This paper presents a new simple design of an integrated driver using a multilevel MMIC technology that can be used to operate a NRZ (No Return to Zero of digits) two, four or eight phase shift keying direct modulator. It can be fed by any digital signals featuring any low level (VOutput Low) between 0 V and 0.5 V and a high level (VOutput High) between 2.5 V and 8 V. It therefore provides a full compatibility with most usual logic families. An MMIC featuring a K-band (17.5 to 21.5 GHz) Bi-Phase Shift Keying modulator (BPSK) along with the proposed driver has been designed. The measured performances are : 6° maximum phase error and 1.1 dB maximum amplitude error over the full 4 GHz bandwidth.


ABSTRACT This article examines processes by which development project implementations afford the state the appearance of being a separate structure. By exploring the implementation of an important state development project in North-western Ethiopia, the Koga Irrigation and Watershed Management (KIWM) scheme, it shows why and how the project plan does not correspond to the real life of the scheme. The article unpacks assumptions that policymakers and development practitioners make about the a priori existence of a community and state distinction, and the ways in which they arrange them as functionally differentiated entities. It also shows how the project's community-driven participatory approach, wherein local people were involved in managing the scheme, produces the effect of ghettoising practices of abuse as community issues. The article contributes to recent ethnographic studies of state-society relations and contends that these studies could gain important insights by exploring development project implementation practices as an entry point into the study of the processes that give the state the appearance of a material reality.


The growing energy consumption has posed new challenges for the future development of networks. Some earlier work has proposed solutions to improve energy consumption based on the existing control plane, for example, node/links sleeping. This study presents a new possibility to reduce network energy consumption by proposing a new integrated control plane structure utilising Software Defined Networking technologies. The integrated control plane increases the efficiencies of exchanging control information across different network domains, while introducing new possibilities to the routing methods and the control over quality of service (QoS). The structure is defined as an overlay generalised multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) control model. With the defined structure, the integrated control plane is able to gather information from different domains (i.e. optical core network and the access networks), and enable energy efficiency networking over a wider area. In the case presented, the integrated control plane collects the network energy related information and the QoS requirements of different types of traffic. This information is used to define the specific group of traffic's (flow's) routing behaviours. With the flexibility of the routing structure, results show that the energy efficiency of the network can be improved without compromising the QoS for delay/blocking sensitive services.


OBJECTIVE
To assess whether errors can be found in LOINC by changing its representation to OWL DL and comparing its classification to that of SNOMED CT.

METHODS
We created Description Logic definitions for LOINC concepts in OWL and merged the ontology with SNOMED CT to enrich the relatively flat hierarchy of LOINC parts. LOINC - SNOMED CT mappings were acquired through UMLS. The resulting ontology was classified with the ConDOR reasoner.

RESULTS
Transformation into DL helped to identify 427 sets of logically equivalent LOINC codes, 676 sets of logically equivalent LOINC parts, and 239 inconsistencies in LOINC multiaxial hierarchy. Automatic classification of LOINC and SNOMED CT combined increased the connectivity within LOINC hierarchy and increased its coverage by an additional 9,006 LOINC codes.

CONCLUSIONS
LOINC is a well-maintained terminology. While only a relatively small number of logical inconsistencies were found, we identified a number of areas where LOINC could benefit from the application of Description Logic.


The global Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene cooling (~3.0–2.0 million years ago – Ma) concurred with extremely high diatom and biogenic opal production in most of the major coastal upwelling regions. This phenomenon was particularly pronounced in the Benguela upwelling system (BUS), off Namibia, where it is known as the Matuyama Diatom Maximum (MDM). Our study focuses on a new diatom silicon isotope (δ30Si) record covering the MDM in the BUS. Unexpectedly, the variations in δ30Si signal follow biogenic opal content, whereby the highest δ30Si values correspond to the highest biogenic opal content. We interpret the higher δ30Si values during the MDM as a result of a stronger degree of silicate utilisation in the surface waters caused by high productivity of mat-forming diatom species. This was most likely promoted by weak upwelling intensity dominating the BUS during the Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene cooling combined with a large silicate supply derived from a strong Southern Ocean nutrient leakage responding to the expansion of Antarctic ice cover and the resulting stratification of the polar ocean 3.0–2.7 Ma ago. A similar scenario is hypothesized for other major coastal upwelling systems (e.g. off California) during this time interval, suggesting that the efficiency of the biological carbon pump was probably sufficiently enhanced in these regions during the MDM to have significantly increased the transport of atmospheric CO2 to the deep ocean. In addition, the coeval extension of the area of surface water stratification in both the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific, which decreased CO2 release to the atmosphere, led to further enhanced atmospheric CO2 drawn-down and thus contributed significantly to Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene cooling.


Research question: Concerns have been raised regarding excessive and prolonged use of antipsychotic and hypnotic/anxiolytic medications (principally benzodiazepines) in residential care. 'Good practice' guidance recommends regular trials of dosage reduction of these medications. This study aims to examine the pattern of use of antipsychotics and hypnotic/anxiolytics in a large sample of Tasmanian residential care facilities and compare outcomes to previous findings. A secondary aim of this study is to establish if the doses of these medications are regularly reduced.
Methods: Antipsychotic and hypnotic/anxiolytic prescribing data was obtained from case note summaries collected in 36 Tasmanian residential care facilities throughout 2006. To determine whether the doses of these medications were regularly reduced, dosing information was compared to that of residents from 2005.
Results: A total of 2313 residents were included in the study. Over the past decade, there has been a small reduction in the number of residents in Tasmanian care facilities taking antipsychotic and hypnotic/anxiolytic medications. Of particular interest; however, is the high prevalence (47%) of hypnotic/anxiolytic prescribing in Tasmania, with almost half of care facility residents taking benzodiazepines. The doses of the majority of these medications were not reduced regularly.
Implication for policy and practice: Further studies are required to establish why the prescribing rate of benzodiazepines is so high in Tasmania. Furthermore, interventions such as training of care staff and dedicated benzodiazepine rationalisation programs need to be developed and funded as a matter of priority.
Summary: Although the prevalence of antipsychotic and hypnotic/anxiolytic use has decreased over the past 10 years in Tasmanian residential care facilities, the current level of benzodiazepine prescribing is of major concern.


Finding good global importance sampling strategies for Monte Carlo light transport is challenging. While estimators using local methods (such as BSDF sampling or next event estimation) often work well in the majority of a scene, small regions in path space can be sampled insufficiently (e.g. a reflected caustic). We propose a novel data-driven guided sampling method which selectively adapts to such problematic regions and complements the unguided estimator. It is based on complete transport paths, i.e. is able to resolve the correlation due to BSDFs and free flight distances in participating media. It is conceptually simple and places anisotropic truncated Gaussian distributions around guide paths to reconstruct a continuous probability density function (guided PDF). Guide paths are iteratively sampled from the guided as well as the unguided PDF and only recorded if they cause high variance in the current estimator. While plain Monte Carlo samples paths independently and Markov chain-based methods perturb a single current sample, we determine the reconstruction kernels by a set of neighbouring paths. This enables local exploration of the integrand without detailed balance constraints or the need for analytic derivatives. We show that our method can decompose the path space into a region that is well sampled by the unguided estimator and one that is handled by the new guided sampler. In realistic scenarios, we show 4× speedups over the unguided sampler.


The purpose of this study is to investigate human hand tremor behaviour in postural condition. In order to achieve the objective, an experimental rig is fabricated as an apparatus to emulate the tremor behaviour. The experimental rig is designed to induce vibration along the dummy hand-arm in postural condition. In this study, an Intra Vernacular (IV) Training arm is used as the dummy hand-arm. Two DC motors are used to spin unbalanced masses as the source of excitation to the hand-arm. The quantitative assessment of human hand tremor and dummy hand-arm are mainly measured and recorded at the palm hand using light-weight accelerometer and displacement laser sensor. The accelerometer converts the physical movement to the acceleration signal. A laser displacement sensor is used for precise measurement due to its high sensitivity in motion. The laser is directly targeted at the palm hand, adjacent to the location of the accelerometer. The displacement and acceleration signals were then examined in time and frequency domains. In addition to that, a mathematical model of a four degree-of-freedom (DOF) system is introduced to represent the simulation biodynamic response (BR) of the palm of the human hand. Simulation results found that the tremor at palm hand occur at 9 and 12 Hz while the frequency of actual human hand tremor was observed at 9 Hz. From the findings, it is found that the fabricated experimental test-rig is capable to simulate the behaviour of human postural tremor at 9 Hz when the unbalancing mass rotate by the DC motors at the range frequency of 67.91 Hz to 77.80 Hz. Both results of the experiment and simulation can be used for further analysis of human hand tremor; typically Parkinson's disease (PD) and this will help in the development of anti-tremor devices that can suppress tremor.


Nitrogen monoxide (NO) has been reported to both activate and inhibit prostaglandin (PG) biosynthesis. This apparent paradox might be explained by the production/action of distinct NO-related species formed as a result of the prevailing redox states of different cellular systems. As such, the effect of NO donors with different redox characteristics on the modulation of prostaglandin H synthase-2 (PGHS-2) in primary mouse cortical astrocytes and COS-7 cells engineered to overexpress PGHS-2 was assessed. In general, compounds that released NO(*) or NO(-) enhanced, while a peroxynitrite (OONO(-)) generator inhibited, PGHS-2-dependent prostaglandin production. While the possibility of altered gene transcription was eliminated in the COS-7 system as PGHS-2 was maximally expressed, in primary astrocytes where PGHS-2 expression was induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), effects on protein expression were detected. Compounds that released NO(*) synergistically enhanced LPS-mediated PGHS-2 protein synthesis. None of these effects were mediated by cGMP. All donors lost their ability to modulate PGHS-2 expression and function when decayed. These results indicate that the ultimate effect of NO on PGHS-2 enzyme activity and expression is dictated by the prevalent NO-related species formed, suggesting that important interactions which may exist between NO and prostanoid pathways in vivo will be highly dependent on the inherent redox environment.


ntroduction:  Monte  Carlo  simulation  is  the  most  accurate  method  of  simulating  radiation  transport  and  predicting doses at different points of interest in radiotherapy. A great advantage of the Monte Carlo method  compared  to  the  deterministic  methods  is  the  ability  to  deal  accurately  with  any  complex  geometry.  Its  disadvantage is the extremely long computing time required to obtain a dose distribution with good statistical  accuracy.  Materials and Methods: The MCNP-4C Monte Carlo code was used to simulate a 9 MV photon beam from  a Neptun 10PC linear accelerator. The accelerator was modeled as a complete unit consisting of a target, exit  window, initial collimator, primary collimator, flattening filter, monitor chamber and secondary collimator.  The geometrical details and the composition of each component was either obtained from the manufacturer or  was  directly  measured.  The  simulation  of  the  source  was  performed  in  a  two  step  process.  Initially,  the  electron source was defined. Secondly, the bremsstrahlung energy spectra and the fluence distribution at the  scoring  planes  were  used  to  define  the  photon  source.  The  simulated  electron  beam  energy  followed  a  Gaussian distribution, with FWHM equal to 12% in nominal energy. The used intensity distribution of the  electron beam also followed a Gaussian distribution with a FWHM equal to 0.34 cm. To compute the photon  beam data a 50 × 50 × 40 cm 3  water phantom located at SSD = 100 cm was simulated. The depth dose and  the dose profile curves were calculated for four different field sizes (5×5, 10×10, 20×20 and 30×30 cm 2 ) and  compared against the measured values. The low-energy cut-off for the photons and electrons was 10 and 500  KeV, respectively. The measurements were carried out by using a Scanditronix dose scanning system and a  0.12 cm 3  RK ionization chamber.  Results: To verify the simulated model, the calculated Monte Carlo dose data were compared against the  corresponding measured values. The energy spectra and the angular distribution of the x-ray beam generated  by the Neptun 10PC linac was examined. The result showed an efficiency of about 73% for the production of  bermsstrahlung photon by the target. The agreement between the calculated and the measured depth dose and  the dose profile was generally better than 2% for all the fields.  Discussion and Conclusion: The simulation of the Neptun 10PC linac performed in this work is capable of  computing the depth dose data and the beam profiles in water phantom for all the predefined fields including  5×5, 10×10, 20×20 and 30×30 cm 2 . Therefore, it can be concluded that MCNP-4C is a suitable tool for the  dose calculation in radiotherapy. The simulated linac machine and the resulting data can be used to predict  the dose distribution in all complex fields.


I present particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of minority energetic protons in deuterium plasmas, which demonstrate a collective instability responsible for emission near the lower hybrid frequency. The simulations capture the lower hybrid drift instability in a parameter regime motivated by tokamak fusion plasma conditions, and show further that the excited electromagnetic fields collectively and collisionlessly couple free energy from the protons to directed electron motion. This results in an asymmetrically populated tail in the velocity distribution of electrons antiparallel to the magnetic field. Obliquely propagating modes are spontaneously excited by energetic ions, whose ring-beam distribution is motivated by population inversions inferred from observations of ion cyclotron emission from JET and TFTR, in a background plasma with a temperature similar to that of the core of a large tokamak plasma. A fully self-consistent electromagnetic relativistic PIC code representing all vector field quantities and particle velocities in three dimensions as functions of a single spatial dimension is used to model this situation, by evolving the initial antiparallel travelling ring-beam distribution of 3 MeV protons in a background Maxwellian deuterium plasma with realistic ion to electron mass ratio. These simulations provide a proof-of-principle for a key plasma physics process that may be exploited in future alpha channelling scenarios for magnetically confined burning plasmas. A simple argument states that some natural symmetry breaking may occur in physical systems. However, it is not possible to determine the sign or magnitude of the current drive effect from these initial simulations. Scans in parameter space elucidate the pervasiveness of this instability, suggesting that opportunities for wave lower hybrid wave amplification at the expense of alpha energy may be widespread. Future alpha channelling scenarios may rely on stimulated emission of LH wave energy from the alpha particles thereby improving LHCD efficiency.

Protons exhibit phase space bunching which confirms that resonant energy transfer occurs at the gyrophase angles at which the velocity of an energetic proton on its cyclotron orbit precisely matches the phase velocity of the lower hybrid wave in the direction of propagation. Electron spatio-gyrophase oscillations determine the wavelength of the propagating lower hybrid wave, and thereby govern the spatial distribution of gyrobunching of the energetic protons that drive the instability. These results deepen fundamental understanding of the LHDI, which is of interest to fusion and space plasma research communities.

A reduced model is constructed to investigate the concept of stimulated emission of lower hybrid waves from populations of fusion ions that are unstable to the lower hybrid drift instability in tokamaks. Extrapolations are made from PIC code data which, with the reduced model, show that stimulated emission may be a fruitful avenue of research.


Background: Over a 2-year period, 2008-2009, a total of 53 cases of split cord malformation (SCM) were treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). This study is a retrospective analysis of clinical features, radiological findings, and surgical outcome of these patients. Materials and Methods: During this period, 53 cases of SCM were treated at AIIMS. They constitute around 27% of all spinal dysraphism surgeries performed at the department of Neurosurgery, AIIMS; as 200 cases of spinal dysraphism were operated during the study period. The data was obtained from case files, operation notes, discharge summaries, and follow-up files. Observations: There were 30 cases of SCM type I and 23 cases of type II SCM. Seven patients were adult above 18 years of age. Except 7 patients, remaining 46 were symptomatic. Bony deformity of spine was recorded in 24 patients; of them, 19 had scoliosis and 4 had kyphosis. Deformity of foot was recorded in 10 patients. Thirteen patients had hypertrichosis, while four had dermal sinus. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed in all patients. MRI revealed syringomyelia in 14 patients; however, only one patient had associated Chiari malformation. Six patients had meningomyelocele. Intra-operative; thick filum was noticed in 10 cases and in another 9 cases, there was filum lipoma. Dermoid was encountered in 4 patients, one patient had epidermoid tumor. Site of split was thoracic in 22, followed by lumbar region in 21 patients. Only 3 patients had split in cervical spinal cord. Seven patients had two separate splits at two different levels. Two patients had posteriorly located bony spur. All patients underwent surgery. Seven patients, those who had no neurological deficits pre-op, remained unchanged post-op. Amongst the 46 patients who had preoperative neurological deficits, eight had neurological deterioration post-op; five had deterioration in motor power and three had urinary problem. Five of these patients had type Id split, 2 had type Ic split, and one had type Ib split. However, among 8 patients who deteriorated post-op, four improved to preoperative status by the time of discharge. Thus, 4/53(7%) patients had long-term deficits, all with type Id split. Follow-up data was available for 36 patients (68%) and mean follow-up period was 12 months (range 6-24 months). Follow-up MRI revealed decrease in syringomyelic cavity in 6 of the 14 patients (44%) who had syringomyelia on preoperative MRI scans. Conclusion: Overall, SCM is an uncommon condition. In all cases of progressive scoliosis, MRI must be carried out. We subjected all asymptomatic patients to surgery and none developed post-op deterioration. Overall post-op neurological deterioration was noticed in 15% patients, of which 8% had transient post-operative deterioration. The new Type I SCM subclassification system proposed by Mahapatra and Gupta is found to have a significant prognostic value in assessing post-operative neurological deterioration in patients with type I SCM.


Background Splanchnic venous system thrombosis is a well recognized local vascular complication of acute pancreatitis (AP). It may involve thrombosis of splenic vein (SplV), portal vein (PV) and superior mesenteric vein (SMV), either separately or in combinations, and often detected incidentally, indeed some cases present with upper gastrointestinal bleed, bowel ischemia and hepatic decompensation. Incidence is variable depending on study subjects and diagnostic modalities. Pathogenesis is multifactorial centered on local and systemic inflammation. Management involves treatment of underlying AP and its complications. Universal use of anticoagulation may lead to increased risk of bleeding due to frequent need of interventions (radiologic/endoscopic/surgical). Literature on anticoagulation in setting of AP is sparse and at present there is no consensus guideline on it. Current article details our experience on splanchnic venous thrombosis (SVT) in AP in a well defined cohort of patients at a tertiary care center. Methods Hospitalized patients with AP from January 2018 to December 2018 were included in the study. Detailed information on demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiologic features, and indication of anticoagulation use were collected prospectively during the index admission. Outcome variables were analyzed at the end of 6 months. Results Twenty four out of 105 (22.85%) patients with AP develop SVT. Etiology of AP was alcohol use in 21/24 (87.5%) subjects. Most common vessel involved was isolated SplV in 11/24 (45.8%) patients followed by SplV along with PV and SMV 9/24 (37.50%, P < 0.001). Bowel ischemia 4/12 (33.3%), hepatic decompensation 3/12 (25%), triple vessel involvement 4/12 (33.3%) and pulmonary embolism 1/12 (8.3%) were reasons for anticoagulation. There was no statistical difference with respect to development of varices, collateral formation, recanalization, bleeding and mortality with use of anticoagulation (P > 0.05 with respect to all above variables). Conclusions SVT is commonly seen in alcohol-induced AP. Anticoagulation does not affect outcomes of SVT. Subset of patients may benefit with anticoagulation.


In seven patients who presented with lightheadedness, fatigue, "weakness," and sometimes syncope, blood pressure was found not to fall after standing for 3 to 4 minutes but to fall severely, frequently with syncope or presyncopal symptoms, after 13 to 30 minutes when measured every minute with an automatic device. This delayed orthostatic hypotension could be corrected with inflation of a pressure suit to 45 mm Hg. Its mechanism was further investigated with measurements of plasma catecholamines, plasma cortisol and aldosterone responses to corticotropin, and the effects of norepinephrine infusions on blood pressure and venous contractility. There was normal or excessive orthostatic norepinephrine release in all patients, evidence of impaired venous innervation in the legs in some, and various disorders in the other patients. Since therapeutic improvement in the orthostatic hypotension greatly reduced the symptoms, we concluded that orthostatic hypotension occurring after more than 10 minutes of standing is a potentially debilitating and often correctable disorder.


Two-dimensional thermomechanical experiments reveal that the crystallization versus exhumation histories of migmatite cores in metamorphic core complexes give insights into the driving far-field extensional strain rates. At high strain rates, migmatite cores crystallize and cool along a hot geothermal gradient (35–65 °C km−1) after the bulk of their exhumation. At low strain rates, migmatite cores crystallize at higher pressure before the bulk of their exhumation, which is accommodated by solid-state deformation along a cooler geothermal gradient (20–35 °C km−1). In the cases of boundary-driven extension, space is provided for the domes, and therefore the buoyancy of migmatite cores contributes little to the dynamics of metamorphic core complexes. The presence of melt favors heterogeneous bulk pure shear of the dome, as opposed to bulk simple shear, which dominates in melt-absent experiments. The position of migmatite cores in their domes reveals the initial dip direction of detachment faults. The migmatitic Shuswap core complex (British Columbia, Canada) and the Ruby–East Humboldt Range (Nevada, United States) possibly exemplify metamorphic core complexes driven by faster and slower extension, respectively.


Abstract An engineering study has been performed on the ITER electron cyclotron transmission lines with the aim of optimizing its conceptual design. The support types and optimum spacing, cooling, vacuum, seismic, and gravitational effects were reviewed. For the vacuum system it was shown that two pumps per line, with a capacity of 50 l/s, are sufficient. It was explained that the temperature variation inside the building is the predominant factor that influences the thermal expansion of the lines. The support strategy is one of minimizing the number of constraints. Variation in support interspacing reduces the degree of harmonic disturbances. The section of transmission line inside the ITER port cell was identified as critical with regards to occurrence of deformation and stresses. Potential solutions are described. The use of seismic breaks is discussed in light of the differences in foundation and structure of the ITER tokamak building and assembly hall. It is proposed that this interface be studied in more detail, after more data is available on the behavior of these buildings. The geometry of individual supports should be simple, with the fewest possible adjustments. The supports are designed to allow small movements of the waveguide to compensate for the thermal expansion or contraction. The transmission line system can be made for optimum alignment during nominal operating temperatures by prestressing during installation.


Pancreatic insufficiency (PI) when left untreated results in a state of malnutrition due to an inability to absorb nutrients. Frequently, PI is diagnosed as part of a larger clinical presentation in cystic fibrosis or Shwachman–Diamond syndrome. In this study, a mouse model for isolated exocrine PI was identified in a mouse line generated by a transgene insertion. The trait is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, and homozygous animals are growth retarded, have abnormal immunity, and have reduced life span. Mice with the disease locus, named pequeño (pq), exhibit progressive apoptosis of pancreatic acinar cells with severe exocrine acinar cell loss by 8 wk of age, while the islets and ductal tissue persist. The mutation in pq/pq mice results from a random transgene insertion. Molecular characterization of the transgene insertion site by fluorescent in situ hybridization and genomic deletion mapping identified an approximately 210-kb deletion on Chromosome 3, deleting two genes. One of these genes, Serpini2, encodes a protein that is a member of the serpin family of protease inhibitors. Reintroduction of only the Serpini2 gene by bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic complementation corrected the acinar cell defect as well as body weight and immune phenotypes, showing that deletion of Serpini2 causes the pequeño phenotype. Dietary supplementation of pancreatic enzymes also corrected body size, body weight, and immunodeficiency, and increased the life span of Serpini2-deficient mice, despite continued acinar cell loss. To our knowledge, this study describes the first characterized genetic animal model for isolated PI. Genetic complementation of the transgene insertion mutant demonstrates that Serpini2 deficiency directly results in the acinar cell apoptosis, malabsorption, and malnutrition observed in pq/pq mice. The rescue of growth retardation, immunodeficiency, and mortality by either Serpini2 bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic expression or by pancreatic enzyme supplementation demonstrates that these phenotypes are secondary to malnutrition in pq/pq mice.


Abstract We have designed a gas-cooled accelerator-driven system dedicated to transmutation of minor actinides. Thanks to the excellent neutron economy of the uranium-free fuel employed, the pin pitch to diameter ratio (P/D) could be increased to 1.8. The increased coolant fraction allows for decay heat removal at ambient pressure. The large coolant fraction further results in a low pressure loss—26 kPa over the core, 35 kPa in total. Thanks to the large P/D, the elevation of the heat exchanger necessary to remove decay heat by natural circulation is just more than 1 m. The absence of uranium in conjunction with the presence of 35% (heavy atom) americium in the fuel results in a low effective delayed neutron fraction and a vanishing Doppler feedback, making subcritical operation mandatory.


Looking only at standard macroeconomic statistics, you would think the economy was in very good shape. Gross domestic product has grown at a 4.4 percent annual rate in the last six months, well above the historical average. But these statistics are like looking through a rearview mirror. Jason Furman, director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and Tax Policy Center contributor, discusses where the US economy is headed in this New York Times op-ed.


A new silicon carbide (SiC) enhancement-mode lateral channel vertical junction fieldeffect transistor (LC-VJFET), namely "source inserted double-gate structure (SID-gate) with a supplementary highly doped region (SHDR)", was proposed for achieving extremely low power losses in high power switching applications. The proposed architecture was based on the combination of an additional source electrode inserted between two adjacent surface gate electrodes and a unique SHDR in the vertical channel region. Two-dimensional numerical simulations for the static and resistive switching characteristics were performed to analyze and optimize the SiC LCVJFET structures for this purpose. Based on the simulation results, the excellent performance of the proposed structure was compared with optimized conventional structures with regard to total power losses. Finally, the proposed structure showed about a 20 % reduction in on-state loss (Pon) compared to the conventional structures, due to the effective suppression of the JFET effect. Furthermore, the switching loss (Psw) of the proposed structure was found to be much lower than the results of the conventional structures, about a 75 % ~ 95 % reduction, by significantly reducing both input capacitance (Ciss) and reverse transfer capacitance (Crss) of the device.


Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) are known to be accelerated by high-energy events in the Sun's corona: coronal mass ejections (CMEs) with high speed, solar flares with high peak emission in soft X-rays, or a combination of the two. SEPs, however, are not detected following all fast CMEs or intense flares. Those large solar events, which might reasonably have been expected to produce SEPs at Earth but which failed to do so, may be termed "false alarms".
In this work, two simple SEP forecasting algorithms are defined: one (algorithm A.1) is based upon the observation of a magnetically well-connected CME with a speed of 1,500 km/s or greater (a ``fast CME''), and the other (algorithm A.2) is based upon the observation of a magnetically well-connected X class flare. The algorithms were applied to historical data sets to ascertain which produced an enhancement of >40 MeV protons, and which were false alarms.
The algorithms have been evaluated using standard verification scores. Both algorithms correctly forecast approximately the same percentage of SEP events (47% and 49% respectively); the false alarm ratio for algorithm A.1, however, was much lower than for A.2 (29% and 51% respectively). Both algorithms failed to forecast almost the same number of SEP events (53% for A.1, and 51% for A.2).

The parameters of the false alarms were compared to those of the SEP-producing events. False alarm fast CMEs tended to be associated with flares of class less than M3; X class flares which were either not associated with any CME, or were associated with a CME slower than 500 km/s, were false alarms.
A third forecasting algorithm, based upon these results, was defined. This algorithm, which takes into account parameters of both CMEs and flares, performed better than either A.1 or A.2, correctly forecasting a significantly greater percentage of SEP events than both (68%), having a false alarm ratio similar to A.1 (30%), but missing a significantly lower percentage (32%) of SEP events.
A small number of case studies were carried out. It was found that for accurate forecasting of SEP events it may not be sufficient simply to consider the accelerating events, but that the location of the heliospheric current sheet relative to the site of the solar event and of the Earth's footpoint may be an important consideration.
SEP forecasts produced by the SPARX simulation were evaluated with a view to providing a benchmark against which future versions of the model may be tested.


Most multi-class classifiers make their prediction for a test sample by scoring the
classes and selecting the one with the highest score. Analyzing these prediction
scores is useful to understand the classifier behavior and to assess its reliability. We
present an interactive visualization that facilitates per-class analysis of these scores.
Our system, called Classilist, enables relating these scores to the classification
correctness and to the underlying samples and their features. We illustrate how such
analysis reveals varying behavior of different classifiers. Classilist is available for
use online, along with source code, video tutorials, and plugins for R, RapidMiner,
and KNIME at https://katehara.github.io/classilist-site/.


The catholic bio-politics, in recent years, addressed a variety of issues. In this contribution I focus specifically on assisted reproduction and stem cell research in order to analyse the Catholic neo-feminist discourse, and the complex interplay of discursive arenas. Namely, I focus the attention on the reconfiguration of religious discourse in terms of attention to feminism and gender rights, on the one side, and discursive opportunity structures in terms of venues' opportunities and constraints on the other. The analysis underlined two main elements. First of all, in relation to the process of judicialization of politics, the analysis pointed out the different opportunities and constraints characterizing the different venues. Namely, judicialization of politics and venue shopping are not favourable the same way for all the actors. Second, a neo-conservative frame of revolutionary maternity gained large room in the Italian political sphere, and it is likely to gain even more resonance in light of the current debate on surrogacy, related to the never-ending discussion on the forms of regulation of same-sex couples in Italy.


This paper discusses a method for analyzing the potential interference that ultra-wideband (UWB) devices can cause on UMTS networks. We discuss the UWB-UMTS coexistence problem at the link level, showing the degradation on maximum cell range due to UWB interference. Further, we discuss the importance of proper modeling of the mobility and randomness associated with UWB and UMTS, and propose a system level simulation algorithm to simulate the behavior of a UMTS network in the presence of UWB interference, accounting for the multiple elements that determine and influence its performance. We present simulation results for a theoretical UMTS network, to illustrate its performance variation as the density of UWB interference sources changes.


Hydrograph separation is a widely applied technique that uses the stable isotopes of water (2H and 18O) or other tracers to quantify the contribution of different water sources to streamflow. For its successful application it is critical to adequately characterize these sources (end‐members). In most small catchment studies, water samples are collected from end‐members at one or a few locations that are assumed to be representative for the entire catchment. We tested this assumption by reviewing 148 papers that used the stable isotopes of water to investigate hydrological processes in catchments up to 10 km2. We assessed the typical spatial variability in the isotopic composition of different hydrological compartments when they were sampled at five or more locations across a catchment. The median reported spatial variability was largest for snowmelt and soil water, followed by throughfall and shallow groundwater. To determine how this spatial variability might affect isotope‐based hydrograph separation results, we used three‐component hydrograph separation for two real rainfall‐runoff events and a synthetic rainfall‐runoff event and adjusted the isotopic composition of the end‐members (throughfall, soil water, and shallow groundwater) by the median observed spatial variability. The estimated maximum contributions of the three components differed by up to 26% from the reference scenario. This suggests that caution is needed when interpreting hydrograph separation results if they are based on samples taken at one or only a few locations. Above all, these results show that the assumption of negligible spatial variability may not be valid for small catchments.


Objective: The purpose of the realistic study is the determination of Quetiapine fumarate in bulk and tablet dosage form utilizing a basic, particular, exact, and formalize stability signifying high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Materials and Methods: The assessment of Quetiapine fumarate in tablet dosage form performed using a validated stability-indicating HPLC method. HPLC Binary Gradient System of model no. HPLC 3000 Series having Greece C18 (250 mm × 4.6 ID, Particle size: 5 micron) column using mobile phase composition of methanol:water (80:20) is used and pH was adjusted to 3. Flow rate was maintained at 0.9 ml/min at room temperature. Evaluation was accomplished with ultraviolet detection at 213 nm. Results and Discussion: The retention time acquired for Quetiapine fumarate was at 3.3 min. The result acquired with the detector response was found to be linear which is in the concentration range of 20–100 μg/ml. This technique has been accepted and appeared to be particular, delicate, exact, straight, precise, rough, vigorous, and quick. Quetiapine fumarate was subjected to different accelerated stress conditions. The degradation products when anywhere well resolved from the pure drug with significantly different retention time values. Conclusion: It is inferred that this system can be connected for routine quality control of Quetiapine fumarate in tablet dosage forms as well as in bulk drug.


We propose a discriminative model for recognizing group activities. Our model jointly captures the group activity, the individual person actions, and the interactions among them. Two new types of contextual information, group-person interaction and person-person interaction, are explored in a latent variable framework. Different from most of the previous latent structured models which assume a predefined structure for the hidden layer, e.g. a tree structure, we treat the structure of the hidden layer as a latent variable and implicitly infer it during learning and inference. Our experimental results demonstrate that by inferring this contextual information together with adaptive structures, the proposed model can significantly improve activity recognition performance.


From the Publisher:
Java Thread Programming shows you how to take full advantage of Java's thread facilities: when to use threads to increase your program's efficiency, how to use them effectively, and how to avoid common mistakes. There is thorough coverage of the Thread API, ThreadGroup classes, the Runnable interface, and the synchronized operator. Extensive, complete, code examples show programmers the details of creating and managing threads in real-world applications.


Forensic science has gained
popularity in the last few decades. Many new techniques are being studied and
implemented. It includes a wide range of scientific disciplines, such as
entomology, physics and biology. An important improvement to forensic science
is the development of different DNA techniques which are implemented during an
investigation, making DNA a gold standard for forensics. Most of the time DNA is
mentioned it is in terms of human DNA, but there are microscopic organisms with
useful DNA. In the last decade, with the development of next-generation
sequencing (NGS), studies focusing on bacterial communities have been
published, but fungal communities have not been extensively studied.

 For this project, the potential of
fungi in forensic science was investigated through three different studies.
Human flora was looked at by NGS from thirty-seven human bodies with differing
post-mortem intervals (PMIs). The communities were analyzed statistically and
quantitatively, resulting in unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and
genera which were only present in certain PMIs, and in some which were present
through the entire PMI time scale. These attributes can help, not only to give
a better view on human mycoflora during decomposition, but they can also help
in determining fungal signatures during decomposition. These signatures can
help in a PMI determination. Moreover, swine carcasses – the model animals for
human forensic studies – were investigated as well to create a checklist of
fungal flora after five months of winter decomposition in the West Lafayette,
Indiana area. Furthermore, due to the increased importance of wildlife
forensics, a wildlife study was also conducted using four wildlife species
(mute swan, red tailed hawk, river otter, bobcat). The fungal flora from these
species were compared within species at the beginning of the study and at
skeletonization stage to look at any indicator fungal species and to create a
general checklist for wildlife studies in the West Lafayette, Indiana area for
future studies. Additionally, the fungal communities were compared across
species as well.


Sodium chloride has been scrutinized of late, not only for its liberal use as a food preservative but for its contribution to disease states. The causal role of habitual high salt intake in increasing blood pressure and exacerbating hypertension has been established. A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that hypertension contributes to other conditions such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, stroke, and type II diabetes. Rates of hypertension are significantly higher in obese individuals. These comorbidities have been positively associated with the modern Western diet. Worldwide, many government and health organizations have called for public policy measures to mandate sodium reductions in processed foods. The objective of this study is to assess the possible direct association between high salt intake and adipocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia as it relates to obesity.


Significant Corpus of Work has Recently Emerged on bodily discipline in literature and the ideological motivations for the repression and expression of vulgar bodily functions. Yet, until now, nobody has located the discussion of the sanitized body's place in literature and society within a Canadian context. In Scatology and Civility in the English Canadian Novel, Reinhold Kramer explores how English-Canadian novelists have reimagined the social history of bodily waste, and how their images of civilization and culture make use of representations of obscenity.Scatology and Civility surveys over eighty Canadian novels, from renowned works by Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, and Leonard Cohen to lesser known works by writers like Harold Sonny Ladoo, Chris Scott, Wayne Johnston, and David Williams. Kramer begins with an investigation into the history of sanitation and the social history of courtesy and manners books; he then speculates about the origins of the 'unclean self' in literature, and about the ideological uses to which filth has been put in the Canadian novel. In considering the language of obscenity from a variety of perspectives which include class, politics, science, gender, race, and religion, Kramer reveals that bodily waste is often an explicit object of textual discourse.As an innovative, interdisciplinary study in the evolution of the depiction of civility and obscenity, Scatology and Civility in the English Canadian Novel will interest those in literary studies, history, sociology, and Canadian studies, and provide new ways of thinking about the volatility of representation.


BACKGROUND
Magnetic resonance tissue phase mapping (TPM) measures three-directional myocardial velocities of the left and right ventricle (LV, RV). This noninvasive technique may supplement endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) in monitoring grafts post-heart transplantation (HTx).

PURPOSE
To assess biventricular myocardial velocity alterations in grafts and investigate the relationship between velocities and acute cellular rejection (ACR) episodes.

STUDY TYPE
Prospective.

SUBJECTS
Twenty-seven patients within 1 year post-HTx (49 ± 13 years, 19 M) and 18 age-matched controls (49 ± 15 years, 12 M).

FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE
1.5T, 2D balanced steady-state free precession, and TPM.

ASSESSMENT
Ventricular function: end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes, stroke volumes, ejection fraction (EF), and myocardial mass. TPM velocities: peak-systolic and peak-diastolic velocities, cardiac twist, and interventricular dyssynchrony. ACR rejection episodes: International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation grading of EMB specimens.

STATISTICAL TESTS
The Lilliefors test for normality, unpaired t-tests, and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests for normally and nonnormally distributed data, respectively, were used, as well as multivariate regression for confounding variables and Pearson's correlation for associations between TPM velocities and global function.

RESULTS
Compared to controls, HTx patients demonstrated reduced biventricular systolic longitudinal velocities (LV: 5.2 ± 2.1 vs. 4.0 ± 1.5 cm/s, P < 0.05; RV: 4.2 ± 1.3 vs. 3.1 ± 1.2 cm/s, P < 0.01). Correlation analysis revealed significant positive relationships for biventricular EF with radial peak velocities of the same ventricle in both systole and diastole (LV systole: r = 0.48, P < 0.01; LV diastole: r = 0.28, P < 0.05; RV systole: r = 0.35, P < 0.01; RV diastole: r = 0.36, P < 0.01). Segmentally, longitudinal velocities were impaired in 7/16 LV segments and 5/10 RV segments in systole and 7/10 RV segments in diastole. TPM analysis in studies with >4 preceding ACR episodes showed globally reduced RV and LV systolic radial velocity, and segmentally reduced radial and longitudinal systolic velocities.

DATA CONCLUSION
Biventricular global and segmental velocities were reduced in HTx patients. Patients with >4 rejection episodes showed reduced myocardial velocities. The TPM sequence may add functional information for monitoring graft dysfunction.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2.


In this paper we investigate controlling many nonholonomic unicycles that each receive exactly the same inputs. The robots are almost homogeneous, but each robot has a unique parameter that scales its turning rate. Previous work showed that such a collection of robots can be approximately steered to arbitrary Cartesian positions, but not to arbitrary heading angles in a global reference frame. We extend this work by proving we can always steer such a collection of robots exactly to arbitrary range and bearing locations relative to targets in R2 in a finite number of steps. We also provide existence proofs for controlling the final heading angles of many robots. This work addresses a fundamental challenge in micro-and nanorobotics with possible applications in targeted therapy, sensing, and actuation. Scale hardware experiments validate the control policy. All code is provided online.


The Deep Skull from Niah Cave in Sarawak (Malaysia) is the oldest anatomically modern human recovered from island Southeast Asia. For more than 50 years its relevance to tracing the prehistory of the region has been controversial. The most widely held view, originating with Brothwell's 1960 description and analysis, is that the Niah individual is related to Indigenous Australians. Here we undertake a new assessment of the Deep Skull and consider its bearing on this question. In doing so, we provide a new and comprehensive description of the cranium including a reassessment of its ontogenetic age, sex, morphology and affinities. We conclude that this individual was most likely to have been of advanced age and female, rather than an adolescent male as originally proposed. The morphological evidence strongly suggests that the Deep Skull samples the earliest modern humans to have settled Borneo, most likely originating on mainland East Asia. We also show that the affinities of the specimen are most likely to be with the contemporary indigenous people of Borneo, although, similarities to the population sometimes referred to as Philippine Negritos cannot be excluded. Finally, our research suggests that the widely supported 'two-layer' hypothesis for the Pleistocene peopling of East/South Asia is unlikely to apply to the earliest inhabitants of northern Borneo, in-line with the picture emerging from genetic studies of the contemporary people from the region.


Abstract The random-effects regression algorithm, made popular within engineering seismology by Abrahamson and Youngs (1992), is arguably the most commonly used approach for developing empirical ground-motion models. The original presentation of this algorithm relates to the most simple application of a far more general mixed-effects model formulation. In recent years, it has become increasingly common to incorporate nonlinear site response effects within empirical, or semi-empirical, ground-motion models, but the original random-effects algorithm does not apply to cases in which the random effects enter the model in a nonlinear manner. This article presents a more general algorithm for fitting mixed-effects models that can accommodate nonlinear site effects (among other effects). The presented algorithm deliberately mirrors that of Abrahamson and Youngs (1992) but allows for the treatment of far more elaborate variance structures.


Performing CO2 conversion in a cost-effective and environmentally benign manner would be promising and remains challenging due to its thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness. Herein, we would like to summarise significant advances in organic synthesis using CO2 with high catalytic efficiency and excellent selectivity towards the target product mainly during the last five years (2012–2016). Achieving an efficient and selective CO2 conversion depends on the development of metal catalysts (especially functional metal complex catalysis) including main-group metal, typical transition metal and lanthanide series metal as well as organocatalysts e.g. N-heterocyclic carbenes, N-heterocyclic olefins, task-specific ionic liquids, superbases and frustrated Lewis pairs that are able to effectively activate CO2 and/or the substrate on the basis of the mechanistic understanding at the molecular level. This review just covers typical catalytic transformation of CO2, for instance, carboxylation, amidation, hydrogenation, and representative green processes like solvent-less, halogen-free that use CO2 as an ideal carbon-neutral source to prepare valuable compounds with improved atom economy and enhanced sustainability of chemical processes through green catalysis. In particular, in situ catalytic CO2 conversion, i.e. the combination of carbon capture and subsequent conversion, a recent breakthrough in the CO2 chemistry field, is also discussed.


We explore the effective gain or loss in alpha from the point of view of the investor due to the volatility of a fund and its correlations to other asset classes. Fund managers and investors can be guided by this to increase the utility that is ultimately delivered to the investor. In this analysis of investor utility, the Sharpe ratio is shown to be misleading and the tracking error has no role at all. A new class of funds - called "hyperpassive" - is suggested which are similar to traditional index funds, but which aim to deliver a comparable expected return with less volatility than the benchmark. It is also shown that the optimal allocation to additional asset classes can be surprisingly high when the correlations are small.


The precautionary principle has been invoked to justify a policy of aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission controls that would go beyond "no regrets" actions to reduce global warming. However, this justification is based upon selectively applying the principle to the potential public health and environmental consequences of global warming but not to the adverse consequences of such a policy. This report attempts to rectify this one-sided application of the precautionary principle. It finds that such a policy, despite its claim to be precautionary, would, in fact, be incautious in many areas because it has a high likelihood of increasing overall risks to public health and the environment. Specifically, GHG emission reduction requirements that go beyond secular improvements in technology and elimination of unjustified energy subsidies could retard economic development, leading to greater hunger, poorer health, and higher mortality, especially in developing countries. Moreover, higher oil and gas prices would reduce food availability and would also retard switching from solid fuels to more environmentally benign fuels for heating and cooking in households of the developing world. Indoor air pollution resulting from current heating and cooking practices in these nations is a major source of premature deaths. A truly precautionary principle argues, instead, for focusing on solving current problems that may be aggravated by climate change, and on increasing society's adaptability and decreasing its vulnerability to environmental problems in general and climate change in particular. These could be achieved by bolstering the mutually-reinforcing forces of technological change, economic growth, and trade. Moreover, enhancing adaptability and reducing vulnerability will raise the thresholds at which greenhouse gas concentrations could become "dangerous."


Reducing the environmental impact of industrial processes is highly linked with decreasing consumption of natural resources, energy, and water. In the context of climate change, as discussed during the Conference of Parties in Paris (COP21), the efficient use of energy, water and other resources is one of the solutions to substantially reduce the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from industry. Industries consume large quantities of energy and water in their processes which are often considered to be peripheral to the process operation. Energy is used to heat or cool water for process use; additionally, water is frequently used in production support or utility networks as steam or cooling water. This obviates the interconnectivity of water and energy and that they must be treated simultaneously to address energy and resource use in industrial processes. Over the past two decades, several studies have been conducted to propose systematic methods for simultaneous optimization of water and energy utilization [1] using mathematical programming techniques or conceptual ones. They cover aspects of the problem from multiple contaminant water streams to integration of wastewater treatment plants. The available test cases in the literature aim at evaluating the performance of these methodologies on simplified examples for demonstration/proof of concept purposes. Existing literature, however, does not consider an industrial case study. Due to highly constrained optimization problems and complex operational structures of industrial processes, conventional optimization methods are often not directly applicable. One major assumption in literature test cases is that any hot stream can exchange heat with any cold stream. This approach, however, becomes difficult in real industrial applications due to geographical and thermodynamic constraints. The concept of restricted heat matching has been studied extensively in the literature in an attempt to consider these often-neglected facets of industrial processes. The proposed approaches from literature specify either that predefined stream pairs cannot exchange heat [2] or that an intermediate heat transfer unit must be used [3] (e.g., steam network [4]) to reduce the penalty of the restriction in terms of utility cost. This concept has previously not been introduced in combined mass and heat integration studies. The goal of this paper is to systematically address these challenges by integrating a novel mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) methodology for simultaneous optimization of water and energy utilization [5] with an extended methodology proposed in [3] for energy and mass integration in industrial sites with restrictions. Water is often an industrial energy carrier and therefore can be an intermediate heat transfer unit; however, it is also a feedstock or process stream for many industrial processes such as brewing and pulp and paper. In these industries, several unit operations consume or produce water at different quality and temperature levels; ergo, water from the intermediate heat transfer unit (utility network) can be recycled and/or reused in these processes allowing heat recovery and water savings. Furthermore, the efficiency of the energy conversion systems has to be considered in parallel, which implies addressing not only the heat recovery but also the combined heat and power production or the use of heat pumping. The challenge is to first set the problem definition in terms of what information must be extracted, and second, systematically generate the mathematical superstructure that can address these practical complexities. In addition, water storage options are added to the problem and their temperatures optimized to lower the penalty of having restricted connections. The resulting optimization exhibits an integrated process and utility structure for water and heat utilization considering flowrates of varying quality, restricted matches and non-isothermal mixing. An industrial case study is presented and the results are analyzed to express the benefits of such an approach in a real production plant. The potential implications of this work are broad, extending from single-site process/unit integration to industrial symbiosis.


We revisit a series of popular anomalies: seasonal, announcement and momentum. We comment on statistical significance and persistence of these effects and propose useful investment strategies to incorporate this information. We investigate the creation of a seasonal anomaly and trend model composed of the Sell in May (SIM), Turn of the Month (TOM), Federal Open Market Committee pre-announcement drift (FOMC) and State Dependent Momentum (SDM). Using the total return S&P 500 dataset starting in 1975, we estimate the parameters of each model on a yearly basis based on an expanding window, and then proceed to form, in a walk forward manner, an optimized combination of the four models using a return to risk optimization procedure. We find that a real-time optimized strategy of the aforementioned four market anomalies produced 9.10% annualized returns with 5.2% volatility and a Sharpe ratio of 0.84. This strategy exceeds the Sharpe ratio of Buy-and-Hold in the same period by more than 100%. Furthermore, the strategy also adds value to the previously published market-timing models of Hull and Qiao (2017) and Hull, Qiao, and Bakosova (2017). A simple strategy which combines all three models more than doubles the Sharpe ratio of Buy-and-Hold between 2003-2017. The combined strategy produces a Sharpe ratio of 1.26, with annualized returns of 18.07% and 13.26% volatility. We publish conclusions from the seasonal trend and anomaly model in our Daily Report.


Forty years after the defeat of Nazism, and twenty years after the great wave of decolonization, how is it that racism remains a growing phenomenon? What are the special characteristics of contemporary racism? How can it be related to class divisions and to the contradictions of the nation-state? And how far, in turn, does racism today compel us to rethink the relationship between class struggles and nationalism? This book attempts to answer these fundamental questions through a remarkable dialogue between the French philosopher Etienne Balibar and the American historian and sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein. Each brings to the debate the fruits of over two decades of analytical work, greatly inspired, respectively, by Louis Althusser and Fernand Braudel. Both authors challenge the commonly held notion of racism as a continuation of, or throwback to, the xenophobias of past societies and communities. They analyse it instead as a social relation indissolubly tied to present social structures - the nation-state, the division of labour, and the division between core and periphery - which are themselves constantly being reconstructed. Despite their productive disagreements, Balibar and Wallerstein both emphasize the modernity of racism and the need to understand its relation to contemporary capitalism and class struggle. Above all, their dialogue reveals the forms of present and future social conflict, in a world where the crisis of the nation-state is accompanied by an alarming rise of nationalism and chauvinism.


This study examines the relationship between whether a CEO is foreign-born or female and a series of organizational outcomes, including LGBT-friendly human resources policies and firm financial performance. For the empirical analysis I use a rich longitudinal data on the companies that are listed in Fortune 500 list and have scored on corporate equality index list over a 10-year period. Corporate equality index is used as proxy for LGBT-friendly human resources policies, ROA and Tobin's Q are used as proxies for firm financial performance. The empirical analysis applies ordinary least square regressions and fixed effects regressions. I find a positive correlation between foreign-born CEOs/female CEOs and firm's corporate equality index score. This association disappears, however, once I control for unobserved firm-specific characteristics. I further find that the interaction between female CEOs and organization's mimetic behavior is contribute to the advancement of LGBT-friendly human resources policies. In addition to LGBT-friendly human resources policies, my findings suggest that being a foreign-born CEO or not is positively correlated to firm's Tobin's Q, the positive correlation disappears after controlling for firm fixed effects. In my sample, I don't observe a significant positive correlation between female CEOs and firm performance. Finally, my findings suggest that the interaction between foreign-born CEOs and firm internationalization strategy has significant positive effect on firm's ROA.


Breeder herd productivity can be severely reduced by dietary phosphorus (P) deficiency. The performance of small groups of P-deficient (Pdefic) or P-supplemented (Psupp) breeder cows was studied over 5 annual cycles while grazing C4 grass-Stylosanthes pastures at a site in the seasonally dry tropics of northern Australia. Soils contained c. 4 ppm of bicarbonate extractable P. Plasma inorganic P concentrations (PIP) during the wet season indicated that the Pdefic cows were deficient in P in 4 years and marginal in one year. Annual liveweight (LW) changes ranged widely between annual cycles from −71 to +13 kg in Pdefic cows and from +4 to +44 kg/head in Psupp cows. The LW responses to increased dietary P ranged from −9 to +115 kg, were greatest in years when LW losses by the Pdefic cows were greatest, and were associated with low-rainfall years. LW gains of calves suckling Psupp cows (mean 0.86 kg/d) tended to be higher (range 0.01–0.17 kg/d; mean 0.09 kg/d) than those of calves suckling Pdefic cows, but were significantly (P = 0.03) higher in only one year. Reconception appeared to be higher in Psupp than Pdefic cows during the 2 years of lower rainfall. Overall, the results indicated that responses to P supplementation by breeders grazing P-deficient pastures can vary widely between years. Therefore, the response in any one year may not reliably indicate responses in the longer term.


Scholars have analyzed newspaper stories, editorials and photographs.1 Yet, very few studies, by contrast, exist about advertisements in this important medium.2 The image of women in advertising is also a topic of frequent academic investigations. Most studies of this nature examine magazine ads and a few analyze television commercials. Newspaper ads are again neglected in this line of research.3 To study the image of women in mass media, the inclusion of newspaper movie ads is important for two reasons. First, in a culture generally criticized for portraying females as objects of demeaning "entertainment," movies are likely to reflect this phenomenon.4 Such bias is likely to appear in movie ads. Second, newspaper advertising is a critical medium in mass communication. Many people scan newspaper movie ads to study the genre, stars, plots, show times and locations to decide which movie to see. Because movie ads in newspapers are seen by a great number of people, whether these readers end up in the movie theater, such ads are worth studying. The feminist movement's impact on gender roles in films and whether newspaper ads faithfully reElect the content of movies that they promote are important topics for academic research, but they are beyond the scope of the present study. The present research only focuses on newspaper movie ads. The Feminist Movement and the Present Study The present study aims to understand whether gender roles portrayed in movie advertisements in newspapers have changed to parallel the feminist movement. Movie ads in 1963 and 1993 were chosen because of their association with two milestones in the feminist movement. The year 1963 was significant because of the publication of a landmark book, The Feminist Mystique.5 The movement reached a peak of "mass mobilization" around 1970 and continued into the 1980s. When a large number of women ran for political office in 1992, it was proclaimed as the "Year of Women."6 This suggests another peak in this movement and indicates that the status of women has been advanced in society. If the movement had an impact on the entertainment industry, newspaper movie ads in 1993, a year after a milestone in the movement, should reflect such an influence. The key concerns of the feminist movement include job equality in terms of opportunity and compensation, division of labor within the home, and portrayal of women as sex objects whose primary function is to attract the opposite sex.7 These concerns can be summed up with one phrase--equality between men and women in all aspects. Accordingly, the present study examines the changes of gender roles in the number of appearances, dominance and aggression and treatment as sex objects. Ageism against women, especially female actors, is also of interest.8 Specific guidelines for analysis, such as the quantity of representation, the scale of sexism, dominance, function ranking, aggression and definition of sex objects, were adopted from frequently cited studies.9 Research Questions The present study seeks to answer the following research questions. RQ1: Does the number of female figures increase over time? RQ2: Do movie ads continue to show male dominance over time? RQ3: Does the treatment of females10 as sex objects decrease over time? Method One constructed week was created for 1963 and 1993 to provide a "before-after" comparison. The sample was randomly selected and then adjusted (one date was substituted) in order to cover both the summer and Christmas seasons because Hollywood traditionally releases a majority of its movies during both time periods.11 The Los Angeles Times was chosen because Los Angeles is the "home" of Hollywood movies as well as a metro area with a large movie audience. In addition, movies that did not appear tobe released nationally were excluded from the analysis. Advertisements for the same film were coded once unless they were very different from each other. …


Milk from dairy cows never known to have had an intramammary infection with Streptococcus uberis can inhibit growth of Str. uberis for up to 7 h. This inhibition is abolished if milk is heated to 80 degrees C. Inhibition appears not to be related to immune defences as it occurs in skimmed milk (cell free), is unrelated to the concentration of immunoglobulin and survives heating to 56 degrees C. The effect is partly overcome by addition of selected amino acids and vitamins. It is suggested that the inhibition is caused by a restriction in the supply of essential nutrients part of which may require the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin.


Objective: To study the incidence and nature of injuries at European Championships, to compare training and match injury characteristics and to study differences in injury incidence between tournaments. Design: Team physicians prospectively recorded individual player exposure and time loss injuries during 12 European Championships (men's EURO n = 1, men's Under-21 n = 2, men's Under-19 n = 3, men's Under-17 n = 3, women's Under-19 n = 3) from 2006 to 2008. Setting: International football tournaments Participants: 1594 men and 433 women Main outcome measurement: Injury incidence Results: 224 injuries (45 training, 179 match play) were registered among 208 (10%) players. No differences in training injury incidence were seen between tournaments (range 1.3–3.9 injuries/1000 hours). The men's EURO had the highest match injury incidence (41.6 injuries/1000 hours) followed by the men's Under-21 tournaments (33.9). The lowest match injury incidence was seen in the women's Under-19 tournaments (20.5). Training injuries constituted 20% of all injuries and caused 26% of all match unavailability. A greater proportion of match injuries were due to trauma (83 vs 47%, p<0.001) and occurred from player contact (75 vs 48%, p = 0.018) compared to training injuries. A higher frequency of re-injury was found among training injuries than match injuries (20 vs 6%, p = 0.009). Conclusions: Match injury incidence increased with age, indicating greater risk with higher intensity of play. Training injury incidence was relatively low, but training injuries were responsible for a quarter of all match unavailability and may thus have a profound impact on team performance and should be the object of preventive measures.


Spatial patterns of tropical rainfall are strongly influenced by mountains. Although theories for precipitation induced by convectively stable upslope ascent exist for the midlatitudes, these do not represent the interaction of moist convection with orographic forcing. Here, we present a theory for convective precipitation produced by the mechanical interaction of a tropical ridge with a basic-state horizontal wind. Deviations from this basic state are represented as the sum of a "dry" perturbation, due to the stationary orographic gravity wave, and a "moist" perturbation that carries the convective response. The moist component dynamics are subject to the weak temperature gradient approximation; they are forced by the dry mode's influence on lower-tropospheric moisture and temperature. Analytical solutions provide estimates of the precipitation distribution, including peak precipitation, upstream extent, and rain shadow extent. The theory can be used with several degrees of complexity depending on the technique used to compute the dry mode, which can be drawn from linear mountain wave theory or full numerical simulations. To evaluate the theory, we use a set of convection-permitting simulations with a flow-perpendicular ridge in a long channel. The theory makes a good prediction for the cross-slope precipitation profile, indicating that the organization of convective rain by orography can be quantitatively understood by considering the effect of stationary orographic gravity waves on a lower-tropospheric convective quasi-equilibrium state.


disruptive effects on human health. Airborne microparticles are confirmed vectors for various pulmonary and cardiovascular conditions as well as adverse genotoxic and cytotoxic effects. Endocrine disruptors are especially detrimental since they selectively interfere with the sex hormone functions of the host organism and can potentially disrupt ecosystems by hindering reproduction in affected species. Despite the fact that there are numerous studies assessing the cytotoxic effects of airborne microparticulate matter, there is a clear deficiency of conclusive data and topical research assessing the genotoxic effects of microparticles on organisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of microparticulate exposure in an urbanized setting in order to assess whether anthropogenic causes are producing detrimentally quantifiable genotoxic effects and possibly endocrine disruption. Drosophila melanogaster was used as a model test subject to analyze for survivorship, induced genotoxicity, and distorted sex ratios across generations. Samples of microparticulate matter were collected from four locations of varying degrees of urbanization and incorporated into the parental generation and observed over two generations. Microparticulate exposure did in fact have an observable generational selection effect on D. melanogaster. We also observed distorted sex ratios in the F1 generation; however, endocrine disruption was not attributable to exposure. Based on a comet assay, we found clear indications that genotoxic damage was linked to the extent of microparticulate exposure. fAhIM kABIR School of Biology Georgia Institute of Technology


The limited durability of clear coatings is a major issue for the coating and wood industry. The addition of organic UV absorbers improves coating resistance by the absorption and the conversion of the UV radiation into harmless heat. Organic UVAs are prone to degradation and can migrate in the binder of coatings. In this study, commercial UVAs and HALS have been entrapped into CaCO3 templates coated with stimuli responsive polymers. Microspheres were incorporated into a clear acrylic water-based coating formulation. The formulation was applied on glass and wood panels and was placed into an artificial UV chamber. This study presents a comparison between the aesthetic behavior of coating formulations with free and encapsulated commercial UVAs and HALS during the accelerated ageing test. Encapsulation of UVAs was confirmed by XPS and TGA analysis. Results have shown that the coating's aesthetic was slightly improved when using the encapsulated products.


In homogeneous spark-ignition (SI) engines, ignition timing is used to control the combustion phasing (crank angle of fifty percent of fuel burned, CA50), which affects fuel economy, engine torque output, and emissions. This paper presents a model-based adaptive ignition timing prediction strategy using a control-oriented dynamic combustion model for real-time closed-loop combustion phasing control. The combustion model predicts the burn duration from ignition timing to CA50 (ΔθIGN-CA50) at Intake Valve Closing (IVC) for the upcoming cycle based on current engine operating conditions, including variable valve timing, predicted ignition timing, air-fuel ratio, engine speed, and engine load. To maintain the accuracy of combustion model and ignition timing prediction during the engine lifetime, a Recursive-Least-Square (RLS) with Variable Forgetting Factor (VFF) based adaptation algorithm is developed to handle both short term (operating-point-dependent) and long term (engine aging) model errors. Due to short term model errors and stochastic characteristics of cycle-to-cycle combustion variations, large model errors may occur during severe transient operating conditions (tip-in/tip-out), which can result in wrong adjustments and excessive adaptations. Since on-road SI engines are always operating in transient conditions, the 'Heavy Transient Detection' algorithm is developed to avoid fault adaptation and assist the adaptation algorithm to be stable. On-road vehicle testing data is used to evaluate the performance of the entire model-based adaptive burn duration and ignition timing prediction algorithm. With only 64 calibration points, a mean ignition timing prediction error of 0.2 Crank Angle Degree (CAD) and average iteration number of 2 shows the capability of adaptive ignition timing prediction, a significant reduction of calibration efforts, and potential of real-time application of the developed adaptive ignition timing prediction algorithm.


Context. Most organizations are aware of the significance of software measurement programs to help organizations assess and improve the ways they develop software. Measurement plays a vital role in improving software process and products. However, the number of failing measurement programs is high and the reasons are vary. A recent approach for planning measurement programs is GQM+Strategies, which makes an important extension to existing approaches, it links measurements and improvement activities to strategic goals and ways to achieve this goals. However, concrete guides of how to collect the information needed to use GQM+strategies is not provided in the literature yet. Objectives. The contribution of this research is to propose and assess an elicitation approach (The Goal Strategy Elicitation (GSE) approach) for the information needed to apply GQM+strategies in an organization, which also leads to a partial evaluation of GQM+strategies as such. In this thesis, the initial focus is placed on eliciting the goals and strategies in the most efficient way. Methods. The primary research approach used is action research, which allows to flexibly assess a new method or technique in an iterative manner, where the feedback of one iteration is taken into the next iteration, thus improving on the method or technique proposed. Complementary to that, we used literature review with the primary focus to position the work, explore GQM+strategies, and to determine which elicitation approach for the support of measurement programs have been proposed. Results. The Goal Strategy Elicitation (GSE) approach as a tool for eliciting goals and strategies within the software organization to contribute in planning a measurement program has been developed. The iterations showed that the approach of elicitation may not be too structured (e.g. template/notation based), but rather shall support the stakeholders to express their thoughts relatively freely. Hence, the end-result was an interview guide, not based on notations (as in the first iteration), and asking questions in a way that the interviewees are able to express themselves easily without having to e.g. distinguish definitions for goals and strategies. Conclusions. We conclude that the GSE approach is a strong tool for the software organization to be able to elicit the goals and strategies to support GQM+Strategies. GSE approach evolved in each iteration and the latest iteration together with the guideline is still used within the studied company for eliciting goals and strategies, and the organization acknowledged that they will continue to do so. Moreover, we conclude that there is a need for further empirical validation of the GSE approach in further full-scale industry trials.


This document summarizes the work of the Accelerator Working Group (AWG) of the International Scoping Study (ISS) of a Future Neutrino Factory and Superbeam Facility. The main goal of the activity was to reach consensus on a baseline design for a Neutrino Factory complex, including proton driver parameters, choice of target, front-end design, acceleration system design, and decay ring geometry. Another goal was to explore the commonality, if any, between the proton driver for a Neutrino Factory and those for a Superbeam or Beta Beam facility. In general, the requirements for either of the latter facilities are less stringent than those for a Neutrino Factory. Here, we discuss concepts, parameters, and expected performance of the required subsystems for our chosen baseline design of a Neutrino Factory. We also give an indication of the main R&D tasks — many of which are already under way — that must be carried out to finalize facility design approaches.


Background: As individuals progress through the life cycle, they receive income and consume goods and services. The age schedules of labor income, consumption, and life cycle deficit reflect the economic roles played at different ages. Lifetime accumulation of economic variables has been less well studied, and our goal here is to rectify that. Objective: To derive and apply a method to compute the lifetime accumulated labor income, consumption, and life cycle deficit, and to go beyond the calculation of mean lifetime accumulation to calculate statistics of variability among individuals in lifetime accumulation. Methods: To quantify variation among individuals, we calculate the mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, and skewness of lifetime accumulated transfers, using the theory of Markov chains with rewards (Caswell 2011), applied to National Transfer Account data for Germany of 1978, and 2003. Results: The age patterns of lifetime accumulated labor income are relatively stable over time. Both the mean and the standard deviation of remaining lifetime labor income decline with age; the coefficient of variation, measuring variation relative to the mean, increases dramatically with age. The skewness becomes large and positive at older ages. Education level affects all the statistics. About 30% of the variance in lifetime income is due to variance in age-specific income, and about 70% is contributed by the mortality schedule. Lifetime consumption is less variable (as measured by the CV) than lifetime labor income. Conclusions: We conclude that demographic Markov chains with rewards can add a potentially valuable perspective to studies of the economic lifecycle. The variation among individuals in lifetime accumulations in our results reflects individual stochasticity, not heterogeneity among individuals. Incorporating heterogeneity remains an important problem.


Present paper is an effort to build an energy efficient mechanism which can preserve the privacy of the location of base station and the source nodes so that the adversary cannot take down these nodes. Core functionality of WSN includes routing of the sensed data through predetermined optimized routes to the base station thus producing pronounced traffic near the sink node adding up to the revelation of either location of direction of location of base station. To overcome this revelation of base station the traffic patterns may be disguised by introducing fake packets to the generated traffic of original data. Many anti traffic analysis strategies have been proposed and implements with the objective of attaining traffic uniformity in network. But the inclusion of fake packets adds up communication overhead in the network as a whole. Hence the problem undertaken in the current research effort is to optimize the energy consumption at the node level for fake packet generation.


Network intrusion detection system is used to inspect packet contents against thousands of predefined malicious or suspicious patterns. Because traditional software alone pattern matching approaches can no longer meet the high throughput of today's networking, many hardware approaches are proposed to accelerate pattern matching. Among hardware approaches, memory-based architecture has attracted a lot of attention because of its easy reconfigurability and scalability. In order to accommodate the increasing number of attack patterns and meet the throughput requirement of networks, a successful network intrusion detection system must have a memoryefficient patternmatching algorithm and hardware design. In this paper, we propose a memory-efficient patternmatching algorithm which can significantly reduce the memory requirement. For Snort rule sets, the new algorithm achieves 21% of memory reduction compared with the traditional Aho–Corasick algorithm. In addition, we can gain 24% of memory reduction by integrating our approach to the bit-split algorithm which is the state-ofthe-art memory-based approach.


The orientation of crystals in ice, the fabric, influences the flow of ice masses because of the anisotropic properties of a single ice crystals.Only ice cores provide direct means to determine the evolution of the fabric with depth.This information is however limited to a single location.Geophysical methods like radar and seismic are also sensitive to fabric orientation, as dielectric and acoustic properties are also anisotropic.Evidence is presented that it is possible to detect and map changes in fabric orientation with these methods, if they occur over short distances in depth, i.e. fast changes.A study at Colle Gnifetti, Valais Alps, is laid out that utilizes two closely-neighboured existing boreholes, an ice core, and the combination of geophysical techniques to investigate the possiblity to detect fast fabric changes remotely from the glacier surface.


Light quality can influence the photosynthetic characteristics, morphology and physiological processes of plants. To investigate the effects of different light qualities (white light, W; red light, R; blue light, B; mixture of red and blue light, RB) of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and white cold fluorescent lamp on the growth and morphology of fruiting mulberry plants (Morus alba L. cv. 'Longsang No.1'), fruiting mulberry plants were grown under different light qualities: W, R, B and RB of the same photosynthetic photo flux density (PPFD; 100 I¼mol m-2 s-1) for 20 d. Our results showed that stem length and leaf area of plants grown under R were the highest. However, stem length and leaf area of plants grown under B were lowest. Dry weights (DW), leaf mass per area (LMA), chlorophyll a/b ratio, soluble protein content, sucrose and starch content, and total leaf nitrogen (N) content of plants grown under R were the lowest. Net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), and actual photochemical efficiency of PSII (I¦PSII) of plants grown under RB were similar to plants grown under W. Net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and I¦PSII of plants grown under R and B were lower than plants grown under W and RB. Antioxidant enzymes activity of plants grown under R, RB and B were higher than plants grown under W. The number of leaf stomata, leaf thickness, palisade tissue length and spongy tissue length were the lowest in plants grown under R. The number of leaf stomata, leaf thickness and palisade tissue length of plants grown under RB and B were higher than plants grown under R. The results of this study indicate that a certain ratio of mixed red and blue LEDs light can reduce adverse effects of monochromatic red and blue LEDs light on fruiting mulberry growth and development.


We study the impact of the environment on the evolution of galaxies in the zCOSMOS 10 k sample in the redshift range 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 1.0 over an area of ~1.5 deg^2. The considered sample of secure spectroscopic redshifts contains about 8500 galaxies, with their stellar masses estimated by SED fitting of the multiwavelength optical to near-infrared (NIR) photometry. The evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) in high and low density regions provides a tool to study the mass assembly evolution in different environments; moreover, the contributions to the GSMF from different galaxy types, as defined by their SEDs and their morphologies, can be quantified. At redshift z ~ 1, the GSMF is only slightly dependent on environment, but at lower redshifts the shapes of the GSMFs in high- and low-density environments become extremely different, with high density regions exhibiting a marked bimodality, not reproducible by a single Schechter function. As a result of this analysis, we infer that galaxy evolution depends on both the stellar mass and the environment, the latter setting the probability of a galaxy to have a given mass: all the galaxy properties related to the stellar mass show a dependence on environment, reflecting the difference observed in the mass functions. The shapes of the GSMFs of early- and late-type galaxies are almost identical for the extremes of the density contrast we consider, ranging from isolated galaxies to rich group members. The evolution toward z = 0 of the transition mass M_(cross), i.e., the mass at which the early- and late-type GSMFs match each other, is more rapid in high density environments, because of a difference in the evolution of the normalisation of GSMFs compared to the total one in the considered environment. The same result is found by studying the relative contributions of different galaxy types, implying that there is a more rapid evolution in overdense regions, in particular for intermediate stellar masses. The rate of evolution is different for sets of galaxy types divided on the basis of their SEDs or their morphologies, tentatively suggesting that the migration from the blue cloud to the red sequence occurs on a shorter timescale than the transformation from disc-like morphologies to ellipticals. Our analysis suggests that environmental mechanisms of galaxy transformation start to be more effective at z < 1. The comparison of the observed GSMFs to the same quantities derived from a set of mock catalogues based on semi-analytical models shows disagreement, in both low and high density environments: in particular, blue galaxies in sparse environments are overproduced in the semi-analytical models at intermediate and high masses, because of a deficit of star formation suppression, while at z < 0.5 an excess of red galaxies is present in dense environments at intermediate and low masses, because of the overquenching of satellites.


The performance of a class of wave-power devices is studied theoretically by generalizing the known theory of ship dynamics with which there is good agreement with experiment. The extensions to the existing theory introduce the new features of asymmetry and articulation common to many proposed wave energy convertors. Results are presented for two different devices and a comparison is made between them. The performance calculations correlate very well with available experimental evidence and moreover it would appear that the two types of device considered in this paper are comparable in their potential operating efficiencies if appropriate scales are chosen. The Salter duck and a two-pontoon system, semi-elliptical in cross section and hinged at its centre, constrained to move only in the mode in which energy is absorbed, appear to be equivalent. Both structures are designed such that when forced to move in their absorbing mode they generate waves in one preferred direction, the pontoon design relying on the use of a shallow horizontal breakwater in the rear of the moving structure whereas Salter has used a shorter deeper structure which looks almost cylindrical. When optimally loaded with a simple velocity-proportional damping applied externally, the performance of each system looks almost identical, with the pontoon being slightly better at the low frequency end. This parity is interesting and more general systems where the structures are free to move in many degrees of freedom must be examined. The reasons for this are apparent from calculated sea efficiencies of the devices. For the duck with a fixed centre and reactive loading, a 10 m diameter device may achieve an excellent performance over typical sea states, but if simple (velocity proportional) loading is used the diameter must increase to 15 m to give a comparable performance. If, however, the structure is free to move in other modes of motion with the same simple loading, then to achieve similar performance characteristics the structure has to be 30 m in diameter. Similar effects are found for the pontoon. Whereas an 80 m long two-pontoon system with a fixed rear section and simple loading will match to the sea conditions very well, a freely floating system with the same loading would need to be 120 m long to achieve a reasonable performance.


AIM
Although patterns are emerging for macroorganisms, we have limited understanding of the factors determining soil microbial community composition and productivity at large spatial extents. The overall objective of this study was to discern the drivers of microbial community composition at the extent of biogeographical provinces and regions. We hypothesized that factors associated with land use and climate would drive soil microbial community composition and biomass.

LOCATION
Great Basin Province, Desert Province and California Floristic Province, California, USA.

METHODS
Using phospholipid fatty acid analysis, we compared microbial communities across eight land-use types sampled throughout the State of California, USA (n = 1117).

RESULTS
The main factor driving composition and microbial biomass was land-use type, especially as related to water availability and disturbance. Dry soils were more enriched in Gram-negative bacteria and fungi, and wetter soils were more enriched in Gram-positive, anaerobic and sulphate-reducing bacteria. Microbial biomass was lowest in ecosystems with the wettest and driest soils. Disturbed soils had less fungal and more Gram-positive bacterial biomass than wildland soils. However, some factors known to influence microbial communities, such as soil pH and specific plant taxa, were not important here.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS
Distinct microbial communities were associated with land-use types and disturbance at the regional extent. Overall, soil water availability was an important determinant of soil microbial community composition. However, because of the inclusion of managed and irrigated agricultural ecosystems, the effect of precipitation was not significant. Effects of environmental and management factors, such as flooding, tillage and irrigation, suggest that agricultural management can have larger effects on soil microbial communities than elevation and precipitation gradients.


Background/Context Drawing from critical theory and new literacies studies, the article examines the design and production of museum literacies—broadly conceived to comprise reading spaces and objects, including language texts—and how these practices can be read in terms of political, social, historical, and economic relations. Because museums house and create texts that mirror various and sometimes conflicting cultural values, museum literacies can be revealing for education research and practice. For these purposes, Bonfil Batalla's concepts of México profundo and México imaginario are explained and used to show how identities and power relations are embedded in the literacies of three Mexican museums. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The research goals were: (a) to investigate the literacies of three emblematic museums in Mexico City with diverse content (science, popular culture, and archeology), (b) to explore how museum exhibition designs and missions are related to identity and power relations, and (c) to examine from the perspective of museum designers how literacies are used, transformed, and resisted. These goals framed two research questions: (1) How might the design and production of museum literacies influence formations of identities? (2) How were museum literacies used, transformed, or resisted? Research Design In this qualitative research, three expert museum exhibit designers were extensively interviewed. These data were supported by visitor surveys, observations in and surrounding the museums, and artifacts collected using ethnographic tools during a one-year period. Data analyses were conducted in four phases following notions of hybridity that framed the research, proceeding with a cross-examination of the respective analyses produced by the two researchers, which share commonalities with the design and production of museum literacies. Conclusions The museum literacies of this investigation have implications for educators and researchers, especially those who work with Mexican migrant communities. If educators and education researchers want to connect with these communities, it is critical for them to better understand México profundo traditions that are very much part of these migrants' everyday lives. As shown in the present study, literacies of Mexico City museums provide such opportunities. Exhibit designers presented indigenous Mexican heritage perspectives; however, those views were sometimes taken up by political networks to make use of identity constructs in attempts to hold and maintain power. Nonetheless, findings suggest that museums can be used as sites of resistance to imposed identities.