OBJECTIVE
In 2003 the New South Wales (NSW) Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health (CRRMH) conducted an analysis of co-morbid drug and alcohol (D&A) and mental health issues for service providers and consumers in a rural NSW Area Health Service. This paper will discuss concerns raised by rural service providers and consumers regarding the care of people with co-morbid D&A and mental health disorders.

DESIGN
Current literature on co-morbidity was reviewed, and local area clinical data were examined to estimate the prevalence of D&A disorders within the mental health service. Focus groups were held with service providers and consumer support groups regarding strengths and gaps in service provision.

SETTING
A rural Area Health Service in NSW.

PARTICIPANTS
Rural health and welfare service providers, consumers with co-morbid D&A and mental health disorders.

RESULTS
Data for the rural area showed that 43% of inpatient and 20% of ambulatory mental health admissions had problem drinking or drug-taking. Information gathered from the focus groups indicated a reasonable level of awareness of co-morbidity, and change underway to better meet client needs; however, the results indicated a lack of formalised care coordination, unclear treatment pathways, and a lack of specialist care and resources.

DISCUSSION
Significant gaps in the provision of appropriate care for people with co-morbid D&A and mental health disorders were identified. Allocation of service responsibly for these clients was unclear. It is recommended that D&A, mental health and primary care services collaborate to address the needs of clients so that a coordinated and systematic approach to co-morbid care can be provided.


The Revolutions of 1848 were a widespread uprising that took place across Europe in response to social and economic pressures brought on by the eighteenth century Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Conservative monarchs throughout Europe were threatened as middle and working class people attempted to establish new governments that allowed the common man a voice in government function. This thesis explores the reasons why the revolutions occurred in Germany, Italy, and France and why in each case the revolutions failed to achieve any significant change in each country. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department History and Philosophy First Advisor Dr. Ronald Delph


The Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) is an important technology for gas-to-liquids conversion process, which allows the conversion of syngas, (CO and H2) produced from natural gas, coal, waste or biomass, in a mixture of hydrocarbons such as light olefins, alcohols and other products. The thermodynamic modelling of such system can be made by chemical and phase equilibrium employing the minimization of the Gibbs free energy. Thermodynamic equilibrium calculation can be computed as an optimization problem, given certain constraints. The present work investigated the phase and chemical equilibrium of Fischer-Tropsch process through the minimization of the Gibbs energy of the system, with the objective to determine the most thermodynamic favorable phases and compositions of the formed FTS products. The software GAMS is used to solve the proposed problem. The restrictions of non-negativity of the number of moles and the non-stoichiometric balance are used; thirty three possible chemical species (linear paraffins, linear alpha alkenes and alcohols besides carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water and hydrogen) were considered. The effects of temperature (300-900 K), pressure (1-30 bar) and H2:CO ratio (2:1 and 3:1) are evaluated.


Collaboration between NGOs and corporations is an expanding research area that brings up new questions.  The paper seeks to establish the scope of information on philanthropic cooperation revealed by corporations and charitable organizations in a transition country (Poland) and its determinants. The necessary data were obtained from the websites of corporations and foundations and from the reports on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The content analysis focused on the disclosures made by 41 corporations and 82 foundations. A total of 131 collaboration cases available on the websites and 95 cases disclosed in relation to CSR were examined. The research allowed the key factors determining the amount of information on philanthropic partnerships displayed by corporations and charities on their websites and in CSR reports to be identified. In the case of corporations, the NGO being a corporate foundation and belonging to the group of biggest donors were the most important factors. As far as NGOs are concerned, the major factors were the NGO being, or not, a corporate foundation and the amount of donations as a percentage of its total revenue. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.27.1.9338


The report focuses on resume-based screening strategies for the recruitment of highly qualified research and development (R&D) workers (critical R&D workers) in high-tech firms. We investigate which kinds of professional background, job-related experience, motivations, specific skills, and previous inventive activity make a candidate attractive for firms specializing in clean technology or mechanical elements. The report is based on a combination of survey and experimental data collected from 194 HR decision makers in German high-tech firms and from 89 technology experts in the clean technology and mechanical elements fields. A mixed logit model is used to analyse hiring preferences because this model allows us to deal with repeated choices. We find that HR decision makers prefer candidates with technology-specific patenting experience, an engineering background, analytical thinking skills, and a strong desire to develop path-breaking technologies. Furthermore, no one-size-fits-all candidate exists that is equally preferred in both technology fields. HR decision makers in mechanical element firms prefer specialists to generalists, whereas those in clean technology attach special importance to a candidate's orientation towards environmental concerns and sustainability.


This paper describes some of the most promising segment-based coding techniques which have been investigated in the course of the MPEG-4 standardization process. Padding methods aim at extending arbitrarily shaped image segments to a regular block grid such that common hybrid block-based coding techniques can be applied. A simple and efficient padding technique employing low-pass extrapolation is outlined which yields a signal extension with high energy concentration in the low-frequency area. Simulations indicate that this method is well suited for block-based video coding, and clearly outperforms other low-complexity extrapolation methods with respect to coding efficiency. In contrast to padding techniques, shape-adaptive methods take advantage of the shape information available at the decoder side. A well-known representative of this class is the SA-DCT. However, having been primarily designed for intraframe coding, it is shown that the transform is suboptimal when applied to interframe coding. Using a suitable covariance model, it is demonstrated that a rescaled, orthonormalized transform much closer approximates the optimal shape-adaptive eigentransform of motion-compensated frame difference images. Rate distortion curves verify that orthonormalization improves coding efficiency in interframe coding by up to 2 dB while not adding to complexity. In a comparison, it is finally shown that extrapolation and SA-DCT perform very closely in the case of low data rates, while there is a clear advantage for the shape-adaptive transform in the case of high-quality video coding.


Mitigation measures may be used to prevent soil and water pollution from waste disposal, landfill sites, septic or chemical storage tanks. Among them, drains and impervious barriers may be set up. The efficiency of this technique can be evaluated by means of groundwater modeling tools. The groundwater flow and the leakage drain–aquifer interactions are implemented in a conforming finite element method (FEM) and a mixed hybrid FEM (MHFEM) in a horizontal two-dimensional domain modeling regional aquifer below chemical storage tanks. Considering the influence of uncertainties in the drain–aquifer exchange rate parameter and using an automatic differentiation (AD) tool, the aim of this paper is to carry out a sensitivity analysis with respect to the leakage coefficient for the piezometric head, velocity field, and streamlines to provide a new insight into groundwater waterbody exchanges. Computations are performed with both an ideal homogeneous hydraulic conductivity and a realistic heterogeneous one. The tangent linear codes are validated using Taylor tests performed on the head and the velocity field. The streamlines computed using AD are well approximated in comparison with the nondifferentiated codes. Piezometric head computed by the MHFEM is the more sensitive, particularly near to the drain, than the FEM one.


Suicide is a complex phenomenon; attempts to reduce or prevent it remain a challenge. Completed suicide has a deep negative impact on society. Suicidologists estimate that suicide will negatively affect at least ten times as many people as an accidental death or sudden death from illness. This article attempts to contribute to the prevention of suicide. It explores the future of pastoral care for a suicidal person using European and African contexts. It identifies cultural stereotyping as a problem that has influenced pastoral care. It argues that an objective challenge to the stereotypes and a possible dialogue of cultures and approaches is needed. Particular reference to the culture and spirituality of the suicidal person could be proactive to pastoral care of suicidal persons in our multicultural society.


The construction industry has been challenged by the UK Construction Foresight Panel to apply advanced information and communication technology to improve the performance, in terms of sustainability, of the existing built environment and infrastructure.

Traditionally, built-environment maintenance is a capital-cost-driven activity that relies either upon the subjective assessment of a built environment and infrastructure condition (i.e. a stock condition survey) to identify maintenance needs, or upon a reactive response to a component failure. The effectiveness and efficiency of the stock condition survey process to support planned maintenance has previously been questioned and a more sustainable approach, based on an objective assessment of a built environment and infrastructure performance, has been suggested. Previous attempts to develop objective-based (though not performance–based) maintenance models have largely failed, due to the limitations of technology, the daunting task of managing large amounts of data, and the inability of mathematically based models to cope with the complexity of real-life situations.

This thesis addresses this challenge by exploring the feasibility of a performance-based assessment methodology to determine the maintenance needs of a buried oil steel-pipeline system and the impact that any changes in condition may have on the performance and integrity of related components in the pipeline system. The thesis also contains an evaluation of the ability and effectiveness of piezoelectric elements in pipeline defect (crack) signature detection to predict changes in component performance with data sets derived experimentally using laboratory bench testing. Vibration sound-emission detection techniques performed on various oil steel-pipeline defects, using non-destructive testing methods, were validated using attenuation and waveform analysis.

Defect size and progression (i.e. the pattern characteristics of the defect) were monitored, measured and identified through spectrum analysis of multiple emission signals in combination with a number of frequency bands. Two series of tests were undertaken to evaluate the ability of vibration sound emission characteristics to identify steel pipeline defects, including leakage. Test Series 1 established the frequency (waveforms) of the generation of the acoustic emission signal caused by normal fluid dynamics (water flow) through the experimental steel pipe and the resulting signal propagation characteristics. Test Series 2 detected and monitored changes in the signal characteristics for incipient defects: (a) small-nail damage, (b) medium-sized nail damage, (c) large-nail damage and (d) crack to leakage source [sealed holes as a simulated corrosion to total failure]; oil was the fluid medium.

The defect sources and leakage signals were also studied, and compared with theoretical models. The results of the theoretical analysis and the laboratory experiments confirmed the ability of non-destructive testing, based on vibration sound emission techniques, to detect and distinguish between different failure modes.

The ability to carry out a basic inspection, analysis and report of a pipeline using an integrated-sensor device offers many potential benefits. The use of an integrated-sensor device is expected to provide valuable pipeline management information. Specifically the ability to detect and locate mechanical damage at the incipient stage and provide an assessment of the overall pipeline operating condition, including changes in performance profile and prediction of an estimated time to failure, has been shown to be feasible as part of a pipeline maintenance and rehabilitation programme.


an ecological study of the microarthropod communities from las sardinas cave was undertaken. Four different biotopes were studied over the course of a year: bat guano, litter, soil under the chemoautotrophic bacteria colonies and as a control, plain soil without litter or guano. a total of 27,913 specimens of a total of 169 species were collected. analysis of Variance (anoV a) showed that there is a significant effect of biotope on the recorded density, and the post hoc Tukey's test showed that guano is the most differ ent biotope with the highest value of density recorded. The interaction between season and biotope variables was not significant. In the most extreme case, 99 percent of the microarthropods in soil under chemoautotrophic bacteria were mites, mainly in the family Histiostomidae.


We propose that the task of question generation should incorporate not only measures of grammaticality, but also a measure of the importance of a question automatically generated. Necessarily, importance of a given question can be judged only in context, so we propose that the data for a shared task be larger than a single sentence, data point or statement in a knowledge base. By focusing on the importance of questions, the community will be in a position to address the shortcomings of existing systems that employ question


There are two unrelated developments that form the basis for research. One of these is the work by Weisenfeld [J. Stat. Phys. (1985)]. He showed that a small amount of noise would have a profound effect on the output spectrum of a nonlinear system undergoing bifurcations. These modifications thus serve as the precursors of these bifurcations. The second is the development of the trans‐spectral coherence technique for the analysis of nonlinear signals, developed by Vaidya and Anderson [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 89, 2370–2378 (1991)]. This technique has been used to educe small signals out of noise and to show inherent structure in chaos. These two ideas are put together to show that such precursors of chaos could be detected, even earlier, using the trans‐spectral coherence technique. Such detection, would have a wide range of applications, from cardiology to oceanography.


In rapidly changing peri-urban environments where biophysical and socio-economic processes lead to spatial fragmentation of agricultural land, remote sensing offers an efficient tool to collect land cover/land use (LCLU) data for decision-making. Compared to traditional pixel-based approaches, remote sensing with object-based classification methods is reported to achieve improved classification results in complex heterogeneous landscapes. This study assessed the usefulness of object-oriented analysis of Quickbird high spatial resolution satellite data to classify urban and peri-urban agriculture in a limited peri-urban area of Hanoi, Vietnam. The results revealed that segmentation was essential in developing the object-oriented classification approach. Accurate segmentation of shape and size of an object enhanced classification with spectral, textural, morphological, and topological features. A qualitative, visual comparison of the classification results showed successful localisation and identification of most LCLU classes. Quantitative evaluation was conducted with a classification error matrix reaching an overall accuracy of 67% and a kappa coefficient of 0.61. In general, object-oriented classification of high spatial resolution satellite data proved the promising approach for LCLU analysis at village level. Capturing small-scale urban and peri-urban agricultural diversity offers a considerable potential for environmental monitoring. Challenges remain with the delineation of field boundaries and LCLU diversity on more spatially extensive datasets.


Consider a nonparametric representation of acoustic wave fields that consists of observing the sound pressure along a straight line or a smooth contour L defined in space. The observed data contains implicit information of the surrounding acoustic scene, both in terms of spatial arrangement of the sources and their respective temporal evolution. We show that such data can be effectively analyzed and processed in what we call the space-time-frequency representation space, consisting of a Gabor representation across the spatio-temporal manifold defined by the spatial axis L and the temporal axis t. In the presence of a source, the spectral patterns generated at L have a characteristic triangular shape that changes according to certain parameters, such as the source distance and direction, the number of sources, the concavity of L, and the analysis window size. Yet, in general, the wave fronts can be expressed as a function of elementary directional components-most notably, plane waves and far-field components. Furthermore, we address the problem of processing the wave field in discrete space and time, i.e., sampled along L and t, where a Gabor representation implies that the wave fronts are processed in a block-wise fashion. The key challenge is how to chose and customize a spatio-temporal filter bank such that it exploits the physical properties of the wave field while satisfying strict requirements such as perfect reconstruction, critical sampling, and computational efficiency. We discuss the architecture of such filter banks, and demonstrate their applicability in the context of real applications, such as spatial filtering, deconvolution, and wave field coding.


Due to the dynamic nature of vehicular traffic and the road surroundings, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) propagation characteristics vary greatly on both small and large scale. Recent measurements have shown that both large static objects (e.g., buildings and foliage) and mobile objects (surrounding vehicles) have a profound impact on V2V communication. At the same time, system-level vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) simulators by and large employ simple statistical propagation models, which do not account for surrounding objects explicitly. We designed Geometry-based Efficient propagation Model for V2V communication (GEMV2), which uses outlines of vehicles, buildings, and foliage to distinguish the following three types of links: line of sight (LOS), non-LOS (NLOS) due to vehicles, and NLOS due to static objects. For each link, GEMV2 calculates the large-scale signal variations deterministically, whereas the small-scale signal variations are calculated stochastically based on the number and size of surrounding objects. We implement GEMV2 in MATLAB and show that it scales well by using it to simulate radio propagation for city-wide networks with tens of thousands of vehicles on commodity hardware. We make the source code of GEMV2 freely available. Finally, we validate GEMV2 against extensive measurements performed in urban, suburban, highway, and open-space environments.


Cancer is one of the major threats to public health in the developed world and increasingly in the developing world. In developed countries cancer is the second most common cause of death. According to the World Health Report 2004 (1), cancer accounted for 7.1 million deaths in 2003 and it is estimated the overall number of new cases will rise by 50% in the next 20 years (2). Oropharyngeal cancer is more common in developing than developed countries (3, 4). The prevalence of oral cancer is particularly high among men, the eighth most common cancer worldwide. Incidence rates for oral cancer vary in men from 1 to 10 cases per 100 000 population in many countries. In south-central Asia, cancer of the oral cavity ranks among the three most common types of cancer. In India, the age standardized incidence rate of oral cancer is 12.6 per 100 000 population. It is noteworthy that sharp increases in the incidence rates of oral/pharyngeal cancers have been reported for several countries and regions such as Denmark, France, Germany, Scotland, central and eastern Europe and to a lesser extent Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the USA (3, 4). The cancer epidemic in developed countries, and increasingly in developing countries, is due to the combined effect of the ageing of populations, and the high or increasing levels of prevalence of cancer risk factors. It has been estimated that 43% of cancer deaths worldwide are due to tobacco, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and infections (3). Tobacco use and excessive alcohol consumption have been estimated to account for about 90% of cancers in the oral cavity; the oral cancer risk increases when tobacco is used in combination with alcohol or areca nut (5). The evidence that smokeless tobacco causes oral cancer was confirmed recently by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (6).


The design optimization of rotary tillage tool by the application of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE)-Techniques on the basis of finite element method and simulation method is done by using CAD-Analysis software for the structural analysis. The different tillage tool parts of rotary tillage tools are geometrically constrained by the preparation of solid model, Meshing and Simulation is done with actual field performance rating parameters along with boundary conditions .The energy constrained for the tillage tool applications with 35Hp and 45Hp power tractor and estimated forces acting at soil-tool interface. The resultant effect on tillage blade and whole rotavator assembly is obtained from stress distribution and deformations plots.The proposed work results in identifying sufficient tolerance in changing the dimensions of rotavator frame sections and side gear box for removing the excess weight in a solid section and also to raise the weight of blade for a reliable strength. The present working model with tillage blade is analysed to new design constraints with change of its geometry for the maximum weed removal efficiency by presenting its practical results from the field performance.


High frequency wine-glass mode bulk MEMS resonators actuated by means of capacitive transduction have been fabricated by using solid-gaps based on polyvinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE). The fabrication process flow of patterned PVDF-TrFE gaps applied in RF MEMS is presented for the first time. Measurements of the polarization of the material and the frequency and voltage dependence of the capacitance in the actuation gaps of the resonators are provided.


Abstract This paper draws on original research conducted in 2003 with drought-affected people and communities in inland NSW. The paper outlines the scale of the drought, its social impacts and the resultant need for services. Income support mechanisms aimed at drought-affected people and communities such as the Exceptional Services scheme have proved cumbersome, slow and overly complicated leaving many people without income for considerable periods. Our research shows that human services in the areas studied are largely overloaded and inadequately resourced. Many services rely on aged volunteers and there has been significant pressure on charities to deliver services not provided elsewhere. Delivery of human services in times of crisis such as drought is however, not straightforward. Many people affected by drought are unwilling to approach human services preferring stoicism to any admission of need. One result of this attitude is that 'acceptable' services such as the Rural Financial Counsellors are vastly overloaded and some of these cases may be better handled by trained human service workers. The paper provides insights into more appropriate service models for rural communities in crisis.


The aim of this work is the design and analysis of novel antennas realised with electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures based on simple two-dimensional cylindrical, triangular and square lattices of dielectric rods. In particular, we focused our attention on designing antennas with high directivity and front-to-back-ratio (FTBR) on the azimuthal plane. Several EBG structures have been investigated, divided in two main categories: multilayer EBG structures with an angular defect window and EBG corner reflectors. The former are based on a feeding source excited within a cavity: fields at badgap frequencies are trapped inside the cavity and opening an angular defect window allows propagation in that privileged directions leading to directive radiation patterns. The latter are based on a source placed in front of an EBG corner reflector: at bandgap frequencies, the excited fields are reflected toward the corner aperture (in a similar fashion to metallic corners of analogous dimensions) enhancing radiation patterns' directivity. The analysed structures have been also modified to host multiple sources to create multiple-feed antenna structures with the ability of rotating the radiation patterns on the azimuthal plane. Antennas have been modelled using an in-house developed Finite-Difference TimeDomain solver and the commercial Finite Element Method solver Ansoft HFSS, focusing on structures designed to operate in the X-band frequency region (8.2GHz-12.4GHz) in order to take advantage of the available equipment and facilities at Heriot-Watt University for prototypes testing. The proposed structures can be nevertheless scaled up or down in size in order to respectively scale down or up of the same factor the frequency of operation. The main achievements of the analysed multilayer EBG structures and corner EBG reflectors are the large impedance bandwidth (greater than 30%) with stable radiation patterns within, high gain (>12dBi) and high FTBR (greater than 25dB) accomplished using EBG structures made with a small number (10-20) of low-loss ceramic rods arranged in very simple two-dimensional crystals. EBG corner reflectors have been also found basically equivalent (at badgap frequencies) to metal reflectors in terms of achieved gain and radiation patterns, suggesting them as possible substitutes for high frequencies applications where dielectric losses would be smaller than metal losses.


Department Website: http://psychology.uchicago.edu Program of Study Psychology is the study of the mental states and processes that give rise to behavior. It seeks to understand the basic mechanisms and functions of perception, cognition, emotion, and attitudes in guiding behavior. Although it focuses on the level of the individual, individual behavior depends on the social relationships and structures in which people are embedded and the biological systems of which we are comprised. Thus, psychological study encompasses a broad set of topics that overlap with a number of disciplines across the social and biological sciences. The requirements of the major are designed to acquaint students with the research methods psychologists use and to provide a foundation of core knowledge covering the major areas of psychology. This broad foundation allows students to pursue a more advanced understanding of subfields related to their own particular interests and goals for the major. The program may serve as preparation for graduate work in psychology or related fields (e.g., neuroscience, education), as well as for students interested in careers in social work, public policy, business, or medicine. Students are encouraged to become actively engaged in research in the department and should consult with the director of undergraduate research about their interests as early as possible.


When Europeans settled in the early South, they quarrelled over many things -- but few imbroglios were so fierce as battles over land. Landowners wrangled bitterly over boundaries with neighbours and contested areas became known as "the devil's lane". Violence and bloodshed were but some of the consequences to befall those who ventured into these disputed territories. The Devil's Lane highlights important new work on sexuality, race, and gender in the South from the seventeeth to the nineteenth centuries. Contributors explore legal history by examining race, crime and punishment, sex across the colour line, and slander. Emerging stars and established scholars such as Peter Wood and Carol Berkin weave together the fascinating story of competing agendas and clashing cultures on the southern frontier. One chapter focuses on a community's resistance to a hermaphrodite, where the town court conducted a series of "examinations" to determine the individual's gender. Other pieces address topics ranging from resistance to sexual exploitation on the part of slave women to spousal murders, from interpreting women's expressions of religious ecstasy to a pastor's sermons about depraved sinners and graphic depictions of carnage, all in the name of "exposing" evil, and from a case of infanticide to the practice of state-mandated castration. Several of the authors pay close attention to the social and personal dynamics of interracial women's networks and relationships across place and time. The Devil's Lane illuminates early forms of sexual oppression, inviting comparative questions about authority and violence, social attitudes and sexual tensions, the impact of slavery as well as the twisted course of race relations among blacks, whites, and Indians. Several scholars look particularly at the Gulf South, myopically neglected in traditional literature, and an outstanding feature of this collection. These eighteen original essays reveal why the intersection of sex and race marks an essential point of departure for understanding Southern social relations, and a turning point for the field of colonial history. The rich, varied, and distinctive experiences showcased in The Devil's Lane provide an extraordinary opportunity for readers interested in women's history, African-American history, southern history, and especially colonial history to explore a wide range of exciting issues.


Cystinosis is a lysosomal storage disorder caused by defects in CTNS, the gene that encodes the lysosomal cystine transporter cystinosin. Patients with nephropathic cystinosis are characterized by endocrine defects, defective proximal tubule cell (PTC) function, the development of Fanconi syndrome and, eventually, end-stage renal disease. Kidney disease is developed despite the use of cysteamine, a drug that decreases lysosomal cystine overload but fails to correct overload-independent defects. Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), a selective form of autophagy, is defective in cystinotic mouse fibroblasts, and treatment with cysteamine is unable to correct CMA defects in vivo, but whether the vesicular trafficking mechanisms that lead to defective CMA in cystinosis are manifested in human PTCs is not currently known and whether PTC-specific mechanisms are corrected upon CMA upregulation remains to be elucidated. Here, using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, we develop a new human PTC line with defective cystinosin expression (CTNS-KO PTCs). We show that the expression and localization of the CMA receptor, LAMP2A, is defective in CTNS-KO PTCs. The expression of the lipidated form of LC3B, a marker for another form of autophagy (macroautophagy), is decreased in CTNS-KO PTCs indicating decreased autophagosome numbers under basal conditions. However, the autophagic flux is functional, as measured by induction by starvation or by blockage using the v-ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin A, and by degradation of the macroautophagy substrate SQSTM1 under starvation and proteasome-inhibited conditions. Previous studies showed that LAMP2A accumulates in Rab11-positive vesicles in cystinotic cells. Here, we show defective Rab11 expression, localization and trafficking in CTNS-KO PTCs as determined by confocal microscopy, immunoblotting and TIRFM. We also show that both Rab11 expression and trafficking in cystinotic PTCs are rescued by the upregulation of CMA using small-molecule CMA activators. Cystinotic PTCs are characterized by PTC de-differentiation accompanied by loss of the endocytic receptor megalin, and megalin recycling is regulated by Rab11. Here we show that megalin plasma membrane localization is defective in CTNS-KO PTCs and its expression is rescued by treatment with CMA activators. Altogether, our data support that CMA upregulation has the potential to improve PTC function in cystinosis.


The onset of the digital revolution has resulted in technological advances that are constantly evolving. A key element of concern to policymakers is the impact that these changes will have on the world of work and employment. This report reviews the history of the digital revolution to date, placing it in the context of other periods of marked technological advances and examining how technological change interacts with changes in institutions. Digital technologies have considerable disruptive potential, including making production much more flexible and information more readily available. While the information technology sector has been most affected to date, other sectors are rapidly changing with the diffusion of new technology. The report also examines three key vectors of change: automation of work, the incorporation of digital technology into processes, and the coordination of economic transactions through the digital networks known as 'platforms'.


The aim of this study was to determine immunogenic structures by immunoblotting in thermophilic Campylobacter strains isolated from chickens. The bands obtained from C. jejuni strains were found to be distributed between 10.8 and 116.5 kD by SDS-PAGE analysis of whole cell proteins. The bands 78, 63, 52, 48.5, 43.5, 29.8, 25.6, 22, 18.5, 17.2 and 16.5 kD were detected as the major common bands in all C. jejuni strains. Electrophoretic analysis of C. coli strains revealed that protein band profiles ranged between 10.3 and 118 kD, and 76, 63-62, 52, 48.5, 44 and 30.5 kD bands were all major bands. Common antigenic structures with 67, 63, 43 and 29-31 kD were observed in the immunoblot analysis (Western blotting) of C. jejuni and C. coli strains. In addition, specific bands with 27 kD and 38 kD were detected in C. jejuni and C. coli strains, respectively. There was no difference in the cross immunoblot analysis carried out with immune sera prepared against C. jejuni and C. coli strains. In conclusion, protein profiles and immunogenic structures obtained by electrophoretic analysis of C. jejuni and C. coli strains were found to be similar.


The focal mechanisms of the 1991 Chiali earthquake sequence were investigated by considering the first motion data and available strong mo- · tion waveforms. Due to the sparse distribution of the first-motion data, the first-motion solutions are multiple for the earthquake sequence. By consid ering the waveform mechanism, which is determined by considering the amplitude ratio of P, SV and SH waveform, as the constraint, we chose the optimum first-motion mechanisms of the earthquake sequence. Either the optimum first-motion mechanisms or the waveform mechanisms of most of the aftershocks show thrust faulting mechanism. Except for the event E-3, the waveform mechanisms of the earthquake sequence have a northeast southwest striking plane similar to the distribution o f aftershock sequence, while the optimum first-motion mechanisms of the earthquake sequence show more complex focal mechanisms. Compared with the aftershock dis tribution in consideration of the waveform mechanisms of the earthquakes, the fault plane with NE-SW strike and NW dipping plane is suspected as the pref erred fault plane. Since the location of the earthquake is near the transition between the extension mechanism of southwestern Asian passive margin and the compression mechanism due to Luzon arc collision, the thrust faulting mechanism of the Chiali earthquake might indicate an on going compression mechanism due to arc-continental collision in such an extensional environment. The b value of about 0.7 in this region implies a relatively stable tectonic environment compared with other regions in Tai wan. The larger ratio of the logarithm o f cumulative seismic moment of aftershocks to that of the seismic moment of the mainshock for the 1991 Chiali earthquake (about 1) also suggests a smaller stress drop for this earth quake is compared with other moderate size earthquakes in the Chianan region.


Feature Issue on Optical Performance Monitoring (OPM). An effective technique
 to monitor the quality of wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) channels is
 presented. This process uses a blind signal separation (BSS) method based on
 higher-order-statistics (HOS), and an optical-loop structure to extract the baseband
 channels from the WDM transmission. From the reconstructed baseband waveforms, a
 series of WDM transmission quality parameters are evaluated. Relative to previously
 proposed methods for WDM-channel monitoring, the HOS-based optical-loop procedure
 shows reduced complexity, improved cost efficiency, and better
 performance.


From the Publisher:
Unix has a reputation for being cryptic and difficult to learn, but it doesn't need to be that way. Think Unix takes an analogous approach to that of a grammar book. Rather than teaching individual words or phrases like most books, Think Unix teaches the set of logical structures to be learned. Myriad examples help you learn individual commands, and practice problems at the end of difficult sections help you learn the practical side of Unix. Strong attention is paid to learning how to read "man pages," the standard documentation on all Unix systems, including Linux. While most books simply tell you that man pages exist and spend some time teaching how to use the man command, none spend any significant amount of space teaching how to use the content of the man pages. Even if you are lost at the Unix command prompt, you can learn subsystems that are specific to the Unix flavor.


The accuracy and precision of an intelligent dosing system (IDS) for FK506 in predicting doses to achieve target drug levels has been prospectively evaluated in transplant and autoimmune patients. For dose individualization, the knowledge base is updated with patient‐specific feedback including the current dose, drug level, and the new target level. The study population of 147 patients consisted of 97 transplant patients (liver and kidney) and 50 patients with autoimmune disorders. Patients in the transplant study group were entered sequentially and followed as a cohort. Patients in the autoimmune study group were randomly assigned to one of three predefined FK506 concentration windows (low, 0.1–.3; medium, 0.4–.7; and high, 0.8–1.3 ng/mL) as part of a concentration controlled clinical trial. Predictions of steady‐state plasma drug levels were made throughout the clinical course of autoimmune patients and during the first 6 weeks post‐transplant in liver and kidney recipients. FK506 concentration in plasma was measured by a monoclonal antibody based ELISA assay. Accuracy was computed as the mean prediction error (mpe). Precision was computed as the root mean squared prediction error (rmspe). The accuracy of the IDS in each study group was as follows: 0.016 ng/mL (liver), −0.034 ng/mL (kidney), and −0.022 ng/mL (autoimmune). Because the 95% confidence interval included zero in each case, the IDS showed no bias. The precision of the IDS in each study group was as follows: 0.133 ng mL (liver), 0.1903 ng/mL (kidney), and 0.1188 ng/mL (autoimmune). These results indicate that the FK506 IDS is both accurate and very precise (reproducible) in transplant and autoimmune patients. The performance of the FK506 compares favorably with previously reported pharmacokinetic dosing methods such as population nomograms and adaptive control feedback methods (least‐squares and Bayesian). Based on our findings, this IDS should have a number of important uses relevant to the drug development process, the prescribing physician and the individual patient. It provides an evident method for implementing concentration controlled clinical trials. It should accelerate the physician's learning curve while at the same time help to maximize therapeutic drug efficacy and minimize toxicity with drugs exhibiting nonlinear kinetics and narrow therapeutic indices. Preliminary studies suggest that these assets result in a significant cost‐benefit advantage by reducing the duration of hospitalization. Current studies are in progress to validate this and carefully measure its pharmacoeconomic impact.


"Rules of immediate application" or "Full-conflicts-mandatory rules" are one of the institutions restraining effect of conflict rules. "Rules of immediate application" are applied irrespectively of the law indicated by conflict rules. These rules should not be identified as mandatory rules, which imperativeness does not indicate a necessity of direct application. Therefore, for the sake of clarity and dissociation, these two types of rules should have different names. When determining applicable law, foreign rules of immediate application must be considered as well as forum rules of immediate application. This article provides a classification of mandatory rules, their theoretical background and extent of their direct application. Institution of rules of immediate application is dissociated from other rules that have similar purposes. Namely, the article analyses relations of the rules of immediate application with the public policy, evasion of the law and unilateral conflict rules. A possibility of immediate application of rules in positive conflict law of Lithuania was initially introduced in the new Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania passed in 2000. Respective rules of the Code are similar to those of 1980 Rome Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations. The similarity is not accidental. Lithuania aims to approximate its conflict law, especially concerning law applicable to contractual obligations, with rules established in the legal systems of the European Union countries. Thus respective rules of the Civil Code are construed according to commentaries of the above Rome Convention. Nevertheless, the article points out and analyses a number of essential differences between the regulation of the Civil Code and that of the Rome Convention.


Helen9s self-disparagement is an anomaly in epic diction, and this is especially true of those instances where she refers to herself as "dog" and "dog-face." This essay attempts to show that Helen9s dog-language, in that it remains in conflict with other features of her characterization, has some generic significance for epic, helping to establish the superiority of epic performance over competing performance types which treated her differently. The metaphoric use of χύων and its derivatives has not been well understood: the scholiast9s gloss "shameless" is no more than a functional equivalent, and interpretations linking it primarily with reckless courage or with sexual misconduct are not well founded. An analysis of contexts suggests that "dog" as an insult has a fundamental association with physical greed and even cannibalism. The implied notion of avarice, however, may also be extended into other behavioral spheres, including those of fighting and sexuality. A character may also be called "dog" for reviling or slandering another unjustly. These strongly negative implications are out of keeping with the character given to Helen in epic. For where tragedy and lyric generally represent Helen as blameworthy, Homeric epic tends to absolve her of blame and to make her personally as well as physically attractive. The unexpected application of dog-terms to her may therefore be read as an allusion to other versions of the Troy legend which were more hostile to Helen. Negative portrayals of Helen are likely to have figured in the ancient kitharodic narrative which was a precursor of both tragedy and lyric; these are perhaps the unfriendly "songs" mentioned by Helen at Il. 6.357. By referring to such defamatory narratives through the dog-insult and through other instances of Helen9s self-blame, the epic performer marks his own more favorable treatment as a generic preference.


The Sri Lankan government has embarked on a balancing act in the Indian Ocean engaging itself with two competing regional powers, India and China. The rising importance of the Indian Ocean in the global economy has also increased Sri Lanka's centrality in international geopolitics. In this vortex, Sri Lanka is openly trying to mollify India and the us on the one hand and China on the other. The internal ethnic morass and the unsolved political conflict have added another dimension to the complex situation that the country finds itself in, even as its government has been increasingly authoritarian.


The aim of this Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees project was the development of a high-speed method of photometrically testing vehicle headlamps, based on the use of image processing techniques, for Lucas Electrical Limited. Photometric testing involves measuring the illuminance produced by a lamp at certain points in its beam distribution. Headlamp performance is best represented by an iso-lux diagram, showing illuminance contours, produced from a two-dimensional array of data. Conventionally, the tens of thousands of measurements required are made using a single stationary photodetector and a two-dimensional mechanical scanning system which enables a lamp's horizontal and vertical orientation relative to the photodetector to be changed. Even using motorised scanning and computerised data-logging, the data acquisition time for a typical iso-lux test is about twenty minutes. A detailed study was made of the concept of using a video camera and a digital image processing system to scan and measure a lamp's beam without the need for the time-consuming mechanical movement. Although the concept was shown to be theoretically feasible, and a prototype system designed, it could not be implemented because of the technical limitations of commercially-available equipment. An alternative high-speed approach was developed, however, and a second prototype syqtem designed. The proposed arrangement again uses an image processing system, but in conjunction with a one-dimensional array of photodetectors and a one-dimensional mechanical scanning system in place of a video camera. This system can be implemented using commercially-available equipment and, although not entirely eliminating the need for mechanical movement, greatly reduces the amount required, resulting in a predicted data acquisiton time of about twenty seconds for a typical iso-lux test. As a consequence of the work undertaken, the company initiated an 80,000 programme to implement the system proposed by the author.


World experiences reveal that catastrophic floods are posing a serious threat that comes not only from them as extreme events but also as the result of adaptation measures uncertainty, (i.e. dikes). In particularly old dikes constructed earliest at the north part of Albania, during the last floods demonstrated the high uncertainty and weak spots. In this paper, the significance of the seepage investigation and stability analysis are discussed. As a case study, parts of new dikes constructed last years along the Buna River located in north part of Albania are investigated. Filling materials for these dikes are represented mostly from silt and clay. Finite element method is used to perform seepage analysis while general limit equilibrium method is used to perform slope stability analysis. Both, seepage and slope stability analyses are done for three different scenarios: steady state, rapid filling, and rapid drawdown. Finally, it is concluded that silt-clay material used in these dike structure is posing se...


We introduce a novel method to combat label noise when training deep neural networks for classification. We propose a loss function that permits abstention during training thereby allowing the DNN to abstain on confusing samples while continuing to learn and improve classification performance on the non-abstained samples. We show how such a deep abstaining classifier (DAC) can be used for robust learning in the presence of different types of label noise. In the case of structured or systematic label noise -- where noisy training labels or confusing examples are correlated with underlying features of the data-- training with abstention enables representation learning for features that are associated with unreliable labels. In the case of unstructured (arbitrary) label noise, abstention during training enables the DAC to be used as an effective data cleaner by identifying samples that are likely to have label noise. We provide analytical results on the loss function behavior that enable dynamic adaption of abstention rates based on learning progress during training. We demonstrate the utility of the deep abstaining classifier for various image classification tasks under different types of label noise; in the case of arbitrary label noise, we show significant improvements over previously published results on multiple image benchmarks. Source code is available at this https URL


The electrochemical synthesis of sulphur containing compounds derived from thiols (Ethanethiol, 2-propanethiol, 1-butanethiol, 2-methyl-2-propanethiol, 1-pentanethiol and thiophenol) at sacrificial cadmium anode and inert platinum cathode is reported. Adducts of these compounds with 1,10 phenanthroline and 2,2'-bipyridyl (L) have also been obtained by addition of these coligands to the electrolysis phase. These compounds have been characterized by microanalysis, physical measurements and IR spectral studies. General formula conforms to Cd(SR)2 and Cd(SR)2.L. Current efficiencies of all these reactions are quite high.


We analyze whether stock markets value innovation by performing a meta-analysis of the empirical literature linking R&D investments and firms' market value. While there is an increasing interest in the attention paid by financial markets to firm level innovation activities, the theoretical debate and the empirical results presented by a growing number of studies performed within different disciplinary domains still oscillate between markets myopia and markets efficiency. We contribute to resolve this indecision applying Hunter and Schmidt (1990) correction procedures on existing studies estimating the impact of different corporate assets on the market value of the firm. After correcting for random sources of variations and possible problems with the reliability of the independent and the dependent variables, we show that the R&D-market value relationship is consistently positive and that the market values one currency unit invested in R&D activities as much or more than one currency unity invested in tangible assets. Moreover, we use a fully factorial regression model to assess the magnitude of the reported coefficients against a set of sample specific and design specific variables. Our results show that, when other intangible assets are considered, the market valuation of firms' R&D investments generally lowers. Moreover, whereas adding industry-level controls seems to better specify the relationship between R&D investment and market value, firm-level variables do not substantially affect the results. Implications for research and practice are presented and discussed.


Stalk rot (Colletotrichum graminicola) is one of the most serious disease affecting maize crop in Brazil, especially after the flowering phase, when yield losses can reach significant levels. The use of genetically resistant cultivars is the most efficient strategy to control the disease. The aim of this work was to evaluate the incidence of stalk rot in maize commercial hybrids sinde there is scarce information to allow the use of genetic resistance as a strategy to control this disease. Eighteen maize commercial hybrids were evaluated in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in the experimental area of EMBRAPA Maize and Sorghum Research Center Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, under conditions of natural infection. From each plot, three stalk segments of three plants were sampled: the second internode above the soil line, the internode of ear insertion, and the internode right bellow the tassel. Four tissue fragments of each stalk segment were surface sterilized and transferred to oatmeal agar plates, which were incubated under continuous fluorescent light at 25oC. Pathogen identification and quantification were performed after three to four days of incubation. The hybrids BR201 and BR206 showed the lowest infection level (below 30%) whereas the highest incidence (above 60%) was observed for the hybrid BRS1010. The pathogen was observed in all analyzed stalk segments, but was most frequently isolated from the internode right below the tassel. No evaluated hybrid could be considered to have high resistance to the pathogen.


Abstract:This article recovers the history of the term "the daughters of Israel" (b'not yisrael) from its earliest usage in biblical passages and second temple sources to its appearance in late antique Jewish texts, focusing specifically on the term's connotations in rabbinic sources and ritual texts. Rather than taking the term at face-value as denoting women's subordinate status, we argue that this term may have a buried history, and that uncovering the history of the term "daughters of Israel" offers a fascinating entry-point into the role of women in establishing and transforming—rather than merely observing—Jewish law and ritual. Extending Mieke Bal's notion of feminist philology to the investigation of rabbinic and other late antique Jewish sources, we make the case that in rabbinic literature from late antiquity, the Hebrew term "daughters of Israel" appears in sites of contestation, sometimes deployed in discussions about women's innovation in ritual practice in ways that evoke women's ritual agency from narrative biblical sources. In late antique incantations bowls, the Aramaic term for "daughters of Israel" (b'not yisrael) evokes the legal language of second temple marriage contracts that explicitly includes women and may have served to highlight their particular agency as well. Thus in both sets of sources, the term often signals moments when women act as subjects (rather than objects) of ritual and legal discourse.


PURPOSE
This study was designed to compare fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin with fluorouracil, leucovorin, and cisplatin in patients with advanced gastric cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients with previously untreated advanced adenocarcinoma of the stomach or esophagogastric junction were randomly assigned to receive either fluorouracil 2,600 mg/m(2) via 24-hour infusion, leucovorin 200 mg/m(2), and oxaliplatin 85 mg/m(2) (FLO) every 2 weeks or fluorouracil 2,000 mg/m(2) via 24-hour infusion, leucovorin 200 mg/m(2) weekly, and cisplatin 50 mg/m(2) every 2 weeks (FLP). The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS).

RESULTS
Two hundred twenty patients (median age, 64 years; metastatic, 94%) were randomly assigned. FLO was associated with significantly less (any grade) anemia (54% v 72%), nausea (53% v 70%), vomiting (31% v 52%), alopecia (22% v 39%), fatigue (19% v 34%), renal toxicity (11% v 34%), thromboembolic events (0.9% v 7.8%), and serious adverse events related to the treatment (9% v 19%). FLP was associated with significantly less peripheral neuropathy (22% v 63%). There was a trend toward improved median PFS with FLO versus FLP (5.8 v 3.9 months, respectively; P = .077) and no significant difference in median overall survival (10.7 v 8.8 months, respectively). However, in patients older than 65 years (n = 94), treatment with FLO resulted in significantly superior response rates (41.3% v 16.7%; P = .012), time to treatment failure (5.4 v 2.3 months; P < .001), and PFS (6.0 v 3.1 month; P = .029) and an improved OS (13.9 v 7.2 months) as compared with FLP, respectively.

CONCLUSION
FLO reduced toxicity as compared with FLP. In older adult patients, FLO also seemed to be associated with improved efficacy.


BACKGROUND
Limited information is available about patterns of surgical management of early breast cancer by ethnicity of women in England, and any potential inequalities in the treatment received for breast cancer.

METHODS
National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service data for women diagnosed with early invasive breast cancer (ICD-10 C50) during 2012-2017 were analysed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95 per cent confidence intervals for the risk of mastectomy versus breast-conserving surgery by ethnicity (black African, black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani and white), adjusting for age, region, deprivation, year of diagnosis, co-morbidity and stage at diagnosis.

RESULTS
Data from 164 143 women were included in the analysis. The proportion of women undergoing mastectomy fell by approximately 5 per cent between 2012 and 2017 across all the ethnic groups examined. In unadjusted analyses, each ethnic minority group had a significantly higher odds of mastectomy than white women; however, in the fully adjusted model, there were no significantly increased odds of having mastectomy for women of any ethnic minority group examined. For example, compared with white women, the unadjusted and fully adjusted ORs for mastectomy were 1·14 (95 per cent c.i. 1·05 to 1·20) and 1·04 (0·96 to 1·14) respectively for Indian women, and 1·45 (1·30 to 1·62) and 1·00 (0·89 to 1·13) for black African women. This attenuation in OR by ethnicity was largely due to adjustment for age and stage.

CONCLUSION
Allowing for different patterns of age and stage at presentation, the surgical management of early breast cancer is similar in all women, regardless of ethnicity.


Ice nucleating particles (INP) initiate heterogeneous ice nucleation in mixed-phase clouds, influencing cloud phase and onset temperatures for ice formation. Determination of particle types contributing to atmospheric INP populations requires isolation of the relatively rare INP from a total particle sample, typically followed by time-consuming single-particle characterization. We propose a method to estimate the contributions of light-absorbing, primarily refractory black carbon (rBC), particles to INP populations by selectively removing them prior to determination of INP concentrations. Absorbing particles are heated to their vaporization temperature using laser induced incandescence in a single particle soot photometer (SP2) and the change in INP number concentrations, compared to unheated samples, is assessed downstream in the CSU Continuous Flow Diffusion Chamber (CFDC). We tested this approach in the laboratory using strongly-absorbing and nonabsorbing aerosol types to confirm effective removal of rBC INP and to explore the impact of the processing on non-light-absorbing INP. An INP-active rBC particle type was efficiently removed, while nonabsorbing kaolinite and a soil-based INP were not affected by laser exposure. Results for the products of wiregrass combustion indicated that absorbing particles, primarily rBC, accounted for about 40% of all INP, consistent with electron microscopy of INP emitted during prescribed burns of this fuel type. However, kaolinite internally mixed with rBC exhibited reduced activity after passing through the SP2, suggesting that the validity of the method for realistic internal mixtures needs additional research. The sensitivity of the CFDC presently limits applicability of the method to relatively high INP number concentration samples. Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research


Bioanalytical methods are used to quantitatively determine the concentration of drugs, biotransformation products or other specified substances in biological matrices and are often used to provide critical data to pharmacokinetic or bioequivalence studies in support of regulatory submissions. In order to ensure that bioanalytical methods are capable of generating reliable, reproducible data that meet or exceed current regulatory guidance, they are subjected to a rigorous method validation process. At present, regulatory guidance does not necessarily account for nuances specific to trace element determinations. This paper is intended to provide the reader with guidance related to trace element bioanalytical method validation from the authors' perspective for two prevalent and powerful instrumental techniques: inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-MS.


I would like to express my gratitude to you, the American Academy of Pediatrics, for selecting me for an E. Mead Johnson Award. I accept the honor with humility because no scientific work is accomplished without inspiration from teachers and other investigators, and without actual participation of many colleagues. I appreciate this opportunity to acknowledge publicly those individuals who have been and are particularly influential in my progress. Dr. Jean Oliver, the man to whom I owe my entry into medicine and pediatrics, with great effort instilled in me an everlasting appreciation for the inseparable relationship between structure and function. Fortunately, I have remained in close contact with Dr. Oliver throughout the years, continually reaping benefits from his advice and influence. I conceived of function as only cellular and molecular until Dr. Henry L. Barnett introduced me to organ function, especially in relation to the young individual. In addition, he fostered in me an interest in the broader aspects of pediatrics, amid since that time has been available constantly for intimate exchange and crystallization of ideas. I am indebted particularly to Dr. S. Z. Levine for leading me into the field of biologic development and insisting that my time be divided between clinical pediatrics and the laboratory. Dr. Levine has always emphasized that ideas, philosophies and problems originating in the ward or clinic can and should be considered in the laboratory.


Abstract Competition for soil resources is a driving force in plant community ecology. Therefore, amendments that alter soil resources should affect vegetation dynamics and are potential tools for controlling exotic species. We tested the effects of two types of carbon addition, sugar and activated carbon (AC), on an exotic-dominated grassland plant community. Sugar stimulates the microbial community and temporarily reduces plant available nitrogen (N), while AC adsorbs plant available N. Six experimental plots and three carbon treatments were used: sugar (1000 g m-2; 42% C), AC (420 g m-2; 100% C), and control. Treatments were applied in a split-plot design in spring 2008. Aboveground biomass, plant cover, species richness, and plant basal area were tracked for two growing seasons. Although total biomass was not affected by C addition, the distribution of biomass among life forms was affected: carbon addition reduced forb biomass but had no effect on grasses or legumes. Total cover was lower in sugar-treated plots, and sugar also altered the proportional composition of that cover by reducing the abundance of forbs, especially in the first year. Five species were particularly sensitive to sugar addition: Myosotis discolor, Sonchus asper, Taraxacum officinale, Valerianella locusta, and Vulpia bromoides. Sugar also reduced plant basal area in the first year. These results suggest that sugar and, to a lesser extent, AC could be useful management tools. Sugar could be applied to areas where herbicide use is undesirable, reducing the abundance of exotic forbs and providing a window of opportunity for native species establishment.


Overproduction of glucose by the liver in the face of insulin resistance is a primary cause of hyperglycemia in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). However, mechanisms involved in control of hepatic glucose output (HGO) remain less than clear, even in normal individuals. Recent results have supported an indirect extrahepatic effect of insulin as the primary locus of insulin action to restrain HGO. One suggested extrahepatic site is the pancreatic ɑ-cell. To examine whether insulin's extrahepatic site is independent of the ɑ-cells, HGO suppression was examined independent of changes in glucagon secretion or insulin antagonism of glucagon action. Euglycemic glucose clamps (n = 40) with somatostatin infusion were performed in conscious dogs (n = 5). Paired experiments were conducted in which insulin was infused either portally (1.2, 3.0, 6.0 pmol · min−1 · kg−1) or peripherally at half the portal infusion rate (0.6, 1.5, 3.0 pmol · min−1 · kg−1). Additional zero and saturating portal-dose experiments (100 pmol · min−1 · kg−1) were also performed. For the paired experiments, portal insulin infusion resulted in portal insulin concentrations approximately two to three times higher than in the corresponding peripheral insulin infusion experiments, while at the same time peripheral insulin concentrations were approximately matched. Equal peripheral insulin concentration resulted in equivalent HGO suppression irrespective of the portal concentrations. Thus, insulin affects a signal at a peripheral site, other than ɑ-cell, that in turn suppresses hepatic glucose production. To investigate the nature of this signal, we measured alanine, lactate, and free fatty acids (FFAs). There was no clear relationship between alanine or lactate and HGO suppression; however, there was an extremely strong relationship between plasma FFAs and HGO both at steady state and during dynamic changes in insulin. These data suggest, but do not prove, that insulin acts to suppress HGO as follows: Insulin slowly traverses the capillary endothelium in adipose tissue; elevated insulin in adipose tissue interstdtium inhibits lipolysis, thus decreasing FFA levels; and decreased FFAs act as a signal to the liver to suppress endogenous glucose production.


The Web doesn't stand still, and neither does this guide: Completely updated to cover the new browsers, standards, and CSS, DHTML, and Ajax features that define the Web today, the one thing that hasn't changed in this edition is its task-based visual approach to the topic. In these pages, readers will find friendly, step-by-step instructions for using CSS, DHTML, and Ajax to add visually sophisticated, interactive elements to their Web sites. Using loads of tips and screen shots, veteran author Jason Cranford Teague covers a lot of ground--from basic and advanced dynamic techniques (for example, making objects appear and disappear) to creating effects for newer browsers, migrating from tables to CSS, and creating new DHTML scripts with embedded scroll areas, fixed menu bars, and more. Users new to CSS, DHTML, and Ajax will find this a quick, easy introduction to scripting, while more experienced programmers will be pleased to find practical, working examples throughout the book.


Where many rivers come together and the salt water of the sea mixes in, the most awesome life forms appear. Confluence. As an outline to the theory, the current chapter provides the rationale of this book. The unifying principle it advances is that of combination making, visible in the formation of matter, in the genesis of organisms, in the novelty-accelerating function of the brain. It is a somewhat neglected area in the traditional, read rule-oriented, problem solving literature and it has genuine consequences for our philosophy of truth and reality. We will find that in its most premature stage, human creative insight pertains to quantum behavior at the synapses while in later evaluative stages, fractal emergence plays a role. In all, building up and breaking down combinatory creations seem to be the doing of the two laws of thermodynamics.


Favourable microclimates are predicted to buffer fragmented populations against the effects of environmental change, but ecological timeseries are often too short to establish the extent to which such microsites facilitate population persistence through multiple climate shifts. We investigate the effects of microclimatic heterogeneity on woodland resilience through millennial climate and disturbance shifts near northwest European woodland range limits. We use palaeoecological data from northern Scotland to study the effects of fragmentation on community composition and diversity in a potentially favourable microclimate, and compare palynological timeseries of tree abundance from five sites to assess the effects of favourable (low-lying sheltered) versus more marginal (higher altitude) settings on population persistence and stability. The sheltered site shows persistence of tree cover through Holocene climatic and anthropogenic shifts, including climatically-driven regional woodland contraction around 4400 cal BP (calendar years before present), when surviving woods became compositionally differentiated into upland pine and low-lying deciduous communities. A favourable microclimate can thus buffer woodlands against environmental shifts and increase continuity of canopy cover, but it does not generate stable communities. Compositional reorganisation is an essential stress response mechanism and should be accommodated by conservation managers. The replacement of deciduous taxa by Pinus sylvestris after 1060 cal BP represents the decoupling of pine distribution from climate drivers by management intervention. As a result, current microrefugial woodland composition reflects late Holocene human intervention. Alternative models of community composition and behaviour from palaeoecology provide a stronger foundation for managing microsite communities than relict woods in contrasting environmental settings.


Diabetic patients are more susceptible to ischemia/reperfusion injury and cardiac dysfunction likely due alterations in mitochondrial calcium handling. The purpose of this work was to determine if redox-dependent changes in permeability transition pore opening and mitochondrial calcium transients contribute to augmented injury and dysfunction in diabetic hearts. Langendorff-perfused streptozotocin-induced diabetic hearts were more susceptible to ischemia/reperfusion injury with infarct sizes of 60±4% of the area-at-risk (vs. 46±2% in non-diabetics; P<0.05). Administration of 5uM NIM811 (non-immunosuppressive derivative of cyclosporine A) 1nM Bendavia (mitochondria-targeted antioxidant) or 1 uM Minocycline (blocker of mitochondrial Ca influx) at the onset of reperfusion reduced diabetic infarct sizes (P<0.05). Mitochondria isolated from the left ventricles of diabetic rats displayed greater sensitivity to Ca-induced permeability transition pore opening (P<0.05). Mitochondrial Ca uptake was slower in diabetic when compared to non-diabetic mitochondria (P<0.05) and Na/Ca exchange activity was faster in diabetic when compared to non-diabetic despite no differences in respiratory control ratio and mitochondrial membrane potential between groups. Treatment of diabetic mitochondria with 2mM of the reducing agent dithiothreitol significantly decreased the sensitivity to PTP opening and normalized mitochondrial calcium uniporter activity to non-diabetic levels. These findings suggest that the augmented susceptibility to injury and enhanced cardiac dysfunction in the diabetic heart is mediated by redox-dependent shifts in mitochondrial calcium handling and that three novel mitochondria-targeted compounds administered at reperfusion may be suitable adjuvant reperfusion therapies to attenuate injury in diabetic patients.


The bathymetry and currents in a 4km radius area of the Dee Estuary in Liverpool Bay have been mapped using a wave inversion of marine radar data without the need for any prior bathymetric data. The radar is mounted 30m above sea level on an island in the estuary and 10 minute sequences of radar images of the sea surface are recorded automatically each hour giving 360 degree coverage of the area. Several such records taken arond high tide during a moderate wave event have been processed to produce the map using a wave inversion that accounts for currents, frequency and amplitude dispersion. The results are compared to a combined LiDAR and Multibeam echosounder survey carried out in 2003, clearly identifying migrating sand banks within the estuary. The strength of this technique is in its ability to map large areas of bathymetrically complex shallow coastal waters rapidly, remotely and under storm conditions, with vertical accuracies generally better than +/-1m of survey data.


This research was motivated by our interest in understanding the criteria for measuring the success of a recommender system from users' point view. Even though existing work has suggested a wide range of criteria, the consistency and validity of the combined criteria have not been tested. In this paper, we describe a unifying evaluation framework, called ResQue (Recommender systems' Quality of user experience), which aimed at measuring the qualities of the recommended items, the system's usability, usefulness, interface and interaction qualities, users' satisfaction with the systems, and the influence of these qualities on users' behavioral intentions, including their intention to purchase the products recommended to them and return to the system. We also show the results of applying psychometric methods to validate the combined criteria using data collected from a large user survey. The outcomes of the validation are able to 1) support the consistency, validity and reliability of the selected criteria; and 2) explain the quality of user experience and the key determinants motivating users to adopt the recommender technology. The final model consists of thirty two questions and fifteen constructs, defining the essential qualities of an effective and satisfying recommender system, as well as providing practitioners and scholars with a cost-effective way to evaluate the success of a recommender system and identify important areas in which to invest development resources.


Panamint Valley was filled to overflowing on five, possibly six, separate instances, fed largely by runoff from the Sierra Nevada discharged through Owens and Searles lakes. These high water levels are best represented by uplifted lake terraces and associated deposits at Pleasant Canyon on the, west face of the Panamint Range, where shorelines at five, possibly six, levels have formed with respect to the level of Wingate Pass, (present elevation 1977 ±1 feet) into Death Valley. The level of this sill seems to have been tectonically stable, but was permanently raised about 50 feet by a mudflow which poured into the pass during a long-lasting lake stage, herein named Gale Stage. Paired Gale-Stage shorelines, attributed to lake stands stabilized at pre- and post-mudflow sill levels are found throughout Panamint Valley. The lower shoreline is 1.26 times older than the higher, more prominent shoreline, based on 1.26 times greater tectonic deformation at most localities. On the rising range block at Pleasant Canyon, the higher shoreline seems superposed on the lower to form a composite shoreline at 2177±10 feet elevation. Shoreline elevations at Pleasant Canyon (and probable uplift they experienced) are: 2410±10 feet (480±25 feet); 2298±10 (368±25); 2265±10 (335±25); 2177±10 (247±25 to 200±11); 2127±10 (150±11); and 2040±40? (63±41?). If the long-term uplift rate has been constant, the age of each shoreline should be proportional to its height above its sill level. Relatively steady deformation rates throughout Panamint Valley are suggested by the constant proportion (1.26:1.00) of deformation between the older (lower) and younger (higher) Gale-Stage shorelines.

A radiocarbon age of 31,150±1400 B.P. on snail shells establishes a minimum age for the shoreline at 2127 feet. Extrapolation using steady uplift rates indicates the following youngest-possible ages (in thousands of years) for the other uplifted shorelines: 2410 ft: 100±17; 2298 ft: 77±14; 2265 ft: 70±13; 2177 ft: 52 to 42±7; and 2040 ft?,: 14±10?. The probable age of each lake stage is about 20 per cent greater than its youngest possible age, a judgement based on correlation with the stages of Searles Lake (G.I. Smith, 1968).

The higher, younger Gale-Stage shoreline is prominent throughout Panamint Valley. Differential tectonic deformation of this feature amounts to about 370 feet, as established by a maximum elevation of 2190±10 feet on the central Panamint Range to a minimum of 1820±20 at Panamint Valley's north end. Deformation involves differential north- south warping of crustal block on both sides of the Panamint Valley and Ash Hill fault zones, which respectively define the east and west margins of Panamint Valley.

Right-lateral displacement of Quaternary features along the Panamint Valley fault zone exceeds their vertical, offset. Sixty feet of right-lateral offset have occurred since desiccation of the last, low lake to occupy Panamint Valley (15,000±5,000 B.P.), and cumulative offset of a sheet of monolithologic (landslide?) breccia of Plio-Pleistocene age from its probable source in Wildrose Canyon may total 10,000 to 15,000 feet.

Panamint Valley is abruptly and massively closed at its north end, where valley-floor deposits appear to underthrust Mesozoic plutonic rocks of Hunter Mountain along a northwest-trending zone which may represent the northwestward continuation of the Panamint Valley fault zone. Along the middle part of this reach of the zone, poorly-sorted (talus?) rubble of sound crystalline boulders underlies a 50 to 100-foot-thick zone of crushed crystalline rock which dips 17 to 35 degrees to the northeast beneath unshattered crystalline rocks. Thrusting may reflect a response to regional northwest-southeast right-lateral shear, possibly imposed upon classical Basin-Range bounding faults. The complex pattern of warping and faulting throughout the rest of Panamint Valley is also consistent with right-lateral shear, and the valley itself may have originated as a right-lateral "pull apart".

The unusually large volume of deposits along the 2177-foot shoreline suggests correlation with the Sierra Nevada Tahoe glaciation, which is distinguished by unusually large moraines. The small volume of 2127-foot shoreline deposits suggests correlation with the Tenaya glaciation, whose moraines are small. Thus the queried 2040-foot shoreline could represent the Tioga glaciation and the 2410-foot shoreline the Mono Basin glaciation. The 2265 and 2298-foot shorelines may represent early Tahoe events, suggesting that the Tahoe may be divided into early and late phases. Tentative ages of glaciations, based on correlation with pluvial events in Panamint Valley, are (in thousands of years B.P.): Mono Basin: 120±20; Tahoe (early): 92±15 to 78±15; Tahoe (late): 65±13 to 48±10; Tenaya: 38±6; Tioga?: 23±10?.


The article discusses the certain features of the constitutional doctrine of human rights developed by the Constitutional Court of Lithuania which were influenced by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the role of the European Convention on Human Rights as a legal source in the system of sources of constitutional law. The intersection of the jurisprudences, which came into being due to different assessments of the legal regulation in cases where the same legal act was recognized by the Constitutional Court being in compliance with the Constitution and the European Court of Human Rights recognized that the application of the said act was a cause of the violation of a certain person's rights protected by the Convention (or vice versa) is one of the most important questions and raises many theoretical and practical problems. Different assessment of the legal acts made by the European Court of Human Rights with regard to their compliance with the Conventionshould not be regarded as such an essential circumstance which could lead to possible repeated review of such legal act at the Constitutional Court, such intersection of the jurisprudences, should be solved by ordinary courts while following the doctrine that in cases where legal acts contain the legal regulation which competes with that established in the international treaty, the international treaty should be applied.


The widespread access to wireless and mobile connectivity, the increasing popularity of social media, and the pervasiveness of portable devices such as smartphones and tablets are offering unprecedented opportunities for expressing and sharing personal understandings and representations of the world. This technology-mediated and hyper-connected milieu offers a fertile ground for representing, enacting, and counteracting antisocial outlooks and behaviours such as prejudice, discrimination, and bullying. In the introduction, we propose a unified theoretical model to comprehend the idiosyncrasies of prejudice, discrimination, and bullying, in function of the analysis of user-generated Vines related to prejudice, which is presented in the second part of the article. In this study, we posit prejudice as one of the primary seeds of discrimination and bullying, and we then examine its multimodal representations on Vine, a social medium that offers a short-form apparatus for constructing and communicating meaning. This study contributes to the understanding of how prejudice is represented and interpreted on mobile social platforms and opens the field to research on how people depict and perceive sensitive issues through "condensed" forms of computer-mediated communication.


DIDS is a unique form of combined immune deficiency characterized by an unusual susceptibility to cutaneous viral infections, severe allergies with eosinophilia and elevated immunoglobulin E titers, autoimmunity, and cancer. HSCT is considered the standard of care for this deadly disease. We have retrospectively analyzed the outcome of allogeneic HSCT from unrelated donors in patients with DIDS. Data from four patients, with five transplants, are presented. All patients received transplants from unrelated donors' BM, except for one patient who received a cord blood transplant. The conditioning regimens were based on myeloablative protocols for BM derived transplants; a NM regimen was pursued for the patient who received a cord blood transplant, which resulted in graft rejection. Although recurrent pneumonia and skin infections resolved immediately after transplantation, all patients subsequently developed human herpesvirus infection, including cutaneous herpetic lesions, cytomegalovirus reactivation, and zona zoster, which could be attributed to the use of ATG. Despite the presence of serious morbidities prior to transplantation, all patients recovered successfully. DIDS can be successfully treated with allogeneic HSCT from unrelated donors following a myeloablative conditioning regimen, with a reasonable safety profile.


Dispute Systems Design (DSD), the process of creating structures to deal with repeated or systemic disputes, can be applied to both the most mundane and the most horrific of conflicts. We know that human rights violations can be perpetrated by governments or non-state actors, can be regional or national, and can be targeted against a particular group or have random victims. We know that these violations can occur as a spurt of extreme violence over a short time or can last for generations. We also know, historically, of many different methods by which to deal with human rights violations. The goal of this article is to bring together different experiences around the world and different threads of the law - in international, human rights, transitional justice, restorative justice, and dispute resolution - in order to outline the challenges lawyers face when dealing with these complex international situations. Among the many challenges that dispute systems designers face when dealing with human rights violations are the following: (1) Should we be setting up a DSD at all? How can we design systems that both acknowledge the need for justice and promote peace on the ground as soon as possible? (2) Who designs and implements the DSD? How can we design systems that are almost inevitably implemented from the top down while recognizing that the best healing occurs from the bottom up? (3) How is the system designed? How can we as designers be efficient and use the best practices of the past while still customizing each dispute system to take unique account of each individual conflict? (4) What values are promoted by the DSD? How can we explain the push for judicialization of international disputes at the same time that trial rates in the U.S. continue to drop? (5) What remedies are provided by the DSD? How can we design systems for the future while recognizing that the people most affected often need to cope with the past violations before looking to the future? This essay will first explain the challenge posed by each of the questions above, and then suggest some approaches to these challenges based on what we have seen thus far in international and domestic DSD.


BackgroundVirtual patients (VPs) can be used to assess clinical reasoning. Grading metrics applied to VP exams may include scoring for appropriate differential diagnoses, proposed therapy, and the learner's approach to the case. The learner's inquiry of medical history, physical exam, and lab/ancillary tests utilized during the exam can all be graded. However, the best grading metric used to assess clinical reasoning for VP examination is unresolved. Summary of WorkResults from two groups of students assessed by VP-based examination (n>300) were used as a basis to evaluate different grading metrics. These grading models were also compared with results of other traditional student examination performance. Summary of ResultsEach method of grading had both pronounced advantages and disadvantages with none considered ideal. However one grading metric was perceived to perform slightly better. None of the scoring methods had a direct correlation with four traditional exam formats to which they were compared. ConclusionsEach grading metric used in this study had advantages and disadvantages. Medical school exams employing VP-based exams need to define what should be assessed for reliable utilization.Take-home Messages Objectives of VP-based examination are essential to measure learner competency in an appropriate context. Traditional exams do not necessarily measure the same aptitude that VP-based exams measure.


The Ministry of Transport of Japan (MOT) is currently developing a fixed-OWC wave power converter called a wave power extracting caisson. This device can be used as caissons for composite-type breakwaters and sea walls, thus function as a breakwater and a wave power device at the same time. The combination of the wave power converter and the breakwater is expected to reduce the cost of power generation by the converter and also to increase the stability as the breakwater. The First District Port Construction Bureau, MOT and the Joint Study that the Coastal Development Institute of Technology conducted have started a field verification study for the wave power extracting caisson breakwater since 1987 at Sakata Port. The construction works of the caisson and other electric apparatuses were also installed. The system started the electric power generation in the autumn of 1989, and the observation work on the wave power converter is being carried out and is scheduled to continue till March 1991. This paper describes the results of the field experiments as summarized below. As a breakwater, the wave power extracting caisson breakwater has the characteristics of high stability and low wave reflection. The wave resisting design of the breakwaters has been satisfactorily verified. It has also been proven that the performance as a energy converter of the caisson is almost the same as originally designed. Despite its special structure, no particular problems have arisen in construction of the wave power extracting caisson breakwater when compared with other breakwaters. One of the purposes of the experiments reported in the paper is to utilize the fluctuating power output generated under this system, for which various appliciances are now being used. The possibility of utilization of the wave energy has been proved as the result of various experiments and researches reported in this paper.


Throughout Kenya's history, tensions between two goals have characterised the educational policy debate: first, the expansion of access; second, the containment of costs. During the colonial period, cost-containment predominated, leading to severe restrictions on access and massive unmet social demand. Then, during post-Independence years, broadened access became the predominant policy objective, leading to massive cost increases and to negative quality effects. In the final section, this paper considers current issues concerning access, cost and quality, stressing the need to bear in mind the complex relationships among them in planning future policy. It is clear that any initiative to achieve universal primary education is unlikely to succeed unless the tension between access and cost, and its implications for quality, is recognised and taken into account. If the programme does not incorporate viable plans to meet the additional costs and prevent quality being compromised, its prospects will almost certainly be in jeopardy from the outset.


This book reports the results obtained by sequencing the genome and the transcriptome of the microalga N.gaditana using next generation sequencing technologies. The project fulfilled the two important aims of assembling a draft of the genome sequence using sole next generation short reads and providing a genetic background for a better understanding of N. gaditana biology in order to improve its value as a model organism for biotechnological applications related to biofuel production. This work by Elisa Corteggiani represented an exceptional advance in the understanding of the high priority biofuel organism Nannochloropsis gaditana. Species of algae adapted to salt-water cultivation, and capable of achieving high yields of lipids are the subject of intense global interest. Despite widespread research on species of Nannochloropsis, no reference genome was available, nor was information regarding changes in transcript abundance under triacylglycerol synthesizing conditions. The research presented in this book addresses these shortcomings and all the data presented will reveal very useful insights when fully analysed.


Even before the coronavirus crisis struck, people in the Middle East and North Africa were protesting against the injustice and inequality wrought by a decade of austerity. The pandemic and the lockdown measures taken by governments have paralysed economies and threaten to tip millions of people into poverty, with women, refugees, migrant workers and those working in the informal economy among the worst affected. A huge increase in inequality is very likely. More austerity following this crisis will mean more uprisings, more inequality, and more conflict. This paper argues that if another decade of pain is to be averted, governments need to take immediate action to reduce inequality through providing public services to protect ordinary people by taxing the richest and guaranteeing decent work.


This report documents a laboratory-based research effort to determine the effects of asphalt modifiers and alternate binders on asphalt airfield pavements. The modified binders were tested to determine their potential for reducing pavement deformation distresses and improving rheological properties. The study was performed by the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES). An intensive literature search was performed during the first year of the study to gather all of the available information on the modifiers currently available. This information was used to choose 14 test materials, which were tested in the laboratory during the second year of the study. Data resulting from these tests were used to choose the five most promising test materials, which were evaluated further in the third and final year of the study by more detailed laboratory tests. All laboratory mix specimens were made with the same aggregate gradations and under as near identical conditions as possible. An AC-20 grade of asphalt cement was chosen as the base asphalt for all modified asphalt blends. Asphalt mix testing consisted of indirect tensile, resilient modulus and unconfined creep-rebound tests. Asphalt binder tests included kinematic viscosity, Brookfield viscosity, penetration, and resiliency. The considerable amount of laboratory test data generated by this study would be too cumbersome to present in this paper; therefore, only the background, material descriptions, test methods and conclusions of this study will be discussed. A more detailed description of the laboratory data is found in a WES report previously published by the author (Anderton, 1990).


Previously, Jones applied the Semenov boundary conditions and thermal explosion theory to the problem of predicting spontaneous combustion of laundered clothing in a commercial tumble dryer. This problem is revisited here with a modification of the limiting assumptions made in the previous work. Relaxation of the limiting assumptions (i.e., considering air flow through the drum) demonstrates that the self-heating processes within the laundered load are limited by the forced convection through the tumbling clothing load. The conclusions of this paper demonstrate that inclusion of this heat loss term soundly refutes the possibility of spontaneous combustion of an uncontaminated, tumbling clothing load. The critical temperature predictions indicate that even in the case of overheating of the garment load (dryer malfunction), the garment load temperature is unlikely to exceed its critical temperature in the absence of contamination.


An all-pass microring resonator is utilized in silicon waveguides to adjust the relative phase relationship among the involved waves in the degenerated four-wave mixing (FWM). By using the microring resonator as a phase shifter, the phase matching can be ameliorated, and the conversion efficiency can be enhanced effectively. The influences of key factors including the coupling strength of the ring resonator, and the nonlinear loss introduced by two-photon absorption and free carrier absorption, on the improvement of conversion efficiency are discussed. By properly selecting the parameters, the spectra of conversion efficiency are flattened in the wavelength range of 10 nm. Since the ring resonator has a periodic response spectrum and tunable resonant wavelength, the FWM with a microring phase shifter provides an efficient approach to wavelength conversion in silicon waveguides.


Usenet is a complex socio-technical phenomenon, containing vast quantities of information. The sheer scope and complexity make it a challenge to understand the many dimensions across which people and communication are interlinked. In this work, we present visualizations of several aspects and scales of Usenet that combine to highlight the range of variation found in newsgroups. We examine variations within hierarchies, newsgroups, authors, and social networks. We find a remarkable diversity, with clear variations that mark starting points for mapping the broad sweep of behavior found in this and other social cyberspaces. Our findings provide the basis for initial recommendations for those cultivating, managing, contributing, or consuming collectively constructed conversational content.


INITIATING EVENT ANALYSIS OF A LITHIUM FLUORIDE THORIUM REACTOR Nicholas Charles Geraci Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. C. Ariel Pinto The primary purpose of this study is to perform an Initiating Event Analysis for a Lithium Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) as the first step of a Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). The major objective of the research is to compile a list of key initiating events capable of resulting in failure of safety systems and release of radioactive material from the LFTR. Due to the complex interactions between engineering design, component reliability and human reliability, probabilistic safety assessments are most useful when the scope is limited to a single reactor plant. Thus, this thesis will study the LFTR design proposed by Flibe Energy. An October 2015 Electric Power Research Institute report on the Flibe Energy LFTR asked "what-if?" questions of subject matter experts and compiled a list of key hazards with the most significant consequences to the safety or integrity of the LFTR. The potential exists for unforeseen hazards to pose additional risk for the LFTR, but the scope of this thesis is limited to evaluation of those key hazards already identified by Flibe Energy. These key hazards are the starting point for the Initiating Event Analysis performed in this thesis. Engineering evaluation and technical study of the plant using a literature review and comparison to reference technology revealed four hazards with high potential to cause reactor core damage. To determine the initiating events resulting in realization of these four hazards, reference was made to previous PSAs and existing NRC and EPRI initiating event lists. Finally, fault tree and event tree analyses were conducted, completing the logical classification of initiating events. Results are qualitative as opposed to quantitative due to the early stages of system design descriptions and lack of operating experience or data for the LFTR. In summary, this thesis analyzes initiating events using previous research and inductive and deductive reasoning through traditional risk management techniques to arrive at a list of key initiating events that can be used to address vulnerabilities during the design phases of LFTR development.