Numerical groundwater flow models have become an essential tool in the solution of
hydrogeological problems. Their importance arises because they are the only real means by
which testing of hypotheses can be conducted. It is common to produce what is referred to as
a conceptual model, a description of the processes believed to be operating in the groundwater
system. However, to assess the validity of the concepts it is essential to produce results from
a more physically based model which can be compared with field information. If there is a
high degree of similarity between physical model and reality, then the conceptual model can
be treated with some confidence. Numerical models provide information based on the
physics of the supposed processes and are therefore the best approximation to a physical
model.
Fundamental difficulties arise in constructing a numerical model which is going to be able to
be close to the real aquifer. Amongst them are recognising the true mechanisms and finding
an acceptable numerical implementation. The ability to look at behaviour on different scales
is also important. While a relatively coarse approximation, based on a grid spacing of
hundreds of metres, may be acceptable for regional flow through a large expanse of relatively
homogeneous aquifer, this will not be adequate for small-scale local behaviour. Examples
such as the response of an abstraction well or the representation of a small stream will not be
dealt with accurately on a coarse mesh.
The process of model development and construction is iterative. Components of the
conceptual model are frequently found to be inadequate and require changes. The inability to
reproduce features from the real aquifer brings these inadequacies to light. Change and the
introduction of new processes are fundamental to the development process.
ZOOMQ3D is a numerical model which advances the art of model development on two
vitally important fronts. It incorporates a mesh refinement procedure which aids the solution
of problems related to scale. This is the first of its contributions. The second is that it uses
object-oriented techniques as the basis for the program. Whilst this is well-established in the
development of general commercial software, it represents a novel approach to groundwater
model structure. It is of considerable value in maintaining the code but it is in changing
model behaviour that it holds most promise for modellers. Further, the direct correspondence
between computer-based objects and real-world features makes the link between numerical
and conceptual models very easy to see, even to those with no programming expertise.


EIOPA has recently proposed to introduce standardized pan European personal pension products (PEPPs) that would be available in the accumulation phase, jointly with national personal pension plans. This paper analyzes the PEPPs from the perspective of the academic literature and proposes to use the PPR concept of Bovenberg and Nijman (2015) to categorize product characteristics, both in the accumulation phase as in the decumulation phase. The PPR concept can also be used to incorporate design features of the decumulation phase in the PEPP itself. A first important lesson to be learned from the academic literature is that the aim of stable income provision requires a framework where future asset returns are hedged rather than the asset only approach underlying the PEPPs. Whereas EIOPA proposes to allow switching between PEPPs only infrequently, the literature suggests that liquidity concerns are not a very convincing reason to restrict switching. Switching costs could be linked to the degree of liquidity of the portfolio. A better motivation for restriction on switching seems to be that investors might well put too much focus on recent investment performance as a predictor of future performance. As far as information disclosure is concerned more attention is recommended to the impact of biometric risks. More attention is also recommended for tax issues, because current tax provisions for national PPPs seem to be rooted in characteristics of the decumulation phase that can be avoided in the second regime. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential impact of the PEPP proposal on PPP provision in four European countries.


This work investigates the ecology of biocontrol bacteria in the rhizosphere of crop plants. It focuses on biotic interactions influencing the fitness and the activity of these bacteria, and on defence mechanisms increasing their competitiveness against other bacteria. A number of soil bacterial present antagonistic activity against soil borne plant pathogens by producing antibiotics and enzymes. Thereby they bear potential for developing environmentally friendly management of crop diseases, as an alternative to conventional fungicides or fumigants. The application of such biocontrol bacteria, however, is still limited by the lack of consistency in their survival and antagonistic activity. Introduced bacteria often fail to establish in soil or remain in an inactive state. Biotic interactions are central for the fitness of introduced strains. Bacteria in soil compete with indigenous microorganisms present in high density and diversity. Further, they are exposed to a complex community of predators, in particular protozoa and nematodes. In order to successfully use bacterial inoculants under field conditions there is a need to better understand which interactions are the most relevant for the survival of introduced strains, and which defence mechanisms help bacteria to establish stable and persisting populations. Especially toxins play an important role. Antibiotics responsible for phytopathogen inhibition are often inhibitors of bacterial growth, and are highly toxic against protozoan predators. We used as model organism the biocontrol bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0, an efficient coloniser of crop plants with a strong antagonistic activity against fungal pathogens and root knot nematodes. We tested if bacterial toxicity enhances competitiveness against other rhizosphere bacteria and improve resistance against predation pressure, and if bacteria alter the production of toxins in response to predator chemical cues or to signal molecules involved in plant - bacteria communication The first two experiments investigated the impact of bacterial toxins and microfaunal predation on intra- and interspecific competition among bacteria in the rhizosphere. We used gnotobiotic or semi-natural simplified microcosms with and without predators. Predation favoured toxic phenotypes and increased their competitiveness against other rhizobacteria such as non-toxic spontaneous mutants. This suggests that toxins of biocontrol bacteria primarily function as antipredator defence, and that microfaunal predators promote toxic bacteria thereby enhancing soil suppressiveness. The third and fourth experiments investigated the chemical ecology of biocontrol bacteria. By using green fluorescent protein (gfp) reporter fusions reflecting the expression of the main biocontrol genes, we followed changes in toxin production in response to chemical cues from predators and the host plant. The results demonstrated that bacteria sense chemical cues from free living amoebae, and respond by increased toxin production. Bacterial toxicity was also influenced by the host plant, which modulated the expression of antifungal genes upon infection with a root pathogen. The results suggest that bacteria adjust the production of toxins in response to a wide range of environmental parameters in order to optimise the costs and benefits of defence mechanisms. The fifth experiment explored the integration of introduced biocontrol bacteria in soil food webs by RNA Stable Isotope Probing (SIP). In this experiment wildtype and gacS- strains of P. fluorescens CHA0 were labelled with 13C and introduced in an agricultural soil. Microfaunal predators consuming both strains were resolved by T-RFLP and RT-qPCR of the 18S rRNA. The results indicate that carbon is transferred rapidly to higher trophic levels, and that toxic bacteria were consumed by a distinct and more restricted eukaryote community than bacteria without defence mechanisms. In conclusion, the production of extracellular toxins by biocontrol bacteria appear thus to be crucial for their competitiveness in the soil. This overlapping of antipredator and crop protecting traits opens promising possibilities of improvement of the efficiency of microbial biocontrol agents by manipulating the predation regime.


This chapter on the distribution of Andean and Amazonian features in the upper Amazon area shows that the transition from the Andean to the Amazonian area is gradual and complex. This is consistent with the intricate history of contact between the different ethnic groups of the area, and it presents a strong argument for connecting the research traditions associated with these areas. Morphosyntactic influence generally seems to represent older contact situations than phonological influence.


There is an urgent need for new antibiotics and alternative strategies to combat multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens, which are a growing clinical issue. Repurposing existing approved drugs with known pharmacology and toxicology is an alternative strategy to accelerate antimicrobial research and development. In this study, we show that celecoxib, a marketed inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2, exhibits broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive pathogens from a variety of genera, including Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Listeria, Bacillus, and Mycobacterium, but not against Gram-negative pathogens. However, celecoxib is active against all of the Gram-negative bacteria tested, including strains of, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas, when their intrinsic resistance is artificially compromised by outer membrane permeabilizing agents such as colistin. The effect of celecoxib on incorporation of radioactive precursors into macromolecules in Staphylococcus aureus was examined. The primary antimicrobial mechanism of action of celecoxib was the dose-dependent inhibition of RNA, DNA, and protein synthesis. Further, we demonstrate the in vivo efficacy of celecoxib in a methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infected Caenorhabditis elegans whole animal model. Topical application of celecoxib (1 and 2%) significantly reduced the mean bacterial count in a mouse model of MRSA skin infection. Further, celecoxib decreased the levels of all inflammatory cytokines tested, including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, interleukin-1 beta, and monocyte chemo attractant protein-1 in wounds caused by MRSA infection. Celecoxib also exhibited synergy with many conventional antimicrobials when tested against four clinical isolates of S. aureus. Collectively, these results demonstrate that celecoxib alone, or in combination with traditional antimicrobials, has a potential to use as a topical drug for the treatment of bacterial skin infections.


In this paper we describe ongoing undergraduate research projects that allow us to shift emphasis from teaching to a more active form of student participation. More specifically our projects are on automatic gesture recognition using the Kinect 3D sensor from Microsoft Research and machine learning systems. We have observed the following benefits for our undergraduate students: learning a topic area in AI relatively early; developing proficiency in laboratory practice, specifically, systematic data collection and programming on multiple platforms; learning to use appropriate methodology; applying knowledge to a real situation; learning to analyze data and transform it to various representations; appreciation of scientific experiments and learning what scientific research actually entails.


Abstract— We present Markov‐Chain Monte‐Carlo methods (MCMC) for the derivation of empirical model parameters for photometric and polarimetric phase curves of asteroids. Here we model the two phase curves jointly at phase angles ≤25° using a linear‐exponential model, accounting for the opposition effect in disk‐integrated brightness and the negative branch in the degree of linear polarization. We apply the MCMC methods to V‐band phase curves of asteroids 419 Aurelia (taxonomic class F), 24 Themis (C), 1 Ceres (G), 20 Massalia (S), 55 Pandora (M), and 64 Angelina (E). We show that the photometric and polarimetric phase curves can be described using a common nonlinear parameter for the angular widths of the opposition effect and negative‐polarization branch, thus supporting the hypothesis of common physical mechanisms being responsible for the phenomena. Furthermore, incorporating polarimetric observations removes the indeterminacy of the opposition effect for 1 Ceres. We unveil a trend in the interrelation between the enhancement factor of the opposition effect and the angular width: the enhancement factor decreases with decreasing angular width. The minimum polarization and the polarimetric slope at the inversion angle show systematic trends when plotted against the angular width and the normalized photometric slope parameter. Our new approach allows improved analyses of possible similarities and differences among asteroidal surfaces.


Geometric computations, like all numerical procedures, are extremely prone to roundoff error. However, virtually none of the numerical analysis literature directly applies to geometric calculations. Even for line intersection, the most basic geometric operation, there is no robust and efficient algorithm. Compounding the difficulties, many geometric algorithms perform iterations of calculations reusing previously computed data. In this paper, we explore some of the main issues in geometric computations and the methods that have been proposed to handle roundoff errors. In particular, we focus on one method and apply it to a general iterative intersection problem. Our initial results seem promising and will hopefully lead to robust solutions for more complex problems of computational geometry.


Introduction

The collection of huge stores of electronically-formatted information and advances in information processing technologies has led to dramatic changes in the conduct of biomedical science. In biology, a paradigm shift is underway due to an unprecedented flood of data, the emergence of shared research repositories, and advances in the application of data mining algorithms. As a result, the traditional model of scientific discovery of "formulate hypothesis, conduct experiment, evaluate results" is being replaced with "collect and store data, mine for new hypotheses, confirm with data or supplemental experiment" (Han et al. 2002). In clinical medicine, similar developments have made possible a variety of secondary applications of extant clinical data, including physician decision support, outcomes assessment, document retrieval, and clinician performance evaluation. The quality, or usefulness, of existing data for secondary uses has thus far been approached with a focus on issues of technical access and the mathematical format of data. Largely ignored in these efforts are the effects on quality introduced when data captured for one purpose is reused for another. This panel brings together four researchers with on going studies in the biomedical domain focused on the effects of context on the quality of data for secondary uses. Drawing from empirical evidence the topics to be addressed include; 1) the effects of context on data reuse, 2) anticipating, identifying and accounting for these effects, and 3) the future implications of large-scale data reuse for information professionals in the biomedical domain.


Why do some Muslim women adopt fundamentalist islamic value systems that promote gender-based inequalities while others do not? this article considers the economic determinants of fundamentalist beliefs in the Muslim world, as women look to either marriage or employment to achieve financial security. using cross-national public opinion data from eighteen countries with significant Muslim populations, the authors apply a latent class model to characterize respondents according to their views on gender norms, political islam, and personal religiosity. among women, lack of economic opportunity is a stronger predictor of fundamentalist belief systems than socioeconomic class. cross-nationally, fundamentalism among women is most prevalent in poor countries and in those with a large male-female wage gap. these findings have important implications for the promotion of women's rights, the rise of political islam, and the development of democracy in the Muslim world.


The objective of this investigation was to study the effect of varied concentration and ratio of egg lecithin, cholesterol and drug (Pramipexole) on physico-chemical characteristics of l iposomes prepared by thin fi lm hydration method. Pramipexole-loaded liposomes of egg lecithin were prepared and characterized for vesicle size, TEM, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency (%EE), phospholipid content, in vitro drug release and drug leakage. Liposomes obtained were spherical in shape, 151 to 231 nm in size, and negatively charged (−18 to −32 mV). The %EE of pramipexole in the liposomes ranged from 18 to 61%. The effects of variations in cholesterol, egg lecithin and pramipexole contents on the liposomal characteristics were determined. It was found that the liposomes prepared with unimolar ratio of cholesterol, egg lecithin and pramipexole exhibited better characteristics than other l iposomal formulation.


We run a comparative study of ecohydrological models of streamflow probability distributions (pdfs), p(Q), derived by Botter et al. (2007a, 2009), against field data gathered in different hydrological contexts. Streamflows measured in several catchments across various climatic regions of northeastern Italy and the United States are employed. The relevance of the work stems from the implied analytical predictive ability of hydrologic variability, whose role on stream and riparian ecological processes and large‐scale management schemes is fundamental. The tools employed are analytical models of p(Q) (and of the related flow duration curve, D(Q)) derived by coupling suitable storage‐discharge relations with a stochastic description of streamflow production through soil moisture dynamics, and are expressed as a function of few macroscopic rainfall, soil, vegetation and geomorphological parameters. In this work we compare the performances of a recent version of the model (which includes the effects of nonlinear subsurface storage‐discharge relations) to those provided by the linear version through the application of the models to 13 test catchments belonging to various climatic and geomorphic contexts. A general agreement between predicted and observed daily streamflows pdfs is shown, though differences emerge between the linear and the nonlinear approaches. In particular, by including the effects of a nonlinear storage‐discharge relation the model accuracy is shown to increase with respect to the linear scheme in most examined cases. We show that this is not simply attributable to the added parameter but corresponds to a proper likelihood increase. The nonlinear model is shown to exhibit three basic forms for p(Q) (monotonically decreasing with an atom of probability in Q = 0, bell‐shaped with the mode close to zero, bell‐shaped with the mode close to the mean), corresponding to different hydrologic regimes which are clearly detectable in field data. Inferences on the nonlinear character of the relation between subsurface storage and discharge from observed p(Q) are finally drawn.


To evaluate the effects of different concentrations of iron nanoparticles (10, 100, 1000 and 2000 mg/L) and humic acid (100, 1000 and 2000 mg/L) on growth, flowering and characteristics of cut rose flower, cultivar White Nablus, under hydroponic system, an experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design with factorial arrangement and 5 replications in the Research Greenhouse of Mohaghegh Ardabili University in 2012-2013. Nutrient solution, formulated by Van Zinder and Baker, was used. This nutrient solution was dissolved in the twice-distilled water. Results of the experiment showed that chlorophyll content of leaves was significantly (P≤ 0.05) affected by 1000 mg/L iron nanoparticles and 100 mg/L humic acid, compared to other concentrations. High concentration of iron nanoparticles and humic acid (1000 mg/L) had a significant effect on plant height, chlorophyll fluorescence, cut flower length, total dry weight of cut flower, leaf dry weight and total dry weight, compared to other concentrations. Different treatments of Iron nanoparticles and humic acid did not significantly (P≤ 0.05) affect number of leaves, leaf area and time to flowering. Iron nanoparticles increased flower vase life, whereas humic acid did not significantly (P≤ 0.05) affect the vase life.


Advances in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence increasingly enable firms to replace human labor with technology, thereby fundamentally transforming how goods and services are produced. From both managerial and societal points of view, it is therefore important to understand demand-side incentives for firms to
employ human labor. We begin to address this question by examining for which products and services consumers are more likely to favor human (vs. robotic) labor. In six studies, we demonstrate that consumers prefer human (vs. robotic) labor more for products with higher (vs. lower) symbolic value (e.g., when expressing
something about one's beliefs and personality is of greater importance). We theorize that this is because consumers have stronger uniqueness motives in more (vs. less) symbolic consumption contexts (and associate
human labor more strongly with product uniqueness). In line with this account, we demonstrate that individual differences in need for uniqueness moderate the interaction between production mode and symbolic
motives and that a measure of uniqueness motives mediates the effect of consumption context on preferences for human (vs. robotic) production.


A NATION AT RISK foreshadowed the modern accountability movement. While the word "accountability" never appears in Risk, its call for higher academic standards and its focus on student achievement as the main barometer of quality laid the intellectual groundwork for the rigorous curricula and tests envisioned by the promoters of standards-based and "systemic" reform in the late 1980s and early 1990s. What Risk lacked was a mechanism to ensure that its recommendations would be implemented. Its authors trusted the nation and its schools to rally around the cause of education reform. The rewards and sanctions, the carrots and sticks, of the modern accountability movement were absent from Risk. A significant milestone in the accountability movement was the National Governors' Association's 1989 "Education Summit" in Charlottesville, Virginia, at which then--president George Bush, the nation's governors, and business leaders gave impetus to business-style accountability for schools (see Table 1 for a timeline of accountability). Systemic reform, as recommended by summiteers, meant aligning the chief components of education: academic goals, curricula, instruction, and exams. School accountability was thought to require simultaneous centralization and decentralization: the centralization of standards at the state level and the decentralization of operational responsibilities to the district or school level. State policymakers were to set goals and measure progress, but to free local school districts and schools to develop and execute effective practices. The development of state curriculum standards and tests aligned to the standards continued throughout the 1990s. However, the sanctions for poor performance have barely even been tested. In nearly all states, schools and educators continue to function and remain employed even when gross incompetence and malpractice have been evident for years. As a result, not even one of the National Educational Goals set at the 1989 Charlottesville summit has been accomplished (see Table 2). Some results, such as high-school graduation rates, were even worse after a decade or so of effort. Only one state, Connecticut, could claim that more than a third of its students met the standards for "proficiency" in 8th-grade mathematics set by the National Assessment Governing Board, which Congress created to set forth national standards and to measure their degree of attainment. The underlying standards are also weak in most states. In studying state accountability systems in 1999, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation labeled 21 states "irresponsible," possessing both weak accountability and either weak or no standards. Only eight states--Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, south Dakora, South Carolina, and Texas--merited a grade of A or B for their solid standards. What do good standards look like? The Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework is notable. the framework begins with three convictions: that democracy is the worthiest form of government, that its spread cannot be taken for granted, and that its survival depends on each new generation's acquiring loyalty to the vision of the American founders. In seven "Guiding Principles;' the framework sets forth requirements for all K-12 history and social science content: courses must 1) emphasize the development of the political principles and institutions of Western civilization; 2) recognize each person as an individual while developing a common American civic identity; 3) develop an understanding of the world outside the United States; 4) teach social science through current events and public policy; 5) continuously impart history and social science from pre-K through high school; 6) integrate content, concepts, and skills in a coherent course of study; and 7) draw on non-social science disciplines such as the fine arts, literature, and mathematics, These principles are exemplified in the ten concepts and skills for 2nd grade that are enumerated in Table 3. …


BACKGROUND
Screening mammography is the best method to reduce mortality from breast cancer, yet some breast cancers cannot be detected by mammography. Cancers diagnosed after a negative mammogram are known as interval cancers. This study investigated whether mammographic breast density is related to the risk of interval cancer.

METHODS
Subjects were selected from women participating in mammographic screening from 1988 through 1993 in a large health maintenance organization based in Seattle, WA. Women were eligible for the study if they had been diagnosed with a first primary invasive breast cancer within 24 months of a screening mammogram and before a subsequent one. Interval cancer case subjects (n = 149) were women whose breast cancer occurred after a negative or benign mammographic assessment. Screen-detected control subjects (n = 388) were diagnosed after a positive screening mammogram. One radiologist, who was blinded to cancer status, assessed breast density by use of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System.

RESULTS
Mammographic sensitivity (i.e., the ability of mammography to detect a cancer) was 80% among women with predominantly fatty breasts but just 30% in women with extremely dense breasts. The odds ratio (OR) for interval cancer among women with extremely dense breasts was 6.14 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.95-19.4), compared with women with extremely fatty breasts, after adjustment for age at index mammogram, menopausal status, use of hormone replacement therapy, and body mass index. When only those interval cancer cases confirmed by retrospective review of index mammograms were considered, the OR increased to 9.47 (95% CI = 2.78-32.3).

CONCLUSION
Mammographic breast density appears to be a major risk factor for interval cancer.


Objectives To determine if performing fetal growth scans once or twice in the third trimester of pregnancy has an impact on the stillbirth rate in low-risk pregnancies Methods A retrospective observational study was performed in a tertiary centre. Data was collected using the computerised Northern Ireland Maternity System (NIMATs) on all births and stillbirths in the Royal Maternity Hospital from 2009–2012. We compared pre-2011 versus post 2011 i.e. when patients were scanned twice in the third trimester versus once routinely. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Results There were 18,856 deliveries in 'low-risk' patients from 2009–2012. The average stillbirth rate in this group was 0.25% per number of low risk pregnancies per annum. The stillbirth rate in the 2009/2010 group was 0.25%. The stillbirth rate in the 2012 group was 0.27%. This difference was not statistically significant [p = 0.897; chi square = 0.017; df =1]. Conclusions This study indicates that there is no difference in stillbirth rate when a strategy of scanning once or twice in the third trimester of pregnancy is employed in women with an apparent normal pregnancy. A randomised controlled trial is required to determine if routine fetal biometry can reduce stillbirth. This is unlikely to be performed given the large numbers required to perform such a trial which is approximately 250,000 subjects per arm.


Observers of our federal republic have long acknowledged that a fourth branch of government comprising administrative agencies has arisen to join the original three established by the Constitution. In this article, we focus our attention on the emergence of perhaps yet another, comprising financial self-regulatory organizations. In the late eighteenth century, long before the creation of state and federal securities authorities, the financial industry created its own self-regulatory organizations. These private institutions then coexisted with the public authorities for much of the past century in a complementary array of informal and formal policing mechanisms. That equilibrium, however, appears to be growing increasingly imbalanced, as financial SROs such as FINRA transform from "self-regulatory" into "quasigovernmental" organizations. We describe this change through an account that describes how SROs are losing their independence, growing distant from their industry members, and accruing rulemaking, enforcement, and adjudicative powers that more closely resemble governmental agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. We then consider the confluence of forces that might be driving this increasingly governmental shift, including among others, demographic changes in the style and size of retail investments in the securities markets, the one-way ratchet effect of high-publicity failures and scandals, and the public choice incentives of regulators and the compliance industry. The process by which such self-regulatory organizations shed their independence for an increasingly governmental role is an undesirable but largely inexorable development, and we offer some initial ideas for how to forestall it. * Respectively, Associate Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law and Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School. Funding for this paper was provided through a grant from the CME Group Foundation, which was established by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Trust. BECOMING THE FIFTH BRANCH


Concerns about the environmental impacts associated with using fossil fuels are ever increasing, with a particular focus on the global climate change that is caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouses gases (CO2 among others). Biogas production is a key technology in the development of sustainable energy supply systems that aims to cover the energy demand using renewable sources and to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Biogas production can be achieved through anaerobic digestion (AD), a biological process, which uses biomass as a renewable energy source.
Pre-treatment is the first stage of the AD process. The main goal of pre-treatment is to change the biomass properties in order to prepare lignocelluloses for enzymatic attack; which in turn enhances biogas production and anaerobic digestion performance.

In this work beating treatment as a new mechanical treatment was applied to grass silage to improve the anaerobic digestion combined with sludge to produce biogas. One of the objectives is to investigate the effect of beating treatment on the AD process to produce
biogas from grass silage. The other objective is to optimise the condition of the process and develop a mathematical model of this process. Techniques such as Design of Experiment (DOE) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) have been used to optimise the mean factors of the process (temperature and the time of beating). A Bioreactor has been designed and built to conduct the experiments that were designed by using RSM. The use of numerical and graphical optimisation methods have been presented in this thesis and a mathematical model has also been developed.

It was reported in this research that the anaerobic digestion process using the beating pre-treatment method produces a higher volume of biogas. It was concluded that the beating treatment achieves 12.65% increase in biogas production from grass silage and the maximum biogas yield is 3410 cc, which can be achieved at the optimal condition:
temperature of 37.3 °C and beating time of 2 min 42 s.


Abstract. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) is a widely used technique for the sampling of the earth's surface. Next to the widely used geometric information current systems provide additional information about the signal strength of each echo. In order to utilize this information, radiometric calibration is essential. As a result physical observables that characterise the backscatter characteristic of the sensed surface are available. Due to the active illumination of the surfaces these values are independent of shadows caused by sunlight and due to the simultaneously recorded 3D information a single-channel true orthophoto can be directly estimated from the ALS data. By the combination of ALS data utilizing different laser wavelengths a multi-wavelength orthophoto of the scene can be generated. This contribution presents, next to the practical calibration workflow, the radiometric calibration results of the archaeological study site Carnuntum (Austria). The area has been surveyed at three different ALS wavelengths within a very short period of time. After the radiometric calibration of each single ALS wavelength (532 nm, 1064 nm and 1550 nm) a multi-channel ALS orthophoto is derived. Subsequently, the radiometric calibration results of the single- and multi-wavelength ALS data are studied in respect to present archaeological features. Finally, these results are compared to the radiometric calibration results of an older ALS data acquisition campaign and to results of a systematic air photo interpretation.


Entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, and upward mobility: These traditions are at the heart of the free enterprise system, and have long been central to America's exceptional culture. In recent years, however, policymakers have dramatically weakened these traditions--by exploding the size of government, propping up their corporate cronies, and trying to reorient our system from rewarding merit to redistributing wealth. In The Road to Freedom, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks shows that this trend cannot be reversed through materialistic appeals about the economic efficiency of capitalism. Rather, free enterprise requires a moral defense rooted in the ideals of earned success, equality of opportunity, charity, and basic fairness. Brooks builds this defense and demonstrates how it is central to understanding the major policy issues facing America today. The future of the free enterprise system has become a central issue in our national debate, and Brooks offers a practical manual for defending it over the coming years. Both a moral manifesto and a prescription for concrete policy changes, The Road to Freedom will help Americans in all walks of life translate the philosophy of free enterprise into action, to restore both our nation's greatness and our own well-being in the process.


Although these issues have been analyzed by legal scholars since Andrew Berle and Gardiner Means in 1932, no systematic empirical evidence has been collected. We investigate the validity of this belief, as well as broader implications of the law on large-block trades, by analyzing 106 trades of at least 5% of common stock of exchange-listed firms between 1978 and 1982. We find that, when block sellers receive premium, stock prices typically increase but not to the price per share received by the blockholders. We argue that this tension is resolved by assigning a different set of rights and obligations to large-block shareholders when they act as managers.


Tupac Shakur's most intimate and honest thoughts were uncovered only after his death with the instant classic "The Rose That Grew from Concrete." "His talent was unbounded -- a raw force that commanded attention and respect. His death was tragic -- a violent homage to the power of his voice. His legacy is indomitable -- as vibrant and alive today as it has ever been. " For the first time in paperback, this collection of deeply personal poetry is a mirror into the legendary artist's enigmatic world and its many contradictions. Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen, these seventy-two poems embrace his spirit, his energy -- and his ultimate message of hope.


In recent years there has been great interest in controlling the speed of propagation of electromagnetic waves. In gases and crystals, coherent techniques have been applied to alter the speed of light without changing the physical or chemical structure of the medium. Also, light transmitted by highly disordered solids has exhibited signatures of Anderson localization, indicating the existence of a regime of "stopped" light that is mediated by random elastic scattering. However, to date, light has not been generated in a random medium as a pointlike excitation that is fixed in space from the outset. Here we report experimental evidence for the electrical generation and confinement of light within nanosized volumes of a random dielectric scattering medium in which a population inversion has been established, and discuss the properties of these novel light sources.


Scholars have argued that children affect their parents' political behavior, including turnout, through so-called trickle-up socialization. However, there is only limited causal evidence for this claim. Using a regression discontinuity design on a rich dataset, with validated turnout from subsets of Danish municipalities in four elections, I causally identify the effect of parenting a recently enfranchised voter. I consistently find that parents are more likely to vote when their child enters the electorate. On average across all four elections, I estimate that parents become 2.8 percentage points more likely to vote. In a context where the average turnout rate for parents is around 75%, this is a considerable effect. The effect is driven by parents whose children still live with them while there is no discernible effect for parents whose child has left home. The results are robust to a range of alternative specifications and placebo tests.


Time and matter are the most fundamental concepts in physics and in any science-based description of the world around us. Quantum theory has, however, revealed many novel insights into these concepts in non-relativistic, relativistic and cosmological contexts. The implications of these novel perspectives have been realized and, in particular, probed experimentally only recently.In the papers in this proceedings, these issues are discussed in a truly interdisciplinary fashion from philosophical and historical perspectives. The leading contributors, including Nobel laureates T W Hansch and G t' Hooft, address both experimental and theoretical issues.


In this Technical Note, the quantitative turbidimetric assay for determination of the bacteriolytic activity of enzymes with gram-negative bacteria is proposed. The reactivity of hen white-egg lysozyme toward gram-negative E. coli intact cells was studied. It was found that the highest lysis rate occurred at pH 8.9 in the system containing 0.03 M NaCl. The mechanism of the reaction is discussed and applied for the quantitative evaluation of the reaction rate. The proposed method enables fast, reliable, and reproducible analysis of bacteriolytic activity of lysozyme with gram-negative bacteria.


The present work focuses on understanding the damage mechanisms in composites that are responsible for damage initiation and propagation. The local deformation heterogeneity and its influence on the failure response and different failure mechanisms are observed and analyzed through the use of digital image correlation (DIC) at mesoscales. Woven and unidirectional composites are subjected to tensile loading and their local deformation is measured in-situ as a function of fiber orientation angle. In addition the specimens are subjected to fatigue loading and the local damage nucleation and propagation is measured using optical microscope and digital image correlation and the local load transfer mechanisms as a function of fiber orientation is investigated. Finally, an effort is made to link the macroscopic failure mechanisms with damage initiation at a microstructural length scale. It was observed that, locally the deformation is highly heterogeneous, while the level of heterogeneity depends on the fiber orientation angle. The significantly different global mechanical responses and different loadbearing mechanisms observed in the off-axis specimen as a function of fiber orientation is explained.


The generalized systematization of application of systems and means of the welding equipment on the basis of mechatronic and mechanical designs concerning maintenance of operational characteristics of welds and the welded layers at electric arc welding-surfacing by a melting electrode is offered. It is shown that the improvement of the mechanical properties of the welded joint can be obtained by introducing new components and parts into the standard equipment. The estimation of technical and technological actions in the process of welding for formation of purposeful influence on conditions of crystallization of metal of a pool is given.


Electronic devices are entering every field of life nowadays. Also medicine uses electrical instruments and devices every day, and the safety and reliability are the key factors in that sector. Also the operational aspects of devices are of course vital and make the device useful and worth wile. However, the hardware of the device plays also a key role, since without it the programs cannot function. Furthermore, the use of different packaging technologies determines the size and weight of the device. As the devices get more complicated, the packaging of electronics becomes more important. In this study the reliability of anisotropical ly conductive adhesive joined flip chip components is considered with a parylene C protective coating on top. With this coating the compatibility with human body and the reliability in medical devices are ensured. Reliability testing was made in 8585 –constant humidity test with two different test substrate layouts and test chips. These contained thin chip and substrate structure and thick chip and substrate layouts. The results show that with thin, more space saving and lighter structure, the reliability can be dramatically improved. Furthermore, parylene C proves to be an excellent protection against humid environment enhancing the long term reliability even more.


The growing number of annotated biological sequences available makes it possible to learn genotype-phenotype relationships from data with increasingly high accuracy. When large quantities of labeled samples are available for training a model, convolutional neural networks can be used to predict the phenotype of unannotated sequences with good accuracy. Unfortunately, their performance with medium- or small-scale datasets is mitigated, which requires inventing new data-efficient approaches. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid approach between convolutional neural networks and kernel methods to model biological sequences. Our method enjoys the ability of convolutional neural networks to learn data representations that are adapted to a specific task, while the kernel point of view yields algorithms that perform significantly better when the amount of training data is small. We illustrate these advantages for transcription factor binding prediction and protein homology detection, and we demonstrate that our model is also simple to interpret, which is crucial for discovering predictive motifs in sequences. The source code is freely available at https://gitlab.inria.fr/dchen/CKN-seq.


Open educational resources (OERs) provide a potential alternative to costly textbooks and can allow content to be edited and adapted to a variety of classroom environments. At the University of California, Davis, the OER "ChemWiki" project, as part of the greater STEMWiki Hyperlibrary, was developed to supplant traditional post-secondary chemistry textbooks. The effectiveness of using this OER was assessed by comparing two general chemistry classes, one using ChemWiki and one using a traditional textbook, during the spring quarter of 2014. Student performance was measured using common midterms, final, and a pre/post content exam. We also employed surveys, the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) for Chemistry, and a weekly time-on-task survey to quantify students' attitudes and study habits. The effectiveness of the ChemWiki compared to a traditional textbook was examined using multiple linear regression analysis with a standard non-inferiority testing framework. Results show that the performance of students who were assigned readings from the ChemWiki section was non-inferior to the performance of students in the section who were assigned readings from the traditional textbook, indicating that the ChemWiki does not substantially differ from the standard textbook in terms of student learning outcomes. The results from the surveys also suggest that the two classes were similar in their beliefs about chemistry and minimal overall study time. These results indicate that the ChemWiki is a viable cost-saving alternative to traditional textbooks.


ABSTRACT: By a decision dated 28 April 2009, the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam granted enforcement of four arbitral awards annulled by the Russian courts under the New York Convention of 1958. The Dutch Supreme Court declared the recourse against the Court of Appeal decision inadmissible. The Supreme Court on 25 June 2010 opined that such a recourse would violate Article III of the New York Convention since it would impose a more onerous condition on the enforcement of Convention awards than on domestic (Dutch) awards. In the author's opinion, the Supreme Court's reasoning is at odds with both the New York Convention and Dutch arbitration law.


This proposal offers specific improvement options for the Social Security Trust to maintain long-term solvency without increasing taxes. The primary solution offered is to allow taxpayers the option to manage their portion of Payroll Taxes through the already existing Federal Thrift Savings Plan system (or similar system) so that they may choose to construct a risk/return portfolio that offers greater benefits by the time of retirement. Portfolio decisions can be informed by the advice and tools that the TSP already has to offer federal employees, and can be augmented by any additional advice from private, certified sources that individuals choose. The proposed reform may allow for the permanent reduction in U.S. Payroll Taxes and make the Social Security Trust solvent without a change to benefits or the eligible retirement age. Other possibilities are also explored.The expansion of the TSP to the public may also prove an excellent medium through which to provide free, certified financial education to every citizen.The proposal is meant to be considered by decision-makers as part of the Budget Control Act 2012 deliberations, prior to a budget decision on March 1 2013, if possible.The SSA program improvements offer decision-makers additional tradespace in balancing the budget this year and every year thereafter, may increase take-home pay for working Americans, may reduce taxes paid by corporations and business owners, boost markets and hiring in the near-term, and put the U.S. economy on a firm footing for the long-run, while providing solvency of the Social Security Trust without a decrease in benefits or an increase in taxes. A secondary solution explores equalizing the incentive for all income classes to have children, which would require reducing the financial burden for middle or higher income families to have children. This would broaden the taxable population base beyond immigration-related solutions.


Background: The death of Folake Oduyoye at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Nigeria on 13th December 2014 triggered a protest march against the hospital, by a coalition of civil society organizations and human rights activists, and a legal suit was instituted against the government. Although a Federal High Court ruled in 2018 to overturn Oduyoye's case on a technicality, this ruling is currently being appealed. Objective: To perform a sociological analysis of the Oduyoye/LUTH case and another managed in OAUTHC Ile-Ife; as a means of providing insight into the current state of patient safety in maternity, in Nigeria. Methodology: This sociological analysis was conducted using secondary data, sourced from a combination of detailed online searches of published literature, news items, and social media posts; along with personal observations and reviews of patient's records. Results: Patient safety issues in maternity are prevalent in Nigeria. Responsible macrosociological factors include lack of clarity regarding the political economy of healthcare in Nigeria, dubious justiciability of citizens' right to healthcare, poor resource allocation to healthcare, and dismal coverage of national health insurance, along with poor regulation of health services, and nonintegration of healthcare with partner social institutions. At the mesosociological and microsociological levels are lack of public confidence in Nigerian healthcare, gross infrastructural decay from chronic neglect, understaffing and inadequate training of personnel, lack of institutional risk management and clinical governance. Conclusion: The state of patient safety in maternity in Nigeria is quite worrisome. Various sociological factors were identified and viable solutions proffered.


Introduction: The revised Nigerian National Health Policy and the WHO Expert Committee on the Role of Hospitals as the First Referral Level both recognize primary health care (PHC) as the entry point in the referral system. This study was carried out to assess the effect of training of PHC workers on referral and instituting referral focal person among PHCs on key referral indicators in Zaria and Giwa local government areas, North-Western Nigeria. Methodology: The study was a quasi-experimental study with pre- and postinterventional components carried out among seventy participants in the intervention and 62 participants in the control groups who were selected through a multistaged sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire containing close-ended questions. Data were analyzed with SPSS software version 20.0. Results: Preintervention, majority of the respondents (74.3%) in the intervention and (67.7%) control groups had not received training on referral process. Postintervention, increase was noted in mean referral rate from 0.18 ± 0.28 to 0.52 ± 0.34, which was statistically significant, and mean counter referral rate from 0 ± 0 to 40.34 ± 45.53 in the study group, but there was no statistically significant change in the control group. Conclusion: Postintervention, significant increases were noticed in two of the practice indicators; referral rate and counter-referral rate in the study group only. The other practice indicators did not record a significant increase.


This
 thesis
 explores
 the
 international
 trade
 of
 electronic
 waste
 along
 with
 the
 social and
 environmental
 threats
 that
 this
 waste
 poses
 for
 those
 living
 in
 conditions
 of
 poverty. Although
 not
 a
 new
 phenomenon,
 the
 hazardous
 waste
 trade
 has
 grown
 over
 the
 years
 as the
 amount
 of
 technological
 waste
 has
 increased
 both
 domestically
 and
 worldwide. Quantitative
 data
 along
 with
 the
 application
 of
 different
 disciplines
 help
 to
 assess the
 environmental,
 economic,
 and
 public
 health
 issues
 associated
 with
 the
 international trade
 of
 e-‐waste.
 An
 examination
 of
 the
 history
 and
 politics
 of
 international
 trade
 laws
 in relation
 to
 waste
 provide
 context
 for
 a
 discussion
 of
 the
 existing
 international
 agreements that
 allow
 for
 this
 trade
 to
 continue.
 Additionally,
 it
 is
 important
 to
 consider
 the
 economics that
 drive
 the
 transnational
 movement
 of
 waste
 and
 the
 pollution
 haven
 hypothesis. Finally,
 a
 case
 study
 of
 the
 Indian
 informal
 recycling
 industry
 in
 conjunction
 with
 a discussion
 of
 environmental
 justice
 helps
 to
 investigate
 the
 links
 between
 the
 trade
 of electronic
 waste,
 globalization,
 and
 poverty. A
 synthesis
 of
 these
 findings
 suggest
 stricter
 international
 regulations
 for
 the transnational
 movement
 of
 hazardous
 waste,
 market
 incentives,
 and
 technological innovation
 as
 potential
 solutions
 to
 this
 trade-‐-‐
 ideally
 leading
 to
 a
 more
 just
 distribution
 of environmental
 costs.


"Outlined against red velvet drapery on the first Monday of October, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Van Devanter, McReynolds, Sutherland, and Butler. They formed the crest of the reactionary cyclone before which yet another progressive statute was swept over the precipice yesterday morning as a packed courtroom of spectators peered up at the bewildering panorama spread across the mahogany bench above." Or so Grantland Rice might have written, had he been a legal realist. For more than two generations scholars have seen the Four Horsemen as far right, reactionary, staunchly conservative apostles of laissez-faire and Social Darwinism. And not without good reason. One need only read opinions such as those in Adkins v. Children's Hospital and Morehead v. Tipaldo, Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad and Ribnik v. McBride, Hammer v. Dagenhart and Carter Coal, and the dissents in such cases as Nebbia, Blaisdell, the Gold Clause Cases, and the Wagner Act Cases to understand why. One can hardly avoid coming away from these and other decisions with the impression that these were men fanatically devoted to property rights and callously indifferent to the commonwealth.Here and there one finds shreds of biographical evidence suggesting that something like the milk of human kindness may have flowed in parsimonious quantities through their veins. We discover that Sutherland's legislative career saw him support the eight-hour day, the Employers' Liability Act, the Pure Food and Drugs Act, the Hepburn Rate Bill, the Children's Bureau, the Seaman's Act of 1915, Postal Savings Banks, free coinage of silver, and the1896 presidential candidacy of the populist William Jennings Bryan. We even find Sutherland in the vanguard of the struggle for women's suffrage and a system of workmen's compensation for the employees of interstate carriers. We read of Butler's leadership in the fight for workmen's compensation in his home state of Minnesota; of his efforts on behalf of the federal government in prosecuting Swift, Armour and other large meatpackers for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act; and of his success in saving the Canadian government "huge sums of money in valuation proceedings against some of the western railroads." We are told of McReynolds' role as an avid trustbuster for Presidents Taft and Wilson, of his environmentalism, and of his generosity toward charitable causes. We learn of Van Devanter's reputed sensitivity to the plight of the Native American. But such paltry gestures of concern for the underdog have been far from sufficient to rebut Fred Rodell's charge that their jurisprudence was driven by "their basic and bone-deep Hamiltonian empathy with the well-to-do."When one dips a bit deeper into the U.S. Reports, however, one discovers some startling data. One finds the Four Horsemen actually supporting liberal case outcomes. At first one is inclined to dismiss these cases as mere aberrations, attributable perhaps to the dull Horsemen's inability to recognize when the liberals were pulling the wool over their eyes. But the cases continue to mount until the sheer volume is so immense as to point irrefragably to only one conclusion: the Four Horsemen were themselves closet liberals. It appears that they struck a reactionary pose in celebrated cases in order to retain the good graces of the conservative sponsors to whom they owed their positions and whose social amenities they continued to enjoy, while in legions of low-profile cases they quietly struck blows for their own progressive agendas. In this way, it seems, the Horsemen could continue to enjoy access to the corridors of power and influence and the hospitality of the most fashionable Washington salons, while at the same time working surreptitiously to undermine the very causes that their conservative patrons held most dear. Theirs, then, is not a simple story of handmaidens of the industrial and financial elite. It is instead a tale of luxury and deceit.


In the recent years, there have been significant advances in the development and manufacturing of 3D scanners capable of capturing detailed (external) images of whole human bodies. Such hardware offers the opportunity to collect information that could be used to describe, interpret and analyse the shape of the human body for a variety of applications where shape information plays a vital role (e.g. apparel sizing and customisation; medical research in fields such as nutrition, obesity/anorexia and perceptive psychology; ergonomics for vehicle and furniture design). However, the representations delivered by such hardware typically consist of unstructured or partially structured point clouds, whereas it would be desirable to have models that allow shape-related information to be more immediately accessible. This thesis describes a method of extracting the differential geometry properties of the body surface from unorganized point cloud datasets. In effect, this is a way of constructing curvature maps that allows the detection on the surface of features that are deformable (such as ridges) rather than reformable under certain transformations. Such features could subsequently be used to interpret the topology of a human body and to enable classification according to its shape, rather than its size (as is currently the standard practice for many of the applications concemed). The background, motivation and significance of this research are presented in chapter one. Chapter two is a literature review describing the previous and current attempts to model 3D objects in general and human bodies in particular, as well as the mathematical and technical issues associated with the modelling. Chapter three presents an overview of: the methodology employed throughout the research; the assumptions regarding the data to be processed; and the strategy for evaluating the results for each stage of the methodology. Chapter four describes an algorithm (and some variations) for approximating the local surface geometry around a given point of the input data set by means of a least-squares minimization. The output of such an algorithm is a surface patch described in an analytic (implicit) form. This is necessary for the next step described below. The case is made for using implicit surfaces rather than more popular 3D surface representations such as parametric forms or height functions. Chapter five describes the processing needed for calculating curvature-related characteristics for each point of the input surface. This utilises the implicit surface patches generated by the algorithm described in the previous chapter, and enables the construction of a "curvature map" of the original surface, which incorporates rich information such as the principal curvatures, shape indices and curvature directions. Chapter six describes a family of algorithms for calculating features such as ridges and umbilic points on the surface from the curvature map, in a manner that bypasses the problem of separating a vector field (i.e. the principal curvature directions) across the entire surface of an object. An alternative approach, using the focal surface information, is also considered briefly in comparison. The concluding chapter summarises the results from all steps of the processing and evaluates them in relation to the requirements set in chapter one. Directions for further research are also proposed.


Universal perceptron (UP), a generalization of Rosenblatt's perceptron, is considered in this paper, which is capable of implementing all Boolean functions (BFs). In the classification of BFs, there are: 1) linearly separable Boolean function (LSBF) class, 2) parity Boolean function (PBF) class, and 3) non-LSBF and non-PBF class. To implement these functions, UP takes different kinds of simple topological structures in which each contains at most one hidden layer along with the smallest possible number of hidden neurons. Inspired by the concept of DNA sequences in biological systems, a novel learning algorithm named DNA-like learning is developed, which is able to quickly train a network with any prescribed BF. The focus is on performing LSBF and PBF by a single-layer perceptron (SLP) with the new algorithm. Two criteria for LSBF and PBF are proposed, respectively, and a new measure for a BF, named nonlinearly separable degree (NLSD), is introduced. In the sense of this measure, the PBF is the most complex one. The new algorithm has many advantages including, in particular, fast running speed, good robustness, and no need of considering the convergence property. For example, the number of iterations and computations in implementing the basic 2-bit logic operations such as and, or, and xor by using the new algorithm is far smaller than the ones needed by using other existing algorithms such as error-correction (EC) and backpropagation (BP) algorithms. Moreover, the synaptic weights and threshold values derived from UP can be directly used in designing of the template of cellular neural networks (CNNs), which has been considered as a new spatial-temporal sensory computing paradigm.


Infectious diseases contribute to the vulnerable status of marine mammals, including respiratory illnesses. This study aimed to capture exhaled breath condensate (blow) for microbial identification from wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus. Individual dolphins were sampled by holding a funnel connected to a 50 ml centrifuge tube over the blowhole of the animal near shore in Shark Bay (SB), Western Australia. Four individuals were sampled on 2 occasions along with seawater samples. Comparative blow and pool water samples were collected from 4 individual common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus housed in the National Aquarium (NA), Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Bacteria were identified using the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene from extracted DNA. We identified bacteria independent of seawater in SB dolphins, which included the classes Alphaproteobacteria (26.1%) and Gammaproteobacteria (25.8%); the phyla Bacteroidetes (15.6%) and Fusobacteria (7.2%); and the genera Pseudomonas (11.5%), Pedomicrobium (4.5%), Streptobacillus (3.7%), Phenylobacterium (2.2%) and Sphingomonas (2.1%). There were broad similarities in phyla between SB and NA dolphins yet there were differences between lower taxonomic groups. A number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were shared between dolphin individuals, which may be a result of their genetic lineage (siblings or parentage), shared living and social interactions. A number of genera were observed in SB dolphins which have species known to be infectious in marine mammals such as Pseudomonas, Mycoplasma and Streptococcus. This study successfully characterised bacteria from DNA captured in blow from wild dolphins. The ability to capture these communities from individuals in the wild provides a novel health indicator.


Data on offspring production by the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata (F.), from three site-years were used to examine predictions of parental investment and sex ratio theory. In northern Utah, spring-emergent adults produce two types of offspring: those that develop directly to the adult stage and emerge in midsummer, and those that develop to the prepupal stage and enter diapause until the following year. For species with this kind of life cycle, it has been hypothesized that spring parents should bias their investment in summer emergent progeny towards females if spring males survive to participate in the summer mating. Results from all site-years support the theory. The sex ratio of summer-emergent progeny is always biased towards females, that of diapausing progeny is usually biased towards males, and there is always a significant difference between the two; and there is no difference in the sex ratio of diapausing offspring, whether produced by the spring or summer generations. However, the main premise of the theory remains unsubstantiated: in a preliminary estimate, we found the probability that spring males participate in summer matings to be very low. The import of the unexpected finding that diapausing progeny are 50% larger than summer-emergent progeny is discussed.


Recent research has presented a conceptualization, metric, and instrument based on Microsoft Usability Guidelines (MUG; see Agarwal and Venkatesh 2002). In this paper, we use MUG to further our understanding of web and wireless site use. We conducted two empirical studies among over 1,000 participants. In study 1, conducted in both the United States and Finland, we establish the generalizability of the MUG conceptualization, metric, and associated instrument from the United States to Finland. In study 2, which involved longitudinal data collection in Finland, we delved into an examination of differences in factors important in determining web versus wireless site usability. Also, in study 2, based on a follow-up survey about site use conducted 3 months after the initial survey, we found support for a model of site use that employs the MUG categories and subcategories as predictors. The MUG-based model outperformed the widely employed technology acceptance model both in terms of richness and variance explained (about 70 percent compared to 50 percent).


Cellular oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is thought to affect life span. Mitochondria synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through an electron transport chain that establishes a gradient of protons across the mitochondrial membrane. Free radicals are a by-product of this energy-generated process. However, resident uncoupling proteins (UCPs) can disrupt this gradient, decreasing both ATP and ROS production. Fridell et al. demonstrate that the life span of adult fruit flies can be extended through the action of mitochondrial UCPs. Human UCP2 was expressed in the mitochondria of neurons in adult flies. Although this resulted in an increase in mitochondrial respiration, a decrease in hydrogen peroxide production was observed in flies' heads. This correlated with a decrease in oxidative damage and an increase in the life span of flies by up to 28%. Although a decrease in reproductive and physical capabilities has been considered a trade-off for an increased life span, these two activities were normal in flies overexpressing UCP2 in neurons. The authors speculate that altering mitochondrial respiration in the neurons of other adult organisms could have a similar effect on increasing life span. Y.-W. C. Fridell, A. Sanchez-Blanco, B. A. Silvia, S. L. Helfand, Targeted expression of the human uncoupling protein 2 (hUCP2) to adult neurons extends life span in the fly. Cell Metabolism 1, 145-152 (2005). [Online Journal]


Abstract. The paper proposes to use voxel models of building interiors to perform indoor navigation. The algorithms can be purely geometrical, not relying on semantic information about different building elements, such as floors, walls, stairways etc. Therefore, it is possible to use voxel models from different data sources, in addition to vector-to-raster conversions. The paper demonstrates this on the basis of tree different input types: hand measurements, point clouds and images of floorplans. On the basis of these models, the paper shows how to determine the navigable space in a voxel model for a pedestrian actor, and how to compute paths from arbitrary sources to specified destinations.


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory and systemic autoimmune disease with an unknown aetiology. Accumulative studies suggest that the pathogenesis of RA involves the excessive activation of synoviocytes and immune cells, increasing the secretion of inflammatory mediators and cytokines in synoviocytes, causing dysfunctional E-prostanoid (EP)-G-protein-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and mitogen-associated-protein kinase (MAPK) signalling in synoviocytes. Total glucosides of paeony (TGP) extracted from the roots of Paeonia lactiflora Pall, was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration as an anti-inflammatory and immuno-modulator drug in 1998. Paeoniflorin (Pae), a water-soluble monoterpene glucoside,is the main effective component of TGP. TGP and Pae produce anti-inflammatory and immuno-regulatory effects by suppressing immune cells and synoviocytes activation, decreasing inflammatory substance production and restoring abnormal signalling in synoviocytes. In this review, the regulation of the inflammatory-immune responses and the therapeutic mechanism between RA and TGP and Pae are discussed in detail. The aim of this review was to provide novel insights into the treatment of RA.


At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.


Nested loops are one of the most time-consuming parts and the largest sources of parallelism in many scientific applications. In this paper, we address the problem of 3-dimensional tiling and scheduling of three-level perfectly nested loops with dependencies on heterogeneous systems. To exploit the parallelism, we tile and schedule nested loops with dependencies by awareness of computational power of the processing nodes and execute them in pipeline mode. The tile size plays an important role to improve the parallel execution time of nested loops. We develop and evaluate a theoretical model to estimate the parallel execution time of tilled nested loops. Also, we propose a tiling genetic algorithm that used the proposed model to find the near-optimal tile size, minimizing the parallel execution time of dependence nested loops. We demonstrate the accuracy of theoretical model and effectiveness of the proposed tiling genetic algorithm by several experiments on heterogeneous systems. The 3D tiling reduces the parallel execution time by a factor of 1.2x to 2x over the 2D tiling, while parallelizing 3D heat equation as a benchmark.


Kutato is a system that takes as input a database of cases and produces a belief network that captures many of the dependence relations represented by those data. This system incorporates a module for determining the entropy of a belief network and a module for constructing belief networks based on entropy calculations. Kutato constructs an initial belief network in which all variables in the database are assumed to be marginally independent. The entropy of this belief network is calculated, and that arc is added that minimizes the entropy of the resulting belief network. Conditional probabilities for an arc are obtained directly from the database. This process continues until an entropy-based threshold is reached. We have tested the system by generating databases from networks using the probabilistic logic-sampling method, and then using those databases as input to Kutato. The system consistently reproduces the original belief networks with high fidelity.


Modern flat panel displays, including thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), pursue more and more natural color expression. This requires the data driving system should produce very fine and accurate signal voltages or currents. Especially, the uniformity among channels of a driving system is critically important because the color or luminance differences among columns are easily noticeable. We propose a simple and efficient driving method for solving the artifacts caused by the existing nonuniformity among channels of a driving system, and confirms its impact by simulations using C-programming. The nonuniformity among channels mostly stem from the random offset of the output circuits of a driving system, which in turn is caused by the process variations. The proposed driving method shares N-output circuits between N-output channels such that the existing offsets of the channels are averaged out. Thus, the output signal error due to the offsets spreads out among the channels, improving the uniformity between the channels


When a liquid droplet (e.g., coffee, wine, etc.) is splattered on a surface, the droplet dries in a ring-shaped stain. This widely observed pattern in everyday life occurs due to the phenomenon known as a coffee stain (or coffee ring) effect. While the droplet dries, the capillary flow moves and deposits the particles toward the pinned edges, which shows a 2D ring-like structure. Here we demonstrate the transition from a 2D to a 3D coffee stain that has a well-defined and hollow sphere-like structure, when the substrate surface is switched from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic. The 3D stain formation starts with the evaporation of the pinned aqueous colloidal droplet placed on a superhydrophobic surface that facilitates the particle flow towards the liquid–air interface. This leads to spherical skin formation and a cavity in the droplet. Afterwards the water loss in the cavity due to pervaporation leads to bubble nucleation and growth, until complete evaporation of the solvent. In addition to the superhydrophobicity of the surface, the concentration of the solution also has a significant effect on 3D coffee stain formation. Advantageously, 3D coffee stain formation in a pendant droplet configuration enables the construction of all-protein lasers by integrating silk fibroin with fluorescent proteins. No tools, components and/or human intervention are needed after the construction process is initiated; therefore, 3D coffee-stains hold promise for building self-assembled and functional 3D constructs and devices from colloidal solutions.


Car ownership and usage can vary importantly across years due to various factors, such as the introduction of new governmental policies, changes in the available technologies or variations of the market features. In order to explain and predict these changes, appropriate demand models are needed. Cars are durable goods and households account for that aspect when making an acquisition. In this research we present a dynamic discrete-continuous choice model (DDCCM) of car ownership, usage and fuel type in Sweden, where we account for households? expectations about the future utilities of their choices. In a dynamic setting, we precisely model simultaneously the transaction type, the choice of fuel type, the ownership status (private versus company car), the choice of car state new versus second-hand) and the annual driving distance. Such choices are modeled at the household level and for up to two cars in the household.


To date, the US response to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central Asia and the Caucasus has been calm, if not tacitly supportive. Two main reasons for this are: (a) the reopening of age-old east–west trade corridors as one of the most important legacies of the collapse of the USSR and (b) it views the engagement of both China and Europe in east–west trade across Central Asia as furthering the Central Asians' own ability to achieve balanced and positive relations between all the major powers, thereby constraining hegemonic aspirations from any quarter. Further, the United States supports the emergence of Central Asia as a defined world region akin to ASEAN or the Nordic Council and believes that reforms under way in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in the region serve that end as well as increase east–west and west–east trade across the region. Finally, the United States realizes that the ultimate judgement on the viability of BRI in Central Asia and the Caucasus will be that of the market and not geopolitics.


The degradation of a key neuronal survival factor by chaperone-mediated autophagy may contribute to Parkinson's disease. Although autophagy in general is known to play a role in the process of neurodegeneration, it is not clear what role, if any, chaperone-mediated autophagy, which selectively regulates the levels of specific cytoplasmic proteins, plays in cellular survival and death. Members of the MEF2 (myocyte enhancer factor 2) family are nuclear transcription factors involved in neuronal survival, differentiation, and synaptic function. Now Yang et al. provide in vitro and in vivo data from knockout mice, transgenic mice, and human brains to show that chaperone-mediated autophagy directly targets MEF2 for lysosomal degradation. During the process, MEF2 is translocated from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. The chaperone-mediated autophagy of MEF2 is sensitive to the level of α-synuclein, increased levels of which can cause Parkinson's disease. Thus, chaperone-mediated autophagy can play a direct role in modulating the neuronal survival machinery and may be involved in the process by which mutant and/or overexpressed α-synuclein can undermine neuronal viability. Q. Yang, H. She, M. Gearing, E. Colla, M. Lee, J. J. Shacka, Z. Mao, Regulation of neuronal survival factor MEF2D by chaperone-mediated autophagy. Science 323, 124–127 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Therapeutic engagement during adolescence can be a major challenge in adolescent mental health. Research has indicated therapeutic techniques designed for engaging clients are often ineffective for adolescents because adolescents bring distinctive qualities to the therapy process that differentiate them from other therapy populations. There is also limited research showing effectiveness of Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) with the adolescent population. This capstone will present an adaptable method utilizing dance/movement therapy interventions with participants ages 12-17 in a Partial Hospital Program. The objective of this project was to examine how DMT can improve engagement in treatment with adolescents in a partial hospital program through movement experiences and emotional content. The participants were asked to engage in a series of interventions such as movement exercises, body awareness, improvisation, writing, and processing emotions. The goal of the method was to bring awareness to dance movement therapy's value, benefits, strength and creativity. To develop a better understanding of this topic, this writer designed and adapted four dance/movement therapy sessions for the adolescents. Based on pre and post emotional responses, motivation to attend group, positive engagement and positive responses, the DMT interventions had a positive effect and can benefit adolescents and younger populations.


Here twenty-one leading paleontologists use important refinements in fossil diversity data to provide critical evaluations of older hypotheses of diversification and extinction processes and to propose fresh interpretations.Originally published in 1986.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


In spite of a Flemish planning policy that strived the last decennia at conserving the city (or urban areas) and countryside both as functionally and morphologically separable entities and as antipoles, it is observed that due to an unrestrained suburbanisation city and countryside become increasingly interwoven in Flanders. People still reproduce space in these two spatial categories but society and governments are no longer capable in producing this symbolic space in a physical and social way. It is clear that a top-down imposed, uniformising planning discourse is not able to get a grip on present urbanising processes and therefore alternative story-lines are needed. An alternative story line of 'open space as public space', points at the societal importance of public space and could be useful in understanding the challenges in present network society. In a context in which almost the entire Flemish space is 'urban', open-space-fragments seem to be able to fulfil a role as public space and have to become structuring spatial elements for further urbanisation. Three success factors in (designing) planning the open space seem to have the potential to be a lot more essential to the spatial visioning on open space fragments/rural areas than the current functional delineation of parts of the natural and agricultural structure. At the same time it is clear that multifunctional agriculture (MFA), meeting a broad spectrum of societal demands, is strongly related to the critical success factors for a good functioning of 'public open space', not on the reference scale of urban public space but on that of the collective open space at the regional level. A financing construction, which contains three possible alternative financing mechanisms for collective services, has a lot of potential in reinforcing the 'public open space'. A proactive and offensive role of governments seems crucial in setting up this financing construction.


ABSTRACT Whole inactivated viral particles have been successfully used as vaccines for some viruses, but procedures historically used for inactivation can denature virion proteins. Results have been inconsistent, with enhancement of disease rather than protection seen in some notable instances following vaccination. We used the compound 2,2′-dithiodipyridine (aldrithiol-2; AT-2) to covalently modify the essential zinc fingers in the nucleocapsid (NC) protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) or simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) virions, thereby inactivating infectivity. The inactivated virus was not detectably infectious in vitro (up to 5 log units of inactivation). However, in contrast to virions inactivated by conventional methods such as heat or formalin treatment, viral and host cell-derived proteins on virion surfaces retained conformational and functional integrity. Thus, immunoprecipitation of AT-2-treated virions was comparable to precipitation of matched untreated virus, even when using antibodies to conformational determinants on gp120. AT-2 inactivated virions bound to CD4+ target cells and mediated virus-induced, CD4-dependent "fusion from without" comparably to native virions. However, viral entry assays demonstrated that the viral life cycle of AT-2-treated virions was arrested before initiation of reverse transcription. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules on the surface of AT-2-treated virions produced from MHC class II-expressing cells retained the ability to support class II-dependent, superantigen-triggered proliferative responses by resting T lymphocytes. These findings indicate that inactivation via this method results in elimination of infectivity with preservation of conformational and functional integrity of virion surface proteins, including both virally encoded determinants and proteins derived from the host cells in which the virus was produced. Such inactivated virions should provide a promising candidate vaccine antigen and a useful reagent for experimentally probing the postulated involvement of virion surface proteins in indirect mechanisms of HIV-1 pathogenesis.


In mobile ad hoc network (MANET), congestion is one of the most important limitations that affect the performance of the whole network. Multi-path routing protocol can balance and share the load better than the single path routing protocol in ad hoc networks, hereby reducing the congestion possibility by dividing the traffic in alternative paths. The performance of the network can be improved by using a burden harmonizing mechanism. Such a mechanism transfers load from overloaded nodes to under loaded nodes. The objective of multipath routing is to improve the reliability and throughput and favors burden harmonizing. Multipath routing allows the establishment of multiple paths between a pair of source and destinationnode. It is typically proposed in order to increase the reliability of data transmission or to provide burden harmonizing and has received more and more attentions. In this paper, some of the congestion removing and burden harmonizing routing schemes have been surveyed. The relative strengths and weaknesses of the protocols have also been studied which allow us to identify the areas for future research.


Traditional epidemiological research has focused on rate-based differential-equation models with completely mixing populations [6, 7, 44]. Although successful in explaining certain phenomena of disease spreading, the traditional approach is unable to deal with disease spreading in realistic massive social networks, where most people only mix locally with few other people. We have develop an approach based on a combination of network theory and discrete-event simulations to study epidemics in large urban areas ; which do not assume complete mixing populations. Our results include (1) detailed structural and temporal analyses of the social contact networks produced by TRANSIMS [10], a simulator for detailed transportation/traffic studies; (2) realistic simulation of contagious diseases (e.g., smallpox) on the social contact networks through EpiSims [32], a simulation-based analytical tool to study the spread of infectious diseases in an urban environment; (3) identifying a number of new measures that are significant for understanding epidemics and for developing new strategies in policy planning; (4) introduction of random graph models for theoretical analysis of the structural and algorithmic aspects of the social networks; and (5) combinatorial formulations and approximation algorithms for performing quarantine, vaccination and sensor placement, as aids to decision-making.
The social network that we have mostly dealt with is for the city of Portland; Oregon, USA, developed as a part of the TRANSIMS/EpiSims project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The most expressive social contact network is a bipartite graph representing people and locations; edges represent people visiting locations on a typical day. We also build random graph models to generate a family of social networks by taking as input some basic parameters of the Portland social network, and analyze social networks generated by these models.


Recent publications on so called multilevel inverters deal with series connected cells, mainly developed for the increase of the output-voltage magnitude, in order to meet the classical design levels of medium size motors in the lower megawatt power range [1], [2], [3], [4]. In all well-known multilevel topologies, generally a regular or symmetric voltage share over all partial sources has been chosen, with as main goal a better use of the individual silicon devices regarding the possible blocking properties. The definition of the resulting output voltage has generally been sufficient due to the high number of series connected cells. In the proposed solution, the main efforts are set to the aspect of getting a higher resolution of the voltage phasor, in relation with the use of motors with strongly reduced leakage inductances. Together with the specification of a limited current harmonic content, even the frequency of the fundamental component is an important parameter. One application field will be the variable speed drives for ultra-speed kinetic energy storage.


Background: The most common reason for patient dissatisfaction with the public health service is related to information and communication. Due to shorter admission periods cancer patients are increasingly expected to deal with symptoms and side-effects related to their treatment at home and by them selves. Online discussion groups increase the patient's ability to exchange information and provide mutual support. Aim: To explore significance of relations in information exchanged between breast cancer patients participating in an online discussion forum. Method: A qualitative content analysis with an explorative/descriptive design was used. The raw data include messages submitted by 45 women with breast cancer to an online discussion group. Findings: The analysis shows that the patients, through the exchange of information, experienced sharing a unique bond. They noticed their peer's ways of handling the illness and demonstrated great personal and formal knowledge of how to live with cancer. Conclusion: The patients in the online discussion group possess extensive knowledge about cancer and how to live with the illness. Their shared experiences enable them to show understanding and acceptance for each other's situation. The patients are important resources for their peers in providing hope for the future, but also for handling painful situations. Online discussion groups are important supplements to the information provided by medical professionals.


Using the local (flux-tube) version of the Eulerian code GENE (Jenko et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas 7 1904), gyrokinetic simulations of microturbulence were carried out considering parameters relevant to electron-internal transport barriers (e-ITBs) in the TCV tokamak (Sauter et al 2005 Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 105002), generated under conditions of low or negative shear. For typical density and temperature gradients measured in such barriers, the corresponding simulated fluctuation spectra appears to simultaneously contain longer wavelength trapped electron modes (TEMs, for typically k⊥ρi < 0.5, k⊥ being the characteristic perpendicular wavenumber and ρi the ion Larmor radius) and shorter wavelength ion temperature gradient modes (ITG, k⊥ρi > 0.5). The contributions to the electron particle flux from these two types of modes are, respectively, outward/inward and may cancel each other for experimentally realistic gradients. This mechanism may partly explain the feasibility of e-ITBs. The non-linear simulation results confirm the predictions of a previously developed quasi-linear model (Fable et al 2010 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 52 015007), namely that the stationary condition of zero particle flux is obtained through the competitive contributions of ITG and TEM. A quantitative comparison of the electron heat flux with experimental estimates is presented as well.


The paper seeks to answer the question if Dewey's theory could be applied as a conceptual basis for the staff learning and knowledge creation while performing the organizational tasks in public institutions in the same way as it is used in educational settings in order to enable learning of the future public servants. The method of literature analysis is used. The paper consists of three parts. The first part aims to reveal the main points of Dewey's theory of "learning by doing" that could be questionable from the "knowledge professionals" perspective. This part also shows that "learning by doing" as student's activity at the educational institution is not the same as professional's activity at work (particularly – in public institution). The second part reveals what learning processes are hidden inside "doing by learning" as a work process that is going on in the cotemporary organizations, particularly – in public institutions. The third part provides an insight from "learning by doing" to "doing by learning": where does the conceptual shift lie? The paper is presented with conclusions and guideling for future research. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.14.1.10150


This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders


SUMMARY

Two shear-wave profiles, E and G, collected during the 1977 Reykjanes Ridge Iceland Seismic Experiment have played an important role in models of the Icelandic crust. They were originally interpreted as indicating very low shear-wave velocities and abnormally low shear-wave quality factors in the 10–15 km depth range. These attributes, which are indicative of near-solidus temperatures, were used to support the hypothesis that the crust of Iceland is relatively thin (10–15 km) and underlain by partially molten material. More recent seismic data, however, contradict this hypothesis and suggest that the crust is thicker (20–30 km) and cooler. A re-examination of the RRISP-77 data indicates that the low shear-wave velocities are artefacts arising from source static anomalies (in the case of profile G) and misidentification of a secondary shear phase, SmS, as S (in the case of profile E). Furthermore, the attenuation occurs at ranges when rays from the shots pass near the Askja (profile E) and Katla and Oraefajokull (profile G) volcanoes. It may therefore have a localized source, and not be diagnostic of Icelandic crust as a whole. This new interpretation of the RRISP-77 shear-wave data is consistent with models having a thick, cold crust.