Media use among children has increased sharply in recent years, due, in part, to a significant increase in multimedia portable devices. On average, U.S. children aged 8-18 spend more than 7 hours a day engaging with media. Governments, professional bodies, and citizens have become increasingly concerned about the social and personal impact of media with violent themes and depictions. This has been driven, in part, by a series of tragic mass killings in which it appears that media violence exposure may have been a contributing risk factor. Public health and child development professionals are increasingly convinced by converging scientific findings linking media violence exposure to increased aggression. Hundreds of scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of participants and a wide range of empirical methods have investigated the effects of exposure to violent media. The studies show that: In experimental studies, even brief exposure to media can cause desensitization to real-world violence, increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreases in empathy and helping behavior. Short-term effects of media violence and basic psychological processes produce cumulative effects over time, as explained by well-established theories and research and social, developmental, and cognitive processes. Indeed, habitual exposure to media violence produces relatively stable changes in personality traits, such as trait aggression. Longitudinal research-studies that follow individuals over time-rule out plausible alternate explanations to these findings (for example, that the association between media violence and aggressive behavior is entirely the result of inherently aggressive people chasing more violent media). Media violence exposure is linked with physically hurting others, using words to hurt others, and deliberately damaging the relationships of others. Links have been found between violent media exposure and "real-world" violent behaviors such as assault, intimate partner violence, robbery, and gang fighting. A growing body of evidence suggests that media with helping and presocial messages can lead to increases in empathy and helping behaviors, and decreases in aggressive behaviors. Changing a child's media diet from aggressive/violent to presocial, educational, and age-appropriate can reduce aggression, increase presocial behavior, and improve educational outcomes. There is some consensus that a moderate amount of recreational screen time for school children is 1-2 hours per day, and that when screen media are coviewed by and discussed with parents and teachers, children are somewhat less harmed by violent media. Media violence is only one of many risk factors for aggression, but it is one that policy makers, professionals, and parents can address at little cost. Policy makers and media producers would benefit from working cooperatively with media psychologists who have backgrounds in social, developmental, cognitive, and/or personality psychology to produce evidence-informed policies and media products. Policy makers should consider: (1) revising classification systems to be both evidence-based and parent-friendly, (2) including carefully constructed media literacy content in school curricula, and (3) creating a public education campaign on the impact of media violence.


Using the background field method and the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, we prove a key theorem on the cohomology of perturbatively local functionals of arbitrary ghost numbers, in renormalizable and nonrenormalizable quantum field theories whose gauge symmetries are general covariance, local Lorentz symmetry, non-Abelian Yang-Mills symmetries and Abelian gauge symmetries. Interpolating between the background field approach and the usual, nonbackground approach by means of a canonical transformation, we take advantage of the properties of both approaches and prove that a closed functional is the sum of an exact functional plus a functional that depends only on the physical fields and possibly the ghosts. The assumptions of the theorem are the mathematical versions of general properties that characterize the counterterms and the local contributions to the potential anomalies. This makes the outcome a theorem on the cohomology of renormalization, rather than the whole local cohomology. The result supersedes numerous involved arguments that are available in the literature.


Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide that can form layered nanosheets with catalytically active sites present at edge or defect sites. The density of such active sites can be further tuned by modifying the length, layer number, strain, and surface defects of the sheets. Herein, a synthetic approach has been developed to encapsulate nanoscale MoS2 nanosheets inside a mesoporous silica shell. Small molybdenum(IV) oxide (MoO2) cores were synthesized and coated with a mesoporous silica phase, followed by a conversion to MoS2@SiO2. The space constraint on the inner cores resulted in short, few-layered, highly curved MoS2 nanosheets with circular or flowerlike morphology. The MoS2@SiO2 was evaluated as a catalyst for decomposition of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which shows high catalytic turnover frequency and superior thermal stability in comparison to unconstrained MoS2 catalysts.


The aim of this study was to investigate whether coral photosynthetic efficiencies and recovery processes are affected by CO2-driven ocean acidification in symbiont photosynthesis and coral calcification. We investigated the effects of five CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) levels in adjusted seawater ranging from 300 μatm (pre-industrial) to 800 μatm (near-future) and strong and weak light intensity on maximum photosynthetic efficiency and calcification of a branching coral, Stylophora pistillata, as this species has often been used in rearing experiments to investigate the effects of acidified seawater on calcification and photosynthetic algae of corals. We found that, the photosynthetic efficiencies and recovery patterns under different light conditions did not differ among pCO2 treatments. Furthermore, calcification of S. pistillata was not affected by acidified seawater under weak or strong light conditions. Our results indicate that the photosynthetic efficiency and calcification of S. pistillata are insensitive to changes in ocean acidity.


Malignant melanoma is a serious type of skin cancer with high mortality rates, arising from melanocytic cells responsible for the pigmentation of the skin. Besides, the excessive accumulation of melanin pigment can lead to many other hyperpigmentation disorders. Kojic acid is used as a skin lightening agent of medicinal and cosmetic products used in hyperpigmentation and sunburn cases. In the present study, substituted halogen containing benzylpiperazine derivatives of kojic acid (compounds 1-9) were synthesized via Mannich reaction in mild conditions. Afterwards, the cyclic amine derivatives (compounds 10-26) were obtained as a result of nucleophilic substitutions. Cytotoxic effects of all the compounds on A375 human malignant melanoma cell lines were explored by sulphorhodamine B assay and efficacies has been compared to those of anticancer FDA-approved drugs dacarbazine, temozolomide, and lenalidomide, currently used in the treatment of malignant melanoma. Also, the most active two compounds were also tested on healthy cell lines (HGF-1 and MRC-5 cell lines). These compounds have shown highest activity (IC50: 71.27 for compound 9 and 73.74 μM for compound 1) than temozolomide (IC50: 95.6 μM) and lenalidomide (IC50: 143.1 μM) against A375 cells though giving less harm to non-cancerous cell lines. In conclusion, these compounds stand out as promising anticancer agents for further studies.


Today's global economic system needs powerful and effective international institutions in order to be more responsible for the world economy and financial stability. Rapid change in the world economy and financial systems make it necessary to bring about reforms in the structure of the international organizations for instance International Monetary Fund (IMF). This study argues that while the IMF went through major reform during the global financial crisis, it still needs further reform to increase its ability to respond economic crisis effectively and to help developing countries in the global economy. The reform could be achieved through reorganization of the IMF's administration, voting powers, quotas share and installing new plans for helping developing countries.


Abstract Chemosensory-related gene (CRG) families have been studied extensively in insects, but their evolutionary history across the Arthropoda had remained relatively unexplored. Here, we address current hypotheses and prior conclusions on CRG family evolution using a more comprehensive data set. In particular, odorant receptors were hypothesized to have proliferated during terrestrial colonization by insects (hexapods), but their association with other pancrustacean clades and with independent terrestrial colonizations in other arthropod subphyla have been unclear. We also examine hypotheses on which arthropod CRG family is most ancient. Thus, we reconstructed phylogenies of CRGs, including those from new arthropod genomes and transcriptomes, and mapped CRG gains and losses across arthropod lineages. Our analysis was strengthened by including crustaceans, especially copepods, which reside outside the hexapod/branchiopod clade within the subphylum Pancrustacea. We generated the first high-resolution genome sequence of the copepod Eurytemora affinis and annotated its CRGs. We found odorant receptors and odorant binding proteins present only in hexapods (insects) and absent from all other arthropod lineages, indicating that they are not universal adaptations to land. Gustatory receptors likely represent the oldest chemosensory receptors among CRGs, dating back to the Placozoa. We also clarified and confirmed the evolutionary history of antennal ionotropic receptors across the Arthropoda. All antennal ionotropic receptors in E. affinis were expressed more highly in males than in females, suggestive of an association with male mate-recognition behavior. This study is the most comprehensive comparative analysis to date of CRG family evolution across the largest and most speciose metazoan phylum Arthropoda.


We present a calibration method for measuring the terahertz pulse energy through a conventional thermal power detector. Short terahertz pulses were generated by mechanically modulating a continuous wave source with a chopper containing a narrow slot and detected by a Golay cell. We use a calibrated calorimeter to monitor the total source power so we can know the terahertz pulse energy in advance. The Golay detector response to rectangular pulses is theoretically analyzed and the peak amplitude of its output signal is found to be the relevant parameter to determine the pulse energy. We accomplish absolute calibration for the pulse responsivity of the Golay cell by examining the linear correlation between the output signal and the incident energy.


Objective: This study aimed to clarify the incidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation and its significance on long-term survival after partial hepatectomy in patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), who had preoperative low HBV-DNA level of less than 2000 IU/mL. Background: HBV reactivation is a frequent complication of systemic chemotherapy in hepatitis B surface antigen–positive patients. Surgery and anesthesia result in a generalized state of immunosuppression in the immediate postoperative period. Data on HBV reactivation and its significance after partial hepatectomy are unclear. Patients and Methods: Consecutive patients from January 2006 to December 2007 were retrospectively studied. Results: HBV reactivation happened in 19.1% of patients in 1 year. There were 28 patients whose HBV reactivation was detected after the diagnosis of HCC recurrence. On multivariate analysis, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positivity, preoperative HBV-DNA above the lower limit of quantification (≥200 IU/mL), Ishak inflammation score of greater than 3, preoperative transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), operation time of more than 180 minutes, blood transfusion, and without prophylactic antiviral therapy were significantly associated with an increased risk of HBV reactivation. HBV reactivation negatively influenced postoperative hepatic functions. The posthepatectomy liver failure rate in patients with HBV reactivation was significantly higher than in those without reactivation (11.8% vs 6.4%; P = 0.002). The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate and overall survival (OS) rates after resection in patients with HBV reactivation were significantly lower than those without reactivation (34.1% vs 46.0%; P = 0.009, and 51.6% vs 67.2%; P < 0.001, respectively). HBeAg positivity, detectable preoperative HBV-DNA level, high Ishak inflammation score, preoperative TACE, long operation time, and blood transfusion were independent risk factors for HBV reactivation, whereas prophylactic antiviral therapy was a protective factor. HBV reactivation, HBeAg positivity, HBV-DNA level of 200 IU/mL or more, tumor diameter greater than 5 cm, presence of satellite nodules, presence of portal vein tumor thrombus, blood transfusion, and resection margin less than 1.0 cm were independent risk factors for DFS. A HBV-DNA level of 200 IU/mL or more, an Ishak fibrosis score of 4 or greater, a tumor diameter greater than 5 cm, the presence of satellite nodules, the presence of portal vein tumor thrombus, a resection margin less than 1.0 cm, no prophylactic antiviral therapy, and HBV reactivation were independent risk factors for OS. Conclusions: HBV reactivation was common after partial hepatectomy for HBV-related HCC with a preoperative low HBV-DNA level of less than 2000 IU/mL. Routine prophylactic antiviral treatment should be given before partial hepatectomy.


Temples usually are located beside cities as means to leading to a saintly and calm life in china for more than 500 years ago. But in these fast developing years in china, the peaceful temples are encircled by the fast growing cities, and as tourism become an important activity, it also encroaches into temples because of its inimitable character. The temple now is a heterogeneous system now is faced with the changes of value, judgment and moreover, it is thence critical as the spirits of the bonzes may be put out of balance and thirst for unreligious life a cause for lure. In this kind of situation, this article discusses how to keep the balance within the spirits of the bonzes even within our noisy earthliness and also provide for worship in order to glorify the power of Buddha within the same temple space by measure of physical planning. From record analysis of the Guiyuan Buddhist temple in Wuhan China, it can be established that temples still can be a saintly and calm place for all the bonzes, and for providing comfort for the anguished and confused public who come to visit.


With the emergence and growth of large databases of information, efficient methods for storage and processing are becoming increasingly important. The existence of a metric distance measure between data entities enables efficient index structures to be applied when storing the data. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Amino acid substitution matrices, which are used to estimate similarities between proteins, do not yield metric distance measures. Finding efficient methods for converting a non-metric matrix into a metric one is therefore highly desirable. In this work, the problem of finding such conversions is approached by embedding the data contained in the non-metric matrix into a metric space. The embedding is optimized according to a quality measure which takes the original data into account, and a distance matrix is then derived using the metric distance function of the space. More specifically, an evolutionary scheme is proposed for constructing such an embedding. The work shows how a coevolutionary algorithm can be used to find a spatial embedding and a metric distance function which try to preserve as much of the proximity structure of the non-metrix matrix as possible. The evolutionary scheme is compared to three existing embedding algorithms. Some modifications to the existing algorithms are proposed, with the purpose of handling the data in the non-metric matrix more efficiently. At a higher level, the strategy of deriving a metric distance function from a spatial embedding is compared to an existing algorithm which enforces metricity by manipulating the data in the non-metric matrix directly (the triangle fixing algorithm). The methods presented and compared are general in the sense that they can be applied in any case where a non-metric matrix must be converted into a metric one, regardless of how the data in the non-metric matrix was originally derived. The proposed methods are tested empirically on amino acid substitution matrices, and the derived metric matrices are used to search for similarity in a database of proteins. The results show that the embedding approach outperforms the triangle fixing approach when applied to matrices from the PAM family. Moreover, the evolutionary embedding algorithms perform best among the embedding algorithms. In the case of the PAM250 scoring matrix, a metric distance matrix is found which is more sensitive than the mPAM250 matrix presented in a recent paper. Possible advantages of choosing one method over another are shown to be unclear in the case of matrices from the BLOSUM family.


Aim/Purpose: The quality, degree of effort and persistence required in doctoral studies can be sustained through intrinsic motivation. Despite the critical role of motivation, studies that examine ways to promote doctoral students' motivation are lacking. This study, drawing on the self-determination theoretical (SDT) framework, aims to offer advice for supervisory practices to facilitate the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs- autonomy, competence and relatedness of doctoral students' motivation. The focus was on the experiences of the doctoral candidates who participated in this study.

Background: Prior studies have established that creating environment and ways that lead to satisfaction of three basic psychological needs are capable of producing optimal outcomes. Based on that assumption the current study explores the ways in which supervisory practices lead to satisfaction of the three needs.

Methodology: The study adopted a qualitative approach and used the experience sampling method to collect data from 11 full-time doctoral students from a research-intensive university in New Zealand. In total, 72 entries that captured students' real-time psychological experience of supervision in a repeated manner were used to analyse the data.

Contribution: It proposes theory driven practices/guidelines for supervisors to adopt for effective supervisory practices for intrinsic motivation of doctoral students.

Findings: Thematic analysis guided by the research question revealed that to have students experience autonomy support the supervisors must respect students' research interest, encourage self-initiation, and be amenable to changes suggested by the students. To have students experience the feeling of competence, the supervisors carefully need to consider the quality, mode and time of feedback and provide students with optimal challenge level. Finally, to facilitate students' need for relatedness, the supervisors should offer personal and professional support to students and look after their emotional well-being.

Recommendations for Practitioners: This study highlights the need for supervisors to acknowledge the role of need satisfaction and mindfully adopt the practices to facilitate the satisfaction of the three needs for the intrinsic motivation of the doctoral students.

Recommendation for Researchers: The researchers should consider the psychological health and well-being of doctoral students for persistence and successful completion of their studies.

Impact on Society: The study can help improve doctoral studies completion rates as well as produce doctoral candidates with a positive and healthy disposition for future workforce.

Future Research: The current study relies only on students' self-report data. In future inclusion of data from supervisors of their own practices would enhance the quality of findings. Additionally, an analysis to chart changes in students' experiences over time would provide a deeper understanding of the effect of supervisory practices.


My aim with this article has been to discuss what kinds of selves are displayed in the medieval runic and Roman alphabet inscriptions of the Nidaros Cathedral walls and pillars. I have sorted the inscriptions into five categories based on their contents and structure, and analysed them using insights from cognitive theory in order to see how the selves of the agents behind the inscriptions are portrayed. I argue that the inscriptions must be interpreted within the context they belong to, and that this indicates that most of the inscriptions should be interpreted as religious. We also have a few indications in the inscription material that this was how the inscriptions were perceived in the Middle Ages. This tells us that the carvers, by carving in the cathedral, implicitly expressed a religious sense of self. At the same time, some carvers clearly wanted to express something more, or something else, showing that carving in a church did not necessarily only express a religious identity.


This research study examined the conditions under which direct democracy advanced versus impeded gay relationship rights. Many policy makers argue that direct democracy works to create a "tyranny of the majority" in which the majority impedes the rights of minority citizens. However, other researchers disagree and note that direct democracy contests advance gay rights as seen in Switzerland (Frey & Goette, 1998). I hypothesize that direct democracy advanced gay relationship rights legislation when influenced by non-traditional norms regarding family and gender, and/or the contests occurred in states or cantons that were heterogeneous in their values, while direct democracy hindered gay relationship rights legislation when influenced by traditional norms regarding family and gender, and/or the contests occurred in states or cantons that were homogeneous in their values. To study this topic I conducted a comparative historical analysis of the gay relationship rights initiatives that appeared on state, canton, and national ballots in the United States and Switzerland between 2000 and present. I then examined whether significant differences were seen between the contests in the United States and Switzerland that either advanced or hindered gay relationship rights legislation. Within the United States it was discovered that when direct democracy was used to determine marriage amendments and/or marriage laws, the rights of gay and lesbian individuals were continuously obstructed. This type of outcome was not experienced in Switzerland when similar rights were put to the public vote, as direct democracy, in certain instances, advanced the rights of gay and lesbian individuals.


AIM
To compare a nurse-led clinic in schools versus care in general practice for adolescents with asthma.

DESIGN OF STUDY
Randomised controlled trial in four schools; parallel observational study in two schools.

SETTING
Six comprehensive schools.

METHOD
In the randomised trial, pupils were invited to attend asthma review at a nurse-led clinic either in school, or in general practice. The parallel observational study compared pupils invited to practice care within and outside the randomised trial. Primary outcome measures were attendance for asthma review, symptom control, and quality of life. Secondary outcomes were knowledge, attitudes, inhaler technique, use of steroids, school absence, peak flow rate, preference for future care, health service utilisation, and costs.

RESULTS
School clinic pupils were more likely to attend an asthma review than those randomised to practice care (90.8% versus 51.0% overall [P < 0.001, not consistent across schools]). No differences were observed in symptom control (P = 0.42) or quality of life (P = 0.63). Pupils attending school clinics had greater knowledge of asthma (difference = +0.38, 95% CI = 0.19 to 0.56), more positive attitudes (difference = +0.21, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.36), and better inhaler technique (P < 0.001, not consistent across all schools). No differences were observed in school absence or peak flow rate. A majority (63%) of those who had received care at school preferred this model in future. Median costs of providing care at school and at the practice were 32.10 Pounds and 19.80 Pounds, respectively. No differences were observed between the groups in the observational comparison on any outcome.

CONCLUSIONS
The schools asthma clinic increased uptake of asthma reviews. There were improvements in various process measures, but not in clinical outcomes.


Carbon materials, owing to their excellent electrical conductivity, tailorability, inexpensiveness and versatility, have been extensively studied as electrode materials for supercapacitors. The capacitance of carbon-based supercapacitor electrodes has remained at a mediocre level between 100 and 200 F g−1 for decades. Until recently, a new family of carbon materials termed hierarchical porous carbons has pushed the capacitance to new benchmark values beyond 300 F g−1, and has revitalized the exploration of carbon materials for supercapacitors. Hierarchical porous carbons contain different scales of pores (from micropores to macropores) inter-connected together and assembled in hierarchical patterns. Experimental studies coupled with theoretical investigations have elucidated that the presence of micropores is responsible for offering a large surface area to enhance charge storage capability, whilst mesopores, macropores and the hierarchical structure improve electrolyte infiltration and facilitate ion diffusion. This review will start by introducing different pore types and the definition of hierarchical porous structures, followed by discussion and exemplification of major synthesis strategies. In addition, recent molecular-level understanding of the relationship between pore size, functionalities inside pores, pore spatial distribution and capacitive performance is presented. Finally, challenges and future opportunities associated with hierarchical porous carbons for supercapacitors are discussed.


We propose an address-light, integrated MAC and routing protocol (abbreviated AIMRP) for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Due to the broad spectrum of WSN applications, there is a need for protocol solutions optimized for specific application classes. AIMRP is proposed for WSNs deployed for detecting rare events which require prompt detection and response. AIMRP organizes the network into concentric tiers around the sink(s), and routes event reports by forwarding them from one tier to another, in the direction of (one of) the sink(s). AIMRP is address-light in that it does not employ unique per-node addressing, and integrated since the MAC control packets are also responsible for finding the next-hop node to relay the data, via an anycast query. For reducing the energy expenditure due to idle-listening, AIMRP provides a power-saving algorithm which requires absolutely no synchronization or information exchange. We evaluate AIMRP through analysis and simulations, and compare it with another MAC protocol proposed for WSNs, S-MAC. AIMRP outperforms S-MAC for event-detection applications, in terms of total average power consumption, while satisfying identical sensor-to-sink latency constraints


During surface plasmon polariton (SPP) excitation, the imaging of the interaction between the DC current and the Transverse Mode (TM) optical field is reported for the first time. Using an optical microscope, we have successfully captured images of electro-optic interaction during plasmonic demodulation phenomena. A significant response is observed when images of the transmitted light – which represents SPP excitation – become less bright in the presence of an electric field when the thin-film metal thickness is approximately equivalent to the skin depth of gold (30 nm). The synchronization achieved between the optical reflectance analysis and the SPP imaging shows that maximum interaction is achieved when the optical reflectance change, ΔR is 0.0530.


PURPOSE
The aim of this report was to study the ability of examiners to measure reliably the clinical signs of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Four examiners participated in this study of 11 TMD patients and 25 nonpatients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Vertical and lateral excursions of the jaw were measured using a millimeter ruler. Joint sounds during vertical jaw movements were assessed using digital palpation. The reliability of delivering appropriate degrees of digital pressure to assess masticatory muscle pain was assessed using a manometer after training examiners to exert specified pressures.

RESULTS
Intraclass correlation coefficients for the measurement of vertical and protrusive jaw movements were > or = 0.87, which was considered excellent. The intraclass correlation coefficient for measurements of left and right lateral jaw excursions varied between 0.73 and 0.85, which was considered acceptable. The interobserver agreement for detecting the joint sounds showed overall agreement across examiners of 78%. Kappa for every possible pair of examiners varied between .52 and .86 (median .75, interquartile range .18). Reliability for diagnostic categories from the Helkimo index and Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders involving joint noises showed modest reliability.

CONCLUSION
Point estimates and measures of spread for reliability measures of single clinical TMD signs as well as combinations of signs into diagnostic categories from the Helkimo index and Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders involving joint noises were sufficient in a group of four examiners.


In this research, we measured the activity of paraoxonase (basal and activated) enzyme, and components of lipid status components (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and Apo A I) in the serum of patients, undergoing bypass surgery. We also tested how the applied EKC affected changes of defined indicators. Measuring of all the given parameters was conducted prior to the operation, 90 minutes, 1.5 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours and 72 hours, on 29 patients (11 of them did undergo myocardium revascularization with the application of EKC, while the rest of them did not). Activity of paraoxonase (both basal and activated) changes significantly during the postoperative period, in relation to pre-operative values, p < 0.05. Total cholesterol concentration is reduced in both examined groups, regardless of the application of EKC. This trend is also accompanied by LDL cholesterol concentration. On the other hand, HDL cholesterol concentration during post-operative period does not indicate any significant statistical change in relation to pre-operative values, while we noticed difference with regard to EKC application, 90 minutes after surgery. This change of lipid status indicator is partly due to heparin, a stimulator of lipoprotein lipase that was applied during the surgery. Our conclusion is that lipid profile changes significantly after the bypass surgery, mostly regardless of the application of EKC.


Why is the fight against climate change so challenging? Research suggests that climate change information may trigger symbolic defense strategies such as derogative outgroup behaviors (e.g., ethnocentrism) instead of direct attempts to address the problem itself (e.g., proenvironmental behavior). Ingroup affirmation may help decrease symbolic responses. We conducted a 2 (Affirmation: ingroup vs. no affirmation) × 2 (Message: threat vs. control) × 2 (Nation: Austria vs. Argentina) experiment (N = 243) to assess responses to climate change information (direct and symbolic) in participants from individualist and collectivist cultures. Participants responded with higher levels of ethnocentrism and a lower intention to engage in proenvironmental behavior after reading climate change information. This effect was significant in Austria. Using ingroup affirmation as an intervention tended to foster rather than reduce ethnocentrism. Thus, across cultures people resolve climate change threat in symbolic ways rather than by trying to address the problem itself.


A classical result from graph theory is that every graph with chromatic number $\chi > t$ contains a subgraph with all degrees at least $t$, and therefore contains a copy of every $t$-edge tree. Bohman, Frieze, and Mubayi recently posed this problem for $r$-uniform hypergraphs. An $r$-tree is a connected $r$-uniform hypergraph with no pair of edges intersecting in more than one vertex, and no sequence of distinct vertices and edges $(v_1, e_1, \ldots, v_k, e_k)$ with all $e_i \ni \{v_i, v_{i+1}\}$, where we take $v_{k+1}$ to be $v_1$. Bohman, Frieze, and Mubayi proved that $\chi > 2rt$ is sufficient to embed every $r$-tree with $t$ edges, and asked whether the dependence on $r$ was necessary. In this note, we completely solve their problem, proving the tight result that $\chi > t$ is sufficient to embed any $r$-tree with $t$ edges.


Intermediate Pressure (IP) turbines in high bypass ratio civil aeroengines are characterized by a significant increase in radius and a low aspect ratio stator. Conventional aerodynamic designs for the IP turbine stator have had leading and trailing edges orthogonal to the hub and casing end walls. The IP turbine rotor, however, is stacked radially due to stress limits. These choices inevitably lead to a substantial gap between the IP stator and rotor at the outer diameter in a duct that is generally diffusing the flow due to the increasing radius. In this low Mach number study, the IP stator is redesigned, incorporating compound sweep, so that the leading and trailing edges are no longer orthogonal to the end walls. Computational investigations showed that the non-orthogonal stator reduces the flow diffusion between the stator and rotor which yields two benefits: the stator trailing edge velocity was reduced, as was the boundary layer growth on the casing endwall within the gap. Experimental measurements confirm that the turbine with the non-orthogonal stator has an increased efficiency (by 0.49%), whilst also increasing the work output (by 4.6%), at the design point.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


'Oh Norman,' said the Queen, 'the prime minister doesn't seem to have read any Hardy. Perhaps you could find him one of our old paperbacks on his way out.' Had the dogs not taken exception to the strange van parked in the royal grounds, the Queen might never have learnt of the Westminster travelling library's weekly visits to the palace. But finding herself at its steps, she goes up to apologise for all the yapping and ends up taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett, last borrowed in 1989. Duff read though it proves to be, upbringing demands she finish it and, so as not to appear rude, she withdraws another. This second, more fortunate choice of book awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours work by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Samuel Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen's literary odyssey to a close. Subversive and highly enjoyable, The Uncommon Reader offers the perfect argument for reading, written by one of its great champions, Alan Bennett.


Electromagnetic compression of tubular profiles with high electrical conductivity is an innovative joining process for lightweight structures. The components are joined using pulsed magnetic fields which apply radial pressures of up to 200 MPa to tubular workpieces, causing a symmetric reduction of the diameter with typical strain rates of up to 10 sec. This process avoids any surface damage of the workpiece because there is no contact between component and forming tool. The strength of electromagnetically formed joints made of aluminum tubes under cyclic loads is essential to establish electromagnetic forming in automotive structures. In the present paper, the quasi-static performance of tubular joints made by electromagnetic compression produced of different mandrel materials will be analyzed as to the influence of process parameters. Therefore, experimental investigations on aluminum tubes (AA6060) joined on mandrels made of different aluminum, copper, and steel alloys were carried out. Furthermore, the behavior of joints with both mandrel and tube made of AA6060 at swelling cyclic loads ( max min σ σ = R = 0) has been evaluated.


Gas turbine axial compressor blades may encounter damage during service for various reasons such as damage by debris from casing or foreign objects impacting the blades, typically near the rotor's tip. This may lead to deterioration of performance and reduction in the surge margin. The damage breaks the cyclic symmetry of the rotor assembly; thus, computational fluid dynamics simulations have to be performed using full annulus compressor assembly. Moreover, downstream boundary conditions are unknown during rotating stall or surge, and simulations become difficult. This paper presents unsteady computational fluid dynamics analyses of compressor performance with tip curl damage. Computations were performed near the stall boundary. The primary objectives are to understand the effect of the damage on the flow behaviour and compressor stability. Computations for the undamaged rotor assembly were also performed as a reference case. A transonic axial compressor rotor was used for the time-accurate numerical unsteady flow simulations, with a variable area nozzle downstream simulating an experimental throttle. Computations were performed at 60% of the rotor design speed. Two different degrees of damage for one blade and multiple damaged blades were investigated. Rotating stall characteristics differ including the number of stall cells, propagation speed and rotating stall cell characteristics. Contrary to expectations, damaged blades with typical degrees of damage do not show noticeable effects on the global compressor performance near stall.


The Kyropoulos technique allows growing large diameter Ti-doped sapphire for chirped pulse amplification (CPA) lasers. A scattering defect particular to Kyropoulos grown crystals is presented. This defect is characterized by different techniques: luminescence, absorption measurement, X-ray rocking curve, and transmission electron microscopy measurements. The impact of this defect on the potential application in CPA lasers is evaluated. The nature of this defect is discussed. Modified convexity of the interface is proposed to avoid the formation of this defect and increase the quality of the Ti-doped sapphire crystals.


Biomimetic microvascular materials are increasingly considered for a variety of autonomic healing, cooling and sensing applications. The microvascular material of interest in this work consists of a network of hollow microchannels, with diameters as small as 10 μm, embedded in a polymeric matrix. Recent advances in the manufacturing of this new class of materials have allowed for the creation of very complex 2D and 3D structures. The computational design of such network structures, which is the focus of this work, involves a set of particular challenges, including a large number of design variables (e.g., topology of the network, number of diameters to consider and their sizes) that define the network, and a large number of multidisciplinary objective functions and constraints that drive the optimization process. The computational design tool to be developed must be capable of capturing the trade-off between the different objective and constraint functions, as, for example, networks designed for flow efficiency are likely to have a topology that is very different from those designed for structural integrity or thermal control.
In this work, we propose to design these materials using Genetic Algorithms (GAs), the most common methodology within a broader category of Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs). GAs can be combined with a Pareto-selection mechanism to create Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms (MOGAs), which enable the optimization of an arbitrary number of objective functions. As a result, a Pareto-optimal front is obtained, where all candidates are optimal solutions to the optimization problem. Adding a procedure to deal with constraints results in a powerful tool for multi-objective constrained optimization. The method allows the use of discrete variable problems and it does not require any a priori knowledge of the optimal solution. Furthermore, GAs search the entire decision space so the optimal solutions found are likely to be global. TheMOGAoptimization framework is also combined with a physical solver based on advanced finite element methods to study the thermal behavior of these materials. Because the MOGA requires a vast number of individual evaluations, emphasis is placed on the computational efficiency of the solver. Thus, a simplified formulation is used to take into account the cooling effect of the fluid, instead of solving the conjugate heat transfer problem for obtaining the temperature field in both solid and fluid domains. The Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM) is adopted because accurate finite element approximations of the temperature field can be obtained on finite element meshes that are independent of the geometry of the embedded network. Numerical experiments of multi-physics optimization involving flow efficiency, void volume fraction and thermal control are presented. Results show that the tradeoffs between conflicting objectives is well captured so that the optimal design is readily available to the analyst.


The greatest threat to privacy today is not the NSA, but good-old American companies. Internet giants, leading retailers, and other firms are voraciously gathering data with little oversight from anyone.In Las Vegas, no company knows the value of data better than Caesars Entertainment. Many thousands of enthusiastic clients pour through the ever-open doors of their casinos. The secret to the companys success lies in their one unrivaled asset: they know their clients intimately by tracking the activities of the overwhelming majority of gamblers. They know exactly what games they like to play, what foods they enjoy for breakfast, when they prefer to visit, who their favorite hostess might be, and exactly how to keep them coming back for more.Caesars dogged data-gathering methods have been so successful that they have grown to become the worlds largest casino operator, and have inspired companies of all kinds to ramp up their own data mining in the hopes of boosting their targeted marketing efforts. Some do this themselves. Some rely on data brokers. Others clearly enter a moral gray zone that should make American consumers deeply uncomfortable.We live in an age when our personal information is harvested and aggregated whether we like it or not. And it is growing ever more difficult for those businesses that choose not to engage in more intrusive data gathering to compete with those that do. Tanners timely warning resounds: Yes, there are many benefits to the free flow of all this data, but there is a dark, unregulated, and destructive netherworld as well.


The effect of K2SO4 on the vanadium extraction with bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA)/tributyl phosphate (TBP) was studied in a pressure acid leaching system of stone coal. K2SO4 intervention achieved good removal of Al and Fe on the premise of high V leaching efficiency during pressure acid leaching. Studies show that when the K2SO4 dosage is 7 wt.%, the H2SO4 concentration is 15 vol.%, the liquid/solid ratio is 1.5 ml/g, the leaching temperature is 190 °C, and the leaching time is 5 h, then 90% of V can be leached, but only 30% of Al and 6% of Fe are leached together. After four-stage countercurrent extraction with 20% vol D2EHPA at pH 1.8, the loaded organic phase showed a feature of more V ions with fewer Al and Fe ions, indicating that K2SO4 intervention reduced the impurity load of vanadium extraction from stone coal acid leaching solution.


ABSTRACT The REG3β protein was identified more than 2 decades ago, but its role in PDAC development was only recently reported. In Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC), REG3β protein is expressed and released by the far microenvironment, which is situated out of the tumor, at the periphery of the tumor mass, and is part of the healthy peri-tumoral region. This compartment is completely unrelated to the classical microenvironment that corresponds to the intra-tumoral stoma. Clinically relevant, the far microenvironment, and the factors released by it, could be novel and original therapeutic targets for treating patients with a PDAC. In this way we recently demonstrated that REG3β is an essential soluble factor necessary for PDAC development which is able to stimulate several simultaneous pro-tumoral mechanisms. We also find that secreted REG3β boosts interactions between epithelial cells and immune cells by activating the CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling cascade, which facilitates tumor escape through evasion of immune surveillance, and promotes metastasis. In addition, REG3β interfere the intercellular communication inside the tumor mediated by extracellular vesicles, resulting in relevant changes in macrophage phenotype or tumor cell migration. Therefore, we are proposing to call as near microenvironment to the classical microenvironment that is constituted by fibroblasts, inflammatory cells and fibers and located into the tumor, and as far microenvironment, which is constituted by the parenchymal non transformed cells located at the periphery of the tumor mass.


We define that prime equations 1 1 1 ( , , ), , ( , ) n k n f P P f P P    (5) are polynomials (with integer coefficients) irreducible over integers, where 1, , n P P  are all prime. If Jiang's function 1( ) 0 n J    then (5)has finite prime solutions. If 1( ) 0 n J    then there are infinitely many primes 1, , n P P  such that 1, k f f  are primes. We obtain a unite prime formula in prime distribution


Today's important industrial companies seek maximum benefit with minimum investment. In order to achieve this goal, design engineers depend on cost optimisation techniques. This work uses a harmony search algorithm (HS) meta-heuristic optimisation method to solve the problem of power systems design optimisation. We consider the case where redundant electrical components are chosen to achieve a desirable level of reliability. The electrical power components of the system are characterised by their cost, capacity and reliability. The proposed meta-heuristic seeks for the optimal design of series-parallel power systems in which a multiple choice of electrical power components with different parameters are selected from a list of products available in the market. To allow fast reliability estimation, a universal moment generating function (UMGF) method is applied. A computer program has been developed to implement the UMGF and HS algorithm. An illustrative example is presented.


A serious canker disease is affecting the health of Corymbia ficifolia in urban areas of Perth, Western Australia. Quambalaria coyrecup was frequently associated with diseased trees and its presence confirmed by morphological characters and DNA sequencing. A number of Quambalaria species have previously been identified as causal agents of canker and shoot blight diseases on a range of Eucalyptus and Corymbia species. It was therefore the aim, using glasshouse studies, to determine whether Q. coyrecup was the primary causal agent of the cankers on C. ficifolia and whether other Quambalaria species could also be associated with the disease. All seedlings inoculated with Q. coyrecup produced canker symptoms within 1 month after inoculation. Canker lesions typical of those observed in the field also occurred in the four subsequent months, after which time the trial was terminated. Inoculation with Q. cyanescens and Q. pitereka (isolated from C. ficifolia shoots) did not result in lesion development. This study establishes that Q. coyrecup is a serious pathogen of C. ficifolia and that wounding is required for canker development to occur. The management of Quambalaria canker must therefore include the minimization of artificial wounding of trees in the nursery and field.


The many nuances associated with the dollar bill serve as an unre- lenting source of inspiration for me as I fold the monetary engravings obsessively to reveal messages. These manipulated promissory notes take on new meanings as the messages are realized in the ready-made light of the U.S. currency. At the very core of this fiscal narrative is the tug-of-war between politics and the pursuit of happiness. This photo series offers a moment of reflection to further consider the good, bad, and the ugly in these portraits of a monetary centric world.


Evaluation of potential risks of musculoskeletal disorders in real workstations is challenging as the environment is cluttered, which makes it difficult to correctly assess the pose of a worker. Being marker-free and calibration-free, Microsoft Kinect is a promising device to assess these poses, but it can deliver unreliable poses especially when occlusions occur. To overcome this problem, we propose to detect and correct badly recognised body parts thanks to a database of example poses. We applied the proposed method to compute rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) score in a realistic environment that involved sub-optimal Kinect placement and several types of occlusions. Results showed that when occlusions occur, the inaccurate raw Kinect data could be significantly improved using our correction method, leading to acceptable joint angles and RULA scores. Our method opens new perspectives to define new fatigue or solicitation indexes based on continuous measurement contrary to classical static images used in ergonomics.


This paper describes the effect of Müller-Lyer illusion on a reaching movement just after the visual and haptic/kinesthetic cues are simultaneously presented. First, a standard experiment on this visual illusion is conducted by means of the most typical way so as to make sure that participants can experience this illusion; the result shows that all the subjects are deceived by the illusion figure as in many previous results. As the next step, the subjects are asked to physically trace one of three lines-normal line and lines with feathers of an arrow-with the same length displayed on an LCD. After a few traces, the line suddenly vanishes, and then the subjects retrace the invisible line based on only their memory and somatic sensations. During this task, we measure the trajectory of fingertip from a start to the goal using a motion capture system. The result indicates that the Müller-Lyer illusion dominantly affects the reaching task although the haptic/kinesthetic cue was also given just before the task. Thus, this result implies that the visual illusion affects the motion planning, which partly supports a planning-motion model.


Two commercially important mussel species are recorded from the Indian coast: green mussel Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758) and brown mussel P. indica (Kuriakose and Nair, 1976). Apart from this, a third type referred to as parrot mussel, which has shell shape of brown mussel, but with green shell colouration and suspected to be the hybrid of the above two species has also been reported from Kollam coast of Kerala, where both the species co-occur. In the present work, genetic identity of parrot and sympatric mussel species was determined using protein and genomic DNA markers. Protein markers viz. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and allozymes and the genomic DNA marker Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used for determining genetic identity of the three mussel groups. The green and brown mussels could be clearly differentiated using SDS PAGE. The parrot mussel protein pattern was similar to that of brown mussel, except for an additional band of molecular weight 48.7 Kda which is unique to brown mussel. Genus specific protein bands for Perna viz. 66 Kda, 43 Kda and 14.3 Kda, were detected in this study. Allozyme electrophoresis also followed a similar pattern. Of the 10 allozyme loci studied, seven revealed speciesspecific diagnostic differences between P.viridis and P.indica. They were AAT-1* (Aspartate Amino Transferase-1*), AAT-2*, ME (Malic Enzyme)*, PGM-2*(Phospo Gluco Mutase-2*), EST-1* (Esterase1*), EST-2*, IcDH* (Isocitrate Dehydrogenase)*. Parrot mussel shared all the alleles of brown mussel, and no hybrid pattern was observed. Species-specific alleles clearly differentiated green mussel from both brown and parrot mussel. The genetic distance of green mussel from brown mussel, estimated from allozyme data was 1.1145 and with parrot mussel it was 1.105. The genetic distance between parrot mussel and brown mussel was negligibly low (0.0005). Using allozyme and RAPD data, the Nei's Unbiased Measures of genetic distance were calculated and the dendograms prepared based on these values clearly depicted the separation of parrot mussel from green mussel as well as the close resemblance of parrot mussel with brown mussel. The higher gene flow (1.1539) determined using RAPD marker also hints that brown and parrot mussel may be acting as single interbreeding population. Hence this study using molecular tools to test the genetic identity of parrot mussel has helped to conclude that parrot mussel is only a morphotype of brown mussel and not a true hybrid of the two.


All aspects of the science and engineering of imaging spectrometry have been advanced by the work of Dr. Alexander F.H. Goetz over the past 30 years. Dr. Goetz's pioneering efforts were among the first to realize that it was feasible to obtain laboratory like spectra from space that would quantify earth materials based on biogeochemistry. He has made fundamental contributions to developing high spectral resolution field spectrometers and airborne imaging spectrometers, and to the image processing software and atmospheric correction software needed to analyze the data. These parallel developments in core technologies have made imaging spectroscopy available to a wide range of users of varying user expertise and disciplines, thus enabling the current state of rapid advances in the use of this data.


The Sonsela Member of the Petrified Forest Formation (Upper Triassic) is widely exposed in
northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. Fossil wood is common in the fluvial Sonsela,
but the high energy depositional conditions appear to have destroyed all fossil bone except for small fragments. The first identifiable vertebrate fossil from channel-facies of this unit is an incomplete phytosaur skull preserved on a fallen block of sandstone on a cliff in the Rainbow Forest area of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. This cliff is "Flattops Sandstone I," which we consider to represent the upper part of the Sonsela Member. The left side of the skull, lacking the anterior half of the rostrum, is preserved in lateral view. The specimen is uncollectable, but casts are preserved at Mesalands Dinosaur Museum, Petrified Forest National Park, and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. The two most important morphological features of this specimen are: (1) the external nares are at approximately the same level as the skull deck; and (2) the posterior squamosal process in lateral view
is narrow and not pendulous. This combination of features is diagnostic of the genus Nicrosaurus. The only other published account of Nicrosaurus in North America is Nicrosaurus buceros from the Chama basin of north-central New Mexico. The common Nicrosaurus kapffi and the rare N. meyeri occur in the Norian Stubensandstein of southwestern Germany. This specimen is biochronologically sig:p.ificant as it demonstrates that the Sonsela is indeed Norian in age, as has been suggested previously. Paleobiogeographically, it is one of an increasing number of Late Triassic tetrapod taxa that were previously thought to be exclusively European in distribution (e.g., Erpetosuchus, Aetosaurus, Stagonolepis) that have now been identified in North America.


This is the first English translation of Durkheim's lecture for the first class of the fourth and final year of his course 'On the General Physics of Law and Morality'. The content from the previous year's course is contained in Professional Ethics and Civic Morals (Durkheim [1950] 1992). Durkheim discusses the importance of a special theory of sanctions and provides a typology of their negative and positive forms. He makes a case for the sociology of penalties and responsibilities, one based on the examination of their external and visible characteristics. Crucially, Durkheim displaces the ostensible causal importance of the intentions of juridical subjects, whether legislators or wrong-doers. The translation is accompanied by an extended critical introduction by R. P. Datta and Fr. Pizzaro Nöel.


Fine-scale genetic structure in Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus native forest was detected using 69 randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The association between genetic similarity and geographic distance was studied among 51 trees from the Tinderbox locality in Tasmania (distance ranging from 2 m to 4 km apart) and compared to 18 trees from localities up to 100 km away. Twenty pedigreed F1s were used as controls to scale the RAPD similarity among individuals to pedigree similarity. The association between genetic similarity and geographic distance was weak, yet at Tinderbox, highly related trees were shown to occur within 25 m of one another. There is an abrupt drop in average similarity after about 25 m, with no significant change with distances up to 14 km. Nevertheless, Tinderbox trees outside the 25 m genetic patches are still more similar to each other than they are to trees from the Mayfield Bay locality 100 km away. These results suggest that E. globulus native forests have a family group structure, superimposed on a noisy, background level of lower relatedness which extends over a wider geographical range. This study is unique in demonstrating the congruence between fine-scale genetic structure as revealed by molecular data and previous quantitative genetic data.


This paper looks over diverse moments of fantastic cinema that portray different representations of women as a scientific creation. After early samples such as Metropolis (1927) or The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the science fiction cinema shows its interest in dealing with artificial female figures, such as automatic women and its many incarnations: monsters, robots, cyborgs, computer creations, etc. The discourses produced by many of these fictions reveal the fantasies and fears typical of a patriarchal society which has trouble dissociating itself from stereotypes, and which finds its own caricatured reflection in the figure of the mad doctor or scientific.


A document describes a high-performance thermal distribution panel (TDP) concept using high-conductivity (greater than 800 W/mK) macro composite skin with in situ heat pipes. The processing technologies proposed to build such a panel result in a one-piece, inseparable assembly with high conductance in both the X and Y planes. The TDP configuration can also be used to produce panels with high structural stiffness. The one-piece construction of the TDP eliminates the thermal interface between the cooling plenums and the heat spreader base, and obviates the need for bulky mounting flanges and thick heat spreaders used on baseline designs. The conductivity of the TDP can be configured to exceed 800 W/mK with a mass density below 2.5 grams per cubic centimeter. This material can provide efficient conductive heat transfer between the in situ heat plenums, permitting the use of thinner panel thicknesses. The plenums may be used as heat pipes, loop heat pipes, or liquid cooling channels. The panel technology used in the TDP is a macro-composite comprised of aluminum-encapsulated annealed pyrolytic graphite (APG). APG is highly aligned crystalline graphite with an in-plane thermal conductivity of 1,700 W/mK. APG has low shear strength and does not constrain the encapsulating material. The proposed concept has no thermal interfaces between the heat pipes and the spreader plate, further improving the overall conductance of the system. The in situ plenums can also be used for liquid cooling applications. The process can be used to fabricate structural panels by adding a second thin sheet.


We report on the characterization of long-range surface plasmon waveguide bends at telecom wavelengths (lambda=1550 nm). The structures consist of a thin Au stripe embedded in a transparent polymer film. When the polymer thickness is larger than the lateral extension of the plasmon, the stripe sustains a conventional long-range mode; in the opposite case, the mode is hybrid because its field distribution is confined by total internal reflection in the dielectric cladding. This hybridization increases the damping by absorption but dramatically reduces the radiation loss that occurs for curved geometries, such as bends. Our results are supported quantitatively by full-wave finite-element simulations.


The amount of airborne respirable dust generated from breakage of different coals varies widely. This research was conducted to identify the facets of airborne respirable dust liberation from the coal product. Laboratory crushing experiments were conducted on a range of low to high volatile bituminous coals to investigate the various factors influencing airborne respirable dust generation. Bituminous coal samples from 8 mines (5 U.S. and 3 Polish) were uniformly prepared and processed through a double roll crusher located in a low air velocity wind tunnel. Experimental factors studied included inherent coal seam constituents, specific energy of crushing, product size characteristics, dust cloud electrostatic field, and specific quantity of airborne respirable dust generated. The results of this investigation build upon previously published results, which indicated that a combination of several factors are associated with the generation of airborne respirable dust. One factor involved is the effect of coal rank, described by the inherent moist fuel ratio, on the product size characteristics, defined by Schuhmann size function parameters. However, since coals of high moist fuel ratio (high rank) are generally more extensively cleated, it is suggested in the present work that the degree of cleating is directly responsible for the quantity of respirable-sized particles produced in the crushed product material for eastern U.S. coals. This is implied by the relationship of ash content and at least one mineral constituent (pyrite, determined from pyritic sulfur analysis) to the percentage of airborne respirable dust. To validate this hypothesis, a description is offered that is based on known coal petrography. Another key factor is the effect of air dry loss moisture in the coal seam on the breakage-induced electrostatic field of airborne dust. The air dry loss moisture factor appears to control the amount of airborne respirable dust that is liberated from the product. The resultant effect of these factors is that different percentages of coal particles smaller than 10 w m are dispersed as airborne respirable dust, with a well-defined peak in the normalized airborne respirable dust for a narrow range of air dry loss moisture 1 ash ratios. A clear delineation of coals, based on well-known proximate analysis characteristics, that generate the most respirable dust appears to be possible. It was also shown that the dust-generating characteristics of coals could be reasonably described by both the moist fuel ratio and the Hardgrove Grindability Index (HGI). These results show a clear distinction between eastern and western U.S. coals. However, no consistent distinction for Polish coal was observed.


Since the inception of the first permanent American bankruptcy law in 1898, the intellectual and political understanding of the bankruptcy process has been anchored in a model of the bankruptcy process that views bankruptcies as being driven by household financial distress. For much of the Twentieth Century, this "traditional model" of bankruptcy accurately explained observed trends in bankruptcy filings. Moreover, the widespread consensus on the traditional model was reflected in the enactment of the current Bankruptcy Code in 1978, which rested on the intellectual foundations of the traditional model. To this day, the overwhelming number of leading bankruptcy scholars continues to believe in the descriptive accuracy and normative policy recommendations of the traditional model. Thus, scholars as diverse as Elizabeth Warren and Jay Westbrook, Douglas Baird, and Kenneth Klee, have all expressed strong opposition to the bankruptcy reform legislation. Regardless of whether they draw from a progressive and sociological background (Warren and Westbrook), law & economics background (Baird), or doctrinal background (Klee), scholars have continued to express consensus belief in the traditional model and the policy implications that it implies. For most of this period, the traditional model has provided both empirically descriptive findings and normatively clear implications. Over the past two decades, however, the traditional model has broken down. During a period of unprecedented prosperity and economic stability, personal bankruptcies have soared, raising fundamental questions about the validity of the traditional model. This article argues that there has been an unacknowledged sea-change in the nature of consumer bankruptcy in America and that this requires a new model of the consumer bankruptcy process and that this new model of consumer bankruptcy also implies the need for certain amendments to the Bankruptcy Code. This article first provides a scientific analysis of the traditional model to determine whether these new trends can be accommodated within the traditional model. The model is examined in the light of the available evidence and the conclusion is that the traditional model is unable to account for the upward surge in bankruptcies over the past twenty-five years. The article then offers a new model to explain the anomaly of the rising bankruptcy filings of recent years and examines the available empirical evidence on point. This model draws from the school of New Institutional Economics (NIE) and focuses on the institutions, incentives, and transaction costs associated with filing bankruptcy. Although the model will require further testing and refinement before it can be said to be definitive, available evidence tends to support the model advanced here. The article then turns to the normative conclusions that are suggested by the New Institutional Economics model. Widespread acceptance of the traditional model animated the framework of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code and continues to animate the opposition to the current bankruptcy reform movement. The replacement of the traditional model with the NIE model offered here also has certain normative and policy implications. Most fundamentally, whereas the premises of the traditional model are inconsistent with the bankruptcy reform movement, the finding of the NIE model justifies many of the key bankruptcy reform efforts of recent years.


This work is a collection of chapters that revolve around the issues of representing and interpreting the educational experiences of students who live in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, in their attempts to succeed in post-compulsory education (higher and further Education). The work presents the story of a student from this population in the form of a testimonio, a methodological discussion on the nature and uses of testimonio in the light of Foucauldian genealogy principles, a proposal for the ethical exercise of reading and writing the testimonios produced, and three exercises of interpretation which address and problematize assumptions that operate in the understanding of villas and their inhabitants.

The methodological discussion draws on principles of ethnography and Foucauldian genealogy to consider the use and nature of stories for the purposes of doing research. It presents and discusses the Latin American testimonio as a form of account that intends to represent the voice of subaltern groups with the aim of contributing to social change.

The ethical discussion will look closely at the ways in which the researcher becomes a subject while doing research, both in his/her relationship with the object of study and in the relationship with his/herself. In this sense, it will look at the violence involved in the production of knowledge that is exerted in relation to an 'object' of study.

Finally, this work includes three exercises of interpretation aimed at re-thinking villas through 'using and troubling' conceptual tools in the reading of the testimonios co-constructed in this research. The idea of villas as neighbourhoods abandoned by the State, separated from the city and outside the norm is re-thought. The interpretations produced in this set of chapters will look at the complexity of the position of the students producing testimonios in their condition as inhabitants of villas.


The emerging field of action science is characterized by a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches that share the basic functional belief that evolution has optimized cognitive systems to serve the demands of action. This book brings together the constitutive approaches of action science in a single source, covering the relation of action to such cognitive functions as perception, attention, memory, and volition. Each chapter offers a tutorial-like description of a major line of inquiry, written by a leading scientist in the field. Taken together, the chapters reflect a dynamic and rapidly growing field and provide a forum for comparison and possible integration of approaches. After discussing core questions about how actions are controlled and learned, the book considers ecological approaches to action science; neurocogntive approaches to action understanding and attention; developmental approaches to action science; social actions, including imitation and joint action; and the relationships between action and the conceptual system (grounded cognition) and between volition and action. An emerging discipline depends on a rich and multifaceted supply of theoretical and methodological approaches. The diversity of perspectives offered in this book will serve as a guide for future explorations in action science. Contributors: Lawrence W. Barsalou, Miriam Beisert, Valerian Chambon, Thomas Goschke, Patrick Haggard, Arvid Herwig, Herbert Heuer, Cecilia Heyes, Bernhard Hommel, Glyn W. Humphreys, Richard B. Ivry, Markus Kiefer, Gunther Knoblich, Sally A. Linkenauger, Janeen D. Loehr, Peter J. Marshall, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Wolfgang Prinz, Dennis R. Proffitt, Giacomo Rizzolatti, David A. Rosenbaum, Natalie Sebanz, Corrado Sinigaglia, Sandra Sulzenbruck, Jordan A. Taylor, Michael T. Turvey, Claes von Hofsten, Rebecca A. Williamson


In this paper, a moving objects based real-time defogging method for traffic monitoring videos is proposed. Firstly, dark channel prior based image defogging method has been improved. Then, the proposed image defogging method is used for traffic monitoring video defogging. To improve the processing speed, the correlation between the adjacent frames of videos is exploited. The moving objects are detected using adjacent frame difference method. The frame content is divided into moving foreground and background. Afterwards, the foreground and background are processed with different defogging manners to reduce the computational complexity of defogging processing. Experimental results show that the proposed method can generate a good defogging effect which will facilitate the subsequent intelligent traffic analysis. Furthermore, the proposed method is fast enough to process the standard-definition videos at the speed of 26 frames per second on average.


BACKGROUND
Guttate psoriasis is a distinctive acute form of psoriasis which characteristically occurs in children and young adults. Very little specific evidence-based guidance is available in standard texts to help make rational decisions about treatment options.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effectiveness of treatments for guttate psoriasis.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Clinical Trials Register (Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 1999), Medline (1966- September 1999), Embase (1988-September 1999), Salford Database of Psoriasis Trials (to November 1999) and European Dermato-Epidemiology Network (EDEN) Psoriasis Trials Database (to November 1999) for terms GUTTATE and PSORIASIS. We also searched 100 unselected RCTs of psoriasis therapy and all 112 RCTs of phototherapy for psoriasis in the Salford Database of Psoriasis Trials for separate stratification for guttate psoriasis.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised trials in which patients with acute guttate psoriasis were randomised to different treatments, except those trials examining antistreptococcal interventions which are addressed in a separate Cochrane review.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two reviewers independently assessed trial eligibility and quality.

MAIN RESULTS
No published report could be found to support or to challenge current commonly used methods of management.Only one trial which met the selection criteria was identified. In this small study of 21 hospitalised patients with guttate psoriasis, intravenous infusion of an n-3 fatty acid rich lipid emulsion was compared with placebo emulsion containing n-6 fatty acids. The n-3 preparation appeared to be of some benefit for patients with guttate psoriasis.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is currently no firm evidence on which to base treatment of acute guttate psoriasis. Studies comparing standard treatment modalities, including phototherapy and topical regimens, are required to enable informed decisions on treatment choices to be made.


We consider the problem of testing functional constraints in a class of functional concurrent linear models where both the predictors and the response are functional data measured at discrete time points. We propose test procedures based on the empirical likelihood with bias‐corrected estimating equations to conduct both pointwise and simultaneous inferences. The asymptotic distributions of the test statistics are derived under the null and local alternative hypotheses, where sparse and dense functional data are considered in a unified framework. We find a phase transition in the asymptotic null distributions and the orders of detectable alternatives from sparse to dense functional data. Specifically, the tests proposed can detect alternatives of √n‐order when the number of repeated measurements per curve is of an order larger than nη0 with n being the number of curves. The transition points η0 for pointwise and simultaneous tests are different and both are smaller than the transition point in the estimation problem. Simulation studies and real data analyses are conducted to demonstrate the methods proposed.


Background. The sorghum (C4) species has a high potential for accumulation of photosynthetic radiation. It is possible to obtain a high biomass yield after meeting the fertilization needs of plants, especially as regards nitrogen.Material and methods. In 2013–2015 at the Experimental Station Pawlowice, which belongs to the Department of Crop Production, a field experiment was conducted that aimed to assess the usefulness of the fertilizer YaraRega to fertilize sweet sorghum. Two methods of using the fertilizer were used: broadcasting application and fertigation, using two rates (40 and 80 kg N per ha), and were compared with the control (without fertilization). The fertilizer in the foliar form was applied in two solutions: 0.20 and 0.40%, respectively, for rates of 40 and 80 kg N per ha. The study estimated the effect of fertilization on the productivity of fresh and dry matter and the effectiveness of these treatments.Results. The statistically significant increase in the fresh matter yield obtained under the influence of nitrogen rates was about 25% (after fertilization with 40 kg N per ha) and 32% (after the application of 80 kg N per ha). Taking into account also the dry matter yield, only fertilization with 40 kg N per ha caused a significant increase in the yield compared with the control. Fertilization with a rate of 40 kg N per ha caused an increase in the fresh matter yield of about 300 and 334 kg per 1 kg of nitrogen used after of broadcasting and fertigation application methods respectively. Agronomic efficiency expressed in dry matter yield amounted to 75 and 76 kg per 1 kg of nitrogen used.Conclusion. YaraRega is recommended to be applied to sorghum with the fertigation method. No toxic effect on sorghum plants was observed after an application of the 0.4% solution.


Eschatology is the study of the last things: death, judgment, the afterlife, and the end of the world. Through centuries of Christian thoughtfrom the early Church fathers through the Middle Ages and the Reformationthese issues were of the utmost importance. In other religions, too, eschatological concerns were central. After the Enlightenment, though, many religious thinkers began to downplay the importance of eschatology which, in light of rationalism, came to be seen as something of an embarrassment. The twentieth century, however, saw the rise of phenomena that placed eschatology back at the forefront of religious thought. From the rapid expansion of fundamentalist forms of Christianity, with their focus on the end times; to the proliferation of apocalyptic new religious movements; to the recent (and very public) debates about suicide, martyrdom, and paradise in Islam, interest in eschatology is once again on the rise. In addition to its popular resurgence, in recent years some of the worlds most important theologians have returned eschatology to its former position of prominence. The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology will provide an important critical survey of this diverse body of thought and practice from a variety of perspectives: biblical, historical, theological, philosophical, and cultural. This volume will be the primary resource for students, scholars, and others interested in questions of our ultimate existence.


The subestuaries in the northern reaches of Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island, USA) are susceptible to summertime water quality impairment. High nutrient loading of these systems leads to eutrophication and recurrent hypoxia, which cause ecosystem degradation and incidents of organism mass mortality. Management efforts to improve water quality include reductions in nutrient input to Narragansett Bay. We hypothesize that nutrient reductions may not sufficiently improve the health of severely impacted regions due to physical processes that contribute to water quality deterioration, including high vertical density stratification and low horizontal exchange. Dispersion depends on vertical turbulent mixing and advection. Circulation and dispersion are assessed using high-resolution observational and numerical modeling techniques. A realistic Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) model for Narragansett Bay is validated by comparison with data and by doing a turbulence closure scheme assessment. It is found that the model provides an accurate representation of Narragansett Bay hydrodynamics when a k − ε scheme is implemented. High agreement exists between the model and data of tidal velocity and sea surface elevation, as well as subtidal velocity, temperature, and salinity. Future optimization of the model involves refinement of some forcing specifications. Observations of hydrodynamics in Greenwich Bay, one of the most severely impaired subestuaries of Narragansett Bay, and the adjacent Warwick Neck channel show the response of the subsystem to different forces. The data show that the wind exerts a dominant influence on the subtidal flow. Wind directed predominantly eastward improves exchange between the basins of Greenwich Bay relative to northward wind. Vertical turbulent mixing by tidal shear is generally low in Greenwich Bay indicating that bottom water may become isolated from the atmosphere for prolonged periods of time. This situation is conducive to hypoxia. Diurnal wind can cause an increase in vertical turbulent mixing and can force intratidal residuals by its interaction with the semidiurnal tide. The numerical model is used to carry out semi-idealized scenario experiments to determine the influence of specific forcing conditions on circulation, dispersion, and flushing of Greenwich Bay. Model experiments show that residence time depends on wind direction, since flushing occurs largely by wind-driven advective dispersion. The dominant sustained and diurnal wind conditions during the summer months lead to retention by weak flow and horizontal recirculation structures.


Here, at last, is the book for anyone who ever wondered how the media extravaganzas we call political campaigns really work. Everything You Think You Know About Politics...and Why You're Wrong explores why the American public, seemingly so eager for "unspun" information about candidates and their positions, invariably ends up feeling manipulated by our political process.Challenging the reader with strategically placed quizzes, well-known commentator on the media and politics Kathleen Hall Jamieson surveys the existing public record on voting patterns, campaign promises, and all manner of electioneering and comes up with an engaging mix of analysis, surprising factoids, and political cartoons. This book separates the facts from the convenient fictions that deter Americans from caring about the processes and outcomes of elections.


A general and convenient practical approach for the synthesis of polyhydroquinoline derivatives has been achieved via one-pot four-component Hantzsch condensation of aromatic aldehydes, dimedone, ethyl acetoacetate and ammonium acetate in the presence of a catalytic amount of gallium (III) chloride, in ethanol solvent at ambient temperature. The UV-Visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of Ethyl-1,4,7,8-tetrahydro-2,7,7-trimethyl-4-(4-chlorophenyl)-5(6H)- oxoquinolin-3-carboxylate is also reported. The interaction of synthesized compound and salicylic acid was studied by using steady state emission spectroscopy. The fluorescence quenching of salicylic acid showed red shift with increasing concentration of polyhydroquinolines (acceptor) is in accordance with Stern–Volmer relation. The quenching rate constant 3.8x10-6M-1S-1 was obtained from the fluorescence lifetime of salicylic acid measured on time resolved fluorimeter (TRF) in absence of polyhydroquinolines.


Developers use models to design real world distributed applications that often are subject to Service Level Agreements to find a good balance between the quality of the service and its resource usage. Executable models has been used to observe and study such applications using, e.g., the Real Time ABS language, an executable and object-oriented modelling language. For complex models, due to the high number and dependencies between the parameters, it is very difficult to understand the best possible setting that leads the system towards a desired quality of service, while minimising the usage of computing resources. In this work we present POPT, a parameter optimiser tool that starting from Real Time ABS models, by using AI techniques, searches in an automatic way for the best possible setting to satisfy the developer's expectations.


No comprehensive history of Israelite religion has been published for some time now, so this new, encyclopaedic work meets a considerable need. The two volumes cover the history of the religion of Israel and Judah from the earliest recognizable beginnings to the Hellenistic period and constantly take into account not only the other religions of the ancient Near East but also Israelite social history. The history of Israel's religion is described as an interplay between historical demands, religious experiences and theological reactions, as the ongoing struggle between different groups over the appropriate religious response to God and the social practice that needs to go with it.


The use of episodic memories in continual learning is an efficient way to prevent the phenomenon of catastrophic forgetting. In recent studies, several gradient-based approaches have been developed to make more efficient use of compact episodic memories, which constrain the gradients resulting from new samples with gradients from memorized samples. In this paper, we propose a method for decreasing the diversity of gradients through an extra optimization objective that we call Discriminative Representation Loss, instead of directly re-projecting the gradients. Our methods show promising performance with relatively cheap computational cost on all the three tracks of the CLVision challenge 1.


The question of transparency is widely regarded as a thermometer of the relation between the Council of the EU and the public at large. Relatively little attention however has been devoted to the implications of transparency (i.e., access for the general public) for inter-institutional information politics, even when the limited evidence suggests that the connection is considerable. This article asks how EU actors use Council transparency as a platform and for what reason. It approaches transparency as a policy that is developed in three arenas: the internal, the external political, and the external judicial arena. The article finds strong evidence in support of the view that the Council's transparency policy played a central role in EU institutions' attempt to advance their information ambitions. By strongly engaging with the issue of transparency particularly the European Parliament and its members succeeded at expanding their institutional information basis in an area where their political grip was traditionally at its weakest: the Foreign Affairs Council. Acting in turn as a bargaining chip, a political lever, or an alternative to institutional information, the Foreign Affairs Council's transparency policy was thus clearly used to advance information agendas of oversight and legislative prerogatives.


This study verifies the existence of an evident decadal oscillation in fall (September-November) temperature for Taiwan. It has an island-wide spatial pattern and a central frequency of 11 years. A corresponding decadal-oscillation mode of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) is found to be largely responsible for inducing the decadal temperature oscillation for Taiwan via the following regulating processes. On a decadal timescale, periods of decadal warming in Taiwan concur with major cold anomalies in tropical SST over the eastern Indian Ocean and the central Pacific. These cold SST anomalies modulate tropical Walker circulation so as to produce anomalous descending centers in their regions. Meanwhile, the complementary anomalous ascending motion and anomalous low-level convergence center occur near the Maritime continent. These anomalous ascending and descending centers act as tropical forcing sources to evoke a low-level Rossby-wave-like circulation anomaly in the Asian-Pacific regions. Taiwan is surrounded by a low-level anomalous high to its east and an anomalous low to its west. These circulations induce anomalous flows from the south to warm Taiwan via anomalous warm advection. The above regulating processes reverse in polarity during periods of decadal cooling in Taiwan.


In this paper we describe a wearable system that allows people to place and interact with 3D virtual tags placed around them. This uses two wearable technologies: a head-worn wearable computer (Google Glass) and a chest-worn depth sensor (Tango). The Google Glass is used to generate and display virtual information to the user, while the Tango is used to provide robust indoor position tracking for the Glass. The Tango enables spatial awareness of the surrounding world using various motion sensors including 3D depth sensing, an accelerometer and a motion tracking camera. Using these systems together allows users to create a virtual tag via voice input and then register this tag to a physical object or position in 3D space as an augmented annotation. We describe the design and implementation of the system, user feedback, research implications, and directions for future work.


This important new work is a major analysis of the foundation of Eric Voegelin's political science. Barry Cooper maintains that the writings Voegelin undertook in the 1940s provide the groundwork for the brilliant book that is one of his best known, "The New Science of Politics." At the time of that book's publication, however, few were aware of the enormous knowledge and accomplished scholarship that lay behind its illuminating, although sometimes baffling, formulations.By focusing on several of the key chapters in Voegelin's eight- volume "History of Political Ideas, " especially the studies of Bodin, Vico, and Schelling, Cooper shows how those studies provide the basis for Voegelin's thought. Investigating Voegelin's study of Oriental influences on Western political "ideas," especially Mongol constitutional law, and his study of Toynbee, Cooper seeks to demonstrate the vast range of materials Voegelin used.Cooper contends that, as with other great thinkers, political crisis, specifically the world war of 1939-1945, stimulated Voegelin's intellectual and spiritual achievement. He provides an analysis of Voegelin's immediate concern with the course of World War II, his ability to understand those dramatic events in a large context, and his ability to provide an insightful account of the causes, the significance, and the consequences of the spiritual and political disorder that was evident all around him.In "Eric Voegelin and the Foundations of Modern Political Science, " Cooper makes the connection between Voegelin's political writings of the 1940s and the meditative interpretations that began to appear with the publication of "Anamnesis" and with the later volumes of "Order and History" much more intelligible than does any existing discussion of Voegelin. Scholars in intellectual history and political science will benefit enormously from this valuable new addition to Voegelin studies.


Our teeth have intriguing stories to tell. These sophisticated time machines record growth, diet, and evolutionary history as clearly as tree rings map a redwood's lifespan. Each day of childhood is etched into tooth crowns and roots—capturing birth, nursing history, environmental clues, and illnesses. The study of ancient, fossilized teeth sheds light on how our ancestors grew up, how we evolved, and how prehistoric cultural transitions continue to affect humans today. In The Tales Teeth Tell, biological anthropologist Tanya Smith offers an engaging and surprising look at what teeth tell us about the evolution of primates—including our own uniqueness.

Humans' impressive set of varied teeth provides a multipurpose toolkit honed by the diet choices of our mammalian ancestors. Fossil teeth, highly resilient because of their substantial mineral content, are all that is left of some long-extinct species. Smith explains how researchers employ painstaking techniques to coax microscopic secrets from these enigmatic remains. Counting tiny daily lines provides a way to estimate age that is more powerful than any other forensic technique. Dental plaque—so carefully removed by dental hygienists today—records our ancestors' behavior and health in the form of fossilized food particles and bacteria, including their DNA. Smith also traces the grisly origins of dentistry, reveals that the urge to pick one's teeth is not unique to humans, and illuminates the age-old pursuit of "dental art." The book is generously illustrated with original photographs, many in color.


Recent experiments have shown the possibility to use the brain electrical activity to directly control the movement of robots or prosthetic devices in real time. Such neuroprostheses can be invasive or non-invasive, depending on how the brain signals are recorded. In principle, invasive approaches will provide a more natural and flexible control of neuroprostheses, but their use in humans is debatable given the inherent medical risks. Non-invasive approaches mainly use scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and their main disadvantage is that these signals represent the noisy spatiotemporal overlapping of activity arising from very diverse brain regions; i.e., a single scalp electrode picks up and mixes the temporal activity of myriads of neurons at very different brain areas. In order to combine the benefits of both approaches, we propose to rely on the non-invasive estimation of local field potentials (eLFP) in the whole human brain from the scalp measured EEG data using a recently developed inverse solution (ELECTRA) to the EEG inverse problem. The goal of a linear inverse procedure is to deconvolve or unmix the scalp signals attributing to each brain area its own temporal activity. To illustrate the advantage of this approach we compare, using identical set of spectral features, classification of rapid voluntary finger self-tapping with left and right hands based on scalp EEG and eLFP on three subjects using different number of electrodes. It is shown that the eLFP-based Gaussian classifier outperforms the EEG-based Gaussian classifier for the three subjects.


A new ultra-low bending loss single-mode fiber with ring comprising nanometer sized features is designed and manufactured. Bending loss less than 0.1 dB/turn at 1550 nm and a bend radius of 5 mm is demonstrated. Other optical parameters of the fiber are fully compatible the standard telecommunications grade single-mode fibers.