We study the dynamics of head-to-head domain walls separating in-plane domains in a disordered ferromagnetic thin film. The competition between the domain wall surface tension and dipolar interactions induces a crossover between a rough domain wall phase at short length-scales and a large-scale phase where the walls display a zigzag morphology. The two phases are characterized by different critical exponents for Barkhausen avalanche dynamics that are in quantitative agreement with experimental measurements on MnAs thin films.


Non-Gaussian operations on two mode squeezed vacuum states (TMSV) in continuous variable measurement device independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) protocols have been shown to effectively increase the total transmission distances drastically. In this paper we show that photon subtraction on a two mode squeezed coherent (PSTMSC) state can further improve the transmission distances remarkably. To that end we also provide a generalized covariance matrix corresponding to PSTMSC, which has not been attempted before. We show that coherence, defined as the amount of displacement of vacuum state, along with non-Gaussianity can help improve the performance of prevalent CV-MDI-QKD protocols. Furthermore, since we use realistic parameters, our technique is experimentally feasible and can be readily implemented


This annotated bibliography offers a critical review of peer-reviewed and gray literature published between 2002 and 2016 and relevant to indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of results-based financing (RBF) initiatives for reproductive maternal neonatal child and adolescent health (RMNCAH). Unlike a systematic review this annotated bibliography does not aim to be a comprehensive assessment of the research on RBF for health. Rather it seeks to describe the conceptual contribution and practical experiences of experts in using indicators to assess performance and quality throughout RMNCAH-focused RBF schemes. The review includes peer-reviewed articles toolkits technical briefs case studies and evaluation reports. Microsoft PowerPoint presentations posters and books are not included. Articles were identified via key informant interviews online database searches and website reviews. For Google Scholar and the PubMed databases search terms were indicators results based financing performance based financing performance based funding quality reproductive maternal neonatal child and adolescent health. Gray literature was identified through searches of the following regional multilateral and donor websites: RBFHealth World Bank World Health Organization BlueSquare United States Agency for International Development (USAID) USAID TRAction Project Salud Mesoamerica Initiative Pan American Health Organization the United Nations Children's Fund and the USAID-funded MEASURE Evaluation. Review of the listed references of pertinent articles yielded additional resources.


: The purpose of this article is to identify and assess environmental risks that may have the greatest impact on the future of humanity. They were divided into two basic groups, i.e. for natural processes and resources. In addition, climate change is described as different group. The authors decided, that a holistic approach to this issue is more desirable than dividing it into two above-mentioned groups. The comparison of various threats was possible due to the application of identical assessment criteria, such as: the harmfulness, rate of spread, scope and moment of occurrence of a given group of threats. Each of the listed criteria has been evaluated on a fi ve-point scale, where 1 has the smallest and 5 the largest impact force. The obtained results show the leading importance of natural processes in maintaining the existing Earth system. In addition, the authors point to a greater risk of problems related to renewable resources than non-renewable one. As a result, it can be assumed that the current degradation of natural processes and excessive use of resources is likely to lead to the risk of global disasters.


Mitigating the detrimental impacts of intensive farming on biodiversity requires the implementation of cost‐effective conservation actions. Targeted agri‐environment schemes (AESs) to enhance populations of threatened species inhabiting farmland have been proposed for this purpose, yet their effectiveness for nocturnal wildlife remains unknown. We assessed whether hedgerow management prescribed by targeted AESs to improve habitat conditions for the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in England may positively influence the species, the entire bat assemblage and the insect prey of bats. We specifically investigated the responses of bats (occurrence, activity and species richness) and insects (biomass, abundance and diversity) to time since last trimming (from 1 up to 10 years). We explored the mechanisms underlying the effects of AES via changes in trimming regime on bats. Moreover, we investigated the effects of landscape context on bats as we expected that highly mobile species would benefit further from landscape‐scale management. Bat species richness significantly increased with time since last trimming. Three bat taxa of major conservation concern in Western Europe substantially benefited from the targeted prescription, namely R. ferrumequinum, Rhinolophus hipposideros and Plecotus spp. Insect family richness and dipteran abundance were also significantly greater at hedgerows that were untrimmed for at least 3 years. The activity of more common bat species (i.e. pipistrelle bats) was not influenced by time since last trimming. Changes in trimming regime strongly affected hedgerow height which directly and indirectly (by increasing prey abundance) influenced bat occurrence, activity and species richness along hedgerows. The activity of highly mobile bat species was mainly associated with a range of landscape attributes. The amount of semi‐natural grassland within 0.5 km of the sampling sites positively influenced R. ferrumequinum while the presence of urban areas negatively affected light‐sensitive bat species. Synthesis and applications. The implementation of targeted agri‐environment schemes can include effective measures to enhance bats and their insect prey in farmland. Although we highlight the success of current prescriptions on hedgerow management, we suggest that their effectiveness can easily be optimized by encouraging farmers to keep hedgerows untrimmed for longer periods (>3 up to 10 years). We also highlight that a multi‐scale management approach is required to successfully promote bats in farmland.


We tested the ability of avicins, a family of triterpenoid saponins obtained from Acacia victoriae (Bentham) (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae), to inhibit chemically induced mouse skin carcinogenesis. Varying doses of avicins were applied to shaved dorsal skin of SENCAR mice 15 min before application of 100 nmol of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) twice a week for 4 weeks (complete carcinogenesis model). The dorsal skin of a second group of mice was treated with one dose of 10 nmol of DMBA. Avicins were then applied 15 min before repetitive doses of 2 μg of phorbol 12-tetradecanoate 13-acetate (TPA) twice a week for 8 weeks (initiation/promotion model). At 12 weeks, avicins produced a 70% decrease in the number of mice with papillomas and a greater than 90% reduction in the number of papillomas per mouse in both protocols. We also observed a 62% and 74% reduction by avicins in H-ras mutations at codon 61 in the DMBA and DMBA/TPA models, respectively, as well as a significant inhibition of the modified DNA base formation (8-OH-dG) in both protocols. Marked suppression of aneuploidy occurred with treatment at 16 weeks in the initiation/promotion experiment. These findings, when combined with the proapoptotic property of these compounds and their ability to inhibit hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generation, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) induction reported elsewhere, suggest that avicins could prove exciting in reducing oxidative and nitrosative stress and thereby suppressing the development of human skin cancer and other epithelial malignancies.


Mountain passes are potentially advantageous sites for the deployment of wind turbines because of road links and electrical transmission infrastructure. However, relatively little is known about wind characteristics and turbine response in these environments. Using hub height wind data from a mountain pass in Switzerland, this paper discusses the causes of the observed pass winds and how a generic wind turbine might perform in those conditions. During 3months of winter measurements, the winds in the pass showed signatures of forcing by regional pressure gradients rather than local cooling or heating. Turbulence intensity was often less than 10%, and the magnitude of the wind shear power law exponent was less than 0.1. To understand the impact of pass winds on a wind turbine, we simulated a Wind Partnership for Advanced Component Technologies 1.5MW wind turbine using the Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence(FAST) aeroelastic simulator , forced by artificial wind fields of varying turbulence intensity and shear generated by the turbulence simulator TurbSim. We used the turbine simulation data to train a regression model that is used to predict the turbine response to the pass wind time series. Results showed that depending on long-term wind characteristics, wind turbines in the pass may perform differently than predicted using a power curve derived from test measurements at another location. This method of generating site-specific energy capture predictions could be combined with long-term wind resource data and specific turbine models to better predict the energy production and turbine loads at this, or any other site. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper presents a topic on Graph theory and its application to data Structures which I consider basic and useful to students in APPLIED MATHEMATICS and ENGINEERING.This paper gives an elementary introduction of Graph theory and its application to data structures. Elements of Graph theory are indispensable in almost all computer Science areas .It can be used in Some areas such as syntactic analysis, fault detection, diagnosis in computers and minimal path problems. The computer representation and manipulation of graph are also discussed so that certain algorithms can be included .A major theme of this paper is to study Graph theory and its Application to data structures Furthermore I hope the students not only learn the course but also develop their analogy perceive, formulate and to solve mathematical programs Thus Graphs especially trees, binary trees are used widely in the representation of data structures this course one can develop mathematical maturity, ability to understand and create mathematical argumentsMethod of derivation is procedure given in the text books with necessary formulae and their application . Concepts and notations from discrete mathematics are useful in studying and describing objects and problems in branches of computer science, such as computer algorithms, programming languages.


Nannofossil biostratigraphy of the Lower Cretaceous Shadui Formation (Northern Tethyan Himalayas, Southern Tibet) Calcareous nannofossils of Aptian-Albian age were found in the basal part of the Shadui Formation, Northern Tethyan Himalayas, Southern Tibet. The predominantly shale strata are exposed near the northeastern tip of Yamdrock Tso Lake at the locality of Bangbu and they were previously considered to be of Late Cretaceous age. Occurrence of the nannofossil species Prediscosphaera columnata and Cribrosphaerella ehrenbergii indicates the Upper Aptian-Lower Albian Zone BC23. Nannofossil species of Late Albian, Cenomanian or younger Cretaceous age were not present in the studied part of the Shadui Formation. Nannofossils are badly preserved and hardly identifiable probably as a result of strong post mortem etching and dissolution during burial. The depositional setting of the Shadui Formation is interpreted as hemipelagic to pelagic. A horizon of dark shale in the lower part of the Shadui Formation may be stratigraphically correlated with ocean anoxic event OAE1b. The discovery of calcareous nannofossils at the Bangbu locality increases the stratigraphic precision in the correlation of Cretaceous strata between hemipelagic-pelagic facies and shelf depositional areas in the Tibetan Tethyan Himalayas.


Parallel tempering (PT) is a class of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms that constructs a path of distributions annealing between a tractable reference and an intractable target, and then interchanges states along the path to improve mixing in the target. The performance of PT depends on how quickly a sample from the reference distribution makes its way to the target, which in turn depends on the particular path of annealing distributions. However, past work on PT has used only simple paths constructed from convex combinations of the reference and target log-densities. This paper begins by demonstrating that this path performs poorly in the setting where the reference and target are nearly mutually singular. To address this issue, we expand the framework of PT to general families of paths, formulate the choice of path as an optimization problem that admits tractable gradient estimates, and propose a flexible new family of spline interpolation paths for use in practice. Theoretical and empirical results both demonstrate that our proposed methodology breaks previously-established upper performance limits for traditional paths.


Abstract. Currently, 52 % of the world's population resides in urban areas and as a consequence, approximately 70 % of fossil fuel emissions of CO2 arise from cities. This fact, in combination with large uncertainties associated with quantifying urban emissions due to lack of appropriate measurements, makes it crucial to obtain new measurements useful to identify and quantify urban emissions. This is required, for example, for the assessment of emission mitigation strategies and their effectiveness. Here, we investigate the potential of a satellite mission like Carbon Monitoring Satellite (CarbonSat) which was proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) to retrieve the city emissions globally, taking into account a realistic description of the expected retrieval errors, the spatiotemporal distribution of CO2 fluxes, and atmospheric transport. To achieve this, we use (i) a high-resolution modelling framework consisting of the Weather Research Forecasting model with a greenhouse gas module (WRF-GHG), which is used to simulate the atmospheric observations of column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fractions (XCO2), and (ii) a Bayesian inversion method to derive anthropogenic CO2 emissions and their errors from the CarbonSat XCO2 observations. We focus our analysis on Berlin, Germany using CarbonSat's cloud-free overpasses for 1 reference year. The dense (wide swath) CarbonSat simulated observations with high spatial resolution (approximately 2 km  ×  2 km) permits one to map the city CO2 emission plume with a peak enhancement of typically 0.8–1.35 ppm relative to the background. By performing a Bayesian inversion, it is shown that the random error (RE) of the retrieved Berlin CO2 emission for a single overpass is typically less than 8–10 Mt CO2 yr−1 (about 15–20 % of the total city emission). The range of systematic errors (SEs) of the retrieved fluxes due to various sources of error (measurement, modelling, and inventories) is also quantified. Depending on the assumptions made, the SE is less than about 6–10 Mt CO2 yr−1 for most cases. We find that in particular systematic modelling-related errors can be quite high during the summer months due to substantial XCO2 variations caused by biogenic CO2 fluxes at and around the target region. When making the extreme worst-case assumption that biospheric XCO2 variations cannot be modelled at all (which is overly pessimistic), the SE of the retrieved emission is found to be larger than 10 Mt CO2 yr−1 for about half of the sufficiently cloud-free overpasses, and for some of the overpasses we found that SE may even be on the order of magnitude of the anthropogenic emission. This indicates that biogenic XCO2 variations cannot be neglected but must be considered during forward and/or inverse modelling. Overall, we conclude that a satellite mission such as CarbonSat has high potential to obtain city-scale CO2 emissions as needed to enhance our current understanding of anthropogenic carbon fluxes, and that CarbonSat-like satellites should be an important component of a future global carbon emission monitoring system.


Buddhism in medieval Korea is characterized as 'State Protection Buddhism', a religion whose primary purpose was to rally support (supernatural and popular) for and legitimate the state. In this view, the state used Buddhism to engender compliance with its goals. A closer look, however, reveals that Buddhism was a canvas on which people projected many religious and secular concerns and desires.This study is an attempt to specify Buddhism's place in Koryo and to ascertain to what extent and in what areas Buddhism functioned as a state religion. Was state support the main reason for Buddhism's dominance in Koryo? How actively did the state seek to promote religious ideals? What was the strength of Buddhism as an institution and the nature of its relationship to the state? What role did Confucianism, the other state ideology, play in Koryo? This study argues that Buddhism provided most of the symbols and rituals, and some of the beliefs, that constructed an aura of legitimacy, but that there was no single ideological system underlying the Koryo dynasty's legitimating strategies.


Abstract : In this guidebook, we provide sponsors of acquisition improvement programs and their immediate staff with guidelines on how to implement a software acquisition risk management program satisfying the goals of the Acquisition Risk Management (ARM) Key Process Area (KPA) of the Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model(SM) (SA-CMM(SM)). Brief overviews of software acquisition and the SA-CMM are included. This version is an editorial update to align with Version 1.02 of the SA-CMM.


We develop a hybrid‐unit energy input‐output (I/O) model with a disaggregated electricity sector for China. The model replaces primary energy rows in monetary value, namely, coal, gas, crude oil, and renewable energy, with physical flow units in order to overcome errors associated with the proportionality assumption in environmental I/O analysis models. Model development and data use are explained and compared with other approaches in the field of environmental life cycle assessment. The model is applied to evaluate the primary energy embodied in economic output to meet Chinese final consumption for the year 2007. Direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions intensities are determined. We find that different final demand categories pose distinctive requirements on the primary energy mix. Also, a considerable amount of energy is embodied in the supply chain of secondary industries. Embodied energy and emissions are crucial to consider for policy development in China based on consumption, rather than production. Consumption‐based policies will likely play a more important role in China when per capita income levels have reached those of western countries.


A New Eulerian-Based Double Continuity Model for Predicting the Evolution of Pair Correlation Statistics under Large Plastic Deformations Sadegh Ahmadi Department of Mechanical Engineering Doctor of Philosophy A new model using a double-continuity relation for predicting the evolution of pair-correlation functions (PCFs) is presented. The proposed model was developed using statistical continuum theory and is employed to predict the viscoplastic behavior of polycrystalline materials. This model was built based upon the continuity relations and a double divergence law that guarantees the conservation of both orientation and mass; and also satisfies the field equations (equilibrium, constitutive, and compatibility) at every point of the polycrystalline material throughout the deformation process. In the presented model, motion of particles in the real space and rotation of crystallographic orientations in the Euler angle space is monitored using an iterative process assuming that all the amount of deformation is applied uniformly without taking into account the localization effects. To study the accuracy of the proposed model, a commercially pure nickel material was rolled to different amounts of cold work. Texture and statistical analyses of the experimental and simulated microstructures were carried out. For the texture analysis, pole figures, ODF sections, and volume fractions of some ideal orientations of cold-rolling were studied. For the statistical analysis, pair correlation functions (PCFs) were employed and the correlations (autoand anti-correlations) between ideal orientations and also the coherence length were studied. Simulated results captured from the implementation of the new model are in good agreement with the experimental ones at low and medium rolling deformations (0 to 50% rolling reductions); however, at large levels of deformations (above 70% reductions), because of the formation of cell blocks and relevant inhomogeneity, the occurrence of ideal orientations and their correlation properties in the experimental microstructure is affected by grain subdivision phenomena. This causes distortions in the shape of crystallographic grains at large rolling reductions, and accordingly we observe larger errors in comparison of simulated and experimental microstructures.


IMPORTANCE
Despite general support for the goals of maintenance of certification (MOC), concerns have been raised about its effectiveness, relevance, and value.

OBJECTIVE
To identify barriers and enabling features associated with MOC and how MOC can be changed to better accomplish its intended purposes.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Grounded theory focus group study of 50 board-certified primary care and subspecialist internal medicine and family medicine physicians in an academic medical center and outlying community sites.

EXPOSURES
Eleven focus groups.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Constant comparative method to analyze transcripts and identify themes related to MOC perceptions and purposes and to construct a model to guide improvement.

RESULTS
Participants identified misalignments between the espoused purposes of MOC (eg, to promote high-quality care, commitment to the profession, lifelong learning, and the science of quality improvement) and MOC as currently implemented. At present, MOC is perceived by physicians as an inefficient and logistically difficult activity for learning or assessment, often irrelevant to practice, and of little benefit to physicians, patients, or society. To resolve these misalignments, we propose a model that invites increased support from organizations, effectiveness and relevance of learning activities, value to physicians, integration with clinical practice, and coherence across MOC tasks.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Physicians view MOC as an unnecessarily complex process that is misaligned with its purposes. Acknowledging and correcting these misalignments will help MOC meet physicians' needs and improve patient care.


ABSTRACT Technologies for Solar Radiation Management (SRM) could limit global warming by manipulating the Earth's radiation balance. A major objection to SRM is the termination problem: the catastrophic consequences that are likely to result from its sudden discontinuation. The termination problem limits the reversibility of policy choices and poses the risk of inadvertent or enforced program collapse. It is often considered a major impediment to the governability of SRM. In a first attempt to systematically engage with the question of institutional design for resolving the termination problem, the scenarios in which the termination problem arises as well as their respective drivers are identified. Scenarios and drivers are then used to derive institutional solutions in the form of excludable benefits, scientific oversight and phase-out mechanisms. While other objections to SRM may remain valid, it is concluded that the termination problem raises fewer challenges for international governance than is usually assumed.


The disease Huanglongbing (HLB) was first discovered in the United States in 2005, in a Florida commercial citrus grove. Since its discovery, HLB has not only decreased citrus production, but has drastically increased production costs. With California contributing over 80% of the nation's fresh oranges, it is important to attempt to keep HLB from becoming endemic in this state. In this study, two alternative management practices are examined to estimate the potential total loss in production value due to HLB on the California citrus industry over a 20 year period. The total loss is estimated to be $2.7 billion under a do-nothing approach and $2.2 billion under an aggressive action approach. Limiting the spread of HLB is the preferred approach. It not only results in total damage savings of $2,803 per acre over the do-nothing approach, but also protects the California citrus industry from HLB and promotes economic growth.


At the beginning of the 21st century there are new expectations and challenges towards Technology Assessment (TA). Among these there is a new awareness on TA issues in education, in particular at universities. While TA was mainly an activity at extra-universitarian research institutions for a long time now there are new developments and initiative towards integrating TA issues in university courses. We will first give an insight into the international development. Secondly we will focus on the "TA and education" landscape in Germany and Portugal in more detail, followed by a description of new and emerging forms of cooperation between Portugal and Germany in this field which might serve as a model or an example for further cooperation between other partners.


The structure of the wake behind a kestrel in medium-speed flight down a 36 m length of corridor was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively by stereophotogrammetry of multiple flash photographs of the motion of small soap-covered helium bubbles. The wake consists of a pair of continuous, undulating trailing vortices. The upstroke is therefore aerodynamically active and the circulation appears to remain constant along the wing whose geometry is altered during the course of the wingstroke. It is argued that the flight kinematics, and so the wake structure, of the kestrel may be typical of flapping flight at medium speeds and a flight model based on this wake geometry is presented. Rough estimates of the rate of momentum generated in the wake balance the weight almost exactly and a direct estimate of the induced power requirement from the wake measurements is obtained. The significance of these results for the various alternative aerodynamic descriptions and energetic predictions of models of flapping animal flight is briefly assessed


Small detail, big headache Like it or not, when the regulatory winds shift in Washington, banks' compliance difficulties increase. A recent case in point is the federal flood insurance program. Indeed, for reasons that I'll review in a moment, bank compliance officials have been suggesting in recent speeches that flood insurance has become one of the top two or three compliance priorities for 1989. Sudden importance. For the better part of the past decade flood insurance rules have been a minor part of the compliance picture. Most banks seemed to be following the rules as part of their normal routine. Examiners have cited violations, as in other areas, but the problems have not seemed widespread, and correction has normally been a simple matter. All this appears to have changed rather abruptly last fall. The precipitating event was a report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to William Proxmire, then chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The report suggested that there is rampant noncompliance with the requirements of the flood insurance program among financial institutions. FEMA cited studies that extrapolated from regional experience to suggest that only 13% of insurable properties are covered by the insurance. The agency also estimated that, of approximately one million housing units that should be insured annually, only 400,000 are being covered. Senator Proxmire initiated a General Accounting Office study. No report has been issued yet, and the banking agencies do not necessarily agree that the problem is as monumental as FEMA has suggested. Nevertheless, one of the banking agencies has done a study that suggests about 80% noncompliance in its northeastern region. Whatever the numbers turn out to be, the agencies are clearly on notice. Such congressional concern almost automatically translates into heightened agency attention, which will presumably result in more examination time devoted to his area. As a result, there will almost certainly be many more citations of violations. Accordingly, it is timely too check that your bank's flood insurance compliance process is in good order and, if not, to correct weaknesses well before examiners arrive. Flood insurance basics. The federal flood insurance program was created to save the government money. Its purpose is to contain the cost of federal disaster assistance. It does so first by regulating--and, in some cases, effectively discouraging--construction in flood-prone areas. It also provides for an insurance fund to pick up the tab for flood damage. To be eligible for assistance, communities with flood prone areas must participate in the program. This means, among other things, that they must adopt building codes that address flood risks. Once the community is accepted into the program, properties within them become eligible for insurance. In 1973, Congress added some "teeth" to the program. It barred the extension of "federally related" loans secured by improved real property or a mobile home situated in designated flood risk areas, unless the borrowers obtained flood insurance. "Federally related" loans include not only federally insured credit, such as Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration mortgages and Small Business Administration loan, but also loans from federally insured financial institutions. Private lenders got the job of playing a major enforcement role in the program. It is their responsibility to disclose to borrowers that the property they want to finance is located in a flood hazard area, and to assure that borrowers secure the required insurance--and keep it in force. Seven pointers. Banking agency officials have number of theories as to how banks may be falling into noncompliance. They give the following pointers on how to avoid trouble: (1) Assure that you have a reliable system for determining whether a property is in a high-risk area that requires insurance. …


The performance of generative adversarial networks (GANs) heavily deteriorates given a limited amount of training data. This is mainly because the discriminator is memorizing the exact training set. To combat it, we propose Differentiable Augmentation (DiffAugment), a simple method that improves the data efficiency of GANs by imposing various types of differentiable augmentations on both real and fake samples. Previous attempts to directly augment the training data manipulate the distribution of real images, yielding little benefit; DiffAugment enables us to adopt the differentiable augmentation for the generated samples, effectively stabilizes training, and leads to better convergence. Experiments demonstrate consistent gains of our method over a variety of GAN architectures and loss functions for both unconditional and class-conditional generation. With DiffAugment, we achieve a state-of-the-art FID of 6.80 with an IS of 100.8 on ImageNet 128x128. Furthermore, with only 20% training data, we can match the top performance on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. Finally, our method can generate high-fidelity images using only 100 images without pre-training, while being on par with existing transfer learning algorithms. Code is available at this https URL.


Abstract. Describing the nature and variability of Indian monsoon precipitation is a topic of much debate in the current literature. We suggest the use of a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), specifically, the logit-normal mixed model, to describe the underlying structure of this complex climatic event. Four GLMM algorithms are described and simulations are performed to vet these algorithms before applying them to the Indian precipitation data. The logit-normal model was applied to light, moderate, and extreme rainfall. Findings indicated that physical constructs were preserved by the models, and random effects were significant in many cases. We also found GLMM estimation methods were sensitive to tuning parameters and assumptions and therefore, recommend use of multiple methods in applications. This work provides a novel use of GLMM and promotes its addition to the gamut of tools for analysis in studying climate phenomena.


ppropriately taxing the richest is a priority for every government, even more so in Africa, where higher revenue mobilisation is needed to fund growth. In Uganda, the revenue authority launched a specific unit to monitor the tax affairs of the richest individuals. Thanks to a close collaboration with the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), we evaluate the impact of such policy on a range of tax filing and payment outcomes of targeted taxpayers, as gathered from a wealth of administrative data. We show that the policy only has been partially successful. While it increased the probability of filing, especially by politically relevant taxpayers, it produced a seemingly small response in which treated taxpayers would declare less on different margins, with the end result of not declaring more tax liabilities. On the tax payment side, only a small yet significant impact on tax collected is measured. In parallel, we show a strong compensating response across tax heads. Importantly, we also measure the spillover effect on companies associated with the richest taxpayers, again documenting complex compensating reactions. We inform future policymaking decisions, suggesting a higher simultaneous focus on different tax heads and a more holistic approach to monitoring both individual and corporate tax accounts.


This paper has three parts. The first, an analysis of 192 news reports in a Marathi daily, Deshonnati, cites 320 cases of farmers' suicides in Maharashtra reported during 2004. A study of circumstances reveals multiple risk factors – economic downfall, agrarian crisis, and social disgrace among others. Indebtedness, a manifestation of economic downfall, becomes acute with reliance on moneylenders. A comparison of news reports with government investigation indicates scope for subjective interpretation in the latter. The second part, on issues highlighted by the media in general, identifies several problems: adverse developments affecting the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme (MCPS) since the mid-1990s, increasing price (and also yield) risk and reducing profitability in Cotton cultivation, withdrawal of the state from the rural agrarian scenario and the questions of market-driven Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) versus cost-saving organic cotton. The third part is on suicide reportage, suggesting that media follow the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of DOs and DONTs.


Corruption is macro-relevant for many countries, but is often hidden, making measurement of it—and its effects—inherently difficult. Existing indicators suffer from several weaknesses, including a lack of time variation due to the sticky nature of perception-based measures, reliance on a limited pool of experts, and an inability to distinguish between corruption and institutional capacity gaps. This paper attempts to address these limitations by leveraging news media coverage of corruption. We contribute to the literature by constructing the first big data, cross-country news flow indices of corruption (NIC) and anti-corruption (anti-NIC) by running country-specific search algorithms over more than 665 million international news articles. These indices correlate well with existing measures of corruption but offer additional richness in their time-series variation. Drawing on theory from the corporate finance and behavioral economics literature, we also test to what extent news about corruption and anti-corruption efforts affects economic agents' assessments of corruption and, in turn, economic outcomes. We find that NIC shocks appear to negatively impact both financial (e.g., stock market returns and yield spreads) and real variables (e.g., growth), albeit with some country heterogeneity. On average, NIC shocks lower real per capita GDP growth by 3 percentage points over a two-year period, illustrating persistence in the effect of such shocks. Conversely, there is suggestive evidence that anti-NIC efforts appear to have a sustained positive macro impact only when paired with meaningful institutional strengthening, proxied by capacity development efforts. JEL Classification Numbers: D73


Although stadium giveaways are the most common type of promotion used in Major League Baseball to increase demand, most teams supply fewer giveaway items than there are tickets sold. This study argues that giveaway availability is a major component of teams' promotion strategies and has been largely overlooked in the literature. The authors document the choice of giveaway availability across all Major League Baseball teams over an 8-year period and demonstrate that attendance increases with giveaway availability up to the point where there are enough giveaway items to serve 40% of a stadium's capacity. Roughly two thirds of teams set giveaway availability in a fashion that is consistent with the standard price discrimination rationale for promotions found in the economic and marketing literatures. The remaining teams exhibit levels of high availability, indicating an additional investment into fan lifetime value, which is corroborated by these teams' unique fan relationships.


The purpose of this article is to draw attention to an aspect of intelligence that has not yet received significant attention from the AI community, but that plays a crucial role in a technology's effectiveness in the world, namely teaming intelligence. We propose that Al will reach its full potential only if, as part of its intelligence, it also has enough teaming intelligence to work well with people. Although seemingly counterintuitive, the more intelligent the technological system, the greater the need for collaborative skills. This paper will argue why teaming intelligence is important to AI, provide a general structure for AI researchers to use in developing intelligent systems that team well, assess the current state of the art and, in doing so, suggest a path forward for future AI systems. This is not a call to develop a new capability, but rather, an approach to what AI capabilities should be built, and how, so as to imbue intelligent systems with teaming competence.


BACKGROUND: Cesarean delivery is the most common surgical procedure in low- and middle-income countries, so provision of anesthesia services can be measured in relation to it. This study aimed to assess the type of anesthesia used for cesarean delivery, the level of training of anesthesia providers, and to document the availability of essential anesthetic drugs and equipment in provincial, district, and mission hospitals in Zimbabwe. METHODS: In this cross-sectional survey of 8 provincial, 21 district, and 13 mission hospitals, anesthetic providers were interviewed on site using a structured questionnaire adapted from standard instruments developed by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists and the World Health Organization. RESULTS: The anesthetic workforce for the hospitals in this survey constituted 22% who were medical officers and 77% nurse anesthetists (NAs); 55% of NAs were recognized independent anesthetic providers, while 26% were qualified as assistants to anesthetic providers and 19% had no formal training in anesthesia. The only specialist physician anesthetist was part time in a provincial hospital. Spinal anesthesia was the most commonly used method for cesarean delivery (81%) in the 3 months before interview, with 19% general anesthesia of which 4% was ketamine without airway intubation. The mean institutional cesarean delivery rate was 13.6% of live births, although 5 district hospitals were <5%. The estimated institutional maternal mortality ratio was 573 (provincial), 251 (district), and 211 (mission hospitals) per 100,000 live births. Basic monitoring equipment (oximeters, electrocardiograms, sphygmomanometers) was reported available in theatres. Several unsafe practices continue: general anesthesia without a secure airway, shortage of essential drugs for spinal anesthesia, inconsistent use of recovery area or use of table tilt or wedge, and insufficient blood supplies. Postoperative analgesia management was reported inadequate. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified areas where anesthetic provision and care could be improved. Provincial hospitals, where district/mission hospitals refer difficult cases, did not have the higher level anesthesia expertise required to manage these cases. More intensive mentorship and supervision from senior clinicians is essential to address the shortcomings identified in this survey, such as the implementation of evidence-based safe practices, supply chain failures, high maternal morbidity, and mortality. Training of medical officers and NAs should be strengthened in leadership, team work, and management of complications.


Sedentary behavior is a cluster of behaviors adopted in a sitting or lying posture where little energy is being expended. Sedentary behavior is a risk factor for health independent to inactivity. Currently, there are no published systematic reviews on the prevalence of sedentary behavior objectively measured in, or subjectively reported by, older adults. The aim of this systematic review was to collect and analyze published literature relating to reported prevalence of sedentary behavior, written in English, on human adults, where subjects aged 60 years and over were represented in the study. 23 reports covered data from 18 surveys sourced from seven countries. It was noted that sedentary behavior is defined in different ways by each survey. The majority of surveys included used self-report as a measurement of sedentary behavior. Objective measurements were also captured with the use of body worn accelerometers. Whether measurements are subjective or objective, the majority of older adults are sedentary. Almost 60% of older adult's reported sitting for more than 4 h per day, 65% sit in front of a screen for more than 3 h daily and over 55% report watching more than 2 h of TV. However, when measured objectively in a small survey, it was found that 67% of the older population were sedentary for more than 8.5 h daily.


We describe use of Monte Carlo simulation to optimize schedule parameters for execution and rescheduling robustness in the face of execution uncertainties. We search in the activity input parameter space where a) the onboard scheduler is a one shot non-backtracking scheduler and b) the activity input priority determines the order in which activities are considered for placement in the schedule. We show that simulation driven search for activity parameters outperforms static priority assignment. Our approach can be viewed as using simulation feedback to determine problem specific heuristics e.g. Squeaky Wheel Optimization. These techniques are currently baselined for use in the ground operations of NASA's next planetary rover, the Mars 2020 rover.


Abstract Soft-sediment glacially striated surfaces are common structures in ancient glacial successions, such as the Gondwanic Paleozoic record, and document ice erosion on non lithified beds. In most cases, they have been interpreted as the product of subglacial erosion beneath advancing marine or terrestrial glaciers, although direct evidence for glacial sedimentation in associated strata is infrequent. In this paper we document soft-sediment striated surfaces of Carboniferous age occurring in cross-laminated sandstones of the lower Itarare Group, southern Parana Basin, Brazil, and interpret them as scour marks generated by keels of floating ice. Striated surfaces occur in closely spaced, multiple stratigraphic horizons in the lower half of a deglacial sequence, whose facies characteristics indicate sedimentation in subaqueous outwash and deltaic settings. Surfaces are laterally discontinuous, commonly bordered by marginal berms, and in some cases capped by mudstones with dropstones; they have orientations that deviate from the regional paleo-ice flow indicated by glacial grooves carved on the pre-glacial basement. The characteristics observed are consistent with modern and Pleistocene ice-keel scour marks. In addition, soft-sediment striated surfaces from other Gondwanic localities have similar attributes, suggesting that ice-keel scour marks may be more common in the geological record than previously considered and that vertically repeated striated surfaces do not necessarily indicate multiple ice-sheet advances. Therefore, paleo-ice flow reconstructions based on soft-sediment striated surfaces need to be revaluated considering that the movement of free-floating ice masses is controlled by phenomena other than glacier advance.


Abstract
This paper studies the optimal linear pension scheme when society consists of rational and myopic individuals. Myopic individuals have, ex ante, a strong preference for the present even though, ex post, they would regret not to have saved enough. While rational and myopic persons share the same ex post intertemporal preferences, only the rational agents make their savings and labor supply decisions according to these preferences. Individuals are also distinguished by their productivity. The social objective is "paternalistic": the utilitarian welfare function depends on ex post utilities. We examine how the presence of myopic individuals affects both the size of the pension system and the degree of redistribution it operates, with and without liquidity constraints. The relationship between proportion of myopic individuals and characteristics of the pension system turns out to be much more complex than one would have conjectured. Neither the impact on the level of pensions nor the effect on their redistributive degree is unambiguous. Nevertheless, we show that under some plausible assumptions adding myopic individuals increases the level of pension benefits and leads to a shift from a flat or even targeted scheme to a partially contributory one. However, we also provide an example where the degree of redistribution is not a monotonic function of the proportion of myopic individuals.


Modern biochemistry or biochemistry of 21th century is developing in many traditional fields: investigations of proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates, metabolites and metabolic processes, etc, however it has gained new features that based on success of Human Genome Project and on application of high performance technologies (post-genomic technologies). As a result, at the turn of the 21st century some new scientific disciplines, named "OMICS" (proteomics, transcriptomics, lipidomics, glycomics, metabolomics, etc) were created through advances in the biochemistry. Currently "OMICS" and post-genomic technologies are involved in mainstream of cancer research, including studies of human malignant cells. Since malignant tumors consist of heterogeneous cancer cells, the cultured cell lines have some advantages over biopsy simples for studies aimed at understanding the molecular basis of carcinogenesis. The malignant human cell lines differ considerably in their origin from tissues or organs, and therefore they vary widely in the differentiation characteristics and the gene expression patterns. Thus, the use of malignant cell lines ex vivo (as models of human cancers) is an important trend in search for key molecules of carcinogenesis in experimental oncology


Interpretations of the Walls Boundary fault usually take into account only a small part of the previously published evidence, and some even present unsupported speculative interpretations. In particular, geological accounts rarely mention the geophysical evidence available, and geophysical papers take little account of the geology of the area. This paper reviews all published evidence. Geological and marine geophysical evidence show that the fault passes from close to Fair Isle, through Shetland and continues to the northeast; that a 65 km dextral offset occurred in Jurassic times on a gouge-filled fracture; and that prior to this a net sinistral displacement of the order of 100 km had occurred, including a mylonite-producing offset of unknown sense and distance in Carboniferous times.


The growing illegal wildlife trade, including the illegal trade of elephant ivory, has damaging ecological, social, economic, political, and health impacts. The growing transnational illicit ivory trade is increasingly supplied with ivory from African elephant poaching and unsecure, poorly managed ivory stockpiles legally owned by African elephant range states. If unabated, the illegal ivory trade poses a serious threat to sustainable conservation, human security, and international development. My master thesis is focused on the management of ivory stockpiles in sub-Saharan Africa as one of the necessary actions to combat the illegal ivory trade. It is accepted by the international community that collective action through the use of united, cooperative strategies is the most effective approach for combatting the illicit trade of wildlife and their products. However, African elephant range states are currently using two opposing (dichotomous) ivory stockpile management strategies – ivory stockpile destruction and ivory stockpile sale. This dichotomy threatens the necessary collective action to most effectively combat the illegal ivory trade. This is further complicated by the international community contradictorily calling for use of both ivory stockpile management strategies and by the current research inconclusively determining which strategy is more effective. Therefore, my master thesis seeks to explore this dichotomy and, through inductive analysis of archival data, answer my research question: which elephant ivory stockpile management strategy used by African elephant range states correlates better with more effective combatting of the illegal ivory trade, operationalized as decreased behavioral intention to poach as well as decreased poaching behavior?


Dynamical downscaling is frequently used to investigate the dynamical variables of extra-tropical cyclones, for example, precipitation, using very high-resolution models nested within coarser resolution models to understand the processes that lead to intense precipitation. It is also used in climate change studies, using long timeseries to investigate trends in precipitation, or to look at the small-scale dynamical processes for specific case studies. This study investigates some of the problems associated with dynamical downscaling and looks at the optimum configuration to obtain the distribution and intensity of a precipitation field to match observations. This study uses the Met Office Unified Model run in limited area mode with grid spacings of 12, 4 and 1.5 km, driven by boundary conditions provided by the ECMWF Operational Analysis to produce high-resolution simulations for the Summer of 2007 UK flooding events. The numerical weather prediction model is initiated at varying times before the peak precipitation is observed to test the importance of the initialisation and boundary conditions, and how long the simulation can be run for. The results are compared to raingauge data as verification and show that the model intensities are most similar to observations when the model is initialised 12 hours before the peak precipitation is observed. It was also shown that using non-gridded datasets makes verification more difficult, with the density of observations also affecting the intensities observed. It is concluded that the simulations are able to produce realistic precipitation intensities when driven by the coarser resolution data.


The collective anomaly denotes a collection of nearby locations that are anomalous during a few consecutive time intervals in terms of phenomena collectively witnessed by multiple datasets. The collective anomalies suggest there are underlying problems that may not be identified based on a single data source or in a single location. It also associates individual locations and time intervals, formulating a panoramic view of an event. To detect a collective anomaly is very challenging, however, as different datasets have different densities, distributions, and scales. Additionally, to find the spatio-temporal scope of a collective anomaly is time consuming as there are many ways to combine regions and time slots. Our method consists of three components: Multiple-Source Latent-Topic (MSLT) model, Spatio-Temporal Likelihood Ratio Test (ST_LRT) model, and a candidate generation algorithm. MSLT combines multiple datasets to infer the latent functions of a geographic region in the framework of a topic model. In turn, a region's latent functions help estimate the underlying distribution of a sparse dataset generated in the region. ST_LRT learns a proper underlying distribution for different datasets, and calculates an anomalous degree for each dataset based on a likelihood ratio test (LRT). It then aggregates the anomalous degrees of different datasets, using a skyline detection algorithm. We evaluate our method using five datasets related to New York City (NYC): 311 complaints, taxicab data, bike rental data, points of interest, and road network data, finding the anomalies that cannot be identified (or earlier than those detected) by a single dataset. Results show the advantages beyond six baseline methods.


We develop continuous-time models of capacity choice when demand fluctuates stochastically, and the firm's opportunities to expand or contract are limited. Specifically consider costs of investing or disinvesting that vary with time, or with the amount of capacity already installed. The firm's limited opportunities to expand or contract create call and put options on incremental units of capital; we show how the values of these options affect the firm's investment decisions.


In Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with "night soil," graveyards teemed with rotting corpses, the air itself was choked with smoke. In this intimately visceral book, Lee Jackson guides us through the underbelly of the Victorian metropolis, introducing us to the men and women who struggled to stem a rising tide of pollution and dirt, and the forces that opposed them. Through thematic chapters, Jackson describes how Victorian reformers met with both triumph and disaster. Full of individual stories and overlooked details-from the dustmen who grew rich from recycling, to the peculiar history of the public toilet-this riveting book gives us a fresh insight into the minutiae of daily life and the wider challenges posed by the unprecedented growth of the Victorian capital.


Cultural diversity is evident throughout schools in Victoria, Australia. Many students are new arrivals from war-torn countries including Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq. To what extent do teacher training courses in Victoria prepare pre-service teachers to cater for the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students? This paper reports findings from a qualitative study on pre-service preparation for teaching CALD students in mainstream secondary schools. It investigated ways in which CALD student needs are addressed in secondary teaching courses in Victoria. Data included course outlines, questionnaires completed by forty-one final year pre-service teachers, and interviews with four final year pre-service teachers. Findings revealed that the majority of pre-service secondary teachers feel that their teacher education courses lack a focus on cultural and linguistic diversity in schools. Course content analysis supports this. Courses need to be updated to address the needs of teachers of CALD students, and consequently of the students themselves. This paper provides practical ways to begin this process.


Today, usage of complex circuit designs in computers, in multimedia applications and communication devices is widespread and still increasing. At the same time, due to Moore's Law we do not expect to see an end in the growth of the complexity of digital circuits. The decreasing ability of common validation techniques – like simulation – to assure correctness of a circuit design enlarges the need for formal verification techniques. Formal verification delivers a mathematical proof that a given implementation of a design fulfills its specification. One of the basic and during the last years widely used data structure in formal verification are the so called Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDs) introduced by R. Bryant in 1986. The topic of this thesis is integration of structural high-level information in the OBDD-based formal verification of sequential systems. This work consist of three major parts, covering different layers of formal verification applications: 1. At the application layer, an assertion checking methodology, integrated in the verification flow of the high-level design and verification tool Protocol Compiler is presented. 2. At the algorithmic layer, new approaches for partitioning of transition relations of complex finite state machines, that significantly improve the performance of OBDD-based sequential verification are introduced. 3. Finally, at the data structure level, dynamic variable reordering techniques that drastically reduce the time required for reordering without a trade-off in OBDD-size are described. Overall, this work demonstrates how a tighter integration of applications by using structural information can significantly improve the efficiency of formal verification applications in an industrial setting.


ABSTRACT This article discusses the first two social rights cases to go to the Constitutional Court under the 1996 Constitution. Soobramoney v Minister of Health, KwaZulu-Natal 1998 (1) SA 765 (CC) involved a claim of a breach of the right to health care brought by one person pursuant to s 27 of the Bill of Rights. Grootboom v Oostenburg Municipality 2000 (3) BCLR 277 (C) involves a claim of breaches of rights to housing or shelter brought by some 900 persons under ss 26 and 28. The article seeks to demonstrate why the Court's judgment in Soobramoney would be problematic if replicated in future cases, most immediately in the appeal decision in Grootboom. The authors argue that the result in Soobramoney may have been correct, but that its reasoning on several fronts should not be treated as a dispositive precedent in the face of better understandings that will evolve as the courts, and the Constitutional Court itself, gradually feel their way forward in the adjudication of social rights. Similarly, the judgment in Grootboom is found wanting for having been far too deferential to government justifications as to why the failure to meet even the core shelter needs of the applicant adults was not a violation of s 26. At the same time, the High Court in Grootboom was too ready to interpret children's rights to shelter under s 28 as absolute priorities without locating that interpretation in a discussion of the concept of core minimum entitlements, a concept which should have been equally applicable to the s 26 claims of the applicant adults as to the s 28 claims of the children. The doctrinal analysis of the two cases is situated within an interpretative account of the relationship between the South African Bill of Rights and both international human rights law and foreign constitutional law.


Among the challenges many teachers face in facilitating the improvement of speaking skills are sparing sufficient time for practice to enable students to achieve fluency in speaking through internalizing the structures, and establishing a balance between fluency and accuracy. This study aimed to seek an answer to the question as to whether Computer-Mediated Communication Technologies be a solution for overcoming these problems. The study was conducted as additional practice to the foreign language lessons with the participation of 60 students. Task-based language teaching principles were taken as basis in preparation of the teaching materials in the study, in which text and voice chat applications among the Computer-Mediated Communication Technologies were used. During the applications data were collected in several ways: participants' perspectives regarding their changing experiences and the types of tasks used were investigated through the use of open-ended questionnaires after each session; a general insight was obtained into the students' experiences with close-ended questionnaires given at the end of the study; and the use of the target language in communications among students were determined by investigating the text communication logs. From a user-oriented perspective, the results of the study shed light on the strategies that can be used in computer-mediated communication technologies valuing the experiences and perceptions of the learners.


Porfirio Díaz's liberal dictatorship used the centenary of independence to promote material progress, political stability, and the mestizo nation, all of which have remained important characteristics of the Mexican state. The centennial program lionized José Maria Morelos as a mestizo hero of independence and Benito Juárez as an architect of La Reforma and savior of the nation. Besides his remarkable political career, Juárez symbolized the cultural transformation of an Indian into a mestizo through education and secularization, a process advocated by Porfirian social engineers as essential to Mexico's modernization.
 Porfirians also viewed Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage as a source of national pride and identity. For the Centenary, the government expanded the national ethnographic museum, reconstructed Teotihuacán, and sponsored the International Congress of Americanists where scholars presented papers on precolonial cultures. Porfirians' appreciation for the pre-Columbians, however, did not extend to contemporary Indians, who were considered to be a drag on modernization and an embarrassment.
 Mexico's modernization was symbolized by the transformation of Mexico City, the principal venue for the Centennial programs. The capital had been remodeled along Parisian lines with grand boulevards, roundabouts (glorietas), and green space. Electric tramways also connected neighborhoods with downtown, new fashionable suburbs displayed mansions with modern conveniences, and high-end department stores sold merchandise imported from Paris and London.
 During the Centenary, the Paseo de la Reforma and downtown avenues accommodated parades with patriotic and commercial themes, and central plazas provided space for industrial and cultural exhibitions similar to those found at international fairs. The Desfile Histórico depicted scenes from the conquest, colonial, and independence periods that outlined a liberal version of Mexican history. The program also featured openings of primary schools, a public university, an insane asylum, and water works, all indicative of Porfirian notions of modernization.
 The Centennial's audience included Mexico City residents, visitors from the provinces, and delegates from the United States, Europe, and Asia. International and liberal newspapers characterized events as festive and patriotic, while the conservative press protested the lack of attention given to Agustín de Iturbide, the conservative independence leader, and to the Catholic Church. During the celebration, supporters of Francisco I. Madero, the reformer imprisoned by Díaz, organized two protests that interrupted events and foreshadowed troubles ahead. Following Madero's escape from prison, his call to revolution was answered by peasants, provincial elites, and local strongmen whose movements forced Díaz to resign the following year. Revolutionary governments subsequently used Independence Day celebrations, including another centennial in 1921, to promote their political and cultural agendas, including anti-clericalism and indigenous culture as national culture.


The assimilation efficiency (AE), efflux rate, and release budget of Cd, Cr(III), Se(IV), and Zn by a freshwater zooplankton Daphnia magna were measured under different food concentrations. The AEs of trace elements by Daphnia on two algal diets (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Scenedesmus obliquus) were 30–77% for Cd, 8–44% for Cr, 24–58% for Se, and 7–66% for Zn at food concentrations ranging from 0.136 to 7.50 mg carbon L−1. Metal AEs increased significantly with decreasing food concentrations, with a maximum increase of 5.5 and 4.0X for Zn and Cr, respectively. AEs were generally on the order of Cd > Se > Zn > Cr. Efflux rate constants, determined during 7 d depuration after 8 d of exposure to metals in the dissolved phase or dietary phase, were 0.012–0.216 d−1, with the highest efflux for Zn, followed by Cr > Se > Cd. The relative contribution of different routes of metal loss to the overall metal loss was also quantitatively assessed during the 7‐d depuration period. Metals differed substantially in their routes of release from Daphnia. In general, metal excretion into the dissolved phase was the most important route for metal loss. Molting represented nearly 50–70% and 20–70% of daily metal efflux for Cd and Zn, respectively, following aqueous exposure within the first 4 d but was <20 and <30%, respectively, following food exposure. Release by offspring production contributed substantially to Se efflux by the animals. Up to 44–67% and 16–47% of Se was lost from the animals through reproductive allocation on a daily basis following uptake from the aqueous and dietary phases, respectively. The major routes of Cr efflux were by excretion and feces egestion. Our study suggested that trace metal assimilation and regeneration in Daphnia may play an important role in the biogeochemical fates of metals in lake systems.


The Oncology Grand Rounds series is designed to place original reports published in the Journal into clinical context. A case presentation is followed by a description of diagnostic and management challenges, a review of the relevant literature, and a summary of the authors' suggested management approaches. The goal of this series is to help readers better understand how to apply the results of key studies, including those published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, to patients seen in their own clinical practice. A 36-year-old white married mother of two small children presented with intermenstrual bleeding, dyspareunia, and pelvic pain. Because of significant lapses in health care coverage, she had had only sporadic screening for cervical cancer over the past 15 years. On evaluation with a vaginal speculum, her cervix was found to have been replaced by a friable lesion 5 cm in diameter. Biopsy revealed poorly differentiated, squamous cell carcinoma. Bimanual pelvic and rectovaginal examination, as well as radiographic imaging studies, were consistent with an International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IB3 squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. She was treated with cisplatin-based chemoradiation (40 mg/m2 body surface area once per week with a planned total dose of 50 Gy using intensity modulated radiotherapy) plus high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy (to bring the total dose to point A to 80 to 85 Gy). Despite missing eight radiotherapy sessions because of transportation issues, she had a complete clinical response. Fourteen months later, she developed severe pelvic and right flank pain. In the clinic, she was cachectic and reported significant abdominal discomfort that kept her from eating well over the past several months. She was no longer able to work as a medical assistant and spent most of her time confined to her apartment. Physical examination demonstrated a fixed, firm pelvic mass; a computed tomography-guided biopsy confirmed recurrent carcinoma, and staging scans disclosed a pulmonary metastasis.


Design and Manufacture of Mesoscale Robot-Actuated Surgical Instruments Clayton L. Grames Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a growing field including both laparoscopic and robotic operations. Surgeons and engineers are making continual efforts to reduce the negative effects of procedures on patients. Reducing the size of the surgical instruments is one effective method pursued in this effort. When the instruments approach 3 mm in diameter, they reach a threshold where the entry incisions can be small enough that no scar is left on the patient. Laparoscopic instruments on this scale exist but typically lack wrist articulation and only have 1 degree of freedom (DoF). Alternatively, robotic surgical instruments can achieve high levels of dexterity but at a greater diameter. Smaller diameter robotic instruments employ snake wrists but this results in large swept volumes. There is a need for smaller robotic instruments with 3 DoF that preserve a small operational volume. Several unique challenges result when trying to develop small-scale instruments. Friction forces due to the relative motion of actuation cables and other parts in the mechanisms become more significant, as do the challenges of producing and assembling parts with extremely small features. These challenges have been limiting factors for the size of instruments. Traditional mechanisms use pin joints and pulleys which result in higher part counts and higher internal friction. To overcome these challenges, two alternative designs that reduce part count and minimize friction are presented as potential mechanisms that could be used as surgical instruments on the mesoscale (1-5 mm). Both designs implement rolling contact and gearing in place of pin joints and pulleys to realize their motion. Additionally, alternative manufacturing methods that are ideally suited to mesoscale production are presented. Micro metal laser sintering and composite carbon nanotude structures are shown to have the resolution required to create the detailed features necessary for these new designs. The result are two mechanisms suited to be produced as mesoscale, robotically actuated, surgical instruments. One of the two designs has been physically prototyped and has demonstrated clinical capabilities at 4 and 5 mm diameter instrument sizes.


We report a case requiring biliary reconstruction with right hepatic lobectomy due to biliary strictures caused by continuous cholangitis after laparoscopic bile duct injury. The patient, a 55-year-old woman, underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy for cholelithiasis at another hospital. Although a bile leakage from the intraabdominal drain was observed several days after the operation, the patient was not given adequate treatment to stop the leakage. Two months after the initial laparoscopic cholecystectomy, she was referred to our hospital. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) showed complete obstruction of the common hepatic duct, which was caused by clipping during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Cholangiography from percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) catheters revealed that sections of the secondary branches of the right intrahepatic bile duct had become constricted due to persistent cholangitis. Fortunately, the left hepatic duct was judged to be normal by imaging. Therefore, we elected to perform a right hepatic lobectomy and left hepaticojejunostomy, because we felt that performing a hepaticojejunostomy without hepatic resection would put the patient at risk of continuing to suffer from cholangitis. The patient was discharged on the 55 th postoperative day, and, 5 years after reconstructive surgery, is healthy and has remained free from biliary strictures in the remnant liver. Appropriate decision-making is essential in the treatment of biliary injury after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Surgeons should not hesitate to perform biliary reconstruction with hepatic resection to reduce the risk of cholangitis or biliary strictures of the remnant liver. More importantly, preoperative clear imaging of the biliary tree and suitable management of any biliary injury which might occur are necessary to avoid having to perform reconstructive surgery.


Although there have been great changes in the lives and livelihoods of people in the Baltic Sea archipelago during the last century, the lives of local inhabitants are still strongly linked to the local nature, culture, and history. Customary use of local ecosystems provides resources for the household, but it is also an important carrier of local identity, culture, and way of life. Fishing, hunting, and harvesting of berries, mushrooms, etc., function as cultural and intergenerational glue for the local community context even today. This paper reflects upon the cultural and social importance of the small scale and informal economy in the Swedish Baltic Sea archipelago for sustainably living local communities, some of the present challenges to its continuation, and the potentials for positive change. It is based on participatory research on customary use of biodiversity and local and traditional knowledge in the Kalix Archipelago in the northern Bothnian Bay and in the Sankt Anna Archipelago in the Baltic Sea proper.


Abstract. We have used a set of Ground Control Points (GCPs) derived from altimetry measurements from the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) to evaluate the quality of the 30 m posting ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) V3 elevation products produced by NASA/METI for Greenland and Antarctica. These data represent the highest quality globally distributed altimetry measurements that can be used for geodetic ground control, selected by applying rigorous editing criteria, useful at high latitudes, where other topographic control is scarce. Even if large outliers still remain in all ASTER GDEM V3 data for both, Greenland and Antarctica, they are significantly reduced when editing ASTER by number of scenes (N≥5) included in the elevation processing. For 667,354 GCPs in Greenland, differences show a mean of 13.74 m, a median of -6.37 m, with an RMSE of 109.65 m. For Antarctica, 6,976,703 GCPs show a mean of 0.41 m, with a median of -4.66 m, and a 54.85 m RMSE, displaying smaller means, similar medians, and less scatter than GDEM V2. Mean and median differences between ASTER and ICESat are lower than 10 m, and RMSEs lower than 10 m for Greenland, and 20 m for Antarctica when only 9 to 31 scenes are included.


Traditionally, urban water services were characterised by local monopolies, where the incumbent was publicly-owned. This was explained by safety, health, economic, and technological reasons related to the sector's specificities. However, in spite of this, the sector has undergone important reforms in recent years, triggered by efficiency, underinvestment, and environmental problems. The most important features of reform are competitive pressures, private sector participation, and more autonomous operators. These reforms have created a new environment for urban water management and regulation. The objective of this thesis is to analyse the role of regulation in the management of the risks created by the sector's reform. The theoretical analysis is developed along two lines. Firstly, we present an extensive literature review of the theories of economic and social regulation, with the aim of clarifying the interactions between regulation and reform better. We conclude that regulation matters, even after reform. Secondly, we use contract theories as a framework for presenting the vulnerability analysis of the main elements at risk because of reform, namely capital investments and the provision of the service of general interest. At the same time, risk-sharing regimes are identified for the most common institutional arrangement in the sector. The empirical analysis focuses on risk-sharing patterns and the vulnerability of the elements at risk. It is based on a questionnaire targeting management entities, five case-studies illustrating different institutional arrangements, and a study on operator's strategies in a context of reform. In the new context, asset specificity and informational hazards are the most important factors increasing the vulnerability of capital investments. The lack of funding sources is also highlighted, specifically in developing countries. It also became clear that non-provision of the service may result from non-capacity of the system or to non-affordability of the service. Along these lines, we propose regulatory governance mechanisms that tackle the problems highlighted in each institutional arrangement, involving different actors, for every step of the reform risk management process.


This article expands the analytic terrain within which to understand the global in ways that allow us to use sociological methods, concepts and data even when these were not designed to address the global. It examines three types of instances where the national is one of the terrains for the global. One is the endogenizing or the localizing of global dynamics inside the national. A second consists of formations which although global are articulated with particular actors, cultures, or projects, producing an object of study that requires negotiating a global and a local scale. A third is the denationalizing of what has historically been constructed as national and may still continue to be experienced and coded as national when it is in fact no longer such. A focus on such subnationally based processes and dynamics of globalization requires methodologies and theorizations that engage not only global scalings but also subnational scalings as components of global processes. keywords denationalization u globalization u localization u the nation u nationalism


In this article, the authors discuss the experience of the EU in pursuing contract law harmonization in relation to similar developments in the Commonwealth of Independent States (hereinafter, "the CIS") and consider its potential learning effects for the processes in the CIS. They start by noting several key general features of the EU and the CIS (also making reference to some of the more advanced regional sub-groupings within the CIS) which bear on the comparability of the two formations; namely, the degree of diversity of member states, the level of economic integration achieved, and the strength of (common) institutions, insofar as they affect the issue of contract law harmonization in the respective regional formation. The authors continue by discussing the specific experience of the EU, followed by that of the CIS. In doing so, they distinguish between two main mechanisms: conflicts of laws unification and substantive unification. The main focus is on the instruments developed regionally ( i.e. , agreements and legislative acts as well as "soft" model laws), yet, the authors also note the membership in key instruments of international unification. Drs Dragneva and Ioriatti conclude by identifying a number of possible learning points for the CIS in relation to the substance or scope of the harmonization process, the instruments used for it, and the process of pursuing harmonization itself.


With the continuous development of times, the relationship between logistics enterprises and financial sector has undergone a subtle change gradually. The integration of them has certain services function, so as to provide a more convenient and efficient service for business operation among the supply chains. In this study, firstly, it carries out the specific research according to the moral content involved in the logistics financial services model innovation and it starts from the innovation perspective of the operation modes to discuss the advantages of the three operation modes so as to get the existing innovation of these three operation modes. Secondly, it combines with the logistics financial operation mode of chattel management to deepen the traditional logistics financial services modes effectively and to enhance the service function innovation of the mode to make the financial sector and logistics companies form a tighter supply relationship. After that, it carries out a specific research process for the logistics financial operation mode based on risk management and makes a deep exploration to the relationship characteristics between the logistics enterprises and the financial sector from the perspective of risk management, so as to fully reflect the promotion of the development of time to the logistics enterprises and the financial sector. And finally, it discusses the logistics financial service model innovation specifically, which fully embodies the time characteristics of the logistics financial service mode. This is the main idea of the study, in which the ultimate purpose of the study and the main research content can be seen.


The genome of bacterial species is much more flexible than that of eukaryotes. Moreover, the distributed genome hypothesis for bacteria states that the total number of genes present in a bacterial population is greater than the genome of every single individual. The pangenome, i.e. the set of all genes of a bacterial species (or a sample), comprises the core genes which are present in all living individuals, and accessory genes, which are carried only by some individuals. In order to use accessory genes for adaptation to environmental forces, genes can be transferred horizontally between individuals. Here, we extend the infinitely many genes model from Baumdicker, Hess and Pfaffelhuber (2010) for horizontal gene transfer. We take a genealogical view and give a construction -- called the Ancestral Gene Transfer Graph -- of the joint genealogy of all genes in the pangenome. As application, we compute moments of several statistics (e.g. the number of differences between two individuals and the gene frequency spectrum) under the infinitely many genes model with horizontal gene transfer.


We have used supervised machine learning to apply microtiming to music specified only in terms of quantized note times for a variety of percussion instruments. The output of the regression schemes we tried is simply the microtiming deviation to apply to each note. In particular, we trained Locally Weighted Linear Regression / KNearest-Neighbors (LWLR/KNN), Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR), and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) on data from skilled human performance of a variety of Brazilian rhythms. Although our results are still far from the dream of inputting an arbitrary score and having the result sound as if expert human performers played it in the appropriate musical style, we believe we are on the right track. Evaluating our results with cross-validation, we found that the three methods are quite comparable, and in all cases the mean squared error is substantially less than the mean squared microtiming of the original data. Subjectively, our results are satisfactory; the applied microtiming captures some element of musical style and sounds much more expressive than the quantized input.


Although atrial myxoma is the most common primary tumor of the heart, the synchronous occurrence of myxomas of the intestine and the heart has not been reported in the English literature. We report a case of a 47-year-old woman who presented with small bowel obstruction by a pedunculated mass that was found to be a myxoma after resection. A left atrial mass was found incidentally by a computed tomographic scan, and a diagnosis of atrial myxoma was confirmed after a second surgery. The cardiac myxoma showed classic histologic features, with tumor cells layered around vascular channels in an abundant myxoid matrix, while the small bowel lesion was less cellular. Immunohistochemical stains yielded identical results in both. No vascular involvement was noted at either site. This case supports the recommendation that a search for a cardiac lesion should be performed when a myxoma is identified at an unusual location.


This paper presents the first analysis of the life course outcomes through late midlife (around age 55) for the participants of the iconic Perry Preschool Project, an experimental high-quality preschool program for disadvantaged African-American children in the 1960s. We discuss the design of the experiment, compromises in and adjustments to the randomization protocol, and the extent of knowledge about departures from the initial random assignment. We account for these factors in developing conservative small-sample hypothesis tests that use approximate worst-case (least favorable) randomization null distributions. We examine how our new methods compare with standard inferential methods, which ignore essential features of the experimental setup. Widely used procedures produce misleading inferences about treatment effects. Our design-specific inferential approach can be applied to analyze a variety of compromised social and economic experiments, including those using re-randomization designs. Despite the conservative nature of our statistical tests, we find long-term treatment effects on crime, employment, health, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, and other outcomes of the Perry participants. Treatment effects are especially strong for males. Improvements in childhood home environments and parental attachment appear to be an important source of the long-term benefits of the program.


This essay began life as a response to Sotirios Barber's essay (soon to be a book) entitled "Defending Dual Federalism: A Self-Defeating Act." Professor Barber's essay reflects a widespread tendency to associate any judicially-enforceable principle of federalism with the "dual federalism" regime that dominated our jurisprudence from the Founding down to the New Deal. That regime divided the world into separate and exclusive spheres of federal and state regulatory authority, and it tasked courts with defining and policing the boundary between them. "Dual federalism" largely died, however, in the judicial revolution of 1937, and it generally has not been revived since. The first purpose of this essay is thus taxonomical — that is, to distinguish between dual federalism and the several different models of federalism doctrine that have replaced it. These models — which include "managerial decentralization," "cooperative (or uncooperative) federalism," "subsidiarity" or "collective action federalism," "process federalism," and "immunity federalism" — each have their pros and cons, but all are better adapted than dual federalism to a post-New Deal world in which the federal government and the states share largely concurrent regulatory authority. My second purpose is to complain about residual notions of dual federalism in the field of foreign relations law. Those tendencies were on display in the Ninth Circuit's decision in United States v. Arizona, striking down most of Arizona's immigration law, in part on the ground that immigration, as an aspect of foreign relations, is an exclusively federal sphere. The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion affirming the Ninth Circuit last term largely avoided such arguments, focusing instead on the specific preemptive effect of federal legislation in the field. But notions of federal exclusivity persist in foreign relations law. I argue that such notions are inconsistent with the general blurring of lines between foreign and domestic affairs that has typified the process of globalization. Finally, I contest Prof. Barber's assertion that any notion of entrenched federalism limits on national power is conceptually incoherent. Barber asserts that federalists simply can't make such arguments, because those arguments would have to be addressed to a national audience and presented in a national forum. One is reminded of Mark Twain's response when asked if he believed in infant baptism: "Of course I do," he said. "I've seen it done." The more difficult problem in federalism doctrine, which Prof. Barber does not address, is simply the drawing of principled and determinate lines. On that measure, some of the other models discussed earlier are likely to fare better than dual federalism.


Sediment contamination by heavy metals has become a widespread problem that can affect the normal behaviors of rivers and lakes. After chitosan/Fe(0)-nanoparticles (CS-NZVI) beads were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (GLA), their mechanical strength, stability and separation efficiency from the sediment were obviously improved. Moreover, the average aperture size of GLA-CS-NZVI beads was 20.6 μm and NZVI particles were nearly spherical in shape with a mean diameter of 40.2 nm. In addition, the pH showed an insignificant effect on the removal rates from the sediment. Due to the dissolution of metals species into aqueous solutions as an introduction of the salt, the removal rates of all heavy metals from the sediment were increased with an increase of the salinity. The competitive adsorption of heavy metals between the sediment particles and GLA-CS-NZVI beads became stronger as the sediment particles became smaller, leading to decreased removal rates. Therefore, the removal efficiency could be enhanced by optimizing experimental conditions and choosing appropriate materials for the target contaminants.


Much as abortion in the United States today is a contentious issue used for scripting women's roles and potential into the national agenda, divorce was an issue dividing England in the Edwardian era. According to Janice Harris, anything and everything, from illicit sex and family values to the Garden of Eden, wrath of children, poverty of women, nature of cruelty, scandal of America, threat of Germany, and future of England were part of the debate over divorce. Living under marriage laws far more restrictive than those of their Protestant neighbors, Edwardian women and men campaigned for reform with a barrage of compelling stories. Organizing her analysis around three major sources of narrative on divorceaEURO"aEURO"the Sunday papers, the Report of the Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial causes, and the novelaEURO"aEURO"Harris uncovers a war of words and a competition of tales. In raising questions about the winners, losers, and spoils, Harris expands our understanding of the history of divorce, the wars between the sexes, and the political import of those wars. In the end, she presents a complex and lively story herself, one that illuminates battles over marriage and divorce taking place in our own era as well. This humane book on a long-neglected subject marks an important contribution to narrative studies and Edwardian history.


The subject of this article is to analyze the national bibliography as a means for promoting the documentary heritage and providing access to it. It discusses various forms of the national bibliography as well as their potential for preserving the memory and ensuring access to documentary resources and their promotion. The article serves the purpose, by drawing on the analysis of foreign publications, of substantiating the idea that the national bibliography as a structured registry of the national publishing output may serve as a reliable means for promoting the documentary heritage. The article elaborates on the evolution of the notion and coverage of the national bibliography as well as its presentation to the public. The national bibliography was defined in the 60ies of the 20th century by joint efforts of UNESCO and IFLA. This definition underlined that the national bibliography must cover the nation's entire published output. The notion of the national bibliography underwent some evolution, and in the 21st century the focus shifted towards registering electronic publishing resources alongside with solving the issues of presenting the national bibliography to the public. Previously, the presence of a bibliographic record in the national bibliography signified that the resource was available within the legal deposit collection of the library, whereas at present the issue of having to register national information resources which do not belong to this collection is gaining persistence. Another significant issue in making the national bibliography a comprehensive registry of the nation's publishing output is the relation between the national bibliography and legal deposit. Successful and sustainable development of the national bibliography requires cooperative effort in creating and updating publication and factual data and efficient communication with publishers and other suppliers of public information within the chain of legal deposit. This interaction substantiates the existence of the national bibliography as the all-reflecting mirror creating opportunities to cognize the national documentary cultural heritage and ensuring its promotion and access, The register of bibliographic and authority data of published documents helps preserve the cultural and historical memory; ensures dissemination of knowledge about historical and cultural events and their interpretation; and gives a panorama of the cultural history, the heritage of the traditional culture, prominent fellow-countrymen and national uniqueness. The analysis of websites of national libraries of various countries which are legal deposit receivers shows that some of them remind the publishers of their obligation to submit legal deposit copies in a laconic manner and some of them provide more information, e.g. types and quantity of legal deposit copies and terms of submission as well as give references to appropriate legal acts. Some of these institutions highlight the significance of legal deposit as a means of preserving cultural heritage and ensuring access to it for the general public and researchers. However, there is no clear message addressed to the integral and primary chain of the legal deposit system, the publishers, about their responsibility about the comprehensiveness of legal deposit and the publishers' benefits from contributing to the preservation and access of the national cultural heritage. The article analyzes the transformation of the national bibliography from a printed list to a presentation of linked data. Digital and information technologies applied in publication processes and creation of new forms of disseminating data of national bibliographies contribute to promoting the national history and cultural memory. Broad access to national bibliographic data allows the general public creating new services and products. The precise definition of purposes of the national bibliography and its users could facilitate the shaping of the appropriate model of the national bibliography.


Mixed results have been documented for the performance of hedging strategies using futures. This paper reinvestigates this issue using an extensive set of performance evaluation metrics across seven international markets. We compare the hedging performance of short and long hedgers using traditional variance based approaches together with modern risk management techniques including Value at Risk, Conditional Value at Risk and approaches based on Downside Risk. Our findings indicate that using these metrics to evaluate hedging performance, yields differences in terms of best hedging strategy as compared with the traditional variance measure. We also find significant differences in performance between short and long hedgers. These results are observed both in-sample and out-of-sample.


This article mainly seeks to illuminate the specific methods and main sources used by the British ambassadors in Istanbul to obtain accurate intelligence for their reports to the Foreign Office. It appears that the British ambassadors used different channels for different types of information. First and foremost, they had urgent demands to know what was going on in the city. The Dragomans played a principal role in meeting that need. Their ability to get intelligence in advance on specific events was undeniable. Similarly, the British citizens and newspaper correspondents supported the embassy from another spot with some other details of the matter. It was of the greatest value to the embassy to have information on a regular basis from all over the Ottoman territories. The extensive Consulate establishment in the East certainly served for this purpose. The consuls acted as de facto intelligence agents in their respective areas, notably, in places where they were close to the Empire's borders. The intercourse between the British embassy and the other friendly courts in Istanbul also produced valuable information. The reports of the British military officers sent to the embassy can be counted within this context as well. All these channels served to get information mainly by uncovered means. However, the British representatives also used more covert means which resembled the twentieth century forms of intelligence gathering. In this type of activities they used three mechanisms. In the first instance, the Ottoman high officials were the actors, and information in these cases was supplied in more devious ways. In the second model, there was an 'outlying' department required to be served by agents not recognised as belonging to the Embassy. The persons working in this can be categorised as secret agents. In the third formation, there were unofficial negotiators who acquired the sympathy and confidence of the Ottomans. In addition to their negotiating ability, and position as secret go-between the two sides, these people also furnished the embassy with very important information about the particular events and subjects. It is evident however that the British ambassadors used the covert means quite effectively. Many important documents obtained and events learned through these mechanisms.