Abstract. Model predictions of biogeochemical fluxes at the landscape scale are highly uncertain, both with respect to stochastic (parameter) and structural uncertainty. In this study 5 different models (LASCAM, LASCAM-S, a self-developed tool, SWAT and HBV-N-D) designed to simulate hydrological fluxes as well as mobilisation and transport of one or several nitrogen species were applied to the mesoscale River Fyris catchment in mid-eastern Sweden. Hydrological calibration against 5 years of recorded daily discharge at two stations gave highly variable results with Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) ranging between 0.48 and 0.83. Using the calibrated hydrological parameter sets, the parameter uncertainty linked to the nitrogen parameters was explored in order to cover the range of possible predictions of exported loads for 3 nitrogen species: nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4) and total nitrogen (Tot-N). For each model and each nitrogen species, predictions were ranked in two different ways according to the performance indicated by two different goodness-of-fit measures: the coefficient of determination R2 and the root mean square error RMSE. A total of 2160 deterministic Single Model Ensembles (SME) was generated using an increasing number of members (from the 2 best to the 10 best single predictions). Finally the best SME for each model, nitrogen species and discharge station were selected and merged into 330 different Multi-Model Ensembles (MME). The evolution of changes in R2 and RMSE was used as a performance descriptor of the ensemble procedure. In each studied case, numerous ensemble merging schemes were identified which outperformed any of their members. Improvement rates were generally higher when worse members were introduced. The highest improvements were achieved for the nitrogen SMEs compiled with multiple linear regression models with R2 selected members, which resulted in the RMSE decreasing by up to 90%.


Ship evacuation in response to fire or flooding hazards involves two phases: mustering, that is the reallocation of passengers from a designated area to a safer area or to the muster stations and abandoning the ship (embarkation and launching lifeboats). Evacuating a dynamic and complex environment such as a cruise vessel is a safety-critical and strictly time-bound task, which typically involves thousands of people moving within parts of the ship, assisted by a significant number of crew personnel, and a complicated decision-making process based on the evolving situation on-board and the information available to the decision makers. Timely and safe mustering and abandonment require accurate evaluation of ship's conditions as well as estimation of remaining time. A critical review of the evacuation process due to fire or flooding from Cruise Vessels and large RoPax Vessels in terms of the existing regulatory framework, the installed life-saving appliances and the smart environment elements are presented. This paper is concluded with the future challenges and developments concerning the evacuation process.


Pyrolysis of oil-palm shells, a cheap and abundantly available solid waste from palm oil producing process, was carried out using thermogravimetric analysis. The effect of heating rates (10, 15, 20 and 25°C/min) on the kinetic parameters (activation energy, frequency factor and reaction order) was investigated. The oil-palm shells were pyrolyzed in an inert atmosphere using nitrogen as a medium gas. It is observed that the kinetic behavior of the samples can be divided into three zones. The first zone was in the temperature around 3003800C, the second zone was 380-450°C while the third zone was from 450-850°C. The analysis have shown that the reaction orders for the regions I, II and III were second, first and zero orders, respectively. While the activation energy for the zones I, II and III were found to be in the range of 54-65, 34-41and 5-8 kJ/mol, respectively. Results also showed that the activation energy was relatively constant at different heating rate.


Hunger suppresses a GPCR-mediated positive feedback loop between aversive sensory and sensorimotor neurons in worms, encouraging greater risk-taking for reward. Animals respond to diverse cues in their environment through the integration of multiple sensory inputs, from which decisions can affect the animal's survival. For example, a decision to venture out toward a food source exposes the animal to predators and other dangerous elements. Thus, threat versus reward is weighed during decision-making that modulates animal behavior. In the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, attractive food odors and aversive hyperosmolarity (which can desiccate and kill the worm) are detected by chemosensory AWA and polymodal nociceptive ASH neurons, respectively, which propagate through a network of interneurons that are ultimately integrated onto RIM sensorimotor interneurons, which mediate a change in the worm's direction of motion (turning toward or away from the stimulus). Using a food deprivation protocol in C. elegans, in which spots of diluted diacetyl food odor are applied to agar outside a barrier ring of hyperosmotic fructose, Ghosh et al. found that hunger signals effectively override this integrated network and suppress the perception of the threat of dessication and death (see also Li et al.). Calcium imaging and cell-specific manipulation of gene expression revealed that activation of the G protein–coupled receptor PDFR-1 by the neuropeptide PDF-2 in RIM sensorimotor interneurons stimulated secretion of tyramine from RIM neurons, which provided positive feedback to the polymodal (ASH) neurons through a tyramine receptor TYRA-2, thereby enhancing the perception of threat. Worms lacking pdf-2, tyra-2, or tdc-1 (encoding the enzyme that synthesizes tyramine) more readily moved across the hyperosmotic barrier than did wild-type worms. Computational modeling and in vivo experiments showed that one hour of food deprivation inhibited RIM neuron function, thereby increasing threat tolerance and the willingness to cross the hyperosmotic barrier. These findings reveal underlying molecular mechanisms and complex circuitry controlling multisensory threat-reward decision-making. D. D. Ghosh, T. Sanders, S. Hong, L. Y. McCurdy, D. L. Chase, N. Cohen, M. R. Koelle, M. N. Nitabach, Neural architecture of hunger-dependent multisensory decision making in C. elegans. Neuron 92, 1049–1062 (2016). [PubMed] Z. Li, A. J. Iliff, X. Z. S. Xu, An elegant circuit for balancing risk and reward. Neuron 92, 933–935 (2016). [PubMed]


In this paper, we discuss the importance of recognizing and representing both stationary and moving obstacles for the purpose of autonomous driving as well as linking these representation to an ontology of obstacles to aid in deducing additional information about them. With the ability to access additional information about a sensed obstacle, an autonomous vehicle can better forecast where that obstacle can and can not be at a future time, and therefore be able to better plan its path to avoid collision with that obstacle. This paper describes work just recently begun at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in developing and incorporating an ontology of moving obstacles into the control of an autonomous vehicle to aid in path planning and obstacle avoidance.


Purpose
This paper aims to consider a sustainable inventory model with price dependent demand, non-instantaneous deterioration rate, discount facility, partially backlogged shortages and advance and delay in payments for a two-warehouse system.

Design/methodology/approach
This model considered a non-instantaneous deterioration, which starts after a certain period with a constant rate. The deterioration rate in the rented warehouse is more compared to own warehouse. The proposed model focused on two things. The first one is to the benefits of the advance payments strategy and delayed payment for the retailer and supplier, where the two-warehouse system is available and the second one is using an appropriate discount facility on no of the installment to maximize the total profit. The classical optimization technique is used to solve the problem.

Findings
The combination of trade-credits and advance payments is initiated to provide more benefits to the retailer. The findings prove that advance payments, which are received from the retailer to the supplier are beneficial for the supplier, who can influence the demand increase because of higher lower selling prices. Decreasing the selling price is used as a catalyst to increase demand. It also extends the discount concept of Khan et al. (2019, 2019b).

Research limitations/implications
This model is limited by the fact that it does not consider variable deterioration. Therefore, the proposed inventory model could be extended by considering variable deterioration, as well as fully backlogged shortages and time-dependent demand function.

Originality/value
The study simultaneously considers a non-instantaneous deterioration inventory model, advance-payment, trade-credit for a sustainable two-warehouse inventory system. From the literature search to the best of knowledge no researcher has undergone this sort of study.


Recently, there are increasing interests in inferring mirco-expression from facial image sequences. Due to subtle facial movement of micro-expressions, feature extraction has become an important and critical issue for spontaneous facial micro-expression recognition. Recent works usually used spatiotemporal local binary pattern for micro-expression analysis. However, the commonly used spatiotemporal local binary pattern considers dynamic texture information to represent face images while misses the shape attribute of face images. On the other hand, their works extracted the spatiotemporal features from the global face regions, which ignore the discriminative information between two micro-expression classes. The above-mentioned problems seriously limit the application of spatiotemporal local binary pattern on micro-expression recognition. In this paper, we propose a discriminative spatiotemporal local binary pattern based on an improved integral projection to resolve the problems of spatiotemporal local binary pattern for micro-expression recognition. Firstly, we develop an improved integral projection for preserving the shape attribute of micro-expressions. Furthermore, an improved integral projection is incorporated with local binary pattern operators across spatial and temporal domains. Specifically, we extract the novel spatiotemporal features incorporating shape attributes into spatiotemporal texture features. For increasing the discrimination of micro-expressions, we propose a new feature selection based on Laplacian method to extract the discriminative information for facial micro-expression recognition. Intensive experiments are conducted on three availably published micro-expression databases. We compare our method with the state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method achieves promising performance for micro-expression recognition.


Arachne is a devised theatre piece involving voices, harpsichord and electronics. The piece is, as yet, incomplete and exists in one iteration. Although musical material related to this project has been extant since 2011, the theatrical development springs from three days of work at the Barbican in February this year. The nature and scope of the project has also evolved: the piece was originally conceived for voices alone (in a theatrical setting) and as a fairly close parallel to Ovid's story of the transformation of the weaver, Arachne, from human to spider at the hand of Athena, goddess of crafts. In tandem with the proliferation of the resources, the content has proliferated into a number of threads that loosely weave around the myth: harpsichord as Athena; from craft and making to production line labour (the sweatshop?); competition; rebellion (of the individual against the collective); weaving itself as determining how elements of the structure relate; the relationship between human and non-human. Two interrelated points of investigation have motivated the work thus far: collaboration and the role of the score. Arachne is not a 'pure' devised work; work in the studio has usually begun with the interpretation of notated pages each of which articulates a pre-written text. However, as the composer of these pages, I have always sought to build in a degree of openness both in the notation itself and in how it may be interpreted. My aim is to instigate a 'playful' approach that allows the performers to contribute as co-authors and to make decisions that may affect the identity of the pre-existing material in substantive ways, taking it in directions unforeseen by me and opening up new meanings and contexts in the process. Claire MacDonald, writing in relation to contemporary dramaturgy, describes such an attitude towards a text (score in my case) as exploratory, a refusal to "proceed from text as a known set of procedures" (MacDonald, 2010). The ideal collaborative model for Arachne is distributed creativity in which all participants have equal responsibility in the creation of the final product (Sawyer and De Zutter, 2009). There are constraints in operation in the piece, the aforementioned scores, the text, but these are open to scrutiny and debate by the entire team and have already been significantly modified as a result. Conceptually and dramaturgically work has proceeded largely collectively; consequently Arachne has evolved, and continues to evolve, in a productively tensile relationship with its original concept. The research I have undertaken by means of Arachne has, so far, involved critical reflection on my own practice as a composer, a process of defamiliarisation achieved by drawing on an experimental tradition that, hitherto (i.e. for the last fifteen years), has had little connection with technical procedures or aesthetic qualities in my music. As the project unfolds, though, new areas for research emerge; two of the most interesting of these are approaches to text setting (both Melanie and Rebecca have developed a subtly distinct practice in this regard which Arachne only intermittently draws on so far) and the challenge of convincingly combining instruments with live electronics, particularly in collaboration between composers working in separate mediums.


Alterations in nuclear factor kappaB (NFκB) signaling have been related with several diseases and importantly also with cancer. Different animal models with increased or diminished NFκB signaling have shown that NFκB subunits and their regulators are relevant to the pathophysiology of different organs and tissues. In particular, both the deletion of the regulatory subunit β of the kinase of the inhibitor of NFκB (IKKβ) and its overexpression in epidermis lead to the development of skin inflammatory diseases not associated with tumoral lesions. In this work, we have studied the consequences of IKKβ overexpression in other organs and tissues. We found that elevated IKKβ levels led to altered development and functionality of exocrine glands (i.e., mammary glands) in transgenic female mice. In oral epithelia, increased IKKβ expression produced lichenoid inflammation with abundant granulocytes, macrophages, and B cells, among other inflammatory cells. This inflammatory phenotype was associated with high incidence of tumoral lesions in oral epithelia, contrary to what was found in skin. Moreover, IKKβ also increased the malignant progression of both spontaneous and experimentally induced oral tumors. These results highlight the importance of IKKβ in epithelial and glandular homeostasis as well as in oral tumorigenesis and open the possibility that IKKβ activity might be implicated in the development of oral cancer in humans. Mol Cancer Res; 9(10); 1329–38. ©2011 AACR.


The following studies were conducted to characterize the bron-chodilatory and antiinflammatory activity of the novel, selective phosphodiesterase-IV inhibitor, CP-80,633 (2'S)5-[3-(2'-exobicyclo[2.2.1]heptyloxy-4-methoxy-phenyl]te trahydro- 2(1H)-pyrimidone, a compound in clinical development for atopic disease. In IgG1 passively sensitized guinea pigs, aerosolized ovalbumin challenge increases both pulmonary eosinophil peroxidase levels and airway obstruction. CP-80,633, administered before ovalbumin challenge, significantly attenuated both the increase in tissue eosinophil peroxidase levels (ED50 = 1.4 mg/kg, p.o.) and airway obstruction (ED50 = 0.93 +/- 0.14 mg/kg,p.o.) 10 to 30 times more potently than theophyl-line. Intraarterially administered CP-80,633 also reversed an established bronchoconstriction initiated by continuous infusion of histamine to guinea pigs (ED50 of 8.2 micrograms/kg vs. 5.6 mg/kg for theophylline). The antiinflammatory effect of CP-80,633 was also examined in atopic monkeys challenged with Ascaris suum (Ag) aerosol. CP-80,633 (1 mg/kg, qid, s.c., 1 hr before antigen challenge) significantly reduced antigen-induced increases in bronchoalveolar lavage neutrophils (72.8 +/- 15.8% inhibition) and eosinophils (61.1 +/- 5.7% inhibition) 4 hr postchallenge, but did not reduce leukocytes 24 hr postchallenge. CP-80,633 did not inhibit antigen-induced increases in BAL levels of interleukin-1 beta, -6 or -8 as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay. These results indicate that CP-80,633 possesses bronchodilatory activity in guinea pigs and some antiinflammatory effects in both guinea pigs and monkeys.


BACKGROUND
Depression is a heterogeneous disorder and is thought to develop as a result of complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. One-carbon metabolism that includes vitamin B12, folic acid, and homocysteine has been investigated in psychiatric disorders like depression. In recent years, vitamin D has also been considered to contribute to psychiatric disorders. In this study, serum levels of folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine related to one-carbon metabolism and vitamin D were investigated in children and adolescents with depression and to assess possible roles in depression pathogenesis.

METHODS
The study included 89 children and adolescents with depression (69 female, 20 male; mean age ± SD = 15.08 ± 1.46) and 43 control subjects (31 female, 12 male; mean age ± SD = 14.41 ± 2.32) without any DSM-5 diagnosis. Each subject completed a sociodemographic form, Childhood Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory 1-2 and measured serum folate, vitamin B12, homocysteine, and 25-OH vitamin D levels.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of folate levels (p = .052). In the patient group, the vitamin B12 and vitamin D levels were clearly low (p values for both levels were <.001), while homocysteine levels were found to be remarkably high (p < .001). In addition, there was a negative correlation between depression severity and vitamin B12 and vitamin D, while a positive correlation was found with homocysteine.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of the study show that vitamin B12 deficiency or insufficiency and elevated homocysteine may contribute to the etiopathogenesis of depression. Additionally, it was shown that lower vitamin D levels may be associated with depression.


Governments often establish economic policy in response to political pressure by interest groups. Since these groups' political activities may alter prices, economies so affected cannot be characterized by perfect competition. We develop a model of a "lobbying economy" in which consumers' choice of political activity simultaneously determines relative prices and income levels. They balance the loss in income due to lobbying payments against the potential gain in wealth from a favorable government price policy. This paper proves the existence of an equilibrium in economies of this sort. We reformulate the economy as a generalized lobbying game and prove the existence of a non-cooperative equilibrium in the game. This equilibrium is then shown to be an equilibrium in the economy.


In this paper, we present the performance evaluation of an algorithm for preserving temporal relationships of events in Wireless Sensor Actor Networks (WSANs). The algorithm consists of two modules, which deal with the problems of temporal event ordering and time synchronization. These two problems are approached as a whole as they complement each other: in order to temporally order the events, the nodes must be synchronized. The goal of the proposed event ordering algorithm for WSANs is to reduce the overhead in terms of energy dissipation and delay. We also propose a tunable time synchronization algorithm employing a hybrid synchronization scheme suited for clustered topology. The proposed algorithm utilizes the message exchange necessary for event ordering and routing for synchronization purposes by piggybacking messages with synchronization pulses and replies to reduce the communication cost of synchronization. Simulation experiments showed that the event ordering algorithm is capable of reducing the overhead when compared to previously proposed algorithms. The synchronization algorithm demonstrated that the combination of synchronization techniques was well suited for the communication mode utilized in a clustered topology. The approach of piggybacking synchronization pulses and replies resulted in a considerable gain, which we demonstrated in the number of messages that were piggybacked for synchronization purposes.


Innovation has its most important impact on the economy through the diffusion of new technical knowledge, from its first worldwide implementation in the production of goods and services to its adoption and adaptation by enterprises located in different places across the globe. One way to identify whether an enterprise creates new knowledge or uses already existing knowledge is to measure the novelty of the innovation in various markets, namely whether the innovation is new to the world, country and local market, or only to the enterprise. While innovation new to the enterprise may be only capturing the ability of an enterprise to use and adopt new knowledge, it is also a precondition for economic growth and development. Pooling information from the Third Community Innovation Survey carried out in thirteen European countries, including several countries significantly behind the European average per capita income, we estimate an ordered probit model that relates the novelty of product innovation to structure, strategy and capabilities of enterprises. The study shows that research and marketing capabilities boost the outcome most in the frontier countries, while process upgrading and foreign ownership make much more difference in catching-up countries. This illustrates how the nature of the innovation process changes with the increasing distance from the technology frontier.


Many recent studies analyze how data from different modalities can be combined. Often this is modeled as a system that optimally combines several sources of information about the same variable. However, it has long been realized that this information combining depends on the interpretation of the data. Two cues that are perceived by different modalities can have different causal relationships: (1) They can both have the same cause, in this case we should fully integrate both cues into a joint estimate. (2) They can have distinct causes, in which case information should be processed independently. In many cases we will not know if there is one joint cause or two independent causes that are responsible for the cues. Here we model this situation as a Bayesian estimation problem. We are thus able to explain some experiments on visual auditory cue combination as well as some experiments on visual proprioceptive cue integration. Our analysis shows that the problem solved by people when they combine cues to produce a movement is much more complicated than is usually assumed, because they need to infer the causal structure that is underlying their sensory experience.


DesignDEVS is a simulation development environment based on the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. This paper provides an in-depth overview of the software while focusing on the practical considerations influencing its design. Practitioners who stand to benefit from systems engineering will approach formalism-based simulation tools with little knowledge of the underlying theory. It is therefore important that theoretical principles, such as the separation of model and simulator, be emphasized by the user interface. Other practical aspects of DesignDEVS include the simplicity of atomic model code, a focus on coupling for collaboration purposes, the enforcement of essential modeling constraints, and a reliance on best practices in cases where strict enforcement might inconvenience users. In DesignDEVS, an issue we refer to as the Insidious Pointer Problem is aggressively tackled through run-time error handling. By contrast, the separation of output values from state transitions is left as a best practice for the sake of user convenience. The design decisions explained in this paper are relevant to developers of other formalism-based tools seeking widespread adoption of scalable modeling and simulation practices.


Nine patients with homocystinuria due to cystathionine synthase deficiency were treated with pyridoxine: 6 responded biochemically and 5 of these showed marked clinical improvement. Full biochemical response was only obtained slowly in some patients. Response occurred in those patients who were least severely affected by their disease and was consistent within families. No patient experienced a thrombotic episode during pyridoxine treatment. Pretreatment serum and red cell folate levels were normal. All patients showed lowering of folate levels while receiving pyridoxine, and administration of folic acid caused further biochemical improvement in pyridoxine responsive patients and subjective clinical improvement in all. The mechanism for lowering of folate levels during pyridoxine administration may depend upon removal of substrate inhibition of the enzyme N5 methyltetrahydrofolate homocysteine methyl transferase, due to pyridoxine-induced lowering of the substrate homocysteine. It is suggested that patients with homocystinuria should be given a long trial with pyridoxine and that folic acid should be given in all cases where pyridoxine is used.


In the last decades many different policy changes have been initiated in the Dutch hospital sector to optimise health care delivery: national agenda-setting, increased competition and transparency, a new system of hospital reimbursement based on diagnosis-treatment-combinations, intensified monitoring of quality, and a multi-layered organisational development programme based on quality improvement collaboratives – the multi-level quality collaborative (MQC). The focus of this dissertation is on the implementation and effects of the MQC. Several studies are described that help to answer two main research questions: (1) Did the participation by hospitals in the MQC result in the development of an organisational infrastructure for improvement, stimulating the adoption and sustainable spread of innovations and, if so, by what mechanism? (2) Is there, judged from changes that took place at different levels within the hospitals, any evidence that the MQC contributed to aligning the behaviour of staff at unit level with norms at national level via the behaviour of the strategic management? With regard to the first question, it is probable that the programme has contributed to quality improvement. Hundreds of improvement projects have been implemented within the MQC hospitals. Individual projects have shown positive results, but the performance indicator outcomes or perceived effects of a substantial part of the teams are unknown. Furthermore, different studies point at an organisational development effect. The strategic and tactical hospital management followed a systematic strategy on behalf of sustainability and spread; a strategy based on clear norms at organisation level, performance agreements, provision of necessary facilities and resources, and recurring accountability moments. The organisational infrastructure is adjusted to facilitate the implementation of the strategy. A longitudinal analysis suggests that programme hospitals evolved faster than the other hospitals. Three assumptions were explored to answer the second question: (a) competition and public communication of feasible quality norms, trigger hospitals to maximise quality (sector level), (b) MQC participation leads to systematic quality control (hospital level), (3) medical staff implements changes to achieve quality norms defined at higher levels (unit level). This dissertation demonstrates that planned change processes at different levels took place and were interrelated. Professionals adopted quality norms, took measures to realise the goals and measured performance-indicators. Improvement rates were confirmed as predictors for the future dissemination of the projects. This is an example of the continuous quality improvement that is being embedded at institutional level throughout the sector, not only within MQC-hospitals. During the programme, moreover, the behaviour of hospital executives did influence the extent to which the behaviour of project teams and physicians at unit level was aimed at achieving the MQC norms formulated at sector level. The MQC encouraged executives to do this in two ways. In the first place by adopting the organisational strategy for sustainability and dissemination. Secondly, by stimulating physicians to join quality improvement initiatives. As such, the MQC has contributed to a mechanism, linking quality targets at sector level to processes and outcomes at unit level.


A comparison between the 14C content of the methane and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in deep, terrestrial subsurface systems was used to assess the timing of microbial methanogenesis contributing to gases in fracture water samples from three mines in the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa. The results demonstrated that the majority of methane was produced over geologic timescales. In four of the samples, the methane contained no significant radiocarbon, indicating that the estimated 90% microbial methane in these samples was produced in the geologic past by indigenous microbial communities. In two samples from different mines, methane Δ14C levels indicated a primarily ancient origin for the microbial methane with the potential for more recent contributions from ongoing indigenous microbial activities constrained to between 0 and 40%, and 0 and 24%, respectively. Microbiological evidence for methanogenic archaea was observed in both of these samples. One sample had a Δ14C CH4 that was higher than the corresponding DIC, indicating an extreme decoupling between these species and raising concerns over the representative quality of this sample. The variations in the Δ14C of DIC and CH4 between and within mines demonstrate the need for a thorough assessment of each sample to obtain an accurate understanding of the role and timing of microbiological gas production in these complex, heterogeneous, terrestrial subsurface systems. The approach detailed here introduces timing as a new and widely applicable signature for the recognition of a major geochemical marker of indigenous life in the deep subsurface.


This article reports on two art-science collaborations, A-me: Augmented Memories and BrainCloud, that interrogate the central role of localization in neuroscience—including the use of technologies that augment sociability using localization as a central reference point. The two projects result from a series of interactions where a science/technology development fostered art, which in turn led to a science application, which potentially may lead to further artistic activity. A-me is an art installation that repurposes navigation and visualization tools normally reserved for medical clinicians and scientists, inviting reflection on the ongoing endeavor of neuroscience to explain and map cognitive functions such as memory. BrainCloud is a software prototype that provides neuroscientists with an interface for interacting with existing data and knowledge about the brain. Organized visually as a brain atlas, it forms a social network that allows neuroscientists to connect and share their ongoing research and ideas.


Environmentally friendly bioplastics have attracted renewed attention over the last few decades due to the ever‐growing awareness of the environmental impact of petroleum‐ based polymers and the rising costs of raw materials. Cottonseed protein (CP) extracted from cottonseed meal has abundant amino acid components and nutrition value, but are not carefully considered in non‐feed industries. For the purpose of being explored, glandless cottonseed flour is utilized in this work, as a raw material, to prepare cottonseed protein bioplastics (CPBs) as environmentally friendly products. The optimum synthesis conditions of CPBs were firstly investigated, followed by the analysis of protein modification and cross‐linking mechanism, with a close view on changes of their micro‐ or chemical structures. Detailed morphologies, element composition and biodegradabilities of CPBs were characterized via scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and soil‐burial test, respectively, pointing out its structural heterogeneity as well as nature of biodegradability. Charac‐ terizations of the thermal stability and thermomechanical relaxation of thermal‐treated CPBs and its interaction with molecule revealed the presence of different thermal relaxation behaviours and different water states. Concluding remarks shortly summa‐ rize the importance of the work and point out possible solutions to addressing future potential challenges.


Cassia sophera (Caesalpiniaceae) has a variety of ethnic medicinal uses along with antioxidant activity. In present study anti-inflammatory activities with alcoholic (AEACS) and aqueous (AQEACS) extracts of aerial part of C. sophera are evaluated. Aerial parts powder successively extracted with alcohol and water was subjected for phytochemical screening to identify different phytoconstituents. LD50 studies for both the extracts were conducted up to the dose level of 2 g/kg following OECD guidelines No. 425. The anti-inflammatory activity was studied in carrageenan and formalin induced paw oedema (acute) models in rats. Phytochemical investigations revealed the presence of carbohydrates, amino acids, fixed oils, fats, glycosides and sterols in AEACS and AQEACS. LD50 studies for alcoholic and aqueous extracts up to maximum of 2g/kg dose level no mortality was observed in any of the animals that indicated their practically nontoxic nature. Both the extracts significantly reduced the paw oedema volume in carrageenan and formalin induced (acute) paw oedema models in rats


This paper uses U.S. Census Bureau panel data that link firm software investment to worker earnings. We regress the log of earnings of workers by age group on the software investment by their employing firm. To unpack the potential causal factors for differential software effects by age group we extend the AKM framework by including job-spell fixed effects that allow for a correlation between the worker-firm match and age and by including time-varying firm effects that allow for a correlation between wage-enhancing productivity shocks and software investments. Within job-spell, software capital raises earnings at a rate that declines post age 50 to about zero after age 65. By contrast, the effects of non-IT equipment investment on earnings increase for workers post age 50. The difference between the software and non-IT equipment effects suggests that our results are attributable to the technology rather than to age-related bargaining power. Our data further show that software capital increases the earnings of high-wage workers relative to low-wage workers and the earnings in high-wage firms relative to low-wage firms, and may thus widen earnings inequality within and across firms.


Nurses have successfully adopted the role of prescriber in numerous health care settings in the UK. Existing research has not addressed how Nurse Independent and Nurse Supplementary Prescribers compare with doctors in terms of the perceived advantages and disadvantages of nurse prescribing, nor has the perceived importance of nurses providing patients with an explanation about their medicines been established. The current study utilized a random sample of 31 qualified Nurse Independent and Nurse Supplementary Prescribers and 30 general practitioners who self-completed a written questionnaire in an independent groups design. The study establishes nurses' and doctors' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of independent and supplementary nurse prescribing and provides some indication of the importance that nurses and doctors place on nurses providing an explanation about medicines, and the categories of information perceived to be important.


Differences in oceanographic conditions over short distances can dramatically affect the distribution of marine organisms over small spatial scales. In southern California, oceanographic conditions vary widely from east to west as the offshore region is impacted by cool, southern flowing California Current water, while the inshore is typically warmer and more productive. We investigated how patterns of distribution and abundance of larval, genetically identified rockfishes related to environmental conditions off southern California, the world's center of rockfish Sebastes spp. species diversity. The rockfish assemblage was dominated by small and short-lived species not typically targeted by recreational or commercial fishing (i.e. shortbelly S. jordani and squarespot S. hopkinsi rockfishes), but also contained moderate abundances of a few larger, targeted species (bank S. rufus and bocaccio S. paucispinis rockfishes). Spawning locations of many species were affected by environmental variability, as abundances of young (0 to 2 d old), targeted larvae were mainly found offshore in the cool, low primary production waters that also were relatively shallow and contained hard substrate. In contrast, untargeted species were more widespread and correlated positively only with hard substrate. Hotspots of species richness and targeted species were high within a large managed region, the Cowcod Conservation Area, indicating that it is effectively protecting important rockfish spawning habitat. This research highlights the need to account for environmental variation in habitat and assemblage structure when conducting marine spatial planning.


The colonists who settled the backcountry in eighteenth-century New England were recruited from the social fringe, people who were desperate for land, autonomy, and respectability and who were willing to make a hard living in a rugged environment. Mark Williams' microhistorical approach gives voice to the settlers, proprietors, and officials of the small colonial settlements that became Granby, Connecticut, and Ashfield, Massachusetts. These people-often disrespectful, disorderly, presumptuous, insistent, and defiant-were drawn to the ideology of the Revolution in the 1760s and 1770s that stressed equality, independence, and property rights. The backcountry settlers pushed the emerging nation's political culture in a more radical direction than many of their leaders or the Founding Fathers preferred and helped put a democratic imprint on the new nation. This accessibly written book will resonate with all those interested in the social and political relationships of early America.


Navajo Tribal Courts Exercise Extensive Civil Jurisdiction ~ Many commentators feel that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions curtail tribal courts' jurisdiction over civil lawsuits, even while Congress and the federal Executive encourage Indian autonomy. Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land & Cattle Co. (June, 2008) is the latest in that line of decisions. The article begins by assessing whether the case may have extended the U.S. Supreme Court limitations, and concludes that Plains Commerce Bank wastes its precedent in an extremely narrow holding, changing nothing in existing doctrine. The article then analyzes that Supreme Court doctrine in the context of the Navajo Nation's tribal courts. Since 1958 the Navajo Nation has developed a strong court system. Prior to 1958, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah state courts exercised jurisdiction over all civil controversies involving Navajo Country. The advent of the Navajo (and other tribes') courts has given rise to cases confronting the issue of when the states must defer their civil jurisdiction to the tribal courts. The three state courts have differing approaches to what is still a relatively new problem. Notably, Arizona's Supreme Court has handed down some of the most extreme precedents against the civil jurisdiction of tribal courts, while New Mexico's Supreme Court takes a balanced approach more considerate of tribal judicial sovereignty. The Navajo Nation Supreme Court, however, has a surer touch than the state courts in dealing with the issue. A series of Navajo opinions beginning in 2003 sets out a reasoned doctrine of assertive tribal court jurisdiction over civil lawsuits, carefully working within the U.S. Supreme Court precedents. The article concludes that the Navajo Nation's tribal courts will develop a stronger and stronger role in the resolution of civil controversies in the three states its reservation touches, undeterred by anything that the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to decide.


The present work aims to bring out the epidemiological characteristics of liver cancer in Niger, especially as no previous studies have worked on the national epidemiology of cancer in Niger. This is a retrospective study in the period 1992 to 2006. The data were collected from the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy and Cytology of the Faculty of Health Sciences of Niamey, which receives all the swabs intended for the histological analysis from all the Nigerien territory. Among the 5238 cases of cancer, the liver cancer represented 12.3% and came in the second position behind the breast cancer. 242 deaths were registered among liver cancer patients, which makes a specific lethality of 37%. The sex-ratio for males to females of liver cancer cases was 2.3 and the difference was highly significant. However, the specific lethality, which was 37.03% in male patients and 37.69% in female ones, did not display any significant sex difference. The mean age of liver cancer patients was 47.67 ± 14.20 years, and the comparison of the means of age did not display any significant difference between males and females in terms of age. The farmers were the socio-professional group the most affected by liver cancer with 61% of all cases. The patients practicing household activities showed the highest specific lethality, followed by farmers. The study of the repartition of patients according to their origin showed that the major part was from Niamey region with 69%. Because of the seriousness of the liver cancer problem in Niger, the health authorities should pay more attention to this pathology through efficient fight strategies.

 Key words: Cancer, liver, epidemiological profile, lethality, Niger.


Aim: The aim of the study was to correlate the milk yield of Murrah buffaloes with certain body parts measurements. Materials and Methods: A total of 70 lactating Murrah buffaloes were selected from Buffalo Farm, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Science, Hisar and were randomly selected in a range from first to fifth parity. Traits studied were 305 days milk yield (MY), body weight (BW), body length (BL), muzzle width (MW), height at wither (HW), abdominal girth (AG), chest girth (CG), body depth fore, body depth rear, hip bone distance (HBD), pin bone distance (PBD), skin thickness (STK), and tail length (TL). Data were collected and statically analyzed by Pearson's correlation method. Result: The result of this study showed that Murrah buffaloes had the average 2604.8±39.5 kg for MY, 556.1±4.9 kg for BW, and 152.2±0.8 cm for BL. This study showed that buffaloes had positive significant (p<0.05) correlation between MY and BW (0.26). Highly significant (p<0.01) correlation was observed between MY and AG (0.64), MW (0.42). Significant (p<0.01) negative correlation was observed between MY and STK (−0.79). Different body part measurements (BW, BL, HW, AG, CG, MW, TL, BD, PBD, HBD, STK) were significantly correlated with each other. Conclusion: This study can be helpful as a selection tool to enhance and evaluate the production potential by setting standards of Murrah buffalo breed. BW, abdominal growth, muzzle thickness, and STK were found key factors while selecting a dairy Murrah buffalo.


Sensor networks are suitable candidates for military and scientific applications such as border security and environmental monitoring. They are usually deployed in unattended or hostile environments so security is a major concern with these networks. A fundamental requirement is the capability to establish pairwise keys between sensors. Many key establishment protocols have been proposed to address the security issues in wireless sensor networks. However, most of these have security or performance limitations. In this paper, we propose a new key establishment protocol based on symmetric polynomials. In our protocol, contrary to other works, we use a lot of symmetric polynomials to generate polynomial shares for a group of sensors, and the distribution of polynomial shares to each sensor is done by combinatorial design. Since, a limited number of shares are generated from a symmetric polynomial; the polynomial degree is very low. As a result, the common key between sensors can be generated without imposing overhead to them.


This
paper explains and examines the case of Mongolian civil society role by
focusing on the issue of how and to what extent civil society organizations
influenced on the current redistributive policy making in Mongolia. To explain
this issue, the outside initiative model proposed by Cobb, Ross and Ross (1976)
helps us to understand the influence of civil society organizations on
policymakers and redistributive policy making. For the analysis, process
tracing method was applied with over 80 Mongolian media sources. The findings
suggest that Mongolian civil society organizations made significant influence
on setting redistributive policy agenda with its rapid expansion and various
pressure actions.


Data integrity is a fundamental aspect of computer security that has attracted much interest in recent decades. Despite a general consensus for the meaning of the problem, the lack of a formal definition has led to spurious claims such as "tamper proof", "prevent tampering", and "tamper protection", which are all misleading in the absence of a formal definition.

Ashman recently proposed a new approach for protecting the integrity of a document that claims the ability to detect, locate, and correct tampering. If determining integrity is only part of the problem, then a more general notion of data integrity is needed. Furthermore, in the presence of a persistent tamperer, the problem is more concerned with maintaining and proving the integrity of data, rather than determining it.

This thesis introduces a formal model for the more general notion of data integrity by providing a formal problem semantics for its sub-problems: detection, location, correction, and prevention. The model is used to reason about the structure of the data integrity problem and to prove some fundamental results concerning the security and existence of schemes that attempt to solve these sub-problems.

Ashman's original multi-layered document integrity (MLDI) paper [1] is critically evaluated, and several issues are highlighted. These issues are investigated in detail, and a series of algorithms are developed to present the MLDI schemes. Several factors that determine the feasibility of Ashman's approach are identified in order to prove certain theoretical results concerning the efficacy of MLDI schemes.


Importance Surveillance testing is performed after primary treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC), but it is unclear if the intensity of testing decreases time to detection of recurrence or affects patient survival. Objective To determine if intensity of posttreatment surveillance is associated with time to detection of CRC recurrence, rate of recurrence, resection for recurrence, or overall survival. Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective cohort study of patient data abstracted from the medical record as part of a Commission on Cancer Special Study merged with records from the National Cancer Database. A random sample of patients (n=8529) diagnosed with stage I, II, or III CRC treated at a Commission on Cancer–accredited facilities (2006-2007) with follow-up through December 31, 2014. Exposures Intensity of imaging and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) surveillance testing derived empirically at the facility level using the observed to expected ratio for surveillance testing during a 3-year observation period. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was time to detection of CRC recurrence; secondary outcomes included rates of resection for recurrent disease and overall survival. Results A total of 8529 patients (49% men; median age, 67 years) at 1175 facilities underwent surveillance imaging and CEA testing within 3 years after their initial CRC treatment. The cohort was distributed by stage as follows: stage I, 25.0%; stage II, 35.2%; and stage III, 39.8%. Patients treated at high-intensity facilities—4188 patients (49.1%) for imaging and 4136 (48.5%) for CEA testing—underwent a mean of 2.9 (95% CI, 2.8-2.9) imaging scans and a mean of 4.3 (95% CI, 4.2-4.4) CEA tests. Patients treated at low-intensity facilities—4341 patients (50.8%) for imaging and 4393 (51.5%) for CEA testing—underwent a mean of 1.6 (95% CI, 1.6-1.7) imaging scans and a mean of 1.6 (95% CI, 1.6-1.7) CEA tests. Imaging and CEA surveillance intensity were not associated with a significant difference in time to detection of cancer recurrence. The median time to detection of recurrence was 15.1 months (IQR, 8.2-26.3) for patients treated at facilities with high-intensity imaging surveillance and 16.0 months (IQR, 7.9-27.2) with low-intensity imaging surveillance (difference, −0.95 months; 95% CI, −2.59 to 0.68; HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.90-1.09) and was 15.9 months (IQR, 8.5-27.5) for patients treated at facilities with high-intensity CEA testing and 15.3 months (IQR, 7.9-25.7) with low-intensity CEA testing (difference, 0.59 months; 95% CI, −1.33 to 2.51; HR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.90-1.11). No significant difference existed in rates of resection for cancer recurrence (HR for imaging, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.99-1.51 and HR for CEA testing, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.91-1.39) or overall survival (HR for imaging, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.94-1.08 and HR for CEA testing, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.89-1.03) among patients treated at facilities with high- vs low-intensity imaging or CEA testing surveillance. Conclusions and Relevance Among patients treated for stage I, II, or III CRC, there was no significant association between surveillance intensity and detection of recurrence. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02217865


What are super-devoted fans of comic books really like? What draws them together and energizes their zeal? What do the denizens of this pop-culture world have in common?This book provides good answers as it scrutinizes the fans whose profiles can be traced at their conventions, in pages of fanzines, on websites, in chat-rooms, on electronic bulletin boards, and before the racks in comic-book stores. They are a singular breed, and an absorbing interest in comic books (sometimes life-consuming) unites them. Studies have shows that the clustering, die-hard disciples of Star Trek have produced a unique culture. The same can be said of American enthusiasts of comic books. These aficionados range from the stereotypical "fanboy" who revels in the minute details of mainstream superhero titles like X-Men to the more discriminating (and downright snobbish) reader of idiosyncratic alternative comics like Eightball. Literate comics like Watchman, Radioactive Man, and Peepshow demand a knowledgeable audience and reward members of the culture for their expertise while tending to alienate those outside. This book shows how the degree of "comics literacy" determines a fan's place in the culture and how the most sophisticated share the nuanced history of the format. Although their interaction is filled with conflicts, all groups share an intense love for the medium. But whether one is a Fanboy or a True Believer, the preferred hangout is the specialty store. Here, as they talk shop, the culture proliferates. They debate among themselves, spread news about the industry, arrange trades, discuss collectibles, and attach themselves to their particular mainstream. With history, interviews, and textual analysis Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers examines the varied reading communities absorbed by the veneration of the comics and demonstrates how each functions in the ever-broadening culture.


Samples of Arabian pandora Pagellus affinis (Boulenger, 1887) were collected between
April 2005 and March 2007, and from April 2008 to March 2009 from two landing sites
(Al-Lakbi and Raysut) along the Arabian Sea coast of Oman. The samples were analysed to
evaluate the biology and population dynamics of this species.
The marginal increment analysis of otoliths showed the formation of one opaque
zone and one translucent zone every year. The timing of formation of translucent ring was
approximately 4 months (June–September) and the opaque ring formed with the cycle
depending on the annual changes in seawater temperature in the Arabian Sea. The fishery
targeted the individuals ranging in ages from 2 to 6 years; while, the maximum age
estimated was about 9 years.
The von Bertalanffy growth (VBG) constants calculated for males and females were
not significantly different, so the suggesting common equation for both sexes' P. affinis was
Lt =36.09(1-e-0.264(t+0.525).
As aging of fish using sectioned otoliths was time consuming, use of linear
relationship between otolith weight (OWT) and age of fish to rapidly assess age was
examined. This approach could be used to derive VBG curve, although there was
significant difference from the curve obtained using sectioned otoliths. Thus, OWT–age
relationships would be useful to age the fish. The species P. affinis is a multiple spawner with males and females reaching maturity and spawning at almost same time. Seasonal changes in gonadosomatic index (GSI), hepatosomatic index (HSI) and relative condition factor (Kn) indicated the fish spawned from April to October with peak of spawning activity during August and September. The size-at-50% maturity was calculated at 22.1 and 23.53 cm TL and age-at-first maturity at 3.15 and 3.53 years for females and males, respectively. Four types of ova were observed: immature (0.03–0.176 mm), maturing (0.25–0.35 mm), mature (0.57–0.75 mm), and ripe (0.81–0.99 mm). Average fecundity was calculated at 199,524 eggs per female. Relationship of fecundity-to-ovary weight, body weight, and total length of fish exhibited a linear trend.
Food and feeding habits showed that P. affinis is a carnivorous feeder and the major part of its diet is sardines and other fish (primary item). The minor presence of algae may be an accidental inclusion during capture of benthic prey. A higher percentage of empty stomachs were observed during June and September.
Length–weight relationships of males and females showed no significant difference between sexes. P. affinis displayed a negative allometric growth for both sex as well as for sexes combined (a= 0.0173 & b=2.954).
Total mortality (Z) was estimated as 0.9363 y-1, and the natural mortality (M) stood at to 0.488 y-1. Length at 50% capture (Lc) of Arabian pandora was calculated as 19.8 cm TL. The yield and spawning biomass-per-recruit analyses indicated that the current fishing mortality rate (Fcurr) is almost same as the target one (F0.1), which suggest that it is exploited at optimum and should be maintained. This conclusion was supported by the following points: (1) estimated rate of fishing mortality (F = 0.448 y-1) was relatively close to F0.1 (0.572); (2) selective fishing gears targeting the species provide the bulk of the landing. However, further rise in the fishing effort may cause overfishing. The management models proposed for P. affinis in the Arabian Sea could be reflect the fishery status in the region. Finally, -10% decrease in natural mortality will be associated with an increase in the total yield-per-recruit and consequently the proportion of spawning stock biomass (SSB) will be more than its value (59.453 g) at current fishing mortality. In conclusion, the present study indicates that the current exploitation pattern needs to be sustained.


The paper reports results of a study conducted a evaluate the prevalence of HIV antibody and associated high-risk sex behavior in 2 populations of drug-using persons in the Bronx, New York City. Heterosexual behavior in relation to the risk of HIV infection was studied in these groups which shared a common, low socioeconomic level, and non-white racial status. The 1st group consisted of 516 interviewed women obtaining 1st-trimester abortions at a family planning clinic. The mean age was 24 years, with none reporting intravenous drug use (IVDU). 1.8% were seropositive for HIV antibodies. Those reporting either personal or partner drug use, especially cocaine, were significantly more likely to report high-risk sex behavior. The 2nd group was comprised of 518 interviewed IVDUs in long-term methadone maintenance treatment programs, with a mean age of 33 years. Baseline prevalence for antibody to HIV was 44%. High-risk behavior was reduced overall during the 36-month period from baseline to follow-up, although a subgroup of 104 either did not reduce or began high-risk drug and sex behavior over the period. Seroconversion of HIV antibody was highest among crack versus non-crack users, with the strongest predictor for conversion identified as prostitution. HIV infection rates are high in the Bronx among both IV and non-IV drug-using women, with cocaine use in any form viewed as a correlate of very high-risk heterosexual activity.


The utility of an unsaturated zone soil moisture model is not only its ability to describe the soil moisture dynamics at a given point but also the possibility to generalize the results to larger areas. In this study we investigated the predictive performance of a one‐dimensional unsaturated zone soil moisture model when applied at point, field, response unit, and catchment scales, using detailed field observations from a 0.42‐km2 catchment in the Netherlands. Our main question was how model parameterization and model performance could be compared across these scales. We considered two different calibration–validation schemes and three performance statistics. In all cases we applied the same Levenberg–Marquardt optimization scheme. Differences between calibration–validation schemes (interpolation vs. extrapolation) were surprisingly small. Using one particular model parameterization across the various aggregation levels, the optimal Mualem–van Genuchten parameters for a coarser aggregation level can be derived from an underlying level by simple arithmetic averaging. The different performance indices (RMSE, index of agreement, and Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient) were highly variable between observation locations and for different aggregation levels. Overall, the indices were more favorable at higher aggregation levels, and in correspondence with errors reported in comparable studies. The unsaturated‐zone model did not, however, provide satisfactory predictions of independent flux observations, in this case daily catchment discharge. Moreover we did not succeed in deriving a meta‐model to scale model performance indices with aggregation level. Our case study therefore supports the view that multiscale calibration studies that use both state and flux observations are required to compare results from unsaturated zone models at different aggregation levels.


Water supply services in urban India are essential functions of urban local bodies or municipalities. These services are mostly perceived as unsatisfactory across urban centres and the sector is widely perceived to be misgoverned with large number of municipalities making financial losses. However, this common perception of inefficient services has not much scientific basis as the efficiencies of these services are not measured. This paper, therefore, attempts to evolve a framework for evaluating the relative inefficiencies of water supply services and applies a non-parametric approach, data envelopment analysis (DEA), to 20 urban centres in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India, by applying three different models. The results of the analysis indicate that there are significant inefficiencies amongst the various municipalities that supply water. It was found that larger cities exhibit better efficiencies than smaller ones, requiring policy interventions. However, even the larger municipalities need restructuring and downsizing of their operations to be more efficient. DEA results also show that significant savings with respect to operating expenditures, staff and non-revenue water are actually possible if best practices are adopted. The paper discusses the results of the study in the context of policy issues that are relevant from a developing country perspective.


Cost and limited reserves of conventional fossil fuels have intensified the search for alternative fuels for use in internal combustion engines. A possible alternative engine fuel is vegetable oil because it is a clean burning, renewable, non-toxic, biodegradable and environmentally friendly transportation fuel. It can be used in a neat form without any modification of the engine. Vegetable oils are produced from crops such as soybean, peanut, sunflower, cotton, jatropha, mahua, neem, coconut, linseed, mustard, Millettia pinnata, rapeseed and castor oil plant. A theoretical model was developed to evaluate the performance characteristics and combustion parameters of vegetable oil esters like Jatropha, Mahua and Neem for various injection pressures and compared to diesel fuel. From the investigation it was concluded that the performance of vegetable oil esters such as Jatropha, Mahua, and Neem were much better. Thus the developed model was highly capable for simulation work with bio-diesel as a suitable alternative fuel for diesel engines.

 Key word: IC engines, injection pressure, tranesterification, emission, performance, brake power


The Beaver Creek Trail Crossing Site was a fording location along the Nebraska City Cut-Off of the Oregon and California Trail, occupiedfrom 1862 through 1871. The site was situated on both creek banks and contained a road ranch. saloon, store, and post office. Geophysical data showed anomalies corresponding to irregularities in the ground surface. While excavation units placed at these locations revealed few remnants of in situ foundations, generalized scatters of mortar, nails, and chinking or filler stones were recorded. Given the lack of timber or stone near the site, this pattern suggests most of building materials were salvaged. This has created unique challenges for site excavation and interpretation. Suggestions for work on salvaged sites will be offered to aid in the study of heavily salvaged sites in frontier and trail settings.


Online web services such as Google and Facebook started using personalization algorithms. Because information is customized per user by the algorithms of these services, two users who use the same search query or have the same friend list may get different results. Online services argue that by using personalization algorithms, they may show the most relevant information for each user, hence increasing user satisfaction. However, critics argue that the opaque filters used by online services will only show agreeable political viewpoints to the users and the users never get challenged by opposing perspectives. Considering users are already biased in seeking like-minded perspectives, viewpoint diversity will diminish and the users may get trapped in a "filter bubble". This is an undesired behavior for almost all democracy models. In this thesis we first analyzed the filter bubble phenomenon conceptually, by identifying internal processes and factors in online web services that might cause filter bubbles. Later, we analyzed this issue empirically. We first studied existing metrics in viewpoint diversity research of the computer science literature. We also extended these metrics by adding a new one, namely minority access from media and communication studies. After conducting an empirical study for Dutch and Turkish Twitter users, we showed that minorities cannot reach a large percentage of users in Turkish Twittersphere. We also analyzed software tools and design attempts to combat filter bubbles. We showed that almost all of the tools implement norms required by two popular democracy models. We argue that democracy is essentially a contested concept, and other less popular democracy models should be included in the design of such tools as well.


We monitor the theoretical response of an R-L-Varactor circuit by using Multisim 7.0, at a driving frequency f= 1MHz with high driving amphtudes. Atlow frequencies a bifurcation is observed, attributed to the large capacitance emerging from the carrier injection at reverse-bias breakdown. By inereasing driving amplitude we observe non-periodic trajectories with increasing chaotic content in a four dimensional state-space. At specific amplitudes we monitor two-dimensional tori where trajectories are periodic, like in a two-oscillatorssystem with commensurate frequencies. The scenario from quasi-periodocity to chaos is discussed by means of estabhshed tools, hke the circle map, Poincare cross sections, power and FFT spectra, correlation dimension and Kolmogorov entropy. Peak amphtudes of the monitored waveforms are shown to form an interesting pattem of well defined groups, within the resolution ofthe numerical solutions produced by the simulation.


The Sardar Sarovar Project has been one of the most debated development projects of the past several decades at both an international level and within India itself. Cullet's volume brings together all the key documents relating to the project: including those pertaining to World Bank loans, the judicial pronouncements of the Supreme Court and documents relating to specific local level issues - in particular environment and rehabilitation. The work includes an introductory section focusing on the history of the project, the involvement of the different actors, the impacts on the local population, and a general analysis of the controversy surrounding it. In providing an easily accessible source for all the main documents relating to this landmark project, this compilation will be a valuable resource for researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of International Environmental Law and International Development Law.


This paper presents a research software solution specifically developed to allow marine scientists to produce geo-referenced visual maps of the seafloor, known as mosaics, from a set of underwater images and navigation data. LAPMv2 is a suite of tools, which provides the users with the current state-of-the-art methods for automatic feature detection and matching, as well as with powerful tools for registering images, constructing and geo-referencing photomosaics, and importing them into geographic information systems such as ArcGIS. The main key strengths of LAPMv2 include (1) its robust false-match rejection method, which allows the application to run fully autonomously without producing aberrant results caused by erroneous matches, (2) the total control of the user over the mosaicking workflow, (3) the possibility to intuitively create matches between unlinked images, and (4) the graphical interface that guides the user through the different steps of the mosaicking workflow.


Summary Geoprocessing with Python teaches you how to use the Python programming language, along with free and open source tools, to read, write, and process geospatial data. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology This book is about the science of reading, analyzing, and presenting geospatial data programmatically, using Python. Thanks to dozens of open source Python libraries and tools, you can take on professional geoprocessing tasks without investing in expensive proprietary packages like ArcGIS and MapInfo. The book shows you how. About the Book Geoprocessing with Python teaches you how to access available datasets to make maps or perform your own analyses using free tools like the GDAL, NumPy, and matplotlib Python modules. Through lots of hands-on examples, youll master core practices like handling multiple vector file formats, editing geometries, applying spatial and attribute filters, working with projections, and performing basic analyses on vector data. The book also covers how to manipulate, resample, and analyze raster data, such as aerial photographs and digital elevation models. What's Inside Geoprocessing from the ground up Read, write, process, and analyze raster data Visualize data with matplotlib Write custom geoprocessing tools Three additional appendixes available online About the Reader To read this book all you need is a basic knowledge of Python or a similar programming language. About the Author Chris Garrard works as a developer for Utah State University and teaches a graduate course on Python programming for GIS.


On 13 June 2006 agreement was reached between the Commission, the Parliament and the Council on a comitology procedure whereby MEPs would be permitted to block implementation decisions taken by the Commission. In addition, such decisions would be made available in all the official constitutions of the Community and the time available for Parliamentary scrutiny was extended. Parliament finally endorsed these proposals. The new Decision is an important step towards greater Parliamentary scrutiny, although this clearly will not be the last word on this issue, since inter alia the new arrangements do not go as far as the earlier draft Constitutional Treaty. Whilst Parliament has now been put on an equal legislative footing with the Commission, areas of disagreement still remain. However, aside from the political power struggle, one must consider how the arrangement will work in practice. Although Parliament did not use its existing powers to any great extent, this may have been a reflection of their limited effectiveness. Whilst Parliament may now have greater powers, the requirement for an absolute majority for blocking a decision may prove to be a new hurdle.


This paper documents uniformity in real estate commission rates across markets and time using a dataset on realtor commissions for 653,475 residential listings in eastern Massachusetts from 1998-2011. Newly established real estate brokerage offices charging low commissions grow more slowly than comparable entrants with higher commissions. Properties listed with lower commission rates experience less favorable transaction outcomes: they are 5% less likely to sell and take 12% longer to sell. These adverse outcomes reflect decreased willingness of buyers' agents to intermediate low commission properties (steering) rather than heterogeneous seller preferences or reduced effort of listing agents. While all agents and offices prefer properties with high commissions, firms and agents with large market shares purchase a disproportionately small fraction of low commission properties. The negative outcomes for low commissions provide empirical support for regulatory concerns that steering reinforces the uniformity of commissions.


Anaerobic conversion of Jatropha curcas seed cake was studied in a five-litre working volume batch reactor at 30° C. Over a 60-day operating period, a slurry of seed cake in water at a 1 : 20 seed cake-to-water ratio showed the highest methane yield of 296 litre methane/kg Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) degraded (or 156 litre/kg of Jatropha curcas seed cake added) and achieved 52% COD removal. The results revealed that Jatropha curcas seed cake treated anaerobically can be a good source of methane, with optimal seed cake-to-water ratio in the range of 1 : 20 to 1 : 10.


This study is dedicated to answering the question, can the Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) decision process be improved. It develops a framework called the Information Technology Outsourcing Decision Process (ITODP) that will efficiently and effectively fast-track the outsourcing decision process.
Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) has generated considerable research interest from its beginnings with the nascent outsource award of Blue Cross of Pennsylvania's Information Technology functions to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1963 to the historic Eastman Kodak deal of 1989 to the present[65]. As stated by Keen and Benko, about one-half of U.S. corporate capital is being invested in Information Technology (IT) [104] with IT representing the third largest corporate expense [27]. The IT function has become a prime target for outsourcing. In today's competitive world, companies are attempting to focus on core competencies. Many are considering outsourcing various aspects of their inhouse operations. The driving forces behind these decisions are typically: cost reduction, improved service, value added and organizational restructuring.
The idea of a framework for outsourcing decisions is not new. In their seminal work, King and Malhotra developed a framework for the consideration of internal markets as an alternative to information technology outsourcing. It was based on an assessment of the pros and cons of both outsourcing and in-sourcing [108]. Pandey and Bansel, utilized Saaty's Analytical Hierarchy Process for a decision-making framework to choose activities to outsource and another to choose the appropriate outsourcing methodology [158].
In this work, the primary hypothesis is in a prolonged outsourcing decision process, there are negative effects on the corporation. Support for the hypothesis was developed using an extensive literature review; interviews with industry experts; a survey instrument and case study analysis. The primary research was to identify an efficient and effective method to improve the ITO decision process.
This decision framework was built utilizing agile processes, akin to the agile systems development processes which were brought to prominence by Kent Beck [23] Alistair Cockburn [45] and James Highsmith [94]. These methods were applied in an agile process that was used to analyze the major components that are the basis of an outsourcing decision.
A conceptual model was created and simulated using members of the original team from the case study. The results of the agile model simulation were compared to the results of the non-agile traditional method contrasting the agile framework to that of the case study to illustrate its benefits.
Key words. agile systems development, scrum, eXtreme Programming (XP), information technology outsourcing (ITO), decision-making, waterfall systems development, framework, outsourcing.


Kurds in Turkey: the everyday violence of their forced displacement. Roughly fifteen years ago, more than one million Kurds were forcibly displaced from their villages in Southeast Turkey, mostly by Turkish security troops, who were engaged in a violent struggle with the PKK, an armed organization that strives for Kurdish self-rule. Large numbers of displaced Kurds migrated to cities in West and South Turkey, where a life in poverty awaited them. Miriam Geerse examined what this internal forced migration meant to Kurdish families from different regions of Southeast Turkey, who migrated to Istanbul. She clarifies how different forms of violence were processed in stories, in interaction with other people and with external circumstances. She also analyzes the ways in which this 'community of people who shared the same stories' functioned. The forced migrants' Istanbul lives were not all about displacement: they had similar desires and aspirations as most other people in Turkey. However, forces related to but other than war and forced displacement, instilled in many migrants a pressing need and desire to keep hammering home the price and pain of displacement. In Istanbul, the Kurds were confronted with a dominant narrative about the PKK as a barbarous organization which posed a major threat to the Turkish people. At best, the Kurdish migrants 'did not exist' (as Kurds or as forcibly displaced people), at worst they were regarded 'terrorists' who undermined all that most Turks believed in. The migrants' own memories were implicitly and explicitly 'censored'. The migrants narrated their experiences 'against' the dominant narrative: most of their stories about the circumstances of and reasons for migration fitted an emerging Kurdish counter-narrative about the position and struggle of Kurds in Turkish society. Not all Kurdish stories were regarded equally worthy of telling. Stories which were not congruent with the political message of the dominant Kurdish narrative, stories which seemed to unsettle idealized gender relations, and stories which perturbed family and community relations, often remained untold. I refer to this phenomenon as 'the internal censorship of memories'. For their initial survival and when faced with difficult situations, the migrants relied on social capital, that is, it was the value of their social relationships which enabled them to rebuild a life in the city. These relationships were mostly with relatives, fellow villagers and other Kurds, who shared the same experiences and/or who told similar stories about the recent past. The migrants' social capital proved to have different outcomes for different members of the same networks, it could not compensate the shortcomings of 'the system' - the health care system, for example - and it was shaped and reshaped in an adverse political context. The research underlines that social capital is neither inherently positive, nor a 'cultural essence' which can be studied more or less independently from the economic and political context in which it is mobilized. In tracing the 'before', 'during' and 'after' of forced displacement, and in laying bare their interconnections, this dissertation provides 'ammunition' to politicians, academics and NGO workers who argue for a balanced view on the recent history of Turkey, its longer-term impact on Turkish society and on Turkey's Kurds. To improve the position of Kurds and lower the level of violence in Turkish society, it is imperative to make an effort to see the repression of Kurds from the perspective of Kurds who personally experienced this repression, and who try to live meaningful lives in a context marked by political and other forms of violence


Simulation methods have become an important tool to reveal radionuclide migration during accidental radionuclide releases and predict influences of accidents on the marine environment. The instantaneous point source model is a useful method to simulate the large-scale radionuclide diffusion in marine areas. However, the simulation accuracy of this method requires improvement as it didn't take radionuclide decay into account. In this study, an improved instantaneous point source model considering radionuclide decay was proposed on the basis of the original model. Furthermore, the instantaneous point source model and the improved version were used to simulate the concentrations of 131I and 137Cs following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident. The results showed that the relative error of 131I concentrations decreased from 136.03% to 37.59% when using the improved model; and improvements in relative errors for 137Cs concentrations were not apparent as the simualtion period was much shorter than its half-life period. Therefore, the improved model can accurately simulate the diffusion process for radionuclides following an accident and provides an efficient decision support tool for risk assessment managers and for use in safety guarantees of nuclear power plants during siting and operational phases.


This paper examines continuous-time stochastic volatility models incorporating jumps in returns and volatility. We develop a likelihood-based estimation strategy and provide estimates of parameters, spot volatility, jump times, and jump sizes using S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index returns. Estimates of jump times, jump sizes, and volatility are particularly useful for identifying the effects of these factors during periods of market stress, such as those in 1987, 1997, and 1998. Using formal and informal diagnostics, we find strong evidence for jumps in volatility and jumps in returns. Finally, we study how these factors and estimation risk impact option pricing.


For decades, Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics has provided the ultimate source for practicing clinicians to learn how the study of genetics can be integrated into practice. Developed in parallel to the sixth edition, and featuring 174 original contributions from the many authors of the full set, this one volume work expertly condenses and synthesizes the most clinically relevant content, for convenient desk reference.

 Helping to bridge the gap between high-level molecular genetics and individual application, it follows the multi-volume set in encompassing scientific fundamentals, full spectrum discussion of major inherited disorders, and actionable therapies. Clinically oriented information is supported by concise descriptions of the principles of genetics, research approaches, and analytics to embrace the evolving population of students, researchers, and practitioners who are integrating their work to provide advanced diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human disease.

 This print volume is complemented and enhanced with online access to the complete text, online-only references, and high quality illustrations on www.expertconsult.com.

 Features 174 summarized contributions concisely discussing advances in cancer genetics, genomic technologies, and molecular genetics

 Contains hundreds of full colour illustrations supporting users with identification, concept illustration, and method processing

 Enhanced with full text online access, high quality illustrations, and online-only references at www.expertconsult.com


Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are a diverse group of enzymes that contain a highly conserved active site motif, Cys-x5-Arg (Cx5R). The PTP superfamily enzymes, which include tyrosine-specific, dual specificity, low-molecular-weight, and Cdc25 phosphatases, are key mediators of a wide variety of cellular processes, including growth, metabolism, differentiation, motility, and programmed cell death. The PTEN/MMAC1/TEP1 gene was originally identified as a candidate tumor suppressor gene located on human chromosome 10q23; it encodes a protein with sequence similarity to PTPs and tensin. Recent studies have demonstrated that PTEN plays an essential role in regulating signaling pathways involved in cell growth and apoptosis, and mutations in the PTEN gene are now known to cause tumorigenesis in a number of human tissues. In addition, germ line mutations in the PTEN gene also play a major role in the development of Cowden and Bannayan-Zonana syndromes, in which patients often suffer from increased risk of breast and thyroid cancers. Biochemical studies of the PTEN phosphatase have revealed a molecular mechanism by which tumorigenesis may be caused in individuals with PTEN mutations. Unlike most members of the PTP superfamily, PTEN utilizes the phosphoinositide second messenger, phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3), as its physiologic substrate. This inositol lipid is an important regulator of cell growth and survival signaling through the Ser/Thr protein kinases PDK1 and Akt. By specifically dephosphorylating the D3 position of PIP3, the PTEN tumor suppressor functions as a negative regulator of signaling processes downstream of this lipid second messenger. Mutations that impair PTEN function result in a marked increase in cellular levels of PIP3 and constitutive activation of Akt survival signaling pathways, leading to inhibition of apoptosis, hyperplasia, and tumor formation. Certain structural features of PTEN contribute to its specificity for PIP3, as well as its role(s) in regulating cellular proliferation and apoptosis. Recently, myotubularin, a second PTP superfamily enzyme associated with human disease, has also been shown to utilize a phosphoinositide as its physiologic substrate.


In the title compound, [Ni(C8H7O4)2{(CH3)2SO}2], the NiII atom is located on a crystallographic centre of symmetry and has a distorted octahedral coordination geometry of type MO6. The bidentate dehydroacetic acid (DHA) ligands occupy the equatorial plane of the complex in a trans configuration, and the dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) ligands are weakly coordinated through their O atoms in the axial positions.


In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Education Center for Afghanistan, located in Peshawar, Pakistan, and operated by the Afghan mujahidin (holy warriors), published a series of primary education textbooks replete with images of Islamic militancy. These schoolbooks provided the mujahidin (who, after a ten-year struggle, drove the Soviet occupying forces from Afghanistan in 1989) with a medium for promoting political propaganda and inculcating values of Islamic militancy into a new generation of holy warriors prepared to conduct jihad against the enemies of Islam. Consider the following introduction to the Persian alphabet in a first-grade language arts book:


So far, sustainable HCI has mainly focused on the domestic context, but there is a growing body of work looking at the organizational context. As in the domestic context, these works still rest on psychological theories for behaviour change used for the domestic context. We supplement this view with an organizational theory-informed approach that adopts organizational roles as a key element. We will show how a role-based analysis could be applied to uncover information needs and to give employee's eco-feedback, which is linked to their tasks at hand. We illustrate the approach on a qualitative case study that was part of a broader, on-going action research conducted in a German production company.


The aging process is associated with changes in hemodynamic control, such as reduced sensitivity of baroreceptors. Advanced evidence that some manual therapies, expanded physiotherapy specialty in the treatment of basic musculoskeletal disorders, be complementary to physical exercises performed in cardiovascular rehabilitation, studies that are very scarce in this area in Brazil. Objective: to evaluate the effect of a pomping protocol on hemodynamic behavior during isometric exercise in the elderly. Methodology: A prospective randomized controlled interventional study was carried out. 503 elderly people were initially screened, of which 70 elderly were selected to participate in two randomized sessions held on different days: one with a pomping protocol based on Bienfait (1999) and another with a placebo protocol, totaling 140 transactions. The behavior of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) at rest for 5 minutes and then during three minutes of isometric exercise with handgrip (EH101, Camry) at 30% of the maximum voluntary contraction were adopted. Afterwards, the pompage protocol or randomized placebo was treated for that specific session for 30 minutes and immediately after intervention/placebo they were repeated as calculated grouping. Results: The elderly had a mean age of 69 ± 1.0 years. Regarding BP values (SBP,131±1.4 mmHg; DBP=83±1.6 mmHg), it is possible to observe that most of the elderly were classified as pre-hypertensive, according to the Brazilian Guidelines on Arterial Hypertension. (2020). We emphasize that there was a reduction in SBP only in the pompage group (p < 0.001), a reduction in DBP only in the pompage group in the first minute (p=0.03) and in the third minute (p=0.04) and a reduction in HR in both groups (p < 0.001 and p = 0.02). Conclusion: The pompagens protocol reduced the SBP of the elderly during isometric exercise with the handgrip and the DBP in the recovery from isometric exercise, while there was no change in SBP in the placebo group during isometrics and no change in DBP in the placebo group during recovery from isometric exercise.


The alignment between information technology (IT) and business strategy is regarded as an ongoing issue for information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners. Although prior studies suggest the enabling role of IT-business alignment on firm performance, our understanding of the processes through which such gains are achieved in the small-tomedium enterprise (SME) context still remains unclear. Moreover, there is limited research exporing how SMEs employ the alignment between IT and business strategy to work closely with their business partners in order to achieve business competences. In order to address these research gaps, this study investigates whether and how IT-business alignment enables SMEs to achieve performance goals through developing strategic business activities effectively and efficiently. Using structural equation modelling analyses of survey responses collected from 211 Australian high growth SMEs, we find positive, significant, and impactful linkages between IT-business alignment, strategic collaboration, coordination, responsiveness, and SME performance. The results also show that strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness fully mediate the relationship between IT-business alignment and SME performance. This study contributes to the IS research by providing empirically-supported explanations for the critical role of IT-business alignment in SME success. More significantly, through investigating the effect of IT-business alignment at the inter-mediate business process level, this research provides new insights to understand the underlying influential mechanisms of IT-business alignment in the SME context. These findings have important implications for SME business managers.


Single applications of slow-release pheromone formulations were used to control yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas Walker, by mating disruption in two trials on rice in India. The first trial compared the efficacy of two formulations containing 1:10:1 and 1:10:0 ratios of (Z)-9-hexadecenal, (Z)-ll-hexadecenal and (Z)-9-octadecenal, components of the S. incertulas pheromone, and a commercially-available formulation, Selibate CS, containing the related Chilo suppressalis Walker pheromone, a 1:10:1 blend of (Z)-9-hexadecenal, (Z)-ll-hexadecenal and (Z)-13-octadecenal, with farmers' practice plots treated with insecticides. Pheromone trap catches indicated that in each of the pheromone-treated plots the catches of male moths were reduced by up to 98% compared with catches in the insecticide-treated plots suggesting that pheromone-mediated communication was disrupted. Larval damage ranged from 5.7 to 8.1% white heads (WH) in the insecticide-treated plots compared to a significantly reduced range of 2.1 to 2.4% WH in the pheromone-treated plots. There was no significant difference between the damage estimates recorded for each of the different pheromone treatments. A second trial compared the effect on efficacy of applying the two-component pheromone formulation on different dates, 9–12 and 39–44 days after transplanting. Both pheromone treatments gave significantly lower levels of WH damage compared to equivalent insecticide treated plots; 1.8, 2.0, and 6% respectively. In both trials rice grain yields increased by between 5 and 12% in pheromone-treated plots compared to insecticide treated plots, which was due, at least in part, to the cumulative effect of reduced stem borer damage in both the tillering and reproductive stages of the crop cycle. The formulations exhibited pseudo-zero order release rates with field lives of between 70 and 90 days.


In recent years, the number and content of substantive norms that international copyright treaties impose on member states have increased considerably. It is therefore appropriate to consider the extent to which those instruments have in effect created an international (or at least multinational) copyright code, as well as to inquire what role national copyright laws do and should have in an era not only of international copyright norms, but of international dissemination of copyrighted works. This Article first considers the displacement of national norms through the evolution of a de facto international copyright code, elaborated in multilateral instruments such as the Berne Convention, the TRIPs Accord, and the pending WIPO Copyright Treaty, as well as by harmonization measures within the European Union. The second part of this Article addresses the place that remains for national copyright norms, first through gaps left in the WIPO, WTO and EU multilateral instruments, and second, through choice of law. In the latter instance, a national norm will govern a multinational copyright contract or dispute, but other national copyright norms may be eluded.

Finally, this Article considers what role should remain for national copyright laws. National copyright laws are a component of local cultural and information policies. As such, they express each sovereign nation's twin aspirations for its citizensexposure to works of authorship, and participation in their country's cultural patrimony. Perhaps that simply means that each country's local policies should prevail within its borders, whatever the national origin of the work locally received. On the other hand, the pervasive international dissemination of works of authorship also calls into question the extent to which authors and their works should be subject to different national standards. The Article concludes that national laws allocating copyright ownership form the strongest candidates for preservation; national exceptions to copyright present a more difficult, but potentially persuasive, case for persistence of national norms as well.


As thesis of master in Archivistic, Biblioteconomy and Codicology, I realized the inventory of the archive of Church of S. Severo in Legri, Calenzano (Fi), starting with a suddivision of documents owned by Church in Legri and documents of the Church of S. Martino and S. Romolo in Leccio (torn down in 1986 and merged into there). It was drafted a summary list and afterwards, for the documents of Pieve in Legri, I made an inventory of registers and papers. The rearrangement started with the spotting of series named: baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths and status animae (book of population actually living in the Parish) ; then, registers have been chronologically ordered. After the parish registers, the other documents have been analised, creating 27 series of archive, that often refer to just one unit, like the following cases: Legati Pii, Acli, Scuola della Dottrina Cristiana… The documentation is relatively recent. In fact, the oldest parish registers are in the Archivio Diocesiano fiorentino (1500- 1800), while some documents of the Compagnia della SS. Annunziata in Legri are preserved, with chapters of Compagnie Religiose, in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze. Each paper, each register tells something about a people. One above all, the "Cronicon" in which are reported (by different parish priests in Legri) the highlights, thoughts and oddies of a community bonded to this little "Countryside Church". I wish that my research will clarify the importance of local memory and I hope that this will be emphatized by historians.


Poor compliance with temporary speed limits is a common contributing factor in roadway work zone crashes. Despite the wide range of measures used to encourage compliance, speeding remains a major challenge in work zone traffic control. As part of the major study into safety at Queensland roadworks conducted by CARRS-Q and industry partners, an online survey was conducted to study the perceptions and experiences of drivers regarding roadworks, speed choice and related safety concerns. Survey participants (N=410) were asked to view photographs of 12 roadwork sites (shot from a drivers' perspective without revealing the speed limits), to nominate the speed they thought they would drive at through work zones, and to rate from 1 to 5 separate levels of perceived risk to workers and to their own vehicles. The survey sought further information on topics including recall and effectiveness of public safety messages, perceived effectiveness of common roadwork safety measures, and demographic characteristics. Participants were also invited to express their concerns regarding any general or specific issue related to driving through roadworks. The current paper provides a descriptive summary of key findings from the survey, drawn from preliminary analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data, demonstrating the depth of data and its value for improving knowledge on driver perceptions and speed choice at roadworks. The survey is the first study of driver perceptions of roadwork risks and hazards to include an assessment of self-nominated speeds which can be compared with actual observed speeds at the same roadwork sites.