In
response to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak
and the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) urgent need for work related to
transportation and pandemics, this paper contributes with a sense of urgency
and provides a starting point for research on the topic. The main goal of this
paper is to support transportation researchers and the TRB community during
this COVID-19 pandemic by reviewing the performance of software models used for
extracting large-scale data from Twitter streams related to COVID-19. The study
extends the previous research efforts in social media data mining by providing
a review of contemporary tools, including their computing maturity and their
potential usefulness. The paper also includes an open repository for the
processed data frames to facilitate the quick development of new transportation
research studies. The output of this work is recommended to be used by the TRB
community when deciding to further investigate topics related to COVID-19 and
social media data mining tools.


From a basic two-camera interview to an elaborate 26 camera HD concert film, this comprehensive guide presents a platform-agnostic approach to the essential techniques required to set up and edit a multi-camera project. Actual case studies are used to examine specific usages of multi-camera editing and include a variety of genres including concerts, talk shows, reality programming, sit-coms, documentaries for television, event videography and feature films. Other features include:* Advanced multi-camera techniques and specialty work-flows are examined for tapeless & large scale productions with examples from network TV shows, corporate media projects, event videography, and feature films. * New techniques for 3D projects, 2k/4k media management and color correction are revealed. * Technical breakdowns analyze system requirements for monitoring, hard drives & RAIDs, RAM, codecs and computer platforms. * Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro and several other software programs are detailed.* Tables, charts, screen-grabs, photos, web-links, blogs, tech school lists and other resource tools for further study.* Unique interviews with the 'Masters of Multi-Cam' including EMMY and academy award-winning directors and editors who share their project notes and give insight to award-winning techniques. * Platform-agnostic techniques with a review and comparison of a available tools* Actual broadcast TV show & feature film projects are dissected to reveal a step-by-step approach to managing multi-camera programs* 'Insider' procedures are revealed for large-scale productions and upcoming 3D editing* DVD with an array of multi-cam footage allows you to practice your technique


Abstract This paper aims to analyses the trends and dynamics of extreme poverty in developing countries. The study attempts to answer one critical question: has the world achieved its number one Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing extreme poverty by half by 2015? The methodology used in this study mainly involves a descriptive data analysis during the period 1981-2015. The study used the World Bank's US$1.90 a day line (popularly known as $1 a day line) in 2011 prices to measure the level of absolute poverty. In order to analyze the dynamics of poverty across different regions, the study grouped countries into five regions: i) sub-Saharan Africa; ii) East Asia and the Pacific; iii) South Asia; iv) Europe and Central Asia; and v) Latin America and the Caribbean. The study found that in 1990, there were around 1.9 billion people living below US$1.90 a day (constituting 36.9 percent of the world population) and this number is estimated to have reduced to around 700 million people in 2015, with an estimated global poverty rate of 9.6 percent. The world met the MDG target in 2010, which is five years ahead of schedule. However, extreme poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA), where its depth and breadth remain a challenge. SSA remains the poorest region, with more than 35 percent of its citizens living on less than US$1.90 a day. Half of the world's extremely poor people now live in SSA, and it is the only region which has not met its MDG target.


The study traces the pathways of young people who dropped out of school between grades 1 to 11 as they seek re-entrance to the education, training and development (ETD) system, or entrance into the labour market. Particular attention is given to the factors that determine the choices that drop-outs make in either re-entering the ETD system or entering the labour market. An analysis of the experiences of the interviewed sample of drop-outs is presented. The study employs a qualitative research methodology, using interviews to elicit the experiences of drop-outs and school managers. Through snowballing, 14 youths and three principals were selected from a township south of Durban. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted. The findings provide insights into the drop-outs' perceptions regarding the value of investing in education. They are discussed further in relation to the respective theories used in the study. The concluding section suggests the need for investments in second chance education by government and the private sector, and proposes an integrated model to assist young people who re-enter psychologically and emotionally.


The image of legong—sumptuously costumed girl dancers crowned with frangiapanis— is the face of Balinese culture. Yet it is only one of twenty dance/drama genres and prominent in only some centers. Legong, a secular court dance, has often been (and still is) in danger of extinction. Balinese are now less interested in legong than ever before and musicians prefer to play other kinds of music. Since the 1930s, legong has been presented at tourist concerts and by ensembles touring overseas. Western expatriates have founded legong groups and generally brokered the relation between Balinese and foreigners. Foreign scholars have studied, recorded, and filmed Balinese performers. Balinese scholars take higher degrees abroad and co-author books on Balinese dance with Westerners. Balinese performers teach across the world, while United States and Japanese student dancers in Bali employ teachers at rates of pay locals cannot match. Legong groups tour Bali from the US and Japan. Non-Balinese influence what aspects of Balinese culture are promoted and sustained. The impetus for the current (modest and localised) revival of legong seems to come mostly from nonBalinese. Despite all this, legong has retained its autonomy and integrity as an emblematic Balinese dance form, and for some surprising reasons.


The biocompatibility of composite resins decreases with the increase of released monomer since they are cytotoxic on pulp or living tissues. Commercialy used composites should be choosen according to their biocompatibility to not jeopardize the patient's health. Analyze of the composite biocompatibility and determination of the monomers elution of four different composite resin materials with nano filler content is completed in the study to investigate if there is difference and the most possible healty way of usage. The amount of Bis-GMA, UDMA and TEGDMA released from four different composite resins measured on three different day using the HPLC. Four groups (n=10, diameter: 5 mm, thickness: 2 mm) of each material were prepared. Samples were placed in 75% ethanol-water. On days 1, 15 and 30, 1 mL samples were taken for measurement. A total of 120 samples' findings were analysed statistically. Bis-GMA and UDMA were released from all the materials used in the study. There were significant differences in the total monomer release of all composite resins in terms of time (P=0.001). Tetric Evoceram is the most residual monomer-releasing composite in experiment groups. The maximum amount of monomer release for all three monomers was on the 15th day. In order to reduce concerns about toxicity, taking measures to protect the pulp for example using cavity liners and bases specially in case of having less than 0.5 mm thickness of dentin. There is a need for these results to be supported by further clinical studies.


SUMMARY: The first zoeal stage of the parthenopid crab Parthenope macrochelos is described and illustrated from laboratory-hatched material obtained from an ovigerous crab captured in the western Mediterranean. The first larva of P. macrochelos possesses all the characters as diagnostic of the Parthenopidae and some additional features, including a seta on the basal segment of the endopod of the maxillule and a well developed lateral spine on the telson forks. The present stage is compared with those previously described from other species of the genus Parthenope.


Transforms used in image coding are also commonly used to compress prediction residuals in video coding. Prediction residuals have different spatial characteristics from images, and it is useful to develop transforms that are adapted to prediction residuals. In this paper, we explore the differences between the characteristics of images and motion compensated prediction residuals by analyzing their local anisotropic characteristics and develop transforms adapted to the local anisotropic characteristics of these residuals. The analysis indicates that many regions of motion compensated prediction residuals have 1-D anisotropic characteristics and we propose to use 1-D directional transforms for these regions. We present experimental results with one example set of such transforms within the H.264/AVC codec and the results indicate that the proposed transforms can improve the compression efficiency of motion compensated prediction residuals over conventional transforms.


Folders are a commonplace metaphor in computing environments, constituting a link to physical work materials and are a key means for individuals to impose order on their digital work materials. This paper presents the findings of a novel qualitative study examining folder use by 12 information workers, using logging to accurately capture how folders were used in individual everyday work over 6 weeks, and challenging participants to work without using folders. Through observation and interviews, the study provides new descriptions of how folders are used and the dependence some study participants had on their folders to think and create, as well as to access files. The findings call into question whether search and recency-based lists of files could fulfil the functional role of folders, identified as key means for individuals to construct and specialize their work environments. Implications are discussed for document management tools, and more generally for operating system design.


This paper draws on ethnographic research in America and Ethiopia to explore the phenomenon of Sudanese (Nuer) refugee remittance from those in the diaspora to those who remain behind in Africa. Specifically it locates the unidirectional flow of cash within transnational flows of people, goods, and information. This multi-sited study explores the impacts of these transfers on both sides of the equation. It documents the importance of remittances as a vital component of survival and investment in the future for Nuer refugees in Ethiopia. Similarly it raises questions about the siphoning off of resources on the social, cultural, and economic integration of Sudanese in the United States. Finally, it situates remitting behaviour within a broader socio-historical context to explain its centrality in maintaining a Nuer community across national borders.


Background: Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is an inherited renal cystic disease that leads to end-stage renal disease. Patients who present with symptoms at an early age are more likely to live to develop end stage renal disease. Patients with ADPKD and renal failure are most commonly treated with hemodialysis. Tolvaptan is expected to be effective in the treatment of ADPKD because of its success in animal models. If clinical trials can prove slowing of the disease progression, hemodialysis and kidney transplant for those patients may not be necessary. What is the effectiveness of tolvaptan as a treatment option for ADPKD to inhibit renal cyst progression? Method: An exhaustive literature search was done using the following search engines, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBR, Web of Science, and the initial search used the following combined search terms as treatment, clinical trial, and polycystic kidney disease. The bibliographies of the articles were further searched for relevant sources. Articles with primary data evaluating ADPKD were included. Relevant articles were assessed for quality using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). A search on the National Institute of Health (NIH) clinical trials site was done. Results: Two studies met inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review. The result of the 3 year study found tolvaptan to be significant in slowing down the total kidney volume (TKV), which is related to the cyst progression in kidneys. Cyst growth progressed more slowly in the tolvaptan treated patients than in the historical controls. The secondary objective of eGFR was also measured, but was not found to be significant in maintaining the filtration rate, even though the trend is more noticeable than in the control group. The other study was a 1-week administration of tovaptan where the result was analyzed post hoc. The post hoc blinded analysis of renal MRI showed a significant 3.1% reduction in the TKV from baseline after 1 week of tolvaptan with P-value Conclusion: Tolvaptan showed a positive result on inhibition of renal cysts growth in patients with ADPKD, but it does not have a significant effect on the other outcomes, such as slowing progression of GFR, which measures kidney's failure and its progression to ESRD. Further studies such as TEMPO (an NIH phase 2 registered trial), may show more evidence of slowing down the disease progression and tolvaptan drug alteration may be necessary to reduce AEs and be more of an appropriate drug to treat ADPKD. Degree Type Capstone Project Degree Name Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies


Previous studies suggest that firm-level reporting incentives play a significant role for heterogeneous effects on the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (e.g., Daske et al., 2013; Ball et al., 2003; Leuz et al., 2003; Burgstahler et al., 2006). In this study, we focus on family ownership control, which arguably creates severe agency problems between controlling and minority shareholders as well as weaker incentives for quality financial reporting and transparency. We examine whether the effect of full IFRS adoption on accounting quality and market liquidity is significantly mitigated by family control by comparing accounting quality metrics and market liquidity metrics between family-controlled and non-family-controlled firms listed in Hong Kong for the period before mandatory IFRS adoption and the period after adoption. We show that accounting quality and market liquidity generally improve after full IFRS adoption. However, when we take into consideration of family control, higher accounting quality in the post-IFRS period is only substantiated in the non-family-controlled firms. The accounting quality actually gets worse in the post-IFRS period for family-controlled firms. We also find that improvements in market liquidity after the adoption of IFRS are moderated by family control. The results indicate that the expected benefits of IFRS adoption are realised in non-family-controlled firms, but such desirable outcomes are severely moderated by family ownership control. Given that family control is a common phenomenon in Asia and other emerging economies, our findings are useful for policy makers and investors to better understand the impact of IFRS adoption.


Substantial TCE and ammonia contamination was detected in groundwater beneath a residential area in Perth. Investigation has successfully determined broad aspects of the extent of the TCE plume and its impact. The plume extends approximately 900 m in groundwater downgradient of an industrial area. The contamination is about 300 m wide and 6 - 8 m thick. A peak concentration of 2000 ugL{-1} TCE was measured. The mobility of the plume and the residence time for the contamination in the sand aquifer are estimated based on the groundwater velocities and retardation factors. Biological or chemical transformation of TCE cannot be excluded, although no transformation products have been found in a small portion of the plume. Currently no remediation of the contaminated site is planned. An approach for managing the contamination is presented and important issues for future remediation options for TCE contaminated sites in Perth are discussed.


Background: Syria has suffered for nine years from a conflict that left over 11.1 million inhabitants in need of humanitarian assistance and over 80% in poverty. A ten-week-long full lockdown was enforced in Syria and successfully minimized the spread of COVID-19. This study aims to estimate the occurrence of mental health disorders after lockdown termination among the citizens of war-torn Syria. Methods: Online questionnaires, which included demographic and war-related questions, Dimensions of Anger Reactions 5 (DAR-5) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were distributed to different social media groups. Results: This study recruited 1445 participants, of which 515 (35.6%) were males, the mean age was 24.8 ± 6.3 years, 38% had problematic anger, 64% had moderate to very severe depression, 42.9% had moderate to severe anxiety and 39.7% had moderate to severe stress. Increased living expenses, not being able to go out and a reduced ability to earn income and provide food were significantly associated with the psychological burden after the lockdown (p < 0.05). The association of war variables with mental disorders was weaker than the effect of the deteriorating economy. Other healthcare workers had more severe distress than doctors, who themselves were found to have less distress than the general population (p < 0.05). Anger scores were approximately equal, regardless of the type of work. Finally, shisha smoking was associated with worse mental health (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The psychological burden of the damaged economy surpassed the direct damage due to COVID-19 and the effect of years of conflict. Urgent interventions are required, as this burden may continue for years, if not for decades. A full lockdown in countries with fragile economies may delay the spread of the virus, but it will severely damage the economy, which will lead to a deterioration of the mental health of their citizens.


Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol states that Parties included in Annex I shall use net changes in greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals by sinks resulting from direct human-induced land-use change and forestry (LUCF) activities since 1990 to meet their their emission reduction commitments. However, even with clear guidelines on how to calculate LUCF emissions and removals, considerable problems remain. Our paper addresses a number of relevant issues by summarizing the knowledge gained from assessing and quantifying sources and sinks of carbon compounds relevant to Austria on the basis of an interated operational model framework, the \f2Austrian Carbon Balance Model\f1 (ACBM). The ACBM covers Austria's biosphere and technosphere and at present permits project researchers to run a Reference Scenario for 1990-2050. We attempt to generalize our experience and also to compare our model results regarding Austria's net atmospheric carbon contribution on the basis of uncertainties underlying these results. This permits us (1) to identify several high-priority research issues that will enable Austria to cope adequately with its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol; and (2) to draw general conclusions that may provide support to the Conference of the Parties as it decides upon modalities, rules and guidelines in accounting for LUCF emissions and removals.


PURPOSE
To evaluate and compare the visual and clinical outcomes of wavefront-guided laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) with the Alcon CustomCornea (Alcon Laboratories Inc, Fort Worth, Tex) and VISX CustomVue (VISX, Santa Clara, Calif) systems.

METHODS
Ninety-three eyes of 56 patients (50 and 43 consecutive eyes on CustomCornea and CustomVue, respectively) were enrolled in a prospective multisurgeon clinical outcome study. Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), and manifest refraction were measured at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively. Early treatment diabetic retinopathy study (ETDRS) visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were measured at 1 month and 3 months, and wavefront mapping at 3 months.

RESULTS
Preoperatively, the CustomCornea group had a mean sphere of -3.90 +/- 1.62 diopters (D) (range -0.50 to -7.25 D), mean cylinder of +0.62 +/- 0.39 D (range 0 to +1.50 D), and mean manifest spherical equivalent refraction of -3.59 +/- 1.54 D. The CustomVue group had a sphere of -3.87 +/- 1.45 D (range -1.75 to -6.75 D), cylinder of +0.49 +/- 0.36 D (range 0 to +1.50 D), and manifest spherical equivalent refraction of -3.62 +/- 1.46 D. At 3 months, 98% of the CustomCornea group and 95% of the CustomVue group were within +/-0.50 D. Ninety-nine percent of eyes did not change >0.50 D (manifest spherical equivalent refraction) between 1 month and 3 months. CustomCornea eyes improved on contrast sensitivity testing and had a better profile than CustomVue for 20/15 Snellen and 20/12.5 ETDRS acuity. Both laser groups had a decrease in higher order aberrations with statistical significance for coma and spherical aberration in the CustomCornea group.

CONCLUSION
Wavefront-guided LASIK with both systems is safe and effective.


"Animal Advocacy and Englishwomen, 1780-1900" focuses on women writers and their struggle to protect animals from abuse in the transition from preindustrial to Victorian society. Looking critically at the work of Sarah Trimmer, Susanna Watts, Elizabeth Heyrick, Anna Sewell, and Frances Power Cobb, Moira Ferguson explores the links between Britain's evolving self-definition and the debate over the humane treatment of animals. Ferguson contends that animal-advocacy writing during this period provided a means for women to register their moral outrage over national problems extending far beyond those of animal abuse, effectively allowing them to achieve a public voice as citizens.The writers in question represent multiple genres, time frames, and political approaches. Taken together, their productive lives span more than a century. They are ideologically divided on animal protection, and their political identities range from conservative Anglican Tories to radical reformers. Through their plural discourses on animal advocacy, these women actively participated in an ongoing humanitarian struggle that forged a connection between Englishness and kindness to animals, intensifying as industry and empire advanced, and effectively linked gender with national identity and self-definition. Their concerns resonate in a global as well as a national context; cruelty to animals emerges as a metaphor for imperial predation. In this sense, the writings constitute a gendered response to an evolving colonial discourse about others.Moira Ferguson is James E. Ryan Professor of English and Women's Literature, University of Nebraska. Her books include "Subject to Others: Colonial Slavery, 1670-1834; Colonialism and Gender: Relations from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jamaica Kincaid; East Caribbean Connections"; and "The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself."


We propose image processing algorithms for measuring two-dimensional distributions of linear birefringence using a pair of variable retarders. Several algorithms that use between two and five recorded frames allow us to optimize measurements for speed, sensitivity, and accuracy. We show images of asters, which consist of radial arrays of microtubule polymers recorded with a polarized light microscope equipped with a universal compensator. Our experimental results confirm our theoretical expectations. The lowest noise level of 0.036 nm was obtained when we used the five-frame technique and four-frame algorithm without extinction setting. The two-frame technique allows us to increase the speed of measurement with acceptable image quality.


Due to the broad range of applications of reinforcement learning (RL), understanding the effects of adversarial attacks against RL model is essential for the safe applications of this model. Prior theoretical works on adversarial attacks against RL mainly focus on either observation poisoning attacks or environment poisoning attacks. In this paper, we introduce a new class of attacks named action poisoning attacks, where an adversary can change the action signal selected by the agent. Compared with existing attack models, the attacker's ability in the proposed action poisoning attack model is more restricted, which brings some design challenges. We study the action poisoning attack in both white-box and black-box settings. We introduce an adaptive attack scheme called LCB-H, which works for most RL agents in the black-box setting. We prove that the LCB-H attack can force any efficient RL agent, whose dynamic regret scales sublinearly with the total number of steps taken, to choose actions according to a policy selected by the attacker very frequently, with only sublinear cost. In addition, we apply LCB-H attack against a popular model-free RL algorithm: UCB-H. We show that, even in the black-box setting, by spending only logarithm cost, the proposed LCB-H attack scheme can force the UCB-H agent to choose actions according to the policy selected by the attacker very frequently.


Background The fact that there is a high association between personality disorders (PDs) and somatization disorder (SD) is widely accepted, to the extent that many expert clinicians find themselves compelled to manage personality traits in patients with SD to obtain good treatment outcomes. This study was conducted to identify the distribution of all Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., text revision (DSM-IV-TR) PDs among patients with SD who were referred from primary care settings. Patients and methods This case–control study was conducted from September 2014 to April 2015 and was approved by the Ethics Committee at Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital, in Almadina Almonawara, KSA. Demographic data including sex, age, marital status, and education level of the cases and controls were collected. SD was diagnosed according to the DSM-IV-TR, whereas PDs were measured using the Diagnostic Checklist for Personality Disorders. Results The ages of cases ranged from 32 to 50 years (mean: 39.21±6.45 years); 55.8% of the group was male and 67.3% was married; 924.2% of the participants were educated. There was no significant difference in sociodemographic characteristics. The incidence of PDs in SD patients was 63.3%, compared with 10% in controls [odds ratio (OR)=18.5294; 95% confidence interval (95% CI)=5.6686–60.5687]. The highest OR for PDs in patients with SD, compared with that in controls, was for paranoid personality (OR=18.2063; 95% CI=4.9595–66.8357), followed by obsessive personality (OR=16.5000; 95% CI=5.8373–46.6399), and histrionic personality (OR=9.0444; 95% CI=2.4677–33.1489). Conclusion PDs in Saudi SD patients is very high. The results were comparable to that found in British and American studies, supporting the theory of Lillienfield that SD should be grouped under Axis II disorders of the DSM system and not under Axis I. Paranoid, obsessive, and histrionic personalities were the most common PD subtypes in SD patients as regards ORs.


Utilizing a terphenyl bisanilide ligand, two Dy(III) compounds [K(DME)n][LArDy(X)2] (LAr = {C6H4[(2,6-iPrC6H3)NC6H4]2}2−), X = Cl (1) and X = I (2) were synthesized. The ligand imposes an unusual see-saw shaped molecular geometry leading to a coordinatively unsaturated metal complex with near-linear N–Dy–N (avg. 159.9° for 1 and avg. 160.4° for 2) angles. These compounds exhibit single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior with significant uniaxial magnetic anisotropy as a result of the transverse coordination of the bisanilide ligand which yields high energy barriers to magnetic spin reversal of Ueff = 1334 K/927 cm−1 (1) and 1278 K/888 cm−1 (2) in zero field. Ab initio calculations reveal that the dominant crystal field of the bisanilide ligand controls the orientation of the main magnetic axis which runs nearly parallel to the N–Dy–N bonds, despite the identity of the halide ligand. Analysis of the relaxation dynamics reveals a ca. 14-fold decrease in the rate of quantum tunneling of the magnetisation when X = I (2). Most notably, the relaxation times were on average 5.6× longer at zero field when the heavier group 17 congener was employed. However, no direct evidence of a heavy atom effect on the Orbach relaxation was obtained as the height of the barrier is defined by the dominant bisanilide ligand.


This article looks at the treatment of languages in the communities in Spanish territory, which apart from Spanish have another language. At the beginning we discuss some questions which are relative to social cohesion in those territories where more than one language is spoken and we defend bilingual education as a good instrument in favour of it. At the same time we look at the concept of bilingual education and the assumptions that it bears in respect of the learning of languages. In this sense we discuss the conditions of acquisition of language and its appearance in the area of bilingual education


Land degradation affects negatively the livelihoods and food security of global population. There have been recurring efforts by the international community to identify the global extent and severity of land degradation. Using the long-term trend of biomass productivity as a proxy of land degradation at global scale, we identify the degradation hotspots in the world across major land cover types. We correct factors confounding the relationship between the remotely sensed vegetation index and land-based biomass productivity, including the effects of inter-annual rainfall variation, atmospheric fertilization and intensive use of chemical fertilizers. Our findings show that land degradation hotpots cover about 29 % of global land area and are happening in all agro-ecologies and land cover types. This figure does not include all areas of degraded lands, it refers to areas where land degradation is most acute and requires priority actions in both in-depth research and management measures to combat land degradation. About 3.2 billion people reside in these degrading areas. However, the number of people affected by land degradation is likely to be higher as more people depend on the continuous flow of ecosystem goods and services from these affected areas. Land improvement has occurred in about 2.7 % of global land area during the last three decades, suggesting that with appropriate actions land degradation trend could be reversed. We also identify concrete aspects in which these results should be interpreted with cautions, the limitations of this work and the key areas for future research.


BACKGROUND
Many subjects with depression and with brain lesions can poorly control their emotions with fits of weeping and tearfulness; neurological patients present outbursts of laughter as well. This condition is called Emotional Lability (EL). The antidepressant drugs of the family of selective serotonine reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) improve EL within a few days in both depressive and neurological disorders. EL can be present in healthy subjects as well, in whom it is considered as normal, although often embarrassing.

METHODS
Two healthy subjects with EL, were treated with 20 mgs of Paroxetine or placebo for cycles of 5 days. Moreover the effect was observed of either Paroxetine or Fluoxetine on the emotion control of three patients with mood disorders both when they were depressed and after recovering from the depression.

RESULTS
In all subjects, after few days of treatment, EL disappeared, and their emotion control and behaviour were both modified.

CONCLUSIONS
(1) In healthy subjects EL is often embarrassing; the possibility is interesting of preventing it on selected occasions with a brief treatment with no side effects and a cheap cost. (2) SSRI are among the most used drugs in the word and every day they are assumed by millions of people including politicians, business man, soldiers, army commanders, policemen and criminals. The idea is very stimulating and highly worrying that the control of the emotions and behaviour of these million of people can be quickly modified by the assumption of one pill of SSRI for a few days or by its discontinuation.


Structural arcs are very common at the front of mountain belts. The complexity of their internal structures, typically non-cylindrical, is mainly due to the presence of tectonic elements (lateral ramps, strike-slip faults) oblique to the main trend of the belt. In this paper we analyse subsurface data in order to give a quantitative description of a lateral ramp affecting the Northern Apennine front inside the arcuate Emilian folds. A structural contour map of the basal thrust separating the uppermost Apennine tectonic units from the lower ones, and two regional cross-sections, were used to describe and date the interaction of tectonic and sedimentary events that led to the building of the chain. Starting from the Messinian, a deep-seated thrust was responsible for the external buried structures. The tectono-sedimentary activity in the Po Plain subsurface has been going on till the beginning of Quaternary.


Choosing an easy life as an anaesthetist over the cut and thrust of art college, Steve Yentis has been drawing medical cartoons, whilst waiting for surgeons to turn up or his regional blocks to work, for the last 20 years. This collection of drawings represents a wry look at life in the operating theatre, wards and clinic, as seen from the Head End, which is, of course, by far the more important end. Appealing to anyone who has ever worked in a hospital, this book will help pass the time during those long periods of inactivity between audit meetings. Exam candidates in particular will find it contributes absolutely nothing to their chances of success.


We have designed an aberroscope that differs from Tscherning's classical instrument in that it makes use of an artificial astigmatism rather than an artificial myopia to defocus the image of a point source of light. A subject views the source through a ±5 D crossed cylinder lens with axes at 45° to the principal axes of an intercalated grid and sees a shadow image of the grid. The distortions of this grid image are quantitatively related to the wave aberration of the eye. Using this device we have obtained drawings for more than 50 subjects. These drawings of the grid pattern have been analyzed by means of a two-dimensional polynomial curve Fitting technique that computes Taylor polynomial terms to the fourth order. From the Taylor coefficients it is possible to reconstruct the wave aberration surface. Examination of the Taylor terms so obtained shows that the monochromatic aberrations of the eye are dominated by third-order Taylor terms within the range of physiological pupil sizes, and that spherical aberration frequently appears predominantly about one axis only, a condition that we have termed "cylindrical" aberration. We have computed the optical MTF of our subjects' eyes and find that the role of aberrations in degrading the MTF may be greater than generally believed.


The purpose of this paper is to estimate a model that incorporates the effects of financial decisions on production, profitability, and productivity growth. Asymmetric information generates agency costs of debt and signaling benefits of dividends which then influence production decisions. The model is applied to the U.S. manufacturing sector. Agency costs and signaling benefits are measured by their effects on profitability. A one percent increase in debt reduces variable profit by 0.04 percent, while a one percent increase in dividends raises variable profit by 0.12 percent. Agency costs also limit the adjustment of U.S. manufacturing to long-run equilibrium. On average, for $1.00 of funds raised through bond issues, debt adjustment cost is about $0.05. The dynamic efficiency of the manufacturing sector is affected by financial considerations. Signaling benefits contribute 4.2 percent to total factor productivity growth, while agency costs reduce efficiency by 3.3 percent. Thus the financial effects on dynamic efficiency approximately offset each other.


Attentional focusing instructions (either internally or externally focused) can have a significant influence on the muscular activity during exercise type movements (e.g., (Vance, et al., 2004; Marchant, et al., 2008). Specifically, externally focused instructions (direct attention towards the movements being carried out and the object through which force is being exerted) result in lower EMG values when compared to internally focused instructions (directing attention to the movements of the limb involved in the movement). Recently (Marchant, et al., in press), externally focused instructions resulted in increased force production during elbow flexions when compared to internally focused instructions. The present research further addresses the nature of these force production characteristics during instructed exercise movements.
Methods
15 healthy participants completed 10 isokinetic knee extension repetitions on a Biodex System 3 dynamometer under two counterbalanced conditions: production of maximal force using verbal internally (focusing attention onto the movements of the leg) and externally (focusing attention onto exerting force through the leg pad) focused instructions. Measures were the integral of the torque-time curve (iT), force variability (fV – SD in iT) and a fatigue index (FI - % decline in iT). A 2 (Attentional Focus Type) X 8 (Repetition) Repeated Measures ANOVA analysed differences in iT. Paired samples t-tests were used to assess differences in fV and FI.
Results
iT was significantly (p < 0.05) greater when external focus was adopted (126.88, SE = 8.59 N m) compared to an internal focus (119.20, SE = 9.67 N m). An external focus was also associated with significantly (p < 0.05) greater fV (10.17 N m) compared to an internal focus (8.00 N m), but there were no differences in observed fatigue over the course of repetitions in either internal (88.72%) or external (85.55%) focus condition.
Discussion/Conclusion
Supporting recent previous research, an external focus of attention increased force production in an exercise task when compared to an internal focus. Attentional focus did not influence fatigue characteristics effects over the course of this exercise, but requires further research. These findings have significant implications for the instruction of exercise and rehabilitation exercises.


Industry and academia are continuously becoming more data-driven and data-intensive, relying on the analysis of a wide variety of datasets to gain insights. At the same time, data variety increases continuously across multiple axes. First, data comes in multiple formats, such as the binary tabular data of a DBMS, raw textual files, and domain-specific formats. Second, different datasets follow different data models, such as the relational and the hierarchical one. Data location also varies: Some datasets reside in a central "data lake", whereas others lie in remote data sources. In addition, users execute widely different analysis tasks over all these data types. Finally, the process of gathering and integrating diverse datasets introduces several inconsistencies and redundancies in the data, such as duplicate entries for the same real-world concept. In summary, heterogeneity significantly affects the way data analysis is performed. In this thesis, we aim for data virtualization: Abstracting data out of its original form and manipulating it regardless of the way it is stored or structured, without a performance penalty. To achieve data virtualization, we design and implement systems that i) mask heterogeneity through the use of heterogeneity-aware, high-level building blocks and ii) offer fast responses through on-demand adaptation techniques. Regarding the high-level building blocks, we use a query language and algebra to handle multiple collection types, such as relations and hierarchies, express transformations between these collection types, as well as express complex data cleaning tasks over them. In addition, we design a location-aware compiler and optimizer that masks away the complexity of accessing multiple remote data sources. Regarding on-demand adaptation, we present a design to produce a new system per query. The design uses customization mechanisms that trigger runtime code generation to mimic the system most appropriate to answer a query fast: Query operators are thus created based on the query workload and the underlying data models; the data access layer is created based on the underlying data formats. In addition, we exploit emerging hardware by customizing the system implementation based on the available heterogeneous processors – CPUs and GPGPUs. We thus pair each workload with its ideal processor type. The end result is a just-in-time database system that is specific to the query, data, workload, and hardware instance. This thesis redesigns the data management stack to natively cater for data heterogeneity and exploit hardware heterogeneity. Instead of centralizing all relevant datasets, converting them to a single representation, and loading them in a monolithic, static, suboptimal system, our design embraces heterogeneity. Overall, our design decouples the type of performed analysis from the original data layout; users can perform their analysis across data stores, data models, and data formats, but at the same time experience the performance offered by a custom system that has been built on demand to serve their specific use case.


Retinoids, including retinol and retinoic acid derivatives, maintain the normal growth and differentiation of human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells and are under investigation as agents for lung cancer prevention. In this study, we examined the biologic effects of retinoids on normal HBE cells and the molecular mechanisms of retinoid actions. At a dose of 10(-6) M, all-trans retinoic acid (t-RA) suppressed the proliferation of normal HBE cells, which accumulated in the G0 phase. No evidence of programmed cell death was observed. The class of retinoid nuclear receptor that mediated the growth arrest was explored. Normal HBE cell growth was suppressed by a retinoid that selectively activates retinoic acid receptors but not by one that activates retinoid X receptors. The E2F transcription factor has demonstrated a role in G0 entry through transcriptional suppression of genes that induce cell cycle progression. To investigate the role of E2F in retinoid signaling, transient transfection assays were performed using reporter plasmids containing E2F-binding sites. Findings from these experiments suggested that t-RA treatment converted E2F into a transcriptional suppressor. Supporting this possibility, t-RA inhibited the expression of the E2F target genes B-myb, cyclin A, and cyclin E. Further, t-RA increased the levels of nuclear E2F-4, p107, and p130 and enhanced the binding of E2F-4 to p107, which have been associated with the conversion of E2F into a transcriptional suppressor in other cells. These findings point to retinoic acid receptor- and E2F-dependent pathways as potential mediators of retinoid-induced growth arrest in normal HBE cells and have implications for the use of retinoids in clinical trials on the prevention of lung cancer.


The concept of ethnic monitoring has evolved over time as a consequence of growing concern around variations in health status and health service utilisation between the different ethnic groups in Britain. Unfortunately, the 1990 proposal of the Department of Health that patients' ethnicity be stated in GP referral letters from 1992 was not implemented. Ethnic monitoring in hospitals was introduced from April 1995 but has not been satisfactorily achieved. This study tested the feasibility of collecting data on patients' ethnicity in general practice and its inclusion in GP referral letters. It also assessed the acceptability of ethnic monitoring in primary care.


Ecological networks, both displaying mutualistic or antagonistic interactions, seem to share common structural traits: the presence of nestedness and modularity. A variety of model approaches and hypothesis have been formulated concerning the significance and implications of these properties. In phage-bacteria bipartite infection networks, nestedness seems to be the rule in many different contexts. Modeling the coevolution of a diverse virus-host ensemble is a difficult task, given the dimensionality and multi parametric nature of a standard continuous approximation. Here we show that this can actually be overcome by using a simple model of coevolving digital genomes on a spatial lattice and having exactly the same properties, i.e. a genome-independent fitness associated to fixed growth and death parameters. A matching allele model of phage-virus recognition rule is enough to generate a complex, diverse ecosystem with heterogeneous patterns of interaction and nestedness, provided that interactions take place under a spatially-constrained setting. It is found that nestedness seems to be an emergent property of the coevolutionary dynamics. Our results indicate that the enhanced diversity resulting from localized interactions strongly promotes the presence of nested infection matrices.


The Internet has democratized access to information but in so doing has opened the floodgates to misinformation, fake news, and rank propaganda masquerading as dispassionate analysis. To investigate how people determine the credibility of digital information, we sampled 45 individuals: 10 Ph.D. historians, 10 professional fact checkers, and 25 Stanford University undergraduates. We observed them as they evaluated live websites and searched for information on social and political issues. Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names. They read vertically, staying within a website to evaluate its reliability. In contrast, fact checkers read laterally, leaving a site after a quick scan and opening up new browser tabs in order to judge the credibility of the original site. Compared to the other groups, fact checkers arrived at more warranted conclusions in a fraction of the time. We contrast insights gleaned from the fact checkers' practices with common approaches to teaching web credibility.


Event-driven DSPs have the advantage of activity-dependent power consumption [1], and event-driven neural networks have shown superior power efficiency in real-time recognition tasks [2]. A bio-inspired silicon cochlea [3] functionally transforms sound input into multi-frequency-channel asynchronous event output, and hence is the natural candidate for the audio sensing frontend of event-driven signal processing systems like [1] and [2]. High-quality event encoding can be implemented as level-crossing (LC) ADCs, but the circuits are area- and power-inefficient [1]. Asynchronous delta modulation, the original form of LC sampling, on the other hand can be compactly realized even in small pixels of vision sensors [4]. Traditional audio processing employs digital FFTs and BPFs after signal acquisition by high-precision ADCs. However, it has been shown in [5] that for classification tasks like voice activity detection (VAD), good accuracy can still be attained when filtering is performed using low-power analog BPFs. This paper presents a 0.5V 55μW 64×2-channel binaural silicon cochlea aiming for ultra-low-power IoE applications like event-driven VAD, sound source localization, speaker identification and primitive speech recognition. The source-follower-based BPF and the asynchronous delta modulator (ADM) with adaptive self-oscillating comparison for event encoding are highlighted for the advancement of the system power efficiency.


We present a search for gravitational waves from 222 pulsars with rotation frequencies $\gtrsim 10$ Hz. We use advanced LIGO data from its first and second observing runs spanning 2015-2017, which provides the highest sensitivity gravitational-wave data so far obtained. In this search we target emission from both the $l = m = 2$ mass quadrupole mode, with a frequency at twice that of the pulsar's rotation, and from the $l = 2$, $m = 1$ mode, with a frequency at the pulsar rotation frequency. The search finds no evidence for gravitational-wave emission from any pulsar at either frequency. For the $l = m = 2$ mode search, we provide updated upper limits on the gravitational-wave amplitude, mass quadrupole moment, and fiducial ellipticity for 167 pulsars, and the first such limits for a further 55. For 20 young pulsars these results give limits that surpass those inferred from the pulsars' spin-down. For the Crab and Vela pulsars our results constrain gravitational-wave emission to account for less than 0.017% and 0.18% of the spin-down luminosity, respectively. For the recycled millisecond pulsar J0711-6830 our limits are only a factor of 1.3 above the spin-down limit, assuming the canonical value of $10^{38}$ kg m$^2$ for the star's moment of inertia, and imply a gravitational-wave derived upper limit on the star's ellipticity of $1.2\!\times\!10^{-8}$. We also place new limits on the emission amplitude at the rotation frequency of the pulsars.


We present results of realistic three-dimensional (3D) radiative hydrodynamic simulations of the outer layers of a moderate-mass star (1.47 M⊙), including the full convection zone, the overshoot region, and the top layers of the radiative zone. The simulation results show that the surface granulation has a broad range of scales, from 2 to 12 Mm, and that large granules are organized in well-defined clusters, consisting of several granules. Comparison of the mean structure profiles from 3D simulations with the corresponding one-dimensional (1D) standard stellar model shows an increase of the stellar radius by ∼800 km, as well as significant changes in the thermodynamic structure and turbulent properties of the ionization zones. Convective downdrafts in the intergranular lanes between granulation clusters reach speeds of more than 20 km s−1, penetrate through the whole convection zone, hit the radiative zone, and form an 8 Mm thick overshoot layer. Contrary to semi-empirical overshooting models, our results show that the 3D dynamic overshoot region consists of two layers: a nearly adiabatic extension of the convection zone and a deeper layer of enhanced subadiabatic stratification. This layer is formed because of heating caused by the braking of the overshooting convective plumes. This effect has to be taken into account in stellar modeling and the interpretation of asteroseismology data. In particular, we demonstrate that the deviations of the mean structure of the 3D model from the 1D standard model of the same mass and composition are qualitatively similar to the deviations for the Sun found by helioseismology.


A premise of much teacher research is that reflection on practice can lead to a development of that practice. Such reflection, it is purported, enables the practitioner in organising the complexity of the teaching situation, with a particular emphasis on how 'monitoring of change' can be converted to 'control of change'. This book questions the notion of construing developing practice as 'aiming for an ideal' and suggests that such a pursuit has a questionable track record. The very desire for control, and the difficulties encountered in trying to document it can cloud our vision from the very complexities we seek to capture. The book offers detailed discussion of teacher research enquiries carried out in the context of masters and doctoral degrees. It focuses in particular on how the reflective writing generated by the teacher might build towards an assertion of professional identity through which professional demands are mediated.


Research findings have been contradictory with respect to the determinants of why people choose a public sector job. In this article we use an internationally comparative design with data from 26 countries to explain public sector employment preference. The study shows that on the individual level, public service motivation and extrinsic motivation are both important drivers for this preference. Intrinsic motivation, in turn, is negatively related to people's inclination to work for the public sector. Moreover, having a lower income and lower education is associated with a greater preference for public sector employment. This suggests that working for the public sector is seen as a good and safe career option. Our results furthermore show that variation in this preference can only partly be explained by country differences. Nevertheless, in countries with a career- rather than position-based system of public employment, people are more likely to prefer public employment. Points for practitioners Attracting the best and brightest to work for the public sector requires an insight into why people prefer public over private sector employment. This article looks at what makes people prefer public sector employment in 26 countries. Findings reveal that public service motivation (helping other people, being useful to society) and extrinsic motives (job security, a high income, opportunities for advancement) play an important role in this preference. Still, there are considerable differences between countries. In countries with a career-based system of public employment, working in the public sector is seen as more attractive.


This article presents the findings from a narrative study that examined the leadership development and pathways of nine prominent Hmong American women leaders from Minnesota and California. Each of these women was able to break through the cultural and gender glass ceiling to become positional and influential leaders in mainstream American society. The study focused on the factors that contributed to the participants' leadership development; strategies used in attaining and maintaining leadership roles; and barriers each participant encountered on her path to becoming a leader. Important findings included the impact of poverty, the prominent role of education, inner strength the women possessed, importance of networking and support systems, and strong role models. Other factors included familial responsibilities, gender disparities, racism and ageism. The conceptual frameworks of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule (1986), and Alon and Higgins (2005), were utilized to guide the analysis and presentation of each participant's life journey, and show the intersections between culture and feminist epistemology. The narrative case study approach included in-depth interviews, collective story mapping and re-narration techniques to explore the lives of these women leaders. One overarching goal of the study and this article is to create a greater understanding of complex issues and impediments associated with leadership development, with the hope of beginning a dialog that will help facilitate policy changes regarding developing and supporting minority women in leadership roles.


The composition and surface properties of tooling materials become more critical as the size of the molded features decreases [1, 2]. This work investigates the effect of tooling surfaces with micro and nanoscale features. These tooling surfaces were employed as inserts for micro injection molding. Insert materials included etched and coated silicon wafers with pattern depths of 600 nm and minimum features of 200 nm. Electroformed nickel-based digital versatile disk (DVD) masters were employed as a control because this tooling currently can reproduce features that are 140 nm in depth. The micro and nano-featured parts were molded with high flow polycarbonate over a range of processing conditions. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to characterize the surface topography of molded samples. The goal of this study was to explore the effect of different tooling materials on molded plastic parts with nanoscale features in terms of replication quality and durability of mold surface.


OBJECTIVE
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most frequent cause of mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC), which is characterized by endothelial deposition of rheumatoid factor (RF)-containing immune complexes and end-organ vasculitis. MC is a lymphoproliferative disorder in which B cells express RF-like Ig, yet its precise antigenic stimulus is unknown. We have proposed that IgG-HCV immune complexes stimulate B cell expansion and somatic hypermutation (SHM)-induced affinity maturation in part via engagement of an RF-like B cell receptor. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that SHM augments RF activity.

METHODS
RFs cloned from single B cells from 4 patients with HCV-associated MC (HCV-MC) were expressed as IgM, IgG, or IgG Fab. Selected Ig were reverted to germline. RF activity of somatically mutated Ig and germline-reverted Ig was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS
Ig with SHM had RF activity, with the preference for binding being highest for IgG1, followed by IgG2 and IgG4, and lowest for IgG3, where there was no detectable binding. In contrast, reverted germline IgG exhibited markedly diminished RF activity. Competition with 1 μg/ml of protein A abrogated RF activity, suggesting specificity for IgG Fc. Swapping of mutated heavy-chain pairs and light-chain pairs also abrogated RF activity, suggesting that context-specific pairing of appropriate IgH and Igκ, in addition to SHM, is necessary for RF activity.

CONCLUSION
SHM significantly contributes to RF activity in HCV-MC patients, suggesting that autoreactivity in these patients arises through antigen-dependent SHM, as opposed to nondeletion of autoreactive germline Ig.


In this article we analyze two kinds of metaheuristic algorithms and random search algorithm applied to distribution of wind turbines in a wind farm . The basic idea is to utilize CHC (a sort of GA) and Simulated Annealing algorithms to obtain an acceptable configuration of wind turbines in the wind farm that maximizes the total output energy and minimize the number of wind turbines used. The energy produced depends of the farm geometry, wind conditions and the terrain where it is settled. In this work, the terrain is irregular and we will analyze two study farm scenarios with a real wind distribution of Comodoro Rivadavia city in Argentina and we will apply both algorithms to analyze the performance of the algorithms and the behavior of the computed wind farm designs.


In this essay, Hope and Witmore explore the linguistic matrix of Shakespeare's dramatic genres by using multivariate statistics and a text-tagging device known as DocuScope, a hand-curated corpus of several million English words (and strings of words) that has been sorted into grammatical, semantic, and rhetorical categories. Starting with Heminges and Condell's designations of the Folio plays as comedies, histories, and tragedies, the authors offer a portrait of Shakespearean genre at the sentence level, showing how identifying frequently iterated word combinations (in either their presence or absence) allows new ways to study the integrity and fluidity of Shakespeare's genres. Calling this approach "iterative criticism," they situate their critical practice within both Shakespearean criticism and humanities-centered protocols of reading, concluding with a genre map of Shakespeare's plays compared to nearly three hundred other early modern dramas. Hope and Witmore do not seek to replace subjective, humanistic reading with something more "objective." Rather, they use digital, iterative methods in order to be "consistently subjective"—to extend interpretative strategies across quantities of texts and frequencies of feature that could otherwise not be accommodated.


The fact that the world is losing its biodiversity due to human activities, particularly around the tropical forest region, has been widely known. One of the biggest threats to biodiversity is the edge effects, especially in isolated and fragmented habitats. Thus, to investigate the edge effects on the community of understorey birds, an isolated tropical rain forest of Malaysia was chosen. The objectives of this study were: (1) to examine the species composition, richness, abundance, and density changes across edge-interior gradient; (2) to detect any distinct bird communities associated with certain habitat types and the factors affecting the association (3) to distinguish the interior and edge specialist species and guilds. The point-count sampling method was used in a 1248-ha lowland rain forest patch of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve to carry out a survey on the individual understorey bird and species, at each of the 93 survey points, between December 2006 and July 2008 Birds and environmental variables were recorded within a 25 m radius of each point. A total of 2263 observations, 72 species, representing 19 families were recorded in this study. The species composition, density, abundance, and diversity of birds showed some significant differences across the edge-interior gradient at the guild and species levels. Based on the bird-habitat association, along the edge-interior gradient, two groups were distinguished. These were the edge-specialist group which was positively correlated with ground cover, light intensity, shrub cover, temperature, and percentage of shrub cover between 0.5 and 2 m in height; meanwhile the interior-specialist group was highly sensitive to the forest edge and could indicate good habitat quality of forest interior with high humidity, dense canopy cover, high number of dead trees, high percentage of litter cover, and deep litter layer. At the guild level, the results showed that the terrestrial insectivores and sallying insectivores are sensitive to edge and have positive correlation with distance from the edge, leaf litter depth, canopy cover, and the number of tall trees (>10 m). The presence of some species such as the Yellow-vented Bulbul, Cream-vented Bulbul, and Plaintive Cuckoo was associated with high light intensity and shrub cover, which are the best indicators of the edge. Meanwhile, the presence of Short-tailed Babbler, Moustached Babbler, and Black-caped Babbler was associated with high relative humidity and leaf litter cover, which are the best indicators of forest interior.
Changes in the micro-environment at the edge are a key factor to indicate the understorey avian responses to the edge-interior gradient. As edge specialists can be widely found in the matrix surrounding the patch, they require less conservation against being declined or endangered; i.e. they can be well managed in the matrix surrounding the forest patches. Interior-specialists, on the other hand, especially terrestrial insectivores, should be given the most attention in conservation of forest areas. From the conservation viewpoint, the forest remnants in the lowlands of Peninsular Malaysia are of considerable concern. Due to the characteristics including thick leaf litter layer, dense canopy cover, high number of dead trees, and high relative humidity, these remnants have the capability of supporting the understorey bird species sensitive to edge effects.


Based on analyses of new DNA sequence data for two nuclear ( rag1, cmos ) and three mitochondrial ( 16s, cytb, nd4 ) genes, the Indian snake genus Rhabdops is a natricine. Variation in geography, DNA sequences, the number of ventral scales, pattern and colour for samples of Rhabdops from along the Western Ghats region of peninsular India is concordant, discontinuous and bimodal. We recognise populations from the northern Western Ghats as distinct specifically from the more southerly R. olivaceus and describe Rhabdops aquaticus sp. nov. based on a series of eight specimens from two localities in the Northern Western Ghats. Rhabdops aquaticus sp. nov. is associated particularly with upland laterite plateaus and their associated streams, a threatened habitat within its known distribution.


Abstract The quality of the foveal cone mosaic in human and primate retinas is a basic parameter of spatial vision function. The present study uses digital-texture analysis procedures to analyze the crystalline order of inner segment sections containing the rod-free portions of foveal cone mosaics. Definition of the cone cross-sectional centers made possible by adequate preprocessing allows precise mapping of lattice vertices and differentiation of hexagonal positions by procedures for direct neighbor recongnition. In a further step, the existence of subunits within the hexagonal areas is revealed by the determination of axial orientation. The lattice of the subunits is characterized by similar orientation and high positional correlation of its hexagonal units. The axial orientation of the areas differs from that of neighboring subunits by angular shifts of 10–15 deg and linear series of nonhexagonal irregularities demarcate the borders. Although larger patches with continuous hexagonal order occur in the surrounding rod-free regions, elevated degrees of disorder (30%) are found within the foveolar center (ca. 300 cones). Analysis of a mosaic showing labeled B cones (Szél et al., 1988) demonstrates that lattice disorder is in part associated with the blue cone subpopulation. The foveal mosaic from a glaucomatuous eye reveals severe lattice degradation throughout the rod-free zone, presumably due to extensive receptor loss. The low-frequency superstructure results in local sets of sampling grids (5'–8') with differing orientational bias. Besides a horizontal/vertical difference of mosaic compression (ca. 1:1.15), the present analysis gives no hints for the existence of systematic meridional anisotropies at the receptor mosaic level. The study reveals a discontinuous organization of the foveal mosaic and points to possible sources for the induction and location of lattice disorder.


As e-commerce has evolved into its second generation, where the available products are becoming more complex and their abundance is almost unlimited, the task of locating a desired choice has become too difficult for the average user. Therefore, more effort has been made in recent years to develop recommender systems that recommend products or services to users so as to assist in their decision-making process. In this article, we describe crucial experimental results about a novel recommender technology, called the preference-based organization (Pref-ORG), which generates critique suggestions in addition to recommendations according to users' preferences. The critique is a form of feedback ("I would like something cheaper than this one") that users can provide to the currently displayed product, with which the system may better predict what the user truly wants. We compare the preference-based organization technique with related approaches, including the ones that also produce critique candidates, but without the consideration of user preferences. A simulation setup is first presented, that identified Pref-ORG's significantly higher algorithm accuracy in predicting critiques and choices that users should intend to make, followed by a real-user evaluation which practically verified its significant impact on saving users' decision effort.


Research in construction material by exploiting styrofoam as lightweight concrete, gives result that a construction material will have a lighter weight if it is mixed with styrofoam, and achieve a lower strength. This research were try to improve the strength of styrofoam concrete block composite by giving cement mortar mixture as an outer layer. The specimen of concrete block composite will be made with concrete method of preplaced concrete, where initially by putting down the concrete block composite with styrofoam into a mold according to various thickness of outer layer required, and mortar mixture as outer layer around it. It was found that the compressive strength of concrete block with various outer layer thickness of 5, 10, and 15 mm without cord net were reached at 2.52 MPa, 5.44 MPa and 7.49 Mpa respectively with weight per piece were 7.60 kgs, 9.06 kgs, and 10.23 kgs. The compressive strength of concrete block with cord net size 100 mm² were reached 3.27 MPa, 5.75 MPa and 8.58 MPa respectively with same various outer layer thickness and weigh per piece reached at 8.06 kgs, 9.15 kgs, and 10.28 kgs. Water absorption of outer layer were achieved 2,01 % and 7,06 % for soaking during 10 minutes and 24 hours respectively. Generally, the composite styrofoam concrete block with cement mortar outer layer thickness of 5 mm, 10 mm and 15 mm has meet a clauses of SNI requirements to solid concrete block for concrete block quality IV, quality III and quality II.


Online controlled experiments are at the heart of making data-driven decisions at a diverse set of companies, including Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Zynga. Small differences in key metrics, on the order of fractions of a percent, may have very significant business implications. At Bing it is not uncommon to see experiments that impact annual revenue by millions of dollars, even tens of millions of dollars, either positively or negatively. With thousands of experiments being run annually, improving the sensitivity of experiments allows for more precise assessment of value, or equivalently running the experiments on smaller populations (supporting more experiments) or for shorter durations (improving the feedback cycle and agility). We propose an approach (CUPED) that utilizes data from the pre-experiment period to reduce metric variability and hence achieve better sensitivity. This technique is applicable to a wide variety of key business metrics, and it is practical and easy to implement. The results on Bing's experimentation system are very successful: we can reduce variance by about 50%, effectively achieving the same statistical power with only half of the users, or half the duration.


In recent years probably no business function grew as rapidly as recasting function. In fact, it has just exploded. About ten years ago, only utility companies including telecom, gas an and electric had a forecasting department, staffed by full time forecasting people. Now most of the large corporations including Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer have a full time forecasting staff - something unheard of ten years ago. Most of the companies not only now have dedicated forecasters on their staff but also their number is growing. According to the IBF (Institute of Business Forecasting) survey conducted in 1998, 77% of the companies hired one or more full time forecasting persons only during the last ten years. The growth has been even stronger in recent years. More than half of the respondents (62%) indicated that they hired full time forecasting persons only during the last five years. Levi Strauss started a separate forecasting department only in November 1995. Now it has a full time forecasting staff of 30 people. It has even the Vice President of Forecasting. Duracell recognized the need of forecasting function in mid 1970's. At present, it has a staff of 8 full time forecasters- 5 in operational forecasting and 3 in strategic forecasting. Reckitt & Colman has a forecasting department headed by the Director of Forecasting with a full time staff of nine people. Mary Kay Cosmetic has a full time staff of 8 persons. According to the IBF survey, 32% of the companies have 5 or more and 15% of them have 12 or more full time forecasters on their staff. JOB MARKET Another way of observing the growth in the forecasting function is to look at its job market. There is a significant growth in listing in the newsletter, Job Opportunities in Forecasting and Planning, which is geared toward this function. The Spring 1998 issue listed 29 jobs in the area, and the Summer 1999, 51 jobs-76% increase. A good number of jobs remain unfilled over a long period. In this newsletter, about 13% of the jobs are repeated from one issue to the next because companies fail to find the right person. A few years ago, a Connecticut based company, advertised the forecasting job in New York Times. The company received 55 responses, but none of them had any background in forecasting, according to its forecasting manager. The survey of US Labor Department also shows growth in jobs in this area. The 1998-99 Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by Bureau of Labor Statistics, states, "Those skilled in quantitative techniques and their application to economic modeling and forecasting, using computers, coupled with good communications skills, should have the best opportunities." The 1996 Spring issue of Occupational Outlook Quarterly states, "for economists and marketing research analysts, faster than average growth is expected ... due to increased reliance on quantitative methods of analyzing business trends, forecasting sales, and planning." SALARY Salaries offered for positions in the area of forecasting are quite competitive. The median salary of Forecast Analyst, Sr. Forecast Analyst, Manager of Forecasting, Director of Forecasting, and Vice President of Forecasting are $45,000, $56,000, $71,000, $100,000 and $153,000 respectively. These numbers are also based on the IBF survey conducted in 1998. The position of a Forecast Analyst is merely an entry level position. The median salary for this position in forecasting is much higher than of a marketing major, $45,000 vs. $29,000. The median salary of Vice President of Forecasting is also much higher than its counterpart in marketing, $153,000 vs. $133,000. (Keep in mind that the salaries of forecasting positions are of 1998 because the survey was conducted in 1998, but of marketing are of 1997, the latest figures available.) CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR ATTANDANCE The large attendance in the forecasting conferences/seminars also reflects the growth in the forecasting function. …


Programming is an essential skill that many computing students are expected to master. However, programming can be difficult to learn. Successfully interpreting compiler error messages (CEMs) is crucial for correcting errors and progressing toward success in programming. Yet these messages are often difficult to understand and pose a barrier to progress for many novices, with struggling students often exhibiting high frequencies of errors, particularly repeated errors. This paper presents a control/intervention study on the effectiveness of enhancing Java CEMs. Results show that the intervention group experienced reductions in the number of overall errors, errors per student, and several repeated error metrics. These results are important as the effectiveness of CEM enhancement has been recently debated. Further, generalizing these results should be possible at least in part, as the control group is shown to be comparable to those in several studies using Java and other languages.


Summary: Under selective pressure from infectious microorganisms, multicellular organisms have evolved immunological defense mechanisms, broadly categorized as innate or adaptive. Recent insights into the complex mechanisms of human innate immunity suggest that genetic variability in genes encoding its components may play a role in the development of asthma and related diseases. As part of a systematic assessment of genetic variability in innate immunity genes, we have thus far have examined 16 genes by resequencing 93 unrelated subjects from three ethnic samples (European American, African American and Hispanic American) and a sample of European American asthmatics. Approaches to discovering and understanding variation and the subsequent implementation of disease association studies are described and illustrated. Although highly conserved across a wide range of species, the innate immune genes we have sequenced demonstrate substantial interindividual variability predominantly in the form of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genetic variation in these genes may play a role in determining susceptibility to a range of common, chronic human diseases which have an inflammatory component. Differences in population history have produced distinctive patterns of SNP allele frequencies, linkage disequilibrium and haplotypes when ethnic groups are compared. These and other factors must be taken into account in the design and analysis of disease association studies.


Purpose

One of the major challenges for any project is to prepare and develop an achievable baseline schedule and thus set the project up for success, rather than failure. The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate research outputs in one of the major causes, optimism bias, to identify problems with developing baseline schedules and analyse mitigation techniques and their effectiveness recommended by research to minimise the impact of this bias.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic quantitative literature review was followed, examining Project Management Journals, documenting the mitigation approaches recommended and then reviewing whether these approaches were validated by research.

Findings

Optimism bias proved to be widely accepted as a major cause of unrealistic scheduling for projects, and there is a common understanding as to what it is and the effects that it has on original baseline schedules. Based upon this review, the most recommended mitigation method is Flyvbjerg's "Reference class," which has been developed based upon Kahneman's "Outside View". Both of these mitigation techniques are based upon using an independent third party to review the estimate. However, within the papers reviewed, apart from the engineering projects, there has been no experimental and statistically validated research into the effectiveness of this method. The majority of authors who have published on this topic are based in Europe.

Research limitations/implications

The short-listed papers for this review referred mainly to non-engineering projects which included information technology focussed ones. Thus, on one hand, empirical research is needed for engineering projects, while on the other hand, the lack of tangible evidence for the effectiveness of methods related to the alleviation of optimism bias issues calls for greater research into the effectiveness of mitigation techniques for not only engineering projects, but for all projects.

Originality/value

This paper documents the growth within the project management research literature over time on the topic of optimism bias. Specifically, it documents the various methods recommended to mitigate the phenomenon and highlights quantitatively the research undertaken on the subject. Moreover, it introduces paths for further research.


Aims—To determine whether expression of CD44 in neoplasia is associated with tumour grade, stage and prognosis. Methods—The immunohistochemical expression of CD44 was evaluated using the mouse antihuman monoclonal antibody 3G12 which recognises regions shared by all CD44 isoforms to determine whether expression in formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded tissue correlates with tumour grade, stage or survival in adenocarcinoma of the lung. Thirty one adenocarcinomas of the lung, 16 T2N0 and 15 T2N1, and their nodal metastases were studied. Results—Of the 31 tumours, 25 were positive for the CD44 antigen. CD44 expression correlated with tumour grade, in that intense staining was seen only in moderately and/or poorly differentiated tumours. CD44 did not correlate with nodal status, tumour size, pleural invasion, angiolymphatic invasion, or host inflammatory response, but did correlate with survival. A median survival of 46 months was observed in patients with moderate to strong CD44 expression compared with 24 months for those with no or weak expression. Nine patients were alive without evidence of disease at a median follow up of 61 months. Six (66%) of these nine patients had strong CD44 expression. This contrasts with strong expression in only three (17%) of the 17 patients dying with a median survival of 28 months. Conclusion—In primary adenocarcinoma of the lung loss of CD44 expression is associated with less favorable outcome and may indicate a more aggressive neoplasm. CD44 may be a useful prognostic marker in lung carcinoma.


There is growing evidence that changes in speech and language may be early markers of dementia, but much of the previous NLP work in this area has been limited by the size of the available datasets. Here, we compare several methods of domain adaptation to augment a small French dataset of picture descriptions (n = 57) with a much larger English dataset (n = 550), for the task of automatically distinguishing participants with dementia from controls. The first challenge is to identify a set of features that transfer across languages; in addition to previously used features based on information units, we introduce a new set of features to model the order in which information units are produced by dementia patients and controls. These concept-based language model features improve classification performance in both English and French separately, and the best result (AUC = 0.89) is achieved using the multilingual training set with a combination of information and language model features.


Mobile digital platforms provide an architectural basis for third party innovation of platform complements. Platform owners have property rights, enabling them to establish a boundary of permissible innovation demarcating the permitted from the prohibited. This allows for the curation of complements, which provides a means of controlling for value creation. Consequently, platform innovationthe innovation of platform complements is occasionally refused by platform owners. When this occurs tensions may arise between the two parties over where the boundary of permissible innovation should lie. Tussles may break out, embodied in complex interactions, as each party attempts to get its way. Eventually an outcome is achieved, and a platform innovation is either allowed or prohibited.

A body of platform innovation literature is emerging from fields including information systems. Whilst this literature considers many aspects of platform innovation, the dynamics concerning the control of the innovation of platform innovation complements is overlooked. This research attempts to address that gap. Its relevance to information systems concerns the digitalisation of platforms as systemsdigital infrastructures, which affects their capacity for innovation and regulation.

This research uses the method of narrative networks to analyse 45 examples of contested platform innovation. This approach, informed by empirical data sourced from over 4500 blog entries, identifies patterned sequences of actions across the examples. These sequences describe how tension builds, how control is asserted, and how control is then resisted. A theory of formal managerial control is used to explain how mechanisms of control are applied by platform owners as well as how developers respond to control.

The principle contribution of this research is to theory. It develops and presents a theory to describe and explain the dynamics of contested innovation of complements on curated digital platforms. In doing so, iIt challenges the understanding that the platform owner alone controls platform design rules and concerning which platform complements are allowed, and which are notthe boundary of permissible innovation. Furthermore, tThe study indicates opens up the possibility that the forces of digitalisation provide third parties with the power to affect influence platform architecture, but at the cost of additional means of being controlled.


Abstract Three analytical techniques suitable for determining silver concentrations in plants are presented and compared. Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry performed directly on sample digests was the most sensitive and convenient. Neutron activation analysis, measuring 110mAg gave good reproducibility, but lower sensitivity. A cyclic activation scheme to generate and detect the short-lived isotope 110Ag was useful as a quick reconnaissance technique, but interference from 76As reduced its effectiveness. Data are presented on the silver content of terrestrial plants. Background silver concentrations for lichens and bryophytes collected from Wales, U.K. were <0.07μgg−1. Samples collected from areas contaminated by derelict metal mines contained between 0.1-1.0μAgg−1. The aerial portions of vascular species usually contained less silver than bryophytes growing on the same substrate. Fungi are shown to bioconcentrate silver to a greater extent than cadmium, copper or lead.


A common approach to merger simulations used in antitrust cases is to calibrate demand from market shares and a few additional parameters. When the products involved in the merger case are differentiated along several dimensions, the resulting diversion ratios may be very different from those based upon market shares. This again may affect the predicted post-merger price effects. This article shows how merger simulation can be improved by using observed diversion ratios. To illustrate the effects of this approach we use diversion ratios from a local grocery market in Norway. In this case diversions from the acquired to the acquiring stores were considerably smaller than suggested by market shares, and the predicted average price increase from the acquisition was 40 % lower using this model rather than a model based upon market shares. This analysis also suggests that even a subset of observed diversion ratios may significantly change the prediction from a merger simulation based upon market shares.


The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of oxygen supplementation on broiler eggs in a hatchery at high altitude on the growth performance and ascites syndrome of broilers reared at low altitude. The treatment groups were low altitude with no oxygen supplemented in the hatchery (LA-NOX); high altitude with oxygen supplementation in the hatchery (HA-OX); and high altitude with no oxygen supplemented in the hatchery (HA-NOX) group. Growth performance, heart weight, the concentrations of the hormones, T3, T4, T3/T4, and and plasma concentrations of haematocrit, haemoglobin, glucose and parameters of ascites syndrome during the growing period were investigated. A total of 243 one-day-old broilers were used for this study. During the growing period, excluding days 7, 28 and 35, oxygen supplementation at high altitude did not affect the live weight of broilers compared with the HA-OX and HA-NOX groups. The cumulative feed consumption was determined to be lower in the LA-NOX group and the same in the HA-OX and HA-NOX groups on the 42nd day. Between 21 and 42 days old, the LA-NOX group had a better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than the HA-OX and HA-NOX groups. Chick weight (CW), yolk sac weight (YSW) and chick heart weight (CHW) were higher in the LA-NOX group than in the HA-OX and HA-NOX groups. At 42 days old, there were no differences between the groups in heart weight, right ventricle weight (RV), left ventricle and septum (LV+Sept.), total ventricle (TV) weight and the RV : TV ratio. The plasma T3 level was lower in the LA-NOX group than in the HA-OX and HA-NOX groups and T4 levels were higher in the HA-OX than in the others at 42 days old. The hypoxic conditions that occurred during the embryonic stage . which altered endogenous functions of prenatal chicks and affected several blood parameters, and oxygen supplementation at high altitude . improved chick quality. However, it did not improve subsequent FCR and feed consumption performance of chickens when they were reared at low altitude. Keywords : Breeder eggs, growth, high altitude, oxygen supplementation


Copepod predation on rotifers affects the dynamics and structure of zooplankton communities. Many experimental studies have analysed the feeding behaviour of some calanoid and cyclopoid copepod species on different rotifer prey types. However, considerations of the impact of predation by these invertebrates on rotifer populations have generally neglected possible additional effects of this predation through differential predation mortality between eggs, egg-bearing females and females without eggs. The present study used direct observations to describe the predatory effect of two freshwater copepod species, Lovenula alluaudi (Calanoida) and Acanthocyclops vernalis (Cyclopoida), on egg-bearing females of the rotifer Keratella cochlearis. Both copepod species ingested Keratella eggs and egg-bearing females, i. e. the female plus its egg. However, in the case of the calanoid copepod, there was a significantly greater probability of suppression of Keratella eggs after capture, including direct predation and separation of the eggs from their mothers, than of Keratella females plus attached eggs. In contrast, the probability of suppression of Keratella eggs by the cyclopoid copepod did not significantly differ from that of whole Keratella females. These results are discussed in terms of the impact of this predation pattern on the fecundity of K. cochlearis populations in natural ecosystems. Rotifer reproduction may be regulated not only by food availability but also by copepod predation.


The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (or "MDL Panel") is one of a small number of special federal courts created pursuant to Article III by Congress and staffed by a Chief-Justice-appointed group of Article III judges for limited terms. The MDL Panel is a powerful judicial institution with substantial discretion over complex litigation in the United States. For all practical purposes, it controls where many of the most far-reaching and significant private civil actions will be resolved which can affect procedural and substantive rights of the parties. An understanding of who has served on the MDL Panel would shed light on both its structure and its decisions. In this article, we provided an analysis of the composition of the Panel, as well as comparing Panel appointments by the Chief Justice to those of the Judicial Conference Committees.


In this paper, we formulate a sparse optimization framework for extractive document summarization. The proposed framework has a decomposable convex objective function. We derive an efficient ADMM algorithm to solve it. To encourage diversity in the summaries, we explicitly introduce an additional sentence dissimilarity term in the optimization framework. We achieve significant improvement over previous related work under similar data reconstruction framework. We then generalize our formulation to the case of compressive summarization and derive a block coordinate descent algorithm to optimize the objective function. Performance on DUC 2006 and DUC 2007 datasets shows that our compressive summarization results are competitive against the state-of-the-art results while maintaining reasonable readability.


Abstract Andrea Branzi was among the first architects to incorporate the philosophical postmodernity -as it was formulated by Jean-Francois Lyotard and, soon after, by Gianni Vattimo- into his discourse. In the early 80's the Italian philosopher puts forward the pensiero debole (weak thought): a  philosophy meant to be consistent with this new situation marked by an  ahistorical condition, a fragmented and babelian scenario, and the  weakening of being. Branzi not only brings this new intellectual framework  to his discourse very early, but also translates it to the architectural field in  an extremely clear and explicit way through many of his writings and,  above all, via his "models of weak urbanization." Urban proposals marked by fragmentation, instability and lightness and where a process of  dissolution of architecture -that is perfectly analogous to the dissolution of being described by Vattimo- takes place: The open and adaptable  structures of these cities represent a kind of ontologically attenuated  architecture that relates to the canonical architectural object like the 'weak being' relates to the strong, metaphysical being in the philosopher's  discourse. However, despite the undeniable adherence of the architect's  work and discourse to pensiero debole, the relationship between Branzi  and Vattimo is far from being the simple and mere absorption of an  intellectual corpus that was absolutely alien until that point. Quite the contrary, it proves to be very revealing about the invariants that Branzi has stubbornly kept throughout his long career and, more broadly, about how architects relate to their cultural environment.


The 3-5 μm mid-infrared spectral region is of great interest as it contains the fundamental
molecular fingerprints of a number of pollutants and toxic gases, which require
remote real-time monitoring in a variety of applications. Consequently, the development
of efficient optoelectronic devices operating in this wavelength range is a very fascinating
and pertinent research. In recent years, there has been a rapid development of optical
technologies for the detection of carbon dioxide (CO2), where the detected optical intensity
at the specific gas absorption wavelength of 4.26 μm is a direct indication of the gas
concentration, the main applications being in indoor air quality control and ventilation
systems. The replacement of conventional infrared thermal components with high performance semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodiodes in the 3-5 μm
range allows to obtain sensors with similar sensitivity, but with an intrinsic wavelength
selectivity, reduced power consumption and faster response. Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd.
has developed a commercial CO2 optical gas sensor equipped with an AlInSb-based
LED and photodiode pair, which has demonstrated a significant reduction in the energy
consumption per measurement.

The aim of this Ph.D. project, supported by an EPSRC Industrial CASE Studentship,
was to improve the performance of mid-infrared AlInSb LEDs. This was achieved
through the optimisation of the layer structure and the device design, and the application
of different techniques to overcome the poor extraction efficiency (~ 1 %) which
limits the LED performance, as a consequence of total-internal reflection and Fresnel
reflection. A key understanding was gained on the electrical and optical properties of
AlInSb LEDs through the characterisation of the epi-grown material and the fabrication
of prototype devices. Improved LED performance, with a lower series resistance and
stronger light emission, was achieved thanks to the analysis of a number of LED design
parameters, including the doping concentration of the contact layers, the LED lateral
dimensions and the electrode contact geometry. A Resonant-Cavity LED structure was
designed, with the integration of an epitaxially-grown distributed Bragg reflector between
the substrate and the LED active region. The advantage of this design is twofold,
as it both redirects the light emitted towards the substrate in the direction of the top
LED surface and adds a resonant effect to the structure, resulting in a three-times
higher extraction efficiency at the target wavelength of 4.26 μm, spectral narrowing and
improved temperature stability. Finally, 2D-periodic metallic hole array patterns were
integrated on AlInSb LEDs, showing potential advantages for spectral filtering and enhanced
extraction of light emitted above the critical angle.


We study the problem of identifying the best arm in each of the bandits in a multi-bandit multi-armed setting. We first propose an algorithm called Gap-based Exploration (GapE) that focuses on the arms whose mean is close to the mean of the best arm in the same bandit (i.e., small gap). We then introduce an algorithm, called GapE-V, which takes into account the variance of the arms in addition to their gap. We prove an upper-bound on the probability of error for both algorithms. Since GapE and GapE-V need to tune an exploration parameter that depends on the complexity of the problem, which is often unknown in advance, we also introduce variations of these algorithms that estimate this complexity online. Finally, we evaluate the performance of these algorithms and compare them to other allocation strategies on a number of synthetic problems.


Premise of research. Few reproductive organs unequivocally attributable to the important but enigmatic Mesozoic seed plant order Bennettitales have been described from the Triassic of all of North America outside of Greenland. Here, the first ovulate reproductive organs (gynoecia) of the group from the Upper Triassic of eastern North America are described and assigned to a proposed new species, Williamsonia carolinensis, of the family Williamsoniaceae. Methodology. The excellently preserved plant fossils were investigated using cuticular analysis and light, fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy. Pivotal results. The description is based on 10 specimens from the Late Triassic (Carnian) Pekin Formation of North Carolina. They are interpreted as representing progressive developmental stages. Williamsonia carolinensis lacks a corona (sterile apical projection of the receptacle) and bracts subtending the receptacle. The lack of bracts is particularly unusual and appears to be the original condition and not a preservation artifact based on their absence even on immature specimens. The two largest specimens, interpreted as mature gynoecia, occur together on the same slab in exclusive association with the unusual bennettitalean leaf Eoginkgoites, suggesting that these organs were produced by the same parent plant species. Conclusions. The unique features of W. carolinensis, along with the probable affinity with Eoginkgoites foliage, expands the known diversity of the Williamsoniaceae and supports previous suggestions of remarkably high levels of morphological disparity in the earliest history of the Bennettitales.