This paper presents some recent ideas on and methods created by power engineers for the solution of the Load Flow Problem. Beginning with an analysis of the solution of large systems of linear equations, techniques employing elementary matrix operations are discussed to reduce the amount of calculations necessary to achieve repeated solutions. Recent interest in taking advantage of the characteristic sparsity of the admittance matrix is also examined. The problems of operating on and computer storage of large sparse matrices are investigated. Methods to efficiently order, store and work with large sparse matrices are discussed and demonstrated. The general acceptance and use of Newton's Method by power engineers for Load Flow Studies has resulted in many variations on it. Together with a review of the Load Flow Problem and Newton's Method, an analysis of three related methods is presented and a comparison of their characteristics is made to Newton's Method. This paper serves to keep the power engineer abreast of the many recent advances available for conducting Load Flow Studies. APPROVAL OF THESIS SPARSITY AND DECOUPLING IN LOAD POWER FLOW ANALYSIS BY KENNETH NAZIMEK FOR DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY


Vortices are almost always present in the wildland fire environment and can sometimes interact with the fire in unpredictable ways, causing extreme fire behavior and safety concerns. In this paper, the current state of knowledge of the interaction of wildland fire and vortices is examined and reviewed. A basic introduction to vorticity is given, and the two common vortex forms in wildland fire are analyzed: fire whirls and horizontal roll vortices. Attention is given to mechanisms of formation and growth and how this information can be used by firefighters.


Governments face growing contingent liabilities from disasters as they tend to shoulder a significant share of disaster response and recovery costs. Disaster shocks increase government expenditure and hamper economic activities. An increasing number of countries are developing financial protection strategies - a suite of policies and financial instruments - as part of their macro-fiscal policy to secure access to pre-arranged financing and protect the fiscal balance and budget when disasters strike. Investments in physical and social resilience complement and reinforce financial resilience. Pre-arranged risk financing can help governments reduce the fiscal cost of disasters. Sovereign catastrophe risk pools, established to help especially low-capacity countries better access financial markets, are evolving toward multifunctional platforms to strengthen financial resilience in their region. Governments are moving toward adopting more sophisticated risk financing strategies that better match financial instruments to their liabilities, especially for public assets (including infrastructure), national-subnational cost sharing, and social safety nets. New technology and innovations such as Earth Observation Data, Fintech, and big data have the potential to significantly enhance and boost systems for financial resilience against disaster shocks. Development partners continue to play a critical role in helping developing countries improve their financial protection strategies. Recent experiences of G20 countries and others have led to three new frontiers on innovative crisis and disaster risk finance. Although significant progress has been achieved in disaster risk finance, some limitations and challenges remain. All successful reforms start with concrete first steps and an ongoing focus on enhancing fundamental systems and institutions. Financial resilience requires the leadership of ministries of finance in coordination with other public agencies and the private sector. At the request of G20 Finance Track members, this discussion note was prepared to: (i) take stock of the developments in fiscal management of disaster risks within the broader macro-fiscal framework; (ii) highlight recent progress by individual countries and the international community; and (iii) present new frontiers in disaster risk finance.


North Sea sublittoral carbonate sediments in the Skagerrak are affected by submarine dissolution which attacks skeletal grains of aragonite, Mg-calcite, and low-Mg calcite, and coarse detrital calcite in limestone clasts. All post-mortem changes in skeletal carbonate grains are destructive and intragranular space in hollow grains and microborings remains empty of secondary carbonate after the disappearance of the cavity-forming organisms. As a consequence, the boring--filling micritization mechanism does not operate in these waters. Evidently, the sublittoral marine environment is undersaturated with calcium carbonate. Yet, in this environment, carbonate cement is forming in various kinds of openings within living coralline algal nodules (rhodoliths) consisting mostly of Lithothamnium . The internal cement is composed of aragonite needle cement, aragonite spherulitic cement, Mg-calcite fringe cement, Mg-calcite micrite, and Mg-calcite intraskeletal micro-druses, the latter exclusively in the algal skeleton proper. Cement growth is related to metabolic activities in the living carbonate-secreting red algae. After death of the algae, the rhodoliths and their cement undergo dissolution. Theoretically, precipitation may take place in several steps, involving accessory organisms in the rhodoliths, for example, unicellular green algae, or bacteria. However, all observations indicate that the primary cause for the cementation lies in the life processes of the frame-building algae. The thin films of encrusting algae are exceptionally well suited as instruments for a microenvironmental control. Few passages lead to the interior of rhodoliths, except through the sieve of algal filaments. Furthermore, the red algae may secrete as much as 30-40% of their total photosynthetic product in the form of extracellular metabolites. The data suggest that biochemical influence of frame-building algae may be an important cause for internal cementation of reefs and algal crusts in the marine environment.


The molecular basis of how Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the Lyme disease spirochete, maintains itself in nature via a complex life cycle in ticks and mammals is poorly understood. Outer surface (lipo)protein A (OspA) of Bb has been the most intensively studied of all borrelial molecular constituents, and hence, much has been speculated about the potential role(s) of OspA in the life cycle of Bb. However, the precise function of OspA (along with that of its close relative and operonic partner, outer surface [lipo]protein B [OspB]) heretofore has not been directly determined, due primarily to the inability to generate an OspA/B-deficient mutant from a virulent strain of Bb. In this study, we created an OspA/B-deficient mutant of an infectious human isolate of Bb (strain 297) and found that OspA/B function was not required for either Bb infection of mice or accompanying tissue pathology. However, OspA/B function was essential for Bb colonization of and survival within tick midguts, events crucial for sustaining Bb in its natural enzootic life cycle.


Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a priority issue for forest and climate policy in Indonesia, and REDD+ policy-making activity has been characterized by considerable public consultation. Despite this engagement, discussions on REDD+ in Indonesia are reported to have remained top-down, a disconcerting pattern when adaptive governance and transformational change require cross-scale and cross-sectoral communication. Explicitly modeling the patterns of information exchange related to REDD+ can clarify these claims and help identify potential barriers to the transformational change needed to implement REDD+. We used data obtained through semistructured and structured interviews held in 2011 with representatives from a broad range of organizations (N = 64), formally or informally involved in the national REDD+ policy processes in Indonesia, to study REDD-related information exchange. Adopting a social network analysis approach, we found that (1) organizations perceived as most influential in REDD+ policy formulation, often, but not exclusively, those with institutional authority over particular aspects of REDD+, tend not to seek information from other actors and (2) organizations exchange information primarily within three clusters of similar organizations, with weak connections between clusters. This evidence suggests weak information exchange between the national government, national civil society, and transnational actors. We contend that the emergence of brokers able to connect these different clusters will be crucial for effective and inclusive REDD+ governance in Indonesia.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

The blockade of immune checkpoints with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is a promising therapeutic avenue, with durable objective responses observed in patients with solid tumors, particularly melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and renal cell carcinoma. Preclinical models that recapitulate a functional human immune system will therefore be essential tools for the continued investigation of immunotherapy approaches. Champions Oncology is engaged in advanced personalized solutions and our TumorGraft models have been developed and extensively characterized as a platform for use in personalizing cancer patient care, as well as pharmaceutical development. However, because TumorGrafts are established by engrafting patient tumors into immune-deficient mice, the therapeutic efficacy of immune-modulatory drugs cannot be directly examined. To circumvent this limitation, we reconstituted the human immune system by engrafting human hematopoietic cells (HLA-A2; CD34+) into immune-compromised mice (PrkdcscidIl2rgtm1Sug) carrying the scid mutation and a targeted mutation of the Il2r-gamma gene. Ten to twelve weeks later, mature CD45+ human T cells could be detected in these mice, at which time TumorGrafts were established, followed by drug-sensitivity testing with various mAbs targeting the immune system. Fifty six well-established melanoma, colorectal, breast and lung TumorGraft models were characterized and selected with regard to their HLA type and other molecular characteristics such as BRAF mutation status (in melanoma) and KRAS mutation status (in colorectal and lung cancer) as well as expression of PD-L1. With the present study, we demonstrated the potential of combining the humanized mouse with Champions TumorGraft to generate a preclinical platform for assessing the therapeutic value of mAbs targeting immune checkpoints in various solid tumors.

Citation Format: Gilson S. Baia, David Vasquez, Daniel Ciznadija, Brandy Wilkinson, David Sidransky, Amanda Katz, Keren Paz. Humanized mouse models for personalized preclinical testing of monoclonal antibodies targeting immune checkpoints. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1674. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1674


We describe preliminary results from the first 100 sols of ground temperature measurements along the Mars Science Laboratory's traverse from Bradbury Landing to Rocknest in Gale. The ground temperature data show long‐term increases in mean temperature that are consistent with seasonal evolution. Deviations from expected temperature trends within the diurnal cycle are observed and may be attributed to rover and environmental effects. Fits to measured diurnal temperature amplitudes using a thermal model suggest that the observed surfaces have thermal inertias in the range of 265–375 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2, which are within the range of values determined from orbital measurements and are consistent with the inertias predicted from the observed particle sizes on the uppermost surface near the rover. Ground temperatures at Gale Crater appear to warm earlier and cool later than predicted by the model, suggesting that there are multiple unaccounted for physical conditions or processes in our models. Where the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) descent engines removed a mobile layer of dust and fine sediments from over rockier material, the diurnal temperature profile is closer to that expected for a homogeneous surface, suggesting that the mobile materials on the uppermost surface may be partially responsible for the mismatch between observed temperatures and those predicted for materials having a single thermal inertia. Models of local stratigraphy also implicate thermophysical heterogeneity at the uppermost surface as a potential contributor to the observed diurnal temperature cycle.


Abstract Fast ignition is an approach to inertial fusion in which precompressed fuel is ignited with an external heat source. This arrangement can, in principle, lead to higher gains than conventional ignition produced by stagnation of convergent flows. In addition, because ignition is separate from the implosion in fast ignition, hydrodynamic mix has less opportunity to quench ignition than in the conventional process. This paper introduces some of the basic ideas of fast ignition: ignition requirements, gain curves based on simple energetic models, and integrated gain models including hohlraum and implosion physics. Because possible gains in this approach are so large, it is possible to examine the use of fuels with small tritium fractions, the so-called "advanced fuels." In addition, the historical background of this field is discussed.


Roundup is the major beef cattle education and outreach event sponsored by the Agricultural Research Center–Hays. The 2016 program is the 102nd staging of Roundup. The purpose is to communicate timely, applicable research information to producers and extension personnel. The research program of the Agricultural Research Center–Hays is dedicated to serving the people of Kansas by developing new knowledge and technology to stabilize and sustain long-term production of food and fiber in a manner consistent with conservation of natural resources, protection of the environment, and assurance of food safety. Primary emphasis is on production efficiency through optimization of inputs in order to increase profit margins for producers in the long term.


In November 1872, Justice Samuel Nelson retired from the U.S. Supreme Court. The formal farewells were of the good-spirited kind that prominent public figures have almost always received: heavy on recitations of his virtues, light on mentions of flaws that were really, of course, merely misunderstood manifestations of his greatness. There were, however, two unusual features of the Nelson celebrations. This article sketches those oddities and makes a couple of suggestions about their significance then and now.


We live in troubled times, with competing political camps acting like opposing tribes. We live in separate enclaves, get our information from separate sources, and remain inside our own information bubbles. We should bear these divisions in mind as we discuss possible changes to our system of electing the President. The year 2020 began with a presidential impeachment trial, featured at its midpoint a Supreme Court decision holding that a state may require its presidential electors to vote in accordance with that state's popular vote, and will end with a presidential election. Many think that we should scrap electors and use a national popular vote. One proposed method is the National Popular Vote Compact. The idea is to guarantee that the winner of the national popular vote would win the electoral vote: states joining the Compact agree that once jurisdictions with a majority of the electoral votes join the Compact, they will cast their electoral votes for the national popular vote winner. This Article argues that, in today's hyper-partisan political culture, a presidential election using a national popular vote—particularly the National Popular Vote Compact—invites disaster. A simplified version of a proposal by Lawrence Lessig, however, would be a significant improvement of our current system and would not run the risks posed by a national popular vote. Replacing the winner-take-all allocation with proportional allocation of electors in each state eliminates the worst feature of our current electoral college system and makes many more voters relevant in a presidential election. It also preserves state control over elections, making it harder for would-be authoritarians to entrench themselves.


To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Scholastic is re-releasing the ten original Magic School Bus titles in paperback. With updated scientific information, the bestselling science series ever is back! When the Magic School Bus turns into a beehive, Ms. Frizzle's class learns firsthand about how workers, drones, and the queen bees live together. Readers will be abuzz with knowledge as they discover how honeybees find food; make a comb, honey, and beeswax; and care for their young, all from the bee's perspective.


Abstract In the present study, about 356 local earthquakes in the region of the Sikkim Himalaya have been accurately located and analyzed using 2181 P travel times and 2161 S travel times from a network of 11 broadband seismic stations operated by the National Geophysical Research Institute during January 2006 to November 2007. Further refinement of the hypocentral parameters using the hypoDD relocation program resulted in 198 well-constrained locations. Interestingly, this study reveals several characteristic features that distinguish Sikkim from the rest of the Himalaya. The seismicity distribution is found to be confined mostly between the main boundary thrust (MBT) and the main central thrust (MCT) but not quite associated with either. While the entire Himalayan front is generally characterized by shallow-angle thrust faulting, focal mechanisms in this region are predominantly of strike-slip type in conformity with a right-lateral strike-slip mechanism along the northwest-trending Tista and Gangtok lineaments. The P -axis trends of earthquake focal mechanisms are clearly oriented north-northwest, marking a clear transition from the ambient north-northeast trending direction of Indian plate motion with respect to the Eurasian plate all along the Himalayan front. Moderate-sized earthquakes occur down to 70 km depth in this region, compared to an average focal depth of 15–20 km in the rest of the Himalaya. Also, a high average crustal P velocity of 6.66 km/sec and a fairly low b value of 0.83±0.04 are obtained indicating the probability of occurrence of a higher magnitude earthquake in the future. A north–south section in the Sikkim region shows a relatively flat topography, unlike in the rest of the Himalayan mountain chain and suggestive of lower rates of convergence in the recent geologic past. It is proposed that crustal shortening in the Sikkim Himalaya has been substantially accommodated by transverse tectonics rather than underthrusting in recent times.


Background: Firefighting is a hazardous occupation. The firefighters (FF) in extinguishing fire are often exposed to extreme heat of 1200oC to 1400oC temperature. The heat exposure effects may occur from hot air, radiant heat, contact with hot surfaces, endogenous heat produced by the body during exercise, which cannot be cooled during fire. A significant morbidity and mortality from exposure to heat was reported in other countries but not from India. Aims : Present study focuses on prevalence of heat exposure effects i.e., heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat pyrexia and heat cramps recorded among fire fighters of Ahmedabad fire brigade. Settings: Ahmedabad fire brigade (AFB) of Ahmedabad municipal corporation. Design: Cross sectional. Materials and Methods: Present study focuses on prevalence of heat exposure effects i.e., heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat pyrexia and heat cramps recorded between 262 FF of AFB. This prevalence's were observed among firemen those directly exposed to heat in combating fire and others (load trucks, pump trucks etc.) that assist the firemen. These were seen in different age groups ( 45 yrs), duration of exposure ( 21 yrs).The number of accidents associated with heat exposure was analyzed. Statistical Analysis: Prevalence comparison by Chi-square test. Results: The results revealed that a total of 53 (20.0%) FF reported health exposure effects and were higher among firemen than other groups. Heat exhaustion 48 (18.3%); heat syncope 11(4.2%); heat pyrexia 11 (4.2%) and heat cramps 16(6.1%) were reported indicating significant occurrence of heat stress among firefighters. In majority of FF, the frequency of occurrence was observed at only one instance. There were no differences according to age or duration of exposure. Among 53 FF with heat exposure effects, accident were reported in 10 (18.9%) suggesting that heat stress may be responsible for this. Conclusion: Overall, Significant occurrence of heat exposure effect among FF and wearing cooling jackets/other heat proof materials may be precautionary cum preventive measure.


This article reviews the similarities and differences in the transition to adulthood in Europe. Recent change and the still striking diversity in pathways to adulthood in Europe have attracted growing comparative research interests. The considerable heterogeneity in institutional arrangements, cultural heritage, and economic life observed across contemporary European societies provides fertile ground for testing hypotheses of various macro-level theories and approaches addressing interactions between micro- and macro-level factors. Pursuing a comparative perspective, this review frames the transition to adulthood within a life course perspective. After having mapped the terrain of recent change and contemporary diversity in the transition to adulthood in Europe, the review presents the theoretical perspectives predominantly used to explain diversity and discusses whether the empirical evidence squares with the theoretical propositions. The review concludes by suggesting how future research could advance u...


Microprobe analysis of the near liquidus minerals in the crystallization interval of basalt +5 percent H2O and andesite +5 percent H2O at 30 kb, combined with similar published data from other studies of hydrous and anhydrous calc-alkaline rock compositions, defines compositional trends that permit calculation of the compositions of minerals through the crystallization intervals of calc-alkaline liquids. Using the calculated mineral compositions and estimates of mineral proportions, the compositions of successive liquids through the crystallization intervals of hydrous and anhydrous basalt and andesite are calculated. The calculated liquids diverge from the average calc-alkaline trend, more so for hydrous than for anhydrous conditions. These data support the conclusion that magmas produced by partial melting of subducted oceanic crust at 100 km must undergo fractionation or other modifications at shallower depths, which bring them to the calc-alkaline composition trend.


About 50-80% of patients with lupus suffer from lupus nephritis which is one of major causes of morbidity and mortality. Renal pathologists and nephrologists should evaluate the degree of histological damages to establish therapeutic plans for lupus nephritis. In order to standardize definitions, to emphasize clinically relevant lesions, and to improve interobserver reproducibility, the International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society (ISN/RPS) classification was proposed. Recently, several retrospective validation studies concerning the utility of the ISN/RPS classification, especially among class IV, were performed. In these reports, reproducibility is improved by the definition of diagnostic term, but the outcome related with classification, especially in class IV, is controversial. We performed retrospective analysis of 99 biopsy-proven subjects with lupus nephritis in our facility using the ISN/RPS classification. The class IV-G group tended to exhibit a worse renal outcome, but the difference compared with IV-S was not significant. In a Cox proportional hazards models, Independent histological predictors of poor renal outcome were extracapillary proliferation, glomerular sclerosis and fibrous crescents, while hyaline thrombi and fibrous adhesions were of favorable renal outcome. Both were similarly observed in IV-G and IV-S. The more qualitative categorization by the response to standard treatment may be needed to emphasize clinically relevant lesion related to renal outcome.


Every twenty seconds a lower limb is amputated thanks to diabetics, eighty fifth of all amputations square measure caused by a foot ulceration, and 12-tone system of the world's health budget is spent on polygenic disease. $673,000,000,000 per year" [1]. it'll before long be 2020. it absolutely was expected that, "The variety of adults with polygenic disease within the world can rise from a hundred thirty five million in 1995 to three hundred million within the year 2025" [2]. The year 2025 is simply six years from currently. knowledge from the planet Health Organization (WHO) expressed that the amount of individuals with polygenic disease has up from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. In eleven years from currently, until 2025, what is going to that variety very be? This fast increase in numbers before 2025 demonstrate that polygenic disease is currently an outbreak.
Dr. Margaret Chan [3] found out the world burden of polygenic disease which world leaders have committed to reducing the burden of polygenic disease joined of 4 priority noncontagious diseases. the planet Health Organization defines polygenic disease as a chronic, and mostly preventable, unwellness which will cause upset, blindness, failure, loss of limbs and loss of life. It causes suffering and hardship for the or so sixty million folks within the European Region presently living with the unwellness, whereas additionally straining the Region's economies and health systems. relating to the designation of polygenic disease, square measure we have a tendency to ready for these changes?
What is a diabetic foot ulceration? A diabetic foot ulcer is outlined by the planet health Organization as "The foot of a diabetic patient that has the potential risk of pathologic consequences, together with infection, ulceration, and/or destruction of deep tissues related to neurologic abnormalities, varied degrees of peripheral vascular  diseases and/or metabolic complications of polygenic disease in lower limb". Diabetic foot ulcers square measure "one of the foremost serious and disabling complication of polygenic disease, with twenty fifth of patients with polygenic disease, developing them in their period of time, and 15 August 1945 having to bear hospitalization and lower extremity amputations" [4]. it's knowledge that cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer square measure standard as health disparities. info concerning foot care might not be a part of the academic intervention. There square measure some community activities, like health fairs, and church picnics that specialize in providing info to the area people, however usually that info doesn't embrace diabetic foot care. it's attributable to the analysis conducted by the international community that the dire consequences of the diabetic foot square measure currently wide printed. it's time currently for the findings from the international researchers to be allotted to the community relating to preventive care.
According to Jeffcoate, Vileikyte, Boyko, Armstrong and Boulton, [5], "Despite sizable advances remodeled the last twenty five years, diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) still gift a really sizable health care burden-one that's wide unappreciated". These authors additionally found out the large value to health care services for DFUs which diabetic foot care has been historically neglected. in a very recent preliminary study conducted by Bonner, Guidry, and Jackson [6] concerning the diabetic foot, one among their findings was that insurance standing had sizable influence on extended care information. The diabetic foot is illustrious|documented|accepted|standard|acknowledge|renowned} among several international researchers however not in addition known among people who have the unwellness, the patients. the applying of analysis findings must be applied to communities worldwide. one among the foremost feared complications of polygenic disease is amputation
Nurses are a robust supporter for care of patients since before the Lady with the Lamp. Registered nurses that belong to the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society play a significant role in care of all patients with wounds. However, relating simply the diabetic patients alone, their numbers aren't adequate for the immeasurable those requiring their help within the us. analysis continues to show doable solutions. In some countries patients change line for terribly long hours to ascertain a health supplier, that will not be a medical man, however instead a NP, versatile in providing medical care. The work of the International unit on the Diabetic Foot printed a Diabetic Foot Care Education Programme for the coaching of certified Foot Care Assistants in 2008 [9]. thanks to the increase of polygenic disease everywhere the planet, in developing and developed countries, there's a really sturdy would like for continuance of diabetic foot care. The importance of this education of diabetic foot care assistants is as a result of in some countries there aren't any authorized  podiatrists and, in those countries, wherever podiatrists exist, some folks don't have insurance or adequate insurance to help with their health care desires.
Nobody needs to lose their leg or legs for any reason. having the ability to steer permits all persons to hold out activities of daily living. Diabetics doesn't got to be a death threat. The health care community must do additional as a result of the numbers affected with this unwellness is thus quickly ascension that even the predictions cannot continue with the numbers of these being affected. As health care professionals, the approach we have a tendency to teach and what we have a tendency to teach to the diabetic patient must be re-evaluated. we have a tendency to should raise ourselves what will communities do to assist decrease diabetic foot ulcers and amputations? Preventive care continues to be being powerfully advocated worldwide. there's a desire to make or update our action plans for community involvement for polygenic disease. it's time for action to service additional freshly diagnosed diabetic persons in our communities that don't have any insurance or UN agency square measure underinsured. Insurance doesn't get hold of everything relating health care. Despite the international analysis done and being done by researchers, the information and therefore the implementation of the findings for the folks with the unwellness looks to prevent with a choose few. relating polygenic disease, instructional interventions should begin as before long as a diabetic person is diagnosed.


Tree felling in tropical forests is done for the purpose of slashand-burn agriculture after which a forest may revive back to its natural condition or may lead to degraded land. The present study was carried out to assess the deforestation rates due to slashand-burn agriculture using temporal remote sensing data. The design framework is motivated by spatial analysis of deforestation and slash-and-burn driven by indiscriminate tropical forest patch removal. In the current study it is revealed that the area under slash-and-burn increased by many folds during the last two decades (0.83% in 1991 and 5.15% in 2010). During the decades again a large chunk of forests estimated about 2,585 sq km were lost due to burning of biomass for shifting cultivation. The rate of forest degradation in all the three districts of Garo hills are identical in both the decades, but due to the efforts made by agencies there was gain of forest areas in one of the Garo hills districts in the later decade. There is no doubt about the increase of CO2 and other greenhouse gases due to burning of the tropical biomass in the Garo hills region of India. There are plenty of scopes left for undertaking scientific research in this field.


Qatar's much publicized liberalization campaign that began in the mid-1990s was a direct result of efforts by the new Amir, Shaykh Hamad, to compensate for his fragile base of support within the ruling Al Thani family by appealing to a broader base of Qataris and also to the international community. Historically, the Al Thani family had been one of the only centers of potential opposition to the reigning Amir, with merchant families or the religious establishment having been politically neutralized due to a variety of historical and structural reasons. Nevertheless, in relation to both groups the state has pursued a nuanced policy of simultaneous co-option and political incapacitation. Meanwhile, steady rises in oil and gas revenues allowed the state to significantly deepen its capacity in relation to society, and, by doing so, to ensure that groups from within civil society did not rise to positions of prominence. Within the Al Thanis, Shaykh Hamad undertook a number of significant changes, not the least of which was the creation of new institutions and offices that were staffed by his loyal supporters, including some of his sons and daughters. He also streamlined the line of succession to include only his own descendants. With the traditional political disquiet of the Al Thanis thus silenced, at least for now, all talks of liberalization have been dropped and the Qatari state remains fundamentally autocratic.


This Ph.D. thesis in mathematical physics concerns systems of interacting fermions with strong correlations. For these systems the physical properties can only be described in terms of the collective behavior of the fermions. Moreover, they are often characterized by a close competition between fermion localization versus delocalization, which can result in complex and exotic physical phenomena. Strongly correlated fermion systems are usually modelled by many-body Hamiltonians for which the kinetic- and interaction energy have the same order of magnitude. This makes them challenging to study as the application of conventional computational methods, like mean field- or perturbation theory, often gives unreliable results. Of particular interest are Hubbard-type models, which provide minimal descriptions of strongly correlated fermions. The research of this thesis focuses on such models defined on two-dimensional square lattices. One motivation for this is the so-called high-Tc problem of the cuprate superconductors. A main hypothesis is that there exists an underlying Fermi surface with nearly flat parts, i.e. regions where the surface is straight. It is shown that a particular continuum limit of the lattice system leads to an effective model amenable to computations. This limit is partial in that it only involves fermion degrees of freedom near the flat parts. The result is an effective quantum field theory that is analyzed using constructive bosonization methods. Various exactly solvable models of interacting fermions in two spatial dimensions are also derived and studied.


This article discusses the inherent limitations of law in transitional justice processes regarding land grievances. Through analysis of the case of Timor-Leste (East Timor), a country marked by post-colonialism, post-authoritarianism, and post-conflict. The article shows how complex transitional justice regarding land grievances can be, and argues that a legalist perspective gives a limited view of these grievances, both for studying and finding solutions to them. The article employs the concept of 'wicked problems' to overcome the limitations of law. First, it shows how these grievances should be studied through a multi-disciplinary approach instead of a purely legal one. Second, it argues that transitional justice regarding land grievances is primarily a political issue, and creating adequate arenas for political negotiation should be prioritized. Finally, the article shows that, due to its complexity and political nature, transitional justice for land grievances is ultimately a search for acceptable, rather than optimal, solutions.


This article is based on the Charles Miller Endowed Lecture given at the University of Tennessee College of Law in April 2014 and forms the core of a chapter about judicial leadership in the family court in a planned book about the court. A central element of the historical juvenile court and the ensuing family courts has been the role of the judge as a judicial leader, shouldering responsibilities, including therapeutic ones, far beyond those of the traditional legal decision-maker. These multiple roles – as investigator, collaborator, convener, advocate, mediator, and problem-solver – have given the family court judge tremendous power to intervene in the lives of families, often at the price of diminished due process, biased and flawed decision-making, and increased reliance on court-based rather than preventive solutions to family problems. Recent efforts to integrate therapeutic jurisprudence into family court reform, particularly in creating unified family courts, have reinvigorated the idea that the court is capable of intervening in a family's life not just to resolve the legal dispute that brought the family to court but also to improve the family's life by addressing the complex social, emotional or psychological issues underlying the dispute. These reforms are built on the belief that when unified, therapeutic courts intervene in the lives of families, the outcomes for the families will improve and, most centrally, that the court is a good place to resolve family problems. These basic tenets of the unified, therapeutic family court sound remarkably like the therapeutic justifications for the original juvenile court. This historical review of judicial leadership in the juvenile and family court systems, however, has never found these therapeutic attempts to be successful on a systemic level and strongly cautions against this trend.


The quality of statistical data covering the economic and social development of the People's Republic of China has been questioned by international and national data users for years. The reasons for this doubt lie mainly in the structure of the Chinese system of statistics. Two parallel systems exist which operate largely autonomously: the national system of statistics and the sectoral system of statistics. In the area of the national statistical system, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has the authority to order and collect statistics. This competence lies with the ministries and authorities below the ministerial level. This article describes and analyses these structures, the resulting problems, and the reform measures taken to date. It also aims to provide a better understanding of the statistical data about the People's Republic of China and to enable an assessment of them within a changing structural context. In conclusion, approaches to further reforms will be provided based on the author's long-standing experience in cooperation projects with the official Chinese statistics agencies.


OBJECTIVE
This research reports the expression of topoisomerase βII in fetal sheep neuronal cells. The β isoform of DNA topoisomerase II plays a role in DNA repair process in non proliferating cells as neurons and its expression tends to be downregulated with senescence.

METHODS
Cortical neurons from 60-day-old sheep embryos underwent two protocols: the former based on rising time of culture (10, 20 and 30 days); the latter based on the 72hrs exposure to 3-nitro-L-tyrosine (oxidative/nitrosative stressor) and/or testosterone.

RESULTS
Our results showed an increase in β-galactosidase activity and, in contrast, a reduction in topoisomerase βII expression with time (first protocol). The exposure of sheep primary neurons to 3-nitro-L-tyrosine led to an upregulation of βII topoisomerase expression to be likely seen as a reaction to nitrosative stress. Testosterone addition to 3-nitro-L-tyrosine-exposed cells results in topoisomerase βII decrease possibly due to the neuroprotective properties of testosterone (second protocol). No significant variations in the marker of aging β-galactosidase were observed in the cells exposed to 3-nitro-L-tyrosine and testosterone.

CONCLUSION
The protocol based on time could be of some interest as a model of neuronal senescence in vitro. Topoisomerase βII decrease with aging likely indicates a reduced ability to repair DNA during neuronal senescence. In contrast, the second protocol may not be seen as a reliable model of aging since 3-nitro-L-tyrosine does not lead to a topoisomerase βII decrease. Testosterone was able to cope with oxidative/nitrosative damage, allowing cells to reduce their needs in DNA repair which in turn leads to a downregulation of topoisomerase IIβ expression.


Title of dissertation: INTERACTION BETWEEN THE AEROSOL DIRECT EFFECT IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE AND THE PLANETARY BOUNDARY LAYER DEPTH Virginia Ruth Sawyer, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor Zhanqing Li Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science/Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center The planetary boundary layer (PBL) limits the vertical mixing of aerosol emitted to the lower troposphere. The PBL depth and its change over time affect weather, surface air quality and radiative forcing. While model simulations have suggested that the column optical properties of aerosol are associated with changes in the PBL depth in turn, there are few long-term measurements of PBL depth with which to validate the theory. Of the existing methods to detect the PBL depth from atmospheric profiles, many require supporting information from multiple instruments or cannot adapt to changing atmospheric conditions. This study combines two common methods for PBL depth detection (wavelet covariance and iterative curve-fitting) in order to produce more reliable PBL depths for micropulse lidar backscatter (MPL). The combined algorithm is also flexible enough to use with radiosonde and atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer (AERI) data. PBL depth retrievals from these three instruments collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site are compared to one another to show the robustness of the algorithm. The comparisons were made for different times of day, four seasons, and variable sky conditions. While considerable uncertainties exist in PBL detection using all three types of measurements, the agreement among the PBL products is promising, and the different measurements have complementary advantages. The best agreement in the seasonal cycle occurs in winter, and the best agreement in the diurnal cycle when the boundary-layer regime is mature and changes slowly. PBL depths from instruments with higher temporal resolution (MPL and AERI) are of comparable accuracy to radiosonde-derived PBL depths. The new PBL depth measurements for SGP are compared to MPL-derived PBL depths from a multiyear lidar deployment at the Hefei Radiation Observatory (HeRO), and the column aerosol optical depth (AOD) for each site is considered. A one-month period at SGP is also modeled to relate AOD to PBL depth. These comparisons show a weak inverse relationship between AOD and daytime PBL depth. This is consistent with predictions that aerosol suppresses surface convection and causes shallower PBLs. INTERACTION BETWEEN THE AEROSOL DIRECT EFFECT IN THE LOWER TROPOSPHERE AND THE PLANETARY BOUNDARY LAYER DEPTH by Virginia Ruth Sawyer Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Professor Zhanqing Li, Chair Professor Russell R. Dickerson Professor Derrick J. Lampkin Professor Rachel Pinker Dr. Ellsworth J. Welton Professor George Hurtt, Dean's Representative ©Copyright by Virginia Ruth Sawyer 2015


Leptocorisa oratorius F. is a major pest of  rice plant, that can damage the rice plant by sucking the liquid from the cells of the rice plant. For controlling this pest usually used synthetic chemical insecticide but this can cause negative impacts such pest resistance and pest resurgence. The use of leaf extract of Piper aduncum L. as a botanical insecticide is suittable to control Leptocorisa oratorius. The experiment was conducted at Laboratory of Plant Pest and Agribusiness Incubator University  of Riau Pekanbaru, from February to April 2013. The experiment used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The treatmens are ( Piper aduncum leaf extract are: 0 g/l water,  25 g/l water, 50 g/l water, 75 g/l water, and 100 g/l of water. Aplication of Piper aduncum leaf extract at treatment 75 g/l water was able to kill Leptocorisa oratorius up to 90%. Number concentration is still in the range of LC 95 values  from 7,2 to 21,9%. The exact concentration to kill 95% of the Leptocorisa oratorius is 10,1% or equitvalent to 101 g/l of water. Keyword: Rice, Leptocorisa oratorius , Peper aduncum L.


Water pollution is a topic that is often discussed in international forums, because water is vital
for the survival of human beings and other living beings. As happened in 1996 where the rivers that flow
through Surabaya river contaminated by heavy metals, characterized by high levels of Hg (mercury) and
Pb (lead) in breast milk (ASI) and in the blood of residents living in the coastal area. This has resulted in
63% of children living near the Kali Brantas River suffering from cancer and 80% of children in coastal
Kenjeran experience Slow Learner Symptoms (symptoms of idiots). These harmful pollutants come from
industrial, agricultural and household waste (Arisandi, 2004). The importance of maintaining water
quality and reducing the impact of sedimentation become the background of this research. This research is
focused on calculation of the influence of hydrodynamic factors on the spreading of pollutants and
sedimentation at the confluence of two rivers using Alternating Direct Implicit (ADI) methode. The
results of this research are expected to assist the authorities concerned in maintaining the water quality
along the stream of Kali Brantas river and to encourage the publics to keep the water clean and
consumeable, and also to reduce the occurrence of shallowing river.


Abstract Teacher education is widely recognised as a key strategy that is yet to be effectively utilised to embed environmental education and/or education for sustainability in schools. This paper reports on a research study that examined a range of pre-service teacher education initiatives, both in Australia and internationally, that were seeking to reorient teacher education towards environmental sustainability. This paper reports on six factors utilised across the initiatives that were critical to their success. These were (1) the nature and length of funding arrangements; (2) the range and quality of partnerships and networks; (3) the curriculum focus and the teaching and learning processes used; (4) the nature of, and incentives for, participant engagement; (5) the level at which a change was being sought; and (6) the use of evaluation as a tool for learning and ongoing improvement. This paper discusses why and how each of these six factors proved critical and explores the implications for initiatives seeking to reorient teacher education towards environmental sustainability.


In this paper, I approach the question of mobiles in Asian countries by considering the case of Australia. I do so by way of a preliminary inquiry that seeks to explore the intersection between the emergence of mobiles in Australia with transformations in that country's sense of its relationship with Asia. First I discuss the history of the mobile phone in Australia, noting some important uses and representations that formed part of its social shaping. Second, I explore mobiles and the paradoxes of multiculturalism, and also how digital technologies became central to political culture and identity debates in Australia in the early to-mid 1990s. Third, I look at some important moments in the social shaping of text messaging, in which questions of cultural difference were decisive. Finally, I offer concluding remarks about future research on mobiles in Australia and how they are tied into Asian identities.


Web links explore much useful information through densely linked web pages for a specific group of people or people with special research interest. The paper analyses the web link structure for a group of 23 IITs to discover new sources of information. It also discusses the problems of search engines and its limitations in web link analysis. Web link structures of Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) are analysed using SocSciBot4.0 and Pajek4. The paper tries to find out the pattern of hyperlinks among the premier IITs and new IITs separately. The study also covers the historical aspects and approaches of link analysis. Backlinks of IITs are analysed and micro-link topologies are constructed using Pajek. The result shows that more than 90 per cent of backlinks are in English language.


It has been proved that the operation of a high-technology entity is an area significantly disturbed by manifestations of various adverse factors. Therefore, the underlying causes of negative effects are visible with a possibility of adverse effects - namely threats. A significant number of threats generate risky situations of the same nature as risk generating impacts that can be identified by the description of stochasticities. The problematic nature and the critical nature of the insurance area for Russian high-tech production market operators have been analyzed. At the same time the inevitability of a transition to a new level of the organization of their insurance coverage as Russian companies become integrated into the global economy has been justified. Conceptual, instrumental, and other major obstacles to the adoption of intellectual technologies of risk insurance have been highlighted. An original conceptual view of several methodological and implementation project decisions for the area in question have been proposed.


This paper derives from a broader study of children's consumer culture, specifically an investigation into how preschoolers employ commercial discourses as the building blocks of social selves and relations. Age-based repertoires are found to colour the various discourses produced. 'Age' is conceptualised as something that is made sense of for and by children through their utilisation of toys, media, consumables and other commercial artefacts. The 'choosing child' is addressed in empirical terms to reveal the social significance of 'doing' consumption related evaluations in the focus group setting. A CA-informed discourse analytic approach is utilised to focus on one aspect of 'doing' age in focus group talk, that is, the way in which age is employed as an accounting device for the evaluation of 'Teletubbies', a BBC television programme aimed at very young children, as illustrated in one closely transcribed 'assessment sequence'. 'Doing' consumption evaluations proved complex in this setting; while age-based selves were established in-situ, meanings around 'Teletubbies', specifically the age at which it is acceptable to like and or watch it remain unresolved, rendering its social currency as an age-defining product somewhat in flux.


In this thesis, we focus on Impulse Radio (IR) Ultra-WideBand (UWB) ranging and positioning techniques under indoor propagation environments. IR-UWB, a new carrierless communication scheme using impulses, is a candidate technology for future communication, ranging and positioning applications. Recent progress on both the technical and regulatory side of this technology has made this possible [1][2][3]. The fine time resolution of UWB signals has created a vision of novel ranging and positioning applications to augment existing narrowband systems operating in dense multipath environments [4][5][6]. We propose a high-resolution IR-UWB ranging algorithm based on Maximum Likelihood (ML) when the noise is additive Gaussian noise or multi-user interference. First, we pose the ranging problem as an ML estimation problem for the channel delays and their amplitudes at the receiver. We evaluate the ranging by translating the received delay estimates into an estimate of the distance. Then, we use the same transformation as the first step of Iterative Quadratic Maximum Likelihood (IQML) and we transform the ML problem into another optimization problem that avoids the estimation of the amplitude coefficients. We solve the remaining optimization problem with a gradient descent approach (Pseudo-Quadratic Maximum Likelihood (PQML) algorithm). Most previous works assume the distribution of the targeted distance is a uniform distribution (for example [7], [8] and [9]). In contrast to the previous works, we propose that the distribution of the targeted distance, which is not necessarily a uniform distribution, should depend on the geometry of the indoor environments of interest. We propose a Bayesian detection algorithm where the prior distribution of the channel follows the IEEE 802.15.4a channel model to identify whether the received signal is Line-Of-Sight (LOS) signal or a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) signal. If it is a LOS signal, we use a Bayesian estimation approach to estimate the joint posterior probability density function (pdf) of the channel and the targeted distance. We use this pdf function to estimate the ranging with Minimum Mean Square Error Estimator (MMSE). For computing the joint posterior pdf of the channel and the targeted distance, we derive a novel algorithm based on Sampling and Importance Resampling (SIMR) and Expectation Maximum (EM) techniques. Furthermore, we propose a reduced-complexity architecture of an IR-UWB ranging system by using our proposed algorithms. We also implement the Bayesian ranging algorithm on the Xinlix ML410 Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board. The used FPGA resources show that the Bayesian ranging algorithm is a low-complexity algorithm. We derive a novel Ziv-Zakai lower bound for IR-UWB ranging error that depends on the geometry of the indoor environments of interest. In contrast to the work in [7], we do not introduce, during our derivation process, any approximation for our log-likelihood function. Therefore, we obtain a more accurate Ziv-Zakai lower bound for the IR-UWB ranging error with IEEE 802.15.4a channel models. Based on the geometry of the indoor environments of interest, we can find the "best" position of the base station that provides the lowest Ziv-Zakai lower bound of the IR-UWB ranging error. Our bound can also be used in real environments with the channel measurements from real environments. We also propose that the distribution of the targeted position should depend on the geometry of the indoor environments of interest. We propose a novel one-step approach that estimates the position and channels directly and jointly from the received signals of the used base stations. We use a Bayesian approach where the prior distribution of the channels follows the IEEE 802.15.4a channel model to estimate the joint posterior pdf of the channels, the targeted position and the transmit time. One application of the joint posterior pdf of the channels, the targeted position and the transmit time is the determination of the position with classical posterior estimator (such as MMSE). For computing the joint posterior pdf of the channels, the targeted position and the transmit time, we derived an algorithm that is based on SIMR and EM techniques. We derive Ziv-Zakai position error lower bounds for a one-step positioning scheme, a Time Of Arrival (TOA)-based positioning scheme and a Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA)-based positioning scheme. As our derived bounds depend on the geometry of the indoor environments of interest, our bounds can also be used in real environments with the channel measurements from real environments. Multi-User Interference (MUI) statistical models for IR-UWB systems can be important in providing an accurate estimate of the channel state. As such, it can have a major impact on the overall system performance. In the literature, MUI in the time domain is often approximated with Middleton class A and Gaussian Mixture Models. We use measurements from an indoor IR-UWB testbed to assess the validity of these models. We analyzed the statistical properties of IR-UWB MUI with the measurements from real indoor environments.


The objective is to study the extraction and refinement processes of Rhizoma Curcumae oil and its inhibitory effect on cervical cancer. Orthogonal test, MTT assay and flow cytometry are used, respectively, to optimize the extraction process of Rhizoma Curcumae oil, and to study its inhibitory effect on CASKI cells. Orthogonal test results show that favorable extraction and refinement effects can be achieved if Rhizoma Curcumae is crushed, passed through an 80-mesh sieve, added with 30-fold amount of water, and steam distilled for 2 h. In the industrial production, the above conditions can easily be met, which can minimize production costs as well. MTT assay and flow cytometry results show that the medium- and high-dose (100, 150 μg/ml) Rhizoma Curcumae oil groups have significantly different growth inhibition rates against CASKI cells, indicating that Rhizoma Curcumae oil can inhibit CASKI cell growth to varying degrees, and in a somewhat dose-dependent manner under the experimental conditions. Rhizoma Curcumae oil can arrest CASKI cell cycle at the G2/M phase.


New 207Pb/206Pb single zircon evaporation ages for granulites, gneisses and granites in southern and central Madagascar record a widespread Pan-African metamorphic and magmatic event in the period c. 650–556 Ma, but also earlier ages in the range 1890–1710 Ma, inherited from protolith material and reflecting heterogeneous crustal sources. South of the Ranotsara shear zone, metasedimentary gneisses and granulites contain an early population of detrital zircons with ages in the range 1890–1740 Ma; a detrital grain with an age of 899 ± 2 Ma suggests that some sedimentary protoliths were deposited later than c. 900 Ma. Metamorphic zircons have a mean age of 564.2 ± 0.9 Ma. North of the Ranotsara shear zone, our data provide information on the age of source material of metamorphic rocks: 788.6 ± 0.7 Ma for the time of emplacement of the granitic precursor of a granulite-facies charnockite and 650.9 ± 0.9 Ma for the protolith age of an amphibolite-facies migmatitic gneiss. A structurally conformable alkali granite sheet with a crystallization age of 568.7 ±1.6 Ma contains xenocrystic zircons, one of which has an age of 1229.6 ± 1.0 Ma, inherited from the source of the anatectically derived material. The post-tectonic, alkalic Carion granite has an emplacement age of 556.0 ± 1.7 Ma and provides a minimum age for granulite- and amphibolite-facies metamorphism. Our field data indicate that extensional shear zones are common in central Madagascar, locally controlling amphibolite-facies retrogression of granulite-facies rocks and the emplacement of crustal melt granites. These events record the widespread extensional collapse of the Pan-African orogen in Madagascar.


Colorectal Cancer Screening for the Vietnamese American Population in Iowa by Michael H. Le MBA, Upper Iowa University, 2013 MHA, Des Moines University, 2012 BS, Upper Iowa University, 2008 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Health Services Walden University May 2017 Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a primary cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Asian Americans have the highest CRC mortality rates. CRC screening tests can reduce CRC incidence, yet Asian Americans, specifically the subgroup of Vietnamese Americans, underuse CRC screening. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand why Vietnamese Americans, ages 50 to 75, underuse CRC screening. TheColorectal cancer (CRC) is a primary cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Asian Americans have the highest CRC mortality rates. CRC screening tests can reduce CRC incidence, yet Asian Americans, specifically the subgroup of Vietnamese Americans, underuse CRC screening. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand why Vietnamese Americans, ages 50 to 75, underuse CRC screening. The health belief model constructs of susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and selfefficacy were the framework for understanding this population's health-related behaviors. Three research questions focused on how knowledge, language, and cultural beliefs and perceptions affect Vietnamese Americans' CRC screening decisions. Interviews were conducted with 11 participants, and transcribed interview responses were input into NVivo 11 software to maintain a reliable database and to identify emerging themes. Key study findings revealed knowledge and English language gaps as well as adverse cultural perceptions of fear and doubt that influenced CRC screening choices among these 11 Vietnamese Americans. Future researchers might focus on cultural-tailored strategies to minimize these barriers for Vietnamese Americans. An understanding of this study population's perspectives offers the promise of positive social change for health services and public health administrations to develop cultural-tailored interventions that promote healthy lifestyles, prevention, early CRC detection and, consequently, reduce mortality rates and associated health care costs. Colorectal Cancer Screening for the Vietnamese American Population in Iowa by Michael H. Le MBA, Upper Iowa University, 2013 MHA, Des Moines University, 2012 BS, Upper Iowa University, 2008 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy


Several discoveries, such as Tupi, Bem-Te-Vi, Parati, and Guara, have been announced in Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil, mostly in presalt layers. These layers were well imaged by a salt-flood volume in 2003, but distortions in the base of salt (BOS) and presalt layers were still obvious. Therefore, a constant velocity model is not adequate to capture the velocity variation inside the salt bodies, which include mobile salt and evaporites. A depth migration with a complete salt model is necessary to correctly position the reservoir structures. In this paper, we discuss the challenges in building such a velocity model and share the lessons we learned while working on a data set from the deepwater Santos Basin.


Crystallography today is by many seen as merely a tool for determining the structure of a material on the atomic level. It is expected that whatever comes out of the tool is the indisputable truth, a fact. This thesis is based on five publications illustrating that this is very far from the real world of materials research. The experiences drawn from the structural work in the papers are put together to illustrate when to be alert, and how to proceed with a structural investigation using non-standard crystallography. The focus is on interpreting the signs of additional order being present in a structure. The signs may be weak, such as extreme thermal vibration, or unit cell deformation. Or the signs can be strong, with superstructure reflections indicating the presence of either commensurate or incommensurate superstructures.


a of modular soft robots, composed of several deformable cubes, i.e., voxels. Each VSR is thus an ensemble of simple agents, namely the voxels, which must cooperate to give rise to the overall VSR behavior. Within this paradigm, collective intelligence plays a key role in enabling the emerge of coordination, as each voxel is independently controlled, exploiting only the local sensory information together with some knowledge passed from its direct neighbors (distributed or collective control). In this work, we propose a novel form of collective control, influenced by Neural Cellular Automata (NCA) and based on the bio-inspired Spiking Neural Networks: the embodied Spiking NCA (SNCA). We experiment with different variants of SNCA, and find them to be competitive with the state-of-the-art distributed controllers for the task of locomotion. In addition, our findings show significant improvement with respect to the baseline in terms of adaptability to unforeseen environmental changes, which could be a determining factor for physical practicability of VSRs.


Technology management is managing technological knowledge to sustain competitive edge in an uncertain and competitive business context. This paper developed a framework for analysing technology management issues by combining the knowledge management concepts and ecosystem theory concepts. Technology strategy can be conceptualised as a process of aligning knowledge search, knowledge envisioning, knowledge creation and knowledge evolution with a view to meeting changing customer needs, competitive threats and the future technology trajectory.


As many of our readers may know, Fred Hobson is retiring after 23 years as coeditor of the Southern Literary Journal. In those years, he has shaped the course of southern literary criticism. Consistently open to new approaches and directions and graciously ushering in new scholars and their work in southern studies year after year, he has made the journal what it is today by always insisting on high standards and responsible, meaningful scholarship. He will be sorely missed, though we will continue to call on him to read manuscripts and offer his always sage, always calming advice (when he's not busy climbing up and down the Grand Canyon, exploring the Australian Outback, or enjoying hikes in his beloved western North Carolina mountains). Fred is a modest, unassuming man, but his massive and profoundly meaningful scholarship and editorial labors in the field of southern studies cannot be overstated. Fred, we dedicate this issue to you. At the same time that I look backward at Fred's many contributions and the sheer joy of working with him, I am delighted to welcome Florence Dore as the new coeditor of SLJ. Florence's interests in post-1945 American literature and southern studies, especially her interest in globalized approaches to southern literature and southern modernism, as well as her editorial experience as coeditor of Stanford University Press's Post45 Series, will be of great value as we move forward. Florence's first book, The Novel and the Obscene: Sexual Subjects in American Modernism, works extensively with feminist theory to trace the emergence in American modernist narrative of new forms of sexual identity. Her new book, Forms of Privacy: Reading Transparency in the Postwar Southern Novel, now approaching completion, examines the influence of middleclass expansion and racial desegregation on southern novels written in the 1950s and 1960s. A talented singer and songwriter, Florence has a strong interest in music that we hope to put to use in a future special issue; she recently codirected the "Post45@The Rock Hall" conference, an interdisciplinary gathering at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. This is Florence's first issue, and we're very excited about it. Fred was also the journal's book review editor for decades. Over the past two years, Harriet Pollack, whose scholarly work on Eudora Welty, southern women writers, Emmett Till narratives, and civil rights literature is well known among southernists, has graciously taken over that role. …


Objectives There are no epidemiological studies comparing the prevalence of skin diseases between civilian and military populations. We sought to determine and compare the prevalence of skin conditions between civilian and military populations. Methods A total of 3382 male patients (1148 military and 2234 civilian) were retrospectively and consecutively evaluated at Merzifon Military Hospital in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey. Results The most frequent dermatological condition was tinea pedis (15.8%) followed by acne vulgaris, allergic contact dermatitis and alopecia areata in the military population (15.7%, 7.7% and 5.4%, respectively). Acne vulgaris, xerosis cutis and allergic contact dermatitis were the most common diagnoses in the civilian group (19.4%, 14.1% and 9.1%, respectively). The prevalence of tinea pedis, alopecia areata, pityriasis versicolor, ingrown nail (unguis incarnatus) and callus were statistically significantly higher in the military group (15.8% vs 4.4%, p<0.001; 5.4% vs 1.7%, p<0.05; 3.5% vs 0.7%, p<0.001; 3.3% vs 0.3%, p<0.001 and 4.6% vs 0.9%, p<0.001; respectively). Xerosis cutis was found to be significantly higher in the civilian group (14.1% vs 5.8%, p<0.001). Superficial fungal disease was the most prevalent disorder as in the previous literature. Conclusions Preventive measures should be taken to improve the health of troops and reduce the prevalence of the common disorders such as tinea pedis, alopecia areata and callus. Troops should wear boots only when necessary in base camps. Clothing which reduces ventilation is not recommended. Depression and anxiety should be recognised and treated in soldiers with alopecia areata, as a solely dermatological approach without psychological support may reduce treatment success.


Different molecular methods: BOX-PCR fingerprinting, R-FLP-PCR and sequencing of the 16S rDNA as well as the symbiotic genes nodC and nifH, were used to study the genetic diversity within a collection of nodulating bean rhizobia isolated from five soils of North-West Morocco. BOX fingerprints analysis of 241 isolates revealed 19 different BOX profiles. According to the PFLP-PCR and sequencing of 16S rDNA carried out on 45 representative isolates, 5 genotypes were obtained corresponding to the species Rhizobium etli, R. tropici, R. gallicum, R. leguminosarum and Sinorhizobium meliloti. The most abundant species were R. etli and R. tropici (61% and 24%, respectively). A high intraspecific diversity was observed among the R. etli isolates, while the R. tropici group was homogeneous. Most of the rhizobia studied belong to species known to nodulate common bean, while 2 species were unconventional microsymbionts: R. leguminosarum biovar viciae and S. meliloti. Our results, especially the nodulation promiscuity of common bean and the relation between the predominance of some species of rhizobia in particular soils and the salt content of these soils, indicate that there is a real need for a better understanding of the distribution of common bean rhizobia species in the soils of Morocco before any inoculation attempt.


Surveys to investigate the distribution and abundance of stem borers in natural habitats were conducted in February 2006 and January–February 2007. The surveys included eastern, northern and central parts of South Africa as well as three localities in Lesotho. During the surveys, Eldana saccharina Walker was recovered from three new localities in inland South Africa and two new indigenous hosts, Phragmites australis Cav. and Panicum maximum Jacq. from Boskop in the North‐West Province and Oribi Gorge in KwaZulu‐Natal respectively. Populations of E. saccharina in different parts of Africa are known for their differences in larval feeding behaviours, host plant choice and natural enemies. It is important to understand the origin of the newly recovered population for prevention of incursion and efficient management in case it invades crops. Molecular analysis indicated that the populations recovered in these new locations and from the new host plants are part of the southern African population of E. saccharina. With change in climate, and disturbance in wetlands the insect is expected in the future to be more abundant and problematic in inland areas of southern Africa.


Gambling has both positive aspects and negative effects for Australian Indigenous gamblers and families. While traditional card games organised by the communities themselves have been found to have important social value, there is increasing evidence that commercial gambling such as gaming machines ('pokies'), casinos and TAB betting has a range of far‑reaching negative social and economic consequences for Indigenous population groups. However an understanding of participation by Indigenous people in contemporary gambling is still undeveloped and is dominated by western concepts. The cultural distinctiveness and complexity of Indigenous Australia create profound conceptual and methodological difficulties with the potential to distort the research process and outcomes, as well as policy solutions. The current lack of understanding also impacts on the cultural relevance and effectiveness of service provision for Indigenous gamblers, their families and communities.


Assessing how the infiltration process depends on the water impact energy improves interpretation of hydrological processes. Impact energies vary with the height of water pouring; that is, the distance between the water delivery point and the soil surface. The effects of the height of water pouring on infiltration in an initially near saturated soil can be tested in the field by two repeated Beerkan infiltration runs separated by a short pause (30 min) and using both low (non‐perturbing) and high (perturbing) heights of water application. The double two‐stage Beerkan run methodology was applied in two soils. The infiltration rate at the end of the perturbing stage of the experiment was 0.2–0.3 (sandy‐loam soil) and 0.15 (loam soil) times that obtained with the initial, nonperturbing stage whereas, without any perturbing effect, infiltration rates at the end of the second run were 0.5 times those at the end of the first run. Therefore, the methodology distinguished between a decrease in infiltration rate due to water redistribution during the pause and that attributable to soil surface perturbation. Maintaining a small depth of water (10 mm) on the infiltration surface was not an alternative to the classical Beerkan run for the non‐perturbing stage of the experiment since two times higher infiltration rates were measured with a greater hydrostatic pressure. In conclusion, the relationship between infiltration into an initially near saturated soil and the energy of the applied water can be determined directly in the field at any time with a simple and parsimonious experiment. This circumstance could improve soil hydraulic characterization for interpreting and simulating hydrological processes.


The USDOE Savannah River Site (SRS), an 803‐km2 (310‐mile2) facility located south of Aiken, SC on the upper Atlantic Coastal Plain and bounded to the west by the Savannah River, was established in the 1950s for the production and refinement of nuclear materials. To fulfill this mission during the past 50 years SRS has operated five nuclear reactors, two large chemical separation areas, waste disposal facilities (landfills, waste ponds, waste tanks, and waste stabilization), and a large number of research and logistics support facilities. Contaminants of concern (COC) resulting from site operations include chlorinated solvents, radionuclides, metals, and metalloids, often found as complex mixtures that greatly complicate remediation efforts when compared with civilian industries. The objective of this article is to provide a description of the lithology and hydrostatigraphy of the SRS, as well as a brief history of site operations and research activities as a preface to the current special section of Vadose Zone Journal (VZJ) dedicated to SRS, focusing mainly on issues that are unique to the USDOE complex. Contributions to the special section reflect a diverse range of topics, from hydrologic tracer experiments conducted both within the vadose and saturated zones to studies specifically aimed at identifying geochemical processes controlling the migration and partitioning of specific contaminants (e.g., TCE, 137Cs, U, and Pu) in SRS subsurface environments. Addressing the diverse environmental challenges of the SRS provides a unique opportunity to conduct both fundamental and applied research across a range of experimental scales. Hence, the SRS has been a pioneering force in several areas of environmental research and remediation, often through active interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers from other USDOE facilities, academic and federal institutions, and commercial entities.


This thesis examines how Israeli critical activist engagement with the Palestinian call for just peace reframes Israel-Palestine. The thesis makes a political-theoretical intervention by arguing that Israeli civil society engagement with the principles underlying just peace requires, if it is to be successful, the utilisation of non-statist conceptualisations of peace politics. The thesis draws upon feminist critical theory and postcolonial critique to theorise peace politics as a practice of solidarity. From this perspective the conflict is analysed through the prism of Nancy Fraser's 'all affected' principle which asserts that all those whose lives and wellbeing are affected by an institution of power, whether that be a state or a transnational corporation, are subjects of justice in relation to that institution, whether they hold the same citizenship as its representatives or not. Thus, by virtue of sharing the same, albeit politically diffentiated, geo-political space Israelis and Palestinians residing in Israel within its 1948 borders, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as the refugees outside Israel-Palestine, are subjects of justice and potential solidarity. As such, the Palestinians have the right to demand justice not only from the state of Israel but also from its citizens. The activist work, narratives and responses of three critical Israeli case study groups are examined in relation to the call for just peace: Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW), the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and Zochrot (Remembering). The activist narratives and practices examined testify to the way in which critical Israeli engagement with nonviolent ethical responsibility towards the Palestinian people can result in unprecedented narrative convergence, practical solidarity, and the possibility for non-domination and cohabitation. These critical activist practices reveal just peace as an emergent and ongoing project to reframe and rearticulate the contemporary relations of oppression and domination in Israel-Palestine.


Purpose – The paper seeks to describe a national strategic and multi‐professional clinical leadership programme designed and developed for the National Health Service in Scotland. It addresses the policy imperatives behind the programme, the local and national processes for identifying future clinical leaders and their preparation through the programme.Design/methodology/approach – The background context and case for the programme are considered against international and local contexts. The programme's roots are explored, drawing upon the extensive consultation process used. The programme design is explained and the evaluation methodology and results are described.Findings – Key learning related to programme design and delivery issues is highlighted, as is that relating to leadership itself.Research limitations/implications – This is a one‐country case study but draws upon recent international good practice.Originality/value – The case study identifies how a small (five million population) country can dev...


In craniates, opsin‐based photopigments expressed in the eye encode molecular 'light sensors' that constitute the initial protein in photoreception and the activation of the phototransduction cascade. Since the cloning and sequencing of the first vertebrate opsin gene (bovine rod opsin) nearly 30 years ago (Ovchinnikov Yu 1982, FEBS Letters, 148, 179–191; Hargrave et al. 1983, Biophysics of Structure & Mechanism, 9, 235–244; Nathans & Hogness 1983, Cell, 34, 807–814), it is now well established that variation in the subtypes and spectral properties of the visual pigments that mediate colour and dim‐light vision is a prevalent mechanism for the molecular adaptation to diverse light environments. In this review, we discuss the origins and spectral tuning of photopigments that first arose in the agnathans to sample light within the ancient aquatic landscape of the Early Cambrian, detailing the molecular changes that subsequently occurred in each of the opsin classes independently within the main branches of extant jawed gnathostomes. Specifically, we discuss the adaptive changes that have occurred in the photoreceptors of craniates as they met the ecological challenges to survive in quite differing photic niches, including brightly lit aquatic surroundings; the deep sea; the transition to and from land; diurnal, crepuscular and nocturnal environments; and light‐restricted fossorial settings. The review ends with a discussion of the limitations inherent to the 'nocturnal‐bottleneck' hypothesis relevant to the evolution of the mammalian visual system and a proposition that transition through a 'mesopic‐bottleneck' may be a more appropriate model.


More doctors in the United Kingdom who are charged with medical manslaughter and whose cases reach court are being convicted and sent to jail, data indicate, though overall numbers are too small for statistical analysis.

Searches of news, legal, and medical databases, together with a request to the General Medical Council made under freedom of information legislation, found that 11 doctors had been charged with medical (gross negligence) manslaughter in the UK between 2006 and the end of 2013. Of these, six (55%) were convicted.

The last three doctors convicted in 2012-13 all received custodial sentences rather than the usual suspended sentence (box). Before that the previous doctor to get a custodial sentence for medical manslaughter was in 2004.1

Since December 2014 four more doctors have been charged with medical manslaughter and are awaiting trial.

The 55% conviction rate was …


The Institute of Development Studies has led consortia of UK and African organisations in two large programmes of agricultural policy research: the original Future Agricultures Consortium programme, running from 2005 to 2014, and the successive Agricultural Policy Research in Africa programme, from 2016 to 2022. These programmes involved African field research teams, linked to African Universities, and conducting policy-relevant research into key issues relative to the future of agriculture in Africa and inclusive agricultural commercialisation (APRA). A component of both programmes was to use the evidence collected to influence the policy environment in favour of productive, sustainable, and inclusive agriculture. This paper explores what has been learnt in these two programmes about using field research evidence to improve agricultural policy.


With the rapid development of information technology, cloud computing is becoming known and used by more and more people. Many application layer multicast protocols, however, do not take the emergence of cloud computing into account. Cloud computing centres have many good properties, such as sufficient network bandwidth and more stability and so they are more suitable for streaming media data distribution applications. This paper presents a new overlay multicast infrastructure based on cloud computing for streaming media data distribution called OMICC. OMICC has a two-tier multicast structure. In the higher tier, there is an overlay tree which is organized by the set of Cloud Computing Centres, called CCCs. In the lower tier, each CCC is a set of roots of multicast trees.


This paper reports a study of the speckle images of a scattered laser beam in the focal plane of a receiver objective, experimentally recorded by a photodetector array, as a function of the laser-pulse energy, the illumination angle of the objective, and the spectral composition of the radiation. Regularities are revealed that connect the statistical parameters of the images under various irradiation conditions. It is shown that the speckles obey Gaussian statistics only at small angles of illumination of the receiver objective.


The main course of the Penghu Submarine Canyon extends along the intersection of the Kaoping Slope and the South China Sea Slope in a nearly north-south direction. It-is about 180 km long from its head below the shelfbreak of the Taiwan Strait Shelf to its mouth merging into the Manila Trench. This canyon consists of two distinct parts: an upper reach and a lower reach. Three major tributary canyons join into the main course to form a fanshaped upper reach of the canyon. It mainly occupies the upper slopes extensively cut by tributary canyons and gullies and has a maximum width of about 80 km opened up by tributary canyons. The upper reach shows high relief, steep walls and V-shaped cross sections, showing typical canyon morphology. The lower reach is characterized by a single course without tributary canyons. It shows broad trough in cross section and relatively small relief between edges and bottom of the canyon without characteristic canyon morphology. The floors of the Penghu Canyon show a gentle continuous inclination with an average slope angle of about one degree. A knick point about 2500 m deep separates the canyon into the upper reach with a steep slope angle f 1.42 degrees and the lower reach with a gentle slope angle of 0.5 degree. Canyon relief along its course changes from its head to the mouth considerably and ranges from about 54 to 845 m. Downward excavation by downslope sediment flows and slumping and sliding on the canyon walls are the major forming processes in the canyon head and upper part of the canyon. Head and upper part of the canyon. Diapiric intrusions are mainly responsible for the high relief of the lower parts of upper reach of the canyon. The lower reach of the canyon is mainly formed by low-intensity downward erosion and mild structural uplift by thrust faults.


Granger causality as a popular concept in time series analysis is widely applied in empirical research. The interpretation of Granger causality tests in a cause-effect context is, however, often unclear or even controversial, so that the causality label has faded away. Textbooks carefully warn that Granger causality does not imply true causality and preferably refer the Granger causality test to a forecasting technique. Applying theory of inferred causation, we develop in this paper a method to uncover causal structures behind Granger causality. In this way we re-substantialize the causal attribution in Granger causality through providing an causal explanation to the conditional dependence manifested in Granger causality.


Two storms in Sweden 2005 and 2007 clarified both professional crisis managers and citizens' ability to respond to the consequences. These events created an awareness of the vulnerability of society, especially in rural areas. Emergent Citizen Groups (ECG) conducted initially a large part of crisis management, such as clearing roads, supporting exposed neighbors and repairing power lines in collaboration with power companies. As a result of these events some local ECG groups continued to work on risk prevention. This paper has two aims, firstly to emphasize the importance of ECGs during and after severe events such as the storms Gudrun and Per, second to describe and analyze a local emergent citizen group's work on the prevention of local risk and vulnerability, in this case with regard to flood prevention. The results indicate that the emergent groups' concerns about local risks are not always understood by professional emergency managers and other authorities. There is also a lack of experience and capacities of authorities to collaborate with and support the ECG's risk and vulnerability reduction work. Bureaucratic barriers and declining motivations among volunteers within the ECG's could undermine commitment to the prevention of local risks. (Less)


The high performance and unique utilization properties applied by designers according to improvement of thermal and mechanical products were reinforced by particulate materials. The present study deals with the preparation of a composite system (EP/PVC). afterward the estimation of thermo-chemical behaviour of epoxy composite (EP/PVC) reinforced by addition of micro-fillers particulate of waste scrap tires (WST). Three different sets of epoxy-PVC composites are fabricated with addition of 0, 0.25, and 0.4 wt% of WST particulates. These composites have been prepared and both chemical reactivity absorbance and thermal conductivities are achieved. From results it appeared that a decreasing in thermal conductivity values about 55 % for 0.25wt % for a micro-WST of epoxy composite system, of 0.4wt. %recorded decreasing of thermal conductivity at88 %when compared to epoxy composite system (EP/PVC). The results show that the (WST) micro-fillers particles show an insulation polar behaviour at 0.4 wt. % at which a random behaviour in thermal conductivity is recorded .In addition to an experimental examination of chemical activity absorbance for both composite system before and after additive of micro-filler particulate of waste scrap tires (WST) in different soaking medium (normal and acidic solutions) and different residence times (0-120 hrs) respectively. The results proved that an improvement chemical activity occurred for optimum sample no. 3 of (2.5/ .4 + .4 (EP/PVC + WST) that have minimum loss in weight as (0.001) under both soaking medium (100% H 2 O, 10% H 2 SO 4 ) rather than base composite system (EP/PVC) and other improved one of .25 wt. % from WST of (0.01 – 0.05) respectively


The electronic architecture and dynamic signal processing capabilities of an artificial dendritic tree that can be used to process and classify dynamic signals is described. The electrical circuit architecture is modeled after neurons that have spatially extensive dendritic trees. The artificial dendritic tree is a hybrid VLSI circuit and is sensitive to both temporal and spatial signal characteristics. It does not use the conventional neural network concept of weights, and as such it does not use multipliers, adders, look-up-tables, microprocessors, or other complex computational units to process signals. The weights of conventional neural networks, which take the form of numerical, resistive, voltage, or current values, but do not have any spatial or temporal content, are replaced with connections whose spatial location have both a temporal and scaling significance.


Abstract This article addresses David Lamelas's 1970 work Publication, arguing that it represents a subtle critique of the internationalization of conceptual art by a recent entrant into the West European milieu. Exhibited at Nigel Greenwood Gallery in London after the artist's 1968 relocation from Argentina, Publication consists of thirteen written responses to three statements about the possible use of "language as an Art Form" that were sent by Lamelas to international figures in conceptual art such Daniel Buren, Gilbert and George, Lucy Lippard, and Lawrence Wiener. A close reading of this and others of Lamelas's experiments works leading up to this moment reveals affinities with earlier artistic experiments in Buenos Aires, the artist's original context, that have anything but membership in a preexisting movement or the adoption of an established genre as their goal. Between the years 1965 and 1968, Lamelas was part of a group of artists associated with the Torcuato di Tella Institute and the writer Oscar Masotta, who advocated an analytical and antagonistic "dematerialization," in which prevailing tendencies were to be systematically examined, voided from within, and superseded. In Buenos Aires, Lamelas experimented with breaking his works into sections as a way of calling attention to given objects of attention—a practice of "signaling" that is also present in Publication. Invariably, these works were positioned in critical relationship to those of his peers, applying Masotta's model to each new milieu. In what follows, I compare select works of Lamelas with his contemporaries in Buenos Aires and abroad between 1964 and 1970, contending that Publication represents one of the first appearances of a specifically Argentine, and highly critical, mode of conceptualism in the international art field.


Retrograde signaling is a pathway of communication from mitochondria and plastids to the nucleus in the context of cell differentiation, development, and stress response. In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the tetrapyrroles magnesium-protoporphyrin IX and heme are only synthesized within the chloroplast, and they have been implicated in the retrograde control of nuclear gene expression in this unicellular green alga. Feeding the two tetrapyrroles to Chlamydomonas cultures was previously shown to transiently induce five nuclear genes, three of which encode the heat shock proteins HSP70A, HSP70B, and HSP70E. In contrast, controversial results exist on the possible role of magnesium-protoporphyrin IX in the repression of genes for light-harvesting proteins in higher plants, raising the question of how important this mode of regulation is. Here, we used genome-wide transcriptional profiling to measure the global impact of these tetrapyrroles on gene regulation and the scope of the response. We identified almost 1,000 genes whose expression level changed transiently but significantly. Among them were only a few genes for photosynthetic proteins but several encoding enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, heme-binding proteins, stress-response proteins, as well as proteins involved in protein folding and degradation. More than 50% of the latter class of genes was also regulated by heat shock. The observed drastic fold changes at the RNA level did not correlate with similar changes in protein concentrations under the tested experimental conditions. Phylogenetic profiling revealed that genes of putative endosymbiontic origin are not overrepresented among the responding genes. This and the transient nature of changes in gene expression suggest a signaling role of both tetrapyrroles as secondary messengers for adaptive responses affecting the entire cell and not only organellar proteins.


The JavaScript ecosystem can be tough to hack through, even for experienced programmers. There are so many extensive JavaScript reference books and competing libraries to choose from-Prototype, jQuery, MooTools, YUI, Dojo, ExtJS, and so on. Christophe Porteneuve is here to help: he gives you fundamentals, the most handy techniques, and the insider's best practices. If you're reasonably comfortable programming in any widely known language, you'll be able to jump into JavaScript in no time. Divided into six Parts, the book starts with JavaScript code patterns that are too often ignored by JavaScript coders. Part 2 presents several essential JavaScript tasks-DOM and CSS manipulations, plus event handling and timers-in a framework-agnostic way, using syntax from all the major flavors. Parts 3 and 4, respectively, hit JavaScript's best features for user interface functionality-tooltips, lightboxes, image processing, infinite scrolling, and more-and forms for receiving and validating input. Part 5 explores the client/server relationship, touching on cookies, JSON, and Ajax (same- and cross-domain). Part 6 uses JavaScript in mashups with Twitter, Flickr, and geo-related APIs. The appendices feature Christophe's two-page JavaScript cheat sheet, followed by hard-won tips on debugging even the most maddening JavaScript errors. Next is an even-handed assessment of the major frameworks used in the book and in most JavaScript shops today. Last, Christophe presents an extensive group of resources for using and learning JavaScript and the major frameworks. This Pragmatic Guide is strictly focused on the techniques that will get you started in JavaScript. It's where you come to get the full scope of JavaScript in your head--fast! You'll quickly understand its core syntax, capabilities, and related frameworks. Start here first.


Cape vulture Gyps coprotheres populations have declined across their range due to multiple anthropogenic threats. Their susceptibility to fatal collisions with the expanding power line network and the prevalence of carcasses contaminated with illegal poisons and other threats outside protected areas are thought to be the primary drivers of declines in southern Africa. We used GPS-GSM units to track the movements and delineate the home ranges of five adult (mean ±SD minimum convex polygon area  =  121,655±90,845 km2) and four immature (mean ±SD minimum convex polygon area  =  492,300±259,427 km2) Cape vultures to investigate the influence of power lines and their use of protected areas. The vultures travelled more than 1,000 km from the capture site and collectively entered five different countries in southern Africa. Their movement patterns and core foraging ranges were closely associated with the spatial distribution of transmission power lines and we present evidence that the construction of power lines has allowed the species to extend its range to areas previously devoid of suitable perches. The distribution of locations of known Cape vulture mortalities caused by interactions with power lines corresponded to the core ranges of the tracked vultures. Although some of the vultures regularly roosted at breeding colonies located inside protected areas the majority of foraging activity took place on unprotected farmland. Their ability to travel vast distances very quickly and the high proportion of time they spend in the vicinity of power lines and outside protected areas make Cape vultures especially vulnerable to negative interactions with the expanding power line network and the full range of threats across the region. Co-ordinated cross-border conservation strategies beyond the protected area network will therefore be necessary to ensure the future survival of threatened vultures in Africa.