Abstract. Geomorphology is a scientific discipline dealing with the characteristics, origin, and evolution of landforms. It utilizes topographic data such as spot height information, contour lines on topographic maps, and DEMs (Digital Elevation Models). Topographic data were traditionally obtained by ground surveying, but introduction of aerial photogrammetry in the early 20th century enabled more efficient data acquisition based on remote sensing. In recent years, active remote sensing methods including airborne and terrestrial laser scanning and applications of satellite radar have also been employed, and aerial photogrammetry has become easier and popular thanks to drones and a new photogrammetric method, SfM (Structure from Motion). The resultant topographic data especially raster DEMs are combined with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to obtain derivatives such as slope and aspect as well as to conduct efficient geomorphological mapping. Resultant maps can depict various topographic characteristics based on surface height and DEM derivatives, and applications of advanced algorithms and some heuristic reasoning permit semi-automated landform classification. This quantitative approach differs from traditional and more qualitative methods to produce landform classification maps using visual interpretation of analogue aerial photographs and topographic maps as well as field observations.For scientific purposes, landforms need to be classified based on not only shape characteristics but also formation processes and ages. Among them, DEMs only represent shape characteristics, and understanding formation processes and ages usually require other data such as properties of surficial deposits observed in the field. However, numerous geomorphological studies indicate relationships between shapes and forming-processes of landforms, and even ages of landforms affect shapes such as a wider distribution of dissected elements within older landforms. Recent introduction of artificial intelligence in geomorphology including machine learning and deep learning may permit us to better understand the relationships of shapes with processes and ages. Establishing such relationships, however, is still highly challenging, and at this moment most geomorphologists think landform classification maps based on the traditional methods are more usable than those from the DEM-based methods. Nevertheless, researchers of some other fields such as civil engineering more appreciate the DEM-based methods because they can be conducted without deep geomorphological knowledge. Therefore, the methods should be developed for interdisciplinary understanding. This paper reviews and discusses such complex situations of geomorphological mapping today in relation to historical development of methodology.


Although milk and dairy products are important components of a healthy diet, if consumed unpasteurized, they also can present a health hazard due to possible contamination with pathogenic bacteria. These bacteria can originate even from clinically healthy animals from which milk is derived or from environmental contamination occurring during collection and storage of milk. The decreased frequency of bovine carriage of certain zoonotic pathogens and improved milking hygiene have contributed considerably to decreased contamination of milk but have not, and cannot, fully eliminate the risk of milkborne disease. Pasteurization is the most effective method of enhancing the microbiological safety of milk. The consumption of milk that is not pasteurized increases the risk of contracting disease from a foodstuff that is otherwise very nutritious and healthy. Despite concerns to the contrary, pasteurization does not change the nutritional value of milk. Understanding the science behind this controversial and highly debated topic will provide public health care workers the information needed to discern fact from fiction and will provide a tool to enhance communication with clients in an effort to reduce the incidence of infections associated with the consumption of unpasteurized milk and dairy products.


The EU provides farmers with incentives to adopt Countryside Stewardship Schemes (CSS) using subsidies in the framework of the agri-environmental regulation of the EU (2078/92), now included in the more general regulation on rural development. In this paper, a case study of 36 farmers in the village of Bierbeek was carried out to investigate the determinants of the willingness to adopt a scheme involving taking care of arable field margins in particular. Bivariate and multivariate logit analysis confirmed not only the importance of personal, structural and financial factors, but also showed the importance of social capital. Farmers who are more open to both professional and non-professional contacts are more likely to adopt a CSS. Hence, government and extension agencies should undertake more efforts to involve farmers as much as possible in activities of a professional and/or non-professional nature to stimulate them to adopt sustainable farming practices.


PROBLEM/OBJECTIVE
Laser-assisted lithotripsy under sialendoscopy has the potential to overcome the limitations of traditional sialendoscopic lithotripsy when facing salivary stones. In this preliminary study, we report our experience with Holmium:YAG laser-assisted lithotripsy.

METHODS
Data from 11 Asian patients receiving sialendoscopies for laser-assisted lithotripsy performed in our department from August 2013 to June 2014 were recorded and reviewed.

RESULTS
A total of 18 procedures were performed in 11 Taiwanese patients with symptoms of obstructive sialoadenitis who were diagnosed with sialolithiasis. The sizes of the stones ranged between 3 mm and 13 mm. The endoscopic lithotomy procedures were performed in all 11 patients, and stone fragmentation with the Holmium:YAG laser was done successfully in all patients. All patients were followed for a minimum of 3 months, and there was no evidence of complications or recurrences over the follow up period.

CONCLUSION
The Holmium:YAG laser allowed successful fragmentation of stones in all 11 patients. Our experience with this procedure supports the use of Holmium:YAG laser-assisted lithotripsy through sialendoscopy in Asian patients.


Polyelectrolyte membranes provide a highly promising platform for an efficient and sustainable nanofiltration (NF) process. The challenge is to prepare polyelectrolyte NF membranes with high permeation. Herein, we report a novel strategy to fabricate a polyelectrolyte membrane via a layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly technique with a Ni(OH)2 nanosheet sacrificial layer for a fast NF process. The sacrificial layer helps to deposit a LBL assembled polyelectrolyte layer directly on a microfiltration (MF) substrate and thus results in the formation of a membrane with tiny filtration resistance. Meanwhile, the surface charges and thickness of the membranes can be adjusted facilely by the number of assembled layers. The resultant membranes show excellent NF performances with a high water flux of up to 466 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, perfect rejection for organic dye molecules and moderate salt rejection (88.2% MgSO4). Typically, the 570 nm-thick membrane has the water flux of 198 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, 98% rejection for dyes (Mw 373.9) and 81.3% rejection for MgCl2. Furthermore, the membrane has a good rejection and anti-fouling ability for organic molecules with similar charges. The newly developed strategy has wide application in the fabrication of highly permeable polyelectrolyte membranes.


Bookstores have been strongly affected by the rise of electronic commerce. Traditional (physical) bookstores now have to compete with online counterparts that possess several advantages over them, such as lower prices and 24/7 availability. This paper investigates the influence that online bookstores have on the sales of physical bookstores in China. The geographic restriction is based on the particularities of the Chinese market that differentiate China from other markets, both in the book market as well as in the adoption of E-commerce. Since there is a lack of overview in the English academic literature on this topic, we conducted a literature review to summarize the current state of research. Our research highlights multiple advantages and disadvantages of physical and online bookstores in the Chinese market, which in turn influence the sales of traditional bookstores. This paper offers a theoretical and a practical contribution. Participants of the Chinese book market can use the results to better assess and improve their market position by addressing the disadvantages or building on the strengths identified during the review. Furthermore, this paper can serve as a starting point for English researchers, as almost no research on this topic has been published in English.


We report the effective nonlinearity for photochromic conversion in a blue-membrane bacteriorhodopsin film hosted in a dry polyvinyl alcohol matrix. The shift in absorption maximum on photoconversion in this film is larger than that of the same material in hydrated form, thus offering a larger modulation of the refractive index. The photoexcited index modulation is stable for several months, which provides for holographic data recording and long-term photochromic data storage. The effective index modulation is experimentally measured and is in good agreement with the theoretical predictions based on the Kramers-Kronig transformation.


This paper adopts a promising concept of uncertainty, incorporating both stochastic processes and fuzzy theory to capture the somewhat vague and imprecise ideas the manager has about the future expected cash flows, the profitability of the project, the costs of the project and many other variables involved in an investment decision. Thus, uncertainty in real option valuation can be faced introducing fuzziness in the fundamental items of the classical approach. In particular, three examples of real options are examined and the computational experiments are performed. It is shown that fuzziness can play the role of a sensitivity analysis of the real option value with respect to the key decisional variables.


We report a highly sensitive microfluidic assay to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that samples peripheral blood to search for circulating leukemic cells (CLCs). Antibodies immobilized within three separate microfluidic devices affinity-selected CLC subpopulations directly from peripheral blood without requiring pre-processing. The microfluidic devices targeted CD33, CD34, and CD117 cell surface antigens commonly expressed by AML leukemic cells so that each subpopulation's CLC numbers could be tracked to determine the onset of relapse. Staining against aberrant markers (e.g. CD7, CD56) identified low levels (11-2684 mL(-1)) of CLCs. The commonly used platforms for the detection of MRD for AML patients are multi-parameter flow cytometry (MFC), typically from highly invasive bone marrow biopsies, or PCR from blood samples, which is limited to <50% of AML patients. In contrast, the microfluidic assay is a highly sensitive blood test that permits frequent sampling for >90% of all AML patients using the markers selected for this study (selection markers CD33, CD34, CD117 and aberrant markers such as CD7 and CD56). We present data from AML patients after stem cell transplant (SCT) therapy using our assay. We observed high agreement of the microfluidic assay with therapeutic treatment and overall outcome. We could detect MRD at an earlier stage compared to both MFC and PCR directly from peripheral blood, obviating the need for a painful bone marrow biopsy. Using the microfluidic assay, we detected MRD 28 days following one patient's SCT and the onset of relapse at day 57, while PCR from a bone marrow biopsy did not detect MRD until day 85 for the same patient. Earlier detection of MRD in AML post-SCT enabled by peripheral blood sampling using the microfluidic assay we report herein can influence curative clinical decisions for AML patients.


To understand cellular coordination of multiple transcriptome regulation mechanisms, we simultaneously measured three parameters – transcription rate (TR), mRNA abundance (RA) and translation activity (TA) – and assessed mRNA stability with the RA to TR ratio. This revealed multiple quantitative insights. First, the dataset enabled an assessment of the contribution of the stabilization-bytranslation regulatory mechanism. We observed an overall positive correlation between mRNA stability and translation activity. However, the correlation is moderate. Many genes deviate from the overall trend in a pathway/function specific manner. Second, the moderateness of this correlation can be explained by variation in individual mRNAs' proportions occupied by un-translated regions (UTR), as the UTR proportion exhibits a negative relationship with the level of correlation between the two factors. High-UTR-proportion mRNAs largely defy the stabilization-by-translation regulatory mechanism, in that they stay out of the polysome complex but remain relatively stable; mRNAs with little UTRs, on the contrary, follow this regulation much better. Third, the genomic profiles of the three parameters are systematically different in terms of key statistical features. Sequentially more genes exhibit extreme low or high expression values from TR to RA, and then to TA. In other words, as a consequence of the cellular activities in coordinating these regulatory mechanisms, sequentially higher levels of selectivity are imposed on the gene expression process as genetic information flow from the genome to the proteome. In summary, we presented a quantitative delineation of the relationship among multiple transcriptome regulation parameters, i.e., how the cells coordinate corresponding regulatory mechanisms. . CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/104901 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Jan. 31, 2017;


Tumor cell-derived selectin ligands mediate contact to the endothelium, platelets, and leukocytes through binding to selectins that facilitates metastasis. Here, we describe the mechanism of how endogenous (non-tumor derived) selectin ligands contribute to metastasis using α(1,3)fucosyltransferase 7 (Fuc-TVII(-/-))-deficient mice. Experimental metastasis of MC-38GFP and Lewis lung (3LL) carcinoma cells was attenuated in Fuc-TVII(-/-) mice, which express minimal amount of selectin ligands. We show that metastasis is dependent on selectin ligands carried on hematopoietic cells. P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) was identified as the major ligand facilitating monocyte accumulation at metastatic sites. Reduced recruitment of monocytes to metastasizing tumor cells in Fuc-TVII(-/-) mice correlated with attenuated metastasis. Adoptive transfer of Fuc-T7(+) monocytes rescued metastasis in Fuc-TVII(-/-) mice, indicating that selectin ligand-dependent recruitment of monocytes is required for cancer progression. Cytokine analysis in metastatic lungs revealed high expression of CCL2 in C57BL/6 mice that was significantly lower in Fuc-TVII(-/-) mice. The absence of monocyte recruitment in Fuc-TVII(-/-) mice correlated with increased apoptosis of tumor cells. Thus, the recruitment of monocytes to metastasizing tumor cells is facilitated by endogenous selectin ligands on monocytes that enable efficient tumor cell survival, extravasation, and metastasis.


In a number of mammalian species, susceptibility to enteric coronavirus infection has been shown to be age-related. This is thought to be associated with enterocyte maturation and receptor protein expression. One of the factors that can influence differentiation and maturation of enterocytes is the availability of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in the intestinal lumen. These compounds are by-products of the bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber and serve as the primary energy source for enterocyte metabolism. The overall objective of this dissertation was to evaluate the effects of dietary fiber and short-chain fatty acids on enterocyte differentiation, maturation, and susceptibility to coronavirus infection in turkeys. Initial work involved the development of an indirect immunoperoxidase assay (IPA) for the identification and localization of turkey coronavirus (TCV) in paraffin-embedded, acid-ethanol fixed tissue. IPA was found to be superior to indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFA) for this and other diagnostic purposes. To evaluate cellular differentiation and maturation, an SDS-PAGE/immunoblot technique was developed to determine relative levels of villin expression in turkey embryos. Villin is an actin-bound cytoskeletal protein known to be expressed in increasing quantities at the apical surfaces of maturing enterocytes. Villin expression level was found to increase linearly as a function of embryo age. Villin localization was performed by IPA on paraffinembedded, acid-alcohol fixed tissue. As enterocytes (embryos) matured, villin was found to concentrate at the apical surfaces and eventually at the basolateral membranes. Experiments were also conducted to see what effect in ovo butyrate administration would have on developing embryonic enterocytes. Butyrate has been shown to enhance differentiation of non-neoplastic and neoplastic cells in culture as well as promote healing of damaged intestinal epithelium in human. Villin expression was significantly enhanced in embryos receiving 0.2 and 0.3 M butyrate 36 hours post-administration. Butyrate appeared to enhance villin expression and therefore enterocyte maturation in a dose-dependent manner. Susceptibility of turkey embryos to TCV infection as a function of age and butyrate treatment was investigated as well as epithelial localization of TCV infection in poults. The level of TCV infection of epithelium was found to increase with embryo age between 17 and 23 days. Poults showed higher levels of infection on the distal 2/3 of villi and no evidence of infection in the intestinal crypts. Butyrate administration in 21-day-old embryos followed by TCV inoculation caused a significant increase of the number of infected cells per villus. This data suggested that butyrate might be used as a means to manipulate enterocyte susceptibility to TCV infection. In the final set of experiments, the effects of fiber-fortified poult diets containing 5% cellulose or 5% guar gum on luminal SCFA levels, enterocyte maturation, and TCV infection were investigated. SCFA levels in cecal contents were determined by gas chromatography. Enterocyte maturation was assessed by the determination of villin expression on immunoblot and the severity of TCV infection was determined by IPA and lesion score. Fiber-fortified diets enhanced SCFA production and villin expression, but contrary to embryo studies, TCV infection appeared to be reduced. In general, poults performed better on the diet containing cellulose. Mechanisms regarding the roles of dietary fiber and SCFA in enterocyte differentiation, maturation, and TCV susceptibility are proposed as well as future directions for research. The in ovo and poults system used in this research may serve as models for further investigation of the influences of host and dietary factors on enteric viral infection and recovery.


This research relates to digital software products and the firms that produce them. The approach used to
explore these topics is that of modelling and computer simulation within the context of complexity
science. A complexity science approach advocates mapping equations from one research area to solve
problems in another. In this case, the central features of the models are borrowed from the work of
evolutionary biologist Stuart Kauffman.

Logical deductions from Kauffman's work leads to the creation of a quantitative product fitness
landscape that does not depend upon allocation of random fitness values. Product complexity is defined
in terms of the aggregated quantity of embedded information, whilst product fitness relates to
maximising synergies and eliminating redundancy. The assumption that fit products are more valuable
than unfit products produces the construct of a market value landscape. This explains how market
demand grows and offers an explanation of the economic phenomena of increasing returns. The effect
of product lifetime is studied, which indicates that fitter products have to be generated at an ever
increasing rate in order to produce continuous revenue streams.

Empirical evidence is presented that shows a positive correlation between software product complexity
and market size. The relationship between the size of a firm and its profitability highlights an interesting
anomaly relating to Microsoft Corporation, the worlds current dominant software provider. The evidence
suggests that Microsoft is experiencing increasing profitability as it grows, which is at odds with the
trend for traditional firms.

The research makes contributions to economics, strategic management and complexity science. It does
so by creating a product centric model of software firms that provides an explanation of increasing
returns and it backs this up with empirical evidence. Computer simulations based upon the models
exhibit patterns that give insights into product strategy. A critical feature is that, for digital software
programs, increasing returns arise from the integration of features into a single program, not by simply
bundling multiple programs together into product package. The success of the Microsoft Windows
Product Is that, from a user perspective, it appears to integrate multiple programs in a way that releases
their synergies.

The models and simulations range from simple conceptual building blocks, through to more complex
representations of a marketplace in which software companies are operating. These models provide a
basis for further work relating to: exploration versus exploitation and the increasing rate of
technological change.


The light regulation of the aggregation and disaggregation of metal-bound Aβ peptides remains to be explored. Binding of Zn2+ to Aβ peptides is sufficient to trigger the formation of Aβ aggregates. Chelator FC-11 has a high affinity to Zn2+ and forms a 1 : 1 complex with Zn2+. Although FC-11 can effectively remove the Zn2+ ions loaded in the Aβ42 aggregates by chelation, the Zn2+ chelation cannot lead to the dissociation of the aggregates. However, controlled UV light exposure was observed to induce the dissociation of Zn2+-bound Aβ42 aggregates into sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-resistant soluble oligomers, and this dissociation does not depend on the removal of Zn2+ from the aggregates. Moreover, the UV light exposure triggers the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) including H2O2, leading to secondary structural changes in the Aβ42 aggregates. The oxidation and secondary structural changes of the aggregated Aβ42 peptides with Zn2+ should contribute to the conversion of the aggregates into soluble oligomers. The formation of ROS and oligomers can result in enhanced cytotoxicity of the aggregates.


The Mt. Amiata region (Southern Tuscany, Italy) represents the southernmost area of the Northern Apennines in which different lithologies belonging to the Ligurian and Sub-Ligurian units crop out widely. This paper provides an update on the stratigraphic, paleontological and structural features of the Ligurian and Sub-Ligurian units in the Mt. Amiata area by integrating new data from the Regional Geological Mapping project with those available from the existing literature.

In the study area, the Sub-Ligurian units are represented by the Canetolo unit, which comprises the middle Eocene (Zone NP15) Argille e Calcari and Vico Fms showing heteropic relationships. The Ligurian units are represented by the Ophiolitic and Santa Fiora units. The Ophiolitic unit consists mainly of Early Cretaceous Palombini Shale associated with scattered Middle-Late Jurassic ophiolites. The age of the Palombini Shale spans from late Hauterivian-Barremian Zone CC5 to Aptian Zone CC7 of [Sissingh (1977)][1]. The Ophiolitic unit overlies the Santa Fiora unit consisting of the Pietraforte Fm and Varicoloured Shales topped by the Santa Fiora Fm. The Pietraforte Fm shows heteropic relationships with the Varicoloured Shale, and both formations can be referred to the ?Aptian to middle Coniacian. The age of the Santa Fiora Fm seems to span from the late Coniacian-early Santonian (Zone CC14) to middle-late Campanian (Zones CC21-CC22).

Structural analyses indicate that all the Ligurian and Sub-Ligurian units experienced complex polyphase deformation through several folding phases during the closure of the Ligurian-Piemontese oceanic basin and the subsequent continental collision, which began in the middle Eocene. The Ligurian and Sub-Ligurian units now come into contact through low-angle shear zones developed during the last deformation phase identified in these units, i.e. middle Miocene extensional tectonics. This tectonic phase produced strong delamination through low-angle faults with staircase geometry, so that not only several stratigraphic levels but also entire tectonic units were omitted.

Despite the extensional tectonics, the collected stratigraphic and structural data suggest a correlation between the Ligurian and Sub-Ligurian units of the Mt. Amiata area and the units cropping out in Southern Tuscany and the Ligurian-Emilian Apennines.

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Objective. At present, pupils, teachers and parents struggle with the lack of textbooks and supporting materials in accessible formats that can be used by pupils with visual or print impairment including specific reading difficulties such as dyslexia. Independent projects in Japan and the UK were conceived to assess whether the provision of textbooks and teaching materials as electronic files, along with technologies to convert and 'read' them could provide a new and sustainable model and enhance the skills of the users. Main Content. In the UK, 40 students with print impairment were presented with Microsoft Windows XP system laptops that had specialist text to speech software. The software either provided full screen reading with highlighting and magnification or a tool bar above the etext provided in MS Word document format. The latter allowed for text resizing, colour changes, reading speed options, voice preferences and text highlighting. In Japan, Apple iPads were given to 30 self-selecting students (some of whom were dyslexic) over a period of 10 weeks. There was the option to use a 'Touch and Read' application which offered text to speech and phrase highlighting with an outlined box around the characters in vertical mode. These etext books were presented in PDF format with the same look and feel as the actual text books used by the rest of the class. Results. Over 90% of the students involved in the projects aged between 10 and 14 years showed improvements in self-esteem, continued to be motivated and there were clear indications that the use of the technology aided both reading skills and confidence levels. Teachers supporting the students in the UK study commented on significant improvements in reading skills for those who had dyslexia and improved concentration for those with visual impairments. Time saved by the use of electronic texts was also commented upon in relation to the provision of alternative formats. In the Japanese study, students chose to use the 'Touch and Read' software preferring the look and feel of the original text books and without training soon learnt to zoom and scroll on the iPads. Conclusion. The projects confirmed that making teaching materials available to print and visually impaired students in an appropriate electronic form along with access technologies to read them can make a significant difference to their reading, writing, confidence, development and inclusion. The same electronic materials can also provide productivity savings for staff in schools and local authorities who support, in particular, visually impaired students.


Categorisations of research have existed for a long time and have in particular been influential since the first international R&D statistics manual was developed. However, the definitions and categorisations have come under increasing pressure. Scientists and policy-makers alike have claimed that the distinction between basic research, applied research and experimental development is increasingly irrelevant and based on misconceptions about modern knowledge production. Despite the debate there is little empirical analysis of these issues. This article fills a major gap in the literature by addressing research classifications from an empirical point of view, using two surveys among academic staff in Norwegian universities. Even though a majority of academic staff members are able to use the research categories when describing own activities, most carry out a seemingly complex mix of different R&D. This has important implications for policy and for statistical and evaluative analysis of research work. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.


Lighting should be provided for WASH facilities in Humanitarian contexts according to several standards. Evidence for this and the practical budget, operational and management responsibilities are less clear. A three-country research project looking at the impact of lighting on WASH use and Gender- Based Violence (GBV) required a multi-disciplinary approach, combining OXFAM's practical implementing expertise with WEDC's research-orientated approach. The research showed how much more is needed for safe sanitation than just building latrines. Lack of usage of latrines had implications for environmental health. A reason for not using latrines was due to fear of many things, including GBV. The location of the facility was a common concern, but simple lessons are not easy to distil as the context varies between settlements and changes rapidly overtime. The provision of lighting was welcomed by a wide range of stakeholders, but other factors still affect both GBV and WASH outcomes.


Advanced analysis of hydrologic processes for use in natural resource simulation models and related applications including rangeland health assessments can be facilitated by the integration of information collected by professionals from two disciplines, hydrologists and range conservationists. Historically, data collection and field research have been conducted at two distinct scales relevant to each discipline, the hillslope/watershed scale and the ecological site scale, respectively. Traditionally, hydrologic analyses of watersheds focus on the drainage basin or watershed boundary as the scale determinant. This is because once the watershed boundary has been determined runoff and sediment contributing areas can easily be determined and statements of continuity of mass can be made. Ecologically based units of the landscape have been more focused on soil, vegetation, aspect and other features related to ecological processes rather than hydrologic processes. However, the integration of such information poses problems in compatibility. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to reconcile these scale issues, make them supportive, and enhance field research methods. For example, GIS can be used to overlay ecological sites on a watershed map to bring hydrological and ecological information together on one map. The GIS integrates information collected at the point or hillslope scale and expands it to the ecological site or watershed scale. Data collected at various scales are represented using a variety of data layers for improved management decision-making. Basic field data such as GPS (Geographic Positioning Systems) locations, compass bearings and photographs are combined with existing data layers such as soils, vegetation cover, and other ecological site data, significantly advancing field research and analysis techniques. Field study plots are reproduced using basic GIS commands for detailed analysis and evaluation. The GIS provides advanced display and demonstration capabilities, including the ability to present photographs of a site by clicking on the desired map location.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the benefit of specialist rheumatology consultation and followup for the first 238 patients referred to a tertiary care fibromyalgia (FM) clinic with emphasis on final diagnosis and outcome.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review was performed for the first 238 patients attending a rheumatology subspecialty FM clinic. The main variables of interest were management received at the clinic, final diagnosis, and outcome.

RESULTS
The final diagnosis was FM in 68%, and some other condition in the remaining 32%. Specialist contact was identified as useful in 73% of the total patient group, 96 with FM and 74 with non-FM. In the patients with FM who received followup in the clinic, outcome was judged favorable in 54%, whereas 46% showed no change or decline in health status.

CONCLUSION
An important value of specialist rheumatology contact for patients with a symptom suggestive of diffuse musculoskeletal pain is to ensure that some other potentially treatable condition is not overlooked, rather than the provision of ongoing care for those with FM. Continued followup in a specialist clinic for patients with a primary diagnosis of FM is of questionable benefit.


Most work building on the Stackelberg security games model assumes that the attacker can perfectly observe the defender's randomized assignment of resources to targets. This assumption has been challenged by recent papers, which designed tailor-made algorithms that compute optimal defender strategies for security games with limited surveillance. We analytically demonstrate that in zero-sum security games, lazy defenders, who simply keep optimizing against perfectly informed attackers, are almost optimal against diligent attackers, who go to the effort of gathering a reasonable number of observations. This result implies that, in some realistic situations, limited surveillance may not need to be explicitly addressed.


The gas sheathed tubular electrode arc has been investigated and applied to general alloy analysis. One set of six solution standards containing 18 different elements was used. Matrix effects have been mostly controlled by using a 1 mg/ml sample or standard in a solution containing 6 mg/ml of sodium as the chloride. Fourteen different standard alloys (NBS and Alcoa) were tested, representing seven different base metals. The over-all accuracy was only about ±8% deviation from the certified value. This would permit identification of alloy type, but for greater accuracy standards more closely approximating the sample should be used. Precision for the technique is normally ±3%–4% relative standard deviation with photographic detection.


There is a dearth of research on the perceptions of faculty members in educational leadership regarding open access publications. This reality may exist because of a lack of funding for educational leadership research, financial obstacles, tenure demands, or reputation concerns. It may be that there are simply fewer established open access publishers with reputable impact factors to encourage publication by members in the field. The current study seeks to answer the following question: "What are the perceptions of educational leadership faculty members in UCEA about open access publishing?" The results are based on responses from 180 faculty members in the field of educational leadership.


Cloud computing enables access to computing, processing and storage resources as a service. These services offered to users through internet and based on payment obligations. There are various service providers and services for users, so users have the challenge of choosing appropriate service, matching their needs. Therefore, having a system which helps users to choose the best service based on their need is very important. In this paper, we propose a new multi-agent based method named ARank, which is applied for ranking algorithm to reduce the waiting time of users. ARank method uses intelligent agents which they choose some candidate services and rank these services based on the quality of service values. Furthermore, the agents of ARank include the satisfaction rate of the earlier users in ranking process. The results of our evaluation show reduction in the waiting time of the users using ARank method, compared to the existing related work, Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD).


The important technological advances experienced along the last years have resulted in an important demand for new and efficient computer vision applications. On the one hand, the increasing use of video editing software has given rise to a necessity for faster and more efficient editing tools that, in a first step, perform a temporal segmentation in shots. On the other hand, the number of electronic devices with integrated cameras has grown enormously. These devices require new, fast, and efficient computer vision applications that include moving object detection strategies. In this dissertation, we propose a temporal segmentation strategy and several moving object detection strategies, which are suitable for the last generation of computer vision applications requiring both low computational cost and high quality results. First, a novel real-time high-quality shot detection strategy is proposed. While abrupt transitions are detected through a very fast pixel-based analysis, gradual transitions are obtained from an efficient edge-based analysis. Both analyses are reinforced with a motion analysis that allows to detect and discard false detections. This analysis is carried out exclusively over a reduced amount of candidate transitions, thus maintaining the computational requirements. On the other hand, a moving object detection strategy, which is based on the popular Mixture of Gaussians method, is proposed. This strategy, taking into account the recent history of each image pixel, adapts dynamically the amount of Gaussians that are required to model its variations. As a result, we improve significantly the computational efficiency with respect to other similar methods and, additionally, we reduce the influence of the used parameters in the results. Alternatively, in order to improve the quality of the results in complex scenarios containing dynamic backgrounds, we propose different non-parametric based moving object detection strategies that model both background and foreground. To obtain high quality results regardless of the characteristics of the analyzed sequence we dynamically estimate the most adequate bandwidth matrices for the kernels that are used in the background and foreground modeling. Moreover, the application of a particle filter allows to update the spatial information and provides a priori knowledge about the areas to analyze in the following images, enabling an important reduction in the computational requirements and improving the segmentation results. Additionally, we propose the use of an innovative combination of chromaticity and gradients that allows to reduce the influence of shadows and reflects in the detections.


Militant Islamism in Denmark is, like in most Western countries, a fluid and unorganised phenomenon that is not easily defined or delimited. There are no organisations, spokespersons or declared leaders and no membership. The phenomenon can best be described as an environment from which smaller groups that have engaged in terrorism or terrorism-related activities have emerged but to which different individuals are attracted for different reasons.1 Adopting a strategy of targeting leaders in one way or another in order to prevent or counter-terrorism emanating from the environment would therefore prove difficult.There are, however, individuals in the environment who have indispensable talents or resources and who therefore play key roles when terrorism occurs. Such individuals may be in contact with more organised peers in conflict areas and therefore be able to facilitate engagement in combat or training, or they may have access to and experience with weapons, be skilled at fundraising or are charismatic and particularly good at propagandising and disseminating justifications for using violence.This article argues that there is potential in adopting a strategy of targeting such individuals for legal prosecution but not necessarily under terrorism legislation. It argues that an approach relying on pretextual prosecutions could be effective and possibly have fewer counterproductive side effects than prosecutions under terrorism legislation. This is done by first drawing a picture of the militant Islamist environment in Denmark and secondly suggesting a path for implementing such a strategy, introducing the challenges and potential pitfalls associated with it. To introduce the Danish situation, a list of plots that have led to convictions under Danish legislation is initially provided with indications of how they were discovered.2PlotsIn October 2005, several individuals were arrested in the Greater Copenhagen area. In Denmark, the case was labelled the Glostrup case, but elsewhere it is referred to as the Sarajevo case, because the Danish arrests followed arrests made in Sarajevo. There, a Swedish citizen, a Turkish citizen with residence in Denmark and two Bosnian citizens were arrested on suspicion of planning terrorism. Three of them were later convicted of planning terrorism, while the fourth was convicted of illegal trade in arms. The two men from Denmark and Sweden had been in contact with various individuals in Denmark, and of those arrested in Denmark in October 2005, four were subsequently charged with planning terrorism against unspecified targets. In February 2007, one of them, Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa, was found guilty.In September 2005, Said Mansour, who had attracted the authorities' attention since the 1990s because of his international contacts and his publishing house, Al-Nur Islamic Information,3 was arrested. Among other things, Mansour was linked to the Glostrup case, and this connection played a significant role in both cases. In April 2007, he was convicted of encouraging others to commit terrorism.In September 2006, several individuals were arrested in Odense, in what became known as the Vollsmose case. The authorities had received information from an informant turned agent that a group was preparing an attack and had manufactured the explosive TATP. In November 2007, Abdallah Andersen, Ahmed Khaldahi and Mohammed Zaher were found guilty of attempted terrorism against unspecified targets.In September 2007, several individuals were arrested in the Greater Copenhagen area. In Denmark, the case became known as the Glasvej case but elsewhere it is referred to as Operation Dagger. Danish authorities were warned by foreign authorities when Hammad Khurshid returned from Pakistan after receiving training in spring 2007. Khurshid was put under surveillance and was among other things filmed while manufacturing the explosive TATP. In October 2008, Hammad Khurshid and Abdulghani Tokhi were found guilty of attempted terrorism against unspecified targets. …


Addiction to drugs and alcohol is an increasing problem that all clinicians have to deal with. This Cochrane Handbook of Alcohol and Drug Misuse serves as a concise guide to the evidence base for relevant interventions, highlighting the key points of Cochrane reviews for the busy practitioner. It covers a wide range of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for opioid, alcohol, cocaine and other stimulant and drug misuse, offering comprehensive coverage of interventions for drug and alcohol addiction.


In standard German, the non-occurrence of -s plurals as the first element of a lexical compound (e.g., *Auto-s-berg 'heap of cars') vs. the regular occurrence of the other plural suffixes (e.g., Kind-er-club 'children's club', Frau-en-fete 'women's party') has often been quoted as evidence for a dual mechanism model of morphology, which sees irregular forms as stored in the mental lexicon while regular forms are generated by rule (see Marcus et al. 1995). However, in colloquial northern German, where the s-plural is more widely used than in the standard language, it is possible to form productive compounds containing this suffix (e.g., Mädel-s-treff 'girls' meeting'). This paper investigates to what extent -s plurals are acceptable within compounds in colloquial northern German, whether they are subject to any linguistic constraints (for example, morphological or phonological), and what implications they might have for current morphological theory.*


It is widely accepted that Japanese, compared to Americans, commit fewer criminal and other forms of deviant acts. However, there is evidence that Japanese students have an unusually high prevalence of bullying. In the current study, we develop a rationale for predicting that Japanese students, relative to Americans, should be oriented more strongly toward an external locus of control and have more favorable attitudes toward bullying, which, in turn, might explain why student bullying is more prevalent in Japan than in the U.S. Analyses of comparable survey data from college students in Japan (N = 584) and the U.S. (N = 623) provide generally supportive evidence for our predictions. In agreement with expectations, Japanese students committed more bullying acts during their high school days than Americans. Further, Japanese students were oriented more strongly toward an external locus of control and had more favorable attitudes toward bullying. After controlling for both an external locus of control and student attitudes toward bullying, the initially significant difference between the two samples in student bullying disappeared. We discuss the utility of comparative research to increase our understanding of cross-national differences in student bullying. We suggest that longitudinal comparative data on an external locus of control and student attitudes toward bullying, both of which reflect individual cognitive orientations, are an important resource for further development of school intervention programs around the world.


In recent years, cities such as Amsterdam have used the term hub city to define themselves in a global context. Hub cities are cities that play – or aspire to – a crucial role in the international and globalising economy. As such they form a hub, a 'node' of relevant traffic. What exactly is meant by this is open to different interpretations.


The majority of B[e] stars are probably Post-Main-Sequence objects with circumstellar dust shells. Their complicated spectral energy distributions (SED) and line spectra make the determination of the object composition very difficult. We present here the results of new photometric and spectral observations of the B[e] star MWC 84 and MWC 930, similar to B[e]-s, and show that they are possible binaries. It is shown that MWC 84 consist of two stars with spectral types approximately KO II and BO V, a strong gas envelope, and a dust shell with the optical depth about 0.1; MWC 930 probably consists of KO I and BO V stars, a gas envelope, and no circumstellar dust. An analysis of Balmer decrements for different emission-line objects is presented.


BACKGROUND
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common disease that is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, but treatment options are limited. The efficacy and safety of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist semaglutide in patients with NASH is not known.

METHODS
We conducted a 72-week, double-blind phase 2 trial involving patients with biopsy-confirmed NASH and liver fibrosis of stage F1, F2, or F3. Patients were randomly assigned, in a 3:3:3:1:1:1 ratio, to receive once-daily subcutaneous semaglutide at a dose of 0.1, 0.2, or 0.4 mg or corresponding placebo. The primary end point was resolution of NASH with no worsening of fibrosis. The confirmatory secondary end point was an improvement of at least one fibrosis stage with no worsening of NASH. The analyses of these end points were performed only in patients with stage F2 or F3 fibrosis; other analyses were performed in all the patients.

RESULTS
In total, 320 patients (of whom 230 had stage F2 or F3 fibrosis) were randomly assigned to receive semaglutide at a dose of 0.1 mg (80 patients), 0.2 mg (78 patients), or 0.4 mg (82 patients) or to receive placebo (80 patients). The percentage of patients in whom NASH resolution was achieved with no worsening of fibrosis was 40% in the 0.1-mg group, 36% in the 0.2-mg group, 59% in the 0.4-mg group, and 17% in the placebo group (P<0.001 for semaglutide 0.4 mg vs. placebo). An improvement in fibrosis stage occurred in 43% of the patients in the 0.4-mg group and in 33% of the patients in the placebo group (P = 0.48). The mean percent weight loss was 13% in the 0.4-mg group and 1% in the placebo group. The incidence of nausea, constipation, and vomiting was higher in the 0.4-mg group than in the placebo group (nausea, 42% vs. 11%; constipation, 22% vs. 12%; and vomiting, 15% vs. 2%). Malignant neoplasms were reported in 3 patients who received semaglutide (1%) and in no patients who received placebo. Overall, neoplasms (benign, malignant, or unspecified) were reported in 15% of the patients in the semaglutide groups and in 8% in the placebo group; no pattern of occurrence in specific organs was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
This phase 2 trial involving patients with NASH showed that treatment with semaglutide resulted in a significantly higher percentage of patients with NASH resolution than placebo. However, the trial did not show a significant between-group difference in the percentage of patients with an improvement in fibrosis stage. (Funded by Novo Nordisk; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02970942.).


The development of sub-regional communities in Africa is not a new phenomenon, but the incorporation of human rights into their agenda is relatively new. In effect, REC courts have introduced a new layer of supra national protection of human rights in Africa. The development is welcomed because it is likely to advance the cause for the promotion and protection of human rights. However, considering that the primary focus of the RECs is economic development, their ability to effectively embrace the role of human rights protection is questionable. The development of this mandate for the sub-regional courts is necessitated by the emerging prominence of human rights in the business of RECs. But, its interpretation and implementation has extensive ramifications for the advancement of human rights in Africa; the harmonisation of human rights standard in the region and for the unity and effectiveness of the African human rights system.


This study examines the use of English loanwords in L1 isiXhosa–L2 English bilinguals living in Cape Town, South Africa. The specific aim of the study is to investigate which individual background factors may increase or reduce the presence of English loanwords in a L1 isiXhosa speaker's repertoire. Data on English loanword use and individual background were collected through a picture naming task and a background questionnaire, respectively. Results showed that those speakers who frequently used English for interactive purposes were more prone to using English loanwords when naming pictures in isiXhosa. Moreover, it was documented that those who arrived at an early age in Cape Town (from the isiXhosa-dominant Eastern Cape Province) were also less prone to using isiXhosa words in the naming task. Marginal, negative effects were found for non-interactive isiXhosa use (i.e. radio, books, etc.) and attitudes towards English, such that those speakers with high indices on these variables used more often English loanwords. A marginal, positive effect of the presence of isiXhosa in primary and secondary school on the use of isiXhosa words was also found.


To describe the morphological and histological changes during the annual reproductive cycle of the gonads of Cyprinion tenuiradius, a total of 341 specimens (102 female and 235 male specimens) were collected monthly from the Rudbal River (in the Qarah Aghaj sub-basin, the Persian Gulf basin), Firuzabad, Fars Province, southern Iran. The randomly sampling was adequate to collect males and females at the immature, mature, spawning-active, and non-active phases of reproduction. Five ovarian and five testicular maturation stages (I–V) were described using macroscopic and light and electron microscopic criteria. Also based on the histological examination, six types of ovarian follicles (A-F) and five types of testicular cells were designated. The largest ovarian follicles were found in the stage V of ovarian developmental stages in females with mean body weight and standard length of 22.27 g and 95.13 mm, respectively. The highest number of sperms was observed in the stage V of testicular developmental stages in males with mean body weight of 25.67 g and mean standard length of 97.83 mm. Based on the percentage of late ovary and testis maturation stages (IV, V) and high frequency of large oocytes and sperms it was concluded that the Qarah Aghaj botak spawns once a year during spring and the beginning of summer from April to July.


A riotous celebration of words – silly words, funny words, words you only use in your own family, new words, old words, and the very best words in the right order.

Melon

Melon squashy,
melon sloshy.
My friend Helen's
eating melon.
So far, so good
with Helen
and her melon.
But here's what I'm tellin'
Helen:
'Don't SIT on your melon,
Helen!'

Packed with silly rhymes, witty wordplay and thought-provoking story poems, this new collection of poems will delight children of all ages. Michael Rosen is the bestselling author of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, along with many other picture books and collections of poetry.


Abstract. The first ground-based remote sensing measurements of the column averaged volume mixing ratio of CO2 (XCO2) in tropical South America have been obtained at Paramaribo, Suriname (5.8° N, 55.2° W). The remote sensing observations are complemented by surface air-samples collected at the site, analyzed for CO2 and 13CO2. The surface in-situ measurements are strongly influenced by local sources. From the isotopic composition of the air samples the local source component is suggested to be dominated by the terrestrial biosphere. Using δ13C from the NOAA/ESRL stations Ascension Is. (ASC), 7.9° S, 14.4° W, and Ragged Point (RPB), 13.2° N, 59.4° W, the data has been corrected for the local source component. Due to the migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the measurement site the sampled air masses belong to the Northern or Southern Hemisphere depending on the time of the year. Comparison to analyzed CO2 fields based on TM3 model simulations using optimized fluxes indicate agreement for the seasonality in XCO2 as well as for the corrected CO2 mixing ratios at the surface for the long dry season, when Paramaribo belongs to the Southern Hemisphere. A slightly worse agreement during the short dry season is attributed to a larger representation error during this time of the year. Overall the comparison indicates that the TM3 model is capable to simulate the seasonal variation of surface concentrations as well as column densities of CO2 correctly at Paramaribo. It has been also shown that the column measurements currently performed at Paramaribo have a limited precision and lack the link to the in situ measurements. Solutions for future improvements have been suggested.


Funding liquidity risk was one of the main reasons for bank failure during the global financial crisis in 2007-2008. New legislation has been released in the form of Basel III, in particular the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR), to strengthen the liquidity requirements for banks; this makes funding liquidity a very important topic for banks. In this thesis, I will study the important factors that need to be taken into consideration when dealing with liquidity risk and how a bank can manage their funding liquidity risk. A key concept used in banks is Fund Transfer Pricing (FTP). This approach helps the banks to manage their interest rate risk. I will investigate how funding liquidity risk can be incorporated into this framework. It is important that this approach will still maximise the bank's overall profits. In order to achieve this I will initially evaluate a one time period model. This shows whether the bank's overall profits can be optimised using FTP. My results show that it is possible to allow each business unit to work independently and that, by using FTP, individual business units can be optimised consistently with the bank's overall profits. However, for this to occur, it is important to decide whether a bank is deposit rich or deposit poor as an incorrect assumption will lead to sub-optimal profits for the bank. Banks work in more than 1 time period; therefore, I will assess how the model can be extended and how FTP would work over multiple time periods. One major consideration is to account for the uncertainty regarding the timing of cashflows. This is because customers often have the option to prepay loans or withdraw their deposits. I will investigate an approach for calculating the cost of these options and how this can be included in the FTP framework. By applying a cost to the uncertainty, we can insure that the business units are incentivised in the correct way while still maximising the profits of the bank. Under my approach the treasury unit will be exposed to actual events in return for receiving a fair value for the cost of the option. The business units will be charged the cost of the option. There is potential for one party to act in their own interest by changing the value of the option. However, as both parties need to agree, this risk should be removed over time. I have shown how this can be done over 2 time periods but further research is needed to investigate over more time periods.


We demonstrate a simple technique for simultaneous and complete characterization of the optical pulses and temporal modulators commonly used in telecommunication. The electric field of a pulse and the response of a modulator are obtained from the analysis of the two-dimensional spectrogram of the pulse gated by the modulator. The measurement sensitivity is greatly improved compared with the conventional nonlinear optical techniques. Trains of picosecond pulses as weak as 10(-17)J are accurately characterized with an electroabsorption modulator as the temporal gate. The time-resolved transmission and phase of the modulator are also presented.


In this paper, we propose the Augmented Multi-Instance View (AMIV) framework to construct a better model by exploiting augmented information. For example, abstract screening tasks may be difficult because only abstract information is available, whereas the performance can be improved when the abstracts of references listed in the document can be exploited as augmented information. If each abstract is represented as an instance (i.e., a feature vector) x, then with the augmented information, it can be represented as an instance-bag pair (x;B), where B is a bag of instances (i.e., the abstracts of references). Note that ifx has a labely, then we assume that there must exist at least one instance in the bag B having the label y. We regard x and B as two views, i.e., a single-instance view augmented with a multi-instance view, and propose the AMIV-lss approach by establishing a latent semantic subspace between the two views. The AMIV framework can be applied when the augmented information is presented as multi-instance bags and to the best of our knowledge, such a learning with augmented multi-instance view problem has not been touched before. Experimental results on twelve TechPaper datasets, five PubMed data sets and a WebPage data set validate the effectiveness of our AMIV-lss approach.


The Veterans Supplement (CPS-VS) is an annual supplemental survey to the Current Population Survey sponsored by the Department of Labor and Department of Veterans Affairs. The supplemental survey is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and is used to estimate demographic, employment, and service related disability status rates among U.S. veterans ages 17 or older (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). The CPS-VS data are collected from CPS respondents 17 years of age or older, who identify as a veteran or identify someone else in the household as veteran. Because the CPS-VS sample is drawn from CPS respondents, CPS respondent data are available for both the CPS-VS respondents and nonrespondents and therefore can be used to compare the characteristics of CPS-VS respondents and nonrespondents, as well as assess the potential for CPS-VS nonresponse bias. No information about the households that did not respond to the basic CPS survey is available in the CPS-VS public access dataset, so all conclusions on CPS-VS nonresponse bias are based on the households responding to the basic CPS.


OBJECTIVE Primary care providers have been slow to adopt standards of care for diabetes, and continuing medical education (CME) programs have been minimally effective in changing provider behavior. The objective of this study was to explore the previously reported finding that attitudes, rather than knowledge, may impede primary care provider adherence to standards of care. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Study participants included 31 primary care providers attending an eight-session CME program on diabetes. Providers rated on a 10-point scale how the treatment of diabetes compared with that of five other chronic conditions (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, angina, arthritis, and heart failure; 1 = easier to 10 = harder; midpoint 5.5). In a subsequent open-ended qualitative interview, providers explained their scale ratings. RESULTS Diabetes was rated as significantly harder to treat than hypertension (24 of 30 >5.5; P < 0.001) and angina (20 of 30 >5.5; P = 0.03). A majority also rated hyperlipidemia (18 of 30) and arthritis (18 of 30) as easier to treat than diabetes. Explanatory themes underlying provider frustrations with diabetes include characteristics of the disease itself and the complexity of its management, and a perceived lack of support from society and the health care system for their efforts to control diabetes. CONCLUSIONS CME that addresses provider attitudes toward diabetes in addition to updating knowledge may be more effective than traditional CME in promoting adherence to standards of care. Additional changes are needed in our health care system to shift from an acute to a chronic disease model to effectively support diabetes care efforts.


The Sumatran tiger, categorized as Critically Endangered on the 2002 IUCN Red List, is threatened by poaching for domestic and international markets, by prey depletion from human hunting and by habitat loss from illegal and commercial logging, oil palm production, pioneer farming, mining operations and forest fires. Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP) in west-central Sumatra still has large blocks of forest that support tiger populations. In this paper we present information on photo-trapping and tiger distribution in KSNP and adjoining forest. Tigers were found to be present in all habitat types across KSNP. The poaching pressures on tigers and their prey species were evaluated from confiscations of snare traps by Tiger Protection and Conservation Units (TPCU). Poaching pressures were found to be highest for muntjac, then sambar, tiger, and serow and mouse deer. We determined the effectiveness of TPCU patrol size from the number of arrests, and chainsaw and snare trap confiscations per patrol. The success of forest patrols increased with the number of TPCU staff per patrol. We looked at general law enforcement for KSNP, which appeared to be inadequate. To reduce the threat posed by poaching and illegal logging extra TPCU staff are required for patrols, and extra patrol units are required for the northern and southern sections of the Park. In KSNP it is necessary to monitor habitat loss, establish an unambiguous scheme to mitigate human-tiger conflict, and develop a photo-trapping programme to monitor the tiger population.


We present homogeneous and standardized UBV(RI)C JHK photometry for over 100 M stars selected from an earlier paper on the basis of apparent photometric constancy. L photometry has been obtained for stars brighter than about L = 6. Most of the stars have a substantial number of UBV(RI)C observations and, it is hoped, will prove useful as red supplementary standards. Additionally, we list JHK photometry for nearly 300 Hipparcos red stars not selected as standards, as well as L photometry for the brightest stars.


CONTEXT
Recurring problems with patient safety have led to a growing interest in helping hospitals' governing bodies provide more effective oversight of the quality and safety of their services. National directives and initiatives emphasize the importance of action by boards, but the empirical basis for informing effective hospital board oversight has yet to receive full and careful review.

METHODS
This article presents a narrative review of empirical research to inform the debate about hospital boards' oversight of quality and patient safety. A systematic and comprehensive search identified 122 papers for detailed review. Much of the empirical work appeared in the last ten years, is from the United States, and employs cross-sectional survey methods.

FINDINGS
Recent empirical studies linking board composition and processes with patient outcomes have found clear differences between high- and low-performing hospitals, highlighting the importance of strong and committed leadership that prioritizes quality and safety and sets clear and measurable goals for improvement. Effective oversight is also associated with well-informed and skilled board members. External factors (such as regulatory regimes and the publication of performance data) might also have a role in influencing boards, but detailed empirical work on these is scant.

CONCLUSIONS
Health policy debates recognize the important role of hospital boards in overseeing patient quality and safety, and a growing body of empirical research has sought to elucidate that role. This review finds a number of areas of guidance that have some empirical support, but it also exposes the relatively inchoate nature of the field. Greater theoretical and methodological development is required if we are to secure more evidence-informed governance systems and practices that can contribute to safer care.


Measured sections of late Miocene basalt lava flows, Tertiary gravel, and Paleozoic strata are the basis for stratigraphic reconstructions that provide evidence for pre- and post-volcanic movements on the Oak Creek fault, and for the existence of a prevolcanic ancestral Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. Recurrent faulting, recording Laramide compression and Basin and Range extension, suggests probable control by an ancestral Oak Creek fault that would belong to a regional system of basement faults hat have controlled Colorado Plateau structures in Phanerozoic rocks. Locally derived Tertiary gravel and overlying lavas filled a canyon eroded in Paleozoic strata along the Oak Creek fault. Southward flow of ancestral Oak Creek, indicated y the lithology and geomorphic position of the gravel, valley reconstruction, and lava vents to the north, northeast, or east, requires that the regional drainage reversal on the southern Colorado Plateau occurred before late Miocene time in the Oak Creek area.


Over the last few years there has been a escalation of interest in the study of femineity and women. The term "men" is used as an unmarked omnipresent category to symbolise humanity in general. Over the last two decades feminist~ have challenged the ideological and material requirements of such definite male bias. Feminists have built their position on the notion of lithe personal is political", feminists have raised a number of questions regarding the status quo in society. In this dissertation, the researcher does not aim to fill ~ descriptive void, but to demonstrate the theories and approaches to gender as well as suggest further areas for research. In the introduction, the researcher examines the wider academic background to the study as well as raising intellectual and political issues raised by feminists and postmodern theory. A basic axiom is that new intuition into social relations follow the investigation of cultural categories that have previously been taken for granted. The chapter on India draws attention to the ways in which femineity produced within the Chipko movement impinged on the relations between colonizer and colonized. The indigenous notions of gendered difference are constantly created and transformed in everyday interactions. Relations of power are constituent parts of these interactions. This experience is never comprehensive, hence it changes over time and space.


William Grawe is the Director of the National Pollution Funds Center, located in Arlington, Virginia. In this capacity he is responsible for administering all aspects of the liability and compensation provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 including the management of the multi-billion dollar Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. He is also a member of the Marine Safety and Security Council, the Commandant's advisory council for all Coast Guard regulatory matters. Under his leadership the National Pollution Funds Center provides money for the prompt federal response to oil pollution incidents. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is also available to pay claims to those damaged by oil spills when polluters do not. The National Pollution Funds Center ensures "the polluter pays" by recovering removal costs and damages paid from the fund. Finally, the National Pollution Funds Center administers the Certificate of Financial Responsibility program ensuring that over 22,000 vessels operating in U.S. waters have the financial ability to cover their pollution liability. Mr. Grawe entered federal civilian service in 2000 as Deputy Chief of the Case Management Division of the National Pollution Funds Center, where he supervised daily activities for a 22-person division responsible for controlling nationwide expenditures from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) fund for oil and hazardous chemical responses. In this capacity, he negotiated agreements with other agencies, developed policy, implemented procedures, provided training, and coordinated information system development to facilitate the timely collection of financial data and maximize cost recovery from polluters. Mr. Grawe assumed the duties of Deputy Director in 2001 and was selected as the Director in 2015. Mr. Grawe is a retired Coast Guard officer. During his military career, his experience spanned the diverse disciplines of Coast Guard surface and ashore operations, marine safety, marine environmental protection, vessel traffic management and financial management. His active duty service included six years of sea duty in the performance of maritime law enforcement, search & rescue, and Aids to Navigation. Mr. Grawe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy and a Master of Science degree in Management from Purdue University. He is a recipient of the Coast Guard Resource Director/Comptroller Award for Excellence.


There is present in inflammatory exudates a factor which induces a prompt increase in the permeability of normal capillaries. Its liberation and presence in exudates offers a reasonable explanation for the mechanism of increased permeability of small vessels in injured tissue. A method for the isolation and purification of this permeability factor has been described. In its essential features, this consists of treating the exudate with pyridine followed by acetone. After separation of the protein fractions further purification can be obtained by prolonged extraction with butyl alcohol or by subjecting the acetone supernatant fraction to low temperature (–20°C.). The latter favors spontaneous separation of the active principle. The purified material is a crystalline doubly refractive nitrogenous substance. The factor is evidently not a protein, yet it contains amino and carboxyl groups. It gives a positive test for the presence of an indole nucleus in its structure (Adamkiewicz test). The active material is dialyzable; and it is precipitated by concentrated ammonium sulfate. The present evidence indicates that it is an intermediary breakdown product of protein metabolism, probably belonging to the group of relatively simple polypeptides. Further studies are being conducted in an endeavor to determine its precise chemical structure.


Yvor Winters (1900-1968) was a friend, colleague, and teacher to poets of several generations from Hart Crane and Allen Tate to J. V. Cunningham, Turner Cassity, and Edgar Bowers to Robert Hass, Philip Levine, and Robert Pinsky. This retrospective of one hundred poems, edited by the poet and publisher R. L. Barth, is compiled from Winters's published and unpublished work and features an introductory overview of his life and career by Helen Pinkerton Trimpi, a former student of Winters's and a distinguished scholar of American literature.


We ask three questions: What are the components of young children's conscience? How are they organized? How does early conscience develop? We discuss the changing perspectives on each of those questions. We describe the shift from a focus on a single component of conscience (moral emotions, conduct, cognition) to a growing emphasis on their integration; from a view of conscience as loosely organized to a view of a coherent system of causally related components; from a focus on older children and adolescents to young toddlers and preschoolers; and from a top-down view of parental discipline immediately following child misbehavior to a focus on mutual processes between the parent and the child that occur in multiple socialization contexts and are shaped by the history of the parent-child relationship and the child's individuality. We conclude by outlining new directions for research on early conscience.


Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), among the most energetic events in the Universe, are explosions of massive and short-lived stars, so they pinpoint locations of recent star formation. However, several GRB host galaxies have recently been found to be deficient in molecular gas (H2), believed to be the fuel of star formation. Moreover, optical spectroscopy of GRB afterglows implies that the molecular phase constitutes only a small fraction of the gas along the GRB line of sight. Here we report the first ever 21 cm line observations of GRB host galaxies, using the AustraliaTelescope Compact Array, implying high levels of atomic hydrogen (H i), which suggests that the connection between atomic gas and star formation is stronger than previously thought. In this case, it is possible that star formation is directly fuelled by atomic gas (or that the H i-to-H2 conversion is very efficient, which rapidly exhaust molecular gas), as has been theoretically shown to be possible. This can happen in low-metallicity gas near the onset of star formation because cooling of gas (necessary for star formation) is faster than the H i-to-H2 conversion. Indeed, large atomic gas reservoirs, together with low molecular gas masses, stellar, and dust masses are consistent with GRB hosts being preferentially galaxies which have very recently started a star formation episode after accreting metal-poor gas from the intergalactic medium. This provides a natural route for forming GRBs in low-metallicity environments. The gas inflow scenario is also consistent with the existence of the companion H I object with no optical counterpart ~19 kpc from the GRB 060505 host, and with the fact that the H I centroids of the GRB 980425 and 060505 hosts do not coincide with optical centres of these galaxies, but are located close to the GRB positions.


Plant tissue culture continues to be of great interest within the realms of molecular biology, plant breeding and plant health. However, different plant cultivars have different culture efficiencies to tissue culture. In this research, the response of two Kenyan sweet potato varieties, KEMB 36 and Tainurey, cultured on a low cost tissue culture medium was evaluated. The low cost medium contained plant nutrients that were obtained from locally available fertilizers. Each conventional Murashige and Skoog (MS) macronutrient was individually substituted with a locally available fertilizer. The conventional source of micronutrients was substituted with Stanes® Iodized Microfood while sucrose was obtained from table sugar. Performance of the two cultivars was monitored over a period of six weeks. KEMB 36 had a better performance than Tainurey with an average of eight nodes, seven leaves, three roots and height of four centimeters per plantlet indicating genotype-dependent response.


Research from the behavioural finance paradigm has detected bias in investors' decision making. One such bias, the disposition effect, shows that investors are reluctant to sell investments at a loss, yet are eager to sell investments at a gain. Investors vary in the extent to which they exhibit the disposition effect and research to date has found that an investor's level of sophistication and amount of experience can somewhat predict their susceptibility to this bias. Despite the disposition effect arising out of the nature of human psychology, few studies have empirically investigated psychological based explanations for susceptibility to this bias. I address this gap by applying two psychological theories to predict the susceptibility to the disposition effect: dual process theory and a model of the role of emotions and their regulation.

The thesis contains two studies on the disposition effect of UK investors, a country where investors have not previously been researched for this bias. The first study involves using survival analysis to analyse the transactions made by 4,328 UK investors from July 2006 to December 2009. The second study is a subsample ofthe first, where 261 investors completed an online questionnaire to measure the psychological variables.

I show that the average UK investor in this sample is susceptible to the disposition effect. contribute to existing knowledge about the disposition effect by showing that investor sophistication and experience attenuates, but does not eliminate, this bias. I extend knowledge on the disposition effect by showing that through the use of stop loss strategies, investors can inoculate against the disposition effect. In relation to the psychological variables, I find that investors who report higher levels of intuitive ability exhibit this bias to greater extent and investors who report a preference towards analytical cognition exhibit this bias to a lesser extent. Finally, the results tentatively show that investors who reappraise their emotions while investing, exhibit this bias to a lesser extent.


Background The association between placental malaria (PM) and first peripheral parasitaemias in early infancy was assessed in Tori Bossito, a rural area of Benin with a careful attention on transmission factors at an individual level. Methodology Statistical analysis was performed on 550 infants followed weekly from birth to 12 months. Malaria transmission was assessed by anopheles human landing catches every 6 weeks in 36 sampling houses and season defined by rainfall. Each child was located by GPS and assigned to the closest anopheles sampling house. Data were analysed by survival Cox models, stratified on the possession of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) at enrolment. Principal Findings Among infants sleeping in a house with an ITN, PM was found to be highly associated to first malaria infections, after adjusting on season, number of anopheles, antenatal care (ANC) visits and maternal severe anaemia. Infants born from a malaria infected placenta had a 2.13 fold increased risk to present a first malaria infection than those born from a non infected placenta ([1.24–3.67], p<0.01) when sleeping in a house with an ITN. The risk to present a first malaria infection was increased by 3.2 to 6.5, according to the level of anopheles exposure (moderate or high levels, compared to the absence of anopheles). Conclusions First malaria infections in early childhood can be attributed simultaneously to both PM and high levels of exposure to infected anopheles. Protective measures as Intermittent Preventive Treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) and ITNs, targeted on both mothers and infants should be reinforced, as well as the research on new drugs and insecticides. In parallel, investigations on placental malaria have to be strengthened to better understand the mechanisms involved, and thus to protect adequately the infants high risk group.


This paper has been written against the backdrop of John B. Hawkins' paper, A Suggested History of Tasmanian Aboriginal Kangaroo Skin or Sinew, Human Bone, Shell, Feather, Apple Seed & Wombat Necklaces, published in Australiana, November 2008, and the research it sparked. Hawkins proffered some contentious propositions concerning unlikely and speculative connections between Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace making and the making of so-called "Tasmanian Appleseed necklaces". Within the acknowledgements section of his paper Hawkins said that he "[looked] forward to a response to [his] article by the museum authorities, for it is only by the cut and thrust of debate that knowledge can be further enhanced". This paper takes up that challenge albeit from outside the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and totally independent of any institutional sponsorship.


This work contributes to the fundamental understanding of post-arc dielectric recovery characteristics of free-burning nitrogen arcs as a function of gas filling pressure. Arc peak current of 425 A at a frequency of 925 Hz is used throughout the experiment. The arc burns freely between two fixed electrodes without any forced gas flow. Three different filling pressures are investigated: 1 bar (atmospheric pressure), 20 bar, and 40 bar, the latter being in the supercritical region. To investigate the effect of inter- electrode gap on the recovery process, two different gap distances are used: 20 mm and 50 mm. A 10 kV high voltage pulse with a rate of rise of 150 V/µs is applied across the electrodes after current zero. To evaluate the recovery process, the time between current zero and the start of the pulse is varied from 10 µs to 10 ms. Experimental results show that the dielectric recovery performance improves with the filling pressure even in the absence of a forced gas flow. The breakdown strength is observed to recover faster for a longer electrode gap.


Introduction Nearly one century ago, Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), the only individual of slave parentage to be awarded a Ph.D. in history, began laying the foundations for the current advanced state of African American history and Black Studies. Several years after earning his doctorate from Harvard University in 1912, Woodson published his first monograph, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (New York: Putnam's, 1915), and established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). According to Woodson, the Association, which he co-founded in Chicago with George Cleveland Hall, James E. Stamps, and Alexander L. Jackson, outlined its function to encompass "the collection of sociological and historical data" on African Americans, "the study of peoples of African blood, the publishing of books in this field, and the promotion of harmony between the races by acquainting the one with the other" (Woodson 1925, p. 598). During Woodson's lifetime, the Association served as the nationally recognized movement center for the advancement of black history. Unlike most scholarly organizations during the era of segregation, black or white, the membership of the ASNLH represented a diverse cross section of the black community, including professionals, intellectuals, school teachers, non-formally trained scholars, and youth. Founded in 1926, The Journal of Negro History (hereafter JNH) was the first professional, scholarly journal devoted to the study of black history. Recognizing the lack of black owned presses, in 1922 Woodson founded the Associated Publishers in Washington, D.C. and published the first major textbook on black history, The Negro in Our History. In 1926, he received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal and launched his most famous program, Negro History Week, a multifaceted attempt at integrating black history into the public school system, raising black cultural consciousness, and dismantling American racism. During the peak of the Great Depression in 1933, Woodson published his most famous, still popular, and often mis-understood book, The Mis-Education of the Negro. Beginning in 1937, he published The Negro History Bulletin (hereafter NHB), an informative, straight-forward black history magazine which sought to introduce black history, culture, and politics to an audience beyond the JNH readership. In roughly four decades of scholarly productivity, Woodson wrote, co-authored, and/or edited more than twenty studies, more than a dozen major articles, and countless newspaper columns and book reviews. Between 1915 and 1950, Woodson developed and adopted his strategies of black uplift and proactive social reform to suit the broader transformations in American society and the black community. He adjusted smoothly to the multitude of changes generated by the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression and the New Deal, and the Second World War and its aftermath. Along with countless other professionally and nonprofessionally trained scholars, Woodson was an important member of the proto Black Studies Movement. This African American "vindicationist tradition" (Franklin 1995; Franklin and Collier-Thomas 1996) included many black scholars who during the era of Jim Crow segregation laid the foundations for the modern Black Studies Movement. W.E.B. Du Bois has probably been the most widely acknowledged member of this black scholarly tradition. While this group was by no means philosophically monolithic, they were bound together in meaningful ways. They were largely excluded from what Molefi Kete Asante has called "white stream" institutions (Asante 2001). For the most part, they did not have access to certain benefits and resources located in exclusive white scholarly outposts. They, in turn, created viable, productive autonomous academic institutions, scholarly approaches, and practical strategies for black mental and psychological liberation. Darlene Clark Hine (2003) has called these niches "parallel institutions" (p. …


ABSTRACT The data revolution has led to an increased interest in the practice of data analysis. While much has been written about statistical thinking, a complementary form of thinking that appears in the practice of data analysis is design thinking—the problem-solving process to understand the people for whom a solution is being designed. For a given problem, there can be significant or subtle differences in how a data analyst (or producer of a data analysis) constructs, creates, or designs a data analysis, including differences in the choice of methods, tooling, and workflow. These choices can affect the data analysis products themselves and the experience of the consumer of the data analysis. Therefore, the role of a producer can be thought of as designing the data analysis with a set of design principles. Here, we introduce design principles for data analysis and describe how they can be mapped to data analyses in a quantitative and informative manner. We also provide data showing variation of principles within and between producers of data analyses. Our work suggests a formal mechanism to describe data analyses based on design principles. These results provide guidance for future work in characterizing the data analytic process. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Current behavior-driven development (BDD) practices promise to engage more stakeholders in an agile software development process through the use of behavior specifications of the software product. However, current capabilities for behavior specification restrict possible feedback as they fail to reliably connect the specification with the corresponding implementation. We analyzed 14 BDD tools to observe their limitations for facilitating feedback between multiple stakeholders. We observed that the existing BDD tools differ in characteristics regarding their support for a ubiquitous language and specification format. Despite the recent attempts to write more natural language specifications, the existing tools are largely developer-oriented and limit the engagement of other participants. The analyzed tools focus mostly on asserting input values against desired business output for a BDD scenario and much less on manipulating the output itself. To tackle the aforementioned limitations, we present our prototype solution 'Moldable scenario editor' implemented in the Pharo environment. To achieve this, we allow BDD scenarios to return objects and adapt their representation to the perspective of non-technical stakeholders. We strive to engage more participants in the agile software development process by giving them different ways to experiment with behavior specifications within an IDE. For instance, we use an embedded rich text editor to illustrate how plain textual specifications can leverage the corresponding implementation. Similarly, with a combination of graphical elements, we allow users to experiment with domain objects i.e., compose new BDD tests without having to code. We speculate that such an approach can bind behavior specifications more closely to the implementation, and facilitate effective collaboration among team members.


There is an embarrassing polarization of opinions about the status of economics as an academic discipline, as reflected in epithets such as the Dismal Science and the Queen of the Social Sciences. This collection brings together some of the leading figures in the methodology and philosophy of economics to provide a thoughtful and balanced overview of the current state of debate about the nature and limits of economic knowledge. Authors with partly rival and partly complementary perspectives examine how abstract models work and how they might connect with the real world, they look at the special nature of the facts about the economy, and they direct attention towards the academic institutions themselves and how they shape economic research. These issues are thus analysed from the point of view of methodology, semantics, ontology, rhetoric, sociology, and economics of science.


In 1859, German mathematician Bernhard Riemann presented a paper to the Berlin Academy that would forever change the history of mathematics. The subject was the mystery of prime numbers, fit the heart of the presentation was an idea that Riemann had not yet proved but one that baffles mathematicians to this day. Solving the Riemann Hypothesis could change the way we do business, since prime numbers are the lynchpin for security in banking and e-commerce. It would also have a profound impact on the cutting-edge of science, affecting quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and the future of computing. Leaders in math and science are trying to crack the elusive code, and a prize of $1 million has been offered to the winner. In this engaging book, Marcus du Sautoy reveals the extraordinary history behind the holy grail of mathematics and the ongoing quest to capture it.


To improve efficiency and reduce costs, many organisations in the United Kingdom and other industrialised countries have embarked on outsourcing practices for resources such as skills and products. The objective of the study was to determine whether being in-house or outsourced has a significant effect on an employee's work outcomes i.e. work adjustment, job satisfaction and organisation commitment. And if they do, which of the two employment contracts has a higher effect on which outcome or outcomes. In-house and outsourced employees from two major London-based teaching hospitals and one mid-sized hospital, and three major London-based colleges were studied. In the case of hospitals, agency (outsourced) nurses were compared with their in-house counterparts. For the college employees, supply (outsourced) teachers were compared with their in- house counterparts. In-house business administration staffs of the above hospitals and colleges were compared with their outsourced (agency) counterparts. The above organisations and occupations were selected for the study because they had large numbers of outsourced employees and exhibited a variety of working conditions, management styles and organisational cultures. The employees were compared on five work adjustment behaviour indicators (below), satisfaction with: career progress made nature of work and overall organisational atmosphere, and affective organisational commitment. The work adjustment behaviour indicators were: The extent to which an individual pursued the organisation's work values. The extent to which an individual sought to meet job demands. The extent to which an individual sought to adhere to the organisation's norms and traditions. The extent to which an individual sought to adjust to the overall organisational atmosphere. The extent to which an individual sought to maintain the organisation's standards. A survey method was used to collect the data as it was deemed the most appropriate strategy, and questionnaires were sent to the employees of the above organisations. Regression analysis, one-way and two-way analyses of variance, and discriminant analysis were used to test the posited hypotheses. The results were supportive of the main hypothesis that 'an in-house employment contract relates to (or predicts) an individual's work adjustment, job satisfaction and organisational commitment differently from an outsourced employment contract'. The general pattern was that in-house employees were better adjusted, had higher job satisfaction and were more positively affectively committed than their outsourced counterparts. However, there were exceptions, which were discussed and explained. Work adjustment - conceived as a fundamental and primary outcome - was used as an explanatory framework. It was also found that the work adjustment process differed in different occupations. This differentiation between occupations in adjustment to work represented a step forward in our understanding of this area of organisational behaviour. The contribution and implications of the findings were explained. Recommendations for further study using longitudinal analysis and standardised work adjustment questionnaires were made. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).


A glasshouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of composting coffee pulp with phosphate rock on phosphorus (P) availability for plant uptake. Coffee pulps composted with or without phosphate rock and Minjingu phosphate rock applied alone were evaluated as source of P for tomato growing on a Chromic Acrisol. All P sources were applied at varying rates of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mg P kg-1 and all other limiting nutrients were adjusted to recommend levels using industrial fertilizers and/or reagent grade laboratory salts. Phosphorus uptake of tomato plants receiving coffee pulp composted alone, Minjingu phosphate rock alone and coffee pulp composted with Minjingu phosphate rock increased 11, 13 and 18 times above the control. Observed P concentrations in tomato plants receiving external P sources were 23, 36%and 110% of the concentrations in control plants. Composting coffee pulp with Minjingu phosphate rock was concluded as a potential technique for improving phosphorus availability and uptake by tomato.

 Key words: phosphate rock, coffee pulp, phosphate rock enriched compost, tomato, phosphorus uptake.


General Wellness Products (GWP) are widely used by consumers, human physiology scientists, and healthcare practitioners. However, current research on GWP accuracy is limited and often reports large inaccuracies. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the Withings BodyCardio for accuracy in the measurement of body composition and arterial health when compared against gold standard laboratory measurements. Methods: Healthy, young males (N=10) and females (N=10) were assessed for measures of body composition and pulse-wave velocity (PWV) in a randomized order utilizing air displacement plethysmography (BodPod), applanation tonometry (SphygmoCor), and the Withings BodyCardio. Measures of body composition and PWV were compared with criterion measures using the Bland-Altman analysis and mean absolute percent error (MAPE). Results: Data is reported as Bias (95% Confidence Interval). The BodyCardio overestimated PWV by 0.68 m/s (-0.16, 1.51) and fat mass by 2.91 kg (-2.91, 8.73). BodyCardio PWV and fat mass estimations had a MAPE of 9.7% and 25.8%, respectively. The BodyCardio underestimated body mass and fat-free mass by 0.11 kg (-0.41, 0.18) and 2.87 kg (-9.04, 3.30), respectively. BodyCardio body mass and fat-free mass estimations had a MAPE of 0.15% and 5.6%, respectively. Discussion: The Withings BodyCardio should be used cautiously for measures of fat mass and fat-free mass, although it provides accurate measures of body mass and PWV.