Blood flow in murine epicardial and intra-myocardial coronary arteries was measured in vivo with spectral domain optical Doppler tomography (SD-ODT). Videos at frame rates up to 180 fps were collected and processed to extract phase shifts associated with moving erythrocytes in the coronary arteries. Radial averaging centered on the vessel lumen provided spatial smoothing of phase noise in a single cross-sectional frame for instantaneous peak velocity measurement without distortion of the flow profile. Temporal averaging synchronized to the cardiac cycle (i.e., gating) was also performed to reduce phase noise, although resulting in lower flow profiles. The vessel angle with respect to incident imaging beam was measured with three-dimensional raster scans collected from the same region as the high speed cross-sectional scans. The variability in peak phase measurement was 10-15% from cycle to cycle on a single animal but larger for measurements among animals. The inter-subject variability is attributed to factors related to real physiological and anatomical differences, instrumentation variables, and measurement error. The measured peak instantaneous flow velocity in a ~40-µm diameter vessel was 23.5 mm/s (28 kHz Doppler phase shift). In addition to measurement of the flow velocity, we observed several dynamic features of the vessel and surrounding myocardium in the intensity and phase sequences, including asymmetric vessel deformation and rapid flow reversal immediately following maximum flow, in confirmation of known coronary artery flow dynamics. SD-ODT is an optical imaging tool that can provide in vivo measures of structural and functional information on cardiac function in small animals.


This handy little book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions that are at the heart of every text-processing application. Ideal as a quick reference, Regular Expression Pocket Reference covers the regular expression APIs for Perl 5.8, Ruby (including some upcoming 1.9 features), Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, and the PCRE regular expression libraries. This concise and easy-to-use reference puts a very powerful tool for manipulating text and data right at your fingertips. Composed of a mixture of symbols and text, regular expressions can be an outlet for creativity, for brilliant programming, and for the elegant solution. Regular Expression Pocket Reference offers an introduction to regular expressions, pattern matching, metacharacters, modes and constructs, and then provides separate sections for each of the language APIs, with complete regex listings including: Supported metacharacters for each language APIRegular expression classes and interfaces for Ruby, Java, .NET, and C#Regular expression operators for Perl 5.8Regular expression module objects and functions for PythonPattern-matching functions for PHP and the vi editorPattern-matching methods and objects for JavaScriptUnicode Support for each of the languages With plenty of examples and other resources, Regular Expression Pocket Reference summarizes the complex rules for performing this critical text-processing function, and presents this often-confusing topic in a friendly and well-organized format. This guide makes an ideal on-the-job companion.


Background Particular intra-aneurysmal blood flow conditions, created naturally by the growth of an aneurysm or induced artificially by implantation of a flow diverter stent (FDS), can potentiate intra-aneurysmal thrombosis. The aim of this study was to identify hemodynamic indicators, relevant to this process, which could be used as a prediction of the success of a preventive endovascular treatment. Method A cross sectional study on 21 patients was carried out to investigate the possible association between intra-aneurysmal spontaneous thrombus volume and the dome to neck aspect ratio (AR) of the aneurysm. The mechanistic link between these two parameters was further investigated through a Fourier analysis of the intra-aneurysmal shear rate (SR) obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This analysis was first applied to 10 additional patients (4 with and 6 without spontaneous thrombosis) and later to 3 patients whose intracranial aneurysms only thrombosed after FDS implantation. Results The cross sectional study revealed an association between intra-aneurysmal spontaneous thrombus volume and the AR of the aneurysm (R2=0.67, p<0.001). Fourier analysis revealed that in cases where thrombosis occurred, the SR harmonics 0, 1, and 2 were always less than 25/s, 10/s, and 5/s, respectively, and always greater than these values where spontaneous thrombosis was not observed. Conclusions Our study suggests the existence of an SR threshold below which thrombosis will occur. Therefore, by analyzing the SR on patient specific data with CFD techniques, it may be potentially possible to predict whether or the intra-aneurysmal flow conditions, after FDS implantation, will become prothrombotic.


Domain adaptation is the supervised learning setting in which the training and test data are sampled from different distributions: training data is sampled from a source domain, whilst test data is sampled from a target domain. This paper proposes and studies an approach, called feature-level domain adaptation (FLDA), that models the dependence between the two domains by means of a feature-level transfer model that is trained to describe the transfer from source to target domain. Subsequently, we train a domain-adapted classifier by minimizing the expected loss under the resulting transfer model. For linear classifiers and a large family of loss functions and transfer models, this expected loss can be computed or approximated analytically, and minimized efficiently. Our empirical evaluation of FLDA focuses on problems comprising binary and count data in which the transfer can be naturally modeled via a dropout distribution, which allows the classifier to adapt to differences in the marginal probability of features in the source and the target domain. Our experiments on several real-world problems show that FLDA performs on par with state-of-the-art domain-adaptation techniques.


The quality of care for craniofacial malformations is thought to be improved through benchmarking. The benchmarking process identifies the best practice within the participating centers and leads to new protocols and guidelines, which are implemented by the participants. It also allows for comparison of outcome between the various centers. Among the International Society for Craniofacial Surgery (ISCFS) a first international pilot study was undertaken on benchmarking for craniosynostosis, and a preliminary set of recommendations is made. A controlled number of centers including multidisciplinary teams was a prerequisite. A minimum number of patients operated per year seemed to be a valid parameter for decreasing morbidity.


The study aims to calculate Egypt's real effective exchange rate at both the bilateral and multilateral levels, estimates the effect of real cross-rate movements on trade in goods and services and on foreign direct investment, and determines the fundamental equilibrium exchange rate for Egypt's balance of payments. As part of this process, the study specifies and estimates a balance of payments model with considerable disaggregation in its trade components. The model provides a theory-consistent representation of the behavioral relationships in the balance of payments, and it offers forecasting and policy simulation capabilities targeted to the needs of the Government of Egypt. As such, the model serves a dual purpose. First, it provides a framework for making rational and consistent predictions about the standard components of the balance of payments. Secondly, it offers a means of quantitatively evaluating the impact of exchange rate policies on the balance of payments.


Commercial liquid petroleum fuels are complex mixtures of various hydrocarbons. In
multicomponent fuel modelling, these liquid fuels are represented typically with two
components or up to ten discrete components. Even with ten components, there are
limitations on the representation of real commercial fuels such as heavy fuel oil (HFO),
which contains large numbers of hydrocarbons with a wide range of molecular weights
and dissimilar structures. Continuous thermodynamics and pyrolysis chemical kinetics are
used to model the behaviour of HFO in diesel spray combustion.
The evaporation model is developed using the principle of continuous thermodynamics
rather than discrete component modelling, to accurately cover the entire range of
composition. Continuous thermodynamics reduces the computational simulation load
compared to conventional discrete thermodynamics, without degrading the quality of
prediction of the complex behaviours of such multicomponent fuels. In continuous
thermodynamics modelling, liquid mixture compositions are simply represented by
probability density functions (PDF). In the present study, HFO is represented by four fuel
fractions: n-paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes and heavy residue. Each of these fractions is
assigned a separate distribution function. In the evaporation model, both low-pressure and
high-pressure formulations for the calculation of vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) at the
droplet surface are provided. The formulations for high-pressure VLE are developed for a
semicontinuous mixture and a generic approach to the equation of state (EOS) is used.
Therefore, depending on the mixture compositions (continuous or semicontinuous) these
formulations can be applied with any EOS. It is identified that in the high-pressure model,
interaction coefficients between the liquid-liquid components and between the liquid
component and air plays an important role during evaporation. Interaction coefficients
help to improve the evaporation rate of heavy molecules.
HFO is primarily composed of high molecular weight hydrocarbons which cannot
evaporate but are pyrolised at high temperatures. Pyrolysis produces volatile gases and
polymers through thermal cracking and polymerisation respectively. Baert's pyrolysis
model based on chemical kinetics for thermal cracking and polymerisation rate is
developed. Results of this pyrolysis model show that polymer formation within a droplet

is dependent on droplet heating rate and composition. Moreover, it is observed in Baert's
pyrolysis model results that the process of polymerisation starts prior to the thermal
cracking. This order of thermal cracking and polymerisation is contradictory to the
experimental evidence. Subsequently, Baert's pyrolysis model parameters are modified.
Results of the modified pyrolysis model did not show any significant dependency of
polymer formation on droplet heating rate and in addition it showed thermal cracking
beginning earlier than the polymerisation.
The low and high-pressure evaporation models along with the modified pyrolysis model
are applied to a single HFO droplet in a high pressure environment, showing good
agreement with experimental results obtained by other researchers. A comparison of the
low-pressure model with the high-pressure model for 100 micron and 30 micron droplets
at high pressure and temperature show that evaporation of the volatile hydrocarbons (nparaffins,
aromatics, naphthenes) from HFO occurs at a faster rate for the high-pressure
model. However, this faster evaporation does not significantly affect the droplet lifetime
because modelled HFO contains only 30% volatile hydrocarbons (cutter stock) by mass.
Therefore, droplet lifetime is found to be similar for both models. Thus in sprays where
droplets are generally small, the VLE calculation can be obtained with sufficient accuracy
by the low-pressure model avoiding the use of the complex high-pressure EOS model.
The low-pressure evaporation and modified pyrolysis models along with a heterogeneous
liquid phase soot burnout model are implemented via subroutines in a diesel spray
simulation in the CFD package StarCD. This simulation is applied to two different
constant volume spray combustion chambers which are used to examine the combustion
characteristics of HFO. The models are tested for two representative fuel samples; one
with the good combustion quality and the other poor. Good qualitative agreement is
shown between the computer simulations and the published experimental data.
A sample of HFO is characterised in the laboratory using chemical characterisation
procedures such as; sequential elution solvent chromatography (SESC), gaschromatography
(GC), mass spectrometry (MS) and elemental analysis, to obtain the
composition and mean molecular weights of HFO fractions required for continuous
thermodynamics modelling. A CFD simulation of the characterised HFO is performed
using the developed low-pressure evaporation and modified pyrolysis models.


Estuarine habitats are characterized by environmental changes on many time scales. While certain physical parameters change on a regular, predictable basis, rapid environmental fluctuatlons can also occur as a result of stochastic events. For example, rainstorms are frequent, unpredictable events that can cause dramatic changes in the estuarine environment, in short periods of time As a result of storm precipitation and terrestrial freshwater runoff, estuarine sallnity can drop in excess of 2 0 ? ~ in 6 h. Our research focuses on the effects of these storm-induced salinity fluctuations on estuanne embryos and larvae in terms of growth, mortality, rate of development, and activity. We studied 2 species of estuarine invertebrates: the embryos and larvae of the mud snail Ilyanassa obsoleta and the larvae of the marine polychaete Arenicola cristata. In both species, greater reductions in salinity resulted in smaller larvae. Both the duration of salinity reduction and the age of embryos and larvae when exposed to a sallnity reduction affected growth rates: longer and earlier (relative to embryonic or larval age) storms had a greater effect on growth rates, resulting in smaller larvae. Both species also exhibited changes in activity when exposed to salinity reductions: I. obsoleta larvae swam significantly less at 10'!:*), while A. cristata larvae displayed a delay in activities associated with the sequence of development from swimm~ng trochophore, to crawling larva, to settled metamorphic juvenile. Our results show that stochastic events may have a significant impact on the growth and development of pre-settlement estuarine invertebrates, implying ecological effects on recruitment success.


The role of acclimation of dark respiration to temperature and CO2 concentration and its relationship to growth are critical in determining plant response to predicted global change. We explored temperature acclimation of respiration in seedlings of tree species of the North American boreal forest. Populus tremuloides, Betula papyrifera, Larix laricina, Pinus banksiana, and Picea mariana plants were grown from seed in controlled‐environments at current and elevated concentrations of CO2 (370 and 580 μmol mol–1) in combination with three temperature treatments of 18/12, 24/18, and 30/24 °C (light/dark period). Specific respiration rates of roots and shoots acclimated to temperature, damping increases in rates across growth‐temperature environments compared to short‐term temperature responses. Compared at a standard temperature, root and shoot respiration rates were, on average, 40% lower in plants grown at the highest compared to lowest growth temperature. Broad‐leaved species had a lower degree of temperature acclimation of respiration than did the conifers. Among species and treatment combinations, rates of respiration were linearly related to size and relative growth rate, and relationships were comparable among growth environments. Specific respiration rates and whole‐plant respiratory CO2 efflux as a proportion of daily net CO2 uptake increased at higher growth temperatures, but were minimally affected by CO2 concentration. Whole‐plant specific respiration rates were two to three times higher in broad‐leaved than coniferous species. However, compared to faster‐growing broad‐leaved species, slower‐growing conifers lost a larger proportion of net daily CO2 uptake as respiratory CO2 efflux, especially in roots. Interspecific variation in acclimation responses of dark respiration to temperature is more important than acclimation of respiration to CO2 enrichment in modifying tree seedling growth responses to projected increases in CO2 concentration and temperature.


Abstract: Focusing on short-term wind power forecast, a method based on the combination of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) has been proposed. Firstly, the GA was used to prepossess the data and effectively extract the input of model in feature space. Basis on this, the ELM was used to establish the forecast model for short-term wind power. Then, the GA was used to optimize the activation function of hidden layer nodes, the offset, the input weights, and the regularization coefficient of extreme learning, thus obtaining the GA-ELM algorithm. Finally, the GA-ELM was applied to the short-term wind power forecast for a certain area. Compared with single ELM, Elman algorithms, the experimental results show that the GA-ELM algorithm has higher prediction accuracy and better ability for generalization.


The great majority of acute brain injury results from trauma or from disorders of the cerebrovasculature, i.e. ischaemic stroke or haemorrhage. These injuries are characterized by an initial insult that triggers a cascade of injurious cellular processes. The nature of these processes in spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage is poorly understood. Subarachnoid haemorrhage, a particularly deadly form of intracranial haemorrhage, shares key pathophysiological features with traumatic brain injury including exposure to a sudden pressure pulse. Here we provide evidence that axonal injury, a signature characteristic of traumatic brain injury, is also a prominent feature of experimental subarachnoid haemorrhage. Using histological markers of membrane disruption and cytoskeletal injury validated in analyses of traumatic brain injury, we show that axonal injury also occurs following subarachnoid haemorrhage in an animal model. Consistent with the higher prevalence of global as opposed to focal deficits after subarachnoid haemorrhage and traumatic brain injury in humans, axonal injury in this model is observed in a multifocal pattern not limited to the immediate vicinity of the ruptured artery. Ultrastructural analysis further reveals characteristic axonal membrane and cytoskeletal changes similar to those associated with traumatic axonal injury. Diffusion tensor imaging, a translational imaging technique previously validated in traumatic axonal injury, from these same specimens demonstrates decrements in anisotropy that correlate with histological axonal injury and functional outcomes. These radiological indicators identify a fibre orientation-dependent gradient of axonal injury consistent with a barotraumatic mechanism. Although traumatic and haemorrhagic acute brain injury are generally considered separately, these data suggest that a signature pathology of traumatic brain injury-axonal injury-is also a functionally significant feature of subarachnoid haemorrhage, raising the prospect of common diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic approaches to these conditions.


This paper considers substantive and methodological issues that are raised by the deployment of Goethe's notion of the Urphänomen in the work of Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin. The paper is exploratory. I employ Goethe's idea, and his approach to empirical observation and theory more generally, to examine affinities and contrasts between the methodology of Simmel and Benjamin. Like Goethe, both Simmel and Benjamin make imaginative use of analogical reasoning, and their approaches resist conventional sociological classification as particular kinds of `theory'. Simmel and Benjamin are thinkers who seek to present their arguments in a mode which cannot be divorced from their substance. By comparing their approaches in relation to Goethe's idea, we can illuminate new aspects of Benjamin's historiography and Simmel's approach to societal and historical form.


Atom Interferometry methods open new prospectives for absolute acceleration measurements; the quantum features of matter and the employment of atomic test masses with manipulation technique of internal and external degrees of freedom lead to a new generation of quantum sensors. In this thesis I present the development of a prototype for a transportable sensor at system and subsystem level. An instrument with such characteristics can find applications in many felds. The work has been developed in the framework of two European projects respectively oriented to the realization of an atom interferometry based absolute gravimeter for geophysical and metrological applications and to the realization of a Space Atom Interferometer for tests in micro-gravity environment. In order to focus on the possible scientific landscape I briefy illustrate in the introduction the existing devices and their characteristic performances, pointing out how the atom interferometry may represent a valid alternative leading to a new generation of quantum devices. The study, the development and the realization stages for our instrument are presented either for the laser system realization and for the the implementation of the whole apparatus. This work leads to the development of a very compact atomic physics interferometric system responding to the scientific requirements that represent our target. From the laser system side it has been realized also a complete and compact apparatus organized in a modular framework with stand alone components characterized by high working performances. This laser subsystem also includes laser sources in an external cavity configuration specially oriented to transportable apparatuses; they are characterized by an intrinsical passive stability, robustness and very narrow emission linewidth. The experience with neutral atom manipulation and with atom cooling and trapping technique has been integrated with a direct implementation, characterization and optimization of a Two Dimensional Magneto Optical Trap as a cold atoms source for an operating Atom Interferometer. Such kind of implementation represents a fundamental topic for a transportable sensor realization.


This paper argues for a special focus on the use of dynamic human interaction to explore datasets while they are being transformed into sound. We describe why this is a special case of both human computer interaction (HCI) techniques and sonification methods. Humans are adapted for interacting with their physical environment and making continuous use of all their senses. When this exploratory interaction is applied to a dataset (by continuously controlling its transformation into sound) new insights are gained into the data's macro and micro-structure, which are not obvious in a visual rendering. This paper reviews the importance of interaction in sonification, describes how a certain quality of interaction is required, provides examples of the techniques being applied interactively, and outlines a plan of future work to develop interaction techniques to aid sonification.


At many institutions introductory exercise physiology courses are required for all kinesiology students. The laboratory portion of these courses usually involves development of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) connected with content presented in lecture. Due to scalability issues, the Kinesiology Department at California State University Monterey Bay cannot offer traditional laboratory experiences. Therefore, online and hybrid laboratory experiences were created to provide similar opportunities for students, address scalability issues, and enhance student engagement and learning. Creation of these carefully crafted laboratory experiences allowed instructors to (a) highlight and explain key foundational principles, (b) provide experiences involving practical application of material presented in lecture, and (c) present students with additional learning experiences while maintaining high learner expectations. The following article outlines the process used to create these virtual laboratory experienc...


The wetlands and grasslands of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) make it the most productive breeding habitat for North American ducks. The growth rate of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) populations is sensitive to changes in survival of adult females during the breeding season. Much of the PPR is suitable for large-scale wind-energy development and collisions of breeding females with wind turbines may be a novel source of mortality in this area. We assessed the effects of wind energy on breeding female mallard and blue-winged teal (A. discors) survival by monitoring 77 radio-marked mallards and 88 blue-winged teal during the 2009 and 2010 breeding seasons at the Tatanka Wind Farm (TWF) near Kulm, North Dakota. During the same period, we monitored 70 female mallards and 75 blue-winged teal at an adjacent reference site without wind turbines (REF). We used an information-theoretic approach to investigate relationships between female survival and site (TWF vs. REF), year (2009 vs. 2010), and date. Collision mortalities were rare. Only 1 radio-marked female mallard and no blue-winged teal collided with wind turbines. Most mortalities were caused by predators (78.3%; 36/46), irrespective of species and site. For mallards, the best-approximating model indicated that breeding season survival was 1) lowest when a high proportion of radio-marked females were incubating, and 2) dependent on year and site such that expected survival (Sˆ) in 2009 was higher at TWF (Sˆ = 0.90, 85% CI = 0.79–0.98) than at REF (Sˆ = 0.83, 85% CI = 0.68–0.95), but expected survival in 2010 was lower at TWF (Sˆ = 0.62, 85% CI = 0.46–0.79) than at REF (Sˆ = 0.84, 85% CI = 0.72–0.94). For blue-winged teal, the constant model was the best-approximating model and indicated that expected female survival was 0.75 (85% CI = 0.69–0.82). The most competitive model for blue-winged teal that included the effect of wind turbines indicated that expected survival at TWF (Sˆ = 0.71, 85% CI = 0.62–0.79) was lower than survival at REF (Sˆ = 0.81, 85% CI = 0.73–0.89). The limited number of collisions observed for female mallards and blue-winged teal nesting at TWF suggests that wind turbines had no direct effect on female survival. Thus, conservation strategies that include protection of wetland and grassland habitat in wind-developed landscapes will most likely not cause a direct reduction in survival of breeding females due to collisions with wind turbines. © 2013 The Wildlife Society.


Natural products of several plants, according to the geographic location, are used by Peruvian people in the popular treatment of diarrhea, with good success. When cholerae cases appeared in Peru, we were interested to know the "in vitro" effect against Vibrio cholerae 01, of these useful plants to treat diarrhea. The following plants were tested: Cichorium intybus, Althaea officinalis, Psorela glandulosa, Geranium maculatum, Punica granatum, Malus sativa, Cydonia oblonga, Chenopodium ambrosoides, Krameria triandria, Tea chinensis, Daucus carota, Persea gratissima, Psidium guayaba and Lippia dulcis. Decoction or infusion of the plants were used in the "in vitro" experiments. The following plants showed no "in vitro" effect against V. cholerae: Cichorium intybus, Althaea officinalis, Psorela glandulosa, Geranium maculatum, Chenopodium ambrosoides, Krameria triandria, Psidium guayaba, Lippia dulcis and Daucus carota. Decoction of Malus sativa and Cydenia oblonga showed bactericidal effect for their acidity and stone avocado (Persea gratissima) a late bactericidal effect. Tea infusión and the decoction of Punica granatum peel, showed the best bactericidal effect and we suggest to use them as to stop cholera spreading.


An ideal point-of-care device would incorporate the simplicity and reliability of a lateral flow assay with a microfluidic device. Our system consists of self-priming microfluidics with sealed conjugate pads of reagent delivery and an absorbent pad for additional fluid draw. Using poly(methyl methacrylate) as a microfluidic substrate, we have developed a single-step surface modification method which allows strong capillary flow within a sealed microchannel. For our biosensor design, we have incorporated aspects of lateral flow assays within our device. Conjugate pads within the device held trapped magnetic nanoparticles which were released when the sample entered the chamber. In addition, nucleic-acidprobe-conjugated horseradish peroxidase was released on a second conjugate pad. The complex consisting of the magnetic nanoparticle, target nucleic acid and HRP was immobilized over a magnet while a co-reactant stream containing H2O2 was merged with the channel. A downstream electrode attached to a potentiostat was able to quantify the signal. This new format of biosensor will allow for a smaller and more portable point-of-care biosensor. The design also allows to commercial-scale manufacturing and low materials cost. The potentiostat can be miniaturized to allow for a truly handheld system which and conduct assays on a disposable chip.


-This periodical object specify with the numerous pelletization skills employed in the pharmaceutical industrialized for spheroidal element fabrication i.e., spheroids are mainly for oral management which can be additional expressed into numerous additional dosage forms such as medicines, shells or can be management as such. Nowadays oral management has converted into most adaptable, appropriate and corporate route of remedy management which eventually emphases on patient compliance. In pharmaceutical industries, spheroids are multiparticulate dosage form which was designed by the accumulation of fine pulverized excipient and remedies together that indicates to the establishment of insignificant unrestricted elegant sphere-shaped or semi sphere-shaped elements. This strategy is entitled as pelletization. The magnitudes of the spheroids are ranging from 0.5-2mm. Due to their free elegant aptitude of spheroids and have short porosity about 10%. The manufacturing strategy includes extrusion spheronization, warm liquesce extrusion, balling, compression, cryopelletization, Globulation, spray congealing.


PURPOSE
To determine the relationship of nearwork and myopia in young elementary school-age children in Singapore.

METHODS
A cross-sectional study of 1005 school children aged 7 to 9 years was conducted in two schools in Singapore. Cycloplegic autorefraction, keratometry, and biometry measurements were performed. In addition, the parents completed a detailed questionnaire on nearwork activity (books read per week, reading in hours per day and diopter hours [addition of three times reading, two times computer use, and two times video games use in hours per day]). Other risk factors, such as parental myopia, socioeconomic status, and light exposure history, were assessed.

RESULTS
In addition to socioeconomic factors, several nearwork indices were associated with myopia in these young children. The multivariate adjusted odds ratio of higher myopia (at least -3.0 D) for children who read more than two books per week was 3.05 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.80-5.18). However, the odds ratios of higher myopia for children who read more than 2 hours per day or with more than 8 diopter hours (1.50; 95% CI, 0.87-2.55 and 1.04; 95% CI, 0.61-1.78, respectively) were not significant, after controlling for several factors.

CONCLUSIONS
Children aged 7 to 9 years with a greater current reading exposure were more likely to be myopic. This association of reading and myopia in a young age cohort was greater than the strength of the reading association generally found in older myopic subjects. Whether these results identify an association of early-onset myopia with nearwork activity or other potentially confounding factors is discussed.


Over the past decade, new trends have emerged, political and technological, which will set the conditions for the development of global economic processes in the near future. Within the framework of the modern paradigm, qualitative economic growth is possible only in the case of large-scale introduction of innovations and digital technologies, which is possible while ensuring macroeconomic stability. The article discusses the issues of quantitative assessment, based on the developed economic and mathematical model, the level of budget balance of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. When forming the model of the category "macroeconomic stability", the methods of regression, correlation and factor analysis were used. An index method has been used as a quantitative assessment tool. A calculation-experimental method was used to prove the realism of the developed model, and to give a quantitative assessment using examples of constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are part of the Volga and Siberian federal districts. The results obtained develop scientific knowledge in the field of regional economics, and their practical use will allow to purposefully and reasonably solve the problems of regional and leading development management


This paper presents a numerical study of the superprism effect in photonic-crystal (PC) slabs. A fully vectorial three-dimensional time-domain code allows to simulate, with virtually no approximations, the role of the sample finiteness in the dispersive response of the frequency-banded structure. Out-of-plane coupling and transmission of the device are investigated.


The point where a dance work begins and ends is fuzzy and ambiguous, especially when we consider performance as continuing past live interactions between performers and audiences into publicity material, documentation, film and context. Experimental documentation/choreographic translation performs aspects of the choreography corporeal translations, as a series of performance writings and images. A series of ten images is preceded by a critical discussion of the choreographic process underpinning corporeal translations and of movement-initiated writing as a rendering of dance process. Movement-initiated writing is posited as a method for writing about dance experimentally, in a form that emerges in relation to dance-based qualities such as felt affect, tone, rhythm, space and texture. Translation is discussed as the movement of ideas between artistic forms, cultures and/or languages. This article posits that the discipline of translation provides a rich resource in practice-led research for considering both methodological and ethical concerns in moving between creative and critical spaces.


Using original data derived from the thematic analysis of three international agreements and the 2016 Conference of the Parties (COP) and Meeting of the Parties (MOP) Decisions, this article examines the incorporation of technology and technological innovation in the biological diversity regime. It finds that that the biodiversity regime incorporates discourses of ecological modernisation and prioritises technological innovation for biodiversity loss, particularly in the 2016 COP and MOP Decisions.The empirical analysis indicates that themes regarding progress, 'improving' the environment and the role of technology in mediating economic growth and development are embedded in references to technology and technological innovation. Drawing on an ecofeminist perspective, this article examines how these themes highlight the prioritisation of technological innovation to prevent biodiversity loss. The author concludes that this prioritisation inhibits opportunities to fully engage with developing alternative approaches towards resolving environmental problems as these approaches require a re-evaluation of the societal institutions and practices that exploit and destroy the non-human environment.


Pathologists find tedious to examine the status of the sentinel lymph node on a large number of pathological scans. The examination process of such lymph node which encompasses metastasized cancer cells is histopathologically organized. However, the task of finding metastatic tissues is gradual which is often challenging. In this work, we present our deep convolutional neural network based model validated on PatchCamelyon (PCam) benchmark dataset for fundamental machine learning research in histopathology diagnosis. We find that our proposed model trained with a semi-supervised learning approach by using pseudo labels on PCam-level significantly leads to better performances to strong CNN baseline on the AUC metric.


Nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas, is produced during biological nitrogen conversion in wastewater treatment operations. Complex mechanisms underlie N2O production by autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms, which continue to be unravelled. Mathematical models that describe nitric oxide (NO) and N2O dynamics have been proposed. Here, a first comprehensive model that considers all relevant NO and N2O production and consumption mechanisms is proposed. The model describes autotrophic NO production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria associated with ammonia oxidation and with nitrite reduction, followed by NO reduction to N2O. It also considers NO and N2O as intermediates in heterotrophic denitrification in a 4-step model. Three biological NO and N2O production pathways are accounted for, improving the capabilities of existing models while not increasing their complexity. Abiotic contributions from NH2OH and HNO2 reactions are also included. The consilient model structure can theoretically predict NO and N2O emissions under a wide range of operating conditions and will help develop mitigation strategies.


The metastable 1T′ polymorph of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has shown excellent catalytic activity toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water‐splitting applications. Its basal plane exhibits high catalytic activity comparable to the edges in 2H MoS2 and noble metal platinum. However, the production and application of this polymorph are limited by its lower energetic stability compared to the semiconducting 2H MoS2 phase. Here, the production of stable intercalated 1T′ MoS2 nanosheets attached on graphitic nanoribbons is reported. The intercalated 1T′ MoS2 exhibits a stoichiometric S:Mo ratio of 2.3 (±0.1):1 with an expanded interlayer distance of 10 Å caused by a sulfur‐rich intercalation agent and is stable at room temperature for several months even after drying. The composition, structure, and catalytic activity toward HER are investigated both experimentally and theoretically. It is concluded that the 1T′ MoS2 phase is stabilized by the intercalated agents, which further improves the basal planes′ catalytic activity toward HER.


Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar's Dry Zone.Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 – median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences.These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.


Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an uncommon inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that usually occurs following a viral infection or vaccination, bacterial or parasitic infection, or even spontaneously. ADEM is a monophasic; poly symptomatic disorder but it may present with various combinations of motor, sensory, visual and cognitive symptoms. Some case reports of ADEM presented as psychiatric disorders primarily as confusion psychosis and at times dissociative disorder. At times, the diagnosis becomes a dilemma due to multifaceted picture. Due to confusion physician may go to extreme range of tests with no specific conclusion. Debates regarding exact diagnosis have always been there. Reports regarding ADEM are lacking from our country. The aim of our study is to look for the presenting features of the disease and the path to final diagnosis.


BACKGROUND
Perioperative warming is recommended for surgery under anaesthesia, however its role during Caesarean delivery remains unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the efficacy of active warming on outcomes after elective Caesarean delivery.

METHODS
We searched databases for randomized controlled trials utilizing forced air warming or warmed fluid within 30 min of neuraxial anaesthesia placement. Primary outcome was maximum temperature change. Secondary outcomes included maternal (end of surgery temperature, shivering, thermal comfort, hypothermia) and neonatal (temperature, umbilical cord pH and Apgar scores) outcomes. Standardized mean difference/mean difference/risk ratio (SMD/MD/RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using random effects modelling (CMA, version 2, 2005).

RESULTS
13 studies met our criteria and 789 patients (416 warmed and 373 controls) were analysed for the primary outcome. Warming reduced temperature change (SMD -1.27°C [-1.86, -0.69]; P=0.00002); resulted in higher end of surgery temperatures (MD 0.43 °C [0.27, 0.59]; P<0.00001); was associated with less shivering (RR 0.58 [0.43, 0.79]; P=0.0004); improved thermal comfort (SMD 0.90 [0.36, 1.45]; P=0.001), and decreased hypothermia (RR 0.66 [0.50, 0.87]; P=0.003). Umbilical artery pH was higher in the warmed group (MD 0.02 [0, 0.05]; P=0.04). Egger's test (P=0.001) and contour-enhanced funnel plot suggest a risk of publication bias for the primary outcome of temperature change.

CONCLUSIONS
Active warming for elective Caesarean delivery decreases perioperative temperature reduction and the incidence of hypothermia and shivering. These findings suggest that forced air warming or warmed fluid should be used for elective Caesarean delivery.


We consider a quasiconformal automorphism of a Riemann surface, which fixes the homotopy class of a simple closed geodesic. Under certain conditions on the injectivity radius of the surface and bounds on the dilatation of the map, the automorphism induces a periodic element of the Teichmuller modular group. We may also estimate the order of the period.


Navigating a vessel using dynamic positioning (DP) systems close to offshore installations is a challenge. The operator's only possibility of manipulating the system is through its interface, which can be categorized as the physical appearance of the equipment and the visualization of the system. Are there possibilities of interaction between the operator and the system that can reduce strain and cognitive load during DP operations? Can parts of the system (e.g. displays) be physically brought closer to the user to enhance the feeling of control when operating the system? Can these changes make DP operations more efficient and safe? These questions inspired this research project, which investigates the use of multi-touch and hand gestures known from consumer products to directly manipulate the visualization of a vessel in the 3D scene of a DP system. Usability methodologies and evaluation techniques that are widely used in consumer market research were used to investigate how these interaction techniques, which are new to the maritime domain, could make interaction with the DP system more efficient and transparent both during standard and safety-critical operations. After investigating which gestures felt natural to use by running user tests with a paper prototype, the gestures were implemented into a Rolls-Royce DP system and tested in a static environment. The results showed that the test participants performed significantly faster using direct gesture manipulation compared to using traditional button/menu interaction. To support the results from these tests, further tests were carried out. The purpose is to investigate how gestures are performed in a moving environment, using a motion platform to simulate rough sea conditions. The key results and lessons learned from a collection of four user experiments, together with a discussion of the choice of evaluation techniques will be discussed in this paper.


The fast growing size of databases has resulted in a great demand for tools capable of analyzing data with the aim of discovering new knowledge and patterns. These tools will hopefully close the gap between the steady growth of information and the escalating demand to understand and discover the value of such knowledge. These tools are known as Data Mining (DM). One aims of DM is to discover decision rules for extracting meaningful knowledge. These rules consist of conditions over attribute value pairs called the descriptions, and decision attributes. Therefore generating a good decision model or classification model is a major component in many data mining researches. The classification approach basically produces a function that maps data item into one of several predefined classes, by way of inputting training dataset and building a model of the class attribute based on the rest of the attributes.This research undertakes three main tasks. The first task is to introduce a new rough model for minimum reduct selection and default rules generation, which is known as a Twofold Integer Programming (TIP). The second task is to enhance rules accuracy based on the first task, while the third task is to classify new objects or
cases. The TIP model is based on translation of the discernibility relation of a Decision System (DS) into an Integer Programming (IP) model, resolved by using the branch
and bound search method in order to generate the full reduct of the DS. The TIP model is then applied to the reduct to generate the default rules, which in turn are
used to classify unseen objects with a satisfying accuracy.
Apart from introducing the TIP model, this research also addressed the issues of missing values, discretization and extracting minimum rules. The treatment of
missing values and discretization are being carried out during the preprocessing stage. The extraction of minimum rules operation is conducted after the default
rules have been generated in order to obtain the most useful discovered rules. Eight datasets from machine learning repositories and domain theories are tested by
the TIP model. Total rules number, rules length and rules accuracy for the generation rules are recorded. The accuracy for rules and classification resulted
from the TIP method are compared with other methods such as Standard Integer Programming (SIP) and Decision Related Integer Programming (DRIP) from Rough Set, Genetic Algorithm (GA), Johnson reducer, HoltelR method, Multiple
Regression (MR), Neural Network (NN), Induction of Decision Tree Algorithm (ID3) and Base Learning Algorithm (C4.5); all other classifiers that are mostly used
in the classification tasks.
Based on the experiment results, the classification method using the TIP approach has successfully performed rules generation and classification tasks as required
during a classification operation. The outcome of a considerably good accuracy is mainly due to the right selection of relevant attributes. This research has proven that the TIP method has shown the ability to cater for different kinds of datasets and obtained a good rough classification model with promising results as compared with
other commonly used classifiers. This research opens a wide range of future work to be considered, which includes
applying the proposed method in other areas such as web mining, text mining or multimedia mining; and extending the proposed approach to work in parallel
computing in data mining.


Matas, Carol. Pieces Of The Past: The Holocaust Diary Of Rose Rabinowitz . Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2013. Print. Dear Canada. The "Dear Canada" series from Scholastic recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with now more than 30 titles. It includes fictional diaries written from the point of view of a child or teenager during a time of historical significance. Pieces of the Past opens with Rose in her third Winnipeg foster home having been given the diary by her "not-father" Saul. Her guardian and a psychologist by trade, Saul suggests she write in it to help remember the past. At first she is reluctant to delve into her memories of such a dark and brutal time: "this little book seems far too small to write down 'what happened'.  How will I ever fit what is stuffed into my head into these tiny pages, all the wild waking nightmares tamed onto these straight lines…" However she progressively reveals more with each entry, interspersing her present-day teenage hardships of trying to fit in at school and in someone else's home, with the atrocities she and her family endured during the Holocaust. The entries are intimate and immediately gripping. Alternating between her teenage and more child-like voice from the past heightens the emotional connection readers will feel with Rose, whose name was changed from "Rozia" when she arrived in Canada from her native Poland. She describes the gradual and confusing process of losing all of their possessions, their home and finding shelter with various other families in cramped apartments and eventually ending up in a lice-ridden underground dug out. Although in our present day, media-driven society we have become somewhat desensitized to the atrocities of the Holocaust and war in general, Rose's story re-personalizes the tragedy in a very powerful way. As she begins to piece together the circumstances of the deaths and disappearances of her family members, we mourn with her. Some of the subplots and underlying themes will also resonate with youth of any generation. Her only friend, Susan, is the victim of bullying. Issues associated with foster care and blended families are also explored. Although at the conclusion of the diary, Rose's circumstances are much improved it is by no means a fairy-tale ending. The author provides a subtle moral conclusion with no utopian delusions: "So diary, no storybook life for me. I know I can never really be safe. And I know that people who think they can be are just kidding themselves. But I know I can try to be good. And I will." The book contains a lot of useful material for the classroom. There is a historical section that provides a summary of the major events recounted in the diary. There is also a timeline of the Warsaw Ghetto, a selection of black and white photographs, and some reproductions of primary source material from the war such as a young Polish emigrant's identification document and newspaper articles about the arrival of Jewish orphans in Canada. This book is recommended for children Grades 4-6 and higher. It is an excellent addition to the series, and like another famous diary, Rose's story will be forever etched in the reader's psyche. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Kim Frail Kim is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. Children's literature is a big part of her world at work and at home. She also enjoys gardening, renovating and keeping up with her kids.


Challenging conventional constructions of the Harlem Renaissance and American modernism, Daylanne English links writers from both movements to debates about eugenics in the Progressive Era. She argues that, in the 1920s, the form and content of writings by figures as disparate as W. E. B. Du Bois, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, and Nella Larsen were shaped by anxieties regarding immigration, migration, and interracial breeding. English's interdisciplinary approach brings together the work of those canonical writers with relatively neglected literary, social scientific, and visual texts. She examines antilynching plays by Angelina Weld Grimke as well as the provocative writings of white female eugenics field workers. English also analyzes The Crisis magazine as a family album filtering uplift through eugenics by means of photographic documentation of an ever-improving black race. English suggests that current scholarship often misreads early-twentieth-century visual, literary, and political culture by applying contemporary social and moral standards to the past. Du Bois, she argues, was actually more of a eugenicist than Eliot. Through such reconfiguration of the modern period, English creates an allegory for the American present: because eugenics was, in its time, widely accepted as a reasonable, progressive ideology, we need to consider the long-term implications of contemporary genetic engineering, fertility enhancement and control, and legislation promoting or discouraging family growth.


Not long ago, it was thought that only software applications and general purpose digital systems i.e. computers were prone to various types of attacks against their security. The underlying hardware, hardware implementations of these software applications, embedded systems, and hardware devices were considered to be secure and out of reach of these attacks. However, during the previous few years, it has been demonstrated that novel attacks against the hardware and embedded systems can also be mounted. Not only viruses, but worms and Trojan horses have been developed for them, and they have also been demonstrated to be effective. Whereas a lot of research has already been done in the area of security of general purpose computers and software applications, hardware and embedded systems security is a relatively new and emerging area of research. This chapter provides details of various types of existing attacks against hardware devices and embedded systems, analyzes existing design methodologies for their vulnerability to new types of attacks, and along the way describes solutions and countermeasures against them for the design and development of secure systems.


Courts in England and the United States have traditionally adopted different approaches to the question of valuation in debt restructuring cases. In England, courts have tended to determine whether to approve the allocation of equity in a debt restructuring by reference to the amounts creditors would have received if no debt restructuring had been agreed. The company has typically argued that if no debt restructuring had been agreed either the business or the assets would have been sold. Typically, some evidence of exposure of the business and assets to the market will be submitted to identify the value which would have been achieved in this "counterfactual scenario." This contrasts with the approach in the United States, where bankruptcy courts have typically avoided reaching decisions on value based on exposure to the market and have relied on the views of the parties' valuation experts expressed using traditional valuation methodologies. One benefit of the U.S. approach has been that the uncertainty of the outcome of the valuation litigation has incentivised the parties to bargain, arriving at a consensual deal. However, this paper argues that changes in the organisational and institutional structure of financial and non-financial markets have fundamentally affected the utility of this "bargaining and litigation" model. It argues that changes in the informal rules, norms and beliefs held by market participants make bargaining less likely, and increase the prospects of litigation. It suggests that this insight has implications for the reform of debt restructuring procedures in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.


This article looks at the European Union (EU) policy of technological 'convergence', concentrating on the convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting. The underlying theme is that regulatory agencies are political actors and their actions need to be analysed in the context of who benefits from the policy outcome. In addition, regulatory regimes are themselves variables in bureaucratic/institutional turf wars and in the political process. The specific case discussed here of DG XIII of the European Commission responsible for telecommunications provides an example of attempts by a regulatory agency to broaden the scope of its regulatory reach. It shows how it utilized a theoretical reconstruction of markets to justify alterations both at EU and at national level in regulatory regimes that would have had direct consequences in benefiting its allied telecommunications and Internet operators and in disadvantaging public service broadcasters. The article discusses the ensuing reactions to this intervention. It concludes that DG XIII's attempts to redefine markets and regulatory regimes in its own interests and in the interests of its traditional industrial allies have not only been thwarted, but have strengthened the sectoral-based regulatory regime it wished to displace, and have also undermined its own credibility as a regulator.


BACKGROUND
Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is decreased in humans with hypothyroidism, but information about kidney function in dogs with hypothyroidism is lacking.

HYPOTHESIS
Hypothyroidism influences GFR in dogs. The objective of this study was to assess GFR in hypothyroid dogs before implementation of thyroxine supplementation and after re-establishing euthyroidism.

ANIMALS
Fourteen hypothyroid dogs without abnormalities on renal ultrasound examination or urinalysis.

METHODS
Blood pressure and GFR (measured by exogenous creatinine clearance) were measured before treatment (T0, n=14) and at 1 month (T1, n=14) and at 6 months (T6, n=11) after beginning levothyroxine supplementation therapy (20 microg/kg/d, PO). The response to therapy was monitored at T1 by measuring serum total thyroxine and thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations. If needed, levothyroxine dosage was adjusted and reassessed after 1 month. Statistical analysis was performed using a general linear model. Results are expressed as mean+/-standard deviation.

RESULTS
At T0, the average age of dogs in the study group was 6.3+/-1.4 years. Their average body weight decreased from 35+/-18 kg at T0 to 27+/-14 kg at T6 (P<.05). All dogs remained normotensive throughout the study. GFR increased significantly with levothyroxine supplementation; the corresponding results were 1.6+/-0.4 mL/min/kg at T0, 2.1+/-0.4 at T1, and 2.0+/-0.4 at T6 (P<.01).

CONCLUSION
GFR was <2 mL/min/kg in untreated hypothyroid dogs. Re-establishment of a euthyroid state increased GFR significantly.


The paper provides an overview of the MAG's involvement in the preparation of the Design Guide, followed by a critique of the draft Design Guide itself. MAG concludes that the intention of the draft Design Guide must be reviewed. If it concerns only visual considerations, then with some considerable overhaul, it has the potential to do its job. If it is about sustainability relating to design principles in the countryside (as per the Specification to which it must adhere), then it is lacking. The extent of the MAG team's commentary on the draft Design Guide, together with its departures from the Specification, the guidance provided initially by MAG Chair Professor Barrie Todd and latterly the commentary by successor MAG Chair Arthur Acheson leaves the MAG with grave concerns about the overall efficacy of the Design Guide if it were to be published without revisions


Many secondary schools in the Netherlands are in a maelstrom of change. They work on themes like heterogeneous grouping, various forms of differentiation, guidance and counseling, thematic- and project-education. Beside these development in groups of schools organized in projects, or in individual schools, an important renovation of the educational system is in preparation. This socalled "continued primary school" is a comprehensive school for pupils aged 12-15 years. It will be followed by a system of vocational or general streams in the second phase of secondary education.The above mentioned changes in schools make high demands upon the teacher's capabilities. Therefore a broadening of teacher's qualifications will be necessary. At the same time changes in teacher training programs will be required. Since these programs differ rather strongly from the current ones, a systematic innovation in teacher training institutes will be required. In the article it is suggested to start this innovation with school-focussed in-service training in secondary schools involved in innovations. After a period of active participation in innovation activities, the teacher training institute will be in a better position to base the renewal of pre-service training on the complex requirements of teaching practice.The reorganization of the content and training in the programs for teacher training can then be established from the viewpoint of functionality for educational practice.


The Wadden Sea is a unique landscape and one of the last large and relatively undisturbed ecosystems in northwest Europe and therefore a wetland of international importance. At the same time the Wadden Sea, which extends over parts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, is an area where people live, work and recreated and a lot of human uses take place. The Wadden Sea is a natural ecosystem with a wide range of ecosystems and habitats for flora and fauna, in which natural processes take place in a more or less undisturbed way. The importance of the Wadden Sea, considering the high ecological value, the functions for the North Sea and its vulnerability, are presented in this paper. By means of changes in the Wadden Sea ecosystems in the past and their causes, the natural changes and the still occurring impacts and effects of human uses and activities will be stated with examples.


For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the existence of a surface wave at the one-dimensional photonic crystal (PC)-metal interface is verified experimentally. That surface mode is excited for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations in the frequency region where one of the bandgaps of the PC overlaps with the region below the plasma frequency of the metal in the frequency wave-vector space and is observed even under normal incidence from vacuum. For a fixed frequency its angular position is very sensitive to the thickness of the one-dimensional photonic-crystal layer adjacent to the metal.


Cicada nymphs (Homoptera: Cicadidae) are soil-dwelling insects that form cylindrical back-filled burrows. These unique burrow features persist in soils for thousands of years and are common in soil descriptions in arid and semiarid regions of the inland Pacific Northwest (PNW). We examined the burrowing depth of live cicada nymphs and found that burrowing is concentrated in the upper 50 cm of soil. This depth may be used to distinguish between contemporary and relict burrows in soil profiles developed in transported parent materials, and can serve as a means of identifying paleosols from observations of burrows at greater depths. We then searched all official soil series descriptions within the USDA-NRCS State Soil Geographic (STAT-SGO) data base for cicada-burrowed horizons below the active burrowing depth to identify buried paleosols. We suggest that evidence of cicada nymph activity can be used to assess soil-stratigraphic relationships at broad scales in the inland PNW.


"I am now in the country, and reading in Spencer's fairy-queen. Pray what is the matter with me?" The plaint of an anonymous reader in 1712 sounds with endearing frankness a note of consternation that resonates throughout The Faerie Queene's reception history, from its first known reader, Spenser's friend Gabriel Harvey, who urged him to write anything else instead, to Virginia Woolf, who insisted that if one wants to like the poem, "the first essential is, of course, not to read" it. For more than four centuries critics have sought to counter this strain of readerly resistance, but rather than trying to remedy the frustrations and failures of Spenser's readers, this book cherishes them as a sensitive barometer of shifts in the culture of reading itself. Indeed, tracking the poem's mixed fortunes in the hands of its bored, baffled, outraged, intoxicated, obsessive, and exhausted readers turns out to be an excellent way of rethinking the past and future prospects of literary study. By examining the responses of readers from Queen Elizabeth and the keepers of Renaissance commonplace books to nineteenth-century undergraduates, Victorian children, and modern scholars, this book offers a compelling new interpretation of the poem and an important new perspective on what it means to read, or not to read, a work of literature.


This study examines how Conrad's Heart of Darkness has played an important role in exposing the brutal reality of Belgian colonialism in the Congo Free State under the pretense of a civilizing mission. The study focuses on how Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been instrumental in revealing the atrocities committed by King Leopold II's agents in their desperate scramble for the rich resources of the Congo, such as ivory and rubber. King Leopold II's atrocities may account for the death of almost ten million Congolese natives, a crime of a genocidal scale, which has terribly affected the people of the Congo to this day. Conrad renders his own anti-colonial critique through his central character, Charles Marlow, who learns about the brutal methods of Belgian colonialism while on a journey to the Congo searching for the infamous ivory agent, Kurtz. The study examines how Conrad's Heart of Darkness critiqued King Leopold II's colonial rule and contributed to the launching of an international protest which exposed and put an end to the genocide committed against the Congolese in the name of civilization, science, and progress. The campaign eventually forced King Leopold II to quit the Congo Free State in 1908, and unraveled one of the most heinous crimes in history committed under the pretext of "civilization".


Gambling is emerging as a major industry around the world at a time when many of the more traditional economic pursuits are becoming less productive, but while the burgeoning gambling industry is certainly profitable and provides good investment opportunities and economic benefits for business and communities alike, it is timely that we look more closely at the overall benefits and costs of this phenomenon in modern society. In this book about the modern gambling business, a motif of the Colorado River and the Boulder/Hoover Dam is explored in the opening section, likening the benefits and risks of gambling to those of the damming of the Colorado to irrigate California. There can be no doubt that the project wrested many Americans from poverty and unemployment in the depression, built a world-leading engineering structure that served to help the desert bloom, so to speak, including, of course, the re-making of Las Vegas. With the wisdom of hindsight and our increasing environmental awareness, the choking of the Colorado has had its downsides as does the gambling industry as we already know. From the metaphorical re-examination of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this current book focuses on some of the central aspects of the gambling industry in Australia and around the world, exploring how the industry is traveling in the 21st Century and asking why we are becoming so pre-occupied at this time with the processes of gambling. The prevalence of problem gambling is discussed; the numbers and how they are measured, along with various approaches to treatment and remediation for people affected adversely by their gambling behaviour. Beyond the 'bricks and mortar' gambling and the electronic gaming machines of the latter part of the twentieth century, however, the development of new on-line gambling technologies is introducing different types of products, inducting new consumers to gambling products, changing the face of gambling in society, driving greater profits and potentially spawning more associated problems. While we are still struggling to understand the mechanisms through which more traditional gambling mechanisms affect consumers of these products and how best to remediate or treat such problems, a new form of the gambling phenomenon is being loosed upon modern consumers. To return to the Hoover Dam metaphor; perhaps this new flood will be too strong for the dam or perhaps it will bring profits and benefits for all concerned. Before we can arrive at a decision about such potential costs and benefits, however, it will be important for us to see just whose money fuels this next phase of industry expansion and whether the profits of the industry are won at the cost of people with gambling problems; people who can't afford to play the game, let along lose. Will the players in Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vegas, Atlantic City, Sydney and other emerging markets in Asia, along with the new generation of consumers of on-line gambling products, at the end of the day see that their play has been worth the price paid or will the losses to individuals and communities out-weigh the benefits that flow, paradoxically, from this complex industry?


This article makes an argument for literary modernity as a shared discourse produced through scholarly exchange between Iranians and Indians reworking their shared Persianate literary heritage, considering literary history as an important and perhaps overlooked site for the production of literary modernity. Arguing for a verbal as well as textual discourse of modernity shared between early twentieth-century Iranian and Indian intellectuals, Jabbari examines how these intellectuals made use of premodern materials for their modernizing projects, and how nationalism shaped this process. Four aspects of modern literary history writing receive particular focus here: engagement with the tazkirah tradition, inclusion of extraliterary national figures alongside poets, use of a shared set of references and sources, and new sexual aesthetics that break with the homoerotic Persianate past.


On
the
25th
November
1965
Colonel
Joseph
Desire
Mobutu
staged
a
bloodless
coup
to
take
charge
of
the
political
turmoil
in
recently
independent
Congo
and
establish
one
of
the
most
brutal
and
corrupt
dictatorships
in
modern
African
history.
This
thesis
explores
the
story
of
the
American
hand
both
in
Mobutu's
fortuitous
rise
and
its
subsequent
sustenance
of
his
regime
in
the
name
of
its
geostrategic
Cold
War
agenda.
Spanning
the
administrations
of
four
presidents
from
Lyndon
Johnson
to
Jimmy
Carter,
this
study
considers
the
effects
of
the
American
Mobutu
alliance
on
Congo
and
how
its
relationship
with
the
Congolese
leader
in
turn
shaped
the
American
approach
towards
the
wider
region
and,
ultimately,
defined
its
Cold
War
in
Africa.
The
thesis
begins
with
the
CIA-organised
mercenary
suppression
of
the
Simba
rebellion
from
1964
to
1965,
before
offering
a
detailed
analysis
of
the
American
role
in
bringing
Mobutu
to
the
helm
of
Congolese
politics
and
ensuring
the
survival
of
his
initially
tenuous
grasp
on
power.
Having
consolidated
his
grip
on
Congo,
subsequent
chapters
investigate
the
American
role
in
the
establishment
of
the
Mobutist
'State
Kleptocracy',
the
part
played
by
the
Kinshasa
despot
in
defining
the
American
stand
in
the
Angolan
Civil
War
and,
despite
the
by
now
obvious
shortcomings
of
its
Congo
alliance,
the
Carter
administration's
continued
support
for
Mobutu
when
his
regime
was
threatened
by
violent
dissent
once
more.
As
such,
this
thesis
aims
to
give
a
more
comprehensive
and
detailed
picture
of
the
American
Cold
War
alliance
with
Congo's
profligate
dictator
from
1964
to
1981.


Here we consider a new class of skew logistic distribution as a generalized mixture of the standard logistic and skew logistic distributions, and study some of its important aspects. The tail behaviour of the distribution is compared with that of the skew logistic distribution and a location-scale extension of the distribution is proposed. Further the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the extended class of distribution is attempted. The usefulness of the proposed class of distribution is illustrated with the help of a data set.


The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has sponsored the development of a set of benchmarks that can be used to quantify the bias and uncertainty in computed reactivity decrements due to burnup. The bias and uncertainty covers imprecision in both the nuclide inventory and cross sections. The EPRI benchmarks are a function of enrichment, operating conditions (such as soluble boron concentration, burnable absorbers, and specific power), and storage rack conditions. The benchmarks are analyzed using SCALE 6.1 with both ENDF/B-V and ENDF/B-VII cross-section libraries. The depletion analyses are performed using the TRITON module, and the criticality calculations are performed with KENO-V.a and MCNP. The analysis shows that SCALE 6.1 with the ENDF/B-VII 238-group cross-section library supports the use of a depletion bias of only 0.0015 in Δk, where k represents the neutron multiplication factor, at peak reactivity after discharge from the core. This peak reactivity occurs after 100 h of cooling. If credit is taken for more cooling, the bias should be increased to 0.0025. The depletion uncertainty is 0.0064. Using MCNP for the criticality calculations rather than KENO-V.a produces essentially the same results if the same ENDF/B cross-section library is used. Reliance on the ENDF/B-V cross-section library produces much larger disagreement with the benchmarks. The analysis covers numerous combinations of depletion and criticality options. In all cases, the historical uncertainty of 5% of the Δk of depletion ("Kopp memo") was shown to be conservative for fuel with >30 GWd/T burnup. However, the Kopp memo's uncertainty may be exceeded at low burnups where the absolute magnitude of the uncertainty is small.


This paper documents phytochemical variation of European cranberry (Oxycoccus palustris Pers. = Vaccinium oxycoccos L.) growing in peatlands of North-Western Poland. Thirty four fruit samples collected in 2008–2009 at 15 sites in northern Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and Western Pomerania were used in the study. The flavonol content, expressed as quercetin equivalent, was determined spectrophotometrically. The amount of main organic acids: citric, malic, and quinic, was determined using the hPLc-dAd method. The obtained results show high phytochemical differentiation of European cranberry fruit. The flavonol content ranged from 57 to 298 mg% of dry matter. The organic acids in question accounted for, respectively: 8.57–21.32% (citric acid), 2.18–14.24% (malic acid), and 2.96–8.79% (quinic acid) of fruit dry matter. There was also a large variation in the ratio of quinic acid to malic acid (from 0.27 to 3.83). A strong negative correlation was found between the abovementioned acids (r= -0.74, p=0.000). This indicates the possibility of occurrence of two chemotypes of European cranberry, differing in the content of quinic acid and malic acid.


A polythermal methodology to assess the mechanisms and the kinetics of solution crystallisation is described and used in connection with a recently proposed model for the dependence of the critical undercooling for crystallisation on the cooling rate (D. Kashchiev, A. Borissova, R. B. Hammond, K. J. Roberts, J. Cryst. Growth, 312 (2010) 698–704; J. Phys. Chem. B, 114 (2010) 5441–5446). This first principles model allows determination of crystallisation parameters that could otherwise only be obtained by combined application of both the isothermal and the polythermal methods. The methodology is validated through analysis of experimental data measured for methyl stearate crystallising from kerosene solutions with concentrations from 200 to 350 g l−1. The analysis reveals a progressive heterogeneous nucleation mechanism and crystallite interfacial tension values between 1.64 and 1.79 with no obvious dependence on the solution concentration, in good agreement with values derived by isothermal methods. Sensitivity analysis leads to the conclusion that a minimum of four different cooling rates spanning at least one order of magnitude together with at least five repeats for crystallisation temperature values at each cooling rate are appropriate. Extensive supplementary material provides a mathematical description of the above authors' model, insight into the relationship between this model and the empirical Nyvlt model, and further detail concerning the results of the sensitivity analysis carried out on the experimental methodology used.


PURPOSE: Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men. The rate is disproportionately high among men in sub-Saharan Africa where, unlike in North America and Western Europe, the screening process for prostate cancer has historically not been routine. Currently, as awareness regarding prostate health increases, more patients in this region are being referred to trans-rectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy, a diagnosis procedure which requires a strong understanding of prostate zonal anatomy. To aid in the instruction of this procedure, prostate biopsy training programs need to be implemented. Unfortunately, current TRUS-guided training tools are not ideal for reproducibility in these Western African countries. To answer this challenge, we are developing an affordable and open-source training simulator for TRUS-guided prostate biopsy, for use in Senegal. In this paper, we present the implementation of the training simulator's virtual interface, highlighting the generation and evaluation of the critical training component of zonal anatomy overlaid on TRUS. METHODS: For the simulator's dataset, we registered TRUS and MRI volumes together to obtain the zonal segmentation from the MRI volumes. After generating ten pairings of TRUS overlaid with zonal segmentation, we designed and implemented a virtual TRUS training system, developed in open-source software. The objective of our simulator is to teach trainees to accurately identify the prostate's anatomical zones in TRUS. To confirm the system's usability for training zonal identification, we conducted a two-part survey on the quality of the zonal overlays with 7 urology experts. In the first part, they assessed the zonal overlay for visual correctness by rating 10 images from one patient's TRUS with registered overlay on a 5-point Likert scale. For the second part, they labelled 10 plain TRUS volumes with zonal anatomy and the labels were compared to the labels of our overlay. RESULTS: On average, experts rated the zonal overlay's visual accuracy at 4 out of 5. Furthermore, 7 out of 7 experts labelled the peripheral, anterior, and transitional zones in the same regions we overlaid them, and 5 out of 7 labelled the central zone in the same region we overlaid it. CONCLUSION: We created the prototype of a TRUS imaging simulator in open-source software. A vital training component, zonal overlay, was generated using publicly accessible data and validated by expert urologists for prostate zone identification, confirming the concept.


The amount of electricity generated by nuclear power plants may increase in the next few decades, as this form of energy is one of the few that are proven, reliable, and relatively carbon dioxide free. A question often asked about nuclear power is how long its main resource, uranium, will last. In the face of a large expansion of nuclear power to deal with climate change considerations, we revisit the question of the adequacy of the uranium resource and show that there is adequate supply for at least the next century and probably more.


Farmers in Ghana are expected to be given relevant information they need for high quality and quantity of food, cash crops and animal production required to meet nutritional demands by the growing Ghanaian population. Librarians and information workers should participate actively in disseminating agricultural information to farmers in Ghana using audio-visual materials, Web 2.0 tools and Information Communication Technologies. This paper looks into the role of information in boosting food and cash crop production in Ghana. It highlights the problems associated with information dissemination to farmers in the country. Better agricultural practice and high associated yields can, however, be realized in the country through the provision of relevant agricultural information to farmers. Librarians and information workers in the country should make useful agricultural information available, and on time via researchers, agricultural extension officers or direct to farmers; using emerging technologies as a way of contributing to improve on the current food insecurity. Agricultural librarians, researchers and extension officers can get useful information from the Internet and various databases on agriculture and make same available to farmers in the manner and languages they can understand for use in ensuring faster agricultural development.


Distributed partial mixing (DPM) is an approach to creating a distributed audio service that supports optimization of bandwidth utilization across multiple related audio streams (e.g., from concurrently active audio sources) while maintaining fairness to TCP traffic in best-effort networks. Rate adaptation of streamed audio is difficult because of its rate sensitivity, the relatively limited range of encoding bandwidths available, and the potential impact on the end user of rate-adaptation artifacts (such as changes of encoding). This paper describes and demonstrates how our design combines TCP-fairness with the stability that is desirable for streaming audio and other rate-sensitive media. In particular, our design combines: a distributed multi-stream management/mixing architecture, loss-event and round-trip time monitoring, rate limiting based on a TCP rate equation, tuned increase and decrease strategies, and a loss-driven network-probing mode. Experimental validation is performed against TCP and independent DPM traffic. In particular, we summarize and discuss the two contrasting models for deploying DPM within the context of large dynamic environments that we introduced in Radenkovic and Greenhalgh (2002), Proceedings of ACM VRST 2002, 179185. We argue that the DPM paradigm remains feasible and desirable in such environments.


The effects of low extracellular calcium levels on glibenclamide- and glucose-induced A-, B-, and D-cell secretion were investigated using the perfused pancreas preparation of the rat. At normal (2.6 mM) calcium, glucagon secretion was unaffected by glibenclamide (1 μg/ml) and transiently suppressed by glucose (6.7 and 16.7 mM). Reduction of extracellular calcium to 0.24 mM promptly and persistently enhanced glucagon secretion in the presence of 3.3 mM glucose; this effect of low calcium was, however, diminished (P < 0.001) by 54% and 61% when the glucose concentration was increased to 6.7 and 16.7 mM, respectively. In contrast, glibenclamide enhanced the glucagon response to calcium reduction, a twofold stimulation by the drug being observed at all glucose concentrations. Reduction of calcium to 0.24 mM failed to inhibit first-phase glibenclamide or glucose-induced insulin release; second phase was, however, inhibited whether induced by glibenclamide (in the presence of 6.7 mM glucose) or by glucose 16.7 mM per se. Reduction of calcium uniformly and completely abolished glibenclamide and glucose-induced somatostatin responses. It is concluded that: (1) the glucagon response induced by calcium deprivation is inhibited by glucose but potentiated by glibenclamide, and (2) reversal of a D-cell paracrine effect could underlie the glibenclamide effect.


1-(2-Hydroxyphenyl)-3-propane-1, 3-diones 4(LA-LB) and its metal complexes 5(a-e) have been newly synthesized from substituted 2-hydroxyacetophenones 1(A-B) and aromatic acids 2(A-B) under ultrasound irradiation method at low temperature. These compounds were characterized by FT-IR, UV-Vis., H-NMR, C-NMR, mass spectroscopy and magnetic measurement. The stoichiometry of the complexes was found 1:2 (metal:ligand). The physicochemical data suggested octahedral geometry for all the complexes. The ligands 4(LA-LB) and their metal complexes 5(a-e) were screened for in vitro antibacterial activity against S. aureus, B. subtilis, E. coli and P. aeruginosa compared with tetracycline and chloramphenicol as a standard drugs. The results are in good agreement with respect to activity of free ligand and its metal complexes. Reactions under ultrasonic irradiation had improved yield.


PURPOSE
Ripasudil (Glanatec), a selective Rho-associated coiled coil-containing protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor, was approved in Japan in September 2014 for the treatment of glaucoma and ocular hypertension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ripasudil eye drops on corneal endothelial morphology, as ROCK signaling is known to modulate the actin cytoskeleton.

METHODS
Morphological changes in the corneal endothelium were evaluated in human subjects by specular and slit-lamp microscopy, following topical administration of ripasudil. We also used a rabbit model to evaluate the effect of ripasudil on clinical parameters of the corneal endothelium. Twenty-four hours after ripasudil application, corneal specimens were evaluated by phalloidin staining, immunohistochemical analysis, and electron microscopy.

RESULTS
Specular microscopy revealed morphological changes in human eyes, and slit-lamp microscopy showed guttae-like findings. The rabbit model showed morphological changes similar to those seen in human eyes after ripasudil administration. Electron microscopy demonstrated that these alterations are due to the formation of protrusions along the cell-cell borders, but this formation is transient. Expression of corneal endothelial function-related markers was not disrupted; corneal thickness and corneal volume were not changed; and no cell death was observed following ripasudil administration.

CONCLUSIONS
Ripasudil induces transient guttae-like findings in humans, most likely due to protrusion formation along intracellular borders caused by the reduction in actomyosin contractility of the corneal endothelial cells. No severe adverse effects were observed. Physicians should be aware that ROCK inhibitors can cause these guttae-like findings, to avoid misdiagnosing patients as having Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy. (www.umin.ac.jp/ctr number, UMIN000018340.).


During their life cycle plants undergo a wide variety of morphological and developmental changes. Impinging these developmental processes there is a layer of gene, protein and metabolic networks that are responsible for the initiation of the correct developmental transitions at the right time of the year to ensure plant life success. New omic technologies are allowing the acquisition of massive amount of data to develop holistic and integrative analysis to understand complex processes. Among them, Microarray, Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) and Proteomics are providing enormous amount of data from different plant species and developmental stages, thus allowing the analysis of gene networks globally. Besides, the comparison of molecular networks from different species is providing information on their evolutionary history, shedding light on the origin of many key genes/proteins. Moreover, developmental processes are not only genetically programed but are also affected by internal and external signals. Metabolism, light, hormone action, temperature, biotic and abiotic stresses, etc. have a deep effect on developmental programs. The interface and interplay between these internal and external circuits with developmental programs can be unraveled through the integration of systematic experimentation with the computational analysis of the generated omics data (Molecular Systems Biology).This Research Topic intends to deepen in the different plant developmental pathways and how the corresponding gene networks evolved from a Molecular Systems Biology perspective. Global approaches for photoperiod, circadian clock and hormone regulated processes; pattern formation, phase-transitions, organ development, etc. will provide new insights on how plant complexity was built during evolution. Understanding the interface and interplay between different regulatory networks will also provide fundamental information on plant biology and focus on those traits that may be important for next-generation agriculture.


Parental leave has been an on-going issue in the political process, most recently during this presidential election. This is because upon the birth or adoption of a child, many in the United States cannot afford to take time off from work to care for and integrate children into their families. This is especially true for the contemporary family. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) was Congress's attempt to strike equilibrium between employment and family and medical needs. The FMLA put legal emphasis on the family unit in an effort to neutralize gender discrimination while promoting gender equality for women in the workplace. In its time, the FMLA was a step in the direction of today's trend, where longer, compensated parental leave is required. However, in this day and age where both parents often work full-time jobs, the FMLA has fallen flat. In this article, I argue that the FMLA must be expanded to adequately fulfill the work-family balance. This article critiques the policy and purpose of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. It will also examine the international approach and how the policies of most industrialized nations have surpassed that of United States, exemplified best by some states willingness to address the trend and implement more modern policies. I argue the FMLA is outdated when considering today's structure of families, fails to align with family values, and is not in the best interests of children, and propose the New York system with some modifications be adopted nationally.


Many practitioners currently use rules of thumb to price tasks on online labor markets. Incorrect pricing leads to task starvation or inefficient use of capital. Formal pricing policies can address these challenges. In this paper we argue that a pricing policy can be based on the trade-off between price and desired completion time. We show how this duality can lead to a better pricing policy for tasks in online labor markets. This paper makes three contributions. First, we devise an algorithm for job pricing using a survival analysis model. We then show that worker arrivals can be modeled as a non-homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP). Finally using NHPP for worker arrivals and discrete choice models we present an abstract mathematical model that captures the dynamics of the market when full market information is presented to the task requester. This model can be used to predict completion times and pricing policies for both public and private crowds.


Wood samples from 53 species belonging to 41 genera of the Icacinaceae s.l. are investigated using light and scanning electron microscopy. The traditionally circumscribed leacinaceae fall apart into four segregate families that are clearly nested within asterids, i.e., Icacinaceae s.str. (near or in Garryales), Cardiopteridaceae and Stemonuraceae (both Aquifoliales), and Pennantiaceae (Apiales). From a wood anatomical point of view, these families cannot easily be distinguished from each other. However, some features such as vessel distribution, perforation plate morphology, size and arrangement of vessel pits, fibre wall thickness, and the occurrence of cambial variants can be used to assign various species to one of the four families. The wood structure of the four segregate families is in general agreement with their suggested putative relatives, but the occurrence of lianas versus erect trees and shrubs is a confusing factor in getting clear phylogenetic signal from the wood structure. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses using molecular data and combined anatomical-molecular data show that Icacinaceae s.str. are not monophyletic, and their closest relatives remain unclear. The combined analyses provide moderate support for a clade including Cassinopsis, the Apodytes-group, the Emmotum-group (all Icacinaceae s.str.), and the genus Oncotheca. This clade is situated at the base of lamiids and may be closely related to Garryales. The remaining lineage of Icacinaceae s.str., the Icacina-group represented by many climbing taxa exhibiting cambial variants, is strongly supported and might be sister to the rest of lamiids.


The rise and decline of the Italian economy over the past 60 years form a surprisingly regular parabola, if the main European partner economies are taken as benchmark, so that its vertex equal to 1 means that Italy completely caught-up Europe around the 1990s. This implies that, in order to repeat that experience of catching-up, Italy needs to grow at extraordinary rates, which are not on the horizon. The paper shows that the Italians' morale is even in worse conditions and explores why. The analysis firstly focuses on subjective well-being (and other subjective indices), thus finding another parabola and with more worrying features than the economic parabola. Then it explores the role of education in shaping the long-run dynamics of both the economy and subjective well-being. As a first result, the paradox of the excess supply of educated workers in Italy becomes clearer. The second result shows how poor education weakened Italians' ability to fully enjoy their income, in particular after the shocks of the 1990s. An education policy thus becomes urgent to provide both specialized skills for production and general skills for people's lives, thus definitively reinforcing the recent weak rebound in educational levels.