A calibration for LACIS (Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator) for its use as a CCN (cloud condensation nuclei) detector has been developed. For this purpose, sodium chloride and ammonium sulfate particles of known sizes were generated and their grown sizes were detected at the LACIS outlet. From these signals, the effective critical super-saturation was derived as a function of the LACIS wall temperature. With this, LACIS is calibrated for its use as a CCN detector. The applicability of LACIS for measurements of the droplet activation, and also of the hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles was tested. The activation of the urban aerosol particles used in the measurements was found to occur at a critical super-saturation of 0.46% for particles with a dry diameter of 75 nm, and at 0.42% for 85 nm, respectively. Hygroscopic growth was measured for atmospheric aerosol particles with dry diameters of 150, 300 and 350 nm at relative humidities of 98 and 99%, and it was found that the larger dry particles contained a larger soluble volume fraction of about 0.85, compared to about 0.6 for the 150 nm particles.


Current educational guidelines require clear evidence of the involvement of service users across the nursing curriculum, but give no real direction as to how to achieve this, or clarity about what would constitute successful engagement. There is a limited body of literature that specifically addresses service user engagement in the classroom and this literature is largely evaluative in nature, small scale, single site, often atheoretical and many do not include service user perspectives. The studies present evidence of the value of service user engagement, albeit not in great breadth or depth, but fail to critically examine the actual processes and practices that contribute to the perceived success of service user engagement in the classroom. This study seeks to develop and strengthen the current understanding of service user involvement in nurse education and the way in which it is enacted in the classroom setting. In this study, the term 'service user' encompasses people, carers and families with experience of healthcare who are involved in teaching sessions with pre-registration nursing students for the purposes of sharing their life experiences.
A participatory, Appreciative Inquiry approach was taken, using a series of appreciative workshops (n=8), observations of teaching (n=5) and interviews (n=3). These approaches ensured that there were opportunities for the participants to generate and share their stories and experiences of service user engagement. This participatory appreciative approach also ensured that all voices within the study were respected and that ethical considerations were attended to with high levels of sensitivity. These approaches also facilitated the critical consideration of the interactions, dialogues and relationships that occur between pre-registration nursing students, service users and lecturers. Data were analysed using a thematic narrative approach drawing on the principles of socio-narratology and considering three key components: setting, character and plot.
Three themes were identified: the first 'real world as opposed to what?' focuses on setting; the second 'students, service users, lecturers - there is a togetherness about it all' addresses the characters within the classroom; and the third 'involving service users has helped me grow as a student nurse' considers issues related to plot. The overarching meta-theme, 'mutual development through authentic relationships', encompasses the idea that service user engagement is more than merely an action carried out by service users (sharing life experiences) for the benefit of students in their development as compassionate nurses. Instead, service user engagement is a complex and mutual set of interactions and relationships between service users, students and lecturers. These interactions and relationships occur within a distinct setting, are grounded in authenticity (where authenticity is interpreted as something which is real, genuine or true), and influence the development of shared narratives of service user oriented practice.
The core contribution to knowledge from this study is summarised within a model of best practice for service user engagement that is built from the findings and based within contemporary theoretical thinking on service user engagement. The model presents a map of the journeys of students, service users and lecturers and the ideal classroom conditions for successful service user engagement. It also reveals the processes and practices that occur in classrooms and the profound, positive impact of service user engagement, such as nourishing the emotional lives of student nurses in a way that consolidates compassion. Recommendations for practice, policy and research are presented.


Carbon forestry plantations are a way to achieve statutory global emissions reductions and are also claimed to decrease deforestation. Carbon forestry is not a new system, but has greatly increased in use in recent decades. One such afforestation project, owned by a Norwegian company, is located in northern Uganda. Villages close to this plantation have been affected in different ways. The plantation is part of a local context occupied by different individuals belonging to different social categories. In the villages, various local activities are arranged by the plantation company, many in connection with tree resources, such as seedling distribution to the communities. The goal is poverty reduction in the area, but the stakeholders intended to benefit from these activities are not clearly defined.
Through ethnographic fieldwork carried out January-March 2016, this thesis examined exclusion or inclusion of villagers in the seedling distribution system. Using a participatory approach, villagers themselves articulated the social categories existing in the village. The social categories investigated were poverty and gender, which are commonly studied in the world of development policies. The theoretical concept of intersectionality was used to analyse villagers' experiences of belonging to different social categories; how these categories differed and sometimes contradicted how individuals positioned themselves; and events at the intersections between social categories.
The results showed that gender and poverty are not homogeneous social categories, but that each contains different individuals with differing backgrounds and needs. Scrutiny of how the social categories intersected with each other in the study area indicated groups, e.g. women and the poor, that were more or less excluded from the process of seedling distribution. The intersectionality lens revealed that some individual women and poor villagers were even more excluded from seedling distribution than others within those groups. When organising local development activities in villages around carbon forestry plantation, it is thus important to analyse the different social categories in the village, since a single, inflexible approach risks excluding those who really need support.


Each paper needs an abstract of a maximum of 250 words summarizing the essential new information communicated. Subheadings: Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion. List of Abbreviations: Provide a list of the abbreviations used in your paper. Please list them on a separate page of the manuscript. The list will be printed as a footnote at the bottom of the first page of your article. Footnotes: With the exception of the list of abbreviations, footnotes should be avoided. When essential, they are numbered consecutively and typed at the foot of the appropriate page. Nomenclature: The nomenclature used should conform, wherever possible, to the current edition of the Nomina Anatomica (Terminologia Anatomica), Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria, or to the Nomina Anatomica Avium. Tables and illustrations: Tables and illustrations (both numbered in Arabic numerals) should be prepared as separate files. Tables require a heading and figures a legend, prepared on a separate page. Please only use scale bars to indicate magnifications of the illustrations. Due to technical reasons, figures with a screen background should not be submitted. When possible, group several illustrations on one block for reproduction (max. size 180  223 mm) or provide crop marks. Each illustration must be labelled with its number and the author's name. B/w half-tone and color illustrations must have a final resolution of 300 dpi after scaling (final size), line drawings one of 800–1,200 dpi. Figure files must not be embedded in a document file but submitted separately (see detailed instructions at www.karger.com/cto). Color illustrations: During the review process, the decision will be made as to which color illustrations of a manuscript can be reproduced free of charge. Authors will be informed of this at the time of acceptance of their paper. Otherwise, these illustrations will be reproduced at the author's expense. Up to 6 color illustrations per page can be integrated into the text at the special price of CHF 960.00 per page. References: References in the text should be made by author's name followed by the year of publication, arranged chronologically, then alphabetically. When there are more than two authors, use the first author's name and et al. When references are made to more than one paper by the same author, published in the same year, designate them as a, b, c, etc. The list of references should include only those publications which are cited in the text. Material submitted for publication but not yet accepted may be cited in the text as 'unpublished data' but must not be included in the reference list. In the list of references, arrange references alphabetically listing all authors, then year of publication. Preferably, please cite all authors. Abbreviate journal names according to Index Medicus. Examples (a) Papers published in periodicals: Robinson, C.M., D. O'Dee, T. Hamilton, G.J. Nau (2010) Cytokines involved in interferon-γ production by human macrophages. J Innate Immun 2: 56–65. (b) Papers published only with DOI numbers: Konstantinou, G.N., P.J. Bousquet, T. Zuberbier, N.G. Papadopoulos: The longest wheal diameter is the optimal measurement for the evaluation of skin prick tests. Int Arch Allergy Immunol DOI: 10.1159/000250443. (c) Monographs: Matthews, D.E., V.T. Farewell (2007) Using and Understanding Medical Statistics, ed 4, revised. Basel, Karger. (d) Chapters published in edited books: Li, L., V. Boussiotis (2009) Control and regulation of peripheral tolerance in allergic infl ammatory disease: therapeutic consequences; in Blaser, K. (ed): T Cell Regulation in Allergy, Asthma and Atopic Skin Diseases. Chem Immunol. Basel, Karger, vol 94, pp 178–188. Further details: Authors may consult the 'Guide to Writing Articles in English' by R. O'Rahilly (Acta Anat 131: 1–2, 1988). Digital Object Identifier (DOI) S. Karger Publishers supports DOIs as unique identifiers for articles. A DOI number will be printed on the title page of each article. DOIs can be useful in the future for identifying and citing articles published online without volume or issue information. More information can be found at www.doi.org. Supplementary Material Multimedia files and other supplementary files, directly relevant but not essential to the conclusions of a paper, enhance the online version of a publication and increase its visibility on the web. These files will undergo editorial review. The Editors reserve the right to limit the scope and length of the supplementary material.


Conductor and casing systems for subsea wells can be damaged due to excessive loads caused by vessel drift offs and snag loads. These types of accidental loads on the conductor and casing system are uncontrolled in nature and hence difficult to predict. Therefore, designing the system for these types of loads can be very challenging and economically not practical. Additionally, in the event of an incident subsea, a conductor and casing system is permanently installed and cannot readily be retrieved or inspected once the damage is done.The decision to abandon or to produce from a well with a damaged conductor has serious financial and environmental consequences and should be fully understood. Therefore, to make a knowledgeable decision, it is necessary to understand extent of the damage and its implications for future operations by forensic analytical tools. This paper examines the methodology of a conductor and casing system damage assessment in order to support more informed decisions and provides a case example for a typical deepwater subsea well undergone excessive accidental loading. The objective of the assessment is (1) to verify wellhead system integrity and (2) evaluate the effect of any future operations on the integrity of the system. The paper outlines a process, suggested code checks, and analysis techniques which can be implemented to determine fitness for service of an excessively loaded wellhead system.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The changes in rainfall over Luzon Island during the summer monsoon of the Philippines are investigated using averaged pentad rainfall data from 1981-2010. A monsoon break (P32 to P34; Jun. 5 to Jun. 19) after the climatological onset (P29, May 21 to May 25) was identified. The break is associated with the southwestward extension of the subtropical high during the seasonal evolution of the Western North Pacific Monsoon (WNPM). The break is obvious in stations located over the north and central Luzon. The average rainfall distribution reveals the impact of intra-seasonal oscillations in the summer monsoon rainfall of the Philippines.


A detailed geochemical and lithological profile through unit 14 of the Rhum Eastern Layered Series is presented and interpreted to trace the evolution of this cyclic peridotite-troctolite unit. The lower 15.5 m of the unit are peridotite which has an abrupt contact with the upper 35.5 m of troctolite. Numerous thin subsidiary peridotites occur within the troctolite. Variation in the modes, whole rock 87Sr/86Sr ratios, and Ni and Fo in olivine provide most information about the evolution of the unit. Discontinuities in these parameters divide the unit into six subunits: (I) the lower peridotite, (II) the middle main peridotite, (III) the upper main peridotite and lowermost troctolite, (IV) the middle troctolite, (V) the upper troctolite and (VI) the disturbed troctolite. These subunits are interpreted as the result of magma replenishment by picritic and by basaltic magmas. Field evidence suggests that the subsidiary peridotites are later sills intruded into solid or semi-consolidated troctolite. The olivine Fo and Ni values are similar to those of surrounding troctolite suggesting either re-equilibration with, or assimilation of, the troctolite. Comparison with unit 10 shows that the unit 14 resident basaltic liquid was more mafic than that of unit 10. This factor, along with the basaltic replenishment, can explain many of the differences in geochemical and lithological variation between the two units.


Freedom's Edge takes the reader directly into the heart of the debate over the relationship between religious freedom and LGBT and reproductive rights. The book explains these complex areas of law, and what is at stake in the battle to protect each of these rights. The book argues that religious freedom and sexual freedom share some common elements and that in most contexts it is possible to protect both. Freedom's Edge explains why this is so and provides a roadmap for finding common ground and maximizing freedoms on both sides. The book enables anyone with an interest in these issues to understand what the law actually teaches us about religious freedom, sexual freedom, andhow they interact. This is important because what is often argued by partisans on both sides distorts the legal and cultural stakes and diminishes the possibility of compromise.


Although the gas market in the European Union was opened up with two major directives in 1998 and 2003, competition in Europe is still developing slowly. One major cause is the insufficient availability of gas that is not contracted by long-term contracts (LTCs). Gas hubs provide an apt platform for short-term trading and foster competition through trade with multiple buyers and sellers. However, traded volumes at gas hubs differ largely between European countries. In the UK, where the gas market may be considered as the only mature competitive market in Europe, volumes traded at gas hubs are much higher than volumes at continental hubs. The positive consequence of the strong hub trading in the UK is that the gas price determined at hubs also serves increasingly as reference for long term contracts. The influence of oil prices as reference for the gas price is thus diminishing and the gas price becomes less dependent from short term reactions on the oil market. Currently, this phenomenon is limited to the UK, but Continental hubs should be further fostered to increase competition and to reduce the impact of oil prices on the gas price.


An appropriate but challenging goal for evolutionary computation (EC) is to evolve systems of biological complexity. However, specifying complex structures requires many genes, and searching for a solution in such a highdimensional space can be intractable. In this paper, we propose a method for finding high-dimensional solutions incrementally, by starting with an initial population of very small genomes and gradually complexifying those genomes by adding new genes over generations. That way, search begins in an easily-optimized low-dimensional space and increments into increasingly high-dimensional spaces. We describe an existing method for implementing complexification, and further propose that combining complexification with an indirect genetic encoding, in which genes are reused in the specification of the phenotype, can lead to the discovery of highly complex solutions.


Drug/polymer interactions occur during in situ polymerization of poly(alkylcyanoacrylate) (PACA) formulations. We have used MALDI ionization coupled tandem time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry as an accurate method to characterize covalent peptide/polymer interactions of PACA nanoparticles with the bioactives D-Lys6-GnRH, insulin, [Asn1-Val5]-angiotensin II, and fragments of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1 (1-3)) and human adrenocorticotropic hormone (h-ACTH, (18-39)) at the molecular level. Covalent interactions of peptide with alkylcyanoacrylate were identified for D-Lys6-GnRH, [Asn1-Val5]-angiotensin II and IGF-1 (1-3). D-Lys6-GnRH and [Asn1-Val5]-angiotensin II were modified at their histidine side chain within the peptide, whilst IGF-1 (1-3) was modified at the C-terminal glutamic acid residue. The more complex protein insulin was not modified despite the presence of 2 histidine residues. This might be explained by the engagement of histidine residues in the folding and sterical arrangement of insulin under polymerization conditions. As expected, h-ACTH (18-39) that does not contain histidine residues did not interfere in the polymerisation process. Lowering the pH did not prevent the covalent association of PACA with D-Lys6-GnRH or IGF-1 (1-3). Conclusively, protein and peptide bioactives are potentially reactive towards alkylcyanoacrylate monomers via various mechanisms with limited interference of pH. Histidines and C-terminal glutamic acid residues have been identified as potential sites of interaction. The likelihood of their engagement in the polymerisation process (initiators), however, seems dependant on their sterical availability. The reactivity of nucleophilic functional groups should always be considered and bioactives examined for their potential to covalently interfere with alkylcyanoacrylate monomers, especially when designing PACA delivery systems for protein and peptide biopharmaceuticals.


Establishment of Nothofagus spp. into grasslands can be limited by a lack of ectomycorrhizal inoculum, but the degree of mycorrhizal inoculum limitation and how far mycorrhizal inoculum spreads from forest edges has not been quantified. Further, it has been hypothesised, but not confirmed, that established Kunzea ericoides (a native Myrtaceae tree with both ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal associations) could serve as an alternative host for ectomycorrhizal fungi and thus facilitate mycorrhizal infection of Nothofagus. To confirm and quantify these hypotheses, first we used an ex situ, intact-soil-core bioassay of soils collected near Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides forest, near established Kunzea, and in grassland distant from trees of either species. Second, we collected soils along transects of increasing distance from Nothofagus forest into adjacent grasslands. Mycorrhizal infection of Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides seedlings was high in soils from Near-Nothofagus and Near-Kunzea (74% and 67% of root tips, respectively) and lower in soils Distant from trees (28% of root tips). Seedlings in soils from Near-Nothofagus also had 3.4× greater biomass than those in soils Distant from trees. In the transects, mycorrhizal infection declined in a stepwise fashion at approximately 16 m distance from the forest edge, and seedling biomass was positively correlated with mycorrhizal infection. These data confirm that a lack of mycorrhizal inoculum can limit seedling establishment and show that Kunzea can provide an alternative host for Nothofagus-compatible mycorrhizal inoculum. Further, they provide quantitative data for spatially explicit models of woody establishment. Forty percent of seedlings in soils collected distant from trees had greater than 20% infection, suggesting that a lack of mycorrhizal inoculum is not a complete barrier to woody establishment, but instead may act as one of multiple environmental filters slowing beech spread.


We describe herein a 68-year-old woman who was diagnosed with a quite rare entity of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) occurring simultaneously in the left lateral lobe of liver and the tail of pancreas. Abdominal computed tomography and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography showed a cystic dilatation of the pancreatic duct in the pancreatic tail, which suggested an IPMN, and multiple intrahepatic duct stones in the left lateral lobe. The patient underwent a laparoscopic left lateral hepatolobectomy and spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy. Intra-operative finding of massive mucin in the dilated bile duct implied an intraductal mucinous tumor in the liver. The diagnosis of synchronous IPMNs in the liver and pancreas was confirmed by pathological examination. The patient was followed up for 6 mo without signs of recurrence. Although several cases of IPMN of liver without any pancreatic association have been reported, the simultaneous occurrence of IPMNs in the liver and pancreas is very rare. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first reported case treated by laparoscopic resection.


Summary

1. We quantified production and consumption of stream-dwelling tadpoles and insect grazers in a headwater stream in the Panamanian uplands for 2 years to assess their effects on basal resources and energy fluxes. At the onset of our study, this region had healthy, diverse amphibian populations, but a catastrophic disease-driven decline began in September 2004, which greatly reduced amphibian populations.

2. Insect grazer production was 348 mg ash-free dry mass (AFDM) m−2 year−1 during the first year of the study and increased slightly to 402 mg AFDM m−2 year−1 during the second year.

3. Prior to amphibian declines, resource consumption by grazers (tadpoles and insects) was estimated at 2.9 g AFDM m−2 year−1 of algal primary production, which was nearly twice the estimated amount available. Insect grazers alone accounted for c. 81% of total primary consumption. During the initial stages of the declines, consumption remained at c. 2.9 g AFDM m−2 year−1, but only 35% of the available resource was being consumed and insect grazers accounted for c. 94% of total consumption.

4. Production and resource consumption of some insect grazers increased during the second year, as tadpoles declined, indicating a potential for functional redundancy in this system. However, other insect grazer taxa declined or did not respond to tadpole losses, suggesting a potential for facilitation between tadpoles and some insects; differential responses among taxa resulted in the lack of a response by insect grazers as a whole.

5. Our results suggest that before massive population declines, tadpoles exerted strong top-down control on algal production and interacted in a variety of ways with other primary consumers.

6. As amphibian populations continue to decline around the globe, changes in the structure and function of freshwater habitats should be expected. Although our study was focused on tropical headwater streams, our results suggest that these losses of consumer diversity could influence other aquatic systems as well and may even reach to adjacent terrestrial environments.


This paper investigates the problem of sensor fault estimation and fault-tolerant control for Markovian jump systems with time delay and Lipschitz nonlinearities. The issues involved here are: i) sensor faults; ii) model Lipchitz nonlinearities; iii) system structure changes governed by Markovian jumping parameters; and iv) time delay in system states. Such type of mathematical models can represent a large number of practical systems in the actual engineering. A new estimation technique (named proportional and derivative sliding mode observer) is developed to deal with this design problem. The proposed observer is mode-dependent type in which a derivative gain and a proportional gain are introduced to provide more design freedom, and a discontinuous input term is introduced to eliminate the effects of sensor faults. By employing the developed estimation technique, the asymptotic estimations of system states and sensor faults can be obtained simultaneously. Based on the estimation, an observer-based fault-tolerant control scheme is developed to stabilize the resulting closed-loop system. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed technique.


A novel (to our knowledge) kind of Airy-based pulse with an invariant propagation in lossy dispersive media is proposed. The basic principle is based on an optical energy trade-off between different parts of the pulse caused by the chromatic dispersion, which is used to compensate the attenuation losses of the propagation medium. Although the ideal concept of the proposed pulses implies infinite pulse energy, the numerical simulations show that practical finite energy pulses can be designed to obtain a partially invariant propagation over a finite distance of propagation.


ABSTRACT In this diary study with N = 348 employees, we examine whether the contagion effect of workplace incivility transfers beyond one work day that is whether the experience of workplace incivility is related to showing rude behaviours towards others the next day. Additionally, we examine whether ruminating in the evening of a work day and building an intention for revenge behaviour mediate this relationship, and explore whether a serial mediation process exists where experienced incivility triggers ruminative thoughts, which, in turn, increase the likelihood of intending to act, which transfers into actual rude behaviour the next day. Using a multilevel path analysis, our results confirmed a lagged relationship between workplace incivility one day and rude behaviours towards others the next day. Between-persons' workplace incivility was also related to showing rude behaviour towards others. Neither rumination nor revenge behaviour intent proved to be mediators of this relationship. Additionally, the serial mediation process was not confirmed; however, parts of the process—namely the relationship between experienced workplace incivility and ruminating about work in the evening—received support. Importantly, the reverse relationship (i.e., showing rude behaviour one day leads to experiencing workplace incivility the next) was not supported in our analysis. By adding a new, daily time perspective, our study suggests that participants do not intentionally provoke episodes of incivility, but rather react to others' incivility.


A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a collection of mobile nodes which communicate over radio. These networks have an important advantage, they do not require any existing infrastructure or central administration. Therefore, mobile ad-hoc networks are suitable for temporary communication links. This flexibility, however, comes at a price: communication is difficult to organize due to frequent topology changes. In this paper we present a new on-demand routing algorithm for mobile, multi-hop ad-hoc networks. The algorithm is based on ant algorithms which are a class of swarm intelligence. Ant algorithms try to map the solution capability of ant colonies to mathematical and engineering problems. The Ant-Colony-Based Routing Algorithm (ARA) is highly adaptive, efficient and scalable. The main goal in the design of the algorithm was to reduce the overhead for routing. Furthermore, we compare the performance of ARA with other routing protocols, including DSDV, AODV, and DSR through simulation results.


Considers off-line optimization of a switching sequence for a given finite set of linear control systems and joint optimization of control laws. A linear quadratic full information criterion is optimized and dynamic programming is used to find the optimal switching sequence and control laws. The main result is a method for efficient pruning of the search tree to avoid combinatoric explosion. A method to prove optimality of a found candidate switch sequence and corresponding control laws is presented.


An experiment investigation was performed using R410A in order to determine the single-phase and evaporation heat transfer coefficients on the outside of (i) a smooth tube; (ii) herringbone tube; and (iii) the newly developed Vipertex enhanced surface 1EHT tube; all with the same external diameter (12.7 mm). The nominal evaporation temperature is 279 K, with inlet and outlet qualities of 0.1 and 0.8. Mass fluxes ranged from 10 to 40 kg m−2s−1. Results suggest that the 1EHT tube has excellent heat transfer performance but a higher pressure drop when compared to a smooth tube. Evaporation heat transfer coefficient for the 1EHT is lower than the herringbone tube and the pressure drop is almost the same.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


3D reconstruction of transparent refractive objects like a plastic bottle is challenging: they lack appearance related visual cues and merely reflect and refract light from the surrounding environment. Amongst several approaches to reconstruct such objects, the seminal work of Light-Path triangulation is highly popular because of its general applicability and analysis of minimal scenarios. A light-path is defined as the piece-wise linear path taken by a ray of light as it passes from source, through the object and into the camera. Transparent refractive objects not only affect the geometric configuration of light-paths but also their radiometric properties. In this paper, we describe a method that combines both geometric and radiometric information to do reconstruction. We show two major consequences of the addition of radiometric cues to the light-path setup. Firstly, we extend the case of scenarios in which reconstruction is plausible while reducing the minimal requirements for a unique reconstruction. This happens as a consequence of the fact that radiometric cues add an additional known variable to the already existing system of equations. Secondly, we present a simple algorithm for reconstruction, owing to the nature of the radiometric cue. We present several synthetic experiments to validate our theories, and show high quality reconstructions in challenging scenarios.


A novel beam-propagation method, based on diagonalization of the Hermitian operator that generates the solution to the Helmholtz equation in media with real refractive indices, is described. This method solves some of the problems of the conventional split-step beam-propagation method, namely, the difficulty of handling large index steps and large spatial frequencies, at the expense of higher computational requirements in structures with a refractive-index distribution that varies in the direction of propagation.


In letter 7.24 Pliny provides his readers with a character sketch of the elderly matriarch of a distinguished and wealthy Italian family-Ummidia Quadratilla. Ummidia passed her later years as a fan of the theater; specifically, "she had pantomimes." Pliny disapproves of the shows presented by these performers, and he chastises Ummidia for her interest in pantomime. In fact he views her conduct as symptomatic of a vice among women in general: "I have heard that she herself used to relax her mind with checkers or watch her pantomimes, as women do in the idleness of their sex." We should not be surprised by these comments; there was a tradition of ambivalence among the Romans toward the professions of the theater, and when women became involved with these professions, the ambivalence could turn to contempt. Given the general disposition of Roman males toward pantomime and women, modern readers should not so readily accept Pliny9s assessment. By training her slaves as pantomimes, Ummidia was greatly increasing their value. From numerous ancient sources we know that the monetary value of slaves trained in the theatrical professions was among the highest accorded any slave. Moreover, because of Ummidia9s endowment of a theater in her native Casinum and the performance of Ummidia9s pantomimes in public games, we might say that she was the manager of a small "theatrical empire." Finally, because of the great interest in pantomime on the part of the masses and the desire of the upper classes, including members of various imperial families, to soothe these masses with games, control of popular pantomimes might have given Ummidia access to limited political power.


Abstract In remote control situations, sensorial impoverishment is one of the main difficulties. One way to minimize its influence on the system's performance is helping the human operator to perceive and understand the remote system's behavior. This paper is based on the concept of appropriation of an object by a user, derived from Piaget's theory of adaptation . This developmental psychologist proposed that humans adapt themselves to the external world through two complementary processes: Assimilation corresponds to the generalization of pre-existing schemes to the use of a new device or object. Accommodation corresponds to the differentiation of pre-existing schemes, which leads to the development of new schemes. This theoretical framework was tentatively applied to the remote control of a manipulator arm. Experiments were conducted on this device, in order to test whether the anthropomorphic aspects of the remote systems could help the operator to adapt to the device. The outcome of this successful adaptation process would then lead to an appropriation by the operator of the remote device characteristics.


To reduce latency and increase bandwidth to memory, modern microprocessors are often designed with deep memory hierarchies including several levels of caches. For such microprocessors, both the latency and the bandwidth to off-chip memory are typically about two orders of magnitude worse than the latency and bandwidth to the fastest on-chip cache. Consequently, the performance of many applications is largely determined by how well they utilize the caches and bandwidths in the memory hierarchy. For such applications, there are two principal approaches to improve performance: optimize the memory hierarchy and optimize the software. In both cases, it is important to both qualitatively and quantitatively understand how the software utilizes and interacts with the resources (e.g., cache and bandwidths) in the memory hierarchy.This thesis presents several novel profiling methods for memory-centric software performance analysis. The goal of these profiling methods is to provide general, high-level, quantitative information describing how the profiled applications utilize the resources in the memory hierarchy, and thereby help software and hardware developers identify opportunities for memory related hardware and software optimizations. For such techniques to be broadly applicable the data collection should have minimal impact on the profiled application, while not being dependent on custom hardware and/or operating system extensions. Furthermore, the resulting profiling information should be accurate and easy to interpret.While several use cases are presented, the main focus of this thesis is the design and evaluation of the core profiling methods. These core profiling methods measure and/or estimate how high-level performance metrics, such as miss-and fetch ratio; off-chip bandwidth demand; and execution rate are affected by the amount of resources the profiled applications receive. This thesis shows that such high-level profiling information can be accurately obtained with very little impact on the profiled applications and without requiring costly simulations or custom hardware support.


Neural language models are often trained with maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), where the next word is generated conditioned on the ground-truth word tokens. During testing, however, the model is instead conditioned on previously generated tokens, resulting in what is termed exposure bias. To reduce this gap between training and testing, we propose using optimal transport (OT) to match the sequences generated in these two modes. An extension is further proposed to improve the OT learning, based on the structural and contextual information of the text sequences. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated on machine translation, text summarization, and text generation tasks.


For many years statistics has been regarded as the essential mathematical preparation for biologists. Recently, however, it has become necessary to broaden this background to include advanced techniques such as linear differential equations. The difficulty with this has been that most courses in differential equations are designed for engineering students. This book is designed for biologists. It was developed in a graduate course at the University of Rochester School of Medicine but the approach is such that it will be useful at either the undergraduates or the graduate level. The only prerequisite is elementary calculus, and the assumption is that the student has probably forgotten much of what he learned in that course.The book begins with a review of the concepts of elementary calculus and shows how physiological problems can be formulated in terms of differential equations. It then proceeds quickly but in an entirely self-contained way to develop three techniques for the solution of differential equations: solution by Laplace transform, solution by inspection of the physical problem, and numerical solutions. These are applied to the types of problems most often encountered in physiology: compartmental problems, regulations, diffusion, flow measurements, and curve fitting. The terminology used in the problems and examples will be familiar to biologists. In each chapter the problems range from routine to fairly difficult.The first edition of this book was published in hardcover in 1972 with the title Mathematical Techniques for Physiology and Medicine. This revised contains a new chapter, on tracer experiments, and two additional appendixes. Many new problems (and their solutions) have also been added.


SEARCHING FOR JUSTIFICATION OF THE POLICY OF PRE-MARKET APPROVAL OF PHARMACEUTICALS Jason Briggeman, PhD George Mason University, 2015 Dissertation Director: Dr. Daniel Klein In the United States and most other wealthy nations, all drugs are banned unless individually permitted. This policy, called pre-market approval, is controversial among economists; the preponderance of the economics literature that offers a judgment on premarket approval is critical of the policy, but surveys of U.S. economists show that many, perhaps a majority, support pre-market approval. Here I analyze the results of a recent survey that asked economists who support pre-market approval to justify, with reference to the economic concept of market failure, their support of the policy. I find that, while almost all the economists surveyed could point to a market failure or failures that may plausibly exist and affect the market for pharmaceuticals, none were able to make a well reasoned connection between those market failures and the particular remedy of premarket approval. None of the economists surveyed cited in support of their position any literature specific to pre-market approval. I supplement the survey findings with a review of relevant reading material assigned in health economics courses at top universities, searching that material for discussions of what may justify pre-market approval. I find a strong argument that the prospect of overt disasters being caused by avoidable mistakes can justify some intervention in pharmaceuticals; however, I find little to justify the other interventions that are part of pre-market approval. I suggest that future inquiry into possibilities for liberalizing reform concentrate on understanding matters such as the informational effects of product bans, the distinction between safety and efficacy, the nature of demand for drugs about which little is known, and the political economy of drug substitutes.


The issue of weight preoccupation and eating disorders are receiving growing interest in the sport environment. Success in some sports requires an extremely lean appearance, which may lead to pressure from coaches and parents to be thin. Other sports use weight classifications that determine in which group an athlete will compete, requiring him/her to drop several kilos before competition. The aim of the study was to investigate the coaches' role in identification and management of eating disorders in elite female athletes. Eighteen elite coaches representing three sport groups were interviewed: aesthetic sports (n=5), weight class sports (n=7) and endurance sports (n=6). Mean coaching experience was 17 years. The results of this study revealed that coaches' knowledge of symptoms of eating disorders was limited, especially bulimia. Many coaches considered knowledge of eating disorders as the least important skill in relation to nutrition and weight regulation.


and Reliable Knowledge (hereafter URK). In Gifts of Athena, economic historian Joel Mokyr coined the phrase, recognizing that changes in knowledge, its perception, and organization are main concerns for both economic historians and historians of science.1 At first, historians of technology paid little heed to Mokyr's economic history discourses, which somewhat sidestepped applied science and technology. Yet Mokyr's approach—highlighting technological change as an engine of economic growth—has featured widely in global comparative history. Over the years, this type of scholarship has generated much research—mostly focusing on the transfer of European URK regimes and their impact on local knowledge cultures, economic growth, and cultural prosperity. These historians also observe—often in passing—that Western URK rarely started with a blank slate and that it had to respond to local methods of mobilizing technical knowledge and generating wealth. This special issue turns the tables. We ask how local definitions and practices of usefulness and reliability generated wealth and technological change. We present research on the Ottoman Empire, China, Japan, France, Britain, and colonial India, covering a period from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. Collectively, these studies also shed light on a central issue of the history of technology: how artisanal and learned-literate-scientific knowledge communities interacted in regional and culturally diverse settings. Taking such a reverse position, we address how a view from Europe has impinged on the role of the global in defining "usefulness" and "reliabil-


A case of antiepileptic hypersensitivity syndrome presenting as an acute septic illness is reported. A 67-year-old man, with a history of essential hypertension (treated with amlodipine) and recently diagnosed nocturnal epilepsy (treated with phenytoin), presented initially with an acute pneumonic illness with periorbital oedema. This was treated successfully with antibiotics and his phenytoin was changed to carbamazepine due to concerns regarding the periorbital oedema. He was re-admitted the following month with a history of weight loss, rigors, night sweats and high temperatures. Investigations revealed very high inflammatory markers. Despite extensive tests, no source of infection, autoimmune disease or malignancy was identified. The carbamazepine was then stopped and over the next 5 days the patient's symptoms gradually resolved. The patient's haematological and biochemical abnormalities returned to normal and he was discharged home. Since discharge he has been very well with no further sequelae.


Gene delivery vectors based on Adenoviral (Ad) vectors have enormous potential for the treatment of both hereditary and acquired disease. Detailed structural analysis of the Ad virion, combined with functional studies has broadened our knowledge of the structure/function relationships between Ad vectors and host cells/tissues and substantial achievement has been made towards a thorough understanding of the biology of Ad vectors. The widespread use of Ad vectors for clinical gene therapy is compromised by their inherent immunogenicity. The generation of safer and more effective Ad vectors, targeted to the site of disease, has therefore become a great ambition in the field of Ad vector development. This review provides a synopsis of the structure/function relationships between Ad vectors and host systems and summarizes the many innovative approaches towards achieving Ad vector targeting.


ABSTRACT Multiple agricultural water management (AWM) technologies are being promoted worldwide in rainfed agro-ecological production systems, such as the Limpopo River Basin, to close the yield gap, enhance food security and reduce poverty, but evidences on yield gains and environmental impacts are varied. This paper conducts a review of the performance of AWM technologies against conventional farmer practices to produce adequate evidence on cereal yield and field runoff changes. With the interrogation of literature from 1980 to 2013 using seven AWM groupings, enough evidence was found that AWM technologies can deliver substantial benefits of increased crop yield and water productivity with reduced environmental impacts. Using random effects model, the standardized mean difference (SMD) of yield between AWM and control was 0.27, while SMD of water productivity was 0.46, indicating the effectiveness of the technologies (SMD > 0). Subgroup analyses showed greatest yield responses on silty-clay-loam, clay-loam and sandy soils compared to clay and loam-sandy soils, and higher yield increase under low rainfall regime (200–500 mm) than under high rainfall regime (500–800 mm). Large yield change variations for different AWM technologies present a huge opportunity for meeting the existing yield gaps and enhancing coping capacity in dry years and under climate change.


An expanded role in promoting longevity is defined for a signaling protein in the unfolded protein response pathway. Mutations in the insulin or insulin-like growth factor receptor (Daf-2) of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans substantially enhance the life span of the animals. This occurs, at least in part, because the mutant animals have enhanced resistance to various forms of stress. Indeed, Henis-Korenblit et al. found that daf-2 mutants were more resistant than wild-type animals to toxic substances that cause misfolding of proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). When such unfolded proteins are detected in the ER, the ER stress response—a signaling process through which transcription is altered to regulate production of proteins that coordinate protection of proteins in the ER and removal of damaged proteins—ensues. A main mechanism that mediates this transcriptional activation in cells experiencing ER stress is provided by the alternative splicing—and consequent production of an activated form—of a transcription factor called XBP-1 (X-box–binding protein-1). However Henis-Korenblit found that daf-2 mutant animals had lower, rather than higher, amounts of the spliced XBP-1 mRNA. They interpreted this to mean that the animals had lower amounts of ER stress and thus had a lower "set point" for activation of XBP-1 and its normal transcriptional targets and that XBP-1 might instead regulate new targets in the daf-2 mutants. They then searched for genes regulated in an XBP-1–dependent manner in daf-2 mutants and identified dox-1. The Dox-1 protein has not been characterized, but from its sequence, it is predicted to function in splicing or processing of RNA. Furthermore, expression of dox-1 was coordinately regulated by XBP-1 and DAF16 (a FOXO transcription factor family member activated in daf-2 mutants), and dox-1 appears to have binding sites in its promoter for both XBP-1 and DAF16. Genetic evidence indicated that Dox-1 contributes to longevity of daf-2 mutants in a manner independent of ER stress, even though it is regulated by XBP-1. Thus, in animals with low signaling through the insulin and insulin-like growth factor receptor, the ER stress response protein XBP-1 appears to take on a new role, cooperating with other transcription factors to enhance longevity. S. Henis-Korenblit, P. Zhang, M. Hansen, M. McCormick, S.-J. Lee, M. Cary, C. Kenyon, Insulin/IGF-1 signaling mutants reprogram ER stress response regulators to promote longevity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107, 9730–9735 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The increased demand for grid-connected inverters for connection of renewable energy sources raises the issue of harmonics injected to the grid. Such inverters must comply with the standards specification of current harmonics injected to the grid. Such regulations can be maintained using passive filters connected between the inverter and grid. Design of such filters is a challenging problem when considering factors for the filter design such as inverter specifications and ratings. This paper proposes a trial-and-error based algorithm to obtain viable L and LCL filter parameters which comply with standards requirements and inverter ratings. Filter parameters are studied and the IEEE-1547 standard is adopted for the algorithm decision making. The result is a various combination of filter parameters that can be used which all satisfy the required criteria. By means of simulation the resulting parameters are evaluated.


The wide range of applications of ZnO nanoparticles (nano ZnO) in commercial products and the ubiquitous cadmium (Cd) contamination in the natural environment increase the chance of co-existence of nano ZnO with Cd in the surroundings. To investigate the effects of nano ZnO on CdCl2-induced hepatotoxicity in mice, the histopathologic changes, metallothionein expression, oxidative stress responses and serum biochemical parameters were determined after oral administration of bulk or nano ZnO and/or CdCl2 for seven consecutive days. Bulk or nano ZnO had low toxicity in mice. In contrast, CdCl2 led to significant hepatic oxidative damage, as indicated by hepatic histopathological abnormalities and dysfunction. Bulk and nano ZnO had nearly identical influences on the hepatotoxicity of CdCl2 in mice. Although co-administration of bulk or nano ZnO with CdCl2 had a positive cooperative effect on the hepatic uptake of Cd and Zn, both bulk and nano ZnO significantly attenuated CdCl2-caused hepatic damage via the reduction of oxidative stress. The increase in metallothionein synthesis and the reduction of Cd-induced perturbation of Zn2+ homeostasis after co-administration of bulk or nano ZnO with CdCl2 play two important roles in the protective effect of bulk or nano ZnO on CdCl2-caused hepatic oxidative damage.


Streptococcus pneumoniae is an uncommon cause of pyomyositis. It is unclear whether the clinical presentation and outcome of pneumococcal pyomyositis differ depending on the host's underlying immune status. We describe 2 patients with pneumococcal pyomyositis, review all published cases, and compare characteristics between apparently healthy hosts and at-risk hosts. A total of 35 cases of pneumococcal pyomyositis were identified, 11 in apparently healthy hosts and 24 in at-risk hosts. Two-thirds of the patients had an antecedent respiratory illness or meningitis. At-risk hosts tended to have a longer interval between the development of symptomatic muscle infection and the diagnosis of pyomyositis and a significantly higher risk of disseminated disease at presentation, as manifested by involvement of multiple noncontiguous muscles or presence of meningitis. Overall, other than 1 death, all patients recovered with antibiotics and surgical drainage, but as might be expected there was a significantly higher rate of complications among at-risk hosts.


This article reexamines the evidence for the relationships between the Vestal virgins and their natal kin from the second century BC to the third century ad. It suggests that the bond between these priestesses and their families remained strong throughout this period and that, as a consequence, interpretations of the Vestals' position within Roman society that emphasize the severing of agnatic ties through their removal from patria potestas may be misguided. When placed in the broader social and legal context, the ritual "capture" of these priestesses is shown to be a necessary feature of their priestly identity, which only marked the Vestals as extraordinary because of the unique intersection of religious and gender categories that characterized their office. Finally, the implications of these findings for the interpretation of Vestal virginity are discussed.


Context: Despite the high incidence of cervical cancer in Nigeria, there are only a few large scale population based studies on HPV prevalence and genotype distribution. Aims: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence and distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) types in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) in Nigeria. Settings and Design: Cross sectional period prevalence study. Methods and Material: Paraffin embedded tissue blocks of two hundred and thirty five archival cervical cancers diagnosed in three participating laboratories from South West Nigeria were analyzed for the presence of HPV DNA. Statistical Analysis: Data analysis was performed with the Statistical Package STATA 10. Results: Of the one hundred and eighty seven samples that were considered appropriate for HPV detection after histological evaluation 160 (85.6%) were positive for HPV DNA. The five most common types identified as single types among HPV positive cases were HPV16 (46.9%), HPV18 (19.4%), HPV45 (11.9%), HPV35 (5.0%), and HPV31 (3.1%). Others were HPV33, 39, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68. HPV16 and 18 in single/multiple infections accounted for 69.4% of the samples. Multiple infections were detected in 4.4%. All the adenosquamous and neuroendocrine carcinomas tested positive for HPV, while 86.1% and 66.7% of the squamous cell and the adenocarcinomas were positive, respectively. Conclusion: These results are in consonance with reports from all other parts of the world that HPV16 and 18 accounts for almost 70% of cervical cancers, supporting data that effective vaccination against these two types will reduce the cervical burden in South West Nigeria.


This is a book that celebrates the power of ideas: thought can, and does, change the world. And, in turn, ideas evolve. Fundamentalism, environmentalism and bioethics are defining our future just as Marxism, feminism or existentialism have influenced our present. So what do we need to know as we move into the 21st century? More than a simple reference work, this is A.C. Grayling's personal and heartfelt guide to the ideas, past and present, that shape our world. Covering religion, philosophy, scientific theory and political movements, each alphabetically ordered entry illuminates, elucidates and provokes. Written with Grayling's customary fire and erudition, the result is a book that aims both to arm readers with knowledge and engage them in philosophical debate.


How the federal government should regulate e-cigarette advertising targeted towards children generates unique jurisprudential questions regarding the potential for infringement on children's liberty and autonomy. While it would seem unethical to restrict e-cigarette advertisements to adults, children are in a different category because they lack the maturity and decision-making skills to discern advertising falsehoods from reality. This is especially problematic with e-cigarette advertisements because long-term public health outcomes for children are at stake. This Note assesses the historical and modern regulatory measures used by Congress, the FDA, and the judiciary to regulate how the tobacco industry may advertise to children. Then, using John Stuart Mill's harm principle and idea of utilitarianism and Gerald Dworkin's theory of paternalism, this Note postulates how the federal government might appropriately regulate advertising e-cigarette products to children. Finally, this Note proposes a two-step paternalistic policy for how Congress and the FDA can effectively regulate e-cigarette advertisements targeted to children and prevent further harm to America's youth.


This study focuses on the performer-listener link of the chain of musical communication. Using different perceptual methods (categorization, matching, and rating), as well as acoustical analyses of timing and amplitude, we found that both musicians and nonmusicians could discern among the levels of expressive intent of violin, trumpet, clarinet, oboe, and piano performers. Time-contour profiles showed distinct signatures between instruments and across expressive levels, which affords a basis for perceptual discrimination. For example, for "appropriate" expressive performances, a gradual lengthening of successive durations leads to the cadence. Although synthesized versions based on performance timings led to less response accuracy than did the complete natural performance, evidence suggests that timing may be more salient as a perceptual cue than amplitude. We outline a metabolic communication theory of musical expression that is based on a system of sequences of states, and changes of state, which fill gaps of inexorable time. We assume that musical states have a flexible, topologically deformable nature. Our conception allows for hierarchies and structure in active music processing that static generative grammars do not. This theory is supported by the data, in which patterns of timings and amplitudes differed among and between instruments and levels of expression.


Noneconomists often think that economists' approach to race is almost exclusively one of laissez-faire. "Racism, Liberalism, and Economics" argues that economists' ideas are more complicated. The book considers economists' support of markets in relation to the challenge of race and race relations and argues that their support of laissez-faire has traditionally been based upon a broader philosophical foundation of liberalism and history: what markets have and have not achieved in the past, and how that past relates to the future. The book discusses the concepts of liberalism and racism, the history and use of these terms, and how that history relates to policy issues. It argues that liberalism is consistent with a wide variety of policies and that the broader philosophical issues are central in choosing policies. The contributors show how the evolution of racist ideas has been a subtle process that is woven into larger movements in the development of scientific thought; economic thinking is embedded in a larger social milieu. Previous discussions of policies toward race have been constrained by that social milieu, and, since World War II, have largely focused on ending legislated and state-sanctioned discrimination. In the past decade, the broader policy debate has moved on to questions about the existence and relative importance of intangible sources of inequality, including market structure, information asymmetries, cumulative processes, and cultural and/or social capital. This book is a product of, and a contribution to, this modern discussion. It is uniquely transdisciplinary, with contributions by and discussions among economists, philosophers, anthropologists, and literature scholars. The volume first examines the early history of work on race by economists and social scientists more generally. It continues by surveying American economists on race and featuring contributions that embody more modern approaches to race within economics. Finally it explores several important policy issues that follow from the discussion. ." . . adds new insights that contribute significantly to the debate on racial economic inequality in the U.S. The differing opinions of the contributors provide the broad perspective needed to examine this extremely complex issue."--James Peoples, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee "There is an immense economic literature on racial discrimination, employing a variety of models and decomposition methods. This volume makes a unique contribution by focusing on the philosophical assumptions at the root of this analysis and by presenting many sides of the very vigorous debate surrounding these controversial issues."--Thomas Maloney, University of Utah "By focusing upon the progress of analytical technique, historians of economic thought have grossly neglected the symbiotic relation of economics to public policy and ideology. This collection of essays offers a most welcome breach of disciplinary apartheid. Seizing upon recent research in the almost forgotten writings about race of Classical economists and their contemporaries, it relates nineteenth-century ideas to current debates about economic discrimination and other manifestations of racism. As the writing is both learned and lively, the book should appeal both to the generally educated reader and to teachers of courses in multiculturalism."--Melvin Reder, Isidore Brown and Gladys J. Brown Professor Emeritus of Urban and Labor Economics, University of Chicago


In this paper, we report on modeling, characterization, and performance quantification of a conducting polymer actuator, driving a rigid link to form each finger of a two-finger gripping system, which is what we call a microgripping system. The actuator, which consists of five layers of three different materials, operates in a nonaquatic medium, i.e., air, as opposed to its predecessors. After the bending displacement and force outputs of a single finger are modeled and characterized including the effect of the magnitude and frequency of input voltages, the nonlinear behavior of the finger including hysteresis and creep effects is experimentally quantified, and then a viscoelastic model is employed to predict the creep behavior. The experimental and theoretical results presented demonstrate that while the hysteresis is negligibly small, the creep is significant enough so as not to be ignored. The response of the actuator and the finger under step input voltages is evaluated, and found that the actuator does not have any time delay, but only a large time constant. Two of the fingers are assembled to form a microgripping system, whose payload handling and positioning ability has been experimentally evaluated. It can lift up to 50 times its weight under 1.5 V. The payload handled was a spherical object covered with industrial type tissue paper. The friction coefficient between the object and the carbon fiber rigid link has been determined experimentally and used to estimate the contact force. All the theoretical and experimental performance quantification results presented demonstrate that conducting polymer actuators can be employed to make functional microsized robotic devices


SISMAN, Can Burak, Erhan GEZER and Israfil KOCAMAN, 2011. Effects of organic waste (rice husk) on the concrete properties for farm buildings. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 17: 40-48 The objective of this research was to investigate physical, mechanical and thermal properties of concrete produced by using organic waste (rice husk). Concrete with a dosage of 300 was produced by adding various amounts of rice husk into the normal aggregate (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%). The compressive strength and unit weight of the samples were determined after 7 and 28 days, and the water absorption rate, freezing-thawing resistance and thermal conductivity were determined after 28 days. According to the experimental results, the compressive strengths and unit weights of the concrete ranged between 17.6 and 37.5 MPa and between 1797 and 2268 kg/m3, respectively. All concrete produced were resistant to freezing. The concrete water absorption rates were below 5.5%. In addition, thermal conductivities varied between 1.53 and 0.79 W/mK. In conclusion, rice husk had potential as a material to produce lightweight concrete when considering its strength, resistance and insulation properties, and to be used in agricultural buildings


Abstract This opinion updates the information included in the previous EFSA Scientific Opinion concerning the in planta control measures for Xylella fastidiosa, with a systematic review and critical analysis of the potential treatment solutions that have been published against this pest so far. The output of this opinion focuses on the application of chemical or biological treatments on living plants. In vitro studies, hot water treatments, use of resistant varieties and vector control are excluded from the review. The use of antibiotics is not considered due to the risk of antimicrobial resistance development. The use of weakly virulent or avirulent strains of X. fastidiosa is covered in this review, although this organism is an EU quarantine plant pest and its introduction in the EU territory is banned. Experiments were recently conducted to assess the effect of application of zinc, copper, and citric acid biocomplex, of N‐acetylcysteine, and of 'diffusible signal factor' (and of its homologs). Their results showed that these control measures were sometimes able to reduce symptoms caused by X. fastidiosa. Recent experiments also showed that several species of endophytic microorganisms, some bacteriophages and inoculation of weakly virulent/avirulent strains of X. fastidiosa could offer some protection against the Pierce's disease. However, based on the reviewed results, the Panel concludes that, although several published experiments show some effects in reducing symptoms development, the tested control measures are not able to completely eliminate X. fastidiosa from diseased plants. The Panel confirms as previously stated that there is currently no control measure available to eliminate the bacteria from a diseased plant in open field conditions.


We propose grapheme-based sub-word units for spoken term detection (STD). Compared to phones, graphemes have a number of potential advantages. For out-of-vocabulary search terms, phone- based approaches must generate a pronunciation using letter-to-sound rules. Using graphemes obviates this potentially error-prone hard decision, shifting pronunciation modelling into the statistical models describing the observation space. In addition, long-span grapheme language models can be trained directly from large text corpora. We present experiments on Spanish and English data, comparing phone and grapheme-based STD. For Spanish, where phone and grapheme-based systems give similar transcription word error rates (WERs), grapheme-based STD significantly outperforms a phone- based approach. The converse is found for English, where the phone- based system outperforms a grapheme approach. However, we present additional analysis which suggests that phone-based STD performance levels may be achieved by a grapheme-based approach despite lower transcription accuracy, and that the two approaches may usefully be combined. We propose a number of directions for future development of these ideas, and suggest that if grapheme-based STD can match phone-based performance, the inherent flexibility in dealing with out-of-vocabulary terms makes this a desirable approach.


Transport time and cost are decisive factors for shippers when they choose a mode for their transport. For inland waterway transport in particular, these aspects are more uncertain and less easy to generalize than for road and rail. This is due to the highly variable waterway conditions on free-flowing rivers and due to the large variety of inland ships. Today´s transport models, however, do not take these factors into account. This paper shows that dynamic fairway conditions, the ship's amount of propulsion power, and the captain's behaviour have a substantial impact on the attainable speed and fuel consumption of inland ships. This in turn has a significant impact on attainable sailing schedules and transportation cost, as we demonstrate through a case study for ships sailing on the Rhine-Danube corridor. We, therefore, conclude that there is a clear potential to improve the representation of inland waterway transport in freight models by modelling the effects of actual ship characteristics and waterway conditions at the micro-level.


Author(s): Stukel, MR; Kahru, M; Benitez-Nelson, CR; Decima, M; Goericke, R; Landry, MR; Ohman, MD | Abstract: © 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The biological carbon pump is responsible for the transport of ∼5-20 Pg C yr-1 from the surface into the deep ocean but its variability is poorly understood due to an incomplete mechanistic understanding of the complex underlying planktonic processes. In fact, algorithms designed to estimate carbon export from satellite products incorporate fundamentally different assumptions about the relationships between plankton biomass, productivity, and export efficiency. To test the alternate formulations of export efficiency in remote-sensing algorithms formulated by Dunne et al. (2005), Laws et al. (2011), Henson et al. (2011), and Siegel et al. (2014), we have compiled in situ measurements (temperature, chlorophyll, primary production, phytoplankton biomass and size structure, grazing rates, net chlorophyll change, and carbon export) made during Lagrangian process studies on seven cruises in the California Current Ecosystem and Costa Rica Dome. A food-web based approach formulated by Siegel et al. (2014) performs as well or better than other empirical formulations, while simultaneously providing reasonable estimates of protozoan and mesozooplankton grazing rates. By tuning the Siegel et al. (2014) algorithm to match in situ grazing rates more accurately, we also obtain better in situ carbon export measurements. Adequate representations of food-web relationships and grazing dynamics are therefore crucial to improving the accuracy of export predictions made from satellite-derived products. Nevertheless, considerable unexplained variance in export remains and must be explored before we can reliably use remote sensing products to assess the impact of climate change on biologically mediated carbon sequestration.


Vija Celmins Untitled (Desert/Galaxy) from 1974, presents a dual image drawing of a dark night sky filled with stars and other illuminated celestial objects juxtaposed with a close-cropped view of a desert floor. This image acts as a provocation to trace the entangled histories of the Cold War 'space race' with the development of satellite technologies and atmospheric/meteorological monitoring. Any analysis of this historic era of manned space exploration cannot now be separated from the accelerated development of the computing and information technologies that have shaped the contemporary technosphere. It also highlights the expansion of environmental monitoring that led, paradoxically, to a greater understanding of climate change and the planetary impacts of new technologies. A picture emerges of the material significance of the earthbound landscapes that supported the growth of these technologies and their extra terrestrial destinations recoupling the earth with the sky, proximity with distance, and speed with slowness.

The NASA images of Earth from space (Earthrise, 1968 and Blue Marble, 1972) are considered in relation to Peter Sloterdijk's redeployment of the 1960s concept of Earth as a 'spaceship' in order to map a non-anthropocentric atmospheric politics that offers a "trans-human symbiosis" based on environmental reciprocity. Weaving together historical/temporal dimensions and geographical locations through the material/immaterial metaphor of the cloud, the paper concludes with artist Craigie Horsfield's cloud tapestries (2008), woven translations of film stills of the sky taken from his earlier social film project that took place on the island of El Hiero in 2002. This island marked the original location of the zero line of longitude and point from which the Europeans navigated their ships to the 'new' world marking an originary moment of global circulation and capital expansion.


Using recent Canadian nation data, this study examines the cohabitational experience of 930 women and 650 men after they terminated a first marriage in the context of a marital search model. Our results suggest an increasing trend of postmarital cohabitation for recent cohorts. The hazard rate of postmarital cohabitation varies, depending particularly on time since marital disruption, age Qt marital disruption, and year of marital dissolution. The analysis shows no significant sex differences in the rate of postmarital cohabitation. The implications for these results are discussed. During the last 3 decades, one of the most profound social changes in Canada, as in other Western countries, has been in family formation and dissolution. Marriage rates have been declining, and rates of cohabitation have been soaring (Bumpass, 1990; Dumas & Peron, 1992; Espenshade, 1985). Now 4 out of 10 recent marriages in Canada (Dumas & Peron, 1992), and 6 out of 10 in the United States (Castro Martin & Bumpass, 1989), are expected to end in divorce. It is no wonder that D. J. van de Kaa (1987) has called these a part of a "second demographic transition," and Larry Bumpass' presidential address to the Population Association of America was entitled "What's Happening to the Family?" (Bumpass, 1990). As divorce has become commonplace, so has remarriage. Social scientists cite the prevalence of remarriage as evidence that people are not abandoning the institution of marriage. The high rates of divorce by and large reflect an increasing intolerance of particular marriages that are unhappy, rather than growing disillusionment with marriage as a social institution (Bumpass, Sweet, & Castro Martin, 1990). In other words, marriage is not going out of style. The rate of remarriage, however, has been declining in Canada in recent years: The projected likelihood of remarriage has dropped from 85% in 1971 to 76% in 1985 for men, and from 79% to 64% for women in the same period (Statistics Canada, 1988, p. 10). A similar drop has also occurred in the United States. Remarriage rates, for example, declined by about 40% for widows and by one-third for divorced women between 1965 and 1984 (Bumpass et al., 1990). A comparable decline has occurred in Western Europe as well (Blanc, 1987). One explanation for the decline in remarriage suggests that this phenomenon has been largely a response to rising nonmarital cohabitation after divorce (Bumpass, Sweet, & Cherlin, 1991). The argument is that nonmarital cohabitation has increasingly become not just a courtship process leading to marriage, but a substitute for legal marriage (Axinn & Thornton, 1993; Rindfuss & VandenHeuvel, 1990; Thornton, 1988). There is evidence that premarital cohabitation accounts for much of the decline in first marriage in recent years (e.g., Bumpass & Sweet, 1989; Bumpass et al., 1991; Burch & Madan, 1986). The rapid increase in cohabitation after divorce is crucial to our understanding of changing remarriage patterns. Particularly important in this regard is the possibility that cohabitation weakens marriage as a social institution. If people who cohabit find that this arrangement offers an attractive and compatible lifestyle, their preference for married life is likely to decline (Axinn & Thornton, 1992). High rates of dissolution among cohabiting unions (Bumpass & Sweet, 1989; Burch & Madan, 1986) may also "reinforce the view that intimate relationships are fragile and temporary, thereby reducing the expectation that marriage is a lifetime relationship and commitment" (Axinn & Thornton, 1992, p. 361). Although we have seen an increasing amount of research on remarriage, we know little about nonmarital unions after marital dissolution. We know that premarital cohabitation is linked to high rates of divorce (Balakrishnan, Rao, Lapierre-Adamcyk, Krotki, 1987; Bennett, Blanc, & Bloom, 1988; Booth & Johnson, 1988; Burch & Madan, 1986; Schoen, 1992: Teachman & Polonko, 1990), less commitment to marriage (Wu & Balakrishnan, 1992), and approval of nonmarital cohabitation and divorce (Axinn & Thornton, 1992, 1993). …


Background: Vatarakta vis-à-vis gout is a common condition in both primary care and specialist practice. Gout is a systemic disease characterized by manifestations of chronic under lying hyperuricemia, resulting in the deposition of monosodium urate crystals in various tissues. Gout is the most common of the crystal induced arthritis due to disturbed uric acid metabolism and precipitation of urate crystals in extracellular space of joints, periarticular tissue, bones, and other organs. Aim and objective: To explore the therapeutic efficacy and safety of Amrita Guggulu and Pinda Taila in the management of hyperuricemia in gout (Vatarakta) patients. Materials and methods: A total of 100 cases (25–65 years) of primary gouty arthritis fulfilling the diagnostic criteria as recommended by the American College of Rheumatology were selected for the present study from outpatient department of the Central Ayurveda Research Institute for Respiratory Disorders Patiala and Regional Ayurveda Research Institute for Urinary Disorders, Jammu, India, irrespective of their sex, religion, and socioeconomic status. Only those patients who presented themselves with at least 6 of 12 criteria of American College of Rheumatology (1977) were selected for the clinical trial. Amrita Guggulu was given 1000 mg twice daily orally and Pinda Taila was applied locally 10 mL twice daily for 84 days. Results: The trial therapy was assessed based on the improvement in clinical features, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score, Patient's Global Assessment Scale score, Physician's Global Assessment Scale Score, SF-36 Health Survey Score for quality of life (QOL), and biochemical parameters. Each patient was subjected to routine blood test, serum uric acid, liver function tests, and renal function tests before treatment, after RESEARCH ARTICLE 1,3,5,6Research Officer, 2,4,7,8Assistant Director, 9Statistical Officer 10Statistical Assistant, 11Deputy Director General, 12Former Deputy Director General, 13Director General 1Central Ayurveda Research Institute for Respiratory Disorders Patiala, Punjab, India 2,5,6,7,9-13Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences New Delhi, India 3,4Regional Ayurveda Research Institute for Urinary Disorders Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India 8Central Ayurveda Research Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, New Delhi, India Corresponding Author: Renu Singh, Research Officer, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, New Delhi, India Phone: +9188826570500, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com 28 days of treatment, and after 84 days of treatment. The trial combination showed statistically significant improvement in the clinical manifestations, QOL as well as reduction in marker of hyperuricemia, i.e., serum uric acid; the mean serum uric acid at the baseline was 7.76 mg/dL, which was reduced to 6.50 mg/dL after the trial period of 84 days. There was also decrease in the level of VAS score, Patient's Global Assessment Scale score, and Physician's Global Assessment Scale score. There were no impairment in liver function test and renal function test, indicating the good safety profile of trial therapy. Conclusion: Hence, Amrita Guggulu and Pinda Taila drug combination is an effective and safe remedy for gouty arthritis (Vatarakta) patients.


Title of Dissertation: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF BEGINNING TEACHERS DEFINING THEIR PEDAGOGICAL WAY OF BEING Nathan Frank, Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Dissertation directed by: Professor Francine H. Hultgren Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the lived experience of beginning teachers defining their pedagogical way of being. Many beginning teachers have found frustration and disillusionment during their first year in the classroom, leading to high levels of attrition. Those beginning teachers who remain in the classroom may develop a way of being that opposes how they are as an individual and that pulls them further from the students in their care. How do the individuals who experience this phenomenon make meaning of that experience? What insights about the preparation and support of beginning teachers can be drawn from these experiences? This research is conducted in the tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, grounded in the work of philosophers such as Heidegger (1962), Gadamer (2006/1975), and Merleau-Ponty (1962). Drawing from these philosophers, van Manen (1997) provides a detailed process used to conduct this form of research. This methodology serves to uncover the essences of this phenomenon, eliciting lived experience through hermeneutic conversation. To uncover the nature of the lived experience of beginning teachers defining their pedagogical way of being, six participants were recruited from urban, suburban, and rural secondary public schools in a south central county in Pennsylvania. The phenomenological text from this study not only reiterates the often noted "challenges" inherent in the first year experience, but also identifies a language of beginning. I seek to understand this language by connecting it to the three Buddhist ways of being, which guides my questioning of the "basics" of the beginning teaching experience, offering a new way of being in the flowing language of becoming. The experiences shared by the participants in this study uncovered many insights that may assist those charged with the care of beginning teachers during the periods of pre-service "formation" and in-service "orientation." I suggest the importance of "reflective conversations" to elicit the language of beginning, facilitated by a caring mentor. As the languages of "blockheadedness" and "splitheadedness" emerge, varying supports may be implemented to permit reflection and growth. THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF BEGINNING TEACHERS DEFINING THEIR PEDAGOGICAL WAY OF BEING


A controversial argument that reduced fertility and global aging threaten world prosperity, jeopardize national economies, and will change our way of life for decades to come. Overpopulation has long been a global concern. But between modern medicine and reduced fertility, world population may in fact be shrinking--and is almost certain to do so by the time today's children retire. The troubling implications for our economy and culture include: The possibility of a fundamentalist revival due to the decline of secular fertility The threat to the free market as the supply of workers and consumers declines The eventual collapse of the American health care system as inordinate expenses are incurred by an aging populationPhillip Longman's uncompromisingly sensible solutions fly in the face of traditional ideas. State intervention is necessary, he argues, to combat the effects of an aging population. We must provide incentives for young families, and we cannot close our eyes and hope for the best as an entire generation approaches retirement age. The Empty Cradle changes the terms of one of the most important environmental, economic, and social debates of our day.


This presentation reports on a clinical study of the application of a culturally attuned cognitive-behavioral therapy group for Chinese pathological gamblers in Hong Kong. It adopted a pretest-posttest control group design. Participants were aged 18 to 65 years and were suffering from the DSM IV criteria of pathological gambling. Measures included South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), Gambling Urge Scale, Gambling-Related Cognition Scale, and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. Two experimental groups and two control groups with a total of 38 participants were run. Results indicate that there were significant decreases in the scores of SOGS and frequencies of gambling in the experimental group while no difference were found in control group. 40% of probable pathological gamblers in the experimental group changed to the category of "some problems with gambling" after attending CBT groups whereas little change in status was found among participants of the control group The findings also show that a change in gambling cognitions correlated to changes in gambling severity and gambling urge while a change in gambling severity was related to a change in depression. The overall results suggest that CBT groups were effective in lowering Chinese pathological gamblers' severity of gambling by changing gamblers' distorted beliefs towards gambling. The improvement in gambler's severity of gambling might have positive effect on their mental health.


On 31 March 2007, a meeting entitled 'Engineering Geology Through the Centuries' was held at Keyworth in Nottingham. The meeting was convened jointly by the Engineering Group of the Geological Society of London (GSL) and the Yorkshire Geological Society, and formed part of the celebration of the bicentenary of the GSL. The meeting focused on the lives and achievements of a number of British engineering geologists who have made outstanding contributions to their profession and to science. The meeting formed part of the Society's 'Local Heroes' initiative for the bicentenary. The set of papers in this issue of the Quaternary Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology celebrates the contribution over the last 200 years by scientists and practitioners who have influenced the development of engineering geology or whose work has been particularly important to related aspects of human history. In addition to papers on the individuals discussed at the meeting, papers are included that discuss the development of engineering geology, historically and in the context of education and training.

Engineering geology has been an important scientific sub-discipline for as long as people have sought to build and construct their living environment. If nothing else, people soon learnt where buildings could be built safely and where poor foundation conditions or the presence of geohazards meant that unacceptable risks were present. However, engineering geology came to greater prominence with the flowering of geology as a major science in the early 19th century, a time that saw the founding of the GSL in 1807.

Of course, there have been many other influential engineering geologists in addition to those discussed in this collection of papers and the paper by Turner addresses some of these, as do accounts such as that on North America by Kiersch (1991). For the Keyworth meeting, the editors set out …


Modeling Pharmacokinetics Pharmacodynamics Glucagon Glucoregulatory System Patients Type 1 Diabetes. The goal of this thesis was to develop a pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) model for glucagon. The proposed PD model included multiplication of the stimulating glucagon effect and inhibiting insulin effect on the endogenous glucose production (EGP). Moreover, the concentration-response relationship of glucagon and EGP was characterized by a non-linear function, where the response saturated for high concentrations of glucagon. The novel EGP model extended Hovorka's glucoregulatory model to include the effect of glucagon. The PK/PD model described both regular glucagon and a novel glucagon analogue in healthy dogs. The extended glucoregulatory model translated to the human species and described glucose-insulin-glucagon dynamics in healthy subjects and patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The extended glucoregulatory model was successfully validated by leave-one-out cross-validation in seven T1D patients which justified its use for simulations. The final model parameters were estimated from three to four datasets from each patient. The validated extended glucoregulatory model was used for in silico studies. The model replicated a clinical study of the effect of glucagon at varying insulin levels. The simulations also suggested new glucagon doses to be tested in a similar in vivo study to provide new insight to the relationship between insulin, glucagon, and EGP. Finally, the model was used to conduct a large original simulation study investigating an insulin dependent glucagon dosing regimen for treatment of insulin-induced mild hypoglycemia.


History of the Diocese of Clogher. Edited by Henry A. Jefferies. (Dublin: Four Courts Press. Distributed in the United States by ISBS, Portland, Oregon. 2005. Pp. 249. $65.00.) The Irish diocese of Clogher, which incorporates County Monaghan, most of County Fermanagh, and portions of counties Cavan, Donegal, Louth, and Tyrone, has the good fortune of possessing many rich and important historical records. The Clogher Historical Society, which has produced the weErespected journal Clogher Record since 1953, has ensured that a lively interest in ecclesiastical history continues in the diocese to this day. This volume builds upon this strong tradition of historical scholarship by making available npotpourri of important articles which cast light not just on Clogher but also on significant national historical questions. The editor, Henry A. Jefferies, admits that the volume does not pretend to be exhaustive, and this is borne out by the lack of treatment given to the early modern period: nevertheless, there is much to recommend this collection. Charles Doherty begins with a study of the early cult of St. Molaisse, arguing that the ecclesiastical site of Devenish was an important and powerful force from the early seventh century, with wide jurisdiction, and that the status of Armagh, with the support of the Airgialla dynasty, only increased considerably around the year 640. Cormac Bourke traces a number of significant metalwork survivals from the early medieval period and in particular saints' beEs. Katharine Walsh, in a substantial and comprehensive article, examines evidence for the popularity of St. Patrick's Purgatory (Lough Derg) among late medieval continental pilgrims and provides much that is new and original. Brendan Smith explores diocesan relations in the late medieval period, with particular reference to papal interventions and the relationship between the bishop of Clogher and the archbishop of Armagh, which varied from collaborative to hostile. Henry A. Jefferies, in a ground-breaking study of the papal registers referring to Clogher, challenges the view that the late medieval Irish church was on the verge of "total breakdown." His systematic examination of the registers reveals some significant statistics, which call into question previous generalizations. A second article by Jefferies, which assesses the career of Dr. Hugh MacMahon, vicar general and later bishop of Clogher from 1707 to 1715, also constitutes a fascinating yet accessible study of the practicalities of living under the penal laws in one Irish diocese. …


To compensate for scintillation we allow the real, nonnegative field in an aperture to propagate a distance z toward a detector, where the field will be complex. There, we modify its phase to emulate that of a clear aperture. The modified field that is propagated to the detector is nearly diffraction limited. No light is lost, and the Strehl ratio is improved substantially. We show how to modify the phase, and we present a computer simulation.


BACKGROUND
E2303 evaluated cetuximab, paclitaxel, and carboplatin used as induction therapy and concomitant with radiation therapy in patients with stage III/IV head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) determining pathologic complete response (CR), event-free survival (EFS), and toxicity.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients with resectable stage III/IV HNSCC underwent induction therapy with planned primary site restaging biopsies (at week 8 in clinical complete responders and at week 14 if disease persisted). Chemoradiation (CRT) began week 9. If week 14 biopsy was negative, patients completed CRT (68-72 Gy); otherwise, resection was carried out. p16 protein expression status was correlated with response/survival.

RESULTS
Seventy-four patients were enrolled; 63 were eligible. Forty-four (70%) were free of surgery to the primary site, progression, and death 1-year post-treatment. Following induction, 41 (23 CR) underwent week 8 primary site biopsy and 24 (59%) had no tumor (pathologic CR). Week 14 biopsy during chemoradiation (50 Gy) in 34 (15 previously positive biopsy; 19 no prior biopsy) was negative in 33. Thus 90% of eligible patients completed CRT. Overall survival and EFS were 78% and 55% at 3 years, respectively. Disease progression in 23 patients (37%) was local only in 10 (16%), regional in 5 (8%), local and regional in 2 (3%), and distant in 5 patients (8%). There were no treatment-related deaths. Toxicity was primarily hematologic or radiation-related. p16 AQUA score was not associated with response/survival.

CONCLUSIONS
Induction cetuximab, paclitaxel, and carboplatin followed by the same drug CRT is safe and induces high primary site response and promising survival.

CLINICAL TRIALS NUMBER
NCT 00089297.


Forest biomass and its allocation have long been considered important in forest ecosystem structure and function. However, discrete forest biomass data and its allocation to various forest components must be standardized to explore many ecological questions, e.g., plant allometric scaling laws, biomass allocation theory, and terrestrial carbon cycling. Currently, available data sets focus either on regions other than China, or studies in China are spatially and/or temporally limited, e.g., specific habitats and/or time periods. Therefore, the applicability of conclusions to world or China forests might be problematic. Consequently, in the present study, published studies (during the 1978-2008 period) on biomass and its allocations in China's forests (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) were collected and critically reviewed, and a comprehensive forest biomass data set of China was developed. The data set included the following biomass data: tree overstory components (stems, branches, leaves, and roots, among all other plant material), the understory vegetation (saplings, shrubs, herbs, and mosses), woody liana vegetation, and the necromass components of dead organic matter (litterfall, suspended branches, and dead trees). Moreover, associated information was also included, i.e., geographical location, climate, soil fertility, stand description, sampling regime (the dimension and sample size of plots), and biomass measurement methods. The data set included 1607 entries for 348 study sites, which exhibited a broad spatial distribution, and covered broad climatic gradients (-5.1 degrees C to 23.8 degrees C in mean annual temperature and 223-2515 mm in mean annual precipitation). Our data set can be used to verify the accuracy of models used to budget China's forest carbon dynamics, and also provides an opportunity to further elucidate and confirm general principles and patterns in ecology. Finally, the data set is freely available for noncommercial scientific applications.


CONTEXT
Compression socks have become increasingly popular with athletes due to perceived enhancement of exercise performance and recovery. However, research examining the efficacy of compression socks to reduce exercise-associated muscle damage has been equivocal, with few direct measurements of markers of muscle damage.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the influence of compression socks worn during a marathon on creatine kinase (CK) levels.

DESIGN
A randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
2013 Hartford Marathon, Hartford, CT.

PARTICIPANTS
Adults (n = 20) randomized to control (CONTROL; n = 10) or compression sock (SOCK; n = 10) groups.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Blood samples were collected 24 hours before, immediately after, and 24 hours following the marathon for the analysis of CK, a marker of muscle damage.

RESULTS
Baseline CK levels did not differ between CONTROL (89.3 [41.2] U/L) and SOCK (100.0 [56.2] U/L) (P = .63). Immediately following the marathon (≤1 h), CK increased 273% from baseline (P < .001 for time), with no difference in exercise-induced changes in CK from baseline between CONTROL (+293.9 [278.2] U/L) and SOCK (+233.1 [225.3] U/L; P = .60 for time × group). The day following the marathon (≤24 h), CK further increased 1094% from baseline (P < .001 for time), with no difference in changes in CK from baseline between CONTROL (+ 1191.9 [1194.8] U/L) and SOCK (+889.1 [760.2] U/L; P = .53 for time × group). These similar trends persisted despite controlling for potential covariates such as age, body mass index, and race finishing time (Ps > .29).

CONCLUSIONS
Compression socks worn during a marathon do not appear to mitigate objectively measured markers of muscle damage immediately following and 24 hours after a marathon.