Abstract The genomes of male and female turbot, Psetta maxima (Linnaeus, 1758), were screened for sex-specific sequences by comparative random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assays performed on pooled samples. As turbot females grow much faster than males, there is an increasing interest in differentiating between the sexes, and such markers would enable the sexing of individuals even at early stages of development. Four sex-associated DNA markers, with molecular sexing efficiencies ranging from 77 to 90%, were identified and further characterized. Two markers were identified from pooled female samples, one from pooled male samples (both sets collected from the wild), whereas a fourth marker was found in the female pool of farm-bred siblings. Parallel application of the three markers isolated from wild-caught individuals yielded a combined molecular sexing efficiency of 90% in males and 83.3% in females. While the three markers isolated from the wild should be useful to predict the sex in natural turbot populations, the fourth marker showed sex-association limited only to the family where it was isolated from. Nonetheless, it can be used for molecular sexing of brooders originating from the target family and potentially their offspring as well. The application of such molecular sex markers with limited scope is a potential strategy in aquaculture for those species for which no universal sex marker is available.


In this paper we analyse (semi-)permanent advisory bodies in the field of education (education councils) in Europe. Such advisory bodies are often set up by government to increase policy legitimacy. To the extent that their members are strongly concerned and knowledgeable stakeholders, advisory bodies are expected to contribute to policy decisions that are more efficient and effective (output legitimacy). At the same time, these advisory processes are supposed to contribute to democracy, as they strengthen the input and process legitimacy of policy making. Stakeholders are provided with a point of access to the policy making arena (input legitimacy) and the process of advice production is supposed to follow certain norms such as transparency, fairness, and deliberation (process legitimacy). However, such advisory bodies operate in a competitive policy environment where advice is coming from multiple sources and with different claims to legitimacy. Therefore, they have to be able to gain and sustain access to the policy making process. Not only the advice itself needs to be of high quality and of high relevance, the advisory body itself also needs to establish and maintain a high status in order for their advice to be taken into account. Advisory bodies are hence challenged to function as 'boundary organisations', bridging the worlds of science, state and society, tailoring to the needs of different actors. In this paper we analyse the role and functioning of education councils as boundary organisations, on the basis of recent comparative research in which six European education councils were studied (Greek, Spanish, Flemish, Portuguese, Dutch and Estonian council).


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between researchers' social media (SM) behavior and their academic performance.

Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 362 researchers was recruited from the colleges of management of 52 Chinese universities. A factor analysis of eight indices retrieved from the 362 data items was conducted. A total of 24 Chinese researchers were interviewed and given a robust test.

Findings
The results indicate that Chinese general social media (GSM) is insufficient to support academic research and it is difficult for scholars to enhance the visibility of their academic performance using GSM platforms, which can actually induce addiction. University resources, management systems, and working environment affect how scholars apply SM.

Research limitations/implications
The authors examined the researchers' SM behavior by giving them a questionnaire and interview; however, this approach proved inadequate. The academic performance of researchers is affected by numerous factors, but the authors only considered SM behavior.

Practical implications
It is suggested that universities apply academic social media (ASM) indicators to measure researchers' contributions so that they self-regulate their SM usage attitudes. Also, universities should also promote ASM platforms.

Originality/value
This study analyzed scholars' GSM usage and academic performance, and the moderating effect of university level on the relationship between need for competence and relatedness and need for autonomy. This comprehensive analysis contributes to the scholarly SM usage literature.


This paper discusses self-perceived observations of social media use among undergraduate students. 132 media diaries are analyzed in order to identify media usage patterns and profiles. The purpose was to go beyond a typical snapshot acquired from a cross-sectional survey design. The students were asked to report in detail of their media use and to reflect on their behavior. The diaries have been analyzed using NVivo with the focus on the explication of the students own reflections on their media and social media consumption. Results show four different media consumption profiles. Most of the students were active social media users. An interesting finding is that 17 % of the students experience their social media behavior as problematic and their reflections revealed strong negative emotions. The perception of negative behavior is expressed as a feeling of shame, guilt, and embarrassment.


The purpose of the UDROP proposal is to prevent debt rollover crises for foreign-currency-enominated debt instruments. For such liabilities, there is no international analogue to the domestic lender of last resort or to domestic deposit insurance. UDROP stands for Universal Debt Rollover Option with a Penalty. Our proposal is that all foreign currency liabilities should have a rollover option attached to them. The ''pure'' version of the option would entitle the borrower to extend or roll over his performing debt at maturity for a specified period. The pricing of the option would be left to the contracting parties. A number of variants on the basic version are also considered. These make the individual borrower''s ability to exercise his option contingent on the prior declaration of a state of ''disorderly markets'', by the national central bank, the International Monetary Fund or an indicator of ''disorderly markets''. All versions of the scheme have the property that no commitment of public money is required, either by national governments or by international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. The UDROP proposal is rule based and general: it is mandatory for all foreign-currency debt and automatic. That is, it is exercised at the discretion of the borrower. This stands in sharp contrast to the current practice of discretionary and politicised refinancing arrangements cobbled together in an ad-hoc manner on a case-by-case basis by the International Monetary Fund. UDROP is market-oriented: the terms and conditions on any foreign-currency loan and associated rollover option would be negotiated by the lenders and borrowers.


During World War II, Finland evacuated 70 000 to 80 000 children to other Nordic countries. This forced displacement has had long-standing effects on individuals' and communities' sense of belonging. In my article, I ask how the spatial trauma of the early childhood displacement becomes visualised. What kind of embodied practices and visual narratives of displacement are found among Finnish war children? Embodied spatial experiences are sought in war child Pekka Suokas's childhood drawings from the years 1944–1945. The collective dimension of spatial belonging is analysed in the visual narratives and practices of war children. I conclude by discussing how the visual representations aim to challenge the hegemonic national identity discourse of the Finnish war.


We present results from the first directed search for nontensorial gravitational waves. While general relativity allows for tensorial (plus and cross) modes only, a generic metric theory may, in principle, predict waves with up to six different polarizations. This analysis is sensitive to continuous signals of scalar, vector, or tensor polarizations, and does not rely on any specific theory of gravity. After searching data from the first observation run of the advanced LIGO detectors for signals at twice the rotational frequency of 200 known pulsars, we find no evidence of gravitational waves of any polarization. We report the first upper limits for scalar and vector strains, finding values comparable in magnitude to previously published limits for tensor strain. Our results may be translated into constraints on specific alternative theories of gravity.


Abstract Er,Cr:YSGG lasers are currently being investigated for disinfecting the root canal treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of various irrigation protocols on push-out bond strength of fiber posts. Fifty maxillary anterior teeth were divided into five groups (n = 10) according to the protocol that applied into the post space. Group-1: distilled water, Group-2: 5% NaOCl, Group-3: 2% CHX, Group-4: Er,Cr:YSGG laser (1.5 W, 20 Hz, 85 air, 75 water, 26.7 J/cm2), Group-5: Er,Cr:YSGG laser (1.25 W, 50 Hz, 34 air, 24 water, 12.7 J/cm2). Fiber posts were cemented with resin cement. The remaining part of the root, three slices were obtained from each specimen and push-out test was performed. One-way ANOVA and Duncan's test at a 5% level of significance were used for the statistical analysis. Post space irradiation with Er,Cr:YSGG laser (1.5 W 20 Hz, 85 air, 75 water, 26.7 J/cm2) increases push-out bond strength of fiber post to root canal dentin. Further investigations are needed to establish and optimize ER,Cr:YSGG laser parameters to increase the push-out bond strength of fiber posts.


Background The role of therapeutic interchange (TI) has increased substantially in recent years as a result of the rapid expansion in the number of drugs within similar therapeutic classes. Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of the angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB-II) TI protocol used in our hospital. Materials and methods A retrospective cross-sectional study which included hypertensive patients who were switched to losartan between January and May 2011. Primary response variable: proportion of patients maintaining blood pressure values (BP) within the established therapeutic target for prevention of cardiovascular events (130/80 in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) or chronic renal failure (CRF) and 140/90 in the rest of the patients). Other variables: difference between BP values the month prior to admission (BP1) and after 8 days of the TI (BP2). The analysis was performed using STATGRAPHICS PLUS 5.1 program. A total of 104 patients were analysed, with a mean age of 75.5 years (range 39–96). There was also a subanalysis of patients with associated risk factors (CRF and/or DM). Results The analysis of the total population, the BP1 (DBP±SD/SBP±SD) average was 74.6±10.8/138.6±16.9 mm Hg and the BP2 69.9±10.7/131.6±20.5 mm Hg. The proportion of patients who maintained BP values within the established therapeutic goal at home was 39%. After the TI, this proportion increased to 64%. In the subgroup of patients with associated risk factors, the BP-1 was 74.9±11.1/139.0±16.8 mm Hg and the BP-2 67.8±10.9/131.2±22.9 mm Hg. The proportion of patients controlled at home was 21% and 53% after the TI. Conclusions The effectiveness of TI of ARBs in hypertensive patients studied, including patients with associated risk factors, was high, allowing the BP control not only to be maintained but even improved. The decrease in blood pressure found in our study should be studied further in order to evaluate the effect of better treatment adherence in the hospital compared to home.


Context: With the changing lifestyle in modern society, the youth has become the target of substantial noise exposure. Both environmental noise and the use of personal electronic devices create a risk for youth's hearing conservation as reported in several studies. Aims: This study aims to adapt and validate the Youth Attitude to Noise Scale (YANS), developed by Widén and Erlandsson for use in the Turkish setting. Settings and Design: The linguistic adaptation of the YANS into Turkish (YANS-Tr) was conducted with three experts in linguistics. A cross-sectional study was designed for high school students to establish the evidence for the reliability and validity of the scale. Methods and Material: 345 high school students participated in the pilot study. The demographic data form developed by the researcher was used to retrieve the information related to participants. Lastly, the 19-item YANS-Tr was delivered to students. Statistical analysis used: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed for the construct validity. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated for each dimension and the whole scale. Results: Four-dimensional structure was yielded for the YANS-Tr as in the original version of the scale. However, some items (8th, 10th, 18th, and 19th) were loaded under different dimensions. The reliability coefficient of the scale (Cronbach's α = 0.79) was within the acceptable range. The mean overall YANS-Tr score was 2.68. When the mean scores are compared with other countries, Turkey stands higher than Sweden (2.10), close to Serbia (2.76) and Brazil (2.80), and lower than Belgium (3.10) and China (3.46). Conclusions: The YANS-Tr is shown to be a valid and reliable assessment tool to evaluate the students' attitude to noise in Turkey.


OF DISSERTATION PSYCHOSOCIAL FUNCTIONING IN ADOLESCENTS WITH TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS Psychosocial functioning is a key component of screening and treatment of Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) in adults; however, psychosocial functioning in adolescents with TMD has received little empirical attention. The present study aims to examine group difference between adolescents and adults with TMD on pain and prominent psychosocial factors, such as anxiety, depression, and somatization, as well as to explore additional developmentally sensitive psychosocial factors that may be associated more with the adolescent TMD pain. Participants included 35 adolescents aged 12-17 (M=14.89 years, SD=1.84) with TMD muscle pain who completed pain questionnaires and a comprehensive dental examination. Patients and their primary caregivers completed behavioral questionnaires to examine psychosocial functioning. Thirty-five adults matched on gender, diagnosis, and duration of pain were selected from a large pre-existing database of previous orofacial pain patients. Adolescents and adults reported descriptively similar TMD pain and equivalent rates of anxiety, depression, and somatization; however, the relationship between these psychosocial factors and TMD pain appear to be more salient for adults compared to adolescents. In adolescents, increased pain-related interference was significantly associated with positive attitudes toward school, better anger control, and deficits in functional communication; whereas, more frequent TMD pain was significantly associated with sense of inadequacy and parent-reported withdrawal, though not in the expected direction. Screening for TMD in adults typically focuses on anxiety, depression, and somatization; however, these psychosocial factors overall did not appear as salient in adolescents as attitude toward school, anger control, sense of inadequacy, withdrawal, and functional communication, suggesting that adult psychosocial screen may need to be revised to include developmentally sensitive targets that may be particularly important for screening of TMD in adolescents.


What distinguishes the rule of law from the lawless, arbitrary rule of brute force — which can almost interchangeably be described as tyranny or as anarchy — is that in a lawful rule the government's coercive power operates according to principles of generality, regularity, fairness, rationality and public-orientation, whereas the arbitrary or lawless ruler wields power in the service of his (or their) own self-interest, or by mere ipse dixit. Law is to arbitrariness as reason is to mere will. In this paper, I explore the dichotomy between lawful and arbitrary rule as it has been represented in literature. I examine first the primal foundation of lawful rule, as depicted in Aeschylus' Oresteia, in which law is generated by domesticating the use of force, through persuasion and willing union. Athena creates lawful order, not by fiat, but by marrying the Furies to "Persuasion": the ambient coercive powers of the people — morally justified, yet dangerously personal urges for vengeance — will now be rationalized in accordance with public, logical, and articulable principles. By contrast, in Shakespeare's Richard III, we witness the subversion and near-destruction of lawful order by a man who will tear apart the newly framed lawful order and make the state serve his own private ends. The contrast of these two dramas reveals that the tyrant is essentially a solipsist: his ultimate goal is to make the real world obey his say-so. And if law is like love, the tyrant is like the rapist: the forced surrender of intimacy is the best facsimile of love the solipsist can create; but it can never actually be love, because the two are separated by the same invisible and impenetrable boundary that separates truth from falsehood, or genuine loyalty from the rule of terror.I conclude with a look at the dissenter living in a lawless order, as depicted in two variations on the story of Antigone — the first by Sophocles and the second by Jean Anouilh. In both, the lawless, arbitrary rule is challenged in the name of law, and in each, the ruler nearly succeeds in substituting his private realm of mere words for the public realm of actual things. What emerges from this study is that the basic premise of all lawful order — the root of all secure liberty — is that there is a gap between the will of the ruler and the genuine law. Whenever such a gap exists — whenever it is meaningful to deliberate over whether the ruler's commands are, in fact, law — the society will, to that extent, become one of lawful order and of (at least some) freedom. The link between tyranny and solipsism is that where the ruler's will is accounted the law, there can be no genuine law, and thus no freedom. The paradox whereby tyranny is lawless is explained by the fact that tyranny is an attempt to impose by convention what does not originate in nature — and in the end, neither physical nature nor the nature of human relationships can be subjected to such commands. The ultimate demand of the lawless ruler(s) is to substitute his (or their) word for the world — to compel the subject to love him (or them). And because that can never be accomplished, arbitrary rule is doomed to eventual collapse.


Abstract. Aerosol simulations in chemistry transport models (CTMs) still suffer from numerous uncertainties, and diagnostic evaluations are required to point out major error sources. This paper presents an original approach to evaluate CTMs based on local and imported contributions in a large megacity rather than urban background concentrations. The study is applied to the CHIMERE model in the Paris region (France) and considers the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its main chemical constituents (elemental and organic carbon, nitrate, sulfate and ammonium), for which daily measurements are available during a whole year at various stations (PARTICULES project). Back-trajectory data are used to locate the upwind station, from which the concentration is identified as the import, the local production being deduced from the urban concentration by subtraction. Uncertainties on these contributions are quantified. Small biases in urban background PM2.5 simulations (bias of +16%) hide significant error compensations between local and advected contributions, as well as in PM2.5 chemical compounds. In particular, winter time organic matter (OM) imports appear strongly underestimated while local OM and elemental carbon (EC) production is overestimated all along the year. Erroneous continental wood burning emissions and missing secondary organic aerosol (SOA) pathways may explain errors on advected OM, while the carbonaceous compounds is likely to be related to errors in emissions and dynamics. A statistically significant local formation of nitrate is also highlighted from observations, but missed by the model. Together with the overestimation of nitrate imports, it leads to a bias of +51% on the local PM2.5 contribution. Such an evaluation finally gives more detailed insights on major gaps in current CTMs on which future efforts are needed.


Contact thermal lithography is a method for fabricating patterns based on thermal effects. In contrast to photolithography, where resolution is limited by the wavelength of light used in the exposure process, thermal lithography is limited by thermal diffusion. A traditional metal-glass photomask is brought into contact with a wafer coated with a thermally sensitive polymer. The mask-wafer combination is flashed briefly with high intensity light, causing the metal features to heat up and conduct heat locally to the polymer. The polymer cross-links due to the temperature rise and forms an image of the mask. Simple models are presented to analyze the heating process and select appropriate geometries and heating times. In addition, an experimental version of a contact thermal lithography system has been constructed. Early results from this system are presented, along with suggestions for future development.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


A novel method of preparing substituted pyridines has been developed. This method uses readily available [3-ketoesters and amidrazone as starting materials. The pyridines obtained do not require purification and different substitution patterns, not available by known methods, can be obtained. The formation of 1,2,3-tricarbonyl compounds was achieved by oxidation of the alcohol precursors, following two different methods. a-Chloro-ct-acetoxy-f3-dicarbonyls were prepared in excellent yields and were shown to react as tricarbonyl equivalents in the formation of 1,2,4-triazines. Regioselective condensation reactions were observed between different amidrazones with tricarbonyl and tricarbonyl equivalents to produce a series of novel 1,2,4-triazines in good yields with no contamination by any regioisomer. When 1,2,4-triazines were obtained from a-chloro-a-acetoxy-P-dicarbonyls, 2.5 equivalents of amidrazone were required. However, decomposition of a-chloro-a-acetoxy-P-dicarbonyls prior to reaction with 1 equivalent of amidrazone yielded the 1,2,4-triazines in good yields. These 1,2,4-triazines underwent aza Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions with 2,5- norbornadiene to give a series of novel 2,3,6-trisubstituted pyridines. The pyridines bearing electron withdrawing groups as substituents could also be obtained in a 'one- pot' reaction from their corresponding tricarbonyls or tricarbonyl derivatives. The 1,2,4- triazines bearing electron donating groups could be converted to their corresponding pyridines either by changing the reaction conditions or, when possible, by conversion of the electron donating group into a more electron withdrawing substituent by oxidation (e.g. sulphoxide substituent). Pyridines bearing a sulphoxide substituent undergo nucleophilic substitutions, giving great scope to introduce different functionality in the C-6 of the pyridines.


Title of dissertation: DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF NON-PREMIXED FLAME EXTINCTION PHENOMENA Praveen Narayanan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Arnaud Trouvé Department of Fire Protection Engineering Non-premixed flame extinction phenomena are relevant in a variety of combusting environments, including but hardly limited to diesel engines, pool fires, and fire suppression scenarios. These disparate phenomena are controlled by various parameters that contain information on flame stretch, heat losses, composition of the fuel and oxidizer supply streams, etc. Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is used in the present study to provide fundamental insight on diffusion flame extinction under non-adiabatic combustion conditions. The list of DNS configurations include: (C1) counterflow laminar flames with soot formation and thermal radiation transport; (C2) coflow turbulent flames with soot formation and thermal radiation transport; (C3) counterflow laminar and turbulent flames interacting with a mist-like water spray. Configurations C1 and C2 use single-step chemistry while configuration C3 uses detailed chemistry (all cases correspond to ethylene-air combustion). Configuration C1 is also treated using large Activation Energy Asymptotics (AEA). The AEA analysis is based on a classical formulation that is extended to include thermal radiation transport with both emission and absorption effects; the analysis also includes soot dynamics. The AEA analysis provides a flame extinction criterion in the form of a critical Damköhler number criterion. The DNS results are used to test the validity of this flame extinction criterion. In configuration C1, the flame extinction occurs as a result of flame stretch or radiative cooling; a variation of configuration C1 is considered in which the oxidizer stream contains a variable amount of soot mass. In configuration C1, flame weakening occurs as a result of radiative cooling; this effect is magnified by artificially increasing the mean Planck soot absorption coefficient. In configuration C3, flame extinction occurs as a result of flame stretch and evaporative cooling. In all studied cases, the critical Damköhler number criterion successfully predicts transition to extinction; this result supports the unifying concept of a flame Damköhler number Da and the idea that different extinction phenomena may be described by a single critical value of Da. DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF NON-PREMIXED FLAME EXTINCTION PHENOMENA


This paper explores how water temperature changes in a district heating system (DHS) impact the monitoring of water losses. Water volume in DHS is constantly monitored, recorded, and replenished. The leakage and failure status of the DHS is often monitored through measuring the make-up water flow rate. In this paper, we present the methodology and a simplified model of the dynamics of the heating system operation, which was used to determine the profile of changes in the average temperature and density of water in the system. The mathematical model of the district heating network (DHN) was verified by comparing the results of simulation calculations, i.e., calculated values of the temperature of water returning to the heat source, with the measured values. Fluctuations in water temperature cause changes in the density and volume of water in the DHN, which affect the amount of water supplementing the system. This is particularly noticeable in a DHN with a large water volume. The study reports an analysis of measurement results of operating parameters of a major DHS in Poland (city of Szczecin). Hourly measurements were made of supply and return water temperature, water flow rate, and pressure throughout the whole of 2019. The water volume of the analyzed DHN is almost 42,000 m3 and the changes in water volume per hour are as high as 5 m3/h, representing 20–30% of the value of the make-up water flow rate. The analysis showed that systems for monitoring the tightness of the DHS and detecting failures, on the basis of measurements of the make-up water flow rate, should take into account the dynamics of water volume changes in the DHN.


One of the characteristics of Civil Construction is its ability to absorb a wide range of wastes to produce new products. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the behavior of cement plates produced with the addition of ground glass wool waste and in natura, in shredded form. The tensile strength tests in bending and permeability were performed, according to ABNT NBR 15498: 2007 as well as environmental ones according to ABNT NBR 10004: 2004. The plates produced in this study were characterized as being impermeable, with a satisfactory tensile strength in bending and being classified as plates for indoor and outdoor use, and as products that do not offer immediate risk to health and to the environment; however, it should be discarded in landfill.


We report on top-illuminated, fluorine tin oxide/indium tin oxide-free (FTO/ITO-free), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using room-temperature-processed ZnO layers on metal substrates as the working electrodes and Pt-coated Ga-doped ZnO layers (GZO) as the counter electrodes. These top-illuminated DSCs with GZO render comparable efficiency to those employing commercial FTO counter electrodes. Despite a lower current density, the top-illuminated DSCs result in a higher fill factor than conventional DSCs due to a low ohmic loss at the electrode/semiconductor interface. The effect of metal substrate on the performance of the resulting top-illuminated DSCs is also studied by employing various metals with different work functions. Ti is shown to be a suitable metal to be used as the working electrode in the top-illuminated device architecture owing to its low ohmic loss at the electrode/semiconductor interface, minimum catalytic activity on redox reactions and high resistance to corrosion by liquid electrolytes.


In the Republic of Korea, Multi-regional water supply pipelines were intensively laid during the rapid economic growth period; However, these pipelines are now aging. The cost of renewal of the aged pipelines would be enormous. Therefore, limited resources need to be distributed effectively in accordance with the priority of renewal. In this study, the risks involved in the multi-regional water supply pipeline of region K, were calculated and assessed for setting the priority of renewal. The probability of failure of the pipeline was calculated through a quantification theory, and the effects of failure on the water supply pipeline were calculated by interpreting a pressure driven analysis. The risk considering the probability and consequence of failure comprehensively was found to be the largest at section A12. Three alternatives were considered for risk reduction, and the effect of each alternative on the risk reduction was analyzed. As a result, the construction of double piping by laying a new pipeline was found to be the most effective measure for risk reduction. The results of this study can be utilized as the basic data for establishing an investment plan for the renewal of the water supply pipeline and asset management plan.


Population outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planei L.) represent one of the most significant, but also least understood processes affecting coral reef communities. Limited understanding of crown-of-thorns outbreaks is due, at least in part, to a critical lack of data on the structure and dynamics of A. planci populations. Therefore, this study examined fine-scale (within reef) patterns in the size structure, distribution, and abundance of starfish populations, during an outbreak of A. planci in the northern Great Barrier Reef. The outbreak resulted from steady and prolonged increase in starfish densities, over a three year period. Furthermore, starfish populations comprised individuals from at least four different year classes, suggesting that the outbreak was caused by progressive accumulation of starfish from multiple recruitment events. Overall densities of A. planci increased to 1.0 starfish per 200m ² (±0.1 SE), in January 1997, and then remained fairly constant until June 1998, after which time starfish densities declined rapidly. During the outbreak, densities of A. planci varied greatly among locations (separated by 0.5-8km), and also between reef zones ( 7 metres) in some exposed locations. Fine-scale patterns in the distribution and abundance of A. planci were partly attributable to spatial variation in wave exposure (whereby starfish avoid turbulent environments), but also resulted from spatial patterns established at settlement.

Outbreak populations of A. planci caused substantial coral mortality, and also significantly altered the structure of coral communities. Scleractinian coral cover declined by 32%, from a mean of 32.2% cover (± 1.1SE) in October 1996 down to 21.9% cover (± 1.2SE) in January 1999. The impacts of A. planci were however, very patchy. At the most severely affected locations (in sheltered back reef habitats) coral cover declined by 72% between 1996 and 1999, whereas at several other locations (e.g., lagoonal habitats) there was no observable change in scleractinian coral cover. Crown-of-thorns starfish also had varying impacts among different coral species, caused by significant selectivity in their patterns of feeding. In general, starfish had a disproportionate impact on fast growing branching corals (e.g. Acropora spp. and pocilloporids), tending to avoid slow growing massive corals (e.g., Diploastrea spp., Porites spp.).

Crown-of-thorns starfish are well adapted to feed on a wide range of different coral prey, and it is not known why they consistently target a restricted suite of different coral species. Herein, I tested the role of coral symbionts in structuring the feeding preferences of A. planci, for common branching coral species (Acropora spp. and pocilloporids). To test the role of coral symbionts, this study compared feeding preferences of A. planci for six different coral species, with and without their usual complement of coral symbionts. Crown-of-thorns starfish had a clearly defined hierarchy of preference for the six different corals when they contained symbionts (Acropora gemmifera > A. nasuta = A. lorzpes > Seriatopora hystrix > Pocillopora damicornis > Stylophora pistillata). In contrast, when coral symbionts were removed, starfish readily consumed all six corals and did not exhibit any significant selectivity. For the six coral species tested, it is clear that coral symbionts (and particularly trapeziid crabs) do have a marked influence on the feeding preferences of crown-of-thorns starfish. However, despite the protection provided by coral symbionts, Acropora and pocilloporid corals were among the first corals eaten by field populations of A. planci. Therefore, other factors (e.g., the size, morphology, chemical defence and/ or nutritional value of corals) may be more important in determining overall feeding preferences of A. planci (across a broader range of different coral species).

Clearly, crown-of-thorns starfish have a major impact on coral communities, but impacts of starfish outbreaks may also extend to a wider range of reef associated organisms, such as coral reef fishes. Despite a close association between reef fishes and benthic habitats, there has been little consideration for how disturbances to benthic reef habitats (particularly, extensive reductions in coral cover) affect coral reef fishes. It is likely that impacts will be most pronounced in those fish species which exhibit a direct reliance on scleractinian corals, such as coral feeding butterflyfishes. This study examined long-term changes in the distribution and abundance of butterflyfishes throughout the course of a crown-of-thorns outbreak. Depletion of scleractinian corals resulted in significant reductions in the abundance of seven butterflyfish species (Chaetodon auriga, C. citrinellus, C. kleinii, C. plebius, C. rainfordi, C. trifascialis, and C. unimaculatus), whereas there was no change in the abundance of C. aureofasciatus, C. baronessa, C. ephippium, C. lunulatus, C. melannotus or C. vagabundus. Chaetodon species affected by coral depletion mostly had a high dependence on live coral for food. However, at least on non-coral feeding butterflyfish, C. auriga, was also affected. Among corallivorous butterflyfish, impacts of coral depletion varied in accordance with their degree of feeding specialisation. For example, declines in the abundance of the coral-feeding specialist, C. trifascialis were much more pronounced than declines in the abundance of the generalist coral feeding species C. baronessa. Chaetodon baronessa responded to the depletion of prey resource by expanding both the range of prey it consumed and also its depth distribution, thereby mediating impacts of resource depletion on its population size. This study demonstrates that major disturbances to coral reef habitats can have significant follow-on affects for coral feeding butterflyfishes. However, the specific responses of individual species vary in accordance with their diet, distribution and ecological versatility (specialist versus generalist).

In addition to feeding on scleractinian coral, many reef fish species also rely on scleractinian corals for shelter. Therefore, declines in coral cover may lead to a reduction in habitat availability, and corresponding declines in the local abundance of coral reef fishes. This study explores changes in the abundance and habitat associations of six coral-dwelling damselfish species, during extensive and wide-spread reductions in the availability of suitable host corals, caused by outbreak populations of A. planci. Coral-dwelling damselfishes occupied a very limited suite of available habitat categories, showing strong preference for only a limited range of habitat types (mostly specific coral species). Patterns of habitat use by coral-dwelling damselfish were also very consistent among locations and between years, despite significant variation in both the total abundance of corals and the relative abundance of different coral species. Live coral cover declined by 16-59% at locations affected by A. planci, causing declines in the abundance of Chromis viridis, Dascyllus aruanus, D. reticulatus and Pomacentrus moluccensis, but not C. atripectoralis or P. amboinensis. Species not affected (C. atripectoralis and P. amboinensis) often inhabited skeletons of dead corals, whereas all other species were strongly dependent on live coral as shelter. Variation in the abundance of obligate coral-dwelling species (C. viridis, D. aruanus, D. reticulatus and P.moluccensis) was strongly associated with variation in the abundance of corals that they most frequently occupied. This study demonstrates that infestations of A. planci can significantly [a]ffect the distributions and abundances of reef fishes with strong dependence on live corals.


We present a kernel-based algorithm for hierarchical text classification where the documents are allowed to belong to more than one category at a time. The classification model is a variant of the Maximum Margin Markov Network framework, where the classification hierarchy is represented as a Markov tree equipped with an exponential family defined on the edges. We present an efficient optimization algorithm based on incremental conditional gradient ascent in single-example subspaces spanned by the marginal dual variables. Experiments show that the algorithm can feasibly optimize training sets of thousands of examples and classification hierarchies consisting of hundreds of nodes. The algorithm's predictive accuracy is competitive with other recently introduced hierarchical multi-category or multilabel classification learning algorithms.


Buddhism, particularly Zen, is by far the most widely recognized extratheatrical influence on Zeami's drama theory and practice. This article argues that while Zeami draws extensively on Buddhist ideas to conceptualize his performance practices and especially to describe the relations between actor and audience, Confucianism is the fundamental influence on his thinking about nō. Confucianism establishes the purpose of nō as a performing art, namely, to promote peace and harmony among the people. To Zeami, the distinctive way that nō can realize this purpose is by fostering empathy in the audience through their identification with the experience and feelings of the characters on stage. This conviction inspires his lifelong search for the most effective means of engaging the audience in this process of identification. He regularly resorts to Buddhist aesthetic, psychological, and philosophical ideas to elucidate those means. But the purpose they serve always retains its Confucian inspiration.


An extensive literature has studied lobbying by special interest groups. We analyze a novel lobbying channel: lobbying businessmen-politicians through business proxies. When a politician controls a business, firms attempting to curry favors shift their spending towards the politician's business. The politician benefits from increased revenues, and the firms hope for favorable regulation in return. We investigate this channel in Italy where government members, including the prime minister, are not required to divest business holdings. We examine the evolution of advertising spending by firms over the period 1994 to 2009, during which Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister on and off three times, while maintaining control of Italy's major private television network, Mediaset. We predict that firms attempting to curry favor with the government shift their advertising budget towards Berlusconi's channels when Berlusconi is in power. Indeed, we document a significant pro-Mediaset bias in the allocation of advertising spending during Berlusconi's political tenure. This pattern is especially pronounced for companies operating in more regulated sectors, as predicted. Using a model of supply and demand in the advertising market, we estimate one billion euros of extra revenue to Berlusconi's group. We also estimate the expected returns in regulation to politically motivated spenders of similar magnitude, stressing the economic importance of this lobbying channel. These findings provide an additional rationale for rules on conflict of interest.


The complaints on the adoption of Arabic by the Copts that are voiced by the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Samuel have often been quoted as the expiring words of the dying Coptic language. This article seeks to show that they are not to be taken so literally, and that they should rather be inserted in the context of a rift within the medieval Coptic church over the question of language choice, and beyond this, over that of accommodation with the Muslims. The use of Arabic by the episcopal church of Miṣr and by some prominent figures around it, which was linked to their proximity to the Fatimid court, was resented and denounced by more traditional circles, centred on the Patriarchate and on some important monasteries such as the one at Qalamūn where the Apocalypse was written. The suggestion is also made that the text is contemporary with the beginning of Coptic literary production in Arabic and with the introduction of Egyptian Christians at the caliphal court, namely in the last quarter of the tenth century, at the time of Severus ibn al-Muqqafa'.


The unabated silicon technology scaling makes design and manufacturing increasingly harder in nanometer VLSI. On one hand, major design objectives such as timing, power, and noise are often conflicting with each other in modern designs with multi-million gates, resulting in complex design closure. On the other hand, design closure no longer guarantees historical yield norm, requiring ever-challenging manufacturing closure. The conventional contracts between design and fab through design rules are breaking down, due to deep sub-wavelength lithography and growing process variations. However, the semiconductor industry has no choice but to live with the current 193nm lithography for at least another 5 years. Therefore, design/manufacturing integration and co-optimization will be in greater demand than ever. Furthermore, the emerging bio/nano technologies require design and manufacturing closures as well, since the complexity of such bio/nano systems will increase considerably in the near future while their manufacturing technologies may be still immature. Physical synthesis is the key design implementation stage to address such grand challenges in design/manufacturing closures for not only silicon but also bio/nano technologies, because it directly interfaces with both high level designs and low level manufacturing technologies. In this talk, I will present some recent works in the area of physical synthesis for nanometer VLSI design/manufacturing closures, as well as the emerging biochip technologies. In particular, I will focus on various routing aspects in VLSI and biochip designs, since interconnect optimization is a key to the success in terms of routability, noise, manufacturability, and so on. First, I will describe an award-winning global router, BoxRouter, in the design closure perspective. Next, I will present a systematic model-based DFM routing framework to improve printability and minimize random defects in the manufacturing closure perspective. Then, I will discuss digital microfluidic biochip routing, to envision the roles of physical synthesis for future technologies. Last, I will conclude this talk with some future directions.


This study investigates the role of national and organisational culture in day-to-day activities of multinational project teams, specifically focusing on differences between Chinese and Dutch project managers. We rely on fieldwork observation and interviews with representatives from a diverse set of organizations in China and the Netherlands. Analyses focus on the impact of cultural differences on five project management processes – (1) project planning, (2) cost and quality management, (3) risk management, (4) scope management and project promises, and (5) communication. Although there are many differences observed in these five processes, research subjects report no significant impact of cross-cultural collaboration on project performance. We conclude that cross-cultural project teams can provide critical elements for an effective combination of different project management practices: people from various national and organisational cultures, enriched by different experiences and management theories, with a mix of skills. This study provides insights for those who work cross culturally (especially between western and eastern contexts) and is also a contribution to both the project management and cross-cultural management literatures.


Purpose: NC-6004, a novel cisplatin nanoparticle developed using micellar technology exhibits sustained release of cisplatin and selective distribution to tumors. Preclinical data demonstrated a favorable tolerability profile and preserved or improved antitumor activity compared with cisplatin across animal models. We evaluated the safety and tolerability of NC-6004 and gemcitabine using a Bayesian continual reassessment model (N-CRM) to determine the optimal dose. Experimental Design: Patients with advanced solid tumors received NC-6004 at 60 to 180 mg/m2 on day 1 and gemcitabine at 1,250 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks. Dose escalation of NC-6004 began with a single patient run-in until a dose-limiting toxicity occurred at 180 mg/m2. Cohorts of four patients were enrolled at doses predicted by the N-CRM. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was defined as having the greatest probability of target toxicity <25%. Quality of life was assessed using EORTC-QLQ-C30. Results: Among 22 patients, the most common grade III/IV hematologic adverse events were leukopenia (68%) and thrombocytopenia (59%). Of 20 pretreated patients evaluable for response, half were previously exposed to a platinum agent. The MTD was 135 mg/m2. Nine patients were treated at the MTD with median treatment duration of 15 weeks (range, 3–50). Tumor shrinkage occurred in 11 (55%), partial responses in 3 (15%), and stable disease in 14 (70%). Most patients reported stable or improved EORTC QLQ-C30 scores. Conclusions: Greater cisplatin equivalent doses were achieved with no clinically significant neuro-, oto-, or nephrotoxicity. These data demonstrate tolerability and promising activity of NC-6004 in combination with gemcitabine. Clin Cancer Res; 24(1); 43–51. ©2017 AACR.


Solketal is derived from the reaction of acetone with glycerol, a by-product of the biodiesel industry. We report here the continuous reaction of solketal with anilines over a solid acid niobium phosphate (NbP), for the continuous generation of quinolines in the well-established Skraup reaction. This study shows that NbP can catalyse all the stages of this multistep reaction at 250 °C and 10 MPa pressure, with a selectivity for quinoline of up to 60%. We found that the catalyst eventually deactivates, most probably via a combination of coking and reduction processes but nevertheless we show the promise of this approach. We demonstrate here the application of our approach to synthesize both mono- and bis-quinolines from the commodity chemical, 4,4′-methylenedianiline.


This paper investigates a new machine learning strategy called translated learning. Unlike many previous learning tasks, we focus on how to use labeled data from one feature space to enhance the classification of other entirely different learning spaces. For example, we might wish to use labeled text data to help learn a model for classifying image data, when the labeled images are difficult to obtain. An important aspect of translated learning is to build a "bridge" to link one feature space (known as the "source space") to another space (known as the "target space") through a translator in order to migrate the knowledge from source to target. The translated learning solution uses a language model to link the class labels to the features in the source spaces, which in turn is translated to the features in the target spaces. Finally, this chain of linkages is completed by tracing back to the instances in the target spaces. We show that this path of linkage can be modeled using a Markov chain and risk minimization. Through experiments on the text-aided image classification and cross-language classification tasks, we demonstrate that our translated learning framework can greatly outperform many state-of-the-art baseline methods.


1. The large compressed tablets of pure hexoestrol used, possess a 'labile' component (that may or may not be located in the surface zone), which is quickly lost on subcutaneous implantation or incubation with blood plasma or water. The remaining surface is much less soluble. 2. Tablets implanted subcutaneously after having suffered loss of the 'labile' component, because of previous in vivo implantation or incubation with blood plasma or water, undergo less absorption in a given time than unused tablets. 3. In consequence of (1), absorption curves for 1000, 500 and 250 mg. tablets in the bovine, goat, rabbit, guinea-pig, rat and pigeon show two phases, an initial phase of rapid absorption due to the loss of the 'labile' component, after which the curves bend sharply and thereafter pursue a linear course (linear phase). On the other hand, curves for 50, 25 and 15 mg. tablets in the rat are linear and pass through or very near the origin. 4. During the implantation period, hexoestrol tablets (and also tablets of steroid hormones) become infiltrated with structures (ghosts) composed of insoluble protein, probably a scleroprotein, formed by reaction between the hormone and soluble protein present in the tissue fluids. Ghosts are quite distinct from the fibrous-connective tissue capsules which are often formed round tablets in vivo. 5. Ghosts are also formed in hexoestrol tablets immersed in blood serum or plasma and protein solutions. 6 . Absorption values (apparent), determined by losses in weight during implantation, are in each case lower than the true value by the weight of the ghost and, on extrapolation, true absorption curves make larger intercepts on the vertical axis than apparent curves. 7. In consequence of (6) the curves for small tablets in rats are in reality of the same form as those for larger tablets, though here the difference made by the ghost correction is small. Such curves, when corrected for ghost formation, thus make only small intercepts on the vertical axis indicating that the 'labile' component is much less important in the small tablets than in the 250, 500 and 1000 mg. classes. 8. The absorption rate during the linear phase is the characteristic absorption rate for any given weight class of tablet. Absorption rates per mm. 2 for tablets of various sizes in different animals are approximately constant, provided the tablets are not too big in relation to the size of the animal, showing that absorption rate is proportional to surface area. With large tablets in the rat, absorption (linear phase) is either very reduced or non-existent. This may be due to saturation of the body with hexoestrol absorbed during the initial phase. 9. The effect, if any, of ghost formation on the linear absorption rate remains obscure.


Modern stealthy exploits can achieve attack goals without introducing illegal control flows, e.g., tampering with non-control data and waiting for the modified data to propagate and alter the control flow legally. Existing program anomaly detection systems focusing on legal control flow attestation and short call sequence verification are inadequate to detect such stealthy attacks. In this paper, we point out the need to analyze program execution paths and discover event correlations in large-scale execution windows among millions of instructions. We propose an anomaly detection approach with two-stage machine learning algorithms to recognize diverse normal call-correlation patterns and detect program attacks at both inter- and intra-cluster levels. We implement a prototype of our approach and demonstrate its effectiveness against three real-world attacks and four synthetic anomalies with less than 0.01% false positive rates and 0.1~1.3 ms analysis overhead per behavior instance (1k to 50k function or system calls).


Objective: Isoniazid (INH) is metabolized by N-acetyl transferase-2 into acetyl isoniazid (Ac-INH). The acetylation rate is different in each ethnic, therefore it is very interesting to study of INH acetylation. The aims of this study were to synthesize Ac-INH and the produced Ac-INH was used as a working standard for the pilot study of INH acetylation in Melanesian healthy subjects from Indonesia. Methods: Ac-INH can be simply synthesized by acetylation reactions between INH and acetic anhydride. The synthesis results were characterized by organoleptic observation, purity test, UV-Vis spectrophotometry analysis, FTIR analysis, and mass spectrometry analysis. The pilot study of INH acetylation used high performance liquid chromatography to analyze the levels of INH and Ac-INH in blood of Melanesian healthy subjects. The acetylation rate of INH was determined by the ratio between Ac-INH and INH concentrations at 3 h after administration of INH. Results: The acetylation reaction to synthesize Ac-INH has been performed at temperature of 60°C for 30 min. The obtained Ac-INH had the same quality specifications with reference standard of Ac-INH. The average of ratio between of Ac-INH and INH concentrations was Conclusion: The obtained Ac-INH could be used for pilot study of INH acetylation by calculating the ratio of Ac-INH and INH concentrations in plasma subject. The subject has to be increased to represent the Melanesian population from Indonesia. Key words: Isoniazid, Acetyl isoniazid, Acetylation rate, Melanesia


Recognizing time expressions is a fundamental and important task in many applications of natural language understanding, such as reading comprehension and question answering. Several newest state-of-the-art approaches have achieved good performance on recognizing time expressions. These approaches are black-boxed or based on heuristic rules, which leads to the difficulty in understanding the temporal information. On the contrary, classic rule-based or semantic parsing approaches can capture rich structural information, but their performances on recognition are not so good. In this paper, we propose a pattern-based approach, called PTime, which automatically generates and selects patterns for recognizing time expressions. In this approach, time expressions in training text are abstracted into type sequences by using fine-grained token types, thus the problem is transformed to select an appropriate subset of the sequential patterns. We use the Extended Budgeted Maximum Coverage (EBMC) model to optimize the pattern selection. The main idea is to maximize the correct token sequences matched by the selected patterns while the number of the mistakes should be limited by an adjustable budget. The interpretability of patterns and the adjustability of permitted number of mistakes make PTime a very promising approach for many applications. Experimental results show that PTime achieves a very competitive performance as compared with existing state-of-the-art approaches.


We are presently continuing to perform biomolecular chemical simulations for Burkholderia cepacia lipase (BCL) and Candida antarctica lipase typeB (CALB) to predict their enantioselectivity and reactivity toward various organic compounds. Here, we describe molecular dynamics (MD) and fragment molecular orbital (FMO) calculations on the complexes of CALB with primary and secondary alcohol esters. For esters with high enantioselectivity, the fast-reacting enantiomer of esters is located near the active site of CALB, whereas the slow-reacting enantiomer of esters moves away from the active site of CALB. On the other hand, for the esters with low enantioselectivity, we found that both (R)and (S)-enantiomers of esters remain the active site of CALB. The FMO computations indicate that for the esters with high enantioselectivity, each fast-reacting enantiomer shows strong interactions with some particular amino acid residues, including Thr40, whereas for the esters with low enantioselectivity, both (R)and (S)-enantiomers interact with identical amino acid residues including Thr40. It is predictable that Thr40 in CALB plays an important role in the chiral recognition of enantiomers through lipase-catalyzed biotransformations.


Due to huge amount of data posted online, decision making process considering opinions play a crucial role in everyone's life. Analysis in the field of making decisions and setting policies has shown that sentiment analysis and Opinion mining lies at the intersection of Question Answering system and Computational Linguistics. World Wide Web has tremendous amount of unstructured data present in web forums, social networking sites and other social platforms as reviews which diverts our study towards mining the opinions on web. Our research work focuses on extracting tweets, classifying them into positive, negative and neutral category and finally providing a recommendation as whether to buy or reject a product. Classification system is been proposed by using twitter data using Naive Bayes algorithm and accuracy of the evaluation strategies by has been evaluated.Review data is collected for various product domains from micro blogging sites like twitter, face book.


Mobile technologies have been influencing the field of education including language learning for almost a decade. The literature on mobile technologies for education reports a number of case studies that examine various aspects of mobile learning. However, the use of mobile technologies for teacher professional development, particularly in developing economies, is rarely reported. This talk will present a case study of the English in Action (EIA) project, a UK government funded English language development project in Bangladesh, and its use of mobile technologies which not only provides teachers with the 'trainer in the pocket' that helps them achieve pedagogical changes in the classroom but also serves as a tool for improving their own English language competence.

In this talk, I will show examples of how EIA as a large-scale language development project has successfully employed mobile technologies to promote more communicative language teaching practices in primary and secondary schools in Bangladesh, taking into account the socio-cultural context of the country. A particular focus of the talk will be on the design and implementation of audio and video teacher professional development materials for MP3 players (Phase II) and mobile phones (Phase III). I will demonstrate how EIA has innovatively used mobile technologies for English language teacher professional development by meeting the needs of classroom teachers. I will also present implications of the EIA project for English language teacher development projects intending to deploy mobile technologies in both developed and developing countries.


Autonomous software agents are often claimed to become a new generation of tools facilitating efficient management of information. While a number of possible agent application areas can be found in the literature, support for academic mobility is not one of them. At the same time student mobility is one of the important objectives within the European Union and, as we argue in this paper, software agents could be used to streamline administrative processes involved in setting up student participation and help students that are interested in it as well as administrative units that have to support it. In this paper we introduce an agent system designed to facilitate student mobility, present UML diagrams of agents of that system and discuss an initial implementation of a system-skeleton.


Transformation concepts towards a low-carbon society often require new technology and infrastructure that evoke protests in the population. Therefore, it is crucial to understand positions and conflicts in society to achieve social acceptance. This paper analyses these positions using the example of implementing hydrogen and carbon capture and storage infrastructure to decarbonise the German energy system. The empirical basis of the study are explorative stakeholder interviews which were conducted with experts from politics, economics, civil society and science and analysed within a discursive and attitudinal framework using qualitative content analysis. These stakeholder positions are assumed to represent dominant social perceptions and reflect chances and risks for acceptance. The results indicate different positions while pursuing the common goal of addressing climate change. The general conflict concerns strategies towards a low-carbon society, especially the speed of phasing-out fossil energies. Regarding the combination of hydrogen and carbon capture and storage as instrument in the context of the energy transition, the stakeholder interviews indicate controversial as well as consensual perceptions. The assessments range from rejection to deeming it absolutely necessary. Controversial argumentations refer to security of supply, competitiveness and environmental protection. In contrast, consensus can be reached by balancing ecological and economic arguments, e.g. by linking hydrogen technologies with renewable and fossil energy sources or by limiting the use of carbon capture and storage only to certain applications (industry, bioenergy). In further decisions, this balancing of arguments combined with openness of technology, transparency of information and citizen participation need to be considered to achieve broad acceptance.


Penicillins and cephalosporines, which belong to the group of s-lactam antibiotics, are, together
with tetracyclines and macrolides, the most commonly used antibiotics for the therapy and
prophylaxis of bacterical infections in food delivering animals. Therefore, maximum residue
limits (MRL) exist in the EU relating to the antimicrobial properties of the s-lactams. In order to
control the application and possible illegal use of s-lactams, screening methods are useful to get
first results cheap and rapidly.
 In this work, the application of chemiluminescence (CL) as an analytical tool for the detection of
residues of s-lactam antibiotics in porcine kidney juice and other matrices was investigated.
 The developed method is based on an indirect competitive microtiter plate assay that uses the
penicillin-binding protein PBP 2x* as receptor for s-lactam antibiotics. The PBP 2x* were coated
on a microtiter plate, and a digoxigenin labeled ampicillin (Dig-Ampi) was used to compete with
free beta-lactams in the sample. In a next step, we added anti-digoxigenin F ab fragments (F ab )
that were conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (HRP). These conjugated antibodies can bind
to the digoxigenin-moiety of Dig-Ampi. In the last step, a CL based technique was used as detection
system. Therefore the luminol oxidation catalyzed by HRP was used. The obtained signal
was reversely related to the s-lactam concentration in the sample.
 The assay format utilizing PBP 2x* based on a previous work developed in our research group,
but was modified with regard to a CL based technique. In the previously developed colorimetric
assay format, an HRP catalyzed oxidation with tetramethylbenzidine as chromogen was used.
 Experimental parameters of the CL assay, for example amount of PBP 2x*, Dig-Ampi, F ab , luminol
reagent volume, and measurement time were characterized and optimized for low consumption
of the expensive assay compounds and for high sensitivity.
 A variety of food matrices, mainly kidney, but also milk and muscle tissue, were investigated by
the CL assay and the results were compared to the colorimetric assay format.
 Matrix interferences from kidney juice could be minimized by a centrifugation and dilution step.
A full factorial design was used to examine significant matrix interferences. For both assay formats,
the parameter "texture" (comparison: kidney-muscle) showed a significant matrix effect to
the measurement performance. Thus, a calibration in blank matrix is necessary. In contrast to
the colorimetric assay, no significant matrix effect was detected for the parameter animal species
(comparison: pork-beef), when using the CL assay.
 The performance criteria limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), precision, repeatability,
and working range were investigated for the determination in spiked kidney juice
and milk. 20 porcine kidney samples were analyzed for precision of the assay formats.
 Benzylpenicillin, ampicillin, cefquinom and ceftiofur (measured as desfuroylcefitofur, the active
metabolite) were detected at concentrations below their respective MRL. LOD and LOQ were
twofold lower for the CL assay than for the colorimetric assay. However, the increased sensitivity
of the CL assay leads to a loss of precision and higher interference of matrix compounds. Nevertheless,
the CL assay represents a good alternative to the colorimetric test system and is applicable
for the screening of s-lactam residues in a variety of food matrices.
 Based on the developed CL assay, a test system for single sample measurements was designed
by using magnetic beads as surface to immobilize PBP 2*. For this purpose, a commercial
Charm II receptor test equipment was used. The experiments have shown that the CL assay format
could not be transferred to this type of equipment. Significant interference of nonspecific
interactions and difficulties in the separation technique were observed.
 In conclusion, the experiments on kidney juice have shown that both microtiter plate assay formats
(CL and colorimetric) are suitable for the semi-quantitative screening of s-lactams. An advantage
of the CL assay over the colorimetric assay is the higher sensitivity.


This unique volume offers insights from renowned experts in energy efficient building from the world over, providing a multi-faceted overview of the state-of-the-art in energy efficient architecture. It opens by defining what constitutes a sustainable building, suggesting bases for sorely needed benchmarks, then explains the most important techniques and tools available to engineers and architects exploring green building technologies. It covers such pivotal issues as daylighting, LED lighting, integrating renewables such as solar thermal and cooling, retrofitting, LEED and similar certification efforts, passive houses, net-zero and close-zero structures, water recycling, and much more. Highlighting best practices for commercial buildings and private homes, in widely varied climates and within vastly different socio-economic contexts, this illustrated reference will guide architects and engineers in making sustainable choices in building materials and methods. It explains the best methods and materials to support energy efficient building. It features case studies by experts from a dozen countries, demonstrating how sustainable architecture can be achieved in varied climates and economies. It covers both new constructions and retrofitting of existing structures.


OF THESIS MALE FARMERS COPING WITH THE LOSS OF SPOUSE: IMPACTS ON FARMING OPERATION AND FAMILY LIFE Losing a spouse is as devastating an experience anyone will ever deal with in his or her life. Research, however, shows that men have a harder and longer time coping with the loss of a spouse than women. When the widower's profession is farming, there are no resources to specifically help that individual with their loss. The purpose of this research was to gain insight into the lives of widowed farmers with particular focus on transitions in their farming operation and their family life. Through their stories, we learn what is happening before the loss of the female spouse on the farm, during the bereavement period, and how the farmer handles the situation after the bereavement period has ended. Findings indicate that the Cooperative Extension Service can play a major role in supporting our widowed farmers as they seek a new normal for their farm operation and family life. Also, farming widowers have more stress following the loss of a spouse due to the added aspect of managing the farm and the home simultaneously after the passing of their spouse. Recommendations include further expanding spousal bereavement materials to include a section for males and in particular farming widowers.


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Artificial intelligence technology (or AI) has developed rapidly during the past decade, and the effects of the AI revolution are already being keenly felt in many sectors of the economy. A growing chorus of commentators, scientists, and entrepreneurs has expressed alarm regarding the increasing role that autonomous machines are playing in society, with some suggesting that government regulation may be necessary to reduce the public risks that AI will pose. Unfortunately, the unique features of AI and the manner in which AI can be developed present both practical and conceptual challenges for the legal system. These challenges must be confronted if the legal system is to positively impact the development of AI and ensure that aggrieved parties receive compensation when AI systems cause harm. This article will explore the public risks associated with AI and the competencies of government institutions in managing those risks. It concludes with a proposal for an indirect form of AI regulation based on differential tort liability.


This Article explores the implications of different proposals for reforms by emphasizing a perspective that relates the proposals to the performance of the judiciary during the military regime in Chile. Part I of this Article describes the role of the judiciary prior to the coup and discusses its response to the human rights abuses of the military regime. Part II presents the principal proposals for reform and discusses them against this historic background. Part III of this Article suggests that these proposals offer a more radical change in the role of the judiciary in Chile than an examination of the individual proposals might suggest.


School accountability and improvement policy are on the precipice of a paradigm shift. While the multiple-measure dashboard accountability approach holds great promise for promoting more meaningful learning opportunities for all students, our research indicates that this can come with substantial challenges in practice. We reflect upon the lessons learned from our recent research on the CORE districts' use of multiple-measure data dashboards. Our research indicated that a shift to greater flexibility and locally determined capacity building efforts brings its own set of challenges. Building on this foundation and drawing upon the expertise of a central practitioner-leader, we explore these issues through one promising case: the use of these multiple-measure accountability systems in one CORE district, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). OUSD's approach suggests that districts have substantial agency to help modify the mindsets of practitioners and the community, by modeling the values of inquiry, openness, and flexibility. By loosening the reigns, districts can give school stakeholders the space and authority to meaningfully manage their own accountability and improvement.


We study Horn fragments of serial multimodal logics which are characterized by regular grammars with converse. Such logics are useful for reasoning about epistemic states of multiagent systems as well as similarity-based approximate reasoning. We provide the first algorithm with PTIME data complexity for checking satisfiability of a Horn knowledge base in a serial regular grammar logic with converse.


Research can help improve the lives of employees by revealing ways in which technology can be leveraged to progress innovative, time and cost-effective ways to promote their wellbeing. However, even with the trends of building "positive organizations" and promoting employees' wellbeing using the latest technologies in today's best companies worldwide, there has been a lack of rigorous research to provide solid evidence for these decisions. In this review, we present a call for future research to integrate and test technologically facilitated positive psychology interventions with gamification elements to better understand how to minimize harm and promote user benefits. We review the current online positive psychology intervention research, which we argue provides a critical guide for the development of future wellbeing technology. We also explore how gamification shows promise for promoting the benefits of positive psychology interventions (e.g., user enjoyment, autonomous motivation), as well as areas where gamification can pose a threat to wellbeing. There may be a fine line between harmful and helpful wellbeing solutions in our connected and technologically driven world of work; research now needs to uncover where to draw that line.


CONTEXT
Laboratory findings have suggested that oxidative stress may contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. Therefore, the risk of Alzheimer disease might be reduced by intake of antioxidants that counteract the detrimental effects of oxidative stress.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether dietary intake of antioxidants is related to risk of Alzheimer disease.

DESIGN AND SETTING
The Rotterdam Study, a population-based, prospective cohort study conducted in the Netherlands.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 5395 participants who, at baseline (1990-1993), were aged at least 55 years, free of dementia, and noninstitutionalized and had reliable dietary assessment. Participants were reexamined in 1993-1994 and 1997-1999 and were continuously monitored for incident dementia.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Incidence of Alzheimer disease, based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition (DSM-III-R) criteria and National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) criteria, associated with dietary intake of beta carotene, flavonoids, vitamin C, and vitamin E.

RESULTS
After a mean follow-up of 6 years, 197 participants developed dementia, of whom 146 had Alzheimer disease. When adjustments were made for age, sex, baseline Mini-Mental State Examination score, alcohol intake, education, smoking habits, pack-years of smoking, body mass index, total energy intake, presence of carotid plaques, and use of antioxidative supplements, high intake of vitamin C and vitamin E was associated with lower risk of Alzheimer disease (rate ratios [RRs] per 1-SD increase in intake were 0.82 [95% confidence interval [CI], 0.68-0.99] and 0.82 [95% CI, 0.66-1.00], respectively). Among current smokers, this relationship was most pronounced (RRs, 0.65 [95% CI, 0.37-1.14] and 0.58 [95% CI, 0.30-1.12], respectively) and also was present for intake of beta carotene (RR, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.27-0.92]) and flavonoids (RR, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.31-0.96]). The associations did not vary by education or apolipoprotein E genotype.

CONCLUSION
High dietary intake of vitamin C and vitamin E may lower the risk of Alzheimer disease.


We introduce an adaptive tree search algorithm, that can find high-scoring outputs under translation models that make no assumptions about the form or structure of the search objective. This algorithm -- a deterministic variant of Monte Carlo tree search -- enables the exploration of new kinds of models that are unencumbered by constraints imposed to make decoding tractable, such as autoregressivity or conditional independence assumptions. When applied to autoregressive models, our algorithm has different biases than beam search has, which enables a new analysis of the role of decoding bias in autoregressive models. Empirically, we show that our adaptive tree search algorithm finds outputs with substantially better model scores compared to beam search in autoregressive models, and compared to reranking techniques in models whose scores do not decompose additively with respect to the words in the output. We also characterise the correlation of several translation model objectives with respect to BLEU. We find that while some standard models are poorly calibrated and benefit from the beam search bias, other often more robust models (autoregressive models tuned to maximize expected automatic metric scores, the noisy channel model and a newly proposed objective) benefit from increasing amounts of search using our proposed decoder, whereas the beam search bias limits the improvements obtained from such objectives. Thus, we argue that as models improve, the improvements may be masked by over-reliance on beam search or reranking based methods.


Since its inception as part of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Title I has provided the largest amount of federal funding aimed at improving the academic achievement of poor children. In this paper, we examine the impact of Title I on school spending and school performance, using New York City public school data. Based on a regression discontinuity design (RD) with panel data, and including separate analyses for elementary/middle and high schools, we estimate local average treatment effects of Title I. Title I provides additional funding for schools serving high concentrations of poor children, but there are few curricular or programmatic constraints. Unfortunately it is possible that Title I funds supplant state or local funds, resulting in muted net impacts on spending and student outcomes. At the same time, the success of Title I in improving test scores offers important insight into the effectiveness of school-based compensatory funding in general, such as weighted student funding within districts or state compensatory aid across districts. Overall, the results indicate that Title I changes the mix of spending, enabling high schools to significantly increase the amount of money they spend on direct services to students and to improve their pupil-teacher ratios (while reducing experienced teachers). Elementary and middle schools do not increase spending as much, which is consistent with our finding that state compensatory education funds may be supplanting some Title I funding in schools. Since schools just below the Title I cutoff are similar to those just above the cutoff, this finding may be an equitable, albeit unintended result. Finally, additional Title I spending does not improve the achievement of students and may even reduce school-wide average test scores in elementary and middle schools. These effects for both spending and scores seem to increase with the length of time schools are Title I eligible and to be stronger for ones that are always Title I eligible compared to those that go in and out of eligibility.


Long-term seed viability is of crucial importance for short-lived species, since persistent seed banks can buffer the fluctuations in the establishment of plants from year to year. Temporarily flooded habitats are an unpredictable environment for plants, and for some species the only chance they have of surviving is the formation of persistent seed banks. Astragalus contortuplicatus is an annual species of periodically flooded habitats and is considered an endangered species in Hungary. Altogether 1993 seeds of this species were tested in a germination experiment: 1200 were freshly harvested and 793 were collected from herbarium specimens of various ages. Seed viability was tested using the germination method. The freshly harvested seeds were used for selecting the best out of seven frequently used dormancy-breaking methods for this species. The highest percentage of germination was recorded for the combined treatment of scarification and light. Thus, this method was used to test the viability of the seeds collected from herbarium specimens. The oldest seeds that germinated were 131 years old. Until now there are no records of seeds of herbaceous legumes germinating that are more than 100 years old. This record is the 9th oldest of all the literature records of viable seeds originating from biological collections. All the seeds that germinated developed into healthy, fertile plants, the seeds of which also readily germinated. Fitted linear regression showed a significant negative relationship between seed age and percentage germination. Based on this linear regression the calculated theoretical maximum viability is 309 years. Our results suggest that seeds of A. contortuplicatus stored in collections can be successfully used in this species' reintroduction for conservation purpose, to areas in which the plants were collected.


This paper investigates the effectiveness of forward guidance for the central banks of four countries: New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. We test whether forward guidance improved market participants' ability to forecast future short-term and long-term rates. We find that forward guidance improved market participants' ability to forecast short-term rates over relatively short forecast horizons, but only for Norway and Sweden. Importantly, there is no evidence that forward guidance has increased the efficacy of monetary policy for New Zealand, the country with the longest history of forward guidance.


Purpose: To elucidate changes of clinical manifestation of granular corneal deposits after recurrent corneal erosion in granular corneal dystrophy types 1 and 2 (GCD1 and GCD2). Methods: Six patients (5 patients with GCD2 and 1 with GCD1) were included. Slit-lamp photographs of all patients and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography images of 3 available patients were analyzed. In part II of this study, to evaluate deposit disappearance incidence (becoming annular granular deposits), we counted deposits of another 60 GCD2 heterozygotes according to decade of age as the following subgroups: discoid (filled-up) granular deposits, annular (ring-shaped) granular deposits, and lattice-like lesions. Results: Granular deposits dropped off singularly during recurrent corneal erosion in GCD2 heterozygotes, becoming annular deposits. In contrast, confluent granular deposits in GCD2 homozygotes and GCD1 patients dropped off in groups. Reaccumulation was observed at the margin of the previously dropped off area in patients who were followed-up for an extended period. Part II of the study showed that annular deposits appeared in the third decade and increased gradually. Discoid granular deposits increased sharply in the 40s age group, and lattice-like lesions increased gradually from the third decade. Conclusions: The disappearance of granular deposits in GCD1 and GCD2 could be interpreted as evidence of drop-off phenomena with recurrent corneal erosion. With drop off of the deposits, various configurations and morphological changes of corneal deposits can occur in these corneal dystrophies.


Background: The measurement of testicular volume is a practical and inexpensive method of pubertal staging in adolescents. Traditionally, volume is measured using orchidometers or calipers, the most widely used of which is the Prader Orchidometer. However, there is conflicting evidence of its use with regards to reliability in different hands.

Objectives: To determine the accuracy of the Prader orchidometer in measuring testicular volume, by comparing the resultant measurement with the actual testicular volumes. Information on inter-observer and intra-observer variation was obtained for 16 investigators. Furthermore, the effect of factors such as clinical experience, gender and training in using an orchidometer on the accuracy of testicular volume measurement were investigated.

Methods: A total of 16 investigators were asked to measure a range of 4 testicular volumes, attached via prosthesis to child-sized mannequins. The volume of each testis was measured independently using the Prader Orchidometer. A proportion of investigators also repeated testicular volume measurements, blinded by measurements obtained by other investigators.

Results: The mean testicular volume measured by 16 examiners for 4 sizes at 20ml, 10ml, 5ml and 3ml. There were 4 male investigators and 12 female investigators. Fischer's exact test found males to be significantly more accurate at measuring testicular volume than females (P =0.04).
Chi-squared values were measured at each volume and showed no significant difference between those with clinical paediatric endocrine experience compared with those with no experience. Inter-observer reliability was measured using coefficient of variation due to our sample size of 16. This showed no significant difference between investigators measuring each testicular volume. However, it showed that larger volume testicles were more likely to be accurately measured compared to smaller volumes. Results showed that the 20ml volume had the smallest variability of 0.109 and 0.130 for right and left respectively ad the 3ml volume had a higher variation at 0.456 and 0.559 for right and left testicles respectively. Interestingly, variation was higher at all volumes in the left testicle. Furthermore, the 5ml volume has an unexpectedly low variability which may be attributed to its link with puberty and the need for endocrinologists to be skilledat identifying this particular volume due it's clinical relevance. 7 people were trained vs 9 untrained in using orchidometers. Orchidometer training R20 A
3 B
10 C
5 D
L20 A
3 B
10 C
5 D
% accuracy trained
3/7
42.9

2/7
28.6

5/7
71.4

2/7
28.6

6/7
85.7

FE:

4/7
57.1

FE:
6/7
85.7

FE:
2/7
28.6

FE:
%accuracy not trained
7/9
77.8
2/9
22.2
3/9
33.3
2/9
22.2
5/9
55.6
3/9
33.3
3/9
33.3
2/9

22.2
FE
0.302
1.00
0.315
1.00
0.308
0.615
0.060
1.000

Fischer's exact: does having orchidometer training affect accuracy of results- not significant.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it was found that measurement of testicular volumes on paediatric testicular models is subject to great/little inter/intra-observer variation. The data suggests that there is a clinical need for formal training in testicular volume measurement as there is currently no established training in place. As a result, the innovative, custom-made testicular models for this study could have a role in simulation training as an educational tool.


The nature of the interaction-driven spontaneously broken-symmetry state in charge-neutral bilayer graphene (BLG) has attracted a lot of interest. Theoretical studies predict various ordered states as the candidates for the ground state of BLG in the absence of external fields. Several experiments have been performed by different groups to identify the nature of the collective ground state in BLG. However, so far, there is no consensus: some experiments show evidence that suggests the establishment of a nematic gapless state, while others present results that are more consistent with the establishment of a fully gapped state. Moreover, even among the experiments that appear to see a bulk gap, some of the samples are found to be conducting (suggesting the existence of gapless edge states), while others are insulating. Here we explore the hypothesis that disorder might explain the discrepancy between experiments. We find that the pair-breaking effect due to nonmagnetic short-range disorder varies among the candidate ground states, giving rise to different amounts of suppression of their mean-field transition temperatures. Our results indicate that BLG can undergo a transition between different ordered states as a function of the disorder strength, providing a possible scenario to resolve the discrepancy between experimental observations.


In this paper, a detailed density functional theory analysis of oxygen binding to Mg(0001) and subsequent clustering is presented. Oxygen monomer adsorption to Mg(0001) is demonstrated to be subsurface. It is shown that magnesium mediates an attractive oxygen-oxygen interaction which ultimately leads to the formation of hexagonal clusters of O* in the tetrahedral-1 site. The structure, work function, and binding properties of oxygen chemisorbed structures are compared with experiment, which allows the unique identification of the tetrahedral-1 site as the low coverage oxygen binding site and the construction of a picture of the early stages of oxide nuclei formation over magnesium. A model of oxide growth at O*/Mg(0001) is proposed. First-principles thermodynamics analysis is used to describe the surface oxide structures and reveals that surface oxides of intermediate oxygen coverage undergo spinodal decomposition. The thermodynamics of an underlying spinodal create an energetic driving force for decomposition of an oxide surface and renewal of a reactive metal interface that may be important in understanding magnesium corrosion. The implications of the findings are that magnesium unalloyed for oxide behavior will always be highly vulnerable to corrosion. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.075450


The German labor market is characterized by marked occupational segregation between women and men. The median earnings in female dominated occupations are lower than those in male dominated professions. This is one of the reasons for the gender pay gap. However, there are also large differences in earnings between men and women within occupations. These profession-specific gender pay gaps are smaller in professions with a high proportion of employees in the public sector. This finding indicates that more transparency with respect to earnings could reduce the gender pay gap in the private economy.


BACKGROUND
Fraudulent mislabelling of processed meat products on a global scale that cannot be detected using conventional techniques necessitates sensitive, robust and accurate methods of meat authentication to ensure food safety and public health. In the present study, we developed an in-gel (two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, 2DE) and OFFGEL-based proteomic method for authenticating raw and cooked water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), sheep (Ovis aries) and goat (Caprus hircus) meat and their mixes.

RESULTS
The matrix-assisted liquid desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometric analysis of proteins separated using 2DE or OFFGEL electrophoresis delineated species-specific peptide biomarkers derived from myosin light chain 1 and 2 (MLC1 and MLC2) of buffalo-sheep-goat meat mix in definite proportions at 98:1:1, 99:0.5:0.5 and 99.8:0.1:0.1 that were found stable to resist thermal processing. In-gel and OFFGEL-based proteomic approaches are efficient in authenticating meat mixes spiked at minimum 1.0% and 0.1% levels, respectively, in triple meat mix for both raw and cooked samples.

CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrated that authentication of meat from a complex mix of three closely related species requires identification of more than one species-specific peptide due to close similarity between their amino acid sequences. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.


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Sparse Spectrum Gaussian Processes (SSGPs) are a powerful tool for scaling Gaussian processes (GPs) to large datasets. Existing SSGP algorithms for regression assume deterministic inputs, precluding their use in many real-world robotics and engineering applications where accounting for input uncertainty is crucial. We address this problem by proposing two analytic moment-based approaches with closed-form expressions for SSGP regression with uncertain inputs. Our methods are more general and scalable than their standard GP counterparts, and are naturally applicable to multi-step prediction or uncertainty propagation. We show that efficient algorithms for Bayesian filtering and stochastic model predictive control can use these methods, and we evaluate our algorithms with comparative analyses and both real-world and simulated experiments.


An electrodynamic approach is developed to solve the problem of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in a transparent dielectric spherical particle. In this approach it is proposed that optical fields for time-dependent amplitudes of coupled waves at Stokes and pump frequencies in a spherical particle be represented as an expansion in terms of eigenfunctions of the stationary scattering problem in which the expansion coefficients determine the temporal behavior of the field and comply with inhomogeneous differential equations. Solutions of these equations for initial phase SRS and under steady-state conditions are analyzed. The SRS threshold is determined, and the threshold for steady-state SRS at a given intensity is found for when there is double resonance between the fields. It is shown that, to excite SRS, one should compensate for the loss of the Stokes wave that is due to absorption and emission through the particle surface. To provide steady-state SRS generation it is necessary to compensate additionally for the energy loss that is due to depletion of pump intensity.


Bucovina was an integral part of Habsburg Empire since 1775. Starting from a pure political construction on the European map of power at the end of 18th century this small area developed into a well integrated Austrian crown land. A crown land, which succeeded to form a certain regional identity – conform to the Habsburg state ideology. Till the outbreak of First World War national rivalries played a certain role for regional politics in the county but were moderate in general. Especially this situation was grounded in a direct liaison of this small province situated on the Eastern slopes of Carpathians with Vienna as imperial centre. A development which aimed towards steadily improving inner consolidation and balance in comparison with the other crown lands of the Empire. Only the outcome of the First World War, as Bucovina became part of the Romanian kingdom, loosing its geo strategic position as a bridge between East and West, showed in its consequences the former importance of this organic exchange with Vienna, shaping the provinces society and cultural landscape. The genesis of Bucovina region at the periphery of a European Empire from the end of 18th up to the beginning of 20th century as well as the structural persistence of the cultural landscape's characteristics is centrally focussed in this study. The analyses of spatial processes as well as their genesis, shaped by a changing geopolitical situation, were of main interest for the research. Since the midst of 19th century a serious and existential national tension within the Bucovina was growing which could only partially be influenced by the province politics itself. A tension in between a search for a distinguished political position, the new idea of nation state and a overall-covering ideology of Commonness, a tension between growing regional identity, of beeing Bucovina and increasing national claims. The study tries to draw a knew, integral and less known picture of this variously shaped cultural landscape – apart from common nationalistic and segmented analyses.


One of the premier mechanisms used in extracting unobserved signals from observed mixtures in signal processing is employing a blind source separation (BSS) algorithm. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) techniques are playing a prominent role in the sphere of multicarrier communication. A set of remedial solutions taken to mitigate deteriorative effects caused within the air interface of OFDM transmission with aid of BSS schemes is presented. Four energy functions are used in deriving the filter coefficients. Energy criterion functions to be optimized and the performance is justified. These functions together with iterative fixed point rule for receive signal are used in determining the filter coefficients. Time correlation properties of the channel are taken advantage for BSS. It is tried to remove colored noise and jamming components from the mixture at the receiver. The method is tested in a slow fading channel with a receiver containing equal gain combining to treat the channel state information values. The importance is that, these are quite low computational complexity mechanisms.