CONFIGURATION RECOGNITION, COMMUNICATION FAULT TOLERANCE AND SELF-REASSEMBLY FOR THE CKBOT Michael G. Park Mark Yim We present and experimentally verify novel methods for increasing the generality of control, autonomy and reliability for modular robotic systems. In particular, we demonstrate configuration recognition, distributed communication fault tolerance, and the organization and control of self-reassembly with the Connector Kinetic roBot (CKBot). The primary contribution of this work is the presentation and experimental verification of these innovative methods that are general and applicable to other modular robotic systems. We describe our CKBot system and compare it to other similar, state-of-the-art modular robotic systems. Our description and comparison highlights various design developments, features, and notable achievements of these systems. We present work on isomorphic configuration recognition with CKBot. Here, we utilize basic principles from graph theory to create and implement an algorithm on CKBot that automatically recognizes modular robot configurations. In particular, we describe how comparing graph spectra of configuration matrices can be used to find a permutation matrix that maps a given configuration to a known one. If a configuration is matched to one in a library of stored gaits, a permutation mapping is applied and the corresponding coordinated control for locomotion is executed. An implementation of the matching algorithm with small configurations of CKBot configurations that can be rearranged during runtime is presented. We also present work on a distributed fault-tolerance algorithm used to control CKBot configurations. Here, we use a triple modular redundancy approach for CKBot units to collectively vote on observations and execute commands in the presence of infrared (IR) communication failures. In our implementation, we broadcast infrared signals to modules which collaboratively vote on a majority course of action. Various gait iv selections for a seven module caterpillar and sixteen module quadruped with faulty subsets of IR receivers have been verified to demonstrate the algorithm's robustness. Lastly, we present work on the communication hierarchy and control state machine for the Self-reassembly After Explosion (SAE) robot. Here, we discuss the interaction and integration of the various sensory inputs and control outputs implemented for camera-guided self-reassembly with CKBot. This section describes the overall communication system and reassembly sequence planning after a group of CKBot clusters is kicked apart.


Modeling loops is an often necessary step in protein structure and function determination, even with experimental X-ray and NMR data. It is well known to be difficult. Database techniques have the advantage of producing a higher proportion of predictions with sub-angstrom accuracy when compared with ab initio techniques, but the disadvantage of often being able to produce usable results as they depend entirely on the loop already being represented within the database. My contribution is the LoopWeaver protocol, a database method that uses multidimensional scaling to rapidly achieve better clash-free, low energy placement of loops obtained from a database of protein structures. This maintains the above-mentioned advantage while avoiding the disadvantage by permitting the use of lower quality matches that would not otherwise fit. Test results show that this method achieves significantly better results than all other methods, including Modeler, Loopy, SuperLooper, and Rapper before refinement. With refinement, the results (LoopWeaver and Loopy combined) are better than ROSETTA's, with 0.53Å RMSD on average for 206 loops of length 6, 0.75Å local RMSD for 168 loops of length 7, 0.93Å RMSD for 117 loops of length 8, and 1.13Å RMSD loops of length 9, while ROSETTA scores 0.66Å, 0.93Å, 1.23Å, 1.56Å, respectively, at the same average time limit (3 hours on a 2.2GHz Opteron). When ROSETTA is allowed to run for over a week against LoopWeaver's and Loopy's combined 3 hours, it approaches, but does not surpass, this accuracy.


PURPOSE
A case control study was conducted to assess the effect of Sabril (Vigabatrin), Lamictal (Lamotrigine) and Neurontin (Gabapentin) on fertility in male rats. Their effect on the body and organs weight and certain biochemical profiles including total serum protein, cholesterol, triglycerides, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), serum testosterone, and FSH levels were also measured.

METHODS
several parameters, concerning fertility were measured in 40 albino male rats of Sprague Dawley strain, they were divided into 4 groups, group one received vehicle (distilled water), group two received Vigabatrin in a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight, group three received Lamotrigine in a dose of 30 mg/kg body weight, and group four received Gabapentin 100 mg/kg body weight. All the male rats in these groups received the different medications for a complete reproductive cycle (60 days). After 24 hours of the last dose, the animals were weighed and autopsied under light ether anesthesia. Parameter of fertility that has been measured in this study includes: sperm count and motility, weight of different reproductive organs, germ cell and interstitial cell population, serum testosterone and FSH levels and assessment of pregnancies in females mixed with tested males. Biochemical profiles such as serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, serum bilirubin, SGOT, SGPT level are all measured. The results of the histological, histometerical studies and biochemical profiles were compared to that of the control group, and the significance of these results was measured using student's "t" test.

RESULTS
There was significant reduction in the body weight and the weight of the testes, epididymis, seminal vesicles, ventral prostate, and vas deferens in the antiepileptic fed male rats in comparison to the control group (p > 0.001). There was significant reduction in testicular cells population dynamics including both germinal cell types and interstitial cell types in the antiepileptic fed male rats in comparison to the control group. There was also significant reduction in histometrical parameters and sperm dynamics in the antiepileptic fed male rats histologies in comparison to the control group. There was significant reduction in both testosterone and FSH levels (p < 0.001) in the antiepileptics fed male rats in comparison to the control group. There was also significant reduction in pregnancy rate observed in female rats exposed to the tested male rats among antiepileptic fed male rats compared to controls. The results of biochemical profiles assessment showed significant reduction in serum glucose, serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides levels and significant increase in serum bilirubin, SGOT, and SGPT levels in antiepileptics fed male rats in comparison to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS
Fertility rate and other parameters concerned with fertility, sex hormones and certain biochemical profiles were significantly disturbed in male rats fed with three of the second-generation antiepileptic drugs Vigabatrin, Lamotrigine, and Gabapentin, indicating a possible toxic effect of these three medications on sexual organs, liver, and lipid metabolism.


Bacterial shape is physically determined by the peptidoglycan cell wall. The cell-wall-synthesis machinery responsible for rod shape in Escherichia coli is the processive 'Rod complex'. Previously, cytoplasmic MreB filaments were thought to govern formation and localization of Rod complexes based on local cell-envelope curvature. However, using single-particle tracking of the transpeptidase PBP2, we found strong evidence that PBP2 initiates new Rod complexes by binding to a substrate different from MreB or any known Rod-complex component. This substrate is likely the cell wall. Consistently, we found only weak correlations between MreB and envelope curvature in the cylindrical part of cells. Residual correlations do not require any curvature-based Rod-complex initiation but can be attributed to persistent rotational motion. Therefore, local cell-wall architecture likely provides the cue for PBP2 binding and subsequent Rod-complex initiation. We also found that PBP2 has a limiting role for Rod-complex activity, thus supporting its central role.


An evaluation of rock slide tsunami hazard is applied to all Norwegian lakes larger than 0.1 km 2 based on their topographical setting. The analysis results in a topographic rock slide potential score that indicates the relative hazard in each lake. Even though the score value each lake receives should be interpreted with caution, the distribution of score values shows that we are able to make a clear distinction between lakes with a high vs. lakes with a low hazard. The results also show a clustering of threatened lakes in parts of Western Norway as well as some locations in Northern Norway. This makes the results useful as a tool for focusing further studies on regions or specific lakes that received high scores. The results also show how the method may be used for more detailed analysis of a given lake (or fjord). Maps can be produced that may serve as a guide when carrying out field campaigns or when designing scenarios for numerical simulations of tsunamis in the lake. It should be emphasised that the rock slide potential reported for each lake is based on the topographical setting alone and hence, does not represent the actual probability of rock slides into the lakes. For a given area, more detailed investigations of the geology, triggering factors and frequency of previous rock slide events should be carried out before definite statements about the actual hazard can be made.


This paper examines matrilineal spirits (phii puu nyaa) in northern Thailand based on field research recently undertaken in a village in Chiang Mai province. The paper suggests that the puu nyaa spirits remain locally significant-despite previous statements about their demise-and that matrilineal linkages are ideologically and practically important in the constitution of the groups. Nevertheless, there are alternative points of reference-to fathers, spouses and localities-that can attenuate attachments to matrilineal kin and introduce alternative sources of spiritual power. It becomes clear that phii puu nyaa spirit beliefs and practices are malleable and provide a basis for various orientations to spiritual power. The intermingling of different types of spiritual power is well illustrated by the presence of protective spirits locally referred to as aahak. In local perception, there is a very close relationship between phii puu nyaa and aahak, but the two entities appear to reflect quite different orientations: in simple terms the aahak represent a masculine, territorial and outward looking form of power which is contrasted with the female-focused and lineage-derived potency of the puu nyaa spirits. The paper argues that the outward orientation of the aahak provides some valuable insights into local perceptions of power, demonstrating how the supposedly peripheral and parochial draws regional power into more intimate domains.


The large Ice sheets, Greenland and Antartica, are two key players for understanding the future effects of climate change when it comes to sea level rise. A considerable uncertainty is their dynamic response to changing boundary conditions, e.g. increased melting at the surface percolating to their base or warmer ocean water temperatures underneath ice shelves. To decipher ongoing processes and reveal their development, glaciologists often turn to the observation of internal structures in and basal conditions of ice sheets using radio-echo sounding (RES) techniques.
Over the last twenty years the radar techniques employed for these observation have seen a considerable improvement, such that today's ice-penetrating radar has little in common with the former RES techniques, where data were still stored on photographic films.
The newest of such systems, in operation since 2016, is AWI's ultrawideband radar , operating in the radio (150-600 MHz) and microwave frequency range, an advancement from the original MCoRDS/I system developed by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS). With 24 elements in use for the AWI UWB, the lateral and vertical resolution for imaging the interior of ice sheets at kilometers depth has been brought to the range of the sub-meter scale.
This talk introduces the scientific objectives motivating the development of this system, presents its technical aspects, including data recording and processing, and finally shows first results from the last Greenland and Antarctic field seasons.


Distance education is arguably one of the major developments in education during the 20th Century. From schooling through to university education, distance education blossomed to facilitate frontier expansion in the New World, capacity-building in developing nations, access and equity provision in post-War societies and flexible professional development and workplace training for late-modernity. 'The International Handbook of Distance Education' explores the array of distance education theories and practices as they have been shaped by the late-20th Century and then positions these in terms of the contemporary circumstances of the 21st Century. The 'Handbook' is intended to be a comprehensive reference work for practitioners, researchers and administrators engaged in forms of distance education in private and public education, from schooling through undergraduate and postgraduate coursework to doctoral research programs.A critical thread runs throughout the 'Handbook' to provide the reader with stimulation to critique policy and practice with a view to being creative and responsive in their own policy development and educational work. It discusses lifelong and flexible learning environments.


A quantum computer is an information processing machine, much like an ordinary classical computer, but its function is based on quantum mechanical principles. To be able to construct such a machine would be a fantastic accomplishment---to have total control over a quantum system is a dream for both physicists and science-fiction enthusiasts. The basic information unit in a quantum computer is the quantum bit, or qubit for short. A quantum computer consists of many coupled qubits. To get a single qubit to work properly, would be a major step towards building this machine.Here we study two different qubit ideas. The central element in both setups is the superconducting tunnel junction---the Josephson junction. By connecting the Josephson junctions to standard electronics in a clever way, a qubit can be realised. With these constructions it is in principle very easy to manipulate and read out the quantum probabilities, by varying voltages and currents in time. However, this ease of manipulation has a cost: strong interactions with uncontrolled degrees of freedom of the environment transfer information from the qubit. For superconducting qubits this decoherence is typically very fast.There are ways to deal with the decoherence. One way is to tune the circuit parameters so that the decoherence becomes minimal. Another way is to engineer the qubits so fast so that the effect of decoherence becomes small. In this thesis, we will apply both these strategies. Specifically, the measurement speed of the second qubit we study, turns out to be very sensitive to the topology of the phase space of the detector variables.


dementia of the alzheimer type (ad) can affect emotional judgments of facial expression and prosody. Spared emotional judgments of music have been observed in early AD (Gagnon, Peretz, & Fulop, 2009). The AD case study of Cuddy and Duffin (2005) showed relatively spared perception and memory for music. Through the single case study of MD, we again address the question of whether early AD might leave these abilities intact. The first experiment examined her musical emotional judgments in relation to mode and tempo. Overall results replicated the finding of a preserved response to changes in these structural properties. In a second experiment, we examined MD9s recognition of musical and facial emotional expressions. She demonstrated a deficit only for the recognition of the facial expression of anger. Her performance adds to other empirical demonstrations that in early AD music perception and memory, as well as musical emotional judgments, may be relatively preserved.


AnadoluJet, a leading Turkish domestic airline carrier provides high-service, low-price flights to 28 locations within Turkey. Each winter and summer, AnadoluJet typically generates a new flight schedule. The company's primary scheduling concerns are aircraft fleet utilization and the waiting times of transfer passengers. Balancing the trade-off between these two criteria in a flight schedule is crucial for AnadoluJet's profitability. In this paper, we present the results of our study of AnadoluJet's flight-scheduling process. We provide a mathematical model that addresses this problem and then extend our studies and implement a heuristic algorithm for the development of a decision support system for the company. The objectives of the models we generated are to maximize fleet utilization, minimize waiting times for the majority of transfer passengers, and generate flight schedules subject to various constraints. The schedules that result from our models are superior to those that AnadoluJet's generated using its previous manual process. AnadoluJet currently uses our decision support system in its flight-scheduling process.


BACKGROUND
Chronic spinal pain is prevalent and long-lasting. Although provider-based nonpharmacologic therapies, such as chiropractic care, have been recommended, healthcare and coverage policies provide little guidance or evidence regarding long-term use of this care.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the relationships between visit frequency and outcomes for patients using ongoing chiropractic care for chronic spinal pain.

STUDY DESIGN
Observational 3-month longitudinal study.

SETTING
Data collected from patients of 124 chiropractic clinics in 6 United States regions.

METHODS
We examined the impact of visit frequency and patient characteristics on pain (pain 0-10 numeric rating scale) and functional outcomes (Oswestry Disability Index [ODI] for low-back pain and Neck Disability Index [NDI] for neck pain, both 0-100 scale) using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) in a large national sample of chiropractic patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) and/or chronic neck pain (CNP). This study was approved by the RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee and registered under ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03162952.

RESULTS
One thousand, three hundred, sixty-two patients with CLBP and 1,214 with CNP were included in a series of HLM models. Unconditional (time-only) models showed patients on average had mild pain and function, and significant, but slight improvements in these over the 3-month observation period: back and neck pain decreased by 0.40 and 0.44 points, respectively; function improved by 2.7 (ODI) and 3.0 points (NDI) (all P < 0.001). Adding chiropractic visit frequency to the models revealed that those with worse baseline pain and function used more visits, but only visits more than once per week for those with CLBP were associated with significantly better improvement. These relationships remained when other types of visits and baseline patient characteristics were included.

LIMITATIONS
This is an observational study based on self-reported data from a sample representative of chiropractic patients, but not all patients with CLBP or CNP.

CONCLUSIONS
This 3-month window on chiropractic patients with CLBP and/or CNP revealed that they were improving, although slowly; may have reached maximum therapeutic improvement; and are possibly successfully managing their chronic pain using a variety of chiropractic visit frequencies. These results may inform payers when building coverage policies for ongoing chiropractic care for patients with chronic pain.


We know that our gas-guzzling cars are warming the planet, the pesticides and fertilizers from farms are turning rivers toxic, and the earth has run out of space for the mountains of unrecycled waste our daily consumption has left in its wake. We've heard copious accounts of our impact—as humans, as a society—on the natural world. But this is not a one-sided relationship. Lost in these dire and scolding accounts has been the impact on us and our well-being. You sense it while walking on a sandy beach, or in a wild, woody forest, or when you catch sight of wildlife, or even while gardening in your backyard. Could it be that the natural environment is an essential part of our happiness? Yes, says Eric Lambin emphatically in An Ecology of Happiness. Using a very different strategy in addressing environmental concerns, he asks us to consider that there may be no better reason to value and protect the health of the planet than for our own personal well-being. In this clever and wide-ranging work, Lambin draws on new scientific evidence in the fields of geography, political ecology, environmental psychology, urban studies, and disease ecology, among others, to answer such questions as: To what extent do we need nature for our well-being? How does environmental degradation affect our happiness? What can be done to protect the environment and increase our well-being at the same time? Drawing on case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, Lambin makes a persuasive case for the strong link between healthy ecosystems and happy humans. Unique in its scope and evenhanded synthesis of research from many fields, An Ecology of Happiness offers a compelling human-centered argument that is impossible to overlook when we marvel at murmurations of starlings or seek out the most brilliant fall foliage: nature makes our steps a little lighter and our eyes a little brighter. What better reason to protect an ecosystem or save a species than for our own pleasure?


The Delos Initiative focuses on the sacred natural sites in developed countries throughout the world (such as Australia, Canada, the European countries, Japan, New Zealand and the United States of America). Its main purpose is to help in maintaining both the sanctity and the biodiversity of these sites, through the understanding of the complex relationship between spiritual/cultural and natural values. This publication includes all presentations made at the First Workshop of The Delos Initiative, which took place in Montserrat in 2006. All speeches delivered and case studies presented at the workshop have been included, as well as conclusions and lessons learned.


ABSTRACT This paper explores the concept of translocality, of being 'simultaneously situated' in more than one place, in the context of 'distance' education in the digital university. The author works with the concept of critical time to propose an additional term, transtemporality, to also recognise the multiple times and temporalities engaged and interwoven in digitally connected spaces of work and study. The paper draws on interview material from an institutional case study of expansion in digital education, paying particular attention to student locations in time and space, arguing that recognising the shifting time–space of the campus is essential to supporting and teaching growing numbers of distance and part-time students. The author proposes that, rather than digital connections being viewed as a form of 'reaching out' from the university campus to the wider world, the digital university might be considered, in its translocal and transtemporal form, as an opening up of the idea of the university; embodied and imagined through strong connections across multiple locations, times and temporalities.


ABSTRACT Promoting preservice science teachers' experimentation competency is required to provide a basis for meaningful learning through experiments in schools. However, preservice teachers show difficulties when experimenting. Previous research revealed that cognitive scaffolding promotes experimentation competency by structuring the learning process, while metacognitive and multimedia support enhance reflection. However, these support measures have not yet been tested in combination. Therefore, we decided to use cognitive scaffolding to support students' experimental achievements and supplement it by metacognitive and multimedia scaffolds in the experimental groups. Our research question is to what extent supplementing cognitive support by metacognitive and multimedia scaffolding further promotes experimentation competency. The intervention has been applied in a two-factorial design to a two-month experimental course for 63 biology teacher students in their first bachelor year. Pre-post-test measured experimentation competency in a performance assessment. Preservice teachers worked in groups of four. Therefore, measurement took place at group level (N = 16). Independent observers rated preservice teachers' group performance qualitatively on a theory-based system of categories. Afterwards, experimentation competency levels led to quantitative frequency analysis. The results reveal differing gains in experimentation competency but contrary to our hypotheses. Implications of combining scaffolding measures on promoting experimentation competency are discussed.


Acquisition of lineage-specific cell cycle duration is an important feature of metazoan development. In Caenorhabditis elegans, differences in cell cycle duration are already apparent in two-cell stage embryos, when the larger anterior blastomere AB divides before the smaller posterior blastomere P1. This time difference is under the control of anterior-posterior (A-P) polarity cues set by the PAR proteins. The mechanisms by which these cues regulate the cell cycle machinery differentially in AB and P1 are incompletely understood. Previous work established that retardation of P1 cell division is due in part to preferential activation of an ATL-1/CHK-1 dependent checkpoint in P1, but how the remaining time difference is controlled is not known. Here, we establish that differential timing relies also on a mechanism that promotes mitosis onset preferentially in AB. The polo-like kinase PLK-1, a positive regulator of mitotic entry, is distributed in an asymmetric manner in two-cell stage embryos, with more protein present in AB than in P1. We find that PLK-1 asymmetry is regulated by A-P polarity cues through preferential protein retention in the embryo anterior. Importantly, mild inactivation of plk-1 by RNAi delays entry into mitosis in P1, but not in AB, in a manner that is independent of ATL-1/CHK-1. Together, our findings support a model in which differential timing of mitotic entry in C. elegans embryos relies on two complementary mechanisms: ATL-1/CHK-1-dependent preferential retardation in P1 and PLK-1-dependent preferential promotion in AB, which together couple polarity cues and cell cycle progression during early development.


Background: Although gastrostomy tube placement in children is increasingly performed and laparoscopic gastrostomy tube insertions considered by many surgeons to be the "gold standard", however, there is no definitive data that proves the benefits of laparoscopic technique over the open. This study aimed to compare two methods and clinical outcomes between patients undergoing laparoscopic and open gastrostomy tube insertion A retrospective study data was entered and analyzed through statistical package SPSS version 22 conducted to identify inpatient hospitalizations for gastrostomy placements for the treatment of gastro esophageal reflux disease, feeding intolerance and swallowing disorder (2007–2016) at King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The outcomes evaluated using ANOVA test comparing the indications for the procedure, concomitant diseases and postoperative complications associated with both techniques. Because ANOVA is a data set that evaluates the mean significant difference between operative methods and other study parameters, a single-institution retrospective study was conducted in which each technique compared to the other during the same period. Outcome measures (institutional data) were used to compare rates of postoperative complications in terms of leakage, ileus, nausea, diarrheae, pain after feeding, high residual, granulation tissue formation and tube revision between the two cohorts.
Results: Has been evaluated 180 patients with gastrostomy tube placement (94 open vs. 86 laparoscopic), 44 with concomitant fundoplication and with 3 different types of gastrostomy tubes used during the procedures. There were differences in gender (male to female 1:2), but not in age distribution, or comorbidity between the two groups. Compared with open technique of gastrostomy placement, the postoperative complications in terms of postoperative nausea 20 (21.5%), pain after feeding 6 (6.4%) and leakage 25 (26.6%) were more with open technique versus 4 (4.7%) p=0.006, 0 (0.0%) p=0.017 and 16 (18.6%) p=0.202 respectively in laparoscopic technique. Concomitant fundoplication as more commonly performed for patients with neurological disorders in laparoscopic technique 29 (33.7%) vs. open 15 (16.0%) p=0.006. Postoperative diarrheae was observed more in patients who underwent Mic-Key tube placement p 0.008, however length of the hospital stay was more after Mic tube placement p=001. The institutional data included outcome of patients with neurological disorders who underwent gastrostomy tube placement 21 (60.0%) with sequel and 113 (80.3%) without sequel and neurological disorders p=0.015.
Conclusion: Although the technical and clinical outcomes for open and laparoscopic tube placement appear comparable, laparoscopic tech


Daptomycin binds to bacterial cell membranes and disrupts essential cell envelope processes, leading to cell death. Bacteria respond to daptomycin by altering their cell envelopes to either decrease antibiotic binding to the membrane or by diverting binding away from septal targets. In Enterococcus faecalis, daptomycin resistance is typically coordinated by the three-component cell envelope stress response system, LiaFSR. ABSTRACT Daptomycin binds to bacterial cell membranes and disrupts essential cell envelope processes, leading to cell death. Bacteria respond to daptomycin by altering their cell envelopes to either decrease antibiotic binding to the membrane or by diverting binding away from septal targets. In Enterococcus faecalis, daptomycin resistance is typically coordinated by the three-component cell envelope stress response system, LiaFSR. Here, studying a clinical strain of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecium containing alleles associated with activation of the LiaFSR signaling pathway, we found that specific environments selected for different evolutionary trajectories, leading to high-level daptomycin resistance. Planktonic environments favored pathways that increased cell surface charge via yvcRS upregulation of dltABCD and mprF, causing a reduction in daptomycin binding. Alternatively, environments favoring complex structured communities, including biofilms, evolved both diversion and repulsion strategies via divIVA and oatA mutations, respectively. Both environments subsequently converged on cardiolipin synthase (cls) mutations, suggesting the importance of membrane modification across strategies. Our findings indicate that E. faecium can evolve diverse evolutionary trajectories to daptomycin resistance that are shaped by the environment to produce a combination of resistance strategies. The accessibility of multiple and different biochemical pathways simultaneously suggests that the outcome of daptomycin exposure results in a polymorphic population of resistant phenotypes, making E. faecium a recalcitrant nosocomial pathogen.


A major global effort to enable cost‐effective natural regeneration is needed to achieve ambitious forest and landscape restoration goals. Natural forest regeneration can potentially play a major role in large‐scale landscape restoration in tropical regions. Here, we focus on the conditions that favor natural regeneration within tropical forest landscapes. We illustrate cases where large‐scale natural regeneration followed forest clearing and non‐forest land use, and describe the social and ecological factors that drove these local forest transitions. The self‐organizing processes that create naturally regenerating forests and natural regeneration in planted forests promote local genetic adaptation, foster native species with known traditional uses, create spatial and temporal heterogeneity, and sustain local biodiversity and biotic interactions. These features confer greater ecosystem resilience in the face of future shocks and disturbances. We discuss economic, social, and legal issues that challenge natural regeneration in tropical landscapes. We conclude by suggesting ways to enable natural regeneration to become an effective tool for implementing large‐scale forest and landscape restoration. Major research and policy priorities include: identifying and modeling the ecological and economic conditions where natural regeneration is a viable and favorable land‐use option, developing monitoring protocols for natural regeneration that can be carried out by local communities, and developing enabling incentives, governance structures, and regulatory conditions that promote the stewardship of naturally regenerating forests. Aligning restoration goals and practices with natural regeneration can achieve the best possible outcome for achieving multiple social and environmental benefits at minimal cost.


William Stephenson came to the University of Missouri School of Journalism as a distinguished professor in 1958. But at first glance, some mass communication researchers might have asked, why? Physicist and psychologist, methodologist and theorist, Stephenson was a brilliant researcher with incredible energy that drove him onward to new endeavors. His academic interests were as varied as his scholarly activity and the homes for his work. Yet, although Stephenson's early body of work clearly reflects the intellectual perspectives and disciplines that he embraced, the connections to mass communication are not so readily apparent. Indeed, Stephenson was not trained in communication, and his early work largely ignored our field of study. Still, this brief biographical sketch suggests that a researcher trained in classical sciences was relevant in journalism some 50 years ago and, further, that his work warrants a reexamination today. Why exactly did Stephenson attract the attention of the Missouri School of Journalism, and what can we today, as mass communication researchers, take from his work? Connecting Quantum Physics and Mass Communication William Stephenson was born in England in 1902 (Brown, 1991). His initial academic interests focused on the field of physics. Stephenson received an M.A. from Oxford and then a Ph.D. in physics from Durham University in 1926 at the height of the quantum theory debate. Some initial roots of his eventual interest in mass communication can be found here in Stephenson's writings about a concept he termed complimentarity (Logan, 1991). Quantum physics largely relied on a series of assumptions; scientists could not directly see or touch subatomic particles, yet they theorized about them. Likewise, Stephenson reasoned that researchers could not see the inner workings of the human mind or directly experience what a research participant was experiencing. Accordingly, Stephenson believed the uncertainty of this relationship, or complimentarity, dictated to researchers that complex occurrences should not be reduced into a single hypothesis or theory but instead, a range of possibilities needed to be considered. Later applying the concept of complimentarity to mass communication, Stephenson urged researchers to view the impact of media in a multidimensional manner and push for hypothesis production, using a collective approach that draws on multidisciplines. Stephenson used the knowledge he gained in physics to further his interest in behavioral science. He refocused his efforts, moving to the University College in London to study psychology with the father of factor analysis, Charles Spearman (Barchak, 1991). Stephenson received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1929 and served as a research assistant to both Spearman and his successor, Sir Cyril Burt. During this period, Stephenson worked on some of the earliest research into psychometric testing of human characteristics such as intelligence. Stephenson applied his perspective on principles from quantum physics to measure the human mind, in sharp contrast to Burt's work during the time period. That foundation provides yet another intersection between Stephenson and mass communication (Logan, 1991). In contrast to Burt's reliance on a single operational definition of intelligence, Stephenson argued for a broader interpretation. In accordance with his definition of complimentarity, Stephenson thought intelligence could be operationalized in a multiplicity of manners and that the predominate group of psychometric researchers of the era were ignoring the range of possibilities that they, and even their very own research participants, had to offer. As he studied psychology, Stephenson embraced the concept of self as fundamental to understanding human behavior, that is, the unique core of every human mind that serves as the foundation for an individual's thoughts, feelings, and drives. Given what he saw as the centrality of self, Stephenson argued that researchers had a responsibility to account for subjectivity and self-reference if they were to truly gauge human behavior (Brown, 1996; Logan, 1991). …


Low-bandgap polymers/molecules are an interesting family of semiconductor materials, and have enabled many recent exciting breakthroughs in the field of organic electronics, especially for organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Here, such a low-bandgap (1.43 eV) non-fullerene electron acceptor (BT-IC) bearing a fused 7-heterocyclic ring with absorption edge extending to the near-infrared (NIR) region was specially designed and synthesized. Benefitted from its NIR light harvesting, high performance OPVs were fabricated with medium bandgap polymers (J61 and J71) as donors, showing power conversion efficiencies of 9.6% with J61 and 10.5% with J71 along with extremely low energy loss (0.56 eV for J61 and 0.53 eV for J71). Interestingly, femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy studies on both systems show that efficient charge generation was observed despite the fact that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)–HOMO offset (ΔEH) in the blends was as low as 0.10 eV, suggesting that such a small ΔEH is not a crucial limitation in realizing high performance of NIR non-fullerene based OPVs. Our results indicated that BT-IC is an interesting NIR non-fullerene acceptor with great potential application in tandem/multi-junction, semitransparent, and ternary blend solar cells.


A novel ternary heterojunction Cd0.5Zn0.5S@UIO-66@g-C3N4 (Cd0.5Zn0.5S@UCN) has been prepared by the in situ hydrothermal and precipitation approach, which exhibits superior photocatalytic activity for H2 generation and MO degradation under visible-light irradiation. The Cd0.5Zn0.5S@UCN30 composite shows the maximum photocatalytic H2 production rate (1281.1 μmol h−1 g−1) that is about 32.9 and 2.7 times higher than UIO-66@g-C3N4 and pristine Cd0.5Zn0.5S, respectively. Besides, the Cd0.5Zn0.5S@UCN30 heterojunction indicates the superior degradation efficiency of MO (82%) in 120 min. The improved photocatalytic activity of the Cd0.5Zn0.5S@UCN heterostructure can be assigned to its large surface area, enhanced visible-light absorption ability and high-efficiency separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, which are proved by the results of photocurrent and EIS analyses. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism based on the ternary heterojunction Cd0.5Zn0.5S@UCN is discussed and the transfer and separation process of photogenerated electron–hole pairs is also proposed. This work demonstrates that a novel ternary noble-metal-free photocatalytic system could provide a scientific basis for the application in the field of energy production and pollution removal.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Although tetralogy of Fallot is the most common cyanotic congenital heart disease, national publications correlating this condition with anesthetic practice are scarce. This report aimed at presenting a case of labor epidural analgesia in a patient with uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot diagnosed during gestation.

CASE REPORT
Patient 26 years old, 1.54 m, 56 kg, 32 weeks and 5 days of gestational age, who had been diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot during gestation. Patient was admitted in labour. After obstetric evaluation and decision for natural birth, epidural analgesia was performed with 0.125% bupivacaine associated to 100microg fentanyl through a catheter. Patient gave birth 1 hour and 30 minutes after the procedure. The newborn weighed 1485 grams and had an Apgar score of 6 and 8 at one and five minutes, respectively. Patient remained stable, with no hemodynamic or ECG changes.

CONCLUSIONS
Selecting the appropriate anesthetic technique is extremely important when managing patients with uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot. Favorable uterine dynamics and cervical conditions, particularly in patients with no history of syncope, are critical findings for adequate labour analgesia indication.


The dramatic increase in the amount of content available in digital forms gives rise to large-scale digital libraries, targeted to support millions of users and terabytes of data. Retrieving information from a system of this scale in an efficient manner is a challenging task due to the size of the collection as well as the index. This research deals with the design and implementation of an inverted index that supports searching for information in a large-scale digital library, implemented atop a massively parallel storage system. Inverted index partitioning is studied in a simulation environment, aiming at a terabyte of text. As a result, a high performance partitioning scheme is proposed. It combines the best qualities of the term and document partitioning approaches in a new Hybrid Partitioning Scheme. Simulation experiments show that this organization provides good performance over a wide range of conditions. Further, the issues of creation and incremental updates of the index are considered. A disk-based inversion algorithm and an extensible inverted index architecture are described, and experimental results with actual collections are presented. Finally, distributed algorithms to create a parallel inverted index partitioned according to the hybrid scheme are proposed, and performance is measured on a portion of the equipment that normally makes up the 100 node Virginia Tech PetaPlex™ system.


The first layer of active defense in plants is based on the perception of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) leading to PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). PTI is increasingly being investigated in crop plants, where it may have potential to provide durable disease resistance in the field. Limiting this work, however, is an absence of reliable bioassays to investigate PAMP responses in some species. Here, we present a series of methods to investigate PTI in Brassica napus. The assays allow measuring early responses such as the oxidative burst, mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation, and PAMP-induced marker gene expression. Illumina-based RNA sequencing analysis produced a genome-wide survey of transcriptional changes upon PAMP treatment seen in both the A and C genomes of the allotetraploid B. napus. Later responses characterized include callose deposition and lignification at the cell wall, seedling growth inhibition, and PAMP-induced resistance to Pseudomonas syringae and Botrytis cinerea. Furthermore, using these assays, we demonstrated substantial variation in PAMP responses within a collection of diverse B. napus cultivars. The assays reported here could have widespread application in B. napus breeding and mapping programs to improve selection for broad-spectrum disease resistance.


Climate Change is a global phenomenon that has a global scale impact. The current trend of climate change towards the warming of the globe has resulted in various changes in the geological, climatology, social, economical, and bio-logical processes worldwide. Temperature of the globe has increased due to various factors, but anthropogenic plays a major contribution through the heavy input of Greenhouse gases. One of the world's most remote regions that have been affected by most of the anthropogenic stresses on environmental services is the Arctic Region. The Arctic Region has shown various drastic changes and has shown to be effected by various anthropogenic activities that take place elsewhere. These changes include the ozone hole (resulting from ozone degrading compound emitted heavily by an-thropogenic demands), the accumulation of various persistent and volatile pollutants (i.e. POPs), and the meltdown of the polar ice (among others). These drastic changes are well perceived and well projected for future preparations. However, the question still remains if these impacts would only accelerate change. This paper aims to discuss if these changes are accelerating or happening at a constant rate. In addition, this paper aims to only focus on changes due to global warming and climate changes phenomenon


Abstract Fahlores [~(Cu5Ag)10(Zn5Fe)2Sb4S13] from the Keno Hill mining district, central Yukon, Canada record virtually the entire petrogenetic history of a Cretaceous hydrothermal system extending over 40 km outward from the Mayo Lake granitic pluton. These fahlores are an essential constituent of polymetallic sulphide veins developed in a graphitic Mississippian quartzite, where they occur in association with sphalerite, pyrargyrite, galena and siderite. Fahlores exhibit pronounced east-west zoning in average Ag/(Ag+Cu) and Zn/(Zn+Fe) values, with these simultaneously increasing and decreasing from east to west over 20 km of hydrothermal activity. These zonations are coupled with average Ag/(Ag+Cu) and Zn/(Zn+Fe) values in fahlore roughly paralleling the 300℃ isotherm for fahlores in equilibrium with pyrargyrite, miargyrite and sphalerite in the simple system Ag2S-Cu2S-ZnS-FeS-Sb2S3. Early high-Ag, high-Zn fahlores from the eastern and western mines have Ag/(Ag+Cu) and Zn/(Zn+Fe) values requiring temperatures ≥400℃, in agreement with temperatures established from the As-content of arsenopyrite coexisting with pyrite, pyrrhotite and sphalerite. Ag/(Ag+Cu) and Zn/(Zn + Fe) values in later, main-stage fahlores are consistent with the 250-310℃ range of temperatures established for boiling of Keno Hill fluids. Finally, Ag- and Fe-rich fahlores were produced by retrograde Fe-Zn exchange with sphalerite or crystallized from late-stage epithermal fluids which produced polybasite, stephanite, acanthite and wire silver. One such fahlore exhibits unmixing into high-Ag and low-Ag varieties. This is the first reported miscibility gap for freibergite fahlores and confirms the earlier prediction of such gaps.


Violence in Iraq has declined since its civil war of 2005-07 due to the implementation of the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, Shi'a militia ceasefires, and the emergence of Iraq's Awakening Movement. But as the U.S. military draws down its forces, Iraq remains a fragile, unreconciled state, riddled with sectarian tensions and new political rivalries that may negatively affect its future security and stability. Al Qaeda in Iraq, Ba'athist elements, and Sufi insurgents alike have learned to adapt to the new challenges they face, while gradually evolving into a movement dominated by indigenous fighters. More determined on targeting and undermining the Iraq government, this new generation of militants is bound to pose a considerable threat to Iraq's security for the foreseeable future. Volatile Landscape provides advanced and in depth perspectives on the Iraqi insurgency, the various insurgent groups and leaders that shape the insurgency, and the tactics and strategies they employ. Contributors include Mahan Abedin (Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, New Delhi, India), Rafid Fadhil Ali (BBC World Service), Abdul Hameed Bakier (intelligence expert on counterterrorism, crisis management, and terrorist-hostage negotiations), Ahmed S. Hashim (U.S. Naval War College), Lydia Khalil (Council on Foreign Relations), Erich Marquardt (CTC Sentinel), Andrew McGregor (Aberfoyle International Security and Jamestown Foundation's Global Terrorism Analysis), Babak Rahimi (University of California-San Diego, USA), David Romano (Rhodes College and Inter-University Consortium for Arab and Middle East Studies), Michael Scheuer (formerly with the CIA Counterterrorist Center), Rachel Schneller (Council on Foreign Relations), Murad Batal al-Shishani (analyst of Islamic groups and terrorism), Pascale Combelles Siegel (independent defense consultant), Emrullah Uslu (Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Utah, USA), Reidar Visser (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs), Wladimir van Wilgenburg (Kurdish newspaper Rudaw ), and Joel Wing ( Musings on Iraq blog).


Dynamic visual tools such as MATLAB have inbuilt features which are believed to be able to empower students to learn through the visualisation of three-dimensional objects. While student learning through MATLAB has been investigated regarding students in urban settings, only a handful of studies have investigated how MATLAB can assist students in rural settings. Spatial visualisation (SV) as a measure or reflection of one's cognitive reasoning is affected by family social economic status (SES). For instance, it is argued that SES in combination with other components, do enhance cognitive development in different ways. What is meant is that components such as but not exclusively, economic and occupational components of SES may vary and hence provide opportunities for generating better understanding of education (cognition). In this study, we randomly selected 100 second-year rural-based pre-service teachers in a vector calculus class at University of Zululand (UNIZULU). Students need SV skills to learn vector calculus and the Purdue spatial-visualization test/rotations (PSVT/R) is well established for measuring individuals' spatial reasoning. In this study, spatial reasoning skills were assessed through a vector calculus pre-test and through a post-test using the Purdue spatial-visualization test/rotations (PSVT/R). The experimental group of students learned the vector calculus topics supported by activities and investigations using MATLAB. Duval's Theory of Register of Semiotic Representation (TRSR) was employed to comprehend the impact of MATLAB on rural-based pre-service teachers' spatial-visualisation skills. From using an independent sample t-test, our findings indicated that, for participants in this study, using MATLAB had positive impact on the rural-based pre-service teachers' SV skills.


The Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 as a vision to promote growth and cooperation among the economies of Asia and Europe. Over the five years since its inception, the BRI has expanded in both geographic and strategic scope. As of early 2019, 141 countries and 29 international organizations have joined the initiative, which has broadened from targeting infrastructure connectivity and logistics to wider goals of unimpeded trade, financial integration, policy coordination and people-to-people bonds. Thousands of BRI projects have already been approved, with a total investment potential of $1.2-1.3 trillion by 2027 (IDSA 2019, Morgan Stanley 2018).


As a result of European unification and a fast globalising world, classrooms have become increasingly multilingual and multicultural. This diversity may impair learning processes, since pupils acquire cognitively based literacy competencies, such 'classify and label', 'analyze and explain', by means of linguistic interaction. We asked primary and secondary school teachers to rate the level of their pupils' competencies, as well as their expected success rate. Our anticipation that teachers of a largely monocultural classroom (with predominately L1-Dutch pupils) would experience less problems with literacy competencies and expect a higher success rate compared to teachers of a multicultural classroom was supported.


Caveolae are plasma membrane microdomains that localise receptors and signalling intermediates within an environment where they can efficiently trigger downstream events. While present in most cells types, they are particularly abundant in vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells (ECs), where they regulate low density lipoprotein trans-cytosis, NO production and inflammation. Cavin-1 is a protein required for caveolae maturation, such that its deletion results in no detectable caveolae and the down-regulation of "caveolin" scaffolding proteins. However, the cellular processes regulating cavin-1 function are poorly understood. Proteomic screening and biochemical experiments have identified cavin-1 as a novel interacting protein of the cytokine-inducible E3 ubiquitin ligase component "suppressor of cytokine signalling-3" (SOCS3), a key inhibitor of IL-6-mediated pro-inflammatory signalling in ECs. We hypothesise d that the SOCS3/cavin-1 interaction may be important in controlling caveola stability and/or IL-6 signalling. In support of this hypothesis, cavin-1 protein levels were significantly reduced in SOCS3−/− murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) compared with WT MEFs in the absence of any changes in cavin-1 mRNA. This was associated with a reduced stability of the cavin-1 protein in SOCS3−/− MEFs (t1/2=2 hr) versus WT MEFs (t1/2>7 hr), significantly reduced levels of caveolin-1 and a parallel decrease in the number of caveolae detectable in SOCS3−/− MEFs by transmission electron microscopy. Confocal imaging experiments also revealed that cavin-1 was required for SOCS3 localisation to the plasma membrane and effective SOCS3-mediated inhibition of IL-6 signalling. Together, these data demonstrate an important interaction between cavin-1 and SOCS3 responsible for reciprocal regulation of their respective functions.


The collapse of the Soviet Union created unprecedented dilemmas for the leaders of the new independent Russia. Shedding the communist past, Boris Yeltsin embarked on an ambitious program to reorganize Russia"s political and economic systems. Known as "shock therapy," Yeltsin advocated a rapid transition from state planning to a market economy while simultaneously introducing democracy to Russia. Expecting a short period of hardship as economic reforms opened Russia to world markets, followed by prolonged growth and prosperity, Yeltsin"s societal upheaval left Russia a prostrate state, mired in a depression that left many longing for a return to socialism.


The aim of this thesis has been to investigate and interpret late Iron Ageand Early Medieval traces of non-ferrous metalworking on the islandGotland, Sweden. Gotland was not, based on the archaeological record, anintegrated part of the common Scandinavian culture. Instead a local,endemic cultural expression had developed; a seclusion which lasted forcenturies despite the islands central position in the Baltic Sea. In thepast, key elements for the understanding of local settlement- and burialpractices as well as the local material culture were mainly recovered andreported by local farmers. A specific category of such finds – so-called'bronze slag' is discussed and partly reinterpreted in the first study ofthis thesis. Two further studies treat different aspects of metalworkingand metalworkers – one discusses common archaeological notions ofScandinavian workshops, production sites and metalworkers from a criticalperspective while the other mainly focuses on the Gotlandic finds frommetal-detector surveys carried out over the last 35 years. Based on whereand to which extent, both from a quantitative and a qualitative point ofview, these finds occur a hierarchical classification into four sub groupsis presented – ordinary farm sites with traces of non-ferrous metalworking,workshop sites, potential workshop sites and last, extrovert harboursettlements. A fourth study presents an attempt to evaluate the usefulnessof magnetometry in delimiting extant traces of high-temperature crafts,such as metalworking. The last study of the thesis presents an attempt touse trace elements analysis of skeletal lead in human bone to identifypotential non-ferrous metalworkers.As the wearing of endemic Gotlandic jewellery appears to have been centralin the manifestation of the local identity it is argued that themetalworking artisans played a crucial role in defining how this identitywas signalled and displayed via the jewellery and dress-related metalobjects. It is further suggested that these artisans might have played animportant role in upholding the local economy before the advent of localminting.


This study investigated the effects of using Cooperative Concept Mapping (CCM) teaching approach on secondary school students' achievement in Biology. A non-equivalent control group design under the quasi-experimental research was used in which a random sample of 4 co-educational secondary schools was obtained in Gucha District. These 4 schools were randomly assigned to four groups. Each school provided one Form Two class for the study hence a total of 156 students were involved. Students in all the groups were taught the same Biology content but in two groups they were taught through CCM approach while the rest were taught through regular teaching methods. Before the four weeks course started, the students were trained in cooperative learning techniques. Two groups were pre-tested prior to the implementation of CCM treatment. At the end of teaching, all the four groups were post-tested using the Biology Achievement Test (BAT). Data were analysed using the t-test, ANOVA and ANCOVA. The results show that students exposed to CCM approach have significantly higher achievement than those taught through regular methods. The researchers conclude that CCM is an effective teaching approach which biology teachers should be encouraged to use. Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research Vol. 17 (1) March 2005: pp. 1– 18


Sediment resuspension has a major ecological role in many coastal habitats, lakes, and marine environments. Waves and currents are generally thought to be the major control on sediment resuspension. In this study, the temporal and spatial distributions of suspended sand concentrations (SSAC) were measured at five coral reefs in the northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, by directly filtering seawater through 100‐ цm mesh nets. Levels of nearbottom SSAC were twice as high during the day (4.8–9.7 mg m-3) than at night (2.3–5.2 mg m-3). Vertical profiles showed a sharp increase of SSAC (2–6‐fold) toward the bottom during the daytime but not at night. The contributions of wind, waves, and currents to variations in SSAC were nonsignificant except during rare southern storms. Temporal and spatial changes in the level of SSAC during the day corresponded with the abundance of benthivorous fish and their activity pattern. Resuspension activities by fish numbered ›1.5 resuspension events m2 h-1 and were confined to daytime. An in situ experiment in which fish were excluded from a large section (250 m2) of the reef resulted in elimination of the day‐night differences and a significant decrease in daytime SSAC over the treated reef section in comparison to the open, control sites. This study is the first report of a daily pattern of suspended sediment at coral reefs with fish activity as its causative agent.


The activity of strategic management is important because it is the activity through which the structure of an organization is developed and adapted in relation to its environment. The activities within an organization are systematized within structures because they enable the organization to ensure the effectiveness of those activities, and there already exist teaching methods appropriate for training managers in the operation of such structures. Few teaching methods exist however for teaching managers about structure itself. This paper initially discusses what structure is, and then goes on to describe an approach to the support of managers' learning about structure: how structure can be related to the activities of managers, and how managers can explore the implications of adopting alternative structures within their organization. The paper puts forward symbols for describing structure. It is then shown how the symbols can be combined by a manager to describe a particular organizational context in the form of a simulator, and how the resulting design can be transformed into the form of a computer program. This enables the resulting simulator to be used by the manager to explore the implications of adopting particular structural choices as he has defined them within the organization. Finally, the nature of the teacher's role is considered when supporting the learning of managers using this approach.


We call a von Neumann algebra with finite dimensional center a multifactor. We introduce an invariant of bimodules over $\rm II_1$ multifactors that we call modular distortion, and use it to formulate two classification results.
We first classify finite depth finite index connected hyperfinite $\rm II_1$ multifactor inclusions $A\subset B$ in terms of the standard invariant (a unitary planar algebra), together with the restriction to $A$ of the unique Markov trace on $B$. The latter determines the modular distortion of the associated bimodule. Three crucial ingredients are Popa's uniqueness theorem for such inclusions which are also homogeneous, for which the standard invariant is a complete invariant, a generalized version of the Ocneanu Compactness Theorem, and the notion of Morita equivalence for inclusions.
Second, we classify fully faithful representations of unitary multifusion categories into bimodules over hyperfinite $\rm II_1$ multifactors in terms of the modular distortion. Every possible distortion arises from a representation, and we characterize the proper subset of distortions that arise from connected $\rm II_1$ multifactor inclusions.


Over the past decade, helicopter-borne transient electromagnetic (HTEM) systems have been rapidly developed. A new HTEM prototype (referred to as a CAS-HTEM) has been developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In terms of hardware, the CAS-HTEM system uses an inflatable structure to carry the transmitting loop, which significantly reduces the weight of the system and makes it easier to transport. A dual gain receiver was innovated to extend the dynamic range of the system. In addition, an observation circuit for transmitting voltage waveform is introduced, so that the derivative waveform of transmitting current with higher SNR could be calculated. In terms of data processing, more reliable early time data could be obtained by band-limited effect removal; a weighted stacking algorithm is introduced to reduce the narrow band noise more effectively and increase the sensitivity of data to the anomaly location; a method based on τ-domain transform is used for late time signal processing. The results of the field test which was carried out in Inner Mongolia were found to be consistent with the drill data, which effectively verified the performance of this HTEM prototype.


Abstract. The republic of Georgia is a mountainous and tectonically active area that is vulnerable to landslides. Because landslides are one of the most devastating natural hazards, their detection and monitoring is of great importance. In this study we report on a previously unknown landslide in central Georgia near the town of Sachkhere. We used a set of Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data to generate displacement maps using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). We detected a sliding zone of dimensions 2 km north–south by 0.6 km east–west that threatens four villages. We estimated surface displacement of up to ∼30 cm/yr over the sliding body in the satellite line-of-sight (LOS) direction, with the largest displacement occurring after a local tectonic earthquake. We mapped the morphology of the landslide mass by aerial photography and field surveying. We found a complex set of interacting processes, including surface fracturing, shear and normal faults at both the headwall and the sides of the landslide, local landslide velocity changes, earthquake-induced velocity peaks, and loss in toe support due to mining activity. Important implications that are applicable elsewhere can be drawn from this study of coupled processes. We used inverse dislocation modelling to find a possible dislocation plane resembling the landslide basal decollement, and we used that plane to calculate the volume of the landslide. The results suggest a decollement at ∼120 m depth, dipping at ∼10° sub-parallel to the surface, which is indicative of a translational-type landslide.


Background—Although sex differences in coronary artery disease have received considerable attention, few studies have dealt with sex differences in the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AF). Differences in presentation and clinical course may dictate different approaches to detection and management. We sought to examine sex-related differences in presentation, treatment, and outcome in patients presenting with new-onset AF. Methods and Results—The Canadian Registry of Atrial Fibrillation (CARAF) enrolled subjects at the time of first ECG-confirmed diagnosis of AF. Participants were followed at 3 months, at 1 year, and annually thereafter. Treatment was at the discretion of the patients' physicians and was not directed by CARAF investigators. Baseline and follow-up data collection included a detailed medical history, clinical, ECG, and echocardiographic measures, medication history, and therapeutic interventions. Three hundred thirty-nine women and 560 men were followed for 4.14±1.39 years. Compared with men, women were older at the time of presentation, more likely to seek medical advice because of symptoms, and experienced significantly higher heart rates during AF. Compared with older men, older women were half as likely to receive warfarin and twice as likely to receive acetylsalicylic acid. Compared with men on warfarin, women on warfarin were 3.35 times more likely to experience a major bleed. Conclusions—Anticoagulants are underused in older women with AF relative to older men with AF, despite comparable risk profiles. Women receiving warfarin have a significantly higher risk of major bleeding, suggesting the need for careful monitoring of anticoagulant intensity in women.


The Colombian fluted scale (CFS), Crypticerya multicicatrices Kondo & Unruh (Hemiptera: Monophlebidae) is a polyphagous scale insect which affects about 100 species of plants. Between 2010–2013, the species was reported as an invasive pest on the islands of San Andres and Old Providence, Colombian territory in the Caribbean sea. Currently, populations of the CFS also have increased in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca State, mainland Colombia, affecting different host plants, especially leguminous trees such as Caesalpinia peltophoroides Benth., Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth., P. saman (Jacq.) Benth. (Fabaceae) and mango, Mangifera indica L. (Anacardiaceae). With the aim of searching for natural enemies to control the CFS, field studies were conducted in the city of Cali between February 2013 and October 2014. As a result of this study, two species of lady beetles were found feeding on CFS, i.e., Anovia punica Gordon and Rodolia cardinalis (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). This is the first record of R. cardinalis preying on CFS.


The valuation of insurance liabilities has traditionally been dealt with by actuaries, who closely monitored underlying illiquid features, assumed a long-term perspective, and exercised their own subjective, expert judgment. However, the new EU regulatory regime of Solvency II (S2) has come to require market-consistent valuation supplemented by a risk-sensitive capital. This is considered an unwanted shift towards short-termism that is misaligned with the industry's long term and countercyclical character. The new principles place the 'technicalising' logic of financial economics over 'contextualising' actuarial know-how. Following existing analytics of valuation from the ethnography of reinsurance markets and the social studies of finance, such requirements appear either as an alarming attack against the actuarial component of traditional valuation practice, or else as a preserver of it, through a process of enfolding at the heart of the financialisation project. This article holds that the case of S2 challenges both these analytics of valuation. S2's financialisation project, precisely by attempting to construct itself, deconstructs itself into an actuarial project, in a recurring, aporetic process. In this respect, fair (or otherwise) valuation remains always undecidable, inconclusive, and thus responsible.


Mussels Mytilus edulis were collected from Whitsand Bay in southwest England during Apnl, July and September 1993 and January 1994, and fed a defined diet of prekilled microalgae with one of 2 types of mixed protein/carbohydrate microcapsules. Both capsule types were comprised of the same w/w proportion of "N-labeled protein and nonlabeled carbohydrate. However, Types 1 and 2 contained trace amounts of ["Clcarbohydrate and [14C]protein, respectively. Defecation, excretion, respirdtion and incorporation of I4C and "N isotopes were measured to describe the mussel's relative utilization of dietary carbohydrate (I4C from Type l ) , protein-C (l" from Type 2) and protein-N (15N from Types 1 and 2). In each experiment, mussels ingested similar quantities of capsule Types 1 and 2. However, the '4C-assimilation efficiency for carbohydrate (16 to 20%) was significantly greater than the 14C-assimilation efficiency for protein (7 to 15%). In contrast, protein-N was always assimilated with greater efficiency (25 to 82%) than either carbohydrate or protein-C. The difference in assimilation efficiency between protein-N and protein-C indicates that a large proportion of amino acids from dietary protein were hydrolyzed, with amlno-N being preferentially assimilated. The relatively poor assimilatlon of amino-C indicates that mussels were not nutritionally limited by energy since amino-C generated by the energy-intensive digestion process was not fully catabolized in the tricarboxylic acid cycle (i.e. not respired). The conservation of protein-N relative to protein-C was particularly noticeable in July when rates of ingestion and ammonia excretion were lowest, <l % of absorbed ( '5~]pro te in was excreted, and [I5N]protein assimilation was 5 times more efficient than [I4C]protein assimilation. Further, rates of protein synthesis were greatest in July (71.2 mg d-'), compared with April, September and January (39.2, 58.9 and 20.5 mg d-l). These findings suggest that seasonal variation in dietary protein utilization in M. edulis is governed chiefly by changing anabolic demands for amino-N, rather than by requirements for energy or essential amino acids.


The urban retail environment actively reflects changes in society today, as we exist in an undeniably interconnected world. Such movements have produced a geographically uneven market through which charity retailing has evolved. Charity retailers have become ubiquitous in their presence on the British high street – it is more surprising to discover urban areas without these retailers. Society has created the need for such retailers, but since their expansion in post World War Two Britain they have undergone a significant transformation – both economically and spatially. Charity retailers have become professional, profit maximising businesses as they developed from a stigmatised second-hand retailer relegated to undesirable retail locations have now emerged as fashionable signifiers of gentrification. This research considers the growth of charity retailers from an economic and spatial perspective, adopting the city of Edinburgh as its case study. Charity retailing is situated within the urban economy of the early twenty-first century, as a niche, which has evolved concomitant to the restructuring of the retail market. The paper addresses the lacuna of research in the third sector relative to charity retailers and is informed by socio-economic data and ethnographic studies. The research seeks to answer the question: How have charity retailers become so indelible in the British high street and how can they be understood?


An inflammasome component acts as a transcriptional regulator for the differentiation of a subset of helper T cells. In innate immune cells, such as macrophages, the cytosolic receptor NLRP3 senses endogenous danger-associated molecular patterns and pathogen-associated molecules to stimulate an inflammatory response. Upon binding ligand, NLRP3 forms a complex with the adaptor protein ASC and the protease caspase-1, leading to caspase-1 activation and the processing of the precursor forms of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18. Bruchard et al. showed that the abundance of Nlrp3 mRNA was increased in naïve mouse CD4+ T cells upon stimulation through the T cell receptor. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that, in naïve CD4+ T cells that were differentiated in vitro to generate T helper 1 (TH1) cells, NLRP3 was cytosolic; however, in differentiated TH2 cells, NLRP3 was localized to the nucleus. Compared with wild-type TH2 cells, Nlrp3–/– TH2 cells produced less IL-4 and other TH2-type cytokines; however, TH2 cells derived from mice deficient in either ASC or caspase-1 exhibited normal differentiation and cytokine production. Analysis of TH2 cells by chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) showed that NLRP3 bound to DNA, including promoter and enhancer regions. Binding of NLRP3 to the Il4 promoter required the transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4), and coimmunoprecipitation studies showed that NLRP3 bound to IRF4. Luciferase reporter assays with the Il4 promoter indicated that both NLRP3 and IRF4 were required for optimal Il4 expression. In two mouse models (allergic asthma and B16F10 melanoma tumor formation) in which TH2 cells are thought to exacerbate disease, TH2 cells from Nlrp3–/– mice produced less IL-4 than did their wild-type counterparts, and the knockout mice exhibited less disease progression, suggesting that targeting the NRLP3-IRF4 interaction might provide therapeutic benefit. As Ting and Harton discuss in commentary, these results suggest a transcriptional regulatory role for an inflammasome protein in cells of the adaptive immune system, raising the possibility that other NLRs may have functions outside of innate immune cells. M. Bruchard, C. Rebé, V. Derangère, D. Togbé, B. Ryffel, R. Boidot, E. Humblin, A. Hamman, F. Chalmin, H. Berger, A. Chevriaux, E. Limagne, L. Apetoh, F. Végran, F. Ghiringhelli, The receptor NLRP3 is a transcriptional regulator of TH2 differentiation. Nat. Immunol. 16, 859–870 (2015). [PubMed] J. P. Y. Ting, J. A. Harton, NLRP3 moonlights in TH2 polarization. Nat. Immunol. 16, 794–796 (2015). [PubMed]


The current upsurge of interest in metropolitan government on both sides of the Atlantic is mirrored in the debates raging in Montreal. An earlier boom period in the formation of metropolitan structures in the western world, the 1960s and early 1970s, left the region of Montreal with a legacy of partially fulfilled hopes and promises. At that time, as in many other countries, the political debate centred around issues of service provision, economies of scale and the need for coordination in matters such as land-use, control of urban sprawl, transportation and environmental protection. The instrumental arguments focused on size, territorial extent and representation. Today, while these arguments are still voiced loudly, the context has changed markedly. On the one hand is the ethos of globalisation and the perception that cities must be competitive on the world stage in order to prosper. Neoliberalism, the retreat of the welfare state, and the restructuring of the responsibilities and financial arrangements of the various levels of government have led to increased social fragmentation, social exclusion, often among immigrant groups, and severe inequities between the various parts of metropolitan areas. The central cities tend to house the poor and harbour the homeless, while the suburbs attract the more affluent. On the other hand is the acknowledgment of the importance of localism, community values, knowing why and how dollars are spent, participatory governance, consensual partnerships, along with increasing powers of special interest groups, business leaders, and corporatism in general. The ideas from the 1960s and early 1970s, of top-down directives, forced municipal amalgamations, imposed regional or metropolitan structures, are being challenged by principles of grassroots planning and collaborative action. The purpose of this paper is to examine the slow march of the region of Montreal towards metropolitan governance. It is organised in a chronological manner and follows the historical evolution of policies and debates. Over the decades, local, regional and provincial actors have come to recognise the interdependence of central and suburban municipalities. But they have offered different definitions of what ails the region and have resorted to different rationales for government action (or inaction) on these problems. If there is one continuous thread in Montreal's long saga of half-failed reforms, it is the fact that there is, politically speaking, no such thing as the problem of metropolitan governance. At any given time, various issues get conflated and often confused; over time, different problems gain prominence while others recede into the background. Governmental reforms do not proceed merely because the various parties agree on the problems at hand; they occur when the authorities experience a sense of urgency about one or another issue, be it infrastructure provision, environmental preservation, municipal solvency or economic competitiveness. We argue that the most recent round of municipal reform and regional institution-building is a continued reaction to the fiscal crisis of the State and that it lays the groundwork for a downloading of responsibilities from central to local government. Alongside the search for zero deficits on the part of the province (and the federal government), however, the desire to improve equity among municipalities and the will to foster democracy are strong motivations for local actors. As balancing budgets, downloading responsibilities to lower-level governments, and keeping older cities competitive in the world economy are the order of the day, municipal amalgamations and regional coordination mechanisms are of great interest to decision-makers. In the case of Montreal, local factors such as the political culture of the province and the persistence of linguistic tensions add to the difficulty of arriving at consensual decisions in the region. …


ADVANCED VISUALIZATION AND INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE SYSTEMS FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS David J. Quam Marquette University, 2012 Modern scientific research produces data at rates that far outpace our ability to comprehend and analyze it. Such sources include medical imaging data and computer simulations, where technological advancements and spatiotemporal resolution generate increasing amounts of data from each scan or simulation. A bottleneck has developed whereby medical professionals and researchers are unable to fully use the advanced information available to them. By integrating computer science, computer graphics, artistic ability and medical expertise, scientific visualization of medical data has become a new field of study. The objective of this thesis is to develop two visualization systems that use advanced visualization, natural user interface technologies and the large amount of biomedical data available to produce results that are of clinical utility and overcome the data bottleneck that has developed. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a tool used to study the quantities associated with the movement of blood by computer simulation. We developed methods of processing spatiotemporal CFD data and displaying it in stereoscopic 3D with the ability to spatially navigate through the data. We used this method with two sets of display hardware: a full-scale visualization environment and a small-scale desktop system. The advanced display and data navigation abilities provide the user with the means to better understand the relationship between the vessel's form and function. Low-cost 3D, depth-sensing cameras capture and process user body motion to recognize motions and gestures. Such devices allow users to use hand motions as an intuitive interface to computer applications. We developed algorithms to process and prepare the biomedical and scientific data for use with a custom control application. The application interprets user gestures as commands to a visualization tool and allows the user to control the visualization of multi-dimensional data. The intuitive interface allows the user to control the visualization of data without manual contact with an interaction device. In developing these methods and software tools we have leveraged recent trends in advanced visualization and intuitive interfaces in order to efficiently visualize biomedical data in such a way that provides meaningful information that can be used to further appreciate it.


Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations are established using various treatments to manage competing vegetation and increase pine production. Although young pine plantations historically supported early successional vegetation communities that contained abundant wildlife forage, increasing intensity of stand-establishment treatments, particularly herbicides, has caused concern regarding potential effects on composition, availability, and quality of wildlife forage within young pine plantations. Few long-term studies have described relationships between intensity of site preparation and effects on important forage plants for 2 economically and ecologically important game species: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). Therefore, we examined effects of 6 treatments of increasing stand-establishment intensity via combinations of mechanical and chemical site preparation with herbaceous weed-control on deer and bobwhite food plants from 1 year to 8 years after site preparation in loblolly pine plantations (n = 6) within pocosins in the Lower Coastal Plain of North Carolina, USA, during summers of 2002–2005, 2007–2009. Although woody and vine forage plants for deer and quail were common on all treatments, chemical site preparation resulted in long-term decreases (approx. 50% for 8 yr) in coverage of these plants. Type of mechanical site preparation–spacing and herbaceous weed-control had few effects on woody and herbaceous deer and quail food plants. Dissimilar from research in other regions, reduction in woody cover did not provide a concurrent increase in herbaceous food plants. Because of relatively poor forage quality in pocosin habitats, vegetation management practices may reduce deer and quail food quantity without increasing quality. However, because abundance of low-quality forage is high in pocosin habitats, localized forage reductions due to site-preparation techniques may not affect overall carrying capacity in these areas. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.


The study investigated the factors that could predict cheating of 205 university students in Macao. Personal factors, such as risk-taking and academic self-concept, and contextual factor, such as perceived autonomy support from teachers, were independent variables. Different scales were applied; for example, the cheating scale, the DOSPERT scale, the academic self-concept scale, and the perceived autonomy support scale. Different regression analysis models were run, and results showed that academic self-concept, ethical, and financial risk-taking were found significant in predicting cheating, but ethical and financial risk-taking were found to have more predictive power.


Injury surveillance datasets show that over the 3-year period 2005–2007, there were two deaths and at least 511 hospital admissions and 1280 Emergency Departments (ED) presentations for dog bite injury in Victorian children aged 0–14 years. More than two-thirds (69%) of dog bite injuries occurred in the domestic environment. Surveillance data is focused on the injured child, provides only brief descriptions of the bite event and minimal, if any, information on the dog involved. A 40–60 min telephone interview was conducted with the caregivers of 51 child dog bite victims aged 0-9 recruited through the ED of seven Victorian hospitals (participation rate 67 %) to investigate potential risk factors for domestic dog bite related to the bite victim, the dog and the home environment in which the bite occurred. A control group of at least 102 children is being recruited from the community. Analysis of case data identified several potential risk factors related to the victim that included: younger age, male gender; advertent and inadvertent provocation of the dog by the child and lack of close supervision of young children. Potential risk factors related to the dog include male sex, having a female owner, lack of obedience training and displaying early and current specific behaviours indicating anxiety, fear and excitability such as frequently being snappy or bitey, aggression over food and fear of thunder, men, strangers and delivery people. Presence of pain due to orthopaedic problems including arthritis also appeared to predispose dogs to biting behaviour.


The concept of decoupling refers to the gap between the formal and the actual world in organizations in which a policy is formally introduced but not actually implemented and effective. Although the phenomenon of decoupling in organizations has been studied widely since the late 1970s, little is known about the reverse process of recoupling. Little is also known about the abilities of public regulators to discover decoupling in regulated organizations and to promote the recoupling that is necessary to diminish the gap between the formal and the actual world. In an experimental project of the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate, we ethnographically followed how this public regulator changed the focus from prescriptive regulation based on quality and safety indicators to the supervision of the management system of a regulated organization. We call this type of regulation system-based regulation. We found that, by using system-based regulation, a regulator can identify several forms of decoupling that have not been recognized in earlier research. Interestingly, we found indications that, by applying SBR and thus recognizing decoupling, a process of recoupling was supported. With SBR the government can reclaim its influence on the meta level while maintaining the level of freedom of management at the organizational level. Instead of aiming for more or stricter regulation, the government could shift its role to meta-regulation, meaning that the public regulator redefines its role as an assessor and stimulator of the quality of governance in terms of self-regulation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.


Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess and describe the meanings given to "gender" in scientific publications that evaluate multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or multimodal rehabilitation for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Method: A systematic literature search for papers evaluating multimodal rehabilitation was conducted. The PubMed and EBSCO databases were searched from 1995 to 2015. Two or three researchers independently read each paper, performed a quality assessment and coded meanings of gender using qualitative content analysis. Results: Twenty-seven papers were included in the review. Gender was used very differently in the MMR studies investigated but primarily it referred to factual differences between men and women. Only one paper provided a definition of the concept of gender and how it had been used in that study. In the content analysis, the meaning of gender formed three categories: "Gender as a factual difference", "The man is the ideal" and "Gender as a result of social role expectations". Conclusions: The meaning of the concept of gender in multimodal rehabilitation is undefined and needs to be developed further. The way the concept is used should be defined in the design and evaluation of multimodal rehabilitation in future studies. Implications for rehabilitation Healthcare professionals should reflect on gender relations in encounters with patients, selection of patients into rehabilitation programs and design of programs. In rehabilitation for chronic pain the patients' social circumstances and cultural context should be given the same consideration as biological sex and pain symptoms.


Unlike many other countries, physics is highly popular in secondary education in Scotland, with large numbers opting for study at the Higher Grade on which entry to higher education is based. This paper reports a project that explored the attitudes and perceptions of Scottish girls and boys towards physics over the age range of 10-18 years old. Towards the end of primary school, attitudes towards science are very positive and both boys and girls are looking forward to studying more science in secondary school, although there is no evidence that the introduction of primary science has been a factor. By the end of the second year of secondary school, these positive attitudes have declined quite markedly and a significant decline of girls' attitudes towards science relative to boys' attitudes was clearly observed. The success of the Standard Grade physics course (a 2-year course taken in third and fourth year, ages 14-16 approximately) is easy to observe in terms of the restoration of positive attitudes of boys and girls again as the pupils move through third and fourth year. This process is especially clearly marked among girls. Surprisingly, over 90 per cent of the observed fourth year pupils wanted to continue studies in physics but a marked decline in attitude is observed during the Higher Grade course (a 1-year course which follows Standard Grade), this being more marked for boys. If the number of girls in physics is an issue for concern within the structure of Scottish system, then the focus of attention should be the structure and nature of the science course in the early secondary school.


The topic of this thesis is the stochastic dynamics of biochemical reaction systems. The importance of the intrinsic fluctuations in these systems has become more widely appreciated in recent years, and should be accounted for when modelling such systems mathematically. These models are described as continuous time Markov processes and their dynamics defined by a master equation. Analytical progress is made possible by the use of the van Kampen system-size expansion, which splits the dynamics into a macroscopic component plus stochastic corrections, statistics for which can then be obtained. In the first part of this thesis, the terms obtained from the expansion are written down for an arbitrary model, enabling the expansion procedure to be automated and implemented in the software package COPASI. This means that the fluctuation analysis may be used in tandem with other tools in COPASI, in particular parameter scanning and optimisation. This scheme is then extended so that models involving multiple compartments (e.g. cells) may be studied. This increases the range of models that can be evaluated in this fashion. The second part of this thesis also concerns these multi-compartment models, and examines how oscillations can synchronise across a population of cells. This has been observed in many biochemical processes, such as yeast glycolysis. However, the vast majority of modelling of such systems has used the deterministic framework, which ignores the effect of fluctuations. It is now widely known that the type of models studied here can exhibit sustained temporal oscillations when formulated stochastically, despite no such oscillations being found in the deterministic version of the model. Using the van Kampen expansion as a starting point, multi-cell models are studied, to see how stochastic oscillations in one cell may influence, and be influenced by, oscillations in neighbouring cells. Analytical expressions are found, indicating whether or not the oscillations will synchronise across multiple cells and, if synchronisation does occur, whether the oscillations synchronise in phase, or with a phase lag.


Parliamentary Reform 1785-1928 surveys the dynamically changing role of the British Parliament from the pre-reformed Parliament through: * the 1832 Great Reform Act * Chartism * the campaign for working class suffrage * Catholic emancipation * the long struggle for the granting of female suffrage. Beginning with a wide survey of the origins and nature of Parliament, the author offers a detailed context for the campaigns for its reformation of in the nineteenth century and the attitude of Victorians towards it. This comprehensive approach promotes understanding of the wider issues of parliamentary reform and provides an essential aid and context to students studying this topic.


We examined the relationship between information technology (IT) and organizational performance in the U.S. life/health insurance industry by applying and testing Galbraith's information processing theory and strategic contingency theory. Rather than focusing on resource allocations in IT, we instead examined the manner in which IT is deployed in organizations through information processing design choices. Our results suggest that while some information processing design choices are generally related to organizational performance, others should be matched to a specific strategic posture. For example, we found that all organizations benefit from using IT to increase cost-effectiveness. However, other uses of IT should be more closely aligned with an organization's strategy. In particular, domain offensive organizations should align their IT systems to focus on the front end of their operations and understanding customer needs, which will spur further innovation.


Robert Nozick worked in a Lockean tradition of political philosophy, a tradition with deep resonance in the American political culture. This paper attempts to explore the formative moments of that culture and at the same time to clarify the role of Lockean philosophy in the American Revolution. One of the currently dominant approaches to the revolution emphasizes the colonists' commitments to their rights, but identifies the relevant rights as "the rights of Englishmen," not natural rights in the Lockean mode. This approach misses, however, the way the Americans construed their positive or constitutional rights in the light of a Lockean background theory. In a word, the Americans recreated an amalgam of traditional constitutional principles and Lockean philosophy, an amalgam that nearly guaranteed that they and the British would speak past each other. The ambiguities and uncertainties of the British constitution as extended to the colonies provided an incentive to the Americans (but not the British) to look to Locke as a guide to their rights, thereby helping win a place for Lockean theory in American political thinking.


The use of neural networks in safety-critical computer vision systems calls for their robustness certification against natural geometric transformations (e.g., rotation, scaling). However, current certification methods target mostly norm-based pixel perturbations and cannot certify robustness against geometric transformations. In this work, we propose a new method to compute sound and asymptotically optimal linear relaxations for any composition of transformations. Our method is based on a novel combination of sampling and optimization. We implemented the method in a system called DeepG and demonstrated that it certifies significantly more complex geometric transformations than existing methods on both defended and undefended networks while scaling to large architectures.


The debate over the impact of regional trade agreements (RTAs) on world welfare hinges upon (1) whether they are net trade creating or trade diverting and (2) whether they impede multilateral trade liberalization. Theoretical models are ambiguous on these issues. We summarize the insights from the vast body of empirical literature on multi-country CGE models which analyze RTAs. The empirical models overwhelmingly show that aggregate trade creation dominates trade diversion. Indeed, in many cases, there is no absolute aggregate trade diversion from an RTA. The models also indicate that welfare for all members — both current and potential — increases when RTAs expand. There are even bigger welfare gains when models incorporate aspects of "new trade theory" such as increasing returns, imperfect competition, technology transfers, trade externalities, and dynamic effects such as links between trade liberalization, total factor productivity growth, and capital stock accumulation. We broaden the search for large numbers by suggesting an additional gain from RTAs. We conjecture that increases in intra-sectoral trade arise from the fact that an RTA provides an expanded secure market, and permits firms to pursue economies of fine specialization. This Smithian specialization in production is another source of efficiency gains.