Three biomarkers of contaminant-induced stress (liver histopathology, the lipid peroxidation (LPx) assay and the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) assay) were adapted for application to the estuarine-dependent marine fish Rhabdosargus holubi (Steindachner, 1881). Specimens of R. holubi were collected using a seine net from 3 temporarily open/closed estuaries in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, each impacted by different anthropogenic activities. The East Kleinemonde estuary has a housing settlement on the banks in the lower reaches and some agriculture in its catchment. The Old Woman's estuary has a golf course adjacent to its lower and middle reaches and is crossed by a national road in its upper reaches. The Mtana estuary is virtually pristine, with limited cattle grazing occurring along the banks of the estuary and some subsistence agriculture in the catchment. According to the biomarker results from this study, R. holubi from the East Kleinemonde were in good health, as reflected by low LPx and high AChE levels. The liver histopathology did, however, suggest possible previous exposure to stress (increased melanomacrophage centres, increased perivascular connective tissue and severe vacuolation). Overall, liver histopathology results did not differ significantly between estuaries. Fish from the Old Womans recorded significantly inhibited AChE and increased LPx, while fish from the Mtana exhibited significantly increased LPx only, suggesting possible exposure to anticholinesterase contaminants in the former estuary and some form of oxidative stress in the latter. Although water samples were collected from each of the 3 estuaries and analysed for polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorines, organophosphorous pesticides and pyrethroids, none of these chemicals were detected. As pesticide residues in water are highly variable, both temporally and spatially, future studies should focus on measuring tissue burdens of organisms in order to identify the contaminant stressor. This study has shown that while chemical analyses of water provide a 'snap-shot' of water quality at the time of sampling, biomonitoring can integrate past exposures to stress and is thus useful for identifying potential situations of concern that require further detailed investigation. Keywords : biomonitoring, pollution, estuaries, AChE, LPx, histopathology


Abstract Objectives To determine whether local trainer-led TARGET antibiotic interactive workshops improve antibiotic dispensing in general practice. Methods Using a McNulty–Zelen-design randomized controlled trial within three regions of England, 152 general practices were stratified by clinical commissioning group, antibiotic dispensing rate and practice patient list size, then randomly allocated to intervention (offered TARGET workshop that incorporated a presentation, reflection on antibiotic data, promotion of patient and general practice (GP) staff resources, clinical scenarios and action planning, 73 practices) or control (usual practice, 79 practices). The primary outcome measure was total oral antibiotic items dispensed/1000 patients for the year after the workshop (or pseudo-workshop date for controls), adjusted for the previous year's dispensing. Results Thirty-six (51%) intervention practices (166 GPs, 51 nurses and 101 other staff) accepted a TARGET workshop invitation. In the ITT analysis total antibiotic dispensing was 2.7% lower in intervention practices (95% CI −5.5% to 1%, P = 0.06) compared with controls. Dispensing in intervention practices was 4.4% lower for amoxicillin/ampicillin (95% CI 0.6%–8%, P = 0.02); 5.6% lower for trimethoprim (95% CI 0.7%–10.2%, P = 0.03); and a non-significant 7.1% higher for nitrofurantoin (95% CI −0.03 to 15%, P = 0.06). The Complier Average Causal Effect (CACE) analysis, which estimates impact in those that comply with assigned intervention, indicated 6.1% (95% CI 0.2%–11.7%, P = 0.04) lower total antibiotic dispensing in intervention practices and 11% (95% CI 1.6%–19.5%, P = 0.02) lower trimethoprim dispensing. Conclusions This study within usual service provision found that TARGET antibiotic workshops can help improve antibiotic use, and therefore should be considered as part of any national antimicrobial stewardship initiatives. Additional local facilitation will be needed to encourage all general practices to participate.


The project manager (PM) has become an inevitable and indispensible component of translation workflow due to the rapid industrialization of the translation industry over the last two decades. A PM serves as the mediator between the translator(s), the language service provider (LSP), and the end client. The human resources of language industry projects are increasingly organized into geographically distributed and culturally heterogeneous "virtual teams". The virtual character of these teams has created new challenges for group dynamics. This paper attempts to define the fluid role of the modern project manager by focusing on translators' attitudes toward the PM in virtual teamwork situations, as revealed by an online survey. The survey looked at the factors of (a) communication workflow; (b) matching the skills of team members to projects; (c) interpersonal relationships; (d) translator appreciation, and (e) the PM's level of team support and supervision. Survey results were analyzed via a regression model as a means of exploring the important elements of a PM's role in virtual translation teams from the perspective of the team members themselves.


Acute Anaplasma ovis infections can cause severe clinical symptoms and might lead to significant economic losses in small ruminant flocks. However, little information has been provided related the prevalence of anaplasmosis in Angora goats. The study was designed to investigate the prevalence of Anaplasma ovis serologically (cELISA) and microscopically (Giemsa stained blood smears) among Angora goats from Duhok districts of the northern part of Iraq. A total of 92 blood samples were randomly collected from three localities of Duhok city; Zakho, Batel and Sumil during the study period from April to October 2009. The infection rate of A. ovis was 38.04% by Giemsa stained blood smear and 66.3% by cELISA. The prevalence of A. ovis in female goats was higher than that in males, but statistically not significant difference (P>0.05) by using both methods. The prevalence was also significantly higher (P<0.05) in goats more than three years old than in younger ones. The highest prevalence of A. ovis was found in Zakho, whereas the lowest was reported in Sumail. Results of hematological parameters indicated microcytic hypochromic type of anemia.It is concluded that A. ovis can infected Angora goats in district Duhok, Kurdistan region, Iraq and this might be due to high distribution of the disease and its transmitters which were lead to substantial effect followed by high mortalities


Access 2007 Programming by Example with VBA, XML, and ASP shows non-programmers how Access databases can be created, managed, and customized with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) a powerful programming language built into Access. Hundreds of hands-on examples and projects throughout the book show users how to take charge of their Access databases with programming. Learn how to: Write and debug your programming code with the Visual Basic Editor. Access and manipulate databases with Data Access Objects (DAO) and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). Use the Data Definition Language (DDL) to enforce data integrity and manage database security. Modify the behavior of forms, reports, and controls by writing event procedures. Publish dynamic Access data to the web using Active Server Pages (ASP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Work with the new features for tables, forms, reports, macros, and templates that are available in the Access 2007 user interface.


The dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-\BBCWT) is known to exhibit better shift-invariance than the conventional discrete wavelet transform. We propose an amplitude-phase representation of the DT-IBBC WT which, among other things, offers a direct explanation for the improvement in the shift-invariance. The representation is based on the shifting action of the group of fractional Hilbert transform (fHT) operators, which extends the notion of arbitrary phase-shifts from sinusoids to finite-energy signals (wavelets in particular). In particular, we characterize the shift ability of the DT-\BBCWT in terms of the shifting property of the fHTs. At the heart of the representation are certain fundamental invariances of the fHT group, namely that of translation, dilation, and norm, which play a decisive role in establishing the key properties of the transform. It turns out that these fundamental invariances are exclusive to this group. Next, by introducing a generalization of the Bedrosian theorem for the fHT operator, we derive an explicitly understanding of the shifting action of the fHT for the particular family of wavelets obtained through the modulation of lowpass functions (e.g., the Shannon and Gabor wavelet). This, in effect, links the corresponding dual-tree transform with the framework of windowed-Fourier analysis. Finally, we extend these ideas to the multidimensional setting by introducing a directional extension of the fHT, the fractional directional Hilbert transform. In particular, we derive a signal representation involving the superposition of direction-selective wavelets with appropriate phase-shifts, which helps explain the improved shift-invariance of the transform along certain preferential directions.


Abstract Nesting habitats and nest success of five species of marsh birds were studied during 1997 and 1998 at the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and the adjacent Oak Orchard and Tonawanda State Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) located in western New York. Nest searches located 18 American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), 117 Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), 189 Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), 23 Sora (Porzana carolina), and 72 Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) nests. Average nest densities in 1998, our best nest searching year, ranged from 0.01/ha for Soras (N = 8) to 0.28/ha for Pied-billed Grebes (N = 160). Mayfield nest success estimates for Least Bittern were 80% (N = 16) in 1997 and 46% (N = 37) in 1998. Nest success estimates were 72% (N = 55) for Pied-billed Grebe, 43% (N = 6) for Sora, and 38% (N = 20) for Virginia Rail. Nests of all five species were located in 70% emergent vegetation with a mean water depth of 24-56 cm and an average vegetation height that ranged from 69-133 cm. Logistic regression models were developed for each species using habitat variables at nest and random site locations. Each model was ranked with Akaike's Information Criterion for small sample size (AICc). In general, our best models indicated that increased emergent vegetation and horizontal cover with shallow water depths improved the odds of encountering marsh bird nests in the wetlands of western New York. We suggest that managing wetlands as a complex, at different stages of succession, would best benefit marsh bird species.


Abstract The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) represent a new approach to teaching K-12 science education that involves the interweaving of three educational dimensions: science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. Unlike most preexisting state science standards for public education, these new standards focus on what students can do and not on what they have memorized. The NGSS were motivated by the awareness within business and industry of the great need for better education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to meet future workforce demands for a global economy that is shifting toward higher technology levels. The Next Generation Science Standards were the result of an effort led by states, with 26 participating states involved in the writing. So far, the standards have been adopted in full by 14 states and the District of Columbia and have been adopted in part by several additional states and a large number of school districts i...


With increasing usage of social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as ecommerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy policies, website mechanisms) enables the relationship between a user and business, focusing on the institutional privacy concern and trust; however, architectural privacy mechanisms that enables relationships between and among users is lacking. This leaves users the responsibility to manage privacy for their interpersonal relationships. This research focuses on the following question: "How does privacy influence the sharing of personal information in interpersonal relationships on social networking sites?" The management of the sharing of personal information is explained using the Need to Belong theory, psychological contract, and approach-avoidance motivation theory. Individuals' desire to interact socially and engage in relationships where respect for personal information is implied leads to overcoming concerns over privacy. Three essays address the question of interest. Essay 1 explains that this drive is motivated by a fear of social exclusion from social transactions and interpersonal relationships and does not rely on the institutional relationship between a user and the social media website. Essay 2 uses a social network analysis lens to describe how the multiplexity of relationships and social influences (both of the network and the self) influence social interaction and the sharing of personal information. Essay 3 focuses on explaining how individuals' disposition toward subconscious processes of approach or avoidance motivation influence decisions to share and not share personal information. The implication of these studies is that privacy in a process-oriented context—like Facebook—involves different attitudes and beliefs centered on interpersonal relationships rather than institutional ones.


This paper describes our work on building and employing Statistical Machine Translation systems for TV subtitles in Scandinavia. We have built translation systems for Danish, English, Norwegian and Swedish. They are used in daily subtitle production and translate large volumes. As an example we report on our evaluation results for three TV genres. We discuss our lessons learned in the system development process which shed interesting light on the practical use of Machine Translation technology.


This eye-popping book offers a visual history of the psychedelic sensibility. In pop culture, that sensibility is associated with lava lamps, album covers, and "teashades," but it first manifested itself in the extreme colors and kaleidoscopic compositions of 1960s Op Artists. The psychedelic sensibility didn't die at the end of the 1960s; Psychedelic traces it through the day-glo colors of painters Peter Saul, Alex Grey, and Kenny Scharf, the pill and hemp leaf paintings of Fred Tomaselli, the intensified palettes of Douglas Bourgeois and Sharon Ellis, and mixed-media and new media works by younger artists in the new millennium. Although the term "psychedelic" was coined to describe hallucinatory experiences produced by drugs used psychotherapeutically, the story these images tell is about the influence of psychedelic culture on the art world -- not necessarily the influence of drugs. As contemporary art evolved into a diverse and pluralistic discipline, the psychedelic evolved into a language of color and light. In Psychedelic, more than seventy-five vivid color images chart this development, exploring the art chronologically, from early Op Art through recent work using digital technology. The book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the San Antonio Museum of Art, includes three essays that set the works in historical and cultural context. Artists include Isaac Abrams, Albert Alvarez, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Chio Aoshima, Kamrooz Aram, Jeremy Blake, Richie Budd, Gordon Cheung, Judy Chicago, George Cisneros, James Cobb, Steve DiBenedetto, Carole Feuerman, Jack Goldstein, Alex Grey, Peter Halley, Al Held, Mark Hogensen, Constance Lowe, Erik Parker, Ed Paschke, Lari Pittman, Ray Rapp, Deborah Remington, Bridget Riley, Susie Rosmarin, Alex Rubio, Sterling Ruby, Julian Stanczak, Jennifer Steinkamp, Frank Stella, Philip Taaffe, Barbara Takenaga, Fred Tomaselli, Victor Vasarely, Michael Velliquette, Andy Warhol, Robert Williams Essays byDavid S. Rubin, Robert C. Morgan, Daniel Pinchbeck Copublished with the San Antonio Museum of Art


Biologically enhanced granular activated carbon (BAC) is a promising wastewater post-treatment to produce a purified effluent suitable for recycle in the textile industry. Three small pilot scale filters were used, filled with three media (two adsorbent media and one non-adsorbent), to compare two different GACs and quantify the biomass contribution to organic removal and colour abatement. A demonstrative scale filter was tested in parallel to evaluate the influence of hydraulic parameters on BAC process efficiency. Biomass contribution was significant when an acclimated biofilm grew on particles; in all cases, wastewater decolorising was due to physical-chemical adsorption only; higher hydraulic load negatively affected the polishing process. Laboratory and semi-industrial scale tests were performed on textile fibres and fabrics using samples of the effluent from the demonstrative filter, The tests ponfirmed the suitability of the treated water for textile reuse.


The pair-induced quenching (PIQ) effect in a highly doped bismuth oxide-based erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) was theoretically and experimentally investigated. In the theoretical investigation, the bismuth oxide-based EDFA was modeled as a 6-level amplifier system that incorporated clustering-induced concentration quenching, cooperative up-conversion, pump excited state absorption (ESA), and signal ESA. The relative number of paired ions in a highly doped bismuth oxide EDF was estimated to be ~6.02%, determined by a comparison between the theoretical and the experimentally measured gain values. The impacts of the PIQ on the gain and the noise figure were also investigated.


Investigates motions of a polyhedron in contact with a fixed polyhedron under the frictionless assumption. The authors propose a complete algorithm for determining possible velocity of the moving polyhedron and force applicable from the moving one to the fixed one automatically from their geometric models. The algorithm consists of two parts. The first part derives the constraints for the velocity of the moving polyhedron from their shape descriptions. The constraints are represented by linear inequalities of the velocity. The algorithm is complete in the sense that it can be applied to any case in which polyhedra with arbitrary shapes are in contact with arbitrary state. It includes the degenerate case in which a vertex contacts another vertex or edge. The second part solves the inequalities and obtains the set of possible velocity vectors of the moving polyhedron. The authors prove that this part is equivalent to the algorithm for enumerating all vertices of a compact polytope in higher dimensional space. The solution is the direct sum of a nonnegative linear combination of the vectors that break the contact state and a linear combination of the vectors that maintain the state. The minimum set of force vectors that are applicable from the moving polyhedron to the fixed one can be obtained from the set of possible velocity vectors of the moving one. The algorithm is fully implemented in an object-oriented lisp with a solid modeler and in C. The possible applications of the algorithm are also presented. >


Objective: This research aimed to determine rifampicin in dried blood spot of tuberculosis patients using cilostazol as internal standard by high performance liquid chromatography for supporting therapeutic drug monitoring. Method: Analytes were extracted by protein precipitation using methanolacetonitril (4:1). The analytical separation was performed on C-8 column (Waters, Sun fire™ 5 μm; 250 x 4.6 mm) with column temperature of 40°C. The mobile phase used was acetonitrile - methanol - ammnonium acetate buffer pH 4.5 (40:30:30 % v/v) with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min; and detected at 261 nm. Results: The method had a chromatographic run time of 16 min and linear calibration curve over the range of 1-30 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.998. The result of the analysis of rifampicin in 18 tuberculosis patients showed that the measured value of rifampicin was in the range of 1.26 to 18.33 μg/ml. Conclusion: Based on the result, the concentration of rifampicin in patients were varied. There were 7 of 18 patients which had concentration in therapeutic range, showing that the treatment is appropriate, while 11 of 18 patients had concentration below the therapeutic range showing that dose adjustment is needed. Key words: Rifampicin, HPLC, Tuberculosis, Validation, Dried blood spot.


Responsible scholarship requires that students engage with their context and their own learning to understand and transform our world with wisdom. Ponti (J.J.) Venter argues that such a notion is central in understanding the task of a (Christian) university. In this article, dedicated to Professor Venter, I argue that the pedagogical implications of such a Christian understanding of science need to be developed further in a higher education context. I propose that care deepens wonder and sustains action by continuously calling our imagination to envisage longed-for change in both an academic and a broader social context. I offer five concrete suggestions to support lecturers in guiding students to act from their care for the world. These suggestions refer to the importance of inventory work, the cultivation of empathy, inspiring examples, emotional involvement, and an inner and outer dialogue as to the appropriate form their care should take. A Christian pedagogy should, secondly, support students in unfolding their own style of moving between theory and experience; thirdly, it should enable students to experience themselves as partners in academic discussions and as historical formative agents contributing to our world; fourthly, it should focus on a view of the world in which their tentacles are feeling for change, accompanied by normative sophistication. Fifthly, the development of a suitable pedagogy requires lecturers to develop peer groups organically to reflect on teaching practices that encourage students' transformative engagement with our world.


Activity recognition systems based on body-worn motion sensors suffer from a decrease in performance during the deployment and run-time phases, because of probable changes in the sensors (e.g. displacement or rotatation), which is the case in many real-life scenarios (e.g. mobile phone in a pocket). Existing approaches to achieve robustness tend to sacrifice information (e.g. by rotation-invariant features) or reduce the weight of the anomalous sensors at the classifier fusion stage (adaptive fusion), ignoring data which might still be perfectly meaningful, although different from the training data. We propose to use adaptation to rebuild the classifier models of the sensors which have changed position by a two-step approach: in the first step, we run an anomaly detection algorithm to automatically detect which sensors are delivering unexpected data; subsequently, we trigger a system self-training process, so that the remaining classifiers retrain the "anomalous" sensors. We show the benefit of this approach in a real activity recognition dataset comprising data from 8 sensors to recognize locomotion. The approach achieves similar accuracy compared to the upper baseline, obtained by retraining the anomalous classifiers on the new data.


Stable isotope studies of sulfate minerals are especially useful for unraveling the geochemical history of geological systems. All sulfate minerals can yield sulfur and oxygen isotope data. Hydrous sulfate minerals, such as gypsum, also yield oxygen and hydrogen isotope data for the water of hydration, and more complex sulfate minerals, such as alunite and jarosite also yield oxygen and hydrogen isotope data from hydroxyl sites. Applications of stable isotope data can be divided into two broad categories: geothermometry and tracer studies. The equilibrium partitioning of stable isotopes between two substances, such as the isotopes of sulfur between barite and pyrite, is a function of temperature. Studies can also use stable isotopes as a tracer to fingerprint various sources of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, and to identify physical and chemical processes such as evaporation of water, mixing of waters, and reduction of sulfate to sulfide.

Studies of sulfate minerals range from low-temperature surficial processes associated with the evaporation of seawater to form evaporite deposits to high-temperature magmatic-hydrothermal processes associated with the formation of base-and precious-metal deposits. Studies have been conducted on scales from submicroscopic chemical processes associated with the weathering of pyrite to global processes affecting the sulfur budget of the oceans. Sulfate isotope studies provide important information to investigations of energy and mineral resources, environmental geochemistry, paleoclimates, oceanography (past and present), sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic processes, Earth systems, geomicrobiology, and hydrology.

One of the most important aspects of understanding and interpreting the stable isotope characteristics of sulfate minerals is the complex interplay between equilibrium and kinetic chemical and isotopic processes. With few exceptions, sulfate minerals are precipitated from water or have extensively interacted with water at some time in their history. Because of this nearly ubiquitous association with water, the kinetics of isotopic exchange reactions among dissolved species and solids …


A temperature sensor based on polarization non-reciprocity (PNR) in fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer (FSI) was proposed. The experimental study was made primarily and the results agree with theory well. Discussion shows that this kind of temperature sensor can achieve high precision and have great application potential.


The main objective of this paper is to estimate non-parametrically the conditional distribution when the sample is considered as an ®-mixing sequence. First of all, a kernel type estimator for the conditional cumulative distribution function (cond-cdf) is introduced. Afterwards, we give an estimation of the quantiles by inverting this estimated cond-cdf, the asymptotic properties are stated when the observations are linked with a single-index structure. The pointwise almost complete convergence and the uniform almost complete convergence (with rate) of the kernel estimate of this model are established. This approach can be applied in time series analysis. For that, the whole observed time series has to be split into a set of functional data, and the functional conditional quantile approach can be employed both in foreseeing and building confidence prediction bands.


The results of laser surface treatment may vary significantly during laser surface processing. These variations arise from the sensitivity of the process to disturbances, such as varying absorptivity and the small dimensions of the work piece. To increase the reproducibility of the process, a real-time feedback control system was designed and tested. Process models were developed to gain insight in the process behavior. As a test case, laser alloying of titanium (Ti6Al4V) with nitrogen was considered. Unfortunately, not all the desired processing results, such as the thickness of the alloyed layer, can be measured during processing. The quantities, which can be measured, are temperature related, e.g. the melt pool temperature and the melt pool surface area. Dynamic and steady-state models were developed, which relate the processing results to the measured quantities. A thermographic CCD camera was developed to measure the melt pool surface area in real-time. Pyrometers were applied to measure its temperature. The effects of the laser power, the beam velocity and the disturbances (absorptivity, thin work piece) on the temperature distribution and melt pool surface area, were analyzed theoretically, as well as experimentally. The width and length of the temperature distribution and the melt pool vary due to the disturbances. In the case of a thin work piece, the length varies more than the width. In the case of an absorptivity disturbance, the variation of the length and width are of the same order. In addition, it was found that the laser power can be best applied to counteract an absorptivity disturbance. The beam velocity can be best applied to suppress the negative effects introduced by small dimensions of the work piece. Based on these results, several controller algorithms, including multivariable algorithms, were implemented and tested. A mode-switch controller was able to produce a constant melt pool depth despite disturbances. This controller applied the laser power to suppress an absorptivity disturbance, and the beam velocity to counteract a geometrical disturbance.
Hence, although it is not possible to measure the thickness of the alloyed layer directly, it is possible to control it by measuring and controlling temperature related quantities (temperature, melt pool area) at the surface.


Published information on the incidence of pathogens in the field and laboratory infections of Hypsipyla spp. with entomopathogens is reviewed. In addition, some preliminary results of field collections from Ghana and Costa Rica are presented. Fungal pathogens from the Deuteromycetes have been isolated from both H. robusta Moore and H. grandella Zeller. Mermithid nematodes, Hexamermis spp., have been frequently isolated from larvae in the field and incidence of infection with these pathogens can reach significant levels. Microsporidia have been found in cadavers of larvae collected in the field but none have been identified so far. A number of pathogens of other Lepidoptera have been shown to be infectious to H. grandella , including Bacillus thuringiensis , Deuteromycete fungi and a nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) from Autographa californica . Hypsipyla spp. are difficult targets for microbial control, since the larvae are cryptic, occur at low density and occur sporadically. In addition, there is a low damage threshold, the plant is susceptible for a number of years and the susceptible part of the plant will rapidly outgrow any surface application. Key features of the biology of entomopathogens with relevance to the control of low density and cryptic pests are discussed. In the light of this experience, we discuss strategies to improve the possibilities of microbial control of this pest and suggest areas for research.


Abstract: We document the neglected phenomenon of lateral erosion ('toe-cutting') of alluvial fans by non-incising axial river channels. Field examples from the Holocene of the Big Lost River basin, Idaho and the Plio-Pleistocene of the Rio Grande Rift, New Mexico help to establish architectural models with more general application to basin analysis. The process of toe-cutting can lead to complete fan destruction and may be a response to climate change, tectonic tilting, fault propagation or a combination of these variables. It gives rise to: near horizontal erosion surfaces cut in fan sediment; steep fan-margin scarps; progressive up-fan incision from the scarp by a network of channels; soil formation up-fan away from the incised channel network; a deposit of axial alluvium that overlies the erosion surface and onlaps the scarp. Once avulsion occurs to take the axial channel away from the bajada margin, distinctive 'healing-wedges' of fan alluvium prograde across abandoned axial river channel and floodplain deposits, gradually onlapping the eroded scarp and its upstream network of incised channels. Toe-cutting has important stratigraphic basin analysis and economic consequences: bajada deposits subject to the process exhibit appreciable extra groundwater and petroleum reservoir potential in the intercalations of more porous and permeable axial fluvial sediments.


Negative feedbacks and incoherent feedforward loops are known to give rise to a pulse in response to a step change in the input. In this article, I present a study of composite motifs made of coupled feedback and feedforward loops, acting via different regulatory mechanisms. In these motifs, the effect of input and output on the controller is realized via either an AND-gate or an OR-gate. Using a simplistic model of gene expression and a common parameter set, I have studied the effect of global parameter variation on the dynamic and steady-state properties of different motifs, in response to a step change in the input. These metrics include steady state gain, response time, overshoot, peak time and peak duration. For the motifs with a negative feedback component, it can be seen that AND-gated motifs show a "feedforward-like" property whereas the OR-gated motifs show a "feedback-like" property. Motifs with a positive feedback component show hypersensitivity of gain, to parameters. Overshoot correlates negatively with peak time whereas peak duration correlates concavely with peak time, a property that is also observed for uncoupled feedback and feedforward motifs. This indicates that this relationship between overshoot, peak duration and peak time, seems to be a universal property of pulse-generating motifs.


Highly water-soluble hydroxylated fullerene derivatives are being investigated for a wide range of commercial products as well as for potential cytotoxicity. However, no analytical methods are currently available for their quantification at sub-ppm concentrations in environmental matrixes. Here, we report on the development and comparison of liquid chromatography-ultraviolet/visible spectroscopy (LC-UV/vis) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based detection and quantification methods for commercial fullerols. We achieved good separation efficiency using an amide-type hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) column (plate number >2000) under isocratic conditions with 90% acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The method detection limits (MDLs) ranged from 42.8 ng/mL (UV detection) to 0.19 pg/mL (using MS with multiple reaction monitoring, MRM). Other MS measurement modes achieved MDLs of 125 pg/mL (single quad scan, Q1) and 1.5 pg/mL (multiple ion monitoring, MI). Each detection method exhibited a good linear response over several orders of magnitude. Moreover, we tested the robustness of these methods in the presence of Suvanee River fulvic acids (SRFA) as an example of organic matter commonly found in environmental water samples. While SRFA significantly interfered with UV- and Q1-based quantifications, the interference was relatively low using MI or MRM (relative error in presence of SRFA: 8.6% and 2.5%, respectively). This first report of a robust MS-based quantification method for modified fullerenes dissolved in water suggests the feasibility of implementing MS techniques more broadly for identification and quantification of fullerols and other water-soluble fullerene derivatives in environmental samples.


Twenty-one states and the federal government have civil commitment schemes that provide for the further confinement of sex offenders after they have completed their prison sentences. These schemes survive constitutional scrutiny on the grounds that they are not a second prison sentence, but rather serve the non-criminal ends of protecting society and helping treat violent sex offenders. The underlying legislation confirms the treatment objective by elaborating statutory guidelines for treatment programs.


Thousands of people died in Rotterdam during the Second World War in more than
 300 German and Allied bombardments. Civil defence measures had been taken before
 the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 and these efforts were
 intensified during the country's occupation as Allied bombers attacked
 Rotterdam's port, factories, dry docks and oil terminals. Residential
 neighbourhoods were also hit through imprecise targeting and by misfired flak
 grenades. Inadequate air raid shelters and people's reluctance to enter
 them caused many casualties. The condition of the corpses and their post-mortem
 treatment was thus co-constituted by the relationship between the victims and
 their material circumstances. This article concludes that an understanding of
 the treatment of the dead after war, genocide and mass violence must pay
 systematic attention to the materiality of death because the condition,
 collection and handling of human remains is affected by the material means that
 impacted on the victims.


Abstract Throughout the 20th century, the Truckee River that flows from Lake Tahoe into the Nevada desert was progressively dammed and dewatered, which led to the collapse of its aquatic and riparian ecosystems. The federal designation of the endemic cui-ui sucker (Chasmistes cujus) as endangered prompted a restoration program in the 1980s aimed at increasing spring flows to permit fish spawning. These flows did promote cui-ui reproduction, as well as an unanticipated benefit, the extensive seedling recruitment of Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and sandbar willow (Salix exigua). Recruitment was scattered in 1983 but extensive in 1987, when the hydrograph satisfied the riparian recruitment box model that had been developed for other rivers. That model was subsequently applied to develop flow prescriptions that were implemented from 1995 through 2000 and enabled further seedling establishment. The woodland recovery produced broad ecosystem benefits, as evidenced by the return by 1998 of 10 of 19 riparian bird species whose populations had been locally extirpated or had declined severely between 1868 and 1980. The dramatic partial recovery along this severely degraded desert river offers promise that the use of instream flow regulation can promote ecosystem restoration along other dammed rivers worldwide.


Amplify-and-forward channels in cooperative networks provide a promising improvement in the network coverage and system throughput. Under line-of-sight (LOS) propagation conditions in such cooperative networks, the overall fading channel can be modeled by a double Rice process. In this article, we have studied the statistical properties of the capacity of double Rice fading channels. We have derived the analytical expressions for the probability density function (PDF), cumulative distribution function (CDF), levelcrossing rate (LCR), and average duration of fades (ADF) of the channel capacity. The obtained results are studied for different values of the amplitudes of the LOS components in the two links of double Rice fading channels. It has been observed that the statistics of the capacity of double Rice fading channels are quite different from those of double Rayleigh and classical Rice fading channels. Moreover, the presence of an LOS component in any of the two links increases the mean channel capacity and the LCR of the channel capacity. The validity of the theoretical results is confirmed by simulations. The results presented in this article can be very useful for communication system designers to optimize the performance of cooperative networks in wireless communication systems.


All families are political, each in its own way. Nevertheless, the diversity of family politics has not negated, by and large, patriarchal influence on the Political Family. This Article introduces the Political Family as a key concept in a scholarly and activist movement in family law studies which I identify as Critical Family Law. In Part I a reminder is offered that "alternative families" have existed since the dawn of history. However, I argue that despite constant changes in the configuration of the family, for the most part all family forms have adhered to patriarchy. Part II offers a brief overview of some of the central themes in contemporary critical study of family law. I show how dichotomies such as private/public and intervention/autonomy have lain at the basis of the definition of the family since antiquity, constantly shifting the very meaning of the family across time, cultures and legal traditions, but rarely challenging its patriarchal ideology. Such challenges necessitate a critical look at the language of rights and obligations within the family, in acknowledgment that this very discourse is already saturated with ideology and biased preconceptions. Under the umbrella of "Critical Family Law," I explore the potential for promoting such a shift, discussing articles in this issue. In memory of Paula Ettelbrick, 1955-2011


Background: A person's rate of aging has important implications for his/her risk of death and disease, thus, quantifying aging using observable characteristics has important applications for clinical, basic, and observational research. We aimed to validate a novel aging measure, "Phenotypic Age", constructed based on routine clinical chemistry measures, by assessing its applicability for differentiating risk for morbidity and mortality in both healthy and unhealthy populations of various ages. Methods: A nationally representative US sample, NHANES III, was used to derive "Phenotypic Age" based on a linear combination of chronological age and nine multi-system clinical chemistry measures, selected via cox proportional elastic net. Mortality predictions were validated using an independent sample (NHANES IV), consisting of 11,432 participants, for whom we observed a total of 871 deaths, ascertained over 12.6 year of follow-up. Proportional hazard models and ROC curves were used to evaluate predictions. Results: Phenotypic Age was significantly associated with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality. These results were robust to age and sex stratification, and remained even when excluding short-term mortality. Similarly, Phenotypic Age was associated with mortality among seemingly "healthy" participants—defined as those who were disease-free and had normal BMI at baseline—as well as the oldest-old (aged 85+)—a group with high disease burden. Conclusions: Phenotypic Age is a reliable predictor of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in multiple subgroups of the population. Risk stratification by this composite measure is far superior to that of the individual measures that go into it, as well as traditional measures of health. It is able to differentiate individuals who appear healthy, who may have otherwise been missed using traditional health assessments. Further, it can differentiate risk among persons with shared disease burden. Overall, this easily measured metric may be useful in the clinical setting and facilitate secondary and tertiary prevention strategies.


Methanol, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde concentrations were measured in 49 rain events in Wilmington, NC from August 2007 to August 2008. The first methanol concentrations in rainwater are reported. Methanol concentrations ranged from below the detection limit (<0.10 µM) up to 9.3 µM with a volume weighted average concentration of 1.2 + 0.2 µM and a simple average concentration of 1 +2 µM. Formaldehyde in the same rain events had a range of 0.1 µM to 5.5 µM with a volume weighted average concentration of 1.5 +0.2 µM and a simple average concentration of 2 +2 µM. Acetaldehyde in the rain events had a volume weighted average concentration of 0.140 + 0.002 µM and a simple average concentration of 0.2 + 0.2 µM with concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 0.72 µM. Additional rainwater components including hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen ion, nitrate, formate, acetate, and non sea salt sulfate (NSS) were measured in an attempt to correlate these components with methanol, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde. Methanol only correlated well with acetaldehyde which may be due to both having strong biogenic sources. Formaldehyde correlated well with H+, NO3-, and NSS suggesting common anthropogenic sources. Acetaldehyde correlates well with methanol, formaldehyde, nitrate, NSS, and hydrogen peroxide suggesting substantial anthropogenic and biogenic sources. When methanol, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde weighted average concentrations were grouped according to rain event origin, methanol and acetaldehyde concentrations were highest in rain events originating strictly over land, supporting previous observations of methanol having a large biogenic source. Formaldehyde concentrations in rain events originating over land were also higher, supporting the idea of formaldehyde having anthropogenic sources but also suggesting a significant biogenic source. When methanol, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde volume weighted concentrations were sorted according to seasons (winter, fall, spring, summer) and to growing and non-growing seasons, concentrations of all three increased during the spring, summer, and growing seasons, suggesting an increase in biogenic sources and photochemical production. Methanol, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde concentrations also increased during rain events occurring between 12pm – 6pm. Increases may be due to increases in photochemical production, plant activity, and activity from anthropogenic sources during the day.


In mammalian cells and fungi, early endosomes form a dynamic compartment that undergoes bi-directional motility along microtubules. Previous work has shown that in the model system Ustilago maydis early endosome motility involves the opposing motor proteins dynein and kinesin-3. Here I performed a detailed analysis of the role of the motors in early endosome motility, using quantitative live cell imaging of kinesin-3, dynein and the endosomal GTPase Rab5a. In the first part of my work, I analysed the role of dynein at MT plusends, where the motor forms a strong accumulation that was thought to be involved in capturing early endosomes. I could demonstrate that ~55 dynein motors build up the dynein accumulation. In collaboration with Ms. Congping Lin and Prof. Peter Ashwin (Institute for Mathematics, Exeter), I found theoretical evidence that ~25 dynein motors concentrate and leave the plus-ends stochastically. In addition, dynein motors are captured by an interaction of dynactin and the plus-end binding protein EB1. Together both mechanisms increase the number of motors, which ensures that EEs will be loaded onto dynein before they reach the end of their track. In a second project, I provide evidence that loading of dynein is not restricted to the plus-ends. Instead, dynein leaves the plus-ends and is able to bind to kinesin-3 delivered early endosomes, which changes their transport direction from anterograde to retrograde. Kinesin-3 remains bound to these retrograde EEs. When dynein leaves the organelle, it switches back to anterograde motility. Interestingly, a single dynein wins over three to five kinesin-3 motors. I discuss these findings in the light of current motor cooperation concepts. In a third part, I demonstrated that kinesin-3 has an unexpected role in long-range retrograde endosome motility. In contrast, dynein is only responsible for the distal 10-20 μm. This is possible because most of the hyphal cells contain a symmetric and bi-polar MT array. This MT organization is reminiscent of that in dendrites. Kinesin-3-based retrograde motility is required to mix the organelles and might support longrange communication between both cell poles.


This policy brief defines the challenges of conducting appropriate fiscal policy over the past 20 years in four Caribbean countries (The Bahamas, Barbados, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago) and reviews international financial institutions' technical assistance and advice on tax and expenditures policies. The review finds that national authorities usually agree with the policy recommendations of the international financial institutions in most areas but disagree with the pace and scale of policy implementation. Moreover, delays in implementing required policy action at a suitable pace in many instances may have contributed to a pro-cyclical fiscal stance and worsened the region's fiscal accounts. In future designs of technical assistance, some Caribbean-specific features need to be taken into account. The authors analyze current conditions and provide viable recommendations.


Mass movements are major hazards that threaten natural and human environments. In Lebanon, the occurrence of mass movements increased by almost 60% between 1956 and 2008. Forest fire has emerged as an additional hazard: it destroyed over 25% of Lebanon's forests in a period less than 40 years. This paper investigates the potential effect of forest fire on the occurrence of mass movements in the Damour and Nahr Ibrahim watersheds of Lebanon. Mass movement and forest fire inventory maps were produced through remote sensing using aerial and satellite images. Forest fire was included as an additional factor in mass movement induction, and its effect was quantified from Landsat images through the normalised burn ratio (NBR) index. A field study was conducted to substantiate the mass movement inventory and NBR maps. Following the standardisation of the effect factors into layers using geographic information systems, the weight factor of each layer for inducing mass movements was evaluated using the modified InfoVal method, and a mass movement susceptibility map was generated. Exceeded only by changes in land cover, the NBR produced the highest weights, making forest fire burn severity the second highest factor influencing mass movement occurrence in the study areas. Additional keywords: GIS, InfoVAL, normalised burn ratio, remote sensing.


Educational researchers and policy-makers are now expected by funding agencies and their institutions to innovate the multidirectional ways in which our production of knowledge can impact the classrooms of teachers (practitioners), while also integrating their experiential knowledge into the landscape of our research. In this article, we draw on the curriculum implementation literature to complicate our understandings of knowledge mobilization (KMb). Policy implementation, we suggest, can be understood as one specific type of KMb. We draw on different models for KMb and curriculum implementation and develop a relational model for KMb. Utilizing our model we critically reflect on the specific successes and challenges encountered while establishing, building, and sustaining the capacity of our KMb network. Our findings suggest that faculties of education are uniquely positioned to act as secondary brokers for the implementation of policy reforms within public education systems. To this end, we discuss how a relational KMb network is a "best practice" for establishing and sustaining partnerships among policy makers, educational researchers, and public school practitioners.


Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) enables parties to compute a pub- lic function over private inputs. A classical example is the millionaires problem, where two millionaires want to figure out who is wealthier without revealing their actual wealth to each other. The insight gained from the secure computa- tion is nothing more than what is revealed by the output (in this case, who was wealthier but not the actual value of the wealth). Other applications of secure computation include secure voting, on-line bidding and privacy-preserving cloud computations, to name a few. Technological advancements are making secure computations practical, and recent optimizations have made dramatic improve- ments on their performance. However, there is still a need for effective tools that facilitate the development of SMPC applications using standard and famil- iar programming languages and techniques, without requiring the involvement of security experts with special training and background. This work addresses the latter problem by enabling SMPC application de- velopment through programs (or repurposing existing code) written in a stan- dard programming language such as ANSI C. Several high-level language (HLL) platforms have been proposed to enable secure computation such as Obliv-C [1], ObliVM [2] and Frigate [3] These platforms utilize a variation of Yao's garbled circuits [4] in order to evaluate the program securely. The source code written for these frameworks is then converted into a lower-level intermediate language that utilizes garbled circuits for program evaluation. Garbled Circuits have one party (garbler) who compiles the program that the other party (evaluator) runs, and the communication between the two parties happens through oblivi- ous transfer. Garbled circuits allow two parties to do this evaluation without a need for a trusted third party. These frameworks have two common characteristics: either define a new language [2] or make a restricted extension of a current language [1]. This is somewhat prohibitive as it requires the programmer to have a sufficient under- standing of SMPCs related constructs and semantics. This process is error-prone and time-consuming for the programmer. The other characteristic is that they use combinational circuits, which often require creating and materializing the entire circuit (circuit size may be huge) before evaluation. This introduces a restriction on the program being written. TinyGarble [5], however, is a secure two-party computation framework that is based on sequential circuits. Compared with the frameworks mentioned earlier, TinyGarble outperforms them by orders of magnitude. We are developing a framework that can automatically convert a HLL pro- gram (in this case ANSI C) into an hardware definition language, which is then evaluated securely. The benefit of having such transformation is that it does not require knowledge of unfamiliar SMPC constructs and semantics, and per- forms the computation in a much more efficient manner. We are combining the efficiency of sequential circuits for computation as well as the expressiveness of a HLL like ANSI C to be able to develop a secure computation framework that is expected to be effective and efficient. Our proposed approach is two-fold: first, it offers a separation of concern between the function of computation, written in C, and a secure computation policy to be enforced. This leaves the original source code unchanged, and the programmer is only required to specify a policy file where he/she specifies the function/variables which need secure computations. Secondly, it leverages the current state-of-the-art framework to generate sequential circuits. The idea is to covert the original source code to Verilog (a Hardware Definition Language) as this can then be transformed into standard circuit description which TinyGarble [5] would run. This will enable us to leverage TinyGarbles efficient sequential circuits. The result would be having the best of both worlds where we have HLL that would be converted and evaluated as a sequential circuit. References [1] S. Zahur and D. Evans, "Obliv-c: A language for extensible data-oblivious computation," IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive, vol. 2015, p. 1153, 2015. [2] C. Liu, X. S. Wang, K. Nayak, Y. Huang, and E. Shi, "Oblivm: A pro- gramming framework for secure computation," in 2015 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2015, San Jose, CA, USA, May 17-21, 2015, pp. 359–376, 2015. [3] B. Mood, D. Gupta, H. Carter, K. R. B. Butler, and P. Traynor, "Frigate: A validated, extensible, and efficient compiler and interpreter for secure com- putation," in IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, EuroSaP 2016, Saarbrucken, Germany, March 21-24, 2016, pp. 112–127, 2016. [4] A. C. Yao, "Protocols for secure computations (extended abstract)," in 23rd Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 3-5 November 1982, pp. 160–164, 1982. [5] E. M. Songhori, S. U. Hussain, A. Sadeghi, T. Schneider, and F. Koushanfar, "Tinygarble: Highly compressed and scalable sequential garbled circuits," in 2015 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2015, San Jose, CA, USA, May 17-21, 2015, pp. 411–428, 2015.


The pathogen of malaria, Plasmodium, enters erythrocytes and thus escapes recognition by the immune system. The pathogen induces oxidative stress to the host erythrocyte, which triggers eryptosis, the suicidal death of erythrocytes. Eryptosis is characterized by cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing and cell membrane phospholipid scrambling with phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Phosphatidylserine-exposing erythrocytes are identified by macrophages which engulf and degrade the eryptotic cells. To the extent that infected erythrocytes undergo eryptosis prior to exit of Plasmodiaand subsequent infection of other erythrocytes, the premature eryptosis may protect against malaria. Accordingly, any therapeutical intervention accelerating suicidal death of infected erythrocytes has the potential to foster elimination of infected erythrocytes, delay the development of parasitemia and favorably influence the course of malaria. Eryptosis is stimulated by a wide variety of triggers including osmotic shock, oxidative stress, energy depletion and a wide variety of xenobiotics. Diseases associated with accelerated eryptosis include sepsis, haemolytic uremic syndrome, malaria, sickle-cell anemia, beta-thalassemia, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficiency, phosphate depletion, iron deficiency and Wilson's disease. Among the known stimulators of eryptosis, paclitaxel, chlorpromazine, cyclosporine, curcumin, PGE2 and lead have indeed been shown to favourably influence the course of malaria. Moreover, sickle-cell trait, beta-thalassemia trait, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficiency and iron deficiency confer some protection against a severe course of malaria. Importantly, counteracting Plasmodia by inducing eryptosis is not expected to generate resistance of the pathogen, as the proteins involved in suicidal death of the host cell are not encoded by the pathogen and thus cannot be modified by mutations of its genes.


We developed empirical models that can predict maximum allowable, nutrient loading rates or load limits (LM) for maintenance of mesotrophy in Florida's fresh and estuarine waters. Water residence time (tw) explains most of the variation in LM previously set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Florida's environmental agencies for total phosphorus (TP) and for total nitrogen (TN). We found that a single model for TP and for TN fit data from both estuarine and freshwater systems. Further, we show that the models are consistent with or analogous to the critical loading model of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD 1982): Lc = [TP or TN]c x z/Τw(1 + Τw0.5). The LM ‐ Τw model for TP is sufficiently similar to the OECD model as to indicate that either model could provide a reasonable fit to mesotrophy in both temperate and subtropical systems. The models can facilitate the development of total maximum daily loads for estuaries and inland waters of Florida and may have broader regional utility. They may also aid the development of nutrient concentration criteria.


1 This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Orchis mascula (L.) L. (early purple orchid) relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characteristics, herbivores and disease, history and conservation. 2 Orchis mascula is a native herb of the British flora. It is mostly found in woodland, copses, grasslands and open pastures, mostly on neutral or base‐rich soils. It can also occur in hedgerows, scrub, on roadsides and railway banks, in grikes on limestone pavement and on moist cliff ledges. It is absent from very acid or very wet sites. It tolerates a sparse to moderately dense canopy, but it does not flower in deep shade. 3 Orchis mascula is a non‐bulbous geophyte with little or no capacity for vegetative spread. The main perennating organ is a tuber (strictly a rootstem tuber). In most years the tuber generates a rosette of expanded leaves, and, at the end of every year of the plant's life, the tuber is replaced by at least one new tuber. Dormancy, the failure of above‐ground parts to appear in a growing season, and the subsequent reappearance of full‐sized photosynthetic plants in subsequent seasons, has been observed, but does not last longer than 1 year. The species is long‐lived: it takes at least 4 years from first appearance above‐ground to achieve flowering for the first time. The maximum recorded lifetime after first appearance is 13 years. 4 Orchis mascula is not autogamous and pollinators are necessary for successful pollination and fruit set. Flowers are nectarless, and pollinated by deceit, mainly by bumblebees and solitary bees. Natural levels of fruit set are usually < 20%. Hand‐pollination can increase fruit set to approximately 80%, indicating that seed production is strongly pollen‐limited. The lowest four flowers are more likely to be pollinated than the upper flowers, probably because pollinators learn to avoid the species after discovering that it offers no reward. 5 As in most other European countries, Orchis mascula has declined in the British Isles, although it is not at threat of extinction at a national level. Most sites from which it has been lost are in central England and Scotland. Most losses have been caused by woodland clearance and coniferization, intensification of grassland management and ploughing. The cessation of traditional coppicing practises has also led to a decline in the abundance of O. mascula. Since the species is slow to colonize new forest stands or grasslands, management should focus mainly on conservation of ancient forest habitats and grasslands in which fertility is moderate to low and grazing is absent or low in intensity. Restoration of traditional coppicing practices could also lead to higher chances of the species flowering and surviving in the long‐term.


The rules governing judicial review of adjudication by federal agencies are insensitive to a critical separation of powers principle. Article III jurisprudence requires different treatment of agency adjudication depending on whether the agency is adjudicating a "private right" or a "public right." When agencies adjudicate private rights, review of the agency adjudication must be available to an Article III court on a direct appellate basis. In contrast, Article III jurisprudence does not require review to an Article III court on a direct appellate basis of agency adjudications of purely public rights. That means that federal courts reviewing agency adjudications of private rights have a greater responsibility for vindicating Article III values than federal courts reviewing public rights adjudications. Administrative law's deference doctrines do not reflect this distinction. The degree of deference courts owe to agencies does not vary depending on whether adjudication involves "public" or "private" rights, in the Article III sense of those terms. In either case, Article III courts review agency adjudication deferentially. This Article challenges that indifference. Courts should calibrate their degree of deference in accordance with the Article III line and apply more robust review to agency adjudication where private rights are at stake. This approach would vindicate separation of powers values, promote better administrative decisionmaking in private rights cases, and dovetail with entrenched doctrines of constitutional and administrative law. Interestingly, the logic of Article III elaborated here suggests one explanation for why some federal courts, in certain cases implicating quasi-private rights, are declining to defer to agency adjudications in a manner recognized to be inconsistent with the demands of ordinary administrative law.


A prototype sextupole magnet has been designed, constructed, and measured for the storage ring of the Advanced Photon Source. The design approaches very closely to 120/spl deg/ rotation symmetry, in order to minimize all forbidden multipole components. The core is made of three identical stacks of laminations, each lamination consisting of two poles and the return yoke joining them. The antechamber of the thick aluminum vacuum chamber fits between two neighboring stacks. Computations and measurements of the sextupole strength B and multipole field components, both in the central region and integrated in the beam direction, show that the magnet meets the requirements for positron beam dynamics.<<ETX>>


The present work offers a detailed account of the large‐time development of the velocity profile run by a single "individual" Hamiltonian flow of the Camassa‐Holm (CH) hierarchy, the Hamiltonian employed being the reciprocal of any eigenvalue of the underlying spectral problem. In this simpler scenario, I prove some of the conjectures raised by McKean [27]. Notably, I confirm the ultimate shaping into solitons of the cusps that appear, near blowup sites, of any velocity profile emanating from an initial disposition for which breakdown of the wave in finite time is sure to happen. The careful large‐time asymptotic analysis is carried from exact expressions describing the velocity in terms of initial data, the integration involving a "Lagrangian" scale and three "theta functions," the rates at which the latter reach their common values at each end of the line characterizing the region where soliton genesis is expected. In fact, the present method also suggests how solitons may arise from initial conditions not leading to breakdown. The full CH flow is nothing but a superposition of such commuting "individual" actions. Therein lies the hope that the present account will pave the way to elucidate soliton formation for more complex flows, in particular for the CH flow itself. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This study considered using a relatively new method to study soil-tool wear which could drastically reduce the time and associated costs of traditional wear studies. The goal was to utilize discrete element method (DEM) simulations to recreate the results of a circular soil bin test in order to develop a relationship that could be used to predict wear under different conditions. Through the application of DEM, simulations could be used to study different materials or designs intended to result in improved wear performance.

Three replications of aluminum cylindrical bars were worn during 400 km of travel in a circular soil bin. Wear was quantified by measuring the change in radius of the cylinders at 18-degree intervals around their circumference. Mass data were also obtained to provide an overall average of wear occurring on the bar and to validate the radii measurements.

The DEM simulations were executed using EDEM software. Conditions present in the physical soil bin trials were simulated by recreating components in the soil bin and incorporating soil properties that were directly measured, using representative soil samples. Forces exerted on the bar by the soil and the relative velocities between the soil and tool were used to generate a relationship to predict wear of the bar. The wear equation was verified using a portion of the experimental data from the soil bin.

The wear model showed promise in predicting the amount of wear recorded in the soil bin through the application of DEM-predicted compressive forces and relative velocities between the tool and soil particles. The Archard equation for wear was modified to create a non-linear equation. Plotting the measured wear against the wear predicted from the fitted equation produced a trendline with a slope of 0.65. Although a perfect correlation would have produced a slope of 1, the model was able to predict a large portion of the wear that occurred. Refinement of the model could further be achieved with changes in the design of the geometry used in the simulation and through verification of force predictions with experimental data. Because of the variable nature of wear, additional replications of tools in the soil bin would have increased the number of data points available to create the model and reduced the impact of outlying data. With these recommended improvements, the wear model has the ability to very accurately predict the wear of a cylindrical bar.


Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies were produced to supernatants of soluble proteins from homogenates of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.). The antibodies were used to investigate differences between second-stage juveniles and adults of the three major root-knot species by ELISA and immunoblotting. Most antigens revealed by the polyclonal antibody were conserved between species but several quantitative differences were observed; large differences were observed between developmental stages. Cluster analysis and principal coordinate analysis using 45 monoclonal antibodies, showing partial discrimination between adult females of the nematode species, divided the nematodes into two groups; one group made up of M. arenaria and a second group composed of M. incognita and M. javanica. Three monoclonal antibodies, exhibiting partial discrimination in the order of producing coefficients of variation between the three species of nematode in excess of 40%, were selected as candidates for a diagnostic assay and immunoblotting analysis. An ELISA based assay using the three monoclonal antibodies in concomitant assays against adult females was able to distinguish the three principal species of root-knot nematodes; the same assay was unable to discriminate between the different species using second-stage juveniles.


Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a NAD-dependent deacetylase that is critically involved in diverse cellular processes including metabolic disease, cancer, and possibly aging. Despite extensive studies on SIRT1 function, how SIRT1 levels are regulated remains relatively unknown. Here, we report that the nuclear bile acid receptor farnesoid X receptor (FXR) inhibits microRNA-34a (miR-34a) in the liver, which results in a positive regulation of SIRT1 levels. Activation of FXR by the synthetic agonist GW4064 decreases hepatic miR-34a levels in normal mice, and consistently, hepatic miR-34a levels are elevated in FXR-null mice. FXR induces expression of small heterodimer partner (SHP), an orphan nuclear receptor and transcriptional corepressor, which in turn results in repression of p53, a key activator of the miR-34a gene, by inhibiting p53 occupancy at the promoter. MiR-34a decreased SIRT1 levels by binding to the 3′-untranslated region of SIRT1 mRNA, and adenovirus-mediated overexpression of miR-34a substantially decreased SIRT1 protein levels in mouse liver. Remarkably, miR-34a levels were elevated, and SIRT1 protein levels were reduced in diet-induced obese mice, and FXR activation in these mice reversed the miR-34a and SIRT1 levels, indicating an intriguing link among FXR activation, decreased miR-34a, and subsequently, increased SIRT1 levels. Our study demonstrates an unexpected role of the FXR/SHP pathway in controlling SIRT1 levels via miR-34a inhibition and that elevated miR-34a levels in obese mice contribute to decreased SIRT1 levels. Manipulation of this regulatory network may be useful for treating diseases of aging, such as metabolic disease and cancer.


The downfall of corporations can often be traced to the personality traits of top corporate leaders. This article examines five such traits, and finds them in abundance in both successful and failed leaders. After looking at the evidence in the lives of recent CEOs - Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Michael Eisner, Martha Stewart, Sandy Weill, Carly Fiorina, and Conrad Black, among others - the article surveys the consequences of these traits in a business environment. Four of the five traits (the exception is depression) may have positive consequences for an organization. All five of them may generate very harmful consequences. These include hyper-deference, reluctance to provide truthful information to the boss, bullying and intimidation up and down the chain of command, and constantly-shifting corporate priorities. These problems may be compounded when the CEO suffers multiple pathologies (e.g., a CEO who is narcissistic, over-optimistic, and angry). Problems may also arise when multiple leaders reinforce each other's pathologies. The article concludes with some prescriptions for board action.


We propose an efficient method for characterizing the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of an optical vortex with a large topological charge (TC) through distinguishing the interference pattern of the non-uniformly-distributed multi-pinholes using fewer pinholes. This method overcomes the limit on large TC detection by multi-point interferometer and can be used to probe optical vortices with arbitrary sizes. In addition, it also has potential application in measuring light beam with OAM from astronomical sources.


Autonomous agents need large repertoires of skills to act reasonably on new tasks that they have not seen before. However, acquiring these skills using only a stream of high-dimensional, unstructured, and unlabeled observations is a tricky challenge for any autonomous agent. Previous methods have used variational autoencoders to encode a scene into a low-dimensional vector that can be used as a goal for an agent to discover new skills. Nevertheless, in compositional/multi-object environments it is difficult to disentangle all the factors of variation into such a fixed-length representation of the whole scene. We propose to use object-centric representations as a modular and structured observation space, which is learned with a compositional generative world model. We show that the structure in the representations in combination with goal-conditioned attention policies helps the autonomous agent to discover and learn useful skills. These skills can be further combined to address compositional tasks like the manipulation of several different objects.


The relationships between the structure of the phytoplankton community and the bio-optical properties of surface waters were studied during the TransPEGASO cruise along a transect across the Atlantic Ocean that covered seven biogeographical provinces, from the Alborán Sea (SW Mediterranean) to the Patagonian Shelf. We characterized the composition of the phytoplankton community by means of high-performance liquid chromatography and CHEMTAX pigment analyses applied to whole water and two filtration size classes (< 3 and ≥ 3 μm), flow cytometric determinations and microscopic observations. Additionally, the study was complemented by measurements of the absorption of particulate matter and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM). The size class distribution of the chlorophyll a (Chl a) obtained from the size-fractionated filtration (SFF) was compared with that resulting from the diagnostic pigment algorithms (VU) developed by Vidussi et al. (2001) and Uitz et al. (2006), and the total Chl a–based expressions (HI) of Hirata et al. (2011). The seven provinces crossed by the transect could be divided into an oligotrophic group with Chl a < 0.25 mg m-3 comprising the tropical and subtropical Atlantic (including the Canary Current Coastal Province), and a eutrophic group (Chl a > 0.5 mg m-3) with a single Mediterranean (MEDI) sample and those from the southwestern Atlantic Shelf (SWAS). According to CHEMTAX, the most important taxa in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic were Prochlorococcus, haptophytes and Synechoccoccus, while the MEDI and SWAS were dominated by diatoms and haptophytes. Both the VU and HI algorithms, which are based on pigment composition or Chl a concentration, predicted for SWAS a high proportion of nano- and microphytoplankton, while the SFF indicated dominance of the < 3 μm size class. In addition, the CHEMTAX results indicated a high average diatom contribution in this province. However, at several SWAS stations with relatively high values of diatom Chl a estimated by CHEMTAX, the microscopic observations found only small concentrations of nano- or microplankton-sized cells. This discrepancy appeared to be due to the presence, confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, of picoplankton-sized cells of the diatom Minidiscus sp. and of Parmales (a group sharing the pigment composition with the diatoms). These findings caution against a routine assignment of diatom pigments to the microplankton size class. The total non-water absorption in the water column was dominated by CDOM. The average contribution of phytoplankton absorption for the different provinces ranged from 19.3% in the MEDI to 45.7% in the SWAS and 47% in the western tropical Atlantic (WTRA). The Chl a–specific phytoplankton absorption [aph*(443), m2 mg-1] was lower in the MEDI and SWAS than in the oligotrophic provinces. aph*(443) was negatively correlated with the first principal component derived from a principal component analysis based on the concentration of the main pigments and was not correlated with indicators of phytoplankton community size structure such as the proportion of Chl a in the < 3 μm class or a size index derived from the VU size class distribution. These findings indicate that the variability observed in aph*(443) was mainly related to differences in pigment composition and possibly to photoacclimation processes, and that any package effects due to cell size were probably masked by other factors, an outcome that may be related to the relatively small influence of size within the narrow range of Chl a concentrations (all ≤ 2.4 mg m-3) considered in our study.


Various empirical studies investigate the correlation between diversity and innovativeness in New Product Development teams (NPD teams). However, those studies show various and contradicting results. Diversity can be a resource that helps to strengthen the innovativeness of a NPD team. On the other hand, diversity can act as a risk that leads to diminished team cohesiveness and thus obstructs innovativeness. Numerous other factors influence the innovativeness of a heterogeneous NPD team. In this paper, we will discuss if and how simulation as a complementary method to empirical studies can help to shed light on the complex and contradicting effects of diversity on innovativeness of NPD teams. Simulation models can help to analyze the diversity problem and its dynamic behavior as well as to allow insight into the basic underlying structures. Thus, simulation can show, where further empirical data is needed, can help in developing and testing new theory, and can support organizations in gaining a better understanding of heterogeneous NPD teams and implement practical solutions. We will show a highly aggregated and simplified System Dynamics model to illustrate the potential simulation has as a complementary method in the area of diversity research. Anja Kreidler, Meike Tilebein


This textbook will be welcomed throughout engineering education as the one-stop teaching text for students of manufacturing. It takes the student through the fundamental principles and practices of modern manufacturing processes in a lively and informative fashion. Topics include casting, joining, cutting, metal deformation processes, surface treatments and finishes, plastics and rubber processing, powder metallurgy, CNC, productivity, automation and quality assurance. It includes over 300 illustrations, as well as numerous case studies and exercises which relate directly to modern industrial practices.


A method based on Gabor transform time-frequency filtering is proposed to extract special abnormal frequency components from measured shaft vibration signals for stability analysis and fault identification of shaft systems. The abnormal vibration phenomenon appeared on large steam turbine-generator units is analyzed using vibration signals continuously sampled during the process of speed up or speed down. The signals are transformed into time-frequency domain by means of Gabor transform, and abnormal time-frequency components are filtered out using tracking threshold and then the filtered signal is reconstructed so that the fault feature is clearly enhanced. Abnormal vibration response characteristics are investigated and signal features are extracted. The effectiveness of the method is proved by a practical abnormal vibration case in large steam turbine-generator unit


Background Advanced medical technologies (AMTs), such as respiratory support or suction devices, are increasingly used in home settings and incidents may well result in patient harm. Information about risks and incidents can contribute to improved patient safety, provided that those are reported and analysed systematically. Objectives To identify the frequency of incidents when using AMTs in home settings, the effects on patient outcomes and the actions taken by nurses following identification of incidents. Methods A cross-sectional study of 209 home care nurses in the Netherlands working with infusion therapy, parenteral nutrition or morphine pumps, combining data from a questionnaire and registration forms covering more than 13 000 patient contacts. Descriptive statistics were used. Results We identified 140 incidents (57 adverse events; 83 near misses). The frequencies in relation to the number of patient contacts were 2.7% for infusion therapy, 1.3% for parenteral nutrition and 2.6% for morphine pumps. The main causes were identified as related to the product (43.6%), the organisation of care (27.9%), the nurse as a user (15.7%) and the environment (12.9%). 40% of all adverse events resulted in mild to severe harm to the patient. Incidents had been discussed in the team (70.7%), with the patient/informal caregiver(s) (50%), or other actions had been taken (40.5%). 15.5% of incidents had been formally reported according to the organisation's protocol. Conclusions Most incidents are attributed to product failures. Although such events predominantly cause no harm, a significant proportion of patients do suffer some degree of harm. There is considerable underreporting of incidents with AMTs in home care. This study has identified a discrepancy in quality circles: learning takes place at the team level rather than at the organisational level.


Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is characterized by progressive weakness and sensory loss, often affecting patients' ability to walk and perform activities of daily living independently. With the lack of a diagnostic biomarker, the diagnosis relies on clinical suspicion, clinical findings, and the demonstration of demyelinating changes on electrodiagnostic (EDx) testing and nerve pathology. As a result, patients can often be misdiagnosed with CIDP and unnecessarily treated with immunotherapy. Interpreting the EDx testing and cerebrospinal fluid findings in light of the clinical phenotype, recognizing atypical forms of CIDP, and screening for CIDP mimickers are the mainstays of the approach to patients suspected of having CIDP, and are detailed in this review. We also review the currently available treatment options, including intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), corticosteroids (CCS), and plasma exchange (PE), and discuss how to approach treatment‐refractory cases. Finally, we emphasize the need to adopt objective outcome measures to monitor treatment response.


A new era of global banking and insurance is emerging, with leading banks eager to serve international markets. This book explores the issues that arise for banks in their strategic choices as they move into these new international markets. Building an International Financial Services Firm challenges conventional assumptions from the international management literature on topics such as the limits of globalization, the importance of cultural and institutional distance, the nature of economies of scale and scope, the existence of first mover advantages, the logic behind the global value chain configuration, the speed and timing of market entry, as well as organizational architecture. It focuses on fundamental strategic decisions such as when, where, and how to enter foreign markets and how to design the organizational architecture of the multinational financial services firm. Using simple theoretical frameworks illustrated by case examples, this book provides a thorough guide to the challenges of the international market for financial services firms, both for those working in the financial services industry, and researchers studying the area.


Lina Bo Bardi (1914--1992), one of the most important architects working in Latin America in the 20th century, was remarkably prolific and intriguingly idiosyncratic. A participant in the efforts to reshape Italian culture in her youth, Bo Bardi immigrated to Brazil with her husband in 1946. In Brazil, her practice evolved within the social and cultural realities of her adopted country. While she continued to work with industrial materials like concrete and glass, she added popular building materials and naturalistic forms to her design palette, striving to create large, multiuse spaces that welcomed public life. Lina Bo Bardi is the first comprehensive study of Bo Bardi's career and showcases author Zeuler Lima's extensive archival work in Italy and Brazil. The leading authority on Bo Bardi, Lima frames the architect's activities on two continents and in five cities. The book examines how considerations of ethics, politics, and social inclusiveness influenced Bo Bardi's intellectual engagement with modern architecture and provides an authoritative guide to her experimental, ephemeral, and iconic works of design.


Focusing on research as a key term in debates over U.S. education policy, this article compares the definition of research in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) with the meanings and uses of research in school board deliberations in three local districts in Wisconsin. While NCLB articulates a narrow view of research and a hierarchy of methods, the school boards operated with an expansive meaning of research and combined its use with other evidence types. Appreciating the role that values play in crafting public policy, these local debates balanced technical and public modes of reasoning.


This paper traces the development in terms of its heritage and legacy of a Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, from its beginnings in the Scottish Mission, to the present. It notes the oppressive role of missionary dominated Mission Councils throughout most of its history as well as the formative events of the formation of the PCSA and the Mzimba Secession. This led to the establishment of an independent, albeit not autonomous church in 1923. The RPCSA had a proud record of participation in the ecumenical movement and in socio-political issues, in particular in education.


The complex architecture of their structural elements and compartments is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells. The creation of high resolution models of whole cells has been limited by the relatively low resolution of conventional light microscopes and the requirement for ultrathin sections in transmission electron microscopy. We used soft x-ray tomography to study the 3D ultrastructural organization of whole cells of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii at unprecedented spatial resolution. Intact frozen hydrated cells were imaged using the natural x-ray absorption contrast of the sample without any staining. We applied different fiducial-based and fiducial-less alignment procedures for the 3D reconstructions. The reconstructed 3D volumes of the cells show features down to 30 nm in size. The whole cell tomograms reveal ultrastructural details such as nuclear envelope membranes, thylakoids, basal apparatus, and flagellar microtubule doublets. In addition, the x-ray tomograms provide quantitative data from the cell architecture. Therefore, nanoscale soft x-ray tomography is a new valuable tool for numerous qualitative and quantitative applications in plant cell biology.


Is your company worth believing in? The most successful companies are those who have a purpose shared by all stakeholders, which motivates everyone involved to greater success. This book addresses the individual senior manager and asks him or her to assess both their own motivation and and the way their company motivates its people. It then sets about suggesting ways of putting things right and developing a "mission" for their company. Checklists are provided throughout, to aid understanding. This guide aims to help senior managers to answer the following points: how important belief is for them; how important belief is to their company; how to form winning teams and how to develop a mission for their company. It suitable for both senior and middle managers.


Catalysis with transition metals is a powerful synthetic tool for achieving a high degree of molecular complexity from relatively simple building blocks. Among these transition metals employed, iridium has attracted significant attention owing to its multifold roles in catalysis of various synthetically significant methodologies, and thus iridium catalysts are widely used in natural product synthesis. This review aims to comprehensively summarize recent accomplishments in total synthesis of natural products using iridium as the catalyst.


The incubation of Xenopus embryo fragments in cycloheximide at 5 or 10 micrograms ml-1 rapidly inhibits protein synthesis to 10% or less of control levels. In most batches of embryos, treatment with cycloheximide for up to 1 h causes no obvious cellular damage and protein synthesis is fully restored to normal levels 5 h later. Transcript analysis with RNA probes shows that the inhibition of protein synthesis at late blastula or early gastrula stages completely suppresses the normal initiation of actin gene transcription at the mid-late gastrula stage. This applies to muscle-specific actin genes, whose transcription is initiated by induction, as well as to cytoskeletal actin genes not activated by induction. Two-dimensional gel protein analysis shows that cycloheximide irreversibly inhibits only 10% of all genes normally expressed at a postneurula stage and that all of these are genes whose expression is normally initiated during or soon after gastrulation. Cycloheximide treatment causes a limited reduction of DNA synthesis, and no reduction of overall RNA synthesis. We conclude that the initiation of new gene transcription during gastrulation in Xenopus is dependent on the immediately preceding synthesis of certain proteins.


CONTEXT
Solid organ transplant patients require life-long immune suppression that can produce distressing side effects and complications.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the potential of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance and improve quality of life after solid organ transplantation.

DESIGN
Longitudinal with evaluations at baseline, postcourse and 3-month follow-up.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING
Kidney, lung, or pancreas transplant recipients (N=20), aged 35 to 59 years, living in the community.

INTERVENTION
An MBSR class (2.5 hours weekly, for 8 weeks), modeled after the program of Jon Kabat-Zinn. Home practice (goal: 45 minutes, 5 days weekly) was monitored.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Self-report scales for depression (CES-D), anxiety (STAI-Y1), and sleep dysfunction (PSQI).

RESULTS
Nineteen participants completed the course. Findings suggest improvement from baseline symptom scores for depression (P=.006) and sleep (P=.011) at the completion of the MBSR program. At 3 months, improvement in sleep continued (P=.002), and a significant improvement in anxiety scores was seen (P=.043); scores for both symptoms demonstrated a linear trend and dose-response relationship with practice time. In contrast, depression scores showed a quadratic trend, and at 3 months were no longer different from baseline. A composite symptom measure was significantly improved at 3-month follow-up (P=.007). Global and health-related quality of life ratings were not improved. Effects of group support and instructor attention were not controlled, and sample size and follow-up time were limited. A randomized trial to overcome these shortcomings should be done, as symptom distress in transplant recipients appears responsive to MBSR.


In Bangladesh, cities are confronted with the problem of how to dispose large quantities of municipal solid waste (MSW). Gasification is a process that uses heat, pressure and steam to convert materials (MSW) directly into a gas composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The main objectives of this paper are: 1) to study gasification processes; 2) to design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a simple, in terms of cost, operation and maintenance, updraft gasifier; 3) production of combustible gases from municipality solid wastes using the manufactured updraft gasifier. In this research, an updraft gasifier is designed and fabricated. Mixture of gases is produced from municipality solid wastes using the updraft gasifier. In the mixture of gases, the presence of combustible elements are identified. In addition, the temperatures at six different and separate zones of the gasifier are measured and the variation in their values with time interval has been analysed. The constructed updraft gasifier is working well and the disparity pattern of the experimental temperature distribution at different and separate distinct zones and that of the reported patterns in earlier publications is consistent with each other in terms of quality.


Abstract Russia's President Vladimir Putin has centralized decision making in Moscow and has reduced the role of domestic actors. He has demonstrated his own personal management of foreign policy in relation to China and Japan. He has used negotiations over oil and territory to place Russia in a more favourable position between them. In relation to oil, he has overruled the oil company Yukos and others within his own government and decided in favour of the Japanese pipeline route, which includes a branch line to China. Putin decided on the Japanese route because it promised access to wider markets in the Asia Pacific, besides China. It also entailed deeper Japanese involvement in Russia's development and reduced Russian dependence upon China. In terms of territory, Putin undermined the power of local opposition and offered territorial settlements to both China and Japan, to remove sources of future tension. With China he compromised over the river islands which had been left outstanding since the main border agreement was signed in 1991. To Japan he again offered a compromise over the disputed islands based on the 1956 agreement to improve relations. Russians may hope that energy dependence would induce the Japanese to become more willing to compromise over the territorial issue. The Japanese, however, expect that Russia's need for funding for the pipeline would allow them to resist that pressure and to demand a return of all disputed islands. If Russia emerges as an energy supplier to both China and Japan its influence and its regional role would be enhanced. Much depends upon the prospects for the oil pipeline and its branch line, whose feasibility has been questioned.


Morphological information is extracted from different images using a sequence of image processing techniques, designed by trial and error to produce repeatable information for the studied material, flocculated fluid fine tailings (FFT). The designed image processing method produces binary images defining pore-space and solid particles (solid grains or flocs). The binary images are then analyzed using a software, primarily "Fiji-Image J" for quantitative analysis of the image for tends in pore and particle size distributions. The samples that were imaged were obtained from amended FFT dewatering experiments, comprising many replicates of 0.10 m high columns that were sampled over months. The tailings were dosed with a high molecular anionic polymer at two doses (600 and 800 ppm polymer per dry tailings). Columns either had one way or two-way drainage. The most dramatic observation was the increase in floc size over 48 hours using optical microscopy.


This is a practice-based research project about a new operatic adaptation of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis (Methuen, 2000). The opera was written and the research conducted during a three-year Doctoral Composer-in-Residence scheme with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD) and the Royal Opera House (ROH). This commentary, together with the score and supporting materials, outlines various compositional approaches to working with non-sung text in opera. This research expands the composer's previous practice of working with spoken text in concert music, and places this opera in the context of that previous work and the work of other composers, theatre-makers and electronic music artists. Five specific approaches to non-sung text are discussed in detail, always with reference to the dramaturgy of Kane's text and drawing on examples from the opera: four concerned with spoken text (the 'Opera Thought-Bubble', Voiceover, Mid-phrase Switching, Tape-cutting) and one concerned with visually-presented text (Percussion Dialogues). The five approaches are evaluated in context of the premiere performances of the opera in May 2016, and the potential for further practice-based research on this topic is discussed.