Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia presenting at cardiology departments. A limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for the development of AF has hindered treatment strategies. The purpose of this study was to assess whether reduced activation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K, p110alpha) makes the compromised heart susceptible to AF. Risk factors for AF, including aging, obesity, and diabetes, have been associated with insulin resistance that leads to depressed/defective PI3K signaling. However, to date, there has been no link between PI3K(p110alpha) and AF. To address this question, we crossed a cardiac-specific transgenic mouse model of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with a cardiac-specific transgenic mouse expressing a dominant negative mutant of PI3K (dnPI3K; reduces PI3K activity). Adult ( approximately 4.5 months) double-transgenic (dnPI3K-DCM), single-transgenic (DCM-Tg, dnPI3K-Tg), and nontransgenic mice were subjected to morphological, functional/ECG, microarray, and biochemical analyses. dnPI3K-DCM mice developed AF and had depressed cardiac function as well as greater atrial enlargement and fibrosis than DCM-Tg mice. AF was not detected in other groups. Aged DCM-Tg mice ( approximately 15 months) with a similar phenotype to dnPI3K-DCM mice (4.5 months) did not develop AF, suggesting loss of PI3K activity directly contributed to the AF phenotype. Furthermore, increasing PI3K activity reduced atrial fibrosis and improved cardiac conduction in DCM-Tg mice. Finally, in atrial appendages from patients with AF, PI3K activation was lower compared with tissue from patients in sinus rhythm. These results suggest a link between PI3K(p110alpha) and AF.


Separated flow models are of great interest to model two-phase flow such as Stratified, Stratified-Wavy and Annular flow patterns. Taitel and Dukler proposed a model for Stratified flow assuming that the interfacial effects can be neglected and modelled the pressure drop assuming smooth walls. Based on a new definition of hydraulic diameter for two-phase flows in channels and including the effect of shear on the interface, it is possible to obtain a more general analytical solution for Stratified flow. An extension to Annular flow is possible with the same model, but here the roughness of the tube walls and the interface is taken into account. This model allows a comprehensive approach to modelling of two-phase flow phenomena in the form of partial Reynolds numbers, partial pressure drops, partial rates of dissipation and partial rates of interfacial entrainment, and allows a direct comparison to be made between Stratified and Annular flows. This new model is an interesting platform that can be related to experimental data by the friction factors of the four surfaces of contact.


This thesis has shown that the concept of constraint management is instrumental in understanding the domains of command and control and aviation safety. Particularly, functional modeling as a means to address constraint management provides a basis for analyzing the performance of socio-technical systems. In addition to the theoretical underpinnings, six studies are presented. First, a functional analysis of an exercise conducted by a team of electricity network emergency managers is used to show that a team function taxonomy can be used to analyze the mapping between team tasks and information and communication technology to assess training needs for performance improvement. Second, an analysis of a fire-fighting emergency management simulation is used to show that functional modeling and visualization of constraints can describe behavior vis-a-vis constraints and inform decision support design. Third, analysis of a simulated adversarial command and control task reveals that functional modeling may be used to describe and facilitate constraint management (constraining the adversary and avoiding being constrained by the adversary). Studies four and five address the domain of civil aviation safety. The analysis of functional resonance is applied to an incident in study four and an accident in study five, based on investigation reports. These studies extend the functional resonance analysis method and accident model. The sixth study documents the utility of this functional modeling approach for risk assessment by evaluating proposed automation for air traffic control, based on observations, interviews, and experimental data. In sum, this thesis adds conceptual tools and modeling methods to the cognitive systems engineering discipline that can be used to tackle problems of training environment design, decision support, incident and accident analysis, and risk assessment.


We have investigated the mode of emplacement of iconic Devils Tower, which is a phonolite porphyry monolith in the state of Wyoming in the western United States. Our field survey of this structure and its geological setting, its radiometric dating, and the tectonomagmatic evolution of the region suggest a new genetic interpretation of the volcaniclastic rocks in the area and provide a basis for a new hypothetical emplacement scenario for Devils Tower. This interpretation was inspired by an analogy of the tower with a similar phonolite butte in the Cenozoic volcanic region of the Czech Republic and analogue modeling using plaster of paris combined with finite element thermal numerical modeling. Our results indicate that Devils Tower is a remnant of a coulee or low lava dome that was emplaced into a broad phreatomagmatic crater at the top of a maar-diatreme volcano.


Depth information is one of the most fundamental cues in interpreting the geometric relationship of objects. It enables machines and robots to perceive the world in 3D and allows them to understand the environment far beyond 2D images. Recovering the depth information of the scene plays a crucial role in computer vision, and hence has a strong connection with many applications in the fields such as robotics, autonomous driving and computer-human interfacing. In this thesis, we proposed, designed, and built a comprehensive system for depth estimation from a single camera capture by leveraging the camera response to the defocus effect of the projected pattern. This approach is fundamentally driven by the concept of active depth from defocus (DfD) which recovers depth by analyzing the defocus effect of the projected pattern at different depth levels as appeared in the captured images. While current active DfD approaches are able to provide high accuracy, they rely on specialized setups to obtain images with different defocus levels, making it impractical for a simple and compact depth-sensing system with a small form factor. The main contribution of this thesis is the use of computational modelling techniques to characterize the camera defocus response of the projection pattern at different depth levels, a new approach in active DfD that enables rapid and accurate depth inference in the absence of complex hardware and extensive computing resources. Specifically, different statistical estimation methods are proposed to approximate the pixel intensity distribution of the projected pattern as measured by the camera sensor, a learning process that essentially summarizes the defocus effect to a handful of optimized, distinctive values. As a result, the blurring appearance of the projected pattern at each depth level is represented by depth features in a computational depth inference model. In the proposed framework, the scene is actively illuminated with a unique quasi-random projection pattern, and a conventional RGB camera is used to acquire an image of the scene. The depth map of the scene can then be recovered by studying the depth feature in the captured image of the blurred projection pattern using the proposed computational depth inference model. To verify the efficacy of the proposed depth estimation approach, quantitative and qualitative experiments are performed on test scenes with different structural characteristics. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can produce accurate depth reconstruction results with high fidelity and has strong potential as a cost effective and computationally efficient mean of generating depth maps.


The literature on the middle school years for girls has indicated that it is both a critical and arduous developmental period. This is important to social work practitioners because middle school‐aged girls are an at‐risk population that needs to be helped in a unique way. One preventative method that is often extremely beneficial to this population are small, gender‐ specific, skills groups which openly discuss issues in a safe, informative, and therapeutic way. More specifically, an agency in Rhode Island that serves at‐risk girls conducts a community‐ based mentor program. The program meets with the same small cohort of girls over approximately thirteen weeks to discuss various issues. This study sought to explore whether two current groups successfully improved the girl's overall well‐being. The main factors used to operationalize the girl's overall well‐being include helping them deal with peer pressure, learn about healthy relationships, and heighten their self‐confidence. Results indicated that increases in the mean difference for all three scales between the pre and post‐tests suggest that the Life Choices groups helped the participants more fully grasp the concept of healthy relationships, in dealing with peer pressure, and in improving self esteem. Thus, the data appears to support the proposed hypothesis and corresponding literature findings that the skills group improved the adolescent girls' overall well‐being.


Owing to the helical structure of both wires in strands and strands in ropes, complex stress conditions are produced during rope bending processes with the ropes running over sheaves or under fluctuating tension. This stress in the rope is superimposed with friction, the extent of which is a consequence of various parameters as well as of manufacturing factors. In the course of the last decades, stress factors on rope wires have been meticulously predetermined by way of calculation by various researchers - the latest eminent contributions coming from scientists like Leider, Schiffner and Wiek. This has been undertaken for ropes subjected to fluctuating tension as well as for ropes running over sheaves, while taking the rather complex influence of friction into account. Even for standard load conditions it has, however, been impossible to determine the lifetime of a rope until breakage or discard from the calculated wire stresses, and this is for various reasons such as, for example, manufacturing quality or discrepancies in the test quality of different laboratories. During practical operation, ropes are exposed to additional stress which cannot be deduced mathematically. Owing to the multitude of parameters acting on the rope during practical operation, it is impossible to determine the lifetime of a rope exclusively from the calculated stress values for its wires. To facilitate rope endurance predictions and, thereby, predictions on the reliability of ropes experimental research is the only method. In the past 75 years, investigations resulting in a high degree of certainty into the life time and discard of ropes with a view to stress on ropes running over sheaves have been made at the IFT in Stuttgart. This work is based on over ten thousand tests. Unfortunately, there are still extensive areas in the fields of rope technology and rope applications which lack systematic tests and, thus, construction and dimensioning approaches. On the other hand it is indispensable, especially in a sensitive and crucial area such as rope technology, to continually verify existing and novel calculative approaches with the help of serial testing. Only by way of statistically proven tests it is possible to come up to and improve the required safety and reliability standards. The following paper, based on the latest investigations by the IFT, undertakes to prove the necessity of experimental research: influence of multi-layer spoolings on the lifetime of ropes influence of fleet angle on the lifetime of ropes running over sheaves ropes under fluctuating tension Due to the time limit imposed on the speakers, the lecture will exclusively centre around the research subject of "Influence of Multi-Layer Spoolings on the Lifetime of Ropes".


Purpose: To assess the geometrical accuracy of treatment deliveries involving dynamic couch trajectories and to evaluate the accuracy of DMLC dose calculations in Eclipse at nonstandard SSDs. Methods: Eleven DMLC IMRT plans were recalculated as verification plans in Eclipse (AAA 10.0.28) using the collapsed gantry method, at SSDs between 85‐135 cm. Ion chamber and film measurements were performed to compare planned and delivered dose. DLG and MLC transmission were also measured as a function of SSD. Simple circular couch trajectories that simulated isocentric treatment at an SAD of 95 cm were evaluated using film and ion chamber measurements. Trajectories were implemented using Varian TrueBeam Developers Mode. Results: The relative agreement between Eclipse‐calculated dose and ion chamber measurements decreased systematically by an average of 1.5±0.3 % between 85 and 135 cm SSD. Film measurements were consistent with the ion chamber results. Following corrections for the geometric projection of the DLG, no dependence on SSD was observed, and the dependence of MLC transmission on SSD was negligible. These results are both consistent with Eclipse calculations. The standard error of ion chamber current measurements was 0.19 % for the dynamic couch trajectory at 95 cm SAD, compared to 0.17 % for static couch position. From the film measurements, the FWHM of the field delivered with dynamic couch motion was 94.6 % of the FWHM with static couch position, matching the predicted geometrical minification. Conclusion: Experiments were performed to investigate aspects of radiation therapy involving dynamic couch trajectories. The relative agreement between calculated and measured dose was found to systematically decrease with SSD, while DLG and MLC transmission were independent of SSD. Isocenter positional accuracy with dynamic couch motion was demonstrated through the consistency of ion chamber current measurements and observation of the expected decrease in field size at a shortened SAD.


There are few other specialties in psychiatry where the cultural nature and social norms of a society has more impact than the specialty of forensic psychiatry. In the Muslim and Arab worlds, Islamic principles govern the foundation of thoughts required to make laws. Those necessarily include legal issues in psychiatry. The impact of these matters on individuals as patients and the community at large can not be overestimated. Those issues will include laws of involuntary hospitalization and evaluation of mental competence toward different life functions such as commercial interaction, writing a will, marriage, divorce, and child custody. Islamic law has a definite position on criminal responsibility as well as other vital matters such as compensation of damages, including medical malpractice. This article discusses problems and peculiarities involved in the canonization of these laws in islamic communities, considering different arguments presented from one point of view versus another.


The article deals with the analysis of the Soviet national policy from a historical perspective with a focus on investigating into conditions of the loyalty of national elites towards the central government in the last period of the USSR existence. The indicators of the low level loyalty are as follows: supporting the ideas of national sovereignty and independence, participating in the national movement by ruling cadres, influential intellectuals and population. The author shows low sympathy of both groups of representatives: elites and broad population to nationalist ideas. The analysis is based on comparing contrastive cases – the Soviet elites of the Baltic republics (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) and Belorussia in their interactions with the central government as well as local population in the period from 1945 to 1991. These republics, their population and elites were similar regarding some important aspects such as historical and cultural as well as demographic characteristics in the case of Belorussia and Lithuania; some important features of the industry (big export-oriented enterprises) regarding Estonia, Latvia and Belorussia. At the same time, these cases showed a different level of the loyalty towards the Union center, namely, relatively high among the Belorussian Soviet ruling cadres and population and relatively low in the Baltic republics by the end of 1980s. The important aspect of the Soviet national policy was establishing new national elites, educational and cultural institutions preserving their native languages as well as the promotion of native cadres into the positions of power in the regional administration. In some respects, this policy was similar to the "indirect rule" implemented in the imperial period of Russian history and consisted in the cooperation between the central government and local elites as the main approach to administrating a multinational state. However, in comparison with the previous practice tending to include national elites in the imperial nobility, the post revolutionary approach considered the creation of national elites through promoting local cultural and educational institutions that offer quite prestigious but specific positions occupied mostly by representatives of the respective ethnic group. Creating local elites reduced the competition for "universal" positions since socialization and career of "national staff" were oriented towards national institutes. However, increasing numbers of "national staff" with limited positions for them had negative social consequences (elite overproduction). Intra-elite tension increased due to the migration from other regions (in the case of Latvia and Estonia). The other reason of this phenomenon was pursuing socialization strategies oriented to the places of origin (in the case of Lithuania). The attractiveness of the Baltic republics both for local population and migrants from other regions of the USSR was caused by a relatively high level of living standards in these union republics. Location of big export-oriented enterprises in the territory of Belorussia created conditions for preferring socialization strategies oriented towards integration with the Soviet Union economy and, therefore, enhanced loyalty towards the USSR center from both elites and population. Besides, the administrative apparatus of the Soviet Belorussia was recruited extensively among participants of the Soviet partisan movement 1941–1944 what explains the devotion of the Belorussian elite to the Soviet symbols and values. At the same time, the base of the legitimization of the Soviet Lithuanian elite was its ability to control the anti-Soviet (nationalist) movement as well supporting national culture and language.


Can growth of a trading partner harm a country? This paper seeks to answer this question through the use of an eclectic trade model which is similar in flavour to Markusen (1986). This paper makes two contributions. First, it develops a simple and tractable model of international trade based on a combination of imperfectcompetition, comparative advantage, and identical but non-homothetic preferences in a three country framework. Second, it uses this framework to consider the possibility of losses from partner-country growth in a free-trading environment. We find that the presence of nonhomothetic preferences in particular, leads to a home bias in consumption which dampens any negative welfare effects when a country's trading partners grow.


Genetic screening for SACS, ABHD12 and PRICKLE1 mutations in ataxia patients from Southern Italy.

INTRODUCTION
Autosomal recessive (AR) spinocerebellar ataxias constitute a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders mainly characterized by ataxia due to progressive degeneration of the cerebellum, spinal cord tracts, and associated structures. The clinical phenotype of these disorders is broad and quite variable. The aim of our research was to study of three kind of AR ataxias in southern Italy patients referring to our center for neurodegenerative diseases: spastic ataxia of Charlevoix – Saguenay (ARSACS); polyneuropathy, hearing loss, ataxia, retinitis pigmentosa, and cataract (PHARC); PRICKLE1 - progressive myoclonus epilepsy (PME)-ataxia syndrome.
METHODS
ARSACS is an early-onset disorder showing pyramidal, cerebellar progressive involvement and peripheral neuropathy caused by mutation in SACS. We have recruited 23 patients with progressive early onset ataxia, pyramidal signs and clinical or neurophysiologic signs of peripheral neuropathy and performed direct sequencing of PCR products of SACS nine coding exons and intron-exon boundaries. We detected three mutated patients and 12 different SNPs. All mutations causes premature truncation of sacsin, coded by SACS, and probably its loss of function.
PHARC is a disease marked by early-onset cataract and hearing loss, retinitis pigmentosa, and involvement of both the central and peripheral nervous systems, including demyelinating sensorimotor polyneuropathy and cerebellar ataxia, caused by mutations of ABHD12. Eleven patients were selected in according to the following inclusion criteria: recessive inheritance, early onset ataxia, and ocular impairment. We performed direct DNA sequencing of sequencing of the 13 coding exons and the intron-exon boundaries of ABHD12. We found no mutation and 10 validated SNPs.
PMEs are a group of rare inherited disorders characterized by epilepsy, myoclonus, and progressive neurological deterioration, particularly ataxia and dementia. One rare cause of AR PME has been recently identified and is due to mutations in PRICKLE1. Twenty index cases were selected according to the following criteria: early onset ataxia, myoclonus, and/or tonic-clonic seizures. Direct sequencing of the seven coding exons and the intron-exon boundaries of PRICKLE1 has been conducted. No mutations and five different SNPs were identified.
CONCLUSION
Aims of our research was to define the usefulness of genetic screening for three different kinds of AR ataxia. Regarding ARSACS, our results confirm the worldwide diffusion, the uniform clinical presentation of the disease and the prevalence of loss of function mutations, further confirming the value of genetic screening for SACS mutation in case of early onset spastic ataxia. As for PHARC we found no mutation in our selected patients, not confirming what already reported in literature, however our results are limited from the sample size of screened patients. Finally, according to our study, PRICKLE1 mutations are not a frequent cause of PME-ataxia in Southern Italy and indicate that routine screening for these mutations in Italian patients is of limited clinical value.


The fundamental principles of the operation of a thin-disk laser are presented. We derived equations from a set of coupled rate equations that predict that the characteristics of a laser are affected by the Boltzmann occupation factors of the pump and the laser states simultaneously. The model is used to investigate the influence of the effective parameters on the operational efficiency of an end-pumped Yb:YAG disk laser. Based on our results, we examined laser output power as a function of output coupler reflectivity, crystal thickness or doping concentration, number of the pump beam passes, and temperature.


Robert Hass has, for a long time, held a prominent position among the most revered of all living poets. Unlike the more difficult, cerebral poetry of writers like John Ashbery, Hass' work is grounded in the beauty of the physical world, in the smaller details of natural, human life. His poetry is graceful, humble, curious, and wise. Because he has published so little work, every new book is a major event in poetry, and this will be no exception.


Blind Equalization (BE) refers to the problem of recovering the source symbol sequence from a signal received through a channel in the presence of additive noise and channel distortion, when the channel response is unknown and a training sequence is not accessible. To achieve BE, statistical or constellation properties of the source symbols are exploited. In BE algorithms, two main concerns are convergence speed and computational complexity. In this dissertation, we explore the application of relative gradient for equalizer adaptation with a structure constraint on the equalizer matrix, for fast convergence without excessive computational complexity. We model blind equalization with symbol-rate sampling as a blind source separation (BSS) problem and study two single-carrier transmission schemes, specifically block transmission with guard intervals and continuous transmission. Under either scheme, blind equalization can be achieved using independent component analysis (ICA) algorithms with a Toeplitz or circulant constraint on the structure of the separating matrix. We also develop relative gradient versions of the widely used Bussgang-type algorithms. Processing the equalizer outputs in sliding blocks, we are able to use the relative gradient for adaptation of the Toeplitz constrained equalizer matrix. The use of relative gradient makes the Bussgang condition appear explicitly in the matrix adaptation and speeds up convergence. For the ICA-based and Bussgang-type algorithms with relative gradient and matrix structure constraints, we simplify the matrix adaptations to obtain equivalent equalizer vector adaptations for reduced computational cost. Efficient implementations with fast Fourier transform, and approximation schemes for the crosscorrelation terms used in the adaptation, are shown to further reduce computational cost. We also consider the use of a relative gradient algorithm for channel shortening in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The redundancy of the cyclic prefix symbols is used to shorten a channel with a long impulse response. We show interesting preliminary results for a shortening algorithm based on relative gradient. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Electrical & Systems Engineering First Advisor Saleem A. Kassam This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2108


The first part of this paper offers a theoretical and conceptual discussion on what kind of framework is the most convenient to use in the debate on the role of the state in a developmental perspective and how to fit this debate within the 'functionalist terms' of democracy and democratization. An alternative approach is suggested with emphasis on political factors and a non-functionalist approach. The second part is a preliminary empirical analysis concerning the role of the state in Thailand and its relationship with the question of democracy and democratization at the regime and civil society levels, as well as its linkage with the external context. It suggests that a historical perspective is necessary in understanding how Thailand has been able to sustain high economic growth and simultaneously be labeled as Asia's Bolivia, because of the frequency of military coups d'etat on the one hand, and a stable political environment on the other. The third part provides a brief comparative perspective on the events that transpired between 1973-1976 - the period when popular forces toppled an authoritarian regime - and the latest events in 1992 where the Suchinda junta was forced to resign. Finally, some tentative perspectives on state and democracy in the Thai context is given.


While searching for the topic of a small research project about the linguistic history of South America, I realized that a lot of data that is crucial for assessing central arguments is not openly available, but new data is difficult to come by these days. And when it is, it is not usually presented in data format that allows for easy reuse. Guided by these thoughts, I decided to turn towards the upcycling of previously published data (also called retro-standardization, see for example Geisler et al. (forthcoming) on the upcycling of the TPPSR dataset, https://tppsr.clld.org). The dataset I chose was previously published by Adolfo Constenla Umaña (2005). In this article, the author investigated comparatively the long-claimed genealogical relationship of three families of Central and South America, Chibchan, Lencan and Misumalpam (Lehmann 1920).


Future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) satellite missions aim to use the B mode polarization to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio r with a sensitivity σr ≲ 10−3. Achieving this goal will not only require sufficient detector array sensitivity but also unprecedented control of all systematic errors inherent in CMB polarization measurements. Since polarization measurements derive from differences between observations at different times and from different sensors, detector response mismatches introduce leakages from intensity to polarization and thus lead to a spurious B mode signal. Because the expected primordial B mode polarization signal is dwarfed by the known unpolarized intensity signal, such leakages could contribute substantially to the final error budget for measuring r. Using simulations we estimate the magnitude and angular spectrum of the spurious B mode signal resulting from bandpass mismatch between different detectors. It is assumed here that the detectors are calibrated, for example using the CMB dipole, so that their sensitivity to the primordial CMB signal has been perfectly matched. Consequently the mismatch in the frequency bandpass shape between detectors introduces differences in the relative calibration of galactic emission components. We simulate this effect using a range of scanning patterns being considered for future satellite missions. We find that the spurious contribution to r from the reionization bump on large angular scales (ℓ < 10) is ≈ 10−3 assuming large detector arrays and 20 percent of the sky masked. We show how the amplitude of the leakage depends on the nonuniformity of the angular coverage in each pixel that results from the scan pattern.


Concrete is our most widely used construction material. Worldwide consumption of cement, the strength-giving component of concrete, is estimated at 4.10 Gt per year, rising from 2.22 Gt just ten years ago [1]. This rate of consumption means that cement manufacture alone is estimated to account for 5.2 % of global carbon dioxide emissions [2]. Concrete offers the opportunity to economically create structures of almost any geometry. Yet its unique fluidity is seldom capitalised upon, with concrete instead being cast into rigid, flat moulds to create unoptimised geometries that result in high material use structures with large carbon footprints. This paper will explore flexible formwork construction technologies which embrace the fluidity of concrete to facilitate the practical construction of concrete structures with complex and efficient geometries. This paper presents the current state of the art in flexible formwork technology, highlighting practical uses, research challenges and new opportunities.


IRWIN, JOSEPHINE SAXER (1 Mar. 1890-15 Sept. 1984), suffragette and women's-rights advocate for more than half a century, was born in LAKEWOOD, Ohio to James and E. Elizabeth (Saunderson) Saxer. She graduated from the School of Education at Western Reserve University in 1910 and taught at Lincoln and McKinley elementary schools in Lakewood from 1910-19. Irwin was active in the peace movement before WORLD WAR I, was one of the first members of the LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS, and was most noted for participating in a massive suffrage parade staged on Cleveland's EUCLID AVE. in 1914. Her involvement in the women's movement also included activities in behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s-1980s. She was also a founding member of WOMENSPACE. From 1958-62, Irwin served as councilman-at-large in FAIRVIEW PARK, the first woman elected to council in that city. She was a charter member of the CLEVELAND COUNCIL ON WORLD AFFAIRS and was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1983. In honor of Irwin's contributions, both the Natl. Organization for Women and WomenSpace have instituted a Josephine Irwin Award, which is conferred annually in Cleveland on women who have contributed substantially to the cause of women's rights. Josephine Saxer married J. Preston Irwin on 19 June 1919 and had 3 children: Wm. P. and John P., Jr., and Elizabeth Irwin Harner. Irwin died in a Geauga Cty. nursing home and was buried in Fairview Park Cemetery. Josephine Irwin Papers, WRHS.


The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to perform a pest categorisation of Phoma tracheiphila, the fungal pathogen responsible for "mal secco" disease of citrus. This pathogen is listed in Annex IIAII of Directive 2000/29/EC. Recently, the pathogen has been reclassified as Plenodomus tracheiphilus (Petri) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis. Plenodomus tracheiphilus is a single taxonomic entity, and sensitive and specific methods are available for its differentiation from other related Plenodomus species. The main host is lemon (Citrus limon L.), but the pathogen has also been reported on other species of the genera Citrus, Fortunella, Poncirus and Severinia and on their hybrids. Host plants are widely grown in the southern EU Member States (MSs) and climatic conditions are conducive to disease development in both orchards and nurseries. The pathogen is present in part of the risk assessment area, being mainly reported on lemon grown in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and France, where it has a serious impact on the citrus industry. There are no obvious ecological/climatic factors limiting the potential establishment and spread of the pathogen in the, so far, non-infested citrus-producing EU MSs (i.e. Spain, Portugal, Malta and Croatia). Short-distance spread of the pathogen occurs via water splash and wind-driven rain, whereas movement of infected host plants for planting, particularly asymptomatic plants, is considered to be responsible for the introduction of the pathogen into new areas. Cultural practices and copper-based fungicide sprays may reduce inoculum sources and prevent new infections but they cannot eliminate the pathogen. P. tracheiphilus fulfils all of the pest categorisation criteria for having the potential to be a quarantine pest and a regulated non-quarantine pest, as those are defined in the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No 11 and 21, respectively. © European Food Safety Authority, 2014


This book considers how educators across Europe can learn from each other about successful multilingual initiatives. By comparing experiences from seven countries – France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK – the writers highlight ways of creating multilingual learning communities that promote language expertise, intercultural understanding and educational achievement.

Multilingual Europe examines how identities are constructed in multicultural contexts, how schools can link with families and communities, and how educators can devise innovative pedagogies for multilingual classrooms. Enabling children and young people to develop their existing languages and learn new ones is a key theme throughout. Collaboratively written by participants from the Multilingual Europe seminar series at Goldsmiths, University of London, the book shows how research, policy and practice can work together for success.

This collection of international case studies will stimulate reflection for undergraduate and postgraduate students on education-related courses, students of language learning and teaching, teacher educators, researchers and policy-makers.
The insights provided will also interest different language communities worldwide.


Because information flow control mechanisms often rely on an underlying authorization mechanism, their security guarantees can be subverted by weaknesses in authorization. Conversely, the security of authorization can be subverted by information flows that leak information or that influence how authority is delegated between principals. We argue that interactions between information flow and authorization create security vulnerabilities that have not been fully identified or addressed in prior work. We explore how the security of decentralized information flow control (DIFC) is affected by three aspects of its underlying authorization mechanism: first, delegation of authority between principals, second, revocation of previously delegated authority, third, information flows created by the authorization mechanisms themselves. It is no surprise that revocation poses challenges, but we show that even delegation is problematic because it enables unauthorized downgrading. Our solution is a new security model, the Flow-Limited Authorization Model (FLAM), which offers a new, integrated approach to authorization and information flow control. FLAM ensures robust authorization, a novel security condition for authorization queries that ensures attackers cannot influence authorization decisions or learn confidential trust relationships. We discuss our prototype implementation and its algorithm for proof search.


A PtII complex [{Pt(en)L}2]·4PF6 (Ptcyp) (LH2 = N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-p-phenylenediamine, en = 1,2-diamino ethane) shows high cytotoxicity against HeLa cells (IC50—11.5 μM) and against Dalton's lymphoma (DL) cells (IC50—0.65 nM); UV-vis titration of Ptcyp with calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) demonstrated its DNA binding, which could be further quantified by competitive fluorescence titration of DNA, Ptcyp and ethidium bromide. Circular dichroism studies suggest that Ptcyp interacts with CT-DNA by intercalation in an aqueous medium containing a minimum amount of DMSO. Agarose gel electrophoresis showed that Ptcyp is able to convert a supercoiled pBR322 plasmid DNA into a nicked circular DNA in DMSO, but to a much lower extent in an aqueous medium. However, with UV irradiation, Ptcyp is able to cause concentration-dependent nicking of supercoiled DNA in an aqueous medium. These findings indicate the DNA binding and UV exposure-dependent DNA cleavage properties of Ptcyp. Cell imaging studies using the HeLa cell line carried out in the presence of Ptcyp represent one of the first examples of Pt complexes applied as fluorophores in cell imaging and strongly support its interaction with DNA.


A Change of Perspective for Cognitive Science (G.P. Corcoran and A. Mehmet). Is Physics Reductionistic? (G.J. Dalenoort). Conditioning, the Basis of All Psychological Activity (P. Davies). On the Methodology of Clarifying Confusion (H.F. De Wit). ``There is Nothing More Practical Than a Good Theory'' (Kurt Lewin) - True or False? (H.J. Eysenck). Power Relations in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (S. Frosh). Systems, Causality, and Time: a Framework for the Integration of Theories of Schizophrenia (J. Gosling). Psychology as Discourse: Towards a General Paradigm for Psychology Theory (R. Hammersley). Modularity, Mental Models and Tertiary Qualities (R. van Hezewijk). Symbols in the Mind: What are We Talking About? (R.J. Jorna). Ethnographic Discourse Analysis and J.B. Watson: the Behaviourist as Propagandist (A.D. Lovie). Theoretical Psychology: a Definition and Systematic Classification (K.B. Madsen). The Historical Approach of Critical Psychology: Another Case of `Paradigm Promotion'? (W. Maiers). The composition of the Ego in a Determinist Psychology (J.R. Maze). Pathological Subconscious and Irrational Determinism in the Social Psychology of the Crowd: the Legacy of Gustave LeBon (G.R. McGuire). Toward a Theory of Life-Span Development (R.S. Noble). The Social Status of Mentalistic Constructs (I. Parker). The Concept of Telosponsivity: Answering an Unmet Need in Psychology (J.F. Rychlak). Methodocentricity, Theoretical Sterility, and the Socio-Behavioural Sciences (M.L. Shames). The Rhetoric of Theory in Psychology (J. Shotter). Unified Positivism: Philosophy for Uninomic Psychology (A.W. Staats). Desynchrony Among Measures of Fear and Emotional Processing: Toward a Constructionist Perspective (H.J. Stam and K.L. McEwan). Model Disciplines, Research Traditions, and the Theoretical Unification of Psychology (P.J. van Strien). Ordinal Pattern Analysis: a Method for Assessing Theory-Data Fit (W. Thorngate). Intentionality, Meaning, and Evolution (C.W. Tolman). The Concept of Development and the Structure of Developmental Theories (P. Van Geert). Man-Machine Analogs and Theoretical Mainstreams in Psychology (P.A. Vroon).


The author investigated the experience of embodied dreamwork. Participants were eight Puerto Rican women who were chronically ill, of low socioeconomic status, who lived in Boston. The data were analyzed using transcendental phenomenology. Each participant engaged in one embodied dreamwork–unstructured interview session lasting approximately 1.5 hours. In addition, each participant drew a picture of how she felt after the dreamwork interview. This snowball, purposive sample gave detailed information about how they experienced embodied dreamwork. The participants' statements were grouped into themes: (a) sense of place—environment, surroundings, spatiality; (b) the players—self, others; (c) plot; (d) in the sea of emotions—naming affective states; (e) the body speaks—somatic experience; (f) complexity—multiple affective states; (g) making meaning (atando cabos); (h) visual expressions; (i) self disclosures—desahogo (unburdening); and (j) cultural beliefs—de allá para acá (from there to here). As an expressive therapy, embodied dreamwork is grounded in the mindbody connection. This connection supports the making of meaning from the dreamwork. By being more aware of ambiguities, embodied dreamwork facilitates being less reactive to external cues. Embodied dreamwork may have applications in the treatment of anxiety, depression, bereavement, and trauma. The significance of this research contributes to the fields of psychology, Latino studies, and expressive arts therapies with chronically ill women. By including ethnic-specific studies, this investigation contributes to culturally sensitive mental health care. The study is limited to the experience of the participants


The survival of the commons is closely associated with the potential to find ways to strengthen contemporary management systems, making them more responsive to a number of complexities, like the dynamics of ecosystems and related, but often fragmented, institutions. A discussion on the desirability of finding ways to establish so-called cross-scale linkages has recently been vitalised in the literature. In the same vein, concepts like adaptive management, co-management and adaptive co-management have been discussed. In essence, these ways of organizing management incorporate an implicit assumption about the establishment of social networks and is more closely related to network governance and social network theory, than to political administrative hierarchy. However, so far, attempts to incorporate social network analysis (SNA) in this literature have been rather few, and not particularly elaborate. In this paper, a framework for such an approach will be presented. The framework provides an analytical skeleton for the understanding of joint management and the establishment of cross-scale linkages. The relationships between structural network properties - like density, centrality and heterogeneity - and innovation in adaptive co-management systems are highlighted as important to consider when crafting institutions for natural resource management. The paper makes a theoretical and methodological contribution to the understanding of co-management, and thereby to the survival of the commons.


[Abstract]: Central Queensland University [CQU] students will not pay higher HECS fees next year after the CQU council yesterday bucked the nationwide trend and voted not to raise fees. CQU vice–chancellor Glenice Hancock said the council opted against following the 25% rises approved by southern universities, despite the revenue it would have raised. "It would have been an easy route to take during these difficult financial times and very justifiable in strictly economic terms," she said. "But the council looked at all the pros and cons and decided not to increase."….[B]oth Professor Hancock and CQU Chancellor Justice Stan Jones said the decision not to increase fees meant revenue and financial savings would have to be found elsewhere. (The Morning Bulletin, 6 March 2004)

The significance of this statement lies not just in its appeasement of regional constituents in Central Queensland, Australia; but also in the not so subtle warning that, as a consequence of this decision, the institution will have to fill an expected short–fall in its funding base for domestic students. While specific details of Commonwealth government initiatives to reform the higher education sector are not as yet finalised, one particularly significant initiative is the publicly (i.e. government) controlled enrolment 'balance' among different fields of study. If institutions miscalculate their curriculum mix for publicly funded courses, then what does this mean for their ongoing curriculum development and resourcing of publicly funded courses and offerings entered into with private–provider partners? This paper reports on the beginnings of a research project analysing 'stories from the inside' of a higher education institution that could be described as one of the 'hybrid' universities (Marginson & McBurnie, 2003, p. 58) operating both locally and globally within the Asia-Pacific region. The question used to focus the study asks: What are the implications of these shifts in funding for the future governance of a local–global university that relies substantially for its economic survival on funds generated from networks and partnerships in the public–private higher education sector?

Preliminary findings from the first stage of this project report discursively analysed data from aggregated statistics at the national level with individual and focus group interviews with participating lecturers. The themes emerging from these data are clustered around the infrastructure and implications of public-private relationships and alliances and of university governance in the early 21st century.


Snap Machine Learning (Snap ML) is a new software library for training popular machine learning models, characterized by very high performance, scalability to TB-scale datasets and high resource efficiency. It continuously evolves and currently supports generalized linear models, decision trees, random forests and gradient boosting machines. Snap ML has been built to address the needs of business applications, which often have to deal with high-volume data, react fast to changing environments, and use resources efficiently to drive down cost. The high efficiency of Snap ML, in particular in dealing with big data, comes from innovations in distributed optimization, among other things. This talk will review the principles of the Snap ML library, explain how it achieves high speed and scalability, and present several cases of business workloads that demonstrate the benefits offered by Snap ML.
Haris Pozidis manages the Cloud Storage and Analytics group at IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland. He was with Philips Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, before joining IBM. He has worked on read channel design for DVD and Blu-ray Disc at Philips, and played a key role in developing the first scanning probe-based data storage system at IBM, the "Millipede". His current focus is on the development of Flash memory controllers for all-flash arrays, on phase change memory technology and system solutions, and on accelerated software libraries for machine learning. He holds over 120 US patents, has co-authored more than 120 publications, is an IBM Principal Research Scientist and Master Inventor, and a Senior Member of the IEEE.


Prevention of hospital acquired infections (HAI) is a National Patient Safety Goal. Proper and frequent hand hygiene (HH) prevents HAI and various cross-infections in any setting. Audits of visual adherence for HH generates low compliance scores. During a yearlong improvement project, low monthly compliance scores of 52% in the Emergency Department (ED) of a community hospital, were reported by hospital auditors and found to be inaccurate by ED staff due to lack of visibility of HH actions because they occurred behind curtains or closed doors. Low scores and challenges were associated with behavioral change among ED team members, requiring multiple steps to achieve effective HH and enhancing visibility. Several evidenced-based interventions were implemented increasing HH rates. Increased compliance and visibility necessitated formal and informal education, environmental, and communication changes among team members . One major environmental intervention involved creating more HH/hand washing stations (HWS) in high traffic areas. Educational interventions included reinforcement of correctly utilizing alcohol-based hand-rub (ABHR), can be less irritating than handwashing. During implementation, mini dispensers of ABHR placed on badges or belts led to significant improvement and sustainable rates of HH compliance. Placement of ABHR and HWS were vital to optimize the HH protocol adherence and visibility. Current rates of HH behaviors have been sustained at 93% for 4 months. A CNL led improvement project in the ED resulted in sustainable outcomes by addressing educational and behavioral barriers for seasoned staff who were more resistant to change.


In this paper, various aspects concerning the grammaticalization of ir ('go') into a temporal auxiliary verb are considered, focusing on its current status as a posteriority operator in competition with various temporal suffixes of the tense system. Four issues will hold center stage: its coexistence with explicit posteriority tense suffixes, without a sense of redundancy emerging; its use in non-past and past scenarios in competition with the synthetic future and with the synthetic conditional, or imperfective past, respectively; its possible use in structures expressing an anteriority location relation (in association with future perspective points); its inflection in subjunctive, gerundive and infinitival forms, a rather poorly studied possibility. The overall conclusion will be that the grammaticalization process affecting ir is still an ongoing process, which can be seen not only in the aspects studied apropos the abovementioned four issues, but also in a few other aspects – namely regarding the scarcity of its combination with some classes of predicates – that will be left for further research.


MytiLec; a novel lectin isolated from the Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis); shows strong binding affinity to globotriose (Gb3: Galα1-4Galβ1-4Glc). MytiLec revealed β-trefoil folding as also found in the ricin B-subunit type (R-type) lectin family, although the amino acid sequences were quite different. Classification of R-type lectin family members therefore needs to be based on conformation as well as on primary structure. MytiLec specifically killed Burkitt's lymphoma Ramos cells, which express Gb3. Fluorescein-labeling assay revealed that MytiLec was incorporated inside the cells. MytiLec treatment of Ramos cells resulted in activation of both classical MAPK/ extracellular signal-regulated kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK-ERK) and stress-activated (p38 kinase and JNK) Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathways. In the cells, MytiLec treatment triggered expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (a ligand of death receptor-dependent apoptosis) and activation of mitochondria-controlling caspase-9 (initiator caspase) and caspase-3 (activator caspase). Experiments using the specific MEK inhibitor U0126 showed that MytiLec-induced phosphorylation of the MEK-ERK pathway up-regulated expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21, leading to cell cycle arrest and TNF-α production. Activation of caspase-3 by MytiLec appeared to be regulated by multiple different pathways. Our findings, taken together, indicate that the novel R-type lectin MytiLec initiates programmed cell death of Burkitt's lymphoma cells through multiple pathways (MAPK cascade, death receptor signaling; caspase activation) based on interaction of the lectin with Gb3-containing glycosphingolipid-enriched microdomains on the cell surface.


Despite the popularity of mobile video sharing, mobile user experience (UX) is not comparable with traditional TV or desktop video productions. The issue of poor UX in mobile video sharing can be associated with the high development cost, since the creation and utilization of a multimedia processing and distribution infrastructure is a non-trivial task for small groups of developers. In this paper, we present our solution comprised of mobile video processing services based on standard libraries which augment the raw video streams. Our services utilize the cloud computing paradigm for fast and intelligent processing in near-real time. Video streams are split in chunks and then fed to the ``resource-unlimited'' distributed/cloud infrastructure which accelerate the processing phase. Application developers have the possibility to apply arbitrary computer vision algorithms on the video stream thus improving the quality of user experience depending on the application requirements. We providing navigation cues and content-based zooming of raw video streams. We evaluated the proposed solution from two perspectives - distributed chunk-based processing in the cloud and a user study by means of mental workload. Running experiments in mobile video applications demonstrate that our proposed techniques improve mobile user experience significantly.


The effectiveness of a vaccine is determined not only by the immunogenicity of its components, but especially by how widely it covers the disease-causing strains circulating in a given region. Because vaccine coverage varies over time, this study aimed to detect possible changes that could affect vaccine protection during a specific period in a southern European region. The 4CMenB vaccine is licensed for use in Europe, Canada, and Australia and is mainly directed against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B. This vaccine contains four main immunogenic components: three recombinant proteins, FHbp, Nhba and NadA, and an outer membrane vesicle [PorA P1.4]. The allelic distribution of FHbp, Nhba, NadA, and PorA antigens in 82 invasive isolates (B and non-B serogroups) isolated from January 2008 to December 2013 were analyzed. 4CMenB was likely protective against 61.8% and 50% of serogroup B and non-B meningococci, respectively, in the entire period, but between 2012 and 2013, the predicted protection fell below 45% (42.1% for serogroup B isolates).The observed decreasing trend in the predicted protection during the 6 years of the study (Χ 2 for trend  = 4.68, p = 0.03) coincided with a progressive decrease of several clonal complexes (e.g., cc11, cc32 and cc41/44), which had one or more antigens against which the vaccine would offer protection.


This work reports that when PEG-lipid-shelled microbubbles with fluorocarbon interior (C4F10, C5F12, or C6F14) are subjected to ultrasound pulses, they produce metastable, fluid-filled nanoparticles that can be re-imaged upon administration of HIFU. The nanoparticles produced by destruction of the microbubbles (MBNPs) are of 150 nm average diameter and can be re-imaged for up to an hour after creation for C 4F10, and for at least one day for C5F12. The active species were found to be fluid (gas or liquid) filled nanoparticles rather than lipid debris. The acoustic droplet vaporization threshold of the nanoparticles was found to vary with the vapor pressure of the encapsulated fluorocarbon, and integrated image brightness was found to increase dramatically when the temperature was raised above the normal boiling point of the fluorocarbon. Finally, the vaporization threshold decreases in serum as compared to buffer, and administration of HIFU to the nanoparticles caused breast cancer cells to completely detach from their culture substrate. This work demonstrates a new functionality of microbubbles that could serve as a platform technology for ultrasound-based theranostics.


Magnetic field amplification by the motion of an electrically conducting fluid is studied, using a rotating plane-layer geometry. The fluid flow is driven by convection, and by a moving bottom boundary, which leads to an Ekman layer localized at the base of the system. The system thus has the structure of an interface dynamo, with convection lying over a thin layer of shear. The combination of shear in the Ekman layer and convection above leads to amplification of seed magnetic fields. In kinematic regimes the magnetic field is mostly localized in sheets in the shear layer, but thin tongues are pulled out by the convection above and folded. The nonlinear saturation of these growing fields is studied at moderately high values of magnetic Reynolds number and Taylor number. It is found that the sheets of field tend to gain fine-scale structure when the dynamo saturates, breaking up into tubes, and the fluid flow shows complex time-dependence. Although the magnetic field lies predominantly within the highly sheared Ekman layer, this flow remains remarkably unchanged despite the action of Lorentz forces. Instead, the effect of the field is to suppress or modify the convection above. A simple alpha-omega dynamo model is set up, and gives some insights into the dynamo processes occurring in the full magnetohydrodynamic simulation.


Rapid consumption of energy resources, increasing energy needs, the competitive conditions in the industry and environmental concerns, all of those call for efficient use of energy resources. In this context, energy efficiency studies were carried out in a rolling mill of a reheating furnace of an integrated industrial enterprise. In studies, some important efficiency measurements were conducted, mass and energy balances were established by using the results of these measurements and the operating data of the plant along with energy saving opportunities, with the specified amounts and repayment periods were determined. Energy conservation studies that can be realized in the reheating furnace were considered including operation of the reheating furnace with the pertinent excess air coefficient, compensation of the air leakage losses in the recuperator and establishment of the economizer in the furnace. As a result of these investigations some saving opportunities were determined and a new recuperator, economizer and gas analyzer were installed in the reheating furnace leading in total of 2,913,924 kcal/h of energy savings. After the implementation of energy saving measures, reheating furnace efficiency was increased from 61.83% to 69.43%.


This paper looks into the issue of how European Union (EU) development policy can respond to a changing development landscape that is characterised by a different geography of power and wealth and a changing geography of global poverty. The question of how to differentiate its partnerships and how to best engage with middle-income countries (MICs) has been among the most discussed issues in the ongoing process of modernising EU development policy. The analysis in this paper puts the question of aid to MICs in the context of two interlinked challenges: (i) the need to reconceptualise dominant approaches to global poverty reduction that prioritise national income as a key guiding criterion to classify countries, and (ii) the growing range of global challenges that require development policy to diversify its objectives. With regards to the implications for EU development policy, the paper draws two main conclusions. First, tackling global poverty needs a better coordinated cross-country division of labour at the EU level to avoid marginalising countries that have become wealthier in per capita terms but that continue to experience internal development challenges. Second, addressing challenges related to complex global public goods requires EU development policy to continue its engagement with emerging economies and other increasingly powerful developing countries. Such diversification of objectives, however, will increase the coordination challenges of EU development policy and other European external policies substantially. Svea Koch Bonn, September 2012


Plate subduction and mantle plumes are two of the most important material transport processes of the silicate Earth. Currently, a debate exists over whether the subducted oceanic crust is recycled back to the Earth's surface through mantle plumes, and can explain their derivation and major characteristics. It is also puzzling as to why plume heads have huge melting capacities and differ dramatically from plume tails both in size and chemical composition. We present data showing that both ocean island basalt and mid-ocean ridge basalt have identical supra-primitive mantle mean Nb/U values of ∼46.7, significantly larger than that of the primitive mantle value. From a mass balance calculation based on Nb/U we have determined that nearly the whole mantle has evolved by plate subduction-induced crustal recycling during formation of the continental crust. This mixing back of subducted oceanic crust, however, is not straightforward, because it generally would be denser than the surrounding mantle, both in solid and liquid states. A mineral segregation model is proposed here to reconcile different lines of observation. First of all, subducted oceanic crustal sections are denser than the surrounding mantle, such that they can stay in the lower mantle, for billions of years as implied by isotopic data. Parts of subducted oceanic crust may eventually lose a large proportion of their heavy minerals, magnesian-silicate-perovskite and calcium-silicate-perovskite, through density segregation in ultra-low-velocity zones as well as in very-low-velocity provinces at the core-mantle boundary due to low viscosity. The remaining minerals would thus become lighter than the surrounding mantle, and could rise, trapping mantle materials, and forming mantle plumes. Mineral segregation progressively increases the SiO2 content of the ascending oceanic crust, which enhances flux melting, and results in giant Si-enriched plume heads followed by dramatically abridged plume tails. Therefore, ancient mineral-segregated subducted oceanic crust is likely to be a major trigger and driving force for the formation of mantle plumes.


Background Acupuncture is commonly used to treat menopausal symptoms and other gynaecological conditions. In this study, the authors aimed to investigate whether acupuncture has an effect on menopausal symptoms and to explore whether this effect is related to changes in hormone levels. Materials and methods A total of 53 postmenopausal women were alternately assigned into two treatment groups: acupuncture (n=27) and sham acupuncture (n=26). Menopausal symptoms were assessed using the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS). The serum oestradiol, follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising hormone (LH) levels were measured at baseline and again after the first and last sessions. The Student t test was used for normally distributed data and the Wilcoxon signed rank test for not normally distributed data. The group differences in MRS scores were assessed using non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test. Results After treatment, total MRS, and the somatic and psychological subscale scores were significantly lower in the acupuncture group than the sham group (all p=0.001). The severity of hot flushes was found to be significantly decreased after treatment in acupuncture group (p=0.001). In the acupuncture group LH levels were lower and oestradiol levels were significantly higher than sham group (p=0.046 and p=0.045, respectively) after treatment, but there was no difference in FSH levels. Conclusion Acupuncture was effective in reducing menopausal complaints when compared to sham acupuncture and can be considered as an alternative therapy in the treatment of menopausal symptoms.


Abstract. This brief communication reports key findings of a recent piece of research that studied the impacts of the 2014 Jure landslide in Sindhupalchok (Nepal) and the effectiveness of household preventive and coping measures. The people-centered methods reveal not just what was lost in the disaster, but also how and why. A key finding of the household survey is that households in higher income groups incurred higher losses in monetary terms, simply because they had more to lose. By contrast, lower-income households lost more in relative terms: the value of their losses amounted to 14 times their annual earnings. Many lower-income households will never fully recover from this blow to their livelihoods and wellbeing. The findings have important implications for discussions on loss and damage valuation, compensation and relief.


We study the relationship between two sources of political power and property tax revenues in contemporary rural Colombia. First, de jure political power is the extent to which local political elites can capture the public administration for their own benefit. Second, de facto political power is the extent to which economically powerful landowners can influence policy. Using a panel of municipalities, we show that places with either high economic or high political concentration raise more taxes, but places with both high political and economic concentration perform worse.


Lake Qinghai is the most important of the Chinese radiometric calibration sites (CRCSs) for on-orbit radiometric calibration of satellite infrared (IR) channels. This letter introduces the site and describes annual CRCS field experiments, the buoy measurement facilities and surface temperature spatial distribution analysis based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra (EOS AM) satellite and buoy data for Lake Qinghai. The lake located at a high altitude (3196 m) has clean water, a stable geological substrate and a dry and clear atmosphere, with few aerosol particulates. The spatial distribution of the water surface temperature is very uniform. For these reasons, Lake Qinghai is a good thermal IR target for the radiometric calibration of Earth observation remote sensors and is used not only for Chinese satellites but also for on-orbit radiometric calibration of many Earth observation satellites.


Biological nutrient removal is used as an indicator of SBR performance at nine different SBRplants operated for a long period at low water temperatures (5 – 10oC). Typically needed aeratedSRT (Solids Residence Time) for complete nitrification is found to be in the range of 6 – 10 days.Biological phosphorus removal has been found to take place at 5oC. The specific nitrification and denitrification rates (g N/kg VSS/h) have been found to besubstantially higher than those found in design recommendations. At temperatures < 10 oC thenitrification rates have been found up to 4 g Nox/kg VSS/h. It has also been possible to establish a relation between the COD/N ratio and the nitrificationrate, showing that the rate increases to high rates when the ratio decreases. Enhanced biological phosphorus removal has been demonstrated at two different plants even atlow water temperatures 5 – 7 oC. Efficient biological nitrogen removal and phosphorus removal has been demonstrated at bothlow water temperatures and in presence of very high Chromium concentrations in inlet water, upto 20 mg Cr/l. The plants operated with a short fill time in comparison with the total cycle time for the SBRprocess have all demonstrated good sludge settling properties, suggesting that the SBR processmay incorporate a good sludge selection performance. Once a flexible operation strategy has been installed (in most cases through PLC systems) it hasbeen possible to meet load variations to maintain good treatment results. This has been found tobe true for most of the plants included in the thesis. Finally, a modified way to assess the energy efficiency for the system is analysed and suggested.Instead of using the traditional ratio kWh/kg BODremoved the use of kWh/kg OCPremoved as a basisfor energy efficiency is used as a far more relevant efficiency measurement.


During 2005, President George W. Bush appointed Federal Circuit Court Judges John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. These appointments were the culmination of years of examination of the work, character, and temperament of both men commencing during the 2000 presidential transition. Our evaluation included face-to-face interviews; an analysis of judicial opinions, speeches, and writings; and conversation with friends, colleagues, and court experts. Based on this work, a select group of Bush Administration officials developed a set of predictors that formed the basis of our recommendation to President Bush that he elevate Circuit Court Judges Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court. This Article explains how Judges Roberts and Alito were evaluated, and our assessment of how they would perform on the Court. The Article then examines whether the Bush Administration correctly predicted how these two men would decide cases before the Court by reviewing some of their most significant opinions to date.We begin with an explanation of the process used in developing our recommendation to the President followed by a thorough examination of the factors we weighed (such as political considerations and confirmation challenges). The Article includes a thorough, though certainly not exhaustive, review of the circuit court opinions of each man. This early body of work is then compared to their most recent work on the Supreme Court in certain key areas of the law. There is a remarkable, though not unexpected, consistency between Justices Roberts's and Alito's jurisprudence on the circuit courts and on the Supreme Court. Based on this comparison, the Article concludes that the Bush Administration successfully anticipated that Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito would decide cases using a consistent set of principles including judicial restraint, respect for precedent, and statutory interpretation based on plain language.


In 2007 the Australian federal government enacted a series of emergency measures to deal with the numerous social problems associated with remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Employing the concept of empowerment, this paper reviews the measures enacted as part of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), reflecting on their potential psychological impacts and likely effectiveness. It is argued that the lack of community consultation in the design and implementation of the NTER was generally disempowering for the communities involved, as were some of the specific measures enacted, e.g., community wide alcohol bans. Such measures were disempowering because they restricted community autonomy and self-governance. These measurements were also problematic because they reduced the collective self-efficacy of the communities involved. The concept of self-efficacy refers to one's belief in their ability to execute certain tasks and achieve specific goals. Research indicates that self-efficacy level is predictive of positive behaviour adoption and maintenance, especially in terms of health-related behaviours. It is argued that imposing measures upon communities with little community consultation would likely reduce collective self-efficacy by painting the relevant communities as helpless, with little to no ability to reduce their own social problems. Lower levels of self-efficacy would reduce individuals' willingness to engage in behaviour change programmes, like those enacted as part of the NTER. This paper advocates for respectful partnership when working with communities to ensure that communities receive the services that they need and want and that collective self-efficacy levels are not undermined.


Aims. A method to determine effective rate coefficients for H 2  formation on grain surfaces is proposed based on the continuous-time, random-walk Monte Carlo simulation. Methods. Our Monte Carlo simulation is used to calculate the efficiency of molecular hydrogen formation via recombination of H atoms on flat and rough surfaces of olivine and amorphous carbon under a variety of diffuse cloud conditions. The results are then fitted to two types of rate laws to determine effective rate coefficients for use in rate equation treatments. These rate coefficients can be utilized in pure gas-phase models, where the rate of molecular formation is associated with a grain collision rate for H atoms multiplied by an efficiency factor, and in gas-grain models, where the actual diffusion of H atoms on a grain surface is considered. Results. The effective rate coefficients are tabulated as a function of incoming atomic hydrogen flux and surface temperature, over temperature ranges for which the surfaces show a reasonable efficiency of molecular hydrogen formation. For the flat surfaces studied, corrections to the standard rate treatment do not exceed a factor of three.


This paper explores techniques for fast solving the maximum weight clique problem (MWCP) in very large scale real-world graphs. Because of the size of such graphs and the intractability of MWCP, previously developed algorithms may not be applicable. Although recent heuristic algorithms make progress in solving MWCP in massive graphs, they still need considerable time to get a good solution. In this work, we propose a new method for MWCP which interleaves between clique construction and graph reduction. We also propose three novel ideas to make it efficient, and develop an algorithm called FastWClq. Experiments on massive graphs from various applications show that, Fast-WClq finds better solutions than state of the art algorithms while the run time is much less. Further, FastWClq proves the optimal solution for about half of the graphs in an averaged time less than one second.


Microcrystalline cellulose from rice straw bleached pulp was prepared using solar energy then, it modified to synthesize novel nontoxic antimicrobial cellulose (MAMC) derivative which utilized in the manufacture of stirred yoghurt. Different concentration of (MAMC) was used and compared with stirred yoghurt (control). Microbiologically, chemically, organoleptic and physical properties of resultant stirred yoghurt were studied. Also, the antimicrobial activity of the different concentration of MAMC was assayed against bacterial and fungal pathogenic strains. Results revealed that MAMC was shown good effect against all the pathogenic strains especially at 1.00% concentration which the diameter of inhibition zone ranged from 10 to 15 mm. Addition of MAMC had slightly increased on the viability of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum. Moreover, all treatments free from coliform, yeast and mold compared with control when fresh and during cold storage. Moreover, Additive MAMC impose various degrees of inhibition against the growth of some pathogenic and fungi that cause food contamination and spoilage. The acidity and SN/TN of stirred yoghurt treatments increased with prolonged storage period but declined with increasing the ratios of MAMC addition. Sensory evaluation showed that 0.5% of MAMC was the best concentration that had a highest total score during storage. It was recommended that use of MAMC as natural preservatives of stirred yoghurt improve the overall acceptability at ratio 0.50% and extended the shelf life of this product.


The twenty-first century appears to herald a new epoch, one in which religion and other similar belief systems appear to have run their course. However, this should not necessarily mean that other forms of spirituality and interconnectedness must fade away. Within America, there is a humanistic undercurrent that is gaining strength within our postmodern condition, even as we begin to challenge several of the tenets of postmodernity itself. The groundswell of American humanism has a notable and wholly unintended effect: it ideologically rehabilitates modes or vehicles of thought that might otherwise be labeled as defunct, or inapplicable to the changing world around them. Two forms of discourse that have been changed in this way are black metal and postmodern literature, by United States bands such as Liturgy and Wolves In the Throne Room, and by writers like David Foster Wallace. While both of these art forms initially sought to revolt against a perceived status quo, once their revolutions became culturally codified, they seemed to lose much of their potency. However, by choosing to operate within these art forms' modes of discourse, but not adopting all of their accompanying ideological baggage, Liturgy, Wolves In the Throne Room, and David Foster Wallace have breathed new life into the husks of former rebellions not by simply acting as deconstructionists, but as constructors as well. Discontent to accept the empty victories of misanthropic nihilism and despair that were once inextricably associated with their genre, these United States black metallers favor transcendence and spiritual growth within their black metal. Concordantly, David Foster Wallace's writing utilizes many of the forms of postmodern literature, but discards an allout allegiance to a particular postmodern use of irony's iconoclasm, and uses them to speak to an attentive interconnectedness that he sees as integral to the human experience. All three artists hearken to a deeper, mindful humanism that values an existential need for self-determination and also recognizes the essential interconnectedness of the human condition. While all three artists also recognize the difficulty inherent in such a task, they see it as vital to the continuance of a positive human experience. POSTMODERN HUMANISM AND THE "EXHAUSTION OF EASY LIFE"


We present here an original Virtual Reality (VR) application for navigating an archaeological database. The Activity Theory is drawn on to describe the use of the immersive tool, which was developed in the context of an archaeological research project. Based on the observation of researchers interacting with the tool and their verbal expression, we show that the efficiency of technology use and activities depends on the removal of technical obstacles but also on the interaction of three components: the subject, the objective and the tool. The activities, which seem the most relevant produce results that affect one or more of the three components. It seems that activity theory is a relevant tool to analyze the use of this kind of technology, VR, to visualize a database. Finally, we present lines of thought for digital humanities.


Abstract Biogenic surface fluxes of CO2 over Europe and Siberia are implemented in the regional tracer transport model MATCH. A systematic comparison between simulated and observed CO2 fluxes and mixing ratios is performed for two observational sites in Russia taking into account both surface observations and vertical profiles of meteorological parameters and CO2 in the lowest 3 km from the summer months in 1998. We find that the model is able to represent meteorological parameters as temperature, humidity and planetary boundary layer height consistent with measurements. Further, it is found that the simulated surface CO2 fluxes capture a large part of the observed variability on a diurnal time scale. On a synoptic time scale the agreement between observations and simulation is poorer which leads to a disagreement between time series of observed and simulated CO2 mixing ratios. However, the model is able to realistically simulate the vertical gradient in CO2 in the lowest few kilometres. The vertical variability is studied by means of trajectory analysis together with results from the MATCH model. This analysis clearly illustrates some problems in deducing CO2 fluxes from CO2 mixing ratios measured in single vertical profiles. Studies of the regional variability of CO2 in the model domain show that there exists no ideal vertical level for detecting the terrestrial signal of CO2 in the free troposphere. The strongest terrestrial signal is found in the boundary layer above the lowest few hundred metres. Nevertheless, this terrestrial signal is small, and during the simulated period it is not possible to detect relative variations in the surface fluxes smaller than 20%. We conclude that a regional flux cannot be determined from single ground stations or a few vertical profiles, mainly due to synoptic scale variability in transport and in CO2 surface fluxes.


Beaches are highly flexible structures that can be deformed by several reasons, some natural as wind and swell and others not, as human actions. Gravel, considered as a component of the beach is not always separated from the rest of the materials. It is a part of the coastline sedimentary balance, usually with time and spatial scales much greater than those corresponding to the stretch of the coast under study. The conceptual and experimental difficulties of studying this kind of beach have meant that nowadays they are really unknown. In this paper, methodologies to classify and determinate the most important characteristics in gravel beaches are presented. The authors have studied 34 shingle beaches in the region of Alicante (Spain) from a database with their characteristics. Obtained data corresponds to the morphology of the beach, the materials that take part in its composition and the wave energy, considering its incidence, the wave height, the local period and its influence on the coastline. At the beginning, mathematical models are generated, allowing the expression of the relationships between the slope of berm and the rest of variables. To classify the beaches, a factor analysis has been used on the experimental data matrix, considering all the variables as predictive, obtaining in this way an index for beach classification with similar characteristics. Furthermore, to determine the predictive variables that allow characterizing the 34 beaches, a discriminant analysis has been applied over several sets of variables. In each case, a predictive model of cluster belonging is created, considering a


• The Secondary School Record. The applicant must be in the process of completing graduation requirements at a regionally accredited secondary school or must be a graduate of an accredited secondary school. The applicant must have successfully completed a solid college preparatory program including English, Mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences and foreign language. • Standardized Tests. Applicants attending schools in the United States must submit official SAT or ACT results. The results of these tests, together with the secondary school record, provide a better measure of the ability of a candidate to perform college level work successfully than can be obtained by either measure alone. Applicants graduating from a secondary school outside of the United States should not submit SAT or ACT results. • The Counselor's Evaluation Form. This form is to be completed by the applicant's secondary school counselor and includes rank in class, test score information, and an evaluation of potential for academic success in the student's area of interest. • The Essay. Since each applicant is considered individually, the Essay provides the opportunity to present information that may assist the Admission Committee as it evaluates the application for admission.


The Trent Universities Interprofessional Learning in Practice (TUILIP) project aimed to establish interprofessional learning (IPL) for healthcare students in clinical practice settings. Ten IPL facilitators were employed in eight varied practice setting pilot sites for up to a year to research, develop and run locally appropriate, sustainable IPL initiatives. Following the pilot phase, a qualitative evaluation was conducted in each site by means of interviews or focus groups with all key stakeholders (facilitators, clinical managers, practitioners, students, service users, carers). Data collection was guided by Kirkpatrick's evaluation framework (1996), which focuses upon participant reactions, and their perceptions of learning, behaviour change and sustainable impact. In keeping with this framework, participants were asked to discuss their experiences of TUILIP in their placement setting (including its facilitation), and their opinions about its impact and success in terms of learning, behaviour change and sustainability. We report a subset of evaluation results relating to the roles of the facilitator, facilitation processes, experiences and challenges, personal and professional impact upon facilitators, and implications for IPL projects in practice. Facilitation tasks included preparing the ground, earning credibility, gathering ideas, researching feasibility, developing initiatives, involving service users, trialling and embedding initiatives. Facilitators were faced with challenges such as getting a focus, time limitations and dealing with logistics. They reported highs (being a fly on the wall, protected time, their educational role, and a sense of satisfaction) and lows (loneliness, frustration and fear of failure), but considered they had developed personally and professionally as a result of their experiences. Results demonstrated the complexity and demands of establishing and facilitating IPL initiatives in practice settings. Facilitation was time-consuming and effortful and did not always achieve its aims, but was a source of satisfaction and personal development. These findings suggest higher education institutions and practice settings should consider carefully the selection, preparation and support for facilitators of practice-based IPL, as well as how to engage local practitioners and service users, and embed changes in the clinical setting.


An unprovoked shark bite is an extremely infrequent, but highly disturbing hazard for water sport participants in many parts of the world. Information was analysed on the total number of unprovoked shark bites between 1982 and 2011. In this period, unprovoked shark bite were recorded from 56 countries with 27 recording fatalities; however 84.5% occurred in only six countries - United States, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Bahamas and Reunion Island. The three shark species commonly responsible for unprovoked bites are the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), and the bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas). Over the period examined, the total number of unprovoked shark bites and the number that were fatal increased in frequency. However, fatalities from unprovoked fatal shark bite still represented an infrequent hazard to people utilising the coastal zone for water-based leisure activities. The increase in unprovoked shark bite could not be explained entirely by increases in human population, and this article also concluded that changes in the population of relevant shark species were also unlikely to explain the increase. The paper concluded that both natural and anthropogenic factors may change the amount of spatial overlap between relevant shark species and areas of human use.


Introduction: Revision of the traditional teaching methods as well as employment of modern and active learning method through educational systems is tangible. Application of such methods are quite common in different scientific areas. Therefore, performing modern educational approaches such as self-directed and long-life learning such as Guided Discovery Learning (GDL) is a step toward the student-centered strategy. This study was carried out to compare the effectiveness of two teaching methods including lecture and GDL on the learning and satisfaction of nursing students. Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted on all nursing students (BSc. degree) at Shiraz school of nursing and midwifery (n=38). They selected "the principles and skills of nursing concepts course" for the first time. Based on demographic information, students were divided into two homogenous groups. Five 2-hour sessions of "the principles and skills of nursing concepts course" were organized with lecture method for the control group. Five 2hour sessions of "the principles and skills of nursing concepts course" were organized with GDL method using a study guide for the case group. The satisfaction was assessed using a valid and reliable Likert scale questionnaire. Data was analyzed by t-test, paired t test, Chisquare and Man-Whitney statistical tests using SPSS 15. Results: Although there was no significant difference between two groups learning scores, the mean score of the case group was significantly higher than control group in analysis, synthesis and evaluation cognitive levels (P<0.001). The total satisfaction mean score and satisfaction in areas of "interest" and "encouragement to participation in learning" of the case group was significantly higher than control group (P<0.001). Conclusion: The higher level of learning in higher cognitive level and the preference of the students to GDL compared to lecture indicates their attention to active more modern learning methods. Student-centered learning methods by reinforcing the sense of group participation among the students motivate them to further study and enhance learning in higher levels of cognition.


In the last few years, high-throughput genomics promised to bridge the gap between plant physiology and plant sciences. In addition, high-throughput genotyping technologies facilitate marker-based selection for better performing genotypes. In strawberry, Fragaria vesca was the first reference sequence obtained in the Rosoideae sub-family. This genome has a high level of synteny with genomes of other species of diploid and polyploid Fragaria, but it also provides a reference for species like Rubus and Rosa for functional genomics. Many tools for genetic, genomic and functional analyses were introduced over the last 10 years and these tools are still evolving. For genotyping, many studies have used simple sequence repeats (SSRs) but whole genome sequencing is now a mature technology and facilitates the development of genotyping chips and other genetic approaches such as genome wide association studies (GWAS). Furthermore, microarray-based technologies have been eclipsed by RNA-seq, the high-throughput sequencing of RNA. These new approaches have led to advances in our understanding of the genetically complex octoploid species, and have revolutionized functional genomics. For all genetic and genomic studies, novel material such as complex crosses such as NILs and EMS have appeared in addition to the classical segregating population. With all these tools, strawberry now emerges as a plant model, not only for studying fruit quality but also for deciphering the mechanisms controlling various aspects of plant biology. Selective examples will be described to illustrate the latest research on strawberry and what is coming from other model species.


Advanced methods of theory of optimal guaranteeing control and techniques of generalized (viscosity, minimax) solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi equations are applied to nonzero game interaction between two large groups (coalitions) of agents (participants) arising in economic and biological evolutionary models. Random contacts of agents from different groups happen according to a control dynamical process which can be interpreted as Kolmogorov's differential equations in which coefficients describing flows are not fixed a priori and can be chosen on the feedback principle. Payoffs of coalitions are determined by the functionals of different types on infinite horizon. The notion of a dynamical Nash equilibrium is introduced in the class of control feedbacks. A solution feedbacks maximizing with the guarantee the own payoffs (guaranteeing feedback) is proposed. Guaranteeing feedbacks are constructed in the framework of the the theory of generalized solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi equations. The analytical formulas are obtained for corresponding value functions. The equilibrium trajectory is generated by guaranteeing feedbacks and its properties are investigated. The considered approach provides new qualitative results for the equilibrium trajectory in evolutionary models. The first striking result consists in the fact that the designed equilibrium trajectory provides better (in some bimatrix games strictly better) index values for both coalitions than trajectories which converge to static Nash equilibria (as, for example, trajectories of classical models with the replicator dynamics). The second principle result implies both evolutionary properties of the equilibrium trajectory: evolution takes place in the characteristic domains of Hamilton-Jacobi equations and revolution at switching curves of guaranteeing feedbacks. The third specific feature of the proposed solution is "positive" nature of guaranteeing feedbacks which maximize the own payoff unlike the "negative" nature of punishing feedbacks which minimize the opponent payoff and lead to static Nash equilibrium. The fourth concept takes into account the foreseeing principle in constructing feedbacks due to the multiterminal character of payoffs in which future |states are also evaluated. The fifth idea deals with the venturous factor of the equilibrium trajectory and prescribes the risk barrier surrounding it. These results indicate promising applications of theory of guaranteeing control for constructing solutions in evolutionary models.


Children with autism typically exhibit deficits in behavior and also in visual processing. Development and implementation of visually-cued instructional procedures, combined with electronic technology, have been used successfully to teach children with autism complex behavior chains. This study used photographic activity schedules on computer slideshow software to teach two children with autism to follow computer-mediated cues and engage in four play activities, and to transition between each activity in their homes without the presence of a trained behavior therapist. Results of this study demonstrated that these technologies can be utilized in children's homes to promote computer-mediated play behavior while eliminating the necessary cost of a home behavior therapist to prompt and supervise such activities.


Since the mid-1990s, private sustainability standards and certification schemes have aimed to introduce a new paradigm in the trade of agricultural commodities. However, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the transformative capacity of these arrangements. This paper discusses three plausible scenarios for the future of governance in the field of sustainable agriculture: leaving it to the market; bringing the state back in; and new forms of meta-governance. These scenarios are evolving concurrently but also build upon each other. Contingencies that are important are consumer power, the proliferation of corporate social responsibility, and the enclosure of new markets for sustainable products. It is concluded that, because of their limitations, none of the scenarios will be able to realise a system change on its own.


A versatile method for parallel nanoscale structures fabrication and patterning, using a combination of stencil-mask and pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) techniques is presented. A miniature shadow-mask with nano-apertures in a very thin microfabricated membrane (nanostencil) was separately manufactured and then, mechanically attached to the substrate of choice. In this way, complex oxides such as BaTiO3, BiFeO3 and PZT were deposited directly through the stencil's holes onto various substrates (Si, Pt coated Si, SrTiO3). Controlled arrays of nanostructured complex oxides were obtained as copies of the aperture patterns in the stencil membrane in a single deposition step. The morphology and composition of these nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Analyses reveal periodic, wholly separated and well-defined structures over large areas corresponding to the entire openings in the nanosieves (1mm length x 100 um width). This approach offers a reliable, parallel method for growing, patterning and positioning ferroelectric functional nanostructures on various substrates, an issue of wide interest for applications in microelectronics, especially in Ferroelectric Random Access Memories (FeRAM). It also represents a promising "tool" for local deposition of multiple geometries and high-purity nanostructures under high-vacuum or ultra-high vacuum conditions, in laboratories without expensive lithography equipment.