Abstract Snow avalanches and other hazardous geophysical granular flows, such as debris flows, lahars and pyroclastic flows, often impact on obstacles as they flow down a slope, generating rapid changes in the flow height and velocity in their vicinity. It is important to understand how a granular material flows around such obstacles to improve the design of deflecting and catching dams, and to correctly interpret field observations. In this paper small-scale experiments and numerical simulations are used to investigate the supercritical gravity-driven free-surface flow of a granular avalanche around a circular cylinder. Our experiments show that a very sharp bow shock wave and a stagnation point are generated in front of the cylinder. The shock standoff distance is accurately reproduced by shock-capturing numerical simulations and is approximately equal to the reciprocal of the Froude number, consistent with previous approximate results for shallow-water flows. As the grains move around the cylinder the flow expands and the pressure gradients rapidly accelerate the particles up to supercritical speeds again. The internal pressure is not strong enough to immediately push the grains into the space behind the cylinder and instead a grain-free region, or granular vacuum, forms on the lee side. For moderate upstream Froude numbers and slope inclinations, the granular vacuum closes up rapidly to form a triangular region, but on steeper slopes both experiments and numerical simulations show that the pinch-off distance moves far downstream.


Abstract. The commercially available Sea-Bird SeaFET™ provides an accessible way
for a broad community of researchers to study ocean acidification and obtain
robust measurements of seawater pH via the use of an in situ autonomous sensor.
There are pitfalls, however, that have been detailed in previous best
practices for sensor care, deployment, and data handling. Here, we took
advantage of two distinctly different coastal settings to evaluate the
Sea-Bird SeaFET™ and examine the multitude of scenarios in which
problems may arise confounding the accuracy of measured pH. High-resolution
temporal measurements of pH were obtained during 3- to 5-month field
deployments in three separate locations (two in south-central Alaska, USA,
and one in British Columbia, Canada) spanning a broad range of nearshore
temperature and salinity conditions. Both the internal and external
electrodes onboard the SeaFET™ were evaluated against robust benchtop
measurements for accuracy using the factory calibration, an in situ
single-point calibration, or an in situ multi-point calibration. In addition, two
sensors deployed in parallel in Kasitsna Bay, Alaska, USA, were compared for
inter-sensor variability in order to quantify other factors contributing to
the sensor's intrinsic inaccuracies. Based on our results, the multi-point
calibration method provided the highest accuracy (< 0.025 difference
in pH) of pH when compared against benchtop measurements. Spectral analysis
of time series data showed that during spring in Alaskan waters, a range of
tidal frequencies dominated pH variability, while seasonal oceanographic
conditions were the dominant driver in Canadian waters. Further, it is
suggested that spectral analysis performed on initial deployments may be
able to act as an a posteriori method to better identify appropriate calibration regimes.
Based on this evaluation, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the
potential sources of uncertainty associated with accuracy and precision of
the SeaFET™ electrodes.


THE EFFECTS OF A VIDEO DESIGNED TO EMPOWER PARENTS TO FIND THE TIME TO COMPLETE THEIR CHILD'S SPEECH AND LANGUAGE HOMEWORK Lana Ridge April 13, 2011 The study was completed to determine if parents' feelings of empowerment is improved after viewing a video. The video was designed to assist parents in determining appropriate time(s) to complete speech and language therapy homework. Parents from the JCPS, who had children in speech therapy, were recruited through a recruitment packet distributed by the school SLP. Parents were to complete 3 questionnaires, each two weeks apart, on www.surveygizmo.com regarding homework. Parents were asked to view a video at the end of the first and second questionnaire. Twenty-four percent, of the SLPs initially agreed to participate. It is known that 4 schools failed to distribute the recruitment letters. No initial questionnaires were completed. One person completed and two people partially completed the second questionnaire. No parent viewed the video. No data was obtained to answer the research question. Implications of this study's failure to obtain data are in the discussion section.


Researchers decided to explore whether diatomaceous earths (DEs) might meet the grain protection demands of rural households. These inert dusts are non-toxic to mammals but deadly to insects absorbing the wax from the insect's cuticle which leads to water loss and death. Following laboratory studies, promising commercial DEs were trialled collaboratively by researchers and farmers as grain protectants in Zimbabwe. Protect-lt and Dryacide applied at 0.1%w/w were as effective as the synthetic conventional insecticide, Actellic Super dust, in limiting insect damage on stored maize, sorghum and cowpea grains for periods of eight months. However, laboratory studies revealed that the devastating larger grain borer now spread throughout many African countries was more tolerant to DEs than the storage pests found in Zimbabwe. This initiated the testing of DEs in combination with other products. Higher DE application rates of 0.25%w/w, a DE-pyrethroid combination and a local African DE were successfully tested by farmers in Tanzania. During this work the importance of the link between a potential technology such as DEs and the wider post-harvest service provision context became clearer. This led to the exploration of this context using: an enquiry approach to learn about post-harvest decision making amongst diverse rural households; and an experimental learning process to empower farmers. As the nature of the different stakeholders within the agricultural innovation system and their information requirements became more central to the work, the importance of the patterns of interaction amongst them and associated attitudes was repeatedly revealed. A learning alliance of key post-harvest stakeholders was established to explore and test opportunities for stakeholders to work together differently to help overcome institutional and other constraints.


While it may be seemingly obvious, there is very little data on patient perceptions of bedpan use. In order to create a better bedpan, there needs to be evidence as to why it is necessary. The objective of this study is to explore patient experiences of bedpan use in order to define their perceptions of comfort levels. The literature shows that patients are physically and emotionally uncomfortable when using the bedpan, find the device unpleasant, and are not receiving the necessary levels of education and compassion from their care staff. A mixed methods study using a descriptive quantitative design was developed to further explore the patient experience of using a bedpan. A convenience sample of 50 participants in acute and long term care settings completed an interview tool developed by the researchers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze frequencies and Chi square analysis was used to define statistically significant relationships. Patients identified major problems with physical, psychosocial, sociocultural, and environmental aspects of bedpan us, with frequent report of discomfort, embarrassment, improper positioning, and adverse device characteristics. Patients are experiencing unnecessary pain and are at risk for infection and constipation due to discomfort and embarrassment. Redesigning the bedpan will be integral to improving patient experiences. PERCEPTIONS OF BEDPAN COMFORT 7


Real estate is today seen through the widespread sustainability discourse where buildings and land use occupies a core position. Land and buildings are also subject to sustainability evaluations along environmental, social, cultural and economic dimensions. In this paper cross-sectional data on house prices and sales volumes from Budapest, Hungary, for the period 2000-09 are analysed using time-windows generated by the self-organizing map (SOM) algorithms. In particular, upper-market cases are related to sustainable innovations insofar as such exist, which is examined using interviews and field inspection. The results however suggest that such features are largely absent in the period of data collection, although future markets are likely to be different in this respect.


The First World War became a watershed for the lives of many women in Britain, as they were suddenly thrown into roles that society had previously denied them. Women were expected to enter male spheres in the home and work place as part of the war effort, resulting in a more expendable income for many and profound changes in dress and lifestyle. Trouser suits, shorter hem lines, 'Bobbed' hair and cigarettes were all part of a new androgynous look created to accommodate women's redefined roles. 'Ladies Football', to use their own term, fitted neatly into this new status quo.' However, it was not exclusive to the First World War and nor was it essentially a working class phenomenon, as the football stories would lead us to believe. Firstly, as both Gail Newsham and David Williamson point out in their respective studies, 'Ladies Football' was played during the late nineteenth century. For example, in 1895, Nettie Honeyball was made secretary for the British Ladies and she apparently made a great impression playing before a crowd of 8,000 at Newcastle. In the 1890s a travelling Scottish team, managed by Lady Florence Dixie, was a source of ridicule when it was rumoured that one of the girls played in her brother's underwear
However, as football veteran Joan Whalley was quick to point out in an interview for Granada Television, although many came to mock the women, they left the ground impressed by their skill and quality of football. Secondly, a significant number of girls from 'white collar' modes of employment, such as teaching and secretarial work, became involved in 'Ladies Football'. The Atlanta Sports Club, Huddersfield, for instance, was made up of girls from 'white collar' backgrounds."
'Ladies Football' was becoming hugely popular by the end of the war and in the early post-war period. It was commanding huge crowds and raising large sums for charity, while elevating the status of women both in their communities and within their redefined roles, proving that they could function perfectly well within the spheres that convention had denied them for so long. For example, St Helens Ladies AFC played Dick, Kerr's Ladies, raising £3,000 for ex-servicemen at Everton in front of a crowd of 50,000


A major component of RNA structure stabilization are the hydrogen bonded interactions between the base residues. The importance and biological relevance for large clusters of base interactions can be much more easily investigated when their occurrences have been systematically detected, catalogued and compared. In this paper, we describe the database InterRNA (INTERactions in RNA structures database—http://mfrlab.org/interrna/) that contains records of known RNA 3D motifs as well as records for clusters of bases that are interconnected by hydrogen bonds. The contents of the database were compiled from RNA structural annotations carried out by the NASSAM (http://mfrlab.org/grafss/nassam) and COGNAC (http://mfrlab.org/grafss/cognac) computer programs. An analysis of the database content and comparisons with the existing corpus of knowledge regarding RNA 3D motifs clearly show that InterRNA is able to provide an extension of the annotations for known motifs as well as able to provide novel interactions for further investigations.


Enterprise users require mobility and secure connectivity when they
roam and connect to the services offered in the enterprise. Secure
connectivity is required when the user connects to the enterprise from
an untrusted network. Mobility is beneficial when the user moves,
either inside or outside the enterprise network, and acquires a new IP
address. This document describes a solution using Mobile IPv4 (MIPv4)
and mobility extensions to IKEv2 (MOBIKE) to provide secure
connectivity and mobility. This document specifies an Internet Best
Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion
and suggestions for improvements.


From 30 Mar to 20 Apr 2020, an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred in Thung Yang Daeng District of Pattani Province in Southern Thailand. An outbreak investigation was conducted to identify the outbreak's magnitude, epidemiologic characteristics, and source of infection. A descriptive study was conducted in which we reviewed investigation reports of all Real Time - Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed COVID-19 cases and identified active local transmission villages. A case was defined as a person living in one of the active local transmission villages with laboratory confirmation of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A total of 27 laboratory-confirmed cases were identified from 471 individuals (overall attack rate 5.7%) who were deemed to be high-risk contacts. Among them, two cases were detected from the active case finding. The median age of the 27 cases was 46 years (Q1=28, Q3=58) and the male to female ratio was 1.07:1. The first imported case returned from religious gatherings at Markaz Yala, a place of worship in Yala Province. The analytic result showed that the group of religious contacts at Markaz Yala, local religious contacts, and household contacts of the confirmed cases, had a significantly higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection than other community members. Local quarantine for people returning from outbreak areas and religious gatherings, and for high-risk close contacts will be appropriate for the district context.


Machine Learning models should ideally be compact and robust. Compactness provides efficiency and comprehensibility whereas robustness provides stability. Both topics have been studied in recent years but in isolation. Here we present a robust model compression scheme which is independent of model types: it can compress ensembles, neural networks and other types of models into diverse types of small models.
The main building block is the notion of depth derived from robust statistics.
Originally, depth was introduced as a measure of the centrality of a point in a sample such that the median is the deepest point.
This concept was extended to classification functions which makes it possible to define the depth of a hypothesis and the median hypothesis. Algorithms have been suggested to approximate the median but they have been limited to binary classification. In this study, we present a new algorithm, the Multiclass Empirical Median Optimization (MEMO) algorithm that finds a deep hypothesis in multi-class tasks, and prove its correctness.
This led to our Compact Robust Estimated Median Belief Optimization (CREMBO) algorithm for robust model compression. We demonstrate the success of this algorithm empirically by compressing neural networks and random forests into small decision trees, which are interpretable models, and show that they are more accurate and robust than other comparable methods. In addition, our empirical study shows that our method outperforms Knowledge Distillation on DNN to DNN compression.


If you try to start a car that has been in the garage for decades, you expect the engine not to respond. But a set of propellers onboard the NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched on Wednesday, November 29, 37 years after its last use without any problems. Voyager 1 is the only man-made object that has arrived in interstellar space, being also the space probe created by NASA, which travels at the highest speed and is at the highest distance from Terra. The probe flies for 40 years and can change its position to keep its antenna pointing to the Terra using some small propellers operating in very short halves, in the order of milliseconds. NASA's Voyager team has been able to launch a set of back-up propellants that had not been in use since 1980. The test succeeds in extending Voyager 1's life to a minimum of 2-3 years. In 2014, NASA engineers noticed that Voyager's propellers used to change direction degraded. Over time, propellers end up working longer than normal to get the same effect on the direction of the probe. NASA experts have designed several working scenarios to solve the problem and concluded that it is best to use a series of back-up engines to control the probe's direction. These propellants had not been used for 37 years. NASA has been forced to search for decades old archives and use an obsolete programming language that no one uses to compile commands that have been transmitted by radio waves to the small computer on board to Voyager 1. The probe is more than 20 billion km from Terra. In the early years of the mission, Voyager 1 passed past Jupiter, Saturn and some of the satellites of these planets. In order to maintain the correct distance and orientation of on-board instruments, engineers used a series of Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCM) with dedicated, but identical size and functionality to those used for small flight corrections. These propellers used to correct the trajectory are placed on the back of the probe. After the encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 did not need them, the last use being on November 8, 1980. These propellers had been used in a different way, meaning they were operating for long periods, not for very short-lived pulses. All engines on board Voyager were produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, the same type of engine being installed on other spacecraft such as Cassini and Dawn. On November 28, Voyager engineers started the four TCM engines and tested their ability to steer the probe using 10 millisecond pulses. Researchers were then forced to wait for the test results to travel through space, in the form of radio waves, to be received after 19 h and 35 min by an antenna from Goldstone, California, part of NASA's Deep Space network.


Lead migration (LM) is the most common complication after spinal cord stimulation (SCS). Although multiple reports of caudad LM have been described, cephalad LM has not been reported. Here we describe a case in which a stimulator lead migrates in the cephalad direction. A 60-year-old male with failed back surgery syndrome underwent SCS lead implantation via a dual lead approach to the top of vertebral body (VB) T9. A standard strain relief loop was used for each lead in the paramedian pocket. Postoperative testing revealed 100% paresthesia coverage of the painful areas. For the first 4 days, the patient continued to have excellent coverage; however, by the seventh day, the paresthesias ascended to above the nipple line. At the 2-week follow-up, cephalad migration of the left lead to the top of VB T1 was confirmed on fluoroscopy. The patient underwent successful lead revision in which a single paramedian incision technique was used to place extra sutures and a "figure-of-eight" strain relief loop. We provide the first case report of significant cephalad LM following SCS lead implantation. This migration can occur despite the use of current standard anchoring techniques. Additional investigation into the mechanism of such LM and lead-securing techniques is warranted.


The crystal structure of isolueshite, a recently described member of the perovskite group from the Khibina complex (Russia), was refined by single-crystal methods in the space group Pm33m [a = 3.909(1) A] to R = 0.031 and wR = 0.061. The previously proposed cubic symmetry of isolueshite was confirmed. In contrast to the known perovskite-group minerals crystallizing with the cubic symmetry, isolueshite shows a disordered arrangement of oxygen atoms in a Pm33m -type cell. In isolueshite, the oxygen atoms are disordered from their "ideal" site at 3 c (1/2, 0, 1/2) over four 12 h sites ( x , 0, 1/2) with a refined x of 0.579(5). The refinement was based on the structural formula (Na 0.75 La 0.19 Ca 0.06 ) ∑1.00 (Nb 0.50 Ti 0.50 ) ∑1.00 O 3.00 closely corresponding to the empirical formula of the mineral. The presence of hydroxy1 groups in the structure of isolueshite was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy (absorption lines at 3450 cm −1 and 1080 cm −1 ). Structural formulae of the mineral accounting for the presence of (OH) −1 groups are given. A synthetic compound of the composition (Na 0.75 La 0.25 ) (Nb 0.50 Ti 0.50 )O 3 was prepared using the ceramic technique (final heating at 1200°C), and shown not to crystallize with cubic symmetry. The crystal structure of this compound is best refined (Rietveld method) in orthorhombic symmetry [ Cmcm, a = 7.7841(9), b = 7.8045(2), c = 7.7831 (9) A]. This structure is derived from the ideal perovskite lattice ( Pm3m ) by rotation of the (Nb,Ti)O 6 octahedra about two tetrad axes of the cubic subcell (tilt system a 0 b + c). Our data and, in particular, the presence of oxygen disorder (incongruent octahedral tilting) in the structure of isolueshite, suggest that stabilization of the cubic symmetry of this mineral may be controlled by thermodynamic or kinetic factors (crystallization temperature, pressure or cooling rate), rather than by the isomorphic substitutions involving La and Ti. Hence, isolueshite should probably be considered a quenched or "frozen" polymorph of NaNb0 3 .


Black particles, collected by filtration (1.2~pm pore size) from the anoxic waters of a soft-water lake, were examined by a scanning proton microprobe which permitted quantitative elemental analysis by proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and Rutherford backscattering(RBS). There was a uniform distribution of sulfur across the filter, but Fe, and to a lesser extent, Mn, was localized in -5-pm diameter clusters. Elemental analysis with 1 -pm-diameter beams revealed that the Fe clusters were mainly comprised of iron oxides. Iron sulfide material not in the Fe clusters had stoichiometric proportions of Fel.oSo.60Po.60Cao.~~~.A1l4th. ough a purely biogenie origin for P, Ca, and K cannot be ruled out, the composition is consistent with the particles originating as authigenic iron oxides which react with sulfide as they sink through the water column. The iron sulfide particles are richer in Cu (4,000 ppm) and Zn (6,000 ppm) than the iron oxides, suggesting that these elements are also concentrated as their insoluble sulfides. The coexistence of iron oxides and sulfides indicates that either the supply of sulfide is limiting or that some iron oxide particles are unreactive.


This discussion paper assesses how robust accounting could be implemented under the Paris Agreement in order to avoid double counting between nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) implemented under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The paper focuses on how host countries of carbon-offset projects can account for the use of offset credits under CORSIA by reporting "adjustments" in the "structured summaries" of their biennial transparency reports prepared under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement. The paper finds that several accounting approaches considered in the international negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement for international transfers of mitigation outcomes between countries cannot not be implemented in the specific context of CORSIA where the offset credits are used by airline operators or may not robustly avoid double counting. The paper identifies nine options for how the use of offset credits under CORSIA could be accounted for by host countries and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. The paper also evaluates options to account for single-year targets in the context of CORSIA, as well as options for consistent consideration of Global Warming Potentials used under CORSIA and nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. The findings of the paper are important for the ongoing negotiations under the Paris Agreement on the rules for international transfers of mitigation outcomes under Article 6 and the implementation of "structured summaries" under Article 13.


This paper develops a general equilibrium two country, two commodity dynamic simulation model of international trade in commodities and financial claims. The model generalizes the Heckscher-Ohlin static theory of trade by incorporating costs of quickly adjusting levels of capital stocks in particular industries; i.e., capital mobility in the short run is permitted, but at a price. The model predicts Heckscher-Ohlin relationships, including factor price equalization, in the long-run, but not during the economy's transition path to its ultimate steady-state. An interesting feature of the model is that it provides a determinate solution to the long-run inter- national allocation of the world's capital stock. This is true despite the fact that the Rybchinski-theorem holds in the long-run. The simulation model of international trade with costly capital stock adjustment appears capable of explaining many features of the patterns of factor price equalization, international investment, and changes in comparative advantage that have characterized the post-war period.


The song of the Reed Bunting is characterized by a large variability between individuals. Within Switzerland, the subspecies schoeniclus is breeding north and south of the Alps in wetlands, which are often small and unconnected. The local isolation might favour the development of local song characteristics, i.e. dialects. We therefore analysed 260 songs of 30 different Reed Buntings from five separate locations (Greifensee, Chatzensee, Fanel, Gletterens, and Bolle di Magadino). For quantification, we determined seven song variables and compared them within and between the local populations. Our results show considerable song variability within local populations. In addition, we found significant differences between various local populations for the variables song diversity and maximal frequency. Song diversity further differed between songs from populations north and the one south of the Alps. Our findings thus support the existence of local song dialects of the Reed Bunting in Switzerland; however, our results also confirm that song variability within local populations is extensive.


Code summarization (CS) and code generation (CG) are two crucial tasks in the field of automatic software development. Various neural network-based approaches are proposed to solve these two tasks separately. However, there exists a specific intuitive correlation between CS and CG, which has not been exploited in previous work. In this paper, we apply the relations between two tasks to improve the performance of both tasks. In other words, exploiting the duality between the two tasks, we propose a dual training framework to train the two tasks simultaneously. In this framework, we consider the dualities on probability and attention weights, and design corresponding regularization terms to constrain the duality. We evaluate our approach on two datasets collected from GitHub, and experimental results show that our dual framework can improve the performance of CS and CG tasks over baselines.


Inefficient feed management strategy in aquaculture will increase the fish production cost. One of the most effective strategies to solve this problem is through a better understanding of the compensatory growth of cultured fish. O. niloticus BEST tilapia strain (total length: 7.23 ± 0.11 cm mean ± SD; Body weight: 7.04 ± 0.08 g mean ± SD) were reared in aquariums at 26.3 ± 1.4oC for 10 weeks. During the experiment, the control group was fed twice a day. The other two groups were deprived of food for one and two weeks and then fed twice a day during refeeding period. At the end of the experiment, the fish deprived for one week had a body weight, biomass and specific growth rate that were not significantly different from the control group. The body weight, biomass and specific growth rate of fish deprived for two weeks were significantly lower than the other groups. This study revealed that concentrations of ash and lower concentrations of protein and lipid on the deprived groups were higher compared to those without feed deprivation. Mortality of fish was lower than 9% and not significantly different among the treatments. Fish aggressive behavior was the main reason for injuries and death. Given the results, BEST tilapia strain was only able to reach complete growth compensation not longer than one week deprivation period. The results of the present study could be applied as basic information for further research on feeding management of BEST tilapia strain.


This paper focuses on the analysis of conceptual, normative and institutional issues of the Colombian Multidimensional Poverty Index (C-MPI). The principal questions are the following: What is the decision-making process that lies behind the Colombian experience? What are the main lessons from the Colombian case in terms of institutional arrangements for the implementation of its index? Although the medium and longer-term effects of the C-MPI on poverty reduction are still to be seen and thus to be evaluated, there are some important lessons. First, a multidimensional poverty index's utility in terms of public policy depends not only on the mathematical and statistical robustness guaranteed by the Alkire Foster methodology but also on the ability of the policy maker to represent the public policy priorities through its normative choices. Second, acknowledging the inherent trade-offs involved in conceptual, statistical and public policy concerns is key to accurately defining the purpose of the measure. Finally, if the purpose of the MPI is to stimulate coordinated action to reduce poverty, an accurate design will not be enough; it is also necessary to provide a solid institutional architecture that supports the process from the design of the index to its application.


The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of lesions created using radiofrequency (RF) energy delivered through a saline/foam electrode that is designed to simplify ablation of the isthmus between the tricus‐pid annulus (TA) and the inferior vena cava (IVC). We compared the changes in the electrophysiological parameters produced by the ablation to histological findings. In search of a more practical and effective atrial flutter ablation method, various energy modifications and catheter designs have been tested. It was shown that the efficiency of RF ablation could be improved using an endocardial cooled catheter; resulting in increased lesion size. Thus, we postulate that a similar advantage of the cooled catheter system would allow efficient RF delivery through specially designed long foam electrodes, therefore improving the practicality of TA‐IVC isthmus ablation for a trial flutter. The study was performed in two acute and five subacute sheep under general anesthesia and with adequate heparinization. We used a linear ablation catheter system equipped with two 2‐cm saline bipole electrode pockets with 1.5‐mm separation, each consisting of two 8‐mm electrodes with 1‐mm spacing, allowing for bipolar pacing and recording. This saline/foam electrode pair were positioned on a support loop. RF energy was applied to the saline electrodes at 50 watts for 90 seconds with a saline flow rate of 0.4 mL/s. Bipolar atrial signal amplitude and pacing thresholds were measured before and after ablation. If necessary, the catheter was pulled back and additional ablation was applied to any viable tissue. Transisthmus ablations were created with a single catheter positioning in five sheep using both saline electrodes in four and one electrode in the other. Fullback and additional ablation to one saline electrode was required in two sheep; in one after RF was delivered to only one electrode. After ablation, a trial signal amplitude was reduced by an average of 76% (range 51%‐92%) and its pacing threshold was increased by an average of 617% (range 150%–400%). Transmural lesions were found in all sheep, measuring 8–20 mm in length, 4–10 mm in width, and 1.5–2.0 mm in depth. No charring, coagulum, or remote structural damage was found in any preparation. Continuous transmural TA‐IVC isthmus lesions could be produced with stationary RF linear ablation using a saline/foam electrode catheter system. This system allowed for assessment of electrophysiological parameters that correlated with complete necrosis.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) after optic neuritis and the factors predictive of high and low risk.

DESIGN
Subjects in the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial, who were enrolled between July 1, 1988, and June 30, 1991, were followed up prospectively for 15 years, with the final examination in 2006.

SETTING
Neurologic and ophthalmologic examinations at 13 clinical sites.

PARTICIPANTS
Three hundred eighty-nine subjects with acute optic neuritis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Development of MS and neurologic disability assessment.

RESULTS
The cumulative probability of developing MS by 15 years after onset of optic neuritis was 50% (95% confidence interval, 44%-56%) and strongly related to presence of lesions on a baseline non-contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Twenty-five percent of patients with no lesions on baseline brain MRI developed MS during follow-up compared with 72% of patients with 1 or more lesions. After 10 years, the risk of developing MS was very low for patients without baseline lesions but remained substantial for those with lesions. Among patients without lesions on MRI, baseline factors associated with a substantially lower risk for MS included male sex, optic disc swelling, and certain atypical features of optic neuritis.

CONCLUSIONS
The presence of brain MRI abnormalities at the time of an optic neuritis attack is a strong predictor of the 15-year risk of MS. In the absence of MRI-detected lesions, male sex, optic disc swelling, and atypical clinical features of optic neuritis are associated with a low likelihood of developing MS. This natural history information is important when considering prophylactic treatment for MS at the time of a first acute onset of optic neuritis.


The hunting spider Cupiennius salei uses airflow generated by flying insects for the guidance of its prey-capture jump. We investigated the velocity field of the airflow generated by a freely flying blowfly close to the flow sensors on the spider's legs. It shows three characteristic phases (I–III). (I) When approaching, the blowfly induces an airflow signal near the spider with only little fluctuation (0.013 ± 0.006 m s−1) and a strength that increases nearly exponentially with time (maximum: 0.164 ± 0.051 m s−1 s.d.). The spider detects this flow while the fly is still 38.4 ± 5.6 mm away. The fluctuation of the airflow above the sensors increases linearly up to 0.037 m s−1 with the fly's altitude. Differences in the time of arrival and intensity of the fly signal at different legs probably inform the spider about the direction to the prey. (II) Phase II abruptly follows phase I with a much higher degree of fluctuation (fluctuation amplitudes: 0.114 ± 0.050 m s−1). It starts when the fly is directly above the sensor and corresponds to the time-dependent flow in the wake below and behind the fly. Its onset indicates to the spider that its prey is now within reach and triggers its jump. The spider derives information on the fly's position from the airflow characteristics, enabling it to properly time its jump. The horizontal velocity of the approaching fly is reflected by the time of arrival differences (ranging from 0.038 to 0.108 s) of the flow at different legs and the exponential velocity growth rate (16–79 s−1) during phase I. (III) The air flow velocity decays again after the fly has passed the spider.


Retrieving a memory can modify its influence on subsequent behavior. Whether this phenomenon arises from modification of the contents of the memory trace or its accessibility is a matter of considerable debate. We develop a computational theory that incorporates both mechanisms. Modification of the contents of the memory trace occurs through classical associative learning, but which memory trace is accessed (and thus made eligible for modification) depends on a structure learning mechanism that discovers the units of association by segmenting the stream of experience into statistically distinct clusters (latent causes). New memories are formed when the structure learning mechanism infers that a new latent cause underlies current sensory observations. By the same token, old memories are modified when old and new sensory observations are inferred to have been generated by the same latent cause. We derive this framework from probabilistic principles, and present a computational implementation. Simulations demonstrate that our model can reproduce the major experimental findings from studies of memory modification in the Pavlovian conditioning literature, including dependence on the strength and age of memories, the interval between memory retrieval and extinction, and prediction errors following retrieval.


Ecological focus areas are one of three greening measures that were introduced into the European Common Agricultural Policy by the reform in 2014, with the aim of enhancing the ecological function of agricultural landscapes. However, there are concerns that they will provide little or no additional ecological benefit (enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services) as those that are declared may already exist and/or any new areas will be implemented on the basis of farm management burdens rather than ecological criteria, such as those which are the easiest or least costly to implement. To implement ecological focus areas to achieve greater benefits requires taking account of numerous spatial and management parameters, scientific understanding of ecosystem services, and the needs and behaviour individual and communities of species. Such an approach is not readily practical or feasible for many farm and land managers. This paper describes the development of an indicator framework which aims to distil this complex scientific information to aid decision making with regard to the implementation of ecological focus areas to enhance and increase benefits for ecosystem services and biodiversity. It involved collating scientific evidence from over 350 papers, reports and guides and then structuring this evidence to form the indicator framework. 230 impacts were identified for 20 land uses and landscape features, and these are characterised using 138 parameters and attributes, containing 708 descriptive classes. The framework aims to help land managers identify the potential benefits and burdens of different options for the specific spatial and management context of their farm, and thus select those with greatest benefits and least burden for their circumstances. Ecological focus areas are part of the first evolution of greening measures, so there is scope to improve them to make their implementation more ecological and more focused. Tools, such as the indicator framework presented herein, have the potential to support this process by educating and raising awareness of potential impacts, facilitating the transfer of scientific knowledge, and resulting in a more ecological aware industry. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND


The spo0J gene of Bacillus subtilis is required for the initiation of sporulation. We show that the sporulation defect caused by null mutations in spo0J is suppressed by a null mutation in the gene located directly upstream from spo0J, soj (suppressor of spo0J). These results indicate that Soj inhibits the initiation of sporulation and that Spo0J antagonizes that inhibition. Further genetic experiments indicated that Soj ultimately affects sporulation by inhibiting the activation (phosphorylation) of the developmental transcription factor encoded by spo0A. In addition, the temperature-sensitive sporulation phenotype caused by the ftsA279 (spoIIN279) mutation was partly suppressed by the soj null mutation, indicating that FtsA might also affect the activity of Soj. Soj and Spo0J are known to be similar in sequence to a family of proteins involved in plasmid partitioning, including ParA and ParB of prophage P1, SopA and SopB of F, and IncC and KorB of RK2, spo0J was found to be required for normal chromosome partitioning as well as for sporulation. spo0J null mutants produced a significant proportion of anucleate cells during vegetative growth. The dual functions of Spo0J could provide a mechanism for regulating the initiation of sporulation in response to activity of the chromosome partition machinery.


Under homeostatic conditions, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) circulate in the blood, albeit in low numbers. Retention of HSCs in the bone marrow (BM) is mediated by the chemokine CXCL12. Pharmacological agents that mobilize HSCs from the BM cause the degradation of CXCL12; however, the mechanism responsible for physiological egress of HSCs is unknown. When mice were housed under standard light-dark cycles, Méndez-Ferrer et al. noticed that the numbers of HSCs in the circulation peaked 5 hours after light was initiated and were at their lowest 5 hours after darkness began. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses revealed that the expression of Cxcl12 and the abundance of CXCL12 in the BM were lower when HSCs were most abundant in the circulation and higher when HSCs were retained in the BM. The regulation of circadian activity by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus is mediated by the release of adrenergic neurotransmitters by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Pharmacological or surgical disruption of the SNS in mice abolished the circadian control of Cxcl12 expression and HSC circulation. Experiments with pharmacological agents showed that β3-adrenergic receptor (β3-AR) stimulation resulted in reduced Cxcl12 expression in the BM. Circadian variation of Cxcl12 expression and the number of circulating HSCs was disrupted in β3-AR-deficient mice. Finally, the abundance and nuclear localization of the transcription factor Sp1, which activates Cxcl12 expression, were lower in primary BM stromal cells treated with a β-AR agonist than in untreated cells. Together, these data provide a potential mechanism for the physiological circulation of stem cells and raise the question of why this process should be under circadian control (see commentary by Scadden). S. Méndez-Ferrer, D. Lucas, M. Battista, P. S. Frenette, Haematopoietic stem cell release is regulated by circadian oscillations. Nature 452, 442-447 (2008). [PubMed] D. T. Scadden, Stem cells traffic in time. Nature 452, 416-417 (2008). [PubMed]


Abstract This paper explores methodological issues related to research into second language listening strategies. We argue that a number of central questions regarding research methodology in this line of enquiry are underexamined, and we engage in the discussion of three key methodological questions: (1) To what extent is a verbal report a valid and reliable way of eliciting information about strategies? (2) Should we control for learners' level of linguistic knowledge when examining their listening strategy use? and (3) What are the problems surrounding the analysis of data gained through verbal reports? We discuss each of these three methodological issues within the framework of a research project investigating listening strategies deployed by learners of French in secondary schools in England. Implications from these findings for future research are discussed.


Sacrifice When her mother passed away, Meg Parker was forced to sacrifice her chance at love for the sake of her family. She hopes she will be able to live a full life once again after her father remarries - until tragedy strikes a second time. Suddenly, Meg is facing a darker future altogether. Struggles Lady Alice Langton is travelling the Yorkshire Dales, spreading the suffragette message. Florence Brookes, the daughter of a prosperous grocer, accompanies her, impassioned by the cause but seeking distraction from her own troubles. Appalled by their lack of domestic skills, Meg decides to flee her old life and joins the two women as their maidservant as they make their way to London. Strength When Meg is reunited with her old flame, she is hesitant about her feelings for him - not least because of the rift this causes between her and Lady Alice. It's not until Florence's actions land them in jeopardy that Meg realises she must find the courage to make a heartbreaking choice.


Twenty-First Century India is the first study of India's development giving a fully integrated account of population and development. It is built on new projections of the population for fifty years from the Census of 2001. India's population then had already passed 1 billion. Twenty-five years later it will exceed 1.4 billion, and will almost certainly pass 1.5 billion by mid-century. The projections incorporate for the first time both inter-state migration and the role of HIV/AIDS. They also show India's urban future, with close to half a billion urban inhabitants by the year 2026. The implications of this population growth are then traced out in a range of modelling and analytical work. Growing numbers are found to complicate the task of achieving widespread education in a number of India's states, while other states are already experiencing declines in their school-age population. Demographic growth also contributes to poverty, and increasing divergence in social conditions among the states. As population growth slows in the country overall, the labour force continues to grow relatively fast, with difficult consequences for employment. But national economic growth could be accelerated by the 'demographic bonus' of the declining proportion of dependents to workers in the population. The book is reasonably optimistic about India's food prospects: the country can continue to feed itself. It can also enjoy higher levels of energy use, manufacturing, and modern forms of transport, while experiencing less chemical pollution. India's cities can become cleaner and healthier places to live. Perhaps the most difficult environmental issue, and the one most strongly related to population growth, is water. Some states also face severe pressures on common property resources. A policy chapter concludes the book. India's future problems are large, but in principle manageable. However, whether the country will actually achieve sustainable development for all is another matter.


So far, consumer housing values have not been addressed as factors affecting the market diffusion potential of multi-storey wood building (MSWB). To fill the void, this study addresses different types of consumer housing values in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden (i.e., Nordic region), and whether they affect the likelihood of prejudices against building with wood in the housing markets. The data collected in 2018 from 2191 consumers in the Nordic region were analyzed with exploratory factor analysis and logistic binary regression analysis. According to the results, consumers' perceptions on ecological sustainability, material usage and urban lifestyle were similar in all countries, while country-specific differences were detected for perceptions on aesthetics and natural milieus. In all countries, appreciating urban lifestyle and living in attractive neighborhoods with good reputation increased the likelihood of prejudices against wood building, while appreciation of aesthetics and natural milieus decreased the likelihood of prejudices. In strengthening the demand for MSWB and sustainable urbanization through actions in businesses (e.g., branding) and via public policy support (e.g., land zoning), few messages derive from the results. In all, abreast with the already existing knowledge on the supply side factors (e.g., wood building innovations), more customized information is needed on the consumer-driven issues affecting the demand potential of MSWB in the housing markets. This would enable, e.g., both enhancing the supply of wooden homes for consumers appreciating urban lifestyle and neighborhoods and fortifying positive image of wood among consumers especially appreciating good architecture and pleasant environmental milieus.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of trisomy 18 in women who are <35 years old and who have sonographically detected isolated choroid plexus cyst.

STUDY DESIGN
A meta-analysis of prospective trials that were published in the English language between 1990 and 2000 was performed. Each trial met the following inclusion criteria: (1) prospective trial, (2) total population screened during the study period reported, (3) maternal age (either numeric or descriptive) reported, and (4) pregnancy/neonatal outcomes reported. An isolated choroid plexus cyst for the purpose of this study was defined as absence of sonographically detected structural abnormalities and normal serum analyte screens, if reported.

RESULTS
Eight trials met the criteria and were used for analysis. A total of 106,732 women were screened through articles that were published between 1990 and 2000. The total number of fetuses with choroid plexus cysts that were identified in second-trimester scans were 1,235 (incidence, 1.2%). The incidence of isolated choroid plexus cysts in women who were <35 years old was 1.0% (n = 1,017 women). There were no cases of trisomy 18 in women with isolated choroid plexus cyst who were <35 years old. Four structural abnormalities were noted on postnatal examination; all four neonates had normal karyotypes.

CONCLUSION
There is no evidence that detection of isolated choroid plexus cyst in women who are <35 years of age increases the risk of trisomy 18. Therefore, amniocentesis is not warranted because of the inherent risk of pregnancy loss that is associated with the procedure. Better algorithms are needed to screen women who have a low risk for trisomy 18.


We report a study of the low-mass Class 0 multiple system VLA 1623AB in the Ophiuchus star-forming region, using H13CO+ (J = 3–2), CS (J = 5–4), and CCH (N = 3–2) lines as part of the ALMA Large Program FAUST. The analysis of the velocity fields revealed the rotation motion in the envelope and the velocity gradients in the outflows (about 2000 au down to 50 au). We further investigated the rotation of the circumbinary VLA 1623A disk, as well as the VLA 1623B disk. We found that the minor axis of the circumbinary disk of VLA 1623A is misaligned by about 12° with respect to the large-scale outflow and the rotation axis of the envelope. In contrast, the minor axis of the circumbinary disk is parallel to the large-scale magnetic field according to previous dust polarization observations, suggesting that the misalignment may be caused by the different directions of the envelope rotation and the magnetic field. If the velocity gradient of the outflow is caused by rotation, the outflow has a constant angular momentum and the launching radius is estimated to be 5–16 au, although it cannot be ruled out that the velocity gradient is driven by entrainments of the two high-velocity outflows. Furthermore, we detected for the first time a velocity gradient associated with rotation toward the VLA 16293B disk. The velocity gradient is opposite to the one from the large-scale envelope, outflow, and circumbinary disk. The origin of its opposite gradient is also discussed.


Young children learn best when taught through their mother tongue. This commonsense principle has been supported by decades of research on bilingual education for children who don't speak the dominant language. The research has also shown that there are positive effects on children's cognitive development if they are encouraged to become strong bilinguals. For Indigenous communities, bilingual education has been highly valued not only because it helps children maintain Indigenous languages, but also because it provides an honoured place for Indigenous languages in the curriculum and an honoured place for Indigenous teachers. However, in the Northern Territory bilingual education has been a controversial issue since its inception in the 1970s. In part this is due to the failure of policy-makers to recognise that children who are monolingual in a language other than English need explicit teaching of the English language, by trained English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, before they can learn through English as the medium of instruction. Consequently, there has been much political debate on the issue and frequent moves against bilingual education. At the end of 2008 the Northern Territory Government, supported by the Commonwealth Government, all but closed bilingual education in remote Indigenous schools by determining that the language of instruction for the first four hours of school must be English. This decision could spell the death of the remaining endangered Indigenous languages in Australia. Yet it was taken without apparent regard for the evidence from research on how monolingual children learn a second language, or on the positive value of bilingual education, or the language rights of Indigenous peoples, or the evidence from schools which had abandoned bilingual education. This paper argues that the policy gap revealed by this event should be filled by a national commitment to serious consideration of evidence, and recognition of Indigenous language rights. Through national and international evidence this discussion paper outlines the cognitive, societal and education benefits of bilingual education for children whose first language is not English. It is anticipated that this paper will stimulate political discussion on using evidence-based research to improve education for Australia's Indigenous children.


Consumer protection statutes in both Australia and New Zealand impose obligations on people who are in trade. Courts have consistently interpreted the 'in trade' limitation as excluding private transactions. In New Zealand, a statutory provision operative since 2014 requires all sellers 'in trade' who transact over the internet to make it clear to consumers that they are a 'vendor in trade'. This helps consumers buying online to assess whether or not they are protected by consumer legislation. This article explores the emerging interpretation difficulties presented by the private seller exclusion in an age of online selling where the distinction between a commercial seller and a private seller is not always clear. The article considers whether there are good reasons, both in terms of policy and as a matter of statutory interpretation, to abandon the idea that private transactions are not 'in trade' and, therefore, not subject to consumer protection legislation. If the private seller exclusion is not abandoned, it is argued that there is an urgent need to update consumer legislation to clarify when sellers cross the line from being a seller entering a private transaction to being a person acting 'in trade'. Recommendations are made for the development of new statutory guidelines and definitions.


Abstract This paper provides new insights into the relationship between structural change and the fertility transition. We exploit the spread of an agricultural pest in the American South in the 1890s as plausibly exogenous variation in agricultural production to establish a causal link between earnings opportunities in agriculture and fertility. Households staying in agriculture reduced fertility because children are a normal good, while households switching to manufacturing reduced fertility because of the higher opportunity costs of raising children. The lower earnings opportunities in agriculture also decreased the value of child labor, which increased schooling, consistent with a quantity-quality model of fertility.


BACKGROUND
International guidelines recommend that primary care clinicians recognize obesity and offer treatment opportunistically, but there is little evidence on how clinicians can discuss weight and offer treatment in ways that are well received and effective.

OBJECTIVE
To examine relationships between language used in the clinical visit and patient weight loss.

DESIGN
Mixed-methods cohort study.

SETTING
38 primary care clinics in England participating in the Brief Intervention for Weight Loss trial.

PARTICIPANTS
246 patients with obesity seen by 87 general practitioners randomly sampled from the intervention group of the randomized clinical trial.

MEASUREMENTS
Conversation analysis of recorded discussions between 246 patients with obesity and 87 clinicians regarding referral to a 12-week behavioral weight management program offered as part of the randomized clinical trial. Clinicians' interactional approaches were identified and their association with patient weight loss at 12 months (primary outcome) was examined. Secondary outcomes included patients' agreement to attend weight management, attendance, loss of 5% body weight, actions taken to lose weight, and postvisit satisfaction.

RESULTS
Three interactional approaches were identified on the basis of clinicians' linguistic and paralinguistic practices: creating a sense of referrals as "good news" related to the opportunity of the referral (n = 62); "bad news," focusing on the harms of obesity (n = 82); or neutral (n = 102). Outcome data were missing from 57 participants, so weighted analyses were done to adjust for missingness. Relative to neutral news, good news was associated with increased agreement to attend the program (adjusted risk difference, 0.25 [95% CI, 0.15 to 0.35]), increased attendance (adjusted risk difference, 0.45 [CI, 0.34 to 0.56]), and weight change (adjusted difference, -3.60 [CI, -6.58 to -0.62]). There was no evidence of differences in mean weight change comparing bad and neutral news, and no evidence of differences in patient satisfaction across all 3 approaches.

LIMITATIONS
Data were audio only, so body language and nonverbal cues could not be assessed. There is potential for selection bias and residual confounding.

CONCLUSION
When raising the topic of excess weight in clinical visits, presenting weight loss treatment as a positive opportunity is associated with greater uptake of treatment and greater weight loss.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE
National Institute for Health and Care Research School for Primary Care Research and the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.


The South Armorican Massif hosts a high-grade metamorphic
domain mainly composed of medium to high-grade micaschists,
migmatitic gneisses and anatectic granites [1]. At the end of the Carboniferous, these deep crustal units were exhumed rapidly during the extension associated with the collapse of the Hercynian chain [2]. To the North, this domain is limited by the listhospheric-scale South Armorican Shear Zone (SASZ). Giant quartz veins are associated with the SASZ and recorded important synmetamorphic fluid circulation [3]. Together with very low δ18O values for some euhedral quartz, down to -2‰, low-salinity fluid inclusions argue for a contribution from meteoric fluids [3]. Corresponding δ18Ofluid values
estimated around -11‰ are probably related to the high palaeoelevation of meteoric precipitation. Scarce, but significant, CO2 fluid inclusions in euhedral quartz indicate also a metamorphic contribution. Metamorphic fluids were probably sourced from the exhumed metamorphic basement in the southern part of the Massif. Also, because of the synchronicity between the metamorphic event (exhumation) and the meteoric infiltration, it is proposed that the heat advected towards the surface by the exhumation of high-grade metamorphic rocks provided the driving force for meteoric fluid circulation on a regional scale.

The meteoric infiltration is recorded regionally by the mylonites
which actually define the SASZ and by the syn-kinematic granites which emplaced along the SASZ. Low δ18O values have been measured on some feldspar and zircon grains in the formers [4] while oxygen isotope disequilibirum was recorded by Qz-Fds pairs in the
latters [5]. The muscovite Ar-Ar and monazite U-Th-Pb
chronometers from these lithologies were highly disturbed [4,6]. In the Questembert granite, a classical example of a syn-kinematic granite, pervasive infiltration of oxydative meteoric water was facilitated by the penetrative character of the deformation (C/S planes are observed throughout the massif) and was probably responsible for the leaching of millions of tons of uranium while the granite was still at depth.


Abstract We have limited knowledge of determinants of consumer preferences for wild-caught versus farmed-raised fish, so this work aims to investigate the impact of sociodemographics, habits and frequency of fresh fish consumption, such as involvement in cooking, on the preferences for wild versus farmed fish. A survey was done on a sample of 1151 fish consumers in Croatia. Results showed that female, older consumers, consumers with higher income and those living in coastal parts of Croatia give higher preferences for wild fish and they detect differences between the taste of wild and farmed fish. Consumers with higher levels of habits of fresh fish consumption, who eat fresh fish often and are more involved in cooking, prefer wild-caught fish. These findings provide valuable information for the aquaculture sector, especially for planning marketing strategies for the promotion of farmed fish.


Magmatism and faulting operate and interact in continental rifts at a variety of scales. The East African Rift, an example of an active magmatic continental rift, provides the ideal location to study the interplay between these two mechanisms. Previous work has shown that the distribution of volcanic vents and the shape of volcanic fields are linked to their tectonic environment and their magmatic system. In order to distinguish the impact of each mechanism, we analyzed four distinct volcanic fields located in the Main Ethiopian Rift; three of them (Debre Zeyit, Wonji, and Kone) are located within the rift valley, and one (Akaki) lies on the western rift shoulder. The elongation and shape of each field were analyzed based on their vent distribution using three statistical methods: the principal component analysis, the vent-to-vent distance, and the two-dimensional, symmetric Gaussian kernel density estimation method. The results of these analyses show that the elongations of the fields increase from the western shoulder toward the rift axis and are inversely proportional to their angular dispersion. In addition, we observed that none of the analyzed fields have elongation that parallels either the trends of the youngest faults or the volcano alignments. Dike intrusions inferred from the alignment analysis of volcanic centers that are located within the rift axis tend to parallel the orientation of the recent active faults. This parallelism, however, decreases from the rift axis toward the rift shoulder, which has a lower strain rate and shows a larger number of preexisting fault orientations. Our results suggest that the shape of volcanic fields in the Main Ethiopian Rift is controlled mainly by large crustal structures and/or by the lithosphere-asthenosphere–boundary geometry. Diking is principally controlled by the location of the field within the rift zone; intrusions within the rift zone are controlled mostly by the state of stress and strain rate; while intrusions on the rift shoulder are controlled mostly by the presence of preexisting fractures. This study provides a combination of statistical analyses and geological observations to study and differentiate the mechanisms involved in the formation of volcanic fields on Earth and, potentially, other planets.


The independent roles of social influence and alcohol consumption on risk-taking behaviour have been well researched within the psychological literature. However, the investigation of how all three of these variables interact is both diminutive and inconsistent. That is, there is no general consensus as to whether groups are beneficial or detrimental to alcohol-induced risk-taking. A review of the literature suggests that the relationship between these variables may not be straightforward, and thus a multifaceted approach with consideration of both individual differences and group characteristics may shed light on the complex relationship between social influence and alcohol-induced risk-taking. Subsequently, investigations could potentially identify effective strategies towards targeting sensible drinking in light of social contexts.


Abstract Introduction: Ten adult patients with electromagnetic hypersensitivity underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans. All scans were abnormal with abnormalities which were consistent and similar. It is proposed that fMRI brain scans be used as a diagnostic aid for determining whether or not a patient has electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Over the years we have seen an increasing number of patients who had developed multi system complaints after long term repeated exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). These complaints included headaches, intermittent cognitive and memory problems, intermittent disorientation, and also sensitivity to EMF exposure. Regular laboratory tests were within normal limits in these patients. The patients refused to be exposed to radioactivity. This of course ruled out positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain scanning. This is why we ordered fMRI brain scans on these patients. We hoped that we could document objective abnormalities in these patients who had often been labeled as psychiatric cases. Materials and methods: Ten patients first underwent a regular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan, using a 3 Tesla Siemens Verio MRI open system. A functional MRI study was then performed in the resting state using the following sequences: A three-dimensional, T1-weighted, gradient-echo (MPRAGE) Resting state network. The echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequences for this resting state blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) scan were then post processed on a 3D workstation and the independent component analysis was performed separating out the various networks. Arterial spin labeling. Tractography and fractional anisotropy. Results: All ten patients had abnormal functional MRI brain scans. The abnormality was often described as hyper connectivity of the anterior component of the default mode in the medial orbitofrontal area. Other abnormalities were usually found. Regular MRI studies of the brain were mostly unremarkable in these patients. Conclusion: We propose that functional MRI studies should become a diagnostic aid when evaluating a patient who claims electrohypersensitivity (EHS) and has otherwise normal studies. Interestingly, the differential diagnosis for the abnormalities seen on the fMRI includes head injury. It turns out that many of our patients indeed had a history of head injury which was then followed sometime later by the development of EHS. Many of our patients also had a history of exposure to potentially neurotoxic chemicals, especially mold. Head injury and neurotoxic chemical exposure may make a patient more vulnerable to develop EHS.


Awareness and reflection are viewed differently across the disciplines informing Technology- Enhanced Learning (CSCW, psychology, educational sciences, computer science...). The ARTEL workshop series brings together researchers and professionals from different back- grounds to provide a forum for discussing the multi-faceted area of awareness and reflec- tion.

The theme of the 2013 workshop was:

How can awareness and reflection support learning in different settings (work, education, continuing professional development, lifelong learning, etc.). What are the roles that technology can play to support awareness and reflection in these contexts?
This theme was covered in several topics of the workshop. The main interests were about the theoretical discussion of awareness and reflection in TEL and related concepts (e.g., collaborative learning, creativity techniques, experiential learning, etc.). The methodolo- gies to identify, study and analyse awareness and reflection in the context of (technology- enhanced) learning. Besides theory and methodology the workshop informed about em- pirical studies about technology support for awareness and reflection. A special aim was to showcase technology (design, application, evaluation) supporting awareness and reflec- tion. Here, the central question was how awareness and reflection technologies can help to enhance the learning experience, by researching learner's awareness of social context, knowledge, artefacts and processes, and awareness and reflection in specific contexts, such as higher education, work-integrated learning, learning networks, etc.

The workshop included a paper session, demo and prototype slam as well as interactive sessions. The workshop provided a forum for presenting and discussing research on aware- ness and reflection in TEL, and created an interactive experience that connects partici- pants' research, current tools or latest prototypes and models with real end users' learning experiences and requirements regarding reflection technology. Researchers and practition- ers came together to work on the future agenda of ARTEL research and development (see the topic map below).


Neural networks for image recognition have evolved through extensive manual design from simple chain-like models to structures with multiple wiring paths. The success of ResNets and DenseNets is due in large part to their innovative wiring plans. Now, neural architecture search (NAS) studies are exploring the joint optimization of wiring and operation types, however, the space of possible wirings is constrained and still driven by manual design despite being searched. In this paper, we explore a more diverse set of connectivity patterns through the lens of randomly wired neural networks. To do this, we first define the concept of a stochastic network generator that encapsulates the entire network generation process. Encapsulation provides a unified view of NAS and randomly wired networks. Then, we use three classical random graph models to generate randomly wired graphs for networks. The results are surprising: several variants of these random generators yield network instances that have competitive accuracy on the ImageNet benchmark. These results suggest that new efforts focusing on designing better network generators may lead to new breakthroughs by exploring less constrained search spaces with more room for novel design.


A novel electro-optic silicon-based modulator with a bandwidth of 78GHz, a drive voltage amplitude of 1V and a length of only 80 microm is proposed. Such record data allow 100Gbit/s transmission and can be achieved by exploiting a combination of several physical effects. First, we rely on the fast and strong nonlinearities of polymers infiltrated into silicon, rather than on the slower free-carrier effect in silicon. Second, we use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with slotted slow-light waveguides for minimizing the modulator length, but nonetheless providing a long interaction time for modulation field and optical mode. Third, with this short modulator length we avoid bandwidth limitations by RC time constants. The slow-light waveguides are based on a photonic crystal. A polymer-filled narrow slot in the waveguide center forms the interaction region, where both the optical mode and the microwave modulation field are strongly confined to. The waveguides are designed to have a low optical group velocity and negligible dispersion over a 1THz bandwidth. With an adiabatic taper we significantly enhance the coupling to the slow light mode. The feasibility of broadband slow-light transmission and efficient taper coupling has been previously demonstrated by us with calculations and microwave model experiments, where fabrication-induced disorder of the photonic crystal was taken into account.


Objective: To introduce and discuss the '5 F's concept as an innovative concept for pelvic floor muscle training in women with pelvic floor dysfunctions.

Material and methods: Introduction of and explanation about the concept of the '5 F's, i.e., 'Find-Feel-Force-Follow-through-Functional' training of pelvic floor muscles. Alignment with evidence-based physiotherapy assessment. Discussion of how biofeedback is an important assessment instrument, especially for identification of the key-element pre-contraction of the pelvic floor muscles during any increase of intra-abdominal pressure rise.

Results: Based on adequate physiotherapeutic diagnostics including biofeedback a proper patient selection who will benefit most of innovative PFMT with or without biofeedback is possible.

Conclusions: Innovative and conceptual pelvic floor muscle training is an important and valuable first-line treatment option in the management of women with pelvic floor dysfunctions.


We present a privacy-preserving protocol for users to test a match with potential new friends in an environment where all users cryptographically encrypt their private information. The following scenario is considered. Suppose that user Alice thinks that Bob might be a good new friend. So, Alice and the Online Social Network (representing Bob) engage in a two-party matching protocol. In this protocol no work from Bob is required, Bob can be offline. The matching protocol is designed to give Alice an indication if Bob is similar to her based on their profiles. We show that the process does so without revealing the private information of Alice and Bob to one another and to the Online Social Network.


Abstract The call for citizenship education as a compulsory part of the curriculum has met with a varied response worldwide. While everyone would espouse the ideals of ensuring our young people grow up to be active and fair-minded citizens, why does citizenship education not figure more prominently in our curriculum'? This article discusses the past, present, and possible future of citizenship education in the New Zealand Curriculum. Introduction The call for citizenship education as a compulsory part of the curriculum has met with a varied response worldwide. In the United Kingdom it was made a compulsory cross-curricular theme in 2002 (see, for example, Kerr, 2002); in the United States (where it is known as civics) it is a curriculum area with a set of national standards (Pederson & Cogan, 20(12); in Australia there is ministerial endorsement of Discovering Democracy (a programme that is federally funded and distributed to all states) and there are active citizenship programmes in most states (O'Brien & Parry, 2002); in Canada there has been renewed interest across the provinces (Hebert & Sears, 2001); in New Zealand, it barely rates a mention. This article takes the notion of citizenship education and discusses its relationship to the current New Zealand curriculum. Why has this concept not taken root? I will argue that although it is not specifically named as such, it does exist in a range of guises. I will also argue that there is huge potential for enhancing and strengthening the threads that do exist. This article begins with a general discussion of citizenship and citizenship education. I then examine the history of citizenship education in the New Zealand curriculum and discuss its current status before concluding with recommendations for strengthening its potential. Citizenship: what is it? If not born in New Zealand or of New Zealand parentage, an applicant for New Zealand citizenship must, under the Citizenship Act 1977, have: * completed a period of permanent residency for three years (or two years, if married to a new Zealand citizen); * the intention to continue to live in New Zealand; * the ability to understand and speak English; * a knowledge of the responsibilities and privileges of New Zealand citizenship; and * been certified to be of good character. (1) So what are these "responsibilities and privileges"? Yvonne Hebert and Alan Sears (2001), writing for the Canadian Education Association, define citizenship as "the relationship between the individual and the state, and among individuals within a state" (p. 1). Rob Gilbert (1996, p.108), an Australian social studies educator, views citizenship as a contested term. He explains: "Some definitions emphasise the nation stale as an entity to which people should give allegiance and loyalty. Other definitions emphasise individual rights or a sense of shared loyalty. Others focus on citizen participation in government." Gilbert outlines four major views of citizenship: * as a status implying formal rights and duties; * as an identity and a set of moral and social virtues based on the democratic ideal; * as a public practice conducted through legal and political processes; and * as participation in decision making in all aspects of life. When discussing citizenship in New Zealand elsewhere (for example, Mutch, 2005) I have adapted these categories as follows, with the second one being separated into two to make a total of five: citizenship as status; citizenship as identity; citizenship as the democratic ideal, citizenship as public practice; and citizenship as participation. Citizenship as status relates to the legal rights and responsibilities that a person has as a member of a nation state and of a community within that political entity. Citizenship as identity is broader than purely national identity--it can include religious, political, ethnic, regional, or other affiliations, a notion that Kymlicka (1995) calls "multicultural" or "multiple citizenship". …


This paper deals with the use of 'hot' real-world cases for both testing and teaching purposes such as in the Introductory System Dynamics course at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The paper starts with a brief overview of the System Dynamics curriculum. Then the problem-oriented teaching and testing approach is explained, followed by a presentation and discussion of several examples of 'hot' cases. The main goal of presenting the use of 'hot' testing/teaching cases is to spur other System Dynamics lecturers on to doing the same, and to start up a small network for exchanging the 'hottest' cases.


Periodontitis is an infectious inflammatory disease that destroys the tooth-supporting (periodontal) tissues. Porphyromonas gingivalis is an oral pathogen highly implicated in the pathogenesis of this disease. It can exert its effects to a number of cells, including osteogenic bone marrow stromal cells which are important for homeostastic capacity of the tissues. By employing gene microarray technology, this study aimed to describe the overall transcriptional events (>2-fold regulation) elicited by P. gingivalis secreted products in bone marrow stromal cells, and to dissect further the categories of genes involved in bone metabolism, inflammatory and immune responses. After 6 h of challenge with P. gingivalis, 271 genes were up-regulated whereas 209 genes were down-regulated, whereas after 24 h, these numbers were 259 and 109, respectively. The early (6 h) response was characterised by regulation of genes associated with inhibition of cell cycle, induction of apoptosis and loss of structural integrity, whereas the late (24 h) response was characterised by induction of chemokines, cytokines and their associated intracellular pathways (such as NF-κB), mediators of connective tissue and bone destruction, and suppression of regulators of osteogenic differentiation. The most strongly up-regulated genes were lipocalin 2 (LCN2) and serum amyloid A3 (SAA3), both encoding for proteins of the acute phase inflammatory response. Collectively, these transcriptional changes elicited by P. gingivalis denote that the fundamental cellular functions are hindered, and that the cells acquire a phenotype commensurate with propagated innate immune response and inflammatory-mediated tissue destruction. In conclusion, the global transcriptional profile of bone marrow stromal cells in response to P. gingivalis is marked by deregulated homeostatic functions, with implications in the pathogenesis of periodontitis.


The state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) program has been challenged to demonstrate the effectiveness of VR services provided to eligible consumers. State-federal VR agencies are under pressure to develop a foundation of evidence-based practices that lead to competitive employment outcomes for people with disabilities. This article provides a qualitative analysis of the organization structural elements and service delivery practices related to the provision of effective best practices that enhance employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Using a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) approach, a multi-stage qualitative analysis of four high performing state VR agencies was conducted to identify promising organizational and service delivery practices that facilitate employment outcomes. Twenty-nine practices were identified as being supportive of the successful outcomes of persons with disabilities being served by these agencies. The identified practices reflect unique and similar service patterns across the four VR agencies studied. Practices were divided into Promising Organizational Practices and Promising Service Delivery Practices. The culture of an organization is an important factor in the development and sustainability of innovative practices. Best practices reconsider traditional rehabilitation counselor roles and offer new methods for delivering services. Rigorous research and program evaluation are required to identify which practices will ultimately constitute evidence-based practices.


We propose a multistep statistical procedure to determine
the confidence interval of the number of features that should
be retained in appearance-based face recognition, which is based
on the eigen decomposition of covariance matrices. In practice, due
to sampling variation, the empirical eigenpairs differ from their underlying
population counterparts. The empirical distribution is difficult
to derive, and it deviates from the asymptotic approximation
when the sample size is limited, which hinders effective feature selection.
Hence, we propose a new technique, MIZM (modified indifference
zone method), to estimate the confidence interval of the
number of features. MIZM overcomes the singularity problem in face
recognition and extends the indifference zone selection from PCA to
LDA. The simulation results on the ORL, UMIST, and FERET databases
show that the overall recognition performance based on
MIZM is improved from that using all available features or heuristically
selected features. The relatively small number of features also
indicates the efficiency of the proposed feature selection method.
MIZM is motivated by feature selection for face recognition, but it
extends the indifference zone method from PCA to LDA and can be
applied in general LDA tasks.


Scientific knowledge is characterized by abstract descriptions and structures, which are not identical to the lived reality. Scientific knowledge cannot directly be applied on the lived existence, without being transformed and adjusted to the individual's very complex lifeworld. Learning in caring contexts is an encounter between the scientific knowledge of caring and the learner's lifeworld. This encounter needs a support that has the potential to bring caring science to life and to start an intertwining process with the lifeworld that creates embodied knowledge. Lifeworld didactics are built on an approach about learning as an individual process and that learning takes its point of departure in the learner's previous experiences, which accompanies the learning process. The challenges within lifeworld didactics are to be open and sensitive to the learner's lifeworld and with tact support the development of a reflective attitude in the learning process. Lifeworld didactics strategies are of crucial importance in different caring contexts. This symposium presents three lifeworld led phenomenological research projects that have focused on acquiring caring science knowledge in caring contexts, more precisely it is the encounter between caring science and the lifeworld. The research is within the framework of lifeworld didactics, but the three projects each have a special focus.


Land market regulations are often justified by the assumption that activities of foreign and nonagricultural investors drive up land prices in countries with low land price levels. However, empirical knowledge about the dynamics of agricultural land prices across borders is sparse. Using the German reunification as a natural experiment, we study the effect of the former inner German border on the dynamics of agricultural land prices in East and West Germany. We apply a land price diffusion model with an error correction specification that estimates to what extent agricultural land markets are spatially integrated. A novel feature of our model is its ability to distinguish price diffusion within states and across state borders. We find that local agricultural land markets in Germany are linked by a long-run equilibrium relationship. Spatial market integration, however, does not hold among all counties in our study area. Regarding our main research question, we provide evidence for a persistent border effect given that the fraction of spatially integrated counties is larger within states than across the former border. Moreover, we observe non-significant error correction terms for many counties along the former border. From a policy perspective, it is striking to realize that even 25 years after German reunification, pronounced land price differences persist. It is quite likely that price diffusion through existing borders within the EU would take even more time given language barriers, different administrative procedures for land acquisitions, different tax systems, and information asymmetries between domestic and foreign market participants.


Capital markets in Europe currently lack the necessary depth, scale and integration to provide the funds for innovative firms to grow, thereby imposing a high cost on both firms and investors. In response to this grave deficiency, Karel Lannoo calls upon the European Commission to undertake a radical upgrade of the Capital Markets Union (CMU), along the lines of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), but with a focus on strengthening the role of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European supervisory authorities (ESAs). Given that much of the rulemaking is complete, he observes that an empowered capital markets supervisor is the only way to deliver the benefits of a single market.


This thesis defends a hedonistic theory of value consisting of two main components. Part 1 offers a theory of pleasure. Pleasures are experiences distinguished by a distinct phenomenological quality. This quality is attitudinal in nature: it is the feeling of liking. The pleasure experience is also an object of this attitude: when feeling pleasure, we like what we feel, and part of how it feels is how this liking feels: Pleasures are Internally Liked Experiences. Pleasure plays a central role in the motivational system such that pleasure tends to influence, and in turn be influenced by, other motivational, dispositional and evaluative states of the agent. While this connection is strong, it is often indirect and contingent - the necessary attitudinal connection is a matter of how pleasure feels, not of how it functions. Part 2 is concerned with the nature of value. What kind of problem is it that value poses, and what ought a theory of value to do? In face of the fundamental disagreements that persist over these questions, we try to gather and systemize what we can agree upon about value, and then develop a theory that accounts for (enough of) those things. Meta-ethical naturalism, as developed here, is the view that value is a natural property, identified via the role "value" plays according to the best systematization of moral and evaluative thought. The theory engaging meta-ethics with the scientific investigation of matters relevant to value: we need to understand the causal processes behind our beliefs in order to make an informed decision about which of the competing theories offers the best explanation of value. Finally, the argument is made that the nature and function of pleasure shows it to play the kind of explanatory role necessary for a sound naturalistic reduction of value: it makes many of our beliefs about value true, and it is causally responsible for most of our attributions and beliefs about value. (Less)


The mucosal lining of the intestine is stuffed with antibody-secreting B cells, which produce vast quantities of immunoglobulin A (IgA), a specialized form of antibody equipped specifically for secretion across the gut wall, where it protects against enteric pathogens. The cues that make a mucosal B cell produce IgA, rather than any of the other forms of antibody, are unclear. Mora et al. now show that another immune cell, the dendritic cell, imparts this information within lymphoid tissue associated with the gut. Once activated by the gut dendritic cells, B cells become "imprinted" to enter the circulation and then home back to the mucosal lining to begin IgA production. Induction depended on the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid, which may explain why vitamin A deficiency exacerbates childhood diarrheal disease in the developing world. J. R. Mora, M. Iwata, B. Eksteen, S.-Y. Song, T. Junt, B. Senman, K. L. Otipoby, A. Yokota, H. Takeuchi, P. Ricciardi-Castagnoli, K. Rajewsky, D. H. Adams, U. H. von Andrian, Generation of gut-homing IgA-secreting B cells by intestinal dendritic cells. Science 314, 1157-1160 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The dysregulation of cytokines is thought to play a role in the inflammatory and allospecific components of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and graft rejection (GR) post allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Both complications occur post unrelated BMT at significantly higher frequencies than post BMT from identical sibling donors. The levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-12 following unrelated BMT were measured to examine cytokine dysregulation involvement in GVHD and GR. Of the 26 patients included in this study, 15 developed GVHD (14 acute; 1 acute and chronic), 5 had GR and 6 had uneventful BMT. TNF-alpha was markedly elevated in 13/15 of the patients with GVHD and in 3/5 patients with GR. IL-6 was elevated in patients with acute GVHD and with GR. IL-12 levels were similar in pre- and post-BMT sera. No correlation was found between HLA-C match and cytokine levels. In conclusion, a positive correlation was found between elevated levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-10, and GVHD (p < 0.05, p < 0.005 and p < 0.002 respectively) and GR (p < 0.01).


Advances in geosynthetics have led to significant innovations in the design of geotechnical and geoenvironmental systems during the last several decades. New geosynthetic barrier systems have been developed and fully incorporated into modern landfill design, a proliferation of geosynthetics in hydraulic applications have reduced the need for granular filters and drains, and amazing advances in reinforced soil technology have revolutionized the way in which engineers now think of walls and embankments. "Advances in Transportation and Geoenvironmental Systems Using Geosynthetics" outlines the current trends and developments in the rapidly evolving use of geosynthetics in critical engineering projects. These 27 technical papers discuss advances in design and application of geosynthetics in the areas of geoenvironmental systems, hydraulic systems, and reinforced soil systems. Additionally, a section is devoted specifically to monitoring systems reinforced with geosynthetics. Keynote papers on landfill failures and full scale testing of geosynthetic reinforced soil retaining walls are also included in the proceedings.


The Russian oil industry--which vies with Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer and exporter of oil, providing nearly 12 percent of the global supply--is facing mounting problems that could send shock waves through the Russian economy and worldwide. Wheel of Fortune provides an authoritative account of this vital industry from the last years of communism to its uncertain future. Tracking the interdependence among Russia's oil industry, politics, and economy, Thane Gustafson shows how the stakes extend beyond international energy security to include the potential threat of a destabilized Russia. Gustafson, a leading consultant and analyst of the politics of energy in the former Soviet Union, draws on interviews with key players over the course of two decades to provide a detailed history of the oil industry's evolution since the breakup of the Soviet Union. At its center is the complex and fraught relationship between the oil industry and the state, which loosened its grip under Yeltsin only to tighten it again under Putin. As oil becomes harder to find and more expensive to produce and deliver, Gustafson warns, Russia's growing dependence on revenue from oil exports, along with its inefficient and often-corrupt management of the industry, is unsustainable. A rich but troubled Soviet legacy, the conflicting ambitions of politicians and industry oligarchs, and the excesses of capitalism Russian-style threaten to lead Russia to an impasse. Involving the oil industry in the country's modernization agenda and remaking its relationship to the state, Gustafson argues, is Russia's best path toward a stable economy and a safer world.


This article concerns digital inclusion projects in developing countries and, in particular, focuses on processes of institutionalization of such projects. Three case studies are described and analysed. The first is the Akshaya telecenter project in the state of Kerala in India. The second is a community-based ICT project in a town in a rural area of South Africa. The third is the efforts of various agencies on telecenter projects in the mega-city of São Paulo in Brazil. The cases are analysed through a simple theoretical schema derived from institutional theory. The analyses are used to derive four key processes of institutionalization, which are argued to be of relevance to all digital inclusion projects: getting symbolic acceptance by the community, stimulating valuable social activity in relevant social groups, generating linkage to viable revenue streams, and enrolling government support. The article concludes with some theoretical, methodological, and policy implications. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Amphibian breeding phenology has generally been associated with temperature and rainfall, but these variables are not able to explain all of the variation in the timing of amphibian migrations, mating and spawning. This thesis examines some additional, previously under-acknowledged geophysical variables that may affect amphibian breeding phenology: lunar phase and the K-index of geomagnetic activity. A serendipitous observation of a large earthquake during the amphibian breeding season enabled a rare record of animal behaviour prior to an earthquake and led to an investigation into the effect of seismicity on amphibians. Data were collected on breeding migrations at three sites in the UK and Italy for frogs (Rana temporaria) and toads (Bufo bufo) . Additional data were collated from published literature. Data on the arrivals of two newt species (Triturus cristatus and Lissotriton helveticus) were also analysed. Lunar phase was found to be important in Rana temporaria and Bufo bufo , with more individuals migrating, in amplexus and spawning around the full moon. Newts' response to the full moon was less clear. A meta-analysis of published data revealed that the effect of the lunar cycle on amphibians may be more prevalent than previously supposed and is species-specific, depending on the unique ecology of each species. The effects of the K- index on amphibian reproduction are unclear because of the low number of days when geomagnetism was high. Five days before a large earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy the majority of toads left the breeding site, only re- appearing when the earthquake was over. Numbers of toads were significantly correlated with days since the earthquake but not with weather variables. Finally I attempted to use the variables of interest (two measures of moon phase, plus the K-index of magnetic activity), along with weather variables to construct statistical models of amphibian breeding phenology and to predict arrivals and spawning / amplexus in single years based on the models. This met with variable success; there was a high variability between years in the ability of the models to predict breeding phenology, which could be due to site-specific factors, unmeasured environmental variables, or an endogenous component to breeding phenology.