An observer-independent formulation of rigid body dynamics is provided in the general setting of a Galilean spacetime. The equations governing the motion of a rigid body undergoing a rigid motion in a Galilean spacetime are derived on the basis of the principle of conservation of spatial momentum. The formulation of rigid body dynamics is then studied in the presence of an observer. It is seen that an observer defines a connection such that there exist rigid motions that are horizontal with respect to this connection that give the same physical motion of the rigid body, and for which the general equations of motion are exactly the usual Euler equations for a rigid body undergoing rigid motion.


The In-Between status is a position that a diasporic/migrant subject occupies while s/he is attached to two worlds. One of them is the home of origin and the other is the host home. This attachment is of two types. The first type is that which involves a severe confusion concerning both places and how to identify with each one of them. This confused attitude might result in either assimilation with the host country and a formation of a sense of inferiority about anything connected to the home of origin, or it can result in an exclusive style of life in which diasporic/migrant subjects detach themselves from the host society and practice their own religion and culture while nurturing a sense of superiority over the mainstream culture in the host country. The second type is the hybrid one through which the diasporic subject comes to maintain a good relationship with his/her home of origin and simultaneously live and communicate with the host society with a sense of responsibility towards it. That is, they maintain a sense of belonging to both cultures and the two halves of their hyphenated identity are reconciled. This hybrid position is what Homi K. Bhabha calls the third space which encourages creativity and civil communication. It is a manufactured space that one makes effort to attain. It is a new home in the imagination that heals the rift of the identity.
The study focuses on the formation of the image of home as it is very crucial when it comes to the problematic phase of the 'in-between' status. Some of the reasons behind migration is related to matters connected to the confinement of the body within rigid cultural patterns the defiance of which can lead in some cases to violence against the body, whether in the domestic private space or the public political one. It is also connected to constraint of liberalisms and inhibition of freedoms that renders home to be conceived as an exile for citizens. The Jewish-American and Arab-American narratives under study demonstrate this aspect of 'home as exile' and reflect the amount of culminating suffering and anxiety that direct the native's gaze towards the West. The liminal situation between home as 'exile' and the West as 'haven' is tackled in the Arab-American texts of Rabih Alameddine's I, the Divine (2001), and Mohja Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006); and is manifested also in the Jewish-American texts of Philip Roth's The Counterlife (1986), and Rebecca Goldstein's Mazel (1995).
The In-Between status that contributes to the crisis of identity for many diasporic/migrant subjects does not confine itself to specific territories particularly a territory known as the home of origin. The home can be an ideal image in the minds of the diasporic/migrant subjects but still they are attached to it in terms of the home culture that they keep and maintain while living in the host country. In this case, the concept of the nation plays a significant role in the making of kind of exclusion the migrant or diasporic community is prescribing upon itself.
The aim of the study is to investigate how the selected narratives handle the issue of diasporic/Migrant people who succumb to an identity crisis that in many occasions remain enduringly incurable. It illustrates the various images of home (whether 'ideal' or 'exilic') and its impact on the dilemma of identity. It also highlights the way according to which the narratives suggest solutions to that identity crisis.
My approach to this topic is done through the lenses of diaspora and migration theory as I am analysing issues of identity connected to the East vs West within the migration/diaspora spaces; I also rely on gender theory when it comes to female migrant/diasporc figures who experience inferiority/superiority complex connected with the home of origin. Homi Bhabha's theory of hybridity, mimicry and ambivalence are utilized to explain identity dilemmas within Eastern spaces influenced by the Western colonial and cultural hegemony. Stuart Hall's notion of cultural identity is also used to show the flexibility of the subject's identity, though it is still connected with the concepts of a nation, collective memory and common history. The notion of 'exile' is also used to explain the migrant/diasporic subject's tendency to leave the home of origin after experiencing a cultural identity crisis within an imagined liminal space.


Abstract The Ordovician Radiation exhibited a global transition in dominance from the Cambrian evolutionary fauna (e.g., trilobites), to the Paleozoic and Modern faunas (e.g., articulate brachiopods and bivalve molluscs). Although its causes have yet to be determined definitively, the transition coincided with increased global tectonism. Erosion of source areas uplifted during orogenic activity increased the siliciclastic richness of marine substrates in many venues, and it has been hypothesized previously that higher taxa with affinities for siliciclastics diversified in association with these environmental changes, whereas higher taxa not exhibiting such affinities either failed to radiate or declined in diversity. Here, we provide an initial test of this substrate affinity hypothesis by evaluating the Ordovician affinities of trilobites and articulate brachiopods. Our analyses—at the class level for both trilobites and articulate brachiopods, and at the order level for orthid and strophomenid brachiopods—were based on the affinities of constituent genera for siliciclastic, carbonate, and mixed siliciclastic/carbonate settings. Individual genus affinities are calculated with a database of genus occurrences encompassing nine Ordovician paleocontinents. Using these values, we developed a standardized relative affinity (SRA) metric to compare the propensities of higher taxa, and to assess changes in relative affinities of individual higher taxa from series to series. A simple comparison of trilobites and articulate brachiopods for the Ordovician in aggregate does not appear to support the substrate affinity hypothesis: articulate brachiopods, which contributed increasingly to overall diversity through the period, exhibit an overall affinity for carbonates and an aversion to siliciclastics. However, a rather different view emerges when we consider the affinity trajectories of higher taxa through the period: articulate brachiopods exhibit a growing affinity for siliciclastics and a declining affinity for carbonates, whereas the opposite is the case among trilobites. Among constituent articulate brachiopod orders, the affinity trajectories of orthids and strophomenids mirror that of the class. Thus, the increasing dominance of articulate brachiopods in the Middle and Late Ordovician may have been linked to the affinity for siliciclastics of a diversifying subset of the group, but further investigation will be required to verify this claim.


We investigate the effect of load balancing when performing Cholesky factorization on a massively parallel SIMD computer. In particular we describe a supernodal algorithm for performing sparse Cholesky factorization. The way the matrix is mapped onto the processors has significant effect on its efficiency. We show that this assignment problem can be modeled as a graph coloring problem in a weighted graph. By a simple greedy algorithm, we obtain substantial speedup compared with previously suggested data mapping schemes. Experimental runs have been made on a 16K processor MasPar MP-2 parallel computer using symmetric test matrices with irregular sparsity structure. On these problems our implementation achieves performance rates of well above 200 Mflops in double precision arithmetic.


Search and summarization of streaming social media, such as Twitter, requires the ongoing analysis of large volumes of data with dynamically changing characteristics. Tweets are short and repetitious – lacking context and structure – making it difficult to generate a coherent synopsis of events within a given time period. Although some established algorithms for frequent itemset analysis might provide an efficient foundation for synopsis generation, the unmodified application of standard methods produces a complex mass of rules, dominated by common language constructs and many trivial variations on topically related results. Moreover, these results are not necessarily specific to events within the time period of interest. To address these problems, we build upon the Linear time Closed itemset Mining (LCM) algorithm, which is particularly suited to the large and sparse vocabulary of tweets. LCM generates only closed itemsets, providing an immediate reduction in the number of trivial results. To reduce the impact of function words and common language constructs, we apply a filtering step that preserves these terms only when they may form part of a relevant collocation. To further reduce trivial results, we propose a novel strengthening of the closure condition of LCM to retain only those results that exceed a threshold of distinctiveness. Finally, we perform temporal ranking, based on information gain, to identify results that are particularly relevant to the time period of interest. We evaluate our work over a collection of tweets gathered in late 2012, exploring the efficiency and filtering characteristic of each processing step, both individually and collectively. Based on our experience, the resulting synopses from various time periods provide understandable and meaningful pictures of events within those periods, with potential application to tasks such as temporal summarization and query expansion for search.


This essay takes up the topic of the aesthetics of everyday object experience. In doing so, it strings together a series of fairly complex topics as a conceptual framework. Its focus is upon the nature of certain core features that appear to be at work in giving rise to this kind of experience. It especially considers the role of such features as the aura property of phenomenal objects and the self-activation of aestheticinterested attention. It gives a level of explanation to the crucial topic of why we tend to ignore taking an active interest in the aesthetic dimension of everyday objects. It also examines how we come to identify ordinary phenomena in contrast to extraordinary phenomena. Finally, certain issues surrounding the prospects for conceptually delimiting the scope of the field are considered.


Infrared sensor satellites are used to monitor the conditions in the earth's upper atmosphere. In these systems, the electronic links connecting the cryogenically cooled infrared detectors to the significantly warmer amplification electronics act as thermal bridges and, consequently, the mission lifetimes of the satellites are limited due to cryogenic evaporation. High-temperature superconductor (HTS) materials have been proposed by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley's Research Center (NASA-LaRC) as an alternative to the currently used manganin wires for electrical connection. The potential for using HTS films as thermal bridges has provided the motivation for the design and the analysis of a spaceflight experiment to evaluate the performance of this superconductive technology in the space environment. The initial efforts were focused on the preliminary design of the experimental system which allows for the quantitative comparison of superconductive leads with manganin leads, and on the thermal conduction modeling of the proposed system. Most of the HTS materials were indicated to be potential replacements for the manganin wires. In the continuation of this multi-year research, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the sources of heat transfer on the thermal bridges that have been neglected in the preliminary conductive model and then to develop a methodology for the estimation of the thermal conductivities of the HTS thermal bridges in space. The Joule heating created by the electrical current through the manganin wires was incorporated as a volumetric heat source into the manganin conductive model. The radiative heat source on the HTS thermal bridges was determined by performing a separate radiant interchange analysis within a high-T(sub c) superconductor housing area. Both heat sources indicated no significant contribution on the cryogenic heat load, which validates the results obtained in the preliminary conduction model. A methodology was presented for the estimation of the thermal conductivities of the individual HTS thermal bridge materials and the effective thermal conductivities of the composite HTS thermal bridges as functions of temperature. This methodology included a sensitivity analysis and the demonstration of the estimation procedure using simulated data with added random errors. The thermal conductivities could not be estimated as functions of temperature; thus the effective thermal conductivities of the HTS thermal bridges were analyzed as constants.


The Ovarian cancer G protein-coupled Receptor 1 (OGR1; GPR68) is proton-sensitive in the pH range of 6.8 - 7.8. However, its physiological function is not defined to date. OGR1 signals via inositol trisphosphate and intracellular calcium, albeit downstream events are unclear. To elucidate OGR1 function further, we transfected HEK293 cells with active OGR1 receptor or a mutant lacking 5 histidine residues (H5Phe-OGR1). An acute switch of extracellular pH from 8 to 7.1 (10 nmol/l vs 90 nmol/l protons) stimulated NHE and H+-ATPase activity in OGR1-transfected cells, but not in H5Phe-OGR1-transfected cells. ZnCl2 and CuCl2 that both inhibit OGR1 reduced the stimulatory effect. The activity was blocked by chelerythrine, whereas the ERK1/2 inhibitor PD 098059 had no inhibitory effect. OGR1 activation increased intracellular calcium in transfected HEK293 cells. We next isolated proximal tubules from kidneys of wild-type and OGR1-deficient mice and measured the effect of extracellular pH on NHE activity in vitro. Deletion of OGR1 affected the pH-dependent proton extrusion, however, in the opposite direction as expected from cell culture experiments. Upregulated expression of the pH-sensitive kinase Pyk2 in OGR1 KO mouse proximal tubule cells may compensate for the loss of OGR1. Thus, we present the first evidence that OGR1 modulates the activity of two major plasma membrane proton transport systems. OGR1 may be involved in the regulation of plasma membrane transport proteins and intra- and/or extracellular pH.


Here we demonstrate the applicability of using altimetry data and Landsat imagery to provide the most accurate digital elevation model (DEM) of Australia's largest playa lake - Lake Eyre. We demonstrate through the use of geospatial techniques a robust assessment of lake area and volume of recent lake-filling episodes whilst also providing the most accurate estimates of area and volume for larger lake filling episodes that occurred throughout the last glacial cycle. We highlight that at a depth of 25 m Lake Mega-Eyre would merge with the adjacent Lake Mega-Frome to form an immense waterbody with a combined area of almost 35,000 km**2 and a combined volume of ~520 km**3. This would represent a vast water body in what is now the arid interior of the Australian continent. The improved DEM is more reliable from a geomorphological and hydrological perspective and allows a more accurate assessment of water balance under the modern hydrological regime. The results presented using GLAS/ICESat data suggest that earlier historical soundings were correct and the actual lowest topographic point in Australia is -15.6 m below sea level. The results also contrast nicely the different basin characteristics of two adjacent lake systems; Lake Eyre and Lake Frome.


This research is a conceptual replication of a study by Browne, Pitts, and Wetherbe (2007) that explores information stopping rules in an online search context. Information stopping rules consider the cognitive reasons decision makers determine when enough information is collected to make a decision. Previous research outlines five stopping rules decision makers use and applies them in different decision context. The original research considers three information search tasks (search for a television, map, and job) and hypothesizes the relationship between structure of the task and the stopping rule employed. This research replicates that study in a new information environment with new search methodologies and technology. We find that structured tasks use similar stopping rules to the original study; however further analysis shows distinct differences in the nature of the two tasks presented. Poorly structured tasks potentially involve the use of different stopping rules than previously determined. The updated findings suggest information systems used for poorly structured search tasks might also benefit from highlighting the uniqueness of information in order to encourage a user to continue searching for information.


The challenge this thesis addresses is to speed up the development of concurrent programs by increasing the efficiency with which concurrent programs can be tested and consequently evolved. The goal of this thesis is to generate methods and tools that help software engineers increase confidence in the correct operation of their programs. To achieve this goal, this thesis advocates testing of concurrent software using a systematic approach capable of enumerating possible executions of a concurrent program.
The practicality of the systematic testing approach is demonstrated by presenting a novel software infrastructure that repeatedly executes a program test, controlling the order in which concurrent events happen so that different behaviors can be explored across different test executions. By doing so, systematic testing circumvents the limitations of traditional ad-hoc testing, which relies on chance to discover concurrency errors.
However, the idea of systematic testing alone does not quite solve the problem of concurrent software testing. The combinatorial nature of the number of ways in which concurrent events of a program can execute causes an explosion of the number of possible interleavings of these events, a problem referred to as state space explosion.
To address the state space explosion problem, this thesis studies techniques for quantifying the extent of state space explosion and explores several directions for mitigating state space explosion: parallel state space exploration, restricted runtime scheduling, and abstraction reduction. In the course of its research exploration, this thesis pushes the practical limits of systematic testing by orders of magnitude, scaling systematic testing to real-world programs of unprecedented complexity.


We conducted an acoustic-trawl (AT) survey of the eastern Bering Sea during the 2014 Bering Arctic Subarctic Integrated Survey (BASIS). Because of the mixed species assemblages in the study area, we implemented proportional allocation of backscatter to the multiple species found in the trawl catch samples, modeled after the methods used for the 2011-2012 BASIS survey analysis. The abundance of age-0 walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) was estimated by combining acoustic measurements, the acoustic scattering properties of the dominant organisms, and the relative proportions of animals from trawl samples. Our survey results found that age-0 pollock dominated the near-surface and midwater fishes by number and we estimate their numerical abundance at 6.85 × 1011 fish. This estimate is approximately 9 times higher than what was reported in 2011 and 3.5 times higher than what was reported in 2012. Nearly half of the overall age-0 abundance was observed in the upper 30 m of the water column. Spatially, the highest numerical densities of age-0 pollock were observed where bottom depths were less than 75 m. Sensitivity analyses indicated that both the method used to assign length and species composition from trawl hauls to backscatter (expert assignment versus using the nearest haul) had a relatively modest impact on our estimates of age-0 pollock abundance. However, both the use of 1) a trawl selectivity function to account for escapement of small fish and 2) an alternative pollock target strength-length relationship that included observations of age-0 pollock changed abundance estimates by as much as 22%. These findings suggest that more research is needed in these areas to obtain more accurate abundance estimates.


Background and Purpose There have been relatively few community-based studies of long-term prognosis after acute stroke. This study aimed to provide precise estimates of the absolute and relative risks of dying in an unselected cohort of patients with a first-ever stroke. Methods Six hundred seventy-five patients were registered by a community-based stroke register (the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project) and prospectively followed up for up to 6.5 years. Their relative risk of death was calculated using age- and sex-specific mortality rates for Oxfordshire. Results During the first 30 days, 129 (19%) patients died. Patients who survived at least 30 days after a first-ever stroke thereafter had an average annual risk of death of 9.1%, 2.3 -fold the risk in people from the general population. Although the absolute (about 15%) and relative (about threefold) risks of death were highest in these 30-day survivors over the first year after the stroke, they were at increased risk of dying over the next few years (range of relative risk for individual years, 1.1-2.9). Predictably, older patients had a worse absolute survival but, relative to the general population, stroke also increased the relative risk of dying in younger patients. During the first 30 days stroke accounts for most deaths; after this time nonstroke cardiovascular disease becomes increasingly important and is the most common cause of death after the first year. Conclusions These data highlight the importance of long-term secondary prevention of vascular events in stroke patients, targeted as much at the cardiovascular as at the cerebrovascular circulation.


If Big Brother made movies, persistent aerial surveillance would be its masterpiece. Small airplanes are rigged with high-tech cameras that can continuously transmit real-time images to the ground. The aircraft is able to monitor an area of thirty square miles for ten hours at a time. This technology allows video analysts to zoom in and track the location of vehicles, and even people. It was originally designed for military use during the Iraq War, but since then, it has been adapted for civilian applications. In 2016, the Baltimore Police Department contracted with Persistent Surveillance Systems to carry out a trial run of aerial surveillance over the city. The public was not informed that they were being watched every day. The Supreme Court has long held that aerial surveillance itself does not constitute a search for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment. The persistency of this new kind of reconnaissance changes the calculus. Specialized airplanes enable law enforcement agencies to survey sizable regions for hours on end. It is precisely this power that makes persistent aerial surveillance more like constant GPS monitoring, which the Court has already considered a search. These modes of long-term observation are intrusive and violate a reasonable expectation of privacy. Police action must be analyzed over time as a collective sequence of steps, not just an individual instance. The aggregate search can qualify under the Fourth Amendment, even if the individual steps did not. This is because prolonged surveillance reveals privacies and intimate details of life that short-term surveillance does not. Repetition, indeed habit, are cornerstones of personality and identity. People may reasonably expect some form of surveillance. People may also expect those observations to remain disconnected and nondescript. This technology presents intriguing opportunities for law enforcement departments, in the investigation of crime, the presentation of evidence at trial, deterrence and crime reduction, exonerating the wrongfully convicted, and even traffic management and highway control. These advantages are not enough—and will never be enough—to avoid the command of the Constitution. Over time, the public has become more accepting of the surveillance state. The Constitution remains a counter-majoritarian check on the government. Absent probable cause and a warrant, persistent aerial surveillance is an unreasonable search that violates the Fourth Amendment.


We describe the role of information management in redesign programs: why it is needed, how it is at present being developed through international cooperation in the Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM) project, and we give some examples how information management has been used in practice at Statistics Netherlands. We conclude that GSIM is necessary for more extensive usage of big data sources, for interoperability of statistical tools and for sharing tools between NSIs.


The Atrevida vein is located at the south-western edge of the Catalonian Coastal Ranges, Spain. This vein extends for more than 3 km and is hosted by Silurian and Carboniferous metasediments, late Hercynian granites and continental conglomerates of Lower Triassic age. The Silurian metasediments contain massive sulphide layers with disseminations of platinum-group element (PGE)-bearing, Fe-Ni arsenides. Vein fi lling largely consists of banded and brecciated baryte rimmed by a complex polymetallic assemblage of Co-Ni-As-Bi-Ag(-U) ores. The Ni arsenide and sulpharsenide assemblage occurs only where the vein cuts the sulphide-bearing Silurian metasediments, and consists of nickeline, maucherite, rammelsbergite, gersdorffi te and Ni-skutterudite. These Ni arsenides and sulpharsenides display rosettes, spherules, colloform and botryoidal textures, as well as subhedral crystals. The chemical compositions of these arsenide-sulpharsenide minerals exhibit limited cation substitution but substantial anion substitution of As by S and Sb, exceeding the expected theoretical values at low temperatures. This suggests that most of them formed under disequilibrium conditions. Ni arsenides and sulpharsenides also contain trace PGE. Palladium (up to 157 ppm) is the most abundant PGE, and occurs in solid-solution in all the phases studied, but shows the highest values in rammelsbergite and Niskutterudite. Pt only occurs in massive nickeline (54–1338 ppm Pt) and in zoned gersdorffi te (29–360 ppm Pt) formed at the end of the depositional sequence of arsenides. The Ni arsenide and sulpharsenide ores at the Atrevida mine formed by reduction of PGE-bearing, oxidizing fl uids at temperatures close to, or slightly above 100 °C. These oxidizing fl uids most probably collected their PGE budget from the nearby mineralized black shales. During the crystallization of the veined, Ni arsenide and sulpharsenide ores, Pd partly concentrated in the early nickeline and maucherite, but mainly fractionated to the late solutions from which rammelsbergite and Ni-skutterudite precipitated. Pt concentrated only in the latest nickeline and gersdorffi te.


OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of diabetes care in Oman.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional observational study. Fifty percent of all those attending six general health centres in June 2005 were systematically selected for the study. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data.

RESULTS
A total of 430 diabetic subjects were included. Just over 61% percent of the subjects were female (n = 263). The overall mean age of the cohort was 52 ± 12 years ranging from 6 to 84 years. Only 40% (n = 171) and 39% (n = 169) of the diabetics had their random blood sugar (RBS) and fasting blood sugar (FBS) documented, respectively. However, 79% (n = 339) had either RBS or FBS done according to the records. Documentation for the other measurements ranged from 74% (n = 317) for HbA1c and LDL (low density lipoproteins)-cholesterol to 95% (n = 409) for systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP) readings. A total of 58% (n = 249) of patients had non-missing values of HbA1c, SBP/DBP, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL (high density lipoproteins)-cholesterol, and triglycerides. Only 2.4% (6 out of 249 diabetics) were simultaneously within goal for HbA1c (<7%), SBP/DBP (<=130/80mmHg), total cholesterol (<5.2mmol/L), LDL-cholesterol (<3.3mmol/L), HDL-cholesterol (>1.1 - <1.68mmol/L), and triglycerides (<1.8mmol/L).

CONCLUSION
There was good documentation of values for the indicators used in the assessment of quality. However, the proportion (2.4%) of those meeting internationally recognised goals for the three diabetes-related factors was extremely low.


Even though multi-photon fluorescence microscopy offers higher resolution and better penetration depth than traditional fluorescence microscopy, its use is restricted to the detection of molecules that fluoresce. Two-photon absorption (TPA) imaging can provide contrast in non-fluorescent molecules while retaining the high resolution and sectioning capabilities of nonlinear imaging modalities. In the long-wavelength water window, tissue TPA is dominated by the endogenous molecules melanin and hemoglobin with an almost complete absence of endogenous two-photon fluorescence. A complementary nonlinear contrast mechanism is self-phase modulation (SPM), which can provide intrinsic signatures that can depend on local tissue anisotropy, chemical environment, or other structural properties. We have developed a spectral hole refilling measurement technique for TPA and SPM measurements using shaped ultrafast laser pulses. Here we report on a microscopy setup to simultaneously acquire 3D, high-resolution TPA and SPM images. We have acquired data in mounted B16 melanoma cells with very modest laser power levels. We will also discuss the possible application of this measurement technique to neuronal imaging. Since SPM is sensitive to material structure we can expect SPM properties of neurons to change during neuronal firing. Using our hole-refilling technique we have now demonstrated strong novel intrinsic nonlinear signatures of neuronal activation in a hippocampal brain slice. The observed changes in nonlinear signal upon collective activation were up to factors of two, unlike other intrinsic optical signal changes on the percent level. These results show that TPA and SPM imaging can provide important novel functional contrast in tissue using very modest power levels suitable for in vivo applications.


The high pressure (HP) turbine is subject to inlet flow nonuniformities resulting from the combustor. A lean-burn combustor tends to combine temperature variations with strong swirl and, although considerable research efforts have been made to study the effects of a circumferential temperature nonuniformity (hot-streak), there is relatively little known about the interaction between the two. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the transonic test HP stage MT1 behavior under the combined influence of the swirl and hot-streak. The in house Rolls-Royce HYDRA numerical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) suite is used for all the simulations of the present study. Baseline configurations with either hot-streak or swirl at the stage inlet are analyzed to assess the methodology and to identify reference performance parameters through comparisons with the experimental data. Extensive computational analyses are then carried out for the cases with hot-streak and swirl combined, including both the effects of the combustor-nozzle guide vane (NGV) clocking and the direction of the swirl. The present results for the combined hot-streak and swirl cases reveal distinctive radial migrations of hot fluid in the NGV and rotor passages with considerable impact on the aerothermal performance. It is illustrated that the blade heat transfer characteristics and their dependence on the clocking position can be strongly affected by the swirl direction. A further computational examination is carried out on the validity of a superposition of the influences of swirl and hot-streak. It shows that the blade heat transfer in a combined swirl and hot-streak case cannot be predicted by the superposition of each in isolation.


This thesis examines the evolution of pre-industrial shoemaking in London
and Paris between the 1680s and the 1850s, treating this period as a whole. The
relevance of these two cities is based on the international role they played in the
clothing sector. Both cities not only dominated national manufacturing, but were
able to influence the standard of production and European fashion. My research
aims to construct a comparison of the two productive centres leading to a
contrasting study of pre-conditions, strategies and influences in shoemaking.
The starting point is a broad view of the 'regulative framework' of the sector:
the importance of the raw material market (leather and textiles) and the role of
guilds, their organisation and their control of the market. A chapter dedicated to
consumption explores the relationship between the London shoe market and the
influence of Parisian fashion. The interest in consumption is motivated also by
the debate on what economic and social historians consider to be 'mass
production' as the other face of 'mass consumption'. A chapter dedicated to
retailing tries to link consumption to production. My research is then focused on
a study of the organisation of production in the two cities. Different typologies of
producers are related to different consumer choices showing how new consumer
practices and retailing facilities re-shaped production. Finally the link between
fashion changes and marketing techniques (for instance the use of sizes, brands
or the distinction between right and left shoes) is a fruitful field of comparative
research.
The last two chapters of the thesis focus on the first half of the nineteenth
century. Particular attention is dedicated to the importation into England of large
quantities of women's shoes from France. The crisis that the London sector faced
after 1815 explains a series of changes in the market and in the role played by the
British metropolis in directing the sector. Very different appears to be the Parisian
case, where provincial producers flourished only after the mechanisation of the
sector. By the 1850s mechanisation meant the beginning of a new phase in the
trade.


Elevating the lipid content in vegetative tissues has emerged as a new strategy for increasing energy density and biofuel yield of crops. Storage lipids in contrast to structural and signaling lipids are mainly composed of glycerol esters of fatty acids, also known as triacylglycerol (TAG). TAGs are one of the most energy-rich and abundant forms of reduced carbon available in nature. Therefore, altering the carbon-partitioning balance in favour of TAG in vegetative tissues of sugarcane, one of the highest yielding biomass crops, is expected to drastically increase energy yields. Here we report metabolic engineering to elevate TAG accumulation in vegetative tissues of sugarcane. Constitutive co-expression of WRINKLED1 (WRI1), diacylglycerol acyltransferase1-2 (DGAT1-2) and oleosin1 (OLE1) and simultaneous cosuppression of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) and a subunit of the peroxisomal ABC transporter1 (PXA1) in transgenic sugarcane elevated TAG accumulation in leaves or stems by 95- or 43-fold to 1.9% or 0.9% of dry weight (DW), respectively, while expression or suppression of one to three of the target genes increased TAG levels by 1.5- to 9.5-fold. Accumulation of TAG in vegetative progeny plants was consistent with the results from primary transgenics and contributed to a total fatty acid content of up to 4.7% or 1.7% of DW in mature leaves or stems, respectively. Lipid droplets were visible within mesophyll cells of transgenic leaves by confocal fluorescence microscopy. These results provide the basis for optimizations of TAG accumulation in sugarcane and other high yielding biomass grasses and will open new prospects for biofuel applications.


The Recast Reception Conditions Directive (RCDr; Directive 2013/33/EU) constitutes an improvement with regard to the reception conditions that member states are required to provide for those seeking international protection. However, it still envisages the possibility for member states to reduce or withdraw material reception conditions and to grant less favourable treatment to international protection applicants compared to nationals where it is 'duly justified'. This may potentially lead member states to grant unacceptably low levels of material reception conditions and could be below what is an adequate standard of living as required under the directive itself. Using the lens of the right to human dignity, the article examines selected cases of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in order to see how the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights (EUCFR) may assist in ensuring that the implementation of the RCDr by the member states provides for adequate and dignified standard of living conditions for those seeking international protection.


There are two major public blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus rubus Watson) breeding programs in the United States: one at the University of Arkansas (UA) and another at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Horticultural Crops Research Unit (USDA-ARS HCRU) based in Corvallis, OR. The germplasm and breeding objectives of these two breeding programs are diverse, but frequent collaboration necessitated a standardized method of characterizing plant and fruit traits. A phenotyping protocol for blackberry was developed at UA and implemented for two years on UA seedling populations. The protocol included plant traits (health, vigor, estimated crop load, peak bloom date, and number of canes) and fruit compositional traits (firmness by compression, berry weight, soluble solids content, pH, and titratable acidity). Multivariate analysis indicated that quantitative measurements, rather than qualitative, were best for phenotypic resolution, particularly for specific traits contributing to larger overall characteristics. Fruit compositional traits were evaluated on juice from one year from populations of blackberries grown at UA and UDSA-ARS HCRU, and included soluble solids content, pH, titratable acidity, and organic acids and sugars. Analysis of variance of fruit compositional traits indicated that population means in UA material had more significant differences for several attributes when compared to USDA-ARS HCRU material. Generally, UA seedlings had lower soluble solids content, higher pH, and lower titratable acidity as well as acid content than USDA-ARS HCRU seedlings. Another interesting attribute of fresh-market blackberries is red drupelet reversion, a postharvest phenomenon in which drupelets on the berry turn red. Nine UA advanced selections and cultivars were harvested at different times of days and evaluated for weight lost by berry, change in firmness, and incidence of red drupelet reversion after storage. Results indicated that a novel "crispy" genotype performed better than other genotypes in regard to red drupelet reversion. However, for both change in firmness and incidence of reversion, a significant genotype and harvest time interaction effect was observed. Overall, it is suggested that growers harvest blackberries at earlier, cooler times to avoid the postharvest disorder, regardless of genotype.


The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), passed in 2018, outlined new data privacy standards applying to residents of the European Union (EU). The impact of this law stretches beyond the EU to anyone - such as researchers across the world - collecting or processing data from EU residents. Researchers have had to augment their methodologies to ensure GDPR compliance. This initiative intersects with at-scale educational programs, which often enroll EU students and are also often the subject of institutional research. While creating a study to research students in an online Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) program, some of whom are in the EU, we encountered difficulties with ensuring GDPR compliance. This paper discusses the implications of the GDPR related to both general research and our specific study. We discuss the challenges of interpreting the GDPR and integrating it into our methodology as well as potential solutions, our ultimate resolution, and practical recommendations, and we consider what the future of data privacy legislation means for researchers.


Stump harvesting is defined as an intensification of forest management in comparison with stem‐only harvesting and removal of tops and branches. It increases soil mixing and the proportion of bare soil. In contrast to earlier hypotheses, stump harvesting was found to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide, and methane in the short term. In the long term, heterotrophic soil CO2 evolution is reduced. Both model and empirical studies indicate that stump removal can reduce the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in the short term, but long‐term experiments (32–39 years) could not verify any SOC decline. Life cycle assessment studies showed that stumps as fuel resulted in markedly lower emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere, viewed over a whole forest rotation compared to heating by natural gas and coal. Stump removal does not seem to affect timber production in the next forest rotation and often reduces the infection rate of root rot. It increases the natural regeneration of birch and pine, it can increase nitrate leaching at N‐rich sites, and it can increase the number of water‐filled cavities where methylmercury is formed. Stump extraction decreases the amount of dwarf shrubs in young clear‐cuts, but after 1–2 decades, these species are generally recovered. Many species dependent on dead wood are adversely affected by intense stump harvest. Model studies suggest that the risk of species extinction is small when only 10% of the total clear‐cut area in the forest landscape is stump harvested, but the risk of extinction rises at increasing extraction intensities.


Unplanned off-task thinking (mind wandering) is a common ephemeral experience which has recently received increased scientific and clinical attention. This thesis investigated continuity between unplanned thought and memory processes and sought to show that mind wandering may disrupt pleasurable experience in dysphoria. The literature review aimed to determine whether the constructs of involuntary autobiographical memory and retrospective mind wandering describe the same phenomenon. The memory literature suggested four predictions about the correlates of retrospective mind wandering. A review of 11 mind wandering studies found some support for the prediction that unplanned thoughts are less subject to executive control when they are retrospective. Predictions about the cueing, recall probability and content biases of retrospective mind wandering require further research. Contextualisation in the memory literature offers promise for better understanding the causes and content of mind wandering. The empirical paper tested the hypothesis that mind wandering is a causal mechanism of disrupted pleasure (anhedonia). An unselected sample of 49 participants underwent positive mood inductions with and without distraction, followed by a task training inhibitory control of negative material and repeated mood inductions. Negative distraction successfully increased mind wandering and reduced sadness repair from positive material but these attenuations were not altered by inhibitory control training. Longer training and more precise manipulations of mind wandering were suggested for future studies. The critical appraisal noted some of the challenges encountered in pursing the aims of the thesis, proposed some improvements to mind wandering measurement in light of recent theoretical developments and outlined how errors in affective forecasting for memories, encountered anecdotally during testing, might be studied empirically.


Small businesses located in the most sparsely populated and peripheral parts of Europe are frequently believed to be marginalised with respect to the processes of economic globalisation. This thesis proposes to explore an alternative perspective for understanding how small businesses that are located at the geographical margins engage with the globalised economy. Distance is no longer a purely physical phenomenon. Meanwhile, networks are considered to be the primary means for small firms to mobilise external resources and stay competitive. Acknowledging these conceptual shifts, this thesis explores how peripheral small businesses develop network configurations with multiple actors across multiple geographical scales to engage in the global economy.This thesis consists of four papers and a cover essay. The four papers share the theme of the network interaction of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in peripheral regions and discuss this theme from various perspectives with different research questions. The papers use combinations of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods to empirically investigate the configuration of small firm networks in the case study of Upper Norrland in Sweden.The cover essay introduces the overarching conceptual framework that is grounded in ideas from the seminal work of Granovetter on the social embeddedness of economic interactions and the 'strength of weak ties', and this essay contributes to the debate in geography on multi-scalar proximity dynamics. The empirical findings of the papers describe the collaborative and transactional forms of firm relations in peripheral regions and discuss the role of key actors—such as international customers or regional intermediary organisations—in bridging the local and extra-local dimensions of small firm networks. The conceptual contribution of this thesis corroborates the understanding that small firm development requires a balance between regional and international networks. This thesis also contributes to the debate on development policies for peripheral regions by offering insights into the manner in which institutional support for the design and implementation of open, flexible network arrangements may provide a leverage effect for small firm development.


Modeling and experiments help explain responsiveness of red blood cell precursors to very large changes in a proliferative signal. The supply of red blood cells in mammals is controlled by the cytokine erythropoietin (EPO). In physiological situations, the concentration of EPO can change by 1000-fold. Becker et al. used a combination of mathematical modeling and experimental analysis to discern how cells can maintain a linear response to such a broad range of EPO concentrations. Critical features included internalization of EPO-bound receptors and subsequent degradation of the EPO ligand. Replenishment of receptors at the cell surface required a large supply of EPO receptors maintained in reserve inside the cell. These mechanisms allow cells to experience large increases in EPO concentration without becoming refractory to further stimulation. V. Becker, M. Schilling, J. Bachmann, U. Baumann, A. Raue, T. Maiwald, J. Timmer, U. Klingmüller, Covering a broad dynamic range: Information processing at the erythropoietin receptor. Science 328, 1404–1408 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


If you're familiar with HTML, you can quickly learn how to build interactive, data-driven websites with the powerful combination of PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript - the top technologies for creating modern sites. This hands-on guide explains each technology separately, shows you how to combine them, and introduces valuable web programming concepts such as objects, XHTML, cookies, and session management. Carefully paced for non-programmers, this second edition provides an extensive introduction to CSS, and benefits from reader questions and suggestions. You'll practice what you've learned with review questions in each chapter, and a sample social networking platform built with the elements introduced in this book. Understand PHP essentials and the basics of object-oriented programming Master MySQL, from database structure to complex queries Create web pages with PHP and MySQL by integrating forms and other HTML features Learn about JavaScript, from functions and event handling to accessing the Document Object Model Pick up the basics of CSS and see its role in web pages and JavaScript programming Make Ajax calls and turn your website into a highly dynamic environment Upload and manipulate files and images, validate user input, and secure your applications


The aim of this research is to provide perspectives on how entrepreneurial practitioners, specifically owners of high-tech small firms (HTSFs), engage with knowledge transfer and learn. The authors draw on extant research and report on the views and observations of the principals in two case study companies in the HTSF sector with regard to growing their ventures and developing learning while part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme. Entrepreneurial learning is an area of significant interest due to the growth of entrepreneurship and the varied ways in which learning can take place. There are many different interventions that can be used to transfer knowledge and develop learning, but there is limited, if any, consensus on their respective effectiveness. The researchers used an ethnographic approach in two companies over an 18-month period. The study concludes that the KTP intervention facilitates an opportunity for learning through disruption, with the key barrier to any new learning being established practice. Interestingly, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial learning is greatly facilitated by 'on-the-job' learning.


Background and Aim: Mucositis, one of the vulnerabilities of chemotherapy, affects the physiological activities and therapeutic strategies of patients because it can affect the normal cell population. Etoposide is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent for cancers such as oral, lung, and gastrointestinal. In addition to the abnormal metabolic processes in the body caused by tumorigenesis, new metabolic alterations can occur, such as oxidative stress, antioxidant imbalance, and inflammatory reactions, all of which can contribute to existing patient vulnerability. Therapeutic adjuvants can help overcome these toxic effects. Spondias pinnata is a tropical tree omnipresent in the coastal and Western Ghat section of India that is used for culinary purposes and as a local analgesic. Therefore, we aimed to study the anti-inflammatory effects of S. pinnata in an etoposide-induced mucositis rat model. Materials and Methods: Small intestinal tissue homogenates from albino Wistar rats were used to estimate the levels of glutathione (GSH) and nitric oxide (NO), and activities of total antioxidant (TAO), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and Na+-K+ ATPase. The animals were grouped into: (1) normal control, (2) etoposide-induced mucositis (65 mg/kg bodyweight, single IP dose), (3) S. pinnata control group, and (4) etoposide followed by S. pinnata bark extract (200 mg/kg bodyweight, once in a day). Animals were sacrificed after 24, 48, 72, and 96 h and compared with that of the normal control group (n=6). Statistical analysis was performed using EZR software. Results: We observed a significant decrease in the TAO and GSH levels with a marked increase in NO, MPO, and Na+-K+ ATPase activity in the mucositis group. A tendency to recover from the decreased TAO and GSH levels existed in the treated group, showing the protective effects of S. pinnata bark extract against mucositis. In addition, this extract also showed anti-inflammatory effects as reflected by the recovery in MPO levels at the end of 96 h. Maintenance of Na+-K+ ATPase activity in the treated group demonstrates the protective effects of the extract against the increased levels observed in the etoposide-induced mucositis group. Conclusion: This study revealed the protective effects of S. pinnata bark extract against the oxidative and inflammatory changes that occurred during the development ofmucositis. This would decrease the pathological burden during chemotherapy and prevent any hurdles in therapeutic modalities.


The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its revised form (RUSLE) are the soil erosion models incorporated into the EROSION 6.0 software. This, in turn, is the soil conservation planning tool used to fulfill the soil conservation regulations in Uruguay. The objective of this technical note was to use the methodology proposed by Renard and Freimund (1994) to update the rainfall erosivity factor (R factor) values incorporated into the EROSION 6.0 software. Additionally, it had the following specific objectives: to evaluate the impact of the length of the rainfall data series on the estimation of the R factor and to compare the updated values to the ones that are currently used. The rainfall data base used to estimate the R factor comprises the 1980-2009 period in different Uruguay locations. The equations used in this work allowed to update the R factor, and to obtain R factor values that agree with published R values for the region. The regression line intercept and slope between the 30 yr R factor estimated by both equations did not differ from zero (P < 0.29), and one (P < 0.70), respectively. The length of rainfall data series affects the R factor value, given the high interannual rainfall variability. We recommend using R factors based on 30 years of pluviometric records.


On 19 July 2016, three medical organisations filed a federal lawsuit against representatives from several Vermont agencies over the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act. The law is similar to aid-in-dying (AID) laws in four other US states, but the lawsuit hinges on a distinctive aspect of Vermont's law pertaining to patients' rights to information. The lawsuit raises questions about whether, and under what circumstances, there is an ethical obligation to inform terminally ill patients about AID as an end-of-life option. Much of the literature on clinical communication about AID addresses how physicians should respond to patient requests for assisted dying, but neglects the question of how physicians should approach patients who may not know enough about AID to request it. In this article, I examine the possibility of an affirmative duty to inform terminally ill patients about AID in light of ethical concerns about professional responsibilities to patients and the maintenance of the patient–provider relationship. I suggest that we should not take for granted that communication about AID ought to be patient-initiated, and that there may be circumstances in which physicians have good reasons to introduce the topic themselves. By identifying ethical considerations that ought to inform such discussions, I aim to set an agenda for future bioethical research that adopts a broader perspective on clinical communication about AID.


This study is concerned with the numerical solution of certain stochastic models of chemical reactions. Such descriptions have been shown to be useful tools when studying biochemical processes inside living cells where classical deterministic rate equations fail to reproduce actual behavior. The main contribution of this thesis lies in its theoretical and practical investigation of different methods for obtaining numerical solutions to such descriptions. In a preliminary study, a simple but often quite effective approach to the moment closure problem is examined. A more advanced program is then developed for obtaining a consistent representation of the high dimensional probability density of the solution. The proposed method gains efficiency by utilizing a rapidly converging representation of certain functions defined over the semi-infinite integer lattice. Another contribution of this study, where the focus instead is on the spatially distributed case, is a suggestion for how to obtain a consistent stochastic reaction-diffusion model over an unstructured grid. Here it is also shown how to efficiently collect samples from the resulting model by making use of a hybrid method. In a final study, a time-parallel stochastic simulation algorithm is suggested and analyzed. Efficiency is here achieved by moving parts of the solution phase into the deterministic regime given that a parallel architecture is available. Necessary background material is developed in three chapters in this summary. An introductory chapter on an accessible level motivates the purpose of considering stochastic models in applied physics. In a second chapter the actual stochastic models considered are developed in a multi-faceted way. Finally, the current state-of-the-art in numerical solution methods is summarized and commented upon.


Life science researchers use computational models to articulate and test hypotheses about the behavior of biological systems. Semantic annotation is a critical component for enhancing the interoperability and reusability of such models as well as for the integration of the data needed for model parameterization and validation. Encoded as machine-readable links to knowledge resource terms, semantic annotations describe the computational or biological meaning of what models and data represent. These annotations help researchers find and repurpose models, accelerate model composition, and enable knowledge integration across model repositories and experimental data stores. However, realizing the potential benefits of semantic annotation requires the development of model annotation standards that adhere to a community-based annotation protocol. Without such standards, tool developers must account for a variety of annotation formats and approaches, a situation that can become prohibitively cumbersome and which can defeat the purpose of linking model elements to controlled knowledge resource terms. Currently, no consensus protocol for semantic annotation exists among the larger biological modeling community. Here, we report on the landscape of current semantic annotation practices among the COmputational Modeling in BIology NEtwork (COMBINE) community and provide a set of recommendations for building a consensus approach to semantic annotation.


When a road accident occurs, the police communications officer, or 911 operator, generally receives the first call. If the caller reports injuries, the emergency medical services dispatcher is notified immediately; but if the caller is uncertain of injuries, the operator may wait. Most often an ambulance is not needed. However, in nearly 20% of fatal road accidents in Missouri, waiting for confirmation of need resulted in a delay of 5 minutes or more in the dispatch of an ambulance.


Injectable and biodegradable supramolecular hydrogels were prepared by nucleobase (adenine/thymine)-terminated poly(ethylene oxide)s (A-PEG-A/T-PEG-T) and α-cyclodextrin (α-CD). The supramolecular hydrogels were thoroughly characterized by WXRD, rheometer, and SEM. The gelation time depended on the molecular weight of PEG and the concentration of polymer precursors. The rheological studies showed enhanced elastic modulus (G') of hydrogels, because of the hydrogen-bonding between A and T acting as additional network junctions. In vitro evaluation showed that the supramolecular hydrogels have acceptable biocompatibility, and are suitable for sustained and controlled release of loaded antitumor drugs. Gel formation was also confirmed when the supramolecular hydrogels were subcutaneously injected into rats. In addition, in vivo experiments employing U14 cancer cell xenograft-bearing mice showed that the intratumoral injection of a DOX-loaded A-PEG-A/T-PEG-T/α-CD gel inhibited tumor growth more effectively than that of free DOX, DOX-loaded PEG/α-CD gel, saline or gel alone. Hence, such a simple and convenient anti-cancer drug delivery system of a A-PEG-A/T-PEG-T/α-CD supramolecular hydrogel would be a promising candidate for many biomedical applications, especially in the area of the chemotherapy of solid tumors.


This paper examines the effects of sponsored links' reputation. We pursued this study through a mature design of experiment method – the nested design – in order to investigate this fast growing segment of online advertising. In this study, we firstly analyze the adaptability of the nested design to find out whether the reputation of sponsored links will bias searchers. We then carefully contrived a user study to investigate this phenomenon. We used 56 participants engaged in six ecommerce Web searching tasks. The tasks were extracted from the transaction log of a Web search engine so that they could represent actual ecommerce searching information needs. We controlled the study by switching non-sponsored and sponsored links on half of the tasks for each participant. By doing this, we could use the nested design statistical method to detect the impact of the sponsored links' reputation on the final evaluations of these results. During the study, we collected 2,435 interactions with links from search engine results page and 961 utterance evaluations of these links. The results indicate that the reputation or the location of the sponsored links will show strong significance on the final evaluation of the search engine performance. We give some perspectives and discussion which could benefit search engine providers to improve their services.


In this Article, we show how our society can use corporate governance shifts to address, if not entirely resolve, a number of currently pressing social and economic problems. These problems include: rising income inequality; demographic disparities in wealth and equity ownership; increasing poverty and income insecurity; a need for greater innovation and investment in solving problems like disease and climate change; the "externalization" of many costs of corporate activity onto third parties such as customers, employees, creditors, and the broader society; the corrosive influence of corporate money in politics; and discontent and loss of trust in the capitalist system among a large and growing segment of the population.
We demonstrate how, to a very significant extent, these problems can be traced to the way shares in business corporations are currently owned, traded, and voted. We also offer a plausible plan for shifting the structure of share ownership, trading, and voting to create a more democratic and sustainable capitalism that allows business corporations to better serve humanity. Our proposal, which envisions developing a new form of institutional shareholder, does not rely either on market forces or government interventions. Rather, it relies on voluntary cooperation and the private ordering of free individuals using modern information technologies. It operates to reduce inequalities not only in wealth and income but also in influence over business corporations.


Introduction: Lumbar plexus involves the L1 – L5 spinal segments for the formation of the nerves which supply parts of the abdominal wall, pelvis and the upper part of the thigh (both sensory and motor). Our aim in this study was to compile all the rare variations found in a single cadaver, which is of the rarest possible kind. Methods: During the dissection of the abdomen and pelvis in approximately 70 year old cadaver, there were multiple variations observed in the anatomy of the lumbar plexus. The entire region was cleaned for visibility of the variations and all those were clearly documented for compiling purpose. Results: The following variations in the formation of the lumbar and sacral nerves were observed. 1. The genitofemoral nerve bifurcated at a higher level; genital branch of genitofemoral nerve gave branches to the anterior abdominal wall muscles, 2. A communicating branch was given from the lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh to the medial cutaneous nerve of thigh, 3. A muscular branch was given from femoral nerve to psoas major, 4. There was absence of contribution of L4 spinal nerve in the formation of the lumbosacral trunk, and 5. Lumbosacral trunk gave communicating branches to the femoral and obturator nerves. Most of the variations found were rare and finding all the above said variations in a single cadaver is even rare. Conclusion: Knowledge of the normal anatomy and any possible variations would help the clinicians and surgeons dealing with this region and avoid possible complications beforehand.


Isothermal and constant-grain-size sintering have been carried out to full density in Y2O3 with and without dopants, at as low as 40% of the homologous temperature. The normalized densification rate follows Herring's scaling law with a universal geometric factor that depends only on density. The frozen grain structure, however, prevents pore relocation commonly assumed in the conventional sintering models, which fail to describe our data. Suppression of grain growth but not densification is consistent with a grain boundary network pinned by triple-point junctions, which have a higher activation energy for migration than grain boundaries. Long transients in sintering and grain growth have provided further evidence of relaxation and threshold processes at the grain boundary/triple point.


The purpose of this paper is to advance the proposition that Eastern Europe countries, in order to make the transition from the "Old" to the "New" order, need to break the sociopolitical grip of management and marketing practices and skills. In order to accomplish this, a business education and learning feedback mechanism needs to be instituted in their evolutionary model. By the same token, each Eastern Europe country needs to cultivate its entrepreneurial venture potential by favorably balancing evaluation criteria of expected Return of Investment, sociopolitical risk and investment incentives offered to attract entrepreneurial ventures.


Multi-Resolution Land Characterization 2001 (MRLC 2001) is a second-generation Federal consortium designed to create an updated pool of nation-wide Landsat 5 and 7 imagery and derive a second-generation National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001). The objectives of this multi-layer, multi-source database are two fold: first, to provide consistent land cover for all 50 States, and second, to provide a data framework which allows flexibility in developing and applying each independent data component to a wide variety of other applications. Components in the database include the following: (1) normalized imagery for three time periods per path/row, (2) ancillary data, including a 30 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived into slope, aspect and slope position, (3) perpixel estimates of percent imperviousness and percent tree canopy (4) 29 classes of land cover data derived from the imagery, ancillary data, and derivatives, (5) classification rules, confidence estimates, and metadata from the land cover classification. This database is now being developed using a Mapping Zone approach, with 66 Zones in the continental United States and 23 Zones in Alaska. Results from three initial mapping Zones show single-pixel land cover accuracies ranging from 73 to 77 percent, imperviousness accuracies ranging from 83 to 91 percent, tree canopy accuracies ranging from 78 to 93 percent, and an estimated 50 percent increase in mapping efficiency over previous methods. The database has now entered the production phase and is being created using extensive partnering in the Federal government with planned completion by 2006.


Hydrogen atoms interactions with single crystal surfaces are the simplest processes in surface science, which are of both practical and fundamental interest. Chemical reactions of hydrogen atoms with single crystal surfaces lead to adsorption. Despite the fact that it has been studied for decades, the dynamics of hydrogen atom adsorption is still not fully understood. Adsorption involves the impinging hydrogen atom losing its initial translational energy and dissipating the energy of the chemical bond formed with the surface. How hydrogen atoms dissipate their initial translational energy to adsorb on a surface is still an open question. In principle, a hydrogen atom may lose its initial translational energy to the vibrations of the surface atoms or to electron-hole pair excitations. To answer this question in detail, a state-of-the-art UHV machine was built to study atom-surface scattering. During my doctoral study, I conducted experiments on hydrogen atom scattering from single crystal surfaces, including Au(111) and Pt(111), Xe covered Au(111) and epitaxial graphene on Pt(111). High resolution scattering angle resolved translational energy loss distributions have been obtained. The goal of this research is to achieve a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of H atom interaction with different kinds of single crystal surfaces, and especially of the translational energy transfer between the atom and the surfaces, which is fundamentally important to the adsorption processes.
To compare hydrogen atom translational energy loss to metals and insulators, I studied scatterings of hydrogen atoms from Au(111) and Xe layer on Au(111). Hydrogen atoms scattering from insulating Xe layer exhibit a small energy loss and a narrow translational energy distribution and can be understood using a binary collision model. In contrast, Hydrogen atoms scattering from Au(111) show a large energy loss and a broad translational energy distribution, indicating that a broad continuum of accepter states in the solid contribute to the translational energy loss. A MD simulation self-consistently including the non-adiabatic electronic excitations agrees with the experiments of hydrogen atom scattering on metal. In contrast, calculations neglecting the electronic excitations cannot capture the essence of the measurements, indicating hydrogen atoms scattering from metal is strongly non-adiabatic. Exchanging H atoms with D atoms only leads to minor change in the translational energy loss distribution. This is explained by a cancellation effect, where the phonon excitation is enhanced for D but the electron-hole pair excitation is reduced.
To study the dynamics of chemically activated adsorption of hydrogen atoms, I did a series of experiments on hydrogen atoms scattering from epitaxial graphene, which has a barrier to C-H bond formation of several hundreds of meV. The scattered hydrogen atoms exhibit a bimodal distribution for translational energy and scattering angle. The fast component in the distribution originates from atoms scattered back without crossing the adsorption barrier and is near-elastic and near-specular. The slow component originates from atoms scattered back after crossing the adsorption barrier and exhibits large and rapid energy loss (energy loss power around 1019 W/mole atom). By monitoring the ratio between the slow and the fast component, we determine that the adsorption threshold is in the range of 0.41 eV to 0.48 eV for the H atom, and 0.43 eV to 0.47 eV for the D atom. Combined with DFT based AIMD calculations, we conclude that the fast component is H/D atom quasi-elastic scattering on a corrugated surface. The large and rapid energy loss of the slow component is caused by the formation of a transient reaction complex. Due to the π resonance structure of graphene, H atom colliding with one C atom will cause simultaneous displacements of the neighboring C atoms, leading to the formation of a transient reaction complex. Large portion of the energy loss is due to the inelastic scattering mechanism. Surface IVR provides insights of the phonon excitations in graphene.


Summary and Conclusions
The remarkable reduction in murine typhus fever in southern United States is generally attributed to large scale control measures, particularly DDT dusting to kill rat fleas. Notwithstanding that such control operations were not in effect in Puerto Rico, the reported rate dropped steadily and there was a 100 per cent decrease in the City of San Juan (137 reported cases in 1944 and none in 1954). In an attempt to explain the decline of this disease a rat ectoparasite study together with human and rat serological surveys were undertaken. Ectoparasite data from 600 rats collected in the City of San Juan from April 15, 1954, through May 4, 1955, when compared with data from 775 rats trapped during the same period in 1946–47 demonstrated that the flea vector, Xenopsylla cheopis, had decreased in population sufficiently to account for the lack of human cases; for only 16 per cent of the rats in 1954–55 were infested with an average of 0.42 specimens per rat as compared with 54 per cent infested and 1.75 specimens per rat in 1946–47. Decrease in flea population was greater in the residential section known as Santurce where only 5 per cent of the rats were infested than in the largely business district, San Juan Islet, where 26 per cent of the rats were still infested. As regards Santurce, data from earlier surveys indicated that there has been a consistent downward trend in rat flea population during the last eight years. Complement-fixation tests on 279 rats resulted in only 3.2 per cent positive at dilutions of 1:8, indicating that infection among rats is negligible. Of 368 human subjects, 3.8 per cent were positive at dilutions of 1:4 or above using the complement-fixation test; since a positive reaction may be given years after recovery and because of very low titers as well as other reasons it is believed that the reported rate is essentially correct and there are few if any unreported cases.
On the basis of this evidence from Puerto Rico it is concluded that a reduced typhus rate is not proof of the efficacy of control operations. Further, it is possible that control was instituted in southern United States after the epidemic had already receded, and that without the large scale control projects there the disease might have followed the same course it has in Puerto Rico. No explanation has yet been found for the decrease in the reproductive potential of rat fleas during the last decade in San Juan, P.R., since rats are abundant and the climate has been favorable for flea development, at least as regards temperature and humidity. Improvements in construction, food storing, general sanitation and mosquito control may have had an incidental effect on rat fleas, but do not account for the great reduction in population which has occurred.


The effect of corrosion on the tensile properties of duralumin while stressed is shown in graphical form. According to the test results, duralumin sheet, coated with aluminum, maintains its initial properties unimpaired for corrosion periods as long as 60 days with an applied tensile stress as high as 20,000 lb/sq.in., which is approximately one-half the stress corresponding to the yield point as defined here. In these tests, that material which had been heat-treated by being quenched in cold water, though far inferior to similar material having the aluminum coating, was superior to the sheet material which was heat treated by being quenched in hot water. These results are in excellent agreement with the results of previous laboratory and exposure tests.


A geophysical survey was conducted in the vicinity of the
Carrock tungsten mine, Cumbria. The object of the survey
was to establish an optimum geophysical exploration procedure
for the location of the style of mineralisation
known at Carrock. The VLF-EM method recorded only
weak or indistinct anomalies over much of the known
mineralisation but a weak anomaly coincident with the
Emerson vein was traced northwards for one km. Several
similar linear features were recorded in the area on trends
favourable for mineralisation and two, at Poddy Gill in
the east and Arm o' Grain in the west, are coincident for
part of their strike with exposed mineralisation.
Resistivity measurements indicated that most fault
structures have coincident low resistivity zones; a detailed
traverse across the Emerson vein showed a minor high
resistivity peak within the low zone.
Induced polarisation, magnetic and self potential
anomalies were recorded only within the gabbro on the
extrapolated positions of the Smith and Wilson lodes. It is
concluded that these anomalies are caused by discontinuous
near-surface lenses of pyrrhotite which have little
VLF response.
The VLF method is identified as the best tool for the
location of structures which may carry mineralisation in
this environment. Incidentally to the main objectives of
the work, three VLF anomalies are identified which
appear to warrant investigation by drilling; the Arm o'
Grain anomaly, the Emerson vein extension and the
Poddy Gill feature.


The object of the work reported in this paper was to find a simple and easy to calculate approximation to the Voigt function using the Padé method. To do this we calculated the multipole approximation to the complex function as the error function or as the plasma dispersion function. This generalized Lorentzian approximation can be used instead of the exact function in experiments that do not require great accuracy.


BACKGROUND
Although women typically develop coronary artery disease several years after men, once they have symptomatic disease their thromboembolic complications are worse than in men. The mechanism mediating this gender difference in outcome after thromboembolic events is unknown. We previously studied platelet functions in siblings from patients with premature coronary artery disease. We observed that platelets from women are responsive than their male counterparts. In particular, platelets from women stimulated ex vivo with various agonists bind more fibrinogen molecules than platelets from men.

HYPOTHESIS
We hypothesized that in patients with acute coronary events, the control of platelet activity might require stronger antagonists in women than in men.

METHODS
To test this hypothesis, we investigated retrospectively the results of a trial on Integrelin in unstable angina.

RESULTS
We report that platelet aggregation and Holter-detected ischemic episodes are significantly reduced in women with unstable angina treated with the specific GPIIb-IIIa inhibitor, Integrelin, compared with the standard platelet inhibitor aspirin. In contrast, both platelet aggregation and Holter-detected ischemic events are well controlled in men with unstable angina treated with standard therapy including aspirin.

CONCLUSION
Integrelin does provide protection in men, but, in contrast with women, not beyond what can be achieved with aspirin. Our data are consistent with the concept that the platelets from women require stronger and more specific inhibitors to limit their activity, and that platelets may play a more important role in women with acute coronary syndromes than in men. Most important, specific GPIIb-IIIa inhibitors may represent a therapeutic option which provides as much suppression of ischemic events in women as they do in men with coronary artery disease.


Since the discovery of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect in the perovskite type of manganites, much research works have been carried out to improve the CMR value by introducing different type of dopant in the system. In this work the effect of rare earth elements Tin (Sn), Bismuth (Bi) and Indium (In) substitution in the La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 system on Mn site had been investigated. The (LSMSnO), (LSMBiO) and (LSMInO), with x=0.00 to x=0.40 ceramic samples were prepared by solid-state reaction technique. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility, the electrical transport, XRD spectrum of all samples, microstructure and magnetoresistance measurements in the three systems have been studied systematically. With increasing Sn, Bi and In concentration, Tc shifted toward lower temperature, but the lattice constants remain almost unchanged. For higher doping, the spin glass-like state is observed and the system behaves like insulator. These results strongly suggest that the dopant Sn, Bi and In ions weaken the double exchange interaction. The X-ray diffraction patterns indicate that La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 compounds are in single phase with rhombohedra structure. From the ac magnetic susceptibility χ measurements, transitions from paramagnetic (PM) to ferromagnetic (FM) state are observed, indicating the loss of ferromagnetical ordering and consequently weaken the double exchange (DE) mechanism. When the competition between ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism is strong, spin glass behavior is usually found with freezing temperature for all systems. From the resistance measurements, the metal-to-insulator (M-I) transition occurs at a Tmi. The (M-I) transitions temperature, Tmi shifts towards lower temperature as the Sn, Bi and In content increases and the resistance increases accordingly. The grain size for the dopant concentration of Tin, Bismuth and Indium doped with LSMO system, shows that the grain size essentially decreases with the increase of the dopant amount but remains almost constant size at x>0.12, which indicates that the dissolving amount of the dopant in LSMO may be less when x<0.12. MR values of the three systems are very temperature dependent. The samples exhibit the maximum CMR value at certain temperature. For undoped sample, the maximum MR value observed is 11%. Among these three doped systems, the highest value of CMR with dopant is observed for LSMBiO system with x=0.06 with the value of 45% at 250 K. The colossal magnetoresistive effect of the three systems, appear between 100 K and 250 K.


Abstract Maize 4114 was developed through Agrobacterium tumefaciens‐mediated transformation to provide protection against certain lepidopteran and coleopteran pests by expression of the Cry1F, Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1 proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, and tolerance to the herbicidal active ingredient glufosinate‐ammonium by expression of the PAT protein derived from Streptomyces viridochromogenes. The molecular characterisation data did not identify issues requiring assessment for food/feed safety. None of the compositional, agronomic and phenotypic differences identified between maize 4114 and the non‐genetically modified (GM) comparator(s) required further assessment. There were no concerns regarding the potential toxicity and allergenicity of the newly expressed proteins Cry1F, Cry34Ab1, Cry35Ab1 and PAT, and no evidence that the genetic modification might significantly change the overall allergenicity of maize 4114. The nutritional value of food/feed derived from maize 4114 is not expected to differ from that derived from non‐GM maize varieties and no post‐market monitoring of food/feed is considered necessary. In the case of accidental release of viable maize 4114 grains into the environment, maize 4114 would not raise environmental safety concerns. The post‐market environmental monitoring plan and reporting intervals are in line with the intended uses of maize 4114. The genetically modified organism (GMO) Panel concludes that maize 4114 is as safe as the non‐GM comparator(s) and non‐GM reference varieties with respect to potential effects on human and animal health and the environment in the context of the scope of this application.


Many companies that have embarked on an integrated business planning implementation still find senior managers being dragged into short-term tactical issues and problem solving. Despite putting considerable effort and energy into executing their plans, many still struggle with poor customer service, high costs, high inventories, and frustrated employees. Whilst integrated business planning is highly effective in aiding planning over a four to 24- or 36-month horizon right down to EBIT projections, it was never designed to control the execution of those plans within the one- to three-month tactical horizon. This is the role of integrated tactical planning. Unless plans are properly managed and coordinated during this time period, execution is problematic. Constant last minute changes and 'fire fighting', poor service, high costs, and employee frustration, plague the business.


The first EU Forest Strategy was adopted in 1998 to provide general guidelines for an EU forest policy designed to coordinate other EU forest-relevant policies. The implementation of the first strategy was done under the auspices of the EU Forest Action Plan, covering the period from 2007 to 2011. The Forest Action Plan was a tool that facilitated voluntary cooperation between EU Member States (no enforcement capabilities), with some coordinating actions being implemented by the European Commission. The reason for returning to the Forest Action Plan in this article is to provide further insight into how it was employed by EU Member States—in contrast to the majority of similar articles on the topic, which are primarily concerned with an examination of EU forest-relevant policies by either analyzing the impact of EU decision-making on forestry at the national level or studying EU Member States' influence on the EU rather than how EU Member States actually react to EU strategies. This paper addresses this empirical gap and highlights the significant variations of the Europeanization effects on EU Member States when deciding upon and implementing a non-legally binding policy instrument when compared to legally binding policy instruments. Individual Member States exhibit varied strategies when implementing a soft policy instrument, as their respective decision spaces are substantially different, particularly when the costs and benefits of complying are not comparable to those of a legally binding instrument. These results highlight the need for a more nuanced and varied approach to the implementation of soft policy instruments by the EU, with the additional implementation strategies suggested in this article being presented to assist in meeting this need for variation.


The strikingly anisotropic large-scale distribution of matter made of an extended network of voids delimited by sheets, themselves segmented by filaments, within which matter flows towards compact nodes where they intersect, imprints its geometry on the dynamics of cosmic flows, ultimately shaping the distribution of galaxies and the redshift evolution of their properties. The (filament-type) saddle points of this cosmic web provide a local frame in which to quantify the induced physical and morphological evolution of galaxies on large scales. The properties of virtual galaxies within the Horizon-AGN simulation are stacked in such a frame. The iso-contours of the galactic number density, mass, specific star formation rate (sSFR), kinematics and age are clearly aligned with the filament axis with steep gradients perpendicular to the filaments. A comparison to a simulation without feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) illustrates its impact on quenching star formation of centrals away from the saddles. The redshift evolution of the properties of galaxies and their age distribution are consistent with the geometry of the bulk flow within that frame. They compare well with expectations from constrained Gaussian random fields and the scaling with the mass of non-linearity, modulo the redshift dependent impact of feedback processes. Physical properties such as sSFR and kinematics seem not to depend only on mean halo mass and density: the residuals trace the geometry of the saddle, which could point to other environment-sensitive physical processes, such as spin advection, and AGN feedback at high mass.


Traditional methods of electricity generation and distribution within the UK have developed around the notion of a highly centralised system, based on the extensive use of fossil fuels. These fuels present a number of challenges; including the depletion of resources, negative environmental impacts, socio-economic barriers and political obstructions. As a result, the development and integration of renewable technologies is imperative in the creation of an energy system which is fully sustainable in the long term. This study investigates the level of planned renewable infrastructure in the UK and the likely increase in electrical generation capacity which will result from the completion of all planned projects. The regional distribution of this generation is explored, in addition to the proportion of electricity demand within each region which can be met by renewable sources of generation under a variety of future scenarios. Overall, there is a high level of variation in the proportion of electricity demand which can be met through renewable generation in each region, with two regions (Yorkshire and Scotland) displaying sufficient planned infrastructure to meet greater than 100% of future energy demand, whilst other regions illustrate low levels of increased generation - the lowest of which is seen in the London region, where a maximum of 3% of electricity demand is estimated to be met through renewable generation in the future. Overall, it is suggested that encouraging regional accountability for the supply and distribution of renewable electricity will enable increased sustainability and efficiencies in the energy system, and increase the likelihood of establishing a fully sustainable energy system in the UK in the future


The International Astronomical Union (IAU) launched 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) under the theme, The Universe, Yours to Discover. IYA2009 marked the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical observation through a telescope by Galileo Galilei. It has been, and still is, a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, with a strong emphasis on education, public engagement and the involvement of young people, with events at national, regional and global levels throughout the whole of 2009. UNESCO endorsed IYA2009 and the United Nations proclaimed the year 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy on 20 December 2007. These proceedings aim to give a brief account of IYA2009, from its inception to the present and how its legacy will influence the future of astronomy communication on a planet-wide scale.


Tetrakis(trimethylsilylethynyl)stannane reacts with non-cyclic trialkylboranes BR3 and 9-alkyl-9-borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes (alkyl = Et, neopentyl) to give the stannaspiro[4.4]nona-1,3,6,8-tetraenes I [R = Me, Et, Pr, CHMe2; R (at C) = Et, neopentyl (II), and BR2 = borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonyl] in high yield. The reaction proceeds stepwise, and intermediates as well as final products were characterized by 1H, 11B, 13C, 29Si, 119Sn NMR spectroscopy. According to an x-ray structure anal. of II.0.5 CH2Cl2 (space group P2/c) the endocyclic CSnC bond angles are small [84.9(2) and 84.2(2) Deg] and the two five-membered rings are not exactly planar. Steric crowding causes a strong twist of the skeleton of the other ring systems. The agreement between solid-state and liq.-phase NMR data shows that main structural features are retained in soln.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse current challenges and to articulate the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based product portfolio management (PPM) based on commercial and technical product structures, critical business processes, corporate business IT and company data assets. Here, data assets were classified from a PPM perspective in terms of (product/customer/supplier) master data, transaction data and Internet of Things data. The study also addresses the supporting role of corporate-level data governance.

Design/methodology/approach
The study combines a literature review and qualitative analysis of empirical data collected from eight international companies of varying size.

Findings
Companies' current inability to analyse products effectively based on existing data is surprising. The present findings identify a number of preconditions for data-driven, fact-based PPM, including mutual understanding of company products (to establish a consistent commercial and technical product structure), product classification as strategic, supportive or non-strategic (to link commercial and technical product structures with product strategy) and a holistic, corporate-level data model for adjusting the company's business IT (to support product portfolio visualisation).

Practical implications
The findings provide a logical and empirical basis for fact-based, product-level analysis of product profitability and analysis of the product portfolio over the product life cycle, supporting a data-driven approach to the optimisation of commercial and technical product structure, business IT systems and company product strategy. As a virtual representation of reality, the company data model facilitates product visualisation. The findings are of great practical value, as they demonstrate the significance of corporate-level data assets, data governance and business-critical data for managing a company's products and portfolio.

Originality/value
The study contributes to the existing literature by specifying the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based PPM as a basis for product-level analysis and decision making, emphasising the role of company data assets and clarifying the links between business processes, information systems and data assets for PPM.


BACKGROUND
Modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA-BN, IMVAMUNE) is emerging as a primary immunogen and as a delivery system to treat or prevent a wide range of diseases. Defining the safety and immunogenicity of MVA-BN in key populations is therefore important.

METHODS
We performed a dose-escalation study of MVA-BN administered subcutaneously in 2 doses, one on day 0 and another on day 28. Twenty-four hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients were enrolled sequentially into the study, and vaccine or placebo was administered under a randomized, double-blind allocation. Ten subjects received vaccine containing 10(7) median tissue culture infective doses (TCID50) of MVA-BN, 10 subjects received vaccine containing 10(8) TCID50 of MVA-BN, and 4 subjects received placebo.

RESULTS
MVA-BN was generally well tolerated at both doses. No vaccine-related serious adverse events were identified. Transient local reactogenicity was more frequently seen at the higher dose. Neutralizing antibodies (NAb) to Vaccinia virus (VACV) were elicited by both doses of MVA-BN and were greater for the higher dose. Median peak anti-VACV NAb titers were 1:49 in the lower-dose group and 1:118 in the higher-dose group. T-cell immune responses to VACV were detected by an interferon γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay and were higher in the higher-dose group.

CONCLUSIONS
MVA-BN is safe, well tolerated, and immunogenic in HSCT recipients. These data support the use of 10(8) TCID50 of MVA-BN in this population.

CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION
NCT00565929.