Bolivian Andes. We found that bee species richness and abundance were significantly higher in fire-degraded habitats than in forest habitats, whereas species richness and abundance of butterflies/moths increased towards the forests interior. Species turnover between forest and fire-degraded habitats was very high for both pollinator groups and was reflected by an increase in the body size of bee species and a decrease in the body size of butterfly/moth species in fire-degraded habitats. We conclude that deforestation by frequent fires has profound impacts on the diversity and composition of pollinator communities. Our tentative findings suggest shifts towards bee-dominated pollinator communities in fire-degraded habitats that may have important feedbacks on the regenerating communities of insect-pollinated plant species.


To alleviate the burden of the heavy taxation of income in the United States creative solutions have been devised, some of which were introduced by legislation, some of which may be termed" loopholes." For example, the Revenue Act of 1971 introduced a system of tax deferral for a new type of corporation called a Domestic International Sales Corporation (DISC). Under these rules, the DISC's earnings were not taxed, but were taxed to the stockholders when distributed or deemed distributed. The Foreign Sales Corporation Act of 1984 was signed into law on July 18, 1984 as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984. The DISC was considered by major U.S. trading partners as a way to subsidize U.S. companies. This was in violation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which prevents countries from using taxes as a form of subsidy. This law replaced the DISC with the new Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC). Unlike its DISC predecessor, the FSC must satisfy a number of requirements. In the recent past, there was a ruling against the United States because income earned abroad was not fully taxed, thus creating a form of subsidy. DISTRIBUTION OF TAX BY COUNTRIES In the United States, the single most important source of tax revenue at the federal level is the personal income tax. A look at Table 1 indicates that almost forty percent of tax revenue is derived from taxes on individual incomes. Moreover, as seen in table 1, personal income tax as a percentage of total tax in the United States is the highest compared to major industrialized countries. Federal personal income tax has been the subject of various attacks. The origin of most attacks can be traced to the progressive feature of the income tax that makes it complicated, and according to some, unfair. A simple tax system is one that taxes all incomes at the same rate. This paper attempts to demonstrate that attempts to simplify the tax without ignoring the expenditure side of the government budget may lead to a shift of the tax burden to individuals in the middle income category. THE HISTORY OF INCOME TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES The history of income taxation in the United States is relatively short compared to some European countries such as England. The first income tax was introduced by Congress in 1861 for raising revenue to meet high expenditures of the Civil War. The Civil War Act, however, was so poorly drafted that Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, decided not to exercise it. Consequently, the Congress came up with a new act in the following year which, after a series of modifications, served as the first federal income tax until its repeal in 1872. The first law actually executed, that of July 1, 1862, taxed all income in excess of $600. The tax rate was three percent on incomes from $600 to $10,000, and incomes above $10,000 were taxed at five percent. In 1864, a new law was adopted. Income was divided into three classes. On incomes below $5,000 the rate was five percent on the excess above $600; incomes from $5,000-$10,000 were taxed at seven and a half percent; and incomes above $10,000 paid ten percent. In 1865, Congress omitted one of the classes. Under this law incomes below $5,000 paid five percent on the excess over $600 and incomes above $5,000 were taxed at ten percent. After the Civil War, the tax rates were lowered and became uniform, and the limit of exemption was gradually increased until the tax was abolished in 1872. As expected, the constitutionality of the tax was challenged in the courts because of its similarity with a direct tax. The United States Federal Constitution requires that direct taxes must be apportioned among the states according to their population. Thus, the opponents of the income tax argued that the tax in question violated the constitutional requirement that direct taxes must be apportioned among the states according to their census. The constitutional controversy over the tax was fought before The Supreme Court in Springer v. …


This article addresses a gap in the application of the Administrative Law standard of review analysis to delegated legislation (municipal bylaws and Executive regulations). There is confusion in a series of recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions about whether this analysis applies, and, if it does, what the standard of review should be. The Court in Catalyst Paper conducted the analysis in relation to a municipal bylaw, concluding and applying the reasonableness standard. This decision appears to contradict the Court's previous application of the correctness standard and questions of authority to make municipal bylaws as examples of questions of "true jurisdiction". The extension of this approach in other case law to executive forms of delegated legislation complicates that issue further. In 2 other recent decisions involving executive regulations (Broadcasting Reference and Katz Group and CN Railway), the Supreme Court did not discuss, much less apply, the standard of review analysis, although in a 3rd decision (CN Railway), the Court obiter suggested without explanation that this analysis did not apply to such regulations.This confusion in the Supreme Court case law deserves comment. This paper argues that there are compelling reasons for applying the standard of review analysis to delegated legislation in order to bring more coherence to Canadian Administrative Law. The alternative is to consign the judicial review of this form of law to the past and leave it behind as the rest of Administrative Law develops. Delegated legislation is a pervasive form of law in Canada which, despite this, has been neglected in academic commentary. This article aims to make some progress in redressing this.


We describe a series of experiments on acetonitrile solutions of an inorganic cluster molecule Mo2Ag4S8(PPh3)4 and compare them with data on a suspension of carbon particles in liquid (dilute ink). The optical-limiting behavior is measured by single-picosecond 532-nm pulses and nanosecond-long trains of these picosecond pulses. Nonlinear loss measurements are also performed with pulse trains at 1064 nm. Both materials show reduced transmittance for increasing fluence (energy per unit area). We also perform picosecond time-resolved pump–probe measurements at 532 nm, and we find that the observed pump–probe behavior is identical for the metal-cluster solution and the carbon-black suspension. We believe that the nonlinear mechanisms are the same for the two materials. Our previous studies of carbon-black suspension indicate that the primary nonlinear losses are due to scattering and absorption by microplasmas formed after thermionic emission from heated carbon black augmented by scattering from subsequently created bubbles. The conclusion of a similar limiting mechanism for the two materials is confirmed by time-resolved shadowgraphic images taken on both samples; however, a definitive conclusion concerning the role of microplasmas versus bubbles in either material is still under investigation.


This note provides a brief introduction to Advance, a project currently being tracked and documented by a research team from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I am joined by Dr Katharine Low and Dr Sarah Grochala who bring their separate expertise and interest in documenting practices from applied theatre, playwriting and performance to our collaboration with industry partners Tonic Theatre. Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Advance is working with (and for) 11 leading theatre companies across England, facilitating reflection and knowledge exchange on the means to achieve greater gender equality in the theatre industry's workforces and repertoires. A full report on Tonic's work through Advance will be published later in the year. What follows is not, therefore, an assessment but a pause in the process of critical documentation, a reflection on the terms by which questions on the present project, and projects undertaken within the recent past, might be seen to interact. It hopes to link to earlier key moments, to raise queries and to take notes from colleagues, who are cordially invited to respond to me firstname.lastname@example.com rather than to Tonic Theatre or the participating companies. For a list of these companies see http://www.tonictheatre.co.uk/our-work/initiatives/advance.php.


We present a way of guiding light to planar surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates by using evanescent-wave coupling. Using nanostructured chalcogenide glass-based SERS substrates, we experimentally show the incident-angle dependence of plasmon resonances of the SERS substrates, demonstrating strong resonances at large incident angles. This allows the evanescent-wave excitation of SERS substrates through tapered optical fibers. Experiments show that fiber-taper-excited SERS substrates exhibit a significant enhancement of the Raman spectra of Rhodamine-6G analyte molecules. This configuration forms the basis of fiber-optic-based, reproducible, highly compact, and sensitive SERS systems.


Our aim in this paper is to clarify the notion of independence for imprecise probabilities. Suppose that two marginal experiments are each described by an imprecise probability model, i.e., by a convex set of probability distributions or an equivalent model such as upper and lower probabilities or previsions. Then there are several ways to define independence of the two experiments and to construct an imprecise probability model for the joint experiment. We survey and compare six definitions of independence. To clarify the meaning of the definitions and the relationships between them, we give simple examples which involve drawing balls from urns. For each concept of independence, we give a mathematical definition, an intuitive or behavioural interpretation, assumptions under which the definition is justified, and an example of an urn model to which the definition is applicable. Each of the independence concepts we study appears to be useful in some kinds of application. The concepts of strong independence and epistemic independence appear to be the most frequently applicable.


The darkly passionate short stories of Thomas Hardy are compelling explorations of love, social class, superstition and legend. This collection contains many of his finest and most representative, and includes The Withered Arm', an eerie depiction of arcane witchcraft in nineteenth-century England; Barbara of the House of Grebe', in which a beautiful man's tragic disfigurement by fire is savagely exploited by his rival; The Son's Veto', showing the cruelty of an educated youth towards his ignorant but tender mother; and The Distracted Preacher', the story of one man's conflict between heartfelt love and his own sense of moral and civic duty. By turns moving and poetic, and surprisingly modern and brutally macabre, these eloquent tales may be numbered among the greatest creations of Hardy's genius.


This study examines the implications of disease for the structure and resilience of Great Barrier Reef (GBR) coral assemblages. Annual disease surveys in the northern and central sections of the GBR between 2004 and 2006 indicate that disease is ubiquitous and persistent throughout much of the GBR. Seven diseases commonly affect a wide range of anthozoan taxa, albeit at relatively low levels of prevalence (~ 3% of scleractinian corals). Nonetheless, values recorded for disease prevalence and for rates of tissue loss and mortality indicate that the acute impacts of diseases such as black band disease (BBD) and skeletal eroding band (SEB) can be similar to those of diseases that have caused significant declines in Caribbean coral populations, highlighting the significant role disease is likely to play in structuring at least some GBR coral assemblages.

Two families, the Pocilloporidae and Acroporidae, consistently ranked highest in a disease susceptibility hierarchy determined for GBR corals. Consistency in spatial patterns in the prevalence of BBD coupled with consistency in disease susceptibility hierarchies over cross- and long-shelf gradients in turbidity, wave action, and water quality, indicate that these environmental factors are not the primary drivers of disease occurrence on the GBR. Instead, concordance in family rankings for susceptibility to disease and susceptibility to other factors that compromise coral health (thermal bleaching, injury from predators, and interactions with macro-algae) suggests that fast growing, branching morphologies of acroporid and pocilloporid corals, and their resultant high abundance in many Indo-Pacific coral assemblages, enhance the vulnerability of these families to a diversity of pathogens, in addition to a range of other biological and physical stressors.

Experimental studies demonstrated the important role that injury is likely to play in the development of SEB. Halofolliculina corallasia, the putative pathogen of SEB, rapidly colonised artificial wounds, however, despite initial increases in ciliate densities on wounds, ciliates failed to become pathogenic and cause additional tissue mortality on any of the three coral species tested experimentally. In addition to injury, environmental factors that compromise coral health or the presence of other microbial agents may be required before ciliates become pathogenic. In combination with correlations between family rankings for susceptibility to disease and susceptibility to other factors that compromise coral health, these results highlight the need for management strategies that limit activities and factors that compromise coral health, in order to minimise the spread and transmission of coral diseases.

Partial mortality over three months caused by the three diseases examined in this study ranged from 85.7 ± 1.6% for BBD to 12.9 ± 1.7% for SEB, while rates of whole colony mortality over two years ranged from 84% for BBD to 39% for SEB. Tissue loss was not associated with growth anomalies (GAs) in this study. The combined partial and whole colony mortality caused by BBD was at least two-fold higher than mortality caused by SEB in northern GBR coral populations, however the seven-fold higher prevalence of SEB, combined with further reductions in the growth rates and reproductive output of surviving portions of A. muricata colonies, indicate that SEB could have greater fitness consequences for GBR Acropora populations than BBD. The potential for failure of gametogenesis in a large proportion of Acropora colonies with GAs, indicates that the impact of a chronic outbreak of GAs on the fitness of Indo-Pacific coral populations could rival those of both SEB and BBD.

Sub-lethal impacts of these diseases on growth and reproduction of Acropora muricata also varied, suggesting that this species can vary its resource allocation strategy to maximise contributions to future generations in response to differing levels of disease virulence. Continued investment of resources in colony growth and reproduction in colonies with BBD may represent an attempt to maximise short-term fitness, given rapid rates of tissue loss and the high probability of dying. In contrast, colonies with GAs or slower progressing diseases such as SEB may divert resources from physiological processes not directly linked to colony survival in response to the greater likelihood that some portion of the colony will survive and recover.

Predicted increases in disease with ocean warming and anthropogenic impacts pose the greatest threat to the persistence of the highly susceptible acroporid and pocilloporid corals in this region, taking into consideration both the lethal and sub-lethal impacts of diseases highlighted in this study and the double jeopardy represented by their high vulnerability to other disturbances including cyclones, bleaching and crown-of thorns outbreaks on the GBR.


We present a simple (microscopic) model in which bulk viscosity plays a role in explaining the present acceleration of the universe. The effect of bulk viscosity on the Friedmann equations is to turn the pressure into an "effective" pressure containing the bulk viscosity. For a sufficiently large bulk viscosity, the effective pressure becomes negative and could mimic a dark energy equation of state. Our microscopic model includes self-interacting spin-zero particles (for which the bulk viscosity is known) that are added to the usual energy content of the universe. We study both background equations and linear perturbations in this model. We show that a dark energy behavior is obtained for reasonable values of the two parameters of the model (i.e. the mass and coupling of the spin-zero particles) and that linear perturbations are well-behaved. There is no apparent fine tuning involved. We also discuss the conditions under which hydrodynamics holds, in particular that the spin-zero particles must be in local equilibrium today for viscous effects to be important.


Information gathered from cast-off patterns can be quite difficult to communicate to others who may not have attended the scene. An analyst at the scene can often visualize where in the room the person was standing when they were swinging the bloodied object that created the pattern as well as the approximate plane of motion of the swing. This information may be used as a limiting factor in their reconstruction, but the current methods of recording and conveying this information are limited. This paper demonstrates that more information can be gathered through an analysis of cast-off and presents a technique to record, analyze, and describes a technique to communicate it to others using a 3D software model.


The authors analyze a model of a movable-head disk system with two read/write heads maintained a fixed distance d apart on each arm. Successive request-addresses are assumed to be independent random variables, uniformly distributed over the set of cylinders. The purpose of the analysis is to find that value of d which minimizes the expected seek time per request, assuming that seek time varies linearly with the distance z traveled by the heads. The authors extend an earlier analysis of this model to more general seek-time characteristics which take into account nonlinear acceleration effects. Detailed results, combining both analysis and simulation experiments, are presented for seek times linear in z/sup alpha /, 0 >


Fault tolerance and adaptive capabilities are challenges for modern networks-on-chip (NoC) due to the increase in physical defects in advanced manufacturing processes. Two novel adaptive routing algorithms, namely coarse and fine-grained (FG) look-ahead algorithms, are proposed in this paper to enhance 2-D mesh/torus NoC system fault-tolerant capabilities. These strategies use fault flag codes from neighboring nodes to obtain the status or conditions of real-time traffic in an NoC region, then calculate the path weights and choose the route to forward packets. This approach enables the router to minimize congestion for the adjacent connected channels and also to bypass a path with faulty channels by looking ahead at distant neighboring router paths. The novelty of the proposed routing algorithms is the weighted path selection strategies, which make near-optimal routing decisions to maintain the NoC system performance under high fault rates. Results show that the proposed routing algorithms can achieve performance improvement compared to other state of the art works under various traffic loads and high fault rates. The routing algorithm with FG look-ahead capability achieves a higher throughput compared with the coarse-grained approach under complex fault patterns. The hardware area/power overheads of both routing approaches are relatively low which does not prohibit scalability for large-scale NoC implementations.


Abstract A hydrodynamics model has been developed to study extreme deformation of the space reactor system impacting on the ground with a high velocity. Two-dimensional geometry models for a monolithic core and a pinned core reactor have been developed with dynamic material models, including the material constitutive models and the equation-of-state models. Calculations have been performed for the reactor impacting onto dry sand at 230 and 150 m/s. A pinned core has a much larger fraction of gas volume in the reactor core and thus collapses faster than a monolithic core. The 150 m/s impact velocity case reveals that the gas coolant channels survive in a monolithic core even though the reactor is massively deformed. In a pinned core, however, most of the gas coolant region collapses with intact or partially collapsed fission product gas cores that are protected by solid UO2 fuel. The sand density varies as it is being compressed. Generally, sand beneath the impacting reactor has a higher density as it is compressed. In addition to consideration of global criticality, it is necessary to investigate local criticality. Because of nonuniform distribution of the gas coolant channels in a deformed monolithic core for the 230 m/s impact velocity case, it may be possible to induce criticality locally in those regions where collapse is more severe. It is not straightforward to make an engineering judgment based solely on impact analysis regarding which core concept is more susceptible to criticality events. The current impact study reveals that a pinned core reactor collapses faster than a monolithic core reactor. A reactor that collapses faster is thought to be more susceptible to producing a criticality. However, a monolithic core reactor with much higher mass and kinetic energy develops much higher compaction in the dry sand beneath the reactor. This means that it is expected to better reflect fast neutrons from the bottom boundary where the sand density for a monolithic core impact becomes much higher than for a pinned core impact. It is strongly recommended that neutronics calculations be performed to determine the susceptibility of criticality for the massively deformed nuclear reactors including appropriate reflecting boundary conditions.


Emotions during early childhood is very strong because this is a time when imbalances in the sense that he easily carried the emotional outbursts that it is difficult guided and directed. Anger is an expression that is more frequently expressed in childhood as children, because stimuli that cause more anger, and at an early age children learn that anger is an effective way to gain attention or to satisfy their desires. This research was conducted to find out about the causes and emotional reactions of anger that emerged in children pre-school age. The cause is something that can lead to the existence of an effect (someone or something that can cause something to happen.) The reaction is a response to the situation, can be either an action or influence and so forth. Anger is an acute emotional reaction caused by a number of situations that stimulate, including threats, physical aggression, self-restraint, verbal attacks, disappointment, or frustration, and is characterized by a strong reaction in the autonomic nervous system, particularly by the emergency response in the sympathetic, and implicitly reaction caused by external attack, whether they are somatic or physical or verbal or verbal. Pre-school age is started after passing through infancy, that is approximately two years to five years. This research is a qualitative research on the subject of children pre-school age who attend school in kindergarten ABA-24 Malang, especially those sitting in the small kindergarten class A2 class. The method used in this study is observation and interview. Interview here used as a complementary data as well as a method to double check the information or data that has been obtained. From the research result shows that the causes of anger among other emotions, obstacles to the desired movement of children, whether those obstacles comes from other people or from the inability of self; obstacles to the activities already underway; barrier against the wishes, plans and intentions want to be a child; disruption to their property; friend tried to reach a toy or disturb while playing; hurt your friends or parents; situation relating to parents; left alone; refuse orders given parents and friends or other people's behavior that was disturbing for children. The reaction appeared include impulsive reaction and the reaction is pressed.


We combine Spitzer 24 μm observations with data from the COMBO-17 survey for ~15,000 0.2 < z ≤ 1 galaxies to determine how the average star formation rates (SFRs) have evolved for galaxy subpopulations of different stellar masses. In the determination of , we consider both the ultraviolet (UV) and the infrared (IR) luminosities, and account for the contributions of galaxies that are individually undetected at 24 μm through image stacking. For all redshifts, we find that higher mass galaxies have a substantially lower specific SFR, ⟨SFR⟩/⟨M*⟩, than lower mass ones. However, we find the striking result that the rate of decline in cosmic SFR with redshift is nearly the same for massive and low mass galaxies, i.e., not a strong function of stellar mass. This analysis confirms one version of what has been referred to as "downsizing," namely, that the epoch of major mass buildup in massive galaxies is substantially earlier than the epoch of mass buildup in low-mass galaxies. Yet it shows that star formation activity is not becoming increasingly limited to low-mass galaxies toward the present epoch. We argue that this suggests that heating by AGN-powered radio jets is not the dominant mechanism responsible for the decline in cosmic SFR since z ~ 1, which is borne out by comparison with semianalytic models that include this effect.


Planning youth and family programming in the 21st century is daunting given family members' busy schedules. This is even more challenging when planning programs in rural areas, where there are vast distances between communities. This article discusses a research and educational outreach project that uses best practices in program development in order to create an obesity prevention program for parents of 4-H youth in a rural state. Practices discussed include the development of an interdisciplinary team, information gathered and implemented from focus groups, and the use of evaluations during the pilot-stage of the project. Implications for Extension programming are discussed.


Statin therapy is regarded as an effective medication to reduce cardiovascular events in patients at higher risk for future incidence of coronary artery disease. However, very few studies have been conducted to examine its implementation in non-Western real-world practice. In this study, we sought to describe statin prescription patterns in relation to patient characteristics in a Japanese multicenter percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) registry as a foundation for quality improvement. We studied 15,024 patients that were prospectively enrolled in the Japan Cardiovascular Database-Keio interhospital Cardiovascular Study Registry from January 2009 to August 2014. The overall discharge statin non-prescription rate was 15.2%, without significant interhospital (MOR = 1.01) or annual differences (MOR = 1.13) observed. Hierarchical multivariable logistic regression analysis accounting for regional differences revealed that the presence of chronic kidney disease was associated with higher rates of statin non-prescription (OR 1.87, 95% confidence interval, 1.69–2.08, p value <0.001), and higher age (per 1-year increase) showed a trend for prescription of low-intensity statin (OR 1.00, 95% confidence interval, 1.00–1.01, p value = 0.045) within the subset of PCI patients (N = 4,853) enrolled after the year 2011. Our study indicates that patients with chronic kidney disease and elderlies may be the primary targets for maximizing the beneficial effect of statin therapy in post PCI patients.


A common contact point could exist between Schrodinger's quantum wave and Bohm's quantum potential: they would both share the same "unified field", that is to say that both would depend on one space-time structured and governed by the Law that UNIFIES and TOTALIZES them in an universal field, since the quantum wave possesses, by construction and by definition, the ENTIRETY of the cognoscible thing, while in Bohm's quantum potential, it is the same character of TOTALITY that orders and manages the behavior of the subatomic particles that conform to its intrinsic "field". MAN and Universe are one and the same thing, structured and ruled by the Law of UNITY that TOTALIZES the cosmos as shown in the unitary theory of the numbers of the decimal numeration system presented herein.


Presence or absence of deleterious constituents and alkali-silica reactivity are especially important when aggregates are to beused in concrete structures. A ledge rock sample was petrographically analysed for alkali-silica reactivity. In overall, two rockclans (metasiltstone and metasandstone) with nine sub clans were identified from the ledge rock sample. All the rock types werewell interlocked, indurated, and cemented extensively by calcite. All the silica grains were low quartz. Except a trace amount ofchert containing microquartz in rock type C, reactive silica such as amorphous silica and high-quartz are absent. Instead, illite inmany rocks and vermiculite in rock types C and D were deleterious silicate components, which in the whole rock sample were5% and 2%, respectively. Presence of vermiculite and illite is found to be strongly controlled by the presence or absence of clayeypartings in metasiltstones and metasandstones. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/bdg.v14i0.5435 Bulletin of the Department of Geology  Vol.14 2011, pp. 21-28


A gene encoding a 35-kilodalton guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein, Gem, was cloned from mitogen-induced human peripheral blood T cells. Gem and Rad, the product of a gene overexpressed in skeletal muscle in individuals with Type II diabetes, constitute a new family of Ras-related GTP-binding proteins. The distinct structural features of this family include the G3 GTP-binding motif, extensive amino- and carboxyl-terminal extensions beyond the Ras-related domain, and a motif that determines membrane association. Gem was transiently expressed in human peripheral blood T cells in response to mitogenic stimulation; the protein was phosphorylated on tyrosine residues and localized to the cytosolic face of the plasma membrane. Deregulated Gem expression prevented proliferation of normal and transformed 3T3 cells. These results suggest that Gem is a regulatory protein, possibly participating in receptor-mediated signal transduction at the plasma membrane.


Water availability and salinity are determinants of growth, survival and establishment of mangrove species. This study aimed to compare the ability of the mangrove species to survive extreme water stress, and to determine differences in growth performance and biomass allocation between mangrove species grown in different water levels and saline conditions. Seedlings of Lumnitzera racemosa, Rhizophora apiculata, R. mucronata and Avicennia marina were used. A dry-down experiment was done to compare the ability of mangrove species from different zonations to survive drought stress by evaluating survival rates after re-watering consequent to drought exposure. The different mangrove species were grown at different water levels (dry, well-watered, flooded) and different salinity levels such as low (3-5 ppt), high (25-27 ppt) and pure seawater (32 ppt) to evaluate the growth performance and biomass allocation of the mangrove seedlings. L. racemosa was the most drought tolerant, followed by R. mucronata and A. marina while R. apiculata was the most drought sensitive. There is a possibility that A. marina may displace the current distribution of R. apiculata in the middle zone while the distribution of L. racemosa and R. mucronata in the landward and middle zone, respectively could be retained. The number of leaves of A. marina was significantly higher than R. apiculata and R. mucronata but was only comparable to that of L. racemosa across all salinity levels. L. racemosa was only significantly different from the two Rhizophora spp. under pure saline treatment. Root length of A. marina was significantly higher than R. apiculata but statistically similar to R. mucronata and L. racemosa. The capacity for root growth may allow roots to exploit water from dry soils and could correspond to the drought tolerance of A. marina, R. mucronata and L. racemosa. There was no significant effect of water and salinity stresses on the biomass allocation.


This letter addresses the use of the Sentinel-1 time series with the aim of proposing an automatic and unsupervised coastline detection method that averages the dynamical variations of coastal areas over a limited period of time, e.g., one year. First, we propose applying a temporal averaging filter that allows the temporal variations in coastal areas, e.g., due to tides or vegetation, to be encapsulated, and, at the same time, the speckle to be reduced, without decreasing the spatial resolution of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series. Then, based on the distinctive backscattering values of the sea and land pixels, we will employ an iterative hierarchical tiling method in order to accurately characterize the two classes using bimodal distribution. The distribution is then segmented by a thresholding and region-growing procedure to separate the sea and land classes. A large-scale quantitative comparison between the SAR-derived and open street map (OSM) coastlines allows for a numerical evaluation of the results, i.e., an overall agreement ranging from 80% to 90%. In addition, Sentinel-2 images are used to evaluate the estimated SAR coastline qualitatively. Furthermore, the benefits of having an accurate SAR coastline are shown in the case of two well-known Earth observation-monitoring applications, ship detection, and floodwater mapping.


The documentation requirements of data published in long term archives have significantly grown over the last decade. At WDCC the data publishing process is assisted by "Atarrabi", a web-based workflow system for reviewing and editing metadata information by the data authors and the publication agent. The system ensures high metadata quality for long-term use of the data with persistent identifiers (DOI/URN). By these well-defined references (DOI) credit can properly be given to the data producers in any publication.


Patches to modern operating systems, including bug fixes and security updates, and the reboots and downtime they require, cause tremendous problems for system users and administrators. The aim of this research is to develop a model for dynamic update of operating systems, allowing a system to be patched without the need for a reboot or other service interruption. In this work, a model for dynamic update based on operating system modularity is developed and evaluated using a prototype implementation for the K42 operating system. The prototype is able to update kernel code and data structures, even when the interfaces between kernel modules change. When applying an update, at no point is the system's entire execution blocked, and there is no additional overhead after an update has been applied. The base runtime overhead is also very low. An analysis of the K42 revision history shows that approximately 79% of past performance and bug-fix changes to K42 could be converted to dynamic updates, and the proportion would be even higher if the changes were being developed for dynamic update. The model also extends to other systems such as Linux and BSD, that although structured modularly, are not strictly object-oriented like K42. The experience with this approach shows that dynamic update for operating systems is feasible given a sufficiently-modular system structure, allows maintenance patches and updates to be applied without disruption, and need not constrain system performance.


This Article explores the intersection of utility-scale wind power development and the Endangered Species Act, which thus far has not been as happy a union as one might expect. Part I provides background on how the ESA and wind power have met in policy, permitting, and litigation. Part II then examines whether wind power (and other renewable energy sources) can and should receive a "green pass" under the ESA given its unquestioned climate change mitigation benefits, concluding that doing so would face a host of legal and policy concerns. Part III then outlines a model for administrative innovation of ESA programs centered on facilitating business risk management in renewable energy infrastructure projects.


This book is the first peer-reviewed collection of papers focusing on the potential of myth storylines to yield data and lessons that are of value to the geological sciences. Building on the nascent discipline of geomythology, scientists and scholars from a variety of disciplines have contributed to this volume. The geological hazards (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and cosmic impacts) that have given rise to myths are considered, as are the sacred and cultural values associated with rocks, fossils, geological formations and landscapes. There are also discussions about the historical and literary perspectives of geomythology. Regional coverage includes Europe and the Mediterranean, Afghanistan, Cameroon, India, Australia, Japan, Pacific islands, South America and North America. Myth and Geology challenges the widespread notion that myths are fictitious or otherwise lacking in value for the physical sciences.


From the Publisher:
"Is medicine a science or an art? Marc Berg's contribution to this long-standing debate moves away from normative arguments replacing them with an ethnographic inquiry that goes to the heart of medical work. Berg's analysis leads to a provocative new understanding of the practice of medicine and of medical judgment, grounded in a detailed empirical account rather than simplistic generalizations."
-- Alberto Cambrosio, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University
"This book is an outstanding contribution to STS scholarship and the study of sociotechnical practices. Berg's key conceptual theme, and the sharp, subtle, and sophisticated inferences he draws from his data, will stimulate other scholars to explore the generality of his insights beyond the field of medical practice. Berg's eclectic ability to interrelate different perspectives enhances the theoretical payoff of his case study. This book will be a tour de force that technology-studies scholars and others will refer to over and over again in thinking about how to conceptualize and linguistify human-machine interfaces."
-- Mark A. Shields, Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication, University of Virginia One response to the current crisis in medicine--indicated by large variations in practice and skyrocketing costs--has been a call for the rationalizing of medical practice through decision-support techniques. These tools, which include protocols, decision analysis, and expert systems, have generated much debate. Advocates argue that the tools will make medical practice more rational, uniform, and efficient: that they will transform the "art" of medical work into a "science." Critics within medicine, as well as those in philosophy and science studies, question the feasibility and desirability of the tools. They argue that formal tools cannot and should not supplant humans in most real-life tasks.
Marc Berg takes the issues raised by advocates and critics as points of departure for investigation, rather than as positions to choose from. Drawing on insights and methodologies from science and technology studies, he attempts to understand what "rationalizing medical practices" means: what these tools do and how they work in concrete medical practices. Rather than take a stand for or against decision-support techniques, he shows how medical practices are transformed through these tools; this helps the reader to see what is gained and what is lost.
The book investigates how new discourses on medical work and its problems are linked to the development of these tools, and it studies the construction of several individual technologies. It looks at what medical work consists of and how these new technologies figure in and transform the work. Although the book focuses on decision-support techniques in the field of medicine, the issues raised are relevant wherever rationalizing techniques are being debated or constructed. Touching upon broader issues of standardization, universality, localization, and the politics of technology, the book addresses core problems in medical sociology, technology studies, and tool design.
Inside Technology series


The OASIS working group was first initiated in 2001, published the new format in March 2004, which was ratified as an official SEMI standard in September 2005. A follow-on initiative expanded the new standard to cover the needs of the mask manufacturing equipment sector with a derived standard called OASIS.MASK (P44) that was released in November 2005 and updated in May 2008. While there are many potential benefits from this improved format over the incumbent GDSII and MEBES standards, the main driver for the development of the OASIS format was the looming data volume explosion from the onward march of processing and design technology. With a demonstrated benefit of roughly 10x over the GDSII format, it was expected that the new OASIS format would be embraced quickly by the semiconductor industry. In reality, the adoption process took significantly longer and is still in progress. The paper analyzes the data volume and adoption trends by manufacturing steps - e.g design, post tapeout flow and mask manufacturing. Survey results on the adoption status are shared and an analysis of the technical, economic, and environmental factors influencing it will be discussed.


Models that seek to unify BL Lacs and low-power radio galaxies predict that the two types of object should show similar isotropically emitted X-ray emission. Testing this is usually limited by difficulties in separating strong X-ray emission from a BL Lac nucleus and surrounding low-surface brightness emission. In this paper we report ROSAT HRI observations of the z = 0.055 BL Lac object PKS 0521 365. We are able to separate a luminous extended X-ray component from the bright nucleus. Using a new radio map, we show that it is unlikely that the extended emission is due to inverseCompton scattering of photons from the active nucleus, and instead interpret it as thermal emission from dense, rapidly cooling gas. This is a more extreme environment than is found in typical FRI radio galaxies, and may pose a problem for unified models.


Libraries have been busy transforming and publishing their data as linked open data by testing already existing semantics and developing new sets of semantics. So far, most of the efforts have focused on the bibliographic data, not the holdings and item related data that are unique to individual libraries and that help users access the information resources they need. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library experimented with a subset of its bibliographic records (5.4 million) describing print resources and associated holdings data to examine options and best practices so far identified for expressing library holdings data using schema.org semantics. The experimentation suggests that the mappings for holdings data recommended by the BibExtend Community Group are in some ways incomplete and that some proposed uses of schema.org types and properties to describe library holdings go beyond current schema.org definitions. Existing schema.org enumerations should be extended (e.g., regarding availability) to better describe library use cases, and some extensions to schema.org are needed to fully describe library holdings data and to maximize their utility. This paper highlights issues, suggests potential extensions identified during the transformation to schema.org semantics, and discusses options to make essential library holdings data fully visible as linked open data.


As a result of the rapid growth of tourism without planning and proper management, many island attractions in Thailand have experienced challenges and vulnerability leading to negative impacts. To handle with such effects, sustainability is considered an important notion in relation to tourism planning and development. Importantly, prior to moving tourism towards sustainability, it is essential to resolve existing problems affected by tourism through different stakeholders' views and their involvements. This thesis is an examination of current tourism situation on the island of Koh Pha-ngan, Thailand. It categorises opportunities for, and constraints to, sustainable tourism development on the island, along with identifying the main variables of tourism sustainability relevant to island situations. Data from key stakeholders including tourists, members of the local community, tourism businesses and representatives of the public sector was collected via the form of between-method triangulation using qualitative and quantitative methods, then analysed through the uses of SPSS and NVIVO. The research indicates benefits and costs in three areas. Firstly, regarding economic characteristics, tourism benefits communities and improves the economy of the island. Simultaneously, the high cost of living on the island is caused by inflation. Secondly, in terms of the environment, although natural resources are partly damaged by members of the local migrant population, it remains largely unspoiled due to environmental conservation measures collaborated in by the stakeholders. Thirdly, for the socio-cultural structure, an improvement of infrastructure creates better living conditions for the residents. However, tourists influence socio-cultural features, particularly in the younger residents. Concerning opportunities for sustainable tourism development, these relate to the conservation of natural resources projects collaborated by all stakeholders on the island, an increase in employment opportunities, and out of season business opportunities on the island. However, a lack of tourism planning and management is considered a major constraint to sustainable development on the island. In addition, tourists, family businesses, migrant workers, and the full-moon parties contribute to sustainable tourism development as the main variables. These outcomes generates recognition on how responsibility in tourism for a destination to fulfil an integrated balance of guidelines for sustainable tourism development with the intention of making satisfaction and distribution of benefit and opportunities for all stakeholders on the island, whilst maintaining the environment and conserving the identity of the indigenous population.


SMALL BUSINESS COMPUTER SECURITY Due to a number of events widely reported in the press, public awareness of the importance of computer security has increased.1 Most computer security studies, however, have focused on issues related to large, multi-user systems rather than on small business systems.2 The topic is important to the small business operator because a small business which loses its records could quickly fail.3 This concern has resulted in U.S. Congressional action requiring the Small Business Administration to provide training to small businesses related to computer security issues and computer crime prevention measures, despite the fact that some argue that inadequate accounting systems contribute a greater threat to small businesses.4 1 "Beware, Hackers at Play,' Newsweek (Sept. 5, 1983), pp. 42-48; and "Computer Security, What Can Be Done,' Business Week (Sept. 26, 1983), pp. 126-130. 2 D. E. Denning and P. S. Denning, "Data Security,' Computing Surveys (September, 1979), and Donn Parker, Computing Security Management (Reston, Virginia: Reston Publishing, 1981). 3 Hearing before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Restraint of Trade Activities Affecting Small Business, regarding "Small Business Computer Crime Prevention Act,' H.R. 3075, 1984, p. 4. 4 Public Law 98-132, "Small Business Computer Security and Education Act of 1984,' 98 STAT. 431. See also "SBA Given Task of Educating Small Firms on Computer Security,' The Wall Street Journal (June 4, 1984), p. 23. Computerization should not be permitted to introduce errors into small business management and record keeping systems. The proper time to begin worrying about security is during planning.5 Whenever computers are used to manage sensitive data, it is appropriate to worry about computer security regardless of the state of the accounting system. The purpose of this article is to report the results of a survey of small business computer use and the measures taken to secure small business computer systems. 5 James Martin, Security, Accuracy, and Privacy in Computer Systems (New York: Prentice Hall, 1973), p. 4. BACKGROUND Computer security problems may be classified according to their origin and nature, as illustrated in figure 1. Threats to security can result from human, environmental, or systems factors. The nature of the damage includes loss of computer availability, loss of data integrity, and loss of privacy. For the purpose of this survey, four categories of controls were identified: physical security, management controls, system safeguards, and recovery measures. Computers need to be protected from a variety of physical threats such as fire, power surges, and spilled coffee. Adequate premises security is the first ingredient in providing physical security (e.g., locks, smoke alarms, etc.). Additional precautions may be taken to protect the computer itself. Most important among these is isolation of the machine in a safe room. A variety of ancillary devices, such as power surge filters, waterproof covers, and lockable anti-theft "tie-downs' may also be useful. Management controls include rules and procedures governing computer use. Unless the owner is the only user, lack of explicit rules governing the use and protection of the computer (or failure to monitor those rules) indicates lack of management control over the system. The safeguards used to protect large systems are frequently inappropriate for small systems. For example, pass-word protection is of limited value in protecting a microcomputer database, as even moderately sophisticated users can easily defeat some available methods. Use of the correct software is the most essential aspect of any computer system. Even commercial software houses which employ expert programmers do not guarantee their products;6 thus, the quality of any software written by inexperienced programmers is suspect. …


Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) enable the communication of mobile wireless nodes without any pre-defined infrastructure. Therefore, they are predestined for future mobile applications. To use existing applications and to inter-operate with the world wide Internet, ad-hoc networks have to use TCP/IP, which were not designed for mobile ad-hoc networks and yield poor performance when deployed in this kind of networks. The poor performance of TCP in ad-hoc networks has several reasons, especially the communication medium with high bit error rates (BER) and TCPs optimization on fixed networks. We present an enhancement, the restricted congestion window enlargement (TCP/RCWE), and show its ability to handle TCPs problems in mobile ad-hoc networks. We also illustrate the performance gain of TCP by the enhancement.


The outcome of the 29 March 2009 Turkish local administrations election is analyzed in light of economic voting literature, both from historical and geographical perspectives. First, the nationwide vote share of the incumbent party (AKP) is compared to what would be expected based on the patterns observed in the past twenty-six National Assembly, Senate, and Provincial Council elections held between 1951 and 2007. For this purpose a vote equation is estimated using aggregate nationwide time-series data. This equation takes into account the roles played by economic conditions, political inertia, incumbency factors, strategic voting by the electorate, and the political realignments. Second, inter-party vote movements between the 2007 parliamentary and the 2009 local administrations elections are analyzed, through systems of party vote equations, estimated separately for different regions of the country, using cross-provincial data. The results obtained show that the outcome of the 2009 election was predictable on the basis of historical patterns. The vote loses of the AKP is attributable mainly to two transitory factors: poor economic conditions prevailing at the time of the election and typical strategic-voting experienced in local elections. The party's vote losses tended to be higher in the east than in the west and in provinces where its support is high than where it is low. The voters who deserted the AKP went to the DP, SP and DTP, in the mid-eastern and south-eastern Anatolia, and to the MHP and SP, in the rest of the country.


The Canadian Avalanche Association's Industry Information Exchange (InfoEx) is a daily exchange of technical snow, weather, avalanche and terrain information among subscribers from all types of avalanche safety operations in Canada. In addition to providing a platform for a candid and timely exchange of observations and assessments to enhance the decision-making context for subscribers, InfoEx is also a data cornerstone for the production of public avalanche bulletins by Avalanche Canada. Historically, InfoEx consisted of daily static, multi-page text reports, initially distributed by fax, later by email and an online portal. Increased information volume and subscriber growth, however, made the text format increasingly inefficient and cumbersome as a risk management tool in a time-pressured environment. In 2012, TECTERRA provided funding to completely redesign InfoEx's infrastructure and turning it into an explicit geospatial data system. TECTERRA's investment created a positive, but formidable challenge. This paper describes the principles and design choices taken to create a flexible, expandable InfoEx system that supports the diverse needs of the community, and elaborates on the lessons learned from the community's transition to new technologies.


The First World War went beyond military combat when Britain instituted a naval blockade against Germany in March 1915. Although it took until the last two years of the war for the industrial effects to be felt, the diminution of import capabilities meant that food and goods shortages began within months. The government deflected these shortages from the military onto the German people, which eventually resulted in a dramatic drop in the standard of living. The struggle for daily survival not only damaged national unity, it also bred contempt for the government itself, which was viewed as not sufficiently compensating its people for their forced sacrifices. The combination of these dire circumstances and the reality of military defeat make it unsurprising that revolution broke out in Berlin in early November 1918.


The recent proliferation of low to medium cost additive manufacturing equipment opens a doorway to using the technology for aiding the education of many engineering principles. Stirling cycle engines are highly complex thermodynamic machines that, if delved into, demonstrate many mechanical engineering disciplines. Importantly fully functional engines, using safe hot and cold water as the energy source, can be made by polymer additive manufacture using commonly available materials and printing machines. This process somewhat negates the need to invest in high cost laboratory demonstration equipment. It also allows remote and poorly funded institutions or individuals to work with live equipment. This publication will demonstrate the use of additive manufactured Stirling Engines for effective teaching in creative design, optimization product development, thermodynamics, mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, live data acquisition, material science and additive manufacture.


: In the contemporary knowledge-based economy human factor is one of the core competitive advantages of high-tech enterprises. Crucial to the development and commercialisation of innovations is the development of competencies of the human resources. Substantial part of the high-tech enterprises are challenged to define precisely what are the most important competencies they need to evaluate and to reward, as well as to foster and develop further in their personnel in order to improves their performance. The aim of the paper is to suggest and analyze the role of an appraisal and performance management model. The model is aimed at helping managers evaluate effectiveness and efficiency of the personnel performance. Further, it can be used as a tool that will aid the decision making process concerning appraisal and reward, training and development, and last but not least the career growth.


Data mining on biomedical data usually faces challenges of preserving privacy and finding associations among the attributes. Comprised of various and meticulous clinical measurements, the data to be data-mined often carry many attributes. When all these attributes are used in constructing a classification model, it may lead to a wellknown problem in data mining called over-fitting which results in poor prediction accuracy. At the same time, the high resolution (or details) of the attributes may compromise the privacy of the patients' identities. In this paper a multi-level classification model is proposed to analyse biomedical data with the attributes flexibly abstracted and aggregated at will of the user. The novel method contributes to biomedical research community in threefold: (1) increasing the prediction accuracy; (2) subsiding the privacy issue; and (3) enabling the relations between the attributes of the data to be further analysed by biomedical experts. The prototype of the model is tested via several experiments with some classical biomedical data obtained from UCI. A visualization tool is also programmed that shows both the significances of the attributes and their predictive powers. The experimental results indicate that by applying appropriate aggregation and abstraction techniques, decision trees can make to be more compact and more accurate.


We provide a theoretical analysis of planning via Petri net unfolding, a novel technique for synthesising parallel plans. Parallel plans are generally valued for their execution flexi- bility, which manifests as alternative choices for the order- ing of operators and potentially faster plan executions. Being a relatively new approach, the flexibility properties of plans synthesised via unfolding, and even the concurrency seman- tics supported by this technique, are particularly unclear and only understood at an informal level. In this paper, we first formally characterise the concurrency semantics of planning via unfolding as a further restriction on the standard notion of independence. More importantly, we then prove that plans obtained using this approach are optimal deorderings and op- timal reorderings in terms of the number of ordering con- straints on operators and plan execution time, respectively. These results provide objective guarantees on the quality of plans obtained by the unfolding technique.


AIM
To compare the postoperative changes of both sagittal spinal and spinopelvic parameters in patients with Lenke Type 1 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) who underwent selective and non-selective fusion surgery.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We conducted a retrospective study among 53 Lenke Type 1 AIS patients who underwent corrective surgery at our centre between 2006 and 2012. Patients were classified as group 1 if they underwent selective surgery and as group 2 if they underwent non-selective surgery. Surgical results of preoperative and postoperative sagittal and spinopelvic measurements, pelvic tilt (PT), pelvic incidence (PI), sacral slope (SS), lumbar lordosis (LL) and thoracic kyphosis (TK) values were analysed using the SURGIMAP© Software (Nemaris İnc. USA) measurement system.

RESULTS
In both groups, a comparison of pre- and postoperative sagittal spinal parameters did not show a statistically significant difference. In both groups, pre- and postoperative measurements of LL and TK did not show a statistically significant difference.

CONCLUSION
After selective and non-selective surgery, sagittal spinal and spinopelvic parameters are not affected in the middle term. We think that the long-term studies to be done in this regard will increasingly require the necessity of keeping the pelvis in mind while evaluating the sagittal plan in AIS surgery.


With its traditional (i.e. legislative) modes of governance coming under fire due to their perceived lack of legitimacy and effectiveness, the European Union (EU) has increasingly turned to more flexible means of policy cooperation. One example is the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), which can be viewed as a more decentralised way of coordinating national policy though peer review and mutual learning. Although recent findings suggest that the OMC has largely failed to deliver its promise of a more participatory (legitimate) and learning-based (effective) policymaking style, there have been few detailed studies analysing OMC-like processes in a heavily regulated sector, such as the environment, where the potential for synergies between traditional and new modes exists. Fewer still have been underpinned by theory.
To address these gaps in the literature, this thesis explores two mature cases in environmental policy: the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) and the EU Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL). It derives diagnostic criteria to analyse the prevalence of OMC-type characteristics in these processes, and develops a theoretical framework founded on new institutionalism, to explore whether and how OMC fosters participation and learning, and how informal networks operate alongside existing legal processes (e.g. as rivals or complements).
Findings reveal that the sociological institutional perspective is more optimistic about the capacity of OMC processes to coexist alongside traditional modes. It demonstrates that OMC's horizontal and deliberative format, most evident in IMPEL, can achieve context-sensitive learning through the socialising process of peer review. Meanwhile, rational choice institutionalism sees the iterative nature of OMC as an opportunity for strategic learning, which leads to greater (often more formalised) institutional harmonisation – something most strongly displayed in the ECCP case.
In both networks, a subtle extension of established participatory patterns is detected. Learning is found to be most transformative when OMC processes are more recursive and less politicised, often at the early and late stages of the policy cycle. These findings suggest OMCs can perform a valuable feedback function, and may represent a bridge between policy cycles, thus filling a gap typically missing from traditional processes.


Malaria is a preventable and treatable mosquito-borne diseases, whose main victims are children and pregnant women. Indonesia is the second most affected region in South East Asia and has the the highest malaria burden after India. The research was aimed to study the species diversity and biting activity of malaria vectors ( Anopheles spp.) in Lifuleo Village, West Kupang District, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province. The mosquitoes was collected by using (1) the human landing collection technique, (2) aspirators for collecting mosquitoes resting on the wall of houses and cow barn, and (3) light traps. The research was done for four months. The result showed that there were six species of Anopheles i.e., An. barbirostris , An. subpictus , An. annularis , An. vagus , An. umbrosus and An. indefinitus . An. barbirostris and An. subpictus were two species with the highest density. The value of man hour density (MHD) indoor  and outdoor  for An. barbirostris were 5.45 and 6.23 respectively, and for An. subpictus were 1.35 and 1.56, respectively. The blood sucking activity  indoor and outdoor for An. barbirostris occured at 22:00 to 4:00 and 21:00 - 04 respectively, whereas for An. subpictus at 8:00 p.m. to 21:00 and 22:00 to 23:00, respectively. Based on the value of man hour density the mosquito Anopheles spp. in Lifuleo village were exophagic and exophilic.


Imatinib, an inhibitor of the kinase cAbl, reduces intestinal tumor initiation and growth. Receptors of the EphB family regulate the proliferation and positioning of intestinal stem and progenitor cells. Although these receptors act as tumor promoters for adenoma development, EphB suppresses progression to invasive carcinoma. Using a mouse model of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), Kundu et al. present evidence that imatinib, an inhibitor of the kinase Abl, specifically abrogates the tumor-promoting effect of EphB without affecting the tumor-suppressor functions, thereby prolonging the life span of these mice. Imatinib also reduced cell proliferation in cultured slices of adenomas from FAP patients, suggesting that this treatment might be a possibility for patients with FAP who are predisposed to develop colon cancer. P. Kundu, M. Genander, K. Strååt, J. Classon, R. A. Ridgway, E. H. Tan, J. Björk, A. Martling, J. van Es, O. J. Sansom, H. Clevers, S. Pettersson, J. Frisén, An EphB-Abl signaling pathway is associated with intestinal tumor initiation and growth. Sci. Transl. Med. 7, 281ra44 (2015). [Abstract]


The increase demand of shea butter and its product globally has contributed immensely in its traditional household and small scale production in countries where it is present. This production method is laborious, time consuming and tedious. Also the shea butter obtained is of low grade and quality as result of contamination from either the type of equipment used or the processing method adopted. In other to address all these shortcomings a mechanised shea butter production plant was developed. The plant is made up of the following machines; sheller, crusher, steam roaster, miller and mixer. Fundamental design analysis and calculations were carried out in order to determine and select materials of appropriate strength and sizes for the machine component parts. Standard methods and procedures were used in the study and Response Surface Methodology was employed as the experimental tool. Five set of experiments were carried out to test the performance of the plant. The results of the experiment revealed that the shelling efficiency of the sheller increased with increase in both shelling speed and beaters. Crushing efficiency of the crusher increased with increase in both crushing speed and time. Yield of shea oil of the roaster decreased with increase in speed of stirring. Milling efficiency of the miller increased with increase in both speed and beaters. The oil extraction efficiency of the mixer decreased with increase in blades but increases with increase container diameter. The development of this plant have mechanized the major unit operations of shea butter production. It has make easier and faster processing of shea butter and thus, serves as a training center for local processors and a catalyst for the development of shea butter industry in Nigeria. It is capable of bringing improvement in the productivity of the shea butter to meet up with local and international demands. The developed plant produced 0.45 kg of shea butter from 1 kg of shea nut and processed 12.5 kg of shea paste in 10 min. It has input and throughput capacities of 600 kg of shea nut and 270 kg of shea butter respectively, in 8 hours operational time per day. The total cost of establishment of the plant is $2650.


Current practice of determining river water quality in Malaysia is based mainly on physicochemical components. Perhaps, owing to the lack of information on habitat requirements and ecological diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates and on unearthly taxonomic key of benthic macroinvertebrates in this region makes it less popular than conventional methods. The study took place in three rivers in the state of Johor, Southern Peninsula of Malaysia, which exhibited different degrees of disturbances and physical properties, namely Sungai Ayer Hitam Besar, Sg Berasau, and Sg Mengkibol. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled using rectangular dipnet with frame dimension 0.5 m × 0.3 m. Although physicochemical elements such as water temper‐ ature, pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) were measured using a YSI Professional Plus handheld multiparameter instrument, other parameters such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solid (TSS), and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 N) were tested using the procedure of APHA Standard Method. The study found that the status of water quality varies among the three rivers. A multivariate analysis, the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), was applied to elucidate the relationships between biological assemblages of species and their environment using PAST (version 2) software. The present findings reveal that human‐ induced activities are the ultimate causes of the alteration in macroinvertebrate biodiversity.