Fluorescent calcium indicators are a popular means for observing the spiking activity of large neuronal populations. Unfortunately, extracting the spike train of each neuron from raw fluorescence calcium imaging data is a nontrivial problem. We present a fast online active set method to solve this sparse nonnegative deconvolution problem. Importantly, the algorithm progresses through each time series sequentially from beginning to end, thus enabling real-time online spike inference during the imaging session. Our algorithm is a generalization of the pool adjacent violators algorithm (PAVA) for isotonic regression and inherits its linear-time computational complexity. We gain remarkable increases in processing speed: more than one order of magnitude compared to currently employed state of the art convex solvers relying on interior point methods. Our method can exploit warm starts; therefore optimizing model hyperparameters only requires a handful of passes through the data. The algorithm enables real-time simultaneous deconvolution of $O(10^5)$ traces of whole-brain zebrafish imaging data on a laptop.


The long-term productivity of short-rotation plantation eucalypts and acacias in Asia requires ongoing investment in the biology of current and new genetics and constraints that climate change may impose. Understanding site fertility constraints has the potential to further lift productivity through precision application of inorganic fertilizers, management of beneficial bacteria and fungi and appropriate slash management. It remains a concern that nutrient disorders, especially micronutrients, which could be easily corrected in acid soils, are still being widely reported in the region. The low genetic diversity in many plantations heightens the risk of productivity loss due to incursions of pathogens and pests. In the past decade, a number of new biotic eucalypt threats have appeared within the region and are rapidly spreading. No plantation estate can be considered to be risk-free from such incursions. Furthermore, abiotic stresses (e.g. water, nutrients) are likely to exacerbate damage from biotic agents. With climate change, plantations established on marginal lands and sites with poor soils are likely to experience stresses that are more frequent and a more diverse group of stress agents than those in areas that are more resilient to climate change. Future breeding programs should include selection for tolerance to key abiotic and biotic stress agents that have the highest risk to plantation productivity.


Cool-temperate rainforest occurs widely within south-west and western Tasmania, where it occurs interspersed with buttongrass moorlands. Rainforest is considered to be a climax vegetation, capable of regenerating in the absence of a major disturbance event, such as fire. Rainforest is also considered to be a fire sensitive community, as many rainforest species are incapable of surviving a fire event. Although fire in rainforest is rare, large rainforest fires have occurred in the past. These fire events are likely to increase with future climate change, which may result in a substantial loss of rainforest communities. It is important to understand the conditions under which fire will sustain and spread within rainforest as this will aid in protective measures, such as hazard-reduction burning, and the allocation of resources during a wildfire.
In this study, I ask, under what conditions it would be likely that a fire would sustain and spread within rainforest. In order to do this the flammability and microclimate of a callidendrous rainforest, implicate rainforest and deciduous beech montane rainforest were characterised. The canopy structure and rainfall distribution of the callidendrous rainforest were also examined. There was very little difference in the flammability of live leaf and litter components between the three rainforest communities and adjacent fire tolerant communities, with the exception of the bark component from a Eucalyptus coccifera woodland. Callidendrous and implicate rainforests were cooler, more humid and less windy than adjacent open areas. There was very little difference in temperature and vapour pressure deficit between the deciduous beech forest and the adjacent open area. The distribution of rainfall within a callidendrous rainforest was found to be heterogeneous. Two millimetres of rain was required to saturate the rainforest canopy. On average, 20% of rainfall was intercepted.
The Soil Dryness Index (SDI) is a tool used by fire managers to provide an indication of drought conditions and is also a component of the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) in Tasmania. Many fire managers believe that the SDI does not perform effectively in south-west and western Tasmania. As a result, the performance of the SDI was looked at in this region, by examining the canopy intercept factor used to calculate rainforest and the relative performance of the SDI between mineral and organic soils. It was found that the canopy intercept factor designated for rainforest within the SDI performed well, and the SDI for rainforest could not be improved by using the canopy intercept rule determined for callidendrous rainforest earlier in this study. It was also found that there was no difference in the way the SDI performed between mineral and organic soils. It was therefore thought that the observed poor performance of the SDI in south-west and western Tasmania is likely to be the result of a poor representation of weather stations in a topographically complex environment.
Twelve historical fires that either burned into, or stopped at rainforest boundaries, were examined. The rainfall in the past 10, 20, 30, 60, 100 and 365 days, as well as SDI, Drought Factor, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and FFDI were determined for each fire to establish the best predictor of rainforest fire. It was found that the drought related variables were more important in predicting rainforest fire than the weather variables, with rainfall in the last 30 days above or below 50 mm being the most significant predictor of rainforest fire.


The thesis analyses the 'debate on the spirit of the humanities' (renwen jingshen taolun 人文精神討論), which involved a large number of humanist scholars in mainland China between 1993 and 1995. The interpretation of the content and focus of this debate in Chinese, English, and French scholarly works varies greatly. For some, it was an elitist reaction to the rapid rise of commercialised mass culture in the country. Others contend that the central issue at stake was the self-repositioning of intellectuals in society after 1989.
This thesis adopts a new approach to the analysis of Chinese intellectual discourse. First of all, it focuses on a single, large-scale debate within a defined time frame. It primarily relies on in-depth, critical analysis of a large number of texts in order to support an original interpretation of the debate, as well as to prove its historic significance. Secondly, it elaborates on the 'keywords approach' to present and organise the findings of this analysis. Thirdly, this work integrates a focus on discourse with insights from a range of disciplines, including history, human geography, and sociology, thus providing a multi-faceted and original 'contextualisation' of the debate which is firmly grounded in the language of the debate itself. Finally, it links its topic with other concurrent debates, as well as with intellectual trends that preceded or followed the 1993-1995 time frame.
Analyses and references to the debate can be found in a number of works encompassing fields as different as literary history and elite politics, but no article or volume has been entirely dedicated to the renwen jingshen debate in English. Furthermore, critiques of the debate in the literature mostly cover a narrow selection of texts and fall short of engaging in dialogue with other existing interpretations. The great significance of the renwen jingshen debate is also widely acknowledged. In fact, the number of participants, the wide array of topics covered, and the impressive number of contributions (more than a hundred) are not the only reasons to regard it as one of the most important intellectual events of the Nineties. Even more importantly, the debate brought the reflection of China's intellectuals about their role as academics, citizens, and mentors to the state to an unprecedented depth since 1949. This work argues that some of the questions raised in the debate - questions which are either ignored or dismissed in most of the literature - can shed new light on post-1989 intellectual life and challenge recent interpretations of modern Chinese critical inquiry, in particular those focussing on nationalism and "nation saving' as its defining concern (e.g. Davies 2007).
While the renwen jingshen debate often revolved around judgements and anxieties over the consequences of market reforms on cultural life, this work identifies an undertow that runs deeper than concerns about cultural production and political stances. Based on textual evidence, the thesis interprets the debate as a mutual critique among Chinese humanists on the ethical and theoretical foundations of their own work.
This study combines the analysis of the debate's textual substance with a multidisciplinary discussion of its context. First of all, it provides a wide picture of the time and place in which the debate originated and evolved. In particular, it focuses on political and urban change in Shanghai (i.e. the city where the debate originated) in the early Nineties. Secondly, it profiles a group of influential, yet little-known intellectual figures of the Shanghai-based intelligentsia, such as Wang Xiaomingc��ae��ae��, Chen Sihee�³ae��a�� and Zhang Ruluna¼µae±�a�«, as well as Guangzhou-based Yuan Weishie¢�a��ae��. Interviews to these key participants will add a most valuable layer of complexity to both the analysis and the contextualisation of the debate. Thirdly, it introduces the journals and reviews where the articles originally appeared (e.g. Shanghai wenxue a¸�aeµ·ae��a¸, Dongfang ae�±ae�¹, Wenhui bao ae��a�¯a ±, etc.) in a way which is relevant to the overall discussion.
This thesis aims at providing new insights on the language of intellectual debates in contemporary China. The relevance of its findings, however, will also extend to other contexts, such as literature, politics, sociology, and history. It examines the theoretical and political underpinnings of the diversification in cultural production and the profound divisions in cultural criticism which emerged during the Nineties. It adds much needed complexity to common understandings of intellectual and cultural nationalism in the Nineties and beyond. It also points at the historic significant of changes that affected not only the intellectuals as professionals and citizens, but the wider society since the beginning of the decade. When discussing these changes, it is imperative to be aware of how intellectuals in China have made sense of, and responded to them. As the social and cultural issues which elicited the debate, and the intellectual dilemma which it highlighted both remain unresolved, the renwen jingshen debate is certainly relevant for our discussions on China today.


This paper deals with Ag, ZnO and Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles embedded in chitosan (CS) matrix, prepared by hydrolysis of zinc acetate in isopropanol in the presence of lithium hydroxide (LiOH) in low temperature conditions. The nanoparticles embedded in the chitosan matrix were characterised by Xray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The antimicrobial activity of Ag/CS, ZnO/CS and Ag:ZnO/CS composites with respect to simple CS polymer was investigated by using the paper disc method on Mueller-Hinton agar without blood against the Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (S. Aureus) on Mueller-Hinton agar with blood. The nanocomposites materials showed good antimicrobial activity, that recommends them for applications in medical and food packaging fields.


Phenolic compounds are thought to be important to prevent neurodegenerative diseases (ND). Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder known for its typical motor features, the deposition of α-synuclein (αsyn)-positive inclusions in the brain, and for concomitant cellular pathologies that include oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Neuroprotective activity of fisetin, a dietary flavonoid, was evaluated against main hallmarks of PD in relevant cellular models. At physiologically relevant concentrations, fisetin protected SH-SY5Y cells against oxidative stress overtaken by tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) and against methyl-4-phenylpyridinuim (MPP+)-induced toxicity in dopaminergic neurons, the differentiated Lund human Mesencephalic (LUHMES) cells. In this cellular model, fisetin promotes the increase of the levels of dopamine transporter. Remarkably, fisetin reduced the percentage of cells containing αsyn inclusions as well as their size and subcellular localization in a yeast model of αsyn aggregation. Overall, our data show that fisetin exerts modulatory activities toward common cellular pathologies present in PD; remarkably, it modulates αsyn aggregation, supporting the idea that diets rich in this compound may prove beneficial.


For several basic optimization problems, it is NP-hard to find an exact solution. As a result, understanding the best possible trade-off between the running time of an algorithm and its approximation guarantee, is a fundamental question in theoretical computer science, and the central goal of the theory of approximation.
There are two aspects to the theory of approximation : (1) efficient approximation algorithms that establish trade-offs between approximation guarantee and running time, and (2) inapproximability results that give evidence against them. In this thesis, we contribute to both facets of the theory of approximation.
In the first part of this thesis, we present the first near-linear-time algorithm for Balanced Separator—given a graph, partition its vertices into two roughly equal parts without cutting too many edges—that achieves the best approximation guarantee possible for algorithms in its class. This is a classic graph partitioning problem and has deep connections to several areas of both theory and practice, such as metric embeddings, Markov chains, clustering, etc.
As an important subroutine for our algorithm for Balanced Separator, we provide a near-linear-time algorithm to simulate the heat-kernel random walk on a graph, equivalent to computing e-Lv, where L is the Laplacian of the graph, and v is a vector. This algorithm combines techniques from approximation theory and numerical linear algebra to reduce the problem of approximating the matrix exponential to solving a small number of Laplacian systems. We also give a reduction in the reverse direction, from matrix inversion to matrix exponentiation, hence justifying the use of Laplacian system solvers.
In the second part of this thesis, we prove inapproximability results for several basic optimization problems. We address some classic scheduling problems, viz. Concurrent Open Shop and the Assembly Line problem, and variants of the Hypergraph Vertex Cover problem. For all these problems, optimal inapproximability results were previously known under the Unique Games Conjecture. We are able to prove near-optimal inapproximability results for these problems without using the conjecture.


Spatial attention modulates responses of visual neurons at virtually all levels of cortical processing. Studies of attentional modulation of neural selectivity for stimulus properties like orientation and contrast have found that directing attention into a V4 receptive field (RF) alters neuronal gain. Little, however, is known about how attention affects the spatial structure of V4 RFs. Nor do we know how, or even if, attentional modulation is constrained to neurons with RFs within the attentional focus (AF). To address these questions we recorded from V4 neurons in monkeys performing a spatiotopic attention task where they responded to targets appearing at a cued location in space. On alternating blocks of trials, the attended location was either in the lower or upper visual field. One of three fixation points was chosen at random on each trial to control the spatial relationship between the RF and AF. Ignored low contrast probe stimuli were displayed in and around RFs during trials. Neuronal responses to probe stimuli were used to characterize the spatiotemporal RF. Over half of V4 neurons showed significant attentional modulation (attend-in vs -out), with 70% of neurons showing facilitation and 30% suppression. We observed both multiplicative and additive modulatory effects. Interestingly, the sign of these effects were often in opposite directions. About half of the attentionally modulated neurons were modulated only when the RF fell inside the AF, consistent with behavioral performance. The remaining neurons were modulated even when the RF was located more than one diameter outside the AF, suggesting that at the neuronal level attention can spread beyond the AF, as defined by enhanced behavioral performance. Consistent with proposed ventral stream contributions to spatiotopic processing, we found activity in >70% of the V4 neurons studied was also modulated by gaze angle position, reminiscent of dorsal stream gain fields. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


This paper discusses the experience of writing stories (kwentong bayan) or local narratives about a place and applying them to tourism packages. The stories were analyzed for themes and categories of culture elements from the research site in Sariaya, Quezon and were made part of community-based tourism packages aimed at students (identified as a target niche sector by the tourism council of Sariaya). These themes included the following: "religiosity of the Sariayahins", "historicizing the present and living the past", "spirit of community" and "gender, status and power relations". The insights of the article explain the project team's understanding of tourism as an activity that goes beyond merely visiting a place, so that it is also a meaningful experience for both locals and visitors (this was validated, for example, through out-of-classroom activities by UP students participating in homestay programs in Sariaya). Through the sharing of specific narratives and of 'thick descriptions' that expose diverse reflections on the particularities, nuances and contradictions of Sariaya culture and society, as articulated in written kwentong bayan by a local tourism volunteer and by researchers for the purposes of this paper, it is apparent that visitors can engage more closely with local reality and tourism can be an enriching and empowering experience for both insiders and outsiders.


Since its inception, MapReduce has frequently been associated with Hadoop and large-scale datasets. Its deployment at Amazon in the cloud, and its applications at Yahoo! and Face book for large-scale distributed document indexing and database building, among other tasks, have thrust MapReduce to the forefront of the data processing application domain. The applicability of the paradigm however extends far beyond its use with data intensive applications and disk based systems, and can also be brought to bear in processing small but CPU intensive distributed applications. In this work, we focus both on the performance of processing large-scale hierarchical data in distributed scientific applications, as well as the processing of smaller but demanding input sizes primarily used in diskless, and memory resident I/O systems. In this paper, we present LEMO-MR (Low overhead, Elastic, configurable for in-Memory applications, and on-Demand fault tolerance), an optimized implementation of MapReduce, for both on-disk and in-memory applications, describe its architecture and identify not only the necessary components of this model, but also trade offs and factors to be considered. We show the efficacy of our implementation in terms of potential speedup that can be achieved for representative data sets used by cloud applications. Finally, we quantify the performance gains exhibited by our MapReduce implementation over Apache Hadoop in a compute intensive environment.


Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are tailor-made synthetic receptors capable of specifically recognizing a target molecule. They are synthesized by polymerization of a complex between functional monomers and a template molecule in the presence of cross-linkers. After polymerization and removal of the template molecule, the cross-linked polymer network contains cavities that are complementary to the template in terms of size, shape, and position of functional groups, allowing the polymer to bind target analytes with high affinity and specificity. The work reported in this thesis is focused on the development of MIP-based holographic sensors, a novel group of optical sensors in which MIPs is used as recognition element, and the holographic element is built into it and used as an optical transducer. Label-free binding assays performed with holographic sensors showed the optical signal being specifically modified upon incubation in testosterone solutions. This is due to structural modifications that occur in the MIP matrix upon analyte binding, which consequently give rise to structural changes. Testosterone concentrations as low as 1 µM could thus be detected. The combination of holographic transducers with MIPs as synthetic recognition elements has the potential to give rise to inexpensive general sensing devices that can be adapted to, and used in, a broad range of sensing tasks, without the need of labeling the analyte. These range from the highly sensitive spectrometric sensor to the instrument-less test strip, and should be of interest for industry, biomedical, environmental and food, end even for household use.


Grown crystals are used for a range of novel innovations supporting a wide array of industries such as technology, medicine and electronics. Within the jewellery industry however, grown crystals are only used in a limited capacity and those of gemstone quality mainly as a surrogate for mined gemstones. They have remained largely underused, despite their potential sustainability credentials and the creative possibilities the incorporation of the process of crystal growth holds for jewellery designers. The bespoke growth of gemstone quality crystals could lead to highly unique jewellery designs which would result in higher consumer attachment. This in addition to the potentially more sustainable production of these stones would lead to overall more sustainable products. To address the barriers that are holding jewellery designers back from exploring the growth of crystals in their practice, and to address the knowledge gap that underpins this barrier, this article presents a practice-based exploration into the method of Crystal Growing Design for jewellery. Alongside reviewing a selection of the limited number of jewellery designers who have explored organic crystal growth, the article discusses the results of the practice-based explorations done. Three hypotheses derived from the characteristics and advantages of Growing Design were tested in three case studies and aimed to explore the design opportunities the method provides designers when (1) growing in situ either in designs or (2) around shapes or (3) when utilizing the grow-ability of the process as a feature. Because the growth of gemstone quality crystals requires more elaborate and high-cost equipment, sugar, alum and salt were experimented with as a prelude to further experimentation with the technique using gemstone grade crystals. Through utilizing an explorative Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach, the author documents and discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by the incorporation of a crystal growth method into the jewellery design practice. The research article will additionally reflect on the DIY growth of these non-gemstone quality crystals as a meaningful learning process for jewellery designers wishing to gain a deeper understanding of crystal growth. The DIY growth of crystals can be considered a valuable tinkering process to investigate design ideas. Which is particularly relevant since the method of growing crystals holds creative potential when designing jewellery in collaboration with crystal growers, or through incorporating gemstone crystal growth processes, which are the topic of the author's overarching Ph.D. research.


ABSTRACT Colorifuzia agenora n. gen., n. sp., attributed to the family Fuziidae Vršanský, Liang & Ren, 2009 is described from the Middle Jurassic of Jiulongshan Formation in Daohugou Village (Inner Mongolia, China). The new species is the first representative of the family with distinct pattern of coloration, indicating Fuziidae was able to adapt to diverse environments in this locality during the Middle Jurassic. Plesiomorphic characters such as considerably wide body, forewing large, coloration markings suggest Colorifuzia n. gen as a comparatively plesiomorphic taxon among Fuziidae.


Until now glucosamine sulfate (GS) has been the most widely used supplement and has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and boswellic acids (BA) are new effective supplements for the management of inflammation and joint degeneration, according to previous experimental studies. The aim of our study is to test the effectiveness of association of MSM and BA in comparison with GS in knee arthritis. In this prospective randomized clinical trial, MEBAGA (Methylsulfonylmethane and Boswellic Acids versus Glucosamine sulfate in the treatment of knee Arthritis), 120 participants affected by arthritis of the knee were randomly assigned to an experimental group (MB group) or a control group (GS group) treated for 60 days with 5 g of MSM and 7.2 mg of BA or with 1500 mg of GS daily, respectively. At the 2-month (T1) and 6-months (T2) follow-up , the efficacy of these two nutraceuticals was assessed using the visual analog pain scale (VAS) and the Lequesne Index (LI) for joint function, along with the use of anti-inflammatory drugs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and anti-cyclooxygenase-2). The repeated measures ANOVA analysis shows that for VAS, LI, and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs scores there are improvements due to the time in the two groups (respectively, F = 26.0; P <0.0001; F = 4.15; P = 0.02; F = 3.38; P = 0.04), with a tendency to better values for the MB group at T2. On the basis of these preliminary data, we could support the efficacy of the MSM in association with BA in the treatment of OA. These results are consistent with the anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective effects previously occurred in experimental studies. This new combination of integration (MSM and BS) has presented good results and satisfactory in comparison with GS, until now the cornerstone of the treatment of arthritis in according to guidelines.


The area of school facilities maintenance as an integral component of schools' educational programmes is only beginning to receive attention in South Africa, through the publishing of Notice 1438 of 2008 of the National Education Policy, which is a call for comments on the National Policy for an Equitable Provision of an Enabling School Physical Teaching and Learning Environment. This implies that, while it is a critical aspect of teaching and learning, school facilities maintenance has not been accorded a priority status. Numerous studies have indicated a strong correlation between the quality of school facilities and learner achievement and educator morale and job satisfaction. This study aimed at determining how a whole-school approach to facilities maintenance can be developed at schools by investigating the nature of school facilities maintenance and what the current school facilities maintenance practices are. An exploratory qualitative empirical research involving the use of ethnographic observation, photography and interviews was conducted. The study found that the current facilities maintenance practices at schools mainly comprised routine, corrective and emergency maintenance, which implies that facilities maintenance is not an integral component of the educational programmes. It also implies that schools need to implement a comprehensive and systematic process of facilities maintenance, which has a strong strategic dimension. A Whole-School Facilities Maintenance Model is thus proposed as a solution to this need. The model addresses schools' immediate facilities maintenance needs and long-term needs as it is accommodative of changes, both minor and major, as can be the case with the enactment of policy regarding school infrastructure management. This study contributes to the practice of school organisational development and management by customising strategic planning into school development planning and improvement.


Several researches evaluated consumers' Willingness To Pay (WTP) for each meat traceable attribute, generating a lot of information in this regard, although related to the conditions of each study. In light of this, WTP estimates for traceability characteristics largely differ across the literature, leading sometimes to contrasting interpretations. Seeking a full, meaningful statistical description of the findings of a collection of studies, the meta‐analysis allows us analyzing the consistency across studies and controlling for factors thought to drive variations in WTP estimates. The meta‐analysis has been conducted of 23 studies that, in aggregate, report 92 valuations for WTP.


Figitidae behave as
primary parasitoids of dipterous larvae that develop in the feces of cattle
and agricultural pests such as fruit flies (Tephritidae) on fruit, Zaprionus indianus Gupta (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
in fig cultivations, and Dettmeria
euxestae Borgmeier, 1935 (Hymenoptera: Figitidae) in Euxesta eluta Loew, 1996 (Diptera: Otitidae) in corn. Neralsia splendens (Borgmeier 1935)
(Hymenoptera: Figitidae), is a larval parasitoid of Diptera. The muscid genus Cyrtoneurina Giglio-Tos is one of the most
abundant Phaoniine groups in the Neotropics. It may be of some hygienic
importance because of the semidomestic habits of the adults of several
species and the environment in which the coprophagous larvae develop. In the
Neotropical region, few studies have been conducted on this group. This paper
reports the first occurrence of N.
splendens parasitizing C. pararescita in a rural area inBrazil. The
study was conducted at the farm of the Veterinary andZootechnicsSchoolof the Federal University of
Goias, inGoiania,Brazil, next to corn and sorghum plantations. The dipterous pupae were obtained by means of the flotation method. They were
individually placed in gelatin capsules until the emergence of the dipterous
insects and/or their parasitoids. Two specimens were collected from 26 pupae of C. pararescita. The percentage of
parasitism was 0.35%. The present study
is the first in the world to report the occurrence of N. splendens parasitizing C. pararescita.


Speech imitation appears to be one of the most fundamental aspects of human vocal behavior. It has been suggested that it plays an important role in speech development and may also form one of the key mechanisms that underlie the emergence and evolution of human languages. Starting early on, infants appear to be matching the prosodic and micro-prosodic properties of their mothers' speech in child-mother interactions. Also in the course of a conversational interaction between mature talkers, the behavior of each talker tends to become more similar-sounding to that of the conversational partner. The behavioral tendency shown by humans to imitate others may be connected at the brain level with the presence of a mirror neuron system, whose discovery has raised important issues about the role that this action-observation matching system may fulfill in many different domains, from sensorimotor integration to the understanding of others' behavior. The focus of this Research Topic is the fast-growing body of research on imitation phenomena in speech. We aim to bring together researchers with a large variety of scientific backgrounds (linguistics, speech sciences, psycholinguistics, experimental sociolinguistics, neurosciences, cognitive sciences) with a view to improving our understanding of the role of imitation in the production, comprehension and acquisition of spoken language. The Research Topic will also aim to assess current research on the brain and cognitive underpinnings of imitative behavior. The questions that can be explored in the submitted articles and communications include the following: When is phonetic imitation an automatic process and when does it represent a conscious effort of the talkers, designed to fit the social context of the interaction? Which components of the speech signal are imitated in different contexts/conditions? What are the causes of individual differences in the ability to imitate phonetic properties of both L1 and L2 (e.g., phonetic talent, dominant pitch perception mode, auditory memory etc.)? What computational techniques can be successfully employed to characterize imitation in speech, both in terms of static characterization (comparing short fragments of speech), as well as from a nonsegmental perspective (comparing evolution of different features over time)? How do visual cues interact with auditory cues, e.g., with respect to the degree of imitation and the speed of processing? What are the neural correlates of speech imitation?


In this essay, we argue that a public sphere that welcomes identity and values offers a way to bolster liberal democracy against the challenge from populist nationalism. We further suggest that religious lawyering offers a preliminary way to assess this proposition. We build on two of Michael Sandel's insights -- that the dominant elite understanding of the Procedural Republic excludes identity and values from the public sphere and that when globalization and technological change cause anxiety, the Procedural Republic lacks the capacity to cultivate the civic virtues necessary to protect liberal democracy from anti-liberal and anti-democratic ideologies. In addition to Sandel's observation that the Procedural Republic fails to promote civility and social solidarity, we suggest that it also encourages an indifference to others, facilitates lawlessness, masks systemic injustices, and promotes demonization of those with differing comprehensive philosophies.
As an alternative to the Procedural Republic, we propose an open public sphere. It provides liberal democracy with the resources found in identities and values, encourages dialogue rather than demonization, and exposes systemic injustice. To examine the advantages and disadvantages of the open public sphere, the Essay uses the example of the religious lawyering literature. Religious lawyering challenges the Procedural Republic's dominant conception of the lawyer's role that seeks to exclude identity and values from a lawyer's work. We suggest that a conception of role that includes identity and values provides resources to support the professional values of treating clients respectfully, acting civilly toward all, and promoting equal rights and equal justice. For example, religious conceptions such as the Golden Rule and the creation of all people in God's image provide the basis for a dialogue inviting those with religiously grounded illiberal values to embrace equal respect for all people.


Worldwide, there has been an increase in the number of individuals that live alone in one-person households (OPHs). Compared to those living with family, people in OPHs easily lose control of life rhythm. Given that the disturbance of life rhythm leads to chronic disease, they have a higher risk of illness. As such, there is an urgent demand for assistive technology that allows people in OPHs to enjoy healthy, high-quality lives. For decades, there has been significant research and development of smart systems to assist people at home. However, there are still limitations on the practical use of these systems in actual OPHs. More specifically, they are often too intrusive to the lifestyle of users or home objects. In addition, they are often expensive to deploy and maintain. Furthermore, these systems are unable to evaluate the quality of life rhythm. As a result, it is difficult for individual users to determine what their healthy life rhythms should be, and how to improve their current situation.The goal of research is to develop a new smart system for OPHs that can minimize intrusiveness and cost, while also facilitating the assessment of life rhythms of individual users. The new system collects user position and environmental data inside the house in a non-intrusive way, using affordable IoT devices. From this data, the system then recognizes the daily activities of the user. Based on these activities, eventually, the system can quantitatively evaluate the users life rhythms and provide practical advice for maintaining a healthy life.


While scholars may disagree as to the scope and depth of the indivisibility of rights, or about the nature of the indivisibility claim, it is clear that the specter of indivisibility is most pertinent with regard to some rights than others. The constitutional right to a healthy environment is perhaps the paradigmatic example of the indivisibility claim. Environmental rights are inseparable from many other rights, including (depending on the factual nature of the claim) the right to life, to health, to dignity, to subsistence, to employment, to property and so on. Sometimes the relationship between the environmental and other claims is positive, as when remedying the environmental damage will promote the right to health, but sometimes it is negative, as when, for instance, jobs are lost when the environmental damage is remedied. This paper explores the interlocking nature of environmental and other human rights and suggests how courts should respond to the challenge of indivisibility in the context of enforcing fundamental environmental rights.


Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders that have a substantial impact on patients' quality of life, in addition to causing significant morbidity and mortality. The hypomethylating agents (HMAs) azacitidine and decitabine are approved for use in the United States and in Europe for the treatment of MDS or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and, in the case of azacitidine, prolong survival in higher-risk patients. Neither is curative, though, and given the lack of clear treatment guidelines after HMA treatment failure, it is imperative to optimize patient selection and identify the right timing of HMA treatment initiation and response evaluation to maximize patient benefit. Initiatives to improve outcomes have focused on HMA-based drug combinations to enhance HMA activity or treat MDS using complementary drug mechanisms of action. In this review, we will summarize the available data to aid decision-making while treating MDS patients with HMAs.


In the early morning hours of September 6, 2008, S.B., a twenty-seven-year old African Canadian, experienced the depths of depravity at the hands of five officers with the Ottawa Police Service. She was arrested unlawfully for effectively questioning why she had been stopped by the police, taken to the police station where she was assaulted and strip searched in the presence of a number of male officers, one of whom cut off her shirt and bra with a pair of scissors, and then left half-naked in a cell for over three hours. When she left the police station, she found herself charged with assaulting a police officer. The case was reviewed on a number of occasions by senior prosecutors who believed that the prosecution of S.B. was in the public interest. Two years after the incident, a trial judge stayed the charge concluding that it was a "travesty" and that what happened to her was an "indignity to a human being." This article examines a number of dimensions of the case including (i) the elements of gendered and racialized stereotyping and violence in the case; (ii) the degree of departure from R. v. Golden, the leading Canadian case on strip searches; (iii) whether what occured was a sexual assault; and finally, (iv) the issue of accountability and the decision of the Ottawa Crown Attorney's Office to pursue a prosecution against S.B. as opposed to the police officers involved.


: Graham's ratio is a commonly used indicator for measuring the intensity of the oxidation of coal in underground mine atmospheres. Successful measurement of oxygen deficiency is critical in order to generate relevant results, as well as meaningful data trends. Graham's ratio is often used as a trigger for Trigger Action Response Plans (TARP) for the management of spontaneous combustion. If a Graham's ratio is calculated where there is an insufficient oxygen deficiency the result can be overestimated and trigger a TARP level. Mitchell (1996) and the NSW Mines Rescue gas detection and emergency preparedness book (2014) has previously identified issues with using Graham's Ratio when the oxygen deficiency is less than 0.3%, due to analytical limitations. This issue is often encountered in samples in which the composition is close to air due to the low inherent oxygen deficiency of the sample. The same problem is identified in samples diluted with seam gas. Errors in oxygen deficiency can be compounded by inaccuracies in other measured components when nitrogen is calculated by difference. A concern with applying the 0.3% oxygen deficiency requirement (minimum limit) to dilute or close to air samples is that valid data may be excluded from interpretation. This paper will review the magnitude and application of minimum oxygen deficiency required for a consistent valid measurement of Graham's ratio. This will be done across a range of samples using real data from a number of modern analysis techniques in underground coal mines.


The theme of this thesis is transition to turbulence in linearly stable shear flows. Laminar-turbulent intermittency and hysteresis are typical feature of these flows at transitional Reynolds numbers, characterizing a subcritical scenario. Subcritical transition is a dynamically rich phenomenon in nature and has
been scrutinized for over a century. The critical Reynolds number for the transition and its physical mechanisms are fundamental problems in fluid dynamics and are still not fully understood. These questions are addressed in this thesis by performing direct numerical simulations of Taylor-Couette flow in linearly stable regimes: counterrotating narrow-gap regime (in the plane Couette limit) and corotating quasi-Keplerian regime. The essential contributions in this study can be summarized as follows.

In the first part of the thesis, a highly efficient parallel DNS code for turbulent Taylor-Couette flow has been developed. The Navier-Stokes equations are discretized in cylindrical coordinates with the spectral Fourier-Galerkin method in the axial and azimuthal directions, and high-order finite differences in the radial direction. Time is advanced by a second-order, semi-implicit projection scheme, which requires the solution of five Helmholtz/Poisson equations, avoids staggered grids and renders very small slip velocities. Nonlinear terms are computed with the pseudospectral method. The code is parallelized using a hybrid MPI-OpenMP strategy, which is simple to implement, reduces inter-node communications and is more efficient compared to a flat MPI parallelization.
A strong scaling study shows that the hybrid code maintains very good scalability up to 3X10^4 processor cores and thus allows to perform simulations at higher Re with higher resolutions than previously feasible.In the second part, this code is used to study the subcritical transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow. Here turbulent spots can grow and form continuous stripes, yet in the stripe-normal direction they remain interspersed by laminar fluid. By performing direct numerical simulations in a long narrow domain, it is observed that individual turbulent stripes are transient. In agreement with recent observations in pipe flow it is found that turbulence becomes sustained at a distinct critical point once the spatial proliferation outweighs the inherent decaying process. By resolving the asymptotic size distributions close to criticality, the feature of scale invariance at the onset of turbulence is demonstrated and the critical exponents are obtained. These results shows that the transition is a continuous phase transition and may belong to the directed percolation universality class.

Third, subcritical hydrodynamic turbulence is probed in Taylor-Couette flow (TCF) in the quasi-Keplerian regime at Re up to 10^5. Whether hydrodynamic turbulence exists in linearly stable quasi-Keplerian flows is strongly debated and controversial results were reported. To avoid the axial end-wall effects in experiments, DNS simulations of axially periodic TCF have been conducted. By analyzing the temporal evolution of perturbation kinetic energy, secondary instability is identified and it causes the flow break down to turbulence. However, the arising turbulence eventually decays.

The effects of Earth rotation may contribute to the observed turbulence in experiments. In the final part of the thesis, linear stability and transient energy growth have been studied in the plane Couette flow with system rotation perpendicular to the wall. It is found that wall-normal external system rotation causes linear instability. At small rotation rates, the onset of linear instability scales inversely with the rotation rate and the optimal transient growth in the linearly stable region is slightly enhanced, ~Re^2. At large rotation rates, the transient growth is significantly inhibited.


The work detailed in this thesis is mainly concerned with the carbonylation of fatty acid derivatives, using carbon monoxide atmospheres in the presence of a transition metal. The two systems under study were the conversion of oleonitrile to a cyano-ester using a cobalt catalyst, and formation of isocyanates from amines in the presence of a palladium salt. The objectives of each study were: (i) to assess the influence of physical conditions on the reaction (i.e. pressure, time and temperature);(ii) to examine the effect of various additives on the system (i.e. phosphines, iodides and bases); and (iii) to identify any catalytic species observed under reaction conditions.Three major techniques were employed in each study: autoclave reactions, high pressure infra-red studies and atmospheric pressure nitrogen-line chemistry. The proposed underlying reaction mechanism was examined critically for each system, comparisons being drawn between the postulated catalytic species and those actually observed by high pressure infra-red spectroscopy. The chemical properties of the proposed catalytic intermediates are discussed in relation to the effect of co-reactants on the system. In the case of the carbonylation of oleonitrile the high pressure infra-red studies are consistent with the proposed reaction mechanism based upon the acyl complex RCOCo(CO)(_4). Although the infra-red study on the carbonylation of amines did not reveal any definite information, the results of other experiments were found to be consistent with a system based upon a carboxamido species L(_2)Pd(Cl)(CONRR').


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of frequent milkout (FMO) on the outcome of experimentally induced Escherichia coli mastitis in cows.

DESIGN
Randomized complete block study.

ANIMALS
16 Holstein dairy cows.

PROCEDURE
Cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups and were either not infected and not treated (NI-NT), experimentally infected with E coli and not treated (EC-NT), not infected and FMO (NI-FMO), or experimentally infected with E coli and FMO (EC-FMO). The infected quarter in cows in FMO groups was milked out every 4 hours from 16 to 36 hours and every 6 hours from 36 to 84 hours after challenge, with the aid of oxytocin administration. Somatic cell counts (SCC); times to bacterial, clinical, and systemic cures; and serum concentrations of a-lactalbumin were determined.

RESULTS
Use of FMO did not appear to affect SCC. For EC-NT and EC-FMO groups, mean bacterial cure times were 203 and 159 hours, clinical cure times were 276 and 360 hours, and systemic cure times were 144 and 159 hours, respectively; these times were not significantly different. Concentrations of a-lactalbumin were significantly increased in the EC-NT group at 12 hours and in the NI-FMO group at 36 and 60 hours after challenge, compared with values of cows in other treatment groups.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Compared with results in control cows, FMO does not appear to be an efficacious treatment for experimentally induced moderate to severe E coli mastitis.


We evaluate the impact of the global financial crisis (GFC) and recent structural changes in the patterns of hoarding international reserves (IR). We confirm that the determinants of IR hoarding evolve with developments in the global economy. During the pre-GFC period of 1999-2006, gross saving is associated with higher IR in developing and emerging markets. The negative impact of outward direct investment on IR accumulation is consistent with the recent trend of diverting international assets from the international reserve account into tangible foreign assets; the "Joneses' effect" lends support to the regional rivalry in hoarding IR as a motivation; and commodity price volatility induces precautionary buffer hoarding. During the 2007–2009 GFC period, previously significant variables become insignificant or display the opposite effect, probably reflecting the frantic market conditions driven by financial instability. Nevertheless, the propensity to import and gross saving continue to display strong and even larger positive effects on IR holding. The results from the 2010–2012 post-GFC period are dominated by factors that had been mostly overlooked in earlier decades. While the negative effect of swap agreements and the positive effect of gross saving on IR holdings are in line with our expectations, we find a change in the link between outward direct investment and IR in the preand post-crisis period. The macro-prudential policy tends to complement IR accumulation. Developed countries display different demand behaviors for IRs -higher gross saving is associated with lower IR holding, possibly reflecting high-income countries' tendency to deploy their savings in the global capital markets. The presence of sovereign wealth funds motivates developed countries to hold a lower level of IR. Our predictive exercise affirms that an emerging market economy with insufficient IR holdings in 2012 tends to experience exchange rate depreciation against the U.S. dollar when many emerging markets were adjusted to the news of tapering quantitative easing (QE) in 2013. Joshua Aizenman Economics and SIR USC University Park Los Angeles, CA 90089-0043 and NBER email@example.com Yin-Wong Cheung Department of Economics University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064 and City University of Hong Kong email@example.com Hiro Ito Portland State University 1721 SW Broadway, Suite 241 Portland, Oregon 97201 email@example.com


Source positioning using hybrid angle-of-arrival (AOA) estimation and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is attractive because no synchronization is required among unknown nodes and anchors. Conventionally, hybrid AOA/RSSI localization combines the same number of these measurements to estimate the agents' locations. However, since AOA estimation requires anchors to be equipped with large antenna arrays and complicated signal processing, this conventional combination makes the wireless sensor network (WSN) complicated. This paper proposes an unbalanced integration of the two measurements, called 1AOA/nRSSI, to simplify the WSN. Instead of using many anchors with large antenna arrays, the proposed method only requires one master anchor to provide one AOA estimation, while other anchors are simple single-antenna transceivers. By simply transforming the 1AOA/1RSSI information into two corresponding virtual anchors, the problem of integrating one AOA and N RSSI measurements is solved using the least square and subspace methods. The solutions are then evaluated to characterize the impact of angular and distance measurement errors. Simulation results show that the proposed network achieves the same level of precision as in a fully hybrid nAOA/nRSSI network with a slightly higher number of simple anchors.


In our previous study, we have reported the cooperative luminescence of Yb3+-trimers and cooperatively sensitized Gd3+ luminescence by Yb3+-tetramers in a doped CaF2 host. In this study, we experimentally observed an unusual luminescent phenomenon of Gd3+ in CaF2:Yb3+/Gd3+. Upon excitation with a 980 nm laser, the upconversion luminescence of Gd3+ first increases and then decreases in the Gd3+ concentration range of 0-0.9 mol%; this is different from the monotonic increase of Gd3+ luminescence observed in the downconversion spectra via the direct excitation of Gd3+. This special luminescent behavior was indicated to be related to the energy transfer from the Yb3+-tetramers to Gd3+ and the destruction of Yb3+-clusters. Herein, we proposed a new luminescence quenching mechanism, Yb3+-cluster destructive quenching, which was verified by fluorescence dynamic analysis and an optically inactive rare-earth ion-doping experiment.


Abstract: Piroplasmosis, a tick‐borne protozoal disease, is an important disease affecting domestic and wild animals. We performed PCR‐based reverse line blot hybridization (RLB) assays on blood samples obtained from 133 cattle exposed to ticks in field conditions in Minorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) in three different seasons. The oligonucleotides used were those for Theileria annulata, T. buffeli, T. taurotragi, T. velifera, Babesia bigemina, B. bovis, B. divergens, and B. major. The RLB technique allowed the simultaneous identification of T. annulata, T. buffeli, B. bigemina, and B. bovis as the piroplasms present in cattle in Minorca. Of the 133 animals, only 4 were not infected by any of the studied parasites. The results indicated endemic piroplasm infection in cattle in Minorca; especially important was the presence of T. annulata. The RLB was highly sensitive and allowed the simultaneous detection and identification of the Theileria and Babesia species in carrier cattle, which cannot be achieved by classical identification methods.


Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a powerful technique for subsurface molecular analysis of optically turbid samples. Numerical modeling of light propagation has been used to investigate opportunities for improving spectral contrast and signal to noise ratio when imaging regions of interest located 0–4.5 mm below the surface in polymer bulk material. Two- and three-dimensional modeling results demonstrate that when analyzing a certain region of interest (ROI) of finite lateral dimensions below the sample surface, offsetting both the laser source and detector in opposite directions from the central point of the ROI can increase the spectral contrast as compared to conventional SORS approach where the detector or the laser source is maintained at the central point (centered SORS). The outlined modeling results have been validated experimentally using a bulk polymer sample with a trans-stilbene ROI (cylinder) below the sample surface. The results show that modeling of the spatial configurations of laser excitation and detection points can be used to optimize the instrument configuration to achieve significant improvements (up to 2.25-fold) in performance over the conventional centered SORS. Such optimal solutions can then be implemented, for example, using robust fiber optic probes, moveable optics, or flexible spatial light modulator instruments for specific applications. Graphical Abstract


Abstract Calculations based on the characteristics method and different self-shielding models are presented for 9 × 9 boiling water reactor (BWR) assemblies fully loaded with mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. The geometry of these assemblies was recovered from the BASALA experimental program. We have focused our study on three configurations simulating the different voiding conditions that an assembly can undergo in a BWR pressure vessel. A parametric study was carried out with respect to the spatial discretization, the tracking parameters, and the anisotropy order. Comparisons with Monte Carlo calculations in terms of keff, radiative capture, and fission rates were performed to validate the computational tools. The results are in good agreement between the stochastic and deterministic approaches. The mutual self-shielding model recently introduced within the framework of the Ribon extending self-shielding method appears to be useful for this type of assemblies. Indeed, in the calculation of these MOX benchmarks, the overlapping of resonances, especially between 238U and 240Pu, plays an important role due to the spectral strengthening of the flux as the voiding percentage is increased. The method of characteristics is shown to be adequate to perform accurate calculations handling a fine spatial discretization.


Assessment, in its different guises and forms, has been a core consideration of music therapy work since the early stages of the discipline. Practitioners have devised assessment tools for different purposes such as outcome measurement. Although an increased number of tools have been published, many do not seem to be used widely in either practice or research. This situation might be connected to limited accessibility to such tools and/or the lack of centralized sources of information about them. This systematic review focuses on 26 music-therapy-specific outcome measures and identifies trends and gaps in their characteristics. The results show that most measures concern work with people with autism, developmental and learning disabilities, and special needs. Most measures have been designed using pilot studies, and most original sources introducing the measures have been published since 2000 and in journal publications. Validation processes are reported in less than half of the original sources. Most measures employ observational ratings and checklists as their data collection method and have five main categories of focus: musical engagement, functioning, communication and/or interaction, relationship, and music therapy process.


Pure intermetallic compounds Al3Fe, AlmFe, AlxFe, ac-AlFeSi, and Al6(Fe,Mn) have been extracted from Bridgman grown model aluminium alloys by dissolving the aluminium matrix in butanol. The resultant transmission Mdssbauer spectra for each intermetallic compound were interpreted according to their crystal structure. Variable temperature 57Fe Mdssbauer studies have enabled the Debye temperature thetaD of each compound to be determined. The crystal structure of Al3Fe contains five different Fe sites within the unit cell. Four of the iron, Fe(l)-Fe(4), sites are approximately identical and produced a thetaD = 434 +/- 5 K. The remaining Fe site, Fe(5), produced a thetaD = 488 +/- 5 K, and the combined spectral areas a 3D = 452 +/- 5 K. There is only one individual site within the crystal structures of AlmFe, AlxFe, and Al6(Fe,Mn), which produced a thetaD of 358 +/- 5 K, 360 +/- 5 K, and 352 +/- 5 K respectively. The ternary intermetallic compound, ac-AlFeSi, has two different Fe sites within the unit cell. Fe(l) had a thetaD - 291 +/- 5 K, and Fe(2) thetaD = 329 +/- 5 K. The combined spectral areas of these two sites produced a thetaD = 311 +/- 5 K. The variation in the OD values was attributed to changes in the Al-Fe shortest bond within the Fe centred A1 polyhedra. The Fe centred A1 polyhedra are a common feature of all the intermetallic compounds studied. The iron atom in all the intermetallic compounds may have existed in a Fe2+ oxidation state. A Direct Chill-cast ingot was grown and two samples, A and B, were taken from regions within the ingot containing a mixture of two intermetallic compounds. Alloy sample A was found to contain the intermetallic compound combination Al3Fe + Al6Fe. The intermetallic combination Al6Fe + ac- AlFeSi was found to exist in alloy sample B. Transmission Mdssbauer spectroscopy was performed on the extracted phases and the insitu phases to determine the relative proportions of the intermetallic compounds within the two alloy samples. Alloy sample A had 50:50 +/- 5 % Al3Fe + Al6Fe, whereas alloy sample B had 30:70 +/- 5 % Al6Fe + ac-AlFeSi. The surface of alloy sample B was investigated using several surface techniques, CEMS, SAAES, and SAXPS, to determine whether the same relative proportions existed in the surface, and near surface, regions of the sample. A region of very fine amorphous iron super-paramagnetic grains were to dominate the near surface region of the sample, which was present due to selective oxidation of the Al6Fe intermetallic compound. This was then removed when the surface of the alloy sample was KI electro-etched, which had the effect of leaving the intermetallic particles standing proud of the surface. The CEMS technique identified that the Al6Fe + ac-AlFeSi existed in a 80:20 +/- 5 %. This change in phase ratio after the KI electro-etch process was attributed to the preferential etching of the ac-AlFeSi aluminium intermetallic compound.


Arctic land ice is melting, sea ice is decreasing, and permafrost is thawing. Changes in these Arctic elements are interconnected, and most interactions accelerate the rate of change. The changes affect infrastructure, economics, and cultures of people inside and outside of the Arctic, including in temperate and tropical regions, through sea level rise, worsening storm and hurricane impacts, and enhanced warming. Coastal communities worldwide are already experiencing more regular flooding, drinking water contamination, and coastal erosion. We describe and summarize the nature of change for Arctic permafrost, land ice, and sea ice, and its influences on lower latitudes, particularly the United States. We emphasize that impacts will worsen in the future unless individuals, businesses, communities, and policy makers proactively engage in mitigation and adaptation activities to reduce the effects of Arctic changes and safeguard people and society.


Optimization of composite structures for the design and repair through, in particular, the use of pasted junctions in lieu of bolted or riveted junctions for different applications. The object of this work is to model the durability of a pasted assembly of composite structures under quasistatic loads by the hereditary Rabotnov approach. To do this, it took on the one hand, an experimental analysis of the damage of the adhesive in shear behavior subjected to different loading rates. On the other hand, the establishment of the model required experimental identification of the parameters of the creep kernels in formulating expressions for determining the durability and long-term strength limit in the shear of glued composite assembly. Special attention is paid to the prediction of the strength characteristics of the material under long loading periods up to 10 6 h (approximately 100 years of operation) by laboratory tests carried out for 10 3 h. The results could be useful, in particular, when designing and assembling the elements in composite structures located in bridge decks and walkways (beams, spacers, etc.) and also in shipbuilding.


My laboratory is interested in defining and targeting the key pathways regulating immune recognition and destruction of cancerous cells within tumours. In recent years, a number of publications have demonstrated the essential role of the tumour microenvironment in the in vivo activity of checkpoint targeting antibodies. In this talk I will discuss novel developments in this area relating to the mechanism of action and the development of immune modulatory antibodies that promote maximal modulatory activity in different tumour microenvironments. In addition to immune regulation, another key area of research in the field of cancer immunology relates to the recognition of tumour cells by T lymphocytes. Whilst recent studies highlight the potential importance of T cell reactivity towards patient-specific mutant epitopes in the successful outcome of immune modulatory therapies, little is known about the impact of intra-tumour heterogeneity (ITH) on this relation. In the second part of this talk I will describe recent data using multi tumour region sampling to characterise the interplay between ITH, immune-reactivity and immune-regulation in non-small cell lung cancer patients. Citation Format: Sergio A. Quezada. Deciphering immune regulation and recognition at the tumour site [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR International Conference: New Frontiers in Cancer Research; 2017 Jan 18-22; Cape Town, South Africa. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(22 Suppl):Abstract nr IA28.


The dentition of the Late Devonian Holodipterus gogoensis Miles (Osteichthyes: Dipnoi) is described from the original material and four new specimens. Variation between specimens is considerable because growth took place in cycles that involved extensive resorption of tissues of all types on the dental surface, followed by periods of reconstruction during which new distributions of hard tissues were established. The teeth have an enamel cover and a hard compact dentine core within which an unusual interstitial material is present. They were added alternately to the lateral margins of the pterygoids and the prearticulars. In this way new teeth were always added outside the occlusal surface. Enlarged marginal denticles around the edges of the bones provided a surface to protect against wear by opposing teeth during the growth of the new teeth on the opposing jaws. The surfaces of the pterygoids and the prearticulars were partly covered with superficial denticles that were shed individually, or episodically in large numbers during phases of total resorption at an advancing front. Isolated denticles were also shed and regrown independently of those around them. After the episodic resorption, newly formed denticles were gradually embedded in, and in some places overgrown by, a layer of simple superficial dentine. This was then invaded by hard pleromic dentine. The next resorption phase did not remove all this dentine, and callosities of hard, compact dentine remained to continue pleromic growth into the palate. The generic relationships inferred from this unique dental pattern are discussed. A consideration of the complex offeatures forming the feeding apparatus leads to the conclusion that Holodipterus shares more characters with members of the denticulate dipnoan lineage than the tooth-plated lineage. However, characters shared with the primitive tooth-plated genus Speonesydrion may be significant. Further information on the dental structure of some other genera, particularly Fleurantia, is required before more definite conclusions can be reached.


The aim of this study is to map and scrutinize developments within Swedish cultural journalism, with a particular focus on transformations in genres, text types and thematic repertoires. Drawing on a constructed week sample from press, television and radio during four decades (1985, 1995, 2005, 2015), we address three aspects of 'the crisis discourse' of cultural journalism: (1) the potential decline in cultural coverage due to economic cutbacks and downsized cultural desks; (2) cultural journalism's perceived 'quality crisis' connected to transformations of thematic repertoires; and (3) the alleged decline of cultural expertise related to changes in cultural journalism's generic structures. The study makes a unique contribution to cultural journalism scholarship by identifying media-specific differences and complementary relationships between media forms, building on media ecology and genre theory. In contrast to the crisis discourse, results show that cultural journalism has expanded significantly through popularization and thematic and generic diversification, but the transformations are different in press, radio and television due to differing role positions in the larger media ecosystem. In addition, some parts of the cultural journalism media ecology appear to be endangered.


Configurable Computing Machines (CCMs) are an emerging class of computing platform which provide the computational performance benefits of ASICs, yet retain the flexibility and rapid reconfigurability of general purpose microprocessors. In these platforms, computational "hardware" is essentially swapped in and out of the platform as needed, much like paging in virtual memory systems. For an efficient platform, the swapping of the computational hardware (referred to as Run-Time Reconfiguration, or RTR) must be rapid. Thus far, the means of altering the configuration of CCMs has relied on global control strategies that present a fundamental bottleneck to the potential bandwidth of configuration information flowing into the CCM. Wormhole Run-time Reconfiguration is presented as a distributed control methodology that is applicable not only to the problem of device-level CCM reconfiguration, but to system-wide concurrent computing as a whole. The Virginia Tech Colt/Stallion integrated circuits are computational FPGAs incorporating Wormhole RTR concepts, and are discussed as a case study.


This thesis investigates the applicability of multi-agent systems as a control approach for district heating systems. The consumers, i.e., the heat exchange systems, in current district heating systems are purely reactive devices and have typically no communication capabilities. They are only able to make local decisions without taking into account the global situation in the system. In this work, the possibilities of a new type of heat exchanger systems that has an open software environment and communication capabilities are explored. Operators of district heating systems have several, often conflicting, goals, e.g., to satisfy the demand of the customers and to minimize production costs. Major concerns are how to cope with the uncertainty caused by discrepancies between the estimated and actual customer demand, and the temporal constraints imposed by the relatively long production and distribution times (up to 24 hours). The approach studied in this thesis is to equip each consumer with an agent that makes predictions of future needs and to form clusters of consumers within which it is possible to redistribute resources fast and at a low cost. The agents have two fundamental goals: the local goal, which is to satisfy the customers' needs, and the global goal, which is to improve the overall performance of the system by cooperating with the other agents in the cluster. Results from a simulation study indicate that the suggested approach makes it possible to reduce production while maintaining the quality of service. The study also show that it is possible to control the trade-off between quality-of-service and degree of surplus production. In another study, a smallscale experiment in a controlled physical environment, two agent-based approaches are evaluated and compared to existing technologies. The experiment shows that it is possible to automatically load balance a small district heating network using agent technology. Finally, a generalized formal characterization of the problem space under investigation is provided, i.e., production and logistics network management, together with a preliminary evaluation of the applicability of the suggested multi-agent system approach for this general problem area.


Previous research has shown that the shape of a backward masking function depends upon a number of factors, including the structural properties of the mask, and the relative contrast between target and mask. In our study, we compared backward masking functions between a full face mask and a head outline mask. In both cases, the target was a full face. In the full face mask condition, the target was half the contrast of the mask, and in the head outline mask condition the target and mask contrasts were equal. We found that the full face mask produced peak masking at a lower SOA (stimulus onset asynchrony) compared to the head outline mask, a finding that can be readily explained with several models of masking. We then compared the effect of these two masks in a common onset trailing masking paradigm. Notably, while the full face mask showed a steady increase in masking as a function of trail duration, and saturated at 100 ms, the head outline mask showed a markedly lower amount of masking compared to the full face mask, with some observers showing recovery from masking at longer trail durations. A three way repeated measures ANOVA revealed an interaction between mask type (full face, head outline) and masking paradigm (backwards, trailing) (p = 0.023). We explain these findings by integrating the idea of parvocellular and magnocellular pathways with object updating models. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Recent OLTP support exploits new techniques, running on modern hardware, to achieve unprecedented performance compared with prior approaches. In SQL Server, the Hekaton main-memory database engine embodies this new OLTP support. Hekaton uses the Bw-tree to achieve its great indexing performance. The Bw-Tree is a latch-free B-tree index that also exploits log-structured storage when used "beyond" Hekaton as a separate key value store. It is designed from the ground up to address two hardware trends: (1) Multi-core and main memory hierarchy: the Bw-tree is completely latch-free, using an atomic compare-and-swap instruction to install state changes on a "page address" mapping table; it performs updates as "deltas" to avoid update-in-place. These improve performance by eliminating thread blocking while improving cache hit ratios. (2) Flash storage: the Bw-tree organizes secondary storage in a log-structured manner, using large sequential writes to avoid entirely the adverse performance impact of random writes. We demonstrate the architectural versatility and performance of the Bw-tree in two scenarios: (a) running live within Hekaton and (2) running as a standalone key value store compared to both BerkeleyDB and a state-of-the-art in-memory range index (latch-free skiplists). Using workloads from real-world applications (Microsoft XBox Live Primetime and enterprise deduplication), we show the Bw-tree is 19x faster than BerkeleyDB and 3x faster than skiplists.


[1] We present a theoretical study into the information content of solar reflectance measurements at multiple near-infrared wavelengths in the context of deriving the vertical variation of cloud droplet size from marine stratocumulus. We employ a Bayesian optimal estimation approach to retrieve a profile of droplet effective radius as a function of optical depth in the cloud. This allows an assessment of the information content of the measurement of reflectance at different wavelengths and the potential for a new generation of hyperspectral sensors to improve the retrieval. Our results show that using the three absorbing near-infrared channels of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) centered at 1.6, 2.1 and 3.7 μm a retrieval of droplet sizes lower in the cloud is highly sensitive to small changes in reflectance. Consequently instrument and modeling errors must be reduced to <1% in order to gain a useful uncertainty constraint on droplet size near to cloud base. By introducing many high spectral resolution wavelength channels, such as those available from hyperspectral sensors, we find that the information content pertaining to all retrieval variables increases significantly. This results in a reduction in the uncertainty estimates on all retrieved quantities. We also test the ability of a vertical profile retrieval to provide improved liquid water path estimates by using several in situ profiling measurements of marine stratocumulus in the South-East Pacific region. We find that a vertical profile retrieval significantly improves the liquid water path estimate when compared to a two-band lookup table retrieval.


Although a large proportion of firms are family owned and most family firms are private, our understanding of private family firms is limited. Using confidential information on family relationship between board members, CEOs, and shareholders, this is the first study that provides large-scale evidence on the association between governance structure and firm performance in family controlled private firms. Our sample is unique as it covers almost all private limited liability firms in Norway, spans 11 years, traces firm ownership to ultimate owners, and identifies family relationship using data on kinship, marriage, and adoption. The results show a U-shaped relationship between family ownership and firm performance. Higher ownership of the second largest owner, higher percentage of family members on the board, stronger family power, and smaller boards are associated with higher firm performance. In addition, the positive association between the ownership of the second largest owner and firm performance also occurs when the second largest owner is a member of the controlling family, but the association is stronger when the second largest owner is a non-family member. We further test the relative importance of these test variables and find that ownership structure is more associated with firm performance than board structure.


In this paper, I engage methods of critical phenomenology and personal narrative in the investigation of a commercial organization. My aim is to come to a richer understanding of embodied organizing, through exploration of some key metaphors that might guide us in our understandings of life at work. With this aim in mind, I will probe the possibilities inherent in two new metaphors related to organizing praxis: fire and ice. Thus, the essay deals with the central role of passion (fire) and of the countervailing energy of reified structures of command-and-control (ice). My interest is in the dialectical interplay of these forces in the ongoing life of an organization.


A physically-based dynamic simulator has been constructed to investigate the time-dependent behavior of equipment, process, sensor, and control systems for rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) of polysilicon from SiH/sub 4/. The simulator captures the essential physics and chemistry of mass transport, heat transfer, and chemical kinetics of the RTCVD process as embodied in equipment. In order to complete the system-level description, reduced-order models are also employed to represent processes involving high complexity of physics. Integration of individual simulator elements for equipment, process, sensors, and control systems enables the evaluation of not only the deposition rate and film thickness, but also of a broad range of dynamic system properties such as equipment performance, gas flow conditions, wafer temperature variation, wafer optical properties (absorptivity/emissivity), reaction gas composition, total process cycle time, consumables volume, and reactant utilization. This makes the simulator directly applicable to the optimization of process recipes and equipment design, to process control strategy, and to fault classification. This case study of polysilicon RTCVD demonstrates (1) that integrated dynamic simulation is a versatile tool for representing system-level dynamics and (2) that such representation is pivotal in successful applications of modeling and simulation for manufacturing optimization and control.


[1] The multidecadal variability of air‐sea CO2 fluxes in the North Atlantic under preindustrial atmospheric CO2 conditions is simulated, using a coupled biogeochemical/ circulation model driven by long‐term surface forcing reconstructed from the leading modes of sea level pressure observations from 1850 to 2000. Heat fluxes are of great importance for the multidecadal CO2 fluctuations, about equal in magnitude to wind stress, in contrast to their less prominent role for CO2 flux variability on interannual timescales. Another difference, compared to higher frequencies, is the dominance of the North Atlantic Oscillation in driving the variability of the air‐sea CO2 fluxes. Two spatially distinct regimes lead to large anomalies in the CO2 fluxes but compensate to a large degree. The first regime is advective and has its clear signature southeast of Greenland while the second one, in the vicinity of the Labrador Sea and off Newfoundland, is convective. In both regimes, the multidecadal CO2 fluctuations are driven mainly by variations in temperature, salinity, and DIC content at the sea surface while the role of the biological pump is of minor importance in this particular model. The magnitude of the simulated multidecadal CO2 uptake changes is on the order of 0.02 Pg C/yr and amounts to 10–15% of the estimated annual anthropogenic CO2 uptake of the North Atlantic. Citation: Löptien, U., and C. Eden (2010), Multidecadal CO2 uptake variability of the North Atlantic, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D12113, doi:10.1029/2009JD012431.


We investigated whether and how the timing of musical rhythms changes with tempo. Twelve skilled pianists played a monophonic eight-bar melody in 21 different rhythmic versions at four different tempi.
 Within bars, the rhythms represented two isochronous patterns and all possible ordered pairs and triplets of different note values with ratios from the set {3, 2, 1}. The three-note rhythms also occurred
 in each of two meters (3/4 and 6/8). Significant deviations from the notated interval ratios were observed in performances of most rhythms, even at the slowest tempo. The observed ratios of the two-note
 rhythms changed little with tempo. By contrast, those of the three-note rhythms showed increasing assimilation of the two longer intervals as tempo increased, while the relative duration of the short interval
 was barely affected by tempo. These results replicate previous findings of Fraisse (1956), obtained in a nonmetrical and non-musical context. At fast tempi, the distinction between three different interval
 durations seems difficult to maintain.


Mobile Ad-hoc Network is an infra-structure less and decentralized network which need a robust dynamic routing protocol. Most existing ad hoc routing protocols are and the broadcast nature of susceptible to node mobility, especially for large-scale networks. Such an efficient routing protocol is introduced called Position based Opportunistic Routing protocol. It uses geographic routing for finding the location of all the nodes to transmit the data packets in hop by hop manner and opportunistic forwarding finding the next suitable node to forward the packets. In order to improve the efficiency of POR protocol the quality parameters are considered. For improving the quality bandwidth of the node is estimated from the MAC protocol for finding the availability of the bandwidth to transmit packet. Also the link quality is assured by finding the signal to noise ratio of each node. On considering both the parameters the data packet is forwarded through the best nodes. On comparing the results of data transmission using POR protocol with the quality assured POR (EPOR) protocol the efficiency is improved in EPOR protocol.


With the reports of the DNA sequence of the human and mouse genomes, research attention is now on questions of protein function and interactions, developmental and physiological pathways, and systems biology. The International Mouse Mutagenesis Consortium proposes goals and outlines plans for the next 10 years for annotating the mouse genome and compiling data on mouse mutations. In addition to the challenges of identifying new assays to probe biological functions, more efficient and reliable methods are needed for archiving, managing, analyzing, displaying, and disseminating the complex phenotype data sets resulting from mutagenesis programs. Achieving these goals will require the biomedical research community to improve efficiencies, to reduce costs, and to coordinate international expertise and resources.


Traditional views of business intelligence have mainly focused on the physical and human aspects of the organization. This paper tries to show that a new information view of business activities can make a platform for developing business intelligence and support performance management. To do that, the paper proposes a new framework that can be used to provide high level of business intelligence for performance management usage. The framework introduces a hierarchy of performance influencers and a new methodology for managing them. The new methodology introduces a holistic view towards data mining concepts. The framework can be served as a blueprint for the companies which use any of ecommerce business models.


This study investigates whether importers of U.S. wheat form an integrated market or a series of segmented markets. Two market integration tests are applied: one based on equilibrium price relationships and one based on disequilibrium price relationships. With the exception of a few importers, both tests tend to agree. This study also seeks to explain the reasons for the wide divergence in prices paid by importers of U.S. wheat. We find that factors such as the class of wheat which is purchased and the size of annual purchases influence pricing. We also find that there continues to be large persistence difference in the prices paid by importers.


We describe the new basal abelisauroid dinosaur Austrocheirus isasii gen. et sp. nov. from the Late Cretaceous Pari Aike Formation of southwestern Patagonia, Argentina. The preserved remains include manual bones, a distal tibia, and some pedal and axial elements. Austrocheirus is differentiated from other basal theropods by the presence of metacarpal III with a dorsoventrally compressed shaft and posteriorly displaced collateral tendon fossae located at the same level of the proximal end of distal condyles, and pedal phalanges with a conspicuous longitudinal crest delimitating the dorsal margin of the distal collateral tendon fossae. A cladistic analysis recovered the new species as more derived than Ceratosaurus and Berberosaurus, but within a polytomy at the base of Abelisauroidea, an assignment supported by two abelisauroid synapomorphies: distal end of tibia with a planar vertical scar for the reception of the ascending process of the astragalus that occupies most of its anterior surface and is medially bounded by the longitudinally oriented facet; and scar for the reception of the ascending process with a median vertical ridge, which imbeds into a crescentic vertical groove on the posterior surface of the ascending process of the astragalus forming an interlocking tibiotarsal articulation. Furthermore, Austrocheirus represents the first known medium-sized Late Cretaceous abelisauroid bearing nonatrophied hands. The evidence provided here suggests that the strong reduction of the forelimb recorded in derived abelisaurids is not directly correlated with their increased body-size, but it seems to be an evolutionary event exclusive to this lineage within Ceratosauria.


Intrinsic temperature oscillations (with the amplitude up to 1 K) of a closed cycle cryocooler are stabilized by a simple thermal damping system. It employs three different materials with different thermal conductivity and specific heat at various temperatures. The amplitude of oscillations of the sample temperature is reduced to less than 1 mK, in the temperature range from 4 K to 300 K, while the cooling power is virtually undiminished. The damping system is small, inexpensive, can be retrofitted to most existing closed cycle cryocoolers, and may improve measurements of any temperature-sensitive physics properties.


We present the results of the first large-scale study of the uniqueness of Web browsing histories, gathered from a total of 368; 284 Internet users who visited a history detection demonstration website. Our results show that for a majority of users (69%), the browsing history is unique and that users for whom we could detect at least 4 visited websites were uniquely identified by their histories in 97% of cases. We observe a significant rate of stability in browser history fingerprints: for repeat visitors, 38% of fingerprints are identical over time, and differing ones were correlated with original history contents, indicating static browsing preferences (for history subvectors of size 50). We report a striking result that it is enough to test for a small number of pages in order to both enumerate users' interests and perform an efficient and unique behavioral fingerprint; we show that testing 50 web pages is enough to fingerprint 42% of users in our database, increasing to 70% with 500 web pages. Finally, we show that indirect history data, such as information about categories of visited websites can also be effective in fingerprinting users, and that similar fingerprinting can be performed by common script providers such as Google or Facebook.


We explore the effect of taxes on the prices of municipal bonds. Although interest is tax-exempt, the gain resulting from purchasing a muni at a deep discount below the so-called de minimis threshold is subject to severe tax treatment. The gain is taxed as ordinary income at maturity; currently for a typical investor the applicable rate is roughly 40%. Thus, purchasing a bond at 80 would trigger an 8-point tax liability. The paper develops a rigorous approach to the pricing of munis by incorporating taxes into the industry-standard OAS-based valuation framework. The key concept is tax-neutral value, which is simply the fair value that takes into account potential tax payments. Tax-neutral valuation allows us to explore how muni prices respond to changing interest rates. The basic insight is that due to the interaction of the purchase price and the related tax payment, discount munis are significantly more sensitive to interest rates than taxable bonds. For example, currently the duration of a 10-year taxable bond is roughly 8.5 years, while that of a 10-year muni can exceed 13 years. Tax-neutral valuation provides the foundation for accurately projecting the prices of munis under various interest rate scenarios. The primary application of this approach is risk management, including hedging. It is also essential for determining the optimum time to recognize a loss in order to maximize after-tax performance.


The 2007-2008 financial crisis was a pervasive shock that profoundly impacted the financial services industry. Often described as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, this event provides a unique opportunity to examine the consequences experienced by members of boards of directors and top management at bank holding companies for what shareholders may perceive as failures in oversight and excessive risk-taking. This study examines whether shareholders penalized top management at banks and provides some new evidence of the crisis's impact on management careers. Using the 36 largest American bank holding corporations by assets as a sample, we examine director re-election percentages and other director, management, and firm characteristics to determine the extent to which shareholders indicate their disapproval of banks' boards of directors during and after the financial crisis. By employing various methods of empirical analysis, including ordinary least squares regressions, two-sample t-tests, and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, we have determined with statistical confidence that the average number of shareholder votes in favor of bank director nominees decreased significantly at the end of and in the years immediately following the financial crisis. Further, we find that much of this decrease in shareholder approval can be attributed to several firm, board, and director-specific characteristics. These results have important corporate governance policy implications and may suggest additional avenues of exploration regarding this or other such industry-wide or macroeconomic crises. 48 Fordham Business Student Research Journal


Barrington Walker (ed.), The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Readings (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 2008), 304pp. Paper. £22.99. ISBN 9781551303406. Maria A. Wallis and Siu-ming Kwok (eds), Daily Struggles: The Deepening Racialization and Feminization of Poverty in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 2008), 307pp. Paper. £22.99. ISBN 9781551303390. These two books focus on different aspects of racism in Canada. One takes a historical perspective and the other deploys sociological approaches to examine contemporary Canada. They are both based upon previously published material and are organised as undergraduate student texts, with introductory chapters, succinct overviews of each section, annotated guides to further reading, and lists of relevant internet sources. The publisher's website (http://www.cspi.org) provides a link to sets of questions for tutors or students which might provide a basis for essays or class discussion. Barrington Walker's collection on immigration and racism is organised on broadly chronological lines with its first section beginning with the pre-European period and running to about the end of the eighteenth century and its last section bringing the reader to the end of the twentieth century. At the outset Walker argues that 'issues of race and immigration are not merely obscure sub-fields in Canada's social and cultural histories, but are integral to understanding the country's history as a whole' (p. 11). Part I begins with a chapter by Olive Dickason about the history of the Indigenous peoples prior to contact with Europeans. Other chapters include accounts of slavery in English Canada during the late eighteenth century (Robin Winks) and the experiences of Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia. Part II is thematically organised around the concepts of racialisation and space, including a chapter on the segregation of black students in Canada West in the nineteenth century and another on government responses to Chinese immigrants. Part III begins with a chapter outlining the ways in which the Canadian government allocated land for farming by First Nations and then impeded their agricultural development. The remaining three chapters cover urban developments and include discussion of the political context of industrial action and anti-semitism. The key metaphor for Part IV is 'gatekeeping', in particular with regard to immigration policies at the beginning of the twentieth century. Two chapters here, with contrasting arguments, analyse the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Part V, on the postwar era, is mainly about the experiences of women workers in the latter part of the twentieth century. Dionne Brand draws upon oral history to recount the experiences of Black women (1920s to the 1940s), while Franca Iacovetta covers the transitions of immigrants from agricultural southern Italy to postwar Toronto, and Daiva Stasiulis and Abigail Bakan provide a comparative analysis of West Indian and Filipina women's experiences of domestic work in Toronto. …


This thematically organized collection provides students with 49 essays that are models of the craft of writing non-fiction. The 8 carefully chosen themes explore the human experience and the individual's role in the world. Authors include David Mamet, Maxine Hong Kingston, Naomi Shihab Nye, E.B. White, Frank Conroy, Dave Barry, Rachel Carson, Anne Dillard, Douglas Adams, Edward Abbey, Isaac Asimov, Daniel Boorstin, Primo Levi, Paul Fussell, Garrison Keillor, Paul Theroux, Eudora Welty, James Baldwin, Amy Tan, and many more!


Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factor profile of coronary artery disease (CAD) in black South Africans. The study was motivated by the increased prevalence of CAD in South Africa, probably as a result of urbanisation. Despite this increase, however, very little is known regarding the cause, risk factor profile and clinical presentations of CAD in the black South African population. Design: A case control study was performed investigating 40 (33 men, 7 women) angiographically defined CAD patients and 20 (13 men and 7 women) age and body composition matched controls. Results: There was no difference in physical activity, sociodemographic factors or dietary intakes between the CAD and control group, except for the CAD patients consuming less vit C (40.9 vs 61.3 mg). The CAD group had significantly higher LDL-C, fasting glucose and CRP. There was also a significantly higher prevalence of smokers (35 vs 10%), hypertension (95 vs 75%) small dense LDL (73 vs 15%) and insulin resistance (M-value of 4.15 vs 12.5 mg/kg/min) in the CAD compared to the control group. In a logistic regression model, small dense LDL and insulin resistance were the main predictors of CAD. Conclusions: Black South African CAD patients had increased levels of the same risk factors that are typically seen in Caucasians with insulin resistance and small dense LDL being particularly significant in their contribution.


Similarity joins play an important role in many application areas, such as data integration and cleaning, record linkage, and pattern recognition. In this paper, we study efficient algorithms for similarity joins with an edit distance constraint. Currently, the most prevalent approach is based on extracting overlapping grams from strings and considering only strings that share a certain number of grams as candidates. Unlike these existing approaches, we propose a novel approach to edit similarity join based on extracting nonoverlapping substrings, or chunks, from strings. We propose a class of chunking schemes based on the notion of tail-restricted chunk boundary dictionary. A new algorithm, VChunkJoin, is designed by integrating existing filtering methods and several new filters unique to our chunk-based method. We also design a greedy algorithm to automatically select a good chunking scheme for a given data set. We demonstrate experimentally that the new algorithm is faster than alternative methods yet occupies less space.